Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- In the wake of a firestorm sparked by President Donald Trump's comments on Thursday slamming immigrants from 's---hole' countries, the president weighed in on Twitter denying he used "derogatory" language about Haitians at an Oval Office meeting on immigration. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor troubled country," Trump said on Twitter. "Never said "take them out"." Trump, however, did not deny accounts from multiple sources either briefed on or familiar with the discussion, who told ABC News the president's comments extended to African countries as well. The president went on to accuse Democrats in the meeting of making up comments attributed to him and said that he probably should record future meetings. In an earlier tweet on Friday, Trump acknowledged he used "tough" language, although it was unclear to what language he was referring to. "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," Trump tweeted Friday of Thursdays meeting about a proposed bipartisan immigration plan. Further, the president has not denied that he suggested in the meeting on Thursday that America should admit more immigrants from places like Norway, comments that were confirmed by multiple sources with direct knowledge of the conversations. Roughly 15 hours since the comments were first reported, White House aides appeared unperturbed by the controversial remarks, arguing they could help the president despite the backlash across both sides of the aisle. A White House official told ABC News the president's comments echo his "America first" policy. I don't think anyone is worried about it, the official said. I haven't seen or heard anyone worried about it. In this instance, our statement reflects our thinking here. America First." Assistant to the president Mercedes Schlapp said Friday there have been selective leaks and inaccurate reporting but would not clarify further what exactly the president was denying in his morning tweets. The language was not used and it is very clear that this is the Democrats trying to derail this process, Schlapp said, referring to the talks on DACA and the presidents border wall. Schlapp did not explicitly say whether the president wants to deny immigrants based on the status of their country of origin. It's very clear that we want immigrants to come to this country regardless of their background -- in terms of making sure that we focus in on what their skills are and what they can contribute to the economy, Schlapp said. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in an interview with reporters in Chicago outside of a Martin Luther King Jr. prayer breakfast on Friday described what he said he witnessed during a bipartisan meeting at the White House on immigration on Thursday. Durbin said the president questioned, "do we need more Haitians?" during conversation about temporary protected status for people from Haiti and El Salvador among other nations. "Then he went on and started to describe the immigration from Africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure. That's when he used these vile and vulgar comments, calling the nations they come from s---holes," Durbin told reporters. "The exact word used by the president. Not just once but repeatedly. That was the nature of this conversation." Asked about the controversy while at an event in Wisconsin on Friday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the first thing that came to his mind when he heard reports of the president's remarks was that they were "very unfortunate, unhelpful." Ryan added that he thought of his own family's migration from Ireland. Trump's latest tweets came hours before the president was slated to sign a proclamation to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and on a day in which Haiti recognizes a moment of silence for those who died eight years ago in a devastating earthquake. His comments also come on the heels of a week filled with tense back and forth over immigration reform policy. According to multiple sources either briefed on or familiar with the discussion, the president during the bipartisan meeting at the White House on Thursday, grew frustrated that the proposal would scale back the visa lottery program, but not eliminate it, asking those in the room why they would want people from Haiti, Africa and other "s---hole countries" coming into the United States. Trump's Friday morning tweets also criticized the "so-called" bipartisan DACA deal that was presented to him and a group of Republican congressional leaders as a "big step backwards." "Wall was not properly funded, Chain & lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime," he tweeted. Trump insisted he wants a merit-based immigration system to ensure the United States gets people who will "help take our country to the next level." "I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs. I want to fund our military," Trump said. Earlier this week, a federal district judge in California issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administrations efforts to end DACA, an Obama administration-era program that helps protect the roughly 800,000 so-called dreamers from deportation. It is a ruling supporters have deemed a step in the right direction. In the latest ABC News/Washington Post survey, in November, 50 percent of Americans saw Trump as biased against black people, while 42 percent did not. Among blacks themselves, 73 percent saw him as biased, as did 70 percent of Hispanics, vs. 40 percent of whites. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Global Breakfast Foods market 2018 - Nestle, General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Cargill, Unilever, Kashi Global Breakfast Foods market https://goo.gl/34DRZs https://goo.gl/rkyvf4 www.apexmarketreports.com Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Breakfast Foods Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Breakfast Foods Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Breakfast Foods industry, and estimates the future trend of Breakfast Foods market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Breakfast Foods Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportPepsiCoNestleGeneral MillsKraft HeinzCargillUnileverKashiB&G FoodsBobs Red Mill Natural FoodsDorset CerealsHodgson MillHain CelestialMOM BrandsNatures PathKelloggWeetabixBack to Nature Food CompanyDr. OetkerThe market research report explores the Breakfast Foods market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Breakfast Foods Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Breakfast Foods market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Breakfast Foods. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Breakfast Foods market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Breakfast Foods is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Breakfast Foods market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Breakfast Foods market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The global Breakfast Foods market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Breakfast Foods production volume, data pertaining to demand and Breakfast Foods supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Breakfast Foods along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Breakfast Foods across the world.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite - Stage and Scenery Equipment Market - Global Industry Development, Technology, Opportunities and Key Players Report 2018-2025 The Insight Partners http://www.reportsweb.com/stage-and-scenery-equipment-market http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011373794/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011373794/buying Stage and Scenery Equipment Market Report 2018-2025 has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. 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Thern Stage EquipmentFREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atObjectives of Stage and Scenery Equipment Market Report To provide overview of the global Stage and Scenery Equipment market To analyze and forecast the global Stage and Scenery Equipment market on the basis of components, application, size and technology To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Stage and Scenery Equipment market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM), which are later sub-segmented across respective major countries To evaluate market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend To provide exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions To profiles key Stage and Scenery Equipment players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategiesKey Insight of Stage and Scenery Equipment Market- Historical and Future Market- Supply and Demand- Price and Cost- Drivers and Challenges- Key Vendors- Market Strategies- Industry Value Chain- RegionsInquire about this Report atContact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comAbout ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Ceramic Chip Inductors Market Growth and what factors driving the industry as per New Research 2018 Ceramic Chip Inductors Market https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/701905 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/global-ceramic-chip-inductors-market-research-report-2018 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/check-discount/701905 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com The Global Ceramic Chip Inductors Market report covers other key data, for example, values and facts of the market such as revenue, volume, market share for each region, and revenue and market share of key players in the market. The overview additionally covers Ceramic Chip Inductors market analysis by type and application, and finishing up with a SWOT analysis and investment feasibility analysis of the market.Scope of the Report:This report concentrates on the Global Ceramic Chip Inductors Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, particularly in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report classifies the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application. This report covers associations in the field along with new product launches, mergers, acquisitions, competitive landscape analysis, and recent strategic developments in the market by the major manufacturesFor Sample Report with TOC, Please Visit @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers the topmost manufacturers of Ceramic Chip Inductors Market:MurataVishayAVX CorporationAEM, IncModelithicsJohanson TechnologyChilisin ElectronicsKOA Speer ElectronicsSumidaMAX ECOHToken Electronics IndustryChilisin Electronics CorporationDarfon Electronic CorporationCyntec Company LimitedShenzhen Sunlord ElectronicsBrowse full report with Table of Content @According to the Type, the market is segmented asMulti-layer Ceramic Chip InductorWire Wound Ceramic Chip InductorAccording to the Application, the market is segmented asRF and Microwave CircuitsComputersOtherGet the best price @Table of ContentsGlobal Ceramic Chip Inductors Market Research Report 20181 Ceramic Chip Inductors Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Ceramic Chip Inductors1.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Ceramic Chip Inductors Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Ceramic Chip Inductors Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Multi-layer Ceramic Chip Inductor1.2.4 Wire Wound Ceramic Chip Inductor1.3 Global Ceramic Chip Inductors Segment by Application1.3.1 Ceramic Chip Inductors Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 RF and Microwave Circuits1.3.3 Computers1.3.4 Other1.4 Global Ceramic Chip Inductors Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Ceramic Chip Inductors Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 United States Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 EU Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)7 Global Ceramic Chip Inductors Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Murata7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Murata Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Vishay7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Vishay Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 AVX Corporation7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 AVX Corporation Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 AEM, Inc7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 AEM, Inc Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Modelithics7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Modelithics Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Johanson Technology7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Johanson Technology Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Chilisin Electronics7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Chilisin Electronics Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 KOA Speer Electronics7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 KOA Speer Electronics Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 Sumida7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 Sumida Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 MAX ECOH7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Ceramic Chip Inductors Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 MAX ECOH Ceramic Chip Inductors Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 Token Electronics Industry7.12 Chilisin Electronics Corporation7.13 Darfon Electronic Corporation7.14 Cyntec Company Limited7.15 Shenzhen Sunlord ElectronicsAbout 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- Floating Power Plant Market Analysis and In-depth Research on Size, Trends, Emerging Growth Factors and Forecasts 2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2318823-global-floating-power-plant-market-research-report-forecast-to-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2318823-global-floating-power-plant-market-research-report-forecast-to-2023 Market ScenarioA floating power plant is a power generating unit mounted on power barges, powerships or floating structure that are installed over a water body to generate electricity. These floating power plants mainly utilizes renewable energy resources such as solar energy, wind energy and wave energy or conventional resources such as, coal, diesel, heavy fuel oils, natural gas and nuclear energy for the production of electricity.The global floating power plant market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.36%. Advantageous over conventional land-based power plants, lack of infrastructure in remote locations, and growing demand for clean energy are some of the other factors which contribute to the growth of the global floating power plants market.Floating power plant market is driven by its benefits over conventional power plants, as they have minimal environmental impact, while minimizing limitations affected by environmental regulations. Thus, they reduce the use of land for construction of power plants, supply electricity for specific facilities economically, and can be used as an emergency power source. These factors, majorly, are contributing to the growth of floating power plant market in near future.Floating power plant market by power plant type was dominated by floating solar power. A floating solar power plant is the best the option to overcome these problems. Electricity crisis are major is many developing nations, also the public opposition over the large scale land acquisition done by the governing authority to install a solar power plant is a major restraint, thus installing a floating solar power plant on a water body is the best in case scenario in todays world. Floating solar power plant has great scope in Asia-Pacific region due to growing scarcity of land mass and growing demand for power supply.Request a Sample Report @Study Objectives of Global Floating Power Plant Market- To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Floating Power Plant Market- To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth- To Analyze the Floating Power Plant market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, Porters five force analysis.- To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to six main geographies and their countries-Europe, Asia-Pacific, Rest of the World- 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: power plant type, and platform type as well as its sub segments- To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market- To track and analyze competitive developments such as partnerships and collaborations, product launch, mergers and acquisitions, and expansions in theGlobal Floating Power Plant MarketIntended Audience Distributer & Supplier companies End-Users Consultants and Investment bankers Government as well as Independent Regulatory AuthoritiesKey Findings- The key findings of the report Global Floating Power Plant Market includes: Increasing installations of solar technology worldwide, and awareness of clean energy generation in remote areas is driving the market of floating solar power plant. Geographically, Asia-Pacific dominates the Floating Power Plant Market Floating structures dominate the market by platform type in terms of market share.Global Floating Power Plant Market Share:Key PlayersSome of the key players in the Global Floating Power Plant Market are MAN Diesel & Turbo, Karadeniz Holding A.S., Vikram Solar Pvt. Ltd., Ciel & Terre International, Waller Marine, Inc., Power Barge Corporation, Floating Power Plant A/S, PRINCIPLE POWER, INC., Wartsila, Kyocera TCL Solar, and ROSATOM. The companies in this market have adopted various strategies such as partnerships and collaborations, product launch, mergers and acquisitions, and expansions to append their market share.SegmentsThe floating power plant market can be segmented on the basis of power plant type as floating solar power, floating wind power, floating wind & wave power, floating nuclear power, and others. On the basis of platform type, the market has been segmented as floating structures, power barges, and power ships.Regional Analysis of Floating Power Plant MarketAsia-Pacific is one of the leading markets mainly due to owing to increase in utilization of renewable energy resources and scarcity of land in the region. in Europe, the recent development in renewable energy resources, basically in floating solar, floating wind and floating wind & wave power plant market is driving the market in the region.Table of Contents1 Executive Summary 102 Introduction 122.1 Definition 122.2 Scope of the Study 122.3 Assumptions 122.4 Market Structure 133 Research Methodology 143.1 Research Process 143.2 Primary Research 153.3 Secondary Research 153.4 Market Size Estimation 153.5 Forecast Model 174 Market Dynamics 184.1 Drivers 194.1.1 Advantageous over conventional land-based power plants 194.1.2 Lack of Power Infrastructure in Remote Locations 194.1.3 Growing Demand for Clean Energy 194.2 Growth Drivers: Impact Analysis 204.3 Restraints 204.3.1 High Capital Cost of Offshore Power Infrastructure 204.3.2 Access to Offshore Installations 204.4 Growth Barriers: Impact Analysis 214.5 Opportunity 224.5.1 R&D in floating power plants 225 Market Factor Analysis 235.1 Porters 5 forces analysis 235.1.1 Threat of New Entrants 245.1.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 245.1.3 Threat of Substitutes 245.1.4 Bargaining Power of Buyers 245.1.5 Segment Rivalry 245.2 Value Chain Analysis 256 Global Floating Power Plant Market, By Power Plant Type 276.1 Overview 286.2 Floating Solar Power 296.3 Floating Wind Power 306.4 Floating Wind & Wave Power 306.5 Floating Nuclear Power 306.6 Others 317 Global Floating Power Plant Market, By Platform Type 327.1 Overview 337.2 Floating Structures 347.3 Power Barges 347.4 Power Ships 348 Global Floating Power Plant Market, By Region 358.1 Introduction 368.2 Asia-Pacific 378.2.1 China 408.2.2 Japan 418.2.3 India 428.2.4 Rest of Asia-Pacific 438.3 Europe 458.3.1 U.K. 468.3.2 Italy 488.3.3 France 498.3.4 Portugal 508.3.5 Rest of Europe 518.4 Rest of the World 528.4.1 Africa 548.4.2 Middle East 558.4.3 North America 568.4.4 Latin America 58ContinuedMake an enquiry of this Report @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 Portable Oxygen Concentrators Market is register a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period 2016-2026. https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1061 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/portable-oxygen-concentrators-market/toc www.futuremarketinsights.com According to a latest report published by Future Market Insights titled Portable Oxygen Concentrators Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 20162026, the global portable oxygen concentrators market is anticipated to register a CAGR of 7.8% between 2016 and 2026 in terms of value.Portable oxygen concentrators supply oxygen to patients suffering from respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. The concentrator separates nitrogen and oxygen from air in the environment and then supplies 95% pure oxygen to patients. POCs are easy to carry as they are smaller in size compared to stationary concentrators. Moreover, POCs are of great use to mountaineers and travellers in places where oxygen is inadequate.According to Future Market Insights, the global portable oxygen concentrators market is likely to witness substantial growth owing to increasing prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, growing consumer awareness for oxygen therapy devices, and a changing consumer lifestyle. Further, adoption of new technologies in medical devices, increasing government expenditure towards healthcare and medical devices development and production, and a rise in investment by companies manufacturing homecare products is likely to boost the growth of the global portable oxygen concentrators market during the forecast period (2016 2026). However, high product costs and stringent FDA regulations pertaining to medical devices are some of the factors likely to restrain the growth of the global portable oxygen concentrators market during the forecast period.Request For Report Sample @Segmentation highlights The global portable oxygen concentrators market has been segmented on the basis of Product into Continuous Flow Portable Oxygen Concentrator and Pulse Flow Portable Oxygen Concentrator; and on the basis of End User into Hospitals, Homecare, Ambulatory Surgical Centres, and Travel Agents. The Pulse Flow Portable Oxygen Concentrator product segment is projected to be valued at US$ 1890.3 Mn by 2026, registering a CAGR of 9.0% over the forecast period The Homecare end user segment is projected to be valued at US$ 1820.5 Mn by 2026 and is likely to witness a CAGR of 9.0% over the forecast periodRegional market projections The global portable oxygen concentrators market is segmented into the seven key regions of North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, MEA, and Japan. Growing geriatric population consequently increasing the requirement for homecare settings particularly in high income countries with increasing number of patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases is expected to result in significant growth of the North America portable oxygen concentrators market. The North America region is expected to report incremental opportunity of US$ 781.7 Mn between 2016 and 2026. Evolution of health insurance system is expected to contribute largely to the revenue generation potential and attractiveness of the Eastern Europe portable oxygen concentrators market. Rising adoption of portable oxygen concentrators in chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases patients for better care is expected to fuel revenue growth in the Japan portable oxygen concentrators market over the forecast period. High product cost of portable oxygen concentrators is expected to hamper sustainable adoption in the APEJ region. Lack of product awareness is expected to hamper market growth in the APEJ and MEA regions.Request For Table Of Content @Vendor insights The report profiles some of the top companies operating in the global portable oxygen concentrators market such as Koninklijke Philips N.V., Inogen Inc., Chart Industries Inc., Resmed Inc., Invacare Corporation, Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare, Precision Medical Inc., Besco Medical Co. Ltd., Oxus America, Inc. (Oxus), Foshan Keyhub Electronic Industries Co. Ltd., O2 Concepts LLC, and GCE Group. Key strategies adopted by leading market players in the global portable oxygen concentrators market include product approvals and commercialisation, efficient entry into markets in emerging countries, and adoption of latest innovative technologies in healthcare, thus strengthening regional proficiency and addressing customer needs effectively. New product launches, product innovation, and geographical expansion are anticipated to form the core of these strategies during the forecast period.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: Clinical Data Analytics Global Market Top Key Players Cerner, International Business Machines Corporation, McKesson and Forecast to 2022 Clinical Data Analytics Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1218508-global-clinical-data-analytics-market-trends-forecast-2016-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1218508-global-clinical-data-analytics-market-trends-forecast-2016-2022 www.wiseguyreports.com Global Clinical Data Analytics MarketDescriptionWiseGuyReports.Com adds Global Clinical Data Analytics Market Trends & Forecast, 2016-2022 Research To Its Database.The global clinical data analytics market was valued at $ 2,356.2 million in 2016 and expected to reach at $ 11,853.6 million by 2022 at a CAGR of 30.9 % during the forecast period. The major factors responsible for the growth of global clinical data analytics market are; government Initiatives to promote big data will spur the growth of this market, technological advancements, concept of value based care and pressure to curb healthcare costs has fuelled the growth of the market and others. The growth barriers are reluctance to share information regarding the health with the third party, privacy concerns, regulatory requirements, and power backup issues with big data accessing smart devices will restraint the growth of the market among others.The market is majorly categorized on the basis of deployment model which is further segmented into on-premise and cloud based. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into quality care, population health management, clinical decision support, precision health, reporting and compliance. On the basis of end user the market is segmented into pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, academic and research institutes and geographic regions. Globally, North America holds the largest market share of global clinical data analytics market, registering 53.95 % in 2016.The scope of global clinical data analytics market study includes the market value, market size and a detailed analysis of vendor products and strategies.Key PlayersThe leading players of the Global clinical data analytics market are Cerner, International Business Machines Corporation, McKesson and Xerox and others.Get sample Report @Study Objectives of clinical data analytics Market Development and Demand Forecast to 2022 Market To provide insights about factors, influencing and affecting the market growth To provide historically and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regional markets and their countries To provide historically and forecast revenue of the market segments based on type, and sub-segment for Global clinical data analytics market To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their market share, core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To provide economic factors that influence the Global clinical data analytics marketTarget Audience Clinical data analytics companies Hospitals & Clinics Raw Material Suppliers Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerKey Findings On the basis of deployment model, on-premise segment holds largest market share of global clinical data analytics market, registering 1579.9 % of total market in 2016. US holds 71.66 % market share of North America clinical data analytics market and is expected to reach $ 4466.7 million by 2022 from $ 911.1 million in 2016.The reports also cover country level analysis: North America US Canada Europe Western Europe Germany France U.K. Italy Spain Rest of Western Europe Eastern Europe Asia-Pacific China Japan India Republic of Korea Rest of Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaEnquiry About Report @Table of Contents -Major Key Points1 Introduction 101.1 Scope of Study 101.2 Research Objective 101.3 Assumptions & Limitations 111.3.1 Assumptions 111.3.2 Limitations 111.4 Market Structure 112 Research Methodology 122.1 Primary Research 132.2 Secondary Research 133 Market Dynamics 143.1 Introduction 143.2 Drivers 153.2.1 Government Initiatives to Promote Big Data will spur the growth of this market 153.2.2 Technological Advancements (Mhealth, IoT and Wearable Devices) will boost the growth of the market 153.2.3 Pressure to Curb Healthcare Costs has fuelled the growth of the market 163.3 Restraints 163.3.1 Reluctance to share information regarding the health with the third party has limit the growth of the market 163.3.2 Power Backup Issues with Big Data Accessing Smart Devices will restraint the growth of the market 173.4 Opportunities 173.4.1 Increasing R&D for Precision Medicine will strengthen the market for clinical data analytics 173.4.2 Value Based Care will spurred the growth for clinical data analytics 173.5 Challenges 183.5.1 Lack of Interoperability among Data Source Generators 183.5.2 Adhering to the Regulatory Requirements 183.5.3 Big Data Collection and its Privacy Concerns 184 Market Factor Analysis 204.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis 204.1.1 Threat of New Entrants 214.1.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 214.1.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 214.1.4 Threat of Substitute Products or Services 214.1.5 Rivalry Among Existing Firms 224.2 Value Chain Analysis 224.2.1 Healthcare Data 224.2.2 Healthcare Data Processing 224.2.3 Healthcare Data Reporting 234.2.4 Advanced Analytics Solutions 235 Clinical Data Analytics Market, By Deployment Model 245.1 Introduction 245.2 On Premise 255.3 Cloud Based 266 Clinical Data Analytics Market, By Application 276.1 Introduction 276.2 Quality Care 286.3 Population Health Management 296.4 Clinical Decision Support 316.5 Precision Health 316.6 Reporting & Compliance 327 Clinical Data Analytics Market, By End User 347.1 Introduction 347.2 Pharmaceutical Companies 357.3 Healthcare Providers 367.4 Academics & Research Institutes 378 Clinical Data Analytics Market, By Region 398.1 Introduction 398.2 North America 408.2.1 U.S. 438.2.2 Canada 448.3 Europe 468.3.1 Germany 498.3.2 France 508.3.3 U.K. 528.3.4 Italy 538.3.5 Spain 558.3.6 Rest of Europe 568.4 Asia-Pacific 588.4.1 Japan 608.4.2 China 628.4.3 India 638.4.4 Australia 658.4.5 Rest of Asia-Pacific 668.5 Middle East & Africa 688.5.1 UAE 708.5.2 Africa 728.5.3 Rest of Middle East & Africa 73..CONTINUEDAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, Industry 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.NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK) Payments Landscape Market: South Africa Opportunities and Risks to 2021 http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2022816 http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/payments-landscape-in-south-africa-opportunities-and-risks-to-2021 http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/discount/2022816 GlobalDatas "Payments Landscape in South Africa: Opportunities and Risks to 2021", report provides detailed analysis of market trends in the South African cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including credit transfers, direct debit, cash, payment cards, and cheques during the review-period (2013-17e).Request a sample of this report @Companies Mentioned:Absa BankStandard BankCapitec BankFirstRand BankNedbankVisaMastercardAmerican ExpressDiners ClubThe report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2017-21f). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.The report brings together GlobalDatas research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers details of regulatory policy and recent changes in the regulatory structure.The report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the South African cards and payments industry, including -- Current and forecast values for each market in the South African cards and payments industry, including debit, credit, and charge cards.- Detailed insights into payment instruments including credit transfers, cheques, direct debit, cash, and payment cards. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.- E-commerce market analysis and payment methods.- Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing the South African cards and payments industry.- Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit, and charge cards.Browse the complete report @Scope- The uptake of alternative payments is gradually increasing in South Africa. In June 2017, Alipay was launched in South Africa in partnership with payment service provider Peach Payments. The partnership allows Chinese tourists to South Africa to pay with the Alipay app at authorized retailers. City Sightseeing - a tour bus operator - is the first merchant to offer the Alipay service in South Africa. Samsung is also in discussions with South African banks and regulators to launch Samsung Pay in South Africa. Visa and Mastercard have already introduced their respective Visa Checkout and Masterpass payment solutions to push electronic payments in the country.- To combat the increased processing of unauthorized debit orders in the country, in June 2017 the Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) introduced a new type of debit order (direct debit) called DebiCheck. The new DebiCheck debit order can only be processed if it is electronically confirmed by the customer. Under the new system, consumers can authenticate DebiCheck debit orders in multiple ways including USSD messaging through mobile phones, banking applications, online banking, ATMs, or at bank branches. It will be implemented in a phased manner over the course of the next two years.- To offer convenient payments, Mastercard has introduced several innovative solutions. It introduced a biometric payment card with fingerprint authentication in April 2017, following several trials in partnership with retailer Pick n Pay and Absa Bank. The solution allows card holders to verify in-store payment by scanning their fingerprints. The cards at available from any financial institution, with the consumers fingerprint being digitally encrypted and stored on the card. Earlier in July 2016, Mastercard in collaboration with Virtual Card Services introduced a virtual POS enabling businesses to accept digital card payments in-store, remotely, or on-the-go through mobile devices. Consumers need to download the Masterpass app, register, and load their debit or credit cards into the wallet to make payments.Reasons to buy- Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the South African cards and payments industry and each market within it.- Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the South African cards and payments industry.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the South African cards and payments industry.- Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in South Africa.- Gain insights into key regulations governing the South African cards and payments industry.Check the discount @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.com Winches Market Poised to Expand at a Robust Pace Over 2025 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/16351 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/16351 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/16351 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Global Winches Market: IntroductionA winch is a power-driven equipment used to wind a rope or a cable. Winches are widely used for lifting and moving all kinds of loads in various applications, such as marine, industrial, renewables, automotive and civil engineering, among others. Winches range in design from hand-cranked spools to enormous hydraulic devices used for industrial loading applications. Simple winches consist of a basic structure such as a spool and an attached hand crank, whereas for bigger applications, winches form a major part of machinery used for moving and lifting loads.On the basis of material used, stainless steel winches are estimated to hold a dominant market share and theyre widely used in applications, such as boating. In industrial applications, stronger steel alloys are widely preferred for industrial winch drums & frames and in low weight operations, synthetics and aluminium are used.Winches are categorized as manual, hydraulic, pneumatic and electric winches on the basis of working mechanism. As the global load lifting needs are evolving, there is a growing demand for more advanced systems offering high quality and better efficiency with ease of use. To meet these demands, manufacturers are constantly striving to develop new systems. Hydraulic winches were developed to meet the requirements of modern-day application needs in the winches market. Manual winches are preferred for low lifting weight applications, owing to simplicity and cost effectiveness. Electric winches are estimated to hold a dominant market share over the forecast period, attributing to the high demand from marine and oil & gas applications.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @The global market is estimated to grow at a stable rate, owing to the use of winches in a wide variety of applications.Global Winches Market: DynamicsDrivers:Growth in end use applications, such as mining, construction, utility, freight, oceaneering and others is expected to be a key growth driver for the global winches market. In automotive applications, winches are used as front or rear mounts to tow heavy weight. Construction cranes use winches to lift & dangle loads and sailboats of all sizes use winches to facilitate the rapid winding and unwinding of the rigging line. The global winches market is estimated to be driven by technological advancements, such as remote control clutch system in advanced winches for better handling & transfer of loads, quick installation and availability of good quality winches with cost-effective prices.Restraints:The high cost of hydraulic systems might act as a growth restraint for this market over the forecast period.Global Winches Market: Regional OutlookNorth America and Western Europe collectively are estimated to account for a relatively large market share in the global winches market during the forecast period. The major demand for winches arises from end use industries, such as marine, industrial machinery and freight. The U.S. winches market is anticipated to grow at a stable pace, owing to it attaining the maturity stage in the product life cycle. On the other hand, the Canada winches market is estimated to register significant growth. In Europe, countries, such as the U.K., Germany, Russia, Poland and France are projected to drive the Europe winches market.Request Sample Report @Latin America and the Middle-East & Africa winches markets are estimated to witness high growth opportunity over the forecast period. The Asia-Pacific market is forecasted to grow at a rapid pace, owing to growth in urbanization, growing industries and stable economic growth in the region.Global Winches: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global winches market are:Ingersoll-Rand plcRamsey WinchWarn Industries Inc.Harken Inc.TWGPaccar WinchFukushima Ltd.Brevini U.K. LtdNaust Marine ehf.Maxwell Marine International Ltd.Appleton Marine Inc.Pre 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: EMI Suppression Market Global Outlook 2018: Arrow, Jameco, Vishay, Eaton, Fujitsu EMI Suppression Market 2018 http://bit.ly/2DmcpHQ http://bit.ly/2DnVvIW The report entitled Global EMI Suppression Market 2018 delivers the comprehensive and in-depth research analysis of the key regional industry standing of the EMI Suppression market on a global level. 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Producers Analysis and Prime Sellers of world EMI Suppression Market 2018:ArrowJameco ElectronicsARC TechnologiesTAIYO YUDENIllinois CapacitorTDKAavid ThermaloyALPSVishayAPI TechnologiesBournsEatonEPCOSFujitsuInquiry for Buying, Visit Here:In the first segment, The EMI Suppression report covers the marketing research and forecast of EMI Suppression Market on a regional also the world level. The EMI Suppression report is generically divided into six components and each half aims at the summary of the EMI Suppression past, present and future conditions of the market, the feasibility of the investment on many methods and policies. Excluding the classification and definition, the EMI Suppression market report conjointly discusses the analysis crucial and export and explain a comparison of the EMI Suppression market that is targeted at the trends and development. Key Emphasizes the EMI Suppression Market:1. 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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 QF-Test Version 4.2 Released (Java 9, PDF Testing, REST, Angular, Smart GWT...) Medium Upgrade QF-Test Version 4.2 Released https://www.qfs.de/en/about-qfs/news/newsletters/newsletter-2017-01-10-qf-test-42-released.html https://www.qfs.de/en/qf-test/download.html https://www.qfs.de/en/qf-test/free-trial.html www.qfs.de Some of the highlights of new features and technologies supported with the Medium Upgrade of QF-Test 4.2:1. Java 9 support2. Testing of PDF documents3. Additional scripting language JavaScript4. Support for Angular includes UI toolkits Bootstrap and AngularJS Material5. Support for Smart GWT6. Dedicated nodes for static and live unit tests7. Headless web-testing8. Testing of REST services9. 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Thus, they are an ideal choice for those looking to buy slip rings and split rings.Company Name: MOFLON TECHNOLOGYAddress :Building 21, Beifangyongfa Industrial Park, XinheRoad,City: ShaJing,State:ShenzhenZip: 518104Country: ChinaTelephone Number: 0755-331-967-87Email: sales@moflon.comWebsite: Egg Packaging Market size and Key Trends in terms of volume and value 2017 - 2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4015 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-4015 www.futuremarketinsights.com Despite having relative strength, eggs are extremely fragile product and handling them is a major concern for the egg industry. Packaging is an important part of delivering good quality eggs to the customers. Egg packaging can be done by using plastic and paperboard material which provides a vital packaging solution. A critical component that influences the development of poultry items is the necessity of storage & logistics of eggs, and this market is expected to grow shortly due to high demand for poultry products. With the utilization of innovation and apparatuses, the quality and security of eggs can be kept up through shock and stress engrossing packaging frameworks. Egg packaging is mainly done by using dimpled foams and molded fiber pulp packaging that can store eggs without breaking. This dimpled foams additionally secures eggs by retaining the stress and shock applied amid transportation.Global Egg Packaging Market- Market Dynamics In the course of recent years, egg packaging market has been one of the quickest developing markets providing packaging solution across the globe for food and beverage industry. The essential driver for global egg packaging market is the convenience for conveying and transporting of eggs. Egg packaging producers additionally actualize several innovations and thoughts for the sheltered transportation of eggs. Significant change in the lifestyle and convenience of emerging economies has triggered the growth potential for egg packaging market. Rapid industrialization and increase in per capita disposable income for developing economies are the other factors fueling demand for egg packaging globally. Additionally, egg cartons made of paper are recyclable in nature, and this manner turns into an exceptionally cost effective solution for the storage of eggs in bulk. Every single such variable fuel up to the for global egg packaging market. Egg packaging market is hampered due to intense competition in the manufacturers of egg packaging and the dynamic change in the cost of raw materials that is required for the manufacturers of egg packaging. In order to attract large consumer base, egg packaging manufacturers are shifting from traditional to more creative packaging formats, and this trend is likely to create demand for egg packaging market globally.Request For Report Sample @Egg Packaging Market Segmentation Material Type Plastics, (Polystyrene (PS), Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Others), Paper, (Molded pulp, Recycled paper, PaperboardThe egg packaging market in North America region are to remain dominant for the highest revenue growth as compared to markets in other regions. Latin America region is expected to witness above average growth for egg packaging market for the next half of the decade. In Western Europe, countries like Germany, and the UK are expected to have a significant growth of egg packaging market over the forecast period 2016-2024. In addition, countries of Eastern Europe such as Russia and Poland are also expected to have augmentation in the growth potential for egg packaging. The egg packaging market in India and China are projected to be dominating the globe due to increase in preference for eggs. Moreover, the growth for egg packaging market in other parts of Asia Pacific is expected to be driven by increasing disposable income and spending power among consumers in this region. In addition, egg packaging market in these developing economies also has a positive impact owing to the technological advancement of industries. Japan is also expected to continue with the stagnant growth for egg packaging market over the forecast period. The Middle East and Africa region are expected to have a substantial increase in the egg packaging market for GCC countries and South Africa.Request For Table Of Content @Global Egg Packaging Market Key Players:Few of the key players for egg packaging are Brodrene Hartmann A/S, Huhtamaki Oyj, UFP Technologies, Inc., Pactiv LLC, Ovotherm International Handels GmbH, Dispak UK, DFM Packaging Solutions, SANOVO TECHNOLOGY A/S, Dolco Packaging Corp., CKF Inc., Ulma Packaging, 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: Yandex.Money: Alternative Payment Solution Market - Gain Insights into its Product Portfolio and Revenue Model http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2022813 http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/alternative-payment-solution-yandexmoney http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/discount/2022813 Yandex.Money is one of the most popular payment solutions in Russia. It was launched in July 2002 as a joint venture between Yandex and PayCash Group, before Yandex later became the sole owner. However, in July 2013 Yandex sold a 75% stake in Yandex.Money to Sberbank, and is now the minority stakeholder in the joint venture.Request a sample of this report @Companies Mentioned:SberbankAlfa-BankPromsvyazbankTinkoff BankPayCash GroupYandexAndroid PayApple PaySamsung PayAliExpressMasterpassWebMoneyQIWI WalletMastercardVisaYandex.Money allows users to make both online and offline payments as well as P2P fund transfers. It offers online checkout through Yandex.Checkout, allowing online merchants to accept payments via the Yandex.Money wallet and linked bank cards, as well as other payment options such as online banking, cash, and carrier billing. Alternatively, users can make payments by scanning the QR code on the merchant site with the Yandex.Money mobile app.Users can make in-store payments by scanning QR codes at stores or by waving their NFC-enabled mobile phones at POS terminals. Users can also make payments directly with physical Mastercard-branded Yandex.Money cards. In addition to payments, Yandex.Money offers both domestic and international money transfers through various transfer options.Browse the complete report @The report provides information and insights into alternative payment solution Yandex.Money, including -- Detailed insight into its business and geographical presence- Comprehensive coverage of its products and services- Comparative assessment with key alternative payment solutions- Information on its performance, including its revenue model- The company's important events and milestonesScope- In July 2002, Yandex.Money was founded as a joint project of Yandex and PayCash Group.- Yandex.Money offers Yandex.Checkout, allowing online merchants to accept payments via various payment methods including bank cards, online banking, cash, carrier billing, instant loans, and e-wallets such as WebMoney, QIWI Wallet, and Yandex.Money. Payments are accepted in various currencies.- In April 2016, Yandex.Money launched NFC payments, allowing users to make contactless payments at merchant stores.- In May 2017, Yandex.Money Partnered with Android Pay, allowing users to pay with Yandex.Money cards via Android Pay.Reasons to buy- Gain insights into Yandex.Money's business operations, and key events.- Gain insights into its product portfolio and revenue model.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the alternative payments industry by comparing its performance against competitors.Check the discount @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.com Supercritical Fluid Chromatography Market Dynamics, Forecast, Analysis and Supply Demand 2017 - 2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3998 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3998 www.futuremarketinsights.com Supercritical fluid chromatography is a technique in which separation phenomenon occurred; it is analytical technique using instrumentation based principle. The instrumentation uses in supercritical fluid chromatography almost identical to high-performance liquid chromatography. The most significant difference from HLPC is the replacement of the most of the liquid mobile phase with a densely compressed gas, almost always carbon dioxide. Supercritical fluid chromatography led to novel analytical applications in the field of chromatography; supercritical fluid chromatography consists a column chromatography methods along with gas chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography. supercritical fluid chromatography has both GC and HLPC properties due to this factor supercritical fluid chromatography become advanced analytical techniques over the remaining one.The supercritical phase represents a state in which liquid and gas properties converge; supercritical fluid chromatography is sometimes called "convergence chromatography."Request For Report Sample @Supercritical Fluid Chromatography market: Drivers and Restraint Increasing demand of supercritical fluid chromatography reagent in the various industry such as pharmaceutical industry, chemical industry, food industry, etc. the rise in government investments, less expensive procedure of supercritical fluid chromatography over gas chromatography and high-pressure liquid chromatography are the driver for the supercritical fluid chromatography market. However, limited sensitive and specific of detectors in applications involving complex samples could be the major restraints for supercritical fluid chromatography marketSupercritical Fluid Chromatography Market Segmentation By Modality Preparative, Analytical; By Application Chemical analysis, Food product analysis, Biomedical analysis, Others; By End Use Research laboratories, Pharmaceuticals industry, Academic institutes, Chemical industry, Food industry, Oil industrySupercritical Fluid Chromatography Market: Overview The critical fluid chromatography market is expected to witness huge growth in the forecasted period. Supercritical fluid chromatography is a technique that can withstand a temperature and pressure that is beyond its critical point. It exhibits properties, such as low viscosity and high diffusivity, because of which it is suitable for use as a mobile phase in chromatography. Thus, it is used in a wide range of separation and purification modes, such as natural products, drugs, foods, pesticides, herbicides, surfactants, polymers and polymer additives, fossil fuels, and agrochemicals, among others.Chiral separations can be performed for many pharmaceutical compounds. SFC is dominantly used for non-polar compounds because of the low efficiency of carbon dioxide, which is the most common supercritical fluid mobile phase, for dissolving polar solutes. SFC is used in the petroleum industry for the determination of total aromatic content analysis as well as other hydrocarbon separations.Also, the increasing usage of monoclonal antibodies purification and relatively newer chromatography technique- the Green Chromatography also provide an opportunity for the growth of this market.Request For Table Of Content @Supercritical Fluid Chromatography Market: Region-wise Outlook By region, global Supercritical Fluid Chromatography market is segmented into seven key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. North America dominates the supercritical fluid chromatography followed by Europe and will continue to dominate the global Supercritical Fluid Chromatography market attributed to growing number of conferences related to chromatography techniques and rise in capital funding by government which is assisting the global supercritical market. Asia Pacific is an emerging market due to high potential growth in biopharma and food & chemical industry.Supercritical Fluid Chromatography Market: Key Market Participants The key market players in the global supercritical fluid chromatography market include Shimedzu, JASCO,FLUITRON INC.Labnics Equipment, Pressure Products Industries, Inc. Thar Technologies, Inc. (formerly Thar Designs, Inc.) Supercritical Fluid Technologies InC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, and Waters Corporation.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: Photomedicine Market Analysis, Segments, Growth and Value Chain 2017 - 2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3641 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3641 www.futuremarketinsights.com Photomedicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that involves the treatment and diagnosis of diseases and other complications related to health by using photobiology and light. Photomedicine treatment is done by exposing the individual to light with specific wavelengths using lasers, fluorescent lamps, full-spectrum light, polychromatic polarized light, light-emitting diodes and dichroic lamps. Moreover, photomedicine also includes the cellular and molecular mechanisms of pharmacology, chemistry, physiology and pathology as they apply to photobiology. Photomedicine has found its application in the diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases, cancer and several infections. This new treatment option of photomedicine helps better visualization and has outpaced the traditional method of diagnosing and detecting a disease.Photomedicine Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe market for photomedicine is expected to boom as there is more adoption of minimally invasive procedures, advances in medical aesthetic technologies, more augmented research funding for photomedicine, and the development of compact, versatile and multifunctional photomedicine devices. Researches in the field of photomedicine to explore newer application is bringing in more investments. Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital proved that by using low-level laser therapy there was enhanced platelet production in animals with thrombocytopenia as compared to normal control. Thrombocytopenia is caused due to side-effects of certain drugs, leukemia, and drugs used for chemotherapy. Platelet transfusion is the established treatment for this but only used in severe cases since its risks complications include immunosuppression, allergic reaction and infection.Request Report Sample@Photomedicine Market: SegmentationPhotomedicine market is classified on the basis of technology, application and region.Based on technology the photomedicine market is segmented into the following:Fluorescent LampsLasersPolychromatic Polarized LightFull Spectrum LightDichroic LampsLight Emitting DiodesCold lasers also known as low-level lasers emit through its low-powered laser light do not heat the target tissues. These lasers are used to improve conditions related to wound healing, pain management and conditions related to stroke and neurodegenerative disorders.Based on application the photomedicine market is segmented into the following:OncologyDermatologyDentistryOphthalmologySurgical proceduresOthersPhotomedicine Market: OverviewThe photomedicine market is expected to upsurge in the coming years owing to the number of new product approvals. Moreover, the photomedicine market is also experiencing consolidation with companies acquiring other market players. Syneron Medical Ltd. acquired New Star Lasers, Inc. to leverage on its CoolTouch family of aesthetic devices.Request For Table Of Content @Photomedicine Market: Region-wise OutlookA geographic condition regarding orthopedic trauma device market, it has been segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa. North America is the leading region in the photomedicine market owing to the presence of major market player. Moreover, as compared to other regions the adoption of photomedicine in the use of treatment and diagnosis is higher. This is due to the higher rate of research undertakings and the grants received to explore this area of medicine. Asia Pacific is also emerging region due to the developing economies. Moreover as it has a strong presence for foreign tourism, there has been a growing adoption of photomedicine. For instance, Lumenis Ltd. who manufactures energy-based devices for ophthalmology, surgical and aesthetic application supported a mission to treat burn injuries in Armenia. Through its Lumenis UltraPulse to treat children with burn injuries. The companys 2015 mission included the establishment of medical laser center in Arabkir Pediatric Hospitals.Photomedicine Market: Some of the players in photomedicine market areLumenis Ltd., PhotoMedex, Inc., THOR Photomedicine Ltd, Asclepion Laser Technologies GmbH, Alma Lasers, QBMI Photomedicine, IRIDEX Corporation, Syneron Medical Ltd., AngioDynamics and Spectranetics.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: Chainway introducing new products in Indian market Chainway Barcode Scanners www.chainway.net Chainway India Pvt. Ltd. an exclusive source of High tech handheld devices announces to the customers and supporters of chainway the release of new Barcode scanners and printers for the Indian market. The barcode scanners are available in three models.C10 1D Barcode Scanner It can read various 1D barcodes and screen 1D payment. It is suitable for RS-232, USB, PS2, virtual USB and other PC interfaces. Its applicable scope covers retail, mobile communication and healthcare industry etc.C20 Optical Image Scanner - It is an industrial 2D optical imaging scanner with advanced data capture capabilities. It is quite easy for C20 to scan QR Code, DataMatrix, PDF417, Aztec, Maxicode and so on. The device delivers industry-leading performance and durability in retail, logistics, healthcare, manufacturing, office automation and other fields of applications.CB20 Cordless BT Scanner- It adopts CMOS image sensor and Bluetooth, providing ultra-strong compatibility and cordless freedom. It can be seamlessly paired with any Android, Apple iOS, or Windows smartphone or tablet, and is widely used in supermarket, chain stores, shops, clothing store, electronic ticket and coupon scanning, mobile payment, and tax affairs.Chainway India is also selling two model of the Postek printer (G-2108, G-3106, Q8200 and Q8300) to serve the requirement of its prestige customers. Chainway which is a renowned name in manufacturing & supply of rugged handheld devices will complete its full product range with the launch of above mention products. We hope you will enjoy experiencing our new products.The products will be shortly available for the Indian customers.For more information about the products. Please call us at 0124-4000023/24 or email at info@chainway.co.inAs a leading "Internet of Things" company in China, Shenzhen Chainway Information Technology Co., Ltd is a professional provider of products and solutions for RFID and barcode technologies. Founded in 2005, and a subsidiary in India, Chainway, a high-tech enterprise, has won several times the title of the Best Provider of RFID Readers.Know more about us at604, Tower B, Global Business Park, M.G. Road, Gurugram Rotogravure Printing Machine Market size and Key Trends in terms of volume and value 2017 - 2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3582 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3582 www.futuremarketinsights.com Product information in terms of specifications, usage, cautionary notes, track and trace information, etc. is of prime significance to manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, retailers and end consumers. Printing equipment and machineries have brought essential value to the overall packaging market by enabling packaging manufacturers to supply packaging systems with print capabilities. Rotogravure printing machine is extensively used in the packaging industry for printing on packaging items like polythene packets, food pouches, confectionary wrappers, soap wrappers and many flexible packaging materials. Rotogravure printing machine is a high-speed printing machine which is used for printing consistently on films of different densities while maintaining consistency and accuracy. Rotogravure printing machine is highly efficient, and reduces the waste by unprecedented amount in order to minimize the cost of packaging. Rotogravure printing machine improve the overall margin for packaging manufacturers by providing efficiency in operations.Rotogravure Printing Machine Market: Market Dynamics The growing consumption of food and beverage products particularly for consumer packed goods, has led to rise in demand for rotogravure printing machines, which in turn is boosting the rotogravure printing machine market. The growth in packaging equipment market affects the rotogravure printing machine market. The consumable packaging market is estimated to be US$ 700.0 billion, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3% over the forecast period. Crucial factor supporting the rotogravure printing machine market is the efficiency in speed and cost of the rotogravure printing machine that provide high image quality on the packaging material.Request For Report Sample @The rotogravure printing machine is easy to operate and has a low labor cost which is an important factor for the growth of the rotogravure printing machine market. However, the initial investment required for the installation of rotogravure printing machine may limit the scope of the rotogravure printing machine market. The presence of substitutes for rotogravure printing machine such as flexographic printing machinery is a key restraint for the growth of rotogravure printing machine market. Moreover, advancement in printing technology may make the rotogravure printing machine obsolete which may hamper the growth of the rotogravure printing machine market over the forecast period. However, the use of flexible packaging for food and consumer goods is extensive, so rotogravure printing machine market holds a good potential over the forecast period.Rotogravure Printing Machine Market: Market Segmentation Rotogravure printing machine market is segmented by the type of material used for printing, by application and end-use industry. Rotogravure Printing Machine Market Segmentation By Material Used Polyester films, OPP films, Nylon film, PE film, Paper, Carton board, Aluminum foil; By Application Publishing, Packaging labels, Security Prints, Decorative printing; By End Use Food and beverage industry, Pharmaceutical industry, Consumer goods industry, Other industriesIn the backdrop of the rapid growth of manufacturing industries in APEJ region rotogravure printing machine market is expected to move vertically upward over the forecast period. North America is expected to follow the APEJ region in rotogravure printing machine market. The Eastern and Western Europe is expected to witness a steady growth for the rotogravure printing machine market, attributed to increasing consumer preference for printed packs of products. The increased consumer preference for procurement of products in smaller quantity may support the growth of rotogravure printing machine market in Japan over the forecasted period. Comparatively rotogravure printing machine market is growing at a lower rate in MEA region.Request For Table Of Content @Rotogravure Printing Machine Market - Key Players: Some key players for the rotogravure printing machine market are BOBST, Shaanxi Beiren Printing Machinery Co., Ltd, Wei Machine Industry Co., Ltd, J M Heaford Ltd, Toshiba Machine Co., Ltd, Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corporation, Queen's Machinery Co., Ltd, Comexi Group, DCM-ATN, Rotatek, KKA GmbH, and Gruppo Cerutti.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: Biosensors Development and Demand Market 2017 by Key Players: Siemens Healthcare, LifeSensors, Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Nokia, Bayer AG, TiaDoc Technology https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/833 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-biosensors-market-833 Market Research Future published a research report on Global Biosensors Development and Demand Market Research Report- Forecast to 2027 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027.Market Highlights:According to Market Research Future Analysis, Global Biosensors Development and Demand Market is anticipated to grow at a significant rate over the forecast period, 2017-2023.According to Market Research Future, the Global Biosensors Development and Demand Market has been segmented into Application, Type, Design Methods and region. Biosensors development is a combinational approach of both the computer modelling and natural receptors. Another factor that leads to the growth of the biosensors development is from the agricultural point of view for high quality crop production. The biosensors development market has seen a fast growth in the recent years with the increased applications in the field of medical analysis, food analysis and environmental monitoring. The medical analysis has witnessed a significant growth because of the rise in the cancer detection for early diagnosis by use of biosensors. These applications require higher accuracy, sensitivity and speed for measurement which again boosts the growth of the bio sensors development. Naturally available molecules such as antibodies, enzymes, nucleic acid and others are used as receptors for biosensors.The biosensor development market is growing at a medium pace because of the growth in the acquisition of diabetic population across the globe due to unhealthy food consumption, increase in chronic and lifestyle associated diseases, and growing applications of biosensors in different sectors.Get Sample of Report @Key Players Siemens Healthcare LifeSensors, Inc Abbott Laboratories, Inc Johnson & Johnson Medtronic, Inc Nova Biomedical Corporation F. Hoffmann La Roche TiaDoc Technology Corporation Bayer AG SENS, Inc.SegmentsThe biosensors development and demand market is segmented under application, type, design methods, and regions. On the basis of Applications, the segmentation is further divided under Medical Diagnosis, Glucose Monitoring, Interferometric reflectance imaging sensor (IRIS), Food Analysis, Biodefense, Environmental monitoring, and others. The application of Biosensors development mostly focuses on the Medical Diagnosis, and food analysis. Of these, food analysis, medical diagnosis and glucose monitoring are trending the market. This is majorly due to the increased awareness of consumer towards agricultural products and food quality. Also due to rise in diseases like cancer and diabetes, it becomes mandatory to monitor the blood and glucose levels at timely intervals for early detection and prevention of chronic disease spread.Get Complete Report @On the basis of type of biosensors, the market is segmented under Nucleic acid sensors, Trans-membrane sensors, cell network sensors, electrochemical biosensors, piezoelectric biosensors, and optical bio sensors. With the rise in technology in optics, the market is leading by optical bio sensors, and Transmembrane sensors. However, piezoelectric biosensors expect to grow at a significant rate. These biosensors include some new and old types to achieve better sensor stability and to achieve high throughput. The segmentation is also divided as the design methods which include Adsorption, Covalent attachment, Cross-linking, Self-Assembled Monolayers, and Entrapment within polymers. All these design methods ensure the maximum efficiency by complying with the natural receptors present.The biosensors development market is segmented under North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the world by region. Out of these regions, North America is expected to dominate the market for biosensors development because of the rise in diseases like diabetes and cancer which requires early detection and diagnosis. Following North America is Europe. However, Asia pacific is estimated to grow at a fast rate during the forecasted period.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com Applications of GSM Technology in the Medical Sector www.MatrixTeleSol.com Lately, at the time of introduction of mobile communication, authorities were adamant to ban the use of wireless devices in hospitals. According to them, signals coming from mobile devices can jumble with the signals of monitors and other medical equipment, in turn hampering their functioning. However, American Medical Association and UK Medicines issued documents which negated the interference of cellular signals in functioning of medical devices. On the contrary many hospitals are using mobile phones to reduce medical errors, offer timely services, boost efficiency and decrease costs.Much before the introduction of GSM technology, there were many healthcare units that understood the importance of quick internal connectivity, and hence, invested in communication solutions. Since development of GSM technology was in its nascent stage at that point of time, the systems offered connectivity for legacy networks only. After successful use of GSM technology in other sectors, healthcare domain also realized its importance and upgraded the existing infrastructure with the help of various and widely available GSM 3G Gateways.Defining GSMBefore delving more in to applications of GSM technology in the medical domain, lets learn the basic concept of GSM technology. GSM is an acronym for Global System for Mobiles and its invention dates back to 1970. The technology uses circuit switched method which divides 200 KHz frequency in to eight different slots of 900 MHz, 800 MHz and 1.8 GHz bands each.How GSM Technology is Helpful for Patients and Companions?One of the main advantages of GSM technology lies in the fact that it offers wireless connectivity. In case of an emergency or when it comes to connecting areas devoid of wired connectivity, GSM technology plays an important role. However, if we consider a situation where the patient is seriously injured or is ill and all he or his companion has is a mobile phone then in this case connecting with the nearest healthcare unit becomes easy. If connected with the doctor, then the injured patient can receive preliminary treatment while on the way to hospital. In case of an illness, doctors can study patient reports in case of any abnormalities and remain ready for the further tests, offering immediate treatment. In the hospital premises, if some patient, attendant or hospital staff gets stuck in the elevator or in power cut situation, GSM FCT helps the person to quickly connect with the nearest rescue services. Person stuck under such conditions can call for help through the GSM SIM inserted in the deployed Fixed Cellular Terminal (FCT).In the above three situations, GSM was an important component for communication to take place. Some of the main reasons that supported wide implementation of GSM technology in the medical sector were its low cost, increased use of mobile devices and the availability of high speed internet.Use of GSM Technology in Basic Telemedicine SystemsThe basic telemedicine system comprises of four components: the patient unit, communication network, receiver unit/server side and the presentation unit. Although, the conceptualization and invention of telemedicine dates back to 1989, the technology has not been able to get a prominent place in every nook and corner of the healthcare world. However, now in modern hospitals, the use of telemedicine is going rampant and GSM FCT device find its application here as well. Equipped with the facility to offer connectivity amongst mobile hospital staff, the FCT is the key element for tailoring a robust communication network.If the technologists are to be believed then in near future, healthcare units are going to witness huge transformations. In the next decade, hospitals will be including communication solutions based on the latest technology in their environment.The IT administration or key decision makers will have to perform the daunting task of scouting the market for systems which fit their exact requirements. To avoid the laborious route and invest only in the trustworthy and feature loaded solutions, hospital authorities can visitor call on +91 9998755555. Matrix owns a legacy of manufacturing avant-garde Telecom solutions which includes SOHO PBX, Unified Communication Servers, Fixed Cellular Terminals and intuitive User Terminals.About MatrixEstablished in 1991, Matrix is a leader in Telecom and Security solutions for modern businesses and enterprises. Matrix, an innovative, technology driven and customer focused organization, is committed to keep pace with the revolutions in the telecom and security industries. With more than 40% of its human resources dedicated to the development of new products, Matrix has launched cutting-edge products like IP-PBX, Universal Gateways, VoIP Gateways and Terminals, GSM Gateways, Access Control, Time-Attendance and Video Surveillance solutions. These solutions are feature-rich, reliable and conform to the international standards. Having global footprints in Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Africa through an extensive network of more than 1,000 channel partners, Matrix ensures that the products serve the needs of its customers faster and longer. Matrix has gained trust and admiration of customers representing the entire spectrum of industries. Matrix has won many international awards for its innovative products.394, GIDC Makarpura, Vadodara-390010 Film Capacitor Market 2017 by Global Leaders: Mitsubishi Shindoh, TDK, AVX, Custom Electronics, Aerovox, KEMET, Nichicon, Panasonic, Xiamen Faratronic https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4178 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/film-capacitor-market-4178 Market Research Future published a research report on Global Film Capacitor Market Research Report- Forecast 2023 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market Scenario:The film capacitor are electrical capacitors with an insulating plastic film, which has huge demand in industries. The prominent companies are concentrating to penetrate the new film capacitor products in the market. These products which can be further used in next-generation applications such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing and others.The global film capacitor market are bifurcated on the basis of type, applications, end- users and region. The types are segmented into AC film capacitors, DC film capacitors, power film capacitors and others. The applications are segmented into electronic circuits, radio frequency interference suppression film capacitors, lighting ballasts, damping capacitors, power film capacitors and others. The end users are segmented into automotive, industries, consumer electronics, power & utilities, government & defense and others. The region includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and rest of the world.The regional analysis of Film Capacitor Market is being studied for region such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. North America is one of the leading region across the world in terms of market share in film capacitor market as it has huge demand in many sectors including automotive, defense, industries and others. The film capacitor market in Europe region is expected to witness rapid growth in the forthcoming period. Whereas, Asia-Pacific countries like China, Japan and South Korea is an emerging market for film capacitor market and expected to be the highest CAGR in the coming.The global film capacitor market is expected to grow at USD ~2 Billion by 2023, at ~2 % of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.Get Sample of Report @Key PlayersThe prominent players in the global film capacitor market are Mitsubishi Shindoh Co., Ltd. (Japan), TDK Corporation (Japan), AVX Corporation (U.S.), Electro Technik Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Custom Electronics, Inc. (U.S.), Aerovox Corporation (U.S.), Cornell Dubilier Electronics Inc. (U.S.), KEMET Corporation (U.S.), Nichicon Corporation (Japan), Panasonic Corporation (Japan), and Xiamen Faratronic Co. Ltd. (China), among others.Segments:The global film capacitor system market has been segmented on the basis of type, product, application and region.Global Film Capacitor System Market by Type: AC Film Capacitors DC Film Capacitors Power Film Capacitors OthersGlobal Film Capacitor System Market by Application: Electronic Circuits Radio Frequency Interference Suppression Film Capacitors Lighting Ballasts Damping Capacitors Power Film Capacitors OthersGlobal Film Capacitor System Market by End Users: Automotive Consumer Electronics Power & Utilities Government & Defense OthersGlobal Film Capacitor System Market by Regions: North America Europe APAC Rest of the WorldGet complete Report @Intended Audience Automotive companies Film capacitor service vendors Capacitor manufacturers plastic capacitor manufacturers Solution providers Polypropylene film capacitor manufacturers Intellectual property core and licensing providers Technology standards organizations Technology investors Research institutes, System IntegratorsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com SHOSHONE The family of a 13-year-old girl who reported being raped by an older classmate in a Shoshone school computer lab in April has filed a federal lawsuit against the Shoshone School District. Federal court documents say the girl and her mother were told she could not stay at the school following what was described as a violent rape by a prominent student athlete. Court documents show the boy, a high school junior, pleaded guilty to eight counts of felony lewd conduct in juvenile court. The lawsuit, filed Dec. 27 in U.S. District Court, alleges the school district had a deliberate indifferent response, failed to appropriately investigate and respond, and subjected the victim to a hostile environment and sexual discrimination that denied her an education in the District. Shoshone School District Superintendent Rob Waite said Friday he has been encouraged to limit comments on pending litigation. But he said he urges people to understand the allegations that the school failed to investigate are just a one-sided story. The school district is working with legal counsel to file a formal response by Feb. 1 that will be vigorous and detailed, Waite said. Then, he said, both sides of the story will be available. The girl, who is now 14, lives in Gooding and is attending high school in the Gooding School District, according to court documents. The lawsuit alleges the girl was denied equal protection until Title IX and that the school district retaliated against her. On or around April 26, school district employees and administrators viewed a videotape of the incident, and notified the victims mother and the Lincoln County Sheriffs Office, which came to the school to start an investigation, according to court documents. A deputy determined the case to be lewd and lascivious conduct by a seventeen (17) year old male. The Lincoln County Sheriffs Office took the boy into custody and he was transported to the Snake River Juvenile Detention Center. Following a Sheriffs investigation, the boy was charged as a juvenile and plead guilty on or around Nov. 17 to multiple felony charges of lewd conduct with a child under 16. Court documents state on information and belief, the boy was not incarcerated other than a short period of home detention. E. Lee Schlender of Mountain Home, the attorney for the girls family, said Friday he has been in touch with the Shoshone School Districts insurance carrier. He said he hopes that we can get this resolved as quickly as possible. The mother and the children are destitute, he said. She had to move them from Shoshone over to Gooding, get an apartment, get them enrolled in school over there and has no money. The school district has asked for another two or three weeks to formally respond to the complaint, Schlender said. In the meantime, he said, he has been trying to help the girls mother find house cleaning jobs. Schlender said theyre a very strong family, and the mother has dedicated her life to her children and doing everything possible to take care of them. Shes very pleased with how everyone in Gooding has treated her, he said. She says the school has been fantastic. The victim is undergoing continued medical treatment, Schlender said, and has been shocked and traumatized deeply by this. He said she was victimized once by being raped twice at the school and again by being told she had to leave the school. Court records say the girl was a student at Shoshone Middle School at the time of the incident. The 17-year-old boy, who was a prominent athlete at the school, violently and forcibly had sex with the girl without her consent on April 24 and 25 in an unlocked Shoshone High School computer lab. The lab was unsupervised and could be locked from the inside, requiring a key to enter from the outside. The room was unlighted and the door locked automatically after entry, court records say. The school districts surveillance and monitoring system covers the computer lab, and recorded the alleged rape and other actions, such as the boy and girl carefully walking past the offices of the Principal/Superintendent, closely together and alone while all other students were in classrooms. On or about the time of April 24 and 25, a school administrator unlocked the computer lab, and found the girl and boy inside. The boy told her they were watching a movie on a laptop computer. The administrator performed no investigation or questioning, other than directing that they leave the room, the records say. The lawsuit says school district officials became aware of the incident around April 23-26, 2017. From the time of the sexual assault and afterward, records say the victim was harassed and frightened. Following the investigation, the school district allowed the boy to continue attending Shoshone High School with a one-day suspension. The boys father is a coach, and the family has been in Shoshone for more than 30 years and had cultivated professional and personal relationships with school faculty, trustees and administrative personnel, records say. Within 10 days following the incident, the school administrator held a meeting with the girl and her mother and presented two options for schooling, the lawsuit says: stop attending Shoshone schools with no further remedial action of any kind or being homeschooled, with the school providing homework assignments weekly. The girl and her mother decided on the homeschooling option, but say they didnt receive homework assignments the first week. Now desperate to continue her education, (the girl) her brother and mother although destitute, were forced to leave their home in Shoshone and relocate to Gooding, Idaho, for the purpose of continuing the education of the two teenagers, court documents say. The girl suffered severe physical, and mental distress, physiological damage, loss of standing in their community and damage to her reputation, according to the documents. The girl and her mother have been required to attend counseling and receive treatment with psychotropic medication. The family has turned to charities for help with paying the rent, buying food and other necessities. Check Magicvalley.com for updates. Oligonucleotide Pool Global Market Top Key Players Creative Biogene, CustomArray, Inc., Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc., MYcroarray, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC and Forecast to 2022 Oligonucleotide Pool Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1218507-global-oligonucleotide-pool-market-estimation-forecast-2013-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1218507-global-oligonucleotide-pool-market-estimation-forecast-2013-2022 www.wiseguyreports.com Global Oligonucleotide Pool MarketDescriptionWiseGuyReports.Com adds Global Oligonucleotide Pool market Estimation & Forecast, 2013-2022 Research To Its Database.The Global Oligonucleotide pool market was valued at $ 1,292.8 million in 2016 and expected to reach at $2,324 million by 2022 at a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period. The major factors responsible for the growth of global Oligonucleotide pool market are big pharmaceutical companies investing in oligonucleotide therapeutics for drug development, increased involvement of CMOs in manufacturing therapeutic oligonucleotides and wide application areas offered by the oligonucleotides, among others.The growth barriers are complexity in the technology of manufacturing oligonucleotides and inaccuracy issues for the specific oligonucleotides among others.The market is majorly categorized on the basis of types which is further segmented into DNA pool and RNA pool. On the basis of applications the market is segmented into research, diagnostics and therapeutics, and others. On the basis of end users the market is segmented into commercial research, pure academic research, and others and geographic regions. Globally, North America holds the largest market share of global Oligonucleotide pool market, registering 42.2 % in 2016.The scope of Global Oligonucleotide pool market study includes the market value, market size and a detailed analysis of vendor products and strategies.Key PlayersThe leading players of the Global Oligonucleotide pool market are Agilent Technologies, Creative Biogene, CustomArray, Inc., Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc., MYcroarray, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, TriLink BioTechnologies, LLC, Twist Bioscience and others.Get sample Report @Study Objectives of Oligonucleotide pool Market Development and Demand Forecast to 2022 Market To provide insights about factors, influencing and affecting the market growth To provide historically and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regional markets and their countries To provide historically and forecast revenue of the market segments based on type, and sub-segment for Global Oligonucleotide pool market To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their market share, core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To provide economic factors that influence the Global Oligonucleotide pool marketTarget Audience Oligonucleotide pool companies Hospitals & Clinics Raw Material Suppliers Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerKey Findings On the basis of types, DNA oligonucleotides accounted for the largest market share of 66.9% in 2016. On the basis of applications. research accounted for the largest market share of 53.5% in 2016. US accounted for the largest market share of 77.6% in 2016, with a market value of USD 423.5 million and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.7% during the forecast period.The reports also cover country level analysis: North America US Canada Europe Western Europe Germany France U.K. Italy Spain Rest of Western Europe Eastern Europe Asia-Pacific China Japan India Republic of Korea Rest of Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaEnquiry About Report @Table of Contents -Major Key Points1 Report Prologue 92 Market Introduction 122.1 Definition 122.2 Scope of Study 122.3 Research Objective 122.4 Assumptions & Limitations 132.4.1 Assumptions 132.4.2 Limitations 132.5 Market Structure 133 Research Methodology 143.1 Research Process 143.2 Primary Research 153.3 Secondary Research 154 Market Dynamics 164.1 Introduction 164.2 Drivers 164.2.1 Big pharmaceutical companies investing in oligonucleotide therapeutics for drug development 174.2.2 Increased involvement of CMOs in manufacturing therapeutic oligonucleotides. 174.2.3 Wide application areas offered by the oligonucleotides 184.3 Restraints 184.3.1 Complexity in the manufacturing technique and inaccuracy of oligonucleotides. 184.4 Opportunities 195 Market Factor Analysis 205.1 Porters Five forces Model 205.1.1 Bargaining power of suppliers 215.1.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 215.1.3 Threat of New Entrants 215.1.4 Threat of Substitutes 215.1.5 Intensity of Rivalry 216 Global Oligonucleotide Pool Market by Type 226.1 Introduction 227 Global Oligonucleotide Pool Market by Application 257.1 Introduction 258 Global Oligonucleotide Pool Market by End User 288.1 Introduction 28..CONTINUEDAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, Industry 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.NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK) Global Robotics Market will surpass US$ 130 Billion by the end of 2024 http://www.renub.com/global-robotics-market-volume-and-forecast-962-p.php http://www.renub.com/contactus.php www.renub.com Access Full Research:Get Free Customization in this Report.Global Robotics Market will surpass US$ 130 Billion by the end of 2024. The adoption of robotics has risen in different industries in industrial sector like automotive, electrical & electronics and metal industry. Industrial robots are deployed in manufacturing and production processes to perform varieties of tasks. According to Renub Research Analysis, the global service robotics will outperform and stand parallel to global industrial robotics market by the end of year 2024.Request a free sample copy of the report:Global service robotics volumes will grow exponentially fueled by unprecedented demand of logistic and mobile platform robots. The demand of robotics in logistic side of supply chain would increase to the great extent and also encourages the large enterprise to pour investment for efficient and effective supply chain management.The global robotics market is also driven by large investment made by defense sector all around the world to develop unnamed aerial devices and military drones for surveillance, bombing and image capturing application.Global Robotics Volume accounted for more than 400,000 Units in 2017. In Industrial Robotics electrical & electronics segment is expected to capture close to half of the volume share by the end of 2024. Medical Robotics, Defence Robotics and Logistic Robotics are the top three segments in Service Robotics sector. Intuitive Surgical is the largest player in global robotics market and its brand da vinci is well known recognized worldwide.Renub Research report titled Global Robotics Market, Volume & Forecast By Type (Automotive, Electrical & Electronics, Metal, Chemical, Rubber and Plastics, Food, Defense, Agriculture, Logistics, Medical, Construction, Mobile Platform, Inspection, Underwater, Rescue and Security) provides a comprehensive assessment of the fastevolving, Industrial Robotic Market and Service Robotics Market. This 155 page report with 101 Figures and 19 Tables analyses the global robotics market; volume & forecast, global industrial robotics market; volume & forecast by industry segment, global service robotics market; volume & forecast by categorised segment, driving factors and challenges for Robotics market.Global Robotics Market is categorizes into two partA. Industrial Robotics MarketB. Service Robotics MarketA. Industrial Robotics Market has been analyzed from two view points Industrial Robotic Market (2010 2024) Industrial Robotic Volume (2010 2024)Industry Robotics Segments Covered1. Automotive Industry2. Electrical & Electronics Industry3. Metal Industry4. Chemical, Rubber and Plastics Industry5. Food Industry6. Others7. UnspecifiedB. Global Service Robotics Market has been analyzed from two view points Service Robotic Market (2010 2024) Service Robotic Volume (2010 2024)Service Robotics Segments Covered1. Defense2. Agriculture (Field)3. Logistic4. Medical5. Construction6. Mobile Platform7. Inspection8. Underwater9. Rescue and Security10. All othersKey Company Analysed1. Yaskawa Electric Corporation (SWOT Analysis, Sales Analysis)2. KUKA AG (SWOT Analysis, Sales Analysis)3. Adept Technology (SWOT Analysis, Sales Analysis)4. Nachi Fujikoshi (SWOT Analysis, Sales Analysis)5. iRobot (SWOT Analysis, Sales Analysis)6. Intuitive Surgical (SWOT Analysis, Sales Analysis)Contact UsRajat GuptaSr. Marketing ManagerEmail: info@renub.comPhone: +1-678-302-0700Web:Renub Research is a leading Market Research and Information Analysis Company with centers at Noida India and Roswell USA. We have long-term experience especially in international Business-to-Business Researches, Surveys, Business and Consulting. Throughout the years we have acquired expertise in most market sectors, including Information Technology (IT), Telecoms, Life Sciences, Medical & Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services (Banking, Insurance, Reinsurance, M&A, etc.), Energy, Chemicals, Automotive, Retail, FMCG, Consumer Goods, Logistics, Governmental, Social, and Others.Our core team is comprised of an experienced people holding graduate, post graduate and Ph.D. degrees in Finance, Marketing, Human Resource, Bio-Technology, Medicine, Information Technology, Environmental Science and many more. Our research help make the business decisions: on strategy, organization, operations, technology, mergers & acquisitions etc. We support many blue chip companies by providing them findings and perspectives across a wide range of markets. Our research reports offer a blend of information insight, analysis and forecasting that is essential in today's ultra-competitive markets.225 Kristie Ln, Roswell, GA 30076, United States Global Yacht Charter Market To Attain A Value Of US$14.987 Bn By 2025: Savvy Players Shift Gaze To Emerging Markets To Augment Revenues Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1339671 https://www.researchmoz.us/yachts-charter-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html/toc http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Yacht Charter Market To Attain A Value Of US$14.987 Bn By 2025: Savvy Players Shift Gaze To Emerging Markets To Augment Revenues" to its huge collection of research reports.Yachts are motor-driven or sail-driven vessels that are used for primarily for recreational purposes. Yachts available for chartering can be privately owned or can be owned by the companies that lend yachts for chartering. Generally, yachts are big enough to contain a cabin. They can be multihulled or monohulled vessels. Yacht charter is basically renting a yacht for recreation. Yacht owners usually charter their yachts when these are not being used by them. There is a basic difference between a boat and a yacht, the length and expense of the vessels. However, the primary difference is that a boat is essentially a watercraft used for residential, commercial, or recreational purposes whereas a yacht is only associated with recreation and luxury.This report on the global yacht charter market highpoints the present scenario of the market coupled with expected growth of the global yacht charter market during the forecast period. Various social, political, technological and economic factors have been analyzed which are likely to impact the demand of yacht charter in the coming years. An exhaustive study of the market dynamics i.e. global market drivers, restraints and opportunities has been included under the purview of the report.Global Yacht Charter Market: SegmentationThe global yacht charter market has been segmented on the basis of yacht type into sailing yachts, motor yachts and catamarans yachts. These types are further divided into classic yachts, open yachts and others. Sailing yacht accounted for a maximum share in the global yacht charter market. However, motor yachts are likely to grow at a significant pace owing to many reasons including high occupancy space, ease of use, and availability. On the other hand, open yachts are likely to increase their market share in the coming years.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Yacht Charter Market: Drivers and TrendsTravelling has become one of the key trends in the recent times. Consumers looking for holidaying nowadays choose their destinations very wisely. As the number of destinations for yacht chartering is increasing at a steady pace, so is the demand for yacht chartering. As consumer preference towards yacht chartering is rising, there is an increasing popularity of charter destinations especially among the young population. Moreover, the growing inclination of corporate consumers for yacht chartering is also on the rise. As businesses and corporate houses look for destinations that are serene and peaceful, yet happening, therefore, they prefer yacht chartering for spending their vacations.Additionally, owing to a shift in lifestyle, sailing destinations have also been observed to break off from the traditional Caribbean and Mediterranean waters to less familiar destinations of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Antarctic. Thus, growing inclination of consumers to explore new destinations and rising number of destinations globally is likely to consequently increase the number of yachts available for charter, thereby boosting the overall yacht charter market.Global Yacht Charter Market: Competitive AnalysisAdditionally, the key players that are operating the yacht charter market have been thoroughly profiled and the competitive landscape is comprehensive of these companies recent developments associated to yacht charters and the divergent business strategies followed by them. To analyze their market positioning further, SWOT analysis for each of the players has been provided. Furthermore, the report includes market attractiveness analysis of the segmentation, by yacht size, for offering a deep insight into the major yacht size that is governing the global yacht charter market.Browse TOC @Some of the major players operating in the global yacht charter market include Yachtico, Inc. (U.S.), Zizooboats GmbH (Germany), Boat International Media Ltd.(U.K.) and Charterworld Limited (U.K.). Other players operating in the global market are Burgess (U.K.), Incrediblue Limited (U.K.), Boatbound Inc. (U.S.), Martello Yachting and Company (China), Northrop & Johnson (U.S.), Fairline Yachts Ltd. (U.K.), SuperYacht Logistics (Japan), Fraser Yachts (U.S.) and West Coast Marine Yacht Services Pvt. Ltd. (India) among others.The global yacht charter market has been segmented into:Yacht Charter Market, by Yacht TypeSailing YachtsClassic YachtsOpen YachtsOthersMotor YachtsClassic YachtsOpen YachtsOthersCatamaran YachtsClassic YachtsOpen YachtsOthersYacht Charter Market, by Yacht SizeSmallMediumLargeYacht Charter Market, by Consumer TypeCorporateRetailOthersYacht Charter Market, by Geography: The market is broadly segmented on the basis of geography into:North AmericaU.S.Rest of North AmericaEuropeU.K.CroatiaGreeceFranceSpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanThailandAbout 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 Hcs Software And Services Market Is Predicted To Reach A Revenue Valuation Of Approximately US$1.1 Bn By The End Of 2022 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1339672 https://www.researchmoz.us/hcs-software-and-services-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2022-report.html/toc http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Hcs Software And Services Market Is Predicted To Reach A Revenue Valuation Of Approximately US$1.1 Bn By The End Of 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.The global high content screening (HCS) software and services market is envisioned to harvest large growth opportunities in the near future with the elevating demand for cell-based imaging alongside a high focus on complex morphological, cell structure, and cell aggregation analysis. The snowballing need to formulate new drug molecules and technological developments such as automated screening systems for cell stability and separation analysis could bring in ample of new prospects in the market.Buyers of this report are prognosticated to receive a competent help in devising aggressive strategies for a reliable growth in the global HCS software and services market. Important aspects of the market such as competitive landscape, trends and opportunities, growth drivers and restraints, projected scores, and segmentation are elaborately shed light upon in the report.Global HCS Software and Services Market: DynamicsThe world HCS software and services market is prophesied to gain a strong momentum from technological advancements and budding application areas such as stem cell biology. The healthy adoption of the HCS technology in high-throughput screening (HTS) laboratories could spur the expansion of the market. Companies could expect growth in the market with the rise in venture capital investments.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @However, high instrumentation costs are envisaged to hamper the adoption of HCS software and services. Nevertheless, factors such as the advent of novel image analysis instruments and hefty demand for effective purification protocols and advanced screening systems could bode well for the HCS software and services market. Moreover, there could be favorable prospects birthing on the back of the development of sophisticated informatics solutions and demand for cutting-edge cell analysis technologies. The rising government support to perform cell-based researches is also projected to open up new avenues in the market.Global HCS Software and Services Market: SegmentationAccording to the analysis of the publication, the international HCS software and services market could be segmented into HCS services and HCS software by product. As marked by the analysts, HCS services are anticipated to take control of a gigantic share in the market by the end of 2022. This market could rise at a 6.6% CAGR between 2017 and 2022.By industry, bio, educational institutions, government organizations, independent contract research organizations (CROs), and pharmaceutical and healthcare are predicted to be key classifications of the international HCS software and services market.Browse TOC @By application, the international HCS software and services market could be segregated into compound profiling, primary and secondary screening, target identification and validation, and toxicity studies.By region, North America, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific except Japan (APEJ) and Japan could offer crucial opportunities in the international HCS software and services market.Global HCS Software and Services Market: CompetitionSome of the important players of the worldwide HCS software and services market are expected to be Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., General Electric Company, Becton, Dickinson & Company, PerkinElmer, Inc., Olympus Corporation, Merck & Co., Inc., Danaher Corporation, Thorlabs, Inc., Sysmex Corporation, and Yokogawa Electric Corporation.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @ Global Hospital Lights Market To Be Valued At A US$10.0 Bn By 2022: Sturdy Growth with Snowballing Emphasis on Patient-oriented Services Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1339673 https://www.researchmoz.us/hospital-lights-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2022-report.html/toc http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Hospital Lights Market To Be Valued At A US$10.0 Bn By 2022: Sturdy Growth with Snowballing Emphasis on Patient-oriented Services" to its huge collection of research reports.The global hospital lights market is predicted to rake in a growing demand due to several benefits over traditional lighting solutions such as longer durability and lifespan and energy efficiency. Hospital lighting systems are prophesied to outclass the built-in restrictions of conventional lighting solutions. The LED technology experiencing a price reduction could elevate its demand in different applications of hospital lights. However, troffers are projected to testify a rapid growth in demand on account of their high efficiency, energy consumption reduction, no requirement of ceiling alterations, superior color quality, and wide range of applications.The report provides a deep insight into some of the crucial aspects of the global hospital lights market while offering a vital analysis on its critical segments, growth patterns, competitive landscape, and factors affecting its growth. Buyers of the report are foretold to be equipped with a competitive tool to outstrip their competitors in the market.Global Hospital Lights Market: DynamicsThe world hospital lights market is envisioned to bank on the rising investments in healthcare organizations initiated by the governments of various nations around the globe. The growth of the market could be driven by significant capital funding by emerging countries to facilitate surgical suites for emergency cases. While this could hold true for the market, troffers hospital lights receiving hefty investments are anticipated to boost the demand in the market. For instance, the government and private healthcare industry players in India are making weighty investments for bettering the lighting systems in smart healthcare organizations and hospitals.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Even developed regions such as Europe are experiencing a surging penetration of advanced lighting solutions in the hospital lights market. Healthcare institutes in Europe are raising the demand for lighting solutions that could reduce the operating cost and energy consumption to a 60.0%.Global Hospital Lights Market: SegmentationThe international hospital lights market is prognosticated to be segmented into three important segments, viz. troffers, surface-mounted lights, and surgical lamps, according to type of product. As per segmentation by technique, the market could be divided into fluorescent, light-emitting diode (LED), and halogen hospital lights. By point of use, there could be segments such as patient wards and intensive care units (ICUs), operating rooms, and examination rooms. Geographically, the market is envisaged to be classified into North America, Latin America, Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific except Japan (APEJ), and the Middle East and Africa (MEA).Browse TOC @Among the higher revenue earning markets for hospital lights could be troffers expected to accumulate a US$3.9 bn by 2022 end and North America which could grow at a 6.2% CAGR during the forecast timeframe 20172022.Global Hospital Lights Market: CompetitionThe report analyzes key industry players for the worldwide hospital lights markets. Companies such as Acuity Brands, Inc., Cree, Inc., Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, Eaton Corp. Plc, General Electric Co., Herbert Waldmann GmbH & Co. Kg, Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc., Hubbell, Inc., KLS Martin GmbH + Co. KG, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Zumtobel Group AG, and Trilux GmbH & Co. Kg could make a mark in the market.About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @ Global Rail Wheels Market 2018 - NSSMC, Semco, Arrium, Kolowag Global Rail Wheels Market https://goo.gl/9EqP8v https://goo.gl/Xq9FC7 www.apexmarketreports.com The statistical surveying information incorporated into the Rail Wheels report is the aftereffect of significant essential and optional research exercises. The report fragments the global Rail Wheels 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 Rail Wheels advertise covering key factors, for example, drivers and restrictions affecting the development.Get the sample report :Top manufacturers of Rail Wheels Market Report :NSSMCInterpipeEVRAZ NTMKVyksa Steel Works (VSW)Bochumer Verein Verkehrstechnik (BVV)Lucchini RSRail Wheel FactoryGHH-BonatransMinistry of SteelAmsted RailSemcoArriumKolowagMWL Brasil Rodas & Eixos Ltda.MasteelTaiyuan Heavy IndustryDatong ABC Castings CompanyXinyang Tonghe wheelsZhibo Lucchini Railway EquipmentJinxi AxleThe Global Rail Wheels 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 Rail Wheels Market report :The Rail Wheels 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 Rail Wheels advertise information, catching industry member's bits of knowledge and perceiving business openings. The write about the Global Rail Wheels 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 - Dont get lost in the panel jungle How to choose the right monitor www.mmd-p.com Employees and IT decision-makers spend a lot of hours in front of their monitors each day. Kevin Yang, Technical Product Manager Europe at MMD explains what you should know about panels when you pick your new monitor.Q: What are the most important features and benefits of IPS and VA panels?We believe that the various panel types have been somewhat stereotyped over the years. IPS as well as VA panels have been in the market for almost 20 years, and the original versions of those panels had a bad name in certain aspects. Compared to LCD TN panels, IPS once had the reputation of suffering from slow response times, blurring, and ghosting, but that is no longer the case. Modern IPS panels are much improved, with reasonable response times for example, and suit many different application purposes. The same applies to VA panels, which have always been famous for having a better contrast ratio than IPS and TN. On the downside VA panels were said to have poor response time and to lack colour accuracy, in comparison to IPS. However, todays monitors no longer have these problems; we have VA panels with fast response times and even Quantum Dot technology that allows a better colour quality than IPS.Q: What kind of panel is best suited for graphic designers or video makers?Colour accuracy is very important to graphic designers, which is why IPS panels are recommended for this group. We would say this is also the case for video makers, except they need excellent resolution as well, since higher resolution monitors make it easier to edit video. For example, rather than having two monitors next to each other, one for the video and one for the control panels, they should go for minimum 34-inch 21:9 monitors that allow both on one screen, which is a real benefit.Q: How about companies looking to increase employee productivity?It mostly depends on what kind of work employees are going carry out on the monitor, but generally speaking it is better to have a panel with a flicker-free backlight or a low blue light functionality. This avoids headaches after long hours spent in front of the screen and reduces shortwave blue light rays, which are potentially harmful to the eyes. If the user has a multi-screen setup, borderless panels are the best choice because they enable a better integration of the screens.Q: And what should home users look for?For general home use, a regular monitor with Full HD for web browsing is more than enough, but casual gamers might want a large-screen monitor on which they can play console games and watch videos.Q: Which refresh rate should a typical home or office user look for?60 Hz is currently the top choice for these users only dedicated hardcore gamers would benefit from 144 Hz panels. In fact, over the next year we are going to launch super high-resolution monitors, even 8K, with the very best colour quality, HDR technology, and yet they are still at 60 Hz because there is just no need to go beyond that. Right now, there are no movies or multimedia content that can benefit from a faster refresh rate than 60 Hz; it is really just for hardcore gaming.About MMDMMD is a wholly owned company of TPV established in 2009 through a brand license agreement with Philips. MMD exclusively markets and sells Philips branded LCD displays worldwide. By combining the Philips brand promise with TPVs manufacturing expertise in displays, MMD uses a fast and focused approach to bringing innovative products to market. MMD serves the Western European markets from its headquarters in Amsterdam. The Eastern European and CIS markets are served by a local office in Prague. Through its network of local sales teams MMD works with all major IT distributors and resellers. The companys design and development centre is located in Taiwan.Press contact:united communications GmbHElena StrzelczykRotherstr. 1910245 BerlinTel.: +49 30 7890760Philips.Displays@united.deCompany contact Europe:MMDXeni BairaktariPrins Bernhardplein 200, 6th floor1097 JB AmsterdamTel: + 31 20 5046945xeni.bairaktari@tpv-tech.com Telecom API Market : Projected to Grow Steadily During 2017 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2093 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2093 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2093 Global Telecom API Market: OverviewApplication programming interface (API) materializes the possibility of independently developing applications and services on a device, while functioning as a middleware between the application and device resources. Apart from creating mobile apps, APIs can enviably benefit the telecom industry in various ways. Humbug analytics API, StreamWIDE call screening API, offline geolocation, and Recharge My API are some of the popular instances of public APIs. Telecom APIs can improve workflows, automate the delivery of common transactions and data, and streamline communications over a period of time.Global Telecom API Market: Key TrendsExpected to rise at a commanding CAGR, the world telecom API market could heighten demand on the back of the monetization of services pertinent to telecom operation and excelling user experience for telecom API. The increment in the adoption of machine-to-machine (M2M) equipment and towering demand for forward-looking telecom services utilizing the Internet are anticipated to shepherd the growth of the world market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @There are a few factors that could arrest the growth of the global telecom API market, such as certain government regulations and policies laid down for the telecommunications sector and commercial gap between developer needs and carrier products or offerings. However, the market holds the potential to offer opportunities on almost every parameter, viz. user and type.The partner developer segment by user type is predicted to elevate at a higher rate while riding on the accessibility it provides to solution developers for various APIs. These APIs can be employed to develop different applications and their extensions to formulate and develop more sophisticated solutions for customers. With the enhancement of mobile app developer experience, the telecom API market for SMS, MMS, and rich communication service (RCS) could gain an impressive traction. The magnifying trend of offering more contextual experience to clients using mobile devices is foretold to help the location API market grow to a telling level.Request TOC of the Report @Global Telecom API Market: Market PotentialOf late, there have been a number of partnership activities being implemented to achieve benefits on both sides of an agreement. For instance, the launch of Nexmo API extension by Vonage for Zohos customer relationship management (CRM) platform is considered to offer streamlined contextual customer connections with the help of seamless SMS and voice messaging. Vonage, on the other hand, could benefit commercially from the integration with Zoho CRM by keeping businesses connected with robust cloud communications solutions. This partnership is prophesied to set the tone for businesses in the way they communicate with customers and the way customers reach them.Global Telecom API Market: Regional OutlookAlthough the international telecom API market could span its growth across different regions, including Europe and Rest of the World, Asia Pacific is foreseen to showcase a higher growth rate during the course of the forecast period. For 2016, North America was projected to secure a larger share in the international market. Stakeholders in the Asia Pacific market could be handsomely advantaged with ballooning innovative technological developments. A widespread adoption of API technologies is foreseen to be witnessed by Asia Pacific on account of the augmenting usage of mobile applications and smartphones.Request Discount of the Report @Global Telecom API Market: Competitive LandscapeWith a view to attain a tangible growth in the global telecom API market, players are prognosticated to rely on specific strategies, including new product development, mergers and acquisitions, agreements, and partnerships. Companies such as Telefonica, AT&T, Inc., Alcatel-Lucent, Twilio, Inc., and Vodafone Group PLC could be recognized among the leading players in the market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Telecom Power System Market will Observe Substantial Growth by 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2096 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2096 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2096 Telecom Power System Market: OverviewPower systems used in the telecommunications sector in installations to control, monitor, and measure the power flow across networks are referred to as telecom power systems. These systems are built by combining smaller systems such as distributors, converters, backup systems, and controllers.The global market for telecom power systems is slated to register strong growth over the course of the forecast period, driven by the rising penetration of telecom towers not just in high-density metropolitan areas but even off-grid and rural areas.Telecom Power System Market: Key TrendsOne of the factors responsible for the growth of the global telecom power systems market is the ongoing deployment of small cell power systems for long-term evolution (LTE) networks. Owing to an exponential rise in mobile data traffic, telecom operators are forced to expand their coverage area through wireless networks in urban as well as rural areas.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Another factor driving the uptake of telecom power systems is the rising adoption of hybrid systems. This can be attributed to the benefits of cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency presented by hybrid power systems. The growing shift toward renewable energy sources is a trend that is sure to have a big impact on the telecom power systems market. On the flip side, though, environmental concerns arising from the high usage of diesel for powering telecom infrastructure is likely to present a major challenge to those in the market.Telecom Power System Market: Market PotentialHuawei has earned a name for itself for itself based on its line of trailblazing DC power products, which have enabled users save maintenance as well as overhead costs. Known to transform the telecom energy sector, the company has been building green and intelligent energy networks in the telecom industry, thereby giving the telecom power systems market a major boost.Request TOC of the Report @Huaweis product portfolio caters to the needs of end users from wide-ranging and diverse environments. In October 2016, the China-based multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company was awarded the contract of building a modular data center campus for the Dubai International Airport. The facilities provided by Huawei through the data center are codenamed DBX and will be used to host the private cloud of the airport.Telecom Power System Market: Regional OutlookFrom a geographical standpoint, Asia Pacific accounts for a major share in the global telecom power systems market. This can be attributed to increasing penetration of global telecom companies in a number of developing nations in the region. Expanding mobile networks, especially 3G and LTE networks, have also contributed toward the growth of the APAC telecom power systems market.North America is also a key region when it comes to the telecom power systems market. The telecommunication sector here requires cost-effective and increasingly reliable power supply. The competition in this market is immensely high, despite the vendor landscape being quite fragmented. The telecom power systems market in North America is characterized by the presence of global, regional, and domestic vendors, which adds to the overall competition.Request Discount of the Report @Companies mentioned in the reportSchneider Electric, Ascot Industrial S.R.L., Huawei Technologies Co., Myers Power Products, Inc., Eaton, Cummins Power, GE Industrial Solutions, Vertiv Co. (formerly Emerson Network Power), Delta Electronics, and Unipower are some of the prominent players in the global telecom power systems market.Considering that emerging countries have been presenting incredible growth within the telecom sector, it is no wonder that an increasing number of telcos have been setting up shop in a number of APAC nations. Firms have also been focusing offering telecom power systems with improved features, services, products, functionalities, and quality. The global market is primarily dominated by established players and this proved to be rather challenging for new entrants.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 Energy Storage Market for Satellites Expected To Reach At A CAGR Of 5.04% During The Period 2017 - 2021 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1476165 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-energy-storage-market-for-satellites-2017-2021-report.html/toc http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Energy Storage Market for Satellites Expected To Reach At A CAGR Of 5.04% During The Period 2017 - 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.Energy storage is crucial to proper functioning of satellites and a major requirement in the global satellite industry. In a satellite, energy storage equipment is incorporated with solar PV panels to store energy harnessed by solar panels directly. However, harnessing and storing solar energy is applicable only when batteries are used. Fuel cells and other energy storage technologies are based on chemical reactions; therefore, they do not require solar panels for recharging.Technavios analysts forecast the global energy storage market for satellites to grow at a CAGR of 5.04% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global energy storage market for satellites for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the energy storage market for satellites.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Global Energy Storage Market for Satellites 2017-2021 , has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Key vendorsEaglePicher TechnologiesEnerSysGS Yuasa Lithium PowerMitsubishi ElectricSaftOther prominent vendorsFastCap SystemsMarket driverDeclining Li-ion battery pricesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeWidening supply-demand gap for lithiumFor a full, detailed list, view our reportBrowse TOC @Market trendDevelopment of microsatellites and next-generation batteriesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?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 @ TWIN FALLS As many as 120 minimum-security state prisoners could soon find themselves living and working in the Magic Valley. The Idaho Department of Correction is interested in reopening a community reentry center in the Twin Falls area, much like the one that closed in 2011, IDOC director Henry Atencio confirmed Tuesday. The proposal has the support of Gov. Butch Otter, who recommended funding for the center in his fiscal year 2019 budget. Its thought that the proposed center, which would allow low-risk, low-security inmates to live and work in the community in the months leading up to their release, could help reduce recidivism rates and alleviate the states prison overcrowding problem. The new center would offer roughly the same programming and opportunities as the Twin Falls Community Work Center, which closed after 19 years of operation due to a decreasing demand for work center beds in the state, according to Atencio. The old center employed 13 people at the time of its closure; the new center would likely have between 12 and 15 employees. The main difference between the two is the building itself: the South Washington St. location of the Twin Falls Community Work Center was leased by the state. However, IDOC hopes to either buy or build any new center in Twin Falls, Atencio said. The governor has requested that $9,114,200 be transferred to the Permanent Building Fund to do so. The state of Idaho currently has four reentry centers: two in the Boise area, and one each in Idaho Falls and Nampa. While the centers offer various rehabilitation programs and other means of support, their main draw is the chance for inmates to work in the outside world as they prepare for release a valuable networking opportunity for incarcerated people, who often struggle to find employment after leaving prison. If youre facilitating contacts with prospective employers, that can be very helpful, said Nancy La Vigne, director of the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute. A job is an important part of successful reintegration. An outside job also typically pays higher wages than a job in prison, providing inmates with money that can go toward things like restitution and child support. Theyre going to make more money in a work center than they will in a job behind a prison fence, Atencio said. Its just a great opportunity to really set up an inmate for a better transition back into our communities. Twin Falls Sheriff Tom Carter says he would welcome another reentry center to the area, as his department rarely received calls regarding trouble at the old center. I think when inmates get to a position that they land in a work center, they very seldom cause problems, Carter said. It gives us somewhat of a heads up on who is coming back into the community. Another expected benefit of the proposed center: its potential to alleviate severe overcrowding in state prisons. The new center in Twin Falls would likely have about 120 beds, according to Atencio. Carter is hopeful that the alleviation effect could trickle down to the Twin Falls County Jail, which has regularly surpassed its capacity in recent months. A lot of the inmates we have are state inmates, and thats because they dont have a bed to put them in, Carter said. This could help some. While the addition of 120 new beds in the state could provide some immediate relief to the prison system, the more significant effects of adding a fifth reentry center would likely be felt down the road. One of the reason why states are flocking toward the use of specifically designed reentry centers is if we can help offenders address the impediments to reentry, then the recidivism rates are a lot lower, said Shaun Gann, assistant professor of criminal justice at Boise State University. If they are able to successfully reintegrate back into the community, then 5, 6, 10 years down the road we can potentially start seeing less and less incarceration, simply because we have fewer repeat offenders going to prison, he said. La Vigne of the Urban Institute acknowledges that reentry centers can provide inmates nearing release with useful tools for reintegration. But she questions whether dedicating more resources to help low-risk, minimum-security offenders is the most effective use of the states money. The research tells us that you should focus those resources on people who are at higher risk of recidivism and have greater needs for support, La Vigne said. For these inmates, she notes, theres no step down. Pear Stairs Offers New Staircase Accessories For Faster Fitting New stair connectors and end caps supplied by Pear Stairs www.pearstairs.co.uk Staircase manufacturer Pear Stairs is proud to announce a range of new accessories that can save valuable installation time for carpenters and joiners.Connecting handrails to stair balustrades has just become quicker and easier thanks to some brand new products from the Solution collection, specially designed for use with the popular Pear Stairs standard profile and low profile wooden handrails.First up is a shiny modern metal bracket that enables fitters to speedily fasten stair and landing handrails to the newel posts. There is no need for any complex carpentry work the installer only has to secure the bracket to one end of the handrail with the provided screws, place up against the newel post, mark the spot, drill, then fasten in place. The connectors come in a brushed nickel or chrome finish and are suitable for both stairs and landings.To complete the handrail, Pear Stairs can supply some elegant Solution end caps. Made from zinc alloy and finished in brushed nickel or chrome, they will add a stylish touch to the stairs as well as concealing any unsightly cut ends so expert DIY skills are not essential! The end caps have fixing holes underneath to aid fitting, and are supplied complete with screws. Available in two sizes, they are designed for use with the Pear Stairs standard profile and low profile handrails.Visitfor prices and further details.Pear Stairs is a staircase designer and manufacturer based in Mid Wales, but delivering to the whole of the UK. Founded in 1895, it is part of the Boys & Boden group of companies. As well as bespoke staircases, Pear Stairs also sells a wide range of stair parts, including balusters, handrails, newels, treads and risers, through its online shop.Pear StairsMill LaneWelshpoolPowysUKSY21 7BLTel: +44 (1983) 335511Email: webenquiries@pearstairs.co.ukManager: Jamie BockingPress contact: Vicky Fisher, email vickyfisher@boysandboden.co.uk Global Smart Grid Sensor Market Conservatively Projected To Garner US$ 1,447.3 Million in Revenues by 2025 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/smart-grid-sensor-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3962 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/smart-grid-sensor-market/toc The global energy sector is transitioning into intelligent, efficient network of power supply, and smart grids are actively replacing conventional power grids across the world. The demand for smart grid sensors grows in parallel with surging adoption of smart grid technology. In todays day and age, detection and monitoring operations have helped save potential losses worth millions of dollars. Therefore, smart grid sensors are also expected to gain surplus demand in tomorrows energy industry. Persistence Market Researchs latest report on the global market for smart grid sensors projects that the market, which is presently valued at a little over US$ 128 Mn, will soar at a stellar CAGR of 30.3% to bring in US$ 1,447.3 Mn in revenues by the end of 2025.Report overview @Key findings in the report exhibit that the global smart grid sensors market will have a steadfast growth during the assessment period, 2017-2025. In this period, the dynamic growth of the global smart grid sensor market will be impacted by several factors, among which following have an enduring influence:Extreme Weather Conditions: Severe climate and harsh environment is disrupting the operational efficiency of smart grids, compelling the deployment of thermal sensors that can detect temperature differences and adapt to drastic weather changes, particularly in the US.Electricity Thefts: Rising incidence of electricity thefts in developing & underdeveloped regions is driving the adoption of smart grids. In Latin American countries, power authorities are monitoring such malpractices with help of sensors that identify faux power glitches.Request Sample Report@Proliferation of IoT: Internet of Things (IoT) is influencing the sales of smart grid sensors but remuneratively. Presently, utilities companies in Europe are looking to leverage IoT to improve development and operation of smart grids by connecting unique devices, which will end up creating an intelligent & self-sustained energy ecosystem.Ineffectiveness of older power grids, increasing energy demands, and implementation of smart metering systems has also propelled the global demand for smart grid sensors. According to the report, titled Smart Grid Sensors Market: Global Industry Trend Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 20172025, rising concern regarding safety & security of smart grids, and high implementation costs of smart grid sensors is likely to impede the global markets growth, but to a certain extent.Download and View Report@Based on the region, Latin Americas smart grid sensors market is projected to exhibit a relatively high growth, registering a robust CAGR of 36.1%. The demand for voltage/temperature sensors, in particular, is projected to remain high throughout the forecast period. The report estimates that in 2016, more than 40% of global smart grid sensor revenues were accounted by sales of voltage/temperature sensors. In terms of application, smart energy metering is expected to dominate with more than 40% share, while revenues amassed from other applications such as lead management, energy storage and renewable energy will be registering a speedy growth at 38.1% CAGR. The report also profiles key participants in the global smart grid sensors market, which include ABB Ltd., Aclara Technologies LLC, General Electric Company, Honeywell International Inc., Eaton, Toshiba Corporation, Networked Energy Services Corporation, QinetiQ Group PLC, Torino Power Solutions Inc., Sentient Energy, Inc., ARTECHE, Siemens AG, Ingenu Inc., GIPRO GmbH, GRID20/20 Inc.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 Ceramic Polymer: Internal coating of pressure pipes for HOL BLANK still intact after 10 years of operation! HOL BLANK ? Water injection device for Bremen/Bremenhaven - Image rights: bremenports GmbH & Co. KG www.ceramic-polymer.de In 2007, the harbor company bremenports GmbH & Co. KG Department Engineering and Steel Hydraulics Constructions employed for the new built water injection device the coating CERAMIC-POLYMER SF/LF for the internal coating of pressure pipes. Resistances against the river water and heavy abrasion characterizes this coating product. This year in summer the ship was maintained; the coated pipes are still perfectly intact after 10 years of operation.The water injection device HOL BLANK is used in the whole harbor area of the river Weser in the cities Bremen and Bremerhaven.The ship moves upstream and pumps water in the soil of the shipping channel through special flushing tubes with nozzles. The loose segments are separated from the ground and carried away by the natural stream. Thus, the water depths which are required for the shipping traffic in the river and harbor area are accomplished.Via 2 rotary pumps the water is absorbed through suction tubes and conveyed by pressure pipes to the flushing tubes.The water contains a lot sludge and sand; this means enormous friction on the walls of the steel pipes. For such heavy mechanical load a coating with high abrasion resistance is essential.CERAMIC-POLYMER SF/LF provides furthermore a reliable stability against salt water and river water. Thereby, the coating is the optimum corrosion protection material for this kind of application.Technical DetailsProject: Water injection device, built 2007Size: Total length 40 m, total width 10 mPump capacity: 2 x 3,600 m3/h against 21,5 m WC (water column)Internal coating: Pressure pipes, 90 elbow pipesCoating product: CERAMIC-POLYMER SF/LFIn 2007, the solvent-free coating product was applied manually by brush in a thick layer. For larger pipes or surfaces the simple application by airless spraying is ideal with one coating layer comprehensive protection to corrosion and abrasion is achieved.Also at previous inspections the company bremenports GmbH & Co. KG was very satisfied with the condition of the coated pipelines. Even after 10 years of operation the pipes are still intact; just some slight repairs of the coating were necessary.Due to the excellent physical properties, CERAMIC-POLYMER SF/LF is perfectly suitable for all maritime applications. This coating passed several tests series e. g. ISO 20340 and satisfied our customers in versatile reference projects.The Ceramic Polymer GmbH produces high-quality, solvent-free protective coatings for different kinds of industries. Due to the integration of microscopic ceramic and other special particles, coating systems with outstanding physical properties such as excellent chemical resistances, high temperature stabilities and extreme abrasion resistances are generated.The Ceramic Polymer coatings are applied directly on the blasted substrate (e.g. steel, stainless steel, concrete) without the previous use of a primer. In this way extreme adhesion is achieved.The scopes of the Ceramic Polymer coatings are for instance all kinds of storage tanks, pipelines or process vessels for the oil & gas industry as well as different maritime constructions, waste water or drinking water applications.Ceramic Polymer GmbHStephanie WuenschDaimlerring 9DE-32289 Roedinghausen / Germany+49 (0)5223-96276-0swu@ceramic-polymer.de Digital Storage Oscilloscope Machine Sales Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2017 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1472347 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-digital-storage-oscilloscope-machine-sales-market-report-2017-report.html/toc http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Digital Storage Oscilloscope Machine Sales Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.Digital Storage Oscilloscope 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 Digital Storage Oscilloscope 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 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Market;3.) the North American Digital Storage Oscilloscope Market;4.) the European Digital Storage Oscilloscope Market;5.) market entry and investment feasibility;6.) the report conclusion.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of ContentsPart I Digital Storage Oscilloscope Industry OverviewChapter One Digital Storage Oscilloscope Industry Overview1.1 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Definition1.2 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Classification Analysis1.2.1 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Application Analysis1.3.1 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Product Market Development Overview1.6 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Global Market Analysis1.6.1 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Global Market Analysis1.6.5 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Global Market Development Trend AnalysisBrowse TOC @Chapter Two Digital Storage Oscilloscope 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 Analysis2.1.1 Down Stream Market Analysis2.2.2 Down Stream Demand 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 @ 3D Projectors Market Trends, Growth, Insights & Forecast to 2022 3D Projectors Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/883541-global-3d-projectors-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/request-discount/883541-global-3d-projectors-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/883541-global-3d-projectors-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/883541-global-3d-projectors-market-2 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=883541 HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on 3D Projectors market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global 3D Projectors 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 [Household Use, Educational Use, Business Use & Engineering Use], products type [DLP Projectors, LCD Projectors & Other] and various important geographies like North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global 3D Projectors 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 3D Projectors 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 3D Projectors Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global 3D Projectors Market, some of them listed here are Sony, Optoma, Epson, NEC, Panasonic, Acer, HITACHI, Sharp & Vivitek. 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.Check for discount @Global 3D Projectors (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as DLP Projectors, LCD Projectors & Other. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Household Use, Educational Use, Business Use & Engineering Use 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 3D Projectors in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global 3D Projectors market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of 3D Projectors, Applications of 3D Projectors, 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 3D Projectors, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India, 3D Projectors Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the 3D Projectors Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of 3D Projectors;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [DLP Projectors, LCD Projectors & Other], Market Trend by Application [Household Use, Educational Use, Business Use & Engineering Use];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global 3D Projectors;Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe 3D Projectors sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Enquire for customization in Report @What this Research Study Offers:Global 3D Projectors 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, NJ USA - 08837sales@htfmarketreport.comPh: +1 (206) 317 1218 Dysphagia Supplements Market Poised to Value US$ 1,534.1 Million https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/dysphagia-supplements-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/16675 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/dysphagia-supplements-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Nursing homes will remain preferred distribution channel in the global dysphagia supplements market, expanding at 7.5% CAGR through 2025. Hospitals and retail pharmacies will collectively account for revenues worth US$ 656.4 Mn by 2025-end, with hospitals being comparatively more lucrative than retail pharmacies.Powder thickener will continue to be sought-after among products, with sales poised to reach nearly US$ 700 Mn by 2025-end. Although sales of ready-to-drink thickened beverages will account for a relatively low revenue share of the market, they will register fastest expansion through 2025. In addition, instant foods are expected to be the second-most lucrative product in the market, expanding at 7.2% CAGR through 2025.Global dysphagia supplements market is projected to register a significant expansion at 7% CAGR through 2025, according to a report by Persistence Market Research (PMR). This growth will be driven partly by increasing number of stroke patients across the globe. The market will account for revenues worth nearly US$ 900 Mn in 2017; by 2025 this number is estimated to reach US$ 1,534.1 Mn.North America is projected to remain dominant in the global dysphagia supplements market, with sales estimated to surpass revenues worth US$ 500 Mn by 2025-end. Although Asia Pacific (APAC) is expected to be relatively less attractive in the market, sales of dysphagia supplements in this region is estimated to exhibit highest CAGR through 2025. In contrast, Middle East & Africa (MEA) is anticipated to register the lowest CAGR through 2025.According to the statistics of CDC, over 795,000 people are affected by strokes in the United States every year, with 50% of these stroke patients associated with swallowing disorders. In addition, National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders has estimated nearly 22% of the geriatric population of the U.S. to be suffering from dysphagia currently. Various government organizations and corporates in North America are actively conducting awareness programs for dysphagia treatment. Factors such as these are anticipated to drive growth of the global dysphagia supplements market in the region.Global Dysphagia Supplements Market Research Report Overview @The U.S. FDA warned about using xanthan gum-based thickeners (known as simply thick) for babies or infants with swallowing disorders. Simply thick, usually used in breast milk or infant formula to thicken the liquids, makes it easier for babies to swallow. However, 22 infants were affected with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) after being fed with simply thick, and 7 of them died. This is expected to impact growth of the dysphagia supplements market in North America.Asphyxiation is one of the major causes of deaths in Japan, which is closely related to dysphagia condition. In Japan, patients with dysphagia in general hospitals, rehabilitation centres and long-term care hospitals account for 13.8%, 31.6%, and 59% respectively, and these numbers are estimated to soar higher in the near future. In addition, there has been a rise in awareness of dysphagia treatment in countries including India and New Zealand over the past few years.Request Sample Report@The government of New Zealand, in collaboration with the University of Canterbury, has set an index to rate the ease of swallowing based on various parameters viz. oral, oral phalangeal, pharyngeal, crico-esophagial, and laryngeal. These factors are expected to fuel demand for dysphagia treatment in APAC. However, increasing preference of home remedies along with several other emerging alternatives such as acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines, are expected to impede growth of the market in this region.Key market players identified in PMRs report include Abbott, Kent Precision Foods Group, Inc., Nestle Health Science France, Nutri Co., Ltd., Danone S.A., Kissei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Kewpie Corporation, Clinico Co., Ltd., The Nisshin OilliO Group, Ltd., Saraya Co.,Ltd., Healthy Food Co., Ltd., Foricafoods corporation, Miyagen Inc., Kent Precision Foods Group, Inc., Hormel Foods, LLC, Nutra Balance Products, Flavor creations, Slo, Fresenius Kabi, SimplyThick.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: US Onychomycosis Market: Detailed Analysis Of Market Size And Growth, Market Share And Economic Impact Of The Industry Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1221346 https://www.researchmoz.us/the-us-onychomycosis-market-2017-edition-report.html/toc http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "US Onychomycosis Market: Detailed Analysis Of Market Size And Growth, Market Share And Economic Impact Of The Industry" to its huge collection of research reports.The report entitled The US Onychomycosis Market (2017 Edition), provides analysis of the US onychomycosis market, with detailed analysis of market size and growth, market share and economic impact of the industry. The analysis includes the market by value, by volume and by segments. The report also includes the detailed analysis of the segments of the onychomycosis market, comprising of market by value, by volume and by average prices.Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Inc., Novartis AG and Johnson & Johnson are some of the key players operating in the US onychomycosis market, whose company profiling has been done in the report. In this segment of the report, business overview, financial overview and business strategies of the companies are provided.Company CoverageValeant PahrmaceuticalsPfizer, Inc.Johnson and JohnsonNovartis AGTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Executive SummaryOnychomycosis is a condition of fungal nail infection. Onychomycosis begins in the nail bed and progresses to the nail plate, causing the nail to become discolored, deformed, and even separated from the nail bed. Onychomycosis has a significant chance of reoccurrence. Of all the nail abnormalities in the world, around 50% are the case of onychomycosis. In most of the cases it occurs in the toenails. Onychomycosis is not a life threatening disease but, may persist or worsen if not treated. Symptoms of onychomycosis are changes in appearance of the nail, interference with standing, walking, and exercising, pain, discomfort, etc. The causative pathogens of onychomycosis include dermatophytes (most common), Candida, and nondermatophytic molds.There are five types of Onychomycosis: Distal Subungual Onychomycosis, White superficial onychomycosis, Proximal subungual onychomycosis, Endonyx onychomycosis and Candidal onychomycosis. Two types of treatments are available of onychomycosis: Oral Treatment and Topical Treatment. Oral treatment includes: Terbinafine, Itraconazole, etc. and topical treatment includes Kerydin, Jublia, etc. Nonpharmacologic approaches are also there, which includes the following: Laser treatment, Photodynamic therapy, etc.Browse TOC @The US onychomycosis market (prescription drugs) has increased with a healthy growth rate over the years and is expected to increase further during the forecasted period. The US onychomycosis market is supported by various growth drivers, such as rising per capita healthcare expenditure, increasing diabetic patients, ageing population, introduction of new drugs, etc. Yet, the market faces certain challenges, such as, reimbursements, low awareness, side effects, etc.Table Of Content1. Executive Summary2. Introduction2.1 Onychomycosis: An Overview2.1.1 Signs and Symptoms2.1.2 Causes of Onychomycosis2.2 Types of Onychomycosis2.3 Treatment for Onychomycosis3. The US Market Analysis3.1 The US Onychomycosis Market by Prevalence3.1.1 The US Onychomycosis Market by Prevalence3.1.2 The US Onychomycosis Market Prevalence by SegmentsAbout 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 @ Wish And Sears Magento Integration Now Live On Magento Marketplace CedCommerce is excited to announce the release of Wish Magento Integration and Sears Magento Integration that are accomplished on Magento Marketplace which is accomplished with features that completely unify the marketplace with your Magento store that helps the store owners to grow their business and thus increase their sale.How are these marketplaces useful?WISH is the sixth largest e-commerce marketplace in the world. Wish is valued at between 3.5 and 5 billion dollars and currently, it is working with thousands of sellers and serving up millions of buyers across the world. It facilitates the sellers to generate more profits and thus make their business more intense and stronger.Whereas Sears is an American chain of online retail stores. Every month millions of visitors browse the Sears website to make a purchase for the required products. Apart from this Selling on Sears provides sellers with a reliable, secure and cost-effective way to grow their business quickly. Hence, it is a good platform for the sellers to achieve more profits through increasing your sale and as a result grow the business.Features and Specifications:With these extensions, the sellers can easily synchronize their Magento store with Sears or Wish marketplace and can upload products in bulk to the marketplace from your store. Orders of your products from the marketplace gets imported into your Magento store and any changes made in your store gets reflected in the marketplace.Pricing and Availability:Apart from CedCommerce website, these extensions are also available on Magento Marketplace for purchase. Price of the Wish Magento Integration is $499 and Sears Magento Integration is $499. And It is a one-time fee.Dedicated Support:Integration comes up with support for 3 months, Lifetime upgrades, Highly dedicated support through call and chat available round the clock. One time free installation and configuration.Apart from this, one of the highly experienced developers would be personally aligned with you so that if you would face any issue he is there to help you out.About CedCommerce:Established in 2010, CedCommerce is an Official Channel Partner of Walmart, Sears, Newegg, Tophatter, Fruugo and ManoMano and is the winner of Deloitte Fast 50 India. With 800+ products we have approximately 10,000+ satisfied customers across the globe. The company offers various products that make selling easier on e-commerce. Enriched with experience, the company had developed various popular Integrations that makes selling easier on various marketplace across the diverse platforms.Established in 2010, CedCommerce is an Official Channel Partner of Walmart, Sears, Newegg, Tophatter, Fruugo and ManoMano and is the winner of Deloitte Fast 50 India.CedCommerce Inc, 1812 N Columbia Blvd, Suite C15-653026, Portland, Oregon, 97217, USA Diameter Signaling Global Market Top Key Players Sonus Networks Inc. (U.S.), F5 Networks Inc. (U.S.), Diametriq LLC (U.S.), Ericsson AB (Sweden) and Forecast to 2022 Diameter Signaling Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1012436-global-diameter-signaling-market-trends-forecast-2016-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1012436-global-diameter-signaling-market-trends-forecast-2016-2022 www.wiseguyreports.com Global Diameter Signaling MarketDescriptionWiseGuyReports.Com adds Global Diameter Signaling Market - Trends Forecast 2016-2022 Research To Its Database.The global diameter signaling market is growing rapidly. Growth of LTE and 4G technology along with growth in the number of pocket internet users and smartphone users are some of the key drivers of the market. IOT is also one of the major contributors in the growth of this market. In 2016, the global diameter signaling market has been estimated to be been valued at USD 798.22 million, and is expected to be USD 8,057.00 by the end of 2022. A study shows that diameter signaling will reach 500 Million MPS by the end of the year 2020 due to the growth of M2M communication, autonomous vehicles, machine to infrastructure communication, VoLTE, VoiP and others. The rapid proliferation of technology leading to very high traffic on current network infrastructure has resulted into a need for more efficient protocols.5G is on the way and a few countries such as Japan and South Korea have already started the testing of this technology. 5G will bring many benefits such as high speed internet browsing, high speed content delivery, and efficient machine communication but it will have some negative impact on the current technological environment as most of the devices will become outdated, traffic will rise immensely and operators will have to try hard to route the traffic on their desired platform.Key PlayersThe Key Players in Diameter Signaling Market are Huawei Technology Co. Ltd. (China), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), Sonus Networks Inc. (U.S.), F5 Networks Inc. (U.S.), Diametriq LLC (U.S.), Ericsson AB (Sweden), Mitel Networks (Canada), Nokia Corporation (Finland), Dialogic Incorporation (U.S.), Sandvine Incorporated ULC (Canada) and others.Global Diameter Signaling Market - Trends & Forecast, 2016-2022 To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years for the various segments and sub-segments of the global Diameter Signaling market development and demand market Upcoming technologies, high growth geographies and countries were identified Regional and country specific demand and forecast for Diameter Signaling were studied Key segments covered and analyzed in the report are: type, application and region.Get sample Report @Target Audience Telecom companies Service providers Consultancy firms Internet Traffic control organization End users Network service providersKey Findings Diameter Signaling Market is expected to grow at compound annual growth rate of 47.01% from year 2016 to year 2022. Asia-Pacific will be dominating the market of diameter signaling throughout the forecast period. By Type, Diameter Routing Agent accounts for the largest market share of 62.88% in the global market, followed by Diameter Edge Agent which accounts for 16.47% of the total market share. By Application, Policy segment accounts for the largest market share of 66.01% in the global market, followed by VoLTE which accounts for 16.07% of the market share. Major Drivers of the market have been identified as growth of IP and the growth of LTE and VoLTE whereas the major market restraints are management of increasing network and roaming complexity.Regional and Country Analysis of Diameter Signaling MarketBy Region, Asia-Pacific is accounting for the highest market share, followed by North America and Europe. High adoption of 4G enabled smartphones and growing internet users in Asia-Pacific are the major factors driving the market of diameter signaling in Asia-Pacific. Currently, Asia-Pacific holds 64.99% of market share followed by North America, which has 22.08% of market share while Europe has emerged as the fastest growing segment.The reports also covers country level analysis: North Americao USo Canada Europeo Franceo Germanyo Italyo Spaino United Kingdomo Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Chinao Indiao Indonesiao Japano South Koreao Others Middle East & AfricaEnquiry About Report @Table of Contents -Major Key Points1 Report Prologue 82 Market Introduction 92.1 Introduction 92.2 Scope of the Study 92.2.1 Research Objective 92.2.2 Assumptions 102.2.3 Limitations 102.3 Market Structure 102.3.1 Global Diameter Signaling Market, By Type 102.3.2 Global Diameter Signaling Market: By Application 102.3.3 Global Diameter Signaling Market, By Region 103 Market Research Methodology 123.1 Research Process 123.2 Primary Research 123.3 Secondary Research 133.4 Forecast Model 133.4.1 Market Size Estimation 144 Market Dynamics 164.1 Introduction 164.2 Drivers 174.2.1 Growth of IP 174.2.2 Growth of LTE and VoLTE 184.3 Market Challenges 194.3.1 Management of Increasing Network 194.3.2 Roaming Complexity 204.4 Market Opportunities 204.4.1 Internet of Things 204.4.2 Growing Demand from APAC Market 204.5 Mega Trends 214.5.1 5G Technology 215 Market Factor Analysis 225.1 Value Chain Analysis 225.2 Porters Five Forces Analysis 235.2.1 Threat of New Entrants 245.2.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 245.2.3 Threat of Substitutes 255.2.4 Bargaining Power of Buyers 255.2.5 Rivalry 25..CONTINUEDAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, Industry 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.NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK) The Global Data Center Power Market will Grow Impressively at a CAGR of Almost 12.9% by 2021 https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1476368 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-data-center-power-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc https://www.researchmoz.us/global-data-center-power-market-2017-2021-report.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/ Albany, NY,12th January : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Global Data Center Power Market 2017-2021" globally.A data center is a centralized facility used for data computing, processing, and storage. A data center includes:High-performance serversNetworking equipmentStorage arraysSupporting services such as powering and cooling solutionsData centers are established by either large-scale enterprises or enterprises offering cloud-based services. With the evolution of cloud computing and increased use of big data analytics, the demand for data center for enterprise use has increased.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Technavios analysts forecast the global data center power market to grow at a CAGR of 12.9% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global data center power market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of data center power infrastructures, namely uninterruptible power supply (UPS), power distribution units (PDUs), energy storage infrastructure, transfer switches and switchgear, and generators.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEAView Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Technavio's report, Global Data Center Power Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsABBEatonGE Industrial SolutionsLegrandSchneider ElectricVertivOther prominent vendorsActive POWER (Langley Holdings)AEG Power SolutionsBlack Box Network ServiceCaterpillarControlled PowerCumminsCyber Power SystemsDelta ElectronicsGenerac Power SystemsGeistHP DevelopmentKEJIA AutomationRittalS&C ElectricSiemensTripp LiteMarket driverIncreased construction of green data centersFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeUPS battery failureFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendUse of DC power distribution for data centerFor a full, detailed list, view our reportBrowse Report @Key questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on : BURLEY The Bureau of Land Management Burley Field Office will hold an open house on Wednesday to update the public on proposed improvements and the conceptual plans for the Milner Historic Recreation Area. The open house will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Burley office, 15 E. 200 S. The office has immediate plans to install informational trailhead signs at the west and east sides of the National Historic Oregon Trail that crosses through the area. The trailhead signs will provide educational background information on the Oregon Trail and inform the public about future improvements to the area that are planned. Plans also include designing and installing a new boat ramp to improve Snake River access. The agency is requesting funding for the changes to the recreation area from the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. Part of the grant application includes seeing public comment related to the projects, which can be found on the BLM website. Comments may be given during the open house or sent to the BLM Burley office. Rhinometry Systems Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2017 - 2025 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1380620 https://www.researchmoz.us/rhinometry-systems-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html#table-of-content http://www.researchmoz.us/ http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Rhinometry Systems Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Rhinometry Systems MarketRhinometry can be defined as a diagnostic procedure that employs acoustic reflections to analyze and estimate the volume and cross-sectional area of the nasal cavity. The procedure is utilized to measure changes in the nasal airway in response to allergic provocation tests, nasal anatomical landmarks, or nasal septum deviation. In addition, it is used as a method to measure lower respiratory tract resistance. Acoustic rhinometry is considered one of the standard diagnostic tools used for the evaluation of nasal patency. It enables detection of narrow points in the nose that cause nasal airway blockage. Acoustic rhinometry enables the doctor to check for the impact of long-term medications used in the treatment of nasal blocks, which might be caused due to nasal polyps, rhinitis, or rhinosinusitis. It enables the measurement of the volume of nasal cavities, which helps in evaluation of reduction in the size of nasal polyp after medical treatment. Rhinomanometry is applied to measure the air pressure and the rate of airflow in the nasal pathway during respiration, which is then applied to estimate nasal airway resistance.Nasal airway blockage occurs primarily due to nasal septal deviation. The prevalence of septal deviation in general population is anticipated to be around 80%. Diagnostic tools such as rhinomanometry, rhinoresistometry, and acoustic rhinometry help otolaryngologists and ENT specialists in deciding whether a surgery be recommended for a patient for correction of nasal septal deviation. High prevalence of nasal septal deviation and technological advancements leading to development of combination devices (that combine acoustics rhinometry with rhinoresistometry, rhinomanometry, and long-term rhinometry) contribute to growth of the rhinometry systems market. In addition, the increasing number of advantages of rhinometry in terms of early diagnosis of nasal septal deviation and favorable reimbursements for rhinometer tests offered in various countries worldwide augment the market. However, shortage of skilled professionals and high cost of rhinometry systems are likely to hamper the market during the forecast period.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The global rhinometry systems market can be segmented by product type, end-user, and region. In terms of product type, the market can be segmented into rhinomanometry systems, rhinoresistometry systems, acoustic rhinometry systems, and combination systems. Among product types, the acoustic rhinometry systems segment dominated the market in 2016. The combination systems segment is anticipated to register a high CAGR during the forecast period, owing to capability of these systems to objectivize the extent of nasal obstruction and to differentiate causes of nasal obstruction such as pathological turbulence, pathological inspiratory nasal collapse, and narrowing of the nasal canal caused by swelling or skeletal deformation. Based on end-user, the market can be segmented into hospitals, clinics, ENT centers, and others.Geographically, the global rhinometry systems market can be segmented into five regions viz. North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. In terms of revenue, North America dominated the global market in 2016 and is anticipated to remain dominant during the forecast period as well. This growth can be attributed to well-established health care infrastructure, rising prevalence of septal deviation, and technological advancements in rhinometry systems in the region. In terms of revenue, Europe is anticipated to follow North America during the forecast period. However, sluggish growth of the market in the region can be attributed to sluggish recovery of the economy of Europe. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand at a significantly high CAGR during the forecast period. India and China are estimated to contribute to this growth. Growth of the market in these countries can be attributed to increase in the patient pool and focus on enhancing health care facilities by governments.Leading players operating in the global rhinometry systems market are Ecleris S.R.L., Homoth Medizinelektronik GmbH & Co. KG, Instrumentation DIFRA, GM Instruments Ltd., MEDI-CARE SOLUTIONS srl, MES Sp. z o.o., The Piston Ltd., Happersberger otopront GmbH, and Recorders & Medicare Systems Pvt. Ltd.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 @ Global Noninvasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) Market Expected to Spread US$ 1,447.2 Mn Value during 2016-2024 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11218 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/non-invasive-prenatal-testing-nipt-market/toc https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/non-invasive-prenatal-testing-nipt-market.asp Advancing the prenatal care services provided across the globe has become an uphill battle for medical practitioners and drugmakers. Fortunately, this struggle is being eased by active participation of parents from all around the world in protecting the health of their soon-to-be-born babies through prenatal disease detection methods. Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) procedures are, hence, being rapidly adopted, which is prompting healthcare service providers to increase their focus on such prenatal diagnosis & screening services. Persistence Market Research recently published its study on the global market for noninvasive prenatal testing, which projects the market to bring in US$ 1,447.2 Mn revenues by the end of 2024.At present, Persistence Market Research values the global noninvasive prenatal testing marketat just over US$ 665 Mn, and expects the market to incur revenue growth at an impressive 10.2% CAGR. According to the report, titled Noninvasive Prenatal Testing Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2016-2024, the global demand for noninvasive prenatal testing will keep surging on the account of rising innovations in prenatal screening products. Growing presence of ADHD disorders among young adults is also triggering the adoption of noninvasive prenatal testing. Moreover, the demand for noninvasive prenatal tests is expected to grow as a majority of young adults are being introduced to generic medications. Nevertheless, stringent usage regulations and records of drug abuse are expected to curb the growing adoption of noninvasive prenatal testing to some extent.Request Sample Report@Some of the prominent companies providing noninvasive prenatal testing in the world are identified as, Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc., BGI Diagnosis Co. Ltd., Berry Genomics Corporation, Illumina, Inc., LifeCodexx AG, Natera, Inc., Sequenom, Inc., Quest Diagnostic Incorporated, and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings. A majority of these companies are based in the US, which is why North America is projected to procure an average 60% of global NIPT revenues through 2024. The demand for noninvasive prenatal testing will also be more in Asia-Pacific, and the regions NIPT market is looking at an opportune US$ 18 Mn increment in 2017 over 2016. Europes noninvasive prenatal testing revenues, on the other hand, will also grow aggressively registering a 10% CAGR during the forecast period.The report reveals that a considerable share of global NIPT revenues will be derived from higher preference to panel 1 test type. Adoption of panel 1 noninvasive prenatal testing has been projected to rise, bringing in over US$ 850 Mn revenues by the end of 2024. On the hand, global revenues from panel 2 tests are anticipated to soar at a healthy CAGR of 9.7%.Correspondingly, hospitals will remain the largest end-users of noninvasive prenatal testing throughout the forecast period. In the due course of this period, hospitals will not only account for half of global NIPT market value, but will also exhibit revenue growth at highest CAGR of 11.1%.Request Report for TOC @Global Noninvasive Prenatal Testing Market Key TrendsImpact of changing lifestyles: Urban livelihood and rising per capita income of individuals has propelled the occurrence of high-risk pregnancies. Unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking and working around the clock has given rise to complications in maternal and neonatal outcomes.Advanced maternal age: Occurrence of women in their late 30s giving birth for the first time has increased. To avoid birth defects and consider the advanced age of mother, doctors are also promoting the adoption of noninvasive prenatal screening.Classification as LDT: More healthcare & pharmaceutical companies are entering the global NIPT market as these tests have been tagged as lab-developed tests by the FDA.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 Gourmet Salts Market Conservatively Projected To Garner US$ 2.19 Bn by 2025 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/gourmet-salts-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2807 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/gourmet-salts-market/toc https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/2807 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com According to the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research, titled Global market Study on Gourmet Salts: Western Europe to Witness Highest Growth By 2025, the gourmet salts market is estimated to be valued at US$ 1,121.5 Mn by the end of 2015 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2015 to 2025, to account for US$ 2,194.8 Mn by 2025.Gourmet salts are untreated, naturally harvested salts (generally sea salts) with low sodium content and no additives. These salts are used to add profligacy, flavor and dressing to the food product. Gourmet salts have the better solubility, exotic flavor, moisture and superior mineral content. Gourmet salts are gaining popularity because of increasing demand for gourmet foods.Gourmet Salts Market Research Report Overview @Currently, the gourmet salts market across the world is mainly driven by factors such as increasing health consciousness among consumers, product promotions through live cooking shows and the introduction of innovative products. However, factors such as high costs, low adoption of natural salts and limited product availability are expected to restrain the growth of the market. The global gourmet slats market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.9 % from 2015 to 2025, to account for US$ 2,194.8 Mn by 2025.Request to Sample of Report @On the basis of product type, the gourmet salts market has been segmented into coarse salt, flake salts, fleur de sel, sel gris, Indian pink salt, Italian salts, smoked salts and others. The fleur de sel segment is expected to account for 20.0% share of the global gourmet salts market by 2015 end and is expected to register a moderate CAGR of 7.5% in terms of value over the forecast period (20152025). In terms of volume, the segment is expected to record a CAGR of 7.3% during the forecast period. Coarse salts segment is expected to account for 18.7% share and is expected to register a CAGR of 7.7% in terms of value and 6.8% in terms of volume over the forecast period.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @On the basis of application, the gourmet salts market is segmented into bakery and confectionery, meat and poultry, seafood, sauces and savory, and desserts and frozen food; among these, meat and poultry segment is expected to account for 30.2% share of the global gourmet salts market by 2015 end. The segment is expected to expand at CAGRs of 7.5% and 6.9% in terms of value and volume respectively during the forecast period. Increasing adoption of gourmet recipes at household levels is expected to drive the market growth during the forecast period.The report provides detailed information about various trends driving each segment and offers analysis and insights about the potential of the gourmet salts market in specific regions. On the basis of region, the gourmet salts market is segmented into seven regions; among these, Western Europe is expected to dominate the market with 32.0% share by the end of 2015. In terms of value, the market in the region is expected to register the highest CAGR of 7.3% over the forecast and is projected to remain dominant by 2025. However, in terms of volume, the North America market is expected to register the highest CAGR of 7.2% over the forecast period.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: New Research Report Explore Freight Trucking Market Expected to Represent a Value of US$ 6,252.81 bn by 2025 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/4207 https://www.mrrse.com/freight-trucking-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/4207 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ This research report offers a comprehensive analysis of the Freight Trucking Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025The 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 @Global Freight Trucking Market: SnapshotFreight trucks are used to carry goods such as dry bulk, oil and gas, postal, chemicals and others from one place to another. A proper functioning in the freight transportation system is an important element in a successful economy. Rising volume of transportation of goods over the years is triggering the growth rate of freight trucking market. Growing urbanization and rise in trade volume has resulted in increase in transport volumes. The speedy growth in the internet retailing market across the globe is driving the growth of the freight trucking market. Rising popularity of online shopping over the years is acting as one of the major drivers of the freight trucking market across the globe. Increase in online shopping is mainly due to rising access to the internet facilities among the consumers. Rise in convenience and easy access related to home delivery services are supporting the market currently. Additionally, technological advancements is helping the growth of the freight trucking market. Asia Pacific dominated the global freight trucking market in 2016 owing to the rising industrialization and population over the years.Market Likely to Witness Fastest Growth in Refrigerated Truck Segment Based on Truck TypeThe global freight trucking market has been segmented on the basis of type, size, end user, distance and cargo type. By different truck type the global freight trucking market has been segmented into lorry tank, truck trailer, refrigerated truck and flatbed truck and others. Refrigerated truck showed the fastest growth rate during the forecast period owing to the rising volume of transport of perishable commodities over the years. On the basis of size the global market has been segmented into heavy trucks, medium trucks, light trucks and others. By distance the market has been segmented into less than fifty miles, fifty one to hundred miles, hundred one to two hundred miles, two hundred miles to five hundred miles and above five hundred miles. On the basis of cargo type, the market has been segmented into dry bulk goods, oil and diesel, postal and others. The market has been further segmented on the basis of end user such as oil and gas, industrial and manufacturing, energy and mining, chemicals, pharmaceutical and healthcare and food and beverages.Browse Full Report with TOC @Rising Demand Likely from Asia Pacific and North AmericaOn the basis of geography the global freight trucking market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South America. The revenue of the global Freight Trucking market was estimated at US$ 3,844.76 billion in 2016 which is projected to expand at a CAGR 5.6% percent during the forecast period (2017 to 2025) and is expected to reach US$ 6,252.81 billion by 2025. Asia Pacific region which comprises of China, India, and Japan was the largest revenue contributor to the global freight trucking market in 2016. North America accounted for the second largest market share in the global Freight Trucking market in the same year.The freight trucking market consists of a large number of public and private players. The freight trucking market industry players focus to develop new products to satisfy the changing consumer preferences. Rise in advancements in technology, and strategic acquisitions are the key competitive strategies adopted by the top players in the Freight Trucking market. Cargo Carriers (Johannesburg, Gauteng), United Parcel Service Inc. (Georgia, United States), FedEx Corporation (Tennessee, United States), Ceva Holdings LLC, (London, United Kingdom), Tuma Transport (Johannesburg, South Africa), Swift Transportation (Harare, Zimbabwe), Interlogix Privated Limited (Durban), Kuehne+Nagal Incorporated, (Bremen, Germany), Transtech Logistic (Johannesburg, South Africa), Procet Freight (South Africa),Concargo Private Limited (South Africa), Werner Enterprise (Omaha, Nebraska) among others are the key companies profiled in the research report. The report also offers competitive landscape of the key players in the Freight Trucking 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: Global Sterilization Validation Service Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 : STERIS, Noxilizer QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1395327&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1395327&type=D Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Sterilization Validation Service Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.QYResearchReports.com has added a new report covering the global Sterilization Validation Service market to its vast database. The research report studies the global Sterilization Validation Service market to analyze the factors impacting it. The report has been divided into several chapters that discuss the global Sterilization Validation Service market in absolute detail. The report begins with the discussion of the industry overview, which includes definitions and specifications of Sterilization Validation Service. It also explains the classification of Sterilization Validation Service, its applications, the industry chain structure, the status of the major regional segments of the global Sterilization Validation Service 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.Fill the form to get free report sample on this market @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 Sterilization Validation Service market. The comprehensive report also explains the governmental policies acting on the global Sterilization Validation Service 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 Sterilization Validation Service 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 Sterilization Validation Service market. It also provides a SWOT analysis and Porters five forces analysis of the important players in the market.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Sterilization Validation Service1.1 Sterilization Validation Service Market Overview1.1.1 Sterilization Validation Service Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Sterilization Validation Service Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.3 Sterilization Validation Service Market by Type1.4 Sterilization Validation Service Market by End Users/ApplicationMake An Enquiry For Discount :2 Global Sterilization Validation Service Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Sterilization Validation Service Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 STERIS (UK)3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Sterilization Validation Service Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Sterigenics International (US)3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Sterilization Validation Service Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments4 Global Sterilization Validation Service Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Sterilization Validation Service Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Sterilization Validation Service Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Sterilization Validation Service in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Sterilization Validation ServiceList of Tables and FiguresFigure Sterilization Validation Service Product ScopeFigure Global Sterilization Validation Service Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Sterilization Validation Service Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Sterilization Validation Service Market Share by Regions in 2016Figure United States Sterilization Validation Service Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure EU Sterilization Validation Service Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Japan Sterilization Validation Service Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure China Sterilization Validation Service Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure India Sterilization Validation Service Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Southeast Asia Sterilization Validation Service Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com Global Automotive Seats Market Expected to Version US$ 74.19 Bn by 2025 | CAGR: 3.7% https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/18649 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/automotive-seats-market/toc https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/automotive-seats-market.asp 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 Acrylic Foam Tapes Market to Witness a Pronounce Growth During 2017 to 2025 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/17890 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/17890 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/acrylic-foam-tapes-market.asp www.persistencemarketresearch.com Acrylic Foam Tapes Market: IntroductionAdhesives had been used since ancient times for binding and connecting objects and surfaces. Today, these functions are carried out without any hassle using the adhesives like tapes and other products. Acrylic foam tape is an ideal means for the replacement of mechanical fasteners where a very high strength of bonding is required. Acrylic foam tapes can withstand high thermal temperature and have an excellent aging and weathering properties. End use industries require tapes that along with long term durability are cost as well as time efficient. Acrylic foam tapes market is expected to witness a healthy CAGR over the forecast period attributed to rising demand from end use industries such as the furniture industry for superior quality in terms of aesthetics. Acrylic foam tapes allow the manufacturers to freely change their designs ensuring a solid bond on the new materials.Request Report for TOC @Acrylic Foam Tapes Market: Market DynamicsThe variation in the foam tapes properties such as the density and thickness allows their wide applicability across a variety of end use application driving the growth of the market over the forecast period. The acrylic foam tapes does not require any kind of mixing as compared to the liquid adhesives. The tapes are being preferred over the liquid adhesives due to no requirement for preparation and clean time. Acrylic foam tapes also possess a longer shelf life as there is no risk of clotting and drying up.The growth of the global acrylic foam tapes market is expected to be hampered by the slowdown in the manufacturing industry where the acrylic foam tapes market are extensively utilized. Government regulations restricting the use of banned chemicals is further restraining the growth of the global acrylic foam tapes market. Customization of the acrylic foam tapes according to the need of the end users is likely to create key opportunities for the global acrylic foam tapes market. The imprinting of the manufacturers name on the tape core and the tape as well is a key trend prevailing in the global acrylic foam tapes market.Request to Sample of Report @Acrylic Foam Tapes Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of geography, the global acrylic foam tapes market can be segmented into Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America is currently leading the global acrylic foam tapes market due to a well-established automotive and construction industry in the region. Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a steady pace due to rapid industrialization in economies such as India and China. Latin America is expected to witness sluggish growth over the forecast period due to a slow paced economy in the region. The growth in the Middle East & Africa region is attributed to the growing construction industry in the region.Acrylic Foam Tapes Market: Key playersSome of the key players operating in the global acrylic foam tapes market are Seal King Ind Co., Ltd., Lamatek, Inc., the 3M Company, AFT Company, Adhere Industrial Tapes Ltd, Lynvale Ltd, GPI Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd, and Wuxi Canaan Adhesive Technology Co., Ltd.Browse 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 MLM Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 : MultiSoft, NETSOFT, IDSTC QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1387489&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1387489&type=D Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global MLM Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.The global market for MLM Software has been analyzed in great details in a newly added market report. It provides an in-depth peek into the factors providing headwinds and tailwinds to the market. It also studies the trends shaping its contours.The report divides the global market for MLM Software by various relevant criteria and studies each segment in details to furnish a thorough overview of the market. The different regional segments of the global market for MLM Software have been studied in great details using both historical and recent figures. This data has been studied with the different growth driver and deterrents, to unravel the trajectory of the global market for MLM Software.Fill the form for an exclusive free sample of this report @The report banks upon popular analytical tools, namely SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis to offer a quantitative and qualitative overview of the global market for MLM Software. Data accumulated using such tools has been then scrutinized by leading experts in the industry to discover important opportunities and trends in the market.In order to prepare the report on the global market for MLM Software, industry pundits have been interviewed for their viewpoint on the market. This serves to make the report an authoritative guide to the global market for MLM Software.The report sheds light on the leading players in the global market for MLM Software. It examines their products, key strategies, sales and revenues, standing in the market, and prospects going forward.Some of the important questions the report seeks to provide an answer for are:Which are the factors that are shaping the growth in the market?Which factors are serving to crimp growth in the market?Where is the market headed vis-a-vis growth rate in the foreseeable future?Who are some of the major players in the market?What are the main products of the prominent companies?Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of MLM Software1.1 MLM Software Market Overview1.1.1 MLM Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global MLM Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.3 MLM Software Market by Type1.3.1 Cloud-based1.3.2 On-premises1.4 MLM Software Market by End Users/ApplicationAvail Discount @2 Global MLM Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 MLM Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 MultiSoft3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 MLM Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Pro MLM Software3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 MLM Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments4 Global MLM Software Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global MLM Software Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global MLM Software Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of MLM Software in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of MLM SoftwareList of Tables and FiguresFigure MLM Software Product ScopeFigure Global MLM Software Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global MLM Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global MLM Software Market Share by Regions in 2016Figure United States MLM Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure EU MLM Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Japan MLM Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure China MLM Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure India MLM Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Southeast Asia MLM Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com Animal Health API Market worth US$ 9,162.2 Million https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/animal-health-active-pharmaceutical-ingredients-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/16972 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/animal-health-active-pharmaceutical-ingredients-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Asia Pacific (APAC) will continue to be the most lucrative region in the global animal health active pharmaceutical ingredient market, with sales exhibiting the second highest CAGR through 2025. APAC has remained one of the largest API suppliers, at affordable costs. Governments across APAC have been making investments and focusing on local manufacturing facilities of APIs. Favorable policies offered by these governments have been shifting the focus of API manufacturers in moving their production bases to APAC countries, such as India and China. In addition, limited insurance or government intervention provides smooth flow to market growth in these regions.However, animal health API products manufactured in APAC countries do not meet regulatory standards, and there has been increasing concerns pertaining to the quality of APIs, especially those produced in China and India. Western regulatory bodies are becoming stricter in the inspection of APIs produced in these regions. Manufacturers are further facing challenges in bridging the gap between the cost and quality of APIs. These factors will inhibit growth of the market in APAC.The global animal health active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) market is projected to register an impressive expansion at 7.3% CAGR during the forecast period 2017 to 2025, according to a recent study by Persistence Market Research (PMR). PMRs study estimates the market to increase from revenues worth US$ 5,216.1 Mn in 2017 to reach US$ 9,162.2 Mn by 2025-end.Global Animal Health APIs Market Research Report Overview @Europe will remain the second largest market for animal health active pharmaceutical ingredients. Leading healthcare companies are located in the Europe, which in turn has boosted requirement for veterinary APIs in the region. Consumption of veterinary drugs in Europe has surged substantially over the past few years. Spain has been witnessed to be the largest consumer of veterinary antimicrobial APIs in the EU. In addition, rising improvements in the animal productivity has driven growth of the animal health industry in this region. These incidences are expected to augment growth of the animal health API market in Europe.However, the pharmaceutical industry in Europe has been concerned with potential short-term impacts of REACH regulations. This is likely to result in decreased supply of materials, or reagents, which are not preregistered by EU suppliers. In addition, dynamic changes in Europes macro-economic environment, such as the Brexit, has been impacting the intra-European trade and overall pharmaceutical sector. These factors might curb growth of the animal health API market in Europe.Request Sample Report@Antiparasitics will continue to be the largest adopted API in the market, followed by anti-infectives. Sales of Antiparasitics are expected to register the fastest expansion, to account for the largest revenues by 2025-end. In contrast, revenues from sales of anesthetics and NSAIDs will remain comparatively lower than antiparasitics and anti-infectives.Key market players profiled in PMRs report include Glenmark Pharmaceutical Limited., Zoetis, Inc., Eli Lilly & Co., Sanofi Winthrop Industrie (CEPiA), Indukern, S.A., Ofichem BV, P&R S.p.A (Olon S.p.A), Lonza Group AG, Huvepharma AD, Ourofino Saude Animal, Blanver Farmoquimica E Farmaceutica S.A., Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Changzhou Yabang-Qh Pharmachem Co., Ltd., Shanghai Pharmtech Co., Ltd., Ningxia Tairui Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shaanxi Hanjiang Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., Sequent Scientific Ltd., NGL Fine-Chem Ltd., Omkar Speciality Chemicals Ltd., Excel Industries Ltd.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: Remote Asset Management Market : Industry Key Growth Factor Analysis & Research Study 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2126 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2126 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2126 Global Remote Asset Management Market: OverviewRemote asset management is the remote monitoring and maintenance of assets, equipment, and systems using a central system. Various functionalities of such a system include intrusion detection, asset control and tracking, and real-time notifications. A remote asset management system enables enterprises to automate several routine business tasks and make optimal use of resources, which helps simplify decision making. Driven by numerous operational and strategic benefits of remote asset management systems, they are increasingly being implemented by enterprises to improve service performance for all its assets.Massive advancement in IoT and machine learning technologies, coupled with constant digital transformation, has increased the capabilities of remote asset management. Adoption of remote asset management systems has helped businesses augment their return on investment (ROI).Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Remote Asset Management Market: Key TrendsSoaring adoption of IoT among organizations has led to a surge in connected devices that can integrate different elements of the asset lifecycle. This is a key factor propelling the remote asset management market. Declining cost of IoT components has spurred the demand for remote asset management systems worldwide. In addition, the increasing need for predictive and preventive maintenance and real-time monitoring across organizations has stimulated the demand for remote asset management system.Furthermore, the implementation of remote asset management systems has helped asset-intensive enterprises boost the returns on their investments, thereby accelerating the deployment of remote asset management solutions and platforms. The advent of cloud-based remote asset management solutions has made the deployment cost-effective, creating new opportunities for vendors in the market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Remote Asset Management Market: Market PotentialIn April 2017, Trimble Inc., headquartered in California, inked a partnership with Railhead Corporation, an emerging provider of digital video solutions in Illinois focused on the transportation industry, to integrate real-time monitoring, asset diagnostics, and onboard video capabilities in remote asset management system. The partnership will help in the optimal utilization of locomotive assets and enable end-use operators to improve productivity in North American railways.The collaboration will allow Railhead to get access to the Trimble R2M system to improve safety, tracking, and operations in rail operations. The R2M system helps in real-time monitoring of rail assets and provides condition-based reporting on the status of its various onboard systems. Fed by a wealth of real-time data from on-train event recording equipment, the system can deliver fault alerts to control rooms, which helps in proactive condition-based maintenance of train operations.Trimble R2M system was first launched in Europe a decade ago and has already been successfully adopted by big rail operators such as Greater Anglia in the U.K., the Irish Rail, and Varkaus Railways in Finland. The collaboration incorporates the integration of video data streams from Railheads locomotive digital video recorders (LDVR) with the real-time system data feeds from the Trimble R2M system. The integrated product portfolio further includes an end-to-end interface module and an onboard condition monitoring device. The solution is considered to be highly modular, which will help railway operators scale the solution according to their expanding requirements without significant up-front cost.Request Discount of the Report @Global Remote Asset Management Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, North America is a prominent market for remote asset management systems. The growth of the regional market is propelled by considerable advancement in IoT, rapid pace of digitization, and increasing adoption of real-time automated solutions across organizations. In addition, an increasingly large presence of regional solution providers who offer cloud-based remote asset management solutions is expected to trigger the demand for remote asset management in North America.Meanwhile, Asia Pacific is expected to expand at an impressive CAGR over the forecast period. The growth of the Asia Pacific market is attributed to growing popularity of IoT among businesses to manage and streamline their asset lifecycle.Global Remote Asset Management Market: Competitive AnalysisSeveral vendors in the remote asset management market are offering end-to-end solutions, on-premise as well as cloud-based deployment model, to consolidate their shares in major regions. Leading players operating in this market include Cisco Systems, Inc., AT&T Inc., Schneider Electric SE, Hitachi, Ltd., Infosys Limited, Rockwell Automation, Inc., SAP SE, and Verizon Communications, 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 The Global Ready to Install Kitchen Cabinets Market is Estimated to Reach USD 45.67 Billion by the end of 2023, According to Research Nester https://www.researchnester.com/sample-request-161 https://www.researchnester.com/request-toc-161 https://www.researchnester.com/payment/rep-id-161 https://www.researchnester.com/reports/ready-to-install-kitchen-cabinets-market-global-demand-analysis-opportunity-outlook-2021/161 Ready to Install Kitchen Cabinets Market: Global Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2021The global ready to install kitchen cabinets market is segmented into material type such as wood-based materials, engineered wood, non-wood materials, decorative laminates, metal and others. Furthermore, wood-based materials segment is sub-segmented into lumber, hardwood lumber and softwood lumber. Among the above segments, engineered wood segment is expected to grasp a robust CAGR during the forecast period. Moreover, ease of assemble and disassemble of the ready-to-install cabinets is boosting the growth of the ready to install kitchen cabinets market.Global ready to install kitchen cabinets market is expected to flourish at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. Moreover, the global Ready to Install Kitchen Cabinets Market is expected to reach USD 45.67 Billion by the end of 2023. Rapid urbanization is anticipated to fuel the growth of ready to install kitchen cabinets market.Request Report Sample@In terms of regional platform, North America accounted for the leading market in the global ready to install kitchen cabinets market. Further, U.S. ready-to-install kitchen market is projected to value USD 18.5 Billion by the end of 2021. The growth of U.S. ready to install kitchen cabinets market is attributed to the outstanding development of the residential buildings. Moreover, Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing ready to install kitchen cabinets market due to swift expansion of residential sector on the back of growing population. Further, China Japan and India are the dominating countries in this region.Rising Demand for Modular KitchenSwelled disposable income along with changing lifestyle of the consumers is supporting them to invest more on modular kitchens. Moreover, rise in modern infrastructure facilities along with development of smart homes and availability of customized kitchen cabinets at affordable prices is the major factors fostering the growth of ready to install kitchen cabinets market during the forecast period.Request For TOC Here:Upsurge in Construction of Residential BuildingsStrengthening GDP figures of the developed and developing nations such as U.S., China and others are endorsing the growth of residential building sector which is projected to foster the growth of ready to install kitchen cabinets market. Moreover, growing popularity of ready to ready to install kitchen cabinets is also intensifying the growth of ready to install kitchen cabinets market all across the globe. Although, high cost of customized ready-to-install kitchen cabinets is anticipated to dampen the growth of ready to install kitchen cabinets market during the forecast period.The report titled Ready to install kitchen cabinets Market: Global Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023 delivers detailed overview of the global ready to install kitchen cabinets market in terms of market segmentation by material type, by construction method 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.Buy This Premium Reports Now @This report also provides the existing competitive scenario of some of the key players of the global ready to install kitchen cabinets market which includes company profiling of Seimatic, Kraftmatic, Joliet Cabine, Ultracraft, Poggenpohl, Aristokraft, KCMA, Masco Cabinetry LLC and Bertch Cabinet Manufacturing. 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 ready to install kitchen cabinets 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.For more details visit @Research 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:Name:- Ajay Daniel1820 Avenue M, Suite# 1113,Brooklyn, New York 11230Email: ajay.daniel@researchnester.comU.S. +1 646 586 9123U.K. +44 203 608 5919 Social Media Monitoring Tools Market to Observe Strong Development by 2025 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/20494 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/20494 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Expanding social media content volume is the key factor contributing to the growth of global Social Media Monitoring Tools s market. Social Media Monitoring Tools is a software equipped with various functionalities for tracking, listening, and gathering relevant content across various social media networks.Social Media Monitoring Tools s are used by marketing, and communications team of organizations across various industries to identify the trends, track competitors, understand customer behaviour, and also to map sentiments. Social Media Monitoring Tools s are developed to understand social media presence, demographic data, and to improve a brands reputation. Social Media Monitoring Tools s helps to identify thought leaders & influencers, specific mentions about a product/company/ individual, and trending topics or phrases across the social media.Request Report for TOC @Social Media Monitoring Tools Market: Market DynamicsExpanding social media users coupled with increasing amount of time people spend on social media is the prominent factor drives the growth of global Social Media Monitoring Tools market. Increasing investments on digital advertising, rising dependency on social media advertising tools to reach customers, increasing focus on understanding customer preference on particular products, and growing trend on delivering personalized content based on current trends accelerates the growth of global Social Media Monitoring Tools market.Additionally, increasing number of smartphone users and growing trend towards accessing social media content through mobile devices fuels the growth of global Social Media Monitoring Tools market. However, constraints on lack of proper insights to identify the return on interment Social Media Monitoring Tools s is identified as restraints likely to deter the progression of global Social Media Monitoring Tools market.In terms of regions, the Social Media Monitoring Tools market can be segmented across North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. Among all regions, Social Media Monitoring Tools market in the North American region is expected to dominate the market due to increasing investment on digital advertising solutions.North America is expected to be followed by Western Europe in the Social Media Monitoring Tools market, during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is projected be the fastest growing Social Media Monitoring Tools market due expanding social media users, and increasing preference for market intelligence solutions.Social Media Monitoring Tools Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the prominent vendors in the global Social Media Monitoring Tools market include salesforce.com, Inc. (Radian6), Oracle (Collective Intellect), Lithium Technologies Inc., Hootsuite Inc., Sysomos Inc., Union Metrics, Klout, BuzzSumo, Webtrends, and Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd.Request to Sample of 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 Sea scooter Market Business Overview and Upcoming Trends Forecast by 2025 https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1476795&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-sea-scooter-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1476795&type=D http://www.qyresearchreports.com https://studyanalyst.blogspot.in Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Sea scooter Market Research Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.QYResearchReports.com has added a new report covering the global Sea scooter market to its vast database. The research report studies the global Sea scooter market to analyze the factors impacting it. The report has been divided into several chapters that discuss the global Sea scooter market in absolute detail. The report begins with the discussion of the industry overview, which includes definitions and specifications of Sea scooter. It also explains the classification of Sea scooter, its applications, the industry chain structure, the status of the major regional segments of the global Sea scooter 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 Report Sample and Customization: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 Sea scooter market. The comprehensive report also explains the governmental policies acting on the global Sea scooter 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 Sea scooter 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 Sea scooter market. It also provides a SWOT analysis and Porters five forces analysis of the important players in the market.Table of ContentsGlobal Sea scooter Market Research Report 20181 Sea scooter Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Sea scooter1.2 Sea scooter Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Sea scooter Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Sea scooter Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20172 Global Sea scooter Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Sea scooter Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Sea scooter Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Sea scooter Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Sea scooter Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Sea scooter Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Sea scooter Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product TypeTo Browse a Full Report with TOC:3 Global Sea scooter Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Sea scooter Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Sea scooter Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Sea scooter Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Sea scooter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Sea scooter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Sea scooter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 Global Sea scooter Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Sea scooter Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Sea scooter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Sea scooter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.4 China Sea scooter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.5 Japan Sea scooter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)Check Discount @Figure Picture of Sea scooterFigure Global Sea scooter Production (K Units) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2025)Figure Global Sea scooter Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2017Figure Global Sea scooter Market Size (Million USD), Comparison (K Units) and CAGR (%) by Regions (2013-2025)Figure North America Sea scooter Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Europe Sea scooter Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure China Sea scooter Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Japan Sea scooter Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)About 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: Asia Pacific Broadcasting Equipment Market Conservatively Projected To Garner US$ 5,104.8 Mn by 2024 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/asia-pacific-broadcasting-equipment-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11317 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/asia-pacific-broadcasting-equipment-market/toc https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/11317 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com According to the latest report published by Persistence Market Research, titled Broadcasting Equipment Market: Asia Pacific Industry Analysis and Forecast, 20162024, the broadcasting equipment market in APAC region is expected to be valued at US$ 5,104.8 Mn by 2024.The broadcasting equipment market in APAC region was valued at US$ 2487.5 Mn in 2015 and is expected to register a CAGR of 8.1% from 2016 to 2024. The growth of broadcasting equipment market in APAC region is primarily driven by convergence of high definition technologies such as 4K with IP. As per the report, 4K services are expected to be available on IP networks over the next four to five years via satellite launching and cable platforms.The report has segmented the APAC broadcasting equipment market into traditional TV broadcast, traditional radio broadcast, IP converged broadcasting and asset management systems.Asia Pacific Broadcasting Equipment Market Research Report Overview @Traditional TV broadcast segment was valued at US$ 1123 Mn in 2015 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 8.1% during the forecast period (20162024). The traditional radio broadcast segment was valued at US$ 544 Mn in 2015 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period. The IP converged broadcasting is projected to be the fastest growing segment in APAC broadcasting equipment market, exhibiting a CAGR of 10.0% during the forecast period.Request to Sample of Report @Traditional TV broadcast segment accounted for 45.1% share in terms of value of the total APAC broadcasting equipment market in 2015. Consumption of high definition content in APAC region is increasing at a rapid pace, supported by rising sales of HD ready Tvs.Download and View Report@The traditional TV broadcast equipment market is further segmented into camera, monitors, routers, switchers, cable, transmitter, receiver and other accessories. Routers sub-segment is projected to expand at the highest CAGR of 9.2% during the forecast period. Content creators across the region are shifting towards 4K cameras in order to capture high definition video. This is being supported by sales of 4K UHD television that has gained momentum due to rising disposable income in the region.Key players of the APAC Broadcasting Equipment market include Media Excel Inc.(US), ChyronHego Corporation (US), TVU Networks Corporation (US), XOR Media Inc.(US), FOR-A Company (Japan), ORACLE Corporation (US), Unlimi-Tech Software Inc. (US), Grass Valley (Canada) and General Dynamics Mediaware (Australia).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: Dental Implant Abutment Systems Market to be valued US$ 1,900 Million https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/dental-implant-abutment-systems-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/13666 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/dental-implant-abutment-systems-market/toc http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Several factors are responsible for the growth of the global dental implant abutment systems market. One major driver of the markets growth is the increase in incidences of dental disorders. Also, the CAD/CAM technology is advancing at a fast pace, which has led to its growing adoption for implants. This technology is considered a relatively simple and cost-efficient solution in the implant procedure. Recent production improvements have made the technology cheaper than other technologies currently available in the market.However there are also a few factors that may hamper the markets revenue growth. Mostly it is seen that manufacturers are unable to meet the increasing market demand. This, along with increasing reimbursements and restrictions in dental treatments by regulatory boards is likely to hamper revenue growth of the market over the forecast period.Global Dental Implant Abutment Systems Market Research Report Overview @Dental implant abutment systems is related to the dental implants that take place after finishing the recuperating procedure. These are used to join a crown or bridge to the embedded fixtures. Pre-assembled or stock implants are fabricated in different sizes and shapes and are typically provided by manufacturing organizations along with the implants. A new research report by Persistence Market Research titled Dental Implant Abutment Systems Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012 2016) and Forecast (2017 2027) gives a brief overview of the global dental implant abutment systems market. This exhaustive research report delivers data analytics, analysis on key trends, drivers and restraints of the market along with the revenue forecast for the 10 year period 2017-2027. The report highlights the macroeconomic factors that are responsible for the growth of the market and presents the market size during the forecast period. According to the report estimations, the global dental implant abutment systems market is projected to be valued at more than US$ 1,000 Mn in 2017, and this is expected to reach a value above US$ 1,900 Mn by the end of 2027, growing at a robust CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period.Request Sample Report@The global dental implant abutment systems market is divided into various segments. The segmentation is done on the basis of product type, application, end user and region.By product type, stock/prefabricated abutment systems is the dominating segment in terms of market size with a market value of around US$ 711 Mn in 2017. However the custom abutment systems segment is expected to take over the global market with a higher growth rate, registering a CAGR of 7.6% during the forecast period.In terms of application, pre-mill is the leading segment with a market share of over US$ 790 Mn in 2017. However, CAD/CAM segment is ahead of pre-mill in terms of a higher CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period.By end user, the dental clinics segment is expected to be the largest with a market value of US$ 788 Mn in 2017 and is estimated to reflect a valuation of more than US$ 1,500 Mn by 2027 end, growing at the highest CAGR of 7.0% during the period of forecast.On the basis of region, North America is ahead of all the other regions with the maximum market value of US$ 400 Mn in 2017, which is expected to cross US$ 705 Mn by the end of 2027. The region in the second position is Western Europe, which is expected to reach a market value of around US$ 407 Mn by the end of 2027.The research report includes brief profiles of the key players in the global dental implant abutment systems market. Some of the companies mentioned in the report are Zest Anchors, Friadent GmbH, Zimmer Dental, Ditron Dental, Nobel Biocare Services AG, Institut Straumann AG, Dynamic Abutment Solutions etc.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 Fluorescent Pigments Market Size, Share, Growth Drivers, Market Trends, Statistics and Forecast 2017 - 2020 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/38 https://www.mrrse.com/fluorescent-pigments-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/38 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Fluorescent Pigments MarketRequest a Free Sample Report @Fluorescent pigments are the special type of proteins that are able to fluoresce in a highly specific color when light of a particular wavelength is radiated on it. Pigments which are capable of absorbing both visible as well as non-visible electromagnetic radiations are known as fluorescent pigments. Fluorescent pigments quickly release the absorbed electromagnetic radiations as energy in the desired wavelength. Zinc sulfide and cadmium sulfide are some of the examples of the fluorescent pigments. Fluorescent pigments offer a wide range of chroma and pigments which glow when exposed to the long-wave UV frequencies. The luminescence of the fluorescent pigment is significantly different from that obtained from other natural bio-luminescence such as bacteria, fish and insects among others. Fluorescent pigments are either visible or non-visible in nature. Fluorescent pigments have a variety of properties that make them extremely suitable for the labeling and reporting of the various structures and processes.Fluorescent pigments are widely used in the printing inks which are characterized by extremely high brilliance when the light is viewed under the ultra violet light source. The fluorescent pigments are widely used in the water based systems as well as in the mild solvent systems. They are extensively used in the various applications such as paints and aerosol coating, textile fields, water based paper coating, solvent based paper coating field, crying manufacturing and solvent based silk screen ink. The growing construction and automobile industry is expected to boost the overall growth of the paints and coating market which in turn is anticipated to enhance the overall growth of the fluorescence pigments market. The applications of the fluorescent pigments are increasing rapidly in various fields such as agriculture, medical, biochemistry and biology. There is an increase in the demand for the fluorescence pigments as a marker or the reporter as it helps in tracking and identifying the molecules at the sub-cellular level. There is an increase in the demand for the fluorescence pigments in various applications owing to its characteristics such as improved resistance to heat, pressure, polar solvents and plasticizers.Outlook Complete Report with Table of Content @North America is the largest consumer of the fluorescent pigments. The countries such as the U.S, Canada and Mexico are the leading consumers of the fluorescence pigments in North America. Europe is the second largest consumer of the fluorescence pigments. Asia Pacific is the emerging market for the fluorescence pigment market owing to the growing consumption in Japan. China is the fastest growing consumer of the fluorescence pigments. Owing to the development of China and India as the market for finished products the total demand for the fluorescence market is expected to witness a rapid growth.ALTANA, Brilliant, DANE color U.K. Ltd., DayGlo fluorescent pigments and PROQUIMAC Color are some of the key manufacturers of the fluorescence pigments market. The companies mainly focus on the research and development. The companies strive to develop and hence, manufacture highly innovative products which would be suitable in catering the need of the specific application sector. The companies usually make huge investments in the research and development in order to launch new products in the market. The new product development would not only help the companies to sustain in the market but also aids in achieving competitive advantage to capture market share from the competitors present in the fluorescent pigments market.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: Optical Chopper Market Progresses for Huge Profits During 2021 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/5843 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/5843 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/optical-chopper-market.asp www.persistencemarketresearch.com Optical choppers are the devices or equipment utilized to vary and interrupt light beams at regular or fixed time intervals. By deploying variations in the frequency of the optical chopper, the frequency of the light can be respectively varied. Invented in the mid-1800s, the optical chopper was used to measure the speed of light. The optical chopper contains a circular metal disc possessing holes and gaps at regular or irregular intervals which is attached to a rotating motor which rotates at a certain speed. The light beam passes through this optical chopper and in turn through these holes and thus the frequency of the light can be calculated using the frequency of the optical chopper. The optical chopper finds its main advantage in achieving a regular frequency of light beam. Optical choppers can be either operated by mechanical or electronic means. Predominantly used technologies for optical choppers are rotating disk, tuning fork and optical shutters.Request Report for TOC @On the basis of geography the optical choppers market can be segmented as North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. Application of optical choppers is extensively found in optical spectrometers, wheel speed sensors, ion neutron beam instruments, intensity modulation of optical signals and anti-lock braking systems. Optical choppers are available in various specifications and types as variable frequency rotating disc chopper, fixed frequency tuning fork and shutter.Rotating disc choppers are widely utilized in laboratories and research institutions where chopping frequency is fixed by operator or user and size of aperture is large when compared with other devices. Tuning fork optical choppers are designed to operate at fixed frequency, smaller aperture size and at high frequency. Optical shutters are preferred for low frequency chopping applications, these type of optical choppers allow the operator to follow varying or arbitrary patterns of chopping.Optical choppers are extensively used in electronics products such as television sets for controlling the color of pixels on screen, signaling lamps, camera, movie projectors, signal detection and recovery and other equipment. Depending upon the requirement and extent of accuracy required the optical choppers find their wide use in industries, scientific research, aerospace, healthcare and military applications.Request to Sample of Report @Widening application area of the optical choppers are amplifying the growth of global optical chopper market. Expanding demands for high tech cardio machines in the hospitals, anti-lock braking systems, movie projectors etc. are creating a big opportunity for the global optical choppers market. Moreover, technological advancements in machine vision and imaging coupled with increasing demand for advanced equipment in research institutions is likely to drive growth in optical chopper market globally during the forecast period.Some of the minor restraints identified in the optical chopper market are linked with technological limitations such as distortion in frequency measurements due to presence of moving parts and thus giving rise to machine vibration and mechanical wear and tear.Some of the major market participants involved in the manufacturing of optical choppers are Altechna, SRS, McPherson, Hinds Instruments, Scitec Instruments, Thor Labs, New Focus, Edmund Optics, Newport Corporation, Boston Electronics Corporation etc.Browse 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: Semiconductor Wafer Cleaning Systems Market Research Report - Forecast 2015 2021 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/5849 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/5849 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/semiconductor-wafer-cleaning-systems-market.asp www.persistencemarketresearch.com Semiconductor wafer manufacturing requires utmost quality standards to be followed and the production output needs to be free from contamination. Superior quality of wafer surface is a necessary requisite for easy and suitable fabrication of VLSI and ULSI circuits. Presence of unwanted particles or materials during the manufacturing process of semiconductor wafer, results in the degradation of product quality. The unwanted particles, materials, or contamination can be of caused due to presence of alkali metals, heavy metals, organic contamination, dopants, base, acid contamination, etc. These impurities are removed with the help of semiconductor wafer cleaning systems. The demand for semiconductor cleaning systems is closely related with electronics production which is mainly concentrated in Asia Pacific region.Request Report for TOC @Semiconductor wafer cleaning systems, on the basis of technology are classified as cryogen aerosol based cleaning technology, vapor cleaning technology, local area cleaning technology, fine particle detection technology and supercritical fluid based cleaning technology. There are various steps involved in wafer cleaning process which are often identified as purposes such as pre diffusion clean, particulate removal clean, metallic ion removal, film removal, and post etch clean.On the basis of type of equipment, the semiconductor wafer cleaning systems can be segmented into rotary wafer etching system and semi-automated or manual wet batch system. On the basis of end use the semiconductor wafer cleaning systems can be segmented into those being used for removal of particle contamination, metallic contamination, and chemical contamination.Request to Sample of Report @On the basis of geography the semiconductor wafer cleaning systems market is segmented into Asia Pacific, Japan, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe. Asia Pacific region is expected to be the largest market for these systems owing to increasing semiconductor production and electronics industry output. Prominent countries in Asia Pacific to represent promising growth in semiconductor wafer manufacturing systems include China, South Korea and Taiwan. Some of the underlying demand driving factors include miniaturization of electronics devices, reducing thickness of circuit systems, increasing demand of portable consumer electronics devices and constantly improving quality standards of production. Reduction in size of microelectronic devices and introduction of advanced materials in semiconductor manufacturing has substantially increased the demand for wafer cleaning and thus semiconductor wafer cleaning systems.Some of the trends identified in end use industry sectors such as increasing automation in industries / factories, increasing preference of customers towards aesthetics of electronics or consumer products, improving standards of product performance and increasing scale of defragmentation in electronics industry is driving electronics manufacturers to constantly evolve and generate quality output. Such initiatives are in turn expected to drive adoption of semiconductor wafer cleaning systems across the globe.Utilization of semiconductor wafer cleaning systems at vital stage in electronics production leads to low bargaining power of electronics component manufacturer over the system suppliers. Some of the players in the market we identified includes, Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd, Tokyo Electron Limited, Cleaning Technologies Group, Lam Research Corporation, Falcon Process Systems, LLC, MEI Wet Processing Systems and Services LLC, Modutek Corporation, and Akrion Systems LLC.Browse 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: Connected Enterprise Market to Record an Exponential CAGR by 2025 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/17947 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/17947 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com In todays world of digital transformation and Internet of Things (IoT) smart manufacturing is widely adopted by means of connected devices to open new windows of visibility in business and operational processes. Connected enterprise is the convergence of plant-level and enterprise networks which helps to securely connect people, processes and technologies. This seamless connectivity by connected smart devices spurs new collaboration. In a connected enterprise business lines such as sales and customer support, supply chain, R&D, manufacturing, HR, Finance etc. are digitalized.Request Report for TOC @Connected enterprise help in potentially changing the way companies do business by exploring the power to connect traditional physical processes with cutting-edge IT to connect people, tools, processes, and platforms comprising infrastructure and applications to disrupt the business productivity with next-generation solutions. Due to this companies can use the power of data analytics to improve the efficiency of operations and cut down costs.Connected Enterprise Market: Drivers and RestraintsFactors such as increasing need for automation and cloud computing in enterprises, rising adoption smart devices generating huge amount of data, growing technological advancements and Internet of Things (IoT) in industry processes are driving the growth of connected enterprise market.However, lack of uniform Internet of Things (IoT) standards and lack of professional expertise are restraining the growth of connected enterprise market.Connected Enterprise Market: Regional OverviewNorth America emerges as the leader and will expect to dominate the connected enterprise market due to technological advancements in countries such as USA and Canada, increased penetration of Internet of Things. High adaptability of industrial automation in Europe region is resulting in considerable growth of connected enterprise market in this region. The connected enterprise market in APAC region is expected to grow at a significant pace due to presence of manufacturing, automation and retail enterprises.Connected Enterprise Market: Competition LandscapeKey AgreementsIn February 2017, Tata Motors and Microsoft India today entered into a strategic agreement to provide connected and personalized driving experiences for Indian customers. This collaboration will allow Tata Motors to leverage Microsofts connected vehicle technologies that bring together artificial intelligence (AI), advanced machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities on the global hyper-scale Azure cloud, which will help to create a highly personalized, smart and safer driving experience across the digital life of a vehicle owner.Key PlayersMicrosoft Corporation, IBM Corporation, General Electric, Cisco Systems, Inc., Rockwell Automation, Inc., Bosch, Honeywell International, PTC, Accelerite and Verizon Communications, Inc. are some of the key players in connected enterprise market.Request to Sample of 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: Benzaldehyde Global Market Top Key Players Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited, LANXESS, Wuhan Dico Chemical Co. Ltd, and Forecast to 2022 Benzaldehyde Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1149866-global-benzaldehyde-market-trends-forecast-2016-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1149866-global-benzaldehyde-market-trends-forecast-2016-2022 www.wiseguyreports.com Global Benzaldehyde MarketDescriptionWiseGuyReports.Com adds Global Benzaldehyde Market - Trends & Forecast, 2016-2022 Research To Its Database.Benzaldehyde is an organic aromatic chemical used in manufacturing of various chemicals, it is also used as an additive and flavouring agent in industries such as, food & beverages, and pharmaceutical industries. Benzaldehyde is one of the core raw material used in synthesis of various aroma chemicals, thus an augmented demand from the aroma chemical manufacturers across the globe is propelling the demand for benzaldehyde globally. Also, increasing use of benzaldehyde in the manufacturing of Agrochemicals such as, pesticides and herbicides is further surging the demand for benzaldehyde. Thus, the multibillion dollar Agrochemicals market with its steady growth is further adding value to the global benzaldehyde market. According to MRFR analysis, the global benzaldehyde market was valued at USD 241.4 million in 2015 and is expected to be valued at USD 301.0 million by the end of 2022, expanding at a CAGR of 3.2%. Based on the benzaldehyde derivatives, benzoic acid derivatives was the dominating segment and accounted for the largest market value share of 51.0% in 2015 as compared to other derivatives, owing to the increasing consumption of benzaldehyde in the synthesis of benzoic acid. On basis of application, Aroma Chemicals accounted for largest market share in 2015, it is anticipated to be the dominating application segment throughout the forecast period. However, the application segments dominance vary regionally, due to its scope of application in the end-use industries and the prominence of the end-use industries in the different regions.Key PlayersThe Key Players in Benzaldehyde Market are Emerald Performance Materials, LLC, Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited, LANXESS, Wuhan Dico Chemical Co. Ltd, Kadillac Chemicals Pvt. Ltd, PENTA S.R.O, Taj Pharmaceutical Limited, Jiangsu Jiamai Chemical Co. Ltd and othersGet sample Report @Objectives of Global Benzaldehyde Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years for the various segments and sub-segments of the global Benzaldehyde market development and demand market Upcoming technologies, high growth geographies and countries were identified Regional and country specific demand and forecast for Benzaldehyde were studied Key segments covered in the report are: derivatives, process, application and region. For all the regions, forecast demand for all applications were identified and then with historical figure, data collected through primary and annual reports were triangulated to derive the regional market size Historical trend is identified to forecast and estimate the future value dataKey Findings Benzaldehyde Market is expected to grow at compound annual growth rate of 3.2% from year 2016 to year 2022. Asia-Pacific will be dominating the market of Benzaldehyde throughout the forecast period. By derivative, benzoic acid accounts for the largest market share of 51% in the global market, followed by Benzyl Alcohol. By Application, Aroma Chemicals accounts for the largest market share of 33.5% in the global market, followed by Pharmaceuticals.Regional and Country Analysis of Benzaldehyde MarketThe global Benzaldehyde market is expected to reach USD 282.7 million by the end of forecasted period i.e. 2022. Asia-Pacific has accounted the largest market share followed by Europe and North America. The Asia Pacific region offers huge growth potential for Benzaldehyde market and is slated to register the highest CAGR of 4.2% to reach USD 152 million by 2022 owing to the presence of large number of producers, cheap labor cost and growing exports.The reports also covers country level analysis: North Americao USo Canada Europeo Franceo Germanyo Italyo Spaino United Kingdomo Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Chinao Indiao Japano Others Middle East & Africa Latin AmericaEnquiry About Report @Table of Contents -Major Key Points1 Report Prologue 142 Scope of The Report 162.1 Market Definition 162.2 Scope of The Study 162.2.1 Research Objectives 162.2.2 Assumptions 172.2.3 Limitations 172.3 Markets Structure 173 Research Methodology 193.1 Research Process 193.2 Primary Research 203.3 Secondary Research 203.4 Market Size Estimation 203.5 Forecast Model 224 Market Dynamics 234.1 Introduction 234.2 Drivers 244.2.1 Rise in demand among the aromatic chemical manufactures coupled with subsequent growth in aromatic chemical market 244.2.2 Rise in demand for benzaldehyde in pharmaceuticals market as an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) 254.2.3 Regained stability of agriculture sector with subsequent rise in demand for agrochemicals along with rise in consumption in food & beverages 254.2.4 Rise in use of benzaldehyde in Dyes & Coatings Industry anticipated to augment demand 264.3 Restraints 264.3.1 Fluctuation in crude oil prices affecting the supply and demand leading to raw material price fluctuations 274.3.2 Market fragmentation leading to competitive pricing 274.4 Trends & Opportunities 274.4.1 Technological innovation for sustainable and economical production of benzaldehyde by reducing the effect on environment 284.4.2 Geographical expansion and joint ventures among pharmaceutical companies in the developing markets to offer lucrative opportunities for benzaldehyde manufacturers 284.5 Macroeconomic Indicators 294.5.1 Rise in disposable income coupled with increased spending on healthcare and personal care products 294.5.2 Increased spending on healthcare infrastructure in the emerging markets coupled with pharmaceutical industry expansion in developing regions 295 Market Factor Analysis 305.1 Supply Chain Analysis 305.1.1 Raw Material Suppliers 315.1.2 Benzaldehyde Producers 315.1.3 Benzaldehyde Distributors 315.1.4 End User 315.2 Porter's 5 Forces Analysis 325.2.1 Threat of New Entrants 325.2.2 Threat of Rivalry 325.2.3 Threat of Substitute 325.2.4 Bargaining Power of Supplier 325.2.5 Bargaining Power Of Buyer 336 Global Benzaldehyde Market, By Derivative 346.1 Introduction 346.2 Benzoic Acid 366.3 Sodium Benzoate 406.4 Benzyl Alcohol 446.5 Cinnamic Acid 486.6 Others 527 Global Benzaldehyde Market, By Process 577.1 Introduction 577.2 Toluene Oxidation Process 597.3 Toluene Chlorination Process 638 Global Benzaldehyde Market, By Application 688.1 Introduction 688.2 Aroma Chemicals 708.3 Pharmaceuticals 748.4 Agrochemicals 798.5 Food & Beverages 838.6 Dyes & Coatings 888.7 Others 92..CONTINUEDAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, Industry 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.NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK) 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. Telecom Expense Management Market to Grow at 13.5% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/232486 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/232486/telecom-expense-management-by-application-market-research-reports/toc https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/232486/telecom-expense-management-by-application-market-research-reports Transparency Market Research estimates that the global telecom expense management market will exhibit a momentous 13.5% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024, rising from an opportunity of US$1.60 bn in 2015 to US$4.92 bn in 2024.The vendor landscape of the global telecom expense management (TEM) market boasts a highly fragmented nature and has a large share in business held by individual TEM vendors, which operate through multiple delivery channels, across key domestic and regional markets, observes a recent report by Transparency Market Research. The market is witnessing a notable shift from licensed software products to cloud-based services owing to cost and flexibility benefits of the latter. TEM process outsourcing has started gaining increased demand from organizations that prefer to utilize internal resources to strengthen their core business processes.Get the sample copy of report :Focus on expansion across regional markets such as Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa has significantly increased owing to the thriving enterprise sector and globalization of native companies. For companies to reinstate their command on the highly promising marketplace, focus on development of products capable of complying with the diverse requirements of the highly complex and rapidly expanding organizational telecom expenses will prove to be beneficial, suggests the report.Complete Outsourcing Witnessing Increased Preference over Cloud ServicesIn terms of mode of delivery, the segment of cloud services held the dominant share of nearly 45% of the overall market in 2015. Although the segment will continue to account for a massive share in the global market throughout the forecast period, rising preference to complete outsourcing will lead to a massive negative impact on the rate of adoption of cloud-based services.Request for TOC of this report :From a geographical perspective, the market in North America presently leads in terms of contribution of revenue to the global TEM market and is expected to continue to hold a massive share in the global market revenue over the forecast period as well. Nevertheless, the high level of maturity of the regional market is projected to be translated in stagnant growth opportunities. Regional markets such as Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa are expected to emerge as the regions with the most promising growth opportunities over the forecast period.Rising Complexity of Internal Telecom Networks Compels Enterprises to Adopt Effective TEM SolutionsOver the past few years, factors such as the rising level of integration of mobile devices in enterprise networks and vast developments in corporate telecom infrastructure have rendered telecom networks of large-, medium-, and small-scale enterprises intensely complex and difficult for manual monitoring. As enterprises continue to adopt advanced communications channels to connect with employees, customers, and clients, the need for effective telecom expense management solutions will continue to be high.Stringent government regulations, compelling enterprises to incorporate reliable record-keeping and monitoring solutions as a way to preserve clarity in operations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the U.S., also continue to reinstate the important of effective TEM solutions. Furthermore, as companies expand their geographical presence, they are also required to hire different telecommunication carriers according to regional trends and carrier influence across geographies. This leads to a vast rise in invoices from the different carriers, which could also differ in billing formats. Enterprises are increasingly understanding that managing the task of paying telecom companies in accordance to only the services availed is better managed with an effective TEM solution than manual procedures, driving the TEM market.View full report :This study of the global telecom expense management market is based on a recent market research report by Transparency Market Research, titled Telecom Expense Management Market (Application - Financial Management, Order Management, Business Intelligence, Inventory Management, Contract Management, and Dispute Management; Mode of Delivery - Managed Services, Complete Outsourcing, Cloud Services; End-use Adoption - Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI), Retail, IT and Telecommunication, Healthcare, Transportation and Logistics, Manufacturing, and Government and Defense) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024.For the study, the market has been segmented as follows:By ApplicationFinancial ManagementOrder ManagementBusiness IntelligenceInventory ManagementContract ManagementDispute ManagementOthersBy Mode of DeliveryManaged ServicesComplete OutsourcingCloud ServicesBy End-use AdoptionBanking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI)RetailIT and TelecommunicationHealthcareTransportation and LogisticsManufacturingGovernment and DefenseOthersBy GeographyNorth AmericaEuropeLatin AmericaAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaMRRbiz 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 A disappointing December completed what was a good year for Germanys True Fleet www.dataforce.de The German True Fleet Market was on a relatively stable upward trend for 2017 and managed to surpass the prior years record value. However, fleet suffered a loss in the last month of the year with registrations of passenger cars down by 4.6%, nonetheless this was still one of the best results ever achieved in December. Special Channels took a dip as well (- 4.4%) while the Private Market (+ 5.8%) helped slow the downward trend of the Total Market, leaving it just in negative territory with a - 1.0%.Brand PerformanceWe found that half the top 10 True Fleet brands were able to resist the markets downward movement, with some of them recording spectacular results. As BMW (2nd) eked out positive of + 1.2%, Skoda (5th) and SEAT (10th) faired a little better with rather similar growth rates of 8.0% and 7.5% respectively. Skoda could rely on its new SUVs the Kodiaq and the Karoq in addition to an increasing demand for the Citigo, while SEATs performance was supported by the Leon, the smaller Ibiza and the Alhambra, one of just a few models, which held up relatively well against the downswing of the van segment.The most outstanding numbers nonetheless were achieved by the French marques, Renault in 7th (+ 43.6%) and Peugeot (9th), the latter doing some high-precision work to almost double their 2016 December registrations exactly (+ 100.5%). Furthermore, each of Peugeots SUVs, namely the 2008, 3008 and 5008 increased by at least triple-digit rates. Its compatriot Renault was boosted by the Clio, Captur and Megane, these represented the top 3 Renault fleet models, but in terms of growth they were all outperformed by the Scenic which increased by sound triple-digit growth figures and finishing on 2nd in the Mini-Van ranking for December. Not wanting to miss out the last of the major French brands and certainly worthy of a mention, Citroen just outside of the top 10 achieved a growth of 70.3%.Compact Cars with some highlightsFor December, True Fleets Compact Car segment declined by 6.2%, a somewhat similar result was seen for the segments overall tally. However, Compact Cars narrowly managed to surpass 2016 numbers (0.5%) in True Fleet, which is rather remarkable when compared to the slump (- 8.1%) from the Private Market.Despite this December decrease, some of the Compact Cars top 10 still recorded some excellent results. As already mentioned, the Renault Megane shone brightly alongside the SEAT Leon. The Mini Clubman and the Ford Focus benefitted from accelerated petrol registrations while Audis A3 growth was supported by all fuel types and though the rise in petrol was more pronounced for Ingolstadts compact car, alternative fuel types still made up one quarter of the models overall growth pie.(459 words; 2,748 characters)Publication by indication of source (DATAFORCE) onlyDATAFORCE Focus on FleetsDataforce is the leading provider of fleet market data and automotive intelligence solutions in Europe. In addition, the company also provides detailed information on sales opportunities for the automotive industry, together with a wide portfolio of information based on primary market research and consulting services. The company is based in Frankfurt, Germany.Nils WehnerDataforce Verlagsgesellschaft fur Business Informationen mbHHamburger Allee 1460486 Frankfurt am MainGermanyTelefon: +49 69 95930-295Fax: +49 69 95930-549E-Mail: nils.wehner@dataforce.de Global Quantum Dot Display Market 2018 Key Players: 3M Company, Quantum Materials Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., LG Display Co., Ltd, Sony Corporation,. Quantum Dot Display Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2318827-global-quantum-dot-display-market-analysis-forecast-2017-to-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2318827-global-quantum-dot-display-market-analysis-forecast-2017-to-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2318827 Quantum Dot Display Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Quantum Dot Display Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2023reports to its database.Executive SummaryQuantum dots are tiny crystals with ability to convert light from one color to another color in an efficient manner. Quantum dots has witnessed a major increase in adoption rate for the usage in various applications due to the technological advancement such as low energy consumption and vibrant displays. Growing demand of quantum dots in display devices and energy efficiency offered by quantum dots are some of the major factors driving the growth of quantum dots display market. However, slower rate of adoption of the technology and utilization of heavy metals as raw material are restraining the growth of the global quantum dots market. The quantum dots display market is expected to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period. Major companies like Samsung and LG are encouraging usage of cadmium free material for quantum dot display product.The quantum dot display technology is used widely and the quantum dot display application market is segmented based smart phones, PC monitor, tablet PC, TV, and others. Quantum dot display market by product is segmented into smartphones, PC monitors, Tablet PC, Television, and Notebook PC and others. Television product is expected to dominate the quantum dot market.Growth in economy and increasing purchasing power of the consumers is improving the lifestyle of the end-users. The improving lifestyle of people has boost the market of smartphones and tablet industry which thus has increase the demand for technically advanced display product. With changing consumer need and requirement, manufacturers are working on technically advanced display screen. The quantum dots have revolutionized TVs by providing such pure colors and can express nearly all the colors in the color volume. Hence, quantum dots are likely to emerge as a leading technology for displays in the years to come.The global quantum dot display market is expected to grow approximately at USD 3893.86 Million by 2023, approx. 24.96 % of CAGR during the forecast period.Request Sample Report @Key PlayersThe key players of quantum dot display market include Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (South Korea), LG Display Co., Ltd. (South Korea), Sony Corporation (Japan), 3M Company (U.S.), Sharp Corporation (Japan), Microvision, Inc. (U.S.), Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (U.S.), Evident Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), Quantum Materials Corporation (U.S.), QD Vision, Inc. (U.S.), Nanosys, Inc. (U.S.) and others.Global Quantum dot display Market Analysis & Forecast, from 2016 to 2022To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the quantum dot display market.To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth.To analyze the Quantum dot display market based on porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa.To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective.To provide country level analysis of the market for segment on the basis of material, product and application.To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market.To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the quantum dot display market.Target AudienceTechnology InvestorsResearch/Consultancy FirmsQuantum Dot Technology ProvidersOriginal equipment manufacturers (OEMs)Quantum Dot ManufacturersFor further information on this report, visit -Key FindingsThe global quantum dot display market is expected to reach USD 3893.86 Million by 2023.By Material, cadmium based sub segment in quantum dot display market accounts for the largest market share and is growing with approximately ~20% CAGR during forecast period.By Product, TV sub segment holds the largest market share and is growing with approximately ~26% CAGR by the end of forecast period.By Application, consumer electronics sub segment holds the largest market share and is growing with approximately 27% CAGR by the end of forecast period.Geographically, North America region has been projected to hold the largest market share in global quantum dot display market whereas, Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in the quantum dot display market.Regional and Country Analysis of Quantum Dot Display Market Estimation and ForecastThe ongoing global trend towards quantum dot display is being reflected by an increase in the number of QLED televisions in the U.S. market. Also, there has been an upward trend in quantum dot display in the Asia pacific region. On the basis of region, the market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. It has been observed that North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the market, whereas Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period.The reports also cover country level analysis:North Americao USo Canadao MexicoEuropeo Germanyo Franceo U.K.o Rest of the EuropeAsia Pacifico Chinao Japano South Koreao Indiao Rest of the Asia PacificROWContinuousBuy this Report @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 Harmonic Drive Precision Strain Wave Reducer Gearboxes and RV and RD Reducers: Top Market Review and Current Demand Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2018 to 2024 https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1399308 https://www.researchmoz.us/harmonic-drive-precision-strain-wave-reducer-gearboxes-and-rv-and-rd-reducers-market-shares-strategies-and-forecasts-worldwide-2018-to-2024-report.html/toc "Harmonic Drive Precision Strain Wave Reducer Gearboxes and RV and RD Reducers: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2018 to 2024" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.. .Description-' 'The 2018 study has 230 pages, 141 tables and figures. The leading vendors in the harmonic drive industry have invested in high-quality technology and processes to develop leading edge reducer strain relief gearbox capability.Other vendors are working to catch up. Harmonic drive market driving forces relate primarily to the implementation of speed reduction capability for robots and wind turbines initially, providing industrial controls that are compelling.. .Get Sample Report @' 'The harmonic drive is used in situations where smooth, efficient gear operation is needed. Initial applications are in robotics, aerospace and solar tracking, the materials used in these applications can wear and break if the gearing in a motor is rough. Harmonic gear vendors offer a unique gear tooth profile that optimizes the tooth engagement. Only the high end vendors are able to provide harmonic drives that work, the other units become trash within days.Revenue for harmonic drives was $838 million in 2017, and products are expected to generate revenue of $3.517 billion by 2024. Strong growth is the result of increasing use in industrial robots as they become integrated and able to perform multiple functions sequentially in an automated manner. Harmonic drive reduction gearboxes are presented many new market opportunities from multiple types of applications. The VNTOL aircraft uses the drive reduction to enable vertical takeoff This lifts off like a helicopter and files like an airplane.Demanding applications for the gear box include surgical robots. By application category, there was a substantial year-on-year increase in sales for industrial robots used on production lines for smartphones, tablet devices, household appliances, automobiles, and other products.Sales for semiconductor manufacturing equipment increased due to rising capital investment against a backdrop of increasing demand for industrial equipment, automotive devices, and devices for data centers, among other factors. Sales for flat panel display manufacturing equipment increased due to high levels of investment to expand production capacity for LCD and organic EL panels.Semiconductor liquid crystal production equipment, photovoltaic equipment, optical instruments, precision machine tools and other cutting-edge areas provide target applications.Japan manufactures reliable performance precision gears. Reliable performance of precision gear reducer manufacturing is not yet occurring at scale elsewhere, particularly in China. China with its huge investments in industrial robots would really like to be able to scale manufacture of harmonic drive precision strain wave reducer gearboxes.The market has just begun. Early adopters are the robot manufacturers. Suppliers of the precision gears, Japanese companies, address markets for industrial robots. While the Chinese would like to be the primary suppliers of Harmonic Drive Precision Strain Wave Reducer Gearboxes, it has not happened yet.Harmonic gear reducers are used in aviation, aerospace, energy, navigation, shipbuilding, bionic machinery, commonly used ordnance, machine tools, instruments, electronic equipment, mining and metallurgy, transportation, lifting machinery, petrochemical machinery, textile machinery, agricultural machinery and medical Instruments.Japan's a precision reducer is used in industrial robots and airplane engines, wind turbines and for solar trackers.Companies ProfiledMarket LeadersHarmonic DriveSumitomo Heavy IndustriesBeijing CTKM Harmonic DriveLeaderdriveZhejiang LaifuNidec-ShimpoCone DriveMarket ParticipantsBeijing Harmonic Drive Technology Institute (BHDI)Beijing Zhong Ke Ke Mei Harmonic Drive Limited Liability CompanyChina Harmonic Drive (CHD)Motion Control ProductsNabtescoNidec-ShimpoParker BaysideSuzhou Green Harmonic Drive Technology Co., Ltd.Totel Industry Group / Ningbo Haishu Totel Imp. & Exp. Co., Ltd.Key TopicsHarmonic DrivePrecision Strain WaveReducer GearboxesRV and RD ReducersIndustrial Robotic Drive. .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 Demand of Elderly Care Services Market in Global Industry : Insights, Development, Research and Forecast 2018 https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1221345 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-elderly-care-services-market-2017-2021-edition-report.html/toc https://www.researchmoz.us/global-elderly-care-services-market-2017-2021-edition-report.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/ Albany, NY,12th January : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Global Elderly Care Services Market (2017-2021 Edition)" globally.The report titled Global Elderly Care Services Market (2017-2021 Edition) provides a detailed analysis of the elderly care services market with description of market sizing and growth, segmentation of market by products & services and major markets, top market players etc. The report recapitulates the factors that will be responsible for the growth in the market in the forecasted period.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The report also provides country analysis of the US, Canada, Europe and India in terms of market sizing and growth. The US and Canada (in North America) are the market leaders followed by European countries. Among Asia-Pacific countries, India has been emerged as the market leader in elder care services. In coming years, Asia-Pacific would be the key market player as the growth of ageing population is more than other nations worldwide.Furthermore, the report also profiles key market players such as Extendicare Inc., Brookdale senior Living Inc., Kindred Healthcare Inc. and Genesis Healthcare Inc. on the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, strategies adopted by the market leaders to ensure growth, sustainability, financial overview and recent developments.Company CoverageExtendicareBrookdale Senior Living Inc.Kindred Healthcare Inc.Genesis Healthcare Inc.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Executive SummarySenior citizens need assistance with daily activities as well as healthcare requirements who needs a quality life. Due to all these requirements there emerged a market known as elder care services market which specifically came into existence to serve the ageing population worldwide. Elder care services market has been divided into various segments. Elderly care business includes in home care, assisted living, nursing home facilities by skilled professionals, hospital care and pharmaceuticals. Among these, in-home care, assisted living and home healthcare segment are getting popularized day by day and provide quality life to senior citizens. Adult day care centres are designed for older adults who are no longer managing independently or who are isolated or lonely. Home care services are provided by family members and close relatives.Global elder care market has shown positive trends over the past few years. The primary reasons behind the growth of the market are increased ageing population worldwide, increasing demand for quality life by senior citizens, positive government regulation in healthcare segment to provide cost-effective medical treatment to the aged population, technological advancement, and chronic illness among old age population etc. the market is expected to achieve a moderate growth in the forecasted period. Global elder care services market continued to expand at a swift pace from 2017-2021.Browse Report @ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on : Development of Coffee Market in Global Industry : Trends and Application 2018 https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1221344 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-coffee-market-2017-2021-edition-report.html/toc https://www.researchmoz.us/global-coffee-market-2017-2021-edition-report.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/ Albany, NY,12th January : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Global Coffee Market (2017-2021 Edition)" globally.The report titled Global Coffee Market (2017-2021 Edition) provides an in-depth analysis of the global coffee market with detailed analysis of market sizing and growth, market share and economic impact of the industry.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The report also provides the production and consumption analysis of the market. The report provides detailed market analysis of the global retail coffee market by value and volume along with the segments of the market.The report provides detailed regional analysis of Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Ethiopia and India. It provides the production and consumption analysis along with the export-import trend in each of the above mentioned countriesGrowth of the global retail coffee market has also been forecasted for the period 2017-2021, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends. The competition in global coffee market is stiff and dominated by the big players like Nestle. Further, key players of the coffee market The J.M. Smucker Company, Mondelez International Inc. and Strauss Group Ltd. are also profiled with their financial information.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Country CoverageThe USWestern EuropeBrazilVietnamIndonesiaEthiopiaIndiaCompany CoverageThe J.M. Smucker CompanyMondelez International Inc.Strauss Group Ltd.Table Of Contents1. Executive Summary2. Introduction2.1 Coffee: An Overview2.2 Classification of Coffee2.2.1 Classification of Coffee on the Basis of Types2.2.2 Classification of Coffee on the Basis of End-Product2.3 Coffee around the Word2.3.1 North America & Caribbean2.3.2 Central America2.3.3 South America2.3.4 South Africa2.3.5 East Africa2.3.6 The Arabian Peninsula2.3.7 Asia3. Global Market Analysis3.1 Global Coffee Market: An Analysis3.1.1 Global Coffee Market Growth by Volume3.2 Global Retail Coffee Market: An Analysis3.2.1 Global Retail Coffee Market by Value3.2.2 Global Retail Coffee Market by VolumeBrowse Report @3.3 Global Coffee Production: An Analysis3.3.1 Global Coffee Production by Volume3.3.2 Global Coffee Production by Region3.3.3 Global Coffee Production by TypesResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on : Membrane Separation Market to Reach USD 39.2 Billion by 2019 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/membrane-separation-market.asp https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2888 https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/membrane-separation-market/toc https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/2888 http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com Persistence Market Research Released New Market Report on Global Market Study on Membrane Separation: Water & Waste Water Segment to Witness Highest Growth by 2019, the global membrane separation market was valued at USD 19.0 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.8% from 2013 to 2019, to reach an estimated value of USD 39.2 billion in 2019.Mandatory government regulation and increasing demand for clean processed drinking water is propelling the water processing industry to provide the public with clean processed drinking water free of impurity. Providing growth opportunity for water treatment industry among which, Membrane separation technology is one of the most popular methods used for cleaning water. Mandatory adherence of certain environmental standards by the national government such as the Clean Water Act especially in areas with water scarcity have influenced the demand for better water treatment technology, including membrane separation technology. Shifting from chemical to physical treatments of water is also a major driver as chemical treatments are perceived as an environmentally unclean technology with associated disposal costs. Additional awareness of water scarcity has influenced the demand for water reuse in water stressed areas.Membrane Separation Market Research Report Overview @Governments and municipal authorities are increasingly waking up to the effects of environmental degradation on the economy. Worldwide industrial expansion and growing population are propelling the demand for better water treatment technology, providing growth opportunity for the global market of membrane separation technology. Additionally, the oil and petroleum industry is well established in the gulf and European countries such as Italy and Germany which involve membrane separation technology for liquid separation.Request Sample Report@Expansion of such industry is expected to increase the overall demand for membrane separation technology. Membrane separation technology is bifurcated into four major processes, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. Microfiltration dominates the market with more than 35% global market share in 2012. Whereas water & wastewater dominates the end-user market with 36% global market shares in 2012. The global membrane separation market grew from USD 19.0 billion in 2010 to USD 21.2 billion in 2013.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @European membrane market (largest in 2013) is expected to reach USD 13.8 billion in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 9.6%. In 2012 water & wastewater sector was the major end-user of membrane separation technology and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 11.1% during 2013-19. The membrane separation market is fragmented with several players in the market supplying membrane separation products to the end-users (water and wastewater, industrial and healthcare) in the market. Most of the companies produce different types of membrane products such as microfiltration, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis and sell them globally. Major companies operating globally and manufacturing all four products are Evoqua Water Technologies, Pall Corporation, Koch Membrane Systems Inc., Merck Millipore, Degremont SA, Dow Chemical Company, GEA Filtration, 3M Company, Nitto Denko Corporation and Veolia Environnement.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: New Research Report Explore Atopic Dermatitis Treatment Market Expected to Represent a Value US$ 24,000 Mn by 2027 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3315 https://www.mrrse.com/atopic-dermatitis-treatment-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/3315 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ This research report offers a comprehensive analysis of the Atopic Dermatitis Treatment Market: North America to Remain Dominant Regional Market Through 2027: Global Industry Analysis 2012-2016 and Opportunity Assessment 2017-2027The 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 @The global atopic dermatitis treatment market is poised to grow from close to US$ 7,225 Mn in 2017 to nearly US$ 24,000 Mn by 2027 end. This represents a CAGR of 12.8% over the forecast period. Revenue from the global atopic dermatitis treatment market is estimated to increase 4.1X during the period 2017 2027. This massive growth can be attributed to a rising prevalence of atopic dermatitis across the world as well as the introduction of innovative therapeutic options.Industry consolidations leading to faster time-to-market in North AmericaVarious companies are focussed on partnerships with other companies with products in advanced stages of development to enable quicker approval and marketing of their products. Allergan plc, a leading global pharmaceutical company, successfully completed purchasing all outstanding shares of Vitae Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focussed on innovative development programmes for dermatologic conditions in Oct 2016. The completion of the Vitae acquisition has added highly differentiated development compounds to Allergans medical dermatology pipeline. The parent company is able to leverage its clinical development expertise and regulatory knowledge to ensure a win-win situation through this partnership.New classes of products launched in North America boosting the atopic dermatitis treatment marketSince December 2016, two new classes of drugs were launched targeting both mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis as well as severe atopic dermatitis. The launch of new classes of drugs gives patients and healthcare professionals alternatives to other classes of drugs such as corticosteroids, which carry the risk of side effects and calcineurin inhibitors, which do not have patent protection anymore and are open to generic alternatives. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Eucrisa (crisaborole) ointment to treat mild to moderate eczema (atopic dermatitis) in patients two years of age and older in Dec 2016. Eucrisa, applied topically twice daily, is a phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE-4) inhibitor.Side effects and high costs associated with biologic therapy may hamper the market in North AmericaDupixent can cause side effects such as serious allergic reactions and eye problems, such as pink eye (conjunctivitis) and inflammation of the cornea (keratitis). The most common side effects include injection site reactions; cold sores in the mouth or on the lips; and eye and eyelid inflammation, including redness, swelling and itching. Additionally, the developers of the biologic therapy Dupixent have priced the drug at approximately US$ 37,000/year. It is uncertain if payers will cover the cost of treatment, considering other lower cost alternatives; which could hinder the adoption of the drug.Browse Full Report with TOC @Global Atopic Dermatitis Treatment Market Attractiveness Analysis, by RegionNorth America dominated the global atopic dermatitis treatment market in terms of revenue in 2017, and the trend is projected to continue throughout the forecast period. North America is the most attractive regional market, with an attractiveness index of 3.4 over the forecast period. Revenue from the North America atopic dermatitis treatment market is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 16.0% over 20172027, to reach a market valuation in excess of US$ 10,000 Mn by 2027. Western Europe is the second largest market in terms of revenue growth, anticipated to reach a market valuation of more than US$ 7800 Mn by the end of the forecast period depicting a CAGR of 14.0%.Increasing R&D focus on novel biologics will shape future corporate strategiesAs the atopic dermatitis treatment market is currently highly generalised and there are only two key patent protected (U.S only) brands, no distinct trends exist. However, over the coming decade, the introduction of biologics, in particular interleukin inhibitors, will emerge as a key future strategy for this marketplace. Historically, Astellas and Novartis were the dominant market players in the atopic dermatitis treatment market for almost a decade, with the launch of the topical calcineurin inhibitor brands Protopic (tacrolimus) and Elidel (pimecrolimus), in the U.S in 2001. Although Astellas continues to maintain its strong standing in the current market, Novartis exited the space in April 2011, with the sale of Elidels rights to Meda. To some extent, Novartis continues to have a presence in this market, as some dermatologists opt for its brand edversions of cyclosporine, Sand immune or Neoral, for their atopic dermatitis patients requiring a systemic immune modulator.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: Growth of Hospital Artificial Intelligence: Market Trends and Application 2018 https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1354710 https://www.researchmoz.us/hospital-artificial-intelligence-market-shares-strategies-and-forecasts-worldwide-2017-to-2023-report.html/toc https://www.researchmoz.us/hospital-artificial-intelligence-market-shares-strategies-and-forecasts-worldwide-2017-to-2023-report.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/ Albany, NY,12th January : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Hospital Artificial Intelligence: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2017 to 2023" globally.The 2017 study has 90 pages, 35 tables and figures. Worldwide markets are poised to achieve continuing growth as the artificial intelligence software increases diagnostic excellence, saving lives and lowering care delivery costs.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Hospital Artificial IntelligenceHospital care management can leverage augmented intelligence. Artificial intelligence is useful for providing highly tailored insights about individual patients or to work across an entire population. Artificial intelligence is useful for helping providers effectively address healthcare delivery.The intersection of healthcare and artificial intelligence represents a market opportunity. New strategies are being developed by companies to bring A.I. to healthcare. The business challenges around those efforts are being addressed collectively in partnerships and in forums to bring the technology into the market. Artificial intelligence has an impact on patients, doctors, hospitals, clinical facilities, and the healthcare industry overall.The ability of an intelligent system to learn from data without upfront human intervention brings significant change to the healthcare delivery system. It relies on the use of unsupervised and semi-supervised machine learning techniques. Segmentation, dimensionality reduction, anomaly detection and pattern recognition are replacing supervised manual techniques for diagnosis and care delivery.Major factors driving the market for artificial intelligence in hospitals include its ability to provide better diagnostic accuracy under a variety of testing conditions. The worldwide aging population creates demand for increased accuracy of early diagnosis. An increase in the number of people with end stage diabetes, cancer, and severe respiratory diseases creates need for advanced medical diagnostic capabilities that work earlier in the evolution of disease, creating the ability to implement therapies that are lifesaving.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Partners HealthCare and GE Healthcare are launching a 10-year partnership to bring artificial intelligence into every area of hospital operations. IBM brings Watson to the hospital AI landscape in hospitals. Progress is demonstrated by the health care AI launch to the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Womens Hospital Center for Clinical Data Science (Partners). Multidisciplinary teams from Partners and GE Healthcare have worked to develop applications for AI in every step of the patient journey from the moment they are admitted to the hospital. Long-term, the goal is to develop applications that improve the way illnesses are diagnosed, change how treatment is developed, decrease unnecessary biopsies, streamline clinical workflows, and increase the amount of time clinicians spend with patients.Artificial Intelligence Market ForecastsHospital artificial intelligence market shipments at $19 billion in 2016 are forecast to reach $50 billion dollars, worldwide 2023. These represent a very specialized type of analytics systems able to address a wide range of issues that can be newly managed with digitization. Steady growth is anticipated because the AI units are offering breakthrough treatments and diagnostic capabilities.Companies ProfiledMarket LeadersGeneral ElectricIBMMarket ParticipantsAlphabet / GoogleGlaxoSmithKline (GSK)MerckPrognosQuest DiagnosticsSafeguard ScientificsZebraBrowse Report @Companies MentionedDrug discovery artificial intelligenceExscientiaBergNumeratetwoXARAtomwiseBenevolentAI.ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on : Research of IoT Platforms for Telemedicine : Market Trends, Analysis, Growth and Status 2017 https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1354709 https://www.researchmoz.us/iot-platforms-for-telemedicine-market-shares-strategies-and-forecasts-worldwide-2017-to-2023-report.html/toc https://www.researchmoz.us/iot-platforms-for-telemedicine-market-shares-strategies-and-forecasts-worldwide-2017-to-2023-report.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/ Albany, NY,12th January : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "IoT Platforms for Telemedicine: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2017 to 2023" globally.The 2017 study has 234 pages, 115 tables and figures. Worldwide markets are poised to achieve significant growth as the digital economy takes hold with IOT Internet of things and all manner of automated medical monitoring processes increase the value of medical care while decreasing the costs.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @IoT platforms for healthcare implement use of the digital economy. IoT for Telemedicine depends on infrastructure scalability excellence, which is achieved with a two layer architecture utilizing adapters and processors to manage sensor connectivity.Healthcare stakeholders include payers, manufacturers, providers and physicians. Telemedicine IoT platforms provide the technology that implement a framework for transition from disjointed care to coordinated care. Platforms permit clinicians to be reactive to change in patient condition, permitting proactive care delivery.Remote healthcare grew 44% in 2016. The Intel Health Application Platform helps enable innovation for greater adoption and effectiveness of secure remote patient care solutions. By offering a platform that supports gathering medical data at the edge of the network, devices are enabled that gather and distribute personal medical data securely to any cloud.IoT telemedicine platforms growth is brought by the combination the ability to lower the cost of medical care delivery while improving the quality of care dramatically. The IoT telemedicine platforms value goes beyond traditional medical monitoring bringing to the fore, the value of exercise. The value of exercise has been proven and telemedicine is anticipated to be used by exercise clubs to induce members to do more exercise that is beneficial to long term health. The value of supplemental oxygen in improving endurance and building muscles will likely become a part of telemedicine platform initiatives.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @IoT Platforms for Telemedicine market forecast indicates that markets at $1.2 billion in 2016 are expected to reach $9.3 billion dollars worldwide by 2023. These represent a very specialized type of analytics systems able to address a wide range of issues that can be newly managed with digitization. Steady growth is anticipated because the IoT platform units are offering breakthrough digital information integration capabilities that further automates a delivery of care to a patient located remotely. Steady growth is anticipated because the IoT platforms are the best device for implementing efficient operations at low cost.Companies ProfiledMarket LeadersIntelIBMPhilipsAlibabaSoftbankAppleGoogleSamsungMarket ParticipantsAlphabet / GoogleAlibaba Group in ShanghaiAmazonAMC HealthAMD GlobalAmerican Telehealth AssociationAmerican Well SystemsAppleAT&TCiscoDoctor on DemandGlobalMedGoogle ChromecastHewlett HP IoTIBMiHealth LabsIntel IoT Telemedicine PlatformsMicrosoft IoTOlea KiosksoneM2M Specifications for IoT ExpansionPhilipsPTCSAPSensogram TechnologiesSoftbankSymantec / Norton Core RouterTeladocVivify HealthBrowse Report @Companies MentionedGoogle, Amazon, FacebookAccentureQualcommNiantic Pokemon GoNovartisResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on : Zika Virus Testing Market Intelligence Research Reports for Actionable Insights 2017-2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2913 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2913 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com One of the biggest public growing threat is the rapid emergence of mosquito borne virus called as Zika virus. Zika virus was first identified in rhesus monkey in the year 1947 in Uganda. Later in 1952 the virus was identified in humans. The virus is a single-stranded RNA virus of the Flaviviridae family, and is transmitted by two species of Aedes genus, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. These are the same mosquito species that also spread dengue and chikungunya virus. The virus can also be vertically transmitted during fetal/perinatal period or by unprotected sexual contact. In case of perinatal transmission the virus can pass from mother to fetus through trans-placental transmission which can lead to the most common birth defect of brain called as microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects. Eye defect, hearing problems and impaired growth are some of the issues commonly associated with the infection of Zika virus in fetus. Apart from this several evidences of Guillain-Barre syndrome, have also been reported in patients carrying the virus. Guillain-Barre syndrome is an uncommon sickness of the nervous system which leads to ascending paralysis. However, the risk is found to be higher in pregnant womens during their first trimester of pregnancy period. Symptoms associated with the infection of Zika virus includes, fever, rashes, joint pain, conjunctivitis, muscle pain and headache. These symptoms last for several days to weeks. Africa, America, Asia and Pacific regions are likely to be dominated regions witnessing outbreaks of Zika virus.The first largest outbreak of Zika virus was reported in the year 2007 across the Pacific island of Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia. In 2016, World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the local transmission of Zika infection in more than 20 countries and territories across the Americas. Currently a number of Zika virus testing assays are available in the market some of which have received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) while some of them are used for Research Use Only (RUO) and are used as Laboratory Developed Test (LDT). Currently, a number of diagnostic tests are available in the market for the diagnosis of Zika virus in humans. This includes, Zika ELITe MGB detection test, Sentosa SA ZIKV RT-PCR, LightMix Zika rRT-PCR test and many more. All these tests allow qualitative detection of RNA from Zika virus from body samples such as urine, human serum and plasma. The market for zika virus testing is expected to rise over the forecast period owing to continuous increase in population exhibiting symptoms of Zika virus over the forecast period.Request For Report Sample:Zika Virus Testing Market: Drivers & RestraintsExpanded disease surveillance efforts undertaken by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is expected to spur the market for Zika virus testing in the U.S. In august 2016, FDA announced screening of all donated blood and blood products for Zika virus across the world. This would help prevent increased chances of getting infected through transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs). Substantial spending by U.S. government and FDA to add Zika screening program across all the hospitals and blood banks in U.S. is expected to spur the market for Zika virus testing over the forecast period. Furthermore, increasing efforts by various manufacturers to develop Zika virus screening tests is expected to accelerate the market growth in the coming years. Major demand for Zika virus testing is expected to come from Florida attributed to increasing number of patients exhibiting symptoms of Zika virus. Lack of awareness in the developing countries and inaccurate results from available diagnostic tests may affect the revenues for Zika virus testing market globally over the forecast period.Zika Virus Testing Market: SegmentationZika virus testing market is segmented by test type, route of administration, end user and geography:By Test TypeNucleic Acid Amplification Test/ Molecular TestsZika Virus Antibody Test/ Serological TestBy End UserHospitalsDiagnostic CentersPathology ClinicsZika Virus Testing Market: OverviewAccording to WHO, since 2007, 67 countries and territories reported the evidence of Zika virus transmission. At present, the diagnosis of Zika virus in humans is dependent upon the molecular detection of viral RNA. However, presence of RNA only during the viraemia i.e. presence the virus in blood, and close clinical association of Zika symptoms with dengue and other infections, has resulted in lare number of undiagnosed cases.Accessibility of better diagnostic testing services (i.e. rapid near-patient tests) across several haeltcare facilities is expected to fuel the market for Zika virus testing over the forecast period.Zika Virus Testing Market: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of region presence, Zika virus testing market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia pacific excluding japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa. Continuous spread of Zika virus across several countries in North America is expected to increase the demand for Zika virus testing services over the forecast period. WHO estimated that as of July 2016, in the U.S. CDC reported 12 birth defects related cases and six pregnancy losses. Furthermore, increasing efforts by HHS, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to raise the fund for development of diagnostic assays for Zika virus detection is expected to drive the market growth of Zika virus testing over the forecast period. Also the Zika virus outbreak in several Latin American countries is rapidly growing. For example in Brazil alone the virus is known to affect 21 states out of 26 states. Rapid local transmission of Zika virus across the globe is expected to result in more number of diagnostic assays performed thus driving the revenues.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Zika Virus Testing Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in the Zika virus testing market are, ELITechGroup Inc. Molecular Diagnostics, Abbott Molecular Inc., ARUP Laboratories, Vela Diagnostics USA Inc., Roche Molecular Systems Inc., InBios International, Inc., Luminex Corporation, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc., Hologic, Inc. and Focus Diagnostics, 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 trendsCONTACT:Abhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Global Coated Abrasive Market Major Manufacturers, Trends, Demand, Share Analysis to 2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1751893-global-coated-abrasive-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1751893-global-coated-abrasive-market-research-report-forecast-to-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com Global Coated Abrasive IndustryLatest Report on Coated Abrasive Market Global Analysis & 2022 Forecast Research StudyGlobal Coated Abrasives Market Information, By Types (Aluminium Oxide, Silicon Carbide, Zirconia Alumina, Ceramic Alumina, Emery and Garnet), By Application (Metalworking, Woodworking, Automotive, Electronics & Semiconductors, Aerospace & Defense, and Others)Market Synopsis of Global Coated Abrasives market:Try Sample Report @Abrasive can be defined as substance used for giving shape to any hard material by rubbing the material against the abrasives. The multibillion dollar abrasive industry is broadly classified into three main categories, bonded abrasives, coated abrasives, and super abrasives. Each category having nearly equal dominance in the industry. In terms of value share, the coated abrasives accounted for slightly above on-third of the global abrasives revenue. The impetus factors pulsating the growth of coated abrasives market includes, the augmenting demand for strong and durable tools for versatile applications such as cutting, sharpening and precise grinding across an array of industries. The demand for coated abrasives is concentrated among the various industries such as, metalworking, woodworking, automotive, electronics & semiconductors, and aerospace & defense among others, of which, the metalworking and woodworking industry accounts for nearly 60% of the overall revenue in the coated abrasives market. Furthermore, considerable spending on grinding wheels; USD 148 million in 2014, which is expected to reach approximately USD 220 million by 2020 can be further attributed to the rise of coated abrasives in the metalworking industry.The economic slowdown in 2008, which had an adverse effect on the different business sectors such as, construction and automotive among other industries is regaining pace its pace. The housing market which crashed immensely during the crisis, especially in the developed markets like US and Europe is slowly regaining its pace, which in turn is boosting the demand for coated abrasives in the woodworking and construction sector in the developed markets. Also, the crude oil prices witnessed historic low, which in turn witnessed surge in automotive production both in the developing and developed nations. Altogether, considering the abovementioned factors, the global coated abrasives market is foreseen to grow substantially during the forecast period. According to MRFR analysis, the global coated abrasives market was valued at USD 10,233.3 million in 2016 and is expected to be valued at USD 14,671.2 million by the end of 2022, expanding at a CAGR of 6.3%.Global Coated Abrasives Market Share, by Region 2015 (% share)Key findingsOn the basis of types, aluminium and silicon carbide coated abrasives dominate the market in terms of value and volume, together both the segments account for 71.2% of the revenue share of the global coated abrasives market. Based on the applications, metalworking and woodworking segments accounts for largest market shares, together the segments account for more than one-third of the revenue generated in the coated abrasives market. Furthermore, the electronic & semiconductor segment offers lucrative opportunities with increasing demand for coated abrasives for precision grinding. Regionally, Asia-Pacific is the dominating market for coated abrasives followed by Europe and North America. Asia-Pacific market is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period in terms of value share, expanding at a CAGR of ~7%.Key Players for Global Coated Abrasives market:The global coated abrasives market is dominated by the tier 1 manufactures operating in the market, these players account for more the half of the revenue of global coated abrasives market. Some of the tier 1 companies among other players operating in the global coated abrasives market are Saint-Gobain, 3M, CUMI, Sia Abrasives AG, KLINGSPOR, Hermes Schleifmittel GmbH, and VSM AG among others.Market Segmentation:Global coated abrasives market is segmented on the basis of types and applications. On the basis of types, the market is segmented into Aluminium Oxide, Silicon Carbide, Zirconia Alumina, Ceramic Alumina, Emery, and Garnet of which aluminium oxide and silicon carbide accounts for significant market shares in the global coated abrasives market. On the basis of applications, the market is segmented into Metalworking, Woodworking, Automotive, Electronics & Semiconductors, Aerospace & Defense, and others. Metalworking segment accounts for the largest market share among all the applications.Regional Analysis:The report covers brief analysis of geographical region such as: North Americao USo Canada Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo U.K.o Rest of Europe APACo Chinao Indiao Japano Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Middle East & AfricaAmong the aforementioned regions, Asia Pacific market dominates the global coated abrasives market, owing to the industrial penetration in the region, coupled with increasing automotive production. Also, the concentration of manufactures of coated abrasives and migration of Tier 1 manufacturers in the region are some of the protuberant factors for the regional dominance. Europe ranks second in terms of value and volume, primarily owing to the rebound in housing market and automotive production in the region.Intended Audience Coated Abrasives Manufacturers Coated Abrasives Suppliers & Traders Abrasive Grain Manufacturers Market Research and Consulting Service ProvidersDC Description: Coated Abrasives Aluminium Oxide Silicon Carbide Abrasive Grains Precision Grinding.For Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @Some points from table of content:1 Report Prologue 122 Scope of The Report 142.1 Market Definition 142.2 Scope of the Study 142.2.1 Research Objectives 142.2.2 Assumptions 142.2.3 Limitations 142.3 Market Structure 153 Research Methodology 163.1 Research Process 163.2 Primary Research 173.3 Secondary Research 173.4 Market Size Estimation 173.5 Forecast Model 194 Market Dynamics 204.1 Introduction 204.2 Drivers 20Continued.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.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 Cloud Access Security Brokers Market to reach US$ 13,218.5 Mn by 2024 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/706398 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/706398/cloud-access-security-brokers-cloud-market-research-reports/toc https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/706398/cloud-access-security-brokers-cloud-market-research-reports Cloud Access Security Brokers Market: OverviewCloud access security brokers are primarily deployed to protect the critical data of organizations. The advent of cloud-based systems has helped many companies to manage their critical data in better ways. Lack of information storage infrastructure has led the small and medium businesses to acquire cloud services. The rising data breach and data leakage incidences on the internet have led to the rising demand for cloud access security brokers in many regions. Cloud access security brokers offer solutions to data controlling and monitoring, cloud data encryption, tokenization, risk and compliance management, and data leakage prevention.The involvement of a large number of small-scale and medium-scale companies, the entry of new companies, and the presence of many leading companies will drive the global market for cloud access security brokers. The global cloud access security brokers market is predicted to reach US$13,218.5 mn by 2024, expected to exhibit a 16.70% CAGR during the period between 2016 and 2024.Get the sample copy of this report :The report uses industry-standard tools such as SWOT analysis tool and Porters five force analysis to measure the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the global cloud access security brokers market. For a detailed analysis, the analysts have divided the global market into segments and sub-segments. Key players operating in the global market are also listed in the report. Recent trends, developments in cloud-based systems, and the future growth opportunities are highlighted in the report.Cloud Access Security Brokers Market: Trends and OpportunitiesCloud services have influenced many companies operating in various industries. The adoption of cloud technologies has helped many industries to solve their data storage problems cost-effectively. This has allowed the companies to focus on their core operations and capacities. Cloud access security brokers are consistently achieving an important position in the global cloud-based technologies market.Request for TOC of this report :By component, the global cloud access security brokers market is classified into service and software. The software segment is sub-segmented into on-premise and cloud-based components. The service segment is sub-divided into system integration, consulting, and operations and management.Although the global cloud access security brokers market is set for a significant growth, it is expected to be hampered by a few factors. Lack of awareness about the latest cloud access security solutions is predicted to hamper the growth of the global market.Cloud Access Security Brokers Market: Region-wise OutlookBased on region, the global cloud access security brokers market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. In 2015, North America dominated the global cloud access security brokers market. The North America cloud access security brokers market recorded the highest implementation of cloud access security brokers in the recent years. The North America cloud access security brokers market is likely to exhibit an 18.40% CAGR from 2016 to 2024.View full report :Key Players mentioned in the Report:NetSkope Inc., CloudLock Inc., Adallom, Inc., CipherCloud Inc., Skyhigh Networks, Zscaler, Inc., Bitglass, Inc., and Protegrity USA, Inc. are some of the leading companies operating in the global cloud access security brokers market. Key companies are aiming to adopt new innovative methodologies and technologies to secure information over the cloud. The entry of new companies is expected to make the global market highly competitive.Major regions analyzed under this research report are:EuropeNorth AmericaAsia PacificRest of the WorldThis report gives you access to decisive data such as:Market growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for the coming yearsKey highlights of this reportOverview of key market forces propelling and restraining market growthUp-to-date analyses of market trends and technological improvementsPin-point analyses of market competition dynamics to offer you a competitive edgeAn analysis of strategies of major competitorsAn array of graphics and SWOT analysis of major industry segmentsDetailed analyses of industry trendsA well-defined technological growth map with an impact-analysisOffers a clear understanding of the competitive landscape and key product segmentsMRRbiz 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 Dental Anaesthetic Market Projected to Grow Steadily During 2017-2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2956 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2956 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com Dental Anaesthetic is the substance used by the dentist for partial or complete numbness of mouth. It is used to manage pain and anxiety in patients. Dental anaesthesia is a reversible process of losing sensation which is induced by the drug known as anesthetics. This procedure is used to decrease preoperative or postoperative pain, diagnostic testing and examination and better patients cooperation. Dental anesthetic is injected into the gum or inner cheek. Increasing cases of gingivitis, periodontitis, cancer are expected to increase dental procedure, thus increasing the demand for dental anesthetics, globally. Increasing use of tobacco and cigarette and changes in eating habit is expected to increase dental disorders and other disorder related to oral and maxiofacial. This increasing prevalence of dental disorders would fuel the growth for dental anesthetic market during the forecast period. Anesthetics are very different from normal pain killers or analgesics, which relieves pain without loss of sensation. Dental anesthetic includes both general anesthetic and local anesthetic. Dental anesthetic is used in nonsurgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) procedures. Nonsurgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) procedures are general procedures that require anesthetics in duration based on procedure. Lidocaine is the most common type of anesthesia used for anesthesia. Its half-life period in the body is 1.5 to 2 hours. Instruments involved in local anesthesia includes anesthetic carpules, syringe, needle, mouth props and retractors. Carpules is of various size 1.7 or 1.8cc packed in blister packs and canisters. It contains preservatives for epinephrine and local anesthetic. Syringes are two types that include: aspirating type, and non-aspirating type, Needles used in the process are available in various size, multiple gauges, and bevel, a topical anesthetic is used before local anesthetic injection to decrease the discomfort associated with anesthesia needle. It usually contains 20% benzocaine. ADA Council on Scientific Affairs in 2003 designed color-coding system to be a part of labeling on injectable local anesthetic that carried the ADA seal of acceptance. The system was developed as a result of the growing concern of difference in color coding from manufacturer to manufacturer.Dental Anaesthesia Market: Drivers and RestraintsDental Anesthesia market is growing with the increasing focus on the return on investment are growing the market. The growing investments on advanced anesthesia administration instruments and dental researches. The increasing dental healthcare base, growing economy, increasing trend towards dental health checkup. The increasing geriatric population and introduction of new products are expected to increase the market of global dental anesthesia. The stringent regulations by government, ignorance to dental problems and usage of traditional therapies are expected to act as a restraint to the marketRequest For Report Sample:Dental Anaesthesia Market: SegmentationThe global dental anesthesia market is classified by product type, mode of administration, duration of action and distribution channelGlobal dental anesthesia market, by Product TypeLidocaineLidocaine 2% with Epinephrine 1:100,000Lidocaine 2% with Epinephrine 1:50,000Lidocaine PlainMepivacaineMepivacaine 2% with Levonordefrin 1:20,000Mepivacaine 3%PrilocainePrilocaine 4% with Epinephrine 1:200,000Prilocaine 4%Bupivacaine 0.5% with Epinephrine1:200,000ArticaineArticaine 4% with Epinephrine 1:100,00Articaine 4% with Epinephrine 1:200,000OthersGlobal dental anesthesia market, by Mode of AdministrationMaxillary anaesthesiaLocal infiltrationSupraperiosteal injectionIntraseptal InjectionPeriodontal Ligament InjectionField BlockPeriapical InjectionNerve BlockPosterior superior alveolarMiddle superior alveolarAnterior superior alveolarMandibular anaesthesiaNerve BlockIANAkinosiGow-GatesTissue or SkinOthersGlobal dental anesthesia market, by Duration of ActionShortMediumLongGlobal dental anesthesia market, by Distribution ChannelHospital clinicsClinicsPharmacies and drug storesE-commerceOtherDental Anaesthesia Market: OverviewDental anesthesia market by product type is sub-segmented into Lidocaine ( Lidocaine 2% with Epinephrine 1:100,000, Lidocaine 2% with Epinephrine 1:50,000, Lidocaine Plain), Mepivacaine (Mepivacaine 2% with Levonordefrin 1:20,000, Mepivacaine 3%), Prilocaine (Prilocaine 4% with Epinephrine 1:200,000, Prilocaine 4%), Bupivacaine 0.5% with Epinephrine1:200,000, Articaine ( Articaine 4% with Epinephrine 1:100,00 and Articaine 4% with Epinephrine 1:200,000) and Others. The other two segment includes mode of administration and duration of action. The rising awareness among the population about importance of dental health and government initiatives to provide better dental facilities is expected to boost the market of dental anesthesia.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Dental Anesthesia Market: Regional OverviewRegion-wise, the global dental anesthesia market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America is expected to lead the market due to better economic condition, better government initiatives, and more business investments. Latin America market is expected to hold second largest market share followed by Europe due to increasing trend towards racing competitions and awareness among the population.Market: Key PlayersSome of the players in Dental Anesthesia market includes Astra Zeneca, Septodont, Dentsply Sirona,GlaxoSmithKline plc, Gilead Sciences, Johnson & Johnson and 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 trendsCONTACT:Abhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Dental Ultrasonic Baths Market Value Share, Supply Demand and Global Expansion by 2018 2025 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Market https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/701921 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/global-dental-ultrasonic-baths-market-research-report-2018 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/check-discount/701921 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com Dental Ultrasonic Baths Market report contains demonstrated examination by regions, particularly for North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, centering top makers in showcase, with Production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer.Dental Ultrasonic Baths Market report would prove to be useful to comprehend your competitors and give you knowledge about sales; a volume, revenues in the Dental Ultrasonic Baths market, helps with settling on key choices.QY Research Groups render to you profound details in respect to leading participants, regions, application and type of the Global Dental Ultrasonic Baths Market which is estimated to encounter substantial growth over the forecast period 2013-2025.For comprehensive data provided in sample click @This study provides insights about the Dental Ultrasonic Baths in regards to its uses and benefits. We at QY Research Groups provide updated information that is beneficial in decision making regarding business investments.The Top Participants In The Market AreAixin Medical Equipment Co.,Ltd (China)Biobase (Germany)Coltene (Spain)Dentalfarm Srl (Italy)DURR DENTAL AG (Germany)Elma Schmidbauer (Germany)EURONDA (Italy)Foshan Joinchamp Medical Device (China)Galbiati Srl (Italy)Gnatus (Brazil)Grant Instruments (UK)Hanil Dental Ind. Co., Ltd. (Korea)Hans Dinslage (Germany)IN4 Technology Corp. (China Taiwan)Medisafe International (UK)MESTRA Talleres Mestraitua, S.L. (Spain)ningbo ican machines co.,ltd (China)Nouvag (Germany)REITEL Feinwerktechnik (Germany)Renfert (Germany)Rolence (China Taiwan)Runyes Medical Instrument Co., Ltd. (China)Sabilex de Flexafil S.A. (Argentina)SILFRADENT SRL (Italy)Sinol Dental Limited (China)SMEG (Italy)TPC (USA)UWC Industrial Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia)Woson Medical (China)Browse full report with Table of Content @The regions encompassed by this study areNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaIn terms of type the market is segmented into< 20L20 - 50L50 - 100L> 100LBy Application the market coversDental OfficesDental LaboratoryGrab your best price at @Table of ContentsGlobal Dental Ultrasonic Baths Market Research Report 20181 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Dental Ultrasonic Baths1.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Dental Ultrasonic Baths Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Dental Ultrasonic Baths Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 < 20L1.2.4 20 - 50L1.2.5 50 - 100L1.2.6 > 100L1.3 Global Dental Ultrasonic Baths Segment by Application1.3.1 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Dental Offices1.3.3 Dental Laboratory1.4 Global Dental Ultrasonic Baths Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Dental Ultrasonic Baths 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 Dental Ultrasonic Baths (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Dental Ultrasonic Baths Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)7 Global Dental Ultrasonic Baths Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Aixin Medical Equipment Co.,Ltd (China)7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Aixin Medical Equipment Co.,Ltd (China) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Biobase (Germany)7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Biobase (Germany) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Coltene (Spain)7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Coltene (Spain) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Dentalfarm Srl (Italy)7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Dentalfarm Srl (Italy) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 DURR DENTAL AG (Germany)7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 DURR DENTAL AG (Germany) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Elma Schmidbauer (Germany)7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Elma Schmidbauer (Germany) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 EURONDA (Italy)7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 EURONDA (Italy) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 Foshan Joinchamp Medical Device (China)7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 Foshan Joinchamp Medical Device (China) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 Galbiati Srl (Italy)7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 Galbiati Srl (Italy) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 Gnatus (Brazil)7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Dental Ultrasonic Baths Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 Gnatus (Brazil) Dental Ultrasonic Baths Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 Grant Instruments (UK)7.12 Hanil Dental Ind. Co., Ltd. (Korea)7.13 Hans Dinslage (Germany)7.14 IN4 Technology Corp. (China Taiwan)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- Global market for eDiscovery (Software & Services) Projected to reach US$11.6 billion by 2020 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/862 https://www.mrrse.com/ediscovery-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/862 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled eDiscovery MarketRequest a Free Sample Report @The amount of electronically stored data for businesses of all sizes from small startups to top conglomerates is increasing at a very fast pace. Most companies make high volume usage of social networking portals, emails, internal communications systems, and cloud computing services and platforms. In fact, it is estimated that the volume of ESI for each organization is increased at more than 65% per year. This is a very significant marker from where clients derive their ever-growing need for eDiscovery platforms and services.The use of social media inside corporates, especially, has bolstered the need for eDiscovery platforms and services. Companies are making an increasing usage of social media tools including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to make the most of the online communities, which also makes it a high priority source of evidence for civil litigation.There is, however, the high costs of eDiscovery processes that companies need to bear. The total amount spent on not just asset deployment, but also services, consultations, and deployment of internal staff, can become a severe hindrance for the adoption of eDiscovery services by small-scale companies.With the above factors in effect, the global market for eDiscovery services and platforms is expected to expand at a CAGR of 16.2% from 2014 to 2022 on the basis of revenue. This revenue is expected to reach US$8.31 bn by the end of 2016 and approximately US$21.08 bn by 2022.Outlook Complete Report with Table of Content @Till recently, a majority of the market share in eDiscovery services was taken up by North America. By the end of 2022, North America is expected to generate a revenue of US$10.71 bn in eDiscovery platforms and services. Although this is a relative fall in percentage shares, North America still holds the leading share among all key regions. The drop in percentage is due to the extremely fast growing demand for eDiscovery platforms in Asia Pacific, where the rapid industrial evolution of India and China is making way for a well-developed IT infrastructure.The need for eDiscovery solutions is much more in North America and Europe than other regions, owing to the government regulations that require an organization to preserve company data for sake of eDiscovery itself. This has created a staggering rise in the ESI volumes in the regions, further boosting the need for eDiscovery platforms and services.Off-premise eDiscovery Software Solutions to Gain Lead SoonOn-premise eDiscovery solutions were highly sought after due to the greater simplicity and higher safety that they offered. They trumped off-premise eDiscovery solutions primarily due to the high concerns over data integrity and security. This is expected to change in the immediate future, as off-premise eDiscovery solutions are not only becoming capable of providing high level security, but also platforms and services of eDiscovery at considerably lesser costs than on-premise providers. By the end of 2022, a high difference in market values between on-premise and off-premise eDiscovery platforms is expected to be seen, with off-premise eDiscovery solutions taking up an estimated US$4.83 bn.Send an Inquiry @The key providers of eDiscovery solutions from a global standpoint include HP Autonomy, IBM Corporation, Daegis, Inc., EMC Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Guidance Software, Inc., Epiq Systems, Inc., FTI Consulting, Inc., Integreon Managed Solutions, Inc., Catalyst Repository Systems, Inc., and Navigant Consulting, 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: Visitor Management Software Market - Positive Long-Term Growth & Industry Outlook 2023 Visitor Management Software Market https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report-sample/IC12420 https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/report/visitor-management-software-market https://www.crystalmarketresearch.com/send-an-enquiry/IC12420 https://blog.crystalmarketresearch.com http://www.crystalmarketresearch.com The latest trending report published by Crystal Market Research titled, Visitor Management Software Market, approximates that the Visitor Management Software industry size is estimated to flourish at a significant CAGR in the future, and this is attributed to the escalation in need for this product across the globe along with novel innovations in the market.Get Sample Copy of the Report here:Report Overview:The Global Visitor Management Software Market has encountered significant development in the last few years and is foreseen to encounter considerable development in the following years. Visitor Management Software is a useful solution, which encourages organizations to increase better control over the movement of visitor in their premises. Visitor Management Software is a solution that is software based which record, capture, recover and monitor the data of visitors, keeping in mind the end goal to deal with the guest activity inside the workplace/building. Visitor Management Softwares are accessible with different highlights, including Photo ID or unique finger impression examining of the visitor, automated pre-registration of expected registers, and auto-identification of repeated visitors. Based on the type of visitor, access cards are generated by the Visitor Management Softwares with authorized restrictions and access to facilities.On the basis of application the market is segmented into Government, Hospital, Corporate, School & Education and others. These systems are extremely effective in hospitals as they protect the theft of medical supplies and maintain the security of patients and children. It provides a streamline approach to manage the identities of healthcare experts and patients, thereby enhancing patient satisfaction. On the other hand, these systems are extensively adopted by governments across countries in order to protect sensitive information and identity.Key players in Market:HID GlobalProxyclickVeristreamGate SentryRaptor TechnologiesSwipedOnRegional Outlook:The Visitor Management Software market in North America trailed by Western Europe are anticipated to dominate the market, rising requirement to strengthen security and safety of the offices and supporting existing infrastructure to adopt Visitor Management Software. Among all regions, on the basis of revenue, Asia Pacific is considered as the quickest developing Visitor Management Software market due to elevating security standards across different industries, including hospitality, information technology and education.To Grab the Complete Report, Please Visit:The Global Visitor Management Software Market is segmented as follows-By Product:On premiseCloud basedBy Application:HospitalGovernmentSchool and EducationCorporateOthersTable of Contents:1. Introduction2. Executive Summary3. Market Overview4. Visitor Management Software Market, By Product4.1. Introduction4.2. Visitor Management Software Market Assessment and Forecast, By Product, 2014-20234.3. On Premise4.4. Cloud Based5. Visitor Management Software Market, By Application5.1. Introduction5.3. Corporate5.4. Government5.5. School & Education5.6. Hospital6. Visitor Management Software Market, By Region7. Company ProfilesSpeak to Experts for any Queries: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 Summit on Medicinal Chemistry 2018 New Year Discount On behalf of Medicinal Chemistry 2018 Organizing Committee, we are pleased to invite Chairperson, Director/ Dean, Associate Professors, professors, PhD students and post graduates of Chemistry, Pharmaceuticals, Biology and Physical Sciences, Chemical Biology, Analytical Chemistry, Nano Science, and related fields., Teachers, Business delegates and Young researchers across the world to attend Global Summit on Medicinal Chemistry which is to be held on July 30-31, 2018 at Amsterdam, Netherlands. The conference highlights the theme Current Advancements and its Applications in Medicinal Chemistry.EuroSciCon is the longest running independent life science events company with a predominantly academic client base. Our multi-professional and multi-speciality approach creates a unique experience that cannot be found with a specialist society or commercially.EuroSciCon Ltd40 Bloomsbury WayLower Ground FloorLondon, United KingdomWC1A 2SE. Instant Dry Yeast Market Forecast Report Offers Actionable Insights 2017-2027 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3117 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3117 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com Yeast is a kind of fungus which is used to convert sugar into alcohol. Yeast is an important ingredient for bakery as well as beverage industry.Instant dry yeast is type of dry yeast which has a fine texture unlike activate dry yeast which has a big granular structure. Instant dry yeast was introduced in the market in late 1970s after active dry yeast was introduced. Instant dry yeast are processed similarly the way active dry yeast are processed but the instant yeast are milled much finer. In order to use active yeast it is first mixed with water, but that is not the case for instant dry yeast, it can be used without mixing it with water and can directly be mixed with dry ingredient. As the name suggests, instant dry yeast has a faster ac activity rate, compared to that of active dry yeast. Instant dry yeast and active dry yeast are interchangeable, but if active dry yeast is used in place of instant dry yeast then it is expected a deal of 10-15 mins for the rise time.Market Segmentation:Instant Dry Yeast marketis segment on the basis of application, end user industry, distribution channel and region. On the basis of application the instant dry yeast market is segmented into fermentation and clinical research. Among these segment fermentation is expected to grow to a great extent in the forecast period, as there is numerous amount of use of instant dry yeastin the food and beverage industry. The demand for instant dry yeast is also more as it offer shorter rising time than any other dry yeast. On the basis of end user industry the instant dry yeast market is distributed into food and bakery and brewery. On the basis of distribution channel the instant dry yeast market is segmented into supermarkets/hypermarkets, medical stores and online stores. Medical stores is anticipated to hold a relatively higher share in the instant dry yeast market, followed by conventional stores. On the basis of region the Instant Dry Yeast market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and MEA.Request For Report Sample:Market Regional Outlook:Regional segment for the market of Instant Dry Yeast is divided into seven different regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and MEA. Among these segment Europe and North America is expected to be the leader of instant dry yeast market share globally, and is expected to be dominant in the forecaster period. In Europe region the countries like Germany and France are the key market for instant dry yeast. In terms of revenue Asia Pacific is the expected to be the third leading contributor in theinstant dry yeastmarket, followed by Latin America.Market Drivers:The market of instant dry yeast is increasing due to the multiple use of instant dry yeast in the food & beverage and pharmaceutical industry. With the arrival of new market players in the global market is anticipated to boost the growth of instant dry yeastmarketglobally during the forecast period. Instant dry yeast are now used very much in the field of biotechnology in order to make biofuels from agricultural food waste. Instant dry yeast are also used to make various kinds of chemicals. The instant dry yeast market is driven mainly by the end user industries such as bakery and brewery. Yeast is a daily used item which is required at every home, which is used for fermentation process of various The cost of production of instant dry yeast is also very low as it mainly comes from molasses which is the end product of sugarcane, hence the cost of instant dry yeast is low, which will defiantly drive the market of instant dry yeast to a great extant in the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Market Key Players:Some of the key players in instant dry yeast market areLesaffre, Hagold Hefe Gmbh, Asmussen Gmbh, ACH Foods, Fleischmann's Yeast, LALLEMAND Inc, AB Mauri Food Inc., And Pakmaya, Angel Yeast Co., Ltd 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:Abhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: Hypercalcemia Treatment Market will Register a CAGR of 11.2% through 2016-2026 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1320 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1320 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com Global hypercalcemia treatment market revenues are anticipated to reach US$ 9.64 Bn in 2017, up from US$ 7.86 Bn in 2015. Increasing prevalence of hyperparathyroidism-related hypercalcemia and rising incidence of multiple myeloma are major factors expected to fuel growth of the global hypercalcemia treatment market over the forecast period. Availability of drug therapy alternatives over surgeries and favourable reimbursement policies are key factors expected to fuel global market growth.Hospitals remain the largest distribution channel in the hypercalcemia market in terms of revenue contribution, accounting for around 39% share to the global market in 2015. Rapid diagnosis and easy availability of hypercalcemia drugs are key factors attributed to increasing revenue from the hospitals end user segment, and hospitals are expected to continue to remain the largest distribution channel for hypercalcemia treatment in the long-term.Request For Report Samlple@Bisphosphonates product type segment is estimated to continue to account for relatively higher revenue share to the global market, at over 67% in 2016 end. U.S. FDA approval of denosumab (Xgeva) for treating hypercalcemia of malignancy refractory in 2014 has boosted the use of biophosphonates. Glucocorticoids and calcimimetics segments are also anticipated to witness steady revenue growth in the near future.North America and Western Europe are among the leading markets for hypercalcemia treatment, with the former accounting for revenue share of 46% in 2015. The North America hypercalcemia treatment market is anticipated to be valued at US$ 4.39 Bn in 2017, up from US$ 3.61 Bn in 2015. The market in North America is dominated by the U.S. Higher prevalence of malignancy-related hypercalcemia among cancer patients in North America will continue to influence market growth in the near future.Request For Report Table of Contents (TOC):Amgen Inc., Novartis AG, and Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., Pfizer Inc., and F.Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. are among the leading players in the global hypercalcemia market. The U.S. remains a lucrative market for majority of leading players; foraying into emerging markets of Asia and Africa is a key focus area for global players.Long-term Outlook: The global hypercalcemia market is anticipated to register a CAGR of 11.2% in terms of revenue during forecast period 20162026, and reach a value of US$ 25.23 Bn by 2026.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: At the height of his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump told CNNs Anderson Cooper, I think Islam hates us a cynical, calculated declaration in the perpetual war of words over the dubious question whether Islam, writ large, is at war with the West. That line communicated two different things to two different audiences: It energized Trumps voting base, primed to view terrorist violence as an existential struggle, rather than a global security challenge to be addressed rationally; and helped inspire the uptick in hate violence targeting Muslims that followed. It also made clear to Muslim Americans that during Trumps tenure, outward expressions of Muslim identity would draw backlash from hatemongers and heightened surveillance from the government. In the same interview, Trump said that its very hard to define. Its very hard to separate. Because you dont know whos who. He said Islam hates us, but may as well have said that if, and when, he became president, it would officially be open season on Muslims. The risks associated with acting Muslim have been considerable during every phase of the War on Terrors more than 16-year stretch. As I wrote last year, Muslim identity is, by law, tethered to terror suspicion. To the extent that Trumps words isolate Muslims because of their faith, he has chilled Muslim Americans First Amendment freedom regarding faith expression. The president has retweeted anti-Muslim propaganda and explicitly Islamophobic statements pepper his rhetoric. That rhetoric also steers many of his signature policy proposals and actions, including the infamous travel ban, the third version of which the Supreme Court recently cleared to move forward. Islamophobia is, on one hand, fear and hatred held by individuals, but now also a driver of formal state policy. This is manifested by the different iterations of the travel ban, which lists several Muslim-majority countries in a way that doesnt correlate with terror fears, and the Trump administrations proposed renaming of standing surveillance programming as Countering Islamic Extremism. Policy that endorses animus against Muslims, evidenced through the rise in hate crimes, and manifested by the way some Muslims are responding: by negotiating the ways that we present and perform a religious identity thoroughly demonized by the state. These negotiations are unfolding within the private confines and minds of Muslims, largely under the radar of media coverage and frequently unseen by the public eye. Muslims are being forced to choose between confirming their Muslim identities in line with their religious belief and, in turn, leaving themselves vulnerable to hate violence and state suspicion. Or concealing their Muslim identities, conforming and, at least in theory, trading their rights for safety. Human rights activist Alaa Basatneh chose to cover her Muslim identity by uncovering. In 2016, she wrote on the website Splinter, Immediately after Donald Trump was elected president, I decided to stop wearing my hijab. She was motivated to try to find safe haven from the wave of violence targeting covered Muslim women the most readily identifiable Muslims who wind up as primary targets of Islamophobic violence. For Hussein, an engineer working in a Detroit suburb, his long beard became the subject of increasingly frequent stares and questioning from strangers following Trumps victory. A devout Muslim, he wore his beard as a badge of piety and belonging, signifying his status to his community and the broader public. At his job, his beard drew more than one comparison to terrorists, isolating him and, in his estimation, limiting his ability to advance within the company. He ultimately shaved it, conforming to a more assimilated look instead of a more traditionally pious one. Last year, a high school student had her hijab ripped off her head by her teacher; a spate of fires wwas reported at American mosques. In 2015, in the months before Trumps rapid political rise, there was the tragedy where being Muslim was believed by many to be a motive in the killing of three Muslim Americans in Chapel Hill, N.C. Strategic concealment of stigmatized identity is not exclusive to Muslim communities. For instance, otherwise devout Sikh men may remove their turbans or shave their beards to fend off discrimination, and black men and women may avoid specific hairstyles or attire to deflect stereotyping or mitigate the prospect of police profiling. Everybody works their identity, write law professors Devon Carbado and Mitu Gulati in their 2000 Cornell Law Review paper, Working Identity, examining the ways that professionals of color negotiate their racial identities within the employment context. They argue that the working identity phenomenon . . . is a form of employment discrimination, because concealment or modification of identity in ways that lessen racial, gender and intersectional stereotypes facilitate acceptance and upward mobility in the employment context. When you extend that perspective to the acting Muslim phenomenon, we can see it as a form of religious discrimination. For Muslims navigating how to present themselves and practice their faith in a society where Islamophobia is both percolating from the bottom and reigning at the very top, the stakes are more than getting and holding a coveted job or breaking through glass ceilings. It is a matter of weathering the immediate threat posed by the Trump administration, which will undoubtedly continue to peddle hateful rhetoric and push more damaging policy. Hate crime reports and statistics dont capture the full scope of hostility toward Muslims in our country. And if the law is too limited to enable redress for Muslims suppressing their religious identity to mitigate backlash and rebut suspicion, it may be time to rethink it. If one of the touchstones of American citizenship is the free exercise of religion, and Muslims are unable to fully practice that liberty in a context of trumped-up Islamophobia, then the law serves to maintain the second-class citizenship of Muslims in America. A Comprehensive Study exploring Home Energy Management Systems Market Home Energy Management Systems Market https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/884133-global-home-energy-management-systems-market-3 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/884133-global-home-energy-management-systems-market-3 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=884133 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/884133-global-home-energy-management-systems-market-3 HTF MI recently introduced Global Home Energy Management Systems Market study with in-depth overview, describing about the Product / Industry Scope and elaborates market outlook and status to 2022. At present, the market is developing its presence and some of the key players from the complete study are General Electric Company, Cisco Systems, Sharp, Panasonic, Intel Corporation, Honeywell, Schneider Electric, AlertMe.Com, Freescale Semiconductor & Vivint Inc etc. The market Study is segmented by key regions which is accelerating the marketization.Request Sample of Global Home Energy Management Systems Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 @:Geographically, this report is segmented into following key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Home Energy Management Systems in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringMarket Segment by Regions 2012 2017 2022 Share (%) CAGR (2017-2022)United States xx xx xx xx% xx%EU xx xx xx xx% xx%Japan xx xx xx xx% xx%China xx xx xx xx% xx%India xx xx xx xx% xx%Southeast Asia xx xx xx xx% xx%Total xx xx xx xx% xx%Browse 100+ market data Tables and Figures spread through Pages and in-depth TOC on " Home Energy Management Systems Market by Type (Control Devices, User Interface & Enabling Technologies), by End-Users/Application Residential Building & Commercial Area, Organization Size, Industry, and Region - Forecast to 2022". Early buyers will receive 10% customization on reports.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @In order 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.Global Home Energy Management Systems Market Size by Players (2012-2017)2013 2014 2015 2016 2017General Electric Company xx xx xx xx xxCisco Systems xx xx xx xx xxSharp xx xx xx xx xx......Company profile section of players such as General Electric Company, Cisco Systems, Sharp, Panasonic, Intel Corporation, Honeywell, Schneider Electric, AlertMe.Com, Freescale Semiconductor & Vivint Inc includes its basic information like legal name, website, headquarters, its market position, historical background and top 5 closest competitors by Market capitalization / revenue along with contact information. Each player/ manufacturer revenue figures, growth rate and gross profit margin is provided in easy to understand tabular format for past 5 years and a separate section on recent development like mergers, acquisition or any new product/service launch etc.Buy this research report @Have a look at some extracts from Table of ContentIntroduction about Global Home Energy Management SystemsGlobal Home Energy Management Systems Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2016Global Home Energy Management Systems Market by Application/End UsersGlobal Home Energy Management Systems Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2012-2022) table defined for each application/end-users like [Residential Building & Commercial Area]Global Home Energy Management Systems Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Global Home Energy Management Systems Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and ApplicationHome Energy Management Systems (Volume, Value and Sales Price) table defined for each geographic region like United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast AsiaGlobal Home Energy Management Systems Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales DataAdditionally Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors list is being provided for each listed manufacturers such as General Electric Company, Cisco Systems, Sharp, Panasonic, Intel Corporation, Honeywell, Schneider Electric, AlertMe.Com, Freescale Semiconductor & Vivint IncHome Energy Management Systems Product Category, Application and SpecificationHome Energy Management Systems Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017) table for each product type which include Control Devices, User Interface & Enabling Technologies.Home Energy Management Systems Manufacturing Cost AnalysisHome Energy Management Systems Key Raw Materials AnalysisHome Energy Management Systems Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersElectronic Article Surveillance (EAS) Tag and Label Industrial Chain AnalysisGlobal Home Energy Management Systems Market Forecast (2017-2022)..ContinuedEnquire 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.Contact us :HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218 Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scanners Market Expected to Increase at a CAGR 4.7% through 2016-2026 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1333 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1333 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com Future Market Insights delivers key insights on the global Positron Emission Tomography scanners market in a new report titled, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scanners Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 20162026. In terms of revenue, the global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market is projected to register a healthy CAGR of 4.7% over the forecast period.According to Future Market Insights, growing occurrences of chronic disorders and increasing penetration of PET machines is expected to drive overall growth of the global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market during the forecast period. Rising demand for effective diagnostic techniques across the globe and expanded applications for PET in the field of oncology are further expected to boost the growth of the global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market between 2016 and 2026. However, a short half-life and low supply of radiopharmaceuticals is likely to restrict market growth over the forecast period.Request For Report Samlple@A key trend in the global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market is the development of dual modality PET/CT and PET/MRI machines leading to better diagnostic sensitivity and specificity at each stage of disease prognosis. The entry of new radiopharmaceuticals has enhanced the diagnostic value of diseases treatment resulting in greater dependency on PET scanning procedures. These trends are likely to govern the global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market in the coming years. - Analyst - Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices, Future Market InsightsSegmentation highlightsThe global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market has been segmented by Product Type (Full Ring PET Scanners, Partial Ring PET Scanners); by Application (Oncology, Cardiology, Neurology, Others); by Detector Type (Bismuth Germanium Oxide (BGO), Lutetium Oxyorthosilicate (LSO), Gadolinium Oxyorthosilicate (GSO), Lutetium Fine Silicate (LFS), Lutetium Yttrium Orthosilicate); and by End User (Hospitals, Diagnostic Centres, PET Centres, Research Institutes);The Full Ring PET Scanners product type segment was valued at US$ 759.3 Mn in 2015 and is expected to register 4.8% CAGR over the forecast period. The Partial Ring PET Scanners product type segment was valued at US$ 143.8 Mn in 2015 and is expected to increase to US$ 212.2 Mn by the end of 2026The Oncology application segment is estimated to account for 86.6% market share by 2016 while the Cardiology application segment is estimated to account for 5.0% market share by 2016 end. Both these segments are expected to be the most lucrative segments in the global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market during the forecast periodThe Lutetium Oxyorthosilicate (LSO) detector type segment was valued at US$ 322.7 Mn in 2015 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 4.3% over the forecast period to reach US$ 596.5 Mn by 2026 end. The Bismuth Germanium Oxide (BGO) detector type segment was valued at US$ 266.7 Mn in 2015 and is expected to increase to US$ 400.5 Mn by the end of 2026The Hospitals end user segment is estimated to hold 35.7% market share by 2016 end while the Diagnostic Centres end user segment is estimated to account for 33.0% market share by 2016 endRegional market projectionsThe global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market has been segmented into the seven key regions of North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, MEA, and Japan. North America dominated the global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market in 2015 and is likely to continue its dominance throughout the forecast period. North America is expected to reach a market valuation of US$ 631.9 Mn by 2026 end, witnessing a CAGR of 4.8% over the forecast period. The APEJ Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market is estimated to be valued at US$ 132.9 Mn by 2016 end and is expected to register a CAGR of 5.1% over the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Contents (TOC):Vendor insightsGeneral Electric Co., Toshiba Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Siemens AG, Hitachi, Ltd., Positron Corporation, Mediso Ltd., and Yangzhou Kindsway Biotech Co. Ltd. are some of the leading players operating in the global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market. Major players in the global Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners market are focussing on enhancing their global and regional presence through introduction of novel products and strategic operational expansion. The report discusses individual strategies followed by these companies in terms of enhancing product designing, creating new manufacturing facilities, market consolidation, and advanced R&D initiatives.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: Driver Assistance System 2017 Global Market to Reach USD 112.69 billion and Growing at CAGR of 22.90% by 2027 Driver Assistance System 2017 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/825657-global-driver-assistance-system-market-analysis-forecast-from-2016-to-2027 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/825657-global-driver-assistance-system-market-analysis-forecast-from-2016-to-2027 WiseGuyReports.Com adds Driver Assistance System 2017 Global Market to Reach USD 112.69 billion and Growing at CAGR of 22.90% by 2027 Research to its Database.Description:Driver assistance system is the technology which provides support in driving a vehicle by assisting drivers via connected sensors. The Global Driver Assistance System market is expected to witness high growth due to growing trends in automobile industries and government regulations for safety of end-consumers to lower down the no. of road accidents.Varying governmental approach towards automobile, driver and passenger safety have imposed many regulations which mandate automobile manufacturers to deliver driver assistance features. The driver assistance system industry has undergone deep transformation and has swiftly evolved into a promising business opportunity from past couple of years.The driver assistance system provides various safety feature such as night vision, auto-adjust, Drowsiness monitor, Blind spot among others help the driver to the vehicle more steadily with increased visibility. The improved economy status globally is also supporting the market of Driver Assistance Systems.The Global Driver Assistance System market accounted for $11.66 billion in 2016 which is expected to grow over $112.69 billion through by 2027 at an estimated CAGR of 22.90% from 2016 to 2027.The key driving factors of the driver assistance system market are- mandating regulations, improving economic status, and advance features offered by driver assistance however the factors such as the complex & expensive features and sophisticated maintenance are restraining the market growth.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comKey PlayersThe Key Players in Driver assistance system Market are- Aisin Seiki co. ltd(Japan) , Autoliv Inc.(Sweden), Continental AG(Germany), Delphi Automotive Plc (U.K.), Denso Corporation (Japan), Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.(U.S.) ,Gentex Corporation(U.S.), Hella Kgaa Hueck & Co.(Germany), Hitachi Ltd(Japan), Magna International, Inc.(Canada), Robert Bosch Gmbh (Germany) Among Others.Global Driver Assistance Systems Analysis & Forecast, 2027 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 Driver Assistance Systems development and demand market. Upcoming technologies, high growth geographies and countries were identified. Regional and country specific demand and forecast for driver assistance system were studied. Key segments covered in the report are: type, technology and region. Unit breakdown for all different classification was finalized; and same was referred for forecasting, keeping few assumptions into factor For all the regions: forecast demand for all applications were identified and then with historical figure, data collected through primary and annual reports were triangulated to derive the regional market size Historical trend is identified to forecast and estimate the future value dataTarget Audience Research Organizations Automotive industries Investment firms Corporate Cloud service vendors Government Agencies OEMsKey Findings The global driver assistance system market is estimated to grow from $ 11,659.80 million to $ 112,691.59 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 22.90% from 2016 to 2027. In 2016, Adaptive Cruise Control System (ACC) is estimated to generate highest revenue of $ 2,118.17 million globally, which would increase at CAGR of 18.16 % to $13,280.04 million by 2027. The global market size of Park Assist technology is estimated to grow from $1,828.00 million in 2016 to $26,904.13 million by 2027, at a CAGR of 27.69% for the same period. The global demand for Ultrasonic sensors is projected to reach $8,764.89 million in 2016, which would then grow at a CAGR of 23.62%, and reach $90,293.89 million by 2027Regional and Country Analysis of Driver Assistant Service MarketIn 2016, the European region is estimated to lead the market with the largest share of 37.4%, followed by North America, Asia-Pacific, and ROW. The demand trend by 2027 will be the same; Europe is expected to lead the market in 2027 with a highest share of 40.1% followed by North America and Asia-Pacific. The reason of Europe been a dominating region is the availability of high-tech automobile industries in the region which projected to grow in the forecasted period.The reports also cover country level analysis: North Americao USo Mexicoo Canada Europeo Germanyo UKo Franceo Rest of the Europe Asia Pacifico Chinao Indiao Japano South Koreao Rest of the APAC Rest of the Worldo Brazilo RussiaAsk Query @Table Of Contents Major Key Points1 REPORT EXCERPT1.1 ASIA-PACIFIC- FASTEST GROWING MARKET:1.2 PARK ASSIST SYSTEM- TRENDING AT A HIGH RATE1.3 ULTRASONIC AND IMAGE SENSOR: TECHNOLOGY OF TODAY AND TOMORROW2 GLOBAL DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM MARKET: INTRODUCTION2.1 2.1 DEFINITION2.2 2.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY2.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE2.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS2.2.3 LIMITATIONS2.3 MARKET STRUCTURE3 GLOBAL DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM MARKET: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY3.1 RESEARCH PROCESS3.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH3.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH3.4 MARKET SIZE ESTIMATION3.5 FORECAST MODEL4 GLOBAL DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM MARKET: MARKET DYNAMICS4.1 DRIVERS4.1.1 REGULATIONS MANDATING DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS: 184.1.2 WIDE RANGE OF ADVANTAGES OFFERED BY DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM TYPES4.1.3 ECONOMIC STATUS, BUYERS PREFERENCES AND COMPETITION IN AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS4.2 RESTRAINTS4.2.1 COMPLEX AND EXPENSIVE FEATURES4.2.2 REQUIREMENT OF SOPHISTICATED MAINTENANCE4.3 OPPORTUNITIES4.3.1 DIVERSE SCOPE OF IMPROVEMENT AND ADVANCEMENT4.3.2 EMERGING HIGH END VEHICLES MARKET IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES5 GLOBAL DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM MARKET: MARKET FACTOR ANALYSIS5.1 VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS5.2 PORTERS FIVE FORCES5.2.1 THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS5.2.2 SUPPLIERS POWER5.2.3 THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES5.2.4 BUYERS POWER5.2.5 DEGREE OF COMPETITION6 GLOBAL DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM MARKET: MARKET VALUE & VOLUME FORECAST (2016-2027) ($ BILLION)6.1 Y-O-Y GROWTH PROJECTIONS7 GLOBAL DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM MARKET: BY TYPES7.1 INTRODUCTION7.2 MARKET SIZE (SUB SEGMENTS) 307.2.1 ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL (ACC)7.2.2 LANE DEPARTURE WARNING (LDW) SYSTEM7.2.3 PARK ASSIST7.2.4 DROWSINESS MONITORING SYSTEM7.2.5 BLIND SPOT DETECTION (BSD) SYSTEM 377.2.6 NIGHT VISION7.2.7 TIRE PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM (TPMS)7.2.8 ADAPTIVE FRONT LIGHTING7.2.9 GPS NAVIGATION SYSTEM7.2.10 OTHER8 GLOBAL DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEM MARKET, BY REGION8.1 INTRODUCTION8.2 NORTH AMERICA8.2.1 US8.2.2 MEXICO8.2.3 CANADA8.3 EUROPE8.4 ASIA-PACIFIC8.4.1 CHINA8.4.2 JAPAN8.4.3 SOUTH KOREA8.4.4 INDIA8.5 REST OF THE WORLD (ROW)8.5.1 BRAZIL8.5.2 RUSSIAContinue.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 Research Report Explore Phototherapy Treatment Market Expected to Growth at a CAGR of 6.0% during 2017-2027 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3299 https://www.mrrse.com/north-america-and-europe-phototherapy-treatment-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/3299 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ This research report offers a comprehensive analysis of the Phototherapy Treatment Market for Acne and Psoriasis North America and Europe Industry Analysis 2012 - 2016 and Opportunity Assessment 2017 - 2027The 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 @Family physicians are playing a crucial role in diagnosing psoriasis in CanadaIn Canada, the majority of the psoriasis patients are mainly diagnosed by family physicians rather than by dermatologists. The reason behind this is the lack of dermatologists and related services in Canada. For instance, according to a report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Canada had less than 2 dermatologists per 100,000 individuals in 2015, which is very less when compared with European countries. It has also been observed that family physicians typically prefer topical therapies than biologics/phototherapy to treat psoriasis conditions, while dermatologists prefer phototherapy more than the other available therapies/medications. This recent trend is boosting the phototherapy segment. While in the U.S. the growing population of adult women suffering from acne and psoriasis is an important factor driving revenue growth of the phototherapy segment. The population of adult women is rising with higher rates in North America than in European countries such as Germany, Italy, France and Spain. The growth in women adult acne conditions in North America is mainly due to increase in male hormonal (androgens) levels in females.Complementary therapies to treat psoriasis conditions and combination therapies are recent trends in Western Europe, which are creating a positive impact on the phototherapy segment in the regional marketComplementary therapies such as balneotherapy along with UV radiation is quite popular in Western European countries. Balneotherapy is the oldest treatment method available to treat the psoriasis condition. In this treatment, the patient undergoes a bath in high mineralized brine, which causes a mechanical removal of skin scales and increases the sensitivity of skin to UV radiation. Combination therapies are set to witness high potential in austerity driven markets in Europe as noted by many clinic managers. Faltering out-of-pocket expenses for a service that is considered as a desire or luxury coupled with a tricky pricing of combination treatments involving a device and a drug are factors successfully helping in generating revenue in the market. This trend is very prominent in countries such as the U.K. and Spain.Browse Full Report with TOC @Approved by the FDA to treat acne and psoriasis, blue light therapy dominates the North America and Europe phototherapy treatment marketBy phototherapy type, blue light therapy dominated the North America and Europe phototherapy treatment market for psoriasis and acne, and is expected to be the most lucrative segment over the forecast period, with a market attractiveness index of 3.3. By the end of 2027, the blue light phototherapy segment is projected to reach more than US$ 1,000 Mn, expanding at a CAGR of 6.7% over the forecast period. Revenue from the Narrowband UVB phototherapy segment in the North America and Europe phototherapy treatment market for psoriasis and acne is expected to grow 1.9x by 2027 end as compared to that in 2017. The Red Light Phototherapy and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) Phototherapy segments represent the lowest market attractiveness index of 0.3 each.Availability of various treatments for acne and psoriasis and declining reimbursement rates are expected to hamper the growth of the phototherapy segmentVarious treatments are currently available in the market to treat acne and psoriasis conditions. For instance, to treat acne conditions various drugs are available in the market such as topical/oral antibiotics and retinoid and chemical peels, among others. Due to a lot of available treatment options, physicians prescribe different treatments according to the patients skin nature and availability of drugs. Owing to the many treatment options, very few physicians prescribe phototherapy to patients. Furthermore, availability of non-office based treatments to treat acne and psoriasis conditions has a negative impact on the growth of the phototherapy segment. Furthermore, the decline of reimbursement pay and lack of adequate phototherapy units in the market are projected to hamper revenue growth of the phototherapy segment over the forecast period.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: Global Car Rental Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts 2017-2021 ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/global-car-rental-market-size-trends-and-forecasts-2017-2021 http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011062327/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011062327/buying The report entitled "Global Car Rental Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021)", provides analysis of the global car rental market, with detailed analysis of market size in terms of value and its segments.For more information about this report:The report also includes a detailed regional analysis of the car rental market in regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (Excluding Japan) and Latin America. Under competitive landscape different players in the global, the US and Europe car rental market have been compared on basis of their market share.Moreover, the report assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the overall car rental market has also been forecasted for the years 2017-2021, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.Enterprise Holdings, Hertz Global Holdings Inc., and Avis Budget Group Inc. are some of the key players operating in the global car rental market whose company profiling is done in the report. In this segment of the report, business overview, financial overview and the business strategies of the companies are provided.Company CoverageEnterprise HoldingsHertz Global Inc.Avis Budget Group Inc.Regional CoverageNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificLatin AmericaRequest Sample Copy atExecutive SummaryA car rental also known as a hire car, or car hire agency is a company that provides car rental services for shorter durations of time to customers for different purposes, such as outstation visits, sightseeing as well as business trips for corporates, etc. They are mainly located near airports or busy urban localities where the demand for car rental services in generally high.The global car rental market can be divided on the basis of location, customer, vehicle type and mode of booking. On the basis of location, the market can be divided into off airport and on airport. On the basis of customer, the market can be divided into business, leisure and other activities. Luxury cars, executive cars, SUV and MUV are the sub segments under vehicle type. On the other hand, on the basis of customer booking the market can be divided into offline and online modes.The global car rental market is expected to increase at high growth rates during the forecast period (2017-2021). The global car rental market is supported by various factors such as spike in air travel, increase in hotel occupancy rates and upsurge in disposable income.Increase in the number of off lease vehicles, over fleeting in the US car rental market and high competition from car share providers are some of the challenges faced by the market. However, evolution of telematics solutions, introduction of autonomous cars and partnership of car rentals with app based cab companies are some of the latest trends in the market.Company Profiling7.1 Enterprise Holdings7.1.1 Business Overview7.1.2 Business Strategy7.2 Hertz Global Holdings Inc.7.2.1 Business Overview7.2.2 Financial Overview7.2.3 Business Strategy7.3 Avis Budget Group Inc.7.3.1 Business Overview7.3.2 Financial Overview7.3.3 Business StrategyInquire Before Buying atContact 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 Sodium Tripolyphosphate 2018 Global Key Players Innophos Holding Inc. (U.S.), Tata Chemicals Inc. (India), ICL Performance Products (U.S.)., Aditya Birla Chemicals (India) Market Analysis And Forecast To 2023 Sodium Tripolyphosphate Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2690981-global-organic-infant-formula-market-trends-forecast-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2690981-global-organic-infant-formula-market-trends-forecast-2017-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2749495 Sodium Tripolyphosphate Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Sodium Tripolyphosphate Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 To Its Research Database.Description:Global Sodium Tripolyphosphate Market- Application (detergent, cleaning agent, water treatment, food preservative, paint & dying) End Use (household cleaning, industrial, food & beverage, agriculture, textile, pharmaceuticals) Region Forecast to 2023Market Synopsis of Global Sodium Tripolyphosphate Market:Sodium tripolyphosphate is a phosphate polymer which is most commonly used in the fertilizers and detergent. It exists in anhydrous as well as hexahydrate form and is used in water softening and food preservation. Although, commercial applications of sodium tripolyphosphate have been seen in textile and food industry as dying and in food & beverage preservation. Moreover, it is crystalline solid used for the processing of meat, modified starch, as well as sausage. It is used in meat and seafood, as it increases pH and resulting into water retention capacity.As per the MRFR analysis, global sodium tripolyphosphate market anticipated to witness sluggish growth in the coming years and reach USD 2,497.7 million by 2023, growing at CAGR of 1.48%. Globally, the market has seen drastic changes in terms of consumption over the past one and half decade. Sodium tripolyphosphate consumption trend has seen declining trend during the 2000-2006, and the market has witnessed slow pace demand thereafter. On the other hand, the growth in this market is attributed to healthy growth in respective end use industries of sodium tripolyphosphate including household cleaning industry, food and beverage, agriculture and industrial. Household cleaning industry consist of diverse range of applications for detergent which is emerged as key growth driver in this market. Moreover, owing to strict environmental & governmental regulations the global market to experience sluggish demand, as sodium tripolyphosphate causes pollution. Strong competition from zeolite, which is the close substitute to sodium tripolyphosphate is the major restraining factor over the growth of this market.Growing personal care industry is expected to provide higher gains for the growth of this market over the forecast period. Based on the applications, detergent was the most promising application segment acquired around 26% of the global market expanding at 1.40% CAGR. As the primary function of sodium tripolyphosphate is cleaning, hence, detergent segment has acquired largest market shares and is likely to continue its prominence over the forecast period as well. On the basis of end use industries, household cleaning industry dominated the global market and has accounted for 26% global shares, expanding at steady CAGR of 1.24% as of 2016. Addressable increase in the global population is one of the major driving force providing fuel for the growth of household cleaning industry.Sodium Tripolyphosphate Market Share, by application 2016 (%)Request for Sample Report@The global Sodium Tripolyphosphate market is spanned across Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Middle East, and Latin America. As of 2016, Asia Pacific emerged as global leader in this market by acquiring 44% global share. Asia Pacific growing at highest CAGR of 1.70% among others due to presence of largest sodium tripolyphosphate economies i.e. China. The country is also a major exporter due to which production activities are increasing year by year in this region. Apart from China, India is an important stakeholder in this region and is also driving demand on account of agriculture industrial growth. The country is known as third largest farm-based economy across the globe and contributed significantly in the global GDP through agricultural output.North America emerged as second largest regional market after Asia Pacific and held substantial global shares as of 2016. Stringent government as well as environmental laws in North America and Europe has held back the growth of both these regions. Specifically, in Europe, the production activities are decreased on a large manner as an effect of strict government regulations. The region was second largest producer of sodium tripolyphosphate as of 2008, although, increasing global awareness towards environmental concern has led to decreased production activities in this region thereafter.Latin America and Middle East & Africa are the relatively smaller regions in terms of regional demand. Latin America has shown positive demand year by year due to relaxed regulation in major growth driving markets. Also, demand in this region is increasing gradually due to widening toehold cleaning industry and consequent demand for detergent. The region has generated overall revenue USD 249.48 million by expanding at 1.38%, and it is expected to provide positive gains for the growth of this market during the forecast period.SegmentationThe Sodium Tripolyphosphate market is fragmented on the basis of applications, end use, and region. On the basis of applications, the market is classified into detergent, cleaning agent, food preservative, water treatment, paint & dying, ceramic tiles, metal treatment and others. On the basis of end use industries, the market is divided into household cleaning, agriculture, textile, industrial, food & beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and others. On the basis of region, the market is segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East & Africa.Enquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Key PlayersSome of the key players operating in the global Sodium Tripolyphosphate market are Innophos Holding Inc. (U.S.), Tata Chemicals Inc. (India), ICL Performance Products (U.S.)., Aditya Birla Chemicals (India), Sumitomo Chemicals Co. Ltd (Japan), Merck Group (Germany), Hubei Xingfa Chemicals Group (China), Prayon S.A. (Belgium), Haifa Group (Israel), and TongVo Chemicals Ltd (China) among others.Key FindingsGlobal Sodium tripolyphosphate market is projected to reach USD 2,497.7 million by 2023, expanding at a CAGR of 1.48% over the forecast period of 2017 to 2023. Regionally, Asia Pacific emerged as global leader in this market and has acquired 44% of the global shares due to large production activities in this region as well healthy growth in respected end use industries. China was the major revenue generating country in Asia Pacific region and has generated overall revenue of USD 523.9 million as of 2016. As primary function of sodium tripolyphosphate is cleaning, therefore, detergent application is the most promising segment based on application. With 26% share growing at 1.40% CAGR. Similarly, household cleaning industry dominated global market based on end use industries with largest shares of 27% as of 2016, growing at 1.24% steady CAGR.Geographic AnalysisThe report covers brief analysis of geographical region includesWorld North Americao U.S.o CanadaAsia Pacifico Chinao Indiao Japano South Koreao Rest of the Asia PacificEuropeo Germanyo UKo Russiao Franceo Italyo Spaino Rest of the EuropeMiddle East & Africao Saudi Arabiao Irano Israelo UAEo Rest of the Middle East & AfricaLatin Americao Brazilo Argentinao Rest of the Latin AmericaIntended Audience Manufacturers and distributors of Sodium Tripolyphosphate. Suppliers and traders of Sodium Tripolyphosphate. Government, associations and industrial bodies. Investors and Trade experts. Consulting in chemical experts.DC description Tripolyphosphate Sodium Phosphate Pentasodium Tripolyphosphate Sodium Chlorate Sodium Silicate Sodium HydroxideContinued..Buy now @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 Ltd: Pune 411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042 Styrenic Polymers Market for Medical Applications Will Exhibit CAGR Of 7.0% between 2017 - 2025 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1476900 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1476900/styrenic-polymers-for-medical-applications-market-research-reports/toc https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1476900/styrenic-polymers-for-medical-applications-market-research-reports.pdf https://www.researchmoz.com/checkout?rep_id=1476900&licType=S http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Latest Research Report Styrenic Polymers Market for Medical Applications - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"According to TMR, the global styrenic polymers market for medical applications will exhibit 7.0% CAGR between 2017 and 2025. Given the scenario, the markets is forecast to reach US$4,843.85 mn by the end of 2025, as compared to US$2,649.44 mn in 2016. Regionally, the global market was led by Asia Pacific, which held the dominant market share in 2016. Besides this, the market will witness rising demand from Europe and North America in the coming years.Global Styrenic Polymers Market for Medical Applications: OverviewStyrenic polymers, or styrenics, are a class of the plastics family, with styrene as the main building block. Polystyrene is the parent material for all styrenic copolymers. It is a widely utilized thermoplastic material. It is employed in various end-user industries such as automotive, building & construction, electrical & electronics, and medical among many others.Styrenic polymers provide several benefits to diverse requirements of the medical industry. Styrenic materials can be processed to be rigid as well as flexible as per the end-use requirements. Styrenic polymers provide unique advantages for design and development of medical devices and parts due to their flexibility. Chemical inertness, unique bonding polarity, and physical and aesthetic properties augur well for the styrenic polymers in medical applications. However, styrenic polymers are relatively more expensive than their counterparts such as PVC, polyethylene, and polypropylene that dominate the overall medical polymers market.Get Sample Copy of this report @Environmental factors play a role in the manufacture and marketing of all medical plastics. Manufacture of styrenic polymers for medical applications is a capital- and technology-intensive process that requires robust infrastructure and technology services. Government regulations pertaining to different medical devices govern the market for medical plastics. The quality of a product is of utmost importance and stringent quality standards need to be adhered to.The styrenic polymer for medical applications market is governed by several value-adding services that run in the background. Research and development is the cornerstone of the market dynamics with evolving consumer requirements and threat from substitute products.Global Styrenic Polymers Market for Medical Applications: Scope of the StudyThe report estimates and forecasts the styrenic polymers for medical applications market on the global and regional 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, along with 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 styrenic polymers for medical applications 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 styrenic polymers for medical applications 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 Styrenic polymers for medical applications and global average price trend analysis.The report includes Porters Five Forces Model to determine the degree of competition in the styrenic polymers for medical applications market. The report comprises a qualitative write-up on market attractiveness analysis, wherein end-users and regions 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 styrenic polymers for medical applications market between 2017 and 2025.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Global Styrenic Polymers Market for Medical Applications: Research MethodologySecondary research sources that were typically referred to include, but were not limited to, British Plastics Federation, EUROPA - European Commission National government documents, statistical databases, and market reports, European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), PlasticsEurope, Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA), Independent Chemical Information Service (ICIS), Chemical Weekly Magazine, U.N. Comtrade, World Bank, national government documents, statistical databases, and market reports, 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 Styrenic Polymers Market for Medical Applications: Key SegmentsThe study provides a comprehensive view of the styrenic polymers for medical applications market by dividing it into product, application and geography segments. The product segments are PS, ABS, SAN, SBC, SMMA, and others. The applications are segmented into intra-venous systems & fluid delivery, mobile & digital health, surgical gloves, respiratory & drug delivery devices, and others. These segments have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends.Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast consumption of styrenic polymers for medical applications in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Market segmentation includes demand for consumption in all the regions individually.Companies Mentioned in ReportThe report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include INEOS STYROLUTION Group GmbH, LG Chem Ltd., Chi Mei Corporation, Chevron Phillips Chemicals Company LLC, Kraton Corporation, Trinseo LLC, TSRC Corporation, and SABIC. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, financial overview, and product details (wherever applicable).View Sample PDF @The global styrenic polymers for medical applications market has been segmented as follows:Styrenic Polymers Market for Medical Applications Product AnalysisPolystyrene (PS)Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)Styrene Acrylonitrile (SAN)Styrene Butadiene Block Copolymers (SBC)Styrene Methyl Methacrylate (SMMA)OthersStyrenic Polymers Market for Medical Applications Application AnalysisIntra-venous Systems & Fluid DeliveryMobile & Digital HealthSurgical GlovesRespiratory & Drug Delivery DevicesOthersStyrenic Polymers Market for Medical Applications Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.RussiaRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaASEANRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaGCCSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaTable of Content1. Preface1.1. Report Scope and Market Segmentation1.2. Research Highlights2. Assumptions and Research Methodology2.1. Report Assumptions2.2. Secondary Sources2.3. Acronyms Used2.4. Research Methodology3. Executive Summary3.1. Market Snapshot3.2. Market Outlook, Volume Share, 20163.3. Market Share, by Company, 20163.4. Key Trends4. Market Overview4.1. Product Overview4.2. Market Indicators4.3. Drivers and Restraints Snapshot Analysis4.3.1. Drivers4.3.2. Restraints4.3.3. Opportunities4.4. Global Styrenic Polymers for Medical Applications Market Analysis and Forecast4.5. Porters Analysis4.5.1. Threat of Substitutes4.5.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers4.5.3. Bargaining Power of Suppliers4.5.4. Threat of New Entrants4.5.5. Degree of Competition4.6. Value Chain Analysis4.7. Global Styrenic Polymers for Medical Applications Industry: SWOT AnalysisBuy Now This Report From Here @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. 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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 Global Pico Projectors Sales Market 2017 : Top Manufacturers - Aaxa Technologies, LG Electronics, Philips, Sony Corporation, Lenovo, RIF6 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1450472 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1450472/global-pico-projectors-sales-report-market-research-reports/toc https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1450472/global-pico-projectors-sales-report-market-research-reports http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Report Global Pico Projectors Sales Market Report 2017 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"In this report, the global Pico Projectors market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Pico Projectors for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanKoreaTaiwanGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Global Pico Projectors market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Pico Projectors sales volume, Price (K USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingAaxa TechnologiesLG ElectronicsPhilipsSony CorporationLenovoRIF6CremotechCelluonTexas InstrumentsMicroVisionRequest For Toc @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoDigital Light Processing (DLP)Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS)Laser Beam Steering (LBS)On 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, includingConsumer ElectronicsBusiness & EducationRetailHealthcareIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.View Report @Table of ContentsGlobal Pico Projectors Sales Market Report 20171 Pico Projectors Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Pico Projectors1.2 Classification of Pico Projectors by Product Category1.2.1 Global Pico Projectors Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Pico Projectors Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Digital Light Processing (DLP)1.2.4 Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS)1.2.5 Laser Beam Steering (LBS)1.3 Global Pico Projectors Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Pico Projectors Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Consumer Electronics1.3.3 Business & Education1.3.4 Retail1.3.5 Healthcare1.4 Global Pico Projectors Market by Region1.4.1 Global Pico Projectors Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Pico Projectors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Pico Projectors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Pico Projectors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Pico Projectors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Korea Pico Projectors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 Taiwan Pico Projectors Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Pico Projectors (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Pico Projectors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Pico Projectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Pico Projectors Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Pico Projectors Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Pico Projectors Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Pico Projectors Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Pico Projectors (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Pico Projectors Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Pico Projectors Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Pico Projectors (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Pico Projectors Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Pico Projectors Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Pico Projectors (Volume) by Application3 United States Pico Projectors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Pico Projectors Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Pico Projectors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Pico Projectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Pico Projectors Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players3.3 United States Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Application4 China Pico Projectors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Pico Projectors Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Pico Projectors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Pico Projectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Pico Projectors Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.4 China Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Application5 Europe Pico Projectors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Pico Projectors Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe Pico Projectors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe Pico Projectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe Pico Projectors Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Application6 Japan Pico Projectors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6.1 Japan Pico Projectors Sales and Value (2012-2017)6.1.1 Japan Pico Projectors Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.2 Japan Pico Projectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.3 Japan Pico Projectors Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)6.2 Japan Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players6.3 Japan Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type6.4 Japan Pico Projectors Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationAbout Us:MarketResearchReports.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. NachiketaState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Global Biometric Authentication & Identification Market is Expected to Grow at US $25.31 Billion by End of Forecasted Period with CAGR of 16.56%. Global Biometric Authentication & Identification Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/748676-global-biometric-authentication-identification-market-forecast-to-2020 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars WiseGuyReports published new report, titled Global Biometric Authentication & Identification MarketIntroductionGlobal Biometric Authentication & Identification has emerged as one of the fastest growing market around the globe. As the population and organizations are becoming more concerned towards the cyber security and safety, biometric authentication and identification provides a secure terminal which helps to keep place and data safe from unauthorized access. In fast couple of years, the physical security breaches have increased and due to this the global market of Biometric Authentication & Identification has rose sharply. The global market of Biometric Authentication & Identification has been valued at US $11.76 billion in the year 2015 which is expected to grow at US $25.31 billion by end of forecasted period with CAGR of 16.56%.By Geography, The market is dominated by North America which has been valued at US $3.78 billion in year 2015 and expected to become the second largest by the end of forecast period. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at rapid CAGR of 19.92% during the forecast period and also APAC region is expected to become market leader by the end of forecast period as the demand for Consumer Electronics is increasing in these regions. Asia-Pacific is expected to reach at market size of US $7.65 billion by 2020 from US $3.09 in 2015.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Key Players:The Key Players in the market of are- 3M, Anviz Global Apple, Inc., Aware Inc., Bio-Key International, Inc., Cognitec Systems, Crossmatch Technologies, Diamond Fortress Technologies, Fingerprint cards AB, Fujitsu Global, Fulcrum Biometrics, HID Global, Iris ID Systems, Inc., Kaba Group, M2SYS Technology, Morpho S.A., NEC Corporation, Precise Biometrics AB, Sensory, Inc., S.I.C. Biometrics Inc., Synaptics Inc. and Tyco International Ltd. among others.Global Biometric Authentication & Identification Market Analysis & Forecast, From 2016 To 2022 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 Biometric Authentication & Identification market Upcoming technologies, high growth geographies and countries were identified Regional and country specific demand and forecast for Biometric Authentication & Identification were studied Key segments covered in the report are: Modality, Motility, Application and Geography. Unit breakdown for all different classification was finalized; and same was referred for forecasting, keeping few assumptions into factor For all the regions: forecast demand for all applications were identified and then with historical figure, data collected through primary and annual reports were triangulated to derive the regional market size Historical trend is identified to forecast and estimate the future value dataTarget Audience Biometric Device Manufacturers Biometric Device Suppliers Software Developers Government Private Institutions Security Service ProvidersKey Findings The Global Authentication & Identification Market is expected to grow at CAGR of 16.56% from 2015 to 2020. The fingerprint modality dominated the market in 2014 and is expected to grow over $10.90 billion by the end of the forecast period By Applications, The Government segment accounted for $5.1 billion in 2015 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10.79% from 2015 to 2020 By Region, Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the market by end of forecast period.Regional and Country Analysis of Biometric Authentication & Identification Market Estimation and ForecastNorth America has been the largest contributor to the revenue in the global market and is expected to grow over $7.20 billion by 2020. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.92% from 2015 to 2020 and dominate the market. The demand of biometrics product in this region is due to the government initiative of nationwide enrolment and ID issuance in countries such as India and China. Also, in Japan a huge number of biometrics ATMS have been deployed and still the process is going on.The reports also cover country level analysis: North Americao USo Canada Europeo UK Asia Pacifico Chinao Indiao Japan Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Saudi Arabiao UAEo Israelo Africao Latin America..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 The Industrial Spiral Gear Industry Will Be Fiercely Competitive in 2018 QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1473592&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-industrial-spiral-gear-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1473592&type=D http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report Industrial Spiral Gear to its huge collection of research reports.This report on the global Industrial Spiral Gear market has been developed by a selected group of professional market research analysts, with a solitary goal to present the current scenario of the market for Industrial Spiral Gear and throw light on its growth prospects. The report targets audiences such as manufacturers of Industrial Spiral Gear, government agencies, and other research consultancy services. The report presents comprehensive assessment of the major factors that may impact the demand in the global Industrial Spiral Gear market, analyzes the challenges or pitfalls, and catches the latest trends, which the existing vendors must take a note of in order to stay ahead of the competition.To present a clear study of the revenue available in the global Industrial Spiral Gear market, the report carefully segments it into smaller yet significant chunks, such geographically, product type, services and others. The report also provides the values of each of these segments and individual growth rates during the forecast period. The dominant as well as emerging trends have been picked out. With handful of tables, charts, and graphs, the report carries extensive pictorial representation to support its findings.For more info, get the sample report for FREE here:This report on the global Industrial Spiral Gear market provides estimations regarding the market size in terms of value (USD million). It includes both top-down and bottom-up views in order to estimate and validate the size of the market and of several other related submarkets in the overall global market. The opportunities open in the market by manufacturing countries type and application, and presents forecast for the duration of 2017-2022 has also been discussed extensively in this research report.As this report targets the stockholders of the global Industrial Spiral Gear market, some of the leading companies currently in this market are profiled in order to represent their market share, product portfolio, and recent strategic decisions. Leading players in the market have been detected via secondary research, and their dominance in respective regions have been evaluated through rigorous primary as well as secondary research.Global Industrial Spiral Gear market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingKHKAmTechAmarilloMartinSDP-SIMISUMIPrecision GearsLinnGMI...Read Complete Table of Content of the Report at:Table of ContentsGlobal Industrial Spiral Gear Market Research Report 20181 Industrial Spiral Gear Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Industrial Spiral Gear1.2 Industrial Spiral Gear Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Cast Iron1.2.4 Stainless Steel1.2.5 Nylon1.2.6 Aluminum Alloy1.2.7 Other1.3 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Segment by Application1.3.1 Industrial Spiral Gear Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Automobile Industry1.3.3 Shipping Industry1.3.4 Motorcycle1.3.5 Other1.4 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)2 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)To check available discount on this report, visit at:3 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Industrial Spiral Gear Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Industrial Spiral Gear Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Industrial Spiral Gear Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Industrial Spiral Gear Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (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 Future Trends of Material Handling Equipment Market hiking with 7.5% CAGR by 2023 | Forecast MRFR https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3214 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/material-handling-equipment-market-3214 Market Scenario:Material handling equipment is equipment used for the movement, storage and protection of goods in all industries for manufacturing and distribution.The major driver for the growth of the Material Handling Equipment Market is the increasing automation across manufacturing industries. The constantly increasing pressure for optimization of resources and raw materials consumption, is driving the use of Material Handling Equipment Market. The other factors driving the growth of the Material Handling Equipment Market are constant innovation in technology, up gradation of the manufacturing plants and the expansion of the manufacturing base in developing nations.The Material Handling Equipment Market is expected to grow at CAGR of ~7.5% during the period 2017 to 2023.Regional Analysis:The Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow significantly in the global power quality equipment market. The growth of the Asia-Pacific region in the Material Handling Equipment Market can be attributed to the booming industrial sector in the region and the safety concerns at workplaces, especially in industries such as automotive, food & beverage and metal & heavy industries. Material handling equipment also facilitate the distribution and production of materials majorly in the e-commerce industry, thereby leading to the growth of the material handling equipment market in the region.Request a sample @Key Players:The key players of Material Handling Equipment Market are Liebherr Group (Switzerland), KION Group AG (Germany), Jungheinrich AG (Germany), Viastore Systems GmbH (Germany), Eisenmann AG (Germany), Columbus McKinnon Corporation (U.S.), Crown Equipment Corporation (U.S.), Hytrol Conveyor Co., Inc. (U.S.), Xuzhou Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd. (China) and Toyota Industries Corporation (Japan).Intended Audience: Distributer & Supplier companies End Users consultants and Investment bankers Government as well as Independent Regulatory AuthoritiesProduct Analysis: Product matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional Information: Regulatory Landscape Pricing Analysis Macroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic Analysis: Geographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany Information: Profiling of 10 key market players In-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report title Competitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Material Handling 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 ServicesContact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global Masterbatch Market Sees Promising Growth in 2018 QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1473670&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-masterbatch-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1473670&type=D http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report Masterbatch to its huge collection of research reports.The global market for Masterbatch is discussed in detail within a new research study added recently to QYResearchReports.com. The report has been carefully examined both qualitatively and quantitatively and the results are revealed in the research report for the forecast period of 2017 to 2022. In addition to this, the various drivers and restraints, regulatory conditions, and the segmentation of this global market have also been included in the study. All data is supported by primary and secondary research methodologies. Expert analysts from the industry have also expressed their opinions on the industrial and economic scenario, creating the report as an authentic guide to the global Masterbatch market.The research report makes use of various market-tested analytical tools such as market attractiveness readings, SWOT analysis, and Porters Five Forces analysis in order to provide readers a qualitative as well as quantitative overview of the Masterbatch market. The information garnered from these research procedures is further investigated by seasoned industry analysts, who have made their contributions in the form of invaluable market insights on the workings of the global Masterbatch market.For more info, get the sample report for FREE here:The biggest and the highly influential regions in the global Masterbatch market are determined and assessed in detail within the research report. The economic factors influencing the global Masterbatch market are stated, along with a 360-degree overview of the current conditions that are influencing the direction and expansion rate of the market and the key operations in its various regional segments. Top market trends are analyzed to offer clients appropriate guidance in compiling their own market strategies for their and the global Masterbatch markets growth trajectory. The report thus provides existing and established companies as well as new entrants all the relevant data they need to create business opportunities in lucrative and thriving economies. The report helps companies of any size and caliber establish a stronger foothold in the global Masterbatch market.Global Masterbatch market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingClariantAmpacet CorporationA. Schulman, Inc.Americhem, Inc.Polyplast Mueller GmbHPlastiblendsAstra PolymersAlok MasterbatchesHubronHengcaiGabriel-Chemie Group...Read Complete Table of Content of the Report at:Table of ContentsGlobal Masterbatch Market Research Report 20181 Masterbatch Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Masterbatch1.2 Masterbatch Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Masterbatch Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Masterbatch Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 White Masterbatch1.2.4 Black Masterbatch1.2.5 Color Masterbatch1.2.6 Additive Masterbatch1.2.7 Plastic Filler Masterbatch1.3 Global Masterbatch Segment by Application1.3.1 Masterbatch Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 White Masterbatch1.3.3 Black Masterbatch1.3.4 Color Masterbatch1.3.5 Additive Masterbatch1.3.6 Plastic Filler Masterbatch1.3.7 Other1.4 Global Masterbatch Market by Region (2013-2025)2 Global Masterbatch Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Masterbatch Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Masterbatch Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Masterbatch Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Masterbatch Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Masterbatch Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)To check available discount on this report, visit at:3 Global Masterbatch Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Masterbatch Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Masterbatch Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Masterbatch Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Masterbatch Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Masterbatch Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Masterbatch Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Masterbatch Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (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 Flue Gas Desulphurization Market Report Actionable Insights and Recommendation 2015-2025 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-440 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-440 Sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions are caused by combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil. Waste materials including tires, municipal solid wastes, industrial process waste, etc. are the other major contributors of sulphur dioxide emissions. All the prominent industrialized nations around the globe have formulated regulations concerning mitigation of carbon and sulphur dioxide emissions. Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) is a technology which removes sulphur dioxide (SO2) from the flue gas emitted from fossil-fuel power plants prior to its release into the atmosphere.Flue gas desulphurization market report assesses the market opportunity for flue gas desulphurization devices, equipment, or machinery. FGD technology is based on the chemical reaction between the warm exhaust gases and limestone which reduces up to 92% of sulphur dioxide from the flue gas. FGD technology is mainly used in coal-fired power stations to remove sulphur dioxide in the flue gases. FGD technology is also referred as sulphur dioxide scrubbing process.Request For Report Sample@Flue Gas Desulphurization Market SegmentsFlue gas desulphurization market can be segmented by method, by type and by application. On the basis of methods of treatment, the flue gas desulphurization market can be segmented into scrubber, SNOX and wet sulphuric acid process. Scrubber method can be further bifurcated into dry and semi-dry process. Based on the solid or flue gases generated by the industry processes, FGD technology can be classified by type as once through and regenerable. Once through system disposes the waste sorbent and regenerable system recycles the sorbent. Regenerable systems are costlier than the once through systems. Both the systems can be further categorized as wet, dry and semi-dry. Cost of maintenance and operation is higher in dry FGD as compared to wet FGD. However, dry FGDs are available at cheaper rate than wet FGDs. FGD technology segmentation by application are cement manufacturing plants, chemical industries, iron and steel industries, power generation and others. Major benefits of FGD Technology are SO2 removal efficiencies from 50-90%, reusable reactive products and inexpensive reagents.Flue Gas Desulphurization Market: Key DriversThe key market drivers of FGD technology is the government regulations in emission control, increase in electricity demand, growth in reagent and equipment replacement market and increase in the number of coal-fired power plants, particularly in APAC countries due to increase in energy demand. Installation coal-fired power plants is a major trend in China and is anticipated to have an increasing demand in India also, in the coming years due to increase in industrialization. Existing and old systems in industrial processes are the key drivers of reagent and equipment replacement market.Regional Outlook on Flue Gas Desulphurization MarketAPAC is expected to exhibit a steady growth during the forecast period. Due to the regulatory programs such as Clean Air Interstate rule (CAIR), various state programs such as North Carolina Clean Smokestacks Act will have a positive impact on the demand for FDG installations in electricity utility boilers. Europe and other developing nations are into a decision of reducing nuclear power due to its negative impact on environment which will in turn increase the construction of coal-fired power plants increasing the demand of FDGs. The key market players in FGD market are Alstom S.A., Ducon Technology Inc., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Marsulex Environmental Technologies, Siemens Energy, Babcock and Wilcox.Visit For TOC@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 and product type.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 The Micro Suede Fabric Market is Projected to Grow at a Substantial Rate QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1474017&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-micro-suede-fabric-market-professional-survey-report-2018.htm/toc https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1474017&type=D http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report Micro Suede Fabric to its huge collection of research reports.The global market for Micro Suede Fabric is discussed in detail within a new research study added recently to QYResearchReports.com. The report has been carefully examined both qualitatively and quantitatively and the results are revealed in the research report for the forecast period of 2017 to 2022. In addition to this, the various drivers and restraints, regulatory conditions, and the segmentation of this global market have also been included in the study. All data is supported by primary and secondary research methodologies. Expert analysts from the industry have also expressed their opinions on the industrial and economic scenario, creating the report as an authentic guide to the global Micro Suede Fabric market.The research report makes use of various market-tested analytical tools such as market attractiveness readings, SWOT analysis, and Porters Five Forces analysis in order to provide readers a qualitative as well as quantitative overview of the Micro Suede Fabric market. The information garnered from these research procedures is further investigated by seasoned industry analysts, who have made their contributions in the form of invaluable market insights on the workings of the global Micro Suede Fabric market.For more info, get the sample report for FREE here:The biggest and the highly influential regions in the global Micro Suede Fabric market are determined and assessed in detail within the research report. The economic factors influencing the global Micro Suede Fabric market are stated, along with a 360-degree overview of the current conditions that are influencing the direction and expansion rate of the market and the key operations in its various regional segments. Top market trends are analyzed to offer clients appropriate guidance in compiling their own market strategies for their and the global Micro Suede Fabric markets growth trajectory. The report thus provides existing and established companies as well as new entrants all the relevant data they need to create business opportunities in lucrative and thriving economies. The report helps companies of any size and caliber establish a stronger foothold in the global Micro Suede Fabric market.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringAmerican Silk Mills LLC/SensuedeMajilite CorporationTorayYuan Jia...Table of ContentsGlobal Micro Suede Fabric Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Micro Suede Fabric1.1 Definition and Specifications of Micro Suede Fabric1.1.1 Definition of Micro Suede Fabric1.1.2 Specifications of Micro Suede Fabric1.2 Classification of Micro Suede Fabric1.2.11.2.21.3 Applications of Micro Suede Fabric1.3.1 Sofa1.3.2 Pet Products1.3.3 Cloth1.3.4 Interior decorating1.3.5 Automotive1.3.6 Other1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North AmericaRead Complete Table of Content of the Report at:2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Micro Suede Fabric2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Micro Suede Fabric2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Micro Suede Fabric2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Micro Suede Fabric3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Micro Suede Fabric3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Micro Suede Fabric Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Micro Suede Fabric Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Micro Suede Fabric Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Micro Suede Fabric Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Micro Suede Fabric Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Micro Suede Fabric Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Micro Suede Fabric Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Micro Suede Fabric Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Micro Suede Fabric Sales Analysis (Company Segment)...To check available discount on this report, visit at: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 Frozen Fruits and Vegetables Industry Sales,Supply and Consumption 2017 Global Analysis and Forecast to 2020 Frozen Fruits and Vegetables Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/735260-global-frozen-fruits-and-vegetables-market-research-report-forecast-to-2027 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/735260-global-frozen-fruits-and-vegetables-market-research-report-forecast-to-2027 WiseGuyReports.Com adds Frozen Fruits and Vegetables Industry Sales,Supply and Consumption 2017 Global Analysis and Forecast to 2020 Research to its Database.Description:The global market for frozen fruits and vegetables has witnessed continued demand during the last few years and is projected to reach 751 million tons by 2027, at a CAGR of 5.34% from 2016 to 2027. Increase in versatile demand across various food and beverage segments particularly convenience food and beverage is likely to drive the global frozen fruits and vegetables market.The demand for healthy convenience food is increasing. The frozen fruits and vegetables are convenient as there is no need to wash, peel and cut it. The number of women and men working is on increase, so need for such convenience is the need of the day. The trend of making fruit smoothies, with frozen fruits it is easy to make smoothies.Countries where there is shortage of fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen and packed fruit and vegetables are preferred. Because freezing preserves food, no unwanted additives are required in bags of frozen goodies, like spinach and strawberries. Fruits and vegetables are wasted due to its natural deterioration process, and low grade storage process. Frozen fruits and vegetables can be preserved for a long period of time due to increase in the shelf-life.Based on fruit type, highest growth rate will be witnessed in kiwi followed by apricots among the frozen fruit segments during the forecasted period. Among various frozen fruit types, figs and mango was estimated a larger share of 23% in the year 2016. Based on vegetable type, highest growth rate will be witnessed in spinach followed by other legumes among the frozen vegetable segments during the forecasted period. Among various frozen vegetable types, sweet corn and other vegetables was estimated a larger share of 40% in the year 2016.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comKey PlayersThe leading market players in the Frozen Fruits and Vegetables primarily are Dole (U.S.), Ardo NV (Belgium), HJ Heinz (US), Simplot Australia PTY Ltd (Australia), General Mills (U.S.), Findus Sverige AB, (Sweden), Pinnacle Foods Corp. (US), and Bonduelle Group (France).Study Objectives of Frozen Fruits and Vegetables Forecast to 2027 In depth analysis for individual segments and sub segments for frozen fruits and vegetables To estimate market size by type, sub-type, form, packaging and application To understand the supply and demand dynamics of frozen fruits and vegetables To provide country level market analysis and future outlook for Company profiling of major players & competitive positioning for frozen fruits and vegetables Value chain analysis and supply chain analysis of frozen fruits and vegetables Analysis of historical market trends, and technologies, and current government regulatory requirements related to frozen fruits and vegetablesTarget Audience Frozen Fruit manufacturers Frozen Vegetable manufacturers Cold Logistics companies Reefer companies Retailers, wholesalers E-commerce companies Traders, Importers and exportersKey Findings Based on fruit type, highest growth rate will be witnessed in kiwi followed by apricots among the frozen fruit segments during the forecasted period Increase in demand for confectionery, bakery and dairy products specifically in berries will drive demand for kiwi and apricots Based on vegetable type, highest growth rate will be witnessed in spinach followed by other legumes among the frozen vegetable segments during the forecasted period Increase in demand for RTE (Ready to Eat Foods) foods will drive demand for spinach and other legumesCountry Analysis of Global Frozen Fruits and Vegetables Forecast to 2027 MarketAs per the MRFR analysis, the global market for frozen fruits and vegetables has witnessed continued demand during the last few years and is projected to reach 751 million tons by 2027, at a CAGR of 5.34% during the forecasted period. U.S and Canada will grow at a CAGR of approximately 9.68% and 7.32% respectively.The reports also cover country level analysis: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo Spaino U.K.o Rest of Europe APACo Chinao Indiao Japano Thailando Rest of APACAsk Query @Table Of Contents Major Key Points1 REPORT PROLOGUE2 INTRODUCTION2.1 DEFINITION2.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY2.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE2.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS2.2.3 LIMITATIONS2.3 MARKET STRUCTURE3 RESEARCH METHODOLGY3.1 PRIMARY RESEARCH3.2 SECONDARY RESEARCH4 MARKET DYNAMICS4.1 DRIVERS4.1.1 INCREASE IN DEMAND FOR CONVENIENCE FOODS4.1.2 INCREASE IN DEMAND FOR FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES4.1.3 USE OF EFFICIENT MATERIALS AND ADOPTION OG ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES4.2 RESTRAINTS4.2.1 LOSS OF NUTRITION DURING FREEZING4.2.2 PREFERENCES FOR FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES4.2.3 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT4.3 OPPORTUNITIES4.4 INNOVATIONS IN PRODUCTS & PROCESS4.5 MACRO-ECONOMIC INDICATORS5 MARKET FACTOR ANALYSIS5.1 VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS5.2 PORTER'S FIVE FORCES5.2.1 THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS5.2.2 THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES5.2.3 BUYER POWER5.2.4 SUPPLIER POWER5.2.5 INTENSITY OF RIVALRY6 GLOBAL FROZEN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES MARKET-BY TYPE6.1 GLOBAL FROZEN FRUITS MARKET BY TYPE6.2 GLOBAL FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET BY TYPE7 GLOBAL FROZEN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES MARKET-BY FORM7.3 GLOBAL FROZEN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE MARKET BY PACKAGING8 GLOBAL FROZEN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE MARKET BY APPLICATION9 GLOBAL FROZEN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES MARKET-BY REGION9.1 NORTH AMERICA9.1.1 NORTH AMERICAN FROZEN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE MARKET BY COUNTRY9.1.2 U.S.9.1.2.1 U.S. FROZEN FRUITS MARKET9.1.2.2 U.S. FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY TYPE9.1.2.3 U.S. FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY FORM9.1.2.4 U.S. FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY FORM9.1.2.5 U.S. FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.1.2.6 U.S. FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.1.2.7 U.S. FROZEN FRUITS& VEGETABLES MARKET-BY APPLICATION9.1.3 CANADA9.1.3.1 CANADA FROZEN FRUITS MARKET9.1.3.2 CANADA FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET9.1.3.3 CANADA FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY FORM9.1.3.4 CANADA FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY FORM9.1.3.5 CANADA FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.1.3.6 CANADA FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.1.3.7 CANADA FROZEN FRUITS& VEGETABLES MARKET-BY APPLICATION9.1.4 MEXICO9.1.4.1 MEXICO FROZEN FRUITS MARKET9.1.4.2 MEXICO FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET9.1.4.3 MEXICO FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY FORM9.1.4.4 MEXICO FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY FORM9.1.4.5 MEXICO FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.1.4.6 MEXICO FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.1.4.7 MEXICO FROZEN FRUITS& VEGETABLES MARKET-BY APPLICATION9.2 SOUTH AMERICA9.2.1 BRAZIL9.2.1.1 BRAZIL FROZEN FRUITS MARKET9.2.1.2 BRAZIL FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET9.2.1.3 BRAZIL FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY FORM9.2.1.4 BRAZIL FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY FORM9.2.1.5 BRAZIL FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.2.1.6 BRAZIL FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.2.1.7 BRAZIL FROZEN FRUITS& VEGETABLES MARKET-BY APPLICATION9.2.2 ARGENTINA9.2.2.1 ARGENTINA FROZEN FRUITS MARKET9.2.2.2 ARGENTINA FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET9.2.2.3 ARGENTINA FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY FORM9.2.2.4 ARGENTINA FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY FORM9.2.2.5 ARGENTINA FROZEN FRUITS & VEGETABLES MARKET MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.2.2.6 ARGENTINA FROZEN VEGETABLES MARKET-BY PACKAGING9.2.2.7 ARGENTINA FROZEN FRUITS& VEGETABLES MARKET-BY APPLICATION9.2.3 CHINAContinue.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. Castor Oil Derivatives Assessment and Forecast Report by Future Market Insights 2015-2025 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-474 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-474 Castor oil is one of the most multipurpose plant oils, obtained by pressing the seed of the castor oil plant (Ricinus communis).It is well known source of a monounsaturated, ricinoleic and 18-carbon fatty acid. Owing to its unique chemical structure and rich properties, castor oil and its derivatives find uses in many industries such as cosmetics, food, lubricants, paints, agriculture, electronics & telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, perfumeries, plastics and rubber, inks & adhesives and textile chemicals. After plant oils, castor oil is considered to be the most required oil. However, growing concerns pertaining to biofuels specially biodiesel and biopolymer across the globe is pushingcastor oil to play a much larger role in the world economy.Castor Oil Derivatives: Drivers & RestraintsGrowth of major end-use industries (includes lubricants, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals) and increasing demand for sustainable products & biodegradable, on account of reducing dependence on petrochemicals is anticipated to fuel the demand for castor oil derivatives market. Also regulatory support and rising prices of alternative renewable chemicals is expected to drive the global castor oil derivatives market. However, factors influencing its manufacturing cost includes raw material availability, weather uncertainties, shortage of working capital, techniques & methods used for extraction and availability of substitute oil are resulting in restraints for the castor oil derivative market.Request For Report Sample@Castor Oil Derivatives: SegmentationOn the basis of product type, the global castor oil derivatives market is segmented into Undecylenic Acid, Sebacic Acid (largest consumed castor oil derivatives), Castor Wax or Hydrogenated castor oil (HCO), Dehydrated Castor Oil (DCO) and others. On the basis of application, global castor oil derivatives market is segmented into Lubricants, Cosmetics & Pharmaceuticals (largest application segment), Biodiesel, Plastics & Resins and Others.Castor Oil Derivatives: Region-wise OutlookThe global castor oil derivatives market is expected to register a double digit CAGR for the forecast period, 2015?2025. Asia-Pacific is expected to continue its dominance on the global castor oil derivatives market. India accounts for largest production of castor oil derivatives worldwide, followed by China and Brazil. Higher demand from the US, Europe and China has resulted in the higher prices for castor as well as increase in demand for castor oil derivatives. The major castor producing countries are India, China, Brazil, Paraguay, Ethiopia, Philippines, Russia and Thailand.Visit For TOC@Castor Oil Derivatives: Key PlayersSome of players in global castor oil derivatives market are Thai Castor Oil Industries Co. Ltd., Jayant Agro Organics, Hokoku Corporation, ITOH Oil Chemicals Co. Ltd., Gokul Overseas, Bom Brazil, Liaoyang Huaxing Chemical Co., Ltd., Kanak Castor Products Pvt. Ltd., and others.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 Automotive Brake System Market Size to Grow at a Steady Rate During Forecast Period 2015-2025 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-503 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-503 The developing industry of automotive has largely emphasised on the development of the vehicles that are fast and safe. Brakes have become an important and crucial part of any vehicle so as to ensure the safety which becomes very essential when the demand of speed is increasing steadily. Being commonly used in different automobiles an automotive brake system comprises a brake device having different components (such as brake pads, brake shoes, brake drum, rotor, piston, calliper, master cylinder, and brake booster) which are used for decelerating a vehicle.The growth in automotiveindustry is anticipated to fuel the growth of global automotive brake system market along with the increasing concerns over safety and resulting government pressures that have upturned the OEMs towards the launching of higher technology content, thereby driving the demand for global automotive brake systems across the globe.Request For Report Sample@Automotive Brake System Market: Drivers & RestraintsEver-increasing demand and succeeding vehicle production is considered as one of the biggest driver for the increasing demand of the automotive brakes and global automotive brake system market penetration. Also the increasing governmental mandates for improving the vehicle safety has strongly contributed to the demand of the global automotive brake system market. The major restraint in the global automotive brake system market implies to be the higher cost of the newer technology of Electronic Brake Systems (EBS) when compared to the commonly used Hydraulic Brakes.Automotive Brake System Market: SegmentationOn the basis of product type, the global automotive brake system market is segmented as Disc Brakes and Drum Brakes.On the basis of applications the global automotive brake system market is segmented as Two Wheeler Motor Vehicles, Passenger Car Vehicles, and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV).On the basis of technology the global automotive brake system market is segmented as Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Traction Control System (TCS), and Electronic Stability Control (ESC) that comes under the electronic braking systems (EBS).Automotive Brake System Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global automotive brake system market is expected to register a favourable growth for the forecast period, 2015?2025. Asia-Pacific is projected to endure its control on the global automotive brake system market. The key countries in the mentioned region are projected to be India, South Korea, and China as an outcome of the increasing demand for commercial vehicles and passenger cars. Japan also contributes to the global automotive brake system market remarkably. China is expected to be the largest opportunity in terms of revenue of the industry. Europe is expected to be the second largest market in global automotive brake system market followed by North America.Visit For TOC@Automotive Brake System: Key PlayersSome of the key market participants in global automotive brake system market are TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., Aisin-Seiki Co. Ltd., Continental AG, Akebono Brake Industry Co. Ltd., Brembo S.P.A., Halla Mando Corp., and others.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 Needle Biopsy Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts 2017-2023 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3830 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/order_form.pdf?report_id=3830 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/3830 The needle biopsy market is chiefly driven by product development and the fall in prices of raw materials and components. The increasing cases of cancers and growing usage of biopsy needles is driving the market. Companies should focus on improving the distribution efficiency so as to reduce the pressures on prices due to huge market fragmentation. Distributional agreements between large players and advanced products such as multilayer needles will be extremely beneficial. The emergence of needle biopsy is estimated to pose the greatest threat to the Needle Biopsy Market. Needle biopsy offers non-invasive diagnostic tests for detecting cancer as it used liquids such as blood, urine, saliva etc. to detect malignancy. Increasing automation will enhance the capabilities of needle biopsy and it may substitute the needle biopsy procedures. Real time progression of cancers is also possible in needle biopsy which raises the level of threat it possess to needle biopsy. The falling cost of products due to greater market fragmentation and the emergence of Chinese companies is expected to put additional pressures on prices.Get a Sample Report @In our estimates vacuum assisted needle biopsy will be the fastest growing segment. The increasing screening rates for cancers through the world will stimulate the market. Among the various cancers, breast cancer is expected to generate the largest use of needle biopsy. Needle Based Biopsy Guns is another lucrative strategy that is being pursued by many players. Core needle biopsy has a higher efficiency and detectability rate than fine needle aspiration biopsy. There is increasing bias to use core needle biopsy in combination with needle aspiration biopsy to achieve highest sensitivity and detectability. Thus, the two tests are complementary, and the effectiveness rate is highest with both tests are done together.The growing stringent regulation and standards for medical devices, and the increasing uncertainty about reimbursement in the US are threatening the growth of the market.Global Needle biopsy Market Players:Key players profiled in the report are Boston Scientific Corporation, Cook Medical, CareFusion Corporation, Hologic, Inc., and Cardinal Health, Inc., Medax, C. R. Bard, Inc., Moller Medical GmbH, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Hakko co. ltd., Kompass, Argon Medical Devices, Inc. and others.Test 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 Needle biopsy Market Research Report Forecast till 2023.Segmentation:The global needle biopsy market is segmented on the basis of type and applications. Based on type, the market has been segmented as fine-needle aspiration biopsy, core needle biopsy, vacuum-assisted biopsy and image-guided biopsy. Based on the utility, the market has been segmented as disposable and reusable. Based on the applications, the market has been segmented as tumor, infection, inflammation and others.Order Single User License Copy of 110 Premium Pages is Available @Regional analysisUS accounts for the maximum market share due to favorable reimbursement scenarios and greater expenditure on healthcare. The faster market uptake of new technology in the US is also an important driver of the market for global needle biopsy. Europe is the second largest market due to large disposable income and rising awareness. Asia Pacific region is the fastest growing region because of large unmet needs which is led by China and India. The Middle East & Africa market is led by the gulf nations particularly Saudi Arabia and UAE. The poor regions of Africa are expected to be a laggard due to poor economic and political conditions and poor healthcare penetration.Brief TOCIntroductionResearch MethodologyMarket DynamicsMarket Factor AnalysisGlobal Needle Biopsy Market, By TypeGlobal Needle Biopsy Market, By UtilityGlobal Needle Biopsy Market, By ApplicationsGlobal Needle Biopsy Market, By RegionCompetitive LandscapeCompany ProfileConclusionAppendixAsk to Expert @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Evolving Industry Trends of Dental Chair Market in Global Industry : Analysis, Growth, Market Status, Demand and Technology 2017-2022 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1339669 https://www.researchmoz.us/dental-chair-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2022-report.html/toc Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Dental Chair Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2022" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Dental Chair Market: OverviewThe global market for dental chair is witnessing a substantial rise in its value and size. The increasing prevalence of oral and gum diseases across the world has boosted the growth of this market significantly. The rising awareness about oral and gum care in emerging economies is also propelling this market considerably around the world.An exhaustive analysis of the global market for dental chair has been offer in this research report that intends to present the reader with deep insights into this market in order to help them gain a better understanding about it.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Dental Chair Market: Scope of the StudyThe report estimates and forecasts the worldwide dental chair market on the global as well as the regional levels. It consists of a comprehensive value chain analysis for each of the segments. Value chain analysis also offers a detailed information about the value addition at each stage. The study also includes the drivers and restraints for this market, together with their impact on demand during the period from 2017 to 2022.Further, the study discusses the key market indicators that influence the growth of the global dental chair market. It analyzes the opportunities in this market by examining the market trends. The drivers, restraints, opportunities, and scope mentioned in the report have been justified using quantitative and qualitative data and have been verified by primary and secondary resources. Furthermore, the average price trend analysis and the substitute analysis have also been provided in this study.The report comprises a qualitative write-up on the markets attractiveness analysis, in which the end users and the regional markets have been assessed on the basis of the attractiveness in each of the regions. The market size, growth rate, availability of raw materials, technology used, profit margin, strength of the impact, competition, and various other legal and environmental factors have been studied at length in a bid to derive the general attractiveness of this market.Make an Enquiry about TOC @Global Dental Chair Market: SegmentationThe research study provides a comprehensive overview of the worldwide market for dental chair by analyzing it on the basis of the type of product, end user, source, and the geography. Based on the type of product, the market has been categorized into examination dental chairs, oral surgery dental chairs, orthodontic dental chairs, and portable dental chairs. By end user, the market has been classified into Hospitals, Clinics, and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs).By the Type of source, the market has been bifurcated into powered dental chair and manual dental chair. The geographical segmentation includes the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), North America, Europe, and Japan. These segments have been assessed on the basis of their historical, current, and future trends. The market segmentation also comprises the demand for dental chairs in each of the regions individually.Global Dental Chair Market: Competitive AnalysisThe report covers a detailed competitive analysis of the global dental chair market, including the market share and the profiles of the leading players functional in this market. The product literature, press releases, annual reports, and relevant documents of the key players have been reviewed for a better understanding of this market and its competitive analysis.Key players profiled in the report include Danaher, A dec Inc., DentalEZ Inc., Dexta Corp., Dome Inc., Midmark Corp., Planmeca Oy, Dentsply Sirona Inc., Technodent, and Forest Dental. Company profiles consists of several attributes, such as company overview, business overview, brand overview, number of employees, business strategies, key competitors, recent/key developments, and financial overview.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 New Market Research Report of Exterior Architectural Coating Market in Global Industry : Growth, Trends and Application 2017-2022 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1430574 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-exterior-architectural-coating-market-professional-survey-report-2017-report.html/toc Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Exterior Architectural Coating Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Exterior Architectural Coating 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, coveringAxalta Coating SystemsBASFPPG IndustriesKansai PaintNippon PaintTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Valspar CorporationAkzoNobelSherwin-WilliamsArkemaBerger PaintsOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoSolventborneWaterborneBy Application, the market can be split intoResidentialCommercialBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaMake an Enquiry about TOC @Table of ContentsGlobal Exterior Architectural Coating Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Exterior Architectural Coating1.1 Definition and Specifications of Exterior Architectural Coating1.1.1 Definition of Exterior Architectural Coating1.1.2 Specifications of Exterior Architectural Coating1.2 Classification of Exterior Architectural Coating1.2.1 Solventborne1.2.2 Waterborne1.3 Applications of Exterior Architectural Coating2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Exterior Architectural Coating2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Exterior Architectural Coating2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Exterior Architectural Coating2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Exterior Architectural Coating3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Exterior Architectural Coating3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Exterior Architectural Coating Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Exterior Architectural Coating Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Exterior Architectural Coating Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Exterior Architectural Coating Major Manufacturers in 2016ResearchMoz 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 Acoustic Insulation Market will reach the mark of USD 14.10 Billion by 2023 | Forecast 2023 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2862 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/acoustic-insulation-market-2862 Market Scenario:Acoustic insulation is used either for noise reduction or for noise absorption. The rising construction & infrastructural activities across the globe, is the major driving factor of the market. Stringent government regulations regarding noise pollution adds to the market growth. Increasing consumer awareness regarding energy consumption has a positive influence on the market. However, the lack of awareness of acoustic insulation material, is a restraint that may hamper the market growth.The Global Acoustic Insulation Market is projected to reach USD 14.10 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period.Regional AnalysisAsia-Pacific region dominates the global acoustic insulation market, followed by North America. Growing demand from construction and infrastructure sector driving the demand of the market in Asia-Pacific region. Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at the fastest pace during the forecast period. Europe is another major market for acoustic insulation. Building safety codes in countries such as U.K., Germany, and France is driving the demand of the market in the region.Request a sample @Key PlayersThe key players of Acoustic Insulation Market are - ROCKWOOL International A/S (Denmark), Knauf Insulation GmbH (Germany), Saint-Gobain S.A. (France), Owens Corning Corporation (U.S.), Johns Manville Corporation (U.S.), BASF SE (Germany), Paroc Group Oy (Finland), Kingspan Group PLC (Ireland), Fletcher Insulation (Australia), and Armacell GmbH (Germany).Intended Audience Manufacturing Industries Distributer & Supplier companies consultants and Investment bankers Government as well as Independent Regulatory Authorities Research OrganizationsProduct 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 Acoustic Insulation 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 ServicesContact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global Sheet Molding Compound and Bulk Molding Compound Market 2017: Key Players Citadel Plastics Holding Inc (U.S.), Menzolit GmbH (Germany), Polynt S.P.A. (Italy) and More Global Sheet Molding Compound and Bulk Molding Compound Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/735252-global-sheet-molding-compound-forecast-to-2021 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars WiseGuyReports published new report, titled Global Sheet Molding Compound and Bulk Molding Compound MarketIntroductionThe sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound is a fiber protected polymer matrix composite material which offers a range of beneficial properties that are demanded by various modern applications. Market Research Future predicts the market is projected to reach USD 3,531.1 million by 2021 with 6.5% CAGR during review period of 2016-2021.The final products are used in many end-user industries like automotive, electrical, electronics, sanitary ware, furniture and other structural components. SMCs are used in Aircraft and military components, down hole components for oil & gas, and high strength electrical parts. BMCs are majorly used in the applications like power control in electrical industry, and light vehicle headlamp reflectors in automobile industry. The growth of global transportation and electrical market has resulted in increasing production of sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound.Geographically, Asia-Pacific is one of the major revenue generator as well as producer of sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound however, for the manufacturer there will be an extreme opportunity to invest or increase the production capacity. China stands on the top most position as producers and consumer which account the total of around 50% of the global market.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Key PlayersThe leading market players in the global sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound market primarily include IDI Composite International (U.S.), Citadel Plastics Holding Inc (U.S.), Menzolit GmbH (Germany), Polynt S.P.A. (Italy), Core Molding Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), Continental Structural Plastics Inc.(U.S.), and Showa Denko (Japan).Study Objectives of Sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound 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 Sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound Market Upcoming technologies, high growth geographies and countries were identified Regional and country specific demand and forecast for sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound were studied Key segments covered in the report are: application, classification, and region Under aircraft type, both commercial and military aircraft is taken into consideration Average selling price for all different classification was finalized; same was referred for forecasting, keeping few assumptions into factor For all the regions: forecast demand for all applications were identified and then with historical figure, data collected through primary and annual reports were triangulated to derive the regional market sizeTarget Audience OEMs Component and Raw Material Suppliers Service Suppliers Potential Investors Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerKey Findings In 2015, the Asia-Pacific had the largest share of 45% in the market and is expected to lead the market by 2021 APAC is likely to be the fastest growing market, due to the significant increase in the number of aircraft in the region Growing demand of power control, and light vehicle headlamp reflectors are the driving factors for sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound market IDI Composite International, Citadel Plastics Holding Inc., Menzolit GmbH, Polynt S.P.A., Core Molding Technologies, Inc. are the major vendors of sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound market By 2021, Glass Fiber is likely to have the market share of around 82%Regional and Country Analysis of Sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound MarketAs per the MRFR analysis, the Asia-Pacific Sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound market is poised to reach $XX billion in 2021, to grow at a CAGR of around 7% during the forecasted period. Europe and North America will grow at a CAGR of approximately 5% and 7% respectively.The reports also cover country level analysis: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo Spaino U.Ko Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Chinao Japano Australia/New Zealando Rest of Asia-Pacific..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 Translation Software Market By Technology Elements and Growth Rate 2018-2025 Translation Software Market https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/702146 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/global-translation-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025-d-309 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/check-discount/702146 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com The report on Global Translation Software Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Translation Software industry propos classifications, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.This Report is worth buying because,The report Global Translation Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 focuses on fundamental know-how of Translation Software segment. The report provides comprehensive study and vivid description of drivers, limitations, openings, request factors, market size, conjectures, and patterns in the Worldwide Heading market over the time of 2018 to 2025. Besides, the report is aggregate introduction of essential and optional research discoveries.To get a quick view of this report, kindly request for the sample report. Please Visit:The potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. The present market condition and future prospects of the segment has also been examined. Moreover, key strategies in the market that includes product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, etc., are discussed. Besides, upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also conducted.The major market players operating in this market are as follows, SDL MemoQ Atril LEC Flitto Prompt Babylon LinguaTech IdiomaX AuthorSoft WordMagic NeuroTran Kingsoft YouDao OmegaTBrowse full report with Table of Content @Table of Contents 1 Industry Overview of Translation Software2 Global Translation Software Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles4 Global Translation Software Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)5 United States Translation Software Development Status and Outlook6 EU Translation Software Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Translation Software Development Status and Outlook8 China Translation Software Development Status and Outlook9 India Translation Software Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Translation Software Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2018-2025)12 Translation Software Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixTo grab attractive discount on this 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.comWeb- Travel and Tourism Industry Business Outlook and Procurement Survey Dec 2017-May 2018 ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011415099/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/travel-and-tourism-industry-business-outlook-and-procurement-survey-dec-2017-may-2018 http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011415099/buying ReportsWeb.com published Travel and Tourism 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.Publisher's "Travel and Tourism Industry Business Outlook and Procurement Survey Dec 2017-May 2018", examines executives' opinion on the business outlook and procurement activities over Dec 2017-May 2018, including comparative analysis of survey results with Jun-Nov 2017 (wherever applicable). It also highlights key business priorities, supplier price variations, changes in capital expenditure, and organizations' perspective on e-procurement. In addition, this report presents the future projection of merger and acquisition activities within the travel and tourism industry over the next six months.In comparison to the previous six months (June-Nov 2017), mergers and acquisition activity in the global travel and tourism industry is projected to increase by five percentage points over the next six months (Dec 2017-May 2018), as a result of increasing competition, economies of scale, and government policies. Even though rising competition and market uncertainty have been highlighted as major business concerns for the global travel and tourism industry over the next six months, respondents are willing to increase their focus towards improving their operational efficiency and expansion in current markets. Furthermore, emerging economies such as China, India, and Brazil are projected to offer significant growth opportunities for the global travel and tourism industry, due to rising disposable income, favorable demographic factors, the availability of cheaper flights, and favorable government policies. On average, the global travel and tourism industry's procurement expenditure is projected to increase by 7.2% over the next six months.Request a Sample Report@Report Scope:-Improving operational efficiency is projected to be a key priority for the global travel and tourism industry over the next six months (Dec 2017-May 2018)-Executives expect China to offer more growth in the six months of Dec 2017-May 2018-Increased use of technology and internal operating cost reductions are the main procurement objectives for global travel and tourism organizations over the next six months-Overall, 36% of executives anticipate their global procurement budget to be up to US$100,000 over the next six months-Of industry executives, 23% state that the deployment of e-procurement within their organization is limited.What else does this report offer--Key business priorities: examines travel and tourism organizations' important priorities for Dec 2017-May 2018-Emerging and developed markets: provides information about key emerging and developed markets, which will offer the most growth over Dec 2017-May 2018-Change in M&A activity: analyzes travel and tourism industry executives' opinion on changes in merger and acquisition activity globally-Business concerns: identifies major business concerns that are likely to impact manufacturers and suppliers-Change in capital expenditure: tracks the expected change in capital expenditure both globally and regionally-Change in procurement activities: evaluates how procurement activities will change in the travel and tourism industry over the next six months-Procurement budget outlook: projects procurement budget allocation along with changes in procurement objectives over Dec 2017-May 2018-Supplier prices outlook: determines the expected change in supplier prices over Dec 2017-May 2018-E-procurement: identifies executives' perspective towards e-procurement implementation and deployment within the global travel and tourism industry.For more information about this report@Companies Mentioned:HiltonShangri-La Hotels and ResortsHyatt PlaceAscend Hotel CollectionHotel JenReasons to buy:-Travel and tourism companies can realign business strategies by comparing the business priorities over the next six months (Dec 2017-May 2018) compared to the previous six months (Jun-Nov 2017)-Organizations can develop or adjust business expansion plans by knowing the significant growth offering emerging and developed markets highlighted in the report-Helps organizations to adjust their procurement budget by providing information about procurement budget projections anticipated by executives for Dec 2017-May 2018-Organizations can implement effective price management by viewing supplier price variations highlighted for Dec 2017-May 2018.Table of Content:IntroductionDefinitionsMethodology and sample sizeRespondent profileGlobal business outlook in December 2017-May 2018Strategic business prioritiesEmerging markets with significant growth potentialGrowth potential for developed marketsMergers and acquisitionLeading business concernsCapital expenditure projectionsProcurement behaviors and strategiesPotential changes in procurement resources and objectivesProcurement activity outlook in key areasGlobal procurement budget projectionsPlanned change in procurement expenditureSupplier prices outlookOrganizations' viewpoints on e-procurementAppendixInquire before Buying@About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Contact Us:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Phone : +91-20-67278686E-Mail : info@reportsweb.com Thermal Power in Vietnam Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2017- Capacity, Generation, Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011415092/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011415092/buying http://www.reportsweb.com/thermal-power-in-vietnam-market-outlook-to-2030-update-2017 ReportsWeb.com published Thermal Power 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."Thermal Power in Vietnam, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2017-Capacity, Generation, Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles", is the latest report from Publisher, the industry analysis specialists that offer comprehensive information and understanding of the thermal power market.The report provides in depth analysis on global thermal power market with forecasts up to 2030. The report analyzes the power market scenario in Vietnam (includes thermal, nuclear, large hydro, pumped storage and renewable energy sources) and provides future outlook with forecasts up to 2030. The research details thermal power market outlook in the country and provides forecasts up to 2030. The report highlights installed capacity and power generation trends from 2006 to 2030 in Vietnam thermal power market. A detailed coverage of energy policy framework governing the market with specific policies pertaining to thermal is provided in the report. The research also provides details of active thermal power plants in the country, upcoming thermal installation details and company snapshots of some of the major market participants.Request a Sample Report@The report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, secondary research and in-house analysis by Publisher's team of industry experts.Report Scope:The report analyses global thermal power market, Vietnam power market and Vietnam thermal power market. The scope of the research includes--A brief introduction on global carbon emissions and global primary energy consumption.-Historical period is during 2006-2016 (unless specified) and forecast period is for 2017-2030.-Detailed overview on the global thermal power market with installed capacity and generation trends, market forces analysis (drivers, restraints and challenges), installed capacity by fuel type, installed capacity split by region, installed capacity split by major countries and cross country comparison among thermal sources such as coal, oil and gas.-Power market scenario in Vietnam and provides detailed market overview, installed capacity and power generation trends by various fuel types (includes thermal, nuclear, large hydro and renewable energy sources) with forecasts up to 2030.-Detailed overview of Vietnam thermal power market with installed capacity and generation trends, installed capacity by fuel type, net capacity addition by fuel type, owners share, market size of major equipments such as steam generator and turbine, and information on major active and upcoming projects.-Key policies and regulatory framework supporting thermal power development.-Company snapshots of some of the major market participants in the country.Inquire before Buying@Companies Mentioned:Vietnam ElectricitySumitomo CorporationSojitz CorporationPetroVietnam Power CorporationReasons to buy:The report will enhance your decision making capability in a more rapid and time sensitive manner. It will allow you to--Identify key growth and investment opportunities in Vietnam thermal power market.-Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data for thermal power market.-Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industry's growth potential.-Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events.-Identify key partners and business development avenues.-Understand and respond to your competitors' business structure, strategy and prospects.Table of Content:1 Table of Contents 22 Executive Summary 73 Introduction 104 Thermal Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 165 Coal Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 326 Oil Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 437 Gas Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 548 Power Market, Vietnam, 2006-2030 659 Thermal Power Market, Vietnam, 2006-2030 7810 Power Market, Regulatory Scenario, Vietnam 9311 Thermal Power Market, Vietnam, Company Profiles 9912 Appendix 125For more information about this report@About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Contact Us:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Phone : +91-20-67278686E-Mail : info@reportsweb.com Comprehensive Report on Insulin Management System Market by Future Market Insights 2016-2026 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2282 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2282 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com Frederick B and John M in 1923 were Nobel Prize awardee in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of Insulin. This serves a milestone in history of diabetes management as the death rate due to diabetes significantly reduced after its discovery. Insulin is a natural and most essential preprohormone produced by INS gene by islets of langerhans in pancreas by allowing body to take up glucose as energy source. Insulin prevents hyperglycemia and maintain blood sugar levels in co-ordination with glucagon. Diabetes is a most common health problem causing high blood sugar level resulting into excessive thirst and large amount of urine production. It causes secondary health associated problems such as diabetic ketoacidosis, hyperosmolar hyperglycemic states, and other serious complications (heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, leg amputation) leading to premature death. Diabetes is divided into 3 types i.e Type I diabetes, Type II diabetes and gestational diabetes. According to NCD CCS, insulin treatment is essential treatment for diabetes. FDA approved genetically engineered recombinant human Insulin and Insulin analogues are used in insulin management system.Insulin Management System Market: Drivers and RestraintsIt is being estimated by World Diabetes Foundation that there will be 438 million people with diabetes by year 2030 which interprets demand for insulin management system market or solutions to accompany escalating diabetes population. Insulin management system shows a promising market growth due high global prevalence and incidence, extensive research and advancement in technology for effective insulin delivery systems and support from government and health care centers in making insulin management systems available throughout globe. According to WHO since 1980, the global prevalence of diabetes in adult population has risen from 4.7% to 8.5%. While in past decade the prevalence of Diabetes in low and middle income countries is higher than in higher income countries. Also, according to research carried out in University of Florida the reason for the mortality of children with type I diabetes is lack of access to Insulin management systems due to its high price. Hence unavailability of cheaper or affordable insulin management system thus hinder its market growth while its availability would increase market size and demand in low and middle income countries.Request For Report Sample:Market: SegmentationThe market for global Insulin management system is classified on the basis of disease indication, product type, mode of action, route of administration, end user and geography.Based on product type, the market for global insulin management system is segmented into the following:Needle and syringe.Insulin Pen Injectors.Insulin jet injectors.External Insulin pumps.Implantable pumps.Insulin patches.Islet cell transplantation.Insulin inhalers.Based on disease indication, the global insulin management system market is segmented into the following:Diabetes I.Diabetes II.Gestational Diabetes.Based on product mode of action, the global insulin management system market is segmented into the following:Rapid acting insulin.Short acting insulin.Intermidiate acting insulin.Pre-mixed insulin.Based on product route of administration, the global insulin management system market is segmented into the following:Based on end user, the global insulin management system market is segmented into the following:Speciality diabetic clinics.Home care setting.Non- Diabetic Clinics.Insulin Management System Market: OverviewInsulin treatment for Type II diabetes holds largest share due to its high prevalence and also availability of variety and advances in insulin management systems available to treat type II diabetes. Also in comparison to recombinant human Insulin there is greater share for insulin analogues due to its higher efficacy with fast and long lasting effects. Moreover in comparison to painful traditional methods of insulin administration by injections, use of inhaled insulins are expected to have larger share in insulin management system market. Inhaled insulins are easy to administer, fast acting and is eliminated from body in less time. Thus, Insulin that is affordable, easy to administer, readily available, fast acting with long lasting effect and quick elimination from body is expected to hold strong position in insulin management system market.Insulin Management System Market: Regional OverviewRegion wise, the global regions in Insulin Management System market is classified into, North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) and MEA (Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia & Egypt). America dominates the global insulin management system market due to higher prevalence of diabetes, high income population and also due to significant patent protection for brands of biosimilar insulin. Europe holds second largest insulin management system market due to better disrtribution of network for key players in insulin management system market. While Asia Pacific and MEA is fastest growing due to adoption of various advancement in insulin management system. Initiatives taken by government in developing countries to provide better healthcare facilities and easy utilization of insulin management system plays a larger role in increasing market for insulin management systems.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Insulin Management System Market: Key PlayersEli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Biocon, Sanofi Aventis, Julphar, Novo Nordisk, SemBioSys, and WOCKHARDT, Abbott India Ltd., USV Limited, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Piramal Enterprises Limited are key players.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: Q4 2017 Global Bid Round Outlook-Indonesia's Four Postponed Bid Rounds to Close in this Quarter ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011415072/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011415072/buying http://www.reportsweb.com/q4-2017-global-bid-round-outlook-indonesias-four-postponed-bid-rounds-to-close-in-this-quarter ReportsWeb.com published Bid Round 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.Globally 19 bid rounds are due to close in Q4 2017. The '30th Offshore Licensing Round' round in the UK offers most number of blocks among all the bid rounds due to close in the quarter. In terms of acreage, the 2017 conventional direct proposal, conventional regular, unconventional direct proposal, and unconventional direct' rounds in Indonesia have the highest acreage on offer among all the bid rounds. Indonesia's government announced the extension of the four bid round until December 31, 2017 in order to allow for the passage of a new tax regulation.Request a Sample Report@Report Scope:-Provides overview of global bid rounds due to close in Q4 2017-Information on each bid round due to close in Q4 2017 by country-Recent exploration and licensing history of countries where bids are due to close in the quarter-State take comparison with regional peers of a countryReasons to buy:-Obtain the most up to date information available on the global bid rounds due to close in Q4 2017-Gain insight on bid rounds and blocks on offer by country-Keep abreast of recent developments on the global bid rounds-Facilitate decision making on the basis of strong data on global bid roundsInquire before Buying@Table of Content:1 Table of Contents 11.1. List of Tables 21.2. List of Figures 42. Key Highlights 72.1. Overview of Global Bid Rounds Closing in Q4 2017 83. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Lebanon 104. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Australia 135. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Brazil 186. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Canada 257. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Israel 338. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-UK 398. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-China 449. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Norway 4810. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Isle of Man 5311. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Greenland 5612. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Egypt 5913. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Indonesia 6414. Q4 2017 Bid Round Overview-Oman 7215. Appendix 7715.1. Abbreviations 7715.2. Methodology 7715.2.1 Coverage 7715.2.2 Secondary Research 7715.3. Contact Us 7815.4. Disclaimer 78For more information about this report@About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Contact Us:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Digital Telepathology Market: Opportunity Assessment Research Study 2016-2026 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2393 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2393 http://www.futuremarketinsights.com Pathology is the study of diseases and one of the major fields in medicine & diagnosis. It is mainly concerned with the cause, origin and study of different diseases. It is done by examining bodily fluids, tissues, & organs. It is currently divided into eight main areas of study. With the advent of Information Technology and the digital age, a new field has sprung up the digital telepathology market. As the name suggests, it is pathology with the help of telecommunications technology. As opposed to general pathology which is conducted at a short-range, digital telepathology is typically performed at distance. Pathology image-rich data is transferred great distances for the purpose of diagnoses, education or even research purposes. The term was coined by Dr Ronald S. Weinstein in 1986 and he also spoke about the potential of this in a journal publication back then. He is rightly known as the father of telepathology. The digital telepathology market is mainly focused on serving the need for medical research, education, subspecialty pathology, histopathology diagnoses, second opinion diagnosis, and also that of frozen section specimens.Digital Telepathology Market DriversOne of the main drivers of the digital telepathology market is bound to be the information technology wave sweeping across the world. Western countries already have a strong digital infrastructure, but Internet penetration is rapidly increasing in the developing world. This can enable pathologists to examine, study, and diagnose patients not only in remote locations within the country but also anywhere else in the world. A second factor is a flexibility and convenience offered to seek a second opinion. The digital telepathology market will enable pathologists in any part of the globe to consult their peers in other countries, which will ensure an appropriate diagnosis. According to the W.H.O, cancer cases are expected to increase by nearly 70% in the next twenty years with nearly 1.4 million of them being misdiagnosed. Thus, quick (and appropriate) diagnoses will be critical to saving millions of lives. The third driver is expected to be increasing digitisation in the field of research. Digital pathology is relevant in the field of medical education, histopathology and even for examining frozen section specimens. With the help of digital technology, pathologists could convert physical data into digital files, eliminating the need to physically store it. This would also help them drive down their cost and improve efficiency.Request For Report Sample:Digital Telepathology Market RestraintsThere are a few challenges faced by the digital telepathology market, one of the biggest being cost. Digital telepathology equipment is very expensive which will almost certainly be a problem in developing countries. Government reimbursements are typically unavailable there which makes the initial investment quite difficult. Another issue is regulatory concerns. Digital telepathology walks a fine line between both medicine & technology so each country would have different laws concerning both. There can also be resistance from pathologists themselves. Few pathologists today can truly operate these systems and they might even be unwilling to trust the results. These are some of the reasons why the digital telepathology market is still a niche one at present.Digital Telepathology Market Key RegionsThe digital telepathology market serves the following main geographic regions North America, the E.U., Asia-Pacific, MENA and the rest of the world. North America is the largest market and is anticipated to show moderate growth over the next decade. This is due to a strong healthcare system, regulations like the Affordable Care Act, the high prevalence of various cancers and an ageing population requiring medical assistance. It is also boosted by world-class medical education & research facilities, eager adoption of technology and government reimbursement being available in these critical fields. Europe is the second largest market but is expected to remain flat or post negative growth. However, the high prevalence of cancer in this region will ensure that there remains a strong future for the digital telepathology market there. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the market of the future mainly because of China, India and Japan.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Digital Telepathology Market Key Market PlayersSome companies involved in the digital telepathology market include Leica Biosystems, Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., GE Healthcare, Olympus Corporation, Philips Healthcare, MikroSkan Technologies, Inc. and many 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:Abhishek Bhudoliya616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: UK Professional Indemnity Market Review 2017 ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011415094/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/uk-professional-indemnity-market-review-2017 ReportsWeb.com published Professional Indemnity 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."UK Professional Indemnity Market Review 2017", provides an in-depth analysis of the UK professional indemnity insurance market. It looks at market size as well as changes in premiums, claims, distribution, regulations, and future opportunities. It provides a thorough overview of the market along with a GWP forecast for the coming years.The soft market conditions that have characterized the UK professional indemnity insurance market in recent years may finally be coming to an end. The winds of change are starting to blow, with premium rate rises and a reduction in capacity widely anticipated in 2018.Request a Sample Report@Report Scope:-The UK professional indemnity market is estimated to have been worth 1.64bn in 2017.-Much of the growth in underlying demand is occurring among non-traditional professions, and in particular among SMEs.-Hiscox and AXA are the largest UK PII SME insurers.Reasons to buy:-Benchmark yourself against the rest of the market.-Ensure you remain competitive as new innovations and insurance models begin to enter the market.-Adapt your distribution strategy to ensure it is efficient and still meets customer purchasing habits.Companies Mentioned:AIGZurichTravelersQBEAmTrustAXALloyd'sFor more information about this report@About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Contact Us:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028 Grand View Research of Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Market in Global Industry : Including the Product Price, Profit, Capacity, Production, Supply, Demand and Market Growth Rate and Forecast 2017-2022 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1472278 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-drug-eluting-peripheral-balloon-catheter-machine-sales-market-report-2017-report.html/toc Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Machine Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter 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 Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter 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.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report includes six parts, dealing with:1.) basic information;2.) the Asia Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Market;3.) the North American Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Market;4.) the European Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Market;5.) market entry and investment feasibility;6.) the report conclusion.Table of ContentsPart I Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Industry OverviewChapter One Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Industry Overview1.1 Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Definition1.2 Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Classification Analysis1.2.1 Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Application AnalysisChapter Two Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter 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 TrendMake an Enquiry about TOC @Part II Asia Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Three Asia Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Market Analysis3.1 Asia Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Product Development History3.2 Asia Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Competitive Landscape Analysis3.3 Asia Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Market Development TrendChapter Four 2012-2017 Asia Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast4.1 2012-2017 Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Capacity Production Overview4.2 2012-2017 Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Production Market Share Analysis4.3 2012-2017 Drug-Eluting Peripheral Balloon Catheter Demand OverviewResearchMoz 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 Evolving Technology of Telepsychiatry Market Industry : Size, Share, Trends and Analysis 2017-2025 Market Research Report https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1380616 https://www.researchmoz.us/telepsychiatry-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Telepsychiatry Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Telemedicine can be defined as the process of providing healthcare services through technology, primarily through the usage of videoconferencing. Telepsychiatry Market is a sub-segment of telemedicine, which provides a range of mental health solutions such as therapies, including family therapy, individual therapy, and group therapy; psychiatric evaluations, medication management, and patient education. Telepsychiatry involves either direct communication between the patient and the psychiatrist or through psychiatrist supporting primary health care providers specialized in mental health.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, in the U.S., over 20% of youth aged between 13-18 years suffer from mental health conditions; and over 11% of the youth have a mood disorder. Similarly, over 18.1% of American adults live with anxiety disorders.The growing tendencies of suicide in teenagers and young adults (which happen to be one of the leading causes of death globally), contributes to the increase in demand for mental health treatment. This is expected to drive the telepsychiatry market. The various advantages offered by the adoption of telepsychiatry such as improved continuity of care and follow-up, reduced delays in care, reduction in transportation barriers, and the ability to avoid long waiting times at hospitals, aid in the growth of the telepsychiatry market. In addition, lack of skilled professionals with the ability to treat metal illness, changing regulatory scenario such as the inclusion of certain reimbursement codes for telepsychiatry by Medicare, would contribute to the growth of the telepsychiatry market, as it would facilitate accessibility between the patient and the psychiatrist. In addition, telepsychiatry provides immediate availability of psychiatric interventions and assessments, access to a range of experts, and reduction in the stigma associated with mental health treatment, which would aid in driving the market during the forecast period. However, barriers to the implementation of telepsychiatry, including stringent regulations which differ from region to region, and the belief among people that telepsychiatry might not be as effective as direct consultation might have a negative impact on the growth of the market.The global telepsychiatry market can be segmented on the basis of product type, end user, and geography. On the basis of product type, the market can be segmented into in-home solutions, forensic solutions, crisis solutions, routine solutions, and others. In-home solutions includes the mental health treatment provided to the patients in their homes; forensic solutions includes mental health services provided to the patients in correctional facilities or in prisons; crisis solutions include solutions provided in crisis situations, including emergency mental health solutions provided to patients with suicidal tendencies or other anxiety situations. Based on end-user, the market can be segmented into specialty care settings, skilled nursing facilities, hospitals, community mental health centers, and others.Make an Enquiry about TOC @Geographically, the telepsychiatry market can be segmented into five regions, including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America contributed to the highest share of revenues in 2016 and the trend is anticipated to continue during the forecast period. The strong growth in the region can be attributed to the growing acceptance of technology in the healthcare sector, better healthcare settings, and the well-established healthcare infrastructure. Europe is anticipated to be the second leading region contributing to the telepsychiatry market. However, the sluggish economy in the region might have an impact on the future growth of the market. Asia Pacific is anticipated to record a significantly high CAGR owing to factors such as lack of direct reach to psychiatrists, increasing stress among people, and growing adoption of smartphones, among others.The leading players operating in the telepsychiatry market are Iris Telehealth, e-Psychiatry, LLC, InSight Telepsychiatry, eVisit, LLC, Advanced Telemed Services, InnovaTel, American Telepsychiatrists, TPsychiatry, Encounter Telehealth, JSA Health Psychiatry, FasPsych, LLC, Genoa, a QoL Healthcare Company, and Arcadian Telepsychiatryamong others.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 Perovskite Solar Cells Market Research Report 2017 : CSIRO, Dyesol, Crystalsol QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=990690&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=990690&type=D Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Perovskite Solar Cells Market Research Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The market study on the global Perovskite Solar Cells market is a scientific instrument to understand the performance of the said market over the forecast period. 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Industry statues and policies, industry news and developments, and industry framework are the some of the aspects that have been discussed in this part of the report. Included in the report is a cost analysis of products, along with insights into manufacturer profit in the Perovskite Solar Cells market. The dynamics between various applications of the Perovskite Solar Cells market and their implication on the industry chain are also discussed herein.The industry chain analysis of the Perovskite Solar Cells market covers aspects such as production capacity, demand-supply dynamics, cost structure of product catalog, etc. An analysis of upstream raw material chain and downstream demand, along with import/export behavior is also included in the report.Market attractiveness analysis and feasibility of new investments in the Perovskite Solar Cells market are key features of this report. Using proven research methodologies and standard analytical tools, the report presents an accurate picture of growth trends and demand drivers, and points out strategies that are sure to present lucrative growth avenues in the future.Table of Contents1 Perovskite Solar Cells Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Perovskite Solar Cells1.2 Perovskite Solar Cells Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.3 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Segment by Application1.3.1 Perovskite Solar Cells Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.4 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Perovskite Solar Cells (2012-2022)2 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Perovskite Solar Cells Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Perovskite Solar Cells Market Competitive Situation and TrendsCheck Discount For This Report @3 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Perovskite Solar Cells Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Perovskite Solar Cells Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Perovskite Solar Cells Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Perovskite Solar Cells Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Perovskite Solar Cells Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Perovskite Solar Cells Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Perovskite Solar Cells Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Perovskite Solar Cells Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Perovskite Solar Cells Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Perovskite Solar Cells Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Perovskite Solar CellsFigure Global Perovskite Solar Cells Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)Figure Global Perovskite Solar Cells Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016Figure Global Perovskite Solar Cells Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)Figure Global Perovskite Solar Cells Consumption (Sales) Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure Global Perovskite Solar Cells Market Size (Million USD) Comparison and CAGR (%) by Regions (2012-2022)Figure North America Perovskite Solar Cells Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe Perovskite Solar Cells Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Perovskite Solar Cells Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Perovskite Solar Cells Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Perovskite Solar Cells Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com Chinese and Indian petcoke production rise in November; Brazil remains pressured http://www.cwgrp.com/petcoke-news/petcoke-market-data www.cwgrp.com According to CW Researchs Petcoke Country Market Data, during November 2017, petcoke production kept improving in important markets, such as China and India, despite environmental constraints over its usage in cement production. Conversely, in Brazil, petcoke consumption mirrored a contracting cement output.In China, a high demand for fuel is keeping petcoke prices strong. On November 15, measures to combat smog started to be implemented, meaning that some industrial facilities shut down or are operating at low capacity, thus driving fuel consumption downwards. Nonetheless, during the month, petcoke production rose 3.8 year over year. Furthermore, in Shangdong, Chinas region recording the highest petcoke production, year-to-date production expanded 6.6% YoY in November.Filipe Gouveia, analyst with CW Research, observes: in the upcoming months, the measures implemented by the Chinese government to address smog-related issues are expected to lead to a temporary slowdown in petcoke consumption. Nevertheless, due to the countrys dependence on imports, Chinese refineries are expected to operate at high capacity, as production will remain insufficient to fully meet domestic petcoke demand.Indian petcoke production boosted by strong demand; Brazil still strugglingMeanwhile, in India, domestic petcoke production improved 32.0% year on year. Petroleum coke stocks are rising, as production levels and insecurity increase. Discussions on further regulations on fuel grade petcoke usage are shaking consumer confidence, but a strong demand for fuel is keeping prices high. Consequently, higher stocks of petcoke are expected to assist in driving prices downwards.In Brazil, low cement production is driving petcoke consumption downwards. For the first 11 months of 2017, petcoke production declined by 0.5 million tons, reflecting a slow macroeconomic environment. Nevertheless, Sao Paulo, Brazils region with the highest output of petcoke, recorded a 17.3% increase in petcoke production in November.****For more information, placing an order, or interview inquiries, please contact Liviu Dinu, Market Services & Marketing Consultant, CW Group, by phone at +40-744-67-44-11, or e-mail at ld@cwgrp.com.About Petcoke Market DataCW Researchs Petcoke Country Market Data analysis, part of CW Groups premium PetcokeWeek market reporting service, extensively covers petcoke volume trends across the globe. Particular emphasis is given to demand & supply volumes for the largest petcoke producing and consuming markets around the world. Presented in an objective, easy-to-understand format, the Petcoke Country Market Data is an indispensable tool for producers, suppliers, investors and end-users who wish to always be updated on all the relevant petcoke trends.Additional coverage on petcoke news and updates can be found here:About CW GroupThe Greenwich (Conn.), USA headquartered CW Group is a leading advisory, research and business intelligence boutique with a global presence and a multi-industry orientation. CW Group is particularly recognized for its sector expertise in heavy-side building materials (cement), light-side building materials, traditional and renewable power & energy, petrochemicals, metals & mining, industrial minerals, industrial manufacturing, bulk cargo & shipping, among others. We have a strong functional capability, grounded in our methodical and quantitative philosophy, including due diligence, sourcing intelligence, feasibility studies and commodity forecasting.PO Box 5263, Greenwich, CT 06831, USALiviu DinuMarket Services & Marketing ConsultantM: +40-744-67-44-11E: ld@cwgrp.com Spectral Computed Tomography Market Dynamics, Comprehensive Analysis, Business Growth, Prospects and Opportunities 2016-2027 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1026 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/spectral-computed-tomography-market Global Spectral Computed tomography (CT) Market Information by types (Cardiac Imaging, Neutral Imaging, Clinical images others) by applications (Cardiovascular, Neurovascular, Spinal others) by end users (Hospitals, diagnostic centers) - Forecast to 2027Computed tomography (CT) has enjoyed in a position of unmistakable quality in medicinal imaging since its creation in the past decades. The methodology gives a more complete picture of the body than X-rays, its predecessor, taking images at a few distinct angles to construct a cross area, including bone and tissue. The inconvenience is that it can be hard to recognize one object from another in the white palette, especially with regards to smaller injuries or metal artifacts inside the body.Get a Copy of Sample Report @The report for Global Spectral Computed tomography (CT) 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 regionsKey Players for Spectral Computed tomography (CT) Market: General Electric Company, Hitachi medical corporation, NeuroLogica Corp, Neusoft Medical Systems, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Shenzhen Anke High-tech Co., LtdSegments:Global Spectral Computed tomography (CT) market has been segmented on the basis of types which consist of Cardiac Imaging, Neutral Imaging, Clinical images others. On the basis of application which includes Cardiovascular, Neurovascular, Spinal and others On the basis of End Users Diagnostic centers and hospitalsBrowse Full Report Details @Study Objectives of Spectral Computed tomography (CT) Market:To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Spectral Computed tomography (CT) Market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To Analyze the Global Spectral Computed tomography (CT) Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia, and RoW. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by type, by application, by end users and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Spectral Computed tomography (CT) MarketContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Spectral Computed Tomography (CT) Market Research Report- Forecast to 2027 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 Brachytherapy Market 2027| Ultimate Analysis & Global Forecast | Broadcast MRFR https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1035 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1035 Market Research Future published a Half-Cooked research report on Global Branchytherapy Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027.The Global Branchytherapy Market is flourishing owing to the factors contributing to its growth are increasing incidences of cancer, rising aging population and demand for alternatives cancer treatment. Global brachytherapy market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.9% during forecast period 2017 to 2023.Brachytherapy is a type of radiation therapy in which a radiation emitting source is placed near the area requiring treatment. Brachy means treatment for short distance therapy. It is effective for the treatment of cervical cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer and other types of cancers. Cancer cure rates after brachytherapy are comparable to surgery or external beam therapy (EBT). Demand for brachytherapy is increasing because of an increase in prevalence of various type of cancers, low treatment time and high efficiency. Its treatment results also show an increasing cure rate which is also contributing to the growth of this market.According to American Cancer Society, breast cancer is considered as the most common type of cancer occurring in women with an estimated 252,710 new cases in U.S. Prostate cancer is found to be the most common cancer among American males. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2014, there were 233,000 cases of prostate cancer. Other types of cancer include esophageal cancer, gynecologic cancers, anal/rectal tumors, head and neck cancers.Get Exclusive Sample Copy @Industry UpdatesAugust, 2017 Becton Dickinson and Company (BD) acquired Bard. The acquisition will expand its focus on disease treatment beyond diabetes, and include urology, peripheral vascular disease, cancer, and hernia.May, 2017 Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG signed an agreement to acquire Gamma-Service, a specialist in manufacturing isotope technology. With this acquisition Eckert & Ziegler is expected to strengthen their market position and focus on the optimal servicing for their existing customers.Feb, 2017 Merit Medical Systems, Inc. to acquire products from Catheter Connections, Inc. and Argon Medical Devices. These product acquisitions will broaden Merits product portfolio and simultaneously expanding the companies geographic presence. The company also focuses on widening its customer base globally.Jan, 2017 Alliance Medical signed a pact to purchase Eckert & Ziegler Radiopharma GmbH (Eckert & Zieglers cyclotron division), a subsidiary of Eckert & Ziegler AG. The cyclotron division consist of four cyclotrons across Germany, Austria and Poland. The acquisition of Eckert & Zieglers cyclotron division will further extends the companys molecular imaging presence in Europe as well as the radiopharmacy facilities in the Italy and UK.August, 2016 Eckert & Ziegler had acquired BranchySolutions BVBA, a European prostate seed distributor. The acquisition will strengthen Eckert & Ziegler seed manufacturing position in EuropeJan, 2016 Argon Medical Devices, Inc. acquired three vascular products from Rex Medical, LLC. The product include, UltraStream Chronic Hemodialysis Catheter Option, ELITE CLEANER Rotational Thrombectomy System, and Retrievable Vena Cava Filter are wholly owned by this company. The acquisition is expected to fortify the existing interventional portfolio. It further enables the company to offer customer procedure-based comprehensive solutions.Global Branchytherapy Market - Regional AnalysisDepending upon the geographic regions brachytherapy market is segmented into four key regions: Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America dominated the market in 2016 due to the factors such increasing incidence of chronic illness, extensive use of brachytherapy and adoption of newer cancer therapies drive the growth of this market in America.Europe emerged as the second largest market, the increasing cases of cancers, and the rising use of seeds brachytherapy in Europe are some factors responsible for the huge market share.Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest growing region showcasing lucrative growth over the forecast period. The attributed growth is due to the rise in aging population, increasing prevalence of skin cancer and increasing awareness about brachytherapy as an alternative to surgery. The high and low dose branchytherapy are commonly used in Asia Pacific region.Global Branchytherapy Market - Competitive AnalysisVarian Medical Systems, Inc. provides brachytherapy device namely brachytherapy after loaders and applicators. In December 2016, the company acquired the Medical Imaging business of PerkinElmer, Inc. In August 2014, it also acquired Certain Assets of Transpire, Inc., a specialized developer of Radiation Simulation Software.Some of the key players in this market include Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (US), C. R. Bard, Inc (US), Modus Medical Devices Inc. (Canada), Eckert & Ziegler (Germany), Argon Medical Devices, Inc. (US), Elekta AB (Sweden), IsoAid (US), IsoRay Medical, Inc. (US), and others.Get Discount @ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Brachytherapy Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 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 Global Smart Parking Systems Market Anticipated to Surge US$177.1 MN by 2022 MRRSE https://www.mrrse.com/sample/293 https://www.mrrse.com/smart-parking-systems-market https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/293 https://www.mrrse.com/ https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/ Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Smart Parking Systems MarketRequest a Free Sample Report @The staggering amount of vehicles coming on to roads around the world calls for advanced methods for parking. Traffic and parking problems are on the rise and people are finding lesser space for either. This is creating a high level of discomfort, fuel wastage, and high levels of emissions. Urban and city parking has therefore become a major concern for both developed and emerging nations, forming the primary driver leading most entities towards seeking smart parking system solutions.Smart parking systems provide a highly flexible, scalable, and efficient way for buildings and locations of all sizes and types, thus ensuring a smoother flow of traffic and a considerable drop in emissions. The latter forms a high concern issue as the growing emission levels are creating multiple complications in climate change and human health. The leading employers of smart parking systems in most countries are their municipalities. Their interest and involvement allows for the development of better smart parking systems through an upwards scaling of parking fees that can directly be used for advancing smart parking technologies.The global market revenue for smart parking systems is therefore expected to show an exceptionally positive CAGR of 20.2% from 2015 to 2022. This revenue is expected to be valued at US$59.7 mn by the end of 2016 and reach US$177.1 mn by 2022.North America Shows High Demand for Smart Parking SystemsNorth America is expected to generate a revenue of US$34.6 mn for the global market for smart parking systems by 2022, due to the presence of dense traffic in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and others. These cities are also showing a higher level of awareness towards modern solutions for traffic control and parking, thereby becoming an optimized region for the large-scale adoption of smart parking systems.Download Complete Report with Table of Content @Various smart parking systems have already been implemented in North America, such as the SFpark program implemented in San Francisco. Areas in the city equipped with SFpark systems have sped up parking of vehicle by five minutes on average when compared to conventional parking methods. Programs such as these are proof that the smart parking systems can bring about a successful change in traffic and parking conditions across the world.Off-street Parking Demand SoarsIn terms of the site of parking, the smart parking systems can be classified into off-street and on-street parking solutions. At the moment, off-street smart parking systems are in high demand due to the ease with which they can be implemented and fine-tuned. Additionally, they can be privately owned, while almost all on-street parking spaces are owned by the government. Therefore, while the need for smart parking systems is extremely high in both sites, it is being implemented on a larger scale in off-street sites. Most off-street parking areas are made of commercial parking lots and garages. On the other hand, on-street smart parking systems have to prepare for permit timers, passenger zones, loading zones, bus and truck zones, and street cleaning vehicles.Off-street parking spots are the easier place to implement effective smart parking systems in tandem with robot-assisted or automated parking services. These systems help increase the comfort and safety of all passengers. On the other hand, on-street smart parking systems are gathering steam. This parking site segment is expected to progress at a CAGR of 23.6% from 2015 to 2022.The key providers of smart parking systems on a global front include Streetline, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., ParkMe, Inc., Urbiotica, Skidata AG, Amano McGann, Inc., Swarco AG, Smart Parking Ltd, Nedap N.V., and Parkmobile, LLC.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: Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices Market Ultimate Analysis By Key Players, Type, Latest Trend & Opportunities, Forecast to 2022 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1071 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/advance-anesthesia-monitoring-devices-market Global Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices Market Analysis by Type (gas monitors, standalone capnography monitors, depth of anesthesia, and MRI compatible anesthesia monitors), by End User (Hospitals, Clinics, ambulatory services) - Forecast to 2027Globally the market for Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices is increasing rapidly the main reason for this is the growth in safety of patients. The factors that influence the growth of Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices market are the increasing technology development in healthcare devices, Healthcare organizations encouraging patients to go undergo anesthesia monitoring. The market is also growing due to usage of Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices in wide range of treatment.The report for Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices 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.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players Nihon Kohden Corporation (China) GE Healthcare (U.K.) Philips Healthcare (The Netherlands) Draegerwerk AG & Co. KGaA (Germany) Masimo (U.S.) Infinium Medical (U.S.) Medtronic (U.S.) Mindray Medical International Limited (China)SegmentsThe market for Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices is segmented in mainly two parts i.e. by Type, by end users and its various sub-segments; by type include gas monitors, standalone capnography monitors, depth of anesthesia, and MRI compatible anesthesia monitors, and others. Whereas end-users segment include, hospitals, research laboratories, clinics, ambulatory services and others.Study Objectives of Advance Anesthesia Monitoring DevicesTo provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices marketTo provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo Analyze the Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW)To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country level analysis of the market for segment by Type, End Users and its sub-segments.To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices market.Browse Full Report Details @ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Advance Anesthesia Monitoring Devices Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 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 Protein Trends & Technologies Market 2027| Absolute Research & Global Forecast | Assert MRFR https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1105 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/protein-trends-technologies-market-1105 Market Research Future published a research report on Global Protein Trends & Technologies Market Research Report - Forecast till 2027 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027.Proteins are large biomolecules made up of amino acids. They perform various functions such as DNA replication, catalyzing metabolic reactions, transporting molecules from one place to another and responding to stimuli. There has been invention in technologies for protein synthesis and purification in last few years. According to the International Food Information Council Foundations (IFIC) 2017 Food and Health Survey, there has been 33% increase in consumption of protein in the Americas since 2012, whereas in 2016, around 64% of Americans saying they consume protein. Report suggest consumer believe calories from protein are less likely to cause weight gain than those from sugars, carbohydrates and fats.Global Protein Trends & Technologies Market OverviewThe global protein trends & technologies market is rising with a swift phase; mainly owing to increase new technology for tracking activities of proteins. This technology has replaced traditional technologies such as chromatography and DNA micro array. Proteins also have wide range of application in diagnosis of disease and treatment development. Demand of new technologies to be applied in healthcare, emerging trends in protein identification & tracking and increasing use of protein studies in research activities drive the growth of this market.Companies are continuously invent new products and technology to capture the maximum share of global market. Thus major players invest more in research and development activity, in order to lead the global market. In this regards, MiTeGen LLC, in 2015 Announces that they have the mutual distribution agreements with Rigaku Reagents in order to expand their sales network globally. In 2015, Scienion AG and Anteo partner to develop consumables for better functionality and longer shelf life of protein microarrays. This project will help both companies to provide best product by combining the advantages of the Mix&Go technology with the capability of SCIENIONs precision spotting sciFLEXARRAYER technology, in order to deliver more accurate, better, and longer-lasting diagnostics.Cost of technology like High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and protein chip may act as a restraint for this market.Rigaku Corporation (Japan), Hampton Research Corp. (U.S.), Jena Bioscience GmbH (Germany), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (U.S), Molecular Dimensions Ltd. (U.K.), Formulatrix, Inc. (U.S.), Bruker Corporation (U.S.), MiTeGen LLC (U.S.), Scienion AG (Germany), Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), EMD Millipore (U.S.), Life Technologies Corporation (U.S.), Oxford Expression Technologies Ltd. (U.K), Qiagen N.V. (Germany), Takara Bio Inc. (Japan) are some of the leading players at the cutting edge of the competition in the market of Protein Trends & Technologies, globally.Get Sample Copy @Global Protein Trends & Technologies Market - Regional AnalysisThe market of protein trends & technologies is much higher in the Americas region. There are huge population which are suffering from inadequate nutrition. According to the report published by World Health Organization (WHO), in 2014, around 667 million children below the age of 5 year are suffered with malnutrition. There are huge population suffering with malnutrition, thus market players have good opportunity to maximize their profit with in this region owing to high awareness of healthcare. According to report published by World Health Organization (WHO), in 2015, the obesity population has gone up slightly between 1990 and 2014, from 4.8 per cent to 6.1 per cent that is 31 million to 41 million.Europe is also consider huge market for Protein Trends & Technologies players, owing to present of well-developed healthcare structure and awareness of proteins and technology. Government are more focusing on research and development to introduce new proteins and best technology for their citizen.Asia Pacific region is consider one of the big market. Whereas, countries like India and China have high potential of generating business for market players owing to the fastest growing economy, additionally they are open to adopt new technology, and best treatment option from developed countries in order to improve the quality of life for their citizen. Developing countries are focusing on new proteins and techniques for meeting the requirement of market, there are wide gap between the developed and developing countries due to advanced technology and awareness of citizen. These gap is the opportunity for the protein trends & technologies market players in the coming years.The Middle East and Africa are low market due to his incapability of investment. Most of the countries from this region are belong from low economy, and have very slow growth, thus this market consider as the lowest market for protein trends & technologies.Browse Full Report @ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Protein Trends & Technologies Market Research Report - Forecast till 2027 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 Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Market - Growth, Trends And Forecasts (2018-2025) Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Market https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/701879 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/report/global-blood-pressure-bp-monitoring-testing-market-research-report-2018 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/check-discount/701879 https://www.qyresearchgroups.com The Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Market and gives us the in-depth analysis of the present scenario and the future growth prospects. Simultaneously it also throws light on the overall positive factors.The report based on the Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing market renders a summary of this market segment including, classification, definition, applications, strategies, segments, process of manufacturing, product specs, value structures, geography-based regional analysis and value chain analysis. The market report provides exclusive highlights to key challenges and potential opportunities along with crucial statistics and data with present situation, forecasts, insights, etc. The research report puts light on prime dynamics of this market sector.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Analysis of Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Industry Key Manufacturers:A&D Medical, GE Healthcare, Omron, Philips, Microlife Corporation, Paul Hartmann AG, Suntech Medical, Welch Allyn, American Diagnostic, Beurer, Rudolf Riester GmbH, Terumo Corporation, Bosch + Sohn, Briggs Healthcare, Choicemmed, Citizen, W.A. Baum and Rossmax International.The report comprises of thorough analysis of this market on a global level which impacts the market in terms of restrains, growth drivers, and vital trends. It will determine the market prospects in the coming years along with the profitable areas in the industry. This exhaustive report on global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing market enables customers to evaluate the predicted future sales in the global market and in several regions with financial outcomes, interviews and forecasting returns. This report examines the import and export and accordingly compares the market directing on the development trend.Browse full report with Table of Content @Table of Contents 1 Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing1.2 Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Sphygmomanometers1.2.4 Blood Pressure Transducers1.2.5 Blood Pressure Monitor Consumables1.2.6 Other1.3 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Segment by Application1.3.1 Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Hospitals1.3.3 Clinics1.3.4 Household1.4 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing 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 Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Blood Pressure (Bp) Monitoring Testing Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, ExpansionTo get worthy discount on this Report:About Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. 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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.comWeb- Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Market 2017: Boston, Olympus, Medtronic, Fiagon https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=997663&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-esophageal-dilation-balloon-sales-market-report-2017.htm/toc https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=997663&type=D http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales Market Report 2017 to its huge collection of research reports.The far reaching report here collects alternate points of view having a place with the general Esophageal Dilation Balloon marketplace which verbalizes the all-encompassing day records and destiny exposures as regards to the dynamic forces at play. 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The overseers have figured the recorded examinations and rose it from the forward and in flip round trade the circumstance to outline a shape for the general Esophageal Dilation Balloon market in the years ahead of time.Table of ContentsGlobal Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales Market Report 20171 Esophageal Dilation Balloon Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Esophageal Dilation Balloon1.2 Classification of Esophageal Dilation Balloon1.3 Application of Esophageal Dilation Balloon1.4 Esophageal Dilation Balloon Market by Regions1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)Access the full Report TOC in Detail @2 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon (Volume and Value) by Regions2.3.1 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)2.4 Global Esophageal Dilation Balloon (Volume) by Application3 United States Esophageal Dilation Balloon (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Esophageal Dilation Balloon Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers3.3 United States Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Application4 China Esophageal Dilation Balloon (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Esophageal Dilation Balloon Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers4.3 China Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Type4.4 China Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Application5 Europe Esophageal Dilation Balloon (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe Esophageal Dilation Balloon Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers5.3 Europe Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe Esophageal Dilation Balloon Sales and Market Share by ApplicationGet discount copy @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. 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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 Ozone Generators Global Market 2018: Key Players Biozone Corporation, Daikin Industries, Ltd., DEL Ozone, Electrolux, Honeywell International Inc., IN USA, Inc https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1306476-ozone-generators-global-market-outlook-2016-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1306476-ozone-generators-global-market-outlook-2016-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1306476 https://www.wiseguyreports.com Ozone Generators IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Ozone Generators -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research DatabaseAccording to Stratistics MRC, the Global Ozone Generators market is accounted for $XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach $XX million by 2022 growing at a CAGR of XX% from 2016 to 2022. Some of the key drivers for ozone generators market include increasing demand from emerging economies, rising demand for air purification systems and rapid urbanization and industrialization. Furthermore, stringent government regulations, growing demand from various end use industries and emission reduction targets are the factors enhancing market growth. However, high pricing of products is hampering the ozone generators market.Asia Pacific is expected to grasp major revenue shares in ozone generators market and is expected to grow with a high CAGR during the forecast period. This growth is attributed to expansion of the manufacturing and construction industries and rapid industrialisation in China and India. North America and Europe regions are two significant markets for Ozone Generators.Request for Sample Report @Some of the key players identified in the global market includeBiozone Corporation, Daikin Industries, Ltd., DEL Ozone, Electrolux, Honeywell International Inc., IN USA, Inc., Mitsubishi Electric, Oxyzone, Ozone Solutions, Ozonetech, Primozone, Sharp Corporation, Sun-Belt USA, Toshiba and Whirlpool Corporation.Technologies Covered: Corona Discharge (CD) ozone generation Cold plasma ozone generationApplications Covered: Aquaculture Laboratory equipment Medical application Potable water treatment Semiconductor Swimming Pool Waste water treatmento Industrial wastewater treatmento Municipal wastewater treatmentVerticals Covered: Automotive Construction Healthcare Energy & Utility Food & Beverage Manufacturing Other VerticalsLeave a Query @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 EgyptWhat 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 6 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 advancementsBuy Now @Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +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 LtdPune 411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042 Automotive Handbrake and Clutch Cables Global Market 2018: Key Players TRW Automotive, TMD Friction Group (TMD PAGID), Hella Pagid GmbH, DURA Automotive Systems https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1306444-automotive-handbrake-and-clutch-cables-global-market-outlook-2016-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1306444-automotive-handbrake-and-clutch-cables-global-market-outlook-2016-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=1306444 https://www.wiseguyreports.com Automotive Handbrake and Clutch Cables IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Automotive Handbrake and Clutch Cables -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research DatabaseAccording to Stratistics MRC, the Global Automotive Handbrake & Clutch Cables market is estimated at $xx million in 2016 and is expected to reach $xx million by 2022 growing at a CAGR of xx% from 2016 to 2022. Factors such as positive macro-economic environment across major automotive hubs and increasing passenger vehicle production due to growing disposable incomes are influencing the market growth. However, the low priced counterfeit products offered in the market from China and India are of low quality and less durability which in turn could affect the brand image of existing players and therefore hampers the market growth.Asia Pacific is anticipated to hold the major market share both with respect to supply and demand for respective cables and is expected to emerge as a key exporter to many countries. In addition, countries in the region such as China, India and South Korea are expected to remain as the main contributors to the growth of the market.Request for Sample Report @Some of the key players in the market includeTRW Automotive, TMD Friction Group (TMD PAGID), Hella Pagid GmbH, DURA Automotive Systems, Continental Automotive GmbH, Catton Control Cables, Cable-Tec and Anropa Cables (Pty) Ltd.Vehicle Types Covered: Commercial Vehicleso Higher Heating Value (HCV)o Lower Heating Value (LCV) Passenger Cars Two-WheelersProduct Types Covered: Handbrake Cables Clutch CablesSales Channels Covered: Aftermarket OEMLeave a Query @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 EgyptWhat 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 advancementsBuy Now @Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +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 LtdPune 411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042 North America Botox Market 2017 Analysis By Key Players Allergan, Ipsen, US World Meds North America Botox Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1324618-north-america-botox-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/1324618-north-america-botox-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast WiseGuyReports.Com adds North America Botox Market 2017 Analysis By Key Players Allergan, Ipsen, US World Meds Research to its Database.Description:Botox is a neurotoxic protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum and related species in the reproduction process. Botox is a polypeptide which molecular weight is 150kD and is also one of the most poisonous natural proteins. It is so easy to be produced, purified and refined due to its stable property that Botox is used widely in Experimental Research and Clinical Application at the early stage.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comScope of the Report:This report focuses on the Botox in North America market, especially in United States, Canada and Mexico. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversAllerganIpsenUS World MedsMarket Segment by Countries, coveringUnited StatesCanadaMexicoMarket Segment by Type, covers50U100UOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoMedicalCosmeticAsk Query @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Botox market.Chapter 1, to describe Botox 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 Botox, 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 profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the North America market by countries, covering United States, Canada and Mexico, with sales, revenue and market share of Botox, for each country, from 2012 to 2017;ContinueTable Of Contents Major Key Points1 Market Overview1.1 Botox Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 50U1.2.2 100U1.2.3 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Medical1.3.2 Cosmetic1.4 Market Analysis by Countries1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Mexico Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Canada 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 Allergan2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Botox Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Allergan Botox Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 Allergan News2.2 Ipsen2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Botox Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Ipsen Botox Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 Ipsen News2.3 US World Meds2.3.1 Profile2.3.2 Botox Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 US World Meds Botox Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3.4 Business Overview2.3.5 US World Meds News3 North America Botox Market Competition, by Manufacturer3.1 North America Botox Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.2 North America Botox Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.3 North America Botox Price by Manufacturers (2016-2017)3.4 Market Concentration Rate3.4.1 Top 3 Botox Manufacturer Market Share3.4.2 Top 5 Botox Manufacturer Market Share3.5 Market Competition Trend4 North America Botox Market Analysis by Countries4.1 North America Botox Sales Market Share by Countries4.2 North America Botox Sales by Countries (2012-2017)4.3 North America Botox Revenue (Value) by Countries (2012-2017)5 North America Market Segmentation Botox by Type5.1 North America Botox Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.1.1 North America Botox Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.1.2 North America Botox Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 50U Sales Growth and Price5.2.1 North America 50U Sales Growth (2012-2017)5.2.2 North America 50U Price (2012-2017)5.3 100U Sales Growth and Price5.3.1 North America 100U Sales Growth (2012-2017)5.3.2 North America 100U Price (2012-2017)5.4 Others Sales Growth and Price5.4.1 North America Others Sales Growth (2012-2017)5.4.2 North America Others Price (2012-2017)Continue.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 Fall Detection System Market 2017 Regional Analysis, Production, Technology, Market Share and Growth Rate till 2024 http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-fall-detection-system-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-fall-detection-system-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-fall-detection-system-market/ http://databridgemarketresearch.com/speak-to-analyst/?dbmr=global-fall-detection-system-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/fitness-equipment-market/ http://databridgemarketresearch.com/blog/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/data-bridge-market-research Global Fall Detection System Industry 2017 Market Research Report has been broke down in detail to help customers with all the imperative information to outline strategic business judgments and propose key development designs. The Global Fall Detection System Market report offers a thorough knowledge into the advancement approaches and designs notwithstanding producing procedures and cost structures.The Global Fall Detection System Market accounted for USD 412.7 million in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 6.13% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic year 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Request for Free Sample Report @Complete report on Global Fall Detection System Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresGlobal Fall Detection System Market, By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa), Component (Accelerometers & Gyroscopes, Other Unimodal/Bimodal Sensors, Multimodal Sensors); Algorithm (Simple Threshold, Machine Learning); System (Wearable Systems, In-Home Landline System, In-Home Cellular Systems); End-Users (Senior Citizens Home, Senior Citizens Outside, Hospitals, Nursing, and Senior Assisted Living Facilities, Lone Workers) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Market Definition: Global fall Detection System MarketFall detection system is the system used in alerting emergence in the incident of fall. Fall detection system such as automatic fall detection system and manual fall detection system are used in such detection. Such devices have the potential to diminish some of the adverse consequences of a fall. It has its application in hospitals, nursing, senior assisted living facilities, lone workers, and others. Increased demand for multimodal technology is the major driver for the growth of fall detection system market. On the other side low practicality of the technology among elders somewhere hinders the market.Request for Detaild TOC:Key Questions Answered in Global Fall Detection System Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Fall Detection System Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Fall Detection System Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Fall Detection System Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Fall Detection System Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Fall Detection System Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Fall Detection System Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Major market drivers: Global Fall Detection System Market Better accessibility to assistance in case of fall, leading to reduced medical expenses. Increasing demand for multimodal technology Increasing demand for smartphone and wearable technology based fall detection system. Use of data from simulated conditions for designing the fall detection system algorithm Low practicality and acceptability of the technology among eldersTop Key Players: ADT Corporation Bay Alarm Medical Blue Willow Systems Connect America Koninklijke Philips N.V. Lifefone Mobilehelp Semtech Corporation Tunstall Healthcare Group Ltd. Vital Connect Inc. Alertone Services, LLC Intel Corporation Marigroup Oy Medical Guardian LLC Mytrex, Inc. DBA Rescue Alert Singapore Technologies Electronics Limited LifeWatch USAFor more insightful information visit @Customize report of "Global Fall Detection System Market" as per customers requirement also available.Market Segmentations:Global Fall Detection System Market is segmented on the basis of Components Algorithm System End User Geography.Market Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Components into accelerometers & gyroscopes, other unimodal/bimodal sensors, multimodal sensors, and others.On the basis of Algorithm into simple threshold, machine learning.On the basis of System global fall detection system market is segmented into wearable systems, in-home landline system, in-home cellular system, and others.On the basis of End User the global fall detection system market is further segmented into senior citizens home, senior citizens outside, hospitals, nursing, and senior assisted living facilities, lone workersOn the basis of geography North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaCompany Share Analysis: Global fall Detection System MarketThe report for global fall detection system market include detailed vendor level analysis for market shares in 2016 for Global, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South America specifically. Also impact and development analysis of key vendors is registered in the market and factored on the basis of Vendor Positioning Grid Analysis which measures the vendors strengths and opportunities against present market challenges, measure providers ability to identify or satisfy present market needs, map providers market vision to current and upcoming market dynamics among others. The report also measures technology life line curve and market time line to analyze and do more affective investments.Speak to Author of the Report @Other ReportGlobal Fitness Equipment Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Fitness Equipment Market, By Type (Cardiovascular Training Equipment (Treadmills, Elliptical Trainers, Stationary Cycles, Rowing Machines, Stair Steppers, Others), Strength Training Equipment (Single Stations, Plate Loaded Equipment, Free Weights, Benches and Racks, Multistations, Accessories), Body Composition Analyzers (Bioimpedance Analyzer, Skinfold Caliper, Dual Emission X-Ray Absorptiometry (Dexa), Hydrostatic Weighing, Air Displacement Plethysmography), Fitness Monitoring Equipment), By End-User (Health Clubs, Gyms, Home Settings, Corporate Settings, Apartments, Hotels, Hospitals, Clinics), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa, Rest of the World) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024.Report Access:About Data Bridge Market ResearchData 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: Bluetooth Car Speakers Market - Top Manufacturers, Consumption, Analysis & Forecast to 2022 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/883701-global-bluetooth-car-speakers-sales-market-1 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/883701-global-bluetooth-car-speakers-sales-market-1 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/883701-global-bluetooth-car-speakers-sales-market-1 https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=883701 HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Bluetooth Car Speakers market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global Bluetooth Car Speakers 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 [Passenger Vehicles & Commercial Vehicles], products type [Bluetooth FM Transmitter, Bluetooth Car Phone Speakers & Other] and various important geographies like United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia & India].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global Bluetooth Car Speakers 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 Bluetooth Car Speakers 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 Bluetooth Car Speakers Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global Bluetooth Car Speakers Market, some of them listed here are Alpine Electronics, Inc., Bang & Olufsen, BOSE, Blaupunkt, Boston, DYNAUDIO, Focal, Harman/Kardon, HiVi, JL Audio, Inc., JVC, LG Electronics, Sony & Panasonic. 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 Bluetooth Car Speakers (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Bluetooth FM Transmitter, Bluetooth Car Phone Speakers & Other. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Passenger Vehicles & Commercial Vehicles 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 Bluetooth Car Speakers in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia & India 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 Bluetooth Car Speakers market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Bluetooth Car Speakers, Applications of Bluetooth Car Speakers, 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 Bluetooth Car Speakers, 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, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia & India, Bluetooth Car Speakers Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Bluetooth Car Speakers Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Bluetooth Car Speakers;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Bluetooth FM Transmitter, Bluetooth Car Phone Speakers & Other], Market Trend by Application [Passenger Vehicles & Commercial Vehicles];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Bluetooth Car Speakers;Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe Bluetooth Car Speakers sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Enquire for customization in Report @What this Research Study Offers:Global Bluetooth Car Speakers 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, NJ USA - 08837sales@htfmarketreport.comPh: +1 (206) 317 1218 Critical Care Equipment Market Will Watch A Sensational Development By 2023: Industry Assertions By MRFR Critical Care Equipment Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2751 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/2751 The Market Research Future provides detailed analysis of Critical Care Equipment Market Research Report - Global Forecast To 2023 by type, by indication and by end user. Middle East and Africa Critical Care Equipment Market is growing moderately. Critical care also known as intensive care is an essential medical practice to cure severe injuries or life-threatening medical conditions. In critical care unit (CCU), medical professionals monitor and treat patient under controlled conditions with the help of critical care equipment. Critical care equipment are very useful to monitor and get accurate information about patients health conditions. These equipment provide life support to patients after they have gone through a major surgery, injury or have faced life threatening injuries. Healthcare expenditure is growing in Middle East and Africa region which comprise about 2% of the global healthcare expenditure. Developing healthcare infrastructure, technological advance facilities, government initiatives to improve the healthcare sector and growing cases of non-communicable diseases are driving the growth of the critical care equipment market in Middle East and Africa. This market was about US$ 681.2 million in 2016 and expected to reach US$ 1061.4 million by 2023 growing at the CAGR of 5.7%.Key Players for Middle East and Africa Critical Care Equipment Market:Some of the key players in this market are namely Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (US), General Electric Company (US), Medtronic (Republic of Ireland), Siemens Healthcare Private Limited (Germany), Baxter (US), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands)Get Sample Copy @Critical Care Equipment Market Segments:Middle East And Africa Critical Care Equipment Market has been segmented on the basis of type of equipment which includes patient monitor, medical ventilator, dialysis, iv pumps, infusion pump, suction apparatus, and others. On the basis of end user the market is segmented into hospitals, research laboratories and others.Regional Analysis of Critical Care Equipment Market:Considering the scenario of Middle East and Africa critical care equipment market, UAE region is believed to be the largest market for the same in the above mentioned region. Moreover, Saudi Arabia market is also growing and is the second largest market for critical care equipment. On the other hand, Egypts market is expected to grow at a steady pace in the Middle-East critical care equipment market in future. Rest of the Middle East and Africa region is likely to have a limited but steady growth in the market.Brief TOC:Table Of Content1. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size Estimation3.5 Forecast Model4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Mega Trends4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators TOC 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 Drill Pipe 2018 Global Market Key Players DP Master Manufacturing Pvt Ltd., Drill Pipe International Llc., Hilong Group, National Oilwell Varco, Oil Country Tubular Limited Analysis and Forecast to 2023 Drill Pipe Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2318749-global-drill-pipe-market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2318749-global-drill-pipe-market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2318749 Drill Pipe Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com adds Drill Pipe Market Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 To Its Research Database.Report Details:This report provides in depth study of Drill Pipe Market using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The Drill Pipe Market report also provides an in-depth survey of key players in the market which is based on the various objectives of an organization such as profiling, the product outline, the quantity of production, required raw material, and the financial health of the organization.The global drill pipe market is expected to grow at 3.47% CAGR during the forecast period. In 2016, the market was led by North America, with a 39.1% share, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific with shares of 20.2% and 13.5%, respectively.Drill Pipe plays a crucial role in oil and gas exploration activities as they have to withstand enormous stress, load and heat during drilling operations. They are a critical part of the drilling operation as any failure can result in delays and operation and cost losses. The requirements of drill pipes for drilling operations get very stringent along the depth of the well. Furthermore, in well drilling operations, the well has to be drilled through rocky layers on land and sometimes inside the sea. As global oil and gas exploration activities are shifting towards difficult geographical areas, the demand for higher and better quality drill pipes are increasing in the recent years.Key PlayersSome of the key players in the global drill pipe market are DP Master Manufacturing Pvt Ltd. (Singapore), Drill Pipe International Llc. (USA), Hilong Group. (China), Jiangyin Long Bright Drill Pipe Manufacture Co. Ltd. (China), National Oilwell Varco. (USA), Oil Country Tubular Limited. (India), R K Pipe & Supply L.L.C (USA), SUPERIOR DRILLPIPE MANUFACTURING, INC. (USA), Tejas Tubular Products Inc.(USA), Tenaris S.A.(Luxembourg), Texas Steel Conversion Inc.(USA), TMK Group. (Russia), TPS-Technitube Rohrenwerke GmbH (Germany) and Vallourec S.A. (France) among others. The companies in this market have adopted various strategies such as partnerships and collaborations, product launch, mergers and acquisitions, and expansions to append their market share.Request a Sample Report @The market is driven by various factors such as increasing investment in oil exploration activities, advancement in drilling technologies. Especially in the U.S., Canada, Russia, the oil and gas industry is determined to install many rigs for oil & gas exploration, and these are expected to drive the market for drill pipes in near future. However, the growth of this market is expected to be hindered by high capital cost for drilling and stringent regulations for drilling activities. Drill pipe market is segmented into application, grade and region wise. On the basis of application, Onshore accounted for the largest market share of 58.68% in 2016 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 2.12% during the forecast period. On the basis of grade, it is segmented into API grade and premium grade. API Grade accounted for the largest market share and expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.15%. Drilling pipe has great scope in North America region due to rising number of onshore drilling activities and development in drilling technologies.Intended Audience Distributer & Supplier companies End-Users Consultants and Investment bankers Government as well as Independent Regulatory AuthoritiesGlobal Drill Pipe Market Share:SegmentsThe Drill Pipe market can be segmented on the basis of application as onshore and offshore. On the basis of grade, the market has been segmented as API Grade and Premium grade.Regional Analysis of Drill Pipe MarketNorth America contributing substantially to the market growth on account of rising number of onshore drilling activities almost doubled from the past decade. Furthermore, The Europe oil and gas industry is expected to be dominated by countries such as U.K, Norway and Russia. The development of unconventional oil and gas exploration activities such as shale, is driving the market in the region.Complete Report Details @Major Key Points in Table of Content:1 Executive Summary 122 Introduction 142.1 Definition 142.2 Scope of the Study 142.3 Assumptions 142.4 Market Structure 153 Research Methodology 163.1 Research Process 163.2 Primary Research 173.3 Secondary Research 173.4 Market Size Estimation 179 Company Profiles 669.1 Competitive Scenario 729.1.1 Competitive Landscape 729.1.1.1 New Product Development 729.1.1.2 Partnerships and Collaborations. 749.1.1.3 Expansions 759.2 Hilong Group of Companies 769.2.1 Company Overview 769.2.2 Product/Service Offering 769.2.3 Financial Overview 779.2.4 Strategy 789.3 Drill Pipe International Llc. 809.3.1 Company Overview 80 Market Research Future Page 6Global Drill Pipe Market Trends & Forecast, 2017-20239.3.2 Product/Service Offering 809.3.3 Financial Overview 819.3.4 Strategy 819.4 DP Master Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd. (China). 839.4.1 Company Overview 839.4.2 Product/Service Offering 9.4.3 Financial Overview 839.4.4 Strategy 849.5 Jiangyin Long Bright Drill Pipe Manufacture Co. Ltd. (China) 859.5.1 Company Overview 859.5.2 Product/Service Offering 859.5.3 Financial Overview 859.5.4 Strategy 859.6 National Oilwell Varco USA 879.6.1 Company Overview 879.6.2 Product/Service Offering 879.6.3 Financial Overview 889.6.4 Strategy 89Continued.Buy now @Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Sales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRESS:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India Karl Fischer Titrators Market Research Report 2017 Forecast to 2022 http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/257534 http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/global-north-america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-america-middle-east-and-africa-karl-fischer-titrators-market-2017-forecast-to-2022-d-88 https://twitter.com/globalinfore https://www.facebook.com/Global-Info-Reports-1246490388791394/ https://plus.google.com/u/0/107409938712773202941 A Karl Fischer titrator, also known as a KF titrator, is used to determine the amount of water in a sample. Because the presence of water can affect many characteristics of a product, including reactivity, stability, and quality, KF titration is important to and is used in many industries. Food, oil, pharmaceutical, and semiconductor industries all use Karl Fischer titrators to maintain the quality of their products. There are two methods that can be used in Karl Fischer titration: volumetry, in which the amount of reagent that has been used determines the amount of water, and coulometry, in which an electrolysis reaction occurs and the amount of electricity used tells us the amount of water in the sample.To Order For a Sample Report Copy, Please Visit:Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Karl Fischer Titrators 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 coversMetrohmMettler ToledoHACH LANGEHIRANUMA SANGYOAnalytik JenaKYOTO ELECTRONICSXylemMitsubishi ChemicalHanna InstrumentsECHGR ScientificInesaHuazheng ElectricMarket 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, coversCoulometric TitrationVolumetric TitrationMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPetroleum ProductsPharmaceutical ProductsFoods and BeveragesOtherPurchase the Complete Report here:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Karl Fischer Titrators market.Chapter 1, to describe Karl Fischer Titrators Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Karl Fischer Titrators, with sales, revenue, and price of Karl Fischer Titrators, 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 Karl Fischer Titrators, 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: North America Biotin Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/257478 http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/north-america-biotin-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022 https://twitter.com/globalinfore https://www.facebook.com/Global-Info-Reports-1246490388791394/ https://plus.google.com/u/0/107409938712773202941 This report studies the Biotin market, Biotin is a water-soluble B-vitamin, also called vitamin B7 and formerly known as vitamin H or coenzyme R. It is composed of a ureido ring fused with a tetrahydrothiophene ring. A valeric acid substituent is attached to one of the carbon atoms of the tetrahydrothiophene ring. Biotin is a coenzyme for carboxylase enzymes, involved in the synthesis of fatty acids, isoleucine, and valine, and in gluconeogenesis.To Order For a Sample Report Copy, Please Visit:Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Biotin in North America market, especially in United States, Canada and Mexico. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversZhejiang MedicineSDMHegnoShanghai AcebrightMarket Segment by Countries, coveringUnited StatesCanadaMexicoMarket Segment by Type, covers1% Biotin2% BiotinPure Biotin (>98%)OtherMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoFoodPharma & CosmeticsAnimal FeedPurchase the Complete Report here:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Biotin market.Chapter 1, to describe Biotin 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 Biotin, 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 profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the North America market by countries, covering United States, Canada and Mexico, with sales, revenue and market share of Biotin, for each country, 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: North America Blood Bank Refrigerators Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/257479 http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/north-america-blood-bank-refrigerators-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022 https://twitter.com/globalinfore https://www.facebook.com/Global-Info-Reports-1246490388791394/ https://plus.google.com/u/0/107409938712773202941 A blood bank refrigerator stores biomedical supplies like blood products at controlled temperatures. For safety, the system includes monitoring equipment to regularly check and report temperatures. It may also have security measures like locking doors to protect the integrity of the contents. Blood banks and facilities that work with blood products may need to use specialized refrigeration units to remain compliant with the law and maintain high storage standards for patient safety.To Order For a Sample Report Copy, Please Visit:Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Blood Bank Refrigerators in North America market, especially in United States, Canada and Mexico. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversHelmer ScientificHaier Bio-MedicalPanasonic HealthcareThermo FisherMarket Segment by Countries, coveringUnited StatesCanadaMexicoMarket Segment by Type, coversCommon Indoor Blood Bank RefrigeratorsTransport Blood Bank RefrigeratorsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoBlood Bank CentersHospitalsOtherPurchase the Complete Report here:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Blood Bank Refrigerators market.Chapter 1, to describe Blood Bank Refrigerators 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 Blood Bank Refrigerators, 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 profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the North America market by countries, covering United States, Canada and Mexico, with sales, revenue and market share of Blood Bank Refrigerators, 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, 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 Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market is dominated By Top Players like Ugur Seluloz Kimya A.S, Quimica Amtex S.A. De C.V, The Dow Chemical Company, DKS Co. Ltd. At Higher CAGR During Forecast 2024 Global Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025 http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-carboxymethyl-cellulose-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-carboxymethyl-cellulose-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-carboxymethyl-cellulose-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/blog/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/data-bridge-market-research The Global Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market accounted for USD 1.4 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.8% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2015, 2016, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.Ask for Free Sample Report @Global Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market By Application (Food & Beverages, Pharmacueticals, Cosmetics, Oil & Gas ,Paper Industry, Detergents) By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025This report consists of below pages: No of pages : 350 No of Figures: 60 No of Tables: 220Competitive Analysis:The Global Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market is fragmented with the presence of a large number of players across different regions. 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.Request for Detail TOC @Market Definition:Carboxymethyl Cellulose is a cellulose derivative with carboxymethyl groups (-CH2-COOH) bound to some of the hydroxyl groups of the glucopyranose monomers that make up the cellulose backbone. It is often used as its sodium salt, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. There is a growing demand for Carboxymethyl Cellulose in pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry which is expected to be one of the major drivers of the market over coming years.Major Market Drivers and Restraints: Growing Demand for Processed Food Increasing Number of Oil Drilling Activities Growth of Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Production Emergence of Substitutes in Various ApplicationsMarket Segmentation: On the basis of application, the market is segmented into Food & Beverages, Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics, Oil & Gas, Paper Industry, Detergents. On the basis of geography, the Carboxymethyl Cellulose 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.Know more About This Report @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 Blog:Follow us on LinkedIn: North America Dental Hand Tools Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/257483 http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/north-america-dental-hand-tools-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022 https://twitter.com/globalinfore https://www.facebook.com/Global-Info-Reports-1246490388791394/ https://plus.google.com/u/0/107409938712773202941 This report studies the dental hand tools market, which are used manually without a power source.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Dental Hand Tools in North America market, especially in United States, Canada and Mexico. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.To Order For a Sample Report Copy, Please Visit:Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversDentsply SironaIntegra LifeSciencesKaVo GroupTREECFPMMarket Segment by Countries, coveringUnited StatesCanadaMexicoMarket Segment by Type, coversCutting InstrumentsExamination InstrumentsOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoHospitalDental ClinicPurchase the Complete Report here:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Dental Hand Tools market.Chapter 1, to describe Dental Hand Tools 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 Dental Hand Tools, 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 profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the North America market by countries, covering United States, Canada and Mexico, with sales, revenue and market share of Dental Hand Tools, 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, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the segment market in United States, Canada and Mexico, by manufacturers, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and market share by manufacturers, types and applications;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: North America Allulose Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 http://www.globalinforeports.com/request-sample/257475 http://www.globalinforeports.com/report/north-america-allulose-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022 https://twitter.com/globalinfore https://www.facebook.com/Global-Info-Reports-1246490388791394/ https://plus.google.com/u/0/107409938712773202941 Allulose (Psicose) is a low calorie sugar, which offers the taste and texture of sugar but with 90 percent fewer calories than full caloric sugar. Allulose is a C-3 epimer of fructose, and has the same molecular formula as fructose and glucose. As a substance that exists in nature, allulose is found in small quantities injackfruit, figs, raisins and wheat and is naturally present in small quantities in foods including caramel sauce, maple syrup and brown sugar. Allulose has similar physical characteristics as a typical monosaccharide.To Order For a Sample Report Copy, Please Visit:Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Allulose in North America market, especially in United States, Canada and Mexico. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, countries, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversMatsutani ChemicalTate&LyleCJ CheilJedangMarket Segment by Countries, coveringUnited StatesCanadaMexicoMarket Segment by Type, coversLiquid FormPowder FormMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoBeveragesConfectioneryDairyOtherPurchase the Complete Report here:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Allulose market.Chapter 1, to describe Allulose 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 Allulose, 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 profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the North America market by countries, covering United States, Canada and Mexico, with sales, revenue and market share of Allulose, 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, 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: Japanese Encephalitis (JE) Therapeutics Pipeline is Expected to Witness Many Collaborations in Future https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/japanese-encephalitis-therapeutics-pipeline https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/japanese-encephalitis-therapeutics-pipeline/report-sample https://www.psmarketresearch.com/send-enquiry?enquiry-url=japanese-encephalitis-therapeutics-pipeline https://www.psmarketresearch.com Japanese encephalitis is a viral infection that spreads by mosquito bites. The study analyzed that the Japanese encephalitis therapeutics pipeline comprises approximately 12 drug candidates in different stages of development.Access Detailed Report Summary at:Shandong Hengye Biotech Co., Ltd., and VABIOTECH, have one drug candidates each in the Phase III stage of development for the treatment of the disease. The clinical studies of the vaccine, Vero cell-derived inactivated, is currently going on in China in the Phase III stage of development for the treatment of Japanese encephalitis.Download Report Sample at:The companies developing drugs for the treatment of Japanese encephalitis are laying more emphasis on the drug candidates to be developed as vaccines, due to the promising results shown by these candidates the in the clinical development. Based on molecule type, around 75.0% of the therapeutic candidates are being developed as vaccines, around 13.0% are made as peptide and 12.0% are being developed as small molecule.Make Enquiry Before Buying the Report:In September 2017, VABIOTECH in collaboration with National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), Vietnam, initiated a Phase III, randomized, multi-centered, parallel groups assignment trial to assess the immunogenicity and safety of the JECEVAX in healthy male as well as female children of age between nine to 24 months.Some of the key players developing drugs for the treatment of Japanese encephalitis include Shandong Hengye Biotech, Co. Ltd., Panacea Biotec Ltd., and Ennaid Therapeutics, LLC.Japanese Encephalitis (JE) Therapeutics Pipeline Analysis By Phase By Molecule Type By Route of Administration By CompanyAbout P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide market research reports, industry reports, business intelligence and research based consulting services across a range of industries.With the help of our professional corporate relations with various companies, our market research offers the most accurate market forecasting. Our analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every single data presented in our publication. Our research assists our client in identifying new and different windows of opportunity and frame informed and customized strategies for expansion in different regions.Contact:P&S Market Research347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb: Advancements in Technologies Driving the Growth of Proteasome Inhibitor Therapeutics Pipeline https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/proteasome-inhibitors-therapeutics https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/proteasome-inhibitors-therapeutics/report-sample https://www.psmarketresearch.com/send-enquiry?enquiry-url=proteasome-inhibitors-therapeutics www.psmarketresearch.com The study analyzed that the proteasome inhibitor therapeutics pipeline comprises approximately 20 drug candidates in different stages of development. Protein degradation and synthesis in the body are regulated by proteasome activity of multimeric protease complex. The protein conjugated to multiple units of polypeptide proteasome ubiquitin are degraded by proteasome. The accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins can lead to apoptosis. The proteasome units include 20S core catalytic complex and 19S regulatory subunits at each end, forming 26S complex. Ubiquitin is 76 amino acids complex and covalently linked to proteins by an enzymatic reaction.Access Detailed Report Summary at:According to the research findings, most of the drug candidates of the proteasome inhibitor therapeutics are being developed as the small molecules.Download Report Sample at:Majority of companies in the pipeline have innovated various advanced technologies for developing drug candidates as proteasome inhibitors. For instance, Ensemble Therapeutics, Corporation technology platform is an efficient and productive approach for developing synthetic macrocycles and other less conventional small molecules. While macrocycles are a class of compounds that have traditionally been obtained from natural sources, the company is synthesizing successfully the synthetic macrocycles possessing drug-like properties and features. Using this approach, the company has developed a pipeline of proprietary and partnered programs that focus on both extracellular proteins (e.g. IL-17) and challenging intracellular targets (e.g. IAPs, IDO and USP9x).Make Enquiry Before Buying the Report:Viteava Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Viteava) announced the execution of a sponsored research agreement with McGill University relating to novel analogs and derivatives of the green tea flavonoid, (-) epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG).Some of the key players developing drugs as proteasome inhibitors include Triphase Accelerator Corporation, Cantex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Accuitis, Inc. and others.Proteasome Inhibitor Therapeutics Pipeline Analysis By Phase By Molecule Type By Route of Administration By CompanyAbout P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide market research reports, industry reports, business intelligence and research based consulting services across a range of industries.With the help of our professional corporate relations with various companies, our market research offers the most accurate market forecasting. Our analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every single data presented in our publication. Our research assists our client in identifying new and different windows of opportunity and frame informed and customized strategies for expansion in different regions.Contact:P&S Market Research347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +18887787886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb: Simple, unassuming, soft spoken and a great listener are just some of the ways friends and colleagues describe the late Bruce Guy, who's memorial service is set for 11 a.m. Saturday in the Beaverton Activity Center gymnasium. Guy was a founding member of the BAC and instrumental in helping turn the vacant former school into a what it is today, a community hub. Guy, the Gladwin County District Library director, would have marked his 15th anniversary with the county on Monday. Bob Frei was driving Jan. 3, when he received the call that his longtime friend, Bruce Guy, had died. Frei had to pull to the side of the road. The news was crushing. "Gladwin County certainly has lost a great one," said Frei, who knew Guy was sick, but fully thought he would get better. Frei was in fact putting together material to keep Guy from boredom during his hospital stay. "I wasn't prepared for this." "It's really tough," said Frei of the death of Guy. The pair were local historians and could answer most any question someone had about the county. "He was passionate about everything he did -- and he did a lot of things," Frei said. Laura Walters, who has worked at the library for 29 years, said she will miss her boss. "As a boss, he was an amazing person," said Walters, assistant library director, head of circulation and acquisitions. "He had a lot of confidence in me and he built me up. He was always there for us. "His roots ran deep in this community," Walters added, noting that it was Guy who worked to turn the library into a county district organization, with its own budget. "He was a gentle giant," Walters said. "If you needed to talk, he would listen. He was a great listener." Beaverton Mayor Ray Nau said in all his dealings with Guy, he found him to be a "kind and generous man." He sends his condolences to the family. Guy grew up in Kalkaska and graduated from Kalkaska High School. Afterwards he backpacked across Europe, earned a bachelor's degree, was a U.S. Army sergeant, serving as a Patriot Missile System operator stationed for three years in Germany. During Desert Storm, his Patriot battery was flown into Turkey to defend Incirlik Air Base. Later he earned his master's degree in library and information science at the University of South Florida in Tampa in 1993. That his where he met his wife, Kim, who was also studying library science. The two were married in 1994 after two and a half years of dating. "He was simple. He didn't put on airs," said Guy's wife. "He was romantic." She recalls a date when he took her to the park for a picnic and brought his guitar (which he named Lucille) and played for her. Kim also is endeared by their Sunday morning breakfasts when they would talk and play music. She said her self-taught-on-the-guitar husband, loved music -- classical, folk, blues. He had an eclectic music appreciation. He also started playing the banjo. Despite having a hand in so many county projects outside of the library, Kim said her husband always made time for her and their 16-year-old son, Alexander. Kim said there were moments when she didn't get Guy's dry and quirky humor, but their son always did. "He is a lot like his dad," she said of Alexander. Guy's wife was with him when he was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer around Thanksgiving, and there beside him as he was at MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland. She remained by his side when he was taken to the University of Michigan hospital. She hoped for the best, but prepared herself for the worst. "Bruce Guy was the most unassuming authority I ever encountered," said former Beaverton High School teacher and Gladwin County Commissioner Sharron Smith. "He did his job wonderfully, never created any problems with his workers and made untold contributions to our county. "He touched every life he came into contact with," she added. Longtime friend and fellow founding BAC member Scott Govitz said he is going to miss Guy. "Bruce was a real champion and visionary for Gladwin County," Govitz said. "Bruce was humble, unassuming and his heart was always in the right place -- and that was for Gladwin County." Guy's friend, Nila Frei, former Beaverton mayor and school teacher and the Rev. Karen Blatt of the Beaverton Area Business Association agreed that his death leaves a huge hole in the community and in the hearts of the people that loved and respected him. "He had tentacles in all different organizations," Nila Frei said. She said Guy also honored every veteran he could find and each one was as important as the next. He worked on gathering information on every veteran from Gladwin County for the Gladwin Historical Society. "Bruce may no longer walk among us, but his work will live on as a testimonial to his unassuming leadership and his broad vision," Frei said. "It would be beyond any reasonable expectation to find someone who can accomplish what Bruce has accomplished in his years in Gladwin." Today is yet another marker of our broad societal decline in the Era of Trump. Some folks like the National Reviews editor, Rich Lowry, have defended the practical sentiment of Trumps racist remark about shithole countries by essentially saying why wouldnt we want to stop people from coming here from dilapidated areas? Im going to tag in Jonathan Katz, a fellow at the Carey Institute and the Director of Media and Journalism at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University to explain why this is also an inherently bigoted position to adopt. In order to do a victory lap around the GDP difference between, say, Norway and Haiti, you have to know nothing about the history of the world. That includes, especially, knowing nothing real about the history of the United States. Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018 You'd have to not know that the French colony that became Haiti provided the wealth that fueled the French Empire and 2/3 of the sugar and 3/4 of the coffee that Europe consumed. You'd have to not know how rich slave traders got off their system of kidnapping, rape, and murder Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018 You'd have to not know that Haiti got recognition by agreeing to pay 150 million gold francs to French landowners in compensation for their own freedom. You'd have to not know that Haiti paid it, and that it took them almost all of the 19th century to do so. Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018 .@RichLowry would have to not know about the chaos that ensued, and the 19-year US military occupation of Haiti that followed (at a time when the US was invading and occupying much of Central America and the Caribbean). Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018 ... the use of the IMF and World Bank to impose new loans and destructive trade policies, including the now-famous rice tariff gutting that Bill Clinton apologized for but had been a policy since Reagan, and on and on Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018 In short, you'd have to know nothing about WHY Haiti is poor (or El Salvador in kind), and WHY the United States (and Norway) are wealthy. But far worse than that, you'd have to not even be interested in asking the question. And that's where they really tell on themselves Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018 Racists have needed Haiti to be poor since it was founded. They pushed for its poverty. They have celebrated its poverty. They have tried to profit from its poverty. They wanted it to be a shithole. And they still do. Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018 So if anyone tonight tries to trap you in a contest of where would you rather liveor what about cholera or yeah but isn't poverty bad?ask them what they know about how things got that way. And then ask them why they're ok with it. Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 12, 2018 Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling. The U.S. ambassador to Panama has resigned, saying that he no longer felt able to serve President Donald Trump. John Feeley, 56, who worked at the State Department for nearly 30 years, announced his resignation in a letter to the State Department. As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies, he wrote, in a letter obtained by Reuters. My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honor bound to resign, Feeley continued. That time has come. Feeley is the first ambassador to resign over concerns about Trumps policies and leadership. His resignation was made public hours after Trumps comments on sh*thole countries were made public, but a senior State Department official told The Telegraph that Feeleys decision was made before the remarks. Ambassador Feeley informed leadership of his decision on December 27, 2017, the State Department said. The spokesman added that the deputy chief of mission, Roxanne Cabral, will assume leadership of the diplomatic mission until a new ambassador arrives. The State Department said that Feeley has informed the White House, the Department of State, and the Government of Panama of his decision to retire for personal reasons, as of March 9 of this year. Feeleys resignation from the State Department is another indication of Trumps chaotic state department, led by Rex Tillerson, who refused to deny calling Trump a f**king moron. I didnt expect to come away from CES 2018 thinking the highlight was a motherboard, but here we are. Or maybe thats just a sign of CESs weird spiral into the worlds largest SkyMall catalog. As for games? Well, nothing much at CES. Dark Souls is getting a remaster and (hopefully) proper PC port though, Total Wars got a second historical game releasing this year, Cyberpunk 2077 showed signs of life, Bungie promised huge changes to Destiny 2, Stellaris is adding Death Stars, and more. This is gaming news for January 8 through 12. Three Kingdoms Finally. Its been a few years since we had a proper historical Total War gameAttila was the last, and it released at the beginning of 2015. The two Total Warhammer games followed, and while admittedly excellent they also marked a huge departure. 2018s shaping up to reward everyones patience though, with not one buttwo historical games slated for release. The first is the Total War Saga game weve discussed a few times, Thrones of Britannia. This week Creative Assembly unveiled the next mainline Total War though, subtitled Three Kingdoms and set in the year 190, amid Chinas Han Dynasty. Check out the first trailer: 2077 years of solitude CD Projekts been basically silent on the topic of Cyberpunk 2077 ever since its first teaser trailer rolled outin 2013. Almost half a decade ago, if you can believe it. There are signs of life, though. This week the Cyberpunk Twitter account woke from its four-year hibernation to send out a single word: beep. 17 thousand retweets for that short message, so I think we can assume people are looking forward to whatever comes next. Maybe E3? Heaven is a place on Earth The Rusty Lake series has quietly become one of my favorites since I first sat down with the weirdly violent Rusty Lake Hotel in 2016, and then the Gothic horror follow-up Rusty Lake Roots later that year. Now? Im already digging into the newly released sequel, Rusty Lake Paradise, which appeared this week on Steamalong with this bizarre and unsettling trailer. Enjoy. Return to Lordran Im not too fond of remasters, especially for games that just came out this past console generation. Ill make an exception for Dark Souls, though. The original PC port is still, five years later, a half-busted messpoorly optimized and ugly, locked to 30 frames per second, with shoddy controller support to boot. Its so broken, the first thing anyone does is install a mod that fixes the most egregious issues. Maybe From Software will get it right this time around, though. Announced this week, a remastered version of Dark Souls will hit Steam on May 25and with a 50 percent discount for existing owners. Halt, thief! Speaking of remasters, another recent game came up this week: King Arts The Raven. Released during the height of the Telltale craze, it was originally doled out episodically in late 2013I even reviewed the first episode. And then it took me like, two years to finally get around to finishing it. Part of the problem? A slow first act, and some ugly character models. Hopefully this remaster can solve the latter at least, because once the Agatha Christie-esque plot gets rolling theres an excellent mystery underneath, and one that more people should probably play. Metal Gear Survive Konamis still making that zombie game, and now theres a trailer, via IGN. Destiny 2.5 If you follow Destiny 2, chances are you know the last month or so has been tumultuous, to say the least. Last time I looked, the Destiny subreddit was in full-on revolt over a lack of end-game activities, the heavy emphasis on loot boxes, that secret XP throttler, and so much more. 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. Many people regard the early 70s as a great era in Hollywood filmmaking, so heres a quick quiz. How many women directed features for major Hollywood studios in that era? Thats right: one. And who was she? Elaine May. Very good. The first of her three brilliant 70s films, A New Leaf (1971), is now on Blu-ray from Olive Films and its loaded with extras, getting the respect it deserves. Although shes the co-star, May doesnt show up until nearly half an hour into the picture and then shes tucked away in a corner. With a couple of brief exceptions, every scene follows the perspective of Henry Graham, played by Walter Matthau in full curmudgeon mode. The opening scenes establish him as a gadabout spendthrift whos gone broke on his inheritance. He emerges stunned from a meeting with his lawyer, announcing Im poor! in a hushed voice. His valet (George Rose) for Henrys the kind of stuffed shirt who still employs a valet to dress him suggests that his only options are suicide or marriage and there seems little to choose between them. Henry has always struck his acquaintances as not interested in women, not that hes interested in anything else but fine living. As though stumbling onto a four-leaf clover while turning over a rock, it suddenly occurs to Henry to marry a rich woman with no relations and kill her off. He doesnt turn a hair while considering this and for the first time in life he has a concrete goal. Enter Henrietta (May), a wealthy, socially awkward dormouse with a gift for clumsiness that makes Inspector Clouseau look like Fred Astaire. Shes a botany professor, and her dream is to discover an unknown species of plant. Its ridiculously easy for Henry to court her and this accounts for much of the films hilarity. Mays script allows for physical comedy, like the setpiece involving her Grecian gown; for farcical characters, like her groveling attorney (Jack Weston) and slatternly housekeeper (Doris Roberts) and Henrys gross uncle (James Coco); and for rich verbal humor, mostly put into the mouth of Henry, a character we simultaneously despise and admire for the reckless efficiency of his arrogance. You dare call me a son of a bitch? he unreels calmly at an early party scene when dressing down his hostess. Madam, I have seen many examples of perversion in my time, but your erotic obsession with your carpet is probably the most grotesque, and certainly the most boring, I have ever encountered. Youre more to be scorned than pitied. Good day, Mrs. Cunliffe. This moment is a festival of layers, as we enjoy seeing the materialistic, hypocritical upper-crust lady being taken down a peg for insulting Henrietta, and yet we know Henrys motives in defending her are exactly as materialistic and hypocritical, just as we know that we would be exasperated with Henrietta ourselves. While laughing, we take all this in with the analytical approach of a visitor to an amusing zoo, or perhaps the classifying mind of a botanist. Walter Matthau and Elaine May in A New Leaf (1971) (IMDB) Incidentally, please note that this comedy of sex and death, with such dialogue as the above, was rated G in 1971. Another incidental pleasure is the beauty of the films design and set decoration. Henry has wonderful sculptures borrowed, according to the credits, from various art agencies, and I presume the paintings must be the work of master scenic artist Stan Cappiello. The film is based on Jack Ritchies The Green Heart a comical crime story included as a delightful bonus in the liner notes. As narrated by Henry, the story is very close to the movie, with certain scenes and bits of dialogue preserved intact. Henry acquires poison to be used on his wife and then two more characters enter the scene whom he must poison first. This isnt a spoiler for the movie, because although May did indeed film those parts of the story, theyve been cut out. Thats what makes the story behind the movie as interesting as the movie, and why this directorial debut became a literal trial for May. If youre still racking your brains, May was half of Nichols & May, a brilliant comedy improv act that burst over late 50s America as part of a hip, sophisticated, sick humor about the neurotic modern world. This neurosis, somewhat difficult to distinguish now in the cozy images that tend to dominate our (false) impressions of that Eisenhower Era, extended from the Beat writers to Charles Schulzs Peanuts and from Lenny Bruce to Bob Newhart and MAD Magazine. The fact that so much of this now feels like solid mainstream culture indicates how well it took over. Nichols & May were in the thick of it, dominating Broadway with a sold-out show and appearing on TV with Steve Allen, Jack Paar and the like. Then they broke up to pursue separate careers. Mike Nichols established himself as a director on Broadway and in Hollywood by the mid-60s. May turned to playwrighting before directing a film of her own script, A New Leaf. She landed that gig in 1968, shot the film in 1969, and engaged in a long ordeal of editing that resulted in her initial three-hour cut being taken away and recut by Paramount, whom she promptly sued. It wasnt a happy event. She claimed in court that the studios cut would be a flop. The court disagreed and proved right. The movie was popular with audiences and critics and has since remained on many peoples lists of the decades best comedies. This must have been bittersweet for May. We cannot compare the versions, for Mays original New Leaf is yet to be turned over, although a three-hour character comedy that throws in two murders might seem, on the face of it, less of a commercial enterprise than the tightly focused charmer released to theaters. The interpretations of this event in the Blu-ray commentary by scholar Maya Montanez Smukler tend to assume sexism plays a great role in it, because May was the only woman director in Hollywood at the time and the studio bosses who disagreed with her were, of course, men in a male-dominated industry. If sexism cant help being the elephant in the room, its the one thing everyone rather rushes to discuss as opposed to avoiding it, and were reminded of the parable of the blind men and an elephant. Its fair to ask: would a woman executive have tolerated a three-hour comedy? And what about the males who turn in overlong cuts? If Mike Nichols had turned in a three-hour version of The Graduate, it would have been taken away from him. It seems more likely, in this and other films she directed, that May belongs to that list of otherwise male creative geniuses who naturally clash with the commercial system, including Erich Von Stroheim, Orson Welles and Otto Preminger. Rather than demean Mays abilities, such a view pays her a higher compliment when assessing her career as a director, as opposed to a woman director. Smukler quotes from memos by Paramount exec Peter Bart, saying that the first half of the script is a character comedy and the second, an Arsenic and Old Lace type of farce. He likes the first half, not the second. He even suggests alternate outcomes, such as having Henrietta suddenly blossom into personal competence and save the day. This is all very far from the original story, and its interesting that May felt committed to sticking to it. The films ending preserves the storys ending with virtual exactitude, whether or not one believes it. May is known for mostly avoiding interviews, so she provides no voice here beyond her movie. Aside from the commentary, extras are the trailer, an interview with an associate editor, and an interview with director Amy Heckerling ( Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless), who states that Mays existence was the validation of her own dreams of directing. May has spent most of her career writing, often under pseudonyms. For example, during this period she wrote the screenplay for Otto Premingers Such Good Friends, another 1971 dark comedy with James Coco and Doris Roberts. A true retrospective of her work would be a breathtaking affair. For now, well hope for Blu-rays of The Heartbreak Kid (1972), which is in the running for best ever movie from a Neil Simon play, and the devastating Mikey and Nicky (1976) with John Cassavetes and Peter Falk. How do we contextualize the unexplainable? How do we arrange an understanding between the simplicity of some images, perhaps even the undefinable beauty, and the horror of what happened in those locations many years ago? First published in its original French in 2011, Georges Didi-Hubermans Bark, (carefully and decisively translated by Samuel E. Martin), attempts not to understand and explain the Holocaust as it was brutally played out at Auschwitz-Birkenau, so much as place the realities of those times against the apparent banality and quiet peace of a location so literally and figuratively haunted by millions of innocent murdered people. In its solitude rests a staggering and profound truth: what is a horizon at Birkenau? What is a horizon in this place conceived to shatter all hope? The authors photographs and texts speak to each other in painfully simple codes. If the latter can provide a literal manifestation of horizons on this landscape of death, can the former really match the truth of those images? Bark is a deceptively simple text in content. Its a little more than average adult male palm-sized, 136 pp., and 19 photographs of various scenes at and around Auschwitz-Birkenau. The photographs are accompanied by reflections, observations, attempts to make connections between the reality of what the images represented in the reality of 2011 and the ghosts that cannot be removed. The author, a Paris-based philosopher and art historian, took home pieces of bark from a tree at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Very carefully, Didi-Huberman sets forth his premise in the opening reflection of what the bark represented: Three strips of time a fragment of memory a fragment of the present a fragment of desire Theyre alive, these strips, like skin peeled from trees grown on the location, trees that could not be vanquished. We learn that the very name of Birkenau came from Birch trees. These trees grew on barren, desolate, lands. They were pioneer trees, survivors, romantic yet also (from Antiquity through the Middle Ages) a medium for scripts and figures. In effect, it was perfectly understandable that some sort of truth could be gleaned from what these relics displayed. Bark uses these pieces from trees only as a launching point for something deeper, a means to draw links between the horrifying past and the commercialized present. The Auschwitz barracks had been turned into a commercial stand, a way not to financially exploit the situation so much as identify the location no longer as a place of barbarism but rather a place of culture. The museumification of the site took the power back from the barbarians and landed it definitively in the established world of historians. Consider this passage at the end of the section in question: Culture is not the cherry on the cake of history it remains ever a place of conflict In other words, the authors pure mission here seems to be one where he sees a need to bear witness to the fact that the development of culture can be a crude, commodified, established process where history is severely placed in a palpable context, especially something like the Holocaust. We can take what he calls here some haphazard photographs as a way to establish our presence, to bear witness to the ghosts of our ancestors, but that art will never take the place of the facts. In his reflection of a photograph hed taken of a bird that had perched itself on the ground between barbed wire from the 1940s and newly-installed wire, Didi-Huberman notes: I do have the distinct feeling that the bird landed between two terribly disjointed temporalities, two very different arrangements of the same parcel of space and history. Those in charge of preserving the site so that the world today will never forget what happened there had no choice but to install and reinforce wire. Did it trivialize the remains of the site as it was originally maintained? How far should today go in order to adjust yesterday to modern expectations? Didi-Huberman and the rest of us spend time pondering such ideas, but this bird is brazen, free, unencumbered by the idea of sacred ground, laughing in the face of history. The running thread seems to be about the stubborn insistence of memory. Didi-Huberman writes: what can you say when Auschwitz must be forgotten at its very site in order to constitute itself as a fictitious place devoted to Auschwitzs memory? That seems to be the struggle that will never end, the notion that at its root memory can never reach any level of truth. At Birkenau, he argues that our obligation is to view the site as would an archaeologist. We need to see the human devastation in all that vegetation. The washing of the rains has brought countless splinters of bone back up the surface In such situations as those, obviously, the caretakers have no option but to add more earth to the site, to cover but never eliminate. To look at things from an archaeological point of view is to compare what we see in the present, which has survived, with what we know to have disappeared. There will always be the question of whether or not it is essential to simplify in order to transmit any version of the truth. Is it our obligation to sanitize in order to educate? Didi-Huberman notes that in a Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the documents are presented in a spirit of scrupulous exactness The author spends time considering the bravery of one covert photographer at Birkenau who had to hide in order to see He notes that this visionary strength that led to these images of mass cremation is at odds with the principles of the way Memorials operate. He reached his truth by hiding, slipping through the cracks, desperately seeking his own truth in all the madness and not paying attention to any sense of contemporary propriety. For Didi-Huberman, the issue was also that our memories never allowed us to appeal to our capacity to provide detailed recollections. He photographs the floor of crematorium V at Birkenau and reflects that archaeologists have had to be summoned to interrogate the floors, to scour the depths, to excavate the remnants of history. For him, its about interrogating the layers of time and setting all the stable objects into context. What does the bark tell him? What will my child think when he comes across those remnants after my death? Why did he go? What did he learn? He had lost grandparents at Auschwitz, but Bark isnt solely about them. In effect, Bark is about carefully and methodically peeling away the layers of pain not to expose the scars to the glaring truth of light but rather to start the process of putting ourselves back together, of reconnecting strips of memory with their origins, of learning to live in peace with dual existences in the savage terrains of barbarism and the tamed lands of culture. Learning that theres often not much difference between the two can be the hardest truth to swallow. Perhaps the most celebrated aspect of Orson Welless Othello is its genesis and the impact its chaotic coming into being had on its aesthetic character. Following World War II, Welles, having abandoned the United States in the conviction that there he was paid but not understood, opted to live in Europe where, by and large, he felt understood but seldom paid. While working in Italy on the 1949 film Black Magic, which Welles believed would be a cash cow but which failed to make him wealthy, he encountered the Italian film producer Michele Scalera. Scalera had long entertained the idea of producing a cinematic Othello and he wanted Welles to play the lead role. Welles had grander ideas and he convinced Scalera to hand him the reins as director of the film in which he would star. Welles envisioned a carefully wrought, methodical approach to this Othello, which Scalera claimed would be a coproduction between Italian and French companies. They planned to shoot the film in a studio in Nice, both Venice and Cyprus to be imaginatively recreated through set design. Soon the French connection dissipated and before long Scalera announced that he was bankrupt and would be unable to fund Othello. Welles was bereft of financial backing but overcome with inspiration and emboldened by undaunted determination. He elected to finance the film as best he could through random donations and his own funds derived from his various acting engagements. In lieu of a prolonged stay at the studio, Welles was forced to direct and shoot his film in the fugitive moments when he was able to assemble his cast on any location he was able to secure. This meant that there were huge gaps in time between shoots and the locations constantly shifted, even though the films narrative only really called for two (Venice and Cyprus). The production was beset with constant pressures. The perpetual lack of reasonable costumes forced Welles to create armor out of pressed sardine cans and to set Rodrigos attack on Cassio and his subsequent murder in a Turkish bath. While no such setting exists in Shakespeare, that environment allowed Welles to shoot a scene that seemed authentic without requiring anything beyond some towels his crew supposedly filched from their hotel rooms. Owing to the discombobulated and radically discontinuous nature of the shooting, the film had to be constructed through the editing process. This involved a confrontation between two hallmarks of Welless directorial approach. On the one hand, Welles meticulously structured his camera setups. He first established the position of the camera, setting it in some stable but intriguing place that could capture the scene while also interpreting its import (the camera rarely pans and there is only one extended dolly shot in the entire film). In the case of Othello (as in his earlier films) this often resulted in oblique angles, shots from above or below, light and shadow raking across the characters, signifying perhaps the obscurity of their motives or their unwillingness to show themselves fully to onlookers. Micheal MacLiammoir (IMDB) Once the camera position was established, Welles built up the scene in the manner of a painter. Welless initial visual influence for the film was the great Renaissance Venetian painter Carpaccio. It was from Carpaccios paintings that Welles developed his costumes and he even chose the breed of dog that follows Rodrigo around in the film on the basis of the work of the Venetian master. However, the visual effect of the film is more Caravaggio than Carpaccio. Welles found an analogue to Shakespeares themes of the obfuscating power of Iagos deception and Othellos desperate desire for establishing truth in his manipulation of shadow and light. This is made brilliantly manifest in the scene when Iago and Othello walk along the ramparts of a fortification, the beach in the background, the sun shining brightly upon them. Othello, distraught and disgusted by Iagos noncommittal insinuations, grabs his subordinate by the lapel and pushes him backward so that Iago leans precipitously over the edge. Othello demands some kind of demonstrable proof on the threat of Iagos demise. Iago, the creator of shadow, is now emblazoned by the light of the unflinching sun, but Othello, hovering menacingly over his prey (not realizing that Iago is truly the predator here) is almost fully obscured by shadow. Iagos dark thoughts, written across his face owing to the placement of the sun, are, however, countermanded by the yearning, pleading gaze he directs at his tormentor. On the other hand, the second hallmark of Welless approach here involves an abrupt and drastic editing style. Welles once quipped that whenever you see the back of a character you can almost be guaranteed that the person you are actually seeing is a stand-in for the actor that portrays that character. Welless players were often unavailable owing to the unpredictability of his shooting schedule. Scenes that start from shots filmed in one location are intercut with scenes shot in another, but edited in such a fashion to hide that discontinuity. For Welles, the director is the man who presides over accidents but doesnt make them and never were there more accidents over which to preside for Welles than in Othello. One of Welless primary strategies from hiding the discontinuity inherent in this awkward manner of shooting was to construct an editing style that revels in disconnection. Welles drew upon expressionist film techniques deriving from such directors as F.W. Murnau but further imbued Othello with a palpable anxiety revealed by the mosaic-like quality of the editing. Pieces of stock are compiled additively, like repairing a shattered vase, in order to create a film that directly manifests through cinematic technique the off-kilter, vertiginous world that Othello experiences. The film makes a virtue of necessity by exploiting its odd construction to highlight its artificiality, thus enacting a metaphor for the unreliable artificial world that Iago erects in the mind of Othello. The bizarre camera angles, the unexpected cuts, the fussiness of certain scenesthese do more than signify the fraught situation in which Othello finds himself; they provide an entree into the increasingly disturbed manner of Othellos understanding of a world to which he fears he never really belonged and over which he can exert no reliable control. In doing so, Welles effected a cinematic approach to Shakespeare that is not simply a filmed adaptation of a play but rather an engagement (indeed, a confrontation) with the Bard on terms set forth by the filmic apparatus. This is Othello as seen through the condition of film. Welles openly disparaged the Laurence Olivier approach to Shakespearean cinema insofar as Welles saw these films as little more than setting a camera unartfully before a staged production; hence, in Welless estimation, they were not films at all. For Welles, the essence of a film was altogether different from a stage play, even when the content of that film derived from William Shakespeare, whom Welles regarded as the finest playwright of all time. Indeed, anyone coming to Welless Othello to seeand more to the point, to heara faithful rendering of Shakespeares text will come away sorely disappointed. Welles slashed the Bards words with a ruthless red pen, hacking away pages of dialogue and some of the most renowned lines of theater history. Moreover, given the actors famously rich baritone delivery of text, Welless Othello often rushes through his lines, focusing on the affective impact of the emotion rather than the semantic profundity of Shakespeares imagery. Often it is difficult to discern precisely what is being said. The key to Welless filmic Shakespeareand this is as true of Macbeth and Chimes at Midnight (the Falstaff film) as it is of Othellois its rhythmic quality, the emotional quality of its pacing. There are times when Welles allows his mellifluous bardic recitations to linger over the contours of Shakespeares words, but most of it would work just as well as a silent film. The tale is told not through words, but rather, in full reliance on the restrictions and affordances inherent in film, through its visceral visual presence. The indelible moments of Othello derive not from the famous closing soliloquy (mercilessly chopped in the script) but rather from the panicked look on Othellos face as reflected in the mirror, the beguiling smile on Iagos as he tempts Cassio with wine, the haunted desperation in Othellos eyes as he mounts the stairs toward a Desdemona he no longer trusts, his visage a mere mask laid over the void that expands at his core. Welles shoots this film in a manner that causes us to constantly feel the ground slipping from beneath Othellos feet. We witness the inability of the clever soldier to recognize the cunning machinations of an envious rival; instead Othello soldiers on, determined to march inexorably toward truth, convinced he can manage love in the manner of warfare. Welless Othello may not be the most sympathetic realization of Shakespeares doomed lover but it may be the finest exemplification of the inevitability of his fall. Suzanne Cloutier (IMDB) The Criterion Collection has recently released a beautiful restoration of Welless underrated masterpiece replete with several special features. There are two versions of the film itself: the 1952 European version shown at Cannes and the 1955 version released in the US and UK. The latter differs from the former mostly with respect to the opening. An audio commentary is available for the 1955 version, featuring Myron Meisel and Peter Bogdanovich; it includes some fascinating (but eventually repetitive) observations by Meisel and then the usual reminiscences one expects from Bogdanovich (and so ones enjoyment of the latter will entirely depend on ones patience for Bogdanovichs Orson schtick). The edition also presents a short film, Return to Glennascaul (1953) by Micheal MacLiammoir (who plays Iago) and Hilton Edwards (who plays Desdemonas father) that features Welles in a minor role and the last film Welles (nearly) completed, an essay-documentary entitled Filming Othello (1979). There are interviews with Welles biographer Simon Callow, film scholar Francoisn Thomas, theater scholar Ayanna Thompson, and Joseph McBride. Finally there is the documentary Souvenirs d'Othello (1995) by Francois Girard about Suzanne Cloutier (who played Desdemona). In sum, there is no shortage of material here to savor, contemplate, and enjoy. St. Louis doesnt attract many touring artists. Really. Go search some bands you love and their touring schedule. Its hit or miss if they make it to St. Louis, mostly miss. For a music loving resident, this is an eternal annoyance. Add to this that the city is a perennial underdog in the arts. Sure, there is always amazing art being made, but the national eye does not turn this way. The new release by the St. Louis band Grace Basement is called Mississippi Nights and most certainly gets its title from a much loved yet long-defunct venue that was torn down and turned into a casino parking lot. How fitting for a St. Louis band, huh? The titular venue was around from 1979 to 2007. It held about a thousand people, so it was a niche place, but it housed the cult bands or the up and coming indie artists. Its where the Decemberists, the Thermals, or Sufjan Stevens on the Illinois tour would came through, so theres some heavy feelings to be had. It was the only St. Louis spot Nirvana ever played. The Replacements opened for X there. Basically, the fact that it was torn down to make way for a parking lot left the city quite salty. Because it would be a horrible idea, Kevin Buckleys Grace Basement doesnt attempt to address the lost venue in any direct way. The title just floats there as a frame for a nice little set of songs, showcasing what the city can offer up if given a chance. And a nice set of songs it is. Grace Basement are essentially a roots rock band, with the occasional dash of power pop sensibility. The middle portion of the album, especially tracks Slowly Causing (Everything Youve Wanted to Come Undone) and Standing on a Corner have a distinct taste of Exile on Main Street Rolling Stones, while tracks like East for You/Easy for Me almost sound like Two Door Cinema Club with their sugary melodies and bright, chiming guitars. The rest of the album take turns between the two. A repeated theme would be that of being broken. The final tracks are titled My Ruin and Broken Pair of Speakers. It seems dour at first, but with loss comes rebirth. With closer inspection of the lyrics, the album being titled after a defunct venue seems ironic. My Ruin evokes the image of a life in shambles but perches some white doves on top for good measure. On the closer, Broken Pair of Speakers, Buckley sings, I just need something new. I dont think I can get it from you. But the most telling of Buckleys mindset might be from the opening track, Rising Sun, where he states, Im tired of feeling numb, paying dues for everyone. Just when you think Im done, come up like the rising sun. So, if the title evokes nostalgia at first, a good listen to the album Mississippi Nights should change your mind. Its about making something new, breathing new life into what was lost. Next time, lets hope its more exciting than a parking lot. You are the owner of this article. SCANA and Dominion Energy addressed the Public Service Commission about their proposed merger Thursday. File/John A. Carlos II/Special to The Post and Courier Watchdog and Public Service reporter Thad Moore is a reporter on The Post and Couriers Watchdog and Public Service team and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. To share tips securely, reach Moore via ProtonMail at thadmoore@protonmail.com or on Signal at 843-214-6576. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close The Post and Courier and Michelle Chapman, Joyce Rosenberg and Chris Rugaber of the AP contributed to this report. Straight No Chaser is celebrating its silver anniversary with a three-month tour that would exact a physical toll on any performer vocalists especially. Yet despite the grueling schedule (they are almost exactly in the middle of more than 60 performances), SNC performed an outstanding show Nov. 13 at the Charleston Gaillard Center. Read moreReview: Straight No Chaser delights young and old on a cappella tour While it's unclear whether North Korea possesses functioning nuclear-armed missiles, some experts say Friday's launch involved its longest-range missile, which is still under development and is designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads to overcome U.S. missile defense systems. Read moreNorth Korea test-fires ICBM with range to strike entire US 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 FILE - In this May 21, 2015 file photo, a worker removes oil from the sand at Refugio State Beach in the Santa Barbara Channel, north of Goleta, Calif., as cleanup work continues one month after the May 19 oil spill north of Santa Barbara, Calif. The Trump administration on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018 moved to vastly expand offshore drilling from the Atlantic to the Arctic oceans with a plan that would open up federal waters off the California coast for the first time in more than three decades. The Channel is one of those areas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) 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?' The deployment of three B-2 Stealth bombers to Guam this week is a signal to everyone, not just to North Korea, that the United States stands ready to protect the nation and its allies, Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said at the Pentagon earlier today. The bomber deployment's part of an ongoing planned deployment that affects not only the Korean Peninsula, but also a broader alliance structure in the Pacific, McKenzie said. So that's the reason the bomber deployment. When McKenzie was asked if the deployment of B-2s to Guam is a signal to China as well, he replied, When we move bombers across the globe, we send a signal to everyone. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. McKenzie wasnt immediately able to comment for how long the B-2s will be on Guam. About 200 airmen from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri are on Guam with the B-2s. The Washington Post reported on the deployment of the B-2s to Guam and its significance compared to the B-1s that recently ended their most recent rotational presence on the island. B-2s have stealth technology and the ability to carry nuclear weapons, something that the B-1B Lancer bombers deployed to Guam last year do not have, The Washington Post reported. B-2s also are the only aircraft capable of dropping a relatively new conventional 30,000-pound bomb known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is designed to pierce hardened bunkers and tunnels such as the ones in North Korea, The Washington Post reported. While the B-2s are positioned on Guam, the Pentagon also decided to deconflict by delaying scheduled military exercises with South Korea as the South Koreans try to enter into talks with North Koreans. They have been deconflicted, and we will work with the South Koreans, because we have to work in lockstep with them, to ensure that we're ready and that we will continue to exercise and be ready, said Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White. Still, White said, "we maintain a full arsenal of options for the president." White didnt respond when the Pentagon press corps asked if the United States will guarantee no bombs will be dropped on North Korea during the Olympic winter games. On Tuesday, leaders from the two Koreas met to discuss the Winter Olympics, which will take place in PyeongChang, a few dozen miles from the border between the Koreas, The Washington Post reported. North Korea agreed to send a delegation of about 500 athletes and officials to the Winter Games. The deployment of three B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to Guam this week "is a signal to everyone," not just to North Korea, that the United States stands ready to protect the nation and its allies, said Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. at the Pentagon yesterday. "The bomber deployment's part of an ongoing planned deployment that affects not only the Korean Peninsula, but also a broader alliance structure in the Pacific," McKenzie said. "So that's the reason the bomber deployment." When McKenzie was asked if the deployment of B-2s to Guam is a signal to China as well, he replied, "When we move bombers across the globe, we send a signal to everyone." Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. McKenzie wasn't immediately able to comment on how long the B-2s will be on Guam. About 200 airmen from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri are on Guam with the B-2s. The Washington Post reported on the deployment of the B-2s to Guam and its significance compared to the B-1s that recently ended their most recent rotational presence on the island. Nuclear weapons, heavy bombs B-2s have stealth technology and the ability to carry nuclear weapons, something that the B-1B Lancer bombers deployed to Guam last year do not have, The Washington Post reported. B-2s also are the only aircraft capable of dropping a relatively new conventional 30,000-pound bomb known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is designed to pierce hardened bunkers and tunnels such as the ones in North Korea, The Washington Post reported. While the B-2s are positioned on Guam, the Pentagon also decided to "deconflict" by delaying scheduled military exercises with South Korea, as South Koreans try to enter into talks with North Koreans. "They have been deconflicted, and we will work with the South Koreans, because we have to work in lockstep with them, to ensure that we're ready and that we will continue to exercise and be ready," said Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White. Still, White said, "we maintain a full arsenal of options for the president." White didn't respond when the Pentagon press corps asked if the United States will guarantee no bombs will be dropped on North Korea during the Olympic winter games. On Tuesday, leaders from the two Koreas met to discuss the Winter Olympics, which will take place in Pyeongchang, a few dozen miles from the border between the Koreas, The Washington Post reported. North Korea agreed to send a delegation of about 500 athletes and officials to the Winter Games. PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-12 13:00:51 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 404 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for American Manganese Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - American Manganese Inc. (TSX Venture:AMY). has issued a press release with the following headline:Bloomberg Invites American Manganese to Present at Its Future of Mobility Summits Battery Supply PanelTo 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 American Manganese 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/American Manganese Inc.Source: American Manganese Inc. (TSX Venture: AMY, OTC Pink: AMYZF, FWB: 2AM, WKN: A0YJSR, ISIN: CA02735A1057)Date: January 12, 2018Time: 7:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of American Manganese 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: 2018-01-12 13:00:36 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 395 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for GreenBank Capital Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - GreenBank Capital Inc. (CSE:GBC). has issued a press release with the following headline:GreenBank Acquires Veterans Financial and Forms Insurance Agency Holding CompanyTo 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 GreenBank Capital 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/GreenBank Capital Inc.Source: GreenBank Capital Inc. (CSE: GBC, OTC Pink: GRNBF, WKN: A1W8UJ, ISIN: CA3935762029)Date: January 12, 2018Time: 7:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of GreenBank Capital 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: 2018-01-12 13:00:42 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 398 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for OneSoft Solutions Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Edmonton, Alberta (FSCWire) - OneSoft Solutions Inc. (OTCQB:OSSIF). has issued a press release with the following headline:OneBridge Teams Up with Phillips 66 to Develop Advanced Pipeline Integrity Management SAAS SolutionTo 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 OneSoft Solutions 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/OneSoft Solutions Inc.Source: OneSoft Solutions Inc. (OTCQB: OSSIF, TSX Venture: OSS, WKN: A119HD, ISIN: CA68276J1021)Date: January 12, 2018Time: 7:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of OneSoft Solutions 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.) Venous Thromboembolism Devices Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023 Venous Thromboembolism Devices Market PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-12 13:22:19 Press Information Precision Business Insights Kemp House, 152 160 City Road, London EC1V 2NX satya Lead Marketing +1-866-598-1553 email https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com # 948 Words Kemp House,152 160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXLead Marketing+1-866-598-1553 Venous thromboembolism is a disease caused by the clotting of blood in the blood vessel which leads to restriction of blood flow within the circulatory system. It is classified into pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. Deep vein thrombosis is mainly occurred due to clotting of blood in deep vein (commonly in the leg). The formed DVT clot breaks off and flows to lungs known as pulmonary embolism which is a severe complication of deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Venous thromboembolism commonly occurs in aged persons with more than 60 years. People with overweight, persons with thicker blood and persons suffering from autoimmune disorders such as (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis etc.) or cancer are at higher risk of venous thromboembolism. Venous thromboembolism can cause chronic complications, such as post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS) or chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). The symptoms associated with the venous thromboembolism include dilated blood veins in legs and chest, oedema, fever, tachycardia, and dyspnoea. Lower extremities are the most common site for DVT, but other locations affected include the mesenteric, upper extremities, pelvic veins, and cerebral veins.The Venous Thromboembolism Devices Market is growing at a significant CAGR due to increase in geriatric population. Rise in government expenditure, increasing incidence of venous thromboembolism, and high unmet needs of currently available treatment procedures are fuelling the venous thromboembolism devices market. For instance, in 2014 May, U.S. FDA issued post market surveillance study for inferior vena cava filters which provides information regarding implementation of the filters and risks of pulmonary thromboembolism. Furthermore, increase in surgical procedures such as hip and knee replacements that are risk factors for venous thromboembolism conditions. Growing patient awareness regarding venous thromboembolism conditions expected to boost the venous thromboembolism devices market over the forecast period. However, high cost of deep vein thrombosis treatment, difficult pathophysiology of the venous thromboembolism hinders the growth of venous thromboembolism devices market. Similarly, stringent regulatory approvals for the development of products are expected to dampen growth of venous thromboembolism devices market over the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @The venous thromboembolism devices market is growing at a significant CAGR due to increase in geriatric population. Rise in government expenditure, increasing incidence of venous thromboembolism, and high unmet needs of currently available treatment procedures are fuelling the venous thromboembolism devices market. For instance, in 2014 May, U.S. FDA issued post market surveillance study for inferior vena cava filters which provides information regarding implementation of the filters and risks of pulmonary thromboembolism. Furthermore, increase in surgical procedures such as hip and knee replacements that are risk factors for venous thromboembolism conditions. Growing patient awareness regarding venous thromboembolism conditions expected to boost the venous thromboembolism devices market over the forecast period. However, high cost of deep vein thrombosis treatment, difficult pathophysiology of the venous thromboembolism hinders the growth of venous thromboembolism devices market. Similarly, stringent regulatory approvals for the development of products are expected to dampen growth of venous thromboembolism devices market over the forecast period.The venous thromboembolism devices market is segmented on the basis of product type, disease type, and end userBased on type of device, venous thromboembolism devices market is segmented into the following Compression Stockings Gradual or medical compression stockings Anti-embolism stockings Nonmedical support hosiery Intermitted pneumatic compression devices Inferior vena cava filters Retrievable IVC filters Permanent IVC FiltersBased on disease type, the venous thromboembolism devices market is segmented into the following Deep vein thrombosis Pulmonary embolismBased on end-user, the venous thromboembolism devices market is segmented into the following Hospitals Diagnostic centres Ambulatory surgical centresTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Globally, venous thromboembolism devices market is expected to grow at expeditiously owing to increase in incidences of venous thromboembolism conditions. Several local and international players are actively involved in growth of venous thromboembolism devices market. The growth of venous thromboembolism devices market is increased due to rise in prevalence of venous thromboembolism (According to the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Inc. (ISTH), approximately 10 Mn cases of venous thromboembolism occur annually). The most commonly adopted strategies by industry players include new product launches with technological innovations, new product approvals, acquisitions & mergers, agreements, and collaborations to capture significant venous thromboembolism Devices Market share.Need more information about this report @Geographically, venous thromboembolism devices market has been segmented into following regions Viz. North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America anticipated to hold the largest share in the venous thromboembolism devices market owing to increase in the incidence (According to U.S. International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Inc. (ISTH) there are around 100,000 to 300,000 venous thromboembolism related deaths reported annually) and prevalence rate, rise in demand for advanced treatment, and increase in aging population in the North America region may hold the largest share. Moreover, high healthcare expenditure, high awareness regarding the disease and treatments, and increase in prevalence rate are expected to create demand in Europe region. Asia-Pacific is a key region for venous thromboembolism devices market due to increase in the government expenditure and healthcare infrastructure.Some of the players in venous thromboembolism devices market are Fukuda Denshi Co., Ltd (Japan), Baxter International Inc. (U.S), Lidco Group Plc. (U.K), All Pro Corporation (China), Abbott Laboratories (U.S), Accellent, Inc.(U.S) , Cardiva Medical, Inc.(U.S) , Biosensors International Group, Ltd.(Singapore) , 3M Healthcare (U.S), and others.Get access to full summary @Contact to Precision Business Insights,Email: sales@ precisionbusinessinsights.com Website @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com PR-Inside.com: 2018-01-12 12:36:02 LONDON, Jan. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The insurance industry is in a state of flux. For one, it's adapting to a new era of risk, in which a cyber attack could be as economically damaging as a hurricane. On top of this, the modern tools of big data, mobile phones and advanced analytics are ushering in a new generation of products that can be tailored to each individual customer. Meanwhile, the usual pressures relating to digital developments are exacerbating the 'commoditisation' of insurance, which has been brought on by internet comparison sites and the like. Against this backdrop, World Finance has published its yearly line-up of the best companies in global insurance, recognising those that continue to grow and expand, even in spite of an ever-changing landscape and modern-day risks. It is telling that, according to a survey by PwC, the insurance industry ranks higher than any other in terms of the percentage of CEOs that are: "extremely concerned about the threats to their growth prospects from the speed of technological change, changing customer behaviour, and competition from new market entrants." For those in the industry, technology is both friend and foe: it is forcing change while simultaneously creating an arena for the most innovative businesses to thrive. Crucially, those that are now investing in new digital approaches will dominate the market in the future. Ultimately, the most promising businesses are readily equipped for the wider social, economic and technological changes that are underlying market trends. The World Finance Global Insurance Awards 2017 celebrate those that are staying ahead of these developments and driving ahead with innovative solutions. Each year, the World Finance in-house judging panel compiles the list of winners after consulting key business metrics and talking with a number of industry experts. To read more about the winners and why they've made the cut, pick up the latest issue of World Finance, available online, on mobile and in print now. www.worldfinance.com World News Media is a leading publisher of quality financial and business magazines, which enjoys a global distribution network that includes subscriber lists of prominent decision-makers around the world. CONTACT INFORMATION World News Media Elizabeth Matsangou Editorial Department +44 (0)20 7553 4162 elizabeth.matsangou@wnmedia.com 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: World Finance via Globenewswire In the course of 2017, all the major unions within the education sector had cause to down tools, putting students, parents and the entire country in a state of frustration. A bigger cause for distress came in August when Boko Haram terrorists extended their bloodletting to students and staff in the University of Maiduguri, killing and maiming. In the midst of the chaos, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS lost its ex-president, Dauda Mohammed. Also, the Kaduna State Government commenced a controversial education reform meant to uplift the standard of education in the state but which involves the sacking of over 20,000 teachers. PREMIUM TIMES takes a look at the major highlights of the education sector in Nigeria in 2017. 1. ASUUs indefinite strike ASUU began an industrial action on August 13, which lasted for one month and six days, ending on September 18. The bone of contention was the non-implementation of the 2009 agreement between the union and the federal government. The federal government later approved N23 billion for the universities unions to settle arrears of earned allowances. The money has caused fresh misunderstanding between ASUU and the non-teaching staff. 2. SSANU, NASU and NAAT strike. The non-teaching staff of Nigeria universities began an industrial action on September 11 which lasted for one week, ending on September 21. The bone of contention was the payment of salary shortfalls being owed, implementation of the National Industrial Court judgement on university staff schools, registration of Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company, NUPEMCO, and implementation of CONTISS 14 and 15 for technologists. The three unions also commenced another strike on December 4 which is still ongoing. One of the major reasons for the strike is the sharing formula of the N23 billion released by the government for earned allowances among the four unions. 3. ASUP strike The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, ASUP, commenced a strike action on November 13, ending in November 27. Their grouse was the non-implementation of a 2016 agreement and non-payment of outstanding arrears by the federal government. 4. Insecurity on campuses There were series of attacks on the University of Maiduguri by Boko Haram in 2017 which led to about 70 lecturers resigning from the institution in August, 2017. Also, there were cases of abduction, theft and molestation in the University of Abuja. Similarly, in October, a final-year student of Business Education in Ebonyi State University, EBSU, Abakaliki, Chinedu Linus, was shot dead by robbers at his hostel in Abakaliki. The gunmen numbering four also robbed the deceased and other students in the hostel of their money, laptops, handsets and other valuables 5. NANS loses ex-president On October 1, NANS announced the death of its former National President, Dauda Mohammed, to a protracted illness. He was NANS President from 2011 to 2012. 6. Removal of Dichotomy between BSC and HND holders in paramilitary services On July 13, the Nigerian government abolished the dichotomy between holders of university degrees and higher national diplomas, HND, in all the paramilitary services. The paramilitary services are civil defence, fire service, immigration and prisons. The board directed that all officers with HND are to be upgraded to COMPASS 08, which is the Salary Grade Level for holders of degree certificates at entry point. 7. Separation of the controversial CRK/IRK curriculum On July 20, the federal government directed the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to separate the Christian Religious Knowledge and Islamic Religious Knowledge subjects in the basic education curriculum. The grouping of IRK and CRK under the Civil Education in the new curriculum by the NERDC had generated controversy with religious leaders calling for their separation in the teaching scheme. 8. Alleged fraud in tertiary institutions In May, the federal government suspended the Vice Chancellors of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, FUNAAB, and that of Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, for alleged fraud. Also, the EFCC slammed a nine-count charge bordering on N156 million alleged fraud committed between 2012 to 2016 against the FUTA vice chancellor, Adebiyi Daramola and its bursar, Emmanuel Oresegun. Similarly, the College of Education, Obudu, in Cross River State in October suspended its bursar, Ushie Sixtus, for alleged theft of N125 million from the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, GIFMIS, salary account of the college. The provost of the school, James Ejue, has also been recommended for suspension from January 1 to March 31, 2018. But the recommendation is still awaiting Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu s approval. 9. Presentation of 2018 budget President Muhammadu Buhari presented the budget proposal for 2018 in November. About 7.04 per cent of the N8.6 trillion budget was allocated to the education sector. The entire sum proposed for education is N605.8 billion. About N435.1 billion for recurrent expenditure, N61.73 billion for capital expenditure and N109.06 billion for the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC. 10) 21,780 Kaduna teachers fail primary four examination In October, about two third of primary school teachers in Kaduna State failed to score up to 75 per cent when asked to write examinations meant for primary four students. Owing to the mass failure, the state is currently recruiting 25,000 new teachers as part of plans to restore quality to education in the state. This has led to a series of upheavals in the state and beyond with the teachers and allied unions protesting the move. A court in December ordered the state government to halt action on the planned sack. 11) School feeding programme reaches 19 states In July 2016, the federal government said it will commence its National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, NHGSF, in September 2016 with 5.5 million pupils across the country. According to the design of the programme, the federal government is to fund the feeding of pupils in Primary one to Primary three while the state governments are expected to feed pupils in Primary four to Primary six. The programme attracted N500 billion allocation in both the 2016 and 2017 budgets at the federal level. Initially, the programme started with 14 states: Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba and Kaduna. The Scheme has made significant strides feeding 2, 827, 501 school children across these 14 states of the federation since its inception in 2016 In October 2017, three states was added to the school funding programme with an additional one million children benefitting from it. The states are Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Niger states. Also, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in November 2017 said the programme is being implemented in 19 states across the country. These are: Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa and Niger states. The federal government said over five million pupils in 28,249 schools in these states are currently being fed under the programme. Kano and Katsina states are expected to be added to the beneficiary states soon. 12) Tens of thousands of graduates While tens of thousands of students graduated from universities in 2017, only a few hundred finished with first class degree. At the University of Ibadan, 5,629 students graduated in various academic programmes from the 12 faculties in 2017. Of these, 186 passed with first class honours. Also, 8,012 students were conferred with first degrees, higher degrees, as well as Diplomas and Certificates at the University of Uyo, but only 22 students bagged first class. President Donald Trump has questioned why the U.S. would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as shithole countries, according to two sources familiar with the comments. Trumps remarks, made in the White House, came as Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham briefed the president on a newly-drafted immigration bill being touted by a bipartisan group of senators, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified. Sources said government officials were present during the conversation. The lawmakers were describing how certain immigration programs operate, including one to give safe haven in the United States to people from countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife. One of the sources who was briefed on the conversation said that Trump said, Why do we want all these people from Africa here? Theyre shithole countries We should have more people from Norway. The second source familiar with the conversation, said Trump, who has vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration, also questioned the need for Haitians in the United States. Many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers slammed the president for his remarks. Republican U.S. Representative Mia Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, said the comments were unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nations values. Love called on Trump to apologise to the American people and to the countries he denigrated. Another Republican Representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Cuba and whose south Florida district includes many Haitian immigrants, said: Language like that shouldnt be heard in locker rooms and it shouldnt be heard in the White House. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a frequent Trump critic, said the presidents comment smacks of blatant racism, the most odious and insidious racism masquerading poorly as immigration policy. In an apparent response to his critics, Trump took to Twitter late on Thursday night. Trump tweeted: 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! The programme that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status. In November, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua. It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalise their presence in the U.S. Nicaraguans were given until January 2019. On Monday, Trump moved to end the status for immigrants from El Salvador, which could result in 200,000 Salvadorans legally in the United States being deported, beginning in September of 2019.(Reuters/NAN) U.S. President Donald Trump implied on Friday the language he used during the meeting on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was tough but he didnt use the infamous shithole countries term. On Thursday, U.S. media reported that Trump behind closed doors expressed displeasure over people migrating to the United States from shithole countries. The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used, Trump tweeted. Earlier in the day, the Office of UN Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said the US presidents reported remarks that immigrants were coming from shithole countries were racist. The African Union also blasted Trump for his profane comments about African countries and other nations, and recalled in a statement the U.S. history of bringing in slaves from the continent. Trump used the words shithole countries to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African countries in response to lawmakers suggested they restore protections for immigrants from there, the Washington Post reported Thursday. The White House has not disputed the report. Responding to the remarks, AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo reminded Trump that many Africans arrived in the U.S. as slaves, adding that Trumps profane statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice. She described the U.S. as a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity. In her statement, Kalonda said the African Union and its partners would continue to address the causes of migration while also fighting against racism and xenophobia. Meanwhile, South Africas governing African National Congress party took to Twitter to chide Trump over his offensive choice of words. Others responded to the derogatory slur with humour. Good morning from the greatest most beautiful shithole country in the world!!! Leanne Manas, a news anchor for South Africas SABC broadcaster, wrote on Twitter. (Sputnik/NAN) The African Union on Friday blasted President Donald Trump for his profane comments about African countries and other nations, and recalled the U.S. history of bringing in slaves from the continent. Mr. Trump used the words shithole countries to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African countries in response to lawmakers who suggested they restore protections for immigrants from there, the Washington Post reported Thursday. The White House has not disputed the report. Responding to the remarks, AU spokeswoman, Ebba Kalondo, reminded Trump that many Africans arrived in the U.S. as slaves, adding that Trumps profane statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice. She described the U.S. as a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity. In her statement, Kalonda said the African Union and its partners would continue to address the causes of migration while also fighting against racism and xenophobia. Meanwhile, South Africas governing African National Congress party took to Twitter to chide Trump over his offensive choice of words. Others responded to the derogatory slur with humour. Good morning from the greatest most beautiful shithole country in the world!!! Leanne Manas, a news anchor for South Africas SABC broadcaster, wrote on Twitter. (dpa/NAN) Seven All Progressives Congress (APC) governors have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to seek re-election in 2019. The governors met the president on Friday at the Aso Rock presidential villa in Abuja. Those present at the meeting are Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, Yahaya Bello of Kogi and Abubakar Bello of Niger states. Others are Simon Lalong of Plateau, Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe and Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa states. All the governors, except Mr. Lalong, attended the Friday Muslim prayers with the president at the villa. They later had lunch together. Speaking with journalists after the meeting, Mr. El-Rufai said they were at the villa because they were politicians. Those of us you see here want the president to contest the 2019 election; we have no apologies for that, he said. We believe in Mr. President, we want him to continue running the country in the right direction. People can speculate about 2019; we have no apologies. Mr. El-Rufai said the governors, mostly first termers, were interested in continuity and stability. We want the president to continue with that, he said. Mr. El-Rufai said they were at the state house by coincidence. And we went to pray and decided to felicitate with the President and we feel satisfied that anytime we see him, he is getting better and better, he said. On the ongoing strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, over his decision to sack teachers, Mr. El-Rufai said there is no going back. He said the governments decision is a well thought out position. We took one and half years before we made the decision and we will not change it, he said. On the clash between labour leaders and security agencies on Thursday, Mr. El-Rufai said he did not ask the police to stop the workers, saying I was not even in Kaduna. The right to protest is guaranteed in the constitution providing you dont go violent and you dont violate any laws, he said. He however said there was concern over the volatile security situation in the country. And the last time they did such a thing they attacked the State House of Assembly, the legislature, for which they have filed criminal charges. So this is the concern, the concern is break down of law and order and not protest or strike, he said. They are free to do so but it will not change our position. Mr. El-Rufai said his government had already announced its decision to pay three months severance package to sacked teachers in line with the public service rule. He also said a provision was made for those retiring to go through retirement training. Those that are interested in farming we have reserved land available and for those that want to go into trade, we have micro credit to support them but they are not suitable as teachers. They can do other things and the government will do other things to support them, he said. On his part, Kano governor, Mr. Ganduje, who spoke briefly on Mr. Buharis handling of the farmers/herders clashes, said the president had already met with key persons concerned and that a suggestion has been put forward by the Minister of Agriculture concerning the (cattle) colony and I think eventually that is the answer. The Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, on Friday nullified the ex parte order approving the appointment of an interim board for Nigerian telecom operator, Emerging Markets Telecommunications Service, EMTS. An ex parte order is an interim order often granted in the absence of the other party in a case. EMTS, Nigerias fourth largest telecommunications service operator, runs 9Mobile which until last year was operated as Etisalat. The nullification followed dismissal of the Preliminary Objection filed by United Capital Trustees Ltd in response to the application by Spectrum Wireless, a shareholder of EMTS. Spectums application was for a nullification of the ex parte order by Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court. Spectrum had claimed that the order was obtained by misrepresentation of facts that alienated its interests in the EMTS. The interim board and executive management of the EMTS were constituted in June 2017 but the order approving its reconstitution was given in July. Etisalat Group, which held 45 per cent of the shares in Etisalat Nigeria and 25 per cent of the preference shares, had earlier relinquished its stake in the Nigerian firm over $1.2 billion debt being owed 13 Nigerian banks. Following intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Communications Commission, an interim board was constituted for the company after it announced a name change to 9Mobile. In the new board, Boye Olusanya, former Deputy Managing Director of Celtel, was named its Managing Director/CEO while Joseph Nnanna, an economist and Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was named the chairman of its board. The inauguration of the board came against the backdrop of meetings held by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, the lending banks and Etisalats management. The Interim Board of EMTS had recently received bids from about five bidders in its intended sale of the telecommunication company which was scheduled to be concluded by December 31, 2017, but was recently moved to January 16, 2018. The court judgement is believed to constitute fresh hurdles to proposed plans put in place for the sale of the company. A lawmaker has said that suspected herdsmen responsible for the attacks in Benue state and other parts of the country could be defeated Boko Haram insurgents or displaced Libyan soldiers. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Abu Ibrahim (APC, Katsina South), said this while speaking with journalists on Thursday as he called for thorough investigation. He added that normal Fulani herdsmen are not known to possess sophisticated weapons. We have to seriously investigate this. A normal Fulani man is not known to carry AK47. The security agencies should probe whether the defeated Boko Haram insurgents were involved; whether the Gaddafi phenomenon has spilled over to Nigeria. It should be considered whether displaced Libyan soldiers had a hand in what happened because it is not easy to acquire AK47, he said. While commending the police for their swift action in response to the situation as well as deployment of soldiers, the senator urged security agencies to control the situation and stop the killings before it escalated . Speaking on insinuations that the executive, under President Muhammadu Buhari is not committed to stopping the attacks because he is a Fulani man like the herdsmen, he said this was untrue. It is not true because the president has taken steps to bring the situation under control. He has deployed soldiers to Benue State, he ordered the Inspector General of Police to relocate to Benue. He has taken other measures that may not be for public consumption. It is therefore wrong for anybody to say that the president is not interested in what happened in the state. When the president saw that the police effort was not bringing effective result, he promptly deployed soldiers, he added. Ten leaders of the independence movement in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon could be at risk of torture and an unfair trial if extradited from Nigeria, where they have been arrested and detained in secret for one week, Amnesty International said today. On January 5, armed men in plain clothes stormed a hotel in the capital Abuja where the activists, all members of the pro-independence Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), were meeting, and arrested them without presenting a warrant or providing an explanation. They are being held incommunicado, without any access to a lawyer, in contravention of Nigerian law which demands they must be seen by a judge within 48 hours. Human rights lawyers in Nigeria have said that an extradition request has been made by the Cameroonian government, but no details of the request have been made public. By holding these activists in secret, without charge, the Nigerian authorities are failing to respect both national and international law. If they are extradited to Cameroon, they risk an unfair trial before a military court and the deeply disturbing possibility of torture, said Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria. Efforts to tackle the Anglophone crisis should always respect the law, and avoid restrictions on freedom of expression. Authorities in Nigeria should immediately disclose the activists whereabouts, allow them access to a lawyer, and unless they have sufficient evidence to charge them with a recognisable crime, release them immediately, said Mr. Ojigho. The SCNC members have said that they were meeting in Nigeria to discuss the influx of thousands of asylum seekers following protests in October, in which over 20 civilians were killed by security forces. In recent months, over 10 members of security forces have also been killed by more radical pro-independence groups. The SCNC has throughout claimed to pursue their aim of independence for the Anglophone regions through peaceful means. All those arrested were legally living in Nigeria, and some had been granted political asylum. Under Nigerian law, it would be illegal to extradite the activists for political crimes, or if they faced the risk of torture or an unfair trial. In Cameroon, those charged with crimes related to national security are prosecuted by military courts without respect for due process, and Amnesty International has documented a widespread pattern of torture by security forces and intelligence agencies. In July 2017 the organisation published a report documenting over 100 cases of torture of people accused without evidence of supporting Boko Haram. The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC, on Thursday announced the withdrawal of the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria from two lawyers for misconduct. In a statement signed by its secretary, Hadiza Mustapha, the committee said the first affected lawyer, Oluwatoyin Bashorun, would not be allowed to re-apply for the position till after three years. According to the statement, the other lawyer, Kunle Ogunban has been relinquished of all privileges attached to the title. At the last Emergency Meeting which was held on September, 15 2017; the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee by virtue of Section 5 (1) of the Legal Practitioners Act CAP L11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria. 2004 as amended, decided to suspend the oonferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria on Oluwatoyin Ajoke Bashorun Esq. pending the investigation of all petitions filed against her. This is to notify the General Public that after a thorough investigation of the petition, the sub-committee as setup by the Legal Practitioners Privdeges Committee (at which the Applicant was given a fair hearing) at its 129m Plenary Meeting upheld the recommendations of the subcommittee to wit: That the petitioners petition is meritorious, having found that the respondent stayed and continued to stay in a rented property for nine years without paying rent. That Oluwatoyin Ajoke Bashorun Esq. being an officer in the temple of Justice and an aspirant to the exalted position of Senior Advocate of Nigeria has conducted herself in a manner which is clearly in contravention of the provisions of paragraphs 18(2) (a) & (c) and 19 (a) (b) (c) & (d) of the, the statement said. Regarding Mr. Ogumba, the statement said thus: Honeywell Group petitioned Kunle Ogunba SAN alleging professional misconduct against him. The misconduct allegedly consists of the institution of multiplicity of proceedings before different judges of the Federal High Court on the same subject with the deliberate aim of abusing the process of court and derailing the course of justice. This is to further notify the General Public that after a thorough investigation of the petition by the sub-committee set up by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (at which the Respondent was given a fair hearing) it was decided that the petition is meritorious. Consequently, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee at its 129th Plenary Meeting has withdrawn the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria from Kunle Ogunba Esq. and all other privileges attached to the rank forthwith. According to the statement, the guidelines for the conferment of the title which Mr. Bashorun was found wanting in complying with include the following: The candidate must be of good character and must have no pending disciplinary case or complaint relating to professional misconduct against him. A candidate shall he considered ineligible if in the opinion of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee the candidate is adjudged to be of the following disposition: Bad behaviour, whether in or out of Court; poor temperament or propensity to insult or assault people or cause them harm or put them in a state of fear of bodily harm; Evidence of moral depravity or other socially unacceptable behaviour; 19(I) A candidate must: Demonstrate high professional and personal integrity; b. Be honest and straightforward in all his professional/personal dealings,c. Be of good character and reputation; d. Be candid with clients and professional colleagues. The whereabouts of ten Cameroonian citizens allegedly arrested by operatives of the State Security Service last Saturday in Abuja is unknown as the agency has refused to disclose information on the incident, Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer, has said. In a petition to the Inspector-General of Police dated January 11, Mr. Falana said his efforts as well as that of the family members of the arrested persons to visit them in custody had been unsuccessful. You will agree with us that by not disclosing information on the abduction to the relatives of our clients the State Security Service has violated section 6 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act which has imposed a duty on any authority having custody of a suspect to notify the next of kin or relative of the suspect of the arrest at no cost to the suspect, said Mr. Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and a solicitor for the arrested persons. Similarly, by denying them access to their lawyers the fundamental right of our clients to fair-hearing has been breached by the State Security Service without any legal justification. The SSS could not be reached for comments as they are yet to appoint a spokesperson. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Cameroonians had reportedly assembled for a meeting at Nera Hotel in Abuja when a team of armed SSS operatives invaded the venue, abducted the men and took them away to an undisclosed place. Those arrested include Julius Ayuk Tabe; Wilfred Tassang; Nfor Ngala Nfor; Augustine Awasom, a professor; Cornelius Kwanga; Henry Kimeng; Elias Eyambe, a lawyer; Nalova Bih, a lawyer; Ojong Okongo; and Fidelis Nde Che. Our clients are the leaders of the movement agitating for the creation of the Republic of Ambazonia in Cameroon, Mr. Falana said. 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 apart from Professor Augustine Awasom who is a United States citizen. The group is leading a movement for an independent Ambazonia State, which seeks to break away from the domination of the French-speaking Cameroon. Most leaders of the movement have since fled to neighbouring countries including Nigeria amidst a clampdown by the central government led by President Paul Biya. Mr. Biya, 84, has been in office since 1982. Mr. Falana urged the police chief to investigate the circumstances of the alleged abduction of the Cameroonians leaders by the SSS and any other security agency involved in the embarrassing episode. He further urged the Nigerian government to charge the arrested persons to court if they have any evidence of criminal offence against them. Although we have confirmed that the Government of Cameroon has requested the federal government to repatriate our clients to Cameroon we are confident that the federal government will not accede to such request since there is no extradition treaty between the two countries. In the circumstance, the federal government ought to release our clients unconditionally. Take notice therefore that if our clients are not released from illegal custody or arraigned in court within 48 hours of the receipt of this letter we shall not hesitate to apply to the Federal High Court to secure the enforcement of their fundamental rights to personal liberty guaranteed by Section 35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended and article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. Media rights advocates on Thursday criticised the police for the New Year day arrest of Nigerian journalists, describing the development as traumatic and unwarranted. Brothers Daniel and Timothy Elombah were arrested in an early morning raid on their country home in Nnewi, Anambra State, by the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS. The brothers were moved to Abuja a few hours after their arrest on January 1. A third person who was arrested with them was also taken with them to Abuja and they were all detained at the SARS facility in the countrys capital city. The brothers were arraigned before a magistrates court in Abuja and an administrative bail was granted to Daniel Elombah. His brother, Timothy, has, however, remained in custody since then. The brothers were accused by the police of publishing an opinion piece critical of Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris, an ignominious development the advocates said was a direct affront to journalism and press freedom. The Elombahs have denied publishing the article on their website. They said the police saw the piece on another website and assumed that they were responsible for it without any evidence. After condemning the conduct of the police as being characteristic of the men of the underworld, The Coalition for Press Freedom and Whistleblower Protection (CPFWP), a coalition of media and civil society organisations, said the police should immediately free the journalists and desist from criminalising journalism. While the Coalition hopes that the judiciary which has been invited to offer redress against fundamental rights violations by Daniel Elombah would not only weigh in as expected, we call on the appropriate authorities of the federal government and indeed the international community to take note of this ill-advised move by the police to apply state apparatus to matters of a civil nature, the group said. Police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, told PREMIUM TIMES the Elombah brothers arrest should not be blamed on Mr. Idris. The law caught up with them, not the Inspector-General, Mr. Idris said. The matter has been taken to court and the people should allow justice take its course rather than blaming the Inspector-General who did not create the laws under which the suspects were arrested. Mr. Moshood said the police would ensure that the matter is diligently prosecuted with absolute fairness to the suspects. But in its statement, the media rights advocates said the police should stop meddling in civil matters like a publication that would at worse be libellous. While we acknowledge that the media and journalists are not above the law, any redress against perceived libellous content should be sought within the ambit of the law, the CPFWP said. The Nigerian Navy (NN) has announced new appointments and re-appointments of officers for effective and efficient service delivery. The Acting Director of Information, Naval Headquarters, Suleman Dahun, a Navy Capt., disclosed this in a statement on Friday in Abuja. Those appointed, Mr. Dahun said, include: three new Flag Officers Commanding (FOCs) namely: Akinjide Akinrinade for the Logistics Command, Oghara, Delta, Matthew Emuekpere for the Eastern Naval Command, Calabar, Cross River, and Saleh Usman who took over at the Central Naval Command, Yenagoa, Bayelsa. The appointees are all Rear Admiral. The acting director added that the appointment also affected 27 other Rear Admirals. These are: Rear Adm. Begroy Ibe-Enwo who is reappointed at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja as the Chief of Naval Transformation, Rear Adm. Victor Adedipe is appointed Director of Plans at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja. While Rear Adm. Peter Onaji is taking over as the Chief of Naval Safety and Standard at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja and Rear Adm. Dogara Albehu is now the Director of Training at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja. Rear Adm. Micheal Ebe is assigned the Director of Plans, Naval Headquarters, Abuja, while Rear Adm. Aliyu Lawal is taking over as Director Equipment Standardisation and Harmonisation, Defence Headquarters, Abuja. Others are Rear Adm. Uchenna Onyia who is now the Director of Administration at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja and Rear Adm. David Adeniran is reappointed the Commander Naval Drafting, Apapa, Lagos State, he said. As well as Tanko Dakwat, a Rear Admiral, who is now the Admiral Superintendent Naval Ordinance Depot, Lagos State, Ahamefule Eluwa, Rear Adm., was reappointed Moderator at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau. He said further that the appointment also affected Rear Adm. Dolapo Kolawole, as the Director of Policy at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja. Rear Adm. Mike Okonkwo as the Chief Staff Officer at the Logistics Command Headquarters, Oghara, Delta. Others are: Rear Adm. Shuwa Mohammed as the new Director of Armament Supplies, Naval Headquarters, while Rear Adm. Segun Adebari is the new Group Managing Director at the Navy Holding Ltd., Abuja. As well as Rear Adm. Abubakar Al-Hassan as the Director of Transformation at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja. Rear Adm. Obed Ngalabak as the Admiral Superintendent Naval Doctrine and Assessment Centre, Lagos State. Others are: Rear Adm. Abraham Adaji who was reappointed Director of Operations at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja. Rear Adm. Jatau Luka as the new Chief Staff Officer at the Eastern Naval Command Headquarters. While Rear Adm. Ibikunle Olaiya was reappointed as the Director of Naval Intelligence at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja. The appointment also include: Rear Adm. Kamarudeen Lawal who is appointed the Director of Transformation at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja, Rear Adm. Abdullahi Adamu as the Director of Combat Physical Training, Naval Headquarters, Abuja. While Rear Adm. Oladele Daji who is redeployed to the Western Naval Command Headquarters, Lagos State, as the Chief Staff Officer. Rear Adm. Maurice Eno as Director of Research and Development at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja. Others are: Rear Adm. Saidu Garba now the Director of Project Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, Naval Headquarters, Abuja, as well as Rear Adm. Barabutemegha Gbassa as the Fleet Commander, Headquarters Eastern Fleet, Calabar, Cross River. As well as Rear Adm. Sanusi Ibrahim now the Director of Manning at the Naval Headquarters, Abuja, while Rear Adm. Muhammad Nagenu as the Fleet Commander, Headquarters Central Fleet, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Dahun said. The acting director said further that the exercise also saw the redeployment of 95 Commodores to various commands, units, and establishments. (NAN) The governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has assured that he is still in the contest for the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2019 elections. He said activities of his campaign had slowed down because of his preparations to ensure victory for his party in the coming Ekiti governorship election. The governor spoke on Thursday during an interactive session with teachers in public primary and secondary schools in state. Mr. Fayose had declared interest to be president on his partys ticket despite the partys decision to zone the presidency to the North. Mr. Fayose said his campaign would regain its steam after the July 14 governorship election. The governor also boasted that he would defeat Kayode Fayemi if he is picked as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC. I am still in the presidential race, I am only waiting for the time Ekiti governorship election will hold so I can have the time, he said. Though, I am making contacts, I am reaching out to the people that matter across the country. The governor is up against some governorship aspirants in the PDP who are aggrieved that he had endorsed his deputy, Kolapo Olusola, to succeed him. The aspirants have also called on the party leadership to keep Mr. Fayose out of the primaries and ensure a free and fair contest. I have no role to play, only the NWC will present the delegate lists for them to elect the candidate, so I wont interfere despite my support for Prof Kolapo Olusola, Mr. Fayose said, while commenting on the primaries. I have no regret supporting Olusola, if it were those people I had supported, they wont be abusing me. But they remain our brothers and sisters and we are going to put our house in order at the right time so that we can be on the same page. The governor urged the teachers to support Mr. Olusola the way they did to him in the June 21, 2014 governorship election. Dont vote for those that will come here and sack you, he said. When they sacked your colleagues in Kaduna State, an APC leader in Ekiti said it was a right step in the right direction and I believe such person is not good for Ekiti teachers. Prof Olusola is a man of integrity, very hardworking and dependable , he wont betray you. He will protect your interests and I want you to support him. Mr. Fayose added that all the outstanding salaries. allowances , bonuses and pensions would be paid before his tenure expires. A coalition of public policy experts has suggested ways to address the lingering violence in Nigerias livestock farming business. The Nigerian Working Group on Peace Building and Governance in a paper released on January 7 dissected the historical context of the crisis and recommended solutions that ranged from the creation of new grazing resolves and deployment of modern technology like an electronic chip to track animals. The signatories to the report include academics and diplomats. The signatories include: Ibrahim Gambari, Martin Luther-Agwai, Jibrin Ibrahim, Attahiru Jega, Chris Kwaja, Fatima Balla, Nguyan Fesse, Aisha MuhammedOyebode and Y. Z. Yau. Their recommendations come as deadly attacks linked to herdsmen left scores of villagers dead in several communities in Benue State. About 70 of the victims of the attacks were interred in a mass burial in a village near Makurdi, the state capital. The state authorities directly blamed herdsmen of Fulani extraction for the attacks. A major Fulani association had claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the past and gave reasons for the deadly assaults, which had left more than 1,500 dead since 2013. The findings of the group and its recommendations are reproduced in full below: MEMORANDUM ON PASTORALIST-FARMERS CONFLICTS AND THE SEARCH FOR PEACEFUL RESOLUTION Executive Summary Pastoralists-farmers conflicts in Nigeria have grown, spread and intensified over the past decade and today pose a threat to national survival. Thousands of people have been killed, communities have been destroyed and so many farmers and pastoralists have lost their lives and property in an extended orgy of killings and destruction that is not only continuously destroying livelihoods but also affecting national cohesion. Nigeria has about 19 million cattle, much of it in the hands of pastoralists, and we need to seek solutions to the problem of pastoralism, while resolving the problem of insecurity that has arisen. The Problem Nigerias population has grown from 33 million in 1950 to about 192.3 million today. This phenomenal increase of the population has put enormous pressure on land and water resources used by farmers and pastoralists. One of the outcomes of this process has been the blockage of transhumance routes and loss of grazing land to agricultural expansion, while the increased southward movement of pastoralists has led to increased conflict with local communities. This is particularly the case in the Middle Belt notably in Plateau, Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Benue, Taraba, and Adamawa States. The conflicts primarily involve Fulani pastoralists and local farming communities. As violence between herdsmen and farmers has grown and developed into criminality and rural banditry, popular narratives in the form of hate speech have exacerbated the crisis. Grazing Reserves As Possible Solution It is clear that Nigeria and, indeed, Africa have to plan towards the transformation of pastoralism into settled forms of animal husbandry. The establishment of grazing reserves provides the opportunity for practicing a more limited form of pastoralism and is therefore a pathway towards a more settled form of animal husbandry. Nigeria has a total of 417 grazing reserves out of which only about 113 have been gazetted. Whether we support or oppose pastoralism, it is clear that at least in the short and medium term, many herds must continue to practice seasonal migration between dry and wet season grazing areas. Ultimately, there is the need for permanent settlement of pastoralists. The Law, Politics and Pastoralism One of the greatest difficulties in addressing and resolving issues surrounding pastoralism is the politicisation of legal regimes and the blockages to the enactment of or implementation of laws that can redress the key challenges posed. In 2016, for example, a legislation was proposed A Bill for an Act to establish Grazing Reserve in each of the states of the Federation Nigeria to improve agriculture yield from livestock farming and curb incessant conflicts between cattle farmers and crop farmers in Nigeria and thrown out. There is an emerging conflict between the constitutional principle on the free movement of persons and goods and laws emerging in some States restricting movement. Some States have enacted laws or are processing bills to prevent open grazing on their territory. There are four initiatives so far in Benue, Ekiti, Taraba and Edo States. Could such laws be effective in prohibiting pastoralism, which is practiced by millions of Nigerians? Developing a Comprehensive Policy Framework A new policy framework on the farmers-pastoralists crisis should be developed that is both comprehensive and mutually beneficial to both groups. An inter-ministerial committee should be constituted with experts and a stakeholder membership to draw up the framework. There must be a consultative process that listens to the concerns of all stakeholders in developing the new framework, so that the outcome would have national ownership. Pastoralism is not sustainable in Nigeria over the long term due to the high population growth rate, expansion of farming and loss of pasture and cattle routes. At the same time, pastoralism cannot end or be prohibited in the short term, as there are strong cultural and political economy reasons for its existence. The new policy should develop a plan for a transitional period during which new systems would be put in place. The framework should map out the duration, strategy and timelines for the transition plan. Finally, a comprehensive approach to address the growing crisis associated with violence affecting pastoralism and farmers in Nigeria is necessary. Introduction Pastoralists-farmers conflicts in Nigeria have grown, spread and intensified over the past decade and today poses a threat to national survival. Thousands of people have been killed, communities have been destroyed and so many farmers and pastoralists have lost their lives and property in an orgy of killings and destruction that is not only destroying livelihoods but also affecting national cohesion. Each day, we witness more reprisal killings that are simply making the possibilities of peaceful resolution more difficult. Rural banditry is becoming the norm in the Nigerian hinterland and has been transformed into a vicious criminal activity. The result is that the scale of loss of both herds and human life has been escalating and the victims are on all sides subsistence farmers, commercial farmers and pastoralists. Nonetheless, we write this memo to say we cannot give up to hate and destruction, lets pause, reflect and seek a way out of the crisis. Nigeria has a large pastoral population, the logic of whose livelihood is often misunderstood. What is better understood is the culture of farming, which is rooted in a specific location and has activities that take place regularly. The assumption that pastoralism is in itself an irrational production system is far from the truth. Pastoralism is the main livestock production system in much of Africa, where pastoralists live in semi-arid zones. It is a historically developed strategy to cope with the uncertainties associated with climate change, the build-up of parasites and other related challenges. It is above all an efficient way to produce livestock at relatively low prices through the use of non-commercial feeding stock. Historically, pastoralists have been able to meet the meat demand in West Africa with a relatively high level of efficiency without government subsidy for generations. Different methods through the use of farm residue and open range grazing has allowed this trend to flourish. Nigeria has a landmass of 98.3 million hectares, 82 million hectares of arable land of which about 34 million hectares are currently under cultivation. In crop farming, human beings only directly utilise about a quarter of the total biomass. The other three quarters is in the form of crop residue and low quality crop, which is not directly useful to people. It is this residue that cattle (ruminants) convert into meat and milk. In addition to this, cattle also utilise grasses on fallow lands, non-arable poor quality lands, open ranges and fadama in the same manner. Pastoralists move their animals to these locations to access these opportunities. This system of production is breaking down today as violent conflicts between pastoralists and farmers have arisen and created a major national crisis. The Problem Nigerias population has grown from 33 million in 1950 to about 192.3 million today. The United Nations recently projected more growth in terms of population in the coming years, 364 million in 2030 and 480 million in 2050 respectively. This phenomenal increase of the population has put enormous pressure on land and water resources used by farmers and pastoralists. Specifically, the demographic increase has led to an expansion in cultivated farmland and a reduction in available grazing land for pastoralists that is characterised by competition over dwindling resources. In the far north, the impact of desertification as well as the crisis of energy, which has resulted in deforestation, coupled with climatic uncertainty and lower rainfall have made it more difficult to sustain increasing populations, pushing many farmers and pastoralists with livestock southwards. This has happened gradually over a period of decades with an apparent increase over the past decade and has added to pressure on land and water in central and southern Nigeria. One of the outcomes of this process has been the blockage of transhumance routes and loss of grazing land to agricultural expansion and the increased southward movement of pastoralists has led to increased conflict with local communities. This is particularly the case in the Middle Belt notably in Plateau, Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Benue, Taraba, and Adamawa States. The conflicts often have localised dynamics, but primarily involve Fulani pastoralists and local farming communities. The Nigerian state has a relatively weak rural presence and has neglected the agrarian sector since the 1970s, when oil revenues began to dominate the economy. There have been few improvements in agricultural productivity and livestock production as a result of the dependence on oil revenues, which have not been reinvested in productive economic activities. State response in the context of the lingering conflicts between farmers and pastoralists has been both ad hoc and reactive, with no concrete and sustainable strategies for conflict management and peace building beyond the deployment of security or establishment of commissions of inquiries. One of the key pathways here is for the state to be more proactive in its responses by putting in place mechanisms that are institutionalised and sustainable both at the local and state levels. As violence between herdsmen and farmers has grown and developed into criminality and rural banditry, popular narratives creating meaning, context and (mis) understandings have been emerging. The narratives emerging on rural banditry in the media and in popular discourse are becoming part of the drivers for expanding conflicts in the country. The protagonists in this saga are often presented as being nomadic Fulani cattle herders, who are mostly Muslims, and sedentary farmer communities of several other ethnic extractions, who are often, but not always non-Muslims. These two distinct groups are usually depicted as perpetrators and victims, respectively. Perspectives of the social, religious and ethnic characteristics of these rural communities are framed into expansive essentialist discourses that actively breed and sustain suspicion and distrust. The result is negative stereotyping between the one and the other that lead further to ethnic and religious bigotry which fuels the hate process, culminating in further chains of attacks and counter or revenge attacks being exchanged between these different groups. Nigeria urgently needs to find pathways to get out of the crisis and one approach may be the development of grazing reserves for pastoralists. Grazing Reserves As Possible Solution It is clear that Nigeria and indeed Africa have to plan towards the transformation of pastoralism into settled forms of animal husbandry. The establishment of grazing reserves provides the opportunity for practicing a more limited form of pastoralism and is therefore a pathway towards a more settled form of animal husbandry. Grazing reserves are areas of land demarcated, set aside and reserved for exclusive or semi-exclusive use by pastoralists. Currently, Nigeria has a total of 417 grazing reserves all over the country, out of which only about 113 have been gazetted. There are many problems facing the implementation of the provisions of the 1965 Grazing Reserve Law and the management of the established grazing reserves. First, most of the grazing reserves were established by the then Northern Regional Government. Since the 1970s subsequent military and civilian governments have in effect abandoned the policy of establishing and developing grazing reserves. Secondly, State governments have not been diligent in sustaining previous policies and have not surveyed and gazetted most of the designated grazing reserves. Indeed, only 113 (about 27%) of the 417 proposed grazing reserves have been gazetted. Whether we support or oppose pastoralism, it is clear that at least in the short and medium term, many herds must continue to practice seasonal migration between dry and wet season grazing areas, incorporating past harvest grazing farmland in the highly developed and ecologically sound pattern of transhumance evolved by the pastoralist over the centuries. This is an important point to make at this point when many political actors think it is possible to simply and abruptly ban open grazing. There is indeed, the need for permanent settlement of pastoralists both in the far north and semi humid zone of the middle belt. It is important to focus on the development of grazing reserves as part of the solution. The Law, Politics and Pastoralism One of the greatest difficulties in addressing and resolving issues surrounding pastoralism is the politicisation of legal regimes and the blockages to the enactment of or implementation of laws that can redress the key challenges posed. In 2016 for example, a bill was proposed A Bill for an Act to establish Grazing Reserve in each of the states of the Federation Nigeria to improve agriculture yield from livestock farming and curb incessant conflicts between cattle farmers and crop farmers in Nigeria. The National Assembly on the basis that the Bill appeared to be seeking to favour one particular profession carried out by mainly one ethnic group, the Fulani, threw it out. The problem is that if we cannot have grazing reserves and if pastoralists cannot move, how do we expect the 19 million cattle grazing in the country to survive and how do we protect our Constitutional principle of free movement. Free Movement and Restrictions to Transhumance There is an emerging conflict between the constitutional principle on free movement of persons and goods and laws emerging in some States restricting movement. In Section 41(1) of the Nigerian Constitution, it is stated that: Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereby or exit therefrom. Some States have enacted laws or are processing bills to prevent open grazing on their territory. There are four initiatives so far: Ekiti state: Prohibition of Cattle and Other Ruminants Grazing in Ekiti, 2016. 2. Taraba state: Anti-Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Bill 2017. A bill for a law to prohibit open rearing and grazing of livestock and provide for the establishment of ranches and the Taraba State livestock and ranches administration and control committee and for others connected thereto 2017. 3. Edo State Bill: A Bill for A Law to Establish the Edo State Control of Nomadic Cattle Rearing/Grazing Law and for Other Purposes. 4. Benue State Law: A Law to Prohibit Open Rearing and Grazing of Livestock and Provide for the Establishment of Ranches and Livestock Administration, Regulation and Control and for Other Matters Connected Therewith, 2017. It is worthwhile posing the question whether laws can be effective in prohibiting pastoralism, which is practiced by millions of Nigerians. As some of the laws have already been passed, they would have to be tested in court. It is important to stress however that the Constitution guarantees free movement of persons and goods across Nigeria and no State government can withdraw constitutionally entrenched rights. Secondly, following a legislation by the Ogun State Government and the Supreme Court Judgment on the matter cited as A.G. OGUN STATE V. ALHAJA AYINKE ABERUAGBA (1985) 1 NWLR PG. 395 States were barred from interfering with inter-state commerce and the free movement of goods and services. At that time, Ogun State had tried to control and tax goods entering from other States and the Supreme Court ruled that it would be chaotic if States enacted any laws they please restricting movement of goods and services in the Federation. It was this judgment that led to the introduction of value added tax (VAT) as a State tax that is determined at the national level and collected by the Federal Government, which takes an administrative fee and redistributes the proceeds back to the States. The key issue however is that pastoralism has developed into a national crisis that is leading to increased violence so a legal approach alone cannot resolve the issue. It is therefore important to negotiate a national policy framework that would protect the interests of both farmers and herders. The Federal Government should take the initiative of negotiating a consensual policy framework that would address the issues. Developing a Comprehensive Policy Framework Livestock production in Nigeria is in existential crisis and the country lacks a cohesive and comprehensive policy framework for livestock development and regulation in Nigeria. The defunct Northern Grazing Reserve Law has not been updated, the Land Use Act of 1978 is dysfunctional, emerging state grazing reserve laws, the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol and other related international instruments have to be updated and streamlined. Recommendation Piecemeal of sectorial approach to livestock development will not suffice. A new policy framework should be developed that is both comprehensive and must be mutually beneficial to pastoralists and farmers. Any policy that does not take into consideration the welfare of both sides will most likely fail or meet resistance by either side. An inter-ministerial committee should be constituted with experts and stakeholder membership to draw up the framework. There must be a consultative process that listens to the concerns of all stakeholders in developing the new framework so that the outcome would have national ownership. The Future of Pastoralism and Animal Husbandry Pastoralism is not sustainable in Nigeria over the long term due to high population growth rate, expansion of farming and loss of pasture and cattle routes. At the same time, pastoralism cannot end of be prohibited in the short term as there are strong cultural and political economy reasons for its existence. It is important therefore to develop a plan for a transitional period during which new systems would be put in place. Recommendations Experts should be assembled to map out the duration, strategy and timelines for the transition plan. As there is no miracle model for solving the problems, the plan should simultaneously pursue a number of models including: Ranching can be pursued as one of the possible models in areas with lower population densities in the North East (Sambisa Game Reserve in Borno State) and North West (Gidan Jaja Grazing Reserve in Zamfara State); ii. Semi-intensive systems of animal husbandry should be pursued accompanied with requisite investment in infrastructure, training, extension, marketing and animal health service delivery in conjuncture with the private sector; iii. The traditional form of pastoralism should continue for a period to be agreed upon with some improvements (in the form of coordinated mobility between wet and dry season grazing areas and effective management of farmers and pastoralists relations); iv. Use of and development of grazing reserves to target pastoralists with large stocks where skills for pasture production, large milk production, etc can be promoted. v. Development of integrated crop-livestock systems with farmers and pastoralists being encouraged to keep some animals in their farms. vi. In order to meet the feeding needs of herds, alternative low water and drought resistant grasses should be produced, in response to the impact of desertification on fodder production. Modernisation of Livestock Nigeria has one of the lowest productivity levels of livestock in the world. It is for this reason that Nigeria imports very large quantities of milk, fish and chicken. The Nigerian herd requires sustained efforts at quality development based on a modernisation strategy that would transform the industry and move the country towards the objective of self-reliance. Recommendations The programme for the countrys transition to modern forms of animal husbandry must be accelerated and funded. The national stock would require rapid improvement and modernisation to meet market demands for meat, milk, hides and other products from the industry: i. Commercial ranches should be established in some of the sparsely populated zones in the North East and North West; ii. The business community should be encouraged through policy measures to invest in the establishment of modern dairy farms; iii. Sensitisation programmes should be undertaken on the values of livestock improvement and breeding centres for the production of quality heifers to improve pastoral stock should be developed all over the country. iv. Efforts should be made towards modelling best practices of pastoral-farmer relations as evident in countries such as Chad, Ethiopia and Niger, where the existence of institutionalised and functional mechanisms for pre-empting and resolving conflicts between farmers and pastoralists enable them to live in peace. Growing Conflicts and Imperative of Peace Building Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic explosion of violent conflicts associated with the deteriorating relationship between farmers and herders, cattle rustling and rural banditry in Nigeria. There is also limited knowledge about who the perpetrators are and their motives. Recommendations A comprehensive approach to necessary to address the growing crisis associated with violence affecting pastoralism and farmers in Nigeria. The Federal Government should commission a large-scale research endeavour to carry out in-depth study to understand the reasons for the escalation of violence, key actors, motivations and agency fuelling the crisis. The Boko Haram Insurgency Specific measures are required to address the Boko Haram insurgency North Eastern States of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe, which have close to 40% of the total cattle, sheep and goats of the National herd. These States also have the highest number of grazing reserves 255 or 61% of the 415 nationally identified grazing reserves. There are also many kilometres of stock routes interconnecting these reserves. The highest number of transhumance and trade cattle, sheep and goats from ECOWAS countries, Chad, Cameroun, Central African Republic and other countries, come into Nigeria on North Eastern International Transhumance Route. Recommendations In addition to the search for improving security in the zone through the use of security forces and mobilizing the civil population, some policy decisions are required. The military should be encouraged to pursue the path of ranching as it has already decided to. The Sambisa Grazing Reserve (4800 ha) is an ideal and symbolic place to take-off by establishing a ranch run by the military. It would significantly improve the security situation in the zone and encourage cooperation between pastoralists and the military. In the North West, the military should also be encouraged to create ranches in the Gidan Jaja Grazing Reserve (565,000 ha) for the same purpose of improving security and cooperation with pastoralists. Growth of Hate and Dangerous Speech Hate speech has now become a generator and accelerator of violent conflicts and the phenomenon of fake news is worsening its negative impact. Recommendations There is need for the development of a media code to be used in sensitizing the media on the relevant international standards on reporting issues of conflict and banditry. This process should involve conflict sensitivity and safety training and it should be based on very strict journalistic standards. Appropriate laws and regulations should be developed at both the federal and state levels towards ensuring that the margin of what is seen, as free speech in the media will be effectively regulated. Breakdown of Traditional Conflict Resolution Mechanisms One of the most important dimensions of the growing conflicts between pastoralists and farmers has been the breakdown of traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. In the past, when conflicts arise, they were settles by village heads and ardos, Fulani community leaders and if the need for payment of compensation arises, there were traditional systems and knowledge of how to assess damage done and the amount necessary to compensate for the damage and not profiteering. What we see today as a breakdown of traditional authority in the context of conflict management is a consequence of the takeover of their powers by the state at the federal, state and local government levels, through the ad hoc measures that are often time wasting and whose recommendations are not implemented. Recommendations Cattle routes should be restored and significant investment made in restoring traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. As massive corruption has accompanied the increased presence of the police and courts in matters affecting farmers and herders, there should be advocacy and administrative guidance to return to traditional methods of conflict resolution. There should be capacity development of farmers and herders associations so that they play a more positive role in the process. The Environmental and Climate Smart Pastoralism Livestock produce some greenhouse emissions and pollutants. These can however be mitigated and even reversed by the sustainability of the methods that are used. On the whole, pastoralism is the only renewable non-extractive use of Ryland resources and it plays an essential role in maintaining soil and water quality. In addition, it slows down the loss of biodiversity. Recommendations Intensive capacity building is required in promoting and advocating for climate smart approaches to animal husbandry including the prevention of overgrazing, promoting integration of grazing and manure provision for farms and coordinated movement between ecological zones in the dry and wet seasons. Legislative Solutions There are discordant laws and regulations that legislate livestock production and pastoralism at the regional, national and state levels. Some of the newly emerging laws such as the anti-grazing state laws appear to contradict the free movement principle enshrined in the Constitution. Recommendations A harmonization of relevant laws and policies that governs grazing reserves. Specifically, the 1965 Grazing Reserve Law can be revived based on section 315 of the 1999 constitution in the 19 northern states. ii. This should be complemented with a national review and protection of traditional stock routes; iii. Regional instruments governing pastoralism should be protected and above all domesticated; iv. In addition to the laws, consultative process between farming and pastoral communities are required to review the effect of statutes and regulations on routine practices of animal husbandry. Expanding Grazing Reserves The Nigerian livestock industry is largely dependent on natural vegetation. Although there is a vast hectrage of natural vegetation in the country they are not maximally utilised due to poor planning and conflicting government policies. It was estimated that there are over 40 million hectares of grazing land in Nigeria, out of which only 3 million hectares are specifically tagged as grazing reserves. Recommendations The idea to encourage nomads to settle was first made in 1942 but never implemented. A clear policy of land grant to pastoralists should be developed and implemented by state governments. Digital Tracking of Cattle The Katsina State Government has just launched a digital tracking system for cattle in the State. It involves inserting microchips in the animals skin and tracking them with mobile phones. The use of such technologies could help address the problem of cattle rustling and violence that have become so rampant. Such initiatives should be supported. The Construction of Positive Narratives The atmosphere between farming and pastoral communities is extremely bitter and negative. Support should be provided for creative writers in Nollywood, Kannywood, radio and television to create new narratives showing how the interaction between the two groups could be peaceful and mutually beneficial. Above all, the National Orientation Agency (NOA), as an institution with presence across the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the country, should provide these critical services. Signed by Professor Ibrahim Gambari General Martin Luther Agwai (Rtd) Professor Jibrin Ibrahim Professor Attahiru Jega Dr. Chris Kwaja Ambassador Fatima Balla Dr. Nguyan Fesse Mrs. Aisha Muhammed Oyebode Mallam Y. Z. Yau Share this: Twitter Facebook The Borno state government has again approved the militarys request to extend the reviewed curfew time by another one week, the state commissioner of home affairs, information and culture, Muhammed Bulama, said. This is the third time the curfew would be extended following the recommendation of the military. Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, has been under an eight-hour curfew regime for the past two years until it was reviewed upwards two weeks ago. The military recommended a review of the curfew time from the initial 10 p.m., when movement is prohibited, down to 8 p.m. during which residents will remain indoors till 6 oclock in the morning. The commissioner who confirmed this said the military sought for another 7-day extension to enable them conclude an ongoing special operation. The state government regrets the inconveniences this might cause on the members of the public, he said. Speaking with the reporter on the phone, a government spokesman explained why the extension was granted. The military again sought our permission to extend the 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for yet another one week which we have granted to enable them conclude their operations as explained by the theatre commander. Nigerians on social media have been reacting to the killings in Benue State by suspected Fulani herdsmen. The assailants attacked communities in Guma and Logo local government areas of the state on January 1 and 2, leaving scores dead and injured. On Thursday residents of Makurdi were thrown into mourning as victims of the attacks were given a mass burial. The massacre which left over 50,000 displaced in Benue and another 18,000 people displaced in Nasarawa State has drawn widespread criticisms with various people sharing diverse reactions. A Twitter user Ogazi Samuel said Looking at #BenueMourns, I understand why it can be hard for Nigerians to be empathetic when our National leader is sick or has a hospitalised son. Was there even any FG representation at the mass burial? Nigeria would never forget! Another twitter user, Oke Umurhohwo said If the FG cannot stop or arrest those behind the killings; in two weeks, we shall raise an army of our own. We cannot allow people to colonise us again, we have all it takes to do that. Wantaregh Unongo, TIV leader and chairman of the Northern Elders Forum #BenueMourns. Though the Governor of Benue state, Samuel Ortom called for harmony among the diverse ethnic groups in the state, the dastardly act has continued to generate fury among Nigerians from various works of life. Read more reactions here: https://twitter.com/GalacticoHD/status/951755687100665856 https://twitter.com/ERNALzz/status/951772827190988800 Dear @MBuhari today we mourn our people who were killed by the marauding herdsmen, this should've been averted if your government was responsible enough. Posterity shall judge you for your ineffectiveness in handling this crisis. #BenueMourns #BenueLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/uL98MqMMOM Shiishi Gyer (@Kuma_Tor) January 11, 2018 https://twitter.com/UmehOMA/status/951504230375940097 And they are laid to rest, the YUSUF'S OF their families,Bread winners,mothers ,wives, #BenueMourns #BlackThursdayForBenue . Enough is enough -Paul Unongo. We are pushed to the wall -Gov. Ortom. Even a goat can bit if caged- Tor Tiv .@AishaYesufu @realFFK @segalink @ShehuSani pic.twitter.com/x9PwDvz8pP Solomon Amande (@SolomonAmande) January 11, 2018 "Let me warn, if the Nigerian nation cannot protect us, we will raise an army of one million people who will defend us." Wantaregh Paul Unongo at the requiem mass for the deceased as #BenueMourns Callings (@CollinsUma) January 11, 2018 https://twitter.com/SKSolaKuti/status/951441833804156928 Five full trailers loaded with corpse, 73 dead people! Meanwhile, our president seats comfortably in Abuja. Our killer's go live on news channels telling the world while they attacked and are still walking free. Benue will never forget, we will never forget. #BenueMourns https://t.co/ilmlR8qHFv Shiishi Gyer (@Kuma_Tor) January 11, 2018 Images from Benue as they bury the victims of the herdsmen killings. People who had homes, families, livelihoods, dependents, kith and kin killed over nothing. Nigeria is a scary place. #BenueMourns pic.twitter.com/Njl48RpnV9 Loki (@theRetweeterr_) January 11, 2018 It took @MBuhari just a few minutes to commiserate with the government & people of France after the last terrorist attack in Paris. Just imagine if same was the quick response the presidency gave to the people of Rivers & Benue on the January 1st killings.#BenueMourns pic.twitter.com/7Qff4mOZcl EiE Nigeria (@EiENigeria) January 12, 2018 A former Plateau governor, Jonah Jang, says his constituents are opposed to the creation of cattle colonies as proposed by his successor, Simon Lalong. Mr. Jang, who represents Plateau North in the Senate, said in Jos on Friday that he had met with his constituents to gauge their feelings on the proposal. My people are against cattle colonies; they have said that they would not relinquish their ancestral lands for the purpose of grazing reserves or colonies, Mr. Jang said in a statement signed by his media consultant, Clinton Garuba. Mr. Lalong had told State House correspondents in Abuja on Thursday that he would introduce cattle colonies instead of enacting a law to ban open cattle grazing in Plateau. The colonies, Mr. Lalong argued, would check the clashes between herdsmen and farmers as the cattle would be restricted to particular areas which would reduce the chances of straying into farmlands. But Mr. Jang, who lamented the attacks by gunmen suspected to be herdsmen over the years, said that victims of such attacks were not ready to accept the confiscation of their land by government. Cattle colonies are detrimental to the people and will not be accepted. The Plateau government is aware of this, the ex-governor, now senator, declared. According to him, Mr. Lalong was speaking for himself when he promised to establish the cattle colonies. As far as the people of my senatorial zone are concerned, Mr. Lalong spoke for himself and not for us. We have already suffered too much loss in the hands of attackers believed to be herdsmen; creating colonies for them will only worsen the situation, he said. He dismissed claims by the governor that people were already donating lands for the purpose of grazing and cattle colonies. If the governor claims that people are already donating lands for the purpose of grazing reserves or cattle colonies, let him name the donors. The Plateau people are peaceful and have always rejected any policy that could undermine that peace. My constituents position is clear Lalong is on his own and alone in this path that he has chosen, Jang said. Mr. Jang, however, advised Mr. Lalong to apologise to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue over a statement credited to him (Lalong) in which he claimed to have warned his Benue counterpart against the anti-open grazing law. That statement was particularly unfair to the people of Benue, coming at a time they were mourning scores killed in the Jan. 1 attacks on villages in Guma and Logo Governments. The statement suggests that the killings took place because of the law. This cannot be true because the killings have been on for years while the law only took effect on Nov. 1, the statement said. Jang urged the federal and state governments to organise a meeting of stakeholders to seek a lasting solution to the incessant herdsmen/farmers clashes. He stressed the need for policies that would be fair and acceptable to all concerned. (NAN) The chief of Ikulu, Yohanna Kukah, has been released by his abductors, the police confirmed on Thursday. Mukhtar Aliyu, the spokesman for the Nigeria Police Command in Kaduna State, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna that Mr. Kukah was released by his abductors at about 3 p.m. Mr. Aliyu said the traditional ruler was unhurt and had re-united with his family. On the issue of ransom paid before his release I cannot confirm that. We are doing everything humanly possible to arrest the suspects. Mr. Kukah, who is the Chief Ikulu in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, was abducted in the evening of January 2 at his residence. He is a brother to Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese. (NAN) The Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, has rejected plans by the federal government to establish cattle colonies for Fulani herdsmen and their cows in Abia State. The Nigerian government in the aftermath of recent killings of over 70 persons in Benue State by suspected herdsmen and other similar killings across the country, announced plans to set up grazing colonies in states in the southern and middle belt regions of the country to reduce skirmishes between herdsmen and farmers. But Mr. Ikpeazu in a release signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Enyinnaya Appolos, stated that Abia State will not cede any part of her territory to Fulani herdsman as colony for cattle. The statement quoted Mr. Ikpeazu as saying, we reject any plan to establish cattle colonies for herdsmen in Abia State. We dont have enough land for our agricultural activities and our people want more land. Giving away any part of Abia land as a colony to herdsmen, wherever they may be from, will be most unjust and unfair treatment to Abia State and her people who are largely farmers. The governor further noted that such alien land occupation will also cause unrest and crises that may grow beyond what the state can handle. So the best thing I think we should do is to reject such plans so that those behind it will know that Abia State is not party to it. 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. NEW YORK, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The 4A's and the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) have come together to propose a change to Nielsen's published data streams that will better approximate daily consumer consumption and capture more delayed viewing behavior. The proposal suggests replacing Nielsen's Live Only data stream with Live +1. The Live Only data would still be tabulated and available through Nielsen but would not appear as a published stream. Live Only captures households tuning into or people viewing a program on a specific station or cable network at the actual time the show is telecast. Any delayed viewing in excess of 25 seconds from the recorded time is not captured in Live Only data. Live +1 data, on the other hand, captures households tuning into or people viewing a program at the actual time it was telecast, and also captures any delayed viewing within 24 hours of a prerecorded program. It accounts for the new viewing habits of today's households, where consumers are starting programs but then pausing them and finishing them at their own pace and viewing programs on other devices that do not follow traditional program airing schedules. "As television viewing has evolved, the Live +1 stream is now the best representation of the spot TV audience," said Steve Lanzano, president of the TVB. "Live +1 also very closely aligns with and is the best surrogate of national C7 ratings, which has become the predominant national transaction currency." "Live +1 is a step forward in recognizing that the shifts in local media consumption are dynamic, and it's our job to keep pace with consumers," added Louis Jones, EVP of the 4A's Media & Data Practice. "It also marks significant progress in empowering media buyers with more actionable and accurate audience data to make buying decisions with." The 4A's and the TVB are in discussions with Nielsen about the proposal. It comes just six months after Nielsen's announcement that it would start incorporating YouTube TV and Hulu's live TV programming in its traditional ratings in order to better reflect the new ways people watch TV. View the proposal here. ABOUT THE 4A'S The 4A's, founded in 1917, is the leading authority representing the marketing communications agency business. It provides leadership, advocacy and training that empower agencies to innovate, evolve and grow. It serves 740 member agencies across 1,400 offices that control more than 85 percent of total U.S. advertising spend. The 4A's is committed to protecting the best interests of its members, their employees and the industry at large. Its benefits division insures more than 164,000 agency professionals, and the D.C. office advocates for policies that best support a thriving advertising industry. With its best-in-class learning and career development programs, the 4A's and its foundation fuel a robust diversity pipeline of talent for its members and the marketing and media industry, fostering the next generation of leaders. For more information, please visit www.aaaa.org. ABOUT THE TELEVISION BUREAU OF ADVERTISING TVB is the not-for-profit trade association representing America's $21 billion local broadcast television industry. Its members include over 800 individual television stations, television broadcast groups, advertising sales reps, syndicators, international broadcasters and associate members. TVB actively promotes local media marketing solutions to the advertising community and works to develop advertising dollars for the medium's multiple platforms, including on-air, online and mobile. TVB provides a diverse variety of tools and resources, including its website, to support its members and to help advertisers make the best use of local ad dollars. Contact: Nikki Kria Havas PR Tel. 646-643-2948 [email protected] SOURCE 4A's Related Links http://www.aaaa.org Company invites individual and institutional investors as well as advisors to attend interactive real-time virtual VirtualInvestorConferences.com PHOENIX, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 4Front, a leading investment and management firm in the cannabis industry, today announced that Andrew Thut, Chief Financial Officer, will present live at VirtualInvestorConferences.com on January 18. DATE: Thursday, January 18, 2018 TIME: 10:00 AM EST LINK: https://tinyurl.com/0118prepr This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time - both in the presentation hall as well as the association's "virtual trade booth." If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an on-demand archive will be available for 90 days. It is recommended that investors pre-register and run the online system check to save time and receive event updates. Learn more about the event at www.VirtualInvestorConferences.com. Recent Company Highlights November 2017 : 4Front announced its partnership with Tokyo Smoke in its first foray into the Canadian market. : 4Front announced its partnership with Tokyo Smoke in its first foray into the Canadian market. November 2017 : 4Front raised over $6 million to fuel growth in multiple states. : 4Front raised over to fuel growth in multiple states. July 2017 : 4Front launches Mission brand with a grand opening in Chicago : 4Front launches Mission brand with a grand opening in June 2017 : 4Front affiliate wins operating license in Pennsylvania About 4Front 4Front Holdings, LLC ("4Front") is a leading investment and management firm in the U.S. cannabis sector. It has developed a national platform that consists of a multi-state footprint and a far-reaching network of partnership relationships. Led by a group of professionals with experience in finance, real estate, manufacturing, and multi-location retail and hospitality operations, 4Front has invested heavily to assemble a comprehensive collection of management skills and hands-on operating expertise that can support the rapid operational growth opportunity being afforded by the increased legalization of cannabis across the United States as well as internationally. For more information, learn more about us. About VirtualInvestorConferences.com Since 2010, VirtualInvestorConferences.com, created by BetterInvesting (NAIC) and PRNewswire, has been the only monthly virtual investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for presenting companies to meet directly with investors using a graphically-enhanced online platform. Designed to replicate the look and feel of location-based investor conferences, Virtual Investor Conferences unites PR Newswire's leading-edge online conferencing and investor communications capabilities with BetterInvesting's extensive retail investor audience network. SOURCE 4Front NEW YORK, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC noted President Trump's announcement today that the U.S. will not pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and will again waive the reimposition of sanctions, but will take punitive steps against Iran for issues not directly related to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). "The harsh response to protests against the regime, and continuing intervention in countries across the region, give the lie to the myth that Iran's government would moderate its behavior as a result of the JCPOA," said AJC CEO David Harris. "Iranian leaders, including those the West consider 'moderates,' have detained thousands of protesters and killed at least 21, in addition to abusing, on a daily basis, the human rights of Iranian citizens," said Harris. "The so-called moderates continue to support Iran's destabilizing, violent activities in Syria and Yemen, and threaten Israel by underwriting Hamas and Hezbollah." As AJC stated in October, following President Trump's decision to decertify Iran with respect to the JCPOA in response to its egregious behavior in many spheres, "it is absolutely essential that the Administration, Congress, and our key allies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia work as collaboratively as possible on the Iran threat." For AJC, the heart of the matter is addressing key issues that were not adequately covered, if at all, by the original agreement. This was why AJC opposed the JCPOA in 2015. Specifically: (a) Iran's ballistic missile development, which continues aggressively and menacingly; (b) the sunset clause in the JCPOA, which provides a pathway to the nuclear bomb no later than 2030, if not sooner; (c) weaknesses in the inspection regime that leave Iranian military sites totally off-limits; and (d) Iran's regional ambitions and support for violence and repression. Harris urged the international community to work toward ensuring that Iran does not flaunt the spirit of the JCPOA, clandestinely work around it, drive a wedge among allies, or, exploiting the flaws in the original deal, follow the long-term glide path to nuclear status that it was essentially, and tragically, granted in 2015. SOURCE American Jewish Committee Related Links http://www.ajc.org Dr. Jonathan Page Voted Most Progressive Researcher VANCOUVER, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Anandia Laboratories Inc. ("Anandia Labs" or the "Company"), a leading cannabis biotechnology and testing company, is pleased to announce that it was voted Top Cannabis Testing Lab in Canada for 2017 at the recent Canadian Cannabis Awards hosted by Lift. In addition, Dr. Jonathan Page, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Anandia Labs, and an internationally-recognized pioneer in cannabis plant biochemistry and genetics, was voted Most Progressive Researcher for 2017 by a committee of cannabis industry professionals. Dr. Page stated, "We strive to provide exemplary and scientifically rigorous services and we are pleased that the quality of our work and the contribution of our hard-working staff has been recognized by our customers. I am very grateful to the awards committee for the award as Most Progressive Researcher which I could not have earned without the support of the outstanding team of scientists at Anandia Labs. Our tagline is "The Science of Better Cannabis" and these awards recognize that we live by this in our daily work. I am proud of the achievements of our team and see significant growth ahead for the Company both in Canada as the market shifts to a recreational adult-use framework later this year, and globally, as the demand for Canadian medical cannabis continues to grow." Anandia Labs is Canada's leading independent cannabis analytics and genetics testing company, with approximately a 20% market share under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR). The Company operates out of a 5,400 square foot facility in Vancouver, British Columbia and has plans to construct a 40,000 square foot purpose-built cannabis innovation centre in British Columbia during 2018. Anandia Labs is 19% owned by CannaRoyalty Corp., an active investor and operator in the legal cannabis industry and a Canadian publicly-traded company (CSE:CRZ) (OTCQX: CNNRF). About Anandia Labs Anandia Labs is a biotechnology company focused exclusively on cannabis, with the aim of bringing the best of modern science to the cannabis industry for the benefit of growers and consumers. Anandia Labs provides industry leading analytical testing services including potency, pesticides, microbes and terpenes to Licenced Producers and patients. In addition, Anandia Labs uses its cannabis-specific scientific expertise to assist its customers in the analysis of their testing results and resolution of any detected non-conformities. Anandia Labs has also completed extensive research into cannabis genetics and has built a significant collection of cannabis germplasm. The Company uses modern plant breeding approaches to develop next generation cannabis varieties. Anandia Labs holds a Dealers Licence by Health Canada pursuant to the provisions of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Narcotic Control Regulations. The Dealers Licence permits Anandia Labs to analyze and extract cannabis, as well as cultivate cannabis for breeding and strain improvement. Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information Certain information contained in this press release, including any information as to Anandia Laboratories Inc's (the "Corporation") strategy, projects, plans or future financial or operating performance, constitutes "forward-looking statements". All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. The words "will", "expect", "continue", "assess", and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions; including material estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Corporation as at the date of this press release in light of each of management's experience and perception of current conditions and expected developments, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements and information. Any forward-looking statements included in this document are made as of the date of this document and the Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Although management of the Corporation believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. SOURCE Anandia Laboratories Inc. WILTON MANORS, Fla., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of Black History Month, Art Gallery 21 and the City of Wilton Manors are proud to present "The Quilts of Gee's Bend: The Fabric of Their Lives" from Saturday, February 3 through Saturday, March 10, 2018. The exhibit will feature seven original quilts from the collection of Janet Dolland, advocate of the celebrated Gee's Bend Quilter's Collective. Formed in the isolated African American hamlet of Gee's Bend, Alabama, in the early 20th century, this group of women creates quilts that symbolize the individuality of the quilters' multigenerational approach to African American art and culture. The quilters, who range in age from 19 to 90, have been recognized by such organizations as the National Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, N.Y., and they have even been honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a set of stamps depicting their quilts. "The Gee's Bend Quilter's Collective maintains a quilting style that has been passed down through six generations of African American quilters from rural Alabama," said Constance Ruppender, gallery manager at Art Gallery 21. "Our goal is to deliver a distinct African American cultural exhibit to Broward County for Black History Month and we are honored to be able to bring this marvelous collection to South Florida." In addition to the exhibit, Dolland will be giving two free lectures on the Gee's Bend style of quilting Saturday, February 3 at Art Gallery 21 (600 NE 21st Court, Wilton Manors, FL 33305) and Thursday, February 8 at Old Dillard High School (1001 NW 4th Street, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311) from 6 p.m. 8 p.m. Dolland is a quilters' advocate who has lectured on this subject throughout Michigan and in southern Alabama. She befriended the Quilter's Collective in Gee's Bend after traveling to the area out of curiosity. She has sent them or taken more than a ton of fabric since 2003. "This exhibit truly transforms a common household item into fine art," said Ruppender. "These quilts are considered to be some of the most important African American cultural and visual contributions of art within the U.S., and we encourage people to come out to Art Gallery 21 for this once-in-a-lifetime display." Funding for this project is provided in part by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners, as recommended by the Broward Cultural Division; by the Wilton Manors Community Affairs Advisory Board and by private donations. "The Quilts of Gee's Bend: The Fabric of Their Lives" will be available for viewing Thursdays through Saturdays from noon 8 p.m., and admission is free. To learn more about the exhibit, visit http://bit.ly/QuiltsOfGeesBend or contact Constance Ruppender at (954) 661-4740 or [email protected]. About the City of Wilton Manors Wilton Manors was laid out in 1925 by Edward John "Ned" Willingham, a land developer from Georgia, as an upscale residential community. It was recognized as a Village in 1947 and incorporated as a City in 1953. Today, the City of Wilton Manors offers all the benefits of a big city from shopping, to hip restaurants and bars, a burgeoning arts community and tons of community events, yet still maintains a cozy, community-feeling offering miles of natural waterways perfect for kayaking, paddle boarding and other outdoor activities. Recently named the "Second Gayest City" in the United States, the City of Wilton Manors celebrates a diverse population of approximately 12,000 residents. To learn more about the live, work and play opportunities in Wilton Manors, call (954) 390-2100 or visit www.wiltonmanors.com. CONTACT: Laurie Menekou (954) 732-0754 (or) [email protected] SOURCE City of Wilton Manors Related Links http://www.wiltonmanors.com This year, the Recording Academy will host the 60th GRAMMY Awards in New York City, Bulova's beloved home, where the duo will hold an exclusive event during GRAMMY weekend. Titled, "Tune of Time," the intimate afternoon will feature a special performance by music legend and three-time GRAMMY Award winner, Nile Rodgers and his band CHIC. As part of the event, Nile will be interviewed directly by Scott Goldman, Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum, about his career, music and his recent partnership with Bulova, including a special project and upcoming spring advertising campaign. The Limited Edition timepiece, from the brand's Precisionist collection, features a stainless steel case with a multi-layer gold-tone GRAMMIUM a custom alloy developed by John Billings, the craftsman who creates, by hand, the lustrous gold gramophone statue that is presented to GRAMMY recipients medallion dial showcasing the New York City skyline and 60th anniversary design detail. The commemorative watch is presented with a date window feature and sweeping second hand, that is proprietary to Bulova's, three-prong quartz crystal, Precisionist movement. The watch is complete with an anti-reflective sapphire glass, screw-back case with GRAMMY logo and a black rubber and croco-embossed grey leather strap. "This year is incredibly momentous for not only the Recording Academy but also Bulova as we celebrate our musical partnership in our hometown," said Jeffrey Cohen, President of Bulova. "We look forward to a great event where we can highlight the new Limited Edition timepiece, but also commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the GRAMMY Awards with a special partnership announcement with Nile Rodgers." "We're thrilled to continue this extraordinary partnership with Bulova, and to commemorate our milestone anniversary with a special Limited Edition timepiece that will be presented to all 60th GRAMMY winners," said Evan Greene, Chief Marketing Officer at the Recording Academy. "We look forward to kicking-off this year's efforts with an exclusive performance by iconic, three-time GRAMMY winner Nile Rodgers during one of our coveted, highly-anticipated GRAMMY Week events." The new Limited Edition 60th Anniversary GRAMMY timepiece will be exclusively available for purchase at Macy's Herald Square and Macys.com. The watch retails for $1,150. Bulova's Tune of Time event will take place on Saturday, January 27th. For additional details, please contact Kaitlin at [email protected]. About Bulova Founded by Joseph Bulova in 1875, Bulova remains an iconic brand at the forefront of today's timepiece industry - forever pursuing a profound history of firsts. Headquartered in New York City, with eight international offices and distribution in 65 markets, Bulova's distinguished portfolio includes Bulova, Caravelle, Wittnauer watches, as well as licensed Harley-Davidson Timepieces by Bulova watches, Frank Lloyd Wright Collection watches and clocks, and Bulova Clocks. Today, Bulova is driven by the same principles of craftsmanship, innovation and technology that inspired their founder more than 140 years ago. Committed to advancing the art of watchmaking with extraordinary design, exclusive high-performance technology and enduring quality that upholds a tradition of excellence and meets the needs of today's global consumer. For more information, visit www.bulova.com. About the Recording Academy The Recording Academy represents the voices of performers, songwriters, producers, engineers, and all music professionals. Dedicated to ensuring the recording arts remain a thriving part of our shared cultural heritage, the Academy honors music's history while investing in its future through the GRAMMY Museum, advocates on behalf of music creators, supports music people in times of need through MusiCares, and celebrates artistic excellence through the GRAMMY Awardsmusic's only peer-recognized accolade and highest achievement. As the world's leading society of music professionals, we work year-round to foster a more inspiring world for creators. About Nile Rodgers Among music legends, Nile Rodgers is truly exceptional. He amplifies his legacy as a multiple GRAMMY-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist by constantly traversing new musical terrain and successfully expanding the boundaries of popular music. As the co-founder of CHIC, Rodgers pioneered a musical language that generated chart-topping hits like "Le Freak," sparked the advent of hip-hop with "Good Times". Nile Rodgers transcends all styles of music across every generation with a body of work that's garnered him inductions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (2017) and the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2016). His work in the CHIC Organization and his productions for artists like David Bowie, Diana Ross and Madonna have sold over 300 million albums and 50 million singles worldwide. Fueling four decades of pop anthems with more than 200 production credits to his name, the scope of Nile Rodgers' peerless influence is undeniable. Media Contacts Kaitlin Derkach The Promotion Factory 212.217.9065 / [email protected] Lourdes Lopez Patton The Recording Academy 310.392.3777 / [email protected] Fran DeFeo Nile Rodgers 917.767.5255 / [email protected] SOURCE Bulova Related Links http://www.bulova.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following President Trump's most recent racist remarks, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is calling on imams (Islamic religious leaders) nationwide to reiterate Islam's rejection of racism in their sermons (khutbas) for today's weekly congregational prayers (jummah). In a statement reacting to Trump's racist comments targeting Haitians and immigrants from African countries, CAIR said: "CAIR and the American Muslim community strongly condemn the racist and white supremacist beliefs reflected in President Trump's remarks. It is disturbing to hear a president of the United States reject the dignity and humanity of whole communities that have made invaluable contributions to our nation. The president's latest anti-immigrant comments are a repudiation of American values of acceptance and inclusion, and will inevitably harm our nation's image and interests worldwide." CAIR is urging imams to refer to the many Islamic texts rejecting racism and bigotry in all its forms, including: The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "All people are equal as the teeth of a comb." In his last sermon, the Prophet Muhammad said: "All humankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab. Also, a white person has no superiority over a black person, nor does someone who is black have any superiority over someone who is white -- except by piety and good action." The Prophet once told a companion: "You are not better than people (of other races) unless you excel them in piety." In the Quran, Islam's revealed text, God states: "O humankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each other (not that you may despise each other). Verily, the most honored of you in the sight of God is the most righteous of you." The Holy Quran, 49:13 Islam's holy text promotes gender equality when it states: "So their Lord answers their prayers, saying: 'I will never let the (good) work of any of you, whether male or female, be wasted. You are members one of another.' (The Holy Quran, 3:195) The Quran also states: "The believers, men and women, are protectors, one of another." (Quran 9:71) A person once asked the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): "What is partisanship (asabiyyah)?" The Prophet replied: "(It means) helping your own people in an unjust cause." As God states in the Quran: "Let there arise from among you a community (of people) inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong; they are the ones who will be successful." The Holy Quran, 3:104 CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. La mision de CAIR es mejorar la comprension del Islam, fomentar el dialogo, proteger las libertades civiles, capacitar a los musulmanes estadounidenses, y construir coaliciones que promuevan la justicia y la comprension mutua. Become a Fan of CAIR on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational Subscribe to CAIR's Email List http://tinyurl.com/cairsubscribe Subscribe to CAIR's Twitter Feed http://twitter.com/cairnational Subscribe to CAIR's YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/cairtv CONTACT: CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected] SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Related Links http://www.cair.com SINGAPORE, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- China Yuchai International Limited (NYSE: CYD) ("China Yuchai" or the "Company"), a leading manufacturer and distributor of engines for on- and off-road applications in China through its main operating subsidiary, Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Company Limited ("GYMCL"), announced today that it has launched 14 new engines compliant with China's more stringent National VI emission standards. GYMCL's new National VI engines include 10 diesel and 4 natural gas engines with a power range from 100 to 650 horsepower among 3 platforms, namely S, K, and Y, which together stands for "blue sky", which symbolizes GYMCL's commitment to developing clean and efficient engines. The S platform engines address the market for medium- and light-duty engines with models YCS04, YCS06 and YCS04N. The K platform engines cater to the medium- and heavy-duty markets with models YCK05, YCK08, YCK09, YCK11, YCK13, YCK13N, YCK15N and YCK07N. The Y platform engines are for the light-duty engine market with models YCY20, YCY24 and YCY30. Launching engines that meet or exceed next generation emission standards has been a key strategy for China Yuchai to create a technological edge and market leadership in the market for commercial vehicle ("CV") engines in China, the largest CV market in the world. Representatives of original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs"), suppliers, vendors as well as government and industry officials attended the launch ceremony hosted by GYMCL's Chairman, Mr. Ping Yan and President, Mr. Qiwei Wu. They include senior executives from leading CV OEMs such as Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd., Liuzhou Motor, C&C Truck, Foton Motor, Jianghuai Automobile (JAC), Shaanxi Automotive Group and Yutong Bus. Other prestigious guests include Dr. Wanhua Su of the China Academy of Engineering, Mr. Gang Hou, Deputy Director of Guangxi Ministry of Industry, Mr. Kaiguo Li, Chairman of the China Automotive Engineering Research Institute, Mr. Michael Laske, CEO of AVL China, Mr. Thomas Reinhart, Director of the Southwest Research Institute, Mr. Yu-ming Miao, Deputy General Manager of Bosch Automotive Diesel Systems Co., Ltd. and Mr. Tobias Posner, Director of the ThyssenKrupp Forging Technology Group. At the ceremony, GYMCL signed strategic partnership agreements with 22 truck OEMs including Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd., and 8 bus OEMs including Yutong Bus, as well as 52 key components suppliers. China's National V emission standards were fully implemented across the nation in 2017. The more stringent National VI emission standards are expected to be implemented by mid-2020 according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Mr. Weng Ming Hoh, President of China Yuchai, commented, "We are committed to the development of environmental-friendly technologies. The launch of our new product portfolio demonstrates that we are at the forefront of emission technologies, and our R&D and engineering expertise enhances our leadership in the CV engine market. In addition, our strong sourcing capability continues to enable us to fulfil our system design and engineering with world-class components." About China Yuchai International China Yuchai International Limited, through its subsidiary, Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Company Limited ("GYMCL"), engages in the manufacture, assembly, and sale of a wide variety of light-, medium- and heavy-duty engines for trucks, buses, passenger vehicles, construction equipment, marine and agriculture applications in China. GYMCL also produces diesel power generators. The engines produced by GYMCL range from diesel to natural gas and hybrid engines. Through its regional sales offices and authorized customer service centers, the Company distributes its engines directly to auto OEMs and retailers and provides maintenance and retrofitting services throughout China. Founded in 1951, GYMCL has established a reputable brand name, strong research and development team and significant market share in China with high-quality products and reliable after-sales support. In 2016, GYMCL sold 320,424 engines and is recognized as a leading manufacturer and distributor of engines in China. For more information, please visit http://www.cyilimited.com. Safe Harbor Statement This news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "project", "targets", "optimistic", "confident that", "continue to", "predict", "intend", "aim", "will" or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements concerning the Company's operations, financial performance and condition are based on current expectations, beliefs and assumptions which are subject to change at any time. The Company cautions that these statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially depending on a variety of important factors such as government and stock exchange regulations, competition, political, economic and social conditions around the world and in China including those discussed in the Company's Form 20-Fs under the headings "Risk Factors", "Results of Operations" and "Business Overview" and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. All forward-looking statements are applicable only as of the date they are made and the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to maintain or update the forward-looking information, whether of the nature contained in this release or otherwise, in the future. For more information, please contact: Kevin Theiss Phone: +1 646-726-6511 Email: [email protected] SOURCE China Yuchai International Limited Related Links http://www.cyilimited.com -New U.S. solution transforms standard products into IoT products within days -Existing partners include Amazon, Google and Apple -Founding members ex-Alibaba Cloud -Secured tens of millions of dollars in Series B funding in October 2017 -At CES booth #35624, LVCC South Hall 4 LAS VEGAS, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tuya Smart (Tuya), a China-based global IoT platform provider for enterprise businesses, today at the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 in Las Vegas announced the launch of the U.S. version of its platform, a turnkey solution that helps U.S. manufacturers transform standard products into IoT products within days and upgrade traditional supply chains with artificial intelligence capabilities. The Tuya platform offers hardware access, cloud services and app development in an end-to-end process that, at its fastest, can create controlling apps within ten minutes, transform a standard product into a smart one within a day, and launch mass production within two weeks. The platform is further supported by big data capabilities that enable geolocation and environment-sensing features. All of these help manufacturers reduce their R&D cost and time to market, while gaining user behavior insights. All this improves the bottom line. Building on Tuya's established position in China, the launch of its U.S. solution points to its ongoing efforts to export its capabilities to global manufacturers amid a strong growth in IoT uptake in the U.S. and worldwide. According to IDC, global spending on IoT is set to reach US$772.5 billion in 2018, up 15% from 2017, while the United States will account for US$194 billion[1]. Currently, Tuya's partners include Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple Homekit, Tmall Genie, and many others, making it the world's only platform that connects these gadgets on a global scale. "From homes and schools, to offices and factories, smart living will become a norm in the highly connected IoT world of the future. Tuya hopes to be the 'gateway' to this smart world, serving as the AI and IoT catalyst for manufacturers and helping them to bring smart devices to consumers faster and more efficiently," said Jerry Wang, Founder and CEO of Tuya. "We see tremendous business potential in the connected lifestyle, where data understands everyone's needs, preference, and habits." "The U.S. market is of significant importance to us with the popularity of the likes of Amazon Echo and Google Homekit," said Alex Yang, Tuya's Co-Founder and COO in charge of the company's overseas expansion. "Both Amazon and Google are already our partners and we hope to bring our capabilities to more U.S. manufacturers via the launch of our U.S. platform at CES. This is part of our on-going commitment to the market." Both Mr. Wang and Mr. Yang are among the several founding members of Tuya who worked for Alibaba previously and held key roles in the development of Alibaba Cloud, as well as O2O and QR code projects, all of which have evolved into the disruptive mobile payment technology that we now see in Alipay. Since its establishment in Hangzhou, China in 2014, Tuya has served more than 10,000 customers, including Energizer, TCL, Vivitar, Geeni and many others, in nearly 200 countries/regions including China, U.S., Europe, Middle East, as well as Southeast Asian countries, and empowered products ranging from power accessories, lighting, and household appliances, to kitchen appliances, environmental and health, and surveillance equipment. The company now processes on average more than 20 billion device requests and six million AI interactions daily. The amount of data that it has accumulated through these interactions has reached 1PB (petabyte) - equivalent to more than 58,000 movies[2]. In October 2017, Tuya announced it had raised tens of millions of dollars in Series B funding from lead investors including China International Capital, Oriental Fortune Capital, New Enterprise Associates and Quadrille Capital, representing renewed interest in the investment on emerging Chinese technology companies as the country aims to become a technology powerhouse for quality growth. Headquartered in Hangzhou, Tuya has offices in Shenzhen and the Silicon Valley. It has data centers in Portland (Oregon, US), Frankfurt (Germany) and Hangzhou (China). After the U.S. launch, the company will look to Europe and Japan for future rounds of expansion. To visit Tuya at CES, go to booth #35624, LVCC South Hall 4. About Tuya Tuya Smart (Tuya) is a China-based global IoT platform provider for enterprise businesses. It provides manufacturers with both AI and IoT capabilities that enable them to bring smart devices to consumers in a faster, more affordable way. The platform offers hardware access, cloud services and app development in an end-to-end process that, at its fastest, can create controlling apps within ten minutes, transform a standard product into a smart one within a day, and launch mass production within two weeks. It is further supported by big data capabilities that enable geolocation and environment-sensing features. Tuya IoT Plat form provides companies with Intelligent solutions, help manufacturers connect with several mainstream digital assistants (such as Alexa, Google Home). Besides, Tuya has abundant supply chain resources to help manufacturers build upstream and downstream industrial ecosystem. Many products powered by Tuya platform have entered the international market. The company serves more than 10,000 customers, including Energizer, TCL, Vivitar and Geeni and numerous others, connecting devices in nearly 200 countries/regions, including China, United States, Europe, Middle East, as well as Southeast Asia countries, and supporting products ranging from power accessories, lighting, and household appliances, to kitchen appliances, environmental & health, and surveillance equipment. Tuya was established in Hangzhou, China, in 2014. Headquartered in Hangzhou, it now has offices in Shenzhen and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit Tuya Website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. [1] Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide [2] https://gizmodo.com/5309889/how-large-is-a-petabyte SOURCE Tuya Smart BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Jan. 16, communities across the country will celebrate the National Day of Racial Healing (#NDORH) with events and activities as distinct as their participants. High school students, recording artists, civic leaders, teachers, librarians, college students and more will come together in auditoriums, museums, libraries and churches, or on social networks. The array of activities mark the second annual National Day of Racial Healing, established by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) in 2017 to promote healing as a critical path for ending racial bias and creating a society in which all children can thrive. "The National Day of Racial Healing showcases commitment by a growing number of people in organizations and communities to put racial hierarchy in our rearview mirror," says La June Montgomery Tabron, WKKF president and CEO. "The day creates space for people of all backgrounds to come together and begin taking steps in unity toward stronger and more equitable communities." The National Day of Racial Healing is part of WKKF's Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) effort, a national and community-based process designed to bring transformational and sustainable change to communities, while addressing the historic and contemporary effects of racism. "It's exciting to see how this idea is inspiring people to create events and activities around what's real and needed in their communities," Tabron says. "Gathering experiences like these get to the emotional core of changing hearts and minds. They are important groundwork for envisioning and constructing the equitable systems all children need." Next Tuesday's National Day of Racial Healing outreach will touch every region of the country, including: In the Kellogg Foundation's hometown of Battle Creek, Michigan, more than 1,200 local high school students will participate in an interactive art and musical performance by national and local artists including J. PERIOD, Isabel Delgado, Kinetic Affect and others, to help promote unity, elevate youth voices and motivate students toward positive action. "Young people are the lifeblood of nearly every significant social movement that has transformed our country," said Tabron. "They are not immune to the effects of a racialized society, and it is vital that they too have the space to tell their truth, and in doing so, find commonality with their peers. This experience will equip and empower students to continue the healing process to transform our schools, neighborhoods and community. And, our hope is that they will continue to engage in their local TRHT effort in Battle Creek." In New Orleans, Ashe Cultural Arts Center, the Foundation for Louisiana (FFL), TRHT Louisiana and the City of New Orleans will host a live performance by local artists and award-winning, jazz and gospel vocalist Lizz Wright as part of her Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation tour at 7.p.m. CST. This will be held at the Mahalia Jackson Theater, and tickets are complimentary. Doors open at 6 p.m. CST. A National Livestream Broadcast called "Healing Hearts with Grace" on the National Day of Racial Healing Facebook page will feature events from around the country from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. CST and then air the Lizz Wright concert afterward. In Selma, Alabama, the Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) is promoting National Day of Racial Healing with a television ad campaign airing on WSFA-TV (NBC affiliate) in Montgomery. Moreover, the foundation, in partnership with the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation, is holding a series of service events and healing circles spanning the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday and National Day of Racial Healing, with a grand finale musical concert at the Selma Center. The concert will feature nationally-acclaimed musical artist Kishi Bashi with the No-No Boy project. Meanwhile, the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) is calling on schools across the country to host activities that promote healing and foster engagement around the issues of racism, bias, inequity and injustice. For example, Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, will hold a series of campus events featuring faculty and staff speakers, small group discussions, and interactive activities. In addition, a community art project will ask members of the campus community to answer, "Where do you see that racial healing is needed most in the world today?" on a large Millsaps College flag. And, Rutgers UniversityNewark has launched a social media campaign, "My Racial Healing Looks Like" in which students can share how they will take a stand for racial healing, and a poster board activity will turn racial slurs and micro-aggressions into words of love, positivity and empowerment. An evening event will invite participants to use spoken word, poetry and music to express what racial healing looks like to them. In Buffalo, New York, the Native American Community Services of Erie and Niagara counties will screen and discuss four Native films throughout the day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable will host an inter-faith community service. More than 150 people will attend the Greater Chicago TRHT's sold-out "What is OUR Story" event at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. Guest speakers include Cook County State Attorney General Kim Foxx, Chicago social justice activist Rami Nashashibi, Chicago City Colleges Chancellor Juan Salgado, local artist and poet Harold Green; and Amanda E. Lewis, professor of African American studies & sociology, and director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois. The American Library Association has also released a compilation of reading lists to its members and for parents and educators to use in honor of the day. States, municipalities and organizations are issuing proclamations in support of the National Day of Racial Healing. As of Jan. 11, at least 34 proclamations have been or will be issued for the day, including Los Angeles, California; Jackson, Mississippi; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Denver, Colorado; St. Petersburg, Florida, Charlotte, North Carolina and others. "These communities and organizations are demonstrating why the National Day of Racial Healing is so important," said Tabron. "We can't accept the divisions we see as permanent or the way things have to be. By working together, all of us can lead a transformation. And the expanding participation in the National Day of Racial Healing demonstrates that the transformation is well underway." To learn more about the National Day of Racial Healing and other related events around the country, visit http://healourcommunities.org/ndorh-2018/. SOURCE W.K. Kellogg Foundation Related Links http://www.wkkf.org OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today Ellis Partners, in a joint venture with Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation ("Intercontinental"), formally broke ground on "The Key at 12th," a new state of the art Class A office tower, adjacent to BART and across from the City Center development. With hard hats and shovels in hand, Oakland's Mayor and City officials joined in the celebration. A complete project overview can be seen here. Ellis and Intercontinental expect completion and occupancy in late 2019. "We are honored to have the opportunity to transform this long-vacant block into Oakland's premiere office building," said James Ellis, Managing Principal of Ellis Partners. "The Key at 12th will integrate a state-of-the-art tower with the historic Key System Building to create a unique and modern workplace with the nexus of the entire BART system right outside our front door," he added. In order to bring the highest level of architecture to this project that interprets Oakland's past and future, ownership brought in the renowned, world-class architecture firm Gensler that is locally-headquartered. The project totals 334,000 square feet with spacious ceilings, expansive windows, two roof decks and prominent pedestrian interaction at the street level for retail and dining. While the project includes a 145-parking space garage, a critical feature is its location immediately adjacent to Oakland's 12th Street BART station, giving all tenants instant access to the entire transit network of the Bay Area. Peter Palandjian, Intercontinental's Chairman and CEO commented, "Intercontinental is excited to break into the Oakland, California market with this development opportunity, which when constructed and stabilized, will make for a terrific trophy office building for our U.S. REIF portfolio. By venturing on this project with Ellis Partners, an experienced best-of-class developer, we will create hundreds of union construction jobs in Oakland and believe this project will generate excellent returns for our investors." Melinda Ellis Evers, Managing Principal at Ellis Partners added, "As Ellis Partners kicks off its 25th anniversary, it is very gratifying for our entire team to add The Key at 12th to our long history in Oakland. We are particularly pleased to team up with a respected and successful partner like Intercontinental to restore a beautiful piece of Oakland's history and bring life to this critical site in the heart of downtown." The uniqueness of the project sits in its creative combination between Oakland's historic Key System Building and a gleaming new 18-story tower. The Key System Building, built in 1911 and shuttered after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, was the headquarters of the Key System Railway which transported East Bay residents locally and across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. "Oakland is a city that seamlessly blends tradition and innovation," said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. "The addition of the new structure at 1100 Broadway and the renovation of the Key System Building, in the heart of our downtown will add to the energy and vitality of the city in a way that respects Oakland's history. People want to come to work every day in unique settings that are accessible via transitand Oakland is the best place to find them," she added. 165,000 square feet in the building's lower floors has been pre-committed for lease. What remains available for lease is 154,000 square feet on the highest eight floors which feature extraordinary views. The Gensler design provides for floor to ceiling windows and clear heights that will work well with open or dropped ceilings and provide tenants access to many green and tech-related features that help employers recruit employees. The Key at 12th's structural innovations include a side core layout with minimal interior columns which maximizes floor space, and a creative, open-plan design favored by the majority of today's tenants. The project also offers two rooftop sky decks, nearly 11,000 square feet of ground floor space for retail and restaurants and abundant amenities including: a dedicated bike parking entry lobby with ample ground floor racking, a private locker room and showers for building tenants and a dedicated elevator bank serving only the remaining available vacancy on the upper eight floors. Ellis has hired Chris Roeder, Sam Swan and Jon Elder of JLL to lead the leasing efforts for this iconic building. Since its acquisition of the site in the spring of 2017, the Ellis/Intercontinental venture sought to activate the location in creative ways. In partnership with the City of Oakland and the Downtown Improvement District, the vacant lot portion of the site was upgraded to include music events, food trucks, and other creative uses on an interim basis. The partnership with Oakland City Councilmember Abel Guillen was critical to making this a reality. About Ellis Partners LLC: Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Ellis Partners is one of Northern California's largest commercial real estate investors and developers focused on office, retail, industrial and mixed-use product types. The firm's multi-faceted capabilities include land entitlement and development, property repositioning, adaptive-re-use and historic renovation. Ellis Partners also provides leasing expertise, asset management, development and renovation management capabilities to its ventures. www.ellispartners.com About Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation: Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation is an SEC Registered Investment Adviser with decades long experience in real estate investment, finance, development, construction management and asset management. Since 1959, Intercontinental and its affiliates have managed, developed, or owned collectively over $10 billion in real estate property. Today, Intercontinental manages a real estate portfolio of approximately $6 billion for its clients. The Intercontinental portfolio is diversified both by robust property mix and by geography. Fund strategies actively seek opportunities to invest in both Core and Core-Plus properties, as well as in Value-Add development projects. http://www.intercontinental.net/ SOURCE Ellis Partners Related Links http://ellispartners.com Dodge//SRT and the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving announced today a new performance-packed one-day drag racing class, featuring the 840-horsepower 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon the most powerful muscle car ever. The new "Dodge//SRT Bondurant Drag Racing School" complements Bondurant's already successful "Official High Performance Driving School of Dodge//SRT" class provided to all customers who buy an SRT model vehicle and includes both classroom instruction and on-track performance driving. 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon owners have the opportunity to participate in either one of these full-day classes at no additional charge. In addition to the Challenger SRT Demon, the new drag racing course will also feature other Dodge high-performance vehicles, including the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Hellcat Widebody, and the 485-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT 392. "With the 840-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, 707-horsepower Charger and Challenger Hellcats and the 475-horsepower Durango SRT, the Dodge//SRT brands deliver more horsepower than any other brand in our segment," said Tim Kuniskis, Head of Passenger Cars, Dodge//SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA - North America. "With great power comes responsibility, so we want our enthusiasts to respect the full capability of their machines. Our Dodge//SRT partnership with the highly acclaimed Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, which comes with the purchase of an SRT, gives our customers the opportunity to get the most out of their new vehicles in a controlled environment, as well as gives anyone interested in our performance cars the chance to get behind the wheel of one at the track. Where else can you drive a Demon without having to buy one?" Pre-registration for the "Dodge//SRT Bondurant Drag Racing School" begins January 12, with the first class starting March 9. Demon and SRT owners register for the class through the Dodge//SRT concierge line, 800-998-1110, as their vehicle identification numbers will be verified. All others register at Bondurant.com/dragracing. Owners of other Dodge//SRT vehicles, who already receive a full-day high performance driving class, can upgrade their training to two full days (one-day road course, one-day drag strip) for $999. Non-Dodge vehicle owners can also take the drag racing class for $1,999 to learn the art of drag racing and experience the Challenger SRT Demon, SRT Hellcat, Hellcat Widebody and SRT 392. The "Dodge//SRT Bondurant Drag Racing School" will be held at Bondurant's world-class facility and the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, an official NHRA drag strip, which sit on approximately 200 acres in Chandler, Arizona. The new program is a part of Bondurant's Golden 50th Anniversary in 2018 and is a collaboration with Dodge, Goodyear, Shell and Pennzoil. Classroom instruction for the full-day school will last approximately two hours and will address the fundamental rules of drag racing, including proper launch, staging technique, reaction time, signals and safety pre- and post-checks. On-track instruction will be under the direction and supervision of a professional Bondurant instructor. Each student will get 22 single-lane runs, including a wet-box burnout, stage, 60-foot pass, half-pass and full-pass, in a variety of Challenger models. "We're thrilled to team up with Dodge on this exciting new Drag Racing program, featuring the wicked fast Dodge Challenger SRT Demon," said Jason Bondurant, vice president of Bondurant Racing School. "Our course will be led by our professional instructors who will give students the chance to experience first-hand the impressive capabilities of this audacious production drag car. It is especially fitting that we're launching this new course at the start of our Golden 50th Anniversary. It amplifies the message that the Bondurant Racing School is continuing to evolve and looks forward to the next 50 years of adrenaline-filled motorsports action." As the official automotive lubricant and fuel supplier of Bondurant Racing School, Shell / Pennzoil is lending additional star power to the new drag racing school. Leah Pritchett, an NHRA Top Fuel dragster driver for the Mopar, Dodge and Shell / Pennzoil brands, served as a consultant on the new program. "Drag racing is one of the most thrilling experiences in motorsports," said Pritchett. "Bondurant and Dodge's drag racing school, which is powered with Pennzoil and Shell V-Power NiTRO+, will give Demon owners and enthusiasts the skills they need to be competitive during quarter mile runs. I'm excited that so many drivers will get to experience that shot of adrenalin that comes at max speed for 1320 feet. It's truly breathtaking." A promotional video of the new "Dodge//SRT Bondurant Drag Racing School" and images can be viewed at Bondurant.com/dragracing and downloaded at the Dodge Garage, the Dodge brand's digital content hub and premier destination where muscle car and race enthusiasts can hang out to get the latest on all things Dodge//SRT and Mopar. From high performance driving classes to racing preparation and law enforcement training, Bondurant has a program that improves skills for anyone. To learn more about Bondurant's Drag Racing programs, as well as its other classes, please call 1-800-842-RACE, or visit www.Bondurant.com. About the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving and Bondurant Racing School, which is located in Phoenix, Arizona, is the only purpose-built driver training facility for performance enthusiasts and is the largest driver training of its kind in the World. At the heart of the 100 acre facility is a 3-mile, 26 turns and 11 multi configuration track that was designed by Bob Bondurant. The school maintains over 200 race-prepared vehicles, sedans, SUVs and open wheel cars. For more information, visit www.Bondurant.com or call (800) 842-RACE. About Dodge//SRT Dodge//SRT offers a complete lineup of performance vehicles that stand out in their own segments. Dodge is FCA North America's mainstream performance brand, and SRT is positioned as the ultimate performance halo of the Dodge brand, together creating a complete and balanced performance brand with one vision and one voice. For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge, who founded the company in 1914. Their influence continues today. New for 2018, the 840-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, the fastest quarter-mile production car in the world and most powerful muscle car ever, is taking the world by storm, along with the new 2018 Dodge Durango SRT, America's fastest, most powerful and most capable three-row SUV, and the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody. These new SRT ultimate performance models join a brand lineup that includes the Durango, Grand Caravan, Journey, Charger and Challenger, including the 707-horsepower Challenger SRT Hellcat and the Charger SRT Hellcat, the quickest, fastest and most powerful sedan in the world. Follow Dodge, SRT and FCA US news and video on: Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com Company website: www.fcanorthamerica.com Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com Dodge brand: www.dodge.com Dodge blog: blog.dodge.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/dodge or https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/dodgeofficial or www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA Twitter: www.twitter.com/dodge or www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA YouTube: www.youtube.com/dodge or www.youtube.com/fcanorthamerica SOURCE FCA US LLC Related Links http://www.fcanorthamerica.com ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Do you have kids currently in college, or maybe one who is about to graduate high school? Are they interested in a possible real estate-related career? Then find out more about the Student Scholarship Program offered through Florida Realtors Education Foundation Inc., a not-for-profit corporation that provides real estate-related educational scholarships. But act fast: The application deadline for this year's program is March 5, 2018. "Our Realtor members across the state are investing in Florida's future by helping young people realize their dreams for college," says Mary McCall, 2018 chairman of Florida Realtors Education Foundation. "Florida Realtors Education Foundation's Student Scholarship Program is one way that we give back to our communities. We feel privileged to be able to provide much-needed financial support to young Floridians struggling to continue their education." With the program now in its ninth year, Florida Realtors has awarded a total of $1,306,300 in scholarship funding, which helped 790 students go to college or university. This student scholarship program is open and available to students whose parents are Realtors or are licensed real estate practitioners, or whose parents are employed by any local Realtor board/association or by Florida Realtors, as well as any Florida student currently enrolled at a school (including home-schooled students or those attending a charter school.) It is based on an application form, which can be found on Florida Realtors' website at www.floridarealtors.org/AboutFar/Scholarships/index.cfm Who can apply for the scholarships? Any Florida high school senior who will be attending an undergraduate college or university; any student currently enrolled in an undergraduate college or university (any major); or any student pursuing a graduate degree is eligible. There are no limitations as to location of the college or university attended, provided the applicant indicates the intent to return to work in Florida after graduation. Proof of the student's legal Florida residency is required, however. Scholarships start at $1,000; the number of scholarships and dollar amounts awarded may vary each year and are determined by the Education Foundation's Board of Directors. Criteria to be considered include, but aren't limited to: academic achievements, financial need, relationship to the Realtor family, and contributions to family, school and community. The Foundation's Board of Directors has "sole and absolute discretion" over all decisions as to whether an applicant qualifies. An important reminder to all applicants: The Florida Realtors Education Foundation Scholarship application is only available online at https://floridarealtorsfref.fluidreview.com/. Please note that applications may not be mailed or faxed in for this scholarship. Only the applications submitted through this website will be eligible for review. Remember, you have until March 5 at noon to fill out the online application for the Florida Realtors Education Foundation's student scholarship program. To find the application form and check out FAQs, go to: www.floridarealtors.org/AboutFar/Scholarships/index.cfm Florida Realtors serves as the voice for real estate in Florida. It provides programs, services, continuing education, research and legislative representation to 180,000 members in 54 boards/associations. Florida Realtors Media Center website is available at http://media.floridarealtors.org . SOURCE Florida Realtors Related Links http://www.floridarealtors.org "Resin-Gard provides the market with multiple application possibilities," said Jeff Murphy, Director of Sales and Marketing for Expera Specialty Solutions. "From building and construction and home decor, to recreation and filter medium, the possibilities are endless." Advanced characteristics of Resin-Gard include controlled formation which helps achieve even and optimum saturation rates and unique technical effects, controlled porosity, a broad basis weight range of 35-325 gsm, and consistent and efficient strength properties achieved by advanced fiber selection and a unique manufacturing process. In addition, Resin-Gard Saturating Papers are available in blended furnish products to create custom colors, bleached or natural. Natural kraft offers an environmentally sensitive option that Expera is able to produce along with certified products and grades containing up to 100 percent post-consumer waste (PCW). Expera also uniquely offers customers Chain of Custody certified papers not only through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), but also through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and PEFC. To learn more about Resin-Gard Saturating Papers, visit expera.com. Expera Specialty Solutions is the leading North American manufacturer of specialty paper products for use in the tape, pressure-sensitive release liner, industrial and food packaging segments. Expera Specialty Solutions' manufacturing platform includes machines at four mills located in Rhinelander, WI, Mosinee, WI, Kaukauna, WI and De Pere, WI. For more information, visit www.expera.com. SOURCE Expera Specialty Solutions Related Links http://www.expera.com Having crossed land, sea, and air, in addition to ten other worthy competitors, the XTC 2018 Top 3 Finalists are healthcare platform and baby monitoring system Owlet Baby Care (Leith, Utah), blockchain-based peer-to-peer energy trading platform Power Ledger (Perth, Australia) and smart action, AI-powered camera system Revl (San Francisco, CA) -- Congratulations to XTC 2018's Top 3! Hard work has paid off for this dynamic trio, with each competitor expressing excitement as they look ahead to the final round: "We're so grateful to be part of such an amazing event that's celebrating companies who are using technology to solve the world's biggest problems! We're excited about making the top 3 and the awareness that will bring to parents." - Kurt Workman, Owlet Baby Care Co-founder "We are delighted to make it to the XTC this finals. Thank you to the Power Ledger team and community for making this possible. We are very excited to pitch to Sir Richard Branson on Necker and the opportunity to fast track our mission of the democratisation of power!" - Dr Jemma Green, Founder of Power Ledger "We are so stoked to make it to the the finals and have the opportunity to present Revl to such incredible judges! Looking forward to kiting with Sir Richard and showing him the latest version of Revl!" - Eric Sanchez, Co-Founder, Revl Chosen for their ingenuity and impactful pitches, the fate of the Semi-Finalists rested in the capable hands of Lars Rasmussen (CTO, Weav Music, Co- creator Google Maps), Young Sohn (President & Chief Strategy Officer Samsung Electronics & Chairman of the Board HARMAN) Koichi Narasaki (Chief Digital Officer, Sompo Holdings) and Scott Robinson (Founder, Plug and Play) and this year's FinTech Vertical Judge, led for the fourth year by Gary Shapiro (President and CEO of Consumer Technology Association). Finalists of XTC 2018 now look ahead to the last stop of this year's challenge, taking place on Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island, where they will pitch one final time to the tech industry's biggest luminaries, spearheaded by Sir Richard Branson in hopes of winning the ultimate prize of global visibility and invaluable resources, and, of course, the title of XTC 2018 Champion. In light of the recent natural disasters that have devastated the British Virgin Islands, Necker Island included, the XTC 2018 Finals have been rescheduled to take place this Fall 2018, formally announced in an official statement from XTC Co-Founder, Bill Tai: "Today we announce the official date change of XTC 2018 Finals to this Fall 2018 on Necker Island, BVI. The Extreme Tech Challenge was born on Necker Island four years ago and returns to its birthplace for the finals year after year. 2017 proved to be a challenging year for the island community and after several months, the British Virgin Islands are still recovering from the devastating effects of hurricanes Irma and Maria. Rather than leave or change the location for the XTC Finals during its most vulnerable time, we have made the decision to stick with Necker Island as the community works to rebuild in conjunction with ACTAI Global and XTC. We are so grateful to have the continued support of Sir Richard Branson as we move towards another amazing challenge. Join us in our continued support of the BVI community." Extreme Tech Challenge would like to recognize the Top 10 Semi-Finalists who participated at this year's CES Showcase -- Congratulations and thank you for sharing your innovations with the world! ABRA (Mountain View, CA), AirSwap (Brooklyn, NY), Chooose.today (Oslo, Norway), Neurotrack (Redwood, CA), Owlet Baby Care (Lehi, UT), Power Ledger (Perth, Australia), Rayton Solar (Los Angeles, CA), Revl (San Francisco, CA), SafeMotos (Kigali, Rwanda), Tissue Analytics (Philadelphia, PA) and 2018 Wildcard, Piaggio Fast Forward (Boston, MA). Also acknowledged on stage during the CES 2018 Showcase were the winners of the Vertical Categories, hosted by the 2018 Sponsors IBM (Cloud), Sompo Holdings (Healthcare IT, BioTech),Ally & Plug and Play (FinTech), OWC (Sustainability), Zoom (Productivity), Jungle Creations (Social Media), Cisco (IoT), Qualcomm (VR), and Meltwater (Data & Analytics). Full details on 2018 Vertical Sponsors found here. Congratulations to the 2018 Vertical Prize Winners: REVL (Social Media), Chipsafer (IoT), BioWatch (Data & Analytics), Vizru (FinTech), BluAtomVR (VR/AR), Sky Tree (Sustainability), ReviveMed (BioTech), Tissue Analytics (IBM Cloud Credit), Kafoodle (Healthcare IT), BioCellection (Productivity), CES Accessibility Prize Winners: Blind Touch / Project Ray, Lili Smart, SignAll, SofiHub, and Unaliwear. Although the finals for this year will be delayed, XTC will continue to move forward with applications for its next iteration - Applications open April 2018. Since its inception, XTC has gained international notoriety for elevating innovative startups into a new frontier of technology. Who will be crowned the next champion of XTC? STAY CONNECTED: XTC Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram About Extreme Tech Challenge Extreme Tech Challenge is a competition that empowers entrepreneurs and their companies by providing visibility, resources, and it gives competitors the ability to grow exponentially in scale and knowledge at a low to no incremental cost. XTC strives to inspire and provide growth to up and coming entrepreneurs and businesses by surrounding them with mentors to help guide them as they build on product success with business success. XTC pulls this all together into an experience that money cannot buy with showcase events at the world's largest technology trade show, CES, and also at Sir Richard Branson's own Necker Island. Hurricane Irma Relief: XTC alongside Richard Branson and The Virgin Group continue to do everything possible to support and assist the local BVI community that they call home. Please explore the various donation options & spread awareness to Richard Branson's efforts with Virgin and their support of the BVI relief fund . By covering all of Virgin Unite's Hurricane relief overheads, Richard Branson and the Virgin Group have made it possible for 100% of the donations received directly to the local BVI communities. Media Contact: The Confluence [email protected] SOURCE Extreme Tech Challenge Related Links http://www.extremetechchallenge.com JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fair Home Offers, the top Cash Home Buyers in Jacksonville, has started a program offering donations up to $1,000 to local churches and charities when they purchase a property. This will be offered to the seller, and they will have the option to pick a church or charity to receive the donation. Since 2013, owners James Hawk and Hunter Hayden have been working together to assist homeowners in selling their homes. Their goal has always been to buy homes for fair prices, through a hassle-free process and deliver exceptional customer experiences. "Selling Made Simple." James Hawk and Hunter Hayden paying off layaways for 15 families Christmas 2017. Fair Home Offers launches Houses Help Program By teaming together, James and Hunter have purchased hundreds of homes in the few years Fair Home Offers has been operating. The homes are renovated and upgraded to the most up-to-date standards. The benefit of these renovations extends to the communities in which these homes stand. When one home is upgraded and returned to market, at a higher buy-price, the surrounding homes benefit from the updated comparable sales rates. This method has helped increase property values of countless homes throughout northeast Florida, one of the fastest growing communities in the United States. James and Hunter have recently decided to expand their positive impact on the community by offering a donation of up to $1,000 to a charity or church of choice as they buy homes. Fair Home Offers has already begun this incentive package, with two deals currently in the works. With current projections for sales in 2018, the company hopes to donate over $100,000 this year to local churches and charities chosen by the home-sellers. Fair Home Offers helps individuals by buying their homes for fair prices, they assist the surrounding community by raising property values, and now they aim to extend their positive impact to a larger audience by initiating a new tradition of donating consistently to churches and charities. www.fairhomeoffers.net Media Contact: Christian Hill 904-325-9088 [email protected] SOURCE Fair Home Offers, LLC Related Links http://www.fairhomeoffers.net According to Blanco County deed records, the property was purchased by Johnson one week into his presidency in 1963 and remained in his ownership until 1971. Johnson used the secluded property as a private retreat. The main three-bedroom, two-bathroom house that stands today is built on the foundation of Johnson's former home, with his bedroom and bathroom preserved. A second dwelling on the estate, a one-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage, was used for accommodations for the Secret Service. In 1999, Benini and his wife Lorraine Benini purchased the property, which was part of the original 800 acres Johnson once owned. The Beninis transformed a 12,000-square-foot hanger on the property into art galleries and an educational venue, and for 15 years it was known as The Sculpture Ranch with 2,000-3,000 visitors each month. QUOTES: "Aside from the incredible history behind the ranch, the property is in a prime location with beautiful surroundings. It offers the perfect retreat, while still only 20 minutes to Fredericksburg, less than an hour from Austin and in the heart of the vineyard region. This is a true Texas Hill Country treasure." --Dave Murray, DMTX Realty team lead "We responded to the beauty and high energy of the landscape, the feeling of living on top of the world - as well as the easy access to Austin and San Antonio international airports." --Lorraine Benini, current property owner Coldwell Banker United, REALTORS is a leading residential real estate brokerage company with 9 offices and more than 340 sales associates serving the communities of Austin. Coldwell Banker United, REALTORS is part of NRT LLC, the nation's largest residential real estate brokerage company. Visit www.coldwellbankerhomes.com. Media Contact: Laitin Schwerin [email protected] 941.487.1549 SOURCE Coldwell Banker United, REALTORS Related Links http://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com JACKSON, Miss., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In honor of the second annual National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH), the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) is supporting free admission for the public into the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and Museum of Mississippi History on Saturday through Tuesday, Jan. 13-Jan. 16. "The museums tell powerful stories about our state's past and how the racial hierarchies in Mississippi in particular have impacted everything from our education system to our economy," said Rhea Williams-Bishop, director of Mississippi programming for the Kellogg Foundation. "The National Day of Racial Healing helps us come together and develop a shared understanding of our history, as an important step in healing and moving us toward a stronger future for our children." Hundreds of events and activities are planned for Jan. 16 across the country by individuals, organizations, governments, businesses and faith-based institutions as part of NDORH. The day was established in 2017 by more than 130 organizations and partners of WKKF's Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation efforts who wanted to set aside a day to find ways to focus on healing the wounds created by conscious and unconscious biases. "The Kellogg Foundation's gift of free admission to the Two Mississippi Museums is a most appropriate and meaningful way to honor Dr. Martin Luther King and to celebrate his extraordinary legacy," said Katie Blount, director of Mississippi Department of Archives and History. "We look forward to welcoming thousands of people to the Two Mississippi Museums over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, and we are so grateful to the Kellogg Foundation for their continued generosity and support." The museums opened on Dec. 9 at 222 North Street in downtown Jackson with support from the foundation, including $2.3 million in 2014 to seed the vision of the Civil Rights Museum and another $1 million endowment announced during the grand opening in December 2017. While the museum typically is closed on Mondays, they will be open on Monday, Jan. 15, to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The museum hours are: Saturday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday: 1 p.m to 5 p.m. Monday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition to free admission into the two museums, visitors can also take their entrance tickets to the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center for courtesy admission from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 13, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16. The museum, located at 528 Bloom Street, is dedicated to increasing public understanding and awareness of the historical experience and cultural expressions of people of African descent. About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life. The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. SOURCE W.K. Kellogg Foundation Related Links http://www.wkkf.org CAYMAN ISLANDS and SINGAPORE, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global A&T Electronics Ltd. (the "Company") announced that the Court-approved restructuring plan has gone into effect as of today. At a hearing on 3 January 2018, the Honorable Robert D. Drain affirmed its ruling on 21 December confirming the Companys restructuring plan, and overruling or finding inapplicable the limited objection filed by JP Morgan Chase (JPMC). "The closing of our restructuring is the culmination of hard work and strong support from our equity sponsors and noteholders, who have been constructive partners throughout our restructuring process. In particular, I want to thank all our customers and suppliers for their support and trust in UTAC throughout this process. I also want to thank our dedicated employees for continuing to deliver quality products and services to our customers," said Dr. W. John Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. As previously announced, the restructuring will reduce the Company's funded debt from approximately $1.12 billion to total of $665 million and reduce its annual debt service by nearly half from $113 million to approximately $56.5 million. The restructuring will consolidate GATE with its sister company UMS, allowing for greater operational synergy and liquidity. With the significant reduction in interest expense, UTAC is expected to generate positive free cashflow after interest and capex spending. When completed, the restructuring will also resolve all litigation and claims of the noteholders against the company and its equity sponsors over the 2014 debt exchange. "UTAC will emerge from this process stronger than ever, with the financial stability and flexibility to invest for future growth," said John. -End- About UTAC Holdings Ltd UTAC Holdings Ltd (UTAC) is a leading independent provider of assembly and test services for a broad range of semiconductor chips. We offer a full range of semiconductor assembly and test services in these key product categories: analog, mixed-signal and logic, and memory. Our customers are primarily fabless companies, integrated device manufacturers and wafer foundries. UTAC is headquartered in Singapore, with production facilities located in Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, mainland China, Indonesia and Malaysia. We have a global sales network across United States, Japan, mainland China and Taiwan, rest of Asia and Europe, with sales offices in each of these regions. SOURCE UTAC The modern PIRANHA 5 vehicles will be produced in Romania under a strategic cooperation and transfer of technology project between General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag and the Romanian company Uzina Mecanica Bucuresti (UMB). Since 2006, the Romanian Armored Forces has fielded variants of PIRANHA vehicles which have been deployed in various missions in-country and abroad, demonstrating its reliability and performance. "The Romanian Army is one of the most important PIRANHA users in Europe. We are very honored by this contract award as it reflects the high confidence and satisfaction the Romanian Army has in our vehicles," said Oliver Durr, Vice President Wheeled Vehicles and Managing Director of General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag. "With this step, we have established a sustainable collaboration with a trusted partner which has a significant industrial footprint in Romania," said Thomas Kauffmann, General Dynamics European Land Systems Vice President International Business & Services. "The transfer of technology and the local production of these vehicles present an enormous opportunity to the Romanian industry." With more than 11,000 systems fielded, the PIRANHA is one of the most successful 8x8 wheeled armored vehicles in the world. About General Dynamics European Land Systems General Dynamics European Land Systems, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) and conducts its business through five European operating sites located in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. With more than 2,000 highly skilled technical employees, the companies design, manufacture and deliver world-class land combat, systems, including wheeled, tracked and amphibious vehicles, bridge systems, armaments, and munitions, to global customers. More information is available at www.gdels.com. SOURCE General Dynamics European Land Systems Related Links http://www.gdels.com MANSFIELD, Ohio, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gorman-Rupp, pump manufacturer of Mansfield, Ohio, is introducing a new line of cost-effective priming-assisted centrifugal pumps. The ValuPrime is a compact and powerful pump ideally suited for the dewatering needs of the construction, industrial, and agricultural markets and is based on the proven technology of the Prime Aire and Prime Aire Plus lines. 6" Gorman-Rupp ValuPrime Pump Featuring model sizes 4" x 4" (100 mm x 100 mm) and 6" x 6" (150 mm x 150 mm), flows to 1520 GPM (95.9 lps), total dynamic head to 150' (45.7 m) and solids handling capabilities up to 3" (76.2 mm), these pumps provide the high level of performance you've come to expect from Gorman-Rupp. The new VPA Series pump line comes standard with a 34 gallon fuel tank, programmable control panel, EPA compliant Isuzu Final Tier IV diesel engine, and a one-year factory warranty. These pumps are ideal for floodwater/storm standby, general job site dewatering, river and dam bypass operations, dust control and for water and street department applications. About Gorman-Rupp The Gorman-Rupp Company is a leading manufacturer of pumps and pumping systems for the municipal, water, wastewater, sewage, industrial, construction, and original equipment manufacturing markets. Established in 1933, Gorman-Rupp provides a quality, competitively priced product backed by superior customer service. The Gorman-Rupp Company is a pioneer in its field, boasting a history of innovation, continuous improvement and excellence that sets the industry standard. Contact: Cyndi Hoffner Advertising Manager Gorman-Rupp Pumps Phone: (419) 755-1207 [email protected] SOURCE The Gorman-Rupp Company WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Students from 10 schools in Idaho will speak with a NASA astronaut living and working aboard the International Space Station at 11:25 a.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 17. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website. Approximately 400 students will travel to Boise State University for the call to Expedition 54 astronaut Joe Acaba, who arrived at the orbiting laboratory Sept. 12. They will have an opportunity to ask him questions about life aboard the space station, NASA's deep space exploration plans, and doing science in space. Media interested in attending the event should contact Brady Moore at [email protected] or 208-426-1586. The location of the event is 1910 University Dr. Boise State University was selected through a competitive process to host a downlink with the space station. Students in the participating districts have been preparing for the event by studying the space station, astronaut biographies, and current research and activities aboard the space station. Linking students directly to astronauts in space provides unique, authentic experiences designed to enhance student learning, performance and interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This in-flight education downlink is an integral component of NASA's Year of Education on Station, which provides extensive space station-related resources and opportunities to students and educators. Follow the astronauts on social media: https://www.twitter.com/NASA_astronauts See videos and lesson plans highlighting research on the International Space Station at: https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AdValue Photonics, Inc. (Tucson, AZ) is pleased to announce their new industrial picosecond fiber laser - EVERESTpico Green. This ultrafast laser represents the latest addition to AdValue's series of industrial short pulse fiber lasers and underlines the company's commitment to the material processing market. The EVERESTpico Green operates at a wavelength of 515 nm and produces a high pulse energy of 15 J at a pulse repetition rate (PRR) of 1000 kHz, resulting in an average power of 15 W. The laser's pulse width is rated at 50 ps. The single mode output has an excellent near diffraction-limited beam quality of M2 < 1.2. The laser is based on an innovative, highly reliable fiber-based architecture that leverages AdValue Photonics' strong expertise and advanced capabilities in the design and manufacture of specialty fibers. Designed to be highly cost-effective, with high peak power and short pulse width at a wavelength of 515 nm, the availability of the EVERESTpico Green laser will accelerate the use of lasers for various challenging micromachining, transparent material cutting, surface shaping, and thin-film patterning processes found in today's microelectronics, LED, medical device and solar industries. AdValue Photonics' representatives will be at the Photonics West 2018 (exhibit booth #337), in San Francisco, California, USA to discuss this and other products available. About AdValue Photonics: AdValue Photonics is a leading manufacturer of innovative fiber lasers for materials processing, sensing, scientific and medical applications. Founded in 2007, with a reputation for delivering groundbreaking products based on its proprietary technology, the company leverages its unique capabilities in specialty glasses and fibers to optimize the performance and reliability of its fiber lasers. For more information, please visit: http://www.advaluephotonics.com. Contact: Dr. Katherine Liu, Director of Marketing & Sales, +1 (520) 790-5468, [email protected]. SOURCE AdValue Photonics Related Links http://www.advaluephotonics.com "GeekPark Innovation Festival @ CES of Geek Night" was held by GeekPark at Caesar Palace Hotel in Las Vegas concurrently. The event gathered many celebrities in the field of science and technology to unscramble the key nodes in the scientific and technological internet field of the past year and shared the future development trends of the science and technology field predicted by CES. Xiangyang Shen, executive vice-president of Microsoft; Jianzhong Zhang, vice president of NVIDIA Corporation and general manager of China district; and Sheng Fu, co-founder and CEO of Cheetah Mobile attended this meeting. HYDATA, as a leader in AI application and visual analytics, was invited to attend this grand meeting, obtaining "The Most Valuable AI Application" award powered by GeekPark in the awarding section. A private exchange forum for scientific and technological elites at CES dubbed Geek Night was anticipated by the scientific and technological circle in China. The invitation-only interchange was one of the best CEO and CTO gatherings of global scientific and technological innovation enterprises in CES. With the advent of the era of "artificial intelligence plus," science and technology across the globe are entering an extremely rapid evolutionary stage. Science and technology are gradually developing into the rock-bottom architecture of the entire community. With this new background, utilizing big data and artificial intelligence technology, boosting data efficiency and business decisions, and turning new data technologies into new professional proficiency and professional proficiency into new commercial species have become the keys for all walks of life to survive in the future. In order to enable users to own the new competence of self-evolution and achieve efficient decision-making in business data, HYDATA centers on big data and artificial intelligence technology, constructing a brand new HYSIGHT. Driven by service design, HYSIGHT transforms valuable software, hardware, data, and algorithms into resources. Through self-help individualized definition, all kinds of capabilities are endowed to users through services which improve the efficiency of completing users' tasks and realizes the value of data decision. Nowadays, HYSIGHT is applied in public security, transportation, and military and civilian functions, as well as in smart cities. At this CES, HYDATA made a special effort to exhibit the powerful functions of HYSIGHT in helping smart cities and campus security. For instance, in the construction of smart cities, HYSIGHT can organize public data of the whole city comprehensively, provide real-time monitoring of multiple municipal resources and increase emergency response, achieving urban smart management and operation. In terms of transportation, it can integrate the data of various frameworks to shorten flight support preparation time by 33%, cut flight delay rates in half and increase airport resource utilization rates by 28%, thus helping the functioning of smart airports. Most notably, HYSIGHT has made a great technical breakthrough in the field of campus security and protection, which is conducive to addressing all long-standing problems in American campus security. As is known, HYDATA is a leader in AI application and visual analytics, focusing on utilizing AI and visual analytics technology to endow users with wiser business decision capability through flexible and scientific analysis of data. HYDATA helps users to achieve efficiency promotion and value realization in business scenarios. SOURCE HYDATA CLIFTON, Va., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Jean and Ric Edelman, founders of Edelman Financial Services, were recognized today for their $500,000 donation to the Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program (NVTRP) during a groundbreaking ceremony for the organization's Build to Thrive Capital Campaign project. The donation will help NVTRP expand its facilities to allow for year-round equine-assisted therapeutic activities with the creation of an indoor riding arena that will include a climate-controlled observation area and education room. Jean and Ric have supported the program for more than a decade, with their contributions helping NVTRP expand its therapeutic equine-assisted programming. Currently, the organization reaches 350 unique riders each year, including children and adults with disabilities, at-risk youth, military service personnel and their families. With the help of this donation, NVTRP will be able to help even more community members. "This project is very special to Ric and me. Through the experience of one of our family members, we've seen the positive impact therapeutic horseback riding can have," said Jean Edelman. "Seeing the dedication and strength from the participants, whether it is at-risk youth seeking a more positive experience or veterans overcoming issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, inspires us to do what we can to ensure riders can continue to benefit from NVTRP's great work." "Jean and Ric Edelman's donation is instrumental in the execution of the Build to Thrive Capital Campaign project," said Kelsey Gallagher, executive director of NVTRP. "We appreciate their engagement and support of NVTRP and look forward to seeing these improvements come to life so that more riders in the community can benefit from equine-assisted therapy." To date, the campaign has raised more than $2.9 million. In addition to allowing for year-round programs, the campaign will provide the opportunity for NVTRP to add new services, including equine-assisted psychotherapy. For more information on the Build to Thrive campaign, visit www.nvtrp.org. About Jean Edelman Jean Edelman, co-founder of Edelman Financial Services, is one of the most successful women in the Washington, D.C., business community. While Ric emphasizes the more traditional elements of personal finance, Jean focuses on The Other Side of Money, sharing her insights to help us see ourselves and the world around us in a positive, loving way. Jean serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards, including an appointment to the Rowan University Board of Trustees in 2012 by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. As a student, Jean was Rowan's first female president of the Student Government Association, recipient of the Distinguished Senior Award in her graduating year and named the university's Alumnus of the Year in 1994. Her degree is in home economics, consumer economics, marketing and nutrition. Jean and Ric are benefactors of the Inova Edelman Center for Nursing at Inova Health Foundation, as well as the Edelman Planetarium and the Edelman Fossil Park, both at Rowan University. They also actively support the Boys & Girls Clubs, Heroes Inc., the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program and many other charities. Visit Jean online at JeanEdelman.com. About Ric Edelman For 30 years, Ric Edelman has worked to teach everyday people about personal finance. He's widely regarded as one of the nation's top financial advisors, having been ranked #11 on the 2017 list of the nation's Top Wealth Advisors by Forbes.1 He was previously ranked the nation's #1 Independent Financial Advisor three times by Barron's.2 Ric is the 2017 recipient of the IARFC's Loren Dunton Memorial Award3 for Lifetime Achievement for his "substantial contribution to the financial services profession and the financial interests of the public." He is an inductee of Research magazine's Financial Advisor Hall of Fame,4 and has been named among the 15 most transformative people in the industry by InvestmentNews5 and one of the investment advisory field's 10 most influential figures by RIABiz.6 Ric is also a #1 New York Times bestselling author who has written nine books on personal finance. His most recent, The Truth About Your Future, was published in March 2017. For more information about Ric Edelman, visit https://www.edelmanfinancial.com/about-us/about-ric. About Edelman Financial Services Edelman Financial Services is one of the nation's largest independent financial planning firms7 with 163 financial planners and 43 offices coast to coast, provides financial planning and investment management services to more than 34,000 individuals and families, and manages more than $20.6 billion in assets.8 The firm also provides 401(k) plans and institutional investment management for businesses. Edelman Financial Services has won more than 100 financial, business, community and philanthropic awards,9 and offers an investment philosophy that puts clients first and delivers value through in-depth financial education, personalized financial plans and unfettered access to planners.10 About NVTRP Originally chartered in 1980, NVTRP is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing equine-assisted activities to children and adults with disabilities, youth at risk, military service personnel and their families in an inclusive, community setting. Learning to ride and care for a horse not only improves the physical health of a rider but also generates a critically important sense of accomplishment. Riders participating at NVTRP represent a range of disabilities including attention deficit disorder, autism, cerebral palsy, developmental disabilities, vision and hearing impairments, and genetic syndromes. NVTRP is a Premier Center accredited by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.), and a member of the Therapeutic Riding Association of Virginia (TRAV). NVTRP is located in Clifton, VA. 1 Forbes rankings are the opinion of SHOOK Research and are based on in-person and telephone due-diligence meetings and a ranking algorithm for advisors who have a minimum of seven years of experience, client retention, industry experience, compliance records and firm nominations, as well as quantitative criteria such as assets under management and revenue generated for the firm. Advisors are judged on individual contribution, but total team assets are shown; in some cases, significant, noncustodied assets are not included because of verification difficulties. Investment performance is not considered. Advisors do not pay to be in the ranking. 2 According to Barron's, "The formula [used] to rank advisors has three major components: assets managed, revenue produced and quality of the advisor's practice. Investment returns are not a component of the rankings because an advisor's returns are dictated largely by each client's risk tolerance. The quality-of-practice component includes an evaluation of each advisor's regulatory record." The rankings are based on the universe of applications submitted to Barron's. The selection process begins with a nomination and application provided to Barron's. Principals of Edelman Financial Services, LLC, self-nominated the firm and submitted quantitative and qualitative information to Barron's as requested. Barron's reviewed and considered this information, which resulted in the rankings on Aug. 27, 2012/Aug. 28, 2010/Aug. 31, 2009. 3 Presented by the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants (IARFC). Candidates must hold a professional designation and must have disseminated their comments on financial topics by having them widely published in articles, journals, books, etc. They must have provided outstanding personal service or leadership in the financial services industry. Nominees must have participated in some aspect of financial education to the public or to other members of the profession. Investor experience/returns were not considered. 4 Research magazine cover story "Advisor Hall of Fame," December 2004 (based on serving a minimum of 15 years in the industry, having acquired substantial assets under management, demonstrating superior client service and having earned recognition from peers and the broader community for how they reflect on their profession). Investor experience/returns were not considered as part of this ranking. 5 InvestmentNews 15th Anniversary Issue. June 23, 2013. 6 The RIABiz listing of the 10 most influential figures in the Registered Investment Advisor industry is in recognition of notable, driven and influential executives who are advancing their firms and are considered to be influential in the RIA business. Investor experience/returns were not considered as part of this ranking. 7 WealthManagement.com's "Top 100 RIAs of 2015" ranking was assembled using data from Meridian-IQ. Advisory firms are ranked by total assets under management. To land on the list, firms had to have a focus on financial and retirement planning for individual and high-net-worth clients. And institutional clients do not make up a substantial portion of their businesses. Finally, none of these firms are owned by a bank, broker/dealer or investment company. Investor experience/returns were not considered as part of this ranking. Edelman Financial Services ranked third. 8 As of Sept. 30, 2017. 9 Throughout the firm's 30-year history, EFS and Ric Edelman have been presented with numerous business, advisory, communication and community service awards. More information on these awards can be found at EdelmanFinancial.com/awards. 10 Investing strategies, such as asset allocation, diversification or rebalancing do not assure or guarantee better performance and cannot eliminate the risk of investment losses. There are no guarantees that a portfolio employing these or any other strategy will outperform a portfolio that does not engage in such strategies. Funds and ETFs are subject to risk, including loss of principal. All investments have inherent risks. There can be no assurance that the investment strategy proposed will obtain its goal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. SOURCE Edelman Financial Services BOSTON, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock is awarding over $1 million in grants through its MLK Scholars program to provide 635 Boston teens with summer jobs at 65 non-profit organizations. This year marks the eleventh consecutive year of the program. MLK Scholars is believed to be the largest, most comprehensive, corporate-based summer jobs program of its kind in the nation. John Hancock oversees the program and works in close partnership with The City of Boston, The Boston Globe, Boston University, and Partners HealthCare, with additional support from The Ad Club of Boston. John Hancock also counts on EverFi, Boston Cares, and The Center for Teen Empowerment to help develop and implement its summer programming. "The John Hancock MLK Scholars program shows that when Boston and its companies work hand in hand, lives can truly change," said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "These summer jobs for our Boston students provide so much more than just a paycheck -- summer jobs provide independence, financial literacy, valuable work experience, and knowledge that all opportunities are possible." Through the annual million-dollar program, Boston high school students spend the summer working at non-profit agencies across the city, gaining valuable real-work skills and engaging on issues that affect their community. Throughout the summer, all of the scholars participate in "Mayor Menino Leadership Forums," which offer hands-on leadership development training at Boston University. Each Scholar is also required to complete digital financial literacy training. Non-profits receive funding for each Scholar position awarded to provide paid summer employment to Boston teens. Sixty-five local non-profits, addressing a myriad of important community issues, were selected to participate in 2018. (See below for full list.) "John Hancock is committed to healthier, more equitable communities," said Thomas Crohan, assistant vice president and counsel, John Hancock Corporate Responsibility & Government Relations. "MLK Scholars empowers young people to improve their overall wellbeing by gaining important career readiness and financial literacy skills, building positive relationships, and supporting good decision-making for themselves and for their futures." "The Dimock Center is incredibly grateful to partner with John Hancock for the MLK Scholars Program, said President and Chief Executive Officer of The Dimock Center, Myechia Minter-Jordan, M.D., MBA. "Over the past seven years, MLK Scholars have contributed significantly to Dimock, working in our health center, Head Start classrooms and administrative offices. We are committed to nurturing the potential of talented young leaders and mentoring them as they consider their future goals, and thrilled that two former MLK Scholars now work in our Child and Family Services division. We are honored to count John Hancock as one of Dimock's most significant partners, and we look forward to our continued work together through the MLK Scholars Program." For more information regarding John Hancock's MLK Scholars Program, visit MLK Scholars. Non-profit organizations receiving MLK Scholars grants for 2018 are: Artists For Humanity BCYF Menino Community Center Bikes Not Bombs Boch Center Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center Boston Dance Alliance Inc Boston Debate League Boston Harbor Now Boston Landmarks Orchestra Inc Boston Partners in Education Boston Police Department Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras Inc Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester Breakthrough Greater Boston Inc BUILD Camp Harbor View Catholic Charities - St. Peter's Teen Center Codman Square Health Center College Bound Dorchester Community Rowing Inc Courageous Sailing Center for Youth Inc Crossroads for Kids Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Federation For Children With Special Needs Inc Foundation For Boston Centers For Youth & Families Inc Freedom House Future Chefs Handel and Haydn Society Hawthorne Youth and Community Center Hyde Square Task Force Inquilinos Boricuas En Accion Leap Self-Defense Inc Level Ground Madison Park Development Corporation Massachusetts Coalition For Occupational Safety & Health Inc Mattapan Teen Center Maverick Landing Community Services MetroLacrosse Museum of African American History Museum of Fine Arts Museum of Science Partners for Youth with Disabilities Phillips Brook House Association Incorporated Polus Center for Social & Economic Development Save the Harbor/Save the Bay Sociedad Latina South Boston Community Health Center South Boston Leadership Initiative Inc South Boston Neighborhood House Inc South End Technology Center Sportsmen's Tennis and Enrichment Center St Peter Academy Inc St. Mary's Center for Women and Children Student Athletes Rising Summer Search The Center for Teen Empowerment The Dimock Center UMass Boston - Urban Scholars Program Upham's Corner Community Center Urban Farming Institute Of Boston West End House Yawkey Club of Roxbury Youth Enrichment Services Inc YouthBuild Boston ZUMIX PR-2018-03 SOURCE John Hancock Related Links http://www.johnhancock.com LECOMPTON, Kan., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 22nd Annual Bleeding Kansas Program series is set to begin at 2pm, January 28 at the historic Constitution Hall in Lecompton Kansas. The series focuses on the early territorial history of Kansas and its role in the Civil War. The museum's curator, Tim Rues, states that "what's exciting about the Bleeding Kansas series is not only the topics and the knowledgeable presenters but the unique venue. The programs are held on the second floor of Constitution Hall where the early territorial government was formed and the pivotal Lecompton Constitution was written 163 years ago." The first event in the series on Jan 28 will chronicle the Saving of Constitution Hall, a national landmark and state historic site. Former Kansas State Senator Winton A. Winter, Jr., representing Lecompton in the State Senate from 1982 - 1992 and preservation architect Dan Rockhill, a JL Constant Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the University of Kansas and Executive Director of Studio 804, will discuss how the building was acquired and preserved to become a state historic site. Weapons of Kansas and Missouri: Cavalry Carbines of the Civil is the title of the 2nd program scheduled for Feb. 4. The presenter, Gary Nevius, has one of the finest and rarest private collections of Civil War era cavalry carbines. Mr. Nevius is an architect from Overland Park and is a member of the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area Board of Directors. Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan will be making his third appearance for the Bleeding Kansas series. Dr. Jordan is a professor at Sam Houston State University Department of History and is the author of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in history. His book titled Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War will be the program scheduled for Feb 11 and a book signing will follow his presentation. Ralph A. Monaco, a repeat presenter, will present his newest book on Feb 18. titled The Bandit Rides Again, Jesse James, Whiskeyhead Ryan & the Glendale Train Robbery. Mr. Monaco is a practicing attorney and past president and current treasurer of the Jackson County Missouri Historical Society. A book signing will follow the presentation. The Wyandots, Quindaro, and Other Immigrant Tribes of Bleeding and Civil War Kansas is the subject of the Feb 25 program. Sisters Holly Zane and Kristen Zane are members of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas and the Bear Clan. Deborah Barker will headline the March 4 program and present her newest book Black Civil War Veterans Build a Church in 1867. A book signing will follow. She has a long history of service to numerous organizations including the Franklin County Kansas Historical Society, the Kansas Historical Society and Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area. All programs will be held at 2pm every Sunday from January 28 March 4 at Constitution Hall, 319 Elmore St. in Historic Lecompton. Admission is three dollars per person. For further information call 785-887-6520 or visit www.lecomptonkansas.com. Contact: Paul Bahnmaier Phone: 785-887-6148 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Lecompton Historical Society Related Links http://www.lecomptonkansas.com LONDON, January 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Video game manufacturers continue to face criticism over loot boxes, which can be bought with real money to be used within games and contain randomised prizes. According to a survey by Live Casino Comparer, 60% of British people believe that loot boxes should be regulated as gambling. The controversy over loot boxes began when Belgian and Dutch gambling regulators originally looked into the idea that loot boxes should be classified as gambling. This was followed by a damning critique of loot boxes from Hawaiian state representative Chris Lee, who released a video on YouTube. Referring to the loot boxes in 2017 video game Star Wars: Battlefront II, Lee expressed his anger towards a "Star Wars-themed online casino designed to lure kids into spending money." In response to the affair, Apple recently changed the rules on its app store with regards to loot boxes. Vulnerable young people Neil Walker, the gambling expert who conducted the survey of over 1,000 British people, condemns the "gambling loopholes" that allow loot boxes to exist. "Vulnerable young people are being introduced to gambling in a way that provides them with no protection or support." The Gambling Commission has also recently expressed concerns about the amount of exposure to gambling that young people are facing. Its research on the issue states that 80% of 11-16 year olds have seen gambling advertised on TV. What's more, 12% of 11-16 year olds have gambled in the last week. However, with regards to loot boxes, Walker worries that this figure could potentially be "a lot higher". He also blames the Government for its double standards on tackling the issue. "Large fines have been levied by the UK Gambling Commission for misleading advertising, yet nothing is being done to regulate gambling purchases in video games in the UK." Out of touch politicians Despite increasing pressure to regulate loot boxes as gambling, from both officials and the public, the stance of authorities in the UK and the US is that loot boxes do not constitute as gambling because players do get some kind of reward. Walker believes that this is missing the point. "Politicians are out of touch with what the public wants. Of course, loot boxes count as gambling. The time to act is now." This isn't the first time that the question of whether or not loot boxes count as gambling has been raised. In 2012, a predatory scheme similar to loot boxes in Japanese games was declared illegal by the government. Kompu gacha was an in-game mechanism which involved encouraging players to pay a little bit of money for a randomised prize. Most of these prizes were small, but some were worth much more. Shocking similarities As with kompu gacha, the concern with Star Wars: Battlefront II is the way in which its loot boxes so closely mimic a casino. One minigame even involves a slot machine and, according to journalist Zaid Jilani, it's not uncommon for players to treat the loot boxes in Star Wars: Battlefront II like a slot machine. "A loot box costs between 83 cents and $1.80, and it's not uncommon for a player to buy dozens and dozens of boxes in an attempt to unlock a particular character or capability." Walker calls these similarities "shocking", as he had previously assumed that loot boxes were regulated as gambling. "As someone who has worked in the iGaming industry for years, I had long thought that loot boxes counted as gambling in the same way that blackjack or a slot machine would." "There are children growing up right now who's first exposure to gambling is through loot boxes. We need to make sure that video games are held accountable in the same way casinos are." For more information about Neil Walker, please visit www.livecasinocomparer.com About Live Casino Comparer Live Casino Comparer is an online casino comparison and gambling news website run by gambling expert Neil Walker. Each article is written by Neil, who specialises in analyses of different online live casinos. The website also features reviews, insight, and updates from across the casino industry. SOURCE Live Casino Comparer David Pogue, tech guru and founder of Yahoo! Tech, returned for his third year as emcee and kicked off the event with a witty CES trends poem. Creative and thrilling presentations, from an AR Jedi battle to some friendly game ball competition, kept the live audience entertained from start to finish, along with prizes thanks to Lenovo's sponsorship and commitment to innovation. "It's thrilling to encounter these points of light in dark times these ingenious inventors and their machines, which are ultimately designed to make life better," said Pogue. "This year's competition continues to stretch the boundaries of technology and reveal which products truly shine in the spotlight," said Robin Raskin, founder and president of Living in Digital Times. "The level of creativity and wit in these presentations never ceases to amaze me. I am beyond impressed with the level of innovation that Last Gadget Standing brought out in this year's applicants." Last Gadget Standing 2018 Top 10 Gadgets The Dash Pro GoSilent KitSound Voice One Smart Speaker Lenovo Star Wars: Jedi Challenges Modius OrCam MyEye 2.0 Play Impossible Gameball Raven Root Vestaboard Following Last Gadget Standing, five exceptional studentsall under the age of 20were named the 2018 Young Innovators to Watch for their outstanding inventions. Through the generosity of sponsors like Lenovo, the Young Innovators to Watch program offers scholarship awards to high school and college students for changing the technological landscape through their innovative products and experiences. Presenting this year's winners: Varun Shenoy, 16, Cupertino, CA, developed Theia, an app that tracks post-operative surgical wounds to promote patient compliance while preventing wound complications through automated deep learning assessment. Patients can upload an image of the wound for a daily assessment, and the app creates comprehensive wound reports that the physician can receive on a regular basis. Benjamin Liu, 16, Arcadia, CA, developed Fluorospark, an integrated and self-contained lab-on-a-chip device that detects RNA-based infectious diseases. Sample preparation, nucleic acid separation and amplification, and detection no longer require manual pipettes or automated, bulky, and costly instruments. The device reduces acoustic micro-mixing time from 6 hours to 7 seconds. Karishma Muthukumar, 17, Cerritos, CA, developed OutLoud, a communication board that allows victims with Locked-In Syndrome to choose emojis through eye tracking mechanisms and artificial intelligence. With numerous emojis to convey language and emotions, patients utilize Brain-Computer Interface to improve patient-giver interactions and reduce medical error. Emily Kiehl, 17, and Radu Vasilescu, 16, Loveland, OH, developed Project Purple, a VR system that helps children with Ambylopia strengthen their weak eye. Like patching in ophthalmology, the VR headset dims brightness and blocks the strong eye through games that focus on perspective and optical depth perception, triggering the simultaneous use of both eyes. "These five students stood out from many of this year's applicants for aiding their communities with ingenious innovations," said Robin Raskin, founder and president of Living in Digital Times. "We hope scholarships and recognitions like this will empower young minds to not only embrace their love for technology but also use it in a way that improves their world." Scholarship winners received $1,000 in scholarship money, a trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a cool tech swag bag, international recognition, and the opportunity to meet technology industry professionals, journalists and influencers at a highly publicized awards ceremony. Follow Last Gadget Standing and Young Innovators to Watch on Twitter @GadgetLast and @YIScholarship, and use the hashtags #LastGadget and #YoungInnovators. About Living in Digital Times Founded by veteran technology journalist Robin Raskin, Living in Digital Times brings together the most knowledgeable leaders and the latest innovations impacting both technology and lifestyle. It helps companies identify and act on emerging trends, create compelling company narratives, and do better business through strong network connections. Living in Digital Times produces technology conferences, exhibits and events at CES and other locations throughout the year by lifestyle verticals. Core brands include Digital Health Summit, Digital Money Forum, FitnessTech, Baby Tech, [email protected], Family Tech Summit, FamilyTech TV, Beauty Tech, Wearables and FashionWare runway show, Last Gadget Standing and the KAPi Awards. The company also works with various foundations and manages the Young Innovators to Watch awards recognizing student STEAM innovations. For more information, visit www.LivinginDigitalTimes.com and keep up with our latest news on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. About CES CES is the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years-the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. As the largest hands-on event of its kind, CES features all aspects of the industry. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM, it attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering thinkers. Check out CES video highlights. Follow CES online at CES.tech and on social. Media Contact: Kristen Joerger LKPR, Inc. for Living in Digital Times [email protected] 603-494-3295 (mobile) SOURCE Living in Digital Times Related Links http://livingindigitaltimes.com Each time someone nominated a friend deserving of a relaxing bubble bath or added the Mr. Bubble profile photo frame to their Facebook profile picture, Mr. Bubble made a $1 donation in support of RMHC-UM families. On National Bubble Bath Day, Mr. Bubble quandrulped the donation ($4) for each nomination. In total, fans raised $3,236 with Mr. Bubble contributing the remaining $6,764 for the even $10,000 donation. In addition to the donation, Mr. Bubble made special "bubble-baths-in-a-box" deliveries on National Bubble Bath Day featuring the brand's Bubble Bath and Magic Bath Crackles to 1,000 families staying at RMHC chapters in Dallas, New Orleans, Denver, Chicago, Milwaukee, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Phoenix, Sacramento and New York City. "We are so grateful for the support provided by Mr. Bubble and his many fans across the country," said Jill Evenocheck, RMHC-UM President and CEO. "These funds will help us provide a warm and comfortable home-away-from-home to more than 5,000 families who seek specialized care for their child in the Twin Cities this year. And, because Ronald McDonald House chapters across the country are always looking for ways to ease families' stress levels and provide a fun diversion at the same time, we are especially excited about the special deliveries that will be made to nine RMH chapters on National Bubble Bath Day." In addition, from Dec. 30 through Jan. 8, one nominee each day was awarded a year's supply of bubble bath, along with the person who nominated them. Ten winners were also selected per day to win their own iconic pink bottle of bubble bath for adding the Mr. Bubble profile photo frame to their Facebook picture. "National Bubble Bath Day is a day meant to celebrate all things bubbly and fun and Mr. Bubble wanted to share the joy of bubbles with those who are among the most deserving. Thank you to all the fans who played along with us this past week. Your efforts will benefit many families who could use a little more fun in their lives," said Michelle Hanson, Director of Marketing at The Village Company, parent company for the Mr. Bubble brand. About The Village Company The Village Company (TVC) has a long and rich heritage in personal care products. Originally known as Minnetonka, Inc., TVC markets some of the country's most endearing and enduring heritage brands including Mr. Bubble, the #1 bubble bath brand in children's bath; Sesame Street Bath Products; Village Naturals Therapy and Village Naturals Aromatherapy bath products; Soft & Dri deodorant; Dep hair gels; and La Bella hair and skincare products. The Village Company's brands are widely distributed through leading retailers in the food, drug, mass and beauty channels. Visit thevillagecompany.com to learn more. About Ronald McDonald House Charities, Upper Midwest Ronald McDonald House Charities, Upper Midwest is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization whose mission is to provide a comfortable and caring home away from home that supports keeping families together and reduces stress during a child's serious illness. Based in Minneapolis, the organization operates four locations in the Twins Cities and serves more than 5,000 families each year. Additional information can be found at www.rmhtwincities.org SOURCE The Village Company Related Links http://www.thevillagecompany.com LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Prague premiere of Music-Memory-Metamorphosis, a multimedia and live performance of the composer Viktor Ullmann's melodrama The Song of Love and Death of the Cornet Christopher Rilke will take place at the famous Archa Theater in Prague, Czech Republic on 18 January 2018 at 5:30 PM (https://www.divadloarcha.cz/en/program-browse/show/music-memory-metamorphis/2018-01-18/1016 ) . The Prague premiere of Music-Memory-Metamorphosis, a multimedia and live performance of the composer Viktor Ullmann's melodrama The Song of Love and Death of the Cornet Christopher Rilke will take place at the famous Archa Theater in Prague, Czech Republic on 18 January 2018 at 5:30 PM (https://www.divadloarcha.cz/en/program-browse/show/music-memory-metamorphis/2018-01-18/1016). Produced and directed by Dr. Gwyneth Bravo (Assistant Professor of Music, NYU-Abu Dhabi), Music-Memory-Metamorphosis was developed with initial support from the Orel Foundation (http://orelfoundation.org/) and features Ullmann's 1944 Theresienstadt-composed and German-language work for recitation and piano Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke based on Rainer Maria Rilke's prose poem of the same name. The production features a live performance by renowned operatic bass Gabriel Vamvulescu and Belgian pianist Steven Vanhauwaert with technical support from 9 time Emmy Award winning animator Paul Sidlo. In the spirit of early cinema and experimental Berlin theater of the 1920s, Bravo's production re-imagines the theater and concert hall as a cinematic space where the live performance of these works takes place inside a filmic frameworkwhere a kaleidoscope of projected and slowly shifting images serves as a visual counterpoint to the poetry and music. Employing a montage aesthetic, her film, which Robert Elias, President of the OREL Foundation, describes as "a moving and beautifully wrought immersive work of art," unfolds in twelve, short movements and is comprised of a series of densely-textured images constructed from the superimposition and animation of a multilayered and harmonically-conceived series of visual elements. The ghost-like layering of black and white photographs from Czech photographer Joseph Sudek are used to create a rich visual archive of images employed to project the Jugendstil aesthetic of Rilke's 1899 work about the love and death of a young Habsburg soldier during the Austro-Turkish War of 1663-1664. Becoming a huge success in Germany after its second printing in 1912, the work was carried by soldiers during the First World War. Viktor Ullmann, who was born in Silesia in 1898 during the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, served as a soldier in World War I and made important contributions to Czech and German musical culture in Prague during the 1920s and 1930s before being deported to the Czech transit and concentration camp Theresienstadt in 1942 where he composed twenty-three musical works. Among these was his melodrama The Song of Love and Death of the Cornet Christopher Rilke, which was completed and performed in the camp only months before his transport to Auschwitz where he perished with in October 1944. Produced in Los Angeles, New York, Arizona, and Abu Dhabi, Music-Memory-Metamorphosis will be performed at diverse venues in the US, Europe, and the Middle East during the upcoming 2018-2019 season. Contact: Archa Theater: Pavlina Svatonova +420 221 716 111 [email protected] SOURCE Music-Memory-Metamorphosis "Understandably, many people were surprised to see an insurance company and a duck at CES the global stage for innovation. Aflac is grateful that attendees took the time to learn about My Special Aflac Duck and recognize not only the impressive technology built into the social robot, but the important impact that we believe it will have on the children and families facing cancer across the country," Aflac Chairman and CEO Dan Amos said. "Receiving this award confirms our core belief that investing in creating tangible ways to improve our world is good for our communities and our business, and we invite others to support this worthy cause." The Best of CES Awards celebrate the innovation and noteworthy products on display by the more than 3,900 exhibitors at CES each year. Earlier in the week, My Special Aflac Duck was recognized as the winner of the prestigious "Tech for a Better World" CES Innovation Award and the IHS Markit Innovation Award for Robotics and Drones at CES 2018. "It is humbling to be recognized among the impressive innovations at CES and gratifying that this new robotic companion can make a real difference in the lives of children who have cancer," said Aaron Horowitz, CEO and co-founder of Sproutel. "The Best of CES Award is the ultimate stamp of approval for my team's creative ideas and innovations. I would like to thank Aflac for making the development of My Special Aflac Duck possible and supporting our patient-centered, empathy-driven design process that puts children first." My Special Aflac Duck, part of Aflac's ongoing Aflac Childhood Cancer Campaign and developed by Sproutel, features naturalistic movements and joyful play to help distract children coping with cancer. With four patents pending and a year of child-centered research behind it, My Special Aflac Duck is a smart comforting companion that helps children feel less alone by using interactive technology during their cancer treatment. A compatible web-based app enables children to mirror their care routines, including medical play, feeding and bathing via augmented reality. The smart companion emulates young patients' moods, endures the same often-painful therapies, and dances, quacks and nuzzles to help comfort children when they need it most. In early 2018, Aflac and Sproutel will begin delivering the My Special Aflac Duck to children at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for further testing. The smart companion is expected to be available to children with cancer nationwide in winter 2018-2019. To see videos of the award-winning My Special Aflac Duck in action and to learn more about this important cause, please visit AflacChildhoodCancer.org. About Aflac When a policyholder gets sick or hurt, Aflac pays cash benefits fast. For more than six decades, Aflac insurance policies have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. In the United States, Aflac is the leader in voluntary insurance sales at the worksite. Through its trailblazing One Day PaySM initiative, Aflac U.S. can receive, process, approve and disburse payment for eligible claims in one business day. In Japan, Aflac is the leading provider of medical and cancer insurance and insures 1 in 4 households. Aflac insurance products help provide protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. For 11 consecutive years, Ethisphere has recognized Aflac as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. In 2017, Fortune magazine recognized Aflac as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America for the 19th consecutive year and in 2017 included Aflac on its list of Most Admired Companies for the 16th time. Aflac Incorporated is a Fortune 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFL. To find out more about Aflac and One Day PaySM, visit aflac.com or aflac.com/espanol. Aflac herein means American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus and American Family Life Assurance Company of New York. About Sproutel Sproutel is a research and development workshop focused on making health care playful. Using a proprietary, patient-centered and empathy-driven design process, Sproutel collaborates hand in hand with end users and a network of medical experts to create award-winning innovations like My Special Aflac Duck and Jerry the Bear. Jerry is an interactive companion for children living with Type 1 diabetes created in part with funding from the National Institutes of Health. Companies and nonprofits partner with Sproutel to develop new products and gain patient-centered insights to commercialize existing research. To find out more about Sproutel, visit sproutel.com. About the Best of CES Awards Program The Best of CES Awards Program started over a decade ago to celebrate the innovation and noteworthy products on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) each year. For the fifth year, Engadget is adjudicating the official Awards in partnership with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). For the official list of finalists and winners, visit the Best of CES Awards hub. CES is a registered trademark of the CTA. Media contact Jon Sullivan, 706.763.4813 or [email protected] Aflac analyst and investor contact David A. Young, 706.596.3264 or 800.235.2667, FAX 706.324.6330, or [email protected] SOURCE Aflac Related Links http://www.aflac.com ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States Department of State replaced its travel advisory system for U.S. travelers. The new travel advisory system is a big deal for evaluating travel, however leading travel insurance comparison site, Squaremouth, says it likely won't impact travel insurance coverage, at least for now. Many travelers will be familiar with the old system of "Travel Alerts" and "Travel Warnings". This is its replacement. The new travel advisory system evaluates the danger of traveling to each country, based on factors including terrorism, crime, and health, among others. Each level gives a recommendation on whether or not it is safe to visit a country, using the following 1 through 4 ranking: Exercise Normal Precautions Exercise Increased Caution Reconsider Travel Do Not Travel Recommendations Against Travel Aren't Enough to Cancel Typically, a travel advisory alone is not enough for a traveler to be refunded if they cancel their trip. In order for Trip Cancellation coverage to be available, a traveler must be unable to travel for a specific reason listed in their policy, such as an illness or injury, hurricane, or terrorist attack. "U.S. travel advisories may factor into an underwriter's decision not to insure travel to a particular destination, but the new four-tiered system is not expected to have an impact on policyholder benefits in general," says Jason Schreier, CEO of APRIL Travel Protection. Limited Coverage Options for Travel Advisories The only way something is covered by Trip Cancellation is if it's specifically listed in the policy, such as an attack being declared terrorism by an approved governing body. This worked the same way with the old travel warning system. The only way to be sure is to get Cancel For Any Reason. This coverage partially refunds travelers if they cancel for a reason not listed in their policy, as long as they cancel at least 2 days before they are scheduled to leave. "Ultimately, the traveler needs to be comfortable with their travel plans and make the decision that best suits them," says Bob Chambers, Vice President of Operations for CSA/Generali Global Assistance. "Plans with Cancel For Any Reason are a way to cover the unexpected if travelers are considering travel to countries that are or could become level 4." Squaremouth created the New Travel Advisory System and Travel Insurance Information Center to explain coverage for the new system. This page is regularly updated by Squaremouth's travel insurance experts, and includes answers to frequently asked questions and official statements from providers. ABOUT SQUAREMOUTH Squaremouth compares travel insurance policies from every major travel insurance provider in the United States. Using Squaremouth's comparison engine and third-party customer reviews, travelers can research and compare travel insurance policies side-by-side. More information can be found at www.squaremouth.com Available Topic Expert: Steven Benna [email protected] (727) 619-7262 SOURCE Squaremouth Related Links http://www.squaremouth.com JUNO BEACH, Fla., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) today announced that it plans to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2017 financial results before the opening of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, Jan. 26, 2018, in a news release to be posted on the company's website at www.NextEraEnergy.com/investors . The company will issue an advisory news release over PR Newswire the morning of Jan. 26, with a link to the financial results news release on the company's website. As previously communicated, the company will make available its financial results only on its website. Jim Robo, chairman and chief executive officer of NextEra Energy, John Ketchum, executive vice president, finance and chief financial officer of NextEra Energy, and other members of the company's senior management team will discuss the company's fourth-quarter and full-year 2017 financial results during an investor presentation to be webcast live, beginning at 9 a.m. ET on Jan. 26. Results for NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP) also will be discussed during the same investor presentation. The listen-only webcast will be available on NextEra Energy's website by accessing the following link: www.NextEraEnergy.com/investors . The financial results news release and the slides accompanying the presentation may be downloaded at www.NextEraEnergy.com/investors , beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET on the day of the webcast. A replay will be available for 90 days by accessing the same link as listed above. NextEra Energy, Inc. NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) is a leading clean energy company with consolidated revenues of approximately $16.2 billion, approximately 45,900 megawatts of generating capacity, which includes megawatts associated with noncontrolling interests related to NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP), and approximately 14,700 employees in 30 states and Canada as of year-end 2016. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida, NextEra Energy's principal subsidiaries are Florida Power & Light Company, which serves approximately 5 million customer accounts in Florida and is one of the largest rate-regulated electric utilities in the United States, and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. Through its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy generates clean, emissions-free electricity from eight commercial nuclear power units in Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa and Wisconsin. A Fortune 200 company and included in the S&P 100 index, NextEra Energy has been recognized often by third parties for its efforts in sustainability, corporate responsibility, ethics and compliance, 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." For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com. SOURCE NextEra Energy, Inc. Related Links http://www.nexteraenergy.com MIAMI, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- One Park Financial was recently recognized as one of the "Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America" by Entrepreneur magazine's Entrepreneur360TM List, a premier study delivering the most comprehensive analysis of private companies in America. Based on this study forged by Entrepreneur, One Park Financial is recognized as a well-rounded company that has mastered a balance of impact, innovation, growth and leadership. "It's such an honor to have Entrepreneur Magazine recognize One Park Financial and include us in their 360List for 2017. We've worked hard to grow this company over the years and it's great to see that growth recognized," says CEO John M. Lie-Nielsen. "Our annual evaluation is a 360-degree analysis of top privately-held companies representing and serving a variety of industries," explains Lisa Murray, Chief Insights Officer of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. "These businesses are real-world case studies for any entrepreneur who seeks to master the four pillars that can greatly impact the longevity and growth of their businesses. With the Entrepreneur 360, success is measured by achieving balance throughout the entire organization, predicated by revenue." One Park Financial,a leader in providing capital to small and mid-sized businesses, has been offering businesses a hassle-free and extremely efficient process of securing business capital without the headache associated with traditional bank financing. The goal is and always has been to help entrepreneurs win and get the financing they need. Besides helping their clients, One Park Financial prides itself in being a welcoming and team-oriented company with a fun culture. Grovies (employees) live by the four Core Values: Results, Client's Success, Taking Risks and Fun. These values allow each employee to constantly strive for success. Honorees were identified based on the results from a comprehensive study of independently-owned companies, using a proprietary algorithm and other advanced analytics. The algorithm was built on a balanced scorecard designed to measure four metrics reflecting major pillars of entrepreneurshipinnovation, growth, leadership and impact. For additional details on the E360 List and the companies recognized, visit: entrepreneur.com/360 One Park Financial is located at 3390 Mary Street, Suite 305, Coconut Grove, FL 33133. For more information, you can visit https://www.oneparkfinancial.com/ or call 855.218.8819. Follow Us! Twitter: @1parkfinancial //Facebook: www.facebook.com/oneparkfinancial PRLog ID: www.prlog.org/12686223 SOURCE One Park Financial Related Links https://www.oneparkfinancial.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Andes Amazon Fund celebrates the creation of Yaguas National Park, established today by the Peruvian government. Located in the northern region of Loreto, Peru's newest national park will safeguard 2,147,166 acres of rainforest and a vast river system with one of the richest fish faunas in the world. Andes Amazon Fund The park's creation is a key step in conserving the country's biodiversity and protecting the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples. The Andes Amazon Fund will donate $1 million towards the goal of implementing the park and to providing social development opportunities for indigenous communities near Yaguas National Park. Over the past 20 years, this area has faced increasing pressures from illegal logging and mining interests. During the categorization process, many indigenous communities expressed their concern over these threats and pledged their support for the national park. "The mountain of our ancestors has to be a national park because it is a sacred place," explained Eriberto Jimenez Hilorio, president of the Indigenous Federation of the Border Communities of Putumayo. Indigenous groups including Yaguas, Bora, Murui-Muinani-Huitoto, Ocaina, Kiwcha and Tikuna reside near Yaguas. "The benefits are for everyone, for the future of everyone, for the country and for the world," remarked Liz Chicaje Churay, president of the Federation of the Native Communities of Ampiyacu. The communities in support of the park recognize the area's value as a breeding ground for many important species. Pioneering scientific work by the Field Museum of Chicago and Peruvian scientific counterparts revealed that the diverse Yaguas watershed includes a large number of unique aquatic environments that contain more types of freshwater fish than anywhere else in the country - approximately 550 species. Communities that live downstream depend on these fish stocks as a source of protein, as 77 percent of the rural population in Loreto consumes fish daily. Yaguas National Park also protects important threatened wildlife such as giant otters, woolly monkeys, Amazonian river dolphins and manatees. Conservationist Dr. Adrian Forsyth, executive director of the Andes Amazon Fund, said, "A national park of this size and significance can only be created with a long-term, multi-faceted collaboration between civil society organizations, local peoples and government agencies each fulfilling a key role." The Andes Amazon Fund supported the work of three organizations in the alliance known as Vamos Yaguas Parque Nacional that were instrumental in establishing Yaguas National Park: Instituto del Bien Comun (IBC), Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA) and the Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF). These organizations worked alongside the Peruvian Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Culture, the Peruvian Protected Area Service (SERNANP) and the many communities in favor of the park and in coordination with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Field Museum, Frankfurt Zoological Society, and others. Andes Amazon Fund Program Director Enrique Ortiz stated, "As a Peruvian conservationist, I am proud that with the creation of Yaguas National Park, Peru continues on the path of creating one of the most amazing park systems in the world. This park is as large as Yellowstone National Park and probably 10 times as diverse." Andes Amazon Fund congratulates President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Minister of Environment Elsa Galarza, the Ministry of Culture, SERNANP and the people of Peru for this landmark achievement. Press Contact: Haley Wiebel, Communications Specialist, [email protected] Related Images image1.jpg Indigenous Communities image2.jpg One of the Many Fish Species Found in the Yaguas River image3.jpg image4.jpg Related Links Andes Amazon Fund Press Release SOURCE Andes Amazon Fund SHANGHAI, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- At the beginning of this year, Ping An Technology was ranked as a leader in medical imaging analysis, as its Ping An Yingxiang platform set world records for nodule detection and false positive reduction with reduction with average sensitivity rates of 95.1 percent and 96.8 percent respectively in the authoritative LUNA rankings for medical imaging. It is the first time that Ping An Technology has set world records in medical imaging, demonstrating the company's worldwide leadership in the sector. LUNA (LUng Nodule Analysis) is not only an internationally recognized evaluation system for pulmonary nodule detection but also one that is receiving a lot of attention across the industry and setting the benchmark for all competitors in the field of medical imaging. The input data used to date comes from several medical institutions in the United States and are annotated by specialists and physicians. The evaluation, held as a form of competition, is being carried out by more than 3,600 professional teams from academic and industrial circles worldwide since 2016, including the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Alibaba, iFLYTEK, Fosun, as well as a host of startup firms. Each competing team is required to analyze the lung CT samples of nearly 1,000 people and locate the nodules. It is a difficult task as most of the nodules diameters are smaller than 3mm (the same width as three human hairs). Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Screening high risk individuals for lung cancer with low-dose CT scans is now being implemented in the United States and other countries are expected to soon follow suit. In CT lung cancer screening, millions of scans will need to be analyzed, creating an enormous burden for radiologists. As a result, it has become necessary to develop intelligent algorithms that are optimized for lung cancer detection. Leveraging its advantages in the relevant areas, Ping An Technology's medical imaging team proposed an innovative solution to this challenge which integrates robust control theory with advanced AI algorithms including deep learning and transfer learning, achieving excellent results and world-leading status in pulmonary nodule detection, localization and recognition. The technology is being applied in collaboration with the Shanghai Institute of Respiratory Diseases and several leading Grade III, Class A hospitals. Ping An Technology's medical imaging team, led by Dr. Xiao Jing, an expert in China's 1,000 Talents Plan and Chief Scientist at Ping An Technology, is comprised of medical and AI specialists from worldwide top universities including Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton University, the University of Florida, UCLA, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The team, with strong R&D backing, now provides a wide range of medical AI capabilities to screen for gastric, liver, cervical and thyroid cancer as well as estimate bone age, detect diabetic retinopathy and thorax related diseases. In terms of the application of medical imaging technologies, Ping An Technology is cooperating with the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chongqing Health and Family Planning Commissions as well as several of their provincial counterparts, on jointly building platforms based on big data and AI technologies in addition to research into related topics. Ping An Technology, as the core high-tech division of Ping An Group, develops and manages the key platforms and services that support the development and maintenance of the group's insurance, banking, investment and internet businesses. Ping An Technology also acts as Ping An Group's technology incubator, with strong research, development and application abilities in AI, big data and the cloud. As Ping An Group continues to grow, Ping An Technology has accumulated extensive experience around its three core strengths - "technology, the internet and finance, and the synergies that the company has built between the three, besides having developed more than 20 leading-edge technologies. In addition to the Ping An Yingxiang platform, the company owns many of what is referred to in Chinese as the "black technologies" - highly-advanced new and emerging technologies - including voiceprint recognition, facial recognition, photo-based damage assessment for motor vehicle accidents, receipt and invoice optical character recognition, voice-to-text, text-to-voice, Q&A chatbot, physical robots and livestock recognition, all of which have applications across a wide range of industries and disciplines. Ping An Technology is a customer-centric organization, where exploration, progress, innovation and the unremitting dedication to achieving breakthroughs in technology are part and parcel of its corporate culture. The company attaches great importance to social responsibility and environmental protection, and aims to become a world-leading financial technology company, enabling a development model based on the premise that, from this point forward, technologies will lead the development of finance. SOURCE PingAn Tech The report " Power Management System Market by Type (Hardware, Software, Services), Module (Power Monitoring, Load Shedding, Power Simulator, Generator Controls), End-User (Oil & Gas, Marine, Metals & Mining, Data Centers), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022" , published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated to reach USD 3.77 Billion in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 5.26 Billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 6.88%, during the forecast period. The market is set to grow due to the increasing demand for energy efficiency in the manufacturing sector, rising installation of renewables in the industry, and rising adoption of IoT and cloud-based platforms. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 77 market data Tables and 46 Figures spread through 159 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Power Management System Market - Global Forecast to 2022" https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/power-management-system-market-120746494.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report The power monitoring and control segment is expected to hold the largest share of the Power Management System Market, by module, during the forecast period. The power monitoring and control module helps in measuring and controlling vital parameters such as frequency, voltage, energy demand, current and voltage control, and data analysis for overall power quality control. The segment is expected to be driven by the increasing demand for energy efficiency in the manufacturing sector in the Asia Pacific region. Emerging economies such as China and India are witnessing substantial growth in the manufacturing sector with favorable government policies supporting investments in the sector. The shale oil & gas boom in North America is expected to another key driver for the growth in the power monitoring and control segment during the forecast period. Download PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=120746494 The marine segment is expected to dominate the Power Management System Market, by end-user, in 2017. The marine segment comprises marine vessels such as offshore support vessels, cargo vessels, LNG tankers, cruise ships, and defense vessels. Marine vessels consume substantial amounts of diesel or natural gas to power the vessels. Power management systems in marine vessels ensure optimized load distribution in marine vessels, generator start and stop, automatic load shedding, switching operations, and fuel optimization. The growth in the global shipbuilding industry, particularly in the Asia Pacific region and Europe is expected to drive the marine segment in the Power Management System Market. Asia Pacific: Expected to be the leading market for power management systems during the forecast period. The Power Management System Market has been analyzed with respect to six regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, the Middle East, and Africa. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to lead the Power Management System Market, by region. The increase in the manufacturing sector along with other industries such as metals and mining and data centers is the key factor driving the Power Management System Market in Asia Pacific. The growth in shipbuilding particularly for offshore support vessels and commercial vessels is another key driver for the growth in the market. Make an Inquiry @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=120746494 To enable an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, the report includes the profiles of some of the top players in the Power Management System Market. These include ABB (Switzerland), Eaton (Ireland), Siemens (Germany), GE (US), ETAP (US), Wartsila (Finland), and Mitsubishi (Japan). The leading players are trying to understand the markets in developing economies and are adopting various strategies to increase their market shares. Browse Related Reports: Power System Simulator Market by Module (Load Flow, Short Circuit, Device Coordination Selectivity, Arc Flash), Offering (Hardware, Software, Services), End-User (Power Generation, T&D, O&G, Manufacturing, Metals), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/power-system-simulator-market-256193447.html Distributed Energy Resource Management System Market by Technology (Solar PV, Wind, Energy Storage, CHP), by Software (Analytics, Management & Control, VPP), by End-User (Government & Municipalities, Industrial, Commercial), and by Region - Global Forecast to 2022 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/distributed-energy-resource-management-system-market-256436187.html Subscribe Reports from Energy & Power Domain @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Rohan MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Visit Our Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/energy-and-power Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets SOURCE MarketsandMarkets PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Process Stream announced today a partnership with Information Builders, a leader in user-driven Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics Solutions. Under the agreement, Process Stream will offer the Information Builder's Analytics platform in combination with its implementation services and business process expertise to the life sciences industry. Life Sciences companies operate with highly specialized business processes. With Information Builder's patented core technology and Process Stream's deep industry experience, Life Sciences companies can: Make faster, better business and quality decisions; Manage personnel workload and bottlenecks; Improve regulatory response time; Reduce the time and cost of regulatory compliance. Mickey Shah, Managing Director of Business Development at Process Stream, shared, "Process Stream is excited to partner with Information Builders to deliver easy to use analytical platforms for complicated data repositories. The partnership creates a vital bridge between product vendor and system integrator, thus providing a one-stop-shop for analytics implementations and support that clients are looking for." "We're very happy with the value that the combined Information Builders and Process Stream team provides. Process Stream has developed deep skills in our WebFOCUS BI and analytics platform, and when we put out our WebFOCUS 8.2 release, they were able to immediately understand and implement new capabilities that deliver even greater benefits to their customers. Together, we're able to quickly deploy solutions that help our clients to derive meaningful and actionable quality insights to support decision making," said Jake Freivald, Vice President of Product Marketing at Information Builders. About Process Stream Since 2008, Process Stream has been at the forefront of quality system expertise. Our team of experienced quality and compliance experts includes some of the best and brightest consultants, engineers, and thought leaders working in the industry today. From system design and implementation to cutting-edge software product development, and expert consulting, Process Stream offers total quality system support solutions that ensure your ecosystem is operating at its peak. Process Stream is headquartered in Princeton, NJ. Visit http://www.process-stream.com About Information Builders Information Builders provides solutions for business intelligence (BI), analytics, data integration, and data quality that help drive performance improvements, innovation, and value. Through one set of powerful products, we enable organizations to serve everyone analysts, non-technical users, even partners, customers, and citizens with better data and analytics. Our dedication to customer success is unmatched with thousands of organizations relying on us as their trusted partner. Founded in 1975, Information Builders is headquartered in New York, NY, with global offices, and remains one of the largest independent, privately held companies in the industry. Visit us at informationbuilders.com, follow us on Twitter at @infobldrs, like us on Facebook, and visit our LinkedIn page. Media Contact: Megan McCaslin [email protected] 609-285-2091 SOURCE Process Stream Related Links http://www.process-stream.com WOBURN, Mass., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Resolution Development Services Inc., a leading provider of product development services to the medical device, industrial, and life science markets, today announced a $3000.00 contribution to Boston Children's Hospital. The monetary donation will support Boston Children's Hospital's mission to help change the future of health for every child. Voted the #1 children's hospital in the country, Boston Children's Hospital works tirelessly to improve pediatric patient outcomes. Their every child fund "empowers (the hospital) to respond to a changing world with one goal: to give every child a healthy future. Your gift provides essential support and shows faith in our mission. Every penny goes directly to supporting Boston Children's lifesaving work for children and families." "Our experiences working with medical device companies put us near the front lines of patient care," said Leo Carayannopoulos, CEO of Resolution Development Services. "We know that the cutting edge medical devices that we develop help to enable the good work being done at Boston Children's Hospital every day. In December we created a giveaway that encouraged our user community to visit our site, with every visit adding a dollar to our donation. We were excited at the outpouring of support and are proud to make this donation to Boston Children's Hospital. " To learn more about Boston Children's Hospital, visit http://giving.childrenshospital.org. About Resolution Development Services: With offices just outside of Boston, Resolution Development Services provides best in class hardware, software, mechanical, machine vision, and systems engineering outsourced services to clients in the United States, Canada, and Asia. Our experienced engineering team and regulatory compliant Quality System make Resolution the best choice for complex development programs. To learn more about Resolution Development Services offerings, our charitable giving, and other partnerships, visit www.resolutiondev.com. Contact: Leo Carayannopoulos [email protected] SOURCE Resolution Development Services Related Links http://www.resolutiondev.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Administrator Linda McMahon of the U.S. Small Business Administration announced the appointment of Kathleen McShane as the Assistant Administrator for the SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership. In this capacity, she will oversee the agency's efforts to promote the growth of women-owned businesses. "It is a pleasure to welcome Kathy to the SBA's team of talented leadership who are committed to the development of small businesses across the nation," McMahon said. "Her business acumen, accomplishments and private sector experience are a great fit for the SBA's programs and resources that help to create more opportunities for women-owned small businesses to succeed, create jobs and drive economic growth. Her background as a small business owner and business leader will be a tremendous asset for women entrepreneurs and the small business community." McShane will manage a nationwide network of Women's Business Centers that provide training, counseling and mentoring to hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs in every state and two U.S. territories. Her office will also work with representatives in every SBA district office to oversee operations of the Women's Business Centers and to coordinate services for women entrepreneurs. McShane, an experienced business owner, created Ladies Launch Club in 2006. The company was dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs launch or expand their business. Prior to that, she ran a multimillion-dollar marketing firm, where her clients included HBO, MasterCard, Venastat, Bank of New Canaan, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase. McShane spent 17 years in the corporate sector, where she worked primarily on credit card products for the small business segment. She was also an adjunct professor at New York University, a founding director of the Bank of New Canaan and served on the Norwalk Hospital Foundation Board. McShane holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Boston University and attended Columbia Business School's Executive Program in Management. To learn more about SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership, visit www.sba.gov/offices/headquarters/wbo. About the U.S. Small Business Administration The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 and since January 13, 2012, has served as a Cabinet-level agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, the SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. To learn more about SBA, visit www.sba.gov. Release Number: 18-03 Contact: Cecelia Taylor (202) 401-3059 Internet Address: www.sba.gov/news Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Blogs SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration Related Links http://www.sba.gov Villalobos recently visited the St. Jude campus, to meet with families and learn more about how St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He also documented his time at St. Jude in a video on his YouTube channel titled "This Video Can Change Someone's Life." To date, it has nearly 500,000 views, 10,000 comments and almost 80,000 likes. "Visiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was one of the most incredible experiences of my life," said Villalobos, a native of Bucaramanga, Colombia. "I am so proud to partner with this world class organization to help raise awareness for its mission and to play a small role in ensuring that no family ever receives a bill from St. Jude for the cost of treatment, travel, housing or food because all a family should have to worry about is helping their child live." Twenty-one-year-old Villalobos is a Hispanic multiplatform celebrity with 27 million followers across a range of social media platforms. He has garnered 5.7 million YouTube subscribers on his main channel and has a second channel, VillalobosSebas, where he posts his vlogs and shares more of his life. His YouTube videos typically garner more than three million views each, earning him a spot in the 2016 YouTube Rewind video which features the top YouTubers in the world. He has also appeared on 2 seasons of Disney's Latin America show Soy Luna, co-hosted Univision's kids' talent show Pequenos Gigantes, and was named Man of the Year by GQ Magazine in Mexico. "I'm always pleased to see young people like Sebastian become involved with the lifesaving mission here at St. Jude because engagement with millennial and GenZ audiences in creative ways is absolutely critical for the future success of our mission," said Richard C. Shadyac Jr., the President and Chief Executive Officer of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. "Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to more than 80 percent today and we're working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent. We won't stop until no child dies from cancer and with the generous help and support of people like Sebastian and his fans we'll get there." About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent, and we won't stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude freely shares the discoveries it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Join the St. Jude mission by visiting stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook (facebook.com/stjude) and following us on Twitter (@stjude) SOURCE St. Jude Children's Research Hospital HOUSTON, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court of the United States will visit the University of Houston Law Center on Friday, Jan. 26. The Justice is scheduled to answer questions from current law school students as well as those in pre-law programs in a session moderated by UH Law Center Dean Leonard M. Baynes. "The Law Center is excited to have Justice Sonia Sotomayor visit the UHLC campus. She is a brilliant legal scholar and jurist who has overcome many of life's obstacles," said Baynes. "Her biography is very powerful and inspirational, serving as a model for others who may see themselves in her journey. We also appreciate her emphasis on student engagement and discussion during her visit. It will allow our students to have the opportunity to learn from her and be inspired by her on what they can also achieve." Justice Sotomayor will also participate in a discussion with UHLC Professor Michael A. Olivas at noon in Krost Hall. Advance registration is required. Click here for more information. The Justice will also visit with student leaders, faculty, UH campus leaders, and Houston-area attorneys. The first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and joined the Court on Aug. 8, 2009. She previously served as assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office from 19791984. She then litigated international commercial matters in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where she served as an associate and then partner from 19841992. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, where she served from 19921998. She served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1998 until her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2009. Justice Sotomayor earned a B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the University's highest academic honor. In 1979, she earned a J.D. from Yale Law School where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Media contacts: Carrie Criado, Assistant Dean of Communications and Marketing, 713-743-2184, [email protected]; Elena Hawthorne, Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing, 713-743-1125, [email protected]; John T. Kling, UH Law Center Communications Manager, 713-743-8298, [email protected]; and John Brannen, Senior Writer, 713-743-3055, [email protected] About the University of Houston The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the nation's best colleges for undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city, UH serves more than 45,000 students in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region in the country. About the University of Houston Law Center The University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) is a dynamic, top tier law school located in the nation's 4th largest city. UHLC's Health Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Part-time programs rank in the U.S. News Top 10. It awards Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees, through its academic branch, the College of Law. The Law Center is more than just a law school. It is a powerful hub of intellectual activity with more than 11 centers and institutes which fuel its educational mission and national reputation. UHLC is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. SOURCE University of Houston Law Center Related Links http://www.law.uh.edu ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association of Homebuilders' (NAHB) awarded AeroBarrier the 2018 Most Innovative Building Product and Best in Show. This year's competition was competitive, receiving 324 entries for nine categories. A team of judges narrowed the 324 entries to 60 finalists. From the 60 finalists, the top award was Best in Show. Amit Gupta, CEO of AeroBarrier says, "We are honored to be recognized for innovation. Overall, there were 60 amazing product finalists, and to be awarded Best in Show is the result of five years of hard work, dedication, and extensive research by our team. We are excited to see builders embrace the technology." AeroBarrier helps builders achieve the most stringent energy efficiency standards, sealing the building envelope easily and cost effectively, reducing air leakage to almost zero. For the category of Most Innovative Building Product, there were seven finalists, including products that improve wall systems and plumbing. The award defines innovation as a product that is either new, or has been significantly changed, and would be deemed a game-changer in its product class. The finalists include the following: Comfort Block: Insulated wall system used to construct durable, healthy homes. Phomi: Fireproof modified clay sandstone tile for wall cladding and flooring. SharkBite: EvoPEX Plumbing System, the first push-to-connect rough-in plumbing solution for new construction. CertainTeed: Habito combines the benefits of old-fashioned plaster with the convenience of modern drywall. Savaria: Vuelift home elevators that maximize existing space with a clear hoistway and cab. ZipWall: a magnetic dust barrier door is self-closing, and can easily handle high traffic. Receiving the top award, AeroBarrier is being called the decade's most disruptive energy efficiency product. Mandalay Homes, an Arizona homebuilder, uses Aerobarrier on all new homes. Geoff Ferrell, Chief Technology Officer at Mandalay Homes says, "AeroBarrier is the key for us building net-zero homes as a standard feature. Before AeroBarrier, it was not financially feasible or practical on a mass scale." Mandalay Homes is eight-time award recipient for innovation by the U.S. Department of Energy, and builds the most ZERH certified homes in the country. Key points about AeroBarrier, include: AeroBarrier was used on The New American Home 2018, which achieved LEED Platinum certification and met the requirements for NGBS Emerald certification. AeroBarrier improves acoustics of a building area, by reducing outside noise, sealing holes as small as a hair follicle. AeroBarrier is GREENGUARD Gold certified. AeroBarrier makes it easier to meet the stringent leakage requirements of ratings, standards, and codes such as LEED, Passive House, ZERH, and the 2015 IECC. About AeroBarrier AeroBarrier was developed at University of California, Davis, where it received four years of research and development. In 2017, AeroBarrier launched in beta, with its first use on projects that qualify for the DOE's ZERH program. AeroBarrier is instrumental for single and multi-family projects targeting the performance requirements of LEED, ZERH, Passive House, and the 2015 IECC or better. About IBS IBS is the largest light construction building industry tradeshow and has grown to attract more than 100,000 attendees, making it one of the largest conventions in the country. About NAHB The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is one of the largest trade associations in the United States. More than 140,000 of its members are home builders or remodelers. The remaining members are associates working in closely related fields within the housing industry such as mortgage finance and building products and services. SOURCE AeroBarrier Related Links http://aerobarrier.net NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05281356 The LED packaging market is expected to reach USD 26.39 billion by 2023 from USD 18.41 billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 6.2%. The key drivers for the growth of the LED packaging market include increasing demand for high power grade LED packages for lighting applications; rising demand for LED packages in the market for display panels; growing government initiatives and regulations to adopt energy-efficient LEDs; increasing demand for smart lighting solutions. However, high saturation in the market is expected to restrict adoption, which, in turn, may limit market growth to a certain extent CSP LEDs are expected to be the fastest growing segment in the LED packaging market during the forecast period The increased adoption of CSP over standard SMD is mainly due to the advantages such as reduced package footprint, thin profile, reduced weight as well as better electrical performance and area array distribution of connections. Size reduction in CSP is mainly due to the ball grid array design of the package, which results in saving printed circuit board routing space by designing all interconnects under the package in ball grid array style. General lighting application is expected to drive the growth of the LED packaging market In 2016, general lighting application accounted for the largest share of the market and is expected to continue its growth during the forecast period. The potential to save energy on a large scale is one of the most attractive aspects of LED technology. It is known to major LED packaging manufacturers that the adoption rate of LED light sources will not increase on the basis of its energy efficiency alone as customers in the residential sector are not focused on energy savings achieved by LEDs. However, a range of factors, including overall efficiency, practical design, consistent performance, and price point, would decide how well LEDs would fare against conventional lighting sources in residential applications. The major focus of governments in India, China, and Brazil for the development and implementation of efficient energy technology and various subsidies given for LED lighting will boost the market for LED materials in these countries APAC expected to register the highest growth rate in LED packaging market during the forecast period APAC accounted for the largest market for LED packaging in 2016. It is expected to be the fastest-growing market owing to the growth of applications such as general lighting, automotive, and backlighting. The surge in demand for applications such as general lighting, automotive, and backlighting is driven by high economic growth in the region. This, in turn, favors the growth of the LED packaging market in this region. These factors are encouraging many established market players to expand their reach in the region. The growth of the market in APAC is mainly driven by China, Japan Taiwan, and South Korea as these countries account for the largest market share of LED packaging in this region. Germany, Italy, France, the UK, and Spain are some of the key European countries that contributed significantly to the use of LED packages in 2016. OSRAM and Lumileds are some of the major manufacturers present in this region. Europe is expected to hold a major share of the LED packaging market for the general lighting application owing to the high standard of living in these countries; with regard to the high GDP per capita rates, a large section of the population can afford energy-efficient lighting systems in their homes. The significant market share in the region is also attributed to the increasing awareness about energy conservation and implementation of various government initiatives toward the same. In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and subsegments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews have been conducted with key experts. Following is the breakup of the profile of primary participants: By Company Type: Tier 1 = 20%, Tier 2 = 39%, and Tier 3 = 41% By Designation: C-Level Executives = 27%, Directors = 31%, and Others = 42% By Region: North America = 39%, Europe = 27%, APAC = 18%, and RoW = 16% The major players in the LED packaging market include Nichia (Japan), Samsung (South Korea), Osram (Germany), LG Innotek (South Korea), and Cree (US). Research Coverage: The report estimates the market size and future growth potential of the LED packaging market across different segments such as package type, packaging material, application, and geography. Moreover, the report includes the industry trends, market dynamics, and competitive analysis of the key players in the market, along with their company profiles, and recent developments. Key Benefits of Buying the Report: The report would help the market leaders/new entrants by providing them the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the LED packaging segments and subsegments. Moreover, this report would help stakeholders to understand the competitor landscape better and gain insights to strengthen their businesses and have suitable go-to-market strategies. Furthermore, this report helps the stakeholders to understand the pulse of the market and provides them information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05281356 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. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (646)-751-7922 Intl: +1 646-751-7922 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com ST. LOUIS, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Trans States Airlines has once again demonstrated its ongoing commitment to providing industry-leading pilot compensation by rolling out a $44,000 signing bonus for new hire First Officers. The new bonus, which includes an additional $6,000 bonus for pilots with a type rating, solidifies Trans States' position among the top paying regional airlines in terms of first year compensation. Total first year compensation for new hire First Officers will now approach $86,000. Pilots with airline experience who are hired as Captain Qualified First Officers (CQFOs) can fly as a First Officer or a Captain, and can expect a minimum year one compensation package of up to $90,000, with the opportunity to earn even more when flying as a Captain. Once on property, Trans States pilots can also earn referral and mentor bonuses. "Trans States has consistently been a leader in regional airline pilot pay, and is proud to offer one of the most competitive pilot compensation packages in the industry," remarked Trans States Airlines Chief Operating Officer Fred Oxley. "With competitive compensation and a training program that's second-to-none, Trans States is the smart choice for pilots with aspirations to fly for a major carrier. Additionally, our promote-from-within philosophy makes Trans States the perfect fit for pilots looking for a place to build a long-term career." In addition to having one of the fastest Captain upgrades in the regional airline industry, Trans States provides a number of unique opportunities, including a Seniority Reservation Program that greatly reduces the likelihood of sitting reserve as a First Officer, and an Express Hire Program that allows current and qualified 121 pilots to forego the interview process. Additionally, Trans States is one of the only airlines in the industry with immediate access to the left seat for qualified pilots. The aforementioned programs are effective immediately. About Trans States Airlines Trans States serves over 4.5 million passengers a year, with approximately 237 daily flights providing service to over 70 cities in North America. Trans States operates the Embraer 145 on behalf of American Airlines (as American Eagle) and United Airlines (as United Express). Headquartered in St. Louis, Trans States has crew domiciles in Chicago, Denver, St. Louis, Raleigh- Durham, and Washington D.C. SOURCE Trans States Airlines WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Transworld Business Advisors, a leading business franchise brokerage and development company, is pleased to announce its growth by 70 locations in 2017, including adding businesses in four new U.S. states and two new countries. New Transworld markets include Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi and Washington D.C. along with France and Jordan internationally. In 2018, the brand expects to open an additional 80 Transworld locations. Transworld Business Advisors is part of the United Franchise Group (UFG) family of companies. "We continue to improve upon the Transworld model, and our growth successes reflect positive reception to those changes," said Ray Titus, CEO of UFG. "This year, in addition to nearly 70 new Transworld locations, we also implemented an enhanced, proprietary CRM system which will strengthen and deepen our relationships with our customers, ensuring we're providing all the help and support each Transworld customer needs. It was a great year, and we look forward to an even more impressive 2018." Transworld Business Advisors is included in Entrepreneur's "Franchise 500" list, and ranks 136th in Entrepreneur's "Best for Vets" list. The brand offers franchise consulting, franchise development and business brokerage services to help business owners with franchise and transactional successes. Transworld assists a broad base of clients with business valuation, sales assistance and brokerage services. They also provide training business growth through franchising, and match entrepreneurs to their ideal business franchise brand based on each person's level of experience, investment, and interest. Transworld Business Advisors has available franchise opportunities for entrepreneurs interested in owning their own business. Being a franchise owner means the support you need to succeed in the franchise industry through UFG's comprehensive training program. To learn more, visit www.tworldfranchise.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 UFG Led by CEO Ray Titus, United Franchise Group 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 1400 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 Transworld Business Advisors Related Links https://tworldfranchise.com (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130128/590935 ) Summary The market for fertility clinics in the US should reach a value of $3.6 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow to $4.5 billion by 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6% for the period of 2017-2022. Report Includes -An overview of the US market for fertility clinics -Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2012 through 2016, estimates for 2017, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2022 -Examination of the critical market characteristics of the fertility market, including technological developments, the value chain, market dynamics, and key market trends -Market breakdowns by diagnostics services and assisted reproductive technology -Coverage of major government regulations, recent industry developments, and the competitive landscape -Information on leading companies, including their services and recent developments Get a sample page of US Fertility Clinics Market Report: https://www.bharatbook.com/request-sample/743045 Chapter 1: Introduction BCC Research's goal in performing this study was to determine the market and future demand growth for fertility clinics over the five-year period from 2016 through 2020 in the US. Of particular focus was characterizing and quantifying the potential of the market for fertility clinics in the US, and segments (i.e., assisted reproductive technology, diagnostic services and surgeries). The report also evaluates various market opportunities in detail. Factors that affect the market such as drivers, restraints, and trends have been discussed. The key objective was to present a comprehensive discussion of where the state-of-the-art is in fertility clinics and forecast the future commercial potential for the key market segments. This discussion provides a basis for companies to make strategic choices about developing new products and markets or deciding which applications are needed in their organizations. The study will benefit fertility clinics operators, clinic staff, customers of fertility clinics, governments around the world, and others. Study Goals and Objectives -To sum up the US fertility clinics market size. -To estimate the growth rate of the US fertility clinics market. -To segment the market in the deepest possible way. -To identify major drivers and restraints. -To identify key trends and technology updates in the field. Reasons for Doing This Study Increasing number of single moms and rise in average age of new moms has led to increasing demand for assisted reproductive technology techniques. Global industry leaders and large organizations see an expanded role for egg freezing and new technologies such as Vitro Maturation (IVM) in the fertility clinics industry. The US fertility clinics market is growing due to increasing obesity that can cause hormonal imbalances and problems with ovulation in women and low sperm quality in men. The growth is also stimulated by decreasing fertility of a women. These factors are expected to drive the fertility clinics market in the US. The market for fertility clinics in the US is fragmented with a few large players having small share of the market. Major players in the market include IntegraMed, New Hope Fertility Clinic, Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey, and others. Scope of Report This research report categorizes the US fertility clinics market by segments. These segments include assisted reproductive technology, diagnostic services and surgeries. Information Sources -Public information via annual reports to shareholders as well as other government reports that are available for public review. -Company marketing information, advertising, company press releases, state and local news sources, and subscription-based information. -Online research including third-party references. -Trade associations, directories and publications. -Telephone interviews with both current customers and prospects. -Various private industry sources. Methodology Research methodology followed in this report is a top-down approach. Various sources were used to arrive at the total market figure, which was broken down into various applications and sub markets based on primary and secondary data. Both a quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to derive the market size and growth rates. Many secondary sources were reviewed, and extensive primary research was conducted with key opinion leaders, marketing managers, product managers and end users. Market numbers have been calculated in constant U.S. dollars. Geographic Breakdown This report is focused on the fertility clinics market in United States of America alone To know more about report and who is it suited for, head over to: https://www.bharatbook.com/healthcare-market-research-reports-743045/us-fertility-clinics.html About Bharat Book Bureau: Bharat Book Bureau is the leading market research information provider for market research reports, company profiles, industry analysis, country reports , business reports, newsletters and online databases Bharat Book Bureau provides over a million reports from more than 400 publishers around the globe. We cover sectors starting from Aeronautics to Zoology. In case the reports don't match your requirement then we can do a specialized Custom Research for you. Contact us: Bharat Book Bureau E: [email protected] P: +91-22-27810772/27810773 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/bharat-book-bureau Twitter: https://twitter.com/researchbook Blog: https://www.bharatbook.com/blog/ W: http://www.bharatbook.com SOURCE Bharat Book Bureau "Bentley's online graduate programs give students the option to earn a Master's degree from one of the nation's top business schools with the flexibility and convenience to fit their own schedule," said Chip Wiggins, dean of the McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley. U.S. News ranked Bentley highly for its Master's programs in three areas, all of which can be completed fully online. Master of Science in Taxation - Tailored to working professionals who need flexibility, this program prepares graduates to implement successful tax strategies with a basis in critical thinking and ethics. Master of Science in Financial Planning - As the only master's-level Financial Planning program in New England, this program offers courses taught by working professionals who understand how theory translates into real-world practice. Master of Science in Human Factors in Information Design - This program educates graduates in the user experience (UX) profession by emphasizing the strategic role of UX in business. Watch a video about Bentley's Master of Science in Human Factors in Information Design In addition to eight business-related Master of Science programs, Bentley offers a part-time online MBA program that can be completed in as little as 18 months, one of the fastest part-time MBA degrees in Greater Boston. This accelerated MBA responds to a changing job market in which working professionals do not want to put their careers on hold to pursue a full-time degree and companies increasingly value graduate degrees among their employees and new hires. Learn more about Bentley's part-time online MBA program One of the Nation's Top Business Schools Bentley University is one of the nation's leading business schools, dedicated to preparing a new kind of business leader with the technical skills, global perspective and ethical standards required to make a difference in an ever-changing world. Bentley's diverse arts and sciences program combined with an advanced business curriculum prepares graduates to make an impact in their chosen fields. The university enrolls approximately 4,000 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students. The Princeton Review ranked Bentley #1 in the United States in both career services and internships, and graduates of Bentley's McCallum Graduate School of Business are among the highest paid in the country, ranking #4 in PayScale's College Salary Report. Learn more about Bentley's graduate programs. SOURCE Bentley University PITTSBURGH, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard released the following statement this morning after the Department of Commerce sent its Section 232 Steel report to the President. Last April, the Department of Commerce initiated an investigation under Section 232 of our nation's trade laws to determine whether imports of steel were damaging national security and whether action to "adjust imports" was needed. The President now has up to 90 days to take action. "We're dismayed that the report took so long to produce and that we still have to wait for a decision. It is obvious that our nation's steel sector has been under attack by unfair foreign trade and that the sector is vital to our national security. The current surge in imports more than 20 percent is the result of countries taking advantage of our market before the President acts. "The President has an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset the trade agenda and protect and preserve the jobs of hardworking Americans now and for the future. We've got to champion the interests of American workers, and all our citizens, by protecting industries vital to our national security. "Meanwhile, American workers and domestic production suffer as evidenced by the recent announced closing of plants in Conshohocken, Pa., and Ashland, Ky., and idling, reduced operations and job losses at plants across the country. "Last April, when the investigation was initiated, working families were told that the investigation and a decision would be swift. Then, they were told that they would have to wait until health care was addressed. Then, they were told that they would have to wait until a tax cut was passed. Now they wonder how much longer they will have to wait to see if campaign promises will be kept. "It's time now for the President to take action to fix our failed trade policies, protect our industrial base and national security, and revitalize our infrastructure and create good-paying jobs. The time for talk and debate has passed and the president should act boldly." The USW represents 850,000 workers in North America employed in many industries that include metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service and public sectors. For more information: www.usw.org CONTACT: Holly Hart: (202) 778-4384 [email protected] SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW) Related Links http://www.usw.org LA JOLLA, Calif., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- VestaCare, Inc., a healthcare payment solutions company, is excited to announce and welcome the addition of two senior healthcare executives. Doug Bilbrey joins as vice president of sales and Ray Chase comes aboard as vice president of national accounts. With 29 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Doug Bilbrey joins the company to lead the sales team in expanding VestaCare's portfolio of clients. He brings a wealth of industry experience and a proven track record in facilitating long-term business relationships with clients. Doug comments, "I am excited to come aboard VestaCare and look forward to applying my industry knowledge and expertise to help clients identify and minimize revenue losses as a result of patient leakage and rising deductibles. I am fortunate to be joining such a respected company that prides itself on delivering innovative solutions to providers, patients and payers." Previously, Bilbrey has held executive sales and management level positions with Patient Matters, MedAssist, Boston Software, and The SSI Group, Inc. Ray Chase comes on board as vice president of national accounts and brings with him over 25 years of experience in revenue cycle management. His intimate knowledge of the financial challenges hospitals face will provide valuable insights as the company continues to develop best-in-class solutions. Ray states, "I made the transition to VestaCare after learning of their VestaPay Enterprise System that minimizes hospital patient leakage and increases revenue. It's the most innovative program I have seen and I'm excited to be part of the team." Prior to joining the company, Ray held the position of vice president of revenue cycle overseeing nine hospitals in the East Texas market for CHI/St. Joseph HealthCare. Prior to CHI, Ray served as a revenue cycle subject matter expert consultant to many hospital and healthcare systems. "I'm delighted to welcome Doug and Ray to the team as their experience and insights will accelerate our momentum as we continue to define new standards in healthcare payment solutions for hospitals and patients," says Tom Brekka, CEO. Company Description VestaCare is a healthcare payment solution company whose VestaPay program greatly reduces hospital patient leakage and revenue losses by offering patients flexible and affordable payment options, thereby building a reputation of affordable care for the health system. This results in increased patient and payer revenue as well as improved patient satisfaction and loyalty. www.vestacare.com Contact: Tom Brekka, CEO VestaCare, Inc. Phone: 831.325.7305 Email: [email protected] SOURCE VestaCare Related Links http://www.vestacare.com LONDON, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Viapath is one of the largest pathology service providers in the UK, serving their founding NHS Trusts, other NHS and private hospitals, and the GP community at large. Viapath is committed to the use of cutting-edge technology to ensure that diagnostics are as accurate and efficient as possible. Viapath logo diagnostics.ai logo Following successful trials and commercial evaluations, Viapath has agreed implementation terms for diagnostics.ai's unique artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This technology automates the analysis and reporting of results, with built-in quality control, ensuring accuracy and standardisation. The innovative system removes manual steps, delivering a digitised and paperless system (tying into the NHS Five Year Forward View- Paperless 2020), as well as enabling faster turnaround, reduced risk and improved laboratory capacity. The first laboratory implementation will be Viapath's flagship South London Specialist Virology Centre at King's College Hospital. The first systems to be automated will be the high-volume real-time PCR testing, used for a wide range of sample types and tests including respiratory, STD and gastrointestinal through the use of diagnostics.ai's cloud-based service, pcr.ai. The implementation will begin in February 2018, demonstrating Viapath's continued commitment to setting the standard for the future of pathology. Dr Melvyn Smith, Principal Clinical Scientist, Infection Sciences and King's College Hospital's South London Specialist Virology Centre said; "Diagnostic services across the NHS are experiencing a significant growth in demand for both the volume and variety of tests performed. At Viapath we aim to maintain the quality of care and results through continued improvement of services. diagnostics.ai's innovative technology helps us to deal with laboratory pressures in a safe and efficient manner." Dr M Sudhanva, Consultant Virologist and Clinical Director of Pathology for Viapath's laboratories at King's College Hospital said; "We are delighted to continue our work with the diagnostics.ai team. As a leading diagnostic provider Viapath strive to continuously integrate new technologies for the benefit of our patients, hospitals and staff. We have been impressed with diagnostics.ai for some time, and believe that integrating their technology will improve our efficiency and reduce the costs of maintaining stringent regulatory standards, including ISO15189." Aron Cohen, CEO of diagnostics.ai echoed these comments, saying; "We are proud to be supplying the highly expert and professional team at Viapath. We believe strongly in the vision of automating medicine and diagnostics, and are delighted that Viapath has selected to work with us for automation and digitisation of their workflow. Our systems integrate seamlessly with existing laboratory equipment to deliver significant hands-on and cost savings, and we look forward to actualising these with Viapath." Contact us Debbie Bowman Internal Communications Manager Viapath Francis House, 9 King's Head Yard, London, SE1 1NA 0207 188 7188 ext.55397 [email protected] Aron Cohen CEO diagnostics.ai 59a Brent Street London NW4 2EA 01234 480 240 [email protected] Note to Editors About Viapath: Viapath is a unique partnership of clinical, scientific and operational expertise, with a mission to transform pathology services in the UK. The organisation is built on scientific expertise, providing a service that helps clinicians create better outcomes for patients every day. Viapath's full-service, customer-focused offer is strongly rooted in the patient pathway, serving founding NHS Trusts, other NHS and private hospitals, and the GP community at large. The company is continually focused on innovation, finding new and better ways to manage the logistics of high-volume pathology testing as well as specialist reference testing, always striving to improve capabilities to better meet the needs of medical professionals and patients. About diagnostics.ai: diagnostics.ai's multi-patented AI based technology is being used in the UK, USA and India to improve laboratory efficiency and standardisation. The company's products and services automate interpretation of diagnostic machine outputs. This reduces dependency on manual steps and experts - lowering costs and improving quality and accuracy. The company is in a high-growth phase, as global demand for healthcare automation continues to increase. SOURCE Viapath; diagnostics.ai Related Links http://diagnostics.ai MCLEAN, Va., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WidePoint Corporation (NYSE American: WYY), a leading provider of Trusted Mobility Management (TM2) specializing in Telecommunications Lifecycle Management (TLM) and Cybersecurity solutions, today announced a task order option year award from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component for more than $111K. WidePoint will deliver cellular wireless managed services to this DHS component through the DHS Cellular Wireless Management Services (CWMS) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). Mr. Todd Dzyak, President and CEO of WidePoint Integrated Solutions Corporation and WidePoint Solutions Corporation, stated, "This award is a testament to the quality of services that WidePoint is delivering to its customer. By utilizing the CWMS BPA and WidePoint's mobility solutions, this DHS component is achieving greater accountability and savings. It is rewarding to note that WidePoint's wireless management services are integral to delivering value for this important agency." Mr. Jin Kang, Chief Executive Officer of WidePoint Corporation, noted, "WidePoint looks forward to providing strategic insights to DHS components as mobility expands across the federal government. WidePoint's TM2 framework was designed to address the needs of managing and securing the mobile workforce and workplace. We look forward to showcasing this next generation management framework to DHS and our other federal clients." About WidePoint WidePoint Corporation (NYSE American: WYY) is a leading provider of technology-based management solutions including telecom management, mobile management, access management and identity management. For more information, visit www.widepoint.com For More Information: Brett Mass or Dave Fore Hayden IR (206) 395-2711 [email protected] SOURCE WidePoint Corporation Related Links http://www.widepoint.com CHICAGO, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Women's March Chicago announced an initial list of speakers for the 2018 March to the Polls to include women and their allies dedicated to the shared goal of empowering voters to support women's rights and social justice. The list of speakers includes Suzette Wright, a former Ford worker whose experience of sexual harassment was recently featured in the New York Times, and Tom Steyer, an activist committed to spending $30 million to boost voter turnout in this year's midterm elections. The current list of speakers can be found below and at womensmarchchicago.org. "We are thrilled to have such an extraordinary and powerful group of women and their allies unite to raise their voices on the many issues that continue to affect women every day," said Carrie Kiley, Women's March Chicago organizer. "Together, we are committed to inspiring the people of Chicago to march to the polls in 2018." "This event is all about demanding progress for women and getting involved in this year's electionthe most important mission for all of us in 2018," said Steyer. "Women's March Chicago has been at the forefront of this movement, and it's a real honor and pleasure to join with such a powerful group of women dedicated to change." The "March to the Polls" will convene on January 20, 2018 at Columbus Parkway and Congress Drive near Grant Park. It marks the same location where more than 250,000 filled the streets at last year. This year, the March is being held in concert with more than 300 others planned around the world on January 20 and 21, 2018. A map of actions planned around the #WeekendofWomen with event details can be found at www.marchonthepolls.org. "Many are now learning the story about the sexual harassment Suzette Wright and others faced while working at Ford in the 1990s," said Kiley. "Twenty-five years later, too many women continue to face the same inexcusable treatment in the workplace. I look forward to marching in solidarity with Suzette in Chicago and demanding the culture change all Chicago women deserve." "Our speakers reflect the focus of this year's march turning energy into votes," said Liz Radford, Women's March Chicago organizer. "These are women and allies working within and challenging the political system to be inclusive, supportive of all women and people of color, and to more directly reflect the demands of the people. There is a lot of work to do and our speakers are on the frontlines." Chicago actor, writer, and producer Fawzia Mirza returns as the march emcee for the second straight year. The march will also include live performances from certain members of the cast of Hamilton, the Bryant Jones Choir, and Second City. Music will begin at 9 a.m. followed by the speaking program at 11 a.m. The march will step-off at 12:30 p.m. Women's March Chicago, womensmarchchicago.org, is now a 501c4 organization with an associated 501c3 project promoting intersectional feminism and challenging the political system on issues affecting women. It supports equal rights, equal pay, reproductive justice, affordable healthcare, affordable childcare, racial justice, criminal justice reform, voting rights, freedom from violence, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant rights, fair wages, access for persons with disabilities, environmental protections and other critical areas of focus. Speakers: Tahera Ahmad, Associate Chaplain and Director of Interfaith Engagement, Northwestern University Bridget Gainer, Cook County Commissioner Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General Quiana McKenzie, Regional Campaign Finance Advisor, Emily's List Channyn Lynne Parker, Project Manager, Chicago House's TransLife Project Rep. Jan Schakowsky, U.S. House of Representatives Chakena Sims, Board of Directors, Chicago Votes Tom Steyer, Founder and President, NextGen America K. Sujata, President and CEO, Chicago Foundation of Women Celina Villanueva, New Americans Democracy Project, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Suzette Wright, former Chicago Ford Assembly Plant employee Live Performances: Bryant Jones Choir, featuring Deborah Lane The Cast of Hamilton, featuring Ari Asfar Bridget Marie, ZaZaZa Disco Cast Members from Second City's She the People So Chi Voices Faces for Radio Members of the media can register for the march by emailing [email protected]. SOURCE Womens March on Chicago Related Links http://womens121marchonchicago.org Su Huizhi, vice president of CEIS, Lu Yanchun, director of the Price Monitoring Center of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Wang Xiaobing, director of the Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), and Shi Youlong, chief livestock engineer of the National Animal Husbandry Station, attended and addressed the conference. The launch of "Xinhua (Rongchang) Live Pig Price Index" is aimed at creating an open and transparent live pig price information system. Exploring the live pig price discovery mechanism and accurately and timely monitoring the running status and development trend in the live pig market are crucial to reduce irrational fluctuations of the live pig prices. The index can offer an authoritative and effective benchmark value for production and operation of the live pig industry, said Su. The Chongqing (Rongchang) live pig transaction market is the only national livestock and poultry market licensed by MOA, with its transactions accounting for about 8 percent of the annual live pig circulations in the country, according to Li Zhongwu, governor of Rongchang District of Chongqing Municipality. "Xinhua (Rongchang) Live Pig Price Index" will provide participants of the live pig industrial chain, including farmers and processing enterprises, with early warnings and production guidance, and offer a quantitative basis for decision-making of the competent authorities of the industry and relevant market entities, so as to promote the supply-side structural reform in the industry and furthest reduce impacts of "hog cycle", Li added. Sample collection of the "Xinhua (Rongchang) Live Pig Price Index" covers 31 provinces and municipalities in the country, with live pigs, piglets and boars as the main varieties for monitoring. The index is based upon a base of 100 on June 4, 2017 and will be released every Monday. By December 17, 2017, the "Xinhua (Rongchang) Live Pig Price Index" had stood at 115.75, up 0.70 or 0.61 percent from the previous period and representing an increase of 15.75 percent from the base period. Image Attachments Links: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=304710 http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=304711 SOURCE China Economic Information Service (CEIS) Company invites individual and institutional investors as well as advisors to attend interactive real-time virtual VirtualInvestorConferences.com PERTH, Australia, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Zelda Therapeutics (ASX: ZLD), based in Australia, focused on medical cannabis therapies today announced that Dr. Stewart Washer, Executive Director, will present live at VirtualInvestorConferences.com on January 18. DATE: Thursday, January 18, 2018 TIME: 9:30 AM ET LINK: https://tinyurl.com/0118prepr This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time - both in the presentation hall as well as the association's "virtual trade booth." If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an on-demand archive will be available for 90 days. It is recommended that investors pre-register and run the online system check to save time and receive event updates. Learn more about the event at www.VirtualInvestorConferences.com. Recent Company Highlights In December 2017 Zelda Therapeutics announced its collaboration with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for an observational study of cannabinoids on autism. Zelda Therapeutics announced its collaboration with the Children's Hospital of for an observational study of cannabinoids on autism. Recently received Australia's first regulatory approval to conduct a medicinal cannabis trial to treat chronic insomnia. first regulatory approval to conduct a medicinal cannabis trial to treat chronic insomnia. Zelda has shown a positive effect with their cannabis extracts on human breast cancer cell lines Zelda is now studying cannabis extracts on pancreatic and brain cancer cell lines About Zelda Therapeutics Zelda Therapeutics Limited ("Zelda") is an Australian biotechnology company which listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in 2016, trading under the ASX code "ZLD". The company is developing medicinal cannabis therapies in collaboration with a number of key international leaders and research organisations. Zelda has exclusive access to comprehensive patient data that has demonstrated therapeutic success using cannabinoid-based treatments and has leveraged this to commence pre-clinical research in breast, brain and pancreatic cancer and will commence human clinical trials in 2018 on a number of other disorders including insomnia and autism. About VirtualInvestorConferences.com Since 2010, VirtualInvestorConferences.com, created by BetterInvesting (NAIC) and PRNewswire, has been the only monthly virtual investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for presenting companies to meet directly with investors using a graphically-enhanced online platform. Designed to replicate the look and feel of location-based investor conferences, Virtual Investor Conferences unites PR Newswire's leading-edge online conferencing and investor communications capabilities with BetterInvesting's extensive retail investor audience network. SOURCE Zelda Therapeutics APRA received feedback in two submissions that using gross income for LTI and DTI may not reflect ADIs risk management practices. However, ADIs that apply more conservative discounts or haircuts to income will report higher LTI and DTI measures, limiting comparability. In APRAs view, using gross income for reporting purposes is necessary to allow comparison between all ADIs, acknowledging that it does have limitations. Two submissions asked for additional guidance on the definition of gross income. The definition of gross income for LTI and DTI reporting has been amended to exclude compulsory superannuation contributions. Further detail has been included in the reporting guidance. Additional increases in lending One submission sought clarity on whether loans to self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) and non-residents should be included in this item. The instructions have been updated to include such loans. Two ADIs noted in submissions that they do not expect to report this item, as all increases in credit limits are already captured as new loans funded. APRA confirms that loans subject to a credit assessment should be reported as loans funded, and not as an additional increase. Lending to private unincorporated businesses APRA proposed that ADIs report two data items on loans to private unincorporated businesses that are secured by residential mortgages. The definition of private unincorporated businesses is consistent with the Economic and Financial Statistics (EFS) proposed by APRA, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Reserve Bank of Australia.2 Three submissions stated that collecting information on family trusts with a controlling interest in a business would be problematic. APRA has amended the definition to include all family trusts, not just family trusts with a controlling interest in business. The EFS definitions were also amended accordingly. Two submissions suggested expanding the reporting to cover loans to all trading companies, to provide a more complete picture of ADIs lending activity. APRA does not propose to expand reporting beyond private unincorporated businesses. ARS 223.0 is intended to capture household (and similar) lending only. Commercial lending for property is captured on other reporting forms. External refinancing The current definition of external refinancing is limited to loans for substantially the same purpose as the loan they replace. One submission noted that it is not feasible for an ADI to know the predominant purpose of external loans. In line with EFS, the reference to the loan being for substantially the same purpose has been removed from the definition in ARS 223.0. Fractional property investment company DomaCom has entered into an agreement to integrate its property sub-funds into IRESS XPLAN via the EPI data feed. On the DomaCom platform, properties are segregated into separate sub-funds issued with an APIR identifying code enabling financial advisers to include DomaCom sub-fund investments into their client portfolio reports. Commenting, the CEO of DomaCom, Arthur Naoumidis, said: When bringing a ground breaking platform like DomaCom to market its essential to align with key systems and processes to create a smooth transition to integrate into the advisers business process. "IRESS XPLAN is the most widely used financial planning software and this integration will expose DomaCom to many more planners affording us the opportunity to demonstrate the value that it can bring to a planners role. "The integration is a significant development for DomaCom and recognition that our fractional investment model is gaining more acceptance across the industry. Where else can advisers achieve perfect asset allocation to the property asset class than in a fractional model like DomaCom, and we are the only model of our type. DomaCom say that advisers confront several issues in advising on property investment, key among them specific asset selection and PI insurance cover which generally precludes property advice. DomaCom say this can be avoided by engaging professional property advisers to short list suitable properties in much the same way as stockbrokers are engaged to construct equity portfolios. The advice provided by the financial planner therefore is based on the DomaCom Fund, a Managed Investment Scheme, rather than on a specific property , which is selected by a professional property adviser. The DomaCom Fund is currently on 44 AFSL Approved Product Lists that give access to the Fund to about 1200 advisers. To read more about DomaCom click here. Peter Rowland, the Melbourne society catering company ranks among the top six unsecured creditors, after the auction house Mossgreen fell into voluntary external administration last month. Mossgreen, known for its Armadale tea rooms at 926-930 High Street, and single-owner house content sales, owes $5.8 million to auction clients, plus $6 million to its secured creditor, the former part-owner, Jack Gringlas. The assets have been advised as $1.6 million in the bank and $1.2 million owed by auction lot buyers. Around $166,000 is owed to the catering company who sent its executive director Steven Abela to the first creditors' meeting. There were 330 creditors identified at the meeting last week who were told no law required trust accounts for the auction proceeds. The names of the creditors are a who's who from across Australia, ranging from passionate collectors, socialites, low key business tycoons to deceased estates. The biggest unsecured creditor stemmed from the auction of a book collection. Some $1.75 million is owed to the family of the late wealthy insurance underwriter Martin Copley who auctioned off the books in October. The British-born Copley, but Perth-based businessman, remembered for founding the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), died in 2014. His auction items included John Gould's monumental The Birds of Australia, a large folio in eight volumes with 681 hand-coloured lithographed plates, bound in dark green morocco by Riviere, an original subscriber's set, which sold at $446,400 including premium. Martin's daughter, Sophie Chamberlain sits on the board of AWC. The second biggest client was another deceased estate, that of the late South Australian building industry icon Alan Hickinbotham and his late wife Margaret. It was billed as the highest value collection ever to be sold in Adelaide when auctioned in May by Mossgreen's chief, Paul Sumner. The family are still owned somewhere between $960,000 and $1.2 million. The sold works included a Russell Drysdale, Grandmas Sunday Walk, which had an estimated value of $1.8 million to $2.2 million. It was one of the last masterpieces painted by acclaimed Australian artist just before he lost his eyesight selling for $2.97 million, the fifth-highest price for any Australian artwork at auction. The total collection in the Unley Park home sold for $4.35 million. Sydney's society Coppleson family were listed as owed $465,000, the third highest-owed creditor. It followed the sale of the contents of the Macleay Regis penthouse, home of the late esteemed gynaecologist Professor Malcolm Coppleson and his late wife, Patricia, who was Vogue Livings editor-at-large. The 172 lots (pictured above onsite) included the sale of a $192,200 Ian Fairweather work which had an $80,000 to $120,000 price guidance. A Tim Maguire fetched $117,800. Trevor Chappell, the Sydney-based property developer, is owed $130,000, having developed a strong appreciation of Aboriginal art with wife, Carole before they then diversified into modern Western art. The works were initially displayed at the couple's Sydney home but as the collection grew it went on show at the company's offices and then toured community groups across Australia. The collection was offered following a review of the Chappell family's estate planning. Mossgreen's most recent auction on December 7 last year was the contents of the Sheehy family with just 274 of the 438 lots being sold. The family, who are owed $45,000, inquired at the meeting whether Sumner's passport would be surrendered. Ralph Drexel was listed as being owed $43,000. The Jelbart family were owed $50,000 after the sale of the contents of the trophy Eltham home, Kinloch. Torbjorn Von Strokirch is owned $225,000. Perth socialite Rhonda Wyllie is owed $145,000. Ruth Rosalion owed $43,000. Leonie Weldon ranks among the creditors owned $32,000. Tom Frommer is owed $17,000. Frommer's collection of pioneer Australian air mails was billed as one of the more important events in the philatelic calendar. Deeta McGeogh, Michele Asprey, Patsy Kentwell, Vernia Bullivant, Bill Curry, and Ellen Kronen (the Waterhouse family collection) were owned between $1000 and $10,000. Likewise Rex Dupain after the sale of Max Dupain works. Sam Gazal, Judy Roach, Michael Greenhalgh and Manuela Bennett are among the creditors owed $1000 or less. There was also Garry Hounsell. John Gould was owed $862. Paul Sumner, who opted not to attend the meeting, and his fellow director, and wife, Amanda Swanson were listed as being entitled to $470. Sumner, the son of art and antique dealers, took his first auction at age 17. Judi Hausmann appears on the creditors list without any amount showing, as did Antony Loneragan. Businesses owed money include Grace Worldwide owed $43,000, Courtney Colour catalogues $62,000 plus, Talisman Art owed $176,000, Exhibitions & Trade Fairs owed $90,000 and the ad agency Spinach owed $50,000. Brooklands Classic Cars owed $48,000 has asked the BDO administrators to seek out the motor car trader guarantee fund. After attracting financial backing from Melbourne developer Mohan Du, Peter Rowland Catering, Melbournes longest running hospitality group, was acquired by investment firm Capital Alliance last September, allowing it to continue trading after personal circumstances and poor management had resulted in it posting financial losses. The Age reported Peter Rowland Catering had been quietly placed into administration last August. Rowland sold his $8.6 million Toorak mansion he and his wife had built "the business paid for the house, so I thought it was right that the house should support the business," he said and used the money to bail out the beleaguered business. The catering company employs more than 100 full-time staff and 2000 part-timers throughout the year and Rowland said only about half a dozen jobs had been lost as a result of the acquisition. After all the catering company turmoil, most of all, Rowland, who remains chairman, but without equity, indicated he wanted to be able look people in the eye. "I am part of Melbourne. Melbourne is my town," he said. "I don't want to walk away from it." The creditors who attended the first Mossgreen creditors' meeting last week have been advised no law required trust accounts for the auction proceeds. The auction house Mossgreen fell into voluntary external administration last month, and its creditors anxiously await a rescue package with the promised full repayment from its founder, Paul Sumner. Sumner told media outlets - ahead of the 1.30 hour meeting which he did not attend - that no creditor would be out of pocket. Inside the meeting there was a sense of forbode. "Looking at the present figures, it appears that the best case scenario for creditors is no return," one of the despondent 330 creditors represented at the meeting suggested. Sumner, the son of art and antique dealers, said the administration was due to debts following the company's rapid expansion and the withdrawal of its key investor, Jack Gringlas, who is the major secured creditor. In July last year, Sumner and his wife, Amanda Swanson bought back Gringlas' share of the business. "Since then, we've been advised to take the [voluntary administration] course, as the best way to clear historical debt associated with previous investors out of the business, and restructure the company and move forward," Mr Sumner told his local paper, The Age. "Not one vendor or one buyer will lose one dollar in this process," he said. "Mossgreen is a business that relies on trust, so when you do something like this, your reputation will be affected, by how you deal with your vendors and buyers." It is the best was to clear historical debt, accrued through previous investors, Sumner also told the rival Herald Sun. He even told the Sydney Morning Herald Private Sydney gossip columnist Andrew Hornery: "I want to assure every vendor that they will get their money ... every cent of it." Mossgreen, known for its Armadale tea rooms at 926-930 High Street, and single-owner house content sales, owes $5.8 million to auction clients, plus $6 million to the former part-owner, Jack Gringlas with interest being charged at $40,000 a month. The first creditors' meeting was told the assets were $1.6 million cash in the bank along with $1.2 million owed by auction lot buyers, who have a legal binding contract that can not be terminated by the administrators. The staff are owed possibly around $1 million. The company's superannuation and tax obligations were indicated as "relatively" up to date. College Capital came forward at the creditors' meeting asking to be noted as a secured creditor. The secured Westpac amount was a $12,000 credit card facility. The biggest unsecured creditor stemmed from the auction of a book collection. Some $1.75 million is owed to the family of the late wealthy insurance underwriter Martin Copley who auctioned off the books in October. The first question at the creditors' meeting asked on the status of any auction sale proceeds. The meeting chairman advised "that the company was not required by law to operate a trust account." The administrators were exploring whether a constructive trust arrangement existed. It was likely they would approach the courts to rule on the matter. This course was challenged by Minter Ellison lawyer Lindsay Powers, on behalf of art collector Michele Asprey, who suggested "this was the clearest case of a trust relationship he has encountered." The chairman advised that initial legal advice had been obtained and it was considered necessary to obtain directions from the court "due to the various classes of creditors, the estimated shortfall to creditors and the overall complexity of the matter." The chairman, James White from BDO, indicated his personal view was that unsold goods held on consignment remained the property of the vendors. The chairman indicated the administrators were not planning to hold any auctions. The Queen Street, Woollahra premises were to be vacated. It was the intention of the administrators to advertise the business for sale/retructure. Unsold consignment items will be available for collection from January 15 in an orderly way. In August The Australian Financial Review reported Mossgreen was shedding more than a dozen staff, adding Sumner advised it is business as usual at the Melbourne-based auction house, "which continues to line up sales at a frenetic pace." Sumner said the staff restructure reflected the firm's increasing focus on single-owner collections and higher value lots following its expansion in recent years - including the merger with the Charles Leski stamp auction group in 2013 and the takeover of New Zealand's Webb's in 2016. "We've probably grown a little bit fast considering that the market plateaued," Sumner told the mainstream media late December after the news emerged pre-Christmas on Property Observer of the administrators being called in. "I'll be the first to say that that's the case," he advised. "What we're doing now is the opposite. We're restructuring, taking out some of the costs of our business, so that we are a much leaner, healthier business starting from the first of February." The media also reported Sumner said Mossgreen did not plan to close any outlets. The creditors' meeting chairman noted the current situation was that "the company had a high cost base with substantial rent costs, a large number of employees and was funding the losses of the New Zealand business." The NZ business was indebted to the company for inexcess of $1 million. "Auction monies were essentially used to fund the working capital and trading losses of the business," the creditors were told by the chairman as he closed the meeting. Asked by a creditor on the 100% repayment advisory from Sumner, the chairman replied: "This was the view of Mr Sumner and did not reflect the administrators' position." Creditors departed, concerned that the limited known available proceeds will be reduced by administration fees and court costs. News World news China launches national emissions trading system AUTHOR: publics.bg pexels.com China launches its national emissions trading system (ETS), according to a press release by the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), congratulating the move by the Chinese government. The National Development and Reform Commission announced that its ETS would cover just power and heat generators initially, which represent emissions of about 3 billion tonnes of CO2. There would be an initial verification period before the allocation is complete, which is expected to take 12 months. China joins a growing number of jurisdictions, such as California, the EU and South Korea, which are using market-based measures to cut climate emissions in a cost-effective and efficient way, says Dirk Forrister, President and CEO of IETA. China will have the world's largest carbon market, drawing lessons from these other markets to ensure that it works in harmony with other national policies, he added. In its latest ETS Status Report, the International Carbon Action Partnership estimated that around half of the world's GDP would be subject to an emissions trading market by the end of 2017. IETA and its members are keenly watching the development of the Chinese ETS, and support the move by the government to cut pollution in China and transition to a low-carbon economy, says Min Li, IETA's China representative. We stand ready to help businesses find opportunities and address challenges in this exciting new era for Chinese climate policy, he commented. In the end of October Reuters informed that a lack of reliable data and regulatory issues do not allow the roll-out of an ETS in China. According to the article, Beijing will struggle to launch its long-awaited nationwide carbon trading scheme, which is planned for this year. Effective immediately, Publishers Weekly is hosting the Translation Database on the PW website. Founded in 2008 by Chad Post of Open Letter Books, the database, otherwise known as Three Percent, has information on over 6,000 work of fiction and poetry. (The database details include information on the book's author, translator, publisher, language and country of origin.) With the move to the PW site, the database will be open to anyone who wants to add new titles, including nonfiction and childrens books in translation. In addition to living on the PW site, which attracts more than 1 million unique visitors a month, the database will continue to be housed on the University of Rochesters Three Percent website. Now that its on PWs website in a searchable, Web-based format, the possibilities for the Translation Database have grown exponentially," Post said. "Not only does it open up lines of research, but we now have the opportunity to get an even larger view of whats being published in translation here in the U.S. For years, translators have been asking us to track other types of translations, but as a single person entering all this data, I was a bit strapped for time. Allowing others to fill in the gaps is going to make this an even more powerful tool than ever. George Slowik, Jr., president and CEO of PWxyz LLC, the parent company of Publishers Weekly, said: It is a real honor to host the Translation Database on PWs website. In keeping with Publishers Weeklys commitment to the business of international rights and licensing, we are pleased to be able to introduce the database to a wider audience of publishers, rights holders, authors, translators, illustrators, agents and others engaged in the sharing of information within the global publishing community. Cristina Rivera Garza's astounding and mind-bending novel The Iliac Crest is about two women visiting an unnamed narrator at his oceanside home and gradually unraveling his life, fractures his sense of reality and shifting his understanding of his own gender. Rivera Garza highlights 12 female authors from the Spanish-speaking world. Some of them are cult writers in their respective countries; some have gained recognition across the Spanish-speaking world but have yet to be fully accounted for in English; some are translated into several languages, figuring prominently in trans-border literary conversations in languages other than English; most defy easy classification; all deserve a place in your reading list. This is but a small selection of the many women writers from the Spanish-speaking world who have ceaselessly questioned the status quo, refusing to comply with gender and other hierarchies. Their voices are more necessary than ever. Long live too their fearless and irreverent translators! Cristina Peri Rossi Exile from Uruguay has played a key role in the writing life of Cristina Peri Rossi (Montevideo, 1941)a portent of a writer who has tackled with equal mastery novels, short stories, essays, and poetry. While some of these works have been diligently translated into English (the most recent example is State of Exile, translated by Marilyn Buck for City Lights in 2008) we dont talk nearly enough about the work of this luminous writer whose merciless attention to desirelesbian desireand early proclivity for formal experimentation may be about to find its best audience. The shifting worlds of Peri Rossi may well be the true home that the migrants, misfits, runaways, and uprooted men and women of our era are looking for. Elena Medel Sometimes women writers have to do it all, and at an early age. Elena Medel (Cordoba, 1985), wrote and published Mi primer bikini (translated by Lizzie Davis as My First Bikini for Jai Alai Books in 2016) at age 16, winning the prestigious Andaluzia Prize for young poets. Three years later, she launched La Bella Varsovia, an independent publishing house that has since then given shelter to poetry that works closely with language, that is alert to the fluctuations of reality, that is written mostly, although not only, by women. A cultural activist and a champion for womens rights, Elena Medels approach to that quintessential piece of clothingthe bikiniis both delicate and raw, embracing the vicissitudes of early womanhood. Sara Uribe Sara Uribe (Queretro, 1978) has authored what is perhaps the poem of an entire generation: Antigona Gonzalez (translated by John Plucker for Les Figues Press in 2015). Originally published by SurPlus, an independent press established in Oaxaca, Mexico, Antigona Gonzalez roared into the world in 2011, giving wordsbroken, merciful, full of rageto the low intensity war Mexico has undergone for more than a decade. Fierce, urgently political, and human to the core, this documentary poem summons the dead and brings them to our tables, reminding us that the day we cease sharing memory and language with them, we ourselves will become loss, vanished sign, mere oblivion. Rosario Castellanos A writer of multiple talents, Rosario Castellanos (Mexico, 1925-1974) wrote memorable social novels in which modernity cruelly conflated with indigenous Mexico (such as The Book of Lamentations, translated by Esther Allen), as well as satirical poems that demonstrated she was not afraid of laughing at herself. Her Eternal Feminine, a theater play included in The Rosario Castellanos Reader, translated by Maureen Ahern for Texas University Press in 1988, is a veritable tour de force. At a beauty parlor, womens heads remain under sci-fi-like hair dryers as they dream with an alternative history of the world. The murmurs of Eve, La Malinche, or Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz contribute to a scathing and relentless subversion of gender stereotypes, transforming the main character forever. A feminist at heart, Castellanos died accidentally while trying to turn on a lamp. Marosa di Giorgio A rara avis of Latin American letters, Marosa di Giorgio (Salto, 1932-Montevideo, 2004) is best known for her prose poems. Infused with eroticism and populated by animal and vegetal life in constant transmutation, her writing renders the world anewand easy prey to both hallucination and freedom. In I Remember Nightfall, translator Jeannine Marie Pitas has beautifully delivered di Giorgios visionrather, her intimation: natural and supernatural creatures exchange secrets and yearnings here, by our side. As di Giorgios dirty and golden lions that first haunted and then entered the house of an obscure grandmother, her writing circles our lives, threatening and intriguing, with peculiar syntax and arresting beauty. Diamela Eltit While its generally accepted that love is a form of madness, are we as ready to admit that the mad can fall in love? In Souls Infarct, translated by Ronald Christ for Helene Lane Books in 2009, Diamela Eltit (Santiago, 1949), Chiles foremost experimental writer, has opened the doors of a provincial psychiatric institution not far from Santiago where poor men and women live, walk through the corridors, stare up to the sky, and indeed, fall in love. Triggered by the photographic images of Chilean artist Paz Errazurizwhich depict inmates in a dignified mannerEltit crosses literary genres to question the relationship between love and madness, and their connection with marginality and power. Eltit has famously embraced writing as a political practiceand this is political writing at its intimate best. Leonora Carrington Leonora Carrington (Lancashire, England, 1917-Mexico City, 2011) is better known as a painterand a surrealist one at that, much to her chagrin. Some may be familiar with her long exile in Mexico, initiated in 1943, while others may still remember that Marx Ernst became her sentimental partner when she was about 20 years old (and he 47). Still, few are aware even now that she was an incisive, fiercely independent writer of wild imagination. In the many worlds she created, and we can take a peek at them in The Complete Stories by Leonora Carrington. introduction by Kathryn Davis (Dorothy Project, 2017), human and non-human elements interact intimately, often exchanging places. Written originally in several languagesSpanish includedCarringtons stories use irony as much as fantasy to unlock the mysteries of the soul and to mock power with her own unique brand of eco-feminism avant la lettre. And how else could we describe the horse-womans fleeing from human society, opting instead for a world of plants and beasts? Laura Solorzano Laura Solorzano (Guadalajara, 1961) leads a discreet life in her native Guadalajara, where she offers writing workshops at a local school. The publication of Lip Wolf, aptly translated by Jen Hofer for Action Books in 2007, unveiled what few knew: that her demeanor might be quiet, but her inner life is tumultuous, brimming with excitement about the materialitythe fleshinessof words and their multiple connections with human and non-human life altogether. Under her gaze, the mere act of feeding a child with a wooden spoon appears as a threatening choreography of angst and love. As poet Monica de la Torre asserts, Solorzanos poems provide us with stunning soundings of that which resists remaining still in the form of images. Ines Arredondo Ines Arredondo (Culiacan, 1928-Mexico City 1989) is almost a secret in Mexican letters. Like her most famous contemporary Juan Rulfo or the lesser known but equally gifted Josefina Vicens, Arredondo published few books in her lifetime. In Underground River and Other Stories, translated into English by Cynthia Steele for University of Nebraska Press in 1996, Arredondo delves into the dark side of gendered desire. This masterful collection of short stories depicts a world in which love and destruction seem interchangeable. Here women fall pray to the desire for younger boys while powerful, decrepit men roam fields and parties alike seeking to devour the flesh of young girls. Perhaps Arredondo was not only portraying the worlds she closely observed in both her native Culiacan in northern Mexico and the capital city where she died; perhaps she was looking into the future, and writing about our time. Julieta Campos Had she chosen to live in the United States, and not Mexico, after her exile from Cuba, Julieta Campos (Habana, 1932-Mexico City, 2007) could have been called an experimental writer in her own right. In both She Has Reddish Hair and Her Name is Sabina, trans. by Leeland H. Chambers, (University of Georgia Press, 1993), and The Fear of Losing Eurydice (Dalkey Archive, 1993), Campos deftly plays with form, altering the architecture of page and the flow of narrative. While her books tell a story (often a love story) they question and subvert the cultural automatisms and literary formats in which stories are customarily told, producing cross-genre work avant la lettre. Brainy and beautifully rendered, her books investigate the operations of desire and memory and they way in which they leave traces, and wounds, in both body and society. Gabriela Wiener No other writer in the Spanish-speaking world is as fiercely independent and thoroughly irreverent as Gabriela Wiener (Lima, 1975). Constantly testing the limits of genre and gender, Wieners work as a cronista (which roughly translates, but is by no means a direct synonym, of nonfiction writer) has bravely unveiled truths some may prefer remain concealed about a range of topics, from the daily life of polymorphous desire to the tiring labor of maternity. The books of this prolific writer and unabashed feminist are yet to be translated into English (I hear Restless Books might have news for us in this regard), but meanwhile you can have your Wiener fix here. Denis Johnson. Random House, $27 (224p) ISBN 978-0-8129-8863-5 The second story collection from the late Johnson (Jesus' Son) is a masterpiece of deep humanity and astonishing prose. The title story chronicles a lifetime of moments, from the small to the ecstatic, of ad agent Bill Whitman, including a chance bathroom encounter, his marriage ("Have I loved my wife? We've gotten along. We've never felt like congratulating ourselves"), and his searching walks around his neighborhood at night ("I wonder if you're like me, if you collect and squirrel away in your soul certain odd moments when the Mystery winks at you"). "The Starlight on Idaho" is structured as a series of letters written by Mark Cassandra, an alcoholic in a recovery center, to all the significant people in his lifesiblings, doctors, Satanas he considers how he can correct his tendency toward self-destruction ("I have been asked over and over by medical people who probably know what they're talking about Why aren't you dead?'"). In "Strangler Bob," a young man named Dink ends up in county lockup, where he meets a group of other wayward men, eats a hot rod magazine soaked in an unspecified hallucinogen, and mulls over what would happen if an ominous red button on the wall were to be pressed. "Triumph Over the Grave" is a winding story told by an aging writer about his deceased friends and acquaintances, including a novelist who sees the ghosts of his brother and sister-in-law on his Texas ranch. In "Doppelganger, Poltergeist," a poetry professor's long friendship with one of his students draws him into the student's obsession with an Elvis conspiracy. This book is an instant classic. It's filled with Johnson's unparalleled ability to inject humor, profundity, and beautyoften all threeinto the dark and the mundane alike. These characters have been pushed toward the edge; through their searches for meaning or clawing just to hold onto life, Johnson is able to articulate what it means to be alive, and to have hope. Brazils telecoms market is expected to grow by almost 20% through to 2022, says Frost & Sullivan, with pay-TV becoming the key concern for the industry. The firms recent analysis has revealed that economic uncertainty, tax burden, shortening technology cycles, reduced profitability and disruptive competition are multiple factors holding back growth in the Brazilian market.Despite a general drop in traditional revenues, the report points out that opportunities are to be found in non-traditional services, such as big data analytics and the Internet of things (IoT).That said, Frost & Sullivan forecasts the total revenue of the telecoms market in Brazil will reach $45.76 billion by 2022, up from $38 billion in 2016. In pay-TV , where the pay-back period is long, direct-to-home (DTH) operators became stricter with credit analysis for new adds, and in parallel faced disconnections from families cutting domestic household spending due to economic distress, thus reducing the customer base significantly as well as the revenue, said Carina Goncalves, digital transformation industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.In fact, the report places pay-TV, along with disruptive competition and data communications, as the key concern for telcos, while over-the-top (OTT) providers are considered to be the largest threat.Over the last two-and-half years, Brazils pay-TV has seen a continued decline in subscribers and revenues, with top telcos AT&T, America Movil and Telefonica absorbing most of the impact American broadcast conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group and Imagine Communications are collaborating on a next-generation advertising management software platform for ATSC 3.0 digital television technology. Sinclair will provide guidance and a broadcasters viewpoint in the development of Imagines next-generation business process systems for traffic, ad sales and data analytics that allow for unit- and impression-based buys under the new scheme, which brings a platform for innovation to the US broadcast landscape. The service delivery enhancements of ATSC 3.0, which include an IP-based backchannel, are expected to offer viewers a highly personalised and interactive content experience.ATSC 3.0 provides broadcasters with a rich palette of IP-based service offerings that enhance and complement our over-the-air capabilities, said Del Parks, CTO of Sinclair . Our development partnership with Imagine will ensure that we maximise the monetisation opportunities these new capabilities that an IP delivery model offers by utilising business systems that provide precise targeting and geographical positioning across all distribution and consumption models.Imagine Communications xG platform is a modular, next-generation advertising management solution that is designed to enable broadcasters and other media companies to maximise the value of commercial airtime and to sell either by traditional unit-based models or impression-based models across all delivery platforms, including linear, nonlinear, on-demand and mobile.Sinclair also has committed to a rollout of beta testing for both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 models.Sinclair is a major champion of broadcast innovation across technology and business processes, said Sarah Foss, chief product officer of advertising management solutions at Imagine Communications . This agreement provides both Sinclair and Imagine with a unique opportunity to bring the capabilities of our ad management solutions, including zone-based targeting and dynamic ad insertion, that have gained market leadership among MVPDs to the broadcast realm. Its a win-win for both companiesand, ultimately, the North American broadcast market. The Athens-Clarke County Police Department was one of multiple entities involved in the arrest of nine individuals involved in a child sex investigation. All nine were arrested in Clarke County. (File/Staff) How many steps will it take to walk off Thanksgiving dinner? 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. BALAKAN, Azerbaijan -- A court in Azerbaijan has sentenced journalist Afqan Muxtarli to six years in prison after convicting him of smuggling and other crimes in a politically charged trial condemned by rights groups. The Balakan District Court issued the verdict and sentence on January 12 after an impassioned final statement by Muxtarli, who said President Ilham Aliyev's government "cannot silence us." Rights groups and Western states have condemned the case as part of long-standing government effort to quash dissent and punish those who question the authorities or seek to expose graft. Muxtarli and his wife, Leyla Mustafayeva, fled to Georgia in 2015, fearing for their safety in connection with his reporting on suspected corruption in President Ilham Aliyev's circle. You can arrest or kill us, but there are others to come and continue the fight. Our main goal is not to topple Ilham Aliyev. Our highest aim is to provide people with hope." A day after the journalist went missing in Tbilisi in May 2017, Azerbaijani authorities said he was in custody in Baku on suspicion of smuggling and crossing the border illegally. Muxtarli's lawyers, Elcin Sadiqov and Nemat Karimli, told the court that their client was "abducted" in Georgia and illegally brought into Azerbaijan. They said the case was politically motivated and asked the court to drop all charges. But the court in the former Soviet republic's north found Muxtarli guilty of illegal border crossing, smuggling cash, and assaulting officials. In his final statement, before a break in the hearing ahead of the verdict, Muxtarli said that he is not guilty and vowed to continue expressing his thoughts and ideas through writing as a journalist. "We are here and we write and write. You cannot silence us," he said. "I was lucky that I was not killed when forcibly taken from Georgia to Baku. That I was not killed while in a detention cell. "You can arrest or kill us, but there are others to come and continue the fight. Our main goal is not to topple Ilham Aliyev. Our highest aim is to provide people with hope," he said. WATCH: Azerbaijan Locks Up Journalist It Allegedly Kidnapped From Georgia (from June 1, 2017) Prosecutors had asked the court to impose an eight-year prison sentence on Muxtarli. Human rights groups and Western governments have called on Baku to release the journalist. "The United States is disturbed" by the sentencing of Muxtarli for offenses "widely believed to be politically motived," said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert in a statement late on January 12. "We urge the government of Azerbaijan to release Mr. Muxtarli and all those incarcerated for exercising their fundamental freedoms," she said. Nauert said Georgia is investigating Muxtarli's abduction and she called on Tbilisi to be "full, transparent, and timely" in pursuing his case. European lawmakers passed a resolution in June calling on Azerbaijani authorities to free him immediately and drop all charges against him. Muxtarli's wife, Mustafyeva, has criticized the Georgian authorities for failing to prevent her husband from being taken to Azerbaijan. She has moved to Germany, saying that she was being followed by the same people she believes seized her husband and felt unsafe in Georgia. Western governments and international human rights groups say Aliyev's government has persistently persecuted independent media outlets, journalists, and opposition politicians and activists. Aliyev, who has ruled the oil-producing South Caucasus country of nearly 10 million people since shortly before his long-ruling father's death in 2003, has shrugged off the criticism. Czech President Milos Zeman was rushed by a bare-chested protester from the activist group Femen as he cast his vote in the first round of the country's presidential election in Prague. The protester, repeatedly screaming "Zeman, Putin's slut," was apprehended before she could reach the 73-year-old Czech head of state. (RFE/RL's Russian Service/Rustem Adagamov) The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Czech President Milos Zeman was confronted by a topless female protester with "Zeman, Putins Slut" scrawled across her chest as voting began on January 12 in the first round of the country's presidential election. Shouting the same slogan, the woman ran towards Zeman, who is running for a second term, in the polling station in the Czech capital, Prague, before being quickly wrestled to the ground by Zeman's bodyguards. Femen, an international feminist group that originated in Ukraine, said on its website that the woman was Ukrainian citizen Angelina Diash. Zeman was quickly escorted out and returned to cast his vote shortly afterwards. "As you can see, my security detail works quite well because she did not get to me," Zeman said after returning. He later told reporters outside that he felt "honored to be attacked by a member of the Femen movement, which has also attacked the pope." Zeman has courted controversy by voicing antimigrant views, denigrating Muslims, and warming up to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a time when many in Europe fear that Moscow is meddling in Western elections and affairs. Zeman once called the 2015 migrant crisis "an organized invasion" of Europe, and has said that Muslims were "impossible to integrate." Zeman is facing eight challengers, with opinion polls showing his most serious opponent is Jiri Drahos, a chemistry professor and two-time president of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Other candidates include songwriter Michal Horacek, former right-wing premier Mirek Topolanek, and Vratislav Kulhanek, former head of Czech carmaker Skoda Auto. On the eve of the election, Zeman stayed away from a final debate on national television, citing a prior engagement to take part in a talk-show on another channel. Around 8.4 million Czechs were eligible to cast ballots. Polls close at 2 p.m. on January 13, and the first results are due later the same day. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, which analysts are expecting, the top two finishers will face off in a runoff on January 26-27. With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says Moscow is hopeful a deal can be made with Washington to exchange prisoners, including convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who currently is serving a 25-year sentence in a U.S. prison. "The Americans are showing some external activity. We are working professionally through a special channel designed for this," Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow on November 18. "Viktor Bout is among those who are being discussed, and we certainly count on a positive result." Relations between Moscow and Washington are at a low not seen since the last century, with tensions sent over the top by the Kremlin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. A possible prisoner swap is expected to also include women's basketball star Brittney Griner, who was recently sentenced to nine years behind bars in Russia after being convicted on drug charges, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence in Russia after being convicted of espionage charges that he denies. Ryabkov said Moscow also was ready for high-level talks with Washington regarding "strategic stability," which includes the New START treaty. The treaty, signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance. In February 2021, just days before New START was due to expire, Moscow and Washington agreed to extend it for another five years. But in August of this year, Russia informed the United States of a freeze on U.S. inspections of its nuclear weapons under the treaty, claiming Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, along with visa restrictions, had hampered similar inspections of U.S. facilities by Russian monitors. Russian and U.S. officials are expected to meet soon in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, from November 29-December 6 to discuss the treaty. "The Americans know our position. It coincides with what we offered and expressed in the period of time before they unilaterally disrupted it," Ryabkov said. Rybakov also emphasized that "there is nothing to talk about" with regard to Ukraine, given the "radically contradicting positions and approaches" the two sides have on the issue. Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Since then, the United States, NATO, and many of their allies have condemned the move and imposed crippling sanctions on Russia, its government, and many of those close to President Vladimir Putin. Talks on a prisoner swap may also involve several other U.S. citizens who are currently serving prison terms in Russia. Last month, another former U.S. Marine, Robert Gilman, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for attacking a police officer while drunk. In July, Marc Fogel, a former employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for large-scale cannabis smuggling and the illegal storage of drugs without a commercial purpose. The 61-year-old Fogel says the drugs -- less than 20 grams of marijuana -- were medically prescribed to manage chronic pain from a back injury. In April, Russia and the United States swapped Trevor Reed for a Russian pilot convicted of drug smuggling. Reed, also a former U.S. Marine, was sentenced to nine years in prison after allegedly attacking police officers while drunk. With reporting by RIA Novosti and Interfax A court in Moscow has refused to grant early release to the leader of a group believed to be behind the hacking of high-profile Internet accounts, including the Twitter account of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The Lefortovo District Court on January 12 rejected a motion for the release on parole for Vladimir Anikeyev, the leader of Shaltai-Boltai -- Russian for Humpty Dumpty. The hearing was held behind closed doors as some materials in the case are classified. Anikeyev was handed a two-year prison sentence in July after striking a plea bargain and agreeing to cooperate with the authorities. Two other group members, Aleksander Filinov and Konstantin Teplyakov, were sentenced to three years in prison each in September. The 2016 arrests of the Shaltai-Boltai suspects became known only after Russian media reported that two officials of the Federal Security Service (FSB) cybercrime unit had been arrested on treason charges. Russian media reports suggested the officials had connections to the hacker group or had tried to control it. Based on reporting by Rapsinews and Interfax The European Union has warned Kosovo that bilateral relations will suffer if a war crimes court is scrapped. The statement on January 12 by the EU office in Kosovo comes after a similar message from the United States last month. The warnings come amid uncertainty whether Kosovo's parliament will put a vote on the court back on its agenda next week after shelving it on December 22 under U.S. and EU pressure. The court -- the Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office -- was established in 2015 to try ex-Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters alleged to have committed atrocities in the 1998-1999 war that led to independence from Serbia. It has yet to hear any cases. Kosovo media have said the court, based abroad in The Hague, could indict or call as witnesses some current government officials. It was set up in the Netherlands to minimize the risk of witness intimidation and judicial corruption. Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, President Hashim Thaci, and parliamentary speaker Kadri Veseli are former KLA commanders. Based on reporting by AP and Reuters Leaders of Greece and Macedonia say they have been working hard to settle their decadeslong dispute over the name Macedonia. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says he sees a "window of opportunity" to resolve the issue, and on January 11 he called on the Greek Orthodox church to restrain its strong opposition to allowing the Balkan country to use the name, which is also claimed by a northern province in Greece. Tsipras told Greek state television ERT that he believes an agreement would benefit all the countries in the region. Greece's Foreign Minister Nikow Kotzias this week mentioned "New Macedonia" as a name Athens might accept for its northern neighbor and said that with 100 nations already recognizing the Balkan nation as Macedonia, Athens has little alternative but to compromise. Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has also given top priority to resolving the dispute, which has hampered Macedonia's bid to join the European Union and NATO. Kotzias and Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov met on January 11 in the Greek port city of Thessaloniki in the latest effort to find a solution. The Foreign Ministry in Athens said after the meeting that they will continue their efforts on January 17, when they are scheduled to meet with the United Nations special envoy for the Macedonian issue, Matthew Nimetz, at UN headquarters in New York. Diplomats in Athens said on January 11 that the UN mediator might suggest the name "New Macedonia" as a compromise solution. "There is a general feeling of fatigue in both countries due to this long-lasting dispute," Bujar Osmani, Macedonia's deputy prime minister, said in an interview with the Associated Press on January 11. "What I think is important is that we have achieved substantial progress in confidence-building between the two countries that finally will result in finding a...solution of the dispute," he said. Athens and Skopje have been locked in a dispute over the name Macedonia since the former Yugoslavia disintegrated in 1991, with Greece citing the disagreement as its reason for blocking Macedonia's efforts to join the EU and NATO. Greek nationalists claim the name Macedonia is an important part of Greek history and culture that they say should not be "usurped" by their northern neighbor, which also celebrates Alexander the Great and other Hellenic causes and achievements. The Greek Orthodox Church, Greek nationalist parties, and residents of northern Greece have been especially opposed to any compromise that incorporates the name Macedonia and have planned rallies in northern Greece later this month. Greece and the EU currently recognize the small Balkan country by its provisional name, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), the name it also used when it was admitted to the UN. Skopje insists that designation was never intended to be permanent. With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, and dpa A series of moderate earthquakes struck near the Iran-Iraq border and other areas of Iran on January 11, most of them occurring in the same region hit by a major quake in November that killed over 530 people. Four people suffered minor injuries from the latest quakes and little damage was reported, Iranian state television said. The U.S. Geological Survey said seven of the quakes struck near the Iraqi city of Mandali, 120 kilometers northeast of the Iraqi capital. Mandali is right on the border between the two nations. An eighth quake hit near Mehran in western Iran, about 90 kilometers southeast of Mandali in the sparsely populated Zagros Mountains that divide Iran and Iraq. All the earthquakes that were centered around the Iran-Iraq border struck within an hour of each other in the early morning of January 11, the U.S. survey said. Six had a preliminary magnitude of at least 5, it said, while two registered at magnitude 4. Scientists consider earthquakes of magnitude 5 as moderate. Iranian authorities offered similar figures for the magnitude of the earthquakes on state television. Iranian state television said that people rushed into the streets as the temblors hit. In Baghdad and Iraq's Kurdish region in the north, people said they felt the quakes and aftershocks. All the earthquakes struck at a depth of 10 kilometers, a shallow level that can causes more ground shaking and potential damage, particularly in places without strict building codes, according to the U.S. agency. Earthquakes at magnitude 5 can cause considerable damage. In November, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the border region, killing more than 530 people and injuring thousands in Iran alone. In Iraq, nine people were killed and 550 were injured, all in the country's northern Kurdish region, according to the United Nations. The November earthquake hit hardest in the Kurdish town of Sarpol-e-Zahab in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah, about 80 kilometers from the sites of the latest quakes. Many buildings collapsed or sustained major damage in the November quake. While the Iranian government has offered loans for rebuilding homes that were destroyed, many people are still living in tents or shipping containers amid cold winter weather. Iran sits on major fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. Other parts of Iran were hit by minor quakes on January 11, the U.S. agency said. It said a magnitude 4.9 quake hit Iran's southern province of Kerman before dawn, followed by a late afternoon quake of 4.8 magnitude. The agency said another 4.6 magnitude temblor struck late on January 10 in Kermanshah Province. No injuries or damage were reported. With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP Welcome back to the China In Eurasia briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter tracking Chinas resurgent influence from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Im RFE/RL correspondent Reid Standish. Before we get started, a few announcements: The newsletter is now biweekly, rather than going out only on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. To subscribe, click here. And I will also be launching Talking China In Eurasia, a new podcast. Im joined by the Royal United Services Institutes Raffaello Pantucci to talk about Xi and Putin. Listen to the first episode here or below. Xi Gets Pragmatic About Russia At The G20 It was light on optimism, but U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping injected a healthy dose of pragmatism back into the U.S.-China relationship with their meeting in Bali at a time when global anxiety is rising over Russias war against Ukraine. Finding Perspective: The meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit was far from a breakthrough, but it did repair some damage from the recent backslide in relations between both countries and send some signals that the world isnt necessarily destined for Cold War 2.0. The more than three-hour talks saw some blunt exchanges over contentious issues like Taiwan and North Korea, but the two leaders also pledged more frequent communications and decided that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing for follow-up talks in 2023. Of particular note, Biden raised Russias invasion of Ukraine and threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons. Both leaders reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war should never be fought, according to a White House readout. While far from a sea change for Chinese policy, thats notable. The credibility of Beijings claims to be neutral on the Ukraine war continue to come under scrutiny, and China has shown discomfort of late with the Kremlins nuclear saber-rattling. Xi made similar comments after a November 4 summit with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and during another G20 meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the French readout. Why It Matters: Xi is not abandoning Putin, but this marks the latest shift for Beijings balancing act over Russias invasion of Ukraine. Four Chinese officials briefed on the February 4 meeting between Xi and Putin, where they declared a no-limits partnership, told the Financial Times that Putin didnt tell Xi the truth about the invasion and that Beijing was caught off guard by it. What Xi knew about Putins war plans has been a topic of debate, and there is evidence to support both the idea that Xi was aware and that he was caught off guard. Many analysts are of the opinion that Xi knew about Putin's decision to invade but expected a quick victory, which perhaps was what Putin believed at the time. Others point to a steady stream of dismissals from Chinese officials and experts about the likelihood of an invasion in February and the fact that Beijing did not evacuate its citizens from Ukraine like Western nations did as evidence that China was not expecting a war. China certainly has its own interests in keeping a distance from Moscows war and using that space to do some upkeep with the West. But perhaps the most important point here is that even if Putin did blindside Xi, China has stuck with Russia despite its battlefield failures, political isolation, and the atrocities its troops are accused of committing. Again, this is pragmatism more than anything else. As Chinese experts often say, even if Russia is looking unattractive these days, why would Beijing abandon its main anti-Western partner as China continues to be in the crosshairs of rising American pressure? Read More Want to hear more about Russia and Chinas complex relationship amid the Ukraine war? Then tune in to the debut of Talking China In Eurasia today at 2 p.m. CET/ 8 a.m. EST. You can listen live here and find the episode on RFE/RLs website and wherever you listen to your podcasts. Condemning Russias invasion of Ukraine and its global fallout is shaping up to be the key theme of the G20, with the Financial Times reporting that a joint communique from the summit takes aim at Moscow. Expert Corner: The Future Of The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Readers asked: Did Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs recent trip to Beijing breathe new life into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)? How do Islamabad and Beijing really feel about the project after all these years? To find out more, I asked Filippo Boni, an expert on China-Pakistan relations at the Open University in Britain: Shehbaz Sharif's visit to China was high on symbolism and relatively low on substance. While the two sides were keen to reaffirm and emphasize the strength of their strategic partnership, no significant new commitment was made. Apart from a few memorandums of understanding and attempts from the Pakistanis in the run-up to the trip to address some of CPECs issues including payments to Chinese independent power producers nothing major came from the visit. This is despite Sharif's attempts at revitalizing CPEC since April and the very close ties he enjoys with the Chinese leadership. The outcome of this visit is not entirely surprising, especially if interpreted against the backdrop of Pakistan's current domestic predicaments. The security situation for Chinese nationals has deteriorated, the economy is struggling, and political instability is at one of its highest points in recent years. All these dynamics, coupled with the global scaling down of Belt and Road Initiative financing, have likely impacted Beijing's lack of commitment to new projects. After almost 10 years and $25 billion worth of projects, there seems to be a general consensus on both sides that the first phase of CPEC the one focused primarily on energy projects was largely successful. The same cannot be said for the second phase, including the slow progress on the development of Special Economic Zones, and for the port of Gwadar, where little progress has been made for the ports full commercial functioning. Do you have a question about Chinas growing footprint in Eurasia? Send it to me at StandishR@rferl.org or reply directly to this e-mail and Ill get it answered by leading experts and policymakers. Three More Stories From Eurasia 1. 'Sweep It Under The Rug' Recent allegations of China operating 54 overseas police stations have fueled controversy around the world and sparked investigations, but in Hungary and Serbia the new findings are being met with swift denials by authorities, despite growing evidence. The Details: My colleagues Akos Keller-Alant from RFE/RLs Hungarian Service, Mila Durdevic from RFE/RLs Balkan Service, and I reported on the fallout from these revelations and the slew of probes launched in many European countries recently. The stations are overseas operations of the public security bureaus from two Chinese provinces and are used to persuade citizens to return to China, including through pressure on family members at home. While most of those involved appear to be suspected of crimes such as telecommunications fraud or corruption, dissidents have also reported that the stations have been used to monitor and threaten them. Fourteen governments have already launched investigations into the overseas police stations, and the Dutch and Irish governments have ordered China to shut down the facilities in their countries. But in Hungary and Serbia two countries where Beijing is said to operate such facilities and whose governments prize their warming political and economic ties with China officials appear to be trying to sweep it under the rug, as one analyst characterized it, despite growing scrutiny from opposition lawmakers in each country. 2. Global Ripples Hit Central Asia Political and economic shocks from Moscows war in Ukraine, coupled with added strains from tensions between Beijing and Washington, are taking their toll around the world, especially in Central Asia, where countries in the region are closely tied to both China and Russia. What It Means: As RFE/RLs Uzbek Service reported, Vladimir Norov, the countrys foreign minister, warned about geopolitical tensions affecting stability in the region and beyond while addressing his counterparts at an Organization of Turkic States meeting in Samarkand. The breakdown in global cooperation is felt particularly strong in Central Asia. While some economies have been able to benefit by becoming a new home for businesses and capital relocated from Russia, others are seeing investment dry up and their economies coming under strain. World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia Anna Bjerde recently warned that Uzbekistan needs to continue with its market reforms in order to withstand the global economic shocks that are to come. RFE/RLs Kyrgyz Service also reported that the countrys government is trying to court more investment but that questions remain from investors about Kyrgyzstans stability and investment climate. According to official statistics from January to June of this year, China is the leading source of foreign investment, with $129 million during that span. 3. The Tech In Moscows Iranian Drones A new investigation by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, looked into electronic components underpinning Tehran's production of the Mohajer-6 drone, which Russia has used in its war in Ukraine, and found that theyre far from homegrown. What You Need To Know: The Mohajer-6 drones contain components produced by companies from the United States and the European Union, both of which have sanctions restricting the export to Iran of technology that can be used for both civilian and military purposes. The investigation also found drone components produced in China, including a real-time mini-camera made by a Hong Kong firm. The drone also contains a microchip bearing the logo of a California technology company and a thermal-imaging camera that Ukrainian intelligence says may have been produced by a firm based in Oregon or China. The international tech in the drone not only highlights the complex ecosystem that allows firms and buyers to circumvent sanctions slapped on both Iran and Russia, but also the close networks between Chinese and Western tech companies that still exist, despite a recent push to break some of those linkages. Across The Supercontinent On The Mainland: The watchdog group Freedom House recently launched a new project called the China Dissent Monitor, which tracks protests and other forms of dissent inside China. Read it here. Censored: Chinese authorities behind a major trade expo in Shanghai pulled an opening ceremony address by European Council President Charles Michel that was set to criticize Russia's illegal war in Ukraine and call for reduced European dependency on China, Reuters reported. Backtracking: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has softened his countrys stance toward China, moving away from his predecessor Liz Trusss decision to label it a threat. One Thing To Watch How long will Chinas stringent COVID policies stay in place? New infections are rising as a winter wave hits and popular frustration continues to boil over inside the country as investor confidence stays dented over the measures. New footage also showed crowds of residents in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou escaping a compulsory lockdown and clashing with police. Thats all from me for now. Dont forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you might have. Until next time, Reid Standish If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your in-box on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker says the European Union should offer a clear path to membership to Western Balkan nations to help prevent them from returning to the ethnic strife that afflicted the region in the 1990s. While making clear that EU enlargement will not be considered during the current commission mandate -- which ends in 2019 -- Juncker on January 12 said the next commission term -- which ends in 2024 -- will "certainly have to take a closer and targeted look at this." "It is extremely important to ensure that the Western Balkans obtain and have confirmed once again a clear European perspective," he said, speaking at the official launch of the six-month Bulgarian EU presidency in the capital, Sofia. "Otherwise, the danger exists in this very complicated region of Europe that we may be looking at possible events that could hark back to early nineties of the previous century," he added. The countries of the Western Balkans, and specifically those of the former Yugoslavia, were rocked by violent ethnic and religious conflicts in the 1990s. The Balkan wars, which erupted in 1991 and lasted for nearly a decade, killed an estimated 140,000 people and led to the breakup of Yugoslavia into the successor states Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia and Montenegro broke up and became separate states in 2006. Kosovo declared itself independent from Serbia two years later, a move Belgrade has never recognized. Slovenia and Croatia have become members of the EU, while the other states are in various stages of seeking to join the bloc. Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, has said it wants to use its presidency to help promote the hopes of Western Balkan nations for eventual EU membership. With reporting by RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak In a remote desert near the border between Kazakhstan and China, a massive dry port has been built to develop overland routes for Chinese exports to markets in Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. Dubbed the "New Silk Road," supporters say it slashes delivery times -- but skeptics say it's a gamble which may not pay off. (Current Time TV) Ukraine's military said on January 12 that one of its soldiers was 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 said Russia-backed separatists violated a frequently breached cease-fire nine times in skirmishes where separatists fired machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars. A day earlier, the military said three soldiers were killed by separatist shelling. The separatists, meanwhile, claimed Ukrainian government forces violated the cease-fire 14 times in the last 24 hours using artillery, machine guns, and grenade launchers. 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 to resolve 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 As Aleksei Navalny traveled across Russia in an extraordinary campaign despite a looming ban on his candidacy, photographer Evgeny Feldman was alongside through attacks, arrests, and impromptu street speeches. Navalny reading during a flight to Yekaterinburg as his wife, Yulia, dozes. A few weeks before this February 24 picture was taken, after a conviction that he calls politically motivated, the anti-corruption campaigner had announced his intention to run for president. Following the announcement, Navalny set off on a series of outdoor speeches in town centers across Russia. Navalny addressing a crowd in Yekaterinburg, east of the Urals, in September. Unable to gain access to Russias state-run TV networks, Navalny attempted to take his anti-corruption and democratic nationalism message directly to people across Russia. Navalnys team paid photojournalist Evgeny Feldman's travel expenses in return for photographing the campaign. These photos are a result of that collaboration. Feldman described the arrangement as an opportunity to photograph "an extremely interesting person at the most crucial moment of his career." Navalny (center) and campaign staff head to McDonald's for dinner. A Cossack bawling insults in Rostov-on-Don in April. Feldman told RFE/RL that hostility to Navalny's team reached such a pitch in the early days of the presidential campaign that "for two months...every trip the campaign made across Russia, we had some attacks." A man fleeing after hurling eggs at Navalny in Nizhny Novgorod. Human Rights Watch said Navalny campaign supporters were being "systematically" harassed and attacked. A man planting a sign that reads "American agent" next to Navalny's departing taxi in Ufa on March 4. Moments earlier, Navalny and his supporters had been attacked with eggs. Navalny after being sprayed in the face with green antiseptic known as "zelyonka" in Barnaul on March 20. Feldman says Navalny was "angry at first, then switched to a 'f*** you, Im still smiling' mode to show such attacks were pointless. But the liquid was burning his eye, so he was actually quite scared." Locals listening to a Navalny speech in Yekaterinburg. Navalny greeting a supporter at the Yekaterinburg rally in September. Young protesters shouting anti-corruption slogans during protests on March 26. The Moscow protests followed a video released by Navalny that alleged massive corruption by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Navalny handcuffed to a policeman after being arrested at one of the March 26 protests. Navalny splashing his face with the autumn waters of Lake Baikal before a rally in Irkutsk. Navalny and a local campaign supporter picking through a meal of fine-boned fish next to Lake Baikal. Navalny catching the attention of some military cadets on his way to a viewpoint over Saratov in December. In Saratov, Navalny's team was told a war veterans' event was taking place at the same time as Navalny's planned rally. Navalny then clambered onto nearby playground equipment and addressed supporters through a bullhorn. On December 3, Navalnys team arrived in Samara only to be told a bellydancing contest inside the municipal building would preclude any rallies outside. Police then cordoned off the area. At a rally in Novosibirsk, Navalny debating a man who had been heckling him from the crowd. Navalny in a rundown district of Arkhangelsk. The Crabhouse Cafe during Navalny's visit to Vladivostok, in Russia's Far East. Navalny being led onstage by his wife in Moscow. Navalny's children waiting backstage at a meeting of supporters in Moscow. Navalny's daughter is reading George Orwell's 1984. Navalny and his team taking the Moscow Metro on December 25 to hear whether his attempt to register as a presidential candidate was successful. The team on the way to the Central Election Commission after emerging from the Metro. The commission told Navalny he was ineligible to run for president due to a suspended sentence for embezzlement, a charge Navalny calls politically motivated. Navalny then called on his supporters to boycott the March 2018 election. Russian lawmakers have given preliminary approval to a bill that would enable the government to brand some individual journalists and bloggers -- not only media outlets -- as foreign agents. The bill, passed in the first of three readings in the State Duma on January 12, allows the Justice Ministry to designate people who are "performing the function of a media outlet" as foreign agents. It follows a law signed by President Vladimir Putin in November that empowered the ministry to designate media outlets that are based or funded from outside Russia as "foreign agents." The new bill has prompted concerns that Moscow could use the foreign agent label against foreign correspondents working in Russia in addition to media outlets themselves. Russia says its legislation, which has been criticized by Western governments and media rights groups, is a response to what it claims is pressure on Russian media outlets in the United States. Washington denies it has pressured Russian media outlets. The new bill, which appears likely to be approved by both houses of parliament and signed by Putin without major changes, sets out some of the rules governing media outlets or individuals designated as foreign agents. It would require those designated as foreign agents to label their output as coming from a foreign agent, said Pyotr Tolstoi, a deputy Duma speaker from the Kremlin-controlled United Russia party. This requirement "applies to all information sources, from television channels and print media to social media users of medical or cooking websites," Tolstoi said. Another lawmaker, Leonid Levin, said that when it comes to individuals, the foreign agent label would only be applied to those who receive funding "directly or indirectly" from "state sources in countries where there are restrictions on the work of Russian media." The bill would also require media outlets designated as foreign agents to set up Russian legal entities if they have not already done so. Relations between Russia and the United States are severely strained by tension over issues including Russia's interference in Ukraine and its alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election in 2016. The Russian Justice Ministry declared Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and seven affiliated news services foreign agents on December 5, but has not pinned the designation on any other media outlets. With reporting by AP, Interfax, TASS, and RT The Russian military says it has killed militants it holds responsible for an attack on its air base in Syria. In a statement on January 12, the Russian Defense Ministry said an unspecified number of militants had been tracked down by drones and targeted as they boarded a minibus in Idlib Province. The Defense Ministry also said a militant facility for assembling drones in Idlib had been destroyed as well. Two Russian servicemen were reported killed in the mortar shelling of the Hmeimim air base on December 31. The Kremlin denied any of its aircraft were damaged in the attack, but the Russian business daily Kommersant said seven warplanes were damaged beyond repair. Last weekend, militants launched a drone attack on Hmeimim as well as a Russian naval base at Tartus. The Russian military repelled the attack that was reported to involve 13 drones. The mortar shelling and drone attack came just weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a victory in Syria and ordered a partial troop withdrawal from the country. Russia launched its campaign in Syria in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad in September 2015. Based on reporting by AP and Reuters Russian police officers who'd dreamed of vacationing in the West or hitting the beaches of Turkey and Egypt in 2018 may have to wait another year. But they still have Turkmenistan. A Russian tourism association has published what it says is a list of approved vacation destinations for Interior Ministry employees, a move that comes amid broad restrictions on foreign travel for Russian security officers since Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in early 2014. The Interior Ministry has yet to comment on the list published by the Association of Russian Tour Operators (ATOR) that was originally released just before the new year but only grabbed headlines in Russia on January 12. But the 13 destinations on the list are consistent with images of a purported decree on the matter signed by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev in late December that have been circulating on Russian social-media sites in recent weeks. The authenticity of these images could not be immediately confirmed. The ministry and other Russian security agencies in recent years have reportedly issued similar lists for their respective employees since Russia's takeover of Crimea in March 2014, which was followed by the outbreak of a war between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The United States and the European Union remain off limits for Russian Interior Ministry employees in 2018, according to the list published by ATOR. But it says eight former Soviet republics -- Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan -- are fair game. 'Safe' Destinations More Westward-looking former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia are excluded, as is Moldova, which has a pro-Western government, but a president who seeks closer ties with Moscow. The list also includes the breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are recognized only by Russia and a handful of other states. Outside the former Soviet Union, Interior Ministry employees are only allowed to travel to Vietnam, Cuba, and China, according to the ATOR report. Other popular destinations for Russian tourists like Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Thailand reportedly didn't make the cut, though they had been approved in 2015-16, the Russian news agency RBC noted. According to images of Kolokoltsev's purported directive posted on social media, the list of 13 approved destinations are considered safe in terms of military, politics, crime, ecology, climate, and health. One commenter on a police-themed social-media profile posted a purported image of an analogous directive from the federal National Guard showing the same approved destinations as the reported Interior Ministry list, but adds the Maldives as well. The authenticity of that document also could not be immediately confirmed. RBC reported on January 12 that Palestinian areas were approved as a travel destination for Russian Interior Ministry employees last year, but that they were excluded from this year's list. U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that he did not use the vulgar language that media reports said he uttered in a discussion on immigration. Trump tweeted on January 12, after reports said he described immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from "shithole" countries at a meeting with lawmakers in the Oval Office the previous day. "The language used by me at the...meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," Trump said on Twitter. Media reports of the vulgar remark, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the meeting, generated a hail of criticism in the United States and abroad. "There is no other word one can use but 'racist'," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva when asked about the reported comments. "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes,' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome." The alleged comment came during a meeting at which 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. Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, who was present at the White House immigration meeting, said "shitholes" was "the exact word used by the president, not just once but repeatedly." Trump said that the United States should accept more immigrants from countries like Norway, the reports said. White House spokesman Raj Shah did not deny that Trump made the remark, which drew criticism from Democrats and Republicans in Congress. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," Shah said. Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, a senior Democratic lawmaker, said that Trump's comments were "racist and a disgrace." Republican Representative Mia Love of Utah, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, said Trump's reported remarks were "unacceptable from the leader of our nation" and called on him to apologize. Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and The Washington Post The U.S. Justice Department said it is setting up a new team to investigate alleged drug trafficking by Hizballah, the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi'ite group that the United States has branded a terrorist organization. The announcement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on January 11 came as Republicans in Congress are criticizing former President Barack Obama for allegedly stymieing a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operation that targeted Hizbillah's drug-trafficking activities out of concern it might hamper U.S. efforts to negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. A Politico article last month reporting about Obama's alleged move to quash the DEA's so-called Project Cassandra investigation into Hizballah was cited by Sessions in setting up the new investigative team. Sessions said the Justice Department will assemble leading investigators and prosecutors to man the Hizballah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team and ensure all investigations targeting Hizballah are completed. "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. "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." On January 10, former top Treasury Department sanctions official Juan Zarate told Congress that Hizballah's drug-smuggling and money-laundering operations are global in scale. He told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that recent moves by the Treasury Department and the DEA to dismantle Hizballah's networks "led to arrests and enforcement actions around the world." The United States has long targeted Hizballah with sanctions. In 2011, the Obama administration unleashed a crackdown on the group, designating Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank a "primary money-laundering concern" for handling the funds of alleged Hizballah drug kingpin Ayman Joumaa. The administration said at that time that Hizballah's far-flung operations involved Colombia and Panama-based drug traffickers shipping tons of cocaine to the United States and Europe and then laundering the drug revenues through various banks around the world. Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah denied the allegations, saying that the group depends on Iran for funding and that drug trafficking is forbidden by Islam. Former DEA official Derek Maltz on January 11 told the Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington that Hizballah uses the drug proceeds to buy weapons it uses in the civil war in Syria, where it backs President Bashar al-Assad, and has provided some of the funds to Shi'ite Huthi rebels battling the government in Yemen. With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters At the same time, however, Britain said that it was refused a request by Ecuador to grant Assange diplomatic status, which would have granted him special legal immunity and the right to safe passage under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Assange in the balcony of the Ecuador Embassy in London They insist that the only way to resolve the issue was for Assange to leave the embassy to face justice. The WikiLeaks founder, maintaining innocence on rape charges from Sweden, is also fearing that Swedish authorities would extradite him to the US where he is wanted for disclosing thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents. Swedish prosecutors dropped their charges against Assange last year, but British police have said they are prepared to arrest him for breaching bail conditions. The Ecuadorian foreign minister has urged now international cooperation to end a standoff in the case of Julian Assange. The country is searching for a third country or a personality to mediate a solution. 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, said Minister Espinosa. 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. As a manager, making sure your employees are on the same page as you is absolutely critical to business success. It can be easy to get lost in the day-to-day minutiae of work and forget that your employees rely on you to set the standards for communication, so if you feel your employees arent always right there with you, heres some ways you can use to get them (and yourself) back on track. Think Before You Speak When a crisis looms on the horizon, its easy and understandable to want to react emotionally rather than rationally. But these times are the exact times you need to take a step back, review the situation from a dispassionate perspective, and think carefully about what you want to say before you speak. Your employees wont necessarily remember exactly what you say in these times, but they will remember how you made them feel, so its important to not just react off the cuff, but in a measured, thoughtful, and helpful way. Planning is everything when it comes to speaking in crisis situations. Take the heat off by considering beforehand exactly what youre going to say, and even have some scripts prepared for possible issues. Youll be calmer and be able to calm your employees better. Jason Stromberg, HR Manager, Elite Assignment Help Critique In Private One of the most difficult things you have to do as a manager is provide negative feedback or criticism to your employees. This should always be done in private in a one-on-one basis. Your message should avoid the employees personality or traits and instead focus on what the employee can do to improve. End the meeting on as high a note as possible, and reassure them that youve got their back and youre sure they can follow the instructions youve given. They will take the message to heart far more effectively if theyre not put on the defensive by how youve given it. A little sympathy when delivering difficult messages goes a long way. Praise In Public On the other hand, when one of your employees has done something praiseworthy, make your recognition of it as public as you can. You want to make your employee feel wonderful, and inspire your other employees to do likewise. Communicate Weekly Dont let a week go by without sending your employees an email keeping them up-to-date on important things going on in your business. This email should be personally engaging, and should feel like its truly coming from you as an individual. If you need a hand with writing up a personal email to your staff, Revieweal is a good site to go to. There are also many useful business writing resources available at State of Writing. If youre new to the art of writing thoughtful, heartfelt emails to inspire and motivate your staff, write up a first draft, then use writing tools to revise it until it says what you want it to say. With practice, this will become easier. Meet Regularly Getting in the habit of meeting with your employees regularly will be fantastic for employee morale. It just needs to be a staff meeting once a month or so, with a written agenda, developed in cooperation with your staff and distributed before the meeting. The site AcademAdvisor can help with writing up the agenda. This provides a way for employees to raise any potential issues for discussion in a group setting and can provide a forum for you to clear the air in case there is anything causing problems for your employees. Open the Door Its absolutely crucial to not just maintain an open-door policy but to ensure that your employees know that they can come to you about anything at any time. Remind people of your open-door policy frequently, and if that doesnt bring people to you, reach out to them, even if its just saying good morning when you come in. People will be far more likely to approach you if they feel you will welcome them. Write it Down So, youve shared what you need to with your employees verbally. Great, now follow up by writing it down and sending it out to them in an email or another form of communication. If youre a little unsure when it comes to grammar, you can check it online at Grammarix. Most people will benefit from getting the information twice in different formats, and some people are visually-oriented and will remember written communication far better than verbal. In addition, any staff members who werent there for your meeting will get the information this way, rather than having to rely on others to pass on the message. Different people learn in different ways, so its best to provide any information you want people to remember in at least two of three ways: verbally, visually, or with action. Jamie Lee, Communication Manager, Top Canadian Writers In conclusion, taking the time to communicate with your employees is critical to your business success and crucial to your employees remaining happy to work for you. Keep it calm, do it regularly, let your personality shine through, try different things, and youll find your employees have smiles on their faces when they come through the door every morning. About the author: Rachel Summers, a social media manager for the last seven years, has worked with many companies both large and small, including leading custom writing service UK Top Writers. In her free time, Rachel advises small businesses and start-ups on social media strategies. 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. Neil Armstrong was a NASA astronaut and aeronautical engineer. He is photographed here during the final check of his communications system before the boarding of the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong was a NASA astronaut and aeronautical engineer. He famously became the first person to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969 during Apollo 11. Armstrong also flew on NASA's Gemini 8 mission in 1966. He retired from NASA in 1971 and remained active in the aerospace community, although he chose to keep mostly out of the public spotlight. Armstrong died Aug. 25, 2012, at age 82. Armstrong was famously reticent about his accomplishments, preferring to focus on the team that helped him get to the moon rather than his own first steps. "I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work," Armstrong said in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" (opens in new tab) program in 2005. In another interview, when asked what it feels like to have his footprints remain on the moon's surface for thousands of years, Armstrong said, "I kind of hope that somebody goes up there one of these days and cleans them up," The Independent (opens in new tab) reported. Related: Apollo landers, Neil Armstrongs bootprint and other human artifacts on moon officially protected by new US law Early career and NASA work Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on Aug. 5, 1930, to Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel. Neil was a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952 and served in the Korean War. He earned his bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University in 1955. (Many years later, after he became world-famous, he also received a master of science in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California in 1970.) Armstrong became a test pilot for NASA (then known as NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) and flew the X-15, a rocket-powered, missile-shaped aircraft that tested the limits of high-altitude flight. During his long career as a pilot, Armstrong flew more than 200 different aircraft, from jets to gliders and even helicopters. NASA test pilot Neil Armstrong is seen here next to the X-15 ship #1 after a research flight. (Image credit: NASA) (opens in new tab) In 1962, Armstrong was selected to be part of NASA's second group of astronauts, who flew on the two-seat Gemini missions to test out space technology, and the three-seat Apollo missions that ultimately took 12 people to the surface of the moon. Armstrong's first flight was as command pilot of the Gemini 8 mission in March 1966 the sixth crewed mission of that series. Armstrong and pilot David Scott completed the first orbital docking of two spacecraft, joining their Gemini 8 spacecraft to an uncrewed Agena target vehicle. However, the two-man crew experienced a serious problem when a thruster on the Gemini 8 spacecraft became stuck open. With the astronauts whipping around faster than one revolution per second, Armstrong managed to gain control again by using the re-entry system thrusters. The event was the first serious emergency in space and although the mission ultimately ended safely, the spacecraft was forced to splash down early because the re-entry system was already expended. Armstrong also narrowly avoided a nasty accident in May 1968, this time within Earth's atmosphere, while flying the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle a machine that could fly somewhat like a lunar module and simulate landings on the moon. Fuel for the attitude thrusters ran out and Armstrong was forced to eject just seconds before the vehicle crashed, NASA reported (opens in new tab). Armstrong escaped unharmed. Commander Neil Armstrong (right) and pilot David R. Scott prepare to board the Gemini-Titan 8. Gemini VIII successfully launched at 11:41 a.m. EST, March 16, 1966. The mission conducted the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit and landed safely back on Earth after an emergency abort. (Image credit: NASA) (opens in new tab) Apollo 11 and the first moonwalk The Apollo 11 crew members were announced to the public in January 1969. NASA's chief of the Astronaut Office, Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton, chose an all-veteran team of Neil Armstrong (Gemini 8), Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (Gemini 12) and Michael Collins (Gemini 10), with Armstrong selected to command the mission. His responsibilities included landing on the moon alongside Aldrin, the pilot of the lunar module Eagle. Collins would remain in lunar orbit aboard the command module Columbia. (Collins was originally supposed to be backup pilot for Apollo 11, but his spot in the flight sequence was moved after required surgery on his back forced him off the prime crew for Apollo 8.) As the lander approached the moon, Armstrong took over the controls when he saw that the computer was guiding them to a boulder-filled landing zone. At 4:14 p.m. EDT (2014 GMT), Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon, with only 25 seconds of fuel left. Armstrong radioed, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Capsule communicator and astronaut Charles Duke responded from Earth: "Roger Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot." The schedule called for the astronauts to sleep before the first moonwalk, but they elected to go outside early because they felt they would not be able to sleep. In view of a black-and-white television camera transmitting his movements live to Earth, Armstrong descended Eagle's lander and touched his left foot upon the surface at 10:56 p.m. EDT July 20 (0256 GMT July 21). His first words were "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." (The "a" was lost to radio static, but later analysis of the sound wave (opens in new tab) showed that Armstrong did say it.) Armstrong and Aldrin together explored the surface during a moonwalk that lasted 2 hours and 36 minutes. They collected 48.5 pounds (22 kilograms) of material from the surface including 50 moon rocks as well as deploying experiments, planting the U.S. flag and taking a moment to speak with the U.S. president at the time, Richard Nixon. The Eagle's crew lifted off safely from the moon on July 21, docked with Columbia, and voyaged back to Earth for a successful ocean landing on July 24. The astronauts went into quarantine to mitigate the (unlikely) risk that they were carrying some sort of moon germs back with them, and then embarked on a world tour to celebrate the mission. After Apollo 11, and Armstrong's death After his time as an astronaut, Armstrong was deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA headquarters. He resigned from NASA in 1971. From 1971 to 1979, he was a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Then from 1982 to 1992, Armstrong was chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc. in Charlottesville, Virginia. Armstrong also participated in the Rogers Commission, which was a presidential commission tasked to look at the causes and events of the fatal Challenger shuttle explosion of Jan. 28, 1986, that killed seven astronauts. Armstrong chose to mostly stay out of the spotlight after leaving NASA, although he did reappear periodically for interviews or for anniversary events concerning Apollo 11. Although his public statements were few, he followed spaceflight news and occasionally made public comments on what was happening. He remained a vocal supporter of suborbital spaceflight. On the other hand, the former Apollo astronaut was publicly critical of plans to shift crewed spaceflight from NASA to private spacecraft. On Aug. 7, 2012 two days after Armstrong turned 82 years old the famed moonwalker underwent coronary bypass surgery. Complications from the surgery resulted in his death on Aug. 25. "Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend," his family wrote on the website neilarmstronginfo.com. "For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request," they added. "Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink." Tributes poured in from many public figures, including President Barack Obama, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, then-NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Apollo 11 crewmates Aldrin and Collins, and various space representatives in the public, private and nonprofit spheres. "Neil was among the greatest of American heroes not just of his time, but of all time," Obama's statement read (opens in new tab). "When he and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation. They set out to show the world that the American spirit can see beyond what seems unimaginable that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible." A private memorial service for Armstrong was held Aug. 31, 2012, at the Camargo Club in Cincinnati. Two weeks later, a publicly televised memorial service was held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Armstrong was buried at sea Sept. 14, 2012, in a ceremony aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea. Armstrong's family was on board when the ship left port in Mayport, Florida, and they released his ashes somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Obama ordered flags around the United States to fly at half-staff on the day of the funeral. Armstrong's legacy In 2015, the Smithsonian Institution revealed that Armstrong had kept aside a cloth bag full of small parts from the lunar module Eagle, which lay undiscovered for decades until his widow, Carol, found it. While Armstrong made no mention of this bag in decades of interviews, the bag was discussed a few times during the mission. It is unknown how Armstrong ultimately gained possession of the bag, but it was common during the Apollo years for astronauts to retain souvenirs of their flights. (A month after Armstrong's death, Obama made legal a bill to allow Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts to retain legal title to these mementos.) Former "Mythbusters" host Adam Savage subsequently created a carry bag based on the design of Armstrong's "purse"; the design was actually used in several Apollo missions before and after Apollo 11. On Jul. 21, 2009, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin attended the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology tribute to the Apollo 11 Astronauts at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill. During the ceremony, the committee presented the astronauts with a copy of House Resolution 607 honoring their achievements and announced the passage of legislation awarding them and John Glenn the Congressional Gold Medal. Apollo 11 Astronauts, from left, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden attend the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology tribute to the Apollo 11 Astronauts. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls) (opens in new tab) In a 2013 BBC documentary, Armstrong's brother, Dean, said that he knew of the famous first words on the moon several months before Apollo 11 touched down. Dean reported that Armstrong passed him a handwritten note as the brothers played a late-night game of Risk, according to British newspaper the Telegraph. However, Dean's remarks contradicted many statements by Armstrong himself, who said that the words didn't come to him until he arrived on the moon. The other Apollo 11 astronauts have also backed up Armstrong's assertions. In 2017, a rare gold lunar model was stolen from the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta. "Entry to the museum was discovered and taken was a solid gold replica of the 1969 Lunar Excursion Module that landed on the moon," Russel Hunlock, Wapakoneta police chief, said in a release. "The piece is very rare as it was presented to Neil Armstrong in Paris, France, shortly after the moon landing." On Oct. 12, 2018, Universal Pictures released a Neil Armstrong biography based on James R. Hansen's book "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong." The movie starred Ryan Gosling as Armstrong. The movie was embroiled in political controversy because the filmmakers decided not to include a scene where Armstrong plants an American flag on the moon's surface, despite the fact that Armstrong did so in reality. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, tweeted, "This is total lunacy. And a disservice at a time when our people need reminders of what we can achieve when we work together." At the Venice Film Festival Gosling defended the filmmaker's choice, reported The Telegraph (opens in new tab), saying, "I think [the moon landing] was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement [and] that's how we chose to view it." On Aug. 11, 2021, NASA dedicated the Ohio test facility to Neil Armstrong. Armstrong had graciously declined the honor when he was originally asked, but on Wednesday (Aug. 11), nine years after Armstrong died and a week after what would have been his 91st birthday, a group of NASA officials and members of Congress gathered at a small dedication ceremony in Sandusky, Ohio. NASAs Plum Brook Station is now known as The Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility. Additional resources You can explore 50 Neil Armstrong facts with this article from Facts.net (opens in new tab) or read about Armstrong's life and dreams of space travel in this book (opens in new tab) by James R. Hansen. Discover more about Armstrong in this informative article (opens in new tab) published by the Air and Space Museum. An artist's illustration of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. The first test flights will launch between August and December in 2018. WASHINGTON SpaceX has delayed its two commercial crew test flights by four months, according to a new NASA schedule released Jan. 11, raising questions about whether it or Boeing will be able to send astronauts to the International Space Station by the end of the year as previously planned. The updated schedule, which NASA said represents "the most recent publicly releasable dates" for the two companies, lists an uncrewed test flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft in August 2018, followed by a crewed test flight in December. The previous schedule released by NASA, in October 2017, stated those flights would take place in April and August 2018, respectively. SpaceX spokesperson Eva Behrend, in a statement to SpaceNews, did not discuss the reasons for the delay. "SpaceX continues to target 2018 for the first demonstration missions with and without crew under NASA's Commercial Crew Program," she said. [Watch: SpaceX, Boeing Launching Space Taxi Test Flights in 2018] Behrend instead focused on the progress the company has made in the development of its Crew Dragon vehicle. "In 2017, significant progress was made towards the production, qualification and launch of Crew Dragon one of the safest and most advanced human spaceflight systems ever built and we are set to meet the additional milestones needed to launch our demonstration missions this year." In a Jan. 4 release, NASA outlined some of the milestones ahead for SpaceX before those test flights. They include "continued, rigorous qualification testing" of both the Merlin engines used on the Falcon 9 as well as the Dragon's SuperDraco thrusters, tests of the Dragon's parachutes, post-splashdown recovery tests, and testing of the pressure suits that will be worn by astronauts flying on the Dragon. At the time of the release, NASA had not disclosed the latest delays, but the list of milestones suggested delays were likely. For example, NASA said that a second round of Dragon parachute system validation tests "will be completed by mid-2018," which under the previous schedule would have been after the uncrewed test flight. The Boeing schedule released by NASA is unchanged from the previous version, with an uncrewed test flight of its CST-100 Starliner scheduled for August 2018 and a crewed test flight in November. However, in an interview in September 2017, Chris Ferguson, director of Starliner crew and mission systems at Boeing, suggested the crewed test flight could be delayed until early 2019. At that time, Ferguson said Boeing's goal was to name the crew of that crewed test flight one NASA astronaut and one Boeing test pilot about 12 months before launch, but wanted to wait until the schedule was more certain before doing so. The company has yet to announce that crew. The Jan. 4 NASA release also listed a number of major upcoming milestones for Boeing's vehicle, including spacecraft construction and testing, pressure suit tests, abort engine and thruster tests and continued parachute tests. NASA continues to rely on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the ISS, but had hoped to shift those duties to commercial vehicles by the end of this year. In October, NASA exercised an option in a contract with Boeing for three additional Soyuz seats on missions in the first half of 2019, which Boeing had obtained as part of a settlement with RSC Energia. The additional seats mean NASA does not have to rely on commercial crew vehicles for ISS crew transport until the second half of 2019. "We're still thinking about ways to buy additional margin if we have to. There's a whole spectrum of options that we are considering," said Kirk Shireman, ISS program manager, at a Dec. 11 press conference at the Kennedy Space Center. He did not elaborate on those options. "We are going to look for options until he first rotation flight, because that's our job, to be prepared for contingencies," he added, "but I think we are absolutely progressing and look forward to demo flights in 2018." The status of the NASA commercial crew program will be the subject of a Jan. 17 hearing by the House Science Committees space subcommittee, which the committee announced Jan. 10. Boeing and SpaceX executives are scheduled to testify, along with officials from NASA, the Government Accountability Office and NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. Mobile astronomy apps such as SkySafari 6 are an ideal tool to preview celestial events. The total lunar eclipse on the morning of Jan. 31, 2018 features an enlarged supermoon. It's also a Blue Moon, the second full moon in January a combination that hasn't occurred in many years. In the eastern US and Canada, the moon will set mid-eclipse. But skywatchers in the west will be able to watch the entire eclipse, as shown here near the end of the eclipse at 6:15 a.m. PST in San Francisco, CA. By telling you where in the sky it will occur, your astronomy app can help you plan to observe or photograph any eclipse. In 2018, the world will experience three partial solar eclipses and two total lunar eclipses but whether you can see them depends on where you live. The first event is a total lunar eclipse that happens on the morning of Jan. 31. This eclipse will be special! The moon will be both "super" and "blue," and if skies are clear, skywatchers in North America will be able to see all or part of the eclipse. In this edition of Mobile Astronomy, we'll highlight the rare "Super Blue Blood Moon" total lunar eclipse and tell you how to use your favorite astronomy app to preview it. We'll also help you use your app to explore how lunar eclipses work. [Super Blue Blood Moon 2018: When, Where and How to See It] A Blue Blood Supermoon eclipse On Jan. 31, 2018, skywatchers across much of the world will receive a postholiday gift: the total lunar eclipse of a full supermoon that is also a Blue Moon! Unlike last summer's Great American Total Solar Eclipse, lunar eclipses are completely safe to look at because the sun is below the horizon. Any sunlight that reaches the eclipsed moon has to pass over the Earth's horizon, panting the moon with reddish light hence the nickname "blood moon" for eclipsed moons. Due to the moon's elliptical orbit, its distance from Earth varies by about 12 percent, bringing it closer (perigee) and farther (apogee) during every 27.3 day circuit of Earth. The moon runs through its phases on a separate cycle of 29.5 days. From time to time, the two cycles synchronize for a few months, allowing the moon to be full while near perigee, causing it to be up to 30 percent brighter and 7 percent larger than average. The three full moons in December 2017 and January 2018 are all supermoons. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) This total lunar eclipse occurs only 1.2 days after perigee (the moon's closest approach to Earth), so the moon's diameter will appear about 7 percent larger than average, making it a "supermoon." The full moon will also be a Blue Moon the second full moon to occur within the calendar month. Eclipsed supermoons aren't all that rare, but the total eclipse of a Blue Moon hasn't occurred since March 31, 1866. That's 152 years! Don't let the nickname mislead you, though the moon won't look blue at all. The entire eclipse will be visible from northwestern North America, across the Pacific Ocean, and as far as eastern Siberia and Asia. Most of North America will see a portion of the eclipse before the moon sets and morning twilight arrives, while Eastern Europe and Central Asia will see the eclipse already in progress when the moon rises. During totality, when the moon is fully in shadow, the moon's northern limb will pass just south of the center of the Earth's shadow, darkening the moon's northern half more than its southern half. To find out whether the eclipse will be visible where you live and to preview what it will look like, use an astronomy app such as SkySafari 6, Star Walk 2 or Stellarium Mobile.. Open the app, and then search for and center the moon don't worry if it's below the horizon for now. Next, set the app's date to Jan. 31, 2018, and the app's time to about 1 a.m. in your local time zone. For locations in North America, the app will show the moon high in the night sky. Zoom in on the display until the moon shows as a good-sized disk. The free Solar System Scope app features a 3D model of the solar system that you can manipulate to better understand the motions of the moon and planets. You can select a specific date and time, or allow time to flow forwards and watch things move. Here, the Jan. 31, 2018 total lunar eclipse is modeled. The software is available in both browser and mobile versions, and includes a sky chart mode for night-time skywatchers. (Image credit: Solar System Scope By running time forward, or by stepping hour by hour, you can watch the moon become eclipsed and then lighten again as it leaves the Earth's shadow. The moon's edge will start to darken at 6:48 a.m. EST (1148 GMT). Maximum eclipse occurs at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT), and the eclipse ends at 10:11 a.m. EST (1511 GMT). For skywatchers in the eastern United States, the moon will set before maximum eclipse, but you can see the entire eclipse by removing the horizon and turning off daylight using the app's settings. If you plan to view the actual eclipse, or photograph it, use your app to note the direction and how high above the horizon the moon will be during the event. That way, you can scout out a viewing spot where the moon will be visible throughout the eclipse duration. Understanding how lunar eclipses work is easy if your app allows you to display the invisible circles representing the full and partial shadows that Earth casts into space. In the SkySafari 6 app, the setting is located under Settings > Solar System > Orbits, Paths & Shadows. Enable the Earth & Moon Shadow Circles, and exit Settings. The smallest circle is the zone, or umbra, where the sun is completely blocked by the Earth. The larger circle is the penumbra, the region where some of the sun is still shining on objects passing through it. Sunlight shining on the solid globe of Earth casts a circular shadow, or umbra, into space. The shadow is always opposite the sun and near the ecliptic (yellow line), which defines the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun. The moon's orbit (gray line) is tilted 5 degrees away from the ecliptic. Whenever full moons occur close to the point in space where the moon's orbit and ecliptic intersect, a lunar eclipse can occur. While the moon is passing through the smaller white circle, only sunlight that has been reddened as it refracts over the Earth's horizon reaches it painting it a blood red color. The larger circle, or penumbra, represents the region where some direct sunlight still reaches the moon. (Image credit: SkySafari App Even though the moon is relatively small compared with the size of Earth's shadow, the moon usually misses it. That shadow always lies near the ecliptic, which defines the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun. The moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees from the ecliptic. Lunar eclipses can occur only if the moon is full while it is near the point in space where the moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic. If you flow time forward, you can watch how, during this lunar eclipse, the moon's orbit carries it eastward through the penumbra and umbra, and out the opposite side. During partial lunar eclipses, the moon never fully enters the umbra. [How to Photograph a Total Lunar Eclipse (A Moon Photo Guide)] 2018's second total lunar eclipse A second total lunar eclipse occurs on July 27. This one is only 0.6 days after apogee (the moon's farthest distance from Earth), so the moon's apparent diameter will be near its minimum. The moon will cross just north of the center of Earth's umbral shadow, setting up conditions for a very dark eclipsed moon. At greatest eclipse, the moon will be among the stars of Capricorn, sitting 6 degrees north of Mars, which will be close to maximum brightness. The eclipsed moon will also be positioned within 10 degrees of three deep sky objects, Messiers 75, 72, and 73. They should be visible in binoculars during maximum eclipse. Using Astronomy apps to preview lunar eclipses allow you to discover additional interesting aspects of the events. The total lunar eclipse of July 27, 2018 coincides with the opposition of Mars. The blood moon and the very bright Red Planet will make a wonderful sight and photo opportunity for observers where the eclipse is visible. When fully immersed in the Earth's shadow, the darkened full moon will also allow fainter deep sky objects to appear, such as the nearby Messier objects shown here. For skywatchers in Madagascar, the maximum eclipsed moon will be high in the sky, close to the Zenith (green cross). (Image credit: SkySafari App If you're observing from North America, you will not see any of this eclipse, but you can preview it on your app anytime and then watch the event livestreamed over the internet. The entire eclipse will be visible from Africa, the Middle East, India and western Australia. Observers in eastern Australia and Southeast Asia will see a portion of the eclipse before the moon sets and morning twilight arrives, while for Europe and eastern South America, the eclipse will be already in progress when the moon rises. The partial eclipse begins at 1824 GMT, the greatest eclipse is at 2022 GMT and the partial eclipse ends at 2219 GMT. To use your app, either hide the ground and turn off daylight, or change your app's location settings to somewhere the eclipse is visible. It's fun! Going beyond You can safely preview solar eclipses with mobile apps, too. This year's two partial solar eclipses occur on Feb. 15, July 13, and August 11. The first two are best visible from Antarctica, and the third one peaks over the North Pole, so using your app will be much less trouble! In future editions of Mobile Astronomy, we'll preview more 2018 highlights, including opportunities to see Mercury, the dance of Jupiter's moons and some possible naked-eye comets at year's end. We'll also cover how to measure stars' distances, and some whimsical asterisms star groupings that are not constellations. Until then, keep looking up! Editor's note: Chris Vaughan is an astronomy public outreach and education specialist at AstroGeo, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and an operator of the historic 74" (1.88-meter) David Dunlap Observatory telescope. You can reach him via email, and follow him on Twitter @astrogeoguy, as well as on Facebook and Tumblr. This article was provided by Simulation Curriculum, the leader in space science curriculum solutions and the makers of the SkySafari app for Android and iOS. Follow SkySafari on Twitter @SkySafariAstro. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. A small comet broke a rotation-speed record in a big way: New work reveals that an icy rock known as 41P dramatically slowed its spin at an unprecedented rate in 2017, spinning down at about 10 times the pace of the next-ranked comet. This comet, whose full name is 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, experienced "the largest but also the fastest change that has ever been seen in a comet rotation," said Dennis Bodewits, an associate research scientist at the University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park. Bodewits presented his team's findings Wednesday (Jan. 10) during a press conference held here at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society. [Hubble Spots Farthest-Ever Incoming Active Comet] This slowdown could cause the comet to break up or change direction, Bodewits said, and because it circles the sun often every 5.4 years our celestial neighbor may offer tremendous insight into the evolution of these icy rocks. The comet's next approach to Earth will happen in 2022. Scientists took advantage of the comet's closest-known flyby of Earth, which occurred on April 1, 2017, to study this icy visitor, which was first recorded in 1858. The Swift spacecraft, which was publicly renamed the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory a few short moments after Bodewits' presentation, played a crucial role in observing the slowdown of Comet 41P. The comet is thought to have entered the inner solar system from the Kuiper Belt, a stretch of icy objects circling the solar system just beyond the orbit of Neptune. Comet 41P is small, estimated to be less than 0.9 miles (1.4 kilometers) across, and is one of the 20 smallest rocks in a family of comets whose orbits are controlled by Jupiter, according to a statement by NASA. Like anything made of ice, the surfaces of comets like 41P begin to evaporate as the objects approach something very warm in this case, the sun. The evaporating material forms a cloud of gas, causing more material, like dust, to jettison off the comet's surface. By observing these jets, scientists can track how quickly or how slowly, in this case a comet is spinning around its axis, according to Bodewits. Fortunately, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is ideally suited to watch these jets, NASA officials said in the statement. The observatory can use its Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) instrument to view the ultraviolet light emitted by molecules called hydroxyls, which are created as sunlight interacts with the gas. The rotating jets in the gas cloud of Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak. (Image credit: Dennis Bodewits et al./Nature) Before investigating with Swift, the team used the Discovery Channel Telescope at Lowell Observatory in Arizona to determine that Comet 41P rotated completely around its axis in about 20 hours. This helped the team make the most of its Swift observation time, Bodewits said. Keeping an eye on a comet that has a 20-hour rotation speed is tricky unless you come up with a clever technique, because Earth takes about the same time to rotate, he said. To get a full sense of the comet's rotation within schedule constraints, and to avoid seeing the same sides of the comet experience day and night, observations had to be stopped and started at uneven times. "As you may know, you can't just ask for two weeks of uninterrupted space telescope time, so you need to come up with a plan," Bodewits said during the conference. The researchers began with a 12-hour observation, stopped for 6 hours, then watched the comet for 12 hours again, then stopped for 9 hours to break that repetition, and then again looked at comet 41P for 12 hours. By doing this for a few days from May 6-8, 2017 the researchers figured they would get at least some repetition of the comet's rotation cycles, and so, they would get as accurate a read as possible. [Comet Breaks in Two May Be Close to Disintegration] What they found was surprising: In a few short weeks, Comet 41P had gone from a 20-hour rotation speed to one in the range of 46-60 hours. "If the torques [rotational forces] continued acting after the May observations, 41P's rotation period could have slowed to 100 hours or more by now," said Tony Farnham, a principal research scientist at UMD. "This comet cannot be in a stable state," Bodewits said during the conference. "If you slow down the rotation of it a lot, it becomes easier and easier to completely change the rotation of the comet. Think of a top. At the end [of a spin], when the top no longer has a gyroscoping effect, or it's rotating very slowly, it starts to wobble because other effects can easily change it. That's what we think is going to happen to this comet." In addition to offering valuable data for this research, the Swift spacecraft got recognition during the same press conference for making some other important discoveries as well as its new name, which came from its late principal investigator. "The Swift observations were critical in understanding the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts and the two-known classes of gamma-ray bursts," Paul Hertz, Director of Astrophysics in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, said during the conference. "Swift confirmed that the long gamma-ray bursts represented the birth cries of a black hole from the collapse of a massive star. And Swift pinpointed, for the first time, the location of short gamma-ray bursts which were recently confirmed to be merging neutron-stars through the detection of the gravitational waves." The findings on Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak were published on Thursday (Jan. 11) in the journal Nature (opens in new tab). Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. WASHINGTON When a big-ticket military weapon development or procurement goes off the rails for any reason, the Pentagon as a rule does not deflect media questions to the contractor that the government hired to do the work. So reporters at the Pentagon were shocked on Thursday when the Defense Department's top spokesperson Dana White not only refused to comment on the apparent failure of a secret military space mission codenamed Zuma, but also told a journalist to direct his questions to SpaceX. "I would have to refer you to SpaceX, who conducted the launch," White told Bloomberg News reporter Tony Capaccio at a Pentagon briefing. [What Happaned to Zuma? Here's What We Know] Capaccio repeatedly challenged White to explain why she would not answer questions. "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?' he asked. Dana White, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, and Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the Joint Staff director, brief the press at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Jan. 11, 2018. During the briefing, they referred questions about the Zuma mission to SpaceX. (Image credit: DoD photo by U.S. Army Sgt. Amber I. Smith) Regardless of the sensitivity of a mission, the Pentagon would be expected to disclose some level of information such as whether an investigation is under way. And if in fact a billion-dollar payload was lost, even in a classified project, the government would have an obligation to account for a major taxpayer-funded loss. White insisted that the "classified nature of all of this" made it impossible for her to respond to any queries. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of operations for the Joint Staff, standing on the podium next to White, shut down the questioning. Im done. We're not going to be able to give you any more information," McKenzie shot back. It is notable that White would refer questions to SpaceX, the launch provider. Northrop Grumman Corp, which supplied the payload and its adapter, has also refused to comment. SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell issued a statement Tuesday saying the Falcon 9's part of the mission went off as planned. "After review of all the data to data, Falcon 9 did everything correctly on Sunday night," she said. And she noted that any reports that the rocket failed are "categorically false." Preparations for SpaceX's upcoming launches remain unchanged, which suggests the company doesn't have concerns about its rocket's performance Sunday. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed industry and government officials, reported on Monday that the payload was "presumed to be a total loss after it failed to reach orbit." White saying "go ask SpaceX" and SpaceX insisting the launch was successful only deepen the mystery. Sources contacted by SpaceNews suggested that the Pentagon might be rightfully shutting down questions if it turns out that the Defense Department or the National Reconnaissance Office were not the customers for this mission. And was Zuma a satellite? Even that is not certain. Conceivably it could have been a spaceplane or some experimental vehicle launched by a defense contractor or maybe even the CIA. According to one source, the CIA would be expected to rely on the NRO for space missions "but from what I've heard has been known to do its own thing on occasion, the source said. "My guess is that this was an experimental rather than operational payload. If it were operational, it would have been flown by ULA." This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. With Highs, there usually come lows, so it was inevitable that with such highs that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has been on, there would be a moment where the shows highs would turn into mediums/lows. The last two episodes of the show have formed sort of a midseason slump for me, something I wasnt quite expecting due to how well things have been going. There were things to like about these episodes that felt long overdue, or were just generally entertaining, but there was also things that just felt uneven and messy. Paula may have ended up getting over Jeff, and Darryl may be ready to move on from WiJo, but Im not ready to get past my grievances with this show as easily as them. Look, I love a good Paula arc, and I love Donna Lynne and her amazing voice. In fact, I would say that I think Paula may possibly be the best thing about Crazy Ex, aside from Heather, and that anytime she is on my screen, Im happy. I think Paulas plot in Getting Over Jeff was actually a good one, it was the Rebecca one that seemed so off-putting to me. This episode really kind of stated the obvious of what we all know, the parallels between Rebecca and Paula. These two really are one in the same when you think about it, we find out Paula can become just as obsessive into things as Rebecca can be entirely oblivious to what she has in front of her. Both Paula and Rebecca dont have the best relationships with their dads, and both of them have a Josh Chan Paula runs into her Josh (named Jeff) while in Buffalo to take care of her dad (who rags on Paula from the moment she walks in and she seems all too familiar with his behavior) in the grocery store and we are treated to the amazing The Very Penis I saw featuring some amazing Rebecca parallels.I could on all day about that number, but if you dont know how great it is, then you have failed this show and the fandom. What is important about Jeff this time around, is how Paula does what Rebecca could not, she realizes what this Jeff infatuation was all about pretty soon. His rejection hurt her, and she has this time now with him as the chance to take her power back. She does end up rejecting him, but she also takes her dads defense of her as a good sign as well. She, unlike Rebecca, doesnt try and win her dad back, she just accepts who he is and moves on. More importantly, she and Rebecca are able to talk about Paula treating her more as a friend, and Paula is also able to come home to Scott and tell him that she would most certainly always choose him. (after Brad Pitt rejects her) The beauty of this whole plot is that it shows that while Paula and Rebecca may be cut form the same cloth, Paulas piece is a bit more weathered and has a better understanding of how to emotionally deal with things, She can realize the whys and hows, acknowledge them and then move on.Then there was the very weird Rebecca part of this episode. Rebeccas treating her illness like she would a homework assignment and is reaching for an A, but her Doctor is advising that she strive for a C+. His conversation with her seemed sonot helpful. He encourages her to let loose and go on an adventure and cant give her straight answers on alcohol and sex. She tags along with Paula because of this advice and then spends time bonding with Paulas dad, who is really just shrewd and awful. Wouldnt her Doctor want to steer her clear of transference of her own issues with her dad and his acceptance of her? Its all strange, but its not the strangest part. Nathaniel and Rebecca continue to be a sort of thing, and for the life I cant figure out why that are even into each other. When did Rebecca quit work? Why is Nathaniel so wishywashy about his feelings for her? Why does he seem like his only character traits are that hes wealthy, emotionally unavailable, rude and has hots for Rebecca? I did enjoy Rebeccas Sequoia comment about him, and his walking away sex bit. As for the end, with the two of them uniting.Im not a fan. Im starting to wonder if the show is going to pull the rug out from beneath us and show us that this all been a coma dream of Rebeccas due to her suicide attempt for the past few episodes. I could deal with that I did like Rebeccas realization that being messy, was very human and she enjoyed it, and that was probably the only redeeming moment of her plot this week.And of course there was the plot we all knew was coming, wished that it wasnt and are infuriated it happened. Darryl and White Josh broke up, because Darryl really wants a baby and cant get past it. Madison actually forced Darryl to acknowledge his feelings about all of WhiJo is taken by surprise and it seems the ship has now sailed. This may play into ranking of this ep, but I just found so much of this episode to feel thrown together that I cant quite enjoy it.*I literally forgot about the Josh-Bartender- Pimple thing and had to go back and add this sentence to acknowledge it and its WTF randomness and grossness as I was writing about the next episode. A Showstoppingly Amazing, hilarious, empowering, genius D- I dont even remember this song. I tuned it out.At least Getting Over Jeff had a great Paula plot going for it. Nathaniel Needs My Help felt like torture for me to get through. I stopped taking notes, and had to force myself to stay off of Twitter. This episode featured Josh Chan realizing how much hes lost since Rebecca came into his world and shook things up. He literally has his mom kick him out via song, tell him his problems are inconsequential and then goes and thanks Rebecca for adding some perspective to his life. Josh is so lost right now, he has no idea who is or what he is doing because everything he had, everything he pictured, Rebecca shattered. Yet, its eerie how he credits her for believing in him and inspiring him to do more. Its like some weird Stockholm syndrome that he has developed and while I do feel sorry for him, its almost an about face of where he was with her just a few episode ago and so it feels like a sloppy reveal. Im glad Amy Hill got to sing, and I like that the character of Josh is being forced to reevaluate and grow up, but Im not comfortable with the thanking of his stalker in the process.Rebecca and Nathaniel are a thing for real this episode and her Doctor doesnt really deter her form jumping into this whole thing. She starts to go full obsessive on Nathaniel and wants to know about him, thinking that she can get his father to open up to him and give him the approval she thinks he wants. But then when she teams up with George, they end up finding a sister, who isnt really a sister because Nathaniels dad isnt having an affair, but instead of dismissing her for her meddling, Nathaniel tells her that he likes their differences. Im still trying to make sense of this whole thing, but I liked having George around! Rebecca then realizes that she is making the same mistakes she made with josh, with Nathaniel, so she heads over to his apartment to seemingly cut ties with him for the sake of her health, which is something I can totally get behind, and not just because I dont get them, but because it just makes sense for her health.The best thing about this episode is Darryls sperm and his earnestness to creating an offspring. Paulas obsession with meddling is true to the character and is not surprising, but her blackmail at the hands of the perfect donor was just so left field. I will say that as much as I hate the demise of Darryl and White Josh for this, I did want Darryl to succeed at having the 2nd child, I was so sad when it didnt happen, because I just knew it would, and when he said hed try again next year, I just wanted to hug Darryl. But Darryl is resilient just like his sperm and actually sold all of his weird Nicnacks to pay for another shot at baby making and Paula admitted that she needs to take a step back from intervening in lives. Its a sad day for me when this was the most complete plot of the episode. A I mean, this was ballsy. and it paid off. I cant believe that weve come to a time where a show can have a song about sperm in it and it build to such a beautiful climax. of ending and just be perfect. C it was fun. FORGIVE ME FATHER FOR I HAVE SINNED As preparations for her confirmation ceremony get underway, Veronica (Camila Mendes) becomes concerned that Archie (KJ Apa), whos agreed to be Hirams (Mark Consuelos) intern, may be learning too much about her familys secret business dealings. Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and FP (Skeet Ulrich) lead the charge after an incident at Pickens Park leads to increased tensions among the Serpents. Meanwhile, Chic (guest star Hart Denton) helps Betty (Lili Reinhart) deal with her inner darkness, while Archie finds himself in over his head after a high-stakes poker game with Hirams shady inner-circle goes awry. Marisol Nichols, Madchen Amick, Luke Perry, Ashleigh Murray and Casey Cott also star. Rachel Talalay directed the episode written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (#212). Original airdate 1/31/2018. 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 125/090/700 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 125/090/700 M ay 1941 was a terrifying time to be a Londoner. It was the middle of the Blitz, and the Nazis were raining incendiary bombs from the sky, destroying a million homes across the city. Late one night, destruction came to the Houses of Parliament. A bomb fell on the Commons debating chamber, setting the place ablaze. By morning, all that was left was a smoking shell - the building was totally gutted. The Commons remained a burnt-out husk for some time before politicians began discussing how it should be rebuilt. Some wanted to design a radically different type of debating chamber. Others proposed make the place bigger, so that all 650 MPs could squeeze in more comfortably. But one person stood in opposition to these new ideas: Winston Churchill, who was a bit of a big deal at the time, having led Britain to victory in the war. He argued that the architecture of the Commons had a profound impact on the way our politicians interact with one another, which in turn shaped the nature of British democracy. As a result, he insisted, it should be reconstructed exactly as it was before - not an inch bigger or smaller. Churchill summed up in a characteristically eloquent way. As he put it so well: First we shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us. Britains great wartime leader won the argument, but in the years that followed, this understanding of how the built environment can influence our behaviour has been largely forgotten. If you want proof, check out the depressingly dreadful new buildings being constructed in every corner of the capital. For six years running, London buildings have won the dubious honour of being named worst new structures in the country. Last year the award went to the utterly hideous Nova in Victoria, which has been described as crass, over-scaled and a hideous mess. And thats being polite. But in addition to the outright stinkers, Londons streets are also being blighted by an endless stream of generic grey offices and identikit blocks clad in cheap bricks, making the city steadily uglier, with no thought to the human consequences. As Churchill knew, the real-world impact can be profound - and when it comes to gut-wrenchingly bad buildings, the effects are deeply negative. You see, in todays globalised economy, skilled workers are lucky enough to be able move to different cities - whether its London, Amsterdam or Sydney - starting businesses and sparking regeneration wherever they go. Were talking big numbers, which is why the American academic Professor Richard Florida has come up with a name for this group - he calls them the creative class, because they often work in fields like engineering, computer science, media and design. Urban areas that attract these workers tend to see a big economic boost, which is hardly surprising given that the creative industries (including digital) employ more people in London than the financial services sector - and also create jobs in important areas like hospitality, retail and transport. As Professor Florida puts it: Access to talented people is to modern business what coal and iron ore was to steel-making. In other words, if these global workers move to your city, its a bit like finding an oil well, because money and investment soon follow. This is definitely the case in our city, where the Greater London Authoritys statistics show that the creative and technology industries now employ more people than the financial services sector - generating over 42 billion for our economy every year, and indirectly supporting huge numbers of jobs in fields like hospitality, retail and transport. But heres the problem. Unfortunately for London, these skilled workers don't want to live in tasteless corporate developments that are devoid of life and culture. In fact, they dont want to be anywhere near them (why would you?). Like anyone else, they prefer to be in places with real urban texture, where high-quality modern architecture exists alongside well-preserved historic buildings. So in a very real way, the uninspiring and often abysmal standard of new buildings in London is making our city less attractive to the talent we need. At my company Second Home, were often offered spaces in soul-destroying new corporate developments - which we say no to, because theyre an anathema to the kind of communities we want to build. Access to talented people is to modern business what coal and iron ore were to steel-making So who is to blame for these low quality developments, and all the heinous structures going up everywhere? Much of the fault lies with short-termist property developers, whose financial model depends on flipping projects fast, so they choose the most derivative designs possible, to keep costs low and minimise their downside risks. But ironically, by trying to be inoffensive, the cumulative effect across the city as a whole is repellent. As the urbanist Richard Rogers wrote recently: You only have to look at the architecture that lines the River Thames to see the impact of the cheapening of the public realm, as urban development becomes a money machine, uninterested in environmental, aesthetic and social impact. Of course, there are exceptions: there are some developers that champion ambitious design, but theyre sadly all too rare. Its easy to think of ugly buildings as simply an eyesore, and nothing more. But by making our city less attractive to global talent, the soulless and lifeless corporate developments we see everywhere are having a real-world consequence. In the wake of the EU referendum, we should be pulling out all the stops to make London more appealing to skilled workers, not less. Nows the time to put a stop to the low quality, generic and outright terrible buildings that are blighting our city. Its not just a question of aesthetics - its about economics too. W ith regard to your articles outlining Mayor Sadiq Khans promises on stopping knife crime [January 10], we cautiously welcome the increase in stop-and-search. But to do it properly London needs bobbies on the beat and officers physically working in those communities where knife crime is an issue. The Mayor is doing the exact opposite by closing local police stations, including Notting Hill, and passing on the responsibility to others. What are teachers supposed to do when they find a knife? Are we now relying on schools to tackle this issue instead? What support will be given to the dedicated professionals who should be focused, rightly, on teaching future generations. Local authorities will be tackling this issue with real action. In our borough we are holding events where young people hear from families whose lives have been horribly impacted by knife crime. We are working with schools to engage with pupils on the dangers and consequences of knife crime, and we are deploying trading standards officers to control the sale of knives and acid. The Mayor needs to show urgently that he is a man of action, not just words. Cllr Elizabeth Campbell and Cllr Mary Weale (Con), Kensington and Chelsea council We welcome the calls by the Mayor Sadiq Khan and Met Commissioner Cressida Dick for more intelligent policing. However, we are disappointed that they think increasing the use of stop-and-search is the solution. We have been here before. In 2008 the Met increased stop-and-search in response to an increase in knife crime. The result saw thousands of young black and minority ethnic people stopped and searched, but a Home Office evaluation concluded that there was no statistically significant crime-reducing effect. The Met is still paying the price in damaged relationships with young people and communities. We do not need more stop-and-search, just an intelligent and lawful use of existing powers. Dr Rebekah Delsol, StopWatch The Mayor has been put in an impossible no-win situation due to the rise in knife crime. If he acts by suggesting stop-and- search is the solution, people criticise him, saying the strategy achieves nothing. Equally, if he appeals to communities and the police to liaise with one another, it appears that he is passing the buck. If inconvenience is the price to pay for less knife crime, I suggest the public get on board. Barry Norton Greening has form over Cabinet moves Justine Greenings resignation as Education Secretary says more about her own behaviour than Theresa Mays weakness. She justified her action by stating her commitment to upward mobility but, if that was the case, surely she would have accepted her new position at the Department of Work and Pensions? Greening has reacted negatively to moving departments before. In 2012 she allegedly lashed out when David Cameron moved her from Transport. Ministers serve their positions at the pleasure of the Prime Minister and can be moved or removed when required. It is only unfortunate that Mrs May did not move some of the top members of the Cabinet. Peter-Damian Ijomah As a classroom teacher I do not know what Justine Greening has done so badly in education. I thought she did a good job in making Michael Goves ill-thought-out education reforms vaguely work. Tom Barnes 'Musical chairs' not in national interest Jim Armitage is quite right in his article [Re-shuffle leaves Square Mile at the bottom of the pack] but this problem is perennial. There has been an absurd merry-go-round of energy ministers, for example, despite the fact that the North Sea has contributed more than 330 billion in taxes alone since the 1970s. Prime ministers constantly disregard the value of longevity. Moving Rory Stewart away from Overseas Development seems a particularly idiotic move in this reshuffle, as he has special expertise in that area. Why cant prime ministers put the national interest ahead of their musical chairs political games? Sam Dunkley Train guards make women feel safe I live in Kent and enjoy the reassurance of guards on trains on all my local and London-bound trains. As a woman, I find a guards presence increases my confidence, particularly when travelling late at night or making journeys with a number of changes. We pay a great deal for train fares in this country, so surely we deserve trains that are adequately staffed? Imagine experiencing antisocial behaviour as a passenger without a figure of authority available. Lets keep the guards on the train. Laura Field Flirting and the #MeToo culture Bravo, Melanie McDonagh [A French counterblast to the #MeToo protest culture, January 10]. Clumsy flirtation rarely fuels consensual sexual relations and more often leads to duplicitous affairs. If a pat on the knee and the like all in public and no more than eyebrow- raisers become complaints to human resources, the omnipresent unisex and self-limiting need for flattery will be channelled into secrecy. A relationship conducted furtively is the spur for impetuous sexual gratification and pernicious hurt caused to third parties. Penelope Lewis News broke this week that the Queen's bra-fitter Rigby & Peller have been stripped of their royal warrant, after the founder published a tell-all book entitled Storm in a D-Cup. The firm, who have held the warrant since 1960, are one of the oldest and most highly respected lingerie specialists in the UK. So who will replace them? Here's a brief (sorry) list of some of the finest lingerie purveyors in all the land La Perla Founded by a corset-maker from Bologna in 1954, La Perla is world-famous for its elegantly seductive corsets and lingerie. Although it's not a British brand, it does luxury and refinement in bounds. The SS18 lingerie collection is a regal array of lacy petrol blue, bronze and black - all frightfully charming. Coco de Mer As a truly British lingerie brand, Coco de Mer, founded in 2001 by Samatha Roddick (daughter of the late BodyShop founder and activist Anita Roddick), may appeal to HRH The Queen. However, in addition to their truly beautiful lingerie, hosiery and nightwear, Coco de Mer also stock a sizeable collection of latexwear and erotica, which would no doubt get the Royal Warrant Commissions knickers in a twist. Agent Provocateur Agent Provocateur is a British brand boasting some serious fashion heritage. Founded in 1994 by Joseph Corre, the son of Vivienne Westwood, the company makes an array of super-luxe lingerie. However, much ike Coco de Mer, their product offering extends into the "accessories," category... which might make them a little risque for the palais. Olivia von Halle Olivia von Halle While Olivia von Halle wouldn't be able to fit the Queen's bras, she would be able to dress the women of the royal household in an extraordinarily chic array of silk pyjamas, nighties and dressing gowns. We can just see the Queen settling down to watch Countdown wearing the royal blue set from the latest collection. Marks and Spencer, Rosie for Autograph Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle have both been known to sport an M&S bargain, and for all we know they've tried the underwear too. As a stalwart of the British high street, Marks and Spencer seems deserving of a mention in this list. Besides, their Rosie for Autograph range is really rather glamorous. A n "arrogant" consultant surgeon who "betrayed the trust" of his patients by burning his initials on to the livers of two unconscious transplant patients has been fined 10,000. Simon Bramhall, 53, used an argon beam machine to "write" his initials on the organs of two anaesthetised victims in February and August 2013 while working at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. A judge at the city's Crown Court said Mr Bramhall, who resigned from the hospital in 2014, had carried out an "an abuse of power and a betrayal of trust". The consultant, who was given a formal warning by the General Medical Council (GMC) last February, admitted two counts of assault by beating last month after prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Judge Paul Farrer QC also sentenced Bramhall on Friday to a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work. He said: "Both of the (transplant) operations were long and difficult. I accept that on both occasions you were tired and stressed and I accept that this may have affected your judgment. This was conduct born of professional arrogance of such magnitude that it strayed into criminal behaviour. "What you did was an abuse of power and a betrayal of trust that these patients had invested in you. "I accept that you didn't intend or foresee anything but the most trivial of harm would be caused." Opening the facts of the case against Mr Bramhall, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said one of the two victims initialled by the world-renowned surgeon had been left feeling "violated" and suffering ongoing psychological harm. Acknowledging that Mr Bramhall's actions had not caused either patients' new liver to fail, Mr Badenoch said: "This case is about his practice on two occasions, without the consent of the patient and for no clinical reason whatever, to burn his initials on to the surface of a newly-transplanted liver." One of the victims, referred to in court as Patient A, received a donor organ in 2013 in a life-saving operation carried out by Mr Bramhall. But the donor liver failed around a week later - for reasons unconnected to its implantation - and another surgeon spotted Mr Bramhall's initials on the organ. A photograph of the 4cm-high branding was taken on a mobile phone and Mr Bramhall, who now works for the NHS in Herefordshire, later admitted using the argon beam coagulator to mark Patient A's liver. Mr Badenoch said of the initial transplant operation: "Mr Bramhall had to work exceptionally hard and use all of his skill to complete the operation. "At the end of the operation he performed a liver biopsy using the argon beam coagulator, and then used it to burn his initials." A nurse who saw the initialling queried what had happened and Mr Bramhall was said to have replied: "I do this." The court heard that Bramhall later told police he had "flicked his wrist" and made the mark within a few seconds. "He knew that the action could cause no harm to the patient. He also said that in hindsight this was naive and foolhardy - a misjudged attempt to relieve the tension in theatre," Mr Badenoch said. A victim only known as "Patient A" declined Mr Bramhall's offer of an apology after the "unbelievable and farcical" allegations emerged in late 2013 and opted to report the matter to the General Medical Council and the police. In a victim impact statement read to the court, Patient A stated: "The overwhelming feeling of violation was intense. This happened to me while I was under sedation. "Why did he think it was appropriate to do this to me?" The victim - who mistakenly believes the liver implanted by Mr Bramhall failed because of his actions - was shown a photograph of the initials some time later, which would "forever be etched on my mind". Defence barrister Michael Duck QC, offering mitigation for the surgeon, urged Judge Farrer to view the offences against the background of almost 30 years of "impeccable" work. Around 20 well-wishers - some of whom had received organ transplants conducted by Bramhall - attended the court hearing to support him. "You are dealing with a man who has historically been one of the most talented in his field as a surgeon," Mr Duck told Judge Farrer. "A number of people who sit in this court are able to sit in this court because of the skill of Mr Bramhall." Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital said in a statement: "The Trust is clear that Mr Bramhall made a mistake in the context of a complex clinical situation and this has been dealt with via the appropriate authorities, including the Trust as his then employer. "We can reassure his patients that there was no impact whatsoever on the quality of his clinical outcomes." Additional reporting by Press Association L ondoners, you can put down your placards and megaphones - Donald Trump has cancelled his planned February visit to the UK. The petition to ban the president from visiting our shores, which reached nearly two million signatures, is no longer required after Trump revealed he wont be visiting the US embassy in Battersea after all. In a Tweet explaining his reasoning, the president criticised the Obama administration for selling America's London embassy in Mayfair for peanuts in 2008 (even though the move was actually carried out during George Bushs presidency, just FYI) but more importantly went on to describe the south-west London area where the new embassy sits as an off location. We don't agree. Quite frankly, its the Presidents loss that he decided not to turn up. Here are 10 reasons to love Battersea even though Donald Trump doesn't. Iconic Architecture A truly iconic piece of British design, Grade II-listed Battersea Power Station has been a key part of Londons skyline for 85 years. It also famously featured on the front cover of Pink Floyds Animals with a huge inflatable pig back in 1977. These days its going through a 400 million redevelopment, with Apple set to relocate their London headquarters there very soon. Schools fit for a King Just can't wait to be king: Prince George / Getty Images When it comes to education, the royals dont just enroll at their local comprehensive you know In fact, Prince George goes to school at Thomass Battersea, one of the finest primary schools in the city with a reputation for excellence. If Battersea is good enough for the royal family, surely its got to be good enough for Trump? Celebrity chefs Its been reported that Trump is partial to a burger, so perhaps the fact that several top restaurants and big name chefs have chosen to bed down in Battersea is of no consequence to him, but the more foodie of the new Embassy staffers will eat very well indeed. Iconic Italian chef Francesco Mazzei has just opened Fiume, dishing up traditional dishes inspired by his home region of Calabria by the river. Gordon Ramsay runs his neighbourhood restaurant London House in village-like Battersea Square, and Vivek Singh will soon be launching an outpost of his City-based Cinnamon Kitchen restaurant in the shadow of the power station. Furry friends Nothing embodies Londoners' kind and charitable qualities quite like Battersea Cats & Dogs Home. Here youll find hundreds of vulnerable animals looked after by a wonderful team of people, who are dedicated to finding caring new owners for each and every one of them. Youd need a heart of stone to resist this places appeal. But then again, Donald Trump is the only modern president not to have a pet in the White House. A bit of bunga bunga There have been more than a few comparisons drawn between Donald Trump and Silvio Berlusconi, so theres reason to think that if he ever does visit Battersea he might enjoy Bunga Bunga, an outrageous, tongue-in-cheek homage to the former Italian Prime Minister. Incorporating a bar, pizzeria and karaoke it should be enough to keep diplomats entertained well into the early hours. Culture and community Battersea Arts Centre is a place that pulls together cutting edge culture and community spirit. The friendly arts space puts on a wide variety of shows, with immersive theatre productions and strong comedy offerings staged throughout the year. The venue suffered a devastating fire in 2015, and the community showed incredible resilience to restore the building to its former glory. Park life AFP/Getty Images Comprising 200 acres of expansive green space right in the heart of the neighbourhood, Battersea Park is the jewel in the area's crown. It is also home to the Battersea Peace Pagoda, a grand Buddhist monument which represents a nice space to enjoy a few moments of reflection and take in the fantastic views of the lake. Nice spot to sit and compose a Tweet, perhaps? Immersive art The Pump House Gallery is a fun contemporary art space, located right next to Battersea park. The unusual and often interactive works displayed here have earned it a reputation as one of the best places to see visual art in the city, and the setting is stunning in its own right. Tucked-away theatre There's a secret lurking upstairs at the Latchmere, a lovely old corner pub on Battersea Park Road. Its top floor is occupied by Theatre503, a small space that punches well above its weight. It plays host to a variety of productions from up and coming writers, which often end up transferring to the West End. Handy for a pint, too. Not that Trump drinks, mind. Animal attraction Battersea Park Children's Zoo is a unique place offering an educational look at a selection of cute critters. Its not just adorable animals on display here either, with large play areas, sandpits and life-size fire engines for the little guys to run around in too. A favourite among little ones, it may just have proved popular with the big kid in the White House. Maybe Trump should think again about that "off location"... A vegan social media star today said he is certain the current food trend will become mainstream in the UK quicker than vegetarianism did in the 1990s. Cardiff-based chef Gaz Oakley will serve a hand-crafted five course menu at Harvey Nichols in the flagship Knightsbridge stores first animal product-free dining experience later this month. The 25-year-old, known as Avant-Garde Vegan, who worked in restaurants in the Welsh capital as a teenager, and has since grown a following of more than 250,000 foodies on YouTube in under two years, where he shares recipes and tips. He said: I literally went vegan overnight, and just stuck with it ever since. My friends in particular were shocked, and thats part of the reason why I started the work, showing my friends what I was eating, and then people wanted the recipes and the dishes, and it grew from there really. Even two and a half years ago when I first went vegan, people seemed to be a lot less knowledgeable about veganism, but I walk in anywhere now and everyone knows about it. Its become more and more acceptable. I think veganism is going to grow faster than vegetarianism did. It is going to be even bigger in a short space of time. The chef takes inspiration from ancient traditions - including Buddhist monks - and insists his meat replacements taste as good as the real thing. He said: I make steak using an ancient recipe which was formerly used by Buddhist monks. They traditionally used a meat replacement called wheat gluten, and I just glaze it with porcini mushrooms, shallots, red wine. Then I cook it in a broth and grill it and you have the texture and the taste of a flame-grilled steak. It tastes like steak without the cruelty that actual steak comes with. Oakley is serving his favourite dish for 47 guests at the iconic venue. The one-off vegan supper club will include amuse-bouche, the vegan fillet steak Wellington and a faux-fish Camden Ale batter fish and chips wrapped in The Vegan Daily newspaper. I cant wait to get my chef whites back on and do a proper service, Oakley said. Simon Youden, General Manager at Harvey Nichols said: We are thrilled to be working with such a talented chef to celebrate Veganuary. The event will be held at 7pm on Tuesday January 23 on the Fifth Floor Terrace. Tickets 45, including complimentary drink on arrival A new year means lots of new exhibitions - and 2018 looks to be a great year for the London art scene. Diving into a museum or art gallery to escape the cold will conjure up many a treasure this January. From royal collections to new gallery openings, theres lots to see. These are the five exhibitions not to miss this January. Charles I: King and Collector Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017 The Royal Academy are offering the chance to see a royals art collection up close. Before his regicide changed our nation forever, Charles I helped build the nations taste with his extraordinary collection of art. From Van Eyck to Rubens, he acquired work by some of the finest artists in history, but much of it was sold off and scattered around the world when he was executed. This exhibition is formed of over 100 works from the collection, from huge tapestries to beautiful miniatures. January 27 - April 15, Royal Academy; royalacademy.org.uk Andreas Gursky The Hayward Gallery has been closed for a couple of years but its back open this month, complete with shiny refurbishments. It reopens with a major exhibition of work by acclaimed German photographer Andreas Gursky. Marvel at his larger than life images in the beautiful new surroundings before a stroll along the Southbank. January 25 - April 22, Hayward Gallery; southbankcentre.co.uk Bridget Riley: Recent Paintings 2014 -2017 Lose yourself in Bridget Rileys glorious abstract paintings in a new exhibition at David Zwirner. The gallery is showing her work from the last three years over three floors, including works on canvas and wall paintings. January 19 - March 10, David Zwirner; davidzwirner.com Rhythm & Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain Edward Burra, The Band, 1934 Estate of the Artist, courtesy of Lefevre Fine Art Ltd, London and British Council Collection. Did you know its 100 years since Jazz reached Britain? This new exhibition at Two Temple Place marks the occasion, exploring the impact that jazz has had on Brits since 1918. A range of media including paintings, film, instruments and sound will tell the story of the genres impact. January 27 - April 22, Two Temple Place; twotempleplace.org The Enchanted Room: Modern Works from the Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan is one of the most important collections of modern art, so what better way to celebrate Italian art gallery Estorick Collections twentieth anniversary than with an exhibition of its work? Featuring work by Modigliani, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini and Mario Sironi, many of these works are being shown outside Italy for the very first time. January 24 - April 8, The Estorick Collection; estorickcollection.com I ts tough making progress in the hotly contested Golf/Focus section of the car market. The top models are so good, its every manufacturer for himself. So Hyundai has adopted a novel approach in replacing its contender, the i30, not with just another hatchback, but with a family of four different models. First to break cover are the Hatchback and Tourer (estate). But in a few months they will be followed by a handsome Fastback version and a fiery i30 N, squarely aimed at the Golf GTi and Focus ST, among others. The design has been tweaked, with tauter lines and a new corporate cascading front grille. The cabin is much better than before and almost unrecognisable from the original i30. It is well equipped, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, wireless phone charging, autonomous emergency braking, blind spot detection, lane keeping assist and smart cruise control. There are three petrol engines and one diesel. The petrol units have three and four-cylinder 1.0-litre to 1.4 motors producing 100 to 140PS and the 1.6 four-pot diesel is available with 95, 110 or 136PS. I drove a petrol 1.4 100PS Tourer back from the i30s international launch in Germany, and it provided civilised if unspectacular transport, which rode well and didnt sound too fussy. But against such strong opposition it remains a rational rather than an emotional choice. The stylish Fastback version is a first in this section of the market, but it is the i30 N (named after Hyundai and Kias research facility at Namyang) which will grab the headlines when it arrives. In standard form the car will have a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine producing 250PS and accelerating it from rest to 62mph in 6.4 seconds. But there is an optional Performance Pack which will boost this to 275PS, comfortably making it Hyundais fastest ever model. Hyundai i30 Premium 1.4 140PS Top speed: 130mph Combined mpg: 51.5-58.9 (depending on tyre size) Emissions: 109 - 125g/km (as above) Price: 23,440 P rague passe? New York old news? Get ready for 2018s new route hotspots nine new services take off this year from the capitals airports. We've rounded up the best of the new flight routes to add to your travel itinerary this year. Whether it be to Ukraine, Perth or Nashville these direct flights will set your wanderlust hearts fluttering. Perth, Australia Alamy Stock Photo Start date: March 25 Airline: Qantas from Heathrow The first direct flights between the UK and Oz head to the capital of Western Australia. Major projects have brought Melbourne-style laneway bars to the city centre, while sister city Fremantle combines cafe culture and 19th-century port heritage architecture. Margaret River, to the south of the city, is world-class for both surfing and wine tourism but boat trips to Rottnest Island for quokkas (think cat-sized kangaroos) and Penguin Island for dolphins, sea lions and, obviously, penguins are highlights. Go for: cute critter snaps. When to go: September to May. Nashville, USA Alamy Stock Photo Start date: May 4 Airline: British Airways from Heathrow The country music capital of the world has a predictably phenomenal live music scene. Its not all twanging guitars and honky-tonks either plenty of rock acts now record at RCA Studio B, where the likes of Elvis and Roy Orbison laid tracks. In recent years there has been a blitz of museum openings, including ones devoted to Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. The new Tennessee State Museum should follow in the autumn. Go for: music past and present. When to go: summer sizzles with outdoor gigs. Rimini, Italy Alamy Stock Photo Start date: March 27 Airline: Ryanair from Stansted There are Roman ruins, a cathedral that was transformed into what looks like a proto Taj Mahal by a besotted city ruler in the 1400s, and a museum devoted to local boy turned cinematic legend Federico Fellini. But lets not pretend that anyones here for this Rimini is arguably the classic Italian beach resort. Not that you can expect Marcello Mastroianni here. Marvel at the number of sunbeds crammed in the sands, then pile into the superclubs at night this is a party place. Go for: people-watching. When to go: forget packed July and August try September or October. Kristiansand, Norway Start date: August 13 Airline: Widere from Stansted In the countrys far south, Kristiansand hardly lives up to Norways image of dramatic fjords. But it is very pretty, and there are, by Norwegian standards, some passable beaches. The archipelago surrounding Kristiansand makes its appeal a host of boat tours head out around the islands. Some of these are more leisurely affairs, with hop-offs to mooch around the wooden summer houses, while others are more high- octane speed-and-stunts affairs. Go for: messing around on boats. When to go: August for warmest temperatures. Lviv, Ukraine Alamy Stock Photo Start date: May 1 Airline: Wizz Air from Luton Not far over the Polish border, Lviv has the potential to become the new Krakow. Its Ukraine at its most friendly, most European and least Soviet. Its also marvellously good-looking with pimped-up cathedrals of almost every conceivable variety, from Dominican to Armenian. Theres also one of the worlds great main squares, and an unashamedly louche cafe culture. On the serious side theres plenty of Second World War history, with tours of the former Jewish sites being eye-openers. Go for: ancient architecture. When to go: summer for seemingly non-stop festivals. Mahe, Seychelles Alamy Stock Photo Start: March 24 Airline: British Airways from Heathrow Cashed-up honeymooners, rejoice the Seychelles are the archetypal white-sand beaches and luxury spa resorts destination. But those feeling a little more adventurous can stay in guesthouses, visit a tea plantation and hop between the islands on ferries. Praslin has the World Heritage-listed Vallee de Mai ancient forest, full of rare flora and fauna, while chilled-out La Digue is perhaps the most loveable all-rounder. Its home to great snorkelling and giant tortoises. Go for: beachside romance. When to go: April and May are between the tradewind seasons, and thus great for snorkelling. Ankara, Turkey Alamy Stock Photo Start date: June 17 Airline: SunExpress from Luton Its more serious and less cosmopolitan than Istanbul, yet the Turkish capital has a young energy about it especially in the restaurant-rammed Kavakldere neighbourhood. Otherwise its mostly museums and monuments. The Museum of Anatolian Civilisations does an excellent job of telling Turkeys complex history, while for sheer pomposity, Ataturks mausoleum is hard to top. The well-preserved 9th- century citadel, inset far left, is impressive too. Go for: worthy sightseeing. When to go: September to October to avoid the furious summer heat. Gaziantep, Turkey Start date: June 20 Airline: SunExpress from Luton Pack elasticated trousers for this one Gaziantep is happily notorious for its food. Its surrounded by one of the worlds biggest pistachio-growing regions, which makes for sensational baklava, while spicy kebabs and delightfully garlicky lahmacun are also treated with reverence. Culturally, the Castle Museum is a decent bet for the last days of the Ottoman Empire but the Zeugma Mosaic Museum the biggest museum of mosaics on the planet is the star. Otherwise, Gaziantep is great for discovering the Gobekli Tepe (Turkish for Potbelly Hill) Neolithic archaeological site to the west. Go for: food. When to go: same as Ankara early autumn is perfect. Volos, Greece Alamy Stock Photo Start date: June 27 Airline: easyJet from Gatwick Volos itself is endearing rather than a must-see students keep it lively, and the archaeological and brickworks museums are decent time-passers. Its also notorious for its tsipouradikos taverns serving tsipouro, basically ouzo but even more potent. But the real reason to fly here is to go to Pelion, pictured left, and its forested peninsula, sitting on the doorstep. There are a few beach resorts in the north-east Damouchari featured heavily in Mamma Mia! and is great for sea kayaking. But its best suited to hikers, who have a series of blissful trails through mountains and olive groves to tackle. Pilion Walks (pilionwalks.com) faithfully plots out the best routes. Go for: hiking off hangovers. When to go: summer (its a summer-only route). Best of the rest Other key launches are expanding departure airport options. Perhaps the biggest is Emirates launching from Stansted to Dubai (and beyond) on June 8, while new entrant Primera is also setting up a Stansted base in the spring with direct flights to Toronto, Boston and New York (Newark). From City airport, TAP Portugal is launching a direct route to Porto on March 25, while the pick of the new Gatwick flights are probably TUIs to Podgorica in Montenegro and Norwegians ambitious low-cost route to Buenos Aires. Always factor in the add-ons like baggage. J apan is a country full of wonder where traditions are deeply revered but modernity is embraced unlike anywhere else. Tokyo, a sprawling metropolis, is arguably one of the most exciting cities in the world to visit. It's bursting with incredible restaurants, from side street huts to Michelin starred dining rooms, world-class clothing shops and subcultures that feel otherworldly. Below are seven quintessentially Japanese experiences that will make your trip extra memorable.. Make silicone Sundaes Ever dreamt of making wax sushi pieces or ice-cream sundaes from a silicone gun? Youre behind the times. Plastic food making classes are huge in Japan. Various places offer sessions throughout Tokyo but one particularly great place to do it is at the family-run workshop, Yamato Sample studio. The business makes plastic meals for countless restaurants all over Tokyo (its custom in Japan that plastic meals are displayed in shop windows so people know what theyre food will look like before they order it) but they now offer small art classes. Spend half a morning making miniature plastic food and come away with a distinctly Japanese, ultra kawaii! (cute) momento. Watch Sumo wrestlers practice at their stable You may think going to a Sumo match is the ultimate goal but there are other ways to experience this ancient sport that will be much more intimate. Only six grand tournaments are held in Japan every year (three in Tokyo (January, May and September) and one each in Osaka (March), Nagoya (July) and Fukuoka (November)) which can make the chance to see them in arenas difficult but that can actually be a blessing. Booking to watching wrestlers practice under their grandmaster instead is about the most authentic sporting experiences you can witness in Japan - away from crowds and the hype of a match. During a practice session (known as asageiko), youll sit on the floor 30 ft from the wrestlers and see how their masters train and discipline them. Sessions last for around three hours and strict etiquette has to be followed at all times. You have to remain completely silent and not stir - even bathroom breaks are discouraged as its thought to interrupt the wrestlers concentration. There are about 12-15 stables around Tokyo's Ryogoku neighborhood and you do have to be accompanied by an official tour guide in order to watch a practice so make sure you book in advance. Order ramen from a vending machine Its hard to think of any other country in the world where Id tell you to seek out vending machines for food but Japan is different. Tokyos Central Station is home of the famous ramen-dori (dori means street in Japanese) where all of Japan's best ramen stores have a little underground restaurant. You simply order your meal and a beer from the vending machines that sit outside the restaurants, take the ticket from the machine, hand it to the waiter and voila, youre piping hot bowl of ramen will appear in front of you. Aside from the joy of the novelty, it also happens to be bloody delicious. Visit an onsen naked Onsens are Japanese hot springs that usually have hotels and resorts built around them. As a country built on active volcanic rock, there are thousands of them all across the country. If you think of yourself as a little prude, prepare to discover a new side to yourself while visiting one of these. Custom in Japan dictates that you should bathe in public onsens completely naked and while it might sound weird as you read this article on your office computer, youll likely feel oddly comfortable being completely starkers once you get there due to it being the norm. If you would prefer to be covered, there are now a few onsens that will allow you to go in certain baths with swimwear but make sure you read your chosen onsens ettiquette list before you go. Typically, there are a ton of rules to follow. Tattoos tend to be a big no-no, you'll have to fully showering before you get in, spa treatments before hand are discouraged and you're not allowed to get towels near the onsen's water. Follow these and complete bliss will follow. Rent a karaoke booth For an all round Japanese experience head to Tokyos Big Echo or the likes for a karaoke session whether you sound like a strangled cat or not. Youll see Japanese businessmen earnestly singing their hearts out to Taylor Swift and Celine Dion or going mad for J-Pop and you can do the exact same in the next door room (albeit with a lot more hilarity). Go gaming Youre probably familiar with the typical Tokyo picture of towering buildings with bright lights and neon signs but were you aware lots of them are actually gaming arcades? The Japanese are mad for them. In the mid-1980s there were actually 44,000 arcades across the country and today 4,500 are still running. Miraculously, despite being a country famed for futuristic robots and the likes, old-school gaming centres are still holding their own alongside the rise of digital tech. Head to Shinjuku and enter the vortex of Club Sega, a four floor arcade centre. People of all ages will be playing rounds of Virtua Fighter as well as fishing for Hello Kitty bears. Disorientating and intense, stock up on coins before your visit and dont leave without playing on the dance mats or heading to the top floor photobooths. Snap a photostrip there and you can adorn your photos with teen-tastic emojis and cartoons, change your eye colour, blush your cheeks and shower yourself in love hearts. Who wouldn't want to do that? Drink in a 6-man bar Tokyos Golden Gai is a district filled with streets of tiny, den-like bars that used to be home to the city's black market. You slide open a door and feel as if youre entering a secret meeting. A few of them only welcome regular customers but they'll soon tell you it's full (empty seats or not) and you just try the next if so. Some bars do fit up to twenty five but the majority only hold four to six bar stools. Youll likely be sat next to a couple of suited businessmen puffing away on their Mevius cigarettes or some trendy mid-20 year olds on date night. Unless you speak Japanese, you'll probably just nod and smile at your company but its an experience in itself. No doubt after a few sakes, youll strike up some kind of conversation where its audible or not. A business student killed when gunmen fired a volley of shots through his front door was a victim of suspected mistaken identity, police said today. James Owusu-Agyekum, 22, died from four bullet wounds to his back and one to his arm after two gunmen walked past his open door in Harlesden and opened fire. As he lay dying in the arms of his mother, he told her: Mum, I havent done anything to anyone ... I dont like trouble. Today, more than a year on from his murder, detectives and his family renewed an appeal for information and released images of the two young suspects on pedal cycles. Police believe a feud between two rival gangs in Harlesden led to the shooting of the gentle giant who worked for a west London shipping company to fund his studies. A 20,000 reward is on offer for information leading to the conviction of his killers. CCTV image of two suspects wanted over the death of James Owusu-Agyekum An inquest yesterday heard that Mr Owusu-Agyekum was shot on November 2, 2016, by one of two suspects who then fled to the nearby Stonebridge Estate on bicycles. Police described the victim as a popular young man from a devout Christian family, who had recently taken time out from his studies to care for his disabled mother. Detectives said it was likely James had been mistaken for someone else. Detective Chief Inspector Dave Bolton, leading the investigation, said: Jamess family has lived with the torment of knowing his killer is still free for more than a year now. I am doing everything I can to change that. We are releasing images of two suspects we would like to speak to in connection with our investigation. I would urge anyone who recognises these people to contact us; all information will be handled in strictest confidence and could be key in helping to bring a small level of comfort to Jamess family. In a brief statement released by police his family said: James has senselessly been taken from his family and friends. His loss has left sorrow in all our hearts. We appeal to anyone who has any information to pass this to police or anonymously to Crimestoppers. Anyone with information should call 020 8785 8244 or ring Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. F lu rates almost doubled in London over Christmas, GPs revealed today. The capital also leads the country in the number of people suffering from a common cold, according to the Royal College of General Practitioners. The figures came after 27 people in the UK died from flu in the first week of January, taking the total number of deaths since the start of winter to 85. Victims included 18-year-old Bethany Walker, who was airlifted to hospital in Inverness from her home in the Highlands after developing pneumonia but could not be saved. The Royal Colleges weekly survey of communicable and respiratory diseases today showed rates of influenza-like illness increased in London from 16.7 to 30.3 per 100,000 people, between the last week in December and the first week in January, but still remain below the national average. The national increase was from 21 to 37.3. London also had lower rates of acute bronchitis and asthma but the highest rate of common colds, which rose from 119.4 per 100,000 to 158.2. The true rates could be even higher as GP surgeries were only open on four weekdays at the start of the year. Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College, said: Things are incredibly busy, and demand is increasing not just with flu but with other common winter illnesses as well. Public Health England said the rate of flu hospitalisations was 2.5 times higher than at the same time last year, with the highest rates in the South of England and the lowest in London. Influenza B is more common in London than Influenza A. Campaigners insist the NHS winter meltdown which yesterday saw emergency doctors tell the Prime Minister patients were dying in hospital corridors is due to a lack of funding and not flu. F or most mothers, watching their little girl start secondary school would be just another happy family milestone. For Cheri Davies, who has a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer, it would mean the world. The 43-year-old, who lives in Bromley with husband Glyn and daughter Coco, 10, has asked for help to raise 250,000 to cover the costs of a treatment that has not yet been approved by the NHS. My daughter is 10 years old and I want to be there to see her start secondary school, and to see her grow, she said. I want to hold her when she is upset, when she breaks up with a boyfriend, to see her on her wedding day and to hold grandchildren. Nobody knows whether they will have that joy, and the rest of the world tells me I need to be realistic, and I know that, but I cant give up that tiny little spark that says dying will not be my story I will find a way to be here. In October 2015 Ms Davies, a market researcher for JustEat, was diagnosed with the triple negative form of the illness, which has spread despite a mastectomy and chemotherapy. She said: Breast cancer isnt just one disease triple negative means I am not positive for the three things they have been able to find a decent type of treatment for. Her oncologist at Guys Cancer Centres private wing, run by London Bridge Hospital, said the drug Pembrolizumab had proven effective on those with her condition. Also known by the trade name Keytruda, it became the first immunotherapy treatment available on the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund last year but is only used to treat a type of lung cancer. It is still in trials for use on triple negative breast cancer. Ms Davies said finding out that she could not get the drug on the NHS was utterly crushing. She added: It is the most heartbreaking thing, because you think, If I was doing this in five or six years time I would not be going through this in the same way. She spent New Years Eve writing an online appeal for funds with her husband. The couple have since raised more than 41,000. People have been so generous, she said. It is hard to know what to say I guess, Please donate because I want to be here I want to raise my child and I want to live here and I want to live and breathe and feel all the wonderful things that are ahead. Any extra moment that I can spend would be a real gift. London Bridge Hospital said it could not comment on the care of individual patients. Mr Davies, 47, a commercial adviser at Virgin Trains, said: Until the day Cheri was diagnosed we were just happily living our lives. We dont know how else we could possibly fund this, and it seems like the best option we have to carry on as a family... it would extend her time, and there is always a chance it might be something even more miraculous. To donate, visit https://www.youcaring.com/cherileemayelldavies-1056289/thankyou?utm_campaign=buttonshare A senior coroner faces calls to resign over claims she caused "immense anguish and trauma" in her handling of burial requests from Muslim and Jewish families. Mary Hassell, senior coroner for inner north London, was told to "step down or move to an area where she doesn't have to deal with diversity". The call from Councillor Adbul Hai, a Labour cabinet member in Camden, comes after a years-long row over her refusal to prioritise families requesting swift burials and less invasive post-mortems for religious reasons. Jewish and Islamic teachings advocate burial as soon as possible after death, often the same day, and some interpretations avoid autopsy. Many Jews also observe a custom of watching over the deceased until they are interred - not currently possible in hospital mortuaries. Families complained of days-long hold-ups, "invasive" post-mortems when there were other alternatives, and the refusal to let Jewish families use private mortuaries to "sit shiva". Ms Hassell's jurisdiction takes in Tower Hamlets, Camden, Islington and Hackney - homes to sizeable Muslim and Jewish communities. Cllr Hai said the coroner's approach "beggared belief", adding: "We live in the 21st century and the coroner's office is a public service - but they are stuck in the dark ages. "Mary fails to recognise that these are some of the most diverse communities in the whole country. The coroner's service should reflect that." A Jewish burial society wrote to Camden Council last week also calling for Ms Hassell's dismissal. "The suffering and anguish caused by a delay in burial is hard to adequately express in writing, but it is widely and deeply felt," the letter states, adding burial procedures had caused "immense anguish and trauma". Coroners' guidelines from the Ministry of Justice state that "take account where possible of ... traditions and religious requirements". In a letter to members of the Jewish community, Ms Hassell has written that "no death will be prioritised in any way over any other because of the religion of the deceased or family, either by coroners officers or coroners". She has written that she is "acutely conscious" of Jewish and Muslim teachings and "always [takes] these into account but that "there is a difference between being sensitive to faith and prioritising one person over another because of their religion". A judicial review in 2015 found Ms Hassell's decision-making was "flawed" when she ordered a post-mortem against the wishes of a Jewish family when an electronic scan had determined the cause of death. The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said it is considering complaints against Ms Hassell. Ms Hassell's office has been contacted by the Standard for comment. S adiq Khan today said US President Donald Trump got the message from Londoners after he cancelled his planned visit to the capital next month. The US President was due to make the trip to London for the opening of the new 750 million US embassy next month. But he has pulled out of the visit after threats of mass protests across the UK, with Mr Khan among those who had warned Mr Trump he would not be welcomed by Londoners. After the President confirmed he had scrapped his planned trip, Mr Khan said such a visit would without doubt have been met by mass protests. It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our citys values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance, the Mayor told the Standard. "His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests. This just reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place. Sadiq Khan has condemned Donald Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel "Lets hope that Donald Trump also revisits the pursuit of his divisive agenda." But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Mr Khan's predecessor in City Hall, launched an extraordinary attack on the current Mayor. He tweeted: "The US is the biggest single investor in the UK - yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk. We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall." Last night, Mr Trump insisted that he had changed his plans because he disapproves of the location and price of the new embassy in Nine Elms, near Battersea. Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars, he tweeted. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" In fact, the embassy's move from Mayfair to Nine Elms was first reported in 2008 before Barack Obama was president. Mr Trump is believed to be sending Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in his place to the opening of the new building. US Ambassador Woody Johnson had previously said he was looking forward to the President visiting London, saying: "I think he will be very impressed with this building and the people who occupy it." Downing Street refused to comment on the report and the US embassy in London was unavailable for comment. First look at the new US embassy 1 /22 First look at the new US embassy Exterior of the US Embassy in London Consular Services Pacific Forest Garden Main Lobby Ambassador Wall in Main Lobby Facade detail A general view inside the new US Embassy in south London before it opens for business in January 2018 PA A general view inside the new US Embassy in south London before it opens for business in January 2018 PA The visa hall at the new US Embassy PA A bar inside the new US Embassy PA Detail in Consular Services The Department of The Treasury inside the new US Embassy PA Exterior of the US Embassy in London Outer envelope detail Consular Services View from office toward River Thames Outer envelope detail The President is believed to have scheduled talks with Prime Minister Theresa May in Number 10 on February 26 and 27. Downing Street had planned to get confirmation of the dates this week, the Daily Mail reported. His full state visit, which would include a meeting with the Queen, was not due to take place until later this year. Donald Trump was reportedly due to meet Theresa May during the visit / PA Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, an ally of Mr Trump, suggested that concerns about protests may have been the real reason for the visit's cancellation. "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 Mr 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." Mrs May and Mr Trump fell out in November after the President re-tweeted anti-Muslim videos posted online by the deputy leader of the far-right Britain First group, Jayda Fransen. At the time, the PM said Mr Trump was "wrong" to retweet the videos, and the US president hit back at Mrs May on Twitter by telling her to focus on "destructive radical Islamic terrorism" in the UK, rather than on him. The United States announced plans to move from its current embassy building in Mayfair in 2008 and the new building will open on January 16. 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." T he controversial statue of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed in Harrods is to be removed. The owners of the famous Knightsbridge department store have informed former owner Mohamed al Fayed, Dodis father, and he has accepted the decision. When he sold Harrods for a reported 1.5 billion to the Qatari Royal Family in May 2010 he begged them to keep the statue in place. But today Harrods told the Evening Standard that they had decided to return the memorial to its original owner, Mr Mohamed Al-Fayed. Tribute: Mohamed Fayed with the statue of Diana and his son Dodi in Harrods The decision follows the announcement by The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry on plans to commission a new statue commemorating the Princess in the grounds of Kensington Palace. Michael Ward, Managing Director at Harrods, said: We are very proud to have played our role in celebrating the lives of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed at Harrods and to have welcomed people from around the world to visit the memorial for the past twenty years. "With the announcement of the new official memorial statue to Diana, Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace, we feel that the time is right to return this memorial to Mr Al-Fayed and for the public to be invited to pay their respects at the palace, he added. The memorial - both the statue and the foundation - had been left in place to commemorate the lives of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi since Mr Al-Fayed transferred ownership of the store to its current owners. Both will now be returned. Harrods is following due process with regards to the logistics of its return. Immortalising Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed in bronze, this memorial has attracted thousands of people to Harrods to pay their respects. Mr. Al Fayed erected the monument as a tribute to the couple after they died in a Paris car crash in 1997. Called Innocent Victims, it shows Diana and his son Dodi with their hands raised towards a seagull. Princess Diana - In pictures 1 /80 Princess Diana - In pictures Diana, Princess of Wales kissing Prince Charles of Wales on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following their wedding in 1981 PA Diana, Princess of Wales with Prince Charles of Wales on holiday at Balmoral in 1981 PA Family album picture of Lady Diana Spencer (Diana, Princess of Wales) with Souffle, a Shetland pony, at her mother's home in Scotland during the summer of 1974 PA Lady Diana Spencer (Diana, Princess of Wales) with her brother Charles, Lord Alhorp (Earl Spencer) in 1968 PA Lady Diana Spencer (Diana, Princess of Wales) in her pram at Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk in 1963 PA Archive/PA Images Lady Diana Spencer (Diana, Princess of Wales) from the family album, during a summer holiday in 1970 at Itchenor, West Sussex PA Lady Diana Spencer (Diana, Princess of Wales) leaving her flat in 1980 Neville Marriner/Associated Newspapers Lady Diana Spencer (Diana, Princess of Wales), the 19-year-old fiancee to the leaves her flat at Coleherne Court, Earl's Court in 1980 Getty Images Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (Diana, Princess of Wales) announce their engagement at Buckingham Palace in 1981 Sipa Press/Rex Lady Diana Spencer (Diana, Princess of Wales) arrives at St. Paul's Cathedral in London with her father, Earl Spencer, for her wedding to the Prince of Wales in 1981 PA Archive/PA Images Diana, Princess of Wales with Prince Charles of Wales at their wedding at St Paul Cathedral in 1981 AFP/Getty Images The Prince and Princess of Wales at the High Altar in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, during their wedding at St Paul's Cathedral in 1981 PA Diana, Princess of Wales in her bridal gown at Buckingham Palace after her marriage to Prince Charles at St. Paul's Cathedral PA Diana, Princess of Wales with Prince Charles of Wales on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following their wedding in 1981 PA The Prince and Princess of Wales in a carriage after their wedding at St Paul's Cathedral in 1981 PA Diana, Princess of Wales meeting the crowds during a royal tour of Wales in 1981 Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales smiling as she prepares to embrace a woman in the crowd, on the streets of Carmarthen, Wales in 1981 Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Charles leave the Lindo Wing at St Mary's with Prince William on 21 June 1982 PA Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Charles leave the Lindo Wing at St Mary's with Prince Harry on 17 September 1984 Getty Images Diana, Princess of Waleswith Pope John Paul II during a private audience at the Vatican on 25 April 1985 Reuters Diana, Princess of Wales attends a 1985 private wedding at Foulsham in Norfolk James Gray/Daily Mail Diana, Princess of Wales at a gala dinner at the 40th Cannes film festival on the French riviera in 1987 AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry at 5 years old, joins his brother Prince William at 7 years old on his first day at the Wetherby School, Notting Hill, London in 1989 PA The Princess of Wales wears a blue Catherine Walker gown to a charity ball at Osterley House, Middlesex, May 1989 Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images Britain's Prince Charles and Diana Princess of Wales watch Indonesian tribal dancers in Yogyakarta in 1989 AFP/Getty Images The Prince and Princess of Wales with sons Prince William, right, and Prince Harry prepare for a cycling trip in Tresco during their holiday in the Scilly Isles in 1989 PA Diana, Princess of Wales at the 1989 wedding of Joanna Leshallas and Edward Berry in Cranbrook, Kent Rex Features Former First Lady Barbara Bush and Diana, Princess of Wales at the White House, Washington DC in 1990 AFP/Getty Images Lady Diana, Princess of Wales (1961 - 1997) laughs with American performer Liza Minnelli at a party following the charity film premiere of "Stepping Out", at the Langham Hilton Hotel, London on 20 September 1991 Dave Benett Diana, Princess of Wales leaving the first anti-AIDS bookshop in Paris in 1992 AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales, arrives at the Lille Congress Hall on 15 November 1992 for the opening of Paul McCartney's oratorio "Liverpool" AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wale visits the great pyramid of Giza near Cairo in 1992 AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales meets Manuel Leseneo in 1992, a homeless Spanish youth at the London Connection Centre for the Homeless, near Trafalgar Square Reuters Diana, Princess of Wales with her mother Frances Shand Kydd attending hte Wimbledon Men;s Singles Final in 1993 PA Diana, Princess of Wales delivers a powerful speech calling for a public partnership ro solve homelessness in 1993 Evening Standard Diana, Princess of Wales with Princes William and Harry on the Loggers Leap ride at Thorpe Park in 1993 Daily Mail Diana, Princess of Wales at Alton Towers Theme Park in 1994 Rex Diana, Princess of Wales enjoying the waters of Indian Castle Beach while on vacation at Nevis with her sons William and Harry in 1993 AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales atends a charity dinner at the Serpentine Gallery in 1994 Rex Features Diana, Princess of Wales in 1994 Dave Benett Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince Harry, Prince William and Prince Charles gather for the commemorations of VJ Day on 19 August 1995 in London AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales departs her London health club in 1995 AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales is interviewed by the BBC's Martin Bashir in the current affairs program, Panorama on 20 November 1995 AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales laughs during a speech by Henry Kissinger at the 41st annual United Cerebral Palsy Awards Gala In 1995 Prince William signs the traditional Entrance Book watched by his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and younger brother, Prince Harry, at Eton College. St James's Palace in 1995 PA Diana, Princess of Wales and Jemima Khan sttend a variety show on 22 February 1996 in Lahore. AFP/Getty Images A windswept Diana, Princess of Wales leaves her London health club after her morning workout in 1996 AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales arriving at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Dinner Dance, Sydney in 1996 Getty Images Diana Princess of Wales arrive's at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York for the Costume Institute Ball in 1996 AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales, posing for a photograph in 1997 with some French SFOR soldiers at Sarajevo airport before her flight to London. AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales during the meeting with Ana Paula dos Santos, wife of Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, 13 January 1997 in Luanda AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 with Malic Bradoric from Bosnia and Zarko Beric a Serb from Bosnia, who both lost legs to landmines Reuters Diana, Princess of Wales, touring a minefield wearing body armour during her visit to Angola in 1997 PA UN Special Envoy to Angola Alioune Beye and Diana, Princess of Wales during a 1997 campaign against land mines in Angola AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales, a key volunteer of the British Red Cross Landmine Campaign listens to speaker Ken Rutherford in 1997, who was injured by a land mine in Somalia at ceremonies at Red Cross headquarters in Washington DC AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales attends English National Ballet's Swan Lake in 1997 Dave Benett Diana, Princess of Wales waits for a jet-ski ride on the property of her friend Mohammad Al-Fayed in Saint Tropez, French Riviera in 1997 AFP/Getty Images Diana, Princess of Wales attends the London premiere of 'In Love and War' at the Odeon Leicester Square on 12 February 1997 Dave Benett Diana, Princess of Wales, listening as she attends an engagement at a British Red Cross mission to highlight the evil of land mines in Luanda, 1997 AFP/Getty Images Diana, the Princess of Wales after arriving on 17 June 1997 at the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington to attend a gala dinner for landmine victims AFP/Getty Images Another memorial shows photos of Diana and Dodi and a wine glass smudged with her lipstick from her last dinner. In 2000, Harrods severed its commercial links with the Royal Family on Mr. Al Fayeds orders by removing warrants from its prestigious shopfront. Workmen removed the warrants, which showed that the Royals buy goods from the store, from outside the Knightsbridge building. The royal seal of approval was also removed from the store's vans on ending of a 62-years of tradition. B oris Johnson has waded into the row over Donald Trumps cancelled visit to London as he launched a scathing attack on his successor as Mayor Sadiq Khan. The Foreign Secretary plunged the governments response to the Presidents cancellation into chaos as he accused Labours top brass of jeopardising the special relationship. His comments came as Downing Street insisted the strong and deep partnership between the UK and US will continue. Mr Trump said he had decided to abandon the proposed visit because of his disgust at the deal for Americas 750 million new embassy in Nine Elms, south London. He tweeted: Reason I canceled [sic] 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 embassy in London for peanuts, only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Intervention: Boris Johnson / EPA His claims were proved to be wrong, as documents showed the decision to sell the previous embassy in Grosvenor Square, central London, was announced by Barack Obamas predecessor George W Bush. Mr Khan, who has clashed with the President in the past, said Mr Trump had got the message of Londoners. But the Mayors intervention triggered a rebuke from his predecessor in City Hall, Boris Johnson, who accused Mr Khan of being a "puffed up pompous popinjay". The US is the biggest single investor in the UK - yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk, tweeted the Foreign Secretary. We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall." The Foreign Secretary's post came in the middle of a regular Westminster briefing by a Number 10 spokesman. Despite being read the tweet, the spokesman was unable to say whether Mr Johnson spoke for the Government, but promised to "look into it". Donald Trump pulled out of a planned visit to London / AP Asked if Mr Johnson was speaking for the Government, the spokesman replied: "I'm not aware of the circumstances of the tweet, we will come back." Before Mr Johnson tweeted, the spokesman was asked if Mr Khan had damaged the so-called "special relationship", replying: "No, the US and the UK are natural resilient strong partners and allies and we do more together than any two countries in the world." But he said Mrs May would tell Mr Trump he is welcome in London. Asked about the PM's views on south London after the president described the embassy's new site as an "off location", the spokesman said: "I think Vauxhall is a vibrant and important part of London and home to many businesses, obviously Apple are moving there headquarters there." The spokesman added: "A state visit (invitation) has been extended and accepted and we will confirm the details in due course. "No date was confirmed for any visit, the one you are referring to now. "The opening of the US embassy is a matter for the US." The Grosvenor Square embassy, topped by a gilded bald eagle with a wingspan of more than 11 metres, opened in 1960 to a design by Eero Saarinen. The square has been home to the US since 1938. It was acquired by Qatar for a hotel but the sale, signed off by the Obama administration, raised less than the 500 million first estimated after it was made a Grade II listed building, reducing development potential. A n inquiry into Bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies could be launched by MPs because of concerns investors risk heavy losses and could be defrauded. Nicky Morgan, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, said she would seek evidence from experts on the issue. Bitcoin, Ether and other virtual currencies have soared in value over the past year, attracting millions of people to buy in. However, experts have warned that prices could collapse as quickly as they have risen, potentially leaving investors with nothing. Ms Morgan told the Standard: We are going to look at the whole issue of cryptocurrencies. Clearly there is a concern the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England have said people need to be very aware that they could lose everything in terms of Bitcoin. You dont want people who cant afford to get their fingers badly burnt to run into problems. What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin has surged 1,500 per cent in the past year despite having fallen rapidly since December. The US financial markets have embraced the currency far more than the City, opening two future Bitcoin exchanges. Ms Morgan said it was too soon for Britain to follow suit when so many questions remained about its safety and lack of regulation. She said: London should watch that with interest but I think we should take our time to really understand the risks first. But she added: We dont want to stamp out innovation. If were going to be global Britain, we have to encourage innovation, technology and be at the forefront of all this. The former education secretary and Conservative MP has not bought any cryptocurrencies herself yet, but said some of her constituents were fans. While most City veterans think Bitcoin is a bubble, most say that the technology behind it known as blockchain will revolutionise how finances and legal documents are managed. J P Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon this week changed his mind on cryptocurrencies, which he described in September as a fraud. He said he regretted that comment and added: The blockchain is real. A Britain First supporter who gave a Nazi salute, shouted "white power" and drove at a curry house owner during a drunken rampage will walk free later, despite being handed a jail sentence. White van driver Marek Zakrocki, 48, told a police officer he was going to "kill a Muslim" before launching his attack outside Spicy Night in Alexandra Parade, Harrow, north-west London, on the anniversary of the Brexit vote. Mr Zakrocki, who was originally charged with attempted murder, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and battering his wife. He also admitted drink-driving as he appeared via video link from Wormwood Scrubs for sentencing at the Old Bailey. Judge Anthony Leonard QC said: "You committed these offences at a time of heightened tension because of the attack on a Muslim outside a Mosque in London." The judge said there was evidence of "abhorrent" racist views but his crime was due to the effect of alcohol. He added: "In your drunken state what you said and the way you behaved would have been both offensive and put persons in fear." He sentenced him to 33 weeks in jail and disqualified him from driving for three years. However, the defendant will walk free from prison later, having served his time on remand. Opening with the facts of the case last month, prosecutor Denis Barry said: "Mr Zakrocki had plainly, during the course of that afternoon, had far too much to drink. "During the course of that evening he assaulted his wife, drove off in his work vehicle, insulted a series of passers-by and then drove his vehicle at the owner of a curry house, breaking the window of the restaurant. "It's plain that his conduct is very likely to have been motivated by his views about our diverse society." Earlier on June 23 last year, Mr Zakrocki had got drunk on wine, grabbed his wife Ewa Zakrocka's arm and threatened to "kill people" and himself. During a rampage around Harrow, he made a Nazi salute, pushed an unknown Asian man and chased him around a shopping centre and then shouted "white power, white power". His family called police and during a telephone conversation with an officer, Mr Zakrocki said: "I'm going to kill a Muslim. I'm doing it for Britain. "This is how I'm going to help the country. You people cannot do anything." The Polish-born window fitter ended up outside the Spicy Night restaurant, blocking the road with his van. Following an altercation in the street, he started the engine and aimed the vehicle at restaurant owner Kamal Ahmed. The court heard he used the van as a weapon against Mr Ahmed and twice mounted the pavement. He was driving at 5mph and was effectively trying to pin Mr Ahmed against the restaurant window, which smashed. Because of the increased state of alert at the time, armed officers arrested Mr Zakrocki in a "hard stop". Police found a Nazi coin in his pocket and a stash of Britain First flyers and newspapers at his home in Harrow. In a police interview, he appeared to be "fixated" by Muslims and said he had made donations to Britain First. Mr Barry said the defendant appeared to have a history of depressive illness and alcohol problems. He told the court that Britain First, formed by members of the BNP, was anti-Muslim and held views that were regarded by most people as "very extreme indeed". Charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and having a knife in Northolt Road, Harrow, were ordered to lie on file. In mitigation, Richard Furlong said his client wanted to stress he was "not racist and not a Nazi". He added: "He's plainly somebody who has a lengthy history of alcohol abuse and it's something he is very much aware of." Mr Zakrocki, who moved to Britain 14 years ago, had a previous conviction for assaulting a police officer while drunk in 2011. His wife submitted a letter asking for a ban on the press reporting the case, but the judge declined the request. Outside court Detective Constable Georgina Acuna said she had hoped the sentence would be longer. She said: "It was initially dealt with by Harrow Police as a hate crime and the judge here today has taken the motivation behind these offences into consideration and passed sentence. "However, the offences he has been convicted of do not have separate legislation covering racially-aggravated offences. "At the time of the arrest, Counter Terrorism Command had attended the scene. They assessed the situation and decided it was not to be dealt with as a terrorism incident." The Harrow-based officer urged the public to report hate crime in all its forms, saying it would not be tolerated. A distraught mother has paid tribute to her beautiful 18-year-old daughter who died after contracting flu. Bethany Walker, from Applecross in Scotland, died on Friday as three strains of flu put pressure on health services across the UK. She had been suffering from a flu virus at home which became pneumonia. She was airlifted to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness but could not be saved. Her mother Heather Teale led tributes, writing on Facebook: She had been suffering from a flu virus, which became pneumonia, she was airlifted to Raigmore with me by her side yesterday morning, 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. Ms Walker was airlifted to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness but her condition rapidly deteriorated / PA Archive/PA Images The nearby Applecross Inn paid its own tribute to her on its Facebook page. It said: "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." Meanwhile, her school said on Facebook: "It was a privilege for all of us to have taught Bethany, to have known her in her years in the school and to have maintained contact with her after she left. "It is tragic to lose someone so young and the thoughts of the whole school and the hostel are with Bethany's family at this sad time." It comes as health services have faced rising numbers of flu cases and respiratory illness, with 48 flu-related deaths in England so far this winter. The main strains circulating continue to be flu A(H3N2), known as Aussie flu, A(H1N1), known as swine flu, and Flu B. Meanwhile, waiting time performances in accident and emergency departments reached their lowest level in 14 years, with staff describing patients "dying prematurely" in their corridors before they are seen. A letter from the heads of more than 60 A&E departments in England and Wales to Theresa May warned that the "current level of safety compromise is at times intolerable", as the winter months put the NHS under further strain. The number of people admitted to intensive care with flu rose by 65 per cent in the first week of the year, while Public Health England (PHE) said there was also a 78 per cent increase in the GP consultation rate with flu-like illness and a 50 per cent increase in the rate of hospital admissions. In Scotland, the flu rate for the first week of 2018 was four times higher than the same week last year. Statistics from Health Protection Scotland showed 107 Scots in every 100,000 of the population were diagnosed with the virus in the week ending January 7. Health Secretary Shona Robison said the NHS was coming under "significant pressure" as a result of higher flu levels and thanked staff for doing "a remarkable job". P resident Donald Trump sparked a race storm today after describing Haiti and African countries as s***holes. The ugly outburst led to an outcry with the president blasted as ignorant and racist. Mr Trump made the controversial remark during a meeting with lawmakers over suggestions that the US restore temporary protected status for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? the president reportedly responded, according to the Washington Post. Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out, CNN reported that Mr Trump told people in the meeting. Donald Trump's comment have sparked backlash / EPA He claimed that instead, the US should be seeking to assimilate people from nations like Norway. Haiti said today that it vehemently condemns Mr Trumps comments. Either the president has been misinformed or he is miseducated, added Haitis US Ambassador Paul Altidor. Congressman Cedric Richmond, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Mr Trumps comments are further proof that his Make America Great Again agenda is really a Make America White Again agenda. Congresswoman Mia Love, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, insisted Mr Trump should apologise to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned. Protests erupt after Trump's Jerusalem decision 1 /62 Protests erupt after Trump's Jerusalem decision Palestinian protestors clash with Israeli forces near an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank city of Ramallah AFP/Getty Images Israeli forces take position during clashes with Palestinian protestors near an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank city of Ramallah AFP/Getty Images Palestinian protesters burn an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump AP AFP/Getty Images Palestinians burn posters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, during a protest against the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, in Gaza City AP Israeli forces disperse Palestinian protestors outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City AFP/Getty Images Palestinian youths take part in a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Pakistanis burn a representation of the U.S. flag during a protest rally in Hyderabad, Pakistan AP Palestinian protestors set fire to a picture of US president Donald J. Trump during a protest in the West Bank City of Nablus EPA Smoke billows from burning tyres as Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops AFP/Getty Images Palestinian youths take part in a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Jordanian police stand guard near the American Embassy in Amman, Jordan REUTERS Palestinian demonstrators clash with Israeli troops during protests in the West Bank city of Ramallah AFP/Getty Images Palestinians paint an 'X' over the face of a picture of US president Donald J. Trump on the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem, West Bank EPA Supporters of a Pakistani religious party rally against the United States and Israel, in Lahore, Pakistan AP A supporter of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) an Islamic organization burns US flags Reuters A view from Armon Hanaziv promenade on the old city of Jerusalem, EPA Palestinian protesters chant angry slogans as one burns a representation of the American flag AP Palestinian protestors shout slogans against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Nablus AFP/Getty Images Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim leader Moqtada al-Sadr gestures as he delivers a speech over U.S.President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Baghdad, Iraq Reuters Children stand on U.S. and Israeli flags during a protest following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, in Islamabad, Pakistan Reuters Protests erupt in Middle East after Donald Trump declares Jerusalem capital of Israel AP Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh gestures as he delivers a speech over U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City Reuters Protesters chant anti-American slogans in Gaza city AP Young Palestinians wave flags in protest at Mr Trump's decision in Gaza EPA People gather in protest to wave flags and chant in Gaza EPA Protesters pray in the street outside the US Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey Getty Images The Christmas tree in front of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity had its lights turned off in protest EPA Protesters burn posters of Donald Trump in Manger Square, Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images A demonstration against the US and Israel at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul AFP/Getty Images Protesters wave Palestinian and Turkish flags during a demonstration in Istanbul AFP/Getty Images Protesters burn the Israeli flag in Cairo, Egypt EPA Pro-Palestinian protesters in Berlin, Germany EPA Palestinians burn Israeli and US flags and posters of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during protest against the US intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip EPA Protesters wave flags and shout slogans outside the U.S. Consulate on December 6, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey Getty Images The Hamas organization's top leader Sheikh Ismaeil Haneiya (C) attends a protest against the US decision to recognize the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City, Gaza Strip EPA US President Donald J. Trump signs his proclamation about his controversial decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and his plan to relocate the US embassy to that city, in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington, DC EPA The US and Israeli flags hang at the entrance of Jerusalem Municipality building following US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise the city as the capital of Israel AFP/Getty Images Christian worshipers carry a wooden cross through an alley of Jerusalem's old city EPA Israeli policemen scuffle with a Palestinian man during a protest following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses an international conference on digital diplomacy at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem AFP/Getty Images Palestinians shout slogans during a protest following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters Protesters chant slogans and wave Palestinian flags during a demonstration against the US and Israel in front of the US consulate in Istanbul AFP/Getty Images Palestinians take part in a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images A wounded Palestinian protester is evacuated during clashes with Israeli troops at a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near the border with Israel in the southern Gaza Strip Reuters Israel policemen stand guard at the Damascus gate of Jerusalem's old city EPA Palestinian youths take part in a protest against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images She said his unkind, divisive, elitist comments fly in the face of our nations values. The presidents comments are ignorant, racist with a complete disregard for the human dignity of the Haitian people, said Jack Davidson, executive director of the American Haitian Foundation. I am embarrassed that he is president of the United States. CNN presenter Anderson Cooper blasted the president as racist, adding: The President of the United States is tired of so many black people coming to into this country. Tired of immigrants from Haiti and Africa being allowed in. Let's not kid ourselves,' he added. 'Let's not pretend or dance around it. The sentiment the President expressed today is a racist sentiment. Did President Trump forget the US national anthem? The remarks were reportedly made at a private Oval Office meeting in which Mr Trump was discussing a bipartisan immigration deal put forward by six US senators. They were proposing that the visa lottery system - of which the president is a fierce critic - should end in Haiti and El Salvador in return for citizens of those countries getting temporary protected status. Temporary protected status for Haitians was removed by Mr Trump last November, meaning many now face deportation from the US. The White House has not denied the storys 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 a statement. The President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration two programmes 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 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. D onald Trump has reportedly questioned why the US should welcome more immigrants from s***hole countries in an outburst in the Oval Office. The president grew frustrated as senators discussed revamping rules affecting people from Africa, El Salvador and Haiti, sources said. "Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?" he told lawmakers, according to the Washington Post. The White House has not denied the comment which was widely reported in the US media. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," said White House spokesman Raj Shah. His statement continued: "Like other countries 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." Mr Trumps remark reportedly came as senators from both parties visited the Oval Office to propose a bipartisan immigration deal. But the White House rejected their proposed agreement, plunging the issue back into uncertainty. During their conversation, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin had been discussing temporary residency permits granted to citizens of countries struck by natural disasters, war or epidemics. But Mr Trump suggested that instead, the US should allow more entrants from countries like Norway, whose Prime Minister he met with this week. A zoo in Sweden has admitted to killing nine healthy lion cubs over the past six years. CEO Bo Kjellson of Boras Djurpark Zoo said that the cubs had been killed because they could not be sold or moved and because aggression amongst lions in the zoo had become too big. He warned more of the animals could be killed if they cannot be sent elsewhere or do not settle in to the pride. Speaking to Swedish broadcaster SVT, Mr Kjellson revealed that the six cubs had been called: Potter, Weasley, Simba, Rafiki, Nala, Sarabi, Kiara, Kovu and Banzai. He said: 'I think that they were killed after two years. He added: At that time we had already tried to sell or to relocate them at other zoos for a long time but, unfortunately, there were no zoos that could receive them - and when the aggression became too big in the group we had to remove some animals. And it had to be them. In 2013, Simba, Rafiki, Nala and Sarabi were killed one year after their birth. Kiara, Banzi and Kovu were killed in 2015 after they were born in 2014. Just last year Potter and Weasley were born and they were put to death on Tuesday. Mr Kjellson explained that when an animal does not fit in to the group it is the natural path to kill them. He said: It's no secret in any way and we do not try to hide that we're working this way. He said it was possible that more lions faced the same fate: Now the group works well, but some of them could become surplus animals, and then we will try to move them elsewhere. It could be that we have to put them to death, he said. Gothenburg University animal researcher Helena Pedersen told STV that it is not unusual for zoos to kill animals if they cannot manage them. She said: I think we need to think about why it is important for us to have zoos and if it is worth the price that the animals pay for it. J ames Franco won best actor in a comedy at the Critics' Choice Awards just hours after five women accused him of sexually inappropriate behaviour. The under-fire actor was awarded the honour on Thursday night for his role in The Disaster Artist but did not appear in person to collect the accolade. Organisers had billed the event in Santa Monica as being attended by Franco, but after announcing him as the winner, actor Walton Goggins said: "James couldn't be here tonight to accept this, so we will accept it on his behalf." It came after the LA Times reported that two former student actresses who studied under Franco said he became hostile and stormed off when they did not volunteer to remove their clothes during a scene at a strip club. Another student, Sarah Tither-Kaplan, 26, alleged that Franco removed protective coverings on other actresses' vaginas while simulating oral sex on them during filming of The Long Home in May 2015, the paper reported. Franco's lawyer, Michael Plonsker, told the paper "the allegations about the protective guards are not accurate". Cynthia Huffman, the film's casting director, added: "All actresses were aware of the nudity scenes ahead of time. I personally checked on all the actresses constantly to make sure they were OK and comfortable. I did not receive any complaints." Franco's publicist pointed towards the actor previously saying allegations made on social media following his Golden Globes victory were "not accurate". Franco told The Late Show With Stephen Colbert this week: "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." The 23rd Critics' Choice Awards were organised by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association and were held at the Barker Hangar, in Santa Monica, California. This page may have been moved, deleted, or is otherwise unavailable. To help you find what you are looking for: Enter Search Term(s): Still cant find what youre looking for? Send us a message using our contact us form. To report a broken link or other problems with the website, please include the URL. Thank you for visiting state.gov. Countries & Areas Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe The statements of Romania's Prime Minister bring into attention the responsibility of our country's central and local authorities to ensure the observance of the law, and have no ethnic or anti-Hungarian overtones, but highlight in the first place the need to observe Romania's constitutional and legal order in Romania, which is a unitary, sovereign and indivisible state, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday in a release to Agerpres. The message of the Foreign Ministry comes in the context of Romania's ambassador in Budapest being summoned on Friday to the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to offer explanations on PM Tudose's statements. The Foreign Ministry also details the broader context of the discussions on the tentative autonomy of the Hungarian community of Romania. "We also note that the public debate on this issue occurs in the context of the multiplication, in the last period, of initiatives regarding various forms of territorial autonomy on ethnic criteria, culminating in the signing on January 8 of the Joint Resolution of Hungarian political organizations of Transylvania on the alignment of autonomy concepts," the Foreign Ministry said, pointing out that "these approaches, on a subject that is strictly related to Romania's constitutional order and on which both the political factors as well as Romania's constitutional court have previously pronounced, contribute neither to maintaining a harmonious interethnic coexistence nor to progress in the bilateral relationship." The Romanian Foreign Ministry concludes that "such gestures are all the more so regrettable as they deliberately ignore the substantial measures adopted over time by the Romanian authorities for the benefit of the members of the Hungarian minority in Romania, in line with the highest relevant protection standards, a commitment that Romania sticks to and will constantly pursue in all its policies." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs discards any such provocation, "particularly in the year when Romania is set to celebrate the Great Union Centennial in a spirit of unity, tolerance and mutual respect among all its citizens, regardless of their ethnicity," the cited source said. "The Foreign Ministry of Romania expresses its confidence that the political and legal pillars represented by the Basic Political Treaty and the Declaration on Cooperation and Strategic Partnership for Europe in the 21st Century will further provide the foundation for the Romanian-Hungarian relations that will hopefully develop in the spirit of European values," the Foreign Ministry's release states. The recent remarks by Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose on the ethnic Hungarians' autonomy efforts are completely unacceptable and incompatible with European values and unworthy of the 21st century, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday, as cited by MTI. After a joint statement whereby three political formations of Romania's ethnic Hungarians undertake to put in cooperative efforts for autonomy, Premier Mihai Tudose told Realitatea TV private broadcaster that talks about the autonomy of the Szekely Land are out of question and that "if the Szekler flag is flown on the local institutions they will all fly next to the flag," essentially terming all these as attempts to destabilize Romania's unity in the Centennial year. The rector of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Police Academy, Daniel Torje, said on Friday that he resigns after the Control Body of the Minister of Internal Affairs has started a verification at this institution. The control was triggered by an article published in a local newspaper where a female student accused him of sexual harassment. Agerpres. A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit lands Jan. 8, 2018, at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Approximately 200 Airmen and three B-2 Spirits from Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB), Missouri, deployed to Andersen AFB in support of U.S. Pacific Commands (PACOM) Bomber Assurance and Deterrence mission. U.S. Strategic Command bombers regularly rotate through the Indo-Pacific region to conduct U.S. PACOM-led air operations, providing leaders with deterrent options to maintain regional stability. During this short-term deployment, the B-2s will conduct local and regional training sorties and will integrate capabilities with key regional partners, ensuring bomber crews maintain a high state of readiness and crew proficiency (Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Gerald Willis). X 0 20 Help Keep Us Soaring We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month. Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways: The Cambridge Union has today announced highlights from its jam-packed Lent 2018 termcard, with celebrities like Pele, Davina McCall, James Blunt, General Michael Flynn and Bryan Cranston, the star of hit series Breaking Bad, scheduled to attend. The term will kick-off on 15th January at 7pm with a visit from rugby union legend James Haskell; which will be closely followed by the 19th January visit from Bryan Cranston at 3pm. Week One will continue with Pele, who is due to speak on 22nd January at 7pm; and James Blunt, scheduled for 24th January at 7pm. Five-time Olympic rowing medallist Katherine Grainger will arrive on 26th February at 7pm, whilst a talk from television personality Davina McCall is on 7th March at 7pm. Film and theatre star Hayley Atwell is planned to speak the following day at 5pm, whilst General Michael Flynn will be flying in a little later in the month, on 16th March at 6pm. Calling the names already released as 'just the tip of the iceberg', the Union is due to announce the full termcard over the weekend. Major tech companies, including Intel, Microsoft and Google, scrambled to calm the mood this week after a large number of computer users reported performance problems linked to security updates for the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. A firestorm of criticism has erupted over the response to the chip flaws, which researchers at Googles Project Zero discovered in 2016. Months passed before the problems were disclosed to the public. Further, the security patches released in recent days have been blamed for performance problems, including slowdowns in many systems. The fixes reportedly rendered a smaller number of systems unbootable. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich on Thursday sent an open letter to the technology industry, pledging the company would make frequent updates and be more transparent about the process, and that it would report security issues to the public in a prompt manner. Design Flaw Intel Executive Vice President Navin Shenoy on Wednesday issued an update on the impact of the patches on performance, saying that eighth-generation Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake platforms would see less than a 6 percent performance decrease. However, users running Web applications with complex Javascript operations might see a 10 percent reduction. The seventh-generation Kaby Lake platforms would experience a 7 percent reduction, and the impact on the sixth-generation Skylake platforms would be slightly higher at 8 percent. Intel released numerous statements after the vulnerabilities were made public, and it shot down reports that its chips were the only ones at risk. However, the Rosen Law Firm on Wednesday announced that it had filed a class action suit against Intel, alleging a failure to disclose the design flaw. The complaint cited reports that Intel had been warned of the problem. An Intel spokesperson was not immediately available to comment for this story. Project Zero researchers discovered serious security flaws caused by speculative execution, a technique used by modern CPUs to optimize performance, Matt Linton, senior security engineer at Google Cloud, and Matthew OConnor, office of the CTO, wrote in an online post. G Suite and Google Cloud platforms have been updated to protect against known attacks, the company said, though it acknowledged concerns that a variant of Spectre is considered more difficult to defend against. Microsoft and others in the industry were notified of the issue several months ago under a nondisclosure agreement, Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsofts Windows and Devices group, noted earlier this week in an online post. The company immediately began engineering work on updates to mitigate the risk. The flaw could allow a nonprivileged user to access passwords or secret keys on a computer or a multitenant cloud server, explained Stratechery analyst Ben Thompson in a post Myerson referenced. Contrary to Intels protests, the potential risk from Meltdown is due to a design flaw, Thompson also noted. Users of Windows 8 or Windows 7 systems using Haswell or older CPUs and would see a decrease in system performance after patching the flaw, Myerson noted. Apple released updates for iOS, macOS High Sierra, and Safari on Sierra and El Capitan, noting the issue relates to all modern processors and affects nearly all computers and operating systems. However there have been no reported compromises of customer data, Apple added, and Apple Watch is not affected by Meltdown or Spectre. Performance Over Prudence The Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities require adjustment to critical, low-level interfaces in affected operating systems, said Mark Nunnikhoven, vice president of cloud security at Trend Micro. Given the scale of the issue, the patches by Microsoft, Apple, Google and others have been very successful, he told TechNewsWorld. Still, there have been problems in some cases, Nunnikhoven said, noting that Microsoft and AMD have been pointing fingers at one another following reports of computers slowing down or in some cases not booting. Microsoft has suspended automatic updates and is working with AMD on a solution, it said in a security bulletin. Like most organizations, chip manufacturers long have prioritized speed over security, said Ryan Kalember, senior vice president of cybersecurity strategy at Proofpoint, and that has led to a tremendous amount of sensitive data being placed at risk of unauthorized access via Meltdown and Spectre. The software patch required to fix Meltdown can slow computer processors down by as much as 30 percent, said Alton Kizziah, vice president of global managed services at Kudelski Security. Organizations need to test patches before installing them to make sure that systems that may already be pushed to their limits wont crash and cease functioning as a result of the patch, he told TechNewsWorld. Also, those using Microsoft patches may need to make adjustments to their registry keys to avoid interference with antivirus software. We are coming up to the end of the year, and its a good time to look forward. Next week, Ill look back and call out my product of the year. Stepping outside of politics and the obvious war between the Democrats, Republicans and common sense, there is the war between Amazon and Google, which likely will redefine the growth of digital assistants. Theres also the war between Intel and Qualcomm in the personal computing arena. With both Google and Intel behaving foolishly, Im going to call the battles for Amazon and Qualcomm but for very different reasons. Ill close with my last product of the week, in this case a product class: the recently announced joint Qualcomm Microsoft effort called the Always-Connected PC which will result from the Intel/Qualcomm battle. Lets get to it. Google Is Now Synonymous With Idiot The latest Amazon vs. Google battle just flared last week. Apparently, because Amazon doesnt want to sell Googles Chromecast TV device or Home voice-activated speaker, Google has cut off access to YouTube for users of Amazons Fire TV and Echo Show. So, basically, Google is punishing Amazons customers many of whom also are Googles customers to force Amazon to do something it doesnt want to do. I expect that Jeff Bezos got training similar to what I got coming up as an executive, and the rule is that when someone attempts to blackmail you, you always take the or else. In this case, the or else likely is not as bad for Amazon as it is for Google. (By the way, the reason for this, is that if you ever give in to blackmail you are owned by the person who is blackmailing you.) There is an enormous difference between a retailer not carrying a product and an open Web service provider who lives off ad revenue cutting off huge groups of users. Google makes ad revenue from YouTube regardless of how users access the service. YouTube is a recurring revenue stream, and when it comes to uploaded videos, YouTube basically has a monopoly right now. Yes, you can go to Bing, but Bing largely pulls off YouTube (which does suggest that Amazon may have an interesting workaround with Microsoft). Amazon, while not as powerful as Google, does have a massive customer base and alienating this base could be problematic for Google. On the other hand, Google, which basically owns search on the Web, has many avenues to go around Amazon or Apple. (Apple Stores dont carry Google products either, for obvious reasons.) Amazons likely response is to find an alternative to YouTube. Whether that is blessing Bing, coming up with its own AWS-based video streaming service funded to steal market share from Google, or finding another partner to close the gap, it likely would be bad for YouTube. Googles action is not only an example of classic abuse of power, it is incredibly stupid. The industry rule is that while you certainly can attack a competitor, you never go after common customers to force an outcome. Doing so puts too much focus on the excessive market power you have, raises up competitors, and hurts revenue both in the short and long terms. So, in this, I expect Amazon will prevail for no other reason that it hasnt, at least in this instance, behave stupidly and turned customers into cannon fodder. If Google expands this and cuts joint Amazon/Google customers form search, I expect that Google even more quickly will discover that misusing monopoly power ends badly. Now We Know What the I in Intel Stands For Over the years, many firms have tried to unseat Intel from IBM to AMD. The companys close focus on technology and massive dominance always has allowed it to prevail. However, when Intel went after the smartphone market and failed, it opened a very different opportunity for failure. My own view was that Qualcomm owned the smartphone market and Intel owned PCs. The battleground would have been tablets, and the company that prevailed with tablets likely would use that success to challenge the respective competitor in either PCs or smartphones. Rather than focusing on tablets, Intel prematurely went after smartphones but without the tablet foundation, it was routed. Smartphones grew up to make tablets largely redundant, and that allowed Qualcomm to move on to PCs. Im at Qualcomms massive Hawaiian event with press and analysts, where the company is showcasing why its better than Intel in a broad sense, as it rolls out its Always-Connected PC platform. During this same window, Intel has made massive cuts to its own media outreach and analyst support. What this means is that Qualcomm has moved in on Intels protected space, with Microsofts support, almost unchallenged. Granted, its attack is focused on lifting the modem over the processor as the most important part of the PC, but with the massive expansion of cloud services, that really isnt much of a stretch. AMD, which has been performing very well strategically of late, showed up in support of this. Its future products will be higher-performing alternatives to the pure Qualcomm offerings, allowing the companies to bifurcate the most lucrative PC segment. In addition, the Always-Connected PC is an ideal mobile accessory to those of us with gaming or workstation machines at home, and AMDs Threadripper is fast becoming the favorite of these groups. This suggests, with AMDs help, that Intel could be trivialized in its own market. Im again reminded of the Ballad of the Noob, in which a new player, just by being persistent, wins against a very advanced player because the advanced players eye strays off the ball. Now there is a wild card in the Apple vs. Qualcomm litigation. However, given that Apple has signaled it eventually wants to take its PCs to ARM and simplify its hardware offerings, that means that even if Apple should prevail, the outcome for Intel will, be dire unless something changes. One final thought: During the event Im at, Qualcomm launched its 845 part, driving home the point that should Intel ever fall behind Qualcomm, it wont be able to catch up. We could be seeing the beginning of the end for that company. Wrapping Up Google has a very young executive team, and if there is any lesson that we should learn from 2017 it is that we need to train executives better to avoid abuse of power and encourage thinking strategically. Google rarely does either, and this fight it is slated to lose with Amazon is likely to be yet one more case in point. For Intel and Qualcomm, it really comes down to Intel behaving tactically and not building up a strategic base before going after Qualcomm. Further, Qualcomm and AMD have been far more strategic and moved against Intel in a far more methodical fashion. Intel must keep it fabs populated, and it is unlikely its automotive or drone efforts (which arent operating together like Nvidias are) will get to volume much before 2020, if at all, to make up for the likely sales losses in 2018. In both cases, I expect these battles will become textbook examples of reasons not to abuse power, and why it is so important to think and operate strategically and methodically. In the end, I expect 2018 to be a good year for Amazon, AMD and Qualcomm but Google and especially Intel, not so much. OK this Always-Connected PC is a 2-in-1 laptop offering due out next year from Asus, HP and Lenovo. It promises 20-plus hours of battery life and 30 or so days of standby time, and it is both lighter and more secure than whatever else you might have chosen. A laptop that would make a smartphone jealous is something I didnt expect to see in my lifetime, and this has full Windows 10 support. What makes it more secure is that WAN (cellphone) connections generally are more secure than WiFi connections, thanks to the number of rogue or compromised WiFi access points. Upcoming Always Connected PC So, unlike a typical laptop which requires you to wait until it comes out of sleep or hibernation, then search for a wireless connection and sweat over whether it is a real one rather than a hostile one this one starts and connects instantly. This device is likely best for folks who work like I do, who have a desktop machine at home or in the office for heavy work but want something you dont have to plug in to use for writing, communicating, and watching movies and TV. If you want more mobile performance, you likely would prefer the AMD Ryzen/Radeon always-connected option. Youll drop battery life and instant on functionality, but youll get the performance you and instant connections. Be aware that the device uses emulation, so applications that write to hardware (like most high-end games) wont work but then this doesnt have enough performance for high-end games anyway. Personally, if Im playing a title like that, I want a big monitor and a desktop system. In the end, this is the first iteration of a laptop with battery life that will make a smartphone jealous; is light, really light; costs between US$600 and $900 (like an iPad Pro); and is one of the sexiest classes of products weve yet seen. They had me at 20 hours of battery life and as a result, the Always-Connected PC, due out next year, is my product of the week. Smart speakers have come along since their inception. These AI-powered devices can now control your TV, shop online for you, answer queries about virtually anything and soon they'll even be able to turn on your oven on and cook food for you. The "Kevin" smart speaker aims to do something a bit more ambitious, though: prevent burglars from breaking into your home when you're not around. Revealed at CES 2018 and developed by Swiss company Mitipi, Kevin is a pretty unassuming device upon first glance. With a triangular design and a simple fabric surface, it looks like just about any other smart speaker out there, if a bit oddly shaped. Kevin aims to stand out by acting as a "virtual roommate," ensuring that your house or apartment is "revived" during your absence. This means that the device will be able to intelligently control smart home devices and play sounds to "[create] the impression of residents who [move] in space and do everyday things." In the preview video shown by Mitipi, a man leaves his home (with the door open) only for a burglar to sneak in behind him. After the home owner activates Kevin's security measures outside of the house, the device begins to simulate the sounds of a shower being run, teeth being brushed and more. Exactly how the device will pull this sort of thing off remains to be seen. Mitipi's vision to "create a world in which the term burglary only appears in history books" may be a bit hyperbolic but the idea of giving the appearance of occupancy to an otherwise-unoccupied home is far from a bad one. At any rate, if Kevin's concept sounds interesting to you, Mitipi will be launching the device on Kickstarter within the next month somewhere between $200 and $250. Uber is making headlines once again with another secret software referred to as "Ripley." You may recall the ride-sharing company was the subject of FBI investigations due to its use of computer programs Hell and Greyball. Hell was allegedly used to track and identify drivers who were moonlighting for competing company Lyft. Greyball was software that officials in the firm admittedly used to evade regulators trying to catch Uber drivers who were violating local taxi regulations. Now Uber is using Ripley to impede investigations into the company occurring in other countries. According to Bloomberg, the company has used the program to remotely "lockdown" computers in foreign offices to prevent police from retrieving records and information. Officers claim that they have gone through the proper channels to obtain information, but that Uber has shut them out. In one example, the Quebec tax authority in Canda tried to seize records from Uber's Montreal office in 2015. The company was under investigation for tax violations, and authorities had warrants to take any relevant files. According to Bloomberg's sources, Uber managers alerted the San Francisco headquarters of the raid and HQ used Ripley to lock up the computers in the Montreal office. "Like managers at Uber's hundreds of offices abroad, they'd been trained to page a number that alerted specially trained staff at company headquarters in San Francisco. When the call came in, staffers quickly remotely logged off every computer in the Montreal office, making it practically impossible for the authorities to retrieve the company records they'd obtained a warrant to collect. The investigators left without any evidence." Uber subsequently complied with authorities when the judge issued a second warrant. "From spring 2015 until late 2016, Uber routinely used Ripley to thwart police raids in foreign countries, say three people with knowledge of the system. " The software allegedly allows headquarters personnel to remotely change passwords and log out of any company-owned desktops, laptops, or even smartphones. It was officially called "the unexpected visitor protocol," but employees who knew about it nicknamed it Ripley after the main character in the Alien movie franchise. Reportedly the name was a reference to a line in the movie Aliens. In the film, a squad of troops is wiped out by the aliens, and Ripley says, "Nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." Uber defends the use of the software in a statement claiming that it is used to protect customer data and ensure the searches being conducted are legitimate. "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, it's our policy to cooperate with all valid searches and requests for data." To be fair, many companies employ similar tactics. Doing so allows executives time to review warrants before granting access to investigators. However, what is out of the ordinary in this case it how frequently Ripley has been employed. According to sources, the program was activated more than 24 times in less than a two-year period. In addition to Montreal, Ripley has been executed at offices in Amsterdam, Brussels, Hong Kong, and Paris. Is Donald Trump a secret gamer? Judging from his tweets, no. But it's a tongue-in-cheek question some people were asking after the President announced that Norway was receiving deliveries of F-52 fighter jets; a fictional plane that exists only in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Video game violence & glorification must be stopped---it is creating monsters! --- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2012 During a White House conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Wednesday, Trump lauded the defense relationship between the US and its European ally. He talked about the troubled Lockheed Martin F-35 jets, but his mention of the mysterious F-52 confused. "In November we started delivering the first F-52 and F-35 fighter jets. We have a total of 52, and they've delivered a number of them already, a little ahead of schedule," Trump said. "It's a $10 billion order. Norway also invests about one-third of its sovereign wealth fund in American businesses, supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs. They're very big investors in our stock market, and therefore the Prime Minister thanked me very much." The F-52 appears in the "Throttle" mission of COD: Advanced Warfare's single-player campaign. In reality, of course, it's much less likely that Trump had the plane on his mind after a night of gaming, and that this was instead just a slip of the tongue. It appears the President conflated the number of F-35 planes Norway has ordered---52---with the jets' "F" designation, coming up with F-52. While Donald Trump might not be a fan, it seems his counterpart at the meeting enjoys some casual gaming. Just before her meeting with the US President, Solberg was photographed playing Pokemon Go on her phone, though she claimed she was using it to chat with her family. Delcy Rodriguez denounced the impact of unilateral sanctions on the living conditions of the Venezuelan people. | Read More MARKHAM, ON, Jan. 11, 2018; Honda Canada adds a Special Edition (SE) sedan trim to the already diverse Civic lineup to celebrate the nameplate's 20 years as best-selling car in Canada, with an MSRP of $22,390. The Civic is a key pillar to Honda Canada's success and accounts for nearly 40 percent of the brand's annual sales. The Honda Civic is proudly built at the company's manufacturing facility in Alliston, Ontario by Canadians, for Canadians. "The Civic embodies the challenging spirit of Honda and our commitment to delivering innovative products of the highest quality, durability and value. We are thankful for and deeply humbled by the loyalty and trust that our customers have placed in Honda and the Civic in the past 20 years," said Jean Marc Leclerc, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Honda Canada Inc. "The 20-year success of the Civic has led to the organic growth of a passionate and dedicated 'Civic Nation'; a community made up of Canadians from all walks of life, connected by their common love of the Civic." The Civic is Honda's longest-running automotive nameplate and its highest selling model globally. Its Canadian introduction came in 1973 when the Civic was heralded for its refined driving dynamics, quality construction and world-class fuel efficiency, despite selling only 747 units the first year. The revolutionary CVCC (Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion) engine debuted in Civic and cemented Honda's place in history as a leader in powertrain innovation. Over the course of 10 generations, the Civic has continuously evolved to meet the changing needs of Honda customers in North America and around the world, and has consistently set the bar for fuel efficiency, driving performance and design innovation in an affordable compact-class vehicle. The first Civic a three-door model was built on Canadian soil at Honda of Canada Mfg. (HCM) in 1988 and the nameplate has never left. Now, HCM serves as the global lead plant for the tenth generation Civic model and more than five million Civics have been built at the Alliston facility. "Being built at our Canadian manufacturing facility for 30 years and achieving this remarkable 20-year sales milestone has certainly cemented the Civic's importance in Canada," continued Leclerc. "The Civic's longstanding Canadian production history is a direct reflection of the knowledge and experience of the more than 4,000 highly-skilled manufacturing associates at HCM." The Special Edition trim was developed in celebration of the Civic's 20-year sales dominance and is intended to build upon the nameplate's perfect marriage of styling, performance and packaging, by offering features Civic buyers want, including 16" aluminum-alloy wheels, leather steering wheel, Smart Entry with push button start, remote engine start, rear lip spoiler and a unique 'SE' emblem. Honda Civic quick facts The Civic nameplate launched in Canada in 1973, selling 747 units in its first year. in 1973, selling 747 units in its first year. More than 1,286,000 Civics were sold in Canada in the past 20 years. in the past 20 years. Cumulative Canadian sales of Civic since 1973 reached 2,045,169 in December 2017 . . The Civic has been Canada's best-selling passenger car for 20 consecutive years. best-selling passenger car for 20 consecutive years. Production of the Civic (three-door) began in 1988 at Honda of Canada Mfg. (HCM) in Alliston, Ontario . . To date, more than five million Civics have been built at Honda's manufacturing facility in Canada . . More than 85 percent of all Civics sold in Canada in 2017 were built in Canada . in 2017 were built in . In 2015, HCM became the global lead plant for the tenth generation Honda Civic, marking the first time a global lead plant had been located outside of Japan . . Generation recap: 1 st : 1973 1979 / Hatchback : 1973 1979 / Hatchback 2 nd : 1980 1983 / Hatchback (1980), Sedan (1981), Wagon (1981) : 1980 1983 / Hatchback (1980), Sedan (1981), Wagon (1981) 3 rd : 1984 1987 / Hatchback, Sedan, Wagon : 1984 1987 / Hatchback, Sedan, Wagon 4 th : 1988 1991 / Hatchback, Sedan, Wagon, CRX : 1988 1991 / Hatchback, Sedan, Wagon, CRX 5 th : 1992 1995 / Hatchback, Sedan, Coupe (1993) : 1992 1995 / Hatchback, Sedan, Coupe (1993) 6 th : 1996 2000 / Hatchback, Sedan, Coupe : 1996 2000 / Hatchback, Sedan, Coupe 7 th : 2001 2005 / Sedan, Coupe, Hatchback (2003) : 2001 2005 / Sedan, Coupe, Hatchback (2003) 8 th : 2006 2011 / Sedan, Coupe : 2006 2011 / Sedan, Coupe 9 th : 2012 2015 / Sedan, Coupe : 2012 2015 / Sedan, Coupe 10th: 2016 Current / Sedan, Coupe, Hatchback (2016), Type-R (2017) For more information on the Honda Civic, please visit www.honda.ca. About Honda Canada Honda Canada Inc. (HCI) was founded in 1969 and is the parent company for both Honda and Acura vehicle brands in Canada. The company has produced more than eight million cars and light trucks since 1986 at its two manufacturing facilities and builds engines at a third manufacturing plant in Alliston, Ontario. Both manufacturing facilities are extremely flexible and currently build Honda Civic and CR-V models. Honda Canada has invested more than $4.7 billion in Canada and each year it sources nearly $2.1 billion in goods and services from Canadian suppliers. Honda Canada has sold more than four million Honda and Acura passenger cars and light trucks in Canada. LOS ANGELES, Jan. 11, 2018 -- 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. AUTO LAB TALK RADIO LIVE FROM NYC SATURDAY MORNING! 7-9 AM January 13, 2018 Auto Lab Talk Radio The Auto Lab Radio Show Every Saturday 7 to 9 AM On New York City's WNYM Radio AM 970 and Streamed Worldwide On The Auto Channel This Weeks Show Broadcast Date: January 13, 2018 Car Question or Concern? Call Toll Free 888-692-7234 Auto Lab is a 28 year old interactive automotive-focused New York area radio call-in show hosted by Professor Harold Wolchok. Each week a cadre of experienced hands-on automotive experts are in-studio with advice for the New York area's 12 million people, providing listeners with honest, practical and street-smart car repair and buying advice. Auto Lab is also about the automotive industry, its history, and its culture, presenting the ideas and advice of leading college faculty, authors, and automotive practitioners in a relaxed, conversational interactive format. Listeners can hear the past 18 years of archived Auto Lab shows as simulcast on www.theautochannel.com. Listen - Auto Lab Page (Includes Audio-on-Demand Archives, Auto Programs at Community College Database, Guests Pictures This Weeks Show: January 13, 2018 IN STUDIO: Auto Lab's Real World Experts Answer Your Questions; Discuss: Repairs, Second Opinions, Regular Maintenance, How To's, Safety, Used and New Car Buying, Ombudsmen Suggestions Harold Bendell - Major Auto Fred Bordoff - Bronx Community College Automotive Technology Department-CUNY Tim Cacace - Master Mechanix Auto Repairs Jerry Pastore-D & J Diagnostic Johanna Pastore-D & J Diagnostic Joanne Porcelli, Esq Michael Porcelli - Auto Mobile Services Nicholas Prague- MTA and Rockland Community College, SUNY Jordan Weine-Bay Diagnostics Auto Lab Correspondents Remote Interviews: Featuring Auto Safety News, New Car Reviews, Technology and Latest Auto World Information That Will Effect You! Broadcast Date: January 13, 2018; Robert Erskine, Senior European Correspondent, Suffolk England VALUABLE UK CAR CRUMBS John Russell Senior Correspondent DODGE JOURNEY CROSSROAD PLUS AWD Russ Rader, Vice President Insurance Institute for Highway Safety LOSS LEADERS LUXURY CARS DOMINATE LIST OF MODELS WITH HIGHEST COLLISION LOSSES Robert Sinclair- AAA NORTHEAST CRASH RISK REMAINS HIGH WHEN USING MODERN SMART PHONES, SAYS NEW REPORT FROM AAA FOUNDATION FOR TRAFFIC SAFETY The Croatian Rally Some of the best driving roads in Europe, including Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia and Croatia with stunning scenery and luxurious hotels, all combine to make this a stunning journey of a lifetime. We have, as always selected the finest cuisine, hospitality, hotels and roads that Europe has to offer, for a truly memorable journey that will amaze, spoil, pamper and delight you. From the start we travel through the Eurotunnel to Belgium for our first night, before heading into the Black Forest. From there we head to Lichtenstein and Switzerland before we head into Austria on our way to Slovenia before the final stay in Croatia. Highlights include driving the Stelvio, Umbrail and Giovo passes, some beautiful Spa hotels, plus some fantastic and unspoiled roads on the way. We also have a 2 day city stay in Llubjana before heading to the Adriatic Sea coast in Croatia for our final stop. Only thirty cars are invited to join this amazing journey of a lifetime and you can be one of them. Reserve your place now, all exotic, classic, or interesting cars are eligible to apply. Volkswagen and Consumer Class Confirm Agreement in Canada Involving 3.0L Diesel Vehicles Canada Cash payments available to owners and lessees of affected model year 2013-2016 vehicles who receive the recall for an emissions repair to bring their vehicle into full compliance with originally certified emissions standards. Cash payments also available to owners and lessees of affected model year 2009-2012 vehicles, as well as additional options that include buyback, trade-in, early lease termination or, if approved by the U.S. EPA and available by recall in Canada , a modification to reduce emissions. Proposed nationwide class settlement inprovides benefits for approximately 20,000 3.0L Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche diesel vehicles. AJAX, ON, TORONTO and MONTREAL, Jan. 12, 2018 /CNW/ - Volkswagen and Canadian class counsel today confirmed their agreement to resolve consumer claims in Canada regarding approximately 20,000 affected 3.0L diesel vehicles, subject to court approval. The full agreement and summaries of its terms are available as of today at www.VWCanadaSettlement.ca. As noted in last month's announcement of the agreement, the proposed settlement provides for cash payments and other benefits to eligible 3.0L diesel owners and lessees. It has a total value of up to CAD $290.5 million. This result was reached by Volkswagen and Canadian class counsel in consultation with the Commissioner of Competition in Canada. In addition, Volkswagen Group Canada has agreed with the Commissioner to resolve related civil consumer protection concerns with the agreed benefits in the proposed class settlement, as well as with a CAD $2.5 million civil penalty. "This is an important milestone towards making things right for all of our customers with affected diesel vehicles in Canada," said Daniel Weissland, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group Canada. "We are making good progress with our 2.0L settlement program and continue to dedicate substantial resources to ensure that the process runs as smoothly as possible. We thank our 3.0L customers for their continued patience as a settlement for their vehicles moves towards approval and all parties for their constructive efforts in achieving this agreement." "We're pleased and proud to have been able to achieve such an excellent result for Class Members," said Reidar Mogerman, a partner at Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman LLP and co-lead counsel for Settlement Class Members in Canada outside of Quebec. His fellow co-lead counsel, Michael Peerless, a partner at McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP, added that, "The defendants should be commended for dealing with this issue in a fair and considered manner. This settlement will bring finality for the 3.0L Settlement Class Members who have patiently awaited this conclusion." Sylvie De Bellefeuille, Legal Advisor at Option consommateurs, the Representative Plaintiff for the Volkswagen and Audi Quebec Settlement Class, said that "This settlement is a great outcome for Canadian consumers and we hope it sends a strong message towards the industry. We thank our lawyers, Belleau Lapointe, for their excellent work." David Assor, a lawyer from Lex Group Inc., representing Porsche Quebec Settlement Class Members, added that, "We are very pleased with the value and benefits that the settlement will offer to our clients the Porsche Cayenne Diesel owners and lessees in Quebec." Proposed 3.0L Settlement Program in Canada The proposed nationwide 3.0L settlement is subject to approval by both the Ontario and Quebec courts. Approval hearings will take place in April 2018 before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto and the Superior Court of Quebec in Montreal. If approved, the 3.0L settlement program in Canada will include the following benefits: Model Year 2013-2016 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche 3.0L Diesel Vehicles Cash payments to approximately 15,000 owners and lessees of model year 2013-2016 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche 3.0L diesel vehicles (so-called Generation Two vehicles) who receive the recall for an emissions repair to bring their vehicle into full compliance with originally certified emissions standards, as well as an extended emissions warranty. Model Year 2009-2012 Volkswagen and Audi 3.0L Diesel Vehicles Cash payments to approximately 5,000 owners and lessees of model year 2009-2012 Volkswagen and Audi 3.0L diesel vehicles (so-called Generation One vehicles). Eligible owners and lessees of Generation One vehicles can also choose to sell their vehicle to Volkswagen (the buyback option) or terminate their lease without penalty, or, if a modification to reduce emissions is approved by the U.S. EPA and available by recall in Canada , choose to keep their vehicle and have it modified at no charge and receive an extended emissions warranty. , choose to keep their vehicle and have it modified at no charge and receive an extended emissions warranty. Eligible owners can also choose to trade in their Generation One vehicle and receive a trade-in credit towards the purchase of a new or used Volkswagen or Audi vehicle from a Volkswagen or Audi dealership in Canada . Current and former Canadian and U.S. drivers of 3.0L diesel vehicles that were first sold or leased in Canada may be Settlement Class Members eligible for benefits. These owners and lessees may begin to take steps to determine their eligibility for benefits under the proposed Canadian 3.0L settlement by visiting the "Check My Eligibility" and "Vehicle Look-Up" sections at www.VWCanadaSettlement.ca, or by calling 1-888-670-4773 for assistance with these steps. In addition, starting on or around January 17, 2018, notices summarizing the terms of the proposed 3.0L settlement will be published online, in newspapers, and sent to potential Settlement Class Members. Please note that owners who sell their vehicle on or after January 17, 2018 will lose any benefits for which they are eligible. Current and former owners and lessees who wish to make a claim for benefits under the 3.0L settlement do not need to take any action at this time. The period to submit a claim will not begin until after the proposed settlement receives approval by the Courts. However, owners and lessees in possession of a Generation Two (model year 2013-2016) vehicle do not need to wait to receive the emissions repair that has already been approved by the U.S. EPA. Notice is being provided when recalls for those repairs launch in Canada and are available at authorized Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche dealerships. Owners and lessees who choose to receive this emissions repair before the 3.0L claims program begins will not lose any right to an eligible cash payment under the proposed settlement. Senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, is not wasting any time. During a hearing for Kurt Engelhardt, Donald Trumps nominee for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Hirono hit him with a forward question that she has pledged to ask every court nominee: Do you have a history of sexual harassment? Since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature? she asked Engelhardt. Have you ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement related to this kind of conduct? The Hill reports that Engelhardt responded, No, senator, to both questions. While Engelhardts hearing was the first time Hirono has probed into a court nominees history of sexual misconduct, according to her Twitter, she will be asking all nominees similar questions under oath. Like in other industries, our judges are in positions of power, she added. Starting today, I'm asking nominees to our courts, under oath, whether or not they have a history of sexual assault or harassment. Like in other industries, our judges are in positions of power & #TimesUp. pic.twitter.com/Jk0NcTBi3h Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) January 10, 2018 Hirono has spoken publicly about her own experiences of sexual harassment and was among the senators who called for Democrat Al Franken to resign after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. Shes also made similar calls for Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by nearly 20 women. Hes a misogynist and admitted sexual predator and a liar, Hirono said of Trump last month. The only thing that will stop him from attacking us, because nobody is safe, is his resignation. Zainab. Photo: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images The brutal kidnapping, rape, and murder of Zainab, a young girl from Pakistan, has prompted an outpouring of horror, anger, and sadness, both in Pakistans streets and online. As locals have attended vigils and protests, holding candles and placards with pictures of her, more than a half-million people from around the world have turned to Twitter to demand #JusticeForZainab. NPR reports that while Zainabs rape and murder instigated the demonstrations, they are focused on the larger issues of sexual assault and the murder of young girls in Punjab province. According to Pakistani newspaper Dawn, 11 young girls 12, including Zainab have been found murdered in that region. Various outlets have reported that Zainab is between 6 and 8 years old. While Punjabs Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif reportedly told police to arrest the Zainabs killers in the next 24 hours, local authorities have reportedly done little to address the provinces disturbing sexual assault and murder trends. Therefore, according to various outlets, locals are not particularly trusting of authorities. In the three days since Zainabs body was found in a dump, over 600,000 people from around the world have stood with Pakistan, demanding #JusticeforZainab. 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 Malala (@Malala) January 10, 2018 My message on the horrific Kasur tragedy and the police brutality that ensued. #JusticeForZainab pic.twitter.com/3c7WMmLF0f Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) January 10, 2018 My heart goes out to Zainab and her family. It is important to address these issues and bring the people responsible to justice. We must stand united as society against such barbaric crimes. #JusticeForZainab Shadab Khan (@76Shadabkhan) January 10, 2018 Sadly Zainab is one of many victims who have been abused, raped & killed. To truly achieve a world free from abuse, we need to tackle all forms of patriarchal/misogynist attitudes & promote equality/ justice through positive actions (not just through words). #JusticeForZainab MWNUK (@MuslimWomenUK) January 11, 2018 I am really lost for words.... seven year old Zainab we all feel sorry for you, we all feel ashamed, we all are gutted.... hope those animals who disrespected are caught and hanged!#JusticeForZainab Wasim Akram (@wasimakramlive) January 10, 2018 While there was a public funeral for Zainab on Wednesday, her father, Ameen Ansari, has said he will not bury her until we get justice. Its like the world has ended, he told BBC. I have no words. Undiluted Disaster Just after a judge ruled that the new travel ban went too far, Trump mused that he should go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. A young girl proudly displays Australian flags as the sun sets at Bathers Beach on Jan. 26, 2017 in Fremantle, Australia. Fremantle Council held an alternative celebration on Jan. 28, following growing political correctness. Local Fremantle businesses raised the money to hold the traditional Australia Day fireworks on the 26th despite the Council's decision. Australia Day, formerly known as Foundation Day, is the official national day of Australia and is celebrated annually on Jan. 26 to commemorate the arrival of the First Fleet to Sydney in 1788. (Paul Kane/Getty Images) Be Forgiving, Not Offended on Australia Day, Says Indigenous Councilor People offended by the date of Australia day need to grow up, says an indigenous town councilor from Alice Springs who has joined efforts to voice why there is no need to change how the national day is celebrated. Jacinta Price is front and center of a campaign to keep Australia Day on Jan. 26 the date that the First Fleet arrived in Australia in 1788, resulting in the British colonization of the country. Some indigenous groups call the date Invasion Day, and some left-wing groups like the Greens want the date changed, saying it is offensive. Price, a mother of four and herself the daughter of a past Northern Territory government minister, told ABCs The Drum that what she is seeing is political divisiveness being furthered by a minority group of people who claim to be offended by what occurred in 1788. [We need to] act forgivingly towards the rest of non-indigenous Australia, considering they were not actually responsible [for] what happened to Aboriginal people in 1788, she said. "Don't #changethedate just because people claim to be offended." @JNampijinpa explains why she wants to keep celebrating #AustraliaDay on January 26 #TheDrum pic.twitter.com/ikllTv9K6d ABC The Drum (@ABCthedrum) January 9, 2018 Australias national day last year saw a protest in Sydney. Some local council decided to not recognize the date and some activists have pushed to change the date to May 8 because it sounded like mate, a beloved Australian word that describes a friend. If it was in fact impacting on Aboriginal peoples lives that it would save a life, a single life, then yeah, Id say change the date [but] otherwise, lets be adults, Price said. And yes, look at how we can recognize our countrys history in all of its complexity and entirety. She said that people offended by the date of the British landing at Botany Bay need to be grown up enough to say we have to forgive at some point. There are bigger issues that need addressing, she said, such as poverty among indigenous communities in remote parts of the country. Mark Latham and indigenous councillor Jacinta Price have launched a new campaign to SAVE Australia Day! He says those who want to #ChangeTheDate are 'out of touch' with everyday Aussies. Protestors want to change the day to a national day of mourning called Invasion Day. pic.twitter.com/UuyqSKcWWP Sunrise (@sunriseon7) January 10, 2018 The issue of changing the date is one based on emotion, Price said. Its a choice to be offended. I dont think people feel pain as a result of this, she said. The people living in pain and crisis are living it silently in remote communities of Australia and theyre being completely disregarded, she said. Their issues are being placed to the side because other people have claimed offence and claimed pain. Its an emotion they claim to feel. If people feel angry, do we encourage people to act on that impulse of anger? If people have anger management issues, we tell them to get help to deal with that particular emotion because its their responsibility, she said. I just would like us to grow up as a nation a little bit and be more responsible in that regard, responsible for our own feelings. Indigenous leader Jacinta Price on Australia Day: I just think its ridiculous the amount of fuss thats been kicked up about Australia Day and the so-called need to change it so certain Aboriginal people can feel better about themselves." More here: https://t.co/IlDlhPBJIP pic.twitter.com/wmOUx6OKxr 2GB 873 (@2GB873) January 5, 2018 She said if the date was altered then that would not be the end of it. If we change the date, there will be another demand and thats the reality of it, Price said. Once these particular issues gather momentum, well then its just gone beyond ridiculous in that we are just pandering to people because they feel offended, she said. In advance of the national day falling later this month, Price has joined former federal Labor leader Mark Latham in the launching a Save Australia Day ad campaign which depicts an Orwellian future when the date is banned. Latham said the theme is suitable given the current political climate. In an environment where you have so much political correctness, where certain words, themes and values are banned in public institutions, I think the Big Brother approach, that dystopian theme, is very appropriate, Latham told reporters, according to AAP. Latham said he and Price are seeking a more positive view of the national day among members of the countrys indigenous people. A lot of terrible things happened in the 19th and 20th centuries, no ones wiping that history away, but we cant rewrite that history, Latham said. What we can do is adopt Jacintas agenda of finding positive solutions so all indigenous people benefit from the western civilization opportunities that came here in 1788. Be Kind to Others Says Family of Girl Who Committed Suicide After Bullying The distraught family of an Australian girl who committed suicide after allegedly being bullied online has pleaded to parents to talk with their children so they can be spared the possibility of experiencing a similar tragedy. The plea was made on the same day as the Everett family held a memorial service in the Northern Territory town of Katherine region for their 14-year-old daughter Amy, who is affectionately known as Dolly. Dolly died on Jan. 3. allegedly killing herself after being bullied via social media. We dont want another family to go through what we are going through and our vision is to establish a trust called Dollys Dream, said Tick Everett the father, reported the ABC on Friday, Jan. 12. Amy "Dolly" Everett's father has spoken out against bullying after his daughter's memorial service https://t.co/50bQ346VuJ pic.twitter.com/vxNdmytkF8 SBS News (@SBSNews) January 12, 2018 Speaking to the media, the Everetts repeated their hope of starting the Dollys Dream foundation to raise awareness of bullying, depression, anxiety and youth suicide. It wont bring our Dolly back, but it may just prevent the loss of another young life, said Tick. Please just talk to your children and anybody else and remember, speak even if your voice shakes. Stop bullying and be kind and do it for Dolly. Dolly Everett's broken father has launched a personal crusade to stop cyber-bullies from taking one more life. At a memorial for his daughter, he vowed to show every child the damage their words can leave behind. https://t.co/cfgLzL3olH Lifeline: 13 11 14 #DoItForDolly #7News pic.twitter.com/ygR5MPbAmq 7 News Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) January 12, 2018 Her father told the media his family would do their utmost to prevent other children feeling as Dolly had. With anything in life, somebody has to try to make a change, Tick said. We realise theres still going to be kids that slip through the cracksthats lifebut mate, weve got to save as many as we can. The heartbroken family of #Dolly Everett spoke to media after her funeral, urging all parents to speak to their kids about bullying. They plan to set up a foundation in Dolly's memory. #DoItForDolly #speakevenifyourvoiceshakes pic.twitter.com/GeHU2v2IEC Stephanie Zillman (@Steph_Zillman) January 12, 2018 Those attending Dollys memorial service wore blue, Dollys favorite color, and were asked to donate funds to the foundation, instead of giving flowers. Some people unable to attend also wore blue on the day as a sign of respect. As he spoke to the media, Tick was with Dollys mother, Kate, and sister Meg. As a family, we will remember Dolly as a kind, gentle and loving little girl who loved her animals and cared so deeply for other people less fortunate than her, Tick said. She was loved by so many and made friends with everyone she came across, he said. Dolly saw the good in this world and the good in everybody she met. It takes remarkable strength to focus on others at a time of such immense sadness. Please support the Everett family & #dollysdream if you can. #DoItForDolly #StopBullyingNow @TheTodayShow pic.twitter.com/YXQ0HcKmvx Sylvia Jeffreys (@SylviaJeffreys) January 11, 2018 Media coverage of her death has been both national and international, and her story has touched people beyond those who knew her. Eight years ago, Dolly featured in a Christmas campaign for iconic Australian hat maker, Akubra, who released a statement on the teenagers death that supported the hashtags #stopbullyingnow #doitfordolly #justbekind. Our #MountIsa base swapped red for blue today in support of the Everett family. #DoItForDolly #RFDSqld. pic.twitter.com/zjxqiZHuF7 Royal Flying Doctor (@RoyalFlyingDoc) January 11, 2018 From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Toddler With Rare Heart Condition Gets to Go Home After 402 Days in the Hospital A black bear similar to the one that attacked a man in South Florida on Jan. 9. (Pixabay/CCO) Bear Mauls Florida Man Outside His Home, Near School A man was mauled by a bear just steps away from the front door of his Florida home. I came outside and he was right there, and I tried to run but it wasnt fast enough, said Andrew Meunier of Naples to WINK-TV news reporters. Meunier said that he let his dog out of his home about 11 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 9 and stepped outside. As he spotted three bears, one of them reared up on its hind legs and clawed at the mans face. Its the first reported bear attack in the area in several decades https://t.co/TFpVqetR6F New York Post (@nypost) January 11, 2018 He said he struggled to get away, but the 4-foot black bear was too fast. I saw him, spun around, and by then I was hit, the man told Fox6. The mans 7-year-old daughter was reportedly asleep inside the home. Im just happy to be alive, it couldve been a totally different story, he told Fox6 reporters. Somehow, the man managed to get back through his front door. I think at that point adrenaline carried me through it, you know, I didnt know if I was cut or bleeding or anything until, after getting hit the next thing I really remember was getting inside and closing the door, Meunier told WINK-TV. Meunier immediately called emergency dispatch. Then I proceeded to call 911 and they came and took care of me, Meunier said. The 911 call revealed that Meunier suffered a facial laceration from the bear attack, which was the first in South Florida since 1970, WINK-TV reported. Bear attacks man in Naples near high school. First bear attack in South Florida since 1970. https://t.co/LY4m7269hy pic.twitter.com/XDhXommhb3 ABC Action News (@abcactionnews) January 11, 2018 The attack happened across the street from a high school. Apparently, this neighborhood has had a bear presence for some time with neighbors reporting sightings of bears rummaging through trash. Wildlife officers are desperately trying to catch the bear with a trap filled with donuts, reported Hannah Vogel of WINK-TV, concerned for the safety of residents and children heading to school. Another resident, Christian Pugh, is said to have recorded a video of bears digging through the trash bins outside his home when one of the bears rushed towards him. Florida Fish and Wildlife representatives told WINK-TV reporters they are considering installing bear-proof trash bins into communities in order to lessen the risk of wild animal encounters. Recommended Video: Cookie-crazed squirrel attacks New York policemen Boy Found Dead in Phoenix Elementary School Shot Himself, Police Say A 14-year-old boy found dead inside a school bathroom in Phoenix shot himself, police said this week. The investigation in the case indicates this incident was a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound by the 14-year-old 7th grader. The weapon was recovered and has been identified as belonging to a family member, the Cochise County Sheriffs Office said in a statement. Officials would have a crisis counseling team at the school until further notice to assist students and staff members as needed, the sheriff added. The death has shaken the local community, according to news reports. One of the people asking questions was Codi Zetich, whose daughter is a third-grader at Coronado Elementary School, where the suicide occurred. Theres lots of questions, he told Arizona Central. Why? How did it get that far? How can I protect my daughter in the future? Amanda Griggs said she kept her son home on Jan. 9, the day the death happened, due to sickness. She told him about the suicide because he would have heard about it anyway. I told him what happened because he was going to hear about it at school and his only response was, Why? she told the media outlet. I just told him that I didnt know and that, now, no one will ever know. He was shocked but had nothing else to say. No charges are pending against the family member who owns the gun, a spokeswoman for the sheriff told USA Today. The suicide rate has increased in recent years among children between 10 years and 14 years of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a November 2016 report, the agency said suicides were 0.9 per 100,000 kids in 2007. As of 2014, that figure was up to 2.1 per 100,000 kidsor 425 total deaths that year. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: President Donald Trump: Year 1 California Man Confesses on Television to Murder Committed 25 Years Ago A 25-year-old cold case murder may finally be solved after a Californian man said his faith in God led him to confess to the crime. Brian Keith Hawkins, 44, turned himself in to the Sheriffs office after he confessed to killing 20-year-old Frank Wesley McAlister in an interview with KRCR news on Jan. 9. California man says faith in God and decades of guilt led him to confess to murdering a teenager 25 years ago. #Fox35 https://t.co/nCmSSeoZXO Amy Kaufeldt (@Fox35Amy) January 11, 2018 Hawkins, who was subsequently arrested by police on burglary and robbery charges, named 46-year-old Shanna Culver and her brother 45-year-old Curtis Culver as accomplices, according to the news station. Police investigators said they believed the motive was robbery. In 1993, McAlister received some money from a settlement. The trio then lured the 20-year-old to Shingletown under the guise of selling him methamphetamine. When he arrived, the trio robbed McAlister, and Hawkins and Curtis Culver stabbed him to death. They left his body at the location and fled in his car, eventually dumping his car at a Costco parking lot, according to the news station, citing police. During the interview, Hawkins refused to provide details of the crime but said he wanted to confess because of his newfound faith in God. 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 the news station. I know the wrong cant be changed but this is the closest I can come to doing the right thing. He described the last 25 years has been a nightmare for him. Horrible, horrible, horrible, absolute horror, absolutely horrible since that day. Every minute of every day has been a nightmare, Hawkins said in the interview. Its kind of weird, Frank never got to have a life, but we were teenagers and now Im 44 and still havent even had a life and now most likely wont anyway, he continued. Ive been through hell my whole life because of this, he added. Hawkins said he tried to reach out to McAlisters family last year, however, his father Douglas Irvin McAlister had already passed away. 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. By the time I got there, his father had passed away, Hawkins said. Police interviewed all three suspects on the evening on Jan. 9 after Hawkins confessed. Redding Police Captain Eric Wallace said one of the Culvers also made a confession but did not specify which one, reported the news station. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Cookie-crazed squirrel attacks New York policemen California Police Arrest Parents But Cant Find Their Young Twins Anywhere California police arrested two parents recently, but havent been able to find their 20-month-old twins. And the parents arent cooperating. Aaron Ivan Weddles, 41, and Princess Dara Canez Walker, 32, were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of child endangerment and child neglect, reported the Stockton Record. Someone had alerted officers that the two adults and their childrenthe twins, another set of twins aged 2, and a four-year-old girlwere possibly living out of a vehicle, later identified as a white 2002 Suzuki SUV. Three of the children were found with the parents living in the vehicle, but the youngest set of twins have not been as of yet. Stockton police Chief Eric Jones has asked the public to help find the twins due to the parents lack of cooperation. Were really imploring the communitys help, Jones said, reported the Record. We believe somebody out there knows where these kids are or has seen them recently. We need to go back and retrace where this family has been and where these children may be. Were hoping the toddlers are at a family members house or a family friends house, added Joe Silva with the department, reported Fox40. The plea for help came after Weddles, the childrens father, responded to police asking where the twins were: Youre the ones getting paid. Do your job. Anyone with information is asked to call the Stockton Police Department at (209) 937-8377, Investigations at (209) 937-8323, or Crime Stoppers at (209) 946-0600. Callers can remain anonymous. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: What is MS-13? A man preparing beans outside his house in a village near the Yellow River in Lankao County, Henan Province, on Sept. 28, 2017. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images) China Wants to Solve Poverty, but Its Own Officials Are Undermining the Efforts Party officials routinely embezzle poverty relief funds Lifting people out of poverty is Chinese leader Xi Jinpings signature project. His goal is to turn the whole of China into a xiaokang society by 2020a society where people lead comfortable lives with their material needs met. However, Party officials have found ways to swindle government funding meant for the poormaking the official slogan all the much harder to achieve. On Jan. 3, the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) anti-corruption agency announced that more than ten officials in Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province would be punished for graft involving poverty relief efforts. The agency explained that officials were caught faking reports, falsely claiming funds for their own, embezzling money, violating rules for allocating the money, and giving preference to their relatives and friends. Within the citys Kangbao County, officials established their own treasury with poverty relief funds. The corruption is countrywide. On Dec. 23 last year, the head auditor at the central authorities auditor office said that since the beginning of 2017 to October, incidences of misconduct regarding poverty relief involved a total of 970 officials, with 3.2 billion yuan from central authorities misappropriated. 101,800 Chinese citizens were incorrectly identified as in need of poverty relief funds. Party officials have gotten creative with their means of corruption. In far-western Qinghai Province, Haidong Prefecture, Hualong County, an official moved poor people into a high-end housing property as a part of a project to relocate the poor. Those residents were given housing subsidies, but out of 630 households, 232 were not poor. About 11.6 million yuan of government subsidies was embezzled. In July 2017, local officials in Huayuan County, Hunan Province applied for 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in funds. After going through six levels of bureaucracy, close to seven million yuan was pocketed by officials. In another county in Hunan, called Fenghuang, officials falsely reported the number of cows and sheep, which allowed them to embezzle subsidies totaling 81,800 yuan ($12,000). And in a village in Ning County, Gansu Province, officials falsely reported 15 residences as decrepit houses in need of reconstruction. They submitted fake photos and materials as proof and cheated central authorities out of subsidies totaling 215,600 yuan. Chinese newspaper Beijing News also noted that for officials eager to demonstrate political achievement, they would flub numbers by including non-poor people into poverty numbers. Then, they would claim that the local authorities were able to quickly lift these people out of poverty. At this rate, poor people getting real help may be far off, and the social conflicts that poverty relief efforts are meant to solve, closer than expected. Gu Qinger contributed to this report. Recommended Video: How doctors in China turn into murderers Couple Stunned When Unborn Baby Turns and Waves at Them During 4D Ultrasound Scan Two British parents-to-be were left stunned after their unborn baby appeared to turn and wave at them during a recent ultrasound. The baby is currently 28 weeks along and is due on March 5. It will be the first child for Lucy Bearley and Stuart Barrett, from Berkshire. The coming gift of life became even more precious when the stunning scene unfolded during their recent visit to the doctor. I was laying on my side so it was difficult to see much really. Stuart suddenly said he thought he saw him waving so we asked the lady to rewind the footage, Bearley told the Daily Mail. Luckily she had caught the moment and sure enough when we looked there he was, not only waving but turning to look right at us, she added. Stunned couple watch their unborn baby son turn and WAVE at them during a 4D ultrasound scan https://t.co/0kr5pFuLtU Daily Mail U.K. (@DailyMailUK) January 11, 2018 It was really lovely to see but I think were definitely doing to have a little showman on our hands. Hes obviously a bit of an attention seeker. Bearley, a dog groomer by trade, added to The Sun that the sonographer had never seen anything like it before. Weve showed midwives since and they said it was a very unusual thing to see too, she said. Especially with it being so synchronized by waving and looking at the same time. People on Facebook said they liked the video. Kinda creepy when it turned its face but the hand wave was cute lol, said one user. Whoa! Its crazy that not only did this lil baby wave, this lil baby turned his head and waved. Awwww, said another. Recommended Video: The Origins of Antifa From NTD.tv Dog Kills Mom-of-Three at Louisiana Pet Hotel A Louisiana woman who was working at a pet hotel was killed by a dog, officials said. Laura Williams Ray, a mother of three, was attacked by a 50-pound pit bull at the Happy Hound Hotel in West Monroe, on Tuesday, Jan. 10, local station KTVE reported. Ray was trying to feed the animal when it attacked her. Officials dont know why the dog suddenly became violent and attacked her, KNOE-TV reported. The animal didnt have a history of aggression. Our hearts go out to the family, Happy Hound Hotel owner Leanne Stuckey told The News Star. Im just grieving for them. The pit bull was released from the pet hotel and was sent to Ouachita Parish Animal Control. @NancyGrace 2018 Dog Bite Fatality: Woman killed by pit bull at pet boarding facility in Louisiana. A friend says she was cleaning out a kennel at Happy Hound Hotel when she was attacked. https://t.co/U2hdwPbi9s pic.twitter.com/Nl51Hii5Wc Julie Eyrich (@JulieEyrich) January 11, 2018 District Attorney Steve Tew said his office is investigating. The DAs office can initiate the move to have the dog euthanized. Other details about the case are not clear. According to KNOE, family members asked the media to give them time to grieve and cope with her death. Most abused dogs on earth Animal rights group PETA says that pit bulls are the most abused dogs on Earth. Pit bulls are left at shelters in record numbersand since they are difficult to adopt out, reputable shelters (that dont slam the door in the dogs faces) are finding that they must euthanize more pit bulls and pit bull mixes than all other dogs combined, the group says. Karen Delise, research director for the National Canine Research Council and author of The Pitbull Placebo, has investigated hundreds of dog bite incidents. She wrote: My study of dog bite-related fatalities occurring over the past five decades has identified the poor ownership/management practices involved in the overwhelming majority of these incidents: owners obtaining dogs, and maintaining them as resident dogs outside of regular, positive human interaction, often for negative functions (i.e. guarding/protection, fighting, intimidation/status); owners failing to humanely contain, control and maintain their dogs (chained dogs, loose roaming dogs, cases of abuse/neglect); owners failing to knowledgably supervise interaction between children and dogs; and owners failing to spay or neuter dogs not used for competition, show, or in a responsible breeding program. Recommended Video: Kayaker Rescues Iguana Swimming Miles From Shore FBI Agent Describes Grisly Warehouse in Start of Body Brokers Trial Warning: The following images may disturb some readers. DETROITThe warehouse of a Michigan man who sold donated body parts to researchers was littered with dead flies, dog bowls and human remains frozen together in flesh-on-flesh chunks, a federal agent testified Friday. The grisly description came during the opening day in the federal trial of businessman Arthur Rathburn, who sold or leased donated body parts, including human heads, to medical researchers for two decades. The buying and selling of body parts for research and education is legal under U.S. law, which does not govern the industry. Current regulations only cover body parts intended for transplant, such as hearts and livers. Rathburn, however, is charged with defrauding customers by selling them body parts infected with hepatitis and HIV, and with lying to federal agents about shipments. During opening statements, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Neal told jurors that human remains were stored so haphazardly that Rathburn needed a crowbar to separate frozen parts. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Leslie Larson testified that during the 2013 search of Rathburns warehouse, officials found a filthy scene, with no running water or heat. Body parts were out in the open, in coolers, Larson testified. Some of the freezers had heads and torsos, some had arms and legs. Many were frozen together in flesh-on-flesh chunks. Rathburns lawyer, James Howarth, urged the jury to focus on the documents in the case, not gruesome photographs. He said that Rathburns ex-wife, Elizabeth, is most responsible for any wrongdoing. She has pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and is expected to testify for the government. This case is so sensitive because the nature of the evidence is going to make us all cringe, make us all uneasy, Howarth told the jury. Theres nothing particularly pretty about a deceased body that has been separated into parts, but I would hope no one would have bad feelings toward Mr. Rathburn because of that. The governments failure to stop Rathburn sooner, despite a decade of warning signs, was one in a series of stories Reuters reported last year about the largely unregulated body broker industry. As part of the news agencys examination of the industry, a Reuters reporter was able to purchase two human heads and a cervical spine from a body broker in Tennessee. The deals were struck after just a few emails, at a cost of $900 plus shipping. The series also profiled two Phoenix brokersone who earned at least $12 million from the sale or use of donated body parts and another who regularly supplied Rathburn. The broker who sold Rathburn body parts, Steve Gore, pleaded guilty to defrauding customers and is expected to testify against Rathburn. Last month, Reuters reported that federal agents discovered four preserved fetuses during the search of Rathburns warehouse. According to government photographs obtained by the news agency, the fetuses appear to have been in their second trimester. The fetus photographs are not cited in any court filings and it is unclear if they will be presented at trial. By Steve Friess and John Shiffman Recommended Video: How doctors in China turn into murderers Florida Babysitter Known as Uncle Mikey Sentenced to Prison for Molesting Children A man who preyed on children while babysitting has been sentenced to 25 years in prison, Florida officials announced this week. Michael McCabe of Port Orange was convicted of molesting several children. The 47-year-old used his trusted position as a babysitter to molest and sexually assault five girls under the age of 18, Bryan Shorstein, a spokesman for the State Attorneys Office, told the Orlando Sentinel. McCabe befriended several families, moved into their homes, and later molested their daughters, according to prosecutors. The investigation began in December 2016 after two girls, ages 15 and 16 at the time, came forward to say that Mikey had molested them when he was their live-in babysitter when they were between 7 and 11 years old, reported the Daytona Beach News-Journal. A nine-year-old girl also reported that McCabe molested her beginning when she was five years old, while yet another girl said she was molested while being babysat by McCabe. Their childhood was stolen by this scumbag, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood told the News-Journal. McCabe previously pled no contest to four counts of sexual battery against a child, two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation against a child, and three counts of attempted lewd and lascivious molestation, noted MyNews13. In addition to his prison sentence, McCabe was ordered to serve 25 years sex offender probation after his release from prison. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: President Donald Trump: Year 1 Phone Saves Florida Student Kidnapped at Knifepoint A Florida student has revealed how she utilized her iPhone to get rescued after being kidnapped and raped. Jaila Gladden found herself in a nightmarish situation when she walked to the local grocery store around midnight on Sept. 4. After buying medicine and tea, she exited to the parking lot, where a man asked her for a lighter. When she said she didnt have one, she turned to get inside her car, but felt a knife press against her stomach. He then forced her into the passengers seat, and the man began to drive. He asked her for directions to Atlanta. Timothy Wilson, 28, was later arrested and charged with rape, false imprisonment, aggravated assault against a police officer, and other crimes, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is in jail awaiting trial. But Gladden, a senior at the University of West Georgia, fears a worse fate may have befallen her if she hadnt convinced the kidnapper to give her back her phone. Gladden told Buzzfeed that she couldnt guide him toward a gas stationhe wanted to rob one for moneyunless she could use her phone. When Wilson gave her back her phone, she texted her location to her boyfriend. When her boyfriend, Tamir Bryant, asked her why she was in Atlanta, she said she was kidnapped. I immediately realized it was serious, Bryant told the outlet. She would never play like that. She would never say that for no reason. When they arrived at a gas station, Wilson took away the phone and placed Gladden in the trunk. When his attempted robbery was unsuccessful, he said he wanted to try a Kroger or Walmart next, so Gladden convinced him to give her her phone back again, and she once more texted her boyfriend. Gladden was in fear for her life, according to a police report of the incident. More than once she stated she didnt want him to kill her and was worried that if he saw police lights he would do it. With the help of her roommate and the location feature on the phone, officers were able to find Gladdens car and pull Wilson over. And her boyfriend says it could very well have saved her life. If I didnt get the location, who knows what would have happened, Bryant told BuzzFeed. Her doing it on her ownshe was able to outsmart the bad guy. The police agreed. If this victim did not have her phone and did not think quickly she may not have been as lucky, a police spokesperson said. To be able to do that in this situation says a lot about her, Carroll County Deputy Police Chief Chris Dobbs added to WSB-TV. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: What is MS-13? The Metropolitan Tower in Manhattan houses the apartment where Howard Rubin allegedly raped and tortured women. (Screenshot via Google Street View) Fourth Woman Sues Ex-Soros Financier For Raping, Torturing Her Another woman has filed a lawsuit alleging that the former investment manager of billionaire George Soross company raped and tortured her. She is the fourth to make such claims. The 20-year-old woman, who requested anonymity, said a friend arranged for her to meet Howard Rubin, 62, in November 2015 for dinner and drinks. The friend said she was to be paid $2,000 for her trouble, and was not required to have sex with Rubin, The New York Post reported. Rubin, married father of three, allegedly treated her to tequila shots at the Russian Tea Room in Manhattan before presenting her with a nondisclosure agreement that said she could be sued for up to $1 million for disclosing their relationship. He then took her to his penthouse apartment at the Metropolitan Tower, next door to the restaurant, where he served her a drugged drink. The woman was then ushered into Rubins 300-square-foot dungeon-like toy room, alleged the lawsuit. The room was filled with ropes and toys to tie people up with, and electrocuting devices, and other devices. Rubin said he would go easy on her and told her to say pineapple if she felt uncomfortable, the suit alleges. He then tied up her wrists. Ignoring her screams of the safe word, Rubin then beat her and raped her, alleges the suit. The friend who set up the meeting told the woman not to go to the police because Rubin was extremely wealthy and powerful, and would destroy her life, the suit says. Rubins attorney, Edward McDonald, denied the allegations and called them an attempt to obtain money from Mr. Rubin. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, comes two months after three women described similar experiences with Rubin in a lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. The Playboy Playmates Hillary Lawson and Kristina Hallman, as well as nightclub dancer Stephanie Caldwell, alleged Rubins associate lured them with promises of $2,000-$5,000 for a dinner and drinks with Rubinno sex required. Rubins alleged fixer, Jennifer Powers, groomed the women, portraying Rubin in a positive light and saying she herself went through similar arrangements with him before starting to work for Rubin, the suit states. All three said they ended up drugged, tied up, gagged, brutally beaten, and raped by Rubin. Hallman was allegedly beaten by Rubin until she lost consciousness. Caldwell was allegedly beaten so hard her breast implant got damaged. Lawson was allegedly tortured with a cattle prod. The 20-year-old finally decided to sue Rubin after a suicide attempt, reported The New York Post. Rubin declined to comment on the lawsuit when reached by The Post. After attempting suicide, she finally decided to file a lawsuit https://t.co/Jq3vXD5CTf New York Post (@nypost) January 10, 2018 Rubin, a Harvard alumni, started his career during the 1980s as a chief mortgage securities trader for Merrill Lynch. He was fired for making unauthorized trades and costing the company $377 million (the equivalent of $800 million in 2017). Shortly after, he was hired by Bear, Stearns & Co. as a regular mortgage securities trader, The New York Times reported. He left the company in 1999 and served in executive roles at multiple investment firms, eventually joining Soros Fund Management as a portfolio manager. He left that post in 2015, The Daily Wire reported. Hes been married to Mary Jullien Henry since 1985. Recommended Video: The Origins of Antifa Husband Found Dead After Wife Searched How to Kill Someone and Not Get Caught, Police Say A woman charged with killing her husband searched online for how to kill someone and not get caught, police say. Sandra Louis Garner, 55, from Maypearl near Dallas, was arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 10 in connection with the murder of her husband, Jon Garner, 42, the Midlothian Mirror reported. Police found Mr. Garner early on Jan. 2 at his home. He had been shot once with a .38-caliber bullet, and another bullet was found in a pillowcase near his body, according to Maypearl Police Chief Boyd Norton. Just after midnight on New Years Day, police received a call from Mrs. Garner saying that she had heard two gunshots and saw a masked gunman carrying a flashlight, said Norton. She told police that the man held a grudge against her husband about work-related matters, said Norton. She said she gave the man $18,000 from a safe and then he made her go into a bathroom while he left. She said if she did not, he would come back and kill her. As early as Jan. 4 Maypearl Police suspected there was more to the incident. Norton told eParisExtra at the time: There were rumors this was a random home invasion. We have evidence to believe that is not the case. The public should not be alarmed about their safety. How To Kill Someone and Not Get Caught Police searched the Nortons home and seized multiple electronic devices. One of these, belonging to Sandra Garner, there was a web search for how to kill someone and not get caught. Investigators also discovered a .38-caliber handgun inside a Ford Mustang. It was wrapped in a paper towel inside two plastic bags, said Norton. Investigators noted this vehicle was searched during the first search at the residence on Jan. 2 and did not find this firearm, Norton told the Midlothian Mirror. It was apparent this firearm was moved to the vehicle after the initial search conducted on Jan. 2. The gun was sent for analysis and confirmed to match with the bullets that killed Jon Norton. Sandra Garner was arrested on Jan. 10 and charged with the murder of her husband. Her bond has been set at $2 million. Illinois Attorney General Candidate Robbed at Gunpoint During Photoshoot A candidate running for Illinois attorney general was robbed at gunpoint on Jan. 11, during a campaign photoshoot in Chicago. Democratic candidate Aaron Goldstein, 42, and several members of his campaign team were approached by three men in their early 20s at Albany Park. One of the men flashed a handgun and made a demand for their camera equipment and other personal belongings, reported the Chicago Tribune, citing police. Police did not release a description of the suspects and said as of Jan. 11, no one was in custody. Campaign manager Robert Murphy said that Goldstein was taking promotional campaign photos at the time of the robbery, reported the newspaper. He confirmed that no one was harmed during the robbery and police assured that the robbery was not a targeted act. So, as far as the campaign, we are moving forward, Murphy told the newspaper. Basically, this was a totally a random act of violence in the community. But when it happens to you, of course, youre shooken up, he continued. Goldstein is running for attorney general to replace Lisa Madigan for the Democratic nomination, reported the Chicago Tribune. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: President Donald Trump: Year 1 Screenshots from videos uploaded by ChinaAid show the destruction of Golden Lampstand Church in the city of Linfen in Chinas Shanxi province on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018. Chinas People's Armed Police reportedly used explosives to demolish the church as part of the latest crackdown on Chinese Christians. (ChinaAid) Chinese Christians Mourn as Police Demolish Major Underground Church Place of worship for tens of thousands demolished in latest instance of persecution of Christians The Chinese regimes persecution of Christianity reached new heights as military police demolished a church in northern Chinas Shanxi Province. Explosives were used to bring down the $3 million church, as Chinese Christians who had built and attended it wept. The Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen, a city of 4.3 million, was one of Chinas many unregistered house churches, meaning they are not sanctioned by the Chinese regime and are therefore constantly persecuted. Dramatic video uploaded online shows the church was totally demolished on Jan. 9, as explosives were detonated. The Peoples Armed Police, the Chinese regimes paramilitary force, reportedly conducted the demolition. The church, originally costing 17 million yuan to build in 2009, was fully paid for by its congregation of tens of thousands of Christians. Prior to its destruction, many of the churchs leaders had been heavily persecuted and some were imprisoned, according to reports by ChinaAid, a Christian NGO based in Midland, Texas. In 2009, squads of the Chinese regimes security goons descended on the church, smashed the building, and seized bibles from its members, according to ChinaAid. In 2009, squads of the Chinese regimes security goons descended on the church, smashed the building, and seized Bibles from its members. [The authorities] have been plotting to bomb the church ever since 2009, a church member told Radio Free Asia. They were hesitant at the time after hearing rumors that officials from the U.N. visited the church and took photos. But now theyve actually done it. The church was surrounded by the authorities beginning Sunday, Jan. 7, with its congregation blocked from entering the building and warned by local police to stay away. Many members of the church, though, witnessed the demolition from a distance and wept for their churchs destruction. Repeated Persecution The repeated persecution of the Golden Lampstand Church demonstrates that the Chinese government has no respect for religious freedom or human rights, said Bob Fu, the founder and president of ChinaAid, who called for the international community to openly condemn the bombing of the church. While the church belongs to Chinas large number of house churches that are not registered with the Chinese regime and are therefore completely exposed to any sort of crackdown on religion, even the state-sanctioned Three-Self Churches are not exempt from the regimes persecution. ChinaAid has recently reported that the regimes security apparatus was mobilized to suppress Christmas celebrations by Chinese Christians in 2017including those at the Three-Self Churches. Church services were strictly curtailed, and the Christians who attended them were heavily monitored by surveillance cameras installed by the authorities. The Chinese Communist Party officially espouses an atheist ideology based on MarxismLeninism and Mao Zedong thought and prohibits Party members from belonging to a religion. Despite official opposition to religion and relentless persecution, Chinas Christian population has soared in recent years and is now numbered in the tens of millions by various estimates. Recommended Video: How doctors in China turn into murderers Jeff Bridges Reveals That His Home Was Severely Damaged in Mudslides Actor Jeff Bridges has revealed that his home in Southern California was severely damaged in mudslides. Bridges bought his $6.8 million Montecito home three years ago, and it could be a total loss, TMZ reported. What we know about the mudslides so far: 15 people dead 7,000 people evacuated 300 people stuck in their homes in Montecitos Romero Canyon neighborhood For more: https://t.co/2CvsTXK0ie pic.twitter.com/ABbyTgv3TR Los Angeles Times (@latimes) January 10, 2018 Unbelievable devastation this is a drive westbound on Olive Mill Rd from Hot Springs in #Montecito. The lake at the end is the 101. #Ventura pic.twitter.com/twUc3ByrLX Gadi Schwartz (@GadiNBC) January 10, 2018 Our home has been severely damaged, but we are safe, and so thankful for that and for the first responders who are working tirelessly to save people, The Big Lebowski star tweeted. He added: We are heartbroken over the loss of lives in our community. Your prayers and best wishes are most appreciated. Amazing photo of bear that was caught in the #montecito mudslides #summerlandbeach pic.twitter.com/FFYc7AsisS Andrew Miller (@abumillers) January 11, 2018 My friends daughters are missing! Please help find them. A mudslide devoured their home at 3am. Sawyer (12) Morgan (25) ???????????????? Last seen 1231 E valley rd Santa Barbara Please RT#missing #missingperson #Montecito #SantaBarbara #mudslides pic.twitter.com/DI9Eb629vO Nicole Burke (@nicoleburkeAD) January 10, 2018 As TMZ reported, Oprah Winfrey is next next-door neighbor. In all, the mudslides have killed at least 17 people, while eight are still missing. Theyre ravaging Montecito, a wealthy area of northwest Los Angeles home to a number of A-list celebrities. Our home has been severely damaged, but we are safe, and so thankful for that and for the first responders who are working tirelessly to save people. We are heartbroken over the loss of lives in our community. Your prayers and best wishes are most appreciated. Jeff Bridges (@TheJeffBridges) January 11, 2018 A number of celebrities have tweeted about it. 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 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 told Los Angeles television station KCAL. Some 500 rescuers using search dogs, military helicopters, and thermal imaging equipment are at the scene, Reuters reported. This is the street in front of our house. I dont know anything about our house yet. Im heartbroken for our community of Montecito. Im devastated for the families who lost loved ones. Im grateful to all the rescue workers. Please send love to Montecito. pic.twitter.com/TmbqwzMLEz Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) January 10, 2018 Search and rescue efforts have been slow as crews have to navigate through waist-deep mud, fallen trees, boulders, and other debris. Another tough day in Santa Barbara County as Search and Rescue, Fire and Law Enforcement personnel from across our county and our neighboring counties searched for survivors and evacuated people, the sheriffs office said on its Twitter feed late Wednesday night. The devastating mudslides, which were triggered by heavy rains early on Tuesday, roared into valleys denuded by historic wildfires that struck the area last month. The debris flow from the mudslides has destroyed 100 homes, damaged hundreds of other structures and injured 28 people, said Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. Reuters contributed to this report. Recommended Video: Thrilling GoPro Journey Down a Deep, Deep Well Missouri Man Who Used Stun Gun on Toddlers as Discipline Goes to Prison A Missouri man who admitted using a stun gun as discipline on three toddlers has been sent to prison. Gale Epple, 23, pleaded guilty to three felony charges of abuse or neglect of a child, reported the Springfield News-Leader. Judge Thomas Mountjoy of Springfield sentenced him to four years in prison for each charge. Epple was arrested in July of 2017 for disciplining a two-year-old girl and one-year-old twins with his stun gun, reported KMOV at the time. A babysitter reported the abuse to police. Thankfully, a babysitter stepped in and did the right thing to protect these small children from further abuse, the Springfield Police Department noted on Facebook. The abused were the children of Shelby Crabtree, who was described at the time as Epples wife, reported the News-Leader. She has been charged with three counts of child endangerment but hasnt been brought to trial yet. Epple admitted he used the stun gun as a form of discipline but argued that it didnt hurt the children. That dont hurt though, thats a stun gun, Epple said. Police and social services workers found a filthy home when they entered the residence after arresting Epple, with trash covering most of the floor and cockroaches visible on the counters and sinks, according to the bond document. People commented on the police departments post on Facebook. Thank God for the babysitter. I hope they use a stun gun on them every hour on the hour for the rest of their life, said one. What about their mother? She did nothing to protect them or even take care of them from the sound of it. As a mother, I cannot comprehend putting anyone or anything above my boys, said another. They did charge the mother for those that didnt READ the article. But 4 years for 3 charges of felony abuse seems pretty light sentence, said yet another. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: President Donald Trump: Year 1 A UK mother is sending a warning message to parents with young children to watch out for danger signs if their children are having trouble breathing, after her daughter almost died during a bronchial infection. The mother from Surrey, England, Emma Woodland, 38, noticed that her daughter Bonnie was making strange breathing noises on Dec. 12. She took Bonnie in to get her cough and cold checked out, but doctors sent her back home saying it was likely just a virus. Less than 24 hours later, Bonnie was in the hospital and on life support. Bonnie had bronchiolitis and a condition called sepsis, which is when the bodys immune system starts attacking the body. Woodland said she noticed Bonnie was breathing strangely in the morning and called for an ambulance. Paramedics decided to take her in to the hospital after seeing that her oxygen levels were a little low. In a warning to friends on Facebook, Woodland said she was shocked that within just an hour of being at the hospital, Bonnie turned from a happy, smiling baby to not being able to breathe. She cautioned parents to be aware of the signs of sepsis and Bronchiolitis, and to get help if they see any of the symptoms in their children. Please if you have any doubts with your child or babys breathing, anything at all, then dont hesitate to call an ambulance, she wrote. Even if it the smallest snuffle or gasp, then get them to A&E [accident and emergency department]. Little Bonnie was transferred to St. Georges hospital in London where she was put in intensive care. After a week in the hospital, she was discharged and is doing well, Woodland says. Thank goodness for us that the paramedics had made that decision to run her up there as theres no harm in getting her looked over because we know for sure if they hadnt we would be writing a whole different post right now. After doing a little research on Bronchiolitis, Woodland says she didnt realize how dangerous it can be to young children. If like me, I never even knew that Bronchiolitis could kill a child? she wrote. You here[sic] about meningitis, measles, mumps and rubella all being serious childhood illnesses but no body tells you about Bronchiolitis and after speaking with other parents and doctors it is more common than I ever realised especially at this time of year. Bronchiolitis is an infection of the lungs that causes an inflammation in the bronchioles, the smallest airways that carry oxygen to the lungs. The ailment is often the result of a virus, and usually develops during the winter months. Symptoms can include: -Runny nose -Stuffy nose -Cough -Slight fever (but not always) -Wheezing -Difficulty breathing -An ear infection in some infants There is no cure for bronchiolitis, but it usually goes away of its own accord within a few weeks, according to the Mayo Clinic. Its not clear why sepsis occurs, but it happens when the immune system stops fighting an infection and starts attacking the body instead. In some cases it can result in tissue damage and organ failure, and in the worst cases, death, according to the Sepsis Alliance. Young children and those with a weak immune system are most vulnerable to sepsis. There is no cure for the condition, but early detection can prevent it from becoming deadly. Symptoms in children can include: -Abnormal body temperatures -Trouble breathing -Little or no urine output -Skin that is cold to the touch -Pale skin -Extreme pain or discomfort -Sleepiness or lethargy -Confusion While the Woodland familys story had a happy ending, a family from Manchester lost their 3-year-old daughter, who had Pneumonia, to Sepsis. The girls father is now on a mission to raise the profile of the potentially fatal ailment. You can read his story here. While its good to know the symptoms of sepsis and bronchiolitis, Woodlands final piece of advice in her Facebook post is to always go with your instinct Her message obviously resonated with people. Her Facebook post got over 3,200 reactions, 5,875 shares, and 1,600 comments after nearly a month of being posted. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Toddler With Rare Heart Condition Gets to Go Home After 402 Days in the Hospital Aaron Hernandez is escorted into the courtroom of the Attleboro District Court for his hearing in North Attleboro, Massachusetts on Aug. 22, 2013. Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez was indicted on a first-degree murder charge for the death of Odin Lloyd. (Jared Wickerham/Getty Images) New Book Details Aaron Hernandezs Tumultuous Prison Life Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez apparently wasnt a model prisoner. Hernandez was convicted and sentenced the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandezs fiancee. Several years later, he was found dead at the age of 27 in a Massachusetts prison cell where he was serving a life sentence. He had committed suicide by hanging himself. A new book, All-American Murder, written by James Patterson, is slated for release, detailing the prison life of Hernandez. Tough. Im built for this [expletive], Hernandez apparently told the guards in one instance as they locked him in for the night, according to the New York Post. Then, Hernandez later exited his cell and approached Corrections Officer Kevin Sousa, who was escorting a shackled inmate down some stairs. Souza said Hernandez had a smile on his face, and when Souza told him to go back to his cell, Hernandez punched the inmate in the face. Two officers then restrained him, and he turned to the punched inmate and told him: Go ahead, run your mouth now. The inmate had told him: Im a Patriots fan, referring to Hernandezs former team. I dont want to press charges against Hernandez, and you will never get me in court to testify, the inmate told prison officials. According to the book, the inmate got the last word in, insulting Hernandez. Hernandez was charged with battery and assault, and for that, he got two weeks in solitary confinement. We were so worried about protecting him, Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said, we never thought that he would be the aggressor. In another instance, Hernandez got upset with the guards how they handled mail he received. They threatened to give him a disciplinary report. He replied, I dont give a [expletive] about no disciplinary report, he said, adding that hell eat it. They ended up giving him the report, and to their surprise, he ate it. Yahoo News reported that of the 10 months Hernandez was in prison, he spent 120 days in solitary confinement. According to the Yahoo report, citing the book: Hernandez was sent a care package of two dozen honey buns in violation of prison policy; before officers could confiscate the buns, he ate 20 of them, saving the wrappers so he couldnt be accused of passing them to other inmates. Guards denied his request to eat the last four. He also went on expletive-laden tirades against the guards a number of times, apparently making threats to kill one officer and his family if he got out of prison. I did not say I was going to kill him or his family, Hernandez later said. I said if I see COs that act tough in jail, out of jail, Im going to slap the [expletive] out of them. After his death, as The Associated Press reported, he was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Recommended Video: Thrilling GoPro Journey Down a Deep, Deep Well NY Politician Kills Former Girlfriend and her Boyfriend Before Turning Gun on Himself: Police A local politician at a village in upstate New York shot and killed his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend before turning the gun on himself, police say. Village of Ellenville Trustee, Efrain Ping Lopez, 55, who had just been sworn in for another four years, was found dead inside his vehicle on Thursday, Jan. 11. His longtime domestic partner, Margarita Margo Soto, 55, along with her boyfriend Jose Cruz, 55, were found dead inside Cruzs car in the same parking lot. Shortly before 10 a.m., multiple people called 911 about a shooting at 110 Center St. near downtown Ellenville, police said in a press release. Authorities initially thought that, based on reports, someone had shot two people then ran to the Ellenville school complex a few blocks away. The school complex was put on lockdown as a precaution, but then police discovered Lopez deceased with his rifle in his car. All three were pronounced dead at the scene. According to Ellenville Police Chief, Phil Mattracion, Lopez pulled into the parking lot shortly after Cruz and Soto, and when Cruz got out, Lopez approached him with a .30-caliber rifle and fatally shot him, the New York Daily News reported. Lopez then went to the passenger side of the car where Soto was sitting, and fatally shot her. Mattracion said he then got in his own car and turned the gun on himself. Ellenville Police described the incident as an ongoing domestic dispute, and Mattracion said that Lopez was not happy about Soto having a new boyfriend. Despite both listing their status as single on Facebook, Soto and Cruz professed their love for each other shortly before the incident happened. At 8:55 a.m. on Jan. 11, Cruz changed his profile photo, and on it Soto commented: My boyfriend which I adore, in Spanish. He replied, Thank you my dear girlfriend, I love you too. Ellenville Police said Lopez was a longtime member of the Ellenville Village Board, and a longtime employee of the Ellenville Central School District. The Times Herald-Record reported that he was a maintenance worker there. The paper quoted Village Manager, Joe Stoeckeler, as saying Lopez was a stable character who got along well with the other trustees. He was always upbeat, an independent thinker, respectful, Stoeckeler said. An autopsy on the bodies was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Friday. Ellenville police say the investigation into their deaths is ongoing. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: High School Students Surprise Sweetest Janitor With New Work Boots for Christmas President Trump Says FBI Agent Committed Treason Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama linked to alleged conspiracy aimed at removing Trump from office President Donald Trump said FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was leading the agencys investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, committed treason by attempting to remove an elected president from office. Trump said that Strzok conspired to remove him from office using the Russia collusion investigation. FBI agent Peter Strzok. The alleged conspiracy is also tied to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as to former President Barack Obama. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said Strzok committed treason by creating an insurance policy to get Trumpan elected presidentout of office. In text messages obtained by the Justice Department, Strzokwho played a lead role on both the investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server, as well as into the allegations of Trump colluding with Russiais praising Clinton while disparaging Trump. In one of the text messages Strzok sent to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, whom he reportedly had an affair with, he refers to a meeting they had in the office of Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe in which they discussed an insurance policy in the scenario that Trump won the election. A man is tweeting to his lover that if [Hillary Clinton] loses, well essentially do the insurance policy. Well go to phase two and well get this guy out of office, said Trump in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 11. This is the FBI were talking aboutthat is treason, the president said. That is a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act. Treason is defined under article 3 in the U.S. Constitution as aiding enemies against the United States or levying war against it. Under U.S. law, treason is punishable by death or imprisonment for a minimum of five years. The House Intelligence Committee is currently investigating Strzoks role in the FBI investigation. Last week, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes announced he had reached an agreement with the Department of Justice to obtain the nearly 10,000 text messages Strzok sent, as well as all relevant documents on Fusion GPS, the FBI investigation, and witness interviews. Strzok, however, played only one part in the alleged conspiracy to remove Trump from office. Anti-Trump Dossier Part of Conspiracy At the heart of allegations of Russian collusion is a dossier on Trump produced by strategic intelligence firm Fusion GPS. The 35-page dossier, marked as classified, relies almost exclusively on Kremlin-linked sources. Law professor Ronald Rychlak, a leading expert on Russian disinformation, told The Epoch Times in an earlier interview that the information contained in the dossier had the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign. The dossier was paid for by Hillary Clintons campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The payments were funneled to Fusion GPS through the law firm Perkins Coie and mislabeled in Federal Election Commission filings to avoid detection, The Washington Post reported. The House Intelligence Committee is currently investigating whether the dossier, whose main claims have either been disproven or remain unverified, was used by the FBI to launch its investigation. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama greet supporters during a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 5, 2016. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Award-winning national security reporter Sara Carter reported on Jan. 11, citing multiple sources, that the FBI used the report to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, to spy on members of Trumps team. 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. At least two top Obama officials have been revealed to have used the FISA warrant to spy on the Trump team. Obamas national security adviser, Susan Rice, as well as Obamas ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, made dozens of so-called unmasking requests for the identities of members of Trumps team in intelligence reports. Trump made references to the surveillance in a tweet on March 4, 2017, when he wrote: How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy! How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017 Part of what the House Intelligence Committee will be investigating is what the information the top Obama officials obtained was used for. One concern is that the information was shared with Clinton during the elections. The House investigation also includes DOJ official Bruce Ohr. Ohr was demoted from his position of associate deputy attorney general after it was revealed in December that he had secretly met with Fusion GPS employees, including co-founder Glenn Simpson. Ohrs wife, Nellie Ohr, was also working for Fusion GPS during the elections doing research on Trump. The House committee is also investigating payments that Fusion GPS made to journalists. Last week a federal court ordered Fusion GPSs bank to hand over records to the committee. The committee had sought the bank records in part because of Fusion GPS payments to journalists who reported on Russia-related matters. Court documents from the UK show that the dossiers author, former British spy Christopher Steele, had given briefings to journalists on the contents of the dossier. Steele and his company are currently being sued for libel by a Russian businessman mentioned in the report. Steeles defense attorney says in the court documents that Steele was instructed by Fusion GPS to brief reporters of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, CNN, and Yahoo News on the contents of the dossier. The briefings appear to have been the source of several stories published on the allegations that Trump colluded with Russia. Recommended Video: President Donald Trump: Year 1 This photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on Dec. 23, 2017 and released on Dec. 24, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 5th Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons.(AFP/Getty Images via KCNA) Sanctions Bite North Korea as US Allies Set to Weigh Naval Blockade With sanctions now sinking their teeth into North Korea, the United States and its allies will discuss a naval blockade that could end North Korean smuggling, bringing the maximum pressure campaign towards its endgame. The United Nations Security Council passed a new round of tougher sanctions just before Christmas, ratcheting down permitted North Korean trade as reports emerge that the regime cant feed its soldiers. And with reports that the Chinese regime is enforcing that new level of sanctions enough to matter, the Trump administration is showing increasing confidence in its push towards a diplomatic option. The White House issued a statement Jan. 12. saying the Trump administration was pleased that China is sharply reducing its trade with North Korea. This action supports the United States-led global effort to apply maximum pressure until the North Korean regime ends its illicit programs, changes its behavior, and moves toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The State Department is hoping to cement those gains with other measures at an upcoming meeting in Vancouver, according to Brian Hook, Director of Policy Planning for the Secretary. Foreign ministers from the United States, Canada, South Korea, and several of the countries that fought North Korea in the Korean War will gather in Vancouver on Jan. 16. According to Hook, the meeting aims to apply more pressure to North Korea while keeping diplomatic options open and viable. They are feeling the strain. And we believe that this pressure campaign remains the best avenue to force change in Kim Jong Uns behavior and to get him to the negotiating table for meaningful discussions, said Hook during a Jan. 11 press briefing. With tougher sanctions now in place, the State Department is looking for ways to make sure North Korea is not circumventing punishing limits on imports and 90 percent of its publicly reported exports. A naval blockade would mark a watershed moment. Talk of a naval blockade comes as the United States seriously considers a so-called bloody nose attack, a limited strike on North Korea meant to punish it for any further provocations without escalating to full out war. We certainly have put the credible military threat on the tablebut our definite preference is for a negotiated solution, said Hook. That means cracking down on anyone not complying with the current sanctions. We need to be doing more to deal with vessels that are engaging in prohibited activities under UN Security Council resolutions, said Hook. One way to do that is to punish individual vessels engaged in smuggling by getting them banned from entering other ports, putting them out of business. We need to drive up the consequences for any vessels that are engaging in this kind of activity, he said. But discussion of a naval blockade could be part of what is unsettling the Chinese regime, which objects to the Vancouver talks. A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry told reporters in Beijing the Vancouver meeting would undermine 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 on Wednesday according to CBC. China and Russia were not invited to the meeting. Despite being important elements to any successful blockade, given both countries share borders with North Korea. But they are also the North Korean regimes only ideological backers, supporting the regime in principle despite its nuclear threats. They were also responsible for creating North Korea and giving it the backing it needed to launch the Korean War. China and Russia have given North Korea a lifeline, two friends on the UN Security Council ready to tame sanctions to a tolerable level. But Decembers new sanctions, and tougher caps on oil imports, have coincided with North Korea finding renewed interest in diplomatic options. Starting with Kim Jong Uns New Years address, the regime has made a pivot away from belligerent provocations towards diplomacy, calling for a bilateral solution to the current crisis by working with South Korea. To that end, North Korea has initiated talks to negotiate its entry into the upcoming Olympic Games in South Korea. But while the United States and other nations have welcomed those talks, North Korea continues to proclaim its firm commitment to its nuclear weapons program. With no change on this key point, the State Department is calling for deeper financial controls to cut off any illicit money flowing to or from the regime, said Hook. We will impose secondary sanctions when we need to, and thats something which the Chinese understand very clearly from our conversations, said Hook. Those sanctions could target additional Chinese banks and businesses, key partners of the North Korean regime. Hershey's chocolate bars are shown in Chicago, Illinois on July 16, 2014. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) School Superintendent Finds Candy Bribes on Front Porch The winter weather at a Hillsboro, Missouri, school got students hoping for a possible snow day on Friday, Jan. 12. Superintendent Doc Cornman, of Hillsboro Schools, tweeted on Thursday, Jan. 11 that an unknown student was sending him candy bribes persuading him to call off school. The bribe placed on Cornmans front door in the St.Louis area included Reeses peanut butter cupshis favorite candyand a note. That note simply read You know what to do. The first round of "Please Call School Off Tomorrow" candy has arrived. Students in my neighborhood really want a Snow Day!!! They remembered my favorite! pic.twitter.com/QQGjBF1tDb Doc Cornman (@DocCSupt) January 12, 2018 According to KTVI, this is the second year in a row someone has tried to bribe Cornman with candy. Last year someone dropped off some Hershey bars. Last year it was Hersey bars and I Tweeted to them that I wasn't a Hersey fana year later they remembered and man did they! Doc Cornman (@DocCSupt) January 12, 2018 When Friday came around the corner, Cornman announced that the school will be in session as normal. In a Friday, 5:25 a.m. tweet the superintendent said that Its cold outside, roads are clear, but the buses and buildings will be warm see ya there. Cornman was not the only one receiving bribes. On Thursday night another St. Louis area superintendent said he also received candy enclosed with a note. That note said, Dont be a nerd #callitofflink. Getting Creative..Doorbell just rang and when I answered..this was there #TryingToTwistMyArm pic.twitter.com/x6ESbG6tnR Dr. Link (@FestusR6Supt) January 12, 2018 But he also did not call off school on Friday. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: 2017 Year in Review Delta planes sit on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport, the day before Thanksgiving, the nation's busiest travel day on Nov. 22, 2017, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Texas College Student Questioned by TSA for Finger Gun Salute A 19-year-old college student nearly got arrested by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) after a well-intentioned hand gesture gave the wrong impression. Diana Durkin, a student at Texas Tech University was excited to return to campus for her sophomore year, after taking a semester off to help her family recover from Hurricane Harvey, Fox News reported. Durkin said that Texas Tech fans often salute each other with a finger gun whenever they see each other. The salute is also a reference to the universitys mascot, the Masked Rider. But the innocent hand slogan is exactly what Durkin nearly got arrested for. As she was waiting in line to go through security before a Jan. 6 flight out of William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Durkin spotted a man in a Texas Tech hoodie and automatically threw up a finger gun. The man instead gave her an odd look. I love Texas Tech. I love the people, I love the school. Anytime I see someone I get really excited, she told BuzzFeed News. Then a TSA agent took her out of the line to ask about her hand gesture. In the airport security line and I see someone wearing a Texas Tech hoodie and I look at them and do the gun hand signal because wreck em amiright [sic]. tsa is now pulling me aside to talk to me, Durkin wrote in a Jan. 6 Tweet that has since gone viral. In the airport security line and I see someone wearing a Texas Tech hoodie and I look at them and do the gun hand signal because wreck em amiright tsa is now pulling me aside to talk to me :(( diana (@dianadurkin) January 6, 2018 The tweet has gained over 38,709 likes and over 3,792 retweets at the time of publication. What are you doing? You cant do that in an airport, Durkin recalls the agent telling her. She told Buzzfeed that the agent also gave her a full screening and pat down, nearly sending her to tears. Oh my gosh, they think Im a terrorist. Oh my gosh Im going to jail, Durkin told Buzzfeed. Im just sitting there, almost in tears, like, No, Im just really dumb, Im not a terrorist! Luckily the incident didnt escalate any further. Durkin said the TSA eventually let her go with just a warning. At the time, I was scared to death, she told Buzzfeed. Durkin said she has learned her lesson and will treat the ordeal as a funny story. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: 2017 Year in Review Twitter Employees Admit to Censoring and Shadow Banning Conservatives, Undercover Investigation Reveals Several current and former Twitter employees admitted in an undercover video from Project Veritas that the company censors conservatives and shadow bans people who express right-wing viewpoints. Hidden-camera interviews with eight current and former employees reveal that Twitter is using an array of tools to identify users with conservative, pro-Trump, pro-America, or even pro-God views, and target them for censorship. You look for Trump, or America, or any of like, five thousand, like, keywords to describe a redneck, said Pranay Singh, a direct messaging engineer at Twitter, who was discussing the censorship program. Mo Norai, a former Twitter content review agent told an undercover reporter on May 16, 2017, that if they said this is Pro-Trump, I dont want it because it offends me, that he will be able to manually ban accounts, and noted in the interview that conservatives are especially targeted. The undercover investigation also revealed that Twitter may be using a controversial method called shadow banning to silence some voices. One strategy is to shadow ban so you have ultimate control, Abhinav Vadrevu, a former Twitter software engineer told an undercover reporter. The idea of a shadow ban is that you ban someone but they dont know theyve been banned because they keep posting and no one sees their content. So they just think that no one is engaging with their content when in reality, no one is seeing it. The social media platform, which advertises itself as the global town square, also appears to downrank users, particularly conservatives, based on their views. When asked what Twitter is doing to make popular conservative users not show up in peoples Twitter feeds, Olinda Hassan, a policy manager for Twitters trust and safety team, told an undercover reporter that the company is working on creating a downranking system. Yeah. Thats something were working on. Its something were working on. Were trying to get the [expletive] people to not show up, Hassan said. Its a product thing were working on right now. The latest revelations are of particular concern because it appears that decisions to censor individual users are made manually by Twitter employees. According to Norai, the employees at Twitter were probably about 90% Anti-Trump, maybe 99% Anti-Trump, at the time when he worked there. Based on that statement, Twitters censorship appears to be skewed largely against conservatives. Such bias isnt part of Twitters public policies, but Norai was filmed telling undercover reporters for Project Veritas that many such policies do exist behind closed doors. Norai said some rules for censoring conservatives are not publicly stated. A lot of unwritten rules, and being that were in San Francisco, were in California, very liberal, a very blue state, Norai said. You had to be I mean as a company you cant really say it because it would make you look bad, but behind closed doors are lots of rules. The report follows an earlier Project Veritas investigation where a senior network security engineer admitted that hes more than happy to help the Department of Justice with their little [President Donald Trump] investigation. Twitter responded to both reports denying that they practice shadow banning. Twitter does not shadowban accounts, Twitter said in a statement. We do take actions to downrank accounts that are abusive, and mark them accordingly so people can still to click through and see these Tweets if they so choose. We deplore the deceptive and underhanded tactics by which this footage was obtained and selectively edited to fit a pre-determined narrative, the company said in a statement to Fox News. Twitter is committed to enforcing our rules without bias and empowering every voice on our platform, in accordance with the Twitter Rules. Recommended Video: Melania Trumps First Year as First Lady From NTD.tv U.S. Military B-2 Stealth Bombers Deployed Within Range of North Korea Nuclear-capable U.S. military B-2 stealth bombers are headed to Guam the U.S. territory closest to North Korea. The Pacific Air Forces announced the deployment of three B-2 Spirit aircraft, along with 200 U.S. Air Force airmen on Jan. 9, according to the Washington Examiner. The B-2s will supplement the Andersen Air Force Bases supply of B-1 Lancers. Guam has been a key U.S. territory for military might in Asia since World War II. Besides its strategic location in the Pacific, allowing access to Asia, it provides support activities to the U.S. military. Last summer, Guam became the target of bombing threats by the North Korean regime. Even with U.S. bases located much closer to North Korea, Guam is still a key location. As Pacific Daily News reported, unlike other U.S. military bases in the region, the United States maintains the most decision-making freedom on Guam. The deployment announcement of the stealth aircraft came the same day North Korean and South Korean delegations held talks, the first time since 2015. As a result of the talks, North Korean representatives said they will send athletes and a delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Reuters reported. I think President Trump deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks, South Korean President Moon Jae In said at a news conference. It could be a resulting work of the U.S.-led sanctions and pressure. The head delegate from North Korea at the talks said that his regimes weapons are only pointed at the United States and not at Russia, China, or South Korea. He made the comments while refusing questions from South Korean delegates about his regimes nuclear program, reported Fox. Experts had suggested that North Korea proposed the talks as a way to disrupt cooperation between South Korea and the United States, but South Korean representatives claim that they support the position of President Trump on denuclearizing North Korea and will not sway. South Korea will go in tandem with the United States in dealing with North Korea, said Moons Special Adviser for Foreign Affairs and National Security, Chung-in Moon, via Fox. Precisely From NTD.tv Recommended Video: How doctors in China turn into murderers U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 20, 2017. (Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images) US Sanctions Iranian Regime Over Human Rights Abuses President to issue one more waiver on Iran's nuclear program, while simultaneously seeking key changes to improve the deal The Trump administration is imposing sanctions on 14 Iranian entities and individuals responsible for severe human rights abuses, censorship, and supporting sanctioned weapons proliferators. President Trump will also announce that he is providing one more waiver on the Iran nuclear agreement while he simultaneously works with European partners to make key changes to the Iran nuclear agreement reached in 2015. The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice, said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin in a statement. We are targeting the Iranian regime, including the head of Irans judiciary, for its appalling mistreatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest against their government. A senior administration official briefing reporters on the matter said that the Trump administration is especially concerned with those who are imprisoned solely for using their freedom to assemble or express their political views. Tens of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in recent weeks to call for a change to Irans Islamic regime, which has been in power since 1979. Students and police face off at the University of Tehran during a demonstration in Irans capital, Tehran, on Dec. 30, 2017. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) The most prominent person targeted by the sanctions is Sadegh Amoli Larijani, the head of Irans judiciary. Larijani has oversight over Irans sentencing, including giving death sentences to juveniles and ordering the torture of prisoners. According to the administration official, the torture methods include the use of amputation. Also targeted under the sanctions is the Rajaee Shahr prison and its director Gholamreza Ziaei. The prison is used to conduct serious human rights abuses, according to the Treasury Department. Among the abuses committed against imprisoned anti-government protesters are the denial of medical care, sexual abuse, unlawful executions, and torture. According to the senior official, in one case, a prisoner had his eye gouged out by prison officials. The sanctions also target Irans Supreme Council of Cyberspace. According to the senior official, the council is used by the Iranian regime to prohibit or limit freedom of expression. The council is responsible for restricting access to thousands of websites, including international news organizations, that the regime deems a threat to its rule. A different senior administration official who briefed reporters on the sanctions said that they will send a very strong message that the United States wont allow continued abuses. The senior official said that with the targeting of Larijani, whose brother is Ali Larijani, the speaker of Irans Parliament, the sanctions will go to the top of the regime. Renegotiating Nuclear Agreement President Trump will extend one more waiver on Iran nuclear sanctions while his administration simultaneously works with European nations who are part of the Iran nuclear agreement, officially called The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to make key improvements to the deal. Friday is the deadline for the president to certify that Iran is in compliance with the agreement. This is the last such waiver he will issue, one of the senior officials said. The main two changes sought by the president are the following: an end to the time limitations on the agreement and the inclusion of Irans ballistic missile program under the agreement. Under the agreement as reached between the Obama administration and Iran in 2015, key provisions are set to expire after ten years. Of specific concern is the lifting of the restrictions on uranium enrichment in 2026, which experts believe would put Iran within reach of a nuclear weapon within six months. A senior administration official said that Trump will push for these restrictions to remain effective for an indefinite amount of time. Irans ballistic missile program was not covered under the 2015 agreement, but instead under a separate UN resolution. This means that the multiple violations Iran has committed in continuing its ballistic missile development have no bearing on the validity of the nuclear deal. The senior administration official said that Iran continues to spend millions of dollars on its ballistic missile program. Under the agreement President Barack Obama reached with Iran, the regime in Tehran gained access to more than $100 billion in assets that had been frozen under sanctions. It also received $1.7 billion in cash from the U.S. government. While many Iranians had hoped that the money would benefit Irans economy, most of it is believed to have been used to develop Irans military. Over the past year, Iran has accelerated the development of its advanced missile technology and has continued to influence the conflict in Yemen and to arm the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Recommended Video: President Donald Trump: Year 1 Woman Kills Her Two Children and Herself By Lethal Mix of Drugs in Tragic London Murder-Suicide A mother who killed herself and her two young children with fatal overdoses of drugs left a note saying no one is to separate me from my babies, an inquest heard on Thursday, Jan. 11. Dolce-Mai Dada, 9, and Rhys Dada, 3, were found dead last January in their home in Greenwich, southeast London, the Daily Mail reported, alongside their 28-year-old mother Sydnie-Blu Macfarlane. All were in bed together, covered by a duvet. The children were found to have ingested a lethal mix of drugs. A handwritten note was found in the house stating We are to be buried together. No one is to separate me from my babies, the inquest heard, the Mirror reported. Macfarlane had reportedly fallen into despair. Just days before her death Macfarlane reportedly told a friend she had nothing to live for. She said she was facing eviction from her home, and had recently fallen pregnant and suffered a miscarriage. Her former partner Sean Dada was also seeking full custody of their children. Detective Constable Frances Ruocco told the inquest that messages she had reviewed as part of the case suggest she was feeling particularly hopeless. Some messages were said to have referred to infidelity and deception, which she appeared to be very distressed about. A letter found in the womans home addressed to Mum and family read, I guess no one will ever understand why I done what I done. The inquest heard the two children had been given a combination of drugs including heroin substitute methadone, and a bottle of the drug was found in the bedroom near the three bodies. Mum found dead under duvet with her two young children leaves heartbreaking note https://t.co/qP9Shon4XA pic.twitter.com/XKbl9C961M Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) January 12, 2018 According to a testimony by paramedic Anna Williamson, from the London Ambulance Service, when emergency crews gained access to the property, they found notes scattered on the floor and writing on the walls of the living room. She fears for my children and with a mother like me I agree, one of the phrases reportedly stated, and Im taking them away from the toxic around them. Forensic pathologist Dr. Nathaniel Carey said traces of methadone, a powerful opiate normally prescribed to heroin addicts, and diphenhydramine, a common sedative, were both found in the childrens bloodstreams, the Daily Mail reported. There were no injuries to suggest what is called assault or restraint, he said. He told the inquest it was very unlikely the children had taken the drugs by accident and that the dosage would have been lethal. The drug measures were more than sufficient to account for death, the inquest heard. Detective Sergeant Dave Brooks told the inquest the evidence 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. Coroner Andrew Harris adjourned the inquest, scheduled to continue on Friday, Jan. 12. Recommended Video: How doctors in China turn into murderers Woman Returns Home, Finds Another Family Has Moved In A woman returned home from a vacation to find another family living in her new home in South Carolina, according to the Beaufort Gazette. Katherine Lang had bought the property in Beaufort County, South Carolina, in October and was still living in her old house while she tried to sell it. When she visited her new property on Jan 5, to check the pipes hadnt frozen in the cold, she knew something was wrong as she headed up the driveway. Her shed was open and she could see unfamiliar items inside. She heard two voices coming from inside in house, and then went in to investigate. I said What are you doing in my house? Lang told the Gazette. It became clear to me what happened. Another family had settled in, scammed into renting the property for $850 per month. The victim of the scam was 22-year-old, Tyggra Shepherd, who had moved to the area with her husband for better job prospects. I was so crushed when I found out it was a scam, Shepherd said. Finding a place to live in Beaufort is hard when you need something you can afford and still raise a family adequately. Shepherd had responded to a post on a Beaufort Facebook group offering homes for rent. After wiring $1,150 per a fake lease agreement she was told the keys would be mailed. She was then told there had been a problemthe driver delivering the keys had been arrested and the truck impounded. She made it very believable, Shepherd said, describing how she told her that the back door was open and she could just go ahead and move in Shepherd said the scammer had given the name of Rosie Ruggles, according to the Gazette. According to the Daily Mail, Ruggles did not respond to a request for comment. Lang called the number that Shepherd had been given for the alleged scammer, according to The Gazette. A person answered, but hung up after Lang identified herself. The person Shepherd communicated with blocked her on Facebook and also blocked her number. Recommended Video: Brazen Pickpockets Steal 1,000 From London Pensioner Zoo Kills Healthy Lion Cubs Because They Became Surplus Animals A zoo in Sweden admitted to killing healthy lion cubs because it could no longer keep them. Boras Djurpark, an animal park in western Sweden, said it had euthanized nine healthy lion cubs since 2012 because they were not able to sell or relocate them, reported the Independent. Bo Kjellson, chief executive of the park, told SVT that healthy animals are sometimes euthanized if they were rejected by their pride or cannot be relocated elsewhere. I think they were killed after two years, Kjellson told the Swedish news station. At that time we had tried to sell or relocate them to other zoos for a long time but unfortunately there were no zoos that could receive them, and when the aggressions became too big in the group we had to remove some animals. It had to be them, he added. Its no secret in any way and we do not try to hide that were working this way. So its unfortunately a natural path for groups of lions. As for other lions, Kjellson said they are unsure what will happen to them, reported the Independent. Currently, the group works well, but some of them may become surplus animals, and then we will try to place them elsewhere, Kjellson told SVT. Since 2012, 13 cubs were born to three separate litters, reported the Independent. Out of the 13, only two have survivedtwo died by natural causes and the remaining were put down. According to Swedish media, the cubs that were put down were named Simba, Rafiki, Nala, Sarabi, Kiara, Banzai, Kovu, Potter, and Weasley. Simba, Rafiki, Nala, and Sarabi were born in spring 2012 and were all put down the following year. Kiara, Banzai, and Kovu were born in spring 2014 and were euthanized in 2015. Potter and Weasley who were born in 2016 were put down on Jan. 9. Their siblings, Granger and Dolores were sent to an unnamed zoo in the UK. The zoo has been criticized for the handling of the lion cubs. Helena Pedersen, a researcher in critical animal studies, told SVT that it is wrong for the zoo to use these animals for marketing purposes when they are born and people do not know what happens to them after they grow up. It is clear that there is a contrast to the publics perception of what a zoo is, Pederson told the news station. Its an economic activity that the zoos do. I think everybody who works in a zoo knows that what draws people is the animal pups born in the spring. And what happens to the animals when they grow up is another question, she continued. To kill animals as part of the organization, I think that upsets quite a few, she added. It is not only Pederson who was upset by the zoos decision, social media users have also expressed their anger over the killings. From NTD.tv Recommended Video: Wranglers Wrestle With Alligator to Remove Eggs From Nest The following companies are subsidiares of Clean Harbors: Ace/Allwaste Environmental Services of Indiana LLC, Altair Disposal Services LLC, Aquilex Finance LLC, Aquilex Intermediate Corporate Holdings LLC, Aquilex Intermediate Holdings LLC, Aquilex LLC, Baton Rouge Disposal LLC, Bridgeport Disposal LLC, CARBER Holdings Inc., CB Canada Acquisition Inc., CB Canada Holdings Inc., CB US Holdings Inc., CH International Holdings LLC, Car-Ber Investments Inc., Clean Harbors Andover LLC, Clean Harbors Aragonite LLC, Clean Harbors Arizona LLC, Clean Harbors BDT LLC, Clean Harbors Baton Rouge LLC, Clean Harbors Buttonwillow LLC, Clean Harbors Canada Inc., Clean Harbors Caribe Inc., Clean Harbors Chattanooga LLC, Clean Harbors Clive LLC, Clean Harbors Coffeyville LLC, Clean Harbors Colfax LLC, Clean Harbors Deer Park LLC, Clean Harbors Deer Trail LLC, Clean Harbors Development LLC, Clean Harbors Disposal Services Inc., Clean Harbors El Dorado LLC, Clean Harbors Energy Services ULC, Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Services Corp., Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Services LP, Clean Harbors Energy and Industrial Western Ltd., Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc., Clean Harbors Exploration Services Inc., Clean Harbors Exploration Services LP, Clean Harbors Exploration Services ULC, Clean Harbors Florida LLC, Clean Harbors Grassy Mountain LLC, Clean Harbors India LLP, Clean Harbors Industrial Services Canada Inc., Clean Harbors Industrial Services Inc., Clean Harbors Innu Environmental Services Inc., Clean Harbors Kansas LLC, Clean Harbors Kingston Facility Corporation, Clean Harbors LaPorte LLC, Clean Harbors Laurel LLC, Clean Harbors Lodging Services LP, Clean Harbors Lodging Services ULC, Clean Harbors Lone Mountain LLC, Clean Harbors Mercier Inc., Clean Harbors Pecatonica LLC, Clean Harbors Production Services ULC, Clean Harbors Quebec Inc., Clean Harbors Recycling Services of Chicago LLC, Clean Harbors Recycling Services of Ohio LLC, Clean Harbors Reidsville LLC, Clean Harbors San Jose LLC, Clean Harbors San Leon Inc., Clean Harbors Services Inc., Clean Harbors Surface Rentals Partnership, Clean Harbors Surface Rentals ULC, Clean Harbors Surface Rentals USA Inc., Clean Harbors Tennessee LLC, Clean Harbors Westmorland LLC, Clean Harbors White Castle LLC, Clean Harbors Wichita LLC, Clean Harbors Wilmington LLC, Clean Harbors of Baltimore Inc. (DE Corp.), Clean Harbors of Braintree Inc., Clean Harbors of Connecticut Inc. (DE), Confined Space Services L.L.C., Cousins Waste Control LLC, Crowley Disposal LLC, Cyn Oil Corporation, Debusk Industrial Services Company LLC, Disposal Properties LLC, Emerald Services Inc., EnviroSORT Inc., EnviroSORT Inc., Eveready, Evergreen Holdings, GSX Disposal LLC, Global Vapor Control Inc., Green View Technologies Inc., HPC PetroServ Inc., Hilliard Disposal LLC, HydroChem Canada ULC, HydroChem Industrial Cleaning LLC, HydroChem LLC, HydroChemPSC, IISG Central Region LLC, IISG Gulf Coast LLC, IISG Real Estate LLC, Industrial Service Oil Company Inc., Inland Industrial Services Group LLC, Inland Waters Pollution Control Services LLC, Inland Waters of Ohio LLC, Jesco Industrial Service LLC, LJ Energy Services Holdings LLC, LJ Energy Services Intermediate Holding Corp., Lonestar Sylvan Inc., Lonestar Vacuum Inc., Lonestar West, Lonestar West Enterprises LLC, Lonestar West Inc., Lonestar West Services LLC, Murphy's Waste Oil Service Inc., Northeast Casualty Insurance Company, Omnichem LLC, PMS Industrial Services LLC, PSC Industrial Holdings Corp., PSC Industrial Inc., PSC Industrial Outsourcing LP, PSC Industrial Outsourcing of Michigan LLC, PSC LDAR Services LLC, Peak Energy Services, Philip Services/North Central LLC, Plaquemine Remediation Services LLC, Power Vac Construction L.L.C., RMF Aquilex Corp., Roebuck Disposal LLC, Romic Environmental Technologies, Rosemead Oil Products Inc., SK D'Incineration Inc., Safety-Kleen, Safety-Kleen Canada Inc., Safety-Kleen Envirosystems Company, Safety-Kleen Envirosystems Company of Puerto Rico Inc., Safety-Kleen Inc., Safety-Kleen International Inc., Safety-Kleen Systems Inc., Safety-Kleen of California Inc., Sawyer Disposal Services LLC, Seaport Environmental LLC, Service Chemical LLC, Speed Industrial Corporate LLC, Speed Industrial Service Catalyst LLC, Speed Industrial Service LLC, Speed Industrial Service of Beaumont LLC, Speed Industrial Services of Lake Charles LLC, Speed Industrial Services of Louisiana LLC, Speed Industrial Services of Texas LLC, Spring Grove Resource Recovery Inc., The Solvents Recovery Service of New Jersey Inc., Thermo Fluids, Thermo Fluids Inc., Tri-vax Enterprises Ltd., Tulsa Disposal LLC, Universal Environmental, Veolia North Americas U.S. Industrial Cleaning Services Division, Versant Energy Services Inc., Versant Energy Services LP, and Vulsay Industries Ltd.. Read More Your Ultimate Investing Toolkit Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools: Portfolio Monitoring Top Stock Lists Premium Reports Stock Screeners Live News Feed Premium Support Free for your first month. Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, including auto financing, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. Its Wealth Management segment provides a suite of advice-based solutions and strategies to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutional clients. The company's Insurance segment offers life, health, home, auto, travel, wealth, annuities, and reinsurance advice and solutions; and business insurance services to individual, business, and group clients through its advice centers, RBC insurance stores, and mobile advisors; digital, mobile, and social platforms; independent brokers; and travel partners. Its Investor & Treasury Services segment provides asset servicing, custody, payments, and treasury services to financial and other investors; and fund and investment administration, shareholder, private capital, performance measurement and compliance monitoring, distribution, transaction banking, cash and liquidity management, foreign exchange, and global securities finance services. The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, advisory services, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, private equity firms, and governments. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The following companies are subsidiares of UnitedHealth Group: 1070715 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1st Avenue Pharmacy Inc., 310 Canyon Medical LLC, 4C MSO LLC, 4C Medical Group PLC, 5995 Minnetonka LLC, ABCO International Holdings LLC, ACN Group IPA of New York Inc., ACN Group of California Inc., AHN Accountable Care Organization LLC, AHN Central Services LLC, AHN Target Holdings LLC, AMIL International S.a.r.l., APS Assistencia Personalizada a Saude Ltda., ASC Holdings of New Jersey LLC, ASC Network LLC, ASC Operators-East Bay LLC, ASC Operators-San Francisco LLC, ASC Operators-San Luis Obispo LLC, ASC Operators-Santa Rosa LLC, ASC Operators-South Bay LLC, ASV-HOPCo-SCA Cornerstone LLC, ASV-HOPCo-SCA Florida LLC, AbleTo Behavioral Health Services P.C., AbleTo Inc., Accurate Rx Pharmacy Consulting LLC, Administradora Clinica La Colina S.A.S., Administradora Country S.A.S., Administradora Medica Centromed S.A., Advanced Surgery Center of Clifton LLC, Advanced Surgical Center LLC, Advanced Surgical Hospital LLC, Advocate Condell Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Southwest Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.C., Advocate-SCA Partners LLC, Aliansalud Entidad Promotora de Salud S.A., All Savers Insurance Company, All Savers Life Insurance Company of California, Alliance Surgical Center LLC, Allina Health Heart and Vascular Surgery Center LLC, Allina Health Surgery Center-Brooklyn Park LLC, Aloha Surgical Center LLC, Ambient Healthcare Inc., Ambient Holdings Inc., AmeriChoice, AmeriChoice Corporation, AmeriChoice of New Jersey Inc., American Health Network of Indiana Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Indiana II LLC, American Health Network of Indiana LLC, American Health Network of Kentucky LLC, American Health Network of Ohio Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Ohio II LLC, American Health Network of Ohio LLC, American Physicians Inc., Amico Saude Ltda., Amil, Amil Assistencia Medica Internacional S.A., Angiografia e Hemodinamica Madre Theodora Ltda., Anne Arundel-SCA Holdings LLC, Anne Arundel-SCA Surgicenter LLC, Antelope Valley Surgery Center L.P., Analisis Clinicos ML S.A.C., Apothecary Holdings Inc., AppleCare Medical Management LLC, Aquitania Chilean Holding SpA, Arcadia JV Holdings LLC, Arcadia Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., ArchWell Health LLC, ArchWell Health MSO LLC, ArchWell Health Professional Services Holding Co., ArchWell Health Professional Services of Alabama LLC, ArchWell Health Professional Services of North Carolina P.C., ArchWell Health Professional Services of Oklahoma LLC, Archwell Health Professional Services of Arizona LLC, Archwell Health Professional Services of Nebraska LLC, Arise Physician Group, Arizona Physicians IPA Inc., Arlington Surgery Center LLC, Aspectus Inc., Associacao Lusiadas Knowledge Center Health Education and Research, Audax Health Solutions LLC, Aurora Hospitalist P.C., Austin Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Avella Specialty Pharmacy, Aventura Medical Tower Surgery Center LLC, Avery Parent Holdings Inc., Aveta Inc., AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings LLC, AxelaCare LLC, B.R.A.S.S. Partnership in Commendam, BOSC Holdings LLC, BSC Holdings LLC, Ball Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Banmedica Colombia S.A.S., Banmedica Internacional SpA, Banmedica S.A., Barranca Surgery Center LLC, Beach Surgical Holdings II LLC, Beach Surgical Holdings III LLC, Beach Surgical Holdings LLC, Beaver Medical Group P.C., Bedford Physicians Risk Retention Group Inc., Behavioral Healthcare Options Inc., Beltway Surgery Centers L.L.C., Benefit Administration for the Self Employed L.L.C., Benefitter Insurance Solutions Inc., Bergan Mercy Surgery Center LLC, Bergen-Passaic Cataract Laser and Surgery Center LLC, Bessler MD PLLC, Bind Benefits Inc., Bind LH Holdings Inc., Bind Re Inc., Birmingham Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Birmingham Outpatient Surgical Center LLC, Bloomfield ASC LLC, Blue Ridge Day Surgery Center L.P., Blue Ridge GP LLC, Blue Ridge Properties LLC, Boca Raton Outpatient Surgery & Laser Center LTD., Bordeaux Barbados Holdings I SRL, Bordeaux Barbados Holdings II SRL, Bordeaux Barbados Holdings III S.r.l., Bordeaux Holding SpA, Bordeaux International Holdings Inc., Bordeaux UK Holdings I Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings III Limited, Bosque Medical Center Ltda., Brandon Ambulatory Surgery Center LC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 102 LLC, BriovaRx of Florida Inc., BriovaRx of Maine Inc., BriovaRx of Massachusetts LLC, CCEC Anesthesia Management LLC, CDC Holdings Colombia S.A.S., CLISA Clinica de Santo Antonio S.A., CMO Centro Medico de Oftalmologia S/S Ltda., CMS Central de Manipulacao e Servicos Farmaceuticos Ltda., COI Clinicas Oncologicas Integradas S.A., Cabin Enterprises LLC, Cabin Holdings LLC, California Medical Group Insurance Company Risk Retention Group, Camp Hill Ambulatory Centers, Camp Hill-SCA Centers LLC, Capital City Medical Group L.L.C., Cardinal Holding Company LLC, Care Improvement Plus Group Management LLC, Care Improvement Plus South Central Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus Wisconsin Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus of Texas Insurance Company, Care Logistics LLC, CareMount Dental Member LLC, CareMount Health Solutions ACO LLC, CareMount Health Solutions Employer LLC, CareMount Health Solutions LLC, CareMount Holding LLC, CareMount Medical Foundation Inc., CareMount Value Partners IPA LLC, Carr PLLC, Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha Ltda., Castle Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Castle Rock SurgiCenter LLC, Catalyst360 LLC, Catamaran 2 Unlimited Company, Catamaran Finance Ireland Unlimited Company, Catamaran S.a.r.l., Cedar Park JV Partners LLC, Cedar Park Surgery Center LLC, Cemed Care Empresa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Center for Quality Improvement LLC, Center for Restorative Surgery at Maple Grove LLC, Center for Surgery of North Coast L.P., Central Indiana Care Organization LLC, Central Ohio Care Organization LLC, CentriHealth Corporation, CentrifyHealth LLC, Centro Medico Hospitalar Pitangueiras Ltda., Centro Odontologico Americano S.A.C., Centro de Entrenamiento Capacitacion en Reanimacion y Prevencion Limitada, Centro de Servicios Compartidos Banmedica SpA, Centromed Quilpue S.A., Centros Medicos y Dentales Multimed Ltda., Centura-SCA Holdings LLC, Centurion Casualty Company, Channel Islands Surgicenter L.P., Channel Islands Surgicenter Properties LLC, Charleston Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Charleston Surgery Properties LLC, Charlotte Surgery Center LLC, Charlotte Surgery Properties LTD., Charlotte-SC LLC, Chatham Orthopaedic ASC LLC, Childrens Surgery Center LLC, Citrus Regional Surgery Center L.P., Claims Management Systems Inc., Cleburne Surgical Center LLC, Clinical Partners of Colorado Springs LLC, Clinton Partners LLC, Clinica Alameda SpA, Clinica Bio Bio SpA, Clinica Ciudad del Mar S.A., Clinica Davila y Servicios Medicos S.p.A., Clinica Iquique S.A., Clinica Medico Cirurgica de Santa Tecla S.A., Clinica Portoazul S.A., Clinica San Felipe S.A., Clinica Santa Maria S.p.A., Clinica Sanchez Ferrer S.A., Clinica Vespucio S.A., Clinica del Country S.A.S., Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare Inc., Coalition for Advanced Pharmacy Services Inc., Cobranzas Banmedica SpA, Cogent Healthcare IPA of New York Inc., Cogent Healthcare Inc., Cogent Healthcare Management of New York Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Arizona P.C., Cogent Healthcare of California Prof. Corp., Cogent Healthcare of Georgia P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Illinois LLC, Cogent Healthcare of Iowa P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Jackson MS LLC, Cogent Healthcare of Jacksonville LLC, Cogent Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Missouri Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Montana P.C., Cogent Healthcare of New Jersey P.C., Cogent Healthcare of North Carolina P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Oregon P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Pensacola L.L.C., Cogent Healthcare of Tennessee P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Washington P.C., Cogent Medical Care P.C., Cogent Patient Safety Organization Inc., Cogent/Endion Medical Care of New York P.C., Collaborative Care Holdings LLC, Collaborative Care Services Inc., Collaborative Realty LLC, Colmedica Medicina Prepagada S.A., Colonial Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Colorado Innovative Physician Solutions Inc., Colorado Springs Surgery Center Ltd., Comfort Care Transportation LLC, Comprehensive Hospital Physicians of Florida Inc., ConnectYourCare Inc., ConnectYourCare LLC, Connecticut Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Connecticut Surgery Properties LLC, Connecticut Surgical Center LLC, Consorcio Regenero S.A., Constructora Inmobiliaria Magapoq S.A., Consumer Wellness Solutions Inc., Continuum Physicians Group Inc., Continuum Physicians Group of Washington PLLC, Cornell Surgicenter LLC, Cornerstone Surgery Center LLC, Cornerstone Surgicare LLC, Corpus Christi Endoscopy Center L.L.P., Country Scan Ltda., Critical Care Physician of New York P.C., Critical Care Physicians of Illinois LLC, Critical Care Physicians of New Jersey PC, Critical Care Physicians of Pennsylvania P.C., Cross Timbers Surgery Center LLC, Cypress Care Inc., DBP Services of New York IPA Inc., DSP Flint Real Estate LLC, DSP-Building C LLC, DTC Surgery Center LLC, DWIC of Tampa Bay Inc., Dallas Inpatient Specialist PLLC, Danbury Surgical Center L.P., Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company LLC, Definity Health, Dental Benefit Providers Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of California Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois Inc., Denton Endoscopy Surgery Center LLC, Denton Surgery Center LLC, Derry Surgical Center LLC, Diagnostico Ecotomografico Centromed Ltda., Diasnostico por Imagenes Centromed Ltda., Digestive Disease Center L.P., Dilab Medicina Nuclear Ltda., Diplomat Blocker LLC, Diplomat Corporate Properties LLC, Diplomat Pharmacy, Diplomat Pharmacy Inc., Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy Great Lakes Distribution Center LLC, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy of Chicago LLC, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy of Ft. Lauderdale LLC, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy of Los Angeles County LLC, Distance Learning Network Inc., Divisadero Holdings LLC, DocASAP Inc., DocASAP India Technologies Private Limited, DocASAP US LLC, Doctor + S.A.C., Dry Creek Surgery Center LLC, Dublin Surgery Center LLC, Duluth Surgical Suites LLC, Durable Medical Equipment Inc., E Street Endoscopy LLC, EM Orange Tree LLC, EP Campus I LLC, EPIC Health Plan, EPIC Management Services LLC, East Bay Endoscopy Center L.P., East Brunswick Surgery Center LLC, Echo Locum Tenens Inc., Electronic Network Systems Inc., Elual Participacoes S.A., Emerald Coast Surgery Center L.P., Emisar Pharma Services LLC, Emmaus Holdings LLC, Emmaus Surgical Center LLC, Empire Physician Management Company LLC, Empremedica S. A., Endion Hospitalist North P.C., Endion Hospitalist of Western New York P.C., Endion Medical Healthcare P.C., Endion Medical Services P.C., Endoscopy Center Affiliates Inc., Enterprise Life Insurance Company, Equian, Equian LLC, Equian Parent Corp., Esho Empresa de Servicos Hospitalares S.A., Everett MSO Inc., Excelsior Insurance Brokerage Inc., Executive Health Resources Inc., Executive Surgery Center L.L.C., Eye Clinic Oftalmologia Clinico Cirurgica e Diagnostico Ltda., Eye Specialists Surgery Centers LLC, FMG Holdings LLC, Family Health Care Services, Family Home Hospice Inc., Ferrell Physician Services P.C., Fideicomiso Clinica Barranquilla Portoazul FA-517, First Coast Orthopedic Center LLC, First Family Insurance LLC, Florence Surgery Center L.P., For Health Inc., For Health of Arizona Inc., Fort Sutter Medical Building a California Limited Partnership, Fort Worth Endoscopy Centers LLC, Fortified Provider Network Inc., Foundation Surgery Affiliate General of Huntingdon Valley LLC, Foundation Surgery Affiliate of Huntingdon Valley L.P., Franklin Surgical Center LLC, Freedom Life Insurance Company of America, Freeway Surgicenter of Houston LLC, Frontier Medex Tanzania Limited, FrontierMEDEX Inc., FrontierMEDEX Kenya Limited, FrontierMEDEX US Inc., Fundacion Banmedica, GLBESC LLC, GRANTS PASS SURGERY CENTER LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center LLC, Gainesville Surgery Center L.P., Gainesville Surgery Properties LLC, Genoa, Genoa Healthcare Inc., Genoa QoL Wholesale LLC, Genoa Technology Canada Inc., Genoa Technology Inc., Genoa Telepsychiatry Inc., Genoa of Arkansas LLC, Gladiolus Surgery Center L.L.C., Glenwood Surgical Center L.P., Glenwood-SC Inc., Global One Ventures LLC, Golden Gate Endoscopy Center LLC, Golden Outlook Inc., Golden Rule Financial Corporation, Golden Rule Insurance Company, Golden Triangle Surgicenter L.P., Grandview Surgery Center LTD., Greater New Haven ASC LLC, Greensboro Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Greenville Surgery Center LLC, Greenway Surgical Suites LLC, Grossmont Surgery Center L.P., Grove Place Surgery Center L.L.C., H&W Indemnity SPC Ltd., H.I. Investments Holding Company LLC, HCP ACO California LLC, HCentive Technology India Private Limited, HFHS-SCA Holdings LLC, HMG Holding Corporation, HMG Holdings LLC, HMP of Baltimore USH P.C., Harken Health Insurance Company, Harrison Endo Surgical Center LLC, Hawthorn Place Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Hays JV Partners LLC, Hays Surgery Center LLC, Health Care-ONE Insurance Agency Inc., Health Inventures Employment Solutions LLC, Health Inventures LLC, Health Plan of Nevada Inc., HealthCare Partners ASC-LB LLC, HealthCare Partners Affiliates Medical Group, HealthCare Partners Management Services California LLC, HealthCare Partners RE LLC, HealthEast Surgery Center-Maplewood LLC, HealthFirst IPA Inc., HealthMarkets Group Inc., HealthMarkets Inc., HealthMarkets Insurance Agency Inc., HealthMarkets LLC, HealthMarkets Services Inc., HealthSCOPE Holdings Inc., HealthScope Benefits Inc., Healthcare Solutions Inc., Healthplex America LLC, Healthplex Dental Services Inc., Healthplex I.P.A. Inc., Healthplex Inc., Healthplex Insurance Company, Healthplex of CT Inc., Healthplex of DC Inc., Healthplex of MD Inc., Healthplex of ME Inc., Healthplex of NC Inc., Healthplex of NJ Inc., Healthplex of TX Inc., Heartland Heart and Vascular LLC, Help Seguros de Vida S.A., Help Service S.A., Help SpA, Hemonefro Hemodialise e Nefrologia Ltda, Highlands Ranch Healthcare LLC, Home Medical S.A., Honodav SpA, Hospice Inspiris Holdings Inc., Hospitais Associados de Pernambuco Ltda., Hospital Alvorada Taguatinga Ltda., Hospital Ana Costa S.A., Hospital Santa Helena S.A., Hospital de Clinicas de Jacarepagua Ltda., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of Broome County PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Binghamton P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Buffalo P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Newburgh P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Nyack P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Patchogue P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alabama TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alabama TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alaska TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alaska TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Goodyear Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Nogales Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Phoenix II Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Phoenix Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Sierra Vista Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Tucson II Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Tucson Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arkansas TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arkansas TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Buncombe County PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Apple Valley PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Bakersfield PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Camarillo PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Crescent City PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Fairfield PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Fremont PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Grass Valley PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Jackson PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Oceanside PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Oxnard PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Salinas PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - San Bernardino II PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - San Bernardino PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - San Leandro PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Sonoma PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Stockton II PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Stockton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Thousand Oaks PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Vacaville PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado - Brighton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado - Denver PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut - Manchester LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut - Rockville LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut - Wallingford LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of DC PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of DC TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of DC TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Delaware TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Delaware TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Ft. Lauderdale LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Jacksonville II LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Jacksonville LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Palm Coast LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Fredericksburg LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - Atlanta PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - East Point PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - Lavonia PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - Savannah PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Hawaii - Kealakekua Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Hawaii TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Hawaii TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Idaho - Nampa PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Idaho TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Idaho TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Downers Grove LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Elmhurst LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Rockford LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Winfield LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana - Clinton LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana - Mishawaka LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana - Terre Haute LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa - Cedar Rapids PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa - Mason City PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas - Topeka LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas - 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Dowagiac PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Escanaba PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Grand Blanc PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Grayling PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Kalamazoo PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Plainwell PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Port Huron PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Saginaw PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Tawas City PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Minnesota TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Minnesota TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Mississippi LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Mississippi TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Mississippi TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri - Bridgeton Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri - Richmond Heights Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Billings PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Butte PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Miles City PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Missoula PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Multiple Practice Sites LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nebraska TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nebraska TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Henderson Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Henderson II Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Las Vegas Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Las Vegas II Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada TCG Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada TCS Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Hampshire TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Hampshire TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Jersey - 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Casper LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wyoming TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wyoming TCS LLC, Hospitalists Management Group LLC, Humedica, Humedica Inc., Hygeia Corporation, Hygeia Corporation Ontario, IEC Holdings LLC, IHD Holdings LLC, INOV8 Surgical at Memorial City LLC, INSPIRIS of Texas Physician Group, Illinois Independent Care Network LLC, Imagen Technologies Inc., Impel Consulting Experts L.L.C., Impel Management Services L.L.C., InTouch Pharmacy LLC, Indiana Care Organization LLC, Indiana Endoscopy Centers LLC, Inland Surgery Center L.P., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3001 S.A., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3600 Ltda., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo S.A., Inmobiliaria Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Inmobiliaria Vinamed Ltda., Inmobiliaria e Inversiones Alameda S.A., Inpatient Services P.C., Inpatient Specialists of California P.C., Inspiris, Inspiris Inc., Instituto Radium de Cammpinas Ltda, Inter-Hospital Physicians Association Inc., International Healthcare Services Inc., Inversiones Clinicas Santa Maria SpA, Ironman Holdco Inc., Ironman Intermediate Holdco LLC, Isapre Banmedica S.A., JPM Healthcare LLC, Johnston Surgicare L.P., Joliet Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Jordan Ridge Family Medicine LLC, Joyable Inc., Kansal Inc. A Professional Corporation, Knox Diagnostic Imaging Center LLC, Kokomo Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, LDI Holding Company LLC, LDI Management Services LLC, LGH-A/Golf ASTC L.L.C., LHC Group, La Esperanza del Peru S.A., Laboratorio ROE S.A., Laboratorios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., Landmark Group Holdings LLC, Landmark Health Holdings LLC, Landmark Health LLC, Landmark Health NY IPA LLC, Landmark Health NY PO LLC, Landmark Health Technologies Private Limited, Landmark Health of California LLC, Landmark Health of Massachusetts LLC, Landmark Health of North Carolina LLC, Landmark Health of Oregon LLC, Landmark Health of Pennsylvania LLC, Landmark Health of Washington LLC, Landmark India LLC, Landmark Intermediate Holdings LLC, Landmark MSO LLC, Landmark Medical of Idaho PC, Landmark Medical of Massachusetts PLLC, Landmark Medical of Tennessee PC, Landmark Primary Care LLC, Laser Acquisition Holdings III LLC, Leehar Distributors LLC, Lemhi Ventures Fund I LP, Lemhi Ventures Fund II LP, Level2 Medical Services P.C. Alaska, Lexington Surgery Center Ltd., Liberty Anesthesia Services LLC, LifePrint Health Inc., LifeWell. Ltd. Co., Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization LLC, Limestone Medical Center LLC, Litomedica S.A., Logan Surgical Suites LLC, Lotten-Eyes Oftalmologia Clinica e Cirurgica Ltda., Louisville S.C. Ltd., Louisville-SC Properties Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook L.P., Lusiadas - Parcerias Cascais S.A., Lusiadas A.C.E., Lusiadas Algarve S.A., Lusiadas S.A., Lusiadas SGPS S.A., Lutheran Campus ASC LLC, MAMSI Life and Health Insurance Company, MCNA Health Care Holdings LLC, MCNA Insurance Company, MCNA Systems Corp., MD Ops Inc., MD-Individual Practice Association Inc., ME AHS UC LLC, MGH/SCA LLC, MHC Real Estate Holdings LLC, MIAMI SURGERY CENTER LLC, MSLA Management LLC, Main Line Spine Surgery Center LLC, Managed Care of North America Inc., Managed Physical Network Inc., Mansfield Endoscopy Center LLC, March Holdings Inc., March Vision Care IPA Inc., March Vision Care Inc., March Vision Care of Texas Inc., Marin Health Ventures LLC, Marin Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Marin Surgery Holdings Inc., Marlin Holding Company LLC, Maryland Ambulatory Centers LLC, Maryland-SCA Centers LLC, Massachusetts Assurance Company Ltd. PIC, Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center LLC, McKenzie Surgery Center L.P., MedExpress Primary Care West Virginia Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care Alabama LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Inc. - Ohio, MedExpress Urgent Care Maine Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care New Hampshire Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach LLC, MedSynergies, MedSynergies LLC, Medical Clinic of North Texas PLLC, Medical Hilfe S.A., Medical Support Los Angeles Inc., Medical Surgical Centers of America Inc., Medical Transportation Services LLC, Melbourne Surgery Center LLC, Memorial City Holdings LLC, Memorial City Partners LLC, Memorial Houston Surgery Center LLC, MemorialCare Surgical Center at Orange Coast LLC, MemorialCare Surgical Center at Saddleback LLC, Mesquite Liberty LLC, Metro I Stone Management Ltd., Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee, Midlands Orthopaedics Surgery Center LLC, Midwest Center for Day Surgery LLC, Mile High SurgiCenter LLC, Mississippi Medical Plaza L.C., Mobile Medical Services of New Jersey PC, Mobile-SC LTD., Modality Accountable Care Organisation Limited, Moen M.D. P.C., Mohawk Surgery Center LLC, Monarch Management Services Inc., Montgomery Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Monument Health LLC, Moore Orthopaedic Clinic Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Morris County Surgical Center LLC, Mt. 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Ltd., Optum Health & Technology US LLC, Optum Health Plan of California, Optum Health Services Canada Ltd., Optum Health Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Optum Health Solutions UK Limited, Optum Health and Technology FZ-LLC, Optum Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services LLC, Optum Inc., Optum Infusion Services 100 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 101 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 103 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 200 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 201 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 202 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 203 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 204 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 205 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 206 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 207 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 208 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 209 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 301 LP, Optum Infusion Services 302 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 305 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 308 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 401 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 402 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 403 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 404 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 500 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 501 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 550 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 551 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 553 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 554 Inc., Optum Insurance of Ohio Inc., Optum Labs Inc., Optum Labs LLC, Optum Life Sciences Canada Inc., Optum Management Consulting Shanghai Co. Ltd., Optum Networks of New Jersey Inc., Optum Operations Ireland Unlimited Company, Optum Oregon MSO LLC, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas Inc., Optum Perks LLC, Optum Pharma Services Holdings Inc., Optum Pharmacy 601 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 700 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 701 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 702 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 704 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 705 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 706 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 707 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 800 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 803 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 805 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 806 Inc., Optum Public Sector Solutions Inc., Optum Rocket LLC, Optum SCA CS JV Holdings LLC, Optum Senior Services LLC, Optum Services Inc., Optum Services Ireland Limited, Optum Services Puerto Rico LLC, Optum Solutions UK Holdings Limited, Optum Technology LLC, Optum UK Solutions Group Limited, Optum Venture Global Partners II LP, Optum Venture Global Partners LP, Optum Venture Partners II LP, Optum Venture Partners III LP, Optum Venture Partners LP, Optum Washington Network LLC, Optum Women's and Children's Health LLC, Optum of New York Inc., Optum360 LLC, Optum360 Services Inc., Optum360 Solutions LLC, OptumCare ACO New Mexico LLC, OptumCare ACO West LLC, OptumCare Clinical Trials LLC, OptumCare Colorado ASC LLC, OptumCare Colorado LLC, OptumCare Colorado Springs LLC, OptumCare Endoscopy Center New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Florida CI LLC, OptumCare Florida LLC, OptumCare Holdings Colorado LLC, OptumCare Holdings LLC, OptumCare Management LLC, OptumCare New Mexico LLC, OptumCare New York IPA Inc., OptumCare Portland LLC, OptumCare South Florida LLC, OptumCare Specialty Practices LLC, OptumHealth Care Solutions LLC, OptumHealth Holdings LLC, OptumHealth International B.V., OptumInsight Holdings LLC, OptumInsight Inc., OptumInsight India Private Limited, OptumInsight Life Sciences Inc., OptumRx Administrative Services LLC, OptumRx Discount Card Services LLC, OptumRx Group Holdings Inc., OptumRx Health Solutions LLC, OptumRx Holdings I LLC, OptumRx Holdings LLC, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio LLC, OptumRx IPA III Inc., OptumRx Inc., OptumRx NY IPA Inc., OptumRx PBM of Illinois Inc., OptumRx PBM of Maryland LLC, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin LLC, OptumRx PD of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx Pharmacy Inc., OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada Inc., OptumRx of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumServe Technology Services Inc., Oregon Healthcare Resources LLC, Oregon Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Orlando Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., OrthoNet Holdings Inc., OrthoNet LLC, OrthoNet New York IPA Inc., OrthoNet West Inc., OrthoNet of the South Inc., OrthoWest MSO LLC, Orthology Inc., Orthopedic Center of Palm Beach County LLC, Orthopedic Surgery Center of Palm Beach County LLC, Orthopro Management LLC, Ovations Inc., Owensboro Ambulatory Surgical Facility Ltd., Oxford Benefit Management Inc., Oxford Health Insurance Inc., Oxford Health Plans CT Inc., Oxford Health Plans LLC, Oxford Health Plans NJ Inc., Oxford Health Plans NY Inc., P2P Link LLC, PCCCV Inc., PHC Subsidiary Holdings LLC, PHYSICIANS DAY SURGERY CENTER LLC, PMI Acquisition LLC, PMSI Holdings LLC, PMSI Settlement Solutions LLC, POMCO Inc., POMCO Network Inc., PPH Holdings LLC, PPH Management Company L.L.C., PPH-Columbia Inc., PPH-Gardendale Inc., PS Center LLC, PacifiCare Health Systems, PacifiCare Life Assurance Company, PacifiCare Life and Health Insurance Company, PacifiCare of Arizona Inc., PacifiCare of Colorado Inc., Pacific Cardiovascular Associates Medical Group Inc., Pacific Casualty Company Inc., Pacifico S.A. Entidad Prestadora de Salud, Panama City Surgery Center LLC, Park Hill Surgery Center LLC, Parkway Surgery Center LLC, Patient Care Associates L.L.C., PatientsLikeMe, Patrimonio Autonomo Nueva Clinica, Payment Resolution Services LLC, Peninsula Eye Surgery Center LLC, Penzo Enterprises LLC, Peoples Health, Peoples Health Inc., Perham Physical Therapy LTD, Perimeter Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Pharmaceutical Technologies LLC, Physician Alliance of the Rockies LLC, Physicians Health Choice of Texas LLC, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland Inc., Physicians' Surgery Center of Downey LLC, Pinnacle III LLC, Plano de Saude Ana Costa Ltda., Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico Inc., Plus One Holdings Inc., Pocono Ambulatory Surgery Center Limited, Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes Multiestrategia, Polo Holdco LLC, Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Post-Acute Care Center for Research LLC, Practice Partners in Healthcare LLC, Preferred Care Network Inc., Preferred Care Network of Florida Inc., Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp., Preferred Care Partners Inc., Preferred Care Partners Medical Group Inc., PreferredOne, PreferredOne Administrative Services Inc., PreferredOne Insurance Company, Premier Choice ACO Inc., Premier Surgery Center of Louisville L.P., Premiere Medical Resources LLC, Presidio Surgery Center LLC, Prime Health Inc., PrimeCare Medical Network Inc., PrimeCare of Citrus Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Corona Inc., PrimeCare of Hemet Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Inland Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Moreno Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Redlands Inc., PrimeCare of Riverside Inc., PrimeCare of San Bernardino Inc., PrimeCare of Sun City Inc., PrimeCare of Temecula Inc., PrimeDoc St. Francis P.C., PrimeDoc of Richmond P.C., ProHEALTH Care Associates L.L.P., ProHEALTH Care Associates of New Jersey LLP, ProHEALTH Medical Management LLC, ProHealth Physicians ACO LLC, ProHealth Physicians Inc., ProHealth Proton Center Management LLC, ProHealth/CareMount Dental Management LLC, Procura Management Inc., Professional Coverage Services PLLC, Progressive Enterprises Holdings Inc., Progressive Medical LLC, Promotora Country S.A., Pronounced Health Solutions Inc., Prosemedic S.A.C., Prospero Benefits Management LLC, Prospero Care Management LLC, Prospero Management Services LLC, Providence & SCA Development LLC, Providence & SCA Off-Campus Holdings LLC, Providence & SCA On-Campus Holdings LLC, Providence & SCA Outreach Markets Holdings LLC, Pulse Platform LLC, QoL Acquisition Holdings Corp., R Cubed Inc., RABessler M.D. P.C., ROC Surgery LLC, ROCS Holdings LLC, RX Ricardo Campos Ltda., Rally Health Inc., ReMedics LLC, Real Appeal Inc., Redding Surgery Center LLC, Redlands Ambulatory Surgery Center, Redlands-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., Reliant MSO LLC, Reliant Medical Group Inc., Reliant Medical Group The Endoscopy Center LLC, Research Surgical Center LLC, Resonancia Magnetica de Colombia Ltda., Resonancia Magnetica del Country S.A., RightCare Solutions Inc., River Valley ASC LLC, Riverside Corporate Wellness LLC, Riverside Electronic Healthcare Resources Inc., Riverside Medical Management LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Meadowlands LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Newark LLC, Robert A. Bessler MD PLLC, Rockville Eye Surgery Center LLC, Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization Incorporated, Rush Oak Brook Surgery Center LLC, SC Affiliates LLC, SCA AHN JV Holdings LLC, SCA Alaska Surgery Center inc., SCA Athens LLC, SCA Austin Holdings LLC, SCA Austin Medical Center Holdings LLC, SCA Aventura Holdings LLC, SCA BOSC Holdings LLC, SCA Bloomfield Holdings LLC, SCA Cedar Park Holdings LLC, SCA Clifton LLC, SCA Colorado Springs Holdings LLC, SCA Community Service Foundation, SCA Cottonwood Holdings LLC, SCA Danbury Surgical Center LLC, SCA Denver Holdings LLC, SCA Development LLC, SCA Duluth Holdings LLC, SCA Duncanville Holdings LLC, SCA Duncanville MSO LLC, SCA ESSC Holdings LLC, SCA Englewood Holdings LLC, SCA Global One Holdings LLC, SCA Greenway Holdings LLC, SCA Grove Creek Holdings LLC, SCA Guilford Holdings LLC, SCA Hays Holdings LLC, SCA Health Value Enterprise LLC, SCA Heartland Holdings LLC, SCA High Point Holdings LLC, SCA HoldCo Inc., SCA Holding Company Inc., SCA Holdings Inc., SCA IEC Holdings LLC, SCA Indiana Holdings LLC, SCA Lutheran Holdings LLC, SCA Maple Grove Holdings LLC, SCA Mohawk Holdings LLC, SCA Murrells Inlet LLC, SCA Northern Utah Holdings LLC, SCA Northwest Holdings LLC, SCA Outside New Jersey LLC, SCA Pacific Holdings Inc., SCA Pacific Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Palisades Holdings LLC, SCA Pennsylvania Holdings LLC, SCA Pinnacle Holdings LLC, SCA Premier Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, SCA Providence Holdings LLC, SCA ROCS Holdings LLC, SCA Rockledge JV LLC, SCA Rush Oak Brook Holdings LLC, SCA SSSC Holdings LLC, SCA Sage Medical LLC, SCA Sage Medical MSO LLC, SCA San Diego Holdings LLC, SCA Skyway Holdings LLC, SCA South Ogden Holdings LLC, SCA Southwestern PA LLC, SCA Specialists of Florida LLC, SCA Specialty Holdings of Connecticut LLC, SCA Stonegate Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Surgicare of Laguna Hills LLC, SCA Teammate Support Network, SCA West Health Holdings LLC, SCA Westgreen Holdings LLC, SCA Woodbury Holdings LLC, SCA eCode Solutions Private Limited, SCA of Clarksville Inc., SCA-Albuquerque Surgery Properties Inc., SCA-Alliance LLC, SCA-Anne Arundel LLC, SCA-Applecare Partners LLC, SCA-Bethesda LLC, SCA-Blue Ridge LLC, SCA-Bonita Springs LLC, SCA-Brandon LLC, SCA-Castle Rock LLC, SCA-Central Florida LLC, SCA-Charleston LLC, SCA-Chatham LLC, SCA-Chevy Chase LLC, SCA-Citrus Inc., SCA-Colonial Partners LLC, SCA-Colorado Springs LLC, SCA-Connecticut Partners LLC, SCA-DRY CREEK LLC, SCA-Davenport LLC, SCA-Denver LLC, SCA-Denver Physicians Holdings LLC, SCA-Derry LLC, SCA-Doral LLC, SCA-Downey LLC, SCA-Dublin LLC, SCA-Encinitas Inc., SCA-Eugene Inc., SCA-First Coast LLC, SCA-Florence LLC, SCA-Fort Collins Inc., SCA-Fort Walton Inc., SCA-Franklin LLC, SCA-Frederick LLC, SCA-Freeway Holdings LLC, SCA-Ft. 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Ex Los Leones La Calera, Servisalud Inmobiliaria S.A., Servisalud S.A. Ex Los Carrera Quilpue, Shark Holdings P.C., Sierra Dental Plan Inc., Sierra Health Services Inc, Sierra Health Services Inc., Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company Inc., Sierra Health-Care Options Inc., Sierra Home Medical Products Inc., Sierra Nevada Administrators Inc., Sistema de Administracion Hospitalaria S.A.C., Small Business Insurance Advisors Inc., Sobam Centro Medico Hospitalar S.A., Sociedad de Inversiones Santa Maria SpA, Solstice Administration Services Inc., Solstice Administrators Inc., Solstice Administrators of Alabama Inc., Solstice Administrators of Arizona Inc., Solstice Administrators of Missouri Inc., Solstice Administrators of North Carolina Inc., Solstice Administrators of Texas Inc., Solstice Benefit Services Inc., Solstice Benefits Inc., Solstice Health Insurance Company, Solstice Healthplans Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Arizona Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Colorado Inc., Solstice Healthplans of New Jersey Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Ohio Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Tennessee Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Texas Inc., Solstice of Illinois Inc., Solstice of Minnesota Inc., Solstice of New York Inc., Solutran LLC, Somerset Outpatient Surgery L.L.C., Sound Inpatient Physicians Inc., Sound Inpatient Physicians Medical Group Inc., Sound Inpatient Physicians of Ohio LLC, Sound Inpatient Physicians of Texas I Inc., Sound Inpatient Physicians Michigan PLLC, Sound Intensivists of Nevada RBessler M.D. PLLC, Sound Kenwood Hospitalists of Cincinnati Inc., Sound Kenwood Hospitalists of Cincinnati LLC, Sound Physicians Advisory Services Inc., Sound Physicians Alaska Hospitalist Group LLC, Sound Physicians Anesthesiology of Texas PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Arizona Inc., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Georgia P.C., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Illinois LLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Kansas LLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Kentucky PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Louisiana Inc., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Michigan PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Nevada Bessler PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of South Carolina LLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Southern California P.C., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Texas PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Washington PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of West Virginia PLLC, Sound Physicians Holdings LLC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of Arizona Inc., Sound Physicians Intensivists of Georgia PC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of South Carolina LLC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of Virginia LLC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of Washington PLLC, Sound Physicians Palliative Care of Maryland P.C., Sound Physicians Telemedicine Inc., Sound Physicians of Florida IV LLC, Sound Physicians of Georgia III P.C., Sound Physicians of Hawaii Inc., Sound Physicians of Idaho PLLC, Sound Physicians of Illinois LLC, Sound Physicians of Indiana LLC, Sound Physicians of Iowa PLLC, Sound Physicians of Kankakee Illinois LLC, Sound Physicians of Massachusetts II P.C., Sound Physicians of Massachusetts Inc., Sound Physicians of New Jersey LLC, Sound Physicians of New York PLLC, Sound Physicians of North Carolina PLLC, Sound Physicians of South Carolina LLC, Sound Physicians of Wyoming LLC, South Arlington Surgical Providers LLC, South County Surgical Center LLC, South Sound Inpatient Physicians PLLC, Southern California Medical Practice Concepts LLC, Southland Hospitalists P.C., Southwest Medical Associates Inc., Southwest Michigan Health Network Inc., Southwest Surgery Center LLC, Southwest Surgical Center LLC, Space Coast Surgical Center Ltd., Spartanburg Surgery Center LLC, Specialists in Urology Surgery Center LLC, Specialized Pharmaceuticals Inc., Specialty Benefits LLC, Specialty Billing Solutions LLC, Specialty Surgical Center LLC, Spectera Inc., Spectera of New York IPA Inc., Sports and Spinal Physical Therapy Inc., St. Cloud Outpatient Surgery Ltd. a Minnesota Limited Partnership, St. Cloud Surgical Center LLC, St. Louis Cardiovascular Institute LLC, St. Louis Specialty Surgical Center LLC, Stonegate JV Partners LLC, Stonegate Surgery Center L.P., Summer Street ASC LLC, SunSurgery LLC, Surgery Center Holding LLC, Surgery Center at Cherry Creek LLC, Surgery Center at Cottonwood LLC, Surgery Center at Grove Creek LLC, Surgery Center at Kissing Camels LLC, Surgery Center at South Ogden LLC, Surgery Center at St. Vincent LLC, Surgery Center of Boca Raton Inc., Surgery Center of Colorado Springs LLC, Surgery Center of Des Moines LLC, Surgery Center of Easton LLC, Surgery Center of Ellicott City Inc., Surgery Center of Fairfield County LLC, Surgery Center of Fort Collins LLC, Surgery Center of Lexington LLC, Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, Surgery Center of Maui LLC, Surgery Center of Mt. Scott LLC, Surgery Center of Muskogee LLC, Surgery Center of Rockville L.L.C., Surgery Center of Southern Pines LLC, Surgery Center of The Woodlands LLC, Surgery Centers of Des Moines Ltd. an Iowa Limited Partnership, Surgery Centers-West Holdings LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates, Surgical Care Affiliates LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates Political Action Committee, Surgical Care Partners of Melbourne LLC, Surgical Caregivers of Fort Worth LLC, Surgical Center of Greensboro LLC, Surgical Center of San Diego LLC, Surgical Center of South Jersey Limited Partnership, Surgical Center of Tuscaloosa Holdings LLC, Surgical Eye Experts LLC, Surgical Health LLC, Surgical Health of Orlando LLC, Surgical Hospital Holdings of Oklahoma LLC, Surgical Management Solutions LLC, Surgicare LLC, Surgicare of Central Jersey LLC, Surgicare of Jackson LLC, Surgicare of Jackson Ltd. a Mississippi Limited Partnership, Surgicare of Joliet Inc., Surgicare of La Veta Inc., Surgicare of La Veta Ltd. a California Limited Partnership, Surgicare of Minneapolis LLC, Surgicare of Minneapolis Ltd. a Minnesota Limited Partnership, Surgicare of Mobile LLC, Surgicare of Mobile Ltd., Surgicare of Oceanside Inc., Surgicare of Owensboro LLC, Surgicare of Salem LLC, Surgicenters of Southern California Inc., Symphonix Health Holdings LLC, T.M. Carr M.D. P.C., THE SURGICAL CENTER OF THE TREASURE COAST L.L.C., THR-SCA Holdings LLC, TeamMD Holdings Inc., TeamMD Iowa Inc., TeamMD Physicians of Texas Inc., TeamUP Insurance Services Inc., Tecnologia de Informacion en Salud S.A., Texas Health Craig Ranch Surgery Center LLC, Texas Health Flower Mound Orthopedic Surgery Center LLC, Texas Health Orthopedic Surgery Center Alliance LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Alliance LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Bedford LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Chisholm Trail LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Irving LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Las Colinas LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Preston Plaza LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Rockwall LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Southwest Fort Worth LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Waxahachie LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Willow Park LLC, The Advisory Board Company, The Alaska Hospitalist Group LLC, The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company, The Eye Surgery Center of the Carolinas L.P., The Intensivist Group of Langhorne LLC, The Lewin Group Inc., The Outpatient Surgery Center of Hilton Head LLC, The Polyclinic MSO LLC, The Surgery Center of Easton L.P., The Surgical Center of Connecticut LLC, Thomas Johnson Surgery Center LLC, Three Rivers Holdings Inc., Three Rivers Surgical Care L.P., Tmesys LLC, Topimagem Diagnostico por Imagem Ltda., Touchpoint Health Plan, Trails Edge Surgery Center LLC, Trauma Surgery Affiliates LLC, Travel Express Incorporated, Treasure Valley Emerald Properties LLC, Treasure Valley Hospital Limited Partnership, Tri-City Medical Center ASC Operators LLC, Tri-County Surgery Center LLC, Trinity Cardiovascular Care PLLC, Tufts Health Freedom Insurance Company, Tufts Health Freedom Plans Inc., Tuscaloosa Surgical Center L.P., U.S. Behavioral Health Plan California, UCSD Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, UCSD Center for Surgery of Encinitas L.P., UCSD Surgical Center of San Diego LLC, UCSD-SCA Holdings I LLC, UCSD-SCA Holdings II LLC, UHC Finance Ireland Unlimited Company, UHC International Services Inc., UHC of California, UHCG Holdings Ireland Limited, UHCG Services Ireland Limited, UHCG FZE, UHG Brasil Participacoes S.A., UHG Holdings UK IV Limited, UHG Holdings UK V Limited, UHG Holdings UK VI Limited, UHIC Holdings Inc., UMR Inc., UPHT-SCA Holdings LLC, USHEALTH Academy Inc., USHEALTH Administrators LLC, USHEALTH Advisors LLC, USHEALTH Career Agency Inc., USHEALTH Funding Inc., USHEALTH Group Inc., USMD ASC IV1 LLC, USMD ASC IV2 LLC, USMD Administrative Services L.L.C., USMD Affiliated Services, USMD Holdings Inc., USMD Hospital at Arlington L.P., USMD Hospital at Fort Worth L.P., USMD Inc., USMD PPM LLC, Unidad Medica Diagnostico S.A., Unimerica Insurance Company, Unimerica Life Insurance Company of New York, Unison Health Plan of Delaware Inc., United Behavioral Health, United Behavioral Health of New York I.P.A. Inc., United Group Reinsurance Inc., United Health Foundation, United HealthCare Services Inc., United Medical Park ASC LLC, United Resource Networks IPA of New York Inc., United in Advancing Health Equity Foundation, UnitedHealth Advisors LLC, UnitedHealth Group Employee Assistance Fund, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, UnitedHealth Group International Finance Ireland Unlimited Company, UnitedHealth International Inc., UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services LLC, UnitedHealthcare Benefits Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas L.L.C., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service Beijing Co. Ltd., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Global Medical UK Limited, UnitedHealthcare Inc., UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of America, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Designated Activity Company, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services Inc., UnitedHealthcare International Asia LLC, UnitedHealthcare International I B.V., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III B.V., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VIII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International X S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Parekh Insurance TPA Private Limited, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley Inc., UnitedHealthcare Service LLC, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits LLC, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arizona Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Colorado Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Florida Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Illinois Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky Ltd., UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New England Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New York Inc., UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oregon Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., UnitedHealthcare of South Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Utah Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Washington Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Rockies Inc., Unity Health Network LLC, Upland Holdings LLC, Upland Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Urgent Care Holdings Inc., Urgent Care MSO LLC, Urology Associates of North Texas P.L.L.C., VERTA MANAGEMENT SERVICES LLC, VPay Benefits Corporation, VPay Inc., VPay Intermediate Holdings LLC, Valley Hospital L.L.C., Valley Physicians Network Inc., Vascular Labs of the Rockies ASC LLC, Vascular Labs of the Rockies PLLC, Via Vitae MSO LLC, Vida Integra S.p.A., Vida Tres S.A., Virtua-SCA Holdings II LLC, Virtua-SCA Holdings LLC, Vivify Health Canada Inc., Vivify Health Inc., WESTMED Practice Partners LLC, Wake Forest Ambulatory Ventures LLC, Walnut Creek Endoscopy Center LLC, Walnut Hill Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Surgery Center LLC, Wayland Square Surgicare Acquisition L.P., Wayland Square Surgicare GP Inc., Waypoint Minnesota PC, WellMed Medical Management Inc., WellMed Medical Management of Florida Inc., West Coast Endoscopy Holdings LLC, WestHealth JV Holdings LLC, WestHealth Surgery Center LLC, Western Connecticut Orthopedic Surgical Center LLC, Westgreen Surgical Center LLC, Wilson Creek Surgical Center LLC, Winchester Endoscopy LLC, Winter Park LLC, Winter Park Surgery Center L.P., Woodbury Surgery Center LLC, XAS Infusion Suites Inc., XLHealth Corporation, XLHealth Corporation India Private Limited, divvyDOSE, divvyMED LLC, eCode Solutions LLC, gethealthinsurance.com Agency Inc., hCentive Inc., inPharmative Inc., naviHealth Care at Home LLC, naviHealth Coordinated Care LLC, naviHealth Coordinated Care SC P.C., naviHealth Holdings LLC, naviHealth Inc., naviHealth Michigan HBPC P.C., and naviHealth SM Holdings Inc.. Read More HFF, Inc. provides commercial real estate and capital market services to the consumers and providers of capital in the commercial real estate industry in the United States. The company offers debt placement services, such as construction and construction/mini-permanent loans, adjustable and fixed rate mortgages, bridge loans, entity level and mezzanine debts, forward delivery loans, and tax exempt and sale/leaseback financing to the owners of various properties comprising office, retail, industrial, hotel, multi-housing, student housing, self-storage, nursing homes, condominiums and condominium conversions, mixed-use properties, and land, as well as senior, independent, and assisted living facilities. It also provides investment advisory services to commercial real estate owners; and equity placement, as well as assists clients in the sale of their commercial real estate debt note portfolios. In addition, the company offers private equity, investment banking, and advisory services, including equity capital to establish joint ventures relating to identified properties or properties to be acquired by a fund sponsor; structured finance; institutional marketing and fund-raising services for public and private commercial real estate fund sponsors; advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, sales and divestitures, management buyouts, and recapitalizations and restructurings; and private placements of preferred securities. Further, it provides loan sales and commercial loan servicing to life insurance companies. The company was founded in 1982 and is based in Dallas, Texas. Telecom Argentina S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides telecommunications services in Argentina and internationally. The company offers telephone services, including local, domestic, and international long-distance telephone services, as well as public telephone services; and other related supplementary services, such as call waiting, call forwarding, conference calls, caller ID, voice mail, itemized billing, and maintenance services. It also provides interconnection services, such as traffic and interconnection resource, dedicated Internet access, video signals transportation in standard and high definitions, audio and video streaming, dedicated links, backhaul links for mobile operators, data center hosting/housing services, dedicated links, layer 2 and layer 3 transport networks, video links, value-added services, and other services. In addition, the company offers mobile telecommunications services, including voice communications, high-speed mobile Internet content and applications download, online streaming, and other services; and sells mobile communication devices, such as handsets, Modems MiFi and wingles, and smart watches under the Personal brand. Further, it provides internet connectivity products, including virtual private network services, traditional Internet protocol links, and other products; data services; and programming and other cable television services. The company was formerly known as Cablevision S.A. and changed its name to Telecom Argentina S.A. in January 2018. Telecom Argentina S.A. was founded in 1979 and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Brigade Commander 21 Armored Brigade, Brigadier General G.B Audu has said that Bama town and its environs were largely safe for the returnee IDPs to resettle but the challenges was their farmlands were littered with landmines by Boko Haram insurgent's which has made farming difficult for the local people. He also said the Nigerian military has been very supportive in its operations that it has been carrying out in the area including providing support for the unaccompanied children as well as providing free medical healthcare to the community. The Commander further explained to the United Nations Deputy Secretary General, Hajiya Amina Mohammed who was in Bama briefly yesterday in company if Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state to assess the rebuilding of the said liberated Bama town which was once over-ran by Boko Haram insurgents. The Brigade Commander who was represented by the Brigades Chief of Staff, Col. A.A Adekeye, called on the United Nations Deputy Secretary General to impress on the United Nations to fast track the clearance operations of landmines in farmlands to enable the displaced people quickly return to their farms. Also briefing the United Nations Deputy Secretary General, Borno state Commissioner for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement of Boko Haram victims, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum said Borno State government has so far reconstructed 11,000 private homes, 170 classrooms and other school buildings in 11 schools, township electrification and rehabilitation of 10 boreholes in Bama. The Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Hajiya Amina Mohammed who visited different places in Bama including IDP Camp, Community Clinic for the Acute Management of Malnutrition, schools and other on-going rebuilding projects in the said she was in Bama to assess gaps in humanitarian needs, and reconstruction efforts recorded by Government so she could report back to the UN in order to identify areas of intervention. In one of the schools, Governor Shettima ordered the release of 250 bags of rice and 50 bags of beans to enable pupils start benefiting from daily meal per student to boost nutrition and encourage good learning outcomes. He also ordered for the release of free uniforms to all the 4,503 pupils while he directed all teachers under the primary education in Bama to return to in order to increase number of teachers in IDPs schools. Hajiya Amina Mohammed arrived Maiduguri on Wednesday together with Governor Kashim Shettima in the evening around 5 pm before proceeding to Bama town usung helicopter in company of Governor Shettima, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed and Nigerian (Country) Representative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Mairo Mandara on board helicopter provided by the UN Humanitarian Air Services. They were received by the Chairman of Bama Local Government, Alhaji Baba Shehu Gulumba at the Bama Stadium where the chopper landed. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, said it is targeting about 7.6 million new bank accounts this year. This mission is part of its efforts towards bringing more Nigerians into the banking system under the Financial Inclusion Strategy. The CBN Abuja Branch Controller, Mrs. Elizabeth Agu, disclosed this to newsmen while inaugurating the Financial Inclusion States' Steering Committee, FISSCO, in Abuja, on Thursday. According to her, the CBN had discussed details of the strategy with Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, and Microfinance banks. Agu added that the financial institutions were given specific targets in various states of the country with Lagos branches expected to open new 2,293,080 accounts. Mrs. Agu said the apex bank had commenced the review of the strategy document for achieving required levels of financial inclusion in the country within the timeframe. The CBN is targeting 80 per cent adult inclusion in financial services by 2020. The review is expected to throw up major challenges and corrective options to be adopted to put Nigeria back on track of meeting the 20 per cent exclusion target by 2020. She said, The bank is working on initiatives that are targeted at North East, North West and North Central zones of the country where exclusion rates are still very high. We intend to hold stakeholders' workshops in those parts of the country to drill down on strategic measures that will give us quick results. The bank is also working on developing non-interest financial products for the region. We are conceptualizing ways and means to reach out to women whose culture and religion require specialized products and channels. The CBN Abuja Controller informed members of the committee which comprised top officers of Deposit Money Banks branches in Abuja metropolis and representatives of key agencies that, CBN had evolved appropriate governance arrangements for the implementation of Financial Inclusion Strategy at all levels. We are therefore, inaugurating the Financial inclusion strategy State steering committee to be chaired by the CBN Branch Controller while the head of development finance office will serve as technical officer in the State/ committee she said. Responding, Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) represented by Mr. Abubakar Sanni Pai urged the CBN to create a common platform for stakeholders to contribute their views to achieve the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS). Continuing he said One of the ways to assist the masses to attain economic independence especially those at the bottom of the pyramid is to provide them adequate access to financial services in a convenient and affordable manner. -(Emma Ikechukwu) Wanted militant Oyawerikumor Peregbabofa alias Kareowei, has been captured after a gun battle with soldiers attached to the special security outfit Operation Delta Safe. Kareowei, who has allegedly been terrorising some local government areas in Bayelsa and Delta states, hails from Buturu Local government of Delta State. He was declared wanted following his alleged involvement in the recent killing of a security personnel in Edegbene Community in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State. A statement by the authorities of the Bayelsa State Police Command said the suspect was arrested on Wednesday night by a combined team of operatives in Delta State. Contrary to media reports that the security agent was murdered in Bayelsa State, the statement clarified that the killing actually took place in Edegbene, Burutu LGA, Delta State. The suspect, who reportedly sustained a gunshot injury, is in custody of security operatives, the statement said, promising that the details shall be made available to the public at the appropriate time. The statement commended the Government of Bayelsa State for giving the requisite support to the security agencies in the fight against criminality in the water ways. The statement also called on the members of the nearby Toru Ndoro Community of Ekeremor Local Government Area of Delta State to return to their communities to go about their legitimate duties. The police spokesman warned the security forces would not hesitate to move anybody caught breaching the peace of the society. News Express The Organization of Fishermen Seafood Dealers and Farmers in Niger Delta (OFSDF/ND) have accused multinational oil giant Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC of playing a fundamental role in encouraging and aiding the high spate of illegal bunkering around the Oloma axis of Bonny in Rivers state, following the shoddy pipeline clamping job and companys refusal to destroy or evacuate illegal bunkering equipment within their pipeline facilities sabotaged by local refiners Spokesperson for the OFSDF/ND, Mrs Preye Okosi, made this assertion in a letter written to the Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom, His Majesty King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple, demanding that shell must return to site and complete the inconclusive clamping jobs and ensure the destruction/clearance of illegal bunkering equipment within the Oloma, Ogbonga and Berger axis or risk stoppage of all her activities in the area. The letter reads in part: ANASAMI CONSTRUCTION LIMITED contractors to Shell was awarded a job to work on SPDC pipeline clamping within the ogbonga axis and to destroy local equipment previously used for illegal bunkering in the area to curb the menace of pipeline vandals. However, instead of professionally carrying out the job according specification, the company abandoned the contract halfway and left the area without concluding the clamping job, and had also failed to evacuate remains of the local refinery equipment that was used for illegal bunkering in the area. The situation according to OFSDF/ND spokesperson is worrisome because with the presence of the illegal bunkering tools, there is the possibility that the bunkers might revisit and have a seamless access to burst the pipeline with their equipment still in place and continue from where they stopped. Okosi also disclosed that a damaged pipeline along the Oloma axis left unclamped is still experiencing some amount of leakage. Hear her: We are aware they did a cofferdam job, like a tentative preventive arrangement which is over a year now, however SPDC has consistently refused to return to site to do the final clamping, she said adding that there is also sabotage on the Shell pipeline valve that is yet to be attended to by the company and the concern is that if not repaired it will attract the return of the these illegal bunkers again. The letter reads: As the Organization of Fishermen Seafood Dealers and Farmers in Niger Delta (OFSDF/ND) we are greatly concerned because we are the ones directly affected by the spew of spill which obviously robs off on our source of livelihood. Your Majesty our King, we have come to conclude that with the glut of inconclusive jobs done by Shell sub-contractors and continuous silence on the path of SPDC to order the contractor back to site at Ogbonga, including the companys refusal to carry out clamp job on the various leakages and valve, it has become apparent that there is collusion between shell, their subcontractors and the illegal refiners to continue their illegal refining business it opined.. The group said the absence of shell and their contractors at the various leakage points have accounted for monumental damage to the environment and fishing activities, adding that in spite of the consequences brought about by their pollution, SPDC is yet to do a proper clean up, rather they are playing politics with the cleanup in these areas. In another development, information gathered reveals that SPDC is at loogerhead with the Bonny kingdom over an unfortunate decision to carry out a reassessment project within the Bonny territory without involving their host and critical stakeholders Bonny Kingdom.. The people of Ancient Bonny kingdom are said to be incensed that a joint investigation report that should have been signed by members of the host community, Bonny was rather taken to the Andonis by SPDC officials to sign. The action according to one Asinyetogha Furo from Greens Iwoama in Bonny is an affront on the King and good people of Bonny kingdom, if you consider that a supreme court judgment has clearly identified our boundary with the Andonis. Similarly, an indigene of the area Victor Hart disclosed that Shell has continued to defy the kingdom in all front. According to him, last year there was a spill and overflow in the shell terminal tank farm due to a mechanical failure on the path of the company. SPDC contacted the Freedom To Operate (FTO) Committee of Bonny kingdom in charge of oil and gas to inform them that job for the clean-up exercise has been awarded. However the Freedom To Operate (FTO) Committee realized that the job was awarded to a non- indigenous contractor against agreement reached between the company and the kingdom on facility and equipment failure and therefore requested that Shell must stop forthwith and re-award the job to an indigenous contractor. This request by the Bonny kingdom according to him, has not been effected as SPDC continue to disregard the order to date, instead they have remained adamant and unconcerned. There is great anger in Bonny that SPDC is taking the silence of Bonny people for cowardice, a good number of indigenes are gearing up to confront the multinational oil and gas giant, insisting that they must subject to the various MoUs. In the letter written to His Majesty King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple by the Organization of Fishermen Seafood Dealers and Farmers in Niger Delta, they warned that SPDC must return to conclude all pending clamping job to forestall further destruction of the environment by these illegal bunkers. The Bonny monarch recently has signed up for the zero-bunkering in his kingdom which is a good development; but the fishing organization is warning that all SPDC activity will be brought to a halt by both the community and the fishermen should they continue in this deceit and seeming conspiracy. 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. To help us keep this website secure, please wait while we verify you're not a robot! It will only take a few seconds... Loading... The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has condemned the UAE over its deplorable human rights record citing vague anti-terror crimes that attract the death penalty, the tightening of censorship and the detention of human rights activists. The OHCHR has said in a report that the UAEs 2014 counter-terrorism law provides for the death penalty for people whose activities are found to undermine national unity or social peace neither of which are defined in the law, which can lead to arbitrary detention. This law is also applicable to children above the age of 16, in contradiction with UAEs international obligations under the CRC, said the OHCHR. The report also cites irregularities with respect to pre-trial detentions including in some cases denial of communication with the families of the detainees. The OHCHR also expressed concern regarding the numerous criticisms for the criminal defamation provisions of the Penal Code, the 2012 cybercrime law, and the 2014 anti-terrorism law as they provided for trials that fell short of international human rights standards. Despite its social and economic progress, the UAE has failed to establish a national human rights institution that would be tasked with monitoring and protecting human rights, one of the recommendations at a previous review. The report is among a raft of documents to be submitted before meetings later this month of the UNs Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in which the records of the UAE and Israel, among others, are to be scrutinized. The procedure, known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), is a tool that the UNHRC uses to assess the records of all 193 UN member states, every four years. Kuwait said it will host a conference to raise funds for the reconstruction of war-torn Iraq, on February. Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled al-Jarallah made the announcement at a joint news conference in Kuwait City with the secretary general of the Iraqi cabinet, Mahdi al-Allaq. Iraq needs at least $100 billion in assistance to rebuild homes, businesses and infrastructure including oil and telecommunications facilities, Kuwaits KUNA news agency quoted Allaq as saying. The Kuwaiti official said that despite past wounds, a reference to Iraqs 1990 invasion of Kuwait, his country had a moral, humanitarian and Arab duty to support its neighbor. Iraq still pays reparations for Kuwait in compensation for its 1990 invasion. Last November, Iraq offered to earmark 0.5% of its 2018 oil proceeds for the $4.6 billion owed to Kuwait in compensation for destruction of its oil facilities during the 1990-91 Gulf War occupation. LOS ANGELESAlcohol companies beware: Cannabis is coming for your customers. Now that recreational marijuana is legal in California and seven other U.S. states, startups are vying with traditional beverage companies for the attention of consumers planning to ingest a social intoxicant. Instead of meeting after work for a drink, for example, they suggest other ways to catch a buzz with friends or co-workers. Perhaps some cannabis wine will do, or maybe pot-infused seltzer or even an old-fashioned joint prerolled, of course. Toast, an Aspen, Colo.-based startup co-founded by the former chief marketing officer of Budweiser, is one of the companies taking its cues from Big Alcohol. It offers two types of cannabis cigarettes: its namesake product, which the company says is akin to a cocktail, and Toast Gold, which it compares to glass of champagne. Another line extension called Toast Reserve, due in the first quarter of this year, is billed as the marijuana version of Scotch whisky. Toast is designed so wherever you would think of alcoholic drinks, you would think of Toast, said Chris Burggraeve, the co-founder and former Bud executive. Its all part of the rapidly changing way Americans look at marijuana. Sixty-four per cent of the United States population now wants to make pot legal, according to a Gallup poll released in October. California legalized recreational use on Jan. 1, meaning that one in five American adults now can eat, drink, smoke or vape however they please. The industry is expected to balloon to $50 billion (U.S.) by 2026, from $6 billion in 2016, according to Cowen & Co. Direct Route Some companies are trying to beat brewers and distillers at their own game. The Los Angeles producers behind Rebel Coast Wines have created a new namesake brand, an alcohol-free sauvignon blanc infused with cannabis. Were definitely focused on bringing over traditional alcohol consumers and giving them a better alternative, one with fewer calories and no hangover, Rebel Coast co-founder Alex Howe said. The threat that cannabis poses to the $257-billion alcohol business in North America is real, said Cowen & Co. analyst Vivien Azer, who covers both industries. Alcohol and cannabis are substitute social lubricants, Azer said in a research note last month. In parts of the U.S. where marijuana is legal, alcohol use has declined while pot use has gained in frequency, she said. Some alcohol companies see value in participating in both businesses. Constellation Brands Inc., which sells Corona Mexican beer in the U.S., bought a minority stake in a Canadian pot company in October, marking the first major foray of a major drinks brand into the weed business. Other brewers and distillers, such as Molson Coors Brewing Co., Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, Diageo Plc and Pernod Ricard SA, may be examining the space as well, according to beverage industry analysts. Potential Acquisitions That might make companies such as Toast, Lost County and Mirth Provisions targets for investment or acquisition. Longview, Washington-based Mirth makes five cannabis-infused sparkling tonics called Legal. Its expanded through licensing agreements along the West Coast and plans to enter the Colorado and Arizona markets later this quarter. I would suspect that these companies that have larger infrastructure in terms of distribution and manufacturing and product development, are going to be drawn toward cannabis, said Adam Stites, who founded Mirth in 2014. That might take some time. The big brewers and distillers, for the most part, are steering clear of the Green Rush until cannabis is legal under federal law. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions dealt a blow to the fledgling industry last week when he rescinded Obama-era regulations that discouraged federal prosecutors from enforcing marijuana laws in states where its legal. In the meantime, Toast is working to become the industrys luxury standard, said Punit Seth, co-founder and chief executive officer, who previously worked at Bridgewater Associates, the worlds biggest hedge fund. Our vision is to really mirror a world-class spirits portfolio company such as Moet Hennessy, he said. Lower Doses Part of that is developing a product that is consistent and not too potent for use in social settings. Thats been a hurdle for cannabis companies aiming to garner a broader audience beyond the stereotypical stoner set. Its led some companies to stick largely to lower doses. If you go to a bar and you order a drink, theres a different experience that each alcohol provides and theres different strengths all very intuitive and we dont even think about it from a consumer standpoint, Seth said. Toast products are trying to do the same for weed. Theyre dosed, theyre consistent; the consumer knows exactly what theyre going to feel when they have them. Toast plans to sell its products in San Francisco in the next few weeks, once the citys stores go live. Rebel Coast wine will soon be out for delivery and Legal is already available in California dispensaries. Still, trying a newly legal drug or trying it for the first time since those college parties can be a daunting proposition. Thats made easier by putting the product in a more familiar form, said Rebel Coasts Howe. For new users, this ritual that they are probably more familiar with a bottle of wine makes it a lot easier for them to learn about it and see if it is something that fits with their social occasions or their personality or their interests, he said. SHARE: When photographer Leah Good and her co-workers at Sears head office found out last October that they would all lose their jobs, she did a really good thing. She and two other photographers figured employees some of whom had spent their lives working for the retail giant could really use an updated picture for their resumes. So they invited each one into the studio and started snapping. A lot of them hadnt had their photo taken professionally since their wedding, said Good, who worked as a digital tech for six months last year when the company was in complete turmoil. She shot six employees an hour over a couple of days, like a school photo day. But through conversations with her Sears subjects, she wound up capturing more than an image in the process. It was wonderful to hear their stories and how much they were going to miss it there, Good said. RELATED: Final Sears stores close Sunday, marking the end of an era It was obvious the people there were very dedicated to the company. They worked their asses off right up to the end, so (the companys demise) should in no way be a reflection of them. I was overwhelmed with the bravery of these people, she said. Of course, some of them were angry and wanted to vent, but by the end, most of them smiled for the camera. The last remaining Sears retail locations close for good on Sunday. Claire Hendry Senior Merchandise Planner (Craftsman & Home Maintenance) How long did you work at Sears? I worked at Sears for eight years. What is your fondest memory of working for Sears? My fondest memory would have to be back in November 2014. A group of us volunteered to dress up as Santas elves for the Santa Claus Parade and hand out Sears toy books to the parade watchers. Sears had a tent set up on the parade route, which had fun activities for children: face painting, colouring stations and photo opportunities. It was so much fun to be there and cheering for the Sears parade float. I loved that Sears was a part of the community and always gave back to the community. What will you miss most about working for Sears? I will miss the people the most. Good friends and colleagues. If you had one message for Sears top executives, what would that be? Thank you for the opportunity to work for a great company. It could have been greater and it didnt have to end so soon. If they only had invested back into the stores and systems sooner, who knows how far we could have gone. Andrew Dent Field Visual Manager for Ontario Central How long did you work at Sears? I have been with Sears Canada for one and a half years. What will you miss most about working for Sears? The people. We have and had some of the most talented people Ive ever had the pleasure to work with. I have so many great memories but the best ones were from the time opening our Sears 2.0 stores. Every time we had tight deadlines and the stress was raised with trying to open on time the visual team always found a way to have fun while making our opening deadlines. Even though I was only with Sears for one and a half years I always felt like we were a close family. If you had one message for Sears top executives, what would that be? Thank you for having the strength and courage to break the mold and reinvent the Sears brand. Its never easy to try to change a brand. Theres always backlash but thank you for pushing forward and believing in the Sears brand when many people with influence in the U.S.A. never did. Your inspiration drove me forward with confidence that we were on the right path as we broke the trend design-wise, style-wise and, most importantly, financially by stopping the profit loss for the first time in years. Brittney Tyll Associate Category Manager (Christmas) How long did you work at Sears? Just over four years. What will you miss most about working for Sears? In four years, Sears became a second home to me. It was filled with great friends and a team that really made you excited to come in to work. I will truly miss all the amazing people that I was fortunate enough to work side by side with and learn from. I consider myself extremely lucky to have had the chance to work for Sears Canada. Danielle Gobbo Associate Buyer, Basic Bedding & Bath How long did you work at Sears? Four years. What is your fondest memory of working for Sears? There are so many great memories choosing one is way to difficult! I loved going in to work knowing I could spend time and hang out with my friends all day. We hosted bake sales and tried on samples and took silly photos. We would go to vendor meetings, have adventures during lunch, and decorate our desks for every holiday. However, the days and late nights that were filled with more laughing than working are the ones Ill remember the most. What will you miss most about working for Sears? The people. I know when I think back in the future, I wont be thinking about the job, the building or the tough days Ill be thinking of all the people that made every day so fun and memorable. Ive made life-long friends working at Sears, and for that I will always be grateful. Michael Caponcini Director of In-store Merchandising for Home and Hardlines How long did you work at Sears? Eleven and a half years What is your fondest memory of working for Sears? My fondest memory of Sears is all the amazing people that I had met and worked with over the years. The dedication and enthusiasm the associates showed when we went into stores to set up new season rollouts or the transformation of the old look of Sears to the new 2.0 Sears was just incredible. What will you miss most about working for Sears? I will miss most my extended Sears family. It is impossible to communicate or see every single associate that touched my life in some way, but retail is a very tight-knit community and I know we will cross paths again. If you had one message for Sears top executives, what would that be? I would like to say that I wish we had a bit more time. The 2.0 strategy was taking Sears into the 21st century. New look. New product. New Sears. Mioara Mary Cojocaru Senior Technical Designer and QA professional How long did you work at Sears? Sears was my family for the past four years. What is your fondest memory of working for Sears? We all have worked so hard, with passion, dedication, and heart to show and prove to our customers that Sears was prepared for a huge step into the future. We have done some amazing work together and I feel proud! What will you miss most about working for Sears? Sears impacted me personally and professionally and I made long lasting friendships and memories in this company. Sears has touched the lives of generations of Canadians. It is very sad to see it ending like this, but I will always remember the great people that I worked with, and my awesome and talented team. Neel Prasad Vice-President of Global Sourcing How long did you work at Sears? Four and a half years. What will you miss most about working for Sears? Working alongside some of the most amazing, inspiring and passionate teams. We enjoyed what we did and created some awesome products like the packable down jacket, Canadas best parka and the Kenmore pro blender. Rosemary Hopkins Technical Design Analyst-Fit Technician in Womens Apparel How long did you work at Sears? I was with Sears just over 14 years. What will you miss most about working for Sears? What I will miss the most is my team, we had such a family oriented group. During lunch we would do crafts and have sales for one of the Sears charities, like the Sick Kids hospital. Sears did make a social impact that will greatly be missed. It wasn't just fun and games, we worked hard and helped each other when we could. Roy Sharma Manager, Finance Systems & Infrastructure How long did you work at Sears? Seventeen years. What is your fondest memory of working for Sears? Fondest memories are of the people I had the pleasure to work with over the years. We became a family. What will you miss most about working for Sears? Working on projects with multiple areas of the company. I'll miss the brainstorming and problem solving as a team. Steve Smith Allocation & Replenishment Analyst How long did you work at Sears? Ive been at Sears for four and a half years. What will you miss most about working for Sears? What Ill miss the most are the people I worked with. If you had one message for Sears top executives, what would that be? I would like to tell the executives that paying themselves retention bonuses after laying off 3,000 employees with no severance was low and underhanded. Tim Riego Marketing Manager, Media Planning How long did you work at Sears? Two years, six months. What was your fondest memory of working for Sears? Friday morning breakfast with the team. What will you miss most about working for Sears? The great group of people I worked with right up to the end. If you had one message for Sears top executives, what would that be? Trust your people, and let them do what you hired them to do. Read more about: SHARE: LAS VEGASA sad cycle has overtaken the gadget business. It starts this week at CES, techs biggest annual convention, where inventors compete to connect the most random things to the internet. This years smart stuff includes pillows, air fresheners and even toilets. A few months from now, well see different headlines: That smart thing you bought is actually spying on you. (You can learn a lot about a guy through his pillow. Or toilet.) Sooner or later, the story gets worse: Your smart thing has been hacked. Thatll inevitably be followed by: Your smart thing is gathering dust in the attic. Gadgets are broken. Thats the refrain I heard on repeat from exhibitors and long-time tech followers who also went on a dreary hunt for big ideas at this years CES. Theres little reason to be jealous of the 2018 crop of TVs, and self-driving cars are a ways off, while artificial intelligence still has to mature. The best moment at CES came Wednesday when the power went out for two hours and folks had to go sit in the sun. The Consumer Technology Association estimates Americans will buy 715 million connected tech products in 2018. Too many of them create more problems than they solve. A tide of distrust for Silicon Valley is sweeping over many of us who always have a smartphone nearby, but worry its ruining our lives. Exploring the CES floor and listening to the keynote presentations, I noticed some patterns for where gadget makers get off track and also a few ideas that I think could make their products better. Here are four ways to make gadgets great again: Respect our time Theres still just 24 hours in a day, but you wouldnt think so from the many products at CES that want to fill previously unimagined moments of your life with additional stimulation. Talking glasses? How about a giant touchscreen fridge? Samsung, one of the worlds largest makers of screens, showed a video during its keynote of a child in a near-future going from staring at his phone to climbing into a car and having another large screen slide in front of his face. He goes unstimulated for less than a second. Heres a rule of thumb: Before making a product, ask yourself: What would the Black Mirror episode about this tech be? Apple isnt immune. Two of its largest investors published an unusual public plea to Apples board last Saturday to address the addictive effects of the iPhone on children. Thats a huge issue, but Id extend that plea to adults, too: How many of us have experienced the phenomenon of picking up a phone to send a message and find ourselves sucked into a vortex of distraction? Before you realize it, youre reading the Wikipedia page on Gal Gadot and cant remember why you picked up the phone in the first place. Solutions wont be easy, especially for tech companies such as Facebook and Google that make money by selling our attention to marketers. But Im heartened to find products starting to explore not how to fill more of our time, but rather help us spend our time better. Automakers are developing the software to not only shut off our cellphones while were driving, but intelligently respond to the incoming messages and calls. And coming soon, Samsung has a new Thrive app, developed with Arianna Huffington, that helps people disconnect from their phones. Security is not our job When I buy a car, I dont have to purchase seatbelts and bumpers on my own I trust the automaker took care of making it safe. But the electronics industry puts the responsibility for security largely on us, selling way too many smart products that are the equivalent of cars with zero-star safety ratings. The past few years have brought nightmare after nightmare about hacked gadgets, such as toys that spy and baby cams broadcasting on the web unbeknownst to parents. Connecting anything to the internet comes with risk. But there are basics that could stop these devices from being hacker bait, such as offering over-the-air software updates, conducting ethical hacking tests and requiring strong passwords. (Its appalling how many smart-home devices dont even do those things.) Privacy is no less of a concern: If you make a connected toilet, why do you need to log every time I flush? And who are you sharing that data with? America lags Europe in regulations protecting consumer data, but some companies are starting to wise up. Samsung said it would include its Knox security software in its coming generations of connected appliances. And theres also a glimmer of hope in a small but growing niche of products that work like antivirus for whole your house. These products, such as Bitdefender Box, Dojo by Bullguard, Cujo and the Norton Core look for unusual patterns in traffic on your home network say, a thermostat that suddenly starts streaming video to Russia. I hope well see these kinds of capabilities built into more home Wi-Fi routers. Read more: CES 2018s wildest new tech gadgets At CES show, blockchain underlies applications from emergency services to smart devices Googles expanded presence at CES will help promote its digital assistant Focus on the Internet of Services, not the Internet of Things Putting a refrigerator on the internet isnt in itself useful its just more expensive. What is useful: a fridge thats always got fresh milk, because it orders more from the store when youre low. Tech companies are focused on adding to the Internet of Things (IoT) with ever more things, but to win a place in more homes, connected devices need to solve actual problems. For that, we need an Internet of Services. Smart door locks are headed in this direction. One brand called August announced a delivery service at CES with a logistics company called Deliv. It would allow to-be-named participating retailers to drop products right inside your door. Home security is an even better example. The company ADT recently opened up its home-monitoring service to DIY home products from Smart Things instead of just the ones it sells itself. So now your own connected smoke alarm, door sensors and leak detectors can report to human operators, who you pay a no-commitment monthly fee to take action like calling the cops when youre not around. Of course, this requires that the devices all be able to talk to one another or at least, to ADT. Why cant all our connected things just get along? Dont lock us in Amazon and Google had an outsize presence at CES even though they introduced few products of their own. They were here working overtime to persuade gadget makers to build their talking tech Alexa and Google Assistant into their devices. Its land grab for even more valuable data about how we live in our homes. Its also an effort to force us to be loyal. You might be fond of Alexa, but do you really want to build her into your house? (Amazon took a wrong turn down this path last year with its Amazon Key in-home delivery service that locks you into a relationship with the retailer .) And what happens if another product comes out that only works with Siri? Ive got four different talking assistants on various devices in my house, but unfortunately my virtual staff doesnt communicate well with each other. I was happy to see some gadgets at CES trying to stay neutral. The connected toilet from Kohler? Itll work with Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri. Thats progress. Read more about: SHARE: OTTAWACanada, the United States and other nations will consider whether to start intercepting ships headed to North Korea in a bid to block illegal shipments to the regime. Frustrated by how North Korea is able to skirt ever-tightening sanctions and continue its weapons programs, countries meeting next week on the crisis will weigh whether to begin intercepting vessels bound for North Korea to check them for illicit cargo banned under United Nations sanctions. The issue will be on the agenda Tuesday when Canada and the U.S. jointly host a meeting of foreign ministers in Vancouver to discuss ways to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, a U.S. State Department official said Thursday. We continue to explore all options to enhance maritime security and the ability to interdict maritime traffic, those transporting goods to and from (North Korea) that support the nuclear missile program, said Brian Hook, director of policy planning for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. We will be discussing with our partners and allies the kinds of steps that we can take on maritime interdiction, Hook told a briefing in Washington. Tillerson is co-hosting the daylong strategy session with Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland. Hook confirmed that China and Russia North Koreas neighbours and arguably the two nations with greatest influence over the regimes leadership were not invited to the meeting. Instead, the guest list is made up of so-called sending nations the countries that dispatched troops as part of the United Nations force during the Korean War more than six decades ago. Russia and China will be given a readout of the meeting after it is over, Hook said, adding that the summit is not meant to replace ongoing efforts. This ministerial (meeting) will enhance and strengthen all of the efforts underway . . . China has the same policy goal in terms of ensuring that North Korea does not become a nuclear weapons state, Hook said. The goal of the gathering is to find ways to further squeeze North Korea of the money and resources it needs for its weapons development, which continues to advance despite already punitive sanctions and near-worldwide condemnation. In a report issued almost a year ago, the UN declared that North Korea was flouting sanctions through trade in prohibited goods, with evasion techniques that are increasing in scale, scope and sophistication. Two tests last July revealed that North Korea had missiles capable of reaching the United States. The border with China is cited as one source of illegal shipments. Hook praised China for doing more to enforce sanctions. Maritime traffic to North Korea is another, prompting talk of high-seas interceptions. If Canada and its allies decide to take this step, it could see the deployment of Canadian warships to the front lines of this global hot spot. Yet North Korea has already warned that it would view such action as a serious provocation, warning through its state media last December that naval interdictions would constitute an act of war. With two long coastlines, there are questions whether such a step would even be effective. Read more about: SHARE: OTTAWACanadas defence minister is defending new powers proposed for the countrys electronic spies, saying the Communications Security Establishment needs to evolve to face new threats like electronic propaganda campaigns. But critics of the Liberals national security overhaul say the legislation would give the CSE authority to launch its own disinformation operations actions Canada would criticize nations like Russia for conducting and risk normalizing state-sponsored hacking. Bill C-59 would dramatically change Canadas national security agencies, including granting new powers to the CSE. The agencys new mandate would include explicit authority to launch cyber attacks including the ability to disrupt or influence . . . intentions or activities of a foreign individual, state, organization or terrorist group. The key word there is influence. Critics argue the legislation could open the door to the kind of state-sponsored disinformation campaigns that have recently targeted Western democracies. But Sajjan framed the new powers as defensive measures, needed to combat misinformation about Canadian soldiers in the field. This is just about us evolving to the various threats. And I think Canadians expect us to use every tool necessary, but we do it in the right legal framework, Sajjan said. We will always reserve the right to be able to defend our soldiers regardless what type of (tactics are) being used against them. Bill C-59, introduced in June by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, proposed sweeping changes to Canadas national security agencies. It was promised as an attempt to reform the perceived overreaches of the former Conservative governments terrorism laws. But it also includes a stand-alone section on the CSE, which since 2001 has operated under the supervision of the Department of National Defence. For most of its recent history, the CSE has been limited to conducting foreign intelligence operations, defending Canadian government networks, and providing technical assistance to law enforcement agencies. The new legislation changes that. Under C-59, CSE would be permitted to conduct active cyber operations including cyber attacks and hacking with the approval of the ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs. Christopher Parsons, a researcher with the University of Torontos Citizen Lab, suggested the CSEs new mandate could normalize state-sponsored hacking and information operations. There is a concern that the CSE could engage in measures that are intended to disrupt non-democratic countries (or) impede processes that the Canadian government doesnt identify as due justice, Parsons said. There can be understandable operational reasons the Canadian government believes it would be helpful to intrude upon foreign elections, foreign judicial processes . . . . By having that there . . . we are normalizing (the practice). The Canadian Armed Forces knows first hand about the effect of state-sponsored information operations. Canadian soldiers deployed to Latvia last year were warned Russia had plans to undermine a joint NATO operation in that country using propaganda. Sajjan suggested information operations were simply a tool one that can be used in a constructive way by some, and a negative way by others. What our troops in Latvia (did) to protect themselves from this is actually engage the community. So when misinformation actually comes out . . . theyre actually engaging the community and doing community events, Sajjan said. You can look at it as community engagement, but you can also look at it as information operations. The Liberal government has signalled their willingness to make significant changes to Bill C-59, and took a rare step to send the legislation for committee hearings early. Those hearings will resume when MPs return to Ottawa at the end of the month. Read more about: SHARE: Turkish Security forces have nabbed Friday several fighters of the Islamic State group (IS), including the groups minister of agriculture. Ten members of the jihadist group have been rounded up in central Kayseri province by local counterterrorism agents. One of the detainees is allegedly the groups agriculture minister, reported Anadolu News Agency, citing an anonymous security force. The mans name has not been released because of restrictions on talking to media, Anadolu said. The men have been arrested as part of nationwide operation to put away terrorists including members of the PKK, blacklisted by Ankara, the EU and the US as a terror group. IS has staged several attacks in Turkey, killing over 300 people, the Turkish news agency recalled. Over 3.7 million Syrians, fleeing the six-year war raging in their country, found refuge in Turkey and hundreds of ISIS foreign fighters have transited through the 565-mile long Syrian-Turkish border to enter Turkey. OTTAWAFrench authorities have dropped terrorism charges against a Lebanese-Canadian who was suspected of taking part in an attack in Paris in 1980 and have ordered his immediate release. But Hassan Diabs legal ordeal may not be over just yet, with an appeal of the decision very likely and the fact he doesnt have travel documents to get home, his Canadian counsel said Friday. That said, Diabs Ottawa-based lawyer, Donald Bayne, says supporters are elated, relieved and thankful at the news. Bayne believes Diab, 64, is on a no-fly list, so its unclear when he could return to Canada. Hes been found to be, in effect, an innocent man in France who is not a French citizen who does not currently have Canadian travel documents and who is probably (or almost certainly) on a no-fly list, Bayne said in an interview. But hes in a much better position today than he was yesterday in a prison but hes not at liberty, as a normal citizen would be, to hop on a plane and come home. Diab was accused in the terrorist attack on a Paris synagogue and has been imprisoned in France for three years. But French magistrates ruled Friday the evidence against Diab was not strong enough to warrant a referral to criminal court. Bayne said he was thankful for the decision by French judges who used their wisdom and courage to buck political and social pressure to make a completely just decision, something that we believe the courts in Canada failed to do at every level. Bayne said hes not yet ready to declare victory, with Diabs French lawyers certain that prosecutors in France will appeal. France is so traumatized by terrorist attacks that their legal machinery for dealing with terrorism cases is very, very strict, Bayne said. The government can show no sign of softness or weakness toward accused terrorists. The RCMP arrested Diab in Quebec in November 2008 at the request of French authorities in connection with the attack, which killed four people. He was extradited to France in 2014 after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his case. Diab, a sociology professor, has always denied his involvement. His lawyers in France pointed to the evidence that showed Diab could not have been in France when the attack occurred, with many elements showing he was in Beirut at the time. The decision also notably underlines the numerous contradictions and misstatements contained in the intelligence which cast serious doubts about their reliability, as well as the fact that Dr. Diabs handwriting, fingerprints, palm prints, physical description, and age do not match those of the suspect identified in 1980, read a statement by an a committee that advocated for Diabs release. Bayne also thanked Global Affairs Canada and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland for their support. The fact his extradition went ahead without a strong case against him demonstrates its time to correct the Extradition Act. The lawyer urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to act. How could Canada have extradited a Canadian to France when France never, never had a case against Dr. Diab fit to go to trial? Bayne said. This Canadian was extradited on overwhelmingly unreliable evidence. Yet every Canadian court allowed this to happen. Read more: Opinion | Mohamed Fahmy: How a Canadian professors life became a horror show Opinion | Ottawa must seek justice for Hassan Diab Amnesty urges Trudeau to act in case of Ottawa professor jailed in France Read more about: SHARE: VICTORIAThe deaths of two sisters at Christmas have left many people confused, vulnerable and grasping for answers about why their young lives were cut short, a funeral service heard Friday. More than 1,000 mourners attended the service at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria for 6-year-old Chloe Berry and her 4-year-old sister Aubrey. Our whole lifes compass has been scrambled, said Rev. Ansley Tucker. I, who am paid to be wise, know nothing. The death of Chloe and Aubrey were not part of the will of God. Where was God on Christmas Day? The girls bodies were found on Dec. 25 in an apartment in nearby Oak Bay. Their father, Andrew Berry, 43, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Ansley said the deaths will change many people but it is up to everybody to find a way to believe the sisters are bound to Gods love. Hundreds attended a vigil for Aubrey and Chloe Berry on Dec. 30, 2017, with many building a candlelight memorial to the sisters beside two tiny crosses with the names Chloe and Aubrey. Im saying, in some way, a part of God died that day, too, she said. Is there some way we will allow our pain to soften? A single urn holding the ashes of both Chloe and Aubrey was covered with butterflies because they are a symbol of resurrection, Ansley said. The urn stood on a flower covered table at the front of the cathedral. Family friend Trisha Lees said before the service she would like the girls to be remembered with great joy because they brought that feeling to others. The service also heard from family members, teachers and friends. Michaela Winter, one of Chloes teachers at Christ Church Cathedral school, could not hold back her tears when she recalled wishing both girls Merry Christmas at the schools pageant performance last month. Of course, now I wish I had said so much more, she said. Winter said Chloe was in the schools yoga and swim clubs and volunteered as a reading partner to students in kindergarten. Chloe captured all that life could offer every single day. We are forever changed by losing these two girls. Aubrey was remembered for her performance as the angel Gabriel in the schools Christmas nativity pageant. Family friend Sandra Hudson said Aubrey reminded her mother, Sarah Cotton, of a pixie, which is why she chose her first name because it means ruler of the elf kingdom. Chloe could make the sun shine while Aubrey had the power to melt our hearts, Hudson said. Emma Cotton said she spoke to her cousin Sarah on Christmas Day about the sisters travelling to England for a visit with their relatives this year. I have so many wonderful memories of Chloe and Aubrey, which I will cherish for the rest of my life, she said. Rest in peace my little darlings. You are true angels now. Read more: B.C. father charged with second-degree murder in young girls deaths on Christmas Community holds candlelight vigil for sisters found dead in Oak Bay, B.C. Young sisters found dead in B.C. on Christmas Day remembered as full of energy Read more about: SHARE: Update January 15, 2018: Toronto Police say they have determined that this incident did not occur. See follow-up story here. Khawlah Noman was walking to school with her younger brother on Friday when she felt somebody pull the hood of her winter jacket down. Protected from the rain was the 11-year-olds light blue hijab the target of a man holding a pair of scissors with a blue handle. Over the next 10 minutes, she said she was attacked not once, but twice, by a man who is now a suspect in a Toronto police hate crime investigation. I felt really scared and confused, she told reporters Friday afternoon, recounting the traumatic incident in a Scarborough neighbourhood near Birchmount Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E. I didnt feel comfortable about what was going on. When her attacker pulled her hood down, she said he cut her hijab from the bottom up. Terrified, she turned to face him a young Asian male, roughly 5-foot-8 to six feet tall, wearing black pants, a black hoodie and brown gloves. He had a moustache, the girl told police, and glasses, too. He was smiling at her. She looked at him and screamed. Her attacker ran away. Frightened, Khawlah and her 10-year-old brother, Mohammed Zakariyya, rushed to join a group of children walking nearby so they wouldnt be alone with the attacker. Together, they continued their morning walk to school down Birchmount Rd. Held up at a traffic light at Bay Mills Blvd., the brother and sister were separated at opposite ends of the crossing. Mohammed didnt make the light in time to safely cross, so his sister waited for him while the group moved on. He said he watched as his sisters attacker again approached her, scissors in hand. The little boy was scared, worried his sister would be hurt. Im so glad that shes safe and Im safe, he said. When they got to school, they discovered the bottom of Khawlahs hijab had been cut by about 30 centimetres. The incident was deeply upsetting for the children, and for their mother, Samia Samad. I dont know why he did that, Samad said, visibly shaken and in tears. Its just not Canada. Im frustrated and Im angry, but I do believe in peace in Canada. I am so proud to be a Canadian, and I want to give (the attacker) the same message. The assault against Khawlah, a student at Pauline Johnson Junior Public School in Scarborough, is being condemned by leaders from all three levels of government as unrepresentative of Canadian values. I cant imagine how afraid she must have been, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in an unprompted statement of support for Khawlah at a news conference in London, Ont. I want her and her family and her friends and community to know that that is not what Canada is and that is not who Canadians are. Premier Kathleen Wynne was outraged. Everyone in our province has the right to worship and dress however they choose, she said. And everyone has the right to feel safe and respected no matter what they are wearing or where they go. Mayor John Tory said he was shocked and appalled by the incident, stating, No child should ever be afraid walking to school in Toronto because of what they are wearing. The schools website says 68 per cent of the junior kindergarten through Grade 6 students in attendance speak a language other than English at home. For something like this to happen to one of our kids here is piercing to my heart, said TDSB spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz. The school boards social work team was on site, and letters will also be sent home with students at all three schools in the Scarborough neighbourhood addressing the assault against Khawlah. We want to make sure they know were aware of whats happening, and were available to talk, TDSB trustee Manna Wong said. Toronto police lauded Khawlahs quick thinking and response to the attack, with Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu saying she was very, very smart for shouting and joining the group of students ahead of her. Sidhu said this is an isolated incident, such that she has never seen in her 20 years of service. Police are investigating this as a hate crime, but the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General will need to approve any hate crime related charges associated with the assault. Having the police recognize this as a potential hate crime is a much greater act of deterrence, and a signal that Islamophobia will not be tolerated, said Mohammed Hashim, a member of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations. Toronto Councilor Neethan Shan has campaigned for Jan. 29 the one year anniversary of the mass shooting at a Quebec City mosque to be marked as a Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia. Incidents like this, he said, make such days even more imperative. A day of action will express our recommitment to fight Islamophobia, and become a rallying call, he said. But legislative changes are very important. We need to find ways to get communities to trust the criminal process, and report hate crimes. Khawlahs light blue hijab is now with police as evidence. Wearing a white hijab loaned from a friend, she softly gave a message to her attacker. What youre doing is very wrong, you should stop doing this, she said, holding back tears. Im a kid. SHARE: Theres a tiny shop on Bathurst, surrounded by demolition and development. Its technicolour door is dwarfed by the skeleton of Honest Eds, and a shuttered storefront recently sold cozies up on the other side. The smell of incense floats out the door when its opened, along with the faint hum of music. Long wooden bookshelves are filled with titles from Sacred Medicine to Cactus of Mystery: the Shamanic Powers of the Peruvian San Pedro Cactus. Patrons can pick up brown paper bags of sencha green tea or reishi mushroom slices for $8 a bag. And while the block around them is seeing a mass exodus in preparation for Mirvish Village, a massive development that will include four rental-unit towers and a public market, theyll continue peddling their eclectic wares as the buildings come down around them. Read more: Opinion | Edward Keenan: Torontos gloriously tacky Sam the Record Man sign shines on Honest Eds sale to include Mirvish Village Public invited to weigh in on latest design revisions for old Honest Eds location The owner and landlord of the property is David Spiro who bought the 758 Bathurst St. lot back in 2005. It was sitting there for sale for a long time, Spiro said. A year or two after he decided to purchase it, he says Mirvish approached him with an offer to buy the property. They had an opportunity to pick it up from the person I bought it from, and I guess they just missed the opportunity, he said. I didnt buy it to resell. Its a long term investment. For the past year, hes been negotiating with developers while all around his building properties are shuttering for the redevelopment of Bathurst and Bloor. I really dont have a clue whats going on with Mirvish Village, he said. Its very obscure, the whole thing about it. I know theyre boarding everything out. But as of a few weeks ago, a decision was made. Spiro is keeping the property, and the store called Alternative Thinking is staying put. Were definitely not selling. Were definitely staying, Spiro told the Star on Thursday. Its private property, he explained matter-of-factly. No one can force you to sell private property, unless its the government Ive been amazed by how many people were surprised that Im keeping it, including yourself. The developers treated them decently throughout the process, he said, noting that there had been no issues. But he says he never intended to sell. Its sort of semi-historical. At this point its been there for a long time, and I like the location, he said. Its an interesting store in there. Inside the store, store owner Revaz Mekvabishvili and his partner, Dominique Turcotte, say the decision is their best case scenario. I guess [Spiro] just felt like having the property, and being supportive to the business, Mekvabishvili told the Star. Mekvabishvili has been running the store for around seven years. It started as a bookstore, but bit-by-bit, new sections were added from shelves of crystals to rows of clothing and pendants. Their retail model aims to evolve, he explained. That has to do with sharing what we want to offer and what we want to provide, as well [as] getting feedback and developing whats on the shelves with the community and the people that come through, he said. So thats kind of how we grew. These days, walking inside the store is like entering a kaleidoscope bright, colourful and ever-changing. Large, vividly-coloured prints are labeled laser guided visions, and miscellaneous lanterns with shapes cut out from them hang from a branch on the ceiling. In the centre, a cocoon-like structure wrapped in plastic leaves surrounds a curved wooden bench, which is softened for visitors with pillows painted in cosmic designs. Like Spiro, Mekvabishvili has a fondness for the property on Bathurst. Its near the heart of things, he said, near one of the biggest intersections in Toronto. Over the years, the traffic on Bathurst has been increasing, so its really nice, he added. Theres been some animosity towards the development on the block, evident on Thursday from a profane note affixed to the window of a nearby closed-down store. But Spiro was pleasant while discussing the developers. They want to make sure that everything is going to be okay, he told the Star. And looking forward, hes hoping it will be. Its going to be hard for a few years, he mused. But then the benefits will be huge later. The classic years of famine, and then some good years after that hopefully. Spiro appealed to the community to support the store while development is underway. As for what itll be like to stick around, hes embracing the unknown. I dont know. Ask me in three years! Clarification January 12, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly omitted the given name and title of Revaz Mekvabishvili. SHARE: The King St. streetcar pilot project has increased morning rush hour transit ridership on the route by almost 25 per cent, according to the TTC. The number was released Thursday in a report going before the TTC board next week. TTC Chair Josh Colle called the numbers extraordinary. This is actually a good case study, when transit actually becomes rapid, people want to use it. So King is faster now, and its more reliable, and so more people are using it, said Colle, who is also the councillor for Ward 15 Eglinton-Lawrence. TTC spokesperson Stuart Green confirmed that roughly two weeks after the pilot was installed in November, the agency counted 2,600 people using eastbound streetcars at Spadina Ave. during the morning rush, which is the busiest time and busiest location on the King route. The count represented an increase of 500 riders compared to the 2,100 tallied in September, before the pilot was installed. Preliminary data has shown the project, designed to free up streetcar movement on King by removing on-street parking and compelling drivers to make right turns off the street at most major intersections, has improved travel times for transit vehicles. Official numbers from the city say it has cut average journey times in the pilot area between Bathurst and Jarvis Sts. by as much as 14 per cent, while independent analysis by University of Toronto researchers found even more dramatic time savings. Toronto Star reporters Ben Spurr and Tamar Harris rode the TTC's King streetcar along the pilot project route and drove a car on corresponding streets to see if travel times have changed during the morning rush hours. (Toronto Star) The report, authored by acting TTC chief executive officer Rick Leary, stated that, in some ways, the pilot has made the transit agency a bit of a victim of our own success, because increased ridership is exacerbating crowding on streetcars. King was already the TTCs busiest surface route; more than 72,000 people were using the 504 King and 514 Cherry streetcars every day. The TTC has added vehicles to King to cope with demand, and is deploying all its new, larger streetcars on the 504 line as they arrive from Bombardiers plant in Thunder Bay, Ont. The higher ridership figures were released as pressure mounts on Mayor John Tory to make changes to the pilot to accommodate local business owners who say the reconfiguration of the street has driven away customers. Revenues for 26 restaurants in Kings theatre district were down an average of 41 per cent in December compared to the same month the previous year, according to the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association. The ORHMA is pushing for the pilots traffic rules to be suspended on weekends and after 7 p.m. on weeknights, and says it is contemplating legal action against the city if it doesnt make changes. In response to businesses concerns, the city launched a plan on Tuesday to animate King in the coming months with a design competition for the public space, street performers, warming spots, and a promotion for local restaurants. The measures will cost $200,000 on top of the pilots original $1.5-million budget, according to a city spokesperson. Business owners are meeting with Tory at city hall Friday morning. The mayor said Tuesday he wants to ensure economic prosperity is not negatively affected by improved mobility, but warned any modifications to the pilot must preserve its positive impacts on transit service. What you have to do is make sure you maintain the integrity of whats got the streetcars moving faster, he said. SHARE: A professor at one of the countrys premier theatre schools left his post last year less than a month after a former student alleged that her acting teacher called her a funny fat girl and made inappropriate sexual comments. That allegation initially appeared in a theatre magazine in February 2017 and although the first person article didnt name the teacher, the author, Megan Robinson, told the Star that the teacher in question was Todd Hammond. Hammond, who taught acting at George Brown Theatre School, told the Star no comment when reached at his home last night. Although the college refused to discuss any personnel matters, a spokesperson said that after Robinsons article came out, they met with students and made changes to school policies. I cant discuss the status of an individual staff member, said Brian Stock, George Brown Colleges director of communications. We are absolutely aware of the concerns raised in that article and we believe decisive action has been taken to address those issues. On Wednesday, Hammonds voicemail said: Im currently away from the college until further notice. His colleague, James Simon, who teaches the business of acting course at the theatre school, said Hammond left in March. A March 12, 2017, email, written to a George Brown College executive and obtained by the Star through a Freedom of Information request, references the absence of the schools head of acting who was either taking a leave of absence or was put on administrative leave. Robinsons piece, titled Confessions from Theatre School, appeared in Intermission Magazine on Feb. 17, 2017. Robinson, who graduated from George Brown Colleges program in 2012, alleged that Hammond, her former acting teacher, got very personal in his criticisms of her and other students. There was a way that he speaks to people that purposely tries to shake them up, she said. But it had a psychological impact. He didnt have the right to go there. However, one student felt that despite Hammonds sometimes harsh comments, he was an incredible teacher. In the article Robinson wrote as a 19-year-old who had only recently graduated high school, the comment about her being fat was the worst insult and something that affected her self confidence at its core. In another instance, Robinson, now 27, writes that the acting teacher approached her and her scene partner as they navigated a complicated vignette about a married couple. Robinson said that after questioning the male partner if he had ever been with a woman, Hammond turned to her asking: Have you ever been naked with a man before? When she spluttered a no, he responded: Dont worry, it will happen. George Brown College never contacted Robinson about the article she wrote, she said, but Robinson is happy as long as the school is discussing it with students. In an email, dated March 12, 2017, and obtained by the Star through a Freedom of Information request, a student whose identity has been redacted wrote to a college executive to praise Hammonds teaching. I realize that his methods are difficult to both explain and understand, the student wrote. But Todd has immensely helped me in my acting. His comments, to some, can be very harsh and I was devastated to learn the harm they have caused fellow students. But many of whom I have spoken to feel strongly that he was a teacher we needed and the toughness of his method set high demands for us to improve . . . . Recent allegations of sexual harassment against Albert Schultz, who resigned earlier this month as Soulpepper Theatres artistic director, have shone a spotlight on the theatre industry including theatre schools. Last month, George Randolph, founder of the Randolph College for the Performing Arts, resigned amid allegations of unwelcome comments and physical gestures to adult staff and students. However, Randolph announced his plans to step down as president at a college gala on Oct. 23, explaining he wanted to focus on other interests. His departure was slated for spring of 2018. Robinsons article created quite a buzz in the local theatre community, garnering dozens of detailed comments from actors and others commiserating with Robinsons experience. Former George Brown Theatre School students have come out saying they, too, were traumatized by their time in the program that is housed in the Young Centre in the citys Distillery District. Rachel Fernandes, 26, who left the school in 2010, said she was demeaned and humiliated by Hammond. She said he often commented in sexual terms when bringing that tone wasnt warranted. Fernandes, who has just completed a masters degree in English literature from the University of Ottawa, described instances where she was simply asked to stand and introduce herself before being told that she came off as a theatrical tease or a coitus interruptus. (His) comments werent about our performances or our delivery, it was all very personal, she said. There are constructive ways to get your point across or to educate or to inspire the kind of performance you want to see, but I dont think those comments were appropriate ways to do that. Fernandes, and other former students interviewed by the Star said that the theatre school was a toxic place because of its system of eliminating students before they could graduate. Fernandes, who said she was cut after a year and a half, told the Star she and her colleagues lived in fear of being put on the chopping block. She recalls wanting to take a day off in 2010 to visit a family member who had been diagnosed with an illness but decided against it because she didnt want to risk missing a day. I was that scared, she said. Gabrielle Lazarovitz, 31, who attended the theatre school in 2005, said that from Day 1 she and her peers had paranoia and fear about not being able to graduate. She remembers the moment she found out she wouldnt be attending the next year. She got her final report card at the end of her first year and, along with several other students, ripped it open outside an administrative office. In that moment, I fell completely apart, Lazarovitz, who is still in theatre, said. Patrick Cieslar, a former student who graduated from the theatre school in 2006, became determined shortly after to change the culture at his alma mater. In email correspondence obtained by the Star through a Freedom of Information request, Cieslar told a former human rights adviser at the school that there are a few instructors at the school whose tone, words and actions indicate a deliberate attempt to undermine the self esteem and general well being of its students, thereby creating a poisoned environment in which learning is impossible. He also told them that the fear of being cut engenders a pervasive climate of paranoia, suspicion, jealously and uncertainty. In a document titled A Legacy of Trauma, and subsequently posted on his website George Brown Theatre School Survivors, Cieslar included quotes allegedly given to him by students, describing how they felt about the schools cutting system. I showed up at school every morning feeling bitter, angry and scared, an unnamed student is quoted as saying. It made for a miserable environment. In the documents, Cieslar gave the schools human rights adviser suggestions for changes. They included developing guidelines for delivering criticism to its students, putting anti-harassment policies and strategies in place and fostering in-class discussion with students about how to handle harassment in the professional world. James Simon, who teaches a course about the business of acting, wrote to the Star in an email saying he is deeply saddened by the conflicted feelings some students have expressed on social media and online. Fear and intimidation are not teaching tools. Simon said that while he does not want to invalidate the experiences of the students who have come forward, he points out that the school has, in the past, received a 98-100% student satisfaction based on annual anonymous Key Performance Indicator surveys administered by the government. He said that after the Intermission article came out, the school was once more put under a microscope and that the author of the article never came forward with any complaints while she was at the school. Stock, the colleges director of communications, said its completely unacceptable for faculty to comment on a students appearance relative to their performance. We would never accept this today and we shouldnt have accepted it in the past, Stock said. He also said there is no system of cutting, but when students are asked to leave the program they have been given ample indications, including being put on probation, and warned that they were not meeting requirements to continue with the program. Within a week of Robinsons article, Stock said the schools chair, Trent Scherer, and its current human rights adviser, Olga Dosis, called a meeting with students to first of all assure them that we dont condone the behaviour that is being discussed in the article, or in the comments to the article and that their safety and support in the program is paramount to us. Stock said that as a result, the theatre school has updated its policies related to faculty behaviour, added courses on consent both on stage and in life and on how to manage acting challenges related to scenes of intimacy on stage. Clarification January 17, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version to make clear George Randolph formally resigned as president of the Randolph College for the Performing Arts in December amid an investigation into his conduct. As well, Randolph had announced his plans to step down as president at a college gala on Oct. 23, explaining he wanted to focus on other interests and his departure was slated for spring 2018. However, nine days after his announcement, formal complaint about his conduct was brought to the colleges board of directors, leading to his earlier departure from the school. With files from Bruce DeMara SHARE: WASHINGTONU.S. President Donald Trump hinted Thursday that he would not initiate a withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement before July at the earliest. His words provided some measure of reassurance to nervous NAFTA supporters. The loonie and some U.S. stocks had dropped the day prior because of a news report, disputed with the Star by senior Canadian sources, that said Canada was increasingly convinced Trump would initiate the process of withdrawing, perhaps as soon as later this month. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Trump repeated his usual threat to withdraw from NAFTA if he could not negotiate improvements. But he added that he would be leaving it a little bit flexible until the Mexican presidential election on July 1. I understand that a lot of things are hard to negotiate prior to an election, he told the Journal. They have an election coming up fairly shortly. I understand that makes it a little bit difficult for them. Theres no rush, he added, saying he would rather be able to negotiate than begin a withdrawal. Trump had never before expressed empathy for the political challenge faced by Mexican negotiators. Read more: Still hoping for the best in NAFTA talks, Canadian government prepared for every eventuality, Freeland says Donald Trump disparages immigrants from s---hole countries in Oval Office meeting In a Harry-Potter-sized frenzy, Canadians are clamouring for the Trump tell-all book Trump offered a second mildly encouraging signal to trade proponents by telling the Journal that he could use a revised NAFTA to fulfill his promise to make Mexico pay for a wall on the border. We make a good deal on NAFTA, and, say, Im going to take a small percentage of that money and its going toward the wall. Guess what? Mexicos paying, he said. Observers were baffled by this claim. Mexicos Economy Secretary, Ildefonso Guajardo, wrote on Twitter, that Mexico will never pay for that wall. Mexicos chief negotiator, Kenneth Smith Ramos, wrote on Twitter: Let this be clear: the issue of the payment for a #border #wall is not, and will never be, part of the #NAFTA #negotiations #wearenotjoking. Whether reasonable or nonsensical, however, the remark was the first in which Trump made an argument that suggested he was thinking of ways he could attempt to sell a decision to preserve a trade pact he has called the worst in world history. Its a good sign, said Ottawa trade strategist Peter Clark of Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates. It shows that he does listen . . . at least, he listened to the people he talked to yesterday. I dont know who hell talk to tomorrow. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says the government is hoping for the best in the sixth round of NAFTA talks, but is prepared for a U.S. withdrawal from the trade deal. Montreal will host the negotiations Jan. 23 to 28. (The Canadian Press) Trump has been lobbied intensely in recent weeks by pro-NAFTA Republican senators. He spoke Monday at the pro-NAFTA American Farm Bureau, declining to offer reassurance but staying away from the most scathing of his regular anti-NAFTA remarks. Trade experts have never assigned too much significance to any individual Trump remark on NAFTA, as the improvisational president often contradicts himself in subsequent appearances. Dan Ujczo, an Ohio trade lawyer at Dickinson Wright, said he was cautiously, but not overly, optimistic about Trumps latest musings. I think some of the messages the president has been hearing from the farm lobby, from the pro-NAFTA-modernization forces, are starting to sink in, said Ujczo. Trump, Ujczo said, appears to be weighing the costs and benefits of NAFTA withdrawal in a way that he hasnt to date. Trump also criticized NAFTA to the Journal, calling it a terrible agreement for us. But he said he would rather leave it than terminate it, and he said, Weve made a lot of headway. Were moving along nicely. Canada is prepared for every eventuality, including a Trump decision to start the withdrawal clock Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in London on Thursday. A Trump decision to announce his intention to withdraw would not mean that an actual withdrawal would occur. Such a move would simply give the U.S. the right to withdraw in six months or beyond. It is not clear, moreover, whether Trump could actually withdraw without the approval of Congress. Trumps theory that it will be easier to negotiate with Mexico after its presidential election is not the consensus of experts. Mexicans could choose elect leftist populist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a NAFTA critic, albeit one who toned down his criticism in 2017. Officials from all three countries have previously said that the best chance of reaching a deal is doing it early this year. Negotiations are not now scheduled beyond March. Correction Sept. 4, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Peter Clark is a trade lawyer. In fact, Clark is a trade strategist. Read more about: SHARE: WASHINGTONA bipartisan group of senators working to resolve the status of young undocumented immigrants, border security and restrictions on legal migration programs has offered an opening bid on an immigration agreement and is seeking sign-off from the White House, according to aides familiar with the talks. Aides to Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a longtime GOP broker on immigration policy, said Thursday that a deal has been reached, and other congressional aides familiar with the negotiations confirmed that the group is now consulting with the White House. The breakthrough comes two days after U.S. President Donald Trump summoned lawmakers to the White House and said he would support a deal that would resolve the legal status of Dreamers, or young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, and make other changes in immigration and border security policy. Word of a deal also comes just days before a spending deadline that most Democrats are using as leverage for an immigration agreement. Read more: Donald Trump disparages immigrants from s---hole countries in Oval Office meeting Ill take all the heat, Trump says to lawmakers seeking deal on DACA Trump says any deal on Dreamers must include his border wall, end chain migration Government funding expires on Jan. 19, and Democrats say they will support legislation to keep the government operating only if the legislation includes plans to protect dreamers, who were brought illegally to the country as children. But the talks have deadlocked for weeks amid Republican demands that any changes in the young immigrants legal status be coupled with changes in border security and some legal immigration programs. A bipartisan group of senators, led by Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Flake, said earlier Thursday that they were nearing a deal resembling the framework Trump laid out for Democrats and Republicans: legal protections for dreamers; changes in security along the U.S.-Mexico border, restrictions on family migration policy, which some conservatives deride as chain migration, and changes to a diversity lottery system that grants visas to 55,000 people from countries with low immigration each year. Somebody has to put forward a document, someone has to put forward a bill thats what were doing, Flake told reporters on Wednesday. In the Senate, Weve got to get 60 votes. In order to get 60 votes, youve got to have a bipartisan bill. Thats what were doing here, Flake added. But Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who once actively participated in the bipartisan groups talks, said he doubted whether they could strike a deal that passes the closely divided Senate and the GOP-dominated House. That group has members that for 16 years have tried to get a congressional outcome and its not just about 60 votes. Its 50 per cent plus one in the House, Tillis said. Durbin, Flake and Graham have been part of ultimately unsuccessful bipartisan immigration talks that date back to at least 2006. In a joint news conference Wednesday 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. Its 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 thats been going on for a long time, and maybe beyond that, immigration as a whole. Complicating the talks, Republicans on Wednesday released a flurry of new legislation designed to placate concerns of conservatives wary of a potential bipartisan deal and to address the fate of hundreds of thousands of other people living in the country under temporary legal protection. House Judiciary Committee chairperson Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, House Homeland Security Committee chairperson Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, and Republican Reps. Raul Labrador of Idaho and Martha McSally of Arizona 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 employees immigration status. Goodlatte said the legislation is aligned with the White Houses immigration priorities and would ensure the door remains open to law-abiding immigrants, and restore the rule of law. The proposals have been previously rejected by other Republicans, who say that such a comprehensive proposal could not pass the badly fractured Congress and that the bills border security measures are too aggressive. Privately, aides to GOP leaders say the bill would not be able to pass in the House. Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Mike Coffman, whose Denver-area district is being closely targeted by Democrats this year, introduced a bill to grant permanent legal residency to hundreds of thousands of people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and other countries granted residency through the Temporary Protection Status program. The Trump administration has made plans to end the program in the coming years, emphasizing that the program was meant to provide only temporary legal status and calling on Congress to come up with a permanent solution. The ongoing fight was sparked by Trumps decision to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which the president and his supporters called an egregious example of executive overreach. But Trumps attempts to end the program were 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. The White House called the injunction outrageous, and the Justice Department has said it will appeal. Negotiators on Capitol Hill said they didnt think the court ruling would slow ongoing talks. The fate of dreamers is hanging out there with great uncertainty, Durbin told reporters. Whether its by the presidents announcement or a court decision, its time for us to meet the presidents 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 Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, chairperson of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela of Texas, a strident critic of Trumps calls for a border wall, said many lawmakers are frustrated by the scope of the negotiations. Theres so many moving parts on this, its even hard to tell whos really doing the negotiating, he said. Its a mess. Kari Hong, an assistant professor at Boston College Law School who supervises a law clinic in the 9th Circuit, said Alsups ruling signalled the Trump administration couldnt rescind DACA without a solid reason. The courts said you cant 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 judges ruling is pending. But others said they risked losing the hefty application fee and worried that some immigrants would fall prey to fraud. Its urgent that we have a permanent solution with a pathway to citizenship, said Ivonne Orozco, 26, New Mexicos 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 masters degree at the University of New Mexico with straight As. Her DACA status expires in 2019. Read more about: SHARE: SANTIAGO, CHILEPresident Michelle Bachelet asked Chileans on Friday to receive Pope Francis in a climate of respect, hours after three Roman Catholic churches were firebombed and a note left at the scene threatening the pontiff. In the overnight attacks in Santiago, the countrys capital and largest city where the pope will arrive Monday, the churches were hit with firebombs and then sprayed with accelerant. At one, the doors were burned before firefighters extinguished the blaze. The next bombs will be in your cassock, read pamphlets found outside one of the churches. Read more: Ahead of Pope Francis visit, Vatican takes over Peru Catholic movement whose founder was accused of abuse Later in the day, police found barrels of flammable liquid at two other churches that had not been ignited. They were handled by bomb squads without incident. The pamphlets also extolled the cause of the Mapuche indigenous people, who are pushing for a return of ancestral lands and other rights. Francis will celebrate Mass and meet with Mapuches in the southern city of Temuco on Wednesday. After the previously scheduled security meeting, Bachelet said the Andean nation of 17 million was prepared for the first papal visit since Saint John Paull II came in 1987. I also want to invite you all to experience this visit in a climate of respect, solidarity and happiness, Bachelet said. There were no immediate arrests in the firebombings, and authorities downplayed their significance with Interior Ministry official Mahmud Aleuy calling the damage minor. Chilean police did not immediately respond to queries about whether new security measures would be taken after the attacks. Earlier this week police said 18,000 officers would be deployed during Francis visits to Santiago, Temuco and the northern city of Iquique. Police will also have helicopters on hand and monitor events with drones. It was unclear who might have been behind Fridays attacks. A small minority of Mapuches have used violence to further their cause, and in recent years churches have been targeted. Chile also has a handful of anarchist groups that periodically attack property and clash with police during protests. The pamphlet that threatened the pope mentioned the Mapuche cause and called for the liberation of all political prisoners in the world. Hugo Alcaman, president of ENAMA, a Mapuche group that encourages local businesses and advocates social change, condemned the attacks. We reject all types of violence, which we dont think is intelligent or effective, said Alcaman. Francis visit to Chile and Peru aims to highlight immigration, the suffering of indigenous peoples and protecting the Amazon rainforest. However sex abuse in the Chilean church and political instability in Peru have become central themes as his arrival nears. SHARE: WASHINGTONIt was a debate that many journalists likely never expected to face: How to properly quote the president of the United States saying the words s---hole countries. Trump vaguely hinted at a denial early Friday. Deciding what to do with the remarks and whether to censor them in news reports was tough enough for the press in the United States. It was, after all, a vulgar phrase not usually fit for a newspaper or television. But imagine trying to make sense of it in a different language. Every culture has its profanities, to be sure, but they do not always translate well. That head-scratching dilemma played out in newsrooms around the world Thursday after the Washington Post first reported that Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as shithole countries while discussing immigrant protections with lawmakers. The main daily newspapers in El Salvador, one of the countries maligned by the president, went with the translation agujeros de mierda, which essentially means holes of s---. Why do we have all these people from countries (who are a) hole of s--- coming here? read Trumps translated remarks, from the Spanish news agency EFE. Its a bit literal, one Spanish-speaking reader tweeted. Alex Segura, Washington correspondent for EFE, tweeted about the debate with his editors over how to translate the pearl of the day from Trump. Other options they considered for the phrase? S---ty countries, unclean countries, and pigsties, he said. Another journalist, in Mexico, tweeted that he had debated at length with a least five editors over how to translate Trumps gem into Spanish. #LaEraTrump, he said. Indeed, the Trump era has created a headache for translators and interpreters again and again. On the one hand, the presidents simple vocabulary makes his words easy to follow. But when theyre combined into sentences and paragraphs, they are a jumble, jumping from topic to topic. Read more: Trump said hate filled things, repeatedly mentioned s---holes, says senator who was there Trumps s---hole remark draws sharp response from African countries, Haiti, former Canadian governor general Trump cancels London trip, blames embassys bad deal on Obama a 2008 call made by Bush When a video was released capturing Donald Trump making lewd comments about women, news outlets across the world struggled with how to translate Grab them by the p---y. In China, where theres no obvious word for p---y, some news outlets published more sanitized versions using references to private places or nether parts. Others opted for simply including the censored English word, use p---y to grab them. These cleaned-up versions fail to give foreign news consumers the full picture, which can prove problematic. Understanding the presidents remarks is, after all, essential to readers worldwide his words could lead to life-altering policies and decisions for people all over. The two words from which s---hole are formed are not that difficult to translate individually, according to linguist Juliane House, the former president of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies. Most languages have some equivalent for the first part of the combination or at least some profane variation of a word for excrement. Its a bodily function, said House, who is a professor at the University of Hamburg. Hole, by itself, is also easy enough. But what happens when you put those two words together? Is it an adjective or a noun? And how does one use it in a sentence to describe certain countries? Even then, House said, that doesnt really mean that this gets through. Editors from various news organizations need to approve the wording for publication. In many cultures, discussing excrement and using profanity even when quoting the most powerful man in the world may be a serious taboo. Depending on the political or moral leanings of a news organization, editors may choose to clean up the expletive. Translation is never neutral, so ideology comes in, and probably pressure from above, House said. Some foreign news outlets took an easier approach to disregard the hole. Most French media went with the phrase pays de merde, which essentially means s---ty countries. This meaning was quite clear, said Berengere Viennot, a professional French translator who has often been tasked to translate Trumps remarks. But previous words from Trump have left more room for ambiguity, such as the time he told Frances first lady, Brigitte Macron, Youre in such good shape. Things have evolved: one year ago, maybe journalists would have developed or justified their choice of French swearwords for translating the American president; now it seems taken for granted that he uses a vocabulary that does not fit with the function of the presidency, Viennot wrote in an email. Vulgar is the new normal. In Finnish, one translation of the phrase was perslapimaat, which literally means a--hole countries. In Swahili, Trumps phrase would likely be translated into Bongo land, a term used to describe poor or uncivilized places, Jan Blommaert, a Belgian linguistic anthropologist, said. Its a phrase considered disparaging by many. The phrase Bongo Bongo Land was actually banned for its members by the U.K. Independence Party in 2013 after a member of European Parliament used it to describe countries receiving government aid. Some of the oddest translations of Trumps latest crudity showed up in Asian news outlets. Taiwans Central News Agency went with niao bu sheng dan de guo jia, or , meaning countries where birds dont lay eggs, as Quartz pointed out. Japans Sankei used , or Benjo no yo ni kitanai kuni, meaning countries that are dirty like toilets. As Anna Fifield, Tokyo bureau chief for The Washington Post, noted, South Korean media had to spell out the word in English. In Germany, a common translation was drecksloch, which conveys a garbage dump. We used that a lot back when he called the White House a dump (simpler times!), but it doesnt work for countries, one German interpreter argued on Twitter. Reached by a reporter early Friday, House, the linguist in Hamburg, said she hadnt read Trumps original words in English yet only the translation in a German daily. Is it dirthole? she asked. Close, but not quite. Read more about: SHARE: Qatars ambassador to the UN has filed a complaint with the world bodys Security Council as her country accuses United Arab Emirates (UAE) of violating its airspace. UAE fighters allegedly entered the Qatari airspace in December, amid the ongoing crisis opposing the tiny Gulf country and its neighbors. The alleged violation, according to the envoy who was quoted by the Qatari news agency QNA, occurred on 21 December at 9:45am and lasted for one minute. The Qatari diplomat said that an UAE plane entered Qatars airspace without prior knowledge or approval of the competent Qatari authorities. She deemed the incident a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of her country, as well as a flagrant violation of the provisions of international law, conventions, charters and international norms. UAE authorities have not commented on the accusation. Qatar has been facing a sea, land and air blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt after the four in June cut off ties with the gas-rich country over its alleged support for terrorism. Doha has ridiculed the charges arguing that it is victim of a smear campaign aiming at regime change. This latest accusation follows a damning report by the UN Human rights office, which early this week castigated the Saudi-led quartet for hate campaigns against Qatar and threats to kill Qataris including their ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani. The report noted that between June and October an estimate of 1,120 press articles and 600 anti-Qatar caricatures were published in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Such material included calls for a regime change or a coup detat, attacks against leading figures and symbols of Qatar, as well as attacks on and murder of Qataris, the report further noted. Qatar in August filed a complaint to Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) that it was victim of an illegal siege imposed by the Saudi-led alliance. CANBERRA, AUSTRALIAA 14-year-old girl who was the angelic face of an iconic Australian bushmens hat brand was remembered by hundreds of mourners Friday after her suicide focused attention on the dangers of cyberbullying. The memorial service for Amy Dolly Everett was held in the tiny Northern Territory town of Katherine near her familys cattle ranch. Most mourners dressed in her favourite colour, blue, and many had driven hundreds of kilometres from distant ranches. A photograph of a young Dolly, her smiling face framed by sun-kissed curls and shaded by a rabbit-felt hat, has been featured in advertising of Akubra Hats since 2009, most recently this past Christmas. More than a century old and one of Australias most iconic brands, Akubra has made so-called bush hats, the Australian military slouch hats and even the fedora worn by Harrison Fords character Indiana Jones in the 1981 movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Her family has blamed recent online bullying after Dollys death last week but hasnt given specifics of the bullying or her cause of death. The tragic news travelled quickly via social media from the remote and sparsely populated cattle country of Australias rugged far north. We are shocked and distressed to hear of the passing of Dolly, Akubra said in a statement. Stating that she chose to end her life to escape being bullied, the company said, To think that anyone could feel so overwhelmed and that suicide was their only option is unfathomable. Akubra, based in Kempsey, New South Wales state, has used the endearing Outback cowgirl image frequently in its marketing since it was taken at the remote Brunette Downs Station cattle ranch. After the service, mourners released balloons and butterflies. Her father, Tick Everett, flanked by his wife Meg and daughter Meg, urged parents to speak to their children about their relationships and bullying. Speak even if your voice shakes, he said, quoting a caption of a sketch of a dancer that Dolly had recently drawn. Stop bullying and be kind and do it for Dolly, he added. In an emotional Facebook post, Everetts father suggested those who had persecuted the teenager attend her funeral. 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, Tick Everett wrote. The debate about the perils to children of online communication caught the attention of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. From pain and loss, we must renew our commitment to say no to bullying, Turnbull wrote in a Facebook comment. The government had established an eSafety Commissioner to tackle cyberbullying and to work with internet companies to promote online safety, Turnbull said. The opposition Labor Partys last prime minister, Kevin Rudd, tweeted, Any form of bullying is an assault on our values. And in this young girls life with lethal effect. Northern Territory police say they are investigating the bullying allegations on behalf of a state coroner who will report on the cause of Dollys death. But no criminal investigation is underway. Coroners can recommend criminal charges at the end of an investigation into an unexpected death. With files from the Washington Post SHARE: JACKSON, MISS.Edgar Ray Killen, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted in the 1964 Mississippi Burning slayings of three civil rights workers, has died in prison at the age of 92, the states corrections department announced Friday. The one-time Klan leader was serving three consecutive 20-year terms for manslaughter when he died at 9 p.m. Thursday night inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary. An autopsy was pending, but no foul play was suspected, the corrections statement said. His conviction came 41 years to the day after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, all in their 20s, were ambushed and killed by Klansmen. Read more: Freedom Summer cases of 1964 end, but quest for justice goes on, relatives say The three Freedom Summer workers had been investigating the burning of a black church near Philadelphia, Mississippi. A deputy sheriff in Philadelphia had arrested them on a traffic charge, then released them after alerting a mob. Mississippis then-governor claimed their disappearance was a hoax before their bodies were dug up. The slayings shocked the nation, helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and were dramatized in the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning. The part-time preacher and lumber mill operator was 80 when a Neshoba County jury convicted him of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, despite his assertions that he was innocent. Killen was the only person ever to face state murder charges, and the only one to end up in state prison. It wasnt even murder it was manslaughter, David Goodman, Andrews younger brother, observed on Friday. Killen wouldnt say much about the killings during a 2014 interview with The Associated Press inside the penitentiary. He said he remained a segregationist who did not believe in racial equality, but contended he harboured no ill will toward blacks. Killen said he never had talked about the events that landed him behind bars, and never would. Long a suspect in the 1964 slayings, Killen had made a livelihood from farming, operating his sawmill and preaching to a small congregation at Smyrna Baptist Church in Union, south of Philadelphia, Mississippi. According to FBI files and court transcripts from a 1967 federal conspiracy trial, Killen did most of the planning in the ambush killings of the civil rights workers. According to testimony in the 2005 murder trial, Killen served as a kleagle, or organizer, of the Klan in Neshoba County and helped set up a klavern, or local Klan group, in a nearby county. Nineteen men, including Killen, were indicted on federal charges in the 1967 case. Seven were convicted of violating the victims civil rights. None served more than six years. Killens federal case ended with a hung jury after one juror said she couldnt convict a preacher. During his state trial in 2005, witnesses testified that on June 21, 1964, Killen went to Meridian to round up carloads of Klansmen to ambush Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, telling some of the Klan members to bring plastic or rubber gloves. Witnesses said Killen then went to a Philadelphia funeral home as an alibi while the fatal attack occurred. The three bodies were found 44 days later, buried in a red-clay dam in rural Neshoba County. In February 2010, Killen sued the FBI, claiming the government used a mafia hit man to pistol-whip and intimidate witnesses for information in the case. The federal lawsuit sought millions of dollars in damages and a declaration that his rights were violated when the FBI allegedly used a gangster known as The Grim Reaper during the investigation. The lawsuit was later dismissed. In the AP interview, Killen repeated his contention that he was not a criminal, but a political prisoner. Of one thing he was certain: I could have beat that thing if Id had the mental ability. When she learned of Killens death, Chaneys sister, the Rev. Julia Chaney Moss, said her first thought was that God has been kind to him. And for that I am grateful. My last thought on this is just that I only wish peace and blessings for all the families as well as the families of the perpetrators, she added. SHARE: JEFFERSON CITY, MO.Admitting to an extramarital affair but denying anything more, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens appears to be digging in for a fight to preserve his political life as other public officials weigh whether to stand with or against the once rising Republican star. Greitens met with Cabinet members and placed phone calls to rally support Thursday while his attorney fended off with firm denials a smattering of accusations that Greitens had acted violently, taken a revealing photo or tried to blackmail the woman to remain silent about their 2015 affair. Within 24 hours of acknowledging the affair in a contrite statement late Wednesday, Greitens camp had shifted to suggesting he was the target of a political hit piece even as the St. Louis circuit attorney launched a criminal investigation. Read more: Missouri governor admits to affair but denies reports he blackmailed woman with nude photo This is a three-year-old personal matter that presents no matters of public or legal interest, Greitens attorney Jim Bennett said in a statement. The facts will prove that fully. For Greitens to survive politically, its vital that the facts remain exactly as he said that he had an affair and nothing more, said several Republican political consultants with decades of experience. The most important thing in a crisis is your very first public communication. It has to be the truth, and it has to be airtight, said Republican consultant John Hancock, who has survived his own personal and political crises, most recently as a former state party chairman. Greitens acknowledged being unfaithful in his marriage after St. Louis television station KMOV aired part of an audio recording of a woman telling her husband about a sexual encounter with Greitens. The woman, who was Greitens hairdresser, is now divorced from the man who had secretly recorded their conversation. On the recording, she said Greitens had taped her hands, blindfolded her and taken a photo while warning, Youre never going to mention my name. The ex-husbands attorney said Thursday that his client had told him Greitens also slapped the woman at a later time. Greitens attorney denied each of those allegations. The TV station did not name the woman. The Associated Press learned of her identity but has chosen not to name her because she could not be reached for comment. The affair occurred as Greitens was preparing to launch his campaign for governor. The former Navy SEAL officer and veterans charity founder won election in 2016 as a self-described outsider ready to blow up the political establishment in Jefferson City. In his first year in office, he had a variety of political confrontations with fellow Republican lawmakers. Now hes trying to address their concerns that he can still be effective during a session in which he has promised to deliver the boldest state tax reform in the U.S. Republican leaders in the Missouri Senate and House released statements urging Greitens to be forthright and accountable for his actions. Republican Sen. Dave Schatz said he received a brief phone call Thursday from Greitens and his wife, Sheena, to discuss the allegations against him. Schatz said he explained to the governor: Before I render judgment, I want to see all the facts. Others had seen enough. Democratic Sen. Jamilah Nasheed and Democratic Rep. Brandon Ellington both said Greitens should resign. Republican Sen. Rob Schaaf, a frequent Greitens critic, stopped short of suggesting he step down but said: I dont see how he weathers this political storm. His reputation also took a hit in Iowa, a traditional presidential testing ground that Greitens had visited last fall. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds released a statement saying she was disappointed and saddened by allegations against Greitens. She didnt address Democratic Party calls for her to return the contributions that Greitens helped her raise. Greitens stayed out of the public eye on Thursday. But its unclear how long that will last. He had promised in his State of the State address earlier Wednesday evening to release details of his tax-cut plan early next week. Hancock suggested Greitens should address questions from the public and the press in person. The worst thing you can do during the life of the crisis is hunker down, he said. Another Republican consultant, David Barklage, who worked for one of Greitens opponents in the Republican primary, said he doesnt expect him to back down. He owes nothing to the party, nothing to the institution and has no reason not to take this to the end and fight it, Barklage said. SHARE: The Pentagons senior enlisted service member has issued a blunt warning to Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, fighters, saying in new social-media posts that they could either surrender or face death in a number of forms, including being beaten to death with steel entrenching tools. Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell, the senior enlisted adviser in the Pentagon, issued the warnings on Facebook and Twitter. Senior U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have warned Daesh fighters for months that they must lay down their weapons or face annihilation, but Troxells message was unusually forceful. (Daesh) needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them, Troxell wrote on Facebook. So, they have two options should they decide to come up against the United States, our allies and partners: surrender or die! Read more: Daeshs defeat in Iraq has left much of the country crumbling and no one seems willing to foot the reconstruction bill Canada to shift focus in Iraq with Daesh defeated, Sajjan says At least 9,000 civilians were killed in the liberation of Mosul, nearly 10 times the official count Troxell added that the U.S.-led military coalition will provide militants who surrender with safety in a detainee cell, food, a cot and legal 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, Troxell wrote. Regardless, they cannot win, so they need to choose how its going to be. The posts were published Tuesday night along with a photograph of an entrenching tool a collapsible shovel used by U.S. troops. It isnt the first time that Troxell has issued a warning along those lines. He used the same talking points during a United Services Organization (USO) holiday tour last month in which he and his boss, Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited deployed U.S. troops in numerous locations. Video recorded by a Stars and Stripes reporter on Dec. 24 in Afghanistan shows Troxell delivering a speech to cheering troops as Dunford and Florent Groberg, a Medal of Honor recipient looked on. Troxell, speaking from a stage, said that Daesh will be annihilated, period! before he launched into specifics. That may be through advising, assisting and enabling the host-nation partners, he said. 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! The crowd of service members assembled roared in response. Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesperson for Dunford and the Joint Staff, said that Troxells comments emphasized the sincerity of the U.S.-led coalitions resolve to defeat Daesh over the last four years. Ryder noted the count atrocities that the militants have committed against men, women and children. 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. As Dunfords senior enlisted adviser, Troxell is assigned to serve as a voice for enlisted service members at the Pentagon. He frequently gives U.S. troops fiery pep talks and thanks them for their work, as many sergeants major do. Troxell, who has deployed in combat five times, travelled to Syria twice last year. In October, he visited Raqqa, Daeshs former de facto capital that U.S.-backed forces seized. In comments published by the Pentagon afterward, he said commanders of the U.S.-backed forces were warning the militants to surrender. There is no negotiating with these guys, Troxell said. They are either going to surrender or they are going to get killed. Read more about: SHARE: Steve Bannon, U.S. President Donald Trumps former chief strategist, is expected to meet privately with the House Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the panels top Democrat said Thursday. We do want him to come in, Representative Adam Schiff of California said Thursday in a meeting with reporters. It is my expectation he will be doing that. A committee official familiar with its schedule has said Bannon is likely be interviewed next week, though plans are fluid. Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump Schiff discussed the potential for a Bannon interview on the same day he summed up the status of the probe. He said that while there is information pointing to collusion between Russia and Trumps campaign, its premature to say whether a crime was committed. Schiff said hes concerned congressional Republicans will shut down the investigation before that can be determined. The timing of a Bannon interview isnt tied to his recent falling out with Trump, exacerbated by comments attributed to him in the book, Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff. Trump has torn into Bannon nicknaming him Sloppy Steve since excerpts emerged that said Bannon labelled as treasonous a 2016 meeting attended by Donald Trump Jr. and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner with Russian nationals. Bannon has since said he holds former campaign chairman Paul Manafort responsible for allowing the meeting held in an attempt to dig up dirt on Democrat Hillary Clinton to go forward. Voluntary interview Bannon, who hasnt been accused of wrongdoing in the Russia inquiry, was initially invited by the committee in a letter last month. Rather than a subpoena compelling him to testify, the panel sent a request for a voluntary interview in its offices. The letter doesnt lay out specific reasons the committee wants to interview them, or the questions the panel wants to pose, but it makes clear that the interviews are part of the Russia investigation. Bannon was a key member of Trumps team when the president fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and FBI director James Comey. During the presidential campaign, Bannon was also a liaison to its data-analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica. The White House is threatening legal action against former Trump strategist Steve Bannon. Trump said Bannon "lost his mind" after he, in a new book, said Trump didn't understand the importance of being president. (The Associated Press) Read more: Steve Bannon to step down from Breitbart amid rift with Trump, fallout from Fire and Fury Steve Bannons treasonous criticism was aimed directly at Don Jr., Fire and Fury author says Opinion | Vinay Menon: Steve Bannon fired at Trump, but the grenades blew up in his face Alexander Nix, the chief executive officer of Cambridge Analytica, met with the House Intelligence panel earlier this month. Nix faced questions about whether he sought material from WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange that was stolen from computers of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, who managed Clintons presidential campaign. Schiff disputed repeated statements by Trump that there wasnt collusion with Russia. He said the volume of contacts between the campaign and the Russians, the nature of those contacts, the abundant deception around those contacts and multiple lies about those contacts, tell a very different story. Still, he said more investigative work is needed. As of Thursday, he said, the House committee had interviewed 53 witnesses, fewer than half of the number interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own Russia probe. Schiff said hes concerned Republican Chairman Devin Nunes of California, with House Speaker Paul Ryans backing, is preparing to wrap things up before all the facts are known. Ryan spokesperson AshLee Strong said in a statement last week that the committees responsibilities in its Russia probe include providing recommendations to Congress to ensure what took place in the last election never happens again. Those recommendations need to come in time to be implemented before the congressional midterm elections later this year, she said. Its clear by the endless political posturing by some House Democrats that they would like to see this investigation go on forever, she said in a statement. Whether it concludes next month, next year, or in three years, theyll say its too soon. Read more about: SHARE: LONDONU.S. President Donald Trump has cancelled a trip to London to open the new $1 billion U.S. Embassy, avoiding protests promised by political opponents. Some British lawmakers had said Trump was not welcome in Britain after he re-tweeted videos from a far-right British group and criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan following a terror attack last year. But Trump said his decision, announced in a late-night tweet, was due to concerns about the embassys move from the elite Mayfair district to a far less fashionable area of London. Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Trump tweeted. The relocation was announced in 2008 under the Bush administration. At the time, U.S. Ambassador Robert Tuttle said the decision to move to the five-acre site came after a long and careful process. While the former embassy was on Grosvenor Square, in a tony area of designer boutiques and expensive restaurants, the new building is in a former industrial area south of the Thames that is being redeveloped into a new commercial and residential district.Read more: Twitter suspends account of far-right U.K. leader who was retweeted by Trump Trumps tweets put strain on U.S.-U.K. relationship as calls to cancel state visit grow Trump blasts London mayor on Twitter, calls for end to political correctness in response to attack The current ambassador, Robert Woody Johnson, said the change was necessary even though the U.S. had been linked to Grosvenor Square for more than 200 years. Security concerns after September 11 meant we had to move to a location that could better protect American citizens and our British neighbours, he wrote in an article for Londons Evening Standard newspaper. Johnson, a Trump appointee, also said the new embassy was entirely paid for by the sale of other London properties and did not cost the U.S. taxpayer a cent. A Trump visit has been on the cards since British Prime Minister Theresa May visited the United States a few days after Trumps inauguration last year. May proclaimed the strength of the most special relationship between the two countries and the government extended an invitation for a state visit as a guest of Queen Elizabeth II. But a full-blown state visit replete with golden carriages and pomp has been deferred amid the threat of huge anti-Trump protests. The idea had gradually evolved into a working visit in which Trump would open the London embassy. In December, Johnson said he was looking forward to welcoming the president. In Washington, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trumps comment was solely about an embassy-related visit. She suggested a formal visit could still, but offered no details. We are still working with our U.K. allies to find a date for a visit for the invitation that was offered and accepted, she said Friday. In the meantime, the relationship between May and Trump has come under strain. The uproar came after Trump re-tweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by a leader of the far-right group Britain First a tiny group that regularly posts inflammatory videos. Mays spokesperson said the president was wrong to retweet the groups content prompting Trump to tell May in a tweet that she should focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom instead of him. The exchange prompted further calls to dump the visit. The mayor of London who has been criticized by Trump in tweets said Trump appeared to have got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our citys values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance. His visit ... would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests, Khan said. The British government said the opening of the embassy was a matter for the United States. But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson blamed Khan and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for discouraging the U.S. leader from coming. The US is the biggest single investor in the UK yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk, Johnson said in a tweet. We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall. Read more about: SHARE: WASHINGTONU.S. President Donald Trump offered a partial denial in public but privately defended his extraordinary remarks disparaging Haitians and African countries. Trump said he was only expressing what many people think but wont say about immigrants from economically depressed countries, according to a person who spoke to the president as criticism of his comments ricocheted around the globe. Trump spent Thursday evening calling friends and outside advisers to judge their reaction, said the confidant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to disclose a private conversation. Trump wasnt apologetic about the inflammatory remarks and denied he was racist, instead, blaming the media for distorting his meaning, the confidant said. Critics of the president, including some Republicans, on Friday blasted the vulgar comments made in the Oval Office. In a meeting with a group of senators, Trump had questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and shithole countries in Africa as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal, according to one participant and people briefed on the remarkable conversation. The comments revived charges that Trump is racist and roiled already tenuous immigration talks that included discussion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used, Trump insisted in early tweets Friday, pushing back on some depictions of the meeting. But Trump and his advisers notably did not dispute the most controversial of his remarks: using shithole to describe African nations and saying he would prefer immigrants from countries like Norway instead. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the only Democrat in the room, said Trump had indeed said what he was reported to have said. The remarks, Durbin said, were vile, hate-filled and clearly racial in their content. He said Trump used the most vulgar term more than once. Read more: Trump questions why immigrants from s---hole countries are allowed into U.S. Trumps s---hole remark draws sharp response from African countries, Haiti, Canadas ex-governor general UN condemns Trumps remark on Haiti, African countries as racist If thats not racism, I dont know how you can define it, Florida GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen told WPLG-TV in Miami. Trump's response Friday morning Sen. Dianne Feinstein said the comments were beneath the dignity of the presidency and Trumps desire for more immigrants from countries like Norway was an effort to set this country back generations by promoting a homogenous, white society. Republican leaders were largely silent, though House Speaker Paul Ryan said the vulgar language was very unfortunate, unhelpful. Trumps insults along with his rejection of the bipartisan immigration deal drafted by six senators also threatened to further complicate efforts to extend protections for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, many of whom were brought to the country as children and now are here illegally. Trump last year ended DACA, which provided young immigrants with protection from deportation along with the ability to work legally in the U.S. He gave Congress until March to come up with a legislative fix. The three Democratic and three GOP senators whod struck the deal Trump rejected had been working for months on how to balance those protections with Trumps demands for border security, an end to a visa lottery aimed at increasing immigrant diversity, and limits to immigrants ability to sponsor family members to join them in America. On Saturday, Trump sought to blame all talk and no action Democrats for lack of an immigration deal. I dont believe the Democrats really want to see a deal on DACA. They are all talk and no action. This is the time but, day by day, they are blowing the one great opportunity they have. Too bad! Trump tweeted from Florida as he arrived at his private golf club in West Palm Beach. One of the six senators who crafted the bipartisan deal, Democrat Michael Bennet of Colorado, said Saturday that the proposal has everything the president asked for on the border. He said if Trump cant support it, its difficult to see how we could get him to agree to anything that could pass in Congress. It was unclear now how a deal might emerge, though both sides insist the clock is ticking. Failure could impact government operations. Lawmakers have until Jan. 19 to approve a short-term government spending bill, and Republicans will need Democratic votes to push the measure through. Some Democrats have threatened to withhold support unless an immigration pact is forged. Trumps comments came as Durbin was presenting details of the compromise plan that included providing $1.6 billion for a first instalment on the presidents long-sought border wall. Trump took particular issue with the idea that people whod fled to the U.S. after disasters in places such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti would be allowed to stay as part of the deal, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to publicly describe the discussion. When it came to talk of extending protections for Haitians, Durbin said Trump replied: We dont need more Haitians. He said: Put me down for wanting more Europeans to come to this country. Why dont we get more people from Norway? Durbin told reporters in Chicago. U.S. President Donald Trump is drawing an angry response, after using an expletive to describe the countries that many immigrants in the U.S. came from. One critic is Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who says Trump has a long history of making racist statements. (The Associated Press) The administration announced last year that it would end a temporary residency permit program that allowed nearly 60,000 Haitians to live and work in the U.S. following a devastating 2010 earthquake. Trump insisted Friday that he never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. Trump wrote, I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Trump ignored shouted questions about his comments as he signed a proclamation Friday honouring Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is Monday. Sens. David Perdue and Tom Cotton who attended Thursdays meeting, issued a statement saying they do not recall the president saying these comments specifically. What Trump did do, they said, was call out the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest. But Sen. Lindsey Graham said by Durbin to have voiced objection to Trumps comments during the meeting, issued a statement that did not dispute the remarks. Following comments by the president, I said my piece directly to him yesterday. The president and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel, Graham said, adding: Ive always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals. Read more about: SHARE: WASHINGTONCanadians trying to move to the United States are regularly facing more paperwork, tougher scrutiny and longer waiting times than Canadians did before Donald Trump became president, immigration lawyers in both countries say. Trump is known for his vocal stands against illegal immigrants, refugees, and immigrants from non-white countries he finds undesirable. At the White House on Thursday, he reportedly asked lawmakers why the U.S. has to accept immigrants from shithole countries like Haiti, El Salvador or African nations, instead of taking more from countries like Norway. In fact, Trump is also making immigration harder for people from wealthy, largely white advanced economies, including Americas northern neighbour. U.S. President Donald Trump says in the wake of his recent comments about Haiti and African countries that "I am not a racist." (The Associated Press) Trump has not changed the law. Rather, said 12 lawyers contacted by the Star, his skepticism toward immigration of all kinds has produced a change in culture and policy within the bureaucracies that handle immigration cases. In many instances the way in which these cases are processed has radically changed, said Michael Niren, chief executive of Torontos VisaPlace.com. Every single process is slower than it was a year ago, said San Diego lawyer Geoffrey Leibl. Theres this extreme vetting idea that has seeped into the system, said New York lawyer Andy Semotiuk. There is not yet public data to provide a comprehensive picture of what is happening. What is certain, though, is that Canadians and others are being forced to jump through more hoops, over a longer period of time, to win approvals. This shift, lawyers say, has hindered multiple kinds of Canadian applicants. They include skilled professionals being hired by U.S. firms, corporate managers transferring to their companies U.S. offices, people getting married to Americans, and people already living in the U.S. and seeking a green card for permanent residency. Were seeing more refusals, and often more refusals for small things, said Nan Berezowski, chair of the Canada chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. It is not yet possible to say for certain how much longer applications are taking for Canadians. But lawyers say there have been delays in a variety of areas since Trump signed a Buy American, Hire American executive order in April telling government agencies to rigorously enforce and administer the laws governing entry into the United States of workers from abroad. Niren said Canadian clients applications for employment-based green cards are taking an average of six months longer than they used to, approximately a year instead of six months. Leibl said it now takes nine or 10 months, up from six months, for people to adjust their status to a green card after marrying an American. Vancouver and Seattle lawyer Duncan Millar said the wait time for business executives trying to adjust to a green card from a company-transfer visa has gone from one year to an expectation of at least two years, though some of the additional delay predates Trumps inauguration. Several lawyers said waits for the H-1B visa for specialty professions have increased by months. Aside from the delays, there are new challenges in the application process. Perhaps the biggest is a blizzard of paperwork. Lawyers report a dramatic increase in requests for evidence, demands for additional documentation, from applicants of all kinds. The governments looking at everything microscopically, said Buffalo lawyer Rosanna Berardi. The amount of (requests for evidence) has increased just dramatically across the board. The government is kicking cases back saying, No, no, no, we want more, more, more. The U.S. is being particularly demanding, lawyers say, in challenging educated professionals who want to obtain the H-1B, which has been one of Trumps top immigration targets. Requests for evidence on H-1Bs more than three-quarters of which go to Indians jumped 45 per cent in the first half of 2017. The harshest H-1B scrutiny, lawyers say, has been reserved for professionals not yet getting paid big money. The government is routinely challenging computer science graduates looking to move to the U.S. for entry-level tech jobs, lawyers say, and even sometimes young doctors looking to do a U.S. residency essentially arguing that their modest starting wages prove that they are not actually working in specialty occupations. The U.S. government appears to be slower in returning applicants passports at Canadian consulates and in providing advanced parole travel authorization to green card applicants already in the U.S., stranding them longer in the country where they have applied. For example, Toronto lawyer Kelly Reske-Espineli said, Canadian investors applying for the E visa in Toronto are now getting their passports returned in two weeks rather than three days. The administration has mandated interviews for many of the green card applications where they used to be routinely waived. And it has forbidden lawyers from going to the border with their clients, lawyer Joseph Grasmick noted, to help professionals (like accountants, social workers and librarians) get the TN professional status. The Trump administration has also gotten tougher on people the U.S. has already let into the country. In the fall, the government issued a rule saying that anyone who gets married to an American within 90 days of entering the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa may be presumed to have misrepresented their intentions when they entered. That presumption of deceit was formerly applied to marriages within a mere 30 days. On the whole, Canadians are still in a better position to immigrate than residents of any other country. But advocates of cross-border mobility say the Trump-era changes are irrational and overly burdensome when applied to educated, law-abiding applicants from a low-risk neighbour, needlessly harming U.S. companies and families. It damages the U.S. economy and it damages the U.S. bilateral relations with our closest neighbours, said Buffalo and Toronto lawyer Matthew Borowski. Advocates of reducing immigration say additional vetting is perfectly reasonable, even for valued allies like Canadians. U.S. agencies, they say, adopted an overly relaxed rubber-stamp culture under Barack Obama. It was much easier to approve something than to deny it because there was no incentive to deny it. That has clearly changed, said Matthew OBrien, director of research for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The message has been very clear that enforcement is the primary objective, that protecting the American public is the most significant goal, and that people making enforcement decisions based on the law will be backed up by the chain of command. For better or worse, the tightening of the application process may allow Trump to reduce immigration at least marginally without having to go through the trouble of getting new legislation passed. It makes employers hesitant, Reske-Espinelli said. Which in turn makes Canadians not want to take the chance. Read more about: SHARE: WASHINGTONU.S. President Donald Trump on Friday delivered an ultimatum to Americas European allies to fix the terrible flaws in the Iran nuclear deal, or hell pull the U.S. out in a few months time. Trump made the threat as he extended waivers of key economic sanctions on Iran, keeping the accord alive at least for now. But his explicit warning to Europe that the deal must be fixed by the time the next sanctions waivers are due in the spring creates a high-stakes diplomatic deadline that will be difficult to meet. This is a last chance, Trump warned in a statement that outlined several tough new rules on Iran. In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. Read more: EU leaders urge Trump to endorse nuclear deal with Iran, stay silent on clampdown on protests UN chief says Iran may be defying call to end ballistic missile development Iran blames CIA official for anti-government protests, U.S. denies role in unrest Trumps declaration puts great pressure on Britain, France and Germany, the European signatories to nuclear pact with Iran. Trump wants them to help the U.S. devise a new agreement designed to prevent Iran from escalating nuclear activity again next decade, as permitted under the 2015 arrangement reached by President Barack Obama. Iran has said its not interested in any renegotiation and would almost certainly view a side agreement between the U.S. and Europe as a violation of the deal. The Europeans, meanwhile, have said they are willing to discuss the matter with the U.S. but have shown little enthusiasm with Trumps hard line. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif accused Trump of maliciously violating the nuclear deal. Trumps policy (and) todays announcement amount to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement, Zarif tweeted shortly after Trumps statement. Rather than repeating tired rhetoric, US must bring itself into full compliance just like Iran. The sanctions Trump had to waive Friday dealt with Irans central bank. These penalties largely cut Iran out of the international financial system, until they were suspended by Obama under the nuclear deal. Trump is also waiving other U.S. penalties covered by the agreement, including on Irans oil and gas sectors, which were up for renewal next week. Trump will next have to deal with these decisions in mid-May. He paired Fridays concession with other, targeted sanctions on Iran for human rights abuses and ballistic missile development. The Treasury Departments action hits 14 Iranian officials and companies and businessmen from Iran, China and Malaysia, freezing any assets they have in the U.S. and banning Americans from doing business with them. Those hit by the sanctions include: Iranian judiciary chief Sadegh Amoli Larijani; the Rajaee Shahr Prison and its director, Gholamreza Ziaei; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Electronic Warfare and Cyber Defence Organization; Irans Supreme Council of Cyberspace and National Cyberspace Center; Malaysia-based Green Wave Telecommunication and its Iranian director Morteza Razavi; and the Iran Helicopter Support and Renewal Company and Iran Aircraft Industries. In his lengthy statement, Trump said the U.S. would work with European partners to remove the nuclear deals so-called sunset clauses, which allow Iran to gradually resume advanced atomic activity. Today, I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal, Trump said. If at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately, he added. No one should doubt my word. The decision had been expected since earlier this week. Officials, congressional aides and outside administration advisers said had the president would likely extend the sanctions waivers, citing progress in amending U.S. legislation that governs Washingtons participation in the deal. One aspect of the law that Trump has particularly bristled at is having to give Iran a thumbs up every few months by acknowledging that it is meeting its nuclear requirements. In his statement Friday, Trump said he remained open to revising the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, or INARA. He said he would only sign it if an Iranian refusal to allow U.N. inspectors to visit sites triggered an automatic reimposition of U.S. sanctions. He said Irans restraint on long-range ballistic missile programs also must be linked to sanctions relief. Read more about: SHARE: U.S. President Donald Trumps dismissal of Haiti and certain African countries with a vulgar expression has created a furor. Trump made the remark Thursday during a White House meeting after senators discussed revamping immigration rules. Thats according to three people who were briefed on the conversation but werent authorized to describe it publicly. Read more: Trump questions why immigrants from s---hole countries are allowed into U.S. Trumps s---hole countries remark draws sharp response in Africa Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and s---hole countries in Africa rather than places like Norway, as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal. Trumps contemptuous description of an entire continent startled lawmakers in the meeting and immediately revived charges of racism. 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. African governments found themselves in an awkward position. As top recipients of U.S. aid, some hesitated to jeopardize it by criticizing Trump. In South Sudan, government spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny said that, unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say. African media outlets and the continents young, connected population were less shy. Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate, South African media outlet Daily Maverick says. The African Union says it is frankly alarmed by Trumps statement in which he used vulgar language to question why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from African countries and Haiti. Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice, AU spokesperson Ebba Kalondo tells The Associated Press. This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity. She adds that we believe that a statement like this hurts our shared global values on diversity, human rights and reciprocal understanding. South Africas ruling party is calling Trumps comment on African immigrants extremely offensive. Deputy secretary general Jesse Duarte of the African National Congress tells reporters that developing countries do have difficulties but that the United States itself has millions of people out of work or without health care. She says that we would not deign to make comments as derogatory as Trumps. The UN human rights office says Trumps reported use of an expletive to describe Africa and other countries could potentially damage and disrupt the lives of many people. Repeating the term attributed to Trump a day earlier, spokesperson Rupert Colville says that you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as s---holes. Colville said Friday that the comments, if confirmed, were shocking and shameful and Im sorry, but theres no other word one can use but racist. People briefed on the extraordinary Oval Office conversation confirmed the remarks, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss it publicly. White House spokesperson Raj Shah did not deny them when asked. Colville says Trumps reported comment could endanger lives by potentially fanning xenophobia: It legitimizes the targeting of people based on who they are. This isnt just a story about vulgar language, its about opening the door to humanitys worst side, he said. Colville says Trumps reported comments go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War II and the Holocaust. Norwegians, meanwhile, are baffled and discomfited to be the subject of Trumps backhanded compliment in his vulgar comments on immigrants from African nations and Haiti. Trump spoke after a bilateral meeting with Norways prime minister, asking why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and s---hole countries in Africa rather than places like Norway. Henrik Heldahl, a commentator for the Amerikansk Politikk website, says the sentiment about Norway might have been welcomed without the rest of the statement. But the way he said it guarantees that the reaction here will be very negative. Hilde Restad, a university associate professor in international studies, says Trump has achieved the unlikely feat of praising Norway while still offending its citizens. She says that Norwegians in general have such a minority complex that as long as we are noticed we get very excited. But in general we are not wanting to be flattered by this U.S. president in this way. Read more about: SHARE: General Sami Anan, Chief of the army under Hosni Mubarak, announced he would bid for the top position in March Presidential elections. The announcement came just days after military comrade Ahmad Shafiq abandoned his presidential plans. Anan is proposed by his party, Arabism Egypt Party, which said Thursday that the ex-commander has nodded to the partys request. The party leaders took a decision for General Sami Anans candidacy and informed him of the decision, and there was no problem at all and no objection, from him, said Sami Balah, the partys secretary general. The 68-year old served as the chief of staff of Egypts Supreme Council of Armed Forces under President Hosni Mubarak from 2005 to 2011. He was also second commander of the army behind Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi in the wake of the 2011 revolution which swept away Mubarak. Both Anan and Tantawi were put on retirement by first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in 2012 a move many believed was to shed the armys grip on power after the democratic elections. Morsi was himself removed in 2013 by then-defense minister general Fattah al-Sisi, in a move deemed to break Morsis Islamist agenda. A year later, Sisi won the presidential elections. The National Election Authority early this week set Presidential elections for the end of March. President Fattah al-Sisi has not declared his candidacy yet, but there are cards that he will seek a second term. He will likely win unchallenged even though London-based The New Arab, citing an anonymous source, said Anans candidacy is ticked out in Riyadh, which supported Morsis ascendance to the countrys top job. Al-Sisis likely challenger, the former Prime Minister and Mubaraks close aid, Ahmed Shafiq who narrowly lost to Morsi in 2012 has bowed out of race after he had announced, from his exile in the UAE, his intention to run for the elections in a video aired by Al Jazeera last November. According to London-based Middle Eat Eye (MEE), the former presidential hopeful was threatened by intelligence agencies to reveal allegations of his sexual misconduct and corruption if he did not withdraw his candidacy. His campaign suggested that it could support Anans candidacy, MEE reports. JOHANNESBURGAfricans were shocked on Friday to find President Donald Trump had finally taken an interest in their continent. But it wasnt what people had hoped for. Using vulgar language, Trump on Thursday questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and s---hole countries in Africa rather than places like Norway in rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal. On Friday he denied using that language. The African Union continental body told The Associated Press it was frankly alarmed by Trumps comments. Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice, AU spokesperson Ebba Kalondo said. This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity. Haitians also reacted to Trumps reported vulgar remark with outrage. President Jovenel Moises government issued a strongly worded statement denouncing what it called a racist view of Haitian immigrants and people from African countries. Meanwhile, former Canadian governor general Michaelle Jean, who was born in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, called Trumps reported remarks insulting. It was so disturbing this morning to hear President Trumps comments reported all over the news calling my poor native land and African countries s---hole nations, Jean said in the statement to The Canadian Press. It is such an insult before humanity. For the first representative of the United States of America to speak in such a manner is quite troubling and offensive. Despite Trumps denial of making the vulgar remarks, Jean, 60, who was Canadas governor general from 2005 to 2010, made no bones about her view. For the first representative of the United States of America to speak in such a manner is quite troubling and offensive, Jean said. Jean, a refugee from Haiti who came to Canada in 1968 and was raised in Thetford Mines, Que., also noted that Friday was the eighth anniversary of a devastating earthquake that struck her native country. Although some have defended Trumps pronouncements as straight talk, his purported comments did spark widespread outrage, both in the U.S. and abroad. Former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell was among those denouncing the presidents abominable and ignorant views and statements. (I) have known many fine Haitians including a former governor general of Canada, Campbell said in a tweet. Trump is unworthy to speak of them! Speaking in London, Ont., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would not opine on what the president may or may not have said but called Canada a country of openness and respect. The Haitian government said in a statement that these insulting and reprehensible statements in no way reflect the virtues of wisdom, restraint and discernment that must be cultivated by any high political authority. Read more: Trump questions why immigrants from s---hole countries are allowed into U.S. Trump denies making vulgar statement at DACA meeting, says that was not language used In a Harry-Potter-sized frenzy, Canadians are clamouring for the Trump tell-all book The Haitian government condemns in the strongest terms these abhorrent and obnoxious remarks which, if proven, reflect a totally erroneous and racist view of the Haitian community and its contribution to the United States, the statement said. The government statement also pointed to history, noting that Haitian soldiers fought on the American side against the British in the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812. Reaction from Twitter The relationship between the two countries has been strengthened by the fact that millions of sons and daughters of Haiti have contributed and will continue to contribute to the prosperity and greatness of America, it said. Haitian Sen. Yuri Latortue said the reported remarks were also galling because they came just before the United States marks the birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday. Mr. Trump spits on the assassination of this black American icon, as well as on a whole generation of young people, black and white, who gave their lives in the civil rights movement, he said. Some African governments quickly found themselves in an awkward position after Trumps reported comments. As top recipients of U.S. aid, some hesitated to jeopardize it by criticizing Trump, especially as his administration has sought to slash foreign assistance. Unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say, South Sudan government spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny told The Associated Press. But Botswanas government called Trumps comment reprehensible and racist, saying the U.S. ambassador had been summoned to clarify whether the country was regarded so poorly after years of cordial relations. Senegals President Macky Sall said he was shocked and that Africa and the Black race merit the respect and consideration of all. Both nations have been praised by the U.S. government as stable democracies in the region. South Africas ruling African National Congress called Trumps comments extremely offensive, while opposition leader Mmusi Maimane called them abhorrent ... The hatred of Obamas roots now extends to an entire continent. Ugandas state minister for international relations, Henry Okello Oryem, called the remarks unfortunate and regrettable and said he hopes African heads of state will reply at an African Union summit later this month. African media outlets and the continents young, increasingly connected population were not shy, with some tweeting sleek photos of African landscapes and urban areas with the hashtag #s---hole. Well, that is the perfect definition of racism. That is all I have to say, Kenyan entrepreneur Wangui Muraguri told the AP in response to Trump. Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate, South African media outlet Daily Maverick wrote. Trumps comments were shocking and shameful and Im sorry, but theres no other word one can use but racist, said a spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office, Rupert Colville. Many on the worlds second most populous continent reached for their smartphones, long-practiced in defending the vast and varied region from easy stereotypes. While 40 per cent of the worlds poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund, the region also has billionaires, reality shows and a growing middle class. U.S. President Donald Trump is drawing an angry response, after using an expletive to describe the countries that many immigrants in the U.S. came from. One critic is Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who says Trump has a long history of making racist statements. (The Associated Press) The World Bank on Friday tweeted that sub-Saharan Africas economic growth this year is forecast at 3.2 per cent. That was the U.S. economys annual rate of growth from July through September, according to Commerce Department data late last month. Some in Africa quickly decided to own Trumps vulgar language or throw it back in his face. Good morning from the greatest most beautiful s---hole country in the world!!! South African Broadcasting Corporation anchor Leanne Manas tweeted. As someone from South S---hole, Trevor is deeply offended by the presidents remarks, The Daily Show tweeted of its South African-born host, Trevor Noah. Others said they thought Trump had a point, in a way. Trump is absolutely right, said Mamady Traore, a 30-year-old sociologist in Guinea. When you have heads of state who mess with the constitutions to perpetuate their power. When you have rebel factions that kill children, disembowel women as saints, who mutilate innocent civilians. In Kenya, East Africas economic hub, political activist Boniface Mwangi pleaded: Please dont confuse the #s---hole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent. He later told the AP that Africa gave America the greatest president ever in Barack Obama. It is actually a disgrace for one of the best men to occupy that office to be succeeded by an idiot. Trumps comments were shocking and shameful and Im sorry, but theres no other word one can use but racist, said a spokesman for the U.N. human rights office, Rupert Colville. Trumps comments highlighted months of concerns about his lack of focus on Africa, including empty ambassadorial posts in key countries like South Africa, Egypt, Congo and Somalia. A list maintained by the Washington-based American Foreign Service Association says eight such posts are vacant. Trump has expressed negative opinions about the continent in the past. Every penny of the $7 billion going to Africa as per Obama will be stolen corruption is rampant! he tweeted in 2013. The U.S. president is only hurting himself both at home and abroad, some Africans said. He has not only insulted Africans, he has also insulted African-Americans, said Sylvester Odion Akhaine, associate professor of international relations at the Lagos State University in Nigeria. Internationally, such language will deepen the isolation of the United States, a country that is already losing its global prestige. An opposition lawmaker in Ghana called for a boycott by developing countries against the United States until Trump leaves office. The sooner he is made aware that America needs the world and the world needs America the better it is for all of us, Ras Mubarak said. As outrage spread, the U.S. governments own Africa Media Hub tried to put out the flames. Without directly referring to Trumps statement, it tweeted that US remains committed to working together w/Africans to realize the promise of a more peaceful, more productive, more prosperous 21st century Africa. US deeply respects the people of #Africa & values its partnerships with them. With files from The Canadian Press Read more about: SHARE: The United States and United Kingdom have enjoyed close ties that Winston Churchill called the Special Relationship a camaraderie that transcends the Atlantic and the roots of America as U.K.s breakaway colony. But that has strained into a special misunderstanding this week, after U.S. President Donald Trump has pulled out of the new London embassy dedication slated for next week, and blasted the billion dollar construction of the glassy diplomatic headquarters. 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, Trump wrote on Twitter late Thursday. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Hours later, Trumps diplomatic appointee to the U.K., businessman and New York Jets owner Robert Woody Johnson, took an entirely different approach to the embassys relocation and construction in an age where Trump has vowed to shake up Americas place in the world even among rock-solid NATO allies like Germany, and it would appear, in the U.K. as well. Read more: Trump cancels London trip, blames embassys bad deal on Obama a 2008 call made by Bush Twitter suspends account of far-right U.K. leader who was retweeted by Trump Trumps tweets put strain on U.S.-U.K. relationship as calls to cancel state visit grow The new embassy is not just bigger, it is better and capable of meeting the complex challenges of the 21st century and beyond. It is the most secure, hi-tech and environmentally friendly embassy that the United States has ever built, Johnson wrote in the U.K.s Evening Standard newspaper. Yet its off location Trump described is by design. The sprawling 450-acre grounds south of the Thames River, fixed on a hill and surrounded by a moat and other security measures, fulfils security requirements that embassies are isolated from other buildings and 100 feet away from roads to avoid car bombs and other attacks following the Al Qaeda embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. The old embassy is located in a bustling area of central London flanked by buildings, and has struggled to keep pace with rising staff levels there. Security concerns after September 11 meant we had to move to a location that could better protect American citizens and our British neighbours, Johnson wrote. Johnsons historical reinforcement of the Special Relationship, including founding fathers Benjamin Franklin and John Adams traversing Grosvenor Square in the 1700s, appears to be an effort to recover recently strained relations. Trump sparked outrage among the Parliament and drew sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Theresa May after the president retweeted posts from a fringe anti-Muslim group in November. The ambassadors breakdown of the cost also is at odds with the president. Trump called it a bad deal after Johnson described the cost, the most expensive embassy ever, as a bargain. The money was raised by selling other U.S. government property in London, Johnson wrote, and the new embassy did not cost the U.S. taxpayer a cent. Yet is one of the most advanced embassies we have ever built. The Evening Standard referred questions on Johnsons commentary piece to the U.S. Embassy, which did not return comment about the timing of Johnsons story or coordination with the White House on its messaging. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not return a request for comment. Trumps abrupt cancellation brought speculation the president wilted to pressure from intense scrutiny in the U.K. following his divisive rhetoric. It seems hes finally got that message, wrote Londons mayor, Sadiq Khan on Twitter in response to Trumps message about his travel cancellation. That message was echoed by David Lammy, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party, who believed Trump was shaken by the prospect of being met by millions of us out on the streets protesting. U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a frequent defender of Trump, accused Khan and others of endangering the crucial relationship. Trumps roiling of diplomatic relations caused disruptions in the Western Hemisphere as well. U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley resigned in protest effective March 9 following Trumps descriptions of Latin American nations like Haiti and El Salvador as s---hole countries, Reuters reported Friday, after it obtained his resignation later. As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies. My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honour bound to resign. That time has come, Feeley wrote. Read more about: SHARE: When were feeling a little lost, a bit off-kilter, we all like to retreat to our comfort zone. Justin Trudeau is doing just that this week. He is donning his Teflon suit once again. The Prime Minister staggered to the new year, it would seem, convicted of a serious ethics violation, shielding a finance minister who was trying to dig out of his own hole, taking it on the chin about unrequited trade. Or so it seemed in the so-called Ottawa bubble, the snow globe I called home for many years. Maybe only the bubble denizens thought the Prime Minister was a little lost. So, as he hits the halfway point in a cross-country town hall tour, Trudeau reminds those who pack these events that its easy to get sucked into the Ottawa-centric bubble around Parliament. He calls these town halls a grounding exercise. More accurately, it is an exercise in getting out of Dodge to rebuild your image. This is how Trudeau was elected Prime Minister. He was out meeting voters before the 2015 writ was issued rather than standing in the corner of the Commons firing questions to a government on message track. The fact is, Trudeau is not a stellar performer in the Commons. But he is good in the town hall format, and he should receive much credit for ensuring questions were not vetted unlike the slick, partisan events put on by Stephen Harper as Mike Duffy lobbed him softballs and dealing easily with hecklers. But at this weeks session at McMaster University in Hamilton, no one asked him about the holiday with the Aga Khan, though he was asked a day earlier in Nova Scotia. No one asked him why his MPs voted against him appearing before the Parliamentary ethics committee. No one asked him about trade with China, or the future of NAFTA. No one asked him about Finance Minister Bill Morneaus foibles or insults from Minister of Persons with Disabilities Kent Hehr. No one was allowed to ask a follow up. And, unlike the daily question period, Trudeau could take as long as he wanted in response, rhapsodizing about diversity and equality and freedom of speech as long as he wished. It is his show, his sweet spot, and it must gall the opposition that he is still treated like a celebrity in those settings. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer would likely only get a viral clip from a town hall if he fell off the stage. That doesnt mean there werent perceptive questions for Trudeau. One man asked him why, as a champion of Indigenous reconciliation, he did not acknowledge the traditional territories of Hamilton (Haudenosaunee and Mohawk). Another asked how Trudeau could protect Canadians from returned ISIS fighters when he didnt even take proper security precautions for his Hamilton event. But even in an event that promises spontaneity, there are rules. Make sure to have a lot of diverse faces behind you for the cameras. Take a breather every now and again. Call on the guy sporting the Liberal button and invite the Grade 5 student to ask a question. Charming, but a nice break. He was asked if he believed in freedom of speech and what his legacy might be. It beats having questions shouted at him in a media scrum. Trudeau, like all successful politicians, shines when handling hecklers. Brian Mulroney often fought his way past angry demonstrators to enter an event, responding with a smile and his baritone, ah, Ill put you down as undecided. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh received international attention and praise by preaching love and tolerance to a racist heckler right in his face. An alternative approach? Jean Chretien famously delivered the Shawinigan handshake to a protester at a Flag Day event, grabbing him by the neck. It worked for Chretien. Trudeau won a standing ovation in dealing with a hecklers diatribe about the Omar Khadr payout, and it won him this front-page headline in the Hamilton Spectator: Prime Minister is a chip off the old Trudeaumania. So far, the Teflon suit fits well. But there is a reason we vote for men and women and place them in that bubble. They must be accountable to Parliament, and they should be required to take questions from Parliamentarians on their misconduct. Trudeau can revel in his town hall love this week, but he should have sat and taken questions from Ottawas ethics committee. And when Parliament returns, he wont be fielding any questions about his legacy. Tim Harper writes on national affairs. tjharper77@gmail.com, Twitter: @nutgraf1 Read more about: SHARE: The Quebec politicians now fighting against a proposal to commemorate last years massacre of six Muslim men at a Quebec City mosque as an annual day of action against Islamophobia provide clear proof of the ideas merit. As with last years absurd debate over M-103, the federal anti-Islamophobia motion, the opposition to the National Council of Canadian Muslims proposal appears to be a proxy for, or an attempt to pander to, more disturbing views. The toxic political culture in which Islamophobia thrives the culture this proposal seeks to expose and redress - is clearly alive and well. Quebecs two main opposition parties, the Parti Quebecois and its surging right-wing rival, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), both oppose the proposal on dubious grounds. The CAQ says the anniversary should commemorate the victims, but not politicize their deaths by making mention of Islamophobia. What, then, would they say about the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, an annual commemoration of the murder by an anti-feminist zealot of 14 women at Montreals Ecole Polytechnique? On that day, we honour the victims not only by remembering their names, but also by considering the social ill that contributed to their tragic deaths. It is an annual opportunity, in remembrance of misogynys victims, to reflect on the progress weve made in the fight against abuse of women and the work still to be done. No one suggests this is a disservice to those who were killed. Quite the contrary. The Parti Quebecois, meanwhile, claims that the term Islamophobia is too controversial, that it could be seen to denote the views not only of bigots, but also of well-intentioned people who hold legitimate concerns about the practices of radical Islam. But surely the fear that the word might be misunderstood should not preclude the denunciation of anti-Muslim bigotry. The PQ also contends that the proposal is redundant, given that there is already an international day for the elimination of racism. In other words, why should Islamophobia get special treatment? This was one of the bogus arguments used against M-103 and, as the Star argued then, it sounds too much like the petty grievances of the All Lives Matter movement, Heterosexual Pride Day, the Mens Rights movement and other crypto-bigoted counter-movements that seek to protect privilege in the guise of promoting equality. Of course all religions deserve to be equally protected and racism of all kinds should be equally rebuked. But allowing these truisms to obscure the ways in which they remain unreflected in our society is perverse if we really mean them. By emphasizing a particular problem, we dont deny that other problems exist. Inclusion is not a zero-sum game. In fact, theres good reason to specifically address Islamophobia when discussing intolerance in Canada today. It is true that Muslims are not the religious group most victimized by hate crimes (Jews continue to hold that unfortunate distinction), but crimes against Muslims have been rising at an alarming rate. Between 2012 and 2015, they doubled. And in the days after the mosque shooting, police in Quebec say they saw another sharp spike. Especially as tens of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, mostly Muslims, settle into Canada, the message that this evidence of rising intolerance reflects a fringe view, explicitly rejected by government, is an important one. Yet these politicians, ostrich-like, refuse to acknowledge this real and emerging problem and in the process compound it. In Quebec, in particular, politicians should know better. In the wake of the Quebec City massacre, the provinces Liberal premier, Philippe Couillard, made a powerful speech of rare cultural introspection. He said Quebec, like all societies, must deal with its demons and these demons are named xenophobia, racism, exclusion. He spoke these words alongside his chief political rival, Parti Quebecois leader Jean-Francois Lisee, who appropriately took some personal responsibility for the rising anti-Muslim sentiment. Yet just a few days later the premier was pushing his niqab ban for those providing or receiving public services, a shameful sop to nativist voters that Lisee said at the time did not go far enough. Now Couillard says hes not sure about commemorating last years murder of six Muslims in their place worship as a day of action against Islamophobia. His political rivals argue its a bad idea. Their flimsy pretexts prove the opposite. Read more about: SHARE: Kingston pub changes name to remove reference to Sir John A. Macdonald, Jan. 10 Owner Paul Fortiers attempt to assure us that the pub will still feature the CPR burger should be rephrased: We will still feature the CPR Burger until someone complains. In changing the name to the bland and meaningless Public House, Fortier made the decision to ignore all the good Sir John A. did (which benefits millions across our country) and instead surrender to the majority of one. We seem to have reached a point in our history where we are unwilling (or, in the age of Facebook, afraid) to defend ourselves against unreasonable demands by those who declare themselves offended. Its no longer enough to do good; we must do good without ever succumbing to any human frailty. Only saints need apply. Ab Dukacz, Mississauga In the interest of fair play, if reference to Sir John A. Macdonald is removed from a Kingston pub, then similar references to slave owner Chief Joseph Brant should be removed from Brantford, Brant County, Joseph Brant Hospital, etc. Anyone desiring a reference for Brants treatment of Blacks, including a slave girl, just has to Google Brants slaves and read the Toronto Stars report. Douglas L. Martin, Hamilton People have favourite places to imbibe because of service, location, familiar clientele and, of course, selection. The name of such establishments counts diddly squat. As for those patrons feeling unsafe drinking in a watering hole named after Sir John A., they should avoid the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway like the plague. Garry Burke, Oro-Medonte, Ont. SHARE: Aharon Appelfeld, the Israeli novelist, died last week at 85. He taught me Hebrew in Jerusalem when I was 20 and he, 30. We studied a novel by Nobel Laureate, S.Y. Agnon: (Bilvav Yamim) In the Heart of Seas. It told the tale of pious Jews journeying to the Holy Land centuries ago. It was a simple story, simply told, perfect for young learners. It also suited Aharon, though he didnt mention that. When he was nine, fascist troops occupied his Romanian hometown and murdered his mother. He and his father entered a concentration camp; he escaped alone. For three years he wandered as a feral child, tending sheep, joining robber bands, being sheltered by a prostitute. Then he encountered the Soviet army and became a cook. At wars end he made his way to Italy, then Palestine, joined the army, learned Hebrew, began writing. Years later he found his father, also in Palestine. Jews on journeys that they dont comprehend are a leitmotif of his novels. He wasnt hardened, he was infinitely gentle, like those simple souls in the book. Id encounter him as I explored older parts of the city, after class. Yisrael, hed call to me, from the wide windows of cafes, where he wrote. He seemed to pervade the city, discovering what others didnt. He said hed seen me dancing through the streets on the giddy festival of Simhat Torah, after bursting from the Rav Kook synagogue. You had true hitlahavut, he said. Its a term for religious fervour, literally enflamedness. He wasnt a traditional believer. He said (years later) that some Holocaust survivors turned, paradoxically, to orthodoxy, trying to make sense of their horrors. He couldnt but he wished to understand. Maybe he was intrigued by a young Canadian who searched out forms of Jewish religiosity without those motives. He wrote dozens of books, mostly novels. (He also appears in Philip Roths novel, Operation Shylock, as a character named Aharon Appelfeld.) Unlike others who wrote about Israelis, he portrayed mainly European Jews and their lost world. I used to think it was nostalgia, or an urge to commemorate. But that wasnt all. He wanted to understand what had happened and for that it was necessary to return to the source of those mysteries and riddles: Europe. He revisited it compulsively because the answers were hidden there. He said reality didnt have to explain itself; it just was. But in fiction you need to find causes. We met again in the 1990s, at Torontos Harbourfront festival. He wanted to buy gifts for his family so we went to The Bay. He looked around and asked, Is there a basement? There wasnt so I took him to Tip Top Tailors on Spadina. It was perfect. When we finished he said, Now I would like to go where I can see Jewish people. So we crossed College St. to The Bagel. Like him, the request wasnt as straightforward as it seemed. Hed grown up in an assimilated family; being Jewish wasnt central. Yet his Jewishness determined his and their fates. Ever after, he sought to understand what Jewishness meant, and what it required of him and others. At The Bagel, we talked about writing. I said that after I was his student, Id considered moving to Israel and writing in Hebrew. He nodded empathically and said, When I sit down to write, I feel I am sitting at the top of a mountain of Hebrew books 50 miles high. I said I understood that. What I didnt understand was why Id chosen to be a Canadian writer instead. He said, Oh I understand. I begged him to explain. In the modern world, he said, every choice to be Jewish is a paradoxical choice. Thats all he said but I understood instantly. In my case, what had drawn me to Jewishness was its marginality, even a sense of scandal in it. But in my lifetime, Jewishness had gone mainstream (like Roth). Canadian though was still marginal. Being a Canadian writer was somehow my way of retaining what I understood as Jewish. He was kind, bold, accepting, and unflinching. He embraced everything that being Jewish could possibly mean or at least reached toward it. How do you come to be that way after undergoing what he had? Fortunately, it was his real life, so you dont need an explanation. He just was. Rick Salutin appears Fridays. Read more about: SHARE: An election battle between Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey in 2020 would be an awful lot of fun to watch, even from this safe distance here in Canada. The talk of a Winfrey candidacy, in case you missed it, was fuelled by her speech at last weekends Golden Globes ceremony. The speculation has not been quelled by Trumps own skepticism. I like Oprah, I dont think shes going to run, Trump said on Tuesday. Then again, Trump told Winfrey in 1988 that he would probably not be running for president in the future. Things change. What hasnt changed, however, is the enduring power of 1980s television culture. Apart from anything else that a Trump-Winfrey contest would say about whats going on in the United States right now, their faceoff would be further evidence that television in the 1980s continues to have a huge influence over current U.S. democracy and politics. Over the holidays, I binge-watched CNNs series of documentaries on TV through the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. These were part of a larger CNN series, produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman in association with the HBO network. I can highly recommend them, especially for nostalgia buffs. Theyre all compelling, even addictive viewing, but the Eighties show received the highest ratings when it first aired a couple of years ago and its easy to understand why. What was striking, in fact, was how much the innovations in 1980s TV continue to reverberate through political culture here in the 21st century more so, it seems, than the other decades. Launching this spring, their designs will create Temporary Public Space Installations and Destination Parklets, and offers an opportunity for everyone to contribute to the rethinking and success of King St. The call for entries opens Tuesday and further information can be found on the City of Torontos website. The Oprah Winfrey show, well remember, debuted in 1986, setting a new standard for television as the modern, public confessional. I remember one thoughtful Canadian politician telling me in the 1990s how Winfreys show had changed the nature of political town-halls in that decade. Rather than showing up at these events to discuss policy or political differences, people had come to see public gatherings post-Oprah as a place to vent emotions, personal grievances or uncomfortable truths. The Oprah effect, this politician called it. It persists to this day. We saw a little bit of this over this past week, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was out doing town-hall meetings in Nova Scotia, Hamilton and London, Ont. Trumps own reality TV career didnt start in the 1980s, but his larger-than-life persona was shaped by the television trends at the time: garish wealth (Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous), rich-people soap operas (Dynasty) and ruthless, unlikeable lead characters (J.R. Ewing on Dallas). Trump fit right in. As one New Yorker article summed it up, this pivotal decade helped create him as a character on the small screen. Throughout the eighties, as Trump built Trump Tower, then the Javits Center, helping to make Manhattan into a luxury playground, he played himself on television, the article recalled. He was omnipresent in pop culture, often as a punch line. We shouldnt forget that CNN itself was created in the 1980s and the concept of all-news television. Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, is shown in the documentary talking about how people were not sure there was an appetite for all-day news on TV. Well, we know how that worked out. That, too, was a force that probably helped create Trump and his brand of populist politics though more at home on Fox News than CNN. Fox wasnt founded until the 1990s, but some of its political culture owes its origins to TV in the 1980s, too tabloid-talk shows with Morton Downey and Geraldo Rivera, or sitcoms such as Roseanne that glorified loudmouth, anti-elite types. Coincidentally, a revival of the Roseanne sitcom is in the works. And yes, Roseanne Barr, now 65, told reporters this week that her character would be a Trump supporter. I have always attempted to portray a realistic portrait of the American people and of working class, you know, working-class people. And, in fact, it was working-class people who elected Trump, Barr said. Amid all the talk about Trumps White House this week, prompted by the new Fire and Fury book, there was another report about how the president had modified his schedule to allow for more time to watch TV. According to the story from Axios, executive time on Trumps official schedule is really TV and Twitter time. We shouldnt be surprised, I guess. This is a president who amassed his fame on TV, presiding over an American democracy that is still being shaped by 1980s television culture and whose future opponent may well be someone who understands TV as well or better than he does. sdelacourt@bell.net Read more about: SHARE: You might recall a heartstring-pulling Tim Hortons commercial from a few years ago that begins with a man in an apartment speaking on the telephone in a foreign language. Based on a true story, reads the subtitle. The apartment is the kind of standard issue dwelling that will look immediately familiar to anybody who lives in a mid-century building in the GTA, the kind with narrow balcony doors and parquet floors. The man air kisses pictures stuck to his fridge while on the phone. I miss you, he says. I will see you tomorrow. Then there are shots of him shopping for winter coats, and then packing those coats into bags back at his apartment. Seventeen seconds in theres an exterior shot of his apartment building in a snowstorm as an alarm clock chirps and a light in one of the windows turns on. The building is along an expressway, also a scene familiar to many thousands of people living adjacent to Highways 427, 401 or the DVP. Its a quintessential Canadian landscape, but one rarely celebrated. In fact, this is the first time I recall seeing an ad of this nature that accurately depicts apartment life, a reality for hundreds of thousands of Canadians. The rest of the commercial is equally well done. The man drives to the airport. He buys two coffees at Tim Hortons with cream and sugar. He looks towards the exit doors with anticipation and then there they are: his wife and children. The arrival zone at the airport is one of the most magical places, and this reunion is typical with hugs, kisses and tears. Only the truly heartless would not be moved by it. He hands his wife one of the Tim Hortons coffees and says, Welcome to Canada and she spots the bags containing the coats on his luggage cart and asks, What is all this? Youll see, he says. Cut to a shot outside the airport and the now bundled up family looking at the flying snow with some shock. Welcome home, he says as the commercial ends and the Tim Hortons logo comes on the screen. I hope the agency that produced this commercial won some industry awards because its a fantastic ad for Tim Hortons: a deeply Canadian story, one that helps cement the brand to the Canadian identity. If you didnt know better you might think Tim Hortons is a crown corporation, so subtly has it infused itself into the idea of Canada. This commercial is also fantastic because it could be a part of a campaign supporting the minimum wage increase in Ontario as it portrays the kind of life a large and growing number of Canadians who work low paying, precarious service jobs live. If you go to a Tim Hortons anywhere in the GTA you quickly notice that this most Canadian of brands is staffed by a large proportion of New Canadians, and many New Canadians live in apartment towers like the one in the commercial. Outside of the GTA, where immigration settlement is lower, Tims employees are often teenagers and retirement-age people, most often women. If you pay attention to the people working behind the counter you immediately see its a nonstop job and you can sense the pressure on employees to keep the lines and drive-thru moving. I thought of this commercial a lot over the past two weeks as the minimum wage debate spread across Ontario, particularly erupting in a few Tim Hortons franchise locations. In Scarborough, one franchise came under fire because it banned employees from accepting tips and will do away with paid breaks in the face of the minimum wage hike. In Cobourg, a franchise owned by heirs of the Tim Hortons founders eliminated paid breaks in response to the wage hike. Tim Hortons corporate head office issued a statement saying Team Members shouldnt be treated as an expense and that it was a rogue group of franchise owners who were reacting against the minimum wage hike. This is excellent news, and I hope we can look forward to Tim Hortons head office championing a living wage. Unless its just empty corporate-speak, thats what teams do, right? Thinking again of that non-stop work, I think of my mom who worked at a General Motors factory in Windsor for two decades. As the years went on, she complained of the wear and tear on her body. It took a toll that she still feels today. Making cars can be as repetitive as pouring coffee, cutting bagels, and being on your feet for an entire shift. Yet she was unionized, making good money as they say in the Windsor parlance, and could retire at a traditional retirement age with a pension. Those older women working behind the counters in so many coffee shops dont have that and its why they keep working. I think, too, of the five years I worked minimum wage for a chain record store while I was going to school. It was the 90s and the wage then was $7. When you work minimum wage you have an acute sense of the worth of things. If I worked a three-hour shift I could buy one full-priced compact disc. It was a record store so the commodity I was selling became how a gauged how much I earned and the value of my work. I wonder if Tim Hortons workers measure their shifts by coffee. The economics of it all made me sad. There were no flights or fancy vacations during that time, but I was a student and I lived at home and knew it was temporary. For many Canadians the precarious service sector is becoming an increasingly permanent way of life. In a 2017 report, the United Way declared the GTA the inequality capital of Canada and if you look at the data a lot of this inequality is found in apartment neighbourhoods in the inner and now outer suburbs. Neighbourhoods like the one pictured in the Tims commercial. Tim Hortons should keep making commercials like this. Keep representing Canadian realities. The question is, what will the next chapter be for precarious workers in Canada? Will Tim Hortons be an advocate for the people it uses in its commercials and be a champion of a living wage that allows people to live middle-class Canadian dreams? Shawn Micallef writes every Saturday about where and how we live in the GTA. Wander the streets with him on Twitter @shawnmicallef Read more about: SHARE: If an American president calls countries s---holes, does that make him a s---head? Out come the shrill whistles of the tone police. Back off. Its literally that easy to go down the name-calling path, but while it is tempting to discuss this latest round of Donald Trumps vulgarism through the lens of his character, it serves us better to see it for what it represents: the contemptuous attitudes and biases that inform North American immigration policy-making. No amount of name-calling can match Trumps indignity as he plumbs the depths of classlessness and breadth of ignorance, even as he begins a late backtrack of whether he called Haiti, El Salvador and African countries s---holes on Thursday. In a meeting with Senators and House members on immigration, the President of the United States is reported saying, Why do we want all these people from s---hole countries coming here? The U.S. should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, he said. Asians he would be open to, since they helped the country economically. The leader of the country that kidnapped and forced Black people onto its shores wants them out now that their labour isnt free. It was just in September 2016 during a roundtable in Miami that Trump told Haitian Americans, Whether you vote for me or dont vote for me, I really want to be your greatest champion, and I will be your champion. Read more: Trump said hate filled things, repeatedly mentioned s---holes, says senator who was there Trumps s---hole remark draws sharp response from African countries, Haiti, former Canadian governor general Countries that are dirty like toilets, and other ways the world translated Trumps profane slur While the White House did not deny the statement on Thursday, on Friday, Trump tweeted a denial: The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. Later, he tweeted, Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Thats not what others at the meeting told media. Trumps presidency remains consistent with inconsistency and lies. Its not particularly surprising that Trump would call societies of mostly Black people names his racist views have been well documented from the get-go, although they perpetually catch the political and media punditry off guard. Racism does its job best when its delivered with denial, veneered with benevolence, and gift-wrapped with a bow. Exposed, it forces acknowledgment. His Thursday remarks sparked bipartisan outrage. Republican representative Mia Love, whose family is from Haiti, said in a statement that Trumps remarks were unkind, divisive, elitist. Trumps words reinforced the concerns that we hear every day, that the presidents slogan, Make America Great Again, is really code for Make America White Again, Democratic representative Cedric Richmond, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus told the New York Times. Gobsmackingly, that paper still did not call Trump racist; it lamely called this the latest example of his penchant for racially tinged remarks denigrating immigrants. Note, at this point, many not-at-all-racist people, such as, say, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson will be keen to steer the conversation towards Is (insert name of country with Black people) actually a s---hole? This will force an argument about why country A or B is or is not a s---hole, and safely distract from the racism of those who continue to abuse the brutally violated. It will reveal not only an indifference to colonialism and circumstance that impoverishes nations but also a callous indifference to the plight of its citizens. The shock over the vulgar choice of words by an American president is understandable. However, the outrage also reveals a society more eager to be scandalized by the Presidents words than upset by government actions that harm those same lives for whom they are purporting to demand respect. Trumps words on Haiti are particularly galling, given what its citizens have endured and American and Canadian modern roles in undermining that nations democracy. Trump pulled the plug on a humanitarian program that allowed some 60,000 Haitians to remain in the U.S. under special immigration status while their homeland recovered from devastating disasters. Canada cancelled its own program of giving Haitians special status and began asking Haitians to pack their bags in 2014 under Stephen Harper. That cancellation was completed in 2016, under Justin Trudeau with little fanfare. Yet, Trudeau is the good guy of the global immigration crisis. Remember that viral tweet that was so celebrated after Trump moved to ban immigrants from Muslim-majority countries? To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada Last year, poor Haitians who took Canadian goodness seriously, trying to cross unguarded points from the U.S. into Canada had the lowest acceptance rate at 17 per cent for asylum claimants between February and October. Individual Canadians have been generous after the Haitian earthquake. More recently, Montrealers have been moved to help Haitian asylum seekers. Still, the overall lack of indignation over the continued rejection of Haitians suggests a Canadian comfort with discriminatory attitudes so long as theyre not overt, Trump style. Shree Paradkar writes about discrimination and identity. You can follow her @shreeparadkar Read more about: SHARE: As oil prices rise to hit a four-year high of $70 a barrel, the UAEs Energy minister Suhail al-Mazrouei expects the markets to stabilize after a dip that lasted since the end of the expensive oil era in 2014. He told CNBC that 2018 will be the year when a balance will be stricken between supply and demand. The market fundamentals in 2017 have been good but were 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 were not there yet. I have no doubt that the market needs further correction. We still have more than 100 million barrels that need 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. Oil supply data have shown that OPEC members have largely complied with the agreement to curb oil output, although some members like 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. Last year, OPEC and other nations including Russia said they would extend a deal to cut production to help support oil prices that had fallen below $50 a barrel when the agreement was struck in 2016. Brent was trading below $30 in early 2016 as a result of a massive supply glut and weaknesses in the world economy. Despite a bumpy road to President Donald Trump's desk, the recently passed tax legislation has the right idea, former Federal Reserve Gov. Randy Kroszner told TheStreet. "The tax reform's focus is to try to boost economic growth," Kroszner said. "And I think the key elements of it are focused on the right things." But economic growth won't be the only side effect of the tax cut, which was the first in 30 years. Speaking to TheStreet from the sidelines of the Chicago Booth Economic Outlook event in New York, Kroszner explained what else could come of the country's new tax legislation. Wage Growth in the U.S. Wage growth has been a concern at the front of investors' minds of late. Even as unemployment remains at a 17-year low and job growth continues on a healthy trajectory, wages have been persistently low amid factors including technological changes, productivity issues, automation and the widespread retiring of baby boomers. But the new tax law could help solve the problem. "So by reducing corporate taxes and introducing full expensing, that'll give a strong incentive for investment," Kroszner said. "More investment leads generally to high productivity growth and that leads to higher wage growth." Wall Street got a taste of that wage growth this week when Walmart Stores Inc. (WMT) - Get Free Report announced it will raise its minimum wage and offer bonuses to U.S. workers as a result of tax legislation benefits. Kroszner pointed out that while it's important to note all the companies taking positive action following the tax reform bill's passage, Walmart is among the most significant. As the largest employer in the world, the fact that it's making this bold move so soon after the bill became law suggests the tailwinds could continue. "If they are choosing to raise minimum wages and pay bonuses out and they say that's related to the tax reform, that's quite suggestive of one of the impacts," Kroszner said. Labor Market Burden Beyond just individual companies issuing higher wages, tax reform could reduce the overall burden laborers face in a high-tax environment. "What we find is that the burden of increased taxes falls on both labor and on capital, so on both the owners and the workers," Kroszner noted. "Estimates range from around 30% to 50% of the burden falling on workers, and so if you see a tax reform like we've had that reduces the corporate taxes, that suggests that they may benefit up to a third of the reduction." "But if you look not just at the individual names like Bank of America Corp. (BAC) - Get Free Report and AT&T Inc. (T) - Get Free Report and others ... if you look at the broader analysis, you find the negative impact of increased taxes on wages," Kroszner said. "And so it would follow that if you reduce taxes you would also see a positive impact on wages. The exact sharing? That's going to depend on how things work out over time." Supply/Demand Impact Kroszner added that the reduction in individual tax rates leads to an increase in disposable incomes among American households. Growing disposable income means more demand from consumers who can now afford to, simply put, spend more. "And so you have things that will help on both the supply side and on the demand side, and I think that's positive in both the shorter run and in the longer run," Kroszner pointed out. Still, it remains unclear just how impactful tax reform will be on supply and demand and the interaction between consumer and merchant. "We're going to have to see how exactly this is implemented and we're going to have to see how corporate/individual behavior responds to this," Kroszner said. "But I think the directions are broadly positive ones." What's TheStreet Executive Editor Brian Sozzi thinks about Walmart's pay increases. More of What's Trending on TheStreet: After completing his residency, Willmann became an assistant professor and clinical attending physician at the University of Zurich in 2003. He received tenure two years later. He and Lutz were both granted funding from the Swiss government to take a two-year leave and travel to Stanford for a research fellowship quite a stroke of fate, considering both he and Lutz applied separately and were considered based on their independent merit. The two ended up together in the lab of Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD, professor and chair of radiology, where they worked on multimodality molecular imaging technologies and early cancer detection. Juergen was very interested in early cancer detection because he understood the value of long-term research and how impactful early cancer detection could be to humanity when eventually successful, Gambhir said. He was exceptionally intelligent, highly driven, supremely organized and a wonderful leader, mentor, father and husband. I could not be more proud of anyone who I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from. In 2008, shortly after the fellowship ended, Willmann and Lutz made a permanent move to the United States, and he became an assistant professor of radiology in the School of Medicine. In 2015, Willmann was promoted to the rank of professor. Although actively recruited by European universities, Willmann opted to make Stanford his home, won over by his strong, fruitful research collaborations. Though his life was tragically cut short, Dr. Willmann had already made extraordinary contributions to his field and touched countless lives through his warmth, leadership and compassion, said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. His death is a profound loss for the entire Stanford Medicine community. Just a dynamo Throughout his career, Willmann was generous in sharing his expertise with the students and postdoctoral scholars in his lab, and did so in a way that fostered what many deemed a family environment, Jeffrey said. Outside of research, he assumed several administrative roles in the Department of Radiology, including clinical division chief of body imaging and executive vice chair of strategy, outreach and clinical trials. Jeffrey, the former clinical division chief, said that when he stepped down, Willmann was the unanimous choice. In addition to his scientific accomplishments and his truly remarkable emotional intelligence, he was a real leader, he said. His management style was very inclusive, low-key and effective at many levels. Willmanns investigation into cancer detection and imaging technologies earned him the 2017 Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research. He was just a dynamo people have used the term supernova to describe him, and theyre not wrong, Jeffrey said. He was a larger-than-life kind of person, Gambhir said. Willmann was an elected fellow of the Society of Abdominal Radiology and of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He is survived by his wife and their two children, Alexander and Juliana Willmann; his parents, Elisabeth and Karl Willmann; and sister Sabine Willmann. Arrangements for a memorial service are pending. BT Group plc provides communications services worldwide. Its Consumer segment sells telephones, baby monitors, and Wi-Fi extenders through high street retailers, online BT Shop, and Website BT.com; and offers home phone, copper and fiber broadband, TV, and mobile services in various packages. The company's EE segment offers 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile network services; broadband, fixed-voice, and TV services; and postpaid and prepaid plans, and emergency services network. This segment also sells 4G mobile phones, tablets, connected devices, and mobile broadband devices from various manufacturers. Its Business and Public Sector segment provides fixed voice, mobility, fiber and connectivity, and networked IT services to retailers, utilities, public sector, healthcare, sports, construction, finance, and educational sectors. The company's Global Services segment offers business communications and ICT services comprising BT Connect, BT Security, BT One, BT Contact, BT Compute, BT Advise, and BT for financial markets. This segment serves approximately 5,500 customers in 180 countries. Its Wholesale and Ventures segment enables communications providers and other organizations to provide fixed or mobile phone services. Its ventures provide mass-market services, such as directory enquiries and payphones; and enterprise services comprising BT Fleet and BT Redcare. This segment also provides broadband and Ethernet, voice, hosted communication, mobile virtual network operator, managed solutions, machine-to-machine, roaming, and media services. The company's Openreach segment engages in the provision of services over the local access network; and installation and maintenance of fiber and copper communications networks that connect homes and businesses. The company was formerly known as Newgate Telecommunications Limited and changed its name to BT Group plc in September 2001. BT Group plc was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen France SAS, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Suzhou Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel Ireland Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Brooks Instrument Shanghai Co. Ltd, Buell Industries Inc., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS Australia Pty Limited, CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures Australasia S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Coeur Shanghai Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Denison Mayes Group Limited, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., E2M Production B.V.., E2M Technologies B.V.., E2M Technologies Inc.., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO Holding AG, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, Exhibit 21, FEG Investments L.L.C., Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Filtertek SAS, GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech Taicang Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Belgium B.V., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart International Singapore Pte. Ltd., Hobart Japan K.K., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components Chongqing Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components Langfang Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium B.V., ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS UK Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW China Investment Company Limited, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Construction Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Services Manila Inc., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Contamination Control Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Deutschland GmbH, ITW Diagraph GmbH, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW EU Holdings Ltd., ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.L., ITW European Finance Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Thailand Ltd., ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France Luxembourg S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. 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Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. 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Read More Several Tunisian cities were swept by protests over the governments austerity measures with more protests expected before January 14, the anniversary marking the ousting of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the countrys former autocrat. In Tunis and other northern towns, clashes took place between protesters and police who fired teargas to disperse crowds. So far, one person has died and more than 200 people have been arrested as protests continue to expand to small towns after activists and politicians denounced increases in VAT and the introduction of social contributions at the start of the year as a tough new budget was implemented. Public anger has been building since January 1, when the government raised the price of gas and other items and hiked social security contributions and taxes on cars, phone calls, internet usage and hotel accommodation. At 15% of economic output, the states wage bill is one of the highest per capita in the world, and parliament on Tuesday passed a law to offer voluntary redundancy to public service workers as part of plans to trim it to 12.5 % by 2020. A 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, who is one of 20 workers that alleges they were underpaid while working for three Portuguese companies, called the RAC Eire Partnership, that were 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. On Thursday Mr Da Silva told Ms Justice Carmel Stewart said he and up to 90 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 didn't work all the time and there was a smell from where wastewater from the facility flowed. "It was horrible" he told his counsel David McGrath SC, adding that 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 Silva's 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 the 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 men's accommodation was "utterly substandard in every respect." and that "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 O'Regan, 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 on before the High Court on Thursday morning the court heard that 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 assigning the case to be heard by Ms Justice Stewart Ms Justice Caroline Costello said that assigning a solicitor was not something the High Court can do. The cases continue. Tributes have been paid by the Mercy Order to former Nenagh Convent Girls Primary School principal Sr Stephanie Conway, who died last month. St Stephanie died on December 29 in University Hospital Limerick surrounded by her family and Mercy community, who kept a faithful vigil on her final journey. She had been transferred to the hospital from McAuley House on St Stephen's Day. Sr Stephanie, who was originally from Kilfenora, County Clare, will be remembered by generations of students and staff not only as a gifted, considerate and professional teacher and administrator, but also as an untiring and enthusiastic promoter of music among pupils as an integral part of their education. She believed passionately in music for all and encouraged each one to achieve her personal best. Having been born in the shadow of the Kilfenora Ceile Band, into a musical family, all things musical were second nature to Sr Stephanie. The school's marching band and majorettes were initiatives of which was particuarly proud and which graced many cultural, social and civic events locally and nationally. The Carol services in St Mary of the Rosary Church, Nenagh, saw her pupils exel, much to the delight of all. Having qualified as a primary teacher at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Sr Stephanie was appointed in 1962 to Holy Family Senior School, Ennis, where she served until 1986, spending her final six years there as principal. She then transferred to St Mary's Primary School, Nenagh, where she was again appointed principal, a post she filled with distinction until her retirement. Sr Stephanie's colourful approach to life and excellent sense of humour won her many friends. In community, she was very faithful ot the Mercy way of life and to helping others along the way. She imbibed the spirit of Catherine McAuley and knew that an intimate relationship with God was central to all her work. Sr Stephanie dealt bravely and patiently with ill-health for many years, trusting in that same God. Sr Stephanie will be very much missed by her siblings, immediate and extended family to whom she was very close; her sisters in Mercy, especially in the Nenagh and Ennis convents; her former colleagues and students and her large circle of friends in the wider communities in both towns. To all we extend a sincere sympathy. May her gentle soul rest in peace. Sr Stephanie was born Teresa Margaret (Tess) on October 9, 1937 in Kilfenora to Anna O'Flaherty and John Conway. She was the fourth of six children: Mary (Corbett) deceased; Chris Lalor, JJ, Tom and Fr Paddy. She was educated at the local national school and as a boarder in Colaiste Mhuire, Ennis, and joined the Sisters of Mercy at St Xavier's, Ennis, on September 24, 1955. She made her perpetual profession of vows on July 31, 1961. Sr Stephanie's funeral Mass took place in St Mary of the Rosary, Nenagh, on January 1, with burial afterwards in Ennis parish cemetery, Drumcliffe. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Cistercian College Roscrea is appealing against a rule stating that unless an exemption is granted a student must be attending a school for 20 months before they can compete in the Bank of Ireland Leinster Schools Senior Cup. In a statement this week, the College says it may have to take a High Court action by next Monday (January 15) to ensure their students are able to compete. Cistercian College Roscrea won the Leinster Senior Cup for the first time in 2015. The 20-month rule was introduced by the Leinster Branch Schools Committee. This rule and with it the ban on repeat Leaving Certificate students participating in the Bank of Ireland Leinster Schools Senior Cup presents Cistercian College with grave difficulties, challenging the very core of its ethos and its commitment to pupils. As such, the College believes it has no remaining option but to take action to address this. The central principle for what is an unclear and flawed rule states that a boy joining a Leinster school must be in attendance at the school for 20 months before being eligible to play in the Bank of Ireland Leinster Senior Cup and its feeder competitions. In applying this rule, the Leinster Branch Schools Committee is of the view that they are not stopping anyone attending a particular school nor are they preventing anyone from playing rugby. The decision by parents or guardians to send their son to a boarding school is a significant one and often requires financial and other sacrifices by the families involved. Sometimes this means that such a decision has to be delayed until the student is ready to enter senior cycle and Cistercian College has a long tradition of welcoming students from a range of backgrounds and locations for a very strong TY programme and Leaving Certificate syllabus. That decision to attend boarding school is made for the primary goal of giving the student involved the best possible educational experience and it is critical that as a school we do all in our powers to allow new students, especially those arriving for senior cycle, the best possible chance to integrate into school life, in all its facets, and to reach their full potential. Due to a number of factors often unrelated to sport, Cistercian College has many students who start in Fifth year and as such, we believe that the school is uniquely affected by this rule, a key point that the Leinster Branch Schools Committee has never acknowledged. Over the last three years, eleven boys did not accept a place at Cistercian College as their reasonable individual requests for exemption from this rule were denied. To arbitrarily deny any boy or girl the opportunity to represent themselves and their family at the highest level of schools sport is simply wrong, regardless of the school involved. This academic year, the Schools Committee have adjudicated on the fair and legitimate applications of nine Cistercian College students, young players and their families who have made real sacrifices and shown tremendous faith in committing their futures to the school despite the threat to the very future of Cistercian College less than 12 months ago. Each and every one of these applications has been rejected, despite due process , such as it is, being followed. Our concerns are not about trying to manufacture success in a schoolboy competition. It is about putting the hopes, aspirations and futures of the schoolboys involved first in allowing them the chance to compete. The legal representatives of Cistercian College has carried out a full review of the adoption and implementation of these rules and are satisfied that there are serious and fatal flaws contained which make the specific rules invalid and unenforceable. We have today written to the IRFU & Leinster Branch outlining these concerns and asked them to urgently and immediately waive the requirements of the 20 month rule and the ban on repeat Leaving Certificate students for the 2018 Bank of Ireland Leinster Schools Senior Cup and associated competitions, in advance of a full review of the legal validity of said rule and its administration for any future competitions. Cistercian College has sought to address these issues with the Leinster Branch unsuccessfully. The school remains of the view that it ought to be possible and is preferential, that this matter be resolved amicably between the relevant parties. Should the situation remain unresolved by midday Monday 15th January, Cistercian College will be left with no alternative but to bring proceedings before the High Court, challenging the regulations, processes and decisions involved so as to ensure that the nine schoolboys concerned are available for selection to represent their school in The Bank of Ireland Senior Cup Competition. 180 destinations are suddenly opened up to South of Ireland customers as a result of the link between Cork Airport and Air France. One of the biggest airlines in the world, Air France is to begin services out of Cork Airport from May, with a new Cork to Paris-Charles de Gaulle route. The daily flight during this years summer season will not only link Cork to France, but also connect passengers from the south of Ireland to Air Frances extensive network of over 180 destinations worldwide via the international hub of Paris-Charles de Gaulle. The new service will bring an additional 33,750 available seats, commencing 26th May 2018 and running through until the 27th October 2018. Benedicte Duval, General Manager of Air France-KLM UK & Ireland stated: Demand for efficient, seamless and convenient travel from the south of Ireland continues to grow and we are delighted to be in a position to offer both business and leisure passengers in the region even greater choice and connectivity. The new service not only links Cork to the French capital and the rest of Europe, but it provides passengers with the opportunity to connect to our extensive network of over 180 exciting worldwide destinations. We look forward to welcoming new and returning passengers on board Air France in the coming months. Welcoming the new route, Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director at Cork Airport said: This is great news, not only for those seeking to travel to France, but also for those wishing to venture further afield. 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. The 1h 50mins flight will depart Cork Airport daily at 4.30pm and arrive at Paris-Charles de Gaulle at 7.20pm (local time). The return leg departs Paris-Charles de Gaulle at 2.55pm (local time) and arrives at Cork at 3.50pm. The Eiffel Tower in Paris Mr MacCarthy added Cork Airports business strategy for 2018 is focused on growing airlines, routes and connections from Cork. The new Air France Paris route serves this aim. Ireland is ranked as the fourth most popular destination with the French and the new service from Cork will further grow inbound tourism from this key continental market to counties across the south of Ireland, he said. Speaking on todays announcement, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: This is more good news for tourism to Cork and the south of Ireland as we prepare for 2018. It will certainly expand travel options for French holidaymakers wishing to visit this part of Ireland. 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. As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated they are absolutely critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism. All flights will be operated by Air France Hop! using Embraer 170 aircraft, carrying up to 76 passengers. Fares start from 129 return in economy including all taxes. To book flights, visit www.airfrance.ie or call the Air France call centre on 01 6590442. For more information on Cork Airport see www.corkairport.com Sunday next promises to be a red letter day for the parish of Thurles with the first Irish Mass of local man Fr Niall O'Riordan to be celebrated in the Cathedral of the Assumption at 12 noon. An open invitation is extended to all to come along and share in what will be a unique and memorable experience with a special blessing to follow on Sunday evening at Bothernanave Church where evening prayers will take place at 6:00pm. Fr Niall, who has already taken up his mission on the Slovakian/Hungarian border, will travel to Thurles at the weekend along with a large cortege of colleagues from his Order, including founder, Fr Paul Maria Sigl, who will deliver the Homily at the Mass in the Cathedral. This will be a unique opportunity for the people of the Cathedral Town and the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly to hear the founder of a religious order preach locally Fr Paul, and the other members of the Order will also be joined by the Mother Superior, Mother Agnes, and they will be centrally involved in the Mass, as they were in Fr Niall's First Mass celebrated in the Church of Santo Spirito, beside the Vatican in Rome on Saturday December 9th, following his Ordination on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Bascilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls by Cardinal Piacenza, Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary. Also ordained on the day were Father Matteo Maria Tosi from Italy; Fr Damian Maria Shin from Korea; and Fr Pascal Maria Hauselmann from Switzerland and the ceremony was conducted entirely in Italian. The Family of Mary order has approximately 180 sisters and 59 priests with Fr Patrick Cahill from Loughtagalla being the other Irish priest in this community - Fr. Patrick is working in a youth mission called Holy Family Missionin Glencomeragh House in Clonmel and will be in Thurles on Sunday also to concelebrate the Mass. Fr Niall, will be joined on Sunday by his parents, Dan and Imelda, his brothers Raymond, David and James, his sister Anne, the extended family and many friends, for what will be a memorable occasion for all concerned. And, the festivities will continue afterwards in the Thurles Sarsfields clubhouse Niall and his brothers all played for Sarsfields and Durlas Og and were fortunate to have formed lifelong friendships on and off the field of play. The club is delighted to be hosting the event and has had many clergymen down through the years who wore the famous blue and white jersey including the likes of the late Fr Ray Reidy, Fr Paddy Carley, the late Fr Tony Kelly, Fr Bill McSweeney, Fr Jack Ryan, Fr Jack Graydon, Fr Paddy Currivan and Fr Bobby Harkins to mention just a few. Thurles PP, Rev Fr James Purcell, lays his hands on Fr Nialls head as part of the Ordination ceremony in Rome. And, a cead mile failte is being extended to all to come along to the clubhouse where, after Mass, refreshments will be served and the celebrations will continue. Club Chairman Michael Maher and Treasurer Philip Leahy and their wives Nora and Rena, attended the Ordination of Fr Niall in Rome and were bowled over by the warm reception accorded to all those who made their way to the Eternal City. And, there is a real determination to ensure that the welcome and warmth will be returned one hundred fold in Thurles next weekend when Fr Niall and his colleagues arrive. The Sacrament of Confession will be heard in the Cathedal before and after the Mass and once again all are invited to participate and to come along to evening prayer in Bohernanave Church on Sunday evening, to pray for, and with, Fr Niall, his colleagues, and your own intentions. So, if you see the brothers and sister of the Family of Mary Order about Thurles next weekend, be sure to smile, say hello and offer a Thurles welcome to them in return for the welcome they extended to all in Rome before Christmas. Roscrea Toastmasters met on the 4th January and President, Brian McLoughlin welcomed all members and guests. It was a very enjoyable night. Toastmaster for the night was Larry Lyons. Topicsmaster, Lorraine Burke had a very entertaining range of topics including ' What would you change about your house' to ' What was your most memorable meal ' with lots of contributions from the members and guests. On the night there were prepared speeches from Sheila Shanahan and Peader O' Donovan. Why not come along to Roscrea Toastmasters where in a warm, relaxed and welcoming atmosphere we help each other improve self-confidence by developing public speaking. The next gathering will be on Thursday 18th January 2018 in the Racket Hall Hotel at 8pm. We would love to welcome you along. Roscrea Speakers Club will be celebrating 10 years since its establishment, this year. To mark this occasion we will be having a special meeting on Thursday 1st February in the Racket Hall Hotel at 8pm. We would like to welcome any previous members & anyone who is interested in Toastmasters to come along to this open night. Give Brian (086-3687168) or Sean (086-0291809) a ring if you would like to find out more. Residents in a slum in Lusaka, Zambias capital, are violently protesting over a regulation imposed to control the spread of a cholera epidemic in the Southern African nation. According to news portal Mwebantu, security forces operating in Kanyama have been forced to discharge tear gas after protesters started to throw stones and other projectiles at security forces cleaning up the area in the wake of Cholera outbreak. Zambia has been struggling with a cholera outbreak, especially in Lusaka, since October last year. Over 2,800 cases were reported so far. The epidemic has claimed more than 60 lives and is spreading at an alarming rate forcing the government to ban street vending, church services and other gatherings in Lusakas high-density residential areas. President Edgar Lungu had tasked the Zambian Defense Forces to work with relevant ministerial departments and agencies to fight the epidemic. The Namibian government has provisionally banned the import of all perishable food, fish, fruits, unprocessed food and water from neighboring Zambia. Other neighboring countries such as Tanzania and Malawi are reported to have imposed measures to restrict entries by Zambians. Three Tipperary schools were among the award winners at the 54th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in Dublin this evening. St. Mary's Secondary School received the Jack Restan Display Award for their project on an investigation of the effect of different materials on bee health. The project, which was entered in the intermediate section was the work of Sarah Hennessy, Megan Freeney and Eah O'Gorman. Two Tipperary Schools were highly commended: St. Joseph's College for their project 'No Mower Accidents', the work of Aisling Dwyer, Hazel Reynolds and Kiara Hearty. Also highly commended were the Abbey School, Tipperary for their entry 'The effects of non-selection for physical activities on adolescents mental wellbeing', by students Tadhg Carew and Jack Quirke. The winner of the 54th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE is Simon Meehan, aged 15, a Transition Year student from Colaiste Choilm in Cork, who took home the top prize for his project entitled Investigation into the Antimicrobial effects of both aerial and root parts of selected plants against Staphylococcus aureus.The coveted prize was presented to the winner this evening in the BT Arena by Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton and Managing Director of BT Ireland, Shay Walsh. Simon Meehan presented his project in the Biological and Ecological section of the Intermediate category. Simons award includes the largest prize fund yet of 7,500, the BTYSTE perpetual trophy and an exclusive trip to Bletchley Park in the UK, the infamous World War II coding centre. In addition, and uniquely this year, the winner will have the opportunity to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists, taking place in the RDS, Dublin in September 2018. This will be only the second time in the 30-year history of the competition that Ireland will host this prominent international event. Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, said, Im delighted to be here at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition - its fantastic to see so many young people engaged and inspired by the STEM subjects and their application to real world problems. Outside of school activities such as this have a critical role to play in sparking that passion in our children for science and technology and have a massive influence on their engagement with STEM in their future lives. Weve recently launched our STEM strategy which aims to give more formal recognition to students participation in initiatives such as this. I would like to congratulate every student, teacher and school community involved for all their hard work during the year and especially this week. The Exhibition is a highlight for the education calendar every year. Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland said, This years Exhibition has exceeded all expectations showcasing projects and innovations which are now, more than ever, pivotal for the future of our society. Our theme for this years exhibition is It Starts Here but this is only the beginning and it is vitally important that every students voyage of discovery does not end here. I want to congratulate every student that entered, and Simon, our overall winner. Simons innovative skills and entrepreneurial approach are critical to research and development led companies like BT. Speaking about the winning entry, BT Young Scientist Judge and Chair of the Biological and Ecological Sciences Category Professor John OHalloran, commented; This is a really exciting project which explores the possibility of the blackberry leaf extracts ability to control harmful bacteria. The unexpected findings deliver a unique approach to killing bacteria using natural plant active ingredients. The rigour of the approach adopted by Simon set his project apart from competitors and made him our overall winner. Simon selected nine locally sourced plants such as asparagus, nettles and blackberries to test for the presence of chemicals which could potentially be used to control bacterial infection. The leaves of the blackberry plant were shown to contain a chemical which prevented the growth of different bacteria. The award for Group winner went to James Knoblauch, Harry Knoblauch and Oran ODonoghue, all aged 16 and 5th year students from St. Brendans College Killarney, Co. Kerry for their project entitled An Investigation into Conformity and How Minorities Influence it. The students were in the Social and Behavioural Category at Senior level. In two controlled psychology experiments, the project demonstrated how one person can influence the behaviour of others, using a unique approach to studying group dynamics, focusing on the influence of an individual within a group setting. The Individual runner-up award was presented to Claire Gregg, aged 16, transition year student at Loreto College St. Stephens Green, Dublin for her project entitled An Analysis of the Housing Shortage in Ireland using Agent-Based Modelling. Claire was in the Social Behavioural Sciences category at Intermediate level. Claires project addresses a significant challenge in society in an innovative, sophisticated way by modelling complex data on the housing shortage in Ireland. The model identifies the most salient factors affecting the Irish housing market by drawing on extensive data sources. The Group runners-up award was presented to Darragh Twomey, Neil OLeary and Andrew Heffernan, aged 16, transition year students at Colaiste Treasa, Kanturk, Co. Cork for their project entitled Feeding 9.6 billion people by 2050. The students were in the Biological and Ecological Sciences category at Intermediate level. They carried out a field study to increase food production in a sustainable manner. They treated barley with a specific strain of bacteria and found it increased the yield of varieties of the crop. This year an impressive 2,031 projects from 4,251 students across the island of Ireland were entered, with every county represented by a submission. 60% of entrants are female and the highest ever number of entries from DEIS schools, a positive indication of the power of this platform to engage participation in the critical STEM subjects. The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition continues tomorrow, Saturday 13th January, and is open to the public from 09:30 a.m. 17:30 p.m. Make sure to book your tickets online in advance at www.btyoungscientist.com/ ticketing to avoid disappointment as both Thursday and Friday of the Exhibition totally sold out. Visitors can look forward to a packed event once again tomorrow with 22 shows which include the Ministry of Science, World of Robots and a Journey Through Space and Time. For more information, visitors can download the free BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition app now. Alternatively, log onto www.btyoungscientist.com, check outhttp://www.facebook.com/BTYSTE , or follow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/btyste 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. President Uhuru Kenyatta on 11 January, 2018 traveled to South Africa on a three-day official visit that will see him hold talks with President Jacob Zuma to boost cooperation in a wide range of areas including trade, security and infrastructure development. President Kenyatta is on his first Working Visit to South Africa since his inauguration as Kenyan President on 28 November 2017. South Africa and Kenya enjoy very warm bilateral relations underpinned by strong historical and political bonds. South Africa is a strategic partner of Kenya in many areas, particularly trade and security. Numerous South African companies have a presence in Kenya. They operate in sectors such as banking, insurance, accountancy, pharmaceuticals, retail, tourism and engineering. The two Heads of State will also share perspectives on various issues of mutual importance, such as continental and international developments. Presidents Kenyatta, Zuma hold talks ahead of ANC birthday celebrations During the bilateral talks on Thursday afternoon, President Kenyatta and President Zuma reviewed the progress in the implementation of earlier signed agreements and explored new areas to deepen the fraternal ties between Kenya and South Africa. Addressing the press after the talks, the Presidents expressed their desire to strengthen relations between the two countries for the benefit of their nations and peoples. They identified trade and infrastructure as the pillars that would get more emphasis in the relationship between Kenya and South Africa, and discussed how trade and connectivity would boost industrialisation and also create jobs for millions of young people. Industrialisation is key to creating job opportunities for the youth and wealth for our nations and peoples, President Kenyatta said. Apart from the issues of trade and infrastructure, Presidents Kenyatta and Zuma also deliberated on regional peace and security, especially the South Sudan conflict and the new slave trade in Libya. President Zuma announced that he would host President Kenyatta for a State visit later this year. We will then conclude key issues when President Kenyatta is back later this year, he said. On the agreed visit, President Kenyatta said: We have laid the groundwork for my State visit sometime in the first quarter of this year. We look forward to concluding and signing various agreements. Presidents Kenyatta and Zuma also said the relations between the two countries would be taken to a new level. President Kenyatta will be the keynote speaker at the African National Congress (South Africas ruling party) 106th birthday celebrations on Saturday at East Londons Buffalo City Stadium in the Eastern Cape. He will speak on issues of Pan Africanism, the role of political parties in promoting African democracy, unity, and self-reliance in a highly anticipated address. Presidents Kenyatta and Zuma said the two countries ruling parties Jubilee and the ANC would begin working together. I am happy to participate in the ANC birthday celebrations. We want to see how political parties in Africa can cooperate, said President Kenyatta. President Kenyatta will meet Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who succeeded Zuma last month as party leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). He will use the meeting at his villa to congratulate Mr Ramaphosa for winning a tight race for the leadership of the ANC presidency, and appraise him of key bilateral issues, including immigration. Ramaphosa is a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, and was the lead negotiator in talks to end apartheid and the writing of the countrys constitution. The new leaders of the ANC, who were elected last month, have been holding various activities in the lead up to the Saturday celebrations. Other dignitaries expected at the Saturday function include former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano and political party leaders from the Southern Africa region countries. President Kenyatta will also meet the 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. Background In October 2016, President Zuma made a historic State visit to Kenya which witnessed the signing of six agreements and Memoranda of Understanding in various sectors. The agreements were on visa exemption for passport holders of diplomatic, ordinary and service passports, on defence cooperation, police cooperation, on cooperation between Kenya Investment Authority, Export Promotion Council and the Trade-Invest of South Africa, cooperation in the field of biodiversity, on conservation and management, and on Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor Projects. During President Zumas visit to Kenya, both leaders directed that negotiation towards the establishment of a Bi-National Commission be expedited to further bolster trade relations between the two countries. In the area of Immigration, the two countries were able to resolve some of the key issues including visa requirements for Kenya nationals travelling to South Africa. Key amongst these was the acceptance by South Africa to issue visas on arrival for official delegations, and the issuance of a one-off visa tenable for the duration of study in South Africa for Kenyan Students. President Kenyattas official visit to South Africa will also focus on enhancing cooperation between the two countries in the area of training. Kenya and South Africa have concluded over 16 instruments of cooperation, agreements, MoUs and letters of intent on training. Both countries cooperate in scientific exchange, agriculture, public health, law, education and military training among others. On trade, President Kenyattas discussion with President Zuma will focus on bridging the balance of trade which is currently highly in favour of South Africa. 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. Former Egyptian army chief of staff, General Sami Anan has announced his candidacy to the forthcoming presidential elections slated for end of March. According to Sami Balah, the secretary general of the Arabism Egypt Party, the party leaders took a decision for General Sami Anans candidacy and informed him of the decision and there was no problem at all and no objection. Born in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, Anan joined the army in 1967 and rose through the ranks, said Al Jazeera. In 1990, he served as Egypts defense attache in Morocco and from 2001 to 2005, he led the militarys air defense command. Anan served as the chief of staff of Egypts Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) from 2005 to 2011, commanding 468,000 troops. In February 2011, at the height of the Arab spring Revolution, Anan appeared in front of protesters in Tahrir Square and promised to safeguard the interests of the people. After the 2011 revolution, he became second in command of the army, behind Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. The Egyptian national electoral commission announced this week that the presidential elections shall be held March 26-28. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to seek a second term, but has not yet announced his candidacy officially. Two other candidates, namely Khaled Ali, a prominent lawyer and Colonel Ahmed Konsowa, have declared their intention to run in the forthcoming presidential elections. Khaled Ali ran for president in 2012 and came seventh. He was the youngest candidate at 40, the minimum age required to run. The 45-year-old gained prominence last year when he won a case that nullified a government transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a deal that had prompted mass protests. When Rick Woodfords dog Jackson was diagnosed with lymphoma, the sick canine started to lose his appetite. To entice him to eat, Woodford started creating his own mixture of food for his four-legged best friend. It was mostly turkey, carrots and green vegetables, but it did the trick and soon Jackson was eating again. He even had the energy to go on walks and chase the new puppy around the yard. However, Jackson also started to gain a lot of weight, so Woodford began reading up on canine nutrition. Soon, hed started a dog food business and written a book titled Feed Your Best Friend Better. Now Woodford has three dogs Flynn who eats everything, Duncan the picky Chihuahua and Frank the skeptical eater as well as a new book of homemade dog food recipes your pup is sure to enjoy. We talked to him about "Chow: Simple Ways to Share the Foods You Love with the Dogs You Love." What inspired you to write this book? Rick Woodford: I know that many people are busy and may not want to cook every meal for their dogs, so I wanted to provide information that would encourage people to incorporate more fresh foods into the dog bowl, whether it be a few scraps from the cutting board or a quick and easy meal using many of the same ingredients you would use in your own meals. How did you research the recipes and create them? Creating a recipe starts at my nutritional database where I compare ingredients and adjust proportions to reach nutritional guidelines for dogs. I look at ingredients for their benefits and try to use combinations that have some synergy like the Pre & Pro Yogurt & Banana. Once I know how much of each ingredient I want to use, I figure out how to cook it through trial and error. I try different cooking methods and timing of each step to figure out how to make the recipes simpler and more practical. Each recipe is tested at least three times, so my freezer gets full pretty quickly during testing days. What was the taste testing like for the recipes? Since all the recipes use the same ingredients you would use for yourself, I tried quite a few. However, it really came down to whether my crew of canines would like them. Flynn eats everything, so no problem there except for him whining for more. Duncan was a little reticent to try some of the more obscure ingredients, and I had to use my chicken liver cheat recipe to get him to finish a few things. But then there's Frank, and he was the new dog to our house, so it was always surprising to see what he likes and doesn't like. Mostly with Frank it was giving him different ingredients to try and he would carry them off for a deeper investigation. As time went on Frank was increasingly willing to try new foods, and now he eats just about everything. Did Frank, your most skeptical eater, have a favorite recipe? The minute I opened a can of clams to make the first batch of my Clam Bake recipe Frank started sniffing at the air and camped out in the kitchen until the meal made its way to the bowl. It was the first time he ever finished a meal before Flynn. The next recipe, Chow on the Clams, was met with similar enthusiasm. Of all the foods that I had given him, I thought clams would be the most difficult sell. It turns out clams are on Frank's top 10 list. Below, Woodford shares a couple of the homemade dog food recipes from his new book. Banana Grrrranola Bars Banana Grrrranola Bars for dogs. Cody Wellons This is the easiest dog cookie recipe you'll ever find. Patting it out with wet hands prevents the dough from sticking to your fingers. Ingredients 3 tablespoons coconut or olive oil, plus more for cookie sheet 3 cups oats 1 ripe banana 14 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 to 2 tablespoons water, if needed Cooking directions Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease a cookie sheet with oil. Pulse the oats in a blender for 30 seconds, or until they are reduced to a fine powder. Add the banana, oil, and cinnamon and pulse for another 30 seconds; the dough should come together in a ball. If the dough is not coming together, add a tablespoon or two of water, and pulse again for 15 seconds. Wet your hands and pat out the dough in an 8-inch square on the prepared cookie sheet. Cut the dough at 1-inch intervals in each direction, using a pizza cutter. Bake the cookies for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Yield: 64 cookies Daily allowance 10-pound dog: 1-2 cookies 20-pound dog: 3-4 cookies 40-pound dog: 4-5 cookies 60-pound dog: 5-6 cookies 80-pound dog: 6-7 cookies 100-pound dog: 8-9 cookies Nutrients Calories per cookie: 22 Protein: 6% Carbohydrate-to-protein ratio 7.6 to 1 Total fats: 23% Antioxidants: 5% Golden cauliflower Cauliflower is an excellent source of alpha-linolenic acid and vitamins C and K. Oksana Shufrych/Shutterstock Sharing cauliflower with your dog can be as simple as chop and serve; however, both you and your dog could use a daily dose of turmeric. Cauliflower has plenty of nutritional benefits, and it makes for a low-carb and tasty vehicle for the most powerful antioxidant-laden food in your kitchen. Ingredients 1 head cauliflower (about 5 cups after chopping) 3 tablespoons coconut or olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon ground turmeric 1 teaspoon salt Cooking directions Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the stem from the cauliflower and chop the florets into 1-inch pieces. Toss the cauliflower with the remaining ingredients on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. The cauliflower should be lightly browned and tender. Yield: 4 cups Daily allowance 10-pound dog: 3 tablespoons 20-pound dog: 1/3 cup 40-pound dog: 1/2 cup 60-pound dog: 2/3 cup 80-pound dog: 1 cup 100-pound dog: 1 1/4 cup Nutrients Calories: 2% Protein: 4% Total fats: 1% Carbohydrates: 5g Potassium: 14% Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): 9% Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine): 25% Vitamin B9 (folate): 43% Vitamin K: 51% Antioxidants: 9% You should ask on the Mexico forum about Mexico weather. Plus a quick google search will bring up lots of weather info. My understanding is that PC is drier and less likely to experience a hurricane than Mexico is. Ive booked for PC again for the last 2 weeks of July after we had amazing weather the last 2 weeks of July last year. Im not a fan of the grand palladium in PC (personal choice, there are a lot who disagree) but I loved it in the riviera maya. If you want hotel recommendations it would be helpful to have a budget. As you know from the U.K. prices for 2 weeks in July tend to vary from 1200pp to 2500pp. Edited: 4 years ago We will be staying at a a private beach house in Reading just a few kilometers outside of Mo Bay for 1 week in early February. We are a family of 5 adults and our one-year-old grandaughter. We are trying to decide whether to rent a van for the week, use taxis, or hire a driver. We need to get to and from the airport and shop for groceries and booze on our arrival. We may have to do a few more runs for supplies, want to check out some Mo Bay live music and night life, and will likely want to do a couple of day-long excursions. But some days we will just want to chill at home. This is my fourth trip to Jamaica. The other three were all to Negril. We did rent a car once, many years ago and drove to Mandeville as a day trip. It appears that renting a van for the week will cost between $800 and $1000 (Canadian dollars). But it may not be worth it to have the van just sit for 3 days or more, and the idea of not having to drive, is also tempting. Any advice? Hi. I am putting together a trip for me and my elderly parents. It will very much be a road trip, meaning lots of sightseeing done from the car and from stops and viewpoints along the road. No hiking or staying put in one place. It will probably be their only trip to this part of The States, so they want to see as much as possible, and dont mind a lot of driving. We are starting up in San Francisco, and finishing in Arizona (GCNP, MVNP, Sedona etc.) Obviously I post the Arizona part in the Arizona forum :-) So what I need from you guys here is ideas on how to best get from SF to LV. We are going the last two weeks of April. For that reason I have ruled out the Tioga Pass. I am very much used to winter conditions and narrow curvy roads, so that would be no problem at all. However I feel that the lack of proper winter tires and not being allowed to put chains on the rental car will put limitations to where we drive. We are spending the first two nights in SF. Then we have four days/three nights to reach LV. We might spend a few hours of our first day having lunch with people we know in Sacramento, so we might not get too far the first day. My father is a huge western movie fan, and loves the TV series Bonanza. Because of that he has a wish to go to Virginia City, witch he recognizes from the show. My concern is that there really is nothing interesting to see up there I read that the Bonanza farm no longer is open to visitors. Will he get the western feel up there, or is it just cold and unpleasant in April? I realize the mountains and the area around Lake Tahoe is probably beautiful, but it would be very similar to what we have in Norway as well, so we would be looking more for things that are different than at home, like Redwoods and typical American small towns and of course the wild west style towns, with saloons and stuff. Any suggestions as to what rout to take, where to spend our three nights and what to see along the road? Death Valley is a must for us, so I am thinking we definitely would go through Page. Thanks for your help :-) Solo to Costa Rica for the first time...recommendations? Solo to Costa Rica for the first time...recommendations? Hello fellow adventurers! I would like to visit Costa Rica this year and I've done some research on safety, locations, and attractions, but right now I'm at a loss on deciding where to begin my journey! About me: > Female > 30+ yr old > Hablo un poquito Espanol! > Traveling solo > Novice traveler (this would be my 3rd trip out of the US: been to Cape Town & Canada!) > Shutterbug (no selfies...just nature...people...places...and moments!) What I'm looking for (location-wise): > Explore nature/animals > Explore history > Explore city (day & night life) > RELAX on a beach (Wouldn't mind being introduced to surfing, but it's not a priority) > Meet people (my age or otherwise) > Reconnect with myself! What I'm NOT looking for: > Tourist traps > Resort-y places > Party cities (no drunk college kids please!) I would like to be in CR for about 10 days. I don't mind city hopping (within reason). I'm sure I'd need to research local transportation options as I don't plan on renting a car (unless recommended). Thanks for any advice! We are planning our honeymoon for April 2018 and are headed to Costa Rica. Looking for recommendations on the different areas of travel. We for sure want all inclusive resorts. My hubby loves to take us exploring on our own. Are there better areas that are closer to little towns. We hear lots of people going to the Liberia area but it doesn't seem like there is much in the area. Any points would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. First of all, if you are not eligible for visa exemption you will need a multiple entry visa unless you fly to Cambodia first and go to Vietnam last. Flying domestic in Vietnam isn't very expensive, although it's nowhere as cheap as it once was. You could go to any place you like from HCMC. It is recommended to return to HCMC the day before your international flight as flight delays are frequent in Vietnam, and it would be unpleasant to be stranded in HCMC. This means that you will have one day less than you thought. You could fly to Siem Reap in Cambodia, but the flights there are overly expensive, probably due to lack of competition. You could also bus or fly to Phnom Penh. Personally, I don't find PP very attractive and certainly not worth the airfare. Your mileage may vary, of course. Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) is definitely worth a visit, plan on staying at least two nights. But only if you want to see the ruins, otherwise SR isn't worth the expensive plane ticket. If you decide you want to skip Cambodia this time (I would if given only two weeks), you can fly to any place in Vietnam that you want to. Bear in mind that July is the rainy season in large parts of the country. Edited: 4 years ago About 15,000 Anglophones have fled Cameroons violence-hit West and North regions into neighboring Nigeria in recent months, the United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said on Thursday. Antonio Jose Canhandula, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Nigeria, said at a briefing in Abuja that more than 8,000 refugees have been registered in the southeastern state of Cross River alone. A further 6,700 refugees have crossed into neighboring Benue state, said Sadiya Umar Farouq, the head of Nigerias National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, citing Benue officials. The UNHCR said it has joined efforts with the Nigerian government to deliver relief items such as mattresses and blankets, mosquito nets, cooking utensils and hygiene kits, as well as tons of food. Growing tension in the two Cameroonian English-speaking regions has led to the killing of over a dozen government troops by Anglophone activists who call for the independence of the minority community in the Central African nation. President Paul Biya has declared war against the separatists, describing them as a secessionist group. Julius Ayuk Tabe, the Nigeria-based chairman of the Governing Council of Cameroons Ambazonia separatist movement, was taken into custody alongside six others at a hotel in Nigeria last weekend. Welcome to the forum moj248, and congrats on your upcoming wedding. Would say yes depending on the resort, and length of stay. Resorts typically, have a mix of tours/activities that are complimentary, and those at an additional cost. Some include meals in their price, others have meal plans to chose from. Resorts that include all meals, drinks, and activities are expensive. Two are Namale and Turtle Island. Turtle Island has family week in June. Would check your dates, if you want to avoid children. Being your honeymoon, suggest an adults only resort. Australia/New Zealand school holidays are in June, so resorts popular with families will be overrun with kids. Have a look at the websites for: LikuLiku, with over the water bures, Royal Davui, Viwa, Tokoriki, Matamanoa, Qamea, and Matangi, our favorite resort in Fiji. All are very different, offer different activities with some more expensive than others Resorts charge in FJD, NZD, USD, or AUD, so do the conversion rate. The exchange rate from USD to FJD is very good. If you are a member of Costco, they sometimes have great deals for resorts. Hope this helps. Hi. We are going on a Japan cruise this April. We are spending 1 night in Tokyo before heading off to Kyoto which will be our base for 5 days before we start our cruise in Yokohama. I'll be buying the JR pass to get us from the airport to Tokyo then to Kyoto. Since its our first time in Japan, any must see in Kyoto? I would love to do a rickshaw tour but unsure for how long. We love going for walks and it seems like Kyoto is great for walking. As we will be staying in Tokyo after the cruise I'm unsure which tourist highlights I should visit from Kyoto or Tokyo. Like is Mt Fuji better as a day trip from Kyoto or Tokyo? Is it worth visiting Osaka? Any feedback would be apprecaited. Hi, We are flying from Ottawa to Newark to Liberia and I was wondering what we can purchase from the duty free shops. I know in Ottawa we go through US customs and can shop the duty free there but when we arrive in Newark can we shop in that duty free shop as well? We are looking for cheap booze so I thought buying it in Newark would be cheaper. I also just read that when you land in Liberia you can purchase from their duty shop before leaving the airport. Is this true? Basically looking for cheap booze! Has anyone done this route and stopped at the duty free shops. Are there limits to bringing the alcohol into Liberia, is the booze cheaper at the Liberia airport? Any suggestions or past experiences will be greatly appreciated! <> Hey Clanwilson, can you rewrite this sentence, keen to know which you preferred! Iowa, we've stayed at The Beacon many times and love the area and the hotel. - Having a kitchen is great. We almost always stay in for breakfast - there's many places nearby to buy supplies - don't miss Zabars if you do stay in the area. - The subway station is right there; an easy one to deal with as you don't need to make the decision about going downtown (on the right) or uptown (on the left) until you're in the station - no standing on the street looking at the signs trying to make a decision! - Being so close to Central Park is a highlight. Good decision to think about staying on the UWS, it's a fantastic area. How do I get from the airport (JFK, LGA, or EWR) to Manhattan? What To Do During Layovers? Vacation Apartment Rentals Violate NYC Laws Hotels: Kitchenettes and kitchens in 100+ Manhattan Hotels Hotels: Two queen beds plus a kitchen/kitchenette Hotels: Guests under 21 years old (but at least 18) Hotels: Which ones charge an additional Resort or Facilities Fee Hotels: When is the best time to go for cheaper rates? What are the Must-See's and Must-Do's? How Do I Ride the Subway (UPDATED)? Tips, Hint and Suggestions for First Timers SCAMS to avoid in NYC What Will the Weather Be Like During My Trip? Any Good Websites for Researching My Trip? How Safe is New York? Where to Eat in NYC Where to eat in NYC - Part 2 Celiac in the City? (gluten free) Which Area Should I Stay In? Is There Cheaper Lodging Outside Manhattan? How Much Do I Tip People? Are the New York Pass, Explorer Pass or CityPass worth it? How Do I Hail a Taxi? Public restrooms/toilets. Where do you go when you GOTTA GO? Where are the best areas for shopping? How do I find Discount Tickets for Broadway Shows? What are the NYC Halloween events for 2021? Thanksgiving 2021 in NYC: What to Do & Where to Eat Christmastime in NYC 2021: Dates for the Trees-Windows-Markets-Ice Skating+MORE! Christmas Day 2021 in NYC: What to Do & Where to Eat What Should I Do on New Year's Eve? How Will I Survive the Cold Weather? Where are the Farmers Markets and Street Fairs? What is there to see and do near WTC/SOL/Brooklyn Bridge/SI ferry? What should I know about visiting the 9/11 Memorial and Museum? What Is There to See and Do in Brooklyn? How Do I Get to the Brooklyn Bridge? What Is There to See and Do in Queens? Exploring neighborhoods - where should I go and what should I see? Which is the best? ESB or TOTR or OWO? Which are the significant churches in Manhattan? Hidden Gems in the city - not so touristy How do I get from NYC to the Meadowlands and back? I'm Getting Married in NYC...what do I need to do? Should I Buy Knock-Off Purses? What to Do with Kids and How to Do It? What should we do at night -- especially with kids or under 21's? Places to eat (and drink) with a view Where is the Old FAQ? Trip Reports: Families with Young Kids - Add yours! Trip Reports: Groups of Friends - Add yours! Trip Reports: Couples - Add yours! Trip Reports: Families with Teenagers - Add yours! Trip Reports: Solo Travelers - Add yours! Trip Reports: Families of Adults - Add yours! Is your company in need of the most reliable and efficient best Best Jasmine Tea s in the market? Your good luck led you to the ideal situation, so congratulations! You are in the best possible place. By eliminating the need to read through dozens of Best Jasmine Tea reviews, we are saving you time and stress. Many customers find it difficult to decide which Best Jasmine Tea product to buy. The dilemma is brought about by the many types of Best Jasmine Tea in the market. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a clear understanding of how you may choose the most suitable Best Jasmine Tea available in the market. Dubai is a frequent travel destination for most Kenyans both for business and tourism. Dubai is an excellent and relatively affordable destination for those who are looking for a gateway destination. For this reason, it not only Kenyans who love to visit Dubai; the streets of this beautiful nation are always filled with tourists from across the globe. Dubai has one of the most notable human-made islands, known as the palm islands, which are referred to as the eighth wonder of the world. Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world that is a sophisticated tapering spectacle is also located in Dubai. The city, being a cosmopolitan, has good food and a wonderful culture which makes tourists feel safe and welcomed. There are several questions with regard to visiting Dubai amongst Kenyans, and the most common one is the visa application process. Dubai Visa Application in Kenya Dubai embassy Kenya is located on Nyerere Road next to the Zambia High Commission. The Dubai visa application form Kenya can be submitted at Parkfield Building fifth floor along Muthangari drive opposite Safaricom House in Westlands area Nairobi. The office is open for five working days from Monday to Friday 0800 to 1500 hours. READ ALSO: Controversial socialite Vera Sidika finally gets her fake teeth as she awaits to procure a nose job Dubai Embassy in Kenya Kenya online visa application UAE is done on the embassy website www.emirates.com. The application process has been divided into three simple steps to help applicants have a smooth application process without any complications and with as much information as possible. The first step is to identify your visa type then the second step is to identify how to apply, and last is what you are required to do after submission. Once you have all the required documents and the duly filled application form, you can either submit it online or visit the nearest Dubai visa application centre located in Kenya. The main required documents are; colored photos of size 4.3 cms by 5.5 cms and a white background, a Kenyan passport, and other identification documents. After submission, you have the opportunity to track your application online. The customer service department is available to attend to all your inquiries, concerns, and complaints and can be reached on call via (+254) 788437606. You also have an opportunity to give your feedback by visiting the Customer Experience site online. The contact information of the Dubai visa office is also available on the company website. The formal email address is nairobi@mofa.gov.ae, and the mobile and fax contacts are (+254) 709991777/888/999 and (+254)202265079 respectively. The United Arabs Emirates embassy is the only one representing Dubai in Kenya. The United Arabs Emirates embassy is one of the one hundred and twenty-four representations in Kenya and one of the one hundred and one in Nairobi. How Long Does it Take to Get a Dubai Visa in Kenya Dubai visa information such as how long it takes to get the visa is available online thus helping in ensuring that all applicants have access to the required information and that they do not make travel decisions out of ignorance which can end up being costly not only financially but also in terms of time. It takes fourteen working days to process the visa application and visa can either be awarded or denied depending on whether or not the applicant meets all the application requirements. It is important to take consideration of this information before booking a flight. It is also important to apply for the visa in good time as opposed to last minute whether traveling for business or leisure in order to allow yourself to make the necessary travel arrangements. Visa Cost in Kenyan Shillings For inquiries about passport requirements and the visa regulations, it is advisable to contact the Dubai visa application centre in Kenya directly. It is important to note that in some instances, the embassy might not be able to offer the required assistance. Information such as the cost of the visa can, however, be received from them. How Much is Dubai Visa from Kenya The cost of Dubai visa from Kenya varies with the type of VISA and the number of days required. The standard cost of a tourist visa is Ksh, 9780, a ninety-six hours visa is Ksh 7,555, fourteen days visa costs Ksh 9,780, and a 90 Days visa is Ksh 20,165. A ninety-day multi-entry short-term visa is Ksh 49,105 and a thirty days multi-entry short-term visa costs 19,425 Kenyan shillings. READ ALSO: Zari finally lands in Kenya with husband Diamond There is a cancellation fee of Ksh 3,286 according to the rules and regulations of the embassy. Upon payment of the visa application fee, the applicants are advised to collect the electronic receipt on payment at the Visa Application Centers. Ideally, instead of the ninety-six hours visa, it is more economical to apply for the fourteen days visa since there is a lot to see and experience in Dubai which is one of the best tourist destinations of the world. Payment for the visa application is made at the visa application center upon confirmation of a ticket on Emirates Airlines. Source: TUKO.co.ke - Kenya Airways' inaugural direct flight to New York will be highlighted on a top CNN business show - Richard Quest reserved his ticket to be on the flight, a new route that will reduce travelling time by 7 hours - Quest is CNN's top business anchor and top global CEOs and world leaders make it a point to appear on his Quest Means Business show Top CNN anchor Richard Quest is scheduled to fly on Kenya's inaugural flights from Nairobi to New York after Kenya Airways announced the new direct flights. This was confirmed by the Kenya Airways Managing Director Micheal Joseph who said the renown business journalist already reserved a ticket for his Quest Means Business show for the inaugural flight scheduled for October 28, 2018. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Uhuru agongwa vibaya na mlango wa gari lake katika hali ya kushtua TUKO.co.ke understands that Joseph confirmed this during a live CNN interview on Thursday, January 11. Top CNN business anchor Richard Quest. Photo: South China Morning Post. READ ALSO: Brufen among painkillers that cause male infertility - new study shows Quest is CNN's top international business correspondent who highlights how people earn and spend money. His show, according to the CNN description, is a platform used to destroy the myth that business is boring, bridging the gap between hard economics and entertaining television. Top global CEOs and world leaders are said to make it a point to appear on his show. Quest is also an established airline and aviation correspondent for CNN. READ ALSO: NTSA welcomes Uhuru's order to get off Kenyan roads Richard Quest (r) reporting on Kenya's new aviation development. Photo: Dennis Itumbi/Twitter. Install TUKO App To Read News For FREE According to prior TUKO.co.ke reports, Kenya's national carrier, KQ, will begin direct flights from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Flight schedules were already logged onto their systems and travelers were told to begin booking in advance. This new flight path will cut out layovers in another city, cutting down travel time from 22 hours to 15 hours. READ ALSO: Nairobi woman caught on camera sweeping a man's house clean after meeting at a nightclub Kenya Airways will fly directly to New York, cutting out layovers in other cities. This reduces the travel time by almost half. Photo: Kenya Airways KQ will be leaving Nairobi daily at 10.30 AM and land in New York the following day at 6.30 AM. Have something to add to this article? Send to news@tuko.co.ke 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. Sandra Oh returns to screens in the trailer for Netflix's The Chair, a series that comes from Amanda Peet, as well as the creators of Game of Thrones. Killing Eve may not be returning for its final season this year, but at least we will have Sandra Oh gracing our screens! Get all the details right here. Sandra Oh has opened up about a potential return to Grey's Anatomy, and she's not fond of the idea. Get all the details right here via TV Fanatic. Sandra Oh has revealed she pushed back against the writers and creator of Grey's Anatomy, and we have all the details you need to know on the matter. Grey's Anatomy has easily surpassed the years and episodes any medical drama has been on TV, but it has unfortunately surpassed its expiration date as well. The Emmy Awards are fast approaching, and we have our dream wish list of nominations for lead actress in a drama series. Join the conversation inside! Sandra Oh made history on three occasions on Sunday night, and her Grey's Anatomy co-stars had a lot to say about it. Get all the details right here. Killing Eve launches on BBC America later this year and we have the first footage from the new thriller. Oh yes, Sandra Oh is back! Read on! Grey's Anatomy veteran, Sandra Oh has a new TV show coming and it sounds like the show we've been waiting on! Get the premiere date and first look right here. Sandra Oh has booked a return visit to ABC, but will she be stopping by Grey's Anatomy, or a new show entirely? We have all the details you need! These Grey's Anatomy stars talked to TV Fanatic about their long-running characters and Oh leaving the series. Watch now! Sandra Oh is leaving Grey's Anatomy. She has confirmed that Season 10 will be her last. Sandra was born July 20, 1971, in Nepean, Ontario, a suburb of Ottawa. She is of Korean descent. Her interest in performing began at an early age as a ballet dancer, then later an actor, while attending Sir Robert Borden High School in her hometown. She acted in school plays and was a member of the drama club before moving on to study drama at the National Theatre School in Montreal, Quebec. In her native Canada, Oh is best know for her lead performance in the Canadian film Double Happiness -- she won the Genie Award (Canada's Oscar equivalent) for Best Actress. She also appeared in the Canadian films Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity, and Last Night. The latter garnered her a second Best Actress Genie for. Oh also won an award for Best Actress at Cannes Film Festival for her role in The Diary of Evelyn Lau. In the United States, Sandra is best known for Grey's Anatomy, but gained recognition for two recent film roles. In Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), she played a lesbian whose girlfriend was none other than Grey's co-star Kate Walsh. In 2004's critically-acclaimed Sideways, she played the scorned lover of soon-to-be-married Jack. Her now ex-husband, Alexander Payne, directed the film. The two had a five year relationship (including two years of marriage), but divorced early in 2005. An upcoming film of Oh's is The Night Listener, where she will star along with Robin Williams and Toni Collette. But luckily for us, Grey's Anatomy remains her primary occupation. She also starred as Rita Wu on the HBO series Arli$$, a personal favorite of some of our staff members. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has rejected accusations by the Russian General Staff regarding Ukraine's alleged involvement in an attack on a Russian base in Syria and calls them another fake and an informational attack, the ministry's spokesperson, Viktoria Kushnir, has told an Ukrinform reporter. "This is another information attack. We reject these accusations, and, of course, this information attack is carried out, first of all, to cover Russia's actions in Crimea and in Donetsk and Luhansk, where arms are supplied from Russia," Kushnir said. Earlier media reports said that the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces had admitted that Ukraine might be involved in an attack on a Russian base in Syria. According to Major General Alexander Novikov, head of the UAV construction and development department of the General Staff, preliminary research has shown that PETN was used as a base for an explosive substance used in ammunition, which is more powerful than hexogen. The specified explosive is produced in a number of countries, including at Ukraine's Shostka Chemical Reagents Plant, according to Novikov. On January 8, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian airbases in Syria were attacked by 13 drones handed over to terrorists by "one of the countries with high technological capabilities to provide satellite navigation." op One Ukrainian soldier was 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 Maksym Prauta said this at a press briefing on Friday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. "Unfortunately, one our defender was killed yesterday in a blast during landmine clearance in Donetsk direction. Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in enemy shelling near the population areas of Novozvanivka and Pisky. Another two were wounded while stepping on a mine and an unknown explosive device during landmine clearance, Motuzianyk said. According to the spokesperson, the wounded soldiers were immediately taken to military hospitals. Prauta also added that Russian-backed militants launched nine attacks on the Ukrainian positions over the past day. iy The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is working out the issue of a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the possible return to Ukraine of military hardware that was left in occupied Crimea. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa told this to the 112 Ukraine television channel on Friday. Betsa also said that "the issue has many aspects." On January 11, Putin said that he was ready to return to Ukraine its military hardware from Crimea. He said the issue concerned about dozens of ships and combat aircraft. In 2014, Russia stated that it would hand over to Ukraine about 350 units of weapons and military hardware following an inventory of Crimean property. It was noted that this was mainly Soviet hardware produced in the 1970s. The Russian Defense Ministry said that this military hardware could not be used in the Russian Armed Forces. Later, Russia said that hardware transfer had been delayed by Ukraine. Ukrainian Navy Commander Ihor Voronchenko said that coastguard equipment had remained in Crimea, in particular, two battalions of infantry fighting vehicles and the same number of armored personnel carriers (they were ready for use, APCs required repairs for 15-20%). There were also seven artillery divisions and four mortar batteries. op The National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine has assigned an unplanned inspection of the Inter and STB television channels. Such a decision was made at a meeting of the national council on January 11 on the basis of the monitoring of the channels, which broadcast films featuring artists included in the list of individuals who pose a threat to Ukraine's national security, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "The monitoring recorded the broadcasting on Inter of two films - 'Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears' and 'The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!' - with the participation of actors Tabakov and Talyzina. There are signs of violation of the requirements of the law of Ukraine on television and radio broadcasting," the chairman of the national council, Yuriy Artemenko, said. He added that a similar situation had also been recorded with the STB channel, which showed films "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style," "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!" "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears," and "Love and Pigeons" starring Natalya Varley, Valentina Talyzina, Oleg Tabakov and Alexander Mikhailov. The broadcasting of the Inter channel was monitored on December 30-31, 2017 and on January 1, 2018. The STB channel's broadcasts were monitored on December 15, 17-19, 22, 29, 31 and on January 1, 2018. Actors Tabakov, Talyzina, Varley and Mikhailov were included the list of persons posing a threat to Ukraine's national security, which was published on the website of the Ukrainian Culture Ministry op The Agrohub project on the development of agricultural innovations will present the opportunities of Ukrainian agribusiness to international investors in Davos during the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting, the project's founder and CEO, Yulia Poroshenko, has reported on Facebook. "Agrohub will take part in the first-ever Ukraine House in Davos, in Switzerland, and hold an open discussion panel for international investors during the 48th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum," she said. According to her, the discussion panel "Europe's Agro Superpower: Ukraine, Powered by Tech and Innovation " will be held at Ukraine House in Davos on January 23. Poroshenko also said that the goal of the event was to draw the attention of the world's players to Ukraine, present the opportunities of Ukrainian agribusiness and bring Ukraine into the pool of global innovators. Agrohub's press service reported that Ukraine's speakers at the panel would be Executive Director of Industrial Milk Company (IMC) Alex Lissitsa, CEO of Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) Yuriy Kosyuk, the founder and CEO of the Agrohub project, co-founder of the Radar Tech technology cluster, Yulia Poroshenko, as well as representatives of German agribusiness - Global Head of Digital Farming at Bayer Tobias Menne and co-founder and head of Horsch Maschinen Michael Horsch. "There is a stereotype that Ukraine's agricultural sector is not modern and not receptive to innovation. We want to challenge this myth in the world arena and present new and successful projects to international investors. Ukraine is a unique platform for new technologies. We have largest progressive and open-to-cooperation holdings, a strong staffing base of technical specialists, interesting and successful startups, and, of course, the positive dynamics of the agri-tech industry. We intend to showcase all of this to the international community and start a dialogue with investors," Poroshenko said. In addition, Executive Director of Industrial Milk Company and President of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club Alex Lissitsa noted that in 2017, the Ukrainian agricultural sector held leading positions in the export of products and services worth more than $17 billion, but, according to him, the issue concerns raw materials. "That's why investment in agricultural innovations is extremely important and necessary, since it will help provide high-tech services around the world, and agri-tech exports alone will reach more than $5 billion in the next 5-7 years," Lissitsa said. The World Economic Forum will be held in Davos, Switzerland, on January 23-26. The Ukrainian delegation, headed by Chairman of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving Serhiy Savchuk, will participate in the eighth session of the Assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which will be held on January 13-14 in Abu Dhabi (the United Arab Emirates). This has been reported by the press service of the State Energy Efficiency "The current session of the IRENA Assembly is an important event, as Ukraine becomes a full member of this organization in 2018. This opens prospects for further cooperation with more than 150 IRENA member countries," Serhiy Savchuk stated. In particular, on January 12, the Ukrainian delegation will meet with Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency, Adnan Z. Amin, to discuss the potential of Ukraines renewable energy, the latest legislative achievements and potential ways of cooperation. As Ukrinform earlier reported, on December 5, 2017, the Verkhovna Rada approved the law On Ukraines joining the Statute of the International Renewable Energy Agency IRENA. iy PJSC Ukrgazvydobuvannya, Ukraines largest gas production company, intends to restore gas production at some fields in Lviv region. The company reported this on its Facebook page "In order to increase gas production in the western region, Ukrgazvydobuvannya will launch additional exploration of existing fields operated by Lvivgazvydobuvannya. Gas production should return to the western region," said Miron Firman, Director of Geology at PJSC Ukrgazvydobuvannya. Ukrgazvydobuvannya also intends to conduct exploration drilling at six fields of Lvivgazvydobuvannya. As Ukrinform earlier reported, Ukraine increased natural gas production by 4.2% (838.2 million cubic meters) in 2017 compared to 2016 up to 20.8 billion. In 2013, gas production in Ukraine reached almost 21 billion cubic meters iy The problem of corruption exists in Ukraine, but it declines significantly. Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman expressed such an opinion in an interview with the Forbes Georgia, which was later published on the Facebook page of the Head of Government. "I will not deny there are certain areas where corruption is flourishing. However, the number of the areas, where the corruption has flourished, obviously declines," Groysman said. He recalled that about $10 billion had been transferred annually in Ukraine through the public procurement, which had been carried out with the help of very suspicious programs. However, the Government introduced a transparent system of public procurement ProZorro. "The functioning electronic procurement system does not leave corrupt officials, who earlier appropriated billions of dollars, no chance. In addition, all the public funds are concentrated now exclusively in the budget. Previously, all the financial resources were accumulated in a single budget. In other words, all the resources were centralized. That was a reason for corruption and bribes," the Prime Minister said. As Groysman noted, the finance decentralization allowed allocating about USD 4 billion for local budgets. The Government also managed to abolish the natural gas pricing scheme, where corruption thrived. ol The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has recommended that Ukrainians refrain from visiting the capital of Zambia, Lusaka, due to the outbreak of cholera, reads a statement posted on the ministry's website. "Due to the outbreak of cholera in the Republic of Zambia, in particular, in the capital, Lusaka, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine recommends that Ukrainian citizens planning to travel to Zambia refrain from visiting the capital of the country, especially the Kwanyama district, until the epidemiological situation gets back to normal," reads the statement. Ukrainians who already stay in Zambia are advised to exercise particular caution and adhere to the recommendations of local authorities, medical and other competent services, and monitor the latest news. In case of detection of symptoms of the disease or other circumstances requiring an immediate consular response, the ministry recommends that Ukrainian citizens urgently contact Ukraine's Embassy in the Republic of South Africa by emergency number: (0027) 814806707, e-mail: consul_za@mfa.gov.ua op First Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Herashchenko has sharply criticized the suggestion of Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia may return Ukraine the military equipment captured by Russian troops during the occupation of Crimea. "We neither sell nor exchange Crimea for ships. Indeed, our ships were stolen by Putin. The occupants brought those ships to an awful condition like Crimea. The "Russian world" damages everything it touches. We will return Crimea and all Ukrainian property there, including ships. As well as Donbas," Iryna Herashchenko wrote on Facebook. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on January 11 that Russia was ready to return Ukraine's military equipment from the occupied Crimea. According to the Russian president, "the equipment is in a poor shape." Putin claimed there were about dozens of ships and warplanes. In turn, Commander of the Naval Forces of Ukraine Ihor Voronchenko states that practically all the equipment, which was left in the occupied Crimea, was in good shape. ol Italys Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Angelino Alfano intends to pay much attention to the search for a solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Alfano stated this at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. Our main challenge is the search for a solution to the crisis in and around Ukraine, he said. Mutual provocations have generated a climate that risks compromising the confidence-building measures hitherto adopted by the sides. Our hope is to help to reverse this trend by encouraging new steps towards the full implementation of the Minsk agreements. In addition to supporting the intensification of negotiating efforts under the Normandy Format and the Trilateral Contact Group, Alfano said that the Chairmanship will support with all its energy the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. He also announced he would visit Ukraine and the Russian Federation from 30 January to 1 February. ol Director-General for the Foreign Ministrys Consular Service Department, Serhii Pohoreltsev, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Denmark to Ukraine, Ruben Madsen, held a meeting on January 12, 2018. "During the meeting, a number of issues of bilateral relations in the consular and legal sphere were discussed, the Consular Service Department posted on Facebook. In particular, the parties stressed the absence of problematic issues of consular character in relations between the two countries. The Ukrainian side thanked Denmark for its consistent support for Ukraines independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the effective steps taken by Denmark to establish a visa-free regime between Ukraine and the European Union. Iy The Congress of Ukrainians of Latvia on January 11 sent to Ukraine the 33rd cargo of humanitarian aid designed to facilitate the lives of people with disabilities. Head of the Congress of Ukrainians of Latvia Mykola Pavliuk told this to an Ukrinform correspondent. "We loaded and sent another, 33rd cargo of humanitarian aid to Ukraine from Riga to Kyiv. It is a full truck for people with disabilities, for the sick and the wounded. These are wheelchairs, special beds, spare parts, comfortable crutches and some other devices," Pavliuk said. Congress members, representatives of Ukraine's Embassy in Latvia and Latvian activists, friends of Ukraine, took part in the loading of humanitarian aid. op @alextdaugherty The ongoing high-stakes immigration debate in Washington was upended on Thursday when the Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua and African countries as "shitholes" when a group of lawmakers at the White House floated the idea of restoring protections for immigrants who recently lost Temporary Protected Status. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to the Post. His comments drew condemnation from South Florida lawmakers, home to the nation's largest concentration of Haitians. "The president calling # Haiti a 'shithole country' ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians have made to our # SoFla community and nation," Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen tweeted. "Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House." The president calling #Haiti a "shithole country" ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians have made to our #SoFla community and nation. Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) January 11, 2018 "Under no circumstances is it acceptable to degrade, denigrate, or dehumanize # TPS immigrants," Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo tweeted. "The White House must immediately explain the situation and leave no doubt regarding what was said and in what context." Under no circumstances is it acceptable to degrade, denigrate, or dehumanize #TPS immigrants. The White House must immediately explain the situation and leave no doubt regarding what was said and in what context. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (@RepCurbelo) January 11, 2018 Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson, who represents Little Haiti and was the subject of public attacks from Trump last year, was succinct in her reaction. "Sigh," Wilson tweeted. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who was present at Thursday's White House meeting with Republican and Democratic negotiators, was traveling and unavailable for comment, per his office. UPDATE: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz weighs in: It was a star-studded night (Jan. 8) at Michael Jackson ONE by Cirque du Soleil as A-list Hollywood actors Colin Farrell and Neil Patrick Harris experienced the critically acclaimed show at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino (Pictured: Neil Patrick Harris Photo courtesy of Cirque du Soleil). Photo courtesy of Cirque du Soleil Farrell attended the 7 p.m. show, where he was seen dancing and singing along to high-energy renditions of Can You Feel It and Black or White. During the finale, the actor joined the crowd in giving the cast a standing ovation and praised the show, expressing how it was really, really cool! After the performance, Farrell enjoyed a meet-and-greet and photos backstage with the talented cast, where he shared a story of how he saw Michael Jackson when he was younger. In Las Vegas to debut a new app at CES 2018, actor Neil Patrick Harris visited the 9:30 p.m. performance of Michael Jackson ONE. Prior to the start of the show, Harris enjoyed sushi at Kumi Japanese Restaurant + Bar located inside of Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and went backstage to meet cast members and snag a few photos. Harris too, was moved by the performance and was observed dancing in his seat and singing along to each act. 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. Activists are celebrating a Botswana court case that allowed a transgender man the right to change his gender identity. Until recently, South Africa was the only African nation that allowed such transformations. But even in the Rainbow Nation, while transgender residents fleeing persecution in their own countries are hailing the court victory, some say they still fear for their safety in both countries. The news came right before Christmas, said lawyer Tshiamo Rantao, whose client recently became the first transgender man in Botswana to be granted an identity document with his chosen gender. It was cause for celebration for a man who spent a decade fighting for recognition, Rantao said. But his victory is underscored by a harsh reality: ND, as Rantao's client is known in court documents, did not want his real name known due to concerns for his safety. Rantao said his client is just an ordinary, private guy who has very real fears. "He was concerned that he could be targeted," he said. "Over and above the fact that he's private, he's not an activist, that's one of the main reasons, that he could be targeted." Tashwill Esterhuizen, a LGBTI program lawyer at the Southern Africa Litigation Center, said his organization has now helped lawyers win two such cases in Botswana. He said cases like these are not about sexuality, but about dignity. "And I think this is important because it set the space, and it set the tone, for other countries in the region who doesn't [sic] recognize legal recognition of gender identity to follow suit," he said. Currently, South Africa is the only other nation in the region with laws that explicitly protect sexual minorities. Malawi's penal code criminalizes consensual same-sex relations. Uganda in 2014 passed a harsh law that provides life imprisonment for "aggravated homosexuality." Zimbabwe's laws also criminalize homosexuality. Across this conservative patch of Africa, religious leaders and some politicians have condemned those who do not conform to traditional gender roles, arguing such behavior is un-African or offensive to society. VOA News spoke to a man from the tiny kingdom of Lesotho, which criminalizes male same-sex acts and has no laws prohibiting discrimination over sexual orientation or gender. He currently lives in South Africa, he said, because it's the only place he can get the treatment and hormones he needs after he completed his medical transition two years ago. The 31-year-old asked us not to use his name out of concerns for his security. He said he passes easily as male in South Africa, but that his national ID card still classifies him as female. He said he hopes these successful cases will spur other countries to grant more rights and services to people like him. "It's not about only changing legal documents. Even the health sectors, they have to be there to help," he said. "We shouldn't run away from our countries to come to South Africa where we can get all these things." And what would he do if he could go home and change his gender status? Nothing extraordinary, he said he dreams of going home, marrying a nice woman, and living a quiet life. Police and immigrant-rights protesters clashed Thursday outside 26 Federal Plaza, New York City's immigration court, after word spread that Ravi Ragbir, a well-known activist known to protect immigrant families from deportation, had himself been detained by immigration authorities inside the building. City leaders said Ragbir passed out while in detention, which occurred during a routine check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Some supporters, who were already gathered outside the building for a scheduled prayer march and "vigil against deportation," confronted a departing ambulance, resulting in multiple arrests, including those of two city councilmen. Others joined hands and prayed, led by the Reverend Donna Schaper, senior minister of Judson Memorial Church and co-founder of the New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC. "When ICE does things that are just beyond understanding, when they had other choices, they only make us stronger," Schaper told VOA. "They need to understand that." Ragbir, an immigrant from Trinidad, has faced the threat of deportation since he was convicted of wire fraud 16 years ago. Following removal proceedings in 2006, he spent nearly two years in immigration detention before his release in February 2008, a period during which he became a rising voice for the country's immigrant community. He is now executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition. Until his detention, Ragbir had an administrative stay of removal in place, which suspends an order of removal. His attorneys said they had already filed a lawsuit. "We came into the check-in with the hope that they would allow him to continue checking in as he has for many years, complying with all the rules that have been required of him," said Alina Das, one of Ragbir's attorneys who was present with him in the meeting, along with Ragbir's wife. "Obviously we are incredibly disappointed and, frankly, outraged by this decision," Das told VOA. "We continue to pursue our options the legal challenges to see that he will hopefully be freed soon and back with his wife and with the community that loves him." At the time this report was published, ICE had not responded to VOA's request for comment regarding Ragbir's arrest. 'Crippling' for the immigrant community Ragbir's arrest followed that of Jean Montrevil, an immigrant activist from Haiti who was taken into custody last week near his Far Rockaway, New York, home, and just one day after The Associated Press reported a wave of ICE raids at convenience stores across the country. Barbara Young, a Barbadian-American immigrant and organizer with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, was present for Thursday's vigil in lower Manhattan. As she spoke of Ragbir and the nationwide workplace raids, tears rolled down beneath her sunglasses. "It is crippling for the immigrant community," Young said. "If you are here in the country and you decide to go find a job, and they're targeting your workplace, you're not a criminal." Following a group prayer, Schaper, who works closely with Ragbir, remained resilient, asserting the strength of her surrounding community. "We have so many leaders, in addition to Ravi, whom Ravi has built up over these many, many years," she said. "We're not even one bit afraid." More protests were scheduled for Thursday evening in front of the detention center where Ragbir was being held. The Czechs are electing a new president, and eight candidates are hoping to unseat the current controversy-courting leader. President Milos Zeman, 73, is seeking another five-year term in the largely ceremonial post and is the favorite to win the election's first-round vote on Friday and Saturday. Two political newcomers, the former president of the Academy of Sciences, Jiri Drahos, and popular song writer Michal Horacek are considered his major challengers. Others with a chance to advance to the runoff are Mirek Topolanek, an outspoken leader who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009, and Pavel Fischer, a former diplomat. If no candidate achieves a majority, the top two will face each other in a runoff in two weeks. Friday's vote was hit by a protest by Femen activists. After Zeman entered a polling station in Prague, he was approached by a female activist naked to the waist who shouted "Zeman, Putin's slut!" His guards intervened and led the shaken president away. Zeman returned several minutes later to vote and said he was honored to be attacked by a Femen activist. 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 won him support from the populist far-right. He has divided the nation with his pro-Russian stance and his support for closer ties with China. He was one of the few European leaders to endorse Donald Trump's bid for the White House. He flew the European Union flag at Prague Castle but later used every opportunity to attack the 28-nation bloc. The United Nations human rights office says it is concerned about the large number of arrests as Tunisian authorities crack down on protesters demonstrating against price and tax. The protests, which began last weekend, reportedly are turning more violent, prompting a sharp rise in the number of arrests. Nearly 800 people have been arrested since Monday, about 200 between the ages of 15 and 20, according to U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville. WATCH: Protests Erupt Again in Tunisia, Cradle of 2011 Arab Spring "We call on the authorities to ensure that people are not arrested in an arbitrary manner, and that all those detained are treated with full respect for their due process rights and either charged or promptly released," Colville said. "The authorities must ensure that those exercising their rights to peaceful expression and assembly are not prevented from doing so." Colville says his office has no reports that those arrested are being ill-treated. "But, it is something we look out for because there have been reports in the recent past in other situations of ill-treatment of people in detention," he added. "So, it is something we would look out for very closely. At this point, we have not had any specific reports." Sunday is the anniversary of the 2011 revolution, which ushered in the so-called Arab Spring a series of protest movements calling for reform in the Middle East and North Africa. The Tunisian protesters say none of the objectives of the revolt have been achieved. As concern rises that events this weekend might get out of control, Colville says it is particularly important to ensure demonstrators are able to protest peacefully. The White House says no deal has been made addressing the plight of 800,000 undocumented young people brought to the United States as children. "We still think we can get there," spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during the White House press briefing Thursday. She declined to put a timeline on a possible deal. Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) had said earlier that a group of six senators had reached an immigration deal and was waiting for a White House review. Sanders said the group's proposal was a great start, adding, "We've outlined what a deal would need to look like on our end." President Donald Trump told congressional leaders Tuesday the bill permanently settling the status of the so-called DREAMers should be a bill of love but he has not publicly provided clarity on what a deal would look like. Capitol Hills permanent legislative solution for DACA will likely come in one of three forms: as part of a broader immigration reform package; as an attachment to the spending deal funding the U.S. government past a January 19 deadline or as stand alone legislation referred to as a clean DREAM Act. 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. Here are the major players and where they stand: 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. This has to be balanced so we don't have a DACA problem five, 10 years down the road," House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Tuesday. 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 presidents 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 theyre 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 Americas 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 Hurds (R-TX) proposal for a SMART wall using drone and biometric technology to police the border could provide a blueprint for that approach. Were willing to give a little when it comes to border security but were 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 Trumps desire to undo family-based immigration is ironic.. He couldnt even go to the White House without bringing his daughter and his son-in-law with him well, guess what thats the way businesses work and thats 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. Its 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. President Donald Trump stunned lawmakers in a White House meeting on immigration Thursday when he reportedly referred to Haiti and African nations as s---hole countries. Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here, the president asked as was first reported by media including The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN. The crude term means dirty and impoverished. Trump said the United States should let in more people from places such as Norway, whose prime minister met with him in the White House Wednesday. White House response After being asked by media, including VOA, to respond, White House spokesperson Raj Shah issued a statement saying 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. Chain migration is a term used by immigration critics to refer to the system that allows relatives to sponsor family members to come to the United States. Shahs statement did not deny reports that the president used crude language when talking about Haiti and Africa. It also said Trump will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that ... undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway. VOA also reached out to the offices of U.S. lawmakers who were reportedly present at the meeting. Aides to lawmakers who attended the meeting declined to provide comment on Trumps remarks, according to the Associated Press. Trump reportedly made the remark as Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, was explaining the outlines of an agreement reached by six bipartisan senators that would protect nearly 800,000 young immigrants from deportation as well as bolster border security, according to the Post. Bipartisan comments By late Thursday, lawmakers were reacting to the reported comments. Minnesota state Rep. Ilhan Omar, who in 2016 became the first Somali-American elected to a state legislative office in the United States, released a statement, saying, I am not ashamed of the country where I was born. I am not ashamed to call myself an American now. I am a proud immigrant, refugee, Minnesotan and a proud State Legislator. But make no mistake, I am ashamed, disturbed, and outraged that the leader of the United States cant see beyond his own embarrassing privilege to embrace the diversity that has made this country great for generations, added Omar, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Republican Rep. Mia Love, whose family came from Haiti, said the presidents comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nations values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. Love, of Utah, called on Trump to apologize to the people of Haiti. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, also a Republican, said he wanted more details regarding the presidents comments. Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin, Hatch added. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican, tweeted late Thursday, My ancestors came from countries not nearly as prosperous as the one we live in today. Im glad that they were welcomed here. Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida tweeted Trumps calling #Haiti a shithole country ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians have made to our #SoFla community and nation. Language like that shouldnt be heard in locker rooms and it shouldnt be heard in the White House. California Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democrat, said in a tweet, Immigrants from countries across the globe including and especially those from Haiti and all parts of Africa have helped build this country. They should be welcomed and celebrated, not demeaned and insulted. Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said, President Trumps comments are 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. New Mexico Rep. Michelle Lujan Gisham, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, responded in a statement, The Presidents statement is shameful, abhorrent, unpresidential, and deserves our strongest condemnation. We must use our voices to ensure that our nation never returns to the days when ignorance, prejudice, and racism dictated our decision making. Our nations strength and the American Dream stem from our immigrant roots and diversity, she added. Brian Concannon, executive director of the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, told VOA he is outraged at what he regards as an insult to the Haitian people. He said Trumps apparent description of Haiti as a s---hole is not an accurate description of Haiti. The NCAAP 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 repeatedly espoused by President Trump. His decision to use profanity to describe African, Central American and Caribbean countries is not only a low mark for this president, it is a low point for our nation. The White House statement released Thursday: 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 migrationtwo 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. VOA correspondents Steve Herman and Michael Bowman contributed to this report. President Donald Trump's physician on Friday declared him in "excellent health" after his first known physical checkup since his inauguration nearly one year ago. "The presidents physical exam today at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center went exceptionally well. The president is in excellent health and I look forward to briefing some of the details on Tuesday," Dr. Ronny Jackson said, in a statement shared by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The examination was conducted at Walter Reed by Jackson, a U.S. Navy rear admiral, who is the presidents personal physician. Trump spent a little more than three hours at the facility. Since federal health privacy laws also cover the president, it will be up to Trump to decide what information to release. The checkup for the 71-year-old president would not include a psychiatric evaluation, Sanders earlier told reporters. While there have been no known significant health events for Trump since his inauguration last January, concerns have been widely expressed about possible neurological disorders. Trump, who is the oldest president to take office, in public appearances has slurred words and grasped a drinking glass with both hands. Sanders has brushed aside concerns expressed by reporters about the presidents health as ridiculous. Trumps physical will be among the most closely scrutinized of any president in decades, perhaps since Ronald Reagan, who was wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt and also suffered from Alzheimers disease while still in office, according to his youngest son, Ron Reagan. The elder Reagan, however, was not diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease until 1994, five years after he left office. Trumps father, Fred, developed Alzheimers in his 80s, a fact that has prompted calls for the president to undergo a significant neurological exam. Last October, Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is a member of the presidents Republican Party, told reporters that Trumps behavior had raised issues about his leadership, and just his stability, and the lack of desire to be competent on issues and understand. Following this months publication of a widely discussed, behind-the-scenes book about his first year in office, Trump on Twitter described himself as a very stable genius and earlier this week he allowed White House pool reporters and videographers to remain in the room for 55 minutes as he met with a group of senators with whom he was negotiating immigration legislation. The most recent public medical information about Trump came from his longtime personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, who in 2015 declared that his patient would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. Subsequently Bornstein revealed that Trump was prescribed a statin for high cholesterol, takes a daily baby aspirin for heart health, an occasional antibiotic for the skin condition rosacea, and finasteride pills that promote hair growth. Fiat Chrysler Automobile said on Thursday it will shift production of Ram heavy-duty pickup trucks from Mexico to Michigan in 2020, a move that lowers the risk to the automaker's profit should President Donald Trump pull the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Fiat Chrysler said it would create 2,500 jobs at a factory in Warren, Michigan, near Detroit and invest $1 billion in the facility. The Mexican plant will be "repurposed to produce future commercial vehicles" for sale global markets. Mexico has free trade agreements with numerous countries. Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne a year ago raised the possibility that the automaker would move production of its heavy-duty pickups to the United States, saying U.S. tax and trade policy would influence the decision. If the United States exits NAFTA, it could mean that automakers would pay a 25 percent duty on pickup trucks assembled in Mexico and shipped to the United States. About 90 percent of the Ram heavy-duty pickups made at Fiat Chrysler's Saltillo plant in Mexico are sold in the United States or Canada, company officials said. Negotiators for the United States, Mexico and Canada are scheduled to meet later this month for another round of talks on revising NAFTA. Canadian government officials earlier this week said they are convinced that Trump intends to announce his intention to quit the agreement. Trump has threatened to force the rollback of NAFTA, which enables the free flow of goods made in the United States, Canada and Mexico across the borders of those countries. He also has criticized automakers for moving jobs and investment in new manufacturing facilities to Mexico and prodded them to add more auto production in the United States. On Wednesday, Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp announced they would build a new $1.6 billion joint venture auto assembly plant in Alabama, drawing praise from Trump. Vice President Mike Pence praised Fiat Chrysler's announcement. "Manufacturing is back. Great announcement. Proof that this admin's AMERICA FIRST policies are WORKING!" Pence said in a Twitter posting. Chrysler raised its output in Mexico by 39 percent in 2017 to 639,000 vehicles, according to Mexican government data. That made Fiat Chrysler the third-largest producer of vehicles in Mexico in 2017, after Nissan Motor Co and General Motors Co. The United States and Canada are the principal markets for full-size heavy-duty pickup trucks, most of which are produced in the United States by FCA, GM, Ford Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co. Miguel Ceballos, FCA spokesman for Mexico, said the company in 2018 and 2019 expects more growth in Mexico, and the moment it stops producing the Ram Heavy Duty pickups it will start to produce the new commercial vehicle, "which still does not have a name," Ceballos said. "It is going to be for global distribution, at the moment the Ram is only distributed at the level of NAFTA," he said. Ceballos said there was no current plan to either reduce or grow the workforce in Mexico. GM has been readying a plant in Silao, Mexico, to build a new generation of large pickup trucks. FCA on Thursday said it also would make a special bonus payment of $2,000 to about 60,000 FCA hourly and salaried employees in the United States totaling about $120 million. Typically, U.S. automakers only pay bonuses to hourly workers as part of collective bargaining agreements. Leaders around the world are reacting with shock to an expletive U.S. President Donald Trump apparently used to describe Haiti and African countries in a meeting with U.S. lawmakers Thursday on immigration. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, was in the Oval Office meeting Thursday and confirmed on Friday that Trump called them "s---hole countries." Trump, who denied using the vulgar term toward Haitians in a tweet on Friday, reportedly said in the meeting that the United States should let in more people from places such as Norway, whose prime minister met with him at the White House on Wednesday. While condemning Trump's comment, one South Sudanese immigrant said the majority of Africans who come to the U.S. are hardworking and are looking to make a better life for themselves. David Dau, a congressional legislative fellow and a former Lost Boy of South Sudan, was shocked when reports surfaced of the foul word Trump reportedly used. Dau, who spends time working on South Sudan issues, said many Africans contribute to American society in a very positive way. "The majority of the Africans who come here are already here on the merit-based immigration," Dau told South Sudan in Focus. "So if you look at a lot of Africans, whether they are Ethiopian, South African or Nigerian, many of them are doctors, they are nurses, they are dentists or what have you." In a tweet Friday morning, Trump distanced himself from the reports. Dau said the damage has already been done. "Now, because of the global connectivity, they will see a comment like this from the leader of the free world and, how will I tell them that America is the greatest country if they see a comment like this," he said. "You have so many people in Africa, and in South Sudan in particular, and their only hope is to find an opportunity to resettle, but when they hear comment like this ... it discourages people." African Union spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo told the Associated Press "given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice." The level of alarm was shared by Dau, who said the idea is to work toward a better world. "And when you hear comments like that, it makes you feel like you haven't done anything over the last year as an advocate," he said. "One hopes for an encouraging comment, but a comment like this it makes me feel like if he thinks like that and he is the leader of the free world, is he going to give money to fight aids or hunger or other things in Africa?" While his country regularly makes headlines for conflict, hunger and a growing refugee population, Dau believes that the best is yet to come for South Sudan. "The majority of South Sudan's population is under the age of 34," he added. "There is a better South Sudan that is on the horizon in comparison to what we have now." Rescuers off the northwestern coast of Venezuela are searching the Caribbean for survivors after a boat filled with Venezuelan migrants sank on its way to the island of Curacao. Authorities discovered four bodies washed ashore on Curacao, and they say 28 people are missing. Two men who were believed to have been on the boat managed to swim to shore and were arrested. An opposition lawmaker in Venezuela's Falcon state, Luis Stefanelli, says about 30 people were on the boat and that they were all younger than 35. He says several minors were among them. Stefanelli says each passenger paid a human trafficker about $100 each. Curacao is only about 70 kilometers (44 miles) from Venezuela. The Dutch island is a popular destination for Venezuelans looking to escape food shortages, economic disaster, and an oppressive political climate. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro imposed an air and sea embargo on Curacao, Aruba, and Bonaire last week. He alleges food and other goods are being smuggled out of Venezuela to the islands, aggravating shortages. After her husband disappeared the previous evening and she anxiously awaited his return home throughout the night, Ruksha Khan got a message from a neighbor in the morning of New Years Day that someone had committed suicide. Ruksha rushed to the spot to discover it was the body of her husband, Hanif Khan, hanging from a tree. She said her husband committed suicide fearing police action after he found his name missing from the states just-published National Register of Citizens. Ruksha said her husband, an ethnic Bangladeshi, was born in India and that he was an Indian citizen because his fathers name had appeared in the Indian citizens voter list published in 1971. For the past two or three months, he was so anxious about his name being missed by the NRC that he stopped eating and sleeping properly," Ruksha told VOA. "He often said to me that he would be arrested [as an illegal immigrant], kept in detention centers, and tortured. 1971 crackdown Bengali-speaking people from the territory of what is now Bangladesh began migrating to Assam in Northeast India centuries ago. After Pakistan launched a 1971 military crackdown in East Pakistan, which is present day Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands of Hindus and Muslims crossed over into Assam, seeking refuge in the Indian state. In early the 1980s, Assamese indigenous people agitated for the deportation of all illegal immigrants from the northeastern state, saying they threatened the livelihood of the local people by taking away jobs and other resources. In 1985, the Indian government signed a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) called the Assam Accord, pledging to identify all illegal immigrants in Assam and deport them. Those who crossed over to Assam from Bangladesh after March 24, 1971, would be identified as illegal immigrants, according to that MoS. Although that agreement counted all Hindus and Muslims as illegal if they crossed over after that date, Prime Minister Narendra Modis BJP government has made it easier for non-Muslim immigrants to gain citizenship in India since they swept to power nationally in 2014. The BJP-led government has been in the process of amending a law so that no non-Muslim, if he can prove that he was in India before the end of 2014, will be considered an illegal immigrant. Missing names After the first draft of the NRC of Assam was released Jan. 1 with the names of only 19 million people, many mostly Muslims in the state have been gripped by confusion and anxiety after they found their names missing from the register. Several government officials, including Assams chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, announced it was only a partial draft of the NRC and people should wait until the final draft was released later this year. But weeks before the release of the draft, the government said the verification of documents for 23.8 million applicants had been completed. In this situation the governments publication of 19 million names in the first draft of the NRC sends out a message that applications from at least 4.8 million people might have been rejected, said Maulana Joynal Abedin, a Muslim cleric from Menipur village of Cachar district in Assam. I am very concerned not to find my name in the first draft of the NRC. Many Muslims in my village are caught in the same situation. Strangely, even a Muslim neighbor who retired after being in an Indian government service for several decades has found the names of his entire family missing from the draft, Abedin said. According to [the] Indian constitution, India is secular. But, the ruling party and the government seem biased against Muslims in this issue, he said. Defending the list BJP leaders in Assam say they support the governments decision to offer citizenship to non-Muslim, mostly Hindu, immigrants who arrived India by 2014. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, Hindus and other religious minorities like Christians, Sikhs are being persecuted. In the same way the minorities are being persecuted in Bangladesh. These people have no other place to go. So, the Indian government will amend the law and will offer citizenship to the Hindu and other (non-Muslim) minority immigrants, Assam BJP spokesperson Ramkrishna Ghosh told VOA. But North Eastern Hill University professor Prasenjit Biswas, said the governments effort to accommodate only non-Muslim immigrants, saying that they were victims of persecution in their home countries, is unfair. Muslims, who came to Assam as refugees during Bangladeshs liberation war and afterward during the military rule, were also equally persecuted by the state. There are such politically and religiously persecuted Muslims as refugees in many parts of India just as there are refugees from many other countries who have taken political asylum as well as ordinary shelter in India, Biswas said. Bangladeshi political analyst and rights activist Farhad Mazhar said in the name of updating the NRC, the Modi-led Indian government is seeking materialization of building a Hindu nation. "The ghost of the two-nation theory, India is for the Hindus, not Muslims, is the basis of this Hindutvabadee ideology of BJP," said Mazhar. "So, Hindu nationalist party-led India welcomes Hindus from the neighboring countries, but bans the entry of Muslim refugees. There is cautious optimism in India about the U.S. suspension of about $ 1.9 billion in security aid to Pakistan to pressure it to take action against terror groups. But analysts in New Delhi say the move is unlikely to prompt Islamabad to stop providing safe havens to groups that are active in Kashmir such as the Hizbul Mujahideen. Indias reaction to Washingtons tough new posture has been muted, with only a brief statement from a junior minister following President Donald Trumps New Year tweet that Pakistan had rewarded past U.S. aid with nothing but lies & deceit. It has abundantly, abundantly vindicated Indias stand as far as terrorism is concerned and as far as Pakistans role in perpetrating terrorism is concerned, according to Jitendra Singh. Washingtons warnings in recent days that it will ratchet up the pressure if Islamabad fails to take "decisive action" against terror groups has won quiet appreciation in New Delhi, which has long complained that it is a victim of attacks by terror groups that find sanctuaries inside Pakistan. It is too early to judge what he [President Trump] might do, but the perspective is fresh and new, said Arvind Gupta, director at the research organization Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi. At the same time, many in India feel that Washingtons main concern will be to ensure that Islamabad takes action against groups that target Afghanistan, such as the Haqqani network and the Afghan Taliban because its primary focus is on stabilizing Afghanistan. There is also some skepticism about how far Washington will go in imposing punitive measures on Islamabad due to its reliance on Pakistan for access to the war torn country. Wait and watch Analysts say New Delhi is in a wait and watch mode to see how the new policy will unfold in coming months. Would they [the United States] really proceed further, number one? Number two, whether it will take the Indian front also into consideration and stick to it, questions Sukh Deo Muni, a South Asia expert at New Delhis Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses. There has been increasing sensitivity in Washington to Indias concerns on terrorism following a closer strategic embrace between the two countries last August the U.S. administration named the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit as a global terrorist group and added its chief, Syed Salahuddin, to its list of global terrorists. Hizbul is one of the frontline groups active in Kashmir, the territory divided between the two countries. And in an indication that Indias concerns are being taken seriously as the United States firms up its new policy on Pakistan, the U.S. ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster, said on Thursday that Washington has made it clear it will not tolerate cross border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere. However, when asked why the terror groups active against India were not named during the announcement of suspension of aid to Pakistan, Juster simply said, "Pakistan is important too for the situation in Afghanistan" and stability will not be possible without its contribution. There are also some worries in India that continuing U.S. pressure will push Islamabad further towards China and expand Beijings footprint in the South Asian region an outcome New Delhi does not want to see. We are already seeing that the Chinese are probably going to set up a naval base in Jiwani (Pakistan). You have already seen that China, Pakistan and Afghanistan have formed a new grouping, said Gupta, referring to the first dialogue of the foreign ministers from the three countries hosted by Beijing in December. Still, amid increasing frustration in India over efforts to make headway with Islamabad on combating terrorism, the new U.S. policy represents a ray of hope. Formal talks between the two rivals have been virtually frozen for two years but the national security advisers of the two countries met in Bangkok last month to hold a dialogue, which New Delhi said focused on terrorism. But officials and analysts admit that there is little progress. "Weve had a hard line policy for some time and it has not really yielded results, because we are still having attacks across the border, points out Manoj Joshi at New Delhis Observer Research Foundation. So if the U.S. gets into the picture, the U.S. has much more clout than us and is able to do something about it, it is obviously something New Delhi would be happy with. As far as India is concerned, its a plus for us. Kenya is embarking on a pilot program to overhaul its education system. The aim is to emphasize skills over knowledge and to include more science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM) courses and vocational training in an effort to better prepare youth for the evolving job market. If implemented, this would be the second major reform to Kenya's national school curriculum since independence. The last such change, in 1985, moved the country to the so-called 8-4-4 system - eight years of primary school, four years of secondary school and four years of university. Now, Kenya's education ministry is rolling out a new model dubbed 2-6-6-3, which reshuffles the number of years students spend at the primary, secondary and university levels. The goal is to get students ready for existing and emerging jobs. Kenya has one of the highest rates of unemployment in East Africa, according to the 2016 U.N. Human Development Index. "The 8-4-4 system needed to be changed because it was no longer addressing the needs today," said Sarah Ruto, chairperson of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, a government agency. "If you look at employers, they are always saying the graduates they are getting do not have the skills and competencies to fit in the job market and this brings us back to the education system. How are we teaching?" Officials say the new system supports the government development plan, called Vision 2030, to transform Kenya into an industrialized, middle-income economy by the end of the next decade. Children would enter preschool at age four and stay two years. Students would then move to six years of primary school, where the focus would be on logical thinking, social skills and digital literacy. Next would be six years of secondary school, to include rigorous career guidance. The last three years would be centered around arts, sports, financial literacy, entrepreneurship and STEM fields. Students would focus on a specific area based on their abilities. Digital literacy would be a main facet throughout, and schools would shift away from exam-based evaluation. Secondary school students would sit for a final exam to determine whether they will move on to an additional three years of either university or additional vocational training. "There are so many changes happening and one of the biggest changes is technology, how technology is shaping and impacting," Ruto said. "If you do not sit back and reflect and reform, you will find that what you are doing in the school is very different from what is happening outside. This will mean that when your children start graduating from the school system, they are being trained for something that is not in society." However, experts warn that a new curriculum is not a magic bullet. They say Kenya must also address other issues, for example frequent teacher strikes and a lack of basic necessities - such as desks - in schools. The new model is being tested in schools selected by the government. If all goes well, educators will submit a formal plan for a nationwide overhaul to parliament for debate and approval. Dennis Sloan grew up in Hardin in eastern Montana, where the color in the sky and color below informs his art to this day. Sloan, now 71, recalls that when he was 6 or 7, his dad would ask his opinion on colors of paint as he squeezed them from tubes into a five-gallon bucket to mix them. "To see the colors going together, it just blew me away," Sloan said. Blue could merge with gray, subtly changing it. Those ideas about gradated color and landscape underpin almost every painting in "The Art of Refinement," an exhibition of oil paintings that span 40 years, now on view at Gallery 709 at Montana Art and Framing. There are landscapes in his bright color schemes. Others introduce abstracted shapes inspired by poetry and science fiction, or the female form. In "Between Worlds," he set three abstract slices of a drip painting atop a lake vista, with bright orange sky bleeding into purple. The image of a trinity and underlying visual theme came from a Carl Sandburg poem of the same name, in which the polymath writer contemplated the continuity between birth, beauty and death. In "Dualities," another large painting, the orange-to-blue skyline is a backdrop from totem-like rectangles from "2001: A Space Odyssey." Stanley Kubrick's psychedelic imagery also informed some of Sloan's recent "Doorways" series. He takes the heightened palette from his landscapes and melds them to imagery of doorways opening into different landscapes. The sense of space in eastern Montana, where the Big Sky Country moniker is truer than it is in the West, has remained with him. The openness of the vistas, such as the one approaching Hardin, are vast and uncomfortable to some people. "A lot of people want to hide," Sloan said. "With me, it was just the opposite. I just loved it." *** Sloan's dad was a commercial union painter, a trade that Sloan has followed to support his art since the late 1960s. His grandmother was a pianist, and his great-grandmother an artist. He was interested in music, but eventually decided to study art. He was drafted into the Army in 1966 and sent to train as a electrical lineman in Georgia. His class was stationed in Germany, where eventually they were put into service as tank gunners. He did several runs on duty on the border with Czechoslovakia, where he saw the literal Iron Curtain: a "12-foot high, barbed wire fence that was going for hundreds of miles." He was honorably discharged in 1967 and never had to serve a tour in Vietnam. He enrolled at Eastern Montana College, now called Montana State University Billings, to study art. He was interested in advertising design, and his instructors encouraged him to go to Los Angeles. He spent a year at the Art Center College of Design before deciding that advertising design, such as album promotion and story illustration projects, wasn't for him. He returned, this time to the University of Montana to refocus on painting, and studied under Rudy Autio and Walter Hook. He's mostly remained in Missoula, although he's sometimes spent the winters in Santa Fe or Seattle. His art has gone through phases. For awhile, he painted silhouettes of female nudes. His model brought her own props, and one day brought a handgun. He painted a few, thinking they symbolized feminism and women asserting themselves in American culture. To his surprise, some women viewed them as symbols of sexism, or even assault. Early in his career, he was influenced by abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, but began heading into the opposite direction. He said he began "eliminating subject matter and eliminating and eliminating and finally I just started doing minimalism." The works at Gallery 709 aren't pure minimalism. Compared to many landscape painters in Montana, they count as minimalist. He prefers hard-edged planes of color, with only subtle brushstrokes and none of the virtuoso marks of expressionists. "I always thought by working flat and not having a lot of texture, it lent itself to the two-dimensionality," he said. Through his eye, a mountain range over a lake might be distilled into a series of three or four silhouettes of ridgelines. He might start with a photograph but use it only as a jumping-off point not a deliberate re-creation of a specific place. A selection of his series of female nudes, titled "Montana Venus," still don't turn away from the skylines. He would work from a model and then abstract the form into intersecting silhouettes, with alpenglow color schemes filling the gaps. Some of these were exhibited in a 1995 solo show at the Abney Gallery in New York. A review in Artspeak praised the color and composition, saying the pieces "transcend regionalism." The jailed head of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition appeared in court for the first time Friday since his arrest 14 months ago in a crackdown that followed a failed coup in 2016. Hundreds gathered outside the Istanbul courthouse, chanting slogans in support of Selahattin Demirtas. The People's Democratic Party leader, who faces charges in 20 separate cases, was in court for "insulting the president." When asked to provide an address, Demirtas simply replied, "Turkish parliament." Demirtas, a lawyer by training, challenged the court's jurisdiction in trying him and called for the case to be transferred to the higher constitutional court. The Kurdish leader also alleged that his parliamentary immunity had been violated. The hearing was quickly adjourned to May, to consider his demands, with the lower court ruling for his continued pre-trial detention. Until Friday, he had not been allowed to attend 90 other hearings in the cases against him because of what authorities said were "security concerns." The prosecution of Demirtas has drawn national and international criticism for his lengthy detention and what critics say is lack of evidence. Prosecutors allege he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for claiming Erdogan, along with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, had "betrayed the country" over heightened tensions with Russia after Turkey downed a Russian bomber along the Turkey-Syria border in 2015. The People's Democratic Party, known as HDP, contends the case is politically motivated. "I am afraid the ongoing operation is part of a general and broader crackdown plan aimed at closing the democratic space for the HDP, in particular for the party spokesperson," said Ertugral Kurkcu, HDP parliamentary deputy. "The plan of the crackdown is to close forever a radical party for Kurds." The HDP is Turkey's second main opposition parliamentary party. Charges against HDP members The HDP has been at the forefront of fighting for the rights of Turkey's large Kurdish minority and secured more than 5 million votes in the last general election. The government accuses the party of being linked to an ongoing insurgency by Kurdish rebel group the PKK, a charge the HDP strongly denies. Since the declaration of a state of emergency following the 2016 attempted coup, nine HDP parliamentary deputies have been jailed, along with dozens of elected mayors and around 10,000 party officials. This month, prominent HDP parliamentary deputy Idris Baluken was sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison on terrorism charges. Demirtas recently announced he was stepping down as leader, saying he believed he would not be released in the foreseeable future. The decision is seen as another blow to the HDP. "Demirtas was extremely important for the HDP; he was an extremely bright man. He speaks well," said political scientist Cengiz Aktar, an expert on Kurdish issues. "He managed to attract not only Kurdish votes, but also Turks. He will be remembered as a historical breakthrough." Observers say Demirtas was widely seen as the only political leader who could match the charisma of Erdogan, citing that as a key reason critics for Demirtas' detention. The Turkish government maintains the judiciary is independent. Press freedom? Questions about the independence of the judiciary were raised again Thursday, when the constitutional court ruled that the pre-trial detention of two journalists, Sahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan, had violated their rights and called for their immediate release. Two Istanbul courts, however, refused to implement the decision, saying they had not been officially notified. The decision came as Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag criticized the constitutional court ruling. "When ruling on individual applications, the constitutional court cannot act like a super appeals court and cannot make rulings like such courts," he wrote on Twitter. "The constitutional court has overstepped the limit set out in the constitution and the laws." The failure to release the journalists has been strongly condemned. "It is outrageous that the Istanbul high primal court is resisting against the constitutional court decision," said Erol Onderoglu, Turkey's representative to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. "It illustrates perfectly the influence of political interference to the Turkish judiciary, even high judiciary organs are not independent to decide to safeguard fundamental values. It has turned to a deep political and judiciary crisis, once against illustrating the chaotic ground after the state of emergency and coup attempt," Onderoglu said. He also said the constitutional court ruling will be used as a legal precedent for the release of the 150 other journalists being held. The court's decision had opened the door for their release. Rebecca Harms, a member of the European Parliament, issued a statement describing the constitutional court ruling as a "milestone" for media freedom. Harms, however, condemned the failure to implement the ruling. "If the lower courts do not respect the decision of the Turkish constitutional court, it will result in a further deterioration of Turkey's constitutional crisis and the erosion of rule of law and the separation of powers," wrote Harms. Turkey's judiciary has faced unprecedented turmoil since the introduction of emergency rule. More than 4,000 judges have been removed from office, including two members of the constitutional court, as part of an ongoing crackdown against followers of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. He is blamed for involvement in 2016 failed coup, an allegation he denies. Observers say a decision on whether the constitutional court decision will be upheld is being viewed widely as a key test for the judiciary. A top American general has told Pakistan's army chief the U.S. military does not intend to conduct any unilateral strikes inside the country and both sides emphasized the need for continued cooperation to fight terrorism, an official announcement said Friday. U.S. Central Command General Joseph Votel telephoned General Qamar Javed Bajwa this week and offered the assurance, said army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor, while releasing details of the conversation. He did not say when it occurred. The high-level contact came after U.S. President Donald Trump, in a New Year Day's tweet, accused Pakistan of "lies and deceit," saying the country is providing havens to militants fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The Trump administration subsequently suspended nearly $2 billion in security assistance to Islamabad until it takes "decisive action" against alleged Afghan militant sanctuaries on Pakistani soil. Ghafoor said Votel reiterated Washington's concerns, saying they are undermining Pakistan's counterterrorism contributions. "The U.S. is not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan, but is seeking cooperation to tackle Afghan nationals, who, in the U.S.'s view, use Pakistan's soil against Afghanistan," the spokesman quoted Votel as telling Bajwa. Ghafoor said the army chief told the U.S. general the entire Pakistani nation "felt betrayed over U.S. recent statements despite decades of cooperation." The spokesman said that during the conversation with Votel, General Bajwa noted Pakistan was fully aware of U.S. concerns about the activities of Afghan nationals in Pakistan and that steps were being taken to counter them. "[The army chief] reiterated that Pakistan will not seek resumption of [U.S.] aid but expects honorable recognition of our contributions, sacrifices and unwavering resolve in the fight against terrorism for peace and stability in the region." A Central Command spokesman confirmed Votel's contact with Bajwa. "U.S. Central Command is in continuous communication with the Pakistan military, including recurring conversations between General Votel and Pakistan Chief of Army Staff Bajwa," a statement said. "We value mutual understanding of interests and concerns that we need to consider that might lead to a positive path forward." Islamabad denies U.S. allegations of harboring insurgent bases and cites its "unprecedented" gains against terrorist groups on Pakistan soil, resulting in improved national security. Trump's tweet has sparked a war of words between Pakistan and the United States, prompting fears the two are on a collision course. There has been speculation the U.S. military might undertake drone strikes deep inside Pakistan to target suspected hideouts of the Taliban and the allied Haqqani network. Such a move, however, is likely to provoke Islamabad to block air and ground routes that U.S. and NATO troops depend on to conduct counterterrorism operations and transport vital military supplies to landlocked Afghanistan. U.S. airstrikes accidentally hit Pakistani border posts in 2011, prompting the country to close the supply lines for months. Islamabad restored the route only after the U.S. military formally apologized for the incident. Finger-pointing and acrimony surrounding probes of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election intensified Thursday, with the Trump White House and Democratic lawmakers trading accusations of undermining and manipulating investigations that require bipartisan buy-in to succeed. "There's been a lot of comments about obstruction of justice, and frankly the only people we've seen trying to influence the investigation are former [FBI] director [James] Comey and Democrats in Congress, and that would include Senator Feinstein," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a briefing. Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California caused an uproar earlier this week by releasing the transcript of private conversations between congressional investigators and a political researcher who, on behalf of Democrats, hired a former British spy in 2016 to document any ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. In the transcript, Fusion GPS co-founder Glen Simpson said Christopher Steele uncovered "alarming" evidence of collusion between the Kremlin and Trump's team and informed the FBI of his findings. Trump weighed in on Twitter, blasting "Sneaky Dianne Feinstein" for releasing the transcript "in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization" an act he called "a disgrace. The president also called the Russia probe the "greatest single Witch Hunt in American history" and urged congressional Republicans to "finally take control" of the investigation. Democrats pushed back, defending Feinstein and saying she was forced to act in the face of mounting Republican efforts to thwart and cut short multiple Russia probes on Capitol Hill. "Their [Republicans'] goal, it seems, is to discredit the investigation so that, ultimately, they can discredit any findings that are detrimental to their party or their president," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. "President Trump makes this strategy manifest clear as day almost every day on his Twitter feed." Schumer continued, "Here is the president of the United States imploring his party to take control of the investigation. You never thought you'd hear a president saying something like this. And, frankly, you never thought you'd hear such silence from the other side of the aisle [Republicans]. All of us must choose country over party." While Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating ties between Russia and Trump's inner circle on behalf of the Justice Department, House and Senate investigations were launched with the hope that Republicans and Democrats would set party interests aside and join forces in search of the truth. "It [bipartisanship] has largely been broken," said political analyst Norman Ornstein of the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute. "This has gotten more than acrimonious." Ornstein compared the Russia probes to Congress' investigation of the Watergate scandal that caused former President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974. "What we saw with Watergate was the model of a committee where the ranking Republican set the tone by saying the key here is what did the president know and when did he know it? and followed through with an investigation with integrity," he said. Ornstein added, however, that even if congressional Russia's probes falter on partisan lines, "The real test comes with whether the integrity of the Mueller investigation is protected and a bipartisan group of members [of Congress] make it clear that the president can't fire [Mueller] or close off the investigation." The Philippines, still recovering from battles last year against a group of Islamic State-inspired, anti-government Muslim rebels, is confronting a rise in violence by another band from the same region and with a similar ideology. A new conflict would prolong decades of struggles between Muslim separatists and the Philippine government. Muslim militants on the southern island Mindanao believe the majority Catholic country has taken an unfair share of resources despite five centuries of Muslim settlement. Rebel-linked violence has killed about 120,000 people in Mindanao since the 1960s. The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a group often known by its acronym BIFF, has killed 10 to 25 people since early December in surprise attacks and bombings, media reports say. Eleven people, including nine rebels, have died in incidents since Dec. 25, a local infantry unit spokesman said Friday, and about 300 families are living in emergency shelters to avoid the rebels. I think they have enough numbers now to conduct atrocities within the area, said the spokesperson, Capt. Arvin Encinas. Thats why we are strengthening our efforts, to ensure the safety and security in our constituent area of Mindanao. A roadside bomb killed a soldier Wednesday and on Sunday troops found the bodies of six rebel gunmen following clashes involving 80 rebels and a military reconnaissance post, Inquirer.net reported. Battle two months ago The rise in attacks comes two months after troops ended a war with another Muslim rebel group in Mindanao. Fighting then against the Maute Group killed at least 1,127 people, including more than 900 militants, before it was called off in October. BIFF is also trying to get some attention, because they are now starting the small attacks and some explosions in other parts of Mindanao, but we still dont know how big the capability of BIFF is compared to the Maute Group that caused the siege in Marawi, said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman. In December, the presidential website said the Armed Forces of the Philippines cited continuing threats posed by BIFF as a reason President Rodrigo Duterte should extend martial law in Mindanao through 2018. Congress later granted the extension of that law, which first took effect in May to help with the battle in 2017. Martial law lets troops and police officers eliminate threats through curfews, road checkpoints and the bypassing of due process to capture rebel suspects. What theyre fighting for The BIFF split off from a larger rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in 2008 because it didnt recognize the fronts peace talks with the government. Its now divided into three factions, including a violent one, the infantry unit spokesman said. The sub-group pledges allegiance to Islamic State, the world terrorist sponsor based in Iraq and Syria. BIFF accuses the Moro Islamic Liberation Front of being a sell-out to the government because it signed a peace deal in 2014, said Ramon Casiple, executive director of Philippine advocacy organization Institute for Political and Electoral Reform. Both advocate Muslim autonomy in the southern Philippines, and some BIFF members want all-out independence. A government commission is working now to formulate an autonomy law after senators shied away following a Moro Islamic Liberation Front attack that killed 43 soldiers in 2015. Casiple said BIFF has about 200 to 300 people, mostly farmers and a few people who are middle-class and higher. Their ranks fluid because the fighters co-exist with the liberation front due to historic clan relationships, he said. Wider threat They operate normally in two Mindanao provinces near the 270,000-person city of Cotabato. The president fears BIFF might attack elsewhere in Mindanao, a largely impoverished island of about 21 million, analysts say. The president himself is quoted as saying that the post-Marawi situation is still dangerous, and one of things he cited in his request (for martial law) was BIFF, the possibility that the BIFF may attack other cities, Casiple said. BIFF lacks the scale now of the 5-year-old Marawi rebel group. But its supporters can unite as a stronger force as needed, due to family links in their core region, Atienza said. Officials still monitor Abu Sayyaf, another of the total 20 Muslim rebel groups in the Southern Philippines, in case it links up with BIFF. Islamic State had chosen an Abu Sayyaf leader as its emir in Southeast Asia in 2016, the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group says. But he was killed in Marawi. BIFF, like other rebel groups, may flourish because of the porous border and weak government of the southern Philippines, said Enrico Cau, a Ph.D. student of international affairs and strategic studies at Tamkang University in Taiwan. Those factors let in supporters from Indonesia and Malaysia to support the Muslim rebels in their 2017 fight. We dont know what happens once they are recognized as an Islamic State, he said. Will they receive funding (and) will the delays in the peace process bring new recruits to the group because they get tired of not seeing any progress and start fighting to get what they want? Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo fired warning shots Friday to disperse churchgoers who had gathered to mourn seven people killed during recent protests against President Joseph Kabila. A reporter for VOA's French to Africa service said police acted after people leaving a mass at Kinshasa cathedral began shouting slogans considered hostile to Kabila. Officers fired tear gas, followed by warning shots. Two people were wounded, and the crowd began running in all directions. During the mass Friday, Catholic Church leaders urged Kabila to honor a 2016 church-mediated political deal that called for the president to hold elections and step down. Kabila has stayed in office more than a year past the end of his second term, the maximum allowed by the DRC's constitution. Security forces fired on anti-Kabila rallies in the capital on New Year's Eve, killing seven protesters. In an interview Thursday with VOA's French to Africa service, Kabila adviser Julien Lubunga criticized the church for siding against the president. "It is not up to the church to identify with a certain category of politicians, especially the opposition," Lubunga said. "You see, today, in Kinshasa Cathedral, masses are celebrated in the presence of the members of the opposition, whereas the church should gather all the politicians and not to say that there are good people on one side and bad one on the other." The church and opposition have voiced concern that Kabila, who has ruled the DRC since 2001, will attempt to remove term limits from the constitution or otherwise maneuver to stay in power. Lubunga denied this, saying Kabila has stated many times "that he will comply with the constitution and that after his two terms, he will cede power to an elected president." The DRC government recently said the long-delayed polls will take place on December 23. Lubunga said opposition parties "are afraid to go to the elections" and accused Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo of going against the views of his own church members. The body of Catholic dioceses in Congo, known as CENCO, said Thursday the government is mounting a campaign of misinformation and defamation against the church. "Do not be deceived. They just want to manipulate people to believe that the church is divided," CENCO spokesman Donatien Nshole told VOA on Thursday. While Congress and the White House debate the future of young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, a new survey shows Americans overwhelmingly think they should be allowed to stay and apply to be citizens. The new poll by Quinnipiac University found that 79 percent of respondents supported citizenship for the immigrant youths, while 11 percent said the youths should be deported. Ninety-two percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans said the young immigrants should be allowed to stay. The same survey showed Americans opposed building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border by 63 to 34 percent, but that a large majority of Republicans 78 percent wanted it. On other questions, 58 percent said marijuana should be legalized, and 91 percent supported legalization of medical marijuana. A majority also opposed enforcing federal marijuana laws in states where pot is legal. According to the poll, most respondents said they did not have confidence in the way President Donald Trump was handling North Korea, and by 52 percent to 32 percent they opposed the recently enacted Republican tax plan. Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,106 voters nationwide January 5-9. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. The Trump administration's highest-ranking Iranian-American, who serves as its top antitrust regulator, has welcomed recent anti-government protests in Iran as a "heartening" development. In an interview with VOA Persian this month, Makan Delrahim described the weeklong anti-government protest movement as a "natural progression" for Iranian people, whom he said desire freedoms that have been denied to them by "oppressive" Islamist clerics who have ruled Iran for almost 40 years. "It is heartening to watch the Iranian people go through this [protest movement]," Delrahim said. "You hope for the best at the end of it, [but] who knows what happens." Delrahim has served as U.S. assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's antitrust division since September. In that role, he enforces U.S. antitrust laws in cases of mergers and acquisitions that raise concerns about anti-competitive business practices. His office is engaged in a high-profile federal lawsuit to try to block U.S. telecom giant AT&T's proposed takeover of American media conglomerate Time Warner. AT&T has vowed to fight the lawsuit in a court hearing scheduled for March. Prior to the Trump administration, the 48-year-old Delrahim worked on antitrust issues for former President George W. Bush's administration, and spent time in corporate law as an attorney for several major technology companies including Google. In his conversation with VOA Persian, Delrahim expressed disappointment with the Iranian government's efforts to block people from using digital communication tools as part of its crackdown on the nationwide protests, which began on December 28. "I think any country that tries to limit people's access to technologies that improve their lives, does that to their own ultimate disadvantage," Delrahim said. He compared such restrictive practices to the U.S., where he said people have intellectual freedom to express themselves, creating an environment that makes innovation and commerce possible. "I would hope that it would be different in Iran so that people have the ability to express their views, whatever they might be," he said. Iranian leaders declared an end to the protest movement last week, after deploying thousands of security personnel and mobilizing thousands of their own supporters on streets around the country. Authorities said at least 21 people were killed as some confrontations between anti-government protesters and security forces turned violent. Earlier this week, Iranian lawmakers said one of the hundreds of protesters detained in the unrest had died in custody. The circumstances of 22-year-old Sina Ghanbari's death were not clear. Delrahim also spoke about Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military force whose corporate ownership of key Iranian industries has led critics to portray it as a monopoly that hurts the economy. "[This] is not something that touches on the issue of antitrust law, but I do have some personal views," he said, in reference to the economic power of the IRGC. "It is a shame because it limits the ability of the Iranian economy to grow into the 21st century," he said. "Iran has the intellectual resources and capacity to be one of the great countries, with some of the best medicine, technological innovations, software companies, medical devices and manufacturing if they [the Iranian leadership] would allow that. Anytime you have limitations on that [economic potential], I am sure it is good for some of those folks who probably are doing very well, but really at the cost of the people of Iran." Iran's GDP An International Monetary Fund report published in December said Iran's real gross domestic product is forecast to grow by 4.2 percent in 2017/2018. It said Iranian economic growth could be "sustained or rise toward 4.5 percent over the medium-term if financial sector reform takes hold." The IMF report said "removal of obstacles to private sector development would allow growth to become more diversified, resilient and job intensive." It also said Iran "needs to reduce red tape, reform state-owned enterprises and improve transparency about corporate beneficial ownership to attract investment and develop the private sector." Delrahim was born in Iran to a Persian-Jewish family and immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 10. He said Iranian immigrants to the U.S. in recent decades have included entrepreneurs and scientists whom he said would have been "phenomenal treasures" for Iran if they had stayed in their homeland and had the ability to travel freely between the two countries. "As somebody who has a desire to go back and experience the culture and history of the country once again," he said, "it is an exciting time to watch [Iran's latest anti-government protests]." Reports that U.S. President Donald Trump used a vulgar term to describe Haiti and African nations have been confirmed by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, who was in an Oval Office meeting Thursday when the President called them "s---hole countries." Durbin, the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, described the president's words as "hateful, vile and racist." He said Twitter denials by Trump are "not true. He said these hate-filled things. And he said them repeatedly." Trump took to Twitter on Friday to deny using the vulgar term during a White House meeting Thursday on immigration. In another Twitter post, the president wrote that he "never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very troubled and poor country." The president said he has a wonderful relationship with Haitians and suggested future meetings probably should be recorded. Durbin said when the issue of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants in the U.S. was raised, the president responded "Haitians. Do we need more Haitians?" Durbin recounted that Trump went on to discuss similarly protected immigration from Africa, "calling the nations they come from s---holes." The comments, first reported Thursday by The Washington Post, were made during a presentation by Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham about bipartisan legislation to protect from deportation those immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children by their parents. Durbin noted that Graham confronted the president about his remarks. The president also asked why the United States would allow more immigrants from Haiti and Africa rather than countries like Norway. The president met with Norway's prime minister Wednesday. At the United Nations on Friday, when VOA asked Norway's foreign minister for reaction to the president's comments, Norway's foreign minister replied "I don't think right now," before hurrying to a meeting with the U.N. secretary-general. U.S. President Donald Trump has canceled his planned trip to London. Trump put all speculation about the visit to rest with a tweet shortly before midnight Thursday. However, the U.S. embassy website says the American government purchased the site for the new embassy in 2008, before President Barack Obama took office in January 2009. The old building was sold in 2009. Trump had been scheduled to travel to London on a working visit before the end of February, when he was expected to open the new embassy and meet with Prime Minister Theresa May, but no date had been announced. The British press reported that Trump was said to be unhappy about the lack of "bells and whistles" during the trip, and the fact he would have not been able to meet with Queen Elizabeth, because his visit had been downgraded from a state visit to a working visit, which carries much less prestige. The U.S. embassy is moving from Grosvenor Square in Mayfair to the Nine Elms area of Wandsworth. The $1 billion construction project overlooking the River Thames began in November 2013 and was wholly funded by the sale of other U.S. properties in London. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he expects the White House to impose new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program and its alleged destabilizing actions in the Middle East. The decision on whether to continue to waive other sanctions in line with the 2015 nuclear deal rests with President Donald Trump. The deadline is Friday, and as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the other signatories have been making clear their support for the agreement. For his last turn as artistic director, Greg Johnson picked what he calls a "sunset" play. The Montana Repertory Theatre's 2018 national touring production is Ernest Thompson's "On Golden Pond," a story about love, family, aging and letting go. "It was about saying goodbye and this is my year of saying goodbye," said Johnson, who's 68 years old. In his case, it's a goodbye to an institution he's served for nearly three decades. During his tenure, the professional company in residence at the University of Montana staged 29 national tours, including three outings of "To Kill a Mockingbird," which became its signature play and helped establish the Rep's reputation for "great American stories," and greatly expanded the number of its touring stops. For this final tour, he enlisted some favorite collaborators on stage and behind the curtain. The play, familiar to many from the 1981 film with Katharine Hepburn and Henry and Jane Fonda, centers on the relationships between Norman Thayer, a retired principal approaching his 80th birthday, and his family. Norman, played by professional equity actor J.R. Robinson, and his wife Ethel, played by equity actor Suzy Hunt, return to Golden Pond, the lake in Maine where they've spent nearly 50 years' worth of summers. Norman's contemplation of death, sometimes humorous and sometimes not, is hastened by his flagging memory. The play was written in the late 1970s, when there was little widespread use of terms like Alzheimer's or dementia to describe the effects of aging on the brain. While Ethel tries to keep him in good spirits, her efforts are complicated by a rare visit from their daughter, played by Amber Mason. She and Norman, to whom she refers by his first name, barely speak to one another. "There is great anger in this play and if you retreat from it, it becomes some kind of a sitcom and it's not," Johnson said. "What gives it its ballast and real power is the fact that there's real anger between this father and this daughter." The nature of their rift remains somewhat ambiguous, Johnson said. There are references to Norman being demanding and pushing her to follow in his footsteps as a competitive diver, and her emotional unhappiness despite success in her career after moving far away. For this visit, she brings along her new boyfriend, a dentist named Bill, played by University of Montana student Ryson Sparacino. Another undergraduate, Morgan Solonar, plays Billy, his 13-year-old son, who Hunt says becomes a rejuvenating energy in their lives. The Rep decided to stage the play as a late '70s period piece, complete with L.L. Bean clothing to suite its Northeastern roots. The set for the idyllic cabin weighted with memory was designed by one of Johnson's favorite designers, Mike Fink, who worked on the Rep's "All My Sons" tour. Fink generated a clever, artfully "skeletal" structure that allows the performances to "fill in the blanks," Johnson said. *** Robinson, Hunt and Johnson have all collaborated together on Rep tours over the years. Hunt, who's based in Seattle, has known Johnson since his native New York, and this is her seventh tour with the Rep. Hunt said Ethel and Norman are "right up there with the best roles in modern theater" for older actors. The casting opportunities available to actors dwindle as they get older, she said, often only coming in the form of elderly stock characters. "On Golden Pond," meanwhile, gives her and Robinson the opportunity to "explore what it means to be frightened of death, and yet to face it, and bravely so." She sees it as a rare and unsentimental examination of those issues, which she believes has contributed to its popularity and longevity. She described Ethel as a "rallying force" in the face of Norman's difficulties. When you're going through hard times in your life, your loved ones "rally you," she said. "They pick you up. They look at what's happened, they see your faults, it doesn't matter," she said. Robinson said Hunt has "incredible energy and absolute commitment" to whatever aspect they're working on. She said she admires for his acting's straightforwardness and the way he's embodying an older character. He's also a great touring partner and person, she said. "That is important, because you can't hide who you are once you get on stage. It's all very evident." Robinson, who is in mid-60s, said it's a very challenging role. He said he has to make Norman's frailties and physical coping mechanisms evident without allowing them to overwhelm the character. His breathing, posture, ways of sitting or standing, deciding his way of peering through his glasses. Norman's vulnerability is also important. There's not a lot there, he said, but it's important that the audiences recognizes it. "He can't be utterly distasteful or unlikable. You have to have some compassion and understanding of what his life has been and where it is now," he said. Hunt said Johnson is "very supportive" of actors' freedom to make decisions about their characters within reason, of course. As an acting teacher and director, Johnson said he emphasizes "strength of personality," and does the same in casting. The Rep frequently produces plays that have been turned into movies with iconic performances: Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire," or Gregory Peck in "To Kill a Mockingbird." He said he and the cast have barely discussed the film version of "On Golden Pond." "You just can't worry about it," Johnson said. He said the cultural memory of the film becomes part of the territory and "the whole understanding of the piece that you don't fight against." United States President Donald Trump approved new sanctions on Iran Friday, while stopping short for a third time of re-imposing harsh sanctions intended to push Tehran to give up nuclear weapons research. Trump said he was waiving the nuclear sanctions for the last time in order to give Congress and European allies 120 days to improve the agreement or face U.S. abandonment of the pact. The president's proposals to "fix the deal's disastrous flaws" include Iran's agreement to open all sites immediately to international inspectors and an assurance from Tehran that it never develop a nuclear weapon. WATCH: Trump Waives Iran Sanctions, Says It's the Last Time According to the White House, any new Iran deal would have to cover Iran's ballistic missiles and limit its nuclear breakout period indefinitely. "In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately," Trump said in a statement. Additionally, the Treasury Department imposed new measures that target Iranian businesses and individuals for human rights abuses. They were imposed on 14 Iranian entities and individuals, the most prominent of whom is the head of the country's judiciary, Sadegh Amoli Larijani. The department has linked Larijani to "the commission of serious human rights abuses" against Iranian people. Among the other blacklisted entities are the cyber unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the Trump administration maintains has stifled social media networks that demonstrators can use to communicate. The administration official said the sanctions are part of a broader effort to counter Iran's "reckless" and "destabilizing behavior," including actions related to the crackdown on protesters, at least 21 of whom have been killed this month. "The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. "We are targeting the head of Iranian regime, including the head of Iran's judiciary for the appalling treatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned only for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest of their government." By law, the administration must certify to Congress every 90 days whether Iran is complying with a 2015 agreement it signed with the international community to limit its nuclear program. In October, Trump refused to certify the agreement, saying Tehran had failed to live up to the spirit of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but held off on re-imposing severe sanctions on Iran's central bank and energy industry that had existed previously. Trump is expected to reaffirm the agreement next week. Trump did not restore the sanctions on the banking and energy sectors, which were rescinded with the intent of inducing Iran to curb its nuclear program. The decision to extend sanctions relief to Iran came after the president met with his national security team on the Iran question late Thursday. The decision is likely to disappoint exile groups and human rights activists who had hoped for tougher measures from an administration that has voiced strong support for anti-government protests in many Iranian cities and a president who has harshly criticized the Iran nuclear agreement. "Those are completely unrealistic and non-starter demands, and Donald Trump knows this very well," Trita Parsi, President of National Iranian American Council, told VOA. "There is no circumstance Iranians would accept putting permanent restrictions on their program that no other country has on its programs." Mnuchin, in answer to a VOA question at Thursday's White House press briefing, suggested that Trump's actions would capture the attention of Tehran. "The president has been very clear that many aspects of the Iran deal need to be changed," he said. "There are many activities outside of the Iran deal, whether it be ballistic missiles, whether it be other issues, that we will continue to sanction, that are outside the JCPOA." A senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, Ray Takeyh, said Trump is attempting a difficult balancing act between supporting allies who want to preserve the accord and intelligence estimates of Iran's destabilizing role in the Middle East. "Iran's domestic repression, regional aggression and proliferation are a problem, and the challenge is trying to balance these concerns with a punitive policy," he said in a telephone interview. Takeyh, who was formerly a State Department adviser on Iran, said the quandary facing Trump is that in the absence of European support, his ability to sanction the Tehran government is limited. "How do you unravel an arms control agreement that has the support of a number of parties that were members to it, even though that arms deal is profoundly defective?" he asked. On Thursday, European parties to the deal made clear they firmly support the JCPOA, leaving Trump diplomatically isolated. After a meeting in Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said 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. Iran has maintained its nuclear program is solely peaceful in nature. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended the EU meeting, but did not appear alongside the other diplomats as they spoke to reporters. On Wednesday, however, Zarif accused the United States of implementing destructive policies. The JCPOA 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. U.S. President Donald Trump will increase sanctions on Iran in the coming hours, while again stopping short of reimposing sanctions intended to push the Tehran regime to give up nuclear weapons research, according to multiple news agency reports. The president was meeting with his national security team on the Iran question late Thursday. By law, the administration must certify every 90 days whether Iran is complying with a 2015 agreement it signed with the international community to limit its nuclear program. The most recent certification deadline is Friday. In October, Trump said Tehran had failed to live up to the spirit of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, but he held off on reimposing severe sanctions on Iran's energy industry that had existed previously. Trump's decision is bound to be a disappointment for exile groups and human rights activists that had hoped for tougher measures from an administration that has voiced strong support for anti-government protests in many Iranian cities and a president who has harshly criticized the Iran nuclear deal. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, in answer to a VOA question at Thursday's White House press briefing, suggested that Trump's actions would get the Tehran regime's attention. 'Very clear' about need for changes "The president has been very clear that many aspects of the Iran deal need to be changed," Mnuchin said. "There are many activities outside of the Iran deal, whether it be ballistic missiles, whether it be other issues, that we will continue to sanction, that are outside the JCPOA human rights violations we couldn't be more focused." "We have as many sanctions on Iran today as we have on any other country in the process, and we will continue to look at things," Mnuchin told VOA. Hours before Trump's decision was due, he spoke by phone about the importance of the Iran nuclear deal with French President Emmanuel Macron. A French readout of the conversation said Macron said the accord should be respected by all sides, and he stressed the importance of continued dialogue with Tehran about its ballistic missile program, according to Reuters. A White House readout of the conversation said only that Trump had "underscored that Iran must stop its destabilizing activity in the region." Ray Takeyh, Iran specialist and senior fellow for Middle East studies at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, said Trump was caught between keeping in tune with allies who want to preserve the accord and heeding intelligence estimates of Iran's destabilizing role in the Middle East. "Iran's domestic repression, regional aggression and proliferation are a problem, and the challenge is trying to balance these concerns with a punitive policy," he said in a telephone interview. Takeyh, formerly a State Department adviser on Iran, told VOA the quandary facing Trump is that in the absence of European support, his ability to sanction the Tehran government is limited. "How do you unravel an arms control agreement that has the support of a number of parties that were members to it, even though that arms deal is profoundly defective?" he asked. Europeans back deal Hours earlier, European parties to the deal made clear that they stood firmly in support of the JCPOA, leaving Trump diplomatically isolated. After a meeting in Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that while there were concerns about Iran's development of ballistic missiles and other activities in the Middle East, those should be dealt with separately. Iran has maintained its nuclear program is solely peaceful in nature. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended the EU meeting but did not appear alongside the other diplomats as they spoke to reporters. On Wednesday, however, Zarif accused the United States of implementing destructive policies. CFR's Takeyh said the administration's challenge on Iran would be in following up its tough talk with effective policy. "Its rhetoric has been fine. Now it has to deliver results," he said. "If they are going to shrink Iran's imperial footprint, they have to demonstrate that it is actually happening." The JCPOA was put in place through a U.N. 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. VOA's Steve Herman contributed to this report. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation honoring slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, whose birthday, January 15, is a federal holiday. Surrounded by Cabinet members and other dignitaries in the White House, the president spoke of the life of King, his dedication to civil rights for African-Americans and how he preached his entire life about love among all people. "Today we mourn his loss, we celebrate his legacy, and we pledge to fight for his dream of equality, freedom, justice and peace," Trump said. He encouraged Americans to observe the holiday "with acts of civic work and community service in honor of Dr. King's extraordinary life." As he signed the proclamation and shook hands with dignitaries, the president ignored reporters' questions regarding comments he made during a White House meeting on immigration Thursday. The president used vulgar language to describe Haiti and African nations. Some reporters indicated the irony of the president honoring King, who fought for equality and justice for African-Americans, one day after he disparaged African nations. The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is celebrated every third Monday in January; this year, it coincides with his actual birthday, January 15. The holiday designation was signed into law in 1983 by then-President Ronald Reagan. The holiday honors King for his work to fight segregation and other racial injustice through peaceful marches and protests. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his work. He was assassinated in 1968. President Donald Trump has suggested he is on very good terms with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un despite their recent debate over whose desk has a bigger nuclear button. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un," Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, adding, "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised." When asked whether he had talked to Kim, Trump replied, "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 has in the past called Kim "short and fat" and "a bad dude." He has been fond of of mocking Kim as "little Rocket Man" because of North Korean missile tests. Kim has called Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and has threatened to tame him with fire. Trump appeared to tell the Journal that his tweeted insults and the cryptic comment about good relations with Kim were part of his strategy. "You'll see that a lot with me," he said about his tweets. "And then all of the sudden, somebody's my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. ... I'm a very flexible person." The president has gone back and forth between an apparent willingness to meet with Kim and calling such talks, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's overtures to the North, a waste of time. Just Wednesday, Trump told South Korean President Moon Jae-in by telephone that he was now open to talking to North Korea "at the appropriate time under the right circumstances." Trump also said he hoped this week's talks between North and South Korea the first in two years would "lead to success for the world." The U.N. human rights office has sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's vulgar comments on migrants from Africa and Haiti, calling them shocking and shameful. Trump's reportedly crude outburst against migrants from the African continent and Haiti have set off a firestorm of global rebuke. Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. Human Rights Office, calls Trump's remarks clearly racist. "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 's---holes' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome. The positive comment on Norway makes the underlying sentiment very clear," Colville said. Recalling Trump's earlier comments vilifying Mexicans who cross the border as "rapists" and Trump's re-tweeting of anti-Muslim propaganda from a far-right British group, Colville says policy proposals targeting entire groups on grounds of nationality or religion goes against universal values. "This is not just a story about vulgar language," he said. "It is about opening the door to humanity's worst side. It is about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and even destroy the lives of many people." Colville warns that comments by a major political figure, such as the president of the United States, can have damaging and dangerous consequences. Trump's remarks were made at a meeting of Congressional leaders working on a bipartisan immigration deal to allow some 800,000 so-called Dreamers to remain in the United States. U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has previously said the future of the Dreamers should not be used as a bargaining chip to negotiate restrictive immigration measures. The young people are human beings, not commodities, he said. American and Japanese military forces have launched joint exercises amid tensions with North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The 13th annual Iron Fist exercises kicked off Friday in the U.S. western state of California and will continue through February 12. More than 500 U.S. Marines and sailors are partnering with about 350 members of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force to train in fire support operations and amphibious assaults. "This is realistic and challenging training in partnership with the Japanese to better prepare us and them for anything that might happen in the Pacific so that we are ready to respond," Second Lt. Tori Simenec, a spokesman for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit in California, told VOA. Exercise Iron Fist comes as tensions with North Korea have put Japan, South Korea and the United States on alert. North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in November that some experts believe is capable of hitting anywhere in the continental United States. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un exchanged threats about the size, location and potency of their "nuclear buttons." The U.S. and South Korea recently postponed joint military exercises until after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics next month. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called the delay a "practical matter" and said exercises would resume after the March 9-18 Paralympic Games. Simenec said there was no talk of postponing Iron Fist, which she stressed were not related to events happening in North Korea. Iron Fist training will take place at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Naval Amphibious Base Coronado and Naval Auxilliary Landing Field San Clemente Island. The main training event will be a scenario-based amphibious assault launched from the USS Rushmore amphibious landing ship, in coordination with an inland helicopter assault. This will be the last joint exercise before Japan establishes its Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade in March. The new Japanese unit is similar to the U.S. Marines and could be used to defend contested territories. Walmart will raise entry-level wages for U.S. hourly employees to $11 an hour in February as it benefits from last month's major overhaul of the U.S. tax code and competes for low-wage workers in a tight labor market. But on the same day, the world's largest retailer and private employer, officially called Wal-Mart Stores Inc, announced layoffs as it shuttered many of its Sam's Club discount warehouse stores. A senior company official who declined to be named said about 62 stores would be affected, about one-tenth of the chain overall. About 50 stores will be shut permanently after a review of store profitability and up to 12 more stores will be shut and reopened as e-commerce warehouses, the person said. Every Sam's Club store employs about 150 workers, bringing the total number of affected jobs to about 7,500, the person said. Many of them will be accommodated in new jobs at the newly opened warehouses and other stores, the official said. Earlier Thursday, Walmart announced the wage hike saying it would also offer a one-time cash bonus, based on length of service, of up to $1,000, and expand maternity and parental leave benefits. Reactions The layoffs went unaddressed but the wage increase attracted praise from the White House. "Walmart is the largest employer in the country and to see them make that kind of effort to over a million workers is a big deal ... and I think further evidence that the tax reform and tax cut package are having the impact that we had hoped," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Thursday. U.S. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin also praised Walmart's decision to raise wages. The timing of the store closure announcement hours after the wage hike drew some criticism. "While pay raises are usually a good thing, this is nothing but another public relations stunt from Walmart to distract from the reality that they are laying off thousands of workers and the ones who remain will continue to receive low wages," said activist Randy Parraz, director of Making Change at Walmart, a United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) affiliate. Wage hikes The pay increase, Walmart's third minimum wage increase since 2015, and bonus will benefit more than 1 million U.S. hourly workers, the company said. The Walmart wage hike, taking minimum pay up from the current $10 an hour after in-house training, is aimed at helping the company attract workers at a time when the U.S. unemployment rate is at 4.1 percent, a 17-year low, making it harder to attract and retain minimum wage employees. Walmart is likely to save billions of dollars from the new tax law, which slashed the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, and the wage hikes will cost the retailer only a fraction of those gains, analysts said. "Given how low unemployment is, they would have had to hike wages anyway, the tax bill just made that move easier," said Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarborough. Rival retailer Target Corp raised its minimum wage to $11 in September, and said it would raise its minimum wage to $15 by 2020. Walmart and Target's new minimum wage levels exceed the state minimum wage, in all but three states, according to a research note from financial services firm BTIG. Eighteen U.S. states increased their minimum wage on Jan.1 but the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. Walmart's announcement follows companies like AT&T Inc, Wells Fargo & Co and Boeing Co, which have all promised more pay for workers since the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress passed the biggest overhaul to the U.S. tax code in 30 years. President Donald Trump's vulgar comments to U.S. lawmakers explaining his opposition to Haitian and African migrants has sparked outrage and condemnation at home and abroad. U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville called the comments racist. "It's about opening the door wider to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy the lives of many people," he said. Trump reportedly said migrants from Africa come from "s---hole countries," a remark Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois confirmed that Trump used during a meeting on immigration. WATCH: Trump Under Fire From Countries He Reportedly Deemed 'S---holes' Friday, the African Union Mission in Washington issued a statement expressing "infuriation, disappointment and outrage over the unfortunate statement" made by Trump. "The African Union Mission condemns the comments in the strongest terms and demands a retraction of the comment as well as an apology to not only to the Africans but to all people of African descent around the globe," the group said. The mission said there is a "serious need for dialogue between the U.S. administration and the African countries" to address the administration's "huge misunderstanding of the African continent and its people." The African National Congress, South Africa's ruling party, said Trump's remarks were "extremely offensive." Raoul Peck, a Haitian-born director and former Haitian minister of culture, said he was "shocked, appalled and outraged" by Trump's remark. "The responsibility of being the president of this great country is not a game nor a reality show," Peck tweeted. "It demands basic education, basic insight, a dose of humanity and some intelligence. Mr Trump does not and cannot pass any of these grades." U.S. diplomats summoned State Department officials said Friday that American diplomats in Haiti and in Botswana had been summoned by government officials to explain the remarks. Botswana issued a formal statement, seeking clarification on whether the United States truly regards the African country in the derogatory way reported. Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Paul G. Altidor, also condemned Trump's remarks. "In the spirit of the people of Haiti we feel in the statements, if they were made, the president was either misinformed or miseducated about Haiti and its people," Altidor said in a written statement. The State Department confirmed Friday that U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley had stepped down, saying his resignation was in the works for some time. Reuters said Feeley wrote in his resignation letter that he could no longer serve under Trump in an apolitical fashion. Asked about the ambassador's letter Friday, Undersecretary Steve Goldstein told reporters, "Everyone has a line they cannot cross. If that was his line, he was right to resign." Goldstein said career U.S. diplomats care deeply about the people in the countries they serve. He added that Foreign Service officers continue their work as usual, though he acknowledged that job might be a little harder today after the controversy surrounding Trump's comments. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who spoke to new civil services employees on Friday, did not directly address the president's comments. U.S. lawmakers speak out In Congress, Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond of Louisiana and fellow Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York said Friday that they planned to introduce a censure resolution next week to allow lawmakers to "speak with one voice" and "condemn President Trump for his racist statements." Earlier in the day, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin told a forum that he found the president's remarks "unfortunate and unhelpful" and said the U.S. should support the contributions of immigrants. On Thursday, U.S. Republican Representative Mia Love, whose family came from Haiti, said the president's comments were "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values," and she called on Trump to apologize. Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida said it was "incomprehensible" a U.S. president would utter such remarks. Minnesota state Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who in 2016 became the first Somali-American elected to a state legislative office in the United States, said she was "disturbed" by the president's words. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican, tweeted late Thursday, "My ancestors came from countries not nearly as prosperous as the one we live in today. I'm glad that they were welcomed here." The White House released a statement Thursday that defended the president's views, without referencing his specific comments. "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." VOA correspondents Margaret Besheer, Steve Herman, Michael Bowman and Katherine Gypson contributed to this report. As Wyclef Jean records in his New Jersey studio, electricity flows through his fingertips - a harmonic concoction of adrenaline, then inspiration. Or so he describes the process that has seamlessly blended day-and-night sessions over his 27-year high-profile musical journey, from early 90s-era Fugees member to solo artist. But until now, the 48-year old Haitian-native refugee, rapper, musician and cultural icon hadnt produced a studio album in eight years, the longest drought in his 20-year solo career - one that he says was sparked by a return trip to Haiti. I had an epiphany, he told VOA in an exclusive interview. You cant spend a lifetime just doing music. Following the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti that left more than 200,000 dead, Jean made a high-profile bid to run for the nation's presidency; an effort that didn't pan out from the beginning on constitutional grounds. But the effort, he contends, was never a failure due to the world appeal it brought to the countrys woes. So when the Trump administration announced an end to Temporary Protected Status for nearly 60,000 Haitian beneficiaries in November, citing sufficiently improved conditions for nationals to return safely to the island nation, Jean used his stardom again, on stage and in interviews, to lambast the decision. Its sort of like youre just sending them back to their death and famine, he told VOA, comparing their plight to being on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, where thousands of homeless residents live on the streets. TPS is scheduled to expire in 2019 for Haitians. There is still a reality on the ground in Haiti, Jean said. The level of how many people thats deported that are in prisons in Haiti, the structure of the police force, the judicial system Haiti ranks 163 out of 188 on the 2015 Human Development Index, a composite statistic by the United Nations Development Program, factoring life expectancy, education, and income per capita. 24.7 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty - $1.25 a day - according to 2013 data. Growing up, Jean knew poverty, only leaving it behind after his ascension into hip-hop. A refugee at the age of nine, Jean and his mother scraped by on welfare in the United States, first in Marlboro Houses, a notorious public housing project in Brooklyn, and later in Newark, New Jersey. It was then that Jeans musical abilities began to take form and offer a more promising future. Wyclef details his journey in his new album, Carnival III: The Fall and Rise of a Refugee, and in a conversation with VOA, below. (VOA spoke to Wyclef Jean prior to President Donald Trump's reported disparaging remarks about Haiti and African countries). Dozens of Yazidi children who have been rescued from the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria are now receiving counseling to cope with and recover from the trauma they experienced during their years in captivity. At Qadiya refugee camp near the Iraqi Kurdistan Region's northern city of Duhok, more than 100 Yazidi boys and girls aged between 4 and 13, who were kidnapped by IS in August 2014, are getting assistance to recover from the psychological harm they sustained under IS control. The children were smuggled out of IS-controlled territories in Iraq and Syria in recent months. Most of the boys were trained by IS to engage in militancy, while many girls were sexually abused. Zahid Suhail, 12, is one of the boys who was indoctrinated with IS extremist ideology in Iraq and sent to Syria for military training when he was just 9 years old. "I was first sent to a military camp in Tal Afar for three months and later transferred to a military camp in Mosul," Suhail told VOA. "I received religious training on the Quran, creed, and the main obligations. They later arranged a test, which I passed," he added. While in Mosul, Suhail said, he also was taught Arabic and was prevented from using his native Kurdish language. He is still unable to speak Kurdish. His family and psychiatrists are trying to help him to recover his native tongue. After finishing his religious training, Suhail was sent to the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zour, where he was trained for fighting. "Someone called Abu Khatab al-Iraqi took me to Syria. They sent me to a group of [IS] special forces in a military camp near the airport of Deir el-Zour," Suhail said. 'Cubs of the caliphate' Suhail told VOA that shortly after finishing his military training, he was made a member of a group of IS child recruits known as the "cubs of the caliphate." There is no official data on how many children were schooled and trained by IS since 2014, but human rights organizations estimate the number to be in the thousands. WATCH: French Group Strives to Help Yazidi Children Traumatized by IS In Iraq, the government's counterterrorism program has listed about 2,000 children as having been potentially influenced or brainwashed by Islamic State ideology. Many of those child recruits died while fighting on behalf of IS in the last year. An IS video released in February 2017 showed two teenage Yazidi brothers purportedly blowing up their explosives-laden vehicles in an attack on Iraqi forces in Mosul. Psychologists at Qadiya refugee camp said Suhail was fortunate to have been smuggled out of Deir el-Zour, because IS fought a losing battle against the Syrian army and its allied forces last October. Now their job is to help him overcome the mental stress and health effects caused by years of IS indoctrination. "They brainwashed him for 3 years and, in many ways, made him act exactly like one of them," Naeef Jardo, a psychiatrist at the camp, told VOA. "We are working hard to bring him back to normal." Jardo is among several specialists at the camp who are working to help rehabilitate the children. French organization Yahad In-Unum is funding the children's recovery and reintegration process. In addition to psychological counseling, the camp provides several recreational activities and learning programs to help the children learn new skills. Jardo said the younger children have shown a lot of improvement, while those older than 9 might need a longer period of treatment, particularly traumatized girls who were sexually abused. One of the girls at the camp, Madeha Ibrahim, 13, said she was still in shock from the horrors she suffered at the hands of IS as a sex slave. "Abu Usuf raped me and beat me a lot with a hose," she told VOA while recalling the story of her enslavement by an IS fighter in Mosul. "He tortured me a lot." Ibrahim said she was later sold to another IS fighter of Turkish origin. "The Turkish [IS member] grabbed my ponytail and hit my head on the wall three times until I became unconscious," she added. 'I offered to convert' Evana Hassan, another 13-year-old girl at the camp, told VOA she experienced similar abuse from an IS fighter because she refused to convert to Islam. "He told me, 'I will sell you.' I suffered a lot from being sold to different people. I told him, 'Don't sell me. I will convert to your religion.' " Hassan said the IS fighter repeatedly raped her at age 12, claiming she had reached the age of sexual maturity. "When I turned 12 years old, he told me, 'You have reached the age of marriage. I will marry you now,' " Hassan said. The camp organizers said that while they would continue to care for the 108 rescued boys and girls, they were prepared to receive more children as they were found across Iraq and Syria. Yazidi organizations say about 2,000 Yazidis, mostly women and children, remain missing even as IS has lost most of its enclaves in Iraq and Syria. "We are continuously welcoming new survivors at our camp," Khalaf Alias of Yahad In-Unum told VOA. "We expect hundreds more children to be found." Alias said it would most likely take years for the children to recover and that more international support would be needed to help the Yazidi community in Iraq. "Those children have gone through a lot of suffering. They deserve more attention from everyone," Alias said. The 15th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival announced its slate of about 170 films on Thursday. The festival, held in Missoula on Feb. 16-25, will be eclectic as ever. Attendees can expect a strong showing of movies related to activism and social justice. Festival director Rachel Gregg said they are "politically charged, but not in the the traditional sense," covering "how people are capturing momentum" and responding to political events in the U.S. and abroad. She said they provide "beautiful context and perspective for the kind of agency that comes out of difficult sociopolitical times." Some are close to home. In "Dark Money," Helena native Kimberly Reed examines the effects of the Citizens United ruling on Montana's elections. Her film will premiere at Sundance before coming to Missoula. While filming a documentary on the tar sands, "The Reluctant Radical," in Washington, director Lindsey Grayzel was arrested. This year's nationally known directors for retrospective showcases are Kirby Dick and Greg Barker. Dick's films include "The Hunting Ground," a 2015 exploration of the nationwide epidemic of campus sexual assault. Barker has a new film, "The Final Year," on the Obama administration's foreign policy efforts in 2016. His other films have explored counterterrorism and the search for Osama bin Laden. The jury of 16 filmmakers and industry professionals combed through about 2,000 national and international documentaries of all lengths that were submitted to the open call this year. The percentage of those films with merit has increased, said Doug Hawes-Davis, the director of programming and the festival founder. He said one juror told him "there were hardly any that didn't require serious thought as to whether they could be in the festival." Senior programmer Michael Workman said the jury examines each film's balance of craft, storytelling and ideas. They often reject films that cover important issues if the artistic quality isn't high enough, Hawes-Davis said. The subject matter, meanwhile, is wide open, covering politics, music, art, the environment, sports, outdoors adventures and more. The selections are divided into "strands" to help viewers home in on general subject areas, such as "Activism and Justice," "Natural Facts," or "Stranger than Fiction," which gathers quirkier stories or character studies, or "Sights and Sounds," which compiles arts-related movies. The festival has a new Native Filmmaker Initiative, which brought screenings of indigenous films to schools across Montana with "virtual" visits from filmmakers. Gregg said they've been more intentional about the programming of Native films and made a specific open call for work by indigenous filmmakers regardless of subject matter. Outside of the traditional documentary format, the New York Times is sending four virtual-reality documentaries about Antarctica. This year, the festival received a $20,000 matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the five-day DocShop, its forum for industry professionals. This year, the focus is on the "intersection of film and technology," Gregg said. They'll look at emerging mediums such as virtual-reality, streaming, audio documentaries and more that find new ways to tell stories and reach audiences, she said. The grant has increased the number of people attending the DocShop. This year, professionals from Vimeo, the Sundance Institute New Frontier, Seed & Spark, Fandor and more will attend. The Tribeca Film Institute is returning with its If/Then Pitch, a chance for filmmakers to make proposals for stories about the American West. The winner is eligible for up to $20,000. The recipients of last year's funding will screen "Renga for the West," in which refugees in Missoula filmed stories about their experiences. Last year, the festival had attendance of about 20,000 including an estimated 200 filmmakers. To view the official selections, go to bigskyfilmfest.org. To his toolbox of Botox, fillers and plastic surgery, cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Murad Alam has added a new, low-cost, noninvasive anti-aging treatment: facial yoga. Dermatologists measured improvements in the appearance of the faces of a small group of middle-age women after they did half an hour of daily face-toning exercises for eight weeks, followed by alternate-day exercises for another 12 weeks. The results surprised lead author Alam, vice chair and professor of dermatology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. "In fact, the results were stronger than I expected," he said in a phone interview. "It's really a win-win for patients." Participants included 27 women between 40 and 65, though only 16 completed the full course. It began with two 90-minute muscle-resistant facial exercise-training sessions led by co-author Gary Sikorski of Happy Face Yoga in Providence, Rhode Island. Participants learned to perform cheek pushups and eye-bag removers, among other exercises. Then they practiced at home. Improvements noted Dermatologists looking at unmarked before-and-after photos saw improvements in upper cheek and lower cheek fullness, and they estimated the average age of women who stuck with the program as significantly younger at the end than at the start. The average estimated age dropped almost three years, from nearly 51 years to 48 years. Participants also rated themselves as more satisfied with the appearance of their faces at the study's end, Alam and colleagues reported in JAMA Dermatology. "Now there is some evidence that facial exercises may improve facial appearance and reduce some visible signs of aging," Alam said. "Assuming the findings are confirmed in a larger study, individuals now have a low-cost, non-toxic way of looking younger or augmenting other cosmetic or anti-aging treatments they may be seeking." The exercises enlarge and strengthen facial muscles to firm and tone the face, giving it a younger appearance, he said. Happy Face sells instructional worksheets promising smoother skin, firmed cheeks and raised eyelids for $19.95. DVDs cost $24.95. Some skepticism But not all dermatologists are rushing to promote the videos or the exercises. Dr. John Chi, a plastic surgeon and professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, said the study raises more questions than it answers. "The jury is still out on whether or not facial yoga is effective in reversing the signs of aging," he said in an email. Chi, who was not involved with the study, said he would recommend facial yoga to patients who found it relaxing and enjoyable but not for the purpose of facial rejuvenation. "While the premise of facial exercises to improve the facial appearance or reverse signs of aging is an appealing one, there is little evidence to suggest that there is any benefit in this regard," he said. Chi said facial yoga had not been rigorously examined in peer-reviewed scientific studies. Asked whether procedures such as face-lifts, Botox and fillers had been rigorously examined in peer-reviewed studies, he replied: "Great question. Attempts to do so have been made in the scientific literature with variable levels of scientific rigor." Alam agrees that his study raises additional research questions, such as whether the exercises would work for men and how much time people need to commit to doing the exercises for them to be optimally effective. He would like to see a larger study. 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. In Malawi, police tell VOA they have issued an arrest warrant for a budding local hip-hop artist behind a new song rights activists say promotes violence against women. The title of the song is Rape, and the government censorship board is also reviewing it amid calls that it be banned. Local artist Mwiza Chavula raps in the Chichewa language, which is widely spoken in Malawi. In his latest song, a man is telling a woman long refusing his sexual advances that he will one day get her drunk, seal her mouth with a tape or socks, and rape her. The song ends with the sound of a woman crying. The spokesperson for the Malawi National Police, James Kadadzera, told VOA authorities are seeking Chavula for questioning. We are looking for the artist for questioning. Wherever we may find him, we will definitely pick him. I will not say much now, but I will divulge more information once he has been interviewed," he said. Public backlash Chavula released the song in December, it gained momentum on social media in early January. The public backlash was swift. Womens groups took to social media under the hashtag #arrestchavula. Several popular online music distributors, like MalawiMusic.com, pulled the song and apologized. It is a bad song, that, you know, even as a parent you would not want your child to listen or to get hold of that content or to be given air time in a normal society where human rights are entrenched in our constitution, says U.N. Women gender activist Habiba Osman, who works in the capital, Lilongwe. The artist, Chavula, has apologized on his Facebook page and in interviews with local media. But Osman says an apology is not enough. I think we really need to go beyond saying sorry, she said. "So what we need to do is to really reflect, as a nation, beyond what this song is projecting; our attitudes toward violence against women and girls. Is it something that we should look at as if it is normal? Because if people are free to express such thing of content in a song, it means maybe society treat this things as normal. Calls for censorship Organizations, including the Women Legal Resource Center, are calling on the Malawi Censorship Board to ban Chavulas song from radio and TV on moral grounds. Chief censorship officer Humphreys Mpondaminga told VOA the board is reviewing the case. Once we are done, we will communicate to the media. For now, let us remain quiet until we do a fair job of assessing the song first, he said. Already it [the song] has given a threat to a lot of many people, including myself," says girls rights campaigner Cathy Kita. "I would not be comfortable like walking in the street, then someone sing that song coming from my back because next thing I am thinking is, what they gonna do? Follow-up song? The artist told the local radio station that in part two, which is yet to be released, the man in the story gets arrested. Maybe people should hear part two if they are willing to, but if they do not want to hear part two, fine, but for me, as a musician, I was not trying to offend anybody with the song, he said. A ban would prohibit public performance of the song including broadcast on local radio and TV stations. But even though popular local sites have deleted the song, it can still found circulating in online chat groups. Support us - Help us upgrade our services! Maintaining our website and our free apps does require, however, considerable time and resources. We're aiming to achieve uninterrupted service wherever an earthquake or volcano eruption unfolds, and your donations can make it happen! Every donation will be highly appreciated. Improved multilanguage support Tsunami alerts Faster responsiveness Design upgrade Detailed quake stats Additional seismic data sources Download and Upgrade the Volcanoes & Earthquakes app to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: Android | IOS to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: We truly love working to bring you the latest volcano and earthquake data from around the world.We need financing to increase hard- and software capacity as well as support our editor team.If you find the information useful and would like to support our team in integrating further features, write great content, and in upgrading our soft- and hardware, please PayPal or Online credit card payment )., these features have been added recently: Gift Article Share Ford warns against driving '06 Rangers Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Ford said Thursday it has confirmed a second death in an older pickup truck caused by a defective Takata air-bag inflater and urged 2,900 owners in North America to stop driving the trucks immediately until they can get replacement parts. The automaker said it confirmed last month that a death in a July 2017 crash of a 2006 Ford Ranger in West Virginia was caused by a defective Takata inflater. Ford had reported a similar death in South Carolina that occurred in December 2015. Ford said both Takata deaths occurred with inflaters built on the same day and installed in 2006 Ranger pickups. At least 21 deaths worldwide are linked to the Takata inflaters, which can rupture and send deadly metal fragments into the driver's body. Ford issued a new recall for automobiles that had been previously recalled in 2016. Of those 391,000 2004-2006 Ranger vehicles, the new recall announced Thursday affects 2,900 vehicles. These include 2,700 in the United States and nearly 200 in Canada. Advertisement A Mazda 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. Reuters Facebook song licenses include Pharrell, Drake In its quest to become an alternative to YouTube, Facebook has struck a deal with the video site's loudest critic in the music industry. The social-media giant secured licenses to songs from Pharrell and Drake through a deal with Global Music Rights, an organization led by Irving Azoff. The veteran agent and label executive has hammered YouTube, the most popular place online to stream songs, for not doing enough to share revenue with artists and songwriters. Facebook has announced a series of deals in just a few weeks, including licensing agreements with Universal Music and Sony Music. The company also announced four new license deals in a blog post Thursday with Kobalt Music, SESAC, HFA/Rumblefish and GMR. Advertisement For Facebook users, the deal means they will no longer see some videos, such as clips of wedding dances, taken down because of the snippets of music being played. Bloomberg News The U.S. budget deficit is widening on increased spending, just as tax cuts look set to knock the other side of the government's ledger: revenue. The U.S. budget gap rose 7 percent, to $225 billion, in the first quarter of the government's fiscal year from a year earlier, the Treasury Department reported Thursday. Spending rose at a slightly higher pace than revenue, increasing 5 percent, to $994.5 billion, between October and December. Receipts gained 4 percent, to $769.5 billion. Many economy watchers expect that the federal deficit will swell after the Trump administration enacted tax cuts late last year that will reduce federal revenue by $1.5 trillion over a decade. Advertisement Facebook and Twitter are facing heat from shareholders who say the companies need to do more to combat sexual harassment of women on their platforms. Arjuna Capital and the New York State Common Retirement Fund said Thursday they have co-filed shareholder resolutions asking both social networks to produce a "detailed report on the scope of sexual harassment on their platforms and the remedies either in place or already contemplated for the future." The resolutions also address fake news, election interference, violence and hate speech. From news reports 8:30 a.m.: Labor Department releases consumer price index for December. 8:30 a.m.: Commerce Department releases retail sales data for December. 10 a.m.: Commerce Department releases business inventories for November. Earnings: JPMorgan Chase. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Sometimes, a hat is just a hat. But not this month at Studio Gallery, where "Hats Off: Taking Art Outside the Gallery" entertainingly juxtaposes works by area artists with the toppers they made for local collector Steven Krensky. Most are light-colored fedoras embellished with designs that exemplify the artists' styles, yet a few toy with the very idea of a hat. Krensky curated the show, drawing on more than 50 lids made for him over the past 15 years. The cap is integral to the piece in the gallery's window Stephen Hay's life-size sculpture of a seated musician. Krensky (or the artist herself) has playfully turned one of Sondra Arkin's wire-sculpture "shadow drawings" into a hat rack for a chapeau flocked with shapes like the ones in the adjacent Arkin piece. Tory Cowles's distinctive, broad-brimmed number, made of two very differently shaped pieces of metal, would be ideal for a flat-headed robot. The bulkiest headpiece is Alison Sigethy's diving helmet, displayed next to two mixed-media pieces that evoke oceanic depths, one with lights and the other with actual water. Many of the hats are decorated with pictures of animals, from ants to an elephant. There's a Disney cartoon lion atop Nancy Nesvet's pink "Hear Pussy Roar," and two fedoras with ancient Egyptian totems next to Malik Lloyd's blackboard lesson in the Afrocentric interpretation of Pharaonic Egypt. Nearby geographically, if not chronologically Helen Zughaib's brightly striped entry complements a picture of a woman who has perched a fancy dress hat atop her black shroud. Advertisement Among the abstractionists who successfully transfer their work from flat to shaped fabric are Joan Belmar and Pat Goslee; his circles and dashed lines and her vivid biomorphic forms suit the hats' contours. (Goslee is married to Washington Post reporter Michael O'Sullivan.) Yet most of the artists, perhaps inspired by the practical nature of their assigned canvas, take a representational approach. That includes Songmi Heart, who tweaked the rules charmingly by painting three pairs of shoes: one with autumn leaves, another with summer grass and the last with toes. After all, when taking art out of the gallery, footwear is even more important than headgear. Hats Off: Taking Art Outside the Gallery Through Jan. 27 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R St. NW. 202-232-8734. studiogallerydc.com. Ito, McFarland & Isenberg The past is seared into the present in the photographs of Kei Ito, whose "Only What We Can Carry" is the largest of three shows at IA&A at Hillyer. The show's title refers to the few possessions allowed Japanese residents and Japanese American citizens when they were sent to U.S. internment camps during World War II. But Ito's technique, which yields coronas and silhouettes in the colors of flame and char, also evokes the fire- and nuclear-bomb devastation inflicted on Japan at the end of its campaign to subjugate Asia. The Tokyo-born, Baltimore-based Ito is the grandson of a man who lived through the incineration of Hiroshima. That legacy is palpable in this show, even though it's not directly addressed. Most of the pieces are X-ray-like photos of U.S. government documents about the establishment and administration of the internment camps. Superimposed over these are such simple objects as a passport, a notebook and chopsticks. Sometimes highlighted are hands and items that didn't exist in the 1940s, including a laptop. They seem to represent the ongoing history of families whose lives were disrupted in the 1940s. Advertisement Also on display is "Infertile American Dream," several floor-mounted photos produced by a similar process on a single day: Nov. 8, 2016. The pictures glow ominously, as if Election Day was another Hiroshima, or at least a Fukushima. Different sorts of scars are memorialized in Grant McFarland's "Residuals," which consists of several sculptural installations. The D.C. artist assembles wood, stone and metal from abandoned mines, farms and small factories in eastern Upstate New York, where he recently did a residency. He arranges the pieces to invoke obsolete industries and their lingering impact on the landscape (a bit of which can be seen in a video glimpsed through a wooden window frame). A metal clock on the wall suggests that it's time to get back to work, but there's nothing to be done. In a darkened room between Ito and McFarland's shows, Monroe Isenberg's "Lighthouse" strikes a more meditative tone. The local artist's sculpture consists of a large steel pyramid lit from the inside. The piece dangles, inverted, in the middle of the space, emitting light through its cut-off tip. From a distance, viewers also can see light that's reflected on the wall and bobbles like gentle waves. Rather than send a beacon across a menacing sea, this structure holds both motion and illumination within itself. Kei Ito: Only What We Can Carry; Grant McFarland: Residuals; and Monroe Isenberg: Lighthouse Through Jan. 28 at IA&A at Hillyer, 9 Hillyer Ct. NW. 202-338-0325. athillyer.org. Ito and others will discuss "Art in Context: Japan" at noon Jan. 24. Free; RSVP required. BD Richardson Maryland photographer BD Richardson is not locked into any one theme, locale or mode. The pictures in her Touchstone Gallery show, "Mosaic: Moments & Methods," are derived from digital sources as well as from film. But she does have a feel for the historical and the timeless, which she evokes with 19th-century techniques (salt printing) or simulated ones (transferring images to weathered metal plates to yield what she calls "new age 'tintypes'"). Advertisement The majority of the show's photos are black-and-white or sepia-toned, which befits subjects such as battered lone buildings (often churches) on wide plains under turbulent clouds. Richardson visited China in the 1980s, and many of her images of that country in that moment not long ago, yet so far from its contemporary boom are monochromatic. She also signifies distance by using muted colors, both in her China pictures and in views of an often-snowy Paris. Occasionally, bright colors pop from a subdued milieu, as in a picture of watermen's buckets and gloves, their plastic hues incongruously hot on a chilly gray day. A few seascapes include electric orange skies, and there's semiabstract botanicals in lustrous pinks and purples. But a gentler, slightly faded look suits her deftly framed vignettes, even the ones with such brawny elements as vast skies and rows of big, black trees. Richardson's taste for outdated photographic methods mirrors her penchant for focusing on lost times and places. BD Richardson: Mosaic: Moments & Methods Through Jan. 28 at Touchstone Gallery, 901 New York Ave. NW. 202-347-2787. touchstonegallery.com. GiftOutline Gift Article Western Montanans are gearing up to run for the Legislature in 2018, as all House seats and half of the Senate seats are open. A few new names appeared on the first day of filing, including longtime Missoula City Council representative Marilyn Marler, who is running for the House, alongside Thomas Winter, another Missoula local who unsuccessfully ran for City Council in 2017. Jon Van Dyke, who filed for Missoula's HD 89 had a busy day, as he was the first to file for the seat, before withdrawing his application and posting on Facebook he'd support Patrick Weasel Head, who filed an hour after him. But by late afternoon, the post was off Van Dyke's page and he'd recommitted to the race against Weasel Head and Katie Sullivan. Only eight incumbents had filed, out of the 48 western Montana seats open. Senator Cynthia Wolken, D-Missoula, is stepping down to take a new job, while other term-limited representatives like Bryce Bennett, D-Missoula, and Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, are jumping to the Senate for another shot. Filing closes March 5. Below are those who filed Thursday: I-Indpendent G-Green Party *-incumbent Senate Districts: 1 Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka 4 Mark Blasdel, R-Kalispell* 5 Jennifer Allen, D-Kalispell 48 Nate McConnell, D-Missoula 49 Diane Sands, D-Missoula* 50 Bryce Bennett, D-Missoula House Districts: 1 Steve Gunderson, R-Libby* 3 Zac Perry, D-Hungry Horse* 4 Matt Regier, R-Kalispell* Kwen Shirley, D-Kalispell 5 Dave Fern, D-Whitefish 6 Carl Glimm, R-Kila* 7 Frank Garner, R-Kalispell* 8 John Fuller, R-Kalispell 9 Warren Illi, R-Kalispell 10 Mark Noland, R-Bigfork* 11 Derek Skees, R-Kalispell* 12 Greg Hertz, R-Polson* 14 Denley Loge, R-St. Regis* Diane Magone, D-Superior 15 Adrien Owen Wagner, G-Heart Butte Marvin Weatherwax Jr., D-Browning 86 David Bedey, R-Hamilton Jacob DeVries, R-Hamilton 87 Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton* 88 Evan Anderson, I-Stevensville Margaret Gorski, D-Stevensville Sharon Greef, R-Florence 89 Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula Patrick Weasel Head, D-Missoula Jon Van Dyke, D-Missoula 90 Marilyn Marler, D-Missoula 91 Nancy de Pastino, D-Missoula Connie Keogh, D-Misssoula 92 Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula Lee Bridges, D-East Missoula 94 Kimberly Dudik, D-Missoula* 95 Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula* 96 Thomas Winter, D-Missoula 98 Willis Curdy, D-Missoula* 99 Marilyn Ryan, D-Missoula* 100 Andrea Olsen, D-Missoula Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share For Christmas this year, Missy Mazzoli's aunt knitted her a black sheep. It was an affectionate gesture. Mazzoli, 37, is one of the top composers of her generation, but to a family of non-musicians in Lansford, Pa., a small town about an hour from Philadelphia, her career seems to have come out of left field. Mazzoli's early musical predilections ran to the video of "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses ("I was obsessed with the drama of it," she says). As for fitting in: "My family are all special-ed teachers," she says, laughing, pleased rather than put off by the gift. In the new music world, however, Mazzoli is less a black sheep than a sacred cow: an "it" girl of the contemporary scene. Seven or eight years ago, she started making waves with her chamber-ensemble-cum-girl-band, Victoire, a group with a funky alt-classical vibe that she formed as an outlet for performing her own music. Listening to the band's post-minimalist drones overlaid with expressive spasms of melody in an electronic haze, playing at the Atlas on H Street in 2011, you might not have guessed that Mazzoli's work was going to veer into the world of mainstream opera. But on Friday, the Washington National Opera will be presenting the world premiere of her third opera, a 70-minute piece called "Proving Up," and the opera world counts the company lucky to get it. "Proving Up," which Mazzoli wrote with the prolific librettist Royce Vavrek, based on a short story by Karen Russell ("Swamplandia"), is the latest entrant in the lists of WNO's American Opera Initiative commissions. Now in its sixth year, the initiative involves three 20-minute chamber operas (this year's trio will be performed on Saturday, twice each) and one hour-long work. Though it was envisioned as a training ground for young composers, the hour-long piece has become less of a steppingstone than a showcase: a nod to new work by a company where money is too tight to commission such work for the main stage. As a result, its "young" composers, increasingly, are people who already have another opera or two under their belts ("Proving Up" was co-commissioned by Opera Omaha and New York's Miller Theater). "There's often a centrifugal force toward certain people," says Francesca Zambello, WNO's artistic director, who approached Mazzoli about the commission several years ago, when Mazzoli was an artist-in-residence at Opera Philadelphia. "Composers," Mazzoli observes jokingly, "are 'young' until they die." Advertisement Between the commission and the premiere, however, came the work that put Mazzoli even more squarely on the map: an operatic adaptation of Lars von Trier's film "Breaking the Waves," also written with Vavrek, that premiered at Opera Philadelphia in 2016 and came to the Prototype Festival in New York a few months later. "Breaking the Waves" was a turning point, not only for Mazzoli, but also for the companies that commissioned it. It's a powerful, distinctive opera, well-written for the voice, dramatically effective, with a luminous sound world that bears as many traces of Benjamin Britten as of Mazzoli's minimalist antecedents. She strove to find music that would respond to the Scottish landscape: "a sensual bed of material" corresponding to Scotland's lush greenness, with jagged rocks and storms reflected in "these crazy unexpected things every time you turn a corner." And she invested her characters, Zambello says, with "a real aural world," which Zambello compares to Debussy. Hearing it the for the first time at an early workshop during Mazzoli's Opera Philadelphia residency, David Devan, general director and president of Opera Philadelphia, says that "eight bars in, we were punching each other in the arm. It sucked us in, and was just rich and stark at the same time. David [Levy, senior vice president for artistic operations,] whispered, 'This is opera!' " Advertisement "Breaking the Waves" was a critical and popular success. "It elevated Missy to a different place in the field," says Beth Morrison of the Prototype festival. "I think it will be one of the works in the canon done by large opera companies. Being a commissioner on that has been a really important thing for me and my company." It's a striking thing to hear from Morrison, who has become a one-woman proponent of cutting-edge opera across the country. But Morrison is also particularly bound up with Mazzoli's trajectory the women have known each other since they were students, both attending Boston University and, some years later, Yale at the same time. In Morrison's early days as a presenter, Mazzoli approached her with other composers who became significant collaborators, among them David T. Little ("Dog Days"); and Morrison helped midwife Mazzoli's first opera, "Songs from the Uproar," bringing in Vavrek to help craft the libretto of what was essentially a dramatic song cycle about the late 19th-century Swiss explorer and writer Isabelle Eberhardt, who posed as a man, converted to Islam and was killed in a flash flood at the age of 27. "Breaking the Waves" is more conventionally operatic (with multiple characters, sets, and a plot). One key factor in Mazzoli's development was the Opera Philadelphia residency, a three-year program with no fixed parameters that is designed to steep composers in the workings of an opera house, and see what comes of it. Mazzoli, Devan says, was a logical candidate, as "a born collaborator" whose music is "always trying to tell a story." But it took the residency, which allows composers to sit in on any aspect of the production process they please, to crystallize these elements in her. Advertisement "It was life-changing for me," Mazzoli says. "I am not exaggerating. In my experience, you don't really learn to write opera in grad school: Few university programs have that component to their composition program. Not until that residency, at 31, was I immersed in opera. I was sitting there doing a scene workshop with the director Daniel Fish and it hit me, 'Oh my God this is what I'm supposed to do.' " "Breaking the Waves" represented a step away from Mazzoli's teachers and influences the world of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and her teachers David Lang and Louis Andriessen, the visionary Dutch composer toward a distinctive voice of her own. "Proving Up," similarly, represents a step away from "Breaking the Waves." "I definitely felt more confident in my operatic writing abilities," Mazzoli says, "but at the same time, I was very conscious of the desire not to repeat myself." She used a considerably different and more unorthodox musical language one that includes eight guitars, played like percussion instruments, and a harpsichord in this story about homesteaders in Nebraska in the 1860s who, required by the Homestead Act to have a house with a glass window, share a single window between families, installing it in one house long enough to get a claim approved, then quickly moving it on to the next one. In the story, someone steals the window, "and things go downhill from there." "It was born of my desire to write a story about the American Dream," Mazzoli says, adding, "After the last election, this came into sharper focus. . . . In the current climate, could a hard-working American do everything right and still fail?" Facing such questions also helped her address the topic of "where does my music fit in with the world at large; how can I address these issues swirling around me without being ham-handed or preaching to the choir? What is the role of opera in dealing with these issues?" Mazzoli's story is something of an American dream from the time that she, as a high schooler, was teaching tap dance to children and one of the fathers put up a sign in the studio advertising piano, drum and composition lessons. "Oh my God you can study composition?" she thought, and was soon taken under this teacher's wing (he was a percussionist with the Philly Pops). Advertisement Now a teacher, and a leading woman in a field that still has too few of them, she has set out to provide role models for teenage would-be composers. The Luna Composition Lab, a partnership with New York's Kaufman Center, provides mentorship, regular lessons and field trips to concerts for a small group of female-identifying composers between 13 and 19, drawn from every corner of the country. Now in its second season, the program is "a very simple pattern," she says, "but I think it's very effective." As a female composer, she says, one is aware "I'm entering a world that is inhospitable to me." Strong role models can make a huge difference for the next generation of black sheep. The Washington National Opera will present "Proving Up" at the Terrace Theater on Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. and on Jan. 21 at 2 p.m. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share There's a popular misconception about wine that dry is better than sweet. I'm no specialist in national psychology, but this fear of sweetness might stem from our collective awareness of our American sweet tooth and a quaint notion that wine is European and therefore sophisticated and bitter. We love sugary sodas, sweet tea, sweet and sour chicken, sticky sweet barbecue sauces, cookies and cakes and more. And overtly sweet wines are popular, too, judging from sales figures. Yet there is still a perception that sweet wines are unsophisticated and somehow inferior to dry. They aren't. They're just different. The key is that the sweetness needs to be balanced by acidity. I'm not going to indulge in a techno-geeky discourse about grams per liter of residual sugar vs. titratable acidity, or precise definitions of dry, semi-dry, medium-dry or sweet. (Note how the nomenclature reinforces the bias by emphasizing degrees of dryness?) Truth is, the wine industry is appealing to our sweet tooth by flooding supermarkets and convenience stores with cheap treacle whose only defining characteristic is sweet. Not fruitiness or acidity, just sweet. And maybe heavy. These clunky wines may sell because they are cheap, but they probably also reinforce the idea that sweet wines are lower quality. Terry Theise, a wine broker famous for his portfolio of high-quality wines from Germany, Austria and Champagne, chafes at the market prejudice for dry wines. He has chided German producers for insisting that their top-of-the-line wines must be dry. Advertisement "Show me someone who truly hates sweetness, and I'll show you someone to invite on a picnic," he says, "since you can eat all the delicious strawberries on top of the basket, and he can eat all the runty little green ones that sank to the bottom." His point, of course, is that nobody really hates sweetness. Except when it comes to wine, too many of us think we should. And our fear of sweetness is linked to some degree with Riesling, the quintessential German wine. Riesling can be amazingly delicious when bone dry, or unctuously sweet, or anywhere in between, because it can have the acidity to balance the sugar. Some would argue it needs the sugar to balance its acidity. The problem for consumers is that we don't always know what we're buying is the Riesling dry? Is it sweet? Worst of all, is it neither? "We can't get away from the question of sweetness," says August Deimel, winemaker at Keuka Spring Vineyards in New York's Finger Lakes, a region known for Riesling. "We spend a lot of time explaining to consumers and the trade what the sweetness level is. Unfortunately, one person's off-dry is another person's bone dry, and another person's uber-sweet." Deimel sees a generational factor in this anti-sweet bias. "There are definitely people out there who still say the only good wine is a dry wine," he told me. "I don't see that so much with my peers as with baby boomers or Gen Xers." (He's 35.) "You don't see that bias so much with millennials." Advertisement We've seen this before, in their willingness to try wines from unfamiliar countries, states or regions, "natural" wines fermented in amphorae without sulfur, or trendy petillant-naturel sparklers, bottled before the fermentation is complete to produce bubbles, and topped with unpretentious crown cap closures. Younger drinkers are eager to experiment, unencumbered by the preconceptions and prejudices that shape their parents' perspectives. Many wineries in the Finger Lakes and other regions that specialize in Riesling, such as Michigan's Old Mission Peninsula, produce Rieslings they label "dry" and "semi-dry." Some indicate sweetness levels using a scale on the back label. I'll admit an instinctive bias toward drier wines, but I often find myself reacting more enthusiastically to semi-dry versions. They tend to be more harmonious, more complete and more compatible with food. So let's reassess our fear of sweetness in wine. Don't just say "yuck." Ask yourself: Is it just sugary, or is it showing ripe fruit flavors of peaches, apricots and berries? Does the acidity balance the sweetness and leave your palate refreshed, ready for another sip or bite of food? Fruity wines, with or without some degree of residual sugar left after fermentation, are often great partners to the spicier cuisines we favor today. Come on, America. Embrace your sweet tooth. More from Food: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share If you own smart luggage, you should test its intelligence as soon as possible. The IQ exam that matters if you can take out its lithium battery. On Monday, airlines including American, Alaska, Hawaiian, Delta, United and Southwest will no longer allow passengers to fly with smart bags that contain nonremovable lithium batteries. The policy change applies to checked and carry-on bags that require lithium batteries to power high-tech features such as a USB charging station and a location tracker. "Customers who travel with a smart bag must be able to remove the battery in case the bag has to be checked at any point in the customer's journey," American Airlines said in a statement. "If the battery cannot be removed, the bag will not be allowed." The rule springs from safety concerns. Lithium metal and lithium ion/polymer batteries are susceptible to emitting smoke, catching fire and even exploding. Between March 1991 and May 2017, the Federal Aviation Administration documented 160 incidents involving lithium batteries that were being transported as cargo or baggage. The agency already prohibits passengers from checking spare lithium batteries used for personal electronic devices and portable rechargers, as well as several lithium-powered items such as e-cigarettes and vape pens. The FAA permits the items inside the cabin. (For information on flying with hazardous materials, see the FAA's Pack Safe guidelines.) The airlines are not snubbing all smart bags: Luggage with extractable batteries is permitted, with some oversight. Passengers who check their smart carriers must remove the battery and tote it onboard. As carry-on, the battery can stay put but must be turned off, per FAA protocol. However, if a flight attendant decides to gate-check the bag, you must remove the battery before it goes into the belly of the plane. Advertisement Smart luggage performs more than beast-of-burden duties. Depending on the model, the brainy bag might come with USB ports for charging gadgets, GPS tracking, electronic locks and built-in digital scales. One company called Modobag allows travelers to zoom around on their luggage like a scooter, which tops out at 8 mph. Many manufacturers, such as Away, Barracuda, G-Ro, Raden, Arlo Skye, Travelpro and Heys (the only maker to use AAA batteries), sell smart luggage that complies with the new rule. The ones that do not are rethinking their designs. "Luggage manufacturers are already responding to airlines' safety concerns," said Michele Marini Pittenger, president of the Travel Goods Association. "The recent attention surrounding lithium ion batteries will surely lead to action by manufacturers to make new iterations of smart luggage as safe as possible." The rule came earlier than expected. The International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. agency that sets aviation safety standards and recommends practices for more than 190 countries, had decided to start restricting smart luggage next January. However, the International Air Transport Association, which represents about 275 airlines worldwide, instituted the ban a year early. An IATA spokesman said the organization's members will follow its recommendations starting Monday. Participants include major carriers such as United, JetBlue, KLM and Virgin Atlantic, as well as many smaller airlines, including Slovenia's Adria Airways, Egypt's Nile Air and Iran's Kish Airlines. Advertisement Consider yourself warned: If you arrive at the airport with the luggage non grata, the airline will not permit the piece onboard. You will have to repack your belongings in your secondary bags or purchase new luggage at the airport a costly solution for a careless mistake. More from Travel: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Hilly, forested and wet Tasmania is regarded by many Australians as their most picturesque state, a kind of Vermont of the Southern Hemisphere. It is also the most economically depressed, which is one of the reasons the Tasmanian government has upended a great walking tradition that natural beauty owned by the state should be open to all, at minimal cost, in the spirit of democracy. Less than two years ago, the state's Parks and Wildlife Service finished construction of the Three Capes, a 29-mile track that starts at one of Australia's most important historical sites and takes in some stunning coastline. The project includes custom-designed accommodations, a spectacular boat ride and miles of boardwalks smooth enough to skateboard on. Visitors can borrow books, binoculars and even yoga mats. Such luxuries aren't cheap. There is an entrance fee of nearly $400 to access a track which used to cost only blisters, sunburn and time. The venture has been a huge success. Almost 10,000 people paid to take the walk in its first year, funds that the state badly needs. Advertisement Open for less than two years, the track is already developing a reputation among Australians for fostering a kind of exclusive camaraderie. Tasmanian authorities haven't started marketing it overseas, and only 2 percent of walkers are foreigners, a park ranger told us. As a consequence of the hefty charge, the walk is full of professionals and young families in fashionable hiking apparel, toting the latest in sleeping-bag technology. There are few, if any, hardcore hikers to be seen. The trail begins at Port Arthur, a village on the Tasman Peninsula, which juts out into the Southern Ocean from Tasmania proper. A tragic site in both history and modernity for Australians, Port Arthur was a brutal penal colony from 1833 to 1877. The open-air prison, which now is an immaculately maintained national heritage site, is one of Tasmania's top tourist destinations. In 1996, a young, mentally disturbed man from the city of Hobart committed Australia's worst modern mass shooting at the site, triggering a period of national introspection that led to a ban on automatic weapons. There hasn't been a massacre in Australia since. Advertisement The tragic backdrop provides a moody start to the Three Capes Track, which begins on water, rather than land. Only 48 people are allowed in each day, and all get started with a one-hour speedboat trip around the ocean inlet that used to be the penal settlement's main route to civilization. The ride was interesting and exhilarating. The crew provided facts about the geology, geography and sealife of the spectacular cliffs that dominate the area, then spun the boat so hard that seawater sprayed over us. We were deposited on a small, sheltered beach, where we began our walk through rain forests, woods, grassland, heaths and along sea cliffs which we were told were some of the highest south of the equator that plunged 1,000 feet into the ocean. Even though there are 1,500-foot changes in elevation over several days, the Three Capes walk is easy enough for preteens and reasonably fit people in their 60s. The path is mostly composed of packed dirt and gravel or wooden boardwalks. Wooden benches overlook interesting views, including a rock ledge popular with seals at Cape Pillar. Advertisement Animals that make appearances along the walk include eagles, seals, dolphins, whales and deadly snakes, although no one has died of Tasmanian snake bite in decades. Tim Farrell, a 25-year-old Australian public servant I met on the trail, reasoned that the entrance charge has made the area more accessible by generating the funding needed to turn a sometimes-strenuous rocky trek into an easy-to-moderate walk. No roads extend into the area, which means that the materials for the track and huts had to be delivered by helicopter and assembled by workers living in temporary camps. "It's a necessary evil to allow so many people to explore the area," Farrell told me one night in a heated, pristine dining hut while families sat around us playing Scrabble. "I like not being totally spent by the end of the day." Advertisement Tim and seven friends had even ordered T-shirts for the walk with their own slogan: "Chafing the Dream." Each night, we stayed in a different cabin. Made from Tasmanian ash, they were in immaculate condition. Each room has bunk beds. There are separate kitchen and dining areas, all with tap water, sinks, pots and pans, kitchen utensils and cleaning supplies. One site boasts a hot shower. There are mobile-phone chargers, too. Yoga mats and lounge chairs can be used on the decks surrounding the cabins. Each site has a small library of Australian fiction and reference books, including two by Man Booker Prize-winning Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan. The collection is identical at each hut, to allow walkers to leave a book behind and pick it up again at the next location. Every walker is assigned a hut from the start, which means there is no need to rush ahead to get the best room. (One night, on a bathroom run, I became disoriented and entered the wrong hut. I reached out to what I thought was my empty sleeping bag, which suddenly moved. I got out quickly.) Advertisement Each night, a resident ranger briefed us on the next day's weather, local history and wildlife, and answered questions. They explained that one of their jobs was picking up excrement left behind by hikers who ignored requests to go well into the bush for bathroom stops. The walk includes two capes with spectacular views: Cape Pillar and Cape Hauy. At Cape Pillar, it is possible to walk up a steep stone staircase and stand on a rock platform about the size of a child's bed. Cliffs plunge on three sides to the sea below. Although not particularly afraid of heights, I was almost hyperventilating from the walk up and view down. Even though it was spring, the mountains in the distance were covered with snow. One night, I asked a ranger, Daniel, where the missing cape was on the Three Capes track. The question was, admittedly, a little cheeky. Advertisement "We get asked that question a lot," the ranger said, sounding a little sheepish. "The third cape is part of the national park." Cape Raoul is located on the other side of Port Arthur and is too far away to be incorporated into the walk. Presumably, the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service felt that Two Capes didn't sound impressive enough. A private company is building its own cabins and plans to start operating a rival walk in September. For about $2,400, it will provide two guides, beds with linens and three-course dinners. The cheaper state-run walk doesn't include food although, it does provide toilet paper. The Tasmanian government encourages the competition, which it hopes will eventually attract many of the foreign tourists who flock to the mainland's sunnier beaches. The consequence could be a more glamorous crowd exploring the area. Advertisement Patrick is a writer based in Sydney. Find him on Twitter: @apatrickafr. More from Travel: 6955 Arthur Hwy., Port Arthur 011-61-2-9975-4553 Access to the Three Capes Track is controlled by the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, which only accepts bookings online and charges about $390 for adults and about $312 for children. The four-day walk starts at the Port Arthur historical penal settlement, which is a one-hour ride by car or bus from Hobart, the state capital, and a popular tourist attraction in its own right. Walkers are required to stay in the provided huts, which have toilets, showers, cooking facilities and utensils. Food must be carried in. Each visitor is issued a detailed booklet containing walking notes and information on the area's history, flora and fauna. A.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Two families whose children were sexually assaulted at a vaunted D.C. charter school have sued the school and its leaders for more than $100 million, alleging that employees failed to protect students from a predator on the payroll. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The lawsuit comes a month after a judge sentenced Manuel Garcia Fernandez, a teacher at the Latin American Montessori Bilingual Public Charter School (LAMB), to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting six of his students on campus from 2015 to 2017. The families remain anonymous in the lawsuit, which alleges that the assaults date to 2013. The lawsuit, filed in D.C. Superior Court last week, alleges that since at least 2014, multiple reports of Fernandez acting suspiciously around the children should have triggered the school to fire him. Principal Cristina Encinas, LAMB Executive Director Diane Cottman and Fernandez are named in the lawsuit. Encinas left her post in December after an internal investigation, and Cottman is expected to step down at the end of the school year. Advertisement A spokeswoman for the school said LAMB's board of directors had expected a lawsuit could be coming and has been working with its insurance company for months in preparation. "We hope to work toward a just resolution of all claims," school spokeswoman Dawn Arteaga wrote in an email. "The board has been working diligently to do everything in their power to ensure that LAMB will continue to be a top-performing Tier 1 school for many years to come." Cottman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Encinas declined to comment. Fernandez taught at the Northeast D.C. campus of LAMB, which also has two campuses in Northwest D.C. The school is one of the most highly regarded in the District, with 462 students enrolled in preschool through fifth grade and nearly 1,200 students on a wait list to enroll in 2017 one of the longest in the city. Advertisement In 2014, a neighbor living across from the school said they saw Fernandez playing with students during recess in an "inappropriate manner," the suit alleges. The school reportedly did not investigate the allegation. Staff members, according to the lawsuit, also saw Fernandez taking children into the school's basement alone something teachers are prohibited from doing. The parents said in the lawsuit that they told the school's principal that Fernandez sent their elementary-aged children excessive emails and interacted with them frequently. The school suspended Fernandez in 2015 while police investigated him, and when authorities found no wrongdoing, LAMB officials reinstated him, the lawsuit says. He remained the teacher of the students in the lawsuit until they graduated from the fifth grade in 2015, and he was allowed to chaperon students on field trips, when the lawsuit alleges he abused other students. Advertisement Fernandez came under investigation again in 2017 after the children involved in the lawsuit told their parents about the abuse. Although family members did not know about the abuse until then, one family said their child had displayed signs of trauma since 2013. "Minor 1 began exhibiting unusual behavior, including, but not limited to, becoming upset, suffering from an eye twitch, having trouble sleeping, waking up agitated, and being afraid of being alone in Minor 1's basement, taking a shower or going to the bathroom alone," the statement says. "Minor 1 also began suffering from anxiety, having trouble breathing and was sad and despondent." The lawsuit also alleges that Encinas and Cottman failed to inform the families about the full scope of the allegations against Fernandez. The parents, for example, knew about one incident in which Fernandez was spotted with children in the basement. They did not know that someone in 2015 reported that Fernandez was in the basement another time with their children with the door locked for 20 minutes. In December, the school released findings of an internal investigation, which found that the "administrators in charge failed to respond appropriately," according to a letter the school sent to parents at the time. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups in America had a goal for 2017: Leave the virtual confines of online forums and social media platforms, and occupy physical space. It was an objective they shared often and freely in interviews and online postings. They wanted to serve notice that their movement was a force to be reckoned with and its adherents were not simply shadowy Internet lurkers but real people most of them young and male who were not afraid to show their faces or proclaim their messages. It was a decision that led to a year of tumult, violence and even death, and nowhere was that decision felt more acutely than on college and university campuses. They became the primary battlegrounds for far-right groups that sought out the schools for organized rallies and speeches and made them the focus of recruiting efforts. For 2018, the goal of these groups is to expand their reach on campuses, force showdowns over free speech, generate more publicity and win over more adherents. As the white supremacists continue to flout boundaries of acceptable behavior and engage in activities many students, faculty and staff find menacing, institutions are rethinking, and in some cases rejiggering, policies regarding allowable activities on campus. Schools that have cherished their longtime role as havens for free speech and debate have found themselves drawing lines in response to messages of hate and threats of violence. Advertisement Those messages were hard to miss last year. Pamphlets and stickers proclaimed war against diversity and stoked racial division. "Fighting for White Working Families" "Take back what is rightfully ours." "Preserve your heritage, take up the fight." A crowd of protesters marched at the University of Florida on Oct. 19 against white nationalist Richard Spencer who delivered a speech on campus. (Video: The Washington Post) On campuses large and small, urban and rural, the racist far right made its presence felt like never before with leaflets and banners warning of threats to white supremacy. Swastikas were scribbled on walls of Jewish campus organizations. Bananas were left in front of the dorm rooms of black students. The Anti-Defamation League found that in the past 15 months, organizations such as the Traditionalist Worker Party, Identity Evropa, American Renaissance and Vanguard America directed campaigns at more than 200 college campuses in 42 states. The pace of their provocations has only accelerated in recent months. The civil rights group counted 140 reported incidents displays of organized racist activity from Sept. 1 through Dec. 18. For the same period the year before, 41 incidents were reported. Advertisement All of these organizations have been labeled white-nationalist hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist activity. The Traditionalist Worker Party, American Renaissance and Vanguard America were banned from Twitter in late December as part of the site's effort to enforce community standards. The targeting of colleges and universities was not a haphazard choice by the white-power groups but rather a calculated strategy. "It's striking a blow directly at the heart of our foes," said Matthew Heimbach, founder of the Traditionalist Worker Party, a far-right organization that seeks a whites-only nation-state and has been labeled a hate group for its anti-Jewish and homophobic stances and its opposition to racial mixing. "It lets them know that there are people that are radically opposed to them, that aren't afraid of them, that will challenge them. It shakes their thought that they've got the campus environment locked down and lets them know that people who oppose them go to their school or are a part of their local community." Advertisement College campuses, Heimbach said, are ideal for recruiting members and gaining publicity because the presence of the hate groups inevitably creates an outcry on campus and in the community. He said the ranks of his organization have tripled over the past year from 500 to 1,500 members, although The Washington Post could not independently verify that assertion. In a late-December post on Gab, the social media site popular with many who have been banned from Twitter, Heimbach said his organization and Vanguard America are planning a "combined propaganda drive" at Midwestern universities in the coming weeks. Despite claims by Heimbach and others, Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, said he doesn't believe their campus recruiting will win over many adherents. But he worries that the aggressive campaigns indicate the groups are feeling emboldened. Advertisement "It's a reminder that these groups feel now is the time to strike," Segal said. "Whether they are able to recruit thousands or not, they feel the atmosphere is ripe." Though the groups had been pushing their on-campus activities throughout 2017, most of their efforts had escaped widespread national notice then, Charlottesville happened. On a warm Friday night in August, hundreds of marchers paraded through the University of Virginia campus carrying torches and chanting nationalist and anti-Semitic slogans. They encircled a small group of protesters at a statue of Thomas Jefferson yelling, "White Lives Matter" and "Jews will not replace us!" Within minutes, punches were being thrown and mace sprayed. The melee didn't last long, but it set the stage for the following day, when the violence was much worse. A counterprotester, Heather Heyer, lost her life when a car, allegedly driven by a self-described Nazi, plowed into a crowd, killing Heyer and injuring 35 others. Advertisement Charlottesville became a hashtag for hate, and the violence there exposed an underbelly of hardcore racism that many Americans had, perhaps naively, imagined didn't exist anymore. Asked about the violence that week, President Trump insisted there were "very fine people" on both sides, a remark that was widely criticized as a failure to properly condemn groups that trafficked in racial hatred. It was also a remark that encouraged white supremacists who believed the president supported their aims. White supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke tweeted his thanks to the president for his comments. At the rally in Charlottesville a few days earlier, he told reporters, "We're going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump." While Charlottesville drew most of the headlines, racial hatred and violence was on display on campuses and college towns throughout the country before and after that seminal event. Nathan Damigo, a student at California State University at Stanislaus and the founder of Identity Evropa, was seen in a video punching a woman in the face during a showdown with antifascists in Berkeley in April. Hundreds of students signed a petition saying Damigo's presence at the school made them feel unsafe. Damigo remains enrolled, according to school officials. In May, Sean Urbanski, a white University of Maryland student, was accused of stabbing and killing Richard Collins III, a black student at nearby Bowie State University and a second lieutenant in the Army who was visiting friends on the College Park campus. Urbanski was charged with a hate crime, and police announced they were investigating Urbanski's connection to a Facebook page called Alt-Reich Nation. At the University of Florida in October, an appearance by white nationalist Richard Spencer drew thousands of protesters. Later that day, three of his followers were arrested and charged with attempted homicide after shots were fired during an argument with a group of people protesting his speech. Spencer has fought to speak at large campuses across the country, but in the wake of Charlottesville, administrators at institutions including Pennsylvania State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michigan State University blocked his efforts, citing the possibility of violence and enormous security costs. Advertisement Schools are altering policies and procedures to deal with the increase in racially based incidents and the growing push on campuses by white-supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. Following the torchlight march at the University of Virginia, administrators banned open flames on campus without prior approval. In the report it commissioned on how it handled the events in August, the university sounded a warning for schools everywhere. "Going forward, the University of Virginia and higher education institutions across the nation must be prepared to respond to situations in which violence and intimidation accompany demonstrations and protests," the report concluded. "It is incumbent upon the university to forge new policies and practices that will prevent it from again becoming a locus of intimidation and violence while recommitting to the principles of free speech at the core of its mission." Following the killing of Collins, the University of Maryland created a rapid-response team for hate-based incidents and announced it will hire a hate-bias response coordinator. Advertisement "We're very concerned with the idea that outside groups are targeting colleges and universities for hate based on race and religion and other identity characteristics," said U-Md.'s chief diversity officer, Roger L. Worthington. "Hate and bias incidents are not new, but certainly in the current national climate, we're concerned because people are more emboldened to engage in those types of behaviors." School administrators across the country and organizations that monitor white-supremacist groups know that many of the tactics they employ are no more than attempts to gain publicity and news coverage. They worry, as many news organizations do, about how much attention they should receive. The Anti-Defamation League's Segal recognizes the tension between overcovering and undercovering, but he says schools and news organizations should opt for the former. "It's a cliche, but we still believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant," he said. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Police identify remains as missing D.C. man Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The remains of a body found in October along a highway in Prince George's County have been identified as a 22-year-old man who was reported missing from Southeast Washington in April, D.C. police said Thursday. 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. McMillan's family had launched a campaign to find their loved one. Police said he disappeared April 23 from his home in Southeast 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. The human remains were found Oct. 30 along the Suitland Parkway. No arrest has been made. Advertisement Peter Hermann Man killed in crash was from Temple Hills Prince George's County police have identified the man who died in a two-car crash Wednesday in Temple Hills, Md., as Shawn Sims, 52. Sims, of Temple Hills, was found with critical injuries around 8 a.m. in the 4400 block of Branch Avenue. His car had crashed into another while trying to cross the northbound lane at the crossover for Old Branch Avenue, police said. Sims was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The woman driving the other car was taken to the hospital for treatment of critical injuries. Lynh Bui 2 face life in prison for sex trafficking Two men face up to life in prison when they are sentenced in April for trafficking teenage prostitutes across the D.C. area. 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. Advertisement 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. Defense attorneys emphasized that the evidence came largely from co-conspirators who were likely to receive reduced sentences for their testimony and had lied to law enforcement in the past. Rachel Weiner Man arrested in child porn case 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, 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. Advertisement Online court records do not indicate whether Lee has retained or been assigned an attorney. Lee was arrested after detectives traced a device, which they said contained the child pornography, back to him. Detectives have not determined whether Lee had contact with any children in the photos or videos, Awad said. Allyson Chiu Facing eviction, mobile home residents to stay About 60 families that were facing eviction from a Northern Virginia mobile home park will be able to stay under a deal finalized Thursday, which will transfer ownership to a nonprofit group with plans to fix the park's leaky sewer system. 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. Antonio Olivo GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share They are scientists and supermodels, NBA players and college professors. They design Chrysler cars and negotiate on "Shark Tank." Their roots are in Haiti, the world's first black republic, which fought off slavery decades before the United States did. But many of their contributions are being made here. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is often in the news for its crises, including the earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, that killed an estimated 200,000 people. President Trump reportedly referred to the country on Thursday as a "shithole." On Friday, the eighth anniversary of that quake, Haitian Ambassador to the United States Paul Getty Altidor said he would use the publicity surrounding that remark to introduce a new narrative across the political spectrum. He said he wants American liberals to view Haiti as a nation capable of creating businesses, jobs and wealth, and he wants Trump and other immigration hard-liners to see Haitians who come to the United States as contributors to the nation. Advertisement "Most people would not think of scientists or engineers or tech folks and Haiti in the same sentence," he said during a tour of the embassy, which occupies a Beaux-Arts mansion on Massachusetts Avenue NW. The United States is home to more than 630,000 Haitian immigrants, not counting their U.S.-born children. About 50 Haitian Americans have been elected to public office. Haitian immigrants send an estimated $2 billion a year to their homeland, mostly from the United States one of many reasons that Haiti and some U.S. lawmakers want to include in the immigration package being negotiated on Capitol Hill new protections for the nearly 60,000 Haitians granted temporary protected status in the United States after the earthquake. The Trump administration announced in November that Haitians' protected status would expire in July 2019, saying the country had sufficiently recovered from the earthquake for people to return home. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) confirmed President Trump's use of vile language at a White House meeting on immigration Jan. 11. (Video: Reuters) Advertisement Haitian immigrants tend to have slightly lower education rates than Americans overall, but their children's education levels exceed the national average. Fourteen percent have advanced degrees, compared with 11 percent for the general U.S. population. Friday was supposed to be a day of mourning for Haitians, with candlelight vigils, religious services, meditation and prayer. Altidor, who escaped the Hotel Montana in Haiti seconds before it collapsed and joined in the search for survivors, expected Friday to be a quiet day of reflection. Instead, he toured media outlets and monitored the news from Port-au-Prince, where the U.S. chief of mission in Haiti was meeting with Haitian officials to discuss the furor over the president's reported remarks. In a series of tweets, Trump denied the comments attributed to him. But Haitian Americans, and others, demanded an apology. Advertisement "The president should be ashamed of himself," said Jean Bradley Derenoncourt, a newly sworn-in city council member in Brockton, Mass., who fled the earthquake in 2010 and became a U.S. citizen. "My blood is boiling right now." U.S. Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), the only Haitian American in Congress, tweeted Thursday that "this behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation." The president actively courted Haitians on the campaign trail, visiting Little Haiti in Miami and attempting to seize on their frustration with the pace of rebuilding after the earthquake, and with the involvement of his opponent Hillary Clinton's family foundation in that effort. Thursday was not the first time Trump has offended the community, however. In December, the New York Times reported that Trump complained in June that thousands of Haitians allowed to enter the United States on visas last year "all have AIDS." The White House denied the report. Advertisement Altidor's email account has been inundated with thousands of apologetic messages from across the United States, an outpouring he described as heartening and a "testament of the strong bond" between the nations. The ambassador is the son of a Haitian-born cabdriver from Boston who brought him to the United States when he was 15 and knew little English. He bagged groceries at a supermarket and finished high school, then went on to graduate from Boston College and earn a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He cites myriad other success stories: Garcelle Beauvais, a Haitian-born actress; C. Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University of Louisiana; Patrick Gaspard, a former Obama administration official and the son of Haitian parents who is the president of the Open Society Foundations. Advertisement Derenoncourt, the city council member, is also one of them. After the earthquake, he joined his father in Massachusetts. He learned English, bussed tables at a restaurant and ultimately graduated from Suffolk University in Boston. In January, he became Brockton's first Haitian American lawmaker. "That's the American Dream, right? That's the greatness of this country," he said. To expand Americans' perspective on Haiti, Altidor said, the embassy offers tours, cooking classes (with a 5,000-person waiting list, including members of Congress), language lessons and trivia nights. Haitian artwork is on display throughout the building. Altidor said he urges U.S. college students to study in Haiti to learn from the country instead of just volunteering or offering aid. "Trump is a footnote. There's a bigger issue here at stake," the ambassador said. "Ultimately, there's series of stigmas in his head. When he's thinking Haiti, that's what comes to mind." GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share A Maryland senator who represents Montgomery County, where a third of the residents are foreign-born, called on her colleagues on Friday to condemn President Trump for using the word "shithole" to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight "Maryland is better than we are seeing right now in this White House," Sen. Cheryl Kagan, a Democrat, said on the Senate floor. "Please join me in condemning the language, the disrespect, the hatred and, yes, the racism that we continue to see coming out of this administration." Kagan's remarks prompted applause, an unusual response in the normally orderly chamber. Five other senators three of them immigrants also spoke about the impact Trump's remarks have had. Sen. Dolores Kelly (D-Baltimore City) said the president's words prompted her to reassure her three granddaughters, whose mother is Haitian, that "their mother was a worthwhile human being." She thanked Kagan for "raising this issue that harms real people." Advertisement Trump on Friday appeared to deny using the word "shithole," saying he used "tough" language during a meeting on efforts toward a bipartisan immigration deal. When Kagan began speaking about the incident, after Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert) acknowledged her for a point of personal privilege, she was interrupted by Sen. Robert G. Casilly (R-Harford). "We're living in really contentious and divisive times, and it is shocking, deplorable and offensive when the president of the United States disparages groups of people, nations and an entire continent," Kagan began. President Trump is under fire for referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries as shithole countries. (Video: Victoria Walker/The Washington Post) "Mr. President, Mr. President, point of order," Casilly said. "Can I just ask the nature?" "This was a point of personal privilege," Kagan retorted. "Mr. President," Casilly said. "This is the Senate of Maryland, and we can do it now or later, Senator," Miller responded. Advertisement Casilly said he thought Kagan's remarks were out of order. "Points of personal privilege are to relate to the matters before this body," Casilly said. "There is no matter before this body." Miller opted to move on with taking up override votes on Gov. Larry Hogan's vetoes and gave Kagan a chance to finish her remarks later. In Virginia's House of Delegates, Del. Lee Carter (D-Prince William) also addressed the situation on the floor, without directly mentioning the president. He drew groans from Republicans in the chamber when he rose and said he wanted to speak to the recent comments made in the White House. Carter, a Marine Corps veteran, recalled his deployment to Haiti after a deadly earthquake eight years ago, and how a teenager approached him to ask about life in the United States and how he could join the U.S. military. "I personally saw what the lives of those folks down there are like. I saw the hardships that they face," Carter said. "So I understand just how important it is for people who want to come here from Haiti and from the other nations like Haiti to come here and have a better life for themselves and their children." Fenit Nirappil in Richmond contributed to this report. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) remains broadly popular at the start of his fourth year in office and holds commanding leads over the three top Democrats vying to challenge him in November, according to a statewide poll released Wednesday. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The survey by Gonzales Media and Research Services shows Hogan's approval rating at about 71 percent among likely voters in 2018, which many analysts expect to be a wave election year for Democrats across the country because of controversies surrounding President Trump. The approval rating is among the highest of Hogan's tenure, after polls last year showed him slipping into the low to mid-60s. It illustrates the steep path Democrats face in their efforts to recapture the governor's mansion. Hogan has double-digit leads in the Gonzales poll in direct matchups with the top three potential Democratic candidates: Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and former NAACP president Ben Jealous. They are among seven Democrats competing in the June 26 primary. Advertisement In a theoretical matchup against Baker, 47 percent of respondents said they would vote for Hogan, compared with 37 percent for Baker and 16 percent who were undecided. The governor led Kamenetz 48 percent to 34 percent, with 18 percent undecided. Hogan led Jealous 49 percent to 36 percent, with 15 percent undecided. Roughly 90 percent of Republicans backed the governor against all three prospective challengers, as did about 25 percent of Democrats and well over 50 percent of independents. In 2014, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll, 23 percent of Democrats said they voted for Hogan when he defeated Democrat Anthony G. Brown. Hogan's popularity is high across the political spectrum, with 86 percent of Republicans, 61 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of independents a critical part of the electorate for GOP candidates seeking statewide office approving of his performance. Advertisement Democrats are hoping that with Trump in the White House, even a popular Republican could be vulnerable in a state where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans more than 2-to-1. Maryland's last Republican governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., held a 56 percent approval rating in a June 2006 Washington Post poll but lost that year's election to Martin O'Malley (D) in what ended up being a down year for the GOP. The party blasted Hogan this week for the loss of Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications, which will move its headquarters to New York, and the Democratic-majority House of Delegates opened the 90-day legislative session by voting to override the governor's vetoes of paid-sick-leave legislation and a bill to help people with criminal records apply to college. Analysts say the rest of the session may be similarly contentious, as politicians from both sides of the aisle seek to shore up their bases. The Gonzales poll suggests Hogan cannot bank on Election Day support from voters who expressed only modest approval of his performance. Against Baker, the governor garnered 11 percent support among respondents who "somewhat approve" of the job he has done, compared with 62 percent support from those who "strongly approve." Advertisement At least 1 in 6 voters who approve strongly or somewhat of Hogan's performance said they do not yet have a preference in the gubernatorial race. The poll, conducted between Dec. 27 and Jan. 5 among 823 likely voters in November's election, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Read more Maryland politics: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Maryland on Friday became the ninth state in the country to require paid sick leave and the second to bar colleges from asking prospective students about their criminal histories after Democrats easily overrode two 2017 vetoes by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Both bills were top priorities of progressive advocacy groups. Their resurrection illustrates the power Democrats wield in both houses of the state legislature even as Hogan maintains sky-high approval ratings, and they underscore the urgency of Hogan's quest to flip five Senate seats in the November and dissolve the Democrats' veto-proof majority. Hogan campaigned hard to persuade Democrats to enact his own proposal and abandon the General Assembly's sick-leave legislation, which he said would hurt businesses and potentially invade workers' privacy. But the Senate voted 30-17 to override the veto, one vote more than what was needed. Advertisement It voted 32-15 to override the ban-the-box legislation affecting college applications. The House of Delegates overrode both vetoes on Thursday. Advocates pushed for six years for Maryland to join other states in forcing businesses to give sick leave to workers who are ill or need to care for a sick family member. The bill also provides "safe" leave for workers to seek help to deal with domestic abuse or sexual assault. Under the law, companies with 15 or more employees will be required to provide five days of paid sick or safe leave a year. "Passage of this bill will make life a little easier for thousands of hard-working Marylanders," Caryn York, executive director of the Job Opportunity Task Force, said in a statement. "No longer will working families have to choose between taking care of themselves or loved ones and paying for rent or groceries." Advertisement Eight other states Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, Arizona, Washington and Rhode Island as well as smaller jurisdictions that include the District and Montgomery County have enacted paid-sick-leave laws. Republicans said the Maryland law will lead to job loss, and they criticized Democrats for refusing to consider a less-generous alternative Hogan proposed this year before acting on the override. Minority Whip Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Kent) called the measure "an overly prescriptive policy that hurts job creators." But supporters said the legislation will ensure that more than half a million workers, many of whom are in low-paying jobs, are able to take time off when needed. Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles), chairman of the Finance Committee, which debated the bill last year, said he viewed its passage as part of his responsibility as a legislator to "protect the health and welfare of our citizens." Advertisement Hogan spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said the governor will continue to push the General Assembly to consider his proposal, which would require businesses with 25 or more employees to offer paid sick leave and which phases in the program over three years. At the very least, she said, Hogan is calling on lawmakers to fix "serious flaws" in the bill, including the lack of flexibility for businesses and the possibility that workers' privacy could be violated if employers ask about the reasons they need time off. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said that the governor's bill will receive a hearing and that he hoped Hogan, who has not appeared before a legislative committee to discuss a bill during his three years in office, will testify about the measure. He said the legislature will consider enacting the law in 90 days, rather than 30, giving the state additional time to set regulations and help businesses get up to speed. Advertisement Mike O'Halloran,state director of the National Federation of Independent Business in Maryland, said he was "thoroughly disappointed" in the override vote of a "one-size-fits-all" mandate that will have "disastrous" results on the state's economy. But Middleton said the Senate amended the bill last year to address concerns from the business community, including reducing the number of annual paid leave days from seven to five. Maryland follows Louisiana in enacting the "ban-the-box" legislation, which prohibits public and private colleges from asking about criminal convictions on student applications. Louisiana passed a similar measure last year. The bill expands Maryland's criminal justice reform efforts. Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D-Baltimore City) said it was designed to provide an opportunity to criminals who are trying to turn their lives around. Advertisement Maryland already prohibits public employers from asking about past convictions on job applications. The new law is aimed at making it easier for people with a criminal past to improve their lives by attending college and earning a degree. Advocates say having the question on college applications can disqualify some prospective students and scare away others. The ban does not apply directly to Maryland colleges that use the Common Application or other third-party application systems. But those colleges will be required to include a notice on their websites that any information they receive about criminal history will not disqualify applicants from being accepted. Shareese DeLeaver Churchill, a spokeswoman for Hogan, said the measure shows "blatant disregard for victims' rights" and will make campuses less safe. GiftOutline Gift Article Republican Matt Mossburg who is running for Maryland's 6th District released a series of ads sharing his past struggles with opioid addiction. (Video: Mossburg for Maryland) Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share A former Maryland state delegate who was seeking the Republican nomination to replace outgoing Democrat John Delaney in the U.S. House dropped out of that race Friday, saying he wants to focus exclusively on efforts to curtail the opioid epidemic. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Matt Mossburg, who served one term in the Maryland General Assembly in the 1990s, is a recovering opioid addict. He said running for Congress hindered his efforts to lobby for the issue in Annapolis. "People don't want to hear Republican or Democrat when chances are either they or someone they know is struggling with addiction," Mossburg said. The move helps clear a path to the nomination for Amie Hoeber, a defense contractor who challenged Delaney in 2016 and has the funds to compete in Washington's expensive media market. Another GOP candidate, nurse practitioner Lisa Lloyd, is seeking office for the first time and lacks Hoeber's fundraising network, name recognition and ability to self-finance. Advertisement Mossburg said he will stay neutral in the primary, which is June 26. Six Democrats are seeking the nomination to succeed Delaney: retired intelligence officer Andrew Duck, pediatrician and novelist Nadia Hashimi, former aerospace executive Chris Hearsey, Del. Aruna Miller (Montgomery), state Sen. Roger Manno (Montgomery) and Total Wine co-founder David Trone. There has been speculation that Mossburg would withdraw from the race to work on the opioid crisis for Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who has made addiction issues a priority in his administration. "I have spoken with people in his administration about working with him, but there's nothing on the table," he said in an interview Friday. Mossburg is trying to rally support for the creation of a state task force to examine the pros and cons of using other drugs to treat opioid addition, and to look for ways to ensure elected officials maintain strong oversight of the pharmaceutical industry. Advertisement He decided to run for Congress last year after sharing his experience during a public hearing on opioid legislation. After losing his statehouse seat in the late 1990s, he developed a four-year addiction to narcotics. He relapsed in 2010, after eight years, while he was the main caregiver for his then-wife, who was seriously injured in a car accident. "I was like a tornado blowing through people's lives, just causing wreckage and blaming everybody else for our problems and not taking personal responsibility," he says in a campaign video. By the summer of 2013, Mossburg was broke and living out of his car. For most of a year, he said, he couldn't take care of himself and contemplated suicide. Eventually he ended up in the hospital. From there, he entered to a 28-day rehabilitation program. Now in what he calls "active recovery," he wants to expand detox centers, sober houses and peer-to-peer networks. He does not endorse using other drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine to wean people off opioids. Maryland's 6th District stretches from liberal Washington suburbs in Montgomery County to more conservative counties reaching into Appalachia. Its boundaries are the subject of a gerrymandering lawsuit that is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share correction Earlier versions of this article misstated the year that control of Kentuckys House of Representatives switched to the GOP. It was in 2016, not 2017. National Republican groups are weighing major election spending in 2018 in deeply blue Maryland, where they hope the popularity of Gov. Larry Hogan could insulate the party from backlash against President Trump. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The Republican National Committee and the Republican Governors Association, which sat out much of the 2014 election cycle in Maryland, are eager to help Hogan become the first GOP governor reelected in the state in more than 60 years. Whoever controls the governor's mansion will oversee redistricting after the 2020 Census, potentially shifting the political balance of power in the state for years to come. Other groups, including GOPAC and the Republican State Leadership Committee, want to help the state party flip five Senate seats to break a Democratic supermajority in that chamber, a goal that appeared possible a year ago based on Hogan's coattails but now seems more daunting in light of major GOP losses in Virginia and elsewhere. Advertisement Republicans also will make a major push in 2018 to capture Maryland's 6th Congressional District seat held by outgoing Rep. John Delaney (D). A victory there which political analysts so far say would be an upset would double the number of GOP members of Congress from the state. "Having Governor Hogan at the top of the ticket is a huge boon to Republican candidates because of the positive, popular way he has governed," RSLC President Matt Walter said. "That allows people to talk about issues of their district rather than some nationwide liberal agenda against Trump." Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, recently questioned Hogan's electability in an interview with The Washington Post, and DGA spokesman Jared Leopold said the group will spend heavily to defeat the governor, whom he said will be vulnerable if Marylanders associate him with Trump. Advertisement The DGA spent about $2 million on the 2014 governor's race, in which then-Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown lost to Hogan after what was widely considered a lackluster campaign. Maryland Democrats have repeatedly tried to link Hogan to the president, even as the governor refused to vote for Trump and has denounced Trump's rhetoric and Republican actions on health care and climate change. State party chair Kathleen Matthews said Democrats will continue to "remind every voter in this state that Governor Hogan failed to stand up and fight for them," citing his lack of criticism of the massive tax overhaul and other federal actions that are unpopular in the state. But Hogan has maintained historically high approval ratings, garnering 71 percent support in a Gonzalez poll this week, and high popularity even in Democratic strongholds. Other polls have shown a growing number of Maryland Democrats who outnumber Republicans in the state by a ratio of 2 to 1 reluctant to support Hogan for a second term at a time when the GOP controls both the White House and Congress. Advertisement Democratic leaders in Maryland note that the state's last GOP governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., had strong approval ratings in 2006 although not as high as Hogan's but lost that year amid widespread backlash against President George W. Bush. And GOP candidates in the state watched November's elections in Virginia with more than a little unease. "It definitely gives you some heartburn as a Republican when you see what just happened," said Del. Christian J. Miele (Baltimore County), who is challenging state Sen. Katherine A. Klausmeier (D-Baltimore County). "We're all wondering if 2018 is going to be a continued referendum on the president." National Republican officials say Hogan and other GOP governors who have built distinctly non-Trump brands such as Charlie Baker (Mass.), Phil Scott (Vt.) and John Kasich (Ohio) provide a different kind of blueprint than that used in Virginia's election, when Republican Ed Gillespie lost to Democrat Ralph Northam after defending Confederate monuments and tying undocumented immigrants to criminal gangs. Advertisement "We encourage our governors to make the tough decisions to fit the mold of their states," RGA spokesman Jon Thompson said. "If you have a brand that fits your state, you can get elected." The RGA largely ignored Maryland during the early stages of the 2014 election, although it made a late $1.2 million push for Hogan when his poll numbers shot up. Thompson said the RGA is dedicated to ensuring that Hogan wins reelection, and officials familiar with the group's planning say it will increase its spending in Maryland for 2018. Additionally, the RNC is transferring $16,000 a month to help the state GOP hire field staff and pay for databases that guide canvassing efforts. In 2014, the RNC waited until the last week of the election to give money in Maryland, forking over $100,000 for voter-turnout efforts. Advertisement Democrats have held seven of Maryland's eight congressional seats since then-Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) redrew the voting maps in 2011. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report considers the 6th District seat whose gerrymandered boundaries are being challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court solidly Democratic in 2018. But GOP leaders say political groups probably will spend heavily on the race, especially if 2016 nominee Amie Hoeber, who lost to Delaney by 15 points, wins the June 26 primary. (She is competing against first-time candidate Lisa Lloyd.) The Democratic candidates so far are David J. Trone, who spent a staggering $13.4 million of his own cash in 2016 on a losing U.S. House primary in an adjacent district; Del. Aruna Miller (Montgomery); state Sen. Roger Manno (Montgomery); Nadia Hashimi, a pediatrician and novelist; and retired intelligence officer Andrew Duck. Advertisement "All the national Republican folks I've talked to believe District 6 is a winnable race and that Amie is someone who would seem to be able to mount a serious challenge," Maryland Republican Party chair Dirk Haire said. "I expect the national Democratic and Republican parties and their campaign affiliates to be playing in that race as we get closer to the general election." As for the state Senate races, some national GOP groups view breaking the Democratic supermajority as a significant opportunity and one of the best ways to boost Hogan's power, because Democrats would lack enough votes to override vetoes. Democrats have held veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the legislature since 1922. But outside organizations say they are buoyed by Hogan's popularity and by recent success in Kentucky, where they in 2016 helped the GOP seize control of the Bluegrass State's House of Representatives for the first time in nearly 100 years. Advertisement "Maryland is of high interest," GOPAC chairman David Avella said. "Given the dynamics in the state now and the fact that Republicans have majorities in nearly two-thirds of state legislatures, we can start playing offense in areas where we haven't played before." Haire said that despite the Democrats' dominance in voter registration, the State House and the congressional delegation Republicans believe that the electorate is politically moderate in key districts and that voters will respond well to legislative candidates who are strongly backed by Hogan. "The RNC believes Maryland is a middle-temperament state," he said. Maryland Republicans have targeted six Democratic Senate seats in districts Hogan won overwhelmingly in 2014, where they believe voters have moved to the right in recent years. Advertisement They would have to win five of the races and hold their other Senate seats to break the Democratic supermajority. GOP officials noted that Democrats in Virginia picked up seats almost exclusively in districts that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won in 2016. But Clinton also won three of the districts the Maryland GOP is targeting, suggesting Trump could be a drag on their candidates, too. "The climate isn't great out there politically, but it's nowhere near what I thought it was the day after the [Virginia] election," said Senate Minority Leader J.B. Jennings (R-Baltimore County). "It just means that the candidates we're running have to work even harder and do a great job campaigning." Read more: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share The letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle in April 1978, appearing much like some two-dozen others the paper had received over the previous decade. Its handwriting was slanted, lacking capitalization, and it was signed with a symbol that resembled the crosshairs of a gun. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight "This is the Zodiac speaking," it began. "That city pig toschi is good but I am smarter and better he will get tired then leave me alone. I am waiting for a good movie about me. who will play me." The letter puzzled handwriting experts, many of whom said it was a fake, but its target was all too real. For nearly nine years, San Francisco police detective Dave Toschi had led one of the most widely covered murder investigations in American history, searching for a man who called himself the Zodiac and claimed to have killed 37 people. Advertisement In fact, authorities said, the Zodiac had fatally shot or stabbed five men and women in the Bay Area and injured two others. The group of victims included two teenagers parked on the outskirts of Vallejo, two teens at a nearby park, a pair of students picnicking in Napa County and a taxi driver, Paul Stine, who became the first and only San Francisco victim when he was shot in the back of the head on Oct. 11, 1969. His death the last confirmed Zodiac killing brought the case to the desk of Mr. Toschi (pronounced TOSS-key), who died Jan. 6 at 86 at his home in San Francisco. The cause was complications from pneumonia, said a daughter, Linda Toschi-Chambers. At the time of the shooting, Inspector Toschi was perhaps San Francisco's best-known officer. While other detectives carried themselves with the apparent aim of disappearing from a room, Mr. Toschi donned brightly colored bow ties, smoked plastic-tipped Tiparillo cigars, munched on animal crackers, and carried his gun in an upside-down shoulder holster that had caught the eye of actor Steve McQueen. Advertisement Notable deaths in 2017 Share Share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit Share on LinkedIn MailSolid Email this link View Photos View Photos Next Image WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 24: Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, the first woman player in the Negro baseball league, who pitched for the Indianapolis Clowns, poses at the new ball field named for her Wednesday April 24, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) The two had met at police headquarters about two years earlier, while McQueen was conducting research for his 1968 cop movie "Bullitt." Mr. Toschi reportedly served as the model for the movie's swaggering title character, played by McQueen (the actor ditched Mr. Toschi's bow ties in favor of a sleek navy turtleneck) and was also credited as an inspiration for Clint Eastwood's rogue-cop antihero in "Dirty Harry" (1971). Yet while the fictional Inspector Harry Callahan kicks down doors and tortures suspects in pursuit of a Zodiac-like villain, Mr. Toschi "was by the book, efficient and thorough," said journalist Duffy Jennings, who covered Mr. Toschi in the 1970s as a crime reporter for the Chronicle. Mr. Toschi, his partner Bill Armstrong and their law- enforcement colleagues were never able to pin down the killer, who ridiculed their investigation in cryptic letters that included coded messages and an unrealized threat to "wipe out a school bus some morning." Advertisement Still, his efforts made him a hero to scores of "Zodiologists," a group of conspiracy theorists and amateur sleuths that includes former Chronicle political cartoonist Robert Graysmith. His research on the subject formed the basis of director David Fincher's 2007 movie "Zodiac," which starred Mark Ruffalo as Mr. Toschi. The real-life detective, who served as a technical adviser on the film, had been off the case for years, reassigned to the department's pawnshop detail in 1978. He admitted that year to having written anonymous, laudatory letters to the Chronicle, praising his work on the Zodiac case. The letters had been turned over to the police amid suspicion that Mr. Toschi had forged the latest Zodiac letter, which described him as a "city pig." The police department "emphatically denied" that Mr. Toschi was ever suspected of forging the Zodiac letter, the Associated Press reported at the time, and Mr. Toschi dismissed the incident as an "ill-advised indulgence," expressing regret in later years that he had been pulled from the Zodiac case. Advertisement "I'm not a vengeful type, but when a life is taken, there must be justice," he often said, according to Graysmith's 2002 book, "Zodiac Unmasked." "I work with death, sorrow and tragedy," he continued. "Yet I like my job because it's a useful one. I bring in killers for society's judgment. Ringing bells and knocking on doors, good old-fashioned police work. That's what does it. I've even gotten religious-type letters where they tell me to pray, to talk to God, and then I'll catch Zodiac, they say. These people don't know they're talking to the biggest believer around." David Ramon Toschi was born in San Francisco on July 11, 1931. His father was a school janitor, and his mother worked at a candy factory. He served in the Army after graduating from high school and saw combat during the Korean War before joining the San Francisco Police Department in 1953. Advertisement In addition to the Zodiac case, Mr. Toschi worked on the "Zebra murders" investigation in the mid-1970s, in which a group of Black Muslims were found to have killed 14 whites in racially motivated attacks. According to the Chronicle, he also received a meritorious conduct award from the police department for arresting a man who raped and burglarized senior citizens. Survivors include his wife of 61 years, the former Carol Bacigalupi of San Francisco; two daughters, Toschi-Chambers of San Francisco and Karen Leight of San Mateo, Calif.; and two granddaughters. Mr. Toschi retired from the police in 1985 to work in the private-security industry. He told the Chronicle in 2009 that he still visited the site of Stine's killing, near the intersection of Washington and Cherry streets, on its anniversary each Oct. 11. Advertisement "I always park exactly where I parked the radio car that night," he said. "I look around the intersection, and I wonder what the heck happened. Did we cover all the bases? Did we miss anything at the scene? "Why didn't we get this guy? I ended up with a bleeding ulcer over this case. It still haunts me. It always will." Read more Washington Post obituaries GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Shawn Brimley, a senior Pentagon and White House official who pressed the U.S. military to embrace a future of increasingly rapid technological change, died Jan. 9 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. He was 40. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The cause was complications from colon cancer, said Colin Kahl, a friend. Mr. Brimley was most recently vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, a defense and foreign policy think tank that produced many of the top officials at the Pentagon and State Department during the Obama administration. He served in the government from 2009 to 2012, first as a special adviser at the Pentagon and then as director of strategic planning at the National Security Council. Otherwise, much of his Washington career was spent at CNAS. As a White House official and later at CNAS, Mr. Brimley pushed the military to prepare for a new era of robotic warfare. His ideas helped drive the Pentagon's "third-offset strategy," which sought to reshape the U.S. military in preparation for a possible conflict with a major power such as Russia or China. Advertisement The concept, which originated with a CNAS study that Mr. Brimley co-authored, was announced by then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in 2014 as Pentagon policy. It presumed that the United States would be badly outnumbered in a regional conflict with China or Russia and would need to use its technological advantages to offset its enemies' quantitative superiority. The strategy harked back to the Cold War, when the U.S. military sought to offset the Soviet Union's greater manpower with investments in nuclear weapons to deter Moscow. Later, the U.S. military made big investments in stealthy, deep-strike aircraft, precision bombs and missile systems capable of hitting rear-echelon Soviet forces. Notable deaths in 2017 Share Share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit Share on LinkedIn MailSolid Email this link View Photos View Photos Next Image WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 24: Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, the first woman player in the Negro baseball league, who pitched for the Indianapolis Clowns, poses at the new ball field named for her Wednesday April 24, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) Together with Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, Mr. Brimley envisioned that the United States would be able to use swarms of drone aircraft, undersea robotics and rapid advances in artificial intelligence to overcome a massive enemy force. Advertisement "He and Bob Work saw a coming competition with Russia and China as great powers and recognized that the U.S. could not stand still and retain its advantage," said Michele Flournoy, undersecretary for policy in the Pentagon under Obama and a former chief executive at CNAS. The third-offset strategy also foresaw a future in which advanced Chinese missiles would push vulnerable U.S. aircraft carriers further out to sea. Driven by the new strategy and the Chinese threat, the Pentagon is starting to invest in unmanned bombers and aircraft-carrier-capable drones that can strike from longer ranges than conventional aircraft. Shawn William Douglas Brimley was born in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga on June 27, 1977. After serving five years in the Canadian army, he graduated in 2001 from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and received a master's degree in security policy studies in 2007 from George Washington University. Advertisement Mr. Brimley's father was an engineer who worked in the Canadian space program and was twice a finalist for the country's astronaut corps. The two shared a passion for military strategy and technology. Mr. Brimley's father recalled his son saying as a teenager that he wanted to be "a strategic analyst." In 2007, Mr. Brimley became one of the founding employees at CNAS. He was sworn in as a U.S. citizen before entering the Obama administration. Mr. Brimley often described himself as a "think-tank nerd." At a time when government service is often disparaged, he embraced work in U.S. national security as a calling. "Maybe because he was an immigrant, he really believed in the power of American leadership and America's unique role in the world," said Derek Chollet, his boss in the White House. "There was that idealism about him." Advertisement Former colleagues recalled Mr. Brimley's goofy sense of humor. He bought an elaborate, sports-mascot-like parrot suit for a Halloween party. For a CNAS Christmas party, he dressed up as Santa Claus and then ordered the think tank's president, Richard Fontaine, to sit on his lap and tell him whether he had been "naughty or nice." Mr. Brimley would surprise colleagues at work by hiding behind a corner and taking shots at them with a Nerf gun as they tried to work, co-workers recalled. "Brimley was a policy wonk's idea of a policy wonk," a friend, Andrew Exum, wrote in an essay for the Atlantic. Survivors include his wife of 13 years, Marjorie Clark Brimley, and their three children, Claire Brimley, Austin Brimley and Tommy Brimley, all of Washington; his parents, Sheryll and Bill Brimley of Ontario; and two sisters. Advertisement Former colleagues said that one of Mr. Brimley's most important contributions had been encouraging younger people to pursue national security as a profession. "He was engaging and self-deprecating, with a borderline inappropriate sense of humor," said Kahl, a onetime national security adviser to vice president Joe Biden. "It was really easy for younger people to relate to him. He believed strongly in public service, no matter who the president." CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story said that Mr. Brimley died at his home in Washington. The story has been revised. Read more Washington Post obituaries GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Valery Chalidze, a physicist and Soviet dissident who helped found a human rights organization in Moscow with Andrei Sakharov before being forced into exile in the United States, where he remained an influential chronicler of Soviet legal affairs and political struggles, died Jan. 3 at his home in Benson, Vt. He was 79. His wife, Lisa Chalidze, confirmed his death but did not know the specific cause. Mr. Chalidze (pronounced cha-LEED-zuh) worked as a theoretical physicist before he was drawn to the growing Soviet dissident movement in the 1960s. He was among several scientists, including Sakharov, Zhores Medvedev and Andrei Tverdokhlebov, who took prominent roles advocating free speech and democratic ideals through dissent and a clandestine network of publications known as samizdat. In Moscow in the late 1960s, Mr. Chalidze began to publish the samizdat journal "Social Problems," which demanded amnesty for political prisoners and explored legal questions related to civil rights. A self-taught expert on Soviet law, he became adept at outmaneuvering authorities who kept him under constant surveillance and periodically searched his home. Advertisement Mr. Chalidze was meticulous in following the letter of Soviet law, while insisting that Soviet officials do the same. "I determined to employ only legal methods," he told the New York Times in 1973. "I would not take any moral positions and would not make any moral claims. I would work without propaganda, without political struggle, without appeals to others solely through the medium of the law." Mr. Chalidze lost his job at a physics laboratory and his sister, also a scientist, had to work as a maid. He developed a sardonic sense of humor about life under Soviet rule. Notable deaths in 2017 Share Share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit Share on LinkedIn MailSolid Email this link View Photos View Photos Next Image WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 24: Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, the first woman player in the Negro baseball league, who pitched for the Indianapolis Clowns, poses at the new ball field named for her Wednesday April 24, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) "A pessimist," he once said, recounting a Soviet-era joke, "is one who says things are absolutely the worst they could be, and an optimist is one who says no, things could be worse." His mail was intercepted, and he was often tailed by at least two cars of KGB officers, yet he managed to avoid arrest. Advertisement "There were rumors that he could be killed, but it was very difficult to arrest him and put him in prison," Pavel Litvinov, a fellow dissident, said in an interview. "He was very precise in his formulation of things." Whenever Soviet authorities cut off Mr. Chalidze's telephone service, five other families in his apartment building were also inconvenienced. "I don't know what is worse," he told The Washington Post in 1972, "an unpleasant interview with the KGB or bad relations with your neighbors in a communal apartment." He became adept at repairing typewriters, which were used to prepare the samizdat publications that were passed from hand to hand. In 1970 Mr. Chalidze started the Human Rights Committee with Sakharov and Tverdokhlebov to provide support for groups seeking reform. "He wrote the first major document about Jewish emigration," calling for the right of Soviet Jews to travel to Israel, Litvinov said. "He was one of the first who spoke about stopping persecution of homosexuals in the Soviet Union." Advertisement In 1972, Mr. Chalidze was granted a visa to travel to the United States to speak at human rights forums at Georgetown and Columbia universities. While he was in New York, two Soviet officials came to his hotel and asked to verify his identity. Mr. Chalidze's passport was seized and his Soviet citizenship was revoked for "acts discrediting a Soviet citizen" and because, as another government official said, he was not "a Soviet citizen in his soul." Mr. Chalidze continued his activism in exile. He wrote books examining Soviet legal and political life, including "To Defend These Rights" (1974) and "Criminal Russia" (1977). With Litvinov, he edited a well-regarded bimonthly publication, A Chronicle of Human Rights in the USSR, which detailed arrests, imprisonments and other acts of Soviet intimidation toward political dissidents. Advertisement He helped launch other publishing ventures, including Khronika Press and Chalidze Publications, which issued Russian-language literary classics and translations of works of history and philosophy. Mr. Chalidze also drew attention to Soviet efforts to muzzle Sakharov, a physicist once hailed as "the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb" but whose human rights advocacy embarrassed the Communist regime. "I do not know how to defend Sakharov I know only that you will never save anyone by silence," Mr. Chalidze wrote in a 1973 essay in the Times. "I know that many people will cease to believe in mankind's capacity to combat evil if the world cannot protect Andrei Sakharov." Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 but was not allowed to receive the honor in person. He then lived in internal exile until 1985, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced new policies of openness, known as glasnost. Advertisement Valery Nikolaevich Chalidze was born Nov. 25, 1938, in Moscow. His father, a native of the Soviet republic of Georgia, was killed during World War II. His Polish-born mother was an architect and urban planner who helped design the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. Mr. Chalidze graduated in 1958 from Moscow State University and in 1965 received the equivalent of a doctorate in physics from the State University of Tbilisi in Georgia. After he lost his job as a physicist because of his political activism, he restored religious icons and altar paintings. His first marriage, to the former Vera Slonim, the granddaughter of Maxim Litvinov, who was Joseph Stalin's foreign minister, ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 37 years, the former Lisa Barnhardt, a lawyer and college professor, of Benson; a daughter from his first marriage, Maria Chalidze of London; a sister; and two grandchildren. Advertisement Mr. Chalidze settled in Vermont in 1983. He taught at Yale University and was a visiting scholar at other colleges and, in his later years, wrote books about human rights, physics and other topics. In 1985 he received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation, valued at $228,000 over a five-year period. When Mr. Chalidze was preparing for his first trip to the United States in 1972, a Post reporter asked whether he would be allowed to return to the Soviet Union. "I stand on the assumption that the world is normal," he said. "I do not expect bad things to happen. I expect to return." He never saw his homeland again. Read more Washington Post obituaries GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Greta Jelen got her big idea on a day when high school students across the District walked out to join a protest over immigration policy. She came away with a sense of power and community, she said, and was left feeling "not as alone as the election of 2016 had made me feel." The now 16-year old junior at the School Without Walls said her experience in November sparked her idea to try to educate students about their civil rights and led to a three-day session in Washington that ended Thursday. Gavin Grimm, the transgender student whose efforts to use the boys' bathroom at his Virginia high school led to a nationally followed legal battle, spoke. A senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union talked about free speech and protests and the group's defense of the right of white nationalist protesters to rally. Advertisement Students acted out roles in staged interactions that might occur with police. The speakers and sessions covered a wide swath: immigration, women's rights, voting rights, privacy rights, free speech and LGBTQ rights. Jelen is a member of the ACLU club at her school and worked with the school and the ACLU of D.C. to set up her Washington D.C. Youth Civil Rights Summit. When Jelen initially came up with the notion, she told her mother that "kids care, and I think that they'll come if we do this." About 300 students from public and private schools in the city and Maryland registered. Meg Grieve, a 16-year-old student at Washington Latin Public Charter School, said she was most looking forward to hearing from Grimm because he "has been through a lot, and will definitely . . . inspire us to keep fighting." Advertisement Grimm drew question after question and tried to help the students step into his place. "Try to imagine that if you had to center your days around finding a bathroom that you had access to . . . imagine what kinds of things you would be limited from doing," he said. He told them about the nearly two-hour trips to the nearest clinic for transitional medical services, the insurance hurdles and the strain he said his transition put on his parents. Grimm told a story about his first birthday after he came out when his twin brother didn't know he was transgender. His twin spent part of the party trying to figure out why the name of their turtle, which also happened to also be Gavin, was on the cake, Grimm said, which led to laughter from many of the students. Students asked Grimm about how they could support their transgender friends, how he advocates for transgender rights, and how he deals with people using the wrong pronouns. Advertisement "We're always here for ambitious ideas that educate young folks about what their rights are and the work that we do," said Kendrick Holley, the community engagement manager for the ACLU of D.C., explaining why the organization helped make the event happen. Students also heard from Claudia Quinonez, who helped organize a group of undocumented students, parents and supporters into United We Dream, a reference to those who had gained legal status under the now eliminated Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. They watched a documentary on Joe Arpaio, the longtime Phoenix-area sheriff whose approach to jail and immigration issues attracted controversy, and a movie about Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who disclosed documents on government surveillance programs. "Things that go on in our world . . . affect us, too, and I think it's really cool that we get to have those types of conversations," said Chloe Pine, a 15-year-old member of the ACLU club at the School Without Walls. Advertisement "More than most schools, since we live in D.C. we're very much surrounded by the political atmosphere that goes on in our world," Pine said. "We can literally walk down the street to the White House or to the Capitol and speak up for what we believe in." Scott Michelman, senior staff attorney at ACLU of D.C., led a discussion with the students about their free-speech rights, and the students used that right to question the ACLU. One student asked why the ACLU of Virginia defended the rights to rally of the white nationalists in Charlottesville. Michelman told the students that it was "one of the toughest cases the ACLU has defended." He said that the court case the ACLU took part in was before the rally and the violent and deadly exchanges it ignited and was about the permit site. "With any institution, the ACLU not being an exception, we should always be questioning, we should always be challenging what choices they make," Michelman said. Advertisement The discussion about free speech "emphasized how much I believe in free speech," said Grieve. "Everybody should have the right to say what they want to say." During one session, students role-played about how they would act if a police officer tried to stop them and what to do if a situation became violent. Students evaluated how others reacted, telling them to keep their hands out of their pockets and not to wave their hands around. The exercise, Holley said to the students, might help them stay out of jail and stay safe. "Your strength is not in fighting, it's in reporting," when interacting with the police, Holley said. For Jelen, the three days reinforced her instinct that there was a community of students eager to learn more about their rights and activism. "Sometimes people forget that D.C. isn't just the administration that's in the White House, it's the people that live there," Jelen said. "We can't help but get absorbed into the protests and the rallies and who's in the White House, but we're also our own people, and when we did that walkout and everyone came together . . . it was like everyone saw." Jelen sees herself getting involved with public advocacy in the future. "This is definitely not something I know that's normal, that a lot of kids would take on, but it is for me." GiftOutline Gift Article A woman says she was sexually assaulted twice while riding Metro's Red Line. Here's the latest on the investigation. (Video: Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share The 39-year-old woman boarded a Metro train at 9 a.m., exhausted from her overnight nursing shift. She headed home, away from downtown Washington, as the crowd on the Red Line thinned. She fell asleep. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight In riveting testimony in a Montgomery County courtroom, the woman told jurors what happened next. At least two of them would soon be crying. She awoke near the Fort Totten station. A man stood several seats away. They were alone in the Metro car. "He approached me," she said, "and I saw a knife." The criminal trial against John P. Hicks has addressed a question that stunned Washington-area commuters when the case surfaced in 2016: How could someone be raped in broad daylight on a weekday Metro train as it was moving? "That's exactly what did happen, ladies and gentlemen," prosecutor Donna Fenton told jurors, who are scheduled to begin deliberating Tuesday. Advertisement Tatiana David, an attorney for Hicks, did not deny a rape occurred. She said the police arrested the wrong suspect. "He is an innocent man, wrongly accused of a crime that he didn't commit, because of a bad identification, and because of a bad investigation," David said of Hicks. In their case, the prosecution focused on the victim's testimony, surveillance video from inside a Metro station, travel records from Hicks's SmarTrip card and DNA reportedly from Hicks that was pulled from a tissue found below a seat partially obscured by a partition in the corner of a train car. The tissue, according to testimony, wasn't found until hours after the attack a period in which the train in question took riders up and down the Red Line as Metro Transit Police detectives hunted for what amounted to a moving crime scene. Advertisement Part of their challenge was getting commuters off trains where the attack might have occurred and having those trains routed to end-of-the-line rail yards so the cars could be properly processed for evidence. The transit detectives pulled trains out of service three times after the reported attack. "When we have to take a train out of service, it's a big deal," Detective Michael Morehouse testified. "My sergeant was on the phone with rail operations. They were like, 'You guys are crazy. You already have two trains out of service.' And we actually threatened them and said, 'If you don't bring that out to the Glenmont rail yard, we will go stop it wherever it's at and process it there.' " Metro detectives had Hicks in custody by the end of the day of the reported rape, a swift arrest of a man they say had slipped out of the station and gone home. In Hicks's trial this week, the victim walked to the witness stand on Wednesday. Put under oath and asked whether she would tell the truth, her first three words were barely audible. Advertisement "Yes, I do," she whispered. The Washington Post generally does not identify individuals who say they were sexually assaulted without their consent, which the woman declined to give. As she continued her testimony, her voice grew clearer. She described her job and her commute. Although her rides home occurred during morning rush hour, she traveled against the commuting flow, taking the Red Line north of Washington into Montgomery County, where ridership in that direction gets sparse. Fenton asked her to describe the morning of April 12, 2016. She spoke of her train ride and how she awoke around the time she heard an announcement for the Fort Totten station. She realized there was only one other passenger in the train car. She pulled her cellphone from her bag, she testified. "Are you going to Glenmont?" she said the other passenger asked. Advertisement She nodded and returned to her phone. The man asked if she had a boyfriend, she told jurors, before he suddenly showed her a folding knife with a four-inch blade. "He grabbed me off from my seat," she testified, describing how she was pulled toward a partitioned seat at the end of the car. "I grabbed his knife to pull it away from my body . . . and I felt a burning sensation from my hand." Her words, steady until then on the witness stand, grew halting. "He said," she began, pausing for nine seconds, "he said, 'Pull down your pants.' " She employed delicate words to describe the attack she said she endured, until Fenton gently asked her to be more specific. She talked of pleading and praying. "Please don't do this to me," she remembered saying. "Please don't hurt me." "Just do what I say," she said the man said, "and I will not hurt you." Advertisement The woman took a noticeable pause in her testimony. Circuit Judge Cheryl McCally called for a 10-minute break. Back on the stand, the victim spoke of how the attack ended several stations from where she said it had begun and of how she pulled a tissue from her bag and spit into it before the man finally left the Metro car. She walked out of the train onto a platform in a daze, she told jurors, as she said what she recalled hearing. "She's not talking," someone said. "She's bleeding." "Please, please don't leave," she recalled telling a stranger on the platform. "Please keep me safe." A short time later, a Metro police officer was speaking with her, testimony showed. The train was on its way back to Washington and detectives were about to start urgently looking at surveillance recordings and hunt for the train car she'd been in. Advertisement During cross examination, Samantha Sandler, another attorney representing Hicks, challenged descriptions of the attacker the woman had provided to police and at a hospital. He was an African American man, bald, no facial hair, and about 5-foot, 4-inches to 5-foot, 6-inches tall, as Sandler recounted the woman's statements. But as Hicks's attorneys had previously noted to jurors, their client was about five inches taller, was not bald and had facial hair. The victim countered that English is not her first language and that she had equated the word "bald" with closely cropped hair. In her closing argument Friday, Sandler also questioned the forensic value of the tissue because it had been on the train floor for hours. "How many people stepped on that tissue?" Sandler said to jurors. Fenton, one of the prosecutors, countered that the detectives found the tissue in good shape and used it to extract DNA for testing. Advertisement Even before the trial, the Red Line case in 2016 drew attention. Public notice of the rape aboard a train surfaced only after news reporters were tipped off to the incident more than a month after it occurred. Metro had not announced the incident to the public, outraging riders and officials. After Hicks's arrest on the rape charge, it became clear in court filings that Metro Transit Police had identified him as a suspect in a separate Red Line incident of indecent exposure but had not immediately sought to arrest him. In the rape trial, Hicks is charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and first-degree assault. Read more: GiftOutline Gift Article A female pedestrian was struck and killed by an SUV Thursday night in Temple Hills, Md., just four blocks from the scene of a fatal crash on Wednesday night, Prince George's County police said. Thursday's victim was struck in the 4000 block of Branch Avenue, by the southbound SUV about 6 p.m., police said on Twitter. The pedestrian was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said Friday that they will ask a federal judge to set a May 14 trial date for President Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, as well as a business partner, on fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The government stated its intention in a court filing that also summarized how much evidence prosecutors have turned over as required to Manafort's co-defendant, Rick Gates. The filing comes ahead of a hearing Tuesday to update U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington on the status of the case. Manafort, 68, and his longtime deputy Gates, 45, have pleaded not guilty and remain under home detention while details are worked out for their release on secured bonds of $10 million and nearly $5 million, respectively. They were indicted Oct. 30 in connection with Manafort's secret lobbying for a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine, in the first publicly disclosed criminal charges in Mueller's investigation of possible Russian influence in U.S. political affairs. Separately, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and Trump campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about their foreign contacts and are cooperating with investigators. Advertisement On Friday, Mueller's team said that it had turned over more than 590,000 records to Gates, among them emails, financial and corporate records including 2,200 designated by prosecutors as "hot" or high-priority and copies of information on 87 electronic devices such as laptops and phones collected through 19 search warrants. Thirty-five of the devices were seized from Manafort's house, the filing says. The number of records in the case has ballooned since prosecutors made a similar disclosure Dec. 8, when they gave both defendants some 400,000 items, including contents of 36 memory devices, and disclosed 15 warrants. The latest four-page filing states that the government's investigation has continued and that on Friday, the government turned over a sixth batch of records, including foreign bank records obtained since the two men were charged. In a footnote, prosecutors noted that they are not turning over to Gates records that they obtained from Manafort that are not relevant to Gates's case, and vice versa. They also wrote that "electronic evidence seized from Manafort's residence was previously made available to Manafort earlier this year (to the extent that the FBI was able to access the devices/media seized at that time)." The special counsel's office recently added a veteran cyber-prosecutor to its team. Advertisement The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Ryan K. Dickey was assigned to Mueller's team in early November from the Justice Department's computer crime and intellectual-property section, joining 16 other lawyers. Read more: GiftOutline Gift Article A building on Capitol Hill was evacuated for about an hour Friday morning because of an alarm, officials said. The building the Ford U.S. House Office Building was evacuated about 9 a.m. due to an "audible alarm," said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police. Eva Malecki, the spokeswoman, said it was "not anything serious." She wrote in an email that it was a "minor water issue that [the] Architect of the Capitol is working [on] that set off an alarm." Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share A Metro board committee on Thursday advanced General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld's proposal to reimburse rush-hour rail and bus riders who encounter extended delays. The "Rush Hour Promise" would credit the full fare to riders with registered SmarTrip cards who endure delays of 15 minutes or more during peak hours. Rail riders would automatically receive the credit, while bus riders would have to fill out an online form to get their reimbursement. Metro says customers who experience delays of 30 minutes or more are significantly more likely to abandon the system or ride less frequently. They say the program, which could be launched as early as Jan. 26, is an expression of their confidence in the reliability of the system and will provide a measure of accountability for management. "We want to show our customers that we're accountable for delivering reliable service," said Lynn Bowersox, assistant general manager for customer service. Advertisement While commending the aim of the proposal, board members expressed concerns at a meeting of the Safety and Service Delivery Committee, including the potential for fraud, the financial impact and the differing mechanisms for providing refunds to rail and bus riders. Board member Keturah D. Harley asked why bus riders would have to fill out an online form to receive their refunds while rail riders would be reimbursed automatically. Bowersox said it was a matter of technology: Rail riders tap in and out of the system, making it easy to identify the length of their trips and whether they were subject to delays. Bus riders tap their SmarTrip cards only upon boarding. Bowersox said bus riders would be able to fill out the online refund requests on their smartphones. Metro would cross-check the claims to determine whether they're consistent with bus disruptions from mechanical failures to late dispatches. Board member Christian Dorsey criticized Metro for proposing an initiative that could cost the agency $2 million to $3.5 million without subjecting it to scrutiny from the board's Finance Committee. Wiedefeld said that the staff estimates were based on the agency's data and that the program costs could be covered by Metro's existing budget. Advertisement And board member Tom Bulger said he was worried about riders trying to game the system. "I'm concerned with fraud and abuse," he said, asking how Metro would prevent customers from abusing the program to gain refunds by, say, camping out in a station for an extra 15 minutes. Bowersox said Metro will seek to impose a monthly cap on how many refunds customers can receive. She said the agency's MyTripTime program allows Metro to monitor customers' paths of travel. "The data protects you from the false claims that might come in," she said. If the program is approved at the board's Jan. 25 meeting, it would launch Jan. 26, staff said, and last through the calendar year. After that, it would be evaluated for renewal. Bowersox responded to concerns that Metro might risk safety to meet service goals by effectively imposing a financial penalty on poor performance. Advertisement "Let me be absolutely clear," she said. "It has been true since the day the general manager first said it that safety trumps service here at Metro." Metro officials said the proposal makes sense financially: The gesture of goodwill could win back enough riders to make up for revenue lost through reimbursed fares. But they did not have data on how many extra trips would need to be taken over the course of the year to make the refund program a financial net positive. The Rush Hour Promise was one of several strategies floated at Thursday's board meeting to help engender confidence in the system among riders and employees. A group of transit experts convened by the American Public Transportation Association offered several solutions on how to cut the number of assaults against Metrobus operators, a growing problem. According to new Metro data, from last January to early December, there were 90 assaults on bus operators, up from 70 during the same period in 2016. Advertisement The APTA panel recommended that Metro lobby for higher legal penalties for people who attack or assault transit operators and said the agency should consider instituting "expectorant collection" using DNA from saliva to identify someone who spits on a bus driver. Metro recently started using transit police officers in training exercises with drivers. The officers use role-playing to teach drivers how to de-escalate conflicts and calm agitated or threatening passengers. The APTA panel praised the training and also urged Metro to establish formal procedures for suspending repeat offenders from its trains and buses. "This is a tangible action that could mitigate risk immediately. It also has a deterrent effect," said panel member Ken Rotter, deputy general manager for bus administration at New Jersey Transit. Advertisement In other business, Metro officials expressed optimism about progress on one of Wiedefeld's major goals: securing dedicated funding for the agency. There are separate proposals before the D.C. Council and Maryland and Virginia legislatures aimed at providing Metro with the $500 million a year in dedicated funding Wiedefeld says he needs. Metro is alone among big-city transit systems in its lack of a significant source of dedicated funding. "I'm optimistic for the first time we may actually get this thing done," Metro board Chairman Jack Evans said. Wiedefeld, typically more restrained, shared the board chairman's view. "I think we're in a fairly good position, probably the best we've ever been in decades to try to deal with this issue," he said. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Ever the showman, possible presidential candidate and outgoing Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) suggested on national television that he'd deck President Trump. During an interview, Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball asked McAuliffe how he'd respond if the president tried to intimidate him during a debate by hovering over him as Trump famously did in a debate with McAuliffe's friend, Hillary Clinton. "You'd have to pick him up off the floor," McAuliffe said. "You mean you'd deck him?"Matthews sputtered after bursting out laughing. "You want to get in my space, I've always said, Chris, you punch me, I'm going to punch you back twice as hard," McAuliffe replied with a straight face. "And it wouldn't be hard to do it but you know, this guy thinks he can intimidate everybody. It's disgraceful, it's embarrassing but I tell you when we take him on, back in his face, with the facts, don't take anything from him and hit him back as hard as you possibly can. But if he ever came over and leaned on me and got in my space, that would be the last time Donald Trump ever did that. I promise you that." McAuliffe, a longtime Democratic insider and fundraiser before he was elected to office in 2013, is an ebullient politician known for hyperbole, traits that irk some in Virginia's staid political culture. But veiled threats of violence, even if in jest, are new ground for him. Advertisement He's criticized Trump plenty before, but has been mindful of going too overboard given how reliant Virginia's economy is on the federal government. Some of his harshest criticism of the president came after Trump suggested "both sides" were to blame after white nationalists and counterprotestors violently clashed in Charlottesville over the summer. On "Hardball", McAuliffe called Trump "an embarassment to our country" after The Washington Post and other outlets reported that he objected to bringing in immigrants from "shithole" countries during a meeting. "He's an embarrassment to our country," McAuliffe said. "I mean, he comes off looking like a lunatic saying things like this, disparaging individuals. You know, we need to bring this country together. We need to work together. He just doesn't have an ability to be able to do it. He is hurting everyone's ability to grow jobs and do what we need to do to be successful." Advertisement McAuliffe went on to say that voters "have had it with Trump" and that Republicans who stand by him "are going to pay a huge price at the polls", predicting that Democrats will win back the House and Senate in November. But the line suggesting he'd literally beat Trump got more notice. "Omg President McAuliffe sounds pretty good!! 2020," one person tweeted. Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, tweeted "Gov McAuliffe standing up to bullies, no matter who they are." Conservative media also took note: Drudge Report prominently featured a headline blaring "McAuliffe says he'd slug Trump" high on its page. An anti-Trump wave helped Democrats resoundingly win in state elections in November, sweeping all three statewide offices and nearly wiping out the Republican majority in the House of Delegates. On Saturday, McAuliffe will be succeeded by his far more low-key lieutenant governor Ralph Northam, who called Trump a "narcissistic maniac" during Virginia's primary but later said he would work with him. Asked how Northam would respond to Trump hovering over him, his spokeswoman texted, "Probably laugh." GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share RICHMOND Newly minted Del. Kathy Tran (D-Fairfax) sat in the House of Delegates, nursing her 1-year-old daughter in the storied chamber long dominated by men. In the row ahead of her, fellow newcomer Del. Hala Ayala (D-Prince William) sported a purse-shaped American flag lapel pin and a bracelet honoring the Equal Rights Amendment. And the next day, female lawmakers outnumbered men at a Democratic news conference urging the expansion of Medicaid. Women have reached a high mark in the Virginia General Assembly this year, taking 38 out of 140 seats and starting to reshape the culture of a Southern capital often seen as an old boys' club. The surge was part of November's Democratic sweep in the House of Delegates that flipped 15 seats, replacing 11 men with women. Women now hold a record 28 of 100 seats in the chamber, up from 17 last year. They make up nearly half of the Democratic caucus. Among them are the first Latinas, the first transgender woman, the first lesbian and the first Asian American women to be elected to the chamber. Republicans seated their youngest-ever woman, 33-year-old Emily Brewer. Advertisement "We didn't crack the ceiling; we shattered it," Del. Vivian E. Watts (D-Fairfax), the longest-serving woman in the House, said in a Thursday floor speech commemorating the history of women in the legislature. The achievement in Virginia may be the start of something greater, as a record number of women around the country run for governor and Congress this year. Many are Democrats invigorated by Hillary Clinton, who would have been the first female president, and her loss to President Trump despite his history of lewd and disparaging comments about women, among others. "We know that Virginia will be the first of many states to elect a record number of women this cycle," said Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily's List, which supports Democratic women. "While 28 percent is not nearly a high enough percentage of women, this is how true institutional change begins." Advertisement Advocates are hoping this new crop of women in Richmond can change the discussion on an array of issues, including paid family leave, abortion rights and taxes on tampons. Gov.-elect Ralph Northam (D) has named eight women to his 15-member Cabinet, which his office says would be the first time in Virginia history that the governor's inner circle is majority female. But men still dominate positions of power. In addition to Northam, the other two statewide elected officials are male, as are the state's two U.S. senators and its legislative leaders. Just two of 25 committees in both chambers are chaired by women. "Women are the majority of the population in Virginia. At some point, I'm hopeful we will be majority in this room," said Del. Elizabeth Guzman (D-Prince William), whom Democratic freshmen chose as their representative to leadership. "This is just the start." Newly installed Speaker M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights) made overtures to women with an open letter warning of zero tolerance for sexual harassment and a plan to provide paid family leave to legislative staff. Advertisement Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Cox said he would work to recruit high-caliber female candidates and welcomed the rise of women in Richmond. "That's a great thing; that's a good thing," said Cox, flanked by the three men in his leadership team. "That's why we are really trying to promote making sure we have a culture down here that's welcoming." Watts, 77, said the legislature's culture has changed since she was one of four women elected to the House in 1982 then a record. 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) She recalled times when women were barred from a legislative lounge, needed permission to wear pants on the floor and missed votes because of the long trek to the women's bathroom. Even now, Watts said, women will find their ideas gaining more traction when repeated by a man or be shut out of after-hours socializing where male lawmakers bond and build relationships. Advertisement One of the ways newly elected women are trying to change the culture is by forming a "parents caucus" to make the legislature more friendly to parents. Incoming first lady Pam Northam reached out to new delegates Tran and Jennifer Carroll Foy, a Prince William Democrat who prematurely gave birth to twins during her campaign, about the lack of dedicated spaces where they could pump breast milk and nurse. Together, they worked with House Clerk G. Paul Nardo to establish two lactation rooms. The parents caucus also secured a child-care room where they could leave their babies during Saturday's gubernatorial inauguration. The ultimate goal is for the legislature to provide child care during the session. "Our whole purpose is to make the General Assembly more family friendly to hopefully attract and more easily recruit women to run for office," Foy said. "We just want to improve the lives of all parents, and especially working and nursing mothers, as well." Advertisement Tran, who canvassed for votes with her daughter Elise strapped to her chest, has turned heads in the Capitol by bringing the child along to orientation events and the first day of the session. She breast-fed her daughter, with a cover, during outgoing Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe's final State of the Commonwealth address. During most days of the legislative session, Tran, who also has three school-age children, plans to drop her baby at a Richmond day care. But she wanted to make sure she could spend her mornings and evenings with her. "Occasionally, I get people saying, 'Well, how are you going to do this with all these kids?' " Tran said in an interview at her legislative office, where she had a playpen next to her desk and a pile of bibs and blankets on a chair. "I try to always say, it's hard for any mom or dad trying to give their all to their kids and careers." Advocates are hoping the women in Virginia's legislature will help the state pass the long dormant Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Advertisement The movement for an amendment, which would bar government discrimination on the basis of gender, stalled in the early 1980s. Under one disputed theory, it could still pass if Virginia and another state legislature approve it. Although ratification measures have passed the Virginia Senate, they have died in committee in the House. With Republican majorities thinned and female ranks boosted, advocates hope the House will finally act. That includes some Republican women. "It's exciting to have a whole new perspective on things, and women and men don't always agree," said Del. Roxann Robinson (R-Chesterfield), a co-sponsor of the House Equal Rights Amendment bill. Some new female lawmakers are looking to make their mark with symbolic gestures. Del. Kelly Fowler (D-Virginia Beach) ran in part because she was angry when her then-representative voted for a resolution establishing a "Day of Tears" on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion. Advertisement She ran against him and won. And one of her first pieces of legislation, with new Del. Debra Rodman (D-Henrico), is a resolution that would replace the "Day of Tears" with the "Day of Women in Virginia." It would celebrate the record number of women serving in the House and resolve "That all Virginians be encourage to celebrate women in leadership." Every Democratic freshman woman has signed on. Read more: GiftOutline Gift Article Gift Article Share Governor admits affair but denies blackmail Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) acknowledged Wednesday night that he was unfaithful to his wife "a few years ago" before being elected. But his lawyer denied sensational allegations aired by a local TV station that Greitens threatened to distribute naked photos he took of the woman with whom he was having a relationship if she ever said anything about it. St. Louis television station KMOV reported that Greitens had a sexual relationship with his former hairdresser in 2015, and it played an audio recording made by her former husband. A statement posted Wednesday by Greitens and his wife, Sheena, said in part that "a few years ago . . . 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." Advertisement A St. Louis prosecutor on Thursday said she would investigate allegations that Greitens threatened to blackmail the woman. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner called the allegations "very troubling." A Democrat-turned-Republican, Greitens, 43, was elected governor in November 2016 after a campaign that emphasized his status as a family man. He is a former Navy SEAL and Rhodes scholar. Fred Barbash State broke federal law on special education Texas violated federal law by failing to identify and educate students with disabilities and by deliberately working to decrease the number of students enrolled in special education programs, the U.S. Department of Education said in a report Thursday. The report concluded that Texas ran afoul of federal law by failing to locate students in need of special education, failing to ensure free public education was made available to children with disabilities and failing to adequately supervise and monitor the state's special education program. Advertisement Texas has the second-largest U.S. public school system, with about 5 million students. "Far too many students in Texas had been precluded from receiving supports and services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement. The policies of the Texas Education Agency drew federal scrutiny after a 2016 investigation by the Houston Chronicle, which revealed that many school districts delayed or denied services to special education students to meet an agency benchmark of capping their enrollment in the systems at 8.5 percent of the student population. The practice lasted for more than a decade, starting in 2004, the paper reported. Reuters GiftOutline Gift Article Gift Article Share 328 arrested as protests over price rises persist Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Tunisian police arrested 328 people and fired tear gas as protesters hurled rocks and burned tires during continued nationwide demonstrations over price increases. European governments, meanwhile, warned travelers about the multiday outbreak of unrest in the birthplace of the Arab Spring. More protests are planned to mark seven years since the ouster of longtime president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali on Jan. 14, 2011. An Interior Ministry spokesman said Thursday that the 328 arrested overnight are accused of destroying property, looting and theft. More than 200 others were arrested earlier in the week. While Tunisia set an example for the region by building a democracy against the odds, many Tunisians, especially in working-class provincial towns, fear that the government is slipping back into authoritarian ways. Advertisement They also feel neglected and angry over price rises that the government says are necessary to improve the struggling economy and qualify for foreign aid. Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Thursday accused political opponents and corrupt barons of stoking the unrest. Associated Press 4 dead, 28 missing as boat sinks in Caribbean Authorities are searching the Caribbean for 28 people missing from a boat that left Venezuela and appears to have sunk, after four bodies and wreckage washed ashore in nearby Curacao, officials said Thursday. The boat was headed to the Dutch island, a journey frequently taken by people fleeing Venezuela's economic collapse. The boat had departed Tuesday night with 34 people aboard, the director of Venezuela's Regional Civil Protection said, adding that two people managed to swim to shore in Curacao, which is about 45 miles away at its closest point. Advertisement Police on the island discovered the bodies of two men and two women on shore Wednesday, said a Curacao police spokesman. Curacao's police and coast guard continued their search by land and air, authorities said. Luis Stefanelli, a member of Venezuela's congress, said the boat passengers were all under 35. The incident comes amid heightened tensions after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday suspended trade with Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire, and shut down sea and air travel to and from the islands. Venezuelan authorities allege that the smuggling of domestic products to neighboring countries is one of the causes of the severe shortage of essentials in the South American nation. Associated Press Farage says he might back new Brexit vote British politician Nigel Farage, who had campaigned prominently for Britain to leave the European Union, said Thursday that he might support a second referendum on E.U. membership to kill off any prospect of remaining in the bloc. Advertisement Britain voted 52 to 48 percent in June 2016 to leave the E.U. Former prime minister Tony Blair and other pro-E.U. politicians say that the consequences of the 2016 Brexit decision were not clear at the time and that Britain should vote again. Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party, said he might back such a vote because it would end the "whingeing and whining" among anti-Brexit politicians. He told Britain's Channel 5 television that voters would reject E.U. membership in even bigger numbers in a second referendum. Opinion polls suggest Britons remain roughly evenly divided on the subject. "We will not be having a second referendum," Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said. Associated Press 8 earthquakes strike along Iran-Iraq border: Eight earthquakes hit the Iran-Iraq border area and rattled Baghdad, apparent aftershocks of a temblor that struck the region in November and killed more than 530 people. State television reported that four people suffered minor injuries in Iran in the latest temblors. The U.S. Geological Survey said seven of the quakes struck near the Iraqi city of Mandali, northeast of Baghdad. The eighth hit near Mehran in western Iran. Ghani frees 75 prisoners loyal to ex-warlord: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has pardoned 75 prisoners loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former warlord and U.S.-declared terrorist who signed a peace agreement with Kabul in 2016. The deal gave Hekmatyar and his followers immunity for past actions and granted them full political rights. From news services GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share MONTGOMERY COUNTY officials on Friday will celebrate the opening of a center that provides for safe child exchanges and supervised visits when there is a high degree of conflict between custodial parents. The event comes more than five years after the death of 15-month-old Prince McLeod Rams underscored the dangers of unsupervised visits and gaps in the safety net that is supposed to safeguard children. It is a noteworthy step in improving protections. Hopefully it will be followed by action on the state level that addresses another problem revealed by Prince's death: the utter lack of standards on the sale of life insurance for children. Prince was murdered by his father during a court-ordered unsupervised visit which his mother had objected to during Montgomery County custody proceedings as part of a premeditated scheme to cash in on more than $500,000 in life insurance the father had secretly obtained on the toddler's life. The boy's death in October 2012 at his father's home in Manassas revealed flaws in a family court system that prioritized a parent's rights over a child's safety and was cited by the nonprofit Court Watch Montgomery in a report highlighting a lack of affordable supervised visitation services. On Friday, officials will officially inaugurate Montgomery County's Safe Passage Center. The Rockville facility can serve about 80 families a week, providing a safe place where parents can exchange children for visits and where visits can be monitored if a child may be at risk. Advertisement Now it's the General Assembly's turn. Del. Erek L. Barron (D-Prince George's) has introduced legislation to require insurance companies to tighten underwriting standards and procedures before writing life insurance policies on children. Mr. Barron said our editorials showing how easy it was for Prince's father to get policies on his newborn son's life no questions asked despite his shaky finances and other suspicious actions prompted him to take a look, consulting with state insurance regulators before coming up with the proposal that would require additional checks by insurance companies to detect possible fraud or bad intent. "I didn't see any reason why we shouldn't have better standards to prevent this kind of thing. . . . Even if it is only one child that can be saved, it is a no-brainer," he said. Juvenile life insurance represents easy profit, and it is scandalous that states by and large allow companies to set their own standards. If young and vulnerable lives are to be insured a practice many financial experts consider dubious because it benefits the insurance industry far more than the consumer there should be more, not less, scrutiny. Maryland lawmakers need to take up Mr. Barron's bill and, we would argue, make it even stronger, possibly by placing limits (as New York does ) on the amount of insurance that can be taken out on children. Other states including Virginia, where Prince's life was so callously snuffed out need to pay attention to this issue. Advertisement Read more here: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share If Congress cannot agree on a budget plan by Jan. 19, the government will shut down. This isn't the outcome anyone wants. But Democrats ought to start steeling themselves now: If the Republican majority's budget plan leaves the "dreamers" in limbo, fails to supply desperately needed aid to Puerto Rico and coastal states battered by natural disaster, or allows the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to wither away, Democrats need to be ready to shut the whole thing down. It is necessary to recognize the damage a shutdown could cause in the course of recommending, as I am, that the Democrats prepare to let it happen. If the outcome were sure to be harmless, the possible costs would be small. But the moral stakes of this budget negotiation are extraordinarily high. Taking a stand for dreamers, children and disaster-stricken citizens will come with a price. Trump has said a shutdown could be politically useful for him, and Democrats seem nervous. It's hard to predict, at this point, which party (if either) a shutdown would benefit: Republicans could wind up with the blame, but they could also gain from underscoring the notion that government is broken. As Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and a Post contributor, warned me on Wednesday: "These government shutdowns feed into a narrative that is not politically neutral." There are practical concerns, too. "The biggest impact tends to be on people who work for the government [and] are nonessential employees," Bernstein said. During past shutdowns, nonessential employees have been paid after the fact, but there is no guarantee Congress would elect to do the same this time. Bernstein added that a shutdown would be "a ding to the economy" and "massive inconvenience," putting all kinds of activities from sorting out Social Security questions to visiting national parks to getting passports renewed on hold. A shutdown wouldn't grind daily life to a halt. But it would affect millions, with serious ramifications for many. Opinion writers Charles Lane, Molly Roberts, Jennifer Rubin and Dana Milbank talk about the chances of a DACA deal in this clip from "It's Only Thursday." (Video: The Washington Post) Advertisement But there are potential strategic upsides for Democrats. For one, triggering a shutdown could demonstrate that Democrats take the interests and desires of the American people seriously. "The public wants CHIP, Puerto Rico and Texas to get relief, and wants to protect dreamers," said Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.org. "Keeping all these priorities on hold in a perpetual game of kick-the-can doesn't actually line up with what most Americans want." In an October Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 62 percent of respondents said Puerto Rico has not received the help it needs in the wake of Hurricane Maria; a November Kaiser survey likewise found that 62 percent of Americans consider funding CHIP a top priority far above tax reform or strengthening immigration controls. In that same poll, only 16 percent of respondents said dreamers shouldn't be allowed to remain in the country. Likewise, a Post-ABC News poll found that 86 percent of Americans want dreamers to be allowed to stay. But it isn't just the premise of democracy or the possibility of 2018 advantage that demands relentless commitment to these three causes. It's ordinary morality. Advertisement The beneficiaries of CHIP, disaster aid and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals are innocent insofar as none of them brought onto themselves the statuses that have made them vulnerable. It is important to understand them as innocents at the mercy of a merciless faction; otherwise the harms they face might appear more morally complicated than they are. As the Roman Catholic Archbishop Jose Gomez recently wrote: "It would be cruel to punish [dreamers] for the wrongs of their parents, deporting them to countries of origin that they have never seen, where they may not even know the language." It would likewise be cruel to allow children with diabetes to die for lack of insulin or to plunge poor families deep into debt because they happened to have a child with a disability. The same can be said for those who had the misfortune of living in areas struck by storms, the ne plus ultra of situations one didn't cause and cannot prevent. A shutdown would cause real problems for real people. It is, in the words of Wikler, "something to be avoided if possible, but not at the expense of fundamental priorities." What is remarkable about the priorities at hand, however, is that they have no business being articles of compromise. These aren't ordinary policy squabbles; they constitute a choice between America as a humane nation with democratic principles and America as a negligent sovereign with a dim future. The protection of innocents shouldn't be up for debate. But it is. And Democrats can't back down. Read more on this topic: GiftOutline Gift Article Recently (Jan. 10) there was guest column in the Missoulian explaining the vital role and impact of physicians on Montanas economy. In addition, it was reported that the distribution of Montana physicians is extremely uneven, with 71 percent of all physicians practicing in only five counties. In terms of primary care, it also was reported that nine counties do not have a physician and 13 counties lack a primary care physician. This is very serious issue for Montanas rural population, however, the problem is being addressed by Montanas two Family Medicine Residency Programs, one located in Billings and one at the University of Montana in Missoula. UMs partners in this important program are the two Missoula hospitals and Partnership Health Center; Kalispell Regional Medical Center and Flathead Community Health Center; and 10 Montana rural training sites. At UM, the residency program, known as the Family Residency Program of Western Montana (FMRWM), accepts 10 physicians per year. Such residency programs are necessary, in addition to the further training provided, because physicians have a tendency to practice in the general area where they have completed a residency program. To be specific, the FMRWM Program is a relatively new program, with two graduating classes (2016 and 2017), and with a third class graduating this coming summer. Overall, of the first 18 graduates, 16 are practicing in rural or underserved areas, and 11 of the 18 are practicing in Montana. A number of the graduating class of 2018 have not yet finalized where they will practice but it is possible that 10 soon-to-be graduates (11 are in this class) will select practice positions in Montana (two physicians have accepted positions in Lewistown). The paucity of primary care physicians in rural areas is not a new problem and it will take a good deal of time to make a significant impact on the problem. However, this issue is being addressed by UM and its partners, and the FMRWM Programs graduates, over their careers as primary care physicians, will result in better health care in Montanas rural areas. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share LAST YEAR Russia brokered a series of cease-fires, or "de-escalation zones," in Syria, including one with the United States covering the southwest corner of the country. The Kremlin claimed its aim was to wind down the country's civil war and lay the groundwork for a peace deal between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups, some of them Western-backed. Longtime observers of the Syrian war wondered if the cease-fires, like many previously agreed to by Russia and the Assad regime, would be broken as soon as the allies were prepared to launch new offensives against rebel-held areas. But President Trump and his aides expressed optimism that Russian President Vladimir Putin was sincere. "If we get . . . a few more [cease-fires], all of a sudden we are going to have no bullets being fired in Syria," Mr. Trump said in July. "I think there is a level of commitment on the part of the Russian government," said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The administration should now be discovering, as the Obama administration did before it, just what Russia's word in Syria is worth. With heavy Russian air support, Syrian government forces have been conducting new offensives against two of the de- escalation zones, the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta and the northern province of Idlib. As in the past, the tactics include war crimes, including the deliberate bombing of hospitals. In Idlib, where hundreds of thousands of Syrians took refuge during previous stages of the war, another mass exodus is underway, with more than 100,000 people fleeing north toward the Turkish border. Advertisement The onslaught in Idlib has drawn sharp protests from Turkey, with which Russia brokered the cease-fire in the area. Russia, in turn, has complained about attacks on one of its air bases using primitive drones of unknown origin. The Trump administration, meanwhile, is doing its best to ignore the new bloodshed. Officials are playing down the Idlib fighting on the grounds that the area is dominated by al-Qaeda-linked rebel groups. That explanation, which has been the standard excuse of the Assad regime and Russia for breaking previous commitments, is all too convenient. While extremist groups control a large part of Idlib, Turkey says moderate Free Syrian Army units are involved in the fighting an assertion that we also heard from several FSA leaders now visiting Washington. The mass of refugees being driven toward Turkey, with no protection from the winter weather, are not terrorists. And if the offensive is successful, the result will be the further entrenchment in Syria of not just Russia but also Iran, the Assad regime's closest ally. Advertisement The United States, in short, stands to lose again to Russia in Syria. The Assad regime is relentlessly seeking to restore its control over the entire country by force, and Moscow is actively abetting it. By declining to challenge or even protest this brutal strategy, the Trump administration reveals its weakness. Read more here: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Stephen Nash is the author of "Virginia Climate Fever How Climate Change Will Transform Our Cities, Shorelines and Forests" and is a visiting senior research scholar at the University of Richmond. The generosity of some big, big donors to Gov. Ralph Northam's (D) inaugural committee for Saturday's $1.6 million (and counting) festival is astonishing but not, shall we say, a surprise. We begin with Dominion Energy, our supposedly state-regulated private corporate monopoly that pollutes air and water, stifles independent solar power, aligns with climate-change deniers and tries to ram unneeded gas pipelines over the mountains to its profit and our loss. Dominion gave $50,000 to the inaugural committee. Altria, the tobacco company: $50,000. The Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association: $32,500. Aetna Life and Casualty: $25,000. The Norfolk Southern Corporation: $25,000. Political appointees, lobbyists and corporate chieftains are there, too, on the $10,000-plus list. Advertisement These inaugural events were more or less open to all. Political power in Virginia is not. Northam's administration can work hard to correct that, and it has already made strides. But was the nonprofit Children's Home Society supposed to contemplate a similarly mighty contribution in hopes of currying favor? It has struggled for years to improve the state's abysmal record of placing abused and foster children in adoptive homes. We are often dead last among the 50 states in doing so. What about Virginia Organizing, whose lengthy agenda includes looking out for gay people, working people and beleaguered immigrants; the Virginia Center for Public Safety, which lobbies for sane firearms laws; or the Chesapeake Climate Action Network? It's a rhetorical question. They couldn't contribute $50,000, or similarly grand wads of cash, to the committee. Northam's inauguration funding is little different from that of his predecessors, but that's no excuse. It's time for a change, of that and much else. Advertisement Legal scholar and former New York gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout writes in her book "Corruption in America : From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United " that "a gift can be a bribe. . . . Gifts can be as bad as bribes sometimes worse than bribes in creating obligations." There's no suggestion here that the new governor is personally corrupt. He has to work pragmatically within a corrupted system. But the ownership of our government is in question at this moment in Virginia's and the nation's history. One poll found that three-quarters of Americans Republicans and Democrats in nearly even numbers think Congress is for sale. Just the appearance of taking money from corporations and influencers is toxic to public trust. As a Republican contender for Virginia governor, state Sen. Frank Wagner, said: "I can certainly understand the sentiment of some of the public that, 'Oh, he received money from them, therefore he is beholden.' . . . I think it's a conclusion that many people would draw." Only last May, as a candidate, Northam called for a ban on campaign donations from corporations and businesses and a $10,000 cap for all donors except party committees. That would be a start, and his very first days in office would be a good time to follow through on it. "Virginians across every part of the political spectrum want a system that is more responsive to the people, and less reliant on big checks from a few donors," he said back then. Advertisement As for public celebrations, history points to a better way to fund them, too. In 1884, when the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty ran out of money, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer urged the public to donate. The cost of the statue "was paid in by the masses of the French people . . . irrespective of class or condition. . . . It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America," he wrote. More than $100,000 was raised to complete the statue's pedestal. Children collected tens of thousands of pennies. Most donations were $1 or less. The statue was erected. Government should not be, nor appear to be, "a gift from the millionaires to the millionaires." Virginia's new leadership should fight hard, starting now, to make sure it isn't. Read more about this issue: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Cynthia H. Coffman, a Republican, is the attorney general of Colorado. She is also a candidate for governor. Colorado voters decided in November 2012 that our state constitution should protect legalized retail marijuana. A little more than five years later, I suspect that if we were to put that issue to a vote again, it would pass by even higher numbers. For better or worse, legalized marijuana has become more accepted around the country, with 29 states and the District now having some form of cannabis legalization. That is why it was surprising to wake up last week to the news that the Justice Department, without advance notice, rescinded the nationwide guidance regarding marijuana enforcement. By rolling back this guidance, including the Cole Memorandum, the Justice Department has left the decision-making up to the 93 U.S. attorneys, creating substantial uncertainty in how the law will be applied from state to state. Advertisement Frankly, it is too late for the federal government to step in and dismantle this burgeoning industry. Despite the decision, I still believe that priorities laid out in the Cole memo are critically important. Those include preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors, preventing criminal enterprises and cartels from using our state's laws as a cover or pretext for illegal activity and focusing on preventing drugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public-health consequences. Those priorities cannot get lost in a political shuffle, and they will continue to be the focus of our efforts in Colorado. Coloradans would be the first to admit that being a trailblazer in this area has not always been easy. There have been bumps in the road, and there is still work to be done. But our state has taken thoughtful steps to build a comprehensive regulatory and enforcement system that prioritizes public safety and public health. We have served as a model for other states that have also legalized cannabis. Advertisement I did not support the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado, and as the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in our state, I have certainly seen the downside to its establishment. But I recognize that it is the responsibility of elected officials to put aside personal feelings and implement the will of citizens to the best of their abilities. I absolutely respect that citizens in other states have chosen not to legalize marijuana, which is certainly their prerogative. But in Colorado, we remain committed to improving the laws and regulations governing marijuana businesses. For example, I have joined many fellow attorneys general from states around the country in encouraging Congress to take necessary action to bring marijuana businesses out of the financial shadows and allow them access to banking services. Right now, federal law forces these businesses to run cash-only operations, which impedes the ability of law enforcement and regulatory authorities to monitor the financial transactions of this multibillion-dollar industry. This creates a public safety threat, as cash-only businesses are targeted for robbery and other crimes. It also creates additional challenges for regulators and taxing authorities trying to determine what taxes are owed to state and local governments. Advertisement In the meantime, I hope the federal government does not try to target lawful marijuana retailers in my state. If they do, I will follow my charge as attorney general to defend Colorado's laws. For now, Colorado will continue to operate business as usual. Read more: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Regarding Eugene Robinson's Jan. 2 op-ed, "Time to cool it on North Korea": The North Korean threat is perhaps more dangerous than the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Nuclear war has remained and should remain unthinkable since 1945. Mr. Robinson's argument should be pushed further. It is past time to accept the fact that our diplomatic efforts have failed to stop the North Korean nuclear project and accept however reluctantly and fearfully the reality that it is a nuclear power. The horses are out of the barn. Given the dangerous vulnerability of Seoul, there is no viable military option. North Korea's regime clearly believes that it is in its national interest to have a nuclear shield. Sanctions will not work. As Russian President Vladimir Putin said recently, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would rather have his people " eat grass" than give up nukes. Nuclear deterrence worked throughout the Cold War despite some very close calls. Mr. Kim may be reckless and erratic, but he is not a madman. He must know that a nuclear strike against a U.S. city would trigger a catastrophic response. Advertisement We should immediately end the extremely dangerous situation with threats flying back and forth and the ever-present possibility of miscalculation. It is in our national interest to accept reality and make the rational assumption that North Korea can be deterred by our vast nuclear arsenal. A Soviet first strike would have been far more deadly because of that nation's huge nuclear arsenal. North Korea, on the other hand, has as yet only a small number of nuclear weapons and, therefore, is much less of a threat to the United States. John Wood, Washington GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share White House staffers have two general objectives: to serve the president and to please the president. The two do not always coincide. I can recall, as a policy adviser to President George W. Bush, sending him articles and columns (including some by Nicholas Kristof) savaging the administration's reaction to the unfolding Darfur genocide. Predictably, Bush called me into the Oval Office to vent against the unfairness of the criticism. Just as typically, he ended the meeting by telling me a series of steps he was taking to review and toughen our policy. Or take the example of Bush's Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. In 2006, Bolten sent clip after clip to the president demonstrating how U.S. strategy in Iraq was failing. A more successful approach "the surge" was built on this foundation of presidential disillusionment. Advertisement Trump aides and administration members attacked Michael Wolff, his new book "Fire and Fury," and Stephen K. Bannon on Jan. 7. (Video: Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) It is clear that President Trump does not reward this type of service. The way to reach Trump is to flatter him in the extreme. This does not mean that everyone in the administration is always obsequious. But it does mean that all the incentives run toward obsequiousness. It is Trump's form of natural selection: the survival of the servile. White House senior adviser Stephen Miller has risen by climbing this greasy pole. His appearance last Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" in which he hailed his boss as a "political genius" was a master class in toadying. Miller's purpose was not to make public arguments but, as Jake Tapper appropriately put it, to please "one viewer." And that viewer immediately provided a reward: "Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller," tweeted the president. A crass and obvious feedback loop was immediately at work. Miller is not alone. Members of the Cabinet have been trained to burst out in praise of the Great Leader on a moment's notice. Members of Congress even past critics have figured out the power of subservience in the Trump era. Media figures such as Sean Hannity get the deal. So do the Chinese and Saudi governments, which have made stroking the president's ego into an effective tool of diplomacy. Advertisement But what I know best is the White House. And here the triumph of suck- uppery presents special problems. First, an atmosphere of flattery can exaggerate a president's worst traits. During Richard Nixon's presidency, the cooler heads at the White House tried to ignore his obsession with enemies and schemes of retribution. The yes men, such as (by his own later admission) Charles W. Colson, ran with Nixon's instincts turning his manias into plans to help consolidate their influence. Miller has done much the same on immigration feeding Trump's anti- immigrant bias and undermining the prospect of a legislative deal. Second, sycophancy in the White House makes it more difficult to correct errors. Governing is not a science. It is necessary to make policy adjustments all the time, large and small. If a president does not understand and acknowledge mistakes, he can't learn from them and correct them. The flatterer is thus an impediment to effective governing. Advertisement Third, obsequiousness creates an anti-empirical culture. Aides are tempted to select and pass along the most positive, pleasing information. They distort reality to stay in favor rather than presenting reality in order to help confront it. This appears to be happening right now with members of Trump's legal team. They seem to be assuring him that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation is nearing an end and that Trump's legal exposure is limited. They should be preparing him for the onslaught of a skilled prosecutor, armed with highly damaging information on collusion, obstruction of justice and (if Stephen K. Bannon is to be believed) money laundering. Fourth, an atmosphere of flattery is often an atmosphere of fear. When staffers set out to win the favor of an egotistical and mercurial boss, they are generally pitted against each other. The ethos is acidic. Trump's main management goal seems to be to keep his employees off balance unsure of his regard in order to motivate conspicuous acts of loyalty. This is a way to gain adulation, but also to sow enmity. Trump's style of leadership motivated the competition and contempt that characterized the initial failures of the Trump White House particularly the self-serving leaks. And there is little evidence this dynamic has changed. It won't change, of course, until the president really wants it to. This would require only one simple, impossible thing: for Trump to part with the narrative of his own infallibility. Read more on this topic: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share The fire and fury over Michael Wolff's book has largely centered on the personalities and power struggles within the White House. But behind all of that lies an important political development, one that explains the real rift between President Trump and his former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon. Trump seems to have abandoned populism. Remember candidate Trump? His signature issue was immigration, on which he promised an unyielding hard line, including a border wall and mass deportations. His "Contract with the American Voter" was brimming with populist measures, from tough actions against China to a trillion-dollar public works program. His economic plans focused on goodies for the middle class, from a 35 percent tax cut for middle-class families to deductions for child and elderly care. He called for severe restrictions on lobbying and for term limits on members of Congress. Trump's final campaign ad featured images of billionaire financier George Soros, Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet L. Yellen and Goldman Sachs's chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, darkly narrated by a Trump speech in which he warns against the "global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities." Advertisement Opinion writers Charles Lane, Molly Roberts, Jennifer Rubin and Dana Milbank talk about the chances of a DACA deal in this clip from "It's Only Thursday." (Video: The Washington Post) Flash forward to Trump today. There is no wall, and the president now speaks of a "bill of love" that could offer a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants he once promised to deport. His relations with China have been decidedly chummy, as have those with another country he excoriated on the campaign trail, Saudi Arabia. The focus of his economic program has been to return vast sums of money to large corporations. Most of his tax law's benefits go to those firms and to people in the highest income brackets. Oh, and these economic policies are being designed and implemented by Blankfein's former No. 2 at Goldman Sachs, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, and a former Goldman partner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Follow Fareed Zakaria 's opinions Follow Add More so than the personality clashes between Bannon and Jared Kushner, and the gossip about who is up and down in the White House, this is the great divide that developed in the early months of the Trump administration. Bannon must have watched with incredulity as the candidate who campaigned as a fiery outsider against the Republican establishment essentially handed over the reins of his government to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). McConnell is quoted in Wolff's book as saying, "This president will sign whatever is put in front of him." Moments after Trump blasted Bannon last week, McConnell's political team tweeted out a GIF of the majority leader beaming. Advertisement Where did Trump's populism come from in the first place? To answer this question, the book to read is not Wolff's gossipy confection but Joshua Green's highly intelligent "Devil's Bargain." In it, Green points out that Trump originally had a mish-mash of political views that leaned in no particular direction. But he began going on talk radio and addressing conservative audiences and realized that it was not economics but social and cultural issues such as immigration that fired up crowds. Trump was initially "indifferent to the idea" of a wall, according to Green, but campaign aide Sam Nunberg is quoted as saying that when Trump tried out the idea for the first time at the Iowa Freedom Summit in January 2015, "the place just went nuts." Unencumbered by any deep ideology of his own or any ethical qualms as demonstrated by his embrace of birtherism, for example Trump was able to adopt these issues far more quickly than his 16 competitors in the Republican primaries. He distinguished himself by taking on the most hard-line positions, thus winning over the GOP base. That, in addition to his colorful, charismatic style, created a bond between him and a new bulwark of the Republican Party, the white working class, that appears, for now, unbreakable. I don't agree with many of Bannon's proposals, but he was surely right in recognizing the populist fury that runs through a large swath of the country. One wonders what will happen to it as time passes and Trump's voters notice that they have ended up with something quite different than they had imagined. During the presidential transition, Bannon told Wolff that the Trump era would be like America in the 1930s, with a massive public works program that would get blue-collar workers back into shipyards, mills and mines. Instead we appear to have a return to the 1920s, an era of unrestrained capitalism, giddy market exuberance, a shrunken state and dramatically rising inequality. Is this what the laid-off steelworker in Ohio voted for? Advertisement Read more here: GiftOutline Gift Article The portion of the Dec. 30 Religion article "12 who died in 2017 put array of faiths in action" on Frank Worthen seemed to suggest that "conversion therapy" fostered by Exodus International which claimed to make gay people straight folded because it was "controversial." While it was controversial, the real cause was rigorous social science and the findings of virtually all medical and psychological professions, led by the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association. Their evidence showed that people cannot change their sexual orientation and that attempts to do so can and have caused lasting harm to individuals. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Just under 800,000 people received permits to stay and work in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program begun by President Barack Obama. President Trump has announced the program's end, pending a lawsuit winding its way through the courts. It now falls to Congress to decide the fate of the "dreamers." There are some conservatives who will say that any deal that lets the dreamers stay in the country is amnesty. But the truth is that there is an obvious compromise that balances dreamers and security. Like the entries of the dreamers into the United States, the Obama administration's order establishing DACA was in the minds of many laypeople and lawyers alike illegal. The nearly 700,000 current DACA enrollees, though, are not court cases or hypothetical exam questions in a constitutional law class. They are people with families and jobs. A very small percentage are felons, convicted or otherwise, but as most people are not violent criminals, neither are the vast majority of dreamers. They are just ordinary people. Check that. "There are no ordinary people," theologian and writer C.S. Lewis concluded in his essay "The Weight of Glory." He continued, "You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption." Lewis's baseline assumption about there being no "ordinary people" applies to dreamers, and that assumption ought to inform the debate about their future under the law. Of course, legislators have to be concerned not just with the dreamers but with the incentives communicated by their regularization, and with the need to protect U.S. citizens and U.S. sovereignty. So we must be worried about people often minors who die trying to reach our southern border because they believe it easy to cross: who are abused in the process, exploited, raped, held hostage. We also have to strengthen security at a border where deadly and powerfully large rivers of fentanyl, heroin and, more broadly, violence course into the country daily. Opinion writers Charles Lane, Molly Roberts, Jennifer Rubin and Dana Milbank talk about the chances of a DACA deal in this clip from "It's Only Thursday." (Video: The Washington Post) Advertisement Fortunately, a legislated deal between these competing interests is obvious: regularization of the 700,000 who can show they have not been involved in violence or criminal enterprise; a significant investment in border security, including the 700-plus miles of wall; an explicit rejection of "chain migration" entitlement or preference for the dreamers; and an end to the absurd "diversity visa lottery." To repeat: It really is the most obvious of bargains. Whoever causes this compromise to collapse not only is not public spirited, they are themselves opponents of rational self-government. If our government cannot do the easy deals, how will it ever accomplish the difficult ones? David J. Bier counterpoint No, Bidens immigration policies are not to blame for the fentanyl crisis President Trump has promised to sign such a congressional compromise. Who is going to announce that they put politics ahead of these 700,000 and the other manifestly sane and necessary steps on security? Whoever those people are, they are most definitely not on the side of the angels. Advertisement This compromise is not amnesty. A long, strong fence and additional security measures aren't the Berlin Wall, nor are their proponents totalitarians. After all the posturing and the rhetoric is done and said, my take is that a large majority of Americans can agree on this plan. Can Congress, just this once, get its act together and, in a bipartisan fashion by large majorities, do an obviously good thing? Just do it, and then move on. What a concept. Read more on this issue: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share The past seven days have matched some of the Trump era's most frantic and maniacal weeks. Washington headlines have been driven by Michael Wolff's Swampland confessional, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, " and the slew of revelations that emerged in its turbulent wake. Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up. ArrowRight On one side of the political divide, Trump antagonists clutched Wolff's book to their breasts while whispering sweet nothings to the 25th Amendment. On the other, Trump apologists furiously took on the role of grammar police, highlighting every misplaced comma or mislabeled character in hopes that those errors would obfuscate the book's central truth: that Donald J. Trump is not fit to be president. Even journalists, who resent Wolff and his methods (there will surely be more of them after the book's phenomenal success), begrudgingly admit that the bestseller paints an accurate portrait of the president's dystopian world. But the most curious reaction to "Fire and Fury" has come from influential conservatives who have long carried the "Never Trump" banner. These thought leaders can't seem to decide whom they loathe more President Trump or Wolff. The most prominent example this week was the New York Times's David Brooks, who on Monday dismissed the book as "anti-Trump lowbrowism" and warned that the "Never Trump" movement risks becoming what it hates by succumbing to Wolff's low standards. Advertisement Its like the movie Mean Girls, except its in the White House. This week: the burn book to end all burn books. (Video: Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) Brooks's column was met with effusive praise across the Never Trump community, even as the moderate Republican suggested a sort of detente in return for the favorable conservative policies being produced by the Trump White House. The columnist approvingly cited reports that behind the scenes Trump is a well-informed and affable leader who knows how to run a good meeting. Brooks even makes the breathtaking claim that "the White House is getting more professional." I find myself at a rare loss for words. Let's simply review Trump's actions over the three days since Brooks's column was published. The president once again advocated making it easier for politicians like him to sue columnists such as Brooks. Such a move would do immeasurable harm to our First Amendment free-speech guarantees. 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) Trump also pressured Republicans to interfere with the special counsel's investigation and politicize the rule of law. This autocratic partisan plea to subvert Robert S. Mueller III's work comes after the former FBI director has already secured convictions of Trump's national security adviser and a top foreign policy expert, along with indictments of his former campaign manager and another key campaign operative. Advertisement Our commander in chief also attacked the integrity of the U.S. judicial system because he didn't like the outcome of an inconsequential lower-court ruling. And, hard as it may be to believe, the president had time this week to again attack the men and women of the FBI and suggested that they tried to use their legal authority to rig the 2016 election. Trump used a news conference Wednesday to attack his 2016 Democratic opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, while revealing again his autocratic impulses by demanding the jailing of his political rivals. Trump put on this crude display while the leader of Norway watched in horror. And while at a bipartisan meeting of lawmakers on Thursday, Trump reportedly offended U.S. allies across Central America, the Caribbean and Africa by denigrating them as "shithole countries." Advertisement This is a "more professional White House"? Only if you have been so desensitized by Trump's first year in office that you no longer recognize when your country is in danger. Yes, columnists and Capitol Hill politicians would do themselves and their country a favor by fighting to find common ground on the issues that divide us as a nation. But when faced with a once-in-a-lifetime challenge to America's constitutional values, there can be no room for compromise. When a democratically elected leader exposes himself as a man with autocratic instincts, splitting the difference only starts this country down the path to a constitutional crisis. Winston Churchill wrote of the lead-up to World War II: "The malice of the wicked is reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous. . . . The counsels of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger; how the middle course adopted from desires for safety and a quiet life may be found to lead direct to the bulls-eye of disaster." Advertisement In our day, there can be no compromise or middle ground between those who defend the Constitution and a president who understands so little of what has made our nation great. The fight for America's future has begun, and the time for rationalizing Trump's aberrant behavior is long past. Read more about this topic: GiftOutline Gift Article 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) Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share If you want to know President Trump's position on any given policy issue, the last person you should ask is President Trump. He has no idea what he thinks. Let me amend that. He does know that he wants more immigrants from places such as Norway and fewer from African nations, Haiti and El Salvador, which he called "shithole countries" in a meeting with lawmakers Thursday, according to The Post. So in terms of racism, he's crystal clear. On most other things, though, he's fuzzy to the point of cluelessness. It was an astonishing moment Tuesday, at Trump's televised "negotiation" with congressional leaders on immigration, when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D- Calif.) asked whether the president would support a "clean" or stand-alone bill providing relief for the estimated 700,000 "dreamers" who were brought to the United States illegally when they were children. Legislation that would let them stay is known in Washington acronym-speak as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. "I have no problem . . . We're going to do DACA, and then we can start immediately on the phase two, which would be comprehensive," Trump said. When Feinstein asked again if he would be agreeable to this approach, Trump said, "Yeah, I would like to do that. I think a lot of people would like to see that. But I think we have to do DACA first." Opinion writers Charles Lane, Molly Roberts, Jennifer Rubin and Dana Milbank talk about the chances of a DACA deal in this clip from "It's Only Thursday." (Video: The Washington Post) Advertisement Republicans around the table freaked out. Trump had adopted the Democrats' position and abandoned his own, which is, or was, that any action to help the dreamers had to be accompanied by tough-on-immigration measures such as funding for Trump's border wall. (Never mind that Mexico was supposed to pay for the wall, according to Trump's campaign rhetoric.) Follow Eugene Robinson 's opinions Follow Add House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) quickly jumped in to clarify that what the president obviously meant by "yes" was "no." The televised part of the session lasted 55 minutes, and the president seemed uncharacteristically agreeable throughout. As in, agreeable to anything: He actually said at one point that he would sign whatever immigration bill the assembled legislators managed to pass. On another issue, the White House made clear what it wanted Congress to do about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: reject a measure that would restrict the government's ability to conduct domestic surveillance of Americans. But on Thursday, Trump undercut his own position with a morning tweet: Advertisement " '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?" So it sounded as if Trump might be in favor of limiting potential FISA abuses. But a couple of hours later, the president tweeted again to say, basically, never mind. It was widely speculated that the first, rogue tweet had been prompted by a headline crawling by on "Fox & Friends." When Trump convened a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, he had an odd greeting for the media pool that had been admitted to cover the session: "Welcome back to the studio." Could he actually see the West Wing as a television studio? Or as being similar enough to a studio that he confuses the two? In December, the New York Times reported something that made my jaw drop: "Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals." Advertisement I want to be fair here. Of course all presidents would rather win fights than lose them, and, since they're politicians, they want to be seen as winning those fights. But seeing each day as an "episode" of a reality-show presidency is a recipe for chaos, inconsistency, discontinuity, incoherence a recipe for what we've seen in the first year of the Trump presidency. Tuesday's immigration summit was "the episode in which Trump shows he's a serious leader involved in weighty issues, not the looney-tunes airhead depicted in Michael Wolff's book." Wednesday's Cabinet meeting was "the episode in which Trump shows his leadership but this time doesn't contradict his own policy." Needless to say, this is no way to run a country. But it may be all the Trump administration is capable of. Trump had no ideas for reshaping the health-care system, with the result that Obamacare is still in place. He had no ideas for reshaping tax policy except "cut, cut, cut," with the result that Republicans came up with a bill that balloons the national debt while offering caviar to the rich and peanuts to the middle class. Advertisement They say ignorance is bliss. Trump must be very happy. Read more here: GiftOutline Gift Article Gov. Steve Bullock on Friday announced the formation of a 12-member panel tasked with studying and making recommendations about the future of Montana State Parks. Last summer, Bullock launched the Parks in Focus initiative to identify long-term solutions to the opportunities and challenges faced by Montanas State Parks system. The initiative would focus on ways to implement the parks division 2020 strategic plan by prioritizing diversified revenue streams, growing strategic partnerships and building constituent support. On Friday Bullock formalized the initiative with an executive order forming the Montana Parks in Focus Commission. The 12 members of the panel represent various businesses and nonprofits along with tribal and legislative members. Parks in Focus will deliver results and accountability to the state parks and recreation strategic plan, while also ensuring that financial, operational and cultural challenges facing state parks are addressed under the management of (Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks), Bullock said on a press call announcing the commission. The order activates the commission for a term of 12 months and it will hold four yet-to-be determined meetings around the state. The panel will work with the governors office, FWP leadership and staff, the Montana State Parks and Recreation Board and the Montana State Parks Foundation. A final recommendations report is due next December under the charter. Im excited that theyre both willing to step up and provide resources, ideas and expertise to address something that I think is very very important to all Montanans, Bullock said. Its a great group of folks willing to roll up their sleeves and dive into this. Director Martha Williams, who last year vowed support for parks as she took the helm of FWP, called the panel a great step for the department. Our state parks play a critical role in Montana as way for people to learn about and enjoy the outdoors, she said. Im grateful for the governors persistent support of our parks and this effort is important for moving parks forward. Montana State Parks faces a number of hardships. Parks is funded and staffed comparatively lower than other states with a budget that was slashed in both the regular and special sessions last year. The division has an overall budget of about $8 million, but faces a $22 million maintenance backlog. In the last year the divisions administrator and board chairman were dismissed while another board member resigned. Legislators and the media began looking into millions in unspent funds. Bullock also vetoed a bill that would have put the hiring and firing of the head of state parks under the Montana State Parks and Recreation Board, rather than the FWP director. Despite those issues, at the same time visitation has skyrocketed to record levels. Bullock does not have preconceived goals about parks funding, but says he comes from the premise that parks are valued by Montanans and local communities. That premise does not ignore the maintenance backlog, understaffing coming to a head with increasing visitation, and that parks cant always meet the needs and expectations of visitors. Addressing funding issues and building support may also alleviate other aspects of the strategic plan, namely prioritizing parks and in some cases, even divestment of parks, he said. Last November, Beth R. Shumate was hired as administrator of Montana State Parks. Both she and Williams identified budget issues and bolstering funding as top priorities. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share PRESIDENT TRUMP rode blanket condemnation of the postwar American consensus on trade to the White House. Only wealthy U.S. elites and their overseas partners, he told the public, have enjoyed the fruits of multilateral tariff-reducing deals, whereas middle-class Americans have known nothing but job loss and community dislocation. Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up. ArrowRight The president is trying to create a turning point in the country's economic relations with the world, after which he will put "America first," and the purported globalist rip-off of the middle class will end. This is the common theme of seemingly disparate trade disputes that are set to play out in 2018: pending bids for protective tariffs from U.S. producers of steel, aluminum, washing machines and solar panels; renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement; the struggle with China over pirated intellectual property and other issues. We hope and expect the president will fail. Advertisement Our hope that he will fail is not based on a belief that the postwar trading system has proved an unmitigated success. To the contrary, job loss due to imports, especially those from China, brought pain to specific industries and areas, the deleterious social and political repercussions of which include Mr. Trump's victory. Broadly speaking, though, increasingly free trade over the past 70-plus years has brought tremendous benefits both to the hundreds of millions lifted out of poverty in Asia, Africa and Latin America and to Americans who have enjoyed a wider choice of quality products, at lower cost, and high wages in export industries. Also of value, tangible and intangible, to the United States was the leadership of a world with less interstate violent conflict of the kind fueled by the pre-World War II international economic system. Our expectation of failure is based on the sheer difficulty of the task Mr. Trump has set himself. Even if NAFTA and other long-standing arrangements were bad ideas in hindsight, they represent the status quo on which vast investments depend, and which cannot be abruptly abandoned without all sorts of harm to various interests, including many that are crucial to Mr. Trump's political fortunes. Agribusiness, for example, is concentrated in states that Mr. Trump carried and depends heavily on exports to Mexico. Politically, reimposing protectionism is no easier than removing it: Both activate practically every contentious lobby in Washington. As James Madison wrote: "It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good." Mr. Trump's attempts to keep everyone happy from Wisconsin dairy farmers to Whirlpool Corp. prove Madison's point. The promise of free trade, admittedly never fully realized, is to allocate the world's resources according to objective economic criteria as opposed to interest-group politics. China's stubborn adherence to mercantilism threatens that vision; Mr. Trump and other critics of Beijing's policies are right to focus on it. What would be wrong, and self- defeating, however, would be to abandon global leadership in frustration over China's violations, a path Mr. Trump has started down by scrapping the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That agreement represented an attempted 21st-century adaptation of the postwar, U.S.-led trade regime. Improvements in that regime are necessary, to be sure; its destruction would be not only very harmful but also, as we hope Mr. Trump soon finds, exceedingly difficult to achieve. Read more on this issue here: GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share For the past four decades, the United States and Iran have demonized each other to no end. According to Tehran, America is "the Great Satan" whose imperialist designs have destabilized the Middle East and brought nothing but misery to the people of the region. Washington, meanwhile, depicts Iran as the "leading state sponsor of terrorism" and a member of the "Axis of Evil" whose "evil hand" is behind every conflict in the region. But somewhere along the way, America's and Iran's knowledge about each other was edged out by myths. "Don't know thy enemy" became the mantra. Here are some common American myths about Iran. The nuclear deal only delays an inevitable Iranian bomb. This has been a common criticism of the Iran nuclear deal, a.k.a. the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson put it: "The JCPOA fails to achieve the objective of a non-nuclear Iran; it only delays their goal of becoming a nuclear state." Advertisement This misconception is based on the fact that some of the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program namely, limits on the number of centrifuges it can have, the advanced research it can conduct and the amount of energy-grade uranium it can stockpile expire after 10 to 15 years (as is the case with most arms-control treaties). However, the most important aspects of the deal the intrusive inspections regime and the transparency and verification mechanisms are permanent. Iran will be expected to abide indefinitely by the Additional Protocol to the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and those inspections are the strongest guarantees possible to render an Iranian nuclear bomb an impossibility. There's one catch, though. Iran must live up to its end of the bargain only as long as the United States lives up to its end. If Washington violates the deal or "terminates" it, as Trump vowed to do again on Friday, the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program will be lost. Killing the deal would help support Iranian protesters. By some accounts, abandoning the pact would be the best way to support the demands of protesters who have been demonstrating across Iran this month. "The deal has emboldened Iran's ruling mullahs to continue the nation's international isolation, as Tehran spends billions of dollars on expensive belligerent activities, money that was made available to it through sanctions relief and that it could have spent to shore up the civilian economy," Fred Fleitz, a George W. Bush administration national security official, wrote for National Review. Advertisement It's true that the protests have been driven by economic grievances and that Iranians, especially the working poor, have been frustrated that sanctions relief hasn't improved the economy. But jettisoning the deal and reimposing broad economic sanctions would only further punish the Iranian people. Promoting Iran's integration in the global economy is a better way of empowering Iran's working and middle classes and striking a blow against reactionary forces within the regime whose main source of power is its stranglehold on the economy. Indeed, numerous polls show that Iranians overwhelmingly supported the nuclear deal precisely because they are desperate to break free from Iran's isolation and reconnect with the outside world. Those in Iran who would like to see the nuclear deal collapse are the very hard-line elements the United States shouldn't be helping. Advertisement Iran's Green Movement was a failure. Practically every commentary on the recent demonstrations has compared them with the protests of 2009, frequently suggesting that the Green Movement, while valiant, failed. Typical was Vice President Pence's op-ed in The Washington Post: "The Green Revolution was ruthlessly put down, and the deadly silence on the streets of Iran matched the deafening silence from the White House." Iran's clerical government did indeed brutally suppress those protests, putting Green Movement leaders under house arrest. And the movement's immediate demands were not met: Accusations of voter fraud were not properly addressed, political prisoners were not released, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went on to serve another four years as president. But the Greens got some vengeance in 2013 through the election of Hassan Rouhani. Without the support of the Green voters, Rouhani who lacked a clear political base could not have won the presidency. And in 2017, reformists swept almost all seats in city council elections in Iran's largest cities. In the conservative city of Mashhad, a woman ran on a platform of opposing the patriarchy. Her slogan was "Elect more women!" She won. Advertisement Iran's enmity with Israel is ideological and immutable. The Israeli-Iranian confrontation "is a sweeping ideological conflict," proclaims Israeli political commentator Aluf Benn. "And history teaches that such conflicts end only when one side has been knocked out." Iranian leaders, too, often frame the clash as ideological, which enables them to pose as champions of the Palestinians and defenders of Islam against the West. In reality, though, the conflict is driven by geopolitical factors. Historically, Iran and Israel enjoyed strong relations born out of common threats they faced: from the Soviet Union and from powerful Arab states, such as Egypt and Iraq. Although Iranian leaders turned against Israel rhetorically with the birth of Iran's theocracy in 1979, the strategic reality did not change, and the two nations continued to collaborate behind the scenes. In fact, as I detail in "Treacherous Alliance," Israel lobbied Washington to talk to Iran, sell arms to Iran (remember the Iran-contra scandal?) and disregard Iran's anti-Western rhetoric. Advertisement But tension escalated in 1991 because of two geopolitical shocks: the collapse of the Soviet Union and the defeat of Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the Persian Gulf War. The common threats that had brought Israel and Iran together evaporated. And in the struggle to define the new balance of power in the Middle East, Iran and Israel were no longer allies but rivals. That struggle has yet to be resolved. Iranians hate Americans. "When someone chants, 'Yes, certainly, death to America,' we should take him at his word," said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But while the Iranian government's hostility toward the United States (and vice versa) is unmistakable, the Iranian populace tends to hold positive views about American people, culture and values. It's become almost cliche for American travelers to express surprise at the tremendous hospitality of Iranians toward Westerners in general and Americans in particular. Advertisement The admiration, curiosity and friendliness usually do not extend to the policies of the American government, however. From U.S. support for Saudi Arabia to President Trump's ban on travelers from some Muslim nations, American policies don't tend to get high approval ratings from the Iranian people. But just as Iranians make a distinction between themselves and their government, they do the same when it comes to America and Americans. Twitter: @tparsi Five myths is a weekly feature challenging everything you think you know. You can check out previous myths, read more from Outlook or follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share It's not just Bannon on the decline, however. Breitbart itself has slipped from its place as left-wing bogeyman and right-wing powerbroker. The loss of Bannon once would have been seen as cataclysmic, a crippling blow to a site, and a movement, that drove so much of the tumult in American politics. But now it seems like the inevitable closing act. These days, Breitbart feels a lot like run-of-the-mill conservative media, not so different from Fox News or talk radio. That's partly an unintended consequence of its triumph: Breitbart's influence seeped into right-wing media on all platforms over the past two years. But if every conservative outlet sounds like Breitbart, is Breitbart still essential to Trumpism? Advertisement During Trump's rise, Breitbart sat at the confluence of the issues and styles that would come to redefine the right: devotedly pro-Trump, anti-immigrant and sneeringly anti-establishment, all packaged with trollish headlines like "Does feminism make women ugly? " and slurs such as "cuck" that were favorites of the alt-right, a movement known for its racist and sexist views. The formula worked. A study by Harvard researchers published last March in the Columbia Journalism Review showed that as Trump moved toward the Republican presidential nomination, the conservative media ecosystem reoriented around Breitbart . Its prominence emerged from a series of related factors: its strong social media presence; its obsessive focus on the issues of immigration and Islam, which would dominate campaign coverage; and its early and ardent support for Trump. That last piece is key, because it's how Breitbart opened a war against Fox News, helping dethrone the cable behemoth in the middle of the campaign. In early 2016, Trump was regularly tangling with the network, especially anchor Megyn Kelly. Breitbart eagerly adopted the cause, publishing piece after piece in an attempt to discredit Fox and its occasional Trump skepticism. The one-two punch of Breitbart and Trump drew voters and attracted an audience. Advertisement The primaries created an opening for Breitbart to skewer Fox as soft on immigration and insufficiently pro-Trump, a creature of the Washington Republican establishment that Bannon and his preferred candidate loved to lash out against. Those attacks subsided as Trump locked down the nomination, and as the Harvard researchers' data shows, right-wingers allowed Fox back into the fold. Trump and Kelly made up in a private meeting followed by a one-on-one interview in May 2016, and Fox's focus shifted to bashing Hillary Clinton and lamenting the media's bias against Republicans. Fox was going through its own troubles at the time the week Trump officially accepted the nomination, Roger Ailes was forced out as chief executive and chairman of the network. It seemed plausible that if Trump lost, Fox would emerge very differently, seeking to distinguish itself from the Breitbarts of the world with Kelly as its leading star. Speculation in political and media circles had Ailes teaming up with Trump to launch a new conservative TV network to bash Clinton's administration if he didn't win the election. But when Trump did win, Fox transformed itself into Trump TV instead, becoming the cable analogue to Breitbart. Trump skeptics such as Kelly, Greta van Susteren and George Will left. Trump boosters such as Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Nigel Farage joined or were promoted to more prominent slots. "Fox & Friends," which had been known primarily for its goofy inanity, turned into the Donald Trump Cheerleader Show so enthusiastically that the president frequently live-tweets its broadcasts. Before running for president, Trump had a weekly guest spot, so the hosts know him well. They studiously avoid topics that might be upsetting to him such as the indictment of his former aides and spin everything else as an upbeat sign that in the Trump era, things are going A-okay. Advertisement Pro-Trump posturing isn't the only similarity. Like Breitbart, Carlson slams Trump when he strays too far from his draconian promises on immigration. This past week, both Breitbart and Carlson went after Trump for appearing to fold on revoking work permits for some undocumented young immigrants and that "big, beautiful" border wall. After holding the line on immigration as a candidate, Trump was now capitulating to "the very swamp creatures he once denounced," Carlson said. ". . . What was the point of running for president?" Hannity, meanwhile, has waded into Breitbart's waters by indulging conspiracies about the killing of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich and the "deep state " FBI that's supposedly out to get Trump. Like Breitbart, he has breathlessly reported rumors and baseless theories about Rich's death, relying on WikiLeaks , Julian Assange and Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom as sources. Even after a source recanted and Fox retracted its own reporting on the topic, Hannity held firm: "I am not Fox.com or FoxNews.com. I retracted nothing." (Under pressure from advertisers, however, he stopped talking about the story in late May, and a few weeks later, Breitbart quietly dropped it, too.) Then there are the Daily Caller and Gateway Pundit, two of the 10 most-visited conservative sites , both of which can now be understood as mini-Breitbarts. The Daily Caller, founded by Carlson, reflects his anti-immigration stance. Like Breitbart, it has published alt-right and white-nationalist writers such as Jason Kessler, organizer of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and Peter Brimelow, founder of the white-nationalist site VDARE. Advertisement Gateway Pundit, when not peddling hoaxes, also runs many anti-immigrant, anti-Islam posts (and, like Breitbart, it has White House press credentials in this administration). The overall feel of the site is basically Breitbart, but by amateurs. It wallows in the muck of birtherism and "illegal voters," slaps photos of "scary brown people" over stories about the growing U.S. Muslim population, and repackages other sites' articles with inflammatory headlines that feature liberal use of all-caps and exclamation points. These sites attract millions of visitors every month. Social media plays a big role: retweets, Facebook shares, message boards. So, too, does the insularity of the right-wing media ecosystem. The two biggest sites, Drudge Report and Breitbart, constantly link to stories at the Daily Caller, Zero Hedge, the Washington Examiner, Gateway Pundit and others (all of which regularly link to Breitbart and Drudge as well). The traffic bounces back and forth among these nodes, sending page views soaring. And then there's Trump, who tweets out links to all of it even, once, to Infowars, which promotes conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school shooting, 9/11, the moon landing and government weather-control schemes, just to name a few. All of this has built a new right-wing media landscape, one where Trump sounds like Breitbart, which sounds like Gateway Pundit, which sounds like Fox, with no one voice rising above the rest. Right-wing media all seems alike not because Breitbart is all-powerful but because so many of the outlets have become so aggressively pro-Trump. At a certain point, all the cheerleading sounds the same. Advertisement But Breitbart has also changed, disciplined by the spotlight. As The Washington Post reported last summer , Breitbart's traffic plummeted after the election, as did its advertising revenue, ushering in what could be "a kinder, gentler Breitbart." Milo Yiannopoulos is gone, tossed out after his pro-pedophilia comments surfaced. So is Katie McHugh, a reporter who sent out an anti-Muslim tweet after a terrorist attack in London in June. The more overt appeals to the alt-right stopped around the time Richard Spencer started appearing in major magazines showing off his "fashy" haircut and racist theories. Breitbart's biggest problem, though, might be Trump's victory, not Bannon's downfall. What was seen in late 2016 and early 2017 as a triumph for the ideology that Breitbart and Bannon pushed was instead the start of a cult of personality around Trump, one without much fealty to specific political preferences. Yes, Trump put in place the Bannon-inspired ban on travelers from some Muslim countries and abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate accord. And yes, the president's rhetoric continues to have that nationalist, populist and sometimes racist cast that Bannon helped shape. But Breitbart is at risk now of falling back into being just another loud voice picking fights with liberal "snowflakes" and cheering on Trump's erratic governing style. Once seen as the source of all of Trump's policy ideas, Breitbart even before Bannon's final crash couldn't stop the president from veering toward more mainstream Republican positions, including an endorsement of Luther Strange in the Alabama Senate primary, support for the GOP tax bill laden with corporate lobbying priorities or recent wobbliness on hard-line immigration policies. Trump hasn't gone mainstream, exactly, but he sure doesn't seem that interested in going to war with the establishment right just for the sake of blowing it up. Advertisement So far, none of that has cost Trump the support of his base. They're there for him, not his policies. If there's a movement, it's not Bannon's or Breitbart's it's Trump's. And the site that helped put him in office is now just one more piece of the conservative mainstream, destined one day to become the establishment that a new upstart provocateur will take down. Twitter: @pastpunditry Read more from Outlook: Follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share She was driving in a park with two male friends when a pair of plainclothes New York City police detectives drove up in an unmarked van. The officers, from the Brooklyn South precinct, stopped the trio for being in a public park after dark. The officers searched the car and found marijuana and the anti-anxiety medication Klonopin. They arrested her, put her in the back of the van in handcuffs and ordered her friends not to follow. According to prosecutors, the detectives proceeded to force the 18-year-old woman to perform oral sex on one of them, who then raped her. The other officer then allegedly forced her into oral sex, as well. The 50-count indictment also alleges that the officers, who are facing charges of rape, kidnapping and official misconduct, threatened her with criminal charges if she didn't cooperate. The defendants have since quit the force, though their attorneys have sought to undermine the young woman's account. This story broke in October to shock and outrage. While I share the outrage, as someone who has studied police sexual violence for more than a decade and as a survivor this young woman's experience didn't surprise me. In fact, it is representative of national patterns of sexual violence by officers during traffic stops and handling of minor offenses, drug arrests and police interactions with teenagers. Advertisement Research on "police sexual misconduct" a term used to describe actions from sexual harassment and extortion to forcible rape by officers overwhelmingly concludes that it is a systemic problem. A 2015 investigation by the Buffalo News, based on a national review of media reports and court records over a 10-year period, concluded that an officer is accused of an act of sexual misconduct at least every five days. The vast majority of incidents, the report found, involve motorists, young people in job-shadowing programs, students, victims of violence and informants. In more than 60 percent of the cases reviewed, an officer was convicted of a crime or faced other consequences. Former police officer turned professor Phil Stinson conducted a national analysis of more than 500 officer arrests for sexual misconduct over a three-year period. He found that half involved on-duty misconduct and noted that off-duty misconduct is often facilitated by the power of the badge or the presence of an official service weapon. A fifth of arrests involved forcible rape, another fifth forcible fondling. In a second study, funded by the National Institute of Justice and analyzing more than 6,700 officer arrests nationwide during a seven-year period, Stinson found that half of arrests for sexual misconduct were for incidents involving minors. According to a 2010 Cato Institute review, sexual misconduct is the second-most-frequently reported form of police misconduct, after excessive force. Advertisement "Over the years I would see it all," former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper wrote in his book, "Breaking Rank." He described cases in which cops fondled prisoners, made false traffic stops of attractive women, traded sexual favors for freedom, had sex with teenagers and raped children. "Sexual predation by police officers happens far more often than people in the business are willing to admit." Research consistently shows that police officers target young women like the Brooklyn teenager. A 2000 survey of nearly 1,000 New York City youth found that 2 in 5 young women almost half of whom were black, Latina or Asian reported sexual harassment by officers. A 2003 national study of cases reported in the media over more than a decade, conducted by the Police Professionalism Initiative at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, found that 40 percent of reported cases of police sexual misconduct involved teens, often young women involved in youth engagement and job-shadowing programs. One young woman, Diana Guerrero, filed a lawsuit against the city of Las Cruces, N.M., after she was assaulted during a "ride along" with an officer in 2011. The officer said in a taped confession: "The badge gets you the p---y and the p---y gets your badge, you know?" Officers also prey on domestic-violence survivors, who are particularly vulnerable to abuses by people they call on for protection. One officer quoted in an investigative report by the Philadelphia Inquirer said, "I would see women that were vulnerable where I could appear as a knight in shining armor." He explained, "I'm going to help this woman who's being abused by her boyfriend, and then I'll ask for sexual favors." Another bragged that getting dates with such victims was like "shooting fish in a barrel. " Advertisement Police also target women they don't think would be believed if they came forward, including women of color, transgender women, women who use drugs or alcohol, and women involved in the sex trade. The 2016 Justice Department investigation of the Baltimore Police Department found that officers extorted sex from women under the threat of prostitution charges. Two Los Angeles Police Department officers are currently on trial for extorting sex from women facing drug charges. Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, who is serving a 263-year sentence after being accused of sexual assault by 13 black women and girls, targeted young women, women who used drugs and women he believed to be "working girls." These cases are unique only in that the officers faced consequences for their actions. Accountability is rare. One study found that in 41 percent of cases, officers charged with sexual violence had been previously accused of sexual misconduct between two and 21 prior allegations but had remained on the force. Even when officers are terminated or allowed to resign, many are able to simply move on to another department, in what researchers dub the "officer shuffle." Why aren't departments doing more to stop sexual violence by officers? Despite materials such as "Addressing Sexual Offenses and Misconduct by Law Enforcement," a guide published by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in 2011, most police departments have no policies or training making it clear that on-duty sexual misconduct against civilians is prohibited. The Obama-era President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, the Justice Department's guidance on gender bias in policing, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission and various researchers have all taken the position that departments need to, at a minimum, enact and enforce policies prohibiting sexual violence by officers. When asked why more departments haven't taken up the charge, an IACP spokesman simply said, "We don't see a groundswell from people who are protesting their police departments for this kind of activity." Advertisement While that needs to change, departments shouldn't have to be asked twice to explicitly tell officers that sexually harassing and assaulting members of the public is unacceptable and will result in termination. We should also know by now that we can't depend on the police to police themselves. Yet there is often nowhere that a woman who has been sexually assaulted by an officer can go to report it except the police. If she goes to the district attorney or a civilian oversight agency, the case is usually referred to a police department for investigation. Intimidation is common. The Brooklyn teenager said at least nine police officers came to her hospital room, discouraging her from going through with a rape kit. In a Chicago case, Tiawanda Moore was prosecuted for recording investigating officers as they tried to discourage her from filing a sexual misconduct complaint. (She was acquitted after a year-long trial.) In Eugene, Ore., an officer who was later convicted of sexually abusing a dozen women put his service weapon to one victim's genitals and threatened to blow her up "from the inside out" if she told anyone. Municipalities could make it easier for victims to come forward by enabling civilian oversight agencies to investigate complaints of sexual violence by police. Indeed, the Justice Department investigation of the Chicago Police Department recommended that civilian investigators be empowered and trained to receive such complaints. City legislators and advocates tried to transfer jurisdiction over sexual misconduct complaints to the new Civilian Office of Police Accountability only to be stymied by the police union. Advertisement But we shouldn't just rely on victims of police sexual assault to come forward. A range of measures, from small steps to structural changes, can be taken to prevent and detect police sexual violence. Departments can monitor data from individual officers' traffic or pedestrian stops to determine whether they are stopping a disproportionate number of women. They can use GPS to track patrol car movements, a strategy that corroborated the testimony of Holtzclaw's victims. Supervisors can show up unexpectedly to check on officers on late-night patrol. Many departments already require officers to report mileage when they transport arrestees, in part to prevent detours to secluded areas to force or extort sex. Investigators can also conduct stings to catch officers in the act, something the New York and Los Angeles departments have done successfully on occasion but not nearly often enough. Research and investigations conclude that police sexual assault is facilitated by the structure of policing itself. As Stinson put it: "Police routinely operate alone and largely free from any direct supervision, either from administrators or fellow officers. Police commonly encounter citizens who are vulnerable, usually because they are victims, criminal suspects, or perceived as 'suspicious' and subject to the power and coercive authority granted to police. Police-citizen interactions often occur in the late-night hours that provide low public visibility and ample opportunities to those officers who are able and willing to take advantage of citizens to commit acts of sexual deviance and to perpetrate sex crimes." Police officers wield significant power and discretion, and are protected by a blue wall of silence when they abuse them. In light of these realities, the goal should be to reduce the number of police encounters and the power officers use to extort or force sex. That would mean not flooding communities with officers, and not giving those officers the ability to hold mandatory-minimum drug sentences over women's heads, contrary to Attorney General Jeff Sessions's current priorities. It would mean taking a public health approach to drug and prostitution offenses, and taking police officers who use the serious consequences of such charges to extort sex and rape women out of the equation, either by decriminalizing those offenses or eliminating arrests through pre-arrest diversion programs. Survivors of sexual assault by police deserve solutions that strike at the root of the problem, instead of mere outrage at each crime that happens to make the news. No survivor of sexual violence should be ignored simply because her perpetrator was a police officer. outlook@washpost.com Read more from Outlook and follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share 'Wow. This is really beautiful, son, thanks so much for this." I'm sitting in a Takoma Park restaurant watching my father thumb through a small silver photo album from my parents' wedding. It's the first time he's seen the album in 25 years. And this is only the third or fourth time I've seen him in the past decade. My mother, who raised me, passed suddenly in her sleep in 2016 bringing me into possession of the album. My father was in a Maryland prison when she died. Now he'd been paroled, and here I was learning about a wedding she'd rarely talked about. Like millions of Americans, I am a child of addiction. Research indicates that an annual average of 8.7 million children 17 or younger live with a parent addicted to drugs or alcohol. Drug deaths rose by 21 percent in 2016, the biggest annual increase ever recorded. Today's headlines warn of the arrival of a new drug crisis, driven by a flood of opiates and alcohol. For the second year in a row, American life expectancies declined in 2016 because of the surge in the death rate from drug overdoses. Advertisement When my parents married in the late 1980s, Washington was on the verge of a coming catastrophe: crack cocaine. Cheap, highly addictive crack flooded the city, fueling drug-related violence and disorder that officials were ill-equipped to handle. Drugs, or the lucrative drug trade, entrapped my parents and many others in my family. I came along in 1988, two months premature and severely underweight one of hundreds of thousands of children born to mothers battling addiction nationwide, according to a January 1991 General Accounting Office report. For most of my life, all of this was a mystery to me. I was raised by my mother as an only child in Takoma Park, a leafy Maryland suburb north of the city known for political activism and stately Victorian homes, away from much of the havoc affecting families across the District. The change of scenery helped save my mother's life; she used the distance from old habits and connections to beat addiction and rededicate herself to her dream of becoming an educator. In this pursuit she had a number of advantages: the first college degree in my family, a supportive network of co-workers and relatives, decent pay, and crucially no criminal record. My father, who is now seven years sober, was sporadically in my life and spent many years in and out of prison for drug-related crimes. One of my earliest memories is of visiting him and an uncle in a halfway house as a toddler. Growing up, I hated talking about him, and my mother didn't force the issue. Part of my avoidance was due to shame, a common reaction to the conspiracy of silence that our society forms around drug addiction and abuse. But a bigger part was the frustration of not knowing of being unable to answer the simplest questions about one of the two people I was supposed to know best. Advertisement In many ways, it's easiest not to know, for all of us. It's simpler to see those struggling with addiction or convicted of crimes as problems to solve or bad actors to punish. It's simpler not to engage with the humanity behind broken behaviors. We can save face with the outside world if we hide the painful struggles in our families. Alana Levinson, in Pacific Standard, wrote movingly about her family's "pact of silence" around her father's drug addiction, in which avoidance ensured harmony. This was how my mother and I dealt with my father's addiction. Ignoring these problems, and leaving them to addicts to solve for themselves, can soothe our consciences. It allows us to focus on how individual choices drive individual outcomes, rather than on the reality, which is that blind luck and the vagaries of chance shape the choices available to everyone. I was lucky to grow up in a supportive community with a loving mother, who stressed the importance of education and was in a position to provide me with a good one. I was lucky to earn degrees from Georgetown and Harvard. Today, I work with organizations seeking to reform our criminal justice system and improve chances for families affected by mass incarceration. Advertisement But the desire to transcend origins and "make it out" helps ratify the conspiracy of silence. Transcendence can be a selective amnesia: a way to ignore that which causes pain, or carries the whiff of shame, or connects us to a past we would rather forget. The escape narrative also denies the truth that people who survive do so more because of luck than will. At this point in my life, having practiced forgetting, I have a deep desire to know. Having made it out, I want to understand what went right so that fewer things can go wrong for others. Losing my mother was, in many ways, easier than getting my father back. Loss is a part of the natural, if tragic, order of things. There is a rhythm to it, a procedure, stages of grief. But what to do with a father you never thought you'd have? How to relate to the prodigal parent seeking amends? How to comprehend the face of a stranger and see your own? Advertisement I was apprehensive about what it would mean to have my father in my life just as I was getting used to living without my mother. It had been so long since I was a kid; I'm older now than my father was when I was born. And at the outset, our relationship was suspended in amber, both of us fitted awkwardly into roles we'd outgrown. What's more, I was mad about past heartbreaks, which we needed to revisit if we wanted a different relationship now. And I was incredibly angry at the hand that I'd been dealt. It seemed unfair. Finding an outlet for my emotions, in friends and loved ones, has been critical to making a relationship with my dad work. Since his release last May, my father has done very well to his delight and mine, and largely because of a different chance encounter. A few weeks after coming home, my dad saw a friend from what he called the "bad old days" at the bus stop. The man now helped run a nonprofit reentry and employment program for ex-prisoners. "I know how extremely lucky I got with that," he told me. His friend helped him find work driving a garbage truck and steered odd jobs (snow removal, cleaning gutters) his way. Just as important, his friend has served as an example and mentor, keeping him on the right path, listening to and understanding the frustrations that come with reentering society. Advertisement We've been able to celebrate milestones, such as my father's first-ever bank account and car, together. When I asked my dad what his favorite thing about being out was, his answer was simple. "Paying bills," he said. "Paying rent. Feeling like I can contribute and waking up with money in my pocket. Because when I was using, there was never a time that I went to sleep with any money." He told me recently over breakfast: "I feel like I have something to prove. I don't want people to look at me cross-eyed and assume they know everything about me." Reconnecting with a loved one is a journey of unexpected turns and slow progress, especially when the loved one has returned from prison or is in treatment for addiction. Given our history, it was difficult at first to trust my father. It was not that I suspected his intentions but rather that I was leery of putting faith in him. Being guarded and anticipating failure was a defense mechanism for me, as much as avoidance had been previously. When my father offered to help me move last summer, I hesitated. Practically, I didn't want to risk being stranded without a moving truck if he failed to show up. But more than that, I remembered the pain of missed birthdays and graduations, promises made and not kept, and years of swallowed disappointments. I accepted his offer, but I braced for the letdown. On the day of the move, my father and the truck were delayed by traffic, and I tried to bury my nagging sense of dread in a flurry of boxes. But then he arrived, and it was like a weight was lifted. I was surprised by how much that small gesture meant to me. Advertisement Stories like these are common for adults working to rebuild relationships with formerly incarcerated parents. My father and I are still on our journey, and I suspect that we will be for some time. Like most things in life, it's required patience and a willingness to readjust expectations. For my part, I've had to acknowledge or at least consider that this time could be different. I've found others making similar journeys; sometimes those who you would least expect. On my first birthday, President George H.W. Bush delivered a televised address to the nation. Holding a small bag of crack cocaine, he denounced the scourge "turning our cities into battle zones." He pledged to wage a war on drugs, beginning with the streets of the nation's capital. We now know how damaging this approach has been, at home and in countries around the world, according to numerous studies from the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Tough policies have saddled hundreds of thousands with criminal records, exported violence to developing countries in Central Asia and Latin America, and completely failed to prevent the dramatic expansion of illicit drug markets or improve health outcomes for users. Advertisement Then, last fall, President Trump gave his own address on the new drug epidemic. He called it a public health emergency, putting him at odds with the drug policy articulated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who promotes the old law-and-order, tough-on-crime routine. But I was struck less by the president's hypocrisy (no new money was directed to provide treatment to Americans addicted to opioids) than I was by his display of seeming emotion and empathy. Trump spoke affectingly of his older brother, Fred, and Fred's long battle with alcoholism "the saddest part in what I've been through," in the president's recounting. Fred, he said, was a "great guy, best-looking guy, best personality much better than mine. But he had a problem. He had a problem with alcohol." Listening to the president's words, I couldn't help but think of how different my life could have been if Bush had given a similar speech in 1989; if he'd connected the struggle with addiction engulfing poor black and brown communities to a personal tragedy his own son's tortured relationship with alcohol, perhaps. Advertisement Numerous accounts have documented the difference in the responses to the crack and opioid crises. Opinion-makers and elected officials reacted to crack with alarm, not empathy. A 1990 Rolling Stone article intoned ominously: "Crack leaves nothing to chance. Not only does it make babies only a mother could love, it wipes out that love as well. . . . Drug counselors now look back to the days of heroin families with something verging on nostalgia." A 1989 Washington Post article headlined "Crack babies: The worst threat is mom herself" implores: "Why aren't we protecting these children? One major reason is that, paradoxically, we continue to entrust their care to the very parents who are threatening their well-being." What if I had been taken from my mother at her lowest point, something that happens all too frequently to mothers of color across the country? Black fathers are in the worst position. In his landmark essay "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration," Ta-Nehisi Coates found that "by 2000, more than 1 million black children had a father in jail or prison and roughly half of those fathers were living in the same household as their kids when they were locked up." But the ability of white policymakers and politicians to see themselves or their loved ones in the faces of drug-addicted strangers has, along with rapid declines in crime rates, made a regime of treatment and prevention possible. State and local leaders have pioneered new interventions such as needle exchanges, community response teams that connect addicts to resources instead of shipping them off to jail, and decriminalization of possession for small amounts of illegal narcotics. Too late and too little for the countless families affected by earlier iterations of the drug war, but in time to prevent a similar cascade of mistakes from hurting families of all colors. The challenge now is to ensure that policies of compassion and empathy extend to every one of us. Last June, on the first anniversary of my mother's death, I happened to be in New York for work. I was there to attend the launch of the Ford Foundation's Art for Justice Fund, an effort to bring the resources and creative energy of the art world to the cause of criminal justice reform. Glenn Martin, founder of JustLeadershipUSA, the organization behind the campaign to close New York's Rikers Island jail, said something onstage that resonated with me particularly. Acknowledging the tendency of some to put him, a formerly incarcerated black man, on a pedestal, Martin pushed back: "I'm not the exception, I've just been exposed to exceptional opportunities." His words reminded me of my mother and of myself. When I was younger, before Washington was swept up in glittering condos and coffee bars, when 14th Street was an artery of the city's drug and sex trade and not its gentrification, I would ride in the car with my mother on her way through Logan Circle, Brightwood Park and other neighborhoods where she was raised. She had a habit, at every red light, of offering dollar bills and spare change to the addicts and homeless people who crowded the medians. And, interaction complete, she would offer a quick prayer: "Thank you, Jesus." As a child, I thought this was simple generosity. But now, full of knowing, I see the gesture for what it was: an acknowledgment that her fate could easily have been that of the stranger outside her window. And a deep gratitude to whatever power metaphysical or otherwise had secured for her a second chance. It makes us uncomfortable to consider the role that dumb luck the series of dice rolls, the whims of strangers plays for all of us . Those chance developments shape the partners we choose to spend our lives with, the jobs we report to each day, the children we would do anything for. I've learned a great deal in the past 18 months about chance and the nature of life. Improbably, and in a way I would never have expected, I have been given a second chance at a father. At the age of 29, the chance to share a laugh over dinner; to have him there when I moved into my first home; to enjoy Thanksgiving in his company and consider what kind of Christmas gift he might like. It is yet another exceptional opportunity I've been simply lucky to get. But luck is not a model, not a policy, not a solution. Knowing that is the most important way to transform America's understanding of addiction. At my wedding last fall, my father pulled me aside during the cocktail reception. "Your mother would have loved this, and I know she's here right now with us," he said. We embraced, he told me how proud he was of me, and I returned the compliment. We'd gone from remembering his wedding to carrying out my own; we were lucky. And we walked back into the hall, hearts full of new memories, the celebration just getting started. Twitter: @sdpjohnson Read more from Outlook and follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share MONTECITO, Calif. Hannah Troy knew better. But she was tired, as were many here after the warnings, the evacuations, the close calls and the worry of recent weeks. Just in the past month, the film consultant, along with her pair of dogs, had spent two nights in a Red Cross shelter, a night in her minivan, and two weeks with a friend in Paso Robles, about 100 miles north on the now-blocked Highway 101. The Thomas Fire had forced her from home. The rainstorm that swept into Santa Barbara this week would not. So when the voluntary evacuation advisory was issued for her neighborhood in this wealthy enclave just south of Santa Barbara, she packed a "go bag" and then ignored the warning. Some neighbors did the same, weary, too, and wondering if the rains could really be as dangerous as the historic fire they had just escaped. Advertisement "I ignored that inner voice, which I never do," Troy recalled Thursday from another Red Cross shelter, this one at Santa Barbara City College, which has been sanctuary for as many as 58 people since Tuesday, when the mountains gave way above Montecito. "But it just goes to show you, don't do that." Many others here ignored the same inner voice, finely tuned over weeks, months and in some cases lifetimes of living in a place where fires, floods and earthquakes are always a possibility, especially as the climate changes in a way that emphasizes the extremes. The mudslides killed at least 17 people, ages 3 to 89. The dead, which include four children, were all from Montecito. Their cause of death was listed as "multiple traumatic injuries due to flash flood with mudslides due to recent wildfire," according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office. Advertisement Authorities had eight active missing-person investigations, and an additional 35 people were reported missing by friends and relatives. The sheriff's department has found many people who were initially reported missing, he said. Some were in the hospitals and others were simply out of touch with their friends or family. Authorities imposed a "mandatory evacuation zone" around large portions of Montecito on Thursday night, warning residents that they should prepare to be away from their homes for as long as two weeks. They said pedestrian and bike traffic in the area was getting in the way of equipment used for clearing the area and rescue efforts. "We understand that you're curious. However, you being in this area is impeding the cleanup crews and the rescue efforts," said Cindy Pontes, a captain with the California Highway Patrol. Advertisement An estimated 65 homes were destroyed with hundreds of others damaged. Emergency crews continued Thursday to rescue residents, at times by helicopter, from some of Montecito's still-impassable neighborhoods. A wet last winter gave way to a dry summer here and in many parts of California. When the rain did not return this winter, fire season feasted on the heavy growth that the previous winter had fueled and that had turned to tinder in the dry recent months. Troy and about 16,000 other residents of Santa Barbara County were forced to evacuate their homes in December when the Thomas Fire burned the largest area of any in state history. Some remained in hotels and family guest rooms or on friends' sofas for more than a week, feeling like holiday burdens or worrying about unexpected housing bills. Advertisement On Monday, emergency officials again told residents of much of Montecito to leave. Heavy rains were expected, and the loose, fire-charred hillsides above the area would likely wash away, downhill from the Santa Ynez Mountains to the Pacific Ocean with Montecito in between. The predicted happened. As the flooding began, emergency officials sent out cellphone alerts. Some had left, many hadn't and then scrambled to do so after the opportunity had passed. "We woke up with rain and heard this huge rumble," said David Atkinson, 73, who lives with his wife, Cathy, on Riven Rock Road, directly beneath some of the most scorched hillsides. "The whole house shook." Their home sustained no major damage. But when they went outside early Tuesday to survey the scene, they found that massive boulders had been pushed into the middle of the road. Advertisement Unable to drive, they have been confined to their neighborhood ever since, most of the time without power or water. Atkinson said they've been using pool water for their toilets and to shave. Cathy Atkinson, 71, said she had been receiving updates on the situation through daily phone calls from her daughter, who lives in Geneva. "We just got our electricity, so now we're listening to NPR," she said. Marshall Miller and his wife, Amy, heeded the advisory, leaving their house in a voluntary evacuation zone early Monday. The reason: Amy is pregnant with the couple's second child, and her due date is less than a week away. "We're sort of slow-moving now," said Miller, 40, a farmer, who added that the couple were waiting out the rescue and recovery at his brother's house. Three days after evacuating, the couple had no idea whether their house was still standing. Miller has tried to return, but the area remained closed off. Advertisement "It's a true unknown," he said. Miller knew people who stayed, and for some of them, what he called "evacuation fatigue" influenced their decision. "It was hard on people to be gone from their home as long as they were prior to Christmas," he said. "I think we all thought, 'Well, it's a new year; I've left that stuff behind us.'" Troy lives with her sister and brother-in-law, who, like her, were ready to leave but then decided against it. Bags were packed, the car was full of fuel. But when the storm hit, she was "just exhausted," she said. All of them fell asleep Monday night with a light rain falling. At 3:30 a.m., they woke to a combination of pouring rain and a flash-flood warning alert blaring on a cellphone. Troy looked out the window, and the sky was glowing orange. "It didn't make sense," she said. "The sky was orange like there was another big fire, but in that rain?" Advertisement The glow turned out to be a gas fire set off by the mudslide. Troy went outside and shoved the gate open through heavy mud. She trudged up the driveway to where she had parked her Toyota Sienna minivan on the street. The car was gone, her "go bag" in it. Her brother-in-law's car had been swept away, too. Troy's sister was loading her own dogs into her minivan when Troy told her to stop and get inside. Troy changed out of her mud-caked clothes and exchanged her Crocs for boots. She soon got another phone alert, this one from the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management. It used a phrase she hadn't heard before: "shelter in place." They waited inside. Troy tried to meditate. The sun came up. At dawn, she went outside. The mud was knee-deep. It was raining, but the storm's roar had gone silent. Advertisement There were firefighters on her street, and they told Troy to wait inside while they evacuated the elderly and infirm from the neighborhood. The firefighters returned later and helped Troy, her sister and brother-in-law, carrying dogs through the mud. A neighbor with a Range Rover gave them a ride through the worst of it, and they walked to the nearby home a volunteer with the Montecito emergency response group. From there, National Guard vehicles took the evacuees to a shopping center in central Montecito, where city buses shuttled them to the Red Cross shelter at Santa Barbara City College. She has a cot and cages for her dogs, and she plans to stay until she feels "some guidance to move on." "Everything right now is rumor," she said. Troy doesn't blame the county for keeping her neighborhood under only a voluntary evacuation advisory until it was too late to get out only herself. "I should have evacuated," she said. Biasotti and Ufberg reported from Montecito and Santa Barbara. Wilson reported from Washington. Mark Berman and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday detailed a list of witnesses and documents Democrats say Republicans have kept them from accessing during the panel's Russia investigation, and he blamed the committee's chairman and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) for attempting to end the probe before it is complete. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said committee Republicans had blocked Democrats' efforts to subpoena Deutsche Bank for financial records related to President Trump's family on the suspicion that Russians "may have laundered money through Trump properties." Democrats also were stymied in their effort to subpoena executives at Twitter, Schiff said, to secure the direct messages that members of Trump's inner circle exchanged with representatives of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, who Democrats believe acted as Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign. Schiff complained that Republicans were unwilling to press those members of the Trump team who participated in a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower for a complete record of their communications over email, telephone and encrypted applications. Then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr. attended the meeting, which was initially billed to Trump Jr. as a means of securing information damaging to Trump's political opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Advertisement According to two people with knowledge of the materials, the phone records Trump Jr. turned over to the panel were heavily redacted. Schiff added that GOP leaders refused to seek testimony from additional witnesses with knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting, including Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and the president's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump. "If there's credible information that Ivanka Trump had contact with any participants in that meeting at the time of that meeting . . . I think it would be valuable to have her come and testify before the committee," Schiff said. He added that he believes the committee should invite former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon to testify, saying "it's my expectation that he will be doing so." In a new book, author Michael Wolff writes that Bannon thought the Trump Tower meeting was "treasonous." Schiff's complaints come as the House GOP begins to pivot its attention away from questions of possible Russian collusion and toward those about the FBI's conduct during its probes of Trump's alleged Russia ties and Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. The phenomenon has inspired Democrats across Congress to strike out on their own, drafting reports and publicizing findings to date from the various Russia probes underway in the House and Senate. Advertisement Several Republican members of the House Intelligence panel have said in recent weeks they are eager to end the Russia investigation and issue a report, claiming they have nearly exhausted the roster of individuals they could interview. Schiff said Thursday that the committee has interviewed 56 witnesses half the number of people that have appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Schiff said, meaning there are "dozens" of witnesses they have yet to bring in. He blamed panel chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) for ruling against bringing in certain witnesses, "even when he recused himself" from running the committee's probe. Nunes had deputized Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.) to run the Russia probe while the House Ethics Committee investigated allegations that Nunes had improperly publicized classified information; he was cleared of those allegations in December. Advertisement A spokesman for Nunes declined to comment. Schiff also said that he would hold Ryan responsible if the House probe "is prematurely curtailed for political reasons." Ryan's spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, responded in a statement: "While Mr. Schiff tries to distract from the serious, bipartisan review that's been underway for nearly a year, we will stay focused on following the facts and working to safeguard the upcoming election." Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed a statement to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. The statement was from his spokeswoman. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share The Supreme Court on Friday added a third examination of discriminatory gerrymandering charges to its docket, this time from Texas, and announced it will consider overruling a decades-old precedent that hobbles states from requiring online retailers to collect sales tax. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Those cases along with a challenge to how Securities and Exchange Commission employees enforce investment protection laws highlight a batch of grants that will fill much of the court's remaining term, the justices announced Friday. And one other issue still could be added: a review of President Trump's latest travel ban on immigrants and visitors from certain countries. The justices will consider next week whether to take that case. On the gerrymandering front, the Supreme Court already has heard a challenge to the way Wisconsin Republicans drew legislative district maps. And last month it accepted a petition from Maryland Republicans to review the way that state's Democratic leadership redrew the lines of a congressional district held by a GOP congressman. Both of those cases involved charges of partisan gerrymandering. The cases from Texas involve long-running disputes about whether Texas Republicans intentionally discriminated against minority voters when redrawing lines for congressional districts and the legislature in 2011. Advertisement A three-judge panel last summer found that two of the Texas congressional districts violated the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act, and were intentionally discriminatory. It found similarly that the state's legislative district maps were flawed. It had ordered the state to redraw the lines in time for the 2018 elections. Instead, Texas asked the Supreme Court to put the rulings on hold until justices could review the ruling's merits. The court agreed on a 5-to-4 vote in September, with the court's four liberals objecting. Both the congressional and legislative map cases are Abbott v. Perez. The sales-tax case represents a consolidated effort by states to overturn a 1992 Supreme Court decision upholding a constitutional rule that barred requiring vendors to collect sales tax on mail-order sales unless the business had a "physical presence" in the state. Advertisement The rule has always been seen as controversial, and the explosion of Internet sales means state and local governments have lost billions of dollars in tax revenue. They say that the ruling is unfair to them and to bricks-and-mortar retailers within their borders that have no choice but to collect the taxes. South Dakota took the lead, and told the court it was time to overturn the precedent, Quill Corp. v. North Dakota. Companies now "can instantly tailor their marketing and overnight delivery of hundreds of thousands of products to individual customers based on their IP addresses; these companies can surely calculate sales tax from a zip code." But online retailers that asked the court to stay out of the Internet sales battles disagreed. "The burdens will fall primarily on small and medium-size companies whose access to a national market will be stifled," said lawyers for Wayfair, Overstock.com and Newegg. Advertisement They said that the number of taxing jurisdictions in the United States is estimated at between 10,000 and 16,000. And they contend that it should be up to Congress, not the courts, to remedy any problems that local governments say they have. The petition "invites the court to assume a legislative role, supplanting Congress, the body to which the Constitution assigns responsibility for regulating commerce 'among the several states,' and which is actively addressing the issue," the companies said. But Congress has struggled for years to come up with a plan, even though some online retailers have said that they would welcome a national remedy rather than deal with individual states. The case is South Dakota v. Wayfair. The SEC case is a technical issue that could affect how other regulatory agencies do their work. Advertisement At issue is whether the SEC's administrative law judges are employees or, because they wield significant decision-making authority, are "inferior officers" covered by the Constitution's "appointments clause." Such officers must be appointed by the president, the head of a federal agency or by a court. The case is brought by Raymond Lucia, a former California radio host and investment adviser known for his "Buckets of Money" strategy. His case was heard by an administrative law judge, and he received a lifetime ban from investment-related work. It is also notable because it is another case for which the Trump administration's Justice Department switched sides. It says it now agrees with Lucia and others in the business community who say that the SEC's way of appointing the judges violates the Constitution. The case is Lucia v. SEC. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share President Trump on Friday kept alive the Iran nuclear deal he detests by waiving sanctions for the third time, but he said he will not grant another reprieve unless the agreement is amended to permanently block a potential pathway for Iran to build nuclear weapons. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight In conjunction with the waivers, the Treasury Department placed sanctions on 14 people and entities for alleged offenses unrelated to Iran's nuclear industry. The new measures concern human rights abuses and censorship in Iran and the arming of groups throughout the region. Trump's decision avoided placing the United States in violation of the commitments it made in the landmark 2015 deal. But he affirmed his willingness to withdraw from it in a few months unless changes are made. "Despite my strong inclination, I have not yet withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal," Trump said in a statement. "Instead, I have outlined two possible paths forward: either fix the deal's disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Jan. 11 said he is expecting new sanctions on Iran. (Video: Reuters) Advertisement Critics of the deal deemed the president's decision "an opportunity to do better," as Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called it. But supporters expressed skepticism that the deal will survive in its current form. Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council, called it a "temporary stay of execution." "In a nutshell, he's saying, 'Kill the deal with me, or we'll kill it alone,' " said Robert Malley, who worked on the National Security Council under President Barack Obama. The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain Jan. 11 voiced their blanket support for the Iran nuclear deal. (Video: Reuters) Trump blamed Iran for a litany of alleged malign activities, including support for terrorist groups and the "murderous regime" of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and torture, mass arrests and oppression at home. Trump said his strategy for confronting Iran through sanctions and support for Iranian political freedom "stands in stark contrast to the policy and actions of the previous administration." Advertisement "President Obama failed to act as the Iranian people took to the streets in 2009. He turned a blind eye as Iran built and tested dangerous missiles and exported terror. He curried favor with the Iranian regime in order to push through the disastrously flawed Iran nuclear deal," he said. Iranian officials warned that a U.S. withdrawal from the deal would spell its doom. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter that "Trump's policy & today's announcement amount to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement." "JCPOA is not renegotiable," he said, using an abbreviation for the deal's formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "Rather than repeating tired rhetoric, US must bring itself into full compliance just like Iran." As a signatory to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has committed to not building nuclear weapons, even after the restrictions on its program lapse, and it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Advertisement Trump listed his conditions for legislation that would address future U.S. participation and called on European allies "to join with the United States in fixing significant flaws in the deal, countering Iranian aggression, and supporting the Iranian people." "If other nations fail to act during this time, I will terminate our deal with Iran," warned Trump, who will revisit the decision in 120 days. Officials said the administration will discuss the changes it is seeking with Europeans but will not talk directly with Iran. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Trump's statement an "ultimatum" and said the president is "making negotiations with Europe more difficult by the way he's laying out the conditions." All parties to the accord would have to agree to any changes. That is highly unlikely. The Europeans, who consider the deal a great success contributing to their security, have said that Iran's non-nuclear behavior must be addressed separately. Advertisement The changes Trump has demanded include timely inspections of all sites requested by the International Atomic Energy Agency, reflecting a concern that Iran could be conducting nuclear research clandestinely at military sites. Trump also wants to terminate the phased expiration dates of various limitations placed on Iran's nuclear program. Sometimes called "sunset provisions," many of them lapse 10 to 15 years in the future. Trump wants them to continue indefinitely so that the United States can rapidly resume sanctions if Iran is ever found to be cheating. Rep. Eliot L. Engel (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the demands are unattainable. "The Trump administration's policy announced today sets impossible standards that would ultimately isolate the United States rather than isolating the regime in Tehran," he said. Advertisement "Like it or not, we need to uphold our end of the bargain so that we can hold Iran to its obligations and crack down on the regime's other destabilizing activities." Some of the new sanctions announced by the Treasury Department are a response to crackdowns on anti-government protests and blocking access to social media sites. The entities sanctioned include Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace and its subsidiary, the National Cyberspace Center, which police the Internet, restricting access to websites that challenge the regime. The sanctions with the most political repercussions are against the administrative head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Amoli Larijani. A hard-line cleric appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Larijani is a highly influential member of Iran's most powerful political family. His older brother, Ali Larijani, is the speaker of Iran's parliament. Advertisement Iran's judicial system is notoriously repressive, and the country remains one of the world's leading executioners. According to the European Union, which placed its own sanctions on the judiciary chief in 2012, Sadegh Larijani has "personally signed off on numerous death penalty sentences." "Naming and shaming Sadegh Larijani is one small way the U.S. can bring its human rights policy and coercive economic strategy against Iran into greater alignment," said Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. Other sanctions target companies accused of conducting prohibited transactions with Iranian entities. Malaysia-based Green Wave Telecommunications was named for providing U.S. technology to Iranian companies. The Treasury Department also listed several Chinese individuals and companies for breaking similar rules to provide materials to Iran that could be used in navigation and weapons systems. Two Iranian companies that build and maintain the nation's military helicopters also are on the list. Advertisement "The designations today politically go to the top of the regime and send a very strong message that the United States is not going to tolerate their continued abuses, continued violations of the rights of their citizens," said an administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules for briefing reporters. Erin Cunningham and Bijan Sabbagh in Istanbul and Karoun Demirjian in Washington contributed to this report. GiftOutline Gift Article Dr. Patrick McGree, a longtime family physician in Butte, pleaded not guilty in Helena district court Friday morning to multiple charges of alleged sexual assaults of female patients. McGree is charged with two felony counts of sexual intercourse without consent, three counts of sexual servitude for allegedly using drugs for coercion, and two counts of misdemeanor sexual assault. The case was moved to Helena district Judge Kathy Seeley's court after two local district judges recused themselves from the case. Because McGree was summoned to court, no bail was set. Bail can only be set when a warrant is served to an accused person. At Fridays arraignment, Judge Seeley told McGree he could not to leave the state. However, his daughter is having a baby in March in Spokane, and McGree will probably be allowed to go there for that purpose, according to the court. The trial is tentatively set for July 23 in Butte district court. The court expects many potential jurors to be called with jury selection most likely to start July 2. Some pre-trial hearings will most likely be held in Helena. McGree has been a physician in Butte for 31 years, working from an office on South Clark Street in recent years and also practicing at the North American Indian Alliance clinic in Butte. The allegations are made by three women, ages 37, 47, and 52, all of whom had received prescriptions from McGree for pain medication. Investigators interviewed the three women on separate occasions over the past 13 months, one interview taking place this past November. The 47-year-old woman said she had been seeing McGree as her doctor for years, with one of the sexual incidents dating back to April 2013. She said she had been on pain pills the past seven years for back pain and got Hydrocodone and Percocet from McGree every month. She said she still went to him because "who else am I going to go to?" and could get any drugs she wanted "pretty much anytime she wanted," the document says. During one incident, she said, McGree groped her and was saying things like, "Oh, so you need your prescription, so you need your other refill," the charging document says. The 37-year-old said she had fallen and hurt herself and went to McGree, admitting she was a meth addict and requesting "Oxys." After sexual misconduct occurred, she said, McGree gave her a prescription for pain medication. The other woman said she felt if she did not let McGree do what he did, she would not get her prescription. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share At 6:46 Thursday morning, Andrew Napolitano a Fox News Channel personality and supporter of President Trump opined about a critical government surveillance program on "Fox & Friends," the show that is part alarm clock, part unofficial briefing for the commander in chief. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight "I'm scratching my head," Napolitano said, referring to Thursday's House vote to reauthorize a key part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. "I don't understand why Donald Trump is in favor of this." And then, just 47 minutes later, Trump was no longer in favor of the bill that his own White House had been championing. In a tweet, the president quoted verbatim the Fox headline from Napolitano's appearance and suggested that the FISA law had been used by the Obama administration to "so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign." Advertisement The House passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act bill Jan. 11, to renew a key NSA surveillance program. Here's what you need to know in 60 seconds. (Video: Elyse Samuels, Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post, Photo: Patrick Semansky/The Washington Post) The presidential decree a mere 40 words set off a mad scramble across Washington. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) spent 30 minutes on the phone with the president explaining the differences between domestic and foreign surveillance, as many fellow Republicans reacted in disbelief and befuddlement. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly also directly intervened with Trump, reiterating the program's importance before traveling to the Capitol, where he parried questions from confused lawmakers. A presidential correction came 101 minutes after the initial tweet. The second missive an explanation perhaps as much for Trump himself as for anybody else stated that "today's vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land." "We need it!" Trump concluded in his second Twitter message. "Get smart!" Advertisement The confusion less than two hours in all sent members of Congress reeling, the president's staff scrambling and was a fresh reminder of how Trump's haphazard impulses can undermine his own administration and upend the daily workings of the federal government. "The president's ping-pong on attitudes toward the FISA renewal suggests to me that he doesn't fully understand the issue, which is complicated even for experts to understand," said John E. McLaughlin, a former head of the CIA. "For the intelligence community, it is yet another signal that the president is not fully attuned to how they operate and how carefully they stay within the law." Trump's misunderstanding of the nuances of surveillance laws came as he and his aides have been struggling to silence the national debate over the president's mental fitness in the wake of allegations in a new book about the chaotic White House. In Thursday morning's meeting of House Republicans, lawmakers reacted with palpable consternation to Trump's initial tweet, according to attendees. The anxiety continued until House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) stood up and handed his cellphone to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who read aloud the president's second tweet voicing support for the bill. Advertisement After Kelly and other White House officials arrived at the Capitol, where they rounded up support, the House ultimately voted overwhelmingly to renew the program that allows U.S. spy agencies to gather intelligence on foreign targets located outside the United States. The program is known as Section 702, named after the part of the 2008 FISA law that established it. But with his morning tweet, Trump seemed to be conflating Section 702 with the broader FISA law, which governs a variety of surveillance and intelligence activities. Trump charged that the FISA law had been used to get a warrant to spy on his campaign. " 'House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,' " Trump wrote on Twitter, quoting the Fox 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?" Advertisement Napolitano's Fox commentary was not the only opposition that Trump was exposed to. Though his own White House supported Section 702 putting out a statement Wednesday night in support of its renewal Trump spoke Thursday morning with two key Republican lawmakers who both opposed the bill, officials said. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) expressed his opposition to the president, a Republican aide familiar with the conversation said. Paul has threatened to filibuster the bill when it reaches the Senate because of privacy concerns that information on U.S. citizens could be captured in the surveillance of foreign targets. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, also conveyed to the president his opposition on civil-liberties grounds, according to a person familiar with that conversation. But at the White House on Thursday afternoon, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted there was no discrepancy between Trump's two tweets and said the only confusion was on the part of the media. Advertisement "We don't think there was a conflict at all," Sanders said. "The president fully supports the 702 and was happy to see that it passed the House today. . . . We don't see any contradiction or confusion in that." In a particularly contentious exchange, Sanders snapped at Hallie Jackson of NBC News for asking about the president's contradictions: "I think that the premise of your question is completely ridiculous and shows the lack of knowledge that you have on this process." Sanders explained that the FISA issue was "top of mind" for Trump after a presidential memorandum was issued last week initiating a review of "unmasking" policies by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She said the president has "some concerns" with the FISA law generally, though not with Section 702. "The president doesn't feel that we should have to choose between protecting American citizens and protecting their civil liberties," Sanders said. "He wants to do both." Advertisement Still, scores of lawmakers were confused by Trump's initial tweet. One Republican senator simply rolled his eyes when asked what, exactly, the president meant. And Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, offered a sharp rebuke on Twitter: "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." Trump's initial criticism of the surveillance program also "freaked out" House Republican leaders, one person with direct knowledge of the fallout said. The president's team quickly called Ryan. When the speaker called Trump back, the two men spoke at length about the program, with Ryan helping to articulate the nuances of the program being voted on Thursday, a person familiar with the conversation said. Advertisement "That's called cleanup on aisle six," quipped one Republican strategist in frequent touch with the White House, speaking anonymously to offer a more candid assessment. White House legislative affairs aides were already on the Hill talking to members about voting "yes" and assuring them that there would be enough support to pass the bill. The White House had not mounted a serious effort to whip votes, however, because administration officials assumed the legislation would pass easily. At one point, Kelly and White House legislative affairs director Marc Short were spotted walking from the direction of Ryan's office into the House chamber, where they spoke with lawmakers in a cloakroom. They had been on Capitol Hill for pre-scheduled meetings about immigration policy but found themselves fielding questions about the FISA bill. Advertisement Asked by CNN whether Trump makes legislating more difficult with behavior like his Thursday morning tweets, Kelly replied, "It's not more difficult. It's a juggling act." After the bill passed, some in the White House expressed amusement and relief that yet another crisis had been averted. "Who saw that coming except for no one?" one White House official said, speaking anonymously to criticize the president. "You just shake your head and laugh a little bit." Erica Werner, Sean Sullivan and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share There is far more to the latest controversy surrounding President Trump than the vulgar and implicitly racist language he used to draw a distinction between desirable and undesirable immigrants. Trump's choice of words also revealed a deeper and more substantive truth about how the president views and misunderstands America's unique relationship with its immigrants. Trump claims to want, as he tweeted Friday morning, a "merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level." Yet the president did not talk about the qualifications of the people he seeks to bring in that they be scientists, engineers, doctors. Instead, during private remarks to lawmakers in the Oval Office on Thursday, he focused on their origins putting a preference on places like Norway, which consistently ranks among the richest nations in the world, over "shithole countries." Advertisement 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) By his standard, the ancestors of most Americans, including his own, might well have been excluded. Hardship is traditionally what drives people to uproot and seek out opportunities elsewhere. "It's the people who have the motivation, who have the push and drive to change their circumstances, who are the ones who take the risks to leave. And that tends to be a very positive set of personal characteristics for a country that is a receiving country," said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service during the Clinton administration, who is now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. "The idea that if you're from a country that is a failing country, that somehow predicts or forecloses you from being able to succeed as an immigrant, I've never heard of anything like that," Meissner said. Advertisement Trump's words, with their racial connotations, also suggest he wants to return to what has come to be regarded as one of the more shameful and xenophobic periods of immigration policy. In 1924, a set of laws was passed that set quotas limiting the number of people admitted to this country based on where they came from, with a goal of preserving the United States' ethnic homogeneity. "The premise of national origin quotas was that some countries produce good immigrants, others produce bad immigrants," said NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten, author of the 2015 book "A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story." "There were actually 'scientific' studies purporting to categorize countries according to the quality and characteristics of their people, and the quotas were devised in part on the basis of the testimony of 'expert' opinion," Gjelten said. Advertisement Those pseudoscientific conclusions produced a system that heavily favored predominantly white countries. Norway got 6,500 annual slots, while the entire continent of Africa was allowed only 1,200. Even within Europe, there was a tilt that corresponded with complexion. Northern and Scandinavian countries could send 142,483 a year; eastern and southern Europe, only 18,439. That system remained in place until 1965, when Lyndon B. Johnson, as part of his Great Society initiative, convinced Congress to replace national quotas with a preference for preserving families and attracting skilled labor. Allowing immigrants to bring over relatives is what Trump and other Republicans now refer to as "chain migration," and it is something they want to end. LBJ also portrayed his immigration as a merit-based system, declaring as he signed the law on Liberty Island: "This is a simple test, and it is a fair test. Those who can contribute most to this country to its growth, to its strength, to its spirit will be the first that are admitted." Advertisement "The fairness of this standard is so self-evident that we may well wonder that it has not always been applied," Johnson added. "Yet the fact is that for over four decades the immigration policy of the United States has been twisted and has been distorted by the harsh injustice of the national origins quota system." Even before Trump's comments in a private meeting Thursday, his administration had made it clear that long-held values about immigration should no longer apply. In an appearance last August on CNN, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller even quarreled with the sentiment of the famous Emma Lazarus poem inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty, one that practically every elementary school student knows: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Advertisement "The poem that you're referring to was added later. It's not actually part of the Statue of Liberty," Miller said. That missed a larger point: The statue itself was French; the poem is what helped make it American. This is far from the first argument the country has had over who it should welcome, and it surely will not be the last. "Each new generation that comes is controversial. You look at immigration in the rearview mirror, it typically turns out right and benign. You look at it as it's happening, and it's always controversial and unwelcome," Meissner said. "And yet, that is among our defining characteristics and one of the reasons that we're a successful nation," she added. "It's an enormous comparative advantage to most other societies around the world, and has been proven to be over time." GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share BERLIN German Social Democratic (SPD) leaders appealed to party members Friday to swallow their doubts and endorse an overnight deal to renew a "grand coalition" with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives for another four years. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The deal eased months of uncertainty that has undermined Germany's role as the European Union's pivotal power, as the bloc confronts such major challenges as Brexit, euro-zone reform and immigration, and questions about Merkel's future. "The world will not wait for us," a weary-looking Merkel said Friday morning after 25 hours of talks, which yielded a deal opening the way to formal negotiations on the details. But some in the wary SPD rank and file said the deal lacked sufficient concessions to the center-left party, which after four years of a sometimes awkward coalition with Merkel suffered its worst election results since 1933 last September. Advertisement Christian Democratic lawmakers greeted their leader with a round of applause when she outlined the arrangement, which pledged closer cooperation with France to strengthen the euro zone and a crackdown on arms sales to countries in conflict zones. But SPD leaders will have a harder time convincing members that they should approve the pact at a Jan. 21 party congress and again in a postal vote at the end of formal coalition negotiations. "The SPD got its way in many areas," senior SPD lawmaker Hubertus Heil told public broadcaster RBB in what is likely to be the first of many such entreaties to rank-and-file members in the coming week. SPD Chairman Martin Schulz was addressing those members when, standing alongside Merkel, he told reporters that the outline deal would preserve and strengthen Germany's welfare state for future generations. Advertisement "From the kindergarten to the school, to the university and the workplace and then on into old age and care homes, we want to strengthen respect, opportunity and solidarity, and bring these systems up to date," he said. The parties agreed to spend more on the E.U. a long way short of Schulz's ambition to create a "United States of Europe" by 2025. The SPD's plan to create parity between private and public health care was also missing from the deal. Pledges to spend more in poorer regions and allow up to 1,000 family members each month to join refugees already living in Germany also seemed designed to placate SPD members distrustful of governing with Merkel again. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share BEIJING A Chinese university has fired a well-known professor over multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, a significant step for China's fledgling #MeToo movement. Beihang University announced late Thursday that an investigation found Professor Chen Xiaowu "did sexually harass female students" and would lose his post as vice president of the university's graduate school. His teaching certificate has also been canceled. Early this month, an academic living in the U.S., Luo Xixi, wrote online that, as a student many years ago, Chen lured her to his sister's home and forced himself on her. She escaped in tears. After going public, five other former students came forward with allegations of their own. The fact that Chen was stripped of his post and that the news was covered by the Communist Party-controlled press is a small win for the Chinese women who have spoken out in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Advertisement In a statement, Luo called the news an "initial victory." "For the past three months we have been waiting anxiously all the time," she wrote. "Luckily, this waiting and expectation have not been a letdown." In the wake of the Weinstein scandal, several Chinese women have made news by publishing allegations of sexual assault or harassment online. Their stories have been met with a mix of incredulity and anger. The ruling Communist Party appears unsure about what to make of the movement. In the aftermath of the Weinstein news, state media first seized on the chance to criticize U.S. culture, arguing contrary to evidence and common sense that harassment doesn't happen in China. When cases started to emerge, authorities tried to censor some discussions, worried, perhaps that public sentiment could turn on other authority figures or officials. Advertisement But Luo's case proved difficult to suppress. She was based overseas and quickly found other survivors. Together, they took their story to the university. Chinese feminists are glad to see the university take decisive action, but wonder why the university has just removed Chen from his post rather than fired him. Xiao Meili, a feminist based in Guangzhou, who has penned an open letter asking her alma mater, the Communication University of China, to come up with a plan to combat campus sexual harassment, said she was unimpressed by the result. "They've stripped him of many of his [job] titles, but he didn't lose his job and can continue working at this university," she said. "I don't think it's a milestone. I think it would be progress if they fired the professor." The long-term goal of China's MeToo movement, according to Xiao, should be to encourage more women to come forward. "I really hope we can continue doing this, so then all those sexual harassment perpetrators will get a real punishment." Advertisement Sophia Huang, a woman who galvanized the movement by going public with an account of an alleged sexual assault by a former supervisor, agreed that the movement has a long way to go. She is calling on Chinese universities to do more to prevent sexual misconduct and create the channels for victims to seek redress. Luna Lin in Beijing contributed. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Since becoming mayor of Maale Adumim more than 20 years ago, Benny Kashriel has doggedly campaigned for his community to be recognized as part of Israel. Now, with President Trump in the White House, Kashriel thinks it may just happen. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight His settlement is approximately four miles east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. Most of the international community considers its construction to be illegal, built on land captured during the 1967 war. Still, it has steadily grown from what began as a cluster of prefabricated buildings erected by 23 families in the 1970s into a burgeoning satellite city of Jerusalem. Palm trees line the wide roads of what looks like a Florida suburb. Red-roofed houses and high-rises are home to 42,000 people, who are served by all of the accouterments of a modern city: schools, restaurants, cafes and a shopping mall. Advertisement Protesters in Jerusalem on Dec. 8, decried President Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital. (Video: Loveday Morris, Sarah Parnass, Ruth Eglash/The Washington Post) Expansion here is particularly contentious because it could cut off Arab areas of East Jerusalem from other Palestinian territory and hobble the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Still, Maale Adumim keeps growing. In the industrial park on its outskirts, already home to 360 businesses, ground has just been broken on "Design City," a nearly 600,000-square-foot, 160-outlet interior-design retail mall. While previous U.S. administrations called settlements an obstacle to the peace process, the Trump administration has been more restrained in publicly criticizing them, a clear break from the frequent censure under President Barack Obama of Israeli settlement activity. Emboldened by a more supportive White House, Israeli leaders have proposed a flurry of bills and proclamations that seek to annex areas of the West Bank and re-engineer Jerusalem's demographic balance by redrawing the city's map to exclude Arab neighborhoods and include Israeli settlements. Advertisement Last year, Israeli lawmakers introduced legislation, called the Greater Jerusalem bill, that would expand the city's municipal boundaries to include 19 settlements, including Maale Adumim. For the moment the bill has stalled, not yet making it to a vote in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. But other efforts are underway. Betty Herschman, advocacy director at Ir Amim, which monitors developments in Jerusalem as they relate to the peace process, said Israel has seen a "groundswell of unilateral proposals." On New Year's Eve, the central committee of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud party adopted a nonbinding resolution proposing annexation of all West Bank settlements to Israel and allowing unfettered construction. The prime minister was not present at the gathering, but Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the crowd that Trump's presidency presents a "historic opportunity." Advertisement "Today we have a president in the White House who says explicitly, yes, he understands that the obstacle to peace is Palestinian incitement, not settlement in Judea and Samaria," he said, employing the names that some Israelis use to refer to the West Bank. "We must not miss this opportunity." Some political observers see the Likud action as motivated by domestic politics, a populist move as Israeli elections approach. But Hagai El-Ad, the director of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, said there is a battle underway between those who want to continue "smart occupation," which manages to "fly two inches below international outrage" while incrementally shifting facts on the ground, and those who advocate "dumb occupation" moving forward with formal annexation. Trump's presidency has given new vigor to the latter, he said. Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, in particular, was taken by Israelis and Palestinians as an endorsement of Israel's policies. Advertisement "They've been encouraged by the current administration, especially after the resolution on Jerusalem," said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee. "They feel like they have a free hand now. We are at a very, very critical juncture." In his office in Maale Adumim, Kashriel says the change of attitude toward settlements under the Trump administration was immediately apparent. All previous U.S. administrations had largely shunned the settler community, he said. "They boycotted us. They never wanted to meet us," he said. But Kashriel was invited to Trump's inauguration in Washington. "I think they wanted to show us there is a change in the atmosphere in Washington," he said. That was followed by an invitation to Fourth of July celebrations at the U.S. ambassador's residence north of Tel Aviv. Advertisement Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his family are longtime supporters of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as is Trump's ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman. "So you see that there is change," Kashriel said. "This is the reason now that the Knesset members are all the time raising these resolutions." "The most important goal is to strengthen the Jewish majority in Jerusalem," said Intelligence Minister Israel Katz, who wrote the text of the Greater Jerusalem bill. The bill would incorporate Jewish settlements into the city. Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin, who supports the legislation, has made a further proposal. He would like boundaries of the city's municipality redrawn to split off Arab areas of East Jerusalem that are separated from the rest of the city by Israel's separation barrier, while keeping them as part of the state. Advertisement A vote in the Knesset this month made that prospect possible while also raising the number of lawmakers who would be needed to support a proposal to give up Israeli sovereignty over any part of the city. Areas outside the security wall already have become virtually lawless. Further, although they are legally part of Jerusalem, the municipality no longer provides basic services, citing security reasons. But these neighborhoods are not under the control of the Palestinian Authority, either. Israeli authorities have turned a blind eye to unabated Arab construction in those neighborhoods, compared with tight restrictions on building permits in Arab areas inside the wall. Munir Zagheir, a community representative for Kafr Aqab, one of the areas Elkin suggests removing from the municipality, says there has been a long-term effort to pull Palestinians out of central Jerusalem and "empty Arabs to the sides." Advertisement About a mile from Kashriel's office, 58 Arab Bedouin families live in a ramshackle collection of tents and shacks called Jabal al-Baba. Attalah Jahleen, their 42-year-old representative, said the community's fortunes have deteriorated over the past year. "Before Trump took office, the American consulate used to visit us on a regular basis," he said. "Since Trump took over, nothing." The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem said its staff "continues to speak with a wide variety of contacts in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza." The families received eviction orders late last year, and there have been dozens of demolition orders, with Israeli authorities attempting to resettle them elsewhere. Trump administration officials, Jahleen said, "have given up on us." Sufian Taha contributed to this report. GiftOutline Gift Article WSU to Host Lingofest Voice Technology Conference January 11, 2018 OGDEN, Utah Weber State University will host the inaugural Lingofest, a two-day conference bringing together students and professionals working in the growing field of voice-command technology. The conference will kick off at WSUs Val A. Browning Center Allred Theater Jan. 25 and will continue at the Shepherd Union Wildcat Theater Jan. 26. Lingofest is hosted by WSUs College of Engineering, Applied Science & Technology (EAST) and organized by Witlingo, a Virginia-based startup focused on delivering voice-first products. Voice-first technology recognizes voice commands and reacts accordingly. Many smartphones are equipped with a digital assistant that responds to verbal commands or questions. With technology such as Google Home, Amazons Alexa and Microsofts Cortana becoming ever more widespread, the range of discussion about how humans use artificial intelligence also has increased. According to Witlingos founder and CEO, Ahmed Bouzid, technology is experiencing a radical shift as the market for voice-activated artificial intelligence grows. The conferences aim is to introduce both students and young professionals to the field. Voice technology experts and business leaders from Amazon, Google, Comcast and other organizations will share insights about designing and working with voice-based products and discuss how the technology is changing the way humans interact with the world around them. It is time for consumers to become users who not only have a much more discerning understanding of the impact these new technologies have on their lives, Bouzid said, but also have a proactive voice in what technologies they want and what problems they want solved. David Ferro, dean of WSU EAST, said there is a considerable difference between mass-produced consumer technologies, such as refrigerators and washing machines, and the personalized technologies facilitated by voice-based electronics. Its a whole new ballgame, and we cant afford to wait for the nature of consumer engagement to change at its own, slow pace, Ferro said. Tough questions are emerging, and companies cannot be alone in making decisions that have monumental consequences on how we live our lives as healthy individual humans and robust communities and societies. This is a real opportunity to not only discuss these issues but also to get a real understanding of how to build the skills and create the interactions of humans and technology through voice. We will have some cutting-edge experts on hand who also are looking to hire new talent. Instead of the traditional lectures usually offered at conferences, Lingofests primary goal is to engage attendees in open dialogue. Sessions will be held roundtable style, with experts and the audience engaging with each other on equal footing with the help of a facilitator. Sessions will be recorded and available free from Witlingo after the conference. The conference is free to WSU students. Other Utah university students may attend for $20, and registration is $250 for other members of the public. All attendees must register at lingofest2018.com. For more information about Witlingo, visit witlingo.com. Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University. At least four people are seeking to replace Brad Newman as a district court judge in Butte, and four incumbent lawmakers from southwest Montana have filed for re-election to the state House. Butte attorneys Brad Belke, Tim Dick, Wayne Harper, and Robert J. Whalen all filed Thursday for the bench seat Newman is leaving at the end of this year after two six-year terms. Also Thursday, the first day to file for the 2018 elections in Montana, Democratic state Reps. Ryan Lynch and Jim Keane of Butte made re-election bids official, as did Republican Reps. Ray Shaw of Sheridan in House District 71 and Tom Welch of Dillon in District 72. None of those lawmakers face immediate challengers, but candidates have until March 12 to file. Newman is not seeking a third term as district judge in Butte, but fellow Judge Kurt Krueger said this week he will seek a fourth term. He has served on the bench in Butte since 2001. Dick has been in private practice for 19 years in civil litigation and criminal law, and through the Family Drug Court, he has worked in matters involving children needing care. Cases where were helping kids who are victims of abuse or neglect because of drugs is the fastest growing area of concern for the District Court, Dick said in a news release. Belke announced his bid earlier this week, promising to run an efficient courtroom that treats every person with fairness and respect. In Butte-Silver Bow, County Coroner Lee LaBreche filed for the justice of the peace position held by Deb Williams. That is the only county-wide post on the ballot in Butte this year. The next elections for sheriff, chief executive, county attorney, and other posts are in 2020. There are seven of 12 Butte-Silver Bow council seats on the ballot, and on Thursday, incumbent commissioners Cindi Shaw in District 11 and Dan Olsen in District 5 filed. Josh ONeill filed for the District 7 seat held by Bud Walker, while Michael Rocko Mulcahy, who has been a commissioner before, filed for District 2. The incumbent in that district, Sheryl Ralph, is not running again. In other area legislative districts, Democrat Derek Harvey of Butte is seeking the District 74 seat now held by Democrat Amanda Curtis of Butte. Republican Gregg Trude of Clancy is running in District 75 now represented by Republican Kirk Wagoner of Montana City. Democrat Mark Sweeney of Philipsburg is seeking the District 77 seat held by Democrat Kathy Swanson of Anaconda. She was first elected in 2010 and cannot seek re-election because of term limits. Judge Luke Berger is running to retain his seat the Fifth Judicial District. In January of 2017, Berger was appointed by the governor and confirmed unanimously by the Montana Senate to fill the remaining two years of Judge Loren Tuckers term. He will stand for election on November 6, 2018. It has been an honor to work in Beaverhead, Jefferson, and Madison counties this past year, the dedication of the staff, jurors, and attorneys is inspiring" Berger said in a prepared statement. "I look forward to working with all involved in the court system to continue to provide access to justice and be part of an efficient court system in our communities. Berger, a Dillon native, is a graduate of Beaverhead County High School, Carroll College, and the University of Montana School of Law. He and his wife Alexis Sandru, a Twin Bridges native, live in the heart of the district near Silver Star with their three young children. Butte-Silver Bow is not joining Cascade and Gallatin counties in a lawsuit that private firms have filed against opioid manufacturers. Commissioners voted 7-4 Wednesday night against joining the lawsuit, which claims that counties have spent big money combatting an opioid addiction crisis caused by "fraudulent marketing and sales manufacturers." Before the vote, Commissioner Dan Foley said the council should resist the trend in American society and culture "where we want to sue everyone." The firms want Anaconda-Deer Lodge County to join as well, but that city-county's chief executive, Bill Everett, said Thursday that officials haven't taken up the issue. He plans to meet with someone from the firms on Jan. 23 to learn more about the lawsuit, he said. The litigation is separate from a state lawsuit Montana Attorney General Tim Fox has filed against Purdue Pharma, makers of the opioid drug OxyContin. That suit says the company lied to conceal dangers of the drug and created thousands of addicts. The lawsuit pursued by private attorneys is led by the firm of Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett, based in Dallas, and includes affiliated Montana firms. A proposed retention agreement with Butte-Silver Bow said the firms would collect attorney's fees and 25 percent of any money damages recovered in the suit. If there were no money damages, the firms would get nothing. Eileen Joyce, Butte-Silver Bow's county attorney, said only Cascade and Gallatin counties in Montana have joined the lawsuit so far. This suit names more drug makers than the state's suit, she said, but both involve complex legal issues. Commissioners Jim Fisher and John Sorich said Butte-Silver Bow should join that lawsuit since it could result in substantial financial damages flowing to local government here. "If they get billions of dollars or millions of dollars, we're going to get a good share of that," Fisher said. He said damages from the state's lawsuit might be divided among 56 counties and amount to very little. He also said the state has done a poor job handling Superfund issues in Butte. But Foley said nobody has clear data on the opioid problem in Butte-Silver Bow and there were other addiction problems related to alcohol, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine. People bore some individual responsibility for those addictions, he said, and the private firms on this matter "are here to make money." "If we want to join the world of lawsuits and 'let's sue everybody every time there is an issue,' then that's fine, but I would urge you to do that on a personal level and not collectively to represent this entire community," he said. The majority joined Foley in voting against joining the lawsuit. The four who favored it were Fisher, Sorich, Dan Callahan, and Bill Andersen. Sheryl Ralph was absent. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 12/01/2018 (1771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Manitoba Hydro is making good progress in its bid to shed 900 positions, but a union official worries that worker and public safety are being compromised by the cuts. By the end of January, 821 Hydro employees will have departed since the Crown corporation announced its voluntary departure program last year. Most of the 821 positions are retirements, but included in this number are younger employees who, for a wide variety of reasons, chose to leave the corporation for a new career, Hydro spokesman Bruce Owen said Thursday. There were no layoffs, he said. Supplied A photo provided by IBEW Local 2034 shows what it says is a hazardously disregarded damaged pole. The remaining 79 positions to be cut will occur through attrition, he added. Mike Velie, business manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2034, said the cuts are already taking their toll, as employees are pressured to accomplish more and more with fewer resources. The end result is that shortcuts are being developed to keep pace with increasing demands, and the necessary focus on safety is gradually getting lost, Velie said in an email. He noted several instances of damaged power poles being left in precarious positions instead of being immediately replaced due to staffing cuts and prohibitions on overtime. We have received calls from members that are being asked by supervisory staff to perform unsafe acts or to make unsafe repairs putting their safety and the safety of the public at risk, Velie charged. Safety for employees in the workplace, and safety for customers paying for our public utility, are not luxuries, nor should they be negotiable. Velie said about 300 of his members are leaving the corporation as a result of the buyout program. IBEW represents a broad range of workers, from journeyman electricians, engineering technicians, heavy-duty mechanics to construction inspectors, carpenters, line patrollers, storekeepers and high-pressure welders. Every safety incident has the potential to cause serious harm to persons and property, and to disrupt the economic well-being and livelihood of Manitobans from all walks of life, the union official said. Stretching human resources, to the point where they can no longer supply the quality and quantity of services demanded by the public, puts everyone at risk. With the staff departures, Hydros workforce will drop to about 5,400 by Feb. 1 down from approximately 6,200 a year ago. Hydro has instituted a hiring freeze, only approving the replacement of critical positions, Owen said. At the same time, its reduced the size of its executive by 30 per cent and its management numbers by 25 per cent, he said. In shedding the positions, the corporation will incur a one-time restructuring cost of about $55 million. However, the program is expected to generate operational and administrative savings of about $70 million annually. As an essential service our customers expect us to have proper succession plans in place in each division so that our work to expand and maintain the electric and gas sides of our business does not suffer, Owen said. Our customers also expect a timely response by our front line staff during outages this cannot suffer either. larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 12/01/2018 (1771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Just three months after the embattled National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls replaced its top manager with a Manitoban, it will have to find another leader. Debbie Reid, hired as the organizations executive director in October, announced Thursday she is stepping down. Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) Grand Chief Arlen Dumas said in a statement Reids loss is disappointing. The inquiry has lost an important role and will now have to replace the executive director Debbie Reid after a short time in that position, Dumas said. Manitoba will once again have no significant representation at the inquiry. Reid is from the Skownan First Nation, 280 kilometres north of Winnipeg, and has worked with the AMC and was Phil Fontaines special adviser when he was grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations. She also worked for 10 years with the federal government, including Health Canada, in the branch that oversees on-reserve nursing stations and the Privy Council Office (the prime ministers bureaucracy). At the time of Reids hiring, the inquirys chief commissioner, Marion Buller, said she was a strong Indigenous woman with an excellent track record. Dumas said his organization has called for the inquirys commissioners to be replaced before, and it asks once again for them to be removed. He said the AMC is also asking the federal government to immediately appoint a Manitoba-specific commissioner for the inquiry, effective immediately. We have stated before, and will state again, that families need to be engaged in improving how the inquiry functions, he said. This is another sad day for the families of our missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett responded to the latest departure in a statement, saying shes worried the ongoing turnover at the commission will distract from the work at hand. However, while she says her department shares families concerns about difficulties at the commission, its independence is crucial and the government wont be intervening. staff / The Canadian Press Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 12/01/2018 (1771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. After opening its doors to a religious minority targeted for genocide by the so-called Islamic State group, Winnipeg is now home to one of the largest Yazidi refugee communities in Canada. The Islamic State used propaganda and a perversion of Islam to sow the seeds of hatred that fuelled the genocide, says Michael Petrou, an author and historian who kicks off a lecture series Monday night at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. We need to confront this cruelty head-on, and that means understanding IS, Petrou said Thursday from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where the Canadian is a fellow at the schools journalism institute. WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Author Michael Petrou heard Yazidi refugees stories of enslavement and rape. Sunni and Shia Muslims and Christians have suffered enormously at the hands of IS. With the Yazidis, it was genocide through murder, forced conversion and slavery, said Petrou, who was in a village in northern Iraq in October 2014 with a Kurdish force that had taken the area back from the Islamic State. All the scars of war were still there. They found clothing that was unique to Yazidi women and proof that they were trafficked to fighters throughout Iraq, he said. I spoke to a number of Yazidis in refugee camps in northern Iraq, and heard stories of their enslavement and rape. In 2015, an analysis of the Islamic States practice of sexual slavery, taken from memos issued by the terror group and social media accounts of its members and supporters, was published by the Middle East Media Research Institute. That same year, the New York Times reported on theological discussions IS was having, establishing guidelines for slavery and the Islamic States research and fatwa department issuing a how-to manual. The newspaper reported terrorist leaders were using narrow and selective readings of religious rulings to not only justify violence, but to elevate and celebrate each sexual assault as spiritually beneficial, even virtuous. In Winnipeg, Yazidi women who fled say the propaganda campaign worked. Their captors and rapists justified such actions in the name of religion, said Nafiya Naso, a member of the Yazidi community whose ancient religion is deemed heretical by IS. Naso works with Jewish Child and Family Services, and volunteers with Operation Ezra, a multifaith campaign led by the Jewish community to privately sponsor Yazidi refugees to come to Canada. Many women talk about the selling and buying of Yazidi women and girls, saying even if the buyers werent a part of IS, they took part in buying saying it was OK because Islam says we are infidels and therefore not considered human, Naso said. Such atrocities have nothing to do with religion, said Shahina Siddiqui with the Winnipeg-based Islamic Social Services Association. Terrorists are terrorists, said Siddiqui, who declined to participate in Mondays event at the museum. They are not representatives of Islam or Muslims Shia or Sunni or any other religion. Terrorism has no faith. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Nafiya Naso, seen welcoming family at the airport in 2016, says many refugees speak of Yazidi women being bought and sold as slaves by the Islamic State group, which justifies these atrocities through its interpretation of Islam. Petrou argues the only way to eradicate the so-called Islamic State group is by using religion. If we confront head-on how central Islam is to IS and its perversion is to its self-conception, that leaves it vulnerable to using the same faith and holy book to undermine their message, he said. Such steps are being taken, Siddiqui said. Just a couple of years ago, hundreds of Muslim religious leaders, both Shia and Sunni from around the world, issued a fatwa against terrorism and, point by point, negated every claim of (IS) on religious grounds, she said. Overwhelmingly, Muslims do not consider (IS), al-Qaida or Boko Haram as religious movements, or their leaders as legitimate and qualified scholars or experts on the interpretation of the Quran, Islamic law or the teachings of the Prophet. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 12/01/2018 (1771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. On the same day that Finance Minister Bill Morneau clarified the federal governments proposals to limit income sprinkling as a way for high-income owners of private companies to reduce their taxes, the Senate finance committee released its report recommending that all his tax changes should be scrapped. Instead, the committee recommended the government undertake an independent and comprehensive review of the tax system with the purpose of reducing complexity, ensuring economic competitiveness and enhancing overall fairness. The last time Canada had such a comprehensive review was the Royal Commission on Taxation, led by Kenneth Carter. It reported in 1966, with many but not all of its recommendations finally implemented in legislation in 1972. This process took a decade from the start of the commission. The Senate committees proposal, if taken seriously, looks much like the proverbial kicking the can down the road a massive delaying tactic. Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press Files Minister of Finance Bill Morneau faced heavy criticism after introducing proposed business-tax reforms. This is not to say that a more in-depth review of Canadas income tax system would be wrong. But instead of a massive big-bang review as extensive as that of Carters, it would be more prudent to make ongoing in-depth analysis of various facets of the tax system a full-time activity of the Department of Finance. As Canadas auditor general observed, information provided by the Department of Finance Canada on tax-based expenditures does not adequately support parliamentary oversight. In some cases, these regular reviews could address more structural aspects of the tax system, as compared to the tax-based expenditures identified by the auditor general. The firestorm of protest that dogged Morneau over the proposed changes in the taxation of private companies raises the broader question of just how individual and corporate income taxes should relate to one another. In tax jargon, the topic is corporate-personal income tax integration. Basic principles of income taxation require that incomes not be taxed twice: once when received by a corporation, and again when the income is paid out as salary or a dividend to individual shareholders. At the same time, income flowed through a corporation should not be under-taxed, compared to the way this income would be treated if it were received directly by individuals in the first place precisely the concern being addressed by the controversial proposals recently detailed by the minister. A second possible focus could be the tax incentives for retirement savings in registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) and workplace registered pension plans (RPPs). In this case, the basic structure of comprehensive limits, one of the Carter commissions original recommendations, was only implemented in 1990. But there are important questions about the overall costs of these incentives and their targeting, as they are mostly used by those with higher incomes, compared to middle-class taxpayers. A third possible area for in-depth review is the taxation of offshore income, not least given the scandals revealed by the Paradise Papers. However, this is an area that Canada cant address on its own. Major improvements in enforcement against tax evasion (which is illegal), and even in detecting serious tax avoidance strategies (which are legal but may be highly abusive), require more extensive international collaboration. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been leading work in the area of whats known as base erosion and profit shifting. But so far, its not delivering nearly as much as needed to tackle the major issues. It could be that tax reform (or in the words of the Senate committee report, ensuring economic competitiveness) is actually code for simply cutting corporate income tax rates. The recent U.S. tax-reform legislation has raised fears that a lower corporate income tax rate there will place intolerable pressure on Canadian companies, inducing them to cut investment here. But tax cuts themselves are not tax reform. The U.S. changes did include some base broadening by cutting back on some tax-based expenditures, but primarily it increased the deficit by almost $1.5 trillion. In any case, any reviews of Canadas tax system should be based on solid evidence. The recent proposals regarding income sprinkling, passive income and avoiding equitable capital gains tax on disposition of a private company have been notable, at least for data nerds, for the weakness of the evidence provided. The recent Parliamentary Budget Officer study seems to have done a better job. Even more important than another commission on taxation would be for the government to provide itself with high-quality data and analytical capacity so it can understand whats really going on, and (subject to confidentiality restrictions) enable bona fide external researchers to provide Canadians with ongoing independent evidence-based analysis. Instead of attempting once-in-a-generation, big-bang tax reform, it would be far more effective to follow the auditor general and invest in ongoing analysis and regular review of all major tax provisions. Michael Wolfson is an expert adviser with EvidenceNetwork.ca and a member of the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Ottawa. He was a Canada Research Chair at the University of Ottawa. He is a former assistant chief statistician at Statistics Canada. Troy Media WASHINGTON 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. 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." 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 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. 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. The current backroom talks between the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Union partiesthe Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU)are aimed at establishing another grand coalition government pledged to carrying out further attacks on democratic rights. In this respect, attacks on the rights of refugees are a linchpin for undermining the basic democratic rights of the entire working class. To this end, German politicians are reviving the vilest traditions of National Socialism (Nazism). This was confirmed most recently by a statement made by a leading CSU politician, Manfred Weber, who heads the conservative European Peoples Party faction in the European Parliament. On January 5, at a closed-door meeting of the CSU parliamentary group, Weber declared, In 2018, the central European issue will be a final solution to the refugee issue. The parallel to the phrase final solution of the Jewish question used by the Nazis to describe the murder of millions of Jews was so obvious that several newspapers felt obliged to comment. In order to solve the problem at a European level, Weber called for closer cooperation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who attended the CSU meeting as an honoured guest. Orban is notorious for his brutal treatment of refugees, who are systematically deprived of basic human rights in Hungary. Following a massive backlash on social media, Weber responded by claiming that his statement had been subject to deliberate misinterpretation. The projects currently being discussed in relation to refugee and asylum policy testify to a rapid lurch to the right across the entire political spectrum. The CDU, CSU and Greens, in their previous negotiations with the Free Democratic Party (FDP), had already agreed on a tightening of asylum policy. However, the proposals and demands that are now being discussed for a future grand coalition go much further. To date, the following measures have evidently been agreed: * A maximum of 200,000 refugees are to be admitted to Germany each year. Thomas Strobl (CDU), deputy to the premier of Baden-Wurttemberg, Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), has gone so far as to plead in a local newspaper for a limit of just 65,000 annually. * The Maghreb states (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) are to be definitively classified as safe countries of origin. This means that all refugees from these countries lose their status as tolerated migrants and can be deported immediately. The CDU-CSU is even calling for deportations to Syria and all parties are already organising deportations to Afghanistan, in open disregard of the assessment by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees of the situation in these war-torn countries. * The suspension of family reunification for refugees with limited protection status is to be extended indefinitely. The previous suspension is due to expire in March. * For all newly arriving asylum seekers, decision-making and repatriation centres are to be set up, in which people are required to remain in one centre until their case is settled. Such centres already exist in Bamberg, Ingolstadt and Heidelberg. The immigrants there receive basic material benefits as well as a social allowance of 120 euros (adults) and 67 euros (children) per month. CSU parliamentary leader Alexander Dobrindt is also demanding that asylum seekers be restricted to the lowest level of social assistance for three years. Up to now, this restriction has applied to asylum seekers for a period of 15 months. Those refused residency and tolerated refugees will be denied any sort of financial assistance. This last demand clearly contradicts a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court, which decided two years ago that the resulting 30 percent lowering of payments to refugees was unconstitutional. The proposals are accompanied by a vicious media campaign. In the first week of January, a study by the Lower Saxony criminologist Christian Pfeiffer, commissioned by the Ministry for Family Affairs, was used to this end. It alleged that there was a link between refugees and crime, declaring that there had been an increase in violent crime of 10.4 percent between 2014 and 2016. According to the study, 92 percent of this increase is due to felonies committed by refugees. The study was promoted heavily by the media to demonstrate that young male refugees were more prone to crime and therefore more likely to be deported. In reality, the study permits a very different interpretation: it is precisely the neglect and lack of prospects for young people vegetating in overcrowded camps and without any perspective to stay that leads to desperation and sometimes criminal acts. The causes are social, not ethnic. The entire political establishment, from the right to the so-called left, is now pursuing an xenophobic course that largely corresponds to the line of the far-right Alternative for Germany. This is confirmed by statements made by leading politicians. Left Party leaders Sahra Wagenknecht and Oskar Lafontaine recently stated in Die Welt that they did not support their own partys draft paper on immigration. Any demand for open borders for all people, declared Wagenknecht, was at most a vision of the future, but not a demand for todays world. Lafontaine added, Right of residency and 1,050 euros for all who come to us are unrealistic proposals. Wagenknecht heads the Left Party faction in the German parliament and Lafontaine is a former chairman of the party. But it is above all the SPD that has emerged as the advocate of the reactionary asylum legislation. The former interior minister of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Ralf Jager introduced a decree in December 2016 whereby asylum seekers or tolerated refugees who cannot be found at a specific time can be hunted down and detained immediately. In the previous grand coalition government, the SPD launched Asylum Package II in March 2016, which opened the door to the destruction of basic democratic rights for refugees. Today, SPD ministers often boast of their efficiency in carrying out deportations. At the end of November 2017, Berlin Interior Senator Andreas Geisel boasted that 1,500 people had been deported from Berlin since the start of the year. As for the Free Democratic Party, its refugee policy increasingly resembles that of its fellow neo-liberal Austrian party, the Freedom Party, which is pursuing a blatantly far-right course. FDP Chairman Christian Lindner is now in favour of deporting minors. He hypocritically limits his demand to underage criminal asylum seekers, but the deportation of children in Germany sets an abominable precedent. It is not just the rhetoric of politicians calling for a final solution to the refugee question and calls for the bundling (the Nazis called it concentration) of asylum seekers in repatriation centres that recall the criminal activities of the Third Reich. The link is also evident in the reactionary, police-bureaucratic manner with which government authorities act against refugees. Entire families are torn from their beds in the early hours by armed police for deportation. Their entire lives are destroyed. According to official figures, 22,190 people were deported from Germany between January and November 2017. This corresponds approximately to the number of deportations in 2016, when 25,000 people were deported in twelve months. The number of immigrants deported to the Maghreb countries of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia has risen sharply since last year. This is especially true for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the new CDU-FDP administration led by Premier Joachim Stamp (FDP) has created a specific refugee minister. Stamp bragged that with the deportations, We have achieved our first remarkable successes. Last year, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia deported more than 6,000 refugees, almost 1,000 more than in 2016. In addition, there were almost 11,000 so-called voluntary returnees. Many people have been deported to the Balkans. Entire families who have been living in Germany for many years are deported so suddenly that they are unable to say their farewells or properly pack their belongings. This is especially the case in the state of Thuringia, governed by the Left Party. According to the Ministry of Migration, there were 600 deportations in Thuringia up to November. Over the same period, 582 refugees left the small state as part of its so-called voluntary repatriation scheme. Most of the deportations from Thuringia were to western Balkan states, above all to Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. Recently, the Refugee Council of Thuringia drew attention to the deportation of the Rustemi family. Although the young father was involved in a training program and learning German, the entire family, including two small children, was deported to Kosovo. Another brutal deportation, from North Rhine-Westphalia, was reported shortly before Christmas. Family B. with four children was awakened on December 13 at 5 in the morning and deported from Dusseldorf Airport to Pristina. Only the eldest son (17), who was not at home, was spared deportation. In January, a committee of the North Rhine-Westphalia parliament was formed to decide on the status of the family. The parents had grown up in Germany but had been denied a residency permit and had to leave for Kosovo at the turn of the millennium, where they experienced the pogroms carried out against Roma in the country. They returned to Germany and, after a year-long odyssey, arrived in Munsterland, where the five children attended school. Today, the children speak only German and some Romanesque, but not Albanian. Since Kosovo is considered a safe country of origin, the remaining six family members were expelled to a Roma neighbourhood in the city of Gjakova, where there is no accommodation, work or social benefits. Whenever Ford workers in Germany learn of the spontaneous strike by Ford workers at the Craiova plant in Romania, they respond with great interest and enthusiasm. Workers at Fords Saarlouis plant in western Germany expressed their solidarity with the workers struggle in Romania. Shortly before Christmas, 1,000 workers in Craiova downed tools to block the imposition of an exploitative contract by Ford Motor Company. By contrast, their trade union representatives had already signed the deal. In Craiova, where Ford workers build the EcoSport SUV, Ford wants to impose a two-year contract on the workers. The wages of long-serving workers are to be frozen while those of new hires will be cut to a level below the minimum wage. In some cases, new hires will receive just 300 per month. Romanian autoworkers already earn a mere fraction of what their colleagues in Western Europe make for the same job. Workers in Craiova continue to resist the contract. However, they confront not only the giant corporation, but the trade union, which collaborates closely with management. They are also fighting against the government, which is imposing the full burden of social insurance contributions (including the employers portion) onto the workers. Ford has made the offsetting of these costs by the company conditional on the acceptance of the new contract. Workers in Craiova made contact with the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter to inform their colleagues in Western Europe and North America about their struggle. Workers continue to be angry with management and the union, which has sought to bottle up the opposition through various mediation ploys with the company and the government, while telling workers it would take two months for the union to be legally free to call a strike. On 10 January, a WSWS reporting team distributed the statement Romanian Ford workers defiant as company seeks to impose blackmail contract. A token warning strike was called that day by IG Metall, which was supported by the workers in hopes of securing a pay increase and more free time. Ford employs 6,000 workers in the state of Saarland. Numerous Ford workers, and workers from auto parts suppliers, took the WSWS leaflet and many returned for extra copies. Several said they intended to visit the web site to learn more about the ongoing workers struggle in Romania. During the shift change, a Ford worker expressed his support for the call for Ford workers around the world to unite, stating, Pressure is also being stepped up here constantly. It destroys everything, and it breaks up families! He added that he would be ready to wage an international struggle straight away. Another worker introduced himself as a WSWS reader who said he already knew about the wildcat strike in Romania and had informed his colleagues. Jens, who has worked at Ford for 25 years, told us the company deliberately plays workers of different nationalities off against each other. When they were talking here about establishing a new plant, they constantly threaten us by saying, In Romania, its SO-O-O much cheaper. And I learnt from the WSWS that in Romania, they threaten the Romanian workers with wage levels in China. They probably threaten the Chinese workers with the Mexicans or Vietnamese. Jens continued, Hopefully the colleagues in Romania stick to their guns. They shouldnt let themselves be intimidated. Jens said he thought it was a deliberate move by Google and other firms to block access to the WSWS. Absolutely nobody knew about Craiova here, said Jens. Then last week I sent the article around because I know the WSWS. Many workers pointed out that their struggle at Ford in Saarlouis is connected with the struggle in Craiova. The future of the plant is directly dependent on the outcome of such job actions as in Romania. One worker said, If management is able to make the Romanian workers concede, our production will move to Eastern Europe sooner or later. An elderly worker stated, After the fall of the Eastern European states, the situation also got worse for us. He reported that he started out at Ford as a temporary contract worker, but received a permanent job after two years. Many temporary contract workers are employed at Ford, where they are forced to accept a starting wage of 10 per hour (US$11.99), around half the normal pay, in the hope of securing a permanent post. But this has not happen regularly for a long time, the worker added. The worker continued that he is employed in logistics, where the products from external suppliers arrive. We can see daily from the parts how international our operations are. They come from every part of the world: from Spain, Mexico, China, Poland and elsewhere. Timo, a Ford worker, was visibly shaken when he learned of the conditions in Romania. The strike by these workers was justified. They should have the same rights as us, said Timo. He hopes that a reasonable contract is concluded from which everyone can live and which offers security. Workers at Saarstahl in Volklingen and from Dillinger Hutte, who also took part in the warning strike, spoke about the companys efforts to reduce wages by eliminating the top pay bracket. You have to fight constantly, said Frank, an older steelworker. A worker at Dillinger Hutte reported that workloads have increased substantially over recent times. But the conditions in Romania, thats much worse, he added. He knew of another example from Eastern Europe, saying, In Bulgaria, wages are as low as in Romania, and prices are going up in all of these countries because of the EU. I cannot imagine how they make ends meet. Markus, a young Ford worker on the assembly line, commented, You cant compare it to Germany, but they ought to be able to live from their wage. It is a scandal how they are dealing with colleagues in Romania, said Eddy. He took several flyers and began handing them out to workers. He said the information had to be shared immediately, and that he would raise it with the works council. Why did IG Metall not do something about this long ago? In fact, IG Metall has done everything to prevent German workers from knowing about and being inspired by the fight of their Romanian brothers and sisters. One searches in vain on the IG Metalls website for a statement on the conflict in Romania. The unions affiliated with the German Trade Union Association welcomed the reintroduction of capitalism in Eastern Europe and the works council, which fully promotes Fords corporate interests, upon which it relies financially, agreed to the shutdown of the Ford plant in Genk, Belgium, four years ago and assisted in the organization of attacks on wages and working conditions in Cologne and Saarlouis. At the time, management threatened to outsource production to Romania if the cuts and plant shutdowns were not accepted. IG Metall supported this blackmail and enforced it against the workforce. When workers in Craiova went on strike, IG Metall concealed this from Ford workers in Western Europe. These comments make clear that a growing number of workers understand the necessity of uniting internationally against the global corporations. The World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter was established to inform workers around the world about the struggles of their colleagues. The Autoworker Newsletter proposes that workers in Romania, Germany and the rest of Europe establish rank-and-file action committees to take the conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the pro-capitalist and nationalist unions and unify their struggle internationally against the global automakers and the capitalist profit system. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has embarked on a range of aggressive measures against the Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, whipping up a poisonous atmosphere of Zionist chauvinism against the Palestinians. This comes in the wake of US President Donald Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. Trumps move has provided a green light for the government to step up its oppression of the Palestinians, accelerate the expansion and creation of new Zionist settlements and escalate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem. The centre-left parties that formally supported the peace process for fear of falling foul of the Obama administration have fallen in line. The recently elected leader of the opposition Zionist Union, a coalition that includes the former Labour party that once branded itself as the party of peace, hailed Trumps announcement, saying that recognition of Jerusalem was more important than a peace deal with the Palestinians. On Monday, Israels parliament, the Knesset, passed the United Jerusalem Bill, which makes it all but impossible for the government to hand over parts of Jerusalem to Palestinians under any future peace deal. Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home party gloated on Facebook, Just now we ensured that Jerusalem will be united forever. We initiated the law that guards Jerusalem so that it cannot be divided without a huge majority of 80 Mks [members of the Knesset]. He added, The Mount of Olives, the Old City, the Temple Mount and the City of David will remain in our hands forever. There will be no more political manoeuvres that will allow to tear our capital apart. [sic] This is also Israels response to the shameful United Nations vote against Jerusalem. A holiday for Israel! The new law paves the way for Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, which Israel illegally annexed after its capture in the 1967 War, to be hived off into a separate local council. This would serve to strip their residents of their Jerusalem residency papers, reducing Jerusalems Palestinian population by a third, and creating a Jewish majority in the city. This is in addition to plans to strip large numbers of Palestinians of their residency because they live outside the infamous separation wall that Israel built through the city. The following day, a meeting of the ruling Likud Partys central committee unanimously supported a proposal calling on the government to effectively annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. By ending military jurisdiction and bringing the settlements under civilian jurisdictionthe settlers themselves are already subject to Israeli civilian lawit will make it easier to expand the settlements. Netanyahu postponed a vote last October on a bill in the Knesset that was tantamount to the annexation of the Israeli settlements surrounding Jerusalem and was expected to pass. This time he has allowed the proposal to go ahead in the Likud party. The government is planning a covert annexation of some of the settlements under proposals to bring large West Bank settlements under Jerusalems municipal authority. In a further measure, the Knesset set in motion the introduction of a capital punishment bill for terrorist-murderers, targeting the Palestinians. It will enable judges in civilian courts to issue the death penalty, hitherto reserved for Nazis and Nazi collaborators convicted of committing murder during the Holocaust, and reduce the requirement for a unanimous vote to a simple majority of judges in military courts. The ultra-orthodox religious authorities have been emboldened to encourage Jews to enter the al-Aqsa compound, previously off-limits to Jews, and pray there, while nationalist and far-right forces have demanded that it be divided between Israelis and Palestinians. An Israeli court approved the administrative detention of the prominent rights campaigner Khalida Jarrar for another six months. Jarrar, a Palestinian MP, has been held without charge since July, supposedly for her involvement with the banned Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Israel deems the PFLP to be a terrorist group and has imprisoned many of its leaders. Jarrrars imprisonment is punishment for her role in the Palestinian Authoritys application to join the International Criminal Court in 2015 and thereby lodge charges against Israel. Twelve other Palestinian legislators are in jail, all but three held without charges under administrative detention. Of the 6,400 Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons, at least 500 are being held under administrative detention, which allows the authorities to appeal to the courts to extend the prisoners detention by six months, thus indefinitely, without trial or charges. According to data released by the army, of the 3,909 administrative detention orders issued between 2015 and the end of July 2017, more than half2,441 (62.4 percent)were extensions for a person already under administrative detention. Only 48 of the orders (1.2 percent) were cancelled. On Monday, Israel filed 12 charges against 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi that could see her spend years in prison. The Palestinian girl was arrested on December 20 after a video of her and her cousin in a confrontation with two Israeli soldiers armed with M16 guns, helmets and body armour in the occupied West Bank went viral. She is widely viewed by Palestinians as a hero for slapping an Israeli soldier in the face. An Israeli cabinet minister called for her to be imprisoned for life. Prominent Ma ariv and al-Monitor.com journalist Ben Caspit, who considers himself liberal and pro-peace, wrote, In the case of the girls, we should exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and cameras. He added that had he been one of the soldiers he would have been far less restrained, even to the extent of being arrested. The altercation took place in Aheds backyard in the village of Nabi Saleh, which according to Israeli human rights organization BTselem, the Israel Defense Forces and the Border Police have raided 70 or 80 times in the past three months. The soldiers had come just half an hour after Israeli soldiers had shot her 14-year-old cousin, Mohammed, in the head on December 15, when he was protesting against Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital. They had come to interview the family and one of the soldiers slapped Ahed on the face before she slapped him. Mohammed is now in a medically induced coma. Aheds cousin and mother were also charged. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Mohammed al-Tamimi is just one of at least 345 cases of Palestinian children wounded by Israeli security forces between December 5 and 18. More than a third of these injuries, including six head injuries, were the result of live ammunition. This is in addition to the 14 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces. Israel has carried out almost daily raids into Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The UN reported that Israeli forces carried out 162 search and arrest operations in the West Bank between December 5 and 18. More than 400 Palestinians have been arrested. Moreover, 77 Palestinian children under the age of 18 have been imprisoned over the same period, double the number in the previous month. Every year, around 700 Palestinian children are detained and prosecuted in Israeli military courts without the right to a fair trial or protection. What could be more American than a local school board town hall meeting? The type of scene portrayed in a Norman Rockwell paintingdemocracy in action, an opportunity for ordinary citizens to air their complaints and have their voices heard, the embodiment of civic duty and accountability. In todays America, however, Rockwell, witnessing the fate of Louisiana teacher Deyshia Hargrave, might be driven to adopt more the style of Francisco Goya or Hieronymus Bosch. At a school board meeting held this past Monday, the courageous teacher at Rene A. Rost Middle School in southern Louisianas Vermilion Parish had the temerity to question, with calm but determined insistence, why the local school board had voted to give the districts superintendent, Jerome Puyau, a $38,000 raise on top of his $110,000 salary. Hargrave, an English language arts instructor who was named the 2015-16 teacher of the year at her middle school, noted that the decision was a slap in the face to the teachers, the cafeteria workers and any support staff who are not getting a dime. Class sizes in the district have jumped from 21 to 29 students in recent years, she noted, while teachers have not received a pay raise in a decade. Like so many school districts, Vermilion Parish, deep in Louisianas oil patch, faces a multimillion-dollar deficit, drained of resources from spending cuts and slumping tax revenues. Of the pay raise, Hargrave asked, How are you going to take that money? Because it is basically taking it out of the pockets of teachers. Hargrave was ordered to shut up. When she protested, a deputy marshal, under the instructions of the school board president, told her to leave. After she complied, the marshal pushed her to the ground, handcuffed her and put her in a patrol car, accusing her of remaining after having been forbidden and resisting an officer. The whole process was recorded on video, which has since been viewed by millions of people. Every day such outrages are repeated in countless forms. News coverage of the events in Louisiana was still at its peak when a new video spread across social media showing an incapacitated and evidently impoverished woman deposited, in the freezing cold and at night, at a Baltimore bus stop. She was left there by security staff working for the University of Maryland Medical Centerapparently an example of the practice of patient dumping, or the forcible discharge of individuals lacking insurance. The fate of Hargrave has struck a popular chord. An online petition, Why I stand with Deyshia Hargrave, has already been signed by more than 20,000 people, including nearly 4,000 in Louisiana. Signatories came from across the US and the world, including from Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Brazil, India, Australia, South Africa and Algeria. The statement by the middle school teacher that We are doing the work and You are making our jobs more difficult resonates with the daily experiences of working class people in the US and around the world. What gives school board officials the right to siphon off resources and shut down protests? Their petty larceny is inspired by far greater larceny, their authoritarian disposition gains sustenance from a broader social environment. Tens of millions of workers suffer from declining living standards as the stock market blows past 25,000 and corporate America celebrates a massive tax cut. The population is hit by disaster after disaster and confronts the indifference of corporate-controlled governments. Essential services like education and health care are starved of resources, even as the political representatives of the corporate and financial elite, whether they call themselves Democrats or Republicans, find limitless resources for bank bailouts, tax giveaways and wars. The ruling elites are so accustomed to doing whatever they please without resistance that they respond to the first signs of opposition with the police baton. This class contempt for the concerns and democratic rights of working people percolates from the White House and halls of Congress in Washington down to the level of the petty bureaucrat tasked with enforcing budget cuts and austerity. If this is the response of a local school board to the challenge of a small group of teachers, what would the response of a billionaire like Amazons Jeff Bezos be to a real rebellion of the working class and a mass movement that threatened his wealth and the dictatorial rule of his class? Bezos wouldnt call out deputy marshals and hired security guards, hed call out the US Army. Such injustices and outrages against personal dignity, the diverse consequences of a common cause, social inequality, build up in the consciousness of the working class. And when this sentiment emerges in political form, the target will not just be local school officials. In a world where millions of people are fleeing wars and starvation, the Australian government spent more money last year on its anti-refugee border protection apparatus than the entire budget of the UN refugee agency. In 2016-17, the Department of Immigration and Border Protections operations to block refugee boats and imprison asylum seekers cost over $4 billion, according to Treasury figures provided to a Senate estimates committee late last year. That just exceeded the global budget of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which estimates that 65.6 million people are currently forcibly displaced around the planet, plus 10 million more who have been rendered stateless, that is, denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. Despite successive Australian governments claiming to have stopped the boats of desperate people seeking refuge in the country, the resources being poured into repelling or detaining asylum seekers are still at the massive levels they rose to in 201314. That was the year after the last Labor government reopened the countrys offshore detention camps on Nauru and Papua New Guineas Manus Island, and the year in which the current Liberal-National Coalition government stepped up military operations to block refugee boats. A brief written answer given to the Senate committee revealed that in 2016-17 the Department of Immigration and Border Protection spent $4.061 billion on what the government terms Outcome 1, which is entitled protect Australias sovereignty, security and safety by managing its border, including through managing the stay and departure of all non-citizens. Previous predictions, made in every government budget since 2013, that spending would reduce once the boats were stopped have effectively been ditched. The answer declared: Notwithstanding the success of Australias strong border protection policies in stopping illegal maritime arrivals to Australia, the Government continues to manage persons who arrived illegally by boat in 2012 and 2013; both through offshore and onshore arrangements. These costs will continue to impact the Budget bottom line until full resolution of the onshore and offshore illegal maritime caseloads can be achieved. In other words, billions of dollars will continue to be spent annually, predominantly on detaining refugees and other people facing deportation, in both onshore and offshore facilities. Many of the detainees have already been incarcerated for five years or more. The $4.061 billion included $1.059 billion on border enforcement, $242 million on border management, $1.569 billion on onshore compliance and detention, $1.083 billion on IMA [irregular maritime arrivals] offshore management, and $109 million on regional cooperation arrangements. The $1.569 billion for onshore compliance and detention is primarily used to imprison about 13,000 people, according to the latest departmental statistics, in immigration detention centres on the Australian mainland and Christmas Island, a remote territory in the Indian Ocean. Mandatory detention for unauthorised non-citizens was introduced by the Keating Labor government in 1992. Tens of thousands of vulnerable asylum seekers have been forcibly imprisoned since the policys introduction. While refugees remain the main victims of this system, the prisoners include individuals, including long-time Australian residents, being deported because of criminal convictions or alleged misconduct. In 2014, the present Coalition government, with Labors support, passed laws allowing New Zealand citizens to be deported if they had been imprisoned for 12 months or more, even for minor offences. New Zealanders, currently numbering 175, have become the highest represented nationality in Australias detention centres. The oppressive conditions imposed on these detainees resulted in two deaths of New Zealanders in 201642-year-old Robert Peihopa and 23-year-old Junior Togatuki. There have also been tragic deaths among the tens of thousands of often-traumatised asylum seekers living in community detention, in which they are denied basic rights and monitored constantly. At $1.083 billion, the next largest cost is offshore management of detained refugees. Officially, 339 asylum seekers are still imprisoned on Nauru and Manus Island, but the actual numbers exceed 1,000. That is because the Australian government shut down the Manus facility last November, forcibly evicting the detainees, but about 700 men remain on the island, housed in insecure and ill-equipped facilities. The $1.059 billion spent on border enforcement covers some of the costs associated with seizing asylum seeker vessels, whose passengers are pushed back to sea, typically with barely enough fuel to reach a destination. Since 2013, when the current government launched Operation Sovereign Borders, a militarised version of the previous Labor governments measures, 31 vessels have been reported as being forcibly turned around, carrying 771 people, including 117 children. Because of the military secrecy shrouding the operation, it is not known how many other boats were intercepted, or sank on the high seas. The $109 million spent on regional cooperation arrangements may include the brutal United States refugee swap deal, in which the government agreed to take an undisclosed number of refugees imprisoned by the US in Costa Rica, in exchange for equally unspecified numbers of heavily vetted refugees imprisoned on Manus and Nauru. By contrast to the billions spent on the cruel treatment of refugees, just $458,163 was spent on humanitarian assistance programs and the Skilled and Family Migration Program. Australias sovereign borders regime, which has been emulated by other Western governments, is a damning indictment of world capitalism and its nation-state system. Millions of innocent people are being denied refuge, many of them fleeing predatory wars launched by the US and its allies, including Australia. The $4 billion spent on barring or punishing refugees is roughly 20 times the UNHCR budget for South East Asia, which is meant to provide for more than 200,000 officially recognised refugees, half a million internally displaced people and 1.4 million stateless individuals trapped in some of the poorest countries in the world. 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MOST OF, IF NOT ALL MUGSHOT LAWS WERE CRAFTED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM FEES FOR REMOVAL OF ONLINE MUGSHOTS AND TO FURTHER PROTECT THE PRESS FROM THOSE VERY SAME "MUGSHOT LAWS".WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR REMOVAL OF ARREST INFORMATION AND/OR BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. MORE... PHOENIX (AP) A former Bank of America worker suspected of theft chose the wrong employer when applying for a police dispatch job. The Cottonwood Police Department in central Arizona's Yavapai County says the case involving 32-year-old Alberto Lopez of Phoenix popped up in law enforcement records when he applied to be a dispatcher. Police spokeswoman Sgt. Monica Kuhlt said Monday Lopez was suspected of stealing $5,000 from a Bank of America branch in Yavapai County between July and September 2016. He quit and moved to Phoenix and refused to cooperate, missing appointments and refusing to answer phone calls. After Lopez applied for the dispatch position in December, officers had him come in for an interview last week and arrested him on a felony theft warrant. He didn't get the job. President Donald Trump was heavily criticized Thursday for comments made about immigrants from what he called s**thole countries during a meeting with lawmakers. The Washington Post reported the president, 71, became frustrated during the meeting when they discussed protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and Africa. Why are we having all these people from s**thole countries come here? Trump said, according to the Post. Anderson Cooper made an emotional statement defending Haiti Thursday night on CNN, saying, Let me be clear, the people of Haiti have been through more, withstood more, fought back against more injustice than our President ever has. I was taught math in high school by a Haitian immigrant named Yves Volel, who worked hard, dedicated himself to teaching kids, he said. He ultimately returned to Haiti and was assassinated while running for president. The Anderson Cooper 360 anchor continued speaking in favor of the Haitian people. I have never met a Haitian who isnt strong, Cooper continued. You have to be to survive in a place where the government has often abandoned its people. Where opportunities are few and where Mother Nature has punished the people far more than anyone should ever be punished. "Let me be clear.... the people of Haiti have been through more, withstood more, fought back against more injustice... than our President ever has" Anderson Cooper choked back tears as he reflected on his relationship with Haiti, and its people https://t.co/3arEalkKOM Anderson Cooper 360 (@AC360) January 12, 2018 He became emotional as he described the people he had encountered in the aftermath of its devastating earthquake. Story continues I was there when the 5-year-old boy named Monley was rescued after being buried for more than seven days, he said, his voice growing thick. Do you know what strength it takes to survive on rainwater buried under concrete a 5-year-old boy? Haitians slap your hand hard when they shake it, Cooper said. They look you in the eye, they do not blink. They stand tall. They have dignity. A dignity many in this White House could learn from. A dignity the president with all his money and power could learn from as well. He concluded, On the eve of the anniversary of the earthquake, on this day when this president has said what he has about Haitians, we hope the people in Haiti listening tonight in Port Au Prince and Jacmel, and Miami and elsewhere we hope they know our thoughts are with them, and our love is with them. The president is a racist. He has been for his entire public life. If you vote(d) for him, you do so because of that or despite that. We need a multi-racial anti-racist coalition to defeat him and try to heal our nation. John Legend (@johnlegend) January 12, 2018 John Legend tweeted against Trump after the news broke, calling him racist. The president is a racist. He has been for his entire public life, he tweeted. If you vote(d) for him, you do so because of that or despite that. We need a multi-racial anti-racist coalition to defeat him and try to heal our nation. Broadway actor Ben Platt, Chelsea Clinton, Questlove, Patton Oswalt and Ben Stiller also reacted on Twitter. Mr. President, immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and the 54 countries in Africa likely helped build your buildings. Theyve certainly helped build our country. cc @POTUShttps://t.co/hv1QYRoRy3 Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) January 11, 2018 The only sthole is Tr*mp, Platt tweeted, while Clinton wrote, Mr. President, immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and the 54 countries in Africa likely helped build your buildings. Theyve certainly helped build our country. cc @POTUS. If @realDonaldTrump wouldve said those racist comments while campaigning, plus his other barbaric comments; do you think it would have changed the outcome? Vicente Fox Quesada (@VicenteFoxQue) January 12, 2018 Former Mexican President Vicente Fox tweeted and created a poll, asking, If @realDonaldTrump wouldve said those racist comments while campaigning, plus his other barbaric comments; do you think it would have changed the outcome? .@donlemon on President Trump: "He is a racist ... but it's more important to be strategic than outraged" https://t.co/YhQrjiIOKr CNN (@CNN) January 12, 2018 Don Lemon also criticized the president on CNN Tonight saying his comments didnt leave him outraged because he already knew Trump was racist. The president of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that. Lemon urged Trumps supported to do some self-examination, saying, What does it say about you that no matter what, no matter what, you continue to make excuses for this man, for his vile behavior? Doesnt that make you just as bad, if not worse than him? Seth Meyers also addressed Trumps comments on Thursdays Late Night. He introduced a new segment called Seth Has to Walk Away For a Minute, in which he fittingly walked away from his desk. His voice was heard from offscreen, muttering, At what point do you just have some common decency, some human emotion? Theres Another Book Called Fire and Fury and Its Author Is Way Psyched Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is the hottest book in the country right now, and that popularity is having some unintended consequences. In 2008, historian Randall Hansen published a book about World War II called Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945. Nearly 10 years later the book is accidentally a bestseller again. I dont know how much of this is a mistake and how much of this is from new interest created by free advertising, Professor Hansen said in an interview with the New York Times. There might be some returns. Also Read: A Wolff in the West Wing - How 'Fire and Fury' Was Reported The majority of the books recent reviews on Amazon come from readers either confusing it for Wolffs take on the Trump administration or joking about the similarity between the two titles. Bought this book after seeing an ad for it on The Gorilla Channel. Only into the first chapter, but it is well written and seems well researched, one reviewer wrote, referencing a recently popular meme and criticisms about Wolffs books factual accuracy. HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BLUMPF !!! SCAM !!! read another review. Also Read: No, Trump Didn't Demand the Gorilla Channel Play on White House TVs Incredibly, sales of my [book] have increased. Will I owe a larger royalty cheque to Bannon & Trump? Hansen tweeted last week. If so, the irony will know no limits. Related stories from TheWrap: Michael Wolff Tells Stephen Colbert 'Why There Are So Many Leaks in This White House' (Video) A Wolff in the West Wing How 'Fire and Fury' Was Reported Michael Wolff on His White House 'Cloak of Invisibility' and 7 More Things Not In the Book 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: Diane Kruger Dedicates Sweet Thanksgiving Message to Her Boyfriend and Baby's Father Norman Reedus Diane Kruger Says She's Thankful for Norman Reedus Diane Kruger and Norman Reedus are celebrating her film, In The Fade, with sweet kisses. The couple, who went public with their romance earlier this year, showed some PDA on the red carpet at the Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California, on Thursday. Kruger, 41, and Reedus, 49, both who presented awards arrived hand-in-hand and shared a kiss, with the Walking Dead actor adoringly smooching her hand before going in different directions. Thursdays event was their second red carpet appearance together after recently making their public debut as a couple at the Golden Globe Awards. Inside the star-studded soiree, the actress, who wore Vera Wang, commemorated her best foreign film win with another kiss from Reedus before making her acceptance speech. This is the second time, the pair has kissed on-camera. They previously celebrated her winning best foreign language film at the Globes by sharing a brief peck. Kruger and Reedus first met while filming the 2015 movie Sky, in which Krugers character embarks on a journey of self-discovery after leaving her husband and getting romantically involved with Reedus character. They promoted the film together at the Toronto International Film Festival before going public with their relationship. I didnt know [Reedus] before the film, she told PEOPLE at the time. We share a lot of intimate scenes. I was really nervous about meeting him and not being able to have a drink with him, or talk with him. Kruger, who split from longtime boyfriend Joshua Jackson in June 2016, was spotted with Reedus after and out of town trip over Valentines Day this year. They later made their relationship public in March, strolling through New York City together. Donald Trump wont be opening the new U.S. embassy in London in February. The president had been expected to cut the ribbon on the new $1 billion building but tweeted early Friday that he had canceled the trip because he objected to the sell-off of the old structure, perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London. The U.S. State Department sold its building in tony Grosvenor Square to a Qatari real estate firm in 2009, and is relocating to a new site across the Thames, in South London. The U.S. ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson, had suggested recently that Trump would come to christen the new embassy. Trump has an outstanding invitation from the British government for a state visit, which involves the kind of pomp and ceremony he is partial to, including a dinner with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. But the invite has been the subject of vociferous opposition 1.8 million people signed a petition against it and the White House has reportedly put off the visit for fear of unflattering footage of masses of protesters on the streets of London. The BBC said Friday that British officials are still weighing options for a visit by Trump later in 2018. London Mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the news that Trump wont come to the British capital next month, saying his visit would have sparked big demonstrations. U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 has ordered a three-part documentary about the London embassy and the producers, Field Day Productions, have been granted access to the new building and its staff. But now it appears they will not be filming the president cutting the ribbon. Related stories Late Night Hosts Skewer Trump for 'S--thole Countries' Remark Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon Call Trump 'Racist' Over 'S-thole Countries' Remark Anderson Cooper, Fighting Back Tears, Defends Haiti Against Trump's 'S--thole' Remark Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts! 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. Story continues 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: University of Pennsylvania sophomore Blaze Bernstein was spending time at home with his family in Southern California for winter break when he went missing on Jan. 3. The 19-year-olds lifeless body was found Jan. 9 in a shallow grave in the brush surrounding Borrego Park in Lake Forest, California, his parents hometown. He had been stabbed more than 20 times, according to the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times. Last Friday, the Orange County Sheriffs Department named Blazes high school friend Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 20, as the suspect in the case and arrested him on suspicion of homicide. DNA evidence found inside Woodwards vehicle and at the crime scene at the park allegedly ties him to the murder, the Register and the Times report. Hundreds attended Mondays memorial service for the promising Ivy League student, as new details in the shocking case emerge. Here are five things to know about the case. 1. Blaze Was Stabbed More Than 20 Times as Authorities Investigate Possible Act of Rage Authorities have not yet said how they believe Blaze was killed. But on Monday the Orange County Register released details of an affidavit obtained before it was sealed revealing that Blaze was stabbed more than 20 times. Now, authorities are investigating whether the murder was as an act of rage the Register reports. Blaze Bernstein Woodward picked up Blaze at his home at about 11 p.m. on Jan. 2 and drove to the parking lot of a Hobby Lobby in Lake Forest, near Borrego Park, according to the affidavit obtained by the Register. Woodward told investigators that Blaze kissed him on the lips and that he pushed the teen away, according to the affidavit. While recounting that part of the story, Woodward allegedly clenched his jaw and fists as he told investigators that he wanted to tell Blaze to get off of him, the affidavit states. When investigators asked Woodward about dirt under his nails and scratches on his hands, he told them he got them because he fell in a mud puddle as part of a fight club, the affidavit says. Story continues Authorities have not yet released autopsy results. Woodward is scheduled to be arraigned in Central Jail in Santa Ana on Wednesday, when he is expected to be charged, a spokeswoman with the Orange County District Attorney tells PEOPLE. It is unclear if he has retained an attorney. 2. Police Have Not Commented on Motive Authorities have not commented on a potential motive in Blazes killing. They are still investigating how well Woodward and Blaze knew each other when they attended high school at the Orange County School of the Arts and why they were in the park together on the last night Blaze was seen alive. Samuel Woodward (left) The affidavit reveals that in June, Blaze texted two female friends about Woodward, the Register reports. In one conversation, he texted that Woodward was about to hit on me and he made me promise not to tell anyone but I have texted every one, uh oh, the affidavit states. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Authorities said Friday that Woodward has been cooperating with police, although he has not confessed. 3. Celebrities Posted About Blazes Disappearance While Police Had Surveillance on Woodward Blaze was home in California on break from the University of Pennsylvania at the time of his disappearance and death. His family reported him missing on Jan. 3 after having dinner with him, after which they went their separate ways, Carrie Braun, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriffs Department, previously told PEOPLE. After Blaze missed a dental appointment the following afternoon, his parents reported him missing. Authorities scoured the area for days before his body was found. For more compelling true crime coverage,follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard. Celebrities including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mayim Bialik, and Kobe Bryant also posted about Blazes disappearance on Facebook and Twitter. Jeanne Pepper and Gideon Bernstein Investigators had Woodward under surveillance for some time before his arrest, based on alleged inconsistencies in his interviews with police, Orange County Undersheriff Don Barnes said on Friday. Blazes Snapchat account led investigators to Woodward, Barnes said. 4. Blaze Was a Pre-Med Student and Editor of Campus Food Magazine Blazes father, Gideon Bernstein, told reporters 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 Orange County 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. 5. Fearing Hate Crime, Blazes Parents Say We are in Solidarity with LGBTQ Community On Monday, after the Register published gory details of Blazes death from an affidavit obtained before it was sealed, his parents, Jeanne and Gideon Bernstein, released a statement criticizing the timing of the story. We are saddened to hear, on the day we laid our son to rest, that gruesome details of the cause of his death were published, the Bernsteins wrote, the Times reports. Our son was a beautiful gentle soul who we loved more than anything. We were proud of everything he did and who he was. He had nothing to hide. We are in solidarity with our son and the LGBTQ community. If it is determined that this was a hate crime, we will cry not only for our son, but for LGBTQ people everywhere that live in fear or who have been victims of [a] hate crime. The family has asked that contributions be made to the Blaze Bernstein Memorial Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation Orange County. Donations will be given to the Orangewood Foundation and other organizations that help children and families in need. Prince William is still awaiting a very important question from Prince Harry. During a visit to a London mental health charity on Wednesday, the Duke of Cambridge joked to radio DJ Ronan Kemp that his younger brother has yet to ask him to be the best man in his upcoming spring wedding to Meghan Markle. "He hasn't asked me yet, just to clear that up," the 35-year-old royal revealed. "It could be a sensitive subject." Watch below: Prince Harry, 33, and Markle, 36, are reportedly breaking tradition in many ways, one being with the decision to potentially anoint a best man and maid of honor. Prince William did this at his own wedding to Kate Middleton, choosing his brother to serve as best man. The Duchess of Cambridge chose her younger sister, Pippa Middleton, to stand by her side as maid of honor. As for Markle, who will say "I do" to Prince Harry at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on May 19, Us Weekly reports that she's already chosen a maid of honor, who many believe to be her friend and stylist, Jessica Mulroney. ET has also learned that the former Suits star would like both of her parents to be a part of the nuptials in a special way. A source tells us she's already asked her father, Thomas, to walk her down the aisle. Hear more on everything we know about the royal wedding so far in the video below! RELATED CONTENT: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Receive Business Card From DJ Who Wants to Spin at Their Royal Wedding How Meghan Markle's Family Will Be Involved in the Royal Wedding Everything We Know About Meghan Markle's Future Royal Duties (Exclusive) Growing up, April Balascio says she always had suspicions about her dad, handyman Edward Wayne Edwards. He was obsessed with murder and detective stories and loved to ingratiate himself with the cops, inserting himself into local investigations wherever they lived. Stranger still, Edwards would often move his family in the middle of the night without warning Balascios first clue that something wasnt quite right. Kids arent stupid, she tells PEOPLE. But it wasnt until 2009, as a 48-year-old mom of three grown children, that Balascio decided to look deeper, sure that she had to act on her nagging concerns. After searching online for cold cases and towns that theyd lived in when she was a child to see if anything stood out, one did: the story of two teens in Watertown, Wisconsin, who had disappeared after a wedding reception in 1980, only to turn up stabbed and strangled three months later. Balascio knew her dad had worked at that same venue and she remembered their family fleeing Watertown two days after the teens vanished. She decided to call the detective on the case, which had recently been reopened, to see if maybe her dad could have had something to do with it. What happened next will be featured on Monday nights episode of People Magazine Investigates, on Investigation Discovery, and is exclusively previewed above. For more on Edward Edwards dark secrets and his daughters search for the truth, subscribe now to PEOPLE or pick up this weeks issue, on newsstands Friday. April Balascio Three weeks after Balascios call, authorities let her know theyd obtained DNA from her dad and it was a match to the Sweetheart Murders of Kelly Drew and Tim Hack, both 19, in Watertown. I started hyperventilating, she says. Because that was the moment it really hit me that my dad was the horrible, horrible person that Id always suspected him of. I just never had the proof. But there was no relief. Only crippling shame, grief and guilt. Story continues I didnt want anyone to know, Balascio says. I had guilt by association. I thought people would think, Like father, like daughter. Once Edwards was in custody, he admitted to the murders and more. He said hed also been responsible for the 1977 slaying of another young couple in Ohio, Judith Straub and William Lavaco, 18 and 21, who had been killed with a shotgun with no apparent motive. And in 1996, Edwards said, he killed his own son, Dannie Boy Edwards, for an insurance payout. Edward Edwards (top right) with his wife (top left) and three of his children, including April at 3 years old (bottom left) Judith Straub William Lavaco Though the murders may have gone unsolved if Balascio had never had the courage to investigate, she says she nonetheless lives with the guilt of not turning my dad in sooner or trying to report him. Then I live with the guilt that I turned my father in, she says. [Both feelings are] incredibly strong. Kate Middleton pulled one of her favorite maternity dresses out of the closet for an outing in London Wednesday. The $85 blue and green floral print dress by maternity brand Seraphine is one of the royal moms go-to outfits. She wore it a couple times while pregnant with Charlotte, once around the same point in her pregnancy that shes in now. In January 2015, Kate was approaching the end of her second trimester during her pregnancy with Princess Charlotte, who was born on May 2, when she wore the dress. The royal was all smiles as she attended a coffee morning at the charity, Family Friends, in Kensington. Fast forward three years later, and Kate, who is due with her third child in April, was seated at another charitys table while wearing the same floral dress. Kate Middleton in January 2015 (left) and in January 2018 The royal sported the same mega-watt smile and shorter locks, styled with her signature blowout (no messy buns for Kate!). The Florrie Floral Print Dress launched as part of Seraphines spring/summer 2015 collection, and its still available to purchase here. Kate Middleton Kate keeps her signature style intact during her pregnancies, regularly rotating a rainbow of her go-to coat dresses and tea-length dresses. The only talent crossover between The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon is Jim Parsons, who lends his voice as a narrator to the freshman spin-off about a pint-sized Sheldon Cooper. But if the producers have any say, grown-up versions of kid characters on Young Sheldon may someday appear on TBBT. There are young people in young Sheldons life we may someday meet as adults, executive producer Chuck Lorre told reporters Wednesday. We are all in love with young Billy Sparks [played by Wyatt McClure]. To see him walk into Pasadena would be a thrill if we get that right. Lorre even admitted they talked about creating an adult version of Georgie, Sheldons older brother played by Montana Jordan, for TBBT. And the dream guy to play him? [Matthew] McConaughey! quipped Lorre. But Lorre dismissed any notion of a full-scale crossover night between the two CBS comedies. I dont think we are that organized. You have no idea of the chaos behind the scenes. That kind of coordination is not possible. Its also unlikely Young Sheldon will feature lots of guest stars who are often featured on TBBT. You have to remember this show takes place 30 years ago, says executive producer Steve Molaro. Its a smaller world that we live in, Houston, added Lorre. Its not likely a Nobel prize-winning scientist will come through. Young Sheldon airs at 8:30 p.m. Thursdays ET on CBS. MUSCATINE Lifelong Muscatine resident Rick Bierman is spending his retirement digging up artifacts, tracing early trade routes and researching the history of early settlers in the region. Now, hes asking for other residents to share their artifact collections or pieces of history, so he can better record the colonial history of Muscatine County. Itd mostly be for local interest because we dont have any colonial landmarks in Muscatine County, Bierman said. A lot of places out east, they have a fort or something, like Fort Atkinson up north and Fort Armstrong in Rock Island. Seeing as we dont have any visible landmarks to look at, it might be interesting to add to the lands history. Bierman has been interested in history his entire life and has hunted for artifacts mostly arrowheads for years. But after he retired in 2001, he began more thoroughly researching Muscatines past, and noticed a lack of information available about the area in the early 1800s and before. He started with local research about the French colonial period, looking for mentions of historic trails that tradesmen would have traveled throughout the county, such as a known trail from the Mississippi River to Cedar River. He also went out scouting for signs of early settlers throughout the area, like searching for graffiti or markings at Wildcat Den State Park. I started studying other trails through the county too, and it seemed to be an active area as far back as the mound builders, he said. But it was hard to find anything that I could go out and look at, like a road or something. Without much information to go on, except for a map of the county from an original survey notice from 1837, Bierman started locating and tracing trade trails. He now has several routes recorded and hopes to continue learning more by figuring out which artifacts were found near the trails. Like this trail, that goes over toward Davenport, then cuts up north toward Prairie du Chien, that could have been a big trade trail from St. Louis, Bierman said. Id like to find the artifacts and talk to the guys who have found artifacts along that trail. By tracing artifacts back to where they were found, Bierman hopes to paint a clearer picture of what materials and items were brought through the trade network in Muscatine. In talking to residents, hes learned about potential silver trade artifacts being found in Louisa County and a potential French camp that would have been located on Eisele Hill. And since he first put out a call for artifacts last year, he has connected with other collectors, metal detectorists and historians. One man showed him a French token, that would have likely been minted in the mid-1600s, when the French claimed the territory, according to Bierman. Bierman has also been in contact with the Iowa State Archaeologist Office in Iowa City. Addison Kimmel, a Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa, who is currently working on his dissertation, has been helping Bierman with his research. Kimmel, who is mostly focusing on Native American settlements throughout eastern Iowa in the early 1800s, said the history of early settlement in Muscatine is scarce, especially compared to the Quad-Cities and western Illinois. And he argues records from local histories in the 1870s are largely inaccurate or incomplete. If it wasnt for somebody like Rick, avocational historians like himself, and artifact collectors who have been doing this for a long time and have a good sense of regional history, Id definitely have some trouble doing my own project, Kimmel said. A main part is working with people like Rick and looking at collections they have amassed in the last 50 years or so and subjecting collections to more rigorous archaeological analysis. Bierman hopes to find a way to share the artifacts and trails he has recorded with the public, and has also been working with the state office to think about educational and programming opportunities. But for now, he hopes to connect with as many collectors and historians as he can, to continue mapping out the history of colonial trade in Muscatine County. The work he has showed me has been really impressive, Kimmel said. There are a lot of these guys who kind of go out and find these primary sources that are really good and people really havent used before. And honestly, a lot of them, Rick included, have done really impressive stuff. Hopefully they keep that passion alive and share it with Muscatine. Bierman jokes every time he starts talking about his work, his wife falls asleep, and thats whats going to happen with most people, he said. But there might just be a chance somebody is going to find that rare artifact. Anyone interested in contacting Bierman about his work should call 563-263-2527 or email him at richard_bierman@q.com. [MUSIC] If youve yet to see The Florida Project all you have to know is that 7-year-old Brooklynn Prince is the star of the show. Thats why the upcoming star took home the award for best young actress at the 2018 Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday, where she then took the stage to deliver a speech people couldnt help but fawn over. Dressed in a cute red dress, she addressed the audience, sobbing, with one of the most sincere speeches weve ever heard. This is such a big honor, but I would like, all the nominees, you know, you guys are great, you guys are awesome, we should go and get ice cream after this, she said as she teared up, also urging the audience to help families and children in underserved, tumultuous communities that are eventually turned into child services much like the story of Moonee, the character she portrayed on camera. And while her speech alone was enough to make headlines, one actress seemingly also made Princes big night: Angelina Jolie. RELATED: Kate Bosworth Wore White at the Critics' Choice Awards Red Carpet. Here's Why Little Brooklynn Prince walked past the Oscar winner and received a warm hug from Jolie. While were not sure what words these two exchanged, we imagine Jolie dished nothing but encouragement. In November, Variety reported that Prince was reportedly in talks to join Jolie in Disneys live-action adaptation of The One and Only Ivan, so well be seeing more of her in the coming months. Prince also told People shes gained new friends this awards season, like Millie Bobby Brown, whom she FaceTimes. I just love her, she said. Gabby Barrett Police have charged a mother and her boyfriend with felony murder after they allegedly murdered a 4-year-old girl in what the Washtenaw County Medical Examiner called the "worst child death case in 27 years." Candice Diaz and her boyfriend, Brad Fields, are accused of killing Diaz's daughter, Gabrielle "Gabby" Barrett. According to police, she was burned so badly that her big toe fell off and pieces of her skin were found in the bathtub drain. Gabrielle had burns all over her body and bruising to her entire body, the document filed in the Lincoln Hall of Justice in Detroit said. RELATED: Awful Details About The Stay-At-Home Dad Who Drowned His 17-Month-Old Daughter To Get Revenge On His Wife For Divorcing Him On New Years Day, police found Gabby unresponsive in the bathroom of the family's Michigan home. Family members were attempting to perform CPR on the badly burned girl. She was taken to the hospital where she was later pronounced dead. Documents show that the child suffered burns on her legs, buttocks, and elbows. Medical examiners also found evidence multiple traumatic injuries on the girl's body, indicating ongoing child abuse. After Gabby died, Diaz and Fields fled and alluded police until they were later captured in Georgia. According to detectives, their home was filled with animal waste, guns, and drugs. Diaz, 24, told police that Gabby got the burns to her skin after she let the 4-year-old run her own bath water. She said she did not seek medical care and that the next day, Gabby wanted to take another bath. "The mother claimed she ran Gabrielle's bath and placed Gabrielle into the tub after she filled the tub halfway," the petition said. "The mother then claimed she left Gabrielle alone in the tub and went to the kitchen to make pancakes." RELATED: Scary New Details About The Colorado Teen Found Dead In The Woods Just Days After Getting A Restraining Order Against Her Stalker Diaz said when she went back to the bathroom, Gabby was underwater up to her nose. She pulled her out of the tub, and Gabby vomited. Story continues Brad came to help and performed CPR on the girl, who continued to vomit. Though "problems" with the girl started around 10 a.m., Diaz didn't call the police for 36 minutes. According to a petition to terminate the parental rights of Gabby's 1-year-old half sister, both Diaz and Fields have severe mental illnesses they are currently not treating. Diaz said she's been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. Fields, 28, said he's been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, social anxiety, agoraphobia and post-traumatic stress disorder. Along with felony murder, they were both charged with second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse, and torture. RELATED: Horrific New Details Released About WHY A Mother Let Her Boyfriend And His Cousin Rape And Murder Her 10-Year-Old Daughter While She Watched Emily Blackwood is an editor at YourTango who covers pop culture, true crime, dating, relationships and everything in between. Every Wednesday at 10:20 p.m. you can ask her any and all questions about self-love, dating, and relationships LIVE on YourTangos Facebook page. You can follow her on Instagram (@blackw00d) and Twitter (@emztweetz). Keywords: crime read more One of the most frustrating aspects of the numerous stories of sexual harassment that have come to light is the many ways men have found to deflect the accusations. Most of the time men do a Bad Job apologizing, when they attempt an apology at all. But did Dan Harmon, creator of Community and Rick & Morty, just give us an example of a good, genuine apology? Last week Megan Ganz, a television writer who worked on Community, suggested on Twitter that Dan Harmon had something to apologize to her for. She then specified after Harmon began responding to her, saying It took me years to believe in my talents again, to trust a boss when he complimented me and not cringe when he asked for my number. Today, Ganz tweeted out the latest episode of Harmons podcast, Harmontown, in which he spends about seven minutes atoning for his actions and giving Ganz a real apology. I find myself in the odd position of having requested an apology publicly, and then having received onea good onealso publicly, wrote Ganz. In his podcast, Harmon describes how he found himself attracted to an employee, and the ways in which he showed preference toward her and pursued her despite her repeated rejections. 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, he said. Just treated her cruelly, pointedly, things I would never, ever would have done if she had been male and if I had never had those feelings for her." He also begs his listeners not to attack Ganz, which is awful that that even needed to be said. Perhaps the most remarkable part is how he admits his image of himself as a feminist played into his behavior. [I was] 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, he said. You were jealous. I was supporting this person. Im a mentor. Im a feminist. But he concedes he couldnt have respected women and still done what he did. On a fundamental level, I was thinking about them as different creatures. Of course, part the reason we can accept Harmons apology at all is that it seems his behavior wasnt violent. Its easier (though by no means easy) to forgive someone declaring their love for you and harassing you with words than it is to forgive rape or assault. Presumably thats where the law should come in, but we all know how often that happens. Many are responding to Ganz, praising her and Harmon for handling their situation like "adults," as if those reacting to their past traumas in different ways are acting like children. Women are not required to take the high road when things like this are done to them. Women don't need to forgive just because an apology is offered. That Ganz found it in her to forgive is wonderful, but equally important is Harmons recognition of wrongdoing, which he acknowledges he'd never have to do unless his victim put herself in the precarious position of publicly calling him out in the first place. It shouldn't take a woman's naming her pain to force a man's hand in an apology, but until men preemptively think about the kind of pain they can cause, this is as good an ending as we're going to get. Photo credit: Getty Images From Woman's Day 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. You Might Also Like Everything the British royal family does is steeped in tradition, right down to the clothes they wear. Dresses and skirts of modest length, hats before 6:00 P.M. (but not afterthat's when the tiaras come in); wearing all-black is simply off limits, unless there is a funeral to attend. Needless to say, getting dressed in the morning is a bit more complicated when you have a title. All of this makes Meghan Marklethe divorced, biracial, ripped-jeans-wearing, equal-rights-championing, politically-minded Hollywood actress that's soon to be wed to Prince Harrysuch a breadth of fresh air, particularly when it comes to her fashion. Not since Wallis Simpson, who sparked a constitutional crisis across the pond in 1936 by marrying into the royal family, has as much of an outsider joined the House of Windsors ranks. And if anyone has the opportunity to change what it looks likeand ultimately meansto be in a princess (okay, technically duchess) in the modern age, its Markle. So say the insiders: Meghan will become an international role model to women of all ages, and Im sure she recognizes this great responsibility and privilege, Myka Meier, the founder and director of Beaumont Etiquette, tells Glamour. Meier trained in London under a former member of the royal household, and has worked with members of the British royal family, including Prince Charles. She believes that Prince Harry has probably been very supportive of [Markle] letting her be herself and not feel pressure to change her style. The fact that she's worn everything from jeans, to outfits showing off her bare gams, to stepping out for official engagements with no makeup and her hair in a messy bun, to wearing all-black are all clear signals that even in her official duties as a royal, she is most likely going to show up dressed as "Meghan" rather than a "Windsor." Story continues Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Visit Reprezent Mark Cuthbert According to her superfans, its the very fact that Markle doesnt appear to want to conform to the royal status quo that makes her such a compelling fashion icon in the making. "She's modern and on-trend like weve never seen from a royal before," Christine OBrien-Ross, who's been chronicling Markle's style on the blog Meghan's Mirror alongside Amanda Dishaw since 2016, says. "A lot of what we see her in is just not what you would expect from someone in royal life: We know things about to her, we can relate to her, she feels like someone who would be in our girl crewbut shes also not afraid to take fashion risks." If the royal family all too often runs the risk of seeming stuffy and out of touch, Markle appears to be the perfect antidote. Take the ripped jeans Markle wore to the Invictus Games for her first official appearance with Prince Harry last fallyoud be hard pressed to think of a British royal family member wearing denim in public, let alone a distressed pair. Day 3: Invictus Games Toronto 2017 Karwai Tang Then, theres the outfit Markle wore to make her engagement announcement: a white trench coat and beige high-heels, sans stockings. Announcement Of Prince Harry's Engagement To Meghan Markle Karwai Tang Per experts, there's an unspoken rule that the Queen expects women in the royal family to wear nude stockings in publicMarkle, like most women these days, just didnt. For her engagement photos, she dared to wear a sheer Ralph & Russo couture gown, with strategically-placed gold leaf embroidery for modesty. It was a sartorial choice that didn't go unnoticed: Youve never seen a royal engagement photo like this, one commentator wrote on Twitter; another wrote, "Now I love the classic, timeless elegance of Kate, but can we just take a minute to swoon at these new engagement pics of Meghan in that sheer dress..I. Cant. Actually. Deal. Bring that sexy into the royals girl!" The royal's engagement photos, are, by design, a public relations campaign. Kate Middleton, wearing a modest white dress, was positioned as sweet and demure in hers. Princess Diana, in a conservative blue skirt suit and neck-tie blouse, was painted as matronly and traditional. Markle is seemingly sending an entirely different message: She's hipper and cooler than pretty much anyone that has come before her. "Meghan did things her own way wearing that sparkling gown," OBrien-Ross says. "It shows that she is going to create her own path as a royal and, even in a formal gown, she is still just Meghan, that down-to-earth girl from LA." A sign that the world is ready for this different breed of princess? The famously tough British press has been eating up Markle's style. A recent The Sun headline labeled her "relatable, sexy and trendier than Kate." The Guardian calls her a "a California girl" thanks to her relaxed style. And The Financial Times referred to her as "unconventional" and "the most interesting addition to the Windsors since Diana Spencer." Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Visit Nottingham Samir Hussein Markle's biggest fashion statement, however, has yet to be seenwe're talking, of course, about her wedding dress. Kensington Palace has been predictably tight-lipped on exactly what Markle will wear to her May nuptials. However, she's reportedly considering Inbal Dror, an Israeli fashion brand known for figure-hugging gownsquite the departure from Grace Kelly, or even her future sister-in-law, Kate Middleton. It may raise some eyebrows, but it's what we should be expecting from modern royalty, insiders say. "We need to remember this is a 21st-century royal family, and styles thankfully do change," explains Grant Harrold, known as "The Royal Butler" and whose worked for both Prince Charles and Prince Harry. "What might not have been the done thing in the 20th century might become the in thing for the 21st century." You don't need to look very far into their family tree to see how the Windsors have evolved royal conventions. "The Queen over the decades has changed her style and got it right every time, says Harrold. Similarly, the Duchess of Cambridge nudged the royal family forward ever so slightly wearing affordable clothes by mass retailers like Zara. And Princess Diana famously pushed the envelope with her wardrobe during her separation and subsequent divorce from Prince Charles. Consider Markle just a much more noticeable step forward in the House of Windsor's legacy. Members Of The Royal Family Attend St Mary Magdalene Church In Sandringham Chris Jackson And while its easy to dismiss the fashion choices of the royal family as trivial (or even inconsequential), think about the role clothes play in sending a message to the world more broadly, about who you are as a person: With girls in the U.S., the U.K., and across the globe inevitably looking to Markle as she joins the ranks of British royalty, what could it ultimately mean to them to have a different kind of princess to look up toone who has had her own career, lives by her own rules, and is in touch with the world, all while dressing for herself? Maybe then, princess culture wouldnt be such a bad thing. Related Stories: The 'Meghan Markle Effect' Is Already Very Real for Fashion Brands Meghan Markle Wore a Club Monaco Dress to the Queen's Christmas Party Meghan Markle Wears Self-Portrait for the Queen's Christmas Luncheon Blaze A massive search is underway for a Pennsylvania college sophomore who went missing after meeting up with a friend in the woods last week. Blaze Bernstein, a 19-year-old student who attends the University of Pennsylvania, hasn't been seen or heard from since Jan. 2. According to police, witnesses last saw him entering a park in the Lake Forest area of Orange County around 11:30 p.m. "Witnesses said he met up with a friend and the two drove to Borrego Park, where the teen exited the vehicle and entered the park," said an Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesperson. The teen's family said Blaze didn't tell his friend why he wanted to go into the park, all they knew was that he was going there to meet an unknown person. RELATED: Strange New Details About The Texas Woman Who Went Missing For 36 Hours And Was Found At A Chick-fil-A With Bruises On Her Body The friend left the park after Blaze stopped returning texts. They returned to the park around 4 a.m. to look for him. His parents weren't even aware that their son had gone to the park until they noticed he was missing the next day. That sequence of events contradicts earlier reports that stated Blaze and a friend met up at a park. The friend went to the park's bathroom and when they came out, they said Blaze was gone. His family doesn't believe their son planned to be gone for very long. Blaze reportedly left behind most of his belongings. His eyeglasses, wallet, credit card and keys were all found at his family's home where he had been staying. Police say he did take his cellphone with him, but it was turned off about an hour after he went missing. RELATED: Devastating Details Released About Ohio Man Arrested For Rape And Murder Of Girlfriend's 13-Month-Old Daughter He didnt have anything with him, attorney and family friend Annee Della Donna said. He didnt have his glasses or his medication. He didnt bring his wallet or a phone charger. I dont think he planned on this being a long trip and he just disappeared. Story continues Family members said that before he disappeared Blaze made dinner for his relatives and was excited about going back to school and moving into a new apartment. His father, Gideon Blaze, said his son didn't display any behavior that was odd or that of someone who might be running away. Someone matching Blaze's description was spotted walking alone alongside a nearby highway around 5:40 a.m. Police are still searching for the teen. Blaze has blue eyes, brown hair is 5-foot-8 and weighs 130 pounds. He was wearing a dark-colored jacket, dark gray long-sleeved zip-up and white Adidas shoes when last seen. Anyone with information was asked to call (714) 647-7000. Orange County Crime Stoppers will accept anonymous tips at (855) TIP-OCCS. RELATED: Police Reveal New Sex Trafficking Details About Missing Pennsylvania Teen Corinna Slusser Emily Blackwood is an editor at YourTango who covers pop culture, true crime, dating, relationships and everything in between. Every Wednesday at 10:20 p.m. you can ask her any and all questions about self-love, dating, and relationships LIVE on YourTangos Facebook page. You can follow her on Instagram (@blackw00d) and Twitter (@emztweetz). Keywords: crime read more The White House is defending Trumps sh*thole countries comment, and of course it is On January 11th, President Donald Trump took his history of offensive comments to a new low when he said that he didnt see why the United States should take immigrants from shithole countries. But despite the presidents offensive rhetoric, the White House defended Trumps shithole countries comment today, January 12th. According to the Washington Post, Trump made the comment in a meeting to discuss replacing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. But when talking about protections for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, and African countries, Trump displayed an unwillingness to welcome these populations. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump reportedly said. Deputy White House Press Secretary Raj Shah did not deny that Trump made the offensive comment. Instead, he told ABC that Trump wanted to fight for the American people. Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people, Shah wrote in a 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. But other politicians, Republican and Democrat alike, reacted to Trumps remark with outrage. Republican Representative Mia Love, whose parents are Haitian, said Trumps comment was unacceptable in a statement. The presidents comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nations values, Love said. Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Mark Pocan mocked Trump on Twitter, writing, The real question is why we allow presidents from sh*thole companies like the Trump Organization. The real question is why we allow presidents from sh*thole companies like the Trump Organization https://t.co/OHD7rLPHwK Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) January 11, 2018 Trump denied that he ever made the comment in a tweet early on January 12th. Story continues The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used, he wrote. 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 Trump had previously called for a bipartisan bill of love to replace DACA. From commenting that Nigerian immigrants would never go back to their huts after coming to the U.S. to retweeting anti-Muslim videos, Trump has displayed prejudice numerous times since taking office. Trumps latest comments are appalling and should never have been made by the president. But no matter what Trump says, we stand by immigrants from every country. Paris (AFP) - In a hard-won deal struck in 2015, Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of punishing international sanctions. It was a breakthrough that ended a 12-year standoff between Iran and the West, concerned that Tehran was developing a nuclear bomb. But amid deep transatlantic divisions it now hangs in the balance and on Tuesday US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron called for a "new" deal. Here is some background: - 21 months of talks - Negotiations start in June 2013 between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany. By November they reach an interim deal that is finalised in April 2015 and signed on July 14 that year. The UN Security Council adopts the deal on July 20, 2015 and it comes into force on January 16, 2016. - Main points - The accord brings to a minimum of one year, for at least 10 years, the "breakout time" that Iran needs to produce enough fissile material to make an atom bomb. Among other points, Tehran agrees to slash the number of centrifuges, which can enrich uranium for nuclear fuel as well as for nuclear weapons, from more than 19,000 to 5,060, maintaining this level for 10 years. The deal limits all enrichment to only one facility. It also stipulates that Iran's pre-deal stockpile of 12 tonnes of low-enriched uranium -- enough for several nuclear weapons if further enriched -- must be reduced to 300 kilogrammes (660 pounds) for 15 years. Only enrichment to low purities is allowed, also for 15 years. - Controls - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is charged with regular inspections of facilities such as uranium mines and centrifuge workshops for up to 25 years. UN inspectors have certified Iran's compliance with the deal nine times, most recently in November. - Sanctions eased - The accord paved the way for a partial lifting of international sanctions on Iran, opening the door for foreign investors with French energy giant Total and carmakers PSA and Renault quick to strike deals. Story continues UN embargoes on the sale of conventional arms and on ballistic missiles to Iran have however been maintained up to 2020 and 2023 respectively. - May 12 ultimatum - In October 2017, Trump refuses to certify that Iran is respecting its commitments on the agreement but he does not re-impose sanctions or abandon the deal itself. Trump again waives sanctions in January but he demands European partners "fix the terrible flaws" in the accord before May 12, the next decision deadline for Trump on the deal. MUSCATINE One suspect is in custody after a shots-fired incident on Interstate 80 near a gas station by the Atalissa exit Thursday afternoon, according to the Iowa State Patrol. No one was injured. Around 2:30 p.m., Trooper Dan Loussaert said the state patrol and local law enforcement agencies responded to the scene. A spokesperson at the state patrol office said a person was reportedly shooting in the direction of the interstate. The exit was temporarily blocked and traffic on east and westbound lanes was slowed due to the incident, according to the state patrol's office. Loussaert said there is no threat to people in the area at this time. This story will be updated when more information is provided. Sarah Ritter Five women have spoken out in an explosive new Los Angeles Times article accusing actor James Franco of sexual misconduct. Four actresses who were students in Francos acting classes and a filmmaker who considered him a mentor say in the article published on Thursday that Franco asked them to perform sexually inappropriate and coercive scenes, and described him storming off a movie set when women refused his demands to appear naked. Some of the women tweeted in protest on Sunday night, when Franco, sporting a Times Up pin, won a Golden Globe for his latest film The Disaster Artist. 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 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? Sarah Tither-Kaplan (@sarahtk) January 8, 2018 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? Violet Paley (@VioletPaley) January 8, 2018 Actress Sarah Tither-Kaplan told the LA Times that Francos show of support for the Times Up movement, founded by powerful women in Hollywood to combat workplace sexual harassment, was a slap in my face. Story continues Franco, asked about the tweets by Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, denied any wrongdoing, and said claims of misconduct are not accurate. Look, in my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done, Franco told Colbert. I have to do that to maintain my well being. 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 didnt have a voice for so long. So I dont want to shut them down in any way. If I have done something wrong, he continued, I will fix it I have to. Francos lawyer disputed all of the accusations in the LA Times story, and directed the paper to Francos comments on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The lawyer, Michael Plonsker, didnt immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment. Hours before Francos appearance on the show, The New York Times abruptly canceled a live event with Franco to promote The Disaster Artist, citing recent allegations. Sopan Deb, the reporter who had been slated to moderate the event Wednesday evening, tweeted that he had asked Franco to respond to the allegations, but the actor refused. Another of Francos accusers, filmmaker Violet Paley, told the LA Times that Franco pressured her into performing oral sex on him in her car. The two had been having a consensual relationship, but theyd never engaged in oral sex before he exposed himself, she said. I was talking to him, all of a sudden his penis was out. 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 began to perform the sex act, but was uncomfortable. To extricate herself from the situation, she told Franco she spotted someone near the car. Two former acting students, Hilary Dusome and Natalie Chmiel, said Franco stormed off a movie set when no women agreed to undress for a scene, and described what they called an unprofessional and hostile environment. Another acting student, Katie Ryan, said Franco gave the impression that women could only advance in their careers if we were to perform sexual acts or take off our shirts, adding that Franco would send her and other students audition requests for roles as a prostitute or a hooker. The women described feeling exploited and said they had been afraid to speak out because of Francos influence in Hollywood. I feel there was an abuse of power, and there was a culture of exploiting non-celebrity women, and a culture of women being replaceable, Tither-Kaplan said. Franco appeared Wednesday night on Late Night With Seth Meyers, and again said the allegations on Twitter were not accurate. He added that he wouldnt actively refute the womens claims because this is a conversation that obviously needs to be had. He also repeated his support for Times Up. If I have to take a knock because Im not going to try and actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in it that much, he said of the initiative. In an email to HuffPost on Thursday, Paley said the LA Times article didnt include all of Francos actions toward her. She said there are other women who were not ready to share stories about Franco. Of Francos remarks to Colbert and Meyers, Paley said they were unfortunate because he is lying. He knows what he did, Paley said. We all spoke to him in November and December after asking for an apology months before. Read the full Los Angeles Times story here. This article has been updated to include Paleys comments. Also on HuffPost Rosa Clemente with actress Susan Sarandon Rosa Clemente, who attended the Golden Globes with Susan Sarandon, is an activist and independent journalist focusing on issues affecting black and Latinx communities. Shes the president and founder of Know Thy Self Productions, which produces community activism tours that center around hip-hop activism, immigrants rights and voter engagement in youth communities of color. In 2008, Clemente was the vice presidential nominee on the Green Party ticket. Today, she is a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Our sisterhood is strong, it's always been strong. Now we need men to be allies and accomplices in smashing sexual violence, Clemente said in a red carpet interview with Access Hollywood on Sunday night. It can't just be because you have a daughter or mother, it has to be because we are human beings that deserve the right to dignity, whether we're working on a Hollywood set or we're working at Kentucky Fried Chicken, whether we're a mother in the South Bronx or we're a mother in Beverly Hills. Ai-jen Poo with actress Meryl Streep Ai-jen Poo, who attended the event with Meryl Streep, has long been an advocate for domestic workers and those involved in family care fields largely dominated by women and often excluded from federal and state labor laws. Currently the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and co-director of the campaign Caring Across Generations, Poo spent years as an organizer, connecting workers with proper legal assistance, facilitating communication among laborers, and raising awareness about issues facing domestic workers. Poo spearheaded a legislative campaign that became a major push behind the enactment of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York, guaranteeing certain protections to domestic workers. The activist was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2014 and was named one of Times 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2012. Tarana Burke with actress Michelle Williams Tarana Burke, who attended the show with Michelle Williams, founded the Me Too movement long before its hashtag existed. She founded the youth organization Just Be Inc. in 2006 with a mission to educate young women of color on health and well-being. A year later, she created the Me Too campaign as a grassroots movement to reach sexual assault survivors in underprivileged communities. Currently, Burke is a senior director at Girls for Gender Equity in New York and has continued her work as a youth advocate in the more recent #MeToo movement. This past fall, Burke spoke at the Womens Convention in Detroit. She was also one of the Silence Breakers that Time magazine named as person of the year for 2017. Me too is so powerful because somebody had said it to me and it changed the trajectory of my healing process once I heard that, Burke said in an October interview with Democracy Now. Me too was about reaching the places that other people wouldnt go, bringing messages and words and encouragement to survivors of sexual violence where other people wouldnt be talking about it. Saru Jayaraman with actress Amy Poehler Saru Jayaraman, who attended the Golden Globes as a guest of Amy Poehler, is an attorney whos best known for her work organizing low-wage restaurant workers and fighting for fair pay. Jayaraman, president of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, made a name for herself supporting the surviving employees of Windows on the World, a restaurant that had been in the World Trade Center prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. When the restaurants management company was hiring for its new establishment, most of the surviving restaurant workers who applied for positions were denied, according to Bloomberg. The attorney coordinated protests, and the company consequently ended up doubling the number of former Windows on the World it hired. The Center for American Progress named Jayaraman one of the Top Women of Color to Watch in 2013. Billie Jean King with actress Emma Stone Billie Jean King, who was the guest of Emma Stone on Sunday night, is a former professional tennis player who has been an advocate for gender equality and gay rights during her time on and off the tennis court. She consistently advocated for pay equity for female athletes, and later became one of the first well-known openly gay athletes. In 1973, King won the iconic Battle of the Sexes tennis match against former professional player Bobby Riggs. King went on to found the Womens Tennis Association and the Womens Sports Foundation. In 1975, she was named Times person of the year and, in 1990, was inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame. I decided at 12 years old that I was going to fight for equal rights and opportunities for boys and girls, men and women for the rest of my life, she said at a 2016 NFL Womens Summit. Tennis was my platform, but thats not my real thing my real thing was to push forward for both genders. Calina Lawrence with actress Shailene Woodley Calina Lawrence, who went to Sundays awards ceremony with Shailene Woodley, is a member of the Suquamish Tribe and hails from Washington state. Lawrence, a musician, uses her art to tackle themes of racial injustice, violence against women, and misrepresentation of Native Americans in education and mainstream media, as well as other important topics. Lawrence said she hoped through her appearance at the Golden Globes to shed light on injustices the indigenous community faces. As an Indigenous woman, it was an absolute honor to stand in solidarity with the women of the #TimesUp movement today and moving forward! she wrote on Facebook. To our Violated, Missing, & Murdered Indigenous women, their families and friends, their communities who await recognition and justice - we see you and we love you and we will continue to do what we can to include you in this work. Monica Ramirez with actress Laura Dern Monica Ramirez, who accompanied Laura Dern on Sunday, is a civil rights attorney and author who has fought for women, workers rights and the Latinx community for more than 20 years. Her work focuses on policy issues affecting Latina women, including the gender pay gap. Ramirez is the co-founder and president of the board of the National Farmworker Womens Alliance (also known as Alianza Nacional de Campesinas). Currently, shes the deputy director for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and is a board member for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. The most surprising thing about my work is also the most rewarding. I have learned that there is no one right strategy or right way to address or solve most of the social problems that exist in our country today, Ramirez told HuffPost in October. None of us can do our work alone and I am grateful that I have had the good fortune to work alongside incredible community members and other partners in the pursuit of justice for Latinas and other people in our country." Marai Larasi with actress Emma Watson Marai Larasi, Emma Watsons guest to the Golden Globes, has been involved in activism around ending violence against women, particularly black and minority women, for more than two decades. Larasi is currently the executive director of U.K.-based black feminist group Imkaan, which works to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls through both research and advocacy. Her accomplishments have landed her a spot on the Guardians World Pride Power List 2013, which celebrates the most influential people in the LGBTQ community. If we are to end violence against women and girls, and create a truly equal world, we need to start to create seismic shifts across our social norms, Larasi wrote in a blog for UN Women last week. This is not just about transforming belief systems and behaviours in terms of gender; it also means addressing other norms for example, around ethnicity, class and disability all of which contribute to holding other oppressive systems in place. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Kaunas (Lithuania) (AFP) - A Japanese diplomat who saved 6,000 European Jews from the Holocaust by issuing visas to allow them to escape war-torn Lithuania will be hailed by Japan's premier, decades after defying Tokyo to help the refugees. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will pay tribute to Chiune Sugihara on Sunday when he visits the two-storey building that housed the consulate where he worked in the Baltic state's second city Kaunas. Sugihara is thought to be among around 15 diplomats who issued visas for European Jews during the Second World War, and is often called "Japan's Schindler" -- a reference to German industrialist Oskar Schindler who is credited with saving 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. He was appointed vice-consul in October 1939, one month after the then allies Nazi Germany and Soviet Union attacked and carved up neighbouring Poland. Japan saw still-independent and neutral Lithuania, which harboured thousands of Polish refugees, as a perfect location for the erudite polyglot Sugihara to collect intelligence about military developments in the region. The relative calm ended the following year when Moscow invaded the country. Crowds of Jewish refugees, mostly from occupied Poland, started lining up at the Japanese consulate seeking visas to flee. "After the Red Army entered Lithuania, refugees realised it will not be the same neutral country that gave them refuge a year earlier," Vytautas Magnus university historian Linas Venclauskas told AFP. "Soviet-occupied Lithuania was less predictable and more dangerous," he added, speaking in Sugihara's former office which still has a WWII-era Japanese flag hanging on the wall. - Escaping Lithuania - Sugihara wasted no time and issued over 2,000 visas in July and August, sometimes working 18 hours per day and evading strict instructions issued by Tokyo. He cooperated closely with the Dutch consul in Kaunas, Jan Zwartendijk, who provided papers allowing Jews to reach the Dutch Caribbean territory of Curacao after transiting through Japan. Story continues During that time, the Soviets fully annexed Lithuania and ordered foreign diplomats to leave by September. Sugihara kept issuing visas in Kaunas Metropolis hotel and, according to some witnesses, even from the KaunasBerlin train before he left for Germany. With visas in their pockets, Jews took a gruelling two-week railway trip across Russia to Vladivostok in the far east and then travelled by boat to Japan. Many of them were later sent to the Shanghai Ghetto and stayed there until the end of the war. For those who failed to flee, tragedy was imminent: more than 90 percent of over 200,000 Lithuanian Jews perished under the 1941-44 Nazi German occupation. Sugihara resigned from the foreign ministry in 1946, and some historians said he was forced to do so for defying the rules while in Lithuania. He died in 1986, two years after receiving Israel's "Righteous Among the Nations" title honouring persons who saved Jews during the Holocaust. - Legacy still alive - Today, there are around 3,000 Jews living in Lithuania, a NATO and eurozone country of 2.8 million people. For their leader, Faina Kukliansky, Sugihara's historical legacy is "immeasurable". "Sugihara's steely Japanese resolve and his spirit of European humanism built a bridge to life for six thousand Jews while his legacy builds bridges among nations and generations," she told AFP. Kaunas and Lithuania's capital Vilnius named streets and squares after Sugihara while the former consulate is now a museum. Last year, 14,000 Japanese tourists visited the house in a leafy Kaunas neighbourhood. "Lithuania is proud of Mr Sugihara's legacy. We are very happy to see that owing to... Sugihara House, tourism from Japan to Kaunas and Lithuania in general has increased impressively," Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told AFP. "I imagine that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit will also add to the growth of such interest," he said. Abe, who had been previously criticised for appearing to minimise Japan's own atrocities during the war, will visit to Lithuania after becoming the first Japanese leader to visit neighbouring Estonia and Latvia. His six-day trip in the region, which begins Friday, also encompasses Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania. 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 PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron stressed to Donald Trump in a telephone call on Thursday the importance of abiding by a nuclear deal with Iran ahead of a decision by the U.S. president that could reimpose sanctions on the country. "The president ... recalled France's determination in favor of a strict application of the agreement and the importance of its respect by all of its signatories," the French presidency said in a statement. "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 better stability in the Middle East." (Reporting by John Irish; editing by Andrew Roche) A CNN anchor has led criticism of Donald Trump and launched an impassioned defence of Haiti after the President complained about immigrants from the Caribbean nation and other s***hole countries coming to the US. Anderson Cooper, one of the first foreign journalists to arrive in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake that killed up to 220,000 people, said the nations people had been through more, theyve withstood more, theyve fought back against more injustice than our President ever has. He described Mr Trumps remarks, made during an Oval Office meeting with congressional leaders, as racist. After ideas for restoration projects to help immigrants in Haiti, El Salvador, and unspecified African countries were floated as a potential part of a bipartisan immigration deal, the President is reported to have said: Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? Mr Trump is said to have suggested that the US should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with on Wednesday. Norway, whose population is overwhelmingly of Nordic descent. White people, in other words, Mr Cooper note. Speaking on his programme Anderson Cooper 360, he added: For the President to believe that Haitians have not contributed extraordinary things to American society, that is ignorant. For him to claim that all the countries of Africa are s***holes is woefully ignorant. Perhaps the White House feels the Presidents remarks will be well received in some parts of this country, among some parts of the Presidents base. But it doesnt make what he said any less ignorant or any less racist. Not racial. Not racially charged. Racist. Fellow CNN host Don Lemon also attacked Mr Trump over his disgusting remarks, declaring: The President of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that. But he said the Presidents comments were not shocking, adding: Theyre not even really surprising. Because this is who Donald Trump is. Story continues CNN has frequently been the prime target of Mr Trumps anti-media tirades. Since his election he has described the broadcaster as the enemy of the American people, regularly dismissed the network as fake news, and implied violence by sharing a video of him body-slamming the CNN logo. The White House has made no attempt to deny Mr Trump's remarks about immigrants from "s***hole countries". Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people, said spokesman Raj Shah. Like other countries 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. But Mr Cooper suggested the President could learn from "the dignity" of Haitians. In an impassioned defence of the troubled nation, he said: Like all countries, Haiti is a collection of people - rich and poor, well educated and not, good and bad. But Ive never met a Haitian who isnt strong, and you have to be to survive in a place where the government has often abandoned its people, where opportunities are few, and where Mother Nature has punished the people far more than any should ever be punished." The anchor first visited the country as a reporter in the 1990s before spending a month covering the 7.1-magnitude earthquake, which devastated the country eight years ago this week. The quake left 1.5 million people homeless and repairs continues to this day. Mr Cooper said: Let me be clear: the people of Haiti have been through more... theyve been through more, theyve withstood more, theyve fought back against more injustice than our president ever has. Haitians stand tall and they have dignity, he said, adding: Its a dignity many in this White House could learn from. Its a dignity the President, with all his money and all his power, could learn from as well. He fought back tears as he recalled witnessing the rescue of a five-year-old boy who had been buried under rubble for a week. Do you know what strength it takes to survive on rainwater, buried under concrete? he asked The host signed off by telling Haitians he hopes they know our thoughts are with them, and our love as well. A professors first week teaching a new class titled White Racism was dominated by backlash from critics outside his classroom at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), so much so that two campus police officers were stationed near the building as a precaution when his class met for the first time on Tuesday. But inside, students turned their attention to the syllabus and began digging into discussions about race as a social construct. Ted Thornhill, an assistant professor of sociology at FGCU, has been bombarded in recent with weeks with hundreds of malicious and vile emails and phone calls from critics, many of whom used racial slurs and accused him of spreading intolerance based on the name of the White Racism class. Its not an attack on white people. Its an in-depth exploration of our racially stratified society that is based on white supremacy, Thornhill told TIME on Thursday. I dont think people would be all up in arms if they actually understood the nature of the course. Thornhill, who is black and has been teaching classes on structural racism for a decade, has received messages asking why he doesnt teach a class on black racism instead of white racism and arguing that racism is no longer an issue in the wake of a black U.S. president. He says those messages will become a relevant part of his lessons at FGCU this semester. I think we need to name white racism and how it manifests itself in different social spheres so as better to talk about it and root it out, Thornhill said. I think its really important for us to continue to offer these courses and to have these kinds of conversations in a direct manner. A description for White Racism, a sociology course, says students will interrogate the concept of race; examine the racist ideologies, laws, policies, and practices that have operated for hundreds of years to maintain white racial domination and will discuss ways to challenge white racism and white supremacy toward promoting an anti-racist society where whiteness is not tied to greater life chances. Story continues A FGCU spokesperson said campus police officers were positioned near the building on Tuesday in case of any disruptions on the first day, but there werent any. Going forward, our police officers are maintaining their regular campus rounds engaging with students, faculty and staff, and of course should something related to the course arise which needs their attention, theyll be responsive, university spokesperson Susan Evans said in an email. This is not the first time a professor has faced controversy because of their courses or lesson plans. In May, student protesters shut down a sociology class at Northwestern University after a professor invited both an Immigration and Customs Enforcement public relations officer and an undocumented immigrant to speak in back-to-back lessons. Last year, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison started teaching a course titled The Problem of Whiteness, prompting complaints from a Republican lawmaker in the state, who called on the university to discontinue the class. The school defended the course and is offering it again this semester. Ive never entertained the possibility of not teaching this course, Thornhill said. I do plan to teach the course again. Theres no reason why I wouldnt. A Donald Trump waxwork has appeared outside the US embassy in London after the president announced he would be cancelling his visit to the UK. Mr Trump was due to officially open the new $1bn embassy in Nine Elms next month, but has now confirmed he will not travel. He blamed the decision to cancel his trip on the relocation of the US embassy from Grosvenor Square. The president also attacked the Barack Obama administration over selling the old building for peanuts. Mr Trump was reported to have been considering a working visit next month, however Nigel Farage suggests planned 'mass protests' may have changed Trump's mind. Madame Tussauds stepped in after Trump tweeted: 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! A Donald Trump waxwork outside the US embassy Credit: Getty The wax museum said it was certainly a surprise for the workmen at the embassy who posed for photos with the Trump waxwork. Madame Tussauds unveiled the life-size waxwork of President Trump at its London museum in January last year. Madame Tussaud's waxwork outside the new US embassy Credit: Getty David Gardner, principal sculptor at Madame Tussauds, said it took around five months to create the waxwork. We were just using images, we also had sitting information because we met Donald Trump in New York at the Trump Towers in 1997, he said. People take photographs of a model of US President Donald Trump Credit: Getty He added that creating Mr Trumps character and essence was one of the most painstaking aspects of process. Trumps first figure was launched in Madame Tussauds New York in 1997, with the museum taking hundreds of measurements and photos of the property mogul in order to recreate a perfect likeness. Many Californians in the area hit hardest by this weeks deadly mudslides did not heed warnings for hours and days by emergency officials encouraging them to evacuate their homes and then received cellphone alerts of imminent slides when the massive streams of debris were already heading toward them or had already hit their neighborhoods. Wireless emergency alerts are cellphone messages sent to everyone in a region, similar to the Amber alerts that are sent to cellphone users in specific areas when authorities are trying to find missing children. The alert sent by Santa Barbara County officials to all those in mandatory and voluntary evacuation areas went out around 3:50 a.m. Tuesday because of deteriorating conditions, Rob Lewin, the countys emergency management director said Thursday. It followed a cellphone alert that was sent by the National Weather Service, he said. There has been no outpouring of complaints from people that wireless warnings should have been sent out earlier, and residents of affected areas who have spoken with The Associated Press said they knew they lived in evacuation areas but chose not to leave. The first slides tore through Montecito around 3:30 a.m. and then continued after the county cellphone alerts went out, destroying or damaging 400 homes and killing at least 17 people. The vast majority of those homes fell under areas that had already been designated by authorities as under mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders. The warnings for the residents to leave had been issued for days before the mudslides through social media, news media and community information emails about the potential for mudflows from the huge wildfire scar in the hills above neighborhoods. We sent out many, many, many alerts, Lewin said. Another emergency management official told the Los Angeles Times that county officials decided not to use the its push alert system to cellphones earlier out of concern that it might not be taken seriously. Story continues If you tell everyone to get out, everyone get out, the next time people wont listen, emergency manager Jeff Gater told the newspaper. If you cry wolf, people stop listening. Experts say it is important for emergency management officials to warn as many people as possible about potential threats, but disasters can change course in an instant. Disasters are very dynamic in danger. They can change from minute to minute, said Scott Somers, an emergency management professor at Arizona State University. Just because an area can be safe at 1 oclock in the afternoon doesnt mean it is going to be safe at 3 p.m. Jim and Alice Mitchell, whose house was swept away when the flash floods cascaded through their neighborhood, had not left their home because their house was under a voluntary evacuation order and not a mandatory order, their daughter, Kelly Weimer said Wednesday. Nearly every home on their block was completely destroyed and others were lifted and tossed from their foundation. They were in a voluntary evacuation area so they figured they were OK, said Weimer, who has been frantically searching for her parents for more than a day. They werent concerned. Its not like anybody came around and told them to leave. Officials said that generally when mandatory evacuation orders are issued, there is an imminent threat to life or property. For areas with voluntary warnings, the threat still exists but it is in the near future. Weimer, 53, spoke to her parents on Monday to wish her father a happy 89th birthday. The couple of more than five decades planned to stay at home because of the rain and have a quiet dinner. Weimer hasnt heard from them since and pictures from the area show their home on Hot Springs Road was completely gone. Officials defended their decision not to issue a mandatory evacuation order for the area that was hit hardest by the storm. This isnt an exact science in terms of actually defining where something is going to happen, Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown said. Obviously a lot depends on Mother Nature, on the magnitude of the rainfall, the magnitude of the mudslides and so forth, and I think what was put together by a team of people, meteorologists, Cal Fire, our Forest Service people, our firefighters and personnel from the flood district and so forth, made a best-guess estimate as to where this was going to occur, and as it turns out they were exactly right that this was going to hit. Brown said sheriffs deputies went door to door in the mandatory evacuation area, knocking on 7,000 doors to tell residents to leave their homes hours before the storm swept through. Some refused. Officials across California said it is critical for residents to heed evacuation warnings as early as possible and be prepared to immediately evacuate if they are in a warning area. In Los Angeles, teams evaluate potential threat areas by examining the potential road blocks, slope erosion and the possibility of deadly conditions and then decide which areas should be under mandatory evacuation orders or voluntary warnings. We understand the impact there is to people to leave their homes and their belongings. We do not take issuing evacuations lightly, said Capt. Erik Scott, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. When their home of 40 years was under threat from the wildfire last month, Marco Farrell and his parents evacuated and remained away for more than a week. This time, a voluntary evacuation order was issued for their area and the family discussed leaving but decided to ride it out. There was evacuation fatigue from the fire, Farrell acknowledged. I would have preferred for them to leave and in hindsight we should have left. I dont know how I got lulled. What will he do the next time theres an evacuation warning? Definitely go, he said. The suspect in the shots fired incident Thursday along Interstate 80 exchanged gunfire with police and was engaged in a brief standoff before being arrested, according to Iowa State Patrol. Iowa State Patrol and local law enforcement officers responded to a call of shots fired around 2:30 p.m. along Interstate 80 east of the 265 mile marker at the rest area. The suspect then drove westbound and exited at the 265 exit, where he fired rounds at motorists at the BP gas station, according to a news release. No one was injured. Special Agent Ryan Herman said troopers encountered the suspect on County Road X46, where they engaged him and exchanged gunfire. After a brief stand-off, officers took the suspect into custody. Herman said no injuries were suffered by the suspect or law enforcement. The Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the incident because officers were involved in the shooting. The officers involved and the suspect's name are not being released at this time, according to Herman. Sarah Ritter Republican Rep. Mia Love condemned President Donald Trump on Thursday over his reported comments referring to immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and some African nations as coming from shithole countries. The Utah representative, whose family is from Haiti, called on the president to apologize and said his remarks were unkind and divisive. The President comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nations values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took an oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with, Love said in a statement on Thursday. They never took a thing from our federal government. They worked hard, paid taxes, and rose from nothing to take care of and provide opportunities for their children. They taught their children to do the same. Thats the American Dream, the statement continued. The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned. Trump made his comments during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House on Thursday, according to the Washington Post along with multiple other news outlets. Several lawmakers proposed restoring protections for immigrants from countries that had their temporary protected status revoked, and the President grew frustrated. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump said, according to the Post. He then suggested the U.S. focus on bringing more immigrants from places like Norway, the paper reported. The White House did not deny or confirm that Trump used vulgar language when talking about immigrants on Thursday. Instead, a statement said the President was advocating for the American people by defending his immigration ideas. 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, White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said in a statement. 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. Story continues Some Democrats criticized Trumps remark on Thursday afternoon, and other Republicans began to speak out as well. Sen. Orrin Hatch, also from Utah, said Thursday he wants Trump to explain his comments. I look forward to getting a more detailed explanation regarding the Presidents comments. Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin, the Senator said on Twitter. Another Republican lawmaker, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, also criticized the remarks. If these comments are accurate, they are disappointing, Lankford said in a statement. I would not talk about nations like this, because I believe the people of those countries are made in the image of God and have worth and human dignity. YouTube has officially dropped Logan Paul as a preferred ad partner and begun removing him from projects in the wake of the controversy surrounding his Suicide Forest video. The 22-year-old vlogger came under fire in early January for posting a YouTube video of himself allegedly discovering a dead body in Japans Aokigahara forest, which is known as a common suicide site. After tweeting a statement denouncing Pauls actions on Tuesday, YouTube said on Wednesday that it has decided to remove Pauls channels from Google Preferred a service that gives content creators access to top-tier advertising revenue as well as suspend production on a YouTube original movie he was slated to appear in and pull him from season 4 of the YouTube Red series Foursome. Suicide is not a joke, nor should it ever be a driving force for views. As Anna Akana put it perfectly: That body was a person someone loved. You do not walk into a suicide forest with a camera and claim mental health awareness,' YouTube wrote on Twitter. We expect more of the creators who build their community on @YouTube, as were sure you do too. The channel violated our community guidelines, we acted accordingly, and we are looking at further consequences. Paris (AFP) - Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz appealed to Europe on Friday to give his conservative-far right coalition a chance, during a visit to France whose President Emmanuel Macron reached office by triumphing over the anti-immigration National Front. Kurz chose Paris for his first official bilateral visit since becoming the world's youngest leader at 31 in December. The visit came 18 years after Austria's anti-immigrant Freedom Party was first included in a government, an event that triggered seven months of diplomatic sanctions by other European countries, led by France. Nearly two decades later, the atmosphere was very different as 40-year-old Macron, part of a new generation of tech-savvy young leaders, welcomed Kurz for talks on the future of Europe. Kurz, whose country has the only government in Western Europe to feature the far right, appealed for understanding. "I'm asking you to give us a chance and to judge us on our programme and our actions. And maybe we will be able to convince you in the coming years, with our achievements," he said. Kurz insisted that his government was "pro-European" and that he shared Macron's vision on "numerous questions", namely security and the fight against terrorism and radicalisation. Macron, who defeated far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the final round of last year's presidential election, made clear his aversion to rightwing nationalists. "I deplore the far right everywhere... but if it is present it's because we failed to respond to the anxieties on which it feeds", he said. But he ruled out remonstrating Kurz over his tie-up with the far right, which scooped the key ministries of interior, defence and foreign affairs. "A European leader should not go about commenting on the elections of his neighbours," Macron said. The best response to the nationalist wave sweeping the continent was to have "a protective Europe", Macron said. He also voiced understanding for the "very strong sensitivity" around immigration in Austria, which drastically tightened its borders after being swamped by migrants on the move through Europe in 2015. The former White House chief strategists comments about the president presented the pro-Trump media with a choice. Turns out it wasnt that difficult Steve Bannons case moved one subreddit commenter to write: He does promote an America First agenda, no doubt, but he is also fully responsible for bringing a SNAKE into the WH. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters Ever since Steve Bannons comments to Michael Wolff about the president and his family were first reported, Bannon has been on borrowed time. Wolffs book, Fire and Fury, forced a choice. Would pro-Trump media support the president, or the man who had hitherto given their movement its best propaganda, as well as what passed for its intellectual substance? Most outlets havent found the choice to be at all difficult. Not even Breitbart, the website that until late on Tuesday, Bannon nominally controlled. Over the last week, many of Breitbarts articles uncritically relayed the insults hurled at Bannon by the president and his allies. Last Thursday, resident media critic John Nolte penned a piece that included tweets from Don Jr blaming Bannon for the loss of the Alabama special Senate election. He called Bannons tenure a nightmare of backstabbing, harassing, leaking, lying and undermining the president. On Saturday, Charlie Spiering offered an unvarnished report on the presidents remarks that his boss was sloppy and was dumped like a dog. And just yesterday, Dylan Gwinn laid out an unsympathetic account of the way the White House spurned Bannons belated attempt to apologize. But the brickbats for Bannon werent just coming from his paid writers. Last Wednesday on Infowars, Alex Joness conspiracy swamp, Paul Joseph Watson gleefully reported that Breitbarts readers were dumping on him in the comment threads of the sites own articles. On one of the main internet hubs of pro-Trump sentiment, the notorious The Donald subreddit, Bannons erstwhile status was also under threat. Among the general jeering were a few expressions of ambivalence, or confusion: Tough case. He does promote an America First agenda, no doubt, but he is also fully responsible for bringing a SNAKE into the WH. Story continues Understandably, all of this fed into early speculation that Bannon and Breitbart might soon part company. With Trump angry, and the Mercer family rescinding their backing for Bannons personal political agenda, some of Bannons many enemies merrily pushed the idea he might be out of a job, too. In The Federalist, where the right attempts outreach to thinking millennials, Ben Domenech argued that the damaging book entirely reflected Bannons own biases and world view (Wolff fawns over Bannon repeatedly in ways that ought to make even the most credulous reader blush). He compared it to Hillary Clintons campaign memoir, and then went on to push the other theme that pro-Trump conservatives have been working that its pure fantasy from top to bottom. Rush Limbaugh called Wolffs story about his interactions at former Fox News boss Roger Ailess funeral 100% false. Despite Limbaughs clear interest in hosing down the story, his remarks were duly reported as gospel. In trying to consign Fire and Fury to the #fakenews hole, Trumpies have had some help from liberal media. CNNs Jake Tapper has never been a favorite of the president or his allies as recently as last weekend they were railing at him after his hostile interview with White House aide, Stephen Miller. But Tappers criticisms of Wolffs book he called it riddled with errors, and rumors were enough to get him some short-lived kudos from Twitchy, Hot Air, and others working to discredit Wolffs lurid account of a White House gone mad. With the money men walking away, and Trump rejecting Bannons attempt at rapprochement, Bannon was running out of options. When the axe finally fell yesterday, and Breitbarts CEO, Larry Solve, announced his departure from the site, it was Bannons old, establishment #nevertrump enemies who were ready to go with the first political obituaries. Some were lacerating, like Jonah Goldberg at National Review, who opined that no personality in modern political history has so completely squandered an opportunity to be an influential force in American life, particularly in so short a period of time. The Trump skeptics at Redstate coined a new word, Bannonfreude, to encapsulate its glee. Others were more equanimous. At the Weekly Standard (whose eminence grise has spent the last day on Twitter touting Oprahs non-candidacy), Kevin Last claimed that he always kind of liked Steve Bannon. But really, he was just limbering up to dance on his grave. A Bannon-less Breitbart, meanwhile, icily returned to business as usual. Algiers (AFP) - The Berbers -- descendants of pre-Arab populations across North Africa -- are currently celebrating their New Year festivities. On Friday -- for the first time -- the Yennayer New Year is being marked as a national holiday in Algeria. The Berbers, who refer to themselves as the Amazigh, have long fought for greater recognition for their ancient ethnic group, their culture and language. In Algeria they make up roughly a quarter of the country's total population of 40 million and live mainly in the mountainous northern region of Kabylie. Here is some background on other Berber communities that have stretched across North Africa since long before the Arab conquests: - Morocco - On Africa's northwestern tip, Morocco is the country with the largest Berber community in the region. Their language -- of which there are three main dialects -- was only given official status alongside Arabic in a new constitution in 2011. One of the major consequences of this recognition has been the appearance of their Tifinagh alphabet on public buildings next to Arabic and French. Since 2010 the Tamazight TV channel has been dedicated to promoting Berber culture. Legislation currently under consideration by the government would diversify teaching in school to help bolster their language. Several years back lawmakers created a major stir by talking in the Berber language in parliamentary sessions. Despite advances, the Moroccan authorities still sporadically refuse to register Berber names on the official registry. The Amazigh flag was a major symbol in protests that hit the depressed Rif region in the north of the country last year, where the group is a majority. The Berbers in Morocco have long called for their New Year to be marked as national holidays like its equivalents in the Muslim lunar and gregorian calendar. - Libya - Persecuted under dictator Moamer Kadhafi, who denied their existence, the Berbers of Libya have called for their language be given official status and for greater political representation. Story continues They make up around 10 percent of the 6.4 million and live mainly in the mountains west of Tripoli or in the vast desert regions. Their demands have become more vocal in the turmoil-wracked country since Kadhafi's ouster and death in 2011. The Berber flag can now been seen on administrative buildings. Textbooks in their language have also been produced but they have not been officially approved by the internationally backed government. Under a draft constitution endorsed by parliament, but still awaiting ratification in a referendum, the languages spoken by the various communities, including Tamazigh, are recognised as part of Libyan cultural heritage but not given official status. - Tunisia - In Tunisia estimating the number of Berbers is tough as official statistics based on ethnicity are prohibited. Outside their traditional heartland in the south, Berbers are mainly found in the capital Tunis following an exodus from the countryside. They complain of marginalisation and exclusion in a state that recognises only Arabic in its constitution. Jallol Ghaki, the head of the Tunisian Association of Amazigh Culture, estimates that while some half of Tunisians may be of Berber origin, the vast majority have been fully Arabised and only one percent speak the local Chelha dialect. While activists complain that the state takes no efforts to preserve or educate children about Berber culture, there have been some improvements since Tunisia's 2011 revolution. Media and civil society has opened up and in 2017 the minister for human rights in the country marked the Yennayer festivities by wishing the Berber community a Happy New Year. burs-feb/gk/del/dv Washington (AFP) - Part of the avenue beside the Russian embassy in Washington will be renamed Boris Nemtsov Plaza for the Russian opposition member murdered in 2015 in Moscow, authorities said. A resolution passed Tuesday by the city council in Washington, DC, was adopted unanimously by the 13 councilors (11 Democrats and 2 independents). Congress has authority over the affairs of the federal capital, and could oppose. An official ceremony and plaque dedication at the square is scheduled for February 27, for the third anniversary of the assassination of the opposition figure, local media quoted city officials as saying. The Russian embassy is located on Wisconsin Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the northwest area of the capital. Relations between the United States and Russia are very tense, with a special prosecutor investigating since May 2017 Moscow's interference in the November 2016 presidential election and to determine if there has been collusion between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia. Trump repeatedly denied "collusion" including on Wednesday. Boris Johnson in Brussels with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel and European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini after meeting Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif: Reuters 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. Story continues 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. 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. 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. Story continues 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 has been 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) Abuja (AFP) - 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. Story continues 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. There was, as expected, a thin scent of weed in Roger Volodarsky's 28th-floor Mirage hotel suite as the Puffco CEO and founder demonstrated his latest product. It was 11:30 PM the night before CES opened, and seven attendees gathered in the living room overlooking the Vegas strip. A welcoming, tattooed man with a groomed beard and shaved head, Volodarsky was showing off the Puffco Peak, a smart dabbing rig for consuming cannabis concentrates that he'd presented at the Pepcom media event just hours earlier. Away from the mainstream events around CES, he could show how it truly works. After all, this is the first CES since marijuana was legalized in the state of Nevada last year, and it's available for purchase all over Las Vegas. The irony is that in Sin City, you are prohibited from consuming cannabis products anywhere but in a private residence, including hotels, parks and even dispensaries. In practice, vaporized cannabis and edibles are easy to find and easier to consume with little residual smell (there was no hint of weed vapor in the Mirage's hallway on Monday). But technically, a combination of state law and hotel policy means that Vegas' visitors -- of which there were 42.2 million in 2017 -- lack almost anywhere to take advantage of legal cannabis. It also means that the few cannabusinesses at this year's CES are also hamstrung in their ability to demonstrate their products, even as there's a gold rush of demand that led to cannabis startups receiving more than $600 million in equity funding last year. Hence Puffco's after-hours session at the Mirage. "We think that if you want to make an omelet you've got to crack a few eggs, and so that's why we did this in here," said the Brooklyn-based Volodarsky, on using his suite for demos. "For us it's just the risk we take, and if they want to kick us out for it I'm OK with that." In contrast, Vapium, another vape company, presented at CES with a different angle: as a strictly medical company. Located in CES' smart home section around companies hawking gas sensors and smart pet doors, its booth was a clean green and white with representatives wearing white lab coats. Story continues Under the brand Vapium Medical, the company launched a smart vape that tells you precisely how much THC or CBD you consume with every inhalation. It achieves this by cross-referencing the airflow through the vape and the exact strain and strength of the cannabis capsules inside it. Pinpointing effective dosages of medical cannabis can allow doctors to prescribe it more accurately and monitor a patient's use, all while creating a database about how certain strains and quantities of marijuana use affect certain medical conditions. "Even for doctors who are convinced that cannabis is effective, there's not really good dosing guidelines," said Barry Fogarty, Vapium Medical's COO. "Because it's been a prohibited substance in most places, there hasn't been the research that there needs to be, and so that's exactly what we're trying to plug into." Due to release in the second half of 2018, Vapium Medical is presenting the prototype purely as a medical device. "We'll only sell products in those states where medical cannabis is legal," said Fogarty. There would not be any demos at the trade show either. "Especially as a medical company, we will adhere to all of the bylaws," said CMO Lisa Harun. For Puffco, the decision to come to Vegas was only made four days in advance. "We thought, why not show this off at CES? It seems like a place where maybe new eyes that have a respect for great design and strides in industry, maybe they'll respect us there," said Volodarsky. "It's easy to be a marketing company in cannabis. It's much more difficult to be an innovator. And the risk is high just like in any other side of consumer electronics." That risk extends to its off-site presentation. "It is what it is," said Volodarsky. "This is the unfortunate risk we take as leaders of the industry; it's what we have to do." The showcase ended when Puffco's spokesman got hungry ("He's done a few demos," Voladarsky said) and they headed out for pancakes. Before leaving, Volodarsky grabbed the rig for one more hit. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018. By Prak Chan Thul PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia and China signed 19 aid and investment pacts on Thursday in the latest sign of their strengthening relationship as Cambodia turns further away from Western donors. China is Cambodia's biggest aid donor and its backing has bolstered Hun Sen in the face of criticism over what his opponents have said amounts to his destruction of democracy ahead of an election this year. The agreements, whose value was not disclosed, were signed after talks between China's Premier Li Keqiang and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen. They included one between the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation and China Development Bank (CDB) for a loan for a new airport in Siem Reap province, and another deal to build a highway from Phnom Penh to the beach resort of Sihanoukville, already a hub of Chinese investment. Cambodia's Royal Group of Companies and China Great Wall Industry Corporation agreed to launch the southeast Asian nation's first communications satellite. Other deals included soft loans for electricity supply and support for agriculture. Li and Hun Sen also discussed how to encourage Chinese tourists to visit Cambodia and exports of sugar to China, Eang Sophalleth, an aide to Hun Sen, said. Li told Hun Sen that China had another aid pledge of more than 1.2 billion yuan ($184 million) for other projects, Eang Sophalleth said. Cambodia's Foreign Ministry said bilateral trade would reach $6 billion by 2020. (Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Beijing (AFP) - Chinese exports and imports picked up steam last year thanks to strong global demand, data showed Friday, but its surplus with the United States, a sensitive issue with Donald Trump, widened. Exports expanded 7.9 percent while imports soared 15.9 percent for the year, according to the General Administration of Customs. But even as China's trade surplus with the world fell 17 percent, shipments to the US grew 11.5 percent, causing the trade surplus to increase 10 percent to $275.8 billion. China's surplus with the US is a hot-button issue with the Trump administration, which added new import tariffs to a number of Chinese goods last year. "China's foreign trade continued to build on a solid foundation for steady growth, its potential being gradually unleashed," said customs spokesman Huang Songping. "As the global economy continues to recover and the Chinese economy turns to steady and sound growth, China's foreign trade outlook in 2018 is upbeat." Santiago (AFP) - Three Catholic churches were firebombed in the Chilean capital Santiago on Friday, days before the start of a visit to the country by Pope Francis. President Michelle Bachelet condemned the incidents, which happened during the night and caused minor damage. "It's very strange, because it's not something you can identify as a specific group," Bachelet said on national radio. Police Chief Gonzalo Araya said "anarchist groups" may have been responsible. Two of the churches suffered fire damage to doorways, while the wall of a third was scrawled with graffiti condemning the pope's visit. The attackers left a pamphlet in the city's Saint Elizabeth of Hungary church threatening the pontiff. "Pope Francis, the next bombs will be in your soutane," said the printed note, referring to a type of robe worn by Catholic clergy. The note railed against Catholic Church "domination" of individuals. "We will never submit to domination of our bodies, our ideas, and actions," it said. Interior ministry official Mahmud Aleuy said the government was investigating the attacks. The 81-year-old pontiff is due to arrive in Santiago on Monday evening at the start of a week-long visit to Chile and Peru. Nobody should be surprised Donald Trump said something racist. Before election day, he said many undocumented Mexican immigrants were "rapists" and criminals, and his company was sued by the Justice Department for discriminating against black tenants way back in 1973. And yet, he continues to outdo himself. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" he reportedly said on Thursday, referring to people from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. He then suggested bringing in more immigrants from Norway you know, white people. SEE ALSO: Trump reportedly asked why the US accepts people from 'sh*thole' countries On CNN, Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper had enough. "He is a racist," Lemon said of the president, before telling Trump supporters to take a good, hard look at themselves. .@donlemon on President Trump: "He is a racist ... but it's more important to be strategic than outraged" https://t.co/YhQrjiIOKr CNN (@CNN) January 12, 2018 Then, Anderson Cooper took Trump to task, calling his comments "not racial, not racially charged, racist." Anderson Cooper: "Not racial. Not racially charged. Racist ... The sentiment the President expressed today is a racist sentiment" https://t.co/uZZKQOhfTv Anderson Cooper 360 (@AC360) January 12, 2018 The White House hasn't denied Trump made the comment, which might be hard to do, since there was reportedly a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the room. Story continues And, really, it's not like America didn't know he was racist before the election. And the country elected him anyway. Still, 68 percent of Americans believe openness to the outside world is "essential to who we are as a nation," according to a Pew Research poll from August. Hopefully, they'll make their voices heard in the coming elections. WASHINGTON Florida Gov. Rick Scott isnt the only East Coast Republican who wants a say on whether vast new stretches of federal waters should be open to oil and gas drilling. GOP lawmakers from other states that have shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean even some who support offshore drilling say the decision ultimately ought to be made by local officials. The Trump administration last week said it intended to open nearly all U.S. waters, including huge swaths of the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, to oil exploration. The announcement drew immediate outrage from both Democrats and Republicans, who expressed concern about possible environmental damage, like oil spills, and the potential harm to tourism. But then, after Scott lobbied against the move, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced on Tuesday he was removing Floridas coastal waters from consideration for future offshore oil drilling. The state, Zinke said, is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (Photo: Tom Williams via Getty Images) Democrats, among others, immediately speculated that the exemption was approved in to help get Scott elected to the Senate. Although the term-limited governor has not yet announced whether he will challenge Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in 2018, he is expected to jump into the race. 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, Nelson said Tuesday. We shouldnt be playing politics with the future of Florida. Zinkes decision to exempt Florida from the administrations offshore drilling plan also raised questions as to why other states with unique coastlines and a reliance on tourism like California or South Carolina, for example dont deserve the same treatment. Sensing an opening, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) on Wednesday requested the same consideration from the Trump administration, noting that his state relied on a $20 billion tourism industry that spanned hundreds of miles on marsh coast. Story continues We cannot afford to take a chance with the beauty, the majesty, and the economic value and vitality of our wonderful coastline, McMaster said Wednesday. Though both Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) support drilling in waters off the states coast, they suggested that local officials ought to be involved in the final decision. I dont mind opening up drilling if states can opt out, Graham said Wednesday, adding that he would follow [McMasters] lead on the matter. Scott said he wanted communities in coastal parts of his state engaged more in the process before proceeding. I have said Im willing to wait until we get more buy in from our coastal folks, he told HuffPost. There has already been significant pushback among those communities, however. The city of Charleston and other coastal areas in the Palmetto State might sue the government if any permits are issued for oil and gas exploration off South Carolinas coast, The Post and Courier newspaper reported. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he wanted to explore the possibility of drilling off the coast of North Carolina as long as local communities received a portion of revenue and oil rigs were positioned far enough so as to not be visible. But he, too, said the federal government should defer to local officials. I think its up to the states to decide, Tillis said. I think its perfectly alright for the states to say [to the] federal government, I dont want to do it. Other GOP senators like Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), disagreed. The oil drilling advocate said he was disappointed with the Trump administrations decision to exempt the state of Florida from the offshore drilling plan. These rigs will not impact tourism. I mean, you cant see them from the shore, Kennedy told HuffPost on Wednesday. The decision is the decision, but in my personal opinion, all waters in the outer continental shelf, both deep water and shallow, should be subject to drilling. The Trump administrations plans to boost offshore drilling also came up several times during a Wednesday hearing on a bill that would make it easier for oil and gas companies to obtain permits to incidentally harm and kill marine mammals. During the hearing, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) accused Democrats of being entirely opposed to domestic oil and gas production. If thats their position then they should be honest and ban the internal combustion engine, or return our country to dependence on third-world dictatorships, he said. Oil drilling has been banned within 125 miles of Floridas gulf coast since 2006. The moratorium, which Nelson helped champion, is set to expire in 2022. As the catastrophic 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill demonstrated, a ban off one particular state wont necessarily prevent spilled oil from another region reaching its shores. In all, the oil that spewed from the Deepwater rig, located some 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, was found along 1,313 miles of coastline in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Texas, scientists detailed in a study published last year. By the end of 2013, cleanup crews had collected more than 106,000 tons of oily material from along the Gulf Coast. In a post to Twitter on Tuesday, Zinke wrote that local voices matter. But by moving forward with a new offshore leasing proposal, the administration is seemingly sidelining the concerns of those who spoke out against offshore drilling as part of the current five-year plan. The Obama administration instituted temporary bans on drilling in both the Atlantic and the Arctics Beaufort and Chukchi seas through 2022, thereby limiting offshore drilling to the Gulf of Mexico and Alaskas Cook Inlet. And in the final weeks of his presidency, Obama used his executive authority to put in place permanent protections a move Trump acted swiftly to reverse. Sierra Weaver, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center which led the charge to have Atlantic waters removed from the current five-year plan said Tuesday that state and local leaders in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia have also rejected offshore drilling. And if Zinkes decision wasnt political he would have also removed those coastal waters from the plan, she added. The fact is that an oil spill doesnt know or care where one state ends and another begins and Florida remains at risk, just like all states in the Mid- and South Atlantic, Weaver said in a statement. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Gal Gadot on the red carpet in Elie Saab. (Photo: Getty Images) Sartorial diplomacy isnt reserved for politicians, it seems. Gal Gadot, the Israeli actress who played Wonder Woman in Patty Jenkinss 2017 film by the same name, is a bona fide Hollywood fixture after her most recent films enormous success. Certainly, Gadots got to dress the part on the red carpet, and she wore Tom Ford to this years Golden Globes and Prada to the Critics Choice awards. Then, for the Jan. 9 National Board of Review gala, the actress opted for a dress by Elie Saab, another red carpet designer mainstay. Gadots choice to wear the Saab gown would have been unremarkable, especially considering the kind of opulent embroidery common for a Saab garment. Yet, the azure-colored, one-shoulder dress with a side cutout sparked ire for one reason: Saab is Lebanese. The ongoing Israeli-Lebanese conflict, though dormant, means that some Arabs found fault in Saab for dressing the actress. (What, are you saying that the answer to solving the Arab-Israeli conflict wasnt putting an Israeli woman in a Lebanese designers dress?) @GalGadot Did you smile like this when you participated in the war against Lebanon, in which 1,200 Lebanese were killed and 4,400 wounded? Denijal Jegic (@denijeg) January 11, 2018 I dont have a problem with her wearing @ElieSaabWorld but I do have a problem with posting her picture from Elie Saabs account and bragging about an ex Israeli soldier wearing his dress! Dont ruin one the few things that make us proud Lebanese people! Elie Saab makes us proud. pic.twitter.com/V5VGpDyS8o Farah Shami (@FarahShamii) January 10, 2018 Neither Gadots nor Saabs team responded to Yahoo Lifestyles requests for comment, but Saabs social media team removed their post featuring Gadot once it started to elicit negative responses from users. Story continues While its evermore common to see heads of state engaged in a bit of fashion diplomacy (sock diplomacy for one Canadian prime minister), cultural figures also wear figurative olive branches. Indian actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, for example, frequently wears designs by Pakistani designers Faraz Manan and Tena Durrani, despite frigid diplomatic relations between the nations. Its likely that Gadot heard about the Lebanese governments Wonder Woman ban, in which case her choice would be a signal of good faith, says Madison Jones, a graduate fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy who also works at the State Departments U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Despite the fact that Gadot served for two years in the Israeli army [as do all citizens of the nation], her choice to feature a Lebanese designer may signal a desire for greater dialogue about the conflict. This fashion choice could be a chance to engage with moderates who hope for peace and understanding in the region, Jones tells Yahoo Lifestyle in an email. Her choice to wear Saabs design was no accident. Although the last major conflict between Lebanon and Israel occurred in 2006, tension between the two countries continues (indeed, airstrikes and military operations are conducted periodically). In Lebanon, as well as across most of the Middle East, consumers are legally obligated (though enforcement is inconsistent) to boycott Israeli products, which includes tangential, cultural outputs like movies. Most recently in the cultural sphere, some Lebanese citizens expressed outrage over Dior advertisements that featured Israeli-born Natalie Portman. Leaders of the campaign to boycott Israeli products, such as Samah Idriss, regularly condemn Lebanese artists such as author Amin Maalouf simply for participating in Israeli media interviews. Its unclear whether Saabs operations run out of Paris or Beirut (he told Suzy Menkes of British Vogue in 2016 that the Saab headquarters was in Lebanon), a distinction that could matter if the Lebanese government sought to take punitive action against Saabs company. Theres no precedent for that in fashion, though. Today, cultures are blending together there are no more borders, Saabs son Elie Jr., who works in the family business, said during that British Vogue interview. That is what the world is going to be like and that is what we want to express: the two worlds colliding. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Prague (AFP) - Czechs head to the ballot box Friday and Saturday in a bellwether presidential election in the EU country pitting anti-Muslim, pro-Russian incumbent Milos Zeman against his more liberal pro-European rivals. Polls show the divisive 73-year-old ex-communist leading the pack of nine candidates ahead of Jiri Drahos, the pro-European former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Although he is in pole position, the outspoken head of state -- who uses a cane to walk -- is unlikely to win an outright majority and is set to face a run-off vote on January 26-27. A recent poll commissioned by Czech Television showed Drahos winning a second round with 48.5 percent of the vote against 44 percent for Zeman. "Of course I'm nervous," Zeman told top-selling Czech daily Dnes on Thursday, adding that he expected a "difficult" run-off. Zeman's rhetoric echoes other populist-minded eastern EU leaders -- especially in Hungary and Poland -- at odds with Brussels over mandatory refugee quotas and various rules they see as attempts to limit national sovereignty. He also has harsh anti-Muslim views, having once called the 2015 migrant crisis "an organised invasion" of Europe and insisted Muslims were "impossible to integrate". Paradoxically, the country of 10.6 million people has received only 12 migrants under the EU quota system. Drahos could not be more different. A mild-mannered liberal centrist whom critics have dubbed "wishy-washy", the physically-fit 68-year-old has called for Prague to "play a more active role in the EU". "The president should bring good manners to the political scene," Drahos said in a TV debate on Thursday. "The vote shows a broader conflict, it shows how society is polarised," independent political analyst Jiri Pehe told AFP. "It is a clash between... the post-communist part of society represented by Zeman and the other part, say, modern, pro-Western, which simply doesn't want this president any more." Story continues - Liberal democracy? - Zeman has won the backing of embattled billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who said on Thursday he saw the incumbent as "one of the most remarkable personalities" since the fall of communism in 1989. "He lives for politics, not from politics, he fights for our national interests," Babis told reporters, but called on Zeman to "unite, not divide" Czechs. Babis, whose populist ANO movement scored a landslide win in general elections last October with its anti-corruption and anti-euro campaign, will need to be on good terms with the next president. Potential coalition partners have shunned the Slovak-born tycoon who is facing police charges over EU funding fraud, making it impossible for him to form a majority government after Zeman tapped him for prime minister. Babis appears set to lose a parliamentary confidence vote scheduled for January 16. Pehe said a victory for Zeman might "pave the way for a deeper alliance with Andrej Babis, which could lead to a change in some basic parameters of liberal democracy in the country." But the situation could change dramatically if Drahos wins. "Drahos has made it very clear that a prosecuted man should not be prime minister," Pehe said. Zeman's other rivals include ex-gambler and songwriter Michal Horacek, former right-wing premier Mirek Topolanek, and Vratislav Kulhanek, former head of Czech carmaker Skoda Auto. Polling stations open at 1300 GMT on Friday and close at 2100 before reopening at 0700 GMT and closing at 1300 on Saturday. Stockholm (AFP) - 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. A 10-year-old book titled Fire and Fury has seen a sudden spike in sales thanks to Michael Wolffs explosive expose of Donald Trumps White House. Canadian professor Randall Hansen said his book Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945 had suddenly shot into bestseller lists after the publication of Wollfs Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. In a tweet, he joked: Will I owe a larger royalty cheque to Bannon & Trump? If so, the irony will know no limits. Incredibly, sales of my https://t.co/8VeAA9DCFT have increased. Will I owe a larger royalty cheque to Bannon & Trump? If so, the irony will know no limits. #FireAndFury Randall Hansen (@ProfRAHansen) January 6, 2018 In an interview with CBC, Prof Hansen said his book, which was published 10 years ago, had sold around 15,000 copies in total but he had seen it suddenly drop back into three bestseller lists after the publication of Fire and Fury last week. Its been out for a decade and theres been about 15,000 [copies] in total but most of that concentrated in the first couple of years after the book came out so its been quiet since then, he said. Most popular on Yahoo News UK 10-year-old boys hair turns to ice after walking three miles to school in -9C temperatures Brit estate agent jailed in Dubai for asking car salesman on WhatsApp: How do you sleep at night? BMW drivers have been voted the rudest on the road Donald Trump booed as he arrives for college football game and forgets words to national anthem Upsurge in Russian activity in UK waters as Navy scrambles to escorts vessels through English Channel He said he would know exactly how many copies had been sold until he receives his royalty statement. Story continues It is also difficult to know how many copies were bought by mistake, though he said he had received a few angry tweets so he knew a couple of people had made an error. We can monitor the returns perhaps, he added. Bestseller Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury seems to have helped Randall Hansens book of the same name get into the bestseller list a decade after it was published (Picture: AP) Prof Hansen said that for him, his sales dont matter, but if his book encouraged people to reflect on the effects of war amid the backdrop of Donald Trumps presidency, then it would be worthwhile. An Amazon spokesperson said: There has been increased interest in this title since last week, with the book sitting on the top of our Best Sellers lists for Books, Kindle Books, and Audible. The Kindle and Audible versions of Fire and Fury are available to download immediately. Health experts are predicting an especially nasty influenza season: cases are picking up early, and the flu season in Australiawhich tends to be a harbinger of the U.S.sis reporting substantially more cases than last year. Though this years vaccine may not be as effective as in prior years, public health experts remain adamant about its importance, both in preventing infection and protecting people who cannot get the shot, including infants, the elderly and people who are immune compromised. That advice is often heeded publicly by public officials and U.S. presidents, especially when there are severe influenza strains. Former Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Tom Price was photographed receiving his flu shot in September. In 2009, former President Barack Obama released a photo getting his H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine. President Gerald Ford got his swine flu vaccine back in 1976 on television. Plenty of governors and senators also release photos of their influenza vaccinations. In 2010, Obama officially declared Dec. 5-11 as National Influenza Vaccination Week. I encourage Americans to get vaccinated this week if they have not yet done so, and to urge their families, friends, and co workers to do the same, he wrote. So has President Donald Trump? That remains unclear. Multiple requests to the White House about the Presidents inoculation status went unanswered. In this handout provided by the White House, A White House nurse prepares to administer the H1N1 vaccine to President Barack Obama at the White House on December 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. In 2015, during an interview on the former Opie & Jim Norton radio show, Trump was asked if he gets the flu shot every year, and said no: Ive never had one Thus far Ive never had the flu. I dont like the idea of injecting bad stuff into [my] body, which is basically what they doIve never had a flu shot, and Ive never had the fluI have friends that religiously get the flu shot and then they get the flu Ive seen a lot of reports that the last flu shot is virtually totally ineffective. He also said: Ive passed on it, but that doesnt mean [other] people should. Story continues The President is scheduled for a physical exam on Jan. 12th. The results of the exam will be made public and could include whether or not he got the flu vaccine. (In 2016, for instance, President Obamas medical report stated that routine vaccinations, to include seasonal influenza, all up to date.) President Trump has no legal obligation to get a flu vaccine or make public whether or not he has received one. But with his medical exam coming up, some public health experts are hopeful he will get oneand talk about it. Data shows that less than half of Americans got their flu vaccine for the 201617 influenza season. I cant provide studies on whether if the President gets the vaccine, it will increase coverage, says Daniel Salmon, the deputy director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins. But when President Ford and President Obama got vaccinated [publicly], they were sending the message that its really important. If leadership is not sure well geez, I wouldnt be so sure either. President Ford gets swine flu shot from Wm. Lukash on Oct. 14, 1976. Though vaccine policy decisions are largely made at the state level, the federal government is critical when it comes to providing safe and effective vaccines to the American public. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and CDC are responsible for ensuring the influenza vaccine is safe and that people can easily get it, and do. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) does early vaccine research and funds outside research to bring new vaccines to market. Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, says hed like to see public officials flooding the media to stress the importance of getting the flu vaccine. In general, weve had a poor level of vaccine advocacy coming out of HHS for the last two decades, and this could haunt us for the current flu season, says Hotez. We know between 3,000 and 50,000 Americans die from flu every year. Thats tens of thousands of preventable deaths among Americans. Agencies like the CDC and HHS continued to honor national influenza awareness late last year with social media campaigns, but with less than 50% of Americans getting their flu vaccine, its clear more needs to be done. Donald Trump at a meeting on immigration that he later claimed to have received letters from television anchors praising: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst 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. WH sent a list of video clips (from CNN) and tweets to back up Trump claim that hes received letters from anchors praising his performance at DACA meeting pic.twitter.com/wH7XHf79Tk Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 10, 2018 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. Donald Trump, the US president - Barcroft Media Donald Trump has said America could conceivably return to the Paris climate change agreement in the strongest hint yet he is considering a turnaround. The US president said he pulled out of the environmental pact because it was a bad deal but insisted he was not against the thrust of the agreement. The comment gives hope to European leaders pushing for the United States to resign and is likely to trigger a renewed diplomatic lobbying drive. However the remarks came on the same day that Mr Trump dismissed the importance of renewable energy and said he was a massive supporter of oil. Discussing the Paris deal, Mr Trump said in a news conference: "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. He added: "So we can conceivably go back in. Mr Trump pulled America out of the 2015 accord on curbing global warming emissions last June, undermining one of Barack Obamas flagship achievements. At the time Mr Trump framed the agreement as one that undermined Americas national interests. The Paris Agreement handicaps the United States economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our countrys expense, he said. They dont put America first. I do, and I always will. I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said last month that he believed Mr Trump would bring America back into the agreement, raising hopes for an about-turn. In the past Mr Trump has repeatedly questioned global warning in the past and has opened up new areas to oil drilling since entering the White House. During a press conference with the Norwegian prime minister on Wednesday, Mr Trump said he was for massive oil and criticised Hillary Clinton as being for windmills. Michael Bloomberg, the businessman, has pledged alongside some governors to fight Mr Trumps departure from the Paris climate change at a local level. More to follow. Prime Minister Theresa May, pictured at the White House with Donald Trump in January 2017, was the first world leader to visit the US President in Washington - AFP US president Donald Trump has confirmed he will not travel to the UK to open the new American embassy next month, blaming the decision to relocate the building to an "off location". Hitting out at former US leader Barack Obama, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter early on Friday that he thought the embassy's move from Grosvenor Square in the prestigious Mayfair district of central London to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, in a 1.2 billion dollar (886 million) project 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, welcomed the decision and claimed it showed Mr Trump had "got the message" that he would not be welcome in the capital. But Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, attacked Mr Khan's response and accused him and Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, of putting the special relationship "at risk". Mr Johnson described Mr Khan as a "puffed up pompous popinjay. Prime Minister Theresa May was the first world leader to visit Mr Trump in the White House and the US president accepted at the time an invitation for a state visit. But that idea was fairly swiftly pushed into the long grass, given the scale of expected protests and opposition within the UK. A petition against a state visit gained more than a million signatures last year. After Mr Trump cancelled his visit, Downing Street said the "strong and deep" partnership between Britain and the United States "will endure". US embassy new location Mr Trump was then reported to be considering a "working visit", with some publications reporting that a date had been set for the end of February. The visit was due to coincide with the opening of the new US embassy. Story continues Writing on Twitter at 4.57am on Friday, Mr Trump said he thought the embassy's move from Grosvenor Square was a "bad deal". Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 Despite Mr Trump publicly blaming his predecessor Obama, the US announced its plans to move to the new embassy site in October 2008 - when George W Bush was in the White House. The new building will open on January 16. 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." The new US Embassy in Nine Elms, in south London, will open at the end of January Credit: Stefan Rousseau/Getty Mr Trump had also been 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. But now Mr Trump has decided to postpone even the scaled-down February visit. The US embassy in London's Grosvenor Square Credit: Heathcliff O'Malley for The Telegraph Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, will instead represent the US at the embassy opening. In December, US 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". An interior garden filled with cacti to evoke the south-west American desert landscapes goes on show before the new embassy opens later in January Credit: Stefan Rousseau /PA Mr Trump's decision not to head across the Atlantic comes despite Mrs May saying that a future visit was still on the cards last week. A Downing Street spokesman said: "Our position is that an offer for a state visit has been extended and accepted." Sources claimed that the lack of "bells and whistles" and royal involvement in next month's planned visit might have discouraged Mr Trump. Demonstrators during a protest at Downing Street lasts year against Donald Trump's controversial travel ban Credit: Victoria Jones /PA Mrs May controversially extended the offer of a state visit - officially on behalf of the Queen - when she became the first world leader to meet Mr Trump in the White House following his inauguration last year. Since then, however, the president has indicated he does not want to take up the invitation if he is going to face mass demonstrations and it had been expected he could make a low-key working visit rather than a trip which involved all the trappings of a state occasion. 'Trump has thrown his toys out of the pram': Reaction to cancelled visit Mr Khan said that it appeared Trump had "finally got that message" that "many Londoners" would not welcome the US President to the capital. He said: "Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems hes finally got that message. "This reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place." Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems hes finally got that message. This reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place. pic.twitter.com/lNaQGx9iBw Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) January 12, 2018 Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, suggested on Twitter that planned protests had dissuaded the president from visiting the UK, saying: "Nobody wanted you to come." Nope its because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message. https://t.co/9xV7bFZQgL Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) January 12, 2018 Others, including David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, was clearer in his views on Twitter: What a load of ********! You finally got the message that youd be met by millions of us out on the streets protesting. https://t.co/L0Y4Q42bcT David Lammy (@DavidLammy) January 12, 2018 Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokeswoman 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 that Trump "wanted the red carpet treatment and cheering crowds", but was instead facing "big protests". Reason @realDonaldTrump canceled 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! Stephen Doughty (@SDoughtyMP) January 12, 2018 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." Other MPs line up to react to news An off location? I have been rude about south London in my time butwhenever this President seeks to come to these shores we will be ready with a powerful and peaceful public statement to show wherever he is, Britain stands for something different #toptrumphttps://t.co/rNbsRQo2jh stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) January 12, 2018 Whatever excuse @realDonaldTrump may have dreamed up for cancelling his visit to the UK, the reality is that had he come, he would have faced massive protests. And racist outbursts like his latest one would have made them even bigger. https://t.co/pBjYgPQjVW Richard Burden MP (@RichardBurdenMP) January 12, 2018 1. Bush administration took the decision on relocation 2. You cancelled because you weren't welcome - and won't be missed 3. Unless you live North of the River Thames you don't get to have a go at South London - that's our job https://t.co/leC27Id19i Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) January 12, 2018 So the, ahem, 'Stable Genius', now snubbing May's strong & stable Government & making up excuses for doing so (Dubya Bush took decision). https://t.co/bTqQJcrJA5 Neil Coyle (@coyleneil) January 12, 2018 Nigel Farage suggests 'mass protests' behind Trump's decision Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, an ally of the US president, suggested that concerns about protests might have been the real reason for the visit's cancellation. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: Well, he is the real estate guy. I cant comment on that. He has made rather a lot of money over the years doing it. It is disappointing. He has been to countries all over the world and yet he has not been to the one with whom he is closest. I would say it is disappointing. Maybe, just maybe, Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party planning mass protests, maybe those optics he didnt like the look of. Nigel Farage, pictured with Donald Trump during the US election campaign in 2016, is a long-standing supporter of the US President Credit: Jonathan Bachman /Getty Speaking on the same programme, Labour MP Chuka Umunna said it was "very welcome he is not coming any more", adding: "He runs counter to British values." How May and Trump fell out over anti-Muslim videos Mrs May and Mr Trump fell out spectacularly in November over his retweeting of anti-Muslim videos posted online by the deputy leader of the far-right Britain First group, Jayda Fransen. At the time, the PM said Mr Trump was "wrong" to retweet the videos, and the US president hit back at Mrs May on Twitter by telling her to focus on "destructive radical Islamic terrorism" in the UK, rather than on him. Donald Trump asks why US accepts immigrants 'from s---hole countries' Donald Trump has reportedly expressed frustration at the United States immigration policy, asking a White House gathering of politicians why the US accepted people from s------- countries, reports Harriet Alexander. Mr Trump convened Thursday's meeting to discuss reforming immigration policy, and one of the politicians inside the Oval Office suggested that a deal could be reached if Mr Trump agreed to restore protection for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. Why are we having all these people from s------- countries come here? the president responded, according to two people who spoke to The Washington Post. The paper said he was referring to African countries and Haiti. Trump Muslim ban protests He then reportedly suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met on Wednesday. The White House did not deny his remark, which triggered widespread outrage, but issued a statement saying Mr Trump supports immigration policies that welcome "those who can contribute to our society." His remarks reportedly left the assembled politicians taken aback, the paper said, with Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator for South Carolina, and Richard Durbin, Democratic senator for Illinois, among those in the room. Later, the United Nations human rights office rejected as "racist" and inciting xenophobia the reported remarks by Trump describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from "s---hole" countries. "These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word one can use but 'racist'," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing when asked about the comments. "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes', whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome," he added. The issue was more than "vulgar language", Colville said. "It's about opening the door to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy lives of many people." Trump claims to have developed positive relationship with Kim Jong-un Mr Trump also claimed that he has developed a positive relationship with North Koreas leader. I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un, Mr Trump told The Wall Street Journal, despite there being no formal contact between US and North Korean officials in decades. I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised. Asked if he has spoken with Mr Kim, Mr Trump replied: I dont want to comment on it. Im not saying I have or havent. I just dont want to comment. The president has called the nations leader a maniac, a bad dude, mocked him as short and fat, and referred to him repeatedly as rocket man. Mr Kim in response has warned he would tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire. North Korea | Kim Jong-uns fiery relationship with the US Mr Trump told the paper, however, that his Twitter insults were simply part of his game plan. Youll see that a lot with me, he said about combative tweets. And then all of the sudden somebodys my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. Im a very flexible person. The president said he approved of North Koreas participation in next months Olympic Games, and acknowledged that Pyongyang may be trying to separate Washington and Seoul. If I were them, I would try, he said. The difference is Im president, other people arent. And I know more about wedges than any human being thats lived. The UK Government has lashed out at critics of US President Donald Trump after he cancelled a planned visit to Britain. Prime Minister Theresa May said Mr Trump was welcome in the country, despite the US leader claiming he would not come to London. It was previously understood the the Presidents his first visit to the UK as leader would take place in February to open the new US embassy. But Mr Trump said this morning that he would not be coming after all because he was unhappy wit the cost of the building and its location. Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 The decision soon turned political as it immediately prompted a backlash by Trump critics, who argued he was really avoiding planned protests and some claimed he was even too scared to travel to London. Trump supporters in Britain said protesters were threatening the UKs relationship with the US. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson pointed the finger at Labours leader Jeremy Corbyn and London mayor Sadiq Khan, accusing them of threatening the trade relationship between Britain and the US. The US is the biggest single investor in the UK yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk. We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall. Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 12, 2018 Mr Trump was due to open the new 886 million US embassy in Londons Nine Elms after the move from its prestigious Grosvenor Square in Mayfair. Story continues But writing on Twitter, he said thought the embassys move was a bad deal and would not visit arguably Americas closest ally long considered to to have a special relationship with Washington. He tweeted: 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems hes finally got that message. pic.twitter.com/YD0ZHuWtr3 Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) January 12, 2018 That excuse did not convince many people, especially those on social media, who claimed he was not heading to the UK to avoid huge demonstrations. London mayor Sadiq Khan who has clashed with the president in the past was one of those not buying that excuse. Mr Khan said: It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our citys values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance. MOST POPULAR STORIES ON YAHOO UK TODAY Three men jailed for drugging 14-year-old girl and forcing her into prostitution Britain would vote remain in second EU referendum, claims national newspaper poll Salesman, 34, branded a fat, ginger p**ey by his tech firm boss LOSES discrimination case Driver faces 5,000 fine after driving through 20ft puddle to soak mum with pram His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests. Former Labour leader Ed Miliband also took to Twitter to claim that Mr Trump was not welcome in the UK. He told the US leader that the reason the visit was cancelled was because nobody in the UK wanted you to come. And another Labour colleague, MP Stephen Doughty said the trip was cancelled because of Trumps unpopular racist, sexist, unthinking behaviour. And Brendan Cox, widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, echoed suggestions that the protests may have been the real reason for the visits cancellation. He tweeted: That is totally plausible Donald Nothing to do with what would have been the biggest protests since the Iraq War. Nope its because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message. https://t.co/9xV7bFZQgL Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) January 12, 2018 Reason @realDonaldTrump canceled 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! Stephen Doughty (@SDoughtyMP) January 12, 2018 That is totally plausible Donald Nothing to do with what would have been the biggest protests since the Iraq War. https://t.co/NTQOhDdf7b Brendan Cox (@MrBrendanCox) January 12, 2018 Others took to social media to claim Trump was really avoiding the planned protests. Some Twitter users claimed he was too scared to visit and others compared his planned visit to the UK to that of other countries he has visited. Some even accused the president of being a massive coward and others even claimed they wanted to throw eggs at the US president. Countries which Mr Trump has visited since taking office last year include Saudi Arabia, Israel, France, Poland, Germany, Japan, Thailand, China and South Korea. Sophie Walker on Donald Trump cancelling his visit to the UK: "This is a guy who would rather have a fight with Kim Jong Un on Twitter than face British women." @SophieRunning @bbc5live WomensEqualityUK (@WEP_UK) January 12, 2018 I'm reliably informed by my contacts at the palace that the Queen has been made aware of Donald Trump's visit to the UK being cancelled. pic.twitter.com/8j0iacxzU8 The Gnurb (@TheGnurb) January 12, 2018 Oh just heard that #DonaldTrump isnt going to visit the UK now so upset. Havent thrown an egg at someone for years BethanyMay (@bethanymay_xx) January 12, 2018 Donald Trump's story on why he canceled his UK trip is this he doesn't like the hood where the US embassy is. That is his story, and he is sticking to it. HENRY Okelue (@4eyedmonk) January 12, 2018 One group even claimed he was too frightened to meet protesting British women other went further on Twitter and claimed the US president was running s**t scared . Others used humour and said tthose pleased he wont come, include the Queen. Supporters of Trump though said his refusal to visit London was a shame and reflected badly on the British public, including Mr Johnson, who appeared to open a new front in the row following the presidents decision. The US is the biggest single investor in the UK yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk. We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall. Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 12, 2018 Quite frankly the UK needs a Donald Trump right now. Mhairi (@_mjsf_) January 12, 2018 Not coming to London: Donald Trump The new embassy opens on January 16. It appears that Mr Trump may have got his dates wrong over who ordered the US moving to a new London embassy. Despite Mr Trump publicly blaming predecessor Barack Obama, the US announced plans to move to the new site in October 2008 when George W Bush was in the White House. Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, an ally of the US President, suggested that concerns about protests may have been the real reason for the visits cancellation. Its 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. Donald Trump has rejected reports that he ranted about immigration from s***hole countries in a closed-door discussion at the White House. The US President said there was a tough meeting but that this was not the language used. His denial followed a series of tweets in which he again called for a merit-based system of immigration. Addressing reports about his use of expletives, Mr Trump tweeted: 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! According to the Washington Post, when plans were floated to protect some immigrants as part of the DACA deal Mr Trump asked: Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? Rupert Colville, a UN human rights spokesman, called Mr Trumps offensive remarks about Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations racist, saying there is no other word you can use. But the President later reiterated his denial, adding: Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Democratic senator Dick Durbin, who was present at the Oval Office meeting, said during a press conference on Friday that reports of Mr Trumps hate-filled, vile and racist language were accurate. The President used the word s***hole not just once but repeatedly, Mr Durbin said at an event in Chicago. Earlier on Friday morning Mr Trump had criticised a so-called bipartisan DACA deal as not going far enough in protecting the US from large numbers of people from high-crime countries. The DACA programme Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals offered work permits and a reprieve from deportation to immigrants brought to the US as children. Story continues Mr Trump ended the scheme but said he wanted it enshrined in law alongside other immigration measures including his promised border wall. On Friday he tweeted: The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards. Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly. I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs. I want to fund our military, not do a Dem defund.... Because of the Democrats not being interested in life and safety, DACA has now taken a big step backwards. The Dems will threaten shutdown, but what they are really doing is shutting down our military, at a time we need it most. Get smart, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Following his denial, he continued: Sadly, Democrats want to stop paying our troops and government workers in order to give a sweetheart deal, not a fair deal, for DACA. Take care of our Military, and our Country, FIRST! Leaders abroad reacted strongly to Mr Trumps reported comments, with the African Union saying it was frankly alarmed by the language allegedly used given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves. This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity, spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo added. Botswanas government said it had hauled in the US ambassador there to clarify whether Mr Trump considered the southern African country a s***hole. Ugandas state minister for international relations, Henry Okello Oryem, called Mr Trumps alleged remarks unfortunate and regrettable. And Haitis government said it was deeply shocked and outraged, adding that these insulting and reprehensible statements in no way reflect the virtues of wisdom, restraint and discernment that must be cultivated by any high political authority. Reports of Mr Trumps comments and his subsequent denials came as he announced he would not visit the UK to open the new US embassy in Battersea. The Nine Elms Lane site overlooking the Thames was an off location and had cost the country $1.2bn (880,000,000), the President said. However, the US ambassador to the UK writes in the London Evening Standard today that the new building is the most secure, hi-tech and environmentally friendly embassy that the United States has ever built. Contradicting Mr Trump, Robert Johnson said it had not cost the US taxpayer a cent as it was funded by the sale of other property. The previous embassy in Grosvenor Square was in a perfect location, he admitted, but security concerns after 9/11 had forced the move. Anti-Trump campaigners had promised to hold massive protests if the billionaire's trip to Britain went ahead. In response to Mr Trumps announcement, London mayor Sadiq Khan said: Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems hes finally got that message. 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. 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. 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". President Donald Trump was accused of using "hate-filled, vile and racist" language in the Oval Office after he reportedly attacked immigrants coming to the United States from "s---hole countries". Mr Trump denied making the comments about immigrants from Africa, Haiti and El Salvador, saying he had been "tough, but this was not the language used". A group of 54 "extremely appalled" African countries demanded he retract and apologise for his reported comments. After an emergency session to weigh Mr Trump's remarks, the group of African ambassadors to the United Nations said it was "concerned at the continuing and growing trend from the US administration toward Africa and people of African descent to denigrate the continent and people of colour." The group is "extremely appalled at, and strongly condemns the outrageous, racist and xenophobic remarks by the president of the United States of America as widely reported by the media," a statement added, demanding a "retraction and an apology." President Donald Trump, pictured in a meeting on prison reform on Thursday. Later that afternoon he was reported to have made the slurs against immigrants It came after the United Nations human rights office decried the remarks - which were reported by the Washington Post - as "racist". In an extraordinary rebuke, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing on Friday morning that the US president's alleged comments "encouraged racism and xenophobia". "These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word one can use but 'racist'," Mr Colville said. "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 's---holes', whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome," he added. The issue was more than "vulgar language", Mr Colville said. "It's about opening the door to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy lives of many people." Story continues Lindsey Graham was inside the Oval Office when Mr Trump reportedly made his controversial remarks Mr Trump had also failed to clearly condemn the "anti-Semitic and racist actions of white supremacists in Charlottesville" at a rally in Virginia last August, Mr Colville said Mr Trump had convened a meeting at the White House on Thursday to discuss reforming immigration policy, and one of the politicians inside the Oval Office suggested that a deal could be reached if Mr Trump agreed to restore protection for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here? the president responded, according to two people who spoke to The Washington Post. The paper said he was referring to African countries, Haiti and El Salvador. "This is ignorance ... to speak in such vile racist terms." Rep. @LuisGutierrez reacts to Trump's 'sh**hole countries' remark, says "the paint has been stripped away from Donald Trump." pic.twitter.com/US4Amyx4U5 MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 12, 2018 He then reportedly suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met on Wednesday. His remarks reportedly left the assembled politicians taken aback, the paper said, with Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator for South Carolina, and Dick Durbin, Democratic senator for Illinois, among those in the room. Here is my statement on the Presidents comments today: pic.twitter.com/EdtsFjc2zL Rep. Mia Love (@RepMiaLove) January 11, 2018 Mr Durbin said Mr Trump had used the reported words. The senator said: "In the course of his comments he said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist. I use those words advisedly, I understand how powerful they are. "I cannot believe that, in the history of the White House and that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday." Mr Graham said: "Following comments by the president I said my piece directly to him yesterday. The president and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel." Hillary Clinton, on Twitter, accused Mr Trump of having "ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesnt look like him". Congressman Luis Gutierrez said: "We always knew that President Trump doesn't like people from certain countries or people or certain colours. "We can now we say with 100 per cent confidence that the president is a racist who does not share the values enshrined in our Constitution." Asked about the remarks, White House spokesman Raj Shah said: "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," he said. Republican Rep. Mia Love of Utah, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, said Mr Trump's comments were "unkind, divisive, elitist and fly in the face of our nation's values." Haitis ambassador to the United States, Paul G. Altidor, said that the president was either misinformed or miseducated about Haiti and its people. Leading academics also condemned Mr Trump. The notion that all immigrants from certain nations are a drag on the US economy is unsupported. The notion that all students from a certain nation think and behave in the same way is equally unacceptable, said British born John Quelch, the dean of Miami Business school. Mr Trump has called himself the "least racist person that you've ever met." On Friday he signed a proclamation honouring Martin Luther King Day. In a speech at the event Mr Trump said: "No matter what the colour of our skin, or the place of our birth, we are all created equal." As he left the room the president was asked several times by journalists "Are you a racist?" but refused to answer. Earlier, Mr Trump spoke to The Wall Street Journal, and claimed that he has developed a positive relationship with North Koreas leader. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have repeatedly traded insults I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un, said Mr Trump, despite there being no formal contact between US and North Korean officials in decades. I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised. Asked if he has spoken with Mr Kim, Mr Trump replied: I dont want to comment on it. Im not saying I have or havent. I just dont want to comment. The president has called the nations leader a maniac, a bad dude, mocked him as short and fat, and referred to him repeatedly as rocket man. Mr Kim in response has warned he would tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire. Mr Trump told the paper, however, that his Twitter insults were simply part of his game plan. Youll see that a lot with me, he said about combative tweets. And then all of the sudden somebodys my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. Im a very flexible person. The president said he approved of North Koreas participation in next months Olympic Games, and acknowledged that Pyongyang may be trying to separate Washington and Seoul. If I were them, I would try, he said. The difference is Im president, other people arent. And I know more about wedges than any human being thats lived. Donald Trump approval rating tracker Mr Trump also announced for the first time that Mexico could pay for the border wall through negotiations to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement. They can pay for it indirectly through Nafta, he said. We make a good deal on Nafta, and, say, Im going to take a small percentage of that money and its going toward the wall. Guess what? Mexicos paying. The Hague (AFP) - The Dutch government plans to speed up moves to compensate people whose homes and buildings were damaged in a 3.4 magnitude quake, blamed on extraction at Europe's biggest gas field. "I want a framework for compensation to be drawn up within a couple of weeks," Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters on Friday, just days after northern Groningen province was hit by its biggest quake since 2012. More than 900 homes and buildings were damaged, according to an association which collates reports from residents. Groningen, which houses the European Union's largest gas field, has been plagued by tremors which increased as gas production rose in the region through the 1990s. The relatively low magnitude quakes are said to result from huge air pockets left underground because of gas extraction. "The safety of the residents must take priority over the health of public finances," Rutte added. Last year a total of 18 quakes measuring 1.5-magnitude or higher were measured in the Groningen gas field, according to the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI). Last year residents backed by local environmental groups launched legal action against the state, calling for a complete halt to gas production in Groningen. In November, the highest Dutch court threw out the government's plans to cap extraction at 21.6 billion cubic metres per year, after it has been dramatically scaled it back in stages from 53.9 billion cubic metres in 2013. Instead, the judges gave the cabinet a year to come up with new proposals, ruling that former economics minister Henk Kamp had "failed to make clear potential measures to limit the demand for gas". NAM, the energy company responsible for the gas extraction, is half-owned by Shell and ExxonMobil and has been extracting gas from the massive Groningen field since 1963. Rutte's new coalition government has vowed to keep the issue of the earthquakes "high on the agenda" and plans to wean the Dutch off natural gas for heating. It has pledged "to reduce demand for Groningen gas by 3 billion cubic metres between now and 2021." Quito (AFP) - 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 Thursday. Espinosa told a press conference in Quito that Assange, a 46-year-old Australian, became an Ecuadoran citizen on December 12. As a result, she said 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 insist further on 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'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. "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, over WikiLeaks' publication of leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010. Espinosa 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. CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt will impose a curfew on parts of the North Sinai region starting on Saturday after the country extended its state of emergency, the official gazette said. The curfew includes areas at the border town of Rafah near Gaza from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and around the town of El-Arish from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., it said. Egypt extended its state of emergency for three months last week to help tackle "the dangers and funding of terrorism". Egypt's security forces have for years been battling an Islamic State insurgency in North Sinai that has killed hundreds of soldiers and police and has also included civilian targets. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gave the armed forces three months to end the insurgency after militants killed more than 300 people at a mosque in North Sinai in November. The curfew will continue as long as the state of emergency is still in place, the gazette said. (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and John Davison) (Note: Story contains language that may offend some readers) By Nelson Renteria SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - El Salvador's government on Friday sent the United States a formal letter of protest at comments attributed in the media to President Donald Trump that characterized the homelands of some immigrants as "shithole" countries. At a meeting with lawmakers about protections for migrants on Thursday, Trump questioned why the United States would want to accept people from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as "shithole countries," according to two sources. Instead, the United States should seek immigration from Norway, he reportedly said. The Republican president denied using a vulgar reference in comments that many Democrats and African leaders called racist. Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, who was at the White House meeting, condemned the president's use of language and said he used the word "shithole" repeatedly. The meeting included discussion of a program known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that covers some 200,000 people from El Salvador living in the United States. Earlier this week U.S. officials said those Salvadorans will lose their right to remain in the country next year. Responding to the reports and Trump's declarations on the matter, the Central American country's foreign ministry said the president had "implicitly" accepted the use of "harsh terms detrimental to the dignity of El Salvador and other countries." "Because of this we have directed a note of protest to the government of the United States," the ministry said in a statement, also demanding respect for its people. Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren said he "vigorously rejected" the comments attributed to Trump, which also triggered outrage among some citizens. "For me, he is a sick person," said Salvadoran housewife Carolina Portillo. "I don't know what qualities the North American people see in him." El Salvador's government underlined the role played by its nationals in the United States in helping to rebuild the Pentagon following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as well as reconstruct New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Trump launched his presidential bid in 2015 describing Mexican immigrants as murderers and rapists, vowing to build a wall to keep them out. The "shithole" controversy due a sharp rebuke from former Mexican President Vicente Fox, a frequent Trump critic. In a post on Twitter, Fox wrote: "Your mouth is the foulest shithole in the world... Americas greatness is built on diversity, or have you forgotten your immigrant background, Donald?" Trump's mother came from Scotland to the United States and his paternal grandparents were born in Germany. (Additional reporting by Richard Cowan in Washington; writing by Anthony Esposito and Julia Love; editing by Dave Graham and Lisa Shumaker) By Gina Cherelus (Reuters) - The founder of a Roman Catholic school and four children were among the victims of a deadly series of mudslides in Santa Barbara County, California, that killed 17 people along the coast, officials said on Thursday. The mudslides also injured nearly 30 people and destroyed about 100 homes in the Montecito area between the Pacific Ocean and the Los Padres National Forest. Rescue workers were searching on Thursday for more missing people. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office on Thursday identified the 17 killed, citing the cause of death as multiple traumatic injuries due to flash flood with mudslides due to the recent wildfire. * David Cantin, 49, was the father of 14-year-old Lauren Cantin, whom rescuers pulled from her Montecito home earlier this week, the Associated Press reported. * Josephine Gower, 69, died when she was swept away in the mudslides, her daughter-in-law Sarah Gower confirmed in a Facebook post on Wednesday. Her body was found that night, near a highway hit by the slide. "I told her to stay on the second floor but she went downstairs and opened the door and just got swept away," her son, Hayden Gower, told NBC affiliate KSBY. "I should have just told her to leave. You just don't even think that this is possible." * James and Alice Mitchell, 89 and 78 respectively, who moved to the Montecito area in 1999, were found dead on a different street from their destroyed home, KSBY reported on Thursday, citing the couple's daughter, Kelly Weimer. * Roy Rohter, 84, founder of the Saint Augustine Academy, a private Catholic school in Ventura, was killed on Tuesday when a mudslide swept him from his Montecito home, according to school officials. * Rebecca Riskin, a 61-year-old retired professional ballerina, founder of Riskin Partners real estate firm and nearly 30-year Montecito resident and businesswoman, died in Montecito as a result of the flooding and mudslides in the area, the firm confirmed in a Facebook post and statement. * Peter Fleurat, 73, who studied nursing at Santa Barbara City College and worked as an end-of-life caregiver, died after water swept through his Montecito home, KSBY reported. He shared the home with his partner who owned a cafe in Santa Barbara. Family friends told the station that the pair had been asleep in their home early in the morning when water rushed inside. * Mark Montgomery, 54, a doctor at Associated Hand Surgeons, was at home with his wife and two children when they were caught in the mudslide, a family friend told to KSBY. He had served as clinical instructor in the department of Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School, according to his office's website. * Caroline Montgomery, 22, Mark Montgomerys daughter, also died in the slide, KSBY reported. Others identified by the sheriff's office included: Jonathan Benitez, 10 Kailly Benitez, 3 Martin Cabrera-Munoz, 48 Sawyer Corey, 12 John McManigal, 61 Marilyn Ramos, 27 Peerawat Sutthithepn, 6 Richard Taylor, 67 (Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Additional reporting by Chris Kenning and Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Editing by David Gregorio, Lisa Shumaker and Daniel Wallis) Democrats were quick to denounce President Donald Trump after reports that he referred to Haiti and some African nations as shithole countries while discussing immigration reform with lawmakers at the White House. Most Republicans, on the other hand, were notably silent on the presidents shockingly vulgar remark, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and GOP chair Ronna McDaniel. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called Trumps comments very unfortunate and Sen. Marco Rubio posted a long Twitter thread about the many ways Haitians have made an impact in the U.S. But by Friday morning, long after Trump reportedly asked, Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here, most GOP lawmakers had still not said anything publicly about the presidents racially charged remark. He was said to have made the comment when lawmakers pressed to restore protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and multiple African nations. In a series of early morning tweets, Trump denied using such language, while continuing to denigrate some nations. But Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) who was in the room at the time swiftly contradicted him, saying that the president had in fact said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly. Under the immigration plan being discussed, the U.S. would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly, Trump tweeted. He added that language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. At least one GOP congressman even used the moment to attack Democrats. The rhetoric coming from leaders in both parties does nothing to advance the kind of reforms that are best for America, Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) tweeted on Thursday, without specifying what was said by Democrats that was as offensive as Trumps remarks. HuffPosts requests for comment from Davis office were not returned. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), who both attended Thursdays meeting, said in a joint statement Friday that they didnt recall Trump saying these comments specifically. Story continues What he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest, they said. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) who also attended the meeting confirmed that reporting of Trumps remarks was basically accurate. We ought not to disparage any other nation, frankly, Scott told The Post and Courier newspaper on Friday. Thinking about the success of America. It is the melting pot. Its the ability to weave together multiple communities together for one nation. Here are the other Republicans who spoke out against Trump for his reported remark: Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) Rep. Mia Love was one of the first Republicans in Congress to issue an official statement demanding the president apologize. Love made history in 2014, when she became the first Haitian-American woman and first black Republican woman elected to Congress. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation, Love, whose parents immigrated from Haiti to the U.S., said in a statement Thursday. My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took the oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with, she added. They never took a thing from our federal government. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) Rep. Carlos Curbelo took a softer approach, tweeting his support for individuals under temporary protected status and asking the White House to explain the context behind Trumps comment. The men and women who have status under the TPS program are among the most humble and hard working in our country. They improve quality of life in our communities and many Americans depend on them to support family life. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (@RepCurbelo) January 11, 2018 Under no circumstances is it acceptable to degrade, denigrate, or dehumanize #TPS immigrants. The White House must immediately explain the situation and leave no doubt regarding what was said and in what context. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (@RepCurbelo) January 11, 2018 Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen took to her local media to air frustrations with Trumps comments. She tweeted: The president calling #Haiti a shithole country ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians made to our #SoFla community and nation. She later told CBS Miami that no country deserves to be called a shithole. Speaking to WSVN 7 news, Ros-Lehtinen said that Trump needs to understand that lives are at stake when he makes such reckless comments. According to her tweets, she invoked an inscription on the Statue of Liberty: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, not go back to your shithole. She told Univision 23 Miami, a Spanish-language news channel, that Trumps comments on Haiti do not reflect our country. .@wsvn: @POTUS needs to understand that lives are at stake when he makes such reckless comments. The Statue of Liberty reads, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," not "go back to your shithole." pic.twitter.com/zNgQNgX72H Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) January 12, 2018 Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) Without denouncing Trumps insult, Sen. Orrin Hatch called for the White House to explain what Trump meant with his remark. HATCH: I look forward to getting a more detailed explanation regarding the Presidents comments. Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin. #utpol Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) January 11, 2018 Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) Rep. Mike Coffman issued a statement late Thursday celebrating the accomplishments of Colorados diverse immigrant communities, from El Salvador to Ethiopia. The President could learn a thing or two from them, Coffman said. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) Rep. Erik Paulsen called Trumps remarks completely inappropriate and said the White House should issue an apology. It is completely inappropriate for the President to refer to other countries in the manner in which he reportedly did, especially given the circumstances and disasters that led many TPS immigrants to seek refuge and shelter in the US Rep. Erik Paulsen (@RepErikPaulsen) January 12, 2018 The White House didnt deny Trumps remark. Instead, the administration said in a statement that Trump is focused on American people. Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people, White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement, according to CBS News. The president 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, Shah added. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) Sen. Jeff Flake on Friday tweeted his displeasure with Trumps choice of words. The words used by the President, as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance, were not tough, they were abhorrent and repulsive. Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) January 12, 2018 Though the president may have been trying to be tough, his comment was instead abhorrent and repulsive, Flake said. Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele Michael Steele, a conservative pundit who frequently appears on cable news, harshly rebuked Trump on Friday, saying the evidence is incontrovertible that the president is racist. Fmr. RNC chair Michael Steele says Trump is racist. Yeah, I do. At this point the evidence is incontrovertible. Its right there."pic.twitter.com/fpqZnO5xvb JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) January 12, 2018 There are a whole lot of folks like Donald Trump, Steele said on MSNBC. White folks in this country who have a problem with the browning of America. When they talk about [wanting] their country back, they are talking about a country that was very safely white, less brown and less committed to that browning process. This article has been updated to include additional Republicans commenting on Trumps remarks, and Durbins assertion that Trump used those specific words. CORRECTION: A previous version referred to Rep. Mia Love as the first black Republican in Congress. She is the first black Republican woman in Congress. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. HELSINKI (Reuters) - The Finnish government has voiced concern over surprise inspections on Finnish cargo ships visiting Russian ports in recent weeks, saying delays had been a problem for shipping companies. Neighboring Russia carried out seven thorough inspections in the past two weeks on Finnish ships at St Petersburg and other ports, without giving a specific reason, a government minister said on Friday. Such inspections usually take place for Finnish ships only a few times a year globally. "The inspections have been exceptional ... It is a challenge for the shipping companies, it makes their operation more difficult," Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner told Reuters. "There have been inspections by Russian ports for ships from other countries as well, but in this time range, most of the inspections have been carried out on Finnish ships." The Russian transportation ministry declined to comment but Berner said that seafaring authorities from the two countries had held discussions, with talks due to continue next week. "It seems these inspections will not continue for the time being. We will confirm this on Monday in a call between ministries", Berner said. EU-member Finland shares a 1,340km (833 miles) border and a difficult history with Russia. It has accused Moscow of several airspace violations and propaganda attacks in recent years. Finnish media have suggested the increase in Russian port inspections could be in response to an inspection by Finland on a Russian cargo ship in November because of an oil leak. Berner described such claims as speculation. "There is no evidence of connection (to Finland's inspection)," the minister said. Under international seafaring law, inspectors can hold a ship back at ports if it lacks certificates or poses some kind of security threat. (Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell; Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov in Moscow; Editing by David Goodman) Google is celebrating South African author and activist Alan Paton with a new Google Doodle on Wednesday, marking what would have been Patons 115th birthday. Born in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), South Africa, Paton became a prominent figure both in the literary and political world through his writings and public addresses that spoke out against apartheid, the South African system of racial discrimination, during the mid to late 1900s. After graduating from the University of Natal and becoming a teacher, Paton became head of Diepkoof, a prison for young black youths, where he introduced reforms that included open dormitories and home visitations. It was while studying prison reform in Europe that Paton was inspired to write his famed book, Cry, the Beloved Country, which tells the story of a minister who struggles to come to terms with the murder of his son amid racial tensions. Googles Doodle depicts Paton on a train ride the moment he is believed to have been inspired to write the book. Author, Alan Paton (R) interviewing Herrero woman, Katrina Whiteman against the backdrop of the Tshani well during during his Kalahari expedition in Bechuanaland. Paton went on to write a variety of works after Cry, the Beloved Country that shed light on the racial injustices of apartheid. He also helped to create the Liberal Party of South Africa in 1953. The party fought for universal voting rights and an opposition of violence through 1958, when it was disbanded by a law that made interracial parties illegal. Besides his books, Paton also wrote numerous essays on race and politics in South Africa that helped spark attention from around the world on the issue of apartheid. One Republican congresswoman is demanding that President Donald Trump apologize for describing Haiti and African nations as shithole countries. Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), who made history in 2014 as the first Haitian-American woman elected to Congress, released a statement on Thursday responding to reports that Trump insulted multiple countries during negotiations on restoring federal protections for some immigrants. When lawmakers at the Oval Office meeting proposed granting visas to individuals from Haiti, El Salvador and a range of African nations, Trump reportedly said, Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? He followed his comment by suggesting that the U.S. should have more people from places like Norway, sources told NBC News. Rep. Mia Love had earlier criticized the president's decision to end a key protection for Haitian immigrants. (Photo: Bill Clark via Getty Images) The following day, Trump claimed on Twitter that he hadnt used those specific words, but Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) who was in the room at the time swiftly contradicted him, saying that the president had in fact said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly. Love said the presidents remarks were unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nations values. The congresswoman, one of the few Republican lawmakers who called out Trump, continued: This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took the oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with. They never took a thing from our federal government. They worked hard, paid taxes, and rose from nothing to take care of and provide opportunities for their children. They taught their children to do the same. Thats the American Dream. The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned. This wasnt the first time Love stood up for Haitian immigrants. In November, she said she disagreed with the Trump administrations decision to end the temporary protected status granted to Haitians who had fled their country after a devastating earthquake in 2010. Story continues Im going to do everything I can to work with the administration, but this is a place where we disagree, really disagree, Love told a Utah radio show, according to the Deseret News. She added, There is going to be a full-court press on the president on this issue because this is a bad decision. Two Florida Republicans joined Love on Thursday in condemning the presidents ugly comments. The president calling #Haiti a shithole country ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians have made to our #SoFla community and nation, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen tweeted. Language like that shouldnt be heard in locker rooms and it shouldnt be heard in the White House. Rep. Carlos Curbelo also stood up for immigrants under temporary protected status, saying that under no circumstances is it acceptable to degrade, denigrate or dehumanize them. The men and women who have status under the TPS program are among the most humble and hard working in our country. They improve quality of life in our communities and many Americans depend on them to support family life. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (@RepCurbelo) January 11, 2018 Under no circumstances is it acceptable to degrade, denigrate, or dehumanize #TPS immigrants. The White House must immediately explain the situation and leave no doubt regarding what was said and in what context. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (@RepCurbelo) January 11, 2018 Moreover delivering a permanent solution for #TPS beneficiaries should be a major component of any #immigration deal. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (@RepCurbelo) January 11, 2018 The article has been updated to include that Trump has denied having used that specific language, and Durbins assertion that he did. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Despite waving a big gay flag, President Donald Trump hasn't turned out to be an advocate for LGBTQ rights with his judicial nominations. (Photo: Carlo Allegri / Reuters) WASHINGTON Howard Nielson fought for Californias short-lived ban on same-sex marriage, argued that a gay judge should be disqualified from overseeing a case challenging that law, and defended a former Justice Department colleague who wrote a controversial and now-rescinded memo authorizing the CIAs use of torture. Now Nielson is President Donald Trumps nominee to a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. On Wednesday, he insisted to the Senate Judiciary Committee that his record shouldnt call into question his ability to be fair-minded. Do you care if someone is gay? asked Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). I do not, said Nielson. That exchange seemed to do the trick for Republicans. Democrats had far more probing questions for Nielson, who as a lawyer in private practice represented the nonprofit group defending Proposition 8, the states ban on same-sex marriage, after Californias governor and attorney general declined to. That case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2013 effectively overturned the ban. During the case, Nielson argued that sexual orientation is a choice and disputed the effects of discrimination on LGBTQ people, including their increased rates of depression and suicide. The National Alliance on Mental Illness notes that LGBTQ people are almost three times as likely to experience major depression or anxiety as heterosexual people. When the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in 2010 that Prop 8 violated the Constitution, Nielson argued that then-Chief Judge Vaughn Walker should have recused himself because he was gay and therefore unable to be fair. Nielson filed a motion contending that Walker had a duty to disclose not only the facts concerning his [same-sex] relationship, but also his marriage intentions. That motion was denied by another judge. Democrats seized on the logic behind Nielsons argument during Wednesdays hearing. Story continues If you say a judge in a same-sex relationship shouldnt be able to oversee a case on LGBT rights, then do you think African-American judges should have to recuse themselves from civil rights cases? Or women cant hear sexual harassment cases? asked Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). Nielson replied that the positions he takes in litigation are those of my clients, not his own. In the Prop 8 case, he said that he was a junior member of a legal team and that the lead counsel ultimately made the decisions on what arguments to advance. He added, though, that he thought it was fair to try to disqualify Walker because the judge was in a long-term relationship with another man at the time. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who was Californias attorney general during the latter part of the Prop 8 litigation and who opposed Walkers removal, said Nielsons argument raises the ugly specter of presumed judicial bias based on a persons status and read aloud from a brief she had filed in that case. The distinction that was being made by you, on behalf of your client, was that he should have recused himself because he was in a relationship with another man, not because he was gay. ... This is a distinction without a difference, Harris said. Courts have seen such recusal requests for what they are: a thinly veiled attempt to disqualify judges based on their race, gender, religious affiliation or, in this case, sexual orientation. She added, I stand by those words. Nielson said he did not believe judges should have to recuse themselves based on their status, but added that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on hypotheticals. About Those Torture Memos Democratic senators also grilled Nielson over his record on torture. He worked in the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration alongside the officials who wrote the memos that served as the federal governments legal justification to use torture as an interrogation technique. As a deputy assistant attorney general, Nielson argued in a 2005 Office of Legal Counsel memo that the Fourth Geneva Convention, which relates to the protection of civilians in war zones, applied only to civilians detained on U.S. territory. People captured and detained in Afghanistan, Nielson wrote, did not qualify for protected person status under the convention. The Fourth Geneva Convention requires signatories to treat prisoners humanely and forbids torture or abusive treatment. Even though Nielsons memo was not explicitly about torture, his interpretation of the convention could have served as legal justification to torture civilians detained outside the U.S., professor Beth Van Schaack wrote earlier this month in the online forum Just Security. This warped interpretation finds no support in international or domestic jurisprudence, the treaties drafting history, the treaties humanitarian object and purpose, or legal scholarship (even scholarship advancing conservative readings of the treaties), wrote Van Schaack, who has worked on war crimes issues at the State Department. Asked by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) if he stood by his 2005 memo, Nielson noted that a 2006 Supreme Court decision held that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions protects detainees in U.S. custody outside U.S. territory. He said that his memo was not a formal opinion and that he wrote it to document advice he had given other Justice Department officials who were deciding whether to charge a prisoner under the Geneva Conventions or under federal criminal law. Nielson worked at the Office of Legal Counsel under Steven Bradbury, one of the authors of the so-called torture memos, which authorized the CIAs use of torture as an interrogation technique. In 2005, Bradbury signed off on three memos that essentially gave the CIA permission to waterboard prisoners, slam them into walls, force them to stand for long periods in painful positions, expose them to extreme temperatures and deprive them of sleep. Nielson said Wednesday that he had been consulted about interrogation issues during that period, but that the final decisions were made by more senior officials. When The Washington Posts editorial board criticized the Office of Legal Counsels judgments on torture issues in 2007, Nielson co-authored a letter to the newspaper defending Bradbury as a careful lawyer of impeachable integrity and sound judgment. Coons asked Nielson for his current view on the torture memos. Those memos have been withdrawn, and rightfully so, he replied. Interrogation should be limited to the techniques authorized in the Army Field Manual, Nielson continued, citing anti-torture legislation passed by Congress. He said he couldnt envision waterboarding being carried out in a way thats consistent with current laws. Still, Nielson stood by his 2007 defense of Bradbury. The letter to the Post was meant to be a defense of the Office of Legal Counsel and Bradburys professionalism, he said. Bradbury was narrowly confirmed last year as general counsel for the Department of Transportation. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a torture survivor himself and a co-sponsor of anti-torture legislation, and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined Democrats in opposing him. Nielson now awaits his Judiciary Committee vote and, if he clears it, a final confirmation vote on the Senate floor. The panel could take action as soon as the next few weeks. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Robots. You either believe their cold, mechanical arms and the heartless logic will be humanitys ultimate undoing, or that theyll snatch away our jobs and destroy livelihoods. Honda (HMC), though, wants to change that perception. And its hoping to do so with four new concept robots. Based on a principle that robots are designed to help people, each of Hondas machines use the prefix 3E, which the company says stands for empower, experience and empathy. The idea is for these concept robots to improve peoples lives by augmenting their existing capabilities, performing otherwise dangerous tasks and even serving as a companion. A rugged bot and a helper Hondas Empower robot, dubbed the 3E-D18, is designed to be a workhorse around construction sites, farms or for first responders. The machine, which is essentially a smart ATV and uses one of the companys existing ATV bodys, can be used to access hard to reach areas thanks to its nearly indestructible wheels. Those wheels, called tweels and are made by Michelin, wont go flat since they dont use air, but rather a series of flexible supports. Hondas Pete Wendt, who came up with the idea for the D18 said its fully electric and offers hot-swappable batteries. The system can also be adapted to different roles based on your own personal needs. If, for example, you know its going to snow, you could outfit the D18 with a snowblower attachment up front and a salt spreader out back. The robots AI, which would connect to the cloud, would then know when it started snowing and automatically leave its dock and begin clearing the snow and laying down salt to keep the path clear. The 3E-B18, on the other hand, is designed for indoor and outdoor use to help move individuals around. Honda doesnt say it outright, but the device seems to be designed for use as a kind of intelligent wheelchair. The bot, which has built-in sensors so it can be operated autonomously, is supposed to help people get around easier and navigate tight spaces thanks to its small turning radius. Story continues Unfortunately, Honda didnt have a working B18 available at the show. The everything machine Hondas 3E-C18 is meant for use as a kind of robotic hotdog cart, ice cream cart, DJ cart or anything that you like. Basically, its a cart with smarts. The idea is for you to be able to use the C18 however you see fit. A front-mounted display can show greetings or expressive eyes to draw in potential customers. Honda says the C18 can learn how people behave and, thanks to its built-in AI, learn how to function on its own. Best of all, you can jump into the C18 and drive it on your own if you want. Attendees wave at Honda robotics concepts 3E-C18, left, and 3E-A18 at CES International, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) A robot you can hug Finally, there was Hondas 3E-A18, the robot designed to prove once and for all that robots can be our friends. This lightbulb-shaped bot features an animated face that can express emotions ranging from happiness to sadness. The A18 balances on a single wheel and can be used to help guide people around places like airports or serve as a companion. Heck, the robot was specifically designed to be huggable. After the massive earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan in 2011, Honda brought its Asimo robot to elementary and middle schools in an attempt to cheer up students whose lives were upended by the disasters. Naturally, the children wanted to touch and hug the robot, but since it was so fragile, they werent allowed to. And so, Honda created the A18. Now if you still think robots are coming to dominate our species, at least you can take solace in the fact that theyll be incredibly cute when they do so. More from Dan: Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn Brussels (AFP) - European leaders welcomed a breakthrough Friday in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's bid to form a coalition, hoping it will end months of political paralysis and unblock key EU reforms. Merkel's promise to give Europe a "fresh start" was seen as a positive signal to French President Emmanuel Macron's ambitious proposals for rebooting the bloc after Brexit. But as the EU awaited the return of its economic and political heavyweight to the political fray, questions remained about whether a new Merkel-led coalition would be strong enough to push through the reforms. Macron said he was "happy and satisfied" that a coalition deal was in sight, while a French government spokesman said the blueprint was "good for Germany, good for France and above all good for Europe." European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker hailed the German agreement as a "very significant, positive, constructive, forward-looking, purposeful contribution" to the future of the bloc. Juncker, who heads the EU's executive arm, has unveiled his own vision for eurozone reforms which differ from Macron's in that they place more power in the hands of Brussels. - 'Waiting impatiently' - Macron has been eyeing the talks anxiously, hoping to see a government emerge that will swing behind his plans for deepening ties between members of the eurozone as well as the 28-member European Union. And Europe generally has been in political limbo since September's inconclusive election in which Merkel failed to win a clear majority, in part due to the rise of the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD). Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov -- whose country has just taken over the EU's six-month rotating presidency -- urged Berlin to reach a final deal as soon as possible. "All those topics that we raised depend on cooperation by Chancellor Merkel, on her support in solving the issues. So we are waiting for this quite impatiently," Borisov said. Story continues The initial signs from the in-principle deal in Berlin were encouraging for Europe. Merkel said she would "find solutions" with France, while the coalition blueprint includes a pledge to "in close partnership with France, sustainably strengthen and reform the eurozone so that the euro can better withstand global crises". Lueder Gerken of the Centre for European Study in Freiburg, Germany, said Paris in particular would be pleased. "The fact that the coalition accord put Europe at the start of the blueprint is an important signal to European partners and particularly to French president Macron," Gerken said in a commentary. "A lot of his (Macron's) ideas are in there." - 'Manage divisions' - Charles Lichfield of the Eurasia Group political risk consultancy said the document was "a basis for discussions with Macron" and "certainly more constructive" than a coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens would have been. He said it was important that the coalition document mentions a common budget for the eurozone, one of the key proposals by the French president, who was holding talks with Austria's new chancellor on Friday on the reforms. Lichfield backed Merkel to get the reforms through. "One of the reasons Merkel ran for a fourth term was to make sure that a sustainable EU was part of her legacy. So she cares about this deeply and can, I think, still manage divisions in her party enough to get a few small reforms done," he told AFP. That was especially true with the support of the SPD, led by the former European Parliament chief and arch federalist Martin Schulz, he added. "The AfD and the FDP will criticise the direction this is going in, but they don't have a majority." The agreement also mentions bigger German contribution to the EU's multi-year budget post-2020, a thorny issue as member states try to fill the financial hole left by Britain's departure in 2019. Gerken of the CER however warned that this would "pointlessly weaken the German position in the coming negotiations." burs-dk/arp/jm President waives sanctions, keeping US in deal for now, but begins four-month countdown until it ceases to comply with its obligations under the agreement Donald Trump in Washington DC Friday. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock Donald Trump has waived a raft of sanctions against Iran as required under a 2015 nuclear agreement, staying within the deal for the time being, but the US president warned European allies and Congress it will be the last such waiver he signs if they fail to agree to radical changes. With his announcement, the president in effect began a four-month countdown until the US ceases to comply with its obligations under the agreement. The next sanctions waivers fall due on 12 May. The president laid down conditions for signing those that former diplomats involved negotiating the deal said were all but impossible to meet. The genesis of Trumps particular antipathy to Iran is hard to pin down. Before entering office he had been sceptical of Irans regional rival, Saudi Arabia. But during the 2016 election campaign all his closest foreign policy advisors, such as Michael Flynn, shared a worldview that portrays Iran as an uniquely malign actor in the Middle East and beyond. After the election, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were successful in capturing the ear of Trump and his son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner. Trump said he would work with Congress to amend legislation governing US participation in the agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but the outcome would have to include immediate access to all sites by international weapons inspectors and the indefinite extension of limits on Irans uranium enrichment and other nuclear activities, which have expiration dates under sunset clauses in the JCPOA. Such changes would represent a contravention of the agreement, reached after two years of negotiations in Vienna in July 2015, but Trump declared on Friday: If Iran does not comply with any of these provisions, American nuclear sanctions would automatically resume. Story continues Trump said that Europe would also have to agree to changes in the deal. In forceful language aimed primarily at the UK, German and France, who were co-signatories of the agreement, Trump said: This is a last chance ... I hereby call on key European countries to join with the United States in fixing significant flaws in the deal, countering Iranian aggression, and supporting the Iranian people. If other nations fail to act during this time, I will terminate our deal with Iran. A White House official said that Trump wanted to work with the three European allies to produce some kind of follow-on agreement that enshrines certain triggers that the Iranian regime cannot exceed. Those triggers would include ballistic missile development and Iranian compliance with inspections. European states would have to agree that the current limits on the Iranian nuclear programme would nave no sunset clauses of the sort that are enshrined in the deal. President Trump appears to have presented the [Europeans] with a false choice: either kill the deal with me, or Ill kill it alone, said Rob Malley, a senior US negotiator of the deal, and now head of the International Crisis Group. Irans foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said Trumps declaration and policies desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement. Zarif added in a tweet: JCPOA is not renegotiable: rather than repeating tired rhetoric, US must bring itself into full compliance just like Iran. Donald Trump: This is a last chance ... If other nations fail to act during this time, I will terminate our deal with Iran. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images At the same time as waiving oil and banking sanctions that were suspended under the agreement, Trump ordered the imposition of new sanctions on 14 individuals, including Sadeq Larijani, the head of the judiciary, and brother of the parliamentary speaker. The three European signatory nations have insisted they remain committed to the agreement. Their governments have said they are ready to discuss measures to curb Iranian missile development and possible follow on negotiations, but will do nothing in contravention with the JCPOA. Simon Gass, who was the lead UK negotiator on the deal, said talks between European and US officials had been underway for some weeks on how to keep the deal alive. It is going to be very challenging to find a sweet spot which could address [Trumps] concerns but still remain consistent with the JCPOA and that in my view has to be the goal, Gass said. Malley, the former US negotiator, said: What [the Europeans] should do is work with the administration to try to find a way to address its concerns without violating the deal. What they should not do is torpedo the deal in the process of trying to salvage it. Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli forces set up roadblocks and deployed around a major Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in a manhunt for attackers who shot dead an Israeli settler. Raziel Shevah, a 35-year-old rabbi, was killed late Tuesday while driving near the wildcat settlement where he lived, Havat Gilad near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Some 22 gunshots were found in his car, Israel's army radio reported. The gunshots reportedly came from a passing vehicle. "Entrances and exits to and from the villages surrounding Nablus will be possible only after security checks," the military said in a statement. "The review of the incident is ongoing. Based on situation assessments, it was decided to reinforce the area with additional forces." The area frequently sees tensions between hardline Israeli settlers and Palestinians. Palestinian security sources said they were not aware of any arrests yet, but added that Israeli settlers in the area had thrown stones at Palestinian cars. Military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot visited the site of the shooting on Wednesday. Shevah was being buried at the wildcat settlement on Wednesday -- the first person to be buried there at the wish of his family. Israeli officials strongly denounced the attack, including those calling for punitive measures against Palestinians, such as the demolition of the homes of the attackers. Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, welcomed the attack. Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he ordered his staff to look into how Havat Gilad could be legalised as a settlement. All Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are seen as illegal under international law and major obstacles to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state. Israel however differentiates between settlements it has approved and those it has not. Those without approval are referred to as outposts and are typically populated by hardline religious nationalists who see the entire West Bank as part of Israel. Story continues Past attempts by Israeli authorities to evacuate Havat Gilad have led to clashes with settlers there. Some 50 families currently live in Havat Gilad. Sporadic unrest has occurred since US President Donald Trump provoked Palestinian anger by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital on December 6. Fourteen Palestinians have been killed since then, with most of them shot dead in clashes with Israeli forces. Shevah is the first Israeli killed since then. It was unclear if Tuesday's shooting had any link to Trump's announcement. US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a supporter of West Bank settlements, said on Twitter: "An Israeli father of six was killed last night in cold blood by Palestinian terrorists." "Hamas praises the killers and PA (Palestinian Authority) laws will provide them financial rewards. Look no further to why there is no peace." Some 400,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank among some 2.6 million Palestinians. Vilnius (AFP) - Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday urged Baltic NATO states to support pressure on North Korea, as he hammered home his hawkish message that Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes pose a global threat. Despite a recent cooling of tensions in the run-up to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, Shinzo Abe has insisted on "maximising pressure" on the North. "We should work closely together to maintain and strengthen a rule of law-based international order on North Korea, which is now a threat to the global community", Abe told reporters in Lithuania's capital Vilnius. His Lithuanian counterpart Saulius Skvernelis voiced support as did Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis with whom Abe met earlier in the day in Latvia's capital Riga. Briefing reporters, Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Norio Maruyama said that although the threat posed by Pyongyang was "unprecedented", the full implementation of UN sanctions would have "a very strong effect on North Korea." New UN sanctions passed against North Korea last month ban the supply of nearly 75 percent of refined oil products to Pyongyang and cap crude deliveries among other measures. Abe kicked off his visit in fellow Baltic eurozone state Estonia on Friday, where he also discussed deepening cybersecurity and economic ties. Japan is keen to raise its profile in the region as China bolsters its ties there. China is pushing its massive $1 trillion "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which seeks to build rail, maritime and road links from Asia to Europe and Africa in a revival of ancient Silk Road trading routes. On Sunday Abe will head to Lithuania's second largest city Kaunas to pay tribute to Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who saved 6,000 European Jews from the Holocaust by issuing visas to allow them to escape war-torn Lithuania. Abe is the first sitting Japanese leader to visit the Baltic states and will also visit Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania before returning to Tokyo Wednesday. TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday rejected South Korea's call for more steps to help "comfort women", a euphemism for women forced to work in Japan's wartime military brothels, and urged Seoul to honor a 2015 pact on the divisive topic. Japan and South Korea share a bitter history that includes Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the peninsula and the "comfort women" issue is especially touchy. The U.S. allies are key to efforts to rein in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. South Korea said this week that the 2015 agreement, struck by President Moon Jae-in's conservative predecessor, had failed to meet the victims' needs and resolve the feud. The 2015 agreement was "a promise between the two nations. Keeping this promise is an international and universal principle. We cannot accept South Korea's unilateral demands for additional measures," Abe told reporters. "We have been sincere in executing every promise we made. We want to continue to strongly ask South Korea to do the same." Seoul is not seeking to renegotiate the agreement, which the two sides had said would "finally and irreversibly" end the feud if both sides stuck to it. Under the deal, Japan apologized again and promised 1 billion yen ($8.99 million) for a fund to help the women. But South Korea has urged Tokyo to take added steps, including a fresh apology. Japanese media reports have said Abe may not attend the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea next month because of the feud, although the government's top spokesman said on Thursday that it had not been decided. ($1 = 111.2100 yen) (Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Michael Perry) TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan protested to China on Friday after a foreign submarine in waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea was confirmed to be Chinese, calling it a unilateral action and a "serious escalation" that raised bilateral tensions. The submarine was first detected on Thursday in waters contiguous to Japan's territory around the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, but was finally identified on Friday, the Defence Ministry said, a day after Japan lodged a protest with China over the presence of a frigate in the same area. Neither entered what Japan considers its territorial waters. Japan and China have long been at loggerheads over the tiny, uninhabited islands. They are controlled by Japan but claimed also by China. "The presence of the submarine in Japan's contiguous waters, along with that of the frigate, has unilaterally raised tensions. We are deeply concerned," Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters. Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinzuke Sugiyama telephoned China's ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, to lodge a strong protest and demand measures be taken to prevent a repeat, the ministry said in a statement. China routinely rejects Japanese criticism of such patrols, saying its ships have every right to operate in what China calls its territorial waters. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) 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. Story continues "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. Beirut (AFP) - 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. 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. 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. Story continues 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. 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. 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. Survey suggests Joe Biden is more popular than other Democratic presidential candidates: Getty Images for Glamour Former vice president Joe Biden is more popular than Oprah Winfrey and other Democratic presidential candidates, a poll ahead of the 2020 election has found. The survey of 345 registered Democrats, carried out by RABA Research, found Mr Biden leading among voters with 26% support. Bernie Sanders came in second, receiving support from 21% of those polled. Mr Winfrey received 20% support, putting her in third place ahead of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Fifteen percent of those polled said they were unsure at this point or would pick someone else. Mr Biden also has the highest favourability rating, at 76% positive, while Ms Winfrey and Mr Sanders both received 67%. The online RABA survey was conducted between 10 and 11 January and has a five-percentage-point margin of error. Speculation television personality Winfrey could run for the White House in 2020 rose after she delivered a rousing speech at the Golden Globe awards, honouring women who have come forward with stories of sexual harassment in the wake of the scandal that has rocked Hollywood. Winfrey said she was actively considering running for president, according to sources close to the 63-year-old entrepreneur. A separate survey carried out by Rasmussen Reports found Ms Winfrey would comfortably beat Donald Trump in a presidential election. The poll found the TV personality would have a 10-point lead over the current president if a vote were held today. Kim Kardashian is known for her social media presence, posting daily updates of her life on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. But the social media maven and reality star backed off when it came to boasting about material goods after it led to a life-threatening experience in Paris just over a year ago. After an armed robbery that caught Kardashian, and the world, off-guard during Paris Fashion Week in October 2016, the mother of two made a major lifestyle change. I know this sounds crazy, but I know that was meant to happen to me, the 37-year-old said during an appearance on The Ellen Show, fighting back tears. I was definitely materialistic before. I dont care to show off the way that I used to. Its not to say that Ill never wear jewelry again or anything like that, I truly dont know if Id ever feel comfortable, I truly dont know if Id ever wear real jewelry again. But on Wednesday evening, Kardashian storied a photo with a blingy grill on her bottom teeth for the first time since before the robbery, making people wonder if shes back to her old social media ways. Kim showing off some bling. (Photo: Snapchat/kimkardashian) Just before the robbery that took place in her Paris hotel room, Kardashian was actively sharing her flashiest jewels and lavish lifestyle from a photo with a 404-carat diamond to a few posts on a private jet. And there was hardly a photo that didnt show off her 20-carat upgraded engagement ring. A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Oct 22, 2015 at 4:29pm PDT A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Dec 13, 2017 at 5:27pm PST A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on May 17, 2016 at 3:41am PDT A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on May 17, 2016 at 6:11pm PDT A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Dec 13, 2017 at 5:27pm PST However, the post that seemed to gain the most attention, from both fans and, apparently, from Kardashians attackers, was the one that showed off a gold and diamond set of grills, along with the giant diamond ring. Story continues A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Sep 29, 2016 at 12:40pm PDT Captioned with diamond emojis, the post was the last of Kardashians old aesthetic before the traumatic incident took place and led the mogul to turn a new leaf. Posted on Sept. 29, 2016, the photo was followed up with a few outfit shots from PFW before an unexpected social media blackout that lasted three months. When Kardashian reemerged on her most-followed platform, she had noticeably changed up her whole gram game, reflecting what was now most important to her. A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jan 3, 2017 at 10:56am PST A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Aug 22, 2017 at 11:17pm PDT A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on May 2, 2017 at 7:32am PDT Family was at the forefront of her return, with an entire gallery of photos of herself, Kanye West, and their children, North and Saint, taking over her feed. Ever since, her aesthetic has been more simple, and business-oriented, with a focus on KKW Beauty and Yeezys latest collections. As for jewelry, the most that Kardashian has rocked publicly since the robbery are a couple of layered gold necklaces until one post in September, when she showed off some icee. A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Sep 14, 2017 at 10:05am PDT Kardashian may still be taking precautions with her less flashy aesthetic, but the personalized grill may just foreshadow an extra comeback. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. 1964 slaying of 3 civil rights workers From left, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were three CORE civil rights workers who were murdered in Mississippi by members of the Ku Klux Klan, Philadelphia, Mississippi, June 24, 1964. (Photo: Underwood Archives/Getty Images) Edgar Ray Killen, a 1960s Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted decades later in the Mississippi Burning slayings of three civil rights workers, has died in prison at the age of 92, the states corrections department announced Friday. The one-time Klan leader was serving three consecutive 20-year terms for manslaughter when he died at 9 p.m. Thursday night inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary. An autopsy was pending, but no foul play was suspected, the corrections statement said. His conviction came 41 years to the day after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, all in their 20s, were ambushed and killed by Klansmen. The three Freedom Summer workers had been investigating the burning of a black church near Philadelphia, Mississippi. A deputy sheriff in Philadelphia had arrested them on a traffic charge, then released them after alerting a mob. Mississippis then-governor claimed their disappearance was a hoax before their bodies were dug up. The slayings shocked the nation, helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and were dramatized in the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning. (AP) See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr. Kyrie Irving operates in his own space now. (AP) Kyrie Irving is talking about the flat Earth again, and as the official chronicler of his theory, I feel obligated to keep you posted. If youre not caught up by now, you might as well run through these: [Stream the NFL Playoffs live on the Yahoo Sports mobile app] Hey everyone, just so you know: Kyrie Irving believes the Earth is flat Kyrie Irving doubles down on his flat-Earth theory and can now control his dreams Guys, Kyrie Irving just wants to have that open conversation about the flat Earth Yeah, so, Kyrie Irving thinks theres not one real picture of Earth All caught up now? Good. Lets move on, and by move on I mean listen to the first 11:45 of Philadelphia 76ers guard J.J. Redicks podcast with the Boston Celtics star, because, hoo boy, do they get into it: Heres what we learned: Kyrie Irving, a 25-year-old four-time All-Star in the NBA, after months of telling us the intent behind sharing his flat-Earth theory was for us to, Do your own research, revealed that the research that formed his theory was watching a whole bunch of Instagram videos. BREAKING: Kyrie Irving, on JJ Redicks podcast, reveals that his flat-Earth theory came from his dutiful research on Instagram.https://t.co/YeeSygcGFr pic.twitter.com/4r9qK8lmnD Ben Rohrbach (@brohrbach) January 12, 2018 Among the Instagram pages Irving follows is this one: world.is.flat, which posts stuff like this: Theres also enlightenedprophets, conscious_god, naturalworldorder and, of course, unplugthematrix: Not to worry. Kyrie and J.J. didnt stop there. Irving also informed us that hes been doing research on chemtrails. For the uninformed, these are the trails you see behind jets in the sky, which, according to conspiracy theory, are actually chemicals used to, among other things, control the human population. Story continues Redick shared his belief that, Im not entirely convinced that dinosaurs existed, which Irving of course agreed with, and then the conversation took a turn. A turn, you say? How could an exchange about flat Earth, chemtrails and fake dinosaurs take a turn? Heres how: A 9/11 conspiracy theory. Good God, JJ just cut Kyrie off while he was getting going on a 9/11 conspiracy rant, and Im not sure I should keep listening. pic.twitter.com/qPaKLZli7F Ben Rohrbach (@brohrbach) January 12, 2018 Thankfully, Redick steered the conversation away from that subject, because I, for one, am not prepared to hear what Irving has to say about Loose Change, a film that suggests the September 11 attacks were a false flag operation. I will choose to believe that Kyrie is not on board with that theory. They then discussed a Taco Bell commercial that draws parallels between the Illuminati and chalupas: And, finally, Irving opened a window into his soul: For me, spiritual alchemy is something that Im huge in. I dont even want to say huge in its something that Im just so much more aware of. You know the seven chakras; instead, we have eight. And your third eye being in the middle of your forehead and awakening that. And I felt like ever since I took meditation to another level and figuring out the research behind that and figuring out how knowledgeable I can become and being just enriched, and that enriching my soul rather than realizing that this physical realm that I live in and I exist in is the only thing thats available to me. And it connected me more to Nikola Tesla, and then I started taking specific individuals throughout history that have been telling us things that just, either they perished before their time or they were supposedly taken out or something that they said that was just so thought-provoking that they just went from a genius to being a crazy person, and then society just exes them like, No, we dont want to believe anything you say anymore and youre a crazy man. Did you see what Jim Carrey did? Jim Carrey came out of nowhere and was just like, I was in solitude, and Im just it now. You know? Like, OK, Jim. People were like, Yo, whats going on with Jim Carrey? He came out of nowhere with it, and it made sense, though. But for everyone else, they were like, Im not Jim Carrey. Kyrie is Carrey. Carrey is Kyrie. Finkle is Einhorn. Its all beginning to make sense. We are just it now. By the way, heres what Jim Carrey did: So, you step through the door not knowing whats on the other side, says Carrey, who maybe believes Andy Kaufman took over his body or something, and whats on the other side is everything. There is no ceiling for the Boston Celtics anymore. Theyre in the hands of the all-seeing eye now. Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! The newspapers analysis of medical examiner records and public crime reports also found that the women ranged in age from 18 to 58 and most were African-American. Of the 75 cases, 25 have been closed with the arrests of 13 men. That leaves 67 percent unsolved. Police wouldnt say if there are active suspects in those cases, but officials reviewed more than a dozen cases after being contacted by the newspaper and referred three to cold case detectives. Autopsies show some women were also raped and beaten. Others were gagged, had plastic bags tightened around their heads, suffered severe head injuries and bruises over their bodies. The brutal nature of these crimes is very disturbing, Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples said. The police department had formed a task force when the bodies of dozens of women were found in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The task force solved the slayings of 40 women, but it was eventually disbanded. Staples said she isnt sure the task force needs to be reinstated, but Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx said it was worth considering to raise the level of urgency in clearing cases. Kaethe Morris Hoffer, executive director of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, said its a staggering number of cases. It is odd how easy it is to disrupt peoples sense of comfort when a large number of people are all killed at once, she said. 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. Former President Barack Obama, David Letterman (Photo: Netflix) The irony is all too obvious that David Lettermans new Netflix interview with former President Barack Obama started streaming the morning after President Trump called people he doesnt want to let into America citizens of shithole countries. Its not the vulgarity so much as the mindset revealed by that phrase that makes many of us shudder, and listening to a different president talk for about an hour about Americas best instincts is a relief, for a little while. Lettermans new show a six-episode, monthly project titled My Next Guest Needs No Introduction takes place in front of an audience, no band for music, no desk, less an opening monologue than a few opening remarks. Letterman and his guest sit across from each other in easy chairs. Dave is late-period-Dave, wry, amused, and relatively relaxed. Here, Obama is very much the same. (Only Letterman has a beard, though, about which Obama makes a few jokes.) The interview starts off seriously, with a discussion of the divisions that have opened up in the country during the past year. Obama observes, If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet than if you listen to NPR and you know the former president is speaking in front of a self-selecting, New York City audience because the applause and derisive laughter start after Obama says Fox News, thus proving his point. Make no mistake, this is a lovefest: After responding to a question in which Obama explains his approach to the economy after taking office, Letterman jokes, To hear you describe this in a way I can understand just makes me so happy youre still the president. They discuss civil rights and racism, with Letterman inserting footage of an interview hed done with congressman and civil rights hero John Lewis to illustrate a few points. (Without naming Trump explicitly, Lewis refers to the current president as a threat not only to the country but to the planet.) But theres room for a lot of lighter subjects, such as Obama describing what it was like to drop daughter Malia off at college lots of self-deprecating anecdotes about being a doting but dopey dad. Story continues Its not a great interview, but its a cozy one. The conversation has the easy intimacy that can occur when two famous, successful men have reached points in their lives when they can be slightly less guarded. As the credits roll, Netflix plays a brief clip revealing that Lettermans next guest will be George Clooney. Warning: More beard jokes will be made. My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman is streaming now on Netflix. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Logan Paul's YouTube channel continues to make a profit despite an outcry over his filming of a dead body - Logan Paul Vlogs Logan Paul's YouTube videos of his visit to Japan have made up to $90,000 (66,000) despite the controversy surrounding his filming of a dead body, according to analysts. The 22 year-old has continued to monetise his Tokyo Adventures YouTube series after facing global condemnation for publishing a video of the body of a suspected suicide victim found in Japans Aokigahara forest. Paul deleted the video, titled We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest which he did not monetise, on New Year's Day - around 24 hours after it was published. But he has published three other videos of his trip to Japan, all serving ads, from which he will share the revenue with YouTube. These videos, in which he is filmed pranking locals and running amok in Japans capital, have since garnered more than 24 million views combined. YouTube personalities are prevented from publicly disclosing what they earn through adverts, but ads placed on videos of channels with substantial followings can make up to $4,000 (2,900) per million views. Turns out, Logan Paul's trip to Japan was problematic for many reasons pic.twitter.com/yhj2BYgk4G We The Unicorns (@wetheunicorns) January 5, 2018 Danny Fratella from the analytics website Social Blade said: YouTube creators, especially those with larger audiences, tend to earn anywhere from $1 to $4 per thousand views on their videos. In the case of Logan's 24 million views on his still-published Japan videos, it's possible that he could have earned anywhere from $24,000 (18,000) to $96,000 (71,000) in revenue. Pauls share of the revenue will have come after YouTube had taken a roughly 50 per cent cut, meaning the company also stands to make tens of thousands of dollars from his controversial Japan trip. Story continues Both Paul and YouTube declined to comment on the amount of money being made from the Japan trip videos. On Thursday YouTube announced it was dropping Paul from its Google Preferred premium advertising programme in response to the outcry from the Aokigahara forest video, and suspending its original content projects with him. Paul apologised in the wake of the controversy, describing the video as a "severe and continuous lapse in my judgement", and has since announced he is taking a break from vlogging to take "time to reflect". However, Pauls popularity on YouTube has not been adversely affected by the fall-out, with the social media star gaining more than 400,000 subscribers since the contentious clip was released, according to Social Blade. Logan Paul before throwing a Game Boy on the ground Credit: Logan Paul Vlogs 'Tasteless' videos Guys, I feel so good right now, he says in a video, which includes a link to his official merchandise shop, posted the day after the suicide forest visit was filmed. Its a bit weird starting the year like this because you guys saw yesterdays vlog. At first for me, that was weird ... We found a dead body hanging in the Japanese suicide forest. Not exactly how I planned to end 2017. But lifes about the journey. Im glad you get to all live it with me. In the videos, which have been widely criticised by viewers for being tasteless, Paul begins by saying he is wary about being careful to not to disrespect the culture in Japan. Logan Paul drops his trousers in public Credit: Logan Paul Vlogs However, later in the trip he is filmed running around the city performing kung-fu style moves dressed in a kimono robe and traditional rice farmers hat and pretending to catch locals with Pokemon Poke Balls, while constantly promoting his merchandise. In other clips he smashes a vendors Game Boy Colour on the ground before telling him its mucho broken-o, pulls his shorts down in public and runs up to people walking in the street waving dead fish in their face. Do not come to Japan anymore, wrote one commenter. Another added: This is so disrespectful. Logan Paul throws Poke Balls at strangers Credit: Logan Paul Vlogs YouTube has so far resisted calls to take down the Pauls page, which has 15 million subscribers, in response to the outpouring of anger the dead body video prompted. A Change.org petition calling for Paul to be axed from the platform has garnered 470,000 signatures in 10 days. As well as Paul being one of YouTube's biggest stars, he also has a broader commercial relationship with the company. In 2016 he starred in its YouTube Red movie The Thinning and worked on a number of original content projects with YouTube. YouTube did place a temporary strike against Pauls account for breaching its graphic content policy with the Aokigahara forest video. Strikes are YouTubes standard punitive measure for channels that breach its policies and accounts that get three in three months are deleted. Channels that have a strike placed on them can also have account features, such monetisation, temporarily disabled. YouTube has declined to comment on whether it has disabled any features on Pauls account. Making millions from YouTube Logan Paul has made millions from YouTube Credit: Logan Paul Vlogs Paul earns an estimated $6.7million (5m) a year from the adverts served across his two YouTube channels which have a combined reach of almost 20 million. Some of the worlds biggest YouTube stars, including Paul and his brother Jake Paul, make millions of dollars a year through monetising their content, largely by allowing 30-second pre-roll adverts on their videos. Vloggers are paid an estimated $0.25- $4.00 for every 1,000 impressions an advert gets through AdSense, a programme worth billions in annual revenue to Google, which also owns YouTube. AdSense defines this as 'revenue per thousand impressions' (RPM) for content creators, after YouTube takes its cut, based on the total number of 30-second pre-roll adverts viewed. Profile | Logan Paul However, its difficult to put an exact figure on the amount YouTube stars make through advertising as reports suggest they are unable to publicly disclose their individual RPM rates. YouTuber Evan Edinger, who has 440,000 subscribers, told the BBC in November that a vlogger could make up to $5,000 (3,700) per million views on a video. YouTubers with large followings can then make additional profits from commercial partnerships, merchandise and product endorsements. However views and ad revenue are not explicitly linked due to a number of factors including the fact not all videos will feature a pre-rolled advert, viewers can skip adverts or use of ad blockers. Paul has also faced a backlash over accusations he initially monetised his tearful apology video over the suicide video, which has garnered more than 36 million views and appeared in the top slot on YouTubes trending section, however no adverts currently appear before the clip. YouTube's delayed response YouTube has faced a criticism for allowing Pauls Aokigahara forest video to be uploaded and viewed more than six million times before he took it down. Paul's video was flagged to Youtube's moderators, who allowed it to remain up without an age restriction, according to members of its volunteer "trusted flagger" team. YouTube has also been slow to address the controversy caused by the video and didn't issue a public statement until 10 days after it was originally posted. Like many others, we were upset by the video that was shared last week, YouTube said in a statement published Wednesday on Twitter. Suicide is not a joke, nor should it ever be a driving force for views We expect more of the creators who build their community on YouTube, as were sure you do too. The channel violated our community guidelines, we acted accordingly, and we are looking at further consequences. Its taken us a long time to respond, but weve been listening to everything youve been saying. We know that the actions of one creator can affect the entire community, so well have more to share soon on steps were taking to ensure a video like this is never circulated again. On Thursday the company outlined what those "further consequences" were, saying: "In light of recent events, we have decided to remove Logan Pauls channels from Google Preferred. "Additionally, we will not feature Logan in season 4 of Foursome and his new Originals are on hold." Damage control Logan Paul in 2017 Credit: Reuters Eric Schiffer, a consultant who works with A-list celebrities on overcoming controversy and repairing damaged reputations, believes Pauls career can still recover. His clickbait marauding in front of a hanging suicide victim in Japan and later YouTube upload, which included his laughing at the dead body, was stone cold crazy because it created a lasting hail of fire to his brand, he told The Telegraph. Parents and the internet will continue to be out for his celebrity scalp buffered only slightly by the obsessed digital defence of Paul by his adoring fans - many of whom are too young to understand the seriousness of suicide. Logan Paul is not an arch criminal; hes an emotionally immature kid that made unwise choices and this is why precisely why he and his brand can and will survive. Logan Pauls representatives have not responded to several requests for comment from The Telegraph. Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Angel Merkel's Christian Democrats, her Bavarian CSU allies and Martin Schulz's Social Democrats on Friday announced a policy blueprint for a future coalition government. If the three parties can agree on the details, and avoid pitfalls along the way, these would become policy in Merkel's fourth-term government expected to be sworn in by late March. - Europe - Germany, the EU's biggest economy, supports the ambitious reform drive of French President Emmanuel Macron and the European Commission but stays vague on some of the details. The coalition blueprint starts with the topic of Europe and includes pledges to strengthen common EU foreign and defence policy. It vows efforts to, "in close partnership with France, sustainably strengthen and reform the eurozone so that the euro can better withstand global crises". The plan supports the creation of a European Monetary Fund that could lend to countries in economic crisis, but only pledges to study other Macron ideas, including a common eurozone budget and finance minister. Lueder Gerken of the Centre for European Policy Studies said that the promise of "a new start" for Europe sends "an important message" to Europe and especially Macron. However, Gerken found some elements "problematic", saying that a pledge to increase spending for the EU budget "unnecessarily weakens Germany's negotiating position". - Economy - Thanks to flush public coffers, Germany will boost public investment while maintaining a balanced budget, says the paper. The conservatives were able to stick with a pledge not to raise taxes, which the SPD had wanted to do for the very rich. The SPD won some social welfare concessions, including in health insurance. On energy and climate, the parties agreed to formally stick with Germany's carbon emission reduction goals, even if experts agree Germany looks set to overshoot its 2020 target. Story continues They also said Germany would from this year study ways to phase out dirty coal plants, without however setting a target date so far. German Institute for Economic Research president Marcel Fratzscher said the paper listed many compromises but "lacks a clear vision or courageous reforms that could future-proof Germany". - Refugees - The parties agreed to limit the numbers of refugees and migrants coming to Germany following the arrival of more than one million asylum seekers since 2015. The mass influx drove the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party which scored almost 13 percent in September elections. Under the blueprint, Germany will seek to limit the annual intake of people seeking safe haven to around 200,000, in line with a long-standing demand of the CSU, whose southern state of Bavaria was at the frontline of the refugee arrivals. Germany will also allow some refugees with temporary status to bring their families, but cap the number of relatives coming to Germany at 1,000 a month. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel slammed the steps as "a farce" as long as Germany could not lock down its borders. The refugee rights group Pro Asyl said the policies spell "a victory for hardliners over humanity and human rights". A cold case murder nearly 25 years old may finally be solved after a California man confessed to a TV station and police that he was among those responsible for the killing. Brian Keith Hawkins, 44, confessed on Tuesday to the killing of Frank Wesley McAlister, 19, who was stabbed to death during a robbery in 1993, Redding police said. Hawkins first went to the television station in Redding to discuss his actions before going to the police, according to KRCR-TV. He refused to answer any questions about the case itself but said he wanted people to know that he had found God, and that is what led him to finally do the right thing and confess, KRCR-TV said. We agreed to interview him, on the condition that we would hold the interview until he turned himself in, and law enforcement could corroborate his confession. After speaking with reporters, Hawkins went to the Redding Police Department, where cops say he admitted to having a role in McAlister's death. McAlister was believed to have come into money from a settlement before he was killed. In May 1993, Hawkins, Shanna Culver and her brother Curtis Culver allegedly lured lured McAlister out to Shingletown under the guise of selling him methamphetamine. Instead, Hawkins and Curtis Culver, now 45, allegedly stabbed McAlister to death and left his body in the woods, police said. The two men and Shanna Culver, now 46, then allegedly took McAlisters money and drove his vehicle back to Redding, where they left it in a Costco parking lot, authorities said. McAlister was reported missing by his family shortly after he disappeared. Authorities soon found his car and immediately suspected foul play, as a large amount of blood was found inside. McAlisters remains were found one year later by a hiker, cops said. Investigators in 1993 learned Hawkins and the Culver siblings were the last people to see McAlister alive, but they denied any involvement in his disappearance and said they had no information about his whereabouts, officials said. Story continues "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 tearfully told KCRC-TV. "I know the wrong can't be changed but this is the closest I can come to doing the right thing I've been through hell my whole life because of this. He said he reached out to McAlisters family last year to ask for forgiveness and vowed to confess to the crime. I'm not running," he said. "I just need someone that cares. I just hope the community can also forgive me." Hawkins and the Culvers were arrested and charged with the murder of McAlister. They all remain in the Shasta County Jail. KRCR-TV reported that police said one of the Culvers has also confessed, but declined to specify which one. Police released images of McAlister on social media, writing: We wish to thank Frank's family for their patience during our investigation into Frank's murder, which has spanned more than two decades. We sincerely hope that the recent arrest of Frank's alleged murderers will bring some measure of closure to his family. Anyone who has any further information about McAlisters killing is asked to contact the Redding Police Department at 530-225-4200. RELATED STORIES DNA Found on Coke Can Leads to Arrest in Teen's 1989 Cold Case Murder Alleged Killer Clown Back in Court to Face Charges in 1990 Cold Case Slaying Leader of 'Cult-Like' Boarding School Is Arrested in Late 1980s Cold Case Death of Toddler Related Articles: The State Department issued new travel warnings for parts of Mexico on Wednesday, advising American travelers to entirely avoid five regions due to crime. The advisory tells Americans do not travel to the five Mexican coastal states of Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero, and Tamaulipas. It also suggests exercising increased caution or reconsider travel to other parts of the country. Heres a map of Mexicos five states the U.S. deemed most dangerous, as well as the general warnings across the rest of the country. The State Department gave Mexico a level 2 travel warning overall, encouraging travelers to exercise increased caution in general. Mexico Travel Warning Map Violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread, the advisory states. The latest advisory gives the five Mexican states the same warning level as risky travel destinations like Syria, Yemen and Somalia. The mayor of San Juan, whose urgent demands for U.S. aid after Hurricane Maria shot her to political stardom, on whats ahead for Puerto Rico What was 2017 like for Puerto Rico? It was a year of great challenges and new beginnings. I started my second term as mayor of San Juan, and a new governor was elected with a new majority in the legislature. Even though he and I dont see eye to eye, every beginning offers opportunities. That was immediately shattered not only by Hurricanes Irma and Maria but by policies that made protests somewhat illegal. Privatization of our public schools. Our labor unions lost rights that they have fought for for 40, 50 years. The economy was failing. Were basically a colony of the United States, and the imposition of the fiscal control board started to become real. It wasnt like, Oh, theyre coming to help. They were coming to control us. I opposed it from the beginning. I wish I had been wrong. But I wasnt. What were the days before and after the storm like? We were starting to clean the debris of Irma when Maria appeared on Sept. 20, this huge cloud that grabbed ahold of the entire island. There was a sense of great impotence. There was nothing you could do but wait. We took shelter in a colosseum with about 685 people and about 200 employees. I knew they werent going to have a home to go back to. I saw the palm trees swaying like Ive never seen them before. It was devastation. I knew that the country and the city that I had loved all my life were going to be there no more. Youve been vocal about the federal governments role in all of this. Their lack of role. What did it do wrong? The federal government didnt do things right from the beginning. President Trump insulted the Puerto Rican people over and over and over. You know that Carly Simon song, Youre so vain, you probably think this song is about you? He probably thought that Maria was about him. But it wasnt about him, it wasnt about politics; it was about saving lives. FEMA was asking Puerto Ricans to go online and register for support. For heavens sake, we have no electricity. FEMA kept asking for memos, as if this were the first disaster that they had ever encountered. I finally lost my patience and stopped being politically correct. And I just shouted out an SOS to the world: Were dying here! That didnt make me a lot of friends in the federal government, but thats my duty. Story continues Can you talk about what happened with the Whitefish Energy contract? First of all, we shouldnt be rebuilding our grid, because its totally fossil-fuel-injected. We are going to get hit by another hurricane, and we dont want to go through the same thing again. When we finally got access to the contract, we noticed strange things, like if the contract were rescinded, Whitefish would get paid anyway. I tweeted that the contract should be made available for everyone to see. Whitefish tweets back and says, Mayor, we have 40 people coming today. Do you want us to send them back or keep working? Look at the gall of a company hired by Puerto Rico, threatening an official for demanding transparency. When you ask for the truth and it blocks somebodys lies, they get upset. Finally, the governor asked to rescind the contract. So now were back to square one. Looking ahead to 2018, whats your plan for the city and beyond? As a Puerto Rican, not as a mayor, I believe that this is the opportunity to make our island nation more equitable and caring. And what about as San Juans mayor? I will dedicate my life to the eradication of poverty, to the end of colonization of Puerto Rico. I hope to make Congress respond to the values upon which the U.S. was built. I love them so much, I want them for my own country. For more on this interview, visit time.com/carmencruz Meghan Markle has closed down her social media accounts in the run-up to the royal wedding [Photo: Getty] Its official: Meghan Markle has deleted all of her social media accounts. In an unsurprising move, the Suits actress deactivated her Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages shortly after her first royal engagement of 2018. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited a Brixton radio station on 9th January to mark their first royal engagement of 2018 [Photo: Getty] Before meeting future husband Prince Harry, the 36-year-old had an impressive fanbase with 1.9 million followers on Instagram and 350,000 Twitter devotees. But just months into dating the royal, Meghan hinted that things were getting serious as she decided to close down her personal blog, The Tig. In a thank you note, the actress penned: After close to three beautiful years on this adventure with you, its time to say goodbye to The Tig. Youve made my days brighter and filled this experience with so much joy. She continued, Keep finding those Tig moments of discovery, keep laughing and taking risks, and keep being the change you wish to see in the world. Above all, dont ever forget your worth as Ive told you time and time again: you, my sweet friend, you are enough. Thank you for everything. Just months into dating Prince Harry, Meghan Markle closed down her personal blog [Photo: The Tig] In response to the social media cull, a royal spokesperson announced: Ms Markle is grateful to everyone who has followed her social media accounts over the years, however as she has not used these accounts for some time she has taken the decision to close them. It is widely believed that members of the Royal Family cannot have their own personal social media accounts. Instead, Instagram and Twitter pages such as Kensington Palace have a communications team who announce upcoming engagements and family announcements on behalf of the royals. And it is also key to note the fact that Princes Harry and William regularly speak out about the dangerous connotations between excessive social media use and our mental health. During a royal visit to Copenhagen in October 2017, Harry spoke candidly about the negative impact digital platforms such as Instagram can have on our lives. According to People, the young royal said: People are spending far too much time online and its like a mental running machine that they cant get off. You wouldnt put your body through such a workout. Story continues He concluded, We all need to talk to each other more. But royal fans need not worry, as you can keep up to date with the couple via the Kensington Palace social media accounts. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Read more from Yahoo Style UK: Meghan Markles sister isnt happy with Prince Harrys latest comments Prince Harry and Meghan Markle denied dreamy wedding venue Meghan Markle pairs messy bun with M&S, Burberry and Jigsaw outfit for first public appearance of 2018 A new tiered travel advisory system from the U.S. State Department was rolled out yesterday, replacing the old one of alerts, warnings, and security message. The four-level threat system is intended to make security information for potential American travelers clearer and more nuanced, but it has also led to a fair share of confusion. Most notably, people seem especially concerned with designations given to Mexico: The country as a whole is at a level two advisory, meaning "exercise increased caution," but five states within the country are at level four, the highest on the scale, with the recommendation being "do not travel." The Los Angeles Times makes the point that the level four designation puts these five statesthe Pacific regions of Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, and Sinaloa; and Tamaulipas, on the Gulf of Mexicoat the "same danger category as war-torn Somalia, Afghanistan, and Syria." True, but is this new? Not really. American tourists have previously been warned against traveling to certain regions, considered unsafe due to the prevalence of crimeit's really just the nomenclature that has changed. As recently as January 1, before the changeover to the new system, some Mexican states (including the aforementioned ones) were under a "travel warning," advising American citizens to defer travel, the same designation given to those "war-torn" regions mentioned above. In Sinaloa, for example, the now-archived travel warning page cautioned, "One of Mexico's most powerful criminal organizations is based in the state of Sinaloa, and violent crime rates remain high in many parts of the state. Defer non-essential travel to the state of Sinaloa, except the cities of Mazatlan, Los Mochis, and the Port of Topolobampo." Meanwhile, other regions, including the popular tourist destination of Yucatan, had "no travel advisory in effect." (Today, under the new system, Yucatan is given a level two, the same as the country as a whole.) Story continues As Bureau of Consular Affairs Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Citizen Services Michelle Bernier-Toth outlined in a briefing on Wednesday, the new system is also a direct reflection on the rules put into place for U.S. embassy personnel and the resulting lack of resources available to Americans. When asked about the state-by-state breakdown of Mexico's travel advisory page, Bernier-Toth said: "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 theyre 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 its much more clearly spelled out here in the new Travel Advisory." The restrictions placed on U.S. government personnel all over the world inform the recommendations made for travelers, not just because of how they are response to specific threats, but also because, in areas where there are no government personnel, there's also no one to come to travelers' aid in the case of emergencies. Following the unveiling of the new travel advisory system, the Mexico Tourism Board released a statement, assuring tourists that much of the country remains safe: "Mexicos major international tourist destinations have been explicitly listed as having no travel restrictions, or they exist in states where there are no special travel advisories for tourists," the statement reads, before noting where the tourism board sees room for improvement in the travel advisory system. "Our main concern comes from the fact that the crime, violence, and other statistics used are those for a country overall, not related to the number of incidents that impact foreign visitors. Additionally, the U.S. Department of State continues to not issue a travel advisory for the U.S. applying the same criteria and system, which would inform and assist both foreigners and domestic travelers who intend to travel within the U.S." Mexico isn't the only country with region-specific advisory levels that differ from the country as a whole. Conflict, crime, or even the effects of a natural disaster or public health emergency can often be confined to parts of a country that make them off-limits, while other sections of it remain safe. Georgia, for example, a country that we urge you to visit this year, has a level one travel advisory, meaning "exercise normal precautions." But, the State Department puts a level four "do not travel" on the Russian-occupied regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia "due to civil unrest, crime, and landmines." Colombia carries a level two warning, but the detailed travel advisory identifies thirteen regions, including Putumayo on the border of Peru and Ecuador, with a level three advisory, for which the State Department recommends tourists "reconsider travel" due to the threat of violent crime. In 2017, Mexico suffered one of its most violent years in two decades, but any concerns about safety require a layer of nuancesomething that the new travel advisory system affords with its state-by-state breakdown. So no, you shouldn't visit states like Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, which have been so gravely affected by the drug trade and organized crime. But should you cancel your beach retreat to Tulum or food crawl through Mexico City? The State Department says to "exercise increased caution," the same as you should following the level two advisory in places like Rome, Paris, Bali, and the Maldives. A Mexico travel warning has been issued by the U.S. State Department, warning against traveling to five states below the border. Mexico Source: Shutterstock Tamaulipas located on the U.S. border and Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero on the Pacific coast have a level four do not travel advisory, marking the highest warning issued by the department. These locations are known for their drug cartel activity, including trafficking routes and drug-crop cultivation. Syria, Yemen and Somalia have similar warnings as these locations. Overall, Mexico has a level two warning, which asks Americans to exercise increased caution. A level three warning was issued to 11 other states in Mexico, asking travelers to reconsider travel plans. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips The level three advisory was offered to most areas in Mexico City, Jalisco (where Guadalajara is located), as well as the Puerto Vallarta resorts and lakeside expat community of Chapala and Ajijic. However, the State Department offers no warnings for popular tourist hotspots such as Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Chapala, and Ajijic. The highest homicide rate in Mexico is in Colima due to the growth of a new cartel, where there are 83.3 killings per 100,000 people. Baja California Sur has the second-highest homicide rate in Mexico at 61.6 per 100,000, despite only having a level two caution at the moment. This is the area where the popular twin resorts of Los Cabos are located. We are going to keep working very hard in 2018 to make sure that Los Cabos continues as a safe destination, said Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board. More From InvestorPlace Compare Brokers The post Mexico Travel Warning 2018: 5 Places You Should NOT Visit appeared first on InvestorPlace. By Peter Szekely and Chris Kenning (Reuters) - The top prosecutor in St. Louis said on Thursday she will investigate the actions of Missouri Governor Eric Greitens after he admitted an extramarital affair with a woman before his election in November 2016, but then denied that he tried to blackmail her to keep it a secret. "The serious allegations against Missouri Governor Eric Greitens are very troubling," Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said in a statement, urging people with information to come forward. Following the blackmail allegation, Gardner announced her office's probe, but did not offer details as to what actions by Greitens would be investigated. The investigation came as a Republican state senator on Thursday circulated a letter among 33 colleagues from both major parties asking Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley to investigate the blackmail allegation. "The seriousness of this allegation and the implications it will have on the integrity of our state government are deeply disturbing," said the letter, written by state Senator Doug Libla. Greitens, a Republican, made his admission on Wednesday following a report by a St. Louis television station that included a recording of a woman confessing to a sexual encounter with him to her now ex-husband. Greitens, 43, said in a joint statement with his wife, Sheena, that "there was a time" before he became governor when he was "unfaithful in our marriage," and his wife had forgiven him. "This was a deeply personal mistake," the couple posted on Twitter. "Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately." Greitens' lawyer, James Bennett of St. Louis, denied the governor threatened to blackmail the woman. "There was no 'blackmail,' and that claim is false," Bennett said in a statement posted to Greitens' Twitter account. "This personal matter has been addressed by the governor and Mrs. Greitens privately years ago when it happened." Story continues Bennett, in an email to Reuters, dismissed the Circuit Attorney's investigation, calling the blackmail claim "false allegations" advanced by political opponents. Even before Libla circulated his letter, the Senate's two top Democrats had called for an investigation into the blackmail allegation. "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," Senate Minority Floor Leader Gina Walsh and Assistant Minority Floor Leader Senate Kiki Curls said in a joint statement. Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, described himself during his campaign as a "very proud husband and father," and often included his wife and two small children in his television ads. KMOV-TV in St. Louis aired a recording late on Wednesday of the unidentified woman with whom Greitens admitted having the affair as she confessed the March 2015 encounter to her then-husband. KMOV did not identify the woman or her husband in the recording, which it said was made just days after the encounter, but said the two were no longer married. The woman, who said she knew Greitens because she cut his hair, later emailed him to ask that he stop using her salon, KMOV said. In the recording, the woman also told her husband that Greitens had taken a picture of her while naked and threatened to publicize it if she ever told anyone of their affair. (Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York and Chris Kenning in Chicago; editing by G Crosse and Clive McKeef) Myanmar has moved ahead with the formal charging of two journalists working for the Reuters news agency. The two face up to 14 years in jail if found guilty. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were charged under the Official Secrets Act after a meeting with police in which they had offered information on the humanitarian situation in Rakhine state. The Ministry of Information says they illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media. Ethnic tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine have led to military intervention, bloodshed and the outflow of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims across the border into Bangladesh. The Myanmar governments official position on the crisis is that Rohingya are illegal Bengali immigrants. The journalists were arrested on Dec. 12 and detained without access to family or lawyers for two weeks. They appeared in court on Dec. 27 and were remanded until Wednesday, when they were charged. Their next court appearance in due on Jan. 23. We view this as a wholly unwarranted, blatant attack on press freedom. Our colleagues should be allowed to return to their jobs reporting on events in Myanmar. We believe time is of the essence and we continue to call for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oos prompt release, said Stephen J. Adler, president and editor-in-chief, at Reuters. The move against the reporters has also outraged governments, NGOs and journalists organizations, many of which were already concerned by deteriorating human rights standards, and possible ethnic cleansing, in Myanmar. The U.S. said it was deeply disappointed by Myanmars decision to pursue charges. The media freedom that is so critical to rule of law and a strong democracy requires that journalists be able to do their jobs, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. The secretary-general has repeated and will continue to repeat his concern at the erosion of press freedom in Myanmar and calling on the international community to do everything to secure the journalists release and freedom of the press, said United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Story continues They have done absolutely nothing but carry out their legitimate work as journalists, said James Gomez, Amnesty Internationals director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, in a statement. This is clearly an attempt by the authorities to silence investigations into military violations and crimes against Rohingya in Rakhine State, and to scare other journalists away from doing the same. In 2017 the Reporters Without Borders organization ranked Myanmar at #131 out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom. It accused the new civilian government of failing the media sector. The authorities continue to exert pressure on the media and even intervene directly to get editorial policies changed. Widespread racist attitudes towards the Rohingya people restrict free and independent coverage of the humanitarian crisis in (Rakhine) state, it said. On Wednesday Myanmars army acknowledged for the first time that soldiers were involved in unlawfully killing 10 Rohingyas. An internal inquiry found that four members of the security forces were involved in Inn Din village near Maungdaw in Rakhine. Related stories Locarno: Thu Thu Shein Discusses Myanmar's Budding Independent Film Industry, the Value of Collaboration Fred Prouser, Reuters Red-Carpet Photographer, Dies at 63 Reuters Launches 'Netflix for News' App: Can It Put a Dent in CNN or CNBC? Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts! NASA and private companies like SpaceX are busy planning Mars missions, but only have a vague idea of how they're going to find critical water supplies. Now, using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), researchers have discovered abundant, easy-to-access H20. A survey found no less than eight sites where cliff erosion has exposed thick deposits of nearly pure ice that lie just three to six feet below rock and dust. The findings mean that future missions, both manned and robotic, may have an easier time than expected digging up water for drinking and making rocket fuel. As reported in the journal Science (paywall), the water was found in both the north and south of Mars, at latitudes equivalent to South America and Scotland. The exposed areas were found on scarps as steep as 55 degrees. Based on the absence of craters in the regions, scientists believe that the features formed relatively recently. "The discovery reported today gives us surprising windows where we can see right into these thick underground sheets of ice," study co-author Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona told NASA. "It's like having one of those ant farms where you can see through the glass on the side to learn about what's usually hidden beneath the ground." Researchers found the scarp sites by gauging colors using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the MRO, and confirmed its purity using CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars). The orbiter has previously found extensive ice sheets at other locations on Mars using its Shallow Radar camera, but it was impossible to say how deep it was. Now, scientists know that it's close enough to access with relative ease. The exposed blue material is very likely ice (NASA, JPL-Caltech, University of Arizona) Another study had scientists concerned that the soil itself doesn't contain much water, but that may not be as much of an issue if it's abundant in ice form just below the surface. At the eight sites, there are even areas where ice water is directly exposed. "Astronauts could essentially just go there with a bucket and a shovel and get all the water they need," Byrne said. Story continues Besides the practical aspects of water-fetching, the findings have important scientific value, too. "There is shallow ground ice under roughly a third of the Martian surface, which records the recent history of Mars," said Colin Dundas, the study's lead author. "What we've seen here are cross-sections through the ice that give us a 3D view with more detail than ever before." For instance, Mars' climate is highly variable because, unlike the Earth, its tilt changes a lot more often. Researchers noticed variations in the color of the ice in individual scarps, suggesting that it formed differently at different times, depending on the tilt. "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," said MRO project scientist Leslie Tamppari. The finding is one of the most exciting around Mars water to date, but it's not definitive proof that massive ice blocks exist below the surface of Mars. On top of that, researchers can't tell if the water has high amounts of salts or, worse, poisonous perchlorates. However, it gives scientists a much better idea where to send future robotic missions, which could access the ice directly and tell us all we need to know. (Photo: Getty Images) Theres no doubt that Saoirse Ronan regularly takes risks when it comes to style, but somehow, everyone seemed to miss what might be her most daring look to date. The Lady Bird star visited The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon Wednesday in a seriously sexy jumpsuit from Brazilian label Alexandrines Fall 2017 collection. The black long sleeved velvet number features a cutout running all the way down the right leg. Her skin is covered in a panel of French lace that drapes across her collarbone and down her side, exposing everything from her right arm to her hip to her ankle. The back is completely open save for the lace, showcasing everything but her behind. The lace is covered with Swarovski crystals, giving the edgy ensemble a glamorous twist. She heightened the sex appeal with sky-high Giuseppe Zanotti black platform sandals with a crystal knot. (Photo: Getty Images) Somehow, no one is talking about this sleek look on the young woman known for her love of blazers, youthful patterns, and sometimes edgy yet still conservative attire like the one sleeved black gown she wore to the Golden Globes on Sunday, with structured shoulders and silver paneling. Saoirse Ronan in Atelier Versace at the Golden Globes Ronan in Atelier Versace at the Golden Globes. (Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage) That doesnt mean Ronan doesnt know how to do sexy, especially on late night talk shows. In December, the actress appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in a teeny black leather mini dress. Seems like Ronan simply saves her sexy styles for the right occasions, making them that much better and more tasteful. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. (Reuters) - Ohio environmental regulators on Friday told federal energy regulators the state has significant concerns about the potential for a spill from Energy Transfer Partners' drilling as the company works on the Rover natural gas pipeline. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said in a filing with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it learned this week that 148,000 gallons of drilling fluid were "lost down the hole" that ETP is drilling under the Tuscarawas River in Stark County, Ohio. That is the same site as a spill last April of 2 million gallons of mostly clay and water used to lubricate drilling blades, which led FERC to temporarily ban ETP from new horizontal drilling. The state has "significant concerns for the potential of similar releases as occurred at this location in April," it said in the filing. "We are deeply concerned this second drill under the Tuscarawas River is heading towards a similar outcome which resulted in the previous release to the environment." The state EPA said in its filing the company has not discovered any new spills in the area. "We continue to work in coordination with FERC ... and are following the (horizontal drilling) plan that has been approved by FERC and the Ohio EPA," Alexis Daniel, a spokeswoman for ETP, said in an email. Ohio, which asked FERC to ban all of ETP's horizontal directional drilling in November, said in its filing on Friday it wants more information on the Tuscarawas drilling. FERC in December allowed ETP to complete all horizontal drills on the Rover project, including those in Ohio. Pipeline companies use horizontal directional drilling to cross under large obstacles like highways and rivers. Once finished, the $4.2 billion Rover pipeline will carry up to 3.25 billion cubic feet of gas per day from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the U.S. Midwest and Ontario in Canada. One billion cubic feet per day of gas can supply about five million U.S. homes. ETP said Friday it expects to finish Rover by the end of the first quarter. About 0.9 bcfd of gas was already flowing on completed portions of the pipeline, according to Reuters data. Major gas producers that have signed up to use Rover include units of privately held Ascent Resources LLC, Antero Resources Corp, Range Resources Corp, Southwestern Energy Co, Eclipse Resources Corp and EQT Corp. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and David Gregorio) GAZA (Reuters) - Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank on Friday in what they said was a protest against U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Such clashes occur weekly, but tensions have risen following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Dec. 6, which stirred anger across the Arab and Muslim world and concern among Washingtons European allies as well as Russia. The move was welcomed by Israel. "There is almost nothing left for the United States to do before it clearly declares a state of war against the Palestinian people, its authority and leadership," wrote commentator Rajab Abu Serreya in the widely-circulated Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam. A total of 17 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed in the flare-up since Trump's announcement, though analysts say neither Israel nor the Palestinians are interested in a major escalation. A few hundred Gazans approached the border fence with Israel, throwing stones at soldiers who tried to disperse them by firing canisters of tear gas, according to Reuters video. Smaller crowds gathered in a couple of West Bank cities where protesters threw stones and burned tyres. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and threw stun grenades. East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want for the capital of a Palestinian state, was captured by Israel in the 1967 war and later annexed, though that action has not been internationally recognised. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have collapsed, partly due to Israeli settlement building on occupied land and to Israeli concerns over contact between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas which Israel considers a terrorist organisation. Palestinian medical officials said 14 Palestinians were wounded by live ammunition in Friday's clash. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the reports. "We want the Americans to know that the bloodshed here of unarmed people is on the hands of their president," said Ali, a 20-year-old university student in Gaza who did not want to give his family name. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Ralph Boulton) Its been quite the roller-coaster ride for President Donald Trumps administration. In the last few days alone, Trump has reportedly called Haiti and African nations shithole countries, bragged about selling fictitious fighter jets to Norway, scrapped a visit to London, and called himself a very stable genius. That turmoil is set against the backdrop of Special Counsel Robert Muellers ongoing probe into possible collusion between Trumps campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. So, on Friday, Twitter users decided to explore the ways in which they could possibly fix Trump. Heres a sampling of some of the best #FixTrumpIn5Words posts: Stop giving him any attention #FixTrumpIn5Words Devlyn Angel (@devlyn_angel) January 12, 2018 Swap phone for fidget spinner #FixTrumpIn5Words Lets Get Quizical (@Quizical123) January 12, 2018 Teach him the national anthem. #FixTrumpIn5Words unicorns donuts (@UnicornsDonuts) January 12, 2018 Print resignation letter and sign. #FixTrumpIn5Words Suha (@suhatheblogger) January 12, 2018 #FixTrumpIn5Words Destroy all of the horcruxes Manda Posthumously (@ShutUpAmanda) January 12, 2018 Delete his Twitter account now!#FixTrumpIn5Words Voice of Reason (@raggapegs) January 12, 2018 Build a wall around him. #FixTrumpIn5Words Jake Robison (Unstable Genius) (@jakerobison1) January 12, 2018 #fixtrumpin5words bring back barack obama please em (@EMILLYYOO) January 12, 2018 Block, ignore, and delete account #FixTrumpIn5Words I Remember 2017 (@WeHeart2017) January 12, 2018 #FixTrumpIn5Words Take away his social media Laura (@droopiesmom) January 12, 2018 #FixTrumpIn5Words Vote GOP out of office Gerald #VetsResistSquadron (@Langkard) January 12, 2018 Related Coverage Story continues Tweeters Ridicule Trump's Reason For Scrapped UK Visit Celebrities Erupt In Anger Over Donald Trump's 'Shithole Countries' Comment Top Goon: Donald Trump Brags About Selling A Fighter Jet That Only Exists In 'Call Of Duty' 'How That Got In There?' Jimmy Kimmel Spoofs Donald Trump's X-Ray Results Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. A particularly deadly flu virus has reportedly become widespread in 46 states across the country, according to the recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC reported the severe flu season has already resulted in the deaths of at least 13 children since it began in October. "This is a feature of this years flu -- not only did it start early, but it seemed to occur all over the country more or less simultaneously," Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told ABC News. According to data released last week from the CDC, the deadly virus has yet to reach "epidemic" proportions, but it could soon. A flu outbreak can become an epidemic when the number of deaths resulting from the virus exceeds a percentage set by the CDC using data from previous years. However, this week's number of deaths has reportedly placed the country at just 0.2 percent below that threshold. CDC State health officials in Ohio said nearly 2,100 people have been hospitalized because of the flu, which is a dramatic increase from the 369 hospitalizations around this time during the 2016-2017 flu season. The state hasn't reportedly experienced a flu season this terrible since the 2014-2015 season when there were roughly 2,800 flu-related deaths. SEE ALSO: Flu shot effectiveness in question as worse-than-normal season looms for US The virus also appears to be hitting California particularly hard. According to the Associated Press, at least 27 deaths of people under 65 have been linked to the flu. State hospitals are also reportedly beginning to run out of the anti-viral medication used to treat the illness, Tamiflu. According to The Weather Channel, many of those contracting the virus have a strain known as H3N2, which reportedly doesn't respond well to flu vaccinations and is particularly dangerous to young kids and adults over the age of 65. Symptoms of the virus include fever, cough, body aches, headaches and fatigue. To treat the flu, the CDC recommends using over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen or cough syrup to relieve symptoms, in addition to resting and taking fluids. Story continues To curb the spread of the flu, the agency also advises those infected to: Stay home Avoid touching your face, especially your mouth, nose, and eyes Wash your hands frequently Avoid others who are infected Sneeze or cough into your sleeve or a tissue If you are able to contact your doctor within 48 hours of onset of symptoms, you can potentially be administered an antiviral drug which will reduce the severity of symptoms in addition to the length of the illness. The CDC also has additional guidelines here. RELATED: The best drinks to fight the flu President Trump speaks during a meeting at the White House on Thursday. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP) Amid a torrent of outraged criticism from around the country and the world, President Trump disputed multiple reports that he referred to Haiti as a shithole country during an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers on Thursday about U.S. immigration policy. Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country, Trump tweeted early Friday morning. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 Earlier, the president did not deny using tough language at the meeting, which was focused on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an Obama-era immigration program that was rescinded by the Trump administration last year. But Trump suggested he did not make the shithole remark as reported. The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used, he tweeted. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made a big setback for DACA! 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 Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was among the lawmakers at the meeting, refuted Trumps denials. Story continues Youve seen the comments in the press. Ive not read one of them thats inaccurate, Durbin told reporters on Friday. To no surprise, the president started tweeting this morning denying that he used those words. Its not true. He said these hateful things, and he said them repeatedly. GOP Sens. David Perdue and Tom Cotton, who were also in the room, issued a joint statement saying they do not recall the president saying these comments specifically. But Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said that fellow South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham who was in the room too told him the reported comments are basically accurate. Graham subsequently issued a statement saying he confronted Trump over the remarks. Following comments by the President, I said my piece directly to him yesterday, Graham said. The President and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel. On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers while discussing a possible bipartisan deal protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries earlier in the day. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump said, according to the newspaper, which cited several people briefed on the meeting. Why do we need more Haitians? Trump continued. Take them out. According to the Post, Trump suggested that the U.S. should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with the day before. On Thursday night, the White House did not deny Trump made the disparaging comments. 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 a statement to the Post. 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. .@realDonaldTrump takes a dump on the American dream An early look at Friday's front: https://t.co/1Wj57JecKC pic.twitter.com/MmOW4VUIMx New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 12, 2018 According to CNNs Jake Tapper, though, Trump did not refer to Haiti as a shithole country, but did refer to African countries that way. There was a conflation of two different remarks by the president, Tapper explained in a series of tweets, citing a source familiar with the meeting. First, when talking about temporary protected status countries as part of the immigration deal it was mentioned that Salvadorans, Hondurans and Haitians have that status. Haitians? the president said. Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out meaning take them out of the deal. Then in a separate part of the conversation when they were referencing the diversity visa lottery, President Trump referred to people coming from Africa as coming from shithole countries. The Post report about Trumps comments during Thursdays meeting drew widespread condemnation from all sides. At an event in Milwaukee on Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trumps comments unfortunate and unhelpful. Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, whose family came from Haiti, said Trumps comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nations values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. President Trumps comments are yet another confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement. 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. At the top of his CNN show Thursday night, host Don Lemon called Trump a racist. In a statement, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said that the presidents expressed desire to see more immigrants from countries like Norway must be called out for what it is: an effort to set this country back generations by promoting a homogeneous, white society. A man empties the refrigerator of his collapsed home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 14, 2010. (Photo: Julie Jacobson/AP) Slideshow: After Trumps comments, a look back at Haitis devastating 2010 earthquake Trumps reported inflammatory comments came almost eight years to the day after a devastating earthquake in Haiti killed more than 300,000 people and displaced around 1.5 million others. Late last year, the Trump administration announced that it would end an Obama-era program that gave temporary residency to 60,000 displaced Haitians that allowed them to live and work in the United States. The anniversary of the devastating earthquake 8 years ago is a day to remember the tragedy, honor the resilient people of Haiti, & affirm Americas commitment to helping our neighbors, Hillary Clinton, Trumps opponent in the 2016 presidential election, tweeted. Instead, were subjected to Trumps ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesnt look like him. The anniversary of the devastating earthquake 8 years ago is a day to remember the tragedy, honor the resilient people of Haiti, & affirm Americas commitment to helping our neighbors. Instead, were subjected to Trumps ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesnt look like him. Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 12, 2018 The Haitian government said on Friday that Trumps shithole comment reflects a racist view of the Haitian community. Paul Altidor, the Haitian ambassador to the U.S., told NPR that the president was either misinformed or miseducated. African Union spokesman Ebba Kalondo told the Associated Press that he was frankly alarmed by the presidents remarks. Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice, Kalondo said. This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity. Rupert Colville, spokesman for the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, also condemned the remarks. If confirmed, these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the United States, Colville said. There is no other word you can use but racist. Durbin told reporters: The most disheartening thing to me is that its my belief that is the first time words that hateful have been spoken in the Oval Office. But Trump reportedly used similar language about Haitian and Nigerian immigrants during a June 2017 meeting with his national security team. The New York Times reported that the president said 15,000 Haitians who arrived in the U.S. last year all have AIDS, and complained that Nigerians would never go back to their huts after seeing America. After issuing a proclamation in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the White House on Friday, Trump ignored a number of shouted questions from reporters as he was leaving the room. Among them: Mr. President, are you a racist? Read more from Yahoo News: President Donald Trumps pick for a lifetime seat on the federal bench in North Carolina is the latest sign of how our politics have descended. A white man with a 30-year record of white supremacy receiving the unqualified support of the President and our states two U.S. senators, while two qualified African-American women cannot even get a hearing, is not merely bad politics. It is moral poison. More than 50 years after the passage of the now-defunct Voting Rights Act, how can North Carolina still be stuck in this moral ditch? One prime reason is Thomas Farr, the Raleigh attorney Trump nominated for a judicial appointment to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Ive spent my whole life in North Carolina, and I know Farr. I know what hes done, what he stands for and just how detrimental he will be to his constituents if confirmed. Farr has been the lead attorney in a series of recent legislative efforts to suppress political participation by African Americans in the state. In 2010, Farr advised the General Assembly in what federal courts later termed a racial gerrymander of North Carolina House, Senate and U.S. Congressional districts. In separate lawsuits, each of these redistricting plans was determined to have discriminated against African-American voters. In 2013, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted a bill that shortened early voting, required voters to present government-issued IDs and eliminated same-day voter registration and out-of-precinct voting all of which are techniques known to suppress voters. Farr advised the legislature on the bill and then became lead counsel in a three-year battle to defend it. Federal courts ruled the law unconstitutional and an attempt to disenfranchise African-American voters with almost surgical precision. As Farr is selected, Senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr have blocked the ascent of two highly qualified African-American women Jennifer Prescod May-Parker, who was chief of the Appellate Division at the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Eastern District, and Patricia Timmons-Goodson, a former state Supreme Court Justice. For them to approve instead a tenacious opponent of civil rights echoes a racial past whose bitterness we should transcend, not resurrect. Story continues Amos 5:15 says, Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. To place someone who shows conspicuous contempt for equal protection under the law and a racist mindset is not only the wrong use of the judiciary, it is an offense of the moral law of God. Farr began his career as a campaign aide to Senator Jesse Helms. Helms entered public life in campaigns that urged White People Wake Up and smeared the University of North Carolina as the University of Negroes and Communists. Helms was notorious for his diatribes against Negro hoodlums and forced integration, and for touting the purely scientific statistical evidence of natural racial distinction in group intellect. He became the states most vociferous opponent of the civil rights movement, which, as late as 2005, Helms railed had ripped away at the customs and institutions people cared about. In 1983, Helms filibustered the proposed Martin Luther King holiday, accusing King of being an action-oriented Marxist. The following year, Thomas Farr became a Helms protege, joining as legal counsel to his 1984 U.S. Senate campaign, during which Senator Helms publicly expressed his gratitude for the support of the Ku Klux Klan. Farr served in the same capacity for Helmss race-baiting 1990 campaign against the AfricanAmerican former mayor of Charlotte, Harvey Gantt; Carter Wreen, one of Farrs colleagues then and supporters now, admits, We played the race card and Im not proud of it. During Farrs time on the campaign, the Helms Campaign Committee sent more than 105,000 post cards to African Americans wrongly warning that they were ineligible to vote and could be arrested for voter fraud if they appeared at the polls. Farr denied having any knowledge of this effort, but a former Department of Justice official said the Helms disciple absolutely was involved in this and earlier illegal voter suppression tricks that the campaign described as ballot security efforts. A 1992 consent decree prohibited the campaign from tactics to intimidate, threaten, coerce, deter, or otherwise interfere with a qualified voters exercise of the franchise and Thomas Farr signed the decree. More than 20 years later, during Farrs defense of the election law that the Fourth District Court ruled targeted African-American voters with almost surgical precision, the judge in Winston-Salem asked Farr, Why dont yall want people to vote? A track record that continues to raise this question should prevent anyone from being appointed to the federal bench. But the problem is compounded by the fact that Farr would preside over the Eastern District, which contains a majority of the states counties with the highest percentages of AfricanAmerican residents. Despite being home to North Carolinas Black Belt, the Eastern District has never had an African-American judge in its nearly century and half of existence. Its a place where it often feels like the civil rights movement never happened. Farr doesnt have to be the kind of politician who represents North Carolina. But Senator Burr says Farr will serve North Carolina well, and Senator Tillis a supporter of the massive voter suppression and racialized redistricting that allowed Republicans to take a super majority in the state legislature calls the Presidents nominee impeccably qualified. In doing so while blocking the hearings of May-Parker and Timmons-Goodson, these Senators insist North Carolina be revealed as backward-looking and bitter during nationally televised Senate hearings for a morally stained and unrepentant figure like Thomas Farr. Being a conservative is not the same thing as spending almost 40 years fighting to block full citizenship for all Americans. It is high time Senator Tillis and Senator Burr stop injecting their ideologically driven and purely partisan politics into the halls of justice and high time we told them so. Because this is not just about what Thomas Farr stands for it is about what North Carolina stands for. We will have to repent in this generation, Dr. Martin Luther King wrote from an Alabama jail, not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. For the love of God, let them hear you. President Trump, who has repeatedly called Kim Jong-Un Rocket Man and his government a band of criminals while threatening to destroy the country with fire and fury, said Thursday that he has a very good relationship with the Korean dictator. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said he may be open to diplomatic meetings with North Korea after months of trading insults and threats over its nuclear weapons program. I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, Mr. Trump said in the Thursday interview. I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised. Trump has made dramatic switches in the past with other opponents, though typically the stakes were political and did not involve international diplomacy. During the Republican presidential primary, he lambasted fellow candidates Ben Carson and Rick Perry, who harshly criticized him in return. Both men are now in his Cabinet. He once described his relationship with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz whose father he insinuated was part of the JFK assassination and whose wife he insulted as unattractive as Like. Dislike. Like. Youll see that a lot with me, he said, referring to his tweets attacking Kim. and then all of the sudden somebodys my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. Im a very flexible person. Trump recently told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that hes willing to speak with Noth Korea under the right circumstances, while Moon said Trump deserves big credit for helping spark the first talks between North and South Korea in more than two years. DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar has filed a complaint to the United Nations about an alleged violation of its airspace in December by an Emirati military aircraft, state news agency QNA reported on Friday. The United Arab Emirates is one of four Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt that have imposed travel, diplomatic and trade sanctions on Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. Qatar has denied the charges. The QNA report said Qatar's ambassador to the United Nations sent a message to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the Security Council regarding the alleged violation, which it said occurred on Dec. 21 at 9:45 a.m. local time and lasted one minute. "HE Sheikha Alia (Ahmed bin Saif Al -Than) confirmed that the UAE plane entered the airspace of the State of Qatar without prior knowledge or approval of the competent Qatari authorities," QNA quoted the ambassador as saying. "She considered that the incident was a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar, as well as a flagrant violation of the provisions of international law, conventions, charters and international norms." UAE officials were not immediately available to comment on the report. (Reporting by Mohamed El Sherif, editing by G Crosse) DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar has filed a complaint to the United Nations about an alleged violation of its airspace in December by an Emirati military aircraft, state news agency QNA reported on Friday. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) dismisssed the Qatari move as unjustified and an escalation. The UAE is one of four Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt that have imposed travel, diplomatic and trade sanctions on Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. Qatar has denied the charges. The QNA report said Qatar's ambassador to the United Nations sent a message to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the Security Council regarding the alleged violation, which it said occurred on Dec. 21 at 9:45 a.m. local time and lasted one minute. "HE Sheikha Alia (Ahmed bin Saif Al -Than) confirmed that the UAE plane entered the airspace of the State of Qatar without prior knowledge or approval of the competent Qatari authorities," QNA quoted the ambassador as saying. "She considered that the incident was a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar, as well as a flagrant violation of the provisions of international law, conventions, charters and international norms." UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash said on his official Twitter account that Qatar's complaint was untrue. "We are working on responding to that officially with proof and evidence," he said. "We see this as an escalation and (it) is unjustified, and what used to happen behind the scenes is now uncovered." (Reporting by Mohamed El Sherif, editing by G Crosse, William Maclean) A fter fighting the longest war in its history, the US stands at the brink of defeat in Afghanistan. How could this be possible? How could the worlds sole superpower have battled continuously for more than 16 years deploying more than 100,000 troops at the conflicts peak, sacrificing the lives of nearly 2,300 soldiers, spending more than $1tn (740bn) on its military operations, lavishing a record $100bn more on nation-building, helping fund and train an army of 350,000 Afghan allies and still not be able to pacify one of the worlds most impoverished nations? So dismal is the prospect of stability in Afghanistan that, in 2016, the Obama White House of its forces, ordering more than 8,000 troops to remain in the country indefinitely. In the American failure lies a paradox: Washingtons massive military juggernaut has been stopped in its steel tracks by a small pink flower the opium poppy. Throughout its three decades in , Washingtons military operations have succeeded only when they fit reasonably comfortably into central Asias illicit traffic in opium and suffered when they failed to complement it. It was during the cold war that the US first intervened in Afghanistan, backing Muslim militants who were fighting to expel the Soviet Red Army. In December 1979, the Soviets occupied Kabul in order to shore up their failing client regime; Washington, still wounded by four years earlier, decided to give Moscow its own Vietnam by backing the Islamic resistance. For the next 10 years, the CIA would provide the mujahideen guerrillas with an estimated $3bn in arms. These funds, along with an expanding opium harvest, would sustain the Afghan resistance for the decade it would take to force a Soviet withdrawal. One reason the US strategy succeeded was that the surrogate war launched by the CIA did not disrupt the way its Afghan allies used the countrys swelling drug traffic to sustain their decade-long struggle. Despite almost continuous combat since the invasion of October 2001, pacification efforts have failed to curtail the insurgency, largely because the US simply could not control the swelling surplus from the countrys heroin trade. Its opium production surged from around 180 tonnes in 2001 to more than 3,000 tonnes a year after the invasion, and to more than 8,000 by 2007. Every spring, the opium harvest fills the Talibans coffers once again, funding wages for a new crop of guerrilla fighters. D uring the 1980s, the CIAs secret war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan helped transform the Afghani-Pakistani borderlands into a launchpad for the global heroin trade. In the tribal area, the US state department reported in 1986, there is no police force. There are no courts. There is no taxation. No weapon is illegal Hashish and opium are often on display. By then, the process of guerrilla mobilisation to fight the Soviet occupation was long under way. Instead of forming its own coalition of resistance leaders, the had relied on Pakistans powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) and its Afghan clients, who soon became key players in the burgeoning cross-border opium traffic. The CIA looked the other way while Afghanistans opium production grew from about 100 tonnes annually in the 1970s to 2,000 tonnes by 1991. In 1979 and 1980, just as the CIA effort was beginning to ramp up, a network of heroin laboratories opened along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier. That region soon became the worlds largest heroin producer. By 1984, it supplied a staggering 60% of the US market and 80% of the European. Inside Pakistan, the number of heroin addicts surged from near zero (yes, zero) in 1979 to 5,000 in 1980, and 1.3 million by 1985 a rate of addiction so high the UN termed it particularly shocking. According to a 1986 state department report, opium is an ideal crop in a war-torn country since it requires little capital investment, is fast growing and is easily transported and traded. Moreover, Afghanistans climate was well suited to growing poppies. As relentless warfare between CIA and Soviet surrogates took its toll, Afghan farmers began to turn to opium in desperation, since it produced high profits that could cover rising food prices. At the same time, the state department reported that resistance elements took up opium production and trafficking to provide staples for [the] population under their control and to fund weapons purchases. As the mujahideen guerrillas gained ground against the Soviet occupation and began to create liberated zones inside Afghanistan in the early 1980s, the resistance helped fund its operations by collecting taxes from peasants who grew the lucrative opium poppies, particularly in the fertile Helmand valley. Caravans carrying CIA arms into that region for the resistance often returned to Pakistan loaded down with opium sometimes, reported the New York Times, with the assent of Pakistani or American intelligence officers who supported the resistance. Charles Cogan, a former director of the CIAs Afghan operation, later spoke frankly about the agencys choices. Our main mission was to do as much damage as possible to the Soviets, he told an interviewer in 1995. We didnt really have the resources or the time to devote to an investigation of the drug trade. I dont think that we need to apologise for this There was fallout in term of drugs, yes. But the main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan. O ver the longer term, the US intervention produced a black hole of geopolitical instability that would never again be sealed or healed. Afghanistan could not readily recover from the unprecedented devastation it suffered in the years of the first American intervention. As the Soviet-Afghan war wound down between 1989 and 1992, the Washington-led alliance essentially abandoned the country, failing either to sponsor a peace settlement or finance reconstruction. While Washington turned away from Afghanistan to other foreign policy hotspots in Africa and the Persian Gulf, a vicious civil war broke out in a country that had already suffered, between 1979 and 1989, some 1.5 million dead, about 10% of the countrys population. During the years of civil strife among the many well-armed warlords the CIA had left primed to fight for power, Afghan farmers raised the only crop that ensured instant profits: the opium poppy. Having multiplied twentyfold during the covert-war era of the 1980s, the opium harvest would more than double again during the civil war of the 1990s. In this period of turmoil, opiums ascent is best understood as a response to severe damage from two decades of destructive warfare. With the return of some three million refugees to a war-ravaged land, the opium fields were an employment godsend, requiring nine times as many labourers to cultivate as wheat, the countrys traditional staple. In addition, only opium merchants were capable of accumulating capital rapidly enough to be able to provide poor poppy farmers with much-needed cash advances, which often provided more than half their annual income. That credit would prove critical to the survival of many impoverished villagers. In the civil wars first phase, from 1992 to 1994, ruthless local warlords combined arms and opium in a countrywide struggle for power. Later, Pakistan threw its backing behind a newly arisen Pashtun force, the Taliban. After and taking control of much of the country, the Taliban regime encouraged local opium cultivation, offering government protection to the export trade and collecting much-needed taxes on both the opium harvested and the heroin manufactured. UN opium surveys showed that, during the Talibans first three years in power, Afghanistans opium crop accounted for 75% of world production. - Read More WASHINGTON When Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff, announced his Senate candidacy on Tuesday, he became the fourth viable Republican 2018 congressional candidate whos been convicted of a crime. And like two of the other GOP cons running for office, he has cited his criminal record as a partial justification for his candidacy. Arpaio was convicted of misdemeanor criminal contempt of court in July 2017 for defying a court order requiring him to stop illegally detaining people he suspected of being undocumented immigrants based on their race. President Donald Trump pardoned him one month later. The other convicted criminals running for office as Republicans are Don Blankenship, the former head of the coal mining company Massey Energy who is running in the Republican primary to challenge Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.); former Rep. Michael Grimm, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.) to reclaim the Staten Island congressional seat he once held; and Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.), who is running for re-election. Don Blankenship is running for Senate in West Virginia as a Republican after serving a one-year sentence in prison for conspiracy to evade mine safety laws that led to the deaths of 29 miners. (Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images) Blankenship served one year in prison on a misdemeanor conviction for conspiring to evade safety laws after the death of 29 miners at his Upper Big Branch Mine in 2010. Grimm, a former FBI agent, pleaded guilty to felony tax evasion in 2014. And last year, Gianforte also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for body-slamming a reporter days before winning a 2017 special election. So far, the national Republican Party has said it supports Donovan over Grimm, but it is also backing Gianforte, who is the only one of these convicted candidates currently in office. The party has not endorsed anyone in either West Virginia or Arizona. The only Democrat with a record running for office is David Alcorn, convicted of stalking, who is one of nine candidates for the partys nomination in New Mexicos 2nd Congressional District. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee would not support Alcorn, saying he is not fit to run for office. Story continues The Politically Incorrect Prisoners Brand Three of these men Arpaio, Blankenship and Grimm have suggested that their convictions show they were persecuted by the Obama administration for their political beliefs. The actual evidence suggests otherwise. Blankenship referred to himself as a political prisoner of the Obama administration and is seeking to rehabilitate his image through an electoral run. Grimm claims that he was a victim with the entire Obama Justice Department weaponized against me. And Arpaio called his conviction for refusing to follow a lawful court order a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department. At a rally in Phoenix before Trump issued his pardon, the president asked the pro-Arpaio crowd, Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job? Former Rep. Michael Grimm is trying to reclaim his seat after pleading guilty to felony tax evasion in 2014. (Photo: Stephanie Keith / Reuters) Its not uncommon to see politicians attempt to spin investigations or convictions as some kind of attack on their politics or identity. But there is a certain type of Republican political candidate whose campaign rationale is directly wrapped up in their criminal or rule-breaking identity. These candidates claim, whether in truth or not, that they have been personally persecuted by the liberal establishment for either trying to run a business or defending the American people. The trailblazer for this type of candidacy was Oliver North, the National Security Council staffer under President Ronald Reagan who shot to conservative stardom after his defiant congressional testimony about how he helped illegally fund the right-wing Contras militias in Nicaragua by selling arms to Iran. North was convicted of three felonies for his part in the scandal, although the convictions would later be vacated after an appeals court found that his immunized congressional testimony had been improperly used in his criminal trial. He captured the Republican Party nomination for a Virginia Senate seat in 1994 off his Iran-Contra fame. Oliver North became a conservative star after he defiantly admitted to breaking the law in the Iran-Contra scandal. His supporters rallied to his side ahead of his sentencing hearing in 1989. (Photo: Mark Reinstein via Getty Images) And although former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore was never convicted or charged with any crime, his political star rose after he was kicked out of his judicial seat twice. He was first removed from office in 2003 for refusing to comply with an order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from courthouse property. Then in 2016 he was kicked off the state court for refusing to acknowledge the Supreme Courts ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. These actions, which he and his supporters perceived as anti-Christian persecution, made him a star among a large enough group of conservatives in the state to win the Republican nomination for Senate in a 2017 special election. Among the current crop of convicted criminal candidates claiming political persecution, Arpaio stands out as the one with the most convincing appeal to right-wing Republican voters. Many of these voters agree with Trump that Arpaio was convicted for just doing his job. While the Arpaio pardon has polled poorly overall, strong supporters of Trump back it. A national poll by YouGov found that 61 percent of strong Trump supporters approved of the Arpaio pardon. A poll of Arizona residents by OH Predictive Insights found 50 percent of respondents opposed to the pardon, but did not release data based on partisan affiliation or presidential approval. Republican politicians in Arizona including Gov. Doug Ducey and Rep. Andy Biggs praised Trump for pardoning Arpaio. But Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), whom Arpaio is running to replace, said he wished Trump had not pardoned the ex-sheriff. Like Ollie North, Arpaio was just trying to protect Americans, in the eyes of this block of voters. They support his lawless brand of law enforcement. Like Roy Moore, Arpaios crime was being politically incorrect. (Moore may have committed other, real crimes, but his devotees didnt find out about those allegations of sexually assaulting teen girls until after hed won the Republican nomination.) Arpaios crime and the conviction fit his brand. A poll released Tuesday night found Arpaio jumping to a statistical tie for first place in the Republican primary. However, Arpaio lost his 2016 re-election campaign in Maricopa County by 11 points even as Trump narrowly won the county in the presidential election. North and Moore also lost in their general election races. It appears general election voters dont tend to care much for the persecution narrative branding. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Also on HuffPost This article originally appeared on HuffPost. 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. 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. This article originally appeared on People.com In the debut episode of Skullduggery a Yahoo News podcast and video series focused on Washington scandals in the Trump era and their impact on today's politics co-hosts Michael Isikoff and Dan Klaidman discuss the 20th anniversary of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a story they famously covered for Newsweek. Their first guest is former United States attorney general Eric Holder who talks about where he was when the Lewinsky scandal broke, his thoughts on Robert Muellers investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 election and he even jokes about being Oprahs running mate in 2020. To subscribe to the Skullduggery podcast click here (or wherever you listen to podcasts). You can also watch a video version of the podcast by downloading the Newsroom app. After a South Korean Justice Minister said on Thursday that the country is preparing a bill to ban bitcoin trading, every major cryptocurrency plummeted. 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 at a press conference, according to Reuters. South Korea is one of the worlds largest markets for cryptocurrency activity, and this week officials raided the offices of two of the countrys largest bitcoin exchanges, Coinone and Bithumb. Just before markets opened in New York on Thursday morning, the crypto market was seeing red across the board on Yahoo Finances cryptocurrency heatmap. Bitcoin, ether, ripple, bitcoin cash, and litecoin all fell by between 5% and 12%. Yahoo Finance cryptocurrency heatmap at 830am EST on Jan. 11, 2018 But by the end of the day on Thursday, South Korea had appeared to pull back its stance: President Moon Jae-in said that Park Sang-kis claim is, not a finalized decision and will be finalized through discussion and a coordination process with each government ministry. Coins rallied in response. Theres more to this story: South Korea is just the latest country to indicate that it wants to take a strong stance, either positive or negative, toward trading of cryptocurrencies. China banned initial coin offerings (ICOs) back in September of last year, and South Korea soon followed suit. The next month, China shut down all Chinese bitcoin exchange sites, and now there are reports that China would like to shut down mainland bitcoin mining operations next. On the other hand, last April Japan officially recognized bitcoin as legal currency and will regulate it accordingly, which quickly boosted trading volume on Japanese exchanges and has helped make Japan the new No. 1 by daily trading activity. One month after Japans move, in May 2017, Australia followed suit in recognizing bitcoin as legal currency. South Korean justice minister Park Sang-ki (R) at a news conference in 2002. REUTERS/Lee Jae-won What we are seeing, then, is that as the bitcoin and overall cryptocurrency market matures and heats up, countries with hot activity are eager to set official policy. In other words: regulation is coming. Story continues In some cases, a countrys new stance or announcement regarding crypto doesnt move the needle much in one way or the other in terms of price. (For example, when the SEC has twice issued public guidance warning about ICOs.) In the case of South Korea, Thursdays news had an instant impact and caused a rout. By Thursday night, all of the major coins were already back in the green thanks to Moon Jae-ins comments cautioning that the South Korea ban is not yet final. It was a reminder of the resilience of this marketeven when theres bad news, the top coins typically regain their losses within a day or two. Stay tuned as more countries begin to publicly tease out their regulatory stance toward cryptocurrencies. Daniel Roberts covers bitcoin and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Read more: An ICO is not like an IPO What is bitcoin? How to buy bitcoin What is ripple? What is litecoin? The 11 biggest names in crypto right now 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 [] In the year and a half since the artist Edel Rodriguez made his Meltdown cover for TIME, his orange-and-yellow depiction of Donald Trump has become emblematic. In encore covers for TIME (and for German magazine Der Spiegel), he has repeatedly reinvented the graphic concept to respond to the news cycle. This week, as the anniversary of Trumps inauguration approaches, and the White House responds to Michael Wolffs explosive book Fire and Fury, Rodriguez came up with some flames of his own. 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 says. The flames on the cover reference Wolffs book as well as the source of its title: Trumps statement that North Korea would be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen if it continued to threaten the United States. 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 says. 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. Read more: The Unpresident: Why Donald Trump Will Never Change Before making this weeks cover, Rodriguez mocked up his own idea for what Wolffs book jacket should have looked like the one the publisher ran with was flatter than flat, he says and posted it on his Twitter account. I thought it was going to be for my friends on Twitter, like an exercise, and its the most retweeted image Ive ever done. I've been asked what I would've done with the 'Fire and Fury' cover by some folks who think the existing cover design is a disaster and a missed opportunity, so here is what I might have done with it pic.twitter.com/xV8W3L8oYu Edel Rodriguez (@edelstudio) January 7, 2018 Rodriguez has continued to use the same orange color for Trumps face ever since the original Meltdown cover. 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,' he says. Its sort of like an anti-branding campaign, where youre branding something so that people recognize it and kind of critique it strongly. Story continues Edel has been an important part of TIMEs visual language the past few years, says Pine. Its amazing how his bold, yet simple graphic strokes perfectly capture a likeness, but also start a conversation. Though Rodriguezs depictions of Trump have won him attention and acclaim (including an ASME award for cover of the year), he says, Im not inspired by [Trump] at all. 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. For me, free speech is the reason I left my homeland, added Rodriguez, a Cuban-American. Anyone that leaves their homeland, its in their mind a lot, and they want to make it worthwhile. 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. Geneva (AFP) - The Swiss government on Wednesday ordered an end to the common culinary practice of throwing flailing lobsters into boiling water, ruling that they must be knocked out before they are killed. As part of a wider overhaul of Swiss animal protection laws, Bern said that as of March 1, "the practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water, which is common in restaurants, is no longer permitted". Lobsters "will now have to be stunned before they are put to death," the government order read. According to Swiss public broadcaster RTS, only electric shock or the "mechanical destruction" of the lobster's brain will be accepted methods of stunning the animals once the new rule takes affect. Animal rights advocates and some scientists argue that lobsters and other crustaceans have sophisticated nervous systems and likely feel significant pain when boiled alive. The Swiss government also said it would no longer be permitted to transport live marine crustaceans like lobsters on ice or in icy water, ruling instead that they should "always be held in their natural environment". The government order also aims to crack down on illegal puppy farms and imports, and ban devices that automatically punish dogs when they bark. Organisers of public events featuring animals will also be directly responsible for their welfare when the new rules take effect, the government order said. Beirut (AFP) - 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. Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump said late Thursday he no longer plans to attend the opening of a new US embassy in London. He announced the decision in a midnight tweet amid reports in Britain that a Trump visit would be met with protests. The president wrote that he was nixing the trip -- initially scheduled for next month -- because he is displeased with the location of the new embassy and its price tag. "Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars," Trump wrote. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" Trump has also been offered a full-blown state visit to Britain but no date has been set, amid jitters over protests. As recently as January 7, Prime Minister Theresa May reiterated that a state visit is still planned, saying "Trump is coming to the UK." By Guy Faulconbridge and Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump canceled a trip to London scheduled for next month to open a new embassy, saying he did not want to endorse a bad deal agreed by the Obama administration to sell the old one for "peanuts". The trip's cancellation is a further blow to relations between the close allies. More than a year into his presidency, Trump has yet to visit London, with many Britons vowing to protest against a man they see as crude, volatile and opposed to their values on a range of issues. The decision to move the U.S. Embassy from its current Grosvenor Square location in the upmarket Mayfair area of London and to a site on the south bank of the Thames was agreed in 2008 under the presidency of George W. Bush. [http://tmsnrt.rs/2DnVe8U] However, Trump blamed former president Barack Obama for the sale, saying he would not attend the official opening of the new site. "(The) reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars," Trump said in a tweet late on Thursday. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" Trump said. A pillar of Britain's foreign policy since World War Two, the "special relationship" with Washington has taken on added importance as Britain prepares to leave the European Union in 2019 and seeks new major trade deals. Prime Minister Theresa May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his inauguration in January last year, and they were filmed emerging from the White House holding hands. She later said Trump took her hand in a gentlemanly gesture as they walked down a ramp. But British officials have been dismayed by some of Trump's pronouncements, particularly a proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States and most recently when Trump rebuked May on Twitter after she criticized him for retweeting British far-right anti-Islam videos. During May's U.S. trip a year ago, she extended an invitation to Trump to make a formal state visit - which includes pomp, pageantry and a banquet with Queen Elizabeth. May's spokesman told reporters Trump was welcome in London and that the invitation to visit had been accepted, although no date agreed. He said the opening of the embassy was a matter for the U.S. government. "The U.S. is one of our oldest and most valued allies and our strong and deep partnership will endure," the spokesman said. "HE'S GOT THE MESSAGE" Many British politicians have voiced their opposition to Trump being granted a state visit, and say the invite should be recalled. "Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda," London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has often exchanged barbs with Trump on social media, tweeted. "It seems he's finally got the message." British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said opponents such as Khan were putting the relationship with the United States, the biggest investor in Britain, at risk. "We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed-up, pompous popinjay in City Hall," Johnson tweeted. The American flag was this month removed from Grosvenor Square where the U.S. embassy has been based since 1938 with the area known as "Little America" during World War Two, when the square also housed the military headquarters of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was also the scene of violence in 1968 when thousands of demonstrators protested against the U.S. war in Vietnam. In October 2008, the embassy was put up for sale and, the following year, sold to Gulf investor Qatari Diar. The purchase price was not disclosed. In 2009, it was given "listed" status which limits changes that can be made to the building's exterior because of its historical significance. Woody Johnson, Trump's appointed U.S. ambassador to Britain, told reporters last month that moving to the new site at Nine Elms reflected "the global outlook of the U.S. going forward in the 21st century: rather looking out, than looking in". "This isn't just a new office, though, it signifies a new era of friendship between out two countries. President Trump wants us to work more closely than ever with the UK," said Johnson, adding he hoped the president would attend the opening ceremony. There had long been security concerns about the Grosvenor Square site, dating back to the late 1990s after attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa. Some local residents had opposed measures that they felt would detract from one of London's plushest neighborhoods while others feared not enough was being done to ensure they would not be caught up in any attack. The new embassy is a veritable fortress set back at least 100 feet (30 meters) from surrounding buildings - mostly newly-erected high-rise residential blocks - and incorporating living quarters for U.S. Marines permanently stationed inside. The $1 billion construction was funded by the sale of other properties in London. (Additional reporting by David Milliken, Alistair Smout and Kanishka Singh; Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Robin Pomeroy/Jeremy Gaunt) 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. Story continues 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. Read more: Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn Washington (AFP) - 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. 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. Story continues 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." 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 By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday gave the Iran nuclear deal a final reprieve but warned European allies and Congress they had to work with him to fix the terrible flaws of the pact or face U.S. withdrawal. Trump said he would waive sanctions against Iran lifted as part of the deal but only as a last chance and would not do so again. The ultimatum puts pressure on Europeans - key backers and parties to the 2015 international agreement to satisfy Trump, who has called the deal to curb Iran's nuclear program "the worst ever." Trump wants the deal strengthened with a separate agreement within 120 days or the United States will unilaterally withdraw from the international pact, warning: "No one should doubt my word." Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded on Twitter that the deal was not renegotiable and that Trump's stance "amounts to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement." Trump, who has sharply criticized the deal reached during Democrat Barack Obama's presidency, had privately chafed at having to once again waive sanctions on a country he sees as a rising threat in the Middle East. "This is a last chance," Trump said in a statement. "In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately." Underscoring the difficulty now facing Europeans, a European diplomat, speaking under condition of anonymity, said: "It's going to be complicated to save the deal after this." While Trump approved the sanctions waiver, the Treasury Department announced new, targeted sanctions against 14 entities and people, including the head of Iran's judiciary. Trump now will work with European partners on a follow-on agreement that enshrines certain triggers that the Iranian regime cannot exceed related to ballistic missiles, said a senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the decision. One official said Trump would be open to remaining in a modified deal if it was made permanent. "I hereby call on key European countries to join with the United States in fixing significant flaws in the deal, countering Iranian aggression, and supporting the Iranian people," Trump said in the statement. "If other nations fail to act during this time, I will terminate our deal with Iran." Republican Senator Bob Corker said "significant progress" had been made on bipartisan congressional legislation to "address the flaws in the agreement without violating U.S. commitments." SEVERAL CONDITIONS Trump laid out several conditions to keep the United States in the deal. Iran must allow "immediate inspections at all sites requested by international inspectors," he said, and that provisions preventing Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon must not expire. Trump said U.S. law must tie long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs together, making any missile testing by Iran subject to "severe sanctions." Trump wants the U.S. Congress to modify a law that reviews U.S. participation in the nuclear deal to include "trigger points" that if violated would lead to the United States reimposing its sanctions, the official said. This would not entail negotiations with Iran, the official said, but rather would be the result of talks between the United States and its European allies. Work already has begun on this front, the official said. Analyst Richard Nephew said whether Trumps conditions could be met depended on whether he wants a face-saving way to live with the nuclear deal with the political cover of tough-sounding U.S. legislation, or whether he really wants the deal rewritten. Nephew, a former White House and State Department Iran sanctions expert, said legislation could be drafted that might appear to assuage Trumps concerns but that getting Iran to agree to allow unfettered international inspections or to no time limits on the nuclear deal's restrictions was impossible. He said Trump appeared to be looking for the deal to be rewritten in Congress. "Thats not going to happen, Nephew said. "If we were walking on a ledge before, now we are on a tightrope." Trump has argued behind the scenes that the nuclear deal makes the United States look weak, a senior U.S. official said. The argument for staying in, the official said, was to allow time to toughen the terms of the agreements. A decision to withhold a waiver would have effectively ended the deal between Iran, the United States, China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. Those countries would have been unlikely to join the United States in reimposing sanctions. Hailed by Obama as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program but Trump has argued that Obama negotiated a bad deal. PRESSURE FROM EUROPE Britain, France and Germany called on Trump on Thursday to uphold the pact. Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes and that it will stick to the accord as long as the other signatories respect it but will shred the deal if Washington pulls out. Two EU diplomats said EU foreign ministers will discuss what to do now at their next regular meeting, scheduled for Monday Jan. 22 in Brussels. The U.S. Congress requires the president to decide periodically whether to certify Irans compliance with the deal and issue a waiver to allow U.S sanctions to remain suspended. Trump in October chose not to certify compliance and warned he might ultimately terminate the accord. He accused Iran of not living up to the spirit of the agreement even though the International Atomic Energy Agency says Tehran is complying. Hard-liners on Iran in the U.S. Congress have called for the reimposition of the suspended sanctions and an end to the nuclear deal, while some liberal Democrats want to pass legislation that would make it harder for Trump to pull Washington out without congressional consent. Trump and his top advisers have been negotiating with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill to try to change sanctions legislation so that he does not face a deadline on whether to recertify Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal every 90 days. (Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Doina Chiacu and David Alexander and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Robin Emmott in Brussels, John Irish in Paris and Parisa Hafezi in Ankara; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Bill Trott) European diplomats and US analysts predict that Trump would continue to waive sanctions on Iran, but could also take the US closer to non-compliance Rex Tillerson speaks at the state department in Washington on Thursday. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP The fate of the nuclear deal with Iran will hang in the balance once more on Friday, when Donald Trump must decide whether to continue sanctions relief for Tehran or violate the 2015 agreement. The secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, told reporters that Trump, who has repeatedly described it as the worst deal ever, would make a final decision on Thursday, after an afternoon meeting with his top foreign policy and national security officials, who all favour preserving the agreement. The genesis of Trumps particular antipathy to Iran is hard to pin down. Before entering office he had been sceptical of Irans regional rival, Saudi Arabia. But during the 2016 election campaign all his closest foreign policy advisors, such as Michael Flynn, shared a worldview that portrays Iran as an uniquely malign actor in the Middle East and beyond. After the election, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were successful in capturing the ear of Trump and his son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner. European diplomats and US analysts predicted that Trump would continue to waive the sanctions that were suspended as part of the deal, while imposing new sanctions on other grounds, like human rights or missile development. There is more or less consensus that the president is going to once again decertify and continue to waive sanctions but at the same time slap new sanctions on Iran on non-nuclear issues, said Ali Vaez, an Iran specialist at the International Crisis Group. Vaez added: The proponents of a more logical path have good arguments to make to the president but his decision is unpredictable. I think it depends on what he sees on Fox News that morning. Even if he does continue to waive sanctions, Trump could also say or do something on Friday that would take the US closer to noncompliance. Story continues The restoration of US sanctions would trigger a crisis for US relations with European allies who all support the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA). If it led to the JCPOAs collapse, Iran could well break free of the constraints it imposed on its nuclear programme, bringing the Middle East nearer the brink of a new conflict. At Thursdays Oval Office meeting, the president was due to meet Tillerson, the defence secretary, James Mattis, and national security adviser, HR McMaster, who has been scrambling in recent days to coax Republicans and Democrats to work on legislation concerning US adherence to the JCPOA. In October, Trump refused to continue to certify the JCPOA, on the grounds it was too favourable to Iran, and called on Congress and European allies to fix it, making it tougher. In the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated. It is under continuous review, and our participation can be canceled by me, as president, at any time, Trump said then. Since then, Republican leaders have been unable to agree among themselves on how to increase pressure on Iran, while Democrats say they have only been consulted in the past few days. There are no real negotiations going on with the Democrats, but everyone has an incentive to tell the president there is enough progress to justify continuing to waive sanctions, one source familiar with the talks said. Almost all the US sanctions waived under the JCPOA are secondary, meaning they would target any foreign company that did business with proscribed Iranian institutions or firms. Their reimposition would trigger a crisis in transatlantic relations. The threat of sanctions is a very real one who wants to invest in Iran if you dont know what it going to happen in the future? said Angela Kane, a German diplomat who was the UN high representative for disarmament. If there were to be a withdrawal from the deal by the US side then you would have the very uncomfortable situation for the Europeans, who would basically side with Russia and China That would be a very difficult thing to stomach for the Europeans. Simon Gass, who was the lead UK negotiator in the deal, said the preservation of the JCPOA was critical for stability in the Middle East and therefore for European security. We place particular importance on sustainment of this agreement. We do not do so in a semi-apologetic way. We do this because we regard this as a very strong, very successful agreement, said Gass, a retired British diplomat who was in Washington on Thursday to lobby to protect the JCPOA. If the US was to walk away, he added, my guess is that the people who would be happiest would be in the Kremlin. President Trump prior to signing a proclamation in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as Isaac Newton Farris Jr., Kings nephew, looks on. (Photo: Rex/Shutterstock) After appearing alongside President Trump at a White House event honoring Martin Luther King Jr. on Friday, the nephew of the late civil rights icon said he does not believe the commander in chief who reportedly made disparaging remarks about Africans the day before is a racist in the traditional sense. I personally dont think that President Trump is a racist in traditional sense, Isaac Newton Farris Jr. told CNN. I think that President Trump is racially uninformed or racially ignorant. Farris Jr., who serves as president and CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, said he met privately in the Oval Office with Trump and Dr. Ben Carson, U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the sole African-American member of Trumps Cabinet. According to Farris Jr., Trump assured them that I am not the person that the media is making me out to be. "I don't think he's a racist in the traditional sense." MLK's nephew after appearance at the White House. Good Lord. pic.twitter.com/J1e7DhqWEJ Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 12, 2018 The comments come amid international outage over a Washington Post report that Trump referred to people from Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as coming from shithole countries during an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers about U.S. immigration policy on Thursday. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump said, according to the newspaper, which cited several people briefed on the meeting. According to the Post, Trump then suggested that the U.S. should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway. President Trump with Isaac Newton Farris Jr. (Photo: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Trump disputed the Posts account, tweeting that he never said anything derogatory about Haitians. The president also insisted that while he used tough language during the meeting, he did not make the shithole remark as reported. Story continues Among the senators who attended the meeting, two of them, Republicans Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, said they dont recall Trumps reported remarks specifically. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., supported the gist of the Posts story. In a statement, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said that the presidents expressed desire to see more immigrants from countries like Norway must be called out for what it is: an effort to set this country back generations by promoting a homogeneous, white society. Before signing the proclamation, Trump praised the slain civil rights leader for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter what the color of our skin or the place of our birth, we are all created equal. As he left the room, Trump ignored a number of shouted questions from reporters. Among them: Mr. President, are you a racist? _____ Read more from Yahoo News: A 23-Year-Old man is still coming to terms with a harrowing hippopotamus attack that left him maimed. Enock Romano was attacked by the animal on Saturday while fishing on the shores of Lake Naivasha. Narrating his close brush with death, Romano said he was lucky to be alive after surviving the ordeal. On the fateful morning, he was in a group of four others from Kasarani area who were preparing for a fishing expedition. As he pushed his boat into the lake, he missed the sight of the hippo that was swimming underwater towards him. I have been a fisherman for close to two years and had never been attacked by the animals, he opened up as tears flowed freely. It (the hippo) grabbed both legs and bit me hard. I screamed before it let me go, he told journalists from his hospital bed at the Naivasha sub-county hospital. Ive never spotted the animal moving inside the waters. I was shocked and in a state of confusion, he added. Romano then alerted his colleagues who came to his rescue and rushed him to the hospital while bleeding profusely. Doctors managed to control the bleeding before taking him to the theater to amputate both his legs. Nurse in charge of the male ward, Susan Kamau, said he was responding well to treatment. He suffered severe leg injuries leading to the amputation, but he is now out of danger, she said. Romano. who reportedly breaks in tears every time he looks at his bandaged legs, is appealing to well-wishers to come to his aid. Although I am happy to have survived the ordeal, I am yet to come to terms with the tragedy that befell me, he confessed. The incident comes after another victim of hippo attacks in Lake Naivasha, John Gichinga, was attacked. Gichinga, who is recuperating just a few metres from Romanos hospital bed, said: I am lucky to have escaped with my life after the attack. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his primary concern with the Paris climate accord was that it treated the United States unfairly and that if a better deal could be reached, Washington might be persuaded to rejoin the agreement. "It treated the United States very unfairly," Trump said during a news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. He said he had no problem with agreeing to a climate deal but the Paris accord was "a bad deal. So we could conceivably go back in." (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by David Alexander) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would be "a little bit flexible" on his threat to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement because Mexico is facing a presidential election later this year. "I understand that a lot of things are hard to negotiate prior to an election," Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Trump also said Mexico can pay for a border wall between the two countries "indirectly" through changes to the trade deal. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Tim Ahmann) Trump says he has a good relationship with North Korean leader (Rex) President Trump has surprisingly claimed that he probably has a very good relationship with North Koreas Kim Jong-un. Despite the pairs war of words over the last few months, which have dragged the two countries seemingly to the edge of military conflict, Trump has said in an interview that the pair get on well. I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, Trump said I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised. He was speaking to the Wall Street Journal just a day after saying he wanted to enter into talks with Pyongyang over the countrys controversial nuclear programme. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Rex) Trump was then asked if he has spoken directly with Kim, but did not give a definitive answer. Im not saying I have or havent, Trump said. I just dont want to comment. He then added that the war of words, including his dismissal of the North Korean leader as Little Rocket Man and has also called him maniac, are part of a strategy. He has also tweeted that his nuclear button is bigger than Kims. MOST POPULAR STORIES ON YAHOO UK TODAY Theresa May says Donald Trump welcome in the UK as he cancels London trip Three men jailed for drugging 14-year-old girl and forcing her into prostitution Britain would vote remain in second EU referendum, claims national newspaper poll Salesman, 34, branded a fat, ginger p**ey by his tech firm boss LOSES discrimination case Driver faces 5,000 fine after driving through 20ft puddle to soak mum with pram 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 The Chinese Envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man. Hard to believe his people, and the military, put up with living in such horrible conditions. Russia and China condemned the launch. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2017 He has also claimed in the past that he would take care of the North Korean issue. Story continues At the same time, Pyongyang has been carrying out a series of ballistic missile launches, which have been condemned internationally. Youll see that a lot with me. And then all of the sudden somebodys my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. Im a very flexible person. Last weekend, Trump told reporters he would be open to speaking with Kim, but not without preconditions. Sure. I always believe in talking, he told reporters at Camp David. If something can happen and something can come out of those talks, that would be a great thing for all of humanity. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he "probably" has a very good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a change in tone for Trump after exchanging insults with Kim over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. Trump has derided the North Korean leader as a "maniac" and referred to him as "little rocket man." Kim has responded by calling the U.S. president a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard." "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un," Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised." Kim has warned the United States that he intends to build a nuclear arsenal capable of hitting the United States, prompting threats of military action by Washington. Asked whether he has spoken with the North Korean leader, Trump told the newspaper: "I don't want to comment on it. I'm not saying I have or haven't. I just don't want to comment." In November, Trump said while on a trip to Vietnam that becoming friends with Kim "might be a strange thing to happen but it's a possibility." Kim, in a speech last week, said the "nuclear button is always on my desk," prompting Trump to respond in a tweet that his nuclear button is "a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" In the Journal interview, Trump suggested his combative tweets are part of a broader strategy. "Youll see that a lot with me," he said, "and then all of the sudden somebodys my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. Im a very flexible person." Trump told the newspaper a decision by the United States and South Korea to postpone military exercises until after next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea "sends a good message to North Korea." North and South Korea held their first talks in two years on Tuesday. Trump told a news conference in Washington on Wednesday the United States would be willing to speak to Pyongyang "under the right circumstances." (Reporting by Makini Brice; Writing by Katanga Johnson; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Leslie Adler) Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out in a Thursday meeting with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why the US should accept citizens from what he called "shithole" countries. The comments, first reported by The Washington Post, sparked anger among Democrats, and revived questions about Trump's tendency to make racially charged remarks. Trump sat down with senators and congressmen at the White House to discuss a proposed bipartisan deal that would limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country and restrict the green card visa lottery in exchange for shielding hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to people briefed on the meeting who spoke with The Washington Post. The New York Times later reported the same comment, citing unnamed people with direct knowledge of the meeting. The president was referring to African countries and Haiti, both newspapers said, with the Post including El Salvador on its list. Trump then suggested the United States should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday. "Why do we need more Haitians?" he added, according to the Post account. "Take them out." - 'Fighting for permanent solutions' - Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin came to the White House to outline their bipartisan compromise, but found themselves in the room with several Republican immigration hardliners. Graham and Durbin are leading efforts to codify protections for so-called "dreamers," immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children. In exchange, the deal would end extended family "chain migration." It also reportedly would cut the visa lottery program by half and prioritize certain countries in the system, instead of scrapping it altogether as several Republicans have suggested as part of an agreement. Story continues The president and lawmakers are in the midst of intense negotiations about how to shield nearly 800,000 "dreamers" from deportation. Last year, Trump scrapped the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protected the immigrants, and set a deadline of March 5 for Congress to legislate a fix. The White House did not deny the account of Trump's use of language, but instead suggested the president was "fighting for permanent solutions" that strengthen the nation, in part through the use of a merit-based immigration system. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement. "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." In the past year, Trump has raised eyebrows with his stance on sensitive race issues in America. He has denounced NFL players who kneel during the national anthem in protest at police brutality against African Americans, and made questionable comments about a white supremacist rally in Virginia that turned violent. The New York Times recently reported that Trump had said in a separate June meeting on immigration that Haitians "all have AIDS," citing a person who attended the meeting. The White House denied those comments. - Furious Democrats... and Republicans - Democrats seized on Trump's slur against Haitians and Africans to suggest he is anti-immigrant. "We always knew that President Trump doesn't like people from certain countries or people or certain colors," congressman Luis Gutierrez said. "We can now we say with 100% confidence that the president is a racist who does not share the values enshrined in our Constitution." Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky chimed in: "Just when you thought Donald Trump could not get any more racist, he digs down to an even deeper low." Some Republicans were also unhappy. Mia Love, a congresswoman from Utah who is of Haitian descent, called Trump's reported comments "unkind" and "divisive," and demanded an apology. "This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation," Love said in a statement. (The Jan. 9 was refiled to correct the year in penultimate paragraph to 1988, not 1998) By Valerie Volcovici and David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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 agencys 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 EPAs top priorities for 2018 will be to replace the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obamas 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 nations 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 1988, 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. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and David Shepardson; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Lisa Shumaker) ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has warned its citizens against travel to the United States, saying Turks face the risk of arbitrary arrest and should take precautions if they do decide to travel, the latest tit-for-tat volley in a diplomatic feud between the NATO allies. The comments from the Turkish Foreign Ministry come after the U.S. Department of State this week warned U.S. citizens planning to visit Turkey to reconsider due to "terrorism and arbitrary detentions". Ties between Washington and Ankara, the biggest Muslim country in NATO and a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, have been strained by a number of disputes in recent months, including the U.S. arrest and conviction of a Turkish banker in an Iran sanctions-busting case. "Turkish citizens traveling to the United States may be subjected to arbitrary detentions based on testimony of unrespected sources," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement dated Thursday. The trial against the banker included testimony of corruption by senior Turkish officials. Ankara has said it was based on false evidence and supported by the network of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Turkish cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating a failed coup in Turkey in 2016. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has denied the charges and condemned the coup. Turkey has called for his extradition, but the United States says sufficient evidence has yet to be put to a court. Turkey and the United States suspended issuing visas last year after Washington complained about the detention of two locally-hired consular employees on suspicion of a role in the failed coup. Both countries resumed issuing visas last month. Turkey also blames Washington for supporting Kurdish fighters in Syria that Ankara sees as allies of a Kurdish group waging an insurgency in Turkey. Speaking to reporters after Friday prayers, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed the U.S. travel warning for harming relations. "The 'Turkey is not a safe country' statement does not benefit ties between the two countries," Yildirim said. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is in Los Angeles and will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the sidelines of a conference in Vancouver, said he would discuss the matter with his counterpart. "An ally publishing a travel warning about us is not a serious thing, but we will discuss it with Tillerson in Vancouver," Cavusoglu said during a televised speech at the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles. (Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan) President Donald Trumps decision to cancel his upcoming visit to England sparked widespread ridicule and celebration online. Trump confirmed via Twitter on Thursday that he had scrapped his February visit to London: Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 While Trump claimed he was calling off the trip because he was not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for peanuts, many tweeters suggested it was more likely that he didnt want to see any anti-Trump demonstrations. Others were just thrilled he planned to stay in America: "Trump cancels trip to the UK" The UK: pic.twitter.com/jw1ik6qUK3 Jason Mantell (@Jay50n85) January 12, 2018 Nope its because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message. https://t.co/9xV7bFZQgL Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) January 12, 2018 No doubt he's going to go on a goodwill tour of Africa and Haiti instead. J Calvert (@oddballwoofwoof) January 11, 2018 Very clever sir! Cancelling the trip, rather than admitting you're scared-silly at the prospect of facing massive protests you'd inevitably encounter upon your arrival, was a masterstroke! UK is just another shit-hole country, right? #MakeAmericaCringeAgain https://t.co/Kk3h1zmVsJ @HamillHimself (@HamillHimself) January 12, 2018 There's always a warm welcome for him in Nambia, I read. Pete Riches (@Pete_Riches) January 12, 2018 Royal family reacts to news that Trump has cancelled UK visit pic.twitter.com/DqCUU8XIbP Philip Coggan (@econbuttonwood) January 11, 2018 Donald Trump giving it the big un to North Korea but is too scared to come to London for a brew. Tom Spillane (@TomSpillane) January 12, 2018 FriYAYday!!! #friday #weekend And Donald Trump is not visiting London!!! Faye Jones (@FLJones_x) January 12, 2018 People of London after hearing Trump was too scared to visit. pic.twitter.com/9UAQYWql6W Implied Magazine (@impliedmag) January 12, 2018 Apparently, Trump has cancelled his visit to London. And guess what? London is perfectly OK with that! Ranj Singh (@DrRanj) January 12, 2018 Trump cancelled his trip to England because they despise him. pic.twitter.com/y3ETxFDQCW @SoCalledPresident (@CrimeBossTrump) January 12, 2018 Related Coverage Congressman Trolls Trump With Introduction Of 'Stable Genius Act' Ben Stiller Reading Trump's 'Stable Genius' Tweets As Zoolander Is Like Ridiculously Funny Jimmy Kimmel's New Donald Trump Documentary: 'Pants On Fire: The Road To 2,000 Lies' Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Two Palestinian youths were shot dead by Israeli troops during clashes on Thursday in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian medical sources and witnesses said. Israeli-Palestinian tensions have risen following U.S. President Donald Trump's Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a move that has sparked violent Palestinian protests along the Gaza border and in the West Bank. A 16-year-old youth was killed and two others wounded in a clash near the Gaza-Israel border fence in which Palestinians threw stones at Israeli troops, one of the wounded youths, medics and witnesses said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said violent clashes had erupted at two locations along the Gaza border and some 50 Palestinians had participated, hurling rocks and rolling burning tyres that endangered troops who responded with warning shots followed by directed fire. "Warning shots were fired at one location, but when the rioting continued, shots were fired at three main instigators who posed a threat to the soldiers and to the security fence," the spokeswoman said. A second Palestinian 16-year-old was killed in a clash at the village of Bureen near the town of Nablus in the central West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. The spokeswoman said troops searching the area for the suspects in the killing of an Israeli settler who was shot dead earlier this week, had come under attack from "a massive barrage of rocks" and that troops had fired at the main instigator. She said the military was aware of a Palestinian fatality. Militants in Gaza, which is dominated by the Islamist Hamas faction, have launched 18 rockets at Israel and two Hamas gunmen have been killed in retaliatory Israeli air strikes. Israeli gunfire has killed 14 protesters during cross-border clashes. A total of 17 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed since the flare-up began on December 6. Analysts say neither Israel nor the Palestinians are interested in another Gaza war. Gaza's neighborhoods and its two million people still bear the scars of the heavy destruction caused by Israeli attacks during a seven-week conflict in 2014. In Israel, there is little eagerness to endure again the daily disruptions brought by sirens warning of rocket strikes. (Writing by Ori Lewis, Editing by William Maclean) (HELENA, Mont.) The spruce tree destined to serve as the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree was carefully selected from a Montana forest and hauled across the country in a special truck to preserve its freshness. The 79-foot-tall tree, which was lit up last month during a ceremony with congressional members, had its own website and social media presence. Now, some Montana companies hope to keep its fame alive by trucking it back home so it can be used to help rebuild a historic chalet in Glacier National Park that was destroyed in a wildfire last summer. Some critics questioned the amount of fuel that would be burned to haul the tree back across the U.S. when Montana has plenty of trees, while others didnt mind as long as taxpayer money wasnt involved. The effort is certainly more sentimental than practical, but no public money is being spent and no one can profit from the trees use, said Bruce Ward with Choose Outdoors, the Denver-based nonprofit that organized the effort to bring the tree to Washington. Ward got in on the idea after SmartLam, a Montana wood products company, contacted him about doing something besides letting the celebrated tree end up as mulch for the Capitol lawn. A few phone calls and goodwill gestures later, plans call for the tree to come back in pieces. It was removed Tuesday morning, officials said. F.H. Stoltz Land & Lumber in Columbia Falls has agreed to process the wood, but vice president and general manager Chuck Roady noted that spruce is a softer wood and more suited for door or window frames or fireplace mantles than structural use in the new park chalet. Glacier officials are waiting to see how the still-standing rock walls of the Sperry Chalet fare over the winter before deciding on any restoration plans, park spokeswoman Lauren Alley said. Organizers asked Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester for his support and he wrote to Capitol officials asking the tree to be released to Montana for use in the chalet. Story continues This wooden and stone landmark, built in Glaciers rugged backcountry more than a century ago, is irreplaceable, Tester wrote. But efforts are underway to rebuild the Sperry Chalet, and I can think of no better use for some of the Montana lumber in our Capitol Christmas Tree to assist in that endeavor. Ward had asked if the logs could hitch a ride back with a Montana-made copper star that topped the tree. Whitewood Transport Inc., which hauled the tree to Washington, said they could work that out, he said. This isnt the first time the Capitol tree has been given a second life. In early 2013, former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell arranged for the tree from a Colorado forest to be returned to the state. The Coors Brewing Co. trucked the tree back to Colorado in 6-foot (2-meter) pieces and the wood was used to make park benches, Ward said. For me, its a great way to return a historic souvenir to the state to be used for worthwhile purposes, Ward said Monday. Thirdway Alliance leader Ekuru Aukot has taken his plans of forming a shadow cabinet a step further. The self-proclaimed opposition leader has called for applications for 22 positions of shadow cabinet secretaries and senior advisers. This comes just days after the former presidential candidate announced plans to unveil a shadow cabinet in the coming weeks. Aukot has said those interested in the slots are required to send their CVs to [email protected] before or on January 30. He noted that the Shadow Cabinet will comply with article 130 of the constitution. The article observes that the composition of the national executive shall reflect the regional and ethnic diversity of the people of Kenya. We are getting ready to run government. President Uhuru Kenyatta must know there are alternative ways of running the government to the satisfaction of Kenyans, said Aukot yesterday. Aukot, who emerged third in the presidential race with 21,333, said his party will play politics of transformation as anyone forming a government must have an opposition. We are happily at home with our opposition role. We shall play it effectively, even against 10 presidents including Uhuru, he added. By Nate Raymond (Reuters) - A federal judge pushing for a quick settlement of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors by U.S. cities and counties is seeking to meet with states that are separately suing and probing the companies, Ohio's attorney general said on Thursday. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said he also held meetings on Wednesday with Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd to discuss settling a lawsuit he filed accusing them of deceptively marketing opioids. That lawsuit, like others by state attorneys general, is in a state court outside the purview of U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland, who is overseeing more than 200 lawsuits by cities, counties and others over the opioid epidemic. In a move that could help the companies reach global settlements, DeWine said Polster on Wednesday invited him to attend a Jan. 31 meeting as a representative of the 13 states who have filed lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. "I think the judge is right that we can settle this matter," DeWine said in an interview. Opioids were involved in over 42,000 overdose deaths in 2016, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A wave of lawsuits have accused drugmakers of pushing addictive painkillers through deceptive marketing and wholesale distributors of failing to report suspicious drug orders. DeWine, a Republican who is running for governor in Ohio, said Polster told him he is also reaching out to attorneys general who have not sued and are instead conducting a multistate investigation of the companies. An assistant to Polster declined to comment. Johnson & Johnson in a statement called settlement talks with states attorneys general confidential and the allegations against it "baseless and unsubstantiated." Teva declined to comment. Polster's outreach to state attorneys general followed a hearing on Tuesday where he told lawyers that he wanted to "do something meaningful to abate this crisis and to do it in 2018." "I don't think anyone in the country is interested in a whole lot of finger-pointing at this point, and I'm not either," he said. After a lawyer for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP noted it was fighting cases not before Polster, the judge said he could "pick up the phone and call any state attorney general I want and invite him or them to be involved." Other defendants include Endo International PLC, Allergan PLC, AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Tom Brown and Richard Chang) By Joseph Ax (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Martha McSally, a former Air Force combat pilot, said on Friday she would run against former sheriff Joe Arpaio, a close ally of President Donald Trump, in the race for the Republican nomination for a key Senate seat from Arizona. The August primary contest is shaping up as the latest election to expose the divisions roiling the Republican Party, pitting the establishment-backed McSally against the bomb-throwing Arpaio. McSally, 51, and Arpaio, 85, are expected to try to capture the insurgent appeal of Trump, a popular figure among Arizona Republicans. Both are seeking to succeed Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who announced he would not seek re-election after emerging as a leading critic of Trump within the president's own party. Arpaio, who entered the race on Tuesday, was pardoned by Trump last year after being convicted of criminal contempt of court for refusing to obey a court order in a racial profiling case focusing on Hispanics targeted as potential illegal immigrants. In announcing her bid, McSally told Washington Republicans in a YouTube video to "grow a set of ovaries" and said that she, like Trump, is tired of "PC politicians with their BS excuses," referring to political correctness. "After taking on terrorists in combat, the liberals in the Senate won't scare me one bit," McSally said in the video released hours before she piloted herself to campaign events across the state in a World War Two-era plane. McSally is widely seen as the national party's preferred nominee, much as incumbent Senator Luther Strange was backed by the party's establishment wing in the battle for the Republican nomination in a Senate special election in Alabama against hard-line evangelical Christian conservative Roy Moore. Moore won the nomination but lost the December election to Democrat Doug Jones after being accused of sexual misconduct with girls as young as 14, costing the Republicans a Senate seat. Story continues Political observers in Arizona said the more moderate McSally stands a far better chance of beating a Democrat in the November general election than Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff known for harsh anti-immigration views. Arpaio was defeated for re-election as sheriff by a Democrat in 2016. The winner of the Republican primary will likely face U.S. Representative Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic front-runner. Democrats need to pick up two seats this November to wrest control of the U.S. Senate from the Republicans. Races in Arizona and Nevada are seen as their best opportunities. Also running in the Republican primary is conservative state Senator Kelli Ward, like Arpaio a strong Trump supporter. Ward unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Arizona Senator John McCain in 2016. Several Republican political consultants said Arpaio's prolific fundraising and strong name recognition could marginalize Ward's campaign, which has targeted the same bloc of Trump voters. "She really has no place to raise money anymore," said Chuck Coughlin, a Republican consultant in Phoenix. DELICATE BALANCE McSally, first elected to the House of Representatives in 2014, must strike a delicate balance between embracing Trump and appealing to more moderate voters, Republican strategists said. Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the race. "The Arpaio entrance is going to pose a real conundrum for congresswoman McSally," said Stan Barnes, an Arizona Republican operative. "How much daylight is she going to put between herself and the president?" The Arizona Democratic Party highlighted what spokesman Drew Anderson called a "long, brutal and expensive" Republican civil war. Ward's campaign has called McSally "Jeff Flake 2.0" and noted that McSally refused to endorse Trump last year. McSally could benefit if Arpaio and Ward split the hard-line conservative vote. "It kind of eases her path to the nomination," said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes Senate races for the Cook Political Report in Washington. "She can sort of let Arpaio and Ward fight it out for conservatives, and she comes across as conservative but pretty reasonable." Coughlin said Arpaio has a good shot, noting he boasts a loyal core of supporters and has never lost a Republican primary. "Martha's got a very good story to tell: A-10 fighter pilot, a female pilot in combat, trying to get immigration reform done," Coughlin said. "But how do you get that narrative out there in the cacophony that Joe creates when he talks?" (Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Additional reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington and David Schwartz in Phoenix; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Will Dunham) Donald Trump's reported remark branding Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations as "s***hole countries" has been branded racist by a UN human rights official. "If confirmed these are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States," spokesperson Rupert Coleville said. "There is no other word you can use but 'racist'." "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 's***holes', whose entire populations who are not white, are therefore not welcome." The US President made the comment during a meeting with congressional leaders in the Oval Office on Thursday, according to US media. Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? Mr Trump said after being presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants from the countries in question. He asked to know why the US would not instead accept people from places like Norway, whose prime minister he had met with the day before. The White House defended Mr Trump's policies on immigration and failed to deny he had made such comments. Mr Coleville added: "This isn't just a story about vulgar language, it's about opening the door to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia." Mr Trump eventually issued a denial on Twitter, saying the language he used was "tough" but different to what was claimed. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country," he continued. "Never said 'take them out'. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 The African Union (AU), a group representing all 55 countries on the continent, said it was "frankly alarmed" by the US President's alleged comments. Story continues "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice," AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity." Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, compared Mr Trump's comments to Nazism. "To the Nazi's, the purest Aryans were the Nordic people of Germany and Norway," he wrote on Twitter, alluding to Mr Trump's complaint that more Norwegians were not allowed into the US. "Connection?" he added. To the Nazi's, the purest Aryans were the Nordic people of Germany and Norway. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries [Haiti and Africa] come here? Trump exploded today, saying the U.S. should bring more people from countries like Norway. Connection? Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 11, 2018 Mr Trump made immigration reform a central theme of his campaign and on Thursday was meeting with members of Congress in an attempt to thrash out a deal. Since taking office, he has announced he will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several groups in the US, including Haitians and Salvadorans. TPS is an immigration status for certain countries experiencing crises such as natural disasters or war. Haitians became eligible for TPS following a 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean island nation, and from which it is yet to recover. The White House said it will end the designation for Haiti by July 2019. On 8 January the Department of Homeland Security announced it was ending TPS status for around 200,000 Salvadorans. The privilege was given to El Salvador following a series of earthquakes in 2001. Los Angeles (AFP) - Hollywood is voicing its outrage over reports that Mark Wahlberg was paid 1,500 times more than Michelle Williams to reshoot scenes for kidnap drama "All the Money in the World." Ridley Scott partially re-shot his latest movie after Kevin Spacey was fired due to sexual misconduct allegations, with both Wahlberg and Williams called back to act opposite Spacey's replacement, Christopher Plummer. But Williams, according to USA Today, earned a daily allowance of $80 for her work - amounting to under $1,000 in total and less than 0.07 percent of the $1.5 million that Wahlberg earned. "Please go see Michelle's performance in 'All the Money in the World.' She's a brilliant Oscar-nominated Golden Globe-winning actress," raged an indignant Jessica Chastain on Twitter. "She has been in the industry for 20 years. She deserves more than one percent of her male co-star's salary." Actress and activist Amber Tamblyn described the reported pay gap as "totally unacceptable" while veteran producer Judd Apatow said it was "so messed up that it is almost hard to believe." Golden Globe-winning actress Mia Farrow said the disparity was "outrageously unfair," adding that she was "never, ever paid even a quarter of what the male lead received." Williams previously told USA Today she appreciated efforts to reshoot the film, which recounts the kidnapping of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty's grandson, adding that "they could have my salary." Scott said the actors, including Williams and Wahlberg, turned up "for nothing" for the 10-day November re-shoot but USA Today reported that Wahlberg's agency later renegotiated his "hefty fee." At Sunday's Golden Globes -- where "All the Money in the World" came home empty-handed despite three nominations -- male and female actors wore black to highlight sexual misconduct and also to promote gender parity. Story continues The protest was organized in part by the newly-launched Time's Up campaign led by female stars including Williams to address gender discrimination in Hollywood and other industries. As her date, Williams brought civil rights activist Tarana Burke, the creator in 2006 of the "Me Too" movement to raise awareness of the ubiquity of sexual abuse. The phrase was co-opted by actress Alyssa Milano last year for the #MeToo social media campaign against sexual misconduct in Hollywood. Representatives for Wahlberg and Williams did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Washington (AFP) - In the run-up to the latest North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations, friction is high between Canada and the US -- with Ottawa determined not to bow to the Trump administration's demands, while Mexico opts for a more measured approach. Irritated by countervailing duties imposed on its exports to the US, Canada has called upon the World Trade Organization (WTO) to denounce protectionist trade practices -- which it believes contradict international rules and affect other countries such as China. "The action of Canada to the WTO is extremely provocative," said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, given the lurking threat of a US withdrawal from the agreement. He added the deterioration of Canadian-American relations is "extremely worrying" ahead of the sixth round of talks, which will take place in Montreal between January 23-28. "The Canadians think the Trump administration only understands strength," he said. "When people see that you are firm, you get respect," was the take of Canada's international trade minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne. - 'Confrontation' - According to Champagne, Canada's approach has always been constructive, and it recognizes the importance of the US, its primary trade partner. "But I think the American colleagues understand when you stand strong," he added. Canada is heading into the new round of negotiations with a "spirit of goodwill" and hopes for "a positive outcome," foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland insisted Thursday. But she added all parties must have similar good will, referencing rumors that the US may pull out of the agreement. The three countries, in theory, have until the end of March to renegotiate NAFTA, which has been in place since 1994. On Wednesday, however, a Canadian government source reported Ottawa is bracing for the United States to possibly announce sooner that it will pull out of the trade pact. Story continues "Canada is basically showing confrontation. Canada is sending a hard line signal and the Trump administration doesn't like it," said Monica de Bolle, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. According to de Bolle, it is no surprise given Canada's position ahead of the first round of talks in August. "There may be some dramatic moments ahead," Freeland had warned in an address. "But we are committed to a good deal, not just any deal." Since then, Canada has not let up on its commitment to defend the interests of its workers and businesses. It has also consistently contested the imposition of tariffs by the US. But it can afford to stand firm. Canada may be dependent on the American market, but it works both ways -- around 9 million US jobs depend on trade and investment from Canada. "They are all interdependent," says Monica de Bolle, who believes this dynamic subdues the threat of a US withdrawal. - Untouchable Mexican products - Mexico, which has meanwhile adopted a more flexible position, has repeated its aim to find a win-win agreement -- and says it is ready to make concessions to achieve this. "We are optimistic on the possibility of reaching a deal that will benefit all three countries," President Enrique Pena Nieto soothingly reiterated Thursday. The developing economy is starting from behind -- with 80 percent of its exports destined for the US, NAFTA is vital for Mexico. But while Trump publicly denounces the huge trade deficit with Mexico (over $64 billion), Canada is actually the country on the receiving end of most US trade complaints. The US Department of Commerce has felt the heat from American firms who feel threatened by Canadian imports -- such as aircraft manufacturer Boeing, which petitioned the government over Canadian Bombardier receiving government subsidies and then selling its C-Series jets below cost in the US. But in the manufacturing sector, products imported from Mexico are primarily made by US companies based in Mexico. Despite its low-key approach, however, the stakes are huge for Mexico. If NAFTA ends, "there is likely to be a significant hit to business confidence, which would weigh on investment and household spending," said consulting firm Capital Economics. Mexico's central bank warned the same last month, and said the economy was already feeling the pain because of prolonged uncertainty over NAFTA. 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. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips 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%. Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >> Compare Brokers The post If US-China Relations Turn Bitter, Buy These ETFs to Profit appeared first on InvestorPlace. Washington (AFP) - 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. Story continues "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." Related Video: Watch World News Tonight on Yahoo View. VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican newspaper on Friday branded U.S. President Donald Trump's reported comments about African countries and Haiti as "particularly harsh and offensive". The newspaper did not print the word "shithole," which Trump reportedly used repeatedly on Thursday at a White House meeting on immigration on Thursday, according to U.S. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who attended the gathering. The newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, wrote about the comment in a front-page article about the immigration debate in the United States. It noted that Trump's comments had immediately sparked "controversy and indignation". Trump denies using the term. Immigration is one of the issues that Pope Francis, who has strongly defended the rights of developing countries, and Trump have clashed over. In 2016, in response to a question about then-candidate Trumps views on immigration and his intention to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, Francis said a man with such views was "not Christian". Trump, who grew up in a Presbyterian family, shot back saying it was "disgraceful" for the pope to question his faith. (Reporting By Philip Pullella, Editing by William Maclean) The bill which was passed by Vermont's senate on Wednesday - AP Vermont has become the ninth state to legalise recreational use of pot, defying attempts by the US attorney-general Jeff Sessions to crack down on cannabis. Unlike other states where legalisation followed a state-wide referendum, the initiative was taken by Vermont's elected politicians. Phil Scott, the Republican governor, has said he will sign the bill which was passed by Vermont's senate on Wednesday. New Jersey is expected to follow suit later this year and cannabis campaigners are stepping up pressure for legalisation in Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Similar legislation was passed in neighbouring New Hampshire, but it is expected to be vetoed by the governor, Chris Sununu, also a Republican. US state rules on use of cannabis Under the Vermont legislation, which comes into force on July 1, anyone over the age of 21 will be allowed to possess up to one ounce of cannabis. Even though Vermont is a small state, the timing of the move is a rebuff for Mr Sessions and the Trump administration. Mr Sessions is trying to reverse the hands-off policy adopted by the Obama administration towards the drug in states where pot had been legalised. Even in states where recreational use and sale of pot is legal, cannabis businesses are hampered by federal laws outlawing the drug. Jeff Sessions Credit: Susan Walsh/AP The federal prohibition effectively denies them the use of banking facilities, meaning that transactions have to be carried out in cash. "The progress in Vermont is ground-breaking. Should the Green Mountain State's leadership move forward as promised, it will mark a huge turning point in the national movement to end the criminalisation of marijuana," said Justin Strekal, politcal director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "The political courage of Vermont's lawmakers to break with nearly a century of legislative stagnation should be interpreted as a siren call in the halls of the state legislatures nationwide as well as the US Capitol." A parent on Wednesday collapsed from shock while admitting his daughter to form one at Kingwede Girls Secondary School in Kwale County. Ndaikwa Chale from Kinango sub-county was reportedly shocked after he was informed that he was required to pay for school fees. According to his daughter, Fatuma Chale, her father was left with only Sh800 after doing all the school shopping. We shopped for school materials before we arrived at school in the evening but when my father was told about the fees he collapsed and started vomiting, said the girl. The 16-Year-Old girl, who scored 319 marks out of 500, said that both her parents sell charcoal and cannot afford to pay Sh16,993 which is required for school fees. Confirming the incident, school principal, Mrs Peninah Mwinyi, said the two arrived in the evening looking exhausted. A parent arrived accompanied by his daughter and proceeded for admission but when he was asked to pay the school fees, he fainted, said the schools head. She suspected that the failure by the parent to raise school fees for his daughter could have affected him psychologically. We rushed him to Msambweni County Referral Hospital as we got in touch with his relatives, she said. Students joining Form One started reporting on Monday as the government rolls out the free day secondary education. 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) (BANGKOK) Thai police have arrested a 72-year-old Japanese fugitive who was recognized when his full-body tattoos were circulated online. A police statement said Shigeharu Shirai was arrested Wednesday in a province north of Bangkok, where he has been hiding for over 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 over 10,000 times when some users identified the former gang member. Police Gen. Wirachai Songmetta said that Japanese associates paid visits to Shirai two to three times a year, each time bearing cash gifts at around 10,000 baht ($312). Hes married to a Thai woman and kept a low profile over the past decade, police said. According to police, Shirai was a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi gang, a faction within Japans Yakuza. Hes implicated, along with seven others, in the killing of Kashihiko Otobe, who was the deputy leader of the rival Kamiya gang. Shirai will face illegal entry charges before he is handed over to Japanese authorities, the police statement said. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would waive nuclear sanctions against Iran for the last time to give Washington and its European allies a chance to fix the "terrible flaws" of the 2015 nuclear deal. "This is a last chance," Trump said in a statement. "In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately." (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Russian lawmakers have hit out at the U.S. after Washington D.C. City Council voted to rename a street in front of the Russian Embassy after a murdered dissident. Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin was shot dead outside the Kremlin in 2015. In a statement announcing its unanimous decision, the council said it was renaming the portion of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the Russian Embassy after him, Politico reports. A ceremony to install a plaque on the newly-named Boris Nemtsov Plaza will take place on the third anniversary of his death on Feb. 27. Authorities must still get final approval for the change from the House of Representatives. The move provoked a predictable backlash in Russia. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the nationalist LDPR party said U.S. authorities specifically want to play dirty tricks in front of the Russian Embassy, according to the BBC. Dmitry Novikov, a member of Russias Communist Party, told the Interfax news agency that, The U.S. authorities have long been absorbed in their own game of interfering in Russian internal affairs. Read more: Why Russias Probe Into the Nemtsov Murder Does Not Stack Up In December last year, Nemtsovs daughter Zhanna traveled to D.C. to petition city authorities on the streets name change. A memorial near the site of his shooting in Moscow is frequently vandalized, according to the BBC. 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 reportedly said at the time. Berlin (AFP) - Germany inched toward a new government Friday as Chancellor Angela Merkel and the centre-left Social Democrats agreed to move ahead with formal talks to build a coalition. The in-principle pact after months of paralysis averts the unpopular prospect of snap elections for now, but there are still several hurdles to clear, some of which may prove perilous. - SPD party meet - The Social Democratic Party (SPD) has promised members a say at key junctures of the negotiation process with Merkel's CDU-CSU alliance. The first key date will be January 21, when around 600 party delegates will gather in Bonn to look at the outline deal obtained Friday. Deep scepticism runs through the party, because of fears that to again govern in Merkel's shadow will force the SPD to betray its ideals and further damage its voter appeal. However, SPD chief Martin Schulz, who had also initially ruled out governing under Merkel, praised the deal Friday and said the party leadership had unanimously backed the coalition blueprint. If the SPD delegates give the thumbs up, formal coalition talks could in theory begin as soon as January 22. - Coalition contract - The broad policy outline will then have to be fleshed out over weeks of talks involving policy experts into a formal "coalition contract". This means that negotiators will return to the table to thrash out the fine print that will essentially determined Germany's political programme for the next four years. In 2013, when Merkel was seeking the current coalition with the SPD, this process took three weeks. But a successful conclusion of the talks does not spell the end, because the SPD's 450,000 rank and file will then be called to a vote on whether to sign on the dotted line. The CSU's chief Horst Seehofer said he hoped a new government would be in place before Easter which falls on April 1. - Bundestag vote - If all goes well for her, Merkel, after 12 years in power, will be elected for a fourth term by a majority of lawmakers in the Bundestag. Story continues She would then likely face the most complicated task -- holding the coalition together for four years despite their deep-seated differences. Some political observers expect a now weakened Merkel to leave early and allow a successor to settle into the chancellorship ahead of 2021 elections. Oskar Niedermayer of Berlin's Free University said that "in the interest of her party's electoral strength, she should not stay in office for the entire legislative term". Another analyst, Lothar Probst of Bremen University, told the Handelsblatt business daily that the coalition could break up early in a fight, which would mean "the deck is reshuffled and Merkel's chancellorship could reach an early end". Washington (AFP) - The White House on Friday welcomed news of a sharp drop in Chinese trade with North Korea, saying it would help put pressure on the regime of Kim Jong-Un. China reported earlier that its imports from North Korea plunged 33 percent last year -- and 81.6 percent in December. President Donald Trump's "administration is pleased that China is sharply reducing its trade with North Korea," the White House said. "This action supports the United States-led global effort to apply maximum pressure until the North Korean regime ends its illicit programs, changes its behavior, and moves toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," it said in a statement. Trump has leaned heavily on China to use its economic clout to rein in North Korea, but Kim has shown no sign of halting Pyongyang's race to become a nuclear power capable of striking the United States. In 2017, it conducted tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States as well as its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. After months of soaring tensions, North Korea agreed this week to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, in what was seen as a potential sign of a cooling-off period. The United States and South Korea reciprocated by calling off military exercises during the Olympics. On Wednesday, Trump told South Korean President Moon Jae-In the United States was open to holding talks with North Korea "under the right circumstances," according to the White House. But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the two leaders, who spoke by telephone, also "underscored the importance of continuing the maximum pressure campaign against North Korea." On Thursday, Trump suggested in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he could have a good relationship with Kim, though he left vague the extent of his dealings with the North Korean leader. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-Un," Trump said. "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised." A senior US official said Thursday the United States plans to lobby allies at a major meeting next week to stop and inspect suspect ships bound for North Korea. Rescue crews continue to search wreckage for missing people two days after powerful mudslides swept through the Southern California community of Montecito, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than two dozen. The disaster took place in the same community where just weeks ago firefighters confronted the largest wildfire in the states history. The back-to-back disasters fire and flooding may seem like a cruel irony, but theyre directly related. A number of factors have played a role in how destructive and how lethal the mudslides turned out to be. Some Santa Barbara and Ventura county residents who had just returned to their homes after evacuating in December from the Thomas fire were reluctant to pack up and go again when they received a flood warning. Some lost their homes, others their lives, as a result. Local officials released numerous warnings in the early days of January as heavy rainfall was forecast, but they chose not to send out emergency alerts to cellphones until after the flooding had begun. They worried that the disaster-fatigued residents might not take an alert seriously, and didnt want to be seen as crying wolf. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said there isnt an exact science for predicting the scope of a disaster. Obviously, a lot depends on Mother Nature, on the magnitude of the rainfall, the magnitude of the mudslides and so forth, the sheriff told reporters on Tuesday. But given the torrential rains that were predicted, a devastating disaster was almost inevitable. Its no secret that drought, wildfires and mudslides all three of which California has witnessed of late are connected. The state just emerged from a five-year drought emergency, which Gov. Jerry Brown declared officially over in April of 2017. The long drought period, which experts say is among the extreme weather patterns exacerbated by climate change, made the land especially fire-prone. Not surprisingly, 2017 saw the largest and deadliest wildfires in Californias history. Story continues The Thomas fire burned through over 280,000 acres in Southern California in December, leaving the land scorched and flood-prone. Vegetation whose root systems might have held back the mudflow was destroyed, and the stage was set for deadly and fast-moving mudslides as Southern California was deluged with heavy rainfall. Aware of these environmental trends, officials warned about the potential of mudslides on local government websites and social media, as well as in news outlets and community emails. Jeff Gater, Santa Barbara Countys emergency manager, told The Los Angeles Times that over 200,000 emails warning of the possible disaster were delivered to residents who had signed up for such messages. But when it came to deciding whether or not to use a push alert system the same one used to sent out Amber Alerts for missing children county officials initially opted not to. The states emergency alert protocol has been under scrutiny since the October wildfire disaster in Northern California, which left more than 40 people dead. Officials in Sonoma County where over half of the fatalities occurred had decided not to deploy the federal Wireless Emergency Alert system, and some survivors of the 21 blazes later said they were inadequately warned. When wildfires flared in Southern California, state officials acted fast to send alerts to some 8 million smartphones in the area. But Gater said that an alert system shouldnt be overused. If you tell everyone to get out ... the next time people wont listen, he said. If you cry wolf, people stop listening. The alert was ultimately sent out at roughly 4 a.m. local time, the L.A. Times reported, when the flooding had already began and it was clear the situation was only going to get worse. Meanwhile, Brown said sheriffs deputies had knocked on 7,000 doors in the mandatory evacuation area mostly in and around Montecito telling residents to leave their homes. Not all of them heeded the warning. There was evacuation fatigue from the fire, local resident Marco Farrell told the Associated Press. Farrell and his parents had evacuated for more than a week during the fire, and decided not to leave again when a voluntary evacuation notice was issued for their neighborhood. In retrospect, he told AP, he wished they had. The mud flow burst into their home and sent a boulder plowing through the kitchen door. Thankfully, Farrell and his parents were able to escape. I would have preferred for them to leave and in hindsight we should have left, he said. I dont know how I got lulled. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. TOKYO (Reuters) - A panel the size of a laptop computer fell off one of the Japanese prime minister's jumbo jets, the defense force said on Friday, a potentially embarrassing mishap amid concern over the dangers posed by parts falling off U.S. military aircraft based in Japan. Officials noticed the panel was missing from the Boeing 747, one of two jetliners used by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for foreign trips, after it flew from Tokyo to its base on the northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday, a spokesman for the Japan Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) said. The part, measuring 38 cm (15 inches) by 20 cm, has not been found. It is an access panel near the pylon connecting one of the engines to the right wing. "There was no sign of it on the runways so it's going to be very difficult to locate," the spokesman said. A recent string of incidents involving U.S. aircraft based on Japan's southern island of Okinawa prompted Japan's Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera on Tuesday to ask his U.S. counterpart James Mattis to implement measures that would prevent any recurrences. Those incidents, which included a window falling from a helicopter onto a school playground last month, have fueled public opposition to the U.S. presence on the strategically located island at the edge of the East China Sea. The air force would conduct an investigation to determine why the panel had fallen off Abe's plane, the ASDF spokesman said. The two government jumbos left Tokyo on Friday carrying Abe, government officials and Japanese business representatives on a six-day trip to Eastern Europe, including stops in Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia and Romania. Abe did not board the 747 that lost the panel. Japan has ordered two Boeing 777 planes to replace the aging jumbos after March 2019. It also plans to switch to ANA Holdings for maintenance work from rival Japan Airlines Co.. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Paul Tait) (HOUSTON) A Dallas woman is challenging allegations that she caused at least $300,000 in damage to a prominent Houston attorneys art collection at the end of their first date. Lindy Lou Layman appeared in a Houston courtroom Tuesday after being charged with felony criminal mischief for the Dec. 23 incident in the home of attorney Tony Buzbee. Prosecutors say Buzbee told investigators the 29-year-old Layman became intoxicated and belligerent and that she shattered two $20,000 sculptures and poured wine on paintings, including two Andy Warhol works each valued at $500,000. Justin Keiter, Laymans attorney, said Tuesday his client is a great person and they disagree with Mr. Buzbees rendition of the facts. He declined to give an alternate version of what happened, saying hes saving it for the courtroom. Buzbee has represented high-profile figures, including former Texas Gov. Rick Perry in an abuse-of-power case. Layman is free on $30,000 bond. By Peter Szekely NEW YORK (Reuters) - Law enforcement authorities on Thursday unveiled a slew of charges, including murder, drug trafficking and conspiracy, against 17 alleged members of a Central America-tied gang that they say is running a global criminal enterprise. A grand jury in Nassau County, on Long Island just east of New York City, earlier this week indicted the alleged members of MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, on 21 criminal counts that prosecutors said could result in prison sentences for each of 25 years to life. "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," Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singa said. The seven-month investigation started as a drug case, then unearthed an El Salvador-based global narcotics network that prosecutors said relies on violence and intimidation and stretches to Mexico, Columbia, South Korea, France, Australia, Peru, Egypt, Ecuador and Cuba. The grand jury indictment alleges crimes committed in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Texas. Nine of the 17 defendants are still at large, prosecutors said. The gang is organized into several sub-groups, or cliques, each of which reports to gang leaders in El Salvador and sends them proceeds from their drug sales, the prosecutors said. In a speech on Long Island last summer, U.S. President Donald Trump cited MS-13, which started in Los Angeles, as a key source of violence in U.S. communities, and blamed lax enforcement of illegal immigration from Central America as a reason for its existence in the United States. At least seven of the defendants are foreign nationals from El Salvador or Honduras, although prosecutors did not identify those still at large. The indictment accuses two defendants, David Sosa Guevara and Victor Lopez, with the murder of a 15-year-old in Nassau County last July. Story continues Other charges included conspiracy to commit murder and trafficking in cocaine and heroin. Prosecutors said they seized four kilograms of heroin, cocaine and weapons. As a result of the investigation, prosecutors said they were able to solve two murders last year in Maryland's Prince George's County. "Not only did we arrest the highest-level Mara Salvatrucha 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, said Special Agent in Charge James Hunt of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. (Reporting by Peter Szekely; Editing by Leslie Adler) Gaw Van Male LLP announced that Marc Hauser joined the firms Napa office as a partner in the wine and business law departments. Im incredibly excited to be joining such a dynamic and growing team," Hauser said. Before joining Gaw Van Male, Hauser spent 15 years as in-house counsel to Equity Group Investments in Chicago. Hauser earned a J.D., cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law, and a bachelors degree from Northwestern University College of Arts and Sciences. He is not yet admitted to practice in California. Hauser is admitted to practice in Illinois. Gaw Van Male is located at 1000 Main St., Napa. Info: 707-252-9000. Israel has decided to deport asylum seekers to third countries. A slightly odd decision, and mostly unnecessarily. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Regardless of whether the aid organizations' claims against this decision are right or wrong, a thorough discussion of these claims seems unnecessary in light of the fact that there are two many alternatives that are more decent and humane, and which complement each other. To understand the alternatives, we must remember that most African asylum seekers came from Eritrea, and that most of them support that countrys regime. Under Eritrean law, they must pay a 2-percent diaspora tax to the Eritrean government. In addition to this tax, a significant portion of their salary is transferred directly to their families. A 2015 study estimated that every African in the diaspora transfers $1,077 a year to his or her family members. Eritrean asylum seekers in Israel (Photo: Motti Kimchi) When it comes to Eritrea, the payments from the diaspora make up 37 percent of the gross national product. Even those who dont support the regime are entitled to make a ransom payment at the Eritrean embassy and receive a sort of pardon. The Israeli government has the option of returning the Eritrean asylum seekers to their country. Aid organizations say they cant be returned, as they would be tortured there or forced to serve in the army forever and ever. This claim may have been true in the not-so-distant past, but different reports released in recent years indicate that those who have returned or have been returned to Eritrea have not been tortured. One of the most serious reports, issued by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), denies the claims of horrors awaiting the returning Eritreans. European courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, have decided in recent years to return Eritrean asylum seekers who were said to be deserters. So the situation has changed. Theres no need to deport them, theres a need to return them. The other alternative is the deposit law, which was passed several months ago, under which foreign workers must deposit 20 percent of their salary in a designated fund whose content would be returned to them on the day they leave Israel. This is a fair arrangement, which allows asylum seekers to work and earn a dignified living, yet encourages them to leave voluntarily as the sum accumulated in the fund increases. Aid organizations petitioned the High Court against the law just like they have petitioned any other measure adopted by the government concerning this issue. Considering the huge money transfers from Eritreans in the diaspora, both to the Eritrean government and to the families back home, this is clearly a case of work migration. Its a worthwhile export industry, creating a difference between persecuted refugees and work migrants. Humane and Jewish ethics require us to consider the formers needs a bit more than the latters needs. The Eritreans living in Israel deserve to be treated humanely, but that doesnt mean every claim they make is true (Photo: Motti Kimchi) Combining the two options could lead to a decent arrangement. Instead of investing huge efforts and huge budgets in deportation, we could put most of our efforts into implementing the deposit law. This measure, coupled with serious negotiations with the Eritrean government, which has diplomatic relations with Israel, could lead to the enforcement of proper return procedures. The Eritreans living in Israel likely wont support any arrangement. They deserve to be treated humanely, but that doesnt mean every claim they make is right. The thing is that any arrangement, regardless of its nature, evokes a Pavlovian response among the aid organizations. Thats a shame. These organizations could have played a significant role in defending asylum seekers. Instead, they have created a feelingwhich isnt always wrongthat as far as theyre concerned, charity doesnt begin at home. When these organizations oppose every move, ignore European reports and rush to the High Court even against a reasonable and humane measure like the deposit law, they stop being rights organizations and turn into organizations with a radical political agenda. Most importantly, its a shame that these organizations are incapable of allotting some of their empathy toward asylum seekers also toward the main victims of the tens of thousands who have settled among them. A 25-year-old man was lightly wounded by stone throwing in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter, near the Lions' Gate. A Magen David Adom team evacuated him to receive medical attention. Police and Border Policemen are searching the area for suspects. IDF sources said that during scans to locate the terrorists who carried out the Havat Gilad shooting that claimed the life of Raziel Shevah, a violent riot broke out in Nablus. Residents threw stone and Molotov cocktails at the Israeli forces, who responded by deploying crowd control measures. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said on Thursday he "probably" has a very good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a change in tone for Trump after exchanging insults with Kim over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. Trump has derided the North Korean leader as a "maniac" and referred to him as "little rocket man." Kim has responded by calling the US president a "mentally deranged US dotard." "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un," Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised." Asked whether he has spoken with the North Korean leader, Trump told the newspaper: "I don't want to comment on it. I'm not saying I have or haven't. I just don't want to comment." US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would waive nuclear sanctions against Iran for the last time to give Washington and its European allies a chance to fix the "terrible flaws" of the 2015 nuclear deal. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter But he also made clear these waivers will be the last, unless what he calls serious flaws in the agreement are addressed by the spring. A senior administration official said Trump wants the deal strengthened with a follow-on agreement in 120 days or the United States will unilaterally withdraw from the international pact. President Trump (R) is said to extend sanctions relief on President Rouhani's Iran (Photo: AFP, Getty Images) Trump had faced a Friday deadline to decide on whether to waive the sanctions. A decision to withhold a waiver would have effectively ended the deal that limits Iran's nuclear program. While Trump approved the sanctions waiver, the Treasury Department decided to impose new, targeted sanctions against 14 Iranian entities and people. "This is a last chance," Trump said in a statement. "In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately." Two senior Trump administration officials told Reuters on Wednesday that the president had privately expressed reluctance to heed the advice of top advisers recommending he not reimpose the suspended sanctions. Trump has argued that his predecessor, President Barack Obama, negotiated a bad deal for the United States in agreeing to the nuclear accord. Hailed by Obama as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear ambitions. It was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. Trump accused his predecessor Obama of negotiating a 'bad deal' for the US (Photo: AP) Trump had come under heavy pressure from European allies to issue the sanctions waiver. "I hereby call on key European countries to join with the United States in fixing significant flaws in the deal, countering Iranian aggression, and supporting the Iranian people," Trump said in the statement. "If other nations fail to act during this time, I will terminate our deal with Iran." Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. It has said it will stick to the accord as long as the other signatories respect it, but will " shred " the deal if Washington pulls out. The US Congress requires the president to decide periodically whether to certify Iran's compliance with the deal and issue a waiver to allow US sanctions to remain suspended. Trump in October chose not to certify compliance and warned he might ultimately terminate the accord. He accused Iran of "not living up to the spirit" of the agreement even though the International Atomic Energy Agency says Tehran is complying. Iran was not living up to 'the spirit' of the agreement, the Trump administration alleged (Photo: AFP) Hardliners on Iran in the US Congress have called for the reimposition of the suspended sanctions and an end to the nuclear deal, while some liberal Democrats want to pass legislation that would make it harder for Trump to pull Washington out without congressional consent. Trump and his top advisers have been negotiating with US lawmakers on Capitol Hill to try to change sanctions legislation so that he does not face a deadline on whether to recertify Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal every 90 days. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker has been working on amending a US law to include "trigger points" that if crossed by Iran would automatically bring back US sanctions. Earlier Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he expected President Trump to impose new sanctions on Iran. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said he expected President Trump to impose new sanctions on Iran (Photo: Reuters) "I am expecting new sanctions on Iran," Mnuchin told reporters. "We continue to look at them. We've rolled them out and I think you can expect there will be more sanctions coming." Trump: Why allow immigrants from 's**thole countries'? Apart from Iran, President Trump was also dealing with immigration policy Thursday, using bluntly vulgar language to question why the US would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "s**thole 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 immigrantsand also strengthen border protections, as Trump has insisted. 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. Congressional Democrats wanted people who fled to the US after disasters hit their homes in places like Haiti to be allowed to stay, to which Trump vehemently objects (Photo: AP) 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 US who fled here after disasters hit their homes in places including El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti. Trump specifically questioned why the US would want to admit more people from Haiti. As for Africa, he asked why more people from "s**thole countries" should be allowed into the US, the sources said. The president suggested that instead, the US 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 ..." The US-Mexico border. Trump reiterated his desire to build a 'Great Wall' (Photo: Reuters) 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. ANKARA Turkey has warned its citizens against travel to the United States, saying Turks face the risk of arbitrary arrest and should take precautions if they do decide to travel. The comments from the Turkish Foreign Ministry come after the US Department of State this week made a similar warning to its citizens, saying Americans planning to visit Turkey should reconsider plans due to "terrorism and arbitrary detentions". Ties between Ankara and Washington, both NATO allies and members of the coalition against Islamic State, have been strained by the US arrest and conviction of a Turkish banker in an Iran sanctions-busting case, a trial Turkey has dismissed as politically motivated. "Turkish citizens traveling to the United States may be subjected to arbitrary detentions based on testimonies of unrespected sources," the ministry said in a statement dated Thursday. Jewish women residing in the West Bank, including some who have lost family members to terrorism, wrote a scathing appeal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot Friday, in the wake of the shooting attack that claimed the life of Raziel Shevah of Havat Gilad. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter In the letter, the women demanded that the IDF's deterrence be restored, safety returned to the region's roads echoing their appeal from a Likud party meeting they attended last weekand checkpoints reinstated in exits from Palestinian cities. Some of the letter's signees include Adva Biton, whose daughter Adele died following complications from injuries sustained in a terror attack, Ta'ama (Henkin) Yaacoson, the sister of Eitam Henkin, and Leah Gavish, the daughter of Rachel and David Gavish and sister of Abraham Gavish, murdered in their Elon Moreh home. Raziel Shevah's funeral. His murder prompted the women to write their appeal (Photo: Amit Shabi) "It has only been a few days since the monstrous attack that left a family dismantled, a widow with six orphans. The killers are still on the loose, but we can be said to have returned to our routine," the letter continued. "When did we become so indifferent? Why are Nablus and Ramallah so wide open and it's so incomprehensibly easy to get in and out of them? Why are there no checkpoints? Why are villages not encircled after such a heinous attack? Their lives are carrying on normally and they're happy and smiling, with the next attack being just a matter of time! "Terror attacks and murders are not ordained by fate. They may be prevented. The enemy may be beaten, but it's plain to see that to defend residents the army needs free rein. It is capable of creating much stronger deterrence than it is allowed to today. But it seems someone preferred maintaining Arabs' normal routines than preserving Jews' lives." The letter was the initiative of Batya Lasser of Elon Moreh. "Within hours I was inundated by phone calls from women who were as passionate about this as I was and joined in. word then spread like wildfire in all of Judea and Samaria. Everyone wants to join in on this clarion call for security," she explained. Dr. Adva Biton, whose daughter Adele passed two years after being wounded in a stone throwing attack, said, "I do not presume to be a national security advisor, but we must act firmly against our enemies. As a bereaved mother, who experienced the greatest of pains, I implore: no more. A people desiring to survive, who believe in the sanctity of life, must treat war as war." Nabi Ilyas bypass road opens Part of the women's appeal was for increased security on roads, and perhaps not coincidentally a new section of Route 55 was opened to traffic Friday, bypassing the Palestinian village of Nabi Ilyas. The Nabi Ilyas bypass road was inaugurated Friday The cost of the bypass road's construction was NIS 60 million, with settlers receiving a further allocation of NIS 600 million from Prime Minister Netanyahu for paving similar bypass roads elsewhere in the West Bank. The five-kilometer-long Nabi Ilyas road is the first bypass road paved in the West Bank in many years. Another bypass road currently being paved bypasses Huwara, Al-Arroub and Kalandia, allowing settlers a safer, more convenient drive to Israel's center, but will also be used by the area's Palestinians. Before the Nabi Ilyas bypass was inaugurated, Israeli drivers were forced to drive through the village itself, which has become a hotspot for stone and Molotov cocktail throwinga fact that scared many drivers away from passing through there. Lighting infrastructures were also erected along the road. The road's paving is one aspect of the agreement reached between the prime minister and head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan, after the latter put up a protest tent after the attack that claimed the life of the Henkin family two years ago. Head of Samaria Regional Council Dagan (L) and Karnei Shomron chief Lahav "At least we received one moment of joy, in a week bringing such tragic tidings," Dagan said. Head of the Karnei Shomron Regional Council Yigal Lahav noted, "We're happy to be here today, after a prolonged period of planning and construction." Some 30 residents of the southern resort city of Eilat demonstrated Thursday opposite attendees of the Likudiada, the ruling Likud party's annual gathering. Locals protested their city not being excluded from the Supermarket Law's purview, two days after the Knesset passed the law with the slimmest of margins. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The legislation, which will give the interior minister authority to strike down municipal bylawsincluding those permitting some businesses to open on Shabbatwas passed with a narrow majority of 58 in favor and 57 opposed. Some of the protesters congregating outside the city's Club Hotel location were supermarket owners, who arrived clad in black t-shirts emblazoned with, "They are celebrating on Shabbat shutting down Eilat" and "Likud sold Eilat." Eilat resident protesting the Likudiada (Photo: Meir Ohayon) The Eilat resident who hoisted the sign defended himself by saying, "There's no other way to explain it." Eilat supermarket owner and one of the protest's initiators Momo Bitton said, "We're here to strike down the Supermarket Law, because it effectively shut down our city. Likud passed the law just this week and then shamelessly came down to celebrate in our citywhich is supposed to shut down on Shabbat according to their own law. You can't shut down the city and then come celebrate here." "They're ignoring us. People dreamt up this law for political purposes, and then forced it on an entire country, especially on a tourist hotspot like Eilat. If Eilat is good enough to party in, why shut it down? If it good enough for conferences, parties and the Likudiada, why shut it down? I don't think we should be hosting them after what they did to us," Bitton concluded. Member of Eilat's city council Matan Be'eri was also behind the protest. "Eilat residents are here to protest the Supermarket Law opposite the Likudiada. The law is against both (residents') political opinions and moral stances. Eilat is an equitable, pluralistic tourist destination, with religious people living alongside secular people for many years. Likud activist and Eilat resident Mazgini confronting protesters (Photo: Meit Ohayon) "We demand Eilat be excluded from the law and to pass a municipal amendment reserving the right for residents to keep their businesses open on Shabbat. We want tourists to keep coming to this place and have a good time, and for the city to not be shuttered on Shabbat," Be'eri elucidated. Another Eilat resident, Benny Mazgini, is a longtime member of the Likud Central Committee and confronted his fellow residents. "This protest is relevant," he claimed, "but it should nevertheless be cultured and respectful. As an Eilat resident I sympathize with them, I just don't like the idea of mixing what's been happening with the prime minister and the supermarket situation here." "I'm stating that I know full well no businesses will close on Shabbat, in Eilat or anywhere else in the country," Mazgini asserted. It is with great sadness that we announce that Doug Boyer passed away quietly in his sleep on December 19, 2017. He was born in Dayton, Ohio on August 25, 1932. In the 1940s his family moved to California, first to Los Angeles, then to Napa. While in high school in Napa Doug was a star in the theater group and on the rifle team. It is also where, at the age of 15, he met the love of his life, Norene Rodgers. Also while in high school, Doug was one of many young men who lied about their ages, in his case to join the National Guard. While in the Guard he was sent to Aberdeen Proving grounds, where he learned his future trade, to be a gunsmith. In January of 1951 he and Norene were married in Reno, Nevada. He owned Boyers Sporting Goods in Napa for many years, then ran a business in Los Angeles, moving to Hawaii in 1976 to help set up the Army Museum of the Pacific. Although they went over there on a 6 month contract, both Doug and Norene fell in love with Hawaii, and decided to open the Military Shop of Hawaii in Waikiki, where the shop was operated for over 25 years, eventually moving to Sand Island. As one of the founding members of the Hawaii Historical Arms Association, he was active in the club to the very end. In recent years he was semi-retired. He will be missed by family, friends, and customers from around the world. He is survived by his son, Ron Boyer of Los Osos, California, and Michele Boyer of Honolulu and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his father, mother, sister, brother, and his love of over 60 years, Norene. Memorial plans are pending. Doug had requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to a favorite charity. ISLAMABAD Pakistan's army chief told a top US general the nation "felt betrayed" at criticism that it was not doing enough to fight terrorism, the military said on Friday, after President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of "lies and deceit". Pakistan's army said in a statement that US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel told General Qamar Javed Bajwa the United States was not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan. "(Bajwa) said that entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed over US recent statements despite decades of cooperation," the army said, referring to a conversation between Bajwa and Votel. ANKARA An increased offensive in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province will spark a new migration wave, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Friday, calling on Russia and Iran to warn Syrian authorities over attacks. Speaking to reporters after Friday prayers, Yildirim also said the attacks would only damage a peace process in Syria. Rebels this week launched a counter attack against Syrian government forces and their allies in Idlib. 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. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter A statement by chief prosecutor Nabil Sadeq's office, carried by the official MENA news agency, said the Times' report, published last 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. Egyptian Attorney General Nabil Sadeq ordered an investigation into the New York Times' report (Photo: Daily News Egypt) 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 al-Sisi, 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 UN General Assembly declaring Trump's decision " null and void ." Egyptian President al-Sisi's regime was highly critical of President Trump so far (Photo: MCT) Since coming to power, al-Sisi 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 websites 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 al-Sisi's predecessor, President Mohammed Morsi , an Islamist whose year in office proved divisive The Bayit Yehudi party announced the Ministerial Legislation Committee will not be convening next week due to the Likud party's refusal to approve the Ariel University bill. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) halted the committee's discussions this week claiming MK Yoav Kish (Likud) is blocking the bill, as part of which West Bank academic institutions will be recognized under the country's general Council for Higher Education, rather than its specialized West Bank offshoot. Losing significant funding from its largest donor, the United States, could be "catastrophic" for Palestinians, said a UN agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees. Last week, President Donald Trump said the United States may withhold future aid payments to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) over what he called the Palestinians' unwillingness to talk peace with Israel. A State Department official later said that no decision had been made on payment. The United States is the largest donor to the agency, with a pledge of nearly $370 million as of 2016, according to UNRWA's website. The UN agency, founded in 1949 to aid Palestinian refugees, provides educational and health services in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. "The human impact of losing significant funding could be catastrophic in the real lives of real people whom the UN is mandated to protect," UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a statement. "Palestine refugees are among some of the most vulnerable people in the Middle East. Our health services offer a life line, quite literally, to vulnerable women and children, the sick and the elderly," he said. Haiti says it is "deeply shocked and outraged" by President Donald Trump's reported vulgar remark on migration calling it "racist." The Haitian government says in a statement that "these insulting and reprehensible statements in no way reflect the virtues of wisdom, restraint and discernment that must be cultivated by any high political authority." It adds that the comment as reported "reflects a totally erroneous and racist view of the Haitian community and its contribution to the United States." On Thursday Trump questioned why the US would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa. Trump denied Friday that he used the vulgar expression, saying "this was not the language used." Haiti's ambassador to Washington told local radio that his government complained to the US Embassy in Haiti. The Russian military said Friday it has eliminated a group of rebels that had attacked Russia's air base in Syria. The Russian Defense Ministry said it tracked down the rebels with drones and other intelligence assets and struck them with artillery while they were getting into a minibus in the northwestern province of Idlib. It said in a statement that the Russian military also destroyed a rebel facility for assembling drones in Idlib. The mortar shelling of the Hemeimeem air base killed two Russian servicemen on New Year's eve, according to the Defense Ministry. It said that warplanes weren't hit, but the Russian business daily Kommersant reported that seven aircraft were damaged beyond repair. The worst fighting on the Gaza Strip front since 2014 is being calibrated by Hamas, which wants to signal defiance of Israel and the United States while being careful not to trigger a new war for the enclaves penned-in Palestinians. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Since President Donald Trump reversed decades of US policy on Dec. 6 by recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital, Palestinians in Gaza have launched 18 cross-border rockets or mortars Flare-up with Israel tests Hamas a third of all such attacks in 3-1/2 years of relative quiet. For Israels part, though residents in the south have raised a clamor for harsh retaliation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government has counseled caution and targeted mostly unmanned Hamas facilities in night-time airstrikes The careful moves reflect the balancing act maintained both by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, and the Israeli government, old foes who share a reluctance to go to war again. Gazas neighborhoods still bear the scars of the destruction caused by Israeli attacks during a seven-week conflict in 2014. In Israel, there is little eagerness to endure the daily sirens warning of rocket strikes. But ordinary Israelis and Palestinians are keenly aware that even a single incidenta rocket causing multiple fatalities in Israel or Israeli forces killing a militant leadercould set off a conflagration that would be beyond their leaders control. Two Hamas gunmen have died in retaliatory Israeli air strikes and 15 protesters from Israeli gunfire. The recent weeks of rockets and Israeli bombardment proved an explosion is possible, said Gaza political analyst Akram Attalla. How long will Hamas continue to take Israeli strikes to its positions without a response? And how long will Israels Netanyahu tolerate internal criticism? There is no guarantee. While there have been no Israeli fatalities or serious injuries in the rocket strikes, farmers in communities close to the Gazan border think twice about tilling fields where they might be exposed and children practice duck-and-cover drills should air raid sirens sound. Lately we do feel that there is more presence of the army. We have been told to be more careful, to clear the bomb shelter just in case. You never know when the next rocket will come, said Hila Fenlon, resident of the farm collective Nativ Haasara. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh (Photo: AP) Hamas has responded to Trumps move by mobilizing mass protests at the border and turning a blind eye to other factions firing into Israel in two weeks of daily attacks, which have tailed off recently. This saves face for Hamas, as it appears to be the one that stands behind these protests without the need to go to war, said Attalla. A more violent response was tamped down in debate among Palestinian factions who agreed that an armed confrontation could erode the international support Palestinians have won diplomatically and shift attention from the political process. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said no-one should underestimate the potential for hostilities to resume under what he called an Israeli occupation, however. Israel withdrew troops and settlers from the territory in 2005 but remains the conduit for the passage of goods and supplies most of its electricity. Israel and Egypt, citing security concerns, maintain tight restrictions on the passage of Palestinians through their borders with the enclave. The situation in Gaza is very difficult and is not tolerable and is doomed to explode, he told Reuters. Iranian support Israel sees an outside catalyst for the violenceIran, which both Hamas and its sometime ally Islamic Jihad say has pledged unlimited assistance for them as the Syrian civil war, where Tehran deployed reinforcements for Damascus, winds down. Israel has gone out its way to blame Islamic Jihad and other groups for the rocket and mortar attacks, rather than Hamas, and even gave grudging credit to Hamas for being mindful of Palestinian civilian needs. Calls to respond with full force against Hamas are irresponsible, the top Israeli general, Gadi Eizenkot, said in a speech last week. He noted Gazas danger of humanitarian collapse, which, he said, had forced Hamas to engage with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and secured a renewed power supply to the enclave. Israel also has problems elsewhere. Having neutralized much of the rocket threat from Gaza with their Iron Dome interceptor system, and hard at a work on an underground wall that would block guerrilla tunnels from the territory, Israeli defense officials say they worry more about Iran and the combustible northern front with Syria and Lebanon. They also fear that the $1.1 billion sensor-equipped barrier on the 60-km (37-mile) frontier could tempt Gaza militants to use their tunnels to strike Israel before they lose them. A range of economic initiatives have been broached, from the construction of an island off Gaza to handle direct imports by sea to the issuing of more permits for Palestinian laborers or agricultural exports to enter Israel. There is an effort to help the (Palestinian) population in a way that will not go to the armed wing of Hamas, said Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence chief and head of Tel Aviv Universitys Institute for National Security Studies, which has prepared a 180-page memorandum on the Gaza crisis. Israeli concern about worsening Gazas internal problems has put it at odds even with the Trump administration, which has threatened to cut US contributions to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that provides essential aid for Palestinian refugees in the enclave, supporting and administering hundreds of schools and dozens of health facilities. Israel says funds should be cut gradually and UNRWA should ultimately be dismantled and its responsibilities transferred to the United Nations global refugee agency. Cutting aid to UNRWA would spell huge pressures on Gazas residents, said Saleh Naami, another Palestinian political analyst. Peter Lerner, a former Israeli military spokesman, agreed. While UNRWA is far from perfect, the Israeli defense establishment, and the Israeli government as a whole, have over the years come to the understanding that all alternatives are worse for Israel, he said. Four soldiers have been indicted for assaulting a fellow Arab-Muslim combat soldier, Corporal Ghanem, after an argument over kitchen duties broke out between him and one of his attackershis platoon sergeant. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The incident took place about 10 days ago at an IDF post near the Kerem Shalom crossing near the Gaza Strip border. Corporal Ghanem, after the attack According to the indictment, the commander entered soldier's room and shouted at him. A short time later, when Ghanem left his room, an argument broke out between him and his deputy company sergeant major who called on him to approach him, telling him to "watch himself" and browbeating him with remarks such as "what, you think you're a man?" At this stage, the military prosecution claims, the platoon sergeant arrived at the scene and together with the Dep. CSM began punching Ghanem in his head and chest. Two other soldiers then came running in and grabbed Ghanem's hands while he was dazed, so that the four of them could continue to beat him. The four beat Ghanem until he fell unconscious. "Combatants in the unit who noticed the incident rushed to the scene and separated the assailants from Ghanem," the indictment states. Ghanem was evacuated by ambulance to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva suffering from bruises including nosebleeds, swelling of the eyes and nose, chest pain during breathing and other bruises on his upper body. The four soldiers were charged with aggravated assault. Ghanem had difficulty integrating into a unit that operates regularly on the Gaza border. As a Muslim Arab resident of the Galilee, he enlisted 10 months ago as a volunteer in the IDF and was integrated into a company whose fighters are from the Bedouin community. But he says that in recent months he has been the target of harassment by soldiers in the unit over his ethnicity. As a result, he went absent without official leave for several weeks and only returned to his unit after being persuaded to do so. Upon returning, he faced charges of desertion and was sentenced to one month in military prison. Due to delays in his entry into prison, he was tasked with kitchen duty in the unit until the incident occurred. Soldiers in the unit tried to whitewash the case and claimed that he had bumped his head on a wall, but a Military Police investigation revealed the truth. An IDF force fired at a Palestinian who threw a Molotov cocktail at it during disturbances near the Israeli settlement of Tekoa in Gush Etzion. The Palestinian was evacuated by the Red Crescent, suffering wounds in his hand and legs. There were no casualties among the soldiers. 19322018 19322018 19322018 Jackie Juanita Green Rauch 86 years filled with love, family, and laughter came to a peaceful end on January 8, 2018 for Jackie Juanita Green Rauch. Jackie was born in the small town of Wewoka, Oklahoma to Walter and Vera Green on January 1, 1932 at the height of the great depression. Jackies brother Jerry joined the family two years later. Seeking a better life for their family, the Greens moved around the United States including New Mexico, Washington, and Texas. When Jackie was 9 the family moved to Napa. At 14 Jackie started worked at Bertains Laundry, where she would sneak kisses while folding sheets with the boy who would become the love of her life-Charlie Bud Rauch. Jackie graduated from Napa High in June 1949, and married Bud two weeks later. Bud and Jackie were married for 35 years. Their son Steve was born in 1950, and daughter Shirley in 1952. Bud joined the Napa Fire Department in 1958. Jackie proudly supported Bud as a Firemens Frau (wives of the firefighters). During these years the family developed a passion for camping with friends and family that Jackie would enjoy for many years. With a great head for numbers, Jackie also worked as a bookkeeper for many local businesses including local doctors, Heid & Heid Engineering, and the Napa Valley Realtors Association. The great heartbreak of her life was losing Bud much too young in 1984. However Jackie was able to enjoy many years of travel, including trips to Europe and China. She continued camping as long as she could, happiest by the campfire with a brandy in her hand and her five grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren surrounding her. Jackie fought valiantly for the last 13 years of her life the Alzheimers Disease that would eventually take her independence. Her family is grateful for the loving care she received from the staff at The Meadows Memory Care unit, and Stayman EstatesArcadia. Jackie will be deeply missed by her family including brother Jerry Green, son Steven (Tina) Rauch, daughter Shirley Clauss, grandchildren Seana Wagner, Amber (Tom) Longacre, James (Brionna) Rauch, Christina (Anthony) Azzarello, Stacy Andrews, and 12 great grandchildren. The family will remember Jackie with a special camping trip, no public memorial will be held. Memorial donations can be made to the California State Parks Foundation or the Alzheimers Association. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked will not convene the Ministerial Committee for Legislation next week, it was announced Friday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter This is in protest of the Likud delaying voting on the "Ariel University bill," which, if passed, will subject all academic institutions in the West Banksuch as Ariel Universityto the Council for Higher Education. Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Shaked announced this to the committee's members earlier this week. Ministers Bennet (L) and Shaked (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky) The bill, promoted by MK Shuli Mualem (Bayit Yehudi) and considered by her party as one of their most important legislation currently bills currently on their agenda, is stuck in limbo because of Knesset House Committee Chairman Yoav Kish's (Likud) refusal to approve it. Kish does so because of the lack of agreement on his proposal to reduce the legal presumption that the mother should receive full custody of their children in case of separation or divorcewhich Mualem refuses to support. Kish previously sought to abolish the law completely, but settled on setting the age of legal presumption at the age of two due to sweeping objection by most of the coalition factions. Last week, tensions mounted over the crisis at a meeting of party leaders as an argument erupted between Prime Minister and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister and Bayit Yehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett. "This is a very important bill that needs to be passed and you have been holding it back for three weeks. This is not just some symbolic piece of legislation." "Do not preach to me about Ariel University," Netanyahu retorted. "We (the Likud) built it." Bennett then stormed out of the meeting and asked Shaked to dissolve the committee. Edgar Ray Killen, a 1960s Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted decades later in the "Mississippi Burning" slayings of three civil rights workers, has died in prison at the age of 92, the state's corrections department announced Friday. Killen was serving three consecutive 20-year terms for manslaughter when he died at 9 p.m. Thursday inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. An autopsy was pending, but no foul play was suspected, the statement said. His conviction came 41 years to the day after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, all in their 20s, were ambushed and killed by Klansmen. The three Freedom Summer workers had been investigating the burning of a black church near Philadelphia, Mississippi. A deputy sheriff in Philadelphia had arrested them on a traffic charge, then released them after alerting a mob. Mississippi's then-governor claimed their disappearance was a hoax, and segregationist Sen. Jim Eastland told President Lyndon Johnson it was a "publicity stunt" before their bodies were dug up. The slayings shocked the nation, helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and were dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning." The movie title came from the name of the FBI investigation. Marilyn Mays, 85, passed away November 29, 2017 after a brief illness. She was born in 1932 to Fred and Hazel Richter in eastern South Dakota. In high school, Marilyn was a cheerleader and class valedictorian. In 1952, she met a handsome former Marine, Edward, who was visiting relatives in the area. Three weeks later, they were married and moved to California. Marilyn enjoyed her careers as a switchboard operator, homemaker and bank teller. She loved spending time with her family near and far. Marilyn and Edward were active RV travelers in their retirement; they visited every state in the continental US and Canada as well as made trips to Hawaii and Europe. She journaled and scrapbooked their adventures in great detail. Marilyns pride and joy were her family, especially her grandchildren. Kindness, thoughtfulness and her cheerful smile were her trademark. Marilyn is survived by her loving husband of 65 years, Edward, sons Galen (Pam), Daren (Laura), five grandchildren, Matthew, Allison, Chad, Connor, Britton and Sister Sharon Miller(Don) and brother Lynn Richter (Lynn), nephew Austin and niece Sierra. A memorial service was held at St. Johns Lutheran Church of Napa, of which she was a member for more than 40 years. In memorial, please consider sharing in Marilyns lifelong support of our countrys veterans through a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project (woundedwarriorproject.org). AMERICAN CANYON COMMUNITY CHURCH: Worship at 10 a.m. Programs for children and youth during worship service. 2 Andrew Road, American Canyon. ARBOR ALLIANCE: Join us Sundays at 5 p.m. Why 5 p.m. worship? It is a good time for busy people and young families. Kids church and nursery available. 721 Trancas St., Napa. thearborchurch.org; 530-304-4704. BEIT ABBA: Messianic Jewish ministry of The Fathers House is held the first and third Friday of each month at 7 p.m. Child care provided for ages infant to 7 years old. 2557 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa. tfh.org/beitabba. CARMELITE MONASTERY: Mass times: Sunday, 9 a.m.; Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. (except for the first Saturday of the month, Mass will be at 11 a.m.). Morning of recollection every first Saturday of the month: Spiritual Talk, 9-10 a.m.; Confessions, 10-11 a.m.; Mass, 11 a.m. Bible study, on Tuesdays with Father Michael Buckley: Tuesdays, 8:30-9:30 a.m. following the 8 a.m. Mass (contact the office to confirm time and day at 944-2454, ext. 103). Confessions-English: Monday, Wednesday, Friday; 10 a.m.-noon, 3-5 p.m., 8-9 p.m. Confessions-Spanish: Wednesday, 10 a.m.-noon, 3-5 p.m., 8-9 p.m. 944-2454; oakvillecarmelites.org. CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING: Services are 9 and 10:30 a.m. with Youth Program at 10:30 and Teen Group at 10. Rev. Jang Langs topic is Love is the Only Force. Spiritual Cinema Night features Whats New Thought? Jan. 12, 7 p.m. Mens Spirit Group meets. Jan. 13, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Visioning for the New Year Workshop in Spanish, Jan. 13, 4 p.m. Community Activities for MLK Action Day Jan. 15 include a Civil Rights History Walk with Rev. Jay at 11 a.m. Healing Subconscious Racism 1 p.m. at the Center. A 4 Weeks to Optimal Health: Mind/Body/Spirit class begins Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m. Ongoing activities include Course in Miracles Tuesdays, 6:15-8:15 p.m. and Open Meditation Wednesdays, 6:30-7:15 p.m. 1249 Coombs, 252-4847. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH: Sunday service and Sunday school for youths up to age 20 at 10 a.m. The Wednesday evening service is at 7:30. Child care provided at all services. New hours for the Reading Room, located in our church building, open to the public weekdays except Wednesdays, 1-4 p.m. All current Christian Science literature, including the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the renowned Christian Science Monitor, are available to all to read or purchase; 2210 Second St., Napa; 255-5255; christiansciencenapa.com. CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, NAPA SECOND WARD: Sacrament meeting is each Sunday at 10 a.m., followed by Sunday School at 11:15 and Priesthood and Relief Society at 12:10 p.m. Young mens and young womens programs are on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Corner of Trower Avenue and Dry Creek Road, Napa. 224-6496. COMMUNITY CHURCH OF LAKE BERRYESSA: We held our last service on Dec. 31, 2017. We wish to thank the community for all of its support over the years as the church shared the gospel of Christ. It is with the peace of the Lord that the Congregation says good-bye to those impacted over the 52 years of the churchs existence. CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM: Worship services with Rabbi Niles Goldstein, on Friday, Jan. 12 will begin with a glass of wine and a loaf of Challah at Pre-Oneg Shabbat at 5:45 p.m., followed by Services at 6:30. In the community partnership of Civil Rights for MLK weekend, CBS is presenting a Documentary film 13 Sunday, Jan. 14, 6 to 8 p.m., Jan. 16 from 7 to 8:30 p.m., hosted by Sam Sparks and the New Tech High. 1455 Elm Street, Napa, cbsnapa.org, 253-7305. CORNERSTONE MINISTRIES: Sunday service is at 10:15 a.m. Spanish Church begins at 1:30 p.m. Sunday school and childcare are available at both services. Our midweek service is at 6:30 on Wednesday nights. There is childcare and childrens activities at this service. Middle school and high school study meets on Wednesday nights, as well, at 6:30 in the Youth Room. 3305 Linda Vista Ave., Napa; 252-2909. cmnv.org. COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: Jan. 14, this second Sunday after the Epiphany at CPC, we will begin our 10:30 worship with the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who said, Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. The scripture reading will bring us the poignant voice of a young boy, 1Samuel 3:1-10, in the days of Eli, as Samuel listens for the voice of God. Like Samuel, we must learn to listen. Liturgist, Russ Kindig will assist this week, the Covenant Choir will sing We Shall Overcome, and our interim pastor, the Rev. Lynda Hyland Burris will lead the service. The title of her sermon this week is Speaking the Truth in Love. 1226 Salvador Ave. cpcnapa.org, facebook.com/cpnapa. CREEKSIDE COMMUNITY CHURCH: Weekly worship service is Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Services and attire are casual with a blend of fellowship, music and teaching. Child care and childrens church offered during service. 1050 Hagen Road, Napa. CreeksideChurchNapa.org; 255-7266. CROSSWALK COMMUNITY CHURCH: Join us Sunday for either the 9 or 10 a.m. service. Childrens Ministry programs available during the 10 a.m. service for WeeCare and Kids Crossing K-2, Kids Crossing 3-5. We welcome you to join us and hope to help you connect with God more deeply through the movements of the service and to stretch your thinking about life and faith so that you might enjoy more from both! Cool stuff happening in January, including a new deep dive course starting Wednesdays at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Jan. 10March 14. 226-1812. FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH: Recharge for the new year. We have just started the new series Recharge, which is touching on several areas in our lives we may need to refocus on. Services are at 8:45 and 10:30 a.m.. We have a fun time planned for kidsKids Ministry happens during both services for nursery-5th graders. Students@First (Middle and High School) Wednesdays, 7-8:30 p.m. 2659 First Street, fccnapa.org. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: This Sunday, Pastor Davids sermon will be on Non Serivso Incluso. We will have a scripture reference of John 13:117. 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. We will have our installation of officers during the service this week. There will be treats and coffee after the 10:30 worship time. Childcare for newborn to age 5 is available. Sunday School: Childrens Class meets at 10:30. 1333 Third St., 224-8693, fpcnapa.org. GRACE CHURCH OF NAPA VALLEY: Sunday services: Worship service at 9 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. Adult Sunday school classes at 9 a.m. Childrens service at 9 and 10:40 a.m. Nursery and preschool care available. Junior high ministry meets Tuesday, 7 p.m.; high school meets Wednesday at 7 p.m. at 3765 Solano Ave., Napa. 255-4033, GraceNapa.org. HIGHLANDS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP: If youre a regular church attendee, never been or maybe its just been awhile, we invite you to come join us this Sunday and start the adventure with us at 10:30 a.m. Spanish speaking service on Sunday evenings at 6:30 and an Alcoholics Anonymous group that meets weekly on Monday and Wednesdays from 6-7 p.m. 970 Petrified Forest Road, Calistoga. HILLSIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCH: We meet at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. at 100 Anderson Road, Napa. 255-3036; hccnapa.com. HOLY FAMILY PARISH: Holy Mass is celebrated at 9 a.m. on Sundays and in the traditional Tridentine Latin (Extraordinary) form of the Roman Rite, according to the 1962 Missal, at noon. Before Low Masses, there is a recitation of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary at 11:30 a.m. Confession is available after every Low Mass. Holy Family Parish is a Catholic mission-parish of St. Joan of Arc in Yountville. 1241 Niebaum Lane, Rutherford. 944-2461. HOLY GROUND CHRISTIAN CENTER: Sunday worship begins at 10 a.m., and Bible study is Wednesday at 7 p.m. 3860 Broadway, Suite 111, American Canyon. 373-2015. LIVING VINE CHURCH: We meet every Sunday morning at 10. 3305 Linda Vista Avenue, Napa. 226-5551. MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT VETERANS HOME OF CALIFORNIA, YOUNTVILLE: Sunday worship service, 10:15 a.m. Coffee fellowship one hour before service. Bible study on Wednesday at 1 p.m., Fellowship Room, with refreshments served; prayer meetings Thursday at 1 p.m. The memorial chapel is on the Veterans Home at Yountville campus on California Drive, across from the administration building. 944-4840. MONT LA SALLE CHAPEL: Roman Catholic liturgical services are open to all in this chapel of the De la Salle Christian Brothers at 4401 Redwood Road, Napa. Sunday Mass is celebrated at 11 a.m. NAPA COMMUNITY SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH: Worship service this Saturday, Jan. 13 at 11:15 a.m. napacomm.com, 1105 G Street, 252-2444. NAPA METHODIST CHURCH: We are a progressive and reconciling church, where everyone is welcome. Choose from two Sunday morning services: a 9:30 a.m. Sanctuary service and an 11 a.m. modern-style Fusion Worship service held in the Asbury Room. Childrens Worship and Nursery are available during both services. Childrens Carol Choir meets between services from 10:30 to 11 a.m. 6th to 8th Grade Sunday School meets at 11 am. Silent Meditation is Mondays at 5:30 pm in the Sanctuary. 625 Randolph St. 253-1411, napamethodist.org. NAPA-SONOMA FRIENDS MEETING (QUAKERS): Sunday worship at 10 a.m. Silent meeting in the custom of Friends. Meet at the VOICES Youth Center, 780 Lincoln Ave., Napa. Enter at parking lot on left side of building, using door at end of wheelchair ramp. Quaker signs will be posted on Sunday mornings. We welcome visiting friends or those who are new to Quaker practice. nvquaker@gmail.com; 253-1505. NAPA VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH: Join us Sundays at 9:30 a.m. for Bible Study for all ages, 10:30 a.m. for worship service and a fun, interactive and energetic childrens program for preschool through fifth grade. Nursery provided for all Sunday services. 2303 Trower Ave., Napa. napavalleybaptist.org; 252-2100. NAPA VALLEY BIBLE CHAPEL: We start Sunday services by remembering the Lords death, burial and resurrection during a time of worship and thanksgiving at 9:30 a.m., followed by a fellowship and coffee time starting at 10:30 a.m. At 11 a.m., we enjoy a time of Bible teaching. On Wednesdays at 6 p.m., we meet for a brief Bible study and a time of prayer. A movie night/home Bible study is held in downtown Napa at 6 p.m. on Fridays. 1559 Second St., Napa. napavalleybiblechapel.com. NAPA VALLEY COMMUNITY CHURCH: Join us this Sunday at 10 a.m. for a time of worship and the study of Gods Word. This week, we begin a new study on the book of Ephesians. In our study, we will begin to discover Gods direction for our lives as we start the New Year. We hope you will join us. Child care and Sunday school provided. 4149 Linda Vista Ave, Napa. napavalleychurch.org. NVCC is a ministry of the Christian Reformed Church. NAPA VALLEY LUTHERAN: Sunday worship Lessons and Carols at 10 a.m. Fellowship time follows. All are welcome because all belong to God. The church is located at the corner of Jefferson and Elm, Napa. 226-8166, napavalleylutheran.org. NAPA VALLEY UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS: Jan. 14, 9:30 a.m.: Leaders: Catherine Joseph and Margaret Kelso. 11 a.m. Resist and Release, Traditional service with Rev. Christian Schmidt and Sunday Service Assistant Catherine Joseph. MLK Sunday: This week in worship, we will honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and explore the prophetic work of todays racial justice leaders. How are we moving forward the legacy of speaking for the oppressed, reaching out to those in need, and welcoming all into the Beloved Community? Infant care, child care, and religious education provided. 1625 Salvador Ave., Napa; nvuu.org; 226-9220. NEW LIFE TABERNACLE: Sunday school at 10 a.m., followed by worship service at 11 a.m. Sunday evening service the first Sunday of every month. Bible study on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. 2625 First St., Napa. 255-1062; NewLifeNapa.com. ST. APOLLINARIS CATHOLIC CHURCH: Join us each third Saturday at the crossroads of faith and culture. St. Apollinaris Catholic Church, 3700 Lassen St. Napa. 257-2555. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST: St. John the Baptist Church holds daily masses in English at 7:30 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. Weekend masses are Saturday at 5 p.m. (English) and 7 p.m. (Spanish) and Sunday 8 a.m. (Spanish), 10 a.m. (English), noon (Spanish), and 5 p.m. (English). Wednesday evening mass at 7 (Spanish). Corner of Caymus and Yajome streets in downtown Napa. ST. JOHNS LUTHERAN CHURCH: Sunday services are at 8:30 and 10:15 a.m. The early service makes use of traditional Lutheran liturgy and hymns, with the singing led by the organ. The 10: 15 service is more informal in style with the singing led by the band. Childrens church is offered during the 10:15 service for preschool through 4th grade. ST. MARYS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Worship on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. or Sundays at 8 a.m. or 10 a.m. (organ and choir). Childrens Chapel (Sunday school) is at 9:50 a.m. Sunday. Nursery care is provided during the 10 a.m. service. Coffee hour follows the worship services on Sunday. 1917 Third St., Napa. 255-0991; StMarysNapa.org. ST. STEPHENS ANGLICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Sunday at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m., sung using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Refreshments and social time after the 10:30 service. 1250 Oakville Grade, Oakville. 944-8915; ststephensoakville.org. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH: Mass times are Saturday at 4 p.m. (English), Sunday at 8 a.m. (English), 11 a.m. (English) and 1:30 p.m. (Spanish). Daily mass is at 9 a.m., except on the first Friday, which is at noon and in English. 2725 Elm St., Napa. 255-2949; stthomasaquinasnapa.com. SALVATION ARMY: Join us for services Sundays at 10 a.m. 590 Franklin St., Napa. napasalarmy.org. THE FATHERS HOUSE: Service times are Saturday at 6 p.m., and Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m. Child care and Kids Church are available (ages infant through sixth grade). Youth ministry Encounter meets every Wednesday night at 7. Celebrate Recovery meets on Monday nights at 6:30. 2557 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa. tfh.org. UNITY SPIRITUAL CENTER IN NAPA VALLEY: Sunday, Jan. 14-10 a.m. service. Unitys quest speaker this week is Rev. Bob Brach. His message is titled, Whats That Knocking Sound? from the Robert Brumet book Living Originally. Our Sunday service music is selected and performed by our guest musician, Ric Morgan. 11:40 a.m. Sunday Forum-Following a brief refreshment break, Rev. Brach will be facilitating a one-hour forum for discussion regarding his message. Sunday Service and Forum are held at the historic Grange Hall, 3275 Hagan Road (1/2 mile east of the Silverado Trail), Napa. UnityinNapaValley.org, 255-6881. YOUNTVILLE COMMUNITY CHURCH: Sunday Jan. 14 at 10 a.m. we will have guest speaker Joel Richards. The main church building is under repairs and we are meeting at 1920 Finnell Road in Yountville while we are under construction. We will continue to have all of our Sunday school classes, services, and bible studies. Sunday School is at 9 a.m. for all ages. We have an Adult Bible class, Youth Group (fiftheight grades and high school students),and Childrens classes Jesus and Me, (Birth-Kindergarten) and first through fifth grades are offered. 944-2179. For anyone gazing at the sight of some 40 wines being poured at the second annual Festival of Albarino held in 2017 in Paso Robles, it was clear this Spanish varietal is trending. Alabrino is on the verge of being a standout wine from this region, declared Stewart McLennan, the Paso Robles-based Australian winemaker and co-founder of the popular Garagiste movement that champions artisanal wineries. Alan Kinne, the veteran winemaker in Paso Robles said, I think its better than Viognier. The director of winemaking at CaliPaso, Kinne originally planted Albarino in Virginia back in 1996, followed by a small test plot in Calistoga. He brought these initial cuttings back from his travels to Galicia in northwest Spain and to Northern Portugal, both home to this varietal. I went there three winters in a row and got the cuttings from several of the best wineries, said Kinne, regarded as an Albarino trailblazer. The thousands of cuttings were shipped to and cleared customs in Virginia, he noted, before the cuttings found their way to California. Albarino gathered momentum when in 2000 Kinne planted this variety in Edna Valleys Jack Ranch along the Central Coast, cuttings of which were taken by the Niven family for its historic Paragon vineyards, a leading grower of Albarino in California with some 50 acres planted. We are 5.4 miles from the ocean so it makes sense for us to plant it at Paragon, said Scott Williams, viticulturist at Tangent Winery, which is part of the Niven Family Wine Estates portfolio. Tangent was among the 26 participants gathered at the festival that drew vintners mostly from the Central Coast with a handful from Napa and Sonoma and, the new hotbed of Albarino, Lodi. Launched in 2016, the festival was the brainchild of Welshman Damian Grindley, who brought together like-minded winemakers passionate about Albarino. But now its coming to its own, said Grindley. Nowhere have you seen so many Albarino producers under one roof in the country, said the elated winemaker, who co-founded Brecon Estate winery in Paso Robles in 2012 with a focus on the world-class varieties available in the region. The zesty crisp white wine is native to Spain and Portugal as the primary grape of Spains Rias Baixas and Portugals Vinho Verde regions. Now this grape has found a comfortable home on the Central Coast, specifically in the Edna Valley AVA where it has taken a foothold. It was Santa Barbara County winemaker Bryan Babcock of his eponymous winery who was among the pioneers to have planted this grape in 1992, followed by Luisa Lindquist of Verdad Winery also in the Santa Barbara area. Exuding aromas of grapefruit and pineapple, the minerally-driven, zesty wine makes for an ideal summer drink or an aperitif. Here along the Central Coast, Albarinos mouth-watering acidity and brininess combine with citrus flavors is a match made in heaven with coastal bounty. Its a perfect marriage with Central Coast seafood culture, Grindley said. In the same way, like sauvignon blanc took its own expression in New Zealand, Im wondering if Albarino is doing that on the Central Coast. Over time, the wines popularity has grown in California so that the two-acre planting of Albarino at the turn of the century has expanded to more than 250 acres. In fact, there is more Albarino grown in California than Marsanne, a popular white Rhone variety. Yet Albarino is still in its evolution stage in the New World. A lot of people are still experimenting to fine tune what the style is, Grindley said. The style is across the board in the Central Coast, showing a broad spectrum of flavors and expressing characteristics of both cooler and warmer regions. From the 40-some wines represented at the festival, two distinctively different styles were evident: one expressed bright acidity while the other emphasizes a rich mouthfeel. So, are we developing our own California style? Youre already seeing a New World style, Grindley said. The California style is higher in alcohol compared to Spain and that changes fruit balance. California winemakers are harvesting grapes with higher brix and some are aging in oak. But thats not going to be mainstream, according to Grindley. Its got such wonderful varietal crispness and aromatics that when you start putting oak that gets lost, Grindley said. Another difference is that the acid in the fruit is not as aggressive here compared to the variety in Spain and Portugal. And we have more hang time, he said. Scott Williams explained that Edna Valleys cooler climate lowers the pH and allows for a longer growing season so aromatics are preserved. Thats why theres no barrel fermentation, which puts too much vanilla in the wine, Williams said of Tangents stainless steel tank fermentation. We have been experimenting with the stone egg fermentation which allows oxygen without the oak influence. Indeed, the Tanget Albarino is deliciously nuanced with apricot and white peach flavors while maintaining its minerality and brininess. Josh Pierce, on the other hand, observed that theres no formula that says Albarino has to be austere. Founder of Pierce Family Vineyards from Monterey Countys warmer San Antonio Valley, the winemaker contends that at its best Albarino has minerality and acidity at its core. But it can also produce wines with a hint of exotic, he added. Adam Lazarre of Lazare Wines in Paso Robles is mystified that its taken this long for the public to catch on to a wine he calls a great alternative to both Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Albarino takes on many forms. It can be thin and aromatic or floral with oak; thats what I love about it. Lazarres vinification style is extended sur lee with no secondary fermentation, and his 2016 Albarino reflects the lush honeydew character laced with notes of key lime pie. Chris Cameron, an international winemaker with experience in Australia, Italy, France and Turkey and currently winemaker at Paso Robles Broken Earth Winery, concurs that Albarino doesnt have to be austere. His 2015 Limited Release Albarino shows a creamy texture while maintaining its citrusy notes. Cameron has been handling this varietal longer than some of his colleagues in San Luis Obispo County. While most Paso producers source Albarino grapes from Paragon vineyards, there is some planting in Paso such as Broken Earths two-acre vineyard on Pasos east side. The fruit from this warm region is a lot riper so the personality and the character that comes through is on steroids, said Cameron. Enrique Torres, the Mexican-born owner of Diablo Paso winery, is among the winemakers sourcing fruit from Paso and Edna Valley. His passion for Albarino drives him to craft four different Albarino bottlings. Im the only crazy one to do different styles, said the winemaker whose approaches range from stainless steel fermentation to barrel-aging especially using acacia barrels. Grindley is another acacia proponent for Albarino production. Acacia is a tool in your kit bag, he said. What you dont get is toasty oak but structure and mid-palate richness. For the progressive winemaker theres no right way or wrong way although he is definitely averse to 100-percent new oak for Albarino vinification. Diablo Pasos four wines from the 2016 vintage are deliciously different: the tart stainless steel-fermented La Chula is from Pasos Templeton sub-appellation. Sourced from Edna Valley, both the Guanabana, aged in neutral acacia barrels, and the Galleo Reserve are well balanced with bracing acidity and layers of creaminess, with the Reserve showing shades of Viognier character. Then theres the La Gloria Dulce, reminiscent of a riesling, a wine Torres calls a good brunch wine in place of a mimosa. While the Central Coast is a hub for Albarino, Napa has a handful of wineries producing this wine. Among them are Peter Franus, Hill Family Estate The Hess Collection, Artesa and Kongsgaard. Gallicas Rosemary Cakebread, a fan of Albarino, produces a small quantity sourcing fruit from Calaveras County. The two Napa Albarinos I tasted include the Hill Familys 2016 from the cool Carneros area, expressing a brilliant acidity true to its varietal, and Hess Collections 2016 from Mount Veeder appellation, redolent with eucalyptus notes. The Lodi region is also gaining recognition for its a wines. The region prides itself in growing 100-plus vitis vinfera varieties and being home to more than 80 wineries, with planting of 110,000 tended by some 800 wine growers. Of this total acreage a mere 50 acres are planted to Albarino, which may seem minuscule but is substantial compared to other California wine regions. Of the 50 acres of Albarino, 39 acres are planted at Bokisch Vineyards, divided between Lodi and in the town of Isleton in Sacramento County (not an AVA). Marcus and Liz Bokisch are among Lodis large wine grapegrowers, farming some 2800 acres and selling to wineries such as Gallo and Turley. Theres a good bit of Spanish variety grapes growing in Lodi, noted Bokisch winemaker Elyse Perry. However, while Tempranillo production is substantial, Albarino tends to be much smaller. From a handful of nine wineries producing this white variety the production ranges from 500-1,300 cases per winery annually. The Bokisch Albarino I tasted was the 2015 stainless steel-fermented wine from Terra Alta vineyard. It came close to a Rias Baixas style accented with well-defined citrusy aromas nuanced with orange blossom notes. The volcanic gravely clay loam adds more of a citrus flavor, Perry said. A 2016 vintage from Lodis Harney Lane Winery and Vineyards, aged in stainless steel and neutral oak, was vibrant with tropical fruit while maintaining its crisp acidity. Alabrino has a long way to go before it gets significant recognition in the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) category. Like viognier, it has struggled for years, enjoying some popularity on the East Coast where the focus is on Spanish wine. It never quite hit the California palate, Grindley said, but its finally starting to get recognition here. While watching the Red Carpet during the Golden Globes the other night, I was motivated by what actress Natalie Portman said: We have realized the scope of what we have lost, of the creative contributions of people who have been pushed out of the [film] industry. And when we think of other industries and what women have been pushed out of and the contributions we have lost because of thatit has to change; it is time to change. It had me thinking of the wine industry and the contributions women have made and will continue to make. I thought about some of the women that I met on my trip to Porto and Douro recently. For such an historical region, with wine production dating to the 18th century when it was noted as the first demarcated region in the world, it has been dominated by men. But I learned an interesting fact: A woman is the person considered the leader in winemaking innovations and one of the leaders in the history of the Douro Valley. A Ferreirinha (1811-1896), born Antonia Adelaide Ferreira, was the first woman to head a Port company after inheriting vineyards from her family. Widowed at 33 years of age, she became the executive of the estates and is attributed with leading the cultivation of Port wine. During the time of phylloxera, which destroyed many of her own vineyards, she traveled to England to learn modern techniques to fight it and brought American rootstock back to Portugal. She also learned winemaking processes that she incorporated back in Portugal. Though A Ferreirinha is the first woman of Port and her contributions to the industry are ever-lasting, there are many women working there today who are also contributing to the future of Portuguese wine. Here are the women I met on my trip: Ana Paula Filipe Castro of Quinta das Chaquedas I had the pleasure to visit Ana Paula at her home in the heart of Douro, approximately three kilometers from Peso da Regua. Ana Paula Filipe Castro was working as a lawyer in Porto when she and her husband, a lieutenant colonel in the military, purchased property in the Douro. They started with six hectares with existing vines and built their home on the property. Ana Paula, her husband and their three daughters moved into the house in 2006 and their first vintage was 2010. They purchased 14 additional hectares in Pinhao, a warmer area to the east. The winery is named Chaquedas in honor of a field that her grandfather owned. She had sold the property to purchase her current property but the memory lives on. With her husband away for work, Ana Paula is the one who runs the day to day operations of the vineyard and winery. She is currently producing three wines: Chaquedas Douro, Chaquedas Douro Reserve and Lote 5, a gran reserve that is a blend that represents the five members of the family. Catarina Albuquerque Castro of Quinta de Lubazim I met Catarina Albuquerque Castro at a lunch where we enjoyed her wines with our meal. Catarina is the 23rd generation from one of the oldest properties in the Upper Douro, on the right bank of the Douro River. The property, named Quinta de Lubazim, has 110 hectares, and they are growing more than 49 Portuguese varieties including touriga nacional, touriga franca, tinta roriz and syrah. In addition to selling their grapes for the production of Port wine, they produce wines under Quinta de Lubazim. I tried the Quinta de Lubazim 2015 Douro red wine, a wine made with 49 different grape varieties from the same row of old vines. The other label is Lupucinus, a word that is the diminutive for lupus, which means small wolf, the image on the label. Claudia Quevedo of Porto Quevedo Claudia Quevedo and her brother Oscar are the fifth generation at their family winery. Her brother Oscar studied economics and handles the sales for Porto Quevedo. Claudia, who said she was born in the middle of wine and barrels, decided to study wine. She was the first member of her family in five generations to formally study winemaker and viticulture and today is the winemaker. Porto Quevedo has 110 hectares of vines and 23 hectares of olives. They produce 100,000 bottles of still wines, named after her and her brother Oscar is the still wine and Claudia is the reserve wine. They produce 300,000 bottles of Port, including organic Port. As a small family Port house, they are able to control the grapes from the growing to the aging of the wine and Claudia believes that managing the entire process results in the best quality wines. At Porto Quevedo, they make wines that they love and that means the style is a bit drier and very easy to drink. Olga Martins of Lavradores de Feitoria Lavradores de Feirtoria was created in 2000 with 15 growers with the idea to help small and medium size growers who wanted to bottle their own wine instead of selling the grapes. Today, there are 18-20 growers and more than 40 shareholders of the cooperative. Lavradores de Feitoria is able to work with grapes from different varieties, from vines of all ages and from different terroirs in order to create wines that have been rated as the Top 10 Douro/Ribera Wines. The business is run with a professional management team of viticulturalists, winemakers and marketers. And the CEO and commercial director is Olga Martins. After studying chemistry and winemaking, she joined Lavradores de Feitoria in 2001 on the sales team, quickly moving to sales manager. In 2003, she joined the board of directors and by 2006 she was named CEO. In 2013, Olga was awarded Executive of the Year under the Business Woman Award sponsored by Maxima magazine and the Jornal de Negocios. Maria Joao Aires Pereira of Slow Douro Maria Joao Aires Pereira was a professor of medieval history and social movements who then spent 13 years working in child literature at a publishing house. She was also a literary agent and opened a childrens book store. Maria fell in love with the Douro when she and her husband bought a quinta in Valenca Do Douro near Pinhao with one hectare of old vines of 20 different grapes they sell. Marias new business Slow Douro was conceived after friends visiting from Switzerland asked her for help to plan a wine tour. She has developed a different concept from typical tourism operators and travel companies. Maria customizes in personalized wine tours, unique to each customer. The idea with Slow Douro is that you should not rush a visit to the Douro but rather take a few days to get to know the treasures the region has to offer. In about two to three weeks, well see some of the first white wines from the 2017 harvest hit store shelves and restaurant wine lists. What we soon will see from 2017 was, just four months ago, in the form of grapes, from a harvest that seemed promising in terms of quality. The hard work of harvest crews, wine makers, cellar people, and bottling-line mechanics will finally show up in an array of white wines that will mostly display dramatic fruit aromas, fresh, lively tastes, and some fermentation aromas that are transitory and will be available only for a few weeks after the wines are released. Such aromatics and tastes can be vibrant, but most wine makers will tell you that only a small percentage of those early-release wines will be at their best then. Most of the wines we will shortly see need a bit more time in the bottle to develop the real wine flavors that we anticipate. This is especially true of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc (notably those aged in oak for even a brief period of time), fine-quality blended white wines such as Rhone blends, and even such appealing drink-now quaffing wines like Chenin Blanc and Pinot Gris. It is one reason that in the early months of each year, when the first whites of the prior harvest are released, I evaluate most of them only after decanting them. The tactic serves an important purpose: allowing some oxygen to expand the aromas and dealing with the occasional problem of a trace of sulfur left over from the fermentation process. Decanting allows it to dissipate. It would seem that one could avoid decanting Pinot Gris since it is often simplistic and could lose some of its delicate aromatics if aerated. And when the Pinot Gris is grown in a warmer climate and has only moderate acidity, decanting is optional. But Pinot Gris made from cooler-climate vineyards such as the Russian River Valley or Anderson Valley in Mendocino County usually develop their varietally interesting aromas only after time in the bottle and they also benefit from decanting. Some years ago, Ted Bennett, founder and owner of the superb Navarro Vineyard in the latter region, said his Pinot Gris is kept back at the winery for months until the fascinating secondary aroma characteristics of the grape develop, as is often done in Alsace. And as much as I love the excitement of Dry Creek Vineyards excellent Chenin Blanc every year on the day it is released, it always turns out to be far more interesting after many more months when the melon and honey characteristics develop, replacing some of the simpler, yet exciting, fruit of its earliest days. When very young, the Dry Creek Chenin is delightful to sip on a patio, but months if not a year later the wine becomes more serious and works also as an accompaniment to fine lighter foods. White Rhone blends, which are becoming popular, especially at wine bars and with Millennial buyers, usually are made with the exotically floral Viognier grape, which often dominates the aroma of the wines when they are very young. But if Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, and Rousanne are used in the cuvee, all three grapes need time to knit their fascinating flavors. Wine of the Week: 2015 Thumbprint Cellars MRV White Table Wine, Sonoma County ($35): This is a perfect example of why I prefer to wait for a white wine to develop additional flavors. Now more than two years old, it is subtly spiced with slate, citrus, and fresh figs. Made from 42 percent Marsanne, 34 percent Viognier, and 24 percent Rousanne, this delightful wine is a lot more complex than just after it was bottled in June 2016! The added 16 months in the bottle benefited the aroma. The great thing is its excellent acidity to balance 14.35 percent alcohol. 15:30 To bring you up to speed on the press conference by the four Supreme Court judges, the four senior judges today mounted a virtual revolt against the chief justice, listing a litany of problems that they said are afflicting the country's highest court and warned they could destroy Indian democracy. The unprecedented move at a joint news conference by the four judges including Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior judge after the Chief Justice of India, left the judiciary and observers stunned, leaving uncertain how this open dissension in the hallowed institution would be resolved. Justice Chelameswar himself described as an "extraordinary event" the news conference during which he said "sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months." Unless this institution is preserved, "democracy will not survive" in this country, Chelameswar said in the unscheduled press conference, in the first of its kind event in independent India. In a scathing criticism and unvarnished self-reflection of the Supreme Court, Chelameswar, who was accompanied by Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph at the press conference, said they had met Chief Justice Dipak Misra this morning and "raised issues affecting the institution". "Unless this institution is preserved, democracy will not survive in this country," Justice Chelameswar said, adding that it was "extremly painful" to hold the press conference in such a manner. The press conference was held at Chelameswar's residence. He said all the four judges "failed to persuade CJI that certain things are not in order and therefore you should take remedial measures. Unfortunately our efforts failed. "And all four of us are convinced that democracy is at stake and many things have happened in recent past," he said. Asked what these issues were, he said they included the "allocation of cases by CJI". The remarks assume significance as the Supreme Court today took up for consideration the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge B H Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. Justice Chelameswar said "we owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation. Our efforts have failed in convincing CJI to take steps to protect the institution." "This is an extraordinary event in the history of any nation, more particularly this nation and an extraordinary event in the institution of judiciary ... It is with no pleasure that we are compelled to call this press conference. But sometimes adminstration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months," he said. The four judges, in their seven-page letter to the CJI that was released to the press, said, "It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the chief justice is only first amongst the equals -- nothing more or nothing less." At the news conference, all the judges rubbished questions on whether they have broken ranks and said that they will start doing things which they do. Justice Gogoi said "nobody is breaking the rank and it is discharge of debt to nation which we have done." Gogoi, who would be succeeding Misra as CJI in October this year, said that, "it's a discharge of debt to the nation which we have done." Asked whether they wanted the Chief Justice to be impeached, Justice Chelameswar said, "let the nation decide." Soon after the press conference ended, the CJI called Attorney General K K Venugopal for a meeting, court sources said. Highly placed government sources said the issues raised by the four judges are an "internal" matter of the judiciary, indicating that the government is unlikely to interfere. However, the sources also added that the apex court should settle the issue at the earliest as the faith of the people in the judiciary is at stake. "It is a sad day for the judicial system," said Congress leader Ashwani Kumar, who is also a senior advocate. -- PTI 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. Share Nokia (News - Alert), along with creative shop, TBD, launched an international campaign revolving solely around Nokias digital health products. TBD was founded in fall 2017 by industry veterans Rafael Rizuto, Virginia Wang, and Jordan Warren. The campaigns initial 30 second video went viral Monday, January 8. The first video is part of the Know Yourself initiative, using the Nokia Body+ smart scale. This is the middle of the line scale in Nokias Wi-Fi collection of scales. Features include highly accurate weight, full body composition, and seamless tracking in the Health Mate app for accountability when attempting to reach goals. For the video, six physically diverse men and women are shown weighing themselves to reveal they all weigh the same. It continues to demonstrate how the scale tracks muscle mass, body fat, water percentage, and bone mass. A voiceover chimes in to say, "Even when created equal, we are not the same." All the models in the video were not photo shopped or retouched, as Rafael Rizuto goes on to point out. "We're challenging the concept of weight and the scale by showing that people give too much weight to weight and proving that there's so much more than weight," shares Rizuto. "You may weigh the same as someone else, but your hydration levels, body fat, bone mass and muscle mass are different." The decision to air the first part of the Nokia heath videos was strategic; January is the month of resolutions. The ultimate goal, however, is to resolve to take care of your body all year round and to both appreciate and understand your body. In February, Nokia and TBD will release a second part of Know Yourself revolving around the Activity Tracker; it will run through April. Though Nokia has 98 percent brand awareness globally, Gemini Babla, global head of marketing for Nokia digital health says that its digital health space is relatively unknown. "The brand is well-loved globally and is known for innovation in mobile phones, and we want to transfer that equity to consumer products in health." Edited by Maurice Nagle Many residents of Makurdi in mourning gathered on Thursday at the IBB Square as bodies of the victims of the Fulani herdsmen attacks of January 1 and 2, 2018, in parts of Benue State were given a mass burial. Offices, commercial banks, markets and schools were closed in the state capital as the government had, a day earlier, declared Thursday, a work-free day in honour of the 73 victims. Many of those who attended the requiem shed tears as they lamented incessant attacks on residents of the state by herdsmen. A leader of the Tiv nation and the chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, Wantaregh Unongo, said if President Muhammadu Buhari failed in his responsibility of protecting lives and property of Benue citizens, the people would train their own army in the state to defend them. Unongo recalled that a large number of Benue sons and daughters were among the contingents that fought the Nigerian civil war. Benue people sacrificed blood for the unity of this country and will not allow a section of Fulani herdsmen to kill our people in cold blood. He said, I am telling Nigerians that my people cannot continue to be cannon fodder for this country. If the government cant protect us, we will mobilise and train our people into an army to defend us. We are 100 per cent in support of what Governor Samuel Ortom has done. I am the spiritual and ancestral leader of the Tiv nation; enough is enough. Unongo stressed that the entire people of the state were watching President Buhari and had joined in the persistence calls by Ortom that the Federal Government should take drastic steps to urgently address the killings and also arrest the leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Houre. If the Federal Government cannot stop or arrest those behind the killings; in two weeks, we shall raise an army of our own. We cannot allow people to colonise us again, we have all it takes to do that, Unongo said. Also speaking, a former military governor of Plateau and Katsina states, Maj. Gen. Lawrence Onoja(retd.), who described the killings in the state as genocidal conspiracy against the Benue people, emphasised that the killings must not continue. The Benue-born general said, Some of us, in 1966, fought the Nigerian civil war; Benue has contributed to the unity of this country. If the Federal Governmrnt refuses to address the killings in Benue and if we decide to raise our army as advocated by our elders to defend ourselves, l will not mind to command that army despite my age. He appealed to the government at the centre to replicate Operation Python Dance or Fulani Dance in Benue as being done in other states of the federation. He urged sons and daughters of the state to rally round the governor for the successful enforcement of the anti-open grazing law. A former member of the National Assembly, Senator J.K.N. Waku, maintained that the Benue people were known for peace, love and honour. He said, It is unfortunate that someone would oppose a law that is legally enacted and begin to kill and the Federal Government will refuse to make arrests to end the carnage. The provocation is enough; nobody has the monopoly of killing. Speaking on behalf of the Benue State House of Assembly, the Majority leader, Benjamin Adenyi, expressed sadness that Buhari came to Benue State during electioneering and after he was elected, he looked the other way while Benue people were being killed. A former governor of Benue State, George Akume, urged Buhari to declare a faction of the Miyietti Allah as terrorists, saying the action of its members showed they were terrorists. He appealed to people living in Benue communities not to take the law into their own hands, but follow the path of peace and reconciliation. The representative of the United Nations, Dr Mathins Ejibike, offered his condolences to the government and people of the state, saying what was happening in Benue required international attention. We want an enlightened approach to this matter. We should pray that this killing should be the last in Benue State. He stated that the UN had received a report that over 20,000 refugees were already in camps and promised that the body would look into their plight. In his speech, the paramount ruler of Tiv nation, Prof. James Ayatse, claimed that Tiv people residing in Nasarawa and Taraba states were being killed by Fulani herdsmen on a daily basis since the Benue killings started. We must put an end to these killings. This is the 47th time that Fulani people would attack the Benue people. The paramount ruler enjoined Ortom to continue to do the needful in his bid to bring peace to the state, saying the Benue traditional rulers were behind the governor. Ortom, in his remarks, said the latest killing was the most heartless. He said, If the herdsmen think that the killing of our people will make us to stop the enforcement of the law, they have failed. We will not be deterred because I am ready to pay the supreme price for the implementation of the anti-open grazing law. I will continue to insist on the arrest of the factional leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Houre. Ortom rejected the idea of creating a cattle colony or grazing routes for herdsmen. He said the suggestions were not acceptable to the Benue people. He explained that the state did not have adequate land for farmers, not to talk of space for grazing. Also speaking, the state Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. Akpe Leva, commended the governor for signing the anti-open grazing law. Taraba anti-open grazing law starts Jan 24, death toll hits 60 The Taraba State Governor, Mr. Darius Ishaku, has said the state anti-open grazing law is not targeted at any religious group or tribe. In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Emmanuel Bello, the governor explained that the law was colour blind. The statement explained that the implementation of the Taraba State Anti-Open Grazing and Ranches Establishment Law, which was enacted in June 2017, was expected to commence on January 24, 2018, at the expiration of the six months grace period. Ishaku in the statement noted that cattle ownership in Taraba State was not the exclusive preserve of any religion, tribe or group, adding that the law was to, among other things, change the mode of production of cattle for better yield. This is a step towards keeping with the best tradition of cow production all over the world. Agriculture is undergoing a revolution. Antiquated means of production is giving way to better methods with the use of tractors and better seedlings, among other things. This can happen to cattle rearing too. The ancient method of nomadic voyages has failed to give better milk production or even beef. Cows are leaner and less productive when made to go through the rigours of long distant treks. Elsewhere, ranching has become the best form of attending to the need of cattle in the world. Even here in Nigeria, top cow owners have seen the wisdom in ranching. In Taraba, cow owners on the Mambilla have been engaging in a form of ranching, dating into the past. It is nothing new to us and I enjoined all to key into it, the statement read in part. Meanwhile, the death toll in the last weekend attack on several communities in the Lau Local Government Area of Taraba State has risen to 60. Residents on Wednesday had put the figure at 56, but four more bodies were said have been later recovered by some youths and hunters from Katibu and Didango villages. Dauda Marafa, a community leader and a civil servant with the Taraba State Government told one of our correspondents on the telephone that the four bodies were recovered when the youth went back to the villages to check for more of the missing persons. The bodies were recovered on Wednesday evening, but could not be buried until today (Thursday) because the youths were attacked by some gunmen. We mobilised a team of soldiers who accompanied the youths and some family members of the deceased for burial at Katibu. The situation in the area is still fearful, he said. The state police spokesman, David Missal, said he had yet to get any update on the crisis in Lau LGA. I am not aware of any attack and recovery of more bodies in the area because have not received any briefing from the Divisional Police Officer from the area, he said. Benue attack displaces 18,000 people in Nasarawa The Nasarawa State Government said over 18,000 people in the state were displaced due to a spillover from the killings in Benue State. The Special Adviser to Governor Umaru Al-Makura on Security Matter, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Adeka (retd.), stated this at a press conference on Thursday in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital. Adeka said the reports received showed that the spillover of the attacks on some communities in Benue State led to the displacement of many people in the border towns between the two states. Adeka said, Currently, there are over 18,000 Internally Displaced Persons from various communities in the Awe and Keana local government areas who are in 11 camps in the state. He said security had been beefed up in the affected areas, adding that the government had set up mobile clinics in the IDPs camps. Herdsmens attacks predate Buhari, Presidency says The Presidency on Thursday insisted that it is unkind and incorrect to continue to blame Buhari for the recent violence unleashed on some states, including Benue, by suspected herdsmen. The information was contained in a document titled, Federal Response to the Attacks and Killings by Herdsmen in Benue and other States, made available by the Media Office of the Presidency. The document read, Insinuations and allegations that the attacks and killings are happening because President Buhari is Fulani are both unkind and incorrect. These attacks long predated the Buhari government. In 2013, no fewer than nine cases of herdsmen attacks were recorded in Benue State alone, with more than 190 people killed. In 2014, there were no fewer than 16 recorded attacks in Benue, which claimed more than 230 victims. Between January and May 2015, six attacks left more than 300 people dead, again in Benue State alone. The media office explained that the historical context was important for a proper understanding of the issue, and to avoid unnecessarily politicising of what should be regarded and dealt with as acts of criminality. These attacks have been a longstanding issue, and successive governments have struggled to contain the situation. The Buhari administration is more than fully committed to bringing the cycle of violence to an end, prosecuting the attackers, and preventing further killings and attacks. The security agencies have standing instructions to arrest and prosecute any and all persons found with illegal arms, the statement added. According to the document, the recent killings in Benue and Taraba states have elicited many federal responses contrary to claims that nothing is being done. It recalled that Buhari had met with the Benue State governor on the matter to assure him of the Federal Governments commitment to protecting farmers and communities. It added that the President had directed the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to relocate to Benue State. On Monday January 8, 2018, the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, convened a security meeting on the issue, bringing together federal and state government officials: Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, heads of security agencies, and the governors of the most affected states; Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa, and Taraba. Since the first week of January, immediately following the January 1 attacks, the Inspector General of Police has deployed the following to the affected areas: 10 units of PMF, Police Special Forces, Counter Terrorism Units, conventional policemen, Police Explosive Ordinance Department, Special Police Joint Intelligence and Investigation Team and Police Aerial Surveillance Team (police helicopters). The Nigerian Army has deployed Special Forces to Benue, Taraba, and Nasarawa States. In Benue State, eight suspected herdsmen are in police custody over the recent killings, and are currently being prosecuted. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is working to establish cattle colonies across the country in 2018. These colonies will provide grass and water for the cattle, as well as education and health care facilities for herders. They will also have agro-rangers deployed to secure the facilities, it added. A Libya Deportee, Destiny Kelly, has been arrested and detained by the Edo State Police command for allegedly abducting and robbing a female National Youth Service Corps member, Joseph Jennifer. Kelly, (30), was arrested with two of his accomplices, Christopher Agbonugo (23) and another 29-year-old Endurance Aburimeh. Kelly who said he was deported from Libya in late February, 2017, said he organised the abduction and robbery on December 2, 2017. One of the suspects, Christopher, was said to have posed as a cab operator, while the Libya Deportee and his partner in crime posed as passengers. According to one of the suspects, Aburimeh, they picked their victim at Ramat Park, Ikpoba Hill and headed towards the Ring Road. Addressing journalists on her ordeal in the hands of her abductors, the victim, Jennifer said they forced her head down to her lap, beat her mercilessly and collected her phone, N4000 and ATM card. Quote One of them went to the bank to collect money from my bank account, but he could not collect money. They became angry and beat and tortured me in the car. Even I myself could not withdraw money from the account because the Federal Government just paid money into the account and have not opened it for my use.They returned to the girl, beat and tortured me, Jennifer narrated. She later reported the incident to the police for investigation. Luck however ran against the hoodlums when the police tracked the victims phone to Christopher who was using the phone, and arrested him. The Nigeria Police, Lagos State Command, arrested two notorious Kidnappers, yesterday, 10th of January, 2018, at about 9:43pm, at Elemoro, Ajah. The criminals met their waterloo while escaping with their victim, one Mrs Mildred Mbajiorgu. The tight security network emplaced in Lagos state by the Command Commissioner of Police, CP. Edgal Imohimi, did the magic as the Divisional Police Officer, Elemoro tapped into it to get the suspects arrested. According to the DPO, SP Mohammed Shehu Limawa, he received a distress call from a lady who told him that she heard the voice of a woman crying for help in a dark blue Gulf 3 car. She also gave the registration number of the car as KRD 845 EC. The DPO quickly alerted one of the Anti crime patrol teams along the route taken by the Kidnappers and instructed the policemen to slow down traffic to about 20km per hour. The hoodlums ran into the gridlock and were arrested by the policemen who were in the waiting for them. The victim was rescued and taken to the hospital to treat the injury inflicted on her forehead by the dare devils using the butt of a locally made pistol. Meanwhile the suspects by names, Igwe Sunday, age 28years and Chukwuemeka Bright, 21 years together with the locally made pistol recovered from them has been handed over to the operatives of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) for further investigation. Laureate Education, a Baltimore-based company, said it will sell its university in Morocco, Universite Internationale de Casablanca, for $53.6 mln to KMR Holding Pedagogique, a company that owns the Private University of Marrakech and invests in education in west Africa. The Universite Internationale de Casablanca, which opened in 2010, is one of the few state-recognized comprehensive private universities. The school offers undergraduate, graduate and executive education programs in business, engineering and health, the Baltimore Sun news outlet reported. The companies expect the sale to close by the end of the second quarter, the Baltimore Sun said. The sale is part of Laureates plan to focus on emerging markets with high demand for low-cost education. Laureate Education has more than one million students enrolled at nearly 70 institutions in 23 countries, both on campuses and online in undergraduate, graduate and specialized degree programs. KMR has more than 7,500 students in Marrakech, Casablanca and Dakar. The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development has approved a 9.7 Million loan to Fondation Albaraka, one of the largest microfinance institutions in Morocco for on-lending to local micro enterprises. Access to finance through banks remains extremely limited for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Morocco. The EBRD funds will offer much-needed support for MSMEs and contribute to greater financial inclusion and more employment opportunities in the country. This financing to Albaraka will help expand its lending capacity to MSMEs and contribute thus to the development of entrepreneurs and small businesses in Morocco. Marie-Alexandra Veilleux, the EBRD Director for Morocco said: We are very pleased to partner with Albaraka through a loan in local currency contributing to the development of very small businesses in Morocco which are the backbone of the economy. This partnership with EBRD will enable Albaraka to continue its mission in financial inclusion and the promotion of income-generating activities in Morocco by providing financing tailored to the specific needs of micro entrepreneurs and small businesses, the Founder and President of Albaraka, Mouatassim Belghazi, said. In 2017 the EBRD signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Morocco to pave the way for lending to SMEs in local currency, mitigating their exposure to exchange rate volatility. Morocco is a founding member of the EBRD and became a country of operations in 2012. To date, the Bank has invested over 1.4 billion in over 42 projects in the country. The Bank has also supported more than 340 Moroccan SMEs by providing business advisory services. Albaraka is the third largest microfinance institution in Morocco by assets with a market share of 18 per cent. The company provides all types of standard microfinance products and operates through 214 branches across Morocco. Albaraka was founded in Rabat in 1996 as a non-profit NGO dedicated to financing and supporting micro entrepreneurs in Morocco. Egypt, home of the Middle Easts largest Christian community, has been the theatre of multiple acts of aggression on Churches putting the lives of many Christians at risk, said Open Doors Charity in a recent report. According to Open Doors, 128 Christians were killed in Egypt for their faith and more than 200 were driven out of their homes in 2017. It attributed the rise in persecution to the overspill of Islamic terrorists driven out of Iraq and Syria. Last Easter, two church bombings killed 49 people, and another 29 were killed when extremists attacked people travelling to a monastery in May. More than 15 girls in Minya governorate were kidnapped in 2017 to be forced to marry Muslims and convert to Islam, Open Doors said. Christians in Egypt, mostly Orthodox, are complaining of discrimination in job market. University students for their part say they were given bad grades for their religion. Christian shop owners were boycotted and hospital patients were not given proper treatment, the report said. About 10% of Egypts 95 million population are Christians. The overwhelming majority are Orthodox, with up to 1 million evangelical Christians and 250,000 Catholics. UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs has underlined the world bodys commitment to democratic elections in Libya, after field Marshal Khalifa Haftar declared that the oil-rich country is not ready for democracy and that he would overrun the country should reconciliation and proposed elections fail to go rightly. Jeffrey Feltman was in Tripoli Thursday where he met with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) and its leader Faiez Serraj in the presence of the UN Special envoy for Libya Ghassan Salame. He reportedly flew to Tobruk also to meet with members of the opposed institution, the Tobruk-based House of Representative (HoR), claiming sovereignty over the country. Feltman expressed optimism as to the prospects of the election plan proposed by Salame in his September-revealed action plan touted to enable Libya to regain its stability. The North African country has been on the lookout for stability and peace since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Elections held in 2014 further tilted the country towards chaos. Salames plan has suggested a one-year transition with elections in the second half of 2018. However the plan has been suffering from disagreements over changes to be made to the December 2015 Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) signed in Morocco. The UN pushes in Libya are taking place after HoRs ally, Khalifa Hafter threatened to seize power if the elections are rigged. He initially endorsed the election plan, with many believing he would enter the race. The army commander is backed by Russia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and seemingly by the EU and the UK. In an interview with Paris-based Jeune Afrique magazine, he said the upcoming elections in the country must bring a solution to the current bloodshed, but if the situation and the chaos continue after the elections, then we will say enough is enough and take action. Haftar, who claims he has a 75,000-strong army under his control, has extended his supervision over vast swathes of the country, including main oil terminals. Photo: Sarah Morris/Getty Images A month or so ago, a friend and I mulled over when exactly the backlash to the then-peaking #MeToo moral panic would set in. Mid-January, we guessed, and sure enough here we are. No, we were not being clairvoyant, just noting certain dynamics. The early exposure of Roger Ailes, Bill OReilly, and Harvey Weinstein achieved by meticulous, scrupulous journalists and smart, determined women quickly extended to more ambiguous and trivial cases. Distinctions among many different types of offenses from bad behavior at private parties to brutal assault and rape of employees and co-workers were being instantly lost in the fervor. Punishment was almost always the same social ostracism and career destruction whether you were Mark Halperin, who allegedly sexually assaulted women in his workplace, or Al Franken, damned because of mild handsiness and pretending to grope a womans breasts as a joke. Any presumption of innocence was regarded as a misogynist dodge, and an anonymous online list of accusations against named men in the media was created and circulated with nary an attempt by its instigators to substantiate a single one. Within a few weeks, the righteous exposure of hideous abuse of power had morphed into a more generalized revolution against the patriarchy. This kind of mania will always at some point exhaust itself and this kind of zeal will always overstep. In a free society, a pushback was inevitable, and healthy. The extraordinary journalist Masha Gessen led the way, with ruminations on sex panics. (My own discomfort with this is, like Gessens, affected by my experience of what similar panics have done routinely to gay men in the past.) Daphne Merkin has noted how our current discourse all but strips women of agency and sex of eros. Dave Chappelle, in his sublime new Netflix special, used comedy to make a similar point: Sexual abuse is real and evil, but if youre talking to someone on the phone who appears to be masturbating, you can always, you know, hang up. You can also do what a British female journalist did when she felt an unwelcome hand from a powerful government minister appear on her knee. She told him to knock it off, and if he didnt remove it, shed punch him in the face. (She later dismissed the incident, which led to the ministers resignation: He tried it on, I turned him down. Now move on.) Then theres the nascent notion, among many Democrats, that Al Frankens banishment from the Senate was obviously overkill. Then came the open letter signed last week by a hundred French women, including Catherine Deneuve, who dont see themselves as helpless, powerless, forever-victims of men. Money quote: A woman can, in the same day, lead a professional team and enjoy being the sexual object of a man, without being a slut, nor a cheap accomplice of the patriarchy. Imagine that: enjoying being the sexual object of a man! No one is or should be defending abuse of power. Its foul. Im glad certain monsters have been toppled. (For the record, I routinely believe the women in specific cases. I believed Anita Hill, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick and did so on the record.) But nuance, context, and specifics matter. The Deneuve letter rightly insisted: Rape is a crime. But insistent or clumsy flirting is not a crime, nor is gallantry a chauvinist aggression. The manifesto observed the censorious Victorianism about some of the rhetoric, and the public invasion of private matters. But the French signatories also worried about due process: This expedited justice already has its victims, men prevented from practicing their profession as punishment, forced to resign, etc., while the only thing they did wrong was touching a knee, trying to steal a kiss, or speaking about intimate things at a work dinner, or sending messages with sexual connotations to a woman whose feelings were not mutual. South Park, as usual, was ahead of the curve. Its season finale last month portrayed an office romance between PC Principal and a new character, Strong Woman. And at the mere suggestion of an affair between them, everyone instantly projectile vomits in disgust. What other response could there be to the idea of a relationship between co-workers? And this week, rumors spread of the impending publication of an essay by Katie Roiphe in Harpers magazine that might take a similarly skeptical tack. Some believed that Roiphe might even hold the instigator of the legendary Shitty Media Men list accountable, and that this person might thereby be subjected to online abuse. And so a Twitter campaign was launched, in a backlash-backlash, to preemptively stop the publication of an essay no one had actually read. One Twitter activist, Nicole Cliffe, went further: If you have a piece in the hopper over at @Harpers, ask your editor if the Roiphe piece is happening. If it is, I will pay you cash for what youd lose by yanking it. This strikes me as a new development for the social-justice left: They now believe in suppressing free speech even before they know its content! It also strikes me as ominous for journalism as a whole. When journalists themselves wage campaigns to suppress the writing of other journalists, and intend to destroy a magazine for not toeing their ideological line, you can see how free speech truly is on the line. Why not simplify this and publish a blacklist of writers whose work, based on previous ideological transgressions, cannot and should not be published? Pretty quickly, others on Left Twitter offered money for other authors to pull their pieces from the issue and a few writers said they had agreed to do so. Cliffe was admirably blunt about her intent: If I have my druthers, the March issue of Harpers will consist of a now-toothless 200-word piece on the list that doesnt name anyone and a long meditation from the editor on raw water. Then this Twitter threat: If Katie Roiphe actually publishes that article she can consider her career over. Meanwhile the very people who were up in arms about possible online harassment of the list organizers, went online to call Roiphe pro-rape, human scum, a ghoul, a bitch, the definition of basura, a bag of garbage, and a misogynistic bottom-feeder. Thats another thing with ideological fanatics: Irony tends to elude them. And then the final twist Wednesday night: One Moira Donegan outed herself as the creator of the list, and wrote a long essay defending herself. The essay is, to my mind, eloquent, beautifully written, even moving at times, but baffling. I read it waiting for the moment when she took responsibility for what she did, or apologized to the innocent people she concedes may have been slandered. But it never came. Its worth recalling here exactly what she and others did. They created an online forum in which anonymous people could make accusations about men whose careers and reputations would potentially be destroyed as a consequence. There was absolutely no attempt to separate out what was true or untrue, what was substantiated and what was not. Please never name an accuser she advised upfront in the document. And then: [P]lease dont remove highlights or names. No second thoughts allowed. The doc openly concedes its grave claims should be taken with a grain of salt. In her essay, Donegan actually cites this as exonerating evidence, as if reckless disregard for the truth were a positive virtue for a journalist, and not actually a definition of libel. Ive read the list as almost everyone in media has. I felt like taking a shower afterward. It includes charges that have absolutely nothing to do with workplace harassment. Someone is accused of creepy DMs or texts especially when drunk, weird lunch dates, or being handsy at the very least with women at parties. One man is accused of secretly removing condom during sex, with no claim of workplace misconduct at all. Another is damned for flirting, another for taking credit for ideas of women of color, another for multiple employee affairs, inappropriate conversation, in general a huge disgusting sleaze ball. And this chorus of minor offenses is on the same list as brutal rapes, physical assaults, brazen threats, unspeakable cruelty, violence, and misogyny. But hey, take it all with a grain of salt! The act of anonymously disseminating serious allegations about peoples sex lives as a means to destroy their careers and livelihoods has long gone by a simple name. Its called McCarthyism, and the people behind the list engaged in it. Sure, they believed they were doing good but the McCarthyites, in a similar panic about communism, did as well. They believe they are fighting an insidious, ubiquitous evil the patriarchy just as the extreme anti-Communists in the 1950s believed that commies were everywhere and so foul they didnt deserve a presumption of innocence, or simple human decency. They demand public confessions of the guilty and public support for their cause or they will cast suspicion on you as well. Sophie Gilbert just berated the men at the Golden Globes for not saying what they were supposed to say. Its no wonder that todays McCarthyites also engage in demonizing other writers, like Katie Roiphe, and threatening their livelihoods. And just as McCarthyites believed they had no other option, given the complicity of the entire federal government with communism, so todays McCarthyites claim that appeals to the police, or the HR department, or to the usual channels, are fruitless because theyre part of the patriarchal system too! These mechanisms, Donegan writes, have an obligation to presume innocence, and we cant have that, can we? Donegan insists that she was extremely naive and believed that an online document containing these explosive details distributed among journalists no less would be kept private. (Did she think this is 1995?) Donegan also argues that it was intended specifically not to inflict consequences, and yet the crowd-sourced document that I read ends with the words: Let it burn yall even if those arent her words, they seem to speak to an intent of the authors and promoters of the list. She expresses no regret about crowd-sourcing anonymous allegations with the potential to destroy lives just regret that Ive learned that protecting women is a position that comes with few protections itself. For this, Donegan has been showered with wave after wave of praise on Twitter, with the overall impression that she is being extraordinarily brave. And maybe she is by finally going public. Getting doxxed by alt-right loons is a horrifying experience no one should have to endure. Id defend her right to basic respect and decency, as I would anyones. But Ill tell you whats also brave at the moment: to resist this McCarthyism, to admit complexity, to make distinctions between offenses, to mark a clear boundary between peoples sexual conduct in a workplace and outside of it, to defend due process, to defend sex itself, and privacy, and to rely on careful reporting to expose professional malfeasance. In this nihilist moment when Bannonites and left-feminists want simply to burn it all down, its especially vital to keep a fire brigade in good order. The Trump Boom I have no idea where the economy is headed this year, but its impossible to ignore certain indicators. One of the more striking features is the new strength of working-class wages, as the labor market tightens in the eighth year of growth: Hiring picked up fastest in construction and mining. Manufacturing, which lost jobs in 2016, expanded last year at a respectable clip, part of a global resurgence, the New York Times noted. These jobs are for Trump voters and they may well simply credit their hero for instantly making it happen. Hes a very stable genius, after all, and single-handedly prevented any airplane crashes in his first year in office. The New York Times was also forced to concede that Trumps push to dismantle regulations on businesses seems to have emboldened corporations to start putting more money into machines and plants, the kind of spending that drives broad growth the security industry, for example, where pay is below average, showed a 7 percent increase in hourly earnings in November from a year earlier. Workers in clothing stores and food services two huge, generally low-paying businesses saw wages rise by around 4 percent in that period. This feels like the late 1990s, and is a function of many trends, including new growth in Europe and in Japan. But the benefits to the Trump base are also surely strengthened by the decline of illegal immigration in 2017 (now reversing), and a chilling of illegal hiring in some industries. Theyve gotten a little more leverage in the job market and it is beginning to pay dividends. Quinnipiac just found that 66 percent of Americans now believe that the economy is excellent or good. The same poll found that most attributed this to Obama, rather than to Trump, but a year into office, many voters, especially those who lean Republican, will inevitably see this as Trumps economy in 2018, if the going continues to be good. It could buoy him, whether he deserves it or not. Then yesterday, we see Walmart, easily one of the biggest employers in Trumps base, announce it will raise wages in response to the just-passed tax bill. Hows that for good PR? The company said it would increase its starting hourly wage to $11 from $9, and provide one-time cash bonuses of up $1,000 to hourly workers, depending on how long they had been with the company. Walmart is a bellwether for low-paying industries, and this year could see real increases in the standard of living for the working poor, which is pretty great news. Some of the growth is obviously goosed by deregulation and by higher and higher government borrowing and is dangerous in the long term and we can expect ecological disasters and debt crises to emerge in the future. But right now, given our cultures attention span, its obviously a boon for the GOP. I notice, by the way, that Trumps approval ratings have consistently risen since the tax bill became law. I dont believe that this is entirely a coincidence. Promises made, promises kept, as his supporters keep telling themselves. Theres a risk for Trump, of course. Tout a 25,000 Dow as your achievement and a correction will come back to haunt you. And if youre in a record string of quarters of growth, its surely time to worry that a downturn will arrive sooner rather than later. Trumps recession could come as he prepares for reelection. In this, hed be in the pattern of one-term George H.W. Bush, rather than Reagan or Obama. But as I write, theres enough data to convey the impression that he is, indeed, making the American economy great again. as Drudge breathlessly propagandizes day after day. It requires a very short attention span and remarkably low levels of information to buy this entirely but hey, this is America. Weve got those two things covered. Israels Troubling Trajectory The New Year began with a new day dawning in Israel-Palestine. The two-state solution, or any agreement that bears any resemblance to the original division of the land between Jews and Arabs, is dead. This is not a new reality, but the Trump administrations embrace of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the acquiescence of many leading Sunni Arab states to the same, amounts to an official coroners report. In Israel itself, the right wing is triumphant: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus party for the first time has urged the annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and the nations top legal officers pressed to extend Israeli law into occupied territory. Jewish settlement on the West Bank continues apace. The silence from Americas liberal Zionists, with a few honorable exceptions, was deafening. Liberal American Jews support a two-state solution in principle, but in practice they have approved every single step that has made such a resolution impossible. At some point, this asymptotic approach will reach its logical conclusion. But what exactly is that conclusion? In a one-state scenario, Israel cannot continue to be both Jewish and democratic. Its Arabs could outvote its Jews. So what exactly is the goal? The only way for a one-state Jewish democracy to endure is by denying the vote to millions of its citizens on the basis of their race, religion, or location. Sure, you can have security measures that create Bantustans or townships on the West Bank, separated from each other, but if that happens, and the inhabitants have no voting rights, there really is no other word for it than apartheid. It isnt even Jim Crow, which maintained a pretense of separate but equal. This would be separate and unequal, within a democracy itself. I remember when I found the term apartheid as applied to Israel to be a polemical excess. Now it seems simply like an empirical reality. And thats why I worry about forced expulsion at some point in my lifetime. Netanyahu last week began deporting African illegal immigrants, without the slightest hesitation. The government approved a plan today that will give every infiltrator two options: a flight ticket out or jail, he wrote on Facebook. Removing millions of people who are living in their native land is, of course, a vastly different endeavor. But is it unimaginable? Maybe its a gradual process: a policy of immiseration and oppression on the West Bank, combined with serious financial assistance for Palestinians to relocate to Jordan or Egypt. Maybe the Israelis just hope something will turn up. All I know is that the current contradiction will be at some point untenable. In the words of Herb Stein, If something cannot go on forever, it will stop. How and when it will stop is an open question. All you can seriously predict is that, for the Palestinian Arabs, it wont be pretty. See you next Friday. President Trump running another normal, good meeting. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images Four days ago, David Brooks broke the news in the New York Times that President Trump is actually a sober-minded and competent public servant. People who go into the White House to have a meeting with President Trump usually leave pleasantly surprised, he reported. They find that Trump is not the raving madman they expected from his tweetstorms or the media coverage. They generally say that he is affable, if repetitive. He runs a normal, good meeting and seems well-informed enough to get by. It is safe to say that this column has not aged well in the short time since its publication. How Trump's Speaking Style Has Changed Over the Years Take, for instance, yesterday. The morning began with Trump watching Fox News and impulsively tweeting out his confused opposition to a surveillance reauthorization bill that, unbeknownst to the president, his administration was furiously lobbying Congress to approve. At that point, all hell broke loose. Trumps sycophants descended. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) spent 30 minutes on the phone with the president explaining the differences between domestic and foreign surveillance, as many fellow Republicans reacted in disbelief and befuddlement, reported the Washington Post. Trump finally tweeted a message professing support for the bill and pretending the previous tweet had not said what it did. Was Paul Ryan pleasantly surprised? Was Trump well-informed enough to get by? Not if the definition of these terms requires the president understanding his own administrations position on a bill that was coming to a vote that very day. Later in the day, of course, Trump ranted to senators about immigrants being allowed to enter the United States from shithole countries. News reports do not make this sound at all like a normal, good meeting. Also yesterday, Trump gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal in which he made a number of claims that, had a non-Trump president uttered them, would have consumed the national media with astonishment. For instance, he claimed that former FBI agent Peter Strzok who sent texts to a fellow agent disparaging politicians in both parties had committed treason. A man is tweeting to his lover that if [Democrat Hillary Clinton] loses, well essentially do the insurance policy. Well go to phase two and well get this guy out of office, Trump said. This is the FBI were talking about that is treason. That is a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act. In fact, Strzok was describing an FBI policy of going easy on the Trump investigation during the campaign, on the premise that Trump was going to lose anyway. (Strzok likened the necessity of investigating Trump regardless as insurance against the possibility he might win anyway, which proved correct.) Strzoks political views in the texts were idiosyncratic and somewhat right of center. In any case, FBI agents are allowed to hold political views. It is not treason for an FBI agent to criticize a presidential candidate. Nor is it treason for the agency to launch a counterintelligence investigation against the president. Trumps belief that agents investigating his allies are necessarily traitors is fundamentally authoritarian. Not normal! Not good! In that same interview, Trump gave his reasons for why the news media allegedly lies about him more than anybody in history: TRUMP: They dislike me, the liberal media dislikes me. I mean I watch people I was always the best at what I did, I was the I was, you know, I went to the I went to the Wharton School of Finance, did well. I went out, I I started in Brooklyn, in a Brooklyn office with my father, I became one of the most successful real estate developers, one of the most successful business people. I created maybe the greatest brand. I then go into, in addition to that, part time, like five percent a week, I open up a television show. As you know, the Apprentice on many evenings was the number one show on all of television, a tremendous success. It went on for 12 years, a tremendous success. They wanted to sign me for another three years and I said, no, I cant do that. Thats one of the reasons NBC hates me so much. NBC hates me so much they wanted they were desperate to sign me for for three more years. Trumps explanation of the medias unfairness is a narcissistic rant about his intelligence and tremendous success that utterly fails to account for the medias hostility, except to suppose, bizarrely, that NBC News is carrying out a vendetta against Trump based on his refusal to extend his reality-television series on their network. Trumps response is so discursive that the Journal attempts to change the subject. But then Trump decides to stick with the subject and note that he is also the best athlete, which also somehow explains why the media opposes him, or should not oppose him, or something: WSJ: Mr. President, you made reference to the book. Steve Bannon TRUMP: Just and so so I was successful, successful, successful. I was always the best athlete, people dont know that. But I was successful at everything I ever did and then I run for president, first time first time, not three times, not six times. I ran for President first time and lo and behold, I win. And then people say oh, is he a smart person? Im smarter than all of them put together, but they cant admit it. They had a bad year. Just a normal, good meeting where the president cant stop talking about why the media hates him because he was successful, successful, successful and the best athlete. Brookss column used his observations about Trumps surprisingly impressive focus and mental acuity to conclude that Trumps critics had been overreacting and losing their dignity. Anti-Trumpers, he argued, were getting dumber and reducing themselves to monotonous daily hysteria. This is essentially the position Brooks has taken about every step in the Republican Partys long march into extremism and madness. After having depicted Trump as a final break, Brooks was returning to his natural condition. It is obviously true that, in a large country, a broad spectrum of opinion will inevitably produce excesses on every side. Even a president as deranged and racist as Trump will be talked about, by somebody, in excessively harsh terms. Yet Brookss conclusion that Trump critics have on the whole exaggerated his flaws, that Trump is in fact reasonably well informed, affable, and sane, does not seem to be a reasonable conclusion at all. Instead it is an expression of Brookss unavoidable tendency to impose a sheen of normality on a political party that is anything but. Defense hawks are getting impatient with spending negotiations and could deny their votes to another stopgap bill. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images You might get the impression from recent news that the escalating dispute in Washington over immigration policy the plight of Dreamers, the countervailing nativist demand for less immigration from what the president reportedly calls shithole countries, and a hundred other issues is the main reason for fearing an impasse in spending negotiations and a government shutdown when the current stopgap spending authority expires on January 19. But theres another fight going on as well, one that is as important to conservative Republicans as the DACA fight is to liberal Democrats. Defense hawks in the GOP, who say short-term spending bills cripple the military, are threatening to vote against another stopgap without a long-term deal in hand to increase Pentagon funding. And while its possible the immigration deal can be spun off into onto a separate track that wont threaten funding for the entire federal government, defense-spending demands cannot really be separated from a spending bill. The battle lines are pretty clear: A deal is required, supported by 60 Senate votes, to suspend the separate defense and non-defense spending caps imposed in 2011 as part of a deal between President Obama and congressional Republicans. Without a suspension of these caps, spending will be subject to automatic cuts known as a sequester at a time when Congress clearly wants more, not less, spending. But House conservatives are chafing at the usual deal that lets defense and non-defense spending rise together. And Democrats in both chambers are opposing the idea of giving the Pentagon a year-long spending hike even as other types of spending are subjected to another stopgap bill and further negotiations. Add in Democratic DACA demands to the mix, and youve got real obstacles to any bill that could temporarily or more permanently avoid a shutdown. So the GOP congressional leadership is caught between apparently irreconcilable demands from the left and right, and has very little time to resolve it all and get a majority vote from the House and a supermajority in the Senate. Defense hawks very nearly derailed the last stopgap spending bill just before Christmas. Now they are no longer in the mood to give Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell their votes without their demands being met, as Politico notes: Part of GOP leaderships plea to defense hawks at the time was a promise to have a broader spending deal in hand by the next deadline on Jan. 19. Ryan and his deputies said then that an accord was close, and just one more month of negotiations should finish it up. Now, one week from that new deadline, theres little expectation on Capitol Hill that a spending cap deal will be passed by next Friday. With spending talks seemingly stalled, defense hawks are threatening that they wont buy leaders more time. And thats the rub. Buying more time when a complex deal isnt complete is the only way to avoid a shutdown that everyone claims they dont want. But in the end, making a credible threat to shut down the government may be the only way Congresss warring factions can get their way. That includes the defense hawks who are offended that the military has to suffer through fears about funding like everyone else. The forgotten man and woman. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images In the final ad of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump decried the global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities. Throughout his time in office, the president and his surrogates have lambasted the corrupt, globalist elite that champion bad trade deals and open borders immigration policies. Recently, the White House announced that Trump will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, later this month. Some in the Fake News media have suggested that there is a tension between the presidents populist rhetoric and his decision to attend this annual meet-and-greet of the global capitalist class. (Apparently, some Trump campaign volunteer named Steve Bannon once said that the moguls true enemy was the party of Davos.) But on Thursday, Steve Mnuchin set the record straight: I dont think its a hangout for globalists, the Treasury secretary said of Davos, in remarks to reporters. And its hard to disagree. Look at these salt-of-the-earth, blue-collar nationalists enjoying good old-fashioned American hors doeuvres. Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images This forgotten American appears to have just learned that he can finally say Merry Christmas again. Photo: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images You can practically hear this guy saying, I didnt leave the Democratic Party the Democratic Party left me! Photo: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images If believing that America is for Americans is deplorable, well, then, this lady is proud to be deplorable. Photo: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images This long-suffering member of the industrial working class takes Trump seriously not literally. Photo: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images Coastal elites may sneer at Davos. But as populist-nationalist Steve Mnuchin reminded the out-of-touch media Thursday, real Americans love it when the global superrich retreat to the Alps for orgies and TED Talks (while the middle class grows another day older and deeper in debt). Trump. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Just before Christmas, the New York Times reported that while discussing immigration during an Oval Office meeting in June, President Trump had remarked that Haitians all have AIDS, and that once Nigerians saw the United States they would never go back to their huts. The White House insisted that President Trump did not say anything of the sort. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the top White House officials who were present deny these outrageous claims, and remarked that its both sad and telling that the Times would print such lies. On Thursday the Washington Post reported that while discussing protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries in the Oval Office, Trump remarked, Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? He suggested that the U.S. should be bringing in more immigrants from Norway, and singled out Haiti for special criticism. Why do we need more Haitians? Trump he said. Take them out. This time, the White House didnt bother denying the comment. A statement from Raj Shah, the White House deputy press secretary, did not even directly address the shithole remark: Its possible the White House didnt bother to issue a denial because this time Trump made the remark before multiple members of Congress, including Senators Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, David Perdue, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Representatives Bob Goodlatte and Mario Diaz-Balart. The Worst Defenses of Trump's Racist Comments on Immigration Or the White House may be betting that Americans have grown accustomed to a leader who kicked off his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, then repeatedly tried to ban immigration from several Muslim-majority nations, attacked the patriotism of black athletes who kneel during the National Anthem, and denounced the violence on both sides after a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. CNNs Kaitlan Collins reported that White House staffers arent concerned about the blowback from Trumps remarks, and actually think it might help him with his base. According to a White House official, staffers predict the Presidents shithole remark will resonate with his base, @kaitlancollins reports https://t.co/DNed8UOO8b pic.twitter.com/PycLhX7yDV The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) January 11, 2018 Presumably, most Republican lawmakers do not appreciate Trump making racist remarks about other nations but many will tolerate it. The comment sparked predictable outrage from a long list of Democratic lawmakers: The word is vulgar, but idea that it's ok to write off an entire nation of people is unamerican. Either we're all created equal or we aren't. Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) January 12, 2018 Sad comment from @realDonaldTrump. All the more reason to focus on getting an agreement on DACA as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/aSKXvZQVuN Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 11, 2018 This is racism, plain and simple, and we need to call it that. My Republican colleagues need to call it that too. https://t.co/HxmBSxFSYH Fmr. Rep. Tim Walz (@RepTimWalz) January 11, 2018 Left-leaning journalists: Cold Open: "The President of the United States is Racist." pic.twitter.com/gzeLO2qCIi Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 12, 2018 "Let me be clear.... the people of Haiti have been through more, withstood more, fought back against more injustice... than our President ever has" Anderson Cooper choked back tears as he reflected on his relationship with Haiti, and its people https://t.co/3arEalkKOM Anderson Cooper 360 (@AC360) January 12, 2018 And people from the maligned countries: Haitis US Ambassador Paul Altidor tells me Haitis government has formerly summoned a US official to explain Trumps comments to Haitis officials. Haitians fought along US soldiers in the revolutionary war and we continue to be great contributors to American society, he said https://t.co/adRajn3O5y Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) January 12, 2018 Ambassador Paul Altidor also said Haitis embassy in DC has heard from many US citizens of Haitian ancestry who are demanding an apology. He called President Trumps comments an assault on Haitian people and the countrys history. https://t.co/K7c4j0GhBr Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) January 12, 2018 Yet the number of Republican lawmakers condemning Trumps remarks was limited. Several were from Florida, which is home to an estimated 305,000 foreign-born Haitians. The most surprising response came from Florida governor Rick Scott, whom Trump is recruiting to run for the Senate: If this report is true, it is absolutely wrong to say or think this. I do not think this way, nor do I agree with this kind of sentiment. I represent Florida, and we are an amazing melting pot where over 250 languages are spoken. I work every day to make this the most welcoming state for everyone Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans, and others from all around the world that call Florida home. Im incredibly proud of our diversity. I hope the White House apologizes for these degrading comments and focuses on working towards a solution for those from TPS countries rather than making denigrating statements Erik Paulsen (@ErikPaulsen) January 12, 2018 Here is my statement on the Presidents comments today: pic.twitter.com/EdtsFjc2zL Rep. Mia Love (@RepMiaLove) January 11, 2018 The president calling #Haiti a "shithole country" ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians have made to our #SoFla community and nation. Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) January 11, 2018 Under no circumstances is it acceptable to degrade, denigrate, or dehumanize #TPS immigrants. The White House must immediately explain the situation and leave no doubt regarding what was said and in what context. Carlos Curbelo (@carloslcurbelo) January 11, 2018 Senators Jeff Flake and Marco Rubio responded on Twitter without clearly stating what they were referring to: My ancestors came from countries not nearly as prosperous as the one we live in today. Im glad that they were welcomed here. Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) January 12, 2018 But thats also why we should evaluate immigrants based on WHO they are & not on the problems that exist in the nation of their birth 4/7 Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 12, 2018 For example,for decades the people of #ElSalvador & #Haiti have suffered as a result of bad leaders, rampant crime & natural disasters 5/7 Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 12, 2018 #Florida is home to many people who came from these troubled nations & contribute to our economy through hard work & entrepreneurship 6/7 Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 12, 2018 And Florida is home to people from these two countries whose children have fought for & even tragically died in the service of America 7/7 Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 12, 2018 Senators James Lankford and Orrin Hatch allowed for the possibility that Trump was misquoted: "If these comments are accurate, they are disappointing. I would not talk about nations like this, because I believe the people of those countries are made in the image of God and have worth and human dignity." Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) https://t.co/jEG6FZJJKt Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 12, 2018 HATCH: I look forward to getting a more detailed explanation regarding the Presidents comments. Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin. #utpol Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) January 11, 2018 Representative Mark Sanford could only muster an it is what it is. Other Republicans did not respond to requests for comment, likely hoping that there will be some other controversy that pushes the shithole debacle out of the news. (Like Trump lashing out at Obama, perhaps?) But theres already one GOP lawmaker defending Trump. Representative Lee Zeldin noted that he wasnt elected for his ability or willingness to be politically correct, and isnt perfect, but no president has ever been perfect. Pres @realDonaldTrump wasn't elected for his ability or willingness to be politically correct. The fact is that there are many nations in the world struggling mightily... politically & economically, w poor infrastructure, schools, physical security & more. Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) January 12, 2018 These third world nations have some of the worst possible challenges imaginable. They also have certain aspects of culture, tradition, values, & religion, that can be emulated the world over. Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) January 12, 2018 The US can & should help where we can, but we also can & should prioritize many challenges we are already facing right here at home. Our immigration policies must get stronger, our limited resources spent wiser, & our priorities placed smarter. Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) January 12, 2018 I'm not though here to call for the President's mouth to be washed out w soap & then for him to be physically removed from office. He's not perfect, but no President has ever been perfect. I'm still very strongly rooting for his success & America's success in this great new year. Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) January 12, 2018 Fox News made Zeldins points much more forcefully. Jesse Watters of The Five suggested the remark was either an outright lie or proof of Trumps authenticity. I think its either fake news or if its true, this is how the forgotten men and women in America talk at the bar, Watters said. This is how Trump relates to people. If you are in a bar in Wisconsin and you are thinking they are bringing in a bunch of Haiti people or El Salvadorians [sic] or people from Niger, this is how some people talk, he continued. Is it graceful? No. Is it polite or delicate? Absolutely not. Is it a little offensive? Of course it is. But you know what? This doesnt move the needle at all. This is how Trump is. He doesnt care. He shoots from the hip. And if he offends some people, fine. And predictably, on his show and on Twitter, Tucker Carlson insisted Trump was right. President Trump said something that almost every single person in America actually agrees with, Carlson said. An awful lot of immigrants come from this country from other places that arent very nice. Those places are dangerous, theyre dirty, theyre corrupt, and theyre poor and thats the main reason those immigrants are trying to come here and you would too if you live there. Option A: El Salvador isn't a "shithole," so they don't need 17 years of Temporary Protected Status, and migrants from there should be sent home immediately. Option B: El Salvador is, in fact, a "shithole." https://t.co/sea1sKoY8K Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 11, 2018 The majority of Americans who are not among Trumps base might think the president should refrain from making racist comments about other nations, but according to the only news source he really cares about, he was right on the mark. Shithole. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images In an Oval Office meeting Thursday, President Trump lashed out at lawmakers advocating for the immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations and referred to the countries as shitholes, the Washington Post reports. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump reportedly asked. The lawmakers in the meeting, which included members of both parties, were taken aback by the comment, the Post says. The language is new, but Trump has made his distaste known for the programs that allowed immigrants from those countries to remain in the U.S. And hes acted to reverse them. In November, his administration announced plans to strip 60,000 Haitians living in the U.S. of protected immigration status. Then earlier this month 200,000 Salvadorans who came to U.S. after a 2001 earthquake were told they need to leave by September of 2019 or face deportation. In a statement, the White House did not deny Trumps shithole comment. According to the Post, after Trumps shithole line he suggested that the U.S. admit more immigrants from nations like Norway. It was not immediately clear why Trump prefers immigrants from Norway over those from Haiti and El Salvador. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images President Trump announced Friday afternoon that he would extend sanctions relief to Iran for one more 120-day period, thus keeping President Obamas nuclear deal alive. But Trump said that if European allies did not renegotiate the deal to his liking during that period, he would terminate it. Full Trump statement on Iran sanctions right here: pic.twitter.com/S2FEicUasZ Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) January 12, 2018 In his statement, Trump makes clear that he is still no fan of the 2015 agreement, which he has repeatedly criticized as a bad deal, terrible deal, and the worst deal ever since mounting his run for the presidency. He then outlines the terms under which he would agree to waive sanctions again in four months. They include an expansion of the deal to include Irans ballistic missile program, an end to the agreements expiration date, and automatic triggers for inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities. None of these provisions hold much appeal to the European allies Trump wants to renegotiate the deal with, but Trump insisted that he was serious about ending the deal if he doesnt get what he wants. This is a last chance, the U.S. president said in the statement. In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. The Trump administration also announced a round of sanctions aimed at Iranian figures who had helped suppress recent street demonstrations that turned violent. The most prominent among these is Sadeq Larijani, the head of the countrys judiciary. The violent street protests that have spread throughout much of Iran in recent weeks seemed like effective pretext for Trump to reimpose sanctions, since he could argue that Irans sclerotic regime was on its last legs, and that the U.S. had even less reason than normal to prop it up. But that move would likely play into the hands of the countrys hard-liners, who could plausibly argue that America really is as devious as they have warned over the years, while creating even more tension in the Middle East. Trumps pro-deal Cabinet members, like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis, appear to have won the day with this line of thinking, for the time being. As on so many other foreign-policy matters, the United States finds itself isolated on the issue. The European countries which signed on, including the U.K., France, and Germany urged the U.S. to stay in on Thursday, claiming that Iran has been holding up its side of the bargain since the deal was signed. Those countries have vowed not to bolt the agreement even if the U.S. pulls out, but Irans foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday that Irans continued compliance [is] conditioned on full compliance by the U.S. In October, Trump said that he would not certify the deal, a dramatic but largely ceremonial gesture that he is expected to repeat this week. He also told Congress to beef up enforcement provisions, warning he would pull out altogether if they did not. But despite Republican proposals to do so, the Senate has taken no action. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday that Trump still strongly believes this was one of the worst deals of all time. Its definitely about Obama, not this. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images During her visit to the White House last January, British prime minister Theresa May invited President Trump to visit the U.K. With Trump reportedly concerned about the mass protests his presence would undoubtedly spark in London, the trip was postponed several times. Following the outcry over Queen Elizabeth being forced to endure a meeting with Trump, and the president mocking the mayor of London on Twitter after a terror attack, the trip was downgraded from a state visit to a working visit meaning no audience with the Queen or any of the related pomp and flummery. Last month, a date appeared to be set: Trump would head to London at the end of February for the opening of the new U.S. embassy. But on Thursday, reports began circulating that the visit had been canceled due to protest fears. Around midnight, Trump confirmed the news on Twitter, but explained it was all President Obamas fault: Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 This development is particularly shocking because Obama hadnt been elected when the decision was made to move the embassy from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms. The move was announced in October 2008, when George W. Bush was president. We looked at all our options, including renovation of our current building on Grosvenor Square, Ambassador Robert Tuttle explained at the time. In the end, we realized that the goal of a modern, secure, and environmentally sustainable embassy could best be met by constructing a new facility. In 2009 the Obama administration approved the sale of the old embassy building to the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co., which plans to turn it into a hotel. The sites value was significantly reduced shortly before the sale when the British listed it as a building of historic importance, restricting development options. But clearly, the State Department struck this bad deal so Trump would find out about it years later and be forced to cancel his London visit. Thanks, Obama! Peter Thiel. Photo: Jose Image/VCG via Getty Images Tech industry billionaire Peter Thiel has, according to Reuters, placed a bid for the remaining assets of Gawker Media. Should he succeed in acquiring the companys remaining assets, he will likely take the site offline for good, capping a decade-plus-long secret war against the famous (and infamous) gossip blog. To recap: More than a decade ago, the Gawker subsidiary Valleywag published the fact that Peter Thiel is gay, a fact that was not a secret among Silicon Valley, but not necessarily known to the wider world. Thiel was not pleased, at one point likening Gawker writers to terrorists. A few years after that, Gawker published commentary on and edited excerpts from a sex tape of Hulk Hogan. Hogan, represented by attorney Charles Harder, sued the site, owner Nick Denton and the posts author, A.J. Daulerio, claiming that the post violated his privacy. During the trial, Hogans legal team dropped the one charge that would have been covered by Gawkers insurance policy, making them much more financially vulnerable should they lose. Suspicious! At this point, rumors began circulating that Hogan might have a mysterious benefactor bankrolling his legal case. Eventually, in the spring of 2016, a jury found in favor of Hogan, and awarded him a staggering $140 million in damages, enough to bankrupt the company. Around the same time, Thiel revealed that he was the one funding Hogan. In August of 2016, all of the Gawker Media sites save for Gawker.com were purchased by Univision. Gawker.com was placed in stasis, its archive still online. Now, that archive is up for auction, and Thiel has submitted a bid to buy it. It is not known how much Thiel bid on the website, and the bankruptcy-plan administrator does not necessarily have to select the highest bid. Thiel can, however, ask a judge to step in if his bid is significantly higher. Should Thiel purchase the site, his ownership will be the latest event in a dark chapter for press freedom in America, in which a billionaire funded an outside lawsuit concerning a truthful piece of information, exploiting the court system to bleed a publication dry before it could appeal the verdict (First Amendment cases are often won on appeal) and then buy its corpse. Thiel has denied funding other lawsuits against former Gawker Media sites, but the attorney he hired, Charles Harder, is the legal representation in a few of them. Furthermore, should Peter Thiel acquire the site, he will own some of the first, trailblazing coverage of celebrities currently under scrutiny amid the #MeToo movement, including posts about Harvey Weinstein and Louis C.K. Gawker also famously put renewed attention on the lengthy history of sexual-assault allegations against Bill Cosby. Thiel will control some of the most scathing coverage of the rich and powerful, including articles about himself and the current president of the United States. He will also control the fate of blog posts like Why No Orange Pie? Thiel is well-known and, somehow, still well-respected among Silicon Valleys leaders, despite his attack on the free press and despite throwing in with the Trump campaign (he spoke at the RNC and then advised the presidential transition). Despite his efforts to suppress voices that he disagrees with, he remains one of eight members on the board of Facebook, the most powerful information-distribution network in the modern world. Its human nature to want the best for ones wedding day; fancy, glitzy and exaggerated. YUDAYA NANGONZI explores options for a simple but classy wedding under civil marriage. A fairly cool Friday morning finds me at the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) offices in Georgian House, formerly Amamu House in central Kampala. I am here to witness how registrars conduct civil marriages. The buzz around the reception area on the ground floor is about a stunning bride and entourage of maids, relatives and friends. Giggles, selfies, and photo jiffies are ongoing as we all wait to use the elevator to the fourth floor where the civil registration department is located. After a few minutes, the bride loses her patience. We are going to be late. Let us use the stairs, she says as she spins to show off her orange Cinderella wedding gown. Various couples at the URSB civil marriage department The group hurriedly walks up the staircase. At times, when you are going up in an elevator, you hear a sound as if the cables lifting it have some difficulty. This one is cool and fast to the fourth floor where the group has not yet arrived. The notice board for marriages is fixed to the left, about 10 metres from the main entrance. On each of the notices, the registrar of marriages writes: I give you notice that this marriage is intended to be had within three months from the date of this notice between me, and the undersigned and other party named in the notice. As I settle for one of the chairs, the bride and her group join the groom and his best man amid ululations. Shortly, deputy registrar general Jane Okot pBitek Langoya, calls out the next couple with their two witnesses to join her in office for a briefing. I follow since I am allowed to be part of the marriage sessions today. This fairly young couple is accompanied by their parents, uncle, son and daughter who are elegantly dressed as page boy and flower girl, respectively. Langoya asks the couple to check their marriage certificate, fixed with a URSB logo and bar code reader, for errors. When they nod that everything is all right, she asks: Did you come to this marriage willingly? The groom says yes, while the bride excitedly adds more than willingly. Langoya reads out various sections of the Marriage Act governing civil marriage. The groom closes the door for privacy but Langoya objects. I can be penalized for solemnizing a marriage with closed doors. My dear, the Marriage Act states clearly that this function must be done with open doors. This implies that we may be having this brief meeting but someone has a right to walk in freely and stop me from wedding you, Langoya explains. The groom quickly asks one question. After taking our vows, does the law allow me to kiss my beautiful wife? Langoya laughs but responds: There is too much love here. A kiss that will not embarrass me, little children and our parents herein is very okay. THE MARRIAGE ROOM Next to the deputy registrars office is the marriage room. Its large glass door is wide open. It has wooden pews and a special white chair for couples. Langoya sits in a single chair in front of the marrying party. The groom, a Muslim, goes first to take his vow with a Quran. The bride uses a Bible with tears of joy rolling down her round cheeks. Her emotions are shared by her mother who also tears-up but smiles throughout the entire session. Langoya later reads Section 26 of the Marriage Act: Know you that by the public taking of each other as man and wife in my presence, and in the presence of the persons now here, and by the subsequent attestation of that taking by signing your names to that effect, you become legally married to each other, although no other rite of a civil or religious nature shall take place, and that this marriage cannot be dissolved during your lifetime, except by a valid judgement of divorce; and if either of you before the death of the other shall contract another marriage while this remains undissolved, you will be thereby guilty of bigamy and liable to punishment for that offence. Indeed, Section 47 of the law emphasizes that any person who personates any other person in marriage, or marries under a false name or description, with intent to deceive the other party to the marriage, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years. The couple exchange rings and sign their marriage certificate. In just 10 minutes, the ceremony is done. It is now a photo moment for the couple as Langoya moves out to brief the next couple. SIMPLE AND AFFORDABLE In Uganda, four marriages are recognized; Civil, Muslim, Customary and Hindu. Church weddings fall under civil marriage since they are licensed by government. Charles Nsimbi, the manager for civil registration at URSB, says church ministers become registrars under the Marriage Act. The only difference is that the law allows churches to celebrate marriages following their customs and norms. So, if you go to a church that is not licensed, you have not celebrated a legal marriage, Nsimbi says urging couples to ensure that they are wed from licensed churches which also file marriage returns to URSB monthly. Nsimbi wedded in church but speaks highly of marriage before the registrar. When you go to a government office, compliance is automatic unlike in church where you need to do a lot of underground work about its license and filing of marriage returns, among others, he says. If you dont want the prestige of walking down the aisle and creating financial strain onto yourselves under the guise of pleasing family and friends, marriage in a government office is ideal. URSB civil marriage notice board URSBs recent count of licensed churches placed the figure at 2,580. Of these, Nsimbi says, less than 100 file marriage returns yet it is estimated that there are more than 10,000 churches countrywide with many wedding couples illegally. URSB statistics indicate that in 2015/16, 817 faith-based organisations (FBOs) were licensed to celebrate marriages. However, despite a growing number of FBOs, only 232 were licensed in 2016/17. At the registrars office in Kampala, at least 1,420 marriages were solemnised in 2015/16 compared to 1,175 in 2016/17. URSB charges Ugandan and refugee couples Shs 260,000 while foreigners pay $210. This money covers the marriage, notice, registration and certificate fees. Every week, about 35 couples take their vows at the Kampala civil registration department, an increment from about 20 couples few years ago. For couples that intend to be wed on Saturdays or Sundays or choose a specific venue for their wedding on weekdays, they pay for a special license at Shs 300,000 where one of the applicants is Ugandan or a refugee and $200 for foreigners. With special licenses, one can take their vows from just about anywhere. Despite the fact that he is a practising Catholic, Nsimbi acknowledges that civil marriage is a lot quicker than the bureaucratic tendencies of churches, including pre-wedding counselling sessions, demands for baptism cards, etc For us, even when you have not done a customary marriage, we go ahead and wed you as long as both of you consent to the marriage, are not party to any existing marriage and above 18 years. However, some couples also first perform their customary marriage and later come here to wed, Nsimbi says. He adds that the most interesting thing here is that couples are not limited by a dress code. All one needs is to be decently attired. He has memories of his niece who solemnized her marriage in jeans at URSB. As this interview proceeds, Langoya weds another couple. The bride is clad in a casual floral dress, simple African craft sandals with a scarf around her neck while the groom dons a sleeveless shirt and black trousers. Couples wishing to dress up from URSB offices are also allowed to freely use their lavatories located on the same floor. Nsimbi says while Ugandans are embracing civil marriage, the biggest numbers of couples who wed at URSB are Eritreans, Ethiopians, Rwandese and Congolese. There are also many couples from Sweden, Norway, Belgium, German, USA and the United Kingdom. STIGMA? But there is still stigma against civil marriage. Sweden-based musician Ronald Ssemawere a.k.a Guvnor Ace, can testify to this. On August 20, 2015, his marriage to then 68-year-old Mona-Lisa Larsson raised peoples eyebrows. People criticised me. The media concocted stories but many did not know what was behind our wedding, Ssemawere told The Observer. Our plan was that Lisa helps me come to Sweden and I respect her for that. We did not get married out of love. We agreed to accomplish certain projects which have all progressed very well. Now a cashier in a music instrument shop, 25-year-old Ssemawere is dating another Swedish lady after they agreed with Larsson to divorce in August this year. I have no intentions of marrying someone soon. If I am to do a wedding, it will be out of love and will be done in a religious way, he says, displaying a picture of his current girlfriend. Phillip Kalibbala, an assistant registrar at URSB, agrees that he has seen enough of the stigmatisation. We come from a traditional background where marriage is only understood to be performed in church or a mosque. So, some people and faith-based organisations think wedding in a government office is a contract marriage, Kalibbala says. [However], marriage is all about the heart of the two people no matter where it is performed as long as it is legal. Why affix stigma to such people? Whenever he interviews couples intending to marry, he encourages them to involve their parents for them not to assume that civil marriage is for persons who dont respect cultural norms. He cites a Ugandan couple that showed up with their parents who remained uncooperative and sad throughout the entire session. Parents should not think that civil marriage is rebellious. Unknown to some Ugandans, a certificate issued by URSB is so powerful that everyone should desire to get one because it will help you far beyond the boundaries of this country, he says. He commends Congolese who usually turn up in huge numbers, singing, and throwing petals allover. This, he believes, is a sign of appreciation and blessing the couples decision. If you are in a relationship and it is more than a one-night stand; involves children and property, you are better off legalising that relationship. If you can register a Sim card, why not a relationship? nangonzi@observer.ug Moses Kahima Mugabe was declared winner for the Ruhaama County MP seat The ruling party, NRM candidate Moses Kahima Mugabe has won the Ruhaama County parliamentary by-election, beating three Independent candidates. According to the results declared last night by Robert Beine, the Ntungamo district returning officer, Mugabe secured 31,102 votes to clinch the seat that fell vacant in November last year following the death of William Beijukye Zinkuratire. Mugabe was followed Jackson Mubangizi Kabikire with 16,345 votes; Peninah Beinomugisha with 2,103 votes and Vastine Orishaba who garnered only 523 votes. The by election was characterised by low voter turn-up. Out of 116,883 registered voters, only 50,943 turned up to vote on Thursday, in a constituency that was represented by First Lady Janet Museveni between 2006 and 2016. Igeme Nabeta has been thrown out of parliament The Court of Appeal has today given NRMs Nathan Nabeta another chance to vie for the Jinja Municipality East seat after it partially overturned a High court judgment that had declared FDCs Paul Mwiru the rightfully elected MP of the constituency. On July 18, 2016, High court judge Lydia Mugambe kicked NRMs Nathan Igeme Nabeta out of parliament and declared Mwiru as the duly-elected MP for Jinja Municipality East. Mwirus petition had zeroed on one polling station, found in Walukuba-Masese division, called Dainda A-D. He contended that the results declared there were fraudulent. Through his lawyers Peter Walubiri, Caleb Alaka and Medard Lubega Sseggona, Mwiru cited the alteration of results at the given polling station where he got 228 votes against Nabetas 214, but the Electoral Commission announced 507 votes for his opponent. Ironically, Nabetas relative, one Sulamain Bansia, was the returning officer at that polling station. In her analysis of the case, Justice Mugambe said the results which were used to declare Nabeta winner were fabricated. I wonder how a polling station with 400 registered voters could have results where the winner polled 507 votes, Justice Mugambe said. Living up to her reputation as the a no-nonsense judge, Mugambe further questioned how some EC officials sworn affidavits in support of Nabetas election yet they had participated in the exercise on behalf of the electoral body. I expect you the first respondent [Nabeta] to immediately vacate the parliamentary seat because you were unlawfully declared the winner in the election and Mwiru should take over because he truly won the election, she concluded. Dissatisfied with Mugambes holding, Nabeta, through his litany of lawyers led by Kiryowa Kiwanuka, dashed to the Court of Appeal. They accused justice Mugambe of failing to properly evaluate the evidence on records and thus arrive to a wrong conclusion that Nabeta was not validly elected. But today morning, appeal justices led by Justice Steven Kavuma (who has retired), Richard Buteera and Paul Mugamba (who have since been promoted to the Supreme court) agreed with Mugambe in their judgment on one thing that the election was tainted with fraud. They, however, disagreed with the thrust of her ruling which declared Mwiru the winner of the election on grounds that the whole election was discredited for any person, be it Nabeta or Mwiru, to be declared winner. We respectfully disagree with her conclusion as such, theCourt of Appeal judgment partly reads, with the existence of all the irregularities in the electoral process at Danida (A-D) community polling station as documented, we find that the integrity of the results has been tainted. According to Kavuma, Buteera and Mugamba, Nabeta was blameless in this whole mayhem. They strangely placed the blame on the Electoral Commission for what they termed as failing to comply with the electoral laws when conducting the elections of Danida (A-D) polling station, thus putting the entire results in doubt. We cannot, therefore, be seen to prefer such results to ascertain the true results for that polling station, the judges who awarded Mwiru costs for both the High court and Court of Appeal ruled. Needless to say this affects the results for entire constituency. We, therefore, go on to declare the seat vacant. After the ruling, Mwiru who was flanked by his lawyer Peter Walubiri explained that although he was disappointed by cancellation of his High court victory, he was ready for the by-election. We are partially disappointed. But we are ready for the by-election. We are going to win, said Mwiru, who represented Jinja Municipality East between 2011 and 2016. dkiyonga@observer.ug Health activists say that patients' rights are routinely violated. The promoters of the Patients' Rights and Responsibilities Bill, 2017 have said that after it has been passed into law, they will introduce a proposal to amend Article 22 of the Constitution to give force to the right to health. The article stipulates that no person shall be deprived of life intentionally except in execution of a sentence passed in a fair trial by a court of competent jurisdiction in respect of a criminal offence under the laws of Uganda. Presenting a motion to introduce the bill to Parliament on Tuesday, Busiki MP Paul Akamba said the bill seeks to improve healthcare services and empower patients to understand their rights and responsibilities in accessing healthcare services. The bill was first introduced by former Kigulu South MP, Milton Muwuma, during the ninth Parliament, but the legislator failed to secure a certificate of financial implication. Addressing journalists at parliament today, Akamba revealed that once this bill is passed, the law will ensure the government increases the amount of money for the health budget. Although Uganda is party to the 2001 Abuja Declaration where members pledged to allocate at least 15 per cent of national budgets to the health sector, Uganda still allocates not more than 8 per cent to the sector. We are moving towards amending Article 22 [of the Constitution] which provides a right to life, but not a right to health, he said. Once that is done, we shall ensure the government allocates sufficient funds to the health sector. Akamba argues that whereas all Ugandans are potential patients, there is no legal framework that protects the rights of patients and spell out their duties. Noting that 75 per cent of the disease burden in Uganda is preventable, health activists say violation of patients rights and ignorance of their responsibilities are a daily reality. They argue that the legislative gap coupled with poor health workers conditions leave patients with no legal redress, leading to an increased disease burden and high cost of healthcare. Ngora MP David Abala said the bill will, among other things, address professionalism by health workers which, he said, was lacking. Referring to the recent industrial action by doctors, Abala said although medical workers were concerned with their welfare, nobody was talking about the rights of the patients. Among the civil society activists in support of the bill is Robinah Kaitiritimba, the executive director of Uganda National Health Consumers Organisation. Kaitiritimba says as health activists, they are in support of the bill because it is a mechanism to regulate a relationship between healthcare seekers and healthcare providers. Akamba, Andrew Kaluya (Kigulu South) and Abala were granted leave of parliament to work on the bill for consideration by Parliament. matsiko@observer.ug The USA and UK anti-globalization influenza is spreading very first and catching many countries. Tanzanian president John Pombe Magufuli wants all immigrants, including Ugandans protected by the East Africa Community protocols, out of his country. As a result, two of my relatives that had been working in Tanzania for the last seven years returned to Uganda during the festive season. One of them, a teacher, was even briefly detained by the immigration and citizenship authorities in Tanzania. His work permit was cancelled and the school where he was teaching advised him to pack his bags because it was tired of paying penalties. The second relative, a trader, was not issued with a new permit. They are both back home. The teacher told me only science-teaching counterparts are issued with permits these days, which can also be revoked without notice. Ugandan teachers are still on market in Tanzanian schools that teach using English. But they are now candidates for deportation. Of course licensing a business in Tanzania has always been a nightmare despite the EAC protocols. It has only gotten worse under Magufuli. Although there is free movement of Ugandans into Tanzania, a stamp with words not allowed to work is always fixed in your passport at entry points. These examples above serve to tell you how theoretical and diversionary our dear revolutionary leader, Gen Yoweri Museveni, has become. Theoretical about this integration business. In his New Years address to the nation, he lambasted religious leaders, academia and the media for undermining integration efforts. As usual, he claimed much has been achieved in the East African federation, yet it is very little. He said: I am happy to remind Ugandans that working with our brothers and sisters in East Africa, we have revived the East African Community. He also enthusiastically spoke about political federation. I am equally happy to inform the revolutionary leader that obsession alone wont make things happen. In fact, I am more interested in addressing issues of the economy that have reduced our citizens into economic migrants than this integration business. Dubai has been my destination for holidays but I am now looking for another place. Why? It has been turned into another Uganda. After being battered by Museveni soldiers in parliament for opposing the removal of age limits, I went to Dubai to rest during the festive season. There was more age limit discussion in Dubai than on Kampala streets. I was repeatedly asked to explain what parliament had done and what patriots were planning to do next. The heavy presence of Ugandans on Dubai streets denied me the opportunity to momentarily forget the invasion on parliament by Musevenis soldiers. There are areas in Dubai where you find a Ugandan at every corner. I mean restless young people looking for jobs. I dont think these ones who have sought economic refuge in Dubai even care about Musevenis East African federation nonsense. For them, a welcoming Dubai is even more important than Tanzania. Offering them institutional protection and easing their travel to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia is more important than unpractical conversation about the East African federation. I have not looked at figures, but I have a feeling more Ugandans have fled the country looking for survival (kyeyo) during this regime than under any past administration. I doubt this government has these figures. All they care is how much money Ugandans abroad send home every year. Finally, let me take this opportunity to thank the late Archbishop Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo for his service to the country. I didnt know until his death that he had been the brains behind Uganda Christian University in Mukono. I dont know what Uganda would have been without the church and mosque. It is only deluded people that can attack the church when the clergy speak about politics. Some misguided individuals think the work of the clergy is at the pulpit. They forget that the church is nearly the main provider of social services in the country. If they closed just half of their schools and health facilities, I think the country would be in a bigger crisis than when Mulago doctors go on strike. It is the reason (education and health) that religious leaders in Tanzania have told off Magufuli, who wants them to shut up. In Tanzania, like in Uganda, the president is unhappy with some religious leaders for speaking against some of his policies. Like in Uganda, they have reminded Magufuli that their responsibilities go beyond preaching. In recognition of this quality and dedicated service to our African nations, let me join others in mourning the late Nkoyoyo. I have always been humbled by his modesty and simplicity. We will dearly miss him. My condolences to the family and the Church! semugs@yahoo.com The author is Kira Municipality MP and opposition chief whip in parliament. On December 15, 2017, the Society for Justice and National Unity (SoJNU) a national think-tank composed of public-interested Ugandans held a symposium on The political and economic consequences of presidentialism in Africa: Lessons from Uganda. After a stimulating presentation from Prof Frederick Jjuuko and passionate insights from the discussants, there were heated responses from the audience most of which lashed at Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere (one of the discussants) for some typically blunt and careless submissions in defence of the status quo. There was one particular insight from Amanya Mushega, who had been seated indistinctly among the audience, that sent me reflecting more on a suspicion I have held for a while now. He contrasted obsession with power to alcoholism. In his view, the former is worse than the latter. For alcoholics, there are intervals of being drunk and being sober, but obsession with power only grows. Should we compare it to drunkenness, then it is a state of permanent drunkenness. He further suggested that some of the power-obsessed leaders could be suffering from what behavioural psychologists call the hubris syndrome. In my reading about personality disorders, I had not come across this one. My suspicion rotated around the Histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders. Our daily social interactions indicate that, in one way or another, many of us suffer from psychological disorders that are not acknowledged for what they are. In a society where health is generally treated as an appendix, you dont expect mental health to find worthwhile attention. It is only when a person starts throwing stuff, dressing in dirty rags, stripping naked, or talking unintelligibly to themselves that our attention is drawn to them and we acknowledge their mental sickness. Yet even with such symptoms, we are not always moved into action hence the many that roam our streets without help. In any case, Butabika hospital lacks the capacity to attend to all mental cases in Uganda, yet I doubt we have reliable public alternatives. Consequently, many people with potentially harmful untreated personality disorders are in hospitals treating us, in class teaching, in the police, in the army, and in high positions of national leadership. Of course, like any other sick person, mentally sick people should not be stigmatised for their predicament. I understand that stigma around the sickness is one of the reasons many refuse psychiatric help. Partly in result to this, cases of denial are high. This added to more cases of anosognosia denial of sickness, sometimes due to genuine inability to recognise that the problem exists. The dilemma then is sometimes in persuading a person who is convinced to be fine to seek psychiatric help. Some deontological ethicists may argue, on the basis of the principle of autonomy, that a patient is free to seek, select, or decline treatment on account of their own estimation of appropriateness. But we also notice that in some cases, ones right to accept medical treatment or not comes into conflict with other important utilitarian principles, especially the protection of others from harm. This is the basis of my suggestion for compulsory and regular psychiatric checks for all people vying for or to be appointed into crucial public offices (which we can define). Otherwise, we shall witness more of the shocking things that are happening in our society today. In many cases, it is due to sheer lack of integrity (poor upbringing), but there are also many indications to suggest personality disorders. A study of US presidents and UK prime ministers over 100 years by David Owen and Jonathan Davidson in Oxfords Journal of Neurology showed that some actually suffered from the hubris syndrome. Other biographical studies have showed that Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, and Chinas Mao Zedong suffered from the same. Mussolini and Mao are said to have had bipolar disorders as well. Explanations of the hubris personality disorder indicate that it could be worse in some African contexts. According to Owen and Davidson, hubris syndrome is a disorder of the possession of power, particularly power which has been associated with overwhelming success, held for a period of years and with minimal constraint on the leader. Because it tends to emerge in proportion to a leaders time in minimally constrained power, the syndrome stands as one of the strong arguments against longevity in power. Hubris is reflected in a pattern of behaviour involving: i) seeing the world as a place for self-glorification through the use of power; ii) a tendency to take action primarily to enhance personal image; iii) showing disproportionate concern for image and presentation; iv) exhibiting messianic zeal and exaltation in speech; v) conflating self with nation or organisation; vi) show of excessive self-confidence; vii) manifestly having contempt for others; viii) showing accountability only to a higher court (history or God); ix) losing contact with reality. The study further shows that it is the nature of leaders who have the syndrome that they are resistant to the very idea that they can be ill, for this is a sign of weakness. Rather, they tend to cover up illness Reflecting upon the above scientifically established symptoms from scholars who published their findings in 2009 without Uganda in mind should make us worry. I believe many of us can effortlessly cite statements and actions from our leaders that perfectly exemplify the symptoms listed above. It is a critical matter to our nation. jsssentongo@gmail.com The author heads the Centre for African Studies at Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi. Kasur in a grip of Protesters after murder of Zianab KASUR: Protests erupted in Kasur a day earlier against the alleged police inaction following the rape and murder of a six-year-old child, a charged mob on Thursday broke into the homes of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers, MPA Naeem Safdar Ansari and MNA Waseem Akhtar, and ransacked rooms and burned cars, and set the latters outhouse ablaze. Even though the protests began early in the morning at around 7am, the violence escalated shortly after the funeral prayers for two protesters, Muhammad Ali and Shoaib, who were killed by police gunfire the day before. Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi led the funeral prayers. The protesters then returned to Shahbaz Khan Road and Steel Bagh Mor on Ferozepur Road and stepped up the agitation. As one highly charged mob made its way to MPA Ansaris house, a police contingent attempted to control the situation by using tear-gas shells to disperse the mob. However, the protesters threw stones and bricks at the policemen, forcing them to retreat to Kashmir Chowk, around half a kilometre away from the MPAs house. Finding the police occupied elsewhere, the protesters broke into the outhouse of Mr Akhtar and dragged the furniture out on the street and set it ablaze. They then entered the premises and set fire to the building. The fire spread to neighbouring shops. Rescue-1122 official Muhammad Akbar said that the protesters did not allow fire fighters to extinguish the fire at the outhouse. Rescue-1122 services remained suspended between 12pm and 9pm as most roads were blocked. The department had to excuse 12 emergency calls because of that. Earlier in the day, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the grieving family in Kasur between 4:20am and 4:30am, during which he offered Fateha for the departed soul. Two hours prior to his arrival in Kasur (at around 2am), Punjab government spokesperson Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, MPA Malik Ahmed Saeed, MNAs of the Ansari biradari, including Usman Ibrahim of Gujranwala and Akram Ansari of Faisalabad, visited Zainabs family and placated them, before giving the CM a green signal to visit Kasur. The Punjab cabinet on Thursday announced Rs10 million cash prize for anyone who could provide information that could lead the police to the man who had killed Zainab. The cabinet also decided to give Rs3m to the families of the two protesters killed by the police. They decided that a member of each family would be offered a government job. On Thursday, all markets, schools, banks, pharmacies and the district bar remained on strike. While the citys traders had earlier announced that they would observe a complete shutter-down strike on Friday, Lahore commissioner Abdullah Sumbal, Rangers Brigadier Muhammad Asim, Sheikhupura RPO Zulifqar Hameed, Kasur DC Saira Omar, DBA president Malik Riaz Ahmed and other members of the peace committee met the traders and convinced them not to strike. They assured the traders that Rangers and the police would protect the lives and properties of traders. A group of protesters near the DHQ Hospital stormed its premises after medical officers handed over the bodies of the two protesters over to their families after conducting an autopsy. The enraged mob ransacked the emergency ward while hospital staffers locked the doors from inside. There was no police in sight; however, attendants at the hospital managed to convince the protesters to take their agitation outside the hospital premises. Talking to the media, Zainabs father Muhammad Amin, an ardent supporter of the Pakistan Awami Tehreeks Dr Tahirul Qadri, urged people to hold a peaceful protest and to not damage public or private property. However, he expressed dissatisfaction with the nomination of the police officer heading the joint investigation team (JIT) and requested that he be replaced. By Thursday night, the district administration imposed Section 144 in the city, outlawing the assembly of more than five people. Rangers and police took control of the city and started patrolling. They arrested 45 protesters and took them to an undisclosed location. District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) Medico Legal Officer Dr Quratulain Attique told reporters on Thursday that the childs post-mortem examination revealed that she had died from strangulation. Pakistan-USA continue to communicate with each other on various issues: FO ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United States are keeping channels of communication open in a bid to cool the row over terror sanctuaries that worsened with President Trumps baffling New Year Day Twitter tirade. The two sides continue to communicate with each other on various issues of mutual interest at different levels, Foreign Office spokesman Dr Muhammad Faisal said at a briefing on Thursday. The US State Department had after President Trumps tweet about getting nothing from Pakistan except lies and deceit despite paying $33 billion over the past 15 years suspended all military assistance for Pakistan. The freeze is likely to affect up to $900 million that Pakistan was to get this year from US in security aid. But, soon after the announcement of the aid suspension, US Defence Secretary James Mattis disclosed that the Centcom Commander, who oversees the war effort in Afghanistan, was talking to Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa. The FO spokesman refused to go into the details of the talks saying they were being kept out of media glare. He wouldnt either say at what level the talks were currently being held. The two sides had earlier initiated a dialogue after the announcement of the new US policy for the region. However, the engagement ended last month without breaking the impasse. The process had started with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasis meeting with Vice President Mike Pence on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Later, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary Mattis visited Islamabad, while Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif travelled to Washington for talks. Dr Faisal, however, went on to clarify Khawaja Asifs comments that Pakistan and the US were not allies. The foreign minister was expressing his frustration at the unwarranted US accusations against Pakistan and the unilateral decision to suspend the security assistance, despite Pakistans extraordinary sacrifices and contribution in the war against terrorism, he said, echoing the State Department which had while announcing the aid suspension maintained that the move reflected President Trumps immense frustration. The spokesman recalled that despite provocative statements by the US leadership, Pakistans response had been measured, as it believes that continued Pakistan-US cooperation was crucial for the regions stability, particularly for settling Afghanistan. Dr Faisal, on two occasions, emphasised that both the US and Pakistan recognised the importance of the lines of communication passing through Pakistani territory, which American and coalition forces in Afghanistan used for delivering supplies to their forces there. The spokesmans assertion, however, points to what was possibly being discussed in behind-the-scenes bilateral talks. It has been long speculated that Pakistan in response to US coercive actions could squelch the coalition forces supply lines in retaliation. Defense Minister Khurram Dastagir had earlier this week in his speech at the Institute of Strategic Studies said that Pakistan enjoyed several leverages including the Ground Lines of Communication and Air Lines of Communication and Pakistan would use them at an appropriate time. The understanding in Islamabad is that Washington would incrementally ramp up pressure and hence the officials here have been careful in playing their cards. Besides, the spokesman said that the 11th Pakistan-Saudi Arabia JMC would take place in Islamabad on Jan 16-17. Saudi Arabia taking managerial control of Saudi Binladin Group RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is taking managerial control of Saudi Binladin Group and discussing a possible transfer of some of the giant construction groups assets to the state while its chairman and other family members are in detention, sources told Reuters. Binladin, which had over 100,000 employees at its height, is the biggest builder in the country and important to Riyadhs plans for large real estate, industrial and tourism projects to help diversify the economy beyond oil. However, the group has been hurt financially in the past couple of years by a slump in the construction industry and a temporary exclusion from new state contracts after a crane accident killed 107 people at Meccas Grand Mosque in 2015. It was forced to lay off thousands of employees. Riyadhs move to take control appears aimed at ensuring the group can continue to serve Saudi Arabias development plans, said banking and industry sources, who declined to be named due to the political and commercial sensitivity of the matter. The government detained scores of senior officials and businessmen in October as part of a sweeping crackdown on corruption. The Binladin groups chairman Bakr Bin Laden and several family members have been held, the sources said. Saudi officials are trying to negotiate settlements with detainees, saying they aim to claw back some $100 billion of funds that rightfully belong to the state. The talks on Binladins future are part of this effort, the sources said. Since the detention of Bin Laden family members, the finance ministry has formed a five-member committee, including three government representatives, to oversee the groups business and handle relations with suppliers and contractors, the sources said. Binladin executives did not respond to phone calls seeking comment. Finance ministry officials and the government media office also did not respond to requests for comment. Although ownership of Binladin currently remains with the family, the group is in negotiations with the government about the potential transfer of some assets to the state, or possibly reducing or eliminating the governments outstanding debts to Binladin, the sources said. One banking source with detailed knowledge of the group said the debt might total around $30 billion - the legacy of a period about 18 months ago when the government held off from settling many of its debts as its finances were hurt by low oil prices. It is not clear whether the governments handling of Binladin may set a precedent for the cases of other businessmen detained in the corruption purge. They include one of the kingdoms most prominent businessmen, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who is chairman and owner of global investment firm Kingdom Holding. Because of Binladins strategic importance to the construction industry and development projects, as well as its financial struggle, it may be treated differently from the assets of other detained suspects. The new management committees government representatives include Abdulrehman al-Harkan, a former chief executive of Saudi property company Dar Al Arkan, and Khaled Nahas, a board member of petrochemical producer Saudi Basic Industries Corp, the sources said. There are also two family members on the committee: Yehia Bin Laden and Abdullah Bin Laden. Previously, the family was in total control of the group, with Bakr Bin Laden taking most decisions, the sources said. 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Por culpa de Chavez Cerveza Polar Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar Translate LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares? Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano... Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos: Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias. Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera. No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje. En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio. Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida. Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella. Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal. Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista. Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen. Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che? Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio. Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora. Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo. Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo. Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania. No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar. Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga. Alguna duda? Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia. OZ1 OZ2 OZ3 OZ4 Homenaje a Jason Galarraga La Victoria de Samotracia Odalisca Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008 La Sierra Nevada de Merida Nuestro precioso Churum Meru Homenaje a Picasso Autoretrato Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola? La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar. Mi profesion? Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos. Sal en la Coca Cola? A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar. De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla: Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido) azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa) Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas Mucha Cafeina Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja. Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos. Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja. En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero). Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma. La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate. Bebidas Light? Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal. Publicado por loretahur En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina: 1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias. 2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina. 3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard. 4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos. 5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla. 6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos. Ahora... sobre la margarina: 1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) . 2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias. 3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno). 4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer. 5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna. 6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo. 7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina. Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas: * No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo). * No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!! No a la guerra, Si a la Paz Misterios de la ciencia... Los costos de la guerra medicos y capitalismo... Capitalismo... medicos (2) Quien educa a nuestros hijos? Los Medios... Sin Palabras... Chistes feministas - Cual es el problema, Eva? - Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas. - Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas... - Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti. - Que es un hombre? - Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente. - Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente. - Cual es el truco?. - Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion. - Cual? - Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer. Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos Ellas... Ellas (2)... Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1 Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije: -Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro. Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria. Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre? -Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa! VENGANZA NUMERO 2 Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris. A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita: - Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!! Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta. La mujer paso quince dias en Francia. El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla. Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es: - Y amor me trajiste mi francesita?? - Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina. VENGANZA NUMERO 3 El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion. - No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo. - Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz. Te quiero confesar algo. - Esta bien, esta bien. Habla! - He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga. - Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!! machismo y cibernetica Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston. -Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad. El simio hace la sena de OK. -Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?. El simio hace la sena de OK. -Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide. -Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!. .Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti. Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos. Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco. Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas Gol !!!! Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso! Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy! Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America. 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. KINGSBURY School officials and legislators are expressing uncertainty and angst about education funding in the state budget, as New York is facing a potential $4 billion deficit. Weve got a long road to haul, and every time I turn the TV on, its another bad message and I turn it off, said Beverly Ouderkirk, a member of the state Board of Regents, at a legislative breakfast on Friday. The event was held at Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES Southern Adirondack Education Center in Kingsbury. Among the priorities for educators are to update the school funding formula to take into account increased poverty in the area; to fix permanently the issue that makes it more expensive for small districts to buy health insurance; boost the amount of aid for BOCES instructors; and increase the threshold for small capital projects. Queensbury Superintendent Douglas Huntley said education advocates want the state to implement fully the Foundation Aid formula, which awards aid to districts on a per-pupil basis, through a formula that includes income and property values. Huntley said the formula has not been updated since it was created for the 2007-08 school year. Circumstances have changed during that time. All of the districts in the BOCES have experienced an increase in free- and reduced-price lunch participation, some more than others, he said. Districts want to reduce the income wealth index, which sets an artificial floor that caps the amount of aid that can be received, regardless of how poor the district is compared to others in the state. Huntley said local districts want the Legislature to include a hold harmless provision, to make sure their aid would not decrease under the new formula. Another priority includes increasing the amount districts are reimbursed for BOCES teachers. That amount was set at $30,000 in 1992 and has not been raised since, according to Hartford Superintendent Andrew Cook, who along with Huntley is co-chairman of the Chief School Officers advisory committee. The average salary for a BOCES instructor is around $65,000, according to Cook. The third priority is something that affects Hartford and other small school districts. Under the Affordable Care Act, the definition of what constitutes a small group for health insurance changed from groups between 1 and 50 employees to groups between 51 and 100 employees. Under the ACA, small groups are not allowed to participate in an experience-rated plan, which takes into account the health of the members, but are required to go to a community-rated plan. Hartford joins other districts in the BOCES in a health insurance consortium. If we were forced out of the consortium and into a community-rated program, we would see upwards of an increase of $300,000 to $400,000 in health insurance costs, he said. The Legislature has provided temporary fixes, but Cook said schools want to be absolved from this requirement once and for all. The fourth priority is to increase the threshold for what is defined as a small capital project from $100,000 to $250,000. These are projects districts are allowed to undertake without voter referendums and involve items like fixing roofs and other preventative maintenance, Huntley said. The increased threshold would better reflect the cost of these projects, he said. Hadley-Luzerne Superintendent Beecher Baker was pessimistic. Its not looking good. Its doom and gloom from the governor. Well wait and see, he said. Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, said school districts did well last year with aid and she hopes they can at least maintain that. She said its difficult to change the way state aid is distributed. Anytime you fix formula, there are winners and losers, she said. Some average-needs districts do not qualify for as much aid because of their tax base, she said. Assemblyman Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, said it is too early to get a sense of how much aid this area might get. He expressed the wish there were a way to take politics out of education funding and provide multiyear aid figures for districts. You want to make it predictable. That would be ideal, he said. Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, said she is working to have the formula take into account school districts that are property-rich, such as Salem with its farms, but poor in income. The school aid formula does not appropriately recognize poverty in rural communities, she said. FORT EDWARD The Hudson Falls man who killed his girlfriend by setting their house on fire last September apologized Friday as he was sentenced to state prison, but the family of the woman he killed said his last-ditch apology did not ring true to them. Derrick M. Guilder, told Washington County Judge Kelly McKeighan that he was extremely sorry for the fire last Sept. 6 that claimed the life of 18-year-old Ashley Coltrain, and that he wished he could help her family. He set papers ablaze to kill both of them, but fled the fire and left her behind. If I could go back, I would definitely change it, he said before McKeighan sentenced him to 22-years-to-life in state prison. I wish I could do things to help them feel better. McKeighan did not accept his attempt at showing remorse, rejecting Guilders claim the fire was a tragedy, because he intentionally set a fire with the intent of killing Coltrain and created the situation. McKeighan heard a victims impact statement from Coltrains father in which he lamented the loss of her smile that brightened our day. A young lady with a passion for art who will never see her full potential, Daniel Coltrains statement read. Washington County District Attorney Tony Jordan said Guilder plotted the fire, doing Internet searches for flammable household materials, and falsely claimed he tried to help Coltrain get out. He said he also showed no remorse throughout the proceedings. Coltrain was apparently unconscious less than 6 minutes after an early morning text to a friend, the text occurring seconds after she was on the phone with an emergency dispatcher about smoke in her home, Jordan said. Instead of helping her, the defendant left her behind. People lost so much that day and continue to suffer because of it, Jordan said. As he outlined for McKeighan what Guilder did, loved ones of Coltrains could be heard sobbing in the courtroom. Guilders lawyer, Theresa Suozzi, said her client was remorseful from the day of the fire. He did have second thoughts and tried to undo what he did, but it was too late, she said. Dozens of loved ones of Ashleys attended the proceeding, many wearing T-shirts adorned with her picture. Several spoke to reporters after the proceedings, saying that Guilders apology rang hollow. Aunt Nikki Shaw recalled Coltrain as sweet and loving and said she hoped her death helped raise awareness of domestic violence. Aunt Ondrea Crandall called her niece strong, warm and giving I cant imagine why anyone would want to hurt her, Crandall said. We want her loving memory to go on. Guilder told police he set the North Street home ablaze because he wanted to kill Coltrain and himself as their relationship ended. But he decided to flee out a window, and police and firefighters pulled him from a porch roof as Coltrain was trapped in a second-story bedroom. Guilder, 22, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Dec. 8. Police said he confessed to setting the fire by torching papers on a couch at the 11 North St., Hudson Falls, home, telling investigators that he initially planned to kill Coltrain and himself. But he panicked and fled the burning house, leaving Coltrain in their smoke-filled second-floor bedroom. She called 911 to report the fire but did not escape in time. Coltrain was a 2016 graduate of Hudson Falls High School who worked for two years at Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom amusement park and had been enrolled at SUNY Adirondack. Her family had endured another tragedy days earlier, when her 40-year-old mother died of heart problems. Private Emmanuel Mensah went off to serve in the Army National Guard, but it was back home where he made the ultimate sacrifice. Mensah died trying to rescue people from his burning apartment building last month in the Bronx, New York, in the city's deadliest fire in more than 25 years, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Mensah, 28, had immigrated from Ghana in Africa and was a permanent legal resident in the US. His story has taken on new meaning in the wake of President Donald Trump's reported vulgar comments about immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and some African countries. "Why do we want all these people from shithole countries coming here?" Trump told senators in the Oval Office, a source briefed on the meeting told CNN. Trump denied using that language in a tweet Friday morning. As Mensah's father tells it, Mensah went back into the burning building twice on December 28 to rescue neighbors. But he did not make it out alive. "Private Emmanuel Mensah was a first-generation immigrant, a soldier and a New Yorker. He gave his life rescuing his neighbors in the Bronx fire. His heroism exemplifies the best of our city. Rest in peace," de Blasio said. Secretary of the Army Mark T. Esper approved the posthumous award of The Soldier's Medal for Mensah. The medal is the Army's highest award for heroism that occurs outside of combat, according to the National Guard. "Private 1st Class Mensah's heroic actions are in keeping with the highest traditions of military heroism and selfless service and reflect great credit upon himself, the New York Army National Guard and the United States Army," the award citation says. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved the award of the New York State Medal for Valor on Mensah on January 2. That award also represents New York state's highest military award for acts of heroism on and off the battlefield, the National Guard said. "His courageous and selfless act in the face of unimaginable conditions are consistent with the highest traditions of uniformed service and deserving of the highest possible recognition," Mensah's citation says. Staff Sgt. Ruben Martinez-Ortiz, who recruited him, praised Mensah in a statement to the New York National Guard. "I knew from the moment I met him his heart was as big as our National Guard family," Martinez-Ortiz said. "He was ready to serve our nation and community. Pfc. Mensah was the embodiment of what our Army values stand for." Mensah, 28, was stationed in Virginia, his father said. A private first class in the New York National Guard, he had just graduated from boot camp after starting basic training in the fall, spokesman Eric Durr said. He was slated to go to advanced individual training in 2018. He was training to be a military police officer, a role that offers a variety of potential responsibilities, from garrison law enforcement to security in the field. Fire starts in kitchen Mensah's visit was his first back to the Bronx in the year since he enlisted in the National Guard, his father said. He was in the building when the fire broke out. A child playing with a kitchen stove started the fire, which quickly spread through the 29-unit building. The fire killed 13 people, including four children. A 3-year-old boy's screams alerted his mother that a fire had erupted in their apartment in the building's first floor. The boy was playing with the burners on the kitchen stove, officials said. As his mother fled the burning apartment with him and his sibling, she left the apartment door open, a move that would prove fatal. Each time someone opened a window, oxygen rushed into the building, fanning the flames. The apartment's stairway acted like a chimney as the fire burst from the apartment, feeding the flames and allowing them to spread throughout the building, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. Anchor tears up over story CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota became emotional Friday on air while recounting Mensah's story. As part of a panel, Camerota pulled up a tweet from conservative commentator Bill Kristol, who had cited Mensah's story. The tweet went viral and was even retweeted by Hillary Clinton. Camerota had to stop for a moment as she began to read the tweet. "I don't know why this one makes me so emotional, but it does," Camerota said. The tweet stated that Mensah was from a country Trump "apparently thinks produces very subpar immigrants." 'God is in control' Kwabena Mensah learned from others that his son helped others to safety. He went out and back twice, but "on the third time he couldn't find his way out," he said. "I thought as a military man he may have gotten out already," he said Friday. "But like I said, God is in control." It came as little surprise to Mensah's father that he came to the aid of others. "That's his nature: He wants to help people out," Kwabena Mensah told CNN. At the time, his son's death had not been confirmed, but he had little hope for his survival. "As a father, you always have to feel sad when you get such news about your son, and I thought maybe he's coming back," Mensah said. "But unfortunately it turns out the other way." Editor: On Jan. 20, Donald J. Trump will celebrate his first year anniversary as U.S. president. Themes such as "Make America Great Again" and "America First" were truly inspirational. All who voted for Mr. Trump are grateful for his focus on improving the economy, immigration reform and protection from terrorists, to name a few. No matter what the media says, the passage of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act was long overdue. Additionally, it gives incentives to big and small businesses to invest, expand and create more livable-wage jobs. Let's not ignore how the stock market is soaring. I predict it will hit 30,000 within two years. President Trump's accomplishments have included giving a green light to the Keystone pipeline project, removing strict regulations on fracking and coal mining and gave two thumbs up to drilling rights in Alaska's ANWR region. Finally, the day is very near to where we are independent of foreign oil. President Trump has wisely canceled our involvement with the TPP agreement as well as the U.N.'s deviously constructed Climate Change Accord. I'm elated that he's threatening to withhold aid to countries which fail to hold up their end of the bargain(s). In his strongest show of support yet, President Trump has decreed that Jerusalem is Israel's rightful capital. Others will follow suit. As God said to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you." Another promise fulfilled was his appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Likewise, Trump has appointed many conservative federal appeal judges. No more "legislating from the bench." Obviously, I'm a very contented man ever since that glorious 2016 election night. We are headed for a "new" American renaissance under Trump's gallant leadership. Keep making America great, Mr. President. John Sharkey, Ticonderoga Welcome Guest! You Are Here: A Davenport woman sentence in October to a term on probation for eluding police and criminal mischief convictions was arrested late Monday after she allegedly tried to elude Iowa State Patrol troopers with her 6-month-old child in the backseat. An Essay by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has embarked on a path to reform his country. But to achieve his goals, he is quashing all forms of critique. That is the wrong way to go. Two days prior to his arrest in early November, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal sent me a long text message reprimanding me for op-eds I'd written for the and the . In those pieces, I had dared to criticize Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman for, well, making arrests! Al-Waleed, a billionaire investor and hotel owner, is a nephew of the Saudi king and he was my boss when I was head of the Al-Arab news channel, which he funded. After three years of development, we launched from Manama, Bahrain in February 2015 - but we were only on air for 11 hours before the Bahraini government shut us down. Why? Likely because we gave just as much airtime to a Shiite activist and politician as we did to the Sunni government. I had heard from Al-Waleed less frequently in the 12 months prior to his arrest, though that wasn't much of a surprise. I'd been banned from writing my column in the Saudi Arabian daily and, more recently, blacklisted by the pan-Arab paper , which is likewise under Saudi ownership. I had also been told to stay off Twitter after I was repeatedly critical of the government's decision to embrace U.S. President Donald Trump. I've been repeatedly asked: "Who was it who told you?" The answer is government officials and their allies. And their message is clear, one well known to those of us who have crossed the line before: You either cease and desist or risk the consequences. First you are unable to travel. Then comes house arrest. And then perhaps even jail. BALTIMORE A viral video showing Baltimore hospital security guards leaving a disoriented-looking patient from the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown on the street wearing only a thin hospital gown and socks is raising questions about how hospitals discharge the mentally ill and homeless. The widely shared video, posted to Facebook by Imamu Baraka, has sparked outrage on social media. Hospital officials said they are investigating the incident and that they may take personnel action. Hospital officials have not said why the woman, who was being discharged from the emergency room, was admitted to the hospital. Or why she was left out in the cold near a public transit bus stop. The unidentified woman appeared to be unable to speak in the video that made national and international headlines and was widely shared on social media. It was unclear if she was suffering from a mental illness, or homeless. Baraka, who is listed as a mental health counselor in an online professional profile, attempts to speak to her, but she doesnt answer him. Some mental health experts, including, Adrienne Breidenstine of Behavioral Health System Baltimore, which oversees substance use and mental health treatment in the city, said the woman appears to be actively symptomatic. Something was clearly going on, Breidenstine said. She said that discharge policies for people who are homeless or mentally ill varies from hospital to hospital. Some facilities have better relationships with social service agencies than others, Breidenstine said. Breidenstine said more mental health services in the community could help prevent patients from ending up in emergency rooms. The issue of people being put out of hospitals is a nationwide issue called hospital dumping. (EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM) Two Howard University police officers and their supervisor were fired in May after being recorded dumping a patient from a wheelchair outside the universitys hospital. A video of the incident showed a male officer pushing the barefoot woman to a bus stop. Two other officers watched as she fell onto the sidewalk. It is unclear how much hospital dumping happens in Baltimore because incidences are not tracked. This incident is very visual because it happened on camera, Breidenstine said. I am sure it happens more than we know. But it is hard to know how much because we dont have the data. (END OPTIONAL TRIM) The video shows what looks like four security guards, one with a wheelchair, walking away from a bus stop outside the hospital on the outskirts of Mount Vernon. A woman is seen near the bus stop dressed in a gown and socks. Her belongings are packed in plastic bags that have also been placed at the bus stop. I just witnessed this with my own eyes, Baraka wrote in his post. I had no choice but to give this young lady a voice in this moment. Officials with the University of Maryland Medical System said in a statement that they are investigating the incident, which took place Tuesday night. They said they shared the shock and disappointment that others who saw the video probably felt. The woman was being discharged from the emergency department, they said. This unfortunate event is not representative of our patient-centered mission, the statement said. While there are many circumstances of this patients case that we cannot address publicly, in the end we clearly failed to fulfill our mission with this patient, no matter the circumstances of her case or the quality of the clinical care we provided in the hospital (which is not depicted in the video). Baraka could not be reached for comment. He is heard in the video asking the hospitals security officers several times why they put the woman out of the hospital. Yall are just going to leave this lady out here with no clothes? Baraka asks, noting how cold it is outside. One of the guards eventually responds: Due to the circumstances of what happened. Baraka then asks why they dont call police. He also asks to speak to a supervisor. One of the security workers responds that he is the supervisor. Baraka asks the woman, who looks disoriented, if she needs help. She screams and moves her hands around but doesnt talk. In his Facebook post, Baraka admonishes the hospital for how the woman was treated. University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus (UMMC) as a Doctor of Healthcare Administration (DHA) student may I remind you of the importance of the VISION of your MEDICAL CENTER, he wrote. UMMC will be known for providing high value and compassionate care, improving health in Maryland and beyond, educating future health care leaders and discovering innovative ways to advance medicine worldwide. You can do better. You must do better. Hospital officials said they are still working to determine how to respond. We are taking this matter very seriously, conducting a thorough review, and are evaluating the appropriate response, including the possibility of personnel action, the statement said. 2018 The Baltimore Sun Visit The Baltimore Sun at www.baltimoresun.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. "I didnt see a reasonable path forward to the nomination at that time. My decision was made easier by the fact that I love and respect Gregg Johnson. I really trust that he will be the state senator that we need and will represent us well. "I have decided to use this time to become more involved in local politics and to try and carve out my place as an activist." From 2014 to 2015, Mr. Sanchez was an activist for Wolf PAC, a non-partisan political action committee whose goal is to overturn Citizens United, the ruling that eliminated restrictions on political spending by corporations. Mr. Sanchez is a member of the Rock Island County Young Democrats and said he hopes to gain a leadership role in the group. He currently is Rock Island County coordinator for the Daniel Biss campaign for governor. The new Interstate 74 bridge is giving Moline officials a chance to rethink what developments they would like to see in its downtown where the existing bridge sits. What that future might include will be the topic of an I-74 Realignment Study open house from 5:30-8 p.m. Wednesday at Stoney Creek Hotel & Conference Center, Moline. The event will include a presentation and graphic conceptual designs by the Lakota Group, the consultant studying the realignment area. The event also will be gather input from residents, business owners and other stakeholders. Jeff Anderson, Moline's city planner, said the realignment study is looking at the potential redevelopment of about 20-25 acres located roughly between the Mississippi River and 7th Avenue and from 19th to 24th streets. The project area includes where the existing bridge and its approaches now occupy. Demolition of the I-74 bridge is scheduled for 2021. "This is one of the most significant planning projects we'll ever do," said Dan McConaghy, a consultant for Renew Moline. "It's not only the gateway to Illinois, it's the gateway to Moline." To date, the Lakota Group has been interviewing stakeholders, including a project advisory group formed by Renew Moline and the city. The group includes representatives from city staff and elected leaders, other stakeholders and Renew, which is funding the study. During the open house, visitors will see concepts for infilling the areas to be opened up by the bridge's realignment. "They've planned some things are new, but also needed," McConaghy said. Ideas range from new residential to mixed-use developments and some of the existing core anchors. The plans also call for creation of a very walkable community, he added. "This workshop is an opportunity for public input," Anderson said. Both Anderson and McConaghy said the new study continues some of the future planning laid out in the city's new riverfront master plan. "This sits on the shoulders of what we have done on updates of plans to the riverfront, Moline Centre, and Western Illinois University," Anderson said. "This is a real opportunity to take the next step forward." The Lakota Group also will present the concepts earlier Wednesday to the Moline Planning and Zoning Commission. Anderson said the input gathered as well as other revisions will be used to develop an eventual plan that will go to the commission and the Moline City Council for approval in about two months. Huddled along the construction site in the Eldridge Industrial Park, Lewis Machine & Tool Co. celebrated the launch Friday of the company's new firearms manufacturing plant and headquarters. Company leaders joined Eldridge city officials, Brandt Construction and other community representatives who braved the bone-chilling temperatures for the official ground-breaking ceremony. Construction on the $7.3 million, 75,000-square-foot building began in November. Company president Karl Lewis said the new facility will not only double the size of its current Milan facility, but will allow the company to consolidate three separate locations its operates there. "We had outgrown our facilities and by integrating into one building we'll see some efficiencies and economies of scale," said Lewis, who co-owns the company with Jim Jestel, chief operating officer, and Don Canada, vice president of manufacturing. The project is being built by Milan-based Brandt Construction. It was designed by Landmark Engineering, Moline. For Lewis Machine, the project represents more than four years of trying to relocate from its headquarters at 1305 11th St. W., Milan. The company first announced plans in 2013 to expand to west Davenport. Jestel said the deal hit complications when the owner of the proposed site went through bankruptcy. But Lewis Machine also determined the site itself would not be the best fit for its expansion plans. The new Eldridge facility will include a main facility of 60,000 square-feet with a 15,000 square-foot mezzanine, Lewis said. It will house production space for the small arms manufacturer as well as office space, warehousing and the company's own firearms testing range. Currently, it does its firearms testing at the Milan Gun Range or leases space at the Rock Island Arsenal, he added. According to Lewis, the move will relocate its 150 employees and more jobs are expected as the company "grows its market share." "We're in a lull right now," Lewis said, pointing to the fact his customers are less fearful of losing their gun rights under the Trump Administration. He applauded the state of Iowa and the city of Eldridge's efforts to assist in relocating it from Illinois. "We had a lot of support from then-Gov. Terry Branstad and now Gov. Kim Reynolds. The people of Eldridge have opened up their arms to us and really made a yeoman's effort to help get us here." "For us, Iowa has a better climate," Lewis said. "The people are more receptive to the needs of business and Eldridge is still part of the Quad-Cities." Jestel said the company received about $1 million in government assistance, including investment tax credits, a low interest loan and a forgivable loan from the state of Iowa. The city of Eldridge also is providing a tax abatement through its tax increment financing district. Among the assistance was $250,000 awarded in direct financial assistance last May from the Iowa Economic Development Board. The company was founded in 1980 to provide weapons, components and modular weapon systems to the U.S. military, law enforcement and other government agencies. But it also sells weapons to foreign military services and commercial retailers in about 40 countries. "We supply rifles to several NATO companies," Jestel said. He added that the global expansion began in in 2009 with a contract with the British military. "But it has really taken off in the last three years." The new facility is expected to be completed in early spring. A Rock Island man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for attempting to set up a purchase of at least six kilograms of cocaine with a person who turned out to be a confidential informant for law enforcement. Jeffrey Terrell Moore, 31, was sentence Thursday in U.S. District Court, Rock Island, by Judge Sara Darrow. There is no parole in the federal system. According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint sworn out by an agent with the Quad-City Metropolitan Enforcement Group, or QCMEG, Moore has been on the radar of QCMEG since November 2015 when Illinois State Police advised that Moore was laundering cash in area casinos by feeding cash in the form of small bills, eventually totaling $185,000 into slot machines with little play, and then taking the cash out in larger denominations. Then, about nine months ago, on April 26, QCMEG agents met with a confidential source in the Chicago area. The source said he knew a cocaine dealer named Jeffrey Moore from Rock Island. The source told the agents that on at least one occasion in the past year, he had arranged a multi-kilogram purchase of cocaine for Moore. Moore had appeared with cash to buy the drugs but the deal fell through when the source became ill and did not appear to broker the deal. According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, the source also told the agents that about two months before he had seen Moore in Rock Island and said he was in possession of about one kilogram of cocaine and about $40,000 in cash. Also on April 26, the source called Moore and told him he was going to Houston, Texas, to obtain multiple kilograms of cocaine at a good price. The source asked Moore if he would be interested in buying some of the cocaine for $32,000 per kilogram. Moore called the source back later in the day and said he would be interested in purchasing some of the cocaine. On May 3, Moore and the source spoke in a recorded conversation. They discussed the purchase of six kilograms of cocaine, with Moore paying for three in cash, and the other three being sold to Moore on a front or on consignment. At 12:50 p.m. on May 4, the confidential source called Moore and told him he was leaving his residence in the Chicago area and they discussed Moore having the cash on hand for the cocaine purchase. The two spoke later and the source told Moore he was arriving in Rock Island and would be waiting for him in a specific place. About half an hour later, Moore arrived at the meet location in a vehicle driven by an unknown woman. Moore then got into the confidential sources vehicle. Moore told the source he had money located at a residence a few blocks away, at 519 19th Ave. The source reminded Moore he would sell Moore six kilograms if Moore paid for three kilograms with cash, a total of $96,000. The other three kilograms would be provided to him on consignment. Moore told the source, I aint got all that though but I got a nice chunk of it, before leaving to go get his cash for the purchase. Moore returned about 20 minutes later with a black backpack. The source looked in the backpack for the money but did not see any. Theres a big bankroll up in here, Moore said referring to a plastic bag containing a large quantity of cash. Agents then arrested Moore. In the backpack, agents found $33,750 in cash. Authorities searched the residence at 521 19th Ave. In a 5-gallon bucket just inside the front door agents found a plastic bag containing $23,340 in cash. Moore pleaded guilty on Sept. 7 to a charge of attempted possession with intent to distribute at least 500 grams of cocaine. Police searching for Bettendorf residential burglary suspect The Bettendorf Police Department is seeking the public's help in identifying a suspect in a residential burglary. At 5:36 p.m. Tuesday, officers responded to the 5200 block of Taylor Avenue for a report of a burglary where the homeowner was present. The suspect brandished a firearm and forced his way into the home, according to a news release. After an altercation inside the residence, the suspect fled on foot. The suspect is described a white man in his early to mid-30's, approximately 5-feet-8-inches and 175 pounds. He was wearing dark pants, a black jacket, and a stocking cap. Anyone with information is asked to call Bettendorf Police Detective Jeff Buckles at 563-344-4039. --Times staff Man pleads guilty to assaulting Moline officer An East Moline 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: Around 8:30 a.m. Nov. 3, officers were dispatched 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. --Tara Becker Man accused of stealing money from EM business A Moline man was arrested Jan. 5 after police say he stole money from an East Moline business late last month. Julius Joseph Delgado, 49, is charged with one count of theft of more than $10,000, a Class 2 felony punishable by three to seven years in prison. Bond was set at $50,000, according to court records. He has a preliminary hearing Tuesday. East Moline police received a report of a robbery on Dec. 30 at Jewel-Osco. Lieutentant Darren Gault said that Delgado had approached a clerk at the customer service center and demanded money. No weapon was displayed or inferred, he said. Delgado fled the store after the clerk handed over the money, Gault said. Detectives viewed store surveillance video and past transactions to identify the suspect, he said. Detectives later obtained a search warrant for Delgados residence in the 1700 block of 53rd Street in Moline and recovered a large amount of money, Gault said. --Tara Becker The "highly-caffeinated" music of the klezmer band, Java Jews, will entertain on the stage Sunday at Wallenburg Hall at Augustana College, seeking to educate, to an extent, and have a whole lot of fun. The 2 p.m. concert, free and open to the public, is a change-up for the Center for the Study of Judaism and Jewish Culture at Augustana, said Janina Ehrlich, the center's director. Ehrlich, also a professor of music at Augustana, said the center, every year, includes a public activity through the endowed Stone Lectureship in Judaism. Dr. Alex and Martha Stone of Rock Island gave an endowment to Augustana several years ago, she said, and the money is used to bring lectures and other activities to the area. There has been a focus on academic topics, such as the Old Testament, the Torah and the Middle East. This year, Ehrlich decided to "change it up," she said, and invited the Java Jews back to town. Previous appearances have been with the Jewish Federation of the Quad-Cities, but the band has played in dozens of venues in the state. "The only time we practice is when we play," said band leader Abe Goldstien. Goldstien is retired from a 45-year career in advertising, and he plays the accordion. They got the name Java Jews as the band began in a coffee shop. The concert should be a fun afternoon for the public. "People will be welcome to dance if they wish," Ehrlich said. Klezmer music dates from Eastern European Jewish communities in the 1800s and early 1900s, according to the band. It came to the United States with Jewish emigrants, and then was influenced by jazz and pop music. In the World War II era, the Andrews Sisters had a hit with a klezmer song, "Bei Mir Bistu Shein," and the artist, Santana, recorded a klezmer tune. Every song the band plays has a story, Goldstien said from his home in central Iowa. A classic Yiddish tune, "My Yiddish Mama," was written by a second-cousin to Goldstien. "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" was written by a Jewish immigrant who never went to a ballgame until 30 years after the song was published, he said. There will be sing-along songs, and Augustana College students have been invited to play with the band but they have no idea of what they will play. This would be in the grand tradition of Jewish music, he said. "We get the crowd dancing and laughing. So, ours is strictly the joy, or the 'oy' of the music," Goldstien said. A revival of klezmer music began in the 1990s, and "the Java Jews are proud to keep that tradition alive in Iowa," Goldstien said. Braving the wind and icy conditions, residents successfully petitioned the LeClaire Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday to issue a recommendation to reject a Kwik Star proposed for their neighborhood. The city is considering a revision to its comprehensive plan and rezoning a property at the northeast corner of Cody Road and Eagle Road from R-1, low-density residential, to C-3, high-density commercial. "I think my responsibility to the citizens of this town is to do what they're asking us to do," Commissioner Barb Ritter said after supporting the rejection. Kwik Trip Inc. has submitted an application to rezone the property so that it can construct and operate a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week convenience store and gas station on the 3.3-acre property. Initial plans included 16 gas pumps, which would effectively double the number in the city, and a 30-foot tall illuminated logo sign. Ten of the property owners within 200 feet of the proposed Kwik Star have hired attorney Mike Meloy to protect their interests. "This comprehensive plan amendment is a direct breach of the current comprehensive plan and an encroachment into all of my clients and the residents of LeClaire's peaceful enjoyment of their residential properties," Meloy said. Meloy also sent a letter to the commission Thursday in which he also stated that Kwik Star's plan constitutes spot zoning and would negatively impact residents by decreasing property values while also increasing noise, traffic, lighting and accidents. Property owner Jeff Rose said the commission received signatures against the Kwik Star plan from 88 percent of the properties within 200 feet. "We love our neighborhood," Rose said. "We love our neighbors all of them here and the ones that couldn't make it out here tonight." Tom Kiefer said that 17 years ago, a McDonald's was being proposed for the same location, but rebuffed because of the same reasons. Since that time, Kiefer said not much has changed. "What I see is we're going out of our way, bending over backward for something that we all agree will make life difficult," Kiefer said. Dennis Gendron, the owner of the McDonald's in LeClaire, said that if rezoning were to occur, it should have to benefit and make a difference in the city. "They're not going to come more often because we have five gas stations instead of four," Gendron said. "By Kwik Trip coming to town, they're going to take gas sales from every one of them." Before moving to LeClaire, Gendron recalled the impact McDonald's had in small cities such as Savannah, Byron and Morrison, Illinois, which were too small to support that much competition. "We took business from all the gas stations," Gendron said. "We took business from Dairy Queen and Hardee's. Hardee's is now closed and there's a vacant piece of property there." While he said he was not against a Kwik Star, Gendron mentioned that the company was based in Wisconsin and the owners would not be part of the community. Motions to pass recommendations to reject amending to the comprehensive plan, reject rezoning the property and the site development plan all passed by 4-3 votes. In each vote, commissioners Erika Smith, Cheryl Allbee and Steve Zelle also voted to recommend the rejections to the Council. Commissioners Ken Motz, Ray Norris and Sarah Theunen all voted in favor of recommending the Kwik Star. Motz, who participated in the meeting via teleconference, rejected the idea that the Kwik Star would constitute spot zoning, citing the adjacent commercial uses. "I am optimistic about LeClaire in terms of where it is going and what would happen, "Motz said. "From a personal standpoint, I don't believe this particular development is a detriment to what is going on in the downtown area." City Administrator Edwin Choate said because of the negative recommendation, the City Council would need a supermajority vote to overturn the recommendation. The LeClaire City Council will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Jan. 22 before discussing the subject. Top Iowa Republicans distanced themselves from vulgar comments that President Donald Trump reportedly made Thursday, criticizing Haiti and African nations. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, along with Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst said Friday they didn't have firsthand knowledge, but added what was reported was not acceptable. "I don't think it's acceptable. That's not who we are as Iowans," Reynolds said in an interview in Davenport, where she made a stop promoting her Condition of the State address. At a meeting on immigration with Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the White House on Thursday, the president questioned why the United States should take in more immigrants from Haiti and "s---hole countries" in Africa, according to news reports. Trump said, instead, the U.S. ought to seek immigrants from Norway, according to the reports, which cited people who were in the room. The White House did not deny the comments on Thursday, but on Friday morning the president pushed back against the accuracy of the reports. In one tweet, he said he "never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country." Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the meeting participants said Friday that Trump made the comments attributed to him. In Council Bluffs, at a stop at Rasmussen Mechanical Services, Grassley was asked about the comment during a question and answer session with employees and about Trump's denial. "Well I wasn't there, so I know what you folks and journalists have said about it and TV has said about it. But I think I better just say that those aren't words that I would use and I think that you ought to consider all of humanity (as) humanity and treat them accordingly," Grassley said, according to a recording provided by his office. He added the comments distract from coming to an agreement on a range of immigration-related issues. Leigh Claffey, a spokesperson for Ernst, said in an email, "Senator Ernst was not in the room and cannot confirm what was said, however she would not agree. Senator Ernst has made clear that America has been, and always will be, a nation of immigrants." Top Iowa Republicans distanced themselves from vulgar comments that President Donald Trump reportedly made Thursday, criticizing Haiti and African nations. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, along with Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst said Friday they didn't have firsthand knowledge, but added what was reported was not acceptable. "I don't think it's acceptable. That's not who we are Iowans," Reynolds said in an interview in Davenport, where she was a stop promoting her Condition of the State address. At a meeting on immigration with Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the White House on Thursday, the president questioned why the United States should take in more immigrants from Haiti and "s---hole countries" in Africa, according to news reports. Trump said, instead, the U.S. ought to seek immigrants from Norway, according to the reports, which cited people who were in the room. The White House did not deny the comments on Thursday, but on Friday morning the president pushed back against the accuracy of the reports. In one tweet, he said he "never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country." Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the meeting participants said Friday that Trump made the comments attributed to him. In Council Bluffs, at a stop at Rasmussen Mechanical Services, Grassley was asked about the comment during a question and answer session with employees -- and about Trump's denial. "Well I wasn't there, so I know what you folks and journalists have said about it and TV has said about it. But I think I better just say that those aren't words that I would use and I think that you ought to consider all of humanity (as) humanity and treat them accordingly," Grassley said, according to a recording provided by his office. He added the comments distract from coming to an agreement on a range of immigration-related issues. Leigh Claffey, a spokesperson for Ernst, said in an email, "Senator Ernst was not in the room and cannot confirm what was said, however she would not agree. Senator Ernst has made clear that America has been, and always will be, a nation of immigrants." Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds raised the possibility Friday that an overhaul of the state tax code could yield a solution to the inequity in education funding that's vexed school districts like Davenport. The governor was in Davenport on Friday to tout her Condition of the State address. And in an interview, she said she's optimistic a bill can get through the legislature this year "I know its really important and I know its something that needs to be addressed, so Im hopeful that we can get it done this year," she said. Davenport school officials have been lobbying lawmakers to address the per-pupil funding inequity that allows some school districts to spend more than others. A small number of school districts can spend up to $175 more per student than others. The stumbling block has been coming up with the money. A Senate bill was approved last year that would have closed the inequity over 10 years, as well as addressed transportation funding problems. But it didn't get past the House amid revenue shortfalls. Lawmakers still are dealing with revenue problems as they convened this week. But Reynolds said using money from the SAVE fund that pays for school infrastructure, technology and tax relief might be a possibility, suggesting a broader tax reform effort could bring in more revenue from online sales. "You know, we're buying more and more things online, and it's kind of unfair ... for our Main Streets, so maybe we take a look at the growth in that," the governor said. In her Condition of the State address this week, Reynold said she wants to lower tax rates, end federal deductibility and review state tax credits as part of an overhaul that could be spread out over several years. No legislation has been introduced yet, but an internal memo prepared this past year for Senate Republicans mentioned, among a number of ideas, exposing more online sales to taxation. The SAVE account is funded by a statewide sales tax. Sen. Roby Smith, R-Davenport, had broached the idea last year of using revenue in fiscal year 2019 that will come to state coffers as a result of federal tax reform. Reynolds proposed in her budget using some of the federal windfall to help cover the revenue projected $34.7 million shortfall in the current fiscal year. But she, along with other lawmakers, are eyeing tax cuts for much of that money. "We need to be sure and act so that we can make sure that the tax savings they're trying to pass on from the federal government we get to pass on to you at the Iowa level also," she told supporters Friday at the Iowa Machine Shed. Davenport School Board President Ralph Johanson said Friday that he would have to review any specific proposal before commenting on using SAVE funds to help with the equity issue, but he added, "I'm glad that she's hopeful." Educators have been pushing for an extension of the infrastructure fund, which is called Secure an Advanced Vision for Education. The fund is due to expire in 2029. Reynolds said Friday she anticipated "some changes" but wasn't specific. Afterward, Joe Stutting, the North Scott School District superintendent, said he was concerned that conditions might get attached to the fund to require an additional public vote in order to spend money from the fund. "Urban and suburban districts probably can still pass those kind of votes, but what about rural Iowa," he said, referring to a difficult rural economy. Initially, public referendums held over several years created a range of local sales taxes to pay for school infrastructure. But the legislature replaced them in 2008 with a statewide sales tax that goes to the SAVE fund. Reynolds, in her remarks Friday, said that the state is on a positive path. She and acting Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, who accompanied her, cited a high graduation rate in the state and a low unemployment rate. Reynolds called the 2017 legislative session "the most pro jobs, pro growth legislative session in decades." She also made a stop Friday in Maquoketa. It is the speech they hope to one day deliver. So several of the Democratic candidates for governor offered their perspectives on the condition of the state address given Tuesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds. It was Reynolds first condition of the state address; she rose from lieutenant governor this past summer when former Gov. Terry Branstad became U.S. ambassador to China. Reynolds struck out on her own, not once mentioning Branstad. Before diving too deep into policy, she addressed sexual harassment in the workplace, a topic on the Iowa Legislatures radar after the state settled for $1.75 million with a former legislative staffer who accused co-workers of sexual harassment. During her roughly 44-minute address, Reynolds said her hope is that a water quality bill is the first she signs as governor; that she has charged her lieutenant governor, Adam Gregg, with leading an initiative exploring ways to revitalize rural Iowa; that her tax proposal will include lower individual rates, benefits middle-class families, and does not include business tax reform; and that she acknowledges mistakes were made in the rollout of Iowas private Medicaid management system, but that she still believes that is the best approach. Reynolds also discussed mental health care, public education funding and workforce training. But the Democrats running for governor weren't buying Reynolds' message that the condition of the state is strong. Nate Boulton and Cathy Glasson spoke at public events in the Capitol immediately after the governors address. As a state senator, Boulton was in the Iowa House chamber for Reynolds speech. Minutes later, he responded outside the chamber. Boulton noted that Reynolds highlighted Republicans changes to state collective bargaining and workers compensation laws in 2017, efforts that Boulton was a leader in speaking out against this past year. You heard an emphasis on gutting workers compensation and taking away rights of public employees to bargain over their health insurance and better wages as points of pride for this administration, Boulton said later in a statement. Boulton also criticized Reynolds over public school funding levels, the state budget shortfall, the lack of a water quality funding proposal and private Medicaid management. We need a strong vision forward for this state, not just for the next 20 months, but for the next 20 years, Boulton said. Glasson, a nurse and labor leader, spoke at a rally just outside the governors formal office in the Capitol. Organized by advocacy groups and attended by roughly a couple dozen people, the rally focused on a call for Iowas minimum wage to be raised to $15 per hour. I believe the job of the governor is to raise wages and raise the standard of living for all Iowans, Glasson said, adding that she thinks that can be accomplished with a $15 minimum wage and strong unions. We have to do it fast, because working people and working families cannot wait any longer. Glasson also called for a repeal of the collective bargaining changes, saying that would be a start but not enough. Fred Hubbell issued a statement that focused on the condition of the state budget. Because of state revenues that grew but at a pace slower than expected, lawmakers and the governor last year were forced to plug a budget hole of more than $100 million. This budget year, there is another shortfall of more than $30 million. In the wake of budget shortfalls, Hubbell, a Des Moines businessman, called Reynolds desire for tax cuts misguided. As someone who has balanced many budgets throughout my career, Gov. Reynolds fiscally irresponsible actions are alarming and risks turning our state into Kansas, Hubbell said in a statement, referring to Kansas tax cuts that helped create havoc with its budget. The fact the governor is pushing tax cuts despite the massive debt she just created, shows she puts politics and her re-election campaign before everyday Iowans. This state cant afford to lower taxes before fully paying off our debt. Andy McGuire said Reynolds address was filled with lots of promises and political rhetoric, and also criticized Reynolds for touting the myriad conservative policies implemented during the 2017 session. McGuire, a physician and former state party chairwoman, also criticized Reynolds for not reaching out to Iowas minorities in her speech. It is also clear that this administration is clearly out-of-touch with Iowas minority communities, and (Reynolds) showed zero commitment to making Iowa a more inclusive state, McGuire said in a statement. Gov. Reynolds made no mention of efforts to curb the bullying of LGBTQ+ students in our classrooms or efforts to combat or curtail the recent, racially motivated incidents in our state. In the governors defense, and in a preview of how Reynolds will defend her record on the campaign trail this year, a spokesman for her campaign called the Democrats statements decades-old, worn-out criticisms and cited independent studies that have rated Iowa No. 1 in the country for middle-class families and as the third-best managed state. While the governor is focused on doing even more to unleash opportunity across the state, Democrats are only belittling Iowa's success and proposing nothing new of their own, Reynolds campaign spokesman Pat Garrett said. The snowflakes at Iowa State University just didn't get it. No, not the students. It was triggered administrators who poured taxpayer cash down the drain defending their campaign against free speech. The State Appeal Board this week approved paying $150,000 in damages and almost $200,000 in attorney fees to a pair of students whose First Amendment rights were worth less to ISU administrators than public relations. In 2012, the students, Paul Gerlich and Erin Furleigh, ran the campus' pro-marijuana legalization group, NORML. All was well and good until the organization's shirts, featuring ISU's mascot and a pot leaf, got a little press. Suddenly, the Governor's Office was asking questions. Suddenly, political speech was a problem because it didn't jibe with top elected officials. Administration blocked the school-sanctioned group from re-ordering more T-shirts and leveled and rewrote ISU's trademark guidelines that specifically targeted ISU's NORML chapter. A lot has been said about university students and their supposed inability to face ideas that upset them. On campuses across the country, throngs of students have railed against conservative speakers. Those protesters have every right to deride the concepts pitched by conservative columnists and Breitbart writers. But that right doesn't extend to shutting down speech with which they don't agree. But, at ISU, the students weren't the oft-criticized "snowflakes." This instance doesn't fit the narrative of coddled millennials seeking sanctuary from every offense and emotional stress. At ISU, then-President Steven Leath and his top lieutenants went seeking a safe space. And Iowa's taxpayers will now pay for the willingness of a few triggered administrators who roughshod over the U.S. Constitution for the sake of protecting the brand. A federal judge reached the same conclusion this past year. Public opinion about marijuana has changed drastically since ISU's 2012 crackdown on NORML. A significant majority of Americans now oppose U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' crusade against state-level legalization programs, polls show. Support for medicinal marijuana programs also have strong support. And, increasingly, support is shifting for recreational legalization. Marijuana is among those rare issues that can transcend partisan politics. Budget hawk conservatives aren't keen on paying for the Drug War's costs, especially in the justice system. Liberals decry the disproportionate effect criminalizing marijuana has had on poor and minority communities. The pro-pot movement was only in its infancy six years ago. Even so, the T-shirts that so offended Iowa's elected and appointed class was very much a political one. NORML's message was, and continues to be, a legitimate matter of political discourse. Even if it wasn't, though, ISU's targeted assault against NORML would stand as a stunning assault on free speech. Even the most vile speech -- what some call hate speech -- is protected, says a mountain of precedent. Call us idealists, but universities must always be among society's most free institutions. They're places where beliefs are challenged. They're places where ideas are argued. They're places where concepts too often barred from a politically correct culture are probed, tested and analyzed. They're the ultimate home of free expression. ISU officials, under political pressure, neglected their charge. Now, all Iowans will pay for that shameful weakness. I find little comfort in Iowa Rep. Dawn Pettengills, R-Mount Auburn, reassurances in her recent guest column that there will be no changes to the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS) this legislative session. Trust is hard to come by after what transpired last session, when she and others of her party totally gutted a collective bargain process that had served the citizens of Iowa very well for over 40 years with very little discussion or input from citizens or the members from the other side of the aisle. Now she wants us to believe that no changes will be made to a pension plan that has served Iowans for 65 years. I urge everyone to take a look at Iowa Senate File 45. It calls for studies to be carried out to select an alternative defined contribution retirement plan.. This is a drastic change from the past 65 years of what she refers to as, is well-managed and remains one of the most sound pension systems in the entire country. Senate File 45 calls for these studies to be submitted to her Joint Retirement Systems Committee by October of 2018 when the Iowa Legislature is not in session. Oh, and SF 45 also has a built in effective start date of July, 2019. So, Rep. Pettengill, maybe this is a campaign issue. For you to suggest otherwise is deceptive and disgusting. I believe we should expect better from you. Richard Toohill Davenport The bad news: Another press malfunction results in delayed delivery of the Quad-City Times. According to subscriber services email, some would not receive their Wednesday edition until Thursday. The good news: Recently passed tax bill that Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Illinois, railed against in a recent op-ed, allows companies to immediately expense capital investments. Maybe it's time to invest in some new machinery in the press room. The above organizations are recognized by Queens Crap as being beneficial to the city as a whole, by fighting to preserve the history and character of our neighborhoods. They are not connected to this website and the opinions presented here do not necessarily represent the positions of these organizations.The comments left by posters to this site do not necessarily represent the views of the blogger or webmaster.Street or satellite shots used here are from Google Maps or Windows Live Local The tagline for the Liam Neeson Metro-North thriller "The Commuter" "Lives are on the line" feels like a missed opportunity. I would have gone with: "The quiet car is about to get loud." It's been ten years since Neeson's unlikely reign as the movies' best action hero began with "Taken" the little Paris kidnapping that unlocked Neeson's special set of skills. What has followed has been a decade of lean, blunt and glum thrillers (three "Taken" movies, "Non-Stop," ''The Grey") anchored by the looming and still quite potent presence of Neeson. Neeson has suggested that, at 65, he's nearing the end of the line. So "The Commuter," which reteams him for the fourth time with Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra, may be one of our last chances to see Neeson kick some butt. "The Commuter" rides very much the same rail as his previous movies with Collet-Serra; it's a hostage crisis tick-tock that speeds straight ahead. Collet-Serra's genre mechanics, stylized and sober, are efficient. His trains run on time, even if especially in "The Commuter" a rush-hour's worth of implausibility eventually wrecks the thrill. Neeson plays Michael McCauley, an ex-cop who has spent his last ten years as a life insurance salesman, commuting Monday through Friday into Grand Central from his family's suburban home up the Hudson in Tarrytown, N.Y. The movie's clever overlapping opening montage shows the repetition of his days, begun every day with 1010 Wins on the radio, a ride from his wife to the train station and the crowded but solitary walk through Grand Central. But one day is a particularly bad one. McCauley is fired five years short of retirement. With his savings depleted by the 2008 financial crisis and college tuition coming soon for his high-school graduate son, McCauley's panic is palpable. He stops for a drink with his old police partner (Patrick Wilson) before boarding the train home. There, he's greeted by a Hitchcockian stranger on the train (Vera Farmiga) who explains that McCauley will make $100,000 on his ride home if he can only find the person on the train "who doesn't belong." McCauley, as he soon discovers, has stepped into the plot of an absurdly powerful syndicate that will use him to ferret out a crucial FBI witness. The gaps in the story's logic aren't to be minded. The web around McCauley is mysterious. And for Cold Spring, a few stops past McCauley's usual one, to be epicenter of such intrigue is curious. But then again, even the Feds deserve a bit of antiquing and a brisk hike. Most eyebrow raising for the 1.6 to 3.1 million who trudge into and out of Manhattan everyday will be an unforgiveable incongruity in the train's otherwise largely accurate path. It makes various subway stops through Manhattan, when every commuter since the time of "Revolutionary Road" knows it runs straight to Harlem. It's the kind of inaccuracy that will cause untold swarms of strap-hangers to throw their MetroCards at the screen. But Collet-Serra, whose "Non-Stop" similarly relished the confined space of an airplane cabin, is too interested with swooping his camera through the train to care much about the blur on the outside. But he knows well how to shoot Neeson, following the actor's hulking frame from car to car. Their movies are, in part, parables for the terrorism age. Like in "Non-Stop," where Neeson played an air marshal, the protagonist of "The Commuter" must wrestle with the morality of uncovering the one threat in a sea of maybe-innocent, maybe-guilty faces, some of them "regulars" (daily riders), some of them unfamiliar. As before, Neeson is a lone warrior trying to stay decent in a fallen world. With pandering references to the big banks throughout, "The Commuter," has just enough smarts to make its final destination disappointing. The old equation of man-plus-locomotive has been a dependable one for the movies since Buster Keaton rode the rails in "The General." (See also: Burt Lancaster in "The Train," and Denzel Washington in "Unstoppable.") "The Commuter" isn't in that class, but there are worse tickets to punch, especially in January. Such a woeful time of year for new releases warrants repeating the old warning: If you see something, say something. "The Commuter," a Lionsgate release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "some intense action/violence, and language." Running time: 104 minutes. Two stars out of four. A second person pleaded guilty Wednesday in connection with a scheme to defraud consumers by selling light-emitting devices as a treatment for more than 200 different diseases and disorders, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. Irina Kossovskaia, 63, of Ontario, Canada, pleaded guilty in the District of South Dakota to one count of conspiracy to introduce misbranded medical devices into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead. Kossovskaia faced charges along with Robert Larry Lytle and Fredretta Eason, both of Rapid City and both with still-pending charges, relating to their involvement with the devices, known as the QLaser System. A fourth person, Ronald D. Weir Jr., pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy last February and is awaiting sentencing. According to court documents, Kossovskaia and co-conspirators including Lytle and Weir marketed and distributed QLaser devices by falsely claiming that the devices could safely and effectively treat a panoply of medical conditions at home, including cancer, diabetes, autism, HIV and heart disease. No published clinical or scientific studies supported the use of QLaser devices to treat such serious conditions, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration never approved the devices for such use. As part of her plea agreement, Kossovskaia admitted that she and Lytle made false claims about the QLasers curative powers to mislead consumers into purchasing the devices, which sold for over $4,000 per unit. Kossovskaia further admitted to assisting Lytle by smuggling hundreds of QLaser devices out of Rapid City to her facility in upstate New York after a federal court ordered Lytle to stop selling the devices. Kossovskaia continued to sell the devices until 2017 and funneled tens of thousands of dollars in proceeds to Lytle, even though he was under court order to refund consumers for every QLaser purchase made since 2001. U.S. District Judge Karen E. Schreier accepted Kossovkaias plea. In addition to fines, Kossovskaia faces a maximum statutory sentence of five years imprisonment. A sentencing date has not yet been set. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this case. Trial Attorney Ross S. Goldstein of the Justice Departments Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Koliner of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of South Dakota are prosecuting the case. Chadron residents or Chadron State College students or employees who would like to be part of a landmark event in April are invited to join Community Choir during the spring semester, according to Music Department Chair Dr. Una Taylor. Rehearsals begin Jan. 18 and continue Thursday evenings from 7-9 p.m. in Memorial Hall Room 126. For details, contact Taylor at utaylor@csc.edu , 308-432-6484 for details. The CSC Music Department received a generous anonymous donation to commission a new composition for the CSC Concert Choir that will be premiered by the combined choirs of Concert Choir, Community Choir, and Ogallala High School. Dr. Joel Schreuder, CSC music faculty member, worked with composer David von Kampen, a Nebraskan native of Lincoln, to complete the commission. Dr. von Kampen has composed a set of three pieces based on original poetry by Becky Boesen, another Nebraskan. The set of pieces is titled Three Nebraska Lyrics and the three individual titles are On the Ridge, Underneath, and The Planting Season. The Community Choir will also be performing a program of music that inspires peace and harmony in the world, according to Taylor. James Jim Rankin first set foot on the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology campus as an incoming freshman in the fall of 1974. At the time, he recalls, there would have been no imagining his return, 44 years later, to become the universitys 19th president. Not a chance, Rankin said with a laugh. I think at that point I was just worried about becoming a sophomore. Rankin, originally from Draper and Fort Pierre, worried and studied his way to a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Mines in 1978. He met with reporters in Rapid City on Thursday for the first time since returning to the city Jan. 8. Rankin, who was appointed by the state Board of Regents in November, outlined some of his goals as university president. Before accepting the post, he was vice-provost for research and economic development at the University of Arkansas. His leadership at the Fayetteville campus helped generate more than 50 startup companies and increased annual external funding to $103 million. Rankin earned his Ph.D. and masters in electrical engineering at Iowa State University. His career took him to Rockwell-Collins, where he worked as an engineer. He also taught at St. Cloud State University and Ohio University. Rankin succeeds Heather Wilson, who left in May to accept President Donald Trumps appointment as Air Force secretary. He inherits a university boasting a 98 percent placement rate for its science and engineering graduates in nine of the last 10 years. Last year saw the placement rate slip to 96 percent. I know it cant go much higher (than 98 percent), but we want to make sure it stays there, he said. Rankin also wants to boost enrollment, with a goal of 3,000 undergraduate students. There are currently around 2,400 undergraduate students at the school. He said a state Board of Regents decision approving in-state tuition fees for qualifying new and transfer students from Colorado and Nebraska will be key to helping Mines increase its undergraduate enrollment. Rankin also hopes to boost fundraising efforts to increase the number of scholarships offered to students, and increase research by Mines faculty and students with an eye toward increasing business development in Rapid City and the Black Hills. He said the campus already has 30 entrepreneurs-in-residence helping students who want to start companies through the Black Hills Business Development Center, which recently announced plans to expand from the Mines campus with another location at 108 Main St. The seeds are planted. We just need to keep helping in that area, he said. Rankin hopes to meet soon with city officials to learn of continuing efforts to link the Mines campus and the city business district through expansion of the downtown core east of Fifth Street, along with expansion of the business development center. Weve always had that little bit of distance between us, and if we can add new businesses, we want to help participate in that. If we can help in company attraction or with start-up companies, we like to do that, Rankin said. Much has changed on the Mines campus and in Rapid City since Rankin left, while some things were quickly familiar. Long gone is the March-Dake Dormitory and an old classroom building, whose location is marked with an arch. The campus has expanded to the west with the addition of three new dormitories. Rankin recalls OHarra Stadium with its unique multi-tier parking and Surbeck Center, where incoming students received their green frosh beanies. Some of those good memories came back, he said. Rankin said he will spend much of his first days back on campus meeting with student, staff and faculty and also get to know Rapid City again. This isnt just me deciding to throw out an idea, this is really all of us deciding together how we want to move forward, he said. South Dakotans have expressed deep concerns over EB-5 corruption, millions of dollars missing from GEAR UP, and the general lack of transparency and rampant cronyism in state government. Nowhere is integrity and transparency more needed than in the legislative interim committees that meet between sessions. The Tribal Relations Committee recently had a unique opportunity to get answers in the case of GEAR UP, a federal program intended to help disadvantaged students especially Native American youth to prepare for, enter and succeed in college. In October the Tribal Relations Committee, an interim committee, met at USD in Vermillion where Professor Marshall Damgaard explained the extensive GEAR UP map that he and his students compiled to illustrate their investigation of the GEAR UP cast of characters. 43 photos were pinned on the wall and each persons links to people and educational agencies involved in the GEAR UP debacle were demonstrated with strings of colored yarn. The display covers an entire conference room wall, illustrating the tangled web of insiders surrounding the missing money that was supposed to help students. Many mysteries surrounding GEAR UP and the Mid-Central Education Co-op were discussed including a missing safe kept in the Westerhuis home in Platte that may have contained records of the money trail. Attendees at our meeting who are close to the Westerhuis family expressed serious doubts about the murder/suicide deaths attributed to Scott Westerhuis. Some stated the opinion that at least 20 of those pictured on the wall should be in jail. After the presentation, I made a motion to subpoena Secretary of Education Melody Schopp, former secretaries Tom Oster and Rick Melmer, and other key players in the GEAR UP scandal. Sen. Troy Heinert, committee chair, took a position against issuing the subpoenas. Sen. Stace Nelson noted that Chairman Heinerts mother is one of the people identified in the GEAR UP research map, therefore he should have recused himself from voting because of a conflict of interest. Sen. Heinert then ruled that he did not have a conflict of interest and in a tied 5-5 vote, my motion to subpoena witnesses was lost. The committee members who voted against seeking answers to the whereabouts of 60 million federal dollars that was for disadvantaged kids were Sens. Heinert and Killer and Reps. Lesmeister, Bordeaux and Tieszen. Voting with me to pursue answers to this theft were Sens. Russell and Nelson, and Reps. Livermont and May. Democrats and Republicans have long been complaining about cronyism, no transparency and all the unanswered questions surrounding the $60 million that was siphoned off as it passed through many hands, yet both Democrat and Republican committee chairs have blocked efforts to get to the truth. The Republican Chair of the Government Operations and Accountability Committee (GOAC), Sen. Deb Peters, stymied another opportunity to get answers in the GEAR UP money mystery when she also refused to issue subpoenas or place witnesses under oath. Its no wonder that South Dakota ranks fourth in state government corruption. Stay tuned for more on this story. Alternating current, the electric motor, remote control, the Tesla coil, and radio are just a few of the more significant inventions by Nikola Tesla. Born in 1856 in what was then the Austrian Empire, Tesla received advanced education in both physics and engineering. At age 28, Tesla came to the United States. For a brief period of time, he worked at the Edison Machine Works before embarking on an independent career. No doubt his most important invention was the development of alternating current. In 1887, Tesla was able to secure funding for his new Tesla Electric Company. By the end of the year, he had filed several patents for AC-based inventions. Teslas AC system soon caught the attention of George Westinghouse, a young engineer and businessman. Unlike Edisons Direct Current system for delivering electricity, Westinghouse was looking for a method whereby electricity could be delivered over very long distances. Having decided that Teslas inventions could be the solution, Westinghouse purchased his patents for $60,000 in cash and stock in the Westinghouse Corporation. However, Thomas Edison, who was pushing DC over AC, was not going to easily fold his tent. Edison began a negative advertising campaign in an effort to discredit both Westinghouse and Tesla. In fact, Edison went so far as to show how lethal AC was by electrocuting an elephant (this turned out to be disastrous publicity for Edison). Despite these efforts by Edison, the more efficient AC would come to dominate electrical systems throughout the world. Flush with his success with alternating current, Tesla became obsessed with transmitting energy wirelessly. With $150,000 from J.P. Morgan, Tesla constructed a massive tower and power plant on Long Island that became known as Wardencliffe. Tesla envisioned a series of these huge towers strategically placed around the world, delivering free power for all. But fearing that Morgan would not grasp his concept of wireless transmission of electrical energy, Tesla told Morgan that he was working on wireless transmission of voice (aka, radio). However, this would prove to be a fatal flaw. After Guglielmo Marconi broadcast his first radio transmission in December 1901, Morgan aborted his support for Tesla. Tesla was forced to abandon his efforts in 1906. By 1915, the site had been foreclosed. Two years later, Tesla was forced to declare bankruptcy. Tesla fell into deep despair but eventually gathered himself together and began performing consulting work. However, by this time his ideas had fallen into the mad scientist category. He became more erratic and eccentric to such an extent he devoted much of his time to the care and feeding of pigeons in Central Park in New York City. During this time, one of his more outlandish ideas was the design and construction of a so-called death ray, a device he claimed could destroy enemy ships and planes from miles away. Even though this out there, it nonetheless drew the attention of the FBI during World War II. Nikola Tesla died penniless on Jan. 7, 1943, in the Hotel New Yorker. Immediately after Teslas death, his scientific papers vanished from his hotel room and were never found. His papers contained data and information about the Death Ray. Some have even speculated that Teslas death was not natural, but hastened along so that his scientific drawings, plans, and schemes could be obtained for military purposes. By the way, in 1943, the Supreme Court upheld Tesla's patent for wireless transmission, aka, the radio. Lone Rock School District is hosting a planning meeting on Jan. 30 that Superintendent Scott Stiegler hopes draws in the community to discuss what to do about declining enrollment, aging facilities and funding. The school board has had several planning session with teachers, staff, and a few parents, and is encouraging the community to participate in the process. We want to hear as many voices as possible, Stiegler said. It is important to have all or most of our stakeholders participate in the development and direction of our school. The more input and participation we have, the more buy-in well have from the community as a whole. Stiegler said that early in the planning process a mission, a vision, and what is best for the district are defined. The next step is to decide how to achieve the goals. We want to have the programs and policies in place that will allow us to achieve our district vision, Stiegler said. At the board level, we defined some general goals with input from the public. Whoever is at the meeting is able to make their voices heard. This is a great opportunity to come forward and be part of the positive process of planning. The Lone Rock School Board met in August and October and the meeting in January will not be the last. We will have as many meetings as it takes, Stiegler said. The challenges facing Lone Rock School District are similar to many schools in the Bitterroot Valley and Montana declining enrollment, less state and federal funding, and aging buildings. A few years ago Lone Rock enrollment was up to 320, but those numbers dropped by about 100 students and have not rebounded. Our districts enrollment can quickly be affected by a class size, Stiegler said. Its a bigger percentage of students when a large class come through. Lower numbers affect Average Number Belonging - the deciding factor in how much state funding a school district receives. Montana uses a three-year average to calculate the entitlements and if funding lags behind enrollment, then funding is more challenging. When the enrollment is increasing you have to teach more students with less funding because the funding isnt catching up with enrollment, Stiegler said. We are not there yet. Lone Rocks enrollment count last spring was about 225 and their fall count was 208. We hope we are at the bottom of that enrollment decline cycle, Stiegler said. Three years ago Lone Rock had $530,000 in non-salary spending. This year that amount is $190,000 less. You still have to run the buses, you still have to turn the lights on, you still have to heat the building, and you still have to maintain the environment regardless of enrollment, Stiegler said. Those costs dont change a lot. With less funding, difficult decisions have to be made about what to cut - classroom supplies and professional development are the least favorite cuts. Nobody likes to see cuts anywhere, so those are hard decisions to make, Stiegler said. He praised the community and Parent Teacher Members (PTM) for supporting the programs at the school with special fundraising events including a fun run and trunk or treating. Some of the buildings at Lone Rock have been around for a while. The brick building was built in 1914; the kitchen, cafeteria and multi-purpose room were added in 1973; and the kindergarten through second grade wing were added in 1992, which is 25 years ago. Our wonderful middle school was finished in 2000 and is not seeing the age wrinkles that the elementary side is seeing, Stiegler said. The planning meeting in January will focus on the feedback the board has received. This is a very transparent and public process, Stiegler said. We asked what are the positive things at Lone Rock and what are the challenges that need to improve. We have quite a bit of information. The next step in the planning process is to identify places where children are not safe in a facility or in a social setting. We are looking for any kind of feedback and want this to be positive with constructive ways to improve, Stiegler said. Well use this as data to help us decide what to do and implement a plan. Is it a facility issue and we need to allocate funds, or is it a social issue where we need to teach students to behave or teach adults how to monitor behaviors? The Lone Rock School Board will listen to the community and decide how to take care of these issues, and perhaps more funding is needed. Well look at how to get that funding, Stiegler said. Will we push at the state level? Write letters? Is it opening our own pockets and funding it locally with taxes, levies, or how do we do that? Stiegler said the planning process is a round table discussion. This is what we - with all our stakeholders - want to do together to achieve our vision for Lone Rock, he said. We want more conversation that is robust with as many stakeholders as possible. There are community groups, parents, teachers, staff, and we also have non-parent community members that pay their taxes as well and they are a part of this. Stiegler said the planning process is a way for people to share what the school is good at and where it needs to improve. I feel like in the tug-of-war of school life, so many are pulling the rope from the same direction, he said. The people at Lone Rock are getting behind the school. We have such a positive vibe and we want to springboard this into our planning and help us move ahead. Lone Rock School Districts planning meeting begins with a potluck at 5 p.m. on Jan. 30 at the school. What a great way to bring people together, Stiegler said. We talk while we eat. By Ed Dickerson On Monday, January 8, 2018, the United States Supreme Court declined to review both Barber v. Bryant and Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant, two suits filed against Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant contesting the states law (HB 1523) which allows public officials and businesses to deny services to LGBT people for religious reasons. Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant was brought by Dr. Susan Hrostowski, an Episcopal priest who is a married lesbian and the vicar of an Episcopal church in Collins, Mississippi, and the Campaign for Southern Equality which argued that it has a religious and moral conviction that same-sex couples should be treated with equality. They challenged Mississippis law which allows officials and secular businesses to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages or recognize such marriages conducted in other states on the basis that it favored one religious view over another in violation of the Establishment Clause. Judge Carlton W. Reeves of The Federal District Court for Southern Mississippi, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but suggested the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals should review his ruling, and stayed its enforcement 14 days to give the defendants an opportunity to request a longer stay from a higher court. Barber v. Bryant was filed in order to prevent Mississippis HB 1523, the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act, from taking effect. Passed by the Mississippi legislature in 2016, HB 1523 explicitly states that it is designed to protect three specific beliefs: (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.[1] The Federal District Court for Southern Mississippi issued a preliminary injunction against its enforcement on June 30, 2016, the day before it was scheduled to take effect on July 1, Both cases ended up before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and both were dismissed for lack of standing. In short, the Court of Appeals concluded that neither plaintiff had suffered an actual injury, but merely a general stigmatic injury, which the court deemed insufficient to give the plaintiff standing. By declining to address the merits of the cases, the Supreme Court leaves the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rulings in place, meaning that HB 1523 remains in force. Phil Bryant, who as governor is the named defendant in the cases, said, As I have said from the beginning, this law was democratically enacted and is perfectly constitutional. The people of Mississippi have the right to ensure that all of our citizens are free to peacefully live and work without fear of being punished for their sincerely held religious beliefs. The Supreme Courts decision declining to review this narrow question about standing is not an endorsement of HB 1523, noted Rob McDuff, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. That the Supreme Court declined to hear this case is not the end of the story as it is likely that eventually a same-sex couple will be denied either state or business services for religious reasons protected by HB 1523 that will supply them with standing to address the Establishment Clause concerns. And then the courts will have to rule on the merits. As Beth Littrell, lawyer for Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ advocacy group said, Were ready to sue again when plaintiffs tell us about the harm, the lawyer adds. We would have to go back and start over again when we are able to articulate and show the particular ways this law is hurting people.[2] For those concerned with religious liberty, these cases are fraught with difficult issues, as both sides are seeking to defend conflicting rights. Mississippis HB 1523 highlights some of those difficulties. On the one hand, it seeks to protect freedom of conscience in three specific areas, something which appears laudable on the surface. But as Judge Reeves pointed out in his ruling against the law, It is difficult to see the compelling government interest in favoring three enumerated religious beliefs over others. It is not within our tradition to respect one clerks religious objection to issuing a same-sex marriage license, but refuse another clerks religious objection to issuing a marriage license to a formerly-divorced person. The government is not in a position to referee the validity of Leviticus 18:22 (Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.) versus Leviticus 21:14 (A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take.). There is a legal maxim that says, Hard cases make bad laws, and this issue, highly politicized as it is, seems likely to be the source of more hard cases. District Court Judge Reeves alluded to this in his 60-page ruling in the Barber case: In physics, every action has its equal and opposite reaction. In politics, every action has its predictable overreaction.. Obergefell has led to HB 1523. The Supreme Court may have declined to hear this case because many of the issues could be addressed in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. That ruling, expected this summer, will likely clarify or at least address some of the issues in the Mississippi cases. Stay tuned. [1] HB 1523, sec. 2. [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/08/576500364/controversial-mississippi-law-limiting-lgbt-rights-not-heading-to-supreme-court Ed Dickerson is the author of scores of articles and three books, and a speaker to audiences on three continents. He holds a masters degree in religious education from Andrews University, and has extensive experience as a consultant to the legislative and executive branches of government in his home state. His most recent book is For Such a Time (Pacific Press, 2017). Guwahati: Well known healthcare institute of northeast India, GNRC hospitals in association with Guwahati Press Club has announced another round of medical journalism fellowships to working journalists starting from the first week of February 2018. Nine scribes representing the print/electronic media will be selected for the media fellowship program. The fellows, who will be paid a lump sum remuneration of Indian rupees 10,000 (ten thousand rupees only) each, are expected to attend regular interactive sessions with the physicians at three campuses of GNRC hospitals and report about their experiences in their respective media outlets. As we expect the media to play an important role in the field of healthcare, it becomes essential for the journalists to understand different issues relating to medical care and infrastructures in our region. The outputs of the enlightened journalists are expected to help the policy makers in formulating schemes for the development of healthcare exercise, said Dr NC Borah, chairman cum managing director of GNRC hospitals. Interested media persons (preference will be given to press club members) may send their applications to the office of Guwahati Press Club, Ambari, Guwahati-781001 by 25 January next. The application should include a very brief profile of the journalist and few lines (within 500 words) describing why s(h)e is interested to Saelig Co Inc CEO's thoughts and news The opinion issued by the Advisor of the European Court of Justice, Melchior Wathelet, suggesting the invalidation of the fisheries agreement between Morocco and the EU sounds like du deja vu, and its obvious political orientation tarnishes its legal value, especially since it comes just three days after the European Commission requested the opening of negotiations with Morocco for a new agreement. The Advisors so-called legal arguments are so blatantly biased regarding the fisheries agreement and the Sahara issue besides the fact that they reveal a profound ignorance of international law and of the EUs stand on its relations with Morocco. Melchior Wathelets rush to give his opinion was probably motivated by the agenda of the Morocco-EU negotiations. The EU Council is actually due to allow in the coming weeks, as recommended by the European Commission, the opening of negotiations on the new fisheries agreement, as the current one expires on 14 July 2018. The Commission recommended the opening of negotiations on the basis of a recent independent evaluation study, which highlights the positive balance sheet of the current four-year agreement for both parties. The study emphasizes the positive impact of the agreement, highlighting 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 fishing boats. All these elements raise questions about the timing chosen by the courts advisor to issue his opinion. Anyways, this is not his first attempt to undermine Morocco-EU agreements. Melchior Wathelet had already issued, in September 2016, a politically-oriented opinion on the Morocco-EU agricultural agreement. His opinion was then disavowed by the judges of the Court, whose final verdict had ascertained the legality of the agreements between Morocco and the EU and the inadmissibility of the appeals brought by the Polisario. 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. Twenty people are confirmed dead in Montecito and officials believe the deaths may be related to the storm that pummeled Santa Barbara County 17 flood victims identified The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office has released the names of 17 Montecito residents who died during flooding and mudslides Tuesday morning. The names and ages of the decedents are as follows: 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 Rebecca Riskin, 61 Roy Rohter, 84 Peerawat Sutthithepn, 6 Richard Taylor, 67 Officials said the cause of death for all the decedents has been listed as "multiple traumatic injuries due to flash flood with mudslides due to recent wildfire." John B. King Jr. president and CEO of The Education Trust and a former U.S. Secretary of Education in the Obama administration. He wrote this for the Baltimore Sun. His email is John.King@edtrust.org; Twitter: @JohnBKing. If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). At the meeting, Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam expressed her pleasure about good traditional friendly, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation ties between Vietnam and Laos. Additionally, she highly appreciated the neighboring country to kick off the local peoples council meetings in order to strengthen further role of people in the countrys development. The Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Council will collaborate with Peoples Council of the Laotian localities to share experiences in land management. In the coming time, both sides will continue carrying out practical activities to share as well as learn about more experiences in legislative procedures, added Ms. Tam. On the same day, Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Council Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam and Chairman of the Busan Metropolitan Council, Baek Jong Hean co-signed an agreement to strenghten the friendly and cooperation ties between the Peoples Council of Ho Chi minh City and Busan city, aiming to enhance cooperation and exchange activities between the localities. BY KHANH MINH- Translated by Huyen Huong Local authorities said the high-risk area was 6km from the crater, a reduction of the previous warning of 10km last week. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, Head of Data, Information and Public Relation of Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management, warned that although the danger zone is reduced, geological activities inside the volcano remains strong. More than 50,000 people in 12 high-risk localities are still staying in safe shelters. The I Gusti Ngurah Rai international airport still operates as usual since ashes from the volcano only affected some areas to the north and northeast. After 50 years, Agung volcano resumed its activities in November 2017, making local authorities raise the alert status to the highest level. The I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport had to close for three days due to the volcano while another airport on nearby Lombok island also halted its operation for a while. A series of eruptions at Mount Agung during 1963-1964 killed more than 1,600 people and injured hundreds. Indonesia lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire where several tectonic plates meet and cause 90 percent of the worlds seismic activity. The country is currently home to nearly 130 active volcanoes. In 2010, Mount Merapi on Java island, considered one of the most active and dangerous volcanoes in the world, erupted after rumbling since 2006, killing more than 300 people and forcing 280,000 to flee. Mount Sinabung on Sumatra island, which is currently at its highest alert level, has been active since 2013. Source from Vietnamplus. SIOUX CITY | Preliminary reports project that 2017 was a rampant year for gonorrhea in Woodbury County, which follows state and national trends. More than 468,500 cases of gonorrhea were recorded in the United States in 2016. The bacterial infection if left untreated in women can lead to serious reproductive complications, including tubal infertility, ectopic pregnancy and chronic pelvic pain. Reported cases of gonorrhea in Iowa have more than doubled over four years, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). There were 3,600 cases of the sexually transmitted disease in Iowa in 2017, according to the state's preliminary data. That would be a 145 percent increase since 2013, and a one-year increase of more than 38 percent. While Siouxland District Health Department deputy director Tyler Brock said he is still gathering data from Woodbury County testing sites, he said the numbers he has seen so far indicate a rise in cases. Gonorrhea has steadily increased in Woodbury County since about 2012, when 58 cases were tallied. In 2016, 131 cases of the bacterial infection were recorded. Gonorrhea can cause itching and burning in the genital area, abdominal pain and fever, but most people who are infected show no symptoms. "We've had high numbers of gonorrhea for a number of years," said Brock, who couldn't offer a particular reason for the increase. "It's been going up pretty steadily in the state as well." George Walton, the state public health department's STD program manager, said he thinks part of the overall increase is because gonorrhea is showing up in more segments of Iowa's population. He said robust testing could also be boosting diagnoses. "We're starting to find more infections that in the past would have been missed," he said. "That's a part of it, certainly not all of it." Gonorrhea diagnoses are increasing among both men and women, but faster among men, which likely indicates an increase among men who have sex with men, according to the department. According to the IDPH, gonorrhea primarily impacts young Iowans: ages 15 to 34 account for 80 percent of diagnoses. The disease disproportionately impacts Iowa's black population, which accounts for nearly 30 percent of diagnoses, but only 3.5 percent of the state's population. Brock said the rise of gonorrhea, which is becoming increasingly difficult to treat, is concerning. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed the number of cases of gonorrhea with strains that showed "decreased susceptibility" to the common antibiotic azithromycin dramatically jumped from 0.6 percent to 2.5 percent in just a year's time between 2013 and 2014. "There's a lot of resistance to antibiotics with gonorrhea, not so much in the Midwest where we're at, but certainly internationally and on the coasts there is a lot of resistance," Brock said. "Even though we haven't seen the resistance here, we are absolutely concerned about increasing gonorrhea rates." Walton said the IDPH is encouraging medical facilities to be more thorough in testing for gonorrhea. Siouxland District Health Department is expanding its free STD testing services and training additional staff members to perform female exams. "We feel that's just going to reduce barriers to people coming in and getting tested and treated," Brock said. "We feel that we're going to have increased capacity to get people in because of multiple changes that we're making." Erin Murphy of the Journal Des Moines Bureau contributed to this story. DAKOTA CITY | A man's body was found inside a house that burned down in Dakota City Thursday, authorities said. After an autopsy and investigation, authorities have determined the man died of smoke inhalation and foul play is not suspected, according to a news release from the Dakota County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office is continuing an investigation to find the identity of the man. The Dakota City Fire Department responded to the fire at 1906 Highway 77 around 10:18 a.m. Thursday. Authorities made contact with the homeowner, who was in Arizona at the time, and said no one was supposed to be in the house. While fighting the fire, firefighters located a body inside, the release said, and the body was transported to Sioux City for an autopsy. Based on that autopsy, authorities believe the victim was Native American but do not know his identity. The home was a total loss in the fire. The Dakota City Fire Department was assisted through mutual aid by the South Sioux City and Homer fire departments. Also assisting the sheriff's office in the investigation are the Dakota County Attorney's Office, Nebraska State Fire Marshal, Omaha Nation Law Enforcement Services. MARCUS, Iowa | The city of Marcus is asking residents to boil their water as a precaution after a water main break caused the distribution system to lose pressure. A news release posted by the city to Facebook states the break occurred Friday and, due to the potential for bacterial contamination in the water, residents are being asked to boil their water for one minute before drinking it. The affected area is being repaired, and bacteria samples are being collected to undergo testing, according the release. The city plans to notify residents of the test results and when the advisory is lifted. The city says it working with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to resolve the situation. SIOUX CITY Drugs are thought to be the motive behind Sioux Citys first homicide of the year, Sioux City Police said Thursday. Right now, at the outset, we dont know exactly what the motive is (but) we can speculate that the crime is drug related but that is all we will be saying, said Sgt. Ryan Bertrand. Bertrand made the comments Thursday during a press conference at police headquarters in response to the shooting death of Javier Cheron of Sioux City. The 26-year-old succumbed to a single gunshot wound to the upper chest area shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday evening at Mercy Medical Center. Bertrand said an associate of Cherons, who was interviewed by police, brought him to Mercy and that Cheron was armed when he arrived at the hospital. Liborio Martinez-Rubio, 60, of Sioux City, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine and six counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Martinez-Rubio, whose bond was set at $500,000, is on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold and has not been charged in connection with the shooting. Through their investigation, law enforcement officials determined the shooting likely occurred at a residence at 1609 Jones St. where they obtained a search warrant. During the search, multiple handguns two of which were reported stolen illegal drugs and "several items of interest" were located. Bertrand said the department would not elaborate on the relationship between Martinez-Rubio and Cheron, however, they labeled the two as associates. SIOUX CITY | A former employee of a Sergeant Bluff contractor has been fined more than $34,000 for filing fraudulent invoices totaling more than $807,000 to the Iowa Department of Transportation for materials used in a highway project. Jenna Wilson, 31, of Sergeant Bluff, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Sioux City in August to one count of making false statements in connection with a highway project. Chief U.S. District Judge Leonard Strand on Friday approved a plea agreement in which prosecutors and Wilson agreed that she would be given credit for time served in custody while being booked on the charge and not serve any additional time in jail. Strand placed Wilson on two years supervised release with the U.S. Probation Office. Wilson was fined $34,432, the amount that K&L Landscape and Construction benefited from her activity. She was required to pay the fine Friday. According to court documents, while working at K&L, Wilson during a six-month period in 2016 altered and falsified invoices to the general contractor and the IDOT for stockpiled expanded polystyrene by $807,637 for the 2016 reconstruction of the Interstate 29 interchange at Salix. Court documents said Wilson falsified the price on more than 51,000 units of the foam fill material, a lightweight foam used instead of dirt to reduce or eliminate settlement under a roadway. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Wilson's actions accelerated payments to K&L, essentially amounting to a no-interest loan and saving the company $34,432 in interest costs. The false invoices did not lead to an $807,000 loss to the IDOT because the falsified invoices did not affect the price that K&L was paid for the materials. The IDOT in October disqualified K&L from bidding or subcontracting on projects for three years. On Iowa Politics discusses how Gov. Kim Reynolds did during her first Condition of the State address, the impending test of Iowa's Voter ID laws, and President Donald Trump's recent comments on immigration laws. On Iowa Politics is a weekly news and analysis podcast which re-creates the conversations that happen when Iowa's political reporters get together after deadlines have been met. This week's show features Erin Murphy, Ed Tibbetts, Bret Hayworth, Todd Dorman and James Q. Lynch. This week's show was produced by Max Freund and the music heard in the podcast is courtesy of Kelly Pardekooper. Chat with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @OnIowaPolitics, and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. Know an Iowa musician who should be on our show? Send their band sound files to oniowapolitics@gmail.com SIOUX CITY | U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, took part in an Oval Office ceremony Wednesday where President Donald Trump signed a measure aimed at combating nationwide opioid abuse. The White House invited Iowa's 4th District congressman to the formal signing of H.R. 2142, the International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response by Detecting Incoming Contraband with Technology Act, or INTERDICT Act. King voted for the bipartisan bill, which he said is designed to combat opioid abuse by providing chemical screening devices to U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees. It will reportedly enhance the ability of customs workers to interdict fentanyl, synthetic opioids and other illegal narcotics. Everybody worked here well together on a bipartisan piece of legislation that will definitely save lives," King said at the ceremony. "I wanted to complement you for having a bill signing ceremony here, with the press here to broadcast this out across the country, because the very fact that we are speaking to America, and you are using your voice to speak to America, saves lives starting from this moment." SIOUX CITY | Initial forecasts that called for blowing snow and reduced visibility on Thursday turned out to be a bit exaggerated. Brad Temeyer, a meteorologist with the Sioux Falls National Weather Service, said Sioux City only got about half an inch of snow as of noon on Thursday. Areas to the east of town, which were originally forecast to receive heavier snow, also got about half an inch. The heavier band of snow, as it would turn out, shifted far eastward -- sparing Siouxland from several inches of snow. The wind, however, didn't disappoint. There just wasn't much snow to blow around. "We've been gusting pretty consistently at over 40 miles per hour," Temeyer said. Friday's high temperature is expected to be around 12 degrees, and another half an inch of snow is expected in the afternoon and evening hours. The low temperature Friday night is expected to be about -1 degree. Saturday's high temperature is expected to be around 12 degrees. DES MOINES | Challenges at home and abroad are forcing the Iowa National Guard to "adapt and change" its mission to fight America's wars, secure the homeland and build lasting partnership around the world, according to Iowa Adjutant General 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 serving 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 nation's opioid epidemic, he said. Orr noted the guard trained 340 law enforcement officers across Iowa 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 guard's economic benefits for the state, noting that 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 - "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, "there's 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. The House District 6 special election on Tuesday will be the first in the state under the provisions of the Election Modernization and Integrity Act. Throughout 2018, we are conducting a soft rollout of the voter ID provisions. That means voters will be asked to provide identification. However, if you do not have your ID, you will still be allowed to cast a regular ballot after signing an oath. You can also have another registered voter attest to your identity. I want all eligible Iowans to participate in our elections. This law is about making it easy to vote, but hard to cheat. No eligible voter will be turned away. Last month, my office mailed a Voter ID card to every registered voter in the state who did not possess an Iowa drivers license or non-operators ID at that time. That process helped us ensure every voter has an ID to utilize when casting a ballot. Acceptable forms of ID at the polls include a valid Iowa drivers license or non-operators ID, military ID, veterans ID, U.S. passport and a Voter ID card. If you have not received a Voter ID card and do not have a valid Iowa drivers license or non-operators ID, please contact your county auditors office. One year ago, I announced a plan that would enhance our elections technology, reduce the potential for human error and fraud, and ensure no eligible voter will be turned away from the polls. Thats what this law accomplishes. If you live in House District 6, which includes Sioux City's Morningside neighborhood, Bronson, Salix, and Sergeant Bluff, it is important to make your voice heard and to be a voter on Tuesday. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. My office has launched a new Voter Ready initiative to make sure Iowans are prepared for the 2018 elections. It's very simple: Register to vote, bring your ID, cast your ballot. Election Day registration remains an option for you, as well. You will need to present a current photo ID and proof of residency to register at the polls. My message to Iowa voters is: Youve got this. It isnt complicated. Iowans show their ID all the time, whether its at the bank, the checkout line at the grocery store, checking into a hotel, renting a car, boarding a plane and numerous other ways. Iowa is one of the most accessible states in the country when it comes to voting and registering to vote. We are one of only seven states that offers Election Day voter registration, online voter registration, no fault absentee voting and early voting. We are one of only eight states that offers Election Day and online voter registration. Our early voting period is still among the top 10 longest in the nation. Its easy to register, easy to vote, but hard to cheat, and no eligible voter will be turned away. Be voter ready, Iowans. You've got this. Paul Pate is Iowa secretary of state. After a year in which he tested a hydrogen bomb and an ICBM, threatened to destroy the United States, and called President Trump "a dotard," Kim Jong Un, at the gracious invitation of the president of South Korea, will be sending a skating team to the "Peace Olympics." An impressive year for Little Rocket Man. Thus the most serious nuclear crisis since Nikita Khrushchev put missiles in Cuba appears to have abated. Welcome news, even if the confrontation with Pyongyang has probably only been postponed. Still, we have been given an opportunity to reassess the 65-year-old Cold War treaty that obligates us to go to war if the North attacks Seoul, and drove us to the brink of war today. 2017 demonstrated that we need a reassessment. For the potential cost of carrying out our commitment is rising exponentially. Two decades ago, a war on the Korean Peninsula, given the massed Northern artillery on the DMZ, meant thousands of U.S. dead. Today, with Pyongyang's growing arsenal of nuclear weapons, American cities could face Hiroshima-sized strikes, if war breaks out. What vital U.S. interest is there on the Korean Peninsula that justifies accepting in perpetuity such a risk to our homeland? We are told that Kim's diplomacy is designed to split South Korea off from the Americans. And this is undeniably true. For South Korean President Moon Jae-in is first and foremost responsible for his own people, half of whom are in artillery range of the DMZ. In any new Korean war, his country would suffer most. And while he surely welcomes the U.S. commitment to fight the North on his country's behalf as an insurance policy, Moon does not want a second Korean war, and he does not want President Trump making the decision as to whether there shall be one. Understandably so. He is looking out for South Korea first. Yet Moon rightly credits Trump with bringing the North Koreans to the table: "I give President Trump huge credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks, and I'd like to thank him for that." But again, what are the U.S. interests there that we should be willing to put at risk of nuclear attack tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Korea and our bases in Asia, and even our great cities, in a war that would otherwise be confined to the Korean Peninsula? China shares a border with the North, but is not treaty-bound to fight on the North's behalf. Russia, too, has a border with North Korea, and, with China, was indispensable to saving the North in the 1950-53 war. But Russia is not committed by any treaty to fight for the North. Why, then, are Americans obligated to be among the first to die in a second Korean War? Why is the defense of the South, with 40 times the economy and twice the population of the North, our eternal duty? Kim's drive for a nuclear deterrent is propelled by both fear and calculation. The fear is that the Americans who detest him will do to him and his regime and country what they did to Saddam Hussein. The calculation is that what Americans fear most, and the one thing that deters them, is nuclear weapons. Once Soviet Russia and Communist China acquired nukes, the Americans never attacked them. If he can put nuclear weapons on U.S. troops in Korea, U.S. bases in Japan, and U.S. cities, Kim reasons, the Americans will not launch a war on him. Have not recent events proven him right? Iran has no nuclear weapons and some Americans clamor daily for "regime change" in Tehran. But because Kim has nukes, the Americans appear more anxious to talk. His policy is succeeding. What he is saying with his nuclear arsenal is: As you Americans have put my regime and country at risk of annihilation, I am going to put your cities at risk. If we go down in your nuclear "fire and fury," so, too, will millions of Americans. The whole world is watching how this plays out. For the American Imperium, our system of alliances, is held together by a credible commitment: If you attack any of our scores of allies, you are at war with the United States. From the Baltic to the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf, from the South China Sea to Korea and Japan today, the costs and the risks of maintaining the imperium are growing. With all these promissory notes out there -- guarantees to go to war for other nations -- one is inevitably going to be called. And this generation of Americans, unaware of what their grandfathers obligated them to do, will demand to know, as they did in Iraq and Afghanistan: What are we doing over there, on the other side of the world? America First is more than a slogan. Bruce Wayne Proctor, age 45, of Upper Marlboro Celester NMN Washington, age 36, of Leonardtown Corey Antwain Adams, age 27, of Clements David Logan Scopin, age 32, of Waldorf Delmar Brandon Smith, age 23, of Lexington Park Dewitt Elwin Cooper, age 50, of Annapolis Elvis Tyrell Frederick, age 32, of Loveville Jalin Atibe Lee, age 22, of Hollywood James Walter Wheeler, Jr., age 28, of Lexington Park Jason Michael Weber, age 37, of Mechanicsville Lisa Marie West, age 48, of Lexington Park Michael Patrick Horan, age 24, of Leonardtown Morgan Marie Chambers, age 28, of Glen Burnie Rashaun Montgomery Peebles, age 39, of Charlotte Hall Richard Meredith Huntzberry, age 31, of St. Leonard Robert Oscar Newland, age 31, of Lexington Park Russell Oriem Tucker, age 55, of Avenue Theodore William Price, Jr., age 35, with no fixed address William NMN Eckloff, Jr., age 58, of Hollywood 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 12, 2018)The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office released the following incident and arrest reports.THEFT: On January 5, Cpl. Carberry responded to the 40000 block of Merchants Lane, in Leonardtown, for a reported theft. Investigation revealed, concealed numerous items on her person and passed all points of sale. West was cited via a Criminal Citation for Theft. CASE# 745-18.ASSAULT: On January 5, DFC. Lawrence responded to the 23000 block of Broadrun Lane in Hollywood for a reported assault. Upon arrival the victim advised Suspect, had assaulted the victim by choking and striking the victim with cardboard tubing. The victim displayed signs of injury and Lee was arrested and charged with Assault 2nd Degree. CASE# 785-18.ASSAULT: On January 6, DFC. Schultz responded to the 18000 block of Matthews Drive in Lexington Park for a reported disturbance. Upon arrival contact was made with the victim who stated, had assaulted the victim by pushing them into the wall several times. Visible injury was observed to the victim and Smith was arrested and charged with Assault 2nd Degree. CASE# 952-18.VIOLATION OF PROTECTIVE ORDER: On January 6, Suspect, was observed leaving a residence in the 22000 block of Wheatley's Way in Leonardtown after being served a protective order prohibiting him from being at the residence. Horan was arrested and charged with Violate Exparte/Protective Order by DFC. Tirpak. CASE# 956-18.VIOLATION OF PROTECTIVE ORDER: On January 6, DFC. Lawrence was in the 43000 block of Pump House Lane in Leonardtown investigating an incident when he encountered. There is an active protective order preventing Washington from being at that location; Washington was arrested and charged with Violate Exparte/Protective Order. CASE# 964-18.01/02/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for Assault 2nd Degree, Theft, Violation of Probation/ FTA/Burglary 4th Degree, and Escape 1st Degree by Dep. T. Payne# 320. CASE# 024-18.01/03/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for CDS-Possession of Firearms by Dep. T. Payne# 320. CASE# 530-18.01/03/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for FTA/Driving W/Out a License by Dep. Holdsworth# 305. CASE# 428-18.01/03/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for Deprive-Lawful Custodian by Dep. Holdsworth# 305. CASE# 399-18.01/03/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for Assault 1st Degree, Assault 2nd Degree, False Imprisonment, Reckless Endangerment, and FTA/Child Support by Dep. Holdsworth# 305. CASE# 469-18.01/04/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding Prince George's County warrant for Theft by Cpl. Delozier# 160. CASE# 601-18. (No Photograph Available)01/05/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding Child Support warrant by Cpl. Knott# 234. CASE# 788-18.01/05/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding Spotsylvania County warrant for Assault/Resisting Arrest by DFC. Steinbach# 268. CASE# 804-18. (No Photograph Available)01/05/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for Violation of Probation/Rogue & Vagabond/Theft by Dep. Budd# 325. CASE# 835-18.01/05/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for FTA/Assault 2nd Degree by Cpl. Kerby# 242. CASE# 857-18.01/05/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for FTA/Contempt-Child Support by Cpl. Kerby# 242. CASE# 847-18.01/06/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for Violation of Probation/Motor Vehicle-Unlawful taking by Cpl. Knott#234. CASE# 899-18.01/06/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding Charles County warrant for Assault 2nd Degree by Cpl. Handy# 132. CASE# 927-18.01/07/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding Child Support warrant by Dep. Robinson# 332. CASE# 1087-17.01/07/2018:, was arrested on an outstanding Child Support warrant by DFC. Tirpak# 270. CASE# 1133-17. (No Photograph Available)On January 3, Dep. Sidorowicz discovered a vehicle stopped in the turn lane in the area of Three Notch Road/ Old Rolling Road, in California, with the operator of the vehicle slumped over the wheel. Dep. Sidorowicz made contact with the operator of the vehicle;. Huntzberry was ultimately arrested and charged with Driving While Impaired by Alcohol and Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol. CASE# 424-18.On January 7, a citizen called and reported a vehicle traveling southbound in the northbound lanes of traffic in the 26000 block of Three Notch Road in Mechanicsville. DFC. D. Smith located the vehicle and identified the driver as. Parker was ultimately arrested and charged with Driving Vehicle While Impaired by Alcohol and Driving Vehicle Under the Influence of Alcohol Per Se. CASE# 1042-18. (No Photograph Available)On January 7, Cpl. Corcoran was investigating a citizen report of a suspicious vehicle on their property in the 13000 block of Pt. Lookout Road, in Ridge. Contact was made with the operator of the vehicle,. Eckloff was ultimately arrested and charged with Driving Vehicle While Impaired by Alcohol. CASE# 1064-17. Dwayne Thomas Pate, 19, of Hyattsville Kavon Desales Dorsey, 24, of Waldorf Previous Next LA PLATA, 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 12, 2018)The Charles County Sheriff's Office today released the following incident and arrest reports.MAN CHARGED WITH POSSESSION WITH INTENT TO DISTRIBUTE DRUGS: On January 5 at 9:13 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop in the 3900 block of Livingston Road in Indian Head. During the stop, officers detected a strong odor of marijuana. Further investigation showed the occupants had 110 grams of marijuana, scales, and other materials used in drug distribution. Officers also located several bags of suspected cocaine., was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute. Charges are pending against three other occupants of the car. PFC A. Bringley is investigating.RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT: On January 4 at 1:30 a.m., officers were in the area of St. Charles Parkway and Gateview Place in Waldorf handling a traffic crash when they heard gunshots. Officers responded to the area where they heard the shots and discovered fresh footprints in the snow. At the same time, a citizen called 9-1-1, reported hearing gunshots, and saw two male suspects in the area. The citizen took a picture of the suspects and provided a description to officers. Officers followed the footprints, which led to a nearby house. Two males matching the description of the suspects were located inside. A search warrant was obtained, and officers located two handguns with ammunition matching the evidence recovered from the area where the shots were fired. In addition, 62 baggies of marijuana and drug distribution materials were also recovered., was charged with reckless endangerment, first-degree assault, convicted felon in possession of a firearm, possession with intent to distribute illegal drugs, and other related charges.was also charged in this case. PFC S. Hooper is investigating.TAMPERING WITH MOTOR VEHICLE: On January 8 between 4 p.m.4 a.m., unknown suspect(s) entered an unlocked car in the 2900 block of Holburn Court in Waldorf and rummaged through it. Nothing was reported stolen. Officer D. Spencer is investigating. The new Charlotte Hall elevated Water Storage Tower (WST) near the Maryland Transit Administration Park and Ride Facility on MD Route 6 will serve the Charlotte Hall Town Center. (Photo courtesy of MetCom) CALIFORNIA, Md. (January 12, 2018)The Metropolitan Commission (MetCom) provides public water and sewer services to portions of St. Mary's County. MetCom operates 28 water supply and distribution systems throughout the county, including 67 wells, which supplied approximately 1.4 billion gallons of water in fiscal year 2017. Likewise, MetCom owns and operates 5 wastewater treatment facilities that treated a combined average of 1.5 billion gallonsan average of over 240,000 gallons of waste per day in fiscal year 2017. MetCom also manages two private sewage treatment facilities under operating agreements with the owners of the facilities.Recently added to the system are two new elevated water storage towers and associated production wells located in Hollywood and Charlotte Hall. These facilities are currently in the final phases of construction close-out. Both projects will be completed under budget and will include state-of-the art radio communication technology.The new Hollywood elevated Water Storage Tower (WST) near the Broad Creek and Twin Ponds subdivisions will serve the Hollywood Town Center. This particular tower will provide 500,000 gallons of storage and a 400 gallon per minute (gpm) well. The new facility will ensure adequate fire suppression, improve water pressure, and provide additional storage to support planned growth in the area. The approved capital construction budget was $3.486M and was funded through a low interest loan from the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The Water Appropriations and Use Permit was obtained from Maryland Department of the Environment's (MDE) Water Management Administration. MDE's Certification of Potability for the well was obtained on November 6, 2017. Water quality testing for the storage tank has been completed and the facility was placed into operation on December 27, 2017 by MetCom staff, contractor Caldwell Tanks, Inc., and designer WRL.The new Charlotte Hall elevated Water Storage Tower (WST) near the Maryland Transit Administration Park and Ride Facility on MD Route 6 will serve the Charlotte Hall Town Center. This particular tower will provide 400,000 gallons of storage and a 250 gpm well. The new facility will ensure adequate fire suppression, address storage lost due to damage to ground storage and provide storage for domestic use. The Charlotte Hall Town Center has reached the density required for an elevated water storage tank. The approved capital construction budget was $3.107M and was also funded through a low interest loan from the DHCD. This facility is expected to be placed into operation in the very near future."We are very pleased at the recent progress of these two projects, but are now pressing forward to begin the construction of a much larger $6.297M water storage tank in Hickory Hills that was approved in prior years," stated George Erichsen, MetCom's Executive Director. "The new two million gallon storage facility has an approved budget of $6.297M and is funded through a low interest loan from the DHCD." Final land acquisition was completed in November, 2017 and construction is anticipated in the late spring, 2018, following final site plan approval and the formal bidding process.To learn more about MetCom projects, visit www.metcom.org and choose Capital Improvement Projects under the Engineering tab. ANNAPOLIS (January 12, 2018)The Maryland Senate on Friday, following the state House one day earlier, overrode two vetoes by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, including one that would require some businesses to provide paid sick leave for employees. Under the new paid sick leave law, any business with 15 or more full-time employees will be required to give workers at least five days of earned sick and safe leave and is expected to extend to more than 500,000 Marylanders. The law, which took about five years to pass, will pay the leave at the employee's regular wage, according to a state legislative summary. Republicans argued that the legislation could hurt smaller businesses and deter hiring, especially among "opportunity employers,"who take on less-skilled or riskier hiressaid Sen. Robert Cassilly, R-Harford and Cecil. In the Senate, the override passed largely along party lines, 30-17. Democrats, who hold the majority in both the Maryland House and the Senate, sponsored both pieces of legislation, which Hogan had vetoed last spring. The Maryland House of Delegates on Thursday also overrode the same two vetoes by Hoganpaid sick leave and the Maryland Fair Access to Education Act of 2017, also known as "Ban the Box." This law will prohibit colleges and universities in Maryland from requesting information about the criminal history of applicants on initial admissions forms. Schools could still consider an applicant's criminal history later in the admission process. Overrides of that legislation passed 90-50 in the House on Thursday, and 32-15 in the Senate on Friday. The votes in both chambers were largely along party lines, during a General Assembly session expected to be influenced by national and state politics. The sick-leave legislation passed 88-52 in the House. "We have to hear the cries of people like me," Delegate Cheryl Glenn, D-Baltimore, said on the House floor Thursday, referring to a period in her life when she experienced domestic violence. Senate Minority Whip Stephen Hershey, R-Kent, Queen Anne's, Cecil and Caroline, has a small business with 14 employees. This bill, he said, would make him think twice before hiring a 15th because he would have to provide paid sick leave for all of them. Democrats, however, argued that paid sick leave was long overdue and that they owed it to their constituencies to act. Hogan supports paid sick leave, but said in a statement the Democrats' bill would penalize small businesses. On Wednesday, Hogan introduced a "compromise" bill that would start with larger businesses and eventually apply to companies with 25 or more employees, phasing in by the year 2020. It also would not require an explanation for the absence. House Republicans said the Democrats' measure, which would require employees to disclose the reason for an absence of more than two consecutive days, would violate privacy. Hogan is running for reelection, and a number of Democrats have announced they are running in the primary to challenge him. Maryland lawmakers are also bracing for changes at the federal level, under the administration of President Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress. The sick-leave measure is expected to take effect in 30 days. Katherine Brzozowski contributed to this report. PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. (January 12, 2018)A study on the impact of tourism, released in December by the Maryland Office of Tourism Development, shows an impressive 5.6 percent increase in visitors to Calvert County in 2016. In addition, the county tourism industry sales grew by 3.5 percent to nearly $152 million, while tourism employment, labor income and tax receipts all posted gains. Nearly 1,300 people are directly employed through the Calvert County tourism sector, representing $41.6 million in labor income. Tourism tax receipts in 2016including federal, state, local and hotel taxestotaled nearly $40 million, an increase of almost 5.8 percent over 2015. "The county's rich history, unique shopping, concerts, beaches, wineries, breweries and dining experiences draw more and more visitors every year," said Calvert County Department of Economic Development Director Kelly Robertson-Slagle. "The economic impact numbers for 2016 reinforce the fact that the tourism industry is a vital economic driver for the county; I fully expect more good news in our world of tourism next year." 19-year-old Edwin Aguilar Martinez is in custody after being charged with stabbing 2 fellow students at Central High School. UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (January 12, 2018)Prince George's County Police detectives arrested and charged a Central High School student for stabbing and injuring two other students at school on Thursday. The suspect is 19-year-old Edwin Aguilar Martinez of the 7000 block of Fresno Street in Seat Pleasant.On Thursday, January 11th, at about 9:00 a.m., patrol officers were called to the school on Cabin Branch Road in Capitol Heights for the report of a stabbing. When they arrived, officers located two students suffering from stab wounds. The victims are both currently in stable condition at a hospital with what appear to be non-life-threatening injuries.The preliminary investigation reveals the stabbings stemmed from an argument between the suspect and victims over a female student.Martinez is being charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault and a weapons charge. He is in custody of the Department of Corrections. (WB) With President Trump facing low approval ratings, signs continue to point to a political wave against him in this years mid-term elections and LGBT candidates are hoping to benefit. A record number of openly LGBT candidates are running for office, many in high-profile statewide races, which could result in a milestone election for a group that has been historically underrepresented. Annise Parker, CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, predicted LGBT candidates endorsed by the organization in 2018 are going to do well. Were in this business because we think our candidates are going to do well in any election, but we dont see just a Democratic surge, we actually see a progressive surge across the United States, Parker said. Parker added, were going to have more LGBT candidates than we have had ever in our history, but also candidates who are women and people of color also stand to make historic wins. Even though those candidates who arent from our community and wouldnt be our endorsed candidates, I think theyre going to help carry the banner for us a little bit, Parker said. Signs are strong that Democrats will pick up seats in 2018, which is consistent with the historical trend of the party in opposition to the party of the president gaining seats in the mid-term elections. In every mid-term election, the presidents party loses an average of 32 seats in the U.S. House and two seats in the U.S. Senate. (The only exception to these losses in recent years has been in 1998 and 2002 due to extraordinary circumstances. In 1998, there was outrage over the impeachment of President Clinton. In 2002, there was an anti-terrorism sentiment after the attacks on 9/11.) A CNN poll published in December found 56 percent of respondents say theyll most likely vote for a Democrat in the mid-term election compared to 38 percent who say theyll vote Republican. According to CNN, that 18-point advantage is the biggest since the organization began polling on the 2018 election and the widest margin in two decades at this point in the election cycle. Democrats have their goals in sight. To win control of the House in 2018, Democrats needs 24 seats. To win control of the Senate, Democrats need just two thanks to the surprise victory of Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) in the special election late last year. Part of the effort for Democrats to win control of Congress will be LGBT candidates seeking election to the House and Senate. In Wisconsin, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the only out lesbian in Congress, will seek to keep her seat in the Senate. That seat might be a challenge for Democrats to hold even in a good election cycle. The Huffington Posts Amanda Terkel published an article this month titled, Wisconsin Is Quietly Becoming The Top Senate Race Of 2018. According to the article, conservative groups have reported spending at least $3.1 million against Baldwin, which is more than what all the other Democratic Senate incumbents on the ballot this year have faced combined. But that only counts the reported money, not the dark money coming from groups that dont have necessarily have to report their contributions to the Federal Election Commission. Nine groups have spent more than $4.7 million on ads that attack Baldwin or boost one of the Republicans seeking to unseat her, according to the article. Parker said conservative groups are targeting Baldwin because shes focused and effective and doing a great job in the Senate. Its going to be a tough re-elect for her, nor just because shes going to have opposition on the right, but because theres already evidence of a massive independent expenditure campaign against her, Parker said. If she werent so effective, I dont think theyd be dropping the millions of dollars that they are to try to defeat her. Among the groups spending money against Baldwin is Americans for Prosperity, the Super PAC funded by the Koch brothers that has sought to unseat Democrats in Congress. According to the Huffington Post, Americans for Prosperity has spent $861,669 in the race. Parker said she doesnt believe these groups are targeting Baldwin because of her sexual orientation, but because she has been an effective progressive voice in the Senate. Theyre looking at the last presidential campaign and trying to project from that, Parker said. I dont think that thats going to be successful. Meanwhile, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is running for the U.S. Senate seat in Arizona being vacated by retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). If Sinema is elected, shed be the first openly bisexual person elected to the Senate. Sinemas race could be interesting because a slew of right-wing candidates seeking the nomination could be her opponent in the general election. The newest entrant in the race is Joe Arpaio. President Trump pardoned the former Maricopa County sheriff last year after he faced jail time for unconstitutionally enforcing immigration law to target immigrant communities. Parker said the Victory Fund is working hard on Sinemas race because thats an opportunity to move a seat into a progressive column. Considering whos on the Republican side of that race, its going to be a very clear pro-LGBTQ progressive candidate versus a right-wing ideologue, whichever one of them comes through, Parker said. A number of non-incumbent LGBT candidates are also running in U.S. House races and seeking to take seats from Republican candidates. Non-incumbent candidates with good shots of winning are Lauren Baer, whos running in Floridas 18th congressional district; Angie Craig, whos running in Minnesotas second congressional district; Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis, whos running in New Mexicos first congressional district; Gina Ortiz Jones, whos running in Texass 23rd congressional district; and Florida State Rep. David Richardson, whos running in Floridas 26th congressional district. Richardson is running for the seat currently occupied by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), whos considered the most pro-LGBT Republican in Congress and announced shed retire at the end of this year. Richardsons prospects are strong in the heavily Democratic district that Ros-Lehtinen has maintained for years. Meanwhile, gay Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.) are seeking to keep their seats in the House and will likely prevail given their incumbent status, favorable districts and strength of Democrats in 2018. Other LGBT candidates could replace Democrats who are leaving their seats at the end of this year. In New Hampshires first congressional district, State Rep. Chris Pappas is seeking to claim the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.). The race to replace retiring Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) in Massachusetts 3rd congressional district is a veritable free-for-all of LGBT candidates. No fewer than 12 candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination, including three LGBT candidates. Theyre Rufus Gifford, whos gay and served as U.S. ambassador to Denmark in the Obama administration; Steve Kerrigan, whos gay and ran to become Massachusetts lieutenant governor in 2014; and Alexandra Chandler, whos transgender and a former Navy intelligence specialist. Other gay candidates are in uphill battles seeking to claim seats in Republican strongholds. Among them is John Duncan, a gay HIV/AIDS activist running in Texas sixth congressional district. Another candidate facing a challenge is Dan Canon, whos straight, but fought as an attorney for marriage equality in Kentucky and is running in Indianas conservative ninth congressional district. If LGBT House and Senate candidates win each of these races, it could significantly shake up LGBT representation in Congress and potentially more than double the number of seven openly LGBT public officials currently serving. A victory for Chandler would make her the first openly transgender person elected to Congress. LGBT candidates are involved in other significant state races. At the top of the list are the gubernatorial campaigns of Rep. Jared Polis in Colorado and State Sen. Rich Madaleno in Maryland. Should either of them win, theyd claim the distinction of being the first openly gay people elected as governor in the United States. In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown, whos bisexual, is seeking re-election. In 2016, she already claimed the distinction of being the first openly LGBT person elected as governor. In Nevada, State Assembly member Nelson Araujo (D-Las Vegas) is running to become Nevada secretary of state. If he wins, hell become the first openly gay person of color to win statewide election anywhere in the United States. In the wake of major victories for transgender candidates in 2017, other transgender hopefuls, such as Chandler in Massachusetts, could see victories. In Maryland, transgender activist Dana Beyer is seeking Madalenos seat as he pursues the bid for governor and could be the first openly transgender candidate elected to a state Senate anywhere in the country. In Texas, the blue wave could result in the election of a record number of LGBT candidates running for office at various levels of state government. The Houston-based OutSmart Magazine reported 42 people are running for office in Texas, including two candidates for governor: former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez and Dallas businessperson Jeffrey Payne. Parker declined to identify her highest priority race for 2018, but said the Victory Funds bread and butter is local races. Also important, Parker said, are Baldwin and Sinemas races for Senate seats and the gubernatorial elections with gay candidates. When analyzing candidates to support, however, Parker said the Victory Fund doesnt take into account whether a year will be a Republican or Democratic wave. Its going to be great for our candidates, but its not what we depend on, its not what we look at when were vetting them, Parker said. Its just means that if it happens, were going to take advantage of it. Chris Johnson, Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association. 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. SPT0615-JD NASA An intensive survey deep into the universe by NASAs Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has yielded the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack: the farthest galaxy yet seen in an image that has been stretched and amplified by a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. The embryonic galaxy named SPT0615-JD existed when the universe was just 500 million years old. Though a few other primitive galaxies have been seen at this early epoch, they have essentially all looked like red dots, given their small size and tremendous distances. However, in this case, the gravitational field of a massive foreground galaxy cluster not only amplified the light from the background galaxy but also smeared the image of it into an arc (about 2 arcseconds long). No other candidate galaxy has been found at such a great distance that also gives you the spatial information that this arc image does. By analyzing the effects of gravitational lensing on the image of this galaxy, we can determine its actual size and shape, said the studys lead author, Brett Salmon of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. He is presenting his research at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington. First predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, the warping of space by the gravity of a massive foreground object can brighten and distort the images of far more distant background objects. Astronomers use this zoom lens effect to go hunting for amplified images of distant galaxies that otherwise would not be visible with todays telescopes. SPT0615-JD was identified in Hubbles Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS) and companion S-RELICS Spitzer program. RELICS was designed to discover distant galaxies like these that are magnified brightly enough for detailed study, said Dan Coe, principal investigator of RELICS. RELICS observed 41 massive galaxy clusters for the first time in infrared with Hubble to search for such distant lensed galaxies. One of these clusters was SPT-CL J0615-5746, which Salmon analyzed to make this discovery. Upon finding the lens-arc, Salmon thought, Oh, wow! I think were on to something! By combining the Hubble and Spitzer data, Salmon calculated the lookback time to the galaxy of 13.3 billion years. Preliminary analysis suggests the diminutive galaxy weighs in at no more than 3 billion solar masses (roughly 1/100th the mass of our fully grown Milky Way galaxy). It is less than 2,500 light-years across, half the size of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The object is considered prototypical of young galaxies that emerged during the epoch shortly after the big bang. The galaxy is right at the limits of Hubbles detection capabilities, but just the beginning for the upcoming NASA James Webb Space Telescopes powerful capabilities, said Salmon. This galaxy is an exciting target for science with the Webb telescope as it offers the unique opportunity for resolving stellar populations in the very early universe. Spectroscopy with Webb will allow for astronomers to study in detail the firestorm of starbirth activity taking place at this early epoch, and resolve its substructure. NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASAs Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington. K2-138 Caltech In its search for exoplanets planets outside of our solar system NASAs 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 mission the 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 far 44 Jupiter-sized planets, 72 Neptune-sized, 44 Earth-sized, and 53 so-called Super Earths, which are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. 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 zone the 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 its 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, and Christiansen is speaking about K2-138 at this weeks 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, DC. 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 systems life. However, these theories are unlikely to result in such a closely packed, orderly system as K2-138, says Christiansen. Whats exciting is that we found this unusual system with the help of the general public. Reference: The K2-138 System: A Near-Resonant Chain of Five Sub-Neptune Planets Discovered by Citizen Scientists, Jessie L. Christiansen et al., 2018 February, Astronomical Journal [http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aa9be0]. In addition to Christiansen, Crossfield, and Barentsen; other coauthors include Chris Lintott, Campbell Allen, Adam McMaster, Grant Miller, Martin Veldthuis of the University of Oxford; Thomas Barclay of NASA Goddard and the University of Maryland; Brooke Simmons of UC San Diego; Caltech postdoctoral scholar Erik Petigura; Joshua Schlieder of NASA Goddard; Courtney Dressing of UC Berkeley; Andrew Vanderburg of Harvard; Sarah Allen and Zach Wolfenbarger of the Adler Planetarium; Brian Cox of the University of Manchester; Julia Zemiro of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Caltech Professor of Astronomy Andrew Howard; John Livingston of the University of Tokyo; Evan Sinukoff of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the University of Hawaii at Manoa; Timothy Catron of Arizona State University; Andrew Grey, Joshua Kusch, Ivan Terentev, and Martin Vales of Zooniverse as part of the University of Oxford; and Martti Kristiansen of the Technical University of Denmark. Funding was provided by the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Google, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England We can't seem to find the page you are looking for. You may have typed the address incorrectly or you may have used an outdated link. Coffee on Kickstarter is nothing newthe site has hosted coffee projects from devices to new brewing methods to new cafes. But today I want to introduce you to Planting Costa Rica, a team of four youngsters based in Costa Rica, Germany, The Netherlands, and Chile who are working to revitalize the coffee industry in a sleepy region of Costa Rica called Miramar. Their main purpose is to find a place in the international market for Costa Rican coffee producers willing to produce specialty coffee. How exactly are they planning to do this? Planting Costa Rica is divided into three milestones, the Kickstarter being the second. Their first phase included networking across Europe to introduce the project to potential buyers and raise awareness about the social impact specialty coffee has in producing countries. During this phase they also visited Costa Rican producers across the eight producing regions to introduce them to the specialty market in Europe and the different possibilities that are out there as well as to find differences, strengths, and opportunities in the different regions. That is how they ended up in Miramar. After cupping coffee from different producers and regions and analyzing the situation in different places they decided to give a hand to El Bueyerito micro-mill. They discovered the potential of this coffee that does not come from a popular region. Located in Puntarenas, the province that covers most of Costa Ricas Pacific Coast, Miramar is part of the Guanacaste Region as stated by the Instituto Costarricense del Cafe. The local cooperative just underwent a budgetary crisis, causing the local production to drop from 2,000 hectares to only 600; some producers are even selling their coffee at a price that doesnt cover the costs. Through this first project, Planting Costa Rica wants to help the producers at El Cedral de Miramar to overcome this crisis and introduce them to the specialty market. Just a 50-minute ride from downtown will get you to the highlands of Miramar at 1,200 MASL, with a microclimate that makes quality coffee production a reality. Here, the producers are used to handing over their coffee to the cooperatives and they lack the knowledge on how to do the complete processing in order to get a good cup of coffee. Youve probably heard the saying teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. That is basically what Planting Costa Rica wants to accomplish but with coffee producers. They are reaching out to those coffee producers with a high potential to produce a better coffee, but have not found the way around it yet. Roberto Jimenez, the owner of the micro-mill El Bueyerito, has been doing this for the past six years with approximately 50 small producers. Jimenez explains that he has given everything he has to enhance the quality of their coffee to those interested, but they still need some help. Through the crowdfunding they will develop the infrastructure at El Bueyerito but will also improve the know-how with the help of one of the members of the team, Pablo Juarez. Working in coffee for over 10 years, he started his coffee journey at a cooperative. His background includes being a Cup of Excellence judge and leading Fairtrade workshops in Papua New Guinea to help producers enhance their producing and processing skills to better sell their coffee. Planting Costa Rica doesnt end by giving the producers the knowledge and infrastructure to process high quality coffee. They also want to help them sell their coffee by creating direct trade connections, so they will be in charge of the export/import process with their network in Europe. It is important for the producers to understand that quality production pays off, and that we can work together to successfully compete in the international specialty coffee market, states Nicolas Salcedo, one of Planting Costa Ricas four founders. By supporting this Kickstarter, sponsors will not only get great coffeethey are also helping to shape the future of Miramars coffee producing history. El Cedral has been producing coffee over the past 40 years but due to the poor administration of different cooperatives (and a wide variety of extenuating cultural and economic circumstances), producers have lost faith in coffee and have left it behind, introducing new crops to their farms. The region has gone from from producing 20,000 quintales of coffee to just 5,000 a year, and the numbers keep going down, but Jimenez and Planting Costa Rica have faith that the quality of the coffee can surprise the international coffee market. Motivation and a shift in mentality is key. The whole coffee growing situation can change here, with your help, and thats exactly what this not-yet-discovered micro region needs. To support Planting Costa Rica and El Bueyerito, visit their Kickstarter page. Theyre seeking a total of around $8500, and the project runs until Friday, January 19th. Fabiola Solano (@soybaristacr) is a freelance coffee journalist and the publisher of Soy Barista, based in Costa Rica. This is Fabiola Solanos first feature for Sprudge Media Network. Photos courtesy of Nicolas Salcedo. This Page has moved to a new address: Sorry for the inconvenience Redirection provided by Blogger to WordPress Migration Service The Page You Are Looking For Couldnt Be Found. You are experiencing technical issues. Please contact our support to get more information. Embassy officials earned by unofficial 'Hot Service' Gazi Anowarul Hoque : Kuwait bound travelers, who are expecting visa from Bangladesh, are suffering and facing harassments due to embassy irregularities. According to some Kuwait bound travelers from Bangladesh, as the embassy has introduced unofficial 'Hot Service' for issuing visa, the suffering and harassment of travelers are mounting gradually. There are allegations that by introducing 'Hot Services' for giving entry visa for Bangladeshi workers and allowing visas for the medically unfit applicants, Officials of the Kuwait embassy are making money illegally and sending to their home country by using illegal means like 'Hundi'. On the other hand, local recruiting agents, visa processors generally are not receiving same preferences to get the 'Hot Service' from the embassy in Bangladesh. To get this special service from the embassy, for each passport it requires paying additional Tk 10,000 and the payee gets the special service of visa within five to six hours. But few recruiting agencies and agents only are getting such preference from the embassy according to a recent discovery. Visa Officer of Kuwait embassy told media that visa applicants were receiving visa without any harassment. Due to technical complexities, it may take a bit time in some cases, but he is not aware of any service known as hot service in the embassy. He asserted, if any visa recipient faces any harassment, it should contact the embassy and it will be addressed as soon as possible. On the other hand, embassy staff Md Jahangir who works as a messenger there denied his relevance with the matter and said he could not disburse any information on the issue which the higher officials can. "I work according to the instructions of the higher officials of the embassy," he said. While there are allegations that though the issue of 'Hot Service' was known to the related ministry and the higher officials of the embassy, the state of sufferings and harassments still exist and remained unaddressed. It resulted travelers with additional sufferings and increased cost which is affecting manpower export process from Bangladesh. Sources said, Kuwait bound labourers from Bangladesh acquire visa with their own efforts and process it with the help of the local recruiting agencies. In the stage of visa processing, travelers need to submit work permit issued from Kuwait, Police clearance, Medical certificate to the embassy for obtaining entry visa from the embassy. But, embassy approved recruiting agents could not confirm the scheduled date, time schedule and flight date to the travelers from Bangladesh. As a result, obtaining entry visa from the embassy takes unlimited time which prolongs to months. Due to availability of such 'Hot Service' which delivers entry visa within 5 to 6 days, travelers pay additional amount and process visa early. Primary investigation has revealed that some embassy insiders are doing the brisk business with the cooperation of some selected recruiting firms of Bangladesh. It is causing general travelers sufferings and harassments. They are losing confidence on the recruiting agents who are not associated with the 'Hot Service'. Moreover, there are no systematic schedule of accepting and delivering passport from the embassy with decelerated timeframe hindering local agents business. There are also allegations that by paying a good amount of money to the visa officers some medically unfit travelers are obtaining visa from embassy which is illegal and punishable according to immigration rules and regulations of Kuwait and Bangladesh. BRU inks deal with AIBS Prof Dr Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, BTFO, Vice Chancellor of Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur and Prof Dr Golam Matbor, President of American Institute of Bangladesh Studies shaking hands after signing an agreement on academic knowledge sharing at the Liaiso Jannatun lucky, BRU : Begum Rokeya University (BRU), Rangpur and American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS) signed an agreement on academic knowledge sharing at the Liaison office of BRU in the capital on Wednesday. This is the sixth academic deal with another organization signed by BRU. Prof Dr Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, BTFO, Vice Chancellor of BRU and AIBS President Prof Dr Golam Matbor signed the agreement in favour of their respective organizations. Teachers and students of the two organizations under this agreement will be benefited through exchanging educational information and cultural activities including research. Besides, BRU and AIBS hope to increase their intellectual skills through exchange of knowledge. Meher Nigar, Manager of AIBS including senior officials of both organizations were present in the signing ceremony. Russian, Iranian foreign ministers discuss Syria Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a news conference following the talks with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in Mosco Reuters, Moscow : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif about preparations for a Russian-hosted Syrian People's Congress, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday in a statement. 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. 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. Housewife allegedly tortured to death by philanderer UNB, Sunamganj : A housewife was tortured to death allegedly by her philandering husband over a marital feud at Berigaon village of Sadar upazila in the district on Wednesday. The victim was identified as Firoza Khatun, 28, daughter of Md Shahjahan Mia of Berigaon village, wife of Md Ali Mansur, son of Dadon Mia from Ballabpur village of the upazila and mother of three children. Firoza's brother Anwar Hossain said Mansur used to torture Firoza often, and such abusive behaviour was getting more and more acute over family feud after he married two other women without informing Firoza. On Tuesday, Mansur actually Firoza at her father's residence leaving her critically injured. The victim was rushed to Sunamganj Sadar Hospital and later was referred to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries on Wednesday, said Officer-in-Charge of Sadar Model Police Station Md Shahidullah. Honey harvesting gains popularity in Rajshahi BSS, Rajshahi : Honey farming has gained popularity in the region including its vast Barind tract as many people attained success through commercial harvesting of honey. Honey farming is being expanded gradually at many new areas contributing a lot towards employment generation besides boosting honey production. Ataur Rahman, a farmer of Namajgram village under Godagari Upazila, remained involved in honey harvesting in mustard field since 2000. In the initial stage, he gained profit through setting up ten boxes that encourages him to enhance the number of boxes in the following years. In this season, he has set up 250 boxes in different areas. "I have harvested 15 kilograms of honey from every box in last 12 days", Ataur Rahman said. He earns more than Taka seven lakh every winter season through his commercial honey harvesting. "Honey harvesting makes me income-generator and self-confident," said Ashraful Islam Sumon, another farmer of Hasnabad village under Godagari Upazila, adding that he has collected 12 kilograms of honey from every box in last 11 days. "I got 35 mounds of honey from my 63 bee-colonies in Borobilla area under Paba upazila. I sold twelve mounds to locals. Now I am waiting to sell the rest to a company at a good price," said Habibur Rahman Babu, a farmer in Darusha village under the same upazila. Mustafizur Rahman, Additional Director of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), said more than 260 tonnes of honey were produced in the region during the current season making growers hopeful of getting a good earning. He said this amount is five times higher than that of last year. Farmers of Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore, Chapainawabganj and other adjacent districts had been engaged in honey extraction since mid-November. Farmers set up 7,500 bee-colonies near mustard fields in different villages there was good flowering, and got around 80 kg of honey from each colony in two weeks, the growers said. The farmers said they were able to sell one-third of the honey to local people and wholesalers at around Tk 150 per kilogram, and are waiting for business companies to buy the rest. "We will be able to make a good profit if the companies buy our honey for Taka 150 to Taka 200 per kg," the growers said. A number of growers said the same, adding that they have to spend about 50 percent of the earning to meet the cost during extraction and for feeding the bees during the off-season. Department of Zoology in Rajshahi University Prof Dr Bidhan Chandra Das told BSS that honey farmers need technological support, financial assistance and a sound of marketing system. "It's possible to make the honey farming a million-dollar business for the country, creating huge jobs," he said. "If the government takes proper steps, honey production will get a boost in the country, ushering in a new opportunity for export," said Dr Das. 32,340-kg honey collected in Jamalpur BSS from Jamalpur adds: A total of 32,340-kg honey was collected from mustard field in the district this year. Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) officials here today said honey collectors set up 5,060 boxes in mustard field for collecting honey in the district during the current Robi season. They collected 32,340 kilograms of honey worth about TK 1.30 crore. They said mustard was cultivated on 17,700 hectares of land in the district this year but the honey was collected only from 3992 hectares of mustard field. They added most of the honey was collected in Islampur upazila of the district. In the upazila, honey collectors got 25,000-kg honey by setting up 3120 boxes on 2300 hectares of land. On the other hand, 300-kg honey was collected in Jamalpur sadar upazila while 1480-kg in Sarishabari, 400-kg in Melandaha, 2160-Kg in Dewanganj, 1000-kg in Madarganj and 2000-kg in Bakshiganj upazila. According to DAE office sources, during honey collection bees help pollinate the flowers, increasing mustard production 15 to 25 per cent. Last year 31960-kg honey was collected from the mustard field here. 10 pc dividend of S Alam Steel declared Chittagong Bureau : The 7th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the S Alam Cold Roled Steel Mills Ltd was held yesterday at Hotel Radison Blue hall in the city with its Chairman Abdus Samad in the chair. In the meeting, 10 percent dividend was declared for shareholders. The AGM was told that during the year ended on June 30 last, the compa.ny sold its product by Tk.245 crores. Only the 'drawer' is liable High Court Division (Criminal Revisional Jurisdiction) Farah Mahbub J Mahmudul Hoque J Shahidul Alam @ S Alam and another. ..........Complainant-Petitioners vs Dr Jahid Hossain Prodhan and another...............Opposite-Parties Judgment August 17th, 2017 Negotiable Instruments Act (XXVI of l881) Section 138 Notice under Section 138 is required to be served upon "the drawer" of the cheque so as to give the drawer an opportunity to make the payment and escape the penal consequences, ..... (12) Negotiable Instruments Act (XXVI of 1881) Section 138 The person who writes a cheque or draft instructs the drawer to pay someone else. The company is the "drawer" of the cheque. The wordings as used in Section 138 is very clear to make only the "drawer" liable and thus, leaves no room for any doubt or ambiguity. . ..... (13) Negotiable Instruments Act (XXVI of 1881) Section 138 Since company is a juristic person, it would be managed by living persons who guided the act of such a juristic person to commit such a glaring default and hence, should be held responsible. . ..... (14) Negotiable Instruments Act (XXVI of 1881) Sections 138 and 140 The purport and scope of Section 140 does not lay down any requirement that in the eventuality of an offence Under section 138, the directors must individually be issued separate notices under Section 138 . No notice is additionally contemplated to be given to the accused No.2 as one of the directors of the company. Therefore, service of notice upon the accused No. 2 beyond time is immaterial where there is nothing in Section 138 which may even remotely suggest insurance of notice to anyone other than "drawer." (15) Negotiable Instruments Act (XXVI of 1881) Section 138 The Managing Director being the chief executive of the company his knowledge may be deemed to be the knowledge of the company and the directors as well., (15) Negotiable Instruments Act (XXVI of 1881) Section 138 A single notice. of demand issued to the Managing Director of the company will henceforth, be considered to have been issued to the directors as well and the liability of directors can arise on the basis of such notice. ...... (16) Negotiable Instruments Act (XXVI of 1881) Section 138 Since the cheque in question had been issued by the Company as drawer, it constitutes single cause of' action and there cannot be any question of splitting up of the cause of action where the accused No. 2 remains absconding and the law does not contemplate separate notice to be given to every director. .. .... (17) If it was the contention of the directors arrayed as the accused in a prosecution under the Act, that the offence was committed without their knowledge or that they had exercised due diligence to prevent such commission of offence, it would be a matter of defence to be considered at the stage in the trial and certainly not at this stage. Jesmin Sultana Advocate-For the Complainant Petitioners. Moinuddin Farooqui with Md Shahidul Islam, Advocate-For the Opposite Party No. 1. AKM Zahirul Huq. DAG with M Masud Alam Chowdhury. AAG and Sathi Shahjahan AAG-For the State. Judgment Mahmudul Hoque J : This Rule was issued under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure at the instance of the complainant petitioners calling upon the opposite parties to show cause as to why the order dated 25-10-2015 passed by the learned Sessions Judge and Special Judge, Court No. 4 Dhaka in Sessions Trial Case No. 129 of 2015 arising out of Metro Sessions Case No. 8582 of 2015 corresponding to CR Case No. 60 of 2015 under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, discharging the accused persons from the case should not be set aside and/or pass such other or further order or orders as to this Court may seem fit and proper. 2. Facts relevant for disposal of this case, in short, are that the accused persons are dealing with the housing business under the name and style of M/s ARCADIA PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT LTD. and they constructed 35 apartments out of which the said company sold 23 apartments to the complainants along with 20 others. At the time of delivery of possession some works could not be completed by them. The accused persons requested the purchasers to complete those works at their costs as they had no money to undertake the said works and promised to repay the same as soon as possible. Considering the request and necessity of habitation the flat owners agreed to complete those works at their own costs and completed some of the works spending an amount of Taka 17,33,590. 3. For payment of the said amount the accused persons for and on behalf of the company issued a cheque dated 29-2-2015 in the name of the complainants drawn on National Bank Ltd, Kawran Bazar Branch, Dhaka. The complainants presented the said cheque for encashment but the Bank returned the same with the remark "insufficient fund". After receipt of the information from the bank the complainants served a legal notice upon the accused persons on 23-3-2015 demanding payment of money mentioned in the cheque within 30 days from the date of receipt of the legal notice but the accused persons in spite of receipt of the notice did not come forward to pay the said amount to the complainants. Hence, the present case under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (in short the "Act"). 4. The accused opposite party No. 1 appeared in court and obtained bail but the accused No. 2 remained absconded. In usual course the case was fixed on 25-10-2015 for framing charge. Before that date the accused opposite party No. 1 filed an application under Section 265C of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking discharge from the case on the ground that the legal notice under Section 138 of the Act was served upon the accused No.2 beyond time who did not appear in the case. The trial court allowed the application and discharged the accused. At this stage the complainant petitioners moved this Court by filing this application against the order passed and obtained the present Rule. 5. The opposite party No. I contested the Rule, however, without filing any counter-affidavit. 6. Mr Md Shajahan with Ms. Jesmin Sultana, learned Advocates appearing for the petitioner submit that the accused persons issued the cheque in question not in their personal capacity but for and on behalf of a company named Arcadia Property Development Ltd. as Managing Director and Director respectively, in such a situation independent notice Under Section 138 of the Act need not be required to be served upon each Director of the company and, as such, notice served upon the Managing Director is sufficient for initiation of the case under sections 138 and 140 of the Act. Mr Shahjahan further submits that the trial court rightly found that the notice under Section 138 of the Act was properly served upon the accused No. 1 and the case was filed within the time. But wrongly observed that since a notice under Section 138 of the Act served upon the accused No.2 after 49 days of dishonor of the Cheque the case is barred by law as the cheque in question was issued under joint signature of the accused persons and that the law does not permit to split up the cause of action for a single cheque. 7. Mr Shajahan further goes to argue that in the event of issuance of cheque by the Managing Director or Director on behalf of the company, service of a single notice under Section 138 of the Act upon the company itself or its Managing Director is sufficient for prosecuting the company and its Directors who are responsible for the day to day affairs of the company. Referring to Section 140 of the Act and the cheque in question he further argued that both the accused signed the cheque for payment of the debt of the company and, as such, service of notice upon the Managing Director is sufficient and non-service of notice or notice served beyond time upon other directors of the company is immaterial for prosecution of the company or the Managing Director. Finally, he argued that the trial court discharged the accused persons on the ground of service of notice upon accused No.2 beyond time who is absconding and no application was filed on his behalf on surrender before the court and, as such, discharging the accused vide the impugned order is illegal and hence, liable to be set aside. 8. Mr Md Shahidul Islam, learned Advocate appearing for the opposite party No. 1 submits that the trial court rightly discharged the accused opposite party No. 1 and another from case finding that the case is barred by law as the notice under Section 138 of the Act was served upon the accused No.2, one of the signatories of the cheque beyond time and the cause of action cannot be splitted up. He further argued that it is a condition precedent that to prosecute a drawer of the cheque a notice under Section 138 of the Act must be served upon the drawer within 30 days of the dishonor of the cheque, but in the present case the notice was served after 49 days and, as such, the Rule is liable to be discharged. 9. Heard the learhed Advocates for the parties, have gone through the application, petition of complaint, application under Section 265C of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the impugned order dated 25-10-2015. 10. In the instant case the question is whether by serving only one notice under Section 138 upon the Managing Director, who issued the cheque as one of the signatories for discharge of the debt of the company and service of notice under Section 138 upon other signatory director or directors beyond time, who are responsible for day to day affairs of the company can be prosecuted for the offence under Section 138 of the Act for dishonor of the cheque along with the Managing Director of the company. 11. Before deciding the point raised, it is necessary to have a look at the provisions of Sections 138 and 140 of the Act, which run thus: "138. Dishonor of cheque for insufficiency, etc. of funds in the account.-(l) where any cheque drawn by a person on an account maintained by him with a banker for payment of any amount of money to another person from out of that account is returned by the bank unpaid, either because of the amount of money standing to the credit of that account is insufficient to honour the cheque or that it exceeds the amount arranged to be paid from that account by an agreement made with that bank, such person shall be deemed to have committed an offence and shall, without prejudice to any other provisions of this Act, be punished. Provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply unless; (a) the cheque has been presented to the bank within a period of six months from the date on which it is drawn or within the period of its validity, whichever is earlier. (b) the payee or holder in due course of the cheque, as the case may be, makes a demand for the payment of the said amount of money by giving a notice, in writing, to the drawer, of the cheque, "within" thirty days of the receipt of information by him from the bank regarding the return of the cheques as unpaid, and (c) the drawer of such cheque fails to make the payment of the said amount of money to the payee or, as the case may be, to the holder in due course of the cheque, within thirty days of the receipt of the said notice. " "140. Offences of companies-(l) If the person committing an offence under Section 138 is a company, every person who, at the time the offence was committed, was incharge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct of the business of the company, as well as the company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly: Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any person liable to punishment if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge, or that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence. (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), Where any offence under this Act has been committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been committed with the consent or connivance of, or is attributable to, any neglect on the part of any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the company, such director, manager, secretary or other officer shall also be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly: 12. According to Section 138, where any cheque drawn by a person, on an account maintained by him with the bank is returned by the bank unpaid for reasons mentioned in said section such person shall be deemed to have committed an offence. The proviso to the section stipulates 3 (three) conditions on the satisfaction of which the offence is said to be completed. The proviso inter alia, obliges the payee to make a demand for the payment of said amount of money by giving a notice in writing to "the drawer of the cheque" and if "the drawer of the cheque" fails to make the payment within 30 (thirty) days of the receipt of said notice the stages stipulated in the proviso fulfilled. Therefore, notice under Section 138 is required to be served upon "the drawer" of the cheque so as to give the drawer an opportunity to make the payment and escape the penal consequences. 13. The simple meaning of "drawer" is, the person who writes a cheque or draft instructing the drawer to pay someone else. In the present case, admittedly the cheque in question was drawn by Arcadia Property Development Ltd., a company registered under the law and is a person having legal entity. So, the company is the "drawer" of the cheque. The wordings as used in Section 138 is very clear to make only the "drawer" liable and thus, leaves no room for any doubt or ambiguity. 14. The intention behind bringing the directors within the claws of the law was simple, that since company is ajuristic person, it would be managed by living persons who guided the act of such a juristic person to commit such a glaring default and hence, should be held responsible. 15. The purport and scope of Section 140 does not lay down any requirement that in the eventuality of an offence under Section 138, the directors must individually be issued separate notices under Section 138. Here, the accused are not the "drawer" of the cheque in question. They merely signed the cheque for and on behalf of the drawer company for payment of the money to the complainant with whose connivance and neglect the company has committed the offence. The accused No. 2 who runs the business and looks after the affairs of the company along with the accused No. 1 must normally be aware of the notice of demand under Section 138 of the Act issued to the accused No.1, Managing Director of the company. This is because the Managing Director being the chief executive of the company his knowledge may be deemed to be the knowledge of the company and the directors as well. It is precisely for this reason that no notice is additionally contemplated to be given to the accused No. 2 as one of the directors of the company. Therefore, service of notice upon the accused No.2 beyond time is immaterial where there is nothing in Section 138 which may even remotely suggest issuance of notice to anyone other than "drawer." 16. If it was the contention of the directors arrayed as the accused in a prosecution under the Act, that the offence was committed without their knowledge or that they had exercised due diligence to prevent such commission of offence, it would be a matter of defence to be considered at the stage in the trial and certainly not at this stage. Thus, a single notice of demand issued to the accused No.1, Managing Director of the company will henceforth, be considered to have been issued to the directors as well and the liability of directors can arise on the basis of such notice. 17. Apart from this since the cheque in question had been issued by the company as drawer, it constitutes single cause of action and there cannot be any question of splitting up of the cause of action where the accused No.2 remains absconding and the law does not contemplate separate notice to be given to every director. Moreover, in the instant case the complaint discloses only one notice. 18. In view of the above, we find merit in the Rule and in the submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioners calling interference of this Court. 19. In the result the rule is made absolute. 20. The impugned order dated 25-10-2015 passed by the learned Sessions Judge and Special Judge, Court No.4, Dhaka, in Sessions Trial Case No. 129 of 2015 is hereby set aside. 21. The trial court is hereby directed to proceed with the case in accordance with the law. Communicate a copy of this judgment to court concerned. India launches 31 satellites on single mission New Delhi, Xinhua : India on Friday successfully launched 31 satellites on a single mission from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota, officials said. The satellies, including the country's 100th satellite Cartosat (earth observation sastellite), were launched by state-owned Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) aboard its trusted workhorse Polar Launch Satellite Vehicle (PSLV) at 9.28 a.m. local time (0358 GMT). The lift-off has been successful, ISRO officials told the media. The Cartosat is essentially a remote sensing satellite, equipped with panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras and has a shelf life of five years. Apart from Cartosat, other satellites comprise one micro and nano satellite each from India as well as three micro and 25 nanosatellites from six countries-Canada, Finland, France, South Korea, Britain and the United States. The launch of the satellites was earlier slated for January 10. In February last year, India created history by launching 104 satellites on a single mission, overtaking the previous record of 37 satellites set by Russia in 2014. All but three of the satellites were from foreign countries, most of them from the United States. India has over the past two decades earned a reputation of offering a reliable low cost alternative to existing international players in launching satellites into space. Pranab due tomorrow UNB, Dhaka : Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee arrives here on Sunday to attend a number of programmes, including the closing session of the 'International Bengali Literature Conference', in the city. Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will welcome Pranab at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport upon his arrival by a Jet Airways flight in the afternoon, an official told UNB. Pranab's daughter Sharmista Mukherjee, among others, will accompany the former Indian President during his Bangladesh visit. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the three-day literature conference on Saturday at Bangla Academy while Pranab will be present at the closing ceremony of the conference on Monday as the chief guest. He will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganobhaban on Monday and will have lunch there together. Pranab will also visit Bangabandhu Museum to pay respects to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Monday morning. Finance Minister AMA Muhith will host a dinner on the same day in honor of Pranab. Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsh Vardhan Shringla will host a reception to the former Indian President on Sunday. On Tuesday morning, he will go to Chittagong and will visit Chittagong Armoury Raid site, the European Club site and Chittagong University. Chittagong University (CU) will honour former Indian President with a Doctor of Letters (D. Litt) degree on Tuesday afternoon through a special convocation ceremony. The University has taken a decision in its 52nd syndicate meeting recently. CU Registrar Prof Dr Kamrul Huda said the former Indian President is also scheduled to visit two dormitories - Surya Sen and Pritilata - during his visit and will deliver a speech for the teachers and students. 100 Madrasa teachers fall sick in 4 days Ebtedayee Madrasa teachers lying on the street and footpath as they were continuing hunger strike unto death on the 4th consecutive day on Friday in front of Jatiya Press Club demanding nationalization of all madrassas under the Madrassa Board. Staff Reporter : At least 100 agitating teachers of Ebtedayee madrasas, who have been observing hunger strike unto death in front of the Jatiya Press Club, fell sick in four days. Of them, seven have been admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment. Nine teachers fell sick seriously on the fourth day of their ongoing indefinite hunger strike. Under the banner of Bangladesh Independent Ebtedayee Madrasa Teachers' Association, the teachers started indefinite their hunger strike after nine days sit-in programme on the same venue on Tuesday. Their demand is to nationalise all the registered Ebtedayee Madrasas under Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board. President of Bangladesh Independent Ebtedayee Madrasa Teachers' Association Kazi Ruhul Amin Chowdhury told The New Nation that the demonstrating teachers are becoming ill day by day. "But we will continue our strike until the demand is met," he said. He said different socio-political leaders have expressed their solidarity with our demand. But the government is yet to take positive initiative. "The government increased the salaries and allowances of the primary school teachers, but we are deprived of it. 'The government should ensure our pay parity with the primary school teachers," he said. Earlier on Monday, the Ebtedayee teachers submitted separate memoranda to the Education Ministry and Finance Ministry in this regard, including nationalisation of madrasas, said Kazi Mokhlesur Rahman, Secretary General of the association. The teachers had been on a sit-in programme as part of their ultimatum since January 1. The assistant teachers of state-run primary schools earlier on December 22 went on an indefinite hunger strike demanding upgradation of their salary scale. Four days later, on December 25, they ended the strike upon assurance from Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman that their demand will be met. Affiliation process was wrong! Fate of students of 7 colleges' under DU unchanged M M Jasim : Fate of about two lakh students of Dhaka University-affiliated seven colleges is still unchanged as they are suffering from different problems like session jam, delay process of taking examinations and publishing results. Even, the motto to enhance the quality of education at the DU-affiliated seven colleges is yet to fulfil. Tanjim Ahmed, a student of Government Titumir College, said, he completed his 3rd year final examination in July last year but the result is yet to be published. "We were hopeful that our fate would be changed and would get standard education. Our college teachers take classes but the Dhaka University teachers make question papers. This duel role is a serious problem for us," he said. "We are facing difficulties at every level of our academic activities," Tanjim said. Sumaiya Tabassum, a student of Eden Mohila College, said, "We did not get any extra facilities after the college's affiliation with the DU. Rather, we are facing extra problems as our college teachers are reluctant to take the responsibility for any matter. And when we go to the DU authorities they send us to the college." Meanwhile, Dhaka University students have been demanding to cut ties with the recently affiliated educational institutions. The DU students argue that the quality of the affiliated colleges' students is substandard. They use the identity of DU and taking extra unethical facilities. They also alleged that the university is facing problems to run its regular academic activities. So, how it will take responsibility of about two lakh students, they asked. Jubair Ahmed, a final year student of History Department, said, "The DU has no tremendous achievement in the world arena. The name and fame of the university is decreasing day by day. It is urgent to take initiative to restore the image of the most ancient higher educational institution in spite of taking extra pressure." The DU students also on Thursday demonstrated on the campus to transfer the responsibility of the seven colleges. They also complained that the students of those colleges are tagging themselves as students of Dhaka University and engaging in misdeeds. The incumbent DU authorities and the educationists in the country agreed that the affiliation process was wrong. The colleges were shifted without doing any homework. They said that the National University authorities took many plans to improve the quality of the university. It was wise to give more time to the NU administration. Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University Professor Dr Akhtaruzzaman told The New Nation on Friday that the DU was not ready to receive the responsibilities of a large number of students due to manpower shortage. Pabna Medical College closed sine die over BCL infighting Students leaving the halls as Pabna Medical College was declared closed sine die following a clash between two BCL factions on Friday over establishing supremacy on the campus leaving ten students injured. Staff Reporter : Pabna Medical College was closed for an indefinite period following an infighting within Bangladesh Chhatra League, ruling Awami League's student wing, on Friday. The administration of the college took the decision in an emergency meeting and asked the students to vacate their halls. Pabna Medical College Principal Dr Md Rizaul said, "Tension has been prevailing for the last few weeks regarding the formation of Rotary Club and the Medicine Club." "After today's incident, the situation has turned critical. The medical college has been closed for an indefinite period and the students have been asked to vacate halls," he said Additional police have been deployed in and around the campus to avert further untoward incident. Eyewitnesses said, the clash broke out between supporters of BCL, Pabna Medical College unit President Mahfuz Nayan, and the group of General Secretary Aditya Dey around 1am. As a sequel of previous enmity, supporters of both groups engaged in the clash that left at least 10 students injured. On information, the police rushed to the campus and brought the situation under control, Officer-in-Charge of Pabna Sadar Police Station Abdur Razzak said. Talking to journalists, the Pabna Medical College unit BCL President Mahafuz Nayan and General Secratery Aditya Dey blamed each other for the clash. Aditya and his followers along with some outsiders attacked the students. The clash broke out when we protested it," BCL President Nayan said. He claimed nine of his followers were injured in the clashes, but could not expose their identities. General Secretary Aditya Dey claimed they were attacked by some unidentified armed men. According to him, some junior students harassed female seniors during an orientation meeting for new students. "S we protested it, armed men attacked us leaving seven to eight people, including some of our seniors injured." He, however, could not provide the identities of the attackers or the victims. Accused N.Y. subway bomber pleads not guilty 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 police's 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. Three militants killed in city`s Nakhalpara den Three alleged militants were killed and some RAB members injured after the law enforcers along with a RAB team carried out a drive at a suspected militant hideout on a six-storey building in city\'s West Nakhalpara early Friday. Staff Reporter : Three alleged militants were killed during the operation of Rapid Action Battalion in a hideout of banned radicals outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) on the fourth floor of the six-storey building 'Rubby Villa' in the city's West Nakhalpara early Friday. Several suicidal vests, a pistol, explosives, improvised explosive devices (IED), and some bulbs were recovered from the hideout, which was rented by the militants on January 4. Law enforcers had earlier raided the house No 13/1 three times which is approximately 100 yards away from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), RAB officials said. "The law enforcers cordoned off the building around 2:00am suspecting that militants may hole up there, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, Director of Legal and Media Wing of the elite force. "Sensing the presence of RAB members, the "militants" fired bullets and hurled grenades at the law enforcers. Later, the members of the elite force entered the "hideout" after breaking open door and conducted operation there, the RAB official said. Before conducting the operation, the 61 residents of the nine other flats have been taken to the house owner's flat in the first-floor, he said. 139 `crossfire` victims in 2017: Odhikar Staff Reporter : At least 139 people became victims of 'crossfire' and 86 were victims of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh in 2017, rights organisation Odhikar said on Friday. In the annual report of the organisation released today, Odhikar also said that 59 people 'died' in jail and 77 people were killed in political violence in the outgoing year. It said that the incidents of extrajudicial killings and torture by law enforcement agencies must be investigated and the perpetrators must be brought to effective justice. It recommended that the government should investigate and explain all incidents of enforced disappearance and post-disappearance killings, allegedly perpetrated by law enforcement agencies. The report said 783 women became victims of rape, 242 were subjected to sexual harassment, 256 became victims of violence for dowry and 52 were injured in acid attacks in 2017. It reported that a total of 25 Bangladeshis were killed by Indian Border Security Force, 29 injured and 28 were victims of abduction by BSF last year. Odhikar said that most of cases of human rights abuse could not be reported in the media due to hindrances on freedom of expression and media and also due to self-censorship. Land acquisition official fled with Tk 13 crore Staff Reporter : A land acquisition officer of Kisharganj has been missing since December 7 and officials suspect he fled with Tk 13 crore government fund that was intended to compensation to people for land. Setaful Islam, the land acquisition officer, had withdrawn the fund from the Sonali Bank's Kishoreganj branch and disappeared suddenly. He went to the bank in a car with sacks to receive the money, officials said. They also held officials of Kishoreganj District Accounts Office and Sonali Bank officials of Kishoreganj branch responsible for the incident. Admitting the incident Dhaka Divisional Commissioner M Bazlul Karim Chowdhury told The New Nation that he sent a letter on Tuesday to the Ministry of Public Administration asking for departmental, legal and administrative measures against the officer. "I have never seen such a terrible and dishonest person in my life. I also requested the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to file a case against Setaful Islam," he added. Offices of the Dhaka Divisional Commissioner and Kishoreganj Deputy Commissioner are investigating the matter. On December 5, a cheque of Tk 5 crore of compensation fund singed by Kishoreganj Accounts officer was deposited to the head of salary and allowances of the district's land acquisition office. On December 6 and 7, Setaful Islam withdrew Tk 4.94 crore in two phases. The remaining Tk 6.0 lakh was sent to an organization named Tapan Industries. Prior to this, he also withdrew about Tk 8.0 crore. Besides, he had prepared cheques for the embezzlement of more than Tk 10 crore, according to preliminary investigation report. It also said that in addition to the direct withdrawal of government fund, Setaful Islam has done various irregularities in disbursing the compensation fund to the landowners. He even did not handover cheques to the landowners keeping them in his custody. Besides, 13 cheques are missing. Meanwhile, the Cabinet Division imposed a ban on Setaful's foreign trip sending letters to various ministries and immigration department, at airports and land ports. Copyright 1995 - . 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Print edition not available for Day Pass option. CARBONDALE A group of about 25 people gathered in the rain Thursday afternoon to march the streets of downtown Carbondale in an effort to raise awareness about human trafficking. The march was organized by a group known as The Torch Coalition. The organization was developed in November after The Keys to Freedom Conference at John A. Logan College, meant to combat human trafficking. Thursday was Human Traffic Awareness Day and January is Human Traffic Awareness Month. Jennifer Orr, a member of the coalition, said human trafficking is essentially the modern-day form of slavery, all over the world. It takes place every single day, she said. Quoting the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, she said human trafficking is the second largest source of illegal income worldwide second only to drug trafficking. She said it is a $32 billion industry. Orr said it is estimated that 22 percent of trafficking involves the labor industry, and 80 percent of that number involves sex trafficking. Out of that 80 percent, it is estimated that 80 percent are women and girls, and 50 percent of those are minors. According to numbers from the resource center, trafficking happens in strip clubs, hotels, massage parlors, nail salons, truck stops and through online advertisements. In Southern Illinois, websites like backpage.com feature advertisements for online escort services and feature transactions that are cash only. Statistics from the resource center reveal that since 2007, there have been 4,032 calls and 1,054 total cases regarding human trafficking in Illinois. Additionally, there have been 1,369 victims statewide in that same time frame. In 2017, through June 30, there were 289 calls and 100 trafficking cases reported, the center reports. Of those cases, 75 were sex trafficking and 15 were labor trafficking. Those cases involved 83 women and eight males, and 57 were adults, while 32 were minors. Additionally, 28 of those individuals were U.S. citizens and 19 were not U.S. citizens. The center says the statistics are noncumulative, as cases reported do not always have all the information reported. In all honestly, many cases go unreported, Orr said. Simply because people are unaware that this happens and we dont know how to identify it. She said when the topic of human trafficking comes up, she is commonly asked if it even happens in Southern Illinois. It happens anywhere and everywhere there is demand for the second-most profitable product in the world, she said. Orr said Southern Illinois is an ideal location for trafficking because of its proximity to St. Louis and Chicago. She said in 2005, the FBI designated Chicago as one of the 13 locations of highest-intensity child prostitution. In 2003, the New York Times called Chicago a national hub for human trafficking. She said those at risk arent just the people from big cities. Those at risk are those who came from a background with a broken family system, the homeless, the LGBT youth who have been kicked out of their homes and the children in the foster care system. These arent the only people, but just a few instances, she said. Trafficking isnt just a big city problem, she said. It is a local problem. Orr said traffickers target the vulnerable by deceiving them, making them feel trapped and breaking them down mentally. She said these victims become a product for the trafficker. What is so lucrative and attractive to these pimps is you can only sell drugs to a customer one time, but you can sell this product over and over and over again, she said. The keynote speaker of the event was Trisha McKnight, an author and trafficking survivor from Breese. She told her story of survival growing up in Freeburg becoming a victim at 13 years old. McKnight said victims just dont wake up one day and are in the trafficking world. She said it is usually somebody very close to the victim who has the power to control their world. She said people cant just let warning signs go unreported. Somebody saying anything could have the power to help. The act of human trafficking doesnt just happen. It has steps, McKnight said. We need to change our everyday way of thinking about these offenses. And what we have learned to tolerate and dismiss. If you believe you have information about a potential trafficking situation, call the National Human Trafficking 24/7 Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733. MURPHYSBORO The Murphysboro Police Department is hosting an Officer Appreciation and Awards Banquet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16. The banquet will be held at Christ Community Church Family Life Center, 805 N. 16th St. in Murphysboro. The event is expected to run from 6:30 to about 8 p.m. The awards portion of the evening starts at 7:15 p.m. Police Chief Chad Roberts plans to give awards in five categories: Police Officer of the Year, Communications Officer of the Year, Crimefighter of the Year, Community Service Award and Auxiliary Officer of the Year. Organizers will also give out Chief's Awards and Lifesaving Awards for various incidents that occurred during 2017. "My officers most definitely deserve the recognition," Roberts said. Stephanie Esters MURPHYSBORO William Fenton, the former Ava police officer who was indicted in December on multiple criminal sexual offenses, pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday during his formal arraignment in Jackson County Court. Fenton, 47, of Murphysboro, was indicted in December on two counts of criminal sexual assault and three counts of criminal sexual abuse. According to the bill of indictment, Fenton is accused of digital penetration and other sexual acts with a female under the age of 18 but older than 13 years old. The incident allegedly occurred in July 2017. According to a representative with the Jackson County States Attorneys Office, Fenton waived a formal reading of the charges and has retained Michael Wepsiec as legal counsel. Fenton is scheduled for a case management conference at 1:30 p.m. on April 23 before Judge Ralph Bloodworth. While this is a distant date for most criminal cases, the representative said it was merely a matter of scheduling, plus Fenton is not incarcerated. Incarcerated defendants, due to their implicit speedy trial rights, are set before the nonincarcerated defendants, the representative said. In accordance with the state training board rules, Curt Ehlers, police commissioner for Ava, said Fentons employment as a police officer with the city was terminated on Dec. 21, the evening of his arrest. According to a December news release from the States Attorneys Office, if found guilty, Fenton could face 22 years of imprisonment with a mandatory supervised release period of two years to natural life. The release states the investigation is being pursued by the Illinois State Police. Assistant states attorney Rebecca Blomer and states attorney Michael C. Carr are handling the prosecution. While many Illinois farmers were occupied with paperwork and vehicle maintenance during the turn-of-the-year cold snap, others were looking to fend off damage to their crops and livestock. Fruit, wheat and livestock producers had some challenges during the extended frigid spell that covered the state from late December through early January. Peach growers, in particular, kept a wary eye on the mercury as it dipped below zero and remained below the freezing mark for two or three weeks. University of Illinois horticulture educator Elizabeth Wahle has talked to some growers about bud damage on peach trees. Initially, they seem to have dodged serious problems, though in some areas temperatures fell to minus-9. The lack of snow cover raised concerns. A freeze in the winter of 2013-14 caused significant injury, but on branches that were lying low in the deep snow, all the buds were fine, she said. Still, Wahle is optimistic. We had fairly good conditions going into dormancy. Its not like it was 60 degrees yesterday and today its zero, she said. They had quite a bit of cool-down to go into dormancy. Wahle added apple trees are incredibly winter hardy. It takes temperatures like -45 for us to have an injury on an apple bud thats in dormancy. Many pastures were already spent, forcing beef producers to scramble for hay supplies. And conditions elsewhere may have an impact on hay supplies. Most guys were feeding hay a lot earlier because pastures were out from lack of rain, said University of Illinois beef specialist Teresa Steckler. Some guys have been feeding hay since September. The ones I talked to secured it fairly locally. But it was not a good year for hay, and drought in the Dakotas and floods in Texas caused producers there to buy all the hay they could. Beef producers are also on the lookout for calving issues. Steckler said it is critical that the calf is properly cleaned. If they dont have something to get into out of the breeze and the momma doesnt get that calf cleaned off, that calf will die, unfortunately, she said. The low temperatures, combined with no snow cover in Southern Illinois, also could affect the winter wheat crop. But Syngenta agronomist Phil Krieg said lack of rain following planting could be more problematic. The thing that has me most concerned is lack of moisture. Through the fall, it was a little bit on the dry side, he said. I dont think we got as much tillering as we would like to see. We have very little top growth. I dug up some plants, and felt that the root establishment and crown looked pretty good, but not anything there for moisture. A longer cold snap could damage some stands, especially if precipitation levels remain low. As long as its not too extended a period of this weather, its rooted enough to be fine, Krieg said. I do worry a little bit with cold like this, very little moisture and wind, because it could blow soil away from the crown and expose the roots. That is my No. 1 concern, how dry the soil is. But to be beneficial, rain will have to start slow. Too much at one time could lead to erosion of the loose, dry soil. CHARLESTON, Ill. 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 discussed 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. Mattoon teacher honored for heroics during September shooting at high school MATTOON Math teacher Angela McQueen said she was focused on saving students lives when she helped subdue a student shooter inside the Matto 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. Would your employer pay you if you didn't do your job for weeks, or even months, at a time? Let's be real. The vast majority wouldn't. In fact, many of us would get shown the door before our lack of production reached into measurable weeks, let alone months. So why should we pay those who work for us when they don't do their jobs? Sadly, many of our own employees are telling us they don't plan to do much of anything this year. By "our own employees," I mean public employees, those paid with taxpayer dollars more specifically, elected Illinois state lawmakers. There's a growing sentiment under the dome in Springfield that, because of a number of factors, the 2018 legislative session scheduled to start later this month is going to be a throwaway one. As in, why should they even bother showing up. Majority legislators already received their $5 billion income tax increase. They approved a budget last summer for the first time in more than two years, even though it's unbalanced despite the $5 billion in new tax revenue annually. And, most significantly, this is an election year, a big one at that. Vulnerable Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner faces a primary challenge from Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, after a disastrous 2017 in which he signed separate pieces of Democrat-pushed legislation that make Illinois a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants and allow taxpayer funding of elective abortions. A handful of members of his own party joined majority Democrats to override his veto of the massive tax increase. And he infamously admitted publicly that he isn't "in charge." Powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan, the person who apparently is in charge, also will be trying to hold on to his Democrat majority so he can be rubber-stamped to an 18th term as his chamber's leader. In recent days, many lawmakers told Illinois News Network that, given what is expected to be among the most contentious and certainly most expensive gubernatorial elections in Illinois history, they don't expect to accomplish much of anything this year. Some, particularly on the Republican side, even suggested that would be a good thing. "Generally speaking, the less we meet the less damage can be caused," Rep. Joe Sosnowski, R-Rockford, told INN this week. "I think the less that the state legislature does, the better." The General Assembly has, in fact, done more harm than good for, well, quite a while now. Illinoisans paid the highest combined local and state taxes in the nation before last summer's income tax hike. As a result of that tax burden, more residents are fleeing Illinois than any other U.S. state. Despite Rauner's and job creators' pleas, the General Assembly has done nothing to help reduce the state's highest-in-the-Midwest workers' compensation costs, which are driving well-paying manufacturing jobs elsewhere as well. And then there's the pension crisis. State officials say Illinois' five public pension systems are underfunded by $130 billion. But actuaries maintain the pension debt probably is more than $200 billion when more realistic rates on investment returns are used to calculate it. Yet legislators sit on their hands and hope the insurmountable debt goes away on its own. Given Illinois' mountain of fiscal problems, legislators doing nothing in 2018 would be a dereliction of duty. "I think thats the conventional wisdom now, that nothing will get done," state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, said. "But that's not what the people of this state want." McSweeney an outspoken critic of the governor despite sharing party affiliation says, bare minimum, a few things have to be accomplished in the upcoming session: Rauner and lawmakers have to determine a way to pay for $2.8 billion in unappropriated spending from last fiscal year. And they need to drastically reduce overall spending so a balanced budget can be passed for the next fiscal year. The spending cuts must come through meaningful pension reform, Medicaid reform and other reductions. Doing nothing is not an option. "We dont deserve to get paid if we dont pass a balanced budget and cut spending, McSweeney said. Lawmakers are paid a base salary of $67,800 annually plus benefits for what already is part-time work. The state's median household income was just under $60,000 in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. I agree with McSweeney. Lawmakers need to do their jobs this year or not get paid. And then voters should fire them. Thumbs up to volunteers for helping Harrisburg High School students be able to perform at the Illinois High School Theatre Festival. Over Christmas break, the high school's band trailer was stolen. Inside the trailer were set pieces for their performance at Theatre Fest, and when the trailer was found, nothing was found inside. Theatre Fest, which runs now through the weekend at Illinois State University, is a gathering of Illinois high school students, teachers and sponsors, who get together to experience different types of theater. Harrisburg was chosen to perform this years musical, Seussical the Musical, during the festival. So volunteers gathered resources and funding, and helped the students get what they needed to perform the musical. Its just another example of what is great about Southern Illinois. While we have our differences from time to time, we all come together in times like these. Nobody in this community was going to let our kids not participate in this event, said Harrisburg Superintendent Michael Gauch. Thumbs down to the fact that gas prices in the United States are projected to be the higher in 2018. According to the petroleum experts at Gas Buddy, the yearly average gas price in 2018 will be $2.57 per gallon. Experts also said January will see the lowest prices at an average $2.41 per gallon, while May will average $2.73 per gallon, making it the priciest month of the year. But, experts say, it wont be as bad as its been in the past. Motorists probably wont be getting pumped up to pay more at the pump this year, but should find some solace in knowing we wont come anywhere near record prices this year while most of the country will continue to see plenty of prices in the $2 per gallon range, said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis with Gas Buddy. Thumbs up to Wednesdays Alexander County Career and Resource Fair that was held in Cairo. Warren Riley, manager for mobility services for Quadel Consulting and Training, said more than 100 people showed up for the event. Jill VanZandt, southern regional manager for the Illinois Department of Employment Security, said the people who stopped by to chat and set up an appointment for IDES career services all were positive and enthusiastic. For most people in Cairo, finding steady work in Cairo has been tough, so this could be good for the community. Thumbs up to U.S Rep. Mike Bost nominating 21 students from his district for the United States service academies. A congressional nomination is the first step in a process toward the students acceptance into a military academy. Southern Illinoisans should be proud of each one of these students who represent the best our state has to offer, Bost said in a news release announcing the nominations. A bonus thumbs up goes to those who were nominated, which, from our coverage area, include Joshua Loyd of Carbondale, Connor Rogers of Carbondale, Malachi Williams of Marion, Victoria Mueller of Johnston City, and Sean Spoerre of Carterville. Editor's note: Connor Rogers is the son of The Southern Illinoisan publisher Craig Rogers. Thumbs up to Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti, who was in our region this week as part of Gov. Bruce Rauners Opioid Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force. On Wednesday, Sanguinetti toured the Gateway Foundation in Carbondale, where teenagers and adults live in dorm-style quarters similar to those at Southern Illinois University. Since 2013, the number of heroin overdose deaths in Illinois has doubled, and the number of opioid overdose deaths has quadrupled. Its good that the Rauner and the rest of the state is taking time spread the word, using the task force to fight the epidemic. In an effort to foster a multiracial and multi-ethnic connection between individuals in the community, approximately 100 people from the Orangeburg area gathered on the cold afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 7, at St. Andrew's United Methodist Church to watch the movie "Selma," eat a light supper and share in table conversation following the movie. The participants came from seven congregations Bamberg UMC Circuit (Bethel and Mt. Zion), North Orangeburg UMC, Orangeburg Lutheran, St. Andrew's UMC, St. Pauls UMC and Williams Chapel AME. A few invited friends also attended. The events origins began when the pastors of the churches met a year ago to consider how to bring their congregations together to witness to our unity in Christ and build relationships in order to improve our community and build a more just and loving community for all. They decided to sponsor a midday worship service followed by a simple soup luncheon during the Wednesdays of Lent. The services and meals were wonderfully received. People asked to do more activities together. Other events have followed including: a joint worship service with a mass choir to remember the Emmanuel Nine, the pastors visiting local community projects together, serving at a local soup kitchen and holding a joint Blue Christmas service held on the year's darkest night," Dec. 21. The viewing of "Selma" together was possibly more controversial, in that it directly addressed the issue of race. "Selma" is a 2014 historical drama film based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by Martin Luther King Jr. and others. Still, as Iris Rheney, a member of St. Andrews said, This was one of our goals from Forward Focus - to reach out into the community to those we don't interact with daily and help meet their needs. That is what God calls us to do. The pastors of the seven co-operating congregations agreed it is something we all wanted to do together. The facilitator for the event was Rev. Leroy Cannon, pastor of Christ Mission, ELCA Lutheran, in North Columbia. As its response to the massacre of the Emanuel Nine, the S.C. Synod of the ELCA has purchased the license to show "Selma." It has also developed resources to help people of different racial backgrounds engage in conversation from a Christian perspective about how to improve race relations in our communities. Cannon has led more than 50 similar meetings all over South Carolina. The response to the event was overwhelmingly positive. Responses, including lessons from the movie, were: We need to have more conversations like this. We cannot just come to church; we have to go out in the community. We are all stronger when we stand together. The system has to work for everyone, not just for those in the church, but for everyone. If ever Ive seen a God thing tonight was it! It was awesome. In one of the small group breakout sessions held after viewing the movie, a participant asked why no one who had been involved in all the violence and killing depicted in the movie was ever brought to justice. One of the other members replied, It took a long time, but several of them were brought to justice. Fifteen years ago, the newly elected U.S. senator from Alabama, Doug Jones, was U.S. attorney for Alabama. He tried two of the KKK members charged with killing the Sunday school children at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, and won a conviction. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." The organizers of the event were blessed as well. As one of the pastors said, This is not an ending point. This is something God is calling us to build upon. Progress has been made in the past 50 years, but God is still leading us forward in paths of unity, healing, forgiveness, justice and reconciliation. If other congregations and clergy in the community would like to become a part of the work that has been begun by these seven congregations, they can contact one of the pastors involved: Rev. Arthur Rose Jr., Rev. Dwight Nelson, Rev. James B. Vigen, Rev. Robert Cannon, Rev. Carol Cannon, Rev. Will Harper, or Rev. Stanley Rivers. SCANA Corp. and its subsidiaries paid South Carolina counties more than $209 million in property taxes for property assessed in 2017, the company announced in a release Thursday. The payments include $2 million in Bamberg County and $14.9 million in Orangeburg County, where SCANA has a coal-fired power plant. These funds are essential to the counties throughout the state, said Iris Griffin, chief financial officer for SCANA. From funding local law enforcement agencies and helping students receive a quality education, to maintaining public streets and roadways, these dollars help residents of South Carolina in very meaningful ways. Lexington County received the largest payment at more than $41.8 million, followed by Richland County with more than $40.3 million. McMaster wants work for Medicaid recipients COLUMBIA Gov. Henry McMaster directed the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to immediately seek federal waivers to establish work requirements for South Carolinas Medicaid recipients. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Thursday announced guidelines allowing states to pursue efforts to establish incentives and requirements for steady employment by able-bodied Medicaid recipients. Whenever possible, we should always endeavor to help South Carolinians in need find their path to gainful employment and away from the temporary assistance of government, McMaster said. A good, steady job makes everything better, it creates a better home life, results in healthier lifestyles, and provides financial independence and opportunity. Zylo locating in Greenville COLUMBIA Zylo Therapeutics, a developer of state-of-the-art technology for the pharmaceutical industry, is locating new operations in Greenville County. The company is expected to create 30 new jobs. Zylo has developed an innovative sustained-release drug-delivery system that delivers traditionally hard-to-deliver therapeutic agents through topical administration. With more than 10 years of research and development, the second generation of this technology continues to improve, providing 24-hour sustained release of a variety of agents, including nitric oxide, curcumin, lidocaine and more. Charleston venture to mean 35 jobs COLUMBIA Carolinas Rigging & Crane and Charlestons Rigging & Marine Hardware, manufacturers and suppliers of wire rope, rigging and safety solutions for a wide range of industries, are expanding operations in Charleston and Richland counties. The joint investment of $3.4 million is expected to create 35 new jobs. Carolinas Rigging & Crane and Charlestons Rigging & Marine Hardware supplies and services manufacturers, construction, maritime and energy and transportation companies who utilize wire rope, web slings, tie downs, chain and hoist products. With its custom fabrication capabilities, the company can create lifting and product solutions for a variety of industries. The firm services multiple customers throughout the Southeast, and this new investment is designed to strengthen its position in the market. Having outgrown its current facilities in Charleston and Richland, Carolinas Rigging & Crane and Charlestons Rigging & Marine Hardware will be growing its operations in both counties simultaneously. In Charleston County, the company will be expanding into a purpose-built fabrication facility at the former Charleston Navy Base, which will include an expanded showroom and a crane and rigging safety training center. Expected to be operational by the summer of 2018, the new space will create 18 jobs and allow for the launch of new product lines and services. In Richland County, the company will be moving into an existing manufacturing complex located off of Shop Road adjacent to the Pineview Industrial Park. This facility, complete with multiple overhead bridge cranes, large fabrication area and a crane and rigging safety training center, will help support Carolinas Rigging & Crane customers in the Midlands and throughout the Southeast. To accommodate its growth in the Midlands, Carolinas Rigging & Crane will be adding 17 jobs in Richland County. Americans think about national security in terms of what is routinely captured in major news headlines: North Korea, ISIS, Russian election meddling and more. While important, our countrys national security is defined by much more than a handful of big-ticket threats. U.S. national security relies on a complex and interdependent mosaic of factors, some of which are not normally associated with national security, but in reality play an important role in augmenting our nations strength. One example is solar energy, which has risen to become a key element in our countrys energy security portfolio at a time when its future viability has come under attack from within the solar industry itself. America is stronger when it can count on its own energy sources, and solar is gradually playing a bigger role in our nations energy mix. Solar energys importance to U.S. national security stems most directly from the critical role it now plays in providing energy to far-flung military bases throughout the United States and abroad. The military is the single largest consumer of energy in the United States. Clean, stable energy sources remain a priority to the Department of Defense, which prizes secure and affordable energy resources to power its military installations and other facilities. Unplanned power outages can quickly curtail the effectiveness of those facilities, making alternatives to dependence on the traditional energy grid critically important to Defense operations. On the strength of its affordability and ready availability, large-scale solar photovoltaic systems now provide a welcome stream of energy at military facilities across the country, shielding them from outages on the grid. Those disruptions are no small matter last year the Defense Department reported more than 700 outages related to commercial utility services, many resulting from loss of electricity. Solar and other renewable power sources provide a needed back-up plan for mission-critical activity. Unfortunately, solars role as a go-to option for the military may soon be curtailed due to the actions of two bankrupt, foreign-owned solar manufacturers. The companies filed a Section 201 trade petition asking the U.S. government to shield them from import competition by placing tariffs and/or quotas on foreign-made cells and modules, the component parts of solar panels. The request by the two companies would send solar prices through the roof, effectively leaving it unable to compete with other forms of energy. Analysts believe the growing industry, which now employs roughly 260,000 U.S. workers, will shed 80,000 jobs if tariffs are imposed. This would almost exclusively benefit the two foreign-owned companies controlled by China and Qatar neither of which has U.S. national security interests at heart. This scenario is detrimental to everyone involved. American national security is not just about the readiness of its military. Our countrys ability to cultivate a wide variety of stable energy sources enhances our energy security. Making solar energy uncompetitive through artificial trade barriers wouldnt just erode a welcome new resource advantage at our military bases but it would needlessly remove a quiver from our nations broader energy portfolio. President Donald Trump will soon be reviewing recommendations on whether to impose trade barriers on imported solar components. I urge the president to keep the long-term view of our countrys security in mind. There is simply no good reason to squander the potential of a promising new energy advantage. I make it a point of not missing the annual Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy, and this year was/is no different as it's a street pho... Below: Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves (inset) wants to know when this country will be paid for use of its air space. Any aircraft that uses the airspace of St Vincent and the Grenadines should be made to pay for doing so . And Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said that he has written to the Secretary General of CARICOM, Ambassador Irwin Larocque, requesting that the issue be placed on the agenda for next months CARICOM Intercessional Heads of Government Meeting, scheduled to be held in Haiti. Dr. Gonsalves told a press conference last week, that he has been raising the issue for some time, first with former prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago Patrick Manning and Kamla Persaud-Bissessar, and more recently with current PM - Dr Keith Rowley. In fact, he said, he had written to Dr. Rowley on this and other matters. On the issue of use of air space, Dr. Gonsalves explained that the regions airspace, known as the Piarco Flight Information Region, is managed by an entity known as the Caribbean Air Navigating and Advisory Services Ltd (CANAS), headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago. CANASs jurisdiction stretches from St. Kitts in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south, including the French territories Martinique and Guadeloupe. And in as much as he insits that airlines using SVG air space should he made to pay for that, Dr. Gonsalves is equally concerned that none of the OECS countries nor Barbados is represented on the board of CANAS. He, therefore, called for representation from the OECS and Barbados, and for information to be provided as it related to the amount (fees) that was and is being collected. Dr. Gonsalves acknowledged that currently SVG benefits from training opportunities and donations of equipment (e.g. computers) from CANAS, but proffered that he would rather decline receiving such items in favour of knowing how much money he needs to collect. "I dont think that is an unreasonable position to take, he said. Other issues with T&T In addition to the issue of payment for use of SVG air space, the Prime Minister said that another issue which he had indicated he would want included in the agenda for the Intersessional Meeting, was that of foreign exchange being made available to Vincentians who sell products to/in Trinidad and Tobago. It was not fair that SVG pays in foreign currency for items purchased from that country, yet traffickers cannot access US or EC currency for their produce, he lamented. And the other issue a burning one as far as those persons who are directly affected - was the payment of the remaining US$64 million owed in settlement of the for the British American Insurance Company debacle. But despite having some issues with Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Gonsalves said that he wanted to reaffirm to the public that this country enjoys excellent relations with that country, and that he was in no way looking to create any confusion. "What we are talking about is to solve these kinds of difficulties because CARICOM will be undermined if it is so unequally yoked, Gonsalves said. (DD) The membership of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Taxi Drivers Association is basking in what is considered a very good cruise tourism season. This as a consequence of the increased calls that have been made to the ports on mainland St Vincent, as well as in the Grenadines. Vice President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Taxi Drivers Association- Angus Martin was upbeat when he spoke to THE VINCENTIAN last Tuesday, at the Cruise Ship Terminal in Kingstown. "We are having one of the best seasons for a long time, and we are grateful for this It is a bumper season It is something that we have all been wishing for some time, Martin outlined. According to information received, there should be 114 cruise ship calls during the 2017-2018 season, an increase of 133 % on last year when the total count was 48. A bumper day Among the calls for the current season was an inaugural one by the Norwegian Dawn. That liner docked on December 31, along with another liner. The demand for tours was so great on that day that taxi operators outside of the registered membership of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Taxi Drivers Association, had to take up the slack, so to speak. This particular bumper day worked itself into what was described as a hectic month of December, when there were 12 cruise calls in six days, in one instance. As a direct result of this increased traffic into Port Kingstown, the majority of members of the Association were able to meet their personal commitments and to have something extra for the festive Christmas season, according to Martin. Several taxi operators who spoke to THE VINCENTIAN, echoed Martins sentiment, i.e. it has been one of the better seasons for them. However, Martin, in cautioning his fellow members stated: "This season so far has been a good one, but we must not only make the best of it, but members have to ensure that they put aside something, because they would not always have such a good season. And as far as the visitors views on what this country has to offer, Martin reported that many of the visitors have had high commendations for St Vincent and the Grenadines. In elaborating, he said, "Many of the tourists were coming here for the first time, and they all love it, especially that generally we are unspoilt, as they get away from the tall buildings and the likeThey are also fascinated by the number of shades of green that are found here. And going forward, Martin called on his fellow taxi-operators to forever lift their game in the competitive environment. One such improvement Martin advocated is that they look to acquiring basic knowledge in foreign languages, namely Spanish and French. Martin also called on all stakeholders in the industry to continue to work to make St Vincent and the Grenadines the number one destination for cruise passengers and stay over visitors. Tottenham Hotspur vs Everton Friday, 12 January, 2018 Match Preview Cenk Tosun is a Blue at last but will he start? Tony McArdle/Everton FC/Getty Images Cenk Tosun is a Blue at last but will he start? Updated Everton get back to the bread and butter of the Premier League this weekend with their season essentially over bar the goal of a top-seven finish and the relative intrigue of whether Sam Allardyce can evolve beyond his limited reputation. The fact that the first game after the elimination from the FA Cup at the first time of asking will be at Wembley is a mildly bitter twist of fate just as the distance at which the Blues continue to lag behind their one-time peers, Tottenham, won't be lost on the travelling Evertonians. While the cup offered one last shot at success in what has been a pretty miserable season, the fact that another date under the arch is off the table really will sharpen the focus on the manager, particularly now that he has landed his top priority for January a striker to ease the burden on Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Cenk Tosun wasn't signed in time to face Liverpool last Friday but with a week to settle into his new surroundings, get familiar with his team-mates and hone his fitness again, he could be in contention for a starting berth rather than a place on the bench as would have been likely at Anfield. Article continues below video content Whether the addition of a more rounded and experienced striker proves to be the tonic to transform a side that has, frankly, been pretty abysmal going forward since the 3-1 win over Swansea almost a month ago remains to be seen. Much will depend on the formation and personnel deployed behind him and whether Allardyce opts for the overtly defensive posture he adopted at Bournemouth when he played three defensive midfielders and a lone striker. Wayne Rooney came off the bench that day in place of James McCarthy but couldn't inspire Everton to victory and his removal from the fray against Liverpool last week following a worryingly ineffective and indisciplined performance doesn't bode well for his chances of leading a newly dynamic Blues side now that Tosun will be leading the line. Instead, the incisiveness came from Gylfi Sigurdsson who scored the equaliser that threatened to force a replace and the badly-needed creativity came from Ademola Lookman. The young winger, criminally overlooked at West Brom and Bournemouth they were two games that were begging for him to come on in the final quarter of an hour to inject some direct running and inventiveness made a strong case for his inclusion in the squad at Wembley but the strength of the opposition might make Allardyce think twice about starting him. That honour will likely go to Yannick Bolasie again while the number of more defensively-minded central midfielders that end up in the line-up could depend on the fitness of Idrissa Gueye. The Senegalese international was risked at Bournemouth, aggravated a hamstring injury, has missed the last two matches and is therefore probably still doubtful. Leighton Baines remains sidelined with a calf problem while, on the other side of defence, Seamus Coleman's rehabilitation continues with, perhaps, the end of the month as a target for his return. Michael Keane is also ruled out as he continues to have problems with a gashed foot. Cuco Martina and Jonjoe Kenny will continue to deputise, leaving Allardyce just needing to perm two from Phil Jagielka, Mason Holgate and Ashley Williams, assuming he doesn't go for five at the back instead. Spurs, who begin the weekend in fifth place, were held at Wembley by West Ham in their last League outing but had, prior to that, looked like they had finally got to grips with their temporary home with strong consecutive wins over Southampton, Brighton and Stoke City in the League and Apoel Nicosia in the Champions League. They have shown themselves to be susceptible to teams that go at them on their home turf, something Everton haven't really done at any point this season under three different managers but Blues will be looking to see if Allardyce can maintain his side's defensive solidity against a very strong attacking team while starting to add some adventure going forward in his own team. Kick-off: 5:30pm, Saturday 13 January, 2018 Referee: Craig Pawson Last Time: Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 Everton Predicted Line-up: Pickford, Kenny, Holgate, Jagielka, Martina, Schneiderlin, McCarthy, Rooney, Sigurdsson, Bolasie, Tosun Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer About these ads Aetna International, a leading global health care benefits provider, reveald that it is entering into an agreement for International Private Medical Insurance (IPMI) with Aviva UK. From May 1, Aviva UK will no longer provide IPMI cover for new customers or for existing customers wishing to renew their policies, said a statement. Under this agreement, existing Aviva IPMI customers will be offered continuation terms at policy renewal with Aetna International, it said. Existing Aviva customers who renew their policy will then become Aetna customers and will no longer have a relationship with Aviva, it added. David Healy, chief executive officer - Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Aetna International, said: We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Aviva. We are committed to delivering Avivas IPMI customers continuation of cover with Aetna that provides comparable benefits and an excellent level of service. This is very much in line with our business strategy to deliver comprehensive health care benefits worldwide, he said. Our scale, expertise, customer service infrastructure and technological focus in IPMI allow us to make a significant contribution to improving peoples health and the quality of care they receive, he added. TradeArabia News Service Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Vice Chairman of Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, on Thursday launched the State of Green Economy Report 2018. The Supreme Council of Energy compiled the report in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (Dubai Carbon). The report was launched at the Youth Hub in Emirates Towers, Dubai, said a Wam news agency report. The ceremony was attended by Dr Aisha Bin Bishr, Director-General of the Smart Dubai Office; Huda Al Hashimi, Assistant to the Director-General for Strategy and Innovation at the Prime Ministers Office; Ahmad bin Butti Al Muhairbi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Energy; Abdullah Kalban, MD and CEO of Emirates Global Aluminium; Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower; Waleed Salman, Chairman of Dubai Carbon; Frode Mauring, UNDP Resident Representative; representatives from the public and private sectors, international organisations, and the media. Al Tayer said: "Today, we launch the State of Green Economy Report 2018, where we review the efforts and success stories, to achieve the vision of our wise leadership, led by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. This vision is to promote sustainable development and the green economy in the UAE while planning for the future and achieving the objectives of the UAE Centennial 2071 to ensure a happy future and a better life for future generations, and to raise the status of the UAE to be the best nation in the world. "The UAE believes that sustainability is a global priority. Under the guidance of our wise leadership, the government of the UAE aims to ensure sustainable development, while preserving the environment and balancing economic and social development. Federal and local visions and strategies focus on preserving natural resources and implementing green growth plans, in line with the UAE Vision 2021, the UAE Green Growth Strategy under the theme "Green Economy for Sustainable Development," the Dubai Plan 2021, and other strategies. All these contribute to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. "Dubai has proved that it continuously fulfils its promises as it strives to become a global hub for green economy and a global model for green partnerships and financing, energy efficiency and security, investing in renewable energy and demand-side management. These will all curb carbon emissions and achieve the objectives of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050. "The strategy was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid to make Dubai a global hub for clean energy and green economy, providing 7 percent of Dubai's total power output from clean energy by 2020. This target will increase to 25 percent by 2030 and 75 percent by 2050. It will also set the lowest carbon footprint in the world in Dubai. The fourth State of Green Economy Report 2018 is the result of the joint efforts of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and the UNDP, as well as the Dubai Carbon. It is an annual platform to review the efforts of key players in the green economy. "This report summarises the results of the annual World Green Economy Summit (WGES) that is supported by the World Green Economy Organisation. In 2017, Dubai recorded two milestones in renewable energy and green economy. The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) achieved the lowest Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of US 7.3 cents per kilowatt hour, for the 700MW Dh14.2 billion fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. This is the largest single-site Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project in the world, based on the Independent Power Producer model. Dewa also announced its collaboration with National Bonds to launch the Green Fund with an aggregate of Dh2.4 billion, at WGES 2017. The State of Green Economy Report 2018 includes eight chapters on green economic development, under one theme "Youth and the Future." It reviews the efforts of various organisations in the green economy, with a general perspective by young Emiratis, and addresses the role of the private sector and its investments in the education, development, and empowerment of youth. The report also encompasses discussion on green finance and the public-private partnerships, involving youth and integrating digital technologies in a green economy. The report also reviews disruptive technologies that contribute to the green economy, Dewas Carbon Ambassadors Programme, Expo 2020 Dubai, the Dubai Future Foundation, and the Roadmap for the Future, to invest in youth and prepare them by knowledge transfer. The report reviews achievements in moving to renewable and clean energy sources, future projects, integration of smart technologies into processes to improve energy use and maximise efficiency, Artificial Intelligence services, and higher education on sustainability. The report also provides an overview of the transition to a green economy in the UAE and Dubai, as well as the projects being implemented to combat the effects of climate change. It also addresses the development of policies and the application of the regulatory framework to implement policies to promote the green economy agenda, programmes, activities, and partnerships, to promote the green economy. "The green economy can accelerate growth. Based on this, the State of Green Economy Report 2018 can add positive changes to society in the long term. The report aims to encourage the UAE towards green transformation and help citizens to contribute to achieving environmental sustainability. After comparing this years report with the previous ones, we are confident that the State of Green Economy Report 2018, which focusses on the role of the youth in shaping the green economy, will provide many opportunities and enhance green development efforts," said Waleed Salman, Chairman of Dubai Carbon. For the second straight year, women and their allies will march in downtown Casper in opposition to President Donald Trump, the events coordinator said. We want to make sure that people understand that this is not normal, Jane Ifland said Thursday. The second thing is that we object to the things that we feared that are now materializing. And the third reason is that we hope to be joined by people who voted for (Trump) in good faith and now find his policies intolerable. Last years Casper march which mirrored similar protests in Washington, D.C., and in cities across the nation drew roughly 750 people, Ifland said. This years march will begin on Second and Beech streets at 1 p.m. Jan 20. and will proceed to the Lyric. Ifland said she wasnt sure how many people would show up this year: Organizers originally predicted around 60 last year. As of early Thursday evening, 55 people have RSVPd on Facebook, and 78 have said theyre interested. Organizers are holding a sign-making party at Backwards Distillery at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 18. An alcohol-free event will be held at 900 S. Nebraska from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. before the march. Ifland, ShoShoni Rose Arthur and Democrat Gary Trauner who announced he would challenge Sen. John Barrasso for his seat will speak. Ifland said it was still unclear where whether at the Lyric or somewhere between the marchs beginning and end. There will also be an open mic set up wherever the speakers ultimately present, Ifland said, so attendees can speak and have their voices heard. She recounted a story of one of the organizers who received a form letter from Barrassos office. The person then reached out to the senators from North Dakota, one of whom replied with an identical form letter to Barrassos. That is how profoundly we are not being listened to, Ifland said. The mic is so we can at least hear each other. She acknowledged that she and the marchs other organizers were running out of time to get the march organized, which she said was caused by a mixture of personal issues and march-related complications. For instance, the event did not have insurance or a parade permit last year. Both will be needed this time around. Wyomings congressional delegation Barrasso, Sen. Mike Enzi and Rep. Liz Cheney are all being invited to the march, Ifland said. Organizers will raise money at the march to pay for the space in the Lyric, where tables will be set up for organizations to recruit interested volunteers. Ifland said marches will be held across the country including in Chicago and she hopes the message sent will echo in the years to come. In 100 years, when somebody wants to know the history of this period, in this place, I want that person or people to be able to find out that people here resisted what we saw going on, she said. This is far less about 45 and far more about us. A Wyoming man pleaded not guilty to a charge alleging he drunkenly attacked another man with a hammer. David Taylor entered his plea Thursday in Natrona County District Court to a single count of aggravated assault and battery with a deadly weapon. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment. Taylor had arrived at a friends house in Edgerton extremely intoxicated on Nov. 22 when he tried to hug the friend, according to court documents. The friend declined the hug due to a preexisting back injury. Taylor continued to try to hug his friend, who continually declined, until Taylor was asked to leave, the documents state. Another man heard a commotion from a different room and entered to see the two friends wrestling on the floor, while one of them bled from a cut on his head. The third man broke up the fight and escorted Taylor out of the house, according to the documents. When he returned, Taylors friend said the man had hit him in the head with the hammer. The friend was hospitalized for his injuries, the documents state. In the early morning hours of the next day, authorities arrested Taylor. Taylor was being held in Natrona County Detention Center on Thursday morning. A package of proposed bills would increase penalties for domestic and family violence in Wyoming and bring them in line with punishments for drug and property crimes. As Wyomings statutes are now written, felonies are typically punishable by 10 years imprisonment. Aggravated felonies can warrant even longer prison sentences. But domestic and family violence crimes can result in far less prison time, said former prosecutor Brett Johnson. The three bills, which Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, said were born of a holistic review of Wyomings criminal statutes as they pertain to such crimes, were considered by the Joint Judiciary Committee in November. The legislation the committee came up with would increase some domestic violence, stalking and strangulation penalties. The goal is to try to make the laws more uniform, said Sen. Liisa Anselmi-Dalton, D-Rock Springs, who helped craft the bills in committee. Last spring, a bill that would have rewritten domestic violence laws failed in committee following concerns that the bills language wasnt consistent with the rest of the states statutes. Following the sessions wrap-up, the Legislatures Management Council then charged the Judiciary Committee with studying domestic and family violence issues, Anselmi-Dalton said. After months of work with lawyers, judges and victim services advocates, the committee met in November to hash out language in the proposed legislation. At the same time, the committee worked on legislation that would rewrite laws to lower speeding fines and simplify the fine structure, expand the path to exoneration for wrongly convicted people and close loopholes in marijuana laws. The committee proposed one bill that would expand the definition of stalking to include actions that would make a reasonable person fear for their own safety, that of another person or for the safety of their property. Although the bills language initially did not require a victim to testify to those impacts, it was changed in committee to require that prosecutors show someone was affected, Anselmi-Dalton said. The current state statute only covers actions that would make a reasonable person suffer substantial emotional distress, and which does in fact seriously alarm the person toward whom it is directed. If passed, the bill would increase the maximum punishment for misdemeanor stalking from six months to one year and increase the maximum penalty for felony stalking from five years to 10. The bill also gives judges the ability to sentence a person convicted of misdemeanor stalking to up to three years of probation, rather than the maximum of one year. Another bill, which pertains largely to the process for seeking orders of protection, would make it a felony to stalk someone while under a domestic-violence protection order. A third bill, which focuses on bringing domestic violence penalties in line with one another, would elevate strangulation of a household member and third or subsequent convictions of domestic battery to violent felonies. Although many felony convictions can be expunged under Wyoming law after 10 years, violent felonies cannot. It would also mean judges could sentence people to six months in jail on a first offense for domestic assault. People convicted a second time could be sentenced to a year in jail. Under the current laws, a first conviction for domestic assault is punishable by a fine and a second conviction is punishable by up to six months in jail. The bill would increase penalties on a third conviction for domestic battery to 10 years imprisonment. Under the current system, that crime is punishable by five years in prison. Johnson, who spent a decade as a criminal prosecutor in Sweetwater and Natrona counties before moving to Natrona Countys Child Support Office, said the bill would align domestic violence crimes with penalties for other crimes. Most felonies are punishable by up to a decade in prison, unlike domestic and family violence crimes, which tend to carry maximum sentences of five years imprisonment, Johnson said. The Legislature can set the tone for how these crimes are treated ... by police, prosecutors and society, he said. The bills, which are sponsored by the committee, still need to be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature to be considered during the 2018 budget session. The session convenes Feb. 12. Despite having a homeless population roughly equivalent to at least three other states, Wyoming received far less federal grant money for its programs aimed at helping those experiencing homelessness. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday that Wyoming would receive $292,329 in federal money for programs across the state as part of a nationwide grant competition. While that money is approximately the same amount the state has received for the past three years, it is the least amount in the country and falls short of other states with similar homeless populations. According to HUDs 2017 Point-In-Time Count, 873 people were homeless in the Cowboy State during one night in January 2017. A similar count found 943 homeless people in South Dakota, 994 in Delaware and 1,089 in North Dakota. While the count is not all-encompassing, it is the measure the federal government uses to mark changes in the homeless population across the country. Despite the similar number of people experiencing homelessness, South Dakota received more than $1.2 million in federal grant money more than four times the amount Wyoming received. Delaware received $7.9 million, approximately 27 times more money than Wyoming. If broken down by the homeless population recorded in the point-in-time count, Delaware received approximately $8,000 for every homeless person while Wyoming received approximate $334. The reason for the discrepancy? The federal grant program does not take into account a states homeless population when divvying up the money. Instead, the department considers a number of factors including previous funding levels, service providers ability to meet performance standards, whether they employ federal best practices, strategic planning and partnerships, said Christine Baumann, spokeswoman for the departments region that includes Wyoming. A federal official in a conference call with media Thursday called it a performance-driven program. While the department considers rising housing costs and requests for special projects, it can be difficult for states to increase their funding levels. Theres just really not a chance to leap for huge increases from year to year, Baumann said. Wyomings funding level has remained steady in the past five years, federal documents show, though it decreased from a high of $327,000 in fiscal year 2014. This years funding is $718 more than the previous amount. This years grant money will help fund permanent housing through Life Steps, permanent housing for chronically homeless families and an information system to track homeless populations in the state. The total number of people experiencing homelessness in Wyoming has increased every year since 2014, though some specific populations like families and veterans have seen improvement. Lyle Konkol, HUD Wyoming field office director, said in December that he couldnt explain why the number of homeless people has risen despite moderate economic growth. Konkol did not return requests for comment for this story. He did note in December that Wyomings programs to help homeless people are underfunded. The lack of money means programs have to spend more time searching for other sources of money. Our funding is tragically low compared to other states, he said in December. Time for a few choice words for the not-so-dearly departed year of 2017. And those words are... You sucked. Go away. Stay there. Keep it moving odd numbered year. Dont linger. No dawdling. Forget about sticking around to watch us shudder whenever the sight of something orange triggers a flashback. Bury your shadow in a deep dark cave. Forget it Jake, its Chinatown. The beginning of January is when America dons its rose-colored glasses and anticipates wondrous possibilities in the future pages of our new calendar. So now let us forecast a few of the fabulous events in store for the next twelve months. You can call them predictions, prognostications or prophecies, but here at Durstco we prefer to think of them as dead solid certain sure things. In the year 2018: Kellyanne Conway will top the bestseller lists with a book entitled, How to Lie Out of Both Sides of Your Two Faces Even When People are Watching. In response to another school shooting, the NRA calls for the closing of all schools. Robert Mueller announces that he has discovered a secret panel in Vice President Mike Pences head that is directly controlled by a Siberian bear trainer. Hillary Clinton, after 18 months of twice-daily therapy sessions, finally allows herself to let it go. Donald John Trump continues cutting programs for the poor so rich people can have more money. Through a series of tragic financial reversals, the 45th President dies destitute. Mitch McConnells face actually does freeze like that. The Internet becomes so user-friendly, trend-setting techies find themselves superfluous and go back to being annoying nerds living in their parents basements. The airline industry is revolutionized by the introduction of discount tickets that require passengers to pedal. Disney purchases Fox News and children in Disneyland are treated to character breakfasts with their favorite right wing talk show hosts. Sean Hannity is especially popular as Goofy. LeBron James is voted the best middle linebacker in the NBA. A 400-pound fat guy on a couch goes on The View to apologize for hacking the 2016 election. Although expressing sincere regret, Joy Behar still beats him senseless with a chair leg. The stock price of Purdue Pharma crashes, after it is revealed their new drug to combat PTSD (President Trump Stress Disorder) is simply double strength OxyContin. After heading in multiple directions, the Democratic Party finally buys a compass and sets it to the polar opposite of Donald Trump, helplessly collapsing in a heap after taking six steps. After Steve Bannon is dismissed then rehabilitated in the eyes of Donald Trump 14 separate times he secures a lucrative sponsorship deal with Duncan Yoyos. Michael Wolff writes a best selling sequel to Fire and Fury called No, Really, Im Telling You, Hes Bat Guano Crazy. Every single athlete at the Winter Olympics is disqualified when tests reveal the South Korean snow is laced with sake. Ivanka Trump polishes her Oval Office bonafides by loop watching Gary Oldman in The Darkest Hour in order to imitate his growl. Jared finds it sexy. Oprah loses thirty pounds. In the wake of a D.C. blizzard, all non-essential federal workers are encouraged to stay home and nobody in the White House reports to work. Including The Donald. No one notices. Rep. Martha McSally released a 93-second ad on YouTube to kick off her Senate campaign this morning. The ad touts her fight with the Department of Defense over the wearing of Muslim robes while serving in Saudi Arabia, protecting A-10 and her priorities if elected to the Senate. McSally enters a crowded field of Republicans vying to replace Senator Jeff Flake, including former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former state Sen. Kelli Ward. Text of the 30 second ad: Narrator: "26 years in uniform. She's take the fight to the enemy and the establishment." Leslie Stahl (from a 2002 60 minutes segment): "The US Air Force decided that Martha McSally had the right stuff, the first female pilot to fly in combat. Colonel McSally is not afraid of a good fight. She has launched a one-woman campaign against a military policy in Saudi Arabia that forced her to wear a long black Islamic robe over her Air Force uniform." McSally: "I absolutely refuse to bow down to Sharia law. After eight years of fighting, I won my battle for the religious freedom for American servicewomen." Now I've deployed to DC to fight for Arizona - supporting our troops and saving the A-10. protecting Arizona jobs and securing the border. President Donald Trump, during a rally (date, place unknown.) "My friend, Martha McSally. She is the real deal, she is tough." McSally: "Like our president, I am tired of PC politicians and their BS excuses. I am a fighter pilot and I talk like one. That's why I told Washington Republicans to grow a pair of ovaries and get the job done. Now I am running for Senate. To fight the fights that must be won. On national security, economic security and border security. After taking on terrorists in combat, the Liberals in the Senate won't scare me one bit." Announcer: PHOENIX Gov. Doug Ducey unveiled at $10.1 billion spending plan for next budget year built on projections of more consumer spending, Arizonans buying more lottery tickets and hiring back many of the auditors who ensure that people are paying the state what they owe, auditors the governor previously laid off. As Ducey promised earlier in the week, most of the new spending is earmarked for K-12 education. That specifically includes restoring $100 million to the special account that schools can use for things like textbooks, computers and buses. The cuts to that fund started before Ducey became governor. But he added to the problem with his own $117 million reduction the first year he took office. Ducey promises future increases to fully restore at least that specific fund. The governor's plan also provides $34 million for the second year of the promised 2 percent over two years pay raise for teachers. Gubernatorial spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said this is on top of money schools got after voters approved Proposition 123 in 2016, creating a 9 percent increase in available dollars for teacher pay. "Part of that has been to hire new teachers, which addresses the teacher shortage,'' he said, though Scarpinato said teacher pay is up 5 percent from 2015 levels. Scarpinato could not say whether the money will come close to moving Arizona out of its position of being at 50th in the nation for pay for elementary school teachers and 48th for high school instructors, saying he prefers to focus on the trend. "It's moving up,'' he said. "And it needs to move up even more.'' In higher education, Ducey wants $27 million for the state's three universities to make the first payment on that $1 billion, 28-year borrowing plan for new buildings and repairing older ones. The schools already have identified funding priorities, including the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences building at the University of Arizona, renovating the Hayden Library at Arizona State University and renovating the science annex and the multi-discipline STEMP building at Northern Arizona University. And there's another $8 million the schools get to split up for whatever capital or operational needs they have. State aid to community colleges, though, is virtually flat. Other spending priorities include: $15.8 million to fully fund adoption subsidies for more than 33,000 children. There are more adoptions because the state is beginning to cut into the number of youngsters in foster and group care, providing permanent placements; $4.3 million for the Department of Public Safety. That includes adding additional night coverage in the Phoenix area to watch for wrong-way drivers and 12 staffers to finally provide round-the-clock DPS coverage in Southern Arizona; $4 million to convert Oracle State Park from a day site to allow overnight camping. The funds will add 30 RV sites, 20 cabins and 20 tent sites. The governor also is proposing to more than double what the state spends on "preventative road surface maintenance,'' essentially repairing cracks and spreading liquid asphalt. The premise is this will forestall the need for major repairs and reconstruction, things that the governor admits the state cannot now afford what with the gasoline tax unchanged since 1990 at 18 cents a gallon, vehicles becoming more efficient and more motorists are driving hybrids and electric vehicles. Ducey concedes in his budget that "the need for a stable and permanent revenue source to fund roads and bridges becomes even more critical.'' But Scarpinato said his boss remains opposed to any increase in the gas tax. The governor's spending plan is built on Ducey's projections that the state will have more money coming in. It starts with high consumer confidence. That is significant because when people are optimistic about the security of their jobs and possible future income growth, they tend to spend more. That should translate into more retail spending. The unknown, however, is how the increasing number of online purchases may cut into that. Then there's the plan by the lottery to put an additional 450 vending machines into stores and arrange with more retailers to have lottery cards at checkout lanes. The net difference is Ducey is projecting a 20 percent increase in lottery revenues, to nearly $95 million. And then there's the belief there's more money to be squeezed out of taxpayers. That starts with the state contracting with an outside firm that will compare the credit card receipts of various companies information not available to the state with what the firms are reporting as their earnings to the state. If the former figure is significantly higher than what shows up on tax forms, that will trigger a closer look. Ducey staffers believe they can generate $30 million from this program, even after the outside firm gets to keep 20 percent of what the state collects. The administration also is reversing course and adding 25 auditors and collectors. In 2016 the state cut the budget of the Department of Revenue by $7 million. Agency officials said that forced the layoff of about 50 employees. It also left the department with one corporate audit supervisor and four corporate auditors. But Scarpinato repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether those layoffs were a mistake. "By working with (Department of) Revenue, we realize there are dollars to be had,'' he said. And were there dollars that could have been had this current fiscal year? "I would acknowledge that there's more dollars to be had moving forward,'' Scarpinato responded. Overall, the state hopes to boost sales tax revenues by 4.1 percent, with a similar increase in individual income taxes. Corporate income taxes are a different story: Companies are expected to pay less than $300 million this coming year. That less than half of what they were paying seven years ago before lawmakers approved a series of tax sharp cuts on the premise it would generate more economic activity. And the Department of Revenue reports that three out of every four corporations pay no more than $50 a year in income taxes. PHOENIX A veteran state lawmaker is seeking what one lawyer calls a large and blatant exemption to the states public records law. The proposal by Rep. Bob Thorpe, R-Flagstaff, would spell out that any records stored on the personal cell phone, computer or social media account of a public official or employee are not required to be disclosed. HB 2256 is worded so that exemption would apply even if the public official were actually conducting official business on the personal device. Thorpes legislation comes after the state Court of Appeals ruled that public officials cannot hide public business by using their own cell phones for texts, emails and social messages. It just shows what everybody always thought, attorney Dan Barr of the First Amendment Coalition told Capitol Media Services. We all knew how public officials use texting to try to circumvent the public records law. Barr said that should have come to a halt following the appellate court ruling. Instead, he said, Thorpe wants to not only overturn that decision but enshrine into statute a method of keeping what public officials are doing out of public view. Thorpe, in a prepared statement, said there are conflicting and confusing court rulings on the subject. But the three-term representative made it clear he does not think anything on a personal device should be subject to disclosure. Id have no objection to the state providing legislators with mobile devices to conduct state business on, Thorpe said. However, if Im paying the monthly phone bill on my personal device, I think those records ought to belong to me. Barr sees it from a different perspective. To be so blatant about it, (he is saying) I want to be able to use text messaging to continue to circumvent the public record law, the attorney said. Barr said the Court of Appeals made it clear that public officials cannot engage in that sort of subterfuge. Now he wants to make it explicit, Barr said. What is explicit is the ruling written by appellate Judge Paul McMurdie in a case involving whether the public was entitled to the text messages between Department of Public Safety officers at the scene of an accident. The officers admitted they routinely use their personal phones for official business. A public employees private cell phone records pertaining to the conduct of public business may become public records subject to disclosure if a public requestor establishes the employee used the cell phone for a public purpose, McMurdie wrote. Barr said that ruling should have come as no surprise. He said there are prior court rulings that essentially have said the same thing. In a unanimous 2007 ruling, the Arizona Supreme Court said the test of whether a document is a public record is not where it is stored but whether the underlying document itself is public. Anderson Cooper delivered an emotional tribute and defense of Haiti after President Donald Trump's remarks referring to Haiti and some nations in Africa as "shithole countries." "Let me be clear, the people of Haiti have been through more, withstood more, fought back against more injustice than our President ever has," Cooper said. Cooper ended his prime time program by reflecting on his longstanding relationship with Haiti. "I was taught math in high school by a Haitian immigrant named Yves Volel, who worked hard, dedicated himself to teaching kids," he said. "He ultimately returned to Haiti and was assassinated while running for president." Cooper added that he has frequently traveled to Haiti, both professionally and personally. "I first went there in the early 1990s as a young reporter," he said. "In 2010 my team from CNN was the first international team of journalists on the ground after the earthquake struck. Like all countries, Haiti is a collection of people -- rich and poor, well educated and not, good and bad." Cooper went on to talk about the strength and resilience of the Haitian people. "I have never met a Haitian who isn't strong," Cooper said. "You have to be to survive in a place where the government has often abandoned its people. Where opportunities are few and where Mother Nature has punished the people far more than anyone should ever be punished." Friday will mark eight years since the poverty-stricken nation was hit by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. Cooper cited the significance of the anniversary and recounted his coverage of the 2010 earthquake. "For days and weeks without help from their government or police, the people of Haiti dug through rubble with their bare and bloodied hands to save complete strangers -- guided only by the cries of the wounded and the dying," Cooper said. "I was there when a young girl named Bee who'd been trapped in rubble for nearly a day was rescued by people who had no heavy equipment ... they just had their God-given strength and their determination ... and their courage." Cooper became emotional as he tried to continue to share rescue stories from the devastating earthquake. "I was there when a 5-year-old boy named Monley was rescued after being buried for more than seven days. Do you know what strength it takes to survive on rainwater buried under concrete -- a 5-year-old boy?" Cooper concluded his tribute by saying that the White House can learn from the dignity expressed by Haitian people. Help India! New Delhi, (IANS) : The NIA on Friday told a court here that it will file next week a chargesheet in the case of terror funding in the Kashmir Valley as a court extended till January 18 the judicial custody of seven Kashmiri separatists and a businessman. According to court sources, during the in-camera proceedings, the National Investigation Agency told Additional Sessions Judge Tarun Sherawat that the final report in the case will be filed next week. The investigation of the case is at concluding stage and the evidence on record is being summed up, NIA said. The agency urged the court to extend the judicial custody of the eight accused for another seven days. The court did so, via video conferencing. The eight have been charged with receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir. On July 24, 2017, the NIA arrested seven of them Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India. Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmirs merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat. Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, accused of acting as a conduit for channelling funds for separatists and terror activities in the Kashmir Valley, was arrested on August 17 last year. He was allegedly collecting funds from Pakistan and banned terrorist organisations and transferring the same to Hurriyat leaders. Watali is known to be friends with Pakistani leaders as well as separatists, besides leading politicians in Kashmir, the NIA said. Help India! By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter Jammu: On January 11, the Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Dr Haseeb A Drabu while presenting the state budget in the state legislative assembly announced MediClaim Insurance Policy for the accredited working journalist of the state. Support TwoCircles However, this announcement has come as a major disappointment for hundreds of journalists who are non-accredited and work in hostile situations risking their lives to report the stories. The government constitutes State Media accreditation committee and conduct of business and consists of not more than 12 members who are non-officials to be nominated by the State Government from amongst the representatives of news media, news agencies, correspondents, press photographers/videographers and editors of daily newspapers of repute with not less than eight years of experience. Accreditation is given only to such news media representatives, except Freelancers, who have a minimum of five years professional experience as a full time working journalist/photo-journalists/video-journalists/cartoonist in a news media organisation. Jammu and Kashmir Young Journalist Association (JKYJA), while reacting to insurance announcement for accredited journalists, said this step left out a large number of journalists who have been working on ground zero. The accredited journalists get all the benefits and felicitations from the state, apart from the huge revenue of advertisement and handsome salaries. On the other hand, non-accredited journalists are bypassed on every count, said Rameez Makhdoomi, spokesperson JKYJA. The association further said that the committees run by the government to decide the accreditation standards are not working on professional lines. They should work in tune with the need of the present times, Makhdoomi added. The JKYJA urged the government to address the issues pertaining to the working journalists and said that government should come clear on the accreditation policy. It said the policy needed to be altered for the sake of the welfare of journalists working on ground zero. The government needs to come clear on the accreditation policyreporters, photojournalists working on ground zero with seven years of experience should qualify for accreditation, Ajaz Ahmad War, President JKYJA. It is very unfortunate that non-accredited journalists have been skipped in the Medicare insurance. We are the workforce for the newspapers who are working despite many odds. I think govt should reconsider their decision and include all the journalists in the scheme, Aquib Javeed who is a reporter at Kashmir Observer told TwoCircles.net. Another journalist, Mir Iqbal, who works at the Greater Kashmir told TCN, A huge number of non accredited journalist are putting their lives at risk to cover the ground reality and they must be included in the policy. We are the foot soldiers of the media industry, the government cant ignore us, he added. Importantly, dozens of media persons have been injured in Jammu and Kashmir in last few years while performing their professional duties. During 2016 unrest, two journalists were blinded after the use of pellet gun by the security force personnel. An annual survey of real estate investors conducted in the final quarter 2017 confirmed London as the world's number one investment target. As reported by Bloomberg, the UK capital city had overtaken New York City which held the first place globally a year ago. The US largest city took a double hit in the ranking where Los Angeles was named for the first time as the top US city. The annual survey of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate asked the opinion of its members, who are estimated to have control of assets worth in excess of $2 trillion. A year ago the AFIRE survey ranked London third while Los Angeles was ranked second among US cities and fourth globally. With London seated comfortably at the apex, the other top five global cities are New York, Berlin, Los Angeles and Frankfurt. Brexit vote caused less concern among investors than originally predicted The 26th annual survey was conducted by the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, Wisconsin School of Business. According to its data, in a year and a half since the EU referendum, London appears to have weathered the UKs existential Brexit crisis. The City recorded an investment growth of 18 percent year over year, reaching 8.21 billion in the first half of 2017 according to Cushman & Wakefield. Later the same year two Hong Kong based investors acquired at record prices two of London's most wanted office towers, the iconic Cheesegrater and Walkie Talkie, which the market saw as another sign of confidence. Edward M. Casal, AFIRE's recently elected chairman, and chief executive in global real estate of Aviva Investors, was quoted by PR Newswire explaining London's rebound, "A year later, foreign investors are less concerned about the ramifications of Brexit." Big Apple losing its appeal globally despite 2010's activity spike Across the Atlantic New York City is seen on track toward a different kind of record. Sales of commercial properties in Manhattan continued to slide, predicted to finish 2017 at $19.8 billion (14.45 billion), thus matching the very number recorded almost a decade ago in 2008, the year of the Lehman Brothers collapse. New York and London emerged from the global recession early and in both cities investment activity was observed to pick up around 2010. As the decade progressed, real estate prices achieved record highs, and commercial buyers started becoming increasingly concerned about overpaying, which resulted in both Big Apple and Big Smoke experiencing a noticeable contraction of transaction volumes. Then London's path diverged as the 2016 vote introduced factors yet unknown to investors. In the wake of the referendum, the pound lost 10 percent of its value, which offered numerous buyers from abroad more return on their investment. According to The Real Deal, this attracted a new wave of buyers from East Asia and Germany. At least 985 drug-dependent babies were born in the UK between 2016 and 2017, according to figures revealed through a Freedom Of Information requests made to NHS trusts on behalf of the Liberal Democrats. 109 of these babies were suffering from what is referred to medically as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), babies born to mothers using drugs, either legal or illegal, while pregnant receive drugs into the bloodstream and when the umbilical cord is cut upon birth, the drugs supply is abruptly cut off and the baby goes through the symptoms of withdrawal the same way in which an adult would. What are the symptoms of NAS? The neonatal withdrawal symptoms include continuous high-pitched crying, rapid breathing, blotchy skin, excessive sweating, uncontrollable shaking and in some cases fits along with constant vomiting and diarrhoea. They are also likely to have a low birth weight and developmental issues. How many children are affected overall? In the last decade, over 12,000 babies were born nationally with withdrawal symptoms, 2,309 of whom were born showing symptoms of NAS, according to the NHS Trusts which chose to respond. Numbers were at their worst between 2014 and 2015 at 510 or an average of 10 cases a week, however, they did dip to 396 between 2016 and 2017. Whilst not every Trust responded to the Freedom of information request by the Lib Dems, out of those that did, 103 were treated for the effects of heroin withdrawal, 128 for heroin substitute methadone, 65 were found to have cocaine in their bodies and 25 had cannabis in theirs. Other drugs listed as those found in babies included codeine and fentanyl and since not all the data has been provided, it is likely the numbers will be even higher. What other risks are there? Illicit drug use is also associated with an increased risk of child abuse and neglect and exposure to such incidents and children who born with NAS also have a higher chance of drug misuse in their adult life, according to Dr Graeme Scobbie, Public Health Advisor for the NHS. How can this be treated? In some cases, children are weaned off drugs by being given opiates but those who do not need medication to control NAS may still be kept in hospital for up to a week at a time when the NHS is already being stretched. In many cases, the babies are given to family members to care for or taken into care if necessary, however, some experts believe the outcomes would be better if both the mother and baby are allowed to detox together. Scotland became the first country in the world to launch a national naloxone programme in April 2011 after investing over 630 million to tackle alcohol and drug abuse since 2008. Out of the total, 574 million is being provided by the NHS boards to alcohol and drug partnerships for investment into prevention, treatment and recovery services. Between December 2013 and 2015, 65% of children left the programme in the care of their mother, who was drug and alcohol-free and the rest of the country has since followed suit. Alex-Cole Hamilton, Lib Dem MSP for Edinburgh Central, however, has attacked the Scottish Government for cutting funding to drug and alcohol partnerships by more than 20% and labelled the figures "heartbreaking". Whilst programmes do differ slightly, a typical residency would involve mothers following a strict rehabilitation plan including daily counselling sessions and regular medical examinations and check-ups from social services. It costs roughly 1,500 per week to send a baby and its mother to such centres and outside of Scotland, funding for places is usually arranged via joint agreements between adult addiction and children's social care services. However, there are concerns that removing children and their mothers from the community entirely will not solve the problem as the site of the programmes doesn't reflect real life and mothers returning to their communities could easily relapse after being accustomed to 24/7 care. Those who work with the mothers and children in question say that the majority of parents who they deal with come from a disadvantaged socio-economy background, with most cases involving an abuse of drugs like heroin and cocaine. The NHS is no longer the outstanding institution it once was, or at least it still is in the left's eyes. It was a model appropriate for 1948, but not 2018. This year will mark seventy years since the NHS was established, but it is important to remember the context it was created in. Our health service was created three years after the Second World War. Britain was poor because of six years of horrific conflict. The Attlee government brought in sweeping reforms designed to prevent the UK from being crippled by a sluggish economy and debt. The population was smaller than it is today. In the 1970s, the quality of British healthcare drastically improved. "The King's Fund anticipates health spending will reach twenty per cent of GDP by 2050" Times have changed. The NHS cannot go on like this, especially when the King's Fund anticipates health spending will reach twenty per cent of GDP by 2050. The population is significantly larger than it was in 1948. And no matter how much cash any government pours into it, it is never enough to prevent the NHS from reaching 'breaking point', as the left and the press scream every year. This is the problem though. Whether it is a Labour or Conservative administration that has tried to reform the health service, the media claim it is privatisation. No one wants an American healthcare model. Thirty-five per cent of Americans fail to pay their health bills. Is this really a model the UK should copy? There are 165 other nations whose health services Britain can emulate. In Germany, the government, the private sector and charities each provide a third of the costs towards their healthcare system. If the NHS was deregulated, GPs would be allowed to charge for appointments, foreign visitors would be billed for using a British hospital and private healthcare would be more affordable. The latter solution would ease pressure off public hospitals and save taxpayers money. Cancelled operations cost the NHS 600 million-a-year as it is. Britain's healthcare will not improve until future governments are bold enough to tackle its problems. The NHS is the third worst healthcare system in the world. It is time to change that. A Labour-run council has been exposed for failing in its duty of care towards mentally-ill residents. In an exclusive report, Croydon resident Gemma Patient has provided Blasting News with documents and correspondence that reveal how her council has provided insufficient funding towards her elderly mother's care package. South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust discharged Ms Patient's mother's care package on 29th December 2016 without the Croydon resident's consent. Croydon Council said they made this decision on the basis that Ms Patient's mother does not meet the required care threshold. "There were no measures put in place to safeguard my mother" Ms Patient told Blasting News: "There were no measures put in place to safeguard my mother within the community and then she was discharged from the Mental Health Team to her GP, although she was relapsing and becoming a danger to herself and her children. They failed to respond to a crisis call that I made to CMHT in Croydon and the Duty Care Team, so I subsequently had to take her to our local A&E where there is a 24 hour psychiatric team. "They kept her in overnight and discharged her the next day without my consent. "I did, however, tell them that it was not safe for my Mum to return home and when I left to go back to work, I received a call from my Mum to say that they had sent her home in their own transport, although she should have been detained under the Mental Health Act and safeguarded until her treatment plan was satisfactory and she no longer became a danger to herself or the public. "The liability shall lie with them, as I made it perfectly clear that my Mum could not stay at home" "I sent her back to A&E and they discharged her again the same evening. I told them that if this is the case and an incident takes place that the liability shall lie with them, as I made it perfectly clear that my Mum could not stay at home." Ms Patient described how her mother would take numerous items to the park and leave her front door wide open, but they still discharged her. The Croydon resident said the Head of Treatment and mental health nurse ignored her on numerous occasions to assist her mother sooner. According to Ms Patient, the nurse also failed to implement adequate checks on her mother. After the Head of Treatment explained to Ms Patient the reasons why her mother did not meet the care threshold, the Croydon resident asked them if they thought it was satisfactory for her mother to be visiting the park at 1am and leaving the door wide open, to which they replied: 'Yes.' Ms Patient laid the blame at the Labour Party, who were re-elected in 2014. "The Mental Health Services Team come under a Labour council and have been nothing but an endless problem ever since they were re-elected" She added: "There has been no end of failings from this team and irresponsible cuts made that have posed danger to vulnerable adults, which can also lead to danger to the public. The Mental Health Services Team come under a Labour council and have been nothing but an endless problem ever since they were re-elected in 2014. "They are not keeping the public safe and need to be inspected to check that there are no other cases of this nature going on." Ms Patient said Labour are slashing funding for her mother's care as a form of "cost-cutting". She said: "There is no accountability or responsibility.They have completely irrational expectations and they do not protect the welfare of my Mum. They are always blaming the Government." In September 2017, Croydon Council held a special cabinet meeting after Ofsted rated their children's services as 'inadequate.' Ms Patient described the council as extremely appalling and called on the Cabinet Member for Children's Services and the Labour Leader of the Council to resign. Councillor Tony Newman, the Leader of Croydon Council, and Councillor Louisa Woodley, the Cabinet Member for Families, Health & Social Care, were both approached for comment by Blasting News, but declined to do so. Some fans out there may not have noticed it as they were preoccupied with the fight between Vegeta and Jiren. However, Frieza just laid out a bargain to Dyspo prior to him getting his dragged by the Pride Trooper member. Deal with the Emperor A quick recap is a must for us to understand the gravity of the discussion between Dyspo and Frieza. If you followed the Tournament of Power, this is not the first time that Frieza offered somebody from another Universe about a certain deal. Basically, Frieza is trying to stay alive just to be revived fully. It is very hard to grasp that one of the biggest and baddest villains in the series is being toyed by Dyspo. No offence to the pride trooper member as he is now considered part of the big 3 for Universe 11. However, Frieza is on another level. He might be fighting for Universe 7 but true fans of the series know that Frieza is fighting for himself. Legions of fans are debating on how weak Frieza is during the last episode but it is actually part of his plan. Frieza is a cerebral assassin, to say the least. Remember when he lent Goku some energy because Goku was spent fighting Jiren? Well, Frieza is again saving some energy before he unleashes his gold form. The unlikely member of Universe 7 fighter knows that Dyspo is not the biggest threat to him being eliminated. He just understands the situation that is why he made the proposal to Dyspo. The Forgotten Warrior Apart from Friezas plan, Gohan will be largely involved in the next episode. To this day, fans are tired already of TOEI Animation for not giving him the spotlight that he deserves. Goku and Vegeta already surpassed numerous forms but for Gohan, still the same classic form. The title of the episode is very intriguing as it states Gohans Final Stand. There are theories among fans that Gohan might create a mistake that will wipe him out of the tournament. Numerous web magazines and YouTube channels also state that he might be eliminated earlier than expected. Akira Toriyama is also tight-lipped about Gohan's role in the tournament. The last time fans saw Gohan as a legit warrior is way back in Cell games. It's melancholy to see that one of the main characters in the series play as a background player only. There's still a lot of time in the Tournament of Power and it is a guarantee that a lot of surprises will unfold. Frieza and Gohan will spearhead Episode 124 but fans are still in awe of Jiren's ungodly power. In the opinion of Donald Trump, the new location of the US embassy at Nine Elms site, near Battersea in London was a bad deal. He has blamed the former Obama Administration for selecting the site even though records indicate that it had been initiated by the George W Bush administration in October 2008, before Barack Obama came to the scene. Sky News reports that the building is due to open on January 16 to house the American diplomats and Donald Trump was scheduled to visit London on the occasion to declare it open. However, he has opted out, citing the reason for the "bad deal" and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will now carry out the ceremonial duties at the official opening. London and Trump dont mix It may be recalled that British Prime Minister Theresa May was the first foreign leader to visit the US president Donald Trump in the White House. There were great expectations from both sides of improving relations but things did not proceed as desired and the relations soured because of Trumps criticism of the British. Incidentally, his decision of not attending the opening ceremony of the new US embassy in London has had little effect on the people of Britain. The reaction of Downing Street has been cautious. It has said that a state visit by the US president is very much in the cards because an invitation for such a visit has been extended and accepted. Of course, there was stiff opposition to it with an online petition of millions asking to cancel it and cautioning that there would be large-scale protests in case he does come. MPs wanted the offer of a state visit to be withdrawn in view of his immigration policy against Muslim majority countries. However, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has indicated that the state visit will not be scrapped. Why Britain does not like Trump? The relation between Britain and Trump had turned sour after a Twitter war following the London terror attack in June 2017 when a van drove into people on the bridge. It left seven dead and 48 wounded and led to unpleasant exchanges between Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, and Donald Trump, the president of the United States. This could be a reason of why he chose to give the new US embassy a miss. According to the Guardian, the president had criticized the mayor, which did not go down well with the British. Sadiq Khan wanted the government to cancel the planned state visit till such time Trump revoked the travel ban on people from some Muslim dominated countries. Moreover, there was an online petition signed by nearly two million people who wanted the state visit to be canceled with fears of protests if he did come. These added up to give rise to the ill feeling. In honor of National law enforcement Appreciation Day, Melania Trump decided to tweet out a message in support. As expected, the first lady quickly came under fire from critics. Melania on Twitter President Donald Trump has been outspoken in the world of politics since the day he announced his plans to run for president on the floor of Trump Tower in June 2015. While some members of Trump's family, like his son Donald Jr. and daughter Ivanka, have been in and out of the headlines for various reasons, First Lady Melania Trump has done her best to stay out of the spotlight. While Melania has made a few gaffes at times, including the reported plagiarism of former First Lady Michelle Obama during her speech at the Republican National Convention in 2016, she's mostly been relegated to her attempt to curb cyberbullying and making select speeches around the country. On Tuesday, many took part in honoring members of law enforcement for National Law Enforcement Appreciation, including Melania during a tweet on January 9. Thank you to the brave men & women who sacrifice so much to protect & keep us safe. We appreciate all that you & your families do! #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/Zb8IIY19qf Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) January 9, 2018 To honor the men and women in law enforcement, Melania Trump did her part with a tweet. "Thank you to the brave men & women who sacrifice so much to protect & keep us safe," Melania tweeted out, before adding, "We appreciate all that you & your families do!" While her tweet appeared innocent, critics hit back at the first lady, with some questioning her stance on Robert Mueller who is special counsel to the the current Russian investigation. Twitter backlash Following the first lady's tweet, those who oppose the administration decided to give their rebuttal. "Melania, do you realize that men and women from law enforcement agencies will be picking up your husband and your step children after the indictments?" one tweet read. Melania, do you realize that men and women from law enforcement agencies will be picking up your husband and your step children after the indictments? yaakovdoe (@YaakovDoe) January 9, 2018 We would all support you if you chose to leave him. Always remember that. Heather (@ppillon) January 9, 2018 Pretty sure her staff tweeted this since it's a repost of a 10/23 picture. Melania is pretty much MIA lately. Juanita Puce (@JuanitaPuce) January 9, 2018 "We would all support you if you chose to leave him. Always remember that," another tweet mockingly stated. "Give it up. We all know you don't mean anything you say too. Complicit means guilty," one Twitter user added. "Why are you re-posting a pic from last October? Where is Melania? Haven't seen her since NYE. No public appearances since early December. Is she being held hostage? Concerned," a social media user wrote. Why are you repostig a pic from last October? Where is Melania? Haven't seen her since NYE. No public appointmets since early December. Is she being held hostage? Concerned. Juanita Puce (@JuanitaPuce) January 9, 2018 Thank God for law enforcement. Mueller and his team of investigators will surely be the salvation of the country...it is law enforcement, using good and trustworthy evidence and intelligence that will put your old man in jail...and then you are free...you know you want it. tRick Salsman (@tRickSalsman) January 9, 2018 Give it up. We all know you don't mean anything you say too. Complicit means guilty. Karolynne Cox (@lcox1948) January 9, 2018 "Thank God for law enforcement. Mueller and his team of investigators will surely be the salvation of the country...it is law enforcement, using good and trustworthy evidence and intelligence that will put your old man in jail...and then you are free...you know you want it," an additional tweet wrote. The backlash continued as many Americans pulled no punches in criticizing Melania Trump. President Donald Trump has pulled out of a planned visit to London where he was supposed to be opening the new $1 billion embassy building on the banks of the river Thames. In typical fashion, Trump has blamed President Obama for his refusal to attend, but the real reason is reportedly very different. Trump won't go to London because he knows that the people of London just don't want him there. London Mayor Sadiq Khan roasts Trump over his canceled visit It would be fair to say that London Mayor Sadiq Khan is no fan of President Trump. In the wake of the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack last year, Trump used the attack to try to justify his attempts to ban travelers from a group of predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. It is no exaggeration to say that Londoners were outraged. Mayor Khan called out the president on his remarks in no uncertain terms. When President Trump took to Twitter to announce that he had canceled his planned trip to London, Mayor Khan was delighted. As reported by the BBC, Khan took to Twitter to say that "it appears that President Trump has finally 'got the message' that he is not welcome in London." Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems hes finally got that message. pic.twitter.com/YD0ZHuWtr3 Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) January 12, 2018 Mayor Khan's statement made it clear that many Londoners view Trump's policies as "divisive" and the "polar opposite of [London's] values of inclusion, diversity, and tolerance." Mayor Khan has been a vocal critic of prime minister Theresa May's decision to invite Trump to make a state visit to the United Kingdom. Of course, Khan is not the only person who objects to the president being offered a state visit. Almost two million people signed a petition demanding that Mrs. May withdraw the invitation. Will President Trump's state visit to the United Kingdom still happen? We have to face the fact that for a British prime minister to withdraw an invitation for a state visit would be a huge embarrassment for the British government. After all, no British government would want to be seen to damage the so-called "special relationship" between the two nations. That said, the whole issue has developed into a huge political embarrassment for Mrs. May and her conservative government. President Trump's retweeting of two totally fake and misleading Twitter messages from British far-right extremist group, Britain First, caused major difficulties for May, who lost her parliamentary majority in last June's ill-fated snap election. Privately, May was reportedly furious, but her comments that President Trump was "wrong" to share those messages show just how precarious her position is. Make no mistake, most Briton's love America, but few can stomach Donald Trump. If the US president does eventually make a state visit to the UK, he will be met by huge protests. Millions are expected to take to the streets of London to oppose the president and to make it absolutely clear that he is not welcome. Trump's recent comments about "s**thole" countries will not have made him any more popular on that side of the pond. Brandi Glanville went on a rant against her former co-star and friend, Lisa Vanderpump, as the latest episode of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" aired on Bravo TV. In a series of tweets shared with her fans and followers, Glanville said that she wished she could tell her online audience about the hell that Vanderpump, who she deemed "Lisa VanderC**t," put her and her family through. "All I can say is she lied under oath and it has hurt the future of my boys who she claimed to care about," Brandi Glanville tweeted on January 10, adding that Lisa Vanderpump has "zero conscience." Although Vanderpump's fans were quick to defend the reality star and restauranteur, Glanville insisted that Vanderpump did lie while she kept it real. Glanville also said that it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks because both she and Vanderpump know what really happened. Brandi Glanville says she lost everything due to Lisa Vanderpump's alleged lies Brandi Glanville faced backlash for the comments she made against Lisa Vanderpump but didn't take the criticism well. In fact, she went on to say again that Vanderpump had allegedly lied under oath and caused her to lose everything she's saved. Still, she failed to reveal exactly what it was that she was talking about. "It's a long story I legally can't tell," she explained. Throughout the Twitter rant, Vanderpump remained completely silent, opting against a response. Is Brandi Glanville talking about Joanna Krupa's lawsuit against her? While the former reality star didn't mention Joanna Krupa, formerly of the "Real Housewives of Miami," in any of her tweets, some fans believed she was referring to the lawsuit Krupa filed against Glanville years ago. As fans may recall, Krupa filed a defamation lawsuit against Glanville after Glanville said that her private parts stunk on a couple of occasions. During the legal proceedings, Vanderpump and Mohamed Hadid were called as witnesses to testify against Glanville. Although the exact outcome of Joanna Krupa's lawsuit against the mother of two was never revealed, her legal team said after a settlement was reached that the Polish model was pleased with the outcome of her case. To see more of Lisa Vanderpump, tune in to new episodes of "Vanderpump Rules" Season 6 on Monday nights at 9 PM and "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" Season 8 on Tuesday nights at 9 PM. Both shows air on Bravo TV. Everyone should know this story by now. In 2015 it was made public, through police reports, that Josh Duggar had a history of being a sexual predator. The reports stated that when he was about 14 years old, he had inappropriately touched five minors. His parents, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, said they fixed the issue by sending the then-teen away to stay with a family friend. When he returned, he then continued inappropriately touching minors. The Duggars refused to let the authorities get involved and instead claimed they could discipline him through church and a stern talk from a former Arkansas State Trooper who was in prison due to child pornography charges. Clearly, none of this helped. And clearly, that scandal wasn't enough to keep the Duggar Family away from anyone else accused of sexual assault. Anna Duggar was attacked by fans on Twitter Ever since the scandal happened with her husband, Josh Duggar, she's been quiet on social media, coming back every now and again. During the holiday season, the Duggar wife decided to make a return after a short hiatus. She posted to her social media account saying, "Merry CHRISTmas," making sure to put an emphasis on the "Christ." As many Duggar fans would agree with the whole "keeping Jesus in Christmas" idea, many felt conflicted based on her husbands past. Not only does Josh Duggar have a history with inappropriately touching minors, but he also, more recently, cheated on his wife. Because of these occurrences, fans responded with tweets stating that Anna was being hypocritical. One fan responded with a tweet saying that if she's going to make such a big deal on emphasizing the word "Christ" in Christmas, then she needs to put an emphasis on the fact that her husband is a molester, adulterer, and an infidel. The follower also stated that Anna is delusional. Another fan responded by asking the mother of five how she can proclaim to be a follower of Christ, yet turn a blind eye to her husband's child molestation. All of these statements are very valid, as the Duggars have been quite contradictory with their proclamation to be a Christian. Right now, the current contradiction is that they're following the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), which is run by Bill Gothard - who has been accused of sexual assault by many women. Despite controversy, Duggars continue to align themselves with Bill Gothard According to Christianity Today, Five women so far have come out and said that the founder of IBLP had sexually abused them in the past, which of course he denied. Later on, he claimed that he's never touched a girl sexually and that he's sorry for ever hugging or holding hands with these women. He also stated that these women are demonstrating a double-standard. For these women, the abuse started when they were minors. It occurred because they were either volunteers at the institute, or they were receiving counseling, for being abused in the past. The reason as to why this concerns "Counting On" critics is because the Duggar family is set to travel to Australia to speak at one of his family conferences. Of course, many of his followers are professing his innocence. But, considering the number of women that are accusing him and how many lawsuits that are against him right now, it is clearly more than likely that all of this is true. Fans are conflicted and concerned considering the Duggars just went through their own sexual abuse controversy with their eldest son. Why would they want to stand by another person who's been accused of the same thing? Also, why would they want to get themselves tangled in that mess again? Many people are finding it hypocritical. To speak out about Christian values, but then turn around and support those who have been accused of sexual assault, many find it disturbing. In what was meant as an innocent video, Jeremy Roloff of "Little People, Big World" is seen tickling his daughter. Romper shared that the fans are freaking out over this video, though. They are really upset and feel like Jeremy could cause damage to his daughter and that this is not okay. What did Jeremy do that upset fans so much? In this video, Jeremy is just playing with his daughter. He is tickling her and she is laughing away. Ember was born in September of 2017 and so she is just a few months old. Audrey is always posting videos and pictures of Ember on social networks, so it isn't surprising that she shared this one. Jeremy Roloff is simply tickling his daughter under the chin and it was shared on Facebook. Ember has a smile on her face during the video and seems to be just fine. She doesn't seem uncomfortable or like she isn't enjoying it, but that doesn't mean the fans didn't freak out. They are really upset at the idea that he would even do this to her at all. What are the fans upset about? The fans are explaining that doctors have told them that you shouldn't ever tickle a baby at all. Personally, I have never heard this before, so I am shocked by this one, but there are several different people upset over it and speaking out. One fan explained it saying, "Don't tickle babies it will make them stutter. It hurts their nervous system. Think what it does to you if someone holds your arms and tickles you." One thing that the fans are saying is that you can make a baby laugh in other ways. Audrey and Jeremy Roloff haven't responded to the people who are so upset about this and are just going on about their business. They are used to the haters on their posts so they may just ignore them all the time now. Dr. Lisa Scott, the Director of Clinical Education and Research Associate in the School of Communication Science and Disorders at Florida State University actually explained that this doesn't cause stuttering. It can happen if someone in your family has the issue and other things, but not tickling your baby. I guess I can see the point about the baby having no control, but when anyone gets tickled they don't have control. Jeremy and Audrey Roloff probably won't stop tickling, but probably will stop posting about it. What do you think about Jeremy Roloff tickling his daughter? Is there any reason for concern? Sound off in the comments below on your thoughts, and don't miss new episodes of "Little People, Big World" when it returns to TLC. Maci Bookout usually doesn't share much on her social media accounts. Over the past couple of months, she's asked people for money, shared a few personal photos of her children, and she's shared a good handful of sponsored posts. The majority of posts are paid, which means that Maci makes money when she shares something on social media for her fans to click. Her "Teen Mom OG" co-stars have allowed companies and websites to share articles on their pages to encourage clicks. However, when all of the "Teen Mom" stars share the same articles, fans get upset and they start unfollowing these celebrities. Maci hadn't allowed these websites to share articles on her accounts, but it sounds like Maci has changed her mind. According to a new tweet, Maci Bookout is now sharing click-bait articles with her fans. This week, Bookout shared an article about Chelsea DeBoer recovering from a black eye. While the article wasn't negative, her fans quickly realized it was click-bait and people had an opinion about her sharing this kind of content. They lashed out, saying they would unfollow her as they didn't want to support her ventures when she's now allowing companies to share content about her co-stars for money. Click-bait taking over Click-bait articles are taking over in the "Teen Mom" community. Many of her co-stars are sharing content about one another, which can be negative in nature. For example, Briana DeJesus is currently dating Javi Marroquin, but because of her feud with Kailyn Lowry, there are many click-bait articles about her and their relationship. It's clear that click-bait articles are taking over, especially since "Teen Mom" viewers take these stories seriously because they come from the "Teen Mom" stars. Cease-and-desist letters already issued Because these stories are shared by "Teen Mom" stars, there are already some legal tensions brewing between them. Jenelle Evans has issued cease-and-desist letters to her "Teen Mom 2" co-stars, especially since she claims they have been saying things about her. But Evans is facing legal action herself, as she keeps sharing things about her co-stars via these click-bait articles. In other words, her co-stars are not interested in being friends with her, as she continues to share stories about them. It wouldn't be surprising if she faced legal action from her co-stars soon. What do you think about Maci Bookout joining the click-bait groups? Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page. Loading... Checking your browser before accessing the website. This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly. Please wait a few seconds. HCM CITY The 2018 Vietnam Blockchain Week will be held in HCM City in March to promote the potential of blockchain and 4.0 technologies. Organised by Infinity Blockchain Labs (IBL), the event also aims to highlight Viet Nams position as a global hub of 4.0 technologies and advocate support from Vietnamese regulators to create a facilitating and nurturing environment for blockchain and 4.0 technologies. The event expects to attract 1,500 participants to demonstrate how blockchain is transforming the global economy and how Viet Nam is poised to become the next global blockchain and 4.0 technologies hub. By inviting only top tier speakers, thought leaders, business leaders and regulators from Viet Nam and the world in various realms of blockchain and other 4.0 technologies such as AI, VR/AR, and the Internet of Things, the organisers hope to use the event to help the Vietnamese tech community position itself in the global market. It will be held on March 7 and 8 at Riverside Palace in District 4. The blockchain concept is one of the most transformative and game-changing ideas since the Internet. It is a public transaction ledger built in a network structure based on cryptographic principles which removes the need for intermediaries while generating massive transactional applications to establish trust, accountability and transparency at lower costs, with fewer legal constraints and with less system friction. Blockchain technology goes well beyond cryptocurrencies, fintech, public voting, data sharing networks, and decentralised marketplaces and interacts with other cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and Big Data. Blockchain is in fact heralded as the backbone of 4.0 technologies. Currently tech juggernauts such as IBM, Microsoft and Google and international banks are engaged in a blockchain research and development race on a global scale. Thanks to its geopolitical stability and one of the worlds highest growth rates, Viet Nam has gained a global reputation in the ICT industry though still only as an outsourcing hub, according to IBL. The inherent novelty, tremendous potential and range of possibilities of blockchain and other 4.0 technologies will undoubtedly enable Viet Nam to thrive, especially its ICT industry, it said. VNS HA NOI The Vietnamese automobile market witnessed an unsuccessful 2017 as the total sales was lower than in 2016 and failed to reach the desired growth rate. The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) had predicted that total sales of the automobile market in 2017 would grow by at least 10 per cent compared to 2016. However, according to a VAMA report, some 272,750 units were sold in 2017, reducing by 10 per cent year on year. The market saw a decrease in sales in all types of cars, in which the volume of passenger cars was down 15 per cent, commercial cars two per cent and special-purpose vehicles 12 per cent. Of the total sales last year, 164,960 cars were locally assembled and 77,790 cars were imported, decreasing 19 per cent and increasing 9 per cent, respectively, compared to 2016. Auto price standstill According to market insiders, the poor sales in 2017 was due to peoples psychology of waiting for an auto price cut with the import tax rate of cars from ASEAN countries set to become zero per cent from January 2018 (under the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement commitments). In addition to this, the import duty on auto parts also became zero per cent on the first day of the new year. This is aimed at promoting the local automobile industry as well as cutting prices of locally assembled automobiles. However, insiders believe that the price of automobiles is unlikely to reduce this year as expected. This is due to a host of promotional programmes by various auto businesses last year offering discounts up to hundreds of millions of ong an effort by auto businesses to stir up the market when people were waiting for the prices to be lowered this year. But there is no sign of price reduction from any of the auto firms, at least until Tet (Lunar New Year), even though from January 1 the new import tax of zero per cent has come into effect, except for Nissans announcement of a price cut for its sedan, Teana. Nguyen Hung Thang, an expert on the auto news website otofun.net, told Vietnam Television that the price of automobiles in 2018 would not be cheaper because of many factors. Its not simple as bringing down auto prices by cutting taxes, he said. Thang said car prices would reduce if it met two criteria: the car was manufactured in an ASEAN country, and it must reach a localisation rate of 40 per cent or more in the country of origin. However, most of the models that have achieved a 40 per cent localisation rate in ASEAN are currently being manufactured and assembled in Viet Nam. The car imported from countries outside ASEAN, such as South Korea, Japan and European Union, will not be allowed to enjoy zero per cent tax rate, said Thang. This means that automakers from non-ASEAN countries cannot cut prices too much this year. Thang also said if the domestic automakers of cars with nine or less seats and an engine displacement of 2,500cc wanted to enjoy zero per cent duty on auto parts, they would have to meet two conditions: their output should reach 8,000 units or more every year and each model must have 3,000 units or more. Industry insiders say this year the automobile market is likely to see a price reduction of locally assembled models that enjoy zero per cent import tax on auto parts as well as cars with an engine displacement of 2,000cc or less that enjoy a cut of 5 per cent of special consumption tax, from 45 per cent to 40 per cent. Automakers such as Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco), Hyundai Thanh Cong and Toyota Viet Nam have been reducing the prices of several locally assembled models, however the price cut does not match that of 2017. Director of Hung Long Automobile Company, Hoang Manh Hung, told Vietnam Television that everything was clear. I think the prices of automobiles will remain standstill, and if it reduces, it will not be much so that people will not wait for further cut of auto prices. Hung said there were policies for businesses to reduce auto prices but that it was difficult for them to meet set conditions. To own a quality but inexpensive car is still a long story for Vietnamese people, he said. Hung pointed out that the transport infrastructure, especially in major cities such as HCM City and Ha Noi, was not developed. The demand for private vehicles is increasing, but the development of infrastructure has failed to meet the demand. VNS HA NOI The Ministry of Industry and Trade in Ha Noi officially announced yesterday the opening of a single national window for imported chemical declaration. The single window would help businesses shorten the time needed for the declaration of their imports. Accordingly, organisations and individuals can declare information on https://vnsw.gov.vn. The information would then be automatically transferred to the ministrys system. Nguyen Van Thanh, director of the Ministrys Department of Chemicals, said statistics showed that there were around 70,000 chemical declaration applications a year from some 4,000 companies at the ministry. Previously, the declaration was implemented both on paper and online. However, the results were still on paper, causing asynchronous procedures and difficulties for firms in remote areas. In addition, although the ministry reduced the time for implementing the chemical import declaration from seven to five working days, the results, which were sent through letters caused a delay for businesses. This affected the completion of customs clearance for chemicals imports. Thanh said the imported chemical declaration through a single national window has been under stable operation. It has received a positive response from businesses such as Hoya Glass Viet Nam Company Limited and Nokwon C&I Company. It could be said that this is a big improvement for the ministry in administrative procedure reform with an aim to support enterprises, he added. Speaking at the launching ceremony, Deputy Minister o Thang Hai said that rapid industrialisation and modernisation has made the chemical industry develop quickly. According to Global Chemical Outlooks data, the value of chemical products worldwide was increased from US$171 billion in 1970 to $4.12 trillion in 2010. Together with the strong growth of the chemical sector, governments in many countries promulgated laws and regulations to manage dangerous chemicals including chemical declaration. Importers could receive their granting for chemical declaration right after declaring through the single window instead of five days before. This has followed the ministrys determination to untie businesses difficulties and facilitate their development, Hai said. He added that this could benefit businesses in the sector while realising the target of simplifying administrative procedures and contributing to the development of the e-government in Viet Nam. VNS HA NOI Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) has ended its 12-year marriage with Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), offloading its entire holding of more than 154 million shares in the Vietnamese bank. The transaction was completed on January 9 for an undisclosed sum. According to the Viet Nam Depository Securities Centres announcement, Standard Chartered APR Limited transferred 89.9 million, equivalent to 8.75 per cent of ACBs capital, to Estes Investment Ltd and Sather Gate Investment Ltd. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Ltd sold 64.2 million shares, or 6.25 per cent of ACBs capital, to three investment companies, including Boardwalk South Ltd, Whistler Investment Ltd and Estes Investment Ltd. ACBs shares are trading at some VN40,000 (US$1.75) a share on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, which valued the sale at about VN6 trillion ($263.2 million). In mid-2005, Standard Chartered spent $22 million to acquire 8.56 per cent of ACBs capital and upstake holding to 15 per cent in July 2008 for an additional $135 million (excluding the money to purchase ACBs convertible bonds). At that time, ACBs shares were valued at VN68,000 a share. In the banks annual shareholders meeting in April 2017, Standard Chartered officially confirmed its plan of divestment. Earlier in March 2016, it withdrew two representatives from ACBs management board. The foreign bank had explained it was under pressure to cut costs after suffering losses from emerging markets. There seems to be a trend that foreign banks are withdrawing investment from local banks. In the early days of 2018, BNP Paribas offloaded its entire stake of 18.68 per cent in Orient Commercial Bank (OCB), ending the 10-year alliance between the two banks. Unlike OCB, ACB demonstrated strong performance, with consolidated profit of more than VN2 trillion by the end of September 2017, up 60 per cent year-on-year. Its share price climbed 76 per cent in 2017. VNS HA NOI Non-performing loans (NPLs) of credit institutions were controlled effectively in 2017, helping the NPL ratio of the entire banking system reduce to 2.3 per cent from 2.46 per cent in late 2016. Deputy governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV), Nguyen Kim Anh, said the ratio of NPLs and other risky debts that could become NPLs also slid to 7.91 per cent by the end of November from 10.08 per cent at the end of 2016. From January to November last year, NPLs worth VN93.7 trillion (US$4.12 billion) were recovered, raising the total NPLs that were recovered in the past six years to VN705.3 trillion. The positive result was possible due to an improvement in legal frameworks for restructuring credit institutions and dealing with bad debts, such as the Resolution No 42/2017/QH14 issued by the National Assembly and the amended Law on Credit Institutions. Notably, the National Assemblys Resolution 42 on supporting bad debt settlement has begun to push the bed debt settlement process, though it has only come into effect for the last four months of 2017. According to the central bank, the entire banking system recovered a total of more than VN50 trillion until December 31 based on the resolution. Reports from the National Financial Supervisory Commission also estimated that the pre-tax of profits of the banking sector in 2017 would rise more than 40 per cent over the previous year and after-tax profits by 44.5 per cent, mainly thanks to the handling of bad debt, hastened by the National Assemblys Resolution 42. SBV said this year it would step up the restructuring of the banking sector as well as settlement of bad debt. SBV stated that lending this year would continuously focus on the Governments prioritised sectors, such as agriculture, exports, spare-parts industries, small- and medium-sized enterprises and hi-tech firms, while limiting the capital to risky industries such as real estate and securities. VNS by Peter Cowan She said I smelled like techno. The bikini-clad ravers description of Jordan was apt. Frank the photographer, Jordan the Pontefract Jesus and myself reeked like men who had scrambled their brains, fried their bodies and poached their souls through relentless dancing as fiery bass filled our bodies. It was 6am and the sun was just starting to rise as we sat at the edge of the stage, laughing at how such a ridiculous statement made total sense, of course we smelt like the music that had been pulsing for the last six hours. We had come to Phu Quoc to lose ourselves in the music we loved and find strangers to love it alongside. This was proper raving in one of the most beautiful parts of Viet Nam. This was Epizode 2 festival. Wheels up Phu Quoc I landed on Phu Quoc, having left dreary Ha Noi behind for the beach paradise in Kien Giang Province. This was my second trip to the island, but before I had even left the airport it was clear things would be different this time. The plane was full of excited 20-somethings, clearly ready for something other than laying on a beach and sipping cold beer. They were ready for dancing on the beaches to the sounds of underground dance music luminaries like Jamie Jones, Patrick Topping, Marcel Dettman and Richie Hawtin.Sagrado Corp, the Russia-based firm behind the festival, had booked a line-up that wouldnt seem out of place in the European dance music meccas of Ibiza or Berlin. Anticipation builds Before getting my rave on, I had the small matter of a press dinner to attend. This only served to heighten the anticipation, with the obvious enthusiasm on display at the table from journalists and the Epizode team. Russian businessman Mikhail Danilov, one of the festivals co-founders, explained he had started the festival simply because of his love of techno; his daughter told me she reckoned he missed being able to party during the long, cold Russian winter. RoustamMirzoev, Epizodes musical director, explained that while this years event had been a huge step up from the first a year ago, next year was set to be even bigger, with an even greater focus on Asia-based artists, which had been somewhat lacking at Epizode 1. Another member of the creative team, ArtemHarchenko, assuaged my biggest concern; that the festival attendees would almost exclusively be Russians. While theres nothing inherently wrong with this, there were complaints that last years event was essentially Russian only despite being in Viet Nam, however Harchenko told me some 65 per cent of attendees this year were non-Russian. Rolling beats: The huge sound systems are sure to be a hit at night, when the sand was cold enough to walk on. Photo courtesy of the organiser Musical journey Jamie Jones was first on the agenda when we arrived at the site, as part of the Paradise (his own events series) showcase. I came into the set with no expectations and was frankly, blown away. Jones lay down a set of uplifting techno that connected everyone on the dancefloor into a single entity, taking us on a journey which leapt from peak to peak. Closing the main stage from 4.30am until about 6.30am was Patrick Topping, who continued where Welshman Jones had left off. The highlight was the final few tracks, again uplifting tech-house as the sun rose behind us, an almost spiritual moment magnified by Toppings obvious enthusiasm. After a few more hours boogieing at the afterparty stage it was time to collapse in our beds, a necessity if we were to make the HYTE, a Berlin-based party promoter, showcase the following day. Otherworldly: Top quality music, combined with the beauty of Phu Quoc Island, create a total treat for the senses. Photo courtesy of Francis Foy Church of techno We refreshed as best as possible after an 8am bedtime, and returned to the madness shortly after midnight. Admittedly, I was flagging, the effects of attending my first large festival keenly felt from my head to my toes. That all changed upon entering and catching the end of Mathew Jonsons live set, with masterfully deep techno pumping out from the already busy main stage. The best was yet to come though Berghain resident and living legend of German techno Marcel Dettmann was to start spinning at 1am. To be blunt, he didnt disappoint. Dettmann unleashed endlessly-rolling techno, each track building on the last and moving the dancers up a click every few minutes, then offering a moment of clarity with a slower, more melodic track, before dropping more relentless four-on-the-floor music to send us into ecstasy. Frank and Jordans minds were blown, having expected an experience too dark and sinister to enjoy from start to finish, but instead being treated to a masterclass. Richie Hawtin took things up a notch from Dettmann, pumping out faster paced and simultaneously darker, more sinister techno, perfect as the night wore on and the Russians came out for a dance in exotic costumes. Light up the night: Young ravers were ready to dance on the beach to the sounds of underground dance music luminaries. Photo courtesy of Francis Foy Dancers together As I write, were preparing for one last night at Epizode, bodies aching and minds blown, with energetic sets from the likes of AME, Dixon and Call Super our only hope to make it through the night alive. As I reflect on the festival, Im filled with gratitude for Alex and Ro from Jukebox PR and Gorana fromEpizode for hooking us up with passes to the biggest underground dance music festival in Asia, a seminal moment for the scene. World class music, the incredible beauty of Phu Quoc Island, stunning art installations featuring jellyfish, dolphins and all sorts of aquatic delights and mind-bending lasers combined for a sensual treat. If theres a single criticism, its perhaps a lack of Vietnamese representation behind the decks and in the crowd, but as Harchenko and Mirzoev explained their plans to expand the Asian artistic presence in multiple spheres, Im confident upcoming editions of the festival will better reflect the host country. Raving is all about bringing people together, and Epizode succeeded in this, with tiny dance music communities from every corner of Asia joining for a celebration of their common love: music. VNS Vietnam Airlines has two flights from Ha Noi to Phu Quoc and from five to six flights from HCMC to Phu Quoc. For more info visit: https://www.vietnamairlines.com/uk/en/home Trinh Xuan Thanh (standing in white jacket), and accomplices listen to the prosecutors arraignment. VNA/VNS Photo Doan Tuan HA NOI Proposed sentences for 22 defendants involved in serious economic mismanagement and misappropriation at the State-owned oil group were announced by prosecutors yesterday as the high-profile trial enters the open-debate process. Prosecutor of the Ha Noi Peoples Procuracy ao Thinh Cuong read the arraignment and the recommended penalty for each of the defendants. The harshest suggested penalty was life imprisonment - and the lightest was suspended imprisonment on probation. Under the Penal Code, inh La Thang, former Politburo member and chairman of PetroVietnam (PVN), would receive 13-14 years in jail on a charge of deliberate violations of State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences. ao Thinh Cuong from Ha Noi Peoples Procuracy, reads the arraignment on the fourth day of a trial into economic mismanagement and embezzlement. VNA/VNS Photo Doan Tuan Defendant Thang has only accepted the responsibility as the leader, but has not acknowledged his legal violations, therefore, a strict punishment is in order, the prosecutor said. Meanwhile, Trinh Xuan Thanh, former chairman of PetroVietnam subsidiary PetroVietnam Construction JSC (PVC), would receive 13-14 years in jail on a charge of violating economic management regulations. He would also get life imprisonment for embezzlement, which would bring his ultimate penalty to life sentence. Facing punishment on the same charges, Vu uc Thuan, former general director of PVC, would receive 8-9 years in jail for economic mismanagement and 18-19 years for embezzlement, bringing his sentence to 26-28 years imprisonment. The prosecutor has also sought the extra punishment of a five-year banning against 11 defendants, inh La Thang and Trinh Xuan Thanh included, from holding managerial positions in State-run economic establishments after they serve their sentences. VNS Infographic Trong Kien Enforced compensation The Procuracy asked the judging panel to force the defendants inh La Thang, Trinh Xuan Thanh, Phung inh Thuc, Nguyen Quoc Khanh, Nguyen Xuan Son, Vu uc Thuan, Ninh Van Quynh, Le inh Mau, Nguyen Ngoc Quy, Nguyen Manh Tien, and Pham Tien at to compensate the State (represented by PVN) for losses of VN119.804 billion (US$5.247 million). The Procuracy also recommended the court return to PVN the amounts of money that the defendants and their families have voluntarily submitted to remedy the consequences. The Procuracy, in addition, asked for an extension of the Ministry of Public Securitys order of restraint on Trinh Xuan Thanhs private assets including an apartment in an upscale urban area in Ha Noi, an apartment in Costa Residences in Nha Trang City, Thanhs family saving account, and a car and prevention of any transfers involving these properties. VNS National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan yesterday said that during the 20th session, the National Assembly Standing Committee (NASC) discussed three draft laws, a draft resolution, and other issues. VNA/VNS Photo Phuong Hoa HA NOI National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan yesterday said that during the 20th session, the National Assembly Standing Committee (NASC) discussed three draft laws, a draft resolution, and other issues. The session closed the same day after one and a half working days. Due to different opinions on draft laws on national defence (revised), cyber security, and special economic-administrative units, Ngan asked NA committees to closely work with law-compilation boards and relevant offices to study and collect more opinions on completing the laws for a meeting in April. During the session, the NASC agreed not to issue a resolution on regulating some items in the Law on State Auditing. The commitee asked the agency to co-operate with relevant offices to review the law implementation so as to suggest revisions to the law. In terms of adjusting investment in the Ta Pao Irrigation System in central Binh Thuan Province and the Upper Kroong Pach Reservoir in the Central Highlands Province of ak Lak, Ngan suggested the Government ask the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to review the implementation of the two projects for the NA to consider. Besides, she said the two ministries had to evaluate implementation of all irrigation projects using Government bond funds and report to the NASC. The NA chairwoman agreed with contents of preparation works for the 26th annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26) which takes place this month. The NASC also discussed the Law on Special Economic-Administrative Units. Together with discussing effective government and land policies in the special economic-administrative units, the deputies raised concerns about controlling heads of the units. Ha Ngoc Chien, chair of the NA Ethnic Council, suggested that the governing of the units need the involvement of both peoples committees and councils. Chien said it needed a power mechanism to control the units heads. Meanwhile, NA Economic Committees chair Vu Hong Thanh suggested that, together with peoples committees and councils, the units needed a consultant council to supervise unit heads. In conclusion, the NA chairwoman said it was necessary to build a model of special economic-administrative units with orderly organisation and a tightened mechanism of power control. VNS Viet Nam and France have agreed to step up co-operation in training, military medicine, navy, defence industry and peace-keeping operations. Photo hcmcpv.org.vn HCM CITY Viet Nam and France have agreed to step up co-operation in training, military medicine, navy, defence industry and peace-keeping operations. The consensus was reached during the second Viet Nam-France Defence Policy Dialogue held in HCM City yesterday. The event was co-chaired by Sen Lieut Gen Nguyen Chi Vinh, Viet Nams Deputy Defence Minister, and Vice Admiral Herve de Bonnaventure, Deputy Director General for International Relations and Strategy under the French Ministry of Defence. The two sides will increase meetings, exchange of delegations, especially high-ranking delegations of Vietnamese and French military officers, as well as visits of military ships. Apart from promoting the efficiency of the bilateral defence policy dialogues, Viet Nam and France will co-operate and support each other at multilateral forums, while expanding collaboration in such areas as navigation and aviation security and safety, and response to non-traditional security issues. The French side wants to beef up defence ties with Viet Nam to contribute to peace, stability and development. The dialogue took place at an important time, marking the adjustment of the defence co-operation mechanism between Viet Nam and France in order to bring about tangible outcomes suitable with the new situation, said de Bonnaventure. The event was also held in the context that the two countries are celebrating the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties and five years of the establishment of their strategic partnership. VNS Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday welcomed former US Secretary of State John Kerry who is on a working visit to Viet Nam. VNA/VNS Photo Thong Nhat HA NOI Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday welcomed former US Secretary of State John Kerry who is on a working visit to Viet Nam. PM Phuc spoke highly of Kerrys contributions to the Viet Nam-US relations, as well as his proposals for Viet Nams socio-economic development, including enhancing the use of clean and renewable energy in the country. While praising Kerrys speech delivered at the Viet Nam Economic Forum (VEF) the same day, the PM stressed Viet Nams policy on renewable and clean energy development. The Vietnamese Government has devised policies to develop the domain, he added. For his part, John Kerry lauded the organisation of the VEF. He also shared studies and analyses related to the use, exploitation and development of renewable energy in Viet Nam, as well as solutions for Viet Nam to create breakthroughs in the field. Kerry suggested establishing a joint venture between US partners and the Vietnamese side in developing clean energy. PM hosts American Bar Association President Phuc has called on the American Bar Association (ABA) to help the Viet Nam Bar Federation (VBF) improve its capacity in the face of increasingly complicated disputes when Viet Nam is pushing international integration in economy, trade and investment sectors. Receiving ABA President Hilarie Bass yesterday, the PM said the Vietnamese Government always creates the best possible conditions for the legal profession to develop in a democratic and transparent society, to ensure the law is enforced in the best way. He highly valued outcomes of the working session between the ABA and the VBF, particularly the co-operation agreement just signed by the two sides. Applauding the workshop on professional ethics of lawyers jointly held by the two associations the same day, Phuc expressed his hope that the ABAs experience in building a code of ethics of lawyers will be useful to the VBF. For her part, Bass pledged that the ABA will support the VBF in its development process, and continue to tighten relations between the two associations in the future. VNS KON TUM Firecracker smuggling is on the rise as the Tet (Lunar New Year) approaches. On Thursday afternoon, transport police in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum stopped a suspicious car on Ho Chi Minh Road, passing through ak Glei District, and found 51 boxes of fireworks weighing 82kg. On the same day, police in the central Quang Binh Province stopped a car for overspeeding and found 151 boxes of firecrackers, weighing 240kg. The driver could not show the products paper of origin. Upon further inspection, the police found a pack of drugs in the jacket of the person accompanying the driver. The two persons admitted that they were transporting the firecrackers to central Nghe An Province. Northern border provinces, including Lang Son, Ha Giang and Quang Ninh, are also hotspots for firecracker smuggling. From last November till date, forces in Quang Ninh Province have repeatedly detected many individuals transporting, trading and illegally storing banned goods, especially firecrackers and drugs. The amount of firecrackers being smuggled was up to nearly 300kg, mainly in Mong Cai, Ha Long and Uong Bi cities. Recently, Uong Bi City police arrested a person for illegally storing 90kg of firecrackers. Lieutenant Colonel Le Anh Tuan, Commander-in-Chief of Hoanh Mo Border Post Station, said traffickers often smuggled banned goods with other products to cross the border. They also took advantage of trail to carry goods at night, he said. Border soldiers have actively coordinated with police, customs and local residents to fight against smuggling, Tuan said. The provincial Anti-Smuggling, Trade Fraud and Counterfeit Steering Committee (Steering Committee 389) has requested customs officials, police, border guards and market management forces to intensify anti-smuggling activities ahead of Tet holidays. VNS NGHE AN Two Vietnamese workers were killed when the scaffolding they were standing on collapsed at a hydropower project in Champasak Province, Laos. Tran Duy Liem, chairman of the Peoples Committee of Tan Thanh Commune in central Nghe An Province, confirmed the deaths to Dan tri online newspaper. The workers were identified as Phan Van Thai, 25, from Yen Thanh Districts Tan Thanh Commune, and Vo Van Tuan, 33, from Phu Thanh Commune. Tuan died at the scene when the accident occurred, and Thai died on the way to hospital. According to local authorities, Tuan was married with two children, while Thai was single. The victims families have travelled to Laos to bring them home for burial, the newspaper reported. VNS HAU GIANG A father who allegedly poisoned his three children before attempting suicide is expected to be charged, Hau Giang Province police said on Thursday. The children all recovered later in hospital. Deputy director of the provincial police department, Colonel Lam Phuoc Nguyen, said that 39-year-old Luong Hong Son, residing in Hoa An Commune, would be held in custody for four months while police held a full investigation. At about 1.20am on Tuesday, the emergency department at Can Tho City Childrens Hospital received three children transferred from the neighbouring province of Hau Giang. They showed symptoms of serious poisoning and were in a critical condition. They were Luong Nguyen Tuan Anh, 10, Luong Nguyen Quoc Trinh, 7 and the youngest six-year-old Luong Nguyen Thanh Nhan. The Can Tho hospital also admitted another poisoning case, the father of the three children, Luong Hong Son. They were all diagnosed as suffering from ingesting pesticide. Son was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday while the children had to stay for further treatment, although their health was stable. According to a preliminary invetigation, Son was displeased with his wife, Nguyen Thi Kim Lien, when he found she had left the family and was going to work in HCM City. On Monday morning, he allegedly became angry after finding out she had taken the eldest daughter to HCM City. Son demanded his wife bring their daughter back home, which Lien refused, allegedly claiming she would also take the other three children to live with her. Upset, Son allegedly went to a market to buy pesticide and instant cereal drink, and made the children drink it before swallowing some himself. Sons mother who was living next door heard the chidlrens cries at around 8.30pm and rushed to check on them. She called the ambulance to take them all to hospital. VNS The Ministry of Health has issued a set of criteria to classify the quality of private hospitals and healthcare clinics across the country. Photo cand.vn HA NOI The Ministry of Health has issued a set of criteria to classify the quality of private hospitals and healthcare clinics across the country. The move came after the Viet Nam Social Insurance Agency decided that in 2018, private hospitals and healthcare clinics that wanted to sign a contract with the agency to examine people with health insurance cards, would have to show a legal document proving their quality under the ministrys standards. Le Van Phuc, deputy head of the agencys department for health insurance implementation, said that based on the classification, the agency could exactly calculate the rate of health insurance fees it had to cover for a patient treated at a private hospital or healthcare clinic instead of a public hospital or healthcare clinic. A health insurance cardholder has to register one public hospital or health clinic to receive treatment before they started to use the card. However, patients were sometimes examined and treated at private hospitals and healthcare clinics instead of public hospitals and healthcare clinics as registered. Additionally, private hospitals and healthcare clinics also want to examine and treat patients with health insurance cards. Thus, they need to be classified at levels equal to public hospitals and healthcare clinics so that the insurance agency can calculate the fees they would cover, depending on the quality of private hospitals and healthcare clinics. Deputy Minister Nguyen Viet Tien said that the move was believed to assist private hospitals and health clinics to compete fairly with public hospitals and healthcare clinics. Under the ministrys decision No 6062/Q-BYT issued late December, the criteria to classify a private hospital includes the number of sickbeds, the structuring of doctors and nurses, the quality of staff - and the quality of infrastructure and facilities. Private hospitals would be classified at four levels. The highest rate is level one. For example, a private hospital will be ranked level one if it has more than 400 sickbeds, the number of nurses is double the number of doctors, 60 per cent of heads of hospital departments graduate with Ph.D degrees - and its facilities and infrastructure meet standards. A private hospital will be ranked level two if it has 100-400 sickbeds, the number of nurses is not double the number of doctors and 20-60 per cent of the heads of hospital departments have MA degrees. A private hospital ranked level three would have to have 30-100 sickbeds, the number of nurses was not double the number of doctors and only 20 per cent of heads of its departments have MA degrees. Other private hospitals belong to level four. In the meantime, all private healthcare clinics have been ranked level three. It is estimated that the country has about 170 private hospitals, more than 30,000 private healthcare clinics and more than 76 million health insurance cardholders. VNS ROME Italian coastguard service said Thursday 264 migrants had been rescued from a boat off the coast of Calabria, where traffickers have increasingly been using smaller boats recently. The vessel was sighted by a plane belonging to the EU border agency Frontex and the migrants were rescued off the southern city of Crotone, a spokesman said. The spokesman said the boat probably came from Turkey. Several coastguard boats and a British ship working for Frontex took part in the rescue effort. In December 2014 and January 2015, traffickers abandoned about six large vessels carrying hundreds of migrants off the Italian coast after putting the vessels on auto pilot. The boats had started their journey in Turkey. "It is rare to see large vessels in this zone, in general it is sailboats here," the spokesman said. 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 with Libya, from where many such boats set sail. Throughout last year some 119,000 people landed in Italy, down 35 per cent on 2016. But the route remains perilous. This month at least 10 migrants died and 150 others -- children included -- went missing off the Libyan coast. AFP TUNIS Sporadic unrest continued to shake parts of Tunisia on Thursday, as authorities said more than 600 people had been arrested in a week of protest as anger at austerity measures boils over on the streets. Tunisia, whose 2011 revolt sparked the Arab Spring, has been convulsed with sometimes violent demonstrations since late Monday that have seen protesters clash with security forces and left dozens injured. The North African country is seen as a rare success story of the uprisings seven years ago that toppled autocrats across the region, but its failure to tackle poverty and unemployment have stirred economic resentment. In the latest violence young people in the northern town of Siliana hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at security forces, who responded with tear gas, an AFP correspondent said. Police detained 328 people on Wednesday for theft, looting, arson and blocking roads, the interior ministry said on Thursday, after arresting more than 280 people over the previous two days. Ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani said the violence was less intense than in previous days. Twenty-one members of the security forces were injured, according to Chibani, who said no civilians were hurt. AFP correspondents said most areas were calm late Thursday, and the presidency said the main political parties, unions and business organisations will meet on Saturday to discuss the situation. Tunisia is often seen as having had a relatively smooth transition since the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time 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 country has introduced hikes in value-added tax and social contributions as part of a tough new budget. Activists campaigning against the austerity measures have called for a huge protest on Friday. Political scientist Olfa Lamloum called the measures "the straw that breaks the camels back". "Young people are disappointed with the revolution, especially because of the high cost of living," she said. Nostalgia spreading Lamloum pointed to "deepening social inequalities" highlighted by official figures showing rising poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, particularly among young people. In Tebourba, where a man died during the first unrest overnight Monday to Tuesday, the mood was grim. "The political class is responsible for all this," said teacher Fatma Ben Rezayel in Tebourba on Thursday. "The region is totally marginalised." She deplored that "unemployed young people fed up with their poor lives" were being branded criminals by the authorities. The unrest started with peaceful protests last week, but escalated into clashes with police overnight Monday to Tuesday. Unrest hit several areas including the central city of Kasserine, and Siliana, Tebourba and Thala in the north. Scuffles also broke out in some Tunis neighbourhoods. On Thursday, several dozen unemployed people protested in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the protests that sparked the 2011 uprisings. In Kasserine, youths tried to block roads with burning tyres and hurled stones at police, another AFP correspondent said. The main police station in the northern town of Thala was also torched, Chibani said. AFP SEOUL North Korea has stepped up tunnelling at its main nuclear test site, a US think tank said, even as tensions cool on the peninsula following the resumption of long-stalled inter-Korean dialogue. Satellite images showed increased activity at the Punggye-ri site, with mining carts and personnel frequently visible, and excavation waste piles growing, the 38North website said on Thursday. "These activities underscore North Koreas continued efforts to maintain the Punggye-ri sites potential for future nuclear testing," it said. The last five of Pyongyangs six nuclear tests have been carried out under Mount Mantap at Punggye-ri in the countrys north-west, all of them at the North Tunnel. After a series of small earthquakes in the area, 38North said last October that the site may be suffering from the geological condition "Tired Mountain Syndrome". The syndrome refers to the effect of below-ground nuclear blasts on the surrounding rock, which is extensively fractured and becomes increasingly permeable. The latest pictures indicated the North Tunnel was "dormant" with water draining from its entrance, but that "tunnel excavation has been stepped up at the West Portal". Elsewhere at the site there was unusual activity with some 100-120 personnel lined up in formation in the courtyard, their purpose unknown. The images were taken in December, shortly before North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un gave a New Year speech warning US President Donald Trump of a "nuclear button" on his desk, while also offering to hold talks with Seoul. The olive branch led to the first official dialogue between the two Koreas in more than two years, and an agreement for Pyongyang to send a delegation to next months Winter Olympics in the South. The apparent rapprochement came after months of confrontation, during which Pyongyang carried out multiple missile tests and by far its biggest nuclear detonation to date. But North Korea made no promises on its weapons programme at the talks, and lashed out when asked about denuclearisation by South Korean journalists, saying it was not up for discussion. AFP TOKYO Japans prime minister on Friday headed to the Baltic states and other European nations as he seeks to drum up support for his hawkish stance on North Korea. Despite a recent cooling of tensions in the run-up to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, Shinzo Abe has insisted on "maximising pressure" on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programmes. Abe will visit Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, the first sitting Japanese leader to visit those nations. "I want to confirm our cooperation on North Korean and other urgent issues the international community faces," he told reporters before he left. Abe, who will meet the heads of the six states on his tour, also noted that representatives from more than 30 companies would accompany him to develop business ties. Japan is keen to raise its profile in the region as China bolsters its ties there. All six nations Abe is visiting are among the 16 Central and Eastern European countries that hold an annual summit meeting with China. China has been pushing its massive US$1 trillion "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which seeks to build rail, maritime and road links from Asia to Europe and Africa in a revival of ancient Silk Road trading routes. Abe is due to return to Japan on Wednesday. AFP Desert War Kittyhawk Unveiled by Richard Mallory Allnutt After several years of speculation concerning its whereabouts, a combat-veteran Curtiss Kittyhawk has again resurfaced in Egypt. The aircraft in question, Kittyhawk Mk.IA ET574, first came to light during early 2012 when an oil survey team stumbled across the well-preserved wreck in Egypts Al-Wadi al-Jadid desert near the El Farafra Oasis. Jakub Perka, a Polish engineer on the survey team, documented the discovery with a series of fascinating images which seemed almost impossible to believe at the time. How could this amazingly significant aircraft have survived all these years in the desert untouched by anything but sand, sun and wind? Once historians dug into the story, we quickly learned that the aircraft had belonged to 260 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, and disappeared during a ferry flight on June 28th, 1942 with Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping at the controls. Copping was part of a two-ship formation flying defective aircraft from the landing ground at Biur el Baheira to 53RSU, a Recovery & Service Unit at Wadi Natruna, while the rest of his squadron made a hasty retreat from the advancing German Afrika Korps. Copping had to fly with the aircrafts undercarriage fixed down. He had damaged the gear during a hard landing a day earlier; dazzled by the setting sun into misjudging his height above the runway. On the flight to the maintenance facility, his wingman noted light, but accurate flak. Unfortunately, Copping got well off course during the melee, but failed to respond by radio, or be persuaded via hand signals to correct his heading according to the pilot flying beside him. Eventually the wingman gave up and made off for his intended destination alone. Sadly, Copping was never seen again. From the images of the wreck in 2012, the propellers twisted remains made it obvious that the aircraft had forced-landed under power. In fact, the entire propeller unit had separated from the airframe, the engines reduction gear housing having shattered. The landing gear had sheared off as well, damaging the underside of the wings and horizontal stabilizers. Dennis Copping clearly survived the initial crash though, because his body was not in the airframe nor had he hit the silk; the remains of his parachute lay near the aircrafts nose, perhaps erected as a sun-shelter by Copping himself after the accident. Since no remains were evident near the Kittyhawk, it seems likely that Copping wandered off into the desert in a desperate and ultimately futile attempt to reach salvation. He must have perished alone, under truly awful circumstances. His remains have yet to be conclusively found. A team of Italians did make a serious effort to locate Copping soon after the wrecks discovery, but although they found some bones a few miles away from the crash site, the Egyptian authorities never determined if they were those of the pilot himself, and there is conflicting evidence as to whether they even tried. No further attempt to locate Copping seems to have taken place, which is shameful given how eager so many were to recover his aircraft. As often happens sadly, vandals followed closely behind the fighters rediscovery. They did a fair bit of damage, though mostly superficial, to this time-capsule of an airframe. Sensing imminent destruction and desperate to prevent it, the Royal Air Force Museum decided to act, and they had to act fast without any guarantee of success. They made an arrangement with the British firm Kennet Aviation (which specializes in restoring and operating vintage WWII aircraft) to send a team of engineers into the desert who would professionally dismantle and transport the Kittyhawk away from the temptations of idle hands. In exchange for Kennet Aviation safeguarding the Kittyhawk, the RAF Museum gave them a surplus aircraft from their collection, Supermarine Spitfire Mk.22 PK664. Kennet Aviations team was successful in their mission, and placed the Kittyhawk in a storage container for safekeeping in El Alamein, near the ancient port city of Alexandria. Of course, the Kittyhawk was still technically Egyptian property, but the RAF Museum hoped they could reach an agreement with that countrys government to return the historic airframe to Britain. They intended to conserve, rather than restore the Kittyhawk, and display her in a diorama resembling the scene she had endured over the previous seventy years in the desert. Sadly, Egypt was undergoing immense civil turmoil in 2012, and the newly established government of the day was hostile to the West. Therefore, it was impossible for the British to strike any deal, and the RAF Museum went home empty-handed. This created considerable backlash for the museum a few years later when the notoriously hyperbolic British tabloid press latched onto the story of Kennet Aviation receiving a Spitfire for what they wrongly considered incomplete work. It should be noted that while PK664 is a rare survivor of its mark, it was a post-war example of the breed and of far less historical or monetary value than talked about at the time. In addition, the airframe was essentially just a shell, having been stripped of many components to supply spares to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and its transfer to Kennet Aviation cost nothing in real cash outlay to the RAF Museum, nor indeed the British public. Of course, the tabloids tried to suggest that the RAF Museum had given up a multi-million dollar jewel for nothing, when that was far from an accurate depiction of the facts. What is undoubtedly true though is that without the RAF Museums gamble on the Kittyhawk, this historic artifact would have remained in the desert, and been hacked apart for scrap or souvenirs in short order. The RAF Museum should be applauded for their efforts towards that end. While we do not know exactly what transpired in the intervening five years since her initial rediscovery, the Kittyhawk is now apparently on charge with the El Alamein Military Museum. October, 2017 saw the 75th anniversary of the Second Battle of El Alamein; the massive, and ultimately decisive clash between Britains 8th Army and Axis forces under Erwin Rommel which took place in the region during the period from October 23rd to November 11th, 1942. In preparation for the anniversary event, the El Alamein Military Museum underwent a major refit. As part of that endeavor, the museum spruced up many of its artifacts, most of which are tanks, trucks and artillery pieces salvaged from the battlefield. Someone must have looked inside the Kittyhawks storage container and decided to put the fighter on display as well. None other than General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypts present leader, attended the anniversary ceremony at the museum on October 21st, 2017, so the pressure was certainly on, for all involved, to present something significant for attending dignitaries. Now comes the awkward part of the story Rather than display the aircraft as she was found, which would have made for a remarkable and poignant exhibit, the museum decided to restore her. Unfortunately, this was rather crudely achieved, and the overall results will appear shockingly amateurish to the more serious student of military aviation history. But considering how many similarly unflattering restorations have been on show in the West during the recent past, we should not be overly critical. Even now, a good number of warbirds fly with spectacularly inauthentic paint schemes. We should also remember that the El Alamein Military Museum was working under great pressure, on a very limited budget, and with no practical access to professional aircraft restoration personnel. Even so, a closer inspection of the Kittyhawk reveals that despite the garish and highly innaccurate paint job, the actual airframe seems very much intact. Yes, the chin cowl is way off, and the rebuild crew used truck wheels as a substitute for aircraft tires, but there is nothing immediately apparent which couldnt be undone and improved upon with relative ease at a later date. The crucial fact is that the aircraft is safe now, and hopefully will remain so indefinitely. What ET574s present display has lost though is the heart of her story, the battle scars and weather beaten patina which so effectively represented the sacrifice of her pilot, Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping. It is his story which has been largely forgotten by the press, and by the El Alamein Military Museum too; they make no mention of him on the plaques beside the aircraft. But there is one organization which does pay homage to Copping. Vintage Wings of Canada in Gatineau, Quebec owns and flies a P-40M Kittyhawk marked in 260 Squadron colors, ironically even with the same squadron codes, HS-B, as Coppings ill-fated ET574. Canadas greatest living ace, James Francis Stocky Edwards, also flew in 260 Squadron, and flew two Kittyhawks marked HS-B: Mk.IA ET574 and a later Mk.III FR350 in which he scored most of his successes. Vintage Wings of Canada paints all of their aircraft to represent specific Canadian veterans, and decided on Stocky Edwards Kittyhawk Mk.III for their P-40. When news about the discovery of Coppings Kittyhawk first broke, it didnt take long for Vintage Wings of Canada to connect the mans memory to their own aircrafts story. They were so moved by this that they placed a special dedication decal on the fighters chin cowling as a permanent reminder. These efforts were documented beautifully in a story HERE by Dave OMalley, the wonderful gentleman who galvanized Coppings commemoration (and much credit must also go to Mike Potter, Vintage Wings founder and primary benefactor, who made it all possible). Now whenever the aircraft goes before the public, Flight Sergeant Coppings name is seen by a new gathering of witnesses. He may be long gone now, but he is not forgotten, nor is his sacrifice. Here is a video of the recovery. WarbirdsNews wishes to express its profound thanks to Steven Phipps and Jakub Perka for their help with the details and permission to use their fascinating images for this article. WATERLOO A powerful play about the aftermath of a school shooting is set to open on the Waterloo Community Playhouse stage on Jan. 19. The show will be performed in the intimate black-box McElroy Theatre in the WCP Walker Building and runs through Jan. 29. In writing the plays script, filmmaker Scott Z. Burns was partially inspired by the 1999 Columbine (Colorado) High School shootings. This production focuses on 16-year-old Caitlin Gabriel (Julia Corbett), who was shot and seriously injured in the shooting. The rumors begin swirling that Caitlin was the one who, out of fear, told the shooter where to find other students hiding in a library closet. Now she must defend herself against a different kind of attacker. Its a wonderfully put-together play which speaks to people on an emotional, gut level. Caitlins name is suddenly synonymous with someone who may have caved in a moment of weakness. She is suffering from her injury and survivors guilt, but now must deal with these accusations, explained Greg Holt, WCP artistic director. In the narrative, it is revealed that Caitlin was something of a wild child and may have known the shooter. She is perceived as a liar and coward, while another student, Joy, died at the hands of the gunman while leading other students in prayers and is considered a martyr. Julia Corbett, a senior at Cedar Falls High School, is portraying Caitlin. I really like the character of Caitlin, and I think the play has an important message, that its important to know how your words affect others. Everyone has had their words twisted, or an experience where people thought you said or did something that isnt true. Her life is torn apart, Corbett said. Even her parents, played by Joe Frenna and Elena Cafaro, may not believe her denials. Its all very raw for a high school student trying to figure out who she is to experience everyone doubting her, talking about her. Her parents want her to admit guilt. It seems no one is supporting her, said Holt. He ran a few scenes from the show in a workshop with high school students who were intrigued and wanted to know how it ends. Thats a good sign that we grabbed them. The play doesnt tell you what to think, and it doesnt take sides. Drama can be an important tool to get insight into whatever a particular demographic is thinking. In this play, theres teenage angst, family turmoil, a chance to get a different perspective on a terrible situation. We react in a visceral way to news of a school shooting, and the play gives us more of an understanding of how people cope in the aftermath, he said. The show has characteristics of a movie screenplay with 18 short scenes and runs 1 hours. There will be no intermission. Dan Waterbury has written an original score for The Library, and lighting designer Scott Schuster has created special lighting effects for the minimal set. A special free performance for educators, counselors and first responders will be presented Jan. 24. In addition, WCP will tour the show to Cedar Falls High School and Waterloos East High School on Jan. 29. WATERLOO As a tribute to Martin Luther Kings life, the members of New Life Christian Ministries will serve a community Healthy Start breakfast Sunday. The meal will include breakfast items prepared in a way to promote health and nutrition. The breakfast will be served from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the church at 1510 Logan Ave. WATERLOO A preparation program for adult Catholics who wish to be confirmed starts Monday and meets from 6 to 8 p.m. Mondays at St. Edward Parish. The Catholic Parishes in Waterloo provide this four-week preparation program for adult and young adult Catholics, age 19 years or older. For information, call Dave Cushing at 233-0498 or register at bit.do/adult-confirmation. WATERLOO The Rev. Jerry Kopacek will discuss the basic principles of medical ethics in Catholic moral teaching at the Waterloo Parishes Winter Forum Series at 7 p.m. Thursday at COR, 220 E. Fourth St. The program is free and open to the public. Food provided by the Screaming Eagle is available before and during the program. For more information, go to https://waterloocatholics.org/winter-at-the-cellar. MASON CITY -- A Mason City man is back in custody after allegedly assaulting the Nora Springs police chief at a hospital just eight days after being sentenced to probation in another case involving assault. Daniel Ray Tyree, 37, is charged with assault on persons in certain occupations. Court documents say Tyree put Nora Springs Police Chief Jesse Dugan in a "choke-hold" at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa about 12:38 p.m. Wednesday, "with the intent to injure or asphyxiate him. The defendant did so by putting his forearms around Chief Dugan's throat and positioning himself behind Chief Dugan, the criminal complaint said. Chief Dugan was in his department's full uniform that is clearly marked police. Mason City Police Capt. Mike McKelvey said someone was able to intervene and assist Dugan, who did not sustain serious injuries or require hospitalization. Court documents didn't say why Dugan brought Tyree to the hospital. On Jan. 10, Tyree also allegedly admitted to a Mason City police officer that he used methamphetamine and marijuana within the last one to two days, court documents state. Tyree is currently on probation in a previous case, where he was charged with felony first-degree burglary for breaking into a man's house and jabbing him with a bed rail in September 2016. Court documents say the man sustained two bleeding scratches. Tyree pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree burglary in October 2017. Judge Rustin Davenport on Jan. 2 sentenced Tyree to a suspended prison sentence not to exceed 10 years, a suspended fine of $1,000 and four years of probation. Tyree is being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail on a $1,000 bond. GREENE Using a tool and knowing how to use it are two different things. A recent addition to North Butler Middle/High Schools industrial technology programs aims to fill that knowledge gap. Officials announced this week the school is offering certifications to students in precision measuring instruments, mechanical and electronic torque and multimeters. Its being done in partnership with tool-making company Snap-On, the National Coalition of Certification Centers and local businesses. The school started rolling out the courses in mid-November. Before Christmas, we had 16 students get certified in unit one of PMI, said industrial technology teacher Dave Brown, noting hes got twice as many students ready to take more courses. That includes learning how to use English and metric rulers, tape measures and calipers an instrument that allows for figuring out the size of three-dimensional objects. Its one of six precision measuring certifications. Torque deals with using different types of wrenches. Basically, what we do is talk about fasteners, said Brown like bolts and what happens as we tighten them. Multimeters are used in electrical work to check voltage. Brown noted the certifications are useful for careers in engineering, automotive, tool and die, buildings trades and more. Just a lot of trades, it will give them a leg up, he said. Dave is one of two high school teachers in Iowa to be trained in this, said Joel Foster, North Butler Community Schools superintendent. The districts certification is the first stand-alone program in the state and its middle school is the only one in the nation involved in the training. The certifications will be part of the middle school exploratory courses. Each program has multiple certifications across the board, said Foster. Students need to earn at least 70 percent on the course tests to be certified. Earning the certification makes our students more employable. The cost of the tool chests and tools for the courses was just under $50,000, said Foster. The expense was largely covered by the districts vocational curriculum funds with a portion offset by donations from partnering businesses. Its really good for us to get skills that may help us later in life, said Lucas Martzahn, an eighth-grader who is among the first students to get one of the certifications. Freshman Layne Freiberg noted the precise measurements he learned were possible in taking the first course. He believes continuing on in the certifications will be helpful with his plans to work as an auto mechanic. It makes a difference between you and the other guy, said Tate Menne, a junior who also was certified in the first course. Brown said students do course work online and complete labs before taking the tests. Each takes one to two weeks, depending on how fast the student works. Businesses are very excited, said Brown, about the school offering the certifications. In our area, we have a lack of plumbers and electricians, just tradesmen. American Tool & Engineering, one of the partnering businesses, hopes to offer some school-to-work experiences for students who complete the certifications. The Greene company supplies molds for consumer, automotive and industrial customers across the U.S. Other partners include Wedeking Electric of Marble Rock, Cooper Motors of Allison, and Allison Farmers Feed and Grain. Snap-On and the National Coalition of Certification Centers were involved in creating the curriculum. Dan Prather, an account manager in Snap-Ons education division, attended the event. Were really trying to help bring real-world, real-life experiences into the classroom to make better workers, he said. DAVENPORT -- Top Iowa Republicans distanced themselves from vulgar comments President Donald Trump reportedly made Thursday criticizing Haiti and African nations. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, along with Sens. Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst said Friday they didn't have firsthand knowledge, but added what was reported was not acceptable. "I don't think it's acceptable. That's not who we are as Iowans," Reynolds said in an interview in Davenport, where she was a promoting her Condition of the State address. At a meeting on immigration with Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the White House on Thursday, the president questioned why the United States should take in more immigrants from Haiti and "s---hole countries" in Africa, according to news reports. Trump said, instead, the U.S. ought to seek immigrants from Norway, according to the reports that cited people who were in the room. The White House did not deny the comments Thursday, but on Friday the president pushed back against the accuracy of the reports. In one tweet, he said he "never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country." Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the meeting participants, said Friday Trump made the comments attributed to him. In Council Bluffs, at a stop at Rasmussen Mechanical Services, Grassley was asked about the comment during a question and answer session with employees -- and about Trump's denial. "Well I wasn't there, so I know what you folks and journalists have said about it and TV has said about it. But I think I better just say that those aren't words that I would use and I think that you ought to consider all of humanity (as) humanity and treat them accordingly," Grassley said. Grassley said the comments distract from coming to an agreement on a range of immigration-related issues. Leigh Claffey, a spokesperson for Ernst, said in an email, "Senator Ernst was not in the room and cannot confirm what was said, however she would not agree. Senator Ernst has made clear that America has been, and always will be, a nation of immigrants." DAVENPORT -- A coalition pushing for an increase in the state sales tax to pay for water quality initiatives says a new poll shows nearly 7 in 10 Iowans back the idea. Iowas Water and Land Legacy, a coalition that includes conservation, outdoors and business groups, said support for the sales tax increase has grown. Iowans want clean water, productive agricultural soil and increased outdoor recreation opportunities. They overwhelmingly favor funding the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund as the solution, said Joe McGovern, president of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. The trust fund was created in 2010 when 63 percent of voters approved it in a statewide referendum. For years, water quality advocates have pushed for a 3/8th cent sales tax increase to provide a revenue source for the fund, but the legislature hasnt acted. This poll comes as lawmakers have just begun their 2018 session and water quality if a primary topic of discussion. The new poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies between Nov. 12-16, sampled the opinions of 500 Iowans likely to vote in the 2018 election. The poll reported 69 percent support increasing the sales tax by 3/8ths of a cent to fund the trust in order to protect water, land and wildlife, and ensuring strict accountability for all funds. That level of support, the group said, is higher than in 2014, when 66 percent supported it. The group said its poll showed majority support across political party lines. The poll reported 88 percent of Democrats backed the increase and 55 percent of Republicans. Sixty-seven percent of independents did so, according to the poll. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percent overall and higher for subgroups. Last year, the House and Senate approved separate water quality measures, but did not include a sales tax increase. Instead, they would have diverted a smaller amount of existing tax revenues for water quality initiatives. The chambers could not come to an agreement on an individual proposal. DAVENPORT -- The Trump administration took a significant step Thursday toward letting states set up work requirements for people on Medicaid, the program that covers health care for millions of Americans. In a 10-page memo to state Medicaid directors, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it would support states that want to set up such requirements and provided guidelines for how to gain approval from the Trump administration. 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, Seema Verma, administrator of the agency, said in a statement. Ten states have asked for approval for demonstration projects that included work or other requirements, the agency said. Iowa is not among them. But about 600,000 people in the state are covered by the program, which has seen significant changes over the past year as management was turned over to private managed care companies. Asked whether Gov. Kim Reynolds might pursue a work requirement, a spokesperson, Brenna Smith, said Thursday the governor is reviewing and considering the guidelines that just came out today. The governor believes that Medicaid is an important safety net for many Iowans, and her hope is that those on the program who are able-bodied are able to find a career and re-enter the workforce. Thats why the governor is introducing the Future Ready Iowa Act, which will provide scholarship and grant dollars for Iowans who want to receive training in high demand fields, Smith said. The Trump administrations memo released Thursday says the move would be aimed at encouraging able-bodied, working age Medicaid recipients to work or get involved in what it called community engagement. That could include job training, career planning or volunteer activities. Medicaid largely covers the poor and disabled, and about 1 in 5 Americans are covered by the program. The new policy would not apply to people who qualify for the program because of a disability, the memo said. Still, an official with the advocacy group Disability Rights Iowa expressed concern about the plan. Jane Hudson, executive director of the organization, said she is concerned about what would constitute a disability. She also asked, will a person lose their Medicaid benefits if an employer refuses to provide reasonable accommodations even though it is required by law? The Obama administration had declined to offer waivers to states that requested a work requirement. Conservatives have argued it would ensure Medicaid is only going to the truly needy. The Trump administration memo said a growing body of evidence suggests that targeting certain health determinants, including productive work and community engagement, may improve health outcomes. But critics said this move would take health care away from people who are struggling and would be counterproductive. Study after study shows that access to health care translates into higher earnings and better jobs, Winnie Stachelberg, of the Center for American Progress, said. Currently, about 8 in 10 non-elderly adults who are covered by Medicaid and dont qualify because of a disability live in a working household, and a majority work themselves, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research organization. A survey Kaiser conducted last year said those who werent working said it was because of an illness or disability, home or family responsibilities, pursuit of an education, retirement or inability to find a job. Kaiser also said a work requirement is popular. A survey it conducted said 70 percent of Americans support such a requirement. Jubilee meal cancelled today WATERLOO Jubilee UMC Resource Center, East Fourth and Newell streets, is cancelling the LeChristophers Southern cuisine dinner planned for today due to the weather. For information, call 234-5307. Pakistani pastor speaks Tuesday WATERLOO Cedar Valley Patriots for Christ will host the Rev. Oliver Zia, an evangelist from Pakistan, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. Zia will talk about his ministry in very hostile environments. The event is free of charge and an offering for Zias ministry will be taken at the end of the meeting. Public school advocates meet WATERLOO The public is invited to attend an advocate for public education meeting Tuesday at the Waterloo Center for the Arts, 225 Commercial St. It starts at 6 p.m. in the Peterson Town Hall room. Members from Parents for Great Iowa Schools will share information about what is happening in the Capitol and provide ideas about what citizens can do to ensure their voices are heard. P4GIS is an all-volunteer, grassroots, non-partisan action group committed to supporting Iowas public schools. Find its webpage online at p4gis.org. WATERLOO -- The public is invited to a free showing of the first hour of Ely Landau's 1970 documentary film, which chronicles the civil rights activities of Martin Luther King Jr. The film, "King: A Filmed Record ... Montgomery to Memphis" will be shown at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Pleasant and Willow streets, Cedar Falls. This Library of Congress documentary allows viewers to be first-hand witnesses of King's crusade. The entire film is 185 minutes. CFNEIA grant applications due CEDAR FALLS -- Grant applications can now be submitted to the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa for its Black Hawk County 2018 Spring grant cycle. The deadline to submit applications is 11:59 p.m. April 1. Grants are awarded to projects in the following areas: art and culture, community betterment, education, environment, health, historic preservation and human service. The online grant application may be found on CFNEIAs website at www.cfneia.org. Grants recipients will be announced in June 2018. First-time grant applicants should contact Tom Wickersham, program director, at 243-1356 prior to submitting an application. Grant applicants must be a 501(c)(3) designated organization (or government entity) serving Black Hawk County in order to be considered for funding. WAVERLY Wartburg College will host several events honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. during MLK Week, Jan. 15-19. As part of its MLK Week tradition, the college shortens its class schedule Monday to accommodate a 1:35 p.m. Day of Service Kickoff event. The student-run Volunteer Action Center has organized multiple service projects in the Cedar Valley. At 7 p.m. Monday, Freedom Writers, a 2007 film based on the real-life experiences of teacher Erin Gruwell and at-risk students at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, Calif., will be shown in McCaskey Lyceum. At 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, the Weekday Chapel service will feature student leaders presenting Stay Woke. Later that night at Sanctuary, poet Cherie Kabba will be the featured speaker. Beverly Smith, associate superintendent for human resources and equity in the Waterloo Community Schools, and Felicia Smith-Nalls, a Wartburg College graduate and community leader, will talk about Implicit Bias and Education, 11:30 a.m. Thursday in McCaskey Lyceum. Other events include: A poverty simulation, Monday, 2-5 p.m., in Knights Ballroom of Saemann Student Center. A Peace Dialogue, Tuesday, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., in Knights Ballroom. Sip & Paint, Tuesday, 7 p.m., in The W classrooms. The Outlet, featuring performances by a diverse group of students expressing social justice through dance, poetry, song and various performances, Thursday, 8 p.m., in McCaskey Lyceum. By The Associated Press Jan. 09, 2018 | 10:20 PM | LOUISVILLE, KY The American Civil Liberties Union says "Bible literacy" classes being taught in some Kentucky public schools may violate the Constitution. Among the districts mentioned by the ACLU with potential problems with Bible literacy instruction are public schools in McCracken, Barren, Letcher, Lewis and Wayne counties. The ACLU's review found a majority of school districts do not offer the classes. But it said those that do sometimes appear to veer from studying the Bible as a work of literature to studying it in a devotional manner. The letter advises the education department to monitor classes to ensure they comply with the Constitution or it could face a lawsuit. The Courier-Journal reports the state chapter of the ACLU sent a letter to the Kentucky Department of Education requesting it develop teaching guidelines for the classes. 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Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1) Maybe it is, or maybe your Uncle Remus, the gossip queen/king and needs all information to see what you are doing.Or maybe just scared that the world is waking up to the crap Quote: Required languages are Arabic, French, Pashtu, Farsi, Urdu, Russian, and Korean. So the French are on the crap list also? Hmm https://www.fbo.gov/ Request for the submission of White Papers for INSCOM Technology Needs Solicitation Number: W911W4-18-R-0005 Agency: Department of the Army Office: Army Contracting Command Location: ACC WRN INSCOM (W911W4) Notice Type: Special Notice Posted Date: January 10, 2018 Response Date: Feb 12, 2018 11:59 pm Eastern Archiving Policy: Automatic, 15 days after response date Archive Date: February 27, 2018 Original Set Aside: N/A Set Aside: N/A Classification Code: R Professional, administrative, and management support services NAICS Code: 541 Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services/541330 Engineering Services Synopsis: Added: Jan 10, 2018 4:06 pm Synopsis: Request for the submission of White Papers for INSCOM Technology Needs THIS IS A REQUEST FOR THE SUBMISSION OF WHITE PAPERS ONLY. Responses to this notice will be used by the Government to make appropriate acquisition decisions. This notice is for planning purposes only, and does not constitute an Invitation for Bid, Request for Proposal, Solicitation, and Request for Quote, or an indication that the Government will contract for the items contained in this notice. This request is not to be construed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any cost associated with submission of the information being requested or reimburse expenses incurred to interested parties for responses to this notice or any follow-up information requests. No telephone calls will be accepted requesting a bid package or solicitation. There is no bid package or solicitation. All interested sources must respond to any future solicitation announcements separately from responses to this request for the submission of White Papers. INSCOM has an Administrative Control (ADCON) relationship with 1st Information Operations Command. INSCOM G7 executes materiel and materiel-centric responsibilities as a Capability Developer and as the Army proponent for design and development of select operational level and expeditionary intelligence, cyber, and electronic warfare systems. 1st Information Operations Command (Land) provides IO and Cyberspace Operations support to the Army and other Military Forces through deployable support teams, reachback planning and analysis, specialized training, and a World Class Cyber OPFOR in order to support freedom of action in the Information Environment and to deny the same to our adversaries. Additional Info: This RFI requests a vendor service and not hardware/firmware/software, and therefore should not require an Authority to Operate (ATO) or a Certificate of Networthiness (CoN). 1st IO Command has identified areas for which we are requesting White Papers from Industry on mature COTS solutions with a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of at least 7, relevant to the following Focus Areas and requirements: 0001: Content Translation of PAI A. Capability to translate foreign language content (message text, voice, images, etc.) from the social media environment into English. Required languages are Arabic, French, Pashtu, Farsi, Urdu, Russian, and Korean. B. Identify specific audiences through reading and understanding of colloquial phrasing, spelling variations, social media brevity codes, and emojis. 1. Automated capability for machine learning of foreign language content with accuracy comparable to Google and Microsoft Bing Translate. Must be able to incrementally improve over time. 2. Recognize language dialect to ensure effectual communication. 0002: Automated Sentiment Analysis (SA) A. Capability to derive sentiment from all social media content. 1. At minimum, distinguish negative, neutral, and positive sentiment based on collective, contextual understanding of the specific audience. a) Capability to determine anger, pleasure, sadness, and excitement. 2. Capability to recognize local colloquial and/or slang terms and phrases, spelling variations, social media brevity codes, capitalization, and emojis will be included. 3. Automated machine learning of SA must be able to incrementally improve over time. a) Software should allow for heuristic updates to improve overall capability; e.g., manually suggest updates based on personal knowledge and experience. B. Capability to suggest whether specific audiences could be influenced based on derived sentiment. 0003: Content Generation Based off of PAI A. Capability to translate English into Arabic, French, Pashtu, Farsi, Urdu, Russian, and Korean. B. Automated capability to generate/create at least three, and up to 10, unique statements derived from one (1) original social media statement, while retaining the meaning and tone of the original. 1. Customize language in a dialect consistent with a specific audience including spelling variations, cultural variations, colloquial phrasing, and social media brevity codes and emojis. 0004: Assessment 1. Capability to continually inform MOE with/through sentiment analysis, content generation, and new target audience content. 2. Capability for end user to extract empirical data and visualize metrics of service, including number of content samples translated, number of content samples generated, number of content samples downloaded, number of conversations influenced by generated content, etc. 0005: Data Protection and Management Data protection will meet all standing DoD regulatory and security protocols. Instructions for the submi ssion of White Papers To respond to this Request for the submission of White Papers, please provide no more than a 20 page White Paper describing the COTS solution offered for assessment. Please provide one original electronic copy. White papers must be in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF Format. Please explicitly include the following in the response: Focus Area that the COTS solution applies to Maturity of COTS solution (Technology Readiness Level) Existing Government Intellectual Property Rights, if any Per unit Licensing Costs, and availability of No-Cost Evaluation Licenses Existing Information Assurance/Cyber Security Authority to Operate and/or Certificate of Networthiness Name, telephone number, and an e-mail address of a Point of Contact having the authority and knowledge to discuss responses with government representatives White Paper Format: Page Count 20 pages, excluding Cover Page Paper Size 8.5 x 11 inch paper Margins 1 inch Spacing single spaced Font Times New Roman, 12 point for text, legible for tables and figures Copies One (1) electronic copy NOTE: 1) Do not send .ZIP files; 2) Do not send password protected files. The initial response will undergo a technical assessment that may be followed by requests for clarifications or an invitation for oral presentations/demonstration, with a desired end state of vendor participation in government conducted technology assessments. This is, in no manner, an opportunity to submit a proposal for research and development funding. No awards will be made from this Request for the submission of White Papers. Responses will be reviewed by both Government and Contractor personnel. Contractor personnel provide Systems Engineering Technical Assistance (SETA) support, and are under a Non-Disclosure Agreement. All submissions will be acknowledged as received by INSCOM, and then staffed to requiring activities with corresponding capability gaps. Submissions are due on February 12, 2018 Eastern by 1159 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Early submissions are highly encouraged. The response should be sent with the Solicitation Number promptly displayed on the subject line to the POCs listed below: Technical Point of Contact: Antoinette Sands, antoinette.sands.civ@mail.mil, INSCOM Address: Attn: Antoinette Sands, IACD, 8825 Beulah Street, Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060-5246, United States Place of Performance: 6359 Walker LN, INSCOM Alexandria, Virginia 22310 United States Technical Primary Point of Contact: Antoinette Sands, INSCOM G7 antoinette.sands.civ@mail.mil Phone: (703) 706-1321 Secondary Point of Contact: Kim Robinson ACC Warren (INSCOM) kim.m.robinson4.civ@mail.mil Phone: (703) 428-4491 Place of Performance: 6359 Walker LN, INSCOM Alexandria, Virginia 22310 United States Primary Point of Contact.: Antoinette.Sands, Technical Primary antoinette.sands.civ@mail.mil Phone: 703-706-1321 Secondary Point of Contact: Kim Robinson, Contract Specialist kim.m.robinson4.civ@mail.mil Phone: 7034284491 You will learn that there really is no such thing as a conspiracy theory. Just truth and lies Time to wake up, it is not even secrete anymore WtR But China has special resonance for me because I grew up hearing my mother's stories about living in China when she was a girl. Her father was an anatomy professor at the Peking college of medicine, and there are pictures of my mother and her little brother bundled up to ice skate. She also had a marvelous collection of Chinese jewelry, brass ware, rugs, and embroidered Mandarin garments, which stimulated my imagination wonderfully. As a kid, I was always fascinated by the distant, empty spaces on the maps at school, which may be why I've written a number of books where my intrepid British protagonists have adventures in distant lands. I'm delighted to have retrieved the rights to my Bride trilogy. Book 1, The Wild Child was released in November, and now book 2, The China Bride is available. Here is the tagline I came up with for the trilogy: But this certainly doesn't make me an expert about China! Even with a lot of research and help from Chinese-American readers, I feel rather presumptuous. This is one of the advantages of having a heroine of mixed blood, like my Scottish- Chinese Troth Montgomery. She is caught between two worlds, not fitting into the Chinese city where she has lived for much of her life, and yearning for the Scotland of her beloved father, a sea captain and trader. Not only do such characters interest me, but they are relevant to our increasingly multi-culture society. The hero, Kyle Renbourne, restless heir to an earldom, was also someone who has had to find his place in life. In the six years of travel between Book 1 and Book 2, he has become more himself and finally he is ready to return home to take up his responsibilities. B ut for years, he's been haunted by the painting of a Chinese temple he saw as a boy and he'd like to visit it--an act forbidden to foreigners. Which is where Troth comes in. An excerpt: Kyle's voice turned persuasive. I really dont think that what Im asking is so dangerous. The temple is only a hundred miles away, so the journey could be made in a fortnight or so. Im willing to do whatever is necessary to pass undetected. All I need is a reliable guide. Troth had been feeling a restless desire to change her life, and here, suddenly, was a perfect opportunity. All she would have to do was leave everything and everyone shed ever known. Clenching her hands, she turned to him. I will take you to Hoshan. Impossible, he said, startled. I cant allow you to risk yourself like that. Because I am female? How gallant, she said coolly. But it is you who will require protection, not me. Or is that the problem? You dont trust me. He swore under his breath. Youve given me ample proof of your abilities, Miss Montgomery. But I need a guide who lives on the edge of the law, someone who understands and accepts the risks. If you were discovered helping a Fan-qui make an illegal journey, it could cost you your job and your home. Perhaps your life. Im willing to take the risk. She caught his gaze. You said you would pay well. My price is your help in getting me to Britain. After a long silence, he said, I see. What kind of help do you need? Passage on a British ship, and enough money to support myself until I can find work. She tried to guess how much she would need. Perhaps . . . fifty pounds? He frowned. Are you sure this is what you want? Your English is flawless, but Britain will seem very strange to you. I was raised on tales of Scotland. Yes, it will be very different, but perhaps I belong there more than in China. Certainly I will never fully belong here. Her mouth twisted. My dream was to go to my fathers homeland. Id given up, but perhaps it is possible after all. Shall I take you to Hoshan? Or dont you want it enough to trust me? Trust is not the issue. He regarded her steadily. If you want to go to Britain, I will help you without your taking me to Hoshan. He would really do that? Yes, he would, for he felt that he owed her his life. But she did not want anything from him because he felt an obligation. She had spent fifteen years being subservient. With him she wanted to be an equal, not a dependent. I prefer to earn my passage, Lord Maxwell. If you will drop your lordly mannerisms and follow my instructions, we should be able to make this journey without incident. A slow smile lightened his expression. When can we go? Of course things don't go as planned! Read more and a longer excerpt here. To order a copy, here's a link. I think this review from Booklist is a good summary: It is no wonder that multi-award winning bestseller Putney is a favorite of romance fans Putneys characterizations of two individuals who do not fit comfortably into the worlds in which they were born but through their differences can become soul mates as well as lovers are exquisite in this fast paced historical adventure romance. Book 3, The Bartered Bride, featuring Kyle's friend and partner, Yankee trader Gavin Elliott, will be released on February 8th. You can preorder here. I'll be giving away a copy ofThe China Bride to one person who leaves a comment between now and midnight Saturday. (Whether it's print of digital will be subject to discussion with the winner. ) Mary Jo, contemplating those faraway places with the strange sounding names. Note: I invented the Hoshan Temple. The image above is of the Dalongdong Baoan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan and was taken by Men1399 Jan 12, 2018 | By Julia Despite the impressive strides the medical industry has taken in the field of surgical technology, doctors are still wrestling with a fundamental problem: that of soft tissue grip. As an ongoing issue in minimally invasive surgery, our current model of manipulating soft tissue without slipping revolves around the use of clunky grasping instruments with high pinch forces. These instruments leave a lot to be desired, and rely entirely on the steadiness of a surgeons hands in order to be successful. But that could soon be about to change, thanks to one ambitious engineering student and a bit of 3D printing. Tim van Broekhoven is a recent graduate of the Delt University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands, and the bright mind behind an innovative new answer to soft tissue grip. For his Masters thesis in engineering, van Broekhoven sought to overcome the current problems seen in manipulating soft tissue during surgery. Although the issue itself is nothing new, where the engineering student turned to for inspiration is innovative to say the least. In nature, several animals employ adhesion in order to grip on, not only hard, but also soft substrates, van Broekhoven explains in his abstract. Among these animals, geckos and tree frogs are of special interest for engineered gripping systems, because of their high body mass. The TU Delft grad goes on to describe how the toe pads of geckos and tree frogs are particularly relevant here, as the primary means through which these creatures sit, climb, and hop around their environment without slipping. The inner workings of these toe pads exhibit natural evolution at its finest: characterized by a microscopic hierarchical pillar structure, the soft toe pads also possess a network of stiff inner fibers; all of it contributes to enhanced friction, or grip, between the animals feet and an external surface. Perhaps most exciting, however, is that this structure can be mimicked, facilitating a man-made way to achieve the adhesive grip exhibited by these tiny creatures. In his thesis, titled On the Mimicking of Geckos and Tree Frogs for Adhering to Soft Substrates, van Broekhoven goes on to investigate this mechanism by way of 3D printing. The basic aim, he writes, was to investigate whether reinforcing a soft pad with stiff fibers increases friction of soft substrates as opposed to a pad without fibers. In order to test his hypothesis, van Broekhoven conducted three separate experiments. In the first experiment, he created a specialized polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) pad which encapsulated 3D printed fibers in order to test the composites adhesion and friction forces. In Experiment 2, stiffer 3D printed fibers were used in a similar PDMS pad. Finally, in the last experiment, van Broekhoven used a carbon fiber fabric in the PDMS pad. In all three experiments, both hard and soft gelatin substrates of various stiffness degrees came into play, with the soft gelatines functioning as phantoms of human soft tissue. The results indicated that, regardless of substrate type, adding 3D printed fibers with varying degrees of stiffness to a PDMS pad reduced peak friction force. The carbon fiber fabric, on the other hand, significantly increased peak friction force, as compared with a PDMS pad without fibers. All in all, van Broekhoven concludes that the results from this research are promising for developing fiber-reinforced composites that can grip to soft substrates, including minimally invasive grasping instruments for soft-tissue grip. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: Jan 12, 2018 | By Benedict Six astronauts from the Austrian Space Forum are going to Omans Dhofar desert for four weeks to stay in isolation and carry out experiments, simulating a mission to Mars. 3D printing will play an important role in the experiments. Despite the use of advanced telescopes, in addition to rovers sent to the Red Planet to collect samples and visual data, humans dont know exactly what lies upon the surface of Mars. They know enough, however, to recognize Mars-like terrain when they see it. It turns out Dhofar desert in Oman looks a lot like the surface of Mars, which is why six astronauts from the Austrian Space Forum will spend a month in isolation there in an attempt to simulate a mission to Mars. Held in partnership with the Oman National Steering Committee, AMADEE-18, or the Mars Analogue Mission, is organizing a Mars simulation that will last four weeks and involve a series of 19 experiments. The exercise is being described as a kind of dress rehearsal for future missions to Mars, when astronauts will have to survive similar conditions to the imposing Dhofar desert. The test site used for this practice run spans 120 square miles, identified as being especially similar to the Red Planet. According to the AMADEE-18 scientists, the deserts of Dhofar have a resemblance to various Mars surface features, such as sedimentary structures dating back to the Paleocene and Eocene, salt domes of the South Oman Salt Basin, and ancient river beds. The site has both sand and rocky surfaces, and broad variability in inclination. Expected temperatures in February typically range between 16-27C with less than 10 mm of precipitation. The astronauts arent just attempting to survive the harsh conditions though: theyve also got to carry out a series of 19 experiments similar to those that astronauts would look to carry out on any potential future Mars mission. These experiments will encompass astrobiology, geology, and other areas of study, and will utilize equipment like drones, robots, and a large inflatable greenhouse. One particular experiment will be largely concerned with 3D printing, a technology that could be incredibly useful for fabricating structures on Mars. Part of the junior researchers program, the A3DPT-2-Mars experiment will involve the 3D printing of tools and parts during the four-week mission. Among the 19 experiments, 3D printing will be crucial for future human missions to Mars, commented Joao Lousada, Analog Astronaut and Deputy Field Commander at OeWF. This is hardly the first instance of Mars-oriented 3D printing though. NASA continues to operate its long-running 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, which encourages students and amateur inventors to design 3D printed habitats that could be printed on Mars, while experts have long debated the respective merits of 3D printing with ice or 3D printing with Martian regolith. Other experiments besides the 3D printing-focused A3DPT will involve DNA sequencing, which could help detect any life on Mars; a robotics experiment that uses an autonomous rover called Husky; a scanning mission for imaging the subsurface geological features of Mars; and AVI-Nav, a robotics experiment that will use an autonomous quad-copter with GPS and camera that will map the surrounding terrain. The inflatable greenhouse will be used for an astrobiology experiment called HortExtreme. This will allow the crew to cultivate and grow their micro-greens on the Mars-like desert, preparing future Mars astronauts for the task of growing their own food. Interestingly, theres more to the 30-day mission than just replicating an isolated, sandy area. In order to truly simulate what a Mars mission would be like, the astronauts will work with a 10-minute signal delay between their base and the Mission Guidance Centre (MSC) in Innsbruck, Austria. This simulates the radio delay between Mars and Earth. The mission will take place in February. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: Sara Reardon in Nature: The genomes of plants and animals are littered with the remains of viruses that integrated themselves into their DNA hundreds of millions of years ago. Most of these viral remnants are inactive, but the latest research suggests that some evolved into genes that let cells communicate. A pair of papers1,2 published in Cell on 11 January suggest that the protein encoded by one such gene uses its virus-like structure to shuttle information between cells: a new form of cellular communication that may be key to long-term memory formation and other neurological functions. Two research groups came across the phenomenon independently while studying extracellular vesicles pieces of cell membranes that pinch off into bubbles and float away from the cells. These vesicles circulate throughout the body, but little is known about their function. The teams, led by neuroscientist Jason Shepherd at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and cell biologist Vivian Budnik at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, looked at mice and flies (Drosophila melanogaster), respectively. Protective shells The researchers found that many of the extracellular vesicles released by neurons contain a gene called Arc, which helps neurons to build connections with one another. Mice engineered to lack Arc have problems forming long-term memories, and several human neurological disorders are linked to this gene. When Shepherd and Budnik analysed the genetic sequences of mouse and fly versions of Arc, they found that they were similar to that of a viral gene called gag. Retroviruses such as HIV use the Gag protein to assemble protective shells called capsids that transport the viruss genetic material between cells during infection. When the researchers looked at the Arc protein under a high-resolution microscope, they found that it formed a similar capsid and carried the genetic instructions, or messenger RNA (mRNA), that encode Arc. The capsid was then wrapped in a piece of the cell membrane and released as an extracellular vesicle. No other non-viral protein has been shown to form capsids and shuttle mRNA between cells. Its groundbreaking, says Clive Bramham, a neuroscientist at the University of Bergen in Norway. More here. Katherine Rowland in Aeon: Within weeks of conception, cells from both mother and foetus traffic back and forth across the placenta, resulting in one becoming a part of the other. During pregnancy, as much as 10 per cent of the free-floating DNA in the mothers bloodstream comes from the foetus, and while these numbers drop precipitously after birth, some cells remain. Children, in turn, carry a population of cells acquired from their mothers that can persist well into adulthood, and in the case of females might inform the health of their own offspring. And the foetus need not come to full term to leave its lasting imprint on the mother: a woman who had a miscarriage or terminated a pregnancy will still harbour foetal cells. With each successive conception, the mothers reservoir of foreign material grows deeper and more complex, with further opportunities to transfer cells from older siblings to younger children, or even across multiple generations. Far from drifting at random, human and animal studies have found foetal origin cells in the mothers bloodstream, skin and all major organs, even showing up as part of the beating heart. This passage means that women carry at least three unique cell populations in their bodies their own, their mothers, and their childs creating what biologists term a microchimera, named for the Greek fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent. More here. One of the best things about living in the Bay Area is how easy it is to enjoy the great outdoors. With minimal planning and a short drive, there are countless places to explore in a day or even to camp over a weekend. Point Reyes Lighthouse Heading across the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin is a simple go-to for a quick getaway. To get the most out of a Marin run, keep an eye out for a clear, fog-free couple of days, and try to get out early in the morning. There are a few good webcam and radar resources to use to check fog conditions, but this is the one I use for Mount Tam. Even on a foggy day in the city, Mount Tam may be above the clouds, which can make for an incredibly serene experience. Day 1 Head out for the quick drive to Mount Tamalpais State Park. A good hike to start on to get the blood flowing is the Steep Ravine to Dipsea Trail Loop that starts near Pantoll Ranger Station. This hike leads through a diversity of beautiful scenic and vegetated landscapes. I recommend starting out on the Dipsea Portion of the loop heading downhill, traversing across and down Mount Tam's western slopes above the great blue Pacific (one reason to aim for a clear day). Once you near the bottom of the loop it's just a short walk to Stinson Beach. Returning back by way of the Steep Ravine Trail, following Webb's Creek up through fern-filled gullies and under a canopy of redwood trees, makes for a beautiful loop. Back at Pantoll, it's a short drive to the summit of East Peak, the top of Mount Tamalpais. From here, you'll have some of the best Bay Area views that you can get. At sunset, the colors are even more beautiful. Alternate hiking options for the day include the Coastal Trail, Muir Woods, Muir Woods via Deer Park Fire Road or Point Bonita. The Point Bonita Lighthouse is accessible Saturday through Monday, but only from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. I would also recommend avoiding Muir Woods on the weekends, unless you enjoy very crowded trails. If you are interested in sleeping in the woods, there are two campsites within Mount Tamalpais State Park that are just a short drive from East Peak. Bootjack Campground has 15 walk-in sites and is a quiet place to camp. Nearby Pantoll Campground has 16 more sites, and has direct access to some of Mount Tam's best hiking trails, including the Steep Ravine to Dipsea Loop referenced above. From both campgrounds there are numerous places nearby to access great sunsets and night sky photography opportunities. An alternative to camping is to stay at one of the inns on the way to Point Reyes from Mount Tam. In the small hamlet of Olema, along Highway 1, there are three fantastic places. The Bear Valley Inn Bed and Breakfast dates to 1910 and has been meticulously maintained. The Point Reyes Seashore Lodge is more modern and features 22 rooms and two cottages that adjoin Point Reyes National Seashore. And if you are looking for a more lavish, luxurious escape, Olema Druids Hall Bed and Breakfast is just the place. Tule Elk at Mcclures Beach Trailhead Day 2 Day 1 was all about forests and coastal mountain and Bay Area views. Day 2 is for the ocean and wildlife viewing, and Point Reyes National Seashore is just the place. There are a multitude of wonderful locales to explore on Point Reyes, but there are a few that are particularly striking. The Point Reyes Lighthouse sits at the tip of the peninsula, 10 miles out to sea. It's perched on a cliff 250 feet above the Pacific Ocean. This is a place you definitely want to visit on a clear day to be able to see the picturesque Point Reyes Coastline, so pay extra close attention to the webcams and fog radar mentioned above. The lighthouse itself is open to visitors but hours change seasonally so check here for current information. A lighthouse visit can easily be combined with the Chimney Rock Hike and a walk out to the Elephant Seal Overlook. Here you'll get a healthy dose of aquatic wildlife along with some amazing ocean views. You can also head north up the Point Reyes Peninsula to McClures Beach, and you'll likely get to see the tule elk that inhabit the area. Nearby Kehoe Beach is another favorite for the spring wildflowers and expansive views. If the fog and wind roll in and make a trip to the ocean side of Point Reyes, consider visiting Tomales Bay State Park instead. Tomales Bay was formed by the San Andreas Fault and creates a 12-mile-long inlet that separates Point Reyes Peninsula from the California mainland. During windy and foggy conditions, Tomales Bay is sheltered by Inverness Ridge, the high point on the peninsula. From Point Reyes it's only a little over an hour's drive back to San Francisco, so I like to stay out as late as I can, let the city traffic die down, and make the most of a quick escape adventure weekend. Property Market, Maltas leading Real Estate Company changing the industry one property at a time Property Market is Maltas one of the leading players in the real estate market on the island of Malta. Founded by two friends turn business partners, the company has played an important role in the market, attracting investors from within and outside the island. The launch of Property Market provides an avenue for investors and prospective tenants to buy or rent properties in Malta using their smart phones and computer from the comfort of their homes or offices. Property Market came into existence after Kalin, who had recently moved to Malta searched everywhere for an apartment to no avail. Kalin met with Daniel, an estate agent, explaining his fruitless search for an apartment even after visiting several out-dated websites. This was the beginning of the revolutionary Property Market. The lack of websites like Zillow and Trulia meant intending tenants would embark on frustrating searches for their desired apartment. The duo combined efforts, with Kalin contributing his technical skills, while Daniel brought in his knowledge of the local market. The result of the partnership is propertymarket.com.mt The unique platform currently ranks as one of the most sought-after websites, and the go-to place for homebuyers, investors and tenants in the real estate market. The site currently lists properties from more than 30 leading real estate companies in Malta, helping thousands of home hunters to get their desired shelter regardless of their budget or preference. Property Market is updated daily with information about the market and the properties available for buyers and investors to purchase. The easy accessibility of the site on virtually all devices also ensures that users can view properties on the go, regardless of their location. Property Market also carefully handpicks the latest properties, publishing it on its various social media channels as well as in a dedicated weekly newsletter. The primary goal of setting up the platform is to make the search for real estate properties in Malta and Gozo simpler, easier and faster. The team has so far been able to achieve this goal with a combination of technological innovations, expert knowledge of the local market and hard work, creating a platform that brings together all the different players in the industry. Some of the popular locations covered by the website include Sliema, Mosta, Gzira, Attard, Marsaskala, Naxxar, Birkirkara, and St. Julians. More information about Property Market can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. About Property Market Property Market is an online platform designed to bridge the gap between suppliers and demanders in the real estate market. Founded by Kalin and Daniel, has been able to make the search for properties in Malta simpler, faster and easier. Property Market dedicated to understanding and helping buyers and renters solve the unique challenges presented by the fast moving property market in Malta. Media Contact Company Name: Property Market Contact Person: Daniel Mountford Email: info@propertymarket.com.mt Phone: +356 9908 3055 Country: Malta Website: http://www.propertymarket.com.mt/ Insurance Claim Settled Sydney, Jan 12, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Mustang Resources Limited (Company or Mustang) ( ASX:MUS ) ( GGPLF:OTCMKTS ) is pleased to advise that it has received the proceeds of the insurance claim relating to the rubies and corundum stolen in the robbery at its Montepuez Ruby Project in September 2017 (see ASX release dated 26 September 2017). Following an assessment by Lloyds Underwriters, Mustang has received payment of A$423,650 in full and final settlement of the claim. Since the incident, Mustang has upgraded its security measures and general controls on site. Mustang Directors would like to express appreciation to the members of its on-site team at Montepuez for the efforts made to plan and implement the revised security measures and for their commitment to the project. About New Energy Minerals Ltd New Energy Minerals Ltd (ASX:NXE) (FRA:GGY) is an ASX listed junior mining company, that recently announced the divestment of the Company's Caula vanadium - graphite project and the Montepuez Ruby project in Mozambique. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted Ecuadorian citizenship, Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said. Assange, who has been holed up at Ecuadors 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. 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 December 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 Assanges 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. January 14, the Makar Sankranti (Uttarayana) day heralds the change of season. An event is best experienced at the heart of all the action. Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan the kite flying festival in Ahmedabad the worlds heritage city, is synonymous with kite flying. It is celebrated across the country in different ways and the cultural significance of the festival varies geographically. Makar Sankranti is one of the most auspicious days for the Hindus and is celebrated in almost all parts of the country in myriad cultural forms with great devotion, fervor and gaiety. The word Makar means Capricorn and Sankranti is transition. The term Uttarayana is derived from two different Sanskrit words Uttara (North) and Ayana (movement), thus indicating a northward movement of the Sun on the celestial sphere. The international kite festival in Ahmedabad gathers kite flyers from across the country and the world. Kite enthusiasts from across India and also foreign countries are participating in the week-long festival that is being celebrated across cities in Gujarat. The festival of Uttarayana marks the day when winter begins to turn into summer, according to the Indian calendar. The days become longer, the skies clearer and the breeze cooler. A feeling of anticipation, joy and jubilation grips all who celebrate the occasion of thanksgiving and merry-making. Being popular as the Kite festival in Gujarat, it is also famous as the beginning of the harvest season and it is celebrated on the same day of the English Calender every year. Kite flying during Makar Sankranti or Uttarayana is an important part of the celebrations. One of the reasons is that as it is a time of thanksgiving, it is also a time to be happy. Though Kite festival is celebrated all over Gujarat, it is the most exciting in the capital city of Ahmedabad. The International Kite Festival (Uttarayana) in Ahmedabad is regarded as one of the biggest festivals celebrated. Months before the festival, homes in Gujarat begin to manufacture kites for the festival. Today, manufacturing of kites is a serious business. It attracts big names of the corporate world as kites provide for the most cost-effective opportunity for branding. Kites for Uttarayana are made of special light-weight paper and bamboo and are mostly rhombus shaped with central spine and a single bow. The festival gives boost to the kite industry which employs around 3 lakh people. A visit to the Patang (Kite) Bazaar in the middle of the night proves beyond all doubt that the entire population of Ahmedabad city is obsessed with kites and they crowd the streets and buy the stocks while negotiating and enjoying through the night. The Patang Bazaar is open 24 hours a day during the Uttarayan week. All sorts of colourful shiny toys act as accompaniments to the kites. On Uttarayana, in Ahmedabad the sky is full of colourful kites of all sizes and shapes. One finds an unequalled experience. In the major cities of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, and Jamnagar the skies appear filled with thousands upon thousands of kites as people enjoy two full days of Uttarayan on their terraces. Wonderful and appealing kites in various shapes and hues decorate the sky like a thousand fowls. On this day, locals are hardly seen on the streets as everybody takes to the rooftop of their respective houses to fly kites. In Gujarat, a special winter vegetable called undhiyu is the specialty of the day. Its a preparation of several beans, roots and other local seasonal vegetables. It does not matter what your background or beliefs are but if you are in Gujarat on January 14, you will find yourself flying kites with everyone sharing fun and pleasure. (The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.) US President Donald Trump said he probably has a very good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a change in tone for Trump after exchanging insults with Kim over Pyongyangs nuclear and missile programs. Trump has derided the North Korean leader as a maniac and referred to him as little rocket man. Kim has responded by calling the US president a mentally deranged US dotard. I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised. Kim has warned the United States that he intends to build a nuclear arsenal capable of hitting the United States, prompting threats of military action by Washington. Asked whether he has spoken with the North Korean leader, Trump told the newspaper: I dont want to comment on it. Im not saying I have or havent. I just dont want to comment. In November, Trump said while on a trip to Vietnam that becoming friends with Kim might be a strange thing to happen but its a possibility. Kim, in a speech last week, said the nuclear button is always on my desk, prompting Trump to respond in a tweet that his nuclear button is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works! In the Journal interview, Trump suggested his combative tweets are part of a broader strategy. Youll see that a lot with me, he said, and then all of the sudden somebodys my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. Im a very flexible person. Trump told the newspaper a decision by the United States and South Korea to postpone military exercises until after next months Winter Olympics in South Korea sends a good message to North Korea. North and South Korea held their first talks in two years on Tuesday. Trump told a news conference in Washington on Wednesday the United States would be willing to speak to Pyongyang under the right circumstances. 'Social Reconstruction' is Vital for Long-term Stability in Iraq Parts of Iraq, including the once ethnically diverse city of Mosul, remain unsafe for Christians and other minority groups, more than a month after the government declared victory over Daesh. Speaking during a debate in the House of Lords on Thursday discussing the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq, Christopher Cocksworth, Lord Bishop of Coventry, described the "terrible tears in the fabric of Iraqi society" and emphasised the importance of "social reconstruction" in ensuring the stability and success of post-conflict Iraq. Along with Christians, he said Yazidis, Kurds, Turkmens, Mandaeans and Shabaks, have not returned to Mosul, the city they once called home. Schools and media have a vital role to play in harnessing the potential that Iraq's large youth population affords for creating a new culture of understanding and respect through education, Cocksworth said, quoting comments made to him by an Assyrian priest ministering in Dohuk. "We may not be able to restore the Christian demography that we had in the past, but we can preserve for the future a presence and role for the Christian community in our society so that through our schools, our skills and our hospitals, we can serve all the people of this land." Baroness Anelay of St. Johns said: "Daesh no longer holds significant territory there, but whilst Daesh is failing, they're not yet wholly defeated and still pose a threat to Iraq." She referenced Theresa May's visit to Iraq in December, during which the prime minister acknowledged the need to address the conditions that enabled Daesh's rise. "We must recognize that the challenges facing minorities didn't begin with Daesh and will not end in their defeat alone," the Baroness added. "Solutions must confront longstanding issues of discrimination, exclusion and marginalization." Raising the brutal targeting of Yazidi and Christian minorities by Daesh, which have been recognized as genocides by the UN, and the long-time suffering of the country's Kurdish community, Baroness Hodgson of Abinger said, "The situation there, whilst improving in some ways, is far from settled." While the conditions remain present for the terror group to return to the country, minority communities in Iraq are fearful that, "Unless the causes of the violence are rooted out it will return and as before minorities will be the first victims," Cocksworth said. He pointed to the chaos following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which, by 2014 had reduced the Christian population by some 75 percent, and, "Earlier cycles of violence which wave after wave eroded their security and forced former generations to flee." The UK has a "moral responsibility" and "strategic interest" in helping to secure the stability and success of Iraq, he said, calling for a "long-term commitment to a coalition of reconstruction." Success in Iraq, so long a land marking a failure of British foreign policy, is of vital strategic importance, he continued. "Daesh might be a hydra with heads surfacing across the world, but if it can be fatally wounded in the country of its birth, it would be starved of vital sources of energy, morale and inspiration." Daily Report Edited by Brian W. Everstine with Gideon Grudo, Steve Hirsch and Amy Hudson USAF Drops $2.4 Million in Scholarships To Get Cadets Private Pilot Licenses The Air Force is paying $2.4 million to teach 120 of its Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (AFJROTC) cadets how to fly, part of the services overall effort to address its pilot shortage. Recipients of the AFJROTC Flight Academy scholarship will take summer classes in the summer of 2018, each course lasting between seven and nine weeks, an Air Force spokesperson told Air Force Magazine. Recipients wont necessarily become military pilots, even if they earn their private licenses. We understand not all of the cadets graduating from the Flight Academy will elect to take a military track, but thats OK as those young people electing to enter commercial aviation will have a positive impact on the overall national crisis, said Brig. Gen. Michael Koscheski, director of the Air Force Aircrew Crisis Task Force, in a release about the scholarship. Read the full story from Gideon Grudo. Air Force Opens Innovation Hub in Las Vegas Vice President Mike Pence and Air Force leadership cut the ribbon on Thursday at AFwerXan innovation hub in Las Vegas that is focused on finding new solutions to future problems. AFwerX will feature a permanent staff, along with collaboration with academia and industry, in a large facility outfitted with equipment such as 3D printers and carbon fiber ovens. Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Steven Wilson said there are good reason to base this idea in Las Vegas, and more such sites will be coming soon. Read the full story by Brian Everstine and John Tirpak. B-2s Deploy to Pacific for Bomber Deterrence Mission Three B-2 stealth bombers and about 200 airmen deployed to Guam this week to continue the Air Forces continuous bomber presence mission in the region. The aircraft from Whiteman AFB, Mo., will fly training and deterrence missions out of Andersen Air Force Base during a time of heightened tensions over North Koreas nuclear program. While the bombers deployed to Pacific Air Forces have repeatedly flown training missions with South Korean and Japanese aircraft, the Pentagon and South Korean officials announced last week that the countries are delaying joint military exercises during the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea. Six B-1Bs from Ellsworth AFB, S.D., have been deployed at the base since July. Brian Everstine B-52s Deploy to England Four B-52s are deployed to RAF Fairford, England, for theater integration and training in the United Kingdom, the Air Force announced. Three B-52s and about 300 airmen from the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB, N.D., arrived on Jan. 9, with the fourth arriving Thursday, according to US Air Forces in Europe. The deployment will include joint and allied training to improve bomber interoperability, according to USAFE. B-52s have regularly deployed to Fairford, most recently in September. Brian Everstine US Must Take Steps to Counter Chinas Rise The United States must develop strategies to address Chinas military and technological rise, witnesses told a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing this week. Read the full story by Steve Hirsch. Air National Guard Aiding California Mudslide Rescue Efforts California Air National Guardsmen from the 129th Rescue Wing are aiding search-and-rescue efforts in southern California following recent mudslides. The wing has deployed an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter with aircrews and two pararescuemen to the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, the Defense Department said Thursday. The helicopter is one of eight California National Guard aircraft and a dozen high-water vehicles supporting the response efforts, the department said. Steve Hirsch Trump Signs Order to Help Veterans Returning to Civilian Life Declaring veterans must be given the care and support they so richly deserve, President Donald Trump Tuesday signed an executive order directing the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs to produce a plan to provide seamless access to mental health treatment and suicide prevention resources to veterans in the first year following military service. The order gives the departments 60 days to develop the joint action plan, and 180 days to provide a report on the plans implementation and an outline of further reforms to increase veterans access to mental health services. It cites a number of statistics related to the issue, including the low rate of returning service members who need mental health treatment who seek treatment or receive adequate care, the high suicide rate among veterans in their first year out, and the high rate18.5 percentof returning Iraq or Afghanistan veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or depression. Steve Hirsch Boeing Unveils New Prototype Unmanned Cargo Air Vehicle Boeing on Wednesday unveiled an unmanned electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing cargo air vehicle prototype it said is designed to transport a payload of up to 500 pounds and will be used in the development of the companys autonomy technology for future aerospace vehicles. The company said the prototype complements the prototype electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing passenger aircraft being developed by Aurora Flight Sciences, which was acquired by Boeing last year. Powered by an electric propulsion system, the cargo prototype has eight counter rotating blades allowing for vertical flight. It is 15 feet long, 18 feet wide, 4 feet tall, and weighs 747 pounds. Steve Hirsch Correction The satellite, code named Zuma, which was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket over the weekend and now appears to be missing, is not a National Reconnaissance Office payload as originally reported in the Jan. 10 Daily Report. Also, Rep. Don Bacon, a retired USAF brigadier general and former EC-130H mission crew commander, is a Republican representing Nebraska. We have corrected the following errors. RADAR SWEEP The Air Force has finished its environmental impact study of Shaw AFB, S.C., which is one of the candidate bases to host a new MQ-9 operations group with mission control elements and/or a full MQ-9 wing, Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mike Holmes said during a recent visit to Creech AFB, Nev.: ACC release. Former Airman Second Class Helen Grace James, who was kicked out of the Air Force in 1955 for being a lesbian, is now suing the service at the age of 90, saying she wants her undesirable discharge upgraded to an honorable discharge: The Washington Post. The launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket carrying the NROL-47 payload was scrubbed on Thursday due to an issue with a ground system valve, and has been rescheduled for 1 p.m. on Jan. 12: ULA Tweet. Almost 21 years after workers produced the state's first automobile in Tuscaloosa, Alabama stands poised to ascend to a new position - nationally and globally in auto production. Toyota and Mazda on Wednesday announced they will build a $1.6 billion vehicle production plant in Huntsville, to open in 2021. The plant is expected to employ 4,000 people and produce 300,000 vehicles a year, once up and running. The spinoff effect of job creation is expected to be even greater. Alabama already employs more than 57,000 people in the auto industry, counting its three vehicle plants, Toyota's Huntsville engine plant, and a web of suppliers. It was that existing web that helped the state secure its newest corporate citizens. But the addition of a highly sought-after manufacturing plant, featuring the world's largest auto company, is also part of several stories: The South's continuing ascendancy into international auto manufacturing, current global economic politics and the future of the auto industry. Alabama is currently tied for fourth among the states in terms of the size of its auto manufacturing industry. It should rise once Toyota-Mazda is up and running. Present at the creation Steve Sewell, executive vice president for the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, has witnessed from the beginning as Alabama's auto industry grew. "It's astounding," he said. "Even for those of us who have watched the growth, even today, we're still astounded that we're at this point, to have five leading global automakers with major assembly plants operating in our state." Sewell said the EDPA's first contact with the Toyota-Mazda project came about mid-way through last year. Contacted through a site consultant, they had no idea who was inquiring at first, which is normal for development projects. All they knew was that it could be an auto manufacturer. Then, over time, it became clear who at least one of the players was Toyota, a company with 15 years of manufacturing experience in Alabama. Sewell said one of the main hurdles in getting any company to decide on a site is convincing it of their advantages in choosing your area. So, in effect, Alabama had an advantage. Not only did Toyota have its own experience here, but it and Mazda could judge from the experiences of the state's other auto players. "What's happened in Alabama in a generation, that requires a lot more than just attracting companies," Sewell said. "The state has really matured into a true automotive state. It has invested in the kind of infrastructure, workforce development, training, filling the supply chains and listening to the companies' needs." The Toyota-Mazda announcement caps a big year for Alabama's auto industry. Earlier this week, Mercedes-Benz produced its 3 millionth vehicle in Tuscaloosa since the plant's opening. Honda and Hyundai wrapped up a year where each produced more than 320,000 vehicles. Honda began production of its redesigned Odyssey minivan the fourth redesign the plant has undertaken in as many years. And its Ridgeline truck took home Truck of the Year honors at Detroit's North American International Auto Show. Honda, the Toyota engine plant and Mercedes-Benz all announced expansions, including MBUSI's plan to assemble electric vehicles in Tuscaloosa and start an electric battery plant. Bharat Balasubramanian is the Executive Director of the University of Alabama's Center for Advanced Vehicle Technologies. Previously he worked for 20 years with Mercedes-Benz. He said the Deep South's transformation, and especially Alabama's, is unprecedented in the history of automotive manufacturing. For example, auto companies have over the last decade worked at a competitive disadvantage in the United States, as opposed to manufacturing automobiles in Mexico, where wages are lower and free trade agreements with the EU make production costs about 10 percent cheaper, he said. In spite of that, international companies have over that time doubled production, increased investments, and brought more factories to the American South. Many factors can account this rise availability of land, lack of union influence, relatively lower manufacturing costs and pro-business state governments. "It's astonishing what is happening here," Balasubramanian said. A shift in gravity John Boyd, a New Jersey-based consultant, is among several observers who say Toyota-Mazda's entrance into Alabama shifts the center of gravity in southern manufacturing squarely on Alabama. "This is an endorsement of Alabama its state economic development officials, the Huntsville labor market, the state's AIDT program, which is the most highly regarded job training program in the country," Boyd said. "The fact that Alabama has really invested in its vocational training programs, and their coordination with in-state universities. That's been the difference. And it's showing with employers like Hyundai, Airbus, Toyota." But the decision to build in Alabama, Boyd said, is also a result of "reshoring" the decision of companies to bring jobs back to the U.S. that were once shipped to other countries. He sees it as a direct result of the Trump Administration's "America First" policies. "A decade ago, this would have been made in Mexico," he said. "Reshoring is happening. You've had a tax cut from 35 to 21 percent. There's an expectation of tweaking of NAFTA. It's becoming more expensive to produce goods off shore. All of that is creating new momentum for reshoring, and Alabama is front and center in the narrative. This is the crown jewel in Donald Trump's reshoring initiative." 'It's pretty cool' Toyota has announced it will build the Corolla in Huntsville, while Mazda will manufacture an as-yet-unannounced crossover. The two companies will also reportedly have a research-and-development component in their joint venture, but it's unclear how much of that may be at the new factory. Mazda has had joint ventures in the U.S. market previously, most recently with Ford. But the company hasn't made vehicles here since 2012. At least one analyst said Mazda's move is probably intended to capitalize on its strong niche in the U.S. market, centered around design, performance and high fuel efficiency. But a Huntsville plant will also benefit Toyota in giving the company more production flexibility, as several of its plants around the country are reportedly running beyond full capacity. The effect on jobs will be seen almost immediately. Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said auto supplier companies may begin announcing plans this year, as suppliers will have to be in place and running by the time production starts at Toyota-Mazda in three years. Suppliers are usually classified as tier one or tier two facilities tier one being companies that supply vehicle components directly to the manufacturer. Tier two supply the suppliers, though some companies can supply multiple manufacturers. It's difficult to say how many supplier jobs the Toyota-Mazda project will create, since some suppliers will opt to fill needs for several plants. Balasubramanian said suppliers will, in the interest of long-term stability, probably not tie themselves to one factory, since needs can change over vehicle cycles. But they will opt for locations close to the plant. The big winner for those jobs, he said, might be Birmingham, which is situated in the middle of the four factories. In a larger sense, the new factory also positions Alabama for the future of the automotive industry. As auto companies look to electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles and higher emissions standards, the shape of automobiles and the way they are built will change. Mercedes-Benz's recent move toward EVs, and the coming of Toyota-Mazda, means a worldwide stage for the state at a time of great change. "These are marquee global companies, and their important operations are in Alabama," Sewell said. "There's real priority in terms of what they're doing here. These are modern plants with the latest technology. This positions Alabama very well." Canfield, at the end of a long Wednesday of announcements, was asked for a final comment on what it meant to him personally. He smiled and spoke for many. "It's pretty cool," he laughed. A lengthy federal drug and money-laundering probe in southeast Alabama landed nearly two dozen suspects in jail early Friday. Predawn roundups led to the arrests of 21 suspected methamphetamine and heroin traffickers from the Enterprise and Dothan areas, said Middle District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Louis V. Franklin Sr. Five people were arrested on federal charges following two federal grand jury indictments charging them with a variety of drug trafficking crimes including conspiracy, distribution, and possession of meth and heroin. The other 16 suspects were arrested on state charges. Franklin said the long-term federal investigation led to the seizure of heroin and multiple kilograms of meth. Guns and a vehicle that was outfitted with a device to conceal narcotics also were confiscated. The law enforcement agencies taking part in the investigation included: the FBI's Homeland Security Investigations; the DEA; the Dothan, Enterprise, Ozark and Poarch Creek Tribal Indian police departments; the Coffee, Houston, Washington County, Fl. And Clayton County, Ga. sheriff's offices; the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the Georgia State Police. The case is being prosecuted by Curtis Ivy Jr. and R. Randolph "Rand" Neeley, both assistant U.S. attorneys. Those arrested on federal charges are: Antonio Tyrell Pouncey, 39, of Enterprise; Kimberly Christina Pouncey, 28, of Enterprise; Ervin Gene Bradham, 53, of Enterprise; Lynn Renfroe Donaldson, 51, of Enterprise and Rudyver Garcia, 30, of Sandy Springs, Ga. If convicted they face a minimum of 10 years in prison with a maximum of life. Those arrested on state charges of criminal conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime in the Coffee County area are: Alesia Cain, Authur Davis, Jimmy Farthing, Betty Grantham, Vincent Gray, James Johnson, Lashonda Jones, Taurence Marshall, Darnell Martin, Pierre Martin, Penny Martinez, Charee Perkins, Gerald Deondra Pouncy, David Reeves, Jason Scott and Stevie Speigner. The Alabama Supreme Court has denied to review the cases of two convicted killers. According to a list of the court's decisions issued Friday, the court denied writs of certiorari to both Dennis Allen Little and Markey Jerail Evans. Little was convicted in 2016 for the stabbing death of 65-year-old Johnny Lee Patterson. Patterson's body was discovered the morning of July 4, 2014, behind a home off Looney Road in Columbiana. Little was arrested for public intoxication that same day, and was later charged with murder. Police said Little had both the victim's bank card and cell phone with him, and there was Patterson's blood on his clothes. Testimony and evidence presented at trial showed the day before Patterson's body was found, Little killed Patterson by stabbing him in the neck with a multi-purpose tool. He then tried to cover the body with old tires. Little was sentenced by a Shelby County judge to spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole, but he appealed. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction in October 2017. Evans was convicted of felony murder in the Bessemer Division of Jefferson County for the 2014 shooting death of a Hueytown teenager. He was sentenced to life in prison. At trial, Evans claimed self-defense in the shooting, which happened in the parking lot of a convenience store on of Fairfax Avenue and Owen Avenue in Bessemer. The victim was 19-year-old Michael Devin Dempsey. Dempsey's mother, Traci, testified that she and her son were stranded most of that day trying to get a flat tire on her car fixed. Evans, who was staying at a house behind the convenience store, shot her son after a disagreement over Evans giving her son fake money for fake drugs. The Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Evans' conviction as well. No opinion was issued by the state supreme court for either case. Authorities have released the names of a couple found shot to death in a Birmingham apartment Thursday morning. The Jefferson County Coroner's Office on Friday identified the victims as Felicia Antoinette Fletcher, 31, and Lee Otis Farrow Hamilton, 28. Authorities said both lived at that address. Their bodies were discovered in their bedroom just before 10:30 p.m. Thursday inside their Tom Brown Village apartment at Fifth Court and 41st Place North. Both had been shot, and were pronounced dead on the scene at 10:56 a.m. Sgt. Bryan Shelton said Birmingham police received a 911 call reporting the deaths and that's when officers responded to the scene. Residents at Tom Brown Village said two men made the discovery when they went to the apartment and one of them used a key to open the door, but police did not confirm that account. The initial report was a murder-suicide, but police said that doesn't appear to be the case. The coroner's office said Friday they don't yet know whether it was a murder-suicide or a double homicide. Shelton said a person of interest was taken into custody at the scene. No formal charges have been announced, and it wasn't immediately known whether that person of interest remains in custody. Neighbors said that person of interest is the same person who discovered the slain victims. A wrecker towed a burgundy Volvo that was parked in front of the unit where the bodies were discovered. Friends and family members were at the scene, visibly upset. Family members said the slain couple had been dating off and on for about two years. A cousin said he last spoke with the male victim on Tuesday. Fletcher was in the food services business and had previously worked in the deli at Western Market in Vestavia Hills. She was originally from Philadelphia but had lived in Birmingham for at least 10 years. "You hate to see homicides, just one is too many,'' he said. "Just starting out the new year off with a loved one losing their life in this way is just tragic. It weighs heavy on you. Our focus now during the investigation is to ultimately bring the family the answers they deserve and that they need." This story will be updated as more information becomes available. Anyone with information on the crime is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Bessemer police are asking for help locating a missing senior. According to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, William Avington Underwood was last seen Thursday around 2:30 p.m., when he was leaving the Walmart store on Academy Drive. Underwood, 70, was wearing a red long-sleeve shirt, jeans, and brown loafers. Police said he may be suffering from a condition that could impair his judgement. Underwood has gray hair and blue eyes, is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. Anyone with information about Underwood's whereabouts should contact the Bessemer Police Department at 205-425-2411 or call 911. A west Alabama teen was killed Thursday night in a single-vehicle crash. Alabama State Troopers said the victim was a 17-year-old girl from Gordo, but did not release her identity. The crash happened at 10 p.m. on Alabama 17, about five miles north of Reform. The teen was driving a 2012 Hyundai Elantra when it left the roadway and struck a tree. She was taken to DCH Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead a short time later, said Senior Trooper Reginal King. No additional information is available as troopers continue to investigate. German sociologist Max Webers highly cited definition of the modern state as a community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory does not fit well with the case of Yemen. In North Yemen, some tribes have enjoyed autonomous political and military power since the start of the civil war in 1962. In South Yemen, Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) partially succeeded in controlling the tribes, but military conflicts within the party, including the 1986 civil war in the south, were still fought along tribal lines. The unification of North and South Yemen in 1990 also failed to establish modern state institutions in the country, allowing some tribal leaders to maintain their political influence to this day. When Ali Abdullah Saleh came to power in North Yemen in 1978, and became the first president of unified Yemen in 1990, he was well aware of the importance of tribes. Thus, he expended an enormous amount of political capital and financial resources to establish alliances with key tribal leaders. The most significant tribal alliance he established was with the late Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, who headed the powerful Hashid tribal federation for more than four decades, until his death in 2007. The Sheikh, who also served as the speaker of the House of Representatives between 1993 and 2007, once described his complicated relationship with Saleh by stating that Saleh is my president, but Im his sheikh. During his time in power, Saleh showered tribal leaders and key figures from Hashid, Sanaa Salehs own tribe and also part of the Hashid federation and other tribes with the highest military positions, government contracts, and generous financial support. Saleh also allowed Saudi Arabia to continue its patronage of key Yemeni tribal leaders, including Sheikh al-Ahmar. Yet, in the final days before his assassination, none of Yemens tribal leaders answered Salehs calls for help. Why did these tribes decide to abandon Saleh? Why did they not come to his rescue? And does this indicate the end of tribal politics in Yemen? The collapse of the Saleh-Hashid alliance The collapse of Salehs tribal alliances did not come as a surprise to anyone following Yemens political scene closely. First, cracks in President Salehs alliance with the Hashid federation started to appear in the 2000s, when he attempted to pave the way for his eldest son, Ahmed, to succeed him. In an attempt to secure Ahmeds path to power, Saleh started assigning a new generation of actors loyal to him to important posts, while simultaneously attempting to sideline his old tribal and military allies, including Sheikh al-Ahmar and General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who was once Salehs top military aide. Salehs decision to designate his son, Ahmed, as heir to the presidency raised significant concerns, as well as political jealousy, among younger sheikhs, including the likes of Hamid al-Ahmar, who is the wealthiest and most influential among the sons of Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar. Consequently, when the Yemeni uprising erupted in 2011, most tribal leaders positioned themselves against the president. During and after the Yemeni uprising, Saleh did not realise that by weakening the Hashid federation and his former military allies such as General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, he was actually undermining his own residual political and military power. The delicate, domestic balance of power that had supported Saleh for more than three decades completely withered in 2014, when Saleh reached out to the Houthis, his former enemies, to forge the most controversial and bewildering political coalition of his lifetime. Even when the Houthis demolished Sheikh al-Ahmars house in Khamir later that year, Saleh failed to question the reliability of his new allies. He mistakenly thought that his freshly-minted alliance with the Houthis would ensure his security and save him from a similar faith. This, of course, was not the case. What Saleh failed to understand was that political ambitions of the Houthis would not allow the survival of any rival political power in the long run, whether this political power was a tribal leader or a former president with ambitions of returning to power. The Houthis factor The Houthis, a group of Shia rebels that currently control the capital, Sanaa, and large expanses of the country, emerged on Yemens political scene equipped with deeply rooted social connections and an extensive understating of the best practices in tribal mobilisation. They shrewdly exploited the increased gap between rich tribal leaders and their economically deprived tribesmen. A large segment of the tribesmen who joined the Houthis had been neglected for years by both the government and their own tribal leaders. With little education and a nothing to lose mentality, these poor tribesmen saw in the Houthis an exciting opportunity to improve their own economic well being. These tribesmen, poor but highly skilled in military conflicts, have fuelled the Houthis quick rise to power. With a slogan as unrelated to Yemeni domestic politics as death to America, death to Israel, these tribesmen eliminated all Houthi opponents in quick succession. Even though they belonged to various tribes, they wasted little time replacing their old tribal allegiances with a strong allegiance to the Houthis, who presented themselves as the progenies of the Zaydi heritage in North Yemen. Indeed, Zaydism has been the official doctrine of the government that ruled North Yemen for about a thousand years. Some of Salehs tribal allies joined the Houthis in their 2014 military march towards Sanaa to politically eliminate President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the Islah Party, and the al-Ahmar family on direct orders from the former president. But it did not take very long for these tribesmen to see the Houthis as a rising power and Saleh as a lost cause, and they swiftly shifted alliances. Furthermore, the Houthis used extreme coercive measures against tribal and military opponents, including demolishing homes, confiscating businesses, and displacing families. These brutal tactics made some of Salehs remaining tribal allies reluctant about coming to his rescue when he needed them most. The end of Salehs tribal patronage system Salehs patronage system was significantly weakened once he stepped down from the presidency in 2012, because he was not able to support it financially. When he left the presidency, Saleh lost control of the states financial resources, as well as his influence over the Saudi patronage system in Yemen. It is believed that Saleh accumulated vast wealth during his time in power, but he certainly did not spend this money to keep his tribal allies happy after he left office. Most importantly, when the Houthis targeted and humiliated some of Salehs tribal allies and loyal military officers, he did nothing to stop them. On the contrary, he continued to assure the public that his alliance with the Houthis was intact against the Saudi-led coalition. The Houthis exploited Salehs mistakes extremely well, and gradually worked towards alienating him further from his remaining tribal allies. Thus, when Saleh called for his tribal allies to stand up against the Houthis, just two days before his assassination, nobody came to his rescue. Instead, the Houthis acted very swiftly and surrounded his residence before killing him and officially rendering his patronage system obsolete. Does this mean that there will be no future return of tribal politics in post-Houthis Yemen? That is unlikely to happen. Marb Sunni tribes support for the government of President Hadi suggests that Yemeni tribes will continue to play a significant role in the countrys future. It will undoubtedly require a strong political will and a lot more effort for Yemen to one day fit into the Weberian definition of a modern state. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Netsanet Belay is Amnesty International's Research and Advocacy Director. He is an Ethiopian based in South Africa. I heard last night that the president of the United States believes that, as an African, I come from a shithole country. Charming. Donald Trump despite his subsequent denials apparently insisted in a White House meeting that people from shithole countries, by which he means Haiti and the entire continent of Africa, should not be encouraged or allowed to come to the United States. Norway is apparently still OK for him, so thats a relief. (To be honest, I almost feel sorry for Norway. Who would want to be on Donald Trumps personal list of most favoured nations?) But theres a more serious issue here: how should we react to racist statements from the president of the United States in a way that is appropriate to the gravity of what he is saying, and the basic dignities he seeks to erode? In the past year, we have been presented with an ever-growing multidecker sandwich of presidential offensiveness with ingredients including Trump lying about the threat climate change poses to humanity, describing another countrys population as criminals and conducting diplomacy by threatening to destroy another country while boasting about the size of his nuclear button. His latest outburst is in flagrant defiance of values summed up in the Statue of Liberty itself. When I last looked, the poem at the foot of the statue did not read: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free except if they come from shithole countries. His casual dismissal of countries, or even whole continents, shows a bottomless, unfathomable disdain for the people of Africa and beyond. But we would be losing the argument if we tried to respond to the falsity of his claims. Insisting that Africa is not a shithole likely means youve already been wrong-footed by the president. Trump knows that in the US, as in many places appealing to the lowest common denominator can pay political dividends. True leadership is about appealing to the better angels of our nature. The current president consciously does the opposite. So the real question is: What do we all do next, and how? Governments across Africa and around the world continue to remain silent in the face of Trumps behaviour due to the residing belief that the US still has a leadership role to play. There comes a time, however, when we must stand up against hatred and discrimination, not least when it emanates from the most powerful nation in the world. If Trumps government is not ready to stand up for human rights and speak up against such hateful statements, at the very least we need to see an obvious show of solidarity from governments worldwide from Africa to Norway and elsewhere. As this continents leaders prepare for the African Union summit later this month, we as Africans like everyone else deserve and expect a unified voice of outrage and unequivocal rejection of this blatant disregard for our dignity and rights. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. One thing that is upsetting about the comments that US President Donald Trump made calling African and African-descent nations shitholes is that his African and African-descent supporters from the 2016 election period havent come out to support him on that. After all, loyalty counts for something, doesnt it? Some of these people are my friends, mind you. Any takers? Come on, now. Yall were loud in 2016, time to show your face again, fellow #shithole inhabitants. Seriously, though. Theres a couple of things going on here. First of all, I want to address the fact that Donald Trump is flamingly out of his mind. Where I come from proudly a #shitholecountry we generally try to be kind to our elders whose minds have clearly gone into the void while leaving them physically behind. Because there are values connected to the concept of Utu (or as non-East Africans call it, Ubuntu) that demand a basic level of common decency from individuals. Its a social contract thing. As a consequence, I am largely horrified on a daily basis that his people are letting The Donald run around nekkid-minded in public every day under the pretext that he doesnt have a formal mental health diagnosis. The only response thats appropriate from out here is a gentle eye-roll and some prayers for America. This man is dying a slow and horrible public death and here I am writing about it. Utu forgive me. The other issue is condescension. Dear media, telling us that Donald Trump is a racist is not news. It is low-hanging fruit. Hes a mean old git who promised to build a wall between the US and Mexico to appeal to his voters. Was anyone surprised that he also despises people from continents he has never visited, especially considering he can hardly read to expand what appears to be a tragically limited intellect? Nope. It only adds insult to injury that we have to talk about this as though it merits consideration. Another overpriviledged American goes Heart of Darkness. Been there, done that. This is the continent of untold racial injuries, of apartheid and Zimbabwe and the Namibia situation we dont talk about. Congo and Libya selling slaves in this here present day. Of Sudan and Sudan, Somalia and Kenya, al-Shabab and the IMF structural adjustment programmes with their long tails of woe. Of genocides both internal and external, of injustices that popular culture and rate-chasing modern media tries its best to forget. Because you know what? Everything I have said above about #shithole countries is applicable to the United States of America and everywhere else. Genocide, slavery, rape, sexual slavery, extreme patriarchy, religious nuttiness, gun-toting fools, horrendous presidents, electoral shenanigans, corruption, inefficiency, brutality, apartheid (what are Native American reservations like, seriously?), the drug trade, you name it. It takes a #shithole to recognise one. Good old Trump who is in way over his head is simply expressing the anxieties of a decaying society that maybe needs to start talking to itself about these things, among others. I understand, the fear of the rise of Russia. More pertinent to #shitholecountries, the American preoccupation with the rise of China in Africa where all the good minerals, land and natural resources are, is no bueno. The decline of oil power makes them crazy. Theres a lot going on. It isnt surprising to act out when youre cornered. If Trump is Americas Id, well Fortunately, the thing about #shitholecountries is that we survive, always have and most menacingly, we always will. This continent is going to hit a billion and a half not too far from now. The superbly highly-skilled immigrants America rejects (African immigrants to the US are consistently the most highly qualified type of immigrant, look it up) will find elsewhere to do their work (Jyna, probably) and repatriate their knowledge and money. And we can reproduce like champions. Like I said, I understand. There is something frightening about the inevitability of the browning of the world, and the slow and grinding demise of a certain kind of privilege. By the way, could someone please tell Donald Trump that a #shitholecountry feminist woman columnist is praying for America to dump him for his own good and mental health? And that he needs to embrace the inevitable browning of the world? His personal apocalypse is here. Because anything I can do to drive him closer to the edge of completely undeniable unfitness-for-office is something I will do gladly. Utu, forgive me, some things just have to be done. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Amazigh activists are calling on the Moroccan government to declare the Berber New Year a national holiday. Berbers in North Africa are heralding in the Amazigh New Year, with festivities showcasing traditional food, music and dance planned throughout the region. Friday marks the first day of the year 2968 for North Africas indigenous inhabitants, who are also known as Amazigh. The Amazigh New Year or Yennayer, as it is locally called is the first day of the agricultural calendar used by Berbers for millenia. Ahmed Assid, an Amazigh activist, told Al Jazeera the event has a significant historical connotation for Berbers: It dates back to ancient times when the Amazigh king Shoshenq I was enthroned in Egypt, after defeating Ramses III. In Morocco, where Yennayer is celebrated by both Arab and Berber communities, some Arabs refer to the event as Aam Alfilahi or Haguza, which mean the agrarian year. Berbers, on the other hand, refer to the event as Id Suggas, meaning the night of the year. North Africans mark the occasion with activities such as Amazigh dance performances called Ahwach and Ahidous. Celebrations also feature performances by Berber artists, along with educational activities. To mark the occasion, Berbers prepare traditional dishes, such as tagola a meal comprising corn kernels mixed with butter, accompanied by ghee, and with the seed of a date hidden inside. The person who finds the seed of date inside the tagola plate is believed to be blessed throughout the whole year, said Hafida Id Abbou, a Moroccan Amazigh who celebrates every year. Another dish, known as orkimen, is made using wheat and dry fava beans. It is served as a soup. As with most North African meals, couscous is also served. National holiday Many Moroccans believe that given the countrys deep Berber roots, Yennayer should be a declared a national holiday. Neighbouring Algeria, which also has a large Berber population, has already declared January 12 a national holiday, and Amazigh activists in Morocco want their government to do the same. In late December, several Amazigh groups signed a memorandum addressed to Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine el-Othmani, urging him to declare the day a national holiday in Morocco. Government officials said the content of the memorandum was being studied. Hamidi Lihi, spokesman for the National Federation of Amazigh Associations in Morocco, told Al Jazeera the event was an important part of Moroccan culture. All Moroccans have the right to know and celebrate this special day that marks the history of Amazigh from one generation to another, he said. We want this day to be a national holiday because it is a very significant historical event that should be nationally recognised. Origins of North Africas Berbers Berbers inhabit an area spanning most of North Africa, with large populations in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and western Egypt. Berber tribes and ethnic groups can also be found as far south as Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. While forming substantial populations in these countries, the Tamazight languages have only recently started to gain formal recognition. The word Tamazight refers to the spectrum of related dialects spoken by the Berber people. In 2011, Morocco became the only country in the world to officially recognise Tamazight, though Berber dialects have national language status in Algeria, Mali and Niger. In the early 2000s, the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture was launched in Rabat, and Tamazight lessons were introduced in primary schools. An Amazigh TV channel was also launched in 2006. Amazigh activist Ahmed Assid said that such recognition was a welcome development. In recent years, we have received sponsorship from the government, he said. Many political parties participate in these annual ceremonies, and that is very important for us because we are striving for governments recognition. Germany inches towards a new government after Angela Merkel strikes deal with SPD to enter formal coalition talks. Chancellor Angela Merkel has reached a breakthrough agreement with Germanys second-biggest party during talks aimed at forming a new coalition government. The agreement comes after months of uncertainty and political paralysis. Following all-night negotiations in Berlin, Merkels conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), her Bavarian-based allies the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) produced a 28-page document outlining positions on a range of issues including migration, the Eurozone and taxes. In the long time since the elections, we have seen that the world is not waiting for us, Merkel told reporters on Friday. And as far as Europe is concerned, we are convinced that we need a new awakening for Europe, she added. The draft pact will form the basis of formal talks aimed at creating a new coalition government, which the CDU/CSU and SPD hope to form by April. It helps avert new elections after Septembers poll failed to give Merkel a clear majority. That vote also saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) enter the Bundestag for the first time. {articleGUID} Merkel initially attempted to form a coalition with two smaller parties. But those talks collapsed and the long-time chancellor turned to the SPD to renew their alliance. Draft pact In the draft pact, announced on Friday, the parties agreed to limit the arrival of asylum seekers to around 200,000 a year, and to work with France to strengthen the Eurozone. It outlined tax cuts and pledged to increase spending on home-building, education and research. On the foreign policy front, the document said the parties would end weapons exports to countries involved in the war in Yemen, and rein in progress in EU accession talks with Turkey. Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, hailed the parties plans for Europes future as very significant and positive. The draft deal still has to be approved by SPD delegates at a congress planned for January 21. The left-leaning party suffered its worst election setback since the post-war era in September, and its leader Martin Schulz vowed to head into opposition in the hopes of increasing the partys voter appeal. But he reconsidered his position after Merkel failed to form a three-way coalition with the Greens and the Free Democratic Party in November. On Friday, Schulz said that his partys negotiators agreed to recommend to the rank-and-file to back the draft coalition agreement. I think we achieved an excellent result, Schulz said. The coalition document is a new start for Europe. Germany will keep its strong position in the bloc if the next German government is going to be built on this document. After a year of sweeping defeats, ISIL has been pushed out of key territory, returning to its covert insurgent roots. The past year has witnessed a dramatic reversal of fortunes for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, which suffered a stunning series of defeats in its former strongholds. From Mosul to Hawija in Iraq, and from Raqqa to al-Bab in Syria, ISIL has been driven from key territory, leaving the groups expansive vision of a caliphate in tatters. To date, more than 98 percent of the areas it previously held have been retaken, and more than seven million Syrians and Iraqis have been freed from the groups control, according to the US-led coalition battling ISIL. Meanwhile, the ISIL fighters who evaded death or capture have gone to ground in rural areas between Iraq and Syria in an effort to regroup and replenish, experts note. The Islamic State of today organisationally looks profoundly different to the Islamic State of just a few years ago No more does it control a contiguous territory, no more does it have control over urban centres, cities or towns, said Charlie Winter, a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at Kings College London. Instead, it appears to have gone to ground, returned to its covert insurgent roots. This means that its more like an archipelago of all the territories that together still form what it considers to be the Islamic State, what it still considers to be a caliphate, Winter told Al Jazeera. But it is no longer operating or able to operate in the same way that it was in 2014 or 2015 or 2016. Rise and fall In January 2014, ISIL, also known as ISIS, took Raqqa as its capital, holding the city until Syrian forces reclaimed it late last year. By June of 2014, ISIL had also taken Iraqs second city, Mosul, and held it until Iraqi forces separately retook the eastern and western halves earlier in 2017. At its peak, ISIL controlled a vast swath of territory that defied the Syria-Iraq border, maintaining key urban strongholds from Fallujah to Tikrit to Aleppo gains that have all since been reversed. Last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of the war against ISIL in his country, announcing that Iraqi forces had secured total control over the Syria-Iraq border. But while battles still remain to be fought in both countries, it is highly unlikely that the group could stage a comeback similar to its meteoric rise four years ago, analysts say. That moment was a unique one in terms of the circumstances that gave rise to it: the chaos of the Syrian civil war, free access to the borders with Turkey, streams of foreign fighters coming in, etcetera, Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a research fellow at the Middle East Forum, told Al Jazeera. And while some of the conditions that facilitated the groups rise remain in place, ISILs resources have been significantly depleted in the intervening years. Although the group has managed to maintain a governance project in certain areas, such as through its affiliate Jaysh Khalid bin al-Waleed in Deraa, the group primarily operates as an insurgency today, Tamimi noted. Its still a major concern in the border areas where, despite claims by both the Syrian government and the US-backed SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces], the Islamic State still holds some territory in the eastern province of Deir Az Zor and operates relatively freely in the desert borderlands with Iraq, he said. According to Colonel Thomas Veale, a spokesperson for the US-led international coalition fighting ISIL, work is ongoing to clear fighters from the areas where they remain, including rural parts of Anbar province and the Middle Euphrates River Valley in Syria. The remaining ISIS terrorists are cut off from their leadership and from their logistical support. It is only a matter of time until the SDF and coalition eradicate ISIS from every area within our area of operation, Veale told Al Jazeera. Of the estimated 40,000 ISIL fighters believed to be operating in Syria and Iraq at the groups peak in 2015, it is unclear how many remain alive or active, but Veale noted that 98 percent of the more than 100,000 square kilometres of territory the group once controlled has been recaptured. As the result of our combined effort, the overwhelming majority of ISIS terrorists have been taken off the battlefield, he said. Returning fighters In the meantime, ISIL is continuing to disseminate propaganda albeit on a more limited scale than in the past in an effort to assert its continued existence, Winter said. On the groups Telegram channel, photos periodically emerge of fighters hanging out in caves, suggesting they are biding their time underground until the group is ready for a resurgence. Thats essentially what the organisation seems to have called for since the fall of Raqqa, Winter said. Also problematic is the issue of ISIL fighters who have fled Syria and Iraq and started returning home. Turkey, a transit point for many foreign fighters en route to join ISIL, could also be their path on the way out, putting the country at further risk. In the final days of the battle for Raqqa, it is unclear how many ISIL fighters were smuggled out through this route and how many among them were still committed to the cause, Tamimi said. Foreign fighters didn't just dry up because ... it got difficult to get into Syria from Turkey. They dried up because it became a less appealing thing to join. by Charlie Winter, senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King's College London Despite the threat of individual attacks, however, the prospect of a large-scale resurgence of foreign ISIL fighters in another country is unlikely, experts say. Foreign fighters didnt just dry up because it got difficult to get into Syria from Turkey. They dried up because it became a less appealing thing to join, Winter said. The Islamic State never had mass appeal, but the appeal that it did have was at its peak in 2014, 2015 and early 2016, when it did look like a successful organisation, when it did look like you could go to join it and not end up having to die in a suicide bomb or after a coalition air strike or something like that. That part of the Islamic State brand no longer exists. Instead, for the time being, ISIL has been encouraging its supporters to launch localised attacks in their home cities and provinces to keep up a global sense of momentum. The inability to quell the Islamic State as an insurgency problem, even if it fails to regain formal control of territories it lost, [remains] a concern, as in Diyala, and likely the issue will become notable in Nineveh too, Tamimi said. Lingering effects Meanwhile, residents of the areas once controlled by ISIL have been struggling to rebuild their lives. Parents whose young children were trapped under ISILs rule must grapple with the lingering effects of indoctrination or years of missed education. Experts say the full scale of the problem is unknown, as there has been no opportunity yet for an exhaustive assessment. There might actually be a lost generation, Nadim Houry, the director of the terrorism and counterterrorism programme at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. From the trail of unexploded ordnance left by ISIL, to the razing of entire neighbourhoods in battle, to the lack of basic services such as water and electricity, to the stigmatisation of women who suffered sexual violence under ISILs rule, families face myriad challenges in their quest to move on. There is a real crisis today of sort of what is the broader strategy, the broader plan, Houry said, noting that many people are just still trying to comprehend what happened. There are a lot of energetic, well-intentioned people working locally [to rebuild], he said. I think what is missing, is there is a lack of international support and international vision for the day after ISIS. All the energy of the international coalition has been focused on the war effort, and a lot of resources were put into it, but actually very little resources, very little thought, were provided for the day after. Follow Megan OToole on Twitter: @megan_otoole As violence between herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria worsens, the number of victims continues to rise. Theres been a mass burial in Nigeria for 73 people killed in fighting between Fulani herdsmen and farmers. Theyve been locked in conflict for decades over the use of grazing land. Attacks and counterattacks between farmers and cattle herders in Nigeria have grown worse over the past five years. Last year alone, at least 1,500 people died and more than 100,000 displaced. Al Jazeeras Ahmed Idris reports from Makurdi, Nigeria. Senior Pakistani military officials have confirmed that they continue to maintain ties to their US counterparts. Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistani and US officials are continuing to meet and cooperate at all levels, despite the suspension of $1.1bn in US aid and amid fiery statements by political leaders declaring the end of Islamabads alliance with Washington, diplomats told Al Jazeera. There is no freeze [in relations], said a senior Pakistani foreign ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity. We are speaking to each other, at all levels. We are not sharing the details of that at this time, but the effort to find some common ground or traction on both sides is there. A US State Department official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that talks between the two sides were ongoing. A high level visit by a senior US diplomat to the Pakistani capital is expected in the coming week, with talks on moving an increasingly troubled relationship forward. On Friday, Pakistans powerful military, which has ruled the country for roughly half of its 70-year history, confirmed that Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had spoken with US CENTCOM military commander General Joseph Votel twice in the last week, as well to an unnamed US senator. A day earlier, Pakistans foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed the two sides were continu[ing] to communicate with each other on various issues of mutual interest at different levels. The diplomatic and military contacts are at odds with public statements made by both Pakistani and US leaders. Earlier this week, Pakistani Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir claimed that Pakistan had suspended all military and intelligence cooperation with the United States, a claim the US State department denied, and which seems to be at odds with General Bajwas contact with the US CENTCOM chief. We have received no notification regarding a suspension in defence and intelligence cooperation, said Richard Snelsire, the spokesperson for the US embassy in Islamabad. Last week, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif declared that an alliance with the United States was over, after US President Donald Trump suspended $1.1bn in aid and accused Pakistan of harbouring armed groups that fight US forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. The foreign ministry appeared on Friday to publicly back down from that position. The remarks of the foreign minister need to be seen in the proper perspective, said Muhammad Faisal, the ministrys spokesperson. The foreign minister was expressing his frustration at the unwarranted US accusations against Pakistan and the unilateral decision to suspend the security assistance, despite Pakistans extraordinary sacrifices and contribution in the war against terrorism. Trump tweet ignites storm The US has long accused Pakistan of providing safe haven to members of the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network armed groups, which US and Afghan forces have been fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan for 17 years. In 2016, then Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone attack while travelling under a false identity in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. Pakistan denies that it harbours members of either group, saying it has acted effectively against all armed groups on its territory. It accuses the US and Afghanistan of not doing enough to eliminate safe havens for the Pakistan Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. The latest tensions in the relationship began on January 1, when US President Trump tweetedthat the US had foolishly given Pakistan $33bn in aid over 15 years. [Pakistan has] given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools, he said. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. Pakistan vehemently denied the allegations, with the National Security Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, declaring the accusation completely incomprehensible at the time. Since 2001, the United States has, in fact, given Pakistan $14.79bn in military and security aid, according to US government data. It has also reimbursed roughly $14.57bn to the Pakistani military under Coalition Support Funds (CSF), a fund created to reimburse US allies for operations taken in aid of US objectives. On January 4, the US confirmed that it was suspending all security assistance to Pakistan until the Pakistani government takes decisive action against groups, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network. The aid cut includes $255m in direct military aid, as well as a further $900m in reimbursements to the Pakistani military that have now been suspended. In talks with Pakistani officials since the suspension, US diplomats and others have communicated specific demands, said the senior Pakistani diplomat. We are discussing some very concrete steps, he said, but declined to specify them, given the sensitivity of the negotiations. Aid cut unlikely to work Analysts say the aid cut is unlikely to have a major effect on Pakistans policy in the region. Aid cuts are nothing new in the US-Pakistan relationship, said Michael Kugelman, deputy director at the US-based Woodrow Wilson Center think-tank. Theyve happened various times before, and in all cases Pakistans behavior didnt change. Kugelman believes the aid suspension has been a long time coming, given the Trump administrations raised rhetoric against Pakistan since the announcement of a new South Asia and Afghanistan policy last August, but that it is unlikely to change Pakistans rationale for allegedly backing groups such as the Haqqani network or the Afghan Taliban. For Pakistan, maintaining ties to these groups, [] which are virulently anti-Indian, pushes back against the presence of Pakistans bitter Indian foe in Afghanistan, he said. Second, these groups are a useful hedge to Pakistan against the eventual withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. When that withdrawal happens- and it will one day- Afghanistan could experience rampant destabilisation, and Pakistan will want to retain ties to the most powerful non-state actors in Afghanistan. Pakistan only talks a bout the Pakistani Taliban sitting on the other side, and the US only talks about people coming from Pakistan by Hasan Askari Rizvi, Analyst Others point out that Pakistan has its own concerns regarding alleged Pakistan Taliban sanctuaries in eastern Afghanistan. On Friday, the Foreign Office said that attackers involved in a suicide bombing in the southwestern city of Quetta on Tuesday were traced back to Afghanistan. Pakistan only talks a bout the Pakistan Taliban sitting on the other side, and the US only talks about people coming from Pakistan, says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based analyst. So they do not want to acknowledge the concerns ofthe other side. This problem is on both sides. Rizvi expects that in order to vent US pressure, Pakistan may take action against some Haqqani Network fighters in Pakistan, but that this would not include any major leaders. Pakistan may push some of these fighters out quietly, but it wont accept it publicly, he said. Because Afghanistan does not accept that the Pakistan Taliban is sitting in Afghanistan. Both sides have to be realistic, which is very unlikely. Despite the fiery rhetoric from political leaders on either side, however, both sides appear determined to push forward through dialogue. Both of us have to move from our stated positions, whether it is a superpower or Pakistan. We have to find common ground. This is exactly what we are trying to do now, said the senior Pakistani diplomat. Follow Asad Hashim on Twitter: @AsadHashim Qatar has complained to the UN Security Council after the United Arab Emirates violated its airspace. In a letter to the secretary-general of the United Nations, the Qatari delegation said a UAE fighter jet entering Qatars airspace was a flagrant violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The letter also stated that the violation was in breach of international law, and took place in the context of irresponsible and provocative actions by the UAE against Qatar. Qatars representative to the UN, Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, said that the breach on December 21 last year lasted for one minute at a height of 33,000 feet above Qatars exclusive economic zone. Al Thani said that Qatar would take all necessary measures required to defend its borders, airspace and national security in order to preserve its legitimate sovereign right in accordance with international laws if such violations were repeated. The development came amid a blockade against Doha. In early June, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain all abruptly severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. The Arab quartet threatened to expand their embargo on Doha if it failed to accept a long list of demands, including the closure of the Qatar-funded Al Jazeera television. Qatar has strongly denied the accusations. Kuwait has led mediation efforts along with Turkey and the US. UN panel found that a night market and five residential buildings were among the targets of the Saudi-led coalition. A UN report on human rights abuses related to foreign intervention in Yemen details the extensive civilian casualties inflicted by the Saudi-led coalitions air attacks. The United Nations panel examined 10 air attacks in 2017 that killed 157 people, and found that the targets included a migrant boat, a night market, five residential buildings, a motel, a vehicle and government forces, according to a copy of the report shown to Al Jazeera. This is a report to the UN Security Council that has not been made public, but Ive been allowed to read a copy. Its very hard hitting and very critical of all of the parties in the war in Yemen, Al Jazeera diplomatic editor James Bays said. The panel said it requested information from the Saudi-led coalition for the rationale behind such attacks, but did not receive a response. The attacks were carried out by precision-guided munitions, so it is likely these were the intended targets, the report points out. Even if in some cases, the Saudi-led coalition had targeted legitimate military objectives, the panel finds it highly unlikely that the IHL [International Humanitarian Law] principles of proportionality, and precautions in attack were met, the report stated. The report also cited a widespread and systematic pattern of arbitrary arrests, deprivation of liberty and enforced disappearances. It was particularly scathing about UAE camps, where it says torture has been taking place. The report talks about beatings, electrocutions, constrained suspension, and it talks about something called the cage which is confinement in a cage in the sunlight and the denial of medical treatment, James Bays said. Working with the gov of Yemen gives the UAE plausible deniability, he added. Threat to peace Proxy forces funded and armed by the coalition pose a threat to peace, security and stability of Yemen, the panel said, and will do more to further the fragility of Yemen than they will do to hold the state together. The report also said that southern secession in Yemen has become a genuine possibility, due in part to the length of the war, the lack of military progress and divisions that have emerged in the country. According to Bays, the report wonders if Yemen can remain one country. People in the south are displaying the old flag of South Yemen and they are not loyal to President Hadi even though they are under his command, Bays said. The report is also critical of Irans role in the conflict, focussing specifically on supporting Houthi rebels, who stormed the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014 and captured large expanses of the country, with military equipment. The report says there have been military equipment and drones that were of Iranian origin and that were introduced into Yemen after the Security Council adopted an arms embargo, Al Jazeera correspondent Bays said. Since the beginning of Yemens war, more than 10,000 people have been killed, according to the UN. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a large aerial campaign against the Houthis, aimed at restoring the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. A majority of the more than 5,000 civilian deaths were caused by the Saudi-led coalition, of which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a member, the UN has previously said. The UNs top human rights official, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, had called for an independent inquiry into atrocities in Yemen for three years before the international community agreed in 2017. In September, the Netherlands and Canada debuted a draft resolution that would establish an international commission of inquiry to make sure perpetrators of violations and abuses, including those that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, are held accountable. The resolution was approved after China signalled its support later that month. Sudans government has cut subsidies on wheat imports, driving the price of bread up and the Sudanese to the streets to protest against their rising cost of living. Three people have died in protests against the rising cost of basic foods in Sudan. Protests sparked after the government decided to cut subsidies, which led to the increase in prices. The finance minister says black-market manipulation is the reason behind the recent spike, but analysts blame the governments policies. Al Jazeeras Hiba Morgan reports from Khartoum, Sudan. Four most senior judges issue stark warning over democracy as they complain about poor administration of top court. New Delhi, India Four senior judges of Indias Supreme Court have lashed out at the workings of the countrys top court, directing blame at Chief Justice Dipak Misra. In a press conference on Friday in New Delhi, the first of its kind, they alleged poor administration at the powerful institution and warned that democracy may not survive. Sometimes, the administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. There are many things less than desirable that have happened in the last few months, said Justice Jasti Chelameswar. The four of us are convinced that unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country. The four judges, including Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph, said in a letter addressed to the chief justice that certain judicial orders have adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivery system. The letter criticised how the roster the member or bench assigned to hear a particular case was assigned without any rational basis for such assignment. Such departures have already damaged the image of this institution to some extent, the letter said. The chief justice is responsible for the roster. The four judges said they would not resign and would be back to work on Monday. This unprecedented press conference by the four most senior judges stemmed from the manner in which the chief justice was continuing to abuse his power as master of roster, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan told Al Jazeera. The chief justice was known to assign politically sensitive cases, which would have far-reaching impact on the republic, to hand-picked judges in order to achieve a particular outcome, Bhushan alleged. On Friday, Justice Gogoi told journalists that the unprecedented press conference was prompted by the death of trial court Judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya. A petition seeking an independent probe into the mysterious death of the lower court judge is before the top court. Loya had been hearing a case against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah when he died in 2014. Loyas family have raised questions about the circumstances of the judges death, according to Indias Caravan magazine. If he (the chief justice) doesnt resign, then I believe there will be an impeachment, Bhushan said. The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in India. Chief Justice Misra has not yet commented. US president says he will not visit London to open new US embassy, blaming Obama for selling previous one for peanuts. US President Donald Trump has cancelled a visit to the UK expected to take place next month, citing his displeasure at the new US embassy in London he was due to inaugurate. In a tweet, Trump said the new embassy building was part of a bad deal as he blamed the Obama administration for selling the previous one in Grosvenor Square for peanuts. Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 However, the relocation plan was first reported when former President George W Bush was still in the White House, in 2008. The new embassy, which cost $1.2bn, is located near Battersea Power Station in southwest London. US government sources have hinted that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would be the one to open the embassy. In a statement on Friday, Londons mayor Sadiq Khan said that Trumps planned visit for next month would have without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests. It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our citys values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance, Khan said. Lets hope that Donald Trump also revisits the pursuit of his divisive agenda. David Lammy, a member of the opposition Labour party, also doubted Trumps reason for bailing out on the trip. What a load of ********! Lammy tweeted. You finally got the message that youd be met by millions of us out on the streets protesting. Far-right debacle UK Prime Minister Theresa May had extended an invitation to Trump for a state visit after she became the first world leader to visit the new president in the White House last year. The agenda of a state visit is agreed upon by the UK government, the visiting government, and the royal family, with Queen Elizabeth acting as the official host. However, in the aftermath of Trump retweeting an account associated with the far-right nationalist group Britain First back in November, many politicians and MPs made it clear that the US president would not be welcome. Labour MP Chuka Umunna told media at the time that Trump is normalising hatred. I am absolutely astounded that any person in his position holding the office he does should be promoting the propaganda of a far-right British group, Umunna said. Can somebody please make up a better lie for Trump not going to the UKthe "I won't cut the embassy ribbon bcs it was a bad deal" is just so absurd. Pleasesomebody in the White Houseanybodyjust write a better lie for scaredy pants JeffreyFeldman (@JeffreyFeldman) January 12, 2018 House of Commons speaker John Bercow had previously said he would not allow the US president to speak at Westminster because of parliaments opposition to racism and to sexism. Last month, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged the British public to come out in full force if Trump visited the UK in order to send him a clear message. Almost two million people signed a petition in 2017 calling for the presidents invitation to be withdrawn. The prime ministers office did not confirm that the visit has been cancelled, with a spokesperson reportedly telling media that an invitation has been extended and accepted, but no date has been set. US president referred to El Salvador, Haiti and Africa as shithole countries in conversation about immigration. International organisations including the UN and African Union, politicians and people from African countries and Caribbeans are outraged over US President Donald Trumps latest racist remarks. The president criticised immigration to his country from El Salvador, Haiti and the African continent, by calling the group shithole countries, according to the US media. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump asked at a meeting with congress members at the White House, reports said on Thursday, citing people with knowledge on the conversation. Trump suggested the US should instead focus its immigrant entry policy on countries such as Norway. These are racist comments. He has said things like this before when he talked about Nigerians who won't go back to live in huts and he talked about Haitians who bring AIDS to the United States. These are all confirmations of what a lot of people have long suspected - that he harbours racism by Bill Schneider, Washington, DC-based political analyst Rupert Colville, spokesman of the UN human rights office, said: You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as shitholes Im sorry, but theres no other word one can use but racist. Colville added the story wasnt just a story about vulgar language, its about opening the door to humanitys worst side. The African Union said it was frankly alarmed. Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice, said AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo. Haitis government said Trumps reported comments shows a racist view of the Haitian community, while El Salvador sent a formal letter of protest to the US saying Trump had implicitly accepted the use of harsh terms detrimental to the dignity of El Salvador and other countries. Tough language Trump denied the racist remarks, tweeting on Friday that the language he used was tough, but this was not the language used, as he called for a merit-based system of immigration and people who take our country to the next level. He later tweeted that he has never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously a very poor and troubled country. But Dick Durbin, a Democratic senator who attended the meeting, disputed Trumps account. He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly, Durbin told reporters. Trump questioned why the US should accept more immigrants from Haiti, Durbin said, adding that shitholes was the exact word the US leader used to describe countries in Africa. The White House did not directly challenge the authenticity of Trumps comments, but issued a statement saying: Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people. Extremely offensive Rene Civil, an activist in Haiti, said that Trump is destabilising, a president who uses vulgar words, who is unacceptable. Civil added: We [Haitians] demand that Donald Trump apologise [to] the entire African continent, as well as before Haiti, a country whose blood has been used by ancestors who have used their minds and bodies to liberate the United States itself from slavery. South Africas ruling ANC party said Trumps comments were extremely offensive, with a spokeswoman saying the party would never deign to make such derogatory remarks. Morocco-based Africa analyst Adama Gaye told Al Jazeera: Trump has shown a continuous display of racism towards Africa [and people from poor nations]. Abdulsalam Kayode, a resident of the Nigerias capital Lagos, told Al Jazeera that the US presidents comments are not unexpected from somebody of this nature [because] we already know this kind of person. Commenting on the invitation to Norwegians, Washington DC-based political analyst Bill Schneider told Al Jazeera: Thats the racist element. Norwegians are white, theyre northern Europeans. He was referring earlier, in his vulgar comment, to [people of] African descent. These are racist comments. He has said things like this before when he talked about Nigerians who wont go back to live in huts and he talked about Haitians who bring AIDS to the United States. These are all confirmations of what a lot of people have long suspected that he harbours racism. Many took to social media to condemn the president, including members of his own Republican party. Republican politician Mia Love, who is of Haitian descent, said: The presidents comments are unkind, divisive, elitist and fly in the face of our nations values. https://twitter.com/RepMiaLove/status/951603160254238720?ref_src=twsrc^tfw Democratic State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry said on Twitter: I have to first express how demoralising & upsetting it is to have to register my outrage again and again over hateful remarks made by my own president. She then posted a statement saying: Im very disappointed in us, the people of the United States, who saw fit to elect an ignorant, mean-spirited, white supremacist to the most powerful office in the world. I have to first express how demoralizing & upsetting it is to have to register my outrage again and again over hateful remarks made by my own president. #Haiti #MAPoli pic.twitter.com/h6gSjmg7I5 Linda Dorcena Forry (@ldforry) January 12, 2018 Writer Wajahat Ali said in a tweet: In just 11 days, Trump has insulted Pakistan, a country of 200 million, Haiti (11 million), El Salvador (6 million), the entire continent of Africa (which is not a country & has 1.2 billion) & millions of Americans. So, about 1.5 billion people. 20% of the world. Week isnt over. In just 11 days, Trump has insulted Pakistan, a country of 200 million, Haiti (11 million), El Salvador (6 million), the ENTIRE CONTINENT OF AFRICA (which is not a country & has 1.2 billion) & millions of Americans. So, about 1.5 billion people. 20% of the world. Week isn't over. Wajahat "Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic" Ali (@WajahatAli) January 12, 2018 A Twitter user, apparently from in Haiti, posted the photos of natural beauty in his country, calling Trump a #ShitHolePresident! Journalist Jacqueline Charles followed the suit, posting an apparent view in Haiti. She wrote: Who knew I had been going to a shithole all of these years. Who knew I had been going to a #shithole all of these years. #Haiti pic.twitter.com/yuHAWoEmgd Meanwhile, a Norwegian @Shkurten publicly rejected Trumps offer to move to the US, saying: I live in Norway and would never move to USA. We have health care, free higher education, 5 weeks vacation, 8 hours work a day. No thanks Trump. I live in Norway and would never move to USA. We have health care, free higher education, 5 weeks vacation, 8 hours work a day. No thanks Trump Tuti (@ShkurteN) January 11, 2018 Shannon Watts, an activist working to end gun violence, tweeted: Trumps guide to diversity. Africa: Array of shithole countries. Haitians: Have AIDS. Nigerians: Live in huts. Puerto Ricans: Lazy. Black Americans: Ingrates. Mexicans: Criminals and rapists. Muslims: Evil terrorists. Women: Treat them like shit. White supremacists: VERY FINE PEOPLE. US president says its the last chance for US and Europe to come up with agreement to strengthen 2015 nuclear deal. US President Donald Trump will continue sanctions relief for Iran, keeping the 2015 landmark nuclear deal in place for the time being. The White House said on Friday that Trump will waive the sanctions against Iran for the last time, unless an agreement can be reached between the US and Europe within the next 120 days that would strengthen the nuclear deal. Despite my strong inclination, I have not yet withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to rip up the deal, said in a statement on Friday. Instead, I have outlined two possible paths forward: either fix the deals disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw, he added. This is the last chance. In absence of such an agreement [between the US and European powers], the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. The announcement came as the US Treasury imposed sanctions on 14 Iranian individuals and companies, including the head of Irans judiciary, over alleged human rights abuses. Desperate attempts to undermine agreement Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called Trumps decision an attempt to undermine the deal. Trumps policy and todays announcement amount to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement, Zarif tweeted on Friday. {articleGUID} The nuclear deal is not renegotiable: rather than repeating tired rhetoric, [the] US must bring itself into full compliance just like Iran, he added. The 2015 Iran nuclear deal was struck between the US, under the administration of former President Barack Obama, Iran and five other countries. It prevents Iran from developing nuclear weapons while offering sanctions relief to allow the Islamic Republic to participate in international commerce and banking. Under US law, the president is required to renew the waiver on sanctions every 120 days. The last time Trump issued a waiver was in September 2017. In October of last year, Trump refused to recertify that Iran was in compliance with the agreement, saying it was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the US has ever entered into. That decision came despite the UN having certified Irans compliance with the deal eight times. In November, the body again said Iran was in compliance. Ahmad Majidyar, the director of the Iran Observed Project, said he wasnt surprised by Trumps decision. No, Im not surprised because this is the same stance that US President Trump took three months ago when he decertified the Iran nuclear deal, Majidyar told Al Jazeera. Four critical components On Friday, Trump outlined four critical components that must be included in US legislation regarding Iran. First, it must demand that Iran allow immediate inspections at all sites requested by international inspectors, the US president said in a statement. {articleGUID} He also said that any legislation must ensure that Iran never even comes close to possessing a nuclear weapon and that unlike the nuclear deal, these provisions must have no expiration date. One reason Trump has criticised the nuclear deal is that certain aspects of the agreement expire after 10 or 15 years. Finally, Trump said that any legislation must explicitly state in the United States law for the first time that long-range missile and nuclear weapons programmes are inseparable, and that Irans development and testing of missiles should be subject to severe sanctions. There was no immediate reaction from Europe. According to AFP news agency, a spokeswoman for the German foreign ministry said that Berlin had taken note and would discuss the best course of action with its European allies. Prior to making the announcement, Trump had faced pressure from European leaders who urged all parties to continue to fully implement this agreement. Federica Mogherini, the European Unions foreign policy chief, said earlier this week that the deal is working; it is delivering on its main goal, which means keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check and under close surveillance. French President Emmanuel Macron called Trump on Thursday and reiterated that France wants the strict application of the deal and the importance of all the signatories to respect it. Foreign ministry says revise travel plans or act with caution because of risks of terrorism and arbitrary detention. Turkey has warned its citizens to revise their travel plans to the United States or to exercise caution if they go ahead with a trip, according to the foreign ministry. A statement on Friday cited risks of terrorist attacks as well as arbitrary arrests in Turkeys Western ally. It has been observed that there is a recent increase in terrorist and violent attacks in the US, the foreign ministry said, referring to several deadly incidents over the past few months. Attacks by vehicles being driven on crowds, in addition to bomb and gun attacks, are likely to continue to target city centres, cultural events, subway stations, state buildings, places of worship and school campuses, the statement continued, adding that there is also a risk of arbitrary arrest for Turkish citizens travelling to the US. The ministry mentioned recent incidents including attacks at Ohio Universitys campus, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, Dar Al-Farooq Mosque in Minnesota and a church in Texas. It added that the New York City subway pipe bomb attack in December was an example of far-right/racist incidents. The ministry also warned of alleged arbitrary arrests of Turkish citizens, including public servants travelling to the US for official duty. The move came after the US announced a new travel advisory on Wednesday and named Turkey as a country with an increased security risk along with Sudan, Pakistan and Guatemala. Separately, Turkey summoned senior US diplomat Philip Kosnett to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara on Thursday over Washingtons support for Syrian Kurdish fighters. Tensions have been simmering between Washington and Ankara for some time. In October, the two NATO allies were involved in a visa dispute, motivated both by Washingtons concern over Ankaras Syria policy and by the arrest of a US embassy employee who allegedly had information on American involvement in the 2016 failed coup attempt. Described as the father of Pinyin, or Chinese phonetic language, Google honours the linguist Zhou Youguang. Described as the father of Pinyin, or Chinese phonetic language, and hailed as the man who simplified Chinese, Zhou Youguang would have been 112 this Saturday. In his honour, Google is changing its logo in 12 countries to a doodle, or illustration, of him and his contribution to Chinese language. This is his story: Love for China Bring light to the world. Born in Changzhou in 1906, Zhou Youguang showed interest in linguistics at the early age of 12; he graduated from high-school with honours. Named Zhou Yaoping, he adopted the pen name Yougang because he wanted to bring light to the world. Hard road to university. In 1923, Zhou enrolled the university of St. Johns University, Shanghai. He was not able to attend because of financial woes, but friends and relatives raised the admission fee and helped him pay for tuition. He graduated in 1927, majored in economics and took supplementary coursework in linguistics. Sino-Japanese war. In 1933, he married Zhang Yunhe. He moved to Japan to continue his studies, but returned in 1937, at the start of the Sino-Japanese war. After the Japanese were defeated in 1945 at the end of World War Two, Zhou worked in Sin Hua bank where he was stationed overseas, first in New York City and then in London. Modern, resurgent China. In 1949, he returned after the establishment of Communist China, excited to take part in a resurgent country. We all thought that China had a very good opportunity to develop; we didnt expect the later turmoil. History misled us, Zhou told the Guardian. Back in China, he taught economics at Fudan University in Shanghai. However, his path did not lead him to remain as an economist. History misled us by Zhou Youguang Romanization of the language Reforming the Chinese language . In 1955, the government placed Zhou at the head of a committee to reform the Chinese language. He was called by Zhou Enlai, a person he met in his bank job who was now the second leader in China. Linguistics was just a hobby. Zhou initially declined, saying that linguistics was only his hobby, but he was not allowed to refuse the offer. He moved to Beijing, where he began a three-year effort, and developed the invention of Pinyin. A pronunciation guide. Pinyin was made the official romanization in 1958. It is only a pronunciation guide, and not a substitute writing system. Mao disliked greatly the economists. His job protected him from Maos policies. Mao disliked greatly the economists especially economic professors from America, Zhou said in an in interview. By that time, I had shifted to the line of language and writing If I had remained in Shanghai teaching economics, I think I certainly could have been imprisoned for 20 years. Chinese labour camp. But in 1969. accused of being a reactionary academic, he was sent to work in a labour camp where he worked in the rice fields. He spent more than two years there. Once he was released, he went back home and continued writing about language. Encyclopedia Zhou. In the 1980s, he helped oversee the translation into Chinese of the Encyclopedia Britannica, earning him the nickname of Encyclopedia Zhou. Critical of the government. Zhou was the author of more than 40 books, many of which were banned for being critical of the government. Around 10 of them were published after he turned 100. Zhou was the author of more than 40 books, many of which were banned Around 10 of them were published after he turned 100. He started a blog on Sina and continued blogging until he was 105 years old. Regarding the government, the linguist told AFP: In all honesty I havent got anything good to say about Mao Zedong. Fears of instability in Tunisia as protests over governments austerity measures continue. More than 770 people have been arrested in Tunisia since protests against the governments austerity measures erupted last Sunday. The army was deployed to the streets of several cities and towns after protesters set fire to dozens of state buildings this week. At least one person has been killed in the protests. The government, however, has vowed to stick to its budget. The violence has prompted fears of instability in Tunisia, a country that is widely regarded as the only democratic success story from the Arab Spring uprisings. The North African nation, however, has had nine governments since the overthrow of its longtime dictator in 2011. So, how will Tunisia resolve its deep-rooted economic problems? Presenter: Adrian Finighan Guests: Osama al-Saghir MP with conservative Ennahdha Party and part of the ruling coalition Nicholas Noe Codirector of research group, Tunis Exchange Mohamed Dhia Hammami Independent research consultant About 20 people stood for about two hours in the Gainesville City Hall building on Thursday for the opportunity to stand up for what they believe. The group came with Divest Gainesville, an activist organization that focuses on putting pressure on politicians to ensure tax funds are used for the public and environmental good, not corporations. They crammed into a hallway in the buildings basement at about 2 p.m. to tell Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe and City Commissioner Harvey Ward to divest, or to sell something valuable such as stocks, from companies that support fossil fuel pipelines. Marina Smerling, a founding member of Divest Gainesville, said their mission is to push the city to pass an ordinance that would ensure public tax funds are not invested in banks, pension funds and retirement funds. Specifically, those banks that support the pipelines, private prisons and violations of indigenous sovereignty. Divestment, both nationwide and around the world, has taken off and isnt coming back, the 40-year-old said. Justin Morris, 30, is part of the Tampa Bay Divestment Corporation in St. Petersburg, Florida, another activist group partnered with Divest Gainesville. Morris, who wore a shirt that read, #KeepItInTheGround, and about five other members of the Tampa corporation, made the two-hour trip to show their solidarity. Were all just activists, Morris said. People who care. The group stood for about two hours waiting to speak at the commission meeting. At 4 p.m. they were allowed in, and about 40 people sat, including governmental staff and officials, in the back room of City Halls basement. William Johnston, the citys investment officer, said there were some mistakes in the groups claims: The percentages invested in fossil fuels were lower than the group had said and the city has no investments in private prisons. Ultimately, Johnston recommended not divesting because of the financial risk that could come to the city and members of the pension plan through the possible lower returns of investing in other things or industries. Members of the committee agreed divestment from companies dealing in fossil fuels and pipelines may be a good thing, but the financial safety of people on the pension plan comes first. The commissioners said New York City announced a plan for divestment, which means more cities will likely follow. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now We have a lot of work and a long way to go on this, but I think its a path worth going down, Poe said. Poe suggested special meetings and workshops should be planned to work on the issue of divestment, but said the committee has a legal obligation to maintain a strong pension plan. Juan Zapata, a 21-year-old UF electrical engineering senior, and Val Sokolova, a 19-year-old UF advertising sophomore, both attended Thursdays meeting. They said they saw the Facebook group and wanted to show support. I encourage everyone to just try to grow their awareness and stand up for things they believe, Sokolova said. Contact Robert Lewis at rlewis@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @Lewis__Robert. For the rst time in more than 30 years, Colette Cimino is a college student again. And the biggest change she sees is the technology. I submitted a small essay this week online, and my professor gave me feedback later that night, Cimino said. They didnt have that in 1985, let me tell you. As a full-time employee with UF, Cimino, who works as an administrative assistant in the UF Health Cancer Center, can take up to six credit hours per semester tuition-free as part of UFs Employee Education Program. Anywhere between 500 and 800 full-time employees, who have worked for UF for at least six months, use the program to study at either UF or Santa Fe College each semester, said Kenya Williams, the programs director. Most are working toward their associates or bachelors degrees, but some about 25 percent of last Falls participants use the program to get their masters degrees, Williams said. The program gets about $305,831 each year, wrote UF spokesperson John Hines in an email. Aside from working 40 hours per week for their jobs, many of the students have families and children of their own to raise, Williams said. Theyre juggling everything, Williams said. The whole balance of life and then adding school on top of it. But for Cimino, 53, the program is a second chance, she said. When she was last in school in 1985, Cimino was 21, married, pregnant and pursuing business administration at Nassau Community College in Long Island, New York. Her plan was to deliver the baby when it was due in June, nish her degree and start a career to support her child. But instead, her daughter, Kara, was born 2 months premature. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now For the rst few weeks she tried to balance it all. Cimino divided her time between her part-time job at a nearby dentists ofce, college classes and the hospital wing where nurses watched over Kara. It quickly became impossible, she said. Life got in the way, Cimino said. And I cared way more about my baby girl than making everything work at the time; she was my priority. From there, she and her husband divorced; she moved in 1986 with Kara to Gainesville, after Ciminos father took a job ying the UF Health Shands Hospital helicopter. Try being a single parent, working full time with high-stress jobs, she said. As much as I would have liked nishing school, it was never really an option. Cimino always had the idea of returning to school in the back of her mind but didnt think of it as a possibility until her co-worker at the Cancer Center told her about UFs Employee Education Program. Cimino realized she could transfer her credits from Nassau Community to Santa Fe and use the program to help subsidize it. It was a big possibility all of a sudden, she said. I was thinking, Well that would just be really stupid if I didnt do this. Now, ve days into her rst semester in more than three decades, Cimino said she feels proud fullling her long-standing personal goal. She said her only fear is having to take math again. Honestly, I dont even remember much algebra or calculus, and Im going to have to do algebra II, probably, she said. But itll be worth it. Omar Lopez is nishing what he started. In 2012, during Lopezs sophomore year at UF, he went from studying on campus to struggling to hold his family together and managing unexpected poverty. His mother Omaryas health declined to the point where she could no longer walk on her own. The arthritis in the 45-year-olds back and her spinal stenosis, which causes strain on the spinal cords nerves, were the worst they had been since being diagnosed as a teenager. The thing with parents is that theyll never say to their child, I need help. Thats just not who they are. Lopez, 25, said. But I knew she was getting sick, I knew she needed me there for her. Thats when Lopez, then on a four-year track to getting a bachelors degree in political science, made one of the hardest decisions hes ever made: putting his education on hold. Lopez had it in mind even then hed eventually use the program to resume his classes, so it never felt like the end of his education. Besides confiding in his closest friends, Lopez never wanted to make his withdrawal public. I felt shameful leaving, he said. My friends didnt judge me, but I didnt want it out there known. He transferred from his part-time job at the UF Housing and Residence Education help desk, where he was making only $8 to $9 hourly, to a full-time position with benefits so he could cover his moms expenses. Lopez had sent his mom to their native hometown Bayamon, Puerto Rico, to rest and recover with family. Eventually, Lopez said he had to give up their home in Orlando and everything in it. They had too much of a financial strain to keep the house where they would have spent the holidays together. As Lopez worked, his younger brother Bryan lived in a friends home to finish out high school. They had barely anything left, he said. Either you work more or you go hungry; you learn how to make hot-dog soup, Lopez said of what his meals would entail when he fell short on money. I had a big tub of oatmeal, and made anything you could imagine on oatmeal. Only when his mom returned from Bayamon, healthy again at the end of 2012, did Lopez feel the burden lift and sought to return to his studies. Having never stopped working full-time with UF, now as a lead scientific systems developer with the UF Center for Biotechnology Research, he started classes again in Summer 2015 using the program and plans to get his associates degree by the end of this year, he said. It felt like a second chance, Lopez said. I left in such an ugly way. I was always disappointed in myself, so being able to go back and start over, even if it was only one class at a time, I feel like I am moving along. Contact David Hoffman at dhoffman@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @hoffdavid123. Omar Lopez, a lead scientific systems developer with the UF Center for Biotechnology Research, is enrolled in UFs Employee Education Program, which allows full-time employees to take up to six credit hours tuition-free. Lopez, 25, hopes to get his associates degree by the end of the year. Colette Cimino, an administrative assistant with UF Healths Cancer Center, last attended college in 1985 but left to raise her daughter, Kara. Now, with UFs Employee Education Program, which allows full-time employees to take up to six credit hours tuition-free, shes back in school and taking three credit hours at Santa Fe College. Anybody whos ever traveled across Europe has likely experienced the marvels of a well connected high-speed rail network. Within a few hours, passengers can traverse entire countries, all the while being able to relax along the way. All major cities have proper and up-to-date infrastructure and stations, and the lines have been constructed in such a way that nearly any town or village either has its own stop or is a relatively short drive away from one. The problem isnt that the U.S. lacks the funds to go through with such an audacious infrastructure plan; its instead a matter of serious practicality and feasibility. The country of France is smaller than the state of Texas, and the entire western portion of Europe could fit comfortably within the continental U.S. Europe still has some of the same geographical barriers as the U.S. (mountains, rivers, lakes) and has certainly overcome what they can, so I doubt the Rockies or Mojave Desert would cause a system-halting obstruction over here. One could assume initially the discrepancies are a result of one resource Europe has in abundance over the U.S. history. Despite Europe having been populated and developed far longer than the U.S., the locomotive was still invented at a time in history in which both locations could accommodate it, and both Europe and Americas first rails were not incredibly far apart. The steam locomotive ride in Europe occurred in 1804, while the first in America was only 23 years later, in 1827. I understand 23 years is a relatively long time in modern history, but I also know laying down rail lines was not a very expedient process in the early 19th century, for either side of the Atlantic. Its not like the U.S. was lazy in the 19th and 20th centuries or lackluster in its railway development. The U.S. still operates over 140,000 miles of rail in the 21st century. Yet despite having the largest network of rails of any country on Earth, the U.S. still has hundreds of millions less travelers via rail than the European Union. The EU might have 300 million more citizens than the U.S., but the data is quite convincing on the per capita level. A piece by the Economist states per capita, the Japanese, the Swiss, the French, the Danes, the Russians, the Austrians, the Ukrainians, the Belarusians, and the Belgians all accounted for more than 1,000 passenger-kilometers by rail in 2011; Americans accounted for 80. The Economist article does a great job briefly explaining all of the main reasons for this discrepancy; however, I think some factors might be more important than others. For one, the immense geographical size of America makes travel by rail unreasonable in both the dimensions of time and money. A three-hour train ride in Europe can take you across entire countries, while the same amount of time in America couldn't get you out of Texas. A train ride across the width of France (Brest to Strasbourg) takes less than seven hours, which is about the amount of time an Amtrak ride from Boston to Washington, D.C. would be. Cross-country journeys take days, and unless you are on vacation and have the time and interest to enjoy several days on a train, they are simply not reasonable. Because train travel covers so much distance and is so lengthy in the U.S., it is, as an expected result, quite expensive. And when it may cost less time and money to fly between cities, why would anyone opt for rail? Andrew Hall is a UF management senior. His column appears on Fridays. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now The Fire and Fury tell-all tabloid currently flying off bookshelves is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, an illusion that relies upon the confirmation biases of President Donald Trump's most enduring critics. Muckraker Michael Wolff stands to become fabulously wealthy by simply rehashing the most salacious and unconfirmed rumors to dog the Republican outsider since he unexpectedly ascended to the White House one year ago. Repeat a lie often enough, and it becomes synonymous with the truth. "The 322 pages don't provide a lot of 'new' news," notes Los Angeles Times columnist Jackie Calmes, before arguing that "the picture of mayhem is mostly familiar to readers who have followed the daily reporting of White House correspondents." In the case of the president's mental fitness, gossip gradually turned to gospel as Democrats recycled duplicitous allegations that should have died soon after Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein first advanced this narrative on the campaign trail. "You know, I don't pretend to be able to do TV diagnosis," offered Stein, a Harvard-educated internist, before doing exactly that. "But I think the guy has a problem." After the election, a third-party candidate's desperate plea for attention became a partisan plot embraced by the left as a precursor to a DNC Plan B: a psychiatric coup based on the 25th Amendment. MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough was soon comparing the president's "confused mental state" to his own mother's chronic dementia before warning later that "we are headed towards [sic] a nuclear showdown." The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the New York Daily News all agreed: Trump is a "madman" who will kill us all. Ultimately, it did not matter that the House voted overwhelmingly to table a resolution to impeach the president last month in the same way that the veracity of Wolff's reporting is inconsequential the damage from their Democrat spitballing is done. With the authority of an Oval Office insider, Wolff gave credence to not just these charges of insanity, but the entire collection of recurring Beltway scuttlebutt on the president. From White House sleeping arrangements to the president's gluttonous obsession with McDonald's, the Hollywood Reporter columnist succeeded in convincing readers that information acquired from Trojan Horse reporting came straight from the horse's mouth. Calmes calls this rumor restoration "the power that comes from tying together in one place the dizzying events of Trump's initial year plus [Wolff's] ability to write as his subtitle proclaims that his account comes from 'Inside the Trump White House.'" By virtue of having parked his rear end on a West Wing sofa for many months, Wolff validated every progressive conspiracy theory from 2017 and adapted these fantasies into a single pretentious potboiler that is as fallible as it is unoriginal. These documented distortions are precisely what Trump's detractors want to hear: regurgitated politics-porn supported by journalism practices that were previously acceptable only when writing about sensitive national security secrets. The use of multiple anonymous sources to substantiate particularly licentious gossip started with the Russian collusion delusion and was sloppily adopted to provide a veneer of legitimacy to Wolff's own sell-all. By virtue of his propensity to embellish the truth, the liberal media establishment argues that Trump invited his own character assassination. A Washington Post piece by senior reporter Aaron Blake exposes the factual inconsistencies of Fire and Fury before concluding that "this is the tell-all that Trump's post-truth presidency deserves." In other words, Trump had it coming. Ten pages into Wolff's revisionist saga, the professional gossip-monger admits that his chronicle is built upon lies. "Many of the accounts of what has happened in the Trump White House are in conflict with one another; many, in Trumpian fashion, are baldly untrue." Similarly, New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman tweeted that "even if some things are inaccurate/flat-out false, there's enough notionally accurate that people have difficulty knocking it down." The use of terminology like "notionally accurate" is anti-Trump-speak for confirming the left's inherent suspicions without actually presenting any proof to support them. The mainstream press is determined to treat Fire and Fury like the infamous Christopher Steele dossier. Progressives contend that the merits of this Clinton-funded hit piece should not be challenged just because of one unsubstantiated story about prostitutes, a hotel bedroom, and a "golden shower." Nearly one year from the first leak of this document, a Newsweek headline asks, "Is the Trump 'Pee Tape' Dossier True?," demonstrating how even the boldest mistruths are slow to die. Wolff's rumor-mongering is cut from the same cloth as Russiagate Wolff's fiction has already produced dividends for the left, turning mainstream news cycles into a never-ending psychoanalysis of the POTUS. In Western Europe, where an apology tour-averse President Trump has never been popular, Europeans woke up to front-page headlines questioning the sanity of the leader of the free world the day following Wolff's pre-emptive publication. Even a media outlet from the tiny archipelago of Tonga is trending in the U.S. by asking, "Can Trump prove his sanity," as if the onus is on the president to disprove a psychiatric diagnosis rendered from social media posts and press conferences. The good news for out-of-work tabloid-writers and underachieving White House correspondents is that there is plenty of demand for more Trump family fiction into 2018 and beyond. A new, fresh-faced presidential embed can settle on his own version of the truth to prove that Trump is not a billionaire, the first lady is a prostitute, and poor little Barron has autism. Benjamin Baird is a senior staff writer with the Conservative Institute, a widely published political and Middle East analyst, and a U.S. Army infantry leader who battled insurgents for over 1,000 days in Iraq and Afghanistan. Note to Fusion GPS: If you're going to mouth off to the media and ignore the public record, you'd better be prepared to have your confidential documents subpoenaed. That's the takeaway from last week's ruling by Judge Richard J. Leon, district court judge from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, denying Fusion GPS's request for a preliminary injunction against TD Bank. The injunction would have stopped the bank from complying with a subpoena for bank documents served by the House Intelligence Committee relating to the oppo research firm's financial transactions with media and political clients from the period coinciding with its retention of Christopher Steele to compile the Russian dossier. The judge rejected the firm's arguments, in no small part because grandstanding by its principals and by prominent Democrats directly contradicted the firm's claims to be a victim of First Amendment and due process violations. In the wake of the ruling, Fusion's lawyer vowed to keep fighting, but the transfer since then of the 70 documents at issue mooted any possible appeal. While the dispute is now resolved, in an age of "notional accuracy" in reporting, Judge Leon's decision bears emphasis. For a refreshing change of pace, it stands as a mini-case study in the fecklessness of flash. It is a little jewel of a decision in a grand tiara of legal maneuverings that sparkles with the value of nerdy lawyering over media-driven cant. Which chronically retold lies or misunderstandings caused Fusion's fall last week from the constitutional-defensive moral high ground it took in protesting the handing over of its bank records with clients who, according to the House Intel Committee, had Russian companies as their clients? They are simple. They relate to the original formation of the House Intel Committee's probe into Russian collusion, as well as of the House Ethics Committee's investigation of committee chairman Representative Devin Nunes. The latter ethics investigation was brought last April in response to accusations filed against Nunes by "several left-wing activist groups" with the Office of Congressional Ethics. The complaints, of which Nunes has since been cleared, alleged that he had made unauthorized disclosures of classified information. These related to his briefing of the White House and press, before he spoke to the committee, about certain documents provided to him by administration officials purporting to show evidence of questionable unmasking by Obama administration officials. In response, Nunes volunteered to temporarily relinquish the running of the Russian investigation. Afterward, he stepped away, as promised. But in the months that followed, Dems complained that the Republican-dominated committee probe was tainted, despite Nunes's "recusal," due to his continuing interference in the investigation. What was the nature of this interference? He continued to issue subpoenas on tributary matters for instance, those relating to emerging new reporting on the Uranium One deal. All this happened before the showdown last week over the Fusion subpoena, but what is noteworthy is that the motion attempting to block the subpoena reprised Democrats' version of committee events. Indeed, Fusion swallowed whole the Dems' negative propaganda from last spring in its effort to thwart the committee's examination of its financial transactions. Specifically, it contended in its motion to the district court that the committee never collectively passed the required formal public resolution authorizing its investigation into Russian collusion. Further, since Nunes had "recused" himself from the investigation, such as it was, in issuing the subpoena to TD Bank, he acted ultra vires, or "outside the scope of his authority." Now, compare this legal theory to the exact wording of Nunes's April 2017 announcement of his stepping aside in the wake of the then newly filed ethics charges: Despite the baselessness of the charges, I believe [that] it is in the best interests of the House Intelligence Committee and the Congress for me to have Rep. Mike Conaway, with assistance from Reps. Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney, temporarily take charge of the committee's Russia investigation while the House Ethics Committee looks into this matter. And then this all-important fillip: I will continue to fulfill all of my other responsibilities as [c]ommittee [c]hairman, and I am requesting to speak to the Ethics Committee at the earliest possible opportunity in order to expedite the dismissal of these false claims. That is exactly what happened. But as already mentioned, the Dems, and in particular California's Rep. Adam Schiff, continued to assert that Chairman Nunes (a) recused himself from the committee's probe and (b) continued to "disrupt" the committee's work by "issuing subpoenas on his own," though he had relinquished his authority as committee chairman. Both of these characterizations were expressly wrong, based on the exact wording above of Nunes's public announcement wording, it turns out, that was not in the least haphazard or empty political-speak, but rather a precise roadmap of the powers Nunes would retain. But this was not spelled out until last week. Without apology, Nunes continued to issue subpoenas, including a new and more expansive one to Fusion based on the news that had been emerging in the press in the months since the committee had begun investigating. When this hit home, Fusion regurgitated the Dems' misstatements to the court. The catch was that such allegations must be referred to and compared against the set of rules governing the matter to which they relate. This, Judge Leon pointed out, could be found in the rules of the House of Representatives, which devolve authority, including subpoena authority, upon each committee to set its own rules over the areas over which it has oversight. Since the House Intel Committee's responsibilities include oversight of "the activities of the intelligence community," its own committee rules controlled. These, in turn, plainly required two things: first, for the formation of any investigation, the approval of the chairman and the ranking minority member, and second, for the exercise of the subpoena power, the authorization and signature of the chair. It now becomes obvious why Nunes formulated his temporary absence from the investigation the way he did. By specifically not recusing himself, and by explicitly retaining the chairmanship, he ensured in one fell swoop the retroactive validity of the formation of the investigation and its continuing subpoena issuances. Since the ranking minority member was Adam Schiff, who at the time of the investigation formation was calling for blood, both the chairman and the ranking minority member were on record as proffering the required approval. And by issuing subpoenas in his capacity as chair (from which he had not recused himself), Nunes guaranteed the enforceability of the committee's subpoenas, a status they would not have had if he had allowed himself to be cowed. Why and how Fusion thought it could convince a judge of Nunes's lack of authority to issue the contested Fusion subpoena is a bit of a wonder. A good guess is that it never read the pertinent sets of black-letter rules. Either that or the principals were so smitten with their role in the grand scheme of all things Russian that they brought this action without fully grasping that the rules actually matter. On the contrary, the rules, like the public record of Nunes's completely kosher temporary abdication, not only mattered, but were dispositive. As Judge Leon wrote in his ruling, "[i]ndeed, the Subpoena would be invalid without Chairman Nunes's signature[.]" It is also conceivable that Fusion's motion, with its easily dispatched grounds for a preliminary injunction, was just part of a larger stonewalling pattern that is only now coming to an end. If so, a pattern within the pattern of delay and obfuscation recently noted by Chairman Nunes in a letter to Rod Rosenstein regarding the DOJ and FBI is suggested here, where shopworn legal theories seemed to have been recycled from the Trump administration's enemies. But he who laughs last... And it is surely worth a guffaw or two that Fusion's last argument, that its "confidential client relationships" would be leaked by the committee, thereby violating its First Amendment freedom of association, was rejected by the court on the basis that Fusion had no proof that the committee was responsible for past leaks. A final word about Fusion's First Amendment and due process claims. These are noteworthy because the defense of "privilege" was raised repeatedly during Glenn Simpson's compelled testimony, the transcript of which was just released by Senate Judiciary Committee member Dianne Feinstein. (See in particular here and here.) Again, Judge Leon made mincemeat out of this prong of the preliminary injunction motion asserting that the subpoena was impermissibly broad. He cited a completely different and harder to meet standard applicable to judicial review of congressional investigations (versus general subpoenas) than was cited in Fusion's letter to Senator Grassley erecting its First Amendment and due process bulwark. According to the judge, the committee had more than established the required nexus. As for Fusion's related assertion that it had the First Amendment freedom-of-association right to protect its client list, Judge Leon blew this away with his own line of cases. These distinguished among political, economic, religious, and cultural groups like the NAACP, who are entitled to First Amendment privacy, and the vendors that transact with groups, who are not. So much for Fusion's "privilege." (The released Simpson testimony raises separate questions about whether Fusion internally treated the subpoenaed information confidentially, but that did not come up.) One thing is for certain: now clarity has been reasserted. Even so, congressional Dems will continue to insist that Nunes "recused" himself and is obstructing the Russian collusion investigation. That's about as correct as the Washington Post piece, published five days before Judge Leon's decision, confidently prognosticating that Nunes's investigation of Fusion was "destined" to remain tied up in court. Does anyone in the MSM ever admit when he is wrong? Franklin Einspruch, A commentator in The Federalist, describes me as a circumspect conservative scholar who has written responsibly about Cultural Marxism. Im also deemed to be a conservative who agrees with other conservative critics of the Frankfurt School on the harmful effects of this groups radical ideas. But I must part ways with Mr. Einspruch when he tells us: Its plain fact that political correctness and multiculturalism derive from notions hailing from the Frankfurt School, which in turn took most of its cues from Karl Marx. Although I can discern a connection between feminist attacks on inherited gender roles and Frankfurt School views on sexual liberation, Id have to question whether the present war against Christian, bourgeois institutions can be traced back in any meaningful way to traditional Marxism. Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer (my teacher), Herbert Marcuse and other members of the Frankfurt School in interwar Germany worked to fuse Marxs theory of class struggle and the contradictions of capitalism with a Freudian-based vision of erotic pleasure. In this remarkable fusion, it is hard, at least for me, to recognize Marxs socioeconomic critique. Marx was concerned about mans alienation from his own work as a result of productive forces over which he had no control. The father of scientific socialism never focused on abetting sexual revolt or fighting the emotional repression created by sharp gender distinctions or the failure to give proper social recognition to homosexuals. Orthodox Marxists and Marxist Leninists from the 1920s on vigorously denounced the Frankfurt School and its exponents as social decadents posing as Marxist revolutionaries. Communist regimes would later engage in similar attacks on representatives and sympathizers of the Frankfurt school, such as the Hungarian radical literary figure Georg Lukacs. They accused their targets of attack of subverting orderly human relations and would have nothing to do with their forced marriage of Marxism and eroticism. Not surprisingly, it was Communist regimes and Communist parties in post-World War II France and Italy that were among the harshest critics of what we now call Cultural Marxists. The term Cultural Marxist was meant to express derision for this sect; and Orthodox Marxists as well as the European Right seized on it to discredit the Frankfurt School. In my studies I examine how Cultural Marxists acquired respectability in the U.S., once they set up shop here. They gained recognition for fighting fascism as a cultural and emotional danger and for advocating for a progressive democratic society. Since the Nazis were violently anti-Semitic and since most of the Frankfurt Schools representatives in the U.S. were Jewish, much of the Schools energies after 1933 were focused on preventing the eruption of anti-Jewish prejudice in their adopted land. But the School also castigated prejudice against other groups, such as blacks, social revolutionaries, homosexuals, and women who were revolting against what they viewed as the patriarchal family. The best known English work written in this vein, The Authoritarian Personality (1950), an anthology of polemics warning against prejudice in American life, was sponsored by an emphatically liberal but also anti-Soviet sponsor, the American Jewish Committee. The same patrons also sponsored Commentary magazine. Among many others, distinguished sociologist Seymour Morton Lipset hailed TAP (and the series to which it belonged, Studies in Prejudice) as a blueprint for rebuilding American society. Contrary to what some may believe, Lipset was only slightly left of center politically. Even more interestingly, as cultural historian Christopher Lasch points out, Lipset praised the work spearheaded by Adorno in the U.S. as a means of fortifying the U.S. internally to fight Communism as well as the ideological vestiges of Nazism. Despite the anti-Communist mood in the U.S. at the outset of the Cold War, in the 1950s an Americanized and mainstreamed form of Cultural Marxism made powerful inroads here. Leaders of the Frankfurt school were sent back to Germany by the American State Department to reeducate the former subjects of the Third Reich and to make them good antifascists. Meanwhile psychological tests were devised for private jobs, government employment, and educational institutions to determine the f scores of applicants (as indications of pro-fascist leanings). Equally noteworthy, Frankfurt School pioneers like Eric Fromm became popular authorities on psychological well-being and had their works distributed through Book of the Month clubs. This was only the initial phase in an Americanizing process for Cultural Marxists that would continue down to the present. Since the 1960s a political and social struggle has been waged here and in other liberal democracies to empower disadvantaged minorities in the name of fairness and human rights. Here too the plans and proposals of The Authoritarian Personality are easily discernible: e.g., combatting through sustained political indoctrination antifeminist and homophobic prejudice and isolating the putative Christian poison that has infected the body social. These now familiar initiatives are driven not so much by the claim to be protecting us against mental sickness (although that too has been advanced) as they are by the themes of fairness and fundamental rights. Even self-described conservatives now deplore the unwillingness of the Russian and Serbian governments to allow gay pride parades to take place in their cities, a civic event that I could hardly imagine having been encouraged in the America I grew up in sixty years ago. And I couldnt imagine even the founders of the Frankfurt School going quite so far in their embrace of gay rights as to welcome what we now hail as part of a new political consensus, including the affirmation of gay marriage as a human right and family value. These ideas are admittedly derivative from an older Cultural Marxism, but I cant find anything here that I would pin specifically on Marx. If we are to believe the transcript of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, released unexpectedly by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the search for a smoking gun in the dossier scandal may lead us to a dead body, at least according to Simpson's lawyer: During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in August 2017, Glenn Simpson was questioned about whether he tried to "assess the credibility" of sources behind information uncovered by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent who compiled the dossier. "Yes, but I'm not going to get into sourcing information," Simpson said. Asked again what "steps he took to verify their credibility," Simpson declined to answer. His lawyer, Joshua Levy, then intervened and said Simpson was just trying to protect his sources. "Somebody's 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 said. The interview didn't pursue the line of questioning further. Well, maybe somebody should pursue this hand grenade tossed in the middle of the room. Whoa! Somebody's already been killed as the result of the dossier put together by former British spy Christopher Steele from questionable Russian sources and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, and possibly used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants to spy on the campaign of Hillary's opponent, Donald J. Trump? As shocking as this revelation may be, it dovetails nicely with fear expressed for her safety by former DNC chair Donna Brazile. In a stunning interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos about her new book, Hacks, Brazile made cryptic references to murdered DNC I.T. staffer Seth Rich and revealed that afterward, she took the precautions one takes when one fears for his life. So far, speculation about the unsolved murder of Seth Rich have been dismissed as right-wing conspiracy theories, but Brazile's references to him in the light of all that has come out about WikiLeaks, the Fusion GPS dossier, and Hillary's purchase of the DNC that rigged the primaries against Bernie Sanders may be a missing piece of this whole puzzle. We have the unsolved murder of a former DNC staffer, Seth Rich; a former DNC chair who feared for her life; and a statement by the lawyer for the founder of Fusion GPS suggesting that someone has been killed over the dossier. Would it be too much to connect those dots? Brazile, according to Newsweek, in a piece titled "DNC's Donna Brazile Dedicated Her Book to 'Patriot' Seth Rich, Whose Death Made Her Fear for Own Life," dedicated her book in part to Rich: A new book by Donna Brazile, the former interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), has been making headlines for its controversial claims about the 2016 presidential election and the Hillary Clinton campaign. But the provocative points start even before the first chapter, as Brazile reportedly dedicated the book in part to Seth Rich, the DNC staffer whose murder launched a conspiracy theory. Axios reported on Sunday that the book's dedication reads, "In loving memory of my father, Lionel Brazile[,] Sr.; my beloved sister, Sheila Brazioutlanle; my fearless uncles Nat, Floyd, and Douglas; Harlem's finest, my aunt Lucille; my friend and mentor, David Kaufmann; my DNC colleague and patriot, Seth Rich; and my beloved Pomeranian, Chip Joshua Marvin Brazile (Booty Wipes). I miss y'all." ... Rich appears elsewhere in Brazile's book, as the Post [italics here and elsewhere removed ed.] reported earlier in the weekend. She wrote that Rich's murder haunted her and that she'd installed surveillance cameras at her home and would keep the blinds in her office window closed so she could not be seen by snipers, according to the Post. Brazile talked about Rich on ABC News's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. She told the host about her critics: "They don't know what it was like to be over the DNC during this hacking. They don't know what it's like to bury a child. I did: Seth Rich." Why did Donna Brazile fear for her life after Seth's Rich unsolved murder? Were these cryptic references a way of warning those who she feared might do her harm that more would be revealed after her possible demise? Only Donna Brazile can elaborate, and it is doubtful she will at this point. Rich's murder remains a mystery, with no apparent motive not even a robbery gone wrong. As the Daily Caller Investigative Group observes in a piece titled "Donna Brazile Has a Theory about Who Killed Seth Rich": From her book []Hacks[] [italics added ed.]: I felt some responsibility for Seth Rich's death. I didn't bring him into the DNC, but I helped keep him there working on voting rights. With all I knew now about the Russians' hacking, I could not help but wonder if they had played some part in his unsolved murder. Besides that, racial tensions were high that summer and I worried that he was murdered for being white on the wrong side of town. [My friend] Elaine expressed her doubts about that, and I heard her. The FBI said that they did not see any Russian fingerprints there. Brazile repeatedly returns to the subject of being haunted by Rich's murder, even though other Democrats have pounced on anyone who suggested that the murder was anything other than a robbery gone wrong. The DNC data staffer was killed days before Wiki[L]eaks began publishing its emails, and his valuables were not taken. The Russians did not provide WikiLeaks with any purloined emails or other documents, according to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. As Fox News reported on Assange's interview with Sean Hannity: Wiki[L]eaks founder Julian Assange denied Thursday that hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta were stolen and passed to his organization by Russian state actors. "Our source is not the Russian government," Assange told []The Sean Hannity Show [italics added ed.].[] "So in other words, let me be clear," Hannity asked, "Russia did not give you the Podesta documents or anything from the DNC?" "That's correct," Assange responded. Seth Rich, being a DNC I.T. staffer, if he did not provide the documents and emails to WikiLeaks himself, might have been in a position to know who did and how. We do know that the DNC denied the FBI access to the server that was allegedly hacked by the Russians. Now we have a possible link among Seth Rich, his death, and a dossier paid for in part by the DNC. The Democratic National Committee "rebuffed" a request from the FBI to examine its computer services after it was allegedly hacked by Russia during the 2016 election, a senior law enforcement official told CNN Thursday. "The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated," a senior law enforcement official told CNN. Perhaps Donna Brazile and Glenn Simpson know more about what the DNC was trying to hide from the FBI. Her shocking revelations in her book and the statement by Simpson's lawyer may be the tip of a rather large and unnerving iceberg. Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications. There are two things you can say about the West Coast: the coastline is beautiful, and some judge in San Francisco is working 24-7 to earn an anti-Trump medal. We learned this week that a judge in San Francisco is challenging President Trump's DACA decision. You can read the judge's opinion, but it can be summed up in these simple words from Josh Blackman: On January 20, 2017, the executive power peacefully transitioned from President Obama to President Trump. At least one judge in San Francisco didn't get the memo. Yesterday, Judge William Alsup ordered the Trump administration to keep its predecessor's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in place. This remarkable 49-page order has all the aesthetics of a judicial decision but is, at heart, an amateur act of punditry. Judge Alsup paints the picture of a divided White House, wherein "the [c]hief [e]xecutive publicly favors the very program [his administration] has ended." Citing a "presidential tweet," the court suggests that DACA's recision "was contrived to give the administration a bargaining chip to demand funding for a border wall in exchange for reviving DACA." These talking points could have been plagiarized from the MSNBC chyron. Such rhetoric in a judicial decision would have been unthinkable barely a year ago. But now it passes for the new normal. Once again, the judiciary has attempted to shackle President Trump from making his own judgments about how to exercise his own power. The Supreme Court has reversed Judge Alsup's outlandish rulings on DACA before. And it will do so again. Yes, he will be reversed, but the judge got his medal, and likely a few contributions if he wants to pursue some political ambitions down the road. After looking at this bizarre opinion, we must conclude that Judge Alsup does not believe that a current president can reverse his predecessor's executive orders. (Again, it bears repeating that President Trump was invalidating not a law passed by Congress, but rather an executive order!) It left me wondering about prior presidents who have reversed their predecessors' actions. For example, let's recall the Mexico City abortion policy going back to President Reagan. It was signed and reversed across several presidencies, as we see in this story: Obama's memorandum reversing the policy comes the day after the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision held that a woman's right [sic] to an abortion fell within the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment. The ruling gave a woman autonomy over her pregnancy during the first trimester. The memorandum reverses the "Mexico City policy," initiated by President Reagan in 1984, canceled by President Clinton and reinstated by President George W. Bush in 2001. The policy, referred to by critics as "the global gag rule," was initially announced at a population conference in Mexico City. Someone should ask Judge Alsup about his thinking and selective concern for the law. Or maybe we should go to Judge Alsup the next time a Democrat reverses his predecessor's executive order. Sara Carter reports that the Obama Justice Department obtained a FISA warrant to search or monitor the activities of persons involved in the Trump campaign based on the opposition research, known as the dossier, paid by Hillary and the DNC. The dossier has been challenged as unverified and unreliable. It is not clear to what extent the dossier was used. This raises the important issue of whether the Obama DOJ application for the warrant met the standards of probable cause under the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution. In Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108 (1964), the Court stated that the standard to apply when the facts necessary for probable cause are based on an informant and not the direct knowledge of the officer swearing the affidavit for probable cause is as follows: Although an affidavit supporting a search warrant may be based on hearsay information and need not reflect the direct personal observations of the affiant, the magistrate must be informed of some of the underlying circumstances relied on by the person providing the information and some of the underlying circumstances from which the affiant concluded that the informant, whose identity was not disclosed, was creditable or his information reliable. The procedure for a warrant is that the FBI prepares the application for the warrant, then the application is reviewed by the Department of Justice to ensure compliance with the law. The FBI and DOJ describe the area or person to search, the reasons for the search, and the reasons for probable cause. The FISA application has to be approved by the attorney general, which at the time meant Loretta Lynch. Probable cause is required if the target is a U.S. person. If the dossier was used to any degree to obtain the FISA warrant, then the Obama DOJ and FBI relied on the information supplied by an "informant" in this case, Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS responsible for the dossier. The Obama official who signed the application did not have personal knowledge of the facts. He made the application based on the allegations in the dossier, therefore the application had to establish the reliability of Steele and Fusion GPS, who compiled the dossier. The application or affidavit of probable cause must have disclosed why the Obama DOJ believed that the Steele dossier was credible. The reliability of an informant is usually based on the informant having provided reliable information in the past. This is not the case here, because there is no evidence that the dossier was used for another warrant and found reliable. The Obama DOJ should have disclosed to the FISA court that the dossier was prepared by an ex-British spy; the amount he received to compile the dossier; and, most important, who paid the money. The Court should have been informed of the reliability of Fusion GPS and the amount paid to Fusion. The Court should have been informed that Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid Fusion for the dossier through a law firm. The FISA court would have had to evaluate why the Obama DOJ is using information paid for by Hillary Clinton to spy on the Trump campaign. Clinton paid the Perkins Coie law firm $12.4 million. Perkins then paid Fusion GPS, which paid Steele. The Court should have been informed of this to evaluate the credibility of Fusion, Steele, and the Russian informants. Further, it appears that Steele relied on information from Russian informants, who may have been paid by Fusion or Steele. This raises a double-hearsay issue. The Obama DOJ relied on Steele, who relied on Russian informants. The Obama DOJ should have informed the FISA court why the Russian informants are reliable in addition to why Steele and Fusion are reliable. If the application does not meet the standards of probable cause, then all evidence obtained pursuant to the warrant, and evidence that can be connected to the warrant, cannot be used in a criminal prosecution. This is called "fruit of the poisonous tree," which means that if the warrant is bad, then all the evidence obtained is tainted and cannot be used. There are exceptions, such as if it was discovered from a source independent of the illegal activity or if its discovery was inevitable (Silverthorne v. USA, 251 U.S. 385 [1920]). This is important because Mueller is probably using evidence developed by use of the FISA warrant. If Mueller wants to use the evidence, then he has to prove that the warrant was lawfully obtained, which means he has to prove that the dossier was reliable. Or Mueller has to prove that he would have discovered the evidence without the warrant, which would be difficult. Or Mueller has to prove he obtained it form another source, not the warrant or the dossier. It seems that all roads lead to the dossier. Mueller, as an officer of the court, should disclose whether he is using evidence obtained pursuant to the warrant. Did he use such evidence to prosecute Michael Flynn? The Dems and mainstream media ridiculed President Trump when he said Obama "had my wires tapped at Trump Tower." The facts now show that Obama, through his DOJ and FBI, did authorize spying on the Trump campaign. Obama's attorney general, Lynch, had to approve the application for the warrant, which means she had to agree that the dossier was reliable. It is not credible that Lynch approved the FISA application without approval from Obama. Trump was correct on the essential spying, if not the specific means. Obama used information gathered and paid for by Hillary to attempt to discredit Trump. In recent weeks, Bandy X. Lee, a pseudo-psychiatrist, astonishingly employed by Yale, has been going around telling everyone who will listen that Trump is mentally ill, dangerously so, and that he must be removed from office. The Democrats are all atwitter. They hang on her every word. They do not care that she is acting and speaking in complete violation of her profession. As any professional in mental health knows, it is absolutely unethical to diagnose a person one has never met or spoken to, let alone interviewed or examined. It is this woman who is mentally ill. She continues to speak out in spite of being warned by the American Psychiatric Association that her public comments are unethical. "We at the APA call for an end to psychiatrists providing professional opinions in the media about public figures whom they have not examined, whether it be on cable news appearances, books, or in social media," wrote the APA, without mentioning Lee specifically. "Arm[]chair psychiatry or the use of psychiatry as a political tool is the misuse of psychiatry and is unacceptable and unethical." Dr. Lee is not even licensed to practice in Connecticut; her license expired in 2015. Nevertheless, she has assembled a book with essays by similarly unethical psychiatrists and mental health professionals who cannot accept Trump as president. This is the stuff of bad reality television, like Jerry Springer or Oprah, the snake oil saleswoman of our century. The left has not yet tired of its campaign to get Trump out of office, begun on November 9, 2016. The devastated Clinton campaign, unable to accept its loss, fabricated the Russia collusion meme. As that falls apart, the leftists have moved on to their "Trump is mentally impaired" scheme. They keep invoking the 25th Amendment. Clearly, not one of them has actually read it. There is not a chance in Hell that they will remove Trump from office this way. Every attempt to turn the nation against Trump has failed as he racks up success after success. He's unleashed the economy and rolled back restrictive regulations on business. The stock market is soaring. Black unemployment is at a 17-year low. North Korea is talking to South Korea, the tax bill that not a single Democrat voted for is already reaping enormous benefits, a stellar replacement for Scalia sits on the Supreme Court, ISIS has been eviscerated, etc. Trump has done more good for the nation in one year than Obama did in eight. But Yale's Bandy Lee thinks Trump is mentally impaired! Lee is a political hack, not a legitimate psychiatrist. No honorable psychiatrist would do what she has been doing. Lee clearly has some mental issues herself. Someone needs to arrange an intervention. She has an article in Politico this week, defending herself and her colleagues who wrote essays for her book. She defends her diagnosis from afar and claims she is not violating the Goldwater Rule, but of course, she is. She claims that Trump suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He may have an outsized ego, but it is Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, if anyone, who demonstrate all the recognized characteristics of that diagnosis. Trump loves the American people and wants to improve their quality of life. Despite his success and wealth, he feels he is one of them. Clinton and Obama, Dr. Lee, and their ilk loathe those deplorable people in flyover country, who, they believe with certainty, are beneath them, unworthy of their concern. That makes Trump infinitely more sane than Clinton and Obama and Bandy Lee. The latest bombshell from Project Veritas may be the most significant expose of social media ever. James O'Keefe turned his hidden camera and microphone on Twitter employees, and what he found should shake our democracy to its core. Twitter, which piously professes strict political neutrality, practices significant censorship of the "way people talk" on the platform. PJ Media: Abhinav Vadrevu, a former Twitter software engineer, explained how "shadow[-]banning" works at a San Francisco restaurant on January 3, 2018. "One strategy is to shadow[-]ban so you have ultimate control," he explained. "The idea of a shadow[-]ban is that you ban someone but [he doesn't] know [he's] been banned, because [he keeps] posting and no one sees [his] content. So [he] just think[s] that no one is engaging with [his] content, when in reality, no one is seeing it." And it's only going to get worse: According to a current Twitter employee, software engineer Steven Pierre, the social media giant is in the process of weaponizing the practice of censorship through automation. "Every single conversation is going to be rated by a machine and the machine is going to say whether or not it's a positive thing or a negative thing," Pierre told a Project Veritas undercover journalist on December 8, 2017. "And whether it's positive or negative doesn't (inaudible)[;] it's more like if somebody's being aggressive or not. Right? Somebody's just cursing at somebody, whatever, whatever. [He] may have [a] point, but it will just vanish[.] ... It's not going to ban the mindset, it's going to ban, like, a way of talking." Twitter is also in the process of developing a system for "down[-]ranking" what Olinda Hassan, a policy manager for Twitter's Trust and Safety team, calls "[s] people." "Yeah. That's something we're working on," Hassan told the Veritas journalist. "It's something we're working on. We're trying to get the [s] people to not show up. It's a product thing we're working on right now." Lest anyone doubt that Twitter is working to ban only trolls and other disagreeable users, this should set the record straight: Twitter [e]ngineer Conrado Miranda told Project Veritas on December 1, 2017, that censoring conservatives is indeed "a thing." According to O'Keefe, Twitter Content Review [a]gent Mo Norai admitted on May 16, 2017, that "in the past Twitter would manually ban or censor [p]ro-Trump or conservative content." Asked about the process of banning accounts, Norai said, "On stuff like that it was more discretion on your view[]point, I guess how you felt about a particular matter[.]" In other words, it was totally subjective, and given the overwhelmingly left-wing ideological make-up of most techies in Silicon Valley, conservative Twitter users were/are at their mercy. Norai explained how the process went when he was with the company: "Yeah, if they said this is '[p]ro-Trump,' I don't want it because it offends me ... and I say I banned this whole thing, and it goes over here and they are like, 'Oh you know what? I don't like it too. You know what? Mo's right, let's go, let's carry on, what's next?'" None of this is surprising. Twitter censorship has been widely suspected for years. The surprise comes in how active Twitter has been in banning speech its staffers disagree with. The company has probably spent millions of dollars in development costs to create the means to censor speech. I get a chill just thinking about this kind of power in the hands of left-wing radicals who don't care about freedom of thought. If Twitter wants to censor conservative speech, it has a right to do so. It is a private company and can set its own standards when it comes to what appears on its websites. But censoring speech in secret while proclaiming political neutrality is massively dishonest and suggests questions about the company's truthfulness to investors. Deliberately misleading investors is a crime just ask the state of New York, which is suing Exxon because Exxon supposedly lied to stockholders about global warming. If social media companies like Facebook and Twitter want to censor the opposition, they should say so. If conservatives choose to continue to use those platforms after Big Tech comes clean, that's their right. But the reason they are keeping their censorship secret is because if millions of customers knew that they could be "shadow-banned" any time, the companies would lose those customers and money a lot of it. The only thing worse than Senator Elizabeth Warren having to pretend she likes the tax cuts she vehemently opposed in Congress is wealthy House minority leader Nancy Pelosi looking down her nose in disdain at the millions of Americans celebrating their tax bonuses. She actually called the spectacle "pathetic" and the bonuses "crumbs." According to Fox News, which has a video of the sorry performance: "In terms of the bonus that corporate America receives versus the crumbs they are [sic] giving to workers to put the schmooze on[, it] is so pathetic. It's so pathetic," Pelosi said during a press briefing on Thursday. Well, of course. One thousand dollars, according to Fox News, is the sort of company bonus more than 2 million workers have received as a result of the Republican tax cuts passed in Congress last month. But it's not exactly an amount that would impress the legislative body's wealthiest member, with her $200-million fortune. Pelosi, remember, represents San Francisco, a city so wealthy that it's virtually impossible to live there on less than a million-dollar salary. The worst house in the most wretched parts of the city sold for $350,000. The median home value is $1.275 million. Pelosi lives in the richest, ritziest, fanciest area of the forbidden city, Pacific Heights, and her house, as of two years ago, was worth more than $7.5 million, undoubtedly more than that now. She's got a condo in Georgetown, in the capital; a vineyard in Napa Valley's tony and historic St. Helena; and several other houses she and her husband rent out, according to this National Review survey of her holdings. A mere thousand dollars to the richest member of the House is...crumbs. This goes to show a lot about who's running the Democrats and what they stand for. Democrats are the party of the establishment; the swamp; and above all, the rich. The rich are always the most entrenched in preserving the status quo because only they have something to lose. They don't want the hoi polloi getting uppity with newfound wealth of their own or enjoying bonuses on top of tax cuts. What's more, they are so far into the money stratosphere that things like either paying taxes or receiving benefits from tax cuts are for ..."little people," as Leona Helmsley once advised. What this class of people wants is a bigger government with more muscle to keep the groundlings and deplorables in line. When Pelosi became speaker of the House in 2006, government exploded in size and scope, beginning with the stimulus package program she eventually got through. But wages and benefits to ordinary citizens remained stagnant, as this Heritage Foundation study shows. What could have improved the situation for workers was for prices of housing, transportation, health care, and other necessities to come down, the study concluded. Pelosi's expansion of big government drove them all the other way skyward. But it's all crumbs to her. She's too big for any of this, being rich and not in touch with the "little people." It never occurs to her as she rails against corporations getting tax cuts and passing "crumbs" on to the workers that the pass-on is a natural progression of everyone benefiting as benefits shower down. She's too busy looking down on little people celebrating their windfalls, on top of their tax cuts, brought to them by a Congress she once led and a president elected by the deplorables she despises. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who previously spent time working for a "spin shop" that helped bail out Wall Street and AIG, is now trying to create a taxpayer-funded Washington bailout fund of his own this time, to protect his political future and the elites that benefit from it. Gottheimer's proposal isn't new. It's akin to what has already been proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is up for re-election in New York, as well as California Senate president pro tem Kevin de Leon, who is desperate for a big political win to unseat incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein this year. However, the Gottheimer case study without question reveals the hypocrisy and self-serving motives of these Democrats better than the rest. The sweat is finally starting to drip from the faces of the tax relief-detractors up for re-election, but Gottheimer, dealing with one of 2018's most high-profile congressional races, is likely sweating much more than his colleagues. Steve Lonegan, a well known fiscal conservative running against the incumbent in a Republican-leaning, NRCC-targeted district, is not letting Gottheimer live his anti-middle-class tax relief vote down. According to Lonegan, Gottheimer voted against a tax bill that will increase middle-class New Jersey families' incomes by 15 percent more than the United States' average. Anxiety about November is likely why Gottheimer joined Governor-Elect Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) at a January 5 "tax reform" event, where he took the lead in introducing their new "tax cut plan." Contrary to what Gottheimer said at the event, what the plan will really do is have federal taxpayers pay handsomely for nothing more than a Democrat talking point, which will be used to bail them out come November. As you likely already know, Congress's tax cut bill capped the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT) at $10,000. This move shouldn't have been controversial. After all, shouldn't paying for state taxes be a state, not federal, responsibility? But those representing the far left such as Gottheimer, Cuomo, and de Leon don't want their states to lower taxes. Their big plan, as detailed by Gottheimer last Friday, is to create municipal charitable trusts for their constituents to support come property tax time. The reason is so their high-tax states can receive close to fully matching federal funds through the federal charitable deduction. This would give the appearance of a tax cut, but nothing is free. Some taxpayers are going to have to pay for it. The funds provided to the charitable trusts will go toward funding their states' bloated local governments, just as regular taxes would. This is pure exploitation of federal law and may violate IRS regulations. Their idea is not only unethical; it's pure hypocrisy. Democrats spent years complaining about "tax loopholes," and now they're creating one of their own. Democrats spent the last few months complaining about how Congress's tax bill will allegedly add to the deficit in fact, Gottheimer even did so in his Friday speech and now they're introducing proposals that will, according to their own logic, raise it even more. Congress created this new cap on SALT with the goal of achieving local fiscal responsibility, and immediately after the bill's passage, that's exactly what appeared would happen. In fact, in New Jersey, a bipartisan group of state senators quickly proposed making property taxes entirely deductible on the state level a move that's sorely needed in the state that has the highest property taxes in the nation. These fiscally conservative ideas should not stop because of a few extremist Democrats obstructing the process. Thankfully, the federal government is poised to crack down on these ridiculous proposals. The same day Gottheimer unveiled New Jersey's plan, top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn did not speak favorably about faux solutions like this one and the ones similar to it in California and New York. He even insinuated that the White House will inevitably block them. This is great news. The federal government cannot allow Washington's coffers to turn into a bailout fund for liberal Democrats' political futures. As it stands now, middle-income Americans are set to receive the biggest win they've had in several decades. That should not change to protect a few crony congressmen, who were willing to hold the whole process hostage just to safeguard the wealthy's pocketbooks. It's time to drain the swamp, not expand it. Instead of the White House changing its tune, the far left should join the choir. Edward Woodson is a lawyer and host of The Edward Woodson Show. Do I really have to explain President Trump's strategy in reportedly using a vulgar expression to describe countries from which he believes the United States is taking far too many immigrants? I believe that many readers of this publication already get it, but it is obvious that none of President Trump's haters Democrats, NeverTrumps formerly regarded as conservative, and those who cling to the notion that civility is to be demanded only of Republicans has the faintest notion of the way they are being used. For anyone who has not been watching cable news since yesterday afternoon, the background is provided by the Associated Press (language warning): 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." The context is important: 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 [sic] and also strengthen border protections, as Trump has insisted. President Trump has now tweeted that he did not use the word "s" but did use "tough language." 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 I wasn't there, and I don't know. But is "s" used in private any worse than then-V.P. Biden privately (but near a live microphone) calling Obamacare a "big [f] deal"? Both are vulgarisms stated in private that reached the public. Scott Adams has explained the first layer of strategy several times in the past, most recently on the "stable genius" outrage. It is still early on the West Coast, where Adams lives, so he has not yet applied his logic to the current kerfuffle. Trump has forced everyone whom he outraged to repeat the words he wants to sink in with the public. The entire chattering class is now repeating that Haiti and some African countries and El Salvador and other TPS-abusers (changing a visa explicitly labeled as "temporary" into a permanent one) are bleep-holes. The best of examples comes from Trump's sworn enemy, Jim Acosta, who repeated the vulgarism in its raw state over and over again: Trump is thus forcing the country to have a conversation about a topic that political correctness forbids: which countries, and which cultures, we want more of in the United States. In this era, immigrants tend to maintain their old country culture because they have full access to the media from old countries (including TV channels in their native languages), because our ballots are often printed on scores of languages in big cities, and because ethnic enclaves exist where life can be led in the old country culture. Take, for instance, Somalis in Minneapolis: Life in Little Mogadishu in Minneapolis. But there is a second layer to Trump's strategy: he is forcing his opponents to argue for a position that is plainly untrue. No one can honestly state that Norway the country Trump used as an example of non-bleep-hole countries (because he had just had a joint press conference with Norway's P.M. and because Norway is the richest country in the world) is just as desirable a place to live and a culture to import here as Haiti. Life in Haiti today. But of course, some fanatics like Joan Walsh are willing to beclown themselves by refusing to state that Haiti is not as desirable place to live as Norway. Via Mediaite: Lowry took this opportunity to jump in and push Walsh to answer [in] which country she'd prefer to live Haiti or Norway. After badgering her a bit on this issue, saying she couldnt answer the question, Walsh didn't even bother to hide her irritation. "It's none of your business, actually," she exclaimed. Here is the entire segment via Grabien, for your viewing pleasure. I use the words "viewing pleasure" advisedly, because Walsh is playing Margaret Dumont to Trump's Groucho Marx. The pretensions and lies of the ruling class, expressed through politically correct limits on discussions, are mocked by both Trump and Groucho Marx. Again. Now let Trump's opponents try to discuss TPS, DACA, and immigration and avoid the question of which culture we want more of here. Vicente Fox is at it again. The former Mexican president is howling and hurling ignorant insults about a news report President Trump denies, claiming that the American president questioned the admission of immigrants from "[s]-hole" countries. Naturally, he thought it was about him. Tweeting on Twitter, where he constantly runs his mouth, Fox wrote, in English: .@realDonaldTrump, your mouth is the foulest [s] in the world. With what authority do you proclaim who's welcome in America and who's not. America's greatness is built on diversity, or have you forgotten your immigrant background, Donald? Vicente Fox Quesada (@VicenteFoxQue) January 11, 2018 Aside from the disgustingness of a foreign national telling us how to run our country and whom to elect, four things stick out about this tweet, none of them flattering to Fox. First, it employs the tired cliche that diversity is strength. Fox wouldn't know diversity if it jumped up and bit him. If there really were diversity in our immigrant population, his own country would have far less "representation." The millions of Mexican illegals in the U.S. are precisely why the immigrant population lacks diversity and the ill considered institution of a "diversity lottery" was undertaken. The fact that there are so many Mexican nationals among the immigrant population due to illegal immigration is precisely why even the legal immigrants do not assimilate. We regularly see people who have been here 20 years and cannot speak a word of English. Why is that? Because the only people they ever meet in their immigrant communities are fellow Mexicans. Assimilation happens when there is real diversity among the immigrant population, when Mr. Cambodian needs to communicate with Mr. Colombian, his neighbor, and the medium of exchange is English. Studies show that when a nation imports all one nationality, it doesn't get assimilation; it gets balkanization. Second, Mexico has always been notorious historically for turning immigrants away and not welcoming them. Spanish immigrants in the 1930s were positively persecuted, as one Mexican billionaire of Spanish descent once explained to me back when I was a writer for the Forbes billionaire list. If Fox says diversity is greatness, what does that make Mexico with its non-diversity? Third, shouldn't he be embarrassed that so many Mexicans want to leave? Lastly, Fox shows complete ignorance of American law as he questions with what authority President Trump proclaims who's welcome in America and who's not. Obviously, he's trying to sound like a La Raza activist, but he ends up looking like an idiot. In fact, the president here has the vested legal right to determine precisely who gets in and who doesn't, along with the U.S. Congress. Fox would have you think there's some right to be an illegal in the states. In short, he reveals his hypocrisy, saying one thing and doing another. If he were capable of shame, he ought to be ashamed of himself, but no one should hold his breath. A smack-down is pretty much all he can handle. He has no business micromanaging our elected president. Israel's strategy to gain the acceptance and friendship of the world is making headway against the receding tide of hostility sponsored by leftist, progressive, and politically correct regimes. The strategy is simple to enunciate: become essential to the health and prosperity of others so that friendship is rewarding and a cutoff of ties imposes costs. Witness King Goodwill Zwelithinii, "the constitutionally[] recognized monarch of the 12 million Zulus who make up South Africa's largest ethnic group." Via The Algemeiner: The king of South Africa's Zulu nation has urged the country's ruling African National Congress (ANC) to retain close ties with Israel, following last month's vote by the ANC at its national conference to downgrade the South African Embassy in Tel Aviv to a "liaison office." Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithinii. The king: ... told a delegation of the ANC's senior leadership that he had developed a close relationship with Israel and the South African Jewish community since his 2009 decree introducing medical circumcision for boys in a bid to halt the spread of the AIDS virus. According to the World Health Organization, there is "compelling evidence that male circumcision reduces the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men by approximately 60%." More than 700,000 males have been circumcised since the decree was issued by the king. "There are two clinics that have been built by Jewish organizations in this kingdom," the king told the ANC delegation, whose members included the new party president, Cyril Ramaphosa, at last week's meeting. ... "They came here because I requested them to come," the king said. "They (the South African Zionist Federation and South African Friends of Israel) built these clinics the day I announced circumcision on December 6, 2009." The two clinics, in Mathubathuba and Emondlo, provide HIV-related health services and education for the surrounding communities. The same strategy, applied to other areas of endeavor, applies to economically advanced counties, too. Israel has become the world's second largest hi-tech venture capital success story after the United States. Countries that boycott Israel will cut themselves off from future valuable technologies, investment opportunities (going two ways), and access to devices. The same goes for advanced medical innovations, another area in which Israel is a leader. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is planning a new city, named Neom, to be built at the northwest corner of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the top of the Red Sea, where it abuts Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, so as to allow free access to Israeli personnel, capital, and technology, to be applied in a city where all the sharia rules imposed on the rest of the kingdom do not apply. Once again, modern Israel is becoming, as the Prophet Isaiah said, "a light unto the nations." It is a strategy for the ages. (ANSA) - Rome, January 12 - At least four bomb attacks were made Friday on churches in Chilean capital Santiago in protests against Pope Francis's visit to the South American country January 15-18, local media reported, citing police sources. In three of the attacks the churches suffered damage, to their doors and facades in particular, while the fourth attack was thwarted by police, the media said. In one of the firebomb attacks, on the church of Santa Isabel de Hungria near the central station, the attackers left a note saying "freedom for all political prisoners, Wallmapu (Mapuche territory) free, autonomy and resistance. "Pope Francis, the next bombs will (explode) under your robes". At Recoleta, another attack struck the Emanuel Chapel, where a bomb broke a door and some windows. Chilean Interior Minister Mahmud Aleuy arrived on the scene and condemned violence in a country where he said there was freedom of expression. At Penalolen, at the Cristo Vencedor Chapel, a bomb did not cause major damage. Finally, at the Cristo Pobre shrine, police said they had "neutralised" a rubbish bin apparently full of fuel. The government said it would sue all the authors of the attacks. Francis is expected to face protests in Chile, especially against the appointment of a bishop who allegedly shielded the country's most notorious clerical sexual predator. BELGRADE - Belgrade and Serbia were listed among the best places to visit in 2018 by the New York Times and CNN. In its annual ranking of '52 places to go', the New York Times listed Belgrade over its nighttime attractions and growing creativity. The newspaper described Belgrade as the ''party town'' of Europe, writing that it is as vibrant as ever. CNN also listed Serbia as a must-see over its natural attractions, including the Danube river, Tara national park and, in the country's south, avolja Varos, or Devil's Town, which ''offers a crazy geological spectacle of weird rocky pinnacles'', the broadcaster said. After reporting in 2015 on Savamala, the old city neighborhood in Belgrade that led its renaissance, CNN advised readers to visit the country's natural attractions in the spring and summer. The New York Times cited the city's nightlife that has turned Belgrade into a worldwide attraction as well as interesting new artistic centers like Kc Grad and the Galerija tab. Other US media outlets and tour guides like Lonely Planet advised to travel to Serbia in 2018. In Italy, a new guide on ''Belgrade and Serbia'' has been published, describing the country's many attractions and providing advice to plan a trip - from the cities of Belgrade and Novi Sad - European capital of culture in 2021 - to the places of spirituality, history and nature. Spain opens to Bitcoin at Bernabeu Stadium, Prado Museum Tickets to become available as authorities prepare regulations (ANSAmed) - MADRID, JANUARY 12 - Spain is opening to the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, with tickets to the Bernabeu Stadium in Santiago and the Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen Museums slated to be available for purchase with Bitcoin starting February 1, according to sources at 13Tikets.com. The website is the first Spanish business to allow payment in Bitcoin in the tourism sector, "with the same guarantees as payment in cash", it said. The digital currency was also used for the first time in the sale of an apartment in Tarragona, by a real estate agency that works exclusively with the cryptocurrency. "Interest is growing," said Victor Monreal, national executive director of Mister Piso, cited by the media. Monreal said he is convinced that operations in Bitcoin will revitalise the country's real estate industry. Meanwhile, the country's National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), together with the Bank of Spain, is looking at developing regulations to cover gaps in the sector, according to sources from CNMV cited by Spanish daily elEconomista. (ANSAmed). Palestinian teenager killed in West Bank clashes Israeli army fears soldier abduction (ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, JANUARY 11 - A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead by Israeli soldiers during clashes in the village of Iraq Burin near Nablus in the West Bank on Thursday, Maan news agency reports. The report has not been confirmed by Israel. Maan says the Palestinian shot dead earlier in clashes with the army on the Gaza border was also 16. Meanwhile the Israeli army has raised the level of alert in the West Bank amid fears of soldier abduction as the hunt continues for the cell that killed a rabbi near Nablus by firing from a car two days ago. Soldiers serving in the area have been instructed to exercise maximum caution while on the streets waiting to be picked up. They are to be ready to open fire at all times and should on no account accept a lift from a stranger. The media say it is likely the attack was carried out by a clandestine cell linked to Hamas. (ANSAmed) GENEVA - About 160 migrants or refugees died or went missing this week alone in the Mediterranean in three separate incidents, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR said in a statement on Friday. It renewed its appeal to countries to open more places for resettlement and "other safe alternatives for the protection of refugees". Last September, UNHCR launched an appeal for 40,000 places for refugee resettlement in 15 countries along the Mediterranean route, the statement said. The UN agency has thus far received about 13,000 offers of places for 2018 and 2019. The majority of these are part of global resettlement programmes already regularly instituted, and only some of the places are additional. ANSAmed - Today's events in the Mediterranean (ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 12 - These are some of the main events scheduled for today in the Euro-Mediterranean area: BRUSSELS - EU, High Representative for Foreign Policy Federica Mogherini and Commissioners Johannes Hahn and Christos Stylianides receive Horst Kohler, special envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Western Sahara. (ANSAmed). ANSAmed - Weekly diary from January 15 to January 21 (ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 12 - Weekly diary of the main events scheduled in the Euro-mediterranean area from January 15 to January 21: MONDAY, JANUARY 15 ABU DHABI - World Future Energy Summit 2018 (WFES) (until 18/1). TUNIS - Start of the 'Mawjoudin Queer Film festival', the first film festival dedicated to the question of gender identity in the MENA region. (until 1/18). BRUSSELS - Visit by Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir, who will meet with Commissioner Christos Stylianides and then High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini. BRUSSELS - EU, High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini receives Nasr al-Hariri, head of the Syrian High Negotiations Committee. TUESDAY, JANUARY 16 STRASBOURG - EU, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will speak at the European Parliament plenary session on European Council conclusions of December and on the end of the Estonian presidency of the European Council. ROME - Via di Sant'Eufemia 13, 17:00 - Presentation of the IEMed book of the year, "Diagnosing the Mediterranean: What direction will it take in 2018?" WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17 STRASBOURG - European Parliament, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will speak to the European Parliament plenary session on the start of the Bulgarian presidency of the European Council. THURSDAY, JANUARY 18 BELGRADE - EU, visit by Commissioner Corina Cretu, who will meet with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and then with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and European Integration Minister Jadranka Joksimovic (also 19/1). FRIDAY, JANUARY 19 No major events scheduled. SATURDAY, JANUARY 20 No major events scheduled SUNDAY, JANUARY 21 No major events scheduled. (ANSAmed). Tunisia: minister, calm restored across country In total 778 arrests, including 16 suspected Islamic extremists (ANSAmed) - TUNIS, JANUARY 12 - Tunisian security forces have restored calm across the national territory starting from last night, interior ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani said Friday morning. Chibani said that a total of 778 people have been arrested in clashes over the past few nights between young demonstrators and police. Sixteen suspected Islamic extremists were among those detained, he said. Several officers were reportedly wounded and police vehicles damaged in the clashes. Chibani stressed that violent protests over the past few days have nothing to do with legitimate demonstrations against the rising cost of life and price hikes, defining them rather as acts of vandalism, attempts to loot and damage public and private properties by violent groups. (ANSAmed) Not at all. It just seems like a lot of back-and-forth talk. Yes. I'm growing very worried over what might happen. If it keeps up, I might be a little more concerned. I think there are much larger things to concern us as a country. It's hard to tell; I can't take the leader of either country seriously. Vote View Results Iran took delivery of its first four ATR 72-600s earlier this year, thus embarking on a new aviation era following the relief of international sanctions. Theres an urgent need to modernise and develop air transport to boost local economies throughout the country and improve regional connectivity, and ATR CEO, Christian Scherer, believes his company has a major part to play. By offering a combination of greater accessibility to remote airfields and lower operating costs than any other category of aircraft, turboprops have proved to be fundamental enablers for regional economic growth, he said. The whole Middle East region is witnessing growth, even though these countries arent densely populated. They are investing in air transport development projects. Like other regions, the Middle East is conscious that its economic and social development depends on the expansion of its regional network connectivity. Earlier in 2017, ATR and Iran Air signed a firm contract for 20 ATR 72-600s (Pratt & Whitney PW127M engines) with options for a further 20. Deliveries will extend until the end of 2018. With a population of more than 80 million and many provinces and small cities, Iran is ready to re-modernise its air transport, which seems to be the best option to enable people to travel as rail and road connections also need to be renewed. Surveys show that aviation demand in Iran will double over the next 10-15 years. This represents 300-350 new aircraft, including replacements, which count among ATRs priorities. Iran relies on a strong domestic infrastructure with 60 airports that ATRs are fully capable of serving as the ATR 72-600 is ideal for operating in many types of challenging environments, including small airfields, unpaved runways and mountainous regions. The model will form the core of the Iran Air fleet, while substantially contributing to the expansion and development of the services provided across the country. Strengthening the links between all our communities will encourage new business opportunities for everyone, explained Iran Air CEO, Farhad Parvaresh. He said every factor had been studied, including technology, fuel burn, efficiency and comfort, in all of the 50-to-100-seaters on the market. ATRs came out top in every category. Iran is also expected to be the Middle Easts next big tourism destination. The freshly open market will not only develop connectivity domestically but also with neighbouring countries. Parvaresh added that many new routes needed to be studied, while existing ones needed to be developed. The number of flights serving Tabas, Shahre Kord, Rasht and Noshahr could easily fill between seven and ten flights compared to two or three weekly at present. The carrier plans to use its ATRs to link cities in Azerbaijan, Dubai and Qatar (Doha) as Iran has close links with many bordering countries. Parvaresh is optimistic about the development of tourist routes to, for example, the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf. Scherer said: There are historic moments in aviation and this is one of them. We are proud and gratified that our ATR aircraft are providing the solution to Irans significant needs in regional connectivity. Meanwhile, ATR claims to have the largest heritage in the Africa (including the Indian Ocean) and the Middle East for short-haul flights, with 120 aircraft in service, 300 routes and more than 30 operators in 25 countries. According to forecasts, there will be an average annual fleet growth of 4.1% with 300 aircraft deliveries (60 TP50 and 240 TP75) in the next 20 years and 400 potential new routes. Furthermore, the turboprop fleet in the region will see a 4.1% growth (from 230 in 2015 to 420 in 2035) during the same period. The manufacturer sees a potential for nearly 2,800 turboprop deliveries worldwide in the next two decades, with 65% of them (1,800 aircraft) creating new routes or reinforcing existing networks. According to ATR, the turboprop market is flourishing towards the south and east, with China expected to lead a strong growth in the next 20 years. This will reshape the current geographical distribution. Figures on turboprop activity by region prove this trend: Africa-Middle East, 11%; North America, 12%; Latin America & Caribbean, 13%; Europe & CIS, 24%; Asia Pacific (excluding China), 31% and China 9%. Today, 200 airlines operate ATRs in 100 countries around the world. The manufacturer places the continuous development of its aircraft at the core of its business. As well as the new features displayed at the 2017 Paris Air Show, the company is about to receive certification for the new Standard 3 version of its avionics. This will combine a range of standard and optional features, designed to reduce both pilot workload and ease airline operations, ensuring that ATRs remain at the cutting-edge of technology. The company has gradually established itself as the benchmark for regional airlines all over the world, booking around 75% of all turboprop aircraft sales since 2010, and 35% when compared to all regional aircraft below 90 seats. Scherer proudly pointed out: ATR has brought the latest technology to regional aviation during these past years. The ATR-600 features a modern cockpit that is compatible with the evolution in avionics over the next 20 years. It has the widest cabin in this market, offering more comfort than many jets. The aircraft is very quiet and has an unrivalled maintenance and fuel consumption cost in this segment. He added: The ATR is the most modern aircraft in this market segment. We aim at staying the world leader at all levels. We are always ready to bring on board new technology, upgrade our engines and enhance passenger comfort. From a technological innovation point of view, our main focus is more on reducing maintenance costs. The increasing usage of turboprops on regional routes helps to reduce aviation emissions. With a lighter frame, optimised flight speed and an engine developed for shorter routes, ATR-600 series aircraft offer the lowest fuel consumption and operating costs in their segment, said Scherer, adding that they were the greenest solution in the market. More than 400 turboprop freighters are expected to be operating by 2035. The demand for these platforms is increasing around the world with a higher demand for express service deliveries. The rise in demand of cargo services will be triggered by emerging economies. The current freighter fleet is 27 years old on average and requires prompt replacement in different forms, said Scherer. The regional aviation market has evolved rapidly during the past decades, from a geographical and technological point of view and a business model perspective. This trend has revealed the potential of secondary and tertiary airports. ATR forecasts show that demand in emerging countries is expected to grow eight times faster than that of mature economies. There is a strong potential for the most populated countries to enhance their regional network and link the most remote communities, believed Scherer. According to ATR, the regional market remains one of the most buoyant sectors in the commercial aviation market. The Africa-Middle East region has much potential and Decembers Dubai Air Show is yet another excellent opportunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ARTESIA POLICE DEPARTMENT Jan. 11 DOMESTIC 6:58 a.m. Officer dispatched to the 1400 block of West Yucca Avenue in reference to a domestic dispute. Jan. 10 UNWANTED SUBJECT 8:58 a.m. Officer dispatched to Artesia General Hospital in reference to an unwanted subject. ALARM 9:22 a.m. Officer dispatched to R290 N. 26th St. in reference to an alarm. BURGLARY 9:51 a.m. Officer dispatched to Roselawn Manor in reference to burglary. DISTURBANCE 9:54 a.m. Officer dispatched to Artesia General Hospital in reference to a disturbance. HARASSMENT 10 a.m. Officer dispatched to the 600 block of West Runyan Avenue in reference to harassment. FRAUD 10:05 a.m. Officer dispatched to the Public Safety Complex in reference to fraud. VANDALISM 11:26 a.m. Officer dispatched to 506 W. Washington Ave. in reference to vandalism. ALARM 11:40 a.m. Officer dispatched to 702 W. Mann Ave. in reference to an alarm. LARCENY 12:13 p.m. Officer dispatched to North Fourth Street and West Mahone Drive in reference to larceny. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY 12:45 p.m. Officer dispatched to the 1100 block of West Bullock Avenue in reference to suspicious activity. ACCIDENT 1:02 p.m. Officer dispatched to Artesia General Hospital in reference to a motor vehicle accident. UNWANTED SUBJECT 3:46 p.m. Officer dispatched to Artesia General Hospital in reference to an unwanted subject. ALARM 5:46 p.m. Officer dispatched to 301 McArthur Ave. in reference to an alarm. 6:11 p.m. Officer dispatched to 609 N. Seventh St. in reference to an alarm. ARMED SUBJECT 6:38 p.m. Officer dispatched to the 600 block of North Eighth Street in reference to an armed subject. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY 7:02 p.m. Officer dispatched to the 1900 block of West Washington Avenue in reference to suspicious activity. BURGLARY 8:45 p.m. Officer dispatched to 604 W. Dallas Ave. in reference to burglary. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY 9:28 p.m. Officer dispatched to the 1700 block of West Main Street in reference to suspicious activity. WANTED SUBJECT 9:49 p.m. Officer dispatched to the 700 block of West Lolita Avenue in reference to a wanted subject. 10:27 p.m. Officer dispatched to the 200 block of West Gage Avenue in reference to a wanted subject. DISTURBANCE 10:32 p.m. Officer dispatched to the 200 block of South 38th Street in reference to a disturbance. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY 11:19 p.m. Officer dispatched to South 10th Street and West Richardson Avenue in reference to suspicious activity. EDDY COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE Jan. 11 SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY 12:22 a.m. Deputy dispatched to South First Street and West Bullock Avenue in reference to suspicious activity. ACCIDENT 7:47 a.m. Deputy dispatched to North 13th Street and West Compress Road in reference to a motor vehicle accident. Jan. 10 TRESPASSING 8:10 a.m. Deputy dispatched to U.S. 82, mile marker 112, in reference to trespassing. DOMESTIC 9:27 a.m. Deputy dispatched to the 2000 block of West Fairgrounds Road in reference to a domestic dispute. ALARM 12:16 p.m. Deputy dispatched to 88 W. Compress Road in reference to an alarm. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY 1:02 p.m. Deputy dispatched to the 1900 block of Maple Street in reference to suspicious activity. ACCIDENT 3:23 p.m. Deputy dispatched to U.S. 285, mile marker 65, in reference to a motor vehicle accident. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY 4:50 p.m. Deputy dispatched to U.S. 285, mile marker 51, in reference to suspicious activity. ARTESIA MUNICIPAL COURT Judge Kaye L. Kiper John I. Perez found guilty of trespassing. Sentenced to two days in the Artesia Detention Center. Total fines and fees $229. Christopher Burns found guilty of possession of drug paraphernalia. Sentenced to 10 days in the Artesia Detention Center. Total fines and fees $229. Martin C. Molina found guilty of unlawful use of a license. Sentenced to four days in the Artesia Detention Center. Total fines and fees $229. Julian Valenzuela found guilty of disturbing the peace. Sentenced to two days in the Artesia Detention Center. Total fines and fees $229. South Korea backtracks from ban on cryptocurrency trading after online petitions. A series of measures have failed to curb overheated VC speculation in the country and Park said it would be devastating if the bubble bursts. Seoul: Bitcoin and other virtual currencies (VCs) were sent on rollercoaster rides in South Korea on Thursday as the government said it was planning to ban cryptocurrency exchanges, before later backtracking. Justice minister Park Sang-Ki said Seoul was preparing a bill to shut down the countrys 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 said. 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, Mr 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 per cent of global bitcoin transactions about 10 times its share of the world economy. A series of measures have failed to curb overheated VC speculation in the country and Park said it would be devastating if the bubble bursts. His remarks sent bitcoin prices plunging 18 per cent on South Korean exchange Bithumb, while ethereum slumped 23 per cent. 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 per cent down, and ethereum off 12 per cent. A representative of Bithumb, one of around 20 VC exchanges in South Korea, said the company was watching developments closely. Were 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 companys documents. On the same day financial authorities inspected six local banks that offered virtual accounts for corporate customers. The CBFC has suggested five modifications in 'Padmavati', which included changing the title to 'Padmavat'. New Delhi/Bhopal: Despite the clearance from Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), 'Padmaavat' won't be released in Gujarat, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said on Friday. Gujarat is the second Indian state after Rajasthan to have banned the screening of the controversial Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial. Post that, the ban was not lifted from Madhya Pradesh either as Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan indicated that the film 'Padmavat' will not be allowed to be released in his state. Asked if the film would be banned in Madhya Pradesh, Chouhan told reporters today, "Jo Kaha tha, wo hoga (What I had said, will happen)." However, he did not clarify any further. Chouhan was talking to reporters after attending a state-level mass `Surya Namaskar and Pranayam' event organised to mark the birth anniversary of spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda. The film has received a clearance from the Central Board for Film Certification after the change of title and some script modifications. While speaking to some members of the Rajput community on November 20 last year, Chouhan had made it clear that the film would not be allowed to release in the state if it contains scenes "breaching the honour" of the Rajput queen Padmavati or features "distorted facts". "We will not tolerate any distortion of historical facts. The entire country is speaking in one voice that historical facts were distorted (in the movie)," he had said. Other states, including Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, which had indicated that the film will not be allowed to be released in November -- are yet to announce their final decisions. The flick, based on the legend of Rani Padmini, a 13th century Hindu Rajput queen, mentioned in Padmavat, an Avadhi poem written by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi in 1540, has been facing protests from various groups, particularly the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, for allegedly tampering with historical facts. The CBFC has suggested five modifications in 'Padmavati', which included changing the film's title to 'Padmavat', in December last year. Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Rani Mukerjis friendship goes a long way. Mumbai: Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Rani Mukerjis friendship goes a long way. Rani is often spotted in Sabyasachi clothes, and now, she will also don his jewellery, courtesy the designer himself. The designer recently gifted his friend Rani the first ever jewellery that he had designed - a pair of exquisite earrings - when the two met in Mumbai. Rani was completely taken by surprise and got extremely emotional with the special gesture by Sabya. The designer also wished Rani all the best for her upcoming film Hichki, which marks Ranis return to acting after 3 long years. Rani was very touched by her designer friends thoughtful gesture as he had preserved his first designed jewellery for his best friend. As we all know, Sabyasachi has forayed into jewellery and his collections are wowing the world. The designer had thoughtfully kept away the first ever piece of jewellery designed by him - a super exclusive polki earrings with South Sea pearls - specially for Rani. He had created the earring keeping Rani's personality and her charm in mind. He wished her all the best for Hichki while giving the gift. Rani was naturally emotional when she received this from Sabya, reveals a source close to the two. Rani plays the role of Naina Mathur who has a nervous system disorder, Tourette Syndrome that forces an individual to make involuntary repetitive movements or sounds. Directed by Siddharth P Malhotra and produced by Maneesh Sharma, Hichki is set to release on February 23. Announcing the names of the three awardees, the WEF said "each of them in their own way has taken action to uphold human dignity". New Delhi/Geneva: Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh 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 Shah Rukh 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. Apart from SRK, Hollywood star Cate Blanchett and legendary musician Sir Elton John will also be awarded. That Shah Rukh Khan has admirers scattered all around the world is no news. But now, the Bollywood megastar will receive the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forums Annual Meeting in Davos later this month. The World Economic Forum said that SRK would be given this award for his leadership in championing childrens and womens rights in India. SRK, in return, was humbled by this victory. Thank you for this honour. I consider my work with these heroic and beautiful women a great privilege as it imparts dignity and purpose to my life. I hope to spread awareness of the unparalleled heroism of these ladies and reach out to others in order to carry this work to its conclusion (sic), he tweeted. Apart from SRK, Hollywood star Cate Blanchett and legendary musician Sir Elton John will also be awarded. Cate, for her leadership in raising awareness about the refugee crisis, and Sir Elton for his leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The Annual Crystal Awards ceremony celebrates the achievements of outstanding artists who have shown exemplary commitment to improving the state of the world. The CPI(M) said a thorough investigation was needed to understand how the independence and integrity of judiciary was being affected. it is necessary for all three wings of our democracy--the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary--to ensure that whatever has been raised is corrected," CPI-M general-secretary Sitaram Yechury said. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The CPI(M) on Friday said a thorough investigation was needed to understand how the independence and integrity of judiciary was being affected after four senior Supreme Court judges came out in the open to say that the situation in the apex court was "not in order". The Left party said it was necessary for the three wings of democracy to ensure that whatever issues had been raised were corrected. "This can not but merit a thorough, proper investigation and understanding of how independence and integrity of judiciary is being interfered or is being affected, which is impermissible in a secular democratic republic," CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said. Also read: Supreme Court administration not in order, say 4 top judges in unprecedented press meet "That we declare ourselves in our Constitution. So it is necessary for all three wings of our democracy--the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary--to ensure that whatever has been raised is corrected,"he said. Four senior judges on Friday mounted a virtual revolt against the chief justice, listing a litany of problems that they said are afflicting the country's highest court and warned they could destroy Indian democracy. Also read: PM must ensure whole SC come to one opinion to proceed further: Swamy The unprecedented move at a joint news conference by the four judges including Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior judge after the Chief Justice of India, left the judiciary and observers stunned, leaving them uncertain how this open dissension in the hallowed institution would be resolved. The images were created by the FBI laboratory using age-progression technology and original photographs obtained by the FBI in 2000. Neerja Bhanot, who headed the attendants on the flight, lost her life in protecting the passengers. (Photo: File) Washington: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday 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 Organisation (ANO), previously on the US State Department's list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organisations. 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. Asked Chief Justice for remedy, but our efforts failed, say judges; 'let nation decide if he is to be impeached'. New Delhi: Four top Supreme Court judges virtually rebelled against the Chief Justice of India on Friday, saying the apex court was beset by problems that had the potential to destroy Indian democracy. In an unprecedented move first in the history of Indian judiciary the four senior judges held a press meet to say that sometimes administration of the Supreme Court was not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months. The four Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph addressed the media at Justice Chelameswars home, an event that Chelameswar said was extraordinary in the history of any nation but that they were compelled to do it. The judges went public with their grievances against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, saying unless the judiciary was preserved, democracy cant be protected in the country. The justices did not elaborate on the issues "only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this institution to some extent". They sent a seven-page letter to the Chief Justice, (read below), saying while he was the "master of the roster", he was "only the first among equals -- nothing more or nothing less". It looks like they did not agree with the allocation of work by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Justice Chelameswar said: We collectively tried to persuade Chief Justice of India (Dipak Misra) that certain things aren't in order so take remedial measures, but unfortunately our efforts failed. Let the nation decide that, Justice Chelameswar said when asked if the Chief Justice of India should be impeached. We met the CJI today with a specific request which unfortunately couldn't convince him that we were right therefore, we were left with no choice but to communicate it to the nation to please take care of the institution, Chelameswar said. Asked to give an example of what was not in order, Justice Chelameswar said: A couple of months ago, the four of us gave a signed letter to the CJI. We wanted a particular thing to be done in a particular manner. It was done but in such a way that it raised further questions about the integrity of institution. The same thing happened this morning. Read Also: Heres the text of letter given by 4 top judges of SC to CJI Justice Chelameswar added: All our efforts have failed and we are all convinced that unless this institution is preserved, democracy cant be protected in the country. Read Also: Here's what 4 SC Judges told media at press conference today Justice Chelameswar concluded the meet by saying: There are many wise men saying many wise things in this country. We dont want wise men saying 20 years from now that Justice Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Kurian Joseph sold their souls and didnt do the right thing by our constitution. The open dissent has left the judiciary and observers stunned, leaving uncertain how this open dissension in the hallowed institution would be resolved. All judges rubbished questions on whether they have broken ranks and said that they will start doing things which they do. Justice Gogoi said, "Nobody is breaking the rank and it is discharge of debt to nation which we have done." Gogoi, who will be succeeding Misra as CJI in October this year, said, "it's a discharge of debt to the nation which we have done." After the press conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the law minister and officers to discuss the issue. Government sources said it was an internal issue of the Supreme Court, related to the administration of justice. This indicates the government is unlikely to interfere. "It is a sad day for the judicial system," said Congress leader Ashwani Kumar, also a senior advocate. However, Jalaun DM, Mannan Akhtar, has refuted the allegations. Lucknow: UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a probe into allegations that the district magistrate and sub-divisional magistrate of Jalaun had called up CBI special Judge Shivpal Singh to seek favours for RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam case. According to Mr Mrityunjay Kumar, media advisor to the chief minister, the inquiry has been handed over to commissioner, Jhansi division, Amit Gupta, to probe alleged claims made by the two officers concerned, who have maintained that they had discussed nothing but matters related to a land dispute in Jalaun. 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. Mr Yadav was awarded a three-and-a-half-year jail term and a fine of `5 lakh. Later, media reports suggested that the district magistrate of Jalaun and the sub-divisional magistrate had called up the CBI judge to plead for Mr Yadav. However, Jalaun DM, Mannan Akhtar, has refuted the allegations. I have never spoken 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, he said. Loya died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on Dec 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. B H Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, and the SC sought response from Maharashtra government on pleas seeking an independent probe into it. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Supreme Court termed the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge B H Loya as a "serious matter" on Friday. B H Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, and the Supreme Court sought response from Maharashtra government on pleas seeking an independent probe into it. The top court said, "This matter requires bi-party hearing rather than exparte". A bench of justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar asked Maharasthra Government counsel Nishant R Katneshwarkar to file reply by January 15. At the outset, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing Bombay lawyers association, said the high court is seized of the matter and the apex court should not hear the pleas. "The Bombay High Court is seized of the matter and in my opinion the Supreme Court should not hear this matter. If the court goes ahead with the hearing, it may have implications before the high court," Dave said. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for one of the petitioners Maharashtra-based journalist B R Lone, said that she has also instructions from Bombay lawyers association that this matter should not be heard by the top court. The bench, however, said it will look into the petitions but will also consider the objections raised. Advocate Varinder Kumar Sharma, appearing for another petitioner Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala, said this is a case where a mysterious death of a judge has taken place on December 1, 2014 and it needs to be investigated. The bench then asked Katneshwarkar to file the post-mortem report and other relevant documents regarding the death of judge Loya besides taking instruction from the government. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 15. Loya had died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. Ms Karandlaje also alleged that the Congress had sheltered, financed and trained LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran. Bengaluru: 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 Mr Siddaramaiah to arrest its as well as RSS leaders. Mr Siddaramaiah, who came under intense attack from the BJP on Wedne-sday for saying that the party and its fountainhead RSS had terroris-ts, on Thursday called them Hindutva extremists. I had said Hindutva extremists, he told reporters in Chamarajan-agara when asked about his remarks on Wednes-day, which had stirred a hornets nest in the poll-bound state. But, later speaking to reporters in Mysuru, Mr 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 Mr Siddarama-iah irresponsible for linking the party built by Atal Behari Vajpayee with terrorists, BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje on Thursday alleged that if there is terrorism in this country today, the Congress is the main reason for it, also for the situation in Kashmir. Accusing the Congress of having supported and encouraging the Khalist-an movement, she said, We have lost several officers, soldiers, leaders and also PM because of it. Ms Karandlaje also alleged that the Congress had sheltered, financed and trained LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran. Mr 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. Nearly 4,000 Sangh members of Madhya Khetra unit of RSS are expected to attend the three-day meet of the Sangh in Vidisha. Bhopal: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat held a closed-door meeting with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Bhopal on Thursday sparking major speculations in the BJP. The meeting is viewed with significance as it came in the wake of a brewing farmer unrest in Madhya Pradesh, which had manifested in form of violent agitations across the state last year. Six farmers were killed when police opened fire on agitating tillers in Mandsaur in MP in April last year, leading the unrest to take violent form in the state. Assembly polls are due in November this year in the state. The closed-door meeting held in Samidha, the headquarters of Madhya Khetra of RSS comprising four regions of the outfit in MP and Chhattisgarh, lasted nearly 40 minutes. Later, Mr Bhagwat proceeded to Vidisha in MP by road where he was scheduled to attend the 3-day meeting of Madhya Khetra unit of the organisation. Nearly 4,000 Sangh members of Madhya Khetra unit of RSS are expected to attend the three-day meet of the Sangh in Vidisha. Mr Bhagwat also attended the Ekatma yatra, launched last fortnight by Mr Chouhan to spread ideologies of Adi Shankaracharya in Vidisha on Thursday. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Bhagwat called upon the gathering of BJP activists to connect to the people at the grass root level. He exhorted them to move door to door to connect with each and every people in the state. In a bid to reassure India after fresh strains were reported in the Indo-Maldivian ties following growing proximity between the Maldives and China. New Delhi: After an invitation by Indias tiny maritime neighbour, which is offering the olive branch to a miffed New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed to visit the Maldives the only south Asian country he has not visited so far at a suitable time. In a bid to reassure India after fresh strains were reported in the Indo-Maldivian ties following growing proximity between the Maldives and China, visiting Maldives foreign minister Dr Mohamed Asim met both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi during which the senior Maldivian minister emphasised that Maldives attached the highest priority to its ties with India. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader also claimed they were fighting for the Gorkha identity and did not comment on the issue of a separate state. New Delhi: Senior leader of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha Bimal Gurung on Thursday said he was willing to talk to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a bid to help resolve crisis in Darjeeling and the adjoining hill districts. Mr Gurung also dismissed Ms Banerjees allegations that he was a separatist, claiming that their demands were within the constitutional framework and he firmly believed in the countrys integrity. He also demanded an independent probe into cases lodged against him and his party associates by the state police, saying these were motivated and that they had been falsely implicated. The GJM alleged that Mr Gurung had been booked in more than 350 cases and had even petitioned the Supreme Court, which directed the police not to take any coercive measures against him. Mr Gur-ung said he was ready for a dialogue with the West Bengal CM as dialogue was the only way forward. He also claimed they were fighting for the Gorkha identity and did not comment on the issue of a separate state. We have 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, he added. While accusing the state government of acting in a one-sided manner, he appealed to his supporters to maintain peace and not to resort to any illegal activity. Ms Banerjee had earlier appointed Vinay Tamang as the chief of the of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration after Mr Gurung, who was earlier heading it, and his associates resigned. However, Mr Gurungs supporters claimed that Mr Tamang had been propped up by the Trinamul Congress, but the GJM leader remained the real leader of Gorkhas. The unprecedented move was taken by Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph. Four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court on Friday called a press conference and said the situation in the top court was not in order. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Friday, the 12th January 2018, marked an extraordinary event in the history of the Indian judiciary. Four of the five top judges of the Supreme Court challenged the authority of the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, at a press conference earlier in the day. The unprecedented move was taken by Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph, who has claimed that there was a threat to democracy in the country as judiciary's independence is being compromised. Also Read: SC administration not in order, say 4 top judges in unprecedented press meet Sometimes administration of the Supreme Court was not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few monthsunless the judiciary was preserved, democracy cant be protected in the country, they said at the press meet at Justice Chelameswars residence in Delhi. They sent a seven-page letter to the CJI, (read below), saying while he was the "master of the roster", he was "only the first among equals nothing more or nothing less". It looks like they did not agree with the allocation of work by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Read the full text of letter given by 4 top judges of SC to CJI Who is Justice Chelameswar? Justice Chelameswar is the second-most senior judge of the Supreme Court. He is known to speak his mind and has delivered several landmark judgements. He delivered a dissenting judgement, when the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court quashed the al Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, 2014, and the 99th constitutional amendment, thus the governments say in the judges' appointments through NJAC. Proceedings of the collegium were absolutely opaque and inaccessible both to public and history, barring occasional leaks Such a state of affairs does not either enhance the credibility of the institution or good for the people of this country, he had said. He was also the part of the Division Bench that referred a petition, demanding independent court-monitored SIT probe into the alleged medical college bribery scam, to a five-judge Constitution bench. However, a day later, the CJI nullified the Division Benchs order and set up a three-judge bench, which dismissed the petition. Chalameswar was born on July 23, 1953, in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. He studied physics at Loyola College in Chennai and later went on to study law at Andhra Univeristy in Vishakapatnam. He served as the Additional Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and was appointed the Chief Justice of Guwahati High Court in 2007. He then served as the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court before being elevated as a Judge in the Supreme Court in October 2011. He will retire in October 2018. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, next judge in line to succeed Dipak Misra Justice Gogoi, from Assam, is in line to succeed Justice Dipak Misra as the Chief Justice of India in October 2018. He will be the first CJI from a Northeast state. Born on November 18, 1954, Justice Gogoi was enrolled at the Bar in 1978. After years of practising at the Gauhati High Court, he was appointed a Permanent Judge of the court on February 28, 2001. He became the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 12, 2011, a year after being transferred there on September 9, 2010. Just a year later, on April 23, 2012, Justice Gogoi was elevated as a Supreme Court judge. Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur Justice Lokur, who will also retire by the end of this year, is known for his notable judgement, quashing Centres decision to provide 4.5 per cent sub-quota to minorities carved out of 27 per cent OBC reservation. He was then the Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court. The very use of the words "belonging to minorities" or "for minorities" indicates that the sub-quota has been carved out only on religious lines and not on any other intelligible basis, the bench observed while setting aside the sub-quota. Born on December 31, 1953, Justice Lokur did his schooling in Delhi attended St. Stephen's Collegiate in Allahabad for ISC examination. Before studying law from Faculty of Law, Delhi University, he graduated in History (Hons.) from Delhi Univeristys St Stephens College. He was enrolled at the Bar in 1977 and practiced in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. He was in 1981 appointed the Advocate-on-Record (AoR) of the SC. He is due to retire in December 2018. Justice Kurian Joseph Justice Joseph had in August last year ruled against the controversial triple talaq or or instant divorce practiced by some sects of Muslims. In his judgement he said: "I find it extremely difficult to agree with the learned Chief Justice that the practice of triple talaq has to be considered integral to the religious denomination in question and that the same is part of their personal law. He is also part of the Supreme Court bench hearing the coal block allocation scam. Justice Joseph was born on November 30, 1953, in Kerala and completed his schooling there. He studied law at Kerala Law Academy in Thiruvananthapuram. Justice Joseph started practising in 1979 and was appointed as a judge of Kerala High Court in 2010. He was elevated as the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court in February 2010. Justice Joseph, who will retire in November 2018, was appointed a judge in the Supreme Court on March 8, 2013. The MEA said the talks were part of operational-level talks. New Delhi: In a major admission, India confirmed on Thursday that national security adviser Ajit Doval had indeed met his Pakistani counterpart Lt. Gen. Nasser Khan Janjua (Retd) recently but justified the meeting, saying that while terror and talks cannot go together, talks on terror can definitely go ahead. The meeting is learnt to have taken place in Bangkok on December 26. The external affairs ministry said: The focus of the talks was on terror, cross-border terrorism. MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar said: I am saying that talks have taken place on how to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from this region, adding India raised (the issue of) cross-border terrorism in these talks. The MEA said the talks were part of operational-level talks. 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, the MEA spokesman said, adding that such operational-level talks are not announced. Nevertheless, the talks indicate that New Delhi while realising the reality of the Pakistan Army and ISI actively sponsoring terror in India are also in favour of continuing some sort of engagement quietly with Pakistan. The very fact that the two NSAs had to meet in Bangkok bears testimony to this. Also, observers feel that the views of the Pakistan NSA would indicate in some way what the Pakistan Army wants to be conveyed to India. The meeting also took place just one day after the wife and mother of imprisoned former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav had met him in Islamabad. When asked whether the treatment meted out to Jadhavs wife and mother was raised at the meeting by the Indian NSA, the MEA spokesman said the NSAs talks had focused on terror. Jadhav has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage, allegations which India has categorically rejected. However, New Delhi appears to be painfully aware that ultimately Jadhavs fate will be decided by the Pakistani Army chief. Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph alleged that the situation in the Supreme Court was not in order. In an apparent warning, the judges said lack of impartiality in allocation of high profile cases and constitution of benches with junior judges could imperil Indias democracy. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: In an unprecedented move in the annals of judiciary, four senior most judges of the Supreme Court on Friday questioned the unilateral and biased decisions of the Chief justice of India Dipak Misra in allocation of important cases to junior judges. In a joint press conference, Justice J Chelameswar (number 2 in seniority), Justices Ranjan Gogoi (number 3) Madan B Lokur (number 4) and Kurian Joseph (number 5), who felt that they were being sidelined, alleged that the situation in the Supreme Court was not in order and said many "less than desirable" things have taken place in the last few months. The conference was held at the residence of Justice Chelameswar, who led the briefing. In an apparent warning, the judges said lack of impartiality in allocation of high profile cases and constitution of benches with junior judges could imperil Indias democracy. They said though they wrote a seven-page letter to the CJI two months ago (on allocation of work), the allocation of two petitions on Friday seeking a probe into the death of former CBI sessions judge BH Loya who discharged BJP President Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, to a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra (number 10 in the rank) triggered the controversy. Meanwhile highly placed sources in the judiciary denied that the CJI was taking decisions in a biased manner. It was pointed out the CJIs conscience is clear. All high profile cases are allocated uniformly to the top four judges, Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Joseph. Sources refused to comment on the allegation relating to composition of Constitution Benches with junior judges, except saying there is no bias and norms are being followed. Justice Chelameswar said this is an extraordinary event for the history of any nation, more particularly this nation, an extraordinary event in the history of this institution of judiciary. It is with no pleasure we are compelled to take this call for a press conference but sometimes the administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable which have happened in the last few months. He said, We tried to collectively persuade the Chief Justice that certain things are not in order and therefore remedial measures need to be taken, unfortunately our efforts failed. Asked whether allocation of petitions in Loyas case was the flash point, they said we all met the CJI in his chambers this morning with a specific request, which unfortunately could not convince him that we were right; therefore, we were left with no choice to but to communicate it to the nation. They said, All four of us are convinced that unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country or any country. For a survival of a democracy it is said that a hallmark of a good democracy is an independent and impartial judge". To a specific question what are the remedies now? Do you want the Chief Justice of India to be impeached? Justice Chelameswar said, "We are not saying anything now. Let the nation decide, we are nobodies to decide. On his part Justice Gogoi said Whatever Justice Chelameswar has told you is the whole of it, it is the discharge of a debt to the nation that has brought us here and we think that we have discharged the debt to the nation. More is in the letter, beyond this I don't think there is any other issue we need to address". Justice Gogoi said, I dont want another 20 years later wise men in this country blame that Chelamesawar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph sold their souls, they didn't take care of this institute. So we place it before the people of this country. We dont want to say anything more. The letter speaks for itself. The person against whom the motion is moved gets a chance to put his point forward to the committee in writing. New Delhi: As an open rebellion broke out in the judiciary with four top Supreme Court judges levelling charges against the Chief Justice of India, the Opposition parties moved swiftly and are likely to move a symbolic impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra in the Rajya Sabha. The government, however, kept a safe distance and made it clear that it would not intervene in the matter. Officially, the Congress, Trinamul Congress and the Left said the matter should be looked into, terming the charges levelled by the four judges as grave in nature. Sources said the Opposition parties are in touch with each other to explore the option of moving a motion of impeachment in the Rajya Sabha against CJI Misra. Any such motion will be symbolic in nature as the Opposition doesnt have the two-thirds strength required for it to be passed. Also, the Opposition can move this motion in the Upper House only as it requires the signatures of only 50 members there, as against those of 100 members in the Lok Sabha. As per precedents, it is up to the Rajya Sabha Chairman to admit the motion. After the Chairman admits the motion, it is referred to a committee of two judges and a senior advocate, who then investigate the matter. The person against whom the motion is moved gets a chance to put his point forward to the committee in writing. CJI Misra is due to retire in October this year. On the other side, though speculation was rife that law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday's dramatic developments, the government made it clear that it would not intervene in the matter of four senior judges saying the situation in the Supreme Court was "not in order". Minister of state for law P.P. Chaudhury said: "Our judiciary is reputed all over the world, is independent and will sort out the matter itself." The Congress demanded a probe, saying: "What happened today was unprecedented and needed to be looked into". Lending weight to the importance of the matter, a press conference was addressed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, where he said the points that have been raised by the four Supreme Court judges were "extremely important". He said: "They have mentioned that there is a threat to democracy. I think it is extremely serious and needs to be looked into carefully." Interestingly, it was the first time that the Congress had raised the matter of allegations about the "mysterious" death of CBI judge B.H. Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. While addressing the media in the morning, the judges had mentioned the Loya case, saying it was one of the issues they had raised with CJI Misra before deciding to go public with their grievances. Mr Gandhi said: "They (the four judges) have also made a point about Judge Loya's case. I think that also needs to be investigated properly. It needs to be examined at the highest level of the honourable Supreme Court. This type of thing has never happened before. It is unprecedented and I think all citizens who love the idea of justice... are looking at this issue closely, and I think it is important to be addressed." Alleging interference by the Centre in the judiciary, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said: "We are deeply anguished with the developments today about the Supreme Court. What we are getting from the statement of the four senior judges of the Supreme Court about the affairs of the court makes us really sad as citizens." She added: "Judiciary and media are pillars of democracy. Extreme interference of the Central government with the judiciary is dangerous for democracy." A controversy, meanwhile, erupted over CPI leader D. Raja meeting Justice Chelameswar at his residence. Many questioned the meeting. National Conference's Omar Abdullah said in a tweet that Mr Raja's decision to go to the judge's house was "ill-considered", and that it "plays into the hands of those who want to discredit what the judges said/did". Mr Raja, in his defence, said: "Have known him for a long time. When I came to know of the extraordinary step taken by him and the other judges, I thought I must meet him. Not giving it political colour. These are concerns for everybody, it's about the future of the country and of democracy." Patole had resigned from the BJP just a day before the polling in the Gujarat Assembly elections. New Delhi: Former BJP Lok Sabha MP Nana Patole from Bhandara-Gondiya parliamentary seat in Maharashtra officially joined the Congress on Thursday. Mr Patole had quit the BJP over differences with the senior leadership. Mr Patole had resigned from his Lok Sabha constituency alleging that the present Central government was not paying attention to the agrarian crisis prevailing in the country. Interestingly, he had left the Congress to join the BJP ahead of the 2014 elections and is now back. Yes, I have joined the Congress. I will take whatever responsibility the party gives me, either at the national or the state level, Mr Patole said. Mr Patole had resigned from the BJP just a day before the polling in the Gujarat Assembly elections. He had also shared the stage with Congress president Rahul Gandhi. City-based clinical psychotherapist, Scherezade Sanchita Siobhan is hoping to make therapy more accessible by taking it to peoples homes. Twenty-five-year old Priya* has finally decided to take matters into her own hands and book an appointment with a mental care expert. Shedding all her inhibitions, looking forward to a better mental state and overcoming anxiety, Priya visits the clinic. Unfortunately, not everyone can muster the courage to visit a mental health clinic like Priya not everyone is that brave. And clinical psychotherapist and practicing psychologist Scherezade Sanchita Siobhan understands that. By now, there was enough incentive for Scherezade to do something about this situation. For a very long time, I was observing the huge gap between psychiatric care and the spaces that offer them, she begins over the phone. Scherezade took to Twitter to invite women seeking mental health care to approach her with their queries, after which she will visit them in the comfort of their homes. People who have experienced trauma just want to find space, reliable space where they can seek therapy. Sometimes, we see that with trauma comes a significant amount of social anxiety. Sometimes, trauma can be triggered even by day-to-day travelling, she explains. And as a result of this social anxiety, often people do not get the help that they deserve. So I decided that if someone cant come to me, then I would make it possible to come to you, she explains. Ever since she posted the Tweet, Scherezade has received several inquiries. I started getting emails from the moment that people started noticing the tweet, she recalls. I got emails from various demographics. I had women who wanted something affordable and they couldnt find that. I received queries from college students who were not sure where to take their doubts about certain aspects, she lists. Considering this wide demographic and the even bigger spectrum of queries that are filling up Scherezades inbox, shes also recommending a few professionals. A lot of these queries need more collaborative work with a psychiatric facility. The whole concept is built around community-aided therapy, she says, adding that the initiative is only meant for women. Womens mental health problems are still stigmatised. I wanted to start it off in that space because it is under-represented, she says. Recalling an incident from her personal life, she says, There is a definite sexism in how male psychiatrists treat women patients. I once attended a mental health conference, where a very prominent male psychiatrist was speaking. The whole approach of how he was treating women patients was by stigmatising their mental health women face this a lot. I want to break away from that, she says. Scherezade Sanchita Siobhan Scherezade plans to keep the entire initiative affordable. Depending on the patients concern, I plan on charging only between Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 per session, she says, adding that she hopes the initiative invites more people to shed her inhibitions and approach better mental healthcare. (* name changed on request) To get in touch, write to thetalkingcompass@gmail.com The Technology Cell will scan latest technology developments that can be utilised by it to combat crime and criminals. The CTO will also have the job to liaison with different units of Delhi Police to understand any technology-related issues faced by them. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: 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 cyber crime, cryptography and 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. With the arrest count going up to ten, only one accused Yug Tuli (co-owner of Mojos Bistro) is still absconding. Mumbai: The police arrested the third absconding owner of 1 Above pub, Abhijeet Mankar, at 7.30 am on Thursday morning from Hotel Marine Plaza at Marine Lines. Mankar had been staying at the hotel since the fire broke out on December 29. His arrest was made hours after the two other owners, the Sanghvi brothers Kripesh and Jigar, were arrested from Bandra after the police successfully laid a trap outside the lawyers office. With the arrest count going up to ten, only one accused Yug Tuli (co-owner of Mojos Bistro) is still absconding. Sources said that the Mankars arrest was made after his friend, Vishal Karia, a hotelier-cum-bookie, revealed the locations of the three accused. Hours before Mankars arrest, the NM Joshi police had arrested the Sanghvis, who were also absconding since the fire took place, gutting in two pubs in the Kamala Mills compound and killing 14 people, including 11 women. The Sanghvi brothers were arrested from Bandra area, after the police laid a trap outside their lawyers office late on Wednesday evening. Sources said that the duo was arrested as soon as they were identified by the police while crossing a road in Bandra. Ahmed Pathan, senior police inspector of NM Joshi police station said, The three absconding owners of 1 Above were arrested after we received a tip off. After the arrest of the Sanghvi brothers from Bandra late on Wednesday, we interrogated them, and sought Mankars location, following which he was arrested. When asked DCP Virendra Mishra (Zone 3) about how Mankar managed to stay in the hotel going unnoticed, he said, We are probing the matter. Serving hookahs in bars or restaurants with poor fire safety standards and no separate fire exits continue to be a grave safety hazard. He has pointed to its health hazards for youngsters and has asked for its ban under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003 (COTPA). (Representational image) Mumbai: Anti-tobacco activist Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, the head and neck surgeon at the Tata Memorial Hospital, has appro-ached central authorities and the state health department for a ban on hookahs in the city. He has pointed to its health hazards for youngsters and has asked for its ban under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act 2003 (COTPA). Serving hookahs in bars or restaurants with poor fire safety standards and no separate fire exits continue to be a grave safety hazard. In the recent Kamala Mill fire incident, 14 persons had died of suffocation in a fire that reportedly started from a eatery that was serving hookah. Talking to The Asian Age, Dr Chaturvedi said, While the government had failed to curb the hookah culture, hookah smokers are to be equally blamed. They dont just harm themselves, but also the people around them through fire hazard and second hand smoke, he added. Dr Chaturvedi further said that after the recent fire episode, he has written a letter to senior authorities in central as well as state government to ban hookah, and that it should be included in the COPTA. The COPTA definition does not include the term hookah and the parlours contend that they are not serving tobacco in hookahs, pushing it out of the gamut of the legislation, he said. According to state health officials, The state government is planning to ban hookah parlours, considering its health hazardous. Kejriwal also criticised the BJP-led Maharashtra govt for allowing private schools to flourish allegedly at the cost of government schools. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses a public meeting in Buldhana district of Maharashtra after paying homage to Jijabai. (Photo: Twitter/@AamAadmiParty) Mumbai: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday blamed the BJP and the RSS for the recent violence at Koregaon Bhima, which led to caste tension in Maharashtra. Addressing a public meeting at Sindhkhedraja in Buldhana district of Maharashtra after paying homage to Jijabai, the mother of warrior king Shivaji, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo said the Maratha king had worked to achieve an all-inclusive society. The meeting was held on the occasion of Jijabais birth anniversary. The BJP-RSS (supporters) attacked Dalits at Koregaon Bhima, leading to caste tensions. We condemn this, he said and alleged, To instigate riots, on the basis of caste and religion, and rule is the BJPs creed. Dalits visiting a war memorial at Koregaon Bhima in Pune district to commemorate an 1818 battle in which the army of the East India Company, consisting of Dalit Mahar soldiers, had defeated the forces of the Brahmin Peshwa rulers had come under attack on January 1. It had led to protests in various parts of Maharashtra. Some pro-Hindutva leaders had opposed the 200th anniversary celebrations of the battle. Kejriwal also criticised the BJP-led Maharashtra government for allowing private schools to flourish allegedly at the cost of government schools, saying that a government that could not run schools had no right to rule. He also alleged that the BJP in Maharashtra had crushed the dreams of social reformer couple Mahatma Phule and Savitribai Phule, as well as that of Shivaji. The AAP leader pointed out that when he became the chief minister of Delhi three years ago, the condition of the government schools was bad in the national capital. Only the poor used to send their children to government schools then. In three years, we have started 300 new state-of-the-art government schools with modern amenities. The Delhi governments budget is Rs 40,000 crore and still we managed to repair the schools and start new ones. The Maharashtra governments budget is Rs 3 lakh crore and still it is shutting down government schools, he said. Stating that his government had conducted an audit of the power companies in the national capital, Kejriwal said, Today, Delhi has the cheapest power tariff. He said the farmers of the country needed to come together to launch an agitation, demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report on remunerative prices for their produce. We gave Rs 50,000 per hectare to the farmers in Delhi when they faced a crop loss due to unseasonal rains, he said. Former Congress MP Sudhir Sawant joined the AAP at Kejriwals rally. The Union minister, however, invited the Navy for talks to resolve the issue. Mumbai: Venting his anger over the Navy red-flagging a floating jetty project in Mumbai and stopping development, Union shipping minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday publicly rejected naval officers proposal to build residential flats in south Mumbai. The 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, Mr Gadkari said at an event in the city in the presence of Western Naval Command chief Vice-Admiral Girish Luthra. Mr Gadkaris public display of displeasure comes in the backdrop of the Bombay high court refusing permission for a floating jetty at Malabar Hill citing the Navys objections due to security reasons where a floating hotel and seaplane service are slated to come up. Claiming that the Navy had stalled the floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill, despite the project virtually getting the high courts nod, Mr Gadkari said, Stopping such developmental work has become a habit. Mr Gadkari wondered aloud, What has the Navy got to do with the Malabar Hill area, which is a private residential zone that also has the official residences of the Maharashtra governor and chief minister. The Navy has nothing to do in the area. The Union minister, however, invited the Navy for talks to resolve the issue. We are the government. The Navy and the defence ministry are not the government, Mr Gadkari asserted. Rejecting Naval officers request for land in south Mumbai, Mr Gadkari said, Everyone wants to build quarters and flats on prime south Mumbai land. We respect the Navy, but you should go to the Pakistan border and do patrolling. A few important and senior officials can stay in Mumbai. He added, Land on the eastern seafront being jointly developed by the Mumbai Port Trust and the Maharashtra government will be utilised only for the benefit of locals. Party says min hitting back for Navys no to floating jetty. Mumbai: The state Congress has hit out at Union Minister Nitin Gadkari for insulting the Indian Navy and demanded an apology from him. Mr Gadkari triggered off a controversy at a function in Mumbai on Thursday, when he said that he would not give the Navy an inch of land for housing in South Mumbai. The Congress has termed this statement irresponsible and disrespectful. Party spokesperson Sachin Sawant reacted strongly to Mr Gadkaris statement suggesting Navy officers be sent to the border. Mr Gadkari should apologise for insulting the Indian Navy by saying that he would not give an inch of land to Navy officers in Mumbai, and asking them to go to the Pakistan border. We condemn these remarks, said the Maharashtra Congress spokesperson. Wondering why all Navy officials need to stay in posh South Mumbai, the minister had said, Actually, the Navy is needed at the border 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. Mr Gadkaris public displeasure came 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 being planned. Mr Sawant asked why Mr Gadkari was insisting on a floating hotel which can be a threat to Mumbais security. This should be probed. He alleged that BJPs patriotism was a sham and was not applicable to private companies. He claimed that the Navy took objection to helipad and redevelopment projects in south Mumbai due to security issues. Nitin Gadkari This is what Gadkari said Wondering why all Navy officials need to stay in posh South Mumbai, the minister had said, Actually, the Navy is needed at the border 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. The allegations were levelled by the opposition that work was allocated to the company without tendering process. Mumbai: The state government has discontinued the services of the Innowave company which was handling the online process of implementation of the farm loan waiver scheme. The government has decided to handover the work to Mahaonline, a government subsidiary. The state had allegedly paid Rs 35 crore to Innowave and Reign company as fees. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has refused to comment over the issue. The co-operation department had that it has not sanctioned the payment to the company and the IT department might have issued the payment. However, the IT department sources said that the payment might not related to the loan waiver only as the company was also given the work of Direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme. The chief minister had decided to use online process for loan waiver scheme, and the work was assigned to the Innowave company. However, several technical problems were witnessed, and the government had to face criticism for the delay. Facing flak from the opposition, CM Fadnavis had removed IT secretary V.K. Gautam and asked Mahaonline company to take over remaining scrutiny process, said sources. The allegations were levelled by the opposition that work was allocated to the company without tendering process. However, the government had clarified that the company was awarded DBT work by tendering process and loan waiver process was the extended work for which there wont be any extra payment. Meanwhile, Congress Mumbai chief Sanjay Nirupam alleged that there was a misappropriation of funds and asked: why the government had not given work to Mahaonline earlier? After all mess by a private company, now the government has given remaining work to Mahaonline and making payment to the private company is wrong, saidCongress Mumbai chief Sanjay Nirupam. The top ranking in the survey went to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by French President Emmanuel Macron. Prime Minister Modi will be on a two-day visit to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting between January 22 and 23. (Photo: File/PTI) New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Switzerland for Davos summit, an international survey has ranked him among the top three leaders of the world. An annual survey by Gallup International has put Prime Minister Modi at number three among the global leaders. The respondents in the survey, which was conducted among the people across 50 countries, had rated Prime Minister Modi ahead of China's Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump amongst others. The top ranking in the survey went to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by French President Emmanuel Macron. Prime Minister Modi will be on a two-day visit to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting between January 22 and 23. Security researchers disclosed the flaws that affected nearly every computing device containing chips from Intel, AMD and ARM Holdings Microsoft said that 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. Microsoft also said that security updates froze some computers using chipsets from Intel rival AMD, dragging AMDs shares down nearly 4 per cent. Shares in Intel, which reiterated on Tuesday that it saw no sign of a significant slowdown in computers, fell 2.5 per cent taking the loss since the issue surfaced last week to about 7 per cent or around $15 billion in market value. AMD shares have gained nearly 20 per cent 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 that affected nearly every modern computing device containing chips from Intel, AMD and ARM Holdings, owned by Japans SoftBank Group. "We (and others in the industry) had learned of this vulnerability under nondisclosure agreement several months ago and immediately began developing engineering mitigations and updating our cloud infrastructure," Microsoft executive Terry Myerson wrote in a blog post. Internet and networking equipment maker Cisco Systems said in a security advisory 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. Cisco said it is also looking for problems in nearly 30 other products, including switches and routers. The majority of Ciscos 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 5 per cent 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 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. 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 to fix the security flaw. The court ruled in the Chinese companys favour over two patents involving fourth-generation phone technology. The judge ordered Samsung Electronics to immediately stop selling or manufacturing products using the technology and to pay a small court fee. (Photo: AFP) Chinese tech giant Huawei won a patent infringement lawsuit against South Korea smartphone rival Samsung on Thursday, according to information released by a Chinese court. The court ruled in the Chinese companys favour over two patents involving fourth-generation phone technology, according to a notice released through the courts WeChat account and video of the trial. The judge ordered Samsung Electronics to immediately stop selling or manufacturing products using the technology and to pay a small court fee. The ruling did not cite specific phone models. 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 lawsuits against each other in the United States and China in recent years. Huawei Technologies Ltd.s headquarters is in Shenzhen, in southern China across the border from Hong Kong. The company is the dominant player in Chinas smartphone market, though globally it trails Samsung and Apple. The court said it ruled in Huaweis favour after finding that 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 courts decision and determine appropriate responses. Huaweis legal victory comes days after it was dealt a setback in its efforts to expand sales in the US when, according to media reports, a planned deal to sell handsets phones through AT&T fell through. As a result of Chinese help so far, Trump said he has not been tough on China as he would like to be. Trump has called on China to do more to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. (Photo: File) Washington: China has not done enough on the issue of North Korea for the US, President Donald Trump has said but appreciated the "great chemistry" he shares with Chinese President Xi Jinping. North Korea in 2017 increased the pace of its missile programme. Since February, Pyongyang has fired off 23 missiles. On November 29, the North Korean leader said that his country had achieved full nuclear statehood after what he said was the successful test of a new missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States. Fears of a catastrophic conflict between the US and North Korea spiked as the leaders of the two nations taunted each other, with President Donald Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Rocket Man'. Trump has called on China to do more to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. "Not helpful enough, but they have been very helpful. Let's put it this way, they have done more for me than they ever have for any American president. They still havent done enough," Trump was quoted as saying in The Wall Street Journal. "But they have done more for me than they have, by far, for anyI have a very good relationship with Xi. I like him. He likes me. We have a great chemistry together. He has done far more for us than they ever have for any American president. With that being said, its not enough. They have to do more," Trump insisted. As a result of Chinese help so far, Trump said he has not been tough on China as he would like to be. "We have been much tougher on China, but not nearly as tough as I would be, but they are helping us a lot with North Korea, he said in response to a question. "And you see in North Korea what's happening with North Korea all of a sudden. Chinas been helping us a lot, so you can veer a little bit differently, but for the most part everything I have said I have done," he said in response to a question on his electoral promise of being tough on China. North Korea, he said, is a big problem. "It is a big problem, and they should not have left me with that problem. That should have been a problem that was solved by Obama, or Bush, or Clinton or anybody, because the longer it went, the worse, the more difficult the problem got," he said. Trump also said that he probably has a "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un but did not confirm or deny if he had spoken to the leader in Pyongyang. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-Un of North Korea. I have relationships with people, I think you people are surprised," Trump said. "Just to be clear, you haven't spoken to the North Korean leader, I mean when you say a relationship with Korea," he was immediately asked. "I dont want to comment on itI dont want to comment, Im not saying I have or I havent. But I just dont" Trump responded. The US president denied that delaying military exercises on the Korean Peninsula for the Olympics sends the wrong message to the North Koreans, that he is in some way bending to them. The Pew survey states that 80 per cent of its Indian respondents said that reporting by their news organisations was accurate. In all the parameters Indian media scores better than the American media. (Photo: AP) Washington: In the age of fast-paced social media wherein terms like 'fake media' or 'fake news' is increasingly gathering popular connotation, a significant majority of Indians believe that news reporting by their mainstream media is fair and objective, a survey has said. In all the parameters Indian media scores better than the American media. Against a global median of 62 per cent people agreeing that news organisations are doing a good job at reporting the news accurately, the Pew survey said that 80 per cent of its Indian respondents said that reporting by their news organisations was accurate. Only seven per cent of the Indians believe otherwise, as against a high 43 percent in the US, who said that their media was not objective and accurate. However, a majority (56 per cent) of Americans still believe that the mainstream media is objective and fair in reporting. Next week, the President Donald Trump has announced that he will present one of its kind 'Fake Media Award' to those media outlets he argues does inaccurate reporting. Quite often Trump identified some of the top American media outlets, CNN, New York Times and Washington Post as fake media. According to Pew Survey, as many as 72 per cent of the Indians believe that their media is doing fairly good coverage of the government. Only 10 per cent does not believe so, as against a high 41 per cent by Americans, which is higher than the global median of 39 per cent. 58 per cent of the respondents in the US still think that the media is doing a good coverage of the government, which is a point lower than the global median of 59 per cent. In India, a low 16 per cent think their news media are doing a poor job reporting different positions on political issues fairly, compared with 65 per cent who say they are doing well. In the US, the figures stands for 52 per cent and 47 per cent respectively, against the global median of 44 per cent and 52 per cent respectively Pew said. According to the latest Pew survey, across other regions, India stands out for its percentage that follows local news very closely (61 per cent), against 40 per cent in the US and the global median of just 37 per cent. Whole in most of the countries surveyed, interest in local news is equal to or lower than interest in national news, people follow local news more than national news in just two countries, India and Indonesia, Pew said. On the other hand, a global median of 57 per cent say they follow international news closely, and just 16 per cent follow it very closely. In India, the figure stands at 53 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. Only 16 per cent of the Indian respondents said that they follow the US news very closely, against the highest 28 per cent by people in Canada. Pew said a global median of 35 per cent say they use social media to get news daily, while 13 per cent use it less than once a day to get news. About half (52 per cent) say they never use social networking sites to get news. In India, notably, only 15 per cent said they use social media to get daily news. There is a disparity in the gender. Only eight per cent of the women in India said they rely on social media to get daily news, as against 22 per cent by men. Releasing details of its survey, Pew said as many as 65 per cent of Indians consider that their news media is covering political issues "fairly". The figure stands 72 per cent for government leaders and officials, and 80 per cent believe that the media is "accurately" covering the news and 72 per cent of them believe the most important news of the day are being covered fairly by the Indian media. In all these parameters, according to Pew survey, Indian media fares much better than the American media where the figure stands respectively at 47 per cent (for reporting political issues), 58 per cent (news about government leaders and officials), 56 per cent (news accurately) and 61 per cent (most important events). Dumala's husband, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was shot dead in a hate crime by an American navy veteran at a bar in Olathe city in 2017. Dumala, 32, fell out of status because her permission to reside in the US was tied to Kuchibhotla through marriage but she managed to regain her residency status. (Photo: AP) Washington: Sunayana Dumala, the wife of Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla who was killed, has been invited to attend US President Donald Trump's maiden State of the Union address, a media report has said. Dumala's husband, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was shot dead in a hate crime by an American navy veteran at a bar in Olathe city in 2017. Dumala, 32, fell out of status because her permission to reside in the US was tied to Kuchibhotla through marriage but she managed to regain her residency status. She has been invited by Congressman Kevin Yoder to attend Trump's State of the Union address, an annual message presented by the US president to a joint session of the Congress. The State of the Union address will be held on January 30. "She is a very powerful symbol of who the system is failing," Yoder was quoted as saying in the report. "One of the reasons I have become so passionate about this immigration issue is that we need to send a message to the Indian community and other immigrant groups that we are a loving country that is welcome to all," said Yoder who is a member of the Congressional caucus on India and Indian Americans. Dumala said she now plans to travel to India to observe the first death anniversary of her husband. She said she has been overwhelmed by the response from friends, families, neighbours and strangers. "That answer was quick... it came like, 'You do belong here'," she said. Trump asked senators why the US has to shoulder the burden of refugees coming to the country after Third World natural disasters. Trump said he wanted people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met and held a press conference with on Wednesday. (Photo: AP) Washington: US President Donald Trump slammed his lawmakers on Friday in a meeting about proposals for immigration reform. He reportedly asked senators why the US has to shoulder the burden of refugees coming to the country after Third World natural disasters, when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvadore and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump said, referring to African countries and Haiti, according to media reports. He also added that US does not need more Haitians and instructed his team to take them out. Trump said he wanted people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met and held a press conference with on Wednesday. Assange has been living in London since he was granted asylum there in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations. Assange, who denies the allegations, feared Sweden would hand him over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks publication. (Photo: AP) London: Ecuador has given citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the countrys London embassy for over five years, and is seeking a dignified and just solution to his situation with Britain. The British government said earlier on Thursday it had refused a request by Ecuador for Assange to be given diplomatic status as part of the South American countrys efforts to resolve his dilemma. Assange has been living in the building in Knightsbridge, London since he was granted asylum there in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations. Swedish prosecutors dropped their probe into the allegations but British police said Assange would be arrested for breaching bail conditions if he left the embassy. Assange, who denies the allegations, feared 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 US history. 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, Ecuadors foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa told a press conference. 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 did not give details on how granting Assange citizenship might help in avoiding his arrest by British police. 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. 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. The former computer hacker enraged Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables that laid bare often highly critical US appraisals of world leaders from Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Saudi royal family. Trump questioned why the US would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as 'shithole countries'. Rupert Colville said, 'You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as shitholes, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.' (Photo: AFP | File) Geneva: The United Nations human rights office on Friday rejected as racist and inciting xenophobia the reported remarks by US President Donald Trump describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from shithole countries. Trump on Thursday questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as shithole countries, according to two sources familiar with the comments made in the White House. Read: Why do we have immigrants from sh**hole countries coming here: Trump These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word one can use but racist, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing when asked about the comments. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as shitholes, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome, he added. The issue was more than vulgar language, Colville said. Its about opening the door to humanitys worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy lives of many people. Trump had also failed to clearly condemn the anti-Semitic and racist actions of white supremacists in Charlottesville at a rally in Virginia in August 2017, Colville said. The program that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status. In November, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua. It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalize their presence in the United States. Nicaraguans were given until January 2019. The future of the Dreamers should not be used as a bargaining chip to negotiate the most severe and restrictive immigration and security measures possible. These are human beings, not commodities, Colville said. Dreamers is term used for undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children. William Spindler, a UN refugee agency spokesman, declined to comment directly on Trumps purported remarks: But what I can say is that UNHCRs position is always that people forced to flee war or persecution, and needing asylum, should be given protection by whichever country they are in, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity or place or country of origin, Spindler said. (onephoto/Bigstock.com) (onephoto/Bigstock.com) The latest part of a wider modernisation of Australia's visa and citizenship services has been announced with officials claiming it will speed up applications.Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has announced that application enquiry services currently done by workers in the UK, Canada and Sydney will come together in one new centre in Adelaide.He said that some 250 new jobs will be created in Adelaide as all Department of Home Affairs enquiry services are relocated to one location. Australian company Datacom Connect has been given the contract to handle around 1.5 million enquiries a year.'Moving enquiry management services to a dedicated external provider is expected to reduce the wait time for clients and improve their access to the information they need in a timely manner,' Dutton said.'Approximately 250 Datacom employees will be dedicated to delivering services for the Department. They will be based at one service centre in Adelaide, rather than being split around the world creating opportunities for Australian job seekers in Adelaide,' he added.He explained that the new arrangement is part of a long term programme to bolster Australia's immigration services, with a focus on creating a more user friendly experience for visa and citizenship applicants and encouraging a greater uptake of digital services.Dutton also confirmed that further improvements to immigration services will be rolled out during the course of 2018, including a new user focussed visa and citizenship website, enhancements to the ImmiAccount online visa application portal and changes enabling clients to reschedule their appointments online.Datacom will begin delivering client enquiry services in full by the middle of 2018 and Dutton added that transition arrangements will be carefully managed to ensure minimal impacts to applicants.But not everyone is happy with the change. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) is concerned about the handling of sensitive data and the quality of services being provided.CPSU acting deputy secretary Brooke Muscat-Bentley said that it is important that highly trained people are doing this work as visa and citizenship applicants are reliant on their assistance to navigate Australia's complex immigration rules and processes. 'Outsourcing this kind of work to a private company like Datacom means paying more and receiving less in return,' he claimed.'Staff in the current call centre are well trained and work under strict Commonwealth guidelines to ensure the sensitive personal information they have access to is protected. By contrast we have serious concerns about the training and protections that will be in place under Datacom,' he pointed out.'This also has disturbing implications for transparency, which is so critical in ensuring public services are being delivered appropriately and efficiently. Not only will a private company have access to sensitive information, but it won't be open to the kind of scrutiny that's needed,' he added. CCMS said: VEVO is not for asking questions, it is for checking visa status and visa conditions.Are the visa conditions on VEVO the same as in the grant letter? Doest the grant letter state that there is a work restriction ? Maybe you can post all the conditions here ? Alternatively email me the grant letter, so I can have a look. I can then send you some contact details privately, which I will not publish here. Click to expand... Thanks NickMy visa issue is I have been granted it for an extra two months after I finish the course. Visa conditions on vevo are same as grant letter. Grant letter says there is a work restriction on both of us. The immi website says postgraduate students are granted an additional six months past the maximum period. This is on top of the two months.Issue with husband - length of stay as above. Condition 8104 work limitation not permitted to work more than 40 hours per fortnight. Website says that if student visa holder is doing a postgraduate there is no limit on the number of hours worked.I will be doing a masters by coursework. I am happy to get the visa as is but if I could maximise time and work rights that would be good. I was going by what it says on the website but maybe I have misinterpreted in some way. Happy to send you grant letter if you pm me your email. Green Motion is now operating in over 30 countries in Europe, North and Central America, and the Middle East. Photo courtesy of Green Motion. International car rental company Green Motion announced the expansion of its operations in the Mediterranean island of Malta, opening an in-terminal location alongside Sixt, Europcar, Hertz, Thrifty, and Avis Budget. Green Motion's operations in Malta have been steadily growing over the last three years and they are now regarded as a top four rental brand within the country. The car and van rental company recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and is now operating in over 30 countries in Europe, North and Central America, and the Middle East. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. The Florida Supreme Court overturned Dontae Morris death sentence on Thursday for the murder of Derek Anderson because the jury that sentenced him did not vote unanimously for the death penalty. Morris shot, killed Anderson in May 2010 Morris already facing two other death sentences Hillsborough County State Attorney may seek new death sentence The jury in that case voted 10 to 2 for the death sentence. Morris shot and killed Anderson, 21, outside his mothers Tampa apartment back in May of 2010. Morris is already facing two death sentences for murdering Tampa Police officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab in June of 2010. The jury was unanimous in that case and last year the court upheld those sentences. Defense attorney Kevin Hayslett, whos not connected to the case, said he believes the Hillsborough State Attorneys Office may seek a new death sentence for Morris as a matter of principle. For the law enforcement community, for the prosecutors office, this case is personal, he said. You can only kill a person once. However if theres ever a case where they say we dont care about the money, we care about the principle, this is that case. Hillsborough State Attorneys Office communications director Rena Frazier said they need to make an analysis before deciding whether to seek a new death sentence for Morris. Hayslett said on average it takes about 15 to 20 years before a defendant is executed after being sentenced to death. A last-minute decision making Florida exempt from offshore drilling is causing some lawmakers nationwide to question the move. Trump administration will not allow oil drilling off Florida coast Decision causes concern with Democratic governors from coastal states Some say difference is Florida has Republican governor Democrats from coastal states are accusing the Trump administration of punishing their states and rewarding Republican governor Rick Scott. 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. But lawmakers from states like California, Oregon and Washington say they too made requests to stop offshore drilling but were ignored. 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 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 Carolina'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. Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said there is nothing unique about Florida except "there's a Republican governor in trouble running for the Senate." Conflict of interest? Zinke said after a brief meeting with Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla., at the Tallahassee airport Tuesday that drilling in Florida waters would be "off the table," despite a plan that proposed drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean off Florida. The change of course just five days after Zinke announced the offshore drilling plan highlights the political importance of Florida, where Trump narrowly won the state's 29 electoral votes in the 2016 election and has encouraged Scott to run for Senate. The state is also important economically, with a multibillion-dollar tourism business built on sunshine and miles of white sandy beaches. And Florida is where Trump has a winter home in Palm Beach. Trump spent his Christmas and New Year's break at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Former White House ethics chief Walter Shaub said Zinke's decision to exempt Florida from the drilling plan appears to be a conflict of interest for Trump. Five-year drilling plan Zinke announced plans last week to greatly expand offshore oil drilling from the Atlantic to the Arctic and Pacific oceans, including multiple areas where drilling is now blocked. The plan was immediately met with bipartisan opposition on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Democratic governors along both coasts unanimously oppose drilling, as do a number of Republican governors, including McMaster, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Massachusetts Gov. Charles Baker. The five-year plan announced by Zinke would open 90 percent of the nation's offshore reserves to development by private companies. Industry groups praised the announcement, while environmental groups denounced the plan, saying it would impose "severe and unacceptable harm" to America's oceans, coastal economies, public health and marine life. Local rock trio The Disgustoids is known for getting a crowd grooving to its garage rock, punk and grunge sounds. Chris Garcia on lead vocals and guitar, Hayward Ramsey on bass and Fuzzy Drumkins on drums and backup vocals credit their on-stage charisma to their friendship and desire to have a good time. "We all just jell so well, and I can't even imagine what we would sound like if the band didn't consist of one of us," Garcia said. "We all add layers to the music, and that's what really gives us our sound." We sat down with The Disgustoids to discuss the band's origin, inspiration and on-stage bloopers. The Disgustoids With: Maxifads, Lalo Towers, 2 Throwed Mindz and Pretty Tuff Where: 69th Annual Yearly House Show Event Concert at The House of Disgustoids Cost: Free show, BYOB Info: Facebook @disgustoidsband and thedisgustoids.bandcamp.com/releases See More Collapse Q: What inspired The Disgustoids as a band name? A: CG: A cartoon called "Secret Mountain Fort Awesome." There are a race of monsters on the show called The Disgustoids, and I thought "We're pretty disgusting!" The name just fit perfectly with the band, but also our lifestyle at the time. We did also consider Funk The Monkey as a band name, but that would eventually just become a song of ours. Q: How did the band originally meet? A: CG: I met our now drummer, Fuzzy Drumkins, at a tattoo studio. I asked him to be the drummer in a band I was in at the time called Delicious Fuzz (before The Disgustoids formed) with our friend Phil. FD: Yes. Phil asked me "If our drummer can't make it, do you mind drumming for us?" I agreed and after a week, me and Phil jammed together. I nailed all of their songs without even being familiar with the music. After a month I was called and asked if I wanted to be their full-time drummer. HR: I was a fan first. I use to watch these guys perform live and I loved what I heard. Eventually we became friends and roommates. I heard these two playing one night at the house. I came out of my room with the intent to just jam with my friends, but it turned into more. Within days we were ready to perform. Our first show together was at a wedding. Q: What inspired you guys to get involved with music? A: HR: I was 14 years old when I picked up the guitar. I was a big Korn and Nu Metal fan at the time, and that band and scene really inspired me to pick up an instrument and play. FD: I started when I was 8 years old. I use to bang on pots and pans in the kitchen. I grew up in an extremely religious household. So, bluegrass, gospel and old country music was mainly what was played at home. My inspiration was my dad though. He taught me to really harmonize with music. CG: I started playing guitar at 13. The school I went to was a school for creative arts. There was a class offered for guitar. I took it and it was a great experience. Q: How would you guys describe your sound? A: CG: In the beginning, I was really inspired by two piece-bands like White Mystery, The White Stripes and The Black Keys. Also, when I use to work at The Logon Cafe, I saw a band play called Hair Cult and they had a sound that I really loved. They had elements of garage rock, indie and rock 'n' roll, but overall, they had a party rock sound and I really dug it. Now, our music has more of a '90s alternative sound. There are still elements of garage, punk, grunge and fun though. Some songs are pretty introspective as well. Q: What are your thoughts while performing live? A: HR: I'm high-energy on stage and at practice. When performing live, I'm just so into feeling the music. So, I wouldn't say that I focus on anything specifically other than just how the music sounds. FD: If I start thinking, it's over (laughs). It is all about really feeling the music. CG: I think about so many things, from how I'm doing and the crowd reaction. I try to stay in the moment, but I'm always thinking. We put a lot of thought and work into the music. So, there are definitely vulnerable feelings from presenting songs that we've worked so hard on. Q: Who has made the worst blooper live? A: HR: At Kick Butt Coffee, in Austin, Texas, it was our first-out-of-town show. I have a wireless bass, and I run around on stage a lot. So, during that show I got really into it. I tried to jump back onstage, but I missed, hit my shin and landed hard on the floor, but I still finished the song while laying on the stage, despite the pain. That fall left a mark on my leg. Q: Which song of yours represents the Disgustoids perfectly? A: HR: I feel like "Six Pack of Love," because there is a good blend of different elements. CG: Yes! "Six Pack of Love" is definitely the song. It has romance, humor, punk, garage and more all in one. FD: It is a great song, because it gives you a good taste of everyone's abilities as well. Antonio Del Rio is a freelance writer. Rohingya wait for food aid at the Thankhali refugee camp in Ukhia, in Bangladeshs Coxs Bazar district, Jan. 12, 2018. Updated at 6:40 p.m. ET on 2018-01-12 Bangladeshi and Myanmar officials are to meet next week in Naypyidaw to hash out logistics for repatriating thousands of Rohingya refugees sheltering in southeastern Bangladesh, but with no clear date for the process to begin. The 30-member joint working group (JWG) is to hold its first round of meetings Monday and Tuesday in Myanmars capital, days before the Jan. 22 scheduled deadline for the first 100,000 refugees to start returning to their home state of Rakhine. Both countries have touted the process as a voluntary one, by which refugees could choose to stay in Bangladesh or go back to Rakhine. Despite agreeing in November to begin the repatriation process later this month, the two countries have not established the necessary protocol for the first batch of refugees to return. Bangladeshi officials said they planned to iron out some related questions at the meeting, including getting clarification from their Burmese counterparts about a sample repatriation form needed to expedite the process, and which they had received from Myanmar officials. The form contained inconsistencies such as a requirement to list refugees nationality, Bangladeshi officials said. We have to discuss about this nationality issue: what is the nationality of the refugees? Is it Rohingya or something else? We will discuss the inconsistencies and prepare a commonly agreed-to repatriation form, Mohammad Abul Kalam, Bangladeshs refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, told BenarNews. Collecting data about the returnees will begin after we get a mutually agreed repatriation form. We will deploy people to collect data to fill the form, if necessary, said Kalam, who will be part of his countrys delegation to the JWG meeting. Bangladeshs immigration department has a database of biometric and other information about Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, according to Manjurul Kamrim Khan Chowdhury, director general in-charge of the Southeast Asian desk at the foreign ministry. From that database, authorities are expected to send to a list of 100,000 names of Rohingya individuals and families, along with their residences in Rakhine, to the Myanmar government, he said. In the verification process, Myanmar will confirm whether the people mentioned in the list used to live in Myanmar. We will then ask the persons, verified by Myanmar, whether they are interested in returning to Rakhine, Chowdhury told BenarNews. Our proposal is: at the next step we will fill repatriation forms containing the names and other information about the people who consented to go back, he added. But the Myanmar government may have a different approach. At the JWG meeting, we will discuss our proposal and work out the course of actions in the repatriation process. In addition, the JWG will discuss what role the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will have in the process, according to Chowdhury. The agreement signed in November by both countries called for including UNHCR in the repatriation effort. The Nov. 23 agreement set a two-month deadline for expediting the process. I do not see any chance that repatriation will start before Jan. 22 according to the timeframe referred to in the repatriation arrangement, Chowdhury said Friday. But this does not mean that the repatriation cannot start after Jan. 22. A complicated work like repatriation cannot always be done within a deadline, Kalam said. The 100,000 refugees targeted for the first wave of repatriation are among about 1 million Rohingya Muslims sheltering at cramped and squalid refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, who fled cycles of violence in neighboring Rakhine state. These refugees include at least 655,000 Rohingya who crossed into Bangladesh since late August 2017 amid a brutal military crackdown that followed attacks on government security posts by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents. Next weeks meeting in Naypyidaw follows an announcement by Myanmar this week that housing for 5,000 returning Rohingya was ready and the government was waiting for Bangladesh to send lists of refugees who were eligible for repatriation. To start, Myanmar will accept refugees at two reception centers in Taung Pyo Let Wae and Nga Khu Ya villages in northern Rakhine state, Myanmar officials said. On the same day, Myanmars military issued a rare admission that some of its troops had killed what it called Muslim terrorists in September 2017 and buried their bodies in Maungdaw township, one of the hubs for violence in Rakhine state. ARSA welcomed the "first time ever" admission on its Twitter account, saying the 10 slain Rohingya were innocent civilians, and demanding international investigators be allowed access to the area to investigate facts on the ground. A woman works in a vegetable garden on the outskirts of Marawi where the Philippine government built 50 temporary housing units for people displaced by fighting in the southern city, Nov. 21, 2017. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) called Friday on the Philippines to make a serious effort to rebuild and rehabilitate Marawi, where a large section remains uninhabitable nearly three months after the military freed the southern city from Islamic State-backed militants. While the Philippine economy was expected to keep growing overall in 2018, the status of the rehabilitation and reconstruction of war-shattered Marawi could affect the upward trend, Takehiko Nagao, president of the Manila-based multilateral lending agency, told reporters. Nagao said ADB was worried about Marawi, where the government has not allowed all of its 200,000 people to return from evacuation camps as assessment studies were being conducted and troops were clearing the city of booby traps left behind by the militants. Now (is) the time to make a serious effort for speedy reconstruction and rehabilitation, of the city, Nagao said, adding that the lender was sending advisers and consultants to the ground to assess sectors where help was needed most. Shortly after the government declared the five-month battle of Marawi over in October, ADB pledged more than U.S. $5 million (252 million pesos) toward assessing the needs of the once prosperous city to help it get back on its feet. The Philippine government earlier chose ADB as the lead foreign donor to help rebuild the city. Other financial institutions including the World Bank pledged support. Nagao did not disclose more details about the upcoming trip of advisers to Marawi. Meanwhile, Philippine presidential spokesman Harry Roque said interventions from outside agencies in Marawi were ongoing and that the rehabilitation timetable was on track. He said the state had provided skills training to about 2,600 people who were displaced by the fighting to help them find jobs. Those who remain in the evacuation camps also underwent stress debriefings and psycho-social interventions, he said. A joint civilian and military task force intends to clear Marawi of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] ahead of schedule that includes mines, booby traps and similar hazards to government and non-government workers equally keen with the military on ensuring the safety of personnel reconstructing Marawi, Roque said. We appeal to the patience of our brothers and sisters, residents of those residing in the city their willing cooperation will immensely help, he said. More than 1,000 militants allied with the Islamic State, soldiers and civilians were killed in the battle, the biggest security challenge so far faced by President Rodrigo Duterte. Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report. In the face of adverse conditions at their refugee camp in Teknaf, Coxs Bazar, Rohingya children smile for the camera, Nov. 2, 2017. [Rohit Wadhwaney/BenarNews] Orphaned Rohingya children sell locally grown areca nuts and betel leaves at the Kutupalong refugee camp, Oct. 30, 2017. [Rohit Wadhwaney/BenarNews] A Rohingya child walks to a hut after failing to get food at an overcrowded ration supply center in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, Nov.1, 2017. [Rohit Wadhwaney/BenarNews] Rohingya children are seen at one of several child-friendly centers set up at the Kutupalong refugee camp, Nov. 1, 2017. [Rohit Wadhwaney/BenarNews] A Rohingya child returns to her shelter with eggs purchased at a shop in the Kutupalong refugee camp, Jan. 7, 2018. [Tushar Tohin/BenarNews] A Rohingya girl eats boiled rice after arriving at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, Oct. 28, 2017. [Rohit Wadhwaney/BenarNews] Yasmin (right), a 15-year-old Rohingya refugee sheltering at camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, lost her parents and brother to a wave of violence in Myanmars Rakhine state last year, Nov. 1, 2017. [Rohit Wadhwaney/BenarNews] Rohingya children wait to receive winter clothes at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia, Coxs Bazar, Jan. 7, 2018. [Tushar Tohin/BenarNews] Rohingya children wait for rations at a food supply center in a refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, Nov. 7, 2017. [Rohit Wadhwaney/BenarNews] Yasmin, a Rohingya teenage refuge in southeastern Bangladesh, stared blankly when asked questions about her family. Her guardian a former neighbor in Myanmars Rakhine state replied on the 15-year-olds behalf. Shes extremely traumatized, Rashida Begum, 50, told BenarNews during a recent visit. Begum said, Yasmin saw her parents and brother killed when the Myanmar military launched an offensive against Rakhines Rohingya Muslim community on Aug. 25, following attacks by Rohingya insurgents against government security posts. Leave aside talking, she starts shivering at the thought of stepping out of the hut to use the toilet, Begum said. Stories of traumatized children like Yasmin, who witnessed and survived atrocities, echo across a dozen camps in Coxs Bazar district that house about 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. At least 655,000 of them arrived after the latest wave of violence broke out in Rakhine in late August. About 60 percent of the newcomers are children, according to figures from U.N.-affiliated agencies. Almost 15,000 out of 350,000 children have lost one or both parents, the United Nations says. And about 20,000 children 5 or younger are acutely malnourished, according to UNICEF. District authorities have set up hundreds of child-friendly centers to help Rohingya boys and girls overcome their trauma, Coxs Bazar Deputy Commissioner Ali Hossain said. Through song, dance, art and interactive games, we are attempting to erase the dark memories they have of the recent brutalities, UNICEF spokesperson Faria Selim told BenarNews. Tushar Tohin and Abdur Rahman in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, contributed to this report. For Immediate Release, January 11, 2018 Contact: Andrea Santarsiere, (303) 854-7748, asantarsiere@biologicaldiversity.org Trump Administration Plans to Prematurely Remove Endangered Species Protections for Canada Lynx Elusive Cats Threatened by Climate Change, Habitat Loss, Trapping VICTOR, Idaho The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced plans today to remove endangered species protections for the Canada lynx, claiming the cats have recovered. The announcement came despite ongoing threats to Canada lynx, especially from climate change. The Fish and Wildlife Service has not even completed a recovery plan and has no idea how many lynx occur across the animals range. The lynx is the latest victim of the Trump administrations ruthless disregard for imperiled wildlife, said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. The science doesnt support this sad and shocking move. With the lynx facing climate change, continued trapping, and habitat lost to logging, theres no way protections for this beautiful cat should be removed. Under a court order, the Service was supposed to complete a recovery plan for Canada lynx by January 15. Now, rather than complete the plan which would have determined recovery goals the agency has chosen to remove federal protections altogether. Instead of a recovery plan, the agency is supposedly basing its recommendation in large part on an expert report. But in this report, scientists noted loss of lynx from portions of their historic range, ongoing loss in parts of Canada, and predicted significant destruction of lynx habitat from climate change in the lower 48 states. Ignoring this data, the Service asserts that there is no reliable information that the current distribution and abundance of lynx in the contiguous United States are substantially reduced from historical conditions. Lynx also continue to suffer from habitat loss and fragmentation from mining and fire, as well as incidental trapping, starvation, predation and human-caused deaths throughout their range. The Trump administration doesnt even know how many of these animals are left, so its ridiculous to strip away these protections, said Santarsiere. Wildlife officials should draft a recovery plan and collect crucial population data instead of leading the species down a path to extinction. We plan to do whatever it takes to ensure lynx remain protected. The Canada lynx was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 2000. Canada lynx currently reside in small populations in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Minnesota, and Maine. A reintroduced population also resides in Colorado. For Immediate Release, January 11, 2018 Contacts: Tom Frantz, Association of Irritated Residents, (661) 910-7734, tom.frantz49@gmail.com Hannah Connor, Center for Biological Diversity, (202) 681-1676, hconnor@biologicaldiversity.org Gordon Nipp, Sierra Club, (661) 872-2432, gnipp@bak.rr.com Lawsuit Challenges California County's Flawed Plan to Limit Harmful Greenhouse Pollution From Industrial Cattle Operations VISALIA, Calif. Conservation groups sued Tulare County today for approving a climate action plan for giant feedlots and other industrial cattle operations that would worsen air quality and undercut Californias greenhouse gas reduction goals. Todays lawsuit asks the court to set aside the countys climate-action plan and animal-confinement facilities plan until officials identify steps to cut pollution from industrial dairies and feedlots and disclose the true environmental and financial costs of those emissions. Ive seen firsthand how air pollution from industrial dairies leads to health problems like headaches in my own family. Tulare County must take stronger steps to protect people in the community, said Tom Frantz, executive director of Association of Irritated Residents and an almond farmer in the San Joaquin Valley. Six thousand animals in one dairy have the waste stream of a city of half a million people, and there are common sense ways to reduce the air pollution from dairies that the county overlooks. Tulare County is home to more than 1 million cattle more than double the human population and produces more milk than any other U.S. county. Industrial cattle operations in the county produce the equivalent of 7.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year approximately 63 percent of the countys greenhouse gas emissions in 2013. By 2023 that number is expected to grow to the equivalent of almost 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. Industrial dairy and feedlot operations also produce hazardous air pollutants such as ammonia and particulate matter. Tulare County has to stop ignoring the unhealthy reality that dairies and feedlots release nearly two-thirds of the countys greenhouse pollution, said Hannah Connor, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Instead of protecting public health, county officials are sabotaging efforts to curb climate changes devastating effects. The groups note that the countys so-called Dairy and Feedlot Climate Action Plan and Animal Confinement Facilities Plan undermine Californias greenhouse gas reduction goals. For example, they allow cattle operations to avoid setting mandatory emissions reduction targets for the livestock sector and avoid enforceable mitigation for these operations. Its shocking that in 2018 the industrial dairy and feedlot industry is still receiving special treatment under these climate action plans despite the industrys notorious role in driving climate change, said Gordon Nipp of the Sierra Club. This lawsuit seeks to hold this industry accountable by ensuring that common-sense measures are put in place to meaningfully acknowledge, address and limit the greenhouse gas emissions from this sector. Industrial animal agriculture contributes to high rates of nitrate and coliform bacteria pollution in water supplies in the county and to Visalias dubious distinction of having one of the highest levels of ozone and particle pollution in the country. Tulare County is also home to numerous species imperiled by climate change and cattle facilities, including the Central Valley steelhead, California tiger salamander and San Joaquin kit fox. Methods to reduce air, greenhouse gas and water pollution from industrial cattle operations include enclosing manure during storage and spreading appropriate levels of manure on fields. Using dry scrape systems instead of wet flush systems to move manure out of feeding and milking barns avoids excess water use and reduces air and water pollution from open manure lagoons. People living near and working on factory farms report a range of health issues, including headaches, nausea, diarrhea, respiratory irritation and congestion, heart palpitations and shortness of breath. Factory-farm emissions like particulate matter, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are known to contribute to serious health problems, including acute and chronic respiratory diseases among workers and at-risk populations like children and the elderly. Todays lawsuit was filed in Tulare County Superior Court by the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and Association for Irritated Residents under the California Environmental Quality Act. The groups are represented by the Law Offices of Babak Naficy and the Center for Biological Diversity. A glitch in a supply chain can cost an organisation up to 10% of its shareholder value, and even put the company out of business. Supply chain disruptions are therefore widely regarded as one of the greatest risks facing manufacturers and have become a top concern of global insurance providers. This is according to international supply chain risk management specialist, Gregory Schlegel. Jakub Jirsak via 123RF A professor at Lehigh University in the USA, a renowned author and founder of the global Supply Chain Risk Management Consortium, Schlegel will be sharing his insights with Southern African supply chain professionals at the first ever Supply Chain Risk Management Summit, which takes place in Johannesburg, in February 2018. Never before has there been such exponential growth of supply chain complexity, uncertainty and risk as we are seeing today, he stresses. With globalisation expanding at a remarkable rate, supply chains have moved into areas where they have never operated. "Research shows that if a business is not prepared, even a single small to medium supply chain disruption can cost it as much as R6m. Most companies across the globe are experiencing an average of seven to ten supply chain risk events a year from port congestion to poor supplier performance and changing weather patterns. This equates to an annual cost of R60m. A sobering thought Schlegel says that 25% of companies that experience a moderate to severe supply chain disruption go out of business around 18 months after the event. It is a sobering thought, and not a statistic that we ever read about because few companies or brands want to advertise the fact that they were ruined because they were not prepared, he asserts. The Supply Chain Risk Management Consortium that Schlegel founded comprises 20 leading multinational organisations that are collaborating to develop skills, solutions and methodologies to enable businesses to identify, assess, mitigate and manage enterprise risk. The inaugural Supply Chain Risk Management Summit is being hosted by Bespoke, a leading African contracting, procurement and supply chain management advisory and training provider, in partnership with Southern African supply chain and operations management association Sapics. Supply chains are becoming ever more complex, particularly with the increase in outsourcing and the advancement of multi-tiered global supply networks. More and more organisations are now faced with direct and continuously evolving operational and legislative risks as a result of market disruption or malpractice in their supply chains, comments Bespoke CEO Andrew Hillman. The three-day summit takes place from 12-14 February 2018 in Sandton, Johannesburg. For more, go to www.scm-risk.co.za Time. There is never enough of it. It is an increasingly valuable commodity for all South Africans across the entire social and economic spectrum. With less time available to get everything they need to be done, people are demanding more - more choices, services and experiences - from their shopping trips. Whats more, research shows that an increasing number of people are planning their shopping outings more carefully in advance. They are not only considering what they want to get out of their shopping trip, but what their travelling will cost them. Multi-destination shopping costs more. Time- and value-conscious consumers are motivated by shopping experiences that are personal to their needs. More than ever before, shopping malls are under pressure to offer shoppers even more in a single visit. However, even those shopping centres that already have a big and varied retail mix cannot offer shoppers everything they want. It is impossible. Thats because some retail businesses are simply not a good match for malls. Also, some malls just dont have the surrounding space to grow and extend. Thinking out of the box So, how do you give people more on a single shopping trip? More variety necessitates thinking out of the box - literally. Shopping malls are generally at the core of any node and have been long recognised as the catalysts for surrounding development and new businesses. These businesses absorb some of the energy from the shopping centre. And, if a mall is fortunate, gain this energy in return. These businesses could include secondary and value retail, medical centres and hospitals, offices, hotels and leisure, motor dealerships, drive-thrus and petrol stations. By moving away from the typical introverted approach that many shopping centres have taken to date, and taking the wider view, shopping centres have the potential to benefit even more from the businesses around them and, in turn, pass this back again to their neighbours. The synergy between the different properties and a central mall enables the complementary businesses to feed off the energy from the people visiting the mall, and the mall benefits from the people that want to achieve multiple outcomes from a single trip. The multi-use options also enable more family members to fulfil their needs in a single trip, which makes the trip cost and time efficient. Allowing for effortless, hassle-free fulfilment Precinct planning is critical to ensure smooth flows of traffic between different properties, as well as allowing customers to park in one location and walk between the different options. In this way, it makes it easy for customers to switch between the different uses for effortless, hassle-free fulfilment of more of peoples needs in one place. For mall owners, this means investing beyond their fences. This could be in the form of investing directly into new, complementary developments, or investing in relationships with neighbouring property and business owners, city improvement districts and local government. In this way they are better able to get the best not only from their malls but also from their surrounding precincts. Bolstering the nodes in which they are located increases the scope and the strength of shopping centres. It also creates well-planned, well-managed retail and community districts. Each shopping centre and its surrounds form an ecosystem. By adding more retail space that responds to customer demands and reinforcing this with other compelling reasons to visit, we plan to create flourishing, bustling nodes with our shopping centres at their heart in the year ahead. Improving what is around shopping centres improves the shopping centres themselves. The Dutch Investors Association (VEB) says it has been approached by many South African-registered Steinhoff shareholders interested in participating in its class action against Steinhoff. Image credit: IOL News that the well-resourced VEB is prepared to fight for South African shareholders adds to the mounting woes facing the world's second-largest furniture retailer. On Thursday, Steinhoff's share price dived another 10.6% to close at R6.75 as general market sentiment was hit by recurring waves of uncertainty. Armand Kersten, head of European relations at VEB, told Business Day the association initiated action on 7 December following Steinhoff's announcement that it had launched an investigation into accounting irregularities and the subsequent collapse in its share price. The European Investors' Association is also participating in the legal action. Dutch law, which is important in this case because although Steinhoff's primary listing is in Frankfurt, its head office is in Amsterdam, gives the VEB extensive powers to take legal action against a company and its directors. The power includes making the action accessible to Steinhoff shareholders across the globe. However, before legal action can be initiated, the VEB is required to attempt to negotiate a settlement with Steinhoff. To this end, it sent a letter to the company on December 7, saying it held the company, its management board and its supervisory board responsible for the losses incurred by Steinhoff shareholders caused by the alleged fraud and misleading statements. It demanded a formal reply from Steinhoff by 22 December 2017. In its reply, Dutch counsel for Steinhoff said the 22 December deadline was unreasonable. It requested that the VEB postpone any further action until more information had been garnered by PwC's investigation. Steinhoff's counsel intimated more information might be available around mid-January. Kersten said the VEB was unhappy about the lack of any useful information from Steinhoff and its apparent lack of willingness to engage with the VEB. It is concerned the mid-January deadline may not produce anything substantial. "We're seriously considering if we're willing to live with :D:the delay they asked for." The action is being taken in terms of the Dutch civil code, which gives the VEB global jurisdiction and means it can act on behalf of shareholders from any country. "Article 3:305a(2) also gives us the right to sue before the courts on behalf of an unidentified group of investors," Kersten said. At a later stage in the proceedings the court would want some of the entities to be identified. The VEB is a decades-old not-for-profit organisation that aims to strengthen the position of investors in Europe. It has its own in-house lawyers and claims to have a solid track record litigating class actions on behalf of investors who have incurred losses due to fraud, deceit or mismanagement. It charges no upfront costs to shareholders who want to participate but does levy a 9% success fee. Kersten said its legal action against Steinhoff would initially be focused on the company but at a later stage might extend to other parties. Other parties are likely to include directors and advisers. A class action has also been filed in the Frankfurt district court on behalf of German investors. Steinhoff did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, Steinhoff Africa Retail announced on Thursday that independent nonexecutive director Vusi Khanyile had resigned from the board with immediate effect. It gave no reason for the resignation. Source: BDpro The global potato processing market is estimated to be valued at $2,327.3m, in terms of revenue, in 2017, according to a new report published by Coherent Market Insights. Potato processing is carried out to meet the significant demand arising from various applications of processed potato such as processed food, animal feed, biofuel, and glue. Processed foods such as potato fries and chips are gaining popularity among consumers, primarily owing to its taste. Also, potato starch is used as an adhesive. In addition, potato finds application in the generation of biofuel and also as a feed to dairy cattle. Couleur via pixabay Key trends and analysis of the potato processing market: Processed food is estimated to be the dominant application segment in the potato processing market in 2017. Frozen potato is the largest product type and fresh potato is the fastest growing segment in the potato processing market. In Europe, increasing demand for high quality processed food is driving the market for potato processing. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market in terms of revenue in the potato processing market. Urbanisation, modernisation, the influence of western culture, changing lifestyle, population growth, increase in customer buying power, availability of raw materials, and cost competitiveness are the major drivers for the potato processing industry in this region. North America is the second largest market for potato processing and is projected to grow further over the forecast period. Manufacturers operating in the region are planning for high investments, which in turn will augment the market growth. For instance, in May 2017, McCain food invested around $200m in its potato processing plant. The potato processing market in Latin America, Middle East and Africa is expected to witness significant growth, driven by high investments by key market players. In April 2017, the Switzerland-based food subsidiary, Kingdom Foods announced its plans to invest $10m in its potato processing factory in Kenya. Growing consumption of potatoes by processed food industries due to high consumer demand is the major factor driving the robust growth of the potato processing industry. Key takeaways of the market: Europe dominates the potato processing market and it is expected to continue its dominance over the forecast period. Considering this trend, major players are investing heavily in the region. An example is the investment of $210m in 2017 by Aiko in their potato processing plants. Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing region. According to India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), a trust established by the Department of Commerce, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, consumer spending on processed food will reach $3.6 trillion by 2020 in India. Furthermore, Xisen Potato Industry along with experts from James Hutton Institute of Scotland is planning to set up a $3.87m potato laboratory in China during the next decade. Processed food is a dominant application segment of the potato processing market. The high demand for processed food is driven by certain advantages such as easy cooking or immediate consumption and ease of handling, preservation and storage. Various organic and inorganic growth strategies are adopted by the leading market players in order to strengthen their foothold. For instance, Lyckeby, which is a Sweden-based manufacturer of potato-based fibre and starch, merged with Ingredion in August 2017 and Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market in August 2017. NEWSWATCH: More than 230 workers from the BM Food Manufacturers Lanseria plant are on strike until their demand for a wage increase has been met. According to a report on EWN, the workers are demanding a pay increase from R79 per day to at least R90 per day. Established in 2006, BM Food Manufacturers is the result of a merger between Bettafresh Prepared Foods and Mediterranean Delicacies. The company has two main processing plants, one in Cape Town and another in Lanseria, and distributes food to a large number of South African retailers, including Spar, Pick n Pay, Checkers Hyper. According to EWN, General Industries Workers Union of South Africa's John Apollos says the strike has been ongoing since December 2017. Many of the workers stay in the informal settlement. The leadership of the informal settlement are in talks with the management on behalf of the workers. BM Food Manufacturers produces food for the following brands: Mediterranean Delicacies, Mediterranean Pastries, Tuna Marine Products, Judy's Products and Bettafresh. A person was shot dead near Royal Bafokeng Platinum's (RBPlat's) North Shaft on Wednesday evening, during a protest by about 100 people including former employees of the company. Photo: Royal Bafokeng Platinum Suspicions were that the shot was fired from within the crowd. RBPlat says the protest resulted from its decision to fire 14 employees in December. This followed their involvement in unprotected strike action in 2017 as well as making threats to other employees and damaging property. During the protest at North Shaft, a conveyor belt was set alight and a guard house and gate were damaged, prompting mine security to fire rubber bullets and paint balls at the crowd to break up the protest, RBPlat said in a statement. "During the course of the incident an individual within the crowd was shot and killed by live ammunition. Based on preliminary evidence, including video footage, it is believed that the shooting was from within the group of protestors. The deceased was not employed by RBPlat," it said. The police have started a criminal investigation into the incident. Management of mining companies have, after various events, described their awareness of labour and social protests around their operations flaring up. They feared these potentially spiralling out of control like they did near Lonmin's Marikana operations, where a total of 45 people were killed in 2012, with police killing 34 of those people during a protest in August. "RBPlat management has called on local community members to refrain from engaging in violence, threatening behaviour and damage to property. The company notes widespread protest action currently underway in the Rustenburg area unrelated to mining issues, and calls for calm by all parties," the company said. Local media reports from Rustenburg said parts of community in the town had attacked drug dealers and their homes. RBPlat said operations at Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine, where North Shaft is located, were unaffected by Wednesday's events. After more than three months, Eskom's suspended head of legal and compliance, Suzanne Daniels, will have to wait another month to continue her battle to be reinstated. Suzanne DanielsImage source: LinkedIn On Thursday, 11 January 2018, at the request of Eskom's legal representatives, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) adjourned hearings on her application to be reinstated. This was on the second day of her testimony in which she detailed what she said were Eskom's "spurious and vexatious accusations" against her. Daniels was initially suspended on 6 October 2017. Among the allegations against her was that she had failed to respond timeously to a parliamentary question to the public enterprises minister. She was also accused of spending more than R66,000 on a two-day team-building excursion for her staff of 20 at the Kievits Kroon estate in Pretoria. The other charge was that she had spent R9,600 on advice from legal firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmyr. Daniels's suspension notice was served on her by Eskom's acting CEO, Sean Maritz, on the day he was appointed to that position. This was two days after Daniels had personally served a letter of demand on global consultancy McKinsey and the Gupta-linked Trillian consultancy to recover R1.6bn that had been irregularly paid to them by Eskom. The initial suspension was withdrawn by Eskom in December. But Daniels was issued with a new suspension notice on the same day. "I have still not been charged with anything, nor appeared in a disciplinary hearing," Daniels told CCMA commissioner Prince Kekana. She said that Eskom had never suffered any losses on the R66,000 team-building exercise. The utility informed her at the 11th hour that it would not pay for the excursion as it was not budgeted for. "I then paid it out of my own pocket because I was concerned about the wellbeing of my team," she said under cross-examination by advocate Itai Gwanza, representing Eskom. She said the team-building was needed because some staff members felt neglected. Daniels told Kekana that the real reason for her suspension was to sabotage Eskom's interests on her attempts to recover the R1.6bn illegally paid to McKinsey and Trillian. Before her suspension, Eskom had suspended at least four executives who were implicated in the irregular payment, including chief financial officer Anoj Singh and group capital executive Prish Govender. Govender was last week reinstated in his job, with Eskom saying he had been cleared of any wrongdoing. McKinsey has offered to pay back the money after it emerged that Eskom did not have Treasury approval to enter into the contract. Eskom has also admitted that it did not have any contract with the politically connected Trillian. Source: Business Day Matthew Morris from the Nelson Mandela University was recently announced the winner at the Port Elizabeth regional awards ceremony for the 31st Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Award. Matthew Morris is pictured with Adri Oliphant (left) and Mike Willard (right) of Corobrik. Morris will represent Nelson Mandela University at the 31st Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Award finals to be held in May 2018. Speaking at the event, Mike Willard, Corobrik area sales manager Eastern Cape / Southern Cape regions, said that winners such as Morris would shape the future in a world that was already transforming. In South Africa, the architects of tomorrow will be tasked with taking an already challenging past into a mind-boggling future that many of us have not yet even begun to understand. They will be the pathfinders who map out a built environment that uses the sophisticated technologies of the future to address the challenges of today that have been compounded by the short comings of the past, he said. In the annual competition, the countrys best architectural students from eight major universities are identified based on their final thesis and presented with awards throughout the year. The winners of each of the regional competitions then go on to compete for the national title and a prize of R50,000 at the Corobrik Architectural Student of the Year Awards which will be held in Johannesburg in May 2018. Balancing the urban, natural environment relationship Matthew Morris' thesis is entitled "The design of a decentralised sewage treatment facility for a settlement within Bethelsdorp, Port Elizabeth". The project concerns itself with a heavily polluted river valley system of Swartkops, Port Elizabeth, where the edges are settled by people and lack of adequate service infrastructure has led to high levels of pollution. This unbalanced relationship between the urban and natural environments has resulted in the severe destruction of critical biodiversity zones and endangered keystone species, and is subsequently impacting the quality of life for the residents of the area. The urban settlements of northern Port Elizabeth lack an inherent identity or sense of community centeredness from poor urban structure and settlement making. The absence of formal public buildings and spaces within the community are a result of a structure supporting a minimum standard of living. With this, the potential to address both the ecological problem as well as the making of better living environments was seen through designing infrastructure with an explicit architectural intent. The design works towards addressing settlement edge and its connection to the natural valley system, whilst building on the under-utilised congregational points within the community. In so doing, providing infrastructure for processing the pollution while concentrating and providing an appropriate place for community activities, making good people places and healthier happier environments. This allows service infrastructure to begin to clearly shape and structure the public infrastructure, promoting a productive category of space, evolving past its utilitarian function. Matthew Morris received a cheque for R8,500, while Rust van der Merwe, Chelcie Akom and Simone Joubert shared the runner-up places. Designing additions to culturally significant buildings A R4,500 prize for the best use of clay masonry was also presented to Ian Woolard. His thesis is entitled "The design of additions to community facilities for the Shri Shiva Subramaniar Aulayam Hindu Temple". This treatise began as a preoccupation with the Shri Siva Subramaniar Aulayam Temple in Upper Valley Road, South End, Port Elizabeth. It was first opened in 1903 to serve the spiritual needs of Port Elizabeths Tamil community. In 1950, the temple was disconnected from its community because of the forced removals under the sanctions of the Group Areas Act. Despite this, both the community and the temple have remained intact and the temple complex is still in use today. The aim of this project was to investigate an appropriate way to design additions to a historically and culturally significant building in Port Elizabeth while also ensuring the prolonged functionality of the temple complex for the Hindu community. Woolard said he included clay brick as it seemed like a natural choice of material, due to the original temple being brick and considering the long tradition of brickwork in Hindu architecture. Willard stated that fine young minds such as these would not only ride the wave of change but, through their creativity and innovation, enable brands such as Corobrik to continue to contribute towards a sustainable future for South Africans. The clay brick has inadvertently helped create both the physical and the architectural maps on which our winners this year will stamp their names. As the designers of tomorrow look more closely at creating a more connected, healthy and sustainable future, we believe that they will continue to embrace key attributes of the clay brick. Now, more than ever, the fact that clay brick is durable, non-toxic, reusable, energy efficient and low maintenance will be key, he said. As the Competition Amendment Bill seeks to give competition authorities bigger teeth, so we are likely to see greater enforcement and an impact on commercial dealings in the year to come. New amendments to the Competition Act The Competition Amendment Bill (2017) has been published in the Government Gazette and interested parties have until the end of January 2018 to comment on the Bill. Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel said the amendments would address persistently high levels of economic concentration in the country and noted that the proposed changes would mean that the South African competition authorities would have extended powers to investigate market concentration and impose structural remedies. The Bill identifies five priorities in terms of competition law amendments, with the first priority being the strengthening of provisions of the current Competition Act that relate to prohibited practices and mergers. Secondly, the impact of anti-competitive conduct on small businesses and businesses owned by historically disadvantaged persons is given more attention. Thirdly, the Bill addresses market inquiries, strengthening the actions that can be taken to address features and conduct that prevent, restrict or distort competition. Further, the Bill highlights the necessity to promote the alignment of competition-related processes with other public policies in South Africa. Lastly, alongside their increased powers, the administrative efficacy of the competition regulatory authorities is also addressed by the Bill. Healthcare inquiry finally finalised The Competition Commission was expected to release its report on the health market inquiry in December. The Commission launched the inquiry in 2014 to address concerns regarding the functioning of private healthcare in South Africa. The process itself has been plagued with delays and challenges mostly related to the complexity of an assessment of a market such as the private healthcare market. A further extension to the deadline for the publication of the Inquirys report was published earlier in December and the Commission is anticipated to finalise this inquiry by 31 August 2018. Continued market inquiries The Competition Commission has launched several market inquiries in identified priority sectors in the past few years. It has undertaken inquiries in the grocery retail, private healthcare, LPG, data services and public passenger transport sectors, among others. We can expect this trend to continue as the Commission increases scrutiny in sectors identified as being possibly anti-competitive. This is especially true in light of the proposed amendments to the Competition Act that are aimed at providing the Commission additional powers to address features and conduct in particular markets that prevent, restrict or distort competition. Notably, the proposed amendments include a provision that will require the Commission to complete market inquiries within an 18-month period (that can only be extended with the approval of the Minister). More unique enforcement approaches The Commission recently released a draft competition code of conduct for the automotive sector to deal with concerns regarding anti-competitive conduct as well as transformation in the sector. The code of conduct is only binding on its signatories and does not constitute an industry-wide enforcement guideline. This raises queries in respect of the enforceability of the code of conduct against firms that opt not to subscribe to it and whether it would be procedurally fair for the Commission to investigate non-signatory firms that engage in conduct that contravenes the code of conduct. Stronger crack-down on the employment impact of mergers The competition authorities of South Africa have always taken their mandate to protect the public interest as an objective in addition to ensuring the competitive functioning of South African market. It is well known that any loss of employment as a result of a transaction will be scrutinised and merging parties will only be permitted to engage in merger-related retrenchments if it is absolutely necessary. The Competition Tribunal has fortified its approach to this factor by requiring merging parties to large mergers that require the Tribunals approval to provide undertakings not to engage in any merger-related retrenchments, even where the transaction does not raise the possibility of any merger-related retrenchments. As such, the aim is to ensure that in all instances, the employees of merging parties are protected from being retrenched as a result of the merger taking place. Although we have not yet observed such an instance, it is likely that the Commission will be guided by the Tribunal and will also start requiring merging parties to provide blanket undertakings not to effect any retrenchments as result of the mergers, even in cases where the transaction would not result in any retrenchments. It is almost a certainty that the competition authorities will continue to take their role as regulators charged with protecting the public interest very seriously and it is now proposed that employment in a particular market should be a relevant consideration in a market inquiry. Prohibition of mergers that may result in co-ordination The Commission continues to be inclined to prohibit any merger that, in its view, may result in coordination between competing firms due to consolidation in the industry. The theory of harm that the Commission is concerned with is that when there is a change in structure in a market as a result of a merger that results in fewer competitors operating in a market, the consolidation in that market may make it easier for the market participants to coordinate their competitive endeavours and collusion. The Commission is especially suspicious of mergers between competitors (or between firms where there are any structural link to a competitor) that have previously been implicated in collusion even if there is no finding against the firms that they have colluded. In conducting this part of its merger assessment, the Commission will consider, inter alia, the number of players in the market and the number of players that will remain in the market post-merger, any history of collusion in the relevant markets and the risk of possible future coordination due to the change in the structure of the market. International trend - prosecution for not providing accurate and complete information during merger approval processes While the Commission has not yet sought to prosecute any firms for not providing complete or accurate information in mergers, internationally there is a prevalent trend of antitrust regulators prosecuting firms on this basis. In South Africa, the Commissions current modus operandi when it is not provided with complete or accurate information is to take a diplomatic and collaborative approach and to ask for the information and, in rare cases, issue a certificate of incomplete filing. Time will tell if the Commission will follow this intentional trend in enforcement. International trend - the development of the new innovation theory of harm The European Commission has developed a non-product-specific innovation theory of harm to justify the prohibition of mergers. The concern that the European Commission has identified is that innovation may be impacted if parties in a merger in a sector where there are a limited number of firms that develop new products. The EU Commission suggests that mergers involving innovators in concentrated industries with high barriers to entry, and in industries with no history of innovation outside of the sector, might result in a reduction of the number of new innovative products being developed and should thus be viewed as anti-competitive. Global motoring giant Ford is offering to settle the bank loans of Kuga owners whose vehicles have either caught alight or malfunctioned. Ford Kuga Ford has been accused of trying to squash a class action lawsuit but the company says such offers are standard practice. TimesLIVE has learnt that the settlement offers come with a catch: It involves the owners, who have been approached by Ford, having to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the company. To date six Kuga owners have taken up the offer. Since January 2017, Ford has implemented three safety recalls on the Kuga. Between November 2015 and December 2017, 72 Kugas caught fire on South Africa's roads. Of the 72 vehicles, six either caught alight or sustained engine and electronic failures after undergoing the recalls. The owners of the six vehicles have had their bank repayments settled by Ford. Kirsten James, who apparently reached a settlement with Ford after her Kuga caught fire in April, declined to respond to questions on the non-disclosure agreement or how much she was paid out. "All I can say is that I am happy with the assistance provided by Ford. I can't comment on what that assistance was." Johannesburg motorist Angelique Horn confirmed that Ford had repeatedly offered to settle with her bank the remaining R170,000 she owed on her Kuga. "They made me the offer in December. I was offered the settlement shortly before we went away on holiday, and then again last week," she said. The latest offer was made after her car suffered a severe electronic malfunction while her family were driving to Cape Town on holiday. "The malfunction occurred after we were told the car, which had been in for all three safety recalls, had been repaired. I was told all the overheating problems, which we were having after the recalls, had been resolved. I was told that, as well as repairing the electronics, the clutch and wheel bearings had been replaced," she said. "But, when a dealership in Bloemfontein examined the car after we broke down, we were told nothing had been repaired or replaced." She said Ford had tried to give her the car back, which she refused. "When Ford asked me what I wanted, I said wanted compensation, not only for the amount I still owe, but for everything that I have paid for the car over the years. They told me that they would only settle any amount still outstanding on the car. "I complained that this was unacceptable and that the car did not have excessive mileage, to which they replied that Kugas were only designed to do 120,000km. I told them I had paid hundreds of thousands of rands for a proper car and not R20 for a skadonk." Horn said the problem with the settlement offer, which she was given three days to accept, was that she would once again have to take out another loan to buy a car. "Why should I have to take out another loan for another car, when I have been put in this situation by Ford?" Lawyer Rod Montano, who is handling the class action law suit against Ford, accused the company of using the settlement offer to kill any legal action. He said he had learnt that six Kuga owners had been offered settlement agreements. "Those who were approached were those whose vehicles malfunctioned after all the safety fixes were done. A number of these vehicles caught alight, despite undergoing the recalls." Montano said he believed the settlement offer, which included a non-disclosure agreement, was malicious in that it was designed to prevent any further faults with the Kuga from entering the public domain and coming to the attention of the relevant authorities. "Ford is now disguising the fact that their vehicles are fatally defective and place the public in danger." Ford spokesman Mines Bhagaloo said: "Any claim received by us has been handled on a case-by-case basis, according to each customer's own unique and specific circumstances." He confirmed that Kuga owners had signed non-disclosure agreements in each case, "to respect our customers' confidentiality". "There is nothing unusual about this and it is in accordance with best practices and the rule of law that enjoins us to protect information which includes personally identifiable information." Source: The Times Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister Buti Manamela has advised management at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to have plans in place to deal with late walk-in applicants. While he emphasised that online applications remain the primary method for applications at higher education institutions, management must in any event be ready for those who seek placement outside of the set registration dates. You need to allow as many students as possible, with obvious consideration to enrolment plans and available resources. It is clear that some people would like to take advantage of the situation by festering confusion and distortion in order to achieve political goals, the Deputy Minister said. He held a meeting with the principals of all TVET colleges at Ekurhuleni West TVET College in Germiston on Thursday, 11 January 2018. It was an opportunity for the Deputy Minister to get an update on the registration processes and challenges that TVET colleges are experiencing. TVET colleges previously known as further education and training (FET) colleges provide theoretical and practical training for graduates to help the country close the skills gap in certain major sectors. Capricon college stable Deputy Minister Manamela was also briefed on the situation at the Polokwane campus of Capricorn TVET college in Limpopo. A stampede broke out when the students were queueing for admission for the 2018 academic year at the campus, leaving several students injured. College principal Amos Tema informed the Deputy Minister that the situation has now stabilised. Following a thorough risk assessment of the Polokwane campus facilities, a decision has been taken by college management to suspend registration at the institution until Monday. We appeal to all prospective students to ensure that they have all the necessary documents to enable the colleges to handle their applications and registration swiftly. I urge all students to follow the procedures for application and registration so that we can [start] learning and teaching on Monday. We remain grateful for the outstanding work by our security personnel, the police and paramedics in the manner in which they managed the situation, Deputy Minister Manamela said. Discussions are underway between college management, the city council of Polokwane and the South African Police Service to identify an alternative and more suitable venue for registration. Meanwhile, on Friday, the Deputy Minister is scheduled to visit the Walter Sisulu University East London Postdam Campus and Buffalo City TVET College East London Campus. These visits as part of the ongoing effort to ensure that the implementation of fee-free higher education for poor and working-class students runs smoothly across institutions of higher learning, together with the admissions and registration process that go with it. Most South Africans between the ages of 18-35 selected the United States of America as the number one destination they would like to travel to in 2018. This finding forms part of Contiki's The Power of Travel research project, which aims to find the ways in which travel makes young people the best versions of themselves. The study surveyed thousands of 18-35-year-olds around the world, including 305 South Africans. Contikis The Power of Travel research indicates that Europe is a key destination for South Africans, with the UK, Italy, France and Germany all making it into young South Africans' bucket list destinations. The various foods, languages, music and art scenes that can be explored in Europe enable an increased open mind with research stating 13% of travellers are more likely to place a high value on open-mindedness. The research findings also show that 63% young travellers indicate that travel has shaped their perspective on global politics. This is most prevalent with young South Africans aspiring to travel to the United States as their number one destination for 2018. With the current US climate, travelling to this destination is a great way to become more involved in global issues and the effects it may have on their own country, whilst also gaining a greater sense of citizenship. China and Japan are two destinations that prove young South Africans are inclined to experience different cultures; increasing their cultural awareness and opening their minds to learn about diverse ways of living. This is backed up by research indicating that 75% of travellers have created an awareness of other cultures that have led to increased tolerance and/or compassion. Top 10 destinations young South Africans want to travel to in 2018 For South African consumers to replace the battery of their older Apple iPhones at an iStore or at Digicape, it will cost them R430. But, according to iStore, consumers will have to be prepared to be without their phones for three to five working days. Alexander Kirch via 123RF On Wednesday, iStore announced the pricing of replacement batteries for out-of-warranty iPhones SE, 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7 and 7 Plus, as part of Apple's official worldwide battery replacement programme. The exact price is R377 plus VAT, and is effective immediately. Local premium Apple reseller and total solutions provider, Digicape, has also announced its battery replacement process for clients. If you suspect that the battery of your iPhone SE, 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7 or 7 Plus may need to be replaced, bring your device in to any Digicape store for a diagnosis, or contact the Digicape Service Centre to book an appointment time convenient to you, explains Mark Parsons, technical director at Digicape. We have dedicated iOS specialists on standby to offer clients speedy service. If the battery is eligible for replacement, clients may take their iPhones home with them while the parts are on order, and return within five to seven working days to have their new battery installed, says Digicape. Installation will take around 45mins, and replacement batteries will cost a maximum of R430.00 incl. VAT. Digicape advises that clients turn off Find My iPhone before booking in their iPhones, to avoid unnecessary delays. Intentionally slowed down older iPhones Apple admitted in December that it intentionally slowed down older iPhones with weakening batteries via a software upgrade, to prevent the handset from shutting off abruptly when in use. That sparked fury among owners of the iconic phone worldwide - and some legal action, with many arguing that had they known, they would have opted to buy new batteries rather than replace their slowed phone. South Africans affected by the programme need to make a booking at one of the country's 23 iStores, rather than walking in unannounced, and the usual R200 "in-store technical appointment fee for non-iStore customers" will be waived. "The customer's iPhone will be assessed in store, and if eligible under this programme, will be sent for battery replacement," iStore said in a statement. "Battery replacement times may differ based on stock availability." Source: BDpro Article updated on 16 January 2018 French company Paris Aeroport, formerly Aeroports de Paris or ADP, has won a contract with Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) for the design of a new passenger terminal at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. Photo by Ashim DSilva on Unsplash The contract involves preliminary design work of the new passenger terminal as well as baggage sorting systems, said Gratien Maire, CEO of ADP Ingenierie, a subsidiary of Groupe ADP that in turn owns Paris Aeroport. "This project involves a 115,000 square metre expansion, including the merging of three boarding satellite buildings," the company said in a statement. "ADP Ingenierie will be in charge of the preliminary architectural design of the building, its interior architecture style and the design of baggage sorting systems and air bridges," it added. Airport capacity KAA aims to increase the airport's capacity from the existing six million to 10.3 million passengers per year. The authority has recently unveiled two new terminals at the JKIA. The two facilities include Terminal 1A and Terminal 1E. KAA is also in the process of remodelling Terminal 1B, 1C, and 1D. The process is at the design stage. The upgrade will raise JKIA to world class standard, according to KAA. Terminal 1E is for international arrivals and can handle 2.5 million passengers per year. It is designed to serve about 1,000 arriving and 800 transferring passengers during peak hours, according to KAA. It also separates arriving and departing passengers, which is a key security requirement under international aviation rules. Terminal 1A, with an annual capacity of 2.5 million passengers, has been designed to allow free movement of passengers in a spacious environment. Customer experience KAA said the new terminals have improved the customer experience at the airport by enabling operational efficiency and boosting security while improving the quality of services of airport users. Prior to the expansion and re-organisation of the terminals, JKIA was designed to handle a 2.5 million passengers. "With KAA's development of Terminal 1A, 1E and 2, JKIA's annual capacity has increased to 7.5 million passengers, closer to her 2020 envisioned handling target of 10.5 million passengers per annum," KAA said. Terminal 1E is built on 6,200 square metres opposite the parking garage - previously reserved for international arrivals. Source: The Business Daily via AllAfrica Millennials and their influential role have dominated marketers' conversations and research for a few years now and, as a result, have dramatically changed how marketers view and communicate. Nandi Zambodla, strategist at FCB Cape Town. So, it might come as a surprise to many that the biggest potential trend for 2018 could be that of these same marketers realising it is time to re-evaluate what we know to be true about millennials as a collective, and starting to understand how much they differ as a group and how they shape the future. Driving this trend are two questions strategists and marketers in South Africa have begun to ask themselves. Do we really understand all millennials? Or have we, as South Africans, adopted an American understanding and unwittingly borrowed from these theories to understand South African youth? It is FCB Africas belief that, while there are definitely similarities from a global perspective, one needs to understand what separates South African youth from their global counterparts. If we dont, we run the risk of missing what is unique to South Africans, telling great stories and connecting in a real way that makes use of a South African lens. So, possibly ahead of the trend, FCB undertook a research study that provided insights on how older millennials and younger millennials differ, as well as how their mindset and experiences can shape the way marketers can build better brand experiences. The reality is that the youngest millennials and the oldest are at different life stages, making different decisions and viewing life in a totally different manner. To assume they all think and act the same is risky and leaves room to miss an opportunity of targeting direct messages at the right stage in their lives. Likewise, South African youth have walked a different path to their global counterparts and indeed their parents generation. Younger South Africans enjoy unprecedented personal freedoms and access to informatio,n and theyre now part of an all-embracing global community. These are things many of their global peers always enjoyed and things that their parents were denied. How do older and younger millennials differ? Both these groups contain a young market that is breaking down industries, shaping others and communicating differently. Brands are trying to step into this space by fitting into the flow of their lives and create meaningful experiences on- and offline. But, there are numerous differences between the older and younger millennials. The younger generation has become more relevant as we see them not only engaging with culture, but mostly creating culture. To understand a consumer is to understand a mindset, a way of life and what influences decisions. What we really came to understand is how the youth really have become catalysts for a cultural revolution. 1. Encountering failure For younger millennials, failure is an acknowledged and accepted by-product of trying to create something. They are a young group who are exploring entrepreneurship earlier, taking risks and trying to create for themselves. This very mindset is the understanding that choosing a different path and abandoning a 9-5 means one may very well encounter failure and that is part of the process. They do this at a faster rate and younger age than older millennials did. While making mistakes, they are creating culture, defining it for themselves and telling their own stories. 2. Growing up in a digital age One of the greatest contributors towards their explorative nature has been growing up in the digital age and constantly being exposed to the possibilities beyond what is in front of them or their current life stage. Social media has opened many doors and started many conversations. Growing up exposed to technology as a constant has meant easily navigating the online world to make it work for themselves as a viable business opportunity but also a method to showcase who they are and what they are capable of doing. The rules have changed and social media has taught the youth about just how much and how far they can go. There is no need to knock on doors and ask for permission to be who you want. They are aware of what possibilities exist, they are aware and engaged in the collaborative, I want to see you succeed narrative that exists online and it is fully utilised to the benefit of themselves and those they want to see get ahead. Does this mean that older millennials arent similar? Not at all. Older millennials very much are in the same space - what is clear though, is the younger generation dont wait too long trying to figure it out. They get on with it and figure it out along the way, they chase dreams faster as they have observed older millennials succeed and now know that is indeed possible. 3. Success focused The younger generation seem to adopt a go get it attitude a lot faster. They expect things to work out, they walk out of schools starting businesses, looking for mentors and follow their dreams. They are bolder, louder, more expressive and more demanding. Take, for example, how older millennials look at #Feesmustfall, #ZulaikaPatel, how their experiences were similar when they were younger but there was no loud collaborative voice and how taking a stand wasnt as easy back then. The bravery of the younger generation comes through in many ways and says a lot about their approach to life. The youth today? Inspiring, brave, pushing down doors. This doesnt suggest that the older millennials didnt have that very same courage and bravery. The younger generation just happen to be a lot louder. These are the narratives that should be reflected back to them. Marketers ought to realise that while millennials may be dominating the conversation globally, we cant afford to view millennials as a collective anymore. There are differences to take note of which can help create more authentic brand experiences. If the younger generation is creating culture and living by their own rules, we have to question where we fit in and how we add value to their lives. #LoeriesRanking with... The Upstairs Ludus What better way to creatively ease into the working year than with a reminder of some of last year's top contenders at the Loeries? We continue the local insights with The Upstairs Ludus. The Upstairs Ludus gladiators. If history lessons are literally a thing of the distant past for you, fear not. A Ludus was an ancient Roman school where gladiators were trained, and production company The Upstairs Ludus likens itself to these schools as theyre committed to producing exceptional work. Fittingly, 2017 was a year of exceptional accomplishment for The Upstairs Ludus. Their team of post-production professionals ranging from post-production gladiators to online and offline editors, colourists and in-house sound engineering partners, are ready to do battle on any brief. Gold, silver and bronze, Ludus gladiator-style As proof, they worked Metropolitan Republics Nightshift for MTN, which took home TV crafts best use of licensed music gold and TV and cinema commercials up to 90s silver Loeries; as well as TBWA Hunt/Lascaris Babybot for Student Flights, which garnered internet video above 30s gold; and Joe Publics The Last Appointment for Panado, which racked up TV and cinema commercials above 90s bronze: The 2017 Loeries Rankings further proved The Upstairs Ludus firm grasp of work that wins, as they held steady in second position for the TV, film and radio post-production category, and rose from fifth last year to second in the TV, film and video editing category. I caught up with executive producer Joe Erasmus to find out how they plan to extend their winning streak this year and who they admire most in the industry What do you attribute this years successes to? What do you attribute this years successes to? We attribute our 2017 successes to the extremely strong team we boast at The Upstairs Ludus. In fact, three of our crop ranked individually in the craft: editing category. That includes Mark Ash, Andrew Traill and Steven du Plessis in sixth, seventh and eighth spot respectively. Our dynamic team always goes beyond what is necessary and this appeals to directors and agencies who in turn bring us great work. What plans are already underway to better your ranking next year? What plans are already underway to better your ranking next year? For us, there arent any specific resolutions following an awards season, instead an always-present drive to do great work. We are never resting on our laurels and continue to put our all into every piece of work that enters our doors. How does this years Loeries flock differ from your haul last year? How does this years Loeries flock differ from your haul last year? We were able to convert far more finalist entries to winners this year. Our turnover of great work has increased from year to year since opening in March 2015, and were thrilled to have become a big industry player in both Johannesburg and Cape Town. Tell us two people you personally admire in the industry both an established mentor figure as well as a newcomer making waves. Tell us two people you personally admire in the industry both an established mentor figure as well as a newcomer making waves. Thats a tough one to narrow down as there are many people we admire in the industry as we work with so many talented directors. In terms of established directors, Giant Films Ian Gabriel and Bomb Commercials Teboho Mahlatsi are just so talented and seasoned, and a pleasure to work with. Greg Rom is another favourite, and Tristan Holmes has risen quickly to become a real player in the industry. Thabang Moleya is another really fantastic director and business man we look up to for his drive and focus. He has come so far and is making waves in the industry with his new company Seriti Films, while still being one of the most down to earth people youll ever meet. Lots to look forward to creatively from 2018! Click through to our Loeries special section or here for more on The Upstairs Ludus, and be sure to follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram-tagged posts. The Most Extensive and Reliable Source of Information Related to the Mexican Drugs Cartels. You will not find this level of coverage anywhere else, join us! WARNING: Posts may contain strong violent material, discretion is advised. COMMENTS: We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. NEW DELHI (PTI): The US is more than just another defence equipment supplier to India and the two sides can announce major pacts in areas such as intelligence, surveillance and fighter aircraft production next year, newly appointed Ambassador Kenneth Juster said Thursday. Cooperation with India on defence and counter-terrorism to enhance the long-term stability and security of the Indo-Pacific region is a key pillar, he said. In his first public speech after taking over as the ambassador in November, he said an equally important objective is to continue support to India as a net provider of regional security, "capable of responding successfully to threats to peace", especially in the Indian Ocean and its vicinity. The combination of goals of India's interest in technology and engaging in co-development and co-production of military equipment and the US' interest in safeguarding information and technology is in increasing the interoperability of the forces of the two countries, 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 co-development of next generation systems, including a Future Vertical Lift platform or Advanced Technology Ground Combat Vehicles," Juster said. India and the US had in 2016 signed the bilateral Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement to give their militaries access to each other's facilities for supplies and repairs. Another way to step up defence cooperation, he said, is through military exchanges. "Over time, the two sides should expand officer exchanges at our war colleges and our training facilities, and even at some point post reciprocal military liaison officers at our respective combatant commands," the ambassador said. Irish Small and Medium Enterprises (Isme) has today warned Irish companies to implement the changes to comply with a new data regulations. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force May 28 of this year, replacing the existing protection frameworks under the EU data protection directive. A new General Data Protection Regulations survey by Isme gives a breakdown of GDPR compliance among SMEs and the actions taken to date on GDPR compliance. It found that: 83% of respondents are aware of GDPR Only 7% of businesses of businesses have completed their GDPR plan. 60% of respondents use and collect Personal Data. 30% are unsure if what they hold is considered Personal Data Only 38% could name any of the changes that GDPR will bring 30% of business have identified the steps/actions needed for their business. 70% have not. 76% of businesses are concerned about GDPR. 32% of businesses are planning to use an outside resource to help with their GDPR action plan. 67% of business would like to see training offered on GDPR 41% of business have a staff member who is responsible for overseeing compliance with data protection and preparing for the GDPR. ISME CEO Neil McDonnell said: "Today's results paint an interesting picture of GDPR compliance. "We received a very healthy response to this survey, which tells us businesses are curious about it. One of the main findings is that businesses are aware of GDPR, but know very little about the intricacies of compliance." "The impact of non-compliance of GDPR on a business could be serious, as there is a serious fines regime in place to discourage it. "Businesses must take these new measures seriously. "In order to ensure SMEs are GDPR-ready, we will be holding bespoke SME GDPR training sessions in February to assist businesses in the transition period in Dublin, Cork and Limerick." The New York Daily News has taken aim at Donald Trump for reportedly describing African countries as "shithole countries". Sources say the US President questioned why America should permit more immigrants from "shithole countries" after senators discussed revamping rules affecting entrants from Africa and Haiti. The New York Daily News this morning attacked Trump on its front page, mocking up a poo emoji to look like him to accompany the headline "S**t for brains: Trump spews vicious slur against immigrants". .@realDonaldTrump takes a dump on the American dream An early look at Friday's front: https://t.co/1Wj57JecKC pic.twitter.com/MmOW4VUIMx New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 12, 2018 Trumps reported use of the phrase has been roundly condemned with the Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, saying: "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as shitholes." He said the comments, if confirmed, were "shocking and shameful" and added: "Im sorry, but theres no other word one can use but racist." However, Trump has since denied using the words on Twitter. "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," Mr Trump said. The White House did not deny his remark but issued a statement saying Mr Trump supports immigration policies that welcome "those who can contribute to our society". By Ann O'Loughlin Two bonded warehouse companies have won High Court cases over excise demands for 2m and 1m respectively which arose after they said they were the innocent victims of fraud committed when consignments of alcohol did not arrive at their mainland Europe destinations. Citywest Logistical Ltd (formerly Cassidy Wines), faced a 2.1m demand over nine consignments, mainly of Glen's vodka, which left its bonded warehouse in Dublin between July and December 2008 for delivery to equivalent warehouses in France and Spain. Monaghan Bottlers of Tirkeenan, Co Monaghan, faced a 1m demand over five consignments of mixed spirits which were also to be delivered in 2008 to the same French and Spanish bonded warehouses. The export of alcohol between bonded warehouses in the EU means excise duty is not payable, though in some countries certain documentation is also required to be endorsed by the national authorities as part of the consignments. In both cases, the consignments never arrived. Gardai who investigated the matter believed that in both cases a fraud was organised by a criminal group with a subversive background and heavy involvement in smuggling all types of produce. A Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation detective inspector attempted to speak to the driver of the lorry in the Citywest consignments, but he was a native of Fermanagh, outside the jurisdiction and would not make himself available for interview. Investigators in Monaghan were told by the driver's father that the driver's life was under threat in relation to the fraud. Revenue investigators were unable to speak to the drivers of two trucks used in the Monaghan Bottlers' consignments because they were also outside the jurisdiction. Gardai said in the past such consignments were taken by the criminal group and sent to private clubs in the UK. After an Appeal Commissioner determined the companies were liable for the tax demands made by Revenue, both matters were referred to the High Court by way of case stated. Today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott found, in the Citywest case, the Appeal Commissioner was incorrect to conclude that the absence of a national endorsement on certain paperwork by the French and Spanish authorities was sufficient to result in non-compliance with the provisions governing discharge of liability for the duty. The judge was also not satisfied that France and Spain were lawfully specified under the 2001 Finance Act which defined the evidence required to specify a discharge from liability. He did not accept Citywest's argument that, under principles of proportionality, legal certainty or legal expectation, whether based on case law or the presence of the French and Spanish warehouses on a Revenue database, would have precluded Revenue from imposing liability for the excise duties. He was satisfied it was appropriate to raise the demand in Ireland, having regard to EU law, if the duty was otherwise lawfully due. In the Monaghan Bottlers case, he found the Appeals Commissioner was incorrect in upholding the assessment against it. The Appeals Commissioner was not entitled to conclude that the existence of a list of countries requiring stamping of paperwork by their national authorities, and the availability of such a list on request, was sufficient to comply with the 2001 Finance Act and EU regulations, he said. However, he found Ireland was the correct jurisdiction to raise the excise demand in this case also if the duty was otherwise lawfully payable. The judge found Revenue did not infringe the principle of equal treatment (of Monaghan Bottlers) arising out of comments in 2008 by then-Revenue chairman, Frank Daly, to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee in relation to treatment of similar cases involving fraudulent deliveries which left innocent Irish warehouse keepers with a potential excise liability. - Digital desk A young child has escaped injury after a car was stolen in the Baldoyle area of Dublin this morning. The infant was in the back seat when the vehicle was taken in Park Vale at around 7.30am. A three-judge divisional court will not be convened to hear a High Court action brought by convicted murderer Graham Dwyer against the Garda Commissioner and State over the use of mobile phone records, writes Ann O'Loughlin. Dwyer was charged in October 2013 with the murder of Elaine OHara and was convicted by a jury following a lengthy trial at the Central Criminal Court in March 2015. In High Court proceedings commenced in 2015 Dwyer claims certain provisions of the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 breach his rights to privacy under the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The Directive underlying the 2011 Act was struck down by the European Court of Justice in 2015. The case is understood to raise important issues of law. The prospect of Dwyer's case being heard by a three-judge divisional court was raised when the action was mentioned before Ms Justice Costello in December. When the case returned before the High Court this morning, Ms Justice Caroline Costello said she had spoken to the President of the High Court Mr Justice Peter Kelly about the possibility of the case being heard by a divisional court. The President, Ms Justice Costello said, did not think it was an appropriate case to be heard by a divisional court. There were also resource issues in regards to the availability of judges, Ms Justice Costello added. The Judge said the case will proceed before Mr Justice Tony O'Connor on February 20. The case was before the court after the State brought a motion aimed at ensuring the case runs as efficiently as possible. Lawyers for both sides said they would attempt to ensure the case runs as smoothly as possible. The hearing of Dwyer's case is expected to last for between six to eight days. In his action, which is opposed by the State, Dwyer claims the ECJ ruling means that Irish legislation implementing the directive was illegal and that data collected on his phone was also therefore invalid. Many requests for disclosure of mobile phone records were made under the relevant provisions of the 2011 Act by gardai investigating Ms OHaras murder and were granted by the relevant service providers. Phone data was also admitted into evidence during the trial. During Dwyers criminal trial, his lawyers argued the mobile phone data was inadmissible as evidence but those arguments were rejected by the trial judge. The High Court proceedings are against the Garda Commissioner, Director of Public prosecutions, Ministers for Justice and Communications, Ireland and the Attorney General. In his action, Cork-born Dwyer with an address in Foxrock in South Co Dublin seeks, if appropriate, damages and, if necessary, a reference of issues to the European Court of Justice. Following his conviction for the murder of Ms O'Hara in August 2012, the married architect was jailed for life and his appeal against conviction has yet to be heard. The Education Minister is "sticking his head in the sand" over the teacher shortage in schools, according to Fianna Fail. The party said the system is suffering from shortages and urgent action is needed to address the problem. It has emerged this week the number of teacher applicants has dropped by over 60% in the last five years. Richard Bruton insists there are enough teachers being trained to meet demand. However, Fianna Fail's Education Spokesperson Thomas Byrne does not agree. "My message to the Minister is to actually realise there is a problem and take his head out of the sand," he said. "The Minister stated publicly this week that there was no problem with teacher shortages in this country and that goes completely against the experience that teachers and principals have across the country. They can't get substitutes," he added. "We're told the Irish language is in danger now because of the lack of Irish teachers coming forward. A huge amount of Irish teachers are abroad now too so there's a major problem with teacher numbers at the moment." By Fiachra O Cionnaith and Juno McEnroe Fianna Fail justice spokesman Jim OCallaghan has claimed that more pregnancies involving Down Syndrome and disability diagnoses will be terminated if abortion is allowed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Mr OCallaghan made the claim as an Irish Examiner survey of Fianna Fails 23-person front bench found that five favour unrestricted abortion access up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, nine have concerns or are opposed, and nine including leader Micheal Martin have yet to express a view. On Wednesday, the Cabinet formally discussed the Oireachtas committees cross-party recommendations that the Eighth Amendment should be repealed and replaced with legislation allowing unrestricted abortion access in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the recommendations which will be debated in the Dail and Seanad next week may be a step too far for the country. However, he noted: But also having read the committee report, I understand the logic behind that [12-week limit], why they came to that decision, particularly given the widespread availability now of the abortion pill and the fact that people are getting that over the internet and are using it without medical supervision all over Ireland every day. And, in a sign of the sensitive nature of the recommendations, Fianna Fail front bench TDs said they are similarly divided with Mr OCallaghan among those most vocally opposed to the 12-weeks proposal. I do not support the proposal for abortion up to 12 weeks as I am concerned it would significantly increase the number of pregnancies with Down Syndrome or other disabilities that are terminated, Mr OCallaghan said, although he added that the current system is too restrictive and should be amended. The other seven Fianna Fail frontbench TDs with concerns about the 12-week option are housing spokesman Barry Cowen, foreign affairs spokesman Darragh OBrien, transport spokesman Robert Troy, rural affairs spokesman Eamon O Cuiv, disability spokeswoman Margaret OMahony Murphy, childrens spokeswoman Anne Rabbitte, and mental health spokesman James Browne. Those in favour are Brexit spokesman Stephen Donnelly, communications spokesman Timmy Dooley, the partys Seanad leader, Catherine Ardagh, and defence spokeswoman Lisa Chambers and health spokesman Billy Kelleher, both of whom sat on the Oireachtas committee. Asked about Mr OCallaghans claims yesterday, Mr Kelleher said the committee recommendations specifically ruled out abortion in these circumstances and that tests for most genetic conditions are only possible at 20 weeks, not 12 weeks. Fianna Fail TD's have mixed views on abortion referendum The Irish Examiner contacted all front-bench members and while there are mixed views about implementing recommendations for the abortion referendum, most TDs who spoke oppose the current plans. Many Fianna Fail TDs also said there is confusion and a vacuum as the Government has yet to decide on how to proceed, with ministers having mixed views on the abortion referendum. An Oireachtas committee recommended repealing the Eighth Amendment the part of the Constitution which recognises the equal right to life of a mother and her unborn child and instead allowing women access abortion without restrictions for pregnancies up to 12 weeks. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin will lead a meeting of the front bench on Tuesday, where the report will be discussed, ahead of the larger parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday. While some front-bench members have yet to decide their position, many are reluctant to accept the committees recommendations. Some prominent party TDs also want to wait until the Government reveals what legislation is being planned if the Constitution is changed. A number of FF TDs who did not return calls, including finance spokesman Michael McGrath, are also known to oppose liberalising Irelands abortion laws. Where Fianna Fail TDs stand Housing spokesman Barry Cowen: The ball is firmly in the Governments court. If it is repeal on its own, it would be carte blanche, abortion on demand, which will not sit comfortably with the public. Id have concerns there. They [the Government] have got to give some indication of what will follow. The electorate needs to know what follows [repeal]. The ball is firmly in the Governments court. If it is repeal on its own, it would be carte blanche, abortion on demand, which will not sit comfortably with the public. Id have concerns there. They [the Government] have got to give some indication of what will follow. The electorate needs to know what follows [repeal]. Foreign affairs spokesman Darragh OBrien: We have got to know what the Government response is: A straight repeal or replacing it [the Eighth Amendment]. The Taoiseachs statement is ambiguous. We are in a bit of a vacuum. Twelve weeks is not something I could personally support. We have got to know what the Government response is: A straight repeal or replacing it [the Eighth Amendment]. The Taoiseachs statement is ambiguous. We are in a bit of a vacuum. Twelve weeks is not something I could personally support. Brexit spokesman Stephen Donnelly: Im in line with the partys recommendation to the Oireachtas committee, in favour of 12 weeks, no questions asked, especially where it affects the health of a mother. Abortion for late-term though, Im not comfortable with, unless it is for situations such as fatal foetal abnormalities. Im in line with the partys recommendation to the Oireachtas committee, in favour of 12 weeks, no questions asked, especially where it affects the health of a mother. Abortion for late-term though, Im not comfortable with, unless it is for situations such as fatal foetal abnormalities. Transport spokesman Robert Troy: There needs to be a referendum. In some cases Im supportive of it [abortion], such as fatal foetal. I still want to see what comes out of the Dail debate. But I have reservations about allowing it up to 12 weeks. But I would support it in some circumstances. There needs to be a referendum. In some cases Im supportive of it [abortion], such as fatal foetal. I still want to see what comes out of the Dail debate. But I have reservations about allowing it up to 12 weeks. But I would support it in some circumstances. Party chief whip Michael Moynihan: I havent made my mind up yet. We dont know what the Government proposals are. They are a bit cross-eyed, we dont know the plan. My concern is it [the committee recommendations] might go too far. We need to proceed with absolute caution and make sure we are doing the right thing. I havent made my mind up yet. We dont know what the Government proposals are. They are a bit cross-eyed, we dont know the plan. My concern is it [the committee recommendations] might go too far. We need to proceed with absolute caution and make sure we are doing the right thing. Communications spokesman Timmy Dooley: This is a very emotive issue, people have different views. Nobody should be bullied on it. I think change is needed. My thoughts are very much in line with the committees. Their recommendations are needed to address the myriad of situations to allow for abortion. Politicians should facilitate debate on this, but campaigning is not an essential part. This is a very emotive issue, people have different views. Nobody should be bullied on it. I think change is needed. My thoughts are very much in line with the committees. Their recommendations are needed to address the myriad of situations to allow for abortion. Politicians should facilitate debate on this, but campaigning is not an essential part. Justice spokesman Jim OCallaghan: I believe the current system is too restrictive and should be amended to deal with fatal foetal abnormalities, rape, and threats to the health of the mother. This could be achieved through amending or repealing the Eighth Amendment. I do not support the proposal for abortion up to 12 weeks as I am concerned it would significantly increase the number of pregnancies with Down Syndrome or other disabilities that are terminated. I believe the current system is too restrictive and should be amended to deal with fatal foetal abnormalities, rape, and threats to the health of the mother. This could be achieved through amending or repealing the Eighth Amendment. I do not support the proposal for abortion up to 12 weeks as I am concerned it would significantly increase the number of pregnancies with Down Syndrome or other disabilities that are terminated. Dublin spokesman John Lahart: I am still going through the Oireachtas committee witness testimonies and engaging with constituents on the issue so Im not in a position to answer. I am still going through the Oireachtas committee witness testimonies and engaging with constituents on the issue so Im not in a position to answer. Childrens spokeswoman Anne Rabbitte: I voted against repealing the Eighth Amendment [in the committee]. For once I agree with the Taoiseach, 12 weeks is definitely is a step too far. I voted against repealing the Eighth Amendment [in the committee]. For once I agree with the Taoiseach, 12 weeks is definitely is a step too far. Disabilities spokeswoman Margaret OMahony Murphy: I will vote against repeal but will not force my views on someone. Im totally against the 12-week limit. I will vote against repeal but will not force my views on someone. Im totally against the 12-week limit. Mental health spokesman James Browne: Im against repeal, but a referendum has to be held. It should be a straight repeal or not question. I put a lot of thought into that on the committee and try to allow for difficult cases, but no, Im not in favour of 12 weeks. Im against repeal, but a referendum has to be held. It should be a straight repeal or not question. I put a lot of thought into that on the committee and try to allow for difficult cases, but no, Im not in favour of 12 weeks. Defence spokeswoman Lisa Chambers did not return calls but voted in favour of repeal and 12 weeks at the committee. did not return calls but voted in favour of repeal and 12 weeks at the committee. Health spokesman Billy Kelleher: I am in favour of repeal and 12 weeks. People are saying 12 weeks may be an issue, but its worth remembering the Citizens Assembly recommendation was 22 weeks, so the committee is in fact more restrictive. I am in favour of repeal and 12 weeks. People are saying 12 weeks may be an issue, but its worth remembering the Citizens Assembly recommendation was 22 weeks, so the committee is in fact more restrictive. Rural affairs spokesman Eamon O Cuiv: I am not in favour of repealing the present protection of human life in the Constitution This story originally appeared in the Irish Examiner. Tickets for today's session of the BT Young Scientist Exhibition have completely sold out. Organisers are advising people not to attend the event at the RDS without a ticket, as they may be refused entry. Tickets remain available for the final day of the Exhibition tomorrow and can be bought online at www.btyoungscientist.com/ticketing. Today sees 140 awards handed out to students, with one of the 550 projects to be given the top prize. The judges say issues like homelessness, transgender rights and mental health feature in a lot of the projects this year. One of the judges, Dr Jones Irwin, thinks this is a positive sign. "I volunteer my time because I really believe in the students and their work. The projects have a real sort of social-political significance," he said. "That's what we really need in Ireland at the moment. For teenagers to be waiting out some of the main issues in the culture and the society," he added. An overseas trip to a remote corner of sub-Saharan Africa is the thrilling prize that awaits the lucky winner of one of the top prizes at this weeks BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in Dublin. The Irish Aid backed travel bursary will go to this years winner of the Science for Development Award, a special category prize presented by the judges to the project that they believe best addresses a development challenge facing communities in poorer regions of the world. Also running in the RDS is the ninth RDS Primary Science Fair. It is hoped primary school students engaging in science projects will be key in filling skill shortages in STEM areas in the future. 90 schools are taking part over three days. Each school has entered a scientific investigation which involved the whole class. The fair is one of three involving over 7,000 eight to 12-year-olds this year. Next week the event will travel to Limerick and in June it will return to Belfast. Projects include 'What if the earth stopped spinning?' and 'Can we design a hover car that cleans as it drives?'. "We know that there is a shortage in the skills pipeline coming through and particularly so in the girls that are engaging at secondary school and third level and beyond," said RDS Science and Technology Programme Manager Karen Sheeran. While it is a non-competitive event, the children still benefit from presenting and feedback. "Starting young is key and ensuring that both girls and boys have equal opportunities - irrelevant of their backgrounds - to achieve what can be for them," she added. The former president of SIPTU has said the relationship between Labour leader Brendan Howlin and party health spokesperson Alan Kelly is "not as good as perhaps we would like it to be". Speaking on RTE's Today With Sean O'Rourke, Jack O'Connor said Wicklow's Labour executive council had asked him to stand for the Dail when the possibility of an election loomed in November. Four patients, who were asked to return to University Hospital Kerry (UHK) for further radiological investigation as part of a major review of scans, will require additional treatment, writes Health Correspondent Catherine Shanahan. The four are among a total of 72 patients recalled after concerns were raised in relation to imaging work overseen by a doctor who no longer works at the hospital. That number could rise further, as more than 12,000 scans have yet to be scrutinised. The South/Southwest Hospital Group (SSWHG) failed to respond to queries last night as to whether there were any further cases of serious missed diagnosis, in addition to the seven already identified. To date, 33,950 scans have been reviewed from a total of 46,235. The X-rays, CAT scans, and ultrasounds included in the review involve 26,756 individual patients. Imaging has been reviewed in relation to 20,367 patients. News of the review broke before Christmas, when it emerged that the SSWHG was re-examining thousands of scans after patient safety concerns emerged during the summer, when the hospital was notified of three serious reportable events. Clinical director Claire OBrien said abnormalities were found by a staff member at the hospital, which led to a decision to examine the work of a former staff member. Dr OBrien said there were serious cases of delayed diagnoses at the hospital. The hospital confirmed before Christmas that the number of serious delayed diagnoses arising from the review had increased from three to seven. Yesterday, as part of a review update, the SSWHG said 73.4% of the review is complete... accounting for 76% of 26,756 individual patients. The number of patients who have been recalled for repeat imaging to date is 72, it said in a statement. Patients whose scans are being re-examined are from Kerry, north Cork, and south Limerick. The look-back which involves up to a dozen consultants, including a number of external doctors is being conducted in reverse order chronologically, from July 2017 back to March 2016. This story originally appeared in the Irish Examiner. Gardai in Dublin investigating a stolen car incident have issued a photo of the car in an appeal for information. A 13-month-old baby girl escaped injury after the car, a dark navy Opel Vectra hatchback with a registration number of 05D 66688, was stolen in the Baldoyle area of Dublin this morning. Update 9.07pm: The discovery of man's body in Dalkey in South County Dublin this morning is not being treated as suspicious. A post-mortem took place this evening on the body of 35-year-old Michael Burke, who was found dead in a laneway off Convent Road at around 8.30am. Officers say foul play has now been ruled out. Gardai believe it is a case of sudden death and a file will now be prepared for the coroner. Update 4.36pm: Latest: Man found dead in Dalkey laneway may have been taking shortcut A man found dead in a laneway may have suffered fatal injuries from a metal gate. Gardai said his body was discovered on the ground in Dalkey, Co Dublin, at about 8.30am. It is understood a passer-by saw the dead man lying near a laneway just off Convent Road in the centre in the town. He was 35 and worked in the local supermarket. Officers are investigating if the man accidentally suffered fatal injuries to his abdomen from the top of a metal gate as he attempted a shortcut between Convent Road and Coliemore Road. A forensic tent was put up over the body while gates at the scene were covered in sheets. It is understood CCTV was also being examined to establish the man's movements before the incident. Gardai are appealing to anyone who was in the Convent Road/ Coliemore Road area between 10pm last night and 2am this morning to contact them. They are particularly appealing for motorists with dash-cams to come forward. Anyone with information is asked to contact Dun Laoghaire Garda station on 01 6665000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station. Locals expressed shock at the discovery. Fine Gael councillor John Bailey said: "I'd like to extend my sympathies and sincere condolences to the family. It's a terrible, terrible tragedy." Update 3.26pm: Latest: Residents 'horrified' after man's body found in Dalkey laneway Gardai investigating the discovery of a man's body in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, say they are keeping an open mind into the cause of his death. The remains of Michael Burke, who was in his thirties, were found in a laneway off Convent Road at around 8.30am this morning. Officers say a post mortem will determine the course of their investigation. Locals in Dalkey are saddened at the discovery. One woman said: "It's shocking news, I live in Dalkey and I was leaving my daughter to school who would usually walk down that road - the school is just at the end. "So, it's quite shocking to hear that." Another woman said she was "horrified that it could have happened." Another Dalkey resident said the news is very sad, saying: "I don't know any detail, or what's involved, but it's a very tragic occurence, very sad." Update 1.23pm: Man found dead in Dalkey named locally A Garda technical examination is underway at the scene where a mans body was discovered in Dublin this morning. The remains of a man in his thirties were found in a laneway off Convent Road in Dalkey at around 8.30am. The Garda technical team arrived at the scene in Dalkey at around 11.30am this morning to examine the area. Scene at Dalkey. Photo: Colin Keegan Gardai from Dun Laoighre are investigating the discovery and said they are keeping an open mind in their investigations at this stage. A full post-mortem will determine the course of their investigation. The man has been named locally as Michael Burke, in his early thirties and living close by. As Gardai continue their investigations in the south Dublin suburb they are appealing to anyone who may have been in the laneway off Convent Road last night or early this morning to contact them. Earlier: Gardai investigate discovery of man's body in Dublin The body of a man was discovered in a Dalkey laneway this morning. Gardai in Dun Laoghaire are investigating the discovery which occurred at approximately 8.30am. A technical exam is still underway in Dalkey after a mans body was discovered in a lane off Convent Road at 8.30am Today. Gardai are keeping an open mind at this stage of the investigation. pic.twitter.com/0JDHeGtPi5 Gail Conway (@gailconwaymedia) January 12, 2018 It is reported the man received a puncture wound to his body. The body remains at the scene, which has been sealed off awaiting technical examination. The laneway leads to an apartment block off Convent road in Dalkey. The office of the State Pathologist has been notified. Anyone who may have been on that laneway overnight or early this morning or anyone with any information is asked to contact Dun Laoghaire Garda station on 01 6665000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station. The winner of the 54th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) has been announced. Simon Meehan, aged 15, a Transition Year student from Colaiste Choilm, Ballincollig in Co. Cork, has taken home the top prize for his project entitled "Investigation into the Antimicrobial effects of both aerial and root parts of selected plants against Staphylococcus aureus". He won for his investigation into the medicinal qualities of plants in fighting disease. The coveted prize was presented to the winner this evening in the BT Arena by Minister for Education Richard Bruton and Managing Director of BT Ireland, Shay Walsh. Simon Meehan presented his project in the Biological and Ecological section of the Intermediate category. Full list of winners at bottom of article. The winner of the 54th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is SIMON MEEHAN TY Student from Colaiste Choilm in Cork for his project entitled Investigation into the Antimicrobial effects of both aerial & root parts of selected plants against Staphylococcus aureus pic.twitter.com/NuhWZdnoAo BT Young Scientist (@BTYSTE) January 12, 2018 Simon selected nine locally sourced plants such as asparagus, nettles and blackberries to test for the presence of chemicals which could potentially be used to control bacterial infection. The leaves of the blackberry plant were shown to contain a chemical which prevented the growth of different bacteria. Simons award includes the largest prize fund yet of 7,500, the BTYSTE perpetual trophy and an exclusive trip to Bletchley Park in the UK, the infamous World War II coding centre. Students from Colaiste Choilm cheer their classmate SIMON MEEHAN TY Student from Colaiste Choilm in Cork for his project entitled Investigation into the Antimicrobial effects of both aerial & root parts of selected plants against Staphylococcus aureus @colaistechoilm #btyste pic.twitter.com/O3DmEWig9j BT Young Scientist (@BTYSTE) January 12, 2018 Also, and uniquely this year, the winner will have the opportunity to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists, taking place in the RDS, Dublin in September. It's only the second time in the 30-year history of the competition that Ireland will host this prominent international event. Best group went to Harry Noblock, James Noblock and Oran O'Donoghue from Co.Kerry. They investigated conformity and how minorities can influence it. Minister Bruton said: "Im delighted to be here at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition - its fantastic to see so many young people engaged and inspired by the STEM subjects and their application to real world problems. "I would like to congratulate every student, teacher and school community involved for all their hard work during the year and especially this week. The Exhibition is a highlight for the education calendar every year." Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland said: "This years Exhibition has exceeded all expectations showcasing projects and innovations which are now, more than ever, pivotal for the future of our society. "Our theme for this years exhibition is It Starts Here but this is only the beginning and it is vitally important that every students voyage of discovery does not end here. "I want to congratulate every student that entered, and Simon, our overall winner. Simons innovative skills and entrepreneurial approach are critical to research and development led companies like BT." The award for Group winner went to James Knoblauch, Harry Knoblauch and Oran ODonoghue, all aged 16 and 5th year students from St. Brendans College Killarney, Co. Kerry for their project entitled An Investigation into Conformity and How Minorities Influence it. Group Winner Award goes to James Knoblauch, Harry Knoblauch & Oran ODonoghue 5th Year students from St Brendans College Killarney for their project An Investigation into Conformity & how minorities influence it pic.twitter.com/Uhf9ixGufR BT Young Scientist (@BTYSTE) January 12, 2018 The students were in the Social and Behavioural Category at Senior level. In two controlled psychology experiments, the project demonstrated how one person can influence the behaviour of others, using a unique approach to studying group dynamics, focusing on the influence of an individual within a group setting. The Individual runner-up award was presented to Claire Gregg, aged 16, transition year student at Loreto College St. Stephens Green, Dublin for her project entitled An Analysis of the Housing Shortage in Ireland using Agent-Based Modelling. @loretocollege Congratulations Claire Gregg TY student from Loreto College St Stephens Green Winner of the Individual Runner up Award. Her project An Analysis of the Housing Shortage in Ireland using Agent Based Modelling. BT Young Scientist (@BTYSTE) January 12, 2018 Claire was in the Social Behavioural Sciences category at Intermediate level. Claires project addresses a significant challenge in society in an innovative, sophisticated way by modelling complex data on the housing shortage in Ireland. The model identifies the most salient factors affecting the Irish housing market by drawing on extensive data sources. The Group runners-up award was presented to Darragh Twomey, Neil OLeary and Andrew Heffernan, aged 16, transition year students at Colaiste Treasa, Kanturk, Co. Cork for their project entitled Feeding 9.6 billion people by 2050. The students were in the Biological and Ecological Sciences category at Intermediate level. They carried out a field study to increase food production in a sustainable manner. They treated barley with a specific strain of bacteria and found it increased the yield of varieties of the crop. - Digital desk 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. Liam Neeson will be swapping Hollywood for the Phoenix Park today when he receives an award from the President. The annual Presidential Distinguished Service Award aims to highlight outstanding work by Irish people living abroad. By Ann O'Loughlin An Irish born child with a severe form of sickle cell disease, a blood disorder, will have his appeal against deportation to Nigeria heard this month by the Supreme Court. The appeal, granted priority because of the child's severe condition, raises significant legal issues concerning whether public authorities with discretionary powers must publish any policy or criteria for the exercise of such powers. That issue goes "far beyond this case", the Supreme Court said. The eight-year-old boy's lawyers dispute a High Court finding they had not established a substantial case and say the Minister must specify the criteria for making and revoking deportation orders so as to ensure such discretionary powers are exercised transparently. The State, they allege, has operated an informal, effectively "secret", process aimed at giving permission to remain to large numbers of undocumented migrants here for more than five years. The Supreme Court also said the child is entitled to appeal the High Court finding he had not raised substantial grounds that the severity of his condition and requirement for treatment not available in Nigeria made it unlawful to deport him. Lawyers for the boy, born here to Nigerian parents, had presented "credible evidence", if deported, there will be "significant adverse consequences" to his health, it said. The "exceptional" circumstances, general public importance of the issues raised and interests of justice entitle the child to bring an appeal, it held. The appeal, to be heard on January 22, is against a High Court decision dismissing the boy's application for judicial review of the refusal to revoke the deportation order. A number of similar cases are also awaiting the outcome. The boy was born here two months after his mother came here in 2009 and a deportation order was made in 2011. The mother initiated the first of three legal challenges to the proposed deportation and to subsequent refusals of the Minister to revoke it. In the third case, it was argued the State has put in place an undeclared and informal process aimed at giving permission to remain to large numbers of undocumented migrants here for more than five years. In his 2016 judgment rejecting the arguments, the Minister was required to specify the criteria for making or revoking deportation orders, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said that would result in attempts to "game the system". If a rigid time limit was put forward as a threshold for allowing someone remain in the State, that would result in "undesirable conduct" such as creating an incentive to delay matters by legal proceedings or otherwise, he said. He also said a recommendation of a Working Group on the Protection Process concerning regularisation of undocumented migrants had conditions attached, including that a person seeking permission to remain had not been evading the authorities. The mother in this case had evaded the immigration authorities after the deportation order was made, he said. The Supreme Court, in its determination permitting the child to appeal the High Court decision, noted the UK Supreme Court, had ruled in the 2012 Lumba case judgment that compliance with the rule of law requires the executive, when exercising broad statutory powers, to identify any policy adopted so as to ensure the relevant powers are exercised transparently. The Irish courts have not considered whether the same or similar principles apply here and it is arguable principles similar to those identified in Lumba may apply here, it said. Noting evidence on behalf of the child suggested a risk he would suffer particularly significant consequences if deported, it was also in the interests of justice an appeal be permitted on the medical grounds, it said. A 26-year-old man has admitted providing funding from his Co Waterford base to terrorist organisation Islamic State, writes Conor Kane. Hassan Bal, formerly of OConnell Street in Waterford but recently in custody since being arrested at his Waterford home in April of last year, pleaded guilty at Waterford Circuit Court today to two counts relating to the funding and attempting funding of Islamic State. His case was adjourned by Judge Eugene OKelly to April 10, when a date will be fixed for the case to be finalised and Mr Bal to be sentenced. Mr Bal, who is in custody, was in court wearing a blue and white check shirt, green jacket and grey trousers. He was only called upon to speak when asked to confirm he is Hassan Bal and he said I am, yes, and also when he said guilty in reply to each of two charges put to him. The accused is originally from the UK and moved to Ireland with his family when he was 12 years of age, living initially in Wexford and then in Waterford from 2007. He holds an Irish passport and was training to be an electrician. After he was arrested in April, the district court heard that his wife, who was also born in the UK, was pregnant with the couples first child. Mr Bal pleaded guilty on Friday to unlawfully providing 400 in funds, using an An Post/Western Union money transfer, in Co Waterford on October 2 of 2015 to a Stevo Maksimovic in the city of Brako in Bosnia-Herzegovina, intending or knowing that the funds would be used in whole or in part for the benefit or purposes of the terrorist group known as Islamic State or Daesh. This offence carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, on indictment. He also pleaded guilty to unlawfully and wilfully attempting to collect or receive cash from a person known to him as Omar Abu Aziz, by means of telephonic communications and an intermediary at an address at 2 Geron Way, London NW2 6GJ, knowing that the funds would be used in whole or in part for the benefit or purposes of Islamic State. That offence was committed on October 23 of 2015. The offences are contrary to section 13 (3)(a) and section 13 (4) of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act of 2005. Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, defending, said it was a very unusual case and said the sentencing hearing will take up to two hours when it goes ahead. He handed into a court a document in relation to a request for an expert on radicalisation, Dr Daniel Koelher of the German Institute of Radicalisation and De-Radicalisation Studies, to carry out a report in relation to Hassan Bal. He asked that Mr Koelher be given access to interviews with Mr Bal and any associated documents including the Book of Evidence; that the expert provide a report on why Mr Bal became associated with such activities and if has since been de-radicalised and whether he does not appear to support terrorist organisations like Islamic State anymore. Mr O Lideadha also asked that Mr Koelher be available to give evidence at the sentencing hearing and that he be allowed access in prison to Mr Bal for the purposes of carrying out further investigation and a report. He has made it clear he would be providing an expert opinion to the court and is very well aware of his obligations as an expert witness to be fair and clear and to report on the basis of his primary obligations to the court, senior counsel said. He added that his client, Mr Bal, is very well aware that the court would have access to Mr Koelhers report, whatever the conclusions are. Judge OKelly agreed to extend the legal aid certificate for the defence to enable an expert, independent report on radicalisation, pending the defence furnishing the qualifications of the expert they had put forward. The judge also ordered that the expert report be made available to the prosecution not less than a week before the sentencing hearing. This was agreed by Alex Owens SC, for the State. Hassan Bal was remanded in custody, to appear again in court on April 10. Actors Robert Downey Jr and Hugh Grant have agreed to let bygones be bygones and set aside their 23-year-old differences. Downey Jr and Grant worked together on the 1995 film Restoration and in a recent interview with People, Grant said he believed Downey Jr immediately took a dislike to him on set. "He hated me. He took one look at me and wanted to kill me," said Grant. Iron Man star Downey Jr previously slated the British actor. "I just thought he was a d*ck, thats all. And I still do." However, Downey Jr held out an olive branch in the form of a tweet, saying "a lot has happened over two decades". "I respect how Mr Grant has matured as an artist and voice against violations of privacy. Lets break bread together soon," he said. A lot has happened over two decades! I respect how Mr. Grant has matured as an artist & voice against violations of privacy. Lets break bread together soon @HackedOffHugh! #burythehatchet2018 Robert Downey Jr (@RobertDowneyJr) January 11, 2018 Grand responded a few hours later, and described Downey Jrs gesture as a "nice way to kick off the new year". "Yes - if youre in London come by and break bread. Wont be easy as my 5-year-old bakes it, but you seem strong. Respect," he said. The Irish Film Board (IFB) have today issued a statement to address the gender imbalance in the 2018 Irish Film and Television Academy (Ifta) nominations. The Read More: 50 male to 15 women #ifta nominees. A lot more work needed to balance the scales. Shirley Donovan (@ShirleyDonovan) January 11, 2018 Many have pointed to the fact that there are five men nominated in the Actor in a Leading Role category while there are only three women nominated in the corresponding actress category. The IFB chair, Dr Annie Doona, said that they "remain steadfastly committed to addressing" the gender imbalance. "The IFTAs were established to reflect the breadth and depth of the Irish film and television industry. With this in mind I would like to express my disappointment at the gender imbalance that has emerged in the shortlists for almost every category of award. "We are all aware that there is a gender imbalance within the industry and we at the IFB remain steadfastly committed to addressing this issue. "Achieving 50/50 gender equality within the sector remains an utmost priority for the IFB and we have undertaken a number of measures to ensure that Irish female talent is encouraged and visible within the industry. "It is vitally important that the stories Irish films portray represent a contemporary image of Ireland in all its diversity, inclusivity and originality of voice." Dr Doona pointed to the IFBs Six Point Plan on Gender Equality, launched in December 2015, as a sign of the work being done. The six-point plan details "a number of measures to monitor and enhance gender representation across the sector." Dr Doona added, "We acknowledge that this shift cannot happen overnight and it is important to remember that we can only fund what we receive. "We must continue to implore and encourage Irish creative female talent to apply so that these goals can be achieved." "In the last year alone, we have seen female Irish filmmakers break through on the international stage including the likes of Nora Twomey with her Golden Globe-nominated animated feature, The Breadwinner, and Emer Reynolds with her critically acclaimed feature documentary, The Farthest." Dr Doona also highlighted that in 2018 a number of female led Irish films are due for release "including (Nora) Twomeys aforementioned The Breadwinner, Carmel Winters Float Like A Butterfly, Aoife McArdles Kissing Candice, Mary McGuckians A Girl From Mogadishu, and Alexandra McGuinness Highway alongside the Katie Holly-produced Irish co-production Vita & Virginia and Sinead OSheas documentary, A Mother Brings Her Son To Be Shot. "These upcoming titles prove that this imbalance is shifting and it is a shift we will unyieldingly support. We hope that at next years awards, female talent will be equally represented and offered the recognition it truly deserves." You can read the IFBs full statement here. The Ifta nominations followed a Golden Globes award ceremony that was overshadowed by the recent Hollywood sexual harassment scandal, where a number of celebs Read More: During the ceremony, Natalie Portman also made a subtle criticism over the lack of females nominated for Best Director while presenting the award. Guillermo del Toro (who won the award), Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Martin McDonagh were all nominated, with Portman introducing the quintet by saying "and here are the all-male nominees". A Britain First supporter who gave a Nazi salute, shouted "white power" and drove at a curry house owner will be sentenced later. White van driver Marek Zakrocki, 48, threatened to "kill a Muslim" before launching his attack outside Spicy Night in north-west London, on the anniversary of the Brexit vote. Zakrocki, who was originally charged with attempted murder, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and battering his wife. He could be facing jail when he appears at the Old Bailey to be sentenced by Judge Anthony Leonard QC. Opening the facts of the case last month, prosecutor Denis Barry said: "Mr Zakrocki had plainly, during the course of that afternoon, had far too much to drink. "During the course of that evening he assaulted his wife, drove off in his work vehicle, insulted a series of passers-by and then drove his vehicle at the owner of a curry house, breaking the window of the restaurant. "It's plain that his conduct is very likely to have been motivated by his views about our diverse society." Earlier on June 23 last year, Zakrocki had got drunk on wine, grabbed his wife Ewa Zakrocka's arm and threatened to "kill people" and himself. During a rampage around Harrow, he made a Nazi salute, pushed an unknown Asian man and shouted "white power, white power". He was also heard to say: "I'm going to kill a Muslim. I'm doing it for Britain. "This is how I'm going to help the country. You people cannot do anything." The Polish-born window fitter ended up outside the Spicy Night restaurant, blocking the road with his van. Following an altercation in the street, he started the engine and aimed the vehicle at restaurant owner Kamal Ahmed. The court heard he used the van as a weapon against Mr Ahmed and twice mounted the pavement. He was driving at 5mph and was effectively trying to pin Mr Ahmed against the restaurant window, which smashed. Because of the increased state of alert at the time, armed officers arrested Zakrocki in a "hard stop". Police found a Nazi coin in his pocket and a stash of Britain First flyers and newspapers at his home in Harrow. In interview, he appeared to be "fixated" by Muslims and said he had made donations to Britain First. Mr Barry said the defendant appeared to have a history of depressive illness and alcohol problems. He told the court that Britain First, formed by members of the BNP, was anti-Muslim and held views that were regarded by most people as "very extreme indeed". Charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and having a knife in Northolt Road, Harrow, were ordered to lie on file. PA Haitians reacted with outrage to reports that President Donald Trump questioned why the US would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa. He spoke during an Oval Office meeting on the eve of the anniversary of the 2010 earthquake, one of the deadliest disasters in modern history. President Jovenel Moise's government issued a strongly worded statement denouncing what it called a "racist" view of Haitian immigrants and people from African countries. "The Haitian government condemns in the strongest terms these abhorrent and obnoxious remarks which, if proven, reflect a totally erroneous and racist view of the Haitian community and its contribution to the United States," it said. Mr Trump was in a closed meeting with members of Congress to discuss immigration on Thursday when he reportedly questioned why the US would accept more people from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa, rather than places like Norway. At first the White House did not deny that the remark was made. Today the president tweeted that his language was "tough" but insisted he did not say anything derogatory about Haitians aside from noting it is a poor country. Haitians at home and abroad were stunned, and internet message boards and radio stations were flooded with angry and anguished comments. "It's shocking he would say it on the anniversary," said 28-year-old Natacha Joseph, who was selling rice and beans from a basket near the general hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince. "I will ask Jesus to protect Haiti from the devil, and Trump is the devil." Motorcycle taxi driver Jean-Paul Maxon said he was angry that the president seemed to be unaware of Haiti's proud history as the first independent country founded by freed slaves. "Trump will not last in office," Mr Maxon said. "He attacked the wrong nation." The government statement also pointed to history, noting that Haitian soldiers fought on the American side against the British in the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812. "The relationship between the two countries has been strengthened by the fact that millions of sons and daughters of Haiti have contributed and will continue to contribute to the prosperity and greatness of America," it said. Haitian Senator Yuri Latortue said the reported remarks were also galling because they came just before the US marks the birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr on Monday. "Mr Trump spits on the assassination of this black American icon, as well as on a whole generation of young people, black and white, who gave their lives in the civil rights movement," he said. President Donald Trump speaks during an event to honor Dr Martin Luther King Jr, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House today. Pic: AP The US and Haiti have long been closely intertwined. President Woodrow Wilson dispatched US Marines to invade the Caribbean country in 1915 after its president was assassinated. A repressive occupation lasted until 1934. In more recent times, the US supported the brutal dictator "Papa Doc" Francois Duvalier as well as the son who succeeded him until he in turn was ousted. In the 1990s, US intervention helped bring Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's first democratically elected president, back to power after he was ousted in a coup, but then supported his removal in a rebellion in 2004. After the January 12 2010 earthquake, the US came to Haiti's assistance and was the largest provider of aid. But that support was also a source of frustration since much of the money was spent on US troops that responded to the immediate aftermath and later aid focused on long-term projects that appeared to have little to do with the disaster, such as the development of an industrial park in the north of the country, far from the earthquake zone. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake, which killed an estimated 300,000 people and displaced more than a million, was on the minds of many as Mr Moise and others prepared for a solemn memorial on Friday to mark the anniversary. The president was expected to lay a wreath at a mass grave where many victims were buried. But government officials were also expected to meet with the highest-ranking US diplomat in the country for an explanation of Mr Trump's reported remarks. Former Prime Minister Laurant Lamothe said Mr Trump showed "a lack of respect and ignorance" not previously shown by a US president, and "the world is witnessing a new low today". - AP and Digital desk Japan's foreign minister has urged Burma's civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, to guarantee the safe and voluntary return of Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in troubled Rakhine state. While Taro Kono is visiting Burma, the Japanese government announced a grant of $3m (almost 2.5m) to help facilitate the repatriation of the Rohingyas. Burma and Bangladesh signed an agreement on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees on November 23, and Burma, also known as Myanmar, said it would start the process by January 23. The exact numbers and extent of the repatriation is still unclear. "We have decided to provide the aid in response to the agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to represent an international message of support so that the repatriation can be carried out promptly," said Japanese Foreign Ministry official Shinobu Yamaguchi. Mr Kono's three-day visit to Burma includes travelling to Rakhine state. Humanitarian groups and independent media are banned from travelling to the area freely. More than 650,000 Rohingyas have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape a brutal crackdown in which security forces have been accused of systematic abuses tantamount to ethnic cleansing. During a meeting on Friday, Mr Kono asked Ms Suu Kyi's government to allow humanitarian and media access to the affected area, the resettlement of returned refugees, and the implementation of recommendations made by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. Mr Kono also said Japan plans to give further aid of $20m (16.5m) to improve humanitarian conditions and development in Rakhine state. "We are thankful to Japan for its willingness to support the needs both for short term and long term," Ms Suu Kyi said at the joint news conference. Mr Yamaguchi stressed that Japan will monitor how the repatriation will be carried out. "The money will be paid in a timely manner based on the progress of repatriation," he added. Burma's state-run media said on Wednesday that authorities have started the land work to construct buildings to accommodate returned refugees from Bangladesh in northern Rakhine, where refugees will be temporarily placed after their citizenship is scrutinised. AP Update 3.50pm: A US senator has rejected Donald Trump's effort to distance himself from claims that he used vulgar language to describe African countries, claiming the president "said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly". The president has been accused of questioning why the US should accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa, during a meeting on immigration. He said on Twitter today that his language during the meeting was "tough" but insisted: "This was not the language used." But Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, who was present at the Oval Office meeting, said "shitholes" was "the exact word used by the president not just once but repeatedly". He added: "When the question was asked about Haitians ... he said, 'Haitians? Do we need more Hatians?'" Mr Trump's contemptuous description of an entire continent startled legislators at a meeting about a bipartisan immigration deal, according to people briefed on the conversation, and immediately revived charges that the president is racist. The White House did not deny his remark but issued a statement saying Mr Trump supports immigration policies that welcome "those who can contribute to our society". Earlier: Latest: Donald Trump denies referring to 'shithole countries' in Africa Update 3pm: Donald Trump has today denied reports that he used bluntly vulgar language to question why the US should accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa. The US president tweeted: "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used." His contemptuous description of an entire continent startled legislators at a meeting about a bipartisan immigration deal, according to people briefed on the Oval Office conversation, and immediately revived charges that the president is racist. The White House did not deny his remark but issued a statement saying Mr Trump supports immigration policies that welcome "those who can contribute to our society". Today, Mr Trump also tweeted: "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country," and claimed: "I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians." He denied suggestions in a report in the Washington Post that he had said "take them out", in reference to Haitians. Mr Trump said the bipartisan immigration proposal is "a big step backwards" because it does not fund a wall along the Mexican border, and claimed it would force the US "to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly". He added: "I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs." His comments came after two senators presented details of the bipartisan compromise that would extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, and also strengthen border protections. The lawmakers had hoped he would back the accord, an agreement among six senators evenly split among Republicans and Democrats, ending a bitter dispute over protecting the "Dreamers". But the White House later rejected it, plunging the issue back into uncertainty eight days before a deadline that threatens a government shutdown. Earlier: 'Shocking and shameful': UN and African Union condemn Donald Trump's alleged 'shithole countries' comment The UN human rights office has said Donald Trump's reported use of an expletive to describe Africa and other countries could "potentially damage and disrupt the lives of many people". Speaking in the Oval Office, President Trump questioned why the US should permit more immigrants from "shithole countries" after senators discussed revamping rules affecting entrants from Africa and Haiti, sources said. Repeating the term attributed to the president a day earlier, Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Rupert Colville said: "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes'." He said the comments, if confirmed, were "shocking and shameful" and added: "I'm sorry, but there's no other word one can use but racist." He said Mr Trump's reported comment could endanger lives by potentially fanning xenophobia: "It legitimises the targeting of people based on who they are. "This isn't just a story about vulgar language, it's about opening the door to humanity's worst side." He added that the reported comments "go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War Two and the Holocaust". Africans also criticised Mr Trump after his reported outburst. The African Union continental body said it was "frankly alarmed". "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice," AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity." African governments quickly found themselves in an awkward position. As top recipients of US aid, some hesitated to jeopardise it by criticising Mr Trump, especially as his administration has sought to slash foreign assistance. "Unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say," said South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny. But South Africa's ruling African National Congress called the comments "extremely offensive". Deputy secretary general Jesse Duarte said developing countries do have difficulties but the US has millions of people out of work or without health care, and "we would not deign to make comments as derogatory". Yet while official government channels held fire, African media outlets and the continent's young, increasingly connected population were not being shy. "Well, that is the perfect definition of racism. That is all I have to say," Kenyan entrepreneur Wangui Muraguri said in Nairobi. "Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate," South African media outlet Daily Maverick wrote. Many on the world's second most populous continent reached for their smartphones, long-practiced in defending the vast and varied region from easy stereotypes. While 40% of the world's poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund, the region also has billionaires, reality shows and a growing middle class. Some quickly decided to own Mr Trump's apparently vulgar language or throw it back in his face. Good morning from the greatest most beautiful shithole country in the world!!! Leanne Manas (@LeanneManas) January 12, 2018 In Kenya, east Africa's economic hub, political activist Boniface Mwangi pleaded: "Please don't confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent." Mr Trump's reported comments highlighted months of concerns about his lack of focus on Africa, including empty ambassadorial posts in key countries like South Africa, Egypt, Congo and Somalia. A list maintained by the Washington-based American Foreign Service Association says eight posts are vacant. Mr Trump has expressed negative opinions about the continent in the past. "Every penny of the 7 billion dollars going to Africa as per Obama will be stolen - corruption is rampant!" he tweeted in 2013. "He has not only insulted Africans, he has also insulted African-Americans," said Sylvester Odion Akhaine, associate professor of international relations at Lagos State University in Nigeria. "Internationally, such language will deepen the isolation of the United States, a country that is already losing its global prestige." A "arrogant" consultant surgeon who "betrayed the trust" of his patients by burning his initials on to the livers of two unconscious transplant patients has been fined 10,000 by a British court. Simon Bramhall (aged 53) used an argon beam machine to "write" his initials on the organs of two anaesthetised victims in February and August 2013 while working at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. A judge at the city's Crown Court said Bramhall, who resigned from the hospital in 2014, had carried out an "an abuse of power and a betrayal of trust". The consultant, who was given a formal warning by the General Medical Council (GMC) last February, admitted two counts of assault by beating last month after prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Judge Paul Farrer QC also sentenced Bramhall today to a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work. He said: "Both of the (transplant) operations were long and difficult. I accept that on both occasions you were tired and stressed and I accept that this may have affected your judgment. This was conduct born of professional arrogance of such magnitude that it strayed into criminal behaviour. "What you did was an abuse of power and a betrayal of trust that these patients had invested in you. "I accept that you didn't intend or foresee anything but the most trivial of harm would be caused." Opening the facts of the case against Bramhall, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said one of the two victims initialled by the world-renowned surgeon had been left feeling "violated" and suffering ongoing psychological harm. Acknowledging that Bramhall's actions had not caused either patients' new liver to fail, Mr Badenoch said: "This case is about his practice on two occasions, without the consent of the patient and for no clinical reason whatever, to burn his initials on to the surface of a newly-transplanted liver." One of the victims, referred to in court as Patient A, received a donor organ in 2013 in a life-saving operation carried out by Bramhall. But the donor liver failed around a week later - for reasons unconnected to its implantation - and another surgeon spotted Bramhall's initials on the organ. A photograph of the 4cm-high branding was taken on a mobile phone and Bramhall, who now works for the NHS in Herefordshire, later admitted using the argon beam coagulator to mark Patient A's liver. Mr Badenoch said of the initial transplant operation: "Mr Bramhall had to work exceptionally hard and use all of his skill to complete the operation. "At the end of the operation he performed a liver biopsy using the argon beam coagulator, and then used it to burn his initials." A nurse who saw the initialling queried what had happened and Bramhall was said to have replied: "I do this." The court heard that Bramhall later told police he had "flicked his wrist" and made the mark within a few seconds. "He knew that the action could cause no harm to the patient. He also said that in hindsight this was naive and foolhardy - a misjudged attempt to relieve the tension in theatre," Mr Badenoch said A British surgeon who admitted burning his initials on to the livers of two unconscious transplant patients is due to be sentenced by a Crown Court judge. Simon Bramhall used an argon beam machine to "write" on the organs of two anaesthetised victims in February and August 2013 while working at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The 53-year-old admitted two counts of assault by beating at Birmingham Crown Court last month after prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Bramhall marked his initials on the patients' livers without their consent "for no clinical reason" using a medical instrument designed to seal bleeding blood vessels. After Bramhall's pleas were entered, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC described the case as "without legal precedent in criminal law" and said the offences were committed in the presence of medical colleagues. Addressing the earlier court hearing, Mr Badenoch said: "This has been a highly unusual and complex case, both within the expert medical testimony served by both sides and in law. "The pleas of guilty now entered represent an acceptance that that which he did was not just ethically wrong but criminally wrong." The offence of assault by beating was brought against the consultant surgeon to reflect the act of marking the liver and there is no suggestion he was responsible for physically "beating" either patient. The charges were brought more than three years after Bramhall was suspended by the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Medical experts have previously said that the "burning" of organs using the argon beam process would not have caused damage to health or affected clincial outcomes for patients. Bramhall, who resigned from his post at the Queen Elizabeth in May 2014 and went on to work at another health trust, is due to be sentenced by Judge Paul Farrer QC on Friday morning. 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... U.S. News ranks UBs education, nursing online programs among nations best BUFFALO, N.Y. Online programs in the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education and School of Nursing were named to U.S. News & World Reports 2018 Best Online Programs rankings. The online programs offered by the Graduate School of Education were ranked No. 15 in the nation in the Best Online Graduate Education Programs rankings, earning a placement on the annual list for the sixth consecutive year. The School of Nursings online bachelors degree program (RN-BS), which admitted its first class in 2012-13, was ranked No. 60 in the Best Online Bachelors Programs rankings. This is the programs fourth consecutive year on the list. GSEs national ranking reflects our commitment to providing top quality and rigorous online education programs, said Suzanne Rosenblith, PhD, professor and dean of the Graduate School of Education. School of Nursing Dean Marsha Lewis cites recent New York State legislation requiring nurses to earn their bachelors degree in nursing (BSN) as confirmation of the growing need to educate and train the future nursing workforce inside and outside of the classroom. New York State has passed groundbreaking legislation requiring RNs to obtain their BSN within 10 years of licensure, said Lewis, PhD, also a professor in the School of Nursing. We expect that other states will follow suit recognizing the benefits of expanding nursing education as a means to address complex patient care needs resulting from shorter lengths of stay, higher acuity and more sophisticated interventions. UBs Graduate School of Education offers a variety of fully online and hybrid programs. The school launched its first online PhD program in 2015 and UBs first massive open online course (MOOC) on learning site Coursera in 2016. Our school has been offering fully online programs since 2001, said Christine Kroll, PhD, assistant dean for online education in the Graduate School of Education. While many institutions are shifting towards models of teaching assistants or master courses developed by designers, our program curricula and individual courses are designed and delivered by our research faculty. This creates highly interactive, authentic discourse between our faculty and students, builds relationships between students and allows for a unique, immersive university experience. Kroll added that GSE faculty work together with online students and engage in original online education research, continually incorporating their latest findings into their teaching practices. The School of Nursings RN-BS program, which can be completed in a one- or two-year sequence, builds upon the knowledge and experience of licensed nurses while allowing participants to maintain employment, said Susan Grinslade PhD, clinical professor and assistant dean for undergraduate programs in the School of Nursing. With a growing body of evidence to suggest that there is a significant positive relationship between the number baccalaureate-prepared nurses in the workforce and better quality of care and patient outcomes, our program builds upon previous knowledge to enhance quality and safety in todays challenging health care environment, said Grinslade. The School of Nursing also offers both an online post-masters to Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program that educates established advanced practice nurses to deliver expert care and innovate practice, and an online doctoral program that prepares nurse scientists and academics who will contribute to knowledge development, theory generation and hypothesis testing to improve nursing practice outcomes and health care. The U.S. News online rankings are based on five categories: student engagement, student services and technology, faculty credentials and training, admissions selectivity and peer reputation. Online bachelors degree programs are not weighted for admissions selectivity. Mark Robinson, Scape Group Chief Executive, comments on ONS Output in the Construction Industry statistics Todays figures underline just how important confidence and certainty are for the industry and the wider economy. However we must not lose sight of the bigger picture. The long-term outlook for the construction sector is positive and the public sector will play a significant role in strengthening confidence in the year ahead, because the countrys housing and infrastructure challenges will require significant investment. The Government recently reaffirmed its commitment to innovation and investment in Novembers Autumn Budget, including the extension of the infrastructure fund. While private housebuilding remains positive, the output of public housebuilding is still far too low to even come close to addressing the shortage of affordable housing. Theresa May has just named the seventh housing minister since 2010 in the midst of a nationwide housing crisis, and I urge the new Minister to look seriously at the role local councils can play in affordable housing delivery. We need a revolution in council housebuilding, and this means greater resources and powers for local councils. I hope the Minister is the right man for the job. The Government must also seek to create a more connected Britain, and a stronger Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine. The UK has a strong pipeline of new work, but we must ensure a joined-up approach on delivery to ensure efficiency and alleviate pressure on the availability of skills. Wavin has officially opened its new Doncaster Learning Centre. The Centre, a joint collaboration between Wavin and Britains largest trade union, UNITE, has been set up as a learning resource for the companys employees and to encourage personal development across the business. The Learning Centre will be open to all Wavin employees, and will provide them with opportunities to develop new skills and acquire new qualifications. Courses on offer will not only be directly related to their roles, but can also support employees to develop their own personal interests and ambitions. Paul Bend, Manufacturing Director for Hot and Cold at Wavin said: Through establishing the Doncaster Learning Centre, we hope to demonstrate how manufacturers can invest in the industry and help their employees thrive. Local MP for Don Valley, Caroline Flint, recently visited the centre. As a previous Minister for Employment, Caroline is familiar with the importance of training and upskilling, and champions the initiative that organisations like Wavin and UNITE have demonstrated with this project. Caroline Flint said: Its been a pleasure to witness a firm that invests in its workforce, has a great partnership with Unite the Union to promote lifelong learning and upskilling of its employees, and a firm that is making a huge contribution to the UKs construction supplies. Over 50 staff have completed learning modules in the last twelve months. The approach is all about keeping skills up to date and business improvement. Wavin UK has every reason to be proud of the investment it makes and of the first rate partnership with UNITE. Paul Bend added: Having Carolines support for our programme has been fantastic and were excited to see how our employees will develop their skills using the Learning Centre. Somerset County Councils Public Health and NHS teams have this week reminded residents in the Burnham-On-Sea area that getting your flu jab and self-care are the best ways to stay well this winter. Amid long waiting times at local hospitals, the NHS says its wants the publics help in alleviating pressure on the services. Trudi Grant, Somerset Director of Public Health, is reminding people of the simple things they can do to help make this winter a healthy one. Winter brings with it a whole range of illnesses and ailments such as flu, coughs and colds and Norovirus, the winter vomiting bug, she says. Prevention is always better than cure so if you start to feel unwell, at the very first sign of a winter illness, even if it is just a cough or cold, please get advice from your well qualified pharmacist before it gets more serious. Try and eat warm food and drink hot drinks, heat homes to at least 18 degrees and keep active to keep warm. Cold and flu viruses are spread when you breathe in droplets that are coughed or sneezed out by an infected person. You can also catch a cold or flu by touching an infected object or surface and then touching your eyes and nose. So making sure we all practice good hand hygiene by washing your hands often with warm water and soap and coughing or sneezing into a tissue and throwing it away quickly will help to keep the germ bugs at bay. Councillor Christine Lawrence, Somerset County Councils Cabinet Member for Public Health and Wellbeing, added: Please keep an eye out for elderly relatives and neighbours and support them in the cold weather to stay well this winter. If you start to feel unwell, but are generally fit and healthy, you can usually manage the symptoms of a cold or flu yourself without seeing your GP. To help you get better quicker, just rest and sleep, keep warm, drink plenty of water (fruit juice or squash mixed with water is fine) to avoid dehydration and gargle salt water to soothe a sore throat. Finally, having a well-stocked medicine cabinet and making the most of your well qualified local pharmacist to treat minor ailments will all help to relieve pressure on the NHS. Dr Ed Ford, a Somerset GP and Chair of Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group, added: Family doctors are seeing high numbers of elderly patients with symptoms of colds and flu. The elderly, their carers and people living with long-term health problems should get a flu vaccination if they have not already had one. If you start to feel unwell, stay at home and manage your symptoms. Please dont risk infecting others by visiting people in hospitals or care homes. If you are eligible for the flu vaccine and havent had your vaccination yet dont put it off ask your GP about the free flu vaccine now. If you are unwell, you should carefully consider the best place to get treatment. Accident and Emergency (A&E) is for life threatening and serious injury only, but there are a range of other options that could suit your needs including your local pharmacy, Somerset Minor Injury Units or calling the national 111 service. Visit nhs.uk/staywell for more details on how to help you and your family to stay well this winter. In the middle of a busy intersection across the street from Humayuns Tomb in Delhi is an octagonal monument topped by a dome some estimates say six million people pass by it every year. Not many, however, know what the structure is, when it was built, what its history is or even its name. Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app. Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006. Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more. Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them. 26 years of website archives. Indias proposal to curb drug prices by stripping generic medicines of their brand names has stalled after the plan faced pushback from the countrys pharmaceutical companies, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The income tax department has issued notices to the information technology services major Technology Solutions Corporation and the group's arm in Mauritius for allegedly diverting accumulated profits from its Indian company without paying tax. The money was diverted through an overvalued share buyback by the Indian subsidiary in 2013 and a scheme of arrangement by the US firm in 2016, alleges the tax department. The department issued draft assessment orders in December to the two entities for the assessment year 2014-15, asking them to file objections before a resolution panel within 30 days. A spokesperson said, is committed to compliance with the law in all jurisdictions in which it operates. Cognizant Technology Solutions India bought back 0.91 million shares from Cognizant Mauritius for around Rs 23,000 per share, which according to the department, is an overvaluation. The transaction in May 2013 was allegedly undertaken to avoid the buyback tax that came into existence from June 1, 2013. If the buyback was carried out after that, it would have attracted 20 per cent tax. Besides, the Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation through a scheme of arrangement repatriated Rs 210 billion in May 2016 and restructured itself so that there would not be any surplus left in India, the tax department alleges. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation had 22 per cent of the shares in the Indian subsidiary and Cognizant Mauritius 76 per cent before the buyback. The Indian company had accumulated free reserves before the buyback of around Rs 110 billion and 25 per cent of the allowed repatriation, around Rs 28.8 billion, was done. The buyback was based on a discounted cash flows valuation, prepared by consultant E&Y Merchant Banking Services, and it put the value of the Indian company at over Rs 23,000 per share. However, the tax department said the value at that point would have been around Rs 8,000 per share and the buyback was overvalued, which was in violation of the Income Tax Act and FEMA. The company had avoided more than Rs 500 crore in tax through various methods, the tax department alleged. Cognizant Technology Solutions has refuted the allegations during proceedings. The US parent has also detailed the Indian cash remittance in its annual report for 2016-17, that in mid-May, prior to the enactment of the Finance Bill 2016, which expanded the applicability of India's buyback distribution tax to certain share buyback transactions occurring after June 1, 2016, the Indian subsidiary of Cognizant had repurchased shares from non-Indian Cognizant entities valued at $2.8 billion and this was undertaken pursuant to a plan approved by the High Court of Madras. This was to simplify the shareholding structure of the Indian subsidiary, it said. Cognizants Indian subsidiary repurchased around $1.2 billion of the total $2.8 billion of shares from US shareholders while the remaining $1.6 billion was repurchased from shareholders outside the US. The US firm had incurred an incremental income tax expense of $238 million in 2016, it added. Dentsu Aegis Network, one of the country's top media agencies, believes advertising expenditure in India this year will grow 12.5 per cent, up from 9.6 per cent in 2017. State owned trading entity MMTC Ltd has decided to go for revamp of its e-commerce operations. The company has plans to put in place a full-fledged portal for transaction of gold and silver. The National Company Law Tribunal, Kolkata Bench, has ordered liquidation of Gujarat NRE Coke on a slump sale basis. The order was passed on Thursday. The resolution professional for the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), Sumit Binani, has been appointed the liquidator. In case of difficulty in the process of liquidation, Binani will be guided by the decision of the monitoring committee which comprises erstwhile members of the committee of creditors. Infosys Technologies met Street expectations by reporting 38.3 per cent year-on-year growth in third quarter profits to Rs 51.29 billion, aided by a one-time gain from a US tax reversal. Revenues of the Bengaluru-headquartered company at Rs 177.9 billion grew 6.5 per cent, on the back of improved staff utilisation and higher growth from digital deals, in a traditionally weak quarter ending December 31. A Tanzanian probe found that the local unit of Indian mobile-phone company Ltd was originally transferred from the state illegally and the government will start talks to retake what it says is its rightful share of the business. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursday announced that it has entered into an agreement with Transamerica, a leading provider of life insurance, retirement and investment solutions, to enable the transformation of administration of its US insurance and annuity business lines. Agitating transport workers in Tamil Nadu on Thursday 'temporarily' withdrew their eight-day-old strike over wage-related issues and said they would return to work on Friday, ahead of Pongal festival, which falls on January 14. CITU leader A Soundarrajan told reporters that the strike was being "temporarily" called off, keeping in mind the people who have made plans to travel home for the Tamil harvest festival Pongal, falling on Sunday. The Madras High Court appointing an arbitrator today to settle their wage dispute with the government "shows there is something more than the 2.44 factor," he said, indicating at their demand for a 2.57-time revision. "The strike is being temporarily withdrawn keeping in mind the welfare of the people of the state," he added. Workers of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) had launched their indefinite strike last Thursday following the failure of talks with the government on wage revision. While unions wanted a 2.57 times hike, the government offered only 2.44, resulting in the stalemate. The workers struck work citing other demands also like pending dues for serving and retired personnel. Soundararajan said the unions will put forth before the arbitrator their arguments on the 2.44 factor. M Shanmugam, General Secretary of DMK backed Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) said the 2.44 factor is only "an interim arrangement," and said the strike was only being "suspended" and "postponed." "This strike is being suspended... Postponed," he said and lauded the workers for their unity and discipline shown during this period. Both leaders insisted that workers will resume work from early Friday. The strike by about 17 unions, including those backed by DMK and Left parties, had severely crippled public sector bus services for the past one week, with the government deploying temporary drivers with valid licenses to ply the buses. The AIADMK backed union, besides some others, had not participated in the protests. The court had earlier asked the workers to resume work or face the consequences, even as it had restrained the government from initiating action against them. Earlier, when the matter came up in the High Court, it appointed a retired judge E Padmanabhan as arbitrator to settle the wage dispute. The bench, comprising Justices S Manikumar and M Govindaraj, appointed Padmanabhan to adjudicate the difference of 0.13 multiplying factor (wage hike) and the date on which it should be applied and directed employees to return to work. It granted one month time for the arbitrator to submit the report. The bench noted that government agreed to three of five demands by the unions, subject to employees resuming work from this evening. It declined to agree to the request of the unions to refer the correctness and validity of the alleged settlement of January 4 as one of the terms of reference. Facebook Inc on Thursday began to change the way it filters posts and videos on its centerpiece News Feed, the start of what Chief Executive said would be a series of changes in the design of the world's largest social network. Zuckerberg, in a sweeping post on Facebook, said the company would change the filter for the News Feed to prioritise what friends and family share, while reducing the amount of non-advertising content from publishers and brands. Facebook, which owns four of the world's most popular smartphone apps including Instagram, has for years prioritized material that its complex computer algorithms think people will engage with through comments, "likes" or other ways of showing interest. Zuckerberg, the company's 33-year-old co-founder, said that would no longer be the goal. "I'm changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions," Zuckerberg wrote. The shift was likely to mean that the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement would go down in the short term, he wrote, but he added it would be better for users and for the business over the long term. Advertising on the social network would be unaffected by the changes, John Hegeman, a Facebook vice president, said in an interview. Facebook and its social media competitors have been inundated by criticism that their products reinforce users' views on social and political issues and lead to addictive viewing habits, raising questions about possible regulation and the businesses' long-term viability. The company has been criticised for algorithms that may have prioritized misleading news and misinformation in people's feeds, influencing the 2016 American presidential election, as well as political discourse in many countries. Last year, Facebook disclosed that Russian agents had used the network to spread inflammatory posts to polarize the American electorate. Congress is expected to hold more hearings this month, questioning the role social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc's YouTube play in spreading propaganda. Zuckerberg said an overhaul of the company's products, beginning with changes to the algorithms that control the News Feed, would help to address those concerns. Similar changes will be made to other products in the coming months, he said. "We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren't just fun to use, but also good for people's well-being," Zuckerberg wrote. (http://bit.ly/2CSkTW6) With more than 2 billion monthly users, Facebook is the world's largest social media network. It is also among the world's largest corporations, reporting $36 billion in revenue, mostly from advertising, during the 12 months that ended on Sept. 30. A shift away from non-ad content produced by businesses is a potentially severe blow to news organizations, many of which use Facebook to drive readership, but Zuckerberg said many such posts have been unhealthy. "Some news helps start conversations on important issues. But too often today, watching video, reading news or getting a page update is just a passive experience," he wrote. In New Delhi on Friday, army chief General provided the first authoritative account of a globally watched 73-day confrontation last year when India and China almost came to blows. The face off between several hundred armed soldiers from China and India took place at Doklam an 89 square kilometre patch of land that is claimed by both China and Bhutan. In an unprecedented event, four senior sitting judges of the on Friday met the media to complain that the administration of the country's top court was not in order. At a hurriedly called press conference at the residence of Justice J Chelameswar, the No 2 in the apex court hierarchy, they said it was with "no pleasure" that they had been compelled to make public what they were upset with. ALSO READ: Pain in judges' eyes could be seen during the media meet: KTS Tulsi Army chief Gen on Friday said India will not allow its territory to be invaded by anyone, asserting that China may be a powerful country but India is not a weak nation either. The time had come for India to shift focus to its northern border, he said, and added that the country was capable of handling China's assertiveness along it. Amid aggressive Chinese efforts to increase its influence in the region, the Army chief said India cannot allow its neighbours to drift away to China. "China is a powerful country but we are not a weak nation," Rawat told reporters here. To a question about Chinese incursions into India, he said, "We will not allow our territory to be invaded by anyone." Referring to the US' warnings to Pakistan over its handling of terrorism, Rawat said India will have to wait and see its impact. Terrorists are a disposable commodity in Pakistan and the Indian Army approach has been to ensure that it feels the pain, he said. (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.) Leading immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir, an Indian-descent from Trinidad and Tobago, was arrested on Friday during a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ordered immediate deportation, irking local community in New York. A large number of his supporters, including several Indian-Americans, gathered outside the Jacob Javits Federal Building where he was detained. "Ravi is an acclaimed community leader, a loving father, and a steadfast immigrant rights activist. His detention is entirely unwarranted and reflects the Trump administration's predatory behavior in New York City and across the country. Ravi must be released immediately," said Congressman Joe Crowley, a top Democratic leader. Ragbir, executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC, was detained by ICE authorities during a routine check-in. Soon thereafter hundreds gathered outside the federal immigration building in downtown New York City to show solidarity with Ragbir. Ragbir arrived in the US from Trinidad and Tobago in 1991 on a visitor's visa. He became a lawful permanent resident in 1994. According to New York Immigration Coalition, Ragbir has lived with the threat of deportation for nearly a decade, as the result of a 16-year old conviction for wire fraud. He was placed into removal proceedings in 2006 and spent 22 months in immigration detention before being released in February 2008. During immigration detention and since his release, Ragbir has worked tirelessly to end the use of immigration detention, stop deportations, and secure relief for countless individuals. Previously, ICE officials had granted Ragbir prosecutorial discretion, including a stay of removal that was in effect until next week. Known as a fixture in the immigrant rights movement, Ragbir was awarded the 2017 Immigrant Excellence Award by the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, given to those who show "deep commitment to the enhancement of their community." ICE justified its decision and said he will remain in custody pending removal to Trinidad. "Over the last 12 years, Mr. Ragbir's immigration case has undergone extensive judicial review at multiple levels of the nation's judicial system, including both immigration courts and federal appeals courts," said Rachael Yong Yow, ICE public affairs officer. In each review, the courts have uniformly held that Ragbir does not have a legal basis to remain in the US, ICE said. In an exercise of discretion, the agency had previously allowed him to remain free from custody with periodic check-ins, while his case was under court review, Rachael said. "He has since exhausted his petitions and appeals through the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the US District Court. He will remain in custody pending removal to Trinidad," she said. "In addition to Mr. Ragbir's immigration violations, he has a previous federal conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, rendering him an aggravated felon. He was sentenced to 30 months incarceration, and ordered restitution in the amount of USD 350,001," said ICE spokesperson. The percentage of institutional births in India has doubled from 38.7% to 78.9% in the decade to 2015-16, according to the Family Health Survey (NFHS-4). As many as 40% women who did not deliver in a health facility in the age group of 15-49 years did not consider it necessary, the data show. 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. Discontent simmering for some time came out in the open on Friday when four of the most senior judges of the held a press conference and assailed the functioning of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Dipak Misra. Over 70 activists of the Rajasthan- based Karni Sena were detained here on Friday while protesting outside the Central Board of Film Certification's office against the clearance given to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmavat", earlier titled "Padmavati". Over 30 Karni Sena supporters were detained from Haji Ali during another protest, a police official said. "Over 70 supporters of the Karni Sena were detained from Cumballa Hill area in south Mumbai, while protesting outside the CBFC office without police permission," Zone II Deputy Commissioner of Police Dnyaneshwar Chavan said. Additional security personnel were deployed outside the office after the organisation threatened to stage the protest. Opposing the CBFC's decision to release the film, a Karni Sena leader said, "Merely changing the name of the film isn't enough. The CBFC which has been running ever since the time of Britishers doesn't know how to work." The Karni Sena has also demanded the resignation of Prasoon Joshi, the chairman of CBFC. The CBFC had given the Deepika Padukone-starrer a U/A certificate and suggested many changes, including altering the title. At the CBFC examining committee meeting on December 28, it was decided that the movie would be given a U/A certification as long as the makers incorporate the suggestions and modifications suggested. Some of the key modifications suggested include those pertaining to disclaimers, pertinently adding one regarding not glorifying the practice of Sati. Four sitting judges, in an unprecedented move, called a press conference and talked about the apex court's house not being in order. One of the judges said, "democracy will not survive". Justice Chelameshwar said the call to the nation was done amid ''extraordinary" circumstances. Following the conference, Judges J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph released a seven-page letter that they wrote to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. ALSO READ: Four SC judges come out against CJI, says protect SC to preserve democracy The arrest of former Calcutta High Court Chief justice C S Karnan for contempt of court, for instance, had grabbed headlines in recent times as he became the first Indian judge to be sent to jail in India. Another case of a direct attack on Chief Justice himself came way back in 2009 when Karnataka High Court judge D V Shylendra Kumar fired a salvo at the then Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan for not making his assets public stating that he is more like a serpent without fangs, who can only hiss, but not bite. The reaction from the Narendra Modi government was guarded on Friday on the four Supreme Court judges claiming that the situation in the apex court was not in order. The government indicated it would not intervene in the matter, and it hoped the judiciary would resolve the matter itself. The convoy of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was attacked on Friday here in which Kumar was rescued safely. The chief minister's convoy came under attack attacked in the Nandar village of Buxar district when Kumar was returning after attending a meeting during his Vikas Smaiksha Yatra. The attackers pelted stones on the vehicles in the Kumar's convoy. While Kumar escaped the attack, at least of two securitymen sustained injuries in stone pelting by some of the villagers. Nitish Kumar is on a state-wide tour since December 12 to take a stock of state government's development schemes over the years. The UK judge presiding over the extradition trial of Vijay Mallya has granted bail to the embattled liquor baron till April 2 as she heard arguments from the defence against the admissibility of evidence presented by the Indian government. 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 left India in March, 2016. 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. Mallya's hearing on Thursday 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) is expected to respond at the next hearing itself after the defence concludes its arguments. That hearing date is yet to be determined but expected within the next three weeks. The 62-year-old was back in the dock at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London as his defence team laid out arguments against the admissibility of much of the evidence presented by the Indian government. 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 Thursdays 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 the investigating officers in the case. She pointed to over 150 pages of "near identical material" purporting to be statements 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 and 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. 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. 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 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. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu begins a six-day visit to India on Sunday hoping to boost trade ties and iron out differences arising from New Delhi's decision to scrap a defence deal, officials from both countries said. Israel's state-owned defence contractor Rafael announced on January 3 that India had cancelled a $500 million order to buy its Spike anti-tank guided missiles. Indian media said Delhi would instead opt for home-made anti-tank missiles. "If there is a problem, it can, it should and it will be solved," said Daniel Carmon, Israel's ambassador to India referring to the cancellation of the defence deal. India is Israel's biggest arms market, buying around $1 billion worth of weapons every year. Despite the cancellation of the missile deal, India's Defence Ministry said this month it had cleared a plan worth $72 million to buy 131 Barak surface-to-air missiles built by Rafael. The two countries have grown closer since Narendra Modi became Indian prime minister in 2014, widening commercial cooperation beyond their longstanding defence ties. Netanyahu will be accompanied by a 130-member delegation drawn from the cyber and agriculture sectors as well as from defence. As well as New Delhi, they will also visit India's financial capital Mumbai and Modi's home-state of Gujarat. "The intention of the prime minister and the whole delegation is to boost trade, investment and tourism between both countries," said Gilad Cohen, deputy director-general for Asia and the Pacific in Israel's foreign ministry. Deals for gas and oil cooperation, cyber security and agricultural projects are on the agenda. Palestines The trip comes about half a year after Modi became the first sitting Indian prime minister to visit Israel. On that trip Modi did not travel to the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian leaders, as visiting leaders usually do.. However, India was among more than 120 countries last month to vote in favour of a resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest obstacles to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Carmon said India's vote against Israel at the U.N. General Assembly on the Jerusalem issue would not affect bilateral ties. "The vote at the UN is important, but it will not mar the big picture of the India-Israel relationship," he said. Foreign policy experts in New Delhi said Modi had made significant changes in diplomatic and strategic ties with Israel while at the same time retaining links with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Before Modi visited Israel in July 2017 he hosted Abbas in India and offered help in health and information technology, but the trip was low-key. "Physically forced her to have sexual intercourse with him even when she did not want to. Over 5 million persons have received loans under the MUDRA scheme in the last two years, Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said. He informed that in 2016- 17, Rs 169 billion worth of loans were distributed and in 2017-18 so far, this figure stood at Rs 88 trillion. The minister said that loans were given to 3.34 million persons in 2016-17 while in 2017-18, it was given to 1.69 million people. He said that the scheme, which aims to provide loans to micro enterprises, will be implemented on a mission mode in the days to come. "The Prime Minister started the MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) scheme to remove financial disparity in the country and it is being implemented efficiently in Maharashtra. Under MUDRA, 5,038,000 persons have been given loans in the past two years," Mungantiwar said while addressing a meeting of the state level coordination committee for MUDRA bank scheme here yesterday. Mungantiwar informed that in last two years, maximum loans had been given in Pune district while Nandurbar and Gadchiroli saw the lowest disbursals. The minister stated that skill development training to individuals availing loans would ensure that these loans are used optimally. Saksham-2018 Saksham (Sanrakshan Kshamta Mahotsav) is an annual flagship event of Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Govt. of India , with active involvement of the Oil & Gas PSUs along with other stakeholders like State Governments, for creating focused attention on fuel conservation through people centric activities and to sensitize the masses about the conservation and efficient use of petroleum products leading to better health and environment. During this years month long Saksham-2018, various interactive programs and activities are planned with the campaign on fuel conservation, getting a kick-start in a mega inaugural function to be held at Siri Fort Auditorium in Delhi on 16th January,2018. The month long campaign aims to intensify efforts for making citizens aware about the conservation and effective utilization of petroleum products. For this, PCRA will carry out various people centric activities such as Training Programs for Drivers / Fleet Operators, Fuel Efficient Driving Competitions, Group Talk with Ladies / Cooks / Maids / School / College Girls on fuel saving & benefits of LPG / PNG over biomass, Educational Programs for Schools / Colleges / Universities, Awareness Programs for Farmers, Walkathons, Concerts, Exhibitions, etc. Beside this, PCRA has also planned to observe Cycle Day on 21st January throughout the country & Cyclothon event at Indore, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai etc. to spearhead the message of fuel conservation, reduction of vehicular emission by reducing congestion and improving traffic flow. Nationwide campaign on various media platforms viz. All India Radio, Doordarshan, TV channels, Private FM channels, Digital Cinema Theaters etc. on fuel conservation and Cyclothon activities are planned for various cities. An exhaustive coverage through social media across the country is also planned by PCRA during Saksham campaign including interactive contests through Facebook, twitter, MyGov platform etc. China's imports from North Korea plunged in December to their lowest level in dollar terms since at least the start of 2014, with trade curbed by UN sanctions aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs. Imports from North Korea slumped 81.6 percent year-on-year to $54.34 million, Chinese customs spokesman Huang Songping said in a briefing in Beijing on Friday. That's the smallest monthly value since at least January 2014. The administration of US President Donald Trump welcomed signs that China, North Korea's main economic partner, was "sharply reducing" trade with its neighbor. "This action supports the United States-led global effort to apply maximum pressure until the North Korean regime ends its illicit programs, changes its behavior and moves toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," the White House said. The United Nations began imposing sanctions on North Korea in 2006, but tougher measures were invoked in 2017 as tensions flared anew over the country's nuclear and missile programmes. The penalties that came into force on Sept. 5 last year banned countries from buying coal, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood from North Korea. In November, China imported no iron ore, coal or lead from North Korea, the second full month of the U.N. trade sanctions. "In terms of how big of an impact it (falling trade) had on North Korea, there was definitely impact because some of their products could only go to China while others could only be imported from China," said Chen Fengying, an economics expert at state-backed China Institutes of Contemporary Relations. "You have to understand it was the most tense period for bilateral ties, and foreign relations determine trade relations." China, the main source of North Korea's fuel, did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil to its neighbour in November. China's exports to North Korea in December declined 23.4 percent from a year earlier to $260 million, Huang told reporters. Compared with a month earlier, exports fell 9.7 percent. In November, China stopped exporting oil products to North Korea, after the UN Security Council that month imposed new caps on trade with North Korea, including limiting oil product shipments. For 2017, China's imports from North Korea dropped 33 percent to $1.72 billion, the lowest value in at least four years. However, exports to the country rose 8.3 percent to $3.34 billion. The value was the highest since 2014. Non-commodities that China exports to North Korea included electronics, plastic products and garments. Chinese customs will formally release data for trade with North Korea in the second half of the month, along with a breakdown by product. US President Donald Trump has cancelled his trip to Britain due to disappointment over a "bad" US embassy. He tweeted late on Thursday that he was not a big fan of the Obama administration that sold "perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts'", only to build a new one in an "off" location for $1.2 billion, Xinhua news agency reported. "Bad deal," Trump said, adding "wanted me to cut ribbon NO!" The trans-Atlantic alliance between the US and Britain has been shaky ever since Trump assumed the presidency in January. His proposal of a strict ban on Muslim immigration has sparked wide controversy in Britain. Matters got even worse when Trump re-tweeted video posts of a British ultra-rightist group targeting Muslim immigrants in November. Under domestic pressure, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Trump's re-tweeting was wrong, triggering the latter's retort demanding her not to focus on him, but on anti-terrorism efforts in her own nation. Trump's statement further irritated London as many people and government officials asked May to withdraw her invitation to Trump to pay a state visit. The two countries have also seen huge differences on multiple issues like Trump's retreat from the Paris climate accord, his decision regarding Jerusalem at the end of 2017 and his refusal to certify Iran's compliance with the historic Iran nuclear deal in October. 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 Friday. 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. "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 insist further on 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'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. "Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for to leave the embassy to face justice," Britain's foreign ministry said on Friday. Assange has refused to step outside the embassy and claimed he fears being extradited to the United States, over WikiLeaks' publication of leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010. Espinosa 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 cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out," she said. China on Friday asked foreign companies investing in the country to "respect" its sovereignty and territorial integrity as it ordered a probe after a leading US-based hotel chain listed Tibet and Hong Kong as "countries". The #MeToo movement was on full display at this years Golden Globes, where stars wore black to show solidarity. Among them was Oprah Winfrey, who, in accepting a lifetime achievement award, paid tribute to the women who dared tell their truth, assuring all the girls watching that a new day is on the horizon. Women flocked to Le Mall in Jeddah on Thursday to check out the kingdoms first car exhibition aimed at women, a few months after Saudi Arabia granted them the right to drive. The UN's human rights office on Friday said derogatory remarks made by US President regarding the nations of El Salvador and Haiti were "racist". Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned Trump's characterisation of the two countries as "s**tholes" during a meeting on Thursday with lawmakers on a bipartisan immigration deal, Efe news agency reported. "These comments by the President of the US are surprising and shameful," Colville said. "I'm sorry, but they cannot be defined as anything other than racist." According to people present in the Oval Office meeting, Trump was frustrated that migrants from El Salvador, Haiti and certain African countries were allowed into the US. "Why are we having all these people from s**thole countries come here," he asked. Trump then proposed that the US instead welcome more people from places such as Norway and singled out Haiti. "Why do we need more Haitians," Trump said, adding: "Take them out." The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to extend the National Security Agencys warrantless surveillance program for six years with minimal changes, rejecting a push by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to impose significant privacy limits when it sweeps up Americans emails and other personal communications. Two major kharif season have seen a sharp increase in their prices after the government in mid-November raised the import duty on edible oils, to protect farmers. The Apollo Hospital on Friday submitted treatment documents of former Tamil Nadhu Chief Minister J Jayalalilthaa to an inquiry commission set up to probe her death. The Apollo management handed over the treatment record of Jayalalithaa, which was packed in two suitcases, to the commission. Earlier Justice A. Arumugasamy, who is conducting the inquiry, had asked Dr. Prathap Reddy, Chairman, and Ms. Preetha Reddy, executive vice-hairperson, Apollo Hospitals, to provide all related documents and information regarding her treatment within 10 days. The commission has also ordered jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala's advocate Raja Senthurapandian to appear before it on 22 January. On January 6, Sasikala requested Justice A. Arumughaswamy inquiry commission to provide her with the copies of testimonies given by various witnesses against her. Sasikala, who has been jailed in a multi-crore disproportionate assets case, filed an affidavit through her lawyer Raja Senthurapandian in this regard. Earlier on December 22, the commission had summoned Sasikala and Apollo Hospitals Founder-Chairman Pratap Reddy in this matter. Jayalalithaa, popularly known as 'Amma', was taken to Chennai's Apollo hospital on September 22, 2016 and treated in the hospital for 75 days before she breathed her last on December 5. Following her death, allegations of foul play began to do the rounds and state forest minister Dindigul Sreenivasan even claimed that all cabinet ministers had lied to the people about hospitalisation and death of the former chief minister Jayalalithaa. Subsequently, a one-man commission was constituted and a probe under a retired Madras High Court judge, Justice Arumugasamy, was initiated on October 30. The commission, whose constitution was challenged in the Supreme Court through a plea, which the apex court later rejected, is likely to submit its findings in the first quarter of this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has decided to withdraw the state Land Revenue Code (Amendment) Bill, 2017 amid protests by tribal groups. Before the Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Singh met some senior tribal leaders and discussed the issue. The bill, which eased the purchase of tribal land for government projects, was passed by the Chhattisgarh Assembly last month and sent to Governor Balram Das Tandon for his consent. However, a delegation of the Congress party met the Governor recently and requested him to not give his consent as the bill was against the tribal communities' interests. The Opposition Congress had earlier alleged that through the bill, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Chhattisgarh government was trying to do away with the restrictions on the purchase of tribal lands. Apart from the Congress and the Sarva Adivasi Samaj leaders, some BJP leaders too had criticised the controversial bill. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday conducted raids at 20 places in an ongoing investigation of a chit fund case in West Bengal. The raids were conducted at the official and residential premises of Construction Market Data (CMD) and others including Directors of Kolkata based Group of Companies. During the searches, several incriminating documents were recovered. Earlier in November, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet against Chairman of a private company and three others in a Rs. 335 Crore (approx) chit fund fraud case. The charge sheet was filed before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Baruipur of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra is likely to meet Attorney General K.K.Venugopal today to discuss various matters related to the apex court and its functioning. Media reports are saying that such a meeting is expected in the wake of four judges of the apex court issuing an appeal to the nation to save the institution from further damage if they want democracy to survive in the country. Earlier, in an unprecedented move and a first in independent India's history, four Supreme Court judges criticised Chief Justice Misra, saying that events in the Supreme Court had left them with no choice but to address their concerns before the nation. Justice J Chelameshwar, who spoke on behalf of the four judges, categorically said the administration of the nation's top court was not in order. Describing the press conference as an extraordinary event in the history of the apex court, he said that the four judges were compelled to act in this way because Chief Justice Mishra could not be persuaded to mend the ways of the court. "We met CJI this morning. We collectively tried to persuade CJI that certain things aren't in order so take remedial measures, but unfortunately our efforts failed," said Justice Chelameswar. "The four of us gave a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) some months ago," the justices revealed. "It is discharge of debt to the nation which has brought us here, Justice Ranjan Gogoi told media here this morning. "Democracy in this country would not survive without an institution as important as the Supreme Court, and a free judiciary," Justice Chelameshwar said. "It is with no pleasure that we have been compelled to do this, administration of Supreme Court is not in order," Justice Chelameswar said on behalf of the four judges. In response to a question on whether Chief Justice Misra should be impeached, Justice Chelameshwar said it was for the nation to decide. Apart from Justice Chelameswar, the other judges involved included Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A doctor reportedly committed suicide in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar after his wife did not allow him to eat non-vegetarian food. According to police sources, the doctor, identified as Umashankar, committed suicide by hanging himself in his home on Thursday night. Umashankar had an argument with his wife Deepti, who is a sales tax official, over having non-vegetarian food last night. Following the argument, Umashankar committed suicide and his wife did not come to know until she got up in the morning Deepti soon informed the police about the suicide. The police have sent the body for the postmortem and began an investigation into the matter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former judge R S Sodhi on Friday criticised the appeal made by four judges of the Supreme Court of India, saying they had Chief Justice Dipak Misra in a poor light. Speaking to ANI, Sodhi said, "Issues do not matter, but it is their complaint on administration that matters. They are only four,but there are 23 others. These four got together and showed the chief justice in poor light. It is immature and childish behaviour. I think all four judges should be impeached." Justices Madan B. Lokur, Kurien Joseph, Ranjan Gogoi and Jasti Chelameswar today addressed the press conference here in which they appealed to the nation to save their institution if they wanted democracy in the country to survive. Sodhi added that the four judges have no business to sit in the apex court and deliver verdicts anymore. "This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy is in danger is not for them to say, we have the Parliament, courts and police functioning for that," he asserted. Senior Supreme Court advocate K T S Tulsi said there must have been some compelling reason for these judges to adopt this course of action. "This is an unprecedented step and shocking. I am sure they have exhausted all other remedies, and if they did, one could see the pain on their faces while they were speaking. The whole matter is with regard to juridical propriety, the question is of 'natural justice'. It's unfortunate, and I am sure, their conscious is tricking them, that's why they have chosen this unprecedented step," he added. Tulsi further said they have gone to the public and people will reinforce their love and respect for the institution. "It is for the first time that there are allegations against a sitting chief justice. I believe judges concerned should themselves deal with the matter," he asserted. In a first in independent India's history and a first for the Supreme Court of India, four judges addressing the media today, appealed to the nation to save their institution if they wanted democracy in the country to survive. Speaking on behalf of the four judges, Justice Chelameswar expressed his lament over the corrosion and compromise taking place within the institution of the judiciary and especially within the portals of the Supreme Court. He said, "We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation. Our efforts have failed in convincing the CJI to take steps to protect the institution." "Even this morning, the four of us went and met the Chief Justice of India and tried to persuade him to accept that certain things are not in order and that he should take remedial measures. Unfortunately, we couldn't convince him. We all (four judges) are convinced that unless this institution is preserved and (is allowed to) maintain its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country or any country," Justice Chelameswar added. "The hallmark of a good democracy is an independent and impartial judge. The judge is symbolic here, it is an institution," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Director-General (DG) of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major Asif Ghafoor has reiterated that peace was a distant dream in Afghanistan unless stability and security were ensured there. "There was no terrorism in Pakistan before the Afghan war and our target is to take Pakistan to the pre-war peaceful era," The Express Tribune quoted Ghafoor as saying. The DG was optimistic about the country's future in terms of security, despite the United States President Donald Trump recent tongue-lashings on Pakistan. "Peace has returned to Pakistan and its future is prosperous. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could never have defeated Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan without Pakistan's support", he added. Ghafoor also said Pakistan provided ISAF with all logistic and intelligence support to overcome terrorism in Afghanistan and has proposed a bilateral border control pact with Afghanistan, to eliminate terrorism in the region. "Pakistan, with significantly less resources achieved what the security forces in Afghanistan couldn't with all of their resources. The issues at the border can be improved through better coordination." The DG indicated that Pakistan had successfully defeated terrorism through Operation Zarb-e-Azb, which was a joint military offensive conducted by the Pakistan armed forces against various militant groups such as the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Haqqani Network to name a few. "It was decided that the terrorists will not be allowed to flee to Afghanistan. [On the other hand] India is still active in [perpetrating terrorism] inside Pakistan." We have a perpetual security threat from the East, Ghafoor added. The US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster underscored on Thursday that Islamabad's "positive" contribution is imperative for the stability and security in Afghanistan. The statement comes after US President Donald Trump made a scathing remark against Pakistan on January 3 and accused it of lying and cheating while receiving billions in aid. The US 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief and UN-designated global terrorist Hafiz Saeed has lashed out at the Pakistan government for not ushering Islamic rule in the country. "They have started this work by finishing the message of Prophet Muhammad. Let us unite and pledge that we would not let it happen," Saeed has said at an event. Already at loggerheads with the United States (US), especially over its decision to suspend military aid to Pakistan, the 26/11 mastermind criticised both the U.S. and Israel for the political chaos in the country. "This is Israel's agenda, which America is executing effectively. After losing in Afghanistan, it wants to wage a new war here in Pakistan. The unity that I am seeing today here is good but we need bigger and better unity and start a revolution. We have to stand up and do something better for Islam and Pakistan," Hafiz Saeed added. The JuD chief is also looking to contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan and has, thereby, formed a party by the name of Milli Muslim League (MML). Earlier this week, Saeed invited all Islamic states to launch 'Jihad' against the United States and Israel. Meanwhile, Pakistan recently prohibited Saeed's JuD and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) from collecting donations. Saeed has recently been released from house arrest after a Pakistani court cited lack of evidence against him in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case. India has, time and again, protested against Pakistan for harbouring Saeed, who is wanted for plotting the Mumbai attacks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Israel will be enhancing cooperation in various fields during the upcoming visit of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to India. "We are striving for increasing cooperation and collaboration in various fields," said Israel's Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon at a media briefing on Friday. The envoy informed that cooperation in areas of agriculture, water, defence, food industry, science and technology, trade and innovation would be on the top of agenda during the visit and various MoUs could be signed in these sectors. Carmon said the Netanyahu's visit was happening at a time when the countries were celebrating 25 years of their diplomatic relations. He emphasised that the strong connect between Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi would help bilateral ties. "130 businessmen will be accompanying Prime Minister Netanyahu which reflects aspirations of both sides to increase trade and business. There is also a schedule meeting with businessmen in Mumbai," the envoy said. Prime Minister Netanyahu would arrive on a six-day visit to India, starting from January 14. During his visit, the Prime Minister Netanyahu will hold meetings with President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. In addition, Netanyahu will give an inaugural speech at the Raisina Dialogue and meet with the Indo-Israeli CEOs at the forum. In Gujarat, the Indian and Israeli Prime Ministers will visit the Center of Excellence in Vadrad and inaugurate a Center of Excellence for date palms in Bhuj via video conference. They will also visit the iCreate innovation campus and center. In Mumbai, Netanyahu will meet members of Jewish community and participate in a gathering of Indian business leaders. He will also reach out to Bollywood in an exclusive 'Shalom Bollywood' event. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has affirmed that India would always be a reliable and close neighbour of Maldives, supporting it in its progress and security. Prime Minister Modi made this remark during his meeting with Special Envoy of the Maldives President and Foreign Minister Dr. Mohamed Asim on Thursday. The two 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. He also reiterated President Yameen's invitation to Prime Minister Modi to visit Maldives. Prime Minister Modi conveyed his gratitude for the invitation and agreed to the visit at a suitable time. Asim conveyed the greetings of President Abdulla Yameen to Prime Minister, which was warmly reciprocated by Prime Minister Modi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat on Friday asserted that Indian army is well prepared to deal with any emerging threat from the Chinese side. Rawat also averred that the government too is dealing with the situation on the diplomatic front. "It is not because we saw a threat. Chinese troops were very well equipped. So we felt why not send better quality equipment for our own jawans - better jackets and helmets. It shows that we are better prepared: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on stylised bulletproof helmets," Rawat said at a press conference here. "We are capable and also have mechanisms. Troops are earmarked, and should a situation arise, our troops are ready to cater," he added. In case of a threat at the military level, Rawat further said, "We need to have capacities to ensure that ammunition can move from one sector to another and we are focusing on it. We also need to build capacity to move forces from western sector to northern sectors." On the question of whether China was supporting terrorists, Rawat said, "They are not supporting terrorist directly. We have not seen direct support coming." The military is also concentrating more on neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, he added. The Army Chief also assured that retreat of both the countries' troop from Doklam plateau, but added that the army is prepared for any change in the situation. "We have the possibility of more movements after the winter is over. We are prepared to handle," the Army Chief said while assuring that the security forces are manning the border continuously. "We are more concerned about cyber and information warfare. We have to have good firewalls and systems," Rawat said, adding that the Army is "part of the effort in ensuring cyber security. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jawaharlal Neh^ru University (JNU) students on Friday protested against the 75 per cent attendance being made compulsory for students to appear in the examinations. "This is just a way to harass the students. I do not understand what kind of attendance they are talking about when we PhD students do not even have classes," a PhD student said. In protest of the new directive, the students have decided not to attend classes on January 15. JNU, in its circular, issued on January 10, made a minimum of 75 per cent attendance compulsory for all students to appear in their examinations. However, in case of absence on valid medical grounds, 60 per cent attendance will be needed for students to appear in their end-semester examinations. The directive has become effective from this winter session only, and it will apply to all part-time and BA, MA, M.Sc, M. Tech, MPH, PG Diploma and M.Phil students. To keep a track of their attendance record, students can check the monthly attendance report that will be put up at the end of every month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A lack of IT security awareness remains a worrying reality for businesses around the world, according to a recent study of consumers conducted by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International. The research found that just one tenth (12 percent) of employed respondents are fully aware of the IT security policies and rules set in the organizations they work for. This is combined with the fact that half (49 percent) of employees consider protection from cyberthreats a shared responsibility, presents additional challenges when it comes to setting the right cybersecurity framework. The study of 7,993 full-time employees which asked about policies and responsibilities for corporate IT security also revealed that 24 percent of employees believe there are no established policies in their organizations at all. Interestingly, it seems that ignorance of the rules is no excuse, as around half (49 percent) of the respondents think all employees, including themselves, should take responsibility for protecting corporate IT assets from cyberthreats. However, as another study from Kaspersky Lab proved, sometimes staff do exactly the opposite. According to the report "Human Factor in IT Security: How Employees are Making Businesses Vulnerable from Within", careless personnel contributed to the attack in 46 percent of cybersecurity incidents within the last year. This discrepancy could be particularly dangerous for smaller businesses, where there is no dedicated IT security function and responsibilities are distributed among IT and non-IT personnel. Neglecting even basic requirements, such as changing passwords or installing necessary updates, could jeopardize overall business protection. According to Kaspersky Lab experts, top management, HR and finance specialists who have access to their company's critical data are usually most at risk of being targeted. To deal with this problem, small and medium-sized businesses would benefit from regular IT security awareness training for staff and from products tailored to their specific needs. For example, Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud includes features such as preconfigured security settings, immediate protection across all devices and easy management capabilities that do not require in-depth expertise from its administrator, thereby reducing the burden on overstretched IT teams. "The issue of unaware staff can be a major challenge to overcome, especially for smaller businesses where a cybersecurity culture is still being developed. Not only can employees themselves fall victims of cyberthreats, but they are also obliged to guard their company from those threats in the first place. In this regard, businesses should pay attention to educating staff and introducing easy to use and manage, but still powerful solutions that make this achievable for those who are not experts in IT security," said head of SMB Business at Kaspersky Lab, Vladimir Zapolyansky. Kaspersky Lab's SMB portfolio includes products that cover the various needs of very small, small and medium-sized businesses. Smaller businesses would benefit from the combination of powerful protection and ease of management in Kaspersky Small Office Security and Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud, while larger companies may find more use in the advanced security settings and targeted applications for enhanced mobile, server and email protection found in the Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business suite. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Nation is observing the 155th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, one of the greatest spiritual leaders of India, on Friday. Swami Vivekananda had introduced Indian philosophies of Vedanta and yoga to the western world. On Swami Vivekananda Jayanti today President Ram Nath Kovind paid his respects to one of the greatest Indian philosophers and said, "My tributes to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary. In honour of this great scholar, monk and nation builder, we commemorate this day as Youth Day." My tributes to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary. In honour of this great scholar, monk and nation builder, we commemorate this day as Youth Day #PresidentKovind President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) January 12, 2018 Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took to Twitter, and through a video message, said, "I bow to Swami Vivekananda on his Jayanti. Today, on National Youth Day I salute the indomitable energy and enthusiasm of our youngsters, who are the builders of New India." I bow to Swami Vivekananda on his Jayanti. Today, on National Youth Day I salute the indomitable energy and enthusiasm of our youngsters, who are the builders of New India. pic.twitter.com/1aXEqvVRgY Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018 Swami Vivekananda became popular in the western world after his famous speech at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. He was also the chief disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna and founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He was considered a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India and bringing it to the status of a major world religion in the late 19th century. Swami Vivekananda birthday is also observed as Youth Day in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Seventeen ministers affiliated to Nepal's Maoist Center resigned on Friday. All Maoist ministers - 17 (10 cabinet and seven ministers of state) - were divested of their portfolios; they could enjoy some perks but would no longer have control over ministries and so would not be able to use them during elections. Nepali Congress and its allies would be the ones retaining control. "Giriraj Mani Pokhrel, Minister without Portfolio (the then Health Minister) submitted the resignation letter from the Maoist Center during the cabinet meeting of Friday," Press advisor of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Govinda Pariyar said. Maoist leaders Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Janardan Sharma, Tek Bahadur Basnet, Girirajmani Pokhrel, Pradbhu Sah, Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, Shiva Kumar Mandal, Asha Khanal and Santa Kumar Tharu were amongst the 17 ministers. Following the announcement of an alliance between the Maoist Center and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist in October last year, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba stripped Maoist Center ministers of their portfolios. Maoist ministers cited delay in National Assembly elections and stripping them off posts as reasons behind their resignations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will embark on a six-day visit to India, starting from January 14. The visit will include New Delhi, Gujarat and Mumbai. During his visit, the Prime Minister Netanyahu will hold meetings in the capital with President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. In addition, Netanyahu will give an inaugural speech at the Raisina Dialogue and meet with the Indo-Israeli CEOs at the forum here. In Gujarat, the Indian and Israeli Prime Ministers will visit the Center of Excellence in Vadrad and inaugurate a Center of Excellence for date palms in Bhuj via video conference. They will also visit the iCreate innovation campus and center. In Mumbai, Netanyahu will meet with Jewish community leaders and select members of the Indian business community. He will also reach out to Bollywood in an exclusive 'Shalom Bollywood' event. Ahead of the visit, Israel's 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. 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." The Israeli Prime Minister would be accompanied by a business delegation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 600 protesters were arrested in different parts of Tunisia during clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers, that broke out since late Monday. A source from Tunisia's Ministry of Interior confirmed the official figure on Thursday evening. The Xinhua reported that in Siliana province, protesters tried to break into a local court before clashing with the law officers. In Kasserine province, protesters vandalised and burnt buildings and cars, along with clashes. However, the security forces managed to control down the violence. In the island of Djerba, known as home to the Jewish Ghriba Synagogue, a Jewish school was attacked by protesters wearing hoods. Tunisia has been under a state of emergency since the Arab spring protests in 2011. The protests also saw the fall of former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali as well. Protests have been ongoing since Monday, against the high cost of living, the deterioration of purchasing power, as well as certain austerity provisions included in the country's new finance law, which contains a hike in price and tax for certain products. (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.) Over 100 Shri Rajput Karni Sena workers were detained here on Friday for protesting outside the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) office in connection with the release of film 'Padmavat'. The protesters said changing the name of the film from 'Padmavati' to Padmavat was not enough. "The police are detaining us without any reason. We are not here for any type of rebellious activity, we just wanted to talk to the CBFC and tell them that Padmavat film violates the Indian history and request them to not release it," Prakash Singh Parmar, a Karni Sena worker, told ANI. He added that the Sena was requesting the censor body that they should not do anything which in turn would hurt anyone's cultural beliefs. "Therefore, we all came here to have a discussion but they have detained us. They have changed the name of the film but that does not change anything," Parmar stated. Another Sena worker, Ganpat Singh said the film should be banned completely. Meanwhile, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Padmavat was now set for its release on January 25 after the CBFC had recommended five modifications, including changing the title. The movie features Deepika Padukone in the title role as Rani Padmavati, alongside Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Sultan Alauddin Khilji. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has inaugurated the mobile command and control station called Anjas to operate drones, which was developed by Anna University in Chennai. The Centre for Aerospace Research (CASR) of the university has designed and developed three Unmanned Aerial system or drones for a variety of purposes, including disaster relief, surveillance, crowd monitoring and surveying of land. Talking to media, Minister for Higher Education Department K P Anbalagan said, "It will be helpful to monitor the crowd. It can function for three days without electricity and telecommunication." The mobile station designed by the CASR can be operated for three days even after the failure of electricity and telecommunication. CASR director Senthil Kumar told ANI, "These drones can be used in agriculture, tourism, land survey, mining, quantity survey and infrastructure monitoring. It has also started working on upgrading the design of its UAVs to suit some of these applications. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Switzerland for Davos summit, an international survey has ranked him among the top three leaders of the world. An annual survey by Gallup International has put Prime Minister Modi at number three among the global leaders. The respondents in the survey, which was conducted among the people across 50 countries, had rated Prime Minister Modi ahead of China's Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu amongst others. The top ranking in the survey went to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by French president Emmanuel Macron. Prime Minister Modi will be on a two-day visit to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting between January 22 and 23. In line with their demand for reservation of seats in the Municipal Corporations, Punjab's transgender community protested outside the Deputy Commissioner's office seeking its approval to contest the upcoming Municipal polls in Ludhiana. They demonstrated by clapping their hands and dancing, while demanding to allow them to contest elections in their ward. According to the protesting transgender community, the Supreme Court has also directed all the governments to provide reservations in elections. Still, many governments are not giving the reservations. One of the protesting transgenders told ANI, "The SC ordered the government to provide us a seat in the election but the government is not implementing this. We demand from the state government to give us a seat so that we can contest elections." Seeking to get reservation for the third gender persons, a social organisation Mahatar Sathi Jagriti Manch along with the protestors submitted a memorandum to the District Administration on the issue. Mahatar Sathi Jagriti Manch's president Kimti Rawal said, "As per the Supreme Court Judgment, the third gender should be given due rights like Males and females. They should not be discriminated on the basis of gender. The district authorities should read the judgment and give them legal right to fight Municipal Corporation Elections. They should be given reservation in the upcoming MC elections under the OBC category." Meanwhile, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Ludhiana Iqbal Singh Sandhu has assured the protestors that the demand letter has been taken and will forward the matter to the government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Attorney General (AG) K. K. Venugopal on Friday said that the press conference by the four Supreme Court Judges could have been avoided. However, he hoped that the entire issue will get resolved by tomorrow. "Today's press conference could have been avoided, but the Supreme Court judges are all statesman with vast experience and knowledge, and I am sure by tomorrow, the entire issue would be resolved," Venugopal told ANI. His reaction came after four Supreme Court judges addressed the media, appealing to the nation to save their institution if they wanted democracy in the country to survive. Justices Madan B. Lokur, Kurien Joseph, Ranjan Gogoi and Jasti Chelameswar addressed the press conference on the lawns of Justice Chelameswar's official residence here. Speaking on behalf of the four judges, Justice Chelameswar expressed his lament over the corrosion and compromise taking place within the institution of the judiciary and especially within the portals of the Supreme Court. The judges said that they have discharged a debt to the nation by issuing an appeal to the nation to save the institution (Supreme Court). They written a letter to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in which they expressed concerns over the functioning of the Supreme Court. They have also raised issue Judge B.H. Loya's death. The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Judge B.H. Loya's postmortem report from Maharashtra government asserting that the "matter is very serious." The apex court has posted the next hearing on the issue for Monday, 15 January. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) North Korea on Friday called on both the United States and South Korea to suspend bilateral military drills. North Korea's propaganda website Uriminzokkiri said joint military drills between both countries are a 'source of catastrophe' for the Korean Peninsula. "They should totally stop military drills, not just delay them. War rehearsal and dialogue cannot go hand in hand", it said in a statement, as quoted by Yonhap news agency. The North has long denounced military drills across the border, and has used them as an excuse for provocations. Last week, North Korea accepted South Korea's offer for high-level talks, after South Korea and the United States decided to suspend their joint military exercises. South Korea and the US on Thursday discussed on how to develop ties with North Korea, after the former agreed to hold talks for the first time in two years with Seoul, over Pyongyang's participation in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month. Both countries have also agreed to hold military talks on easing border tensions. North Korea agreed to send participants to the Winter Olympics, that will be held from February 9-25. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Commuters breathed a sigh of relief as government buses began plying on Friday, following the withdrawal of the statewide bus strike by Tamil Nadu Transporters Union. The usual hustle and bustle at the bus stands in Chennai and Coimbatore was seen restored and the commuters expressed delight post the eight-day-long strike. On Thursday night, A. Soundararajan of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) called off the strike and announced that Tamil Nadu transporters would resume duties from Friday morning. On January 4, an indefinite strike was called by transport unions, demanding a pay hike among other things, following the failure of talks on wage revision and clearance of pending dues with Tamil Nadu Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabaskar. On the third day of strike, Vijayabaskar had appealed to bus employees to return to work. Transport workers had been demanding for a pay revision to Rs 30,000; however, the authorities only agreed to pay them Rs 24,400 per month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government school teachers praised Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, MLA Sudip Roy Barman and other BJP leaders for alluding their case to the Centre. Recently, a seven member's delegation led by Sarma and teacher's representatives met Javadekar with the plea to give one-time relaxation to the appointment of the teachers by amending the Right to Act so that their services can be saved. According to the teachers, the Union Minister has responded positively to their plea and referred the case to the Law Ministry to examine it. Allegedly, they met state Minister Tapan Chakraborty and urged him to appeal to the Centre but he turned down their request and following which they reached out to the BJP. They added that the state government has assured them of being by their side but nothing positive happened. Though the services of 10, 323 teachers were terminated on December 31 last year by the top court, it extended their services for another six months on a fresh ad-hoc basis in response to a petition of the state government. Ahead of the February 2018 Assembly elections, the termination of these teachers is set to become a major political issue in the Left-ruled Tripura, where the BJP has turned into a major opposition with six out of 10 Congress MLAs joining the party. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States President Donald Trump has called on America's European allies to fix the "terrible flaws" in their 2015 landmark Iran nuclear deal, warning he will pull the U.S. out if his demand is not met. "Despite my strong inclination, I have not yet withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal. Instead, I have outlined two possible paths forward: either fix the deal's disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw", read a statement. "I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies' agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal. This is a last chance", he added. The senior officials of the Trump administration also said that to keep up the U.S. in the nuclear agreement in the future, Washington would coerce his European partners to agree to impose new conditions on Iran. "The president will also make clear that this is the last such waiver he will issue. He intends to work with our European partners on some kind of follow-on agreement that enshrines certain triggers that the Iranian regime cannot exceed related to ballistic missiles, related to nuclear breakout period ... to inspection and that would have no sunset clause", said an administration official. The US president also slapped new sanctions against 14 individuals and entities for allegedly committing human rights abuses or supporting the country's ballistic missile programmes. As per reports, Trump agreed to waive sanctions at the urging of his top national security and foreign policy advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Earlier in October, Trump has threatened to terminate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Congress and US allies fail to amend the agreement by fixing serious flaws in significant ways. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States President Donald Trump has claimed that he 'probably' has a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he is flexible when it comes to friendship. The US president in an interview made this remark, though he declined to comment on whether he had a talk with the North Korean leader in recent times or not. CNN quoted Trump as saying: "I don't want to comment on it. I'm not saying I have or haven't. I just don't want to comment", adding that his attitude towards North Korea is intentional and part of a broader goal. "You'll see that a lot with me and then all of the sudden somebody's my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. I'm a very flexible person," Trump added. Trump's statement came after both the leaders were recently been engaged in a war of words on Twitter. He had hit back at Kim Jong-un by saying that he too has a nuclear button on his desk, which was much bigger and powerful than his. "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!" Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday. The President's reply came days after Kim Jong-un warned the United States that "the nuclear button is always on the desk of my office". He also declared that North Korea was "a responsible nuclear nation that loves peace" and that "the US cannot wage a war" against it. Rising tensions between the US and North Korea, which conducted its largest nuclear test in September and fired off a powerful ICBM in late November, have raised concerns worldwide. Trump has long been trading insults with Jong-un over this issue. While Trump has referred to Jong-un as "rocket man", his rival had previously called him a "mentally deranged dotard". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) International Trade Secretary Dr. Liam Fox today met with Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu to discuss greater cooperation between the two countries and identify barriers to trade and investment that must be addressed in order to boost future prosperity. The ministers were joined by a delegation of senior UK and Indian officials for the 12th meeting of the UK-India Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO), which will build on progress made by the UK-India trade working group that was established in 2016. Dr.Fox announced that the national export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), has more than doubled its financial support to enable UK businesses to trade with India. It means 4.5 billion will now be available for UK companies exporting to India as well as Indian buyers of UK goods and services. India and the UK already enjoy a strong trading relationship, worth 15.7 billion in 2016, with UK exports to India amounting to 5.8 billion. Indian foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK was worth 1.5bn in 2016, while UK investment into India rose to 13.2 billion in 2016. There is huge potential to expand bilateral trade and investment as the UK prepares to leave the European Union. 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 co-operation in growing sectors such as advanced manufacturing and smart cities. International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox said: "I am delighted to be meeting with the Indian Minister and leaders today, to map out how we will build a stronger trading relationship between our two nations. 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% 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." "As an international economic department, we will continue to work closely with the Indian Government to break down the barriers to boosting trade. That includes more than doubling trade finance support for UK exporters and Indian buyers of our goods and services." Following the talks, the ministers issued a joint statement setting out their vision for a continued trading partnership in which the two governments and businesses work hand-in-hand to achieve shared prosperity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As cold wave continues to grip Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited a shelter for homeless, 'RainBasera', near Gorakhpur railway station to check the arrangements. The Chief Minister said that his government is trying to provide essential winter necessities in the night shelter. "Keeping winter season in mind, the Uttar Pradesh government is providing Rainbasera, shelter home near Gorakhpur Railway Station to the needy in sufficient quantity. More than 950 shelter homes are being operated in the state. The Uttar Pradesh is also providing blankets to poor and needy people", the Chief Minister told ANI. Earlier on January 3, Adityanath had conducted an inspection at a night shelter near Balrampur hospital in Lucknow. Adityanath has asked the district magistrates to make proper arrangements for the poor and needy people in every district. The arrangements include night shelters, lighting up bonfires, distributing free blankets and so on. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Israel's Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon on Friday said that India's vote against Israel at the UN General Assembly on the issue of Jerusalem will not influence the bilateral ties between the two sides. "Vote at UN is important, but it will not mar the big picture of the India-Israel relationship," Carmon said on India's vote in UN on draft resolution on the status of Jerusalem. "Sometimes, countries cannot agree to each other's requests. It will not influence the relationship as it is more important than one vote here and there," he added. India, along with more than 120 countries, had voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent decesion to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will arrive on a six-day visit to India, starting from January 14. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dredging Corporation of India rose 2.6% to Rs 847.30 at 09:24 IST on BSE after the company secured Rs 88.51 crore contract for dredging of channels and basins at Cochin port. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 11 January 2018. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 103.74 points or 0.3% at 34,607.23. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 139.52 points or 0.7% at 20,123.45. On the BSE, 38,000 shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 1.13 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit at a high of Rs 856.65 and a low of Rs 840 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 920 on 8 January 2018 and a 52-week low of Rs 438 on 23 January 2017. The small-cap company has equity capital of Rs 28 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10. Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) said that the company has been carrying out the maintenance dredging works at Cochin Port continuously since 2011-12. Cochin Port invited global tenders for maintenance dredging for the year 2017-18 during August 2017 which is one of the major maintenance dredging projects in India. DCI participated in the bidding process. The price bids were opened on 11 January 2018 and the company stood as the lowest bidder with Rs 88.51 crore, thereby successfully retaining the work in its order book for next year. The dredging at Cochin Port is to be carried out throughout the year by deploying two dredgers. Dredging Corporation of India reported net profit of Rs 18.59 crore in Q2 September 2017, as compared with net loss of Rs 14.37 crore in Q2 September 2016. Total income fell 0.6% to Rs 162.75 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. State-run Dredging Corporation of India provides dredging services to the major ports of the country. Government of India holds 73.47% stake in the company as per the shareholding pattern as on 30 September 2017. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The committee appointed by the government last year to examine issues related to cryptocurrency has submitted its report and examining pros and cons including launching of its own crypto currency, said a top legal affair ministry official said at an ASSOCHAM event. Mr Anadee Nath Mishra, additional secretary, Department of legal affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice said the government is also looking into the allegations that people who had black money had diverted the same to crypto-currencies in India during the period of demonetisation. It was reported that during the period of demonetisation lakhs of people had used the illegal money in bitcoins and that's main factors attributed for sudden increase in the prices of bitcoins. The government is also examining the use of black money, said Mr Anadee Nath Mishra. There has been a phenomenal increase in recent times in the price of virtual currencies (VCs) including bitcoin, in India and globally. The VCs don't have intrinsic value and are not backed by any kind of assets. The price of bitcoin and other VCs therefore is a matter of mere speculation resulting in spurt and volatility in their prices. There is real risk of investment bubble of the type in ponzi schemes which can result in sudden and prolonged crash exposing investors, especially retail consumers losing their hard earned money. Consumers need to be alert and extremely cautious as to avoid getting trapped in such ponzi schemes, said Mr Mishra. VCs are stored in digital/ electronic format, making them vulnerable to hacking, loss of password, malware attack etc. which may also result in permanent loss of money. As transactions of VCs are encrypted they are also likely being used to carry out illegal activities such as terror-funding, smuggling, drug trafficking and other money-laundering acts, added the additional secretary. He said, there was report that people who couldn't convert their money use this channel to launder their illegal money and it could have been one of the reasons for sudden rise in the value of bitcoins. The Income Tax (IT) department has also carried out enquiries and notices have been given to numbers of people who have transacted in bitcoins and have been asked to make payment of taxes if they had made any profit out of it. The policy of government of India is extreme cautious right now but we are actually calling it illegal but there is always difference between legality and tax availability, said Mr Mishra. He also said that government wants digital technology but block chain technology should help businesses.technology is welcome. Lets people do business in a legal way. H. E. Mr Augusto Montiel, Ambassador, Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela said, blockcahin technology can bring positive change in quality, efficiency and productivity. Blockchain technology enables a strong authentication process. He said, Venezuela is currently working on an oil-backed crypto currency called Petro. He said that the Venezuelan government has investment worth 9.5 billion dollars of barrels of oil to back the new crypto currency. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Himalya International gained 4.9% to Rs 38.50 at 12:25 IST on BSE after the company said that will open its first franchisee store 'Himalaya Food Company' on 14 January 2018 at D-448 G.F Ramphal Chowk, Sector-7 Dwarka, New Delhi. The announcement was made during market hours today, 12 January 2018. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 32.09 points or 0.09% at 34,535.58. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 62.60 points or 0.31% at 20,046.53, outperforming the Sensex. On the BSE, 62,188 shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 1.67 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 38.50 and a low of Rs 36.10 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 45.30 on 29 December 2017. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 19.10 on 11 January 2017. The stock has dropped 12.51% in seven sessions, to settle at Rs 36.70 yesterday, 11 January 2018, from a close of Rs 41.95 on 2 January 2018. The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 11 January 2018, gaining 14.87% compared with the Sensex's 3.13% rise. The stock had also outperformed the market over the past one quarter, gaining 25.26% as against the Sensex's 8.39% rise. The scrip had also outperformed the market over the past one year, jumping 80.79% as against the Sensex's 27.13% rise. The small-cap company has equity capital of Rs 57.87 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10. The store will sell 'All Natural-No Preservatives', healthier range of Himalaya products and also serve select appetizers, burgers, french fries and specially innovated healthier drinks developed under the brand 'BURGERS'N'FRIES - ITS NOT JUNK FOOD'. Himalya International reported net loss of Rs 4.64 crore in Q2 September 2017 compared to net profit of Rs 0.75 in Q2 September 2016. Net sales fell 39.1% to Rs 20.48 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. Himalaya is the largest frozen & canned food processing company of India and the first Indian food company to offer an extensive range of products to the US market. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Held on 12 January 2018 The Board of Krypton Industries has proposed to do a Joint Venture to manufacture footwear & footwear components, with Modernzege Leather Products PLC, an Ethopian Company situated at Addis Ababa Ethiopia is engaged in manufacturing, sale and distribution of Leather products in Ethiopia and outside Ethiopia. Further, the Company proposed to form a Private Company for the purpose of manufacturing, marketing, distributing and exporting footwear and related products. The expected initial investment will be of approx. USD 160,000.00 or approx 10 Million. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Income Tax Department has accorded the highest priority to tackle the menace of black money. With this objective in mind, the Department has initiated criminal prosecution proceedings in a large number of cases of tax offenders and evaders. Prosecutions have been initiated for various offences including wilful attempt to evade tax or payment of any tax; wilful failure in filing returns of income; false statement in verification and failure to deposit the tax deducted/collected at source or inordinate delay in doing so, among other defaults. During FY 2017-18 (upto the end of November, 2017), the Department filed Prosecution complaints for various offences in 2225 cases compared to 784 for the corresponding period in the immediately preceding year, marking an increase of 184%. The number of complaints compounded by the Department during the current FY (upto the end of November, 2017) stands at 1052 as against 575 in the corresponding period of the immediately preceding year, registering a rise of 83%. Compounding of offences is done when the defaulter admits to its offence and pays the compounding fee as per stipulated conditions. Due to the decisive and focused action taken by the Department against tax evaders, the number of defaulters convicted by the courts has also registered a sharp increase during the current fiscal. 48 persons were convicted for various offences during the current year(upto the end of November, 2017) as compared to 13 convictions for the corresponding period in the immediately preceding year, marking an increase of 269%. A few illustrative cases are highlighted. A Dehradun Court convicted one defaulter for holding undisclosed foreign bank account and sentenced him to two years of imprisonment for wilful attempt to evade tax and to two years for false statement in verification alongwith monetary penalty for each default respectively. The Court of CJM, Jalandhar convicted a cloth trader with 2 years rigorous imprisonment for trying to cheat the Department by fabricating affidavits and gift deeds, in connivance with his advocate and witness, with the motive of evading tax. The Court, while awarding the sentence to the trader, also simultaneously awarded one year's imprisonment to the advocate notarizing the forged affidavit and also to the witness for aiding and abetting the serious offence. In Bengaluru, the MD of a company engaged in infrastructure projects was found guilty of non-deposit of TDS of over Rs. 60 lakh(within the prescribed time), and was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of three months alongwith imposition of fine. Similarly, a Mohali resident was held guilty of non-deposit of TDS within prescribed time and sentenced to one year jail alongwith fine. In another case of Hyderabad, the Director of an infrastructure company was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of six months and fine for wilful attempt to evade tax. She was simultaneously sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six months alongwith fine for false statement in verification. The Economic Offences Court at Ernakulam sentenced an individual to rigorous imprisonment of three months for selling property to evade payment of taxes of about Rs. 76 lakh despite issuance of the tax recovery certificate by the Tax Recovery Officer. In yet another case reported from Agra, the Special CJM convicted one defaulter with imprisonment of one year & six months for wilful attempt to evade tax and for false statement in verification respectively along with fine. The Income Tax Department is committed to carry forward the drive against tax evasion and action against tax evaders will continue in all earnest in the remaining part of the current Financial Year. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) TCS' consolidated net profit rose 1.31% to Rs 6545 crore on 1.18% growth in net sales to Rs 30904 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q2 September 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 11 January 2018. IT major Infosys is scheduled to announce Q3 December 2017 results today, 12 January 2018. Shree Cement's net profit rose 41.6% to Rs 333.33 crore on 23.1% growth in net sales to Rs 2296.23 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 11 January 2018. The board of directors of the company have considered and approved the acquisition of majority equity stake in Union Cement Company, UAE. The company has also signed the Definitive Agreement in this regard with the sellers. State Bank of India (SBI) said that the proposal will be submitted to executive committee of central board (ECCB) on 17 January 2018, for approval for issuance of long term bonds of Rs 20000 crore for financing of infrastructure and affordable housing in domestic and overseas market instead of Rs 5000 crore as intimated earlier. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 11 January 2018. KDDL said that the company's subsidiary Ethos, has closed operations of the Ethos store in Delhi Domestic Airport, New Delhi. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 11 January 2018. Texmaco Rail & Engineering has incorporated a subsidiary company namely Texmaco Defence Systems on 10 January 2018 to penetrate in the field of defence products & equipment on the core strength of parent company and develop its manufacturing in India. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 11 January 2018. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Secures a multiyear $2 billion contract for administration of Transamerica's US insurance and annuity business Tata Consultancy Services announced that it has entered into an agreement with Transamerica, a leading provider of life insurance, retirement and investment solutions, to enable the transformation of administration of its US insurance and annuity business lines. The multi-year contract is worth more than $2 billion in revenues, and is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2018. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are going to be major areas of growth in the tech world to leverage these for improving productivity and efficiencies, according to one of the top executives of Lenovo. Ken Wong, President of Asia Pacific with the Fortune 500 company, said that their own experience from AI and ML internally in several countries is being packaged and sold to large companies -- starting with China -- to improve productivity and business. "We are one of the biggest companies on planet to effectively leverage AI and ML for efficient global supply operations and for planning and management of manufacturing," Wong told IANS in an interview on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 here. To further leverage technology for manufacturing processes, Wong said the company was setting up three specialised research labs in the United States, Germany and China on AI and ML. The company, he said, would invest around $1.2 billion in the next two to four years to be on the cutting edge of these growth areas. He also said that the company was working with "a large university in the US" to see how AI and ML can help farmers increase productivity. Wong said that Lenovo, the top PC seller in the world, has seen a sharp growth in the Asia-Pacific region in the second quarter of the year despite a flat growth among its nearest competitors like HP, Dell, Apple and Asus, according to IBC figures. Talking about completion in India from other Chinese and global companies in smartphones, Wong said that Lenovo was one of the few to have set up a manufacturing base in the country and its MOTO brand was quite popular in India. That's why it's among the top three brands in the country, he added. Also, as a multinational company, it can offer the widest range of products from mobile phones to tablets to PCs going right up to data centres. "This range makes it unique and provides a technological leverage that no other company can give to any country, including India," Wong noted. He said Lenovo was seeing a strong growth in Asia-Pacific in gaming and India had seen a double-digit increase in this area. This was both for the entry-level gamers as well as high-end gaming. He said they had launched their gaming brand "Legion" after talking to customers as to what they want and how they make their buying decisions. The Lenovo executive said the trend in PC markets was towards thin and light notebooks -- less than 21 mm thick and below 1.9 kg -- with mobility and connectivity thrown in. In this context, Wong spoke about Lenovo's latest such product Miix 630 -- launched at CES 2018 and which will be available later this year. He said the PC/tablet will become a "hero product" in the market because of its several unique features. He said that the battery life of Miix 630 would be an unprecedented 20 hours with full video usage and will have the "always on" concept that everyone is using in mobile phones. It will also have continuous connectivity which may be offered in a tie up with telecom companies or as a standalone product where customers can use any telco they prefer. Wong, who is part of Lenovo's executive committee which takes decision on company strategies worldwide, said that they are in the process of discussing a partnership with various telecom operators in several countries which is expected to help push the growth of 4G technology. In India too, the company is talking to telecom companies. Lenovo already has a tie-up with Reliance Communications for smartphones. "The product will sell more bandwidth and the drive for better connectivity. I am, therefore, not surprised about the favourable product response from telcos. The customer is very picky today and Miix 630 is clear product that adds value to his or her requirements," Wong added. Wong also talked about Lenovo's smart office assistant to set up video meetings from across geographies with very low requirement of bandwidth and immediate connectivity. "Today, I spend about 10 minutes to just set up the devices for the meetings. The user experience with the Lenovo device would be totally seamless," he said. (Hardev Sanotra is in Las Vegas at the invitation of Lenovo. He can be reached at hardev.sanotra@ians.in) --IANS hs/na/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid visible tensions between the TDP and BJP, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Friday and urged him to fulfil all the commitments when the stat was split. During an hour-long meeting, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President discussed with Modi what he said were unfulfilled promises under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act and submitted a 17-page memorandum. The meeting assumes significance as it comes amid indications of strain in the relations between the Telugu Desam Party and its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Naidu, who called on Modi after one-and-a-half year, appealed to Modi to take immediate steps on long pending demands keeping in view the next year's simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assembly. The TDP has already dropped hints that its patience with the Centre was growing thin. The party MPs had also met Modi on the last day of the winter session to submit him a memorandum. Naidu wanted the Centre to immediately sanction Rs 58,000 crore required for the Polavaram project. He urged Modi to ensure that sufficient funds were allocated in the central budget for development of the new state capital Amaravati. He wanted Modi to take urgent steps to increase the number of seats in the state Assembly from 175 to 225 as committed in the Reorganisation Act. The TDP brought to Modi's notice that the state was yet to receive Rs 3,000 crore from the Centre towards the expenditure incurred so far on Polavaram project. He sought release of the money. Naidu said the Centre should totally fund the cost of the project, which has been declared a national project. While announcing special package in lieu for the special status in 2016, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely had declared that the entire expenditure of the project would be borne by the Centre. Naidu told Modi that Andhra Pradesh suffered huge losses due to bifurcation of the state as it had to face financial problems. He said further delay in fulfilling the commitments given in the Act will add to the problems. As the state has to receive Rs.20,010 crore from Centre in the form of Externally Aided Projects (EAPs) under the special package, Naidu urged Modi to provide the funding assistance as central grant from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) instead of loans through external funding agencies. The state government expects Rs 20,010 crore for 2015-16 to 2019-20 for taking up EAPs under the special package. It has already sent proposals for various projects to the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) under EAP. However, Naidu pointed out that the state would not be in a position to utilise the entire special assistance amount within the 5-year period ending with 2019-20 as the projects under EAP will consume a lot of time for grounding and completing. --IANS ms/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Australian ice cream maker is recalling nine of its products sold nationwide following consumer complaints about metal fragments in them, health authorities said on Friday. The affected products have been on shelves of major supermarket chains such as Coles, Woolworths and IGA across the country, Golden North Ice Creams said on its website. The recall was a precautionary measure by the Golden North and there had been no reports of harm or injury, Xinhua news agency quoted Food and Controlled Drugs Director Fay Jenkins as saying. "Metal fragments can be potentially dangerous and cause injury if ingested," Jenkins said. The company is investigating the incident and working with regulators to address any issues, she said. The company said it "contacted authorities as soon as the issue was detected and is working quickly with retailers to immediately remove the products". Customers were also advised to return products to where they were bought for a full refund. --IANS in/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Clashes broke out on Friday between workers of the state's ruling Trinamool Congress and activists of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM)'s Bengal unit just before the latter were to take out a "Protirodh Sankalp Abhiyan" bike rally in the city. According to leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- of which BJYM is the youth wing, the first incident took place near Binani Bhawan in Pathuriaghata Street in central Kolkata and the second outside state party headquarters. They alleged that some Trinamool workers hurled stones at the BJP members and also attacked them with sticks when BYJM workers were trying to organise a bike rally towards Swami Vivekananda's home in the city on the occasion of his birth anniversary. But, denying the allegations, the ruling party in the state accused the BJP workers of indulging in vandalism. "Trinamool men attacked our workers at several places when they were all set to take out our scheduled bike rally after getting the Calcutta High Court's order on Thursday," state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh told reporters. "First, they attacked our workers at Binani Bhawan and later they assaulted our workers outside the party's state headquarters. Despite having the court order, we are not being allowed to take out the bike rally," he said and demanded imposition of President's rule in the state. Ghosh launched a sit-in demonstration in front of Gandhi Statue in the city to protest "the Trinamool high-handedness". Later in the day, a BJP delegation met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to apprise him of the incident. BJP leader Mukul Roy said: "The opposition is not allowed to exercise its rights and has been continuously coming under attack from the ruling party workers." According to him, there is "no democracy in West Bengal" and it had been "proved again and again". Slamming the pro-Hindutva party, Trinamool Congress leader and state Minister Subrata Mukherjee alleged that the BJP's programmes were "provocative". "The state government had never said that they would not be allowed to take out the rally. The state did not give permission for such a rally in view of the Gangasagar Mela (fair). They can organise such rallies later and we have no issue. Their programmes are provocative," he said. The two parties are engaged in a political slugfest over holding Swami Vivekananda's birthday celebrations. Another state Minister Shashi Panja said the BJP wanted to hijack the birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda and was indulging in over it. "BJP workers destroyed public property and beat up local people. They have used the occasion of the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda to indulge in hooliganism. They brought their workers from outside to create tension here," she said. Ghosh said the Trinamool Congress should not think that they had the only right to celebrate Vivekananda's birth anniversary. The vehicle of Special Officer Ravi Shankar Dutta, who was appointed by the Calcutta High Court to monitor the BJP's bike rally, was also damaged. The BJP Yuva Morcha had decided to take out a bike rally across the state from January 11 to 18 as part of its Pratirodh Sankalp Abhiyan. However, the police did not allow them, following which the BJP moved the Calcutta High Court. The court has granted the party permission to organise the rally but with certain conditions. The matter was taken up for further consideration in the court on Friday. "During the hearing in the High Court on Friday, we have demanded deployment of central force during the rally. The court, however, allowed organising the bike rally from January 15 after the state agreed to provide forces for protection from that day in the court. We, now, have suspended the rally temporarily but will take the decision in due course," Ghosh said. --IANS bdc/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Clashes broke out on Friday between workers of the state's ruling Trinamool Congress and activists of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's Bengal unit ahead of the latter trying to take out a "Protirodh Sankalp Abhiyan" bike rally in the city. According to leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- of which BJYM is the youth wing, the first incident took place near Binani Bhawan in Pathuriaghata Street in central Kolkata and the second outside state party headquarters. They alleged that some Trinamool workers hurled stones at the BJP members and also attacked them with sticks. But, denying the allegations, the ruling party in the state accused BJP workers of indulging in vandalism. "Trinamool workers attacked our workers at several places when they were all set to take out our scheduled bike rally after getting the Calcutta High Court's order on Thursday," state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh told reporters. "First, they attacked our workers at Binani Bhawan and later they assaulted our workers outside the party's state headquarters. Despite having the court order, we are not being allowed to take out the bike rally," he said and demanded imposition of President's Rule in the state. Ghosh launched a sit-in demonstration in front of Gandhi Statue in the city to protest "the Trinamool high-handedness" and said he would meet Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to apprise him of the incident and demand President's Rule in West Bengal. BJP leader Mukul Roy said: "The opposition is not allowed to exercise its rights and has been continuously coming under the attack of ruling party workers." According to him, there was "no democracy in West Bengal" and it had been "proved again and again". Taking a dig at the pro-Hindutva party, Trinamool Congress leader and state Minister Subrata Mukherjee alleged that the BJP's programmes were "provocative". "The state government had never said that they would not be allowed to take out the rally. The state did not give permission for such a rally in view of the Gangasagar Mela (fair). They can organise such rallies later and we have no issue. Their programmes are provocative," he said. Another state Minister Shashi Panja said the BJP wanted to hijack the birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda and was indulging in over it. "BJP workers destroyed public property and beat up local people. They have used the occasion of the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda to indulge in hooliganism. They brought their workers from outside to create tension here," she said. The vehicle of the special officer, Ravi Shankar Dutta, who was appointed by the Calcutta High Court to monitor BJP's bike rally, was also damaged. The BJP Yuva Morcha had decided to take out a bike rally across the state from January 11 to 18 as part of its 'Pratirodh Sankalp Abhiyan'. However, the police did not allow them, following which the BJP moved the Calcutta High Court. The court has granted the party permission to organise the rally with certain conditions. --IANS dm-bdc/nir/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Canada has "thrown a grenade" at the US filing a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against its southern neighbour's use of trade sanctions, which might wreck their current North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations, said an international trade law expert. "The odds are increasing that the United States might withdraw from NAFTA, which I've been of the view that it would be unlikely to do," said Mark Warner, who runs MAAW Law, an international business and regulatory law firm in Toronto and New York City, in an interview, Xinhua reported on Friday. The WTO revealed on Wednesday that Canada had filed a complaint last month accusing the US of unfairly imposing countervailing and anti-dumping duties, not only on Canadian softwood lumber but also on goods from many other countries. In a statement, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer pushed back against Canada's case against the US, warning that Canada's "request for consultations at the WTO is a broad and ill-advised attack on the US trade remedies system". It also might result in a flood of imports from other countries -- if the complaint successfully have American tariffs removed -- and cost Canada billions of dollars in exports to the US, Lighthizer said. Warner believes that the Canadian government may be playing to a domestic audience in demonstrating that it is not only being "very assertive" in addressing trade disputes, but that it is also trying to "embarrass the Americans" before the world by citing almost 180 trade breaches over two decades against other countries listed on 24 pages of Canada's 32-page complaint before the WTO. However, Canada's strategy is "particularly unwise", Warner told Xinhua. He said that during the current NAFTA negotiations, which enter the sixth round in Canada later this month, the US has made it clear that it wants to remove a dispute-resolution mechanism for anti-dumping and countervailing cases under Chapter 19 of the 24-year-old trilateral trade agreement. "If Canada loses Chapter 19, it would have to go to the WTO," said Warner. However, he explained that US President Donald Trump's administration "dislikes" the WTO's dispute-settlement body and believes that countries rely on it "inappropriately to achieve results they can't achieve through negotiations". Yet while "the rest of the world is trying to keep the US engaged in that dispute-settlement system", Canada's generic complaint against the United States is "counterproductive", said Warner. --IANS pgh/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CBI on Friday said a former South Eastern Railway official, who was absconding for more than nine years, was arrested from West Bengal's Alipurduar in connection with misappropriation of construction materials involving an alleged loss of over Rs 27 lakh to the railway. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a case in August 1999 and filed a charge-sheet in January 2002 against then Inspector of Works of Bhubaneswar Division of South Eastern Railway and four others. The accused had been absconding since July 2008. According to the investigating agency, there were allegations that the accused persons misappropriated steel rods, cement bags, etc., thereby causing an alleged loss of Rs 27.35 lakh. The arrested accused would be produced before the Court of Special Judge of CBI cases at Bhubaneswar. --IANS bdc/nir/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five-time Congress legislator in Tripura Ratan Lal Nath, who last month joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), lost his assembly membership under the anti-defection law, Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath said here on Friday. "As Ratan Lal Nath left Congress and joined BJP on December 22, his assembly membership would be disqualified from that date under the Schedule 10 of the Constitution (which deals with the anti-defection law)," Debnath told IANS after issuing an order on Friday. "State Congress President Birajit Sinha, in a letter, informed MER that Nath had joined BJP and also demanded he be disqualified him from the assembly membership. I have served two notices to him (Nath) to attend the hearings of his case. But Nath informed that he was unwell. "With prior notice, I have taken ex-parte decision on Nath's disqualification. This is for the first time in the history of Tripura a sitting member was disqualified under the anti-defection law," he said. Welcoming the Speaker's decision, Congress state Vice President Tapas Dey said: "Opportunistic must be curbed and value-based must be upheld." After months of hobnobbing, Nath, former Opposition Leader of Tripura assembly, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on December 22 last year in the presence of the BJP's General Secretary Ram Madhav, Assam Ministers Himanta Biswa Sarma and Parimal Sukla Baidya, Tripura BJP President Biplab Kumar Deb and a host of party leaders. The 71-year-old Nath held various posts in Congress and since 1993, was elected five times as Congress candidate from the Mohanpur assembly constituency in western Tripura. With this, the Congress strength in the outgoing assembly has been reduced to just two from the original ten. The Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Front has 51 members with the CPI-M alone having 50 legislators. Nath along with six other MLAs, who deserted the Congress to join Trinamool Congress and then moved to the BJP, voted for the National Democratic Alliance's nominee Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election on July 17 last year. --IANS sc/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a sign of factionalism within the Congress's Rajasthan unit, former Chief Minister Askhok Gehlot on Friday said the practice among certain partymen to declare state unit chief as chief ministerial candidate was bad and projected the party in poor light. His statement comes after the appointment of former Union Minister Sachin Pilot as the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee chief. "Even the PCC chief starts dreaming and projecting himself as the next Chief Minister. This is not a decent practice being followed in the Congress. It doesn't even spell good for the party," senior Congress leader Gehlot told media persons in Sikar. He said that when he was the PCC chief, he too was projected as CM candidate by a few party members. "However, I never asked for any favour or post from the party high command," said Gehlot. "But, I was rewarded for my loyalty and made the Chief Minister after we won the Assembly elections." He maintained that he would remain loyal and abide by all orders of the Congress high command. --IANS arc/tsb/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi government has decided to ban entry and exit of horses, mules, and donkeys in the city due to the spread of Glanders disease, Rural Development Minister Gopal Rai said here on Friday. Also, due to Republic Day celebrations, in which a large number of horses take part, all equines -- horses, mules and donkeys -- owned by civilians have been banned from entering the New Delhi Municipal Corporation area. Glanders disease has been detected in 40 horses in the city over the past two months and the government will issue a notification on the ban within two days, Rai said. The minister said though humans can be infected from equines, no case has been reported in India and the last such reported case was in the US in 2006. Rai said that samples of handlers were also being tested for the disease as a pro-active measure while clarifying that the disease spreads by touch and by sharing of food and water and not through air. In December, west Delhi was notified as a controlled area after seven horses were tested positive for the disease. An Animal Husbandry Department official told IANS that this was the first outbreak in the city. The decision on the ban was taken after a meeting of Delhi government with officials of Union Animal Husbandry Department, police, army and city municipal corporations here. Rai said that they took samples from equines in different party of the city and from horses owned Delhi Police and army. The equines which were tested positive for the disease were from 11 locations in the city. These locations will be notified as control zones and no equines will be allowed to enter or exit from a five-km radius of the locations. The equines which have been detected with Glanders disease will stay put at their stables and isolated from other animals. The minister said that the government will do testing of all equines in the city and 11 rapid response teams of Animal Husbandry Department have been formed. Rai said that none of the horses tested positive for the disease belonged to police or army. The symptoms of the disease, equine owners should watch for are greenish nasal discharge and wounds around the nasal area of equines. The minister also urged owners to report to the Animal Husbandry Department if their equines have not been tested for the disease or in case of any symptoms of the disease at 9818839883. The precautions to be taken by owners include, feeding of equines separately, testing of animals for the disease, and washing of hands between attending animals. --IANS nkh/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a major embarrassment to the Vijay Rupani-led BJP government in the state, Gujarat Governor O.P. Kohli on Friday raised the issue of rising discontent among youth due to unemployment, which he also dubbed as a "warning bell for any society". "Because of unemployment, nowadays we see a feeling of discontent among the youths. Such a feeling is natural when despite getting higher one does not get a job. Such discontent among the youths is a warning bell for any society," Governor Kohli said. He was addressing students participating in the seventh convocation of the Gujarat Technological University (GTU) in Gandhinagar. The opposition Congress had raised the issue of unemployment among youth with higher as one of the key electoral issues in the recently concluded assembly elections in the state. Also, the adverse statement coming from a Governor in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah made an awkward moment for the ruling BJP, which had barely managed to sell its development model to people in the state, winning with a thin margin over the Congress. Expressing his concern over employment scenario in the state and the country, the Governor said: "It is important to mull over whether the youths getting higher would be able to get proper employment opportunities or not. This also raises question mark on the relevance of higher education." Kohli also stressed on need for equitable development between urban and rural parts of the country, stating that development of some cities did not mean that the entire country was witnessing development and that the fruits of development should have reached down to the lowest rung of the society. The Governor also said that there was a need for empathy in the society and in the students, without which the education would serve no purpose. Kohli said this in presence of Chief Minister Rupani on the dais. Later, in a bid to move out of the embarrassing situation, state Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama stated that the state would mull over his suggestions. "He is our senior and whatever the Governor had said was his personal opinion and suggestions. The BJP government will take into account the positive aspects," Chudasama told the media. --IANS amc/nir/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Army chief Bipin Rawat said that the army is working on evolving a better system for providing aid being to children of martyrs and those disabled in action, after government put a Rs 10,000 cap on the monthly fund. He said that the system that came in place after the 1971 war was aimed at helping the family of martyrs, but was however also misused. "Somehow, some people started misusing it. "When government put a cap, we said we will review the policy and ensure only genuine people get benefit," he said. Gen. Rawat said the army was working on a plan to open two schools, and once they are operational, instead of granting financial aid, children of martyrs and physically disabled soldiers who are eligible for the help will be given admission in these schools. He said one of the schools was likely to be set up in Pathankot in Punjab, and the second one will be opened in central or southern part of the country. "It will take three to four years to get these facility running... I am confident this will soon be overcome," he said. Asked about the higher education of these children, as the provision is to provide aid till the student is a graduate, he said Army ran a number of institutions of higher studies as well. An order dated September 13 by the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare of the defence ministry said the fee for tuition and hostel expenses for children of martyrs would be capped at Rs 10,000 per month, as per the recommendations by the 7th Pay Commission. The order came in effect from July 1. The scheme for government bearing the cost of education of martyrs' children was announced in Lok Sabha on December 18, 1971 -- two days after Pakistani forces surrendered at Dhaka in the India- Pakistan war which led to liberation of Bangladesh. According to the government, around 250 students have been reported to be affected during current financial year. --IANS ao/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An activist from feminist activist group Femen on Friday burst into a polling station in Prague topless when Czech President Milos Zeman was set to cast his ballot in the first round of the presidential elections. Zeman, slated as favourite to win the election, was visibly surprised and perturbed at the incident, which forced him to leave the room for a few minutes before placing his vote in the ballot box, Efe news agency reported. Zeman's security service brought down the woman, who was shouting "Zeman, Putin's slut," a slogan she had also painted on her bare chest. The Czech President said he was honoured to have been attacked by an activist from Femen as they also target the Pope. The controversial head of state is known for his good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has on many occasions criticised European sanctions on Moscow for the crisis in Ukraine. Femen published the video of the protest on its website and identified the activist as a Ukrainian "sextremist" named Angelina Diash. --IANS him/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four persons were injured as two petrol tankers caught fire on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Friday, police said. The incident occurred at a vehicle repair centre on Medipalli-Chengicherla road. Both the tankers and few vehicles were completely gutted. A two-wheeler rider passing through the road sustained critical burns. The helmet-wearing man was found lying on ground, in deep shock. He was shifted to a hospital, where his condition is stated to be critical. All four injured were admitted to hospital. Huge flames broke out from a tanker and engulfed another tanker nearby. The massive fire and explosion sent panic among the residents in the area. Fire engines rushed from various places to control the flames. Police said they were investigating the cause of the fire. However, locals alleged that the fire broke out when some people were breaking the seal of the tanker to steal petrol. They claim that many tankers come to the place every day and this activity was going unchecked. "There will be at least 10 tankers at this place every day but fortunately only two were there today, which limited the damage," said a resident. --IANS ms/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In an unprecedented and "extraordinary" event in the history of Indian judiciary, four senior sitting judges of the Supreme Court on Friday met the media to allege that the administration of the country's top court was not in order. "It is an extraordinary event in the history of judiciary and more particularly in this nation, even for this institution (Supreme Court). It is with no pleasure that we have been compelled to do this. "Administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. Many things less than desirable have happened in the last few months. We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation. We tried to collectively persuade the Chief Justice that certain things are not in order and remedial measures are necessary. "Unfortunately our efforts have failed in convincing the Chief Justice of India to take steps to protect this institution," Justice J. Chelameswar-- the No.2 in the apex court hierarchy -- said at a hurriedly called press conference at his residence. Flanked by Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurien Joseph and Madan B. Lokur, he said the four of them were convinced that "for the survival of democracy an impartial judge and justices are needed". "All of us are convinced that unless this institution is protected and maintain its requirements, democracy will not survive in the country or any country. For survival of a democracy, it is said... the hallmark of a democracy is independent and impartial judges." Without disclosing what they were upset about, Justice Chelameswar said a lot of things had been written in the media and it was not a political controversy. "Since all our efforts failed... Even this morning, on a particular issue, we, four of us, went and met the Chief Justice with a specific request. Unfortunately we could not convince him. Therefore, we were left with no choice but to communicate with the nation to please take care of the institution and the nation. "We have heard a lot of wise men talking about... But I don't want some wise men to tell us later after 20 years that we four judges sold our souls instead of taking care of the institution and the nation. We have placed this in front of the people. This is what we wanted to convey." Replying to queries on what actually the issue was, Justice Chelameswar said: "About a couple of months back, four of us senior judges wrote a signed letter to the Chief Justice. We wanted a particular thing to be done in a particular manner. It was done but its raised many questions." Justice Gogoi said they were "discharging debt to the nation that has got us here". --IANS aks-sar-vsc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid the growing controversy over the release of Bollywood film "Padmaavat", celebrated author Ruskin Bond on Friday said freedom of expression should not be absolute. "I don't think freedom of speech should be absolute. We should consider ourselves lucky to live in the country. There is no better place to live than India," said Bond at the third edition of the Tata Steel Bhubaneswar Literary Meet (TSBLM) here. "Shall I like to live in China, shall I live in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Syria, Lebanon or some other country... definitely not," said the author. Bond was reacting to a question on the controversy over the film "Padmaavat" and literary freedom. The cherubic Mussoorie-based author, who draws inspiration from nature, spoke on climate change and said people should look after their natural surroundings which have made life possible to live in. He said paper books can never be replaced even with the advent of electronic gadgets. At the literary meet, children and young adults queued up to catch a glimpse of Bond who answered all their questions that centred on some of his cult books like "Room on The Roof", "Night Train At Deoli" and the Rusty series, among others. He has some advice for the budding writers -- have a love for words, respect the language and be prepared for occasional disappointments. --IANS cd/pgh/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservatives Union and the Social Democrats early on Friday achieved a breakthrough in government formation talks, agreeing on transferring more money to the European Union. The move may end political uncertainty in German after the September 24 federal elections. No government has been formed since then, marking a record amount of time for Germany to go without a government since WWII. After overnight talks on Thursday night, the three parties, Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its sister party the Christian Social Union and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) agreed on a 28-page blueprint, Xinhua news agency reported quoting Focus Online. Merkel said at a press conference on Friday that the paper was "not superficial". "It's about investing in the future, especially in children and families. In addition, more should be invested in apartments, in traffic and in the energy transition," she added. A total of 15,000 new jobs for police officers are needed, said Merkel, adding the world is not waiting for Germany. Therefore, Europe needs a new departure, and she was optimistic that things were moving ahead. SPD's Martin Schulz said the paper reflects the desire for renewal, in families, education and the digital challenge, adding social cohesion must be strengthened. "The three parties are ready to make Europe strong again," said Schulz. CSU chief Horst Seehofer said he was "highly satisfied" with the outcomes. Talks focused mainly on differences over tax and migration. The immigration of refugees should not exceed 180,000 to 220,000 people per year, no tax increases are planned, and the family reunion for refugees should be possible in the future "only for humanitarian reasons" and limited to 1,000 cases per month. The three parties also agreed on the strengthening of the European Union, especially more money flowing from Germany to Brussels. The paper vows close partnership with France, saying that "we want to sustainably strengthen and reform the euro zone so that the euro can better withstand global crises," the parties said. They stressed the crucial role Franco-German cooperation will play in European integration, saying a renewal of the EU can only succeed if Germany and France "work together with all their strength". Negotiating groups of the Union and the SPD have unanimously agreed on the outcomes of the exploratory talks, according to the German Press Agency. The three parties will enter into formal and detailed government coalition talks after each party agrees on the outcomes of the exploratory talks. The SPD has scheduled a special national conference on January 21 in Bonn, where party members will vote whether to join the formal grand coalition talks. However, the SPD is still facing strong opposition of a renewed grand coalition, especially from its grassroots and youth members, who are worried about the further marginalization of the party in its cooperation with the Union. Many observers and party members hope the breakthrough in the talks will help avoid a minority government led by Merkel or snap federal elections. --IANS him/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The trial of a man accused of stabbing a man to death and injuring six others in a German supermarket last year began on Friday with a long confession by the suspect, who admitted he was motivated by religious extremism and lamented that he had not hurt more people. The accused, a 26-year-old Palestinian identified as Ahmed A., was arrested immediately after the stabbing attack at a Hamburg supermarket on July 28, 2017, Efe news agency reported. He pleaded guilty to all charges brought by the prosecutor, including homicide, multiple attempted homicide and subscribing to Islamist ideology, and said via his lawyer that he acted for religious reasons. The defence said the attack had occurred at a moment of extreme tension for Ahmed. The victim was a 50-year-old man who he threw himself at without saying a word before indiscriminately attacking the other six with the intention of killing "as many Christians as possible", according to his testimony. The attack lasted two minutes and was carried out with a 20-cm (8-inch) knife he had stolen earlier from that same supermarket. The accused claimed allegiance to the Islamic State terror organisation, though no direct links to militants have been found. At the hostel where he had been assigned to live by immigration authorities, which houses some 600 asylum seekers, he was purportedly known for his unstable behaviour. He entered Germany in 2015 and requested asylum, but was in 2016 alerted that his request had been denied and he would be deported. --IANS him/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Filmmaker Hansal Mehta will be speaking at the Harvard Business School in the US and he feels honoured. "I am honoured to be speaking at Harvard Business School for the India Conference 2018 among some very illustrious speakers," Mehta tweeted on Friday. The 15th edition of the two-day conference will be held from February 10-11 in Boston. Apart from Mehta, actor-politician Kamal Haasan among many other celebrated names will be a part of the the conference. The India Conference is a student-led conferences focusing on India in the US. It is organised by the graduate students of Harvard University and is held at the Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School campuses. --IANS dc/nv/pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Haryana government has decided to open new government women's colleges in 29 different locations this year, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Friday. "With this, Haryana will become the state to have such colleges at a distance of every 20 km," he said during a "Meet the CM" programme organised on the occasion of National Youth Day to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda in Panchkula near here. "Besides, science stream has been made mandatory in the all the new colleges being set up in the state to promote science subject among the students." The Chief Minister said his government was making concerted efforts to promote quality in Haryana. "A scheme has been prepared to open women's colleges within a radius of every 20 km in the state so that our daughters need not travel far to get . The government has opened some colleges and new ones will be opened in 29 places this year," Khattar said. Haryana has a literacy percentage of around 77 per cent (2011 Census). While males have a higher literacy percentage of around 85.5 per cent, female literacy is around 67 per cent. Haryana has nearly 700 colleges and 25 universities. --IANS js/him/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Election Commission proposes to deploy a record 30,000 Central Para-Military Force (CPMF) personnel for next month's assembly elections in Tripura, a top police officer said here on Friday. "The Election Commission has asked the Union Home Ministry to deploy around 30,000 (300 companies) CPMF personnel in Tripura for conduct of the assembly elections in the state next month. Therefore, the MHA has decided to deploy them well ahead of the polling day," said the officer who wished not to be identified. He said: "The CPMF would comprise Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). The CPMF troopers, led by senior officers, have started arriving from Friday. They would reach the state in a phased manner and would fan out across the state." The state already has over 35,000 security force personnel comprising state and CPMF, including BSF, CRPF and Tripura State Rifles. During the last assembly elections in February 2013, around 20,000 CPMF personnel were deployed in the mountainous bordering state. Meanwhile, an official of the state Election Department said the Election Commission is likely to declare the schedule of assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland within a week or so. The three northeastern states would go to polls simultaneously in February. Several delegations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had met the poll panel in New Delhi and urged it to hold the assembly elections in a free and fair manner. Communist Party of India-Marxist state Secretary Bijan Dhar told the media on Friday: "The BJP is trying to defer the assembly polls in Tripura to get undue political mileage. "The party has been conspiring against the Left Front government in the state, but their every effort would be foiled by the conscious people of the state." The BJP, however, denied the allegations. Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy on Wednesday met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi and discussed various issues. A Raj Bhavan official said the Governor talked about the prevailing law and order situation in the poll-bound state. Although the official did not disclose what exactly transpired between the two leaders, the meeting assumes importance in view of the BJP's allegation of deteriorating law and order situation in the Left-ruled state. The final electoral rolls of Tripura were published on January 5. According to the final rolls, on the basis of which the elections would be held, in all 2,569,216 voters, including 1,265,785 females, have been enrolled in the electoral rolls -- increasing by 2.52 per cent voters from last year's voter list. "We are getting ready on all fronts to hold the assembly elections smoothly. The Election Commission is in close touch with the state officials about the preparations of the elections," Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti said. The poll panel has already announced that Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines attached to the Electronic Voting Machines would be used in all the polling stations of the three states. Even before the announcement of the election schedule, all the political parties, including the ruling CPI-M -led Left Front and opposition BJP and the Congress, have started hectic political activities and campaigning to woo the voters. --IANS sc/him/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and ASEAN countries on Friday agreed to cooperate in agriculture and forestry to tackle challenges of climate change and price volatility, along with seeking intervention for livelihood opportunities, exchange of farm machinery and development of heterotic rice hybrids. In a joint declaration at the 4th ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Forestry here, they also sought cooperation on exchanging expertise as to promote enhanced resilience of natural systems, and improve the adaptive capacities of people to cope with environmental hazards. "We supported the prioritization of joint collaborative projects in the areas of (i) Agroforestry interventions for livelihood opportunities, (ii) Demonstration and exchange of farm implement and machinery, and (iii) Genetic improvement of parental lines and development of heterotic rice hybrids," it said. "We look forward to the implementation of more capacity building programmes in 2018 on the empowerment of ASEAN and Indian women through cooperatives, and managing food security and price volatility". As a part of Medium Term Plan of Action for ASEAN-India Cooperation in Agriculture and Forestry for 2016-2020, they said: "We underscore the importance of addressing climate change as it negatively impacts food security." The declaration also sought implementation of the 3rd exchange visit for farmers between ASEAN and India in order to provide opportunities for ASEAN and Indian farmers and fishers, including young and women farmers, to learn and develop more efficient farming practices and management skills through information sharing. The 5th ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Forestry will be held in Brunei Darussalam in 2019. Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, Malaysia Laos and Brunei are the members of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). --IANS spk/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The India-Israel relationship is much stronger than one vote in the UN, Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said on Friday, referring to New Delhi's vote against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "The question is if it will influence our relationship or if it can influence the relationship," Carmon said in response to a question ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India starting Sunday. "I think the relationship is much stronger than one vote in the UN here and there," he said. Last month, India joined the overwhelming Assembly majority to vote for the resolution that demanded that the US comply with Security Council decisions against changing the status of Jerusalem. Carmon, however, maintained that there was a lot of importance in the votes in the UN and said that these have always been on the joint agenda between India and Israel. "Sometimes it is India that comes to Israel with a request and sometimes Israel comes to India with a request," he said. "We cannot always fulfil those requests. That is why we are two countries, two members of the UN." The Ambassador mentioned Israel's support to the Indian candidate for the International Court of Justice, Judge Dalveer Bhandari, last year. --IANS ab/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India has signed an MoU with the United Kingdom to enable the return of illegal Indian migrants within a month of their detection by authorities abroad. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Friday confirmed that the pact was signed by him and UK Minister of State for Immigration Caroline Nokes in Britain on Wednesday during his visit along with an Indian delegation for a week. "We finalised long-pending India-UK MoU on the returns of illegal migrants and sharing of criminal records," Rijiju tweeted. The Memorandum of Understanding, which would affect hundreds of Indians, comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to the UK in March. The UK has consistently raised the issue of return of illegal migrants with India. Rijiju said he also discussed "issues of visas for dependents and students, social security, distressed Indian women and extradition". 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," said the official. While the UK claims that the number of illegal migrants is in thousands, Indian agencies have found only 2,000 Indians are overstaying. The Minister on Thursday also thanked the UK government for its cooperation in the ongoing extradition case of liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya. He had also held talks with the Britain'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 cooperation in the Mallya extradition case," a senior official present at the meeting said. Mallya, 62, is wanted in India to stand trial on charges of not repaying loans of around Rs 9,000 crore to various banks. Besides the extradition case, issues such as the rise of fundamentalism and Sikh extremism were discussed during Rijiju's meeting with the UK Minister. --IANS rak/tsb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Indian and Pakistani troops on Friday traded heavy gun and mortar fire on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district. Defence Ministry sources said the Pakistan Army violated the 2003 ceasefire in Kamalkote area in Uri sector. "They used automatics, small arms and mortars to target Indian positions. Our troops retaliated strongly and effectively," an official said. "There is no report of any casualty or damage so far on our side." The winding LoC divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. --IANS sq/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran has urged the US to remain committed to the 2015 international nuclear agreement, media reports said on Friday. Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also hailed his recent talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow and a meeting he had with the European Union's diplomatic chief and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany on Thursday, Xinhua news reported quoting Tasnim news agency. "What was clear at the meetings... was that the international consensus was based on (the fact that) any move leading to the destruction of the JCPOA (nuclear deal) or a change in it would be unacceptable and would be confronted by the international community," he was quoted as saying. In the talks, Iran emphasised that all parties, including the US, should remain committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and implement the deal completely so that Iran does the same, he added. In July 2015, after a decade of strenuous negotiations, Iran and six major countries -- China, Russia, Britain, France, the US and Germany -- struck a final agreement on Iran's controversial nuclear programme, in which the West promised to relieve sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt in Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. However, as one of the most significant diplomatic legacies of US President Donald Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, the hard-won nuclear deal has been running the gauntlet of Trump on his campaign trail and since he became president. In October, Trump announced that he had decided to decertify Iran's compliance with the pact. The US was planning to reimpose sanctions on Iran, said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday, ahead of Trump's decision on whether to extend sanctions relief on Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal. --IANS him/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a landmark legal action, Facebook has paid compensation to a 14-year-old girl from Northern Ireland after her nude images were posted on a Facebook Page as revenge porn and she was blackmailed, the media reported. Lawyers acting on behalf of the girl launched High Court proceedings after her photo was allegedly posted on a so-called shame page on Facebook between November 2014 and January 2016, thetimes.co.uk reported late on Thursday. "She sought damages for misuse of private information, negligence and breach of the Data Protection Act, claiming that the image was obtained after she was blackmailed and published as revenge," the report said. The representatives for the victim and Facebook agreed to a confidential out-of-court settlement, potentially opening the floodgates to thousands of similar cases. "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," the girl's lawyer Pearse MacDermott was quoted as saying. The lawyer said the company should use the technology they have to be a responsible provider and remove the offensive post. The news comes days after Anne Longfield, Children's Commissioner for England, published a report warning youngsters becoming dependent on social media for their sense of self-worth, the Daily Mail reported. She said "social media firms were exposing children to major emotional risks, with some starting secondary school ill-equipped to cope with the avalanche of pressure they faced online". The report said Facebook was flooded with 54,000 suspected cases of revenge porn and 'sextortion' in one month. Last January, about 51,300 potential cases of revenge porn were recorded, which the firm defines as attempts to use intimate imagery to shame, humiliate or gain revenge. The moderators also flagged up 2,450 possible cases of sextortion -- classed as attempts to use the images to extort money or obtain more pictures. More than 14,000 accounts were disabled over the allegations, with 33 of the reviewed cases involving children. --IANS sku/na/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The system in Jammu and Kashmir needs to be overhauled to check radicalisation, Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Friday, also seeking checks on madrassas and mosques. Addressing the Indian Army's customary Annual Press Conference ahead of Army Day, Rawat questioned the being provided in government schools in the Valley. "In every school there is a map of India and a map of Jammu and Kashmir. Why should you have a separate map of Jammu and Kashmir? Then have maps of all states. "What does it teach students? That I am in this country but I also have a separate identity? The basic grass root problem lies here -- the way is in Jammu and Kashmir, because these teachers have also got the same education," he said. The system of education in the state needed to be given a relook, Rawat added. He further said that good schools did not produce stone-throwers and terrorists, though there could be a few exceptions. "We have rarely seen stone-throwers ... from Burnhall or probably DPS. Most are coming from schools where a lot of disinformation (is spread)" he said. He also raised concern over "disinformation" being spread through social media, and through religious schools and mosques. "The other issue is Madrassas and Masjids... What is being incorrectly informed to them is through Madrassas and Masjids... If these can be brought under control, the education system can be revamped," the Army chief said. He said there was a need for opening more schools like army-run Goodwill Schools and CBSE-funded schools in the Valley. Talking about terror in the state, he said in 2017, the focus was on south Kashmir, and this year, the northern part of the Valley will be targeted. "Terror in Jammu and Kashmir is not over," he added. --IANS ao/nir/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor James Franco's novel "Actors Anonymous", which he penned in 2013, has resurfaced in news amid allegations of sexual misbehaviour against him. Passages from Franco's novel, describing how the actor-director allegedly seduced "young girls", began circulating on social media on Wednesday, reports variety.com The Golden Globe winner has faced allegations of sexual misbehaviour from his former acting students. The Los Angeles Times on Thursday reported that five women, including four former students of Franco, who once ran an acting school, said he pressured them to engage in sexually charged situations, including expectations of nudity and simulated sex acts. Franco has denied the allegations, calling them "untrue". In the novel is a collection of confessional tales by anonymous actors, including Franco himself, blurring the lines between fiction and memoir. But in some chapters, Franco describes in graphic detail how he approaches women. In one chapter, Franco described how he kept a steady stream of sexual partners: "I had something going with most of my female co-stars and worked up a routine so that I could see someone every night." He said that because of his frequent travel, he managed to meet young women all over the world, including cities like Rome, Portland, New York and Los Angeles. "One of my favourite approaches was to ask the young girls that requested to take a photo with me to email me a copy of the photo; that way I can give them my info very quickly in front of a crowd of fans and later work out a way to see them." --IANS ks/rb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Activists of the Shree Rajput Karni Sena on Friday gathered outside the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) office here on Friday to protest against the coming release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmaavat". Security was beefed up outside the CBFC office. A few protestors were taken away by the police, but released after a few hours. Members of the Rajput outfit, under the leadership of its President Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi, gathered outside the CBFC office to express dissent over the censor board's decision to allow the release of the controversial movie. Some of them were seen holding aloft the movie's poster with a red mark denoting a cross on it. Jeevan Singh Solanki, Karni Sena's Maharashtra state Secretary, told IANS: "We will not let the film release in the country under any circumstances. Some states have already agreed with us and, therefore, banned it. We want the film to be banned in the whole country." "We are going to urge our Prime Minister to ban the film because the movie will ruin the heritage and culture of the Rajput community. The filmmaker has played with the sentiments of the Rajputs," said Solanki, adding that they will write to the Maharashtra Chief Minister to ban "Padmaavat" in the state. The movie will not be released in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, but Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said there is no problem in screening the movie in cinema halls in the state. Despite threats by the Karni Sena to disrupt the film's release, the Uttar Pradesh government has not issued any orders regarding ban on its screening. A delegation of Karni Sena had also met Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Dehradun earlier this week, but no announcement has been made yet. Asked if they were ready to watch the film pre-release to clear their doubts, Solanki said: "The whole projection of our community is wrong. We do not want to see the film. It should be banned." The film, cleared by the CBFC after five modifications and renamed from "Padmavati" to "Padmavat" and now titled "Padmaavat", is scheduled to release on January 25 across India. CBFC gave it the green signal with a U/A certification in consultation with a three-member advisory panel. 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 the question whether the movie showcases any intimacy between Khilji and Rani Padmavati. Subsequently, Karni Sena activists assaulted Bhansali on the film's set in Jaipur and another set in Kolhapur was vandalised. They even threatened Deepika and Bhansali. --IANS arc-aru/rb/dg (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.) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday blamed the BJP and RSS for the January 1 casteist riots in Koregaon-Bhima which claimed one life. The Aam Aadami Party supremo said that "if people want riots, then they should elect the BJP, which follows a specific pattern in this". He alleged that BJP-RSS workers attacked Dalits in the Pune village of Koregaon-Bhima which led to caste tensions all over Maharashtra subsequently, including a statewide shutdown on January 3. Kejriwal, who was on a day's Maharashtra tour, addressed a public rally at Sindkhedraja, the birth place of Rajmata Jijabai, the mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, in Buldhana district. He also targetted state Education Minister Vinod Tawde, "for shutting down thousands of schools permanently," and said those who can't run schools, how can they be expected to run the state government efficiently. Incidentally, Kejriwal has earned kudos for improvements and empowement of public schools in Delhi state. "Maharashtra is the land of great personality like Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule, who dedicated their lives for the education of women and children. They started India's first school for children but the BJP led government here is shutting down thousands of schools," he said. He urged the people to think whether they had they voted the BJP-led government to shut down schools. The Delhi CM alleged that the BJP in Maharashtra had "crushed" the dreams of the Phules and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by its actions. He stressed the need for the Maharashtra government to allocate more funds to the education sector, considering its annual budget is Rs 3 lakh crore, as compared to the Delhi budget of Rs 48,000 crore. Accusing the Maharashtra government of corruption, Kejriwal said: "You have to choose between riots or food, employment, education and peace. If you want riots, then vote for the BJP." He highlighted the achievements of the Delhi Government in the education, power and farming sectors and lamented the plight of farmers in Maharashtra. On the occasion, Col. Sudhir Sawant (retd), a former Congress Member of Parliament from Konkan, joined the AAP. --IANS qn/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) French President Emmanuel Macron has held talks with his US counterpart Donald Trump on telephone, in which they discussed issues related to Iran and North Korea, according to the Elysee Palace. In his conversation on Thursday, Macron has 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 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 "historic" talks between North and South Korea as "a positive signal", Xinhua news agency reported. "The continuation of the firm policy of the UN Security Council will bring about a political solution and move towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," Macron told Trump. --IANS in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Violating directives of the Mhadei Inter-State Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court, the Karnataka government has re-started work on the Kalsa canal on the river, Goa's Water Resources Minister Vinod Palienkar claimed on Friday. In a statement issued here, Palienkar said the construction by the Karnataka government along Mhadei banks is condemnable as the water dispute case is still to be adjudicated by the central tribunal. "Karnataka has started the construction of head regulator and allied work on the Kalsa nallahs in total disregard of the orders of the tribunal and Supreme Court," Palienkar said. "A team of engineers from Goa Water Resources Department visited the site and confirmed the same with photographs. The Goa government is seized of the matter and letters will be sent to Karnataka government on the issue and issue taken up with the Mhadei tribunal," he said. Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are currently involved in a dispute in the tribunal over controversial Kalsa-Bhandura dam project across Mhadei river, through which Karnataka aims to divert water from the Mhadei basin to nearby basin on the Malaprabha river. Mhadei, also known as the Mandovi river, is considered as a lifeline in the northern parts of the coastal state. It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through Maharashtra. The river course is 28.8 km in Karnataka, and over 50 km in Goa. Parrikar's offer last month to discuss river water sharing for drinking purposes on humanitarian grounds had triggered popular protests in both Goa and Karnataka. --IANS maya/tsb/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has called for connecting the northeastern region with the rest of the country through waterways, an official said on Friday. During his two-day visit to Kolkata and Haldia, the Minister of State for Shipping directed the officials of the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) to work in that direction, an official statement said. On Thursday, he inspected the facilities and ongoing projects at Kolkata Port Trust and GR Jetty of IWAI. During his visit, Mandaviya also reviewed the ongoing projects of Road Transport and Highways Ministry and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in West Bengal. He directed the officers to expedite the works of delayed projects and address land acquisition matters in close coordination with the concerned Revenue Officers for timely completion of the projects. --IANS vv/him/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Continuing its single-biggest drive against illegal constructions after the December 29 Mumbai pub blaze that claimed 14 lives, the BMC has razed a whopping 913 unauthorised structures which could be hazardous in case of a fire, an official said here on Friday. "The demolished structures include hotels, restaurants, pubs, bakeries, big and small eateries and places where bulk foods are prepared across the city," said an official spokesperson for the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). In the ongoing action on Friday, the demolition squads sealed eight restaurants/ establishments not complying with fire safety norms, illegal constructions were demolished at 52 places and 271 others were warned to comply immediately, besides seizing 197 gas cylinders. Since December 30 till January 12, the BMC has inspected 2,568 establishments from the fire safety perspective and seized a whopping 1,410 gas cylinders. The Corporation has issued notices to 718 establishments to carry out necessary fire safety amendments since the tragedy. The total number of establishments sealed for large-scale irregularities including non-compliance of fire norms has now touched 55, including the eight shut on Friday. The 52 BMC teams set up for the purpose in 24 divisions include personnel of the Mumbai Fire Brigade, Health Department, Building & Factory Department, who scrutinize construction-related works, entrances-exists, open spaces, etc., and break down illegal doors within the premises. The BMC's massive drive, termed as "belated" by some, came after a raging inferno in two rooftop pubs -- Mojo's Bistro and 1Above restaurants -- in the Kamala Mills Compound in Lower Parel killed 14 patrons and injured another 55. In a related incident, Maharashtra Congress's Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil on Friday demanded a probe by the CBI into the pub blaze and suspension of BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta. "The BMC Commissioner has publicly admitted that he has received calls from some politiciaisn pressurizing him to 'go slow' on the illegal constructions drive, but he has not revealed the identity of the callers. The series of fire incidents in the city which claimed many innocent lives are an outcome of the illegalities perpetrated by the BMC," Vikhe-Patil said. He said a Congress delegation would call on Governor C.V. Rao seeking a CBI probe and suspension of Mehta, failing which he would file a petition in the Bombay High Court. --IANS qn/nir/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump has signalled that he has developed a "good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, despite tensions between them. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un," Trump said in an interview about the first year of his presidency with The Wall Street Journal newspaper. "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised," said the US President. Trump, however, declined to confirm whether or not he had spoken with Kim, Efe news reported. "I don't want to comment on it. I'm not saying I have or haven't. I just don't want to comment," he replied, when asked by WSJ if he had contacts with the North Korean leader. Trump has been of late more open, on more than one occasion, to having a dialogue with North Korea. On January 10, the White House cited Trump's willingness to hold talks "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances" with Pyongyang. The US has had no official contacts with North Korea for years. Over the past few month Trump had hostile exchanges Kim, who has repeatedly been mocked by Trump as a "rocket man" over his weapons programs. According to the US President, "all these harsh comments were part of a strategy". "You'll see that a lot with me," Trump said of his belligerent remarks towards the North Korean leader, but added "then all of a sudden somebody's my best friend. "I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. I'm a very flexible person." On January 9, South and North Korea held a "historic" meeting after a gap of two years. The delegations agreed to ensure "the safety and success" of the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the South. North Korea has expressed its interests in attending the Winter Olympics, in February which marks an important moment of possible rapprochement between the two Koreas after a year of tensions triggered by Pyongyang's continuous weapons tests and the US President's aggressive remarks towards the regime. When Asked if Kim intended to "drive a wedge" between Seoul and Washington by opening the talks with South Korea, the US President did not rule it out. "If I were them, I would try," he said, but added "The difference is I'm President, other people aren't. And I know more about wedges than any human being that's lived." --IANS in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Defence, agriculture and water management may be among the major sectors of cooperation between India and Israel, but during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India next week, innovation will top the agenda, Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said on Friday. Speaking at a media briefing here ahead of the prime ministerial visit, Carmon said cooperation in agriculture and water were the highlights of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in July last year and the emphasis on this would continue. "But I would say the most important element of what we want to put together on the joint table is innovation," he said. "Innovation that would, you know, touch any of the areas in which we cooperate. Innovation could be in the field of defence, innovation could be in the field of agriculture, innovation could be in the field of IT, of R&D." The Ambassador described innovation as a "cross-cutting issue" and said this would be reflected in the discussions between Prime Ministers Modi and Netanyahu. Carmon referred to the two Prime Ministers' scheduled visit to the iCreate Innovation Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology on the outskirts of Ahmedabad and said that the centre "has a big clement of Israeli ecosystem in innovation". He said people from iCreate have been visiting Israel for training and attending seminars and "touched the Israeli way of looking at how to manage innovation". Ahead of the Prime Ministers' visit, Carmon said there would be a meeting between the entrepreneurs from "start-up nation Israel" and people from the Start-up India initiative. Regarding other aspects of Netanyahu's six-day visit starting Sunday, Carmon said that apart from the summit level meeting on Jan 15, the second India-Israel CEOs Forum will be held as also a series of other meetings between both sides in New Delhi and Mumbai. The visiting dignitary will be accompanied by a delegation of 130 Israeli business leaders. Asked about the status of the India-Israel free trade agreement (FTA), Carmon said that the "FTA is definitely on our agenda". "Quite a few rounds of discussions on the FTA have been held," he said. "I can tell you now that the next round of discussions will be held in February in Jerusalem." Netanyahu is also scheduled to visit a Centre of Excellence in Agriculture at Vardad, Gujarat, that has been set up with Israeli assistance. Carmon said that by the end of this month "we will have 22 centres of excellence up and running across India". These centres of excellence set up with Israeli technology and knowhow cover areas like vegetables, citrus fruits, dates, mangoes, flowers, beekeeping, he said, adding that "we are now starting work on a dairy farm in Haryana". Netanyahu will also be accompanied by Moshe Holtzberg, whose parents, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Moshe, who was only two years old then, will visit Chabad House, where his parents were killed. Netanyahu's is the first prime ministerial visit from Israel to India since the visit of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2003. --IANS ab/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Game of Thrones" actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, global brand ambassador of the male grooming brand L'oreal Paris Men Expert, says his idea of a perfect film actor is a mix-up of performances of Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall and Gene Hackman from the 1970s. Nikolaj, known for essaying Jaime Lannister in the popular TV series "Game of Thrones", was asked about who is his greatest movie hero. "One of my all-time favourite films is 'Once Upon A Time in America'. The main character Noodles in neither hero nor anti-hero, he made a big impression on me. So take every DeNiro, Pacino, Duvall and Gene Hackman movie from the 70s, mix them up and you have the perfect film actor," he said in an interview as shared by the L'Oreal Paris Men Expert brand team. The Danish actor, 47, also spoke about the secret to improving with age. "Don't worry. Be who you are. Life is change. Embrace that. And don't let a number define you. Keep winding people up, make everyone laugh. And for skin, there's the vast range of products," he quipped, adding that heis proud to endorse a brand that engages in initiatives that are committed to make things change. In terms of change, he also commented on how climate change is impacting his favourite place in the world. "Greenland, where my wife's from, is one of the most magical places on earth. It's been eye-opening seeing the impact climate change is having there," he said. --IANS rb/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 22-year-old NRI, working as a software engineer for Google on contract basis, has been arrested for allegedly molesting a US woman in a five-star hotel in New Delhi, police said on Friday. Police said Anmol Singh Kharbanda met and struck a conversation with the 52-year-old woman at the hotel bar around 10 p.m. on January 8. "Kharbanda, a California-based Non-Resident Indian, met the victim in the lounge and introduced himself to her. He offered her drinks and a smoke in his hotel room," Additional Commissioner of Police B.K Singh told IANS. "Kharbanda took her to his room and groped her. She pushed him away and ran out," Singh said. The shocked victim, staying in another room of the hotel, locked herself in for the entire night. The next day, she went away for a meeting in Jaipur and returned in the evening. After her return from Jaipur, she complained against Kharbanda to the Chanakyapuri police station and hotel security. "We registered an FIR under Sections 354 and 328 of the Indian Penal Code and got her statement recorded before the City Magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC," the officer added. Unaware of the legal action against him, Kharbanda was busy in his official work. He visited the Gurugram office (Google head office in India). "When he returned to the hotel room on January 9 night, the hotel security informed the police and he was arrested," the ACP added. He has since been sent to judicial custody. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to issue instructions to commence construction of the National Institute of New Energy and Innovation (NINEI) in the state's capital city at the earliest. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Patnaik also requested that he direct the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to re-open the regional office at Bhubaneswar. "The construction of the institute near IIT, Bhubaneswar has not yet been taken up despite grant of advance possession of the required land. In the meantime, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has issued an order dated November 10, 2017, to close down the Regional Office at Bhubaneswar with immediate effect," said Patnaik. He said the closure of the regional office may hamper the progress of establishment of National Institute of New Energy and Innovation at Bhubaneswar. While commending the initiative of Central government to establish this institute of national repute in the state for promoting cutting edge R&D activities in the field of renewable energy, the state government had committed to provide the necessary infrastructure support for this prestigious project in the state. "The state government has already allocated 73.68 acres of land near IIT, Bhubaneswar for the institute," said the Chief Minister. --IANS cd/pgh/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Film: 'Paddington 2'; Director: Paul King; Starring: Hugh Grant, Hugh Bonnerville, Sally Hawkins, Brendan Gleeson; Rating: ** "Paddington" in 2014 was so treacly it was like eating too much Christmas pudding. The most unwanted sequel comes to us with noblest of intentions and feeblest of contrivances.It has little else to recommend itself, except Hugh Grant in a whammy of a performance that belongs to film far weightier than this eyecandy-floss. Grant plays Phoenix Buchanan a wicked has-been of an actor whose villainy drives the anorexic plot forward through the neat unexciting residential streets of London as our bear-hero the adorable Paddington waddles through a mess that, I suspect, is created entirely by the script writers who were told to slap together a hurried sequel filled with ersatz twists and unconvincing turns which would get the "Paddington" fans back into their seats. As far as sequels go, this one doesn't get anywhere that we would particularly like to go.It is like visiting Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel on a day when the rides are open only to the righteous. It opens on a note of sanctimonious adoration with a bear-couple adopting an awashed baby bear. The CGs are not so unbearable. There is so much more to 'bear' here. The plot quickly moves to London to Paddington's adoptive British family that spreads so much fuzzy warmth around our cute little hero making him the apex of British propriety and marmalade-laid decorum. Some of Paddington's teaparty etiquettes are plainly annoying. Elsewhere, as in the sequels, where poor little Paddington is imprisoned,the attempts to remain propah and genteel in a rough environment may evoke some stray titters. Though I doubt anyone will remain amused for too long with the strained attempts to alchemize animation tropes into a full fledged feature films. Even by the low standards set by the cult of sequels "Paddington 2" fares poorly. Veteran British actors like Jim Broadbent(playing an antique dealer) and Brendan Gleeson(as a snarling prison cook) liven up the proceedings. But it is Hugh Grant who will raise your amusement quotient and perk your curiosity level with his huffing and heaving portrayal of an actor on the skids. Oh yes, you will see two actors of Indian origin. Sanjeev Bhaskar is a face glimpsed at a window on a London street while Meera Sayal makes a fleeting appearing in a courtroom scene. Aren't we grateful. Don't raise your hopes too high. As our baby bear's cuddly antics will make you roll your eyes and mutter under your breath. The plot's focus of conflict is a pop-up animation book stolen by the arch-villain and coveted by our cuddlesome hero as a birthday gift to his beloved aunt who teaches "Paddington" to look for goodness in everyone.I looked for that quality in this film and found way too much of it. If the truth be told, the pop-up book pops up more vividly than anything that this lackluster sequel has to offer.I know it has made potloads of money across the global box-office. But if success was a measure of excellence then Dhanush's Kolaveri D would be a classic song. And Dwayne Johnson would be a better actor than Marlon Brando. Or Hugh Grant, for that matter. --IANS skj/nv/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday told a US military commander that the entire Pakistan felt betrayed over the recent statements by US, the military said. General Bajwa made the comments in a phone conversation with US Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander General Joseph L. Votel, Xinhua news agency reported. Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump tweeted that the "US has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools". "They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" he said. Bajwa said that "entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed over US' recent statements despite decades of cooperation", and unanimous Pakistan's national response reflected the same sentiment. The Army chief made it clear that Pakistan will continue its counter efforts even without US financial support in accordance with the country's national interest and shall remain committed to bringing the efforts to logical conclusion along with other stake holders. --IANS him/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It is "premature" to assess the impact of US President Donald Trump's policy of putting pressure on Pakistan will have and India will have to continue its job of fighting terror originating from the neigbouring country, Army Chief Bipin Rawat said on Friday. Asked about the "pressure" being exerted on Pakistan by US, he said: "It would be premature to say what will be the impact of the pressure. "US has exerted pressure on Pakistan, but there are compulsions on US also to maintain relation with Pakistan," Gen Rawat said adding that both Pakistan and the US understand this. "But to say complete pressure has been put on Pakistan... let us see it is a step by step process. It is too premature to say that everything is now going to be in our favour and US will do our job," he said. Trump, in a tweet on January 1, attacked Pakistan saying that the US has foolishly given them more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and got lies and deceit in return. Asked about increase in ceasefire violations along the Line of Control, the Army Chief said India has started targeting Pakistan posts which support terrorists in infiltrating on Indian side. "Ceasefire violations have increased because Pakistan posts supporting terrorists are being destroyed," he said. Rawat also said that casualties of the Pakistan side were "three to four times more" than that on Indian side, stressing this was being done so that they can feel the pain and a message is conveyed. He said the government had told the army to conduct operation "in the manner they deem fit". He however added that if there is a drop in infiltration, the Indian Army will fully follow the ceasefire. --IANS ao/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Satellite images show that North Korea has bored new tunnels near its Punggye-ri nuclear test site, indicating Pyongyang's intention to maintain its potential for future nuclear testing, a US website specialised in North Korean affairs has said. The images, taken on December 28, 2017 and revealed on Thursday by US-based website 38North, show that significant tunnel excavation activities were being carried out in the so-called Western Portal in Punggye-ri, in northeastern North Korea, Efe news reported. According to the images, mining carts and a group of about 100-120 workers were present in the area and there was an increase in spoil piles around the West Portal. "These activities underscore North Korea's continued efforts to maintain the Punggye-ri site's potential for future nuclear testing," 38North concluded. The US website also confirmed that the North Portal, where five of the six North Korean nuclear tests were carried out, has remained in a dormant state. The powerful nuclear test conducted on September 3 is believed to have caused serious damage to the site and could make it collapse. The satellite images were published shortly after the two Koreas -- North and South -- held their first historic meeting in two years, which concluded with both countries' showing signs of reducing regional tension, after a year of Pyongyang's continuous weapons tests and US President Donald Trump's hostile remarks towards North Korea. The meeting even led Trump to express his willingness to hold a dialogue with North Korea "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances." However, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un already said in his New Year message that, despite his desire to improve ties with South Korea, Pyongyang has no intention of suspending its nuclear programme and will continue to develop its weapons to prevent Washington from attacking its territory. --IANS pgh/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A sex racket was busted here with the arrest of three accused and three women including a Russian "rescued", police said on Friday. The other two "victims" were from Delhi and West Bengal, police said. The victims were rescued during the raids conducted on two houses in posh Banjara Hills on Thursday. The sleuths of Commissioner's Task Force also seized Rs 40,000 cash, six mobile phones and a passport. Police arrested three accused including a woman who were running the brothel houses while the fourth accused is absconding. According to police, Kurian Tharayil Jacob, a real estate businessman, is the main accused. He along with Yamala Mery, a native of East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh and Pankaj Kumar Mandal of Bihar, were running the brothel houses. Jacob was arrested on same charges in 2011 but he continued his activities after coming out of jail. The accused had hired two houses on Road Number 12, Banjara Hills to run the prostitution racket. Jacob used to bring the female sex workers from Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and also Russia on agreement for payment of Rs 16,000 per day. Mery and Pankaj used to bring customers. --IANS ms/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Six persons, including four policemen, were injured here in a clash between two communities on Friday, police said. The clash erupted as a fallout of the heated exchanges on Thursday in Ghoorpur area, a police officer said. Senior Superintendent of Police Aakash Kulhari is camping at the site. The situation was tense but under control, an official told IANS. It all began from a verbal spat between Dharmendra Patel (22) and Waseem (21) on Thursday. It was reportedly sorted out by elders from both the communities. The hostilities, however, came out in the open on Friday after Waseem reportedly stabbed Dharmendra, triggering heavy stone-pelting from both sides. Angry relatives of the wounded youth jammed the Gauhania-Karchana road and fought with the police when they tried to open the road for traffic. The police used canes to disperse a mob and fired. A kiosk was set on fire. --IANS md/mr/him (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the appeal against an order of the Hyderabad High Court order directing the Andhra Pradesh government not to allow cockfights during Sankranti and seize the roosters. Raghu Rama Krishna Raju, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Andhra Pradesh, had filed the petition challenging the high court order. The apex court order came even as cockfights were being organised in various parts of coastal Andhra in violation of the High Court order. A MP and a state legislator of ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) took part in a cockfight in East Godavari district on Thursday. Crores of rupees change hands as cockfights are organised on massive scale during Sankranti in Andhra Pradesh. Politicians of all hues, businessmen and celebrities also participate in the cockfights organised during the week-long holidays. Sankranti, the three-day colourful harvest festival, is beginning on Saturday. Raju had contended that cockfights are a part of the tradition in Andhra Pradesh, and the High Court order for seizure of roosters was in violation of rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The petitioner argued that police and other officials need not seize roosters but they could seize knives used in cockfights. Animal rights activists, however, point out that as per the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and the Andhra Pradesh Gaming Act, 1974, cockfights are illegal. "Irrespective of whether the birds are fitted with knives or whether ancillary activities of betting, gambling take place, the practice of animal fights is prohibited by law. The Courts have time and again upheld this prohibition on cockfights," said Humane Society International (HSI), India. It urged the state government to ensure effective implementation of the prohibition of cockfights, in accordance with the High Court order. HSI also appealed to people to report any cockfighting taking place near them at the nearest police station or on phone number 8899117773. "In 2016, the High Court explicitly issued directives to the Government of AP to ensure cockfights are prevented. However, cockfights continue unabated, reportedly under the patronage of elected public representatives, whilst the state law enforcement agencies turn a blind eye to this lawlessness. "We urge them once again to ensure that the orders of the Hon'ble High Court is followed. Cockfighting is not only cruel to animals but also encourages other social evils like betting, gambling and child labour. A practice that glorifies so many illegal activities should have no place in a civilized society,a said N. G. Jayasimha, managing director of HSI, India. --IANS ms/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 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 on 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 . Crustaceans must now be stunned before they are killed," the new law states which will take effect in March, Xinhua 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 neighbouring Italy recently. 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. --IANS qd/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A total of 17 militants, including shadow district Governor Mawlawi Abdul Khaleq, were killed when security forces stormed their hideout in Afghanistan's Balkh province on Friday, police said. "Acting on a tip-off, the security forces stormed the hideout of Taliban insurgents in Islam village of Shortepa district early on Friday killing 17 rebels including shadow district governor Mawlawi Abdul Khaleq on the spot," a police spokesman in the northern region Sayed Sarwar Hussaini told Xinhua. Mawlawi Abdul Khaleq, according to the official, had served as shadow district governor of Taliban in Qarqin district of the neighbouring Jawzjan province and obviously visited Shortepa district to regroup Taliban fighters in Balkh province. Taliban militants have not commented on the report. --IANS him/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Income Tax Department has recorded a sharp increase in prosecutions of tax evaders following an intensified drive against black money, the government said on Friday. During the first eight months of 2017-18 ending November, tax authorities filed prosecutions in 2,225 cases, as against the 784 cases in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal, recording a rise of 184 per cent, a Finance Ministry release said here. "Prosecutions have been initiated for various offences including wilful attempt to evade tax or payment of any tax; wilful failure in filing returns of income; false statement in verification and failure to deposit the tax deducted/collected at source or inordinate delay in doing so, among other defaults," the statement said. The number of complaints compounded by the Department during the current financial year (upto the end of November 2017) stands at 1,052 as against 575 in the corresponding period of the immediately preceding year, registering a rise of 83 per cent," it said. Compounding an offence occurs when the defaulter admits to the offence and pays the compounding fee as per stipulated conditions. Providing a list of some notable convictions, the statement also said 48 offenders have been convicted during the current fiscal till Novemver, as compared to 13 convictions for the corresponding period last year, marking a sharp increase of 269 per cent. While the MD of a Bengaluru firm has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of three months alongwith a fine for not depositing employees' tax deducted at source (TDS) of over Rs 60 lakh within the prescribed time, an individual in Ernakulam has received the same imprisonment for selling property to evade payment of taxes of about Rs 76 lakh, the statement added. --IANS bc/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court judges who 'rebelled against the system: Brief profiles Justice Jasti Chelameswar -- Justice Chelameswar was elevated to the Supreme Court on October 10, 2011 and is currently number 2 in the judges' hierarchy. He has been the Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court between May 2007 to March 2010 when he was transferred to Kerala High Court as the Chief Justice. He is one of the few judges who have favoured the idea of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) which seeks to nullify the Collegium system for appointment of judges. Some of his significant judgements include the invalidation of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, and holding as part of the three-judge bench that no Indian can be denied government subsidies and other services for want of an Aadhaar number. Justice Chelameswar is scheduled to retire in June this year.Justice Ranjan Gogoi -- Elevated to the Supreme Court as a Judge on April 23, 2012, Justice Ranjan Gogoi is the next in line to become the Chief Justice of India (CJI). He was briefly in the news for recusing himself from hearing the plea filed by a lawyers' group against the proposed elevation of Justice J.S. Khehar as CJI in December 2016. But he can also be credited with bringing forth the banality of most of the cases that land up at the apex court's door, which ideally shouldn't have. Gogoi reportedly used to ask lawyers: "Does this case fall in the 93 per cent or in the seven per cent?" Flummoxed, a bunch of lawyers decided to find out the secret behind this seemingly strange query. They researched all the apex court judgements between January 1 and December 31, 2014, and found that of the 884 judgments, just 64 cases (or seven per cent), pertained to any meaningful constitutional issues. The finding brought forth what is bogging down the already overworked higher judiciary -- a pile of insubstantial cases. Gogoi served as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court before moving to the Supreme Court. Justice Madan B Lokur -- Appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court on June 4, 2012, Justice Madan B. Lokur has vast experience in civil, criminal, constitutional, revenue and service laws. He practised in the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court before qualifying as as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court in 1981. He has served as Additional Solicitor General of India between July 1998 and February 1999 when he was appointed an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court and appointed its Permanent Judge five months later. He functioned as Acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court from February 2010 to May 2010 and as Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court from June 2010 to November 2011. He was Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court from November 2011 to June, 2012. He took great interest in judicial reforms, computerisation of courts, judicial education, legal aid and services, juvenile justice and ADR. He was appointed as One-Man Committee to suggest improvements in the working of the homes and organisations under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection and Children) Act, 2000 and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2007. He is due to retire in December-end this year. Justice Kurian Joseph -- Elevated as a Judge to the Supreme Court of India on March 8, 2013, Justice Kurian Joseph is a proponent of judiciary playing a pro-active role to meet people's expectations and aspirations. He was part of the bench comprising Justice R.M. Lodha, Justice Lokur and himself that -- while hearing the coal block allocation case -- vowed to free the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from any political and bureaucratic interference. He was also member of the Supreme Court bench that overruled the admissibility of electronic evidence in 2014. The judgement, which he wrote, observed that "electronic records are more susceptible to tampering, alteration, transposition, excision, and without proper safeguards, the whole trial based on proof of electronic records can lead to a travesty of justice", and that the position taken by the court in its 2005 Parliament attack case verdict was legally incorrect. On August 22 last year, Justice Joseph gave a verdict against the practice of triple talaq or instant divorce practised by some sects of Muslims, and held that the practice of triple talaq is not integral to the religion or personal laws of that community. He previously served twice as Acting Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court and was appointed as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court in February 2010. He is due to retire on November 30 this year. --IANS mak/vd/dg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When police arrested a man for drug possession, he claimed that the illegal substances were not his. This would have been fine except for the fact that they were found up his bottom. It was a risky defence and judges in the US state of Pennsylvania speedily rejected it in a court case reported on January 2, making it the first 2018 entry for this column's file of Dumb Criminal Cases. It reminded me of a case in Hong Kong some years ago when a shoplifter claimed ignorance of stolen food in his underwear. "When you have a tin of fish in your underpants, you know about it," the magistrate said. Criminals really can be like children when it comes to using excuses that are doomed to fail. For example, all parents are familiar with the reasons kids come up with to explain why they needn't go to school any more. BOY: "I have decided to become a pirate instead." GIRL: "Silly Daddy, mermaids don't go to school!" Then there are the kids' excuses for getting out of bed at night. ME: "Hey! It's 10 o'clock! What are you doing up?" CHILD: "I'm not up. This is a dream." But of course it's in lawsuits that bad defence strategies have life-changing effects. This columnist, who used to be a court reporter, recalls the case of a Hong Kong prostitute who told judges that she only stole a man's watch because she felt greatly insulted after he offered her money for the hour they'd spent in bed. Great excuse -- for any profession except the one she had chosen. Yet there are cases where a ridiculous defence works. In Ohio in 2002, a woman explained to a court that the murder she had committed should be disregarded since The Matrix movie showed that we were all living in a computer simulation anyway. The jury found her not guilty -- not because they agreed with what she said, but because confusing fiction with real life was evidence of a "severe mental defect". If that's true, then half of humanity has a severe mental defect. This columnist's wife used to live in London's Baker Street, the address of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and there was no end of visitors "to see where he lived". In TV commercials in Japan, a cartoon Sailor Moon girl tells you to eat a certain brand of potato soup like she does. Apparently this works. At no point do consumers think: Wait. How can a 2D cartoon character eat potato soup? A Sailor Moon girl also appears in a TV ad in Malaysia, dreaming about buying a Ford Fusion motor car. (I thought she could fly?) Clearly Malaysian adults think: "Hmm, whose advice should I take on automobile handling and performance? A non-existent cartoon character might be an ideal choice." But going back to the subject of excuses which unexpectedly work, this writer once had an Indian colleague whose reason for missing a meeting was so cheeky that it left our boss speechless. "Sorry I missed yesterday's meeting," the colleague said. "I went out for lunch and forgot to come back." (Nury Vittachi is an Asia-based frequent traveller. Send ideas and comments via his Facebook page) --IANS nury/sac (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Reacting to an unprecedented press conference by four Supreme Court judges, a number of senior lawyers on Friday said they believed there must be some very compelling reasons for the judges to have resorted to such a way of expressing their anguish. "I am in agreement with the purpose of the press conference. It's an alarming state of affairs where there is a deep difference of opinion between four judges on one side and the chief justice on the other side. We the people of India have a right to know what is happening inside the collegium," said senior lawyer Indira Jaising. She insisted that the four judges -- Justices Ranjan Gogoi, J. Chelameswar, Kurien Joseph and Madan B. Lokur - were not "anti-Chief Justice" but were only trying to "build a consensus". "Maybe, Judge Brijgopal Loya's case was the tipping point... this may just be the tip of the iceberg," she told reporters. While senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan said that water must have flown over the head before the judges went to the press, another senior lawyer K.T.S. Tulsi said there "must have been very compelling reasons" behind this. "This is an unprecedented step. One nerve thought that things will come to such a pass . But there must have been some compelling reasons for the senior most judges to have adopted this course of action. I am sure they exhausted all other remedies. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking," Tulsi said. Senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan said he had not seen such "blatant abuse of power" during his legal career. Bhushan said that he had not seen such blatant abuse of power (as in the case of the present Chief Justice). Speaking of late CBI Judge Brijgopal Loya's case -- whose death was said to have occurred under mysterious circumstances - Bhushan said: "It should have been listed before senior SC judges in view of the importance of the case, but instead was listed in Court Number 10, which is of Justice Arun Mishra." Former Union Minister and lawyer Ashwani Kumar termed it a "sad day" for "our juridical system, India's democracy, and for everything that we hold dear". "This press conference strikes at the root of institutional integrity of the higher judiciary. It has raised question marks about the credibility of the systems as such and has directly cast aspersions on the Chief Justice of India," Kumar said. Former Delhi High Court Judge Mukul Mudgal vouched for the integrity of the four judges, terming them "really responsible and respected judges" and said there must have been "compelling" reasons for them to come out in the open. "No doubt, the Chief Justice of India is the master of the roster, but there are systems and precedents and conventions that have to be followed in a constitutional manner... Historically, the cases of constitutional importance are assigned to the most senior Judges. There have been departures from it and I think this is the reason which must have compelled them," Mudgal told a TV channel. However, Justice R.S. Sodhi (retd) did not agree with the way the four judges chose to express their disagreement with the CJI. "We have all had differences with each others over various matters, judicial or administrative. But never have I ever envisaged that we start going to press for matters like this. This is appalling," Sodhi said. On Friday, in an "extraordinary" event in the history of Indian judiciary, four senior sitting judges of the Supreme Court met the media to allege that the administration of the country's top court was not in order. Congress leader and advocate Salman Khurshid said it is the Chief Jistice's responsibility to set things right as the "greatest (of the judges)" and "head of the institution". --IANS mak/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) on Friday said that it has taken action against members in the Satyam case, however, it has "no powers" to take action against CA firms. ICAI's statement comes days after market regulator Sebi barred Price Waterhouse Network of firms from auditing listed companies for two years. "While the ICAI may not like to specifically comment on the order passed by SEBI, we would like to add that under the present provisions of the Chartered Accountants Act 1949, there are no powers presently vested with ICAI for taking action against CA firms," ICAI said in a statement. According to ICAI, it "was the first to be off the blocks when the Satyam matter broke out in January 2009" and had initiated disciplinary cases against six members concerned in the case. "...Despite several legal hurdles and other impediments like the respondents were in judicial custody, ICAI had proceeded with its disciplinary process in terms of the CA Act and the rules framed there under," the statement said. ICAI pointed out that it had awarded the maximum penalty of "removal from membership permanently and imposition of monetary penalty on members of ICAI involved in the matter". "ICAI was the body which concluded its disciplinary enquiry at the earliest amongst domestic or international agencies or bodies within 3 years by the year 2012 and disposed off the matter by award of punishment by the year 2013...," the statement said. "Therefore, the present punishment awarded by SEBI is only a reiteration of the verdict passed by the Disciplinary Committee of ICAI except that while the ICAI had punished the concerned members, however the SEBI has imposed this punishment on the audit firm concerned." On late Wednesday, Sebi barred Price Waterhouse network of firms from auditing listed companies for two years. However, the order will not impact audits conducted by concerned firms for 2017-18. On its part, Price Waterhouse Network of firms in India said: "We are disappointed with the findings of the SEBI investigations and the adjudication order. The SEBI order relates to a fraud that took place nearly a decade ago in which we played no part and had no knowledge of." "As we have said since 2009, there has been no intentional wrong doing by PW firms in the unprecedented management perpetrated fraud at Satyam, nor have we seen any material evidence to the contrary. We believe that the order is also not in line with the directions of the Hon'ble Bombay High Court order of 2010 and so we are confident of getting a stay." --IANS rv/ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump, who reportedly slammed presence of migrants from "s**thole" countries, on Friday denied having used derogatory language against Haiti and African countries. "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," Trump tweeted after reports of his remarks sparked international outrage with the UN's human rights office calling them "racist" and "shameful". "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said 'take them out'. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" Reports earlier quoted Trump, in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday, as asking why the US would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "s**thole countries" in Africa rather than places like Norway. "Why do we need more Haitians... Take them out," Trump was quoted as saying. Trump's reported remark came as both Republican and Democratic lawmakers visited him on Thursday to propose a deal on immigration, the BBC reported. In Thursday's meeting, lawmakers were reportedly proposing restoring the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) permits for certain countries, while offering $1.5bn for a wall that Trump wants built on the US border with Mexico. Reacting to Trump's remarks on Thursday, Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democratic lawmaker, tweeted: "I condemn this unforgivable statement and this demeaning of the office of the Presidency." Mia Love, a Utah Republican and the only Haitian-American in Congress, demanded Trump apologise for the "unkind, divisive, elitist" comments. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) accused the president of falling "deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of racism and xenophobia", the BBC reported. Three weeks ago, The New York Times reported that Trump had said Haitians "all have Aids" during a similar June meeting. --IANS him/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A baby boy born in Ukraine, weighing 7.09 kg, is believed to be the heaviest newborn in the country, media reported on Friday. The healthy boy was born on January 3 in the southern city of Zaporizhzhya by Caesarean-section to a 40-year-old woman, Xinhua news agency reported. The mother has seven daughters and all of them weighed more than 5 kg at birth. Newborn babies in Ukraine generally weigh between 2.8 kg and 4 kg. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world's biggest healthy newborn was a 10.2 kg boy born in Italy in 1955. --IANS him/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UN has asked the Saudi-led coalition to keep the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah and Saleef open for humanitarian shipments. UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, has welcomed the opening of Hudaydah and Saleef to commercial and humanitarian cargo. He called on the Saudi-led coalition to continue allowing vessels into the Red Sea ports, and for the Houthi rebels to desist from threatening this vital access route, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Friday, Xinhua reported. McGoldrick also lauded the coalition's approval to move four cranes to Hudaydah Port to enhance its capacity and allow for faster off-loading of vessels, said the spokesman. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 13 vessels have delivered food and much-needed fuel through Hudaydah and Saleef since December 20, 2017, when the Saudi-led coalition announced that it would keep the two ports open for a period of one month for both humanitarian and commercial cargo. More deliveries are in the pipeline, according to OCHA. A total of 22 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance. Over 70 per cent of them live in proximity to the Hudaydah and Saleef ports. The Saudi-led coalition, which is fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen, sealed off land, sea and air access to Yemen in November 2017 after Houthi rebels launched a missile at the Saudi capital of Riyadh. The missile was intercepted. The blockade was partially lifted later, but shipment of humanitarian supplies kept being affected. Yemen has been in civil war since 2015, pitting Houthi forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. In December 2017, conflict erupted between Houthi rebels and Saleh supporters, leading to the killing of Saleh. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US is planning to reimpose sanctions on Iran, an official said ahead of President Donald Trump's decision on sanctions relief on Tehran under the 2015 nuclear deal. "I am expecting new sanctions on Iran. We continue to look at them. We've rolled them out," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters on Thursday at a White House briefing. Mnuchin's remarks came as the world was waiting for Trump to decide if he would reimpose sanctions on Iran, a move that might endanger the landmark Iran nuclear deal. Trump's decision was expected to be made at a Thursday meeting, Xinhua quoted US State Department spokesperson Stephen Goldstein as saying. "I'm not sure when the announcement will be, whether it will be tonight, or whether it will be tomorrow. But we do expect a decision to be made later today," Goldstein told reporters. In a telephone conversation with Trump on Thursday, French President Emmanuel 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," said the Elysee Palace. In July 2015, after a decade of strenuous negotiations, Iran and six major countries -- China, Russia, Britain, France, the US and Germany, struck a final agreement on Iran's controversial nuclear program, in which the West promised to relieve sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt in Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. However, as one of the most significant diplomatic legacies of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, the hard-won nuclear deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has been running the gauntlet of Trump on his campaign trail and since he became president. In October, Trump announced that he had decided to decertify Iran's compliance with the pact. His move triggered a 60-day window for Congress to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran. Reimposing sanctions would mean violating the Iran nuclear deal on the US side. The Congress did not come up with any resolution, thus passing the ball back to Trump, who should decide on Friday if he would like to waive energy sanctions on Iran. Despite the Iran nuclear deal, the US has kept on slapping separate sanctions on Iran, accusing the country of having a ballistic missiles program as well as human rights abuses. --IANS in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A private school in Wisconsin in the US has apologized for asking Class 4 students to list "three good reasons for slavery and three bad reasons". Trameka Brown-Berry, an African American mother, posted a picture on Facebook early this week showing the assignment her son was working on, Xinhua news agency reported. She asked: "Does anyone else find my 4th grader's homework offensive?" Romana Gem, who also found the assignment disturbing, added in her post: "Would you give children an assignment asking 'good' reasons for the Holocaust?" Our Redeemer Lutheran School in Wauwatosa reacted quickly, according to Brown-Berry, with a prompt apology from the principal who admitted that the assignment "showed a lack of sensitivity" and was offensive. In the letter of apology, the principal said the school had removed the assignment and promised to send home information prior to any sensitive topics being discussed. --IANS in/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The two-day 'Kerala Loka Sabha' that started here on Friday could well be an engine for the future growth of the state, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said inaugurating the first-of-its-kind event. Held at the banquet hall of the state assembly, the event resembled a legislature in session. There were 351 members, including 141 legislators, parliament members from the state and some 130 selected representatives of Kerala-based organisations from within and outside the country, taking part in the event. Vijayan said: "This is the first event of its kind to be held in the country. This would be held once in two years. "The discussions and deliberations that take place in the next two days, could well be an engine for the future growth of Kerala. "This sabha could be the vital link..., as all through the past several decades, the contribution of the Kerala diaspora through their remittances turned out to be the lifeline for the state. However, he said they had no avenue to air their views and it's here that this Sabha will come useful," said Vijayan. Vijayan assured the gathering that all the discussions and debates that would take place in the event would be taken forward to its logical conclusion. "For this to become an effective event, the parliament members from here should take them forward and seek the Centre's participation... The state alone will not be able to do it," added Vijayan. Kerala Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan and a panel of seven members are coordinating the two-day event which includes panel discussions on Kerala's economy. The deliberations and recommendations would be documented and serve as a ready reckoner when it comes to formulating decisions concerning the diaspora, it was said. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson P.J.Kurian congratulated the Vijayan government for holding the event. However, state BJP chief Kummanem Rajasekheran shot it down and said this was nothing but a meeting of "representatives of the CPI-M party who have their organisations abroad". "This can be said as a meeting of CPI-M well wishers as several respectable organisations from abroad who have been working among the Kerala diaspora has been left out. "Moreover it should be noted that a few of the selected representatives have even cases registered against them by the CBI," said Rajasekheran. Two members from Melbourne were found protesting in front of the state secretariat as they claimed their "very respectable and decades old Kerala diaspora organisation was not included". "We only want to highlight that the selection process was faulty and we want it to be rectified," said Thiruvallam Bhasi and Varghese John . --IANS sg/in/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Upset over lack of development, a group of villagers on Friday stoned Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's convoy in Buxar district, injuring nearly a dozen security personnel, an official said. The incident occurred in Nandan village during Nitish Kumar's ongoing 'Samiksha Yatra'. "Nearly a dozen police officials were injured and windscreens of several vehicles damaged in the attack," a district official told IANS from Buxar, about 125 km from Patna. However, a district police official denied the vehicles were attacked or damaged. But he admitted that Nitish Kumar was safe after being "rescued by security personnel". According to police, when Nitish Kumar was passing through the village, some people urged him to visit the area inhabited by Dalits which they claimed was neglected. But the Chief Minister ignored the plea, angering the villagers who attacked his convoy. Some youths also shouted slogans against Nitish Kumar. --IANS ik/tsb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 27-year-old British woman was arrested on Friday at the Heathrow Airport on suspicion of "preparing for terrorist acts", police said. Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command arrested the woman, who arrived on a flight from Addis Ababa, under section 5 of the Terrorist Act 2006, Metro.co.uk reported. "She was detained under PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act) and taken to a south London police station, where she currently remains in police custody," police said. --IANS him/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a probe into Special CBI Court Judge Shivpal Singh's allegations about receiving calls from Lalu Prasad's men, in connection with his conviction in the fodder scam case. Yogi on Wednesday ordered Jhansi Commissioner, Amit Gupta to probe the matter and sought a report at the earliest, after the District Magistrate of Jalaun district, Mannan Akhtar -one of the men named by Singh- denied calling him. "I never talked to him (Shivpal Singh) over the phone. He must issue a statement if it happened. On the date mentioned in reports, I was in my hometown in Assam, on a leave", Akhtar told media. Reports in a section of the media have alleged that District Magistrate (DM) Mannan Akhtar and Sub-Divisional Magistrate Bhairpal Singh of Jalaun had called up CBI Special Judge Shivpal Singh to seek favours for the RJD chief in the fodder scam case. During the proceedings of the case in Ranchi on January 4, the CBI judge had also stated "Laluji, we are getting a lot of references and calls for you" without naming the people who had called him up. Prasad was later awarded a sentence of three-and-a-half years in jail and a fine of Rs 5 lakh. However, DM Akhtar refuting the allegations, said, "I never spoke to CBI Special Judge Shivpal Singh over 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 level such serious allegations without any evidence? I belong to Assam and am working in Uttar Pradesh. I have no connection of any kind with Laluji," he said. A 2011-batch IAS officer, Akhtar became Jalaun DM in September last year. During the hearing to pronounce the quantum of sentence on January 4, Special Ranchi Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court judge Shivpal Singh alleged that he got phone calls from Lalu Prasad's men, in connection with his conviction in the case, and added that he would take the decision in compliance with the law. The RJD chief, along with 14 others, was found guilty by the court, while seven accused, including former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, were acquitted, on December 23. On January 6, Lalu was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail. Sixteen ministers belonging to Nepal's CPN (MC) today resigned from the cabinet following a decision by the ruling party. The move came nearly three months after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba stripped of their portfolios after the party forged an electoral alliance with the CPN-UML in the recently held federal and provincial assembly elections. The Left alliance of CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) had secured 174 seats in the 275-member Parliament in the recently-concluded historic polls that many hope will bring much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation. Former health minister Girirajmani Pokharel submitted the resignation of all the ministers -- 10 union and six ministers of state -- from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. The party had refused to quit the government even after siding with the opposition CPN-UML before the polls. The CPN (MC) had been criticised for sticking to power and enjoying ministerial perks even as they were stripped of their ministerial responsibilities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Police today arrested two drug peddlers, including a proclaimed offender, from different locations here and seized intoxicants and illicit liquor. The proclaimed offender (PO), Hardip Singh alias Monu, a resident of Khera road, was arrested by a patrolling team near Navi Abadi Narangshapur last night, the police said, adding 12 intoxicant injections were recovered from him. Monu, was declared a proclaimed offender in a 2009 criminal case, they said. In the second case, Anil Kumar alias Kabuttar of Onkar Nagar was arrested last night in the same locality with nine bottles of illicit liquor, they said. Police is investigating both the cases, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Eleven-year-old Moshe Holtzberg will visit the Chabad House in Mumbai next week, where his parents were killed in the 26/11 terror attacks, and attend a ceremony there with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's envoy to India Daniel Carmon said today. Moshe was two-year-old when his parents, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who were serving as Directors at Chabad House, were killed along with six others when the place was attacked by Pakistani terrorists during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. The attack on Chabad House and other locations like the Taj Hotel left 166 people dead. Moshe was rescued by his nanny and he later moved to Israel, where he stays with his grandparents. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Israel in July last year, had invited Moshe to Mumbai. "He (Moshe) will be accompanying the prime minister (Netanyahu) and there will be a ceremony in Chabad House in Mumbai. There might be other elements of participation of Moshe who has gone through a terrible tragedy and his coming here," Carmon said. There could be a few more elements to Moshe's visit, Carmon added but did not elaborate on it further. The Israeli envoy noted that the 26/11 terror attack was a terrible attack not only against India, but also against Jews and Israelis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A total 27,842 youths today got appointment orders in Jharkhand as the state marked the anniversary of Swami Vivekanand. The state has made a commitment to eradicate employment. It is a historic moment that more than 27,000 youth have got jobs in private sectors, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said while addressing Skill Summit at the Khelgaon complex here. He asked the newly appointed youth to work with dedication and highlight Jharkhands name. "Seeing the enthusiasm of the youth, nobody can block the youth from moving forwardour government has pledged to give employment to 25,000 and it has kept its promise," an official release said quoting Das. Jharkhand is participating directly in Prime Minister Narendra Modis dream of making a new India, Das said. At a time when the world is facing unemployment problem, Das said Jharkhand, with its team work, has provided employment. "Today we can say with pride that if anyone wants to see jobs/development then come to Jharkhand," the chief minister said. Saying that the Prime Minister desired to make the country skilled India, Das said a skilled force is being developed in Jharkhand, who will attract the people of the country and abroad. The state government has decided to make the youth of Jharkhand skilled at a cost of Rs 700 crore, he said. Stating that the country would be in the bracket of developed countries in the coming years, the chief minister said Videsh Bhavan would be constructed in Ranchi soon, and the youth would go to foreign countries through government recognized agencies. Das said one lakh jobs would be given next year, adding the government would give five lakh rupees in grant if there is any accident outside state. Speaking on the occasion, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, Jharkhands work is at its peak and reflects a cautious and responsible government. He said he came to know that mega skill development centres would be set up in all the 24 districts of Jharkhand, adding this is a visionary thought and Jharkhand will move far ahead. Pradhan said that it was the responsibility of everyone to give facilities to the youth and the generation next. And skill development has an important role in it. He lauded the Raghubar Das government for giving so many jobs in his three years of rule. Pradhan said that very soon pipe line gas in Jharkhand would begin. Automotive companies would come if natural gas comes, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three alleged arms suppliers have been arrested with six firearms including a US made Glock pistol, from west Delhi's Paschim Puri, police said today. Acting on a tip-off, a team of Crime Branch arrested Prateek Shaukeen (36), Waseem (28), and Lalit Kumar (43), in Paschim Puri last evening, DCP(Crime) Joy Tirkey said. On checking, a US-made Glock pistol along with 10 live cartridges were found in Prateek's possession. Waseem was carrying a 7.65 bore pistol with two live rounds while Lalit was carrying a 7.65 bore pistol with two live rounds, he said. On searching their car, three more firearms were found in the boot, Tirkey said. Thirty-five live cartridges of 9 mm bore were also recovered in a bag from the car that belonged to Prateek, he said. Prateek, a Delhi University graduate, used to procure illegal firearms from Meerut. He tapped the illegal firearms market there through Waseem and used to sell to customers arranged by Lalit, the DCP said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jammu and Kashmir government today said 51 people were killed and over 9,000 injured, including over 6,000 due to pellets, during the eight months- long unrest in Kashmir after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in 2016. In a written reply to the question of a National Conference MLA in the state Assembly, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said 51 people were killed in Kashmir division from July 8, 2016 to February 27, 2017in the unrest. She said 9,042 people were injured in firing of bullets, pellets, pava-shells and others during the period. Of these, 6,221 were injured due to pellets, 368 due to bullets, four due to pava shells and 2,449 suffered other injuries, she said. As many as 782 suffered eye injuries of which 510 were hospitalised, she said, adding that 5,197 cases of pellet injuries were treated at district hospitals and the rest were referred to super speciality hospitals. The highest number of deaths--16--took place in Anantnag district followed by 13 in Kulgam district, 7 in Pulwama and 5 in Kupwara, Mufti added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir have been strongly retaliating to Pakistan's ceasefire violations and the aim has been to inflict pain on Pakistan Army to make it realise the cost of its support to terror groups, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said today. He said terrorists in Pakistan are "disposable commodity" and Indian Army has been focusing on punishing Pakistan Army posts which often provide cover fire to push terrorists into India. "Our approach has been to ensure that Pakistan Army feels the pain," he told a press conference, adding the Pakistani side has been feeling the pressure of India's aggressive retaliation. He said Indian Army has been targeting Pakistan posts which support terrorists to infiltrate into India, adding Pakistan has been calling for de-escalating the situation. "Unless Pakistan Army feels the pain, it would continue to send terrorists who are disposable commodities for them. We will continue to destroy the Pak posts pushing the terrorists into India. Pakistan has suffered three-four times higher casualties due to the retaliatory fire," he said. Gen Rawat said South Kashmir was focus of the Army's counter-terror operations after killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in 2016. But now, the focus will be shifted to areas in North Kashmir, he said. He also said that the Army can call Pakistan's nuclear bluff. "We will call the bluff. If we will have to really confront the Pakistanis, and a task is given to us and the country gives us a task, we are not going to say that we cannot cross the border because they have nuclear weapons. We will have to call their nuclear bluff," he said. The Army Chief also said it would be premature to assess the impact of US President Donald Trump's decision to put pressure on Pakistan to act against terror groups operating from its soil. He said India will have to continue its policy of dealing sternly with cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, notwithstanding the pressure on Pakistan by the US. "It would be premature to talk about what is going to be ultimate impact of this pressure on Pakistan. I think we should wait and watch," he said. On January 1, President Trump had accused Pakistan of giving nothing to the US but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists in return for USD 33 billion aid over the last 15 years, seen as a major policy initiative to pile up pressure on Islamabad to contain terror groups operating from Pakistan's soil. "I do not think everything is going to be hunky-dory and Pakistan is going to be isolated and it is going to be declared a terrorist state. There are compulsions on the US also to maintain a kind of a relationship with Pakistan and Pakistan understands it," Gen Rawat said. At the same time, he observed that Pakistan has felt the pressure for its "religious intolerance". "It is a step by step process. It is too premature to say that everything is going to be in our favour and the US will do our job," the Army chief said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Air India is set to take the delivery of the first of the two B777 aircraft, which will be used to fly the VVIPs, on January 24. A team of pilots along with some senior ministry officials will be flying to the Seattle facility of plane maker Boeing via San Francisco on January 20 for this purpose, an airline source close to the development told PTI. The induction of the two Boeing 777-300ERs will replace the over 25-year-old jumbo jets, B747-400s - which are currently used to ferry president, vice president and prime minister. The new aircraft, however, will be put to use only around July-August as the planes will immediately be sent back to the US for retrofit after the completion of registration formalities, the source said. The retrofitting is expected to cost the nation around over Rs 1,100 crore. "A team comprising four pilots -- two senior commanders and two first officers -- along with some senior ministry officials will leave for San Francisco on January 20 from where they will fly to Seattle," the source said. They will fly back on 24 after taking the delivery and the new aircraft will arrive here on the eve of the Republic Day, the source said. In 2006, Air India had placed orders with Boeing for 68 aircraft -- 27 Dreamliners, 15 B777-300 ERs, eight B777-200 LRs and 18 B737-800s. Of these, the state-run carrier has already taken the delivery of 65 planes, including 12 B777-300ERs. Delivery of the remaining three B777-300 ERs is scheduled for next month, with two of them to be handed over to the disinvestment-bound carrier this month itself. "These planes, however, will go back to the US for modification, which will take at least six months to complete," the source said. Air India has tied up with the UAE-based First Abu Dhabi Bank as well as Standard Chartered Bank and Mashreq Bank for short-term loans to finance these planes. Last month, the airline had also floated tenders for securing loans worth over Rs 1,100 crore for their modification. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A top state tax official was today nabbed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 25 lakh, and accepting Rs 23.20 lakh, from the employee of a multinational company here. Andhra Pradesh ACB Director-General RP Thakur said that State Tax Additional Commissioner U Yedukondalu was nabbed from the latter's chamber in the Tax Commissionerate office in Edupugallu in Krishna district today evening. Thakur said that Yedukondalu had agreed to settle an input tax credit refund of Rs 4.60 crore of the MNC and in return had demanded Rs 25 lakh as gratification. A trap was laid and the official was nabbed as he accepted Rs 23.20 lakh, Thakur said. He added that office superintendent Gopala Sarma and an MNC employee Sathya Narayana were also caught during the trap. A case has been registered and further investigations were underway, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Social media and government schools in Jammu and Kashmir are spreading a "disinformation campaign" resulting in radicalisation of youth, Army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat claimed today, and called for "some control" over mosques and madrasas in the state. He said a "major revamp" of the system was needed in the state to deal with the problem. Rawat said the issue of exercising some amount of control over mosques and madrasas to check the flow of disinformation was being looked into. Addressing a press conference on the eve of the Army Day, Rawat said each classroom in government schools in Jammu and Kashmir has a separate map of the state besides that of India which sowed the seeds of thought of some kind of "separate identity" among the children. "The damage done to us is through the social media. A very large amount of disinformation campaign is being spread in Jammu and Kashmir which is radicalising the youths through the social media and through the schools," he said. "The other issue is the madrasas and masjids -- what is being informed to them (the students) or incorrectly informed to them is through the madrasas and masjids. I think some controls have to be exercised there and that is what we are looking at." He, however, did not elaborate on what kind of control he was suggesting over such institutions. Rawat also suggested that some stone throwers in Kashmir were youth from government schools, and stressed on the need to reform the system. "If you go to any Kashmir school, You will find two maps -- one is the map of India and one is the map of Jammu and Kashmir. There are always two maps in every classroom. Why should there be a map of Jammu and Kashmir. If you are putting a map of Jammu and Kashmir, then you may as well put map of every state. "What does it mean to children that I am part of the country but I also have a separate identity. So, the basic, grassroots problem lies here is the way the in Jammu and Kashmir in government school has been corrupted," said Rawat. He said students from schools like DPS were not found involved in activities like stone-pelting, and added that is why the 'goodwill schools' run by the Army are accorded higher status. The Army chief noted opening more public schools, more CBSE schools, was the way forward. "In the schools in Kashmir -- the government schools -- what is being taught. I will only be happy if you can visit some of the schools and attend the classes and see what is being taught," Rawat said, without elaborating. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi today greeted the people of Assam on the occasion of Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu. "Bihu symbolizes the spirit of integrity, brotherhood and camaraderie amongst all irrespective of their caste, creed, religion or language. "It is a festival of community feasting and symbolises love and mutual respect", the Governor said in a message here. The spontaneous celebrations of the Bhogali Bihu by people transcending all social barriers symbolize the spirit of unity amidst diversity, he added. "On the happy occasion of Bhogali Bihu, I appeal to the people of Assam to strengthen their bond of unity and bonhomie by spreading the message of love and mutual reverence and harmonious co-existence throughout the state," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Accused Bangladeshi bomber Akayed Ullah has pleaded not guilty to the charges of detonating a homemade explosive device at a busy transit hub in New York City last month. Ullah, 27, faces a litany of charges in the December 11 bombing in an underground walkway connecting two subway lines beneath the Port Authority Bus terminal. When Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Sullivan asked Ullah his plea, he replied, "At this moment, not guilty." This was his first appearance before a New York court. Days after his arrest he had appeared through video conference. Ullah faces life in prison if convicted of the attack that injured five persons. He was also injured in the explosion, and has been in federal custody since his arrest. On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted Ullah 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 ISIS-inspired violence to American soil," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente. Authorities said the explosion was an isolated attempted terrorist attack. Ullah posted on Facebook earlier in the day of the attack, "Trump you failed to protect your nation," according to a criminal complaint. He is expected back in court on April 13 for a status conference. 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Bangladeshi immigrant still recovering from injuries suffered in the failed pipe bombing of the New York subway system has pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges. Akayed Ullah entered the plea today after he was indicted a day earlier on charges he provided material support to a terrorist organisation and used a weapon of mass destruction. Ullah was the only person seriously hurt on December 11 when the bomb went off in a corridor linking the subway to Manhattan's Port Authority bus terminal. Authorities said Ullah taunted President Donald Trump on Facebook before the attack. The president later demanded tightened immigration rules. Prosecutors say Ullah wanted to cause carnage to avenge US aggression toward the Islamic State group. The pipe bomb never fully exploded. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 100 overseas delegates from 30 countries, are expected to converge to the city at the 'Destination East' tourism summit from January 18. Announcing this here today, the state's Principal Secretary of Tourism Atri Bhattacharya said that the two-day event would come up at the newly-built convention centre at Rajarhat, New Town, on January 18 and 19. Fourteen delegates from the US, 12 from the UK and 12 from Russia are expected to attend the event, among others. The 8th edition of the event will be jointly organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Tourism Department of the state government, he said. Bhattacharya also said that through the event, the state was keen to showcase many tourism destinations in Bengal to the international tour operators. "We also aim to showcase Gajoldoba in North Bengal among others as a potential tourism destination. There is also an event lined up at Gazoldoba," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Family members of Bilal Ahmad Kawa, who was arrested on charges of involvement in the 2000 Red Fort attack, today claimed he was innocent and had been framed. "He was ill. His brother asked him to undergo a health check-up in Delhi. He was not involved in anything... He has been framed," Fatima, Kawa's mother, told reporters at the Press Enclave here. She said Kawa was not on the run and he made frequent business-related trips to Delhi. He booked tickets using his Aadhaar card, Fatima claimed. "He would not have done it if he was a militant? Would the government give an Aadhaar card to a militant?" she asked. Protesting Kawa's arrest, the family and their neighbours demanded that he be released immediately. The 37-year-old Kawa, suspected to be linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, was arrested from the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday evening. He had been declared a proclaimed offender in the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajasthan Congress today accused the government of disturbing brotherhood and harmony in the state. While addressing an election rally in Ajmer Lok Sabha constituency, Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot said, "The dissatisfaction and distrust in the people of the state for the BJP government has increased to an extent that they are counting the days for the liberation from the autocratic BJP government." The BJP government in the state has worked to disturb brotherhood and harmony and was trying to score its political interest, Pilot said. He said that two people were killed in a week in Jaipur, but the police-administration has failed to arrest the criminals. Corruption, crime and women harassment are at peak in the last four years, he added. He also alleged that the government forced the farmers to commit suicide and was turning its back on the promise of crop loan waiver. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP and Trinamoool Congress (TMC) activists today clashed outside the saffron party's headquarters here and at another place in the city in which several workers of both the parties were injured, the police said. The attack outside the BJP headquarters prompted the party's West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh to demand President's Rule in the state with he alleging that law and order had gone for a toss. The clash ensued when sloganeering TMC workers allegedly pelted stones at the BJP headquarters around 10.30 am. Several people were injured in the clash, the police said. The vehicle of Calcutta High Court-appointed Special Officer Rabishankar Dutta was damaged in the violence, they said. Dutta later informed the court that his vehicle's windscreen and a sidescreen were smashed when 20 to 25 men near Mohammed Ali Park suddenly started throwing stones and glass bottles at it. The police said that a huge police contingent was rushed to the spot and the situation was brought under control. Ghosh alleged, "Stones were pelted at our party office and cars parked outside. More than 10 workers of our party suffered severe injuries." "Is this democracy? The law and order situation has completely broken down. Only President's Rule can bring back the rule of law in the state," he said. However, TMC minister Partha Chatterjee rubbished the allegations and said that the BJP was engineering violence to disturb the peace and stability of the state. "TMC activists were attacked by the BJP. Our party will never allow a communal force like the BJP to disturb the peace prevailing in the state. They are doing it to make their presence felt," he said. TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee also condemned the violence and accused the BJP of letting loose a reign of terror just for making it to the front pages of newspapers. Another clash occurred between workers of the parties at the Jorabagan area in central Kolkata over a motorcycle rally by the BJP's youth wing to mark the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanada. The party claimed that Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) state president Debjit Sarkar was injured in the clash and was hospitalised. The BJP staged a sit-in at the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road wearing black bands on their faces to protest against the alleged attack. The state BJP president along with Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and other senior party leaders were present at the demonstration. The BJP has decided to put on hold the BJYM's motorcycle rally that started in Contai, in the southern part of the state, and was scheduled to end on January 18 in Coochbehar in the north. The party said its was tough to carry on with the programme in the present circumstances. "We have decided to put an hold on the rally, we will take a call within next two days. We don't have faith on state police. We want the rally to be organised under the protection of central forces," Ghosh said. The Calcutta High Court has directed that the BJYM's rally be stopped for two days and recommence from January 15, following the mob attack on it here. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice A Banerjee directed that further movement of the rally be postponed till January 15 and would end at Coochbehar on January 20, two days after the original schedule. Ghosh claimed that Union minister Nitin Gadkari has decided not to attend the upcoming Bengal Global Business Summit 2018 in view of the "brutal attack" on BJP workers. BJP sources said that party president Amit Shah spoke to Ghosh and inquired about the incident. A BJP delegation later met state governor K N Tripathi and complained about the incident. The party has also decided to organise a demostration outside all police stations in the state tomorrow. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several people were injured after clashes broke out between BJP and Trinamool Congress activists outside the former's headquarters here and at another place in the city this morning, the police said. The attack outside the BJP headquarters prompted the party's West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh to demand President's Rule in the state with he alleging that law and order had gone for a toss. Sloganeering, TMC workers allegedly pelted stones at the BJP headquarters around 10.30 am and in the ensuing clash, several people were injured. "Stones were pelted at our party office and cars parked outside. More than 10 BJP workers suffered severe injuries," Ghosh said. Police sources said that a huge police contingent was rushed to the spot and the situation was brought under control. "Is this democracy? The law and order situation has completely broken down. Only President's Rule can bring back the rule of law in the state," Ghosh said. However, TMC minister Shashi Panja alleged that the BJP was using violence to disturb the peace and stability of the state. "TMC activists were attacked by the BJP. Our party will never allow a communal force such as the BJP to disturb the peace prevailing in the state," she said. An hour before this, a clash had occurred between workers of the parties at the Jorabagan area in central Kolkata over a motorcycle rally by the BJP's youth wing to mark the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanada. The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) has embarked on an eight-day motorbike rally which started from Contai, in the southern part of the state, to Coochbehar in the north where it is scheduled to end on January 18. BJP leader and councillor Minadevi Purohit said, "TMC activists attacked our party workers and assaulted them brutally." The BJYM alleged that they were attacked by TMC "goons" when they were trying to take out a rally from the Jorabagan area. Local TMC MLA Smita Bakshi denied the allegations and said those "who were trying to gain a foothold in Bengal are behind the violence". TMC leaders alleged that the clash occurred after BJP activists misbehaved with local women and hurled abuses against its leadership. A BJP delegation will meet Governor K N Tripathi this evening and lodge a complaint about the incidents, party sources said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bus services returned to normal in Tamil Nadu today after transport workers withdrew their eight- day old strike over wage related issues. In a huge relief to the public, especially ahead of the harvest festival "Pongal" falling on January 14, buses were seen plying normally on roads since this morning. The government has declared a holiday today for schools and colleges in view of Pongal, resulting in five-day holidays for students. CITU leader A Soundarrajan had last night announced that the indefinite strike was being "temporarily" called off, shortly after the Madras High Court appointed an arbitrator to settle their wage dispute with the government. "The strike is being temporarily withdrawn keeping in mind the welfare of the people of the state," he had said, adding that workers would resume work from this morning. Workers of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), owing allegiance to 17 trade unions, including those affiliated to the DMK and Left parties, had launched the strike on January 4 following failure of talks with the government on wage revision. While the unions wanted a 2.57 times hike, the government offered only 2.44, resulting in the stalemate. The workers struck work citing other demands also like pending dues for serving and retired personnel. The strike had severely crippled the public sector bus services causing immense hardship to the public, including office-goers in cities, though the government tried to maintain services by roping in temporary drivers and private buses. The AIADMK-backed union, besides some others, had not participated in the protests. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today questioned Rajasthan police officials in connection to the alleged fake encounter of gangster Anand Pal Singh, an official said. Two teams led by additional superintendent of police (ASP) Sunil Singh Rawat inquired the officials for more than two hours in Churu and Malasar of Ratangarh town in Churu district where the encounter took place, a top police official said. Singh was killed on June 24 last year in a police encounter. Several groups -- especially from the Rajput community to which Singh belonged -- came out in protest claiming it was a staged encounter. Amid the protests, the Rajasthan government recommended CBI probe into the encounter. The agency took over the probe on January 6 and registered three FIRs on the instructions of the Centre which had forwarded these cases to the agency. The FIRs pertain to the alleged fake encounter, the violent protests that followed and the death of a person, believed to be witness to the encounter, in the police firing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China has beefed up border security in the volatile Uyghur Muslim-majority Xinjiang province to counter terrorists returning from Syria following the defeat of the Islamic State terror group, a military officer said. China has deployed large number of security forces in Xinjiang bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Kyrgyzstan to deal with the separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) which was blamed for a host of violent attacks in the province and other parts of China in the past few years. A number of Uyghur youth reported to have joined the IS in Syria to undergo training and China apprehends that they would return to stage attacks in Xinjiang. Up to 5,000 ethnic Uyghurs from Xinjiang were fighting in Syria, Syria's ambassador in Beijing, Imad Moustapha was quoted as saying last year. "The control and management of immigration at border areas here has been strengthened in recent years," said a military officer of border defence in Xinjiang's Kashgar prefecture. Guard rails have been set up along the border to avoid terrorists sneaking into China, the officer was quoted as saying by the state-run Global Times. Also China has reported to have plans to set up a counter terrorism centre in Afghanistan to deal with return of Uygur militants but the Chinese Foreign Ministry declined to confirm it. "I have not heard of the information mentioned by you," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said here yesterday when asked about the proposal to set up the centre. During the past few years China has also been pressing Pakistan to launch a crackdown on training bases of the ETIM in the tribal areas. Earlier reports said China and Pakistan border police have launched joint patrols along the border to prevent infiltration by militants. China faced a "prominent" risk of a terror attack, said Ji Zhiye, head of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, at an international relations forum in Beijing last month, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. "The number of jihadists captured on China's borders (in 2017) was more than 10 times the number from the previous year," Ji said. An accurate count of IS jihadists coming to China could never be confirmed, said Li Shaoxian, head of the Arab research institute at Ningxia University in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. "But the situation has been harsher," Li said. Many terrorists do not conveniently choose to cross the border into Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, he warned. "They just fly to cities like Beijing and Shanghai with their Chinese passports, posing like any other citizen who comes back from another country, which makes counter-terrorism work more difficult," Li said. China has been trying to monitor and manage the terrorist threat, building an information system and contacts for counter-terrorism work, Li said. In September 2017, a division of the People's Liberation Army in Tumxuk near Kashgar installed 10 special security scanners at road security checkpoints. "Counter-terrorism work benefits the whole country and many European countries under threat of terrorism have also strengthened immigration monitoring and management," Li said. "It was therefore irrational for some western media or countries to misinterpret China's counter-terrorism efforts," he said. In March 2015, Zhang Chunxian, then party chief of Xinjiang, said authorities had broken up terror groups plotting violent attacks on Chinese soil after fighting in battles in Syria with IS. Xinjiang passed its own version of the counter-terrorism law in August 2016. The law is a supplement to the national counter-terrorism law approved in December 2015 to define terrorist activities and the corresponding punishment. The law added provisions, including one which states leaders of extremist groups will be placed in solitary confinement and another that recruiting people for terrorist activities would be considered an act of terrorism. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China's trade with North Korea plunged 50 per cent in December as UN sanctions imposed over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development tightened, the government reported today. China accounts for nearly all of the isolated North's trade and energy supplies. Beijing has imposed limits on oil sales and cut deeply into the North's foreign revenue by ordering North Korean businesses in China to close, sending home migrant workers and banning purchases of its coal, textiles, seafood and other exports. Imports from the North shrank 81.6 per cent to USD 54 million in December while exports to the isolated, impoverished country contracted 23.4 per cent to USD 260 million, said a spokesman for the Chinese customs agency, Huang Songping. The UN Security Council has steadily tightened trade restrictions as leader Kim Jong Un's government pressed ahead with nuclear and missile development in defiance of foreign pressure. Beijing was long Pyongyang's diplomatic protector but has supported the UN sanctions out of frustration with what Chinese leaders see as their neighbor's increasingly reckless behavior. Despite the loss of almost all trade, the impoverished North has pressed ahead with weapons development that Kim's regime sees as necessary for its survival in the face of US pressure. China has steadily increased economic pressure on Pyongyang while calling for dialogue to defuse the increasingly acrimonious dispute with US President Donald Trump's government. Analysts see North Korea's need for Chinese oil as the most powerful economic leverage against Pyongyang. But Chinese leaders have warned against taking drastic measures that might destabilize Kim's government or send a wave of refugees fleeing into China. Chinese leaders have resisted previous US demands for an outright oil embargo but went along with the latest limits. Under restrictions announced January 5, Chinese companies are allowed to export no more than 4 million barrels of oil and 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum products to the North per year. They are barred from supplying its military or weapons programs. Chinese officials complain their country bears the cost of enforcement, which they say has hurt businesses in its northeast. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Chinese University has sacked a prestigious professor after multiple women students accused him of sexually harassing them, according to a media report. Chen Xiaowu, professor at Beihang University, was stripped of his post as executive vice president with the university's Graduate School. His teaching certificate was also cancelled, the varsity said in a statement last last night. The university said that the decision was made after an investigation conducted by the school found that "Chen did sexually harass women students," state-run Xinhua agency reported. Chen is among a select few named Cheung Kong scholars by the Ministry. In early January, a former doctoral student of Chen, Luo Qianqian, posted a Weibo article accusing him of sexually harassing her and several other students. She wrote in her article that Chen tried to force himself on her after luring her to his sister's house more than 10 years ago. She eventually left unharmed after crying. Luo reached out to other victims and formed a WeChat group with them to share their experiences and collect evidence before submitting the evidence to the university. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Chinese professor has been sacked after a former woman student accused him of sexually harassing her, according to a media report. Chen Xiaowu, professor at Beihang University, was stripped of his post as executive vice president with the university's Graduate School. His teaching certificate was also cancelled, the varsity said last last night. The university said that the decision was made after an investigation conducted by the school found that "Chen did sexually harass women students," state-run Xinhua agency reported. In early January, a former doctoral student of Chen, Luo Qianqian, posted a Weibo article accusing him of sexually harassing her and several other students. She wrote in her article that Chen tried to force himself on her after luring her to his sister's house more than 10 years ago. She eventually left unharmed after crying. Luo reached out to other victims and formed a WeChat group with them to share their experiences and collect evidence before submitting the evidence to the university. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As the issue over notification on 351 roads in Delhi heats up, Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain today said the three municipal corporations will soon furnish necessary details to take the matter forward. The mayors of North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations agreed on this after meeting Jain here. "We have asked from the corporations proper paperwork to check compliance with the Master Plan of Delhi norms. I asked them to submit it in two days but they (mayors) said, they will submit it by January 22," the minister told reporters. The three civic bodies and the Delhi government have been engaged in a war of words over notification on 351 roads in the city for commercial or mixed-land use. Jain said, "The government wrote five times to the three civic bodies in the last two years but practically no response has been received from them." The minister yesterday had sent a letter, mentioning "lack of response" from them. The civic bodies have been saying that the notification has been "pending with the government". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today told a Delhi court that it would file a chargesheet against Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son-in-law and others within a week in a case of alleged terror-funding in the Kashmir Valley to fuel an unrest. It told the court that the investigation in the case against Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah, popularly known as Altaf Fantoosh, and others was at the concluding stage and that the evidence on record was being summed up. "The final report in the case will be filed shortly," the NIA is believed to have told the court during an in-chamber proceeding. The court allowed the agency's plea to extend by a week the judicial custody of eight accused persons -- Fantoosh, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Shahid-ul-Islam, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar and Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali. The NIA had earlier told the court that it had received information that Hafiz Saeed, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), and the separatists, including members of the Hurriyat Conference, were acting in connivance with banned outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Dukhtaran-e- Millat and others to raise and receive funds from inside and abroad through illegal channels, including hawala. The money was being raised to fund separatist and terrorist activities in restive Jammu and Kashmir, it had said. The agency had also alleged that the accused were involved in triggering an unrest in Jammu and Kashmir through anti-India demonstrations and bandhs. Shah was in the custody of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, which had put him under preventive detention immediately after Eid earlier this month. Geelani's close aides, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar and Peer Saifullah, were arrested by the NIA from the Valley. Shahid-ul-Islam is the spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of JuD, a front of the banned LeT, has been named in the FIR as an accused, besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference, HM and Dukhtaran-e-Millat. The houses of those arrested were raided by the NIA sleuths last month. The raids were a part of the agency's efforts at clamping down on the separatist groups allegedly receiving funds for carrying out subversive activities in the Valley. The NIA had claimed that it recovered accounts books, Rs two crore in cash and letterheads of banned terror groups, including those of the LeT and HM, during the raids. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Deepening of ties in vital areas of trade and defence, including a possible signing of a multi- million dollar Israeli anti-tank missile deal, are on the table during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visit, which comes days after India voted against Israel at the UN on the Jerusalem issue. Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon today down played India's stand at the UN General Assembly over the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in place of Tel Aviv, saying New Delhi's view "cannot influence" Indo-Israel ties. "I don't think it can influence the relationship. The relationship is much stronger than the one vote here and there," Carmon said, but maintained that it was "not a happy" situation when members of the international community did not vote in favour on the issue at the UN. The envoy also said that sometimes India comes with a request (at the UN) and sometimes Israel does. "We cannot always fulfil those requests and this is why we are two different countries," he told reporters here. India had last month joined 127 other countries to vote in the UNGA in favour of a resolution opposing the recent decision of US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Ahead of the visit, Netanyahu had 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 visited the Jewish state in July last year, becoming the first Indian premier to do so. Netanyahu will be in India on a six-day visit from January 14, during which he will hold comprehensive talks with Modi. The prime minister will also host a private dinner for the Israeli leader. During his stay, he will also visit Gujarat and Mumbai. Without confirming whether an agreement for Israeli Spike missiles will be signed during Netanyahu's visit, Carmon said the Spike project is an example of "Israel engaging in Make in India" because it can be implemented through partnership between an Israeli company and Indian firm. In November, the defence ministry had decided to retract from 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 government-to-government route. The envoy also referred to the personal equation between Modi and Natenyahu. He said the Indian prime minister will host Netanyahu in his home state and termed it as an "important gesture". On the strong bond between the two leaders which was driving the current Indo-Israeli ties, Carmon said the relationship between India and Israel is an "all-weather friendship". He also said in the case of Justice Dalveer Bhandari at the International Court of Justice, Israel not only supported the Indian candidate but it adopted, with four more countries, along with India, Bhandari's candidature. "Since we talk about democracies, similar values, similar challenges..., the relationship is so strong between both the countries that our feeling is (that) nothing can reverse it," he said. Touching upon the trade and business aspects of Netanyahu's visit, Carmon said a 130-strong delegation of businessmen involved in technologies related to agriculture, water, cyber, defence industries, food processing, will accompany the Israeli leader. Carmon said 11-year Moshe Holtzberg will also accompany Netanyahu and participate in a function at the Chabad House in Mumbai. Moshe's parents were killed in the 26/11 terror attack at the Chabad House. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court today asserted that detaining a patient in hospital over unpaid bills is illegal, and "every member of public" must be made aware of this. A bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre directed the health department of the Maharashtra government to publish on its website the legal rights of patients and the penal provisions that can be invoked against errant hospitals. "How can a hospital detain a person who is declared fit otherwise on the ground of non-payment of fees? Such hospital is curtailing the personal liberty of a person. "Every member of the public must be made aware that such action on the part of a hospital is illegal," the bench said. The bench, however, refused to issue any specific regulatory order against hospitals, saying it is government's job. "We can't commit a judicial overreach by issuing regulations on the issue. However, we must make it clear that we are sympathetic to the issue," it said. Opining that the government should formulate a mechanism to protect such patients and their families, the bench said hospitals can always resort to legal remedies to recover their dues. The high court was hearing a public interest litigation which cited two cases where patients were allegedly detained at private hospitals over disputed bills. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized foreign cigarettes worth Rs 60 lakh from a godown in Guntur, officials said. "Based on specific intelligence relating to smuggling of foreign-made cigarettes, officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Vijayawada, visited and verified a transport godown in Guntur on January 11," a DRI release said here. The DRI release added that the consignment was not covered by any GST (Goods and Services Tax) invoice or Customs documents showing duty payment or legal import into India. The foreign cigarettes were seized under provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, the DRI stated. Officials added that the Indian-made cigarettes in the consignment were handed over to Guntur GST Commissionerate for further investigation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With Delhi-NCR facing air pollution crisis, the ministry along with Delhi government and some agencies have decided to launch a clean air campaign in the national capital next month. Chairing a meeting on mitigating the problem of air pollution, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan today said the joint campaign will result in taking effective steps for alleviating pollution crisis and hoped that this will become a template which can be emulated throughout the year. The two-week long clean air campaign to be conducted jointly by the ministry along with the Delhi Government, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and other municipal agencies, will start from February 10. "The campaign seeks to sensitise ground-level functionaries and public to enforce the habit of environmental protection," Harsh Vardhan said. He said there will be a team of 70 officers, led jointly by one officer each from the Ministry and the Delhi government. These officers will be assisted by those from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi Pollution Control Committee and respective municipal corporations. He said Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), shopkeeper associations and the civil society will be encouraged to be a part of these teams and participate in the campaign. The teams will be provided with check-lists so that there is focused activity on mitigation of pollution, including effective measures for dust mitigation, solid waste management and prevention of garbage burning. "Centre & Delhi to jointly carry out 2 week campaign to combat #AirPollution in national capital, beginning Feb 10. "Seventy joint teams of officials will fan out to all the 70 assembly constituencies and inspect sources of air pollution and enforce punitive action against violators," Harsh Vardhan tweeted. Union Environment Secretary C K Mishra and Chief Secretary of Delhi Government Anshu Prakash were among those who attended the meeting. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis approved today the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the extension of Metro 4A project route from Kasarwadavali to Gaimukh in Thane district. The Metro 4A project, which is estimated to cost Rs 949 crore, will have two stations- Gowniwada and Gaimukh- on the extended route. The 2.7-kms extension will ensure that the entire Ghodbunder Road is connected by the Metro corridor till Gaimukh, an official said. This additional route is part of 32-km long Wadala- Ghatkopar-Mulund-Thane Kasarwadvali corridor. The route extension will add 1.5 lakh passengers, taking the total number of passengers to 8.7 lakh. Commuting between Thane and South Mumbai will be easier, the official added. The project is expected to be completed by March 2022. The DPR was approved by Fadnavis at the 144th meeting of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), where Maharashtra Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, Mumbai Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar and senior officials were present. Fadnavis also directed to complete the work for transport hub and logistic park at Bhiwandi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man has been arrested in connection with a fake rape case registered in the state against a Thane-based businessman in 2016, the Goa police said today. Suresh Thakkar alias Mahesh Tanna, an accused involved in the fake rape case registered against 56-year-old Kishor Keshwani, was apprehended at Goa airport yesterday while he was about to board a Delhi-bound flight, police said. Anjuna police, who are investigating the case, had arrested a 24-year-old Indore-based woman in connection with the case in May 2017. Thakkar is accused of assisting the woman in connection with the case, police said. "We received information from Anjuna police that the accused was likely to board a Delhi-bound flight. Accordingly, we kept a watch and apprehended him," inspector Shailesh Narvekar, attached to Goa airport police station, told reporters. He said the accused was handed over to Anjuna police, who took him into custody. A senior official from Anjuna police said the accused has been placed under arrest, while further probe into the case is on. The woman had filed a case against Keshwani in 2016, accusing him of raping her in a hotel in Goa. Thereafter, Keshwani had filed a case against the woman and eleven others for filing a case against him after levelling false allegations. He had claimed that the allegations against him were aimed at grabbing his property and extorting money from him as he was in Mumbai at the time of incident. Police said they had examined the CCTV footage of Keshwani's house at Ulhasnagar in Thane district of Maharashtra, which had verified his claim. His mobile phone records also indicated that he was in Mumbai when the incident was alleged to have taken place, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A family was taken hostage in Switzerland today to force the head of a precious metals company to hand over large amounts of gold, police said. The hostages were later released unharmed, while a manhunt was underway for the six hostage-takers in neighbouring France, the regional Neuchatel police said in a statement. "At dawn, six individuals took a family hostage in Chaux-de-Fonds," in western Switzerland, the statement said. Police spokesman Pierre-Louis Rochaix told AFP the family consisted of a father, mother and a child aged around 10. "They were taken hostage at their home," he said, adding that no physical violence appeared to have been used. The father, who heads precious metals company Cendror, was forced to go to his office to fetch "a large quantity of gold" and hand it over to the hostage-takers, the police statement said. The kidnappers had taken the family with them to an area called Biaufond, where they left them before heading towards the nearby French border. Once the police were notified, a "large contingent" was deployed, first in Switzerland and subsequently in France, where national police are searching for the perpetrators, the statement said. A Neuchatel prosecutor has opened criminal proceedings in the case, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A female professor has alleged that she was raped by her friend, who also filmed the incident and uploaded it on social media, the police said today. The incident took place on December 26 last year when Shubam Verma asked the victim to meet him at a guest house in Sector 26, on the pretext of marrying her the next day, they said. "The accused also made an MMS clip, and uploaded it on social media," a police official said. The woman, hailing from Rajasthan's Sikar district, is a professor at a medical college in Kanpur and was friends with Verma since college days. Verma, who was also a resident of Sikar, now works in the United States. He had come to India last month on a 15-day holiday, the official informed. A case has been registered, and while the woman has been sent for medical examination, police said probe has been launched to nab the accused. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) National award-winning filmmaker Suman Ghosh today said he has accepted the Censor Board's recommendation to remove the word 'Gujarat' from his documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen after consideration. The film 'The Argumentative Indian', which was shot in two parts in 2002 and 2017, has Sen talking about the social choice theory, development economics, philosophy, and the rise of right-wing nationalism across the world including in India. The Central Board of Film Certification, Kolkata, had, on July 11, asked Ghosh to cut or mute six parts (both words and phrases) - 'Gujarat', 'In India', 'Hindu', 'Cow', 'These days' and 'Hindutva' -- from the documentary for a 'U' certification. "I recognise that the decision (on removing the word 'Gujarat') is not the best but I strongly believe that the film should be shown to the public without further delay since beyond the controversies, which were rather unfortunate I have a larger point in the film which needs to be communicated," Ghosh told PTI from the US. Contesting over one word will further prolong the matter, as his previous experiences suggest, he said. "I remain disappointed by the fact that at the end an academician of the stature of Amartya Sen is being subjected to censorship in a democracy," Ghosh said. The filmmaker said ever since the CBFC letter reached him suggesting one cut in the documentary "I had given due thought and consideration to the proposed cut on using the word Gujarat as suggested by the Censor board." Joshi met CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi in Mumbai on January 4 this year -- six months since his appeal to the CBFC Review Committee and after two cancelled meetings in the intervening period. "It was a cordial meet and I got the impression that Joshi is an open-minded person and was ready to have a dialogue about the film," said Ghosh. Joshi and the CBFC team reduced the number of cuts to one -- the word 'Gujarat'. The filmmaker said he wanted the CBFC Review Committee to give an official reasoning for the proposed cut. "..so that a healthy and meaningful debate can take place in the public forum. In the absence of any such declaration I wish to abstain from any subsequent comment on the matter," Ghosh said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Following are the profiles of four senior most Supreme Court judges who, in an unprecendented move, today held a press conference and said that situation in top court was "not in order" and many "less than desirable" things have taken place. * Justice Jasti Chelameswar: He is the second senior most judge of the apex court after Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra. Justice Chelameswar had stoked controversy several times and was in the for not attending the collegium meetings on the appointment of judges for higher judiciary. He was also in the for the wrong reasons in November last year when a two-judge bench headed by him had ordered setting up of a five-judge bench of senior most judges of the court to hear pleas by an NGO and a lawyer, levelling serious allegations of bribes being taken in the names of judges to get favourable order in a medical college case. The order, which had brought to fore the tussle within the top judiciary, was overturned by a five-judge bench headed by the CJI which asserted that Chief Justice of India was the "master of the roster". Justice Chelameswar was the lone judge who had dissented when a five-judge bench had struck down the constitution amendment and held as unconstitutional the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act. He was part of the nine-judge constitution bench which had declared right to privacy as a fundamental right. Justice Chelameswar, who is set to retire as an apex court judge on June 22 this year, has also dealt with several important issues including Aadhaar and the JNU case which had witnessed violence inside the Patiala House Court complex here. * Justice Ranjan Gogoi: He is in line to become the next CJI after Justice Misra retires as CJI on October 2 this year. He would have a tenure as CJI till November 17, 2019. A bench headed by Justice Gogoi had last month directed that 12 special courts, to be set up to exclusively deal with cases involving lawmakers, should start functioning from March 1, 2018. Justice Gogoi-led bench had issued contempt notice to former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju for allegedly using "intemperate" language and "scandalising" the judiciary in one of his Facebook posts. Justice (retd) Katju had appeared before the apex court and tendered unconditional apology which was accepted by the bench. Justice Gogoi's bench, which is dealing with the issue of Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC), had directed for publication of the draft NRC in the state by December 31 last year. It had rapped Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal for his "intervention" in the process of publication of NRC. * Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur: He has been dealing with several important social issues like fake encounter killings in insurgency-hit Manipur, providing shelter to urban homeless, child marriage, prison reforms, uploading of sexual abuse videos on internet and a case related to destitute widows. Justice Lokur-led bench in October last year had passed a historic verdict criminalising sex with a wife who is not a major holding that sexual intercourse with a girl below 18 years of age, even by the husband, would now amount to rape. An order passed by Justice Lokur's bench temporarily lifting the stay and permitting sale of firecrackers in the Delhi-national capital region (NCR) before Diwali last year, had created a controversy. Later, another bench of the top court had held that firecrackers would not be sold in Delhi-NCR during Diwali. The bench headed by Justice Lokur, who is set to retire on December 30 this year, is also dealing with issues like air pollution and preservation of historic Taj Mahal. Justice Lokur was in the when he was replaced as the head of the Supreme Court's e-committee for digitisation of the courts across the country by then CJI T S Thakur. He had taken over as the e-committee head for the first time in 2012 and was replaced in 2016. Later, he was reinstated during the tenure of then CJI J S Khehar. * Justice Kurian Joseph: He was part of the five-judge constitution bench which by a majority of 3:2 had set aside the 1,400 year old practice of 'triple talaq' among Muslims. Justice Joseph, along with Justices R F Nariman and U U Lalit, had delivered the majority judgement in the triple talaq case in which the then CJI J S Khehar was in a minority. He had stoked controversy in April 2015 with his letter to then CJI H L Dattu opposing Chief Justice's conference being held on a Good Friday, a auspicious day for Christians. In another letter last year, Justice Jospeh had asked the Centre to consider revising leave travel concession (LTC) rules for judges of the apex court and granted them eight LTC in a year, instead of the present three. Similarly, he had written a letter in 2013 to the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court raising the issue of lack of amenities in children parks in the national capital. Justice Joseph is set to retire on November 29 this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four foreign tourists, including three Russian and a German, were seriously injured as their car collided with a stationary truck amid dense fog on the Agra Expressway, police said today. The accident took place last night in Araul when the tourists were on way to Kanpur from Agra after visiting the Taj Mahal. Ila Suyoto (25), a Russian, who was driving the car suffered a jaw fracture and was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) Hospital. The car going towards Kanpur rammed into a stationary truck from behind, Superintendent of Police (West), Gaurav Grover, said. All four tourists including Ila Suyoto, Ivan Milavett (26), Igor Bravoko (24) and German national, Nikita Rizovoki (25) sustained injuries and were taken to Community Health Centre (CHC), Billhaur from where they were shifted to LLR, he added. The foreigners had come to India on a tourist visa and landed in Delhi on January 7. They were scheduled to visit Kanpur today and then go to Varanasi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The number of women, who have accused James Franco of sexual misconduct has gone up to five, overshadowing his Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards wins. The allegations first surfaced when Franco won his maiden Golden Globe for "The Disaster Artist" where like many other stars in Hollywood, he showed up wearing the 'Time's Up' pin. The 'Time's Up' campaign was launched by powerful Hollywood women to fight against sexual harassment in wake of Harvey Weinstein scandal. "It (Time's Up pin on Franco) was like a slap in my face," Sarah Tither-Kaplan, a former acting student at the film school Franco founded, told the Los Angeles Times. Tither-Kaplan who went on to appear in several of his productions, is one of five women who have accused the 39- year-old actor of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behaviour. Of the five women, four were Franco's students from an acting school that he ran for a while. The fifth accuser called him her mentor. They said they thought Franco, who has substantial star power in Hollywood, could help them in their careers and acquiesced to his wishes even when they were uncomfortable. "I feel there was an abuse of power, and there was a culture of exploiting non-celebrity women, and a culture of women being replaceable," said Tither-Kaplan, who was one of many women who took to Twitter to criticise Franco's Globes win and his 'Time's Up' pin. Tither-Kaplan says a topless scene that filmed for a class assignment was uploaded to online video site Vimeo. Two other students said Franco became angry during a class assignment when no women, while at the shoot at a strip club, agreed to go topless. Franco's attorney, Michael Plonsker, denied the allegations against the actor, who had defended himself by calling the claims "not accurate" during an appearance on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert". Violet Paley, who was among the firsts to accuse Franco, said during a consensual relationship, he once pressured her to perform oral sex in a car and that the "power dynamic was really off." Franco told Colbert that while the allegations against him were not true, he does not want to shut them down in any way. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump is sending at least half a dozen of his cabinet members to participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos later this month. Trump, who is likely to advance his "America First" agenda with world leaders at this year's WEF, would be the first sitting US president to attend the high-profile summit since Bill Clinton in 2000. The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2018 would be held from January 23 to 26 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, under the theme 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'. Trump's itinerary has not been announced yet. In a statement, the White House said the delegation would be led by the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Among other members of the presidential delegation are the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Labour Secretary Alex Acosta, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and Kirtstjen Nielson, Secretary of Homeland Security. Other members of the delegation are Robert Lighthizer, United States Trade Representative; Thomas Bossert, presidential adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, USAID Administrator Mark Green; and Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner of Food and Drugs. Mnuchin told reporters at the White House conference he expects president Trump will talk about trade: reciprocal, free and fair trade. "We have obviously been very clear with the Chinese on the issue that we have with the trade deficit, making sure that US companies can compete fairly. "And the president will talk a lot about his economic program and the impact on the global economy," Mnuchin said. Later in a statement, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the official delegation would also include Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Adviser H R McMaster, and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said Assembly election in the state would be held in 2019 as per its schedule and the question of holding it this year does not arise. Haryana is fully ready for holding Vidhan Sabha election simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year, he claimed. "Assembly polls will be held in 2019 in Haryana as per its scheduled time... no question of holding the polls this year," Khattar told reporters here. On the proposed three-day visit of BJP president Amit Shah to Haryana fromFebruary 15, Khattar said the visit was finalised during his visit to Rohtak last year. Khattar said the BJP is strong at the grassroots level with 30 lakh members and 30,000 active workers in Haryana and the party's base would be strengthened further for the ensuing Assembly elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The hearing on the maintainability of a PIL, challenging the D.Litt bestowed on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by the Calcutta University (CU), was concluded in the Calcutta High Court today, a day after the honorary degree was conferred on the Trinamool Congress chief. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee reserved its order, which will be passed on a later date. Questioning the maintainability of the petition, state Advocate General Kishore Datta submitted that it was politically motivated and aimed at garnering media attention. Saktinath Mukherjee, the CU counsel, stated that the petition was not justiciable and that it should be rejected forthwith. In his submission, Mukherjee claimed that the CU senate was the final authority in deciding who would be an awardee and that anybody else was an outsider, having no authority to challenge the decision. He submitted before the court that the achievements and eminence of a person were reason enough for being chosen for the award. Petitioner Ranjugopal Mukherjee, a former professor of CU, had contended that the decision of the syndicate or senate did not attribute any reason for conferring the award on Banerjee and that it was arbitrary and opaque. Banerjee was conferred the honorary D.Litt by the 161- year-old university at its convocation yesterday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today said high level talks were on with 15 companies for attracting investment to the tune of about Rs 25,000 crore. Winding up the discussion in the state assembly on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address, he said such investment initiatives will be in place soon. As a mark of the trust reposed by large Indian companies and multi-national firms in Tamil Nadu, he listed projects that will soon be operational. He said such projects were being finalised. A Rs 5000 crore 'Ceat' tyre manufacturing facility and an extension project of Hyundai with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore besides a French company's car assembly-cum-Research and Development unit with an investment of Rs 3000 crore were among such projects on the pipeline, he said. The Business Facilitation Bill, to replace an ordinance in this regard and later adopted in the assembly, will further accelarate the investments, he noted. Following the success of a Global Investors Meet in 2015, he said arrangements were being made to hold a similar event towards the year end. The Chief Minister said people will never accept that Tamil Nadu government was being subservient to the Centre. DMK has been targeting the ruling AIADMK, saying it was being subservient to the Centre. Palaniswami listed his government taking a stand against the Centre on issues like hydro carbon projects in Tamil Nadu and against shifting of Central government institutions from the State. He also cited opposition to criminalisation of triple talaq, and the revamp of the Indian Medical Council. On the fiscal front, he said the government was managing well the fiscal deficit and the debt-to-GSDP ratio which is the yardstick for good fiscal management. Tackling the revenue deficit, salary hike has been given for government employees, he said. For the 2017-18 budget estimates, fiscal deficit is estimated to be at 2.79 per cent well within the 3 per cent threshold, he said. However, in some states like Madhya Pradesh it was 3.49 per cent as the Centre's fiscal deficit is estimated to be at 3.20 per cent. Hence, Tamil Nadu was managing its fiscal deficit comparatively well when compared to the Centre and other states, he claimed. The first Supplementary Estimates (Statement of Expenditure) for 2017-18 for Rs 6,522.03 crore was tabled and adopted by a voice vote. On local body polls in the state, he said based on recommendations of the Delimitation Commission on local bodies, the elections will soon be held. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and the UK can work together on manufacturing and developing global supply chains for the future and the services sector has a "huge" potential for several areas of collaboration, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said here today. Addressing an industry round-table co-organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Confederation of British Industry, UK India Business Council and the High Commission of India, the Commerce and Industry minister welcomed greater UK investments while sharing the latest economic developments and reforms underway in India. "The services sector presents huge potential with several areas of collaboration for India and the UK. The two countries could also work together on manufacturing, developing global supply chains for the future," he said. "Given the transformational nature of new and dynamic technologies, we must keep in view that disruptive change can also be constructive," he added. Prabhu asked investors to persistently work on their concerns to ensure an enabling environment. He said there were "significant" innovation opportunities that the two countries can leverage. "Artificial Intelligence, genomics, microbiomics, advanced materials and clean energy are transforming the future and how we look at business for addressing global, socio-economic challenges in India," he said. "With UK's prowess in the R&D ecosystem, there are significant innovation opportunities that the two countries can leverage," he said. India's UK High Commissioner Y K Sinha and several officials from the UK Government and British High Commission joined the discussion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Icy winds today swept across Uttar Pradesh pushing down the temperature below normal at a number of places in the state, the Met office said. Kanpur and Bareilly were among the coldest places in the state recording a low of 5 and 5.4 degrees Celsius respectively. The night temperature remained below normal in some parts of the state and dense to very dense fog engulfed Bahraich, Varanasi, Bareilly and Lucknow. In the state capital, the minimum temperature hovered around 7 degrees Celsius. In view of the intense cold conditions, the authorities here ordered to close schools till Monday. The Met has forecast dense fog at many places with very dense fog at a few places in eastern parts of the state over the next few days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cheering robust IIP numbers for November, India Inc today said the factory output data reflects higher growth rates in investment related categories such as capital goods and infrastructure. Further, industry experts are expecting the factory output growth to become more stronger in the coming quarters. Industrial production growth zoomed to a 17-month high of 8.4 per cent in November 2017. The industrial output, measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP), grew 5.1 per cent in November 2016, as per data released today by the Central Statistics Office. "This recovery is especially heartening since it reflects higher growth rates in investment related categories such as capital goods and infrastructure/ construction goods. These are also corroborated by other indicators such as the strong performance of the commercial vehicles sector and the pick in the growth rate of bank credit," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said. Manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the IIP, recorded an impressive growth of 10.2 per cent in November as compared to 4 per cent a year ago. PHD Chamber President Anil Khaitan said that as the teething problems of GST are almost over, the growth in industrial output has come with a strong rebound and it looks forward to the growth becoming stronger in the coming quarters. Assocham highlighted the need for creating conducive environment for investments and said it is extremely important for policy makers to create a stable economic environment in India through the upcoming budget. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An illegal arms supplier, carrying a reward of Rs one lakh on him, has been arrested with four pistols and 50 cartridges, the police said today. On a tip-off that Jeetu Sharma was making frequent trips to Delhi for supplying illegal arms and would meet a contact near Indraprastha bus stand for the purpose, a team of Delhi police's Special Cell officials was deployed, DCP (Special Cell) P S Kushwaha said. He was arrested with four .32 pistols and 50 live cartridges of the same bore, the officer said. According to Kushwaha, during interrogation, the accused revealed that he was supplying illegal arms for the last five years and so far sold more than 250 pistols in Delhi. In September last year, seven pistols sent by him through his carrier Kailash was seized by the special cell. Kailash was nabbed but Sharma went underground to evade arrest and a reward of Rs 1 lakh was announced for his arrest, the DCP said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) It was in 2001 that Egyptian photographer Ashraf Talaat visited India for the first time, and since then, he has made 16 trips to the country, making it almost an annual ritual. Having visited and taken pictures in 52 countries, Talaat says no country "inspired" him more than India. "India is the most inspiring country. I took so many photographs there...more than any other country," he says. The photographer, who works with the National Geographic Magazine, was speaking at a recently held seminar on the sidelines of an exhibition -- "Colours of India" at the Egyptian Centre for International Cultural Cooperation in Zamalek. "The north of India was a rich area for me as a photographer," said Talaat, whose photography expedition ranged across the colourful cities of Jodhpur and Jaipur in Rajasthan. The exhibition also features works by photographers Mona Abdel Karim, Ahmed Hayman and Ayman Gamal Eldin. While Abdel Karim captures moments of Indian cultural celebrations in different venues across Egypt, Hayman's pictures draw parallels between the lives on the streets of India and his homeland. Hayman who ventured into Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi, documented the quintessential elements of the bazaar like the spice market, and tuk-tuk drivers. With the wide range of subjects that the market has to offer, Hayman admits he was spoilt for choice. "It was a challenge to take pictures in India. Everything is worth a photograph... there are so many colours and characters. "I had to absorb everything and then decide what I wanted to photograph," the photojournalist said. Albeit Abdel Karim's collection is dominated by photographs clicked in Egypt, the editor of Sawtulhind magazine calls India a "heaven for photographers". "India has countless cultural colours as it features different art forms like dance, music and cinema. It is undoubtedly a heaven for photographers," she said. Eldin, founder of 'View finders photography club," however, chose to shine a light on the "essence" of the country's people and places by clicking India in monochrome. "It was a daring decision to take photos of the 'country of colours' in black and white," the freelance photographer said. Also attending the seminar was Sanjay Bhattacharya, India's Ambassador to Cairo, who called the show, "very exciting", as he praised the way the photographers reflected India in their works. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is committed to building strong foundations of cooperative partnership with Bhutan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said today, asserting that "exemplary" India-Bhutan ties are built on utmost trust, mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's interests. Swaraj, who along with her Bhutanese counterpart Lyonpo Damcho Dorji unveiled through videoconference a 'special logo' to mark the golden jubilee of diplomatic ties, called for renewed commitment and efforts from all stakeholders to realise the full potential of the partnership for mutual benefit. "Exemplary ties of friendship and cooperation between India and Bhutan are built on shared values and priorities, utmost trust and understanding, mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's interests," she said, noting that along with partnership between the two governments, people-to-people contacts provide depth, character and vibrancy to the relationship. She also recalled the vision, wisdom and foresight of successive political leaderships in India and Their Majesties the Revered Kings of Bhutan who laid the strong foundation for this special and unique relationship, and continue to provide their personal guidance to advance it, an external affairs ministry release said. "As the people of the two countries jointly celebrate the accomplishments of the last fifty years, the minister called for renewed commitment and efforts from all stakeholders to realise the full potential of the India-Bhutan partnership for mutual benefit," it said. Swaraj also reaffirmed India's abiding commitment to build on the strong foundations of cooperative partnership with Bhutan. Besides high-level exchanges, both India and Bhutan have planned a series of special commemorative initiatives, cultural activities, exhibitions and seminars throughout the year to celebrate the event, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India cannot allow its neighbours to drift away from it to counter an assertive China, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat said today, affirming that time has come for the country to shift focus from western to the northern frontier. Rawat said countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have to be kept on board as part of a broader strategy to deal with China, and India must make "wholehearted" efforts to continue extending support to them. Addressing the media on the eve of the Army Day, Rawat acknowledged that China was exerting pressure on India along the border but at the same time asserted that the Indian Army was fully capable of dealing with any security challenge on the northern frontier. "I think we cannot allow the neighbourhood to be drifted away from us --whether it is Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Afghanistan. These nations have to be kept on board, and I think we have to put in our wholehearted effort to ensure we continue to support them," he said. China has been trying to expand its influence in countries in India's neighbourhood including Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, which have traditionally close ties with New Delhi. "We are seeking support of other nations, group of nations in the region, to see that we are not isolated completely in a situation in Asia against an assertive China. That is the next step that is being taken and therefore you will find that a quadrilateral is formed," said Rawat. In November last year, India, Japan, Australia and the US had set the ball rolling for forming a quadrilateral coalition in the Indo-Pacific region to pursue their common interests, a move seen as a measure to counter growing Chinese influence. He said there are other countries that are coming on board to support India in whatever way they can. "At the military level, we know that if there is a threat from China, we have to be prepared for it," he said. Rawat also underlined the need for shifting attention from the western border with Pakistan to the northern frontier with China. "For too long, we have kept our focus on the western front. I think time has come for us to focus on the northern border. Therefore our infrastructure development on the northern border has to be speeded up," he said. At the militarty level, the Army Chief said, India's engagement with almost all nations of the region are of a high order, and added the Army is concentrating more on the neighbourhood than beyond. He said, by keeping these nations with it, India would be able to make sure that the assertiveness that China is showing against it is balenced in some way. "That is the approach we are taking. We know China is a powerful country but let us also not forget that we are not a weak nation. Let's not get so worried. We are dealing with the situation. We are confident we will be able to handle the situation," he said. Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam since June 16 after the Indian side stopped construction of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese Army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face- off had ended on August 28. Rawat said China has been keeping its troops in north Doklam. He said India is dealing with China at different levels including through diplomatic engagement. He also admitted that China was exerting pressure along several border areas but India made sure the situation did not escalate beyond a point. "Yes, he (China) is exerting pressure. We are prepared for it, but as I said we are dealing with it at different levels. Our intention always is that whenever he exerts pressure, we should try not escalate it beyond a limit. "Yes, we will not allow our territory to be invaded or intruded upon. Whenever an intrusion takes place to our territory, we will defend our territory because that is a charter given to us," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A hotline will be set up between the Indian and Chinese armies very soon, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat said today. "It is moving very fast. Very soon we will have a hotline with the Chinese side," the Army Chief said at a press conference. He said both India and China were very keen on having a hotline between the Indian Army's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) and the Chinese officer holding similar position. The Army Chief said a hotline will help resolve incidents such as transgressions along the border promptly. "We are very keen to start the hotline. The Chinese are also very clear," he said. Currently, India and Pakistan have a hotline between their DGMOs. Replying to a question on procurement of Spike anti-tank missile from Israel through government-to-government route, the Army Chief said such a proposal was being considered. 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. Gen. Rawat said the government was considering procuring the missile system from Israel using the government-to- government route. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is "friends" with both the UK and the European Union and is hopeful that the "divorce" between them after Brexit won't be "very acrimonious", Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said here today. Highlighting that India has revived the stalled talks on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), the Commerce and Industry minister stressed that New Delhi was keen to work on closer trade ties with both the UK and the 28- member economic bloc. "The decision the EU and Britain have taken as a result of the referendum is between them. We are friends with both and hope for a very good outcome and good relations," Prabhu told reporters. "Even divorces can be mutually agreed and we hope this divorce is not very acrimonious and both sides part on a happy note," he said. During his ongoing visit for the India-UKJoint Economic and Trade Committee(JETCO) meeting in London, the minister held bilateral talks with UK international trade minister Liam Fox and met with leaders of UK business and industry. He said all groups had expressed a growing interest in India's growth story and that India-UK ties were "very strong and equally balanced from both sides". The recommendations of the Joint Trade Review conducted by both countries were also presented to ministers to continue the work of the India-UK working group on trade, established to remove hurdles in the path of a post-Brexit free trade agreement (FTA). "India is on track to grow faster and these talks were extremely forward looking but much more needs to be done. However, we have begun the year on a very good note," Prabhu said. During the bilateral discussions, India also raised its concerns over the mobility of its professionals and reducing "prohibitive" visa fees and called for a scheme which would allow Indian professionals to apply for a six-month UK visa and get access for two years. "The services sector has to be present on the ground to provide services and the ease of getting visas creates lots of issues for professionals. We stressed on the difference between mobility and migration and I am sure of a positive outcome," Prabhu said. On the bilateral front, the minister also revealed the setting up of a new special cell within 'Invest India' to encourage UK companies do business in the country and a planned joint event on start-ups to be held in India in March. The energy and advanced manufacturing sectors were highlighted as some of the focus areas for what Prabhu described as a "new industrial revolution". Confirming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the UK in April for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) summit hosted by Britain, the minister said India was keen to promote intra-Commonwealth trade and inject "new dynamism" into the bloc. "The Commonwealth must first create wealth and work on trade issues," he said. Addressing a separate session on "Commonwealth as a Trade and Investment Bloc" organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and UK India Business Council today, Prabhu called on the private sector to tap into the huge potential of the group. "India is fully committed to promote the idea of the Commonwealth as a strong trading bloc and remove roadblocks. There is huge potential of investment within the Commonwealth and it is the right time to reinvent it into a new entity altogether," he said. During his UK visit, Prabhu will also address a gathering of students and academics at the London School of Economics (LSE) on the "Role of Trade and Investment in Driving Sustainable and Inclusive Growth". He will also address the Indian diaspora in the UK alongside Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju at an event organised by the Indian High Commission in London. An inter-ministerial committee today held discussions on ways to cut logistics costs in the country with a view to promoting trade. "The concerned ministries will come up with an action plan in the next 15 days," the Department of Commerce said in a tweet. It said that this was the first meeting of the inter- ministerial standing committee on logistics. "The meeting discussed the interventions required to reduce the logistics costs," it added. To deal with logistics issues, the government has appointed senior IAS officer Binoy Kumar as Special Secretary (Logistics) in the commerce ministry. Earlier, there was no single department or ministry to look at all the aspects related to logistics covering various modes of shipment such as sea, roads and railways. Logistics costs of exports are very high in India and due to this, Indian goods are less competitive in the global markets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Expressing deep anguish over four Supreme Court judges going public on issues related to the apex court, former Solicitor General of India N Santosh Hegde today said he was "devastated" by their action which has caused "irreparable" damage to the institution. "As a retired judge of the Supreme Court, I feel devastated. "For some reason or the other, their cause is justified, (but) relief they are seeking is wrong...going to the media? No. Judiciary was always considered as a family. Family disputes are never taken to the streets," he told PTI. In democracy, people have lost faith in Legislature and Executive, and their faith lies only in Judiciary now, he said. The delay in disposal of cases is one of the things that is causing concern to people and diminishing their confidence in the system, and judges going public with their allegations has further dented people's faith in the system, Hegde said. "I feel very sad about it. I am sure they (the four judges) are hurt with many things which ought not to have happened. But for heaven's sake, what they did was wrong. I don't think this damage can ever be repaired," he said. "It amounts to a Constitutional crisis now. And it will lead to all sorts of criticism from aggrieved people from the judiciary and people who have benefited from the judiciary will not speak about it. And in the long run, judiciary is (will become) another subject matter of Tom, Dick and Harry," he said. The former Karnataka Lokayukta and the retired Supreme Court judge said Judiciary is totally different from Legislature and Executive, and the four judges, by raising allegations in public, have brought them to the same level. "I have no doubt that (the four) judges of the Supreme Court have good grievances against the Chief Justice of India. I have no difficulty about that. But the method used by them to find relief from the public is wrong. It should be decided within the family (of Judiciary) itself, and not brought into public discussion," he said. Hegde said seeking public support or public opinion in the matter is "fully wrong". "Yes, there are serious allegations against the Chief Justice of India. I see that. But the method adopted by them is fully wrong. It's a damage that can never ever be repaired," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India today reaffirmed its space prowess and commercial launch capabilities as it successfully launched its 100th satellite along with 30 other spacecraft including weather observation Cartosat 2 series onboard the Polar rocket from here. This was PSLV's longest-ever mission. With the successful launch, including 28 satellites from foreign countries, by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), ISRO put behind a rare failure it encountered four months ago. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had suffered a setback after the failure of the earlier PSLV-C39 mission in August last year. The previous mission to launch backup navigation satellite IRNSS-1H on board PSLV-C39 had failed after the heat shield did not separate in the final leg of the launch sequence, with the satellite getting stuck in the fourth stage of the rocket. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed ISRO scientists for the successful PSLV C-40 mission. "The launch of the 100th satellite by @isro signifies both its glorious achievements, and also the bright future of India's space programme," he said a tweet. A visibly relieved ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar, on his final mission as the chief of the space agency, said he was happy to provide Cartosat 2 Series as a New Year gift for the country. "ISRO is starting 2018 with the successful launch... all satellites have been released. So far Cartosat performance is satisfactory," he said at the mission control room. He said the previous launch faced a heat shield problem and an ISRO committee has addressed it and taken steps to ensure the vehicle was 'robust'. Today's mission marked a milestone in ISRO's annals with a micro satellite, among the three Indian spacecraft launched, becoming the 100th to roll out through ISRO Satellite Centre Complex (ISAC). Besides ISRO's communication, weather observation, navigation and experimental spacecraft, the 100 satellites included nano and micro spacecraft made by educational institutions in the country, Kumar, who is retiring later this month, said. "Basically...the 100 satellites covers all student satellites also that have been put (by ISRO)," he told reporters at the post-launch briefing. Earlier, in a precise launch, PSLV-C40 lifted off at 9.28 am at the end of the 28-hour countdown from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, about 110 km from Chennai, and soared into a cloudy sky. After a perfect flight sequence, each of which was applauded by ISRO scientists, the four-stage rocket first injected the 710-kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite for earth observation into 505-km polar sun synchronous orbit about 17 minutes after lift off. India's nano satellite and 28 payloads from six countries, including the U.S and the U.K, totally weighing 613 kg were then released into orbit one by one in a space of about seven minutes. In a multi-orbit manoeuvre, micro satellite built by ISRO was placed in the orbit finally after the PSLV-C40 was brought down to 359.584 kms in polar Sun synchronous orbit by twice re-starting the fourth stage of the rocket, about 105 minutes after lift-off. The fourth stage was finally shut off at about 2 hours 21 minutes, thus making the mission the longest ever by ISRO. A similar kind of process was taken up during the launch of SCATSAT-1 on-board PSLV-C35 in September 2016 in which the fourth stage engine was restarted and later cut off for launching the satellite. This mission had lasted two hours and 15 minutes, ISRO scientists said. Cartosat-2 Series is an advanced remote sensing satellite similar in configuration to earlier six spacecraft in the series and intended to augment data services to the users. Its primary objective is to provide high resolution scene specific spot imageries that would help in urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, water distribution and geographical information system applications among others. The 28 international customer satellites were launched as part of the commercial arrangements between ISRO and its commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd. The co-passenger satellites include three micro and 25 nano-satellites from six countries -- Canada, Finland, France, Korea, the United Kingdom and US. According to ISRO, the Cartosat-2 series satellite carries panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras operating in Time Delay Integration mode and is capable of delivering high resolution data. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Italy has decided to send a high-powered delegation to the upcoming Bengal Global Business Summit to beld in the city on January 16 and 17, a diplomat said today. Italian consul general in Kolkata Damiano Francovigh said that the delegation would be led by Italian ambassador in India Lorenzo Angelino. He said that a few Italian companies have decided to establish presence in this part of the country, adding that joint-venture (JV) agreements would be inked during the summit. The delegation would represent sectors like leather, metals, engineering and transport, he told reporters here today. Francovigh said Italy would be the partner country in the summit for the second time in a row, and the delegation is expected to represent more than 30 companies, mostly in small and medium enterprises (SME) sector. He said that there was a huge potential of growth for Italian investments in West Bengal, adding that several of them were already present in the state. Earlier, China, France and Poland had also announced that they would send delegations to the summit. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent a message to the Jharkhand government saying that the state has the potential to emerge as the skill hub of the nation. The prime minister in his message yesterday has also expressed happiness at the 'Skill Summit, 2018 Momentum Jharkhand', which was organised by the Jharkhand government today, the National Youth Day. "It is a pleasure to know that the Skill Summit, 2018 Momentum Jharkhand is being organised on National Youth Day, January 12, 2018 to show case the potential of the state in the skill development sector. "Jharkhand is witnessing rapid transformation in all sectors of development and I congratulate Team Jharkhand for their increased focus in bringing skill development at the centre of their development strategy," the message said. "The state has all the potential to emerge as the Skill Hub of the Nation and events like 'Skill Summit' will help to bring all the stake holders on the single platform to formulate effective synergy in this regard," it said. A total of 27,842 youths got appointment letters during the skill summit today. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Janata Dal (United) in Kerala today officialy decided to snap its nearly nine- year-old ties with the Congress-led UDF and join the ruling LDF. A resolution to this effect was passed at the party state council held here today. Reacting to the development, UDF Chairman and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala termed JD(U) decision "political deceit". Talking to reporters after the meeting, party president Veerendra Kumar, who resigned from the Rajya Sabha last month, said: "The decision to leave the UDF was a unanimous one". Kumar said the JDU was of the view that the LDF was more effective in countering the "communal threat posed by the Sangh parivar under the BJP rule". "We socialist are emotional attached to the Left movement. The political ideology of the JD(U) goes along with that of the LDF," he said. Expressing gratitude to UDF leaders, Kumar said: "The UDF has not shown any ingratitude to us. The UDF had only gained with our party's association." However, politically we suffered a lot, he added. Hitting out at the BJP-led NDA government, he said under its rule, the private life of citizens had been lost. They talk about nationalism and patriotism, but "are selling the nation to multi-nationals", he charged. In these circumstances, the Left movemenmt has to be strengthened, he said. Kumar said the LDF was not a new coalition for them as they were part of it for several years. Kumar also recalled the days he spent in jail along with Chief Minister and CPI-M veteran Pinarayi Vijayan during the emergency period. The Veerendra Kumar-led state unit had broken away after party chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar joined the NDA. Kumar had joined the Congress-led UDF after snapping ties with the LDF over differences with the CPI(M) on the Kozhikode Lok Sabha seat in 2009. Terming the JD(U) decision "political deceit", Chennithala said it was the UDF that gave sanctuary and protection to the JD(U) when they were "kicked" out by the LDF. The JD(U) did not show any dignity and gave reasons for breaking away from the UDF, he said. Chennithala said it was the responsibility of Kumar to spell out the "losses suffered by the JD(U) after it joined the UDF". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actors Sam Rockwell and Jessica Chastain will be making their "Saturday Night Live" hosting debuts this month. Rockwell, who recently won a Golden Globe for his performance in the film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," will host "SNL" on January 13, reported Variety. Halsey will join Rockwell, who is also marking her debut as musical guest. Chastain will host the "SNL" on January 20. Troye Sivan will appear as musical guest for the first time. "SNL" veteran Will Ferrell, who was a cast member from 1995-2002, will return to the show's stage as host for the fourth time on January 27. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former chief justice of India K G Balakrishnan today described the unprecedented action of four Supreme Court judges of listing out the problems afflicting the institution as "unfortunate" and "painful". He added that the judges should have discussed the matter and resolved it among themselves. "The judiciary is the sanctuary of the common man. This kind of a situation will trigger doubts about the institution and this should not have happened," Justice Balakrishnan told reporters here. The judges should now move forward to find a solution to the situation, he added. Stating that he was not blaming anyone for the development, Justice Balakrishnan said such a situation should not have occurred in the first place. In an unprecedented move, four senior judges of the Supreme Court -- justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- called a press conference today and stated that "sometimes, the administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things, which are less than desirable, have happened in the last few months". Asked if the press meet called by the four judges was improper, Justice Balakrishnan said it was not a criminal offence and that there was nothing wrong in it. Reacting to the development, former Supreme Court judge Justice K T Thomas said the matter should be taken very seriously as four senior judges of the collegium had come out and spoken. Recalling that he too was a part of the collegium in the past, he said that they were always consulted by the chief justice on every important issue. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Defending Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's "Hindu terror" jibe at the BJP-RSS, Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy today said those who created an atmosphere of terror in the society were called terrorists. "He (Siddaramaiah) had said extremism...those who create an atmosphere of terror in the society are called terrorists. Their (BJP-RSS) conduct is also like that," he told reporters inMangaluru. Referring to certain controversial remarks of BJP MPs Pratap Simha and Shobha Karandlage and Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde, Reddy said looking at all this, it was clear that the intention of these people was to disturb peace in the society. "Those who create an atmosphere of fear among peopleare called terrorists, the chief minister's statement was in that direction," he added. In a no-holds barred attack, Siddaramaiah had onJanuary 10 alleged that the BJP, RSS and Bajrang Dal had terroristswithin their organisations, a charge rubbished by the saffronparty. "They themselves are like terrorists in a way. The BJP,RSS and Bajrang Dal also have terrorists within," he had said, taking his attack on the Congress' principal political rival to anew level, ahead of the state Assembly polls due early this year. After coming under an intense attack from theBJP for his remarks, Siddaramaiah had yesterday called those associated with the saffron party "Hindutva extremists". Reddy earlier held a meeting with seniorpolice officials of the Dakshina Kannada region for the second day. On the repeated violent communal incidents in the region, the home minister said the police department was functioning "efficiently, there is 100 per cent no failure on their part". "Things will be fine if organisations here keep a silenceand allow people to live peacefully, whether it is the PFI or SDPIor Bajrang Dal or RSS or BJP or Sriram Sene," he said. The BJP has been demanding a ban on Islamist outfit PFIand its political wing SDPI, holding them responsible for a spate of killings of Hindutva activists in the coastal DakshinaKannada district. On the other hand, the PFI has blamed Sangh Parivar outfits for the killing of Muslims in the region. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil today said he will move the Bombay High Court seeking CBI probe into the Kamala Mills compound fire, which claimed 14 lives. Addressing a press conference here, he said a PIL in this regard will be filed next week. Vikhe Patil also alleged that the Bhima-Koregaon violence was a state-sponsored riot and demanded that the judicial probe into the violence should be monitored by the high court. On December 29, the fire had swept through 1 Above and the adjacent Mojo's Bistro resto pub at the Kamala Mills compound here, resulting in the death of 14 persons. "I will move the Bombay High Court seeking CBI probe into the Kamala Mills compound fire," Vikhe Patil said. He said a Congress delegation will also meet Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, seeking suspension of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Ajoy Mehta. The opposition leader said the government had entrusted the inquiry into the Kamala Mills fire to Mehta. "This is ideological bankruptcy. How can you ask the Commissioner to probe the fire, which has been caused due to corruption in the civic body, apathy of the government and inefficiency of the commissioner himself," Vikhe Patil asked. "Provision of section 302 of IPC (punishment for murder) should have been invoked against Mehta and he should have been suspended," Vikhe Patil said. The Congress leader said Mehta publicly says a political leader called him to stop demolition against unauthorised structures following the blaze. "He is yet to name the politician. This means he wants to brush corruption under the carpet. If Mehta does not reveal the name, his call records should be checked. Facts like Mehta succumbs to pressure and takes decisions against rules and covers up corruption are enough proof to suspend him with immediate effect," Vikhe Patil said. He said that corruption in the civic body resulted in recent incidents like fire at a farsan (snack) mart at Sakinaka, building collapse at Ghatkopar and Bhendi Bazar, fire at film studios. All these cases should be probed by CBI, he added. He said the Congress delegation to the Governor will demand suspension of BMC commissioner, directing the government to give a detailed account of corruption in the BMC and hand over the probe of fire incidents to CBI. According to him, there were eight incidents of fire in Mumbai two days ago. "On January 6, Cinevista Studio caught fire. There are 85 studios in the city, which are death traps. Film sets prone to fire are erected without BMC permission and proper safety rules," he alleged. Vikhe Patil said everyday film shootings are held on 150-200 sets. Each set has about 60 labourers, most of them daily wagers, who are not covered under any labour law. "A labourer's body was found 11 hours after the Cinevista fire," he said. He charged that the Government had no concern for the lives of poor people. "Seventeen people died in the Ghatkopar building collapse. Twelve labourers died in the farsan mart fire at Saki naka. No action has been taken against any civic official," he said. Talking about the Bhima-Koregaon violence, he said the incident showed the state home department's inefficiency. "The build-up to create tension and pit the Marathas against Dalits was happening, but the government turned a blind eye. This was nothing but a state-sponsored riot," he charged. He alleged that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis does not have "morality" to quit his post "But he should have relieved himself of the home portfolio...Action should have been taken against the top police officers for failing to sense tension and take preventive steps," he said. Vikhe-Patil demanded that the judicial probe into the violence should be monitored by the high court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Goa government today accused Karnataka of resuming construction of a canal on a tributary of the Mahadeyi river in "total disregard" for the Supreme Court directives. The Goa government said that it has photographs to prove its claim that the neighbouring state has violated the court orders. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar directed state Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma to write a letter to the Karnataka government, asking it to stop the construction work. "As directed by the chief minister, Goa chief secretary is writing a letter to the chief secretary of Karnataka to immediately stop the work of bund (canal) at Kalsa tributary). The copy of which would be given to the media tomorrow," the communication from Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said. State Water Resources Department Minister Vinod Palyekar said the inspection conducted by the team of officials from his department confirmed that Karnataka has resumed the work on constructing the canal on a Mahadeyi tributary at Kankumbi. "Karnataka has started the construction of a head regulator and allied work on the Kalsa nallah in total disregard of the orders for the Mahadeyi Water Dispute Tribunal and the Supreme Court directives," he told reporters here. "I have photographs to prove the claim that Karnataka has violated the court order," he said. "The government of Goa is seized with the issue and letters will be sent to Karnataka raising the issue. It will also be taken up with the Mahadeyi Tribunal," he added. The Goa government had dispatched a team of officials to the site this morning after a few media reports claimed that the work on the canal has been started by Karnataka. The Centre has formed a tribunal to look into the river- sharing issue between Goa and Karnataka. On Wednesday, Parrikar had said that the ongoing dispute with Karnataka will be fought before the Mahadeyi Water Disputes Tribunal. Last month, Parrikar had written a letter to Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa, saying that Goa could share the river water with Karnataka for drinking purposes, and expressed his willingness to hold bilateral talks. Parrikar's missive had evoked strong criticism from certain quarters. 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 Mahadeyi (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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 159 activists of the Rajasthan-based Karni Sena were arrested today while protesting outside the Central Board of Film Certification's office here against the clearance given to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmavat", earlier titled "Padmavati". The protesters violated the orders of Mumbai Police Commissioner against illegal assembly, said Netaji Bhopale, Senior Police Inspector of Gamdevi Police Station. "We arrested 136 Karni Sena supporters, who were protesting outside the CBFC office at Cumballa Hill area in South Mumbai, under section 143 of IPC for unlawful assembly," he said. Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena Chief Raj Shekhawat and 22 supporters who had gathered near the Haji Ali to head for the CBFC office were arrested by Tardeo Police before they could proceed, a senior police official said. Additional security personnel were deployed outside the CBFC office. Opposing the CBFC's decision to clear the film, a Karni Sena leader said, "Merely changing the name of the film isn't enough. The CBFC, which has been there since the time of British, doesn't know how to work." The Karni Sena has also demanded the resignation of Prasoon Joshi, the chairman of CBFC. The CBFC had given the Deepika Padukone-starrer a U/A certificate and suggested many changes, including altering the title. The film has faced strong opposition from several Rajput groups for alleged distortion of history. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu today urged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to prioritise rail connectivity to the state in this year's Union Budget. In separate letters to the two Union ministers today, Khandu expressed gratitude to the Centre for giving special impetus to rail and road connectivity to the frontier state, an official communique said. The chief minister said that the Naharlagun Railway Station is currently having all the required amenities to start operations of new train services including Rajdhani Express. "Considering the ever increasing number of passengers availing the train services and to cater the needs of passengers from different parts of the state, it is felt imperative that introduction of Rajdhani Express service from Naharlagun to New Delhi and vice versa, he urged. The chief minister also asked for "increasing the frequency of Shatabdi Express between Naharlagun-Guwahati from alternate days to daily service, increasing the frequency of Naharlagun-New Delhi Super Fast Express from weekly to daily basis and it may be rechristened as Arunachal Express", it said. He also urged for introduction of new express trains to and fro from Naharlagun to Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata and introduction of goods train from Naharlagun to Guwahati to boost trading of indigenous products and agri-horti produces may be included in the Budget. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi today extended her greetings to people on the occasion of the harvest festival of 'Pongal'. "Pongal is being celebrated during the Tamil month of 'Thai' (commencing on January 14) to mark the harvest season and to pay special thanks to the Sun God, the Nature, and the cattle," said Bedi. She said the festival reflects India's tradition of conveying gratitude to nature for all its blessings. The former IPS officer extended her wishes to all the Tamilians all over the world and to the people of Puducherry on the occasion of celebration of the festival. Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, Speaker V Vaithilingam, ministers and leaders of different political parties also greeted the people of Puducherry on the occasion of Pongal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The International Kite Festival held at the city's sprawling Navlakhi grounds today saw the participation of 36 expert kite flyers from 12 countries, officials here said. Vinod Rao, Vadodara Municipal Commissioner, said that the event, jointly organised by the civic body and the tourism department of the state, saw a good response. Kite flyers from countries like Thailand, New Zealand, Nepal, Poland, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam, Tunisia, Ukraine, the United States and Philippines participated, officials said. The event also saw the participation of 16 expert kite flyers from states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and hosts Gujarat, they added. The Vadodara leg of the kite festival is part of the state government's 8-day festival that started on January 7 and is being held in different cities of Gujarat. It will culminate on January 14 which is celebrated as Uttarayan or Makar Sankranti. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sunayana Dumala, the wife of slain Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla, has been invited to attend US President Donald Trump's maiden State of the Union address, a media report has said. Dumala's husband, Kuchibhotla, was shot dead in a hate crime by an American navy veteran at a bar in Olathe city last year. Dumala, 32, fell out of status because her permission to reside in the US was tied to Kuchibhotla through marriage but she managed to regain her residency status. She has been invited by Congressman Kevin Yoder to attend Trump's State of the Union address, an annual message presented by the US president to a joint session of the Congress. The State of the Union address will be held on January 30. "She is a very powerful symbol of who the system is failing," Yoder was quoted as saying in the report. "One of the reasons I have become so passionate about this immigration issue is that we need to send a message to the Indian community and other immigrant groups that we are a loving country that is welcome to all," said Yoder who is a member of the Congressional caucus on India and Indian Americans. Dumala said she now plans to travel to India to observe the first death anniversary of her husband. She said she has been overwhelmed by the response from friends, families, neighbours and strangers. "That answer was quick... it came like, 'You do belong here'," she said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) French President Emmanuel Macron told US counterpart Donald Trump today that it is important for all signatories to respect the landmark Iran nuclear agreement, the French leader's office said. Macron, during a phone call with Trump, stressed France's determination to see "the strict application of the deal and the importance of all the signatories to respect it," the Elysee Palace said of the 2015 accord. President Trump, who openly despises the deal, is soon to decide whether or not to renew sanctions against Tehran. The White House said Trump had "underscored that Iran must stop its destabilising activity in the region." On Friday, Trump is expected to announce that he continues to regard remaining in the Iran nuclear deal not to be in US interests. He first announced this in October and under the US Iran Nuclear Agreement Act (INARA) of 2015 he is supposed to inform Congress every 90 days. 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 French presidency stressed that the nuclear deal must be accompanied by reinforced dialogue with Tehran on both issues. Macron also brought up the issues of North Korea, following his recent visit to China, saying that the recent resumption of contact with South Korea is "a positive signal," his office said. The White House statement said that the two leaders "committed to continue to apply pressure on North Korea until it returns to the path of denuclearisation". It added that Trump and Macron were to meet, schedules permitting, at the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra unit of the Congress today hit out at Union Minister Nitin Gadkari for "insulting the Indian Navy" and demanded an apology from him. "Gadkari should apologise for insulting the Indian Navy by saying he will not give an inch of land to Navy officers in Mumbai and asking them to go on Pakistan border. We condemn these remarks," Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said. Wondering why all Navy officials need to stay in posh South Mumbai, Ports minister Gadkari had yesterday 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 had said. Gadkari's public displeasure came 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. Sawant charged why Gadkari was insisting on a floating hotel which can be threat to Mumbai's security. "This should be probed," he demanded. Sawant alleged that BJP's patriotism was sham and was not applicable to private companies. He claimed that the Navy took objection to helipad and redevelopment projects in South Mumbai due to security issues especially in the backdrop of the 26/11 terror attacks. The Congress leader said Gadkari's comments were damaging the morale of Navy officers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Friday said embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya's defence team is raising issues to delay his extradition from the UK to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to Rs 90 billion. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, who is in the UK for talks on security issues, said the Indian government is confident about its evidence in the case and satisfied with the cooperation from the UK side on extradition matters. "The defence lawyers are just raising issues to delay matters...We have done all the homework and whatever was necessary from our side. The authorities in the UK have responded positively and we are working in tandem on all pending extradition cases," Rijiju told reporters at a briefing here. India has raised matters regarding 14 pending extradition cases, including that of Gujarat attacks accused Tiger Hanif, as well as 12 extradition requests from the UK side. "There is cooperation from both ends and we have expressed our gratitude to the UK government for their positive attitude during my talks with security minister Ben Wallace, Rijiju said. The UK judge presiding over the extradition trial of Mallya yesterday granted bail to the liquor baron till April 2. 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 left India in March 2016. 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. Rijiju also confirmed that two memoranda of understanding (MoU) on criminal record sharing and illegal migrant returns agreement have also been initialled, which will be formally signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the UK for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) summit in April. During his talks with newly-appointed UK minister of state for immigration, Caroline Nokes, Rijiju said he was able to lay the groundwork for Modi's visit and "open up an area where we used to find difficulty" relating to visa issues for Indian students and professionals. "We are in favour of smooth and legal migration and discourage all kinds of illegal migration, he said, adding that he had also raised the issue of action against British citizens of Indian-origin guilty of abandoning wives in India. Rijiju also expressed the Indian government's concern over certain "fringe elements" from the British Sikh and Kashmiri communities raising separatist issues on the UK soil. "The response has been very positive on all matters we raised. The UK and India are two big democracies and need to have full faith in each other's systems, he said. India has also stressed its demand for visa-free access to diplomatic passport holders, which has been extended to India by all major countries other than the UK. The senior BJP leader will hold talks with Brandon Lewis the newly-appointed chairman of the Conservative Party later today and on Saturday he will join commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu to address the Indian diaspora at an event organised by the Indian High Commission in London. Police have arrested a man, who used foul language against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and allegedly threatened to kill him along with his bodyguards in a video shared on social media, officials said today. An FIR was registered at Fatuha police station late last night on the basis of a complaint by a local resident in connection with the video clip, Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj told PTI. "Pramod alias Poyma has been arrested from Fatuha police station area following complaints about a video wherein he has used abusive language against the Chief Minister. The matter is being investigated," the SSP said. Police began tracing the location of the mobile phone from which the video was originally shared after which Poyma was nabbed from Mosimpur Kurtha area. Replying to a query, the SSP said "I have not yet seen the video clip so it would not be proper to comment on its contents. But the matter will be thoroughly investigated and proper action will be taken." However, some local TV channels aired the video footage wherein Poyma was shown, purportedly, wearing tattered clothes and appearing inebriated, and threatening to blow up the chief minister and his bodyguards in a bomb explosion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Batting strongly for better Indo-Pak relations for peace in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today called for making J-K a gateway to central Asia and urged SAARC countries to invest in the state. She made the comment during the motion of thanks to the governor's address in the state Legislative Council. "SAARC countries should get united and make J-K a model state. They should establish banks, trade, industries and universities. It should become an example. "Thereshould be one currency on the lines of the European Union (EU). There should be a EUtrade model," she said. Welcoming the recent meeting of the national security advisors of India and Pakistan in Thailand, Mehbooba said she wishes for normalisation of relations between the two countries and that the state become a bridge of peace, faith and trust between India and Pakistan. Jammu and Kashmir is strategically located and this should be exploited for positive and gainful results. "Why can't we be the gateway to central Asia. We should be part of the Silk Route," she said "Let us explore opportunities of Tashkant, Kashgar, Iran which have been historic routes through which Islam came to Kashmir. "It was this tolerant Islam which groomed us to think on rational and humanitarian lines while deciding our fate in 1947," the chief minister said. The state should become the gateway to central Asia. It should start from Jammu, then Kashmir and finally end in Ladakh, Mehbooba suggested. "We should also open up LoC roads and allow people to go and see central and south Asia. There are countries beyond Pakistan, which should also become part of this journey. We have to look toward these routes in central Asia, from where Islam came to J-K. But in 1947, the routes were closed," she said. On Indo-Pak talks and better relations, the chief minister said, "There is no way out without talks with Pakistan. If you have to restore peace and end bloodshed in the state, you will have to better relations between India and Pakistan." "We have been saying that 200 militants were killed and they (Pakistan) will send another 200 militants. Infiltration is on. During prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time, Pervez Musharraf had promised to stop infiltration. But, infiltration is still on," she said. "India is a big country and the prime minister has a big heart. We should try for ensuring better relations. We want peace and normalcy in J-K and also better Indo-Pak relations," Mehbooba said. Pakistan has to understand that that Jammu and Kashmir has written its future and the only thing which is now possible is that the state can become a peace bridge, she said. "The problem (in Kashmir) will be resolved if there will be good relations. Our problem will be resolved if J-K becomes a peace bridge between India and Pakistan instead of a battle ground "Whatever we have to get, we will get it from the country (India). We ask Pakistan to stop infiltration and stop sending guns. Let us live together," Mehbooba said. The chief minister said that the Indian Constitution is the "mother of J-K's Constitution and we can get it from here and there is nothing beyond it." To empower people at the grass root, she said her government intends to hold elections to panchayats and urban local local bodies, and put in place a three tier governance apparatus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Suspected militants hurled hand grenades at an Assam Rifles post in Manipur's Kangpokpi district but there was no report of any casualty, police said today. The suspected militants hurled two hand grenades at Assam Rifles post yesterday night at around 8.50 pm. The AR personnel fired at the militants, who fled away, the police said. A police team lead by Superintendent of Police, Kangpokpi rushed to the spot and conducted a combing operation in search of the militants who hurled the grenades, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Militants tonight opened fire on a police post in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir, an official said. The incident took place in the Keegam area. Police personnel responded to the firing. There was no loss of life reported in the incident, he said. He said the area was cordoned off and security forces were carrying out searches to track down the militants. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Minnie Mouse will be honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on her 90th anniversary. The polka-dot bow wearing mouse will be joining creator Walt Disney, long-time paramour Mickey Mouse and other beloved Disney icons like Donald Duck, Tinker Bell, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, and Kermit the Frog, reported Variety. Minnie will receive the star on January 22 at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard in front of Disney's El Capitan Theatre, dedicated in the category of Motion Pictures. Disney CEO Bob Iger and pop star Katy Perry will be present for the unveiling. "Minnie Mouse is a woman of the ages and her iconic status makes her a great addition to our Walk of Fame. Generations of fans of all ages have been looking forward to her seeing her bright new star," said Ana Martinez, Producer of the Walk of Fame ceremonies. Minnie Mouse made her debut with Disney's iconic "Steamboat Willie" cartoon. Mickey received his star in 1978 in celebration of his 50th anniversary. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 15-year-old intellectually disabled girl was allegedly raped by six men in east Delhi's Mandawali area, police said today. The incident took place on January 8, but came to light yesterday after the girl narrated her ordeal to doctors at Lady Hardinge Hospital where she is undergoing treatment for mental stress, they said. Subsequently, the doctors informed the police and a case was registered. In her complaint, the victim told the police that she was talking a walk outside her house when one of the accused lured her to a nearby park on the pretext of offering her food. "He offered her drinks and took her to the guard's room where five of his friends joined him," a police official said. The accused raped her in turns and threatened her not to reveal the incident to anyone. The girl returned home and kept mum about the incident. It was only after she went for treatment -- her IQ level is low and she is undergoing treatment for it -- that she revealed the incident to her doctors. On the basis of the girl's complaint, police arrested the main accused and on his instance, the other five were also nabbed from the same locality. One of the accused is claiming to be a juvenile and police are verifying his claims. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Miscreants today looted Rs 2 lakh from the possession of an employee of SBI's 'Grahak Sewa Kendra' in East Champaran district and roughed him up before fleeing the spot. The incident occurred this morning near Rampurwa village of the district when Sanjit Kumar was on his way to Bhawanipur 'Grahak Sewa Kendra' from his home in neighbouring Husseini village, Chakia Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Mundrika Prasad said. Kumar had withdrawn the money a day before official purposes, the officer said. Around three to four miscreants accosted Kumar, beat him up and decamped with the bag containing the money, Prasad said. "An FIR has been lodged with the Dumaria Ghat police station in this regard and we have identified the miscreants. They will be arrested soon," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi were among the leaders who today paid tributes to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary, which is also celebrated as National Youth Day. "I bow to Swami Vivekananda on his Jayanti. Today, on National Youth Day I salute the indomitable energy and enthusiasm of our youngsters, who are the builders of New India," Modi said on Twitter. Gandhi invoked Vivekananda to say that it was duty of all to encourage everyone in their struggle to live up to their own highest idea and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to truth. "My tributes to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary. #NationalYouthDay," he said on the micro-blogging site. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said he bowed before the "youth force" of the country as he tweeted a picture of Vivekananda. Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also invoked Vivekananda's message of "arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached" as he paid respect to the spiritual leader. "I bow before India's great saint, symbol of harmony and source of inspiration for the youth on his birth anniversary," Surjewala tweeted. Swami Vivekananda was born on this day in 1863 in Kolkata. He passed away on July 4, 1902 at the age of 39. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NCP leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule, who is active on social media, will soon turn a blogger. Her first blog will be published on Makar Sankranti being celebrated on January 14. Sule, daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, will write on the developments in national and state politics, social, economic fields, a party release issued here today said. The release said that views aired in the Lok Sabha do not reach the common man and hence she has decided to write a blog. She is already active on Facebook and Twitter. Not many leaders in the state write blogs. Her father Sharad Pawar had contributed to a special supplement in Marathi daily "Sakaal" two years ago, it said. Former Maharashtra chief ministers Prithviraj Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde, Manohar Joshi have written articles in newspapers, the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India needs to shift focus from its border with Pakistan to that with China, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said today, cautioning that the country cannot allow its neighbours to drift towards China, virtually asking the government to effectively implement its 'neighbourhood first' policy. Admitting that Chinese troops have been ramping up pressure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), he asserted that China may be a powerful country but India too is not a weak nation. In a media address on the eve of the Army Day, Rawat said countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have to be kept on board as part of a broader strategy to deal with China, and India must make "wholehearted" efforts to continue extending support to them. "We cannot allow the neighbourhood to be drifted away from us --whether it is Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Afghanistan. These nations have to be kept on board, and I think we have to put in our wholehearted effort to ensure we continue to support them," he said. The Army chief's comments assume significance given that in recent past, China has been deepening ties with some South Asian nations and providing them with huge financial aid, which, some experts feel, may draw India's neighbours including the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal towards Beijing. These countries have been traditionally close to New Delhi. Underlining the need for shifting attention from the western border with Pakistan to the northern frontier with China, Rawat said, "For too long, we have kept our focus on the western front. I think time has come for us to focus on the northern border. Therefore, our infrastructure development on the northern border has to be speeded up." Referring to India shoring up ties with other countries, he said, "We are seeking support of other nations, group of nations in the region, to see that we are not isolated completely in a situation in Asia against an assertive China. That is the next step that is being taken and, therefore, you will find that a quadrilateral is formed." In November last year, India, Japan, Australia and the US had set the ball rolling for forming a quadrilateral coalition in the Indo-Pacific region to pursue their common interests, a move seen as a measure to counter growing Chinese influence. He said there are other countries that are coming on board to support India in whatever way they can. "At the military level, we know that if there is a threat from China, we have to be prepared for it," he said, adding India's military engagement with almost all nations of the region are of a high order. The Army is concentrating more on the neighbourhood than beyond as this will enable India to balance the Chinese assertiveness, he said. "That is the approach we are taking. We know China is a powerful country but let us also not forget that we are not a weak nation. Let's not get so worried. We are dealing with the situation. We are confident we will be able to handle the situation," he said. Rawat said China has been keeping its troops in north Doklam. He said India is dealing with China at different levels including through diplomatic engagement. He also admitted that China was exerting pressure along several border areas, but India made sure the situation did not escalate beyond a point. "Yes, it (China) is exerting pressure. We are prepared for it, but as I said we are dealing with it at different levels. Our intention always is that whenever he exerts pressure, we should try not escalate it beyond a limit. "Yes, we will not allow our territory to be invaded or intruded upon. Whenever an intrusion takes place to our territory, we will defend our territory because that is a charter given to us," he said. Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam since June 16 after the Indian side stopped construction of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese Army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face- off had ended on August 28. Asked about the Doklam standoff, he said Chinese side had undertaken some activities in June 2016 also but last year India decided to intervene when they came to build a road in the strategically important area. He said movement of Chinese troops may take place after winter and Indian Army will take a call then considering the situation. "The People's Liberation Army of China has occupied the area in the west of Torsa nullah called northern Doklam. At the actual spot the two sides have disengaged. The tents remain. The observation posts remain. This is a territory disputed between Bhutan and China," he said. Asked about increasing cases of transgressions by China along the border, he said India has increased intensity of border patrol as a result of which "contacts" between troops of the two sides are going up. He said at times, transgressions take place due to varying perception of the LAC. Referring to Tuting incident in Arunachal Pradesh, he said the issue was resolved amicably, adding Chinese road building teams may have come there not knowing that the area belongs to India. He said there are several areas along the border which are vulnerable due to lack of infrastructure, noting adequate number of troops have been deployed to deal with any eventualities in those locations. Rawat said the Army was focusing on improving border infrastructure to ensure that speedy movement of ammunition and troops. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress today expressed concern over the "negative" portrayal of Kashmir in prime-time television debates, saying it has hurt the state's tourism sector. "There is a concern over the negative portrayal of Kashmir in prime-time (TV) debates and it has badly affected the tourism of the state," the leader of Congress Legislative Party, Nawang Rigzin Jora said, during a discussion on the budget in the Assembly today. Jora made a strong pitch for corrective measures in this regard. He questioned the absence of the mention of agriculture growth in the budget and highlighted the continuing decline of the sector in the state's GDP. He also asked the government to come up with strong initiatives to address the rising unemployment in the state and appreciated the government for implementing the 7th Pay Commission recommendations. While taking part in the discussion, National Conference MLA Devender Singh Rana asked the government to focus on employment generation, agriculture, power sector, and capacity building among others. Rana also appealed to the government to enhance the wages of unskilled labourers to Rs 350 and sought the state finance department's intervention to remove bottlenecks in the dispersal of widow pensions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nepalese people today began accessing internet through a Chinese optical fibre link laid across the Himalayan mountains, ending the country's sole dependency on India for connecting to the cybre space. The initial speed of internet by Chinese fibre link via Rasuwagadhi border will be 1.5 Gigabit per second (gbps), less than that of 34 gbps by India through Biratnagar, Bhairahawa and Birgunj, according to officials. The commercial operation of the optical fibre link across the Himalayan mountains to China has begun, they said. Nepal's Information and Communication Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet inaugurated the Nepal-China cross border optical fibre link at a function here. In 2016, state-owned Nepal Telecom (NT) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with state-run China Telecommunications for the operation of Nepal's internet network via China. Basnet said that the optical fibre link established between Nepal and China will be a milestone for developing countrywide internet infrastructure. This will boost bilateral relations between Nepal and China at official as well as people's level, the minister said. The internet connectivity between Nepal and China has not only made available shortest route for internet connection to Nepal, it has also opened up vast business potentials between the two neighbours, China's Ambassador to Nepal You Hong said. Managing Director of NT Kamini Rajbhandari said that the Chinese internet bandwidth will also increase accessibility and reliability of Nepal's internet service. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Nepali national was arrested on the charge of drug peddling and 25 gm of smack worth Rs 50 lakh in the international market was seized from him at the Indo-Nepal Border here, police said today. Incharge of Sonauli Police Station Awdesh Narayan Tiwari told reporters that the man was arrested yesterday from Pharenda Tiwari village and smack was seized from him. He was identified as Raju Tiwari from Nepal's Rupandehi district, he said, adding that the man was being interrogated. The police suspect that he had come to India to supply the drug and added that a hunt is on to nab his accomplice who managed to escape. The man was booked under the NDPS Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran said today that a fresh explosion on a stricken oil tanker was complicating rescue efforts as Japan reported the vessel had drifted into its exclusive economic zone. "If it had not been for an explosion this morning, maybe the fire would have been extinguished by now," said Hadi Haghshenas, deputy director for Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation, in an interview with state broadcaster IRIB. 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. Haghshenas said a 12-member elite rescue team had been dispatched from Iran but was waiting in Shanghai for conditions that would allow them to land on the vessel. "The tanker is moving from the site of the accident, which was about 155 miles from Shanghai port, to Japanese waters and right now is about 135 miles from Okinawa Island," he said. Japan said it had provided a patrol boat because the tanker was now in its exclusive economic zone, while Iran requested helicopters and planes to help put out the fire. A Japanese coastguard spokesman said: "We offered support for efforts to deal with the accident but the Chinese side said they will handle the case by themselves." Iranian officials have criticised China's rescue efforts, but the Chinese transport ministry said yesterday that "terrible" weather conditions and toxic gases from the burning oil were hindering operations. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told AFP the government had put "a high degree of emphasis on the rescue work" and maintained "a welcoming and open attitude towards other countries coming to participate". Haghshenas said two fire emergency consultants from the Netherlands and Germany had also been hired "who are now at the scene giving advice to the Chinese". The 21 Chinese crew member of the Crystal, which did not burst into flames, were all rescued. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hitting out at Union minister Nitin Gadkari over his remarks against the Navy, Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam said that real estate interests seemed to hold more importance to the minister than national security. "This shows the misplaced priorities of the Modi government," Nirupam said in a statement. He said that Gadkari's attack on the Navy, who is guarding our borders is a clear case of "hypocrisy" by the BJP government. "On the one hand, they say that this is a government that works and respects the jawans, while on the other hand Gadkari has directly attacked and showed disrespect towards the Navy," the Congress leader said. "It is the Navy's job to secure our borders and our coastline. This is exactly what they are doing. For his own interests, Nitin Gadkari wants real estate interests to take precedence over the national security. His statement exposes the hypocritical side of this government," Nirupam alleged. Gadkari, while speaking at a function in Mumbai yesterday, had wondered why all Navy officials need to stay in posh South Mumbai. He had said that "not an inch" of land would be given to Navy to build flats or quarters in South Mumbai. Gadkari's public displeasure came 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The state-run Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) today flagged off its first 132 metric tonne wax consignment to Poland, marking its entry into the prestigious European market. The NRL wax consignment was flagged off by the company's Chief General Manager (Finance) Indranil Mitra at Numligarh in Assam's Golaghat district. NRL has already exported wax to 19 countries across the globe. Export to Europe assumes significance since the market there is known to be quality conscious. It will further enhance the brand value of NRL wax, the company said. It added that in a span of two years, the company has been able to establish a foothold in more than a dozen countries worldwide including Mexico, Kenya, Nepal, Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Thailand, Hong Kong and Brazil. With the latest consignment, the total export of NRL wax now stands at around 6,000 metric tonne. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had dedicated the NRLs wax plant to the nation on February 5, 2016. The 50,000 metric tonne wax plant, commissioned in March 2015 at a cost of Rs 676 crore, is the countrys largest wax producing unit with indigenous technology developed by the Indian Institute of Petroleum -- Dehradun, Engineers India Ltd and NRL. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BSF has apprehended a man at Farakka PTS More in Malda district, near India-Bangladesh border, and seized two 'Tokay Gecko', an endangered nocturnal lizard species, from his possession. The Border Security Force (BSF) officials had specific information about the illegal transportation of the endangered lizard species to Bangladesh, a release issued by the paramilitary force said. Two teams of BSF officials were stationed at PTS More and 18 Mile, College More, yesterday to check for suspicious activities. The team near PTS More saw two persons approaching them on a bike and intercepted them. The duo immediately tried to flee the spot but the team managed to detain one of them, the release said. After preliminary questioning, the man identified himself as Md Nasiruddin Sheikh, a resident of Kaliachak town in Malda. The two 'Tokay Gecko', seized from his possession, were found to be 1.6 feet and 1.3 feet in size. The inspector general of BSF South Bengal Frontier, PSR Anjaneyulu, has asked the field commanders to strengthen vigil along India-Bangladesh border in the wake of the increased smuggling activities and infiltration bids, the release added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a sudden development, all eight legislators belonging to the AINRC, led by leader ofthe opposition N Rangasamy, met Lt Governor Kiran Bedi at the Raj Nivas here today, triggering speculation about the nature of their meeting. Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) R Radhakrishnan, belonging to the All India NR Congress (AINRC), also accompanied the MLAs during their meeting with the Lt Governor. Emerging from the meeting, former Puducherry chief minister Rangasamy told reporters outside the Raj Nivas that there was no "specific significance" in the 30 minute-long meeting. "We only conveyed New Year and Pongal greetings to the Lt Governor and nothing more," Rangasamy said. When asked about the reason for the meeting, the leader of the opposition said that "it is not a sudden meeting". "We came here to convey our greetings to her," one of the MLAs told PTI, adding that the Lt Governor was "happy" to receive them. This is the first time that all the opposition AINRC legislators had a meeting with the Lt Governor after the present Congress government, headed by V Narayanasamy, was formed in June 2016. The meeting triggered speculation and the Raj Nivas was abuzz with activities as soon as the AINRC team arrived to meet with the Lt Governor. Bedi and the Congress government here have been at loggerheads over various issues ever since she assumed office in May 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More than 150 speakers and over 550 delegates from around 90 countries are expected to take part in the third edition of the annual Raisina Dialogue, which will be inaugurated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on January 16. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also be a part of the inaugural session of the three-day-long event, which will see a series of high- powered panel discussions on geo-political issues. Netanyahu will arrive here on January 14 on a six-day visit. The event, jointly organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and Observer Research Foundation (ORF), will take place at the Taj Palace Hotel in the national capital, the organisers said in a statement. The theme of the dialogue this year is 'Managing Disruptive Transitions: Ideas, Institutions and Idioms', it said. Army chief General Bipin Rawat and Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba will address a session, along with Admiral Harry Harris, Commander, US Pacific Command, General Chris Deverell, Joint Forces Commander, UK, among others, the statement said. "Former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, former prime minister of Canada Stephen Harder and former prime minister of Sweden Carl Bildt are among more than 150 speakers and over 550 delegates from around 90 countries who are participating in the dialogue," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Pakistani court today handed down life sentence to a 24-year-old 'misogynist' who stabbed at least 17 women, leading to the death of one of the victims. Muhammad Ali said that he hated women and found fun in hurting them. He prowled at night and targeted lonely women, using a kitchen knife. He had terrorised residents of the garrison city of Rawalpindi in 2016. He was arrested by the counter-terrorism police in August, 2016. Additional district and sessions Judge Raja Qamar Sultan found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison on the murder charge and gave him 10 more years in prison for attempted murder. Ali has said in a statement that after his mother died in miserable circumstances, his father married another woman who did not treat him well. Later, he was dumped by the girl he loved. Anum Naz, a 26-year-old nurse at a local hospital, died after being stabbed by him. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan today summoned India's acting deputy high commissioner over alleged "unprovoked firing" by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC) in which an elderly woman was killed. The Foreign Office claimed that a 65-year old woman was killed in Peer Khana village yesterday after Indian troops violated the ceasefire in Kot Kotera Sector. Director general (South Asia and Saarc) Mohammad Faisal summoned the acting Indian deputy high commissioner and "condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations" by Indian forces on January 11, the statement said. He said "despite calls for restraint, India continues to indulge in ceasefire violations." "This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when the Indian forces committed more than 1900 ceasefire violations, Faisal claimed. He said the ceasefire violations by India are a "threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan will not seek the resumption of suspended US military aid and feels "betrayed" by the recent critical statements of the American leadership against Islamabad's fight against terrorism, army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has said. President Donald Trump has accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network fighting in war-torn Afghanistan. On January 1, Trump tweeted that the US had "foolishly" given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid in the last 15 years and had gotten nothing in return but "lies & deceit." Washington has confirmed that it will withhold nearly $2 billion in aid to Pakistan. Gen Bajwa received two telephone calls from Commander US Central Command (CENTCOM) General Joseph L Votel and one from an unidentified US Senator over the week to discuss Pak-US security cooperation post the President Trump tweet, the army spokesman said in a statement on Friday. He said that Gen Votel apprised Gen Bajwa about the US decision regarding Security Assistance and Coalition Support Fund and said that US values Pakistan's role towards war on terror and expected that on-going turbulence remains a "temporary phase". "The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) reiterated that Pakistan will not seek resumption of aid but expect honourable recognition of our contributions, sacrifices and unwavering resolve in fight against terrorism for peace and stability in the region," according to the statement. The freezing of US military aid to Pakistan also includes $255 million due to it for military equipment and training under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) fund, and $700 million under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) paid to the country for conducting operations against militant groups. Gen Bajwa further said that Pakistan will keep supporting all initiatives for peace in Afghanistan despite the tendency to "scapegoat" Pakistan, as peace in Afghanistan is the only way to move towards enduring peace and stability in the region. Gen Votel also conveyed that "US is not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan but is seeking cooperation to tackle Afghan nationals who, in US view, use Pakistan's soil against Afghanistan." "This view, he (Gen Votel) felt, was undermining in Washington, Pakistan's contributions in war against terrorism," the statement said. The COAS said that entire Pakistani nation felt "betrayed" over US recent statements despite decades of cooperation and the unanimous national response reflected the same sentiments. "The COAS said that Pakistan shall continue its sincere counter terrorism efforts even without US financial support in accordance with our national interest and shall remain committed to bring it to its logical conclusion along with other stake holders," the statement said. General Bajwa said that Pakistan has suffered hugely due to great power contestation in the region. He also said that Pakistan is fully aware of US concerns on activities of Afghan nationals in Pakistan. "We are already undertaking multiple actions through Operation 'Radd ul Fasaad' to deny any residual capacity to terrorists of all hue and colour for which return of Afghan refugees is an essential prerequisite, he said. Gen Votel acknowledged the effectiveness of some of the recent actions taken by Pakistan to ensure that Pakistan's hospitality to Afghan Refugees is not misused in anyway and also agreed that both countries stand to gain from cooperative engagement. The army did not share the identity or details of the call by US Senator. However, the calls confirm what Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said yesterday that the two sides were in touch to resolve the difference since Donald Trumps scathing new year tweet. "The two sides continue to communicate with each on various issues of mutual interest at different levels. Since, it is being done outside media glare, I cannot share further details with you," Faisal had said. Twentieth Century Fox has cancelled the biopic of heiress Patty Hearst. "Logan" director James Mangold was attached to direct the project with Elle Fanning as the lead. "Twentieth Century Fox Film and its production partners have decided to cancel the studio's planned project based on the book 'American Heiress'," Fox said in a statement issued to The Hollywood Reporter. The development came after Hearst criticised author Jeffrey Toobins on whose best-selling book "American Heiress", the film was based on. Toobins is also the producer of a CNN docu-series based on Hearst life. The book detailed the capture of the heiress and her two-year detainment by the Symbionese Liberation Army in the mid-1970s, as well as her transition from hostage to warrior. She ended up sympathising with her captors and even went on bank robberies with them before she was arrested in 1975. In a statement, Hearst said Toobins' book "romanticises my rape and torture and calls my abduction a 'rollicking adventure'". She also attacked CNN and Fox, and said that Oprah Winfrey's speech at the Golden Globes inspired her to take a stand for herself. "I am further saddened and appalled that Fox 2000 agreed to finance and produce a movie based on Toobin's book (with a similarly themed screenplay, also written by men) and that CNN has agreed to continue to perpetuate a one-sided dialogue romanticising my torture and rape by hosting a podcast and docuseries through Toobin's distorted lens. "I refuse to give Jeffrey Toobin, 21st Century Fox, CNN or anyone else involved in these projects about my life the power to make me a victim again, or the power to provide a platform where victim blaming is OK," Hearst said in the statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unidentified miscreants today hurled petrol bombs at the house of a fringe Hindu outfit leader in this district, causing damage to some parked vehicles, police said. The motorbike-borne men threw three petrol bombs into the house of Balamurugan, south zone organising president of Hindu Makkal Katchi and fled the scene, police added. Two motorbikes parked in the front portion of the house parked caught fire in the incident which was recorded on CCTV camera in the premises, they said. While Balamurugan was away, his family members were present when the incident occurred. Top police officials including Deputy Superintendent of Police Shankar visited the place and conducted preliminary investigations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) All wings of the Chinese military have stepped up drills at home and abroad focusing their training on the plateau region post-Dokalam, the official media reported on Friday. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been executing military training instructions issued by President Xi Jinping on January 3 by conducting drills at home and abroad involving its ground forces, Navy, Air Force, rocket (missile) force and armed police, it said. The People's Liberation Army's official media cautioned the troops on Thursday of imminent threats and to avoid complacency. The drills included by the Chinese navy at Djibouti base in the Indian Ocean, which was officially stated to be a logistics base. The PLA Daily, the official mouthpiece of the 2.3 million strong military, said China's most advanced military aircraft including the J-20 stealth fighter jet, the Y-20 transport aircraft, the H-6k bomber, and the J-16, J-11B J-10C fighter jets have all conducted training exercises since the beginning of 2018. The J-20 is conducting air combat training with other fighter planes including the J-16. The J-20 is also practising beyond-visual-range air combat, and other aircraft, including the Y-20 and the J-10C, are training at unspecified airports on a "plateau region" in order to improve their capability in long-range military transport and air combat, the PLA Daily reported. The "plateau region" refers to the Tibetan plateau which covered along Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China. "India's ground force has some advantages in quantity in the border areas, so if conflict happens, China's air force needs to seize domination of the skies and immediately create an overwhelming advantage for China," a retired PLA officer who used to serve in the air force and asked not to be identified, was quoted as saying by the Global Times. "So increasing military training in the plateau region is highly necessary," he said. The drills assumed significance as potential military conflicts in plateau regions have been on the rise since the border friction with India last year, the official said. China and India were engaged in a 73-day tense standoff at Dokalam in the Sikkim sector which ended on August 28. The report highlighted a potential military conflict between India and China in the backdrop of hectic parleys between the two countries to improve relations. This included Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi holding talks with top Indian officials on the sidelines of Russia, India and China meeting at New Delhi last month followed by the 20th round of border talks there between Security Advisor Ajit Doval during which both sides agreed to make efforts to restore peace and stability along the LAC. Modern Navy, a WeChat public account run by the PLA Navy, reported on Wednesday that the PLA Marine Corps stationed in China's first overseas logistic base in Djibouti conducted a series of combat training missions including "countering reconnaissance from hostile aircraft, encountering combat in a desert, and tracking and annihilating terrorists". Experts said the possibility of military conflict around China has increased in recent years, the PLA Daily said. "In regions like the Korean Peninsula, China-India border area and the Taiwan Straits, the PLA needs to be prepared for all possibilities. Our overseas interests in regions like Africa and the Middle East are also under threat due to local instability," Xu Guangyu, a retired major general and senior adviser of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association told the daily. Attorney General K K Venugopal on Friday said the unprecedented move by the four senior judges in holding a press conference "could have been avoided" and the judges would now have to act in "statesmanship" to ensure complete harmony. Venugopal, who had a meeting with Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra after the press conference, spoke to PTI on much persuation and expressed hope that all judges, including the CJI, would rise to the occasion and "wholly neutralise" the "divisiveness". "What has happened today could have been avoided. The judges will now have to act in statesmanship and ensure that the divisiveness is wholly neutralised and total harmony and mutual understanding will prevail in future," he said. "This is what all of us at the bar want and I am sure that the judges, including the CJI, will rise to the occasion," he said, but declined to come out with details of his deliberations with the CJI and others. "I had promised to the judges that I would not speak to the media," Venugopal said. Sources said judges, other than the four senior-most ones, also held a meeting during the recess and were concerned about the unprecedented development. Repeated attempts to reach out to the CJI and his office to get his comments on the development did not fructify. Within days of Sebi passing order against Price Waterhouse network entities in the Satyam scam, chartered accountants' apex body ICAI on Friday said it had awarded maximum punishment to individual auditors involved but has no powers to initiate disciplinary action against CA firms. On Wednesday, Sebi imposed a two-year ban on Price Waterhouse network entities from issuing audit certificates to any listed company in India with respect to the multi-crore scam at the IT major. The institute has cancelled the membership of six chartered accountants with respect to the accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services. Emphasising that it had concluded the disciplinary enquiry at the earliest amongst domestic and international bodies, the ICAI said the present punishment awarded by Sebi is "only a reiteration of the verdict" passed by its disciplinary panel. However, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), in an e-mailed statement, told PTI that it has no powers to take disciplinary action against chartered accountant firms and that a request was sent to the government in this regard in 2010. Sebi has also directed the audit major and its two erstwhile partners who worked on the IT firm's accounts to disgorge wrongful gains worth over Rs 130 million. As per Sebi's 108-page order, the two erstwhile members have also been restrained from issuing any certificate of audit of listed companies, among others, for three years. "With regards to Sebi order in the Satyam case, we would like to inform that the ICAI was the first to be off the blocks when the Satyam matter broke out in January 2009," the institute said. The ICAI had awarded the maximum penalty of removal from membership permanently and imposition of monetary penalty on members involved in the matter, the statement said, adding that it would not like to specifically comment on the order passed by Sebi. "The present punishment awarded by Sebi is only a reiteration of the verdict passed by the disciplinary committee of ICAI except that while the ICAI had punished the concerned members, however the Sebi has imposed this punishment on the audit firm concerned," the statement noted. In 2010, the institute had sent its recommendation to the corporate affairs ministry for making amendments in the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 to enable taking disciplinary action against CA firms. Further, the statement said the institute concluded its disciplinary enquiry at the earliest amongst "domestic/ international agencies/ bodies within 3 years by the year 2012 and disposed of the matter by award of punishment by the year 2013". Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today directed officials to explore setting up a designated help desk to facilitate Indians settled abroad, especially those in Canada, who want to invest in the state. The directive to Secretary, Industries and Commerce and CEO Invest Punjab, Rakesh Verma, came during an interaction with members of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce who called on the chief minister at his official residence here today, an official release said. Urging the delegation, comprising the Indian diaspora, to suggest ways to further strengthen business ties between the two countries, the chief minister suggested they explore investment opportunities in sectors of mutual interest, such as education, skill development, agro-based industry and information technology. He called upon the delegation to harness the positive industrial environment prevailing in the state and assured them of his government's complete support in this regard. Citing the government's 'Connect with Your Roots' programme, which he launched during his UK visit in September last year, Singh said this would go a long way to help connect youngsters, especially the third generation, who had roots in Punjab. He said a similar programme should be initiated for the youth whose parents/grandparents had migrated to Canada from Punjab. Assuring the chief minister of their support, the visiting Canadian delegation led by Kanwar Dhanjal said as the sons and daughters of the Indian soil, it was their moral duty to contribute towards the growth of Punjab. Dhanjal apprised the chief minister of the Canadian technology for converting paddy straw into plywood, which would not only help the state tackle stubble burning but also help supplement farmers' income. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat today said the force was ready to call Pakistan's "nuclear bluff" and cross the border to carry out any operation if asked by the government. "We will call the (nuclear) bluff of Pakistan. If we will have to really confront the Pakistanis, and a task is given to us, we are not going to say we cannot cross the border because they have nuclear weapons. We will have to call their nuclear bluff," Gen. Rawat said. He was responding to a question during a press conference on possibility of Pakistan using its nuclear weapons in case the situation along the border deteriorates. In reply to another question, he said India and the US were deliberating on a proposal to appoint military liaison officers at each other's combatant commands. "We are examining various dimensions of the proposal," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) State-run Rural Electrification Crop (REC) today said it has inked a pact with Tamil Nadu's power utiltiy TANGEDCO to provide a loan of Rs 10,453 crore for setting up 1,320 MW Udangudi Stage-I power project. "The REC signed a loan agreement of Rs 10,453 crore with TANGEDCO for setting up of TANGEDCO's Udangudi Stage-I, 2x660 MW Coal based Supercritical Thermal Power Project in Tuticorin District of Tamil Nadu," an REC statement said. The loan assistance from the REC will not only improve the power infrastructure of the state utilities but will also improve their financial and operational performance. The loan agreement was signed in the presence of Electricity, Prohibition and Excise Minister of Tamil Nadu, P Thangamani and REC chairman and managing director P V Ramesh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Deepak Dobriyal has created a space for himself in the film industry today but the actor recalls a time when he was asked to work for free or shown "arrogance" by big production houses. The actor, who was noted for playing the hilarious Pappiji in Aanand L Rai's "Tanu Weds Manu" series, has featured in prominent films like "Prem Ratan Dhan Payo", "Hindi Medium" and "Lucknow Central" in the recent past. The actor, however, says things were different five years ago. "I had said no to a lot of producers and directors in the last four-five years. At some places there was attitude problem or monetary issues. There was this arrogance that 'we are giving you mileage, a big banner, we won't pay you'. "They asked me to do films for free, lesser money and of course the attitude problem was there. These things were negative but somehow they had a positive effect (on me)," Deepak says in an interview with PTI. The turnaround for Deepak has been sweet as the actor and some of the production houses which were not keen to hire him, have come back. Deepak says it has made him realise that "honesty" in your work. The actor says he can't afford to compromise on the quality of his work. His latest, "Kaalakaandi" - a back comedy - releases today. Starring Saif Ali Khan, the film chronicles the story of six characters from different worlds of Mumbai in a span of 12 hours and how the lives of these strangers intersect. The 42-year-old actor is applauded for his great comic timing but what bothers Deepak is the emphasis to make people laugh for the sake of it. "People have made comedy a gag and left the story behind. Even if you look at the time of Charlie Chaplin and what he did, he infused life experiences in gags. So his gags were films in themselves because they had a story. But today we don't see that... "The pressure to make people laugh shouldn't be there. You should not try to make everyone in the theatre laugh. Tell a story, keep strong characters, and then see the magic," he adds. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Ronan Farrow has signed an exclusive three-year television deal with HBO. As per the agreement, Farrow will develop and be featured in a series of investigative documentary specials for the network, reported Variety. The specials will focus on the abuse of power by individuals and institutions, and will proceed in tandem with ongoing reporting for the New Yorker, which he will be joining as a contributing writer. In addition, Farrow will also serve as a producer and host on other topical, newsworthy pieces for HBO's various platforms, to be announced soon. "Over the course of my television and print investigations in recent years, it's become clear to me that there's a new generation of viewers seeking out serious, substantive reporting that takes on powerful interests and attacks systemic unfairness that too often is swept under the rug. "There's an extraordinary team at HBO committed to that kind of journalism, I know HBO is the right home for this work, and I can't wait to get started," Farrow said. Farrow, who is the son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen, published an explosive report last year in the New Yorker documenting a long history of sexual assault and harassment allegations against now-disgraced Hollywood film and television producer Harvey Weinstein. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Himachal Pradesh government has announced an assistance of Rs 3 lakh for the next of the kin of a minor who was killed in the police custody in the rape-and-murder case of a girl in Kotkhai. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur announced the aid while replying to the discussion on motion of thanks on Governor's address to the legislative assembly. The 16-year-old girl had gone missing in Halila in Kotkhai area of Shimla district on July 4 last year and her bare body was recovered on July 6. After the postmortem report confirmed rape and murder, a case was registered and following public outcry, a Special Investigation team was constituted which arrested six persons. One of the six accused in the case died in police custody and eight police officers, including an IG-rank officer, were arrested by the CBI in connection with the custodial death. Thakur said the public's trust on the state police had gone down in the previous government's rule. "This government shall rebuild that trust," he said. Thakur said times have changed and the voters now want results instead of false promises. The chief minister charged the former Congress government of under-spending funds to provide employment for youth. "Only Rs 7 crore was spent by the last Congress rule on 20,000 youth under the employment allowance scheme. However, it had to provide employment to as many as 12 lakh youth," Thakur said, adding that providing employment to such a large number of youth was difficult but not impossible. "The new government would ensure employment by self employment and by creations of jobs in public and private sector," he said. The chief minister said his government would speed up all the major projects in the state. He said he would rid the state of mafia and corruption of all kinds. "For this, my government shall require assistance and suggestions from the members of opposition also," he said. The house unanimously approved the motion of thanks to Governor's address with voice vote. The house stands adjourned sine die. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kremlin has dismissed a new report by US Senate Democrats describing Russian interference in the US and throughout Europe as unfounded and President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of "aggressive" overreaction. Some European politicians said they are mindful of Moscow's meddling. The 200-page report commissioned by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is the first from Congress to detail alleged Russian efforts to undermine democracies since the 2016 US presidential election. Commenting on the report, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that "the accusations of alleged meddling levelled against our country are absolutely unfounded." Speaking in a conference call Thursday with reporters, Peskov said that "such paranoid concerns not only hurt bilateral relations, but the US itself." "When it grows into an obsession, it doesn't create comfortable conditions for normal social development and life," he said. Speaking at a televised meeting with Russian newspaper editors, Putin pointed at what he described as US meddling in other countries' affairs, adding that "if they poke their nose everywhere they must be able to respond to certain challenges they provoke themselves." "But please don't interpret it like a recognition of our meddling, we haven't meddled," he added. "I want to underline again -- it's sheer nonsense. There has been no collusion, no interference on our part." "No one likes interference in their internal political issues and affairs; our American friends especially do not like it," Putin said. "We see their reaction to unreliable information about our intervention, how sharp it is, I would even say how aggressive it is." The Russian leader didn't specifically mention the Cardin report. No Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee signed on to Cardin's inquiry, which directly blamed Putin for a "relentless assault to undermine democracy and the rule of law in Europe and the United States." US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the US election to help Donald Trump, a Republican, defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. The congressional and the FBI investigations into the Russian meddling have haunted Trump, thwarting Russia's hopes for better ties with the US under his administration. Putin said that Russia remains willing to improve ties with the US, but added that the US political infighting makes it difficult. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Russian army today said it had "eliminated" the militants behind a mortar attack on a base in Syria on New Year's Eve that killed two Russian soldiers. "The command of our troops in Syria carried out a special operation to find and eliminate the group of militants that carried out the mortar attack on the Hmeimim base (Western Syria)," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement. Special forces tracked the fighters to their base camp near the border of Idlib province, the statement said. When the fighters, whose affiliation was not announced, were preparing to leave the base they were "destroyed by a Krasnopol guided missile," according to the ministry. "A drone assembly and storage area was also discovered" the announcement said. Ten drones equipped with explosives attacked Russia's airbase in Hmeimim in the early hours of January 6, the military previously reported. There were no casualties. Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Syria last month where he ordered the start of a pullout of Russian troops, saying their task in the war-torn country had been largely completed. Three battalions of military police and officers of the Russian Center for Reconciliation would remain in Syria, as well as two Russian bases, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on a subsequent trip. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A joint SAD-BJP delegation today urged Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore to direct the Congress government to implement a Rs 90,000 crore farm loan waiver. The delegation also wants the state government to get all sacrilege cases of the previous SAD-BJP government as well as the present Congress tenure inquired by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, a party release said here. The joint delegation, headed by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJP state president Vijay Sampla, briefed the governor about the manner in which the Congress government has "lied, deceived and betrayed farmers by refusing to honour its commitment of a complete loan waiver," the release said. The Congress government should implement a complete Rs 90,000 crore farm loan waiver for all farmers and ensure loans of farm labourers and dalits are also waived, as promised by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh during his poll campaign. Badal said only a limited loan of a few per cent of the indebted farmers was being considered for waiver despite cabinet decisions and even an assurance by the chief minister in the legislative assembly about complete loan waiver. "Small farmers who had incurred a loan of more than Rs two lakh have been kept out of its ambit and even marginal farmers with 2.5 acres of land are virtually kept out of the scheme," said Badal. SAD MPs Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Prem Singh Chandumajra, who were part of the delegation, alleged that more farmers were committing suicide due to the "flawed nature" of the scheme. In a separate memorandum, the delegation also urged the governor to ask the Congress government to set up an inquiry headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court to go into all cases of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib during the tenure of the SAD-BJP government and the current regime. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With an aim to create awareness about its products from new and modernised mills, state-run SAIL organised a seminar that was attended by representatives of infra companies and government departments, among others. The seminar on 'New Age Structurals with State-of- the-Art Technology' was held yesterday in Chandigarh, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) said in a statement. This was the second such seminar by SAIL to create awareness about its new products from the company's new and modernised mills. It was attended by eminent architects, infrastructure development companies, government departments and business owners, it added. Before this, a seminar was recently conducted in Nagpur. After modernisation, SAIL said, its "new mills are equipped to roll out more market oriented products suited as per the industry and retail sector requirements". The products of SAIL include structurals, plates, coils, etc. SAIL is ready to cater to the requirements of infrastructure and construction sectors. These structurals have the capability to be an important source for making large structural like Steel buildings, large godowns and are useful in various steel intensive industries, the PSU said. The company further said it believes such initiatives will also help raising the steel consumption. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The decision of four senior-most judges of the to hold a press conference was on Friday termed as "unprecedented" by the legal fraternity, with some experts terming it as "shocking" while some others saying there could have been some compelling reasons for such a move. Some legal luminaries also said the turn of events had raised a question mark about the credibility of the judicial system. Senior advocates K T S Tulsi, former union law ministers Salman Khurshid and Ashwini Kumar, former judges Justice R S Sodhi and Justice Mukul Mudgal expressed concern over the unprecedented press conference, while senior advocate Indira Jaising welcomed the move and congratulated the four judges. BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy said when such judges come out to do a press conference, it is necessary to take them seriously rather than finding fault. Swamy said the Prime Minister should take an initiative and contact the Chief Justice and the four judges to resolve the whole situation through the process of consultation. However, Justice Sodhi questioned the move of the top judges approaching the media and asked how they can administer the through press conferences. "I am so pained at the outcome of the things... It is appalling. How can you administer by press conference. Are you going to hold a referendum and ask people what is right and wrong," Justice Sodhi said. Justice Mudgal said the four senior-most judges were bringing the issues to light which according to them was necessary to be brought to the public notice. He said they must have had compelling reasons to go public and "they are not publicity hungry judges and do not crave for unnecessary publicity". Terming the presser as "a welcome step", senior lawyer Indira Jaising congratulated the four judges for the "bold move" and said: "As they said they are discharging a debt to history, namely to let the nation know that something is going wrong and needs to be corrected." She said the intention of the press meet was "to build a consensus to owe a debt of duty to the institution as a whole and ensure that this institution survives for you and me." Advocate Prashant Bhushan also termed the event as unprecedented and said the judges took extreme decision to hold press conference under compelling circumstances. "These four judges are very responsible. If they are doing this, the situation would have definitely gone out of control. They said the CJI was misusing his administrative powers to allot all cases," Bhushan said. Senior lawyer KTS Tulsi said the step was quite shocking and one had never thought that "things would come such far compelling the four senior-most judges to adopt this course of action." "I am sure they (four judges) have exhausted all other remedies. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking. The whole matter is with respect to judicial propriety. The question is of natural justice. Whatever is the law for common man, it is applied much more rigorously as far as judges are concerned because they must always be above suspicion," Tulsi said. Similarly, former union minister and senior advocate Khurshid said there were some deep differences among the judges about how the apex court should function, terming it as a matter of anguish. "I can only hope that conversation among the judges will not snap and will continue and that with accommodation and logic it will be settled. It has come too far," Khurshid said. Former Law Minister Ashwini Kumar said it was "a sad day for Indian democracy." "This press conference is a strike at the root of the institutional integrity of the higher judiciary. It has raised question marks about the credibility of the system as such and has directly cast aspersions at the head of the Indian judiciary. "I think the people of this country who have had highest regard to the highest judiciary will now be forced to think aloud as to whether we have gone gravely wrong somewhere," he said. Accompanied by three senior judges Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, Justice J Chelameswar himself said "this is an extraordinary event in the history of any nation, more particularly this nation and an extraordinary event in the institution of judiciary ... It is with no pleasure that we are compelled to call this press conference. "But sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months. The Supreme Court today termed as a "serious matter" the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge B H Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Seikh encounter case, and asked Maharashtra government to file his autopsy report. The top court asked the state government to file its reply by January 15 and said "this matter requires bi-parte hearing rather than ex-parte". "This is a serious issue. We would like counsel for state of Maharashtra to seek instructions and file the post mortem report and other relevant documents by January 15," a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar said. At the outset, senior advocate Dushyant Dave representing Bombay Lawyers' Association said the high court was already seized of the matter and the top court should refrain from hearing the issue. The bench asked Dave to specify why the apex court should not hear the petition. To this, he said "the Bombay High Court is seized of the matter and in my opinion the Supreme Court should not hear this matter. If the court goes ahead with the hearing, it may have implications before the high court." Dave said he has been representing Bombay Lawyers' Association before the high court. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, who was also present in the courtroom, said she also had instructions from Bombay Lawyers' Association to pray that this matter should not be heard by the top court. She said that two orders have already been passed by the high court with one regarding issuing of notice and other for listing of matter on January 23. Hence the top court should not hear the matter. "We will see. We will take into consideration your objections. This is a serious issue," the bench said. Advocate Varinder Kumar Sharma, appearing for Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla, said this was a case where a mysterious death of a judge, who was hearing a sensitive case, had taken place on December 1, 2014 and it needed to be investigated independently. "Let the state government file its reply by January 15. Then we will see what can be done," the bench said and listed the matter for further hearing. Judge Loya had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. The apex court had yesterday agreed to hear two separate pleas filed by Poonawalla and Maharashtra-based journalist B R Lone, seeking independent probe into the death of Loya. The issue had come under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding his death and its link to the Sohrabuddin case. Poonawala, in his plea, said the circumstances revolving around the death of the judge were "questionable, mysterious and contradicting". "It is the submission of the petitioner that the judges are bestowed with the duty to protect the Constitution and uphold the majesty of rule of law. The judiciary, if not protected, may be unable to fulfil its duty towards public at large. In cases where prima facie material is available to investigate, it is absolutely necessary to order an inquiry," the Congress leader said. The other plea filed by the journalist submitted that a fair probe was needed into the mysterious death of Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin encounter case in which various police officers and BJP president Amit Shah were named as parties. A PIL seeking probe into the judge's death has also been filed before the Bombay High Court on January 8 by the Bombay Lawyers' Association. In the encounter case, the BJP President along with Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief P C Pande, Additional Director General of Police Geeta Johri and Gujarat police officers Abhay Chudasama and N K Amin, have already been discharged. A total of 23 accused, including police personnel, are facing trial for their involvement in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his wife Kausar Bi and their associate Tulsidas Prajapati in Gujarat in November 2005. The case was later transferred to CBI and the trial shifted to Mumbai. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A major tragedy was averted at Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh today when thirty students were rescued after the school bus they were travelling in caught fire, police said. City Superintendent of Police R M Shukla said the bus, belonging to a private school, caught fire at the Station Bus Square with 30 students on board today afternoon. Onlookers and police personnel rescued them quickly, he said. The documents of the bus, including its 'fitness certificate', were up to date, but no first-aid box and fire extinguisher were found inside, he said. Police arrested driver Rakesh Joshi, while the Regional Transport Officer cancelled the fitness certificate of the vehicle, he added. The bus is 12 years old, he said. On January 5, four students of Delhi Public School (DPS) and the driver were killed when a speeding school bus ran into a truck at Kanadiya by-pass in Indore. Following the accident, the transport department initiated a drive against the school buses which do not meet safety norms. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scientists are working on a project to accurately predict areas of abundant fish in sea well in advance. Researchers from the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO) are using satellite imagery and underwater gadgets to come up with correct forecast - nearly one month in advance - about locations of shoals of fish in sea waters. The fishing industry currently banks on daily advisories to fisher folk provided by the Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS). "To enhance the fishery sector, we are working in a direction to see how we can predict the presence of fish in the ocean on one month time scale or even longer duration using physics, chemistry and biology," CSIR-NIO Director Sunil Kumar Singh told PTI. The researchers feel long-term predictions would help in rationing the fishery resources and their harvesting in a sustainable manner. He said, "The fishing industry is currently getting prediction on a daily basis. What the INCOIS does is to take satellite imagery from frontal zones and predict fish catch." The CSIR-NIO wants to take a step ahead and scientifically probe whysome of the frontal zones are acting as a good source of fishing and some of them not, Singh said. "We have tried to understand physics and chemistry behind the phenomenon of frontal zones. The prediction by INCOIS is accurate during most of the time but in some areas, it is not successful. The CSIR-NIO is trying to understand why some frontal zones are having catch and some not." A team, led by senior CSIR-NIO scientist A C Anil, is trying "to understand, not only at the coast but also in open ocean, what is the controlling factor of fisheries and how the chemistry, physics and biology of the ocean is governing it." Singh said based on the research, the CSIR-NIO will be able to predict, on a long-term scale, the amount and kind of fishes available in a particular area. This, according to Singh, will help the governments know the total stock available in fishing zones and one can plan accordingly for a year. "Right now, there is no control due to which illegal fishing is going on. The danger is that we will consume all the fishes and nothing will be left. "So once we are able to predict well in advance (about areas of abundant fish in the ocean), one can plan accordingly," Singh maintained. The researchers will be banking on a combination of satellite and underwater equipment like moorings and buoys to collect the data for long-term predictions, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three suspected Islamist militants were killed today in a security raid at their hideout near Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's office in the capital, officials said. The bodies and explosives were found inside the building near the office of the prime minister, said anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) chief Benazir Ahmed. "We found three bodies at the end of our operation," Ahmed said. The operation was carried out in Tejgaon area following information that some of the suspects were staying in a rented apartment. Residents in the neighbourhood said exchange of gunshots and explosions rocked the scene as the RAB, which draws personnel from both army and police, cordoned off the six- storey apartment complex after midnight last night. Ahmed said the militants rented the fourth floor of the building pretending as ordinary tenants since the beginning of this month while the security forces found unexploded explosives, including grenades after the raid. "We began the operation after confirming that the militants are living on the particular floor... we planned so the other residents of the building are unhurt," RAB spokesperson Mufti Mahmud Khan told reporters. He said the bodies were found as the RAB men broke into the apartment earlier today as no response was received from inside but did not immediately say which terrorist outfit they belonged to. Neighbours said they hardly saw the residents of the fourth-floor since they rented the house and always found its door and windows closed. Bangladesh has been battling a rise of Islamic militancy for the last few years as the militants targeted liberals including atheist bloggers, foreigners and minority groups. In July 2016, five militants stormed a restaurant and killed 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners in Dhaka's Gulshan diplomatic area. An Indian girl was among those killed in Bangladesh's worst terror attack. Hasina's government says the militants' network has been weakened significantly after a security crackdown and the killings of more than 60 suspects including some top commanders since the restaurant attack. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man, who was absconding in a 17- year-old forgery case, landed in police net today due to his profile on social media, an official said. Ahnish Bhatnagar was arrested from his rented accommodation in the Vaishali Nagar area here where he was living with a different identity, Ajay Sharma, station house officer, Malviya Nagar, said. Bhatnagar had allegedly accumulated funds from clients for his company with a promise of high returns, but later wind up his office in 2001 to commit forgery running into lakhs, the official said. He was arrested on the directions of the Rajasthan High Court, where a case was pending, Sharma said. Bhatnagar was on social media with a different name, he said. A detailed investigation of his profile revealed that he was living in the Vaishali Nagar area from where he was arrested, the SHO said. Two other accused were absconding and Bhatnagar was being interrogated, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) JNU Students Union today alleged that Dean of School of Social Sciences Prof Pradipta Chowdhary "wrongfully confined" a group of 25 students for boycotting the compulsory attendance. "In a highly condemnable incident today, 25 students of Centre for Economic Studies and Planning of School of Social Sciences were wrongfully confined and forced to sign attendance sheets by Prof Chowdhary," JNUSU President Geeta Kumari said in a statement. Chowdhary did not respond to calls or messages. The incident took place at 2.30 pm in 'Monetary and Banking Institutions' lecture when the students refused to sign the attendance sheet in accordance with the JNUSU's call for boycott of compulsory attendance, the statement said, adding Chowdhary refused to allow students to leave without signing the attendance sheet. In October last year, Chowdhary was appointed as Dean by the Vice Chancellor "superseding five senior professors", one of the moves by the administration that attracted flak from the teachers community. Jawaharlal Nehru University administration has made minimum 75 per cent attendance compulsory for all students. Meanwhile, JNU Teachers Association yesterday announced its decision to boycott administration's order making attendance compulsory for students, saying it was an "unproductive" and "meaningless" form of bureaucratic work for teachers. Early this month, JNU Students Union had too announced its decision to boycott the administration's move. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra government will appoint an officer to oversee renovation of a temple dedicated to Sant Nivruttinath near here, minister Girish Mahajan said today. The temple of Sant Nivruttinath, elder brother of legendary saint Sant Dnyaneshwar, is located at the holy town of Trimbakeshwar, 30km from here in North Maharashtra. The government will appoint a special officer to supervise its renovation, the Water Resources Minister said. Mahajan was speaking after taking part in a 'maha pooja' at the 'samadhi' of Sant Nivruttinath, a 13th century saint, this morning along with his wife Sadhanatai. Meanwhile, lakhs of 'warkaris' (pilgrims) from different parts of Maharashtra have arrived in the holy town to take part in the annual Sant Nivruttinath Maharaj fair. Police have made elaborate security arrangements for the event and the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation is running special buses to ferry devotees to Trimbakeshwar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A nine-member Sri Lankan Tri-Services delegation, headed by Secretary of Defence Kapila Waidyaratne, paid a two-day visit to the Southern Naval Command here, in order to strengthen the India-Sri Lanka bilateral ties. During their visit, the Sri Lankan delegation had discussions with Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral AR Karve on matters of mutual interest to both countries, including aspects related to training conducted by the Indian Navy for Sri Lankan trainees at various units of SNC, a defence release said today. The delegation also visited Water Survival Training Facility (a facility which trains the aviation crew in survival techniques in case of an aircraft crash at sea), Flight and Tactical Simulator (helicopter flight training simulator), Ship Handling Simulator and Joint Operations Centre, Kochi, the release said. India's naval cooperation with Sri Lanka today covers a wide spectrum of activities, ranging from training to operations and includes Capability Building and Capacity Augmentation, coordinated patrolling along the common maritime border, as well as port calls. The visit took place on the sidelines of the 5th India-Sri Lanka Annual Defence Dialogue held in New Delhi from January 8 to 9. The delegation departed for Colombo today. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese police have recovered two stolen Qing Dynasty pagoda in east China's Zhejiang province and arrested 13 people. The two pagodas were originally located in Xiwuan Ruin in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang. Villagers noticed the pagodas were missing since November and reported the case to the police. The pagodas were built in Qing Dynasty and each weigh hundreds of kilogrammes, state-run Xinhua agency reported last night. Police arrested a suspect named Cai at his home in Huzhou City on December 8. Cai said he hired twelve people to help him remove and transport the pagodas back to his home and he planned to sell them. The other twelve suspects are also in custody, the report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The suspension of military aid to Pakistan by America is "welcoming" for India, experts, including a former Indian envoy tor the US today said. A group of experts drawn from diverse fields participated in a panel discussion on the 'US India relation under Trump Presidency' at the India Habitat Centre here. "Many former Indian prime ministers sustained the forward trajectory in the Indo-US ties. And, during President Donald Trump's election campaigning and later after he assumed presidency, there were positivity in ties, so the forward trajectory can be sustained," former India's ambassador to the US, Arun K Singh said. Singh served as India's ambassador to the US in 2015-16. On the Trump administration freezing of the US military aid, he said, such strong decision on Pakistan swas "welcoming for India." Geostrategic trends expert Brahma Chellaney, and a fellow panelist, concurred that the step was welcoming for India, "But only sustained pressure (on Pakistan) will yield results." "On action here and one action there won't suffice," he said on the sidelines of the panel. On January 1, Trump had 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 and deceit." Washington has confirmed that it will withhold nearly USD 2 billion in aid to Pakistan. Trump has accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network fighting in war-torn Afghanistan. The freezing of US military aid to Pakistan also includes USD 255 million due to it for military equipment and training under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) fund, and USD 700 m under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) -- paid to the country for conducting operations against militant groups. The event was organsied by the India America Friendship Association in partnership with the University of Chicago Center in Delhi. Other panelists included Surjit Bhalla, member of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, JNU professor Chintamani Mhapatra and Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd), distinguished fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today said it has bagged a deal worth more than USD 2 billion from the US insurance group Transamerica, marking its largest contract to date. The contract, which entails transforming Transamerica's US insurance and annuity business lines, comes close on the heels of a mega deal TCS had clinched from television rating measurement firm Nielsen. "The multi-year agreement (with Transamerica) is worth more than USD 2 billion in revenues, the largest contract signed by TCS to date," TCS said in a statement. The partnership enables Transamerica to rapidly enhance its digital capabilities, simplify the service of more than 10 million policies into a single integrated modern platform, it added. The announcement comes a day after TCS reported 3.6 per cent fall its its net profit to Rs 6,531 crore in the December 2017 quarter. "TCS will provide valuable administration and quality customer service, and Transamerica will continue to engage with our customers, clients and advisors in the most meaningful ways to them by utilising our digital engagement platforms and developing new solutions that help people save, protect, invest and retire," Mark Mullin, Transamerica President and CEO, said. The agreement is expected to lead to annual run-rate savings of about USD 70 million initially growing to USD 100 million over time for Transamerica, the statement said. TCS said it will make job offers to all of the applicable Transamerica employees currently supporting the life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance, and workplace voluntary benefits business lines. This, it said, will ensure "a consistently excellent experience for Transamerica customers and protecting approximately 2,200 American jobs". It added that employees transitioning to TCS will be given the opportunity to remain in the same US cities where they are currently based. TCS will also expand its existing relationship with Transamerica under this transaction, and locate in Transamerica's current offices in various US cities. "We have invested heavily in our insurance digital platform, TCS BaNCS, and our extensive US capabilities, and are proud to partner with Transamerica in its ongoing transformation and welcome the transitioning employees to promising new careers at TCS," TCS CEO and MD Rajesh Gopinathan said. TCS plans to make a significant investment in the region, most notably by establishing its new North American insurance hub for business operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Apart from offering roles to 2,200 Transamerica employees, TCS also plans to hire locally in Iowa, set up relationships with educational institutions, and help employees with professional development to gain digital skills and fluency, it said. TCS President and Global Head, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Platforms Suresh Muthuswami said the deal marks TCS entry into a highly specialised US Insurance Third Party Administration (TPA) marketplace and will establish TCS BaNCS as a formidable digital platform for the US insurance industry. TCS BaNCS has had a strong play in the European market for more than a decade, with more than 17 million policies under administration. The partnership will enable the transformation of the administration of Transamerica's life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance, and workplace voluntary benefits products, the statement said. It will also support Transamerica's overall transition to a simplified, cloud-enabled platform for agile new product development, enhanced services, acquisitions, and strategic innovation investments, it added. Shares of TCS were trading 1.13 per cent lower at Rs 2,757 apiece on BSE. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New York authorities announced today the arrest of 10 alleged mobsters, including an acting boss and a consigliere in the Bonanno crime family, who face at least 20 years in prison if convicted. Nine of the suspects were arrested today. One of the 10 was presented before a magistrate judge in Pennsylvania with the others scheduled to appear in a US federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors said. They are charged with racketeering conspiracy, and crimes including extortion, loansharking, wire and mail fraud, narcotics distribution, and conspiracy to commit murder. Eight of the defendants belong to the Bonanno family, one of five different families that make up the mafia in the US financial capital, prosecutors said. They include 58-year-old acting boss Joseph Cammarano, 60-year-old consigliere John Zancocchio, also known as "Porky", George Tropiano, 68, also known as "Grumpy," Albert Armetta, 48, also known as "Al Muscles" and 85-year-old Domineck Miniero. Armetta has also been charged with assault, prosecutors said. The other suspects are Ernest Montevecchi, known as "Butch" from the Genovese family, and Luchese family member Eugene Castelle, also known as "Boobsie," prosecutors said. New York, America's most populous city that is home to 8.5 million people, has seen crime drop to historic lows and police have aggressively cracked down on organized gangs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The anti-narcotic squad of Mizoram Excise and Narcotics department arrested three persons and seized more than 11 lakh pseudoephedrine tablets from their possession here, the department's spokesperson Peter Zohmingthanga said today. The tablets worth around Rs 44.28 lakh weighed around 123 kilogram, the spokesperson said. The department officials and the Young Mizo Association's (YMA) anti-drug squad seized the tablets during a joint operation yesterday night, the spokesperson said. The accused were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, the spokesperson added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Trump administration is pleased that China is reducing its trade with North Korea, the White House said today. China, which accounts for nearly all of North Korea's trade and energy supplies, today said that its trade with Pyongyang plunged 50 per cent in December. North Korea last year increased the pace of its missile programme and launched 23 missiles since February. In November, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said that his country had achieved full nuclear statehood after what he said was the successful test of a new missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement: "The Donald J Trump administration is pleased that China is sharply reducing its trade with North Korea," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "This action supports the United States-led global effort to apply maximum pressure until the North Korean regime ends its illicit programmes, changes its behaviour and moves towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," she said. A day earlier, Trump in an interview to The Wall Street Journal said that China has not been "helpful enough" to the United States on the issue of North Korea, even though they have been very helpful. "Not helpful enough, but they've been very helpful. Let's put it this way, they've done more for me than they ever have for any American president. They still haven't done enough," Trump had said. "But they've done more for me than they have, by far, for any - I have a very good relationship with President Xi (Jinping). I like him. He likes me. We have a great chemistry together. He's - China has done far more for us than they ever have for any American president. With that being said, it's not enough. They have to do more," Trump insisted. As a result of Chinese help so far, Trump said he has not been tough on China as he would like to be. "We've been much tougher on China, but not nearly as tough as I would be, but they are helping us a lot with North Korea. And you see in North Korea what's happening with North Korea all of a sudden. "China's been helping us a lot, so you can veer a little bit differently, but for the most part everything I've said I've done," he said in response to a question on his electoral promise of being tough on China. North Korea, he said, is a big problem. "It is a big problem, and they should not have left me with that problem. That should have been a problem that was solved by (Barack) Obama, or (George W) Bush, or (Bill) Clinton or anybody because the longer it went the worse, the more difficult the problem got," Trump said. "This should not have been a problem left on my desk, but it is and I get things solved. And one way or the other, that problem is going to be solved. China has been helping us and I appreciate the help, but they can do much more," the US president added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump has expressed frustration over efforts of some US lawmakers to protect immigrants from Haiti and African countries, asking why America should accept citizens from "shithole" countries, triggering an international furor over the remarks. Trump, however, denied using the derogatory remarks during a meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform, but admitted he used "tough" language in that meeting. Trump, in a series of tweets, defended his immigration stance and claimed that the remarks attributed to him were not accurate. Trump yesterday met senators and congressmen and pushed for immigrants from certain Asian countries who help America economically. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump was quoted by multiple media reports. The president was referring to African countries and Haiti, and then suggested the US should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday. His comments, which has been slammed by Democratic lawmakers, was first reported by The Washington Post. The New York Times later reported the same comment. Trump today rejected reports that he told lawmakers that the US should block immigrants from "shithole" countries. "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," Trump tweeted. 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. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme shields from deportation nearly 800,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. Trump, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt they help the US economically, The report said. "Sadly, Democrats want to stop paying our troops and government workers in order to give a sweetheart deal, not a fair deal, for DACA. Take care of our Military, and our Country, FIRST! Trump said in another tweet. Trump has been calling for merit-based immigration, of which people from countries like India could be a major beneficiary. "I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs, said the US president, criticising the proposed bipartisan deal. "I want to fund our military, not do a Dem defund because of the Democrats not being interested in life and safety, DACA has now taken a big step backwards. The Dems will threaten 'shutdown,' but what they are really doing is shutting down our military, at a time we need it most. Get smart, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Trump said. The African Union and several Democratic lawmakers slammed Trump for his comments and described them as racist. The African Union said that Trump's description of African nations as "shithole countries" was upsetting. "President Trump's comments are racist and a disgrace. They do not reflect our nations values. Immigrants from throughout the world of all races, nationalities, and religions have built this country and are contributing today to its improvement," said House Democratic Whip Steny H Hoyer. "These comments clearly reflect the President's true feelings on immigrants and make it extremely doubtful that he will work in an honest, decent way that reflects Americas best values on legislation to protect DREAMers," Hoyer said. "As an American, I am ashamed of the president. 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," alleged Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez. "Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House," said Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen. In a statement, Shah said the President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration two programs that hurt American economy and allow terrorists into the 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," Shah said. "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," Shah said in response to a question. Earlier in the day, in an interview to The Wall Street Journal, Trump asserted that he will not accept any immigration deal that does not hasa provision to build a wall along the Mexico border. "We have to have a wall. We don't have a wall, we are not doing the deal," he reiterated. Trump, who has had a series of meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform over the past several days, said he has a good chance to make a deal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump today cancelled a "working visit" to the UK planned for next month to officially launch a new US embassy, blaming a "bad deal" struck by the previous Obama-administration to relocate the base from central London to an "off location". The US president launched his attack on Twitter against the embassy's move from Grosvenor Square in the posh Mayfair area of the city to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, in a USD 1.2 billion project. 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 1.2 billion dollars.Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!". US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will now step in for the launch of the new embassy site, which will open to staff on January 16. The short visit by Trump in February was not the full State Visit proposed by British Prime Minister Theresa May on the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II, for which no date has yet been set. Downing Street said no date has been confirmed for any visit by Trump and that the opening of the US embassy "is a matter for the US". The "strong and deep" partnership between Britain and the US "will endure" despite Trump's cancellation, a spokesman was quoted as saying by the BBC. However, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan - who has clashed with the president in the past - said the US president had "got the message" that many Londoners were staunchly opposed to his policies and actions. Sections of the UK media claim that the visit was cancelled amid fears of mass protests as the embassy's plan to move from Mayfair to Nine Elms in London pre-dated the Barack Obama administration and was first reported in October 2008, when George W Bush was still the president. Citing security and environmental reasons, the US State Department had agreed to sell the current embassy building in Grosvenor Square to the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co, which intends to turn it into a luxury hotel. 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". Trump had also been scheduled to hold talks with prime minister May in No 10 Downing Street, with February 26 and 27 marked in the diary for the visit. Downing Street had hoped to announce the dates this week. The working visit cancellation follows a strain in UK-US relations, with May criticising Trump's decision to retweet material posted by the far-right extremist group, Britain First, last November. Trump had responded by tweeting directly to the British PM that she should focus on tackling domestic terrorism. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump today 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 be drawn on 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump is likely to meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos later this month, the White House said. The two leaders also spoke over phone ahead of their Davos meeting. "The two leaders discussed President Macron's recent visit to China and committed to continue to apply pressure on North Korea until it returns to the path of denuclearization," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. During the call, Trump underscored that Iran must stop its "destabilizing activity" in the region. "The two leaders agreed to meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, schedules permitting," Sanders said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump has said that he feels "betrayed" by his former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon who was highly critical of him and his family in a book published last week. Bannon who worked with him first as his campaign manager and then as his chief strategist at the White House was fired by him last August. In a book 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House' published last week, Bannon is extensively quoted as being highly critical of him and his family, even going to the extent of claiming that the president was not interested in winning the presidential election and that first lady Melania wept after the election result because she did not want Trump to win. "I feel betrayed because you are not supposed to do that, but I have many people that work for me who were far more important than Steve, right there," Trump was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal. "I always liked Steve, but Steve became very ineffective because he was such a lightning rod. And Steve, in the end I fired Steve," Trump said. Soon after the excerpts of the book was released, Trump in a statement said that Bannon has nothing to do with his presidency and that he has lost his mind. "Is that relationship permanently broken between you and Steve?" he was asked. "You never know, I don't know what the word permanent means. We will see what happens, but Steve had nothing to do with my win. Well, certainly very little," he asserted. "Steve's greatest asset is he was able to convince a corrupt media that he was responsible for my win. Hope, just out of curiosity, you were there from day one. What do you think Steve in a percentage had to do with my victory? I mean he was there. Corey [Lewandowski] had more to do with it," Trump said. Asserting that the liberal media dislikes him, Trump said he is smart. "I was successful, successful, successful. I was always the best athlete, people dont know that. But I was successful at everything I ever did and then I run for president, first timefirst time, not three times, not six times. I ran for president first time and lo and behold, I win. And then people say oh, is he a smart person? I am smarter than all of them put together, but they cant admit it. They had a bad year," Trump said. "When I won against the 17 people, you cant then say that oh, gee, somebody comes in two months after I won, and he gives me new policy, new idea. I cant change those ideas, those ideas are wedded," he said. Trump said that Bannon's remarks against his son were horrible. "My son had a brief meeting based on the fact that he thought whatever he thought. And somebody said bad stuff on an opponent. I dont know of one politician in Washingtonif youre a politician and somebody called up that they have information on your opponent that might be negative," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump today said that he will soon take a decision whether or not to re- impose wide-ranging sanctions on Iran. "You'll be finding out very soon," Trump told reporters in response to a question at the White House amidst reports that he is expected to take a decision as early as tomorrow to renew the waiver on US sanctions against Iran. Trump was asked what is his current thinking on Iran. "You're going to be finding out very soon. You'll be finding that out very soon," he said. Top Republican Senator Marco Rubio said the "deeply flawed Obama Iran deal" should not be a grant of immunity to Iran from sanctions related to non-nuclear activities. "Should the President choose to remain in the Iran nuclear deal, he should also impose new sanctions against elements of the Iranian government, including the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks, that are involved in or facilitating the regime's human rights abuses against Iranian protesters, its ballistic missile program, or its support for terrorism, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regional destabilisation," Rubio said in a statement. Trump has already declared that he no longer considers the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers to be in the United States' national interest. He, however, 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. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump has expressed frustration over efforts of some US lawmakers to protect immigrants from Haiti and African countries, asking why America should accept citizens from "shithole" countries, triggering protests. Trump met senators and congressmen and pushed for immigrants from certain Asian countries who help America economically. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump was quoted by multiple media reports. The president was referring to African countries and Haiti, and then suggested the US should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday. His comments, which has been slammed by Democratic lawmakers, was first reported by The Washington Post. Trump, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt they help the US economically, The report said. Notably, Trump has been calling for merit-based immigration, of which people from countries like India could be a major beneficiary. Trump said this during a bipartisan meeting of lawmakers in his Oval Office. "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 without directly referring to Trump's comments. Trump has been seeking to end temporary protection status of people from certain countries. Several Democratic lawmakers slammed Trump for his comments and described them as racist comment. "President Trump's comments are racist and a disgrace. They do not reflect our nations values. Immigrants from throughout the world of all races, nationalities, and religions have built this country and are contributing today to its improvement," said House Democratic Whip Steny H Hoyer. "These comments clearly reflect the President's true feelings on immigrants and make it extremely doubtful that he will work in an honest, decent way that reflects Americas best values on legislation to protect DREAMers," Hoyer said. "As an American, I am ashamed of the president. 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," alleged Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez. "Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House," said Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen. In a statement, Shah said the President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration two programs that hurt American economy and allow terrorists into the 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," Shah said. "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," Shah said in response to a question. Earlier in the day, in an interview to The Wall Street Journal, Trump asserted that he will not accept any immigration deal that does not hasa provision to build a wall along the Mexico border. "We have to have a wall. We don't have a wall, we are not doing the deal," he reiterated. Trump, who has had a series of meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform over the past several days, said he has a good chance to make a deal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump today reiterated his support for a merit-based immigration system which will take America to the "next level", asserting that he wanted safety and security of Americans and an end to "massive" inflow of drugs. Trump's remarks came after he reportedly called African and other nations "shithole" countries, triggering outrage from the UN and the African Union. "I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs," Trump said. "I want to fund our military, not do a Dem defund....," he said. Trump has been calling for a merit-based immigration system, of which people from countries like India could be a major beneficiary, to reduce overall immigration to the US. On Wednesday, he said a merit-based system will allow only people with "great track record" to enter the country. "I would like to add the words 'merit' into any bill that's submitted because I think we should have merit-based immigration like they have in Canada, like they have in Australia. "So we have people coming in that have a great track record, as opposed to what we're doing now, to be honest with you," Trump said during his meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House. He also called for ending the chain migration, the fastest and easiest way to gain legal entry into America, through sponsorship by a family member who is already a legal resident or citizen of the US. "Chain migration is bringing in many, many people with one, and often it doesn't work out very well. Those many people are not doing us right," he said and called for ending the visa lottery system. "I'm appealing to everyone in the room to put the country before party, and to sit down and negotiate and to compromise, and let's see if we can get something done," Trump said. Earlier, in an interview to The Wall Street Journal, Trump asserted that he will not accept any immigration deal that does not havea provision to build a wall along the Mexico border to stop illegal entry of people from that country. "We have to have a wall. We don't have a wall, we are not doing the deal," he said yesterday, adding that he has a good chance to make a deal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has written to vice chancellors and principals of all universities and colleges in the state expecting them to ensure academic ambience in the premises so that students are not influenced by any propaganda or anti-social elements. He also emphasised on better dialogue between students and the university to avoid any confrontation and said the problems of students, if any, should be resolved on priority. "It is expected of the VCs and principals to maintain academic ambience in the premises of universities and colleges so that students are not influenced by any propaganda or anti-social elements," Adityanath said in his letter. "The activities of unscrupulous elements in hostels should be kept on watch and outsiders' influence on students should be take care of," he said, suggesting installation of CCTV cameras in campuses. The chief minister said security of new comers should be ensured, incidents of ragging should be checked and strict disciplinary action should be initiated against those involved in such activities. "Initiatives of state and Centre like Stand up India, Start up India, Clean India, Digital India should be briefed to students. Points related to national unity and integrity should be included in the syllabus and students should be told about moral values," he said. Adityanath also emphasised on meeting between head of departments with parents and regular classes in universities and colleges. He also suggested holding of seminars and conferences and inter-university programmes for grooming students. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Ambassador to Panama John Feeley has resigned, saying he cannot serve under President Donald Trump, media reports said today. The State Department, however, said the 56-year-old Feeley had retired due to personal reasons. Feeley, a former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, is the first career foreign service diplomat to resign under Trump. "John Feeley, the US Ambassador to Panama, has informed the White House, the Department of State, and the Government of Panama of his decision to retire for personal reasons, as of March 9 of this year," the State Department said. "Deputy Chief of Mission Roxanne Cabral will assume leadership of our diplomatic mission in Panama until a new Ambassador arrives," it said. Feeley is a Career Minister in the Senior Foreign Service and one of the Department's leading Latin America specialists. According to multiple media reports, Feeley in his resignation letter said that he cannot serve under the current US president. "As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies," Feeley said in his letter reported by various media outlets. "My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honor bound to resign. That time has come," he said. The was first reported by a local Panama newspaper. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unauthorised construction would not have come up in the national capital had the MCD been vigilant in their work, the Delhi High Court said today. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said a lot of judicial time would also have been saved, if the civic bodies had done their job honestly. "Today, the courts and appellate courts are flooded with petitions relating to illegal construction in Delhi. When the petition comes up before the court, then only you (MCD) take action and issue notice. When these buildings come up, you keep quite and allow it to go up," it remarked. It also said that there was a public perception that anyone can go scot-free if they can manage the MCD. "You get salaries, but you don't do your job," an irked bench said and asked the MCD official present in the court "how can you look at your face in the mirror". "Allowing unauthorised construction is endangering life of the public at large and it is also impacting the capital's infrastructure," it added. The bench was hearing a plea by an NGO -- Paardarshita Public Welfare Foundation -- which informed the court about the illegal construction going on in 95 properties situated in the Karol Bagh area of the central Delhi. The NGO's president, Harkrishan Das Nijhawan, claimed he had complained about it to the MCD, but they were not taking any action. MCD counsel Ajay Arora disputed the NGO's claim and said that out of 95 properties, illegal construction was only going on in three of them. Not convinced with the MCD claim, the court issued notice to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and other authorities concerned and sought their responses. The NGO has also sought a direction to the CBI to register an FIR against the MCD engineers of the Karol Bagh zone as well as against the private builder. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The World Trade Organisation needs to be protected, promoted and taken forward and India has taken a lead in this matter by hosting a mini-ministerial meeting of the global trade body to take it to a "new level", Union minister Suresh Prabhu said here today. Addressing a gathering of students and academics at the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) on the subject of the 'Role of Trade and Investment in Driving Sustainable and Inclusive Growth', the Commerce and industry minister said the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had resulted in unprecedented expansion of global trade. "India is not driven by self-interest alone and therefore we invite all countries to participate...Some countries have questioned the WTO itself but that's because we need a whipping boy. In my opinion, we need to make sure that this organisation is protected, promoted and taken forward," he said. "We can revisit each aspect and make it more effective and more transparent as an instrument of bringing change... The idea is not to reduce the quantity of trade but expand global trade for the benefit of people," he added. Stressing that development must remain at the heart of global trade, Prabhu warned against voices calling to abandon the Doha development round of WTO negotiations. "The WTO has worked pretty well in the course of the last few years and resulted in unprecedented expansion of global trade. It offers us the best possibility of addressing poverty and other issues," Prabhu said. Drawing a parallel with the United Nations (UN), the minister pointed to the fact that unlike the UN every country has a veto and attributed the failure of the Buenos Aires round in December last year to this veto. However, he expressed optimism that the US and all other countries would eventually support India's stand on food security, one of India's central concerns in arriving at a multilateral agreement. "This is an issue on which there should not be any dispute at all. Governments have to protect against malnutrition and hunger by ensuring a public distribution system for food. No one can fault this view," Prabhu said. He also flagged a "historical opportunity" for the world's economies to keep environmental issues in mind while framing economic policies. "Poverty removal and removing income disparity are an important part of inclusive growth and the other important aspect is sustainability. Climate change is a certainty and therefore adaptation is a necessity," Prabhu said. During his ongoing visit to the UK for the India-UKJoint Economic and Trade Committee(JETCO) meeting in London, the minister has also held bilateral talks with UK international trade minister Liam Fox and deliberations with leaders of UK business and industry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Expressing concern over the employment scenario in the state as well as in the country, Gujarat Governor O P Kohli today said there is a feeling of discontent among the educated youths as they are not getting jobs despite acquiring higher . While addressing the passing out students of Gujarat Technological University (GTU) at its 7th convocation ceremony in Gandhinagar, Kohli also said that this kind of discontent among the youths is "a warning bell" for the society. "Nowadays, we see a feeling of discontent among the youths because of unemployment. Such a feeling is natural when you do not get a job despite getting higher . Such discontent among the youths is a warning bell for any society," he said. "That is why, we all need to first think whether the youths would get employment opportunities after they get degrees in higher from the universities. If we fail to guarantee employment after giving them degrees, doubts will be raised about the relevance of our higher education system," Kohli said. He said it is high time India moves forward in the direction of being a 'developed' country from the current status of a 'developing' one. Kohli also stressed that development of some cities does not mean that the entire country is witnessing development. Responding to Kohli's remarks, Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said the government will consider the Governor's suggestions. "Whatever the governor had said was his personal opinion and suggestion. Our government will take into account the positive aspects of his suggestions," Chudasama told reporters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Putting up a dominating show, Yuki Bhambri outclassed Spaniard Carlos Taberner to reach the third and final qualifying round of the Australian Open, here today. Bhambri, who is in good nick, routed the world number 183 6-0 6-2 in the second round of the men's singles qualifiers. The 25-year-old Indian, ranked 122, won 54 points in the 57-minute contest, breaking his rival six times in the match. Bhambri will now fight it out with Canadian Peter Polanksy for a place in the main draw. If Bhambri clears the final hurdle, it will be his third appearance in the Australian men singles main draw. In 2015, as a qualifier, he had lost to Andy Murray in the first round and in 2016 he bumped into Tomas Berdych to make a first round exit. Ramkumar Ramanathan, India's next best singles player in the rankings at number 139, will play his second round later in the day. The 23-year-old from Chennai is up against French man Gleb Sakharov, ranked 156. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Kirsti Knolle and Shadia Nasralla VIENNA (Reuters) - Airline Niki's sale to British Airways parent IAG was thrown into further doubt on Friday when a battle between Austrian and German officials over who should handle its insolvency proceedings intensified. Niki filed for insolvency in Berlin last month after Germany's Lufthansa scrapped plans to buy the Austrian arm of insolvent Air Berlin. After hurried talks to find a new owner for Niki before it lost its valuable runway slots, IAG agreed to buy the business and make it part of low-cost unit Vueling. However, the deal was put at risk after a German court said this week that Niki was not under German jurisdiction. An Austrian court in the town of Korneuburg on Friday approved a request by passengers' rights group Fairplane, which argued that as Niki is registered in Austria the case should be handled there. Fairplane also saw a conflict of interest in appointing the same administrators for Niki and its German parent and debtor Air Berlin. "The main proceedings will take place in Austria," a Korneuburg court spokesman said on Friday. According to national law, the case has to start from scratch after the ruling. Niki's newly appointed Austrian administrator Ulla Reisch said she would cooperate with her German counterpart and aimed to find a solution for the carrier within three weeks. "We will not start from the beginning as if there had never been proceedings in this case," Reisch told Reuters, adding that she will consider the IAG deal but was also open for new deals if they were better. "I think a solution can be found within two to three weeks," Reisch said. German administrator Lucas Floether, however, said he was considering legal action against the neighbouring country's court decision, having already agreed the deal with IAG. "The opening of this case contradicts European insolvency regulation," he said in a statement. IAG, which had committed to pay the January salaries for Niki staff, said it was monitoring the situation. Niki owes 153 million euros to around 200 creditors, according to Austria's creditors body KSV 1870. Fairplane, which said it has claims of 1.2 million euros against Niki for 3,000 passengers, welcomed the Austrian court's decision. "This is an important decision to minimize damage at Niki and to safeguard passengers rights," Fairplane said in a statement. (additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London, editing by Georgina Prodhan and Keith Weir) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By David Ljunggren LONDON, Ontario (Reuters) - Canada is talking tough with the United States, stressing its determination to push back against what it says are unfair trade practices ahead of crucial talks to revamp the tri-nation North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S., Canadian and Mexican officials meet this month for the sixth and penultimate round of talks to update NAFTA, which President Donald Trump has threatened to abandon unless major changes are made. The talks start on Jan. 23, just weeks after Canada launched a wide-ranging complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organization, potentially complicating NAFTA negotiations. The complaint challenges Washington's use of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties. "Our American colleagues ... understand when you stand strong," Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters. "You get respect when people see you are firm." Canada has so far largely shunned confrontation with Washington, stressing instead the merits of NAFTA and free trade as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes efforts to forge closer ties with Trump. But Trump's more isolationist approach has put strains on the bilateral trading relationship between the two countries, the second largest of its kind in the world. Canada is riled about duties on lumber and planemaker Bombardier Inc , which is based in the politically important province of Quebec, where Trudeau's Liberals are looking to build up support. "Strategically, standing up to the Americans plays well at home," said Toronto trade lawyer Mark Warner. "The Canadians are getting tougher ... they've been more aggressive in their response, in their threats, than perhaps people have realized," he said in a phone interview. Canadian cabinet ministers have been fanning out across the United States for 18 months, spreading an upbeat message about the benefits of trade. But when Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale went to Kentucky last week, he gave a speech in which he warned the Americans against "tanking the whole relationship". Canadian government sources told on Wednesday they were increasingly convinced the United States plans to announce it intends to pull out of NAFTA, sending markets lower. On Thursday though, Trump told the Wall Street Journal he would be "a little bit flexible" on his threat to withdraw from NAFTA because Mexico is facing a presidential election this year. STUCK IN NEUTRAL Canadian companies and industries that would be most acutely impacted by the pact's demise are largely stuck in neutral given the uncertainty of what might replace it, analysts and executives have said. Canada and Mexico are unhappy about U.S. demands 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 deal if it is not renegotiated every five years and ending the so-called Chapter 19 dispute mechanism. Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday the U.S. threat to quit NAFTA has to be taken seriously. Still, she said it was "absolutely possible to have a positive outcome" in Montreal if all three sides showed good will. "When it comes to the more unconventional U.S. proposals, we have been doing some creative thinking," she said. "We have some new ideas," she added. One person familiar with government thinking said some of the ideas related to auto content. Laura Dawson, director of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson's Canada Institute, said there were sharp limits to Ottawa's influence. "There's nothing that Canada could do, short of setting fire to the White House again, that would change the trajectory of whatever it is that Donald Trump is going to do," she said in reference to an 1812 war. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Andrea Ricci and Susan Thomas) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Zuckerberg said late on Thursday the world's largest social network would adjust its centrepiece Feed to prioritise what friends and family share, while reducing the amount of non-advertising content from publishers and brands. A warning by Zuckerberg that people could spend less time on Facebook in the short term as a result of the changes sent the company's stock $8.29 lower to $179.47. If the stock closes at that level, it would be the biggest one-day decline since September and would shrink the company's market value by $23 billion, which is more than the total market value of rival Snap Inc , the owner of Snapchat. "There is too much uncertainty relating to the economic impact of Facebook's pending Feed changes for us to be comfortable retaining a Buy rating on the stock," wrote Stifel analyst Scott Devitt in a research note, cutting his recommendation to "hold" from "buy." The change announced by Zuckerberg follows criticism that Facebook's algorithms may have prioritised misleading and misinformation in people's feeds, influencing the 2016 American presidential election as well as political discourse in other countries. Facebook said its new ranking system would hurt non-advertising content from publishers and brands, like news stories and viral video posts, but not change the ranking of advertising that has been paid for. That will leave businesses that want publicity on Facebook no choice but to spend more on advertising, and as a result prices will climb, predicted Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants, which advises corporate brands on social media. "They're definitely going to be required to buy an ad," Schiffer said. TECH RALLY With its stock up 48 percent over the past 12 months, Facebook has been a major driver of a technology rally that has propelled the S&P 500 to record highs. Its revenue is expected by analysts on average to have surged 45 percent in 2017, a rare accomplishment for a company of its size. Some hedge funds used Friday's drop in Facebook's stock to bolster their positions, said Joel Kulina, a senior trader at Wedbush. "Guys were hoping there would be more of a pullback so they could buy more," Kulina said. "They don't think there are any real cracks in the Facebook story." Changes to Facebook's News Feed may have an impact on major suppliers of news and other content. John Ridding, the chief executive of the Financial Times, warned on Friday that the domination of online advertising revenue by search and social media platforms was putting pressure on media firms. "The FT welcomes moves to recognise and support trusted and reliable news and analysis. But a sustainable solution to the challenges of the new information ecosystem requires further measures," he said. (Reporting by Noel Ranewich and David Ingram in San Francisco, additional reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham and Marguerita Choy) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Sankalp Phartiyal and Tanvi Mehta BENGALURU (Reuters) - The new chief executive of Infosys Ltd said he would lay out updated strategic priorities for India's second-biggest software services exporter by April after the company maintained its full-year revenue outlook. Infosys reported a rise in net profit of 38.3 percent from a year earlier to 51.29 billion rupees ($806 million) for the quarter to Dec. 31, way above analysts' estimates. The figures -- the company's third quarter -- were helped by tax benefits from a deal with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Chief Executive Salil Parekh, who joined the company in January, said he planned to engage with clients, employees, partners, senior executives and the company's board over the next three months to build a "comprehensive view". Parekh, who is only the second outsider to lead the Bengaluru-headquartered company, said the market offered tremendous opportunities in newer areas such as data, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. The challenge would be to position the company in those areas. "It's an opportunity with a strong foundation to build a transformation story at Infosys. Hopefully to make it stronger with all of the team at Infosys," Parekh told a conference. He would also hope to stay connected with the co-founders, he added. Infosys saw a management shake up with Parekh's predecessor Vishal Sikka quitting last year after a long-drawn public feud with the company's main founder over alleged corporate governance lapses. The feud also led to changes in its board with a former CEO and co-founder Nandan Nilekani taking over as non-executive chairman. U.S. WORRIES On Thursday, Infosys' bigger rival and top Indian software exporter Tata Consultancy Services Ltd reported a 3.6 percent fall in net profit due to a muted performance in its financial services sector for the third quarter. India's $154 billion software outsourcing sector gets the majority of its revenue from the North American and the European markets. But a slowdown in key segments including financial services and uncertainties over employee visas in the United States have weighed on the company's growth. The results come as Indian outsourcers anticipate changes to work visa rules in their biggest market, the United States. Indian IT services firms use H-1B visas to fly engineers and developers to the U.S. to service clients. Infosys' profit in the third quarter was driven by an Advance Pricing Agreement it sealed with US IRS, which the company said added about 6.29 rupees to its consolidated basic earnings per share in the quarter to take it to 22.55 rupees. It also maintained its revenue growth forecast for the year to March at 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent in constant currency terms. The financial services sector, which contributes over a quarter of its revenues, witnessed muted growth in the three months to the end of December, said Pravin Rao, chief operating officer of Infosys. "But we remain very confident about this sector and we believe that the calendar year 2018 will be much better than calendar year 2017 for the financial services," Rao said. ($1 = 63.6400 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal and Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jessica Kuruthukulangara in Bengaluru; Writing by Promit Mukherjee in Mumbai; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Keith Weir) (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.) By David Gaffen and Jessica Resnick-Ault NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose for a sixth day on Friday after Russia's oil minister said that global crude supplies were "not balanced yet," alleviating market concerns about a wind-down of the OPEC-led deal to reduce production. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said ministers from leading OPEC and non-OPEC producers will discuss the possibility of exiting the deal at a coming committee meeting, but said that "we see that the market surplus is decreasing, but the market is not completely balanced yet." His comments boosted prices, which rebounded from earlier decline, though the market has not hit the heights it touched on Thursday, when Brent crude topped $70 a barrel for the first time since December 2014. Markets remained buoyed by the comments throughout the session, shrugging off data that suggested the U.S. production may continue to surge. Brent crude futures rose 61 cents to settle at $69.87 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 50 cents to $64.30. WTI hit its strongest since late 2014 at $64.77 on Thursday. For the week, Brent rose 3.3 percent while WTI jumped 4.7 percent. The agreement between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia reached in late 2016 to cut 1.8 million barrels of crude daily is due to last until the end of 2018. Novak said the current oil price was short-term, and he would discuss the situation at a ministerial monitoring committee meeting in Oman, scheduled for Jan. 21. Russia's Lukoil Chief Executive Vagit Alekperov said Russia - part of the global agreement with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to reduce supply - should start to exit the pact if crude prices remain at $70 a barrel for more than six months. Major oil producing-countries have grown concerned that as prices remain near these levels, it will spur additional production from U.S. shale patches in Texas and North Dakota, risking overwhelming the market with additional supply, and hurting OPEC's market share. U.S. energy companies added 10 oil rigs this week, the biggest increase since June, bringing the total rig count to 752, the most since September, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said. Fatih Birol, head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, said oil prices at $65 to $70 risked encouraging more oversupply from U.S. shale drillers. "If you look at any kind of momentum indicator this is telling you this is way overbought," said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. "However, there are definitely issues supporting the market." U.S. crude production fell in the most recent week by nearly 300,000 barrels per day to about 9.5 million bpd, which analysts attributed to the deep freeze across most of the country. The U.S. Energy Department expects production will blow through 10 million bpd in the next few months, en route to 11 million bpd by next year, rivaling Russia and Saudi Arabia. Futures contracts show an expectation for prices to pull back by year end, with the December U.S. crude futures contract currently trading just above $60 a barrel. Later-dated futures trading lower than the spot price is known as backwardation, and is expected to inhibit production because it implies a lower price for future barrels sold. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Edmund Blair) (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.) ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The current rise in oil prices is backed by strong demand growth and a fall in oversupply on the back of the OPEC-led supply cut pact, United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazroui said on Friday. "We don't look at the price in a day and say we are in a point where we need to do changes. We need to give the market time," Mazroui, who holds OPEC presidency this year, told an industry conference. "I don't think any fundamentals have changed for us to consider (a change in the output agreement) or panic." (Reporting by Rania El Gamal, Maha El Dahan, Stanley Carvalho; editing by Jason Neely) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By David Gaffen NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices edged lower on Friday after hitting a three-year high the previous day, but the benchmarks remained on track for a fourth straight week of gains. A drawdown in U.S. inventories and a pullback in production, combined with steady demand and the extension of OPEC's global supply cut agreement, has bolstered the oil-market rally for several weeks, helping push Brent crude through $70 a barrel for the first time since December 2014. Russia's Lukoil Chief Executive Vagit Alekperov said Russia - part of the global agreement with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to reduce supply - should start to exit the pact if crude prices remain at $70 a barrel for more than six months. Brent crude futures traded 13 cents lower at $69.13 a barrel by 11:27 a.m. EST (1627 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 14 cents to $63.66. WTI hit its strongest since late 2014 at $64.77 on Thursday. For the week, Brent was set for a 2.3 percent gain while WTI was on track for a 3.5 percent rise. "If you look at any kind of momentum indicator this is telling you this is way overbought," said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. "However, there are definitely issues supporting the market." Major oil producing-countries have grown concerned that as prices remain near these levels, it will spur additional production from U.S. shale patches in Texas and North Dakota, risking overwhelming the market with additional supply, and hurting OPEC's market share. Fatih Birol, head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, said oil prices at $65 to $70 risked encouraging more oversupply from U.S. shale drillers. The U.S. oil rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose more than 40 percent last year, according to Baker Hughes data. Drillers, however, cut five rigs last week despite higher prices. Baker Hughes data for this week is due at 1 p.m. EST. U.S. crude production fell in the most recent week by nearly 300,000 barrels per day to about 9.5 million bpd, which analysts attributed to the deep freeze across most of the country. The U.S. Energy Department expects production will blow through 10 million bpd in the next few months, en route to 11 million bpd by next year, rivaling Russia and Saudi Arabia. Gulf OPEC producers plan to keep their oil output in the current quarter below the year-earlier level despite strong demand growth and a drop in global inventories, a senior OPEC source familiar with Gulf oil thinking said. The OPEC/Russia agreement to cut 1.8 million bpd is due to last until the end of 2018. Oil prices have found support from eight consecutive weeks of U.S. crude inventory drops. U.S. commercial crude stocks fell to 419.5 million barrels in the week to Jan. 5, right near the five-year average, the target for OPEC and others cutting output. Futures contracts show an expectation for prices to pull back by year end, with the December U.S. crude futures contract currently trading just above $60 a barrel. Later-dated futures trading lower than the spot price is known as backwardation, and is expected to inhibit production because it implies a lower price for future barrels sold. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Edmund Blair) (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.) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday said most U.S. workers will see bigger paychecks in February, as a result of the Republican tax overhaul, but many will need to make sure taxes are withheld accurately with an online calculator that does not yet exist. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service officials made the predictions while releasing new tax withholding tables, which U.S. employers must begin using by Feb. 15 to determine how much federal tax gets subtracted from employee wages under the new tax law. President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress claim their policy changes will deliver a massive tax cut to the middle-class, as they prepare to battle Democrats to keep control of the House of Representatives and Senate in the Nov. 6 election. Democrats, who say the Republican tax overhaul is mainly a giveaway to the wealthy, have warned that the new IRS guidelines could be skewed to give taxpayers an exaggerated benefit ahead of the elections that they would have to repay in 2019. Two Democratic lawyers asked the watchdog Government Accountability Office to review the guidelines. Administration officials insisted that the guidelines would withhold the correct amount of tax from wages but acknowledged that they are geared to out-of-date W-4 individual withholding forms. Setting up a new withholding system is expected to take most of 2018. To ensure an accurate calculation, taxpayers will have to enter their personal financial information into a calculator expected to be unveiled next month on the website IRS.gov. "We would encourage every taxpayer to go to IRS.gov and run their financial information through that calculator so that they understand what their situation is," said a senior IRS official, who spoke at a briefing with reporters on the condition he was not named. He said new guidelines would provide an accurate picture for many. But he recommended the calculator for those with "more complicated financial situations" including families with two earners and four children under the age of 17. The Republican tax bill that Trump signed into law in December lowered individual tax rates through 2025 and nearly doubled the standard deduction that families can use to reduce taxable income. But it also eliminated a $4,050 personal exemption for each household member until 2026 and scaled back a popular deduction for state and local taxes. Independent analysts say many taxpayers could see their taxes go up. But officials predicted 90 percent of workers would see bigger paychecks while little would change for the remaining 10 percent. (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) (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.) Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), India's largest IT firm, today signed its biggest deal to date. The multi-year agreement with Transamerica, a US-based insurance company, is worth more than $2 billion in revenues, and is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2018. TCS will now administer Transamerica's life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance and workplace voluntary benefits products. "The partnership enables Transamerica to rapidly enhance its digital capabilities, simplify the service of more than 10 million policies into a single integrated modern platform," TCS said in a statement. According to Suresh Muthuswami , TCS president and global head, banking, financial services and insurance platforms, the deal marks their entry into a highly specialised US Insurance Third Party Administration marketplace and will firmly establish its insurance digital platform, TCS BaNCS. The latter has already had a strong play in the European market for over a decade, with more than 17 million policies under administration. "We have invested heavily in TCS BaNCS and our extensive US capabilities, and are proud to partner with Transamerica in its ongoing transformation and welcome the transitioning employees to promising new careers at TCS," said TCS CEO and Managing Director Rajesh Gopinathan. In order to ensure "a consistently excellent experience for the American customers", TCS said it will make job offers to about 2,200 Transamerica employees, those working in the areas that come under the partnership. Apart from protecting American jobs, TCS also plans to hire locally in Iowa and set up relationships with educational institutions. This is in line with its plan to establish its new North American insurance hub for business operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. TCS has already invested nearly USD 3 billion in the U.S. over the past three years. Transamerica expects to make annual run-rate savings of about $70 million initially from this deal, growing to $100 million over time. "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 and CEO. TCS, which will turn 50 this year, has operated in the U.S. for more than 40 years and now works with more than 100 insurers, including six of the world's top 10 insurance companies. Reacting to the news, TCS shares are again on an uptick, recovering ground lost since yesterday's announcement a 3.6% fall its net profit in the third quarter of if this fiscal. As of 3.15 pm, it was trading at Rs 2,781.90 apiece, just 24 points lower than opening price. With PTI inputs Download BT Podcast PwC to fight SEBI audit ban to limit franchise impact Price Waterhouse will contest a two-year auditing ban by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) over a fraud nearly a decade ago at a company it audited, but even if it succeeds in preventing the move Indian business experts expect damage to the auditor's business. It faces the prospect of a multi-crore revenue hit with rising employee and client attrition Danone to close down dairy business in India French dairy company Danone SA will be closing down its dairy business in India. This comes after three failed attempts to make an impact in one of the world's fastest growing consumer packaged goods markets. With Danone's decision to close down its dairy unit, the company's factory at Rai, Sonipat, near Delhi will also stop production. Dairy remained a small business accounting for around 10% of the company's revenue in India. Globally, dairy is the largest business for Danone. Reliance Jio plans its own cryptocurrency JioCoin According to a report by business daily Mint, Reliance Jio, known for its free offers and hyper-competitive tariffs, plans to create its own cyptocurrency, JioCoin. Mukesh Ambani's elder son Akash Ambani will be spearheading the JioCoin project. The company 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. TCS hiring drops Once a job-generating company, Tata Consultancy Services is now fast slowing down on that front. Reports suggest the company added just 3,657 employees in the first nine months of this fiscal on a net basis, an 85% drop from the same period a year earlier, when it added 24,654 employees. India's biggest software exporter saw its net profit fall 3.6 per cent year-on-year to Rs 6,531 crore in the quarter that ended on December 31, 2017 Will Reliance Jio report its first-ever quarterly profit this month? Back in April 2017, Morgan Stanley had predicted that Reliance Jio could become profitable by 2020. About six months later, Reliance Industries announced that its telecoms arm would turn profitable at the net level "very shortly", while announcing a pre-tax profit of Rs 260 crore for the business-it's first ever operating profit and the first time earnings were disclosed-for the quarter ended September 2017. The good times have reportedly arrived.Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJio) may report its first-ever quarterly profit this month when it announces its December quarter results, sources in the know told Bloomberg Nissan To start Leaf Electric car pilot run in India this year Nissan will commence with their test runs for the new Nissan Leaf in India by end of this year with a possible launch sometime next year. According to reports, Nissan will initially commence with the dry test runs for the new generation Leaf while seeking incentives from the government to promote sales of the car. While it will come through the CBU route, Nissan hopes that they could localize the product at a later stage. Your Whatsapp group chat might be unsafe According to new research from one team of German cryptographers, flaws in WhatsApp make infiltrating the app's group chats much easier than they should be possible. The group discovered flaws in security protocol of group of three popular instant messaging apps with WhatsApp standing out considering it has 1 billion plus user base, according to a report on Wired. Researchers pointed out a bug in WhatsApp's system of authentication. They have pointed out that "WhatsApp doesn't use any authentication mechanism" when a new member is added to the group and this is something its own servers can spoof as well. Whatsapp has responded saying, "We've looked at this issue carefully...Existing members are notified when new people are added to a WhatsApp group. We built WhatsApp so group messages cannot be sent to a hidden user." Download BT Podcast The government needs to seriously re-think on the ways to promote research and innovation in the country, especially within the Indian pharmaceutical industry. This seems to be coming across as a clear message from the various stakeholders in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Perhaps, some of it has to do with the mood within the industry driven by the changing market dynamics in the two most important markets - the US and India, and the fact that most recent budgets have been largely disappointing for the sector. Many companies, with some leading players, are already coping with challenges around price erosion in generics, erosion of base business resulting from new competition and buyer consolidation in their biggest global market, the US. They clearly see the writing on the wall: Moving up the value chain in terms of developing niche, hard to replicate products, is the only way out and are gearing up for that, with some already moving ahead in this journey. This is one reason why most that Business Today spoke to were unanimous in picking research and innovation as the top item on the list of priorities for the sector. But then, given that research spending in the pharmaceutical industry is a risky proposition, specially in areas of drug discovery and innovation, fiscal incentives could provide the necessary fillip. For instance, it is very likely that even after spending 10 years investing in research, the product may finally not get a regulatory approval. "If you want to promote innovation then incentivize investments into research and innovation. This could be done either by government offering a matching grant to a private enterprise or by extending a tax credit," says D G Shah, secretary-general at the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, that has leading Indian pharma companies as its members. He feels the tax credit could be spread over a period of two to three years also. This backed by some procedural simplications, say around ease in filing of patents, could go a long way in encouraging research, he feels hoping the Union Budget would address this issue. In fact, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson and managing director, Biocon, goes a step further and says, if India needs to move the needle with respect to its goals around Making in India and carving out a niche for itself globally, it needs to support research and innovation. "India needs to spend at 2 to 3 per cent of GDP on science and research as against the 0.69 per cent at present," she says. According to a recent report by the department of science and technology India's gross expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP for the last couple of years has been at around 0.69 per cent. But then, if funds are an issue, her suggestion: perhaps the government could look at deploying collections made from the R&D cess. There are enough media reports on the over Rs 7,000 crore that have have been collected by way of R&D cess. This is crucial, she feels and points to a recent report by the European Commission which says that if you increase R&D investment by 10 per cent in public research institutions, it grows the GDP by 1 per cent. This coupled with focus on meritocracy, could go a long way in the Indian context, she feels. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and others in the pharma industry, while not in favour of the government move towards gradually doing away with the weighted deduction on R&D for the private sector, want its scope expanded to all areas connected with R&D. This is despite the government's roadmap that seems to favour a move towards a system where there is a reduced corporate tax rate with all the deductions eliminated, apparently to make it all simple. "The budget should ensure that the weighted deduction on R&D is brought back (from 150 per cent) to 200 per cent and its scope expanded to cover various nuances of R&D such as inhouse intangible asset development, expenditure on R&D facility, clinical trials by CROs (contract research organizations)," says Kedar Upadhye, Global Chief Financial Officer at Cipla, a global major pharma player with significant presence in the Indian market. That apart, there is also expectation that perhaps the budget would look at clearing some of the issues around GST payment , especially in cases where medicines cannot be sold , either on account of being damaged or for crossing their expiry date. Business Today is hosting the fifth edition of MindRush - India Today Group's annual flagship business event. The one-day conference is being held at St Regis, Mumbai. The business conclave is designed as a thought exchange platform and brings together a galaxy of international thought leaders and industry captains. The objective of this integrated platform is to shape the industry agenda and engage politicians, business leaders, academicians and opinion makers to collaborate on finding solutions to challenges faced by the industry. This year's edition will include detailed Master Classes by international domain experts like Eduardo Briceno - Mindset Master, Growth Mindset and Improvement Expert; Lisa Gill - Learning Disrupter; Incredible Mountain Ranger Mark Inglis among many others. The day-long event will have sessions targeting contemporary business problems like workforce management through discussions on How to Make Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers, Millennials Work in One Frame, etc., by invited panelists including S.V. Nathan, Partner, Deloitte; Rajkamal Vempatti, CHRO, Axis Bank; Sunil Lulla, Chairman & MD, Grey Group; Abhinav Chopra, CHRO, Viacom 18. The second half of the event will start with session on Life Post Demonetisation and GST by panelists Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; RS Sodhi, MD and CEO, Amul; Nimesh Shah, MD and CEO, ICICI Prudential AMC; Saugata Gupta, CEO, Marico; Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Chief Economist, SBI. The earlier editions of the conference have hosted international luminaries like Jimmy Wales, Ram Charan, John Kao, Peter Docker, Devdutt Pattanaik, Ashwin Sanghi, Jamling Tenzing, Murali Doraiswamy, among others. The delegates can log on to www.businesstodaymindrush.com and register for Business Today MindRush. The Business Today MindRush was introduced in 2013 to bring the Indian business community in closer contact with global thought leadership. It was conceived as a platform for young CEOs and senior executives, where they can come together and interact with global management gurus, top Indian thought leaders, executive icons, and spiritual gurus. Reliance Jio continued gaining customers to lead the pack with 61 lakh new additions on the back of its free voice calls and dirt-cheap data offers even as the country's overall telecom subscriber base fell by 1.58 crore in November 2017. A Trai report released on Friday showed that the total subscriber base plummeted from 120 crore in October 2017 to 118.5 crore mainly due to closure of mobile services by Reliance Communications (RCom), Tata Teleservices and Aircel. The Anil Ambani-led firm lost over 2.57 crore subscribers during the period. However, customer additions by Jio, Airtel, Idea, Vodafone and BSNL offset the loss. However, these companies have seen a decline in profitability due to the price war unleashed by Jio. The report said Jio's subscriber base soared to 15.2 crore, while rival Sunil Mittalled Bharti Airtel had the highest customer base of 28.95 crore. However Airtel followed Jio in terms of subscriber gain in November with net addition of over 43 lakh customers. Idea added 31.98 lakh new customers, Vodafone 27 lakh and state-run BSNL 10.8 lakh. Meanwhile, Tata Teleservices and Telenor, the companies that are in the process of merging with Airtel, lost 22 lakh and 12.45 lakh customers, respectively. Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which merged with RCom recently and has been reporting numbers separately, lost over 32 lakh customers. Aircel and MTNL lost 6.65 lakh and 3,941 customers respectively. The telecom sector is going through a debilitating financial period as the firms have been forced to join a tariff war with Jio's price disruptions. While Airtel's net profit for the September quarter was the sixth consecutive drop in quarterly profit, RCom is reeling under a debt of around Rs 45,000 crore, and has sold telecom assets to reduce its debt. OnePlus 6 is coming and there are no two ways about it. The only question is when. Now, we even have an answer to that. The company chief Pete Lau has confirmed that their next device, powered by the Snapdragon 845, will launch in the second quarter of this year. Last year, OnePlus had launched the OnePlus 5 in the month of June. This year we have a time-frame of April 1 to June 30. In an interview with CNET, during the ongoing CES 2018 Pete Lau disclosed this information about the next generation of flagships. This year, the company is also planning to tie up with network carriers in United States which means OnePlus sales could skyrocket. In India, the phone will be unveiled within a few days of its global launch. Last year, the launch of OnePlus 5T happened on June 22, two days after the global launch. The company had organized pop up events in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Following convention, India should get the device in June this year. OnePlus 5T, the current flagship from the Chinese company is doing fairly well in the Indian market. It has also been frequenting headlines as the company has launched different variants of the device including one special Star Wars Edition and a recent Lava Red edition. During the interview, the company chief also hinted that they might not launch a second flagship this year. Lau stated that he "wasn't 100 percent sure if OnePlus would sell a second phone in 2018." Since the launch of OnePlus 3T, the company has been coming up with mid-year updates to its flagship devices. OnePlus 5T seemed more than just an incremental update. The device brought OnePlus back to the competition with current flagships. The 18:9 6-inch display gave it a much needed aesthetic overhaul to make the device feel more 2017-like. However, if OnePlus plans to let go of the mid-year update cycle, the company will have to build OnePlus 6 in a way that it stays relevant throughout the year. Since this is still a speculation, we'll have to wait for any kind of official confirmation. The latest tweaks in India's foreign direct investment (FDI) policy has provided an additional talking point for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he addresses a galaxy of global CEOs and heads of States in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland this month end. The most significant of the handful of amendments approved by Union Cabinet on January 10 has been the permission to bring in FDI up to 100 per cent without prior approval from the government in the single brand retail sector. Earlier, FDI policy allowed only 49 per cent FDI under automatic route, and FDI beyond 49 per cent needed government approval. The immediate advantage of the decision will be the opportunity it offers to Prime Minister Modi and his team of ministers to showcase the government's proactive approach while trying to hard sell India as an investment destination at Davos. The World Economic Forum meeting on January 23-26 will see one of the biggest ever Indian industry delegation as over 100 CEOs including the richest and the mightiest like Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries are expected to participate. The changes in the FDI policy covers sectors like power, financial services and medical devices. For instance, the government has allowed foreign institutional investors to invest in power exchanges through primary market by doing away with the earlier guidelines limiting their presence to the secondary market. India allows 49 per cent FDI under automatic route in power exchanges registered under the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Power Market) Regulations, 2010. Similarly, while government approval was needed for issue of equity shares against non-cash considerations like pre-incorporation expenses, import of machinery etc. earlier, it has now been decided that such issue of shares shall be through the automatic route for sectors under automatic route. Foreign investment upto 100 per cent into an Indian company, engaged only in the activity of investing in the capital of other Indian companies also needed prior government approval. It has now been decided that if the above activities are regulated by any financial sector regulator, then foreign investment up to 100 per cent under automatic route shall be allowed. Likewise FDI applications involving investments from countries of concern, required security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs. It has now been decided that for investments in automatic route sectors, requiring approval only on the matter of investment being from a country of concern, FDI applications would be processed by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) for government approval. Cases under the government approval route, also requiring security clearance with respect to countries of concern, will continue to be processed by concerned Administrative Department/Ministry. India permits FDI up to 100 per cent on the automatic route in most sectors and activities. The recent addition to the list included defence, construction development, insurance, pension, financial services, asset reconstruction companies, broadcasting, civil aviation, pharmaceuticals, trading etc. According to government statistics, during the year 2014/15, total FDI inflows received were $45.15 billion as against $36.05 billion in 2013/14. During 2015/16, country received total FDI of $55.46 billion. In the financial year 2016/17, total FDI of $60.08 billion has been received, an all-time high. LOGAN This year has been designated the Year of the Arts and it will be the local arts that are celebrated in Cache Valley this weekend. Wendy Hassan, executive director of the Cache Valley Center for the Arts, says there will be something for everyone starting Friday. At 1 p.m. Friday we will have the ribbon cutting for the Historic Theatre District, Hassan explains. We will meet in the promenade of the Ellen Eccles Theatre where its warm for some snacks and short remarks. Then were going to go to the corner of Center and Main to have a ribbon cutting to celebrate these three beautiful spaces that are now actively producing theatrical works and films. On Saturday morning, there will be free classes of all kinds: dance, drama, music, theater, ceramics and even some historical lectures. Self-guided tours of the theaters included in the Historic Theatre District will take place between 12 p.m. 2 p.m. Those facilities include the Ellen Eccles Theatre, the Lyric Theatre, the Utah Theatre, and Dansante. Hassan says at 5:30 p.m. Saturday there will be a special dinner created by Barney Northrop. Then, she says, things will be capped off with a community celebration at 7:30 p.m. with seven different art groups, 250 performers, four conductors and much more, including bagpipes. She says people in Utah have always been good to support the arts. In fact, she says, there is an anecdote in Utah history that says when pioneers first arrived in Cache Valley they were asked, Can you sing? If they said yes, those people were allowed to stay. And, related to that, Hassan says in 1898 Utah elected the second female legislator in state history and that woman was a trailblazer in Utah arts. Thats before the rest of the country had given women in the country the right to vote, Hassan explains. Her name was Alice Merrill Horne and she ran on a platform of supporting the arts. She won. She established the nations first arts council which still exists, a collection of art by Utah artists paid for by the state that still exists, and a statewide competition of Utah artists that still exists to this day. The huge weekend celebration honors the 25th anniversary of the grand re-opening of the Ellen Eccles Theatre in 1993. Hassan says putting this event together has been an amazing experience. Ireland doesnt usually appear among the most popular travel destinations. Nevertheless, this country has a very old history, ancient traditions, great places to visit, and, of course, the best whisky in the world. Many consider Ireland an addition to England or Great Britain. ADS However, that is not so because Irish people are exclusively different and pleasantly exciting to meet. Ireland has a very rich and authentic culture and offers many joyful opportunities that tourists can enjoy. You can find out more about Ireland at our site, irelandbeforeyoudie.com. The Republic of Ireland or, simply put, Ireland is a great place that can provide you with many wonderful attractions and some unforgettable experiences. Vipbrides.com are pleased to present you ten reasons why you should visit Ireland. Beverages Ireland is traditionally associated with beer drinking and whiskey drinking. Beer and whiskey first appeared here and only then spread around the world. You should definitely try it because the best whiskey and beer in the world are produced in Ireland which imports it to the countries around the world. Irish beer is like nothing else youve ever tried. Its taste is rich and magnificent. Irish whiskey is going to leave you speechless, perhaps, even literally. It is not by chance that Irish people drink so much. Who wouldnt? With a taste like that it is almost a sin not to try it. Make sure to buy a couple of bottles for your friends, relatives, and close ones to make them come to Ireland too. Nature Ireland is naturally very beautiful. There are hills and forests spectacular in their appearance. Tour agencies offer the variety of different trips for you to enjoy. You can visit the seaside or take walking tours up the mountains to see how people live and what they do. There are many recreation zones with lakes and national parks which provide stunning views and breathless sights. Bars Irish bars have an exclusively original atmosphere. The drinking culture is present in Ireland, thus, historically a bar has always been a place where people gathered to meet each other, talk, celebrate, mourn, make decisions, etc. In some ways bars provided a liberal atmosphere where everybody was free to state his or her opinion. Irish Revolution was organized in bars and the nations fate was decided in bars. Each and every bar in Ireland has authentic atmosphere and is able to provide you with astonishing drinking experience. You can meet people, talk with them, and enjoy the company of others in the cozy, comfortable, and exciting atmosphere. Even if you dont drink, visit a bar and order coca cola just to feel the mood. Culture Ireland has long history. Nowadays, it is one of the most prosperous and progressive countries in the world. However, it took a lot of time for Ireland to defend its sovereignty which only strengthened its originality and authenticity. You should enjoy local museums and archeological sites as well as historically important places to reveal the rich history of this amazing nation. Make sure to visit different galleries to familiarize yourself with the way Irish nation established its authentic originality. Many famous writers, artists, and musicians originated from Ireland. You will surely know some of the names you will come by. Belfast Belfast is the capital city of Ireland. It has many parks, museums, galleries, and other interest places to visit. There are many local festivals in Belfast. The citys architecture, infrastructure, and history all contribute to its cultural significance. Belfast is the heart of Ireland. Irish independence originated here and you cannot reveal the true Ireland without visiting its capital. Just walking the streets of Belfast can uplift your mood seeing as how this city is truly one of a kind. People Irish people are not famously friendly or hospitable. Nevertheless, they are very passionate, enthusiastic, and energetic. Talking to them is a very interesting activity. Once you gain their trust, they become friendly but they generally act alienated in front of the strangers. So, make sure to present yourself appropriately in order to make contact. Irish people can tell you many stories and make a simple conversation into a wonderful experience. Without any doubt, making a contact with Irish people is a must do for you. Dont be afraid by their seemingly unfriendly behavior. It is only initially that they come as unfriendly but, eventually, an Irish friend can support and defend you in any way possible once you prove yourself worthy of it. Festivals Ireland offers you a possibility to attend different festivals. There are many great events to attend, especially on holidays. Try visit Ireland in winter to see Christmas celebrations or in summer to see a flower festival. When people in Ireland celebrate, they do it passionately. The joy can be felt in the air. Irish people like to celebrate their national holidays and you can easily meet new people doing it. Atmosphere Visiting Ireland is surely able to provide you with unforgettable memories. Irish atmosphere is an atmosphere of excitement. In other words, you can have an adventure just passing the nearest street. Irish people like to get familiar with each other and, even though they may appear as offensive at first, dont be afraid to accept an invitation for a drink or propose it yourself. Without any doubt, social and cultural atmosphere in Ireland deserves your attention. As any original culture, Irish culture is exceptionally attractive and sincerely true. Irish people, Irish streets, Irish society, and Irish culture are all like nothing else youve ever come by. Women Make sure to meet and get to know Irish women. They are beautiful, passionate, devoted, sincere, and kind. They are among the most attractive and interesting women in the whole Europe. Irish women surely know how to spend time in an interesting way and make you feel better. Traditionally, women were respected in Ireland for their distinguishing features. Most of them are very intelligent. At the same time theyre not proud because they like to present themselves in the most pleasant way. Unlike Irish men, they are more social and like to communicate with people. Perhaps, thats because they dont drink as much as Irish men do. Food Traditional Irish cuisine is rich and tasty. Nobody else cooks meat like Irish people. Because Ireland is one of the most ancient nations in Europe, Irish people have thousand year old traditions which affect their cooking. You should definitely try traditional Irish dishes that are widely popular across the whole world. Dont miss an opportunity to try Irish stew, bacon and cabbage with potatoes, shepherds pie, boxty, colcannon, and coddle. Even though the elements may be familiar with predominant potato and lamb components, Irish people started to revive their traditional cuisine in 21st century making it into something extraordinarily tasteful. All in all, now you know there are many reasons for you to visit Ireland. Irish whiskey, beer, cuisine, culture, and people surely deserve your attention. Unlike many other more popular travel destinations, Ireland offers you wonderful pleasant possibilities being one of the most interesting and original nations in the world. People often think that England has everything that Ireland has but that is not true. The passion with which Irish people approach their own national identity will surely amaze you. ADS | BY Ricki Green | M&C Saatchi has today announced the departure of its executive creative director, Michael Canning. Canning has decided to leave the agency at the end of January to pursue a personal creative venture. A native to Sydney, Canning spent six years working in the USA, first as ECD and managing partner at Leo Burnett North America followed by 72andSunny Los Angeles in 2014 as ECD, before returning to Australia in November 2015 to join M&C Saatchi Sydney. Under his leadership the agency has produced some of its most notable work. Highlights include AIME Cogs, the CommBank CAN re-launch and educational platform Teleporter Adventures, a new fire prevention technology for Australian communities in NRMA Fireblanket and the launch of a global platform for Lexus with the immersive experience Hidden Artistry. In 2017, M&C Saatchi was named Australias most innovative company in the AFR awards. Says Canning: As a creative person Im a big believer in entrepreneurial thinking, which is something that attracted me to M&C Saatchi from the US. With the start of the new year Ive decided that the time is right for me to spend some quality time on a personal venture that Im passionate about. Im very proud of the work weve created at M&C Saatchi over the past two years. With Cam joining this year, I know the creative department are in great hands and I cant wait to see what they do this year. Says Jaimes Leggett, CEO, M&C Saatchi: Were sad to see Michael go. We have always admired him for his creative mind and entrepreneurial spirit. Were excited to see his next venture. Id like to thank him for everything he has done at the agency. | BY Lynchy | As Serviceplan International continue to expand their unique House of Communication model across the globe, making strategic creative and management hires to reflect their increasingly global outlook, Serviceplan China has appointed Chong Kin as Chief Creative Officer Greater China (pictured left), Marcus Ma as Managing Director Beijing (pictured right), and Lili Pang as General Manager Shanghai (below). Kin and Ma have joined Serviceplan China from Ogilvy & Mather Beijing, where they were responsible for the AUDI China account. Together with the new Management, a strong team of creative, as well as strategic and client servicing talents bring their expertise to the office in Beijing and Shanghai. The spirit is good, the team ready to conquer the big competition in the market, and the first new clients are already in the pipeline. Markus Noder, Managing Partner Serviceplan International commented, China is still the biggest growth market in numbers and technology in the world, and on its way to become the global leader. Together with our new Management in China, we as a group feel very comfortable and ready for the challenges to come. I believe the mixed Team of Chinese and international talents will give this agency a new fresh face and the new Management a great start. | BY Lynchy | Dentsu Aegis Network has announced that &c will become strategically aligned with Merkle in China. The combination of Merkle China and &c will create a fully integrated offering across digital and performance media, data, analytics, CRM, marketing technology, and loyalty programs. &cs footprint and scale in China will accelerate Merkles global growth in China, while Merkles data and technology capabilities will greatly enhance &cs offerings to its client base. The strategic alignment sets the stage for both agencies next phase of growth. The new brand will be named as Merkle &c. Launched in 2008 by Dentsu Inc., &cs services include interactive marketing strategy, creative and design, media planning and buying, SEM, video marketing, ePR and social media, mobile, and e-commerce. Established in 2010, Merkle Chinas services include CRM consulting, data management, marketing technology, data analytics, web and media analytics and loyalty program. Dentsu Aegis Network China, Phil Teeman, CEO, said, With the strategy of becoming a 100% digital economy business by 2020, Dentsu Aegis Network will continue to focus on building successful solutions for our clients and driving our product offering forward supported by a full range of digital and data capabilities. For U.S. headquartered Merkle, the alignment also enhances Merkles business operations in China and the Asia Pacific region. We are excited to expand our global footprint as the &c team joins Merkle China. Merkle &cs fully integrated suite of data, analytic, technology, media, and creative services, combined with our people-based marketing solutions, uniquely positions us to deliver competitive advantage for our clients in Asia Pacific, said Zhengda Z Shen, President of Merkle Asia Pacific. Headquartered in Beijing with offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou, &cs nearly 300 employees add immediate scale to Merkle China, bringing the new total employee number to 800. &c serves many globally recognized clients in the Automotive, Consumer Electronics, and Financial Services industries. The company has also established powerful partnerships with Baidu, as its first 4A agency partner, Alimama, and UnionPay Smart. Frank Zhang, General Manager of Merkle China, noted, The combination of Merkle China and &c will propel the continued expansion of Merkles offering and scale in China. We will join forces in R&D, business development, solution and delivery. I believe our collective capabilities and synergy will provide heightened results and greater value to our clients. &c Managing Director Phil Kono expressed his enthusiasm and expectations towards the strategic alignment, commenting, I am very excited to be part of Merkle &c. &c has a long track record in the Chinese digital market and with Merkles great capability and global network, we can jointly benefit our clients through closely learning and collaborating with each other. | BY Lynchy | Ogilvy Indonesia will become fully OneOgilvy this year to offer full a services approach to clients. To this end Ogilvy Indonesia has made several changes in their structure and promoted long time Ogilvy social and digital lead, Yuliani Setiadi to lead Consumer Experience domain, which comprises of former Social@Ogilvy and OgilvyOne capabilities, and welcomes Insani Karunia as General Manager for its boutique brand agency SoHo Square. Both women are recognized by the industry as the best in their field. Setiadi (pictured left), was General Manager of Social@Ogilvy and her rise to lead Customer Experience or affectionately called CX domain is well forecasted. Previously based in the Netherland, Setiadi returned to Indonesia in 2012 and immediately applied her planning skills into the then fledging Social@Ogilvy. Since then, she has managed to grow the business tenfold as well as won awards for Ogilvy during her leadership. She combines her tech-savvy nature with a business instinct that zooms in on commercial results for clients. Setiadii brings the perspective of millennials to her role by being the youngest member of the Ogilvy Indonesias Executive Committee. Her learn fast, fail fast principle has been key in bringing Ogilvys digital transformation to life. Karunia was previously Group Account Director in MullenLowe and has over 15 years of experience in the field of brand communications ranging from content and activation to advertising. Having a law degree, Karunias started her career in the banking industry and soon felt that her true calling was in brand communications. Karunia acquired her expertise and skills from managing several major local and international brands and corporation ranging from nutrition to beauty to tech-companies, including Frisian Flag, Nestle, Unilever, TempoScan, Indofood and Google. Her capabilities are not only in business performance, but her passion in pursuing quality creative outputs help MullenLowe Indonesia to become the Digital Agency of The Year in 2016 through Indomie works. Anne Ridwan, Chief Executive Officer Ogilvy Indonesia said, This is the most exciting time for Ogilvy Indonesia. Yuli and Sani, both are strong leaders that we need to further adapt to the environment. While Yuli is a true Ogilvyan and no doubt will further heighten our offering in this digital transformation era, it was a delight to welcome Sani in our family. Her new way of thinking, track record and strong reputation amongst her clients and in addition her collaborative spirits are the qualities that attracted our attention. We believe that with Sani at the helm, SoHo Square will rise even higher and become one of the top boutique brand communications agency of choice in Indonesia. Karunia said, It was a great pleasure to be acknowledged by Ogilvy and I am so excited to be with the SoHo Square and Ogilvy team. Working in a multi-channel agency will enable me to further sharpen my knowledge and implement it in full circle how to be idea first and media agnostic then be exploded throughout all channels. Which I believe would be essential in the current dynamic world where mobile ready communications are the main pull factor for millennials and Gen Zs. Setiadi said, I am honored to be entrusted with growing Ogilvys digital transformation in OneOgilvy. I truly believe in the spirit of Ogilvy and for me here, I can be out of my comfort zone, while having the best support possible. Customer Experience domain will be key to help our clients achieve their business objectives in an increasingly fragmented consumer landscape. "We are concerned that the pattern of cancellation rates on the Canberra to Sydney route seems to now be showing up as customers choosing to use other modes of transport," he said. Mr Reid had originally applied for the Victoria Cross Medal, the highest military honour available, but the process has not been simple. He says he made it clear to the hearing, as he had to the army, that he would be proud to be awarded the Medal for Gallantry. An application for Mr Reid, known as "flappers" to his comrades because of his prominent ears, was made many years ago, but colleague John Abernathy found that it had been rejected because an awards quota for the battalion had already been filled. 09:20 | La Paz (Bolivia), Jan. 12. However, they still had to be wary of the high plains of Bolivia and sections at a height of 4,722 meters above sea level before a rest day in the capital La Paz, which will help them acclimatize to the altitude. The essential Antoine Meo is gathering momentum. After his fine fourth place last Wednesday, the Frenchman confirmed that he is back to his best after an injury that kept him away from his official KTM bike for one and a half years, by taking victory on the first quick stage of the rally. It was a superb performance in which he finished just in front of his team-mate and the winner in 2016, Toby Price, as well as the promising Kevin Benavides, the first Argentinean to lead the general standings in the bike race on the Dakar. His young countryman Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli could equally be a future star of the quad category, as shown by his first victory in Bolivia thanks to a stage that he controlled from start to finish. Carlos Sainz may not be young, but he is definitely on an upward trajectory as he demonstrated by dominating the entire special in the car race on the Bolivian tracks which suited him down to the ground. Stephane Peterhansel, finishing in second four minutes behind, is comfortably in control of the general standings. Performance of the day Diego Martin Duplessis has not stopped progressing since the start in Lima. Despite a complicated beginning to the rally with an 83rd placed finish on the first day, the Argentinean has got better with each stage, leading to him to making a sensation with style via a superb fourth place in La Paz behind the handlebars of his privately-run Honda. Having finished 25th on his first Dakar in 2016 and then 15th in 2017, Duplessis is perhaps following in the footsteps of his countryman Kevin Benavides. A crushing blow Rafal Sonik, winner of the quad category in 2015, had lofty ambitions for the Dakar 2018. However, nothing turned out as planned for the Polish rider, who has not managed to make it into the top 3 on any stage. He even fractured his tibia and fibula on the fifth stage and had to give up on continuing the rally yesterday. It is the third time he has withdrawn in ten participations. Stat of the day By letting his speed do the talking on a terrain almost tailor-made for him, Carlos Sainz wrote another page in the history of the Dakar. The former WRC driver obtained his 30th stage victory on the Dakar, overtaking the great Jacky Ickx. The Spaniard now only has Ari Vatanen (50) and Stephane Peterhansel (39) ahead of him. Friday will be a rest day in La Paz. (END) NDP/MVB According to an industry expert, the market share for diesels in Britain could collapse to just 15% as motorists continue to choose other means of propulsion. Aston Universitys Professor David Bailey says that diesel cars are caught in a perfect storm, while adding that demand has already fallen to 17.1% in 2017, as reported by The Telegraph. In fact, the drop even accelerated towards the end of the year, as motorists continue to be confused by government policies towards diesels with sales dropping by 31.1% in the month of December alone. Diesel cars face a raft of challenges, each one of which could damage sales, and which are combining to kill off the domestic diesel sector, which was so rattled by the dieselgate scandal, said Bailey. They face a perfect storm of bad PR over pollution, coupled with concerns over increasingly strict regulations and sinking second-hand values. He also predicts that sales for new diesel-powered vehicles will drop by another 10% this year, and will represent just 15% of the new car market by the year 2025, compared to 47.7% in 2016 and 42% in 2017. Jaguar Land Rover, the UKs biggest car maker stated that its UK sales were flat in 2017, expressing frustration over the governments treatment of diesels. Were investing and exporting 80% of our output and delivering a huge amount of benefit to this economy, said JLR sales exec, Andy Goss. One would expect hand-in glove approach when it comes to looking at an area of policy so we dont get surprises. Its a reasonable request when, as a car manufacturer, planning takes a long time and takes huge amounts of money. Meanwhile Professor Bailey points out that governments had several other opportunities to encourage drivers to switch to alternative means of propulsion, even back in 2001 when there was a misconceived drive to get people to opt for diesels. Now that its clear diesel is dying a slow death, the time is right for the government to take the initiative and offer up scrappage benefits to those who are prepared to ditch their diesels and switch to electric cars. Ferrari is one of those automakers that you could never see coming out with an autonomous car. But that doesnt mean the iconic Italian brand isnt interested in bringing new tech to its Ferrari Challenge. At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, Ferrari North America announced plans to enter into a three-year partnership with Intel. The collaboration between the two companies will see Ferrari implement Intels artificial intelligence (AI) and drone technology into its racing series for two major reasons: to improve the viewing experience for fans and to help drivers polish their racing skills. The drones, apparently, would record data on every driver during the race, which would then be relayed back to the teams and broadcasters. The teams could give their drivers helpful information on how to put down a quicker lap. Broadcasters, on the other hand, could use the data to create more nail-biting narrative. Being able to see a Ferrari Challenge race from a drones perspective sounds like a nifty idea, but the data the machines obtain could also be shared with viewers, making fans feel like theyre really at the race. For those not familiar with Ferrari Challenge, its a customer racing series for Ferrari 488 owners. The vehicles that race in the series have been upgraded to put down some fast laps. Running a car in the series isnt exactly cheap, resulting in wealthy, inexperienced racers piloting the machines, which means theres plenty of mayhem. Ferrari Challenge will begin to use the intelligent drones for the 2018 season, which is set to commence on January 25 at Daytona Beach, Fla. Photo Gallery Saudi Arabia recently reversed a decision which prevented women from driving and now the country is hosting a car show designed specifically for them. Reuters reports the show was held at the Le Mall in Jeddah and says women flocked to the event. A number of different vehicles were on display including models from Chevrolet, Nissan, Kia and Toyota. While they might not have been the flashy exotics people typically imagine in the Middle East, the event was focused on fuel-efficient vehicles. Theres no word on how many people attended the event but Ghada al-Ali told the publication, Ive always been interested in cars, but we didnt have the ability to drive. She went on to say shes interested in buying a car now that King Salman has lifted the ban on female drivers which takes effect in June. The news comes a particularly odd time as reports are suggesting Turkmenistan has banned women from driving in that country. AKI Press claims the ban was enacted in December and police are now beginning to enforce the law. This comes shortly after another odd report which claimed the countrys president wants to eliminate all of the black cars in the countrys capital of Ashgabat. Video The Toyota e-Palette Concept, which is currently on display at the CES convention, is a flexible, all-electric vehicle with autonomous driving that can take on various roles. Toyotas versatile study can be outfitted with purpose-built interiors depending on the users needs, and it can fulfill different roles, from pizza delivery to ride sharing. The automobile industry is clearly amidst its most dramatic period of change as technologies like electrification, connected and automated driving are making significant progress, said Toyotas President Akio Toyoda. Just as important, we are developing mobility solutions to help everyone enjoy their lives, and we are doing our part to create an ever-better society for the next 100 years and beyond. The Japanese automakers latest venture into the future of mobility is part of an alliance that includes partners such as Pizza Hut, Uber, Amazon, and Didi, and the manufacturer plans to conduct feasibility testing all over the world, including the United States, in the early 2020s. This means that, if everything goes as planned, it might make it into production sometime in the next decade. PHOTO GALLERY As far as weird laws go, the prohibition of black cars in Turkmenistan definitely makes it into our Top 10. The country first implemented a ban on black cars back in 2015, although it only applied to imports. Now, president Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov has reportedly banned all black cars from the countrys capital of Ashgabat. Whats worse is that some car owners have already found their vehicles missing, as many black cars have been towed away to police impound lots. In order to get their cars back, they must sign a document agreeing to repaint their vehicles in a lighter color with white scoring you the most points, as its known to be the presidents favorite color. Meanwhile, fees for car painting services have doubled, where according to Chronicles of Turkmenistan, they went from $500 to $1,000 in car service centers. As for tinted windows, dont even think about it: they have been banned since 2014. PHOTO GALLERY The Incredible Disappearing Lasseter act became harder to pull off though during the backstage press interview when, among the standard softball questions, one journalist decided to bring up Lasseter, asking the Coco makers: This whole event is reflecting the impact of this incredible outpouring of accusations that have really rocked this industry. Pixar has not been untouched by allegations of an environment that could be difficult for women. Has there been any changes at Pixar? Can you talk about going through that experience, even within your own company? A visibly uncomfortable Darla Anderson, Cocos producer and a 25-year Pixar veteran, made the first attempt at answering the question: Tonight obviously we wanted to focus on being in solidarity with tonights movementand um[laughs, smiles at co-director Adrian Molina]and umand uhand we have been looking at a lot of things at making our environment as safe as possible and with as much integrity as possible, for sure. Unkrich follows up, first by sidetracking the question into an issue of diversity, before finally circling back and vaguely addressing Lasseter: It was really vital to all of us, and Darla is kind of the general of our army, being the producer of the film. From the very beginning, we tried to create an environment that really welcomed as many diverse voices as possible. Not only through the consultants that we brought in, but through the crew that we assembled. It was a very diverse crew and were proud of that, and we believe that all of those voices that we brought together really did help make the movie as successful as it was. And so, moving ahead, were learning from the lessons of what we did on Coco. As its clear from everything going on in the industry, we all can improve. We can all be better. At Pixar, we have been taking steps, and we will continue to move towards making it an even better place for people to create art. What the steps that Unkrich is referring to might be are unknown. It is yet another unanswered question, among others such as who at the Walt Disney Company knew about Lasseters behavior, why was it allowed to go on for as long as it did, and what kind of financial settlements has Disney reached with Lasseters accusers? For now, Lasseter remains the highest-profile movie industry executive accused of extensive sexual misconduct to have gotten off scot-free. And the only publicly known consequence of his inappropriate behavior sounds more like a reward than punishment: a six-month vacation away from the studio. Perhaps after Coco wins the Oscar in March, the Disney Company will finally make clear whether it intends to hold Lasseter accountable for his misconduct. The backstage exchange at the Golden Globes can be seen below starting at 3:25: Photo: File photo A Vernon councillor will be heading to Winnipeg next month to take part in the Indigenous Municipal Partnership Summit. A Vernon councillor will be heading to Winnipeg next month to take part in the Indigenous Municipal Partnership Summit. Julliette Cunningham will travel to the Prairie city Feb. 21-22 along with OKIB Chief Byron Louis where they will meet with officials from across Canada. I think it's basically giving information on how municipalities can do partnerships with Indigenous communities, said Cunningham. There will be examples there how, across the country, how municipalities have worked with bands and helped them with projects to improve their economic development opportunities. Cunningham said the summit will help provide insight on how to create partnerships. I think we have a good relationship with the OKIB. We meet on a regular basis with them, said Cunningham. Photo: RCMP Two men have been arrested after a fake Chinese gold scheme. A man was told he was purchasing priceless Chinese artifacts, but discovered they were fake. Police were contacted by the victim on Dec. 21., and the Richmond RCMP Economic Crime Unit linked the case to a second incident in Surrey. Canada Border Services Agency and the San Francisco District Attorneys Office were also involved in the investigation, said ECU Cpl. Marco Sallinen. Cpl. Adriana Peralta said the scam was also pulled in Japan, Singapore and the United States. Dejin Xu, 52, and Zhong Yang, 49, were arrested Saturday and charged with two counts of fraud over $5,000 each. Both men are Chinese nationals and currently remain in custody. Photo: David Ogilvie A car and SUV collided on Boucherie Road, south of Montigny Road, in West Kelowna this afternoon. The crash happened on snow-slicked streets about 1:30 p.m. A tow truck arrived on scene shortly after 2 p.m. No one was injured in the collision. One southbound lane was closed while police investigated the scene. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. Photo: Lark Group The District of Summerland has confirmed a formal public hearing date for the deeply controversial Bank Crescent seniors development. The hearing will take place Feb. 5 from 1:30-4:30 p.m. and 6:30-9:30 p.m. at the Arena Banquet Room in Summerland. Mayor Peter Waterman says everyone that wants a chance to speak will be able to. Should the hearing run out of time, it will be adjourned to a later date. The Lark Group is proposing to build a 415-unit seniors living complex consisting of 256 market housing, 107 independent living and 52 memory care units. It would add about 1,000 people to the community and generate $429,000 in annual net income for the municipality, the equivalent of a 5.7 per cent property tax increase. Opponents of the $94M project and there are many are concerned about the sheer size of the development and its impact on the nearby fish hatchery's water source. More than 2,200 residents have signed a petition against the plan. Photo: CTV The B.C. Education Ministry says high school completion rates across the province are on the rise and the greatest gains are among Indigenous students and people with special needs. The ministry says 65.9 per cent of Indigenous students were completing high school within six years as of the 2016-2017 school year. That marks a 2.1 per cent increase over the previous year and a 19 per cent increase from a decade ago. Students with special needs finished high school last year at a rate of 69.4 per cent, up 2.4 per cent from the previous school year and over 25 per cent in the last decade. Those rates still lag behind the overall graduation rate of 84 per cent. Education Minister Rob Fleming says the improvements for Indigenous and special needs students is a positive step, but he says more work needs to be done. Contributed Time Magazine and YouTube You think it is slippery in the Okanagan? Video of this poor guy in Virginia is going viral. Photo: CTV Vancouver The victim of a homicide in Surrey four days ago has been identified by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. Surrey resident Shawnn Patrick Cotter, 37, was found dead on Jan. 7 shortly after midnight, at a home in the 17800 block of 64th Avenue in Surrey. IHIT spokesperson Cpl. Meghan Foster said Cotter's death was not random, based on evidence collected so far. Further details of the homicide were not disclosed. Foster said the homicide is not currently linked to other violence in the Lower Mainland. Authorities continue to investigate. Photo: Hydro One Ontario's largest and recently privatized electricity utility has spent $9 million to redesign bills and is proposing to spend an additional $6 million on the project. Hydro One has come under fire for spending since the Liberal government sold more than half of the company, notably for its CEO's $4.5-million pay. Now, the NDP is raising concerns with the $15-million bill redesign expense contained in a rate application from the formerly public utility. "I don't think the problem we face is a bill that people can't understand, I think the problem is rates that are too high," said energy critic Peter Tabuns. "Fifteen million dollars seems awfully expensive to me." But Hydro One says a 2016 survey of its customers indicated about 40 per cent had trouble understanding their bills. Ferio Pugliese, the company's executive vice-president of customer care and corporate affairs, said the redesign was aimed at giving customers a simpler bill. "The new format is a format that when tested and put in front of our customers has been designed to give customers the four or five salient items they want to see on their bill," he said. About $9 million has already gone into redesigning bills, mostly for residential customers, Pugliese said. Cosmetic changes to bills account for about 25 per cent of the cost, with the rest of the money going toward updating information systems and improving digital billing platforms, he said. The additional $6 million Hydro One is looking to spend would go toward bill changes mostly for its commercial, industrial and large distribution account customers. Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault noted in a statement that the Ontario Energy Board has yet to decide on the expense, but he suggested he sees the bill redesign as necessary. Photo: Police photo 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 defence 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 five miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Photo: File photo A man was arrested Thursday morning after falling asleep at a commercial business. A West Kelowna man with 13 outstanding warrants was arrested Thursday after falling asleep at a commercial property the night before. Just after 8 a.m., employees of a business on the 1500 block of Stevens Road called police after finding a man on the property while they were opening the business. While employees initially thought he had broken in, it turned out the 34-year-old had attended the business on Wednesday and fell asleep inside his vehicle. The business closed for the evening, trapping the man inside until the next morning. When our officers arrived on scene and positively identified the individual, they subsequently executed a total of 13 outstanding warrants for his arrest out of Kelowna, said Cpl. Jesse ODonaghey. Those warrants included charges such as breach of his release conditions, failure to appear in court and possession of a controlled substance. The man remains in police custody. UPDATE: 7:35 p.m. A woman who's been a neighbour of the now-burned mobile home in Okanagan Falls for 20 years says she first heard an explosion before ever seeing a fire. Carol McGowan was outside her home shovelling snow when she heard a "big bang" coming from her friends' trailer. She looked over and saw smoke, before another "great big kaboom" shot flames and thick smoke from the building, which quickly overtook the home. "I was running to try and get to the front door, because their car was still there, so I thought, 'they're in the house, they're in the house,'" McGowan said. "I panicked and started screaming, but I couldn't get anywhere near the door." McGowan later learned the woman who lived in the home was away visiting family, but a firefighter told her that the man living there perished in the blaze. "I feel really bad, they're close friends. We've been neighbours for 20 years," McGowan said, adding the mobile home park is tight-knit community. The BC Coroner Service attended the scene earlier this evening. UPDATE: 6:10 p.m. A man has reportedly died in a fire at a mobile home park in Okanagan Falls Thursday evening. The fire began just after 4:30 p.m. at a trailer in Peach Cliff Estates Mobile Home Park at 4505 McLean Creek Road. Jenni Matthew, a resident of the park, says an older man died in the blaze. Fire crews from Okanagan Falls, along with the Kaleden Fire Department, fought the fire, while police and ambulance attended as well. A loud explosion could be heard coming from the burning building, and Matthew says FortisBC is on scene "working on a possible gas leak." Police have yet to confirm the death. ORIGINAL: 5:10 p.m. A structure fire in Okanagan Falls has forced the local fire department to call in help from the Kaleden Fire Department. A resident in the area says she believes the fire, which began just before 5 p.m., is burning somewhere on McLean Creek Road. A woman at the Okanagan Falls Volunteer Fire Department hall said all the department's members are currently at the scene, and they've called in extra members from Kaleden. She says the fire is burning within the Okanagan Falls community. The fire hall employee would not disclose the location of the fire, or what type of building is on fire. This story will be updated as more information becomes available. Send pics and video to [email protected] Chelsea Powrie The Penticton SPCA is launching a new program aimed at easing pet anxiety when visiting the vet. Fear Free was created by a vet in Colorado who decided there were ways to make the vet less stressful for pets, owners and staff. Karen Retallick, the Penticton SPCA practice manager, has completed her certification, along with all of her staff. "Our goal is to help animals and their guardians have the best possible experience, from the moment they leave their homes until they return," Retallick said. The Fear Free approach includes methods like having separate entrances and exam rooms for dogs and cats, using reward-based psychology to create good associations and even using cat and dog pheromone scents to put the animals at ease during examinations or X-rays. Retallick said not only do these methods help the animals, they make work a lot safer for her staff, too. "We get a lot less scratches," Retallick said. Photo: Angus Reid Institute While hotly debated, it seems that just over half of British Columbians approve the NDP government decision to go ahead with construction of the Site C hydroelectric dam. The Angus Reid Institute poll suggests 52 per cent of respondents to the survey believe it was the right decision - twice as many as say it was the wrong one (26%). The survey also reported that the government needs to shore up "what appears to be softening support for a key campaign promise to introduce proportional representation in B.C." "While a majority of 57 per cent in this province still say this type of electoral system is preferable to the current first-past-the-post structure, the latest public opinion data on BC issues from the Angus Reid Institute notes a drop in support since September, when 65 per cent said the same. Photo: Angus Reid Institute More Key Findings by the Angus Reid Institute: Four-in-five past BC Liberal supporters (78%) say the government made the right choice with respect to Site C. Much lower support though still a plurality is found among past NDP (44%) and Green (42%) voters. While there has been a slight uptick in support for the current first-past-the-post voting system among BC NDP and BC Green Party voters, each still voice strong majority support for proportional representation. The largest change in opinion on this issue is among past BC Liberal voters. In September half (52%) preferred PR that number has dropped to 36 per cent. B.C. residents are evenly split regarding their disposition toward the government to this point. Fifty-one per cent are optimistic when they look at how the government is functioning, while 49 per cent are pessimistic. This is a notable increase in optimism since June, up eight points. Photo: The Canadian Press Terry Lake, the former B.C. health minister who oversaw the declaration of a public-health emergency amid the deadly fentanyl crisis, is urging more research on the effects of marijuana on opioid addictions. Now a vice-president at a medical cannabis company, Lake said there is preliminary evidence that shows marijuana can help people with addictions reduce their use of hard drugs and ease the painful symptoms of withdrawal. "I'm not saying it's the answer to the opioid crisis. I'm saying it's one of the options we should explore," said Lake, who chose not to run in last spring's provincial election. "It's very promising and deserving of further research and there's no better place to do that than in British Columbia." Lake, who was hired last August by Quebec-based Hydropothecary, will join a researcher, an activist and others for a discussion of pot as an opioid substitute at the Lift Cannabis Expo in Vancouver on Sunday. There have been "intriguing" early studies that have suggested cannabis might play a beneficial role in lowering the risk of overdose deaths, said M-J Milloy, a research scientist with the BC Centre on Substance Use. A 2014 study in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine found that states with legal cannabis had an opioid death rate that was 25 per cent lower than states where pot was illegal. A Canadian paper, published last year in The International Journal of Drug Policy, surveyed 271 medical cannabis patients and found 63 per cent used pot as a substitute for prescription drugs and 30 per cent used it as a substitute for opiates. Milloy conducted a study that showed marijuana may help wean people off crack cocaine. His team tracked 122 Vancouver-area crack users over a three-year period and found they reported using the harder drug less often when they opted to consume pot. British Columbia's public-health emergency, declared in April 2016, is still underway. Between January and November last year, 1,208 people died of illicit drug overdoses in the province, exceeding 2016's total of 985 fatalities. Lake said he's come to believe Canada should adopt the approach of Portugal, which decriminalized all drugs and aims to help people dealing with addiction from the perspective of a health concern rather than a criminal problem. Photo: The Canadian Press 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 three 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 black 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," Pitney said. But he confessed: "The likelihood is increasing that we'll 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. Photo: The Canadian Press 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 description of an entire continent startled lawmakers in the meeting and revived charges 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. 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. "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," Trump said in a late-night tweet. "We must build a Great Wall ..." Photo: The Canadian Press A public funeral service is being held today for two British Columbia sisters found dead on Christmas Day. The bodies of Aubrey and Chloe Berry, aged four and six, were found in an apartment in the Victoria-area community of Oak Bay after their mother reported the girls overdue from a visit with their father. The service is being held at Victoria's downtown Christ Church Cathedral. The District of Oak Bay held a candlelight vigil days after the deaths to allow distressed area residents to gather and share their grief. Hundreds attended, with many building a candlelight memorial to the sisters beside two tiny crosses with the names Chloe and Aubrey. Andrew Berry, the father of the girls, is in custody and has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Photo: The Canadian Press The oldest victim swept away in a California mudslide was Jim Mitchell, who had celebrated his 89th birthday the day before. He died with his wife of more than 50 years, Alice. The youngest, 3-year-old Kailly Benitez, was one of four children killed. As their names and those of 14 other victims were released Thursday, crews kept digging through the muck and rubble looking for more people. "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 we'll be finding bodies, not survivors. You have to start accepting the reality of that." The Mitchells were in love with their home in the seaside enclave of Montecito where they moved in 1995, according to their daughter. They also loved their dog, Gigi, who is missing. The other children killed were 6-year-old Peerawat Sutthithepn, 10-year-old Jonathan Benitez and 12-year-old Sawyer Corey. None of the adult dead shared their last names. All of the dead were killed by "multiple traumatic injuries due to flash flood with mudslides," authorities said. Five people were missing as of early Friday, down from as many as 43 a day earlier, said Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for Santa Barbara County. Sheriff Bill Brown gave the larger number Thursday but cautioned that many or most of those people may simply have been unreachable to the family and friends who reported they couldn't find them. "We were able to find people," Anderson said, but added that the number could continue to fluctuate greatly. She said some missing-person reports are quickly cleared but others take time to resolve. Pitney said many rescues were still happening Wednesday and Thursday, but most if not all were of people who were safe but just wanted to get out of the area. Among the searchers were more than a dozen firefighters who 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 black Labrador retrievers swam around a debris-filled swimming pool, trying to pick up any scent. 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. From an aerial view, the community that is home for celebrities such as 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. 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. Photo: Contributed Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has revealed the secrets of giving a speech while wearing a weighty crown, in unusually candid comments in a new documentary on her 1953 coronation and the symbolism of the crown jewels. Among the revelations of the BBC program airing Sunday is that the crown jewels were kept safe during World War II by being hidden in a biscuit tin buried at Windsor Castle. Although it was known the jewels had been taken to the castle 20 miles (32 kilometres) west of London for safekeeping, details had not been widely discussed. The queen also discusses the challenges of being head of state. She jokes that she can't look down while wearing the Imperial State Crown which weighs 2 pounds 13oz (1.28 kilograms). The crown is worn by the monarch when delivering a speech for the State Opening of Parliament. "You can't look down to read the speech, you have to take the speech up. Because if you did, your neck would break. It would fall off," the queen said in excerpts released ahead of the program. "So there are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise they're quite important things." In the program, the queen notes that the crown has been reduced in height since being worn by her father, King George VI. "Fortunately, my father and I have about the same sort of shaped head," the queen said. "But once you put it on, it stays. I mean, it just remains on." Photo: The Canadian Press Consider this cold comfort: A quick study of the brutal American cold snap found that the Arctic blast really wasn't global warming but a freak of nature. Frigid weather like the two-week cold spell that began around Christmas is 15 times rarer than it was a century ago, according to a team of international scientists who does real-time analyses to see if extreme weather events are natural or more likely to happen because of climate change. The cold snap that gripped the East Coast and Midwest region was a rarity that bucks the warming trend, said researcher Claudia Tebaldi of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the private organization Climate Central. The same team had connected several weather events last year to man-made global warming including Hurricane Harvey that battered the U.S. and Caribbean and the French floods. "It was very definitely strange, especially now," said study co-author Gabriel Vecchi of Princeton University. A century ago "it wouldn't have been that strange. Things like this are becoming stranger." The study by the World Weather Attribution analyzed weather records dating back to 1880 and found the cold weather that hit a swath of the U.S. from Maine to Minnesota tends to happen once every 250 years. In the early 1900s, it happened about once every 17 years. Climate change has made such cold spells less common and less intense, the group said. That finding agrees with earlier studies, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd, who wasn't part of the study. "I think the public frenzy over the recent cold snap illustrated that we are less acclimated to such events," he said in an email. The study, based on observations and statistics, did not find evidence for a popular scientific theory that links melting Arctic sea ice to blasts of cold air escaping the top of the world. Photo: The Canadian Press Africans were shocked on Friday to find President Donald Trump had finally taken an interest in their continent. But it wasn't what people had hoped for. Using vulgar language, Trump on Thursday questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa rather than places like Norway in rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal. On Friday he denied using that language. The African Union continental body told The Associated Press it was "frankly alarmed" by Trump's comments. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice," AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said. Some African governments found themselves in an awkward position. As top recipients of U.S. aid, some hesitated to jeopardize it by criticizing Trump, especially as his administration has sought to slash foreign assistance. "Unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say," South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told the AP. But Botswana's government called Trump's comment "reprehensible and racist," saying the U.S. ambassador had been summoned to clarify whether the country was regarded so poorly after years of cordial relations. South Africa's ruling African National Congress called Trump's comments "extremely offensive," while opposition leader Mmusi Maimane said "the hatred of Obama's roots now extends to an entire continent." Uganda's state minister for international relations, Henry Okello Oryem, called the remarks "unfortunate and regrettable" and hoped that heads of state will reply at an African Union summit later this month. African media outlets and the continent's young, increasingly connected population were not shy, with some tweeting sleek photos of African landscapes and urban areas with the hashtag of the word. "Well, that is the perfect definition of racism. That is all I have to say," Kenyan entrepreneur Wangui Muraguri told the AP in response to Trump. "Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate," South African media outlet Daily Maverick wrote. Trump's comments were "shocking and shameful" and "I'm sorry, but there's no other word one can use but racist," said a spokesman for the U.N. human rights office, Rupert Colville. Many on the world's second most populous continent reached for their smartphones, long-practiced in defending it from easy stereotypes. While 40 per cent of the world's poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund, the region also has billionaires, reality shows and a growing middle class. The World Bank on Friday tweeted that sub-Saharan Africa's economic growth this year is forecast at 3.2 per cent. That was the U.S. economy's annual rate of growth from July through September, according to Commerce Department data last month. Some in Africa decided to own Trump's vulgar language or throw it back in his face. "Good morning from the greatest most beautiful 'shithole country' in the world!!!" South African Broadcasting Corporation anchor Leanne Manas tweeted. "As someone from South Shithole, Trevor is deeply offended by the president's remarks," The Daily Show tweeted of its South African-born host, Trevor Noah. Others said they thought Trump had a point, in a way. "Trump is absolutely right," said Mamady Traore, a 30-year-old sociologist in Guinea. "When you have heads of state who mess with the constitutions to perpetuate their power. When you have rebel factions that kill children, disembowel women as saints, who mutilate innocent civilians." In Kenya, East Africa's economic hub, political activist Boniface Mwangi pleaded: "Please don't confuse the ... leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent." He later told the AP that "Africa gave America the greatest president ever" in Barack Obama. "It is actually a disgrace for one of the best men to occupy that office to be succeeded by an idiot." Photo: Contributed The British Columbia Real Estate Association says fewer homes were sold across the province in 2017 compared with the year earlier, but it says prices were up and sales remained above 100,000 for the third straight year. The association's snapshot of 2017 residential sales shows 103,763 properties changed hands, down 7.5 per cent from the 2016 record of 112,211. The total dollar value of all sales also slipped 5.1 per cent to $73.63 billion but the association says the average price of a home nudged up 2.7 per cent to $709,579. December was also a strong month for sales, as seasonally adjusted purchases jumped four per cent from November, although the association says year-end results may reflect buyers hurrying to avoid tougher mortgage qualification rules in January. A total of 5,738 sales were recorded across B.C. in December, an increase of 21.5 per cent over the same period last year, with the average residential price province-wide set at $734,108, a leap of 12.1 per cent from December 2016. Association chief economist Cameron Muir says B.C.'s strong economy, employment growth and rising wages supported the healthy demand for housing in 2017. "Above trend migration, both international and interprovincial, also bolstered housing demand," he says. Condominium sales in urban centres and sales of all types of properties in retirement-oriented communities were also fuelled by B.C.'s changing and aging population, the association says. Photo: Contributed Kelowna International Airport saw almost 1.9 million travellers through the doors in 2017. Official figures released by YLW Friday show 1,893,470 passengers passed through the airport last year. That's an increase of 161,000 passengers, or 9.3 per cent, over 2016. The largest year-over-year increase came in April, when 22.16 per cent more travellers flew in, or out, of the airport. August was the busiest month (179,153), followed by December (177,131) and March (173,504). More than 150,000 passengers used YLW during seven of the 12 months in 2017, compared with four in 2016. Each month saw an increase in traffic over the same year in 2016. These numbers certainly exceed our projections, said airport director Sam Samaddar. Its great news. The increase in travellers translates directly to a boost to the regional economy, with an increase in tourism and support for local businesses. Samaddar said 2017 saw remarkable growth in capacity with an increase in route frequency and the addition of a new airline. Weve also been working hard with our tourism partners across the globe to promote YLW as a four-season destination. Photo: The Canadian Press Vigilant staff members at a federal prison in the Fraser Valley have seized a package of contraband they say was being smuggled into the institution by drone. Gordon Tanner, assistant warden at Matsqui Institution, says in a news release issued Friday that the package was dropped onto prison property about 10 p.m. on Dec. 23. Staff at the medium security institution intercepted the package. It contained drugs and tobacco which the release says were worth an estimated $26,500. The Correctional Service of Canada says it is heightening measures to prevent contraband from entering its institutions. The release does not outline any measures that may be aimed at curbing attempted deliveries by drone. This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan will attend, from January 23 to 26, the 48th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. January 12, 2018, 16:35 Armenia PM expected to address at Davos World Economic Forum STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 12, ARTSAKHPRESS:Aram Araratyan, the PMs spokesperson, told about the abovementioned to Armenian News-NEWS.am. The makeup of the Prime Minister-led delegation has not been confirmed yet, Araratyan added. In all likelihood, Karen Karapetyan will make a speech at the forum. The last time when Armenia participated in the Davos economic forum was in 2009. Two of the most powerful women in New York state government unveiled Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 30-point plan to address issues ranging from child care and equal pay to contraception coverage and maternal depression. At an event in New York City Thursday, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa detailed the 2018 Women's Agenda. It contains several proposals already announced by Cuomo codifying Roe v. Wade into the state law and constitution, banning domestic abusers from possessing firearms and reauthorizing the state's Minority and Women-Owned Business program. DeRosa, who as secretary to the governor is Cuomo's top aide, recalled how she and many other women felt in the aftermath of Donald Trump's win in the 2016 presidential election. She mentioned the women's marches that were held in New York last January and the scores of women who, through the #MeToo movement, shared their stories of being sexually assaulted or harassed. "Yes, 2017 was the year when women spoke up," DeRosa said. "But 2018 needs to be the year when society responds." The agenda seeks to address women's health issues with the passage of the Comprehensive Contraceptive Coverage Act and codifying abortion rights into state law. Cuomo will advocate for improving access to in vitro fertilization, launch a state effort to help women experiencing maternal depression, form a review board to examine maternal mortality and add women's health experts to the State Board of Medicine. The safety plank of the women's agenda includes passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would add sex as a protected class in the state constitution, extend human rights protections to all New York public school students and lengthen the timeline required to store rape kits at hospitals from 30 days to at least five years. Other safety proposals have been announced by the governor, including legislation to prohibit domestic abusers from possessing firearms and new laws to combat sexual extortion and revenge porn. The legislative blueprint wouldn't be limited to issues affecting adult women. There are a handful of proposals that aim to help young girls, including legislation to ensure free menstrual products are provided in public schools for girls in grades 6 through 12. Cuomo's plan would also direct more state funding to expand computer science programs and continue the state's mentoring program. Two new programs would be created for girls. New York will launch the "If You Can See It, You Can Be It" initiative to offer opportunities for girls to shadow women leaders at prominent New York companies. And the "Be Aware-Be Informed" learning module would educate kindergarten through 12th grade students on healthy relationships. A handful of family-centered proposals are part of the women's agenda, including investments in prekindergarten and after-school programs, increasing child care subsidies by $7 million, continuing the child care tax credit and requiring all new or renovated buildings with public bathrooms to be equipped with diaper changing stations. Cuomo also wants to establish a child care availability task force to review access to child care statewide. Rounding out the plan is a large section focused on workplace issues, including previously announced proposals to combat sexual harassment in the workplace and urging the state pension fund to prioritize investments in companies that have "adequate" women and minority leadership. Some of the new workforce-focused proposals announced Thursday include the formation of the Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative to assist women who are either returning to work or advancing in their fields. Another new initiative, the Women Lead Fellowship for Women in Government, will aim to recruit women to work alongside senior female officials in state government. And Cuomo wants the state's venture capital fund to invest at least $20 million to support women-owned businesses. Closing the gender pay gap is also a priority. Women in New York earn 89 cents for every dollar a man earns. While that's the lowest gap in the nation, DeRosa said it's "too high and unacceptable." The state Department of Labor has been conducting hearings on how to best address the pay disparity. The agency will release the results of their study this year. Hochul called each of the 30 proposals in the women's agenda "incredible." "They are comprehensive, they are bold and what I love most is they are audacious," she said. Much of the agenda must be approved by the state Legislature. The release of the plan comes less than a week before Cuomo is expected to deliver his executive budget address. U.S. Rep. John Katko wants to ensure utility companies in New York are passing on the benefits of the federal tax plan to customers. Katko, R-Camillus, sent a letter this week to the New York State Public Service Commission urging the agency to review how the new tax law will impact New York energy companies and whether the tax savings will help lower rates. On Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the commission will develop a plan for delivering the tax savings to ratepayers. Commissioners will issue their recommendation later this year. Utility companies are expected to pay considerably less in taxes after President Donald Trump signed the tax legislation in December. The measure slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent. In his letter, Katko noted that some utility companies in other states have already announced plans to lower energy rates for consumers. Commonwealth Edison Company, Pepco and Rocky Mountain Power are among the companies that have requested lower rates from state utility commissions. "I am hopeful that the New York State Public Service Commission will work to ensure hardworking New Yorkers are able to enjoy the benefits of this legislation, and realize a net reduction in their monthly energy bill in the coming months," Katko wrote. The tax plan has been touted by Republicans as a major legislative achievement. Katko was one of four New York Republicans who voted for the bill. He explained in past interviews that he supported the legislation because it would benefit a "vast majority" of his constituents in central New York. He also believed the corporate tax cut and other business-related changes would help employers in his district. There was strong opposition to the tax plan from some New Yorkers, most notably Cuomo. He has criticized the legislation as a giveaway to the rich and described Katko's support for the tax plan as "treasonous." One of the main provisions that bothered Cuomo was the revamped state and local tax deduction, a key deduction utilized by residents of high-tax states. Early drafts of the GOP tax proposal called for the elimination of the deduction. But Katko and other New York Republicans advocated for a compromise: a $10,000 cap on the deduction. The compromise, which will allow filers to deduct up to $10,000 of state and local income, property and sales taxes, was included in the final bill. Cuomo took another swipe at the tax law when he announced the Public Service Commission's plan earlier in the week. He said the federal government cut corporate taxes "at the expense of middle- and working-class men and women." Katko didn't mention the governor by name in his letter, but did refer to "heated rhetoric from both sides" during the tax debate. He expressed his desire to move forward and ensure energy customers get lower rates as a result of the corporate tax cut. "I hope that we can find common ground and work to pass on the clear benefits of this law to New Yorkers," he wrote. An international team of researchers from ETH Zurich, IBM Research Zurich, Empa and four American research institutions have found the explanation for why a class of nanocrystals that has been intensively studied in recent years shines in such incredibly bright colours. The nanocrystals contain caesium lead halide compounds that are arranged in a perovskite lattice structure. Three years ago, Maksym Kovalenko, a professor at ETH Zurich and Empa, succeeded in creating nanocrystals - or quantum dots, as they are also known - from this semiconductor material. "These tiny crystals have proved to be extremely bright and fast emitting light sources, brighter and faster than any other type of quantum dot studied so far," says Kovalenko. By varying the composition of the chemical elements and the size of the nanoparticles, he also succeeded in producing a variety of nanocrystals that light up in the colours of the whole visible spectrum. These quantum dots are thus also being treated as components for future light-emitting diodes and displays. In a study, the international research team examined these nanocrystals individually and in great detail. The scientists were able to confirm that the nanocrystals emit light extremely quickly. Previously-studied quantum dots typically emit light around 20 nanoseconds after being excited when at room temperature, which is already very quick. "However, caesium lead halide quantum dots emit light at room temperature after just one nanosecond," explains Michael Becker, first author of the study. He is a doctoral student at ETH Zurich and is carrying out his doctoral project at IBM Research. Electron-hole pair in an excited energy state Understanding why caesium lead halide quantum dots are not only fast but also very bright entails diving into the world of individual atoms, light particles (photons) and electrons. "You can use a photon to excite semiconductor nanocrystals so that an electron leaves its original place in the crystal lattice, leaving behind a hole," explains David Norris, Professor of Materials Engineering at ETH Zurich. The result is an electron-hole pair in an excited energy state. If the electron-hole pair reverts to its energy ground state, light is emitted. Under certain conditions, different excited energy states are possible; in many materials, the most likely of these states is called a dark one. "In such a dark state, the electron hole pair cannot revert to its energy ground state immediately and therefore the light emission is suppressed and occurs delayed. This limits the brightness", says Rainer Mahrt, a scientist at IBM Research. No dark state The researchers were able to show that the caesium lead halide quantum dots differ from other quantum dots: their most likely excited energy state is not a dark state. Excited electron-hole pairs are much more likely to find themselves in a state in which they can emit light immediately. "This is the reason that they shine so brightly," says Norris. The researchers came to this conclusion using their new experimental data and with the help of theoretical work led by Alexander Efros, a theoretical physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. He is a pioneer in quantum dot research and, 35 years ago, was among the first scientists to explain how traditional semiconductor quantum dots function. Great news for data transmission As the examined caesium lead halide quantum dots are not only bright but also inexpensive to produce they could be applied in television displays, with efforts being undertaken by several companies, in Switzerland and world-wide. "Also, as these quantum dots can rapidly emit photons, they are of particular interest for use in optical communication within data centres and supercomputers, where fast, small and efficient components are central," says Mahrt. Another future application could be the optical simulation of quantum systems which is of great importance to fundamental research and materials science. ETH professor Norris is also interested in using the new knowledge for the development of new materials. "As we now understand why these quantum dots are so bright, we can also think about engineering other materials with similar or even better properties," he says. Some animals, such as geckos, can easily climb up walls and across ceilings. But currently, no material exists that allows everyday people to scale walls or transverse ceilings as effortlessly. Now, scientists report a dry adhesive that could someday make it easier to defy gravity. Geckos can scale walls because of their unique toe pads that help them quickly attach and detach from surfaces. Interestingly, gecko toe pads are covered with bristle-like layers of a stiff material called keratin. The bristle-like structure of the keratin in a toe pad helps it to stick -- each pad is covered with microscopic pillars, which then branch out at the tips into even smaller structures. Scientists have manufactured dry adhesives with similar properties, but they haven't been as sticky as gecko toes. And some methods involve the use of layers, but the first layer is usually damaged as successive ones are applied. Other methods are not easily scaled up. Hemant Kumar Raut, Hong Yee Low and colleagues wanted create a dry adhesive that was ultra-sticky but also simple to fabricate in large batches. The researchers made a dry adhesive with stiff polycarbonate using a nanoimprinting technique to build web-like layers. This method is cost-effective, easy to perform and is scalable. To prevent damage to the first layer, the team used a sacrificial layer, which was dissolved away after the second layer was applied. In repetitive attachment and detachment tests, only a 20 percent decline in stickiness occurred after 50 cycles. This level of adhesion lasted for up to 200 cycles. The researchers say that their film's adhesion was comparable to that of a gecko. The team also placed the adhesive film on the feet of a miniature robot, which moved with ease up a 30-degree incline. MADRID As far as Zinedine Zidane is concerned, things are not as bad as they look for Real Madrid. Zidane downplayed Madrid's recent setbacks, blaming critics for exaggerating the team's struggles and wanting to create turmoil at the club. Advertisement "I'm tired of hearing that Madrid is struggling," Zidane said on Friday. "It's easy to say that everything is wrong, but it's not all bad here. It's pretty to talk negatively about Real Madrid, it sells more." Madrid has been under increased pressure since it lost to Barcelona 3-0 at home in its last game of 2017. It started the year by defeating second-division club Numancia 3-0 in the Copa del Rey, but then was held by Celta Vigo to 2-2 in the Spanish league and couldn't manage more than another 2-2 against Numancia in the return leg of the Copa at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Advertisement "We can't listen to what is being said," Zidane said. "Everything that is said about Real Madrid is negative, but in reality things are not like that. I don't see it like that. The situation is what it is, and we have to try to make the most out of it. We are still alive in all competitions and we have to keep moving forward. We are not doing as bad as people say." Madrid is in the knockout stages of the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, but it already trails Barcelona by 16 points with a game in hand near the halfway point of the Spanish league. It has never been able to overcome this big of a gap and win La Liga. Madrid will face Leganes in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey next week, and next month it will take on Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League, a competition it has won the last two seasons. Its next league game is on Saturday against sixth-place Villarreal. "We have to show on the field that we are improving," Zidane said. "We will do that by winning matches. That's what's important, and recently it has been difficult to win matches." Zidane, who this week confirmed he has renewed his contract with Madrid until 2020, said he was not worried about the team being jeered by fans at the Bernabeu, but made a plea for their support. "What I ask is that they support the team, like they have always done," Zidane said. "I'd tell them not to listen too much to what is being said. In difficult moments we need the fans to be on our side." The Fields Lofts in Chicago's Belmont Gardens neighborhood will feature 123 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments with ceiling heights up to 17 feet. Construction is expected to start in March with residents moving in by the fall. (Darris Lee Harris / Hubbard Street Group / Handout) A Chicago developer with a history of turning old warehouses into residences plans to start work soon on converting a portion of the sprawling former Marshall Fields warehouse in Belmont Gardens into 123 loft apartments. Hubbard Street Group said it will begin construction in March on a $25 million renovation of the easternmost portion of the sprawling property at 4000 W. Diversey Ave., with plans for residents to move in this fall. Advertisement The Fields Lofts will include studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, said John McLinden, Hubbard Streets Group founder and managing partner. Its a gorgeous building with 24-inch-round columns and 14- to 17-foot ceiling heights, McLinden said. Were going to save as many of the original elements as we can. The building reeks of character. Advertisement The long-awaited residential plan is part of the ongoing redevelopment of the 1.5 million-square-foot property, a collection of brick buildings on 22 acres now called The Fields. Other phases of the redevelopment, led by Chicagos Merit Partners, have created an eclectic mix of uses including a Cermak Fresh Market grocery store, self-storage, warehouses, retail and office space. On Thursday, Merit Partners and real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield said in a news release that housewares retailer Crate & Barrels Chicago office will move into 117,000 square feet at The Fields. The Northbrook-based companywill use the new Chicago space for photo and video reproduction. Monthly rents for the apartments are expected to range from less than $900 per unit in the 10 percent of the units that will be affordable housing to about $2,200, McLinden said. Thats a 20 to 25 percent discount over properties to the southeast in Bucktown, Wicker Park and Logan Square, where McLindens firm is also an active developer, he said. A lot of people right out of school have been priced out of those markets, McLinden said. Its the next step out from bulls-eye locations like Wicker Park, Bucktown and the heart of Logan Square. But Chicago is expanding out, and this is a developing neighborhood for sure. Hubbard Street Group in December formed a joint venture with Merit Partners for the apartment development, McLinden said. Hubbard Street Group paid $4.75 million to Merit Partners, with the latter contributing space valued at the same amount, McLinden said. Apartments will be constructed in a 144,000-square-foot portion of buildings A and B, above the grocery store, McLinden said. Above second-floor parking, the third through fifth floors will be converted to apartments. Atop that will be a roof deck for tenants, as well as amenities such as a fitness center, co-working space and a lounge in a smaller sixth-floor structure. The Fields Lofts represent a return to McLindens real estate past. Advertisement While at Chicago firm Centrum Partners, he was involved in the redevelopment of a massive Montgomery Ward warehouse along the Chicago River, at 600 W. Chicago Ave., into offices now Groupons headquarters and the Domain Lofts residential condominiums at 400 N. Kingsbury St.. In a nearby project on the river, Centrum Partners converted Montgomery Wards former office tower into a luxury condo tower called The Montgomery. Like its new Northwest Side project, the Montgomery Ward properties were not considered prime locations at the time, McLinden said. It seems so obvious today, when you see people with Starbucks cups in their hands and baby carriages, McLinden said. At the time, we were pioneers. Sometimes you have to step out farther to do something different. rori@chicagotribune.com Twitter @Ryan_Ori MORE REAL ESTATE NEWS FROM RYAN ORI [ Amazon HQ2 intrigue continues with reported Boston lease talks ] [ In Chicago's real estate market, ultrawide buildings are in vogue. Here's why. ] [ After apartments flood downtown Chicago, building boom reaches suburbs ] A January thaw combined with mixed precipitation events Friday and Saturday could cause severe flooding and ice jams throughout Cayuga County and neighboring areas. Cayuga County and the central New York region is in a flood watch Thursday evening through Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. With temperatures rising into the 40s and 50s Thursday and Friday, snow melt and 1.5 to 2 inches of rainfall could cause waterways to rise several feet, the service added. Niel Rivenburgh, acting director of Cayuga County Emergency Services, told legislators at a Judicial and Public Safety Committee meeting Wednesday night that there could be major flooding in Moravia. "We've let the highway departments know, (county) planning, and city water operators know about the weather," he said. "There could be some impacts. We're watching it closely." Moravia and surrounding towns and villages are still recovering from major floods in July. Rivenburgh said with 1 to 2 inches of rain expected to fall in the area, and with unseasonably warm temperatures melting snow pack, the town could see up to four inches of water. The end-of-the-week thaw won't last long, however. The National Weather Service is also reporting freezing rain changing into snow Friday night into Saturday. A winter storm warning is in effect from 4 p.m. Friday through 4 p.m. Saturday for northern Cayuga County. Snow could accumulate between 7 and 14 inches. Ice is also expected to accumulate, which could lead to power outages. The rest of Cayuga County is in a winter storm watch. The city of Auburn could get up to 8 inches of snow. Southern areas of the county are expected to get less. Ice is also expected to build up. The Seneca County Office of Emergency Management warned residents of potential ice jams overnight Friday in a Thursday release. Ice jams occur when rapid freezing or breakup and collection of ice during melts creates dams on rivers and streams, the release said. Jams can cause flash floods. The office encouraged residents to call 911 if high water moves onto your property or if you see an ice jam. Jeff Bezos, founder, CEO and chairman of Amazon.com, holds the company's first sign, quickly spray-painted prior to an interview with a Japanese television station in 1995, at Amazon's Seattle headquarters. (Andy Rogers / AP) Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, announced Friday that he is donating $33 million to a scholarship fund for young "dreamers," immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. The donation comes amid fresh pressure from business leaders as talks on Capitol Hill over how to resolve the legal status of dreamers are foundering. The White House and some GOP lawmakers rejected a tentative deal from a bipartisan Senate group on Thursday - the same day President Donald Trump made incendiary remarks about people from developing countries. Advertisement Bezos, who is the wealthiest person in the world, and his wife, MacKenzie, will be donating the sum to TheDream.US, a scholarship program that has awarded more than 1,700 immigrants more than $19 million in financial assistance since it launched in 2014. The money will help fund 1,000 college scholarships and is the largest donation yet to a fund established by Donald Graham, the former publisher of The Post who sold the company to Bezos in 2013. Advertisement Graham launched TheDream.US with Henry Munoz III, the finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee, and Carlos Gutierrez, who served as commerce secretary under President George W. Bush. In a statement announcing the donation, Bezos cited the story of his adopted father, who left Cuba as part of Operation Pedro Pan. "He landed in this country alone and unable to speak English," Bezos said in a statement. "With a lot of grit and determination - and the help of some remarkable organizations in Delaware - my dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways. MacKenzie and I are honored to be able to help today's Dreamers by funding these scholarships." The donation "is a shot in the arm for Dreamer students at a time when some are questioning whether they should be in the United States at all," said Candy Marshall, president of TheDream.US. "We would invite anyone who questions the value of Dreamers to please come meet some of our students." The group previously has received grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Inter-American Development Bank, Patty Stonesifer and Michael Kinsley, among others. Trump plans to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in March unless Congress replaces it. The Obama-era program provides temporary legal protections to roughly 700,000 dreamers. Democrats, under intense pressure from immigrant advocates, are trying to use their leverage to force a long-sought immigration deal as part of talks to keep the government open beyond a Jan. 19 spending deadline. In a bid to bolster the negotiations, more than 100 corporate leaders this week co-signed a letter to Congress calling for immediate legal relief to dreamers. The corporate leaders said, "The imminent termination of the DACA program is creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country." Bezos co-signed the letter along with tech titans Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Tim Cook of Apple and top leaders from General Motors, AT&T, the Gap, Target, Starbucks, Johnson & Johnson, Warby Parker, Uber, Lyft and others. Pressure from top business leaders could pay dividends in the closing days of the high-stakes negotiations that party leaders believe could lead to an agreement soon. Advertisement Bezos is a frequent target of Trump, who has accused the businessman of purchasing The Post to advance his business interests. In late December, the president called for the U.S. Postal Service to raise shipping rates that it charges Amazon.com in a deal that he said disadvantages the federal agency. Bezos did not respond to Trump's comments, but Amazon has defended its arrangement with USPS, noting that federal postal regulators consider the agreement profitable for the mail service. Donations to higher education are a frequent way for the world's wealthiest individuals to spread their wealth. Bill and Melinda Gates, through their Gates Foundation, have pledged $1 billion over 20 years to their Millennium Scholars program. Vedanta University in India is the recipient of the largest individual donation, a $1 billion endowment established by the Anil Agarwal Foundation, according to records kept by the Chronicle for Higher Education. The Washington Post's Nick Anderson contributed to this report. Wisconsin plumbing fixtures giant Kohler is suing Hillside-based Lenova for allegedly making and marketing a new line of apron-front sinks, including the one pictured, that look "confusingly similar" to its "original and unique" designs. (Lenova/Handout) Wisconsin plumbing fixtures giant Kohler is throwing the kitchen sink at a small suburban Chicago rival in a patent infringement lawsuit over just that: kitchen sinks. Kohlers lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Chicago, alleges Hillside-based Lenova is making and marketing a new line of apron-front sinks that look confusingly similar to its original and unique designs. Advertisement The sinks from Lenova, a 10-year-old brand, sprung up organically and independently from Kohlers, said Jay Beaumont, Lenovas director of sales and marketing. We dont copy anybody, Beaumont said. We try to be a leading-edge company. Advertisement Founded in 1873, Kohler manufactures kitchen and bath products and also operates two resorts at its headquarters in Kohler, Wis., about 55 miles north of Milwaukee. Family-owned Kohler ranks 60th on the Forbes list of Americas largest private companies, with annual sales of $6 billion. Kohler Co. vigorously protects its intellectual property; however, the company does not discuss particular pending lawsuits, the company said in an emailed statement Friday. The lawsuit seeks to stop Lenova from selling the sinks, as well as compensation for Kohlers lost profits and a judgment award of Lenovas related profits. Beaumont said the lawsuit is a David vs. Goliath battle. Kohler is like the 800-pound gorilla, he said. Kohler is a billion-dollar company. Were just a 10-year-old brand with 100,000-square-foot warehouse in little Hillside. Apron-front sinks, also known as farmhouse sinks, feature an exposed front-facing side. While the sinks have been around for many years, they are enjoying renewed popularity, and both Kohler and Lenova have created modernized versions in recent years. In July 2011, after significant engineering and development expense, Kohler introduced its version of the disputed sinks, filing several design patents, according to the lawsuit. The primary patent, entitled apron-front sink, was issued in 2015. The sinks have become successful commercial products for Kohler, according to the lawsuit. Advertisement Lenova began working on its apron-front sinks about two years ago, Beaumont said. The company rolled out a new version this week at an industry trade show, where Kohler was also an exhibitor. Apron-front sinks sit on their own cabinets in space cut out from the kitchen countertop. Beaumont said the mounting technology is at the core of the patent infringement lawsuit. rchannick@chicagotribune.com Twitter @RobertChannick Spike's Tactical, an Apopka-based gunmaker, is facing criticism over an ad it posted to Facebook with the message "Not today Antifa". (Jordan Krumbine) An Apopka gunmaker is fighting off criticism for a Not Today Antifa ad it posted online that some say threatens liberal protesters. The ad posted Monday night on Facebook from Spikes Tactical shows four men with bullet-proof vests and holding semi-automatic rifles, staring down a group of black-masked men raising fists and crowbars while fires rage in the background. Advertisement It reads Berkeley, Portland, Charlottesville, Boston, and Not Today Antifa. Those cities were the sites of high-profile demonstrations from white supremacist groups. Antifa is short for anti-facist and is the term coined for a particularly vocal minority of counter-protesters. In a statement Wednesday, Spikes said the ad is pro-American and doesnt promote violence against protesters. The ad was posted to promote a specially painted AR-15 rifle from the company and apparel maker Pipe Hitters Union. Advertisement The Facebook post has drawn hundreds of heated comments, some criticizing Spikes for promoting violence and others defending the gunmaker. Spikes you are making a HUGE mistake with this post, one Facebook commenter said. So you think that the only people who buy guns are your alt right, neo nazi nut jobs? another comment said. Antifa cant even operate a firearm. Im surprised theyre even allowed to come out of their mothers basement, one poster replied. The ad is scheduled to run in a March edition of a magazine about firearms, Recoil, the company said. Pipe Hitters Union is headquartered in Austin, Texas. A controversial ad of this nature isnt surprising, considering the political climate that has emerged since President Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, said Tracy Kizer, an associate professor of marketing at the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business. If you think about their intended audience, it seems pretty clear what the intention is, Kizer said. Last years Super Bowl featured several advertisements with political undercurrents taking aim at controversial issues, such as immigration, a border wall and gender equality. Advertisement It seems that we are seeing more of these polarizing ads, and companies are using their political identities to communicate with customers, Kizer said. Several anti-gun violence groups said the ad was irresponsible. The Spike ad is unnecessarily provocative and is clearly intended to spark controversy, said Taylor Houston, a spokesman for Pride Fund to End Gun Violence, an LGBTQ group based in Washington, D.C. What other reason would there be to invoke cities in which white supremacists have rallied? The ad was intended to show gun-owners standing up against antifa protesters, not threatening them, said Spikes Tactical marketing director Kit Cope. Cope said he believes the ad depicts antifa as attackers and the other group as defenders. Its not promoting violence, he said. Advertisement A Newsweek article also took issue with that idea on Tuesday. Street-level politics, more specifically an ongoing conflict between white supremacist demonstrators and antifa, or anti-fascist counterprotesters, has become a big news story following the rise of Donald Trump, the Newsweek article said. Now a gun company is using anger over antifa to sell dangerous assault rifles to only one side. Cope said he thinks antifa is a highly communist and radical group that is parading around in the guise of being anti-facist and that the movement wants to put more restrictions on guns. The Washington Post describes antifa as autonomous anti-racist groups that monitor and track the activities of local neo-Nazis. The Post article said there are antifa groups around the world, but antifa is not itself an interconnected organization, any more than an ideology like socialism or a tactic like the picket line is a specific group. Since the ad was posted, the Spikes Tactical factory and showroom in Apopka has had numerous threatening and demeaning phone calls, Cope said. The ladies answering the phone at first were a little rattled, Cope said. Advertisement However, being a gun manufacturer and retailer, the staff was not worried about safety at the store, he said. Cope said Spikes Tactical was not intending to make a political statement with the advertisement but said many of its customers are politically conservative and have negative thoughts towards antifa. Got a news tip? karnold@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5664; Twitter, @kylelarnold or facebook.com/bykylearnold AUBURN A 16-year-old has denied taking part in an attempted robbery outside the Cayuga County Courthouse last summer. Tertius Lovett a former resident of Cayuga Centers pleaded not guilty Thursday to second-degree attempted robbery, a felony, and third-degree menacing, a misdemeanor. Following Lovett's arraignment, Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann described the charges listed in the two-count indictment, which was handed down by a grand jury last month. According to the indictment, Lovett was arrested at around 10:45 p.m. June 28 following an attempted mugging outside the courthouse on Genesee Street. Lovett and a co-defendant allegedly approached a 38-year-old man and brandished a "sharp instrument," which the victim believed to be a knife. The victim managed to escape unharmed, Budelmann said, as he reportedly tricked the teens into following him to Parker's Grille, where he called police for help. In court Thursday, defense attorney Rome Canzano said Lovett was a "high-need resident" of Cayuga Centers at the time. He has since been transferred to a residential treatment facility near Buffalo where he will remain on "pretrial release" pending further proceedings. Lovett was scheduled to return to Cayuga County Court Feb. 8. Also in court: An Auburn man pleaded not guilty to conspiring to sell cocaine in Cayuga County. Aaron Smiley, 40, of 2 Van Patten St., was arraigned on an indictment Wednesday before Judge Mark Fandrich. He was charged with eight felonies and four misdemeanors, including fourth-degree conspiracy, third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, third-, fourth- and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree criminal possession of marijuana and second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia. Budelmann said the charges stemmed from an arrest in November when police found cocaine, marijuana and Xanax at Smiley's residence, as well as several scales and bags. Smiley pleaded not guilty to all counts Wednesday, but reappeared in court before Judge Thomas Leone Thursday morning. He was remanded to Cayuga County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash, $10,000 bond and ordered to return to court March 22. An Auburn woman was arraigned Thursday for allegedly illegally selling prescription drugs. Melissa McCullum, 38, of 59 Wall St. Apt. 3, appeared in court on an indictment charging her with three counts of fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and three counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, all class D felonies. According to the district attorney, McCullum was arrested last year for selling Diazepam and Clonazepam, both prescription medications. McCullum pleaded not guilty to all charges Thursday and was released on her own recognizance pending her next court appearance Feb. 8. Lago Wine Bar is serving up rustic Italian food and Italian wines in Lake View. (Grace Wong/Chicago Tribune) After working in New York wine bars for the last 20 years, Lauras Grigaliunas decided that he wanted to bring a cozy neighborhood wine bar to Chicago, and thus, Lago Wine Bar was born. The rustic Italian restaurant in Lakeview features cicchetti, or Venetian tapas, small-plate dining meant to be enjoyed with a glass of Italian wine. Advertisement We have small plates, so people can share different things and tastes, good wine, and basically, we want it to become a neighborhood kitchen, so people dont have to cook, he said. Lago Wine Bar will be serving up items like a focaccia bread with sauteed mushrooms and Montasio cheese, crabcakes, eggplant with goat cheese and tomato sauce, and assorted pastas, some of which will change on a daily basis. Advertisement It will also have wines from different regions in Italy, like Piedmont, with a reserve wine list featuring Super Tuscan wines from storied producers like Sassicaia. Grigaliunas hopes the restaurant, unrelated to Club Lago downtown, is fully open by the end of the month. 3207 N. Sheffield Ave., 312-819-6111, lagowinebar.com OTHER OPENINGS: WEST TOWN Pokeworks is opening its second location and will offer a buy-one-get-one-free deal to celebrate its grand opening Jan. 27. Check out the original garlic poke bowl, made with Hawaiian-style ahi tuna poke, watercress and garlic sauce. 1017 W. Lake St., 312-800-1893, pokeworks.com BUCKTOWN Mables Table, now open in the former Janes space, is a self-described mom-inspired, chef-driven brunch and dinner spot. Open since October, the new restaurant is chef Anthony Reyes first, after years of working in kitchens like Fig & Olive and Rosebud. Reyes serves everything from cinnamon roll pancakes and porchetta burritos (made with scrambled eggs, smoked provolone and salsa verde) at brunch, to meatloaf, king crab legs and a pear salad at dinner. 1655 W. Cortland St., 773-904-7433, mablestable.com GOLD COAST Joe & the Juice is opening its first Chicago location. The Copenhagen-based company apparently approved by a dancing Justin Bieber also serves shakes, sandwiches and bowls. 10 E. Delaware Place, joejuice.com Advertisement THE LOOP Look out for Izakaya Yumes traditional-style omakase sushi restaurant in the next few months. The original location is in Niles, with plans to open the downtown location by the end of March or the beginning of April. More details to come. THE LOOP Revival Food Hall announced on Instagram that BopNGrill will be taking over its new pop-up space January through March. The Korean-inspired restaurant will serve burgers and loaded kimchi fries. On April 2, TriBeccas Cubano, from the Honey Butter Fried Chicken team, will take over the space for three months, according to TriBeccas Twitter account. 125 S. Clark St., 773-888-8411, revivalfoodhall.com ICYMI: UNIVERSITY VILLAGE Steak n Shake is opening its first location in the city. WEST TOWN Bar Biscay will be serving food from coastal Spain and southwest France. Advertisement CLOSINGS: Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > STREETERVILLE Critically acclaimed GreenRiver to close after two years. WEST TOWN CaPos has closed, and a sign says its moving to a new location, LTHForum first reported. Formerly at 1147 W. Grand Ave. PILSEN Andorkas has closed, according to a Facebook post. The restaurant was open for three years and encouraged customers to keep eyes peeled for new and future endeavors. Eater first reported the news. Formerly at 2110 S. Halsted St. THE LOOP Poag Mahones has closed, according to its Facebook page, which lamented the end of an era. Formerly at 333 S. Wells St. Advertisement gwong@chicagotribune.com Twitter @GraceWong630 [ Alderman: Steak 'n Shake planning first Chicago location ] [ Bar Biscay, from mfk owners, heading to West Town ] [ Restaurant openings: CTA-themed taco shop, plus pizza and burger restaurant expansions ] From left, Sara Gilbert, Laurie Metcalf and Roseanne Barr reprise their roles on the new season of "Roseanne." (Adam Rose / ABC) When Roseanne returns in March after a 20-year hiatus, there are a few questions that have to be answered. Perhaps most urgently, the series will have to tackle the return of patriarch Dan Conner, who was said to have died of a heart attack during the shows initial run. Heres another question: Roseanne is filmed on a studio lot in Los Angeles, but is set in the fictional Illinois town of Lanford. Where in Illinois is Lanford supposed to be? Some conflicting clues about the towns location are sprinkled throughout the series, which originally aired from 1988-97. Advertisement Consider Season 1, Episode 20. Amid fierce winds, Dan Conner turns on the radio for the weather report: As of 5 p.m. Central Standard Time, a tornado watch is in effect for Fulton County. Darlene Conner bursts into the room: Hey, thats us! In real life, Fulton County is west of Peoria. Now Season 8, Episode 7. While in the car with her sister, Roseanne Conner suggests going to that big outlet mall up in Elgin. Jackie Harris sniffs, Elgin? Thats an hour away. Advertisement A representative for the ABC network, which aired Roseanne in the 90s and will air the new season starting March 27, said Elgin is used as the reference for Lanford, both geographically and demographically. It seems not much has changed between the series finale and the revival. The Conners described by the network as Americas favorite working-class family will continue to face the economic challenges of living paycheck to paycheck, with a sense of the absurdity of it all on the new nine-episode season. Roseanne Barr, a supporter of President Donald Trump, recently confirmed her character voted for Trump. "I've always tried to have (the show) be a true reflection of the society we live in," Barr told reporters Monday at a Television Critics Association event. "So I feel like half the people voted for Trump and half didnt, so its just realistic. Thats not the case in Elgin Township, which covers portions of the City of Elgin, the Village of South Elgin and unincorporated areas. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who grew up in the Chicago area, easily defeated Trump in Elgin Township in 2016, election records show. Clintons maternal grandfather is from Elgin, according to Donnie Radcliffes book Hillary Rodham Clinton: The Evolution of a First Lady. The exterior of the Conner home is also not an authentic representation of Illinois. The series features shots of a house in Evansville, Ind., about 325 miles away from Elgin. tswartz@tribpub.com Twitter @tracyswartz [ RELATED: 'Family Matters' cast reunites, talks hope for a revival ] [ Katey Sagal open to 'Married ... with Children' revival ] [ Producer says no 'Back to the Future' reboots, but lauds Cubs prediction ] Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Richard Lewis! With those words, a shaggy-haired, 30-something comic takes the stage at Zanies on North Wells Street, offers a quick bow and scans a seemingly endless scroll of paper, as if cramming for a quiz he should have thought about last night. Advertisement When he spots something he likes, he puts down the notes, steps up to the microphone and begins telling all. Its March 1984, and Ive never seen or heard anything quite like this before. The man restlessly prowls Zanies tiny stage as if trapped, runs his fingers nervously through thick brown locks and looks up to the heavens every once in a while, perhaps hoping for some kind of deliverance that clearly isnt coming. Advertisement Even at this early moment, I know Ill follow every twist and turn in this comic wizards work for as long as he and I are at it. Between riffs, Lewis keeps stepping away from the microphone to scrutinize the Talmudic manuscript on stage, as if trying to remember all his neuroses (admittedly a long list). The jokes tumble out fast and furiously, but theyre so much more than one-liners: Really, theyre barely censored insights into the psyche of a hilariously self-tortured individual. Before he goes out on dates, he tells the audience, he asks his potential lovers if they have anything that rhymes with werpes. Lewis mother is so gloomy that she publishes a magazine for the family called Whos Dying and Whos Ill. Shortly before he makes a stage debut that hes been fretting over for months, his mother informs him: You know, of course, that your Aunt Fay cant move her knuckles anymore. Some of Lewis problems are a bit too anatomical to repeat here. Flash-forward three-and-a-half decades, and Lewis has a lot more to worry about. And not just that he turned 70 last June. More important, in 2016 he fell off his roof and shattered his right hand, which started a two-year journey into four or five surgeries, he says. Along the way, he suffered a hernia, sciatica, cataracts well, the medical itinerary goes on. As if this didnt produce enough angst, Lewis and his wife, Joyce Lapinsky, last year decided to move out of the Los Angeles home hed lived in since 1990 (shed moved there in 2002 and they were married in 2005). Every wall and crevice of the house was crowded with photos, posters and other memorabilia from a show business career stretching back to the early 1970s. Advertisement It was a house of horrors, Lewis concedes, though he also considers it a beautiful house. Amid all this distress, Lewis somehow squeezed in tapings of Larry Davids Curb Your Enthusiasm show on HBO. But for nearly two years, Lewis couldnt appear in the arena that has defined him more than any other, a forum in which he really has no peer for sheer verbal dexterity, narrative brilliance and stream-of-consciousness delirium: stand-up comedy. Last fall, Lewis finally returned to the stage to make up the long-canceled dates, his comeback tour culminating with a four-night run at Zanies starting Wednesday. All that time away from stand-up changed Lewis perspective, he says. I could have killed myself during my fall, he observes. And when I went back on stage, every show was like dessert. It was like: Im lucky Im even doing this. Lest anyone fear that Lewis newfound sense of gratitude has tempered his psychological maladies and, therefore, his art, he hastens to note: Nothings happened to my act. First of all, I dont have an act. Advertisement Or, as wife Lapinsky puts it, Hes funnier than ever (because) theres much more to laugh at at 70. Youre really going to laugh or be miserable. Or both. Comedian Richard Lewis is photographed at home in Los Angeles on Dec. 19, 2017. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) About that fall. On March 7, 2016, Lewis was awaiting a car to take him to the airport so he could fly to Las Vegas and accept some kind of rehab award for speaking publicly about my (past) drug addiction, he remembers. He already was envisioning what the ceremony would be like. They bring Richard Lewis on as a surprise as the guest of honor for doing so much for helping alcoholics, and all I had to say for a tremendous amount of money was thank you, he says, setting up a signature comic fantasy. Thank you! Advertisement And I said: What if I add very much? No, no, we dont have time, we dont have time, were on the clock here. We have a few doctors. Were not going to talk about you. You just say thank you, and then you can go back to your suite. And I said: Can I have the check in my pocket before I say thank you? Yes, of course. Unfortunately, as Lewis was awaiting the arrival of the limo to the airport, he decided to do a little home improvement work. We were getting ready to move, he recalls. The car was ready for me to go say thank you and make enough money for the mortgage for the next two years. And I fell. Advertisement I was obsessive-compulsive. There was a drought for like eight years here, and I had to go and check if there were any weeds in the drain, in case it rained. There was no such thing as rain for eight years! It was just stupid. Lapinsky was horrified. I saw him outside it was just an awful sight, she recalls. It was just his hand, but it was just awful to look at. I thought: Who do I call first? His agent? All Lewis upcoming dates went down the drain, his subsequent ailments precipitating further cancellations. Ultimately, Lewis would endure his most extensive absence from the stage since he became a comedian nearly half a century earlier. Lewis holds no illusions about how and why he got into comedy in the first place, and why his shtick even early on dealt with what was happening in the dark recesses of his mind. Advertisement When I look back and I have my brother still around, thankfully, but my sister is gone, and my parents long ago it was more of a sense that they were in their own worlds, Lewis says of a somber childhood in New Jersey. I didnt get a lot of validation, to put it mildly, but I was always able to laugh and make people laugh. And Ive mentioned it perhaps before, but the happiest times with my family, when we were all together, when I was a very young kid, was watching Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason, among others, Sid Caesar, of course, whomever, God knows who Im leaving out, but they were like on stage to me, and I was in the audience. I sort of felt like: Wow, what power these guys have over people. Look at what theyre making this family feel like for a half-hour! And I think that that was ingrained in me early on. Lewis eventually studied marketing at Ohio State University, which is where he began to discover his own comic power. He was hilarious, as he is today, a fish out of water, comedy writer Barry Friedman told me in a Tribune interview in 2009. He was hilarious in a way that I had never encountered before. I went to school with a lot of guys who could make you laugh, but they werent brilliant. Advertisement It wasnt until Lewis father died April 12, 1971, however, that Lewis recognized where his life was going to take him. I felt such an emptiness, I went right back to the well, and that was comedy, says Lewis, who made his bow in June of that year. Lewis began playing the wee-hours gigs in New York clubs and quickly realized he had enough material to fill a zillion sets. Wed drive around in a car together, Lewis college friend Ken Weiss said in 2009, and he had a notepad clipped to his sun visor hed write down jokes while we were in traffic. The late comedian David Brenner discerned Lewis comic gifts before most, bankrolling him $1,000 so Lewis could stop doing day jobs and focus on his calling. I struggled a long time financially, remembers Lewis. I lived in hovels. But then when I walked on stage, I felt like a million bucks. And no one knew that I had to go back to live in some crummy little basement apartment with pit bulls outside. But I did that for many years, and I didnt care. Advertisement Because once I crossed over, once I got to Manhattan ... it was like I was in heaven. This saved my life. Lewis moved to Los Angeles around 1976 and starred in a Diary of a Young Comic special that pre-empted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1979. Though somewhat self-conscious and a bit tentative in the show, he clearly was forging an autobiographical comedic persona: He played a young Jewish comic seeking fame and self-confidence in Hollywood but finding neither. Lewis character laments that he has been in LA for two minutes and still hasnt met Lorne Greene. Trying to fit in, he goes to a health food store and orders a California classic: the bacon, lettuce and calcium sandwich. Soon Lewis was invited to appear on Late Night with David Letterman, which Lewis considers his single greatest stroke of career luck. Letterman said to me: You can come on as often as you want, Lewis remembers. He said: You never have to do stand-up on my show. And the reason that was so important to me it wasnt the material, it was my physicality. I was too much for the camera. I was moving all over the joint, just as he does on stage, where his nervous energy helps tell his tale of woe. Advertisement He sort of turned me into a younger version of Oscar Levant on Jack Paar, just sitting there, twitching away and just screaming for help in front of him, adds Lewis, referring to another famously neurotic, brilliantly sardonic wit. It was at about that time the mid-1980s that I first encountered Lewis live at Zanies and witnessed firsthand what a singular artist he already was. It was free-form comedy, unlike anybody else was doing at the time, remembers Bert Haas, executive vice president of Zanies, who first met Lewis in 1983. Its like you wrote: It was as close to Lenny Bruce as anyone. Indeed, as I'd written in my review, Lewis was the obvious heir to Bruces jazz-inspired, improvisational soliloquies. But if Bruce riffed on societys repressions, hypocrisies and injustices, Lewis focused his attentions on what he now calls my sweet spot, which, of course, would be that troubled, ingenious place politely known as my psyche. Hes poetry on that stage, comic Shelley Berman told me in 2009. Its irrepressible, like a little boy screaming. Advertisement Or as Brenner once put it to me, in a lighter vein, He proves that you dont have to institutionalize a psychotic. Getting cast opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in the ABC-TV sitcom Anything But Love in 1989 introduced Lewis to millions. By definition, though, it watered down the flavor of his art for mass consumption. Still, Lewis sudden fame led to a sold-out Carnegie Hall solo show that December, which Lewis now calls probably the highlight of my career. Unfortunately, he was increasingly dogged by addictions for which he finally sought intervention in August 1994. By the late 1990s, I was sort of forgotten, hed told me, but he lucked out when an old friend hed known from summer camp when they were kids decided to drop by. Larry David comes to my house when Im about 50 and tells me about Curb, Lewis recalls. I was just thinking: Do I want to do this? Do I want to play Richard Lewis? But when I was sitting in my living room, facing Larry David, who is such a powerful writer, I said: How could I say no? Advertisement The only thing I asked him was that I had to be in at least three or four episodes the first season, assuming there would be another one. Who knew? Season 10 will begin shooting in spring. I said: Listen, I dont want to be a cameo, Lewis adds. I just keep remembering Sammy Davis Jr. walking in on All in the Family. So he said: No, cool, Ill make sure we have an arc. That he did, the show reaffirming Lewis sky-is-falling appeal to those who had been following him since the 1980s, and introducing new generations to his self-styled brand of paranoia. Did Larry David realize he was rejuvenating Lewis career? Advertisement The thought never entered my mind thats not why I cast him, David told me in 2009. I cast him because he was a close friend, and I felt like we could bring what we had offstage into the show, which was a combative, funny relationship. Finally, Lewis was hot again. By the time you turn 70, you see mortality all around you. Hes lost like 17 people in a handful of years, Lapinsky says. Tremendously close friends. Adds Lewis, Ive lost about five or six of my best friends, literally my best friends. David Brenner was my best friend in the business. Brenner and (Garry) Shandling and Robin (Williams), and friends who were out of the business. I have people who were dying and need heart transplants and have cancer, says Lewis, who also lost mentors Jonathan Winters and Phyllis Diller. Advertisement Im lonely. Sometimes I want to pick up the phone and call friends. I had a guy who opened for me for about three years. He was a great guy. He was getting ready to do four cities with me, and he went to Mexico to celebrate, and he just keeled over at dinner. And I have had about three or four of these things happen in the last five months. What can you do? I mean, the older you get, the more this happens. And I dont even think about myself, Lewis continues. Like I told you, I think about my wife first, and I just pray to God that she outlives me by a long time. Im only afraid of death because I dont know where the key is to the garage. I dont even know the name of the dishwasher man. Im most afraid of my wife leaving the planet before me. If that doesnt happen, Id be thrilled. That even makes flying easier, as horrifying as the thought is of going down, I start laughing on the plane. I go: Well, shell make some extra bread, and she can get rid of some of my artifacts. In fact, Lewis tossed most of his show-biz artifacts when he and Lapinsky moved into their new home in 2016, saving just some precious items to keep in his office. Advertisement We are in very much of a Zen house, almost like a little retreat, and its fabulous, Lapinsky says. Completely the opposite. He got into it in one second. And that wasnt all Lewis discarded in the wake of his fall, his surgeries, his personal losses and the big move. I used to record every show Ive ever done, he says. Id come back from, lets say three clubs and have 21 tapes, and Id have to suffer through them. And, of course, I would write jokes off of the jokes, which was cool. But then I realized I had thousands of these again, and Ill never do them again, Ill never say them, Ill never remember them, and I said: Who cares? I saved everything for 50 years. Every show, every tape, every review, good or bad every video I did, every Tonight Show, every Letterman. So then came the thought: You know, Ive done it, people have seen me, theyve seen me live, theyve seen me on television. I have no children. Im going to be reading a lot of novels when Im retired. Im not going to be watching Letterman from 83. So I got rid of everything, practically. Advertisement How does it feel to have let go of an avalanche of memories? I feel great about it that its gone, Lewis says. Its like its in the air. Its floating around. Because the people that come to see me hear me tell them that I dont care about anything else but this show. And I mean it, Lewis adds. I treat every show like its the last show. Sounds so stupid. I obsess on death. I dont like to be too morose, but I am. And I tell the younger people in the audience: You can mock me, tease me, but its right around the corner, man. Im this combination of positive feelings about life and tremendous fear that its over. And I try to figure it out during each show. I dont even know how I feel before I get onstage. And by the time I get off, I have a point of view, but it depends on each night. Comedian Richard Lewis is photographed at home in Los Angeles on Dec. 19, 2017. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) When Lewis prepared to take the stage again after his year-and-a-half of medical miseries, he had mixed feelings. Advertisement The recovery gave me a raison detre for being onstage again, he says, but the first gig was a casino, which is not my favorite venue. But it was a casino, and everybody was wearing their Bermudas and holding their dimes, and it wasnt my audience, but I killed them. And thats when I knew my attitude was right on the money. If I can do that in a casino then every other gig seemed like a piece of cake. So Lewis has decided hell keep on touring for as long as he can. Hell just be choosier than before. Agents call you just with the offer, and thats it and then youre left to your own devices, and its pretty scary, he says, before riffing on the kinds of gigs he used to accept. You know, the sort where the agent says: Theres a new club opening up near the equator, its supposed to be air-conditioned, they really want you, theyll fly you. It takes 20 different flights to get there, and they cant pay you, but theyre going to put a painting up. And Im not doing those any more. I used to do this (stuff). I was such a people-pleaser. Advertisement Still, he obsesses on his shows. Though he long ago gave up bringing notes onstage, he has spent the past several weeks gearing up for Chicago. He says he has hundreds of pages of comedic premises piled up in his office and scattered in other parts of the house, the man still generating more material than he could deliver in 100 lifetimes. And though he sometimes offers his views on politics on TV, he veers away from that in the place thats obviously most sacred to him: the stage. I want to make people laugh, period, Lewis says. It comes down to this: If theres 1,000 people at a concert hall or theres 300 people at Zanies, say, and theres two racists, hard-core racists who happen to think Im funny, and I start piling on all this political feeling theyll scream out, You Jew bastard. Politics now are so on the edge, and so important to the future of this country, I dont feel I have the time in 55 or 60 minutes to do anything more than to just relieve people of the pressure. Lets just have some laughs and forget about all the other stuff. This is all about stand-up comedy and my psyche and having them forget about theirs. Advertisement On the day Lewis opens in Chicago, hell study 20 or 30 or 40 pages of material, he says. And I try to pound into my brain these premises. So when I hit the stage, they bounce out. Hell get room service all day at his hotel and wait for the call. Then someone will pick him up and bring him to Zanies. Then my heart starts pounding. Soon, hell hear the words that introduced him at Zanies more than three decades ago, and hell begin to work. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Richard Lewis! Advertisement Richard Lewis performs at 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday (sold out) at Zanies, 1548 N. Wells St.; 312-337-4027 or www.chicago.zanies.com; and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday (sold out) at Zanies Rosemont, Parkway Bank Park, 5437 Park Place, Rosemont; $30; 847-813-0484 or www.rosemont.zanies.com. Howard Reich is a Tribune critic. hreich@chicagotribune.com Twitter @howardreich [ RELATED: Comedian Richard Lewis talks bout his relationship with Chicago. ] [ 'Reflections from Hell': Richard Lewis on how not to live ] [ Richard Lewis gives a guided tour through his 'Hell' ] When faced with the question of whether to publish profanity, news editors often err on the side of decorum, cleaning up obscene language that could be off-putting or offensive to readers. But not when that language comes from the president of the United States. Advertisement When President Donald Trump became frustrated Thursday with lawmakers in the Oval Office over restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries, most newspapers and television stations did not shy away from quoting verbatim what he said: "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, referring to African countries and Haiti, according to two people briefed on the meeting. He then suggested that the United States should instead accept more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met Wednesday. Advertisement The Washington Post, which broke the story, shocked some readers by putting the vulgar word in its headline -- a rare occurrence in the paper's 141-year history. "When the president says it, we'll use it verbatim. That's our policy," said Martin Baron, The Post's executive editor. "We discussed it, quickly, but there was no debate." Such a comment made by the president, especially in front of several witnesses, is newsworthy, no matter how reprehensible it may be, said Ben Zimmer, a linguist and lexicographer who writes a language column in The Wall Street Journal. "It was incumbent on media outlets to present what he said without extradition or euphemization," he said. That's exactly what many of them did. In an unusual move, the word "shithole" was repeated in print and on air Thursday evening, in capital letters on the CNN and MSNBC headlines that appear on the lower part of the screen. Fox News censored the word with asterisks. Lester Holt on "NBC Nightly News" warned viewers that the story would not be appropriate for younger viewers, while "ABC World News Tonight" anchor David Muir said the president used "a profanity we won't repeat." But CNN's Phil Mudd embraced the expletive in condemning the president's language, citing his Irish and Italian ancestry and the slurs once used against immigrants from those countries. "I'm a proud shitholer!" he told "Situation Room" anchor Wolf Blitzer. "In the 1940s, we called people traitors because they came from a shithole country we call Japan. And we're ashamed." Advertisement For those who write dictionaries, the repetition of "shithole" on television and on the Internet was "the sort of thing we call a party," wrote Kory Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam Webster. Kory Stamper tweeted "Today has been a banner day to collect citations for 'shithole.'" The news has provided a flood of citations for the profanity, which as of Thursday evening did not appear in Merriam-Webster's dictionary. The word is currently defined in other dictionaries, including the Oxford Dictionaries, which define "shithole" as "An extremely dirty, shabby, or otherwise unpleasant place." Zimmer said the word is commonly spoken among friends but rarely written down or documented. Its recurrence now offers a window into the word's usage and the different contexts in which it can be applied. "It's part of the general culture change, I guess," Zimmer said. "Certainly over the last 50 years, profanity or taboo terms have gained more mainstream acceptance than actually seen or printed in places, where they previously wouldn't be considered allowed." Advertisement While the New York Times kept "shithole" out of its online headline Thursday evening (the story on its website Thursday read "Trump Alarms Lawmakers With Disparaging Words for Haiti and Africa"), the newspaper published the president's exact words in its story. "The specific, vulgar language the president was reported to have used was really central to the news here," Phil Corbett, the paper's associate managing editor for standards, said in an emailed statement. "So it seemed pretty clear to all of us that we should quote the language directly. We wanted to be sure readers would fully understand what the story was about." One newspaper wasn't ready to be so explicit. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said in a tweet late Thursday that its publisher requested the expletive be removed from the top of the Associated Press story on its website. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweeted "Our publisher is requesting us to remove @realDonaldTrump's 'vulgar language' from the lede in our @AP story about his vulgar language." Over the past few decades, similar incidents have had newspaper editors wondering how to treat profane comments by the nation's leaders. In 1974, the late New York Times editor Abe Rosenthal set precedent when the newspaper printed the word "shit" for the first time, after a Watergate tape revealed that former president Richard Nixon had said, "I don't give a shit what happens, I want you all to stonewall it." Advertisement "We'll only take shit from the president," he told a Newsweek reporter at the time. In 2004, when The Post quoted Vice President Dick Cheney's vulgar remark to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the newspaper printed his words verbatim. " 'Fuck yourself,' said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency," The Post reported. The New York Times wrote that "the vice president turned and stalked away, using an obscene phrase to describe what he thought Mr. Leahy should do." But in 2006, when President George W. Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair that they needed to "Get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit," Bush's language wasn't censored by the New York Times or The Post. Trump is already known for his use of vulgar language, most notably his comments in a 2005 "Access Hollywood" video in which he bragged in obscene terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women. The video, obtained by The Washington Post in October 2016, recorded Trump using the phrases "Try and f- her" and "Grab them by the p-y." Advertisement That language was censored by The Post, as Trump was not yet president. The New York Times published the specific language. RELATED STORIES: Trump denies he referred to Africa as a 'shithole' Trump attacks protections for immigrants from 'shithole' countries in Oval Office meeting Column: Your response to Trump's racist 'shithole' comment will be remembered Trevor Noah: 'I think the president might be racist' Watch the latest movie trailers. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox) Sir Thomas More coined the term utopia, meaning a place of ideal perfection, in his book of the same title in 1516. More than 300 years passed before John Stuart Mill coined that terms antonym, dystopia, meaning a place in which everything is unpleasant or bad in a speech before the British House of Commons in 1868. Since that opening of the floodgates, a veritable ocean of dystopic literature has poured forth, ranging from Aldous Huxleys Brave New World to George Orwells 1984 to Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange. More recently, with Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale, Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games, Louise Erdrichs Future Home of the Living God, to name just a few, the publishing industry has been awash in explicitly feminist dystopic fiction. Intricate and alarming, Leni Zumas riveting second novel, Red Clocks, arrives just in time to ride that wave into 2018. Advertisement Zumas sets the action in a small, coastal Oregon town in a grim near future in which the United States has passed the Personhood Amendment granting the constitutional right to life, liberty, and property to a fertilized egg at the moment of conception. This sexist and oppressive measure reverses Roe v. Wade and renders criminal such acts as abortion, single-parent adoption and in vitro fertilization. Wry and urgent, defiant and stylish, Zumas braided tale follows the intertwined fates of four women whose lives this law irrevocably alters. Roberta Stephens, or Ro, a high school history teacher and biographer, is so desperate to become pregnant that she spends countless hours and dollars (all on credit cards) on fertility treatments, submitting her area to all kinds of invasion without understanding a fraction of whats being done to it. Excerpts of her biography-in-progress of an intrepid and unsung female polar explorer named Eivor Minervudottir appear throughout the book in fragmentary notes and cross-outs: The mother informed the explorer only two days before the wedding that she was to marry a man shed never set eyes on, a widowed salmoner aged fifty-two. Eivor was too old to be unmarried nineteen. Advertisement Gin Percival, a mender whom many locals see as a kook, lives in the woods, alone human-wise, but with a menagerie of animals, and provides illicit gynecological services to women in the region. In characteristically lush writing, Zumas notes that Gin likes her ladies big-sirenic, mermaids of land, pressing and twisting in fleshful bodies. Mattie Quarles, an adopted teen who is a student at the high school, becomes accidentally pregnant by her feckless and faithless boyfriend. Her unwanted circumstance happens to be particularly unfortunate, because when the Personhood Amendment passed, her religious father declared it was about time the country came to its senses. Last but not least, Susan Korsmo, a depressed and bored stay-at-home mother of two (for whom Mattie sometimes babysits), is too chickenshit to leave her marriage to one of Ros co-workers, Didier, the French teacher. Her mindset alternates between despair and smugness. The wife made persons, Zumas writes in her perspective. No need to otherwise justify what she is doing on the planet. Lit up with verbal pyrotechnics and built with an admirably balanced structure, Red Clocks is undeniably gorgeously written. But the overdone tropes witch hunt-style prosecution for providing abortions, aggressively thwarted attempts to flee to Canada are enough to make one wonder: How much feminist dystopic fiction can audiences read? The answer depends, of course, on what a reader seeks in terms of satisfaction from a narrative. If engrossing oneself in a world where two years ago abortion was legal in this country, but now we have to resort to throwing ourselves down the stairs offers engagement or even relief, then Red Clocks might feel energizing. If, on the other hand, becoming absorbed in a surveillance state rife with male-supremacist legislation brings fatigue, then the reader might find it redundant to be immersed in fiction that so closely resembles nightmares that already feel too present. Etymologically, a dystopia can also be defined as an imaginary bad place. In many aspects, the badness of the United States continues to prove all too real, especially for women. Nineteen women have accused the president of sexual misconduct, the #MeToo campaign has attested to endemic workplace sexual harassment across all fields and reproductive rights exist under constant threat. Perhaps for these and numerous related reasons, readers including this one who crave and can find catharsis in the experience of considering a future in which such issues are far from settled will find Red Clocks to be indispensable. Kathleen Rooney is the author, most recently, of The Listening Room: A Novel of Georgette and Loulou Magritte, forthcoming in April. By Leni Zumas, Little, Brown, 368 pages, $26 U.S. customs agents conducted 60 percent more searches of travelers' cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices during the government's 2017 fiscal year, according to statistics released Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The agency said it searched 30,200 devices, but the inspections affected 0.007 percent of the 397 million travelers - American citizens as well as foreign visitors - who arrived from abroad during the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30. Advertisement CBP published the figures as it issued new guidelines formalizing the way its officers conduct searches and handle the information they obtain. The agency said the increase was not the result of a policy directive but, rather, an indication that electronic devices are increasingly viewed as critical sources of information on potential security threats. Advertisement "In this digital age, border searches of electronic devices are essential to enforcing the law at the U.S. border and to protecting the American people," CBP official John Wagner said in a statement. American citizens and other travelers have expressed astonishment and alarm in recent years at requests to hand over their cellphones from U.S. customs officials at airports and border crossings. But CBP said the practice is justified and its standards have been thoroughly reviewed to ensure they are not an unreasonable violation of privacy rights. The agency said it sometimes needs information it obtains from devices to determine the admissibility of foreign visitors, viewing them as potential sources of intelligence on terrorism, child pornography or other criminal activity. Under the new guidelines, travelers who are selected by its officers for additional screening could be asked to unlock their electronic devices for inspection or provide passcodes. They will be asked to disable the devices' data transmission, according to a senior CBP official who briefed reporters on the changes Friday. Only information physically stored on the device - such as photographs or phone numbers - would be subject to search, said the official, who the agency would not allow to be quoted by name. CBP agents would not be allowed to seek information stored externally or on a "cloud" linked to the device. Such inspections would constitute a "basic search," the agency said. But in cases where officers determine they have reasonable suspicion of a criminal act or potential threat to national security, they may, with a supervisors' authorization, conduct an "advanced search" by connecting it to other applications and potentially copying its information. Passwords provided by travelers would be destroyed and not retained by the government, the CBP official said. Advertisement Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a key ally of privacy rights groups, called the new CBP guidelines "an improvement" but said they're still too intrusive for U.S. citizens. "Manually examining an individuals' private photos, messages and browsing history is still extremely invasive, and should require a warrant," Wyden said in a statement. "I continue to believe Americans are entitled to their full constitutional rights, no matter where they are in the United States." Last year U.S. civil rights groups filed suit against the federal government in an attempt to curb device searches. According to the senior CBP official, about 20 percent of the travelers whose devices are inspected are U.S. citizens. The rest are permanent residents, visitors or other travelers whose admissibility to the United States is subject to CBP discretion. American citizens who refuse to allow their devices to be inspected cannot be denied entry into the United States, but their devices could be retained for as many as five days, the official said. In cases where noncitizens refuse the search, they could be denied entry and sent home. Advertisement CBP said the decision to review a travelers' electronic device would not be made at random, and would be requested by officers as part of their broader effort to evaluate whether to allow someone into the U.S. Imagery and information that is noncriminal, including political or sexual content, could also be used by CBP officers to determine whether to admit a foreign visitor, the CBP official said. Many out-of-towners think Tampa, Florida, is mostly about Cuban food. Fair enough. It is home of the famed Cuban sandwich. (Sorry, Miami, local historians have unearthed documents that reveal the sandwich's true birthplace as the cigar factories of the city's Ybor City neighborhood a century ago.) But as someone who has called Tampa home for nearly three decades, I've seen this town's food scene - once decidedly ho-hum - undergo something of a renaissance in recent years, with new restaurants fusing Florida traditions with local ingredients and some pretty cutting-edge cooking. You can't visit Tampa and not eat Cuban. Period. Like most locals, I have my favorite joints, some more hole-in-the-wall-ish than others. West Tampa Sandwich Shop & Restaurant (westtampasandwichshoprestaurant.com, 813-873-7104) tops my list for its friendly vibe and fantastic Cuban food. Despite lots of American-style fare on the breakfast menu (all good), skip them and instead order Cuban toast - Cuban bread slathered with butter and hot-pressed to crunchy perfection (regular size, $1.60; large, $2.10). It also does a nifty riff on this traditional dish by adding a little honey to the butter before pressing (regular, $1.80; large, $2.10). I also often opt for a lightly sweet empanada de queso y guava (a crispy empanada filled with cream cheese and guava paste, $2.45). Pair with a shot of Cuban espresso ($1) or cafe con leche (small, $1.55; medium, $2.20; large, $2.40), espresso and steamed milk. If you're here for lunch, get the Cuban sandwich - correctly made, Tampa-style, with mustard, pickles, Swiss cheese, roasted pork, ham, salami and Cuban bread (small, $3; regular, $3.60; large, $4.80). As with the toast, there's a version with a touch of honey. Advertisement Menus offering umpteen different dishes tend to make me feel paralyzed by choice. Yet I'm blessedly neurosis-free here. Maybe it's because the Hall on Franklin (thehallonfranklin.com, 813-405-4008) is really seven restaurants under one roof. Tampa's first taste of the American food-hall craze is no mere highfalutin food court. Think an eclectic mix of food-and-drink vendors, plus traditional sit-down restaurant service at high-top, regular and coffee tables beside low, comfy leather couches. Trendy, sure, but a great place for lunch - especially when everyone in your group has different tastes. Favorites from recent visits include Heights Fish Camp's grouper BLT sandwich ($12.99) and peel-and-eat shrimp with wasabi cocktail sauce ($10.99) - both updated takes on a Gulf Coast standards - and Poke Rose's eponymous bowl of sesame-flecked and ginger-spiced ahi tuna cubes, scallions, edamame and chia seeds atop radishes, jasmine rice and greens (small, $11.95; large, $15.95.) Catering to drink tastes here is easy. You'll find all manner of coffee, soda and chocolate drink concoctions at Kofe. For those after something with a bit more kick, try the Collection's wines and cocktails. Although I'm a die-hard Negroni fan, I also like founder and Hall partner Ro Patel's signature take on a classic Gibson cocktail ($12), garnished with little pickled onions and a sliver of freshly shaved black truffle. A legend well beyond Tampa, Bern's Steak House (bernssteakhouse.com, 813-251-2421) has always seemed to be more than the sum of its parts. And what parts it has. From the outside, its nearly windowless white stucco walls make you wonder if you've got the wrong address. Beyond the front door is a warren of cozy rooms and hallways that appear to have been decorated by some bordello madam oenophile. Then there's the upstairs dessert room, with several dozen podlike private booths fashioned from wine casks, each equipped with six-channel stereo sound systems and phones so guests can ring the nearby lounge pianist with their song requests. And I haven't yet mentioned the restaurant's justifiably famous, phonebook-size wine list (and absurdly big and vampiric wine cellar) and menu of steaks and other signature dishes. If this sounds ghastly or wonderful, you're right. It's both. And more. Though I typically troll restaurants' daily specials for novel tastes, I'm a creature of habit here, starting meals via a wine-picking confab with a sommelier, followed by a signature house French onion soup au gratin with garlic and spelt toasts ($7.50). Next is an old-school Caesar salad ($11.95), prepared tableside by a black-jacketed waiter. For a main course, I invariably go for a chateaubriand ($48.20 for the 11-ouncer) and baked potato. I may skip dessert but never a visit to the dessert room and at least after-dinner drinks. Though I've sampled a fair number of sweets here, my favorite is Bern's riff on a classic baked Alaska, made with macadamia nut ice cream and served aflame ($13.95). Advertisement Abercrombie is a writer based in Tampa. His website is paulabercrombie.com; find him on Twitter: @paulabercrombie. Diane Ahrens of East Dundee's Piece-A-Cake Bakery is no stranger to helping families celebrate a birthday, anniversary or new addition with her sculptural confections. But an event she'll be baking desserts for at the end of the month is one that's especially near and dear to her heart. Advertisement For the third year, Ahrens, also president of the Dundee VFW 2298 Auxiliary, is helping to coordinate a baby shower for Chicago area women veterans who are expecting. The community is invited to attend the luncheon, set for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at the VFW Post, 117 S. First St., West Dundee. Because space is limited, those who would like to attend should RSVP by calling Ahrens at (224) 805-1220. Advertisement Since the last shower, some $5,000 in car seats, diaper bags, pack-n-plays, stuffed toys and baby formula have been purchased with money collected from fundraisers and with help from the local Kohl's Cares Team. Now, auxiliary members need the community's help to secure diapers, wipes, gender-neutral onesies, new infant manicure sets, bath gel, washcloths, and shampoo to fill the diaper bags. Items can be dropped off at Piece-A-Cake Bakery, 304 N River St. Gift cards or cash are welcome to help purchase those items. About 17 expecting veterans plan to be at the shower, but Ahrens said that number is likely to grow as the event nears. "The first year we only had four signed up and by the time of the shower, we had 11 or 12. Last year, we had 25. This year, we're working toward 30," she said. Area restaurants are donating food for the luncheon, and Piece-A-Cake is providing dessert and cookie favors. Three decades ago, Ahrens, a former Marine, was expecting. She was also a single mother for seven years. "Every little bit helps to encourage these women," she said. "Women veterans are near and dear to my heart. Pregnancies can be fun, but they can be very difficult. A lot of these veterans are single women. But even if they're married, there's still so much expense involved with having kids. You've got one more mouth to feed, you've got to work and find a babysitter. I want to encourage these women. If they are going through a hard time, at least we can help take one thing off their plate." She's looking forward to celebrating the mothers-to-be. Advertisement "The shower is a time to honor them and encourage them and have a little fun," Ahrens said. The Southern Cayuga City School District is offering some of its full-time employees a retirement incentive. The district's board of education on Monday approved a motion to establish an incentive of $10,000 to teachers and $5,000 to teaching assistants. Loretta VanHorn, the district's business administrator, said in an email the district hopes to save money with the package. "The district has offered this in the past and realized cost savings," VanHorn said. Eligible full-time employees can qualify by being at least 55 at the time of retirement, being eligible to retire from the New York State Teachers' Retirement System without a diminished benefit, having a minimum of 30 years of credit through the system and having 30 years of continuous work with the district immediately before retirement. The other way employees can qualify is by being 55 at retirement with employee's age and years of service at the district before retirement totaling up to at least 80 years. Eligible employees have until March 1 to notify the district that they would like to take the incentive package. VanHorn said the district believes around nine people qualify for the incentives but there is no set number of people the district is aiming for. She said there would be no consequence for the district's upcoming budget if a certain number of people don't retire beyond the district not saving as much money. The Southern Cayuga Teacher Association and the board must finalize a memorandum of agreement between the two parties before employees can apply for the incentive. VanHorn said the board is expected to finalize the memorandum at the next meeting on Jan. 22. More than 600 people packed a five-hour hearing Thursday night on a controversial proposed business park in Elwood. The meeting at Elwood School was a continuance of a public hearing originally held on Dec, 19, which also drew hundreds of people. Advertisement Residents repeated calls for the village's planning and zoning commissioners to reject plans for a warehouse, distribution and light manufacturing center that would span 2,200 acres in rural Jackson Township south of Joliet. Many at Thursday's hearing worried the development, a portion of which developers propose to annex into Elwood, would adversely affect the rural charm of their community and would bring more truck traffic and pollution. "We are choked off with traffic because of growth," state Rep. Larry Walsh Jr., an Elwood Democrat, said. Advertisement While union workers held signs supporting the development and the construction jobs it would bring, Walsh noted the warehouse jobs the development would bring would not pay enough to cover living wages. "This is one big issue folks," Walsh told planning and zoning commissioners as he pointed to the crowd of cheering residents gathered at the meeting. "Listen to them." For their part, NorthPoint officials have said the development would use a closed loop drive to move truck traffic from neighboring intermodal facilities to the warehouses within the Compass Business Park. Local building and trades union leaders also have expressed support for the project and the estimated 1,500 construction jobs it would create. The village's planning and zoning commission will meet again at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Elwood School, 409 N. Chicago Ave., Elwood, to continue the public hearing. Once the hearing is closed, the commission will make a recommendation to the village board on the proposal. Elwood trustees will cast the final vote on the proposed project. Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. Gary Anderson, of Anderson Farms, participated in a parade Thursday to show opposition to a proposed warehouse and distribution center in Jackson Township. (Alicia Fabbre / Daily Southtown) Will County farmers Thursday brought their tractors and combines out of storage to hit the roads in a show of opposition to a proposed warehouse development that could eat up 2,200 acres of land. A winter parade of farm equipment and cars drove a route encompassing a portion of the proposed NorthPoint Compass Business Park, a controversial warehouse development in rural Jackson Township between Elwood and Manhattan. The parade, which included tractors, a grain cart, sprayer, livestock trailer and a manure spreader, stretched for nearly two miles and took about an hour. Advertisement The nearly 75 farmers, some from as far as Lockport and Homer Glen, turned out to show their unity in opposing the development. A public hearing on the development proposal was scheduled for Thursday night in Elwood. A public hearing last month drew more than 600 people and had to be continued. NorthPoint Development, of Missouri, has filed an application with the village of Elwood to annex property and rezone 851 acres the western portion of the Compass Business Park. In a news release announcing its application, NorthPoint officials highlighted various features of the development, including construction of a bridge over Route 53 to provide the only truck access to and from Compass Business Park and a closed loop inside the center to keep trucks from exiting onto local roads. Advertisement The developer noted truck controls and barriers would be installed to prohibit trucks from using local roads or Route 53, but would not inhibit emergency vehicles or farm equipment. Opponents have said the development will clog roads already congested with truck traffic from other warehouse and distribution developments, making it even more difficult to move farm equipment and take up farmland. "I'm very passionate about this farm ground," said Dennis Attaway, whose family has been farming in the area for generations. "This is beautiful farmland and we don't want a bunch of warehouses out here. "People are not in favor of this at all," Attaway added. "Everyone is tired of this truck traffic." Will County farmers Thursday brought their tractors and combines out of storage to hit the roads in a show of opposition to a proposed warehouse development. (Alicia Fabbre / Daily Southtown) Wilton Township farmers Larry and Alan Christiansen noted the increase in truck traffic has made it difficult to do even simple tasks, like getting the mail at the end of their driveway. "It's hard for me to even walk to my mailbox and get back out without being blown away by cars and trucks driving by," said Alan Christiansen, who farms with his brother. "I think they're putting too much of (warehouse developments) in a confined area," he added, pointing to other nearby warehouse developments including the CenterPoint developments in Joliet and Elwood. Others have echoed similar concerns and objected to the proposal. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Will County Executive Larry Walsh, a Jackson Township Democrat, has opposed the plan along with Jackson Township trustees, the Elwood School District 203 school board and environmental groups. Area residents also have formed an opposition group, Just Say No to NorthPoint, and launched a petition drive against the project. Advertisement While the project's fate has not been decided, farmers remained hopeful their unity in opposing the project will help block it. "It's worth holding our ground to keep them out," said Alexis Krapf, a fourth generation farmer who farms about 3,000 acres in Will County. A spokesman for the business park noted the developer has worked to address concerns from the community. "Plans for Compass Business Park were shaped by input and feedback from the community, especially farmers," said Scott Burnham, a spokesman for the business park. "We've responded to these concerns by specially designing Compass Business Park to enable them to transport equipment in and out of the park through special access points throughout." He added that the business park also would help increase revenue for area farmers by reducing the time and distance it takes to transport their crops. Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. Anthony Riccio, chief of the Chicago Police Department's organized crime division, is shown Feb. 10, 2017. He will become the department's second-in-command next month. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune) A member of Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnsons command staff has been tapped as his new second-in-command, law enforcement sources said Thursday. Anthony Riccio, a 31-year veteran of the department, will begin his new job as first deputy superintendent after Johnsons current No. 2, Kevin Navarro, retires on Feb. 15. Advertisement Riccio, 55, currently serves as chief of the departments Bureau of Organized Crime, overseeing specialized citywide units that, among other things, focus on long-term investigations into gang activity, drug trafficking and gun-running. Succeeding Riccio will be Noel Sanchez, who currently serves as commander of the South Chicago police district, sources said. Advertisement Most recently, Riccio supervised the arrests of about 50 people during an investigation into drug- and gun-running involving an invitation-only group on Facebook. Previously, Riccio served as deputy chief of the Bureau of Detectives under former Superintendent Garry McCarthy. As the second-highest-ranking official in that bureau at the time, Riccio oversaw hundreds of detectives. Before that, he served as commander of the Area Central detective division, supervising detectives who investigated shootings, homicides, robberies and other crimes for much of the South Side, parts of the West Side and downtown. During his time at Area Central, he oversaw detectives investigating the January 2013 slaying of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, a high school honor student and drum majorette who was shot and killed in a park just a week after she had performed at festivities for then-President Barack Obama's second inauguration. Two reputed gang members are scheduled to go on trial in late April for Hadiyas death, which made national headlines and became a symbol of the citys entrenched violence. Earlier in his career, Riccio served as lieutenant of the former Belmont Area violent crimes unit, supervising investigations into homicides and shootings on the North Side and downtown. jgorner@chicagotribune.com RELATED [ Chicago police say Facebook did not cooperate in drug and gun-running probe ] [ Chicago's homicide total drops by over 100, but violence still 'intolerably high' ] [ Chicago aldermen want new rules to stop shops from selling stolen cellphones ] Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed a marketing executive to take over a vacant Chicago Board of Education seat Friday amid the latest overhaul to the districts leadership team. Alejandra Garza fills a seat vacated this week by Arnaldo Rivera, who is set to take over as the districts chief operating officer. To clear the way for Riveras appointment, Chicago Public Schools is seeking a waiver from the Illinois State Board of Education to get around a state law that bars board members from taking district posts within a year of leaving the board. Advertisement Garza is the founder of AGG Consulting, a strategic marketing firm. She will step down from her role on the board of the Instituto del Progreso Latino, a Southwest Side advocacy organization that receives CPS funding to operate schools within the district, the mayors office said. Garza will also step down from her post at the Illinois Medical District Commission, a panel whose members are nominated by Emanuel, Gov. Bruce Rauner and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Advertisement Alex is a visionary leader, and she will work tirelessly to improve our schools and support educational opportunities for the next generation of Chicagoans, Emanuel said in a statement. There is no doubt that her proven track record as a successful small business owner makes her uniquely qualified to serve the city of Chicago in this role. According to the mayors office, Garza received a bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MBA from the University of Chicagos Booth School of Business. I am honored that Mayor Emanuel nominated me to serve on the Chicago Board of Education, where I hope to build on the work that our educators and administrators across the city are doing to improve our children's futures, Garza said in a statement Friday. Emanuel has yet to announce his choice to replace the Rev. Michael Garanzini, who left the school board last year. Acting district CEO Janice Jackson, who is expected to be named permanently to the post by the school board later this month, started filling out her administration earlier this week, naming Rivera COO, Heather Wendell as budget director and LaTanya McDade as chief education officer. jjperez@chicagotribune.com Twitter @PerezJr [ RELATED: Appointment of Chicago school board member to top CPS post conflicts with law ] Three people were killed when a car hit a pole, flipped over and caught fire in the 3300 block of East 100th Street on Jan. 12, 2018. (Juan Rilla) (Juan Rilla) Three people were killed when their car struck a pole, flipped over and caught fire on the Southeast Side early Friday, Chicago police said. The crash happened around 1:10 a.m. in the 3300 block of East 100th Street near the East Side neighborhood. Advertisement The driver of a Chevy sedan was speeding west on 100th when the car hit a light pole, police said. The sedan flipped onto the roof and caught fire. The driver and two passengers were pronounced dead on the scene. Advertisement Juan Rilla was driving home, a few blocks from the crash scene, when he saw a car engulfed in flames. Rilla captured video on his cellphone that shows a sedan on its roof with flames on both sides of the car. Chicago police quickly blocked off the area, Rilla said. I just heard popping sounds from the fire as if it was going to explode, Rilla told the Tribune in a message, and thats when they made everyone leave. A candidate running for Illinois attorney general was robbed at gunpoint while he was taking promotional photos for his campaign Thursday afternoon in the Northwest Side ward where hes also the Democratic committeeman, according to his campaign manager and authorities. Aaron Goldstein, 42, and several members of his campaign team were in the middle of taking publicity shots when the robbery happened, according to Goldsteins campaign manager. The robbery took place about 3:25 p.m. in the 4600 block of North Albany Avenue in Albany Park, when three men in their early 20s approached them, according to a law-enforcement source. One of the men flashed a handgun and demanded the camera equipment and other personal belongings from the team, according to police. Advertisement The gunman and two other men robbed Goldstein and four others of camera equipment and their cellphones before they ran away, the law enforcement source said. As of Thursday evening, no one was in custody, police said. Police described the three suspects as between 20 and 24 years old. They did not release a detailed description of the suspects. Advertisement Campaign manager Robert Murphy, who was not with the team during the incident, said Goldstein, Democratic ward committeeman for the 33rd Ward and a resident of Albany Park, was taking promotional images for the campaign with an in-the-neighborhood kind of message. Goldstein and the others werent harmed in the robbery, and they were later assured by police that the robbery wasnt a targeted act, Murphy said. So, as far as the campaign, we are moving forward, Murphy said. Basically, this was a totally a random act of violence in the community. But when it happens to you, of course, youre shooken up. He says hes fine, and he was concerned about everyone else instead of how he is but thats just how he is. Goldstein is one in a field of eight candidates who are running in the Democratic primary for attorney general after Lisa Madigan announced she wouldnt run for reelection. Goldstein, a supervising attorney at the Cook County Public Defenders Office, unseated longtime incumbent and former Ald. Dick Mell to become the 33rd Ward Democratic committeeman in 2016. The death of a 1-year-old Chicago girl was ruled a homicide Thursday after an autopsy revealed she had suffered several injuries from child abuse, officials said. About 9 p.m. Tuesday, police and paramedics were called to a relatives residence in the 1300 block of North Lorel Avenue for a call of an unresponsive child, said Officer Michelle Tannehill, a police spokeswoman. Advertisement Malaysia Woodard, of the 6100 block of South Kedzie Avenue, was pronounced dead at 3:18 a.m. at the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiners office. Friday morning, the medical examiners office issued a statement correcting the girls name. Malaysia died of multiple injuries due to child abuse, officials said. Advertisement Tannehill said police had been conducting a death investigation. On Thursday, the Department of Children and Family Services had not responded about the case. 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 Aldermen finally will get their chance Friday to publicly rip Chicago Public Schools for cuts to special education funding, even if it comes during a less-than-high-profile time slot. Advertisement The City Council Education Committee will hold a 2:30 p.m. hearing on a resolution calling for school district officials to testify about cuts raised by a WBEZ report. The meeting was initially scheduled to be held Dec. 19, but committee Chairman Ald. Howard Brookins Jr., 21st, abruptly called it off a few days before then. Progressive Caucus aldermen cried foul, and Brookins reset the meeting after 22nd Ward Ald. Ricardo Munoz this week threatened to use a procedural move to try to force him to hold it. Advertisement The Education Committee doesn't have the power to force Mayor Rahm Emanuel or his hand-picked Board of Education to make changes. But the public airing of complaints about special ed could embarrass the mayor weeks after school CEO Forrest Claypool resigned amid accusations that he lied to undermine an ethics investigation by the district inspector general. And the hearing comes as Emanuel already faces heated community complaints about plans for a new high school in Englewood. Brookins said he delayed the meeting simply because school officials told him they wouldn't be able to get people from the office to testify days before Christmas in the immediate aftermath of Claypool's resignation. Brookins said he always planned to find another time to hold it. "I told (school officials), 'Let's do this,' " Brookins said. It remains to be seen whether the school district sends top officials to the hearing. Aldermen can't compel them to attend, and Brookins pointed out Emanuel's school board often argues complaints about education policies are better handled at the board's regular meetings. (John Byrne) What's on tap *Mayor Emanuel is expected to be at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. interfaith prayer breakfast. *Gov. Bruce Rauner is in Edwardsville for an Illinois bicentennial event and then in Peoria for a meeting with small business owners. *Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker will hold a news conference with state Sen. Heather Steans, who is arguing the state should legalize marijuana. *U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin will visit a Chicago job training program for low-income young adults. He'll talk about congressional efforts to pass the Dream Act. Advertisement *Democratic governor candidate Daniel Biss will campaign in Champaign and Mahomet in central Illinois. *The Chicago City Council Finance Committee meets. On the agenda is a $9.3 million settlement for a wrongful conviction tied to Burge detectives. *The City Council Housing and Real Estate Committee will consider a $500,000 fund for subsidizing affordable housing. From the notebook *Drury stays on AG ballot: The Illinois State Board of Elections ruled Thursday that state Rep. Scott Drury can appear on the March primary ballot as a candidate for attorney general, a win for the Lake County Democrat as he navigates a crowded primary field. A hearing officer had recommended Drury be removed because he failed to file a new form for the attorney general's office, but the board voted 5-3 to keep Drury on the ballot. Drury had used the same economic interest statement on file from his bid for state representative, which his attorney, Casey Westover, argued met required standards. Westover said filing a second statement would be redundant. Advertisement Drury is a vocal critic of his party's House speaker, Rep. Michael Madigan of Chicago. The three votes against Drury came from Democrats on the election board. Democratic board member William McGuffage said Drury's failure was not a minor mistake, saying members of the public "wouldn't be able to determine" the lawmaker's potential conflict of interest as the state's head attorney. Democrats Charles Scholz and Casandra Watson joined McGuffage in dissent. (Bill Lukitsch) *Ives shot at Rauner misses mark: State Rep. Jeanne Ives, the Wheaton lawmaker challenging Gov. Rauner in the Republican primary, took a shot at the governor Thursday, claiming that he lost the endorsement of the Illinois Education Association to Democratic candidate J.B. Pritzker. "The IEA chose the big government Democrat over the big government Republican, despite Gov. Rauner's best efforts to cater to the IEA with Chicago Public School bailouts at the expense of suburban and Downstate schools," the Ives campaign said in its release. But suggesting Rauner is trying to suck up to the IEA by helping CPS doesn't track. That's because the IEA doesn't represent CPS teachers. A different education labor umbrella group does the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which is affiliated with the Chicago Teachers Union. The new funding formula, which Rauner has touted as a major success, is currently in limbo after he issued an amendatory veto this week of a clean-up bill to allow more private schools to be considered for funds from a new private school tax-credit program. Advertisement At any rate, the IEA wasn't going to give its endorsement to Rauner, who has made weakening union influence part of his long-standing agenda. Still, Ives referred to the union as "a far left-leaning activist group intent on growing government at all costs and bankrupting the state." The IEA has a traditionally more Republican-friendly history. In the 2014 Republican primary, the IEA and the IFT backed Kirk Dillard's unsuccessful bid for governor over Rauner. In the past, the IEA also has backed GOP candidates for governor including Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar and George Ryan. (Rick Pearson) *Bipartisan capital plan for Quincy: Democratic state Sen. Tom Cullerton and Republican state Rep. David McSweeney are working on a measure that would fund improvements to the Quincy veterans home, which has been beset by cases of Legionnaires' disease. Cullerton, of Villa Park, filed a bill to authorize improvements that would include updates to the water systems or new construction to prevent the spread of the Legionella bacteria. McSweeney, of Barrington Hills, is trying to build a bipartisan coalition to ensure speedy passage in the House if the bill clears the Senate, Cullerton said. The Rauner administration's handling of the Legionella issue at Quincy has become a recent political problem. A total of 13 people have died and more have been sickened since a 2015 outbreak. Rauner left the home Wednesday after staying at the facility for a week. Advertisement McSweeney is one of Rauner's most outspoken Republican critics in the legislature and is backing the governor's primary opponent, state Rep. Ives. (Rick Pearson) *Police IG exits City Hall: Chicago's new deputy inspector general for public safety plans to leave after just six months on the job, city officials announced Thursday. Inspector General Joseph Ferguson appointed Laura Kunard to the post in April. She was confirmed a few days later and started in late June. The job overseeing elements of policing and officer discipline was created during the controversy sparked more than two years ago by the release of video of a white officer shooting African-American teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. Kunard, who could not be reached for comment, plans to return to her past job as a senior research scientist for CNA, according to a press release from Ferguson's office. She also is on a team monitoring police reforms in Albuquerque, N.M., where she is to have "significant new responsibilities" following the election of a new mayor, the press release states. Her resignation takes effect Jan. 19. (Dan Hinkel) *Quick spins: Democratic governor hopeful J.B. Pritzker got endorsed by the abortion right group Personal PAC. ... State Sen. Kwame Raoul scored a major endorsement as he runs for the Democratic attorney general nomination. The Illinois AFL-CIO, the big labor umbrella group, is backing him in the crowded field of eight candidates. ... The state elections board also voted Thursday to keep on the attorney general ballot former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti despite an objection from Drury that alleged Mariotti had engaged in a pattern of voter fraud. A hearing officer had determined the complaint was founded on hearsay. ... Former North Shore Republican Rep. Bob Dold has joined the strategic communications and public affairs practice of Forbes Tate Partners. Dold lost his seat in 2016 to Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider of Deerfield. Advertisement *On the "Sunday Spin": On this week's show, Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson's guests are Democratic state Reps. Mike Zalewski and Jaime Andrade on bitcoin; and Democratic attorney general candidates Jesse Ruiz and and Aaron Goldstein will appear separately. The "Sunday Spin" airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN-AM 720. What we're writing *Special report: 75 women strangled or smothered in Chicago since 2001, most of the victims African-American. *Rauner campaign stops airing TV ad featuring Missouri Gov. Greitens, who has admitted to extramarital affair. *Emanuel reveals price tag of measure of labor peace he's secured ahead of 2019 re-election bid. *Illinois AG candidate Aaron Goldstein robbed while taking promotional photos for his campaign. *CTU's Karen Lewis backs bid to dump anti-pop tax Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin. Advertisement *No work, no Medicaid? Rauner administration reviews new federal guidelines. *FBI expert concluded that Chicago cop's shooting death staged to appear as a suicide. *Chicago aldermen kick around concept of arming police with 'textalyzers.' *City dog shelter hits capacity of 300, has to consider euthanizing animals. *Chicago activists prepare for second Women's March. *Parents sue Schaumburg district to allow daughter to use student medical marijuana at school. Advertisement *Amazon working on leases in Boston, could HQ2 be headed there? What we're reading (Friday Fun Edition) *Photo gallery: Wrigley Field off-season renovations continue. *Formerly great craft beer great again now that it's being made in Iowa. *Hot take: That White Stripes' guy's new songs are bad (We are reserving judgment ourselves). Follow the money *Republican governor candidates Jeanne Ives reported $28,000 in contributions, led by $25,000 from Daniel Costello of Clarendon Hills in DuPage County. *Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here. Advertisement Beyond Chicago *Trump attacks lawmakers in private meeting for requesting protection for immigrants from "shithole" countries, reports WaPo, citing two sources. *U.S. House passes legislation to renew NSA spying program. *White House backs states on requiring work for Medicaid benefits. *Ecuador grants Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange citizenship. Union Springs officials are making plans for projects that are receiving $563,950 in grants from the state, two projects for improving Frontenac Park and one to investigate improving the Cayuga Street area. The funds were announced last month as part of the state's Regional Economic Development Council program. One of the projects is for a boat launch at Frontenac Park on the shores of Cayuga Lake. This project was awarded $154,350 via the state Department of State's Local Waterfront Revitalization Program in order to to increase public water access and recreational activities on Cayuga Lake. The grant carries a 50-percent match requirement, which means the village has to contribute $77,175 to the project. Two existing boat launch bays will be improved and a third launch bay will be added. The project is in part a response to having had the Bassmaster Elite fishing competition in Union Springs in June 2016, an event that drew more than 10,000 visitors to the village. We did it to expand it, Mayor Bud Shattuck said of the project, because if we can get the (Bassmaster Elite) back here that's a big tourism draw for the community. Additionally, a boat-washing station will be installed to reduce the spread of invasive species. It's important to be able to monitor and clean off boats so they're not taking seaweed and stuff from one lake, that may be contaminated, and then pulling and taking their boat to another lake and putting it in there, Shattuck said. Water Protection A second park-related project was awarded $259,600 through the state Department of Environmental Conservation for the village to purchase a property adjacent to Frontenac Park for expansion and to install a riparian buffer that will help remove pollutants from water that runs through the village into Cayuga Lake. The village has to contribute $129,800 to the project. We had already decided to buy that property over there, and we'd already approached a donor before we got the grant, so we were going to buy it whether or not we got the grant, Shattuck said. The privately owned property is worth $350,000, but, Shattuck said the money given as a gift for the property was $200,000. This donor's contributions to the village for the land purchase covers the village's share of the matching grant, Shattuck said. Once the remainder of the property purchase comes out of the grant, you've only got $80,000 or so to do the rest of it, Shattuck said, which includes tearing down a building and installing the buffer for water remediation. The property will be purchased in 2018, but the total time line is hard to gauge as it is contingent on some other projects. Union Springs is currently finishing up a prior Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, and the state Department of Transportation will also be installing a bigger culvert system due to village-wide flooding problems from the current system. All the water from the floods comes down through fields and yards, and it's nutrient loaded, Shattuck said. And where does it end up? In the lake. ... So, part of this grant, is not only to purchase the property, but to put remediation in. The culvert system will drain into this new property, and the buffer will be able to remove the nutrients before it goes into the lake, Shattuck said. Once the DOT has more of a timeline in place for their project, a plan for the buffer implementation will be put in place as well. Streetscape study A third project was awarded $150,000 via the Department of State Local Waterfront Revitalization Program to conduct an engineering study to develop designs and evaluate costs of infrastructure improvements along Cayuga Street, the village business district's main street between Center and Seminary Streets. This grant is a 25-percent matching grant, which means the village has to contribute $37,500 to the project. We have a main street that's old, and crowded, and half of it is falling apart, Shattuck said. Union Springs would like to tear up both sides to add water and sewer, bury all high voltage lines, put in new sidewalks and decorative poles instead of telephone polls with strung lines, Shattuck said. If you look at our main street it's like yin and yang, one side is really bustling and has businesses and such, and the other side, not so much, Shattuck said. If you want people to pull over and stop in the business district, it's got to look good, Shattuck said. It's been hard for businesses to stay afloat, he added. Developing the main street, building more stories to the buildings with better views of the lake, and adding more houses and businesses are things Shattuck would like to see happen once the study and the future implementation project are completed. This study may begin in 2018, but Shattuck was unsure as portions of this project also depend on the DOT culvert system, and could also be influenced by all the fire hydrants and main waterline valves being replaced throughout the village. Additionally, there is a sidewalk project Shattuck would also like to implement. Because Union Springs is in the midst of multiple projects at once, Shattuck said, there is still a lot of careful planning to be done before everything is implemented. We have to prioritize both time-wise and dollar-wise, Shattuck said, I don't want to be doing things just because they seem like good things, on the backs of the taxpayers, if I have other things that have to be done. Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker on Friday accused Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner of fatal mismanagement at the Quincy Veterans Home, where 13 deaths and dozens of illnesses related to Legionnaires disease have occurred since 2015. Pritzker also acknowledged that Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios is going to have to answer the question of why he didnt update a formula to assess properties, but stopped short of saying he was backing Berrios for re-election or whether the assessor should quit. Advertisement Pritzkers comments came at a news conference in Andersonville where he called for legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in Illinois, saying such a move could increase state revenues and provide economic development and jobs in poorer Chicago neighborhoods. Pritzker also vowed to commute people imprisoned for marijuana offenses. The event outside a medical marijuana dispensary marked Pritzkers first public remarks since Rauner unleashed a lengthy attack ad Wednesday. The spot features a 2008 recording by federal agents between Pritzker and then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in which the two discuss a possible job for Pritzker. Advertisement Pritzker said he was never accused of wrongdoing in the prosecution of the now-imprisoned Blagojevich, and contended the ad was meant to serve as a distraction from Rauners leadership of the state, including the Quincy Veterans Home and the Department of Children and Family Services. The Rauner ad featuring Blagojevich came the same day Rauner left the Quincy facility after a weeklong stay and said he would create a task force to consider improvements. Pritzker responded with two new ads, including one questioning Rauners oversight of the Quincy home. Remember why this is all surfacing: Its because Gov. Rauner doesnt want to talk about the deaths that have been caused at DCFS or the veterans home. He doesnt want to talk about the mismanagement across the state, his failure to pass a budget for more than two years, Pritzker said. The Chicago Tribune reported a surge in deaths of children since DCFS completely privatized a child welfare program in 2012, leading the agency to move cases in house. Other Tribune reports raising ethical questions led to the abrupt departure in June of George Sheldon, who was Rauners first pick to oversee the agency. During the 2014 governors campaign, Rauner blamed then-Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for the deaths of child-abuse victims whose families previously had contact with DCFS. That prompted a Quinn spokeswoman to declare Rauners criticism despicable and a new low. Rauner campaign spokesman Will Allison defended the Blagojevich ad. The people of Illinois deserve to know the truth about J.B. Pritzker in his own words, he said. Hes not even attempting to refute this ad because he knows he cant. Pritzker also has been criticized by Democratic foe Chris Kennedy for not speaking out forcefully against Berrios. Kennedy called for Berrios to resign after a Chicago Tribune-ProPublica Illinois series found, among other things, deep inequities in commercial and industrial property assessments throughout Cook County, punishing small businesses while cutting a break to owners of high-value properties. Pritzker said he would leave Berrios fate to the voters but did not say who he would vote for. The governor candidate contended Kennedys rhetoric against the assessor doesnt match (Kennedys) record. Pritzker pointed to assessment reductions Kennedy sought for the Wolf Point development that he managed. Advertisement Pritzker also gained property tax breaks on a Gold Coast mansion he bought next to his personal residence by declaring it uninhabitable. There are significant flaws in the system. Im not getting involved in Democratic primaries, but I will say hes going to have to answer the question why is it that he didnt change up the formula for the assessment system when he could have a couple of years ago, and hes having to deal with that in his primary, Pritzker said. Pritzker said one major way to differentiate himself and Kennedy was on the issue of legalizing, taxing and licensing the recreational sale of marijuana. Kennedy has said he supports decriminalization and an expansion of the states medical marijuana program, but wants further medical and scientific study before legalizing it. I want to end the injustice by legalizing regulating and taxing marijuana. Chris Kennedy does not. There are those like Kennedy who say that this should wait. But the truth is, for far too long, marijuana laws have led to discrimination and injustice, Pritzker said. rap30@aol.com Twitter @rap30 Advertisement RELATED [ Rauner hits Pritzker with Blagojevich wiretap ad, Pritzker responds with veterans' deaths spot ] [ Rauner hits Pritzker on offshore assets but could have some of his own ] Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis addresses the City Club of Chicago on May 23, 2017, at Maggiano's Little Italy. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune) Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis is backing a bid to unseat Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, an outspoken leader of the pop tax repeal that led to a trimmed-down county payroll opposed by several unions. Lewis has endorsed CTU organizer Brandon Johnson in the March 20 Democratic primary. Working families have a commissioner who works against them, not for them, and consistently pushes an anti-labor agenda, she said in a statement. Advertisement The endorsement and the language used by Lewis rankled Boykin, who noted that he has voted to approve all county worker union contracts and co-sponsored measures increasing the county minimum wage and mandating paid sick leave. Boykin said he has a target on his back because he pushed for the pop tax repeal and helped shape a budget that led to the elimination of more than 1,000 unfilled county job posts. That spending plan also included hundreds of layoffs opposed by the unions. Advertisement This is the labor unions getting behind this guy, because they say We gotta send Boykin a message, that we dont like the fact that he closed those vacant and open positions, Boykin said in an interview. And we dont like the fact that he led the repeal effort on the sugar tax. Quite frankly, I think that the working-class families whose pocketbooks we protected, I think theyre going to stand with me and see right through this. Unions have started putting some money behind Johnson. The CTU contributed $25,000 to his campaign, and the Service Employees International Union Healthcare PAC gave him a like amount. But Boykin could be tough to beat. In 2014, he won an open seat by defeating a candidate backed by both County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Boykin had more than $108,000 in his campaign account at the end of September and has since raised more than $107,000 including $15,000 in contributions from Citizens for a More Affordable Cook County, a political action committee set up by the anti-pop tax forces. hdardick@chicagotribune.com Twitter @ReporterHal RELATED [ Cook County Board approves budget with 321 layoffs ] [ With pop tax repealed, Preckwinkle says up to commissioners to fix budget ] [ Preckwinkle avoids challenge from pop tax opponent Boykin ] A subsidy for Presence Health to build its downtown headquarters is backed by Mayor Emanuel, the NAACP and a union but opposed by downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, shown Sept. 13, 2016, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Womens Chicago chapter. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) Chicago aldermen on Friday gave preliminary approval to a $5.6 million subsidy for Presence Health to build its downtown headquarters despite concerns about the Catholic organizations opposition to abortion and birth control. The City Council Finance Committee voted 13-7 to approve the deal. Its backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the NAACP and a union representing hospitality workers but opposed by downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Womens Chicago chapter. Advertisement At issue is Presence Healths policy of hewing to U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops directives that elective abortions are never permitted and direct sterilization of either men or women, whether permanent or temporary, is not permitted in a Catholic health care institution, unless it is the only available option to a medical malady. Those policies were weighed against Presences pledge to spend $15.5 million to build or redevelop four community care centers in neighborhoods where local health services are scarce. Advertisement The plan is part of the overall agreement aldermen were considering, but the $5.6 million subsidy was for Presence Healths $13.3 million headquarters at 200 S. Wacker Drive. The city money would come out of a downtown tax increment financing district fund, from which property taxes are set aside to spur development and create jobs. Dr. Laura Concannon, regional chief medical officer for Presence Health, addressed the issue of reconciling her companys ethical and religious directive with some patients desire for abortions or birth control. Women who want elective abortions are referred to facilities and doctors able to provide them, she said. We do not refuse it, we do not discourage it, we do not counsel patients against it, she said. We open up to whatever they feel like is the best for their care, and then we make sure that it happens. And doctors working at Presence facilities who are not directly employed by the company can prescribe contraceptives if they are medically indicated, Concannon said. Only 10 percent of the doctors are directly employed by Presence, she added. We do not intervene in the relationship between the patient and the physician, she said. There are many medical indications for birth control. Those explanations werent enough to satisfy Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, in whose ward the Presence headquarters was built. My issue here is not with the quality of care that Presence Health provides, said Reilly, who added that he was not invoking aldermanic privilege to try to kill the request because Presence provides services at facilities throughout the city. They have a sterling reputation. They serve many thousands of medical clients and they do it well. Advertisement For me, the issue comes down to: Should the city of Chicago be providing a public subsidy city tax dollars to fund a hospital system that does not provide those basic reproductive health services? And for me, as pro-choice, also Catholic, I cant support this request. But several aldermen spoke out in favor of Presence, saying they and the people they represent had been treated well at Presence facilities. One was Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th, who said people she knows who use the system had been able to get abortions and contraceptives when they chose to go that route. If they dont do it, they refer you out, Harris said. Emanuel spokesman Grant Klinzman said the subsidy was sponsored by the mayor, who supports abortion rights. The ordinance is moving forward at the request of 16 aldermen who strongly advocate for its benefits to neighborhoods and residents who would otherwise be unable to access critical health services, he said. It supports four other health care centers in areas of need, including the only cancer center serving the West Side of Chicago north of I-290, Klinzman said in a statement. hdardick@chicagotribune.com Twitter @ReporterHal Advertisement RELATED [ Rauner reminds abortion foes he's got deep pockets to help them ] [ Emanuel's 2018 budget approved; cost of phone fees and ride-share trips to rise ] [ Streeterville residents: Ambulance sirens too loud ] Chicago Public Schools officials said Friday they will spend $2.6 million to fill 65 new special education positions at schools throughout the city. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Chicago Public Schools said it would spend millions of dollars to fill dozens of new special education positions, a plan the district announced Friday just over an hour before aldermen were scheduled to publicly grill school officials about spending cuts. The district said $2.6 million will finance 65 new positions at schools throughout the city. Many will be English language specialist teachers and bilingual paraprofessionals. Advertisement North Side Ald. Harry Osterman, 48th, linked the new hires to the hearing. The City Councils Progressive Caucus pressed for the Education Committee to hold the meeting in the wake of a WBEZ report last year about special education cuts. Osterman lamented that the hearing wasnt held sooner. Advertisement You have a hearing at 2:30 in the afternoon and at 2 oclock theres 65 new teachers hired for special education, he said. My colleagues in the Progressive Caucus thats the power of a hearing. My colleagues who advanced this starting in October, had we had this hearing in November those teachers would be working with the kids where they need to be, Osterman said. Acting district CEO Janice Jackson said refinanced debt means the new positions can be paid for out of CPS general operating funds. The district said the money also would support school social workers and counselors at buildings with higher-than-average suspension rates. The new staff members wont start work until next month, as early as Feb. 5, CPS said. The district also intends to provide the new funding in the next school year at an estimated annual cost of $5.2 million. The initiative marked one of Jacksons first official policy proclamations. She helped preside over changes to the districts special education program in her previous role as the districts chief education officer, along with former CEO Forrest Claypool. The City Council cant require the school district to make changes. But if the district didnt take steps to address the special ed issues, the public airing of complaints at a public hearing could have embarrassed Mayor Rahm Emanuel weeks after Claypool resigned amid accusations that he lied to undermine an ethics investigation. And Fridays hearing came as Emanuel already faces heated community complaints about plans for a new high school in Englewood. The City Council Education Committee had been abruptly canceled by chairman Ald. Howard Brookins Jr., 21st, a few days before Christmas. He rescheduled it this week after Progressive Caucus Ald. Ricardo Munoz, 22nd, threatened to use a procedural move to make him to hold it. Advertisement Brookins said hed always planned to hold the hearing and delayed it a few weeks because school officials told him they wouldnt be able to get people to testify days before Christmas in the immediate aftermath of Claypools resignation. jjperez@chicagotribune.com jebyrne@chicagotribune.com Twitter @perezjr Twitter @_johnbyrne [ RELATED: State panel to examine special education practices at Chicago Public Schools ] [ 'Tough decisions' needed to confront issues facing CPS, incoming CEO says ] [ Chicago school board approves tax hikes and borrowing amid special education protests ] President Donald Trump said he has called off a planned ceremonial visit to Britain because he didn't want to be associated with what he called a bad real estate deal in which the U.S. Embassy is being relocated from central London to "an off location." LONDON President Donald Trump said he has called off a planned ceremonial visit to Britain because he didn't want to be associated with what he called a bad real estate deal in which the U.S. Embassy is being relocated from central London to "an off location." In a Twitter message shortly before midnight Thursday, Trump implicitly rejected reports that the trip - never announced but widely assumed to be in February - was being scrapped over concerns that the U.S. leader would be met with widespread protests. Advertisement "Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO," Trump wrote. Many Londoners on Friday offered their own reasons for President Donald Trump canceling a possible trip to the British capital: He was nervous about the expected protests that could greet him. Advertisement "It seems he's finally got the message," wrote London's mayor, Sadiq Khan. David Lammy, a Labour party lawmaker, believed Trump was shaken by the prospect of being " met by millions of us out on the streets protesting." Shortly after Trump's inauguration, around 100,000 demonstrators hit the streets of London for the Women's March in solidarity with anti-Trump rallies worldwide. In fact, it was never certain that Trump would visit Britain, historically America's closest ally. The last word from the U.S. ambassador there, Woody Johnson, was that while he hoped Trump would come to dedicate the new embassy, no date had been set for such a journey. U.S. diplomats are expected to move in to the new quarters this month. The embassy's website has a large banner reading, "1 week until we move." Trump had been expected to combine a ceremonial opening for the new building - a distinctive glassy cube - with an official visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Theresa May. May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his inauguration a year ago, and extended a return invitation that was put on hold in part because British lawmakers and others vowed to protest and boycott Trump over policies seen as anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant. Trump told May in a phone call last month that he planned to visit early in 2018. The Daily Mail reported that Trump had backed out because he was unhappy about arrangements for the visit, which was billed as a "working" visit rather than a full state visit that could include a meeting with Queen Elizabeth. Advertisement The George W. Bush administration had decided more than a decade ago to relocate the embassy from offices on prime land in the tony neighborhood of Mayfair in central London to a plot on the banks of the Thames in the south of the city. Security concerns drove the move, in line with a worldwide upgrade and redesign of embassy facilities to better protect them from vehicle bombs and other terrorism. The old embassy was sold to the real estate division of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund in November 2009. May rebuked Trump in November after he retweeted unverified anti-Muslim videos from the far-right Britain First political group. She said Trump was "wrong" to do it and called the British group "hateful." British members of Parliament had called on May to rescind the invitation to Trump over the video incident and earlier actions, including his attempt to temporarily block immigration from several Muslim-majority nations. "I am deeply uncomfortable because he is deliberately divisive, and this would be divisive at a time when we are trying to unite our country," Justice Minister Sam Gyimah said in November. Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had rejected suggestions that now was not the time for a state visit . Advertisement "I think Her Majesty the Queen is well capable of taking this American president - or indeed any American president - in her stride, as she has done over six remarkable decades," Johnson said. "She has seen them come and she has seen them go." Karla Adam and Jennifer Hassan in London contributed Israel's embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a new scandal Tuesday after a recording emerged of his 26-year-old stay-at-home son joyriding at taxpayer expense to Tel Aviv strip clubs with his super-rich buddies and bragging about how his father pushed through a controversial gas deal. The 2015 recording, aired Monday night on Israel's top-rated news broadcast, sparked public outrage over its misogynistic content and raised questions over why a state-funded bodyguard and driver were necessary to facilitate such debauchery. The often combative younger Netanyahu issued a quick apology, saying the remarks did not represent the values he was raised on and were made under the influence of alcohol. Advertisement But the fallout, coined "Strippergate" in Israel, was swift. A pair of opposition lawmakers appealed to the attorney-general to investigate Yair Netanyahu's security needs, saying it was "disgraceful that public funds fuel a culture of women's exploitation." Others piled on. "Even big kids say what they hear at home," said Eitan Cabel of the opposition Labor party. In the recording, Netanyahu and his friends recount their night out on the town and make disparaging comments about strippers, waitresses and other women, including one of Netanyahu's former girlfriends. Advertisement He is also heard drunkenly bragging to the son of an Israeli oil tycoon about how the prime minister advanced a bill in parliament that the younger Netanyahu appears to believe delivered billions of dollars to his friend's father an embarrassing blow to the premier, who stands accused of accepting a fortune's worth of cigars and champagne from rich supporters. "My dad got a great deal for your dad," Yair Netanyahu told him. "Bro, you have to be nice to me. Bro, my dad got your dad a sweet deal, he fought for it at the Knesset, bro." At one point, Yair Netanyahu cryptically refers to 400 shekels (about $115) paid to a prostitute. "Speaking of prostitutes, what's open at this hour?" he asks his friends, before they settle on a well-known bistro. "It's possible the waitresses there go with the flow," he adds. One of his buddies, Roman Abramov, even jokes that the security guard, who was privy to the banter, would have to be killed if he ever left his job so the conversation wouldn't leak. "If he quits, bro, we'll to murder him ... When you quit, be careful because you'll die, too bad for the kids," Abramov, mock-worried, said, "I don't want this conversation getting out, God help us. God, if this gets out." Most of the public outcry, however, involved the younger Netanyahu's comments to the son of Israeli tycoon Kobi Maimon about how the prime minister advanced a controversial gas deal in parliament that benefited his father. "My dad arranged $20 billion for your dad, and you're whining with me about 400 shekels," Yair Netanyahu says, referring to money he borrowed in a strip club. Adding to the public anger was the fact that the salacious outing took place on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath and was aired just as Netanyahu's government was passing unpopular legislation to curb business on the Sabbath under pressure from ultra-Orthodox Jewish coalition partners. Advertisement The prime minister, who has repeatedly attacked the media as his legal troubles have mounted, issued a typical response after the recordings were released, calling them the height of a media-orchestrated witch hunt aimed at ousting him and saying the press had stooped to unprecedented "persecution, bloodletting and shaming." "We have no intention of addressing the cheap and malicious gossip regarding snippets of jokes that were made after a night of drinking that don't reflect Yair's positions and were taken out of context from an illegal and tendentious wiretap," read a statement from the family. But on Tuesday, Netanyahu softened his rhetoric, saying that his son's comments were the result of alcohol consumption and that he was raised to respect women. The Netanyahu family's perceived hedonism and sense of entitlement has gotten them in trouble before, with repeated inquiries into their conduct. Israeli police say the prime minister is suspected of fraud, breach of trust and bribes in a pair of cases. One involves reportedly more than $100,000 worth of cigars and liquor that Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, received from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who is said to have asked Netanyahu to press the U.S. secretary of state in a visa matter. Yair Netanyahu has also repeatedly drawn criticism for living a life of privilege at taxpayers' expense, hobnobbing with ultra-rich donors and making crude social media posts, all while never holding down a job. Advertisement Australian billionaire James Packer has reportedly lavished the younger Netanyahu with gifts that included extended stays at luxury hotels in Tel Aviv, New York and Aspen, Colorado, as well as the use of his private jet and dozens of tickets for concerts by Packer's former fiancee, Mariah Carey. Police are trying to determine whether these constitute bribes, since Packer is reportedly seeking Israeli residency status for tax purposes. Israel's Channel 2 News, which broke the story of the latest scandal on Monday, said that Yair Netanyahu ended the evening with his friends by staying at Packer's luxury residence in Tel Aviv. In further comments Tuesday, the premier said he had no connection to Maimon and was unaware of their sons' friendship. He added that his son had no knowledge of the gas deal and that his own backing of expanded natural gas extraction did nothing to benefit Maimon. He also accused a disgruntled driver in the prime minister's office of making the illicit recording and attempting to sell it for a profit and demanded that Channel 2 disclose how much it paid for it. Yair Netanyahu has previously sparked controversy by posting an anti-Semitic caricature aimed at his father's critics, vulgarly confronting a woman who criticized him for refusing to pick up after his family's dog at a public park, and lashing out on Facebook at a liberal think tank with emojis of a middle finger and a pile of excrement. Yediot Ahronot columnist Sima Kadmon said that despite his apology, the recordings show exactly what kind of person the younger Netanyahu is. Advertisement "A 26-year-old who does not work and lives at the state's expense. A young man who drags after him, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, an entire array of bodyguards that costs the Israeli public millions ... and behaves like a spoiled and pampered child," she wrote. The new recordings may not directly harm the prime minister politically but they add another blow to his battered public image after nearly nine years in office. "It turns out that this barrel has no bottom," wrote Haaretz's Yossi Verter. Embattled U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Hoekstra apologized Friday for making unsubstantiated anti-Muslim claims at a conference in 2015, comments that have clouded his early days in his post after reporters confronted him about them. Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman from Michigan and recent political appointee, made the apology during an interview Friday with De Telegraaf, one of the largest Dutch newspapers, at the end of a particularly rough week for the new ambassador. "Looking back, I am shocked I said that," he told the newspaper Friday. "It was a wrong statement. It was wrong." Hoekstra made the remarks in question in 2015 during a conference on terrorism, talking about the supposed "chaos" brought to Europe by immigrants from Islamic countries and repeating a baseless nostrum about so-called "no-go zones" that is popular in right-wing media. "Chaos in the Netherlands. There are cars being burned. There are politicians that are being burned," Hoekstra said at the time. "With the influx of the Islamic community - and yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands. All right? There are no-go zones in France." Hoekstra said that he couldn't recall what his remark was based on. "I mixed up countries. I was wrong. I can't recall how that could happen. I know: I was wrong," he said. It wasn't immediately clear whether Hoekstra's apology extended to the other instances where he had repeated the no-go zone theory during appearances in conservative media, or other baseless remarks he had made about Muslims, such as speculating that 10 to 15 percent of the Muslims in the world - potentially hundreds of millions of people - were radical Islamist militants. The State Department distanced itself from Hoekstra's remarks Thursday during a briefing in Washington but had declined to call them inaccurate. "The ambassador made mistakes in 2015," Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein told reporters. "Those comments were not the position of the State Department, and you will never hear those words from this podium." The remarks have clouded Hoekstra's early days in the Netherlands, bringing criticism and controversy to the otherwise routine ritual of installing a new ambassador in a closely allied country. The Dutch media in particular has homed in on them, repeatedly questioning Hoekstra to provide the names of the politicians he said were being burned in their country, or retract the statements. Before Hoekstra's arrival in The Hague in January, he told a Dutch journalist who questioned him that he had never made the statements and that they were "fake news." He later apologized. And during his first news conference with Dutch media at his new residence on Wednesday, his refusal to answer basic questions about the remarks - and the Dutch press corps' tenaciousness as they continued asking about it - drew a strong reaction in the United States. "This is the Netherlands - you have to answer questions," one reporter said during the tense meeting. The State Department announced the interview with De Telegraaf on Thursday after it, too, faced questions about Hoekstra's comments. Hoekstra talked to the newspaper about his performance during the news conference, saying he felt like he had already apologized. "How many times do I have to say sorry?" he said. The newspaper will publish the full interview Saturday, it said. Goldstein, also a political appointee of President Donald Trump, had said during a Washington briefing that it was his belief that the ambassador should answer reporters' questions in the future. "I have advised, as I've advised most people, that when reporters are in front of you, just as you are in front of me, that it's always good to answer questions," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Arthur Rorheim co-founded the ministry now known as Awana Clubs International in the 1940s as an engaging way to get Chicago-area young people to understand the Bible and know Jesus Christ. As a youth minister, he was known to be full of fun and wanted to share his enthusiasm with young people as they learned about the Gospel and what he called Gods unconditional love for them. The results 70 years later are remarkable. Right now, Awana is in 120 countries, we have 50,000 clubs, we reach on a weekly basis more than 4 million young people from 2 (years old) through high school, said Jeff Schacherer, who was Rorheims travel assistant for years and is still with the organization. Art Rorheim was a man whose influence for the kingdom of God will have a lasting impact for generations to come, Valerie Bell, Awana CEO, said in a news release. Advertisement The Awana program is not only in churches, but in orphanages and communities rich and poor worldwide, Schacherer said. The name Awana comes from the first letters of a version of a Biblical passage from St. Pauls second letter to Timothy: Approved workmen are not ashamed. Rorheim, 99, died of natural causes on Jan. 5 in Serenity Hospice & Home in Oregon, Ill., according to a granddaughter, Kim Ahlgrim. Rorheim, who was with Awana for more than 70 years, lived for years on the Northwest Side of Chicago before moving about 10 years ago to Rockford with his wife, Winnie, who died in 2015. He was born Arthur Reynold Rorheim to Norwegian immigrant parents who settled in Chicago. His education included some time at Foreman High School, but no college or formal ministry training. He became a volunteer with the North Side Gospel Center in Chicago. According to a biography on his website, as director of the churchs weekly Pals club for boys, he discovered his gift and passion for childrens and youth ministry. One of his colleagues was the late Lance Doc Latham, with whom he later co-founded Awana. After short stints in the photography business and as a turret lathe operator, he became the full-time youth director at the North Side Gospel Center in 1943. Rorheim put his creativity and organizational skills to work, developing many of the programs that make Awana unique today, including Bible-based handbooks and Awana games competitions. Scripture memorization has long been one of the trademarks of Awana. He believed passionately in knowing the Scriptures, but doing it all in the context of fun, Ahlgrim said. It was just something he was passionate about and he wanted to help the children of Chicago and it expanded from there. Advertisement Bill Hybels, founder of Willow Creek Community Church and the Global Leadership Summit, was one of the young people influenced by Awana and Rorheim. Art Rorheim was a major influence in the first 25 years of my life, Hybels said in an email. So much so that he co-officiated our wedding in 1974. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Art was both a daring visionary and a meticulous administrator, Hybels continued. He cared for young boys and girls in every country and culture and turned over heaven and earth to serve them. Art leaves behind a breathtaking legacy. Rorheim took Awana global in 1972 with the first international Awana club in Bolivia. He eventually visited some 50 countries to spread the word about Awana, and he continued to travel for the ministry well into his 90s. He continued to lead the national and international expansion of Awana until retiring as executive director in 1990. He then served as Awana president until 1999 before assuming the role of president emeritus. Rorheim was quoted on his website about the keys to Awanas success. If youre to win kids to the Lord, theyve got to have fun! he said. We developed Awana to draw kids from the community through our church doors by providing games, prizes, awards, special events, excitement and a sense of belonging. Church should be a place that gets kids excited to come! We wanted Awana to be that place of excitement. Rorheims fun-loving nature, Ahlgrim said, showed up in mystery trips with his grandchildren, who would arrive at his home not knowing their destination, which might be a boat ride on the Chicago River, a visit to Chinatown or an excursion to the top of the John Hancock Center. He made us fall in love with this incredible city, Ahlgrim said. Advertisement In addition to Ahlgrim, survivors include a daughter, Kathlyn Brock; his son Ken; three other grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, in Quentin Road Bible Baptist Church, 60 Quentin Road, Lake Zurich. Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter. A worker uses a suction hose to remove oil washed ashore from the Deepwater Horizon spill, in Belle Terre, La., on June 9, 2010. The Trump administration has announced plans to expand offshore drilling in the United States. (Eric Gay / AP) Its rare to see bipartisan agreement on much of anything these days. But an array of Republican and Democratic governors of states on the East and West coasts have found common cause in telling the Trump administration: Take your offshore oil rigs and put them where the sun dont shine. A number of GOP leaders sounded as though they had just come from a two-week wilderness outing sponsored by the Sierra Club. We cannot afford to take a chance with the beauty, the majesty and the economic value and vitality of our wonderful coastline, said South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, objecting to the Interior Departments plan to open thousands of miles of coastal waters to oil and gas exploration. Advertisement Marylands Larry Hogan agreed with his fellow Republican. Such drilling would create too great a risk to the health, safety and welfare of Maryland citizens, communities and businesses, he declared. New Hampshires Chris Sununu and Massachusetts Charlie Baker are also against the plan. Most conspicuous is Floridas Rick Scott who was unique in persuading Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to spare his state. Apparently, there is a point at which some Republican officeholders can no longer abide the administrations indifference to environmental preservation. Until now, the prevailing attitude among them has been that nature is big enough to take care of itself. A broad rollback of protections by Donald Trumps appointees has proceeded with hardly a protest. Advertisement Young people may not believe that the federal Environmental Protection Agency came into being under and with the support of a Republican president (Richard Nixon). Or that the 1970 Clean Air Act passed almost unanimously. Or that a bipartisan majority overwhelmingly approved a 1990 update, signed by another Republican president (George H.W. Bush). On the latter occasion, Sen. Mitch McConnell, now the Senate GOP leader, said proudly, I had to choose between cleaner air and the status quo. I chose cleaner air. Today, however, he wants to encourage the production and use of coal, which is infamous for its filthiness. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is trying to advance the same goal by undoing the Obama administrations Clean Power Plan, even though his own agency estimates that it would save at least 1,900 lives a year. Conservatives can rationalize inaction against global warming on the grounds that its distant, speculative and resistant to tolerable remedies. But they somehow manage to overlook harms that are far more immediate, tangible and solvable. They do so even though there is nothing logically conservative about tolerating pollution. Just as your neighbors have no right to smash your windows, they have no right to pump sewage onto your lawn. Nor should the factory down the road be allowed to emit substances that endanger your health or despoil your community. Preventing pollution is a basic function of government, like national defense and policing. The pitifully low importance Trump and Pruitt put on this responsibility is reflected in their budget which would cut the EPAs funding by 31 percent and slash its personnel. Pruitt, who accuses Obama of neglecting toxic waste sites, would reduce the budget to clean them up by 25 percent. Deferring to the demands of industry is the operating mode of this administration. The EPA has scrapped regulations that blocked companies from dumping mountaintop mining debris into waterways and valleys which ravages landscapes and presents risks to people. Under the Obama administration, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine undertook a $1 million study of the health hazards. The Trump administration canceled it. The plan to expand offshore oil drilling betrays an equally callous attitude. The Interior Department announced the decision after it proposed to kill a rule adopted after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the worst in American history that tightened regulations designed to avert a repeat. The Interior Department says removing these unnecessary burdens will save the industry $228 million over a decade a puny amount next to the $17 billion worth of damage the Deepwater Horizon spill did to the Gulf of Mexico and the 11 lives it ended. The administration wants to stimulate offshore drilling while making it more dangerous. Advertisement My top priority is to ensure that Floridas natural resources are protected, Gov. Scott said in reference to the offshore drilling plan, and the administration agreed. Thats a sweet deal for him and residents of his state. But those people who would like to prevent environmental harms in the rest of the country? They can go sit on a drill bit. Steve Chapman, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/chapman. Download "Recalculating: Steve Chapman on a New Century" at chicagotribune.com/ebooks schapman@chicagotribune.com Twitter @SteveChapman13 Visitors to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition took in the view of the Court of Honor from the roof of the Manufacturers Building. (C.D. Arnold photo courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago) Former President Barack Obamas proposed parking garage wouldnt have been the first oddball structure built on Chicagos Midway Plaisance. Before encountering withering criticism, the Obama Foundation envisioned visitors to the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park leaving their cars in a ground-level structure covered by an artificial hill on the nearby boulevard, the Midway. That plan was scrapped Monday, and the parking lot will be built underground in Jackson Park. Advertisement But the idea of building a hill for parking on the Midway barely qualifies as thinking outside the box compared with how the creators of the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition used the land. They turned the Midway into the first fun-and-games section of a worlds fair, offering up a blueprint for Disneyland and just about every fair and theme park that came after. Only those who rode down the Midway in a wheeled chair guided by a bright young student from some western university can recognize the enchantment that hung over the life of that street and the villages from far-away worlds that lined it, recalled Mrs. William J. Calhoun in the book Chicago Yesterdays; A Sheaf of Reminiscences. Advertisement A block wide and a mile long, it offered fairgoers food, liquid refreshments and carnival attractions amid a kaleidoscope of ethnic habitations. Among them were a Lapland Village and a Bedouin Encampment, a Japanese Bazaar and a German Castle. A family could dine at the Log Cabin and Restaurant then ride the Ferris wheel, the worlds first. Or, they could stroll down the Midway to Hagenbecks Zoological Arena. In the Midways official program, Hagenbeck touted its 2,000 parrots as the largest collection ever seen. That claim seems to have been unchallenged. But clearly, the authenticity of the Midways attractions varied considerably. Some were perhaps a bit too authentic. A street fight is an everyday occurrence in Cairo and it is just about the same way in the street on the Midway Plaisance, a Tribune reporter noted. The presence of visitors has not the least effect in deterring the strange inhabitants of the place from settling their personal differences by fisticuffs. Other attractions took advantage of the natural assumption that the Midways villagers were natives of the cultures they represented. One group of fairgoers reported being robbed of their naivete while touring the Persian Palace. One of them asked a woman dressed in Persian garb what she was doing. No answer was expected as we didnt suppose a Persian could understand English, the Tribune was told. To our surprise, however, she looked at us and in good Bowery patois said: Im knitting. What do you suppose Im doing? Persian officials were outraged that the Persian Palace wasnt operated by a Persian. It is evident that the management of the Worlds Columbian Exposition has been very generous in selling out the honor of other nations for pecuniary purposes, a pair of imperial commissioners wrote in a letter to the U.S. secretary of state. Officers of the National Association of Dancing Masters were similarly exasperated by the belly-dance performances they saw on the Midway. Advertisement The style of movements practiced by these so-called Algerian and other women is something too objectionable to people of refined taste to countenance, they wrote to the fairs management. Those dancing masters and Persian officials didnt realize that, despite their objections, the Midway was revolutionizing show business. Its combination of hokum and sleaze was profitable, so the formula was imitated at state and county fairs. Alongside the exhibits of livestock and prize-winning rhubarb pies, barkers shortly appeared promising wonders never before seen and lightly clothed bathing beauties. On a fairground, the barkers precincts were labeled The Midway. Carnivals dubbed them the Sideshow, and aptly so. In 1893, the Midway threatened to outshine the White City, the principal section of Chicagos worlds fair. Horace Tucker, the fairs superintendent of admissions, explained why on a Sunday when the Midway was crowded, few visitors were headed toward the museums and exhibition halls. Except on the Midway, too much solemnity pervades the White City, he told the Tribune. One hears nothing but the squawking of ducks and geese. Collectively, the Midways villages constituted a city noisy and exciting where the gamut of human emotion was on display 24 hours a day. Advertisement On May 29, 1893, it was sadness, occasioned by the death of Antonia, a resident of the Java village. The women sat about on the verandas of the cottages and wept and prayed as the funeral party started away for Oak Woods Cemetery, the men singing a low, sad song, the Tribune reported. The men of the village followed the remains to Oak Woods, where they were laid beside Antonias babe, buried there a few weeks ago. Over the six months of the fairs run, the Tribune ran other human-interest stories of love found and love lost; heartwarming vignettes of kindness and caring; sad tales of violence and greed. They were there to be found, thanks to the happenstance of the Midway having two fathers. Originally it was the bailiwick of Frederic Putnam, a Harvard professor and pioneering anthropologist. He envisioned the Midway as displaying the evolution of humanity, from simpler cultures at its western end to advanced societies on its eastern end at the gates to the White City, where Western civilizations achievements were celebrated. Putnam was replaced as the Midways director, but not because of the dash of racism in his plan. He was a poor executive, and his successor, Sol Bloom, was a born salesman. A theater manager turned promoter, Bloom had seen a group of Algerian performers at the Paris Worlds Fair of 1889, and convinced Chicago officials that was the kind of act their fair needed. Bloom and the Algerians were hired. Showmanship replaced science on the Midway. Indeed, the best shows werent scripted, as the Tribune regularly noted. Advertisement April 15: Eight bibulous Arabs from the village on Midway Plaisance returning from a beer and sausage banquet at Hyde Park met Joe Sugarloaf, an Esquimau and his four sons at Fifty-fifth street and Lake avenue yesterday afternoon. The headline characterized the ensuing brawl as a War of Races. July 7: The donkey boys of Cairo went on strike. Manager Pangula has published an order against the drivers accepting tips from visitors in the street. Sept. 21: Having been accused by an Irish lord and lady of claiming fair visitors could see the famed Blarney Stone, the exhibition manager telegraphed them: Never stated to any one it was the stone. Said always it was a stone from Blarney. But perhaps the story most likely to be remembered after the fair closed on Oct. 30 was the tale of an Egyptian muezzin and an Ohio typist. One day the muezzin needed a stamp and Miss Wilson was so gracious in providing it for him that he needed half a dozen more the same day, the Tribune wrote on May 28. More stamps subsequently changed hands. Though the muezzin spoke no English, he somehow managed to communicate his intentions: He would renounce his Islamic religious office, convert to Christianity, become an American citizen and marry Miss Wilson. Advertisement Fair officials advised, then ordered, her to return to Ohio. At that moment, she swooned and was out cold for several days. Yet doctors found no evidenced shed been drugged. When she finally came to, fair officials took her directly to the Englewood train station. Others were to keep watch over the muezzin, but he gave them the slip and pleaded his love as she boarded a train headed for Columbus. The muezzin was much depressed, the Tribune noted, and all the attentions of the donkey boys, the conjurers, the snake charmers and other people in the street were powerless to assuage his grief. The headline on the Tribune story: Hypnotism and love. rgrossman@chicagotribune.com Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy After decades of experience with terrorism, Israel is an expert in the field of emergency response and trauma care. And the success of Israels strategies proves that the country could be a partner to Chicago as it combats the trauma and aftermath of gun violence. One example of Israels innovative thinking has been the creation of an app that speeds up emergency care. As soon as someones life is in danger, Israel now has a way to reach him or her instantly. The app, called NowForce, is the Uber of emergency medical response and has revolutionized the field. Advertisement This app was created by an Israeli nonprofit organization, United Hatzalah (Hebrew for rescue). The more than 2,000 medically trained volunteers registered to NowForce and on call around the clock have to meet just one criterion: They need to be willing to save anyones life, anytime, anywhere. As soon as a call comes in, skilled volunteers closest to the incident are notified, making United Hatzalahs average response time less than three minutes. Imagine the lives that have been saved with this response rate. Imagine that lives that could be saved, not just in Israel, but in Chicago, with such a response platform. But the impact of a terror attack or gunshot does not end within days of such an event; rather it lingers for years, and sometimes even for a lifetime. Victims and their families are too often confronted with post-traumatic stress disorder. Advertisement Another example of a successful Israeli strategy is already being implemented in Chicago, by Chris Harris, pastor of Bronzevilles Bright Star Church of God In Christ. When Harris, who is also the CEO of Bright Star Community Outreach, was in Israel several years ago he visited the nonprofit organization NATAL, which is the Israeli Trauma Center for Victims of Terror and War. While there, he saw an approach to helping victims reduce their chances of developing post traumatic stress disorder that he believed could be used in Bronzeville. The Israeli model has advanced the resiliency of Israeli society through treatment, prevention, public awareness and research. It doesnt matter whether a bullet hits a person because of a terrorist attack or because of gang violence. Trauma from any gunshot for the victim as well as the family and surrounding community is often the same. Knowing this, Harris worked with NATAL to customize a program for victims in Chicago. Representatives from NATAL have made frequent visits to Chicago to help train area faith and community leaders and to help develop a hotline so that victims and their families can speak with trained care providers. In addition, University of Chicago Medicine, Northwestern Medicine and Mount Sinai Hospital have all played a role in Harris initiative to offer support to victims of violence. Israels innovative solutions are already proving helpful in fighting Chicagos challenges with gun violence but more can be done. We encourage others to replicate our Israeli programs. Aviv Ezra is consul general of Israel to the Midwest. This photo shows cotton fields in the Greenbriar community of Huntsville, Ala., that will become the site for a Toyota-Mazda plant. (Bob Gathany / AP) There was zero surprise in Illinois when Toyota and Mazda unveiled their decision a few days ago to locate a $1.6 billion assembly line in Alabama. Thats because Illinois was dropped from the competition months ago. Here is a defeat worth pondering, more evidence that in the global race for jobs, growth and prosperity, the Land of Lincoln is falling behind. Remember: Foxconn last year picked Wisconsin for a major electronics factory. Advertisement The Toyota/Mazda plant will hire up to 4,000 people, and create many supplier positions. Illinois should have been enticing. This is a manufacturing state with a skilled workforce, an ideal central location, a stellar transportation network and a tradition of building autos. Ford began assembling Model Ts on the South Side in 1914 and continues to build vehicles there. Fiat Chrysler builds Jeep Cherokees in Belvidere. The folks in Rochelle, Ill. picked out 1,000 acres of farmland as a potential Toyota/Mazda site with extensive rail access near two interstates. DeKalb County also had a location in mind: We have public and private partners that are more than willing to welcome new businesses with open arms, one official gushed to the Tribune. Advertisement Yet it was a no-go for Illinois. Huntsville, Ala., won, beating out a North Carolina site. Goodbye to those Toyota and Mazda jobs and many more because vehicle manufacturing is a synergy and supply chain-centered business. Wherever the industry gets a foothold, lots of players congregate. Alabama got its first auto plant in the 1990s when Mercedes-Benz went there, and now the state is home to Honda and Hyundai assembly lines, plus several engine plants and all those suppliers. Heres the real killer: One of Toyotas next big U.S. moves will be the production of electric vehicles. Mercedes already is investing $1 billion in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on electric vehicles, including a plant expansion and battery factory. Theres reason to think Toyota will make a similar move. So Alabama is poised to become a hub for 21st century alternative energy car production, while Illinois sucks exhaust fumes, or um, volts. The south is home to many foreign assembly lines. Japanese and European auto manufacturers dont want to run unionized plants, and the United Auto Workers is much weaker in the south. But thats no reason for Illinois to give up trying to woo manufacturers. Indiana has Toyota and Subaru plants. In fact, the Hoosier state was cut from the Toyota/Mazda competition because the labor pool there is tapped out, officials said. Imagine such a delightful problem in Illinois: Potential employers worried about filling jobs. So lets get to the meat of it. Why did Illinois lose the Toyota/Mazda factory to Alabama, and how does this state better compete? One issue is that Illinois is surrounded by states with right-to-work laws, which allow employees to exercise their freedom-of-assembly rights to bypass union membership. Employers see right-to-work rules as shorthand for a flexible, pro-growth environment. Illinois Democrat-controlled General Assembly demonizes the right-to-work movement. Last year it supported a bill that would have criminalized the concept. Absurd. This puts pressure on Illinois to find other ways to prove to employers that investing here will pay off. Gov. Bruce Rauner pushed a turnaround agenda that included making substantive changes to workers compensation. It fell flat in Springfield. Additionally, any employer considering Illinois, including Amazon, now looking for a second headquarters, will worry about the high taxes and high regulatory burdens here and the state employee pension crisis. Yet the General Assembly goes on its merry way, appearing oblivious to the jobs competition Illinois loses too often. While Chicago remains attractive, employers and residents continue to flee Illinois for more hospitable territory, including Indiana. We checked in with Jason Anderson, who heads economic development in Rochelle. Interestingly, hes OK with Illinois not being a right-to-work state because hes recruited non-union employers. His message: Illinois needs to commit to being competitive. To him, that means marketing the fact that local community colleges are poised to train plenty of welders, electricians and machinists for any company that comes to town. To us, regaining competitiveness means one big thing: State and local officials must acknowledge Illinois is a scary place for many employers. They need to show the world they are ready to fix the problems. Deal with the $130 billion in unfunded state pension liabilities, and make sure everyone knows what the cost to taxpayers will be. Reduce government spending. Cut the regulatory burden. Advertisement Toyota and Mazda had their reasons for bypassing Illinois. So did Foxconn. More opportunities are out there. What will this state do better to compete and prosper? 404 Try searching for the content you're looking for, or take a look at our recently published stories President Donald Trump speaks during a prison reform roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (Carolyn Kaster/AP) For a brief moment Thursday, President Donald Trump gave the world a glimpse of his capacity for reasoned calm. The Wall Street Journal had posted an interview in which Trump came across as insightful and philosophical. Other news outlets were reporting progress on an immigration bill the president had promised to sign. Advertisement Then something hit the fan. In a meeting with lawmakers about the proposed immigration legislation, Trump stunned visitors with a nasty, vulgar comment about immigrants from Haiti and African countries, The Washington Post reported. Trump wanted to know why the United States should accept immigrants from sh------ countries. Advertisement Trumps comment made in the Oval Office, leaked to the Post and not denied by the White House is offensive and insulting to all Americans. Its insulting to all immigrants to this country, to all people of all nations. Most Americans, after all, arrived on these shores as wretched refuse, as a Statue of Liberty plaque proclaims. What Trump said is beneath the dignity of the highest office of the land. But it isnt surprising. His Twitter feed is a cesspool of negative thoughts uploaded directly from the presidents raging id. Trump has a boorish streak, a lack of respect for others and limited self-control. He should have recognized what he said was inappropriate and would be leaked. The president owes the country an apology. What did you say when President Donald Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations as shithole countries? What did you say when the president of the United States followed that comment by suggesting hed rather see more immigrants from countries like Norway? Advertisement Whether now or in the future, you will be asked this question: What did you say? Did you call out the obvious racism behind those statements? Did you acknowledge that the leader of the free world by title, anyway had shown himself to be a white supremacist, casually expressing his dislike of brown-skinned immigrants and preference for white European immigrants? Advertisement Were you outraged that such comments from a sitting president were antithetical to the ideals that have always made America a beacon of hope and opportunity? What did you say? Did you speak out? Did you denounce the comments, as Rep. Mia Love, a Utah Republican whose parents came to America from Haiti, did, saying in a statement: This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned. Or did you keep quiet? Take note, because you will be asked. Trumps has been a presidency filled with jaw-dropping moments of offensive behavior, but this one will stand out over time, both for its profane nature and its naked racism. So what did you say? Did you look for excuses? Did you toss out a Well, what about scenario you thought might take the heat off? Advertisement Did you scream something about identity politics and try to pretend that this is the fault of others, not the fault of the transparently racist old man in the White House? Did you say he has a point? Did you say, Well, those countries are shitholes, arent they? Did you forget how people once described immigrants from Italy and Ireland? Did you forget the words on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty? Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Did you forget those words, or just ignore them? Did you smile about a tax break and say nothing? Did you not put the pieces together and consider all the other times Trump has shown us exactly who he is? Advertisement Did you tamp down memories of his calls for the execution of the Central Park Five, even after the young men, four black and one Latino, were found innocent? Did you explain away what Trump was implying in this tweet from 2013: According to Bill O'Reilly, 80% of all the shootings in New York City are blacks-if you add Hispanics, that figure goes to 98%. 1% white. Did you disregard his years-long birther crusade against the nations first black president? His description of Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals? His regular criticism that immigrants coming from predominately nonwhite nations are examples of those countries worst people? Did you not let yourself see the pattern? Did you twist logic into knots and blame it on the media? On political correctness? What did you say when our president called other countries shitholes and you had to shield your childrens ears from profanity on the nightly news? What did you tell your children about this moment? How did you explain the presidents words? Advertisement Tell me, what did you say? Mark it down, let it be known. Because you will be asked this again someday. And if you stayed silent, if you made excuses, if you tried to fool yourself into believing this is appropriate presidential behavior, if you let it slide because this presidency might somehow line your pocketbook, then you will be remembered as complicit, as one who stood by and let Americas decency get dragged through the mud. And if you laughed, or if you smiled, or if you nodded your head in agreement, you will be remembered just as Trump will: as a racist, a fool and an absolute embarrassment. rhuppke@chicagotribune.com Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently defended himself from gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedys charge of purposely gentrifying Chicago. Emanuel expressed concern about Chicagos reduced black population, asking, Where are the ideas? Where are the solutions, real solutions to real challenges that make those challenges opportunities? Since he asked, below are several ideas to slow Chicagos gentrification, which pushes people out of Chicago. First, Chicago officials can back state legislation to repeal the ban on local rent control. Such a bill was introduced last year in Illinois General Assembly, but failed. This change would enable municipalities like Chicago to pass rent control policies, a major step toward reducing rent spikes that contribute to displacement. Advertisement The mayor can work to strengthen the Affordable Requirements Ordinance. The current 10 percent affordable housing requirement is insufficient. Worse, developers often avoid building affordable housing onsite, using a gaping loophole to pay in-lieu fees to build affordable units elsewhere, replicating segregation. The solution: Increase on-site affordable housing requirements, eliminate the loophole, and ensure that new units are truly affordable and meet families needs. Chicago could advance a just cause evictions ordinance to protect renters from arbitrary evictions. Equitable transit-oriented development can ensure that transit options and their many benefits, like access to jobs reach low- and moderate-income Chicagoans. If enacted, the Keeping the Promise Ordinance would support public transparency, oversight and accountability of the Chicago Housing Authority. Requiring community benefits agreements for large new developments, such as the Obama Presidential Center, could help prevent displacement by sharing economic benefits locally. Moreover, the mayor could commit Chicago to greater transparency and equity in such areas as tax increment financing, Chicago Public Schools decision-making, and public services and investments, as inequities in these contribute to gentrification. Advertisement We all have a stake in Chicago being racially, ethnically, economically, and culturally diverse, equitable and inclusive. Community groups concerned about neighbors struggling with high housing costs everyday Chicagoans trying to stave off displacement from their own homes and city have formulated ample policy ideas. If Mayor Emanuel is serious about solutions to challenges and seeking opportunities to slow housing and community displacement in Chicago, he has several policy levers from which he can choose. Wesley Epplin, director, health equity, Health & Medicine Policy Research Group To the editor: It seems incredible that Democrats in Congress are more concerned about the fate of approximately 800,000 so-called Dreamers than they are about other pressing issues. Some may honestly believe that Democrats are being compassionate, but lets be clear, their real objective is to get more Democratic voters through a more liberal immigration policy. Advertisement Speaking of immigration, I suggest three easy changes to our immigration policy. Let the Dreamers stay and apply for citizenship like all the others who are applying must do; end chain migration; and finally change the lottery immigration system to one based on merit depending on what skills are most important to our changing economy. No doubt better border security and a more logical guest worker visa program are essentials, but all these issues can be dealt with after Congress passes a budget, which is the real priority now. Advertisement Dan Schuchardt, Glen Ellyn Finding funding To the editor: Its hard to believe the president is so cruel and heartless as to hold 800,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients (also known as Dreamers) hostage for his border wall. Anyhow, where will we find the estimated $18 billion for the wall, since we just slashed government revenues with the recent tax reform. If building the wall is so important for him, it could be added to the list of needed infrastructure or national security projects. Let Congress decide which projects it wants to defund to build the wall, when/if we actually have an infrastructure bill. Better yet, if he thinks the wall is so important, the president could pay for it himself. This sounds like the best deal for us, the taxpayers. If he wants it so badly, let him pay for it himself; the majority of taxpayers dont want it. Or, he could increase tariffs on imports then try to tell us Mexico is paying for it, but taxpaying U.S. consumers will eventually be paying for it anyway with higher prices. Ken Anderson, Chicago OK, can we finally stop beating around the bush and say outright that President Donald Trump is a white supremacist? As our nation heads into the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, our gaffe-prone president, who began the week fending off allegations of mental unfitness, finishes it by denying charges that he is a racist. Advertisement In a story first reported by The Washington Post and confirmed by NBC News, Trump was speaking to lawmakers Thursday when he angrily slammed their desire to restore protections for refugees from Haiti, El Salvador and some African countries. Why are we having all these people from s------- countries come here? said the president of the United States, Advertisement Trump was balking at an immigration deal that would include protections for people from Haiti and some nations in Africa. Instead, according to reports, Trump expressed a preference for immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister he welcomed a day earlier and which also happens to be one of the worlds whitest countries. After a night of broadcasters debating whether to quote Trumps vulgarity out loud or bleep it, on Friday morning Trump tweeted a denial that he had used such language at all, although Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and other witnesses confirmed the reported words. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians, Trump tweeted. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Trust? Two days earlier The Washington Posts Fact Checker column announced a historic milestone: The president had made more than 2,000 false or misleading claims in his first year in office. And he wonders why there is no trust. By then, the first black female Republican in Congress, Utah Rep. Mia Love, who also happens to be the child of Haitian immigrants, demanded an apology from the president, saying his comments were unkind, divisive, elitist and fly in the face of our nations values. Love noted in her emotional statement that her parents never took a thing from the government as they worked hard to achieve the American Dream. Indeed, that classic story of enterprising immigrants who contribute more to this country than they take away continues, despite the ill-informed stereotypes that infect todays immigration debate. Trump himself has helped spread poisonous stereotypes since the day he launched his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission rapists and murders, even though he allowed that some, I presume, are good people. More than some, Mr. President. Remember how ESPN anchor Jemele Hill fell into hot water in September for calling Trump a white supremacist on air? I thought she sounded too extreme at that time, but now? Her time has come. Advertisement Yet the White House was slow to back away from Trumps reported remarks, according to some reports, because Team Trump figures the hostile edge to his America First policy plays well with his cherished base. Indeed, Trumps hunger for applause from his base at rallies or on Fox News has led him to pander persistently to that far-right minority while thumbing his nose at the rest of us. How can we forget his rise as a candidate after questioning the validity of President Barack Obamas birth certificate, branding Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, calling for a ban on Muslims entering the United States and responding very slo-o-owly to disavow the support of the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke? Since then, Trumps polarizing politics have fed widespread doubts about President Trumps mental fitness, even before Michael Wolffs runaway best-seller Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House raised new questions. A January Quinnipiac University poll found a slim majority of American voters (53 percent to 44 percent) say he is intelligent, but 69 percent say hes not level-headed and 57 percent say he is not fit to serve as president. Yet psychiatric experts tell me that normal evaluation methods probably would prove to be less than conclusive, partly because the debate is fueled and distorted by politics. Besides, troubled presidents such as Abraham Lincoln, who biographers say suffered severe depression for most of his life, show that mental illness does not necessarily render one unfit to lead. But, as Trump has shown, you dont have to be mentally ill to play on fears and promote white supremacy. Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage. Advertisement cpage@chicagotribune.com Twitter @cptime Jika Anda mencari situs web sbobet88 login yang andal dan aman untuk bermain poker online, permainan kasino, dan bentuk perjudian lainnya, Anda telah datang ke tempat yang tepat. Situs web kami menampilkan daftar lengkap permainan, opsi pembayaran, dan lainnya untuk memastikan Anda bersenang-senang saat bermain. Agen Judi judi adalah salah satu permainan poker online yang paling populer. Ribuan orang dari seluruh dunia telah bergabung dengan kasino online ini untuk bermain poker demi uang. 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An Aurora man has been found guilty of shooting an acquaintance in the face during a dispute. A Kane County jury Thursday convicted 56-year-old John W. Sperry, 300 block of Grant Place, of aggravated battery with a firearm, a Class X felony; and two counts of aggravated fleeing and eluding a police officer, a Class 4 felony. Advertisement Kane County Assistant State's Attorneys Greg Sams and Chris Geocaris presented evidence that on the afternoon of March 4, 2017, Sperry drove to the house of his acquaintance in the 300 block of Jackson Street in Aurora, according to a press release from the Kane County State's Attorney's Office. At about 4:40 p.m. Sperry saw his acquaintance in the driveway. The man walked to the passenger side of Sperry's 1988 Cadillac Brougham, and the men began to argue. Sperry then pulled out a .38 caliber handgun and fired a single shot at the victim, according to the release. The shot struck the victim in the cheek and exited from the back of his head. Advertisement Sperry immediately drove away from the scene, according to the release. Police spotted him in his car a short time later about two miles away near Ohio and Grove streets and signaled for him to stop. Sperry refused and led police on a 14-minute chase through Aurora's east and northeast sides, ignoring multiple traffic-control devices and at times exceeding 70 mph, the release stated. Police took Sperry into custody after his car struck a utility pole at Claim Street and Lincoln Avenue. The man who was shot continues to recover from his injury, according to the release. Kane County Circuit Judge John A. Barsanti set Sperry's next court appearance for Feb. 7 in Courtroom 319 at the Kane County Judicial Center to set a date to hear motions and sentencing. Sperry faces a minimum sentence of six years in prison. Sperry remains in custody at the Kane County jail, where he has been held since his arrest in lieu of $500,000 bail. Bond was revoked upon conviction. The relationship between the Aurora Housing Authority and Northern Lights Development Corporation, which were both overseen by former executive director Keith Gregory, contributed to the agency's "troubled" designation by HUD, documents show. (Hannah Leone / The Beacon-News) After the Aurora Housing Authority was designated "troubled" by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the authority sought to appeal the determination, disagreeing with findings from an independent audit, documents show. Among the audit findings the housing authority disagreed with were some the agency said were related to the Northern Lights Development Corporation, which has been described as an arm of the housing authority and which has won public bids from the agency, according to documents obtained by The Beacon-News. Other issues raised by the 2016 audit included housing authority spending and personal use of vehicles, which the agency also challenged in its appeal of the "troubled" designation. Advertisement HUD officials denied the housing authority's appeal in May, saying in a letter to the housing authority, "professional judgment issues between the (housing authority) and its auditor, such as the issues raised, must be resolved between the HA and its auditor." Current housing authority board Chairman Joe Grisson, who was not chairman when the agency was first notified of the "troubled" designation, said the authority is continuing to work on a recovery plan. Concerning Northern Lights whose close relationship with the Aurora Housing Authority has been detailed by The Beacon-News he said he supports the concept, but the development corporation likely "won't be the way it was" before the housing authority was designated "troubled." Advertisement "Give us a little time, we'll be all right," he said. "We just have to dig in." The Aurora Housing Authority in 2017 was labeled "troubled" for the fiscal year ending March 2016 when it received a score of 58 out of 100 under the Public Housing Assessment System, which factors in financial, physical, management and capital fund categories. Any agency that scores below 60 receives the designation. The housing authority lost 3.82 points because of the audit, documents show. If the agency had won its appeal and those points were restored, the agency's score would have been roughly 62. That would have changed the agency's designation from "troubled" to "substandard financial," according to documents. Bill Powell, who was board chairman when the housing authority was first notified of the "troubled" label, has said the designation was partially related to improper funding for a scholarship gala sponsored by the housing authority. He also said it was due to other "small technical things" related to paperwork. Powell declined to comment for this article, saying he was no longer on the board. Documents show the agency, in its appeal of the designation, challenged five audit findings and the overall audit opinion of "qualified," which is one of three types of modified opinions an auditor can issue. Among the findings of the audit done by Hawkins Ash CPAs were: Some employees were using housing authority vehicles for personal use. The housing authority said in its appeal to HUD it charged employees a monthly fee for any personal use of the vehicles, so federal dollars aren't going toward personal use. "Non-allowable costs" or "excessive spending" was associated with federal grant money, including costs for a scholarship party such as food, alcohol, scholarships, donations, "excessive" hotel costs, and others. The agency responded in its appeal to HUD that much of the money for an event in question came from non-federal sources, including fundraising and that the agency's accountants moved costs of the event to the bankrolls of Northern Lights, which has non-federal money, and it was not tied to a public housing program. The housing authority did not keep enough documents detailing credit card purchases. The housing authority does not keep proper tenant files. Issues related to some HUD forms. Issues related to cash management of the Section 8 subsidized housing voucher program. Three housing authority employees, "paid to be full-time basis employees of the housing authority," were working for another entity during the work week and received a separate salary from the entity. The audit also found insufficient records of their time between the two entities. In its appeal to HUD, the housing authority described the relationship with the Northern Lights Development Corporation per guidelines from the federal agency and argued the corporation was, effectively, part of the housing authority under those guidelines. The housing authority awarded two contracts to an entity in which a housing authority employee had a "direct interest," and violated its own procurement policy. In its appeal to HUD on that finding, the agency also described the relationship with Northern Lights and argued no conflict of interest exists for housing authority employees who receive "customary" compensation from Northern Lights under those rules, and the agency was not required to bid contracts to Northern Lights. All told, the audit findings questioned more than $560,000, though the housing authority disputed the questioned costs. Advertisement The findings related to credit card purchases, tenant files, form issues and management of the Section 8 program were not challenged in the Aurora Housing Authority's appeal to HUD, but the authority responded to them in the audit. The authority "strongly disagreed" with the two findings the agency said regarded Northern Lights and with the overall audit opinion, documents show. The relationship between the housing authority and Northern Lights, which have separate boards and offices, was described by The Beacon-News in a June article. The two entities shared board and staff members and were both overseen by former housing authority executive director Keith Gregory, until he left later in June for a job at a housing authority in Alaska. The two entities also worked together on several projects and Northern Lights has won at least two publicly-bid contracts from the housing authority, including one in which it did not offer the lowest estimated cost, The Beacon-News found. In January 2017, the housing authority board approved a policy on employees also working for Northern Lights. HUD offers guidelines for relationships between public housing authorities and associated development organizations, and some other suburban housing authorities have some type of affiliated development agency. Gregory and Powell, then the board chairman, said in the June article the relationship was acceptable. "Absolutely, the appearance is maybe there's something that's going on there," Powell, who was also a Northern Lights board member, said at the time. "But we checked the rules and regulations to make sure that we're not doing anything that's underhanded." Grisson said housing authority officials are in the process of reviewing the authority as a whole. HUD approves of and encourages associated development agencies, and he supports the concept, he said. Still, the way some aspects of Northern Lights were set up "looks bad aesthetically," and the board could get rid of part or all of Northern Lights, he said. Advertisement "We have to actually look at what we're doing as public housing," Grisson said. "That's our main business, public housing. So we're going to look at that and actually get that up to par before we concentrate on the development side." The agency's financial picture would look better if some aspects, such as housing vouchers, were brought back to the agency from Northern Lights, he said. The board has not decided on any action, but is exploring options and will do "whatever we can within our limits" to have the "troubled" label removed, he said. Interim Executive Director Maria Godinez did not respond to requests for comment. The housing authority board has contracted with Galvan and Associates to address the designation and look at the agency as a whole. The authority had worked with Joseph Galvan, who was recently appointed to oversee HUD's Midwest regional office and left the firm. The agency then worked with his brother, Steve, and continues to work with the company, Grisson previously told The Beacon-News. Grisson said recently the housing authority had not yet been presented recommendations from Galvan, and would be meeting with HUD within the next two weeks to discuss a recovery plan. In a December letter to HUD requesting additional time to present the plan, the agency cited "significant" board turnover and efforts to hire an executive director. The agency has been without an executive director since Gregory left, and Galvan has looked through some candidate applications for the agency, Grisson said. Gregory was the fourth director in five years when he was hired in 2012, and Grisson said he would like to hire an executive director who will stay for some time. Advertisement Grisson said it would be an "added bonus" if the board can find a candidate who can lead both Northern Lights and the housing authority, but Northern Lights is not a priority in searching for an executive director. "I believe in public housing," Grisson said. "Do I believe in the NLDC or its kind of business? Sure. But I didn't get on the board for Northern Lights, I got on the board for the Aurora Housing Authority. That's my primary focus." sfreishtat@tribpub.com hleone@tribpub.com Twitter @srfreish, @hannahmleone A federal judge this week gave prosecutors until Feb. 13 to return indictments against a 39-year-old Aurora man accused of producing child porn using the popular video-sharing app Musical.ly while working for the Federal Aviation Administration. Richard Barnett, most recently of Aurora, was terminated from his job with the Federal Aviation Administration on Dec. 29, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory confirmed Thursday. He is accused of hiding behind the username davidbanks1014 to entice at least four underage girls to make and send photos or videos of themselves engaged in sexually explicit conduct through Musical.ly, federal authorities have said. Advertisement Barnett admitted to FBI agents that he used the account to communicate with minor girls, according to court documents. Most of the filings in the case are sealed. Arrested at his Aurora home in October, Barnett was charged in a two-count criminal complaint with producing child pornography on or about June 5 and transporting child pornography on or about May 29. If convicted of the transporting charge, Barnett could be sentenced to between five and 20 years in prison. He'd also face between 15 to 30 years in prison if convicted on the producing charge. Prosecutors could bring additional charges through indictment. Advertisement Allegations detailed in the criminal complaint date back to May 6. Barnett's targets include at least three girls attending an elementary school in Jacksonville, Fla., and a 9-year-old girl in Louisiana, according to the complaint. Some of the girls' parents told authorities the user threatened to "kidnap, rape and kill" the girls if they told anyone what he said, according to the complaint. In at least one case, davidbanks1014 sent photos back to a girl, threatening to share them more publicly if she didn't send him something more sexually explicit. Barnett was arrested on Oct. 16, so the initial 30-day deadline for an indictment or information to be filed against him according to the Speedy Trial Act was Nov. 15. That was extended to Jan. 14, and on Tuesday Chief Judge Ruben Castillo granted the U.S. attorney's second motion to extend the deadline by another 30 days. Castillo found the justice served by allowing the extension "outweighed the best interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial" and allowed prosecutors to file another attachment under seal, according to an order he signed. Prosecutors asked the court to detain Barnett, arguing he's a flight risk and danger to the community. In an October detention hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez ordered Barnett to remain in custody until the court orders otherwise. He's currently at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. Attorney Kent R. Carlson in November took over for the federal defender originally assigned to represent Barnett. Carlson on Thursday hung up on a reporter before hearing the reason for the call, and has not responded to an email. U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Chapman said in an email he's not permitted to discuss the contents of the sealed filings, and did not address questions about a potential indictment or additional charges. Barnett started working at the FAA in February 2017 as a general avionics inspector trainee, according to two officials with the agency. His department is based at the FAA's regional office in Des Plaines. The complaint states Barnett created the davidbanks1014 account in April, while living at a corporate housing facility in Oklahoma City during his new-employee training. At least one other local report involves someone trying to solicit child porn using the same app. In August, a Musical.ly user who used the name Jessy and claimed to be 9 years old asked a 7-year-old girl to take and send topless photos, Batavia police said. Advertisement hleone@tribpub.com Twitter @hannahmleone Students accepted to Western Illinois University have a chance to travel to visit campus for free. Under the school's "Western Express" program, Western Illinois pays for the cost of Amtrak tickets to Macomb, where campus is located, for accepted students. Director of Admissions Seth Miner said the program is about "meeting the students halfway" in getting them to campus, and a campus visit makes it more likely they will choose to enroll in the school. Advertisement Miner said the program likely began four or five years ago, before he began working at the school. It is geared toward admitted students who have never visited campus, and covers the cost of a train ticket for one guest as well, he said. Students are likely to be accepted to several schools, and should experience campus to determine if it will be a good fit for them, he said. The school also wants to ensure it is a good fit for the potential students. Selecting a college is both a four-year and a financial commitment, he said. Advertisement Miner did not provide an average or annual cost for the program, but said each ticket typically costs between $36 and $44. "When you look at the amount of investment we are putting into this, it's opening the eyes to many students and it has the students' best interest in mind because we want to make sure it's going to be a good fit," he said. The program helps the school showcase its campus and community, Miner said. It also helps show off a free public bus system, including one route that picks up students when they arrive at the train station and drops them off at a residence and dining hall on campus, he said. The program was not created because of recent declines in campus enrollment, Miner said. Between fall 2012 and fall 2017, the number of full-time students enrolled at the school dropped by 2,370, according to data posted to the school's website. "(The program) really just came out of the fact that visiting campus is a very important part of the college selection process, and Western's commitment to access," he said. Of students who come to campus for individual visits outside the Western Express program, about 35 percent typically enroll in the school, Miner said. That compares to the roughly half of admitted students who come to campus through the Western Express program who ultimately enroll in the school, he said. Students can also visit campus during open-house events. "It's a very good program for us to continue using," he said. "It shows us that getting students on campus is very beneficial to the recruitment of students, and it also speaks volumes of what our campus has to offer." sfreishtat@tribpub.com Advertisement Twitter @srfreish A memorial displaying 58 crosses by Aurora resident Greg Zanis stands at the Welcome To Las Vegas Sign. Each cross has the name of a victim killed during the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. (Mikayla Whitmore / AP ) Next Friday, more than 2,000 white crosses will be loaded into five or six trucks maybe it will require even more and driven from Aurora to Washington, D.C., where the following day they will be displayed in front of the White House as a staggering and powerful reminder of the impact violence has on this nation. Just seeing that many crosses in a South Lake Street warehouse in Aurora this week some stacked, some standing, most bearing the names and photos of the slain packs an emotional punch. And the visual was all the more compelling when one is reminded this first-of-a-kind Washington, D.C., demonstration is the result of one local man's efforts to help victims' families find healing and hope. Advertisement Next weekend's White House demonstration will undoubtedly take Aurora carpenter Greg Zanis from a national to an international stage, says Tao Martinez, owner of Archangel Biorecovery and the warehouse where Zanis' Crosses for Losses operation was moved recently as his crusade outgrew the garage in his Aurora home. The decision to take more than 2,000 crosses to our nation's capital on the first anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration came about after the outpouring of support Zanis and his long-time Crosses for Losses partner, the Rev. Dan Haas, received from the people of Las Vegas after the mass shooting at a country festival there last October. It was a groundswell of goodwill toward Zanis that has been building over recent years as his crosses became familiar sights at other mass shootings, starting with Columbine High School in 1999. Advertisement While logistics and other factors made organizers of this Crosses for Losses demonstration rule out a march, as was originally planned, they are hoping there will be enough family members of victims to hold up these white wooden memorials at the site near the White House where they have been given permission to set up Jan. 20. Working with D.C. officials has been nothing but positive, noted Haas, adding that their demonstration was only recently moved to a more visible location, which he hopes will draw plenty of attention on a highly-watched weekend that will include other marches and protests. Tao Martinez looks at a cross in an Aurora warehouse for Sandy Hook victim Benjamin Wheeler. (Denise Crosby / Beacon-News ) In addition to Zanis, Martinez and Haas, also helping organize this demonstration titled "America Never Forgotten" includes Robert Renteria, whose book series "From the Barrio to the Boardroom" is being used in schools and faith-based curriculums across the U.S. and in 25 other countries as a way to promote solution-based tools for our youth. By leveraging his contacts on a national and international level, Renteria insists, he can help bring the Crosses for Losses message to more people and more communities. That is certainly the intent of next week's demonstration that will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 20 and will include a noon program featuring prayer led by Haas and short speeches by Martinez and Renteria, as well as others who have lost loved ones to violence. Martinez includes himself among the latter, and says it was the kidnapping, torture and murder of his 33-year-old brother two years ago in Mexico that pushed his involvement with Zanis' crusade, first by loaning trucks to the carpenter from his company, Archangels Biorecovery, which is an emergency response clean-up service for murders and suicides. But last year he took that 5,000-mile journey with Zanis when he delivered hundreds of these memorials to sites of tragedies, including Sutherland Springs, Texas, and Las Vegas. His work with Crosses for Losses, he maintains, "has helped me heal." And more than ever, Martinez added, it has helped him understand how these crosses not only offers support and hope to those struggling with grief, "it helps them find their faith again." Haas says the crosses in the nation's capital will represent the 2017 victims of violence in six communities: Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Detroit; Baltimore; Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, but will also remember victims of other well-known tragedies. Making 2,000 extra crosses has not been easy, even in the big warehouse where the effort has been moved since last year. Martinez says he, Zanis and a few other volunteers are putting together at least 100 a night as unique as the victims themselves which includes adding photos and names of those who lost their lives. Advertisement The crosses so many of them, everywhere you look at the warehouse are sorted by crime scenes, with Chicago victims in one spacious area, the Texas victims lined up nearby. I shake my head as I walk around the huge open room, taking in the names and faces of people I will never know but grieve for, all the same. I can't help but choke up when I see the Sandy Hook kids, smiling at me from the crosses leaning against another bare wall. But there are also those unfinished piles of wood waiting to be cut, to be carved, to be nailed together for even more tragic souls. It is sad. It is overwhelming. And I can't even imagine the impact these memorials will make as they are raised in unison near the White House. The crosses will be loaded for transport Friday morning at the warehouse in the 700 block of South Lake Street. And Martinez is hoping a few good drivers with trucks of any size can join the effort to get them to Washington, D.C. Contact him at 630-779-9902 if you are interested in helping in any way. This project is not an easy one. It is, however, "unprecedented," noted Renteria. And all three men wanted to make one thing perfectly clear: this is not a political demonstration but a patriotic one. Advertisement The intention, said Martinez, "is to make change not through policy or legislature but through the hearts" of America. "It is," concluded Haas "the message of the cross." Crosses with names and photos of those slain in 2017 at different sites around the country are stored at a warehouse in Aurora. ( Denise Crosby/The Beacon-News ) dcrosby@tribpub.com Joshua Horton, who was seriously wounded in 2004 in Iraq right before becoming the father of quintuplets, poses for a family photo with the four surviving quints, now 14, his two older children and second wife Aria. (Joshua Horton) Michael Bond knew he'd have a tough time convincing his Marine buddy to accept any form of charity. So the former Naperville man chose not to tell Aurora Police Officer Joshua Horton about the GoFundMe account he'd set up for him. Advertisement The "Wounded Marine Family Relief" fundraiser was created to help offset a clerical error that was taking away almost $16,000 in disability payments Horton received from the Veterans Administration after being seriously wounded in Iraq. Those VA benefits had been going to Horton's six children including four surviving quintuplets who had been born in October 2004 at Edward Hospital, even as their father was being flown out of Iraq with life-threatening injuries sustained in a mortar attack. Bond, who like Horton, had re-enlisted for active duty after 9/11, describes his close friend they met while serving with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines as a "warrior servant" who has "answered the call every time, without hesitation, even when he could have stood down." Advertisement Horton could certainly have claimed a hardship leave after finding out his wife Taunacy was pregnant with quintuplets. And still, the Marine sergeant from Oswego remained in Iraq with his platoon, a decision that nearly cost him his life in the small town of Yusufiyah, just southwest of Fallujah. Horton was severely injured on the third day of an operation after getting hit at close-range from the blast of an 82 mm Russian-made mortar. In a detailed narrative of the experience, he admits he did not start worrying about how seriously he'd been hit until "I noticed I could smell my own blood" and heard "someone call a medevac helo with the words urgent surgical" the most critical injury classification. Horton says he passed out in the Blackhawk and woke up a week later at what is now The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Three toes had been pulverized, his right ankle was broken, the calf muscle from ankle to knee was blown off, the artery to his leg was severed he required 23 pints of blood and he had hundreds of pieces of shrapnel in his body, many of which still remain today. Also, he wrote, "my right elbow, wrist and three of my fingers were broken. My right eardrum had been blown out and I had suffered a severe concussion. I was later told that my brain had been bruised and had swollen. During surgery, I bled to death, my heart stopped beating, I stopped breathing, and had to be resuscitated. It took me two weeks to learn to stand, and several months to walk normally." But "the worst part," he told me, was feeling as if he'd abandoned his men, five of whom were killed after he came home. "In my mind," he said, "I had left them and they died." It was while the injured Marine was unconscious and being flown to Bethesda that his wife was giving birth to those five babies at Edward Hospital. A little girl, Addyson, did not make it, and Horton, against the advice of doctors, he said, was released from the hospital so he could attend her funeral. The other four babies eventually joined their parents and two older siblings at home. Now 13, two of the surviving quints have special needs, however, which was all the more reason for Bond to start the online fundraiser for his fellow Marine. Advertisement Having undergone his own frustrations with the VA, Bond told me via phone from his home in Tampa, Florida, he was not about to let a clerical mistake create even more hardship for someone who had already given so much to his country. "When I think of how insignificant this is to the federal government this man was wounded so badly he literally died during surgery and had to be revived," Bond said. "It took him months to learn to walk again." So far, the fund has generated close to half of its $25,000 goal Bond hopes will not only offset the money the VA says Horton owes, but will help with the legal bills accumulated during the appeals process. When he and another local Marine came to visit Horton around Christmas to give him the first disbursement of the fund, Bond said Horton made it perfectly clear he only wants this money to go to his children, and that any extra funds raised will go to help other wounded warriors needing assistance through the Semper Fi Fund. Horton's issues with the VA came about after he and his wife divorced in 2008. He says he filed the proper paperwork to let the agency know of his change in marital status, as he would be paid less as a single man. In 2011 he remarried and repeated the process, he said, getting his new wife on the VA list. In 2015, Horton said, he filed paperwork on his disability status for tax purposes and it showed his current wife Aria as a dependent. But two years later when he refiled "the same tax letter," the paperwork listed both women as spouses. "So I made the adjustment online," he told me. Advertisement Then in May of last year Horton received a VA letter stating he'd been overpaid since 2008 and that he now owed almost $16,000. A large portion of his disability payments were being garnished until that debt was repaid. While clerical mistakes, either on the part of the VA or the veteran, are not common, they are not necessarily rare, noted Jake Zimmerman, superintendent of the Kane County Veterans Assistance Commission, as "one will pop up every month or so" on the multiple claims his office helps veterans to file daily. "If we can work on the issue immediately," noted Zimmerman, the chances of getting it resolved through a waiver, reduction or compromise are good. For the most part, he added, there has been a vast improvement in the timeliness and efficiency of the VA's paperwork over the last few years. And he encourages all vets to call his office immediately if there are any questions or concerns about benefits. Still, as with the Horton case, glitches do occur, and if not taken care of promptly, they can become a nightmare, Zimmerman noted. And that does not sit well with state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego), a former Marine herself who, well aware of Horton's situation, says she already has U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-Naperville) working on it from the federal level to see if the overpayment can at least be set up on a reasonable payment plan. "These veterans put their trust in the VA that their information is being handled properly," Kifowit said. "But if a clerical error happens, the hammer comes down. And because that money from the VA has already gone into the family's financial cycle, it can have a devastating effect" on the veteran and his loved ones. "If the VA is really serious about taking care of the mental health of our veterans," she continued, "then adding to their war wounds on top of everyday life stress can be seriously unbearable for them." Advertisement Horton certainly has paid a high price for his service to country and community. Despite his many wounds that included traumatic brain injury, the Aurora cop made it his goal to return to the police force he loves. A fall he took two years ago, however, while responding to a domestic dispute, injured his back and forced him onto light duty. Waiting for word on whether he will qualify for the surgery he needs, Horton says the workers compensation he now receives does not allow him to put in the overtime needed to make up for his loss of VA disability benefits. And he's more than anxious to get back in to the patrol car because "I love the Aurora community so much and working with the people in it." It's the former Marine's determination to continue serving, says Bond, that makes him just as determined to help his friend through this financial hurdle. And the Florida man points to the last line his friend wrote in the narrative about his battle experiences in Iraq as the best way to illustrates Horton's character. "I hope it has made me a better person. If given the chance, knowing the outcome, I'd do it again in a heartbeat." DCrosby@tribpub.com Keep Aurora Election Commission The Aurora Election Commission serves a great purpose and should not be done away with. It allows seniors to go and vote early in the elections. Advertisement Salaries of the three full-time employees are a minimum and all three do not even come close to one of the salaries our new mayor has put into place. The part-time employees are paid a minimum salary. I, as a judge, will not go all the way to Batavia or Geneva to the other office. And if the referendum is put on the ballot, most voters will not even know what they're voting on if the question is put on as "Shall the City Election Law be Rejected?" They will not have a clue as to what they're voting on. Advertisement Phyllis J Wells, Aurora Hultgren let us down Linda Raska's recent letter to the editor was right on. The primary responsibility of public officials should be to serve their constituents, not to support some ideological or political agenda. The recently passed tax law includes a section that reduces the amount of state and local taxes that can be deducted from federal taxable income. This results in an increase in Illinoisans' federal income taxes. This is a major disadvantage for Illinois taxpayers, including those living in Rep. Randy Hultgren's district. If you do not believe this is a significant issue, read some of last week's newspapers, which showed people lining up to pay their property taxes early. Before the bill was passed, I called Hultgren's office to urge him to fight this restriction. One of his staffers told me that Hultgren was not opposed to this change. I asked why he would not be opposed to a requirement that has such a detrimental effect on Illinoisans. She said allowing high-tax states to fully deduct state and local taxes was unfair to low-tax states, like Texas. Texas! You know, that state with all the oil and the warm weather. Hultgren should be fighting for you and me, not Texans. This section transfers wealth from Illinois to Texas and other low-tax states. Advertisement I will not be voting for Hultgren again. You should be thinking about it, especially if you deducted state and local taxes in the past. Jay Labelle, Montgomery D204 wastes time, money on temporary fixes Thanks for your involvement and coverage of the Indian Prairie District 204 boundary change issue. My family is among the unfortunate ones affected by the approved proposal to shift over 200 students among District 204 elementary schools. It is indeed surprising that both the administration and the board continue with short-term fixes rather than address the broad perspective change involving boundary adjustment for the entire district. Advertisement As noted during the Jan. 8 meeting, this policy is a repeat from four years ago, when students were shuffled in and out of schools. Clearly this underscores the point that the district continues to waste time and money on ineffective and temporary changes. Spending an additional $300,000 on student transportation will add up to $1.2 million over the next four years. This discounts the fact that similar changes and additional costs already have been incurred four years ago as well. The administration seems more preoccupied with the unsightly addition of modular classrooms that bothered wealthy neighbors, rather than academic achievement of students that come from nearby apartment complexes and town homes. As evidenced by scientific studies, which were submitted to the board, there is an inverse relationship between switching schools and academic achievement. Clearly evidence-based scientific methods are not the language the District 204 board speaks. Moreover, the board's actions prove that its focus is rather short-sighted on rubber-stamping the administration's proposals rather than listening and respecting the needs of the community involved. Very sad predicament, indeed. Advertisement Marcin Jungiewicz, Naperville Share your views Submit letters to the editor via email to suburbanletters@tribpub.com. Please include your name and town of residence for publication. Please include phone number and email address for confirmation. Letters should be no more than 250 words. Maureen and Jim Surin describe the results of a legal agreement to let their 11-year-old daughter Ashley receive medical marijuana at school to treat her seizures. Jan 12, 2018. (Robert McCoppin / Chicago Tribune) Eleven-year-old Ashley Surin just wants to go to school with her classmates. After suffering seizures due to treatment for leukemia, her parents said, only medical marijuana helped her but by state law, the drug wasn't allowed at school. The parents filed suit to let their daughter receive the drug at school, and on Friday, they suddenly got their wish officials from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office and Schaumburg School District 54 agreed to let the girl receive her medication while they try to iron out the legalities. Advertisement "I'm in pinch-me mode," the girl's mother, Maureen Surin, said. "I'm excited. This is not just going to help her, I hope it's going to help other kids down the road." The agreement applies only to Ashley, but eventually could have ramifications for students across Illinois, attorneys said. Ultimately, those involved said, the issue probably will have to be addressed by changing state law to allow medical marijuana at schools for children with serious illness. Advertisement "We're just glad that the parties involved worked in concert to help a child," the girl's attorney, Steven Glink, said. Ashley, a 6th-grader at Hanover Highlands Elementary School in Hanover Park, was diagnosed with leukemia at age 2, and has been in remission since 2011, but as a result of brain damage from the prescription chemotherapy drug methotrexate, she has suffered daily debilitating seizures, her father, Jim Surin, said. One of the seizures caused her to fall and hit her head, which led to brain surgery last summer, he said. After all their daughter has been through, her father described her as "the bravest girl on Earth," and her mother called her a "rock star." Jim, Maureen and Ashley Surin seen during the summer of 2017 in South Carolina. The family won the right on Jan. 12, 2018, for Ashley to receive medical marijuana at her school in Hanover Park. (Provided by the Surin family ) Ashley began taking medical marijuana the first week of December, wearing a patch on her foot and rubbing an oil extract on her wrists, and has only suffered one seizure since then, he said. But the parents want both forms of the drug available at school to prevent another seizure. Medical marijuana, combined with a low-carb ketogenic diet for the past month or so, has been "like a golden cure" for their daughter, Maureen Surin said. "She can think better, walk better, talk better," she said. "Her brain used to be like in a cloud. Now she can think clearer, she's more alert, she can interact, and she seems like she can now go back to school and learn and not be in a cloud (as) on all those previous medicines." At a hearing in federal court in Chicago to consider the issue, Illinois Assistant Attorney General Thomas Ioppolo said that his office was willing to let school employees dispense the medication without prosecution. But U.S. Judge John Robert Blakey pointed out that officials would have to address the state law prohibition on possession or use of marijuana at school. For the judge to rule on the issue, he said, he would also need to find some legal basis to do so. Advertisement The court case was continued until Friday, Jan. 19, for the attorney general's office to return with its legal assessment. But a court ruling may be unnecessary, Glink said, if school and state officials and lawmakers can resolve the matter on their own. School district attorney Darcy Kriha said the case could benefit many children beyond Ashley, if school employees are protected from prosecution or license penalties for participating. School access is not the only issue, Maureen Surin said. Ashley wants to go to Disney World in Florida, but also can't get her medicine when she crosses state lines, Surin added. Ashley takes drops that are a mix primarily of CBD, an extract of marijuana shown to reduce seizures, and a small amount of THC, the psycho-active component of marijuana, too little to get her daughter high, Surin said. "This is not a drug, it's a medicine," she said. "The law needs to catch up with reality." Attorney Steven Glink describes a legal agreement to allow a six grade girl to receive medical marijuana for seizures at a Hanover Park school. Jan 12, 2018. (Robert McCoppin / Chicago Tribune) Participants believed this to be the first court case addressing the use of medical marijuana in schools. But marijuana opponents were skeptical of the idea of giving kids marijuana as medicine, at school or anywhere. Advertisement Sue Rusche, co-founder and president of National Families in Action, said only marijuana extracts approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should be used. "The legalization folks are willing to exploit desperately ill people to get medical marijuana and full legalization," she said. Federal law prohibits possession of marijuana in general, but the judge noted that recent federal law also prohibits prosecutors from spending funds to go after state medical marijuana programs though that prohibition is due to expire later this month unless Congress extends it. The judge suggested that any deal to let students use medical marijuana would not include smoking in class, saying, "No one's saying she wants to fire up a bong in math class." rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com Twitter @RobertMcCoppin Advertisement RELATED Parents file suit to allow daughter to use medical marijuana at suburban grade school Forest Preserve District of Will Countys inaugural Snow Day Festival on Jan. 20 at Plum Creek Nature Center in Crete Township near Beecher includes a campfire where attendees can warm up and snack on smores. (Glenn P. Knoblock/Forest Preserve District of Will County) (HANDOUT) World Snow Day, which is part of an international campaign called Bring Children to the Snow, partly led to a new Forest Preserve District of Will County event. The inaugural Snow Day Festival on Jan. 20 at Plum Creek Nature Center in Crete Township near Beecher replaces the annual Musher Mania, which took place in January at Monee Reservoir. Advertisement "We're pulling the best of Musher Mania over here," said Kate Caldwell, an interpretive naturalist for the district. The Federation Internationale de Ski (International Ski Federation) presents the seventh edition of World Snow Day on Jan. 21 and calls it "the biggest day on snow, all year." The annual snow festival for children and their families features worldwide activities taking place on a single weekend. Advertisement The Will County Forest Preserves' Snow Day Festival features Musher Mania favorites such as meeting and greeting snow dogs courtesy of the Siberian Husky Club of Greater Chicago. Photos can be taken with the huskies for an $8 fee. A husky adoption group provides information about the breed and adoption applications. "We want to celebrate the traditional fun across generations of people. When they have their snow day, they go outside and play in the snow. It's a homespun way to celebrate winter whether there's snow or not. You don't need snow to have a snow day," said Caldwell, of Crete. Snow Day Festival attendees can sled down Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve's 40-foot hill. Sled tubes and snowshoes, which usually are available to rent at Plum Creek Nature Center, are free during the fest. The outdoor family-friendly fun also includes Reynaldo Clemente's ice sculpting demonstration with a chainsaw, a campfire and s'mores. Food and drink for purchase include apple fritters, chili, hot chocolate, hot dogs and popcorn. "You can cross-country ski through the forest preserve. We don't rent skis but if you bring your own skis along you can do that. We're just showing you different things that you can do outside in the winter," Caldwell said. "Also, when you come up to the nature center you are seeing an indoor and outdoor component. It definitely is just opening the door to the fun that they can have year-round at this place." Snow Day Festival activities in the heated nature center include the Disney film "Snow Buddies," exhibits such as Beecher resident Don Sala's nature and barn photography, and information about the history of mushing. Arts and crafts include snow nature art, snow bowling, snow sculpting with marshmallows and a huskie hustle sponsored by Cabela's. Advertisement "Winter is usually a time when people think about staying inside so this festival is connecting people to nature. You can go outside and there is so much you can do outside to enjoy the winter, not just here at this festival," Caldwell said. "When you go home you can go for a brisk walk in your neighborhood on a winter day or at night. There's different activities in your own backyard like setting up bird feeders. That way you can watch birds from inside your house and be outside and listen to them too." Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Free travel mugs will be given to the first 200 visitors. Caldwell encourages people to bring their own hot chocolate mugs, coffee cups and containers to reduce waste. Snow Day Festival takes place with or without snow. If Mother Nature does not cooperate, attendees can still view exhibits, participate in crafts, pet snow dogs and hike trails. Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. Snow Day Festival When: noon-4 p.m. Jan. 20 Advertisement Where: Plum Creek Nature Center, 27064 S. Dutton Road, Crete Township near Beecher Admission: free Information: 708-946-2216; http://www.reconnectwithnature.org (click view all events) The interior of a unit at Leavitt Apartments in Flossmoor. The apartments will be rented by adults with developmental disabilities. (New Star Services) Officials on Thursday celebrated the opening of a new housing option for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The six-unit Leavitt Apartments, 1032 Leavitt Ave., in Flossmoor, was described as the first such venture of its kind in Illinois, offering an independent living setting for persons with developmental disabilities, according to the Illinois Housing Development Authority and New Star Services. Advertisement The residents will begin moving into the apartments, which were built specifically for persons with special needs, in the coming weeks, according to New Star, which will provide on-site services for the tenants, who are undergoing an application process with the Housing Authority of Cook County. Formed last summer through the merger of New Hope Center and SouthSTAR Services, New Star provides services to 650 children and adults in the Chicago area and northwest Indiana. Advertisement The apartments, located adjacent to Leavitt Park, were financed with $2.3 million in state bond money, and rental assistance for the units will be provided by the county housing authority. "These are critically needed apartments that will go a long way to improve quality of life for people with disabilities," Audra Hamernik, executive director of the state housing authority, said in a news release. "With affordable rents, access to neighborhood amenities and connections to supportive services, they will ensure that every resident can reach their full potential, regardless of the challenges they face." The exterior of Leavitt Apartments in Flossmoor. The apartments will be rented by adults with developmental disabilities. (New Star Services) The apartments are within walking distance of a Metra station, downtown Flossmoor, the library and post office. Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > The people who will move into Leavitt are New Star clients currently living with family but are independent enough to live on their own with minimal assistance, according to Patricia Trebe, a spokeswoman for New Star. Four people have so far completed the county's "extensive" application process to move in, she said. The apartments are designed for persons with disabilities, such as wider doorways and lower kitchen countertops to accommodate someone in a wheelchair, and audible and visual fire alarms as well as power-operated windows, according to Dan Strick, New Star's president and chief executive. Strick had been president and chief executive of SouthSTAR prior to last July's merger. He said that Leavitt is unique because the residents "are able to live a little more independently than in a group home." "New Star is always looking for more housing options for persons with intellectual disabilities," he said. New Star provides services including education, life-management skills and job training and operates 23 group homes in communities including Crete, Dolton, Flossmoor, Matteson, Oak Forest and South Holland. At group homes, residents have 24-hour care, while at Leavitt, New Star will provide about 15 hours each week of supportive services to residents, Trebe said. Advertisement mnolan@tribpub.com Twitter @mnolan_J Oak Lawn Community High School PTSA volunteers Mary Ann Hurkes, left, and Donna Boetscher prepare dresses for Cinderellas Closet. The school-sponsored event provides prom dresses and related items at rock-bottom prices. Donations of lightly used formal dresses, shoes, accessories, and unopened make-up for students, all styles, sizes and colors, are welcome. Donations can be dropped off at the District Office 123 from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays through Jan. 26. The boutique will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 27. More information is with Maria Vanderwarren at 708-741-5602 or mvanderwarren@olchs.org. (School District 123) SXU online nursing program lauded by magazine Saint Xavier University's School of Nursing recently earned the No. 1 rank in U.S. News & World Report's 2018 "Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs" list. SXU's School of Nursing has ranked in the top three online graduate nursing programs five consecutive years, and it's the third time the program has been ranked No. 1 in those years. The rankings measured a variety of factors, including program reputation, faculty credentials, student engagement, admissions selectivity, peer reputation, as well as student services and technology. More information is at sxu.edu. Advertisement Novel selected for Evergreen Reads program The novel "The One and Only Ivan" has been selected for the second annual Evergreen Reads community reading program in which the entire village is encouraged to read the same book at the same time. This village-wide book club is sponsored by Evergreen Park Elementary School District 124 and the Evergreen Park Public Library. "The One and Only Ivan" by Katherine Applegate, won the Newbery Medal and tells the story of a silverback gorilla named Ivan who lives in a cage at a mall. A social media campaign has been established using #EvergreenReads. More information is at www.EvergreenReads.com. Advertisement Thornton Township to mark King Day at SSC The Rev. Ozzie E. Smith Jr. will be the keynote speaker and the Jazz Band from Coolidge Middle School in Phoenix will perform at Courage Now, Courage Tomorrow, Courage Forever, a celebration marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday in Kindig Performing Arts Center at South Suburban College, 15800 State St., South Holland. Admission is free. Palos Toastmasters set January meeting Toastmasters of Palos Heights will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, at the Palos Heights Library 12501 South 71st Ave. The club's focus is to help people gain the skills and confidence they need to express themselves effectively in any situation while developing great communication skills. The meetings are a safe and supportive environment in which to become a better speaker or a more effective leader. Toastmasters of Palos Heights meet on the first and third Mondays of every month. New members and guests are welcome. More information is at 708-480-2112 or www.ToastmastersOfPalosHeights.com. H-F High School to celebrate black history Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School, 999 Kedzie Ave., Flossmoor, presents its 3rd annual Pursuing the Dream, a free event celebrating black history and encouraging unity, at 7 p.m. Wednesdayin the school's Mall Auditorium. The event will feature performances by the H-F Band, H-F Steppers and members of H-F's choirs and speech team. This year's keynote speaker will be John Fountain, an award-winning author, columnist, journalist and professor. More information is with the H-F Activities Office at 708-335-5525. Send news to communitynews@southtownstar.com. Elgin-area public school leaders called Gov. Bruce Rauner's amendatory veto of a bill that would change how schools get funded by the state "disappointing." The passage of the bill last year was seen by legislators and school administrators as a victory in narrowing the funding gap between more affluent and less affluent schools. The veto leaves local educators uncertain over when the additional state dollars could get disbursed. Advertisement "It's disappointing. It's very disappointing," School District U46 CEO Tony Sanders said Thursday. "Everyone agreed to these changes (last year). I don't see the need to delay the distribution of funds for any reason." Rauner said his amendatory veto was to address technical concerns regarding the Invest in Kids scholarship program attached to the legislation. As it was written, Rauner said, as many as three-dozen private schools could be excluded from the scholarship program. Advertisement The program in question would create a scholarship pool as large as $100 million, funded with money donated by individuals and corporations in exchange for a 75 percent tax credit for their contribution. "The students attending or looking to attend these schools deserve the same access to Invest in Kids scholarships as those in already recognized schools," Rauner said in a written statement Monday. "Their educational opportunities cannot wait for years." The governor's actions prompted statewide responses from legislators. State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, the bill's sponsor, said the action would cause "absolute chaos." Shortly after Monday's announcement, Sanders went on social media to voice his disapproval of the governor's action. On Thursday, Sanders asked why the move was not done via a trailer bill since it is likely other additions will be made that way this year. The Illinois State Board of Education estimated last year that U46 could receive an additional $12 million to $13 million from the state in the first year under the new funding formula. The veto requires the General Assembly to approve or override the governor's change or not do anything. A delay in the disbursement of new state dollars has no immediate impact on U46, Sanders said, but it may in the long term. Additional state aid could be used in a number of ways, such as the maintenance of buildings, reducing class sizes or undoing program cuts from last decade, he said. Funding for maintenance projects will be tight as this school year marked the end of using bond money to do building repairs, he said. Hillcrest Elementary School Principal Teresa Winters said additional revenue could be used for technology, boosting parental engagement and even funding playground equipment, if need be. Advertisement Hillcrest is at a disadvantage, with more than 85 percent of its families being low-income, Winters said. Equity among all schools would allow poorer schools like Hillcrest to be competitive with neighboring school districts that are more affluent and can afford programs and initiatives that U46 cannot, she said. "We're not giving students a fair chance because education is not equitable," Winters said. Officials in neighboring School District 300, based in Algonquin, also expressed disappointment in the governor's action. Superintendent Fred Heid issued a written statement saying the delay will likely keep District 300 officials from making "sound financial decisions" on program and staffing needs for two or three months. "We hope to receive an update to allay our concerns because an additional 60- to 90-day delay does not provide District 300 with adequate time to calculate our budget as accurately as possible to ensure we make the most fiscally responsible decisions for our community," Heid said. In St. Charles School District 303, spokeswoman Carol Smith said officials did not anticipate significant issues to cash flow or operations resulting from the governor's veto. Rachel Bold, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Thursday it is "unfair" for critics of the veto to say implementation and money getting to schools will be delayed. The Illinois State Board of Education continues to work on the funding formula. "Tier funding is still several months from being sent out," she said in an email response. Advertisement raguerrero@tribpub.com A California man convicted of making terrorism threats in Lake County has been found fit for sentencing after more than two years of court outbursts and court behavior that repeatedly sent him back to state mental facilities for evaluations and treatment. Daniel Pederson, 36, had twice been found unfit for a sentencing hearing by Lake County Circuit Judge Mark Levitt before Levitt determined that he is now fit following a lengthy hearing on the issue Thursday. Advertisement A date of Jan. 30 has been set to hear a defense motion for a new trial for Pederson, and if the motion is denied, it is possible that sentencing could proceed that same day, according to Assistant State's Attorney Ben Dillon. The case against Pederson began on Sept. 12, 2014, when prosecutors said Pederson called the Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Services and said he was going to "kill people" and "light up" the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan and the Gurnee Police Department. Advertisement After initially entering a guilty plea and accepting a plea deal, he withdrew his guilty plea and was convicted of the charges against him in a jury trial held before Levitt. In fall 2016, Levitt found Pederson unfit for sentencing due to his behavior following his conviction for making a terrorism threat, a felony charge that carries a potential sentence of 6 to 30 years in prison. Circuit Judge Mark Levitt had found Pederson unfit for sentencing twice, the first time occurring in fall 2016, when he was sent to a state Department of Human Services health facility in Elgin, treated and found restored to fitness by doctors at the facility. But following multiple loud and sometimes profane outbursts in court last year during hearings to determine if he was fit for sentencing, Levitt again found Pederson unfit and ruled that he would be returned to Elgin. Lead defense attorney Keith Grant eventually filed a motion called a request for a "fitness evaluation in retrospective," under which if an evaluation determined Pederson was unfit for trial, his conviction would be annulled and he would likely be retried. But during Thursday's hearing, health officials again testified that it was their belief Pederson understood the charges against him and his outbursts were based on his opinions, not uncontrollable impulses or delusions, as defense attorneys argued. Pederson has said in court that the charges against him were due to "a third-party, fabricated bomb threat." He has also called his case a conspiracy against him involving a "circle of collusion," said "you're running a racket here," asserted that the trial process was "rigged," and that Lake County is "corrupt as (profanity)" during hearings. Advertisement During Thursday's hearing, Pederson interrupted a witness during testimony and began addressing the judge at unauthorized times, drawing a threat to have him removed by Levitt, but Pederson was allowed to remain in court for the remainder of the hearing. jrnewton@tribpub.com Twitter @jimnewton5 Grayslake native and current Streamwood resident Opal Waldman is the featured attraction on Sunday's episode of the Discovery Channels Operation: Fishing Freedom. (Discovery Channel) Opal Waldman, a native of Grayslake and a World War II veteran, will be featured on the Discovery Channel program "Operation: Fishing Freedom" this Sunday. The series features wartime stories told by veterans while the hosts, Jay Garstecki and Ben Olsen, take them fishing. Advertisement Waldman, 94, joined the Army Medical Corps in 1945 and was one of the about 350,000 women who enlisted. "I saw all the boys going in, and I said, 'Well, why can't I do that?'" Waldman said in a preview video clip from the show. Advertisement Both of her brothers were serving at the time, with one in the Marines and the other in the Navy. Waldman said one of the neighborhood boys from Grayslake had been killed during the Pearl Harbor raid by the Japanese in 1941, and she and her brothers wanted to join the war effort. She recalled when she graduated from boot camp and the "troop train" separated the men from the women. "They actually guarded our car so the guys wouldn't come over and bother us," Waldman said. Grayslake native Opal Waldman said she enlisted in the Army Medical Corps in 1945, joining two brothers who also served in World War II. (Discovery Channel photo) Because she wasn't a nurse, she wasn't sent overseas but served at an Army hospital in Walla Walla, Wash. Although serving on the home front, the work was not without its dangers for Waldman, who was in charge of medical equipment. She said she contracted a skin disease handling some of the medical equipment from returning soldiers. "I caught scabies on my 21st birthday," Waldman said laughing. "I laugh at it now, but it was not funny at the time." Advertisement She served for 18 months before being forced to leave the service after she got married. "In those days, they just didn't want married women in the service," Waldman said. Today, Waldman lives in Streamwood, telling stories from her time in the war to friends and family members, which include five great-grandchildren. Her granddaughter, Christina Casas, appears on the show and said she's proud of her great-grandmother's service. "Especially in her time, that's not something that was very common," Casas said in a preview video clip of the show. "To this day, she can still say how proud she was to serve her country, and we're very proud of her, as well." The show's producers found Waldman through Hanover Township Senior Services, where officials know of her wartime experiences. Advertisement They filmed on a pier on Bangs Lake in Wauconda in the spring of 2017, where Waldman caught a moderate-sized sunfish. The show is scheduled to air at 7 a.m. Sunday on Discovery Channel. Frank Vaisvilas is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Reportedly, Su Weibing, general-manager of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Company Ltd. (DPCA) and other senior executives of the company will fly to Beijing to deliver a face-to-face communication with employees in terms of the existing conflict. On January 10, 2018, DPCA announced that from January 15, it will move the two brand departments of Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen to its headquarter in Wuhan and the marketing functional division of the two brands will leave for Shanghai. This announcement was made for enhancing the companys efficiency in communication and decision-making according to DPCA. However, some of Dongfeng Peugeots employees were dissatisfied with suddenness of the removal and unreason of the compensation terms. They wrote a letter blackened with signatures asking for some persuasive explanations from company's authority. As to the controversial issues that concern employees, reporter has got a part of answers from the insiders of DPCA. The rumor spreading on Internet that employees have to move to Wuhan or Shanghai by January 15, otherwise, the company will disband them is not true. January 10 is just the date that the company made the announcement and started to negotiate with employees to change the working place of labor contract. January 15 is the time that employees should have a meeting with managers in Wuhan. Besides, DPCA will compensate those who will move to Shanghai or Wuhan in many aspects, such as rental subsidies, removal expenses, transportation subsidies, etc. Meanwhile, the company will help them settle in new cities and tackle other problems like childrens education and social security. In addition, if employees refuse to change the working place, the company will terminate the labor contract with them according to the law and compensate them for severance package. TheNaperville Park Districts Fort Hill Activity Center has won awards from the Fox Valley Branch of the American Public Works Association and the Illinois Park and Recreation Association. ( Steve Johnston/Naperville Sun ) Veterans group places first in tree decorating contest The Christmas tree decorated by the Naperville Responds for Veterans group and displayed at the Robert R. McCormick House at Cantigny Park was the top vote-getter in the park's annual competition. Advertisement The organization earns an additional $2,500 grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation for winning the popular vote, bringing its grant total up to $5,000. The six other charities participating in the annual holiday event at Cantigny Park each received $2,500. Advertisement More than 2,000 museum visitors voted for their favorite trees during the holiday season. Seven local charities, including Naperville's 360 Youth Services and The Resiliency Institute, were invited to participate. Naperville Responds for Veterans helps military vets who are in need with home repairs, renovations and construction. Voting assistance for the elderly, disabled The DuPage County Election Commission is offering assistance in voter registration for the elderly and disabled. The commission will help arrange in-home registration appointments so voters can get registered for the March 20 primary. The commission is also reminding residents of important upcoming dates. Residents may vote early at the election commission office from Feb. 8 through March 5 or in person at one of the early voting sites from March 5 through March 19. An individual may request a ballot to vote by mail up through March 15. Advertisement Anyone may ask for help with marking their ballot on Election Day or at the early voting sites. For more information, contact the election commission office at 630-407-5600. Park district preschool information night The Naperville Park District will hold an information night on its preschool programs at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Knoch Knolls Nature Center, 320 Knoch Knolls Road. Preschool staff will answer questions about the district's Preschool Academy and Toadstools and Pollywogs Preschool programs for the 2018-19 school year. The Preschool Academy program emphasizes creative play, hands-on learning, individual growth, problem solving, social interaction and more. It meets at the Alfred Rubin Riverwalk Community Center. Advertisement Toadstools and Pollywogs offers the same curriculum but with an emphasis on outdoor play and nature. It meets at Seager Park or the Knoch Knolls Nature Center. Preschool enrollment for residents not currently enrolled begins Jan. 23. Nonresident registration begins Jan. 29. Children currently enrolled in preschool receive priority registration. For more information, go to www.napervilleparks.org. Fort Hill Activity Center wins awards The Fort Hill Activity Center is the recipient of two awards this month. On Jan. 9, the activity center was named "Public Works Project of the Year" in the "Structures - $5 Million to $25 Million" category by the Fox Valley Branch of the American Public Works Association. Advertisement The activity center will also be recognized Jan. 19 as the "Overall Winner of the Outstanding Facility and Parks Award" by the Illinois Park and Recreation Association. The Fort Hill Activity Center is run by the Naperville Park District. The project architect was Williams Architects and the construction manager was Wight Construction. The Naperville Park Board has approved updates to its policies on discrimination and harassment, following the lead of the state and many other government bodies. A resolution was unanimously passed Thursday to add language to its rules stating that victims of sexual harassment now may file charges with the Illinois Department of Human Rights and the Illinois Human Rights Commission under the Illinois Whistleblower Act and the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act. Advertisement Other new clauses warn that termination of employment is possible in instances where retaliation for reporting harassment or discrimination has occurred and that an employee's working environment is not limited to the physical location where duties are performed. Gov. Bruce Rauner last November signed into law Senate Bill 0402, which rewrote State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, set lobbyist guidelines and defined violation penalties, among other provisions. Advertisement "This was required by the state and it's the right thing to do, but I also would say we've always taken harassment very seriously," Naperville Park District Executive Director Ray McGury said. "We didn't need Springfield to tell us." McGury said there has not been a complaint of harassment or discrimination in the nearly 10 years he has been with the park district. The organization's Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy was created in 2004 and subsequently updated in 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2017. "We routinely review all our policies," park board President Mike Reilly said. "But situations change, and there are things like new court cases that necessitate policy changes." The existing policy states that employees and anyone using park district facilities must "refrain from sexual and other harassment. The park district also will not tolerate actions, words, jokes, or comments based on an individual's race, color, religion, sex, sexual preference, sexual orientation, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other legally protected characteristic." If a violation has occurred, the park district policy already deems that responsive action can include training, counseling or disciplinary action, such as a warning, a reprimand, the withholding of a promotion or pay increase, reassignment, temporary suspension without pay or termination. "I'd like to think our organization, and many like us, are well ahead of the curve and we don't tolerate any kind of bad behavior," McGury said. "The policy is there to make sure people understand the rules. If you break the rules, there are consequences." Gary Gibula is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun. Day-Off Discovery The DuPage Children's Museum is hosting Day-Off Discovery day camps from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, and Tuesday, Jan. 16, at the museum, 301 N. Washington St. Advertisement Advanced registration is required for the programs, which are designed for children in first through fifth grades. For more information, go to www.dupagechildrens.org. 60s Throwback camp Advertisement Children can learn about the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and more in the Naper Settlement's School's Out Day Camp from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, at the settlement, 523 S. Webster St. Reservations are required. For more information, go to www.napersettlement.org. Day of service at Benedictine Benedictine University in Lisle is sponsoring a day of service in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, in Kindlon Hall at the university, 5700 College Road. Volunteers can create room decorations for hospital patients, fill a backpack with hygiene items for DuPage PADS, make Valentine cards for veterans or blankets for Advocate Hospice and the Ronald McDonald House, create bears for the Ronald McDonald House at Edward Hospital, build bird feeders and more. Children under 15 must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, contact Joan Henehan at jhenehan@ben.edu or 630-829-6617. Samira Ahmed book signing Advertisement Author Samira Ahmed will sign copies of her book, "Love, Hate and Other Filters," at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, at Anderson's Bookshop, 123 W. Jefferson Ave. For more information, go to www.andersonsbookshop.com. Business challenges Women business owners are invited to discuss business challenges in a roundtable discussion from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the 95th Street Library, 3015 Cedar Glade Dr. For more information, go to www.naperville-lib.org. Senior Home Finding 101 Advertisement Senior citizens interested in learning about different home options, such as independent and assisted living, can attend a lecture from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the Nichols Library, 200 W. Jefferson Ave. For more information, go to www.naperville-lib.org. Winston Churchill lecture Daniel Myers, previous executive director of The Churchill Centre, will present a lecture on Winston Churchill at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at the 95th Street Naperville Public Library, 3015 Cedar Glade Dr. Participants can bring a sack lunch at 12:30 p.m. before the lecture and the library will provide coffee and dessert. For more information, go to www.naperville-lib.org. Advertisement Preschool information night The Naperville Park District will host an information night on its preschool programs at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Knoch Knolls Nature Center, 320 Knoch Knolls Road. Preschool staff will answer questions about the district's Preschool Academy and Toadstools and Pollywogs preschool programs for the 2018-2019 school year. For more information, go to www.napervilleparks.org. Chloe Benjamin book signing Author Chloe Benjamin will sign copies of her book, "The Immortalists," at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19, at Anderson's Bookshop, 123 W. Jefferson Ave. Advertisement For more information, go to www.andersonsbookshop.com. Marc Lamont Hill lecture Author, television host and political commentator Dr. Marc Lamont Hill will be the keynote speaker for North Central College's Martin Luther King Jr. Week celebration at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19, at Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave. Tickets are free for the North Central College community and $5 per person for the public. Tickets can be bought at the door or by calling 630-637-7469. "The Making of a Bahu" Aavegh dance troupe will present "The Making of a Bahu" at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19, at the theatre at Meiley-Swallow Hall, 31 S. Ellsworth St. Advertisement The performance includes eight Indian fusion dances with original artwork and quotes from Indian women interviewed as part of research conducted by professors at North Central College. Tickets are free for North Central College staff and students and $20 for general admission. For more information, go to www.aavegh.org. "The Little Mermaid" Magical Starlight Theatre's performance of "The Little Mermaid" is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19, and at 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, and Sunday, Jan. 21, at Naperville Central High School, 440 W. Aurora Ave. A sign language interpreter will be available at the 1:30 p.m. show on Jan. 21. Advertisement Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door. For more information, go to www.magicalstarlight.org. Homeowners Confederation Meeting The Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation meeting will hear from area state lawmakers at 8 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, at the Naperville Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle St. For more information, go to www.napervillehomeowners.com. Jim Peterik and World Stage concert Advertisement Jim Peterik and World Stage will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, at North Central College's Wentz Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Center, 171 E. Chicago Ave. Tickets are $70 and $60. For more information, go to www.northcentralcollege.edu/show. Hike with a naturalist Adults can learn about local wildlife during a free hike with a naturalist from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, at the Knoch Knolls Nature Center, 320 Knoch Knolls Road. The hike is for adults ages 18 and older. Registration is required. For more information, go to www.napervilleparks.org. Advertisement Naperville Plays Naperville Plays featuring activities and exhibits from city institutions will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, at the DuPage Children's Museum, 301 N. Washington St. Participating are Naper Settlement, DuPage Children's Museum, Knoch Knolls Nature Center and the Naperville Public Library. For more information, go to www.dupagechildrens.org. Spider Saloff concert Spider Saloff will perform "The Cool Heat of Peggy Lee" at 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, at the Madden Theatre, 171 E. Chicago Ave. Advertisement Tickets are $35 and $30. For more information, go to www.northcentralcollege.edu/show The Oak Park Village Board of Trustees will hear a complaint this week on whether Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb's role with the Oak Park Economic Development Corporation poses a conflict of interest. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday's village board meeting. Chris Donovan, 64, filed a civil complaint in Cook County Circuit Court that sought to force the village board to follow Oak Park's conflict of interest ordinance, which calls for an ethics committee made up of trustees to review complaints. Advertisement Donovan said he filed the suit Dec. 28. He said he got no response after calling for the ethics committee hearing at the village board meeting on Nov. 20. His complaint alleges that it was improper for Abu-Taleb to make recommendations as a board member of the economic development corporation and then vote on those recommendations as a member of the village's board of trustees to redevelop a blighted section of Madison Street. Advertisement "It doesn't seem kosher to me," Donovan said. "I figured it was worth $150 to file the complaint and force their hand." Abu-Taleb's repeated contacts with the developer of the high-profile project in his role as a member of the economic development corporation have created at least the appearance of a conflict, which violates the city's ordinance, Donovan said. "There should be an arm's length between the village and the economic development corporation," said Donovan, who works for local governments outside Oak Park and has a background in community organizing. "The mayor seems to know more than anyone else." Abu-Taleb called Donovan's complaint a "distraction" and said he had always acted within the law in both his role as mayor and as a member of the economic development corporation. "I'm not going to engage" with Donovan, Abu-Taleb said. "I'm focused on what's best for Oak Park." A memo from Village Attorney Paul Stephanides to the mayor and trustees, dated July 31, outlined his conclusion that Oak Park officials who serve on the economic development corporation board do not have a conflict of interest as defined by village and state law. It will be presented to trustees as part of the hearing of Donovan's complaint. Village spokesman David Powers noted that Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico serves as the vice chairman of the Naperville Development Partnership, which plays a similar role to that of the Oak Park Economic Development Corporation. "Elected officials having a voting role is common in communities that maintain economic development corporations," Powers said. Advertisement John Lynch, the president of the Oak Park Economic Development Corporation, did not return a phone message seeking comment. Donovan said he volunteered for Abu-Taleb's first bid for mayor, going door to door to campaign for Abu-Taleb, who is an owner of the Maya Del Sol restaurant in Oak Park. Donovan said his past support of the mayor makes this court challenge "awkward." "I have been disappointed in him since he took office," Donovan said. "I object to how he handles development." Donovan's complaint grew out of his years-long opposition to the village's effort to breathe new life into the commercial district along Madison Street from Oak Park to Wesley avenues by tapping Chicago-based Jupiter Realty to craft a mixed-use development in December 2016. Jupiter Executive Vice President Jerry Ong declined to comment on the status of the project or Donovan's complaint. The development plans approved by the Oak Park Village Board would reduce Madison Street to one lane in each direction and bend the roadway between Euclid and Wesley avenues to create a large parcel designed to attract a large tenant to anchor the development, such as a grocery store. Advertisement Donovan said the plan to reduce the number of traffic lanes on Madison, which he called "senseless," prompted him to begin attending village board meetings in spring 2015 to warn village officials that it was certain to increase congestion. Abu-Taleb said Mariano's and Jewel considered the development, but neither of them committed to the project. The mayor acknowledged that the project was still in need of an anchor. "We are moving as fast as we can," Abu-Taleb said, adding that the project is needed to boost economic activity in the village. "There are a lot of stakeholders involved." At the center of the proposed development is a village-owned parking lot at Madison Street and Oak Park Avenue as well as the adjacent Car-X tire and auto shop, which the village voted to purchase for $1.3 million in September and is now shuttered. "I'm still optimistic that this can be a great asset for the community," Abu-Taleb said, adding that he will continue to meet with businesses interested in the project. However, Abu-Taleb said he is concerned about the looming deadline facing the project. The tax increment financing district that includes the project, which is expected to cover the village's costs, expires in December 2018. Advertisement That could prompt the village board to attempt to extend the TIF which would require the approval of other taxing bodies, including Oak Park School District 97. TIF districts capture all growth in the property tax base in a designated area for a set period of time, usually 20 years or more, and divert it into a special fund for projects designed to spur redevelopment and eradicate blight. Donovan said he does not share Abu-Taleb's optimism about the project. "I think the project is dead," Donovan said, noting that Jupiter had been expected to submit detailed plans to village officials for approval by February 2017. Powers, the village spokesman, said no plans for the project are pending for a public hearing. Donovan said he hopes the hearing will pry out some answers about the project. Advertisement "The whole process has not been transparent enough," Donovan said. If Donovan's complaint that Abu-Taleb violated the city's conflict of interest ordinance is upheld by the ethics committee and the village board, Donovan said he would ask that Jupiter Realty's selection to develop the project be voided and efforts to develop Madison Street restarted from scratch. "Everyone wants this property to be redeveloped," Donovan said. "By whom and how that's the key." Heather Cherone is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. A crowd listens to a presentation on the Equal Rights Amendment during a Jan. 8 meeting of Action Ridge at Park Ridge Community Church. (Jennifer Johnson/Pioneer Press ) Plans by Illinois lawmakers to seek state ratification of the long-dormant Equal Rights Amendment drew a crowd of more than 40 people to Park Ridge Community Church on Monday to learn more about the constitutional amendment and ways they could rally local legislators for support. The meeting, held by the local social outreach group Action Ridge, featured a presentation by Eden Nissani, outreach coordinator for Democratic State Rep. Lou Lang, a long-time sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment bill in the Illinois House. Nissani encouraged supporters of ERA to arrange face-to-face meetings with their state legislators, write postcards, witness slips, and other messages of support, and hold phone banks to encourage other constituents to reach out to their elected senators and representatives as well. Advertisement "There is no reason why there should be protection for men under the Constitution and not for women especially this day in age," Nissani told the group of largely women. " While there are many laws that protect women, [women] are still not constitutionally protected." The ERA was passed by Congress in 1972, but it failed to receive the required support from 38 of the 50 states in order to become part of the U.S. Constitution. Illinois was one of the states that did not ratify the ERA. Advertisement With Nevada having ratified the amendment in 2017, only two more states are needed for ratification in order for the ERA to be added to the Constitution, Nissani said. If supporters believe they can get the three-fifths majority vote needed to ratify the ERA bill in both the Illinois House and Senate, the bill could be brought for a vote after the March primary election, Nissani said. If ratified, it would not require the governor's signature, she added. The language of the Equal Rights Amendment reads "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." "It's meant to enshrine gender equality into the U.S. Constitution in a way that the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments enshrined racial and ethnic equality," explained Alvin Tillery, associate professor of political science at Northwestern University. Tillery and Nissani said that if ratified, the ERA would allow for stringent judicial review of Supreme Court cases that involve women's rights issues. Currently, such cases receive something called "intermediate scrutiny," while cases involving race and ethnicity receive "strict scrutiny," Tillery and Nissani said. "Enshrining gender equality in the Constitution would put it on the same level as race in constitutional analysis," Tillery said. The ERA, supporters say, would also ensure equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender, and end any kind of lasting gender discrimination. Advertisement But opponents say the ERA would have negative impacts on women. "The biggest concerns with the ERA is that it's poorly worded; it's broad and vague and ambiguous," said Elise Bouc, chairwoman of the group Illinois Stop ERA. "It's like going to the dentist with a toothache and having a dentist use a sledgehammer to resolve the problem. You would want him to use a precise drill to pinpoint the area." Bouc and other opponents say the ERA will overturn all abortion restrictions in place across the country, end gender segregation in prisons, end workplace protections for pregnant women, end Social Security benefits for widows and stay-at-home mothers, and result in women being drafted into the military should a draft be reinstated. Tillery said the ERA would not impact any of these areas. He said he does not see state restrictions involving abortion changing because they are not constitutionally mandated, and the Social Security benefit mentioned by opponents is already gender neutral. Because pregnancy is viewed as a medical condition, Tillery said the ERA would not change protections workplaces already in place, nor would the amendment require that prisons house both genders. "Prison populations are segregated for a variety of reasons, [and] there is no doubt the courts would continue to give states and corrections authorities wide latitude to continue to segregate populations to promote the safety of inmates," he said. Congress, with or without the ERA could institute a draft for both men and women if it choose to do so, Tillery added. Advertisement Two Park Ridge women who attended Monday's Action Ridge meeting said it was their teenage daughters who inspired them come and support the ERA. "I didn't think much about it until I saw the movie 'Equal Means Equal,' " said Karin Lennon, speaking of the 2016 documentary film about the ERA. "And the reason I saw it was because my daughter saw it and she came home and could not stop talking about it." Annalise Herman acknowledged that she didn't know the ERA remains unratified and that she wanted to learn more about "how to move it along" "I have a 15-year-old daughter, so I think it's important to understand what I can do to ensure a good future for her," she said. jjohnson@pioneerlocal.com Twitter: @Jen_Tribune MLK exhibit at ECPL In observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and legacy, the East Chicago Public Library will host a display honoring the life of Dr. King from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday through Jan. 31 in the John C. Templeton Gallery at the Main Library, 2401 E. Columbus Drive, East Chicago. The free exhibit is comprised of historical artifacts, books and data highlighting important dates in the life of Dr. King. Visitors who view the display can fill out a six question multiple choice quiz for a chance to win a $25 gift card. Winners of the quiz competition will be named on February 1st. More information is at 219-397-2453. Advertisement IU Northwest celebrates MLK Day, Black History Month Indiana University Northwest invites the campus and community to observances of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Black History Month. All events are free and open to the public. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Arts and Sciences Building, 3400 Broadway, Gary. Stephon Ferguson of the National Park Service at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta will be the be the featured speaker. "The Movement: 50 Years of Love and Struggle in America," a theatrical production examining the changing face of the African American experience, 6 p.m. Feb. 8 in the Bruce W. Bergland Auditorium in the Savannah Center on campus. "The Wiz," directed by Mark Spencer and choreographed by Asia Dickens, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22, 23 and 24, and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Theater at the Arts and Sciences building. The documentary "Triumph: The Untold Story of Perry Wallace," 6 p.m. Feb. 27 in the Bruce W. Bergland Auditorium. More information is with Tierra Jackson at jacksoti@iun.edu or 219-980-6596. Advertisement FYSB to host Beyond the Influence Workshops The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) will host Beyond the Influence, a series of seminars focusing on the nature of and solutions to the ongoing substance abuse problems in Porter County. The next workshop is "Breaking the Chains of Addiction," from 6-7:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at the FYSB office, 253 W. Lincolnway, Valparaiso. Rick McCall, a resident of the community, will share his story. A father of three, McCall is an employee of Arcelor Mittal, a minister at The Church of Jesus Christ, and is working toward a degree in Addiction Studies. Refreshments will be provided. The workshops are free, but seating is limited. Register by Jan. 26 at 219-464-9585 or kunderwood@fysb.org. Merrillville High School to host documentary The Northwest Indiana Coalition for Public Education (NWICPE) will sponsor a free screening of "Backpack Full of Cash," a documentary film by Matt Damon that explores the costs of privatization of public schools and the children they serve, at 6 p.m. Jan. 24 in the Merrillville High School auditorium, 276 E. 68th Place, Merrillville. More information is with Kristin McMurtrey at 219-628-3097. Library holiday closure The Porter County Public Libraries will be closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Day. This includes 103 Jefferson St., Valparaiso; 403 W. 700 N South Haven; 2665 Irving St., Portage;101 E. Daumer Road, Kouts; and 201 W. Sigler St., Hebron. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday. More information is at pcpls.org. Staff report Gary's emergency manager tapped veteran member Nellie Moore as president of the Gary School Board Thursday over the protests of three other board members who walked out of the meeting. Emergency manager Peggy Hinckley announced Moore's appointment at the end of a raucous meeting dominated by aggrieved board members objecting to Hinckley's ability to appoint their leader. Advertisement Hinckley said Moore had the longest tenure of any of the remaining six board members and she knew Robert's Rules of Order. She left the other officers in the same positions they held last year. The board's three newest members Robert Buggs, Norman Bailey and James Piggee left after Hinckley named Moore. Buggs had put his coat on and left earlier in the meeting, but later returned. Advertisement Rosie Washington resigned as board president last month. Hinckley said she will fill that vacancy, too, with input from board members. After the meeting, Moore said the continued complaints from board members about their lack of authority because of last year's state takeover "is like beating a dead horse." She hopes to work in concert with Hinckley to get the struggling district back on track. Hinckley has been running the district since August after the General Assembly passed legislation stripping authority from the school board and giving the emergency manager control of finances and academics. "I know change is not something easily affected or done," said Moore, who's in her 12th year on the board. "We're now into the first seven months and it's not an easy task. "Collectively, we can sit down and negotiate and come up with some kind of idea on how this collaboration can work." Within the opening minute of the meeting, Buggs, who's the vice president, objected to Hinckley establishing the agenda. Since Washington resigned, Buggs said chairing the meeting fell to him as vice president. "I declare her agenda void due to no vote of acceptance," Buggs said. He challenged Hinckley's authority to appoint officers under the takeover law. Buggs said state and local elections officials he spoke with weren't aware of Hinckley's authority. Advertisement Last month, Hinckley sought advice from the Distressed Unit Appeal Board, Department of Education and Indiana Schools Boards Association, on how to fill board vacancies and name officers. It was their consensus the takeover law gave Hinckley that responsibility and the board could hold no votes. Buggs said Hinckley's information was "hearsay," and he spent time parsing words in the legislation concluding Hinckley didn't have absolute authority. Moore clarified Buggs' interpretation of the legislation saying it applied to Gary, as the state's lone distressed unit at the time of the bill's passing. Muncie Community Schools has since been declared a distressed district, as well. "There are ways in which we can fight this battle," said Moore. "We can't continue to fight Dr. Hinckley." Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. Trinity United Church of Christ Rev. John Jackson, who poses in the sanctuary of his church, is scheduled to speak during Valparaiso University's annual MLK celebration. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune ) Fifty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, a Gary minister says it is left for those who come after to observe the rate of progress in areas of employment, poverty and desegregating education in the region. "I don't feel enough progress is being made in Gary and some other places in Northwest Indiana," said the Rev. John E. Jackson Sr., founding pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ. Advertisement Jackson is one of several speakers scheduled for "Why We Can't Wait," the MLK Celebration 2018, beginning at 8 a.m., Monday, in the Harre Union Lobby at Valparaiso University. Attendees can follow tracks on race, labor, environment and violence. Speakers include keynote Nikole Hannah-Jones, an investigative journalist for the New York Times Magazine and a 2017 MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow; Neha Gill, executive director of Apna Ghar, Inc.; Dan Miller, organizing director of Unite Here Local; and Lorrell D. Kilpatrick, co-organizer of Black Lives Matter of Northwest Indiana. "The Rev. Jackson is a leading voice on issues of racial justice in Northwest Indiana," said Heath Carter, associate professor of history at Valparaiso University and co-chair of Valparaiso University's 28th annual Martin Luther King Day celebration. Byron Martin, director of multicultural programs is the co-chair. Advertisement Jackson said Gary is still facing problems with unemployment and other issues and is not getting enough resources from local, state and federal governments to help. "There are multiple reasons for it," Jackson said. "Not enough voices are being heard and voices are not being addressed." Jackson also expressed concerns about drug addiction. "Other areas seem to be getting more attention with the rise of (attention to) addiction and meth and opioid addictions that has affected whites. It has become now more approved and acceptable to talk about treatment, rather than incarceration," Jackson said. "When dealing with the African-American community, the talk has been more about incarceration. That's an area of inequality." Still, he said he remains optimistic. "I'm hopeful because the rhetoric coming out of the White House is disturbing to many people and I think challenging them to be more involved with the conditions of the local community," Jackson said. "African-Americans, the Hispanic community and poor whites have been stimulated to get ready to voice their concerns. One way is through the vote. The challenge is voter disenfranchisement (through) voter ID requirements and purging voter rolls. That will be a challenge in Northwest Indiana." Jackson, a Chicago native, came to Gary to found the United Church of Christ. He earned his bachelor's degree and a master's degree in divinity from Loyola University and McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. "I was an associate pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ when the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. was a pastor there," he said."In 2003, the Indiana Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ wanted to plant a UCC Church in Gary. They asked Dr. Wright to be a consultant and Dr. Wright asked me to be part of the steering committee. During my role on the steering committee, I felt a calling to put my hat in the ring. We had our first church service in October of 2004 in Douglas School." Advertisement Thirteen years later, his congregation boasts 200 members and its own building at 1276 W. 20th Ave. Posters hanging in the sanctuary tout its philosophy: "We are culturally conscious, Christ-centered, committed to community." "Our church is a public space for the community. This has given us a responsibility when issues need to be addressed," Jackson said. "We have had a number of forums, most recently on the merger of Franciscan and Methodist hospitals. Also, (a forum) on the Gary schools. It provides an opportunity for people to ask questions. That would be our most important role." Jackson, who aims to communicate a message to people in his community that "you are valuable. You are important," points out that King was first and foremost, a seminary-trained, ordained Baptist minister. "Being a voice, challenging the political, economic status quo that rewards the wealthy and disempowers the oppressed. For me, not enough people recognize Jesus Christ's ministry was that. King did," Jackson said. The theme of the Valparaiso University conference is taken from the title of King's book, "Why We Can't Wait," which discusses the details of the nonviolent movement against segregation in the U.S. and also in the highly-segregated city of Birmingham, Ala. Jackson said he is starting to hear about more people taking action by letting their local representatives know how they feel. He said he believes the 2018 mid-term elections will be a barometer. With celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey taking a more active role, "it energizes the locals to be more aware and take their votes more seriously." Advertisement The world exploded in grief and fury at the ruthless killing of King, when he was 39, leaving a wife, four children and a monumental legacy. "This is an important year the 50th anniversary of King's death," Carter said. "We approach this day in the spirit he would want us to. We remember what happened 50 years ago and the achievements of the civil rights movement. It is a day to be challenged. We hope people will come and learn and celebrate and remember Dr. King." Nancy Coltun Webster is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. Valparaiso University event Monday "Why We Can't Wait," the MLK Celebration 2018, begins at 8 a.m. Monday in the Harre Union Lobby at Valparaiso University. Visit https://itvalpo.wufoo.com/forms/s9ka10207q8z76/ for information. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Shen Haiyin, founder of Singulato Motors (a Chinese electric vehicle starup, hereinafter, Singulato), revealed its vehicle-making process, capital cooperation and R&D strategy in a recent interview. According to Shen Haiyin, at present, Singulato already has more than 50 intelligent vehicles being tested at home and abroad, such as UK, Tianjin and Chongqing. The vehicles are tested in various aspects, for instance durability, resistance at high altitude and in cold area and chassis tuning. In 2018, the company plans to sell its pure electric mid-to-large production SUV iS6 after being listed in the national product catalogue. Currently, a subordinate enterprise of Dongfeng Motor in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province is responsible for the small-scale production of Singulato's vehicle. However, the large-scale production cooperator is still a mystery except that it is also located in Jiangsu Province. Beside, in 2018, its second model will be produced in the Tongling plant of Anhui Province and relevant production qualifications will be applied in the meantime. In the first half of 2018, Singulato plans to initiate its C-round fund raising for its business expansion and collaboration with suppliers in future. Speaking of partnership, Shen Haiyin stated that due to BATs (Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent) different focuses in intelligent vehicle area, Singulato may cooperate with all of them otherthan choosing only one partner. He also showed that except BAT, Singulato also has a cooperative intention with Didi Chuxing (a Chinese ride-hailing brand), Meituan (a Chinese group-buying app) and Yidao Yongche (also a Chinese ride-hailing brand). Portage officials blessed a new sidewalk master plan and welcomed two new firefighters at its most recent board of works meeting. The board on Jan. 9 moved to accept the sidewalk plan, which focused first on school areas, followed by trails and subdivisions. Mayor James Snyder estimated the master plan would cost the city about $900,000, to be paid for with proceeds from the wheel tax, the sidewalk fund and possibly some state grants. Advertisement "This is a great list," Snyder said. "This has been very helpful. In the spring, we plan on knocking some of these things out." Sandy McDaniel, with the planning department, called the master plan "a conglomeration" of sites "to connect the city with sidewalks." Advertisement How much of the sidewalk plan will get done may be another story. City Councilman John Cannon (R-4th) said the council's strategic planning committee asked for a plan months ago and offered to ride around Portage with city staff checking areas that need sidewalks. But Cannon said he has not been able to get his Democratic council colleagues on board with ride-alongs and other work on the sidewalk master plan. Also, as the only Republican on the city council, Cannon said he may not lead the planning committee much longer. "So, now, we don't know what's going to happen," he said. Snyder said the city will prioritize the sidewalks regardless of the council's interest. With the swearing-in of two firefighters, the city's fire department now is at full staffing, Assistant Chief Tim Sosbe said Jan. 10. Michael Durak, 29, of South Haven, and Rick Medellin, 24, of Portage, will train on the job and attend a nine-week training course at the Multi-Agency Academic Cooperative in Valparaiso, possibly in March, Sosbe said. They will be probationary employees for one year. Durak, who previously worked in Schererville fire department, and Medellin, formerly a Valparaiso firefighter, bring the Portage staff up to 62 full-time firefighters. Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. U.S. Attorney for the Nothern District of Indiana Thomas Kirsch puts his hand on a bible, held by his wife, Becky, as he is sworn into his position on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune ) Thomas Kirsch II didn't arrive at the U.S. Attorney's Office in the traditional way. Former U.S. Attorney David Capp said people often arrive at the federal prosecutor's office after a national call for applications and going through rounds of review and resume culling, hoping to land the job. Advertisement Capp, who in 2001 was serving as interim U.S. attorney, said Kirsch came onto his radar because of a phone call from Judge John Tinder, then on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh District. Tinder called Capp and said he wanted him to look at Kirsch. Advertisement "'Talk to him and hire him,'" Capp said. "I talk to the guy and I hired him," Capp said. "As usual, Judge Tinder was right." Sixteen years after that first meeting, Kirsch is now leading the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana. Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen officially swore in Kirsch during a brief investiture ceremony Thursday. Kirsch took an oath of office in front of his family, predecessors, fellow members of the bar, co-workers and the public during a special session of the court. Kirsch said under his leadership, the office will continue to pursue public corruption, combat violent crime and prosecute people who contribute to the growing opioid epidemic. "While the blows this office strikes will be hard, they will not be foul," Kirsch said. U.S. Attorney for the Nothern District of Indiana Thomas Kirsch accompanies his wife, Becky, into the federal courtroom in Hammond for his formal investiture ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune ) Van Bokkelen, who served as U.S. attorney when Kirsch first joined the office, said Kirsch quickly became at top assistant U.S. attorney, but didn't realize how high he'd raise the bar for those who came after him. Kirsch was an assistant U.S. attorney from 2001 to 2008. "He's the right man at the right time in the right place," Van Bokkelen said. Advertisement Tinder said Kirsch has a professional selflessness and is willing to jump in and do the work that must get done. The retired judge said everyone around him feeds off Kirsch's work ethic. Kirsch showed he was capable of careful and deliberate judgment, Tinder said, and will bring those traits to the U.S. Attorney's Office. "I could not be happier," said Judge Philip Simon. "You have a stellar reputation." Simon said the appointment is well earned. "I wanted to serve in this position for a long time," Kirsch said. Kirsch, most recently a partner at Winston and Strawn, LLP, was confirmed as the new U.S. attorney in October, following the departure of Capp. Advertisement Capp, who worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office for more than 30 years, submitted his resignation in March per the request of President Donald Trump, even though he planned to retire in June, according to a press release. Clifford Johnson, a first assistant U.S. attorney, served as the interim U.S. attorney pending Kirsch's confirmation. New U.S. Attorney for the Nothern District of Indiana Thomas Kirsch meets with people after his formal investiture ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune ) clyons@post-trib.com Twitter @craigalyons A Valparaiso man whose body was recovered Thursday morning behind a bank on the city's north side died from heart-related causes, according to Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris. A Friday autopsy revealed the cause of death for Donald Gildersleeve, 59, Harris said. Advertisement Valparaiso police and the Porter County Coroner's Office was dispatched around 8:30 a.m., Thursday to Horizon Bank, 4208 Calumet Ave., for a report of a body discovered by a bank employee. Gildersleeve was identified through identification in his possession. Authorities have said Gildersleeve, who lived independently but received mental health assistance from Porter-Starke Services, was last seen around noon or 1 p.m., Dec. 30 at Burger King, 2921 Calumet Ave. Advertisement He was reported missing by staff from Porter-Starke the following morning, and a statewide Silver Alert went out that day noting that Gildersleeve might be in extreme danger and require medical assistance. Valparaiso police conducted a drone search of a wooded area near where Gildersleeve lived in the 2100 block of Valparaiso Street on Jan. 3 with no results, and conducted a foot search with about 20 police officers and firefighters from several agencies on Jan. 4. The nearly three hour foot search focused on the area around Vale Park Road, Valparaiso Street, Cumberland Drive and Bullseye Lake Road, including the woods, because it included the area Gildersleeve traversed, including Porter-Starke's offices on Wall Street and Burger King. Police said foul play was not suspected in Gildersleeve's death. Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, speaks on Friday, Jan. 12, 2018, during a town hall meeting at Purdue University Northwest. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune ) As his annual series of town forums started Friday, U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky read a question from an index card asking whether the writer's husband, who is in the country on a green card, should be afraid. "I would tell you no," Visclosky said. Advertisement While Congress is negotiating an immigration reform package, Visclosky, D-Merrillville, said he's not seen changes to the green card program or any protections for people legally in the county. Visclosky, in East Chicago and Hammond sessions, fielded questions on immigration, net neutrality, the steel industry and other topics. Advertisement "We need comprehensive immigration reform," Visclosky said. An immigration package is under active negotiation, Visclosky said, and he thinks the administration that's proposed drastic changes should be more active in working to resolve the situation. One part of the immigration package is the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in September the administration's decision to rescind the DACA program, giving a six-month timeframe for Congress to draft its own immigration proposal. Visclosky said his office has heard from a lot of residents concerned about DACA and other immigration policy changes. "There is complete uncertainty and fear," Visclosky said. A Hammond woman said she thinks that voters deserve extraordinary leadership and wanted to see her representative take a stand against the president's comments. "The president says a lot of things. The president tweets a lot," Visclosky said. Visclosky said the people elected him to work for them and he thinks it's counterproductive to spend his time responding to comments made by the president or other members of Congress. Advertisement "I'd spend all my day doing that," Visclosky said. When an action needs a response, Visclosky said he'll act. Visclosky said the voters should consider the members of Congress they don't often see or hear from in the media. "Think of all the people you don't see on TV," Visclosky said. "Those are the people I'm working with." "The extremes have hijacked the public debate in this country," Visclosky added. The congressman said disparaging political comments and insults don't have a place in the legislative process, especially from the president. Advertisement "It is unbecoming and it's wrong," Visclosky said. Visclosky said it's difficult enough to get people together to discuss an issue, and that type of rhetoric doesn't help those efforts. "It's the antithesis of what we're supposed to do," Visclosky said. "I don't like it." At both the forums in East Chicago and Hammond, residents questioned Visclosky on where he stood on rolling back net neutrality regulations. During the Obama administration, Visclosky said the Federal Communications Commission issued new regulations that would give individuals the ability to access the internet as larger companies without any slow-down effect. The new FCC chair has since proposed to cut that regulation, the congressman said. "I think it is very troubling," Visclosky said. Advertisement Viscolsky said he finds it troubling that the government's regulations could impede Americans' ability to communicate. Like the rural electrification efforts of the 1930s, Visclosky said all people need to have easy access to broadband internet. Visclosky said he's set to join a legislative effort to protect net neutrality. "I absolutely disagree with the position the chair of the FCC has taken," Visclosky said. clyons@post-trib.com Twitter @craigalyons Advertisement Rep. Peter Visclosky town hall schedule: Saturday, Jan. 13: Noon. Woodland Park 2100 Willowcreek Road Portage 2 p.m. Advertisement Valparaiso Public Library 103 Jefferson St. Valparaiso 4 p.m. Chesterton Town Hall 726 Broadway Advertisement Chesterton 6 p.m. Michigan City City Hall Council Chambers 100 E. Michigan Blvd. Michigan City Sunday, Jan. 14: Advertisement 2 p.m. Wicker Park Social Center 2215 Ridge Road Highland 4 p.m. City of Gary Public Safety Facility Advertisement 555 Polk St. Gary Haitis President Jovenel Moise, center, lays a wreath at a monument honoring the victims of the 2010 earthquake, at Titanyen, a mass burial site north of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Haitians reacted with outrage Friday to reports that President Donald Trump used a vulgar remark to describe the country on the eve of the anniversary of the 2010 earthquake, one of the deadliest disasters in modern history. (Dieu Nalio Chery/AP ) What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com. Donald Trump's stunningly vulgar reference to immigrants from African countries shows exactly where his mind is. Every day Trump says something that in normal times (that is, any time before Trump) would have everyone talking resignation or impeachment. Welcome to the new normal. Advertisement Why would Norwegians want to migrate here? Does he realize that Scandinavian countries cover their citizens from cradle to grave....education, health care, unemployment...and more? All things he is taking away from Americans. Oh wait, silly me...did I just ask if he knew anything? All you people that think the U.S. is so bad as far as how illegals are treated need to Google how other countries deal with illegals. The U.S. protects them beyond belief, which is wrong. Come here legally. Advertisement Common sense is not a gift, it's a punishment. Because you have to deal with everyone who doesn't have it. With the stroke of a pen held in his tiny hand, Donald Trump is turning tens of thousands of Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Salvadorans who have been living here as legal immigrants into illegal ones. Many of these people have been here legally for as long as fifteen years and sometimes more, and now face being returned to countries where they have no homes, no employment, no families, and no prospects for survival. It's evil and it's unAmerican. Steve Bannon has lawyered up and is set to meet with the House Intelligence Committee. This is going to be fun. Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday > Watching a compulsive liar scramble to do damage control when the secrets are unfolding is quite entertaining. With the threat of rising sea levels and even talk of the Great Lakes rising during the Obama administration, isn't it a little ironic that his new library is being built on the shoreline of Lake Michigan? Maybe they're going to build it on stilts just to be safe? This is not a bakery. I don't sugarcoat anything. If you ask for my opinion then that's what you'll get. Don't be mad when it's not what you want to hear. Todd Rokita seems like the typical politician. He talks the talk by saying he wants to drain the swamp. All the while he took payoffs to push legislation to further the agenda for the Indiana casino owners. This agenda will harm workers by eliminating protections of the National Labor Relations Board. "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." Advertisement It's funny that we never heard of Fake News until we got our Fake President. Read more at www.post-trib.com/quickly. Blues artist Eddy The Chief Clearwater gives a thumbs up Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018, after he is honored at a Skokie Village Board meeting. Clearwater has been a resident of Skokie for some 25 years. (Mike Isaacs / Pioneer Press ) To honor renowned musician Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, Skokie leaders thought it would be a good idea for his hometown to happily remember the blues on his birthday. Earlier this month, mayor George Van Dusen proclaimed Jan. 6 Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater Day in the village, noting that the Grammy-nominated and Blues Hall of Fame inductee has lived in Skokie for about 25 years. Advertisement Although information on his website indicates that Clearwater would 83 on Jan. 10, he remained mum about his exact age on Jan. 2 when the Skokie Village Board honored him. Clearwater still regularly plays the blues and he performed concerts in Chicago during his birthday weekend . Advertisement If there was any doubt how much Skokie means to Clearwater, one only needs to check out his newly-released song entitled "Skokie a First Class Town." Clearwater recently told online "Blues Blast Magazine" that he was playing around with lyrics when he hit on, "I've been all around the world, when I settle down, I'll settle down in Skokie because Skokie is a first-class town." He turned it into a song. In Skokie this month, he added he was just "working around with songs" and "kidding with one of (his) grandkids" when he came up with tune. "I said, 'Wait a minute, I think I'll put a song in my next album,'" he recounted. Clearwater even sang a quick verse to the applause of the audience at the Jan. 2 meeting. He was accompanied in accepting the village's honor by his wife and manager, Renee Greenman. The mayor's proclamation called Clearwater "a living legend still representing Chicago blues at its finest, embracing the village of Skokie...and continuing to perform live, sharing his talent of blues, rockabilly, country and gospel music to all." Van Dusen said the blues artist has also been a long-time Skokie promoter and performed at many Skokie events. Advertisement "Notice, he still hasn't said what birthday it is," Van Dusen joked. "It has a three in there someplace," Clearwater said. misaacs@pioneerlocal.com 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. Our weekly round up of other news affecting foreign investors throughout Asia: The Philippines Investment Outlook 2018 With an average growth rate of 6.3 percent over the past five years, the Philippines is now among the fastest growing economies in Asia. Read more about the Philippines latest FDI trends and outlook for 2018. Indias Tier II and Tier III Cities: Are They Right for Your Business? Indian cities are classified purely on the basis of their population size. Accordingly, foreign companies that are interested in locating in a Tier II or Tier III Indian city should carefully consider their options. Russian Trade with Hong Kong Up 53% in 2017 ussias overall trade with the Chinese territory of Hong Kong rose by 53 percent in 2017, with Hong Kongs total exports to Russia soaring by 43 percent to US$2.1 billion in the first ten months of 2017, while imports from Russia surged by 63 percent to US$870 million. China, France Agree to Joint China Unicom-Eutelsat Belt Road Satellite Venture French President Emmanuel Macrons state visit to China has resulted in the French Eutelsat Communications signing off a Memorandum of Understanding with China United Network Communications Co., Ltd, (China Unicom). Vietnam: Multiple FTAs Tariff Cuts in 2018 Vietnam announces preferential tariff rates for 2018-2020 related to its Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), with most reductions to be in effect from 2018. Read more to know about the commodities with reduced tariff rates and its impact on the State Budget. About Us Our Briefing updates are written by and provided by the various regional offices of Dezan Shira & Associates throughout Asia. To obtain a complimentary subscription to Asia Briefing please click here. To contact Dezan Shira & Associates concerning foreign investment and assistance in Asia, please email us at asia@dezshira.com Dezan Shira & Associates Brochure Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide. An Introduction to Doing Business in ASEAN 2017 Doing Business in ASEAN introduces the fundamentals of investing in the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, concentrating on economics, trade, corporate establishment and taxation. We also include the latest development news in our Important Updates section for each country, with the intent to provide an executive assessment of the varying component parts of ASEAN, assessing each member state and providing the most up-to-date economic and demographic data on each. An Introduction to Doing Business in China 2017 Doing Business in China 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in China. Compiled by the professionals at Dezan Shira & Associates in January 2017, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Chinese market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to keep up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes. An Introduction to Doing Business in Hong Kong 2017 Doing Business in China 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in China. Compiled by the professionals at Dezan Shira & Associates in January 2017, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Chinese market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to keep up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes. An Introduction to Doing Business in India 2017 An Introduction to Doing Business in India 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in India. As such, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Indian market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to stay up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes. An Introduction to Doing Business in Singapore 2017 An Introduction to Doing Business in Singapore 2017 provides readers with an overview of the fundamentals of investing and conducting business in Singapore and outlines the citys role as a trading hub within ASEAN. The guide explains the basics of company establishment, annual compliance, taxation, human resources, and social insurance in the city-state. An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017 An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017 will provide readers with an overview of the fundamentals of investing and conducting business in Vietnam. Compiled by Dezan Shira & Associates, a specialist foreign direct investment practice, this guide explains the basics of company establishment, annual compliance, taxation, human resources, payroll, and social insurance in this dynamic country. In the "age of audio books," artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the lead, with the domestic market for audio books estimated to increase to 4.43 billion yuan (680.5 million U.S. dollars), according to the Beijing Book Fair, which opened Thursday. Ximalaya FM, a domestic platform for sharing audio content, said its user base, of nearly 450 million activated accounts, had an average listening time of 128 minutes per person. "New technology such as big data, AI and virtual reality (VR) empower services to facilitate the transformation of the reading mode and industrial innovation in the new reading age," said Wang Min, chairman of the board of Anhui Publishing Group. "Integrating AI with the digital publishing industry will promote content display and improve reading experiences." China's book retail sales totaled 80.3 billion yuan in 2017, up 14.55 percent year on year, according to a report issued at the book fair. 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 book sales nationwide, making it the category with the biggest contribution to the total sales growth," it said. A special section of the book fair focused on political books since the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress and literature on the 19th CPC National Congress, attracting a wide audience. "The People's Publishing House has published 120 million books on such documents and 18 works on the study of the 19th CPC National Congress," said Huang Shuyuan, head of the publishing house. According to Chen Lijun, vice president of China's major online book retailer Dangdang, 410 million children's books were sold in 2017 on the company's website, surging 60 percent year on year. One-third of the children's books sold on the website were created by domestic authors, according to Chen, who predicts sales will remain high in 2018. Huang Bugao, head of Hunan Education Publishing House, said that increasing sales of children's books showed Chinese parents' attention to education and improving reading habits. "The Chinese publication industry should produce prints with high quality, telling Chinese stories and expounding Chinese wisdom," said Liu Binjie, head of the education, science, culture and health committee of the National People's Congress. "To build a strong publication industry, China should allow experts in culture and science and technology, as well as top-notch technical talent, to work in the industry," Liu said. Liu suggested that the Chinese publication industry should carry out more cooperation with transnational publishing companies. 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. In response to the country's increasing stress on internet and information security, domestic companies have sped up their research and development of independently produced and controllable chips. Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor Co Ltd released its independently developed and produced general-purpose central processing unit KX-5000 at the end of December 2017. It is the first domestically produced CPU supporting dual-channel DDR 4 memory, which has been widely adopted by the world's leading manufacturers such as Intel and ADM for their new products this year. The company says the KX-5000 series octuple-core processor has a similar performance to that of Intel's Core i3-6100 processor. Founded in 2013, Zhaoxin began mass production in 2016. Last year, as many as 30,000 Zhaoxin chips were sold and the goal for 2018 is a maximum 200,000 chips. At present, local government departments and a number of domestic companies in Shanghai have purchased computers installed with Zhaoxin chips. The large office computer market in China is the long-term target for Zhaoxin, according to the company's Chairman Ye Jun. Zhaoxin is the first and only Chinese company that has grasped the three key technologies in chip productionCPU, graphics processing unit and chipset. Ye said such technologies are of great importance in terms of China's information security and industrial security. It is especially imminent since the industry leader Intel has been reported at the beginning of this year to have two major bugs that might allow sensitive data such as passwords to be stolen, he said. Ye also stressed that less reliance on imported chips will secure the production of Chinese manufacturing companies. Shenzhen-based telecom company ZTE halted trading in early March last year because the central government of the United States banned it from importing US chips. Consequently, its production was dramatically affected. According to Wei Shaojun, professor of Institute of Microelectronics at Tsinghua University, the value of imported integrated circuit products hit a record high in China last year to reach $250 billion. Integrated circuits have become the product with the highest import value in the country, overtaking crude oil. Among the $250 billion, the majority has been spent on CPUs. Meanwhile, the world's CPU market has been dominated by the two US giantsIntel and AMDwith Intel taking up the majority 86 percent and AMD accounting for 13 percent, according to market consultancy Mercury Research. "Our goal is to become the world's third-largest CPU manufacturer," Ye said. "We have already made the first moves, which is like making the first crack on an iron plate." Less than two months after declaring their intention to unionize, employees at Vox Media, including SB Nation staffers, have obtained recognition from company management. The Vox Media Union tweeted Thursday morning that it will now have a seat at the table to advocate for the needs and priorities of creative staff. Though its taken some time, were glad that Vox Media has lived up to its stated values and respected the wishes of its employees, the unions organizing committee wrote in a statement. When Vox employees first announced their plans to unionize, they stated their desire for consistency in titles, raises and bonuses; increased transparency; greater diversity and input in major decisions. A Vox Media union will give us the means to maintain everything we love about working for this company, and to have a collective voice when we address anything that may change or founder, they wrote. We look forward to bringing Vox Media employees together as an organized unit, and bringing that unit closer to management at the bargaining table and beyond. On Thursday, several SB Nation writers were among the Vox employees to celebrate recognition of the union. GOOD MORNING TO EVERYBODY BUT ESPECIALLY THE VOX UNIONhttps://t.co/lXoqdIRVYy Matt Brown (@MattSBN) January 11, 2018 I am so glad to wake up to good news for once #solidarityforever https://t.co/ETsZZ4frXy Marc Normandin? (@Marc_Normandin) January 11, 2018 The @vox_union won recognition late Wednesday because a lot of people who care about each other and their jobs insisted we needed it. Excited to get to work. Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) January 11, 2018 Though SB Nation, as one of Voxs eight brands, is included in the union, writers at the sites numerous team-specific sites are not. Members of the union have stated their desire to advocate for team-site writers, who generate much of SB Nations traffic but receive only small stipends or no payment at all. An ex-site manager is currently suing Vox Media, claiming she was an employee and should have been compensated as one. China's mobile phone shipments declined by 12.3 percent in 2017, highlighting the mounting pressure on domestic smartphone players, which are looking to intensify their push to go global this year, analysts said on Thursday. Companies shipped 491 million handsets last year, with the number for December standing at 42.6 million, plummeting by 32.5 percent year-on-year, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, an institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Jia Mo, an analyst at market research firm Canalys, said the Chinese smartphone market is hitting saturation point, which will prod big vendors to accelerate their global expansion plans, especially in countries such as India. "Also, more small players will be squeezed out of the race, as the Chinese market is now driven chiefly by replacement buyers who, in fact, less frequently upgrade their devices," Jia said. In 2017, 1,054 new types of smartphones were rolled out in China, down 27.1 percent from a year earlier. In terms of brands, domestic companies claim 88.8 percent of the market, which is the world's largest smartphone arena, with foreign companies accounting for the rest, the CAICT report showed. "Chinese companies are shifting their focus from quantity to quality. Instead of unveiling new products almost every month, they realize that one premium flagship model has greater appeal to consumers," said Xiang Ligang, CEO of telecoms industry website Cctime. According to a report from Counterpoint Technology Market Research, the combined profit of Chinese smartphone companies crossed the $1.5 billion mark for the first time in the third quarter of 2017, as they expanded their presence in the high-end sector. But analysts warned that their overseas expansion plans will affect profit margins. Zhao Ming, president of Honor, a smartphone brand owned by Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, said in October that the company aims to increase the contribution of overseas revenue to total revenue from 15 percent in 2017 to 50 percent by 2020. The Chinese government has approved a plan to build a giant radio telescope in Qitai County, in the far western region of Xinjiang. Chinese scientists claim that the device, named the QTT, will be the world's largest steerable radio telescope after its construction is completed. According to the plan, the QTT will have a steerable 110-meter wide circular dish. The two largest steerable radio telescopes currently in use, with 100-meter wide dishes, are located in the U.S. and Germany. Radio telescopes perform their observational tasks by receiving radio waves from space. The QTT is expected to be used to study phenomena such as black holes and stellar nurseries in the farthest reaches of the Universe. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has been leading the design of the telescope since research related to the QTT program started about a decade ago. Chinese scientists considered nearly 50 locations across Xinjiang before deciding to locate the QTT at a site in the foothills of the massive Tian Shan mountain range. Scientists believe the mountains surrounding the site can protect the telescope from interference by stray radio frequencies. China is already the home of the world's largest radio telescope. The FAST, located in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou, is a 500-meter wide telescope. It started operation in 2016 more than 20 years after it was first proposed by Chinese scientists. However, unlike the dish of the QTT, the FAST uses a fixed position dish. 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. Villagers in northwest China's Shaanxi Province held a funeral on Thursday for Mszusaki Hideko, an 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 tell 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. Shanghai authorities have investigated Marriott International after the U.S.-based hotel corporation categorized Chinese territories as countries in a mail questionnaire, angering its Chinese members. The cyberspace administration and market supervision bureau of Huangpu District said late Wednesday that they had conducted interviews with the hotel company's representatives in China and ordered all related content to be removed from its website and mobile app. On Thursday, the cyberspace administration of Shanghai further ordered Marriott to shut down its Chinese website and Chinese APP for a week from 6 p.m. and conduct a thorough inspection on all the content and publish the investigation result in a timely fashion. The administration will take further steps accordingly. Marriott sent out a mail questionnaire to its Chinese members Tuesday morning, which listed Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as options under the question "Which country are you from?" Screenshots of the questionnaire posted on microblog site Weibo soon went viral and stirred a strong public backlash. Marriott suspended the questionnaire late Wednesday and apologized twice on its Weibo account Wednesday and Thursday. But many people are not satisfied with the belated apology. "The first apology statement was only sent to the members," said a Chinese netizen. "The apology is insincere," said another. According to Wu Hai, a lawyer in Shanghai, it is a kind of advertising for Marriott to send questionnaires to its members through email. Therefore, he said listing the four places as "countries" had directly violated China's cybersecurity and advertising laws. "According to the advertising law, Marriott may face a maximum fine of 1 million yuan (US$153,822) or have its business license revoked," Wu said. Over 1,000 expatriates in Shanghai have received the upgraded version of the Chinese green card the "foreigner's permanent residence card," police said on Thursday. The new card, with embedded machine-readable chips, was introduced by the national Ministry of Public Security in June last year. Gradually, it can be used to access finance, education, hospital, transport, telecommunications, tax, social insurance, property registration and legal services in China with no other personal documents required, the ministry said. The city's exit-entry administration bureau has reminded expatriates that, starting January 1, those who want to upgrade their green card must apply a month before the expiry of the old one. If there is any change of data in the card, they should apply for renewal within a month after the change, the bureau said. In case of damage or loss, card-holders must apply for a new one immediately. The Chinese Air Force has deployed its best combat plane - the J-20 stealth fighter jet - to conduct exercises with other advanced jets. The Air Force of the People's Liberation Army said in a news release on Thursday that several J-20s took part in a series of combat exercises against the less-advanced J-16 and J-10C. The exercises took place over the past nine days at an undisclosed air base and were realistic, the release said. The military said J-20s practiced beyond-visual-range aerial fighting maneuvers during these drills, without elaborating. This is the first time the Air Force has confirmed that the J-20 has participated in a combat exercise. In July, the Air Force sent three J-20s to a military parade at the Zhurihe Training Base in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and used that occasion to make public some details about the inside of the jet's cockpit for the first time. In late September, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry confirmed at a news conference that the fifth-generation aircraft has been com-missioned to the Air Force. Wu Peixin, an aviation industry observer in Beijing, said sending J-20s on combat exercises would not only enable its pilots to get familiar with the plane and its tactics as soon as possible, but also would help other aviators hone their skills on how to confront a cutting-edge fifth-generation jet in combat. He said China faces a big challenge in the Asia-Pacific airspace from the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II - the other stealth fighters in service - deployed by the United States and Japan respectively, so it is urgent for Chinese pilots to know how to deal with such warplanes. China conducted the maid-en flight of the J-20 in January 2011 and declassified the plane in November 2016. Developed by Aviation Industry Corp of China, the State-owned aircraft giant, the J-20 shoulders the heavy responsibility given by the Air Force to create space for other aircraft during an air battle, according to Zhang Hao, head of an Air Force flight-testing center that has deployed the jet. "J-20 will be like a needle that can penetrate and break down the enemy's air-defense network," he previously told China Central Television. "The plane is a typical offensive weapon. It has good stability, stealth capability, situational awareness capacity, and fire-control systems." Yang Wei, chief designer of the J-20, has predicted the plane will be the backbone of the PLA Air Force for the next 20 years. Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) holds a welcome ceremony for visiting French President Emmanuel Macron before their talks in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo) Macron is a Realist, and France is arguably the greatest ascending power in Europe. Months back, I wrote in these pages immediately after the election of Macron that there's a battle for the soul of Europe coming, and Macron is going to be a key player in that regard. He is ambitious and opportunistic, which are two good qualities that any young leader should want to display. He wants to federalize Europe, which might arguably be the only logical way for Europe to survive, given the current geopolitical climate and differences in lifestyle and values between East and West. Macron's recent China visit underscores all the points I made above. On his blitz tour of China, arguably EU's greatest trade partner in the making, Macron visited Xi'an, a departure point of the original silk road, and saw the famed terracotta army. Showing classic French diplomatic skill, Macron gifted an 8-year-old brown horse, belonging to the elite French presidential cavalry corps of the republican guard, to President Xi, who is himself an admirer of the cavalry corps. Previously, Macron's wife Brigitte was named a godmother of a panda gifted from Beijing. Macron, also, unlike modern Western premiers, is actually knowledgeable about the East. He was quoted in Chinese state media, saying China is a country that fascinates me, like so many French people [it is] the oldest living civilization a state older than history', as General de Gaulle once said. He also is cautiously optimistic about the Belt and Road Initiative, compared to his more skeptical counterparts, and he said Europe should join the new Silk Road initiative but also added that, "They cannot be the roads of a new hegemony that will put the countries that they traverse in a vassal state," he said. "Multilateralism means balanced cooperation." Although that could be attributed to standard diplomatic caution. Macron is adept at diplomacy. He invited President Putin to the palace of Versailles; he charmed President Trump who, despite his ideological differences with Macron, said that he was a great man. But his real deal was China, who he wants to align with. Macron understands, more than anyone in Europe, how the EU needs Chinese finance in a world, where old alliances are increasingly broken down. Two key things to note here. First, Macron is swiftly becoming the standard bearer of EU policies. But the EU is just the political grouping. The individual alignment between China and France is even greater. China is now the largest Asian trade partner of France, and Paris is Beijing's fourth largest trade partner. Recently, France has taken a leadership role, not just in the U.S., but within EU, on a variety of issues, like climate change, trade, anti-terrorism, institutional reforms, on which France has found China to be a natural ally. France understands that Beijing provides a backbone, which will be necessary if France aspires for the global liberal leadership mantle, after U.S. retrenchment and the vacuum left by America First. More importantly, this provides an opportunity to Macron to tout how France is a better destination for trade than Brexit Britain. While Britain undoubtedly remains the primary trade destination of China in Europe, France can prove to be a major ally within EU, given the broad protectionist currents blowing within the block. This is therefore naturally a good opportunity. Chinese policy makers should be cautiously optimistic as well. France is a power that could actually be relied upon, as Germany is weakening, and Britain is busy with Brexit. Britain will remain the biggest trade partner in Europe for the near foreseeable future, but France is a tactical alliance, that will only improve, if and when the EU and China can manage to solidify their trade alignment. Sumantra Maitra is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SumantraMaitra.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. On Monday, Jan. 15, the country will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The national holiday is the only holiday designated as a day of service. As such, Americans are encouraged to give back to their communities in any way possible. In Flagstaff, there are many volunteer opportunities as well as other events in honor of the civil rights icon. Northern Arizona University Northern Arizona University's Black Student Union will host its 31st annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. This year's theme is "The Fight that Never Ended", which is centered around the conversation of the current political climate and the activism and education being fostered within new civil rights movements in the modern generation. The full day schedule of events includes: 8-9:30 a.m. Opening breakfast, free and welcome for the NAU and Flagstaff community, followed by a brief discussion on "Which MLK are you?" which will focus on what it means to uphold the legacy and pursue the activism that Dr. King dedicated his life to. 10-noon BSU as well as other organizations will be headed out to serve our Flagstaff community by fulfilling several community service projects in town. To participate, email nau.bsu@gmail.com. 1 p.m. Annual MLK Day March from Union Point to South Campus by ending at the duBois Center. 2-4 p.m. Check out the historical displays of our historically black African American fraternities and sororities in the Leads Center. 5-7:30 p.m. MLK Day community block party barbecue at the Murdoch Center. Blood Drive One way to be of service is to donate blood. United Blood Services will have a blood drive Monday from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., at the Aquaplex, 1702 N. Fourth St. According to UBS, the winter holiday season is the slowest time of the year for blood donations. More blood transfusions are required from January to March, than during any other time of the year due to accidents from inclement weather and because of increased surgery schedules immediately following the holiday season. United Blood Services is the non-profit community blood center that fulfills 100 percent of the blood transfusion needs in 14 of 15 Arizona counties, including Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo, Apache, Mohave and Maricopa. Blood donors will receive a voucher for a free pizza slice and soft drink, donated by Fratelli Pizza. For more information, visit bloodhero.com. Free parks admission All National Park Service sites -- including Grand Canyon, Sunset Crater, Glen Canyon, etc. --will have free admission on Jan. 15 in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Many parks will host service projects on this day. A national park is a meaningful place to remember and honor Dr. King, whether one participates in a day of service or visits a site with a direct connection to the man who moved hearts and minds in the struggle for civil rights and equality, said National Park Service Deputy Director Michael T. Reynolds. All Arizona State Parks & Trails will offer free admission for state residents during Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. Entrance fees at all state parks will be waived for all Arizona residents between Saturday, Jan. 13 and Monday, Jan. 15. Visitors must show an Arizona ID for free entrance. Fees will still apply for tours at Kartchner Caverns State Park, tours, camping, special events, and concessions. Flagstaff Speak Up On Wednesday, Jan. 17, Flagstaff Speak Up will host its third annual Celebration of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. Called Local Justice & MLK, the event will begin at 4:45 p.m., at Firecreek Coffee Company, 22 E. Route 66. During the free event there will be discussions around numerous topics of injustices in Flagstaff. Vinyl recordings from the actual 1963 March on Washington will be played and the full "I have a dream" speech will be projected onto the wall. 2017 is of great political importance for China and the countries of the European Union. This year, elections that influence future trends took place in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, and the main parties won out against populist forces. Sino-European economic and trade relations tended to experience a significant structural readjustment, requiring greater cooperation and innovation between the two sides to create new opportunities and solve new problems. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), held last October, defined the new historical orientation of Chinese development, and socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era. The foundations for political cooperation between China and European countries remain solid, and the prospects for their relationship continue to widen. Stable Political Bases This year is a "super-year of the elections" of European countries, including the early elections of the British House of Commons, the presidential and parliamentary elections in France, and the German parliamentary elections that have drawn special attention. Despite the rise of populist forces, it was the main centrist parties that finally won in France and Germany. Theresa May's administration organized the early elections in order to create a strong conservative parliament to handle Brexit. But contrary to her wishes, the Conservative Party, after the parliamentary elections, lost absolute majority of the seats in Parliament and had to create a ruling coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. From the perspective of China-Europe relations, the results of these elections have avoided any uncertainties that radical political parties, once in power, would have brought, laying a solid foundation for stable cooperation between the two sides in years to come. On the Chinese side, at the 19th National Congress of the CPC, it stresses: "China will continue to hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit and uphold its fundamental foreign policy goal of preserving world peace and promoting common development. China remains firm in its commitment to strengthening friendship and cooperation with other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and to forging a new form of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation." China's further advancement of its opening-up policy will undoubtedly lay a strong foundation for China-Europe relations. In 2017, high-level exchanges between China and Europe have intensified. In January, Xi Jinping attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, and then visited the UN headquarters in Geneva, the World Health Organization, and the International Olympic Committee. In May, Xi Jinping hosted state leaders across the world including those from European countries like Belarus, Czech Republic, Russia, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Serbia, and Spain in Beijing to exchange views on international cooperation at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. These discussions then continued in the framework of the G20 Summit in Hamburg and, more recently, during a meeting in Budapest devoted to relations with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in which Premier Li Keqiang participated. In addition, there is a list of major political and cultural events between China and Europe, such as the China-EU Strategic Dialogue and the "EU-China Blue Year" activities, which covers the blue economy and the global governance of oceans. Constant dialogue between the two parties has been extended on an individual basis in the context of numerous high-level bilateral meetings. To name some, President Xi attached great importance to direct contacts with leaders of Switzerland, Italy, Finland, France, Germany, and Great Britain. The first results are already noticeable. President Xi and Prime Minister May have reaffirmed, through a telephone call on September 25, the deepening of their global comprehensive strategic China-U.K. partnership for the 21st century and the will to continue to build the "golden era" of relations between the two countries. Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping reaffirmed, during talks on September 8, the consensus to develop a strong comprehensive strategic partnership between China and France, which both sides attained during the G20 Summit. By phone on November 7, Li Keqiang and Angela Merkel highly appreciated the new progress made in Sino-German cooperation and expressed their wishes to deepen economic and trade cooperation, as part of the "win-win" relationship. In fact, beyond the divergence among political parties in European countries and China, the development of the China-Europe relationship has become a political consensus among different countries. Structural Changes in Economic and Trade Relations In a tense economic environment marked by the global financial crisis and debt crisis in Europe, the number of China-Europe trade frictions has increased, due to sluggish economic growth and the resurgence of protectionism in Europe. The most emblematic example is the non-recognition of China's full market economy status by the EU. However, thanks to the continuous development of the Chinese economy, structural changes are taking places in China-Europe economic and trade relations. In this respect, the changes in economic and trade relations between China and Germany, which are an important engine of Sino-European economic and trade relations, are a notable element. For many years, Germany has been China's largest trading partner in Europe. But in recent years, the volume of trade between the two countries has steadily declined, and China's trade deficit with Germany has been increasing. According to statistics released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Sino-German bilateral trade volume was US $151.29 billion in 2016, down 3.5 percent from the previous year, Chinese exports to Germany was reduced to US $65.21 billion, a decline of 5.7 percent, and Chinese imports from Germany was US $86.08 billion, declined by 1.8 percent, the result is a deficit of US $20.87 billion for China. From January to June 2017, the total trade volume between China and Germany was US $78.046 billion, of which Chinese exports were US $33.35 billion, and imports at US $44.69 billion. China had a trade deficit of US $11 billion to Germany during those six months. The changes in the structure of Sino-German trade are directly related to those that occurred in their economic structures. Currently, Chinese imports from Germany mainly include electromechanical equipment, transport equipment including railways, automobiles and ships, chemicals, optical and medical instruments. China's exports to Germany are mainly electrical appliances, mechanical equipment, textile raw materials and manufactured goods, chemicals, and toys. Now, with the industrial restructuring of China, the two countries should achieve a "dynamic balance" of bilateral trade through cooperation and innovation, to better navigate the sound development of China-Europe economic and trade relations. Currently, Germany is among the countries with the biggest amounts of direct investment in China. By the end of 2016, China had approved 9,394 projects by German companies with a total investment of US $28.18 billion. These projects focus on automotive and chemical industry, power generation facilities, transportation, steel, and telecommunication. At the same time, the number of Chinese companies investing in Germany has exceeded 2,700. All these have played a positive role for the economic development of both countries and confirms this "dynamic balance." The Netherlands is China's second largest trading partner in Europe in recent years. In the first half of 2017, China chalked up US $29.738 billion worth of exports to the country, compared with imports of US $5.5 billion, the largest trade surplus compared to other EU countries, followed by the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy. But where do these trade surpluses come from? They mainly come from the export of manufactured products due to the effects of deindustrialization of these countries. This imbalance of trade between China and European countries can be effectively mitigated through the deepening of industrial cooperation between both sides. During his visit to China in February 2017, Italian President Sergio Mattarella pointed out that China is striving to change its mode of development from low-end manufacturing to a sustainable growth model based on investment in technology and research. For the Italians, this is an opportunity for his country to become a technical partner of China and realize the win-win situation. So far, most European countries have responded positively to the Belt and Road Initiative, and major European economies have become member countries of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The Belt and Road, with China as a starting point and Europe as the end point, will inspire a powerful momentum for the development of Sino-European economic and trade relations. On May 13, 2017, the China-Europe X8024 train, loaded with small commodities and clothes, left Yiwu in Zhejiang Province for Madrid. This is the 1000th China-Europe train in 2017. Until then, the number of such trains had increased by 612 compared to the same period in 2016, an increase of 158 percent. Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future for Humankind All these changes at work today are not guided by profit in the short term. During his address delivered on January 18, 2017 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, titled "Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind", Xi Jinping expounded the concept of "a community with a shared future for humankind," and called to advance its building progress by emphasizing dialogue and consultation, shared development, win-win cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, and green and low-carbon development. The Chinese leader's vision is motivated by the construction of a new world characterized by openness, inclusion, lasting peace, global security, and common prosperity. This excerpt from his address sheds light on this desire of China: "The Chinese are convinced that China goes well only when the world is going well, and that the world is doing better when China is doing well ... China, once poor and weak, is now the second largest economy in the world. This was not achieved by military expansion or colonial looting, but by the toil of the people and the efforts made to preserve peace. China will unswervingly push the path of peaceful development. China's determination to promote shared development will not change. The world has contributed to China's development, and China has contributed to international development. China will continue to pursue the opening strategy of mutual benefit and win-win and to share development opportunities with others." Building a community with a shared future for humankind proposed by President Xi is crucial to the Sino-European relationship. In addition, the record of encouraging progress in Sino-European economic and trade cooperation, despite the context of the prolonged recession of the global economy, is pushing for realistic optimism, underpinned by data presented by Premier Li Keqiang at a business summit during the 19th China-EU Leaders' Meeting last June. Since the international financial crisis, Chinese exports to the EU have grown at an annual rate of 1.8 percent, while those of the EU to China are at 5.8 percent; the volume of bilateral trade exceeded one million dollars every minute, and the volume achieved every two days was equivalent to that of a year at the beginning of the establishment of their diplomatic relations; more than 600 flights travel between China and Europe a week, and 150 China-Europe trains each month; funds, technology, and management experience from Europe contributed to China's industrialization process; Chinese products allow European families to reduce their expenses and save money; the vast Chinese market has brought huge profits to the 16,000 European companies in China, and Chinese companies investing in Europe have created a large number of jobs in European countries. Despite competition and differences between China and Europe, there is a broad consensus between the two sides on many areas such as free trade, multilateralism, and maintaining the stability of the international system. For these reasons, and all those previously mentioned, the China-Europe relationship is an example of success in jointly building a community with a shared future between developing and developed countries. Tian Dewen is a research fellow at the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Flash China on Thursday urged the United States to carefully handle the Taiwan issue, as the U.S. House of Representatives passed two Taiwan-related bills Tuesday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks at a daily press briefing. The Taiwan Travel Act aims to encourage diplomatic visits between U.S. and Taiwan officials, while the bill H.R. 3320 directs the U.S. Secretary of States to develop a strategy to restore observer status for Taiwan in the Geneva-based World Health Organization. "The passage of the two bills seriously violates the principles of the one-China policy and three Sino-U.S. joint communiques," Lu said, reiterating that China firmly opposed the action, which interfered in its internal affairs. Lu urged the U.S. side to adhere to the principles of the one-China policy and the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques and not to make any official visits or contacts with Taiwan, nor send any wrong messages to "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces. Lu said China hoped the United Sates would make efforts to preserve the overall Sino-U.S. relations and cooperation between the two sides in international affairs. Flash 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. Flash Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged 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. Flash 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. Flash 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. Flash 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. Flash 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 in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced that China will provide another 7 billion yuan (US$1.08 billion) 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. Flash 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." Flash 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. An arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday for a former Northern Arizona University teacher after she failed to appear in court. Melissa Santana, 36, is accused of stalking U.S. Forest Service firefighters and a student. The warrant against Santana was filed in Coconino County Superior Court, meaning that the former associate professor of interior design is also facing state charges; these charges are in addition to the five counts of felony stalking brought forth by the U.S. District Court based on charges by the U.S. Forest Service. Coconino County Superior Court Clerk, Valerie Wyant did not disclose the new charges, stating they were not public record until Santana was served; however, the Flagstaff Police stated in a public announcement on Facebook that the outstanding warrant was related to stalking charges. Santana is currently being held in the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence while she awaits a federal trial date on March 6, in Prescott, making it impossible for her to attend a court hearing in Flagstaff, according to her attorney D. Stephen Wallin. Wyant said that the warrant was issued only as a means to alert the U.S District Court of Arizona to the fact that Santana is also facing a county court date. It is not that the court wouldnt be aware that she is in custody, Wyant said. We put a warrant out to alert other agencies that we have a warrant on hold. So when her current case concludes than this warrant will go into effect. However, the Flagstaff Police Departments Facebook notice of the warrant stated that the department was looking for Santana and did not mention if police knew she was already in custody. Flagstaff Police Sgt. Cory Runge said the department did issued a public notice on the warrant because it was active. Santana is accused of habitually stalking and harassing two firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service hotshot crew in Flagstaff, the wife of one of the firefighters, one of their friends, and an NAU student. The stalking occurred from February 2015 to September 2017 and was largely committed through electronic communication, according to U.S. District Court documents. Santana committed the offenses using many different identities, email addresses, social media accounts and temporary telephone numbers. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. United States Magistrate Judge Charles R. Pyle ordered that Santana be detained, according to court documents. He denied her release on the grounds that she was a danger to the public and at flight risk due to her use of multiple aliases over three years. Flash 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. Flash China and Pakistan enjoy a strong relationship. Based heavily on cooperation, they both recognize the significance of close relations to attaining foreign objectives. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Project, currently under construction, is a fresh landmark for the new beginning of commercial relations between China and Pakistan. Pakistan is a gate for China to reach its economic objectives, which cannot be achieved if Afghanistan does not agree to an era of peace and security. The strategy won't be successful if terrorism and insecurity carry on in the bordering areas of China and Pakistan, including China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the starting point, and Gawadar Port, the final stop of CPEC. As a result, China is enhancing its influence and investment in Afghanistan. It offers training to Afghan security personnel, and gives scholarships to Afghan students. At the same time, China is working to build cooperation with the U.S. to bring peace to Afghanistan. Pakistan is also utilizing similar measures to abolish terrorism. All South Asian countries are important for China regarding its economic goals. China's energy and trade routes to the Middle East and Europe could be put in danger if disturbances occur in South Asia. China has given full support to Sri Lanka during its times of need, including providing huge financial assistance to develop the Port of Hambantota. Sri Lanka is now following a more balanced foreign policy towards China, trying to spur its own development. China has been the biggest trading partner of Bangladesh for over a decade. Previously India enjoyed this status. The Chittagang Port has seen fast development with China's support. China and Bangladesh also reached an agreement concerning the deep sea port of Sonadia. However, after sometime, Bangladesh stepped back on this project. Southeast Asian countries are watching and observing Chinese movements very carefully. The Belt and Road Initiative is set to launch a new era of trade and partnership between China and ASEAN countries, which will also be extended further to Africa and Europe. China initiated its opening-up policy in the late 1970s, and over a short period of time, it has become an important trading partner of ASEAN. The China-ASEAN trade volume was US $41 billion in 2000, but is now about US $500 billion. In 2010, the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area came into effect, and now China is playing a key role in big projects of ASEAN countries the Laos high-speed rail, hydro power plants in Cambodia, and Indonesia's first high-speed rail project, which connects Jakarta with Bandung. It's important to know that China plans to invest US $1 trillion in 60 developing countries to support over 900 projects. Chinese activities are also seen as an effort to help solve the issue of global poverty. President of Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razzaq are strong voices in favor of Chinese steps in ASEAN countries. Through a deep analysis of China's actions in South and Southeast Asia, it can be concluded that China's influence has made significant progress, but there still remain several hurdles. Trade and investment are two keys for China to achieve its economic objectives, while a sound plan is needed. Muhammad Mehdi is a media coordinator of Pakistan Muslim League N and columnist of Jang, the largest newspaper of Pakistan. President Donald Trump is right to urge a revival of the vilified practice of earmarks. Earmarks are good for democracy. But they wouldnt really solve the problem of congressional gridlock as so many argue. Earmarks gave Congress the ability to direct agencies to spend for specific projects out of annual appropriations bills. They didnt increase overall spending. Instead, they carved out something out of the overall appropriations to an agency instead of having to submit to the regular process that funds most government projects. Earmarks grew rapidly during the Republican Congresses after the 1994 elections, and remained common in the Democratic Congresses from 2007 through 2010.In 2011, Republicans banned earmarks as a symbol of a dysfunctional Congress that wasted too much money on pet projects. But that was a mistake. The case for earmarks is twofold. Earmarks may be a good idea simply because its perfectly fine for Congress to make specific spending choices. It strengthens democracy when politicians, accountable to voters, decide how government money is spent. When bureaucrats make those decisions, it weakens democracy because theres little voters can do about it. But the more popular argument for earmarks is about efficacy: Legislation will pass more easily, advocates say, if congressional leaders have more tools for winning over individual members of Congress. My sense is that the efficacy argument is overrated. The problem for House leadership is less that the leaders dont have enough tools, but that House Freedom Caucus members and perhaps some other Republicans are more concerned with proving their ideological loyalty than with delivering specific benefits for their districts. And despite the earmark ban, congressional leaders still have plenty of ways of favoring House districts or to states. We saw that in the tax bill, with various goodies added to secure the vote of reluctant senators think drilling in Alaska for Senator Lisa Murkowski. I asked congressional scholars on Twitter for how much of a difference reviving earmarks would make to greasing the wheels of legislation, and for the most part their answers were similar to what I would have said: It would help, but not all that much. So on a 10-point scale Molly Reynolds of Brookings and Matt Glassman of Georgetown both said it would be about a 2 or 3. Some did suggest that it would make a more substantial difference on passing spending bills. Georgetowns Josh Huder said it would range from a minor factor to a major one depending on the appropriation bill (there are 12, each one determining the spending for a group of agencies), but that the effect would be small outside of those bills. For those who consider earmarks a significantly corrupt practice, I dont think the efficacy arguments are strong enough to override that. Since I consider them a legitimate form of democratic practice, Id be happy to restore them even if there were no other advantages. To the extent that they even make a modest difference towards making Congress function better, thats just gravy. Trump has a habit of saying he supports things and then backing away from them, so I have no idea whether hes serious on this one. But I hope he keeps at it. I cant say Ive found too many process issues where I agree with Trump, but this is one that he really is correct about. PHOENIX A federal judges late night decision on DACA stirred up mixed reactions from recipients in the Valley. One of them, Elizabeth Perez, said she did not consider Tuesdays ruling as a complete breakthrough for the DACA community. Yesterdays decision was great, but its not a win because we still dont have a comprehensive immigration reform, a Dream Act or full DACA reinstituted, she said. Perez is just one of the almost 28,000 DACA recipients in Arizona who face an uncertain future ever since President Donald Trump announced last September the program was being rescinded. Late Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered a nationwide injunction ordering the renewal of the program. I consider myself to be American, Karina Ruiz, a DACA recipient herself, is also the president of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition. I might not have a document saying that I am a citizen, but I love this country, she said. We are about making where we live a better place. I think thats very American. Ruiz works at ADAC assisting immigrants in the U.S. towards a path towards lawful U.S. citizenship along with the application process for DACA recipients. Ruiz also said DACA activists are still planning to ask the Democratic party to hold off their vote on the spending bill on Jan. 19. We want them to hold the line for us unless there is a DREAM Act attached to it. By keeping pressure on Congress, Ruiz said, they could potentially get the clean DREAM Act they need. Its a small victory, a step in the right direction. But we cannot forget the DREAM Act covered over 2 million youth and DACA is just covering over 800,000, she said. Elizabeth Perez said she lives under constant anxiety because of DACAs instability. Its definitely like a cloud that hangs over your head, she said, Im [making plans] to go to law school when I dont know if Ill be able to pay for it because I dont know if Ill have a job. Last September, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the DACA program would end and the final deadline for DACA two-year renewal would be Oct. 5, 2017. Recipients under this guideline were only eligible if their DACA expired March 5, 2018. But Judge Alsups decision allows anyone who currently has the status to re-apply. On Wednesday, Democratic New York Senator Chuck Schumer mentioned that the Department of Justice responded Tuesday night to the ruling saying it will continue to vigorously defend (their) position, and looks forward to vindicating its position in further litigation. The fact remains the only way to guarantee legal status for the Dreamers is to pass DACA protections into law and do it now, Senator Schumer said. For that reason, a resolution to the DACA issue must be part of a global deal on the budget. On the other side, Arizona State Rep. Andy Biggs highlighted that President Trump was well within his rights when he decided to end the program. Judge Alsups decision further demonstrates the need to reshape our judicial system to prevent activist judges from imposing their political views on rulings of this magnitude, he said in a released statement. David Asser, an Arizona immigration attorney, pointed out that the judicial system does have the power to overturn the federal judges decision. The 9th Circuit could review that decision and overturn it, Asser said. I dont think thats very likely and then it can go to the (U.S.) Supreme Court and there could be an injunction at that particular point. For those with DACA status, Asser did offer some guidelines to follow. I think the right answer to someone who might be eligible for DACA is to make sure they research the situation well, that they are well prepared and they also have a backup plan because most of the DACA recipients may actually be eligible for some other form of relief, Asser said. Perez, who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years, said leaving the country is not an option for her. I know nothing else other than America. Im an American, she said. Im going to stay in the United States because this is my country. Yet again, were in danger of letting Donald Trump dramatically lower the standards for the presidency. Talk is getting louder about his mental health, but it shouldnt require mental incapacity to be considered unfit for the nations highest office. Being erratic, ignorant and a demagogue should be more than enough to raise those questions. I think a professor who helped write the official book on mental disorders has it exactly right. He is definitely unstable. He is definitely impulsive. He is world-class narcissistic, not just for our day but for the ages, Allen Frances, a former psychiatry department chairman at Duke University School of Medicine, told The New York Times. You cant say enough about how incompetent and unqualified he is to be leader of the free world. But that does not make him mentally ill. Democrats who are publicly questioning Trumps mental state including those who invited a psychiatrist to Capitol Hill for a briefing last month are in danger of falling into this trap. Weve got a crazy leading the North Korea and weve got a crazy in the White House, Rep. John Garamendi of Walnut Grove said Friday on CNN. He and Rep. Adam Schiff, a Burbank Democrat, say that quite a few Republicans in Congress share concerns about Trumps mental state, but arent willing to go public. The media frenzy intensified with the publication of Fire and Fury and Trumps heated response. In one tweet, he declared himself a stable genius. If that were really true, of course, he wouldnt have to say it. Theres even serious discussion of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to remove the president if they deem him physically or mentally unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Trump is scheduled to have his first full physical exam as president on Friday, but the White House wont say whether his mental acuity also will be tested. And who knows? He could break with precedent again and refuse to release the results. Rather than going too deep down this rabbit hole, Democrats need to focus on battling Trump on policy and on retaking the U.S. House and Senate in November. As long as Republicans control Congress and back Trump, removal for any reason is almost certainly off the table. GOP leaders, including Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, literally stood behind Trump at Camp David over the weekend as the president boasted of his resume and attacked the book. Just as Democrats are in danger of going too far questioning Trumps mental fitness, Republicans are putting themselves out further and further on a limb defending this president. As they continue to ignore his faults and enable his outrages, they are becoming his willing accomplices. One day, it may even seem crazy. Events and stories coming up in the next few days Foreign minister set for major African visit Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay official visits to Rwanda, Angola, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe from Friday to Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For more than 20 years, foreign ministers have chosen Africa for their first overseas visit each year. Wang's visit will pave the way for the upcoming Summit Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in China. Christians From Egypt, India, and Vietnam Detail Persecution They Face (Interviews) 12 January, 2018 by Samuel Smith/CP , | Christians from various parts of the world recently detailed for The Christian Post how they, their families, friends and ministries have been persecuted simply because they worship Jesus Christ. On Wednesday, Open Doors USA rolled out its 2018 World Watch List and announced that as many as 215 million followers of Christ throughout the world are being persecuted for their faith. Christians from Egypt, India and Vietnam traveled to the U.S. to attend the Open Doors press conference held at the National Press Club and to share their own experiences. CP caught up with the international group of believers, who only provided their first names for security reasons, following the press conference to learn more about the types of persecution they face. Egypt Tabitha, a 30-year-old Coptic Christian woman from Upper Egypt, told CP that the steady persecution of Christians in Egypt, which ranks as No. 17 on the World Watch List, is not a new phenomenon and has been prevalent since St. Mark spread Christianity to Egypt in the third century. Tabitha said that persecution in her home country has become an even bigger problem following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak and led to the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. "They burned their monasteries, they burned lots of churches, they have been burning since 2011," Tabitha said of the Muslim Brotherhood extremists. "They kicked out the Christians from their houses. They kidnapped Christian girls and they forced them to marry Muslim men. They abused them. Lots of crazy stuff happening to the girls." As for Tabitha and her family, who are shop owners, they know all too well what it is like to be persecuted by a radical Muslim. "There is a very aggressive man. He threatened me that he wants to pour chemical acid on my face," Tabitha explained. "He said he was going to kill my dad and make me and my brother orphans. He said, 'I want to kidnap you, your mom and your dad.'" Read more about the persecution of Christians on The Christian Post. If we want to understand the challenge of disintegrating sexual norms and the culture wars surrounding them, one of the most important things we need is history. This crisis did not just explode out of nowhere in the 1990s or even the 1960s. In Moral Combat, R. Marie Griffith, director of the John C. Danforth Center for Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, reviews a centurys worth of American cultural conflict over sexuality, fueled by a growing divide between religious subcultures. Her account is subtly biased, but readers will benefit from her clear presentation of the longer history and larger significance of our sexual conflicts. Griffith picks up the story in the aftermath of the conflict over the 19th Amendment. With womens suffrage enshrined in the Constitution, the nation had hardly caught its breath before it was embroiled in a series of political conflicts over sexuality. Suffrage was followed by a series of what we would now call culture wars over birth control laws, censorship of pornography, marriage across ethnic lines, Alfred Kinseys sex research, and sex education in schools. These led straight into the battles over abortion, sexual harassment, gay rights, and transgenderism that are still raging today. The first and most important takeaway from Moral Combat, then, is that the culture wars are at least a century old. Since the womens suffrage movement began, there has never been a time when political conflict over sex was not an important presence in American public life. The second takeaway is the centrality of sex to the culture wars. Other issues have been involved, of course. But there is a reason the controversy over abortion shot right to the center of public attention and stayed there, while the controversy over euthanasia remains at the margins. The moral question at stakethe sanctity of human life versus the freedom of human choiceis the same in both cases. Abortion, however, is about sex in a way euthanasia is not. Sex is at the center of the culture wars because sex is essential to religion and also (as the basis of the family) to politics. Conflicting approaches to sexuality, caused by different religious views, create political conflict because they produce different understandings of the family. The family is the institution that connects individuals to the wider social world, so any major change in the life of families implies some kind of major political change as a resultand vice versa. We see this today in debates about the definition of marriage, but it was just as true in debates about birth control laws in the 1920s or sex education in schools in the 1960s. At bottom, then, our political conflicts over sexuality are really religious conflicts. And for most of the century, they were not primarily conflicts between religion and irreligion, but between different kinds of religion. That is the third takeaway from Moral Combat. The growing political divide over sexuality is inseparable from a growing religious divide, one that began in the 19th century as a division between those who followed historic Christian teaching and those who followed modernist theologies. The religious nature of the conflict was less obvious in the 1920s. But Griffith shows how even at that time, public moral controversies revealed important differences in religious outlook. Battles over birth control were often, just underneath the surface, battles over Roman Catholicism. Later, modernist religious leaders criticized D. H. Lawrences pornographic novels but also found some redeeming merits in them. And they were embarrassed by the uncouth populism of Lawrences opponents. Meanwhile, Christian leaders grounded in historic and traditional theological commitments saw Lawrence simply as a purveyor of wickedness. The seeds of the 20th-century culture wars had been sown. Article continues below The religious nature of the conflict became clearer over the course of the century. And this increased clarity hardened and exacerbated the differences. The more that people grasped that religious values were at stake, the more polarization began feeding on itself. Subtle Bias Griffiths telling of this story is well-organized and thoroughly researched without being dry or pedantic. I enjoyed reading the book and learned a good deal. I especially appreciated her decision to devote significant attention to the central role of sexual anxiety in Americas congenital racism. Panic and horror at the specter of miscegenation (usually described in much less printable language) have been ever-present factors in Americas resistance to civil rights. Here, as elsewhere, politics and sexuality are inextricably linked because they both shape and are shaped by the institutions of marriage and family. I did find Griffiths account subtly but consistently biased in favor of the modernizers. To take a few examples: She bends over backward to rescue Margaret Sanger and her movement from their creepy enthusiasm for eugenics; Griffith delicately remarks that they were caught up in the eugenic ideas then common among the white middle and upper classes, which is a little like saying Al Capone was caught up in the glamorization of organized crime then common in Chicago. She mentions criticisms of Kinseys research methods without dwelling on them in great detail, producing a narrative in which Kinsey stands for honest and unbiased science against hysterical critics who want to cover up facts. Her history of abortion before the late 20th century is also lopsided, creating the impression that abortion wasnt really controversial until the upheaval of sex roles in modernity made it so. And her account of the same-sex-marriage debate downplays theological and philosophical differences, instead portraying a battle between one group conceiving of freedom as submission to clerical authority and another group espousing the freedom to love and behave ethically without fixating on gender roles. Perhaps the clearest instance of this bias is in the introductions summary of what motivated the traditional side of the cultural and religious divide. She argues that the primary motive was fear, and indeed, there is a reasonable case to be made for that view. But she says that what the traditionalists were afraid of was increasing womens freedom, encroaching religious or ethnic others, and Americas displacement as a great nation. To suggest that no other fears were involved is remarkably unfair. In light of the deep unhappiness of America after the sexual revolutionthe alienation and loneliness, the exploitation and human trafficking, the sexual impotence and frustration, the millions of betrayed children in broken homesits long past time to admit that if the traditionalists were wrong to panic and give way to their fears, they were not wrong in thinking we had much to be afraid of. I also thought Griffith neglected to follow up on one important aspect of her thesis. She tells us repeatedly that what began as a divide over particular moral issues gradually became a divide over the nature of modernity itself. The conflict, she argues, involved the authority to define the boundaries of Christianity and the relationship between that authority and Americas constitutional order. (In this regard, I found Griffiths treatment of Lawrences religious interest in sex particularly insightful. As she makes clear, Lawrence was no mere peddler of cheap smut but the avant-garde of a new religious veneration of sexual freedomone that would strongly influence modernist Christianity.) Article continues below But this thesis is undeveloped in Moral Combat, and that was a missed opportunity. I find it remarkable that Griffith tells us the conflict over the 19th Amendment was the critical opening battle of our century of culture war, but she devotes no space to describing it. She begins her story after that fateful conflict was already over. An exploration of the long, rancorous, and polarizing debate over womens suffrage would have made more clear all that was at stake in the history that followed. Fighting for Basic Principles We have culture wars in part because we have religious freedom, and in our religious diversity, we disagree about what is good. But we also have them because we have changed the role of the family in the political order. In some ways, our culture-war divide goes back to a deep fissure that was present from the beginning in our national foundations. Both sides of the debate over womens suffrage felt they were fighting for basic principles of the American political order. And in a sense, both were right. The American founders thought freedom would be dangerous if the political community was made up only of isolated individuals. A polity of deeply and organically connected people required making the family unit, not the individual, the basic building block of society. In the founders view, extending equal voting rights to women would make the autonomous individual the basis of social order. This would atomize the complex structure of the community, leaving only a sort of social dust bowlmillions of isolated individuals, capable of forming temporary attachments but never permanently bonded to one another. Subsequent history has shown us the dangers of atomization and social breakdown. Yet the classic American arguments for the freedom and equality of all people obviously apply to women as well as men. They are rational moral agents just as men are, so under the principles of the American order, it isas it always wasunjust to deny them equal rights. Thankfully, we are no longer willing to deny women the equal political rights to which they are entitled. But we no longer know how to build our social order on the family rather than on autonomous individuals, and that is a potentially fatal flaw. If we do not yet have a solution, our first job is to understand the nature of the problem. This requires serious attention to history, and in this, Griffiths volume will be a helpful resource. Greg Forster is director of the Oikonomia Network and a visiting assistant professor of faith and culture at Trinity International University. Yesterday in a meeting about immigration reform, President Donald Trump questioned why he should accept immigrants from shole countries like Haiti, El Salvador, and nations in Africa, instead of places like Norway. Even in the constant onslaught of news and tweets, this particular presidential remark contains several issues that are important for us to consider as Christians. For 15 years Ive lived in or traveled to Haiti as a development worker. On the eighth anniversary of Haitis devastating earthquake and in the midst of the ongoing congressional debate over immigration reform, here are six important points about the presidents comment: 1. He is naming the fact that life is hard in these countries. Daily life in Haiti is for many people a struggle to surviveeven without the crises of violence, political upheaval, earthquakes, hurricanes, and mudslides. To add some specifics, recently a detailed report came out on an alleged massacre by Haitian police officers near an Evangelical Bible School that Ive visited many times. On this earthquake anniversary, Im thinking about friends like the motorcycle taxi driver Ive ridden with hundreds of times. He lost siblings and dozens in his church who were crushed when the building collapsed during a prayer service. In Haiti, over 200,000 children are trapped in forced servitude, about a third of women report incidents of domestic violence, and families struggle to find good options for education. Yes, life is hard. Though the president put it in a crass way, we can pause to ensure we havent become numb to suffering of our brothers and sisters. 2. Theres a complex history behind the poverty and state of development in places like Haiti. While Trumps brief comment doesnt address how these countries came to their current state, we know that many external, exploitative factors influence conditions that make some countries poor and others rich. For example, this thread of tweets touches on how the slave trade, colonialism, and policies put in place by the United States and the United Nations have shaped Haitis history. Author Jonathan Katz insists that its not enough to note that countries like Haiti are poor while the US and Norway are rich; we must also ask ourselves why. When we take these historical elements into account, were rightly led toward repentance, instead of scorn. We can grow in self-awareness that leads to respectful and helpful partnering, instead of stumbling in with a white savior complex where were vulnerable to hurting instead of actually helping. 3. It implies the narrative that immigrants from certain countries take from American life rather than contributing to it. This assumption is important to call out because it has been repeatedly proven false. Economic studies show the positive contributions of, say, the Salvadoran community or Haitian community, who are younger than the immigrant population overall and more likely to be a part of the workforce. Nigerian immigrants are highly educated. Immigrants have helped to spur innovation, economic development, and growth within the US. Economist Michael Clemens has also shown that one of the most effective ways we can help people in poor countries is by letting immigrants come to the US. The immigrants benefit from the opportunities, the people in their home countries benefit from the remittances they are able to send home, and we in the US benefit from their contributions as hard-working, value-creating, tax-paying residents. This is true of the Haitians I know living in South Florida, and its the truer narrative about immigrants in general: Theyre contributors to our country. Article continues below 4.The Christian logic of love means that when people are struggling, we ask: How can we help? This may seem quaint, even naive, in the current national conversation, but as Christians we have to be guided by love of our vulnerable neighbor. The president is right about the difficulties of living in poor countries, and this should be extra motivation for us to continue to offer opportunities to those who have immigrated to our country. It should compel us to extend the temporary protected status (TPS) policy so that Salvadorans, Haitians, and others who have been here and contributing for many years dont have to return to countries with less financial opportunity, more instability, and more violence. With relatively low rates of unemployment in the US, its easy for us to help by letting these people stay and giving them the assurances and support they need for their families to thrive here. 5. As Christians, self-interest isnt our primary consideration when addressing immigration. God speaks to give us this directive in Leviticus (echoed in other passages in Scripture): When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God (19:3334, ESV). Our framework for immigration starts and ends with love. In between, there are hard policy questions to debate honestly and rigorously. Yes, its wise to consider security issues. And yes, our resources to help can be limited. In some cases, the best way to help refugees is to support them closer to their homes. We must be honest about constraints but motivated in our choice by love for our neighbor. Other motivations can guide us as Americans, but Scripture should dictate our motivations as Christians. 6. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can see ourselves as united with our immigrant neighbors as fellow children of God far more than divided by any national or ethnic differences. Im discouraged, rather than angry, when policy or other priorities keep our leaders and fellow Americans from viewing others this way. The vast majority of Haitians call Jesus their Lord and Savior, and they demonstrated their great generosity and faith following the devastating 2010 earthquake. Their country has given many gifts to the world and serves as a beacon of freedom, where slaves overthrew their colonists to achieve independence. Haitian volunteers fought in the American Revolution. The past few days Ive been emailing with a humanitarian leader in Haiti who wants to study in a program Im involved with at Wheaton Colleges Humanitarian Disaster Institute. Like so many others, shes dedicated to finding ways to serve others and improve her country. These are the Haitians I have been graced to know for the past 15 years. As Christians, we dont want to be put into a reactive state of panic, numbness, or despair with each policy or controversial comment, but we want to keep growing in thoughtfulness and faithfulness and respond in ways guided by truth and love. So lets pause at these comments. Acknowledge any hint of whats true, call out what is false, and search for the opportunity for Christlike compassion. Id hope that Americans, including those in power, would recognize the beauty of these countries and the contributions their immigrants make to our country. Our neighbors, who are especially vulnerable right now, deserve our continued welcome without disparagement and without hesitation. Kent Annan is a senior fellow at the Humanitarian Disaster Institute (Wheaton College), where he is helping to launch a new MA in Humanitarian and Disaster Leadership. He wrote After Shock about Haitis 2010 earthquake, his most recent book is Slow Kingdom Coming, and his forthcoming book is You Welcomed Me: Loving Our Immigrant and Refugee Neighbors As Ourselves. My future father-in-law perched on his knees, balancing a spoon of goo in the air and waiting for me to open my mouth. Sarita, pro ... ba ... lo, he encouraged. My Spanish was weak, but I knew he was saying Try it. Dont worry, Sarita. Is fine, my future mother-in-law assured me in measured English. I looked at this Guatemalan couple, so concerned about a cough Id developed visiting their country that theyd immediately whipped up a homemade concoction for me. I wished Billy, their son and my boyfriend, were there to translate or tell them to stop. But his status as an undocumented immigrant precluded international travel since he would not be allowed back into the United States once he left. So I was on my own. I closed my eyes, opened my mouth, and swallowed the mixture his dad kindly offered. I first met Billys parents en route to a city several hours away, where I was headed to learn Spanish for the summer. They greeted me with flowers. They welcomed me into their home, offered their bed for a post-flight nap, and warmed me with deliciously sugared coffee. They even volunteered to drive me to the bus station and help me find my way to my final destination. Since dating an undocumented immigrant, Id begun to recognize the prevalence of anti-immigrant sentiment in the US, particularly toward arrivals from south of the border, including Guatemalans. Now I was wrestling with the realization that my future in-laws would likely not receive the same warm welcome in my country as they had extended to me in theirs. This same tension is the driving force behind the story of the Good Samaritan, Christs familiar parable in Luke 10 about a passerby encountering an injured man. The Samaritan ignores his own agenda to offer the hurting man attention, medical care, shelter, and financial support. For many, the Good Samaritan serves as the ultimate example of biblical hospitality (the word hospitality, in fact, comes from the Greek philoxenia, or love to strangers). Just as the Samaritan reached out across cultural, ethnic, and religious lines, Christians, too, have often understood welcoming the stranger to mean extending hospitality to foreigners and newcomers. But in an era of refugee crises, terrorist attacks, and rising nationalism, many of us feel overwhelmed and unsure what welcome really looks like. Here is where the Good Samaritan story flips the script: Jesus invites us to learn hospitality from the stranger himself. While I grew up connecting with the Samaritan and aiming to model his example of kindness, Jesus Jewish listener would not have identified at all with him, a man from a people group despised by the Jews. So the Samaritan is both the storys hero and the embodiment of the other. This role reversal was a difficult pill for many Jewish listeners to swallow, especially when Jesus returned his original question: Who was the neighbor? M. Daniel Carroll R., in Christians at the Border, describes his answer this way: The scribe responds correctly, but he cannot bring himself to say, the Samaritan. The merciful person is simply called the one. When Jesus offered the looked-down-upon outsider as the example, Carroll writes, The people of God are taught about true faith through an encounter with one outside and rejected by their culture. As Americans consider how to welcome the stranger in a climate of fear, skepticism, and scapegoating, it may very well be those we consider to be outsiders whom God is using to demonstrate radical hospitality. Accepting welcome Marie Marquardt is a scholar-in-residence at Emory Universitys Candler School of Theology and board chair of El Refugio, a Georgia ministry that provides housing, meals, and support for family and friends visiting immigrant detainees. She has witnessed time and time again how the guests who stay at the El Refugio hospitality housethe people they aim to servedemonstrate an inspiring capacity to offer welcome. When a family is visiting detention for the first time, other guests offer a listening ear and council, ministering to one another as they process the detention of loved ones together. Marquardt describes the house as a space of mutual hospitality, recalling the profundity of God she says she has experienced through visitors prayers. Article continues below El Refugio also organizes volunteers to visit men in detention who have requested guests. Even in our visits, Marquardt says, we are preparing ourselves to accept their welcome. We are actual strangerswith no connectioncoming into their space. It is vulnerable for both parties. But I have found these visits to be absolutely transformative. When you create welcoming space, you receive love, and it changes you. The call to hospitality is an invitation to transformation, healing, and redemption. And while it can begin with simple acts of kindness and welcome, it invites us deeper into community with those on the margins. Anton Flores-Maisonet is the cofounder of Casa Alterna, a community of Christ-followers from Latin America and the United States devoted to serving others in their city of LaGrange, Georgia. Fellowship within marginalized communities reveals resiliency that runs deeper than suffering, says Flores-Maisonet, an advocate for sharing meals and ordinary life as a way to heal communities. Witnessing inexplicable joy and hope amidst unthinkable circumstances creates a healing and hopeful place for all. In the giving and receiving of hospitality, both the Samaritan and the victim in Jesus parable are invited to see the face of God in the other. They are beckoned to engagement that can lead to relationship. While many Christians are familiar with verses calling us to care for the poor and marginalized, this story reminds us of the remarkable capacity of the other to demonstrate hospitality as well. In our fearful world today, it is truly a countercultural proposala beautiful invitation both to welcome our immigrant and refugee neighbors and allow them to welcome us. As Christians, were called to do everything we can to resist acting out of fear, Marquardt says. Its the antithesis of hospitality. Billys parents applied for US tourist visas to attend our wedding, but they were both denied twice. The couple who had opened their home to me were not welcome in my homeland, and they were unable to attend their sons wedding. Eight years later, they applied again, and this time my mother-in-law was granted a visa. When we went to pick her up at the airport, I brought her flowers. After eight years of visiting her home, it was a simple, welcoming gesture that I had learned from her faithful example. Sarah Quezada is a writer living in a bicultural household in Atlanta. She has a masters in sociology and writes regularly at sarahquezada.com. She is the author of Love Undocumented: Risking Trust in a Fearful World (Herald Press, 2018). home World Cholera outbreak in Zambia prompts ban on church services and other gatherings The Zambian government has decided to ban church services and other gatherings in high-density residential areas in the nation's capital city of Lusaka in an attempt to curb the spread of cholera. Government ministers announced on Jan. 7 that gatherings of every nature, including church services, have been banned in areas most affected by the epidemic. The government also implemented restrictions in the movements of people in the cholera epicenters from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Bars and other businesses were only allowed to open between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. while markets and food outlets were shut down in most of the cities where cholera was detected. Additionally, schools have indefinitely suspended classes for students. In other areas, the Zambian bishops' conference has limited the number of Masses and have implemented an indefinite ban on handshakes of peace. The Archdiocese of Lusaka has canceled all church-sponsored programs, while the Seventh Day Adventist Church suspended all church gatherings and advised members to worship at home. On Jan. 8, representatives of three Christian communities in Zambia a the Catholic Church, the Council of Churches in Zambia, and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia a issued a statement expressing their grief over the cholera crisis. "Our hearts go to the many families who have lost their loved ones from the disease. 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 said, as reported by Catholic News Agency. "We support the efforts of other stakeholders in this battle against cholera and pledge ourselves to collaborate with government in addressing the epidemic," it continued. As of Jan. 9, an estimated 2,802 people throughout the country have been infected by cholera, including 66 people who have died from the disease. Recent investigations have found that the outbreak has been caused mainly by food contamination. Three restaurants have been shut down after the cholera bacterium was discovered in their establishments. The disease is known to cause vomiting and diarrhea, leading to severe dehydration that can be deadly if not treated early. Zambian defense forces have been ordered to clean up the streets of Lusaka to help control the epidemic. "I have directed all three wings of the Defence Force to join the Ministry of Health and the city fathers, Lusaka City Council to escalate efforts to minimize the spread of cholera in our capital city and the rest of the country," said President Edgar Lungu last month. The government has also announced that vaccines will be available for administration, with 2 million doses of the vaccine donated by the U.N. Children's Fund. home World North Korea ranked as most dangerous country for Christians for 17th consecutive year Persecution watchdog organization Open Doors USA has ranked North Korea on top of the 50 most dangerous countries for Christians for the 17th year in a row. On Wednesday, Open Doors released the annual World Watch List, which identifies the top 50 nations where Christians are most targeted. Life in North Korea remains extremely repressive, with an estimated 70,000 Christians believed to be imprisoned in labor camps. Afghanistan has been ranked as the second most dangerous country, jumping up one place since last year's ranking. "Afghanistan and North Korea nearly tied," said Open Doors President David Curry, according to CBN News. "Never before have the top two countries been so close in incidents. Both countries are extreme in intolerance and outright persecution of Christians in every area," he added. The report revealed that a total of 3,066 Christians have been killed last year, while 793 churches were attacked. As many as 215 million Christians across the world are being persecuted for their faith, according to Open Doors. Curry noted that Islamic extremism remains to be the "dominant driver of persecution, responsible for initiating oppression and conflict in 35 of the 50 countries on the list." Third on the list was Somalia, where Islam is the state religion and all citizens are expected to be Muslims. The other countries in the top 10 are Sudan, Pakistan, Eritrea, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran. India, which saw an increase in persecution of religious minorities due to Hindu nationalism, came in at 11th place, scoring 81 points on the persecution scale. Open Doors said that India's ranking was "one of the fastest and most increases we've seen." The plight of Christians has worsened in India since 2014 when the nation ranked 28th on the list. According to the report, 23,793 Christians were physically or mentally abused in India last year, more than the numbers abused in all the other countries included on the World Watch List put together. Nepal was a new addition to the list, coming in at 25th place. The sharp increase in persecution in the country has been attributed to the growing influence of Hindu extremists, who are behind the surge of religious nationalism that is also been seen in neighboring India. The report also highlighted the sexual harassment of Christian women, noting that each day, "six women are raped, sexually harassed or are forced into marriage to a Muslim under threat of death due to their Christian faith." "Research for the World Watch List documented 2,260 such incidences against women a and this number only covers those who had the courage to report such an incident, representing only a fraction of those actually raped and harassed in this way," the report said. Open Doors has documented the most oppressive and restrictive countries for Christians for more than 60 years in an effort to draw attention to the plight of persecuted believers. Chinese Export porcelain from The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller Highlights from the collection, with personal insights from the late David Rockefeller, and further contributions from Becky MacGuire, Senior Specialist in Chinese Export Art Aunt Lucy and Mother were devoted to one another and shared many interests, including ceramics, wrote David Rockefeller in 1992. While he was a student at Harvard, David frequently drove to Providence to have Sunday lunch with his aunt, who was Abby Aldrich Rockefellers older sister. She loved to show me around the large house she had inherited from my grandfather, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, he said, so I could see the treasures she had accumulated on her many trips to distant lands. Among those many treasures were Chinese Export dinner and dessert services, and models, which, David recalled, were kept in closets, nooks and crannies all over the house. After her death in 1955, Lucy Truman Aldrich left David and his wife Peggy several pieces. Peggy and I have always enjoyed Chinese Export porcelain David Rockefeller Davids father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was an avid collector of porcelain of the Ming and Kangxi dynasties, while Abby preferred the smaller, simpler pieces from earlier dynasties. A variety of ceramic pieces were used for decoration in the various family homes, and antique porcelain services were used on a regular basis for lunch and dinner. In Tarrytown or New York, for example, English, Continental or Chinese Export services were used on the table. The truly wonderful thing about Peggy and David Rockefellers Chinese Export, says Christie's specialist Becky MacGuire, is that it was appreciated not just for its quality or rarity but for how it could be used to enrich their surroundings, whether for entertaining or just in daily life. Some they bought together and others came to them from family members, adding yet another layer of meaning to their enjoyment. Peggy and David made their first purchase of an antique porcelain service in 1943, and subsequently enhanced their knowledge and collection through close relationships with London dealers such as Alfred Thomas (and, later, his son Peter) of J. Rochelle Thomas; Bernard Perret of Delomosne & Sons; and Hanns Weinberg of the Antique Porcelain Company. Selected Chinese Export highlights from The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller are presented below, of which a number will be on view at our Rockefeller Center galleries during Americana Week. 1 One of David Rockefellers first purchases after World War II This is one of the first items I bought from Blairman & Sons on my first trip to London after World War II, revealed David Rockefeller. Probably because I had always liked a pair of Chinese Export dogs which belonged to my mother, I was drawn to this pair of hares. The hares, which derive from European rather than Chinese models Eastern copyists particularly followed Meissen originals resided in a stairwell at the Rockefellers Hudson Pines home. 2 A dinner service that kick-started Peggy and Davids collection In 1951, when Peggy and I went together to London and stopped at J. Rochelle Thomas, we had almost no Export porcelain of our own, David Rockefeller revealed. We were delighted to find this beautiful dinner service, which we bought without hesitation. Since then, we have purchased a few additional pieces of the same pattern, including butter plates. This hard-paste porcelain service, the design of which may have been inspired by a European textile pattern, remained one of the couples favourite services. 3 Cherished mementoes of Aunt Lucy We were very pleased to be able to draw this pair of Chinese Export cows in the distribution of Aunt Lucys belongings in 1955, wrote David Rockefeller in Volume IV of the catalogue of the collection. He described Lucy Truman Aldrich as an intrepid traveller and someone who bought art everywhere she went often in remote spots at modest prices. Aunt Lucy often bought pieces for Abby and shipped them back in large crates to the Rockefellers home in New York. She accumulated a superb collection of antique porcelains over the course of her life, and, importantly, implanted a love ceramics in her nephew. Of these cows, David Rockefeller said, I remember them very well in [Aunt Lucys] home in Providence and always felt they had a great deal of charm. 4 A service that was variously owned by three Rockefeller brothers The voyages undertaken by Captain James Cook to the South Pacific in the 1770s aroused considerable interest among European botanists in Oriental flora. The so-called tobacco leaf pattern, however, may owe as much in its derivation to textile designs supplied to the East India Company as it does to any interest in plant life. This service, which is painted in the design traditionally referred to as the chrysanthemum version of the tobacco leaf pattern, and flowers, belonged to Lucy Truman Aldrich before being acquired by Nelson Rockefeller in the 1960s and 70s. Shortly before his death in 1979, Nelson sold it to his younger brother Laurance. In 1990, Laurance was considering selling the entire service when David and Peggy made him an offer. We bought virtually all of the chrysanthemum pattern, but did not take any pieces from either the pseudo-chrysanthemum or the wheel patterns, recalled David, as we did not think either of them was necessary for a handsome place setting. 5 A shared love of strong, vibrant colour The same love of strong, vibrant colour seen in Peggy and David Rockefellers incredible modern paintings is reflected in many of their ceramics, says Becky MacGuire. This fantastic pair of sauce tureens in the shape of nautilus shells are not only exuberantly modelled but also enriched with intense enamel colour. 6 Animals a favourite subject There is a love of diversity as well as an insatiable curiosity about the entire range of porcelain production, wrote dealer Deborah Gage of the Rockefellers collection. Animals were a favourite subject of Peggy and David Rockefeller and were well represented by a broad range of factories. Their Chinese Export animals are invariably high quality, but also with a decided charm, adds Becky MacGuire. 7 A lifetime of enjoyment Live like a Rockefeller An 18th-century unicorn chest John Hays, Deputy Chairman of Christies, explains what a rare Pennsylvanian chest purchased by David Rockefeller tells us about the nature of his collecting This unicorn chest from Pennsylvania first became associated with the Rockefeller dynasty in 1933. The piece was purchased to decorate a late 18th-century building in Colonial Williamsburg, the historic museum-town in Virginia that was restored thanks to the generosity of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., David Rockefellers father. Seven years previously, in the spring of 1926, Junior had taken the young David on a 10,000-mile tour of the United States, which included visits to Revolutionary and Civil War sites. When they stopped in Williamsburg, an enterprising local reverend named Dr W.A.R. Godwin took the opportunity to show the family around the town, which had been Virginia's capital before the revolution. Open a larger version of this image The Governors Palace in Colonial Williamsburg, once the home of Thomas Jefferson, photographed circa 1935 two years after the unicorn chest was acquired for the museum-town. Photo by Frank Nivison. Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center Reverend Godwin stopped in front of each dilapidated building, explaining its historical importance. Impressed, Junior soon offered his support, initiating a 30-year patronage that saw him donating $60 million to restore the town. That was the modest beginning of Fathers most significant project in historic restoration, David later wrote in Memoirs. [It was] a project that gave him as much pleasure as anything he did in the field of philanthropy during his lifetime. Around 1790, when this chest was made, one third of Pennsylvanias population was made up of German immigrants. As artists arrived from Europe they used inherited repertoires to develop regional styles throughout America, explains John Hays, Deputy Chairman of Christies in New York. This style of chest is particularly unique to southeastern Pennsylvania, around Berks County [about 200 miles from Colonial Williamsburg]. For collectors, being able to pinpoint exactly where an object came from is key. This example beautifully blends a long Northern European iconographical tradition of Gothic arches and unicorns with fraktur, a calligraphic folk art developed in Pennsylvania. The chests panels are like a window onto the late 18th century community of Berks County, the specialist enthuses. The 1790s saw a boom, as people began making their fortunes in farming and trade part of the genesis of America. But this chest shows how they retained their longstanding artistic traditions. Made in a regional workshop by a skilled master working alongside a team of immigrant pupils, it could have been commissioned by only the wealthiest members of the community. It is one of only around 15 unicorn chests known to have survived. In 1947 David revisited Williamsburg, where he learned that the chest was to be deaccessioned. David and his wife Peggy decided to purchase it and subsequently displayed it at Hudson Pines, their home in the Pocantico Hills outside New York. Deep down, David was a pure, unbridled collector, and his love of folk art epitomises how grounded he was This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Offshore driller Noble Corp. abruptly announced the retirement of longtime Chairman and CEO David Williams, who's immediately replaced by Executive Vice President Julie Robertson. London-based Noble, which primarily operates out of Sugar Land, has struggled during the oil bust - especially as the offshore sector continues to flounder - but Noble has maintained its position as one of the leading offshore drillers worldwide. Robertson is a University of Texas graduate who's worked at Noble and its subsidiaries for nearly 40 years. She was just appointed to the board in September, setting up her promotion this week to chairwoman and CEO. Robertson had served as an executive vice president over human resources and more since 2006. Noble's history is in the Houston area and it continues to base its main operations locally. However, Noble moved its headquarters in 2002 to the Cayman Islands for tax purposes through inversion. Since then, Noble has shifted its domicile to Switzerland and then to the United Kingdom. Williams, a Texas A&M University graduate, had led Noble for a decade. He stepped down immediately and will serve in an advisory role through February before retiring, the company said. Williams said he expects a seamless transition. "Julie's record of contribution to the company in many capacities over more than 38 years of service and her thorough understanding of the offshore drilling industry combine to create an exceptional foundation for strong leadership," Williams said in the announcement. "Her comprehensive skill set, along with the excellent management team already in place, should drive further achievements and fortify Noble's outstanding industry position." Much of the offshore drilling industry has begun consolidating during the downturn, and energy analysts have speculated whether Noble is in line for some kind of merger in the future. Robertson said she's honored to step into the new role. "Noble is in an advantageous position as we enter the next phase of the industry cycle with high-specification assets, a substantial backlog, strong customer relationships and world class employees," she added. "As a team, we will continue to build on our established record of client-focused operational excellence." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, waded into the bumpy waters of partisan politics Thursday, announcing that it will use some of its savings under the new tax bill to provide wage increases, bonuses and expanded benefits to its hourly workers. The giant retailer, which faces stiff competition for qualified workers in a tight labor market and pressure from unions to increase wages, said it would raise its minimum starting wage to $11 an hour, from $9. It will also expand maternity and family leave benefits, and give bonuses of up to $1,000 to eligible employees. By tying its pay increases to the tax break it expects to receive, as other large companies have done in recent weeks, Walmart provided support for claims by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress that the new tax law will benefit not just the wealthy but also working-class Americans. But within hours, Walmart had undercut its triumphal message when news leaked it was closing 63 of its Sam's Club stores. Sam's Club, a retail chain offering memberships, was soon trending on Twitter, and labor groups and Senate Democrats seized on the news to question Walmart's motives and criticize the tax bill as failing to protect low-wage workers. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which hopes to represent Walmart's non-unionized workforce, called the wage increase a "public relations stunt" meant to distract from the closings. Senate Democrats, citing the closings and a $20 billion stock buyback announced last fall, said in a statement: "The real response of companies like Walmart to the Republican tax bill has been to ensure that its already high-paid executives and wealthy shareholders reap the overwhelming benefit, leaving thousands of workers standing in the cold without jobs." "They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory," said Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University. "Walmart made a smart move in increasing wages and investing in human capital. Where they screwed up was politicizing it." Walmart, the country's single largest corporate taxpayer, said Thursday that it was still determining how much it would save as a result of the new law. Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit research group, said it was difficult to forecast precisely how much Walmart would save. But based on the company's average annual U.S. earnings over the past five years, he said, savings from the cut in the corporate tax rate alone could be $2.2 billion a year, or 40 percent. Walmart said the wage increases and bonuses would cost the company roughly $700 million. "Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. Walmart started the day with a celebratory message, with its early morning announcement about wage and benefit enhancements. Even some critics were impressed with some of Walmart's changes - particularly in expanding maternity and parental leave. Full-time hourly employees will receive 10 weeks of maternity leave and six weeks of paid parental leave. Those workers previously received up to eight weeks of maternity leave at half-pay, and were not entitled to parental leave. The expanded leave benefits are particularly significant, putting shelf-stockers and cashiers on the same footing as many white-collar, college-educated workers in corporate America. Our Walmart, a labor group, said that action on wage increases and maternity leave was a "substantial step, but still falls short of what all Walmart employees need to be able to provide for our families." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Gloria Trevi and Alejandra Guzman are bringing their record-breaking rivalry back to the Houston area. The pair's Versus World Tour returns March 9 to Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land. Tickets are $109.95-$500 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Jan. 19 via Ticketmaster. DIVA TO DIVA: The parallel careers of Gloria Trevi and Alejandra Guzman Trevi and Guzman are Mexican rock icons who have led parallel careers marked by anthemic hits, adoring crowds and fits of controversy. They've both retained their edges and their draws as live entertainers for almost three decades. Now Playing: Trending Entertainment Videos Video: Houston Chronicle The Versus World Tour made its first stop here in July at Smart Financial Centre, At the time, I called it "an empowering celebration of music, gender and culture." Don't miss it this time around. Trevi and Guzman onstage together is truly a historic event. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 5 of 5 Friday afternoon John Mangum was announced as the next Margaret Alkek Williams Executive Director/CEO Chair of the Houston Symphony. Mangum replaces Mark C. Hanson, who departed last summer to work at the San Francisco Symphony. Though his new post was announced Friday, Mangum will begin work on April 16. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner will discuss Hurricane Harvey relief efforts at a press conference scheduled for Friday afternoon, according to the senator's press office. The two also plan to discuss the tax relief legislation Cruz sponsored that would help storm victims. The proposal was signed into law in late 2017. Jose R. Gonzalez A 16-year-old teen was shot on Thursday afternoon after getting off a bus in south Houston, according to the Houston Police Department. The unidentified teen was shot around 4:35 p.m. in the 12800 block of Cullen Boulevard and taken to Ben Taub General Hospital in stable condition, police said. Craft beer is so popular in Houston right now, that it's hard to find a less-than-crowded bar on any given weeknight. Whether it's a beer cellar, a brewery or an underground downtown favorite, Houston bars make and serve some of the finest craft brews. Hispanics in the United States grew more financially optimistic during last year and towards 2018, but a better economy didn't improve their lack of support for President Trump, according to findings from a new pool. A new national Hispanic Consumer Sentiment Index published on Thursday by the Florida Atlantic University's College of Business indicated that Latinos consistently expressed to be financially "better off than a year ago" during 2017, with a range of 68% to 65% among the four quarters. The HCSI closed 2017 with a score of 93.5, up 1.5 points from the third quarter of that year and up 3.6 points from the first quarter, the same source said. See the infographics: This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Show More Show Less 3 of 3 As potential causes that may be fueling the Hispanic confidence, the University mentioned pocketbook issues like low prices of gas at the pump. The economic optimism of Hispanic, however, doesn't seem to be related to their political perception about the President, who has taken credit for the economic improvement of the country since he won the election. "Hispanics approval rating of President Trump continues to drop," the survey's report said. During the last quarter, it dropped to 31%, down 2 points from the previous quarter, which was 33%. Overall, the Hispanic approval of the president dropped 9 points by the last quarter of 2017 compared to the first one. The trend shown in this pool is similar to another one published on Wednesday that was quoted by the president in a tweet: The President quoted the Quinnipiac Poll accurately, which also said that voters attributed the bright economic outlook more to the previous U.S. President Barack Obama than to Trump. That Poll found that "49 percent of voters say former President Barack Obama is more responsible for the state of the economy, while 40 percent say Trump is more responsible." Olivia.Tallet@chron.com Twitter: @oliviaptallet The two roving, vicious dogs are gone, but Kathleen Colatta hesitates now every time she steps out her front door. According to Colatta, she and other residents in her Clear Lake neighborhood are anxious following two Dec. 23 incidents that involved the two dogs, which were caught by officials with Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care that day and later euthanized. Two attacks - one in which the dogs bit a resident and injured his pet dog and another in which they severely injured another pet dog - occurred on that day within a space of hours in and around the Middlebrook, Oakbrook and Brookforest subdivisions. The pet that was injured in the second attack had to be euthanized because of its injuries. Attempts were unsuccessful to identity the resident who was bitten and the other one whose dog was attacked. After capturing the roaming dogs, which were described as being a pit bull mix and perhaps from the same litter, BARC authorities patrolled the area and found no other dogs running loose. BARC division manager Jarrad Mears said officials patrolled the area for days trying to identify the owner of the two dogs that made the attacks. "We tried a search because we want to be able to hold the owners accountable, but in this case, because there was no owner, they were booked in as stray dogs," he said. "Obviously those dogs belonged to somebody at some point, and the owner was negligent." Mears believes the attacks were isolated incidents. "We typically don't have issues in Clear Lake. It's not a problem area for stray or loose dogs, and so this was just an unfortunate situation," he said. But residents remain concerned and frustrated, said Colatta, alluding to separate incidents involving loose dogs in recent months. "We have people that won't walk in the neighborhood anymore because they're afraid," she said. Colatta lives a few streets from where the first incident occurred. According to Mears, the two dogs appeared at a residence on Sweet Cicely Court where one of them bit a resident and injured the resident's dog. The second incident occurred at Parksley Drive, where the pet dog was mauled. The dogs in the attacks were determined to be ages 2 and 4 and were not microchipped. If BARC had been able to locate the owners, Mears said, the person who was bitten and the owner of the dog that was mauled could have sued them, which can be a long process. "That (civil case) is something that animal control does not get involved in," Mears said. "It's a civil suit because animals are considered property in the state of Texas." If a dog is declared dangerous in a civil action, that owner must comply with a set of regulations - the owner is required to have a $100,000 worth of liability insurance on the dog, construct a 6-foot fence, and muzzle and leash the dog when it is walked. The city is concerned about loose dogs as a hazard to public safety, but it can only do so much, Mears asid. "The city doesn't have animal control officers sitting on every corner; so our capability of emergency response is nil," Mears said. Mears said that most strays picked up by BARC are adoptable, and euthanasia occurs only when the animal is deemed too dangerous or sick, which is the case for about 15 percent of the animals. A state ordinance requires that any animals picked up by BARC be given at least 72 hours to be claimed by its owner. If the animal has an identifier like a tag or chip, that time is extended to six days. Out of the 26,000 dogs picked up by the city in 2017, more than 84 percent were adopted, Mears said. The adoption rate has been rising for several years, he said. "We try and remain vigilant and pick up animals, but animal control is overwhelmed," Mears said. It boils down to owner responsibility, Mears said. "Everybody knows not to let their dogs loose, that's a common courtesy thing," he said. "Unfortunately, there are people out there who just don't care." For information on BARC Animal and Adoption services, visit www.houstontx.gov and www.adoptapet.com. Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle Houston-based Citgo Petroleum said its new president, Asdrubal Chavez, has arrived in the city's headquarters amid ongoing controversies regarding the arrests of the company's previous leadership team in Venezuela late last year. Chavez, a cousin of the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. was installed as the new president at the end of November by current Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Citgo is a subsidiary of the state oil company in Venezuela, which is mired in economic and political turmoil. A dedication ceremony will take place Sunday, Jan. 14 for the just-opened Stockdick Junior High, the 15th junior high campus in the Katy Independent School District. The Katy ISD Board of Trustees, district Superintendent Lance Hindt will welcome "hundreds" of students, staffers and community members to the campus at 4777 Peek Road. Area officials are hoping a recent trip to South Korea will enhance business relationships on an international scale. Walker Zulkoski, director of the NGage economic development group, joined Gov. Pete Ricketts and others on the trip. On Tuesday evening, the group met with approximately 40 representatives from the South Korean business community at a reception hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. During the reception, a press release stated that Ricketts welcomed Korean guests via a recorded address and invited them to visit Nebraska and explore opportunities for business and investment. Members of the trade delegation also had the opportunity to pitch Nebraska communities as potential locations for investment from Korean companies. Zulkosksi said that at least one company was looking to expand to the American Midwest, and Nebraska is now on its radar. Weve seen quite a bit of foreign direct investment with so many companies in our industrial park already, Zulkoski said. Even Rare Earth Salts does international stuff. We dont really have any representation from Korea and if other companies can be successful in Beatrice, why not Korean companies? The point of this was to open that door and see where that goes. Korea imports approximately $517 million worth of goods from Nebraska, making it the states fifth largest trading partner. In April 2015, Ricketts announced the opening of the first Korean company offices at NIC. FDMR Inc. President Suji Park established operations in Nebraska to partner with the University Food Processing Center to develop market-ready bulgogi products and complete final product development and design for Korean food products sold in the United States. South Korea has been a strong international partner of Nebraskas for years, Ricketts said in a press release. Shared values of hard work and loyalty have cultivated a strong and prosperous relationship. As our fifth-largest export market, South Korea provides numerous opportunities for Nebraskans every year, and we are working to grow trade opportunities and partnerships. Zulkoski said the purpose of the trip was to build relationships with foreign companies, a goal he and NGage will continue working toward. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Police Show More Show Less 3 of 3 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. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Like four other communities along the Gulf Coast, the Pleasantville neighborhood on Houston's east side is receiving some expert support to help residents address longstanding environmental justice issues. The planned 1940s development that placed black war veterans into home ownership faced flooding from Port of Houston dredging in the 1950s, a massive hazardous materials fire in the 1990s, and ongoing pollution concerns from plant emissions to this day. Under a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation, a historically black college environmental consortium including Texas Southern University will invest resources and expertise in port cities in five states. In addition to Pleasantville and the 9th Ward in New Orleans, the project will help communities in Gulfport, Miss., Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla. fight health and environmental inequities. The three-hour meeting begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13 at the Judson Robinson Sr. park and community center, 1422 Ledwicke, 77029. "The idea of participating with the consortium aligned very well with our vision and mission statement," said Bridgette Murray, founder of the collaborating Pleasantville community organization and the area's super neighborhood president. "This is truly about grassroots activities where residents identify what their issues are and work collectively to try to resolve or mitigate those issues." Murray founded Achieving Community Tasks Successfully known as ACTS in 2013 to increase community engagement and address environmental burdens. Pleasantville, which is one mile from the Port of Houston, has about 1,100 residences and a home ownership rate exceeding 70 percent, the retired nurse said. There also are specific issues surrounding access to resources and encroaching potential hazards. "We have railroad tracks at two of the four entrances to our community," Murray said. "We are a food desert. We are about 5 miles from the closest grocer." The consortium initiative has two co-principal investigators: Robert Bullard, a TSU distinguished professor and sociologist who is known as the father of environmental justice, and Beverly Wright, a Dillard University professor and founder of the New Orleans-based Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. The project focuses on addressing social inequality, health equity and the well-being of children and families by harnessing the expertise of black college experts in public health, urban planning, law, nursing, environmental science and other disciplines. "There is no other initiative like this. The community could request a health survey or mapping of pollution or identifying food deserts, pollution hot spots, flood maps and insurance rates," Bullard said. "Our goal is also to get additional funding to support the organizations in a more robust way so that the organizations can hire one staff person because these organizations do not have any staff." Initial meetings like the one Saturday in Pleasantville help communities determine their major needs and set goals. "These are exciting times because with funding streams from the federal government shrinking, it makes it even more important that our community-based organizations and our black colleges step in to begin to address some of these legacy issues," Bullard said. "It's about training a new generation of leaders to work on these issues that have been very hard to solve." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A Fort Bend death row prisoner scheduled for execution in February for his role in a plot to kill his own family is begging for a reprieve in a request bolstered by 58 letters of support - including seven fellow death row prisoners. Thomas "Bart" Whitaker is slated to die on Feb. 22 for the 2003 slayings of his mother and younger brother, who the Sugar Land man had killed in a murder-for-hire scheme aimed at snagging a hefty $1 million inheritance. The attack wounded Whitaker's father, who has since fought against his son's death sentence and serves as the centerpiece of the commutation request now before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. "There is only one person on Earth who is intimate with the murderous attack, the lives and deaths of the other victims, and the life of Thomas Whitaker - Mr. Whitaker's father, Kent. Kent was there," the condemned man's attorneys wrote in their petition. Now Playing: Here are 5 facts to know about the Texas death penalty. Video: Houston Chronicle "For the rest of us, the case against commutation to a life sentence seems clear. We can't forgive; we have no sympathy. But clemency is not about something so simple as sympathy or as formidable as forgiveness." The petition describes the deaths in graphic detail, draws comparisons to the story of Cain and Abel and lays out a scene of the grieving father on his knees begging prosecutors to spare his son. But Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey defended the decision to continue pursuing the state's harshest punishment and pushed back against Whitaker's petition for clemency. "Bart Whitaker is a master manipulator of reality," he said. "And this approach doesn't surprise me at all." The 2003 killings took place just after celebratory dinner marking Whitaker's supposed graduation from Sam Houston State University - a milestone that never happened. Before the ruse of a dinner, Whitaker had arranged for two friends to wait at the family home for a burglary set-up. When the family of four returned home from the restaurant, a gunman opened fire as they walked through the door, killing 51-year-old Patricia Whitaker and 19-year-old Kevin. Afterward, as police probed the killings, Whitaker stole $10,000 from his father and fled to Mexico. When authorities picked him up 15 months later, his father hired an attorney to argue against the capital case. The pair of slayings came after three years of planning and at least one previous murder attempt, according to court papers. Triggerman Chris Brashear pleaded guilty to murder a decade ago and took a life sentence, while the getaway driver - Steve Champagne - agreed to a 15-year plea deal. Over his father's protestations, Whitaker was sentenced to death. But in the intervening years, his attorneys argue in Wednesday's petition, he's had an awakening described by other death row inmates, teachers, extended family and international pen pals. "Of all the people I have met over the years Thomas Whitaker is the person I believe deserves clemency the most," wrote death row inmate William Speer, who described him as "one of the best-liked inmates" who has "worked the hardest" to rehabilitate himself. "Killing him would be a crime, because the system needs men like him out on the farms keeping everyone calm and looking forward," Speer wrote. "Please give him another chance." Healey was not impressed to hear of Whitaker's letters from fellow prisoners. "What a noble group of supporters," he said. The decision to seek death over Kent Whitaker's objections, he said, stemmed from the need to represent "society as a whole" instead of solely weighing the opinions of the victims' family. "My conscience and that of the prosecutors, I'm certain, has been clear." 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. SAN ANTONIO - A 6-year-old boy who was shot several times and was the last victim still hospitalized following the Nov. 5 church massacre in Sutherland Springs left the hospital for home Thursday, riding home in a fire truck. Ryland Ward rode in the fire truck from University Medical Center in San Antonio 30 miles to his home in Sutherland Springs, passing by the scene of the shooting that left more than two dozen worshippers at the First Baptist Church dead and about 20 others wounded. The attacker, Devin Patrick Kelley, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Jerry Baker/Freelance The Texas Department of Transportation will be taking public comment at two meetings over the proposed widening of the 17-mile stretch of FM 2910 between Texas 249 and U.S. 290. The construction project would widen FM 2920 to four lanes from the current two lanes between U.S. 290 to Cypress Rosehill Road. 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. A man was shot in the road near a Meyerland apartment complex late Thursday night. The 29-year-old flagged down a Houston Fire Department employee and told them he'd been shot about 10:30 p.m in the road at The Villages at Meyerland apartment complex. The man was immediately taken to the hospital, but died during surgery, said Detective Kyle Heaverlo. Investigators aren't sure if the man even lived at the apartment complex, Heaverlo said. "We don't know what the motive was," Heaverlo said. "We don't know if it's drug-related, gang-related, if there was a robbery that went down. We don't know--we don't have any answers. So we are asking the public if anybody knows anything or hears anything to please call Crime Stoppers to help us out, see if we can get some answers for the family that lost their loved one last night." Crime Stoppers can be reached at 713-521-4600. When Ethan Buss turned 10, he didnt want an Xbox or a PS4, or any presents, really. Ethan just wanted to help people. His birthday party was originally going to be a small get-together for friends and family, with the goal of raising money for hurricane relief. But plans changed when the party grew much larger, and eventually, the entire community was invited to Ethans birthday party at Riskys in Beatrice on Oct. 29. Ethan ended up raising more than $5,000 to help people hit hard by last year's hurricanes. As a way of recognizing his work and generosity, the American Legion Auxiliary of Beatrice awarded him with their Good Deed Award. The Good Deed Award is given to children whose positive actions do something to give back to the community. Whether its donating hair to Locks of Love, organizing a canned food drive or, in Ethans case, raising enough money to help more than 2,000 people, the Good Deed Award represents the Auxiliarys motto of service not self and the award comes signed by the American Legion Auxiliarys national president, Diane Duscheck. The American Legion Auxiliary had heard about Ethans fundraiser, according to Ethans mother, Amber Shufeldt. The Auxiliary wasn't able to send any representatives to the spaghetti feed at Riskysduring which Ethan and his friends personally served dinner. The Auxiliary did, however, send along a check for $100 to help with the effort. The dinner raised $5,000 for the Red Cross, which then used the money to purchase 2,000 hygiene kits for disaster victims. A few days later, Shufeldt got a call from Marian Melcher with the Beatrice American Legion Auxiliary, asking if they could nominate Ethan for the award. That was the last Shufeldt had heard about it until recently. I kind of had forgotten about it, she said. They called us a week or two ago and said that he was selected for that award. This Monday, the group presented Ethan with the award and thanked him for his contribution to those in need. Over the last few months, Ethan has gotten a lot of media attention, Shufeldt said, from newspapers, radio and even TV, but hes been pretty unfazed by the whole thing. Shufeldt said that Ethans a smart kid, but shes not sure if he understands all the attention, but said its not slowing him down. He is very, just genuine, Shufeldt said. Just a very kind, genuine person. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A Houston firm that conducts seabed exploration can earn $70 million if it finds missing flight MH370 or its black box in three months. Ocean Infinity can earn the payout from the Malaysian government in what is being called a "no cure, no fee" deal. This is a new deal following search efforts the company had already engaged in. "Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said there was an 85 percent chance of finding the debris in a new 9,653 square mile area -- roughly the size of Vermont -- identified by expert," CBS News reported. READ MORE: South African teen finds possible MH370 plane debris The plane went missing on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. There were 239 people on board. Now Playing: Malaysia has signed a deal to pay a US seabed exploration firm up to $70 million if it finds the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft MH370 within 90 days of embarking on a new search in the Southern Indian ocean. The disappearance of the aircraft en route from Kuala Lumpu to Beijing in March 2014 with 239 people aboard ranks among the world's greatest aviation mysteries. Australia, China and Malaysia ended a fruitless $157 million search of a 120,000 sq. km area in January last year, despite investigators urging the search to be extended to a 25,000-square-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. The search will begin on January, 17th. 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. 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. 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. Video: Euronews Ocean Infinity can earn "$20 million for 1,930 square miles successfully searched, $30 million for 5,790 sq. miles, $50 million for 9,653 sq. miles and $70 million if the plane or recorders are found beyond the identified area," CBS added. So far the governments of Malaysia, Australia, and China have spent $200 million combined trying to find the missing plane, Flying Magazine reported. Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett called his company "well suited to the task" of finding the missing plane. "I wish our team the best of luck in their endeavors and sincerely hope that we will be able to play a part in providing some answers to the many people affected by this tragedy," Plunkett said in a statement on the company's website. Ocean Infinity will conduct the search using up to eight autonomous underwater vehicles. Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on twitter at @fernalfonso. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 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 The two men who died in a fiery accident Wednesday night on the South Side have been identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office. Christian Adam Vasquez, 22, and Christopher Talamantez, 25, were identified as the men in the car that caught fire after it was rear-ended at about 8 p.m. while heading north on Interstate 35 just south of Loop 410, according to the medical examiner. Vasquez was identified on Thursday, Talamantez on Friday. A San Antonio woman is cautioning others after she captured a video of a suspicious person staring into her window. On Wednesday, Noel Bracy shared on her Facebook page surveillance footage, which was recorded outside her apartment in the 12200 block of Vance Jackson Road. "Ladies- please listen to your instincts, even if others do not listen to you," Bracy wrote on the public post. "After weeks of thinking that I was crazy ... I caught the man that has been watching me from outside my window on camera." RELATED: Suspect allegedly trafficked minor in Bexar County, sexually assaulted her in front of witness Now Playing: A San Antonio woman is asking other women in town to be aware of a suspicious person she caught on camera staring into her windows. Video: San Antonio Express-News The brief 9-second video shows a man, who is wearing a hoodie, staring into the window. He appears to notice the camera before walking off. "He came back and stole my camera, but I had the footage via app," Bracy wrote. Bracy said the man has been watching her for at least three weeks. She reported the incident to San Antonio police. An official confirmed a report was taken but said it was not available to release on Thursday. Anyone with information about the incident can contact police at 210-207-7273. Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Bensalem Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Bensalem Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3 A Pennsylvania woman has been arrested and charged with possession with intent to deliver narcotics after she left a backpack full of heroin in a middle school parking lot. According to ABC 6, Natasha Willis, 26, admitted to leaving the backpack, which held four bricks of the narcotic in the rear lot of the school. NEW YORK - A Bangladeshi immigrant recovering from injuries suffered in the failed pipe bombing of the New York subway system pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges Thursday. Akayed Ullah, 27, entered the plea after he was indicted a day earlier on charges he provided material support to a terrorist organization and used a weapon of mass destruction. Ullah was the only person seriously hurt when the bomb went off Dec. 11 in a corridor linking the subway to Manhattan's Port Authority bus terminal. U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan asked Ullah how he wanted to plead to the six-count indictment. Ullah responded: "At this moment, not guilty." His court-appointed attorney, Amy Gallicchio, asked Sullivan if he could intervene to speed medical care to Ullah at the lockup next to the courthouse in lower Manhattan. She said Ullah recently had some stitches removed but had others that were still causing him a "great deal of discomfort." And she said he needed some of the dressing on his wounds changed. He seemed to walk gingerly to his seat before the hearing. The judge said she should make her requests first of prison authorities and return to the judge only if they don't respond. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Turner said evidence Ullah will face at a trial likely to last only a week or two includes surveillance video of him detonating the bomb, along with photographs of bomb components on him and elsewhere. He said other evidence includes Ullah's post-arrest statements, FBI laboratory reports on fingerprints and other forensic evidence along with materials gathered during searches of locations where Ullah stored his laptop and other personal items. The judge said he may set a trial date at the next hearing, which was set for April 13. Prosecutors said Ullah wanted to cause carnage to avenge U.S. aggression toward the Islamic State group. The pipe bomb never fully exploded. CAROLINA, Puerto Rico - Before the sun rose on the first day of 2018, someone called 911 to report the charred, bullet-riddled body of a man with a snakelike tattoo on his left hand, lying beside a road in the Puerto Rican town of Vega Baja. The next day, two men were found dead with their feet and hands bound in Bayamon, a working-class city southwest of the capital. Another man was shot to death before dawn in nearby Vega Baja while trying to stop thieves from stealing his generator. Thirty-two people have been slain in Puerto Rico in the first 11 days of the year, double the number killed over the same period in 2017. If the surge proves to be more than just a temporary blip, January could be the most homicidal month on the island in at least two years, adding a dangerous new element to the island's recovery from Hurricane Maria. While the number of homicides did not immediately spike in the weeks after the hurricane struck on Sept. 20, police and independent experts say many killings appear at least partly related to its aftereffects. The storm has plunged much of the island into darkness, increased economic hardship and contributed to a sick-out by police, all fueling lawlessness. What's more, officials say a turf war has broken out among drug gangs looking to grab territory after the storm's disruption. "Hurricanes affect everyone, including criminals," criminologist Jose Raul Cepeda said. Already bankrupt, the island's overwhelmed government has fallen behind with millions of dollars in overtime payments owed to police officers, who have begun calling in sick in big numbers to protest. The sick-out has taken about 2,000 police off the street each day in a territory that has 13,600 officers. It has forced more than a dozen police stations to close for several hours to a couple of days during the holiday period because of a lack of officers. No arrests have been made in the 32 killings this year. Maria, a Category 4 storm, destroyed much of the island's electrical grid. For those police on duty, the streets are darker and more dangerous because power has been restored to only 60 percent of customers in the U.S. territory. Drug gangs are fighting to re-establish territory they lost in the disruption from Maria, which pushed thousands from their homes and left entire neighborhoods uninhabitable for weeks. Police Chief Michelle Hernandez resigned Monday after only a year on the job, and local and federal authorities are rushing from meeting to meeting to debate how to best protect 3.3 million Puerto Ricans. Puerto Rico's homicide rate is roughly 20 killings per 100,000 residents, compared with 3.7 per 100,000 residents on the U.S. mainland. In the last two years, Puerto Rico has seen an average of 56 homicides a month, a rate that held through December. Then after New Year's, the killings started accelerating. WASHINGTON - 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." 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. The president 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. QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador announced Thursday that it had granted citizenship to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks co-founder who has been living in a tiny room in the South American country's London embassy since seeking political asylum in 2012. It was an extraordinary development in the prolonged diplomatic standoff, and came only hours after Britain said it had rejected a request by Ecuador to grant Assange, 46, diplomatic immunity so he could leave the embassy. "Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement, adding that Britain was not in talks with Ecuador about the matter. Assange sought refuge in the embassy in June 2012 after Sweden sought to have him arrested in connection with allegations of rape and assault in that country. Sweden is no longer seeking his extradition, but Assange has refused to leave. He says he fears Britain would extradite him to the United States to face charges relating to his involvement in multiple releases of documents - including the 2010 publication of leaked State Department diplomatic cables - that U.S. officials say have damaged national security. British police say he is subject to arrest on charges of jumping bail. And there is a strong possibility the United States has issued a secret arrest and extradition warrant for Assange in connection with his assistance to Chelsea Manning, the Army private who was convicted of revealing state secrets. Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, said Tuesday that it was looking for a third-party mediator who could broker a deal to allow Assange to leave the embassy. On Thursday, Espinosa said Assange had applied for citizenship Sept. 16 and been granted it Dec. 12. "What naturalization does is provide the asylum-seeker another layer of protection," she said. She said Ecuador formally requested that Assange be given diplomatic status Dec. 20 and that Britain rejected the request the following day. On Thursday, Espinosa said Ecuador was exploring a variety of possible resolutions to the dispute. She mentioned "dialogue with the United Kingdom" and mediation by other states or international organizations that could "facilitate a just, lasting and dignified resolution for all the involved parties." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AUSTIN Texas' disputed U.S. and state House maps will come under an election-year review by the U.S. Supreme Court in a nationally-followed case that alleges racial discrimination by the state Legislature. The justices agreed Friday to review a lower-court ruling that took issue with a pair of U.S. House districts and several state House districts. The Republican-drawn maps hotly disputed by Democrats have muddled through the courts for three election cycles amid challenges that several of the districts were drawn in a way that diluted voting power for Latino and African American voters. "They didn't just cheat to get an edge in a silly game, they silenced the voices minorities at the ballot box," said Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa, who said the maps are an example of Republicans "stacking the deck" against people of color. Legal fights over redistricting have been common for decades in Texas and many other states, regardless of which party is in power. Democrats reigned in Texas for more than a century after the Civil War and Republicans challenged them. Republicans took over just more than 20 years ago in Texas, so they control redistricting now, and the Democrats challenge their maps. The battle is important because redistricting literally is the process of drawing political boundaries, which shape the makeup of state legislatures and Congress once each decade. In a set of cases that could reshape the way American elections are held, the Supreme Court already has agreed to look at allegations of partisan gerrymandering in the congressional redistricting maps of Democrats in Maryland and in the state redistricting maps of Republicans in Wisconsin. Another case from North Carolina also could be headed for the high court after a panel of federal judges earlier this week struck down that state's congressional districts as a partisan gerrymander. After decades of dispute over redistricting and gerrymandering, the Supreme Court appears increasingly likely to clarify what's legal when lawmakers draw up political boundaries for state and federal elected office. "This is a big case with big repercussions for Texas and beyond that involves a bunch of hard issues in redistricting," said Justin Levitt, a law professor from the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "The state has a demonstrated history of not doing real well." The decision to hear the Texas case was expected among people in legal and political circles after the high court blocked two lower court rulings last fall that required the state to redraw some congressional and state House district lines the lower courts found discriminatory against minorities. The court agreed to review a lower-court ruling that took issue with a pair of congressional districts and several state House districts. "The stakes are as high as they've been in Texas since the state was purple in the 1990's and we had political competition that was natural," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political professor at the University of Houston. "Redistricting and gerrymandering create an unnatural advantage for one party or the other and the court's alteration of that would have a profound effect the politics of the state." Should the court rule against the state, districts in the future could be redrawn to benefit minority voters, which could result in the election of more people of color, more Democrat office holders and more contentious elections in suburban districts, he said. Unlike the cases in North Carolina, Maryland and Wisconsin, the dispute in Texas focuses on alleged racial gerrymandering not solely partisan advantage in the way some federal and state voting districts were drawn. Now Playing: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could change how political elections are held. The question is whether a long-used practice of redrawing districts is constitutional. So how does gerrymandering work? And why might the justices pu Video: Fox5 Texas GOP leaders and the state have argued that the districts which are being used again in this year's legislative and congressional elections are sound. "We are eager for the chance to present our case before the U.S. Supreme Court," Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said in an emailed statement, adding the lower court's decision to invalidate parts of the current map were "inexplicable and indefensible." A decision is likely before June, when the court's current term ends. If justices chose to, they could order immediate action later this year that would force some boundaries to be redrawn, but the March 6 primaries will already be decided by then. Some analysts say the high court would be reluctant to disrupt ongoing elections, but Democrats' hopes have been bolstered by a similar Texas gerrymandering case in 1996 that resulted in the nullification of the primaries in the affected districts. Republicans had appealed two lower court rulings, including the decision of a three-judge panel in San Antonio which invalidated the boundaries on a pair of congressional districts and nine House districts. The high court in September blocked the lower court rulings, granting the state's request not to require new political maps for the 2018 election, pleasing Republicans who have defended the maps. The districts in question are Congressional District 27 on the coastal bend and District 35 that stretches from Austin to San Antonio. The challenge also includes nine of Texas House seats in Dallas, Nueces, Bell and Tarrant counties. Republican Blake Farenthold currently holds the District 27 seat but it vacating it after this term. Democrat Lloyd Doggett now represents District 35. But any changes to the districts under challenge also could have ripple effects in their surrounding districts if the courts require them to be redrawn. Minority voting strength Challenges to the maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature contend lawmakers intentionally weakened minority voting power by cramming minorities into a single district or by splitting them up across too many. "Their racially gerrymandered maps have left Texans with districts that suppress minority voting strength and fail to accurately reflect the political views Texans regardless of race," said Lone Star Project Director Matt Angle. Texas' has been using temporary court-ordered maps that were drawn for the 2012 elections and approved by the Legislature in 2013. Those same maps will be used in the March 6 primary election. Texas' long history of challenges, pending the ruling of the court, could lead to the state falling under federal supervision when it drafts future electoral maps. Currently, no state in the nation is subject to such oversight. "Texans deserve for their votes to count," said Rep. Rafael Anchia, chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. "We are hopeful that the court will provide justice to voters and agree that discrimination will not be tolerated in our elections." The maps are redrawn every 10 years following the U.S. Census, which tallies, among other things, population grown and decline. But the Texas challenge also comes at a time when population increases in the state could add three new congressional seats in the state, bringing the total number up to 39. Much of that increase is forecast to come from the growth of the state's minority population. Given recent court rulings, Democrats also see the momentum on their side. "Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas leaders should be careful what they ask for," Angle said. "Every previous court reviewing the Texas case has ruled that the boundaries are racially discriminatory in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. A full and fair review by the Supreme Court may not only confirm racial discrimination but could ultimately lead to the overt partisan gerrymandering apparent in the maps being corrected." But a ruling in favor of the state would leave the districts undisturbed. Andrea Zelinski covers politics and the courts for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Send her tips at andrea.zelinski@chron.com. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. 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. 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 sciencethat every answer is provisional and subject to change in the face of new evidence, one scientist tells Aschwandenbecame the tobaccos industrys brilliant tactic to 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. 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 movecreating doubt because the impossible standard of certain science is unattainableis a political tactic that Stanford University historian Robert Proctor calls, interestingly, agnogenesis, reports Aschwanden, or the intentional manufacture of ignorance... deliberately 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 confessionWere 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 you breath for such debates anytime soon because the GOP-led Congress and the White House are busy taking sound science to never-explored heights. 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 pointEPA will therefore not be able to develop any public policy rule. As troubling as the proposed lawcurrently in the hands of the Senateis, 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. Components & Peripherals News Partners: Potential Xerox Deal With Fujifilm Could Be A Competitive Boon To Both Sides Alec Shirkey Share this Xerox and Fujifilm Holdings Corporation are negotiating a significant investment deal that could involve Fuji taking a controlling interest in the printing giant, according to The Wall Street Journal. While specific details of the deal remain unclear The Journal writes that "an array of possible deals" are on the table a full takeover is not expected to be under consideration, per the report, and a transaction is not expected to take place in the immediate future. Xerox partners who spoke with CRN said the agreement if reached, would tighten an already-longstanding relationship between the Norwalk, Conn.-based document company and Fujifilm, which have co-owned joint venture partnership Fuji Xerox since 1962. The business entity develops, manufactures and distributes document processing products in the Asia-Pacific region. [Related: Xerox Partners Support Jacobson, Call Icahn's Complaints 'Short-Sighted'] Tokyo-based Fujifilm, although known for selling film and cameras, derives a significant portion of its revenue from diagnostic and imaging equipment sales to medical and pharmaceutical companies, according to Bloomberg. Xerox, in addition to its ConnectKey line of printing products, also provides an array of document services, including managed print. Troy Tafoya, president of Fort Collins, Colo.-based Professional Document Solutions, doesn't see any downside to an enhanced alliance between the two companies. The combination of Xerox's ConnectKey software with Fuji's strong A3 and A4 product lines is appealing, he said, and it could help Xerox from a competitive perspective. "If they're more tied at the hip, they're going to have more control over them not putting devices in competitors' hands," Tafoya said. "I think it's a good thing. Xerox is going in the right direction. I like the products they have, and a lot of those products are from Fuji." Patrick Leone, founder and CEO of Bloomington, Ind.-based MidAmerica Technology and developer of the SignMe app, said he thinks the addition of Fuji or another potential buyer would be an exciting component Xerox's go-to-market model. "I would hope the innovative thinking of the partners is valuable to Fuji," Leone said. "It's going to be a big year for apps and partners building on Xerox's app platform. I would think that would be a big positive for Fuji." Leone added that Fuji Xerox seems to maintain a focus on color production engine development. Xerox materials note that the entity has gained significant R&D responsibilities of late. Reports of the deal come just one month after Carl Icahn supporter Jonathan Christodoro resigned from the Xerox board of directors, citing disagreement with other board members over Xerox's strategic direction. Icahn followed that move by calling for Jeff Jacobson's removal as CEO and the election of four hand-picked nominees to the Xerox board. He added that Jacobson, chairman Bob Keegan and other "old guard" members of the Xerox board have failed to recognize that further change is needed. "We are hopeful that a change in senior leadership will lead to value creation at Xerox," Icahn wrote in a letter to investors. He owns more than 9 percent of the company. Martin Wolf, president of martinwolf M&A Advisors, called the report unsurprising in the wake of the Conduent spin-off, which split Xerox with its business services division. By doing that, he said Xerox and Conduent have better positioned themselves for such a deal. "In the areas they're in, scale matters a lot. It wouldn't surprise me," Wolf said of Xerox. "They haven't been managed for a long time to optimize shareholders. Over the last period, their results have been very mixed at best. That's why you see (Icahn) in there. He's a smart, clever guy. He has a history of identifying underperforming assets and agitating for change and getting results." Xerox declined to comment on its reported talks with Fujifilm. In a letter to employees that was published in its SEC filings last month, Xerox waved off Icahn's publicly-voiced displeasure as a distraction, saying it "has no impact on our operations, our team, our strategy or our priorities." Networking News Channel Veteran Ken Archer Made Chief Revenue Officer At Nectar Matt Brown Share this Ken Archer, a channel stalwart who's led partner organizations at industry titans like Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Avaya, has taken a job as chief revenue officer at network monitoring and performance management software firm Nectar Services Corp. The position gives Archer leadership of the Jericho, N.Y.-based company's entire route-to-market strategy, including global channels, and puts new fire into a relationship kindled a decade ago. It also gives the channel veteran an opportunity to double down on Nectar's relationships with Microsoft and Cisco Systems. Archer has had a relationship with Nectar for a dozen years, going back to his time as North America channel chief at Avaya. Back then, Archer evaluated Nectar's software for Avaya, which was exploring network monitoring and performance management software. [Related: CRN Interviews Ken Archer About His New Executive Role And The UCaaS Market Competition] "I was a big fan of the technology platform and tried to get Avaya to license it. They did not, and ultimately, I helped them to build their business plan and go-to-market strategy to have their platform inside a lot of Avaya partners' managed service offers," Archer said. Archer also helped Nectar strike up what would become long-term relationships with Microsoft, particularly Skype for Business and Cisco. Today, the company has what Archer calls "very, very strategic relationships" with both IT giants. Cisco sales reps and partners can get paid to market and sell the Nectar platform, he said. Now, Archer is focused on kicking those relationships into high gear. "I see this as a continuing evolution of a platform that really helps partners build out managed services capabilities, or to enhance their managed services capability," he said. "Everybody wants to enhance the user experience on Microsoft Skype for Business, or a Cisco voice and video environment. Unified communications is really a hot market opportunity, and we have the premier platform to manage and monitor anything in the unified communication environment." Before joining Nectar, Archer spent the last eight years at HPE, most recently as vice president of global channels for the company's Pointnext Services business. In all, he's done two stints at Hewlett-Packard. The first was between 2000 and 2005 when he held vice president positions in the company's channel organization. The new Jersey native was North America channel chief at Avaya between 2005 and 2007, and spent the following three years as CEO of TriNet Systems, an Avaya reseller. The experience of being a reseller CEO gives Archer a considerable depth of knowledge when it comes to developing and maintaining partner programs and development strategies, he said. "It gives me credibility when I talk to someone who's building a managed services business," he said. "I've been there and done it, and I can help them with best practices." And in return, Archer expects one thing: Commitment. "If they're committed, we're committed," Archer said. "I'll put in coverage resources. I'll put in technical resources, enablement resources. If they commit, we'll commit back. This is always a joint investment strategy that you go through with partners. We realize they have a choice of which vendors to work with and the largest partners have as many as 500 or more vendors they're representing. I will earn their loyalty, their trust every day. That is an investment I will make based on their loyalty and commitment." Jim Marsh, chief revenue officer at Carousel Industries, a Carousel Industries, an Exeter, R.I., solution provider that worked with Archer when he was at Avaya, said Archer is among the best channel executives in the industry. "Ken is a great guy, and he was great in the channel at Avaya," Marsh said. "He's very focused on working with the partner community, and I think he'll do very well at Nectar. His vast knowledge of the network helps open people to new avenues they haven't been open to and drove revenue. He's tremendous at finding and creating opportunities in the channel. He has a real knack for being creative in the market. His programs are built to be an economic benefit to partners. He's a tremendous partner and friend. He institutes programs that work and helps counsel partners. He'll sit down with you as a friend." Networking News Comcast Introduces Internet 'Insurance Policy' To Keep SMBs Up And Running During Outages Gina Narcisi Share this Comcast Business introduced an internet add-on that will help keep small to midsize businesses up and running in the event of network interruptions or outages. The latest product, Comcast Business Connection Pro, is an automatic 4G LTE cellular backup offering that can power critical business functions, such as email and cloud applications, with internet speeds up to 1 GBps during outages. Connection Pro is available through Comcast channel partners today, and presents another revenue opportunity for solution providers, said Craig Schlagbaum, Comcast Business vice president of indirect channels. [Related: High-Speed Internet, Business Services Key To Comcast's Q3 Cable Services Revenue Success] "Our customers and partners have both been asking for this service," Schlagbaum told CRN. "For a small increase in monthly fees [for customers], Connection Pro is a turnkey solution for our partners that gives them the ability to propose a broadband solution that has essentially 100 percent uptime. This also increases the total ARPU [average revenue per user] for the services they are selling, and thereby adds additional commissions for their sales efforts." During a power outage or network failure, Connection Pro automatically connects to the stronger of two redundant wireless networks. This lets SMBs continue to power critical business functions, including point-of-sale systems, back-office connections and cloud-based applications, without experiencing or succumbing to any disruption. Customers and partners can monitor the status of services via an online portal. The customer or solution provider also will receive alerts if and when the broadband connection has automatically failed over to their wireless connection, and again when their service is back up and running and they have been returned to the broadband network. Connection Pro's battery life gives businesses the ability to power systems and applications for up to eight hours, according to Comcast. "I think this offering will be incredibly well received by partners and end customers alike it's like the ultimate internet insurance policy for SMBs," said Brooke Frank, president of Distributed Computing, a Baltimore-based solution provider and Comcast Platinum Partner. In the past, solution providers have had to make policy decisions or do hard failovers for their customers during an outage. Connection Pro, however, requires no user intervention, he said. Distributed Computing plans on offering Connection Pro to its base of SMB customers, and Frank believes that it will be a "default add-on" for any SMB customer ordering coax-based services within the Comcast footprint. "As applications and services move off-premise and into the cloud, all businesses need a persistent internet connection," Frank said. "Connection Pro should be included every time we sell [Comcast Business Internet], so this will impact our sales for sure." Comcast Business' Schlagbaum said Connection Pro improves the reliability of Comcast's broadband internet services. Unlike its fiber-based services, broadband doesn't carry a service-level agreement. "This service provides additional peace of mind for the customer using broadband in the event of any outage," he said. The Philadelphia-based cable giant will offer tools and training for partners on Connection Pro, Comcast said. Connection Pro is available to Business Internet customers for an additional $29.95 per month with a term agreement. The price point for that peace of mind, Distributed Computing's Frank said, will help drive sales for Comcast's Business-class internet offering. "The price point for the equipment, backup battery and that that level of resiliency with carrier failover to the wireless network is unheard of, and that's what will make this a truly compelling product for smaller businesses," he said. Security News FireEye Buys X15 Software For $20M To Better Monitor, Analyze Machine-Generated Security Data Michael Novinson Share this FireEye has purchased 20-person big data platform provider X15 Software to add data management capabilities and provide a platform for integrating machine-generated data. The Milpitas, Calif.-based security vendor said its acquisition of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based X15 will enhance FireEye's ability to collect and deliver the data organizations need to protect their most valuable assets. X15's open platform can easily incorporate new security technologies and big data sources to adapt to the evolving threat environment, according to FireEye. "Organizations today are overwhelmed by alerts, the number of tools required to manage their security operations, and the challenge of unifying access to the large volumes of data that matter," John Laliberte, FireEye's senior vice president of engineering, said in a statement. [RELATED: FireEye CEO, CFO Discuss Hacking Attempt, Impact Of Equifax Breach, And Company's 'First True Channel-Friendly Product'] The acquisition closed Thursday, with FireEye paying $15 million in equity and $5 million in cash for X15. FireEye's stock is up $0.31 (2.05%) to $15.45 in pre-market trading Friday, and the company didn't immediately respond to a request for additional comment. Laliberte praised X15's big data platform for enabling ingestion of data at scale within a unified data model and modular query language. The company's versatile, enterprise-grade big data platform enables distributed, real-time access, according to Laliberte. Joining FireEye and X15 will help with building out a platform that uses big data, threat intelligence and analytics to keep customers secure, according to Val Rayzman, X15's CEO. "We founded X15 Software to help organizations get more value out of the massive data they were generating on a daily basis, and we very quickly saw how impactful our technology could be in the security space," Rayzman said. X15's 20 employees in California and India will continue working with FireEye from their respective locations, according to the company. Rayzman founded the company in 2013. X15's technology helps with collecting, querying and analyzing large volumes of machine-generated data in real time, according to FireEye. The company's platform was built with the flexibility to ingest data sources at scale, allowing organizations to capture new data as their infrastructure evolves. Security data from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud can all be managed from a single X15 console, according to the company. X15 also facilitates the management of security data from on-premises and hybrid environments in a straightforward manner, FireEye said. X15 also will accelerate the capabilities of FireEye's platform to better enable businesses to leverage security data to make decisions and keep pace with the threats against them. FireEye said organizations increasingly need a flexible security operations platform that can match the evolving capabilities of their adversaries. This is FireEye's first acquisition since February 2016, when the company purchased Invotas to boost its incident response capabilities. One month earlier, FireEye spent $200 million to buy 350-employee iSight Partners to bolster its cyberthreat intelligence skill set. In its most recent quarter, FireEye's sales climbed to $189.6 million, up 1.7 percent from $186.4 million the year prior. The company also recorded a loss of $72.9 million, or $0.41 per share, improved from a loss of $123.4 million, or $0.75 per share, the year before. BROOKFIELD The Five Guys burger restaurant on Federal Road has closed after a 10-year run. Property owner Jim Triantis said the popular burger chain did not renew its lease after it expired on Dec. 31. The standalone building, next to the ShopRite Plaza, is available for lease and being represented by Rams, a Ridgefield-based real estate advisory firm. They were good tenants but I expected this because their 10-year lease was up, Triantis said. Five Guys could not be reached for comment. Triantis said interest is already high in the property, mostly from prospective tenants interested in opening another food establishment. There are four or five people already interested, he said. Im talking to some chains, but if a family comes in first, well see. There are people interested in opening a diner. I can wait until we have the right tenant. Triantis has owned the property since 1974 and operated the Red Colony Diner for several years. The building at 121 Federal Road is his only Brookfield property, but he owns others throughout the state. The Branford resident owns and operates Twin Pines Diner in East Haven. He said the busy stretch of Federal Road in Brookfield has changed a lot over the years and he expects the next tenant to be successful. The road has always been busy and now its even more busy, Triantis said. Whatever goes in there will do excellent. Federal Road in Brookfield includes chain restaurants McDonalds, Wendys, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin Donuts, and Moes Southwestern Grill. A Burger King, Dunkin Donuts and Hummus & Pita Co. are under construction and slated to open soon. Federal Road in Danbury has a Robeks, KFC, Salsa Fresca and Arbys. Five Guys, known for its burgers, fries and peanuts, was founded in 1986 in Washington, D.C. It has about 1,500 locations worldwide. It has approximately 20 locations in Connecticut, including one that opened this week in Oxford. Five Guys opened a location about 10 miles away on Route 7 in New Milford this past summer. That location was the chains first in Litchfield County. There is also a Five Guys on South Main Street in Newtown. cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DERBY Anyone who has been a cop for more than 30 years has stories to tell. But being a cop for more than three decades with six different law enforcement agencies should make Michael Bouchard the life of any party. Just talk to the Bridgeport police officer for 10 minutes and youll hear how he nabbed the longest active Army deserter living in the U.S., helped stop a planned gang murder and riddled a rabid woodchuck. Or hell tell you why why Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster dont exist; that the Lindley Street poltergeist was just a young girl or about his research on the Philadelphia Experiment, Area 51 and the Roswell crash. Ive done a lot more than most police officers, said Bouchard, a 55-year old Valley native. Ive worked in small towns and big cities. Ive been on the street, in schools, out in the woods and on the water... Everywhere Ive been, Ive learned something. Much of his experience and many of his stories have been put in print. Bouchard is the author of four books with a fifth on the way. For a man who has worked for the Shelton police department auxiliary, the Lake Housatonic Marine auxiliary and the Regional Water Authority, as a state game warden and in the Bridgeport Police Department as Park police, a School Resource officer and now at the information booth in the Margaret Morton Government Center, Bouchard remains a man of action. Its not as fast paced as I would like, he said of his current post. But in todays society, you have to be a little more on guard than you did 10 years ago. Here its important to interact with people. While Bouchard loves writing, the research interests him at least as much. The older cases are more interesting, he said. You have less to go on. You have to dig deeper and you have to think outside the box. I was always interested in science, always interested in research, said the author/cop whose self-published books are available through Amazon. What happens is you get addicted to it. I think everybody is capable of writing a book. Book number five will be about 105 missing people in Connecticut, including one man he found living in New York. Its due out mid-summer. Among the cases: a cluster of eight missing girls in the Vernon-Tolland area. He plans to plot selected cases on a map to see if there are geographical similarities. He admits he isnt out to solve cases. What I will do is provide information that may help solve cases, he said. Most officers are interested in chasing criminals, my interest is in tracking them. The one difference between tracking people compared to hunting animals is the mere fact that animals are much smarter. What Bouchard hopes to do is bring closure to some families, he said. It was one reason he began writing in the first place. His first book, Forever Searching: Missing in the Smoky Mountains, the story of the 1969 cold case file of 6-year-old Dennis Lloyd, was hatched by emails from a friend. Bouchard obtained numerous reports, interviewed living witnesses and came to the belief the boy may have been abducted, got away and became lost and possibly injured before dying. A claim that skeletal remains of a young boy were found a few years later in the area Bouchard had pinpointed was never investigated. As a School resource officer, I got a lot of missing kids, mostly runaways, he said. Fortunately within a few days, most are found. I would notice the fear and panic in the parents eyes. Think about it your kid goes missing for a few minutes and the anxiety you feel. Imagine if your kid goes missing and is never found. His second book, So You Want to Be A Cop, includes 36 of his strangest police cases. Like discovering James Gilbert Carmona during a 2004 minor traffic stop. Carmona had been AWOL since leaving a California Army base in January 1970. Carmona was driving a car with no front plate and the back plate of another car when Bouchard stopped him. His wallet contained ID for Jesus Gonzalez and both a California and a Massachusetts license and two Social Security cards. He was eventually identified as James Carmona. He said he was married for 18 years and his wife didnt know his real name, Bouchard said. So I gave him a summons for the motor vehicle violation, advised him that the military police would get him, but more importantly told him: You can thank me for one thing. After 34 years I gave you back your real name. It closed the book on the longest active deserter in the U.S., Bouchard said. Another of Bouchards stories: While working as a game warden, Bouchard was called to Wallingford on report of a rabid woodchuck caught inside a box. The front yard was huge... the lawn looked like someone cut it with a pair of scissors it was so neat, Bouchard recalled. As he opened the box the animal leaped out frothing at the mouth. His first two shots didnt stop it so I put down a line of fire that looked like strafing from a machine gun. Chunks of lawn went flying, Bouchard said. As he walked away with the dead animal, he saw the homeowner on his hands and knees trying to put the plugs of grass back in. Well I hoped he washed his hands... or he might start foaming from the mouth and scratching for flees, Bouchard wrote. Then there was the day in Seaside Park when Bouchards stomach started churning from a greasy cheeseburger he ate forcing him to pull over. His radar unit started humming as a car sped by. He stopped the car and asked the unlicensed driver for the keys. Officer I have to ask you a serious question. Why is your gun pointed at me? the driver asked. I said: I have to ask you a serious question. Why is there an AK-47 and a ski mask on the back seat? At that point the driver punched his passenger in the face and said: I told you to hide that....in the trunk. A search uncovered the AK-47, a sawed off shotgun, two semi-automatic handguns, a MAC-10, two ski masks, a bullet-proof vest and marijuana. He said the pair were recruited to shoot a rival gang member, his family and the police officer guarding them. All because of a greasy cheeseburger, he said. That would have made a hell of a headline. Then there was 966 Lindley St. the home of the legendary 1974 poltergeist that brought out crowds, ghost busters and an exorcist. Bouchard believes it was a hoax confessed to by the familys adopted daughter. Still a day after a snowstorm, he found himself driving by the house and spotting an elderly woman in a pink housecoat sitting on the porch. After driving again he stopped to talk to her. I knew you were coming, he recalled her saying. So I asked her if she was calling about the snow, he said. She again said, I knew you were coming and very bad things happened here. So thats one time too many, Bouchard said. I know Im leaving. He found no police calls for the house so how did she know I was coming? Bouchard also is a practicing archaeologist and anthropologist who has written extensive reports on excavations and discoveries at the Trap Falls Reservoir in Shelton and Mildords Baldwin Station site along the north shore of the Housatonic River. His third book, Paleo Project: A Review and Interpretation of Paleo-Indian Site Distribution Patterns in Connecticut, leans heavily on his own research. His fourth book, My Abstract Thoughts: Life Quotes and Creatures of Folklore Fact or Fiction, is exactly what it says its about This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Flu activity has rapidly increased in Connecticut over the last few weeks with more than 1,000 confirmed flu cases in the state, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. To monitor circulating flu viruses through the year, the DPH uses multiple surveillance systems to gain preliminary insight into the spread of influenza across the state. Surveillance began in Oct. 2017 and will continue through May. From Aug. 27, 2017, to Jan. 6, the DPH said there have been a total of 1,015 laboratory samples that tested positive for the flu. Of those 1,015 tests, 256 came from Fairfield, 367 from Hartford, 229 from New Haven, 58 from New London, 38 from Tolland, 31 from Middlesex, 23 from Litchfield and 13 from Widham County. This years flu virus appears to be affecting older persons especially hard, said DPH Commissioner Dr. Raul Pino. It is not too late to get a flu shot, and some people who are sick with influenza may need to be treated with an antiviral medication. As of Friday, the DPH said there have been 15 flu-associated deaths so far this season in people over the age of 65. The DPH said 70 percent of all patients hospitalized with the flu this season have been age 65 and older. A total of 456 patients have been hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed flu between Aug. 27, 2017, and Jan. 6. At 10:30 a.m. Friday, Pino and Dr. Matthew Cartter a state epidemiologist held a press conference in Hartford to address the seriousness of this seasons flu cases. The press conference had a focus on the impact of the flu on older Connecticut residents. In the midst of a troubling increase in flu hospitalizations, I strongly urge all Connecticut residents to remember to get their flu shot, said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in a statement Friday. We are just a few weeks away from peak flu activity, so everyone especially those aged 65 years or older should take the necessary precautions. Peak flu activity, according to the DPH, is expected to be in mid-February. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 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 FAIRFIELD The Unquowa Schools Student Literary Magazine, Pen & Paper, has earned top honors in two national competitions. In the American Scholastic Press Association 2017 Literary Magazine Contest, Pen & Paper won the highest possible award, First Place with Special Merit. In addition, two Unquowa student editors received individual awards. Ryan Cawley won the Outstanding Poetry award for his work entitled Two-Faced. Samantha Renzulli earned the Outstanding Story award for her writing entitled Time After Time. Unquowas competition included public and private middle and high schools as well as colleges and universities nationwide. Unquowas 2017 Pen & Paper also won praise from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. In their annual review it earned a Gold Medal Rating in every evaluation category. George Seferidis, a humanities teacher, is the publications advisor. The Unquowa School, a coeducational, independent day school, draws students from Fairfield, Easton, Westport, Bridgeport, Stratford, Darien, Greenwich, Shelton, Norwalk, Weston and Wilton. Photo Captions The student editorial staff and faculty advisors of The Unquowa Schools award winning 2017 Pen & Paper magazine gathered to celebrate their recent national recognitions . As a kid who grew up in the '80s -- sporting my Jams and Swatch watch as I navigated the neighborhood on my BMX Mongoose -- I fell for Stranger Things within the first few minutes of episode one. The phenomenon that is now Stranger Things couldn't be better timed for us marketers. With season two now watched by over 16 million fans, the franchise has successfully merged modern-day marketing with a simplicity that made the '80s a decade as endearing as Eggo waffles. Related: The 6 Rules of TV Advertising for Small Businesses So, let's tune in to this curated list of 11 (obviously!) ways Stranger Things has made us marketers re-think how to engage audiences: 1. Say goodbye to the generational gap. The show has bridged the generational gap in ways most brands can't crack. Stranger Things has those of us who grew up in the '80s seated right beside millennials and centennials as we binge watch and then regroup to discuss. Stranger Things taps into cultural nostalgia to multiple generations, creating a new form of connective tissue that isn't just for "80's nerds." 2. Be proactively reactive. When E.T. came out in 1982, Reese's Pieces got an unexpected, extraterrestrial plug. But, since social media didn't exist back then, the brand had no choice but to sit back and ride the wave. On the flip side, when Stranger Things gave Eggo a major free plug during this year's Super Bowl, rather than just take the mention, Eggo was smart enough to jump into the conversation and, even more proactively, created a new conversation by launching clever tactics of its own, such as a spoiler-alert pop-up blocker and an interactive microsite. Related: The 7 Secrets to Shareable Content 3. Think "open API." Similar to how the tech space created an open API for developers, Stranger Things has opened the gate for brands to jump on the bandwagon. While there's a clear difference between licensed partnerships and simple content references, many brands were able to harness the buzz leading up to season two to create new relevancy -- from fast casual restaurant chains like Panda Express touting a supernatural kind of love for orange chicken to canine influencer Doug the Pug launching Stranger Pugs 2. The moral here is to always think open. 4. Working together wins. Traditionally, the legal department is the Demogorgon to marketers; we think press and they think protect. Netflix, which airs Stranger Things, proved legal and marketing can work together to build earned buzz when its legal team issued a super creative cease and desist letter asking a Chicago bar to shut down an unauthorized pop-up using references from the show. It's a great lesson in how brands can work across departments to carry forth a master narrative. Related: Here's a Clever Marketing Tactic for Getting the Attention of Thousands of People 5. Customize your curation. With data driving how we customize everything from content to experiences, simple curation is no longer enough. With the launch of Stranger Things season two, Spotify gave consumers that chance by pairing their taste in music with their favorite Stranger Things character to deliver curated playlists. As marketers, we must continue to look for innovative ways to personalize experiences and create activations that are highly shareable. 6. Virtual reality is reality. Trending technology allows a brand to bring consumers from the outside in (or, in this case, the upside down) and it is a sure-fire way to generate earned conversations. Stranger Things launched a 360-degree virtual reality video that boasts over 2 million views. It allows viewers to put themselves into one of the show's most famous sets. Lesson learned here is that not all VR/AR experiences need to be expensive (fans can access this content using something as simple as Google Cardboard). Related: 4 Marketing Strategies Every Startup Can Afford 7. Gamification is gold. Stranger Things has also integrated gamification and gaming tactics to plus-up its cool factor and embed the unexpected into fan interactions. Tactics such as the hidden Easter egg that turns a Netflix user's page upside down complement a digital activation the brand did with livestreaming site Twitch and a downloadable video game. We live in a culture that is all about collecting points, topping the leaderboard and earning badges. Brands that look to gamify their narrative will win, especially with coveted millennials. 8. Take experiential to the next level. Stranger Things turned on-demand transport into a full-blown experience during Comic-Con this fall when it took over the streets of New York City. Attendees could hail free rides in paranormal pedicabs driven by lookalikes of fan favorite Dustin Henderson, who handed out Stranger Things swag. To garner press around the activation, a fleet of drive-bys took place outside of the Today show and Good Morning America, something we always advise our clients to do to maximize ROI on stunt spends. Related: Emotional Connectivity: The Secret to Million-Dollar Marketing Success 9. Out-do your out-of-home. Out-of-home executions are a great way to garner media buzz. Stranger Things created a mysteriously placed billboard for Hawkins Power & Light around New York and Los Angeles, and made it interactive with a working 1-800 number. Callers initially heard menu prompts and on-hold music -- which gave way to the Stranger Things theme and clues about season two. Surprise and delight out-of-home executions are a fantastic alternative channel to consider when you don't have above-the-line dollars to spend. 10. Welcome parallel story lines. While hidden camera stunts aren't entirely new, the Stranger Things team took advantage of consumers' thirst for more intel by creating a YouTube playlist called Hawkins Monitored. This playlist allows viewers to spy on Hawkins residents using hidden cameras that reveal deeper insight into their favorite characters. Brands that look beyond linear storytelling and parallel story lines can forge even deeper connections and build long-term loyalty with their audiences. Related: 5 Ways to Use Experiential Marketing to Attract Generation Z 11. Make the end your next beginning. While you want to leave brand fans clamoring for more, don't lose sight of the fact that we live in a binge-watching world. Feed your targets' want for bonuses and added value by thinking through your content strategy before you begin creating. Beyond Stranger Things offers fans the opportunity to further explore the show via compelling commentary from the show's director, actors and creators, the Duffer brothers. After all, if you're not looped into the story behind the story these days, do you really know much at all? Sure, the '80s were a much simpler time. Brands didn't need to consider a relentlessly evolving digital landscape, social influencers or the fact that every consumer with a smartphone can be a creator in his or her own right. In the '80s, on-demand culture meant Domino's pizza was delivered within an hour or it was free. And our experience economy was hitting the roller rink or arcade. But, as complicated as marketing is to navigate today, Stranger Things has proven that sometimes looking back (or upside down) can make a big difference when it comes to nailing a narrative that consumers care about. Related Video: 4-Step Guide to Creating Great Marketing Videos Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The McDonalds Twitter account hit a major bump in the road as it closed out 2017. On Black Friday, the fast food giant presumably wanted to tweet out a promo deal to shoppers but instead tweeted this: Black Friday ****Need copy and link****. How does this sort of social media blunder happen at such a large and successful organization? Even with sophisticated software and multiple departments involved, companies still manage to miss obvious mistakes because of the rapid pace of social channels. The desire to be the first and funniest overtakes reasonable caution, leading to well-meaning missteps such as this one from New Zealand in which police unintentionally made light of car crash fatalities. Now that social media has become the face of the company to many consumers, brands must rethink how they handle their social accounts. The problem doesnt boil down to personnel alone, though. A combination of better training, processes and personnel can prevent unwanted social media attention. Related: The 7 Biggest Social Media Fails of 2017 -- So Far Building a better social strategy. Social accounts play an outsized role in establishing the public identities of brands. Companies must be cautious when selecting people to represent them online, but they also must tread carefully when training personnel and building the processes that guide social media communications. By focusing on these three areas, smart companies can create a social media response culture that presents the best face of the brand: 1. Establish a clear social media process. Follow the chain of creation, approval, distribution and analysis on every social media account to identify potential problem areas. Investigate your reactive content (including customer care), as well as your proactive content (marketing posts). How does a potential tweet or post make its way from internal team to agency to approval to published? This is particularly important for staged social -- set and forget software makes it easy to assume everything is fine, but problems can still occur. Develop concrete policies to interrupt regular social media schedules when necessary. If tragedy strikes -- the death of a public figure, for instance -- treat the event with respect, and dont attempt to latch on inappropriately. Cinnabon learned this lesson the hard way. Following the death of Carrie Fisher, the company encountered fan backlash after posting a picture of Princess Leia with cinnamon rolls in place of her iconic hairstyle. Design processes that also include PR disaster responses. If your company wakes up to a massive blunder, know who will be responsible for approving response content. Southwest Airlines got it right earlier this year, using Facebook Live to keep customers updated during a major service blackout. Southwest even involved its COO, adding weight to the response and making customers feel like their problems were heard. According to Hootsuite, American social media spending is expected to reach more than $17 billion by 2019. Use that budget to design easy-to-follow processes that will mitigate disasters. 2. Hire personnel who wont burn you. Social media skills are easier to learn than the subtleties of company culture. Instead of hunting for social media experts at prices up to $74,000 per year, according to PayScale, identify people who understand your brand best. Then, teach that group to use Twitter. These individuals should have strong judgment, people skills and empathy. When brands pull together a team of young and trendy people to run their social media accounts, they fail to remember that those people will do more than craft humorous tweets -- theyll also field all customer questions. If team members lack the appropriate answers, theyll bog down production by asking other employees. And responding without checking is even worse, as it can lead to costly mistakes. Esteban Kolsky, social media expert and founder of thinkJar, spoke with me when I conducted research for my book Hug Your Haters. He believes skilled customer relations specialists make better social representatives than people who have a background in social media. Put people who have been on the front lines of customer support in your social media room to keep responses timely and on message. Related: The 3 Things You Need to Know About Hiring a Social Media Manager 3. Provide employees with extensive training. Use practice exercises to train social media employees for every social media scenario. You might have workers participate in desktop walkthroughs to go through the motions when things are good, which will help them be prepared should the tides shift. Per eMarketer, nearly 89 percent of American companies with 100 or more employees rely on social media for marketing. Dont leave the teams responsible for these channels unprepared to handle adversity. Talk through real-world examples of other companies that have responded to social media missteps in the right way as well as the wrong way. McDonalds, for example, handled its Black Friday blunder perfectly. The company left the tweet up, adding a response that showed it wasnt afraid to poke fun at the gaffe: When you tweet before your first cup of McCafe Nothing comes before coffee. Combined with an image from its recent McCafe television commercial, the response felt genuine and funny, transforming a misstep into a self-aware bit of humor. Related: 10 Social-Media Trends to Prepare for in 2018 It takes minimal time for an ill-conceived post to go viral, so dont leave your companys social media strategy to chance. Follow these tips to implement better processes, conduct smarter training and hire the right people. Your customers will appreciate your dedication to smart social, and your investors will appreciate the absence of social media firestorms. Related: Death by 280 Characters: How to Avoid Viral Social Media Blunders 8 Actionable Instagram Marketing Tips What You Can Learn From These 3 Celebrity Women on Using Social Media for Social Good Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A 19-year-old Texas man and his 17-year-old girlfriend - wanted by Texas police for a New Years Day murder - were arrested by Ansonia police late Thursday night. Giuseppe Valentino Briguglio, of Katy, Texas and Jessica Lynn Musante, formerly of Shelton, were taken into custody shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday. The two were arrested in the Jan. 1 murder of Wilbert James Outlaw II, 22, from Missouri City, Texas. Outlaw was found dead in the breezeway of the Estates at Fountain Lake apartment complex around 2 a.m. on New Years Day. Police found Outlaws body after responding to reports of gunfire in the apartment complex. Court documents said Musante was in a relationship with both Briguglio and Outlaw. The murder happened in Stafford, Texas, a small city in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan area. Investigators with the Stafford Police Department, in conjunction with the Texas Rangers, developed information that identified Musante and Briguglio as suspects in the slaying. Stafford detectives secured arrest warrants for the two in Fort Bend County, Texas. The Ansonia police department was then contacted by a Texas Ranger, who told officers Briguglio and Musante were in the basement of a Beverly Drive house. According to court documents, Ansonia and Shelton police developed a plan to capture the two by surrounding the house and ordering all the occuupants outside the house. Ansonia Police Lt. Patrick Lynch said The plan was executed and all occupants obeyed the orders to exit the residence through the front door. On Friday, Briguglio appeared in Derby Superior Court where he waived his right to extradiction to Texas. He is being held on $1 million bond. Musante is being held in Juvenile Detention for extradition to Texas. A bulletin from the Texas Joint Crime Information Center, said the 17-year-old attended Shelton High School before moving to Texas. WESTPORT Westporters took a dip in the frigid Long Island Sound on New Years Day for the 11th annual Temple Israel Polar Bear Plunge at Compo Beach. This years event was in honor of Scott Rutsky, who passed away last year and was a major contributor to various charities. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions finally stopped making threats about legalized marijuana and actually took some action this month. Hysteria and anxiety over his decision didnt exactly materialize. Other than a drop in marijuana stocks due to skittish investors, the marijuana world kept turning and cannabis kept selling. That includes California, where legal recreational marijuana went on sale just days before Sessions announcement to rescind the Cole Memo issued during the Obama Administration broadly instituting a hands-off federal enforcement policy toward cannabis businesses operating legally under state law. In reacting to Sessions announcement, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval -- a Republican -- essentially said thanks for your input, well read that over. Colorado officials made a stoner joke. California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom called Sessions decision an ideological temper tantrum. But while Sessions has ideological opponents, his biggest opponent is this: $10 billion. Thats an estimate from Arcview Media of legal marijuana sales once all the numbers are in for 2017. Related: You Can Legally Buy Marijuana in California But Selling It Legally Is Tricky Not a surprise. Its important to note that Sessions himself isnt ordering a federal crackdown. He just gave local U.S. attorneys the right to do so if they found it was warranted. Sessions decision to rescind the protections granted the marijuana industry by the Cole Memo hardly came as a surprise. He set the stage in 2017 by sending letters to officials in Colorado, Oregon and Washington questioning their adherence to the memo. So how could this all turn out? There are two possibilities that, ironically, seem more likely than ever after Sessions decision. Related: Why Jeff Sessions' New War on Marijuana Hasn't Frightened Investors or Cannabis Entrepreneurs Sessions gets fired. Some of the biggest critics of Sessions decision are Republicans in Congress, which is not a good look for Sessions. He already faces the possibility of perjury charges by Senate Democrats who believe he lied in testimony before a Senate committee. Sessions also has had a rocky relationship with President Donald Trump. And he may have angered businesses and voters in Colorado, a state that was considered up for grabs in the 2016 election. Thats not good for his boss. Certainly, hes angered Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican. In a speech on the Senate floor, he said Sessions had not lived up to a commitment he made to Gardner before the attorney generals confirmation hearing to honor states rights when it came to Colorado. Gardner said hes holding up all appointments in the Department of Justice until Sessions explains himself. Speaking of states rights, Sessions has made it tricky for Republicans who typically support states rights. A crackdown on marijuana would completely undermine that stance. Its interesting that Politico could not find one member of Congress in either party who supported Sessions decision. Sessions seems to have angered many powerful people in many powerful positions. Whether that extends to Trump remains unclear. The laws might be changed. Much like Trumps victory seemed to rally the left, Sessions announcement has spurred talk that California and other states may work harder on getting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether the federal government even has the authority to regulate marijuana in states that have made it legal. Or, theres the possibility that the U.S. Congress will follow Canadas lead and make marijuana legal nationwide. As pointed out by Politico, this now seems a more likely scenario. Businesses nationwide have put millions in the marijuana industry. Sessions has created uncertainty. Many entrepreneurs are asking Congress for protection. With the majority of Americans backing legalization and that $10 billion figure, they just might get it. To stay up to date on the latest marijuana related news make sure to like dispensaries.com on Facebook Related: Guess Which Indian Companies are Sailing High On Hemp Jeff Sessions' War on Marijuana Is a Bit of a Yawner and Could Backfire On Him To the Surprise of Nobody, Nevada Marijuana Sales Hit $126 Million In 4 Months Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com NORWALK A 1-month-old loggerhead sea turtle is large and in charge at the Maritime Aquarium, commanding attention and educating visitors in a new Sea Turtle Nursery exhibit. The baby loggerhead, which weighs less than one-tenth of a pound and is roughly 3 inches long, appears to have adapted quickly to the 1,000-gallon tank it now calls home, diving deeper and swimming across the surface in seconds. Of course, the baby turtle had plenty of energy after sleeping during most of the drive from North Carolina to Norwalk earlier this week. Its already comfortable in the new digs, said Dave Hudson, Maritime Aquarium research scientist. Hes been in since 9:15 (Thursday) night, and weve already seen him dive down and swim around. The transport went great, he slept most of the way ... they tuck their flippers up when theyre resting. The baby turtle whose gender wont be known until it reaches sexual maturity in about 15 years was rescued by the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores after hatching Sept. 17. Staff and volunteers from the North Carolina aquarium inspect turtle nests on beaches to look for newly hatched turtles that, for various reasons, didnt make it out of their nest and back to the ocean. It takes a lot of energy to get out of an egg, and when youre getting crushed by all your brothers and sisters in the process it can be hard to get out, Hudson said. Some dont make it. So it either lost its way or was still in the nest when it was rescued. When theyre that exhausted, we need to make sure theyre healthy so they have the best chance of survival. The rescued turtles are raised for a year at loan institutions like the Maritime Aquarium, where they grow to be about the size of a dinner plate before they are returned to North Carolina the following fall for release. That year allows the turtles to grow in strength and size before theyre released, increasing their chance for survival as they navigate the entire open ocean from Long Island Sound to Portugal to the Azores to the Caribbean. After a year in Norwalk, the yet-to-be-named toddler turtle will be released to the Atlantic and the aquarium will repeat the process with another rescued hatchling. Loggerhead sea turtles, named for their relatively large heads, are carnivores that generally grow to weigh about 300 pounds and are found around the globe in nine population segments. Five of the populations are considered to be endangered, and the other four including the loggerheads off the U.S. Atlantic Coast, which migrate through Long Island Sound are considered threatened, according to the aquarium. Their biggest threats are from coastal development that destroys nesting habitats and from accidental capture in fishing gear. The turtles are solitary animals, spending most of their life (they can live to be 80 years old) swimming alone in the open ocean. Only the mature females return to shore to nest and lay eggs. This is one of the visitors we have in the summers in Long Island Sound, Hudson said. We want to make sure we are doing everything we can to make sure we are protecting them and helping the public understand how they can make different choices to save these guys. So, while the baby turtle may be the cutest guest since the meerkats to arrive at the Maritime Aquarium, its presence is for more than just viewing pleasure. Hudson said some of the rescued hatchlings are released immediately, while others are raised for a year, allowing for a staggered release and the potential for a greater survival rate. Additionally, those that are raised for a year at aquariums allow researchers to learn more about the species, and aquariums to educate the public about conservation efforts and the effects humans can have on sea turtle populations. We will measure its growth every month, and follow it through the first year of its life, which helps broaden scientific knowledge for conservation, Hudson said. We need to learn more about the physiology so we know how to care for these animals and help them survive ... its a great program for us to be involved in as Im noticing more aquariums and zoos are collaborating more to contribute to research, which is great because we have more resources and more knowledge to contribute to doing really good science. While Hudson oversees the program, aquarist Brendan Pisarski was tasked with building, maintaining and monitoring the new exhibit which was designed according to specific parameters to replicate the open ocean environment of the Sargasso Sea near the Bermuda Triangle where the turtle will be released. Ive taken care of larger Loggerhead but never something this small, said Pisarski, who joined Hudson on the trip to North Carolina to meet the experts who started the program and learn more about the species. Pisarski and Hudson even joined fellow scientists and aquarists as they released the baby turtles raised in aquariums during the previous year. It will be an adventure, Pisarski said. Its going to be great to be part of the program. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt Two men have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Bridgeport with engaging in a conspiracy to defraud Connecticut of $5.8 million in taxes due on tobacco products imported into the state. The two - Pavan Vaswani, 39, of West Haven and Rishi Malik, 45, formerly of Fairfield - were arrested on Thursday. What should be known for all Memphians at the beginning of the new year is the 50th anniversary and yearlong commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr.s assassination. Its occurring for a whole year at the National Civil Rights Museum in downtown Memphis and will be important to many in the city. Beverly Bond, an associate professor of history at the University of Memphis, teaches a class called Black Memphis. Bond was born and raised in Memphis and earned her doctorate degree at the U of M. She has a vast knowledge of the history of Memphis, and she hopes her class will educate her students on the citys past. I hope my students learn more about the city they live in and consider what they can contribute to making it a better place to live and work, Bond said. Bond even incorporates the events in April to the class syllabus to add to her overall purpose of class to educate on Memphis history. Students will not only research and think about MLK 50, but place this seminal event (Kings murder) in the overall history of the city before and after 1968, Bond said. The National Civil Rights Museum kicked off these events on April 4, 2017, and they continue through this upcoming April. Events posted on the online event calendar happened throughout the country. From places like museums and high school, MLK 50 events taught the history and how some issues can still be connected to today. The theme for the year of commemoration is Where Do We Go from Here? The National Civil Rights Museum wants everyone to reflect on the past, but also to focus on the future. The themes name is also the name of a speech King gave at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on Aug. 16, 1967. Some events will happen on the University of Memphis campus, like MLK 50: Where Do We Go from Here Symposium, which the U of M law school will host on April 2. Eric Holder, the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, will be the keynote speaker. The event will focus on subjects of activism, poverty, voting and criminal justice. The set of panelists will relate the topics from the history of King and Civil Rights Movements of the past to todays situations. The second day of the symposium will occur at Michael D. Rose Theatre on campus on April 3. The day will consist of three topics of discussion: Memphis 50 Years Later, Marching Forward; Poverty & Economic Equity: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow; and The Promise of Education. The keynote speaker will be Taylor Branch, a historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. This symposium will mostly consist of scholars and historians discussing the status of human and civil rights in its current situation. Tickets to more events can be purchased at MLK50.civilrightsmuseum.org. Thank goodness for the French. The actress and political activist Catherine Deneuve, along with 99 of her countrywomen, has denounced the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment as puritanism fuelled by hatred of men. Meanwhile, many in Britain, paralysed by political correctness, are too scared to say anything as this terrifying tide of separatism and priggishness sweeps the Western world. It takes a Frenchwoman born during World War II to cut through all this and have the courage to speak plainly. Deneuve, 74, and her fellow signatories argue in a letter: Rape is a crime. But insistent or clumsy flirting is not a crime, nor is gallantry a chauvinist aggression. They go on to condemn the fact that men worldwide have been forced to resign from their jobs for something as innocuous as touching a knee. The actress and political activist Catherine Deneuve, along with 99 of her countrywomen, has denounced the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment as puritanism fuelled by hatred of men The letters brave words have emboldened some British women actress Joanna Lumley included to say things have gone much too far. However, when former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe said she considered wolf-whistles to be complimentary, she was met with opprobrium. Of course, the behaviour of movie mogul and sex pest Harvey Weinstein was shocking. But on a much smaller scale, most women (and many men) have been a victim of what now would be defined as sexual harassment whether its being touched up at work, or catcalled while walking past a building site. These experiences are considered so damaging that society must expose every perpetrator, however minor. This has turned into a witch-hunt on a ludicrous scale. Every man I know could be hauled up for some crime in this brave new world of liberated women. But where will this so-called liberation leave us? In a society where men are so scared of being vilified as sexual predators that they hardly dare be themselves? A world where men are too worried about the consequences to be charming or chivalrous? A social scene where dinner parties are even duller than usual because everyone is too scared to flirt? I have just returned from our French holiday home and can report that, so far, the #MeToo campaign, or #balancetonporc (snitch your pig) as it is known there, has had no effect at all. The local delicatessen owner still flirts shamelessly with me. A male friend in the village, on hearing I was staying the night alone, offered to act as my hot water bottle if I got too cold. Flirting in France is a human right. In fact, its seen as a necessity, and with good reason. Its a natural and healthy part of social interaction. Men arent afraid of it, women dont feel intimidated by it. On the contrary, they feel empowered and sexy through being flirted with. Few things make a Frenchwoman grumpier than not being appreciated. As a French girlfriend of mine puts it, paraphrasing Oscar Wilde: Theres only thing worse than being flirted with, and thats not being flirted with. An English friend who works at a French bank in Paris was recently reprimanded for not paying female colleagues enough attention. Flirt with them, talk to them, open doors for them, his French boss urged. They think you hate them at the moment. Whats wrong with you? What was wrong with him, of course, was that he was used to the Anglo-Saxon culture where eyeing someone up can be disastrous. Where a flirtatious comment can land you in court, or a misplaced hand can mean the end of your career. Flirting in France is a human right. In fact, its seen as a necessity, and with good reason. Its a natural and healthy part of social interaction Who do these feminists think theyre helping with their militancy? Certainly not women. Not only will we not have doors opened for us, but we risk being put at a disadvantage in the workplace. For example, another friend who runs a company in London says hell think twice about employing women again after a case of sexual harassment was brought against his firm. The woman had been sacked for incompetency but pressed charges playing the victim. My friends lawyers told him it would be cheaper, less stressful and damaging just to pay her off, even though hed been within his rights to fire her. Just the other day, I was about to cross a road in central London. A man was walking next to me and we both reached for the zebra crossing button simultaneously. Beat you to it! he joked. And then, for a split second before I smiled back, I saw his face screw up in fear. He was clearly worried I was going to deem him a pervert for daring to talk to me, and scream for help. As it was, we had a nice chat then went our separate ways, both buoyed by the human interaction and, yes, flirting. Deneuve, 74, and her fellow signatories argue in a letter: Rape is a crime. But insistent or clumsy flirting is not a crime, nor is gallantry a chauvinist aggression. Communicating more, not less, is the best way to get men and women to understand each other. Separating them wont help anything. In fact, it can be downright damaging. As psychotherapist Floss Knight says: Repressing something doesnt mean its not happening. Its happening anyway, just below the surface, which is not healthy. Rather than empowering women, we are disempowering them by suggesting they need protecting from the big bad male wolf. It is scarily reminiscent of the mullahs telling women in the Middle East that they must be controlled for their own safety. So how does a Frenchwoman deal with an unwelcome approach? French writer and philosopher Simone Weil began a tradition when she was harassed. She poured a jug of water over the perpetrators head, a custom Frenchwomen have followed ever since. We tell them to stop, says my friend Claudine, looking at me as if I were an idiot, when I asked what she would do. She told me a colleague of hers once put his hand on her knee in a taxi after a work dinner. She ignored it and it never happened again. An English friend who worked in a multinational company in Paris for more than ten years says there were very clear boundaries between the American/British workers and the Continentals when it came to attitudes to flirting and sex. A Weinstein in France might be less able to operate, as sex is something that is out in the open, not repressed The Anglo-Saxons took terrible umbrage at any whiff of sexuality at work, she says. The Frenchwomen were very capable of navigating the sexual politics in the office. They always looked immaculate and were able to be sexually present without it diminishing their power in the workplace. On the contrary, they often used their own sexuality to their advantage. Because sex is part of office life, as well as everyday life, Frenchwomen may be better equipped to deal with harassment. A Weinstein in France might be less able to operate, as sex is something that is out in the open, not repressed. The #MeToo campaign portrays women as victims, which is something a Frenchwoman never wants to be. Take for example, Frances national symbol, Marianne, an emblem of freedom and democracy, opposed to any forms of dictatorship even those that are perpetrated by her own sex. There is no better example of a strong woman than Catherine Deneuve herself once the model for Marianne. The actress donated to Amnesty International the royalties she was given for her image to be used for the statue. Deneuve has a history of speaking out on behalf of the disenfranchised. Chosen causes include human rights, the environment, democracy and womens issues. Its ironic that the star now feels the need to speak out for men, and their right to behave like men. Many women worry about ageing and try every trick in the book to keep themselves looking youthful. But now evidence suggests they should ditch expensive lotions and potions - or trips to the Botox clinic - in favour of a very simple two-step routine. In the BBC show The Truth About Looking Good, presenter Cherry Healey was told that an SPF and retinol are the only things that will truly fight the signs of skin ageing. She was stunned to discover that sun damage was responsible for a staggering 75 per cent of the signs of ageing in skin, with the remainder down to external factors like pollution and smoking, and only a small percentage attributed to the physical process of growing older. And once lines appear, skincare products containing at least 0.1ml of retinol - which are widely available and range in price from around 6 to 60 - are the only ones that will reduce them, according to the show's findings. The only creams that will help reduce wrinkles are those containing at least 0.1ml of retinol The experts said a 60-year-old who had never been exposed to sunlight would have perfect skin. But once lines have appeared, the only products proven to reduce them are those containing retinol, they said. Skin expert Professor Chris Griffiths from the University of Manchester said that most visible changes to skin, such as wrinkles and fine lines, are caused by exposure to the sun. The dermatologist recommended staying out of the sun as much as possible and always using an SPF to fight ageing. Experts recommend that you use a cream with a high SPF and a five star rating for its ability protect against UVA rays; detail that is outlined on the packaging of skincare creams. Cherry Healey meets skin experts in new BBC show The Truth About Looking Good, including Dr Anjali Mahto, from celebrity favourite the Cadogan Clinic in Chelsea Professor Rachel Watson said it was important to use an SPF daily even in winter, as our skin is still being damaged by the sun even in the dark winter months. WHAT IS RETINOL? Derived from vitamin A, retinol has the ability to boost both the turnover of skin cells and collagen production. As such it can have a visible impact on the appearance of fine lines, acne scars and sun damage, and can even out the texture of the skin. Advertisement But once you have wrinkle, there are only a handful of things that will help get rid of fine lines, including resorting to procedures like Botox. However, if you don't fancy the needle, some creams do work, the experts said, but only as long as they contain the ingredient retinol. Dr Anjali Mahto, from celebrity favourite the Cadogan Clinic in Chelsea, said that a product containing at least 0.1ml of retinol would give a noticeable reduction of wrinkles. The sun is responsible for 75% of skin damage and experts recommend using suncream year round She said: 'Gradually build up its use and if it's not causing too many problems with irritation after a few months of use upgrade to a product with 0.3 or not 0.5ml of retinol.' Products containing this ingredient range from 6 to over 60, but the expensive creams don't necessarily contain more than their cheaper counterparts. The programme also revealed that customers shopping for beauty products are often misled by stylish packaging, which it suggested subtly boosts our self esteem as we hand over the cash to take it home. The show conducted an experiment and found that more people bought the same product when it had stylish packaging than when it had plain packaging. When it comes to advertising, many small businesses rely on the power of social media to drive customers thought their doors. And going 'viral' is the holy grail when trying to increase profits. But when a hair stylist got arrested for violating a domestic protective order, she had no idea that her mugshot was going boost her business. Selfie: Shia Yearwood, 23, from Charlotte, North Carolina, was arrested on January 3 and her mugshot got lots of attention after people took to Twitter to praise her hair style Viral: The picture was shared on Twitter by the account @CharlotteMugs and quickly went viral after Shia retweeted it, including information about her hair braiding business Not camera shy: Shia shared that she wasn't embarrassed to share her mugshot as she thought she looked 'good' and that her braids looked 'amazing' Shia Yearwood, 23, from Charlotte, North Carolina, was arrested on January 3 and her mugshot was posted to the county's records. It was then shared on Twitter by the account @CharlotteMugs. After noticing most comments related to her hair, Shia decided to turn her negative experience into a positive and retweeted the picture, including the hashtag #BraidByShia. Speaking to BET, Shia explained her motivation: 'I was just simply showing people that I had nothing to be ashamed about. I thought I looked good and I thought my braids looked amazing they were literally done two hours prior to the mugshot.' 'At first, I was a little embarrassed that it was getting attention because I didn't want people to think I was taking being arrested as a joke. Instead, I saw it as a lesson and an opportunity to show off my skills,' she added. The picture has been retweeted over 4,000 times and has received over 9,000 likes. And most of the comments on the post are requests from prospective customers asking Shia if she has any available appointments. Twitter user @babyA1angel wrote: 'When you free?' Kween: One Twitter follower commended the way Shia handled the situation and how she used it to her advantage to boost her online presence and promote her business Making history: Others praised her savvy business acumen and how she used the power of social media to promote her skills Blessing: The young mother has received lots of new clients thanks to the viral post Skills: Shia has been braiding for 15 years and credits her mother and grandmother with teaching her the skills needed to complete her creations Secure the bag: She has advised others to turn negative experiences into positive ones to get ahead in life While @nikkiLynette praised her initiative: 'The way you turned shade into a marketing opportunity is a great moment in Black a Twitter History.' And @thailaand typed: 'A fellow Charlotte queen. They tried to blast you little do they know they gave you a platform to expand your clientele. Get it sis'. A sentiment shared by @CassBrown90: 'Great story! Turning a negative to a positive. This shows that people make mistakes and can over come them.' Shia has been braiding for 15 years and credits her mother and grandmother with teaching her the skills needed to complete her creations. However, she also admitted that she fell into braiding as she only started doing it for money when her daughter was born and needed extra money. Her advice for others trying to harness the power of social media? 'No matter what, if you stay true to who you are and what you believe in you will flourish. When people try to break you, stand up tall and proud and look people in the face and dont be ashamed! Own it and then flip it. The goal in life is to secure the bag and prosper.' Ivanka Trump has become controversial figure in her father's administration, but for all the criticism she receives, there are loyal women who are obsessed with recounting her every move on their social media fan pages. Following her father's rise to the presidency, numerous Ivanka Trump fans accounts have popped up, and the 36-year-old first daughter follows 40 of them. Many of the young women who run these accounts believe Ivanka is a role model despite what her critics say, and they proudly fill their pages with daily snapshots of President Trump's eldest daughter. Suman Choudhary, a 24-year-old living in Jaipur, India, told Cosmopolitan.com she launched her @ivankaupdates fan account on Instagram in 2016. While she doesn't really follow American politics, she thinks Ivanka 'has all the qualities a woman should have.' Admirer: Ivanka Trump superfan Suman Choudhary has more than 57,000 followers after launching her @ivankaupdates Instagram account in 2016. She shared this photo last month Fan club: Suman, a 24-year-old living in Jaipur, India, shares gushing posts about the first daughter Inspiration: Suman believes Ivanka has 'all the qualities a woman should have' When Suman first heard about Ivanka in 2016, she looked her up on YouTube and found herself incredibly impressed by her speech at the Republican National Convention. 'I loved the way she talks, how calm and composed she is. Her dress, her sense of style. Everything impressed me,' Suman said. 'I was like, she's amazing. She makes an amazing role model. 'She has all the qualities a woman should have. Shes an amazing woman. So I made a fan page for her.' Suman's fan account is filled with a mix of current images and throwback photos of the first daughter along with gushing captions. 'More than grateful for having such an incredible role model to look forward to,' she wrote in one post. 'I cant thank you enough Ivanka! Whatever you do you do it with whole heart and out of passion that makes you stand out. Never dull your sparkle.' Strike a pose: Ivanka, who is pictured when she was pregnant with her son Theodore, follows 40 of her fan accounts, including @ivankaupdates The account has more than 57,000 followers including Ivanka and Suman spends about 45 minutes a day scrolling through photos of the White House senior adviser. She admitted that her dedication to posting a minimum of two photos a day used to leave her feeling a bit crazed. 'There was a time when I would go somewhat crazy about her,' she said. 'When Id wake up, I used to think about her. My last thought of the day was her.' Suman said she has exchanged Direct Messages with Ivanka on Instagram, and she even tried to make plans to meet her during the first daughter's trip to India in November. However, her dream meeting never came into fruition. According to Cosmopolitan.com, Suman didn't want to stop gushing about Ivanka rise from model to businesswoman to political figure when their phone interview was over. 'Team Ivanka': Paige, a 14-year-old from Indiana, runs the @ivankatrumpsbiggestfan Instagram account and considers Ivanka her 'number-one role model' Curated: Paige's fan account is filled with spliced images of Ivanka's daily outfits, old modeling shots, and snapshots of her with her family Spreading the word: Although she is still too young to vote, Paige proudly uses the hashtag #ivankaforpresident 'Shes perfect in everything...I wonder how can someone be so perfect?' she said. Paige, a 14-year-old from Indiana, runs the @ivankatrumpsbiggestfan Instagram account, which has more than 9,300 followers. On the page's bio, she keeps a tally of how many times Ivanka has liked or commented on her photos. The superfan even lists the date Ivanka started following her account (7/3/13) and how many times she has responded to her via DM (2x). Paige's fan account is filled with spliced images of Ivanka's daily outfits, old modeling shots, and snapshots of her with her husband Jared Kushner and their three children, Arabella, Joseph, and Theodore. 'Besides my mom. I consider her my number-one role model,' Paige said, and she isn't the only teen running a fan account dedicated to the first daughter. Queen: Aside from her mom, Paige considers Ivanka to be her 'number-one role model' Daddy's girl: Sofya Gray, a 26-year-old from Rockport, Massachusetts, manages the @thefirstdaughterivanka Instagram account Of the five women Cosmpolitan.com interviewed about their fan accounts, three of them are still in high school and unable to vote. However, that doesn't stop them from using the hashtag ##ivankaforpresident. Eve, a 16-year-old from Tennessee, said she 'fully supports' President Trump, noting that she admires his 'work ethic.' The honor student takes AP classes and manages her @alwaysivanka fan account in her spare time. Although she said she only spends about 10 to 15 minutes a day on it, her posts have earned her more than 49,000 followers. Critics of Ivanka have denounced her for being complicit in her father's agenda and being ineffective in government. She has been accused of touting a faux-feminist agenda and pushing the limits of ethics laws by wearing pieces from her eponymous brand while conducting official government business. Someone to look up to: Eve, a 16-year-old from Tennessee, is an AP student who manages her @alwaysivanka fan account in her spare time Power couple: The women who run these accounts all seem to admire Ivanka's empire, her #WomenWhoWork brand, and her dedication to her family Meanwhile, her book, Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success, was critically panned, with many saying it showed just how privileged and out of touch she is. However, the women who spoke to Cosmopolitan.com all admire Ivanka's empire and her #WomenWhoWork brand. It has even inspired some of them to go into business. Sara, a 16-year-old who manages her private @weloveivanka Instagram account with a friend, became interested in her when she appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice with her father. Her admiration for Ivanka's career led her take an entrepreneurship class in her freshman year of high school. Two years later, she takes accounting and is looking to study international business whens he gets to college. However, she admitted that she didn't support Ivanka's father during the presidential election, nor did she consider him a 'serious candidate.' 'I don't see her as a political figure,' she said of Ivanka. 'I see her as someone whos been put into a unique situation, and I think that she's trying to make the best of it.' OKCupid wants all its users to be DTF... that is, down to feel out the dance floor. Or down to furiously make out. Or even down to fall head over heels. The dating app has just released a new ad campaign that encourages men women to be DTF, whatever that means to them allowing users to redefine the sexual acronym to make it more about meeting a partner than finding a hook-up. Images from the tongue-in-cheek campaign show couples bonding over 'F-ing' together, from feeling fabulous to flossing. Keep it clean! OKCupid's new ad campaign is all about being DTF Dirty: The acronym traditionally stands for 'down to f***' and was popularized by the 2007 film Superbad Crass: The term is usually used to comment on whether someone (typically a woman) is open to having sex Lookin' for love! OKCupid is reimagining it in a romantic way, using the tagline 'Dating deserves better' Oral hygiene is so romantic: New ads have couples who are 'down to' do a bunch of different things, like floss together The acronym DTF is typically understood to mean 'down to f***'. It was made popular by the 2007 film Superbad, in which Jonah Hill's character repeatedly uses the phrase. It's made its way into the lexicon and is thrown around quite often to express if someone (especially a female) is amenable to having sex. But OKCupid doesn't want its users to just hook up it wants them to be able to find relationships, too. So it's found several funny ways to redefine the raunchy term in a series of print ads and billboards, with a campaign tagline of 'Dating deserves better.' Created by the ad agency Wieden + Kennedy New York, the ads proclaim being 'down to forget our baggage, 'down to fight about the president,' and 'down to flea market.' The ads cater to heterosexual and homosexual couples, with one featuring two women proclaiming that they're 'down to fall head over heels.' Clever: The campaign was created by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy New York Fire it up! Some show couples looking for a match with specific interests, like making pottery Smokin' hot! Some might be looking for someone who is 420-friendly Wink wink: Only a few of the ads include innuendo beyond the term 'DTF' Finding your match: The ads reference preferences, politics, and hobbies There's a 'down to four twenty' for pot smokers, 'down to fire up the kiln' for sculptors, 'down to finish my novel' for literary types, and 'down to fly the red eye' for frequent travelers. 'In the current political and social climate, we felt a responsibility and saw an opportunity to play a part in changing the conversation about dating culture and empowering each individual to reclaim the meaning of DTF and make it theirs,' OkCupid CMO Melissa Hobley told AdWeek. Hobley went on to say that she thinks the campaign will strike a chord with women in particular. '[They're] aware that the phrase DTF was used historically in a negative way. There's power in taking that back and making it yours,' she said. Ian Hart, a copywriter who worked on the campaign, added: 'When we say dating deserves better, what we're really saying is people who date deserve better. Because I mean, they really do. Modern dating treats emotions like a disposable commodity. Anyone who's been single knows this. It's an aspiration to treating people like people.' Shift: The company's CMO said it is 'changing the conversation about dating culture' Something real: Those who worked on the campaign said it's about treating people on dating apps like people, not potential sex partners Look out: The bright, colorful ads have turned up on signage and billboards OKCupid's campaign is in keeping with its push to find personalized matches Head off arguments? The company also found that people on the app want to factor politics into their searches more A 23-year-old woman has opened up about her secret life as a high-class call girl. Young escort Jess Jones* has been charging wealthy businessmen $5,000 an hour for sex to fund her extravagant lifestyle. Speaking to 9Honey Australian reporter Dilvin Yasa, the woman said her earnings has allowed her to buy a property and a luxury Mercedes car. Here, she shares details of what really happens behind closed doors. Young escort Jess Jones* has been charging wealthy businessmen $5,000 an hour for sex to fund her extravagant lifestyle (stock image) With the high rate she charges, Jess works a maximum of two days a week and she would only take one booking a day. 'This means I can earn anywhere between $10,000 to $25,000 a week, depending on the length of the booking, plus I make extra in tips,' she said. Her most generous tip was $10,000. She said her clients often shower her with designer clothing, expensive handbags, shoes, jewellery and cash. Jess revealed the majority of her clients are rich married men, including bankers and lawyers. She said men working in restaurants can't afford her services. She said the most common complaints she hears from her clients are about their wives who 'no longer seem interested in sex with them' (stock image) She said the most common complaints she hears from her clients are about their wives who 'no longer seem interested in sex with them'. While there are men who obviously pay her for a steamy session in the bedroom, Jess said others just wanted to feel appreciated. 'There have been many clients who don't even want to have sex; some pay me just to go to dinner with them and hold their hand in public as if they somehow have this hot, young girlfriend,' she said. 'It gives them a (really expensive) thrill and then they go home to their dowdy wife feeling like they haven't really done anything wrong.' Despite her high income, Jess said she spends most of earnings getting pampered at beauty salons so she's always looking her best around her clients. With the high rate she charges, Jess works a maximum of two days a week and she would only take one booking a day (stock image) During the day, she would go shopping for expensive dresses, heels and lingerie. 'Turning up in a cheap dress and cheap shoes is not a good look when someone is paying a premium for your time,' she said. Jess - who previously worked in retail - said she has been leading a double life for two years now - and has kept her job from her family under wraps. She found herself in the sex industry after she met a high-class escort at a business course two years ago. Jess said while she's 'still young enough to enjoy the ride', she sees herself eventually falling in love after she hangs up her heels. *Name has been changed. Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the world's most well-known scientists and has had his life story told in books, documentaries, and Oscar-winning dramas. But conspiracy theorists claim we hardly know anything about the award-winning physicist, who celebrated his 76th birthday on Monday. For there are certain corners of the internet where people are convinced that the real Professor Hawking died decades ago and that in the intervening years the political and scientific elite have installed a lookalike to act in his place. Some of those who believe he has been supplanted think Professor Hawking, Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge, died in 1985 - three years before the publication of his best-selling book A Brief History of Time. The idea might seem outlandish, but conspiracy theorists have outlined six signs that they claim clearly support their idea, ranging from the way he looks to the complexity of his theories. Here FEMAIL shares the 'clues' - and looks into the reasons why theorists think he has been replaced... Conspiracy theory: Some people claim the real Stephen Hawking has died and the man posing as him is just a lookalike. Pictured, the professor at a red carpet appearance His appearance People change as they age there's no doubt about that but, as the conspiracy lovers point out, not many people look younger in 2017 than they did in 1982, especially if they're suffering from a disease as disfiguring as ALS. Nor do people's ears decrease in size and as they get older; and, although gums can recede and teeth can wear down and fall out, it's rare for teeth to change in structure completely without major dental work. Hair that gets blonder and less grey with age can be explained, but why would someone vain enough to dye their hair neglect their teeth so badly? In fact, when the sceptics examine photographs of the man they consider to be an imposter, they often comment that his teeth look as if they've been made worse, with the bottom teeth longer than they were previously (and disrespectfully referred to by some members of the conspiracy community as "the twin towers") and the top teeth filed away to stubs. Changing face? Skeptics say Hawking's teeth and ears have changed. Pictured in 1979, left and 2009 (right) His condition It's not just how he looks that's the problem there's the issue with his condition. The average life expectancy for a person suffering from ALS is said to be four years from diagnosis. Stephen was diagnosed in 1963 with a prognosis of two years. Yet it would appear that he is still alive - miraculously, some would say some 55 years later. The wedding photographs The pictures taken on the day of his marriage to first wife Jane Wilde (whose book Travelling To Infinity: My Life With Stephen was made into the 2014 film The Theory Of Everything) look pretty normal. There's Hawking, long-faced, square-jawed with his floppy dark hair and crooked teeth holding hands with his new baby-faced wife. First marriage: Stephen Hawking with his first wife, Jane Hawking, at their 1965 wedding Hollywood: Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as the couple in The Theory of Everything But it's the photos of his second wedding, when he married Elaine Mason, a woman who'd worked as his nurse, that have come under scrutiny. Photos available of that wedding show Mason wearing a different wedding outfit in each and looking decidedly older with shorter redder hair in the second photo. In the first, she appears with Stephen Hawking and in the second, she is standing alongside someone who certainly looks like Hawking but who, doubters have concluded, is more than likely a lookalike. Independent investigators think old pictures of Hawking are gradually being erased and replaced with Photoshopped or even re-shot versions. Same man? Some claim it is not the same Hawking in these wedding pictures with wife Elaine The voice-synthesizing computer His voice-synthesizing computer is another matter for conjecture. It's said to work by Hawking twitching a cheek muscle to scan and choose words on the screen and these written words are then turned into spoken words via the voice synthesizer. Those who believe that Professor Hawking is a puppet for the elite don't believe that anyone could do all this simply by twitching a cheek muscle and have observed that he's not constantly moving his face when he's 'talking'. What they think is actually happening is that the professor isn't doing anything at all and the voice we hear is the result of NASA astrophysicists typing information into a computer information that they want the masses to hear and trust - and it being transmitted to the computer attached to Hawking's wheelchair. The robot voice that emanates from that computer has nothing to do with Hawking it's just information that NASA want to push onto a gullible and unsuspecting public, fans of Hawking, who hang on to - what they believe to be his - every word. 'The robot voice that emanates from the computer has nothing to do with Hawking,' it's claimed The complexity of his theories A lot of the theories presented by Hawking are difficult to prove. An example of this can be seen in a TV programme, hosted by Magnus Magnusson, where Hawking appeared alongside science fiction writers Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan. The voice from the machine spoke. It said: 'There are two kinds of time. There is what's called real time. This is the kind of time that's measured by a clock, the time that we feel passing, the time in which we grow older Then there is imaginary time a well-defined mathematical concept Imaginary time has no beginning or end. Imaginary time is closed in on itself, like the surface of the earth. The surface of the earth doesn't have any beginning or end' So why the need for a 'puppet professor'? 'Puppet professor?': Conspiracy theorists claim the elite need a vehicle for their ideas If what the conspiracy theorists say is true and if the real Hawking has been switched, the question would obviously be: why? The most common theory is that it was and still is - important for those in control to push science and 'lose' God. The powers that be want people to feel that they are tiny unimportant dots in an infinite universe, on one of a trillion planets, in a sea of countless suns, the reason being that people who feel insignificant and small also feel powerless and unimportant, thus making them easier to control. They also want to get the public used to accepting theories as fact. Political: Stephen Hawking, pictured in July last year, has spoken out against Trump and Brexit The substitute Hawking, they claim, is used as a puppet to instill fear in the general population, promoting the idea that the human race has only 100 years left, that aliens exist and that contact with them which may be imminent - could be catastrophic. All this scaremongering puts the public in a fearful state, again making them easier to manipulate. Sceptics have observed that the 'puppet professor' is also a great proponent of Artificial Intelligence and science, claiming that 'philosophy is dead', that there is no God and that science has the answers to everything all of which goes against his earlier philosophical stance and theories. The Hawking of the last ten years has also pushed global warming, is anti-Trump, anti-Scottish Independence and anti-Brexit. He is suddenly very political, seemingly allowing his name to be tacked onto anything and everything in an attempt to make certain ideas or political agendas more credible; and, because the general public believe Professor Hawking is one of the most intelligent scientists of all time, this works. In recent years, he's waxed lyrical about climate change, is a supporter of The Paris Agreement and, in an article in The Guardian last year, was quoted as being in support of carbon tax. He also recorded a tribute for the Democratic candidate Al Gore and was part of an academic boycott of a conference in Israel. There are many more examples of how Hawking's name has been attached to various political agenda, which truth-seekers find highly suspicious. Public figure: Stephen Hawking with the Queen during a charity event in May 2014 Some of those who believe Stephen Hawking has been supplanted think he died back in 1985 when he contracted pneumonia and was on life support. His life was purportedly saved by a tracheotomy. Prior to this, he'd been unable to communicate, but when he returned looking noticeably different he was miraculously able to 'talk' using an unbelievably advanced computer system. Not only was he able to communicate better than ever, he was also able to convey ideas that contradicted previous ideas and supported new, money-making agendas, allowing his name to be used to sell whatever scam, idea or product governments or big companies want to sell. The motive is there. The pictures speak louder than words. So could it be that the conspiracy theorists are right this time? As a former actress Meghan Markle is well used to dressing for the red carpet and being in the spotlight, but it seems that Prince Harry's future wife has picked up one crucial style tip from the Duchess of Cambridge since moving to the UK to live with her royal beau. The bride-to-be has been showing off her prowess at diplomatic dressing during her recent public appearances, by wearing a mixture of brands from Canada where she lived for six years and her new home, the UK. For instance, she stepped out for her first official engagement of 2018 this week in a scarf by Jigsaw, an M&S jumper and Burberry trousers - all British brands - and a coat by Canadian retailer Smythe. It's a trick the Duchess of Cambridge often uses, especially on overseas tours - by wearing a local designer while still championing British fashion. Celebrity stylist Rochelle White told Femail: 'I think most people will see this as a positive message and, a bit like Kate, makes her relatable. 'It shows that she hasnt forgotten who she is as a person, her home country and what she likes. She is keen to show her love for British fashion but also combines it with designers that she has properly worn for a while.' Meghan Markle showed off her prowess at diplomatic dressing this week, showing her loyalty to both the UK an Canada in a coat by Toronto-based Smythe, teamed with a scarf from Jigsaw, an M&S jumper and Burberry trousers For her first official engagement with Harry, Meghan wore the Elodie coat by Canadian designer Mackage; a Joseph skirt, Kurt boots - and carried a bag by Scottish brand Strathberry She added that strong-minded Meghan may well have been inspired by Kate but would always put her own spin on things. 'I think that Meghan could have been inspired by Kate and style to a certain degree. She could have properly spoken to Kate about it in regards to advice and maybe tips. 'But Meghan clearly has her own look and style and I think she ultimately puts her own twist on things.' In the future, Rochelle hopes Meghan will continue her mix of designer and high street brands, just like Kate. For Christmas day at Sandringham, Meghan covered up in a camel coat from Canadian company Sentaler, paired with a hat by Irish designer Philip Treacy who is based in the UK, as well as Dents gloves 'The British designers I think that would suit her would be, Aspinal of London, Burberry and even high street brands such as Karen Millen.' The former Suits star has already proved the impact she can have on the British high street after the 45 black M&S jumper with bell sleeves she wore to visit the studio of Reprezent 107.3 FM in south London this week sold out within hours. Despite being in stock on Tuesday morning, the wool blend jumper had sold out in every size by 6pm as royal fans scrambled to emulate the bride-to-be. And the handbag she carried on her first official engagement with Harry in Nottingham in December, made by a small Scottish label Strathberry, also sold out instantly. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark is back in the full swing of royal duties for 2018, and today she was at the Christmas Seal Home Liljeborg in Roskilde to officially open the new premises. The mother-of-four, 45, looked impeccably stylish as she arrived wrapped up in a grey coat to keep out the winter chill. Once inside, she revealed a blue and green patterned blouse, and wide-legged black trousers - similar to the pair worn by Meghan Markle for her first engagement of 2018 earlier this week. The latest of five Christmas Seal homes provides a safe place for children who are facing social challenges and dealing with issues such as bullying, loneliness, social isolation and low self-esteem. There can be 48 children at a time living in one of the homes run by the charity Julemrkefonden of which Mary is patron. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark wrapped up in a grey coat as she arrived to open the latest Christmas Seal home in Roskilde Mary, 45, looked chic in wide-legged trousers, days after Meghan wore a similar pair on her first engagement of 2018 The royal joined a cookery lesson, designed to teach young people about healthy eating The mother-of-four flattered her toned figure in a pair of wide-legged black trousers. Right: Meghan rocked a similar look on her visit to Reprezent 107.3FM in Pop Brixton earlier this week The Crown Princess joined children in the kitchen for a cookery session and also visited the gym. The initiative was founded in 1903 by former office clerk and later post master Einar Holbll who came up with the idea of selling a Christmas seal and using the proceeds to fund charitable projects for sick children. More than 700 children each year are now helped by the Christmas Seal Foundation, as they battle a rang of issues including psychosocial issues and obesity. Children staying at the Foundations homes learn about healthy eating and exercise, and learn tools to deal with issues such as bullying. Princess Mary who is patron of the charity Julemrkefonden officially opened the new home The royal paused to chat to young wellwishers who had gathered to greet her outside The initiative supports young people facing social problems, obesity and bullying The royal joined a session in the gym during the visit to the new children's centre It has been a busy start of the year for Mary, who celebrated the birthday of her and Prince Frederik's twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine on Monday. On Tuesday evening, she attended a new year concert at Copenhagen City Hall held by the Home Guard. The royals recently returned from a relaxing Christmas break in Australia, where the family were seen hitting the beach. Princess Mary got stuck into a cookery lesson, inhaling the aroma of fresh herbs The mother-of-four looked fresh and natural, keeping her make-up to a minimum Mary, who is back in the full swing of duties for the New Year, looked delighted to greet royal fans outside It seems Queen Maxima has a musical streak. The Dutch Queen got up on stage at the newly re-opened home of the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra on Friday to give an enthusiastic performance on a giant gong. The royal, who wore a striking houndstooth check trouser suit with a wide-brimmed purple hat to visit Musis Arnhem, a modernised 19th Century concert hall, was greeted by schoolchildren at the event, and beamed as she was presented with an enormous bunch of flowers at the venue. The deep red blazer and trouser combination she was sporting was from her favourite brand, Natan The hat is a favourite of the 46-year-old mother of three's, who previously wore it for an engagement back in October. It matched her leather gloves and sleek envelope clutch. Being dressed to the nines didn't stop the royal throwing herself into the activities inside the building, as she stepped on stage to have a go at hitting the gong. Queen Maxima's suit is thought to be by Natan, a brand she's worn in the past, and she accessorised with striking, insect-shaped brooches. The children watched in amazement as the queen took to the stage to hit the gong Once she was inside the historic building, she was met with school children who gave a musical performance She waved at her adoring fans as she attended the opening of the newly renovated music hall Cheery as always, Maxima kept the burgundy tone throughout her outfit She smiled as she held the bouquet of flowers that she was presented with by fans who were waiting to see her She accessorised with a clutch envelope bag and matching gloves - adding sophistication The suit was a hounds tooth print and despite its thick material nipped her in at the waist Her blonde hair was swept into an elaborate bun just visible beneath the wide brim of her hat. The finishing touch was a pair of deep red drop earrings. Some of the children covered their ears as she hit the gong, which was then followed by music performed by the little ones The 46-year-old royal wore a selection of unusual broaches on her lapel that looked to be in the shape of insects She smiled as she walked into the hall as the children performed their instruments The children played the drums as she stepped into the newly renovated building The Queen towered over the town's mayor, who greeted her outside the building She royal wore a bold lip and added a deep brown shadow to her eyes - ignoring the lips or eyes rule She has worn the over-sized hat once before, during another event in October The Dutch Queen is well-known for her bold fashion choices It was one of the first official engagements of 2018 for the Dutch Queen, who was recently snapped meeting Santa Claus himself ahead of Christmas at a music festival in Rotterdam. It followed a visit to the Caribbean with her husband, King Willem-Alexander, which saw the royal couple visiting communities devastated by Hurricane Irma. A harrowing exhibition has recreated the outfits rape survivors were wearing when they were attacked to challenge insidious myths around sexual violence. The 'What were you wearing? exhibition at the Centre Communautaire Maritime in the Molenbeek district of Brussels is designed to challenge the one of the most 'pervasive rape culture myths' - that victims are somehow 'responsible' for being assaulted because of their clothing. It features 18 different outfits, including a tiny My Little Pony t-shirt that looks as if it belongs to a child as young as three, to a man's jeans and t-shirt, tracksuit bottoms, and a shirt and trousers. The outfits were assembled after student survivors from Kansas submitted descriptions of what they were wearing when they experienced sexual violence and create a visual representation of their stories. Delphine Goossens, Molenbeek prevention service's project manager, told Femail: The intent of the Installation is to create a tangible response to one of our most pervasive rape culture myths. The belief that clothing or what someone what wearing causes rape is extremely damaging for survivors. 'What were you wearing? exhibition is running in Molenbeek district of Brussels, featuring clothing that represents accounts of rape by students from the University of Kansas Among the heartbreaking items in the exhibition include a My LIttle Pony t-shirt that looks as if it belongs to a child as young as three Delphine Goossens, Molenbeek prevention service's project manager said that most visitors are struck by how simple the exhibition is This installation allows participants to see themselves reflected in not only the outfits, but also in the experiences of the survivors.' She added that she hopes the exhibition will encourage visitors to think about all the stereotypes surrounding rape and how so many of us participate, albeit unconsciously, in perpetuating these. We still tell our young girls to pay attention to what they are wearing but we still do not teach our boys to not abuse,' Delphine explained. 'We would like people to understand that every women could wear what they want, they shouldnt be attacked. That's what the exhibition shows: no outfit prevents rape.' Both male and female outfits feature in the exhibition, based on real accounts by rape survivors According to Delphine, the exhibition challenges all stereotypes around rape and aims to make people consider their own role in perpetuating them Delphine said that visitors to the exhibition are immediately hit by how mundane and simple it all looks. She said: 'And then they realise the absurdity of believing that an outfit can prevent a rape and also realise the importance of not blaming the victim, even if it is sometimes unconscious. 'I hope everyone will be able to question the rape culture in which we live, and act in their own way to help victims.' What were you wearing? runs at the Maritime Community Centre in Sit-Jans-Molenbeek until 20 January. Clothing in the exhibition proves that anyone is vulnerable to attack, regardless of age, gender or what they are wearing Some celebrities resort to blocking people on Twitter in order to filter out rude, toxic, and even abusive messages. And some are just looking for a digital way to stick their fingers in their ears and say, 'Na-na na-na na-na, I can't hear you.' Whichever might be the case, scores of social media users have come forward to share why they were blocked by stars, recounting their own tweet that caused so much offense. They called out actors, musicians, athletes, models, and even presidents or rather, a president who banned then from accessing their tweets. Prompt: People are sharing stories of being blocked on social media in response to this tweet Odd... One was blocked by Rihanna after making a joke about her touching herself Gross: A woman claims Amy Schumer blocked her after a question about bowel movements All in this together: High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale apparently did not take kindly do this man's tweet In the past? Naomi Campbell does not appreciate being reminded of this incident, for which she had to complete five days of community service and anger management classes Shh! After Logan Paul came under fire for an insensitive YouTube video, his mother tuned out critics Cult? It's widely known that Scientologists ignore outside criticism of the group 'Naomi Campbell blocked me for mentioning mobile phones and assistant's heads. Dunno why,' tweeted British skincare expert Caroline Hirons, referencing the infamous in which the supermodel through her cell phone at her assistant. 'Amy Schumer blocked me because I told her to admit that the reason she cut a show in Portland, ME short was because she had diarrhea,' another person shared. 'Rihanna blocked me cause I said her vagina was haunted and thats why she always pats it to get the ghosts out,' added one more. One person wrote that actress Kirstie Alley blocked him after he tweeted a GIF from the Simpsons that made fun of Scientology. Another replied that he was blocked by the former Cheers star, too, after tweeting about former Scientologist Leah Remini. 'Cardi B blocked me because I posted [a] video of her not keeping up with her own flow,' said one. One Twitter user who was critical of Logal Paul's behavior the YouTuber has recently come under fire for sharing an insensitive video of a suicide victim he stumbled upon said the star's mother retaliated. Out! Camila Cabello said this week that she was hurt by a performance Fifth Harmony did after she left the group Blocking for Zen: Deepak Chopra didn't seem ready to hear this person's criticism Silenced: When a person blocks someone else on Twitter, that second person can no longer see the first person's tweets Negative energy: Cardi B seemed not to like having mistakes rubbed in her face Stirring up trouble! This rabble-rouser was blocked by both Karruche Tran and Azealia Banks Quiet: English rapper Monie Love didn't like being singled out 'LOGAN PAUL'S MOM BLOCKED ME FOR TELLING HER TO HOLD HER SONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS,' she wore. 'No wonder Logan and [his brother] Jake both are sociopathic monsters. They learned from the best.' 'Ashley Tisdale blocked me when I called her out for an all lives matter tweet by saying that's why Troy chose Gabriella,' said another person. A Fifth harmony fan said that she once shared an image from the band's performance immediately after Camila Cabello left the group, calling it 'legendary'. Soon after, Camila blocked her. 'I told Deepak Chopra he was spouting nonsense,' wrote yet another. 'He said "You're not being very Zen." I said "Zen is the name of my cat."' 'Karrueche blocked me because I told her no one wanted her cheap lipstick,' one woman wrote. 'And Azealia Banks blocked me because I wouldn't stop expressing how much I dislike her.' There have also been quite a few people who have been blocked by both celebrities and politicians for political reasons. Apple, tree: While her father is known for blocking critics, it seems Ivanka Trump does as well Celebrities like Roseanne Barr have also blocked people for disagreeing with their opinions Left and right: The Green Party's Jill Stein did not appreciate being compared to Ann Coulter This person has been blocked by quite a few famous names, likely for political reasons (as they include Greta Van Susteren, Ann Coulter, and Scott Baio) No more from you! Scott Baio, a vocal Republican, has also blocked critics Presidential? Quite a few people claimed to have been blocked by Donald Trump 'It's Seth Rogen's fault,' charged one. 'He made a comment about Ivanka that I retweeted and added to and she blocked me a social worker in Tulsa, just a guy.' 'I referred to @ScottBaio's Trump sock as his "jerk sock,"' tweeted one more. 'Jill Stein tweeted something entirely nasty & not quite literate. I respond-tweeted that I had thought better of the Green Party, but she was clearly the Ann Coulter of the Far Left. Boom! Blocked!' Finally, there are plenty who admitted to having been blocked by Donald Trump. 'Donald Trump Blocked me because I said eating spoonfuls of Miracle Whip has a higher approval rating than he does,' one recalled. 'Donald Trump blocked me because I in middle school relentlessly posted snarky replies to his tweets,' wrote a young man who is now in college. Others added: 'Donald Trump blocked me 2 years ago when I pointed out his ties are made in China.' 'US President Donald Trump blocked me because he shared an infographic I made about wind turbine syndrome without realizing I was debunking it, not supporting it.' Harry Potter fans are reimagining the popular books and movies with a bit of a black magic twist. Thousands of fans of the epic series have been tweeting their ideas for a slightly-different version of Harry Potter, where Professor Dumbledore is played by Morgan Freeman, the Sorting Hat's replaced by a Sorting Durag, and nearly every major moment can be summed up with an expressive GIF. Using the hashtag #BlackHogwarts, countless muggles have shared clever and often downright hilarious tweets and even author J.K. Rowling has voiced her approval. All-star cast: Fans have been using the hashtag #BlackHogwarts to reimagine Harry Potter's world, recasting some of the movie rolls Albus? One of the most popular idea is Morgan Freeman as Dumbledore Of course it's happening in your head! This moment from Bruce Almighty in particular, with Freeman as God, reminded fans of a scene toward the end of Deathly Hallows Herbal magic: Some feel that Snoop Dogg would make the perfect Professor Sprout, who teaches Herbology And next, Head Boy! A GIF of Carlton on Fresh Prince of Bell Air perfectly sums up Percy's attitude upon becoming a Prefect Goblet of Lemonade: Yule Ball entrances would have looked a lot different if Beyonce had been in attendance Daring, nerve, and chivalry: Several renamed Gryffindor, jokingly calling it Cripindor The hashtag appears to have become popular overnight on Thursday, and fans are still using it to suggest black twists on the story. The most popular ones have thousands of likes apiece, and on Thursday night Rowling responded to a fan who asked if she'd seen them. 'Seeing them and loving them,' she wrote, also using the hashtag #BlackHogwarts. Some Twitter users have sought to hypothetically recast all the major roles in the movie, reimagining each character played by a black actor. Unsurprisingly, Morgan Freeman won near-unanimous support for the role of Dumbledore, with one fan tweeting an image of the actor as God in Bruce Almightly, saying it's what Dumbledore would look like in during Harry's death scene in Deathly Hallows. He makes this look good: Will Smith's neuralyzer in Men in Black is basically a scientific version of the spell Obliviate (though it looks a lot like a Put-Outer) Now you see me... Instead of an Invisibility Cloak, there are Invisibility Timberland boots Order of the Phoenix vs the death eaters #BlackHogwarts pic.twitter.com/JpCHwAlSrq (@ZodMagus) January 12, 2018 Conversation about Voldemort at the nearest #BlackHogwarts barbershop. "His Mama named him Tom, Imma call him Tom!" pic.twitter.com/C4F75ONghi Patrick Lewis (@PatrickLewis_) January 12, 2018 Some suggested Donald Glover to play Harry, Jaden Smith to play Ron, and either Zoe Kravitz or Yara Shahidi Hermione. Several ventured that Shaquille O'Neil would make the perfect Hagrid (being as 'half-giant' as humans come), that Forest Whitaker would make a great Mad-Eye Moody, and Michael B. Jordan could play Draco Malfoy. Other suggestions included Erykah Badu as Professor Trelawney, Viola Davis as Professor McGonagall, Don Cheadle as Voldemort, Idris Elba as Sirius Black, and Snoop Dogg as a male version of Herbology's Professor Sprout (for his expertise with a certain herb in particular). But the tweets that have earned the most attention, by far, are those that use GIFs to illustrate a specific scene if it had played out at 'Black Hogwarts'. Many of them perfectly capture the feeling or mood of a moment, or offer a funny twist on magical spells and objects. The Gryffindor House after Harry caught the golden snitch in his mouth #blackhogwarts pic.twitter.com/acSJ3WoJdP Desi (@desi_shantal) January 12, 2018 She approves! Author J.K. Rowling has been following the funny tweets and loves them Far out: Another favorite recasting was Erykah Badu as Professor Trelawney Oh you may not think I'm pretty, but don't judge on what you see... No longer a Sorting Hat, houses are picked via Sorting Durag Brilliant! Thousands of fans have used memes, GIFs, and stills to illustrate scenes and characters When Ron finds out Scabbers is actually Peter Pettigrew #BlackHogwarts pic.twitter.com/aZWtsMFzgf Xx_DayMadness_xX (@matt_day_18) January 12, 2018 when professor quirrell revealed voldemort on his head....#BlackHogwarts pic.twitter.com/sHluYo99yJ Yannick Gibson (@yarnes08) January 12, 2018 One person tweeted a GIF of Wendy Williams stumbling and fainting on her show last year, writing: 'When they hit you with that "Stupify."' Another showed Wendy taking off her wig at the pool, joking: 'When Professor Quirrell revealed Voldemort on his head...' A video of people recklessly shooting fireworks at each other on the street subbed in for a fight between the Order of the Phoenix and Death Eaters, and Tiffany 'New York' Pollard walking with attitude illustrated Bellatrix Lestrange being broken out of Azkaban. The Eddie Murphy film Coming to America was a goldmine for #BlackHogwarts GIFs, as were videos of athletes celebrating and Beyonce performances. Viral: The most popular tweets have earned thousands of likes each Students out of bed! A GIF of Samuel L. Jackson in Black Snake Moan reminded fans of Argus Filch, the caretaker Don't say it: At Hogwarts, it's the M-word mudblood that's racist When you go over to pet Dumbledore's phoenix and it randomly bursts into flames #BlackHogwarts pic.twitter.com/bTOKUyXQlV Taylor D. Christmon (@taylorchrist99) January 12, 2018 There are actually few characters described as being black in the Harry Potter books Dean Thomas being the most prominent though some fans were surprised when a black actress was cast as Hermione in the Potter play, Cursed Child. In fact, Noma Dumezweni faced quite a bit of racist backlash following the initial announcement, and Rowling came to her defense and also defended the decision not to choose a white actress to play grown-up Hermione. She pointed out that Hermione is never actually described in the books as being white. 'Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione,' she tweeted in 2015. Hermione when Dumbledore called her the greatest witch of her age. #BlackHogwarts pic.twitter.com/DHGAqEaibG (@lookatmyora) January 11, 2018 When Dumbledore asks you to be the new professor of Defense Against The Dark Arts but you know the fate of the past 6 professors #BlackHogwarts pic.twitter.com/kgqkEO8zvb Hames (@jeymez) January 12, 2018 It's only been a couple of weeks since competitive eater Nela Zisser took on the Korean Fire Noodle Challenge. But after gobbling up two steaming bowls of spicy noodles in under five minutes, the model was ready to take on something ever bigger. This time around Nela, 25, decided to demolish the KFC Family Feast Bucket, which includes ten Original Recipe chicken, two large chips, one large potato and gravy, and one large coleslaw. Scroll down for video Competitive eater Nela Zisser has taken on the KFC Family Feast Bucket Challenge, which she finished in less than 15 minutes The model had to go through the KFC Family Feast Bucket, which includes 10 Original Recipe chicken, two large chips, one large potato and gravy, and one large coleslaw The entire meal clocks in at 2,160 calories, but the former Miss Earth New Zealand was neither worried or daunted. 'I'm so excited about this video, I love KFC,' she told her YouTube viewers. 'It's like my favourite takeaway ever.' And Nela's enthusiasm was clear as she completed the entire challenge in less than 15 minutes. After setting a huge plate of chicken and fries in front of her, Nela starts the timer and immediately begins gnawing at the meat. The entire meal clocks in at 2,160 calories, but the former Miss Earth New Zealand was neither worried or daunted as she tore through it Nela switched from chicken to fries throughout the challenge as she gulped glasses of Coca Cola Zero to help get everything down In between Nela took spoonfuls of the potato and gravy and the coleslaw, struggling especially with the latter She pulls the chicken apart to get more meat off the bone at some points, and other times just goes straight to biting it clean. Nela finishes her first glass of Coke Zero at two minutes and then begins to work on the fries, stuffing multiple down at a time before switching back to the chicken. She stops midway and begins eating the coleslaw and then goes back to the fries, dipping them into some of the potato and gravy mixture for her enjoyment. The plates get emptier and emptier and another glass of Coke gets filled before Nela gets back to work on the chicken, with seven minutes on the clock and just three pieces left. She then finishes off the remaining fries, with two pieces of chicken waiting for her. Nela finished off everything at 14 minutes and 45 seconds. The model had thought it would take her 20 minutes and was proud of her time It was an impressive showing from Nela, who has taken on a number of competitive eating challenges through the years Clearly starting to feel the strain, Nela powers through and breaks apart the last piece as she tries to get it down. After the last bits of skin have been finished, she cleans up the coleslaw with a few huge spoonfuls and then gets to the remaining potato and gravy. At 14 minutes and 45 seconds, everything is done. 'Oh god, that was a lot of food,' she says. 'It tasted really good, but that was quite a lot of food.' Nela said she was 'pretty stoked' about her time, initially thinking it would take her 20 minutes to finish everything. 'It tasted really good,' she added. 'The coleslaw was really difficult to eat at the very end because it was quite sweet and difficult to chew. I really didn't want to swallow it whole.' Most recently, Nela completed the Korean Fire Noodle Challenge and finished two bowls of steaming spicy noodles under five minutes 'I'm very full right now. I don't think I'm going to be moving much for the rest of the day.' But before signing off, Nela reveals some exciting news - she had just been accepted into medical school. 'It still feels really surreal,' she says. 'I didn't expect to be accepted, so it was a big surprise.' 'It's just amazing and that means I've got five more years of university, woo!' 'But I'm so excited, it's going to be the most amazing thing ever.' Nela then promises her loyal fans that there will still be plenty of videos to come, especially now that she doesn't have to worry about pre-med classes. And with a track record that includes six burritos in 12 minutes and 22 Big Macs in under an hour, everyone is surely excited to see what she'll do next. In one of her past challenges, Nela managed to finish 22 Big Mac burgers in under an hour A trendy chicken restaurant linked to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's favourite private members' club was shut down after inspectors found mouse droppings on chopping boards. The Kentish Town branch of Chicken Shop, in north London, closed after a food hygiene inspection found an infestation of flies in the kitchen as well as rodent poo in preparation areas, on the floor, and on shelves, according to a report. The upmarket chicken chain - where a whole rotisserie chicken costs 17 - is listed as a Soho House group restaurant on the members' club's website. One of Soho House's clubs, Dean Street Townhouse, is where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their first date. Chicken Shop in Kentish Town shut down following a poor food hygiene inspection. There are a dozen branches in the UK as well as two worldwide The Chicken Shop shut after it was given a food hygiene rating of zero following an inspection by Camden Council's environmental health team, according to Emily Banks of north London newspaper the Ham&High. A report said: 'During the inspection, rodent (mice) droppings were noted in the the service kitchen area on food equipment (chopping boards).' Rodent droppings were also found on the kitchen floor of the restaurant, as well as on shelves that contained materials used to box up food for takeaways, cleaning items, and food equipment. Inspectors said there was also an infestation of flies in the kitchen, and described food preparation areas as 'dirty'. The report said that 'in view of the extreme seriousness of the situation' the council would take emergency action to shut it down. Chicken Shop then voluntarily closed for two days following the inspection. It has since re-opened. The restaurant in Kentish Town (pictured left) shares a space with Pizza East, which had no part in the inspection or hygiene issues. Chicken Shop re-opened after two days, a Quentin spokesman said Chicken Shop was founded by the Soho House group but is now run by Quentin Restaurants Ltd. Quentin was previously owned by the Soho House group but is now a separate business, according to Soho House. However Quentin is still based at the Soho House group's headquarters in central London. Chicken Shop is also still listed as a Soho House restaurant chain on the group's website. A spokesman for Quentin Restaurants said: 'For two days last summer there were issues noted in the basement and we voluntarily closed. 'Inspectors returned and were satisfied that everything had been addressed, and we re-opened that week. We look forward to our next inspection in the near future.' Chicken Shop has branches all over London, as well as a restaurant in Chicago and Barcelona. The Kentish Town branch shares space with Pizza East, another Soho House-affiliated restaurant chain, but Pizza East was not part of the inspection and was not reported to have hygiene issues. When Cadbury released its white Creme Eggs, chocolate fans went wild for them. As they're disguised in normal wrappers, rabid shoppers have even frantically unwrapping the treats in store to find one as they could be worth up to 2,000. But how do the new white chocolate Creme Eggs actually taste? FEMAIL's Food Journalist Imogen Blake has managed to track down one of the elusive chocolates to find out if the chocolates are only worth hunting down for the prize money, or if they taste great too. Imogen (left) tried one of the white chocolate Creme Eggs (right) to find out how they taste compared to a milk chocolate one There are believed to be 371 winning Creme Eggs on the shelves across the country. Cadbury have distributed 34 eggs each worth 1,000 in prize money, while one is worth a staggering 2,000. FEMAIL's white egg isn't worth anything sadly, but I was still keen to unwrap it to find out how it tastes. I have a wicked sweet tooth but even I found the chocolate intensely sugary. Imogen had to rush for a glass of water after gobbling the white Creme Egg. The treats are only around for a limited time, and there's only 371 in the country Many people find a Creme Egg's fondant centre too sickly even when encased in richer milk chocolate, but I can easily scoff one as I love a sweet treat. But the addition of ultra-sweet white chocolate means these eggs contain enough sugar to make your teeth hurt. I'm a seasoned sweet-eater, so I didn't find it too sickly, though I could feel a sugar rush come on immediately. But as a huge white chocolate fan, I really enjoyed the elusive chocolate - though I definitely couldn't manage more than one in a sitting. After my initial bite, I ate the rest of the egg in one go, and quickly had to run for a glass of water as they made all moisture in my mouth disappear. I can't see Cadbury releasing the white chocolate eggs permanently as they will be too sickly for most, though perhaps they will release them again for a limited time after the current campaign ends in April. Sometimes, you just can't mess with a classic - and milk chocolate Creme Eggs are definitely tastier. Imogen (left) has a sweet tooth, so didn't find the treats too sickly, but she said that most people would find them too sugary. She was very excited to try one of the rare treats (right) As the white eggs are so sweet, it's probably best if children only eat a little bit of these treats, if they're lucky enough to find one. The white chocolate treats have the same packaging as the classic Cadbury treat it's impossible for shoppers to know if they've won until they've unwrapped them. The list, on the back of every Creme Egg, usually includes milk chocolate as an ingredient. However, the special version replaces the milk chocolate with white chocolate. This one key change is a tell-tale clue to work out if you're Creme Egg is a special one - and you don't even have to take off the wrapper. Imogen was sent the white chocolate Creme Egg in this advent calendar-style box (left), and she had to hunt to find it. The Creme Eggs look exactly the same as they are disguised in the same wrappers, but have a white chocolate shell (right) But shoppers have been unwrapping them in stores, with some customers taking to Twitter to share photos of Creme Eggs that had been opened and then put back in the hunt for the elusive white eggs. Last week, Luton nursery manager Natasha Bream, 30, was the first person to unwrap one of Cadbury's sought-after white Creme Eggs scooping 1,000 in prize money. The eggs could be hidden inside single wrapped eggs, which have an RRP of 58p, or in five packs which cost 2.85. Co-op also has 90 more winning eggs which will let lucky shoppers take home 200. There are 14 eggs worth 1,000 in branches of Sainsbury's and 84 worth 100. There will be one winning egg worth 1,000 a week from the 14 weeks from the start of the year until April 1 when the eggs come off the shelves. Tesco have a total of seven eggs worth 1,000 and 84 more worth 100. Independent retailers - such as corner shops - have 13 winning eggs on their shelves worth 1,000 and 78 more worth 100. One egg worth 1,000 will be put in an independent shop somewhere in mainland UK over 13 weeks. A father diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease has been given just years to live and is shocked to discover his toddler twins have been given a 50 per cent chance of inheriting the condition. Daniel Bradbury, 30, who is unable to work, was diagnosed in September last year and is believed to be one of the youngest people in the country to suffer from early-onset Alzheimer's. Mr Bradbury, from Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, inherited the condition from his father Adrian, who died at just 36 from the disease. People with this type of Alzheimer's generally have the same life expectancy as the person they inherited it from. As Mr Bradbury, who was diagnosed shortly after the twins were born, has an inherited disease, there is a strong chance his 18-month-old toddlers, Lola and Jasper, will also suffer in later life. His girlfriend and the children's mother Jordan Evans, 29, who cares for Mr Bradbury full time, said: 'We were very shocked and devastated by the diagnosis. It was particularly difficult to hear that the children have a chance of getting it too.' Expected to die young, Mr Bradbury, who suffers from short-term memory loss, confusion and balance problems, wishes to make lasting memories for his family by raising 10,000 for the trip of a lifetime to Disney World Florida. Daniel Bradbury (pictured), who suffers from Alzheimer's, has been given just years to live and is shocked to discover his toddler twins (pictured Jasper and Lola) have been given a 50 per cent chance of having the condition (pictured with his girlfriend Jordan Evans) Daniel Bradbury, who is unable to work, was diagnosed in September last year and is believed to be one of the youngest people in the country to suffer from early-onset Alzheimer's As Mr Bradbury, who was diagnosed shortly after the twins were born, has an inherited disease, there is a strong chance his children will also suffer in later life WHAT IS EARLY-ONSET ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE? Early-onset Alzheimer's disease affects people under 65 and makes up around 4% of the condition's sufferers. It occurs due to a single gene, which affects around 600 families worldwide. Symptoms include memory problems that interfere with everyday life, confusion, disorientation, personality changes, language problems and sight difficulties. These symptoms get worse over time. Most cases are not inherited but are thought to be brought on by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. There is no cure. Treatment focuses on managing symptoms. Source: Alzheimer's Research UK & Alzheimer's Society Advertisement 'We were shocked and devastated' Mr Bradbury was told he may have the condition when Ms Evans was four months pregnant in early 2016, but decided not to get tested at the time. Yet, shortly after the twins' first birthday, his symptoms started getting more severe, prompting him to get diagnosed. Mr Bradbury suffered from the condition for more than a year before his diagnosis. Ms Evans, a former NHS worker, said: 'We had a suspicion something was not right but were praying that it was not this. 'We were very shocked and devastated by the diagnosis. 'It was particularly difficult to hear that the children have a chance of getting it too. 'We try and have some non-Alzheimer's days when we do not talk about it.' He inherited dementia from his father Adrian (pictured), who died at just 36 from the condition He will likely die in his 30s as a sufferer's life span usually matches those they inherited it from Ms Evans, the twins' mother, says learning they may suffer makes it all even more devastating He noticed symptoms when Ms Evans was four months pregnant but was not tested at the time Mr Bradbury and Ms Evans want to create lasting memories of him for their children HOW MANY PEOPLE SUFFER FROM ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE? Around 850,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia, which is a group of symptoms that affect memory and reasoning. Alzheimer's disease falls under this. More than one million people are predicted to suffer by 2025 and over two million by 2051. Dementia is thought to be on the rise as people are living longer and growing awareness make diagnoses more common. Early-onset dementia, which occurs in people under 65, affects more than 40,000 people in Britain. Of those over 65, 7.1 per cent suffer. Worldwide, nearly 36 million people have dementia but up to 28 million may be undiagnosed. Source: Alzheimer's Society Advertisement 'I do not know how long I have' Mr Bradbury and Ms Evans are hoping fundraising money will give them and their twins memories together before his time runs out. He said: 'I try not to think about it. I live day by day with both good days and bad days. 'It does not just affect me, it affects everyone around me as well. 'I do not know how long I have 'til it takes a real hold on me. I want to be as much of a dad as I can for as long as I can be. 'As my memory fades I am hoping to create lasting memories for my partner and our children so that one day they can look back on the videos and photos of us all together and cherish them.' The couple, who met 12 years ago, have started a Justgiving page to raise money to take their children to Disney World. They are hoping to go by the middle of this year as they 'do not know how he will be in six months'. Ms Evans said: 'We want to raise as much as possible to have a trip as a family and create memories for the kids. 'We were hoping to take them when they were older and can remember it, but that is not a possibility now. 'It will mean a lot to be happy as a family, to look back and remember all the good times that we had.' The money raised will also help Mr Bradbury tick other things off his bucket list, such as sky diving with his brothers. Clare Walton, research communications manager at the Alzheimer's Society, added: 'Dementia is not a natural part of ageing and it doesn't just affect older people. 'Over 40,000 people under 65 in the UK have dementia, including people in their 30s and 40s. The needs of younger people with dementia are very different to those of older people and there is a shortage of age appropriate services in the UK. 'Alzheimer's Society is currently funding research which we hope will improve diagnosis and support for people with younger onset dementia.' Donate towards the family's holiday here. Mr Bradbury suffers from short-term memory loss, confusion and balance problems Ms Evans was an NHS worker but now cares for Mr Branbury full time The couple want to create memories so the family can look back and remember the good times They hope to raise enough money to have a trip of a lifetime to Disney World Florida Mr Bradbury also hopes to do a sky dive with his brothers (pictured) before he deteriorates A mother is urging parents to be aware of the signs of potentially deadly sepsis after her five-month-old daughter was left fighting for her life. Emma Woodland said she took baby Bonnie to her GP with a cough but it was dismissed as 'just had a virus' and they were sent home. But less than 24 hours later, the infant stopped breathing and was on life support. The 38-year-old took to Facebook to warn others after her ordeal in a post that's been shared 3,200 times. She explained tests revealed she was suffering from bronchiolitis a common respiratory infection that affects children under two. But the youngster took a turn for the worse when the infection triggered sepsis a life-threatening condition that causes the body's immune system to attack itself. Ms Woodland was shocked at the speed at which the illness took hold and revealed when she arrived at hospital with Bonnie she was 'happy and smiling' but within the an hour she needed tubes to breathe. Emma Woodland took Bonnie to her GP with cough but dismissed as a virus The 38-year-old mother-of-four, from Godstone in Surrey, pictured with her children Within 24 hour of getting a cough, the infant stopped breathing and was on life support WHAT IS SEPSIS? Sepsis, known as the silent killer, strikes when an infection such as blood poisoning sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs. It is the leading cause of avoidable death, killing at least 44,000 a year, and the Daily Mail has long campaigned for more awareness. If caught early, the infection can be controlled by antibiotics before the body goes into overdrive - ultimately leading to death within a matter of minutes. But the early symptoms of sepsis can be easily confused with more mild conditions, meaning it can be difficult to diagnose. A patient can rapidly deteriorate if sepsis is missed early on, so quick diagnosis and treatment is vital yet this rarely happens. Advertisement Ms Woodland wrote: 'Please if you have ANY doubts with your child or babys breathing, anything at all, then dont hesitate to call an ambulance. 'Even if it the smallest snuffle or gasp, then get them to A&E. Thank goodness for us that the paramedics had made that decision to run her up there as theres no harm in getting her looked over because we know for sure if they hadnt we would be writing a whole different post right now.' 'I never even knew that bronchiolitis could kill a child' The mother-of-four first suspected something was wrong with Bonnie in the early hours of December 12. An ambulance rushed to the family home in Godstone in Surrey and paramedics decided to take the little girl in for a check up 'as a precaution'. By the time they arrived at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill Bonnie's oxygen levels had dropped dramatically and her heart rate had risen. She took to Facebook to warn other parents about the symptoms her little girl had Tests revealed the baby had bronchiolitis, a common respiratory infection among children under the age of two The child was placed on life support and transferred to the intensive care unit at St George's Hospital in south London. Ms Woodland wrote: 'If like me, I never even knew that bronchiolitis could kill a child? You here about meningitis, measles, mumps and rubella all being serious childhood illnesses but no body tells you about bronchiolitis and after speaking with other parents and doctors it is more common than I ever realised especially at this time of year. Indeed severe respiratory failure an inability to breathe unaided is a potential complication of bronchiolitis, according to NHS Choices. The early symptoms of the condition can include a runny nose and a cough making it easy to mistake for a common cold. Children may go on to suffer rapid or noisy breathing and vomiting. WHAT IS BRONCHIOLITIS? Bronchiolitis is a common lower respiratory tract infection that affects babies and young children under two years old. Most cases are mild and clear up without the need for treatment within two to three weeks, although some children have severe symptoms and need hospital treatment. The early symptoms of bronchiolitis are similar to those of a common cold, such as a runny nose and cough. The symptoms usually get worse during the next few days, before gradually improving. During this time, your child may develop some of the following symptoms: A rasping and persistent dry cough Rapid or noisy breathing (wheezing) Brief pauses in their breathing Feeding less and having fewer wet nappies Vomiting after feeding Being irritable Source: NHS Choices Advertisement The infection triggered sepsis which causes the immune system to attack itself Bronchiolitis is caused by a virus known as the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is spread through tiny droplets of liquid from the coughs or sneezes of someone who's infected. The infection causes the smallest airways in the lungs (the bronchioles) to become infected and inflamed. The inflammation reduces the amount of air entering the lungs, making it difficult to breathe. Sepsis kills more people than breast and bowel cancer combined, with 44,000 deaths every year. Without quick treatment, sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure and death. A student developed pneumonia and potentially fatal blood clots on her lungs after taking a contraceptive pill for just six months. Eleanor Waring, 19, developed back and chest pains before Christmas leaving her unable to walk and 'crying out in pain'. Over the course of more than a week she was treated for suspected urine and chest infections before being diagnosed with the inflammatory lung condition and blood clots on her lungs. Eleanor also suffered the agony of waiting for 22 hours for a hospital bed before she could be treated. Research suggests the combined contraceptive pill almost triples the risk of blood clots the female hormone oestrogen it contains can cause clotting of the blood more readily. Eleanor, who studies criminology at Northumbria University, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is now urging others to be aware of the potential side effects of the Pill. Ms Waring, originally from Market Weighton, East Riding of Yorkshire, said: 'I'd been on the contraceptive pill for about four years but I wasn't on the same one all that time I'd swapped it a few times. I'd only been on that pill for about six months. Eleanor Waring developed back and chest pains before Christmas leaving her unable to walk and 'crying out in pain' every time she tried to breathe She was diagnosed with pneumonia and potentially-fatal blood clots on her lungs THE PILL AND BLOOD CLOT RISK Use of any contraceptive pill almost triples the risk of blood clots, found research in 2015. However, the NHS said in reference ti the study that 'the baseline risk is small'. The chance of developing the life-threatening condition was generally higher with the newer third generation pills, compared with older pills. Risk was lowest for pills containing levonorgestrel, which is by far the most common prescribed, the NHS points out. This pill carried risk of around six extra cases of blood clot for every 10,000 women prescribed. Risk was more than double this for pills containing desogestrel, gestodene, drospirenone and cyproterone, though these aren't normally pills of first choice in practice, and are normally used when there are reasons to treat other symptoms such as acne. The NHS concluded: 'The combined oral contraceptive pill remains a safe and effective form of contraception for most women, but it is not suitable for all such as women with a history of heart disease or high blood pressure.' Advertisement 'Each time I got a new one I was told about the blood clot risk but you're told how rare it is. Now that it's happened to me, I don't feel like it's that rare. 'I feel like people should know about the risks of the pill a lot more and take them more seriously. When blood clots occur they can be potentially fatal. 'Obviously no one wants their friends or family members to go through that. I'd never want anyone to go through what I've been through.' However, a charity has warned that the risk of blood clots when taking the contraceptive pill is very small and says women who are concerned should speak to their doctor. A 22-hour wait for a hospital bed Ms Waring's symptoms started with a cough and cold that lasted for around four weeks, but just before Christmas she started to develop pain in her lower back, buttocks and chest. Doctors thought she had a straight-forward urine infection and gave her antibiotics. But when her symptoms didn't improve she visited a minor injuries unit. She said: 'I woke up in that much pain before Christmas that I rang 111. I didn't think it was a blood clot at all it's not something I would ever consider. The 19-year-old is now urging others to be aware of the potential side effects of the Pill When it became clear her condition was serious, the criminology student was rushed into a side room and given antibiotics and blood thinners 'I mentioned to the doctor at the minor injuries department that I had chest pains and they also thought I might have a urine infection that hadn't cleared up and a chest infection as well.' And so Ms Waring was given more antibiotics and sent home, but on December 27 she went to Hull Royal Infirmary with severe chest pain. She had a CT scan and doctors kept her in overnight to be monitored but she said A&E was 'rammed' and she didn't get a bed for 22 hours. The next morning when it became clear her condition was serious she was rushed into a side room and given antibiotics and blood thinning injections. Medics said her pneumonia and blood clots were unrelated and a case of 'bad timing' but the two diagnoses combined could have been fatal if left untreated. Eleanor said: 'By that point it had become so bad that I couldn't walk anymore due to the chest pain and I was crying out in pain. The pain was coming from the front and back of my back and it was so painful to breathe. 'When I started crying that made it even more painful. The pain in my lower back had completely gone by then.' Ms Waring stopped taking the Pill straight away and has been told she can never take it again Risk is rare Ms Waring came off the Pill immediately and has been told she can never take it again. 'The doctors at the hospital said that of all the risk factors for blood clots, the only one that applied to me was that I was on the contraceptive pill,' she said. According the FPA, the sexual health charity, women who use combined hormonal contraception only have a risk of between five and 12 per 10,000 women each year, depending on the method they're using. Bekki Burbidge, deputy chief executive, said: 'The combined pill and other types of combined hormonal contraception, such as the vaginal ring and contraceptive patch, are associated with a small risk of developing a blood clot, which is why you should always be asked about your medical history and whether you smoke before being prescribed one of these methods. 'Blood clots can be very serious, but the risk of a blood clot in women using the pill or other combined hormonal contraception is very small in fact you're more likely to get a blood clot when you're pregnant or have just given birth. 'If you're worried, it's important not to suddenly stop using your contraception and risk an unwanted pregnancy. 'Speak to a doctor or nurse if you have any concerns and remember that there are many different methods of contraception available, so you should never feel like you have to keep using a method you're not happy with.' When babies crawl, they 'kick up' a dust storm of dirt, skin cells and bacteria which they breathe in, research has found. Their movement across floors, especially carpeted surfaces, kicks up high levels of debris which also includes pollen and fungal spores. They inhale a dose of these substances in their lungs that is four times what an adult would breathe walking across the same floor, scientists say, Not only does their movements stir up more particulates into the air, their mouths and nostrils are much closer to the floor where the concentrations are greater. However, as alarming as that sounds, the experts who carried out the study which is the first of its kind say that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, a host of research claims that our obsession with cleanliness is weakening our children's immune systems. Scroll down for video When infant crawl, they inhale a dose of dirt, skin cells and bacteria into their lungs that is four times what an adult would breathe walking across the same floor (stock image) Lead researcher Brandon Boor of Purdue University in Indiana, US, said: '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. '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.' How the research was carried out Human babies are the only mammals that can't get up and walk soon after being born, the team point out. 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. He argues it only became common once people began living in structures with wooden floors. To find out how much of the floor debris babies breathe, the team built a robotic crawling baby. They tested it crawling on actual carpet samples they had removed from homes and measured and analyzed the particulates in the breathing zone. It was found a concentrated cloud of resuspended particles formed around the robot and concentrations around them can be as much as 20 times greater than the levels of material higher in the room. Moreover, infants' bodies are not as good adults' at blocking this dust storm, explained Dr Boor. '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 airways the tracheobronchial and pulmonary regions. The particles make it to the deepest regions of their lungs.' Is this what nature intended? Counterintuitively, perhaps, this may be just what nature intended, the team suggested. In the late 1980s, British epidemiologist David Strachan was the first to propose the "hygiene hypothesis", which theorizes 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,' said Dr Boor. 'Such exposures act to stimulate and challenge your immune system.' The study was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Thousands of patients are being urged to get on ferries and the Eurostar to visit a hospital in Calais as the worst winter ever tightens its grip on the NHS. Calais Hospital, ran in partnership with health chiefs in south Kent, has launched a campaign encouraging patients to make the trip across the Channel for 'fast care' It comes just a week after Prime Minister Theresa May apologised for NHS England's controversial decision to cancel 55,000 non-urgent operations. Recent figures have shown that hospitals in England have reached 'crisis point', with A&E waiting times and ambulance delays going through the roof. French bosses are advertising the unit in the city as being just 'five minutes away' from the Eurotunnel exit and the main port in an attempt to tempt patients to seek GP referrals for operations across the Channel. English signs are displayed throughout the premises and every doctor and nurse is fluent in English. South Kent Coast CCG signed the deal with the hospital, which in French is called the Centre Hospitalier de Calais, in January 2016. The city has become known for its migrant camps in recent years. The NHS-run service is less than 1.2 miles (2km) away from the old 'Calais Jungle', where refugees used to clamber onto trucks to try and make it to Britain. However, critics have blasted the advert and said it is indicative of Mrs May's failure to tackle the chronic under-funding of the health service. Jonathan Ashworth, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, said: 'If shipping patients off to France is Theresa Mays idea of the NHS being "better prepared" for winter than ever before, then she really has lost control. 'Patients deserve more than being forced to cross the Channel for their care.' Calais Hospital, ran in partnership with health chiefs in south Kent, is able to offer 'fast care to any NHS patient' - as hospitals in England reach crisis point French bosses are advertising the unit in the city as being just 'five minutes away' from the Eurotunnel exit and the main port The hospital is less than 1.2 miles (2km) from the old migrant camps, which were described as the 'Calais Jungle' before they were shut down in October 2016 James Price, campaign manager at the TaxPayers Alliance: 'Whilst its encouraging that Brits could go to Calais to get quality healthcare, it it also a sorry indictment on the NHS that people have to leave the country for care. 'The same people who argue we copy Europe in many ways are also horrified of attacking the NHS, but the continent shows consistently better healthcare under a different system. 'Taxpayers in Dover and beyond deserve a grown-up conversation about how we organise and run healthcare in the UK.' The plans were first revealed in 2016 by the NHS South Kent Coast CCG, which covers a population of 202,000 in the Folkestone and Dover area. It was hoped that the controversial move would slash escalating waiting times for routine operations, such as hip replacements, in the Kent area. However, frustrated bosses have taken to advertising the French facility once again as barely any are making the journey. It issued a new press release on Wednesday. Calais Hospital, which offers accommodation with ensuite bathrooms, is described as being a 'modern hospital' - furnished with 500 beds. Patients making the trip across the English Channel can expect to have their surgery within four weeks - which they claim is quicker than on home soil. South Kent Coast CCG signed the deal with the hospital, which in French is called the Centre Hospitalier de Calais, in January 2016 There is no waiting list for non-urgent procedures at the NHS-ran hospital in Calais. Patients can expect to wait for at least 18 weeks in England. Families wanting to stay close to their relative in hospital would have to fork out 40 (35) per night, which bosses say is a 'very competitive' rate. They would also be asked to dish out a further 8 (7.10) for 'staying over' and 8 (7.10) for any extra meal. The rooms - which come with TVs and internet, that are offered to friends and family of patients are all full of single beds. Chiefs claim that an extra bed can be provided to those that need a 'family helper'. Car parking is also free - unlike most NHS hospitals. All treatment costs and meals for the patients are fronted by the NHS as part of the deal to ease pressure on the stretched Kent services. However, patients pay their own travel costs. A spokesperson claimed that NHS bosses in the area are acting 'unethical' when they hear patients have booked in for an operation in France. They suggested patients willing to travel are being offered the opportunity to 'queue jump' so they have a much shorter wait for the surgery in England. FIRST NHS PATIENT CROSSES THE CHANNEL FOR SURGERY A civil servant became the first NHS patient to travel to France for routine surgery as part of a contract designed to cut waiting times two years ago. Timothy Brierley made the 44-mile trip from his home in Lyminge, Kent, to a Calais hospital to have his gall bladder removed in April 2016. He opted to travel abroad to reduce his waiting time from 10 months to just weeks as part of an agreement between South Kent Coast CCG and the Centre Hospitalier de Calais. Timothy Brierley made the 44-mile trip from his home in Lyminge, Kent, to a Calais hospital to have his gall bladder removed in April 2016 It won the right to provide services for NHS patients including orthopaedics, gynaecology, ear nose and throat and cataract surgery - but patients have to pay for their own travel costs. The hospital has trained dozens of nurses and support staff in English, and an NHS sign is now visible at its entrance. Mr Brierley, 54, told The Guardian at the time it was no less convenient than going to his local hospital - and worth it for the reduction in waiting times. Advertisement Patients making the trip across the English Channel can expect to have their surgery within four weeks - which they claim is quicker than on home soil Calais Hospital, which offers accommodation with ensuite bathrooms, is described as being a 'modern hospital' - furnished with 500 beds HOW LONG ARE THE WAITS FOR SURGERY? The number of patients waiting too long for routine operations is at its highest level in almost a decade, NHS figures revealed in October. More than 400,000 patients had waited at least 18 weeks for procedures including hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery. This is the highest number since September 2008 and prompting experts to warn that hospitals were going backwards. Under the NHS Constitution, its rulebook, patients have a right to have an operation or procedure within 18 weeks of being referred by their consultant. But figures for August show that 1 in 10 patients were waiting longer - only 89.4 per cent were treated within this 18 week target. Earlier this year the head of the NHS Simon Stevens warned that waiting times would go up to enable the health service to focus its attention on cancer care and GP services. 'Leading surgeons accused him of 'waving the white flag' and said the health service would return to the days of 'unacceptably long waits.' Advertisement NHS England refused to comment when asked. South Kent Coast CCG has been approached by MailOnline for a response. The new advert comes just a week after NHS England announced all non-urgent operations would be cancelled until February. The controversial move was slammed by experts, but was considered as the only way to cope with the mounting pressure placed on the health service. The NHS crisis is now the forefront of a political row over funding, with furious medics arguing this entire situation was avoidable with extra money. Prime Minister Theresa May and Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt have been forced to publically apologise amid the crisis. 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'. Damning figures released yesterday highlighted how poor the NHS is performing this winter, with A&E waiting times hitting their highest on record. Just 85.1 per cent of patients were seen within the four-hour time target set by Government - equaling last January's record low. And 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 'CALAIS JUNGLE': 10,000 MIGRANTS USED TO LIVE AT THE MAKESHIFT CAMP Around 10,000 migrants used to live at the makeshift camp in France until the squalid camp was pulled down by French officials in 2016. The port city camp was popular with migrants who hoped to try to clamber onto trucks in the desperate hope that they would make it to Britain. Since the camp was shut down, there has been a dramatic decrease in the amount of violent crime in the area as a number of migrants have applied for asylum in France or dispersed into other parts of the EU. Yet in August last year, it was revealed that migrants had made 30,000 attempts to reach Britain from Calais despite costly security measures. The French interior ministry logged 17,867 efforts to break into the fortified zone around the port and Channel Tunnel. Asylum seekers also tried 12,349 times to stow away on UK-bound lorries. The figures came nearly a year after the closure of the notorious Jungle migrant camp in Calais raising fears of another shantytown springing up there. Advertisement 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' 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 The data shows that over 5,000 extra beds were brought into service to cope with demand 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 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 showed. The 'disappointing' figures have been escalating rapidly in the past few week, and are only expected to get worse by the end of the month. Furious A&E chiefs wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May earlier this week to inform her that patients are 'dying prematurely' in hospital corridors. A leaked letter, written by the bosses of 60 casualty units, revealed there are 'serious concerns' about patient safety amid the ongoing crisis. 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. Names on the scathing letter, dated yesterday, included some of the bosses of the biggest and busiest casualty units across the country. 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 A 17-year-old boy who suddenly collapsed and died was discovered to have the flu despite showing no symptoms. Jonah Smith's heart stopped beating in the back of his sister's car last month, causing him to become brain dead from lack of oxygen. Doctors confirmed the teen from Arizona tested positive for the flu and pneumonia after his death, though he did not show any of the typical flu-like symptoms such as a fever, sneezing or coughing. Jonah's family is still grappling with his mysterious death that has made him one of the 20 children killed by the flu that is now a nation-wide epidemic across the US this season. Jonah Smith, 17, collapsed and died last month when his heart stopped beating in the backseat of his sister's car After his death, doctors confirmed he had the flu and pneumonia however his family said he showed no signs of being sick Doctors suspected that Jonah may have had an undiagnosed heart condition, however toxicology tests determined that was not the case. The only illnesses doctors can confirm are influenza 1a and pneumonia. Jonah's mother Gayle told FOX Phoenix: 'I've already been told we may never know. The medical examiner results won't be back for at least six months.' On December 29 Jonah's sister picked him up from work at a fast food restaurant before he collapsed in the backseat of her car. His sister said that Jonah told her he was feeling sick minutes before his heart stopped beating - the only warning sign that her brother was suffering any illness. 'He didn't look like he had a cold or act sick,' said Gayle. The only sign the family can pinpoint is that he complained of a backache, which did not stop him from going to work or seeing friends. Jonah was airlifted to Phoenix Children's Hospital where he was declared brain dead due to lack of oxygen. HOW CAN THE FLU BE DEADLY? The flu often leaves sufferers feeling sick and riddled with a fever, chills, aches and cough. However, in extreme cases it can be deadly. The flu poses the biggest risks to the elderly, young children, pregnant women and those with a compromised immune system. Asthma, diabetes and heart disease patients also face an increased risk of death from the usually harmless virus. But the flu, which has so far claimed the lives on 20 children and 85 adults in the US, can be life-threatening, or cause potentially fatal complications. It can lead to pneumonia but could also trigger sepsis when an infection such as blood poisoning sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs. Advertisement He died shortly after. While most people suffering from the flu experience fever, chills, muscle aches, cough, congestion, runny nose, headaches and fatigue, not all those infected show symptoms. Dr Angela Tonozzi director of Infectious Disease and Prevention at Aurora Health Care told Daily Mail Online that showing no symptoms is called the flu subclinical disease. She said: 'Subclinical disease is known as carrier status because you have the virus and are able to share those germs without symptoms. 'You can have the flu but your body fights it and you have no knowledge that you had the disease.' Typically someone would show the signs of the flu before it gets to the point of death, leading experts to believe that Jonah may have had a previous medical condition. His death comes as this season's massive flu outbreak is devastating the US. This season the flu has so far killed 20 children and more than 85 adults in the US, according to the CDC. The rate of hospitalizations almost doubled in a week, leaving hospitals overcrowded, understaffed and turning some patients away. Experts warn that infants and elderly people are the most vulnerable and the deadly virus has left an eight-month-old boy fighting for his life in Texas. The flu is now widespread in more than 46 states as the outbreak reaches his peak, making it one of the worse flu seasons in years. Shocking footage has emerged showing a South Sudanese father being abused by a man he says followed his young family home from childcare. Dave Anei shared the video on Facebook which showed a man threatening to 'rip his head off' and bashing on his front screen door in Brisbane on Thursday. 'They can shoot me, they can do what they want to me,' the man can be heard saying, before yelling at Mr Anei for filming him. 'Take a photo of me? F*** you! Want me to rip this screen door off and f***ing rip your head off bro? F***ing snitch, are you a snitch?' The man then slams on the screen door before walking away, shouting 'f*** you, you snitch dog'. When Mr Anei tells the man to leave his property and asks him what his problem is, he replies: 'My problem is your boys be starting s*** on me bro.' He continued: 'I don't give a f**** who your African boys are mate do you know who us Aussie c**** are mate?' The shirtless man then lists a string of outlaw bikie gangs. Mr Anei uploaded the video with a caption blaming Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mr Dutton for the incident. 'I hold the Prime Minister Malcolm Trumbull (sic) and his Minister's for Home Affairs Peter Dutton full responsibility for this racial attack on my family,' Mr Anei posted. When Mr Anei tells the man to leave his property and asks him what his problem is, he replies: 'My problem is your boys be starting s*** on me bro' 'They chose to be in the office to serve certain groups of Australian communities NOT Australia as a whole country. 'Their words [were] 'tackle this #Aficangang problem' and 'people are afraid to go out to restaurants at night''. Mr Anei said the man was allegedly following his wife and two children home. 'They were on their way back from childcare, luckily I was at home to protect them,' Mr Anei said. 'Congratulations Mr Prime Minister and your Minister Dutton, you've achieved to create division among the community.' 'Take a photo of me? F*** you! Want me to rip this screen door off and f***ing rip your head off bro? the man asked Earlier this month, Mr Dutton told Sydney radio 2GB that residents in Melbourne were afraid to go out at night following a spate of violence in the city's west. 'People don't see this in NSW, in Queensland, but the reality is people are scared to go out at restaurants of a night time because they're followed home by these gangs, home invasions, and cars are stolen,' Mr Dutton said. Prime Minister Turnbull and a senior cabinet minister from Victoria have blamed the state's premier, Daniel Andrews, for violent African gangs running rampant through Melbourne. The Prime Minister said the Andrews' government was responsible for Apex and Menace to Society gangs terrorising residents. 'We are very concerned at the growing gang violence and lawlessness in Victoria, in particular in Melbourne,' he said. The friend who was last with UPenn student Blaze Bernstein before he went missing in a California park was nervous and shaking when police interviewed him before finding the teenager's body and they have not arrested him since. Police have opened a murder investigation into Blaze's death after discovering his body in the park on January 10. It was unearthed by recent rain and police will not say what condition his body was in when he was found. On Thursday, as Blaze's family searched for answers, details of the interview the friend gave on January 4 emerged. He was allowed to leave police HQ after the interview and his whereabouts on Thursday were not known. The interview was described in a search warrant obtained by The Orange County Register which did not say what the search warrant was for when it published the details. The friend who said he was last with Blaze Bernstein and drove him to the park where officers found his body on Tuesday said was 'nervous and shaking' when he was interviewed by police before Blaze's body was found. Blaze is pictured The Orange County Sheriff's Office would not respond to DailyMail.com's questions on Thursday and no suspects have been named since. At the time of the friend's interview, Blaze had been missing for two days and his body was yet to be found. Police spoke with the friend at the park and later at their headquarters and said he was 'nervous and shaking' throughout. He said that he picked Blaze up at home on the night he went missing and drove to the park where Blaze reportedly told him he was planning to meet another friend. When Blaze went into the park, the friend said he waited for an hour for him to return then, when he didn't, claimed he went to his 'girlfriend's house'. He however could not remember where that 'girlfriend' lived or tell police what her last name was. He claimed that he returned to the park to look for Blaze afterwards at 3.40am. It is not clear who reported him missing or how long afterwards his disappearance was reported. Detectives noticed the friend had dirt under his fingernails and cuts and abrasions on his hands which, when asked, he said were the result of a 'fight club' he was part of. The friend, who has not been named, told police on January 4 that Blaze went missing on January 2 after they drove to the park in the friend's rented car. He claimed Blaze simply walked into the park to meet another of their friends and was never seen again The friend said the pair arrived at Borrego Park at midnight on Tuesday January 2. The friend was questioned by detectives at the scene on January 4, as searches were ongoing, and later at their HQ When they asked why his hands were dirty, he said he'd fallen into a 'dirty puddle' while sparring. At one stage, he showed detectives the inside of the rental car he had and they saw camping equipment inside it. There was also a 'large empty plastic bin on the backseat, and a black belt on the passenger seat floorboard.' After his interview, as he left police headquarters, he covered his hand with his jacket to avoid putting his bare fingers on door handles. 'On their way out of Sheriffs Headquarters, (investigators) noticed 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, it read. Police found Blaze's body in Borrego Park on Tuesday, a week after he vanished and four days after the friend's interview. No one has been arrested Blaze's parents, pictured during the search for him before his body was discovered, said they were devastated by the news of his death During the interview, he told police Blaze had seemed 'depressed' about his school grades but never mentioned any intention to self harm. A murder investigation was launched into Blaze's death on Wednesday He was not arrested, nor has anyone else been. On Wednesday, a day after Blaze's body was found, a homicide investigation was opened. Blaze was at home for winter break when he vanished. Friends and family had been frantically looking for him for a week before his body was discovered. At a press conference on Wednesday, the teenager's distraught parents said they were crushed by the discovery of his body. 'We have just learned that the O.C. Sheriffs Department and coroners office has confirmed our familys worst fears and have positively identified our son Blazes body. '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,' they said in a joint statement read by his father. The top Democrat of the House intelligence committee has said he wants to interview Ivanka Trump as part of the Russia probe - after it was revealed she had contact with two participants of a meeting with Russian representatives as they left Trump Towers. Democrat representative Adam Schiff said on Thursday that the Republicans had failed to invite a number of valuable witnesses to the probe. This included Ivanka Trump and several people who he says have additional information about the June 2016 meeting between Russians and the Trump campaign. At the Trump Tower meeting, several Trump campaign officials met with Russian operatives on the promise of receiving damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. Scroll down for video Democrat representative Adam Schiff said on Thursday he wanted to interview Ivanka Trump (pictured) as part of the Russia probe It was revealed last week that she had contact with two of the participants of the infamous Trump Tower meeting as they made their way out. Pictured: Schiff speaks to reporters about the meeting in question The meeting came to the attention of congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller. Ivanka Trump reportedly spoke to two of the meeting's participants they made their way out, The Los Angeles Times said last week. 'There are witnesses who have knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting and what it was about prior to the meeting that have not been brought before our committee,' Schiff said. 'I think that if there's credible information that Ivanka Trump had contact with any participants in that meeting, at the time of the meeting, that she should be brought in,' Schiff said. 'She may have more valuable insights on a variety of other issues as well.' Schiff said the committee has interviewed a total of 56 witnesses, less than half of the number of witnesses the Senate intelligence committee has interviewed in its own investigation into Russian interference and whether the Trump campaign was involved. 'There are witnesses who have knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting and what it was about prior to the meeting that have not been brought before our committee,' Schiff said At the Trump Tower meeting, several Trump campaign officials met with Russian operatives on the promise of receiving damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton The House interviews are done by lawmakers, and often run for much of the day. The Senate panel's interviews are done by staff. He laid the blame on House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nune, who stepped aside from the probe for several months while the House Ethics Committee investigated whether Nunes had at one point divulged classified information. Schiff said he and Texas Representative Mike Conaway, who has led the probe since Nunes stepped aside, have 'tried to keep the investigation on track,' but 'the chairman has a different agenda.' Nunes has been focused on a dossier of allegations about Trump's ties to Russia and whether it has been inappropriately used by the FBI. Democrats have said that's just an attempt to divert from the Russia probe. 'I think that if there's credible information that Ivanka Trump had contact with any participants in that meeting, at the time of the meeting, that she should be brought in,' Schiff said Ivanka has thus far managed to distance herself from the investigation Republicans have in turn criticized Democrats for trying to draw out the probe and say there's no clear evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia. They have indicated they want the investigation to wind down in the early months of this year. 'The Committee is working to develop well-supported findings that will help protect the 2018 elections against hacking and other potential disruptions by foreign powers,' said Jack Langer, a spokesman for Nunes. 'The Democrats, by contrast, are insisting on a ridiculous, endless investigation for public relations purposes, in order to distract from their inability to provide evidence for the wild arguments they've been making to the media all year.' Schiff said there are still several important issues that Democrats want to investigate, but that Republicans won't issue subpoenas to get the information. That includes phone and messaging records surrounding the Trump Tower meeting, the White House response to that meeting, communications from WikiLeaks and records from Deutsche Bank, the German asset management firm that has loaned Trump's real estate organization millions of dollars. The committee is expected to hear at least one witness related to the Russia probe as soon as next week: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Bannon has retained attorney William Burck for the House Intelligence Committee probe, according to a person familiar with the former White House chief strategist's decision. He has yet to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators. Schoolchildren's bags are being searched for sweets in a crackdown on junk food. Pupils at Charles Dickens School in Broadstairs, Kent are having their bags trawled through by teachers imposing a total ban on fatty snacks, energy drinks and crisps. Children caught smuggling sugary contraband into the comprehensive school have their snacks confiscated at the school gates and won't be returned. A school statement on its website reads: 'Sweets, fizzy drinks, energy drinks and multi-pack sizes of unhealthy food/drink are not allowed to be brought into school. Pupils at Charles Dickens School in Broadstairs, Kent are having their bags trawled through by teachers imposing a total ban on fatty snacks, energy drinks and crisps 'Bag checks will take place every morning and any found will be confiscated and not returned to students. 'The checks include wearing the correct uniform and that all students are wearing formal school shoes.' A statement on the school's website says: 'We had noticed a deterioration in concentration, learning and behaviour particular from students bringing into school large multi-packs of unhealthy food, snacks and drinks.' But some angry parents have slammed the move as over the top. Mother Tina Brown blasted the school's 'boot camp' methods on Facebook, writing: 'I have one child in this school and one who is older. 'My main concern is that my child is in a safe environment with assistance. When needed he has chocolate and I am not going to stop that. He is perfectly healthy. 'The school is becoming more like boot camp everyday. 'If this is the only way teachers can show authority then bad on the system. Also, will my son get in trouble when he is late for first lesson of the day due to having his bag searched?' Other parents backed the move and said teachers have told them timetables are being switched to work around the childrens blood-sugar levels. The school says that it is waging war against fatty foods (file picture) Jennifer Keen, 40, a local nurse, said her 12-year-old son Vincent told her about the search after coming home from school last week. She said: 'He said, 'We've been searched today'. I was expecting him to say for knives or something but he said 'Crisps and sweets'. 'I said, 'That's a bit different'. I spoke to a year support officer and she said there are a lot of kids coming to school with very unhealthy food and it is interfering with their learning.' Energy drinks and big bags of sweets were among the sugary treats kids were bringing into school. The school, which has more than 1,150 pupils, hit the headlines in June 2015 after sending home more than 40 pupils for breaching the uniform policy - which included a ban on 'skinny trousers'. It turned away teenagers at the school gates because of its tough new uniform policy, which insists girls only wear a single style of trouser, emblazoned with the school's logo. With its powerful 2.3-litre engine, the Steyr 220 was by far the fastest car in Auschwitz. As a result, it was often used by the camps feared commandant, SS-Lieu tenant Colonel Rudolf Hoess, to whisk him to Berlin for meetings. However, one Saturday afternoon in the middle of June 1942, the sedan had been commandeered from the motor pool by a relatively lowly SS-Second Lieutenant, who was accompanied by three SS NCOs. As the car approached the main gate of the death camp, the four men grew increasingly anxious. One of them was so nervous that his face was ashen-white, and his brow covered in sweat. Had the men really been members of the SS, of course, they would not have worried about the ever-nearing checkpoint, which was manned by their fellow members of the notoriously murderous unit. But the mens uniforms belied their true identities. They were in fact Polish prisoners, who had not only appropriated the uniforms from a storeroom, but also stolen the car. Each man knew all too well what fate they would all suffer if their attempt to escape from Auschwitz was rumbled. Scroll down for video Rudolf Vrba and Kazimerz Piechowski were both able to escape from Auschwitz concentration camp after managing to bluff their way out of the death camp in an audacious escape Jan Komski also managed to escape from the camp and was given false identity papers by the Polish resistance, although he was later recaptured under his new name and returned In one escape attempt, three prisoners stole SS uniforms and the camp commandant's car to fool guards and drive off to freedom The Steyr stopped in front of the barrier and, for a moment, the men dared not move. The man dressed in the officers uniform was Kazimierz Piechowski, 22, who had been incarcerated in the camp exactly two years before because of his membership of the Polish boy scouts. After what seemed an age, he felt one of his fellow escapees tapping his shoulder, and urging him to do something. This was the most dramatic moment, Piechowski recalled in an interview many decades later. I started shouting. Wake up you buggers! the phoney SS-officer shouted at the guards. Open up, or Ill open you up! If Piechowski had any worries about his acting ability, they were soon dispelled by the sight of a trembling guard raising the barrier and snapping his heels together to attention. The driver edged the car forward, and slowly accelerated away. Suspecting the alarm would soon be raised, the prisoners stuck to obscure forest roads as they headed 20 miles south-east towards the town of Wadowice, where they abandoned the car. Almost miraculously, none of the escapers would be recaptured, and all four would survive the war. Piechowski would live to a grand age of 98, and he died shortly before Christmas, after a career as an engineer and a long retirement spent visiting some 60 countries around the world. The first man to escape successfully from Auschwitz was Taduesz Wiejowski who was helped out by a group of Polish electricians on July 6, 1940 - although he was hsot dead a year later It would be tempting to suppose that Piechowskis story is somehow exceptional, perhaps even unbelievable. However, he was just one of an astonishing 196 prisoners who did manage to flee successfully from the camp, of whom a majority also survived the war. In total, 928 men, women and children attempted to escape, which means that just over a fifth of all efforts were successful. When one compares that ratio to one at a prisoner-of-war camp such as Colditz, from where only some 30 men managed to escape out of many hundreds of attempts, it becomes apparent that those who fled from Auschwitz were both extremely resourceful and fortunate. Kazimierez Piechowski was dressed as an SS officer when he managed to escape from the camp with two other fellow prisoners Yet the stories of these inmates who unlike Allied prisoners-of-war were literally fleeing for their lives, are not well known. How many today have heard, for example, of Tadeusz Wiejowski, the first person to escape from Auschwitz? A cobbler, Wiejowski was among the earliest inmates of the camp, and had arrived on the first transport of prisoners on June 14, 1940. Whatever crime he had committed is now unclear, but what is certain is that he was desperate to escape. Shortly after his arrival, the 26-year-old befriended a group of Polish civilians who worked as electricians for a nearby German firm. Fortunately for him, they were members of a secret resistance organisation called the Union of Unarmed Combat, and were keen to help Wiejowski get away. Just a few weeks later, on July 6, dressed as an electrician, Wiejowski simply walked out of the camp along with the Poles, who provided him with food and money. At a nearby goods yard, Wiejowski surreptitiously boarded a freight train and made good his escape. The retribution by the camps SS authorities was predictably brutal. When Wiejowskis absence was discovered during the evening roll call, precisely 1,311 inmates were made to stay standing for 20 hours. A Polish Jew called Dawid Wongczewski, who had been suffering from tuberculosis, died, and became the first person to lose their life in Auschwitz. The five Polish electricians who assisted Wiejowski were soon arrested, savagely beaten, and imprisoned in the camp. Only one would survive. Sadly, Wiejowski himself was not to outlive the war. After a year in hiding with his family in his hometown, he was arrested in the autumn of 1941 and, later that year, he was shot. But Wiejowski would not be the only prisoner from that first transport to escape from Auschwitz. The camp, pictured, was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945 Another was a young painter called Jan Komski, who had graduated from the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts shortly before the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Imprisoned in the camp after being arrested for carrying false identity papers as he attempted to join the incipient Free Polish Army in France, Komski mounted his escape on December 29, 1942, after enduring two-and-a-half years in Auschwitz. As with Piechowskis escape earlier that year, Komskis attempt required a huge amount of bluffing. That morning, he and three comrades started to walk towards the camps main gate accompanied by a horse-drawn cart. Three of the men, including Komski, were dressed as inmates, but the fourth man Boleslaw Kuczbara was disguised as an SS NCO, and even had a forged pass. Both the uniform and the document passed muster as the four men walked out of the camp. They made it to a nearby village where a female member of the resistance supplied them with civilian clothes. For the next 16 days, Komski remained free, until he was arrested in a spot-check on a train bound for Warsaw. However, Komskis forged identity papers now bore a different name, which meant he was not identified as an Auschwitz escapee. And although he would spend the rest of the war in the concentration camp system including at, of all places, Auschwitz the Nazis would never know his real name. Had they done so, he would have been executed. After the war, Komski emigrated to the U.S., where he worked for the Washington Post as an illustrator. He died in 2002 aged 87. Some 7,000 prisoners were still alive when the camp was liberated by the Soviet troops Like Komski, August Kowalczyk was another young Pole of artistic bent, who had been arrested and sent to Auschwitz for trying to join the Free Polish Army. A keen actor, Kowalczyk had been sent to the camp in December 1940, and he worked on various construction sites until he was transferred to a penal unit in May 1942 as a punishment for fraternising with locals. Knowing that life expectancy in the unit was even more parlous than that of an ordinary prisoner, Kowalczyk mounted a brazen escape on June 10, 1942, when he and some 50 other inmates simply bolted from the field where they were digging a drainage ditch. Rifle and machine-gun fire killed more than 40 of the fleeing men, but Kowalczyk was one of the lucky nine. For a while, he lay low among some crops until a local woman stumbled across him, gave him some female clothes as a disguise, and helped him hide in an attic. After hiding for seven weeks, he joined a unit of the underground Polish Home Army, for which he fought until the end of the war. After 1945, Kowalczyk became an actor and director of renown, and in later years, he founded a hospice in the town of Auschwitz now called Oswiecim to thank the local population for all they had done to help the prisoners. His wish was to die in the hospice, which was granted in July 2012, when he passed away at 90. But it was not just men who escaped from Auschwitz. On July 21, 1944, the guards manning the main gate allowed an SS man and a female inmate to pass through. What they did not know was that the man was in fact a Pole called Jerzy Bielecki, who had been arrested in 1940 for attempting to join the Polish Army. Prisoners were told if they tried to escape and they were recaptured they would be executed During his incarceration, Bielecki had been forced to work in a grain warehouse, where he met a young woman called Cyla Cybulska. Although male and female inmates were forbidden to talk, Bielecki and Cybulska managed to snatch a few words, and after a while, they fell in love. Cyla was adamant she would not survive Auschwitz. Her entire family had been murdered by Nazis, but Bielecki insisted she would live. He was good to his word, and after managing to cobble together an SS uniform, the couple made their audacious escape. After they left the camp, Bielecki and Cybulska walked through the countryside for ten days, until they eventually found refuge with Bieleckis uncle. Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler who escaped from the camp passed on their knowledge of Auschwitz which was used by the Allies Towards the end of the war, the couple decided to part ways in order to lessen their chances of being recaptured, and they promised they would get back together when the fighting ceased. Unfortunately, in the chaotic aftermath of the war, the couple could not find each other, and Cyla was informed Bielecki had been killed. It would not be until May 1983, when she was living in New York, that Cyla was told by her cleaning lady she had just watched a documentary featuring their incredible story, and that Bielecki was alive and living in Poland. The couple met the following month. She implored him to leave his wife and children, but he refused. After several meetings, Cyla returned to New York, and vowed never to see him again. She died in 2005, and he passed away six years later. While these stories of derring-do prove that the Auschwitz guards could be outwitted by a combination of cunning, chutzpah and courage, some escapes would prove to be of historical importance. Among these were those of Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, two Czechoslovak Jews who escaped in April 1944 after hiding in a hollowed-out wood pile on a construction site in the camp. A fortnight after they escaped, Vrba and Wetzler made contact with the Slovakian underground Working Group, and they were urged to write down their experiences in Auschwitz. The two men produced a highly detailed account that would soon become known as the Vrba-Wetzler Report. It contained sketches of the gas chambers, as well as a full description of transports to the camp and how inmates were killed. Realising its importance, the Working Group managed to smuggle the report not only to the Red Cross and the Vatican, but also to the Allied governments. When the Red Army liberated the camp there were 600 children below the age of 18 The document was widely reported in the press and the evidence led to the Allies bombing several buildings in Hungary, in an attempt to kill the Nazi officials who were masterminding the evacuation of Jews to Auschwitz. The deportations soon ceased, and some historians estimate that some 120,000 lives were saved. No other single act in the Second World War saved so many Jews from the fate that Hitler had determined for them, observed the late historian, Sir Martin Gilbert. For that we should be truly thankful. But we should not forget the stories of those whose escapes have faded into obscurity. For every one reminds us that even in the darkest of places, the human spirit continues to burn brightly. An ex-chiropractor clinic receptionist has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for poisoning her boss to death. Kaitlyn Conley, 24, had been found guilty of killing 60-year-old Mary Yoder in upstate New York back in 2015. Conley, who was sentenced in Oneida County Court in Utica on Thursday, stared straight ahead as members of Yoder's family spoke of their grief in the years following her tragic death. She maintains that she is innocent. Scroll down for video Kaitlyn Conley, 24, was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Thursday after being found guilty of killing 60-year-old Mary Yoder in upstate New York back in 2015 The young woman had poisoned Yoder with an anti-inflammatory drug called colchicine, which is used to treat gout. The 60-year-old spent her last 48 hours in hospital in severe pain, suffering from vomiting and diarrhea. Mary Yoder, 60, spent the last 48 hours before she died in hospital in severe pain, suffering from vomiting and diarrhea Conley had worked for Yoder and her husband William as a receptionist at their chiropractic office in Whitesboro. Yoder was also the mother of Conley's ex-boyfriend, Adam Yoder. The victim's son spoke in court ahead of Conley's sentencing, saying he blames himself for his mother's death. 'Make no mistake... as much as I hate her, which is more than I ever thought I would be capable of hating anyone, I hate myself infinitely more,' Adam told jurors, according to WKTV. 'I introduced her to my family, I got her a job with my parents and if I hadn't done those things, my mother would still be alive. 'Since this investigation began, I have seen three psychologists and one psychiatrist. I've now been prescribed multiple medications for sleep, for major depression, for severe anxiety and for PTSD, all of which have been prescribed for one simple reason: self hatred.' Yoder's husband told the court: 'We had to helplessly watch her die again and again and again. The pain of that last day will haunt me and my family for the rest of our lives.' Conley (left in court on Thursday and right in her mugshot) stared straight ahead as members of Yoder's family spoke of their grief in the years following her tragic death Conley had worked for Yoder and her husband William as a receptionist at their chiropractic office (pictured above) in Whitesboro in upstate New York Relatives had contacted police soon after her death in 2015 raising concerns that they thought it was suspicious. The day after Yoder's death, Conley paid tribute to her in a heartfelt Facebook post. 'Dr Mary I still can't believe you're gone. Yesterday was so sudden. You truly were a positive light in the world and I'm so lucky and thankful our lives crossed paths,' she wrote. 'There wasn't a day I didn't look forward to work with you. You taught me so much and had such a profound impact on my life. Everyone appreciated your attention, stories, and laughter. 'We will be remember you for your light, energy, and strength, and the best way I can think to honor your life is to emulate your genuine, cheerful, and kind spirit.' Conley's first trial in May last year ended in a mistrial after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. BBC stars are at war over a gender pay gap - and several 'incandescent' female stars are ready to walk out after John Humphrys was recorded joking about the issue. Mr Humphrys, who presents Radio 4's flagship Today programme, was recorded asking North America editor, Jon Sopel, how much of his salary he would be prepared to 'hand over' as women claim greater pay. The joke has caused fury among the BBC's female stars and several have threatened to quit - but it is understood bosses are ready to stand by Mr Humphrys and he will not face any disciplinary action, according to the Sun. Yesterday, Mr Humphrys was shot down by fellow Radio 4 host Jane Garvey, who said the comments showed women at the BBC 'what we're up against'. And Ms Garvey was not the only female BBC woman to go rogue, with several of her colleagues breaking rank to retweet or 'like' the Humphrys story on social media. They include BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast host Rachel Burden, Radio 4 star Andrea Catherwood, Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, BBC Radio 5 Live broadcaster Emma Barnett and Newsround presenter Leah Boleto. The BBC's John Humphrys is facing an angry backlash after he appeared to mock its on-going gender pay row in an off-air chat with North America editor, Jon Sopel. Fellow Radio 4 presenter Jane Garvey said the comments show women 'exactly what we're up against' BBC stars are at war after several female presenters threatened to quit after John Humphrys was recorded joking about the gender pay row. Newsnight host Kirsty Wark (left) and radio presenter Emma Barnett (right) were among those to retweet or 'like' the story on social media Newsround presenter Leah Boleto (left) and Radio 4 star Andrea Catherwood (right) also acknowledged the Humphrys story on social media BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast host Rachel Burden is among a group of BBC female stars to break rank and retweet or 'like' the Humphrys story Jane Garvey fired off a series of tweets attacking Humphrys and the BBC this morning Ms Garvey, who spoke out about the gender pay gap when the salaries were revealed last year, said a 'pay-triarchy' existed at the 'Department of Mixed Messages, formerly known as the BBC'. She tweeted: 'The Humphrys-Sopel exchange reveals, very neatly, what we're up against. And a useful reminder to be ever careful in a room with microphones.' BBC bosses are said to be 'deeply unimpressed' after the veteran broadcaster appeared to make light of Carrie Gracie's pay dispute. He was chatting off-air with the BBC's North America editor, Jon Sopel, when he teased him about his involvement in the story, asking: 'How much of your salary are you prepared to hand over to Carrie Gracie to keep her?' In a conversation shortly before Humphrys jointly presented Monday's show with Miss Gracie, he admitted he took a pay cut shortly after the BBC rich list revealed he made up to 650,000 a year. Referring to the cuts, the 74-year-old claimed to have 'handed over already more than you f***ing earn'. 'But I'm still left with more than anybody else and that seems to me entirely just.' Humphrys continued: 'Oh dear God she's actually suggested you should lose money. You know that don't you?' Carrie Gracie, who earned 135,000 a year, quit in protest at widespread 'pay discrimination' turning down a 45,000 raise and has moved to another role in the newsroom Miss Gracie, who earned 135,000 a year, quit in protest at widespread 'pay discrimination' - turning down a 45,000 raise - and has moved to another role in the newsroom. Another presenter, Miriam O'Reilly, spoke out about the comments today after refusing to be interviewed by Humphrys about the issue on air because he was 'not impartial'. Ms O'Reilly, who won a tribunal against the corporation in 2011, said she was stood down from speaking about the issue on the Today programme this morning. She tweeted: 'I believe the person who made the decision to stand me down this morning was concerned I would mention the leaked tape on air. 'If Mr Humphrys was interviewing me I quite possibly would have - but why not - he would have done the same - it's called freedom of speech.' She added: 'Aside from BBC pay discrimination, it's clear there is one rule for male presenters at the BBC and one for women.' Miss Gracie (pictured) had accused the BBC of a 'secretive and illegal' pay culture and said she 'no longer trusts bosses to give me an accurate answer' Miss Gracie, who earned 135,000 a year, quit in protest at widespread 'pay discrimination' - turning down a 45,000 raise - and has moved to another role in the newsroom. She accused the BBC of a 'secretive and illegal' pay culture and said she 'no longer trusts bosses to give me an accurate answer'. She said she had warned director-general Lord Hall last August that she would resign if the broadcaster did not pay men and women the same for the same jobs. BBC Director General Tony Hall is under increasing pressure to sort out the mess the corporation has got into over pay The 55-year-old was furious that Mr Sopel was paid up to 250,000 and Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen up to 200,000. Europe editor Katya Adler did not make the list. She resigned as the China editor after she found out that her male colleagues in similar roles were paid considerably more. The BBC are believed to have offered the broadcaster a pay rise on top of her 135,000 salary after she complained when she discovered Jeremy Bowen, the Middle East editor, was earning up to 199,000 and Jon Sopel was being paid up to 249,000. Last night The Times newspaper released a transcript of the conversation, which reportedly had a light-hearted tone. Humphrys told the newspaper that his comments were not intended as a criticism of Gracie or the drive for equality. 'This was what I thought was an exchange between two old friends who have known each other for 30 years and were taking the mickey out of each other,' he said. 'It was nothing to do with Carrie's campaign.' A number of staff said they felt disappointed after the clip was circulated around the BBC newsroom, with some women reportedly claiming that his comments exposed an attitude at the corporation that failed to take equality seriously. BBC spokesperson: 'This was an ill-advised off air conversation which the presenter regrets. 'The BBC is committed to getting its pay structures right and, as we have said, we are conducting a comprehensive analysis of presenter pay. 'PwC are working with us on this to ensure an objective external assessment of how we have set pay in the past, what we need to do differently going forward, and what further action we need to take immediately. We will publish that in the coming weeks.' President Donald Trump has accused an FBI agent who was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigative team of 'treason.' Trump made the comment in an interview Thursday with The Wall Street Journal. He was referring to Peter Strzok, an FBI agent who had been assigned to work on Mueller's team investigating potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. 'A man is tweeting to his lover that if [Hillary Clinton] loses, we'll essentially do the insurance policy. We'll go to phase two and we'll get this guy out of office,' Trump said. 'This is the FBI were talking about that is treason.' 'That is a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act,' Trump added, confusing text messages and tweets. President Trump unleashed on FBI agent Peter Strzok, saying his text messages to mistress Lisa Page (pictured) were treasonous Strzok was removed last summer following the discovery of anti-Trump text messages he exchanged with an FBI lawyer who was also assigned to the team. Peter Strzok, deputy head of counterintelligence at the FBI, got reassigned from the Russia probe after it was discovered he had exchanged anti-Trump messages with FBI lawyer Lisa Page Treason is defined in law as aiding an enemy of the United States. Aitan Goelman, a lawyer for Strzok, says Trump's allegation is 'beyond reckless' and 'It should surprise no one that the President has both the facts and the law wrong.' Republican investigators were already poring over text messages between the two FBI officials who worked on the Russia probe and had an affair to see whether they were involved in media leaks in the run up to the 2016 election. Buried among the 10,000 text messages between the pair are several that make reference to specific journalists, parse articles mentioning the bureau, and include language that could indicate advance knowledge of publication of news stories. Strzok, deputy head of counterintelligence at the FBI, got reassigned from the Russia probe after it was discovered he had exchanged anti-Trump messages with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an affair. Stzrok got reassigned to the FBI's human resources department in August. One pair of messages came just days before the election, The Hill reported. 'Article is out, but hidden behind paywall so can't read it,' Page wrote Strzok on Oct. 24, 2016. 'Wsj? Boy that was fast,' Strzok replied. Another message refers to a Washington Post article that laid out a timeline for the Hillary Clinton probe. 'Sorry, Rybicki called,' Page wrote, mentioning the FBI's chief of staff. 'Time line article in the post is super specific and not good. Doesn't make sense because I didn't have specific information to give.' Page was exposed as being the lover of Peter Strzok, deputy head of counterintelligence at the FBI, after it was discovered they exchanged anti-Trump text messages, which led him to be reassigned to the FBI's human resources department in August. Their personal text messages are being investigated by the Justice Department's inspector general and got handed over to congressional investigators. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017. His investigators are reviewing text messages of two anti-Trump FBI officials who worked on the Russia probe Republicans have been gearing up probes of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, as well as those who played a role in the creation of the golden showers dossier compiled by ex British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Democrats say the probes are an effort to distract from the probes of Russian interference in the presidential election, which President Trump, who is likely to face Mueller's investigators for questioning, has branded a 'witch hunt.' In another email reviewed by The Hill, Strzrok texted Page about an article mentioning the bureau. ''Yep, the whole tone is anti-Bu. Just a tiny bit from us,' he wrote. Page texted in response: ''Makes me feel WAY less bad about throwing him under the bus to the forthcoming CF article,' using an abbreviation that is unclear. Congressional investigators want to know whether the pair had advanced knowledge of articles that appeared, according to the paper. BLUE COLLAR: 'He's TOTALLY schlubby,' Strzok, the FBI's former deputy head of counterintelligence at the FBI, wrote of New York Times reporter Matt Apuzzo, who has produced coverage of the Russia probe Other texts show the pair endeavoring to track down New York Times reporter Matt Apuzzo, then delving into a critique of his outward presentation. 'We got a list of kids with their parents' names. How many Matt Apuzzo's (sic) could there be in DC,' Page wrote. 'Showed J a picture, he said he thinks he has seen a guy who kinda looks like that, but always really schlubby. I said that sounds like every reporter I have ever seen,' she added, before writing she believed she found his address. Strzok responded: 'He's TOTALLY schlubby. Don't you remember?' John Lewis chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield said there is demand for newness among customers Where once cashmere were linked with the image of a housewife with twinset and pearls, they are now suddenly sprung back in to fashion. Sales of the cardigans, scarves and hats made of the super-soft goats wool soared this Christmas, John Lewis has said. The department store stocked a vast spectrum of 71 different colours of cashmere available over the festive period. It helped the firms womenswear range defy a gloomy outlook for the high street and boost fashion by 5 per cent. Cashmere scarves in coral, bright blue and lemon sold for 55, with its jumpers in ocean green, iced grey and heather sky selling for 99. Its most expensive item in the range is a black shearling cashmere jacket costing 499. John Lewis chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield said: Overall the mood among consumers is cautious but there is money to be taken. But there is demand there, you just have to give people newness and you have to give them innovation. John Lewis stocked 71 different colours of cashmere available over the festive period A good example was cashmere, we sold a lot of cashmere with 71 different colours and our fashion sales at Christmas were up. Cashmere, synonymous with luxury, wealth and comfort is a wool obtained from cashmere goats, finer and softer than sheep's wool. Originating from India, it was Napoleon who first introduced cashmere to Europe in the 1800s when the French generals wife arrived in Paris wearing the wool. Due to its limited production and high demand, a cashmere jumper will set you back around 100. It takes the wool of two to three goats to make just one cashmere scarf. As well as looking good, its also guaranteed to keep you cosy. Cashmere is said to be eight times better at keeping you warmer than ordinary wool, but it also far more lightweight than most wools, meaning it can be worn in autumn through to spring. Though a delicate fabric, it is now easier to wash with items being produced in a way that allows them to be machine washed. John Lewis said shoppers were prepared to splash out on cashmere as a treat, because it proved long-lasting quality. Cashmere, synonymous with luxury, wealth and comfort is a wool obtained from cashmere goats, finer and softer than sheep's wool The department store said husbands and boyfriends had been snapping up its range of cashmere scarves, hats and jumpers an ideal present for wives and girldfriends. This year, sales of John Lewiss Christmas scarves reached the equivalent of purchases made within a whole season five years ago. The department store now stocks one of the widest ranges of cashmere goods on the UK High Street. A spokesperson for John Lewis said: In recent years we have built on the core styles in the range. The foundations for the range were cardigans, crew and V-neck jumpers and we have built on that by introducing extra-fine cashmere products as well as more relaxed styles such as drop sleeve sweaters and really concentrated on style by introducing stripes and colour blocking. Extraordinary mind maps have emerged purportedly showing the complicated business dealings of disgraced former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer. Rudimentary documents have surfaced featuring the letterhead of an accounting firm acting as receivers for the Sydney identity's two failed companies. The paperwork include scribblings about vast sums of money - between $800k and $30 million - as well as references to apartments and a complex web of arrows. One of the mind maps has lines pointing between Mehajer's initials 'SM' and a major lender to one of Mehajer's property developments in western Sydney, SC Lowy. Extraordinary mind maps have surfaced linked to former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer The documents - written on the letterhead of the company acting as receivers to Mehajer's companies - refer to units and sums as large as $25 - $30 million Mehajer has recently been spending his leisure time with Central Coast business graduate Melissa Tysoe SC Lowy lent millions to his Skypoint Towers development in Lidcombe and was to be one of two businesses owed up to $60 million by Mehajer's companies. Last June, The Australian newspaper reported HLB Mann Judd had been appointed as receivers to his companies SET Services and Sydney Project Group. The company said the receivers had put up to $20 million worth of apartments for sale while creditors sought up to $97 million. Neither Mehajer or his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment about the documents surfacing on Friday. Another apparent accounting document linked to former deputy mayor Mehajer Mehajer has recently been living at a plush $3000-a-week mansion in Sydney's Vaucluse. It's from there that he has been reporting to the police for bail over an AVO lodged by former partner Aysha. The corporate regulator banned him from managing companies for three years in 2015 - but he started a wedding business late last year, although he is not its director. Mehajer has been spending his leisure time frolicking with his new girlfriend Melissa Tysoe, a business graduate from NSW Central Coast. The couple met at a party with Mehajer giving her a fake name and turning his Instagram to private in a bid to keep his identity secret. Britain spends a larger proportion of its income on foreign aid than other major Western countries, figures have shown. It is now one of only seven countries around the world to meet the target to spend 0.7 per cent of its national income on overseas aid. The figures were compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which represents industrialised nations. The target itself was set by a United Nations resolution in 1970. Former Prime Minister David Cameron, pictured, passed a law insisting the government spent 0.7 per cent of national income on its international aid budget despite his party's opposition Theresa May has continued the commitment against the advice of many of her backbenchers Britains aid budget of 0.7 per cent of GDP recorded in 2016 is more than double the average proportion of 0.32 per cent seen across the OECD. And it is far higher than the levels given by countries such as France and Australia. The aid target made law by David Cameron and backed by Theresa May has seen spending soar to 13.4billion. Many Tory backbenchers believe the target should be scrapped to allow more money to go to domestic priorities such as social care. The OECD figures, published yesterday, reveal that Britain is now sixth-equal in the aid league table. Top is the United Arab Emirates at 1.21 per cent, followed closely by Norway on 1.12 per cent. Luxembourg spends 1 per cent of national income on aid, followed by Sweden at 0.94 per cent and Denmark at 0.75 per cent. Britain ties with Germany, with both spending 0.7 per cent. In comparison, Australia spends just 0.27 per cent of its national income on aid, Italy gives 0.28 per cent, and France spends only 0.38 per cent. While the United States is the worlds largest aid donor in terms of cash, what it does donate works out at just 0.19 per cent of its national income. The OECD figures illustrate just how far Britain has gone to increase its aid budget. Our 0.7 per cent on overseas development compares to the 0.36 per cent we gave in 2007. France, in comparison, now spends exactly the same proportion as it did in 2007, while countries such as the Netherlands and Australia have cut their aid budgets. Official figures released in November showed British aid spending reached 13.4billion in 2016, up 1.3billion on the year before. The proportion funnelled through the EU rose by 177million to 1.5billion, despite Priti Patel warning when she was international development secretary that the UK does not have any oversight into how Brussels spends the money. Despite pledges to end aid to India, last year 92.6million was spent by Whitehall officials on projects there. The amount given to China jumped by 2.6million to 46.9million. The Department for International Development (Dfid), which distributes aid, did not comment on the OECD figures last night. Last month the Daily Mail revealed that UK aid to corrupt countries soared by 10 per cent in 2016. Almost 1.39billion was sent to the worlds 20 most crooked states up from 1.26billion in 2015 and was handed over despite warnings that it could be wasted, stolen or even handed to terrorists. Dfid said it operates a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, but critics warn that it is wrong to increase aid to countries where there is a clear risk of it being misused. A leading anti-bullying expert has revealed how to spot if your child is being tormented and what steps to take if they are being targeted online. Sandra Craig, manager of the National Centre Against Bullying (NCAB), said bullying was a 'highly complex' issue but there were some basic facts parents should know that could help protect their child. Online harassment and youth suicide made headlines this week after it was revealed 14-year-old Amy 'Dolly' Everett was the latest young Australian to end her own life after relentless bullying. This week Daily Mail Australia spoke to two mothers who have lost teenagers to bullying: Melinda Graham, whose daughter Jessica Tolhurst, 14, died in Wollongong in 2015 and Crystal Bell, whose daughter Libby, 13, died in Adelaide last August. Scroll down for video Amy 'Dolly' Everett took her own life on January 3 after being tormented by online bullies Jessica Tolhurst, 14, took her life in December 2015 after enduring physical and online bullying Education expert Sandra Craig is the manager of the National Centre Against Bullying Both mothers want to raise awareness of the devastation caused by bullying and are working for legislative changes to make bullies face the consequences of their actions. Dolly took her life on January 3. Her parents challenged their daughter's online tormentors to attend her funeral in the Northern Territory on Friday. Ms Craig, an experienced teacher who has researched cyber safety and helped develop anti-bullying programs for schools, said to understand bullying it was important to first define what it was - and was not. Bullying, Ms Craig said, was 'an ongoing misuse of power in relationships' through verbal, physical, psychological and social behaviour. It can happen in person or online and can be obvious or hidden. Significantly, it is conducted by a more powerful person against a less powerful person unable to stop it from happening. 'It's not about single incidents, conflicts or fights between equals,' Ms Craig said. '[Conflicts and fights] can be serious and cause hurt, but conflicts are not intended to cause harm.' Amy 'Dolly' Everett featured in an advertising campaign for hat-makers Akubra as a child Parents should be aware of the signs their children may be being bullied (stock image) Jessica Tolhurst's mother has spoken of the devastation losing her daughter (pictured) Ms Craig provided a list of signs a child might be suffering at the hands of bullies. Those signs included: Changes in sleep patterns Changes in eating patterns Frequent tears or anger Mood swings Becoming withdrawn or starting to stammer Becoming aggressive and unreasonable Refusing to talk about what is wrong Beginning to target siblings School grades beginning to fall The child being often alone or excluded from friendship groups A child being excluded from schoolyard groups could be a sign of bullying (stock image) Amy 'Dolly' Everett's funeral was being held at Katherine in the Northern Territory on Friday Further signs of bullying include a child feeling ill in the morning, not wanting to go to school, continually 'losing' money or starting to steal, unexplained injuries, coming home hungry or with missing or damaged belongings or clothes. How to tell if your child is being bullied online Changes in sleep patterns Changes in eating patterns Frequent tears or anger Mood swings Becoming withdrawn or starting to stammer Becoming aggressive and unreasonable Refusing to talk about what is wrong Beginning to target siblings School grades beginning to fall The child being often alone or excluded from friendship groups Advertisement Ms Craig said online and offline bullying had differences and similarities. With both, a power imbalance, intentional and cruel behaviour and the reasons for bullying were similar. 'What is different with online bullying is the invasion of all aspects of a person's life, the reach to a large audience and the perceived sense of anonymity and disinhibition that pertains online,' Ms Craig said. 'And they do it from the same set of motivations.' Ms Craig said parents had to be proactive about bullying, initially by providing positive role models promoting empathetic and kind behaviour towards others and ensuring lines of communication were open. 'Don't wait for bullying to happen before talking about it,' Ms Craig said. 'Use opportunities that arise in conversation or raise the subject explicitly.' 'Let the child know what bullying is, what to do about it if it happens and that they aren't alone in their experience. 'Ensure they know that you or their teachers are there for them.' Schoolgirl Libby Bell, 13, was bullied relentlessly until her death in Adelaide in August last year Bullying victim Libby Bell (left) with her mum Crystal, pictured together on Mother's Day 2017 If bullying occurs, the first step was to stay calm. 'This will allow the child to tell you about the situation,' Ms Craig said. Ms Craig said it was important to listen to the child's whole story, to reassure them they were not to blame and to ask what they wanted to do, as well as what they wanted you, the parent, to do. 'Reassure them that reporting is OK - it's not "dobbing",' Ms Craig said. Ms Craig recommended discussing with the child how they could behave around their tormentor. 'Explain that bullying is sometimes done just to get a reaction,' she said. 'If the child can keep calm and not express anger, fear or upset it's less likely to keep happening.' Advising the child to fight with his or her bully was not a good idea. 'Work with the school to stop the situation, ensure your child is safe and prevent it from happening again,' Ms Craig said. Melinda Graham pictured with her daughter Jessica Tolhurst who took her own life in 2015 Sandra Craig (holding certificate) says bullying is a complex issue but can be countered To discourage online bullying, Ms Craig said access to technology should be supervised or limited as appropriate to the child's age. 'There is a good reason why children under 13 years of age are not supposed to be on social networks,' she said. If a child is being bullied online the parent should: Encourage the child no to respond to the message or image Save the evidence Block or delete the sender Report the situation to the internet service provider or phone service provider Tell other people - teachers and police if necessary Ms Craig said children bully for different reasons at different times during their development, that some who have been bullied become bullies and vice versa. Children are urged to tell other people such as teachers if they are being bullied (stock image) Crystal Bell with her daughter Libby, 13, who took her life in August last year after bullying Whether bullies were made or born was still being debated, she said. According to Ms Craig most academics believed bullying often stemmed from dysfunction in the home or from a personality disorder. 'However, some studies suggest there may be a genetic component and that a person can be "hard-wired" to become a bully,' Ms Craig said. Citing the work of Professor Helen McGrath, a psychologist and author, Ms Craig said a combination of factors often worked together to create a 'perfect storm'. There was no single definable profile of a bully. 'While many assume [bullies] are largely unintelligent and over-aggressive, in actual fact, most tend to be smart, highly charismatic and popular in school, often hanging out in the 'cool' group,' Ms Craig said. And bullies can start young. 'Scarily enough, hostile, targeted, repeated behaviour shows up in childcare and early learning centres,' Ms Craig said. 'It's hard to accept that little children can engage in deliberate harmful acts, but they do.' NCAB is an initiative of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, which aims to provide care for children who have experienced or witnessed serious violence, reduce the incidence of bullying, cyber-bullying and other cyber risks and advocate for the safety and wellbeing of children. Lifeline: 13 11 14 Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800 The man caught allegedly kicking his pet staffy in the face deeply regrets the incident and will plead guilty. His defence lawyer Brooke Winter told the Courier Mail the man was fully cooperative with the RSPCA inspectors and assisted them with their inquiries. The man was filmed by a bystander kicking the canine as he and a woman with another dog got the animals down from a ute at a Gold Coast beach. Scroll down for video Footage shows a man appearing to hit and kick his excited puppy in an attempt to control him at a beach in the south of Queensland The video was posted on Facebook on Monday and sparked uproar on social media when it was viewed by more than 3.5 million people. The dog was seized on Tuesday afternoon by the RSPCA and taken to its animal care centre at Wacol. The man was charged on Thursday with one count of animal cruelty and is due to face the Southport Magistrates court next month. Queensland RSPCA have taken custody of the blue Staffordshire. Disturbing footage uploaded to social media captures the shirtless man unloading the dog from his ute tray at a beach in Currumbin. He is then seen repeatedly kicking the dog and violently yanking on its chain in a bid to control it as a female companion holding another dog watches on. RSPCA officer Alison Clark told 9 News the animal welfare organisation confronted the man on Tuesday morning, after a report by eyewitnesses. 'I can confirm the dog is now in the custody of the RSPCA,' Ms Clark said. 'At this stage I would urge any anyone who's witnessed these events first hand to get in touch so we can take statements.' The dog was reported to be healthy, but charges could still be laid. Tarah Lee Barry, who filmed the incident, claimed the man 'closed fist punched' his young dog 'in the head'. An eyewitness says she saw the man punch the pup in the head with a closed fist. RSPCA confirmed the dog had been taken into custody after an investigation She shared the clip to Facebook, telling her followers the man 'started kicking [the dog] and dragging it around by it's lead yelling at the dog to "settle down"'. 'The poor dog was just super excited about being at the beach and clearly had no training plus the guy had no control of the dog with just a collar to lead it,' she said. The video shows the man kick his legs and pull hard on the pup's chain collar to restrain it. If Oprah Winfrey decides to challenge President Donald in the 2020 US general election, she'll have the full-throated support of arguably Hollywod's most powerful director behind her. 'I think Oprah Winfrey would make an absolutely brilliant president' Oscar-winning director Steven Speilberg said while speaking with The Guardian newspaper on Thursday. Spielberg, currently in the UK promoting his new movie The Post, added: 'If she declares, I will back her.' 'I think Oprah Winfrey (L) would make an absolutely brilliant president' Oscar-winning director Steven Speilberg (R) said in London Thursday Rasmussen Reports found that Winfrey attracts 76 per cent of, 44 per cent of unaffiliated voters and even 22 per cent of to rout Trump from the White House Speculation over Winefrey's possible presidential aspiration ran rampant this week after the long-time public figure gave a powerful speech at the Golden Globes Sunday night, proclaiming 'a new day is on the horizon' in America. And a snapshot of her chances look good at the moment. Rasmussen Reports found that Winfrey attracts 76 per cent of, 44 per cent of unaffiliated voters and even 22 per cent of to rout Trump from the White House 48 to 38 per cent. However, 14 per cent of the electorate was undecided. 'She is crackerjack on the money on women's issues and I call her the ambassador of empathy,' Speilberg gushed over the TV mogul, who he directed in the critically acclaimed film, The Color Purple back in 1985. 'And our country could use a dose of empathy right now.' Considered to be the most commercially successful movie director of all time, Spielberg went on to say that despite Winfrey's considerable lack of political experience, the country needs a leader who puts the needs of others before their own. 'I think we need a mindful, empathetic human being in the White House who understands people and puts people ahead of their own ideas of power and self-aggrandizement and I think Oprah has already proved her capacity for selflessness.' Spielberg made the comments while in London promoting his new movie The Post, which stars Tom Hanks (R) and Meryl Streep (L) Asked if his endorsement was serious, Spielberg said it was and that he'd 'like the next president to be a president of the people,' the Guardian reported. Speaking ahead of a press conference in London, Meryl Streep, who co-stars in The Post alongside Tom Hanks, echoed Spielberg's ringing endorsement, saying she has all the right qualities for leadership. 'Whether she is leading us to the candidate we need or whether she herself is a candidate, she sets the bar pretty high on campaign talk,' Streep said. Streep was also asked to delineate her thoughts on the #MeToo and Time's Up movements. Streep said American culture is going through a 'seismic change' at the moment, adding 'It is a growing thing and the most heartening thing for me is that it doesn't feel like a one-off, I don't think we'll go backwards.' The Post tells the story of the 1971 battle by the Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers secret documents obtained by US military analyst Daniel Ellsberg. The documents detailed decades of US government dishonesty over the war in Vietnam, and some argue is a surreptitious dig at the current administration. Trump had boasted, 'Yeah, I'll beat Oprah,' when asked about a potential Winfrey run on Tuesday, but the Rasmussen poll shows he'd only receive 66 per cent of support from Republicans, along with 38 per cent from unaffiliated voters. A mother of a 13-year-old girl who was told to kill herself by online bullies has called for apps that facilitate anonymous messaging to be banned. The Queensland parent, Katrina, launched an online campaign to shut down phone applications, including Sarahah, which she said had 'shattered' both her daughter and herself. She says she's terrified her daughter will suffer the same fate as Amy Jayne Everett, who tragically ended her life aged 14 following relentless online tormenting. Since reading sickening the abuse sent to her daughter through Sarahah, the mother says she's been 'scared, broken and sick to her stomach'. A Queensland mother has launched an online campaign to shut down anonymous messaging applications following the recent suicide of Amy Jayne Everett, known as 'Dolly' (pictured) Katrina is petitioning for apps like Sarahah to be banned after seeing messages to her daughter encouraging her to kill herself In a description of her online petition, Katrina accuses such apps of 'breeding suicide', using a message sent to her daughter as a poignant example. '(name) is such a bitch, she makes everyone hurt and I hope she kills herself. Seriously no one would care,' the hurtful note read. The parent also slammed the app, which is available for free on the Apple App Store and on Google Play, for being a 'breeding ground for hate'. 'No one, especially our youth, should have to read messages like this about them,' she said. She says she's terrified her daughter will suffer the same fate as Dolly, who tragically ended her life aged 14 following relentless online tormenting 'My daughter and I have been shattered by this app, and tragically another teenager, in the UK, was found hanged early in 2017 after allegedly being bullied on a similar app called Sayat.Me, which was shut down in May.' 'Both the App Store and Google Play have policies against apps that facilitate bullying, harassment or self harm. Why then is Sarahah still available on these platforms?,' she continued. She said after reading articles about the tragic passing of Amy Everett, known as 'Dolly', she had been more inspired than ever to 'protect our most vulnerable'. 'I read an article on 'Dolly', a 14 year old, who after so much bullying, took her life just after the New Year. Dolly felt that her only way out was suicide.' Dolly, who had been the young, angelic face of Akubra hats will be farewelled in the Northern Territory on Friday following her death on January 3 'I do not want my daughter or any other to become the next Dolly.' The petition, addressed to prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, Apple, Google and Local Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry, has garnered nearly 30,000 signatures. Thousands of signers shared Katrina's concerns, with many noting their own children's battle against cruel online trolls. 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. Sheila Atim, pictured, in the Girl form the North Country has an achingly lovely voice Girl from the North Country (Noel Coward Theatre, London) Verdict: It's Dylan, Bob; but not as we know him Rating: I love Bob Dylan and I love the lyrical Irish playwright Conor McPherson, who is best known for his West End hit The Weir. But together in this soulful musical that has now moved from the Old Vic to the West End proper? Im not so sure. Plenty of people did love Simon Hales frequently gospel-driven arrangement of the songs, but I prefer my Dylan raw. Ah, the clang of guitar, the shriek of harmonica and the rasp of obstructed sinuses! And where McPherson usually delves deep into characters in the sweet melancholy of his own plays, here the 13 drifters passing through a boarding house in Bob Dylans home town of Duluth, Minnesota, in the wake of the Thirties Depression all felt a bit sketchy. The first song to really silence an oddly restless audience at this weeks final preview was from Sheila Atim with Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anyone Seen My Love), and again in the second half with Dylans angriest love song, Idiot Wind. Atim, who has an achingly lovely voice, plays the adoptive daughter of Ciaran Hinds the man who runs the boarding house. Big ensemble numbers such as the jaunty Hurricane create a barn-dance atmosphere after the interval, and McPhersons device of lost souls passing through the boarding house en route to eternity holds the show together. With musical instruments and drum kits scattered among the furnishings, and actors gathering around mics for backing vocals, my companions enigmatic verdict on the unconventional show was: different. But it left me craving more Dylan and McPherson independent of each other. The Victorian government is standing by its sentencing laws after criticism from the police union over the punishment handed to a repeat cop-basher. Shaun Mowbray, 37, was sentenced to just five months behind bars this week for attacking officers who tried to arrest him in October. He didn't receive the six month mandatory minimum because he pleaded guilty to a lesser offence. 'This person pled guilty to a lesser charge and that guilty charge was accepted by the prosecuting authorities in that case,' Attorney-General Martin Pakula said on Friday. 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 37-year-old, who has a long history of assaulting police, will likely be back walking the streets before one of the female officers he assaulted. 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. 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 James Franco chose to skip the Critics Choice Awards on Thursday night in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him this week. He is pictured above at the Golden Globes on Sunday wearing his Time's Up pin Rose McGowan has hit out at James Franco following his Critics Choice win as the actor chose to avoid the award ceremony in a week where he was hit with multiple sexual misconduct allegations. The 39-year-old actor was noticeably absent as he was awarded best actor in a comedy for his film The Disaster Artist on Thursday night in Santa Monica. Soon after his win, McGowan tweeted that Franco's 'Prince of Hollywood's bro status' has protected him up until now, as she suggested that people have known about claims of sexual misconduct related to him for years. 'I know what you did last summer: 'James Franco wins a Critics' Choice Award amid sexual misconduct claims',' McGowan tweeted. 'James Franco is a cuddly guy, but so are bears. Selectively Deaf Hollywood has heard about this a**hole for years. His hipster Prince of Hollywood's bro status protected him. Bros before Ho's, amiright?' she added. Presenter Walton Goggins accepted the award on Franco's behalf at the Critics Choice Awards on Thursday night after the actor flew back to New York following the Golden Globes. Franco won the same award at the Globes on Sunday night. Franco won the Critics Choice Awards for best actor in a comedy for his film The Disaster Artist but wasn't present to accept his award Soon after his win, McGowan tweeted that Franco's 'Prince of Hollywood's bro status' has protected him up until now Five women have made claims of inappropriate sexual behavior against Franco after the actor wore a pin supporting the 'Time's Up' initiative for gender equality at the Golden Globes. Actress Ally Sheedy said in a since-deleted tweet that Franco was an example of why she left the movie business. Two of Franco's former student actresses, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Violet Paley, described negative on-set experiences with the actor-filmmaker while being directed by him, according to a LA Times expose. Tither-Kaplan claimed she was shooting a nude orgy scene with Franco and several other actresses when he took off the protective piece of plastic covering their genitals while simulating oral sex. 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. Paley and Tither-Kaplan both shared parts of their story on Twitter last weekend following Franco's Globe win. On Wednesday night's 'Late Night With Seth Meyers,' Franco said the tweets by Paley and Tither-Kaplan were 'not accurate' but he supported the women's right to express their perspectives. Franco, speaking through his lawyer, Michael Plonsker, denied the allegations being made by the women in the LA Times article. Host Olivia Munn mentioned the sexual harassment claims plaguing Hollywood several times, including in a segment titled 'Toast To The Good Guys' with Niecy Nash Host Olivia Munn kicked off the night's proceedings by performing a rap with Jay Pharoah Olivia Munn mentioned the sexual harassment claims plaguing Hollywood several times as she hosted the Critics Choice Awards on Thursday night, including in a segment titled 'Toast To The Good Guys' with Niecy Nash. 'Here's a toast to all the good guys in Hollywood,' Munn said as she raised a glass of champagne. She then took a dig at Mark Wahlberg's reported salary for the All the Money in the World reshoots. 'I do want to say thank you to the producers for paying Niecy and I the same amount of money and Mark Wahlberg $1 million,' she said. 'He took a pay cut, so that's really nice and generous of him. Thank you so much.' Munn also thanked the 'studio executive who had me meet him in the hotel conference room instead of his actual hotel room' and 'that famous actor who didn't treat me like crap after I said I didn't want to get drinks with him after the show.' Nash also started to thank all the men who spoke up at the Golden Globes on Sunday, but Munn cut her off saying, 'Actually, they didn't really say much there.' Munn has previously publicly accused director Brett Ratner of misconduct and harassment and she is an outspoken critic of a Hollywood power structure that she says rewards abusers and silences victims. Kumail Nanjiani took to the stage with some of his The Big Sick co-stars and cast as they were awarded best comedy. He jokingly thanked 'all the white men who brought us here' Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern both took home gongs for their roles in Big Little Lies Rachel Brosnahan won best actress in a comedy series The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. In accepting her award, she begged the crowd to keep supporting the Time's Up initiative It was a big night for The Handmaid's Tale with the show picking up three awards, including best actress in a drama series for Elisabeth Moss Gal Gadot was honored at the awards with the #SeeHer accolade. The award recognizes women who 'push boundaries' and 'recognize the importance of accurately portraying women across the entertainment landscape.' Gadot accepted the award by saying she has always wanted to play strong, independent, real women throughout her career - and that she found all those qualities in her Wonder Woman role. 'She's full of heart, strength, compassion, and forgiveness. She sees wrong that must be made right. She takes action when everyone around her is idle. She commands the attention of the world, and in doing so, she sets a positive example for humanity,' Gadot said. The 32-year-old also mentioned that when she first started out in the industry there were 'very few female-led movies and even fewer female directors' - but things are changing. Gadot noted that in 2017, three of the top grossing films were female-led including Wonder Woman. 'There were eight other films in the top 100, which were directed by females,' she said. 'So although this is progress, but there's still a long way to go.' Wonder Woman Gal Gadot was honored at the awards with the #SeeHer accolade Gadot accepted the award by saying she has always wanted to play strong, independent, real women throughout her career - and that she found all those qualities in her Wonder Woman role FIVE WOMEN ACCUSE JAMES FRANCO OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT Five women have made claims of inappropriate sexual behavior against Franco after the actor wore a pin supporting the 'Time's Up' initiative for gender equality at the Globes. 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, according to an LA Times expose. Claims: Sarah Tither-Kaplan (left) and Violet Paley (right) have accused Franco of inappropriate sexual behavior 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. 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. Actress Ally Sheedy made waves when she called out Franco on Sunday, doing so in a series of tweets throughout the show. 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) '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. Franco 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.' Advertisement As the show kicked off Kumail Nanjiani took to the stage with some of his The Big Sick co-stars and cast as they were awarded best comedy. He thanked 'all the white men who brought us here', before adding: 'Men have been talking for centuries, it's time for us to shut up and listen.' Rachel Brosnahan won best actress in a comedy series for Amazon show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In accepting her award, she begged the crowd to keep supporting the Time's Up initiative. It was a big night for The Handmaid's Tale with the show picking up three awards, including best drama series and best supporting actress in a drama series. The show's star Elisabeth Moss was awarded best actress for her role. Moss plays one of the few fertile women left in a world ruled by a totalitarian regime where women are considered property. HBO drama Big Little Lies was also a big winner with Nicole Kidman taking home best actress, while her co-stars Alexander Skarsgard and Laura Dern took home best supporting actor gongs. Best actor in a drama series went to Sterling K. Brown for his role in This Is Us, following his win in the same category at Sunday's Globes and Hollywood vet Ted Danson took home the gong for best actor in a comedy for his turn as Michael in comedy The Good Place. An alleged robber and his getaway driver have been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a Washington state sheriff's deputy after a home invasion. Court Commissioner Meagan Foley set bail for 32-year-old Frank Pawul at $5million and at $2million for his girlfriend and suspected driver - 52-year-old Brenda Troyer. Both Pawul and Troyer have also been charged with first-degree kidnapping, and Pawul faces an additional charge of second-degree unlawful gun possession. Pierce County Sheriff's Deputy Daniel McCartney, 34, of Yelm was shot and killed while responding to a break-in Sunday at a mobile home in Spanaway. An alleged robber and his getaway driver have been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a Washington state sheriff's deputy after a home invasion. Bail for 32-year-old Frank Pawul (pictured, Thuresday) is set at $5million Bail for 52-year-old Brenda Troyer (pictured, Thursday) is set at $2million. Both Pawul and Troyer have also been charged with first-degree kidnapping, and Pawul faces an additional charge of second-degree unlawful gun possession Pierce County Sheriff's Deputy Daniel McCartney, 34 (left and right), of Yelm, was shot and killed while responding to a break-in Sunday at a mobile home in Spanaway. He was dispatched around 11.30pm and made a 'shots fired' call over his radio shortly after arriving According to charging papers, Troyer dropped Pawul and another man, 35-year-old Henry Carden, and the men robbed residents of a mobile home allegedly frequented by drug dealers and users. McCartney was dispatched around 11.24pm to the mobile home near 45th Avenue Court East and 200th Street after the residents reporter the break in, according to The News Tribune. Shortly after arriving, he made a 'shots fired' call over his radio, his last transmission. Deputies found McCartney with a fatal gunshot wound in the neck. Police believe Pawul fled and the deputy ran after him, after which there was a gun battle and McCartney was hit. Nearby they found Carden with several gunshot wounds, including a self-inflicted fatal wound to his head. A third suspect, Henry Carden, 35 (center), was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Text messages on Pawul's phone showed (right) that Troyer told him that authorities believed McCartney shot Carden and that Pawul (left) killed the deputy Deputies found McCartney (pictured) with a fatal gunshot wound in the neck. Police believe Pawul fled and the deputy ran after him, after which there was a gun battle and McCartney was hit With police, firefighters and citizens lining the route, McCartney's body was escorted on Tuesday afternoon from the county medical examiner's office to the Mountain View Funeral Home in Lakewood (pictured) About eight hours later, authorities found Pawul, who told officers he was walking from his girlfriend's house nearby, and that she probably was in Yelm. Deputies found and interviewed Troyer, who said she dropped Carden and Pawul off near the mobile home so they could buy a car, and then left. Texts messages found on Pawul's phone showed he had texted Troyer, saying he'd been hiding in a garbage can and wanted her to come pick him up. Troyer told him that authorities believed McCartney shot Carden and that Pawul killed the deputy. Deputy McCartney (pictured) was a US Navy veteran who served from 2004 to 2008 and received several medals McCartney (right) had served with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department for three years and had previously served with the Hoquiam Police Department for six years. He is survived by his wife and three sons, aged four, six, and nine years old Visitors, including Tim Floyd (right) an officer with the Enumclaw Police Department, view a growing memorial to McCartney on Monday Court documents say Pawul replied: 'So Hank killed a cop and himself.' Deputy McCartney was a US Navy veteran who served from 2004 to 2008 and received several medals including the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the NATO Medal. He had served with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department for three years and had previously served with the Hoquiam Police Department for six years. He is survived by his wife and three sons, aged four, six, and nine years old. Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (shown with wife Sheena Greitens at a 2011 event in NYC) admitted to having an affair, but denied claims he blackmailed his also married mistress Prosecutors have launched an investigation into cheating Missouri Governor Eric Greitens after his former mistress claimed he attempted to blackmail her with an explicit photo at the start of their affair. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner confirmed the probe in a statement Thursday after the 'serious' and 'troubling' allegations were made public through an audio tape released by the unnamed woman's ex-husband this week. 'It is essential for residents of the City of St. Louis and our state to have confidence from 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,' Gardner said in the statement. 'Both parties and the people of St. Louis deserve a thorough investigation of these allegations. 'If anyone has any information related to this matter, I encourage them to contact my office immediately.' The married father-of-two, 43, admitted Wednesday to sleeping with the married woman, but denied her claim suggesting that he tied her up, blindfolded her and snapped photos to later use as blackmail if she failed to keep quiet. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner (pictured left) announced her probe into Greitens after the Republican politician's married ex-mistress says he blackmailed her at the start of their affair Greitens is pictured with his family during a campaign event in August 6, 2016. He admitted to having a sexual relationship with the unnamed woman in March 2015 The sexual relationship between the woman and the Republican politician, who assumed office in January 2017, began in March 2015, his former lover's now ex-husband revealed in the bombshell story to St. Louis TV station KMOV. In the audio recording, the 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 tape as she 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 The woman's ex-husband who spoke on the matter, still refuses to forgive Greitens for his 'inhuman' and 'evil' behavior 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 said 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 encounter later in the day - but did not include further information on what that entailed. The lawmaker is pictured wearing festive sweaters with his family in December 5, 2017. He has denied allegations from his former mistress who says he threatened her with a compromising photo The family man is shown during his campaign in July 26, 2016. Greitens attorney says the woman's claim is false 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. Meanwhile, Greitens' wife stood by his side, over what the lawmaker calls a 'deeply personal mistake' of his past. The woman's ex-husband, who spoke openly on the matter with the news station, added: 'I don't want to be apart of politics, I don't want to be apart of anything.' Greitens emerges as winner of the Missouri governor's race on Nov. 8, 2016. Following his affair, his wife Sheena (right) chose to stick by his side He also continues to refuse forgiveness for Greitens over 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.' He revealed 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.' Mad men star Elisabeth Moss is preparing to shine a light on Florence Nightingale Mad men star Elisabeth Moss is preparing to shine a light on Florence Nightingale, the Lady With The Lamp. The actress, who won a Golden Globe trophy for her role as an enslaved baby-maker in The Handmaids Tale, told me that she is in the early stages of developing a film about the woman who was a heroine to the soldiers she cared for during the Crimean War. I am fascinated by her, Moss told me at the rooftop party thrown by the Fox group of film and television companies including Hulu, the pay service that broadcast The Handmaids Tale, based on Margaret Atwoods 1985 novel. Moss said Nightingales life resonates because nothing much has changed in terms of women having to overcome the objections of men in charge to get things done. Back then, the medical profession was officially closed to women. Nightingale and 38 nurses sailed from England in 1854 for Army barracks in Constantinople (now Istanbul). She clashed with doctors who resented her presence as she highlighted the terrible conditions for sick and dying soldiers. However, Queen Victoria later gave her an award for her services. She believed in getting things done, noted Moss, whose enviable resume includes Top Of The Lake, The West Wing and last years Cannes Palme dOr winner, The Square, as well as Mad Men. Moss (left) said Nightingales (right) life resonates because nothing much has changed in terms of women having to overcome the objections of men in charge to get things done The actress, won a Golden Globe trophy for her role as an enslaved baby-maker in The Handmaids Tale, pictured Nightingale left a lasting legacy, thanks to her insistence on cleanliness to fight infections in hospitals, and her campaign for the training of nurses. She established the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in 1860 at St Thomas in London (now at Kings College). Nightingale would surely be aghast to find that some nurses today have to make ends meet by using food banks. Having read some of the letters she used to fire off to government offices, if she were still around I reckon shed make the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State answer for that. The film is expected to be directed by Jeremy Lovering, who directed five episodes of TV drama Doctor Foster. Watch out for... John McCrea, Londons hottest young star, who leads a company that includes Josie Walker, Tamsin Carroll and Lucie Shorthouse in the musical everyones talking about Everybodys Talking About Jamie. The show, with music by Dan Gillespie Sells, book and lyrics by Tom MacRae and direction by Jonathan Butterell, will extend its run at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, until October 6. The new block of tickets with dates from April will go on sale on Monday. The musical, about a Sheffield schoolboy (McCrea) whose hearts desire is to wear a dress to his school prom, has become an unlikely smash success. Producer Nica Burns decided to extend because she felt the show, which started life at the Sheffield Crucible last February, deserved to be shared with as many people as possible. But there is no Sheridan Smith, no Michael Ball, no Amber Riley. No box-office star or Broadway accolades to sell tickets in advance. So, its a huge risk, she told me. That may be, but its a major brand new British musical that is already generating interest where I am right now: on Broadway. A 54-year-old Sydney grandmother who avoided the death penalty in Malaysia over drug trafficking charges has been released on bail. Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto was found not guilty last year of attempting to import more than a kilogram of crystal methamphetamine into Kuala Lumpur en route from Shanghai to Melbourne in 2014. She was acquitted on December 27 after the judge found she was scammed by her online boyfriend and was unaware she was carrying the drugs. Australian grandmother Maria Exposto (centre) has been found not guilty of drug trafficking Pictured are the drugs found in Ms Exposto's luggage at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia But she remained in custody after prosecutors launched an appeal. 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 she will have to report to police each week as a condition of the 30 thousand ringgit (AU$9,552) bail agreement. Exposto's case will return to court in February so a date can be set for an appeal hearing. The 54-year-old would have faced the death penalty if she'd been found guilty. A West Australian boilermaker's decision to throw in the tools and dedicate his life to brewing beer has paid off in a big way. Matt Wilson, from Albany in the state's great southern, gave up his grueling fly in - fly out roster in 2015 to take a gamble on home brewing. A year on, he pioneered Wilson's Brewing Company and now boasts not only an impressive reputation, but an ever-increasing demand for his sought-after brews. He started 'playing around' with flavours during a year-long hiatus from work, but knew early on he had what it took to take his beers to the masses, WA Today reports. West Australian former boilermaker Matt Wilson's decision to throw in the tools and dedicate his life to brewing beer has paid off in a big way The father from Albany in the state's great southern, gave up his grueling fly in - fly out roster in 2015 to take a gamble on a home brewing 'For me it was actually quite brief that home brewing period. In a matter of three to four months I realised I wanted to start a brewery and I looked into it and realised I had the skills to do it - my main hurdles were to do with legislation,' Mr Wilson said. Less than two years on from opening its doors, the only thing the company struggles with is keeping up with demand for its five unique products. 'When I was home brewing, I was making 50 litres a day. Now we make 500 litres a day and soon that will jump to 3000 litres a day after the expansion is complete. But quality beer isn't Mr Wilson's only priority, with his heart set on his company growing large enough to offer employment to 100 locals. A year on, he pioneered Wilson's Brewing Company and now boasts not only an impressive reputation, but an ever-increasing demand for his sought-after brews It didn't take long for him to know he had what it took: 'In a matter of three to four months I realised I wanted to start a brewery,' he said 'I want to be able to export to China, Japan, Europe and the UK but then have all that money come back to Albany.' He also wants to utilise human labour over machines as much as possible, and currently relies on eight motivated staff to fill and label all of the bottles by hand. With the micro-brewery on the cusp of completing a major expansion, it is expected to rake in $400,000 a month from February onwards. Along with mixing things up with a fortnightly 'seasonal' special using local ingredients, the brewery recently added a dry ginger beer to its menu. One in 12 Christians around the world are persecuted for their faith and are the target of violent attacks including rape, a shocking report has found. According to a study by Open Doors USA, an organization that studies Christian persecution, 215 million Christians live in areas with high levels of persecution worldwide. The report also goes on to state that over 3,000 Christians were killed and nearly 800 churches were damaged in the last year. 'The most significant findings were that Christian women are among the most violated in the world, in maybe a way that we haven't 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.' A new study claims that 215 million Christians live in areas that persecute adherents to the religion worldwide TOP TEN NATIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORST CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION 1. North Korea 2. Afghanistan 3. Somalia 4. Sudan 5. Pakistan 6. Eritrea 7. Libya 8. Iraq 9. Yemen 10. Iran (Source: Open Doors USA) The study also identified 50 countries across the globe where following Christianity is most dangerous. The report also stated that Islamic extremism is a driver of persecution in 35 of the 50 nations on the list. North Korea, which is an officially atheist state where public worship is illegal, topped the list. Afghanistan, which lacks a strong central government and has a conservative Muslim population, wasn't far behind. North Korea's nearly 300,000 Christians must practice their religion in private for fear of government persecution. 'In a nation where the ruling regime demands total control over the general public, anything that challenges the government's power is seen as a threat, including religion,' Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, told Fox News. 'As a result, the North Korean government does everything in its power to squash the spread of Christianity.' The Louisiana officer who was caught on video arresting a middle school teacher during a tense school board meeting this week was named a defendant in a 2012 excessive force lawsuit stemming from an incident in which an elderly man was slammed against concrete during an arrest. Reggie Hilts, 31, who currently serves as a deputy city marshal in Abbeville, has been identified as the school resource officer who forcibly removed middle school English teacher Deyshia Hargrave from a Vermilion Parish School Board meeting on Monday after she publicly criticized the superintendents $38,000 pay raise. Videos of Hargraves arrest have gone viral on social media and received widespread media coverage. The American Civil Liberties Union and Hargraves teachers union are investigating. Hargrave told the Associated Press she believes Vermilion Parish School Board President Anthony Fontana should resign over the incident. She declined to suggest any discipline for Sgt Hilts, but said he needs training. Scroll down for video Past revealed: Abbeville Deputy City Marshal Reggie Hilts (left), 31, who was captured on video arresting middle school teacher Deyshia Hargrave (right) on Monday, was once accused of using excessive force This screenshot shows the middle school language arts teacher in Louisiana getting forcibly removed in handcuffs from Monday's school board meeting In this image made from a video provided by KATC-TV, Hargrave is handcuffed by Hilts after complying with his orders to leave the metting Whether he needs to lose his job, I don't know, she added. Hilts was a police officer in Scott, Louisiana, in September 2011 when he and another officer were accused of slamming an ailing 62-year-old man's head on a concrete slab during an arrest, causing him injuries, reported NBC News. The officers were sued in federal court for civil rights violations but denied that excessive force was used. They said the man, identified in court documents as Bruce Falcon, was uncooperative and resisted arrest after city crews were dispatched to cut grass and weeds on his property. According to the lawsuit filed in 2012, Falcon was telling Hilts and his partner that the crew was cutting the grass on the wrong lot when the cops shoved him against a door 'without any probable cause whatsoever' and then slammed his head against concrete, causing a laceration that bled profusely and required six staples, as well as a fractured rib and bruises on his face and arms. Falcon said in the lawsuit that he suffers from hepatitis C and chronic cirrhosis of the liver, and that he had been warned by doctors that any cut or bruise could result in his bleeding to death. The man's excessive force complaint was settled for more than $200,000 and dismissed in 2016. The Scott police chief said Hilts left the department in November 2011 for reasons having nothing to do with the incident. Hilts joined the Abbeville City Marshal's office in 2012, and he also works as a school resource officer through a contract between Abbeville and the school district. In his free time, Hilts performs reggae music and serves as a pastor at a local church. On Thursday night, about 100 people chanting 'Stand by Deyshia' and waving signs heralding free speech gathered in a light rain to support Hargrave. Near tears at times, she thanked supporters who stood by her after the arrest and emphasized the need to speak out on important issues. 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) '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.' Earlier, Hargrave told The Associated Press she believes Vermilion Parish School Board President Anthony Fontana should resign. Hargrave declined, at first, to say with certainty whether she would file a lawsuit over her arrest. '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 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 $38,000, to about $140,000 annually, with incentive targets that could add 3 per cent a year. Video of the meeting shows that Hargrave addressed the superintendent directly after raising her hand to speak and being recognized. 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 on Thursday )Getting her message across: '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 People hold signs at a rally for Hargrave, which was attended by some 100 supporters 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. Mugshot: This photo made available by the Abbeville City Jail shows Hargrave's booking photo from Monday night 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. The teacher was booked into the city jail on charges of resisting an officer and remaining after being forbidden, and later bonded out. The local prosecutor said he won't pursue the charges against her. Following her arrest, Hargrave bonded out and returned to work on Wednesday. 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. Jennifer Meaux holds a sign calling for the resignation of Vermilion Parish School Board President Anthony Fontana Hargrave, facing left, hugs her friend Marcella Manuel before she walks to a rally in her support Teachers bow their heads in prayer at the start of a rally for Deyshia Hargrave Sydney Brown, 6, and Josiah Brevis, 8, hold a sign expressing gratitude for teachers 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.' The family of teenage suicide victim Amy 'Dolly' Everett shared a powerful poem about a brave 'cowgirl in heaven' facing down bullies at her funeral service. About 300 mourners gathered at a primary school in Katherine, in the Northern Territory, on Friday to goodbye to as the girl known to her loved ones as Dolly. But one of the most moving messages for loved ones was a poem written for Dolly by her relative Hayley Maudsley which was printed inside the order of service. 'They call me names / Before they see me ride / But with me on a horse / They all run and hide,' Ms Maudsley wrote. Scroll down for poem 'I'm a cowgirl in heaven': Amy 'Dolly' Everett was farewelled by about 300 mourners in Katherine, NT, on Friday afternoon - and the order of service contained a moving poem The full text of the moving poem printed inside the order of service at Dolly's funeral. Credit: Hayley Maudsley 'She) loved her animals and cared so deeply for other people less fortunate than her': Dolly's father, Tick Everett, sister Meg and mother Kate read a statement to the media after the funeral The poem continued: 'They all try to look the same / all try to give themselves a name / Pick on the girl who is all alone / just because her identity is her own.' 'All this wrong that people do / just for the image they want to / show down the evil path they seem to go'. The poem concluded with a message of empowerment to bullies and their victims: 'Your identity should be your own / A better person you will be known'. Ms Maudsley said online that Dolly was her cousin's daughter. Friday's service heard the Lord's Prayer, poems and readings from family and friends. Silver balloons were released into the sky as the song 'I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)' played. Dolly's body was cremated in a private ceremony before the service. Following the memorial, Dolly's father Tick Everett said his family would remember Dolly as 'kind, gentle and loving'. The poem was written in the order of service '(She) loved her animals and cared so deeply for other people less fortunate than her,' he told a large crowd of media which had flown into town for the service. He told how the couple had given their the nickname 'Dolly' after he arrived at hospital late for her birth. 'Kate looked at me and said, "She is just like like a perfect little china doll'. It was a devastated Mr Everett who took to Facebook earlier this week to suggest the people who relentlessly harassed his daughter should attend her memorial. 'Please come to our service and witness the complete devastation you have created,' Mr Everett wrote. He was right, a mourner said - 'everyone' inside was in tears, but they were also coming together. Family said Dolly's mother, Kate, was holding her ashes during the press conference (right) Silver balloons were released into the sky at the conclusion of Dolly Everett's funeral service as 'I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker' played through the speakers Hydrangeas, Dolly's spurs, her hat and a pony club ribbon were displayed on an altar at the service at Casuarina St Primary School Dolly's family had invited the people who bullied and harassed their beloved daughter and sibling to come to the service to 'witness the complete devastation you have created' 'Everyone was crying inside - the songs they used, the lyrics made everyone cry,' a mourner, 15, told Daily Mail Australia. 'The kids that bullied her are from Warwick. I used to play sport with her. It was just so sad.' 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. Even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull paid tribute this week, calling for a renewed effort to stop bullying. 'Dolly, you are loved and you will never be forgotten,' he said in a Facebook post. DOLLY EVERETT'S FATHER IN MOVING FUNERAL TRIBUTE Moving statement: Dolly's father Tick 'Thank you to everyone for the overwhelming love and support that the family received over the last few days. 'We realise many people have travelled a long way to be with us today and we appreciate everyone who came along today to say farewell. 'Farewell to our beautiful daughter and our beautiful little sister Dolly. We'd like to thank those people who couldn't be with us today. 'They are celebrating Dolly's life in Toowoomba, Warwick and other parts of the country. 'We also wish to thank the media for their - and the public - for their incredibly positive response to our efforts to raise awareness about bullying and the impact that it has on everybody's lives. 'As a family, we will remember Dolly as a kind, gentle and loving little girl who loved her animals and cared so deeply for other people less fortunate than her. 'She was loved by so many and made friends with everyone she came across. Dolly saw the good in this world and the good in everybody she met. 'We don't want another family to go through what we are going through and our vision is to establish called Dolly's Dream. 'Through this trust we hope to raise awareness around bullying, anxiety, depression, and obviously youth suicide. 'It won't bring our Dolly back, but it may just prevent the loss of another young life. 'It should not have taken the loss of a young life to drive this change but this is where our journey will start. ' To all the parents - please check your children, talk to them, talk to them about their relationships, talk to them about their bullying, whichever way it might be happening. 'Please just talk to your children and anybody else and remember, speak even if your voice shakes. 'Stop bullying and be kind and do it for Dolly. Thank you.' Advertisement Meantime, the family have established a trust called 'Dolly's Dream' dedicated to raising awareness around bullying, anxiety, depression and youth suicide. They said they did not want anyone else to experience such 'sadness and tragedy'. Many of the mourners in attendance were already rallying around the trust - slapping bumper stickers on the car which read '#doitfordolly'. The family said their daughter had gone to a 'dark and scary place' prior to her death. Following her funeral, about a hundred of the families closest friends remained in the school yard hugging, crying and speaking to each other, a sea of blue. Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. Peter Raymond Costa, 58, has been jailed for six years for the rape of an employee, 24 A Perth winery owner has been jailed for six years for repeatedly raping a young Japanese woman in his employ. Owner of Chidlow's Well estate Peter Raymond Costa raped the 24-year-old woman after a night of dinner and wine. A a male worker was present in the house, but his wife was away during March 2015. He pleaded not guilty to the three charges of rape. The 58-year-old had taken care of a vulnerable young woman from overseas with limited English at an isolated rural property, WA District Court Judge Michael Gething said. In August, the District Court found him guilty of three counts of sexual penetration without consent. Owner of Chidlow's Well estate Peter Raymond Costa raped the 24-year-old woman in 2015 Perth Now reported that Costa was sentenced to an immediate term of imprisonment'' by Judge Michael Gething, who described the attack as 'opportunistic'. 'You took advantage of her extreme level of intoxication in order to assault her,' Judge Gething said. The woman was reportedly living onsite with no wages apart from food and board. In court, the woman admitted that she was 'very drunk' during the evening but that she remembered waking up in her bed with Costa's body on top of hers. 'I was saying no ... I was trying to get him out of me ... and I kicked him and twisted my body,' the woman said. 'He didn't move. I screamed and he said to me, 'Ssshh'.' The assault finally ended when another worker came in and found him naked from the waist down, lying on top of the young woman. She too gave evidence at the trial, and Mr Stanwix confirmed that the colleague was credible witness. Costa repeatedly assaulted the 24-year-old woman until a colleague came in and found them The Japanese victim, who held a tourist visa, lived and worked on the estate but was not paid The West reported that the woman gave evidence in a pre-recorded video, explaining that the rapes happened and that she did remember them despite admitting she had been drunk. Prosecutor Benjamin Stanwix told the jury that the woman had texted a friend the next morning, telling her: 'Help me, I need to move as soon as possible ... I got raped from owner. The friend rushed to the estate with her husband after receiving the text, and found the victim 'sobbing and shaken', according to news.com.au. Costa's sentence has been backdated to 8 August 2017. He will be eligible for parole in four years. Anderson Cooper was on the verge of tears last night as he ended his CNN show on by slamming President Donald Trump's reported 's**thole countries' comments as 'racist'. The CNN host said the president could learn something about 'dignity' from Haiti as he recalled his emotional coverage of the deadly earthquake on the Caribbean island eight years ago. 'The President of the United States is tired of so many black people coming to into this country,' the AC360 host told his audience Thursday night. 'Tired of immigrants from Haiti and Africa being allowed in.' Cooper's statement was in reference to remarks the President reportedly made during a meeting held at the White House earlier in the day. "Let me be clear.... the people of Haiti have been through more, withstood more, fought back against more injustice... than our President ever has" Anderson Cooper choked back tears as he reflected on his relationship with Haiti, and its people https://t.co/3arEalkKOM Anderson Cooper 360 (@AC360) January 12, 2018 Cooper's statement was in reference to remarks the President reportedly made during a meeting held at the White House earlier in the day The CNN host could be seen fighting back tears as he recalled how he witnessed a 5-year-old Haitian boy being rescued after being buried for more than a week 'Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?,' two sources who attended the meeting told The Washington Post. 'Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out,' he continued, lamenting the fact that more Norwegians were not coming into the country. This file photo taken on September 7, 2017 shows a boy as he takes cover from the rain in the Shada neighborhood, in Cap-Haitien as Hurricane Irma approaches 'Let's not kid ourselves,' Cooper said. 'Let's not pretend or dance around it. The sentiment the President expressed today is a racist sentiment.' During the emotional monologue, Copper recalled his many visits to Haiti, both as a reporter and tourist, since his first trip to the Caribbean island in the 1990s. 'Let me be clear the people of Haiti have been through more, they've withstood more, they've fought back against more injustice than our President ever has,' Cooper said. In 2010, Haiti was rocked by 7.0 magnitude earthquake that led to an estimated 200,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly a million more. The CNN host could be seen fighting back tears as he recalled how he witnessed a 5-year-old Haitian boy being rescued from the rubble after being buried for more than a week, surviving on nothing but rainwater. 'Haitians slap your hand hard when they shake it, they look you in the eye they don't blink. They stand tall and have dignity,' Cooper said. 'It's a dignity many in this White House could learn from. It's a dignity the President, with all his money and all his power, could learn from as well.' His CNN colleague Don Lemon later said: 'The president of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that. There's other language I'd like to use, but we are on television. 'But you know what? They're not shocking. They're not even really surprising. 'Because this is who Donald Trump is, this is what he thinks. Apparently we have to go this repertoire every time he says something like this and exhibits some racist behavior.' The White House didn't deny Trump made the vulgar comment when referring to Caribbean and African countries. 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. During the emotional monologue, Copper recalled his many visits to Haiti, both as a reporter and tourist, since his first trip to the Caribbean island in the 1990s. He is pictured reporting on the devastating Haiti earthquake in 2010 In 2010, Haiti was rocked by 7.0 magnitude earthquake that led to an estimated 200,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly a million more TRUMP ASKS WHY PEOPLE FROM 'S**THOLE' COUNTRIES ARE COMING TO AMERICA 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. 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 'Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out,' he told people in the meeting, according to CNN . Instead, he said, the US 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 US ally. 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. 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'. '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 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 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.' '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. 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 Advertisement Twitter users are telling President Donald Trump that no Norwegian would ever give up access to free healthcare and a longer life expectancy to move to his 's**thole country. Trump made headlines on Thursday when he lashed out in a meeting with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why the US should accept citizens from what he called 's**thole' countries. He was speaking about people from Haiti, El Salvador and various African nations, people briefed on the meeting told the Washington Post. 'Why are we having all these people from s**thole countries come here?' Trump said. Trump made headlines on Thursday when he lashed out about immigration reform, demanding to know why the US should accept citizens from what he called 's**thole' countries 'Why do we need more Haitians?... Take them out.' Trump then suggested the US should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday. But Twitter users, some of them from Norway, quickly lashed out asking Trump: Why would Norwegians want to come to America? 'I'm confused - why the f*** would anyone migrate to the US from Norway? Why would you give up healthcare free at the point of access, living wages and reliable public services?,' one tweet read. 'I live in Norway and would never move to USA. We have free health care, free higher education, 5 weeks vacation 8 hours work a day. No thanks Trump,' another user tweeted. 'If you want to attract more immigration from Norway, you're going to need to provide Universal Healthcare, Free College, and robust social safety nets. Because they already have all those things. 'Norway has: universal healthcare, strong labor unions, paid maternity leave. Why the f**k would Norwegians possibly want to move here? 'Of course people from Norway would love to move to a country where people are far more likely to be shot, live in poverty, get no healthcare because they're poor, get no paid parental leave or subsidized daycare and see fewer women in political power. #s**thole.' Trump's initial comments from earlier sparked anger among Democrats and revived questions about Trump's tendency to make racially charged remarks. 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. 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. On Thursday night, 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 ...' Trump's initial 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. He 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. In the past, Trump has called himself the 'least racist person that you've ever met.' Neo-Nazi group Antipodean Resistance has spread to South Australia and plastered hundreds of recruitment stickers across Adelaide. Some of the stickers featured a swastika with the group's name printed around it, while others declared the organisation to be '21st Century Hitler Youth'. Member posted photos on Thursday of stickers they put up in the Adelaide suburbs of Moana, Semaphore, Seaford, and Tea Tree Gully. Neo-Nazi group Antipodean Resistance has spread to South Australia and plastered hundreds of recruitment stickers across Adelaide Some of the stickers featured a swastika with the group's name printed around it, while others declared the organisation to be '21st Century Hitler Youth' Earlier in the 'December Action Report' posted on its website, Antipodean Resistance claimed to put up 250 stickers in the city's north. 'The South Australian chapter garnered fresh recruits recently and sprung into more action this month,' it bragged. Locations hit included street signs, left-wing posters put up earlier, pubs, bus stops, along main roads, and a shopping centre. Weeks earlier the group hit the Bathurst campus of Charles Sturt over the Christmas break as part of a long-running campaign at universities. Member posted photos on Thursday of stickers they put up in the Adelaide suburbs of Moana, Semaphore, Seaford, and Tea Tree Gully Earlier they put up posters showing a shriveled figure menacingly holding up its hands with the words 'reject Jewish poison' underneath at Charles Sturt University in NSW The group hit the Bathurst campus of Charles Sturt over the Christmas break as part of a long-running campaign at universities One of the posters showed a shriveled figure menacingly holding up its hands with the words 'reject Jewish poison' underneath. Another read 'national socialism or nothing' along with a picture of Adolf Hitler wearing sunglasses and a third asked 'life or death? family or f****try?' Others featuring swastikas and white supremacist messages urged students to join the Antipodean Resistance 'organising in your area'. 'Our people are being brainwashed by the education system and media to hate themselves, their culture and traditions,' the group told the Central Western Daily. Others featuring swastikas and white supremacist messages urged students to join the Antipodean Resistance Other recent posters claimed gay couples were 30 times more likely to molest children and that same-sex marriage enabled paedophilia 'This leads to the destruction of community, alienation and hopelessness for our youth. 'We are being replaced by foreign hordes, in the nation that we had made into one of the best countries in the world due to the labour and struggle of our white European people.' Antipodean Resistance's website declared Australia to be 'terminally ill' and claimed a 'national socialist' revolution was the only way to save it. 'We oppose substance abuse, homosexuality, and all other rotten, irresponsible distractions laid before us by Jews and globalist elites,' it read. CSU said it quickly took down the posters and would not tolerate offensive material on its campus. 'The posters were detected by campus security staff over the weekend and were removed at the earliest possible opportunity,' it said. Antipodean Resistance declared Australia to be 'terminally ill' and claimed a 'national socialist' revolution was the only way to save it Antipodean Resistance's 'December action report' bragged about stickering the university along with other sites around Australia. Other recent posters claimed gay couples were 30 times more likely to molest children and that same-sex marriage enabled paedophilia. A festive-themed poster showed the group's skull logo wearing a Santa hat with 'dreaming of a white Christmas' underneath with various minorities crossed out. Another common slogan was 'no drugs, no degeneracy, no tolerance'. The group also runs secretive camps, most recently in October, to indoctrinate youthful recruits and teach them to fight Photos from the camp in rural Victoria showed recruits with their faces obscured making Nazi salutes and holding the Nazi flag and swastikas The group also runs secretive camps, most recently in October, to indoctrinate youthful recruits and teach them to fight. Photos from the camp in rural Victoria showed recruits with their faces obscured making Nazi salutes and holding the Nazi flag and swastikas. Antipodean Resistance first showed up in late 2016 and put up racist and homophobic posters around Melbourne university. They called for 'sh**skins', 'ni***s' and 'chi**s' to get out of Australia, and to 'get the sodomites off our streets' with a gay zombie being shot in the head. Meghan Markle's half sister Samantha Grant is asking forgiveness from her soon-to-be royal sibling after several nasty public comments about her, and, she still hopes to be invited to the royal wedding. Samantha, 53, oscillates between trying to endear herself to her sister who she says she hasn't spoken to since 2014, and lashing out the soon-to-be royal. Samantha says she is now seeking forgiveness from Meghan. 'The last time we spoke when I heard her voice was 2014, almost 2015,' the estranged half sister told the Mirror. In light of several negative comments she made about Meghan, she adds 'I can only say to Meg, ''Forgive me.'' Scroll for video Memories: In this candid image, taken at Samantha's graduation in 2008, Meghan is seen sporting a purple shirt while happily hugging her half-sister Way back when! A previously unseen image of Meghan (right) shows the future royal as a child, sporting large glasses and untamed hairs while posing with half-sister Samantha Last week, Samantha appeared on British TV show The Wright Stuff, during which she claimed only a 'disaster' would stop her dad attending Meghan's wedding Giving back? Meghan's half-sibling referenced the $75,000 dress she is seen wearing in her engagement pictures with Harry, suggesting she should give that same sum to her dad Samantha has been promoting her forthcoming memoir, 'The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister,' the title of which she says is not an insult to Meghan, but about 'social perceptions and labels.' She says she 'wanted to show in the book that she [is the] opposite.' However, as Meghan's family all seem eager for an invite to the wedding, Samantha says her own invitation is uncertain. 'I don't know... I don't know if she's going to feel that my book is good. There's a lot of misperception out there. 'I'd be lying to say that I wouldn't be hurt if I didn't get an invite but that's really up to her. Helping hand: Meghan Markle's half sister Samantha Grant believes the future royal should be financially supporting her father Thomas Markle, 73, pictured with Meghan What a difference! The now-36-year-old looked away from the awkward childhood snap when she stepped out with Prince Harry for an official engagement in South London on Tuesday Outspoken: Samantha is asking for forgiveness from her half-sister after a series of negative comments about the Suits star 'That's her day. It's her special moment. And I would love to be a part of it. But, I think, possibly she might also understand that it's not easy for all of us to get there. But if we can, we will.' She adds: 'It would be pleasing for us to be there and be invited. But it's entirely her decision.' Samantha recently made comments about that $75,000 dress Meghan wore for her engagement announcement photos with Prince Harry. She told In Touch 'If you can spend $75,000 on a dress, you can spend $75,000 on your dad.' It has not been announced if Thomas Markle will be walking his daughter down the aisle St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, Berks, but he recently told the Mirror 'I'd love to.' Samantha also opened up about previously urging Meghan to help their father out financially, while the American actress was making money. She recounted 'There was just a time when and it's funny we were on the phone. It was probably not my place to say but I was just saying, ''Hey, help Dad with some of that money for school now you're making a lot of money.'' 'I think at that time she wasn't that pleased about what I had to say. 'And she said, 'There are too many cooks in the kitchen, babe'. Speculation: Prince Harry and Meghan are set to marry on May 19, and since announcing their engagement, rumors have been rife about exactly who will walk her down the aisle At home: Thomas is seen in an exclusive DailyMailTV picture at his home in Rosarito, Mexico, where he is enjoying a peaceful retirement Samantha added, 'It wasn't a handout. Nobody was asking for money. It's like, 'You're doing really well, help Dad with some of that money back... I love her but she should help Dad.' At the end of the day however, Samantha says that very last time they spoke years ago, they ended on a positive note. 'Her last words were, 'I love you, babe. I'm really glad we had this conversation. Keep in touch'. But, while Samantha is holding out hope for an invitation to the big day, she gushes to the Mirror that Harry is 'quirky and cute, and perfect' for her little sis. 'They are very charming together. He has a noble heart. Samantha adds that she can't wait to see their children. 'They'll be elf-like, cute, funny kids that always look like they have a secret giggling and charming. 'Little pointy noses. I think they'll be adorable and funny and intelligent. I can't wait to see them.' Samanatha also backtracked on comments she made after Harry made a comment just after Christmas saying the royals will be the family Meghan 'never had.' She tweeted at the time: 'She has a large family who were there for her. No one was estranged, she was just too busy.' Now, Samantha says, 'I was just clarifying it wasn't family she never had, it was the family gathering with kids running around at a holiday all together she never experienced, because we were all working and spread out. 'Socio-economics in America demand that family members work. I guess because they're royal they can have that and that's incredible.' The deepest and darkest online secrets of Australians have been revealed, with the world's most popular pornography website naming the top searches of 2017. Pornhub.com has released the top searches, pornstars, categories and trends from the computers and mobile phones of Australians over the last 12 months. While few people are willing to talk openly about their favourite pornography, these latest statistics show there some trends that are unique to Down Under. Scroll down for video Despite being a mother-of-two and celebrity, Kim Kardashian was the most searched name on Pornhub in 2017 by Australians Riley Reid (pictured) came in as the second most searched adult actress around Australia last year Oddly, topping the list of adult actresses was not a pornstar at all, but rather one of the most popular celebrities in the world. It's been more than a decade since Kim Kardashian first rose to fame after a sex tape of her and RnB star Ray-J was leaked, but the footage is seemingly still sought after. The mother-of-two and wife to Kanye West was the most searched 'pornstar' on the website last year, beating out other well known names Mia Khalifa and Riley Reid. In a year where Australia voted 'yes' to same-sex marriage, 'lesbian' topped the list of the most searched categories followed closely by 'MILF' and 'threesome'. 'Fidget spinners' were not only a popular trend among school kids, also ranking top in the trending searches of 2017. 'Cheerleaders', 'Chinese' and 'Snapchat' were among other more unusual searches. Top adult actress and regular Twitter troll Mia Khalifa (pictured) was also among the popular pornstars among Australians In a year where Australia voted 'yes' to same-sex marriage (pictured), 'lesbian' topped the list of the most searched categories followed closely by 'MILF' and 'threesome' On average Australians lasted on the site for 9 minutes 51 seconds with every visit. Popular television series Rick and Morty also featured high on the list of trending porn searches. Australia was one of the world's top consumers of porn last year pe capita, coming in as the eighth-biggest watcher. Unsurprisingly leading the pack was the US, followed by the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Canada, France and Germany. A rare white crocodile named Pearl has been spotted in the Northern Territory playing up for guests on a tour boat in the Adelaide River. Wildlife Guide Mike Keighley, who spotted Pearl for the first time five weeks ago, said the white crocodile suffers from a condition known as hypomelanism. Ecologist Shai Ager was on the tourist cruise when the three-metre reptile was spotted. A rare white crocodile named Pearl (pictured) has been spotted in the Northern Territory playing up for guests on a tour boat in the Adelaide River Wildlife Guide Mike Keighley, who spotted Pearl for the first time five weeks ago, said the white crocodile suffers from a condition known as hypomelanism 'We saw the white albino crocodile and, as far as I'm aware, it was only seen last November so a lot of people weren't sure if it was still alive or not,' Ms Ager said. 'It's really good news to see that it's alive and it's almost three metres long now.' ABC News reported the crocodile could be related to an infamous white-headed croc shot dead after it killed a fisherman who entered the water in 2014. The 4.5 metre crocodile, named Michael Jackson, was considered by experts as a 'one-in-a-million' rarity at the time of his death. ABC News reported the crocodile (pictured) could be related to an infamous white-headed croc shot dead after it killed a fisherman who entered the water in 2014 Michael Jackson was well-known among the community and was easily identifiable, whereas Pearl (pictured) is believed to be relatively new to the area Michael Jackson was well-known among the community and was easily identifiable. Pearl however, is believed to be relatively new to the area. Mr Keighley was in charge of the crew who first discovered the rare reptile, saying they became attached after deciding to name it. 'This one came up five weeks ago and just stood out and surprised all our crew,' Mr Keighley told the ABC. President Donald Trump said he had cancelled his trip to London out of concerns about a 'bad deal' for the new U.S. embassy building he was to officially open there and blaming it on his predecessor Barack Obama. The decision to relocate to a new embassy was inked in 2008 during the administration of George W. Bush. Officials cited security concerns. 'Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!' The president condemned Obama on Twitter for selling the old site on Grosvenor Square in London's exclusive Mayfair district 'for peanuts'. Trump tweeted shortly before midnight to criticize the move to an 'off location' at Nine Elms, south of the River Thames, as a 'bad deal'. Donald Trump has scrapped plans to visit Britain next month, the Mail understands. Government sources have been told the president has gone cold on the idea Trump took to Twitter Thursday saying the 'real' reason why he canceled was because the Obama administration 'sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London' The United States Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London, UK is pictured is this undated photo Exterior view of the new United States Embassy in London, England is shown on December 15, 2017. At a cost of over 750 million, the new embassy is the most expensive in the world At the time the government decided to relocate its historic embassy, officials said it wasn't possibly to retrofit the existing facility. The government undertook global efforts to upgrade security at its embassies following embassy bombings and an increase in worldwide threats after Sep. 11. Trump's tweet, which followed the Daily Mail exclusively revealing last night that the trip to London would be called off, sparked an overwhelming backlash on social media in Britain. 'We looked at all our options, including renovation of our current building on Grosvenor Square,' then-Ambassador Robert Tuttle said, CNN reported. 'In the end, we realized that the goal of a modern, secure and environmentally sustainable embassy could best be met by constructing a new facility,' he added. Trump was previously expected to make his first trip to the UK since entering office, but British officials were newly informed he went cold on the idea. A new date has not been offered, raising the prospect of a major diplomatic snub. One senior source told the Mail that Mr Trump who was expected to officially open the new US embassy in London had cancelled because he was unhappy about the arrangements and the scale of the visit. The reversal comes despite Mr Trump telling Theresa May last month that he would come to Britain in the New Year. 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. Taunting: Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling appear to be calling the President 'chicken' Disinvited: Ed Miliband, former leader of the Labour party - currently the UK's second biggest party - tweeted that Trump was not wanted in London and that the President knew this Not welcome: Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said citizens had 'made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome' Another view: UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson accused the London Mayor and current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of putting the US-UK relationship at risk by encouraging people to protest if Trump came to town Is Trump right to call it a bad deal? Property experts say the US have sold the family silver after selling the old embassy for $680m and buying new one for $1bn As a New York real estate mogul and high-end hotel owner, Donald Trump should be speaking from a position of experience when he calls the new US Embassy a bad deal. The President claimed the Obama Administration sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for peanuts, only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. At a cost of $1bn (750m) the new embassy near Battersea is priced significantly higher than the $680m (500m) it is thought the old embassy in Mayfair was sold for. In with the new: The new US Embassy in Nine Elms, in south London, which is due to open for business on January 16 Standing in London's Grosvenor Square, it was bought by Qatari Diar the property development arm of the Qatari royal family for an undisclosed sum in 2009. At the time, experts had valued the site at 500m. It may never be known how much it was actually sold for because the US sold the lease not the land - which is owned by the Duke of Westminster. The details do not need to recorded with the Land Registry. Shortly before the sale, the old embassy was given Grade II listed status, which may have reduced the value further as this would restrict any development. The Qataris will now spend $1.4bn (1.08bn) to refurbish the building and turn it into a five-star Rosewood hotel with 137 bedrooms. The new US Embassy is a cube-shaped building, located in Nine Elms between Vauxhall and Battersea in south-west London. Christian Warman, director of central London estate agency Tedworth Property, states that US may have 'sold the family silver' - but that they had sold high and bought low. 'Grosvenor Square is one of London's finest addresses and the embassy was very prominent and hugely well connected to businesses and professionals who live and work in the area,' Mr Warman told MailOnline. 'In terms of whether the Americans have sold the family silver; yes Mayfair is always going to be a prime hub of London, but it's not unthinkable that Nine Elms will be considered prime central London in ten, 20 or 50 years, so you could argue that it's a good deal for America. Advertisement He got there after all! Famous wax works museum Madame Tussauds transported their figure of Trump to the new embassy after the cancellation of the trip Star spangled: Marines salute as they raise the American flag at the new US embassy in London for the first time Several high profile politicians in the UK took to Twitter to comment on the cancellation of the trip, with Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, saying citizens had 'made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome'. Even Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling had her say on Twitter, posting a poultry emoji which she appeared to have used to illustrate calling the President 'chicken'. A source told the Daily Mail that the lack of 'bells and whistles' and royal involvement next month visit may have discouraged Trump. 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. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appeared to allude to these promised protests on Twitter, where he accused the London Mayor and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn of putting the US-UK relationship at risk by encouraging anti-Trump demonstrations. 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!' 'Reason I cancelled my trip to London is... ' Brits take to Twitter to mock Trump's UK no show Social media users have poked fun at Donald Trump's 'rubbish excuse' for cancelling his trip to London by offering their own amusing reasons for the no-show. Twitter users, believed to all be living in the UK, replied in hilarious fashion to Trump's tweet which announced the news. Some made predictable jibes about border walls, while others joked about the fact that neither they, nor Trump, would be invited to the Royal Wedding. Hilarious tweets mocking the President's excuse flooded Twitter, with users coming up with their own silly reasons online Advertisement President Trump, pictured here with his wife Melania, could have cancelled the trip because he was unhappy about the arrangements and the scale of the visit The abrupt reversal comes despite Mr Trump telling Theresa May in a phone call last month that he would visit Britain in the New Year 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 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'. 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 750 million US embassy near Battersea Power Station in south London. 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. 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 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 Countries Trump WILL visit President Trump took part in a high-profile 24-hour visit to France that was topped off with a military parade on Bastille Day 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. 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. 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. Poland An enthusiastic reception as people were bussed in to Warsaw and chanted 'Donald Trump' throughout his speech. Germany The reception was not as warm, with protesters lining the streets as the President attended the G20 summit. JAPAN Mr Trump was welcomed with an elaborate palace ceremony and a round of golf with one of the country's champion players. SOUTH KOREA President Moon Jae-in repeatedly invoked Mr Trump's campaign slogan by saying he was 'making America great again'. CHINA President Xi Jinping personally showed Mr Trump around the Imperial Palace. Advertisement 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. 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. 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.' On Thursday alone, Mr Trump made several foreign policy blunders, as the Washington Post reported that he insulted immigrants coming into the U.S. 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. '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 American 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's confused facts, suggesting Korea used to be part of China, when it was not. He's conflated the identities of Napoleon Bonaparte and Napoleon III. Member of Trump's White House team haven't made things better, misspelling Prime Minister May's first name three times by dropping the 'H' on the official schedule of her January 2017 visit. This week, White House messed up the spelling of Norway as the country's prime minister was heading to Washington, D.C. Qantas' groundbreaking flight that will travel directly between Perth and London will be named after Western Australia's iconic quokka. The airline's third Dreamliner - a 236-seat Boeing 787-9 - was named after the adorable furry animal on Friday following the results of a national poll. 'Quokka' was one of the most popular names suggested in the poll, which has received more than 60,000 entries to name the eight-strong fleet of Dreamliners, The West Australian reported. Qantas' groundbreaking flight that will travel directly between Perth and London will be named after Western Australia's iconic quokka (pictured), it was revealed on Friday The airline's third Dreamliner - a 236-seat Boeing 787-9 - was named after the adorable furry animal on Friday following the results of a national poll 'Quokka' was one of the most popular names suggested in the poll, which has received more than 60,000 entries to name the eight-strong fleet of Dreamliners (pictured) The third flight of the fleet will take the name of the animal native to Rottnest Island after the first two were named Great Southern Land and Waltzing Matilda. Quokka will launch Qantas' highly-anticipated, non-stop Perth to London route on March 24. Qantas International chief executive Alison Webster said the aircraft's name may spark a boost in international tourism for Western Australia. 'Our direct flights between Europe and Australia start in March, so naming our third Dreamliner after a native animal unique to WA seems very fitting,' Ms Webster said. The third flight of the fleet will take the name of the animal native to Rottnest Island after the first two were named Great Southern Land (pictured) and Waltzing Matilda Quokka will launch Qantas' highly-anticipated, non-stop Perth to London route on March 24 The aircraft is undergoing final delivery in Seattle and is expected to arrive in Australia later this month, the publication reported (pictured is the new Dreamliner) 'There may be some head scratching moments when people see the name of this aircraft at airports around the world, but a quick internet search will make them immediate quokka converts, and might even encourage them to take a trip.' West Australian tourism minister Paul Papalia said the aircraft's name was a fitting announcement, given the quokka's well-known ties to the state. 'The quokka, known as the worlds happiest animal, is truly unique to Western Australia,' he said. The aircraft is undergoing final delivery in Seattle and is expected to arrive in Australia later this month, the publication reported. Qantas' next Dreamliner Skippy will also join Quokka later this year. President Donald Trump's claim that the US Embassy in London was sold for peanuts appears to have been vindicated after documents reveal that it went for just 315m ($431m) - far below the 500 million ($687 million) experts estimated. When it was sold five years ago property experts said that the market value of the deal was 500m ($680m) and it was thought that this was the sum achieved. The President claimed just before midnight on Thursday in Washington D..C. on Twitter that the reason he cancelled his trip to London to open the new embassy is because 'the Obama Administration sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for "peanuts," only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal.' The daily Mail had first revealed that he was not going, a few hours earlier. Now official Land Registry records reviewed by MailOnline reveal that the 999-year lease of the land was actually sold for almost 200m ($274 million) less than expected. The documents also show that the deal was finalized under Barack Obama's administration, although it was the Bush White House which had started the move and sale. It is unknown if the amount had been settled before Obama came to power. Shiny and new: The US government has spent 750m ($1bn) on building the new London embassy in Nine Elms near Battersea Old gold: The Qatari royal family's property arm bought the old US Embassy in Mayfair for $431million (315million) and is transforming it into a luxury hotel Then and now: The location of the old embassy in Grosvenor Square compared to the new one in Nine Elms He's got a point: Documents show Trump's description of the sale as 'peanuts' may have some truth, with the sale price far below what property experts had believed it to be This is the lease document for the existing US Embassy in Westminster. The lease dates from Christmas Day 1954 and lasts for 999 years Land Registry documents revealed the central London site was sold for 315million Winners! Qatar's then emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani and his wife Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser al-Misnad were rulers when their investment vehicle, Qatari Diar, bought the mbassy for far below what property experts believed it was worth English property law means that the Duke of Westminster, one of the UK's wealthiest men, owns the land underneath the old embassy. The current duke's great uncle, the 4th Duke of Westminster, sold the US government a lease on the land where the former embassy, which opened in 1960, stands. Standing in London's Grosvenor Square, in the heart of Mayfair, itself the wealthiest part of the city, the old embassy was bought by Qatari Diar the property development arm of the Qatari royal family in 2013. The Qataris will now spend $1.4bn (1.08bn) to refurbish the building and turn it into a five-star Rosewood hotel with 137 bedrooms. President Trump, pictured today speaking at the White House, took to Twitter to accuse the Obama administration of selling the existing US Embassy for 'peanuts' President Trump has cancelled his planned trip to London over what he labelled a 'bad deal' regarding the new US Embassy The President was pictured holding up a proclamation honoring Martin Luther King Jr in Washington today as the fallout from his UK snub continued New digs: The Canyonlands Garden, which represents the Grand Canyon and the south west desert landscapes of the United States, is seen in the new US embassy Grand: A woman walks past the consular and visa section during a press preview of the United States Embassy building in December Old times: The interior of the old US embassy building in Grosvenor Square is seen in the 60s Special relationship: One of the rooms in the old embassy, which will not become a hotel A TALE OF TWO EMBASSIES OLD: GROSVENOR SQ NEWS: NINE ELMS Opened: 1960 Architect: Eero Saarinen Storeys: Nine (three under ground) Size: 225,000 square feet Rooms: 600 Employee capacity: 750 Distinguishing feature: A gilded aluminum bald eagle with a 35ft wingspan on the roof Nearby landmarks: Hyde Park, Picadilly Circus, Oxford Street Opened: 2019 Architect: Kieran Timberlake Storeys: 12 Size: 518,000 square foot Rooms: Unknown Employee capacity: 1,000 Distinguishing feature: It is surrounded by an 8ft-deep, crescent-shaped, moat Nearby landmarks: Battersea Power Station, Tate Britain, Battersea Park The new 750m ($1bn) embassy is much further from the attractions of central London in a former working-class area called Nine Elms. Shortly before the sale, the old embassy was given Grade II listed status, which in UK law makes it virtually impossible to significantly alter it. That means any developer is restricted on what they can do to maximise value from the site but knocking down the building and starting again. When the new embassy was purchased, the prime consideration was security after a dramatic overhaul of US embassy protection around the world. The Nine Elms site was large and relatively cheap, but the building itself is vast, heavily protected and designed to be future proof. The total cost was 750 million - $1 billion. Christian Warman, director of central London estate agency Tedworth Property, said that US may have 'sold the family silver' when it comes to leaving the site in Grosvenor Square for the Nine Elms site criticised by President Trump - but that they had sold high and bought low. 'Grosvenor Square is one of London's finest addresses and the embassy was very prominent and hugely well connected to businesses and professionals who live and work in the area,' Mr Warman told MailOnline. 'However, the site is very small and the security around it required can be disruptive to people and traffic in the area. 'The site they have bought is in one of London's up and coming areas and they would've sold the embassy near the peak of the market in an area where prices had risen massively. Not happy: The US President claims the reason he cancelled his trip to London is because 'the Obama Administration sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts,' only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal' Sorry Theresa: The President reportedly spoke to the Prime Minister as recently as last month and spoke about his upcoming trip 'They would have bought the Nine Elms site a long time ago, so you essentially they sold at the top and bought at the bottom.' 'In terms of whether the Americans have sold the family silver; yes Mayfair is always going to be a prime hub of London, and right now Nine Elms isn't, but it could become a very important business and residential area by end of the first quarter of this century. Not least as a result of the American embassy going there. ' 'It's not unthinkable that Nine Elms will be considered prime central London in ten, 20 or 50 years, so you could argue that it's a good deal for America.' 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 embassy website says that the project 'has been funded entirely by the proceeds of the sale of other US Government properties in London, not through appropriated funds.' Today, a removals van was pictured outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square in central London Embassy staff are gearing up to move out of the current embassy in favour of the new building in Battersea The move comes as Donald Trump cancels his planned trip to the UK, blaming dissatisfaction with the move to the new embassy Removals workers were pictured wheeling out several items from the current embassy today The new embassy in London's Nine Elms on the Thames has cost $1billion. Removals staff were pictured hard at work today preparing for the move 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' New front: An artists impression of what the new five-star Rosewood hotel in the old embassy will look like after the $1.4bn (1.08bn) refurbishment Update: The Grade II listed building will be turned into a 137-room luxury hotel, with development set to start later this year Trump claimed the new embassy is in an 'off location'. It is located within a 561-acre regeneration project set to transform one of the South Bank of the Thames' 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. Developers hope the area will become a thriving business hub, with Penguin Random House UK and Apple set to open offices nearby, 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. 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 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 Currently, however, much of the area resembles a large construction site, with the skyline changing constantly as the developments progress. Trump blamed his predecessor Barack Obama for selling the old embassy but the move was actually announced in October 2008 - when George W Bush was in the White House. However, the sale went through in 2009, when Obama was in office. Several London embassies have been sold off as private or commercial property in recent years,. The Former European Council of Foreign Relations near St James's Park was sold for 21.5million to Galliard Homes in 2013. In the same year, the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square, directly beside the former US embassy, was sold by the Canadian government to an Indian property developer, and the Brazilian Embassy, also in Mayfair, went for 40million. Outspoken one-eyed truck driver Trevor Vale has urged people to raise online bullying awareness following the suicide of Amy 'Dolly' Everett. The heartbroken truckie encouraged people across the globe 'to have a crack' for Dolly by turning their lights on next Friday. Mr Vale said it doesn't matter if it's a porch light, car headlights or even a torch - but wants switches everywhere to be flicked on. Scroll down for videos Outspoken one-eyed truck driver Trevor Vale (pictured) has urged people to raise online bullying awareness following the suicide of Northern Territory teenager Amy 'Dolly' Everett The heartbroken truckie encouraged people across the globe 'to have a crack' for Dolly by turning their lights on next Friday He took to social media Friday night, saying: 'What I'd like to try and do is to get the word out there to everybody, next Friday, the 19th of January, to turn your lights on. 'I don't care where you live, but on the 19th of January I want you to turn your lights on to raise awareness and to tell bullies "we've had enough and we're not going to put up with it any longer".' Mr Vale said he was deeply saddened after learning of Dolly's tragic death while making a cup of coffee. He added: 'The pain and the hurt Dolly's family are going through would be unbelievable. Mr Vale said he was deeply saddened after learning of Dolly's (pictured) tragic death while making a cup of coffee Overwhelmed by social media bullies, the young girl from south-west of Katherine in the Northern Territory took her own life on January 3, aged 14 Dolly was laid to rest on Friday, where she was remembered by loved ones as a 'beautiful little china doll' 'If they see that people cared, it might make it a little bit easier.' Overwhelmed by social media bullies, the young girl from south-west of Katherine in the Northern Territory took her own life on January 3, aged 14. She was laid to rest on Friday, where she was remembered by loved ones as a 'beautiful little china doll'. Mr Vale's message comes just two days after he took to social media to blast a Sudanese mother who blamed Australia's 'failing' social support system on her son's involvement in gang crime. Mr Vale's message comes just two days after he took to social media to blast a Sudanese mother who blamed Australia's 'failing' social support system on her son's involvement in gang crime Sudanese woman Asha Awur said a lack of employment opportunities is the driving force behind the wave of gang crime In an open video addressed to immigrant families, the disgruntled truckie encouraged those who had a problem with the Australian way to 'go home'. 'If it's so bad in this country, go home, it's as simple as that. But you won't go home because you know how damn good it is in this country,' he said. Mr Vale's stern message followed Asha Awur's appearance on A Current Affair Monday night, after her son was imprisoned for his involvement in gang activity. For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14. Gemstones from the crown jewels were kept safe during the Second World War in a biscuit tin hidden at Windsor Castle, a BBC documentary will confirm. It was already known that the precious stones had been taken to the Berkshire fortress in the early years of the war in case they fell into Nazi hands following an invasion, but there were few details to the story. Now a BBC One programme about the crown jewels and the Queen's coronation will reveal how the historic artefacts were hidden in a deep hole following orders from King George VI. The gems, including the Black Prince's Ruby from the Imperial State Crown, were placed in the Bath Oliver biscuit tin and buried under a sally port - a secret exit from the castle used in times of emergency. A new BBC documentary, The Coronation, reveals that gemstones from the crown jewels (pictured) were put into a biscuit tin and hidden under Windsor Castle The Queen (pictured in the BBC documentary) knew the general story but wasn't told the specifics until royal commentator Alastair Bruce revealed the tale to her during filming The Queen, who spent her war years at Windsor Castle for safety, was aware of the general story but did not know the details until told by royal commentator Alastair Bruce. Mr Bruce, who presents the documentary, told the Times: 'What was so lovely was that the Queen had no knowledge of it. Telling her seemed strangely odd.' The remarkable story was unearthed for the documentary by Oliver Urquhart Irvine, the librarian and assistant keeper of the Queen's Archives. The royal commentator told the paper how 'an electric set of letters' from Sir Owen Morshead, the royal librarian, to Queen Mary, the mother of George VI, shed light on the mystery. Sir Owen's documents describe how a hole was dug in chalk earth, which had to be covered to hide it from enemy bombers, and two chambers with steel doors created. A trap door used to access the secret area where the tin box was kept still exists today. Although many thought the jewels had been taken to Windsor during the war, other popular theories included that they were being kept in a vault in Canada or a cave in Wales. The story was uncovered in an 'electric set of letters' from Sir Owen Morshead, the royal librarian, to Queen Mary, the mother of George VI (pictured: Queen Elizabeth in June 1953) The letters revealed that a hole was dug in chalk earth, which had to be covered to hide it from enemy bombers, and two chambers with steel doors created (pictured: The Sovereign's Sceptre) In the documentary the Queen also talks about the amusing trials and tribulations of being head of state. The Queen speaks candidly and with humour about the experience of her own coronation and the symbolic importance of artefacts associated with the sovereign in the one-hour programme. She jokingly states you cannot look down when wearing the Imperial State Crown, which weighs 2lbs 13oz (1.28kgs), as your neck would 'break'. She also recounts how she was brought to a standstill when her robes ran against the carpet pile in Westminster Abbey during her coronation. The Imperial State Crown is worn by the Queen when delivering her speech during the state opening of parliament, and, with the priceless artefact in front of her, she points out it has been reduced in height since her father King George VI wore it. Looking at the crown, the Queen said: 'Fortunately, my father and I have about the same sort of shaped head. But once you put it on, it stays. I mean, it just remains on.' Mr Bruce said the head has to be kept still when wearing it and the Queen agreed: 'Yes. And you can't look down to read the speech, you have to take the speech up. Because if you did your neck would break, it would fall off. 'So there are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise they're quite important things.' A trap door used to access the secret area where the tin box was kept still exists today (pictured: The Coronation Spoon) The jewels were kept inside a tin of Bath Oliver biscuits, and grass was left to regrow to hide the tin underground The crown was made for George VI's coronation in 1937 and is set with 2,868 diamonds including 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and hundreds of pearls, including four known as Queen Elizabeth I's earrings. It also features a gemstone known as the Black Prince's Ruby, believed to have been worn by Henry V in his helmet at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The Queen acceded to the throne on February 6, 1952, when her father died unexpectedly in his sleep at Sandringham in Norfolk. Despite the country being in the grip of post-war austerity, a glittering coronation was staged on June 2 the following year at Westminster Abbey. The documentary features footage of the Queen processing through the Abbey and highlights how her coronation dress was embroidered in silk with pearls, and gold and silver bullion thread. The Queen recounted: 'Well, I remember one moment when I was going against the pile of the carpet and I couldn't move at all.' Mr Bruce said: 'Really?' and the monarch replied: 'Yes, they hadn't thought of that.' The documentary is part of the Royal Collection Season, a major partnership between the BBC and Royal Collection Trust, which also features the four-part television series Art, Passion And Power: The Story Of The Royal Collection. The Coronation is screened on BBC One at 8pm on Sunday. A retired South Korean general has described the difficulty of overthrowing Kim Jong-un in North Korea because of the extent to which the country's population has been brainwashed. In-Bum Chun, the former deputy commander of South Korea's army, says it wouldn't be like the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq but 'like trying to get rid of Allah,' The Times reports. He claimed that although much of the massive arsenal North Korea built after 1953 is obsolete, 1,000 fighter jets could be redeployed as Kamikaze aircraft loaded with bombs. Scroll down for video A retired South Korean general has described the difficulty of overthrowing Kim Jong-un (pictured centre) in North Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves to his loyal men as he visits the national science centre in a photo released by Pyongyang on January 12 The entire country is a 'barracks,' Lieutenant-General Chun said, and even children undergo military training to ensure North Korea is 'never bombed into the Stone Age' like it was during the Korean War. He said universal conscription means men have to serve in the army for 11 years and women have to complete six or seven years Speaking to an audience at the Policy Exchange in London, General Chun said: 'It's not like trying to get rid of [Saddam Hussein]. It's like trying to get rid of Allah.' North and South Korea are holding talks for the first talks in two years but tensions are between the Communist regime and United States have been exacerbated by Kim's regular nuclear missile tests, prompted threats of action from President Donald Trump. Kim Jong-un (centre, in black) and his scientists pose for a group photo during his inspection to the State Academy of Sciences on Friday Kim Jong-un toured the newly remodeled revolutionary museum at the State Academy of Sciences, according to state newspaper Rodong Sinmun In-Bum Chun, the former deputy commander of South Korea's army, says removing Kim from power in North Korea would be 'like trying to get rid of Allah' in Iraq General Chun said Kim Jong-un and his family are 'like a cult' that has brainwashed the population in a bid to prepare them for war. He said: A 14-year-old child gets more than 100 hours of military training a year and knows how to fire an AK47, throw a grenade and march for 24 hours Control is exerted through collective punishment so if one person in a group of five to ten families misbehaves, all of them 'go to the gulag or are executed' Pyongyang has up to 5,000 tonnes of chemical and biological agents and 1,000 artillery pieces trained on Seoul alone The country is also boosting its cyberwar capabilities by enlisting children showing an aptitude for technology into a programme to be trained as programmers or hackers from the age of 12 Much of the country's military facilities are located underground to complicate attempts to neutralise its attempts to build a nuclear arsenal General Chun, who retired in 2016 after 40 years in the military, said indoctrination ran so deep that even soldiers who defected had a 'ridiculous' belief in their system. General Chun (right, in 2015) said the whole or North Korea is a 'barracks' and even children undergo military training He spoke of an incident in the 1980s when sailors lined up to be shot in the back of the head after their submarine infiltrated southern waters and broke down. But one man who was captured alive broke after just a day because 'once they realise they've been lied to, they change very quickly.' However, General Chun said the number of defectors has dropped dramatically since Kim came to power in 2011 because he built a wall that made it harder to flee to China. But he says it could also mean living conditions inside North Korea have improved. Jeff Bridges has revealed his home has been 'severely damaged' by the mudslides that have hit Montecito, southern California. The death toll climbed to 17 as emergency workers pulled bodies from a river of knee-deep mud and continued to search grimy debris and ruins for the eight people still missing. Officials say the deluge destroyed 100 houses and damaged 300 others after debris spread across a wide swathe of Montecito - a wealthy enclave of about 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles that is home to a number of high profile celebrities. Scroll down for video: Jeff Bridges is one of the high profile figures whose property has been affected by the mudslide The floods have devastated a wide swathe of Montecito, a wealthy enclave of about 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles The star of the 'Big Lebowski' tweeted that his property has been severely damaged by the floods One of those affected, Oprah, said she was 'devastated' by the damage to her neighbor's property and is has now emerged that the house belongs to Bridges, TMZ reported. The star of 'The Big Lebowski', who bought the home three years ago for $6.8 million, tweeted: 'Our home has been severely damaged, but we are safe, and so thankful for that and for the first responders who are working tirelessly to save people. 'We are heartbroken over the loss of lives in our community. Your prayers and best wishes are most appreciated.' Shocking images that captured the area north of Oprah's estate show severely damaged homes that were completely engulfed by the river of mud. Images that captured the area north of Oprah's estate (right of the image above) show severely damaged homes that were completely engulfed by the river of mud Aerial images of the area show that Oprah's $50million house itself managed to survive the mudslide Photos of Gwyneth Paltrow's home show a mud-plagued yard with parts of her property clearly damaged The north and south bound lanes of Highway 101 (above) were swallowed up by mud. The freeway was forced to shut down as cars became submerged in the deluge Oprah, who heeded the evacuation warnings and wasn't home at the time, returned to the area on Wednesday as she evaluated the damage in her neighborhood. She shared video of her in knee-deep mud and debris as she said a fence had been knocked down. Photos of Gwyneth Paltrow's home show a mud-plagued yard with parts of her property clearly damaged. Sections of her awning and veranda appear to have been torn off and a water feature in the center of her yard is now filled with muddy water. Talent agent Scooter Braun, who represents the stars such as Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, has also been affected by the mudslides. Panicked residents of a remote region of Kazakhstan have demanded an explanation after snow in their town started turning black. Frozen flakes fell on the town of Temirtau as their usual white colour but were then coated by a mysterious dark substance in early January. A team of government scientists has now been dispatched to unravel the mystery. Snow in the town of Temirtau, in central Kazakhstan, began turning black in early January and panicked residents have demanded an investigation Locals blame a huge steel mill which is located nearby for pumping out pollution which has settled on top of the snow as a dark dust Ministers decided to act after images of the striking snow were posted on social media by locals worried about their health, the BBC discovered. Temirtau sits at the heart of Kazakhstan's iron industry and plays host to the country's largest steel production plant. Many believe that pollution from the plant is responsible for the black snow. 'We can't live like this. We're suffocating here,' wrote one user. ArcelorMittal Temirtau, the owner of the steel mill, has accepted that pollution from its plant likely caused the snow to change colour. It said that low winds in December meant that pollution likely did not dissipate as usual and instead settled on the snow. In December 2017 alone, the national meteorological agency recorded levels of hydrogen sulphide in Temirtau exceeding the government-mandated limit by more than 11 times. A team of government scientists has now been dispatched to identify the mysterious substance and track down the cause The Queen's bra fitter has been left 'deeply hurt' after being stripped of her royal warrant, in an apparent snub over a 'tell-all' about her life. June Kenton, 82, whose former firm, Rigby & Peller, was first granted the coveted honour 57 years ago, and has personally held the Queen's warrant since 1982, was dropped 'like a stone' by the monarch in July and despite pleas for an explanation hasn't heard a word from the Royal Household since. This has led to speculation that the 91-year-old monarch was offended by a book that Mrs Kenton, who worked her way up from a Brixton market to stall to become one of the most respected names in the lingerie world, wrote in 2016 entitled 'Storm in a D-Cup'. June Kenton says the Palace has overreacted to her book by removing the Royal Warrant from her former firm, luxury lingerie brand Rigby & Peller In the book she wrote about fitting bras for a half-dressed Queen, who was surrounded by corgis. She also talked about the late Queen Mother, who also awarded her a Royal Warrant, and detailed how Diana came for bra fittings and accepted posters of models in lingerie and swimwear for her sons, William and Harry. Mrs Kenton said last night that she thought Buckingham Palace had 'overreacted'. 'We never come out of the fitting room talking about a customer, everlet alone the Queen. I've never said one single word every time I've been about the Queen,' she said. It is thought the palace's action may have reacted to a book written by Mrs Kenton in which she wrote about dressing the Queen 'It is very sad for me that they didn't like it and I'm finding that very difficult to accept. It's horrible and a real shock. 'I never ever thought when I was writing the book that it would upset anyone. I've had the royal warrant for so long I never imagined that this would happen.' Her daughter, Jill Kenton, told the Mail: 'I'm so sad for my mum, as she actually wrote the book for her children and grandchildren. We thought it was a lovely, colourful life story. 'Unfortunately when we launched it, it was made out to be a kiss and tell, which it absolutely wasn't. 'When she was told that she had lost the warrant it was a huge shock, as my mother has been nothing but loyal throughout her whole career. Her daughter added: 'My mother would never have done anything to slate the Royal Family, ever. This has actually destroyed her. 'After all these years working for the Queen, the Queen Mother for whom she also had a royal warrant - Diana.it is heart-breaking.' Mrs Kenton enjoyed a rags to riches story, starting off on a clothes still in Brixton Market. Mrs Kenton said she the removal of the warrant was a 'horrible and a real shock' for her In 1982 she bought struggling Rigby & Peller which, despite its royal warrant, was in dire financial straits. She paid 20,000 for the name and after several interviews personally became official corsetiere to the Queen, as well as the Queen Mother the following year. Other high profile clients included Margaret Thatcher and Lady Gaga. Mrs Kenton turned the company into one of the leading lingerie retailers in the world, with bras selling for more than 100. She eventually sold it to Belgian lingerie company Van de Velde for 8million in 2011, but retained a seat on the board and continued to fit the Queen personally at least three times a year. Rigby & Peller's flagship store in Kensington, West London, which will no longer be able to display the coat of arms Her daughter said: 'The book was about her life, from World War Two. 'The Queen happened to enter her life and yes, she did mention her. There was no great personal detail included, yet somehow it's been portrayed to be a kiss and tell like Paul Burrell did on Diana. 'No-one from Buckingham Palace said a word to us at the time, no-one expressed any unhappiness. 'She just got a letter out of the blue from the Royal Warrant Holders Association in July bluntly informing her that she wasn't being granted a Royal Warrant any more. Mrs Kenton's book was published last year 'This has all deeply hurt my mother, particularly the way it was done. She knows all the staff including Angela (Kelly) the Queen's dresser. And all of a sudden the contact is dead.gone'bye bye'. 'There was no real explanation or anything. Not even a call or a letter. And after all these years of giving such amazing service. 'If they were annoyed, why not just tell her? Why cut her off without a single word? ' Jill Kenton said her mother was already coping with the tragedy of her husband, Harold, who is suffering from dementia, and this had been further blow. 'This is difficult for me to say, but I don't want her to go with this,' she said. 'After all those years of hard work, it's so sad. We are not attacking the Royal Family, we just find it all so strange. 'Even if they [the royal household] felt she had betrayed them, she is an 82-year-old and deserves an explanation. It was a dead cut off - and that is so sad for my mum at her age. ' Last night Mrs Kenton, 82, told Mail Online: 'The letter came out of the blue and was very upsetting at the time. I called the Royal Warrant Holders Association and tried to reason with them but they told me the order had come from the Lord Chamberlain [the head of the Queen's household] and his word was God. 'There was no point in me attempting to speak to the palace, as they had clearly made up their mind. I have a lovely family and am very proud of what I have achieved, so I am just going to try and move on with my life.' Buckingham Palace said: 'In respect of Royal Warrants, we never comment on individual companies.' The Royal Warrant Holders Association said companies were granted a window in which to remove the royal coat of arms. Rigby & Peller added 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.' The young father who shot to worldwide infamy after pleading for work despite his large and distinctive 'DEVAST8' face tattoo has been spotted at his new job. Mark Cropp, 19, had been drinking homebrew alcohol while in a New Zealand prison when his brother - also his cellmate - gave him the facial marking. His pleas for employment made headlines around the world, and now he has been seen working as a traffic controller. His mother Kelly Doyle told Daily Mail Australia he has been working with the company based in Hamilton on the North Island for about six or seven weeks. The young father who shot to worldwide infamy after pleading for work despite his large and distinctive 'DEVAST8' face tattoo has been spotted at his new job Mark Cropp, 19, had been drinking homebrew alcohol while in a New Zealand prison when his brother - also his cellmate - gave him the facial marking His pleas for employment made headlines around the world, and now he has been seen working as a traffic controller After a photo of Cropp working was posted to Facebook, Ms Doyle said she was 'super proud' of her son. 'So super proud of my son for getting a job and proving all the haters wrong.' The photo of Cropp shows him wearing a high-visibility vest, and holding a walkie talkie. The teenage father spoke out about his lack of job prospects in July 2017. He served a two-year jail sentence for aggravated robbery after he pulled a knife on a tourist in a fake drug deal. He was inundated with job offers and a chance to remove the tattoo using laser treatment for free. After a photo of Cropp working was posted to Facebook, Ms Doyle said she was 'super proud' of her son The teenage father spoke out about his lack of job prospects in July 2017 Cropp initially took up the removal offer but only attended one of 12 scheduled sessions, reportedly concerned with the effect the treatment would have on his skin. In late July Cropp's partner Taneia Ruki told Daily Mail Australia he had accepted a scaffolding job, and in August he was spotted at an Auckland nightclub shooting cash into the crowd. Cropp described the painful process of getting the tattoo, He was inundated with job offers and a chance to remove the tattoo using laser treatment for free 'Once it was started, I thought, I can't go back on it now. I wish I had stopped while the outline was there to be quite honest,' he said. 'Before I knew it I had this on my face... It was swollen like a bloody pumpkin.' He said the tattoo was now 'part of who I am'. Girls in Ghana have been banned from crossing a river while having their period after a command was reportedly given by the waterway's 'god'. The divine order also forbids girls crossing the River Ofin in the Ashanti region of the African country on Tuesdays. It means that half the children in the area - the Upper Denkyira East district - are likely to lose time at school as a consequence. It means that half the children in the area - the Upper Denkyira East district - are likely to lose time at school as a consequence. Pictured: A stock image of Ghanaian schoolgirls Speaking to BBC Pidgin, Unicef menstrual hygiene ambassador Shamima Muslim Alhassan said the godly directive was a violation of girls' right to an education. 'It seems the gods are really powerful, aren't they?' she said. 'Sometimes I think that we need to ask for some form of accountability from these gods who continue to bar a lot of things from happening, to account for how they have used the tremendous power that we have given them.' A World Bank report claims as many as 11.5 million women in Ghana - a country of about 28 million people - have no access to necessary sanitation facilities. Meanwhile Unesco has estimated that 10 per cent of girls in the region do not attend school because they are menstruating. Now regional minister Kwamena Duncan is set to meet with the local Ashanti minister to discuss the problem. Radio 4 listeners were shocked to hear the word 's***hole' read out by a newsreader in the morning news bulletin. Newsreader for the BBC's Today show, Chris Aldridge, was reporting on US President Donald Trump's controversial leaked comments about immigrants. In his hourly bulletin, he said: 'During a meeting with Republicans and Democrats in the Oval Office, Mr Trump asked why the United States should take in people from what he called "s***hole countries".' The use of the swear word appeared to be intentional, as it was read out each hour on the programme. And listeners were stunned at hearing the expletive live on morning radio. Scroll down for audio Radio 4 listeners were shocked to hear the word 's***hole' read out by a newsreader in the morning news bulletin President Donald Trump reportedly told lawmakers in the Oval Office that he was mystified about why the U.S. imports people from 's***hole countries' in the Third World Matthew Witt tweeted: 'I know we shouldn't laugh, but it was quite funny on Radio 4 this morning hearing the newsreader quoting the POTUS' "s***hole countries" in his best BBC voice.' Journalist John Stevens said: 'Are you allowed to say s***hole at 7:06am on Radio 4?! #r4today' Laurie Margolis wrote: 'Odd morning. A heron walks right in front of me in Hendon Park. And I hear the word s***hole on the Radio 4 News. And its only 6-25. Awaiting strange third event. #watchout' Sky News presenter Samantha Washington said: 'The word s***hole on radio 4. #peaktrump?' And Jamie Hoyle added: 'Phrases I didnt expect at 7AM on Radio 4 in impeccable received pronunciation: s***hole countries'. President Trump's comments sparked uproar, with many people accusing him of racism. Frustrated with America's continued responsibility for immigrants fleeing Third World natural disasters, he asked members of Congress in vulgar terms why the United States had to shoulder such a burden. Newsreader for the BBC 's Today show, Chris Aldridge, was reporting on US President Donald Trump 's controversial leaked comments about immigrants '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 '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. Instead, he said, the U.S. should seek to assimilate people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met with a day earlier. Elite units of paratroopers and Royal Marines could be combined to save money as part of sweeping cuts to Britain's military. The mergers are said to be under consideration alongside plans to reduce the armed forces' strength by more than 14,000. The proposals will raise fresh concerns about the crisis facing UK forces - with fears about personnel shortages, rising costs of kit, and recruitment problems. Royal Marines in action in Afganistan in 2007. Mergers are said to be under consideration alongside plans to reduce the armed forces' strength by more than 14,000 The Times said one option being considered was a combined force comprising 3 Commando Brigade, which is predominately made up of Royal Marines, and 16 Air Assault Brigade, which includes the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the Parachute Regiment. Another idea includes cutting the army by 11,000 soldiers and losing 2,000 Royal Marines and sailors and 1,250 airmen, the newspaper reported. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said final decisions had not been taken. 'A whole range of options have been discussed as part of the cross-government review on how to best protect our country. No decisions have been taken and any talk of an outcome is pure speculation,' a spokeswoman said. A strategic defence and security review was announced last year looking at all aspects of the UK's security capability, including defence. There has been widespread speculation about possible cuts amid major pressure on the defence budget. Conservative former defence minister Mark Francois voiced concerns over morale across the armed forces yesterday, saying he was alarmed by reports the regular army could be reduced from 82,500 to as low as 50,000. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said no final decisions had been taken. Pictured are Royal Marines in Kuwait in 2003 Tory, Labour and SNP MPs also raised concerns over the prospect of other cuts to the armed forces. Defence minister Tobias Ellwood replied that there was 'no intention of leaving the UK less safe' and details of the review would be revealed shortly. Speaking before The Times report was published, Mr Francois told the Commons: 'At a time when we face a resurgent Russia, which has carried out the annexation of the Crimea and still has further territorial ambitions in the Ukraine as well as placing pressure on the Baltic states, reducing the army in this way would send entirely the wrong signals to the Russians about our commitments to Nato and willingness to uphold the territorial integrity of our allies. 'It would be sheer folly. 'I only have to hope that the pinstripe warriors in the Treasury, who daily live in fear that the air conditioning might malfunction or that the tea trolley might be late, have since abandoned such a daft suggestion as there's no way that I and, as (Tory MP James Gray) intimated, many of my colleagues on these benches could possibly support a reduction of that magnitude in regular manpower.' The man who viciously coward punched a teenager at Schoolies last year has heinously laughed and taken selfies outside of court after avoiding jail time. Caleb Maraku was filmed brutally punching the 19-year-old victim in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast in the early hours of November 27. On Friday 19-year-old Maraku was handed a 12-month good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm. He also pleaded guilty to breaching a banning order, as he was prohibited at the time from being in the area. After leaving Southport Magistrates Court, Maraku was laughing and joking with reporters, attempting to take selfies for his 'fans'. Caleb Maraku, who viciously coward punched a teenager at Schoolies last year, has heinously laughed and taken selfies outside of court after avoiding jail time Caleb Maraku was filmed brutally punching the 19-year-old victim in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast in the early hours of November 27 Maraku's sickening attack on the 19-year-old came as the victim and another man were exchanging words on Orchid Avenue. The victim was backing away from the other man who kicked him, moments before the coward punch. The teenager crashed to the tiled floor, rendering him unconscious. He was rushed to hospital with broken teeth, cuts to his head and bruising. Maraku was in high spirits leaving the courthouse on Friday afternoon, telling his friend to 'take a picture' with the media scrum following him. He told reporters to 'say hi' while attempting to take selfies and film them. The 19-year-old laughed at his own jokes, smiled when asked if he was sorry and seemed more interested in having the moment documented. Maraku was in high spirits leaving the courthouse on Friday afternoon, telling his friend to 'take a picture' with the media scrum following him The 19-year-old laughed at his own jokes, smiled when asked if he was sorry and seemed more interested in having the moment documented The court heard Maraku, who is a father, had drunk eight Jack Daniels and coke cans. His solicitor said he 'does not intend to drink again'. The Magistrate described Maraku as a 'very lucky man', saying his disgusting attack 'could have ended in this person's death'. He will be on probation for 12 months, not allowed to consume any drugs or alcohol during that period and was fined $361 to help pay the victim's medical bills. Maraku was handed no convictions. Homeowners say they were left traumatised after watching footage of two burglars strolling around their flat, helping themselves to Christmas presents. The break-ins took place in Chelsea, west London last month in the build-up to the festive season, with criminals raiding two flats in the same building. Residents in one flat were shocked when they played back internal CCTV and saw two men strolling around their front room. Police are hunting these two men after footage taken by a 'canary' CCTV system filmed them walking around a London flat and taking the owner's belongings The burglars made off with 20,000 worth of jewellery, cash and presents from one of the flats in Stadium Street, near Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge ground. PC Mark Carter, who is investigating for Kensington and Chelsea police, said: 'These were brazen burglaries just before Christmas which have left the victims traumatised and upset. I would urge anyone with information to get in touch.' A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'On Monday, 4 December, police were called at 17.44hrs to reports of two burglaries at residential flats on Stadium Street, SW10. 'During the first burglary, the suspects entered the flat by kicking the door open whilst the victim was out. They left empty handed. The footage shows the two men walking around the flat picking things up to steal The two raids happened in this street in Chelsea, west London on the afternoon of December 4 The spokesman added: 'The second burglary took place in the same building whilst the victim was away at work. The suspects entered the property by kicking the door open and made off with more than 20,000 worth of personal property including jewellery, cash, cards and Christmas presents.' 'The burglaries were reported to have taken place between 13:00hrs and 17:40hrs. The suspects left the scene in a light brown vehicle.' Police described one suspect as black, over 6ft 6inches tall, of slim build and wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, black gloves and grey trainers with white soles. The second man is described as black, approximately 5ft 7inches tall with short afro hair, wearing a black jacket with a grey hoodie underneath, black jeans and white trainers. Anyone with information is asked to contact Kensington and Chelsea CID on 020 8246 9227 or 101. You can also tweet @MetCC. An EU boss has dismissed calls for a second Brexit referendum - as Nigel Farage frantically U-turned on his call to hold one. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup - which represents EU countries in the euro - said the bloc has 'moved on' from the vote. It comes as the Ukip leader tried to dial down his call for another referendum, insisting that he does not want a fresh vote but fears it may be inevitable. While a snap poll carried out yesterday found that most Britons do not want to have to return to the ballot box for a fresh vote on EU membership. Speaking to BBC Newsnight last night, Mr Dijsselbloem said: 'The people in the UK have to understand that Brexit is no longer on the front pages in Europe. Its on the front pages in the UK every day, one two and three. Jeroen Dijsselbloem , president of the Eurogroup - which represents EU countries in the euro - (pictured last night) said the bloc has 'moved on' from the vote A snap ComRes poll carried out yesterday in the wake of Nigel Farage's call for a second Brexit referendum found that 51 per cent of voters do not want the contest re-run 'We have moved on... there is no drive to re-open this debate. 'I haven't heard anyone in Brussels argue for a second referendum.' A snap ComRes poll carried out yesterday in the wake of Mr Farage's remarks found that 51 per cent of voters do not want the contest re-run. In contrast just 43 per cent of voters said they wanted another referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, while six per cent said they do not know. The poll of 1,049 people was commissioned by the Daily Mirror, emerged as the former Ukip leader hit the media to insist to that he does not want another vote, despite using a an appearance on live TV yesterday to suggest there should be one. As he scrambled to play down his remarks last night, Mr Farage described the Brexit referendum as the 'greatest democratic exercise in the history of our nation'. But he said he feared a second referendum may well be inevitable. 'While I want the 2016 referendum result to be honoured, however, and know that a second referendum would create huge uncertainties for Britain, I am beginning to fear that a second plebiscite may well happen anyway,' he wrote on the Daily Telegraph. 'Here's why. My meeting with Mr (Michel) Barnier earlier this week left me in no doubt that a grown-up, rounded trade agreement to cover both goods and services is not possible thanks to the truculence of most of the bureaucrats who run the EU.' The ex Ukip leader, who met with the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Mr Barnier this week, said he has become convinced Brussels is determined to give the UK a bad deal to punish the country for quitting the bloc. He said: 'I am convinced that the European Union will end up offering a deal to us that is so unattractive that the British Parliament will reject it. UKIP leader Henry Bolton told the BBC's Daily Politics Mr Farage had now clarified that he had 'misspoken' and only intended to recognise the possibility of a referendum happening, instead of endorsing one Mr Farage has been scrambling to play down remarks on Channel 5's Wright Stuff yesterday 'In those circumstances - which may well come before the end of this year - the Eurosceptic hope is that we would simply crash out of the EU on WTO rules. That looks like a fantasy, however. 'To be clear, I do not want a second referendum, but I fear one may be forced upon the country by Parliament. That is how deep my distrust is for career politicians. 'This poses a big question for Leavers. Do we stick with the view that the result will stand or acknowledge the fact that we face this potential threat?' But new Ukip leader Henry Bolton today admitted that Mr Farage has raised the chances of another Brexit referendum being held. Mr Bolton told the BBC's Daily Politics Mr Farage had now clarified that he had 'misspoken' and only intended to recognise the possibility of a referendum happening, instead of endorsing one. Henry Bolton was being grilled by the BBC's Jo Coburn on the political programme today 'We might well be confronted with it in the future,' Mr Bolton said. 'We would win it hands down - we are not worried about that.' But he said there should not be another referendum because it was unnecessary and would undermine public faith in democracy. Brexiteers yesterday told the Mail Online branded his comments were 'mad' and said that the British people do not want another vote on membership of the EU. Former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith told MailOnline: 'It is ridiculous, he is such a preposterous self-publicist. 'He doesn't get much coverage any more, nobody is really interested in what he has to say, he has slipped off the radar.' Asked whether Mr Farage had pushed forward the debate about a second referendum, Mr Bolton said: 'This has raised the prospect of it.' Donald Trump's foul-mouthed immigration outburst made headlines around the world Friday, though the remark was often lost in translation. Many Asian countries struggled to literally translate the word 's***hole' into their language, or fell back on metaphors for fear of offending their audiences. Perhaps the most roundabout translation came from the CNA news agency in Taiwan, which said Trump had referred to 'countries where birds don't lay eggs'. Donald Trump fumed about migrants from 's***hole countries' coming to the US on Thursday which immediately made headlines around the world Many Asian publications struggled to literally translate the remark or were fearful of offending people. Taiwan's CNA agency said Trump had referred to 'countries where birds don't lay eggs' Japan's famously polite press largely reported the remark as 'countries like toilets', though references were also made to a type of tank used to hold manure. Local media in Vietnam varied in strength from 'dirty countries' to 'rubbish countries' to 'rotten countries'. In South Korea most papers took their cue from national agency Yonhap, which rendered the remark 'beggar's den countries'. Meanwhile, Voice of America's Thai service, which is backed by the US, printed an explanation of the word itself in their article on the outburst, It said that 'this English word could translate as a "hole of waste from excrement," which reflects that he considered [them] low-class countries'. Chinese media were very guarded in their use of the term, with most picking up the story from the overseas version of the People's Daily, which translated it as 'languo', meaning 'bad countries'. In the Philippines, whose mainly English-language media have become used to their own president Rodrigo Duterte's foul-mouthed outbursts, newspapers were nowhere near as coy. 'Trump: Why allow immigrants from 's***hole countries?' headlined the Philippine Star, without censoring the term. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that Trump had said 'beggar's den countries' while in Japan the remark was rendered 'countries like toilets' China's media was perhaps the most conservative, with most following the lead of the People's Daily, which reported that Trump had said 'bad countries' French media used the phrase 'pays de merde' which literally means 'countries of s***', while Spanish papers opted for the identical 'paises de mierda', according to the BBC. In Germany the word 'drecksloch' was used, which literally means 'dirt hole' but is considered a vulgar term. One Dutch outlet used the phrase 'achterlijk', meaning backward, while a Portuguese paper opted for a word that means 'pigsty'. The President's remark, which was first reported by the Washington Post and has not been refused by the White House, caused outrage both at home and around the world when it was reported on Thursday. During talks to strike a bipartisan agreement over immigration negotiators began discussing protections for migrants from countries hit by natural disasters, war or epidemics such as Haiti, El Salvador and some African countries. 'Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?' the President fumed, before suggesting he wanted more immigrants from the likes of Norway, whose Prime Minister he met with the day before. Anderson Cooper, on his nightly CNN broadcast, flatly denounced the remark as 'racist' - a sentiment later echoed by a spokesman from the UN, who also called it 'shocking' and 'shameful'. The Haitian ambassador to the US called on Trump to explain his remark, saying he had formally requested an explanation from officials. Haitian ambassador Paul Altidor (pictured) criticized Trump after it emerged the US President described the island nation as a 's***hole' Haiti's ambassador to the US has hit back at President Trump after he reportedly described the island nation as a 's***hole' country. Ambassador Paul Altidor said in an interview with NBC News that Trump's remarks were 'based on stereotypes' and he was either 'misinformed' or 'miseducated'. President 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. Altidor called on Trump to clarify his remarks. The Haitian ambassador added later that he had formally requested an explanation from US officials. 'Haitians fought along U.S. soldiers in the Revolutionary War and we continue to be great contributors to American society,' said Altidor, an economist who attended college US. Scroll down for video NBC's Yamiche Alcindor took to Twitter to describe his interview with the Haitian diplomat He confirmed Altidor had officially requested an explanation from US officials NBC's Yamiche Alcindor took to Twitter to describe his interview with the Haitian diplomat. He said: 'I just talked to Haiti's Ambassador to the United States Paul Altidor who said he and the Haitian government 'vehemently condemn' President Trump's comments which they believe are 'based on stereotypes.' 'Haiti's US Ambassador Paul Altidor tells me Haiti's government has formerly summoned a US official to explain Trump's comments to Haiti's officials.' 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. Instead, he said, the U.S. should seek to assimilate people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met with a day earlier. Altidor has formally requested an explanation from US officials, saying Trump's remarks were 'based on stereotypes' and he was either 'misinformed' or 'miseducated'. Pictured: Haiti after Hurricane Matthew which devastated the island in 2016 There are approximately 436,900 people with such 'Temporary Protected Status' living in the U.S. from 10 countries. Haitians and Nicaraguans have already been told their protection is ending Altidor also mentioned Haiti's longstanding relations with the US - pointing out that that volunteers from the Caribbean fought on American soil during the Revolutionary War. 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. 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. Social media users have poked fun at Donald Trump's 'rubbish excuse' for cancelling his trip to London by offering their own amusing reasons for the no-show. Mr Trump was expected to make his first trip to the UK since entering office to officially open the new US embassy in London. However he has now cancelled the trip as he was unhappy about the sale of the former embassy 'for peanuts' by the Obama administration. Mr Trump tweeted that he thought the embassy's move from upmarket Grosvenor Square in Mayfair to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, was a 'bad deal'. Twitter users replied in hilarious fashion, poking fun at the tweet which announced the news while joking that many in south London would celebrate the cancellation. Scroll down for video Social media users in Britain replied in hilarious fashion, poking fun at the President's excuse 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 Mr Trump tweeted that he thought the embassy's move from upmarket Grosvenor Square in Mayfair to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, was a 'bad deal' 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' 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!' Jokes at the president's expense, including poking fun at the inaccuracy of his statement and comparing him to a London taxi driver for refusing to travel south of the River Thames, flooded social media. Some Londoners humorously noted that they too would resist crossing the Thames. Twitter user @looksquiteyoung wrote: 'To be fair this is normally my reaction to getting invited somewhere south of the river too...' Others, however, praised the Nine Elms and Battersea area. Twitter user Mary Beatrice posted: '@realDonaldTrump "Off location"? Babe, south of the river is where it's at. But you're right, we didn't want you here anyway.' For some online, the practicalities of the President opening a building were a source of mirth. 'I can't believe for a second you would be trusted with scissors!' said Allan Lindsay. Social media users have poked fun at Donald Trump 's 'rubbish excuse' for cancelling his trip to London by offering their own amusing reasons for the no-show Jokes at the president's expense, including poking fun at the inaccuracy of his statement, flooded social media Many of the replies to Trump's tweet solely featured pictures of the Queen laughing and smiling. 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. 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. Kevin Dahlgren, an American serving life in a Czech prison for killing four of his relatives in the country and trying to burn their bodies, has committed suicide. The 24-year-old from Palo Alto, California, stabbed his Czech cousin, her husband and their sons to death in the city of Brno on May 22, 2013 before fleeing to the United States. The CTK news agency said Dahlgren killed himself in a prison in Valdice, northeast of Prague. Dahlgren, pictured in 2017, was an English teacher in the Czech city of Brno when he carried out the killings Veronika Harokova was Dahlgren's cousin but her and her family were brutally murdered by him Dahlgren was extradited back to the Czech Republic and jailed for life in 2016 for stabbing cousin Veronika Harokova, her husband Martin, 55, and their sons David, 16, and Filip, 25. The trial heard that Dahlgren stabbed Martin Harok 29 times in his study before stabbing his cousin and their oldest son. He then attacked the 16-year-old as he returned home from school, hitting him with a rock and stabbing him six times. Three of the bodies were discovered in the basement of the family house, concealed under smouldering blankets, set on fire by Dahlgren. The fourth body was discovered upstairs. Left to right: David, 16, Filip, 25, and Martin Harok, 55, were killed along with Veronika Harokova, the wife of Martin and mother of David and Filip. Earlier that day, a cleaning lady said she arrived at the house to do her job, but was hindered by Dahlgren, who spread his arms in the doorway and told her 'there would be no cleaning that day'. He boarded a plane from Vienna, Austria on the day of the killings, and when he arrived in the United States the following day he was carrying in his luggage a blood spattered pair of shorts. The blood was later found to match the DNA of the victims. He boarded a plane from Vienna, Austria on the day of the killings, and when he arrived in the United States the following day Dahlgren was extradited back to the Czech Republic. He is pictured reacting after a judge sentenced him to life in prison Dahlgren, who was in Brno to teach English, was detained at Washington Dulles International Airport. He was extradited to the Czech Republic last year - the first American to be extradited to the European Union member state. Passing sentence Judge Michal Zamecnik said Dahlgren had seen his victims as 'representatives of a frustrating world'. 'The crime he committed is extraordinarily serious. He was trying to solve problems with his own ego, with his own feelings and he solved those problems by completely wiping out the entire family, said the judge. Dahlgren refused to testify at his trial he said: 'What happened to the family was a tragedy.' For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255 Horrifying footage reveals the moment a police officer had her hair ripped out during a ferocious attack by a thug. In May of last year, PC Emma Agyei was assaulted while arresting a 50-year-old man for breach of the peace. The man's son attacked her, ripping out a large chunk of her hair during the altercation in Bilston, Wolverhampton. PC Emma Agyei clutching the strands of her ripped out hair after the vicious assault in Bilston, Wolverhampton The police officer had been attending a domestic incident when she was tackled to the ground and beaten in May last year During the shocking bodycam clip, PC Agyei can be heard screaming in agony as she is attacked by a 24-year-old man, who has not been named. After the assault, the police officer can be seen putting strands of her torn out hair into a plastic bag. The brave policewoman assures concerned colleagues she was alright, insisting, 'I'm fine, I'm okay.' 'He wrenched my hair our, and he held me by the throat': Emma Agyei (pictured with Chief Constable Dave Thompson) said her head was smashed against the road a couple of times The attacker, who ripped out a chunk of PC Emma Agyei's hair, was given a suspended sentence of 12 weeks after pleading guilty to assault She is then sat in a police car, where the audibly shaken officer says, 'oh my God.' Speaking about the assault, PC Agyei said: 'We had arrested a 50-year-old man for breach of the peace following reports of a domestic. 'Whilst two of my colleagues were placing him in the rear of the police van his son came out and said "what the hell did you say to my dad?" 'He went to run towards them with his fists clenched and I didn't think my colleagues saw this so I pushed him out of the way telling him to stay back from my colleagues. 'Then he ended up attacking me. 'We ended up on the floor together where he has grabbed me by the back of my head and smashed my head on the road a couple of times. 'He has wrenched my hair out and held me by the throat and I was there for literally seconds but it felt like a long time until one of my colleagues was able to pull him off me. 'When they were unable to pull him off at first, they sprayed him with PAVA spray and then I helped my colleague restrain him until other people arrived. 'I'm fine, I'm okay': Shaken police officer Emma Agyei told colleagues that she was alright after the attack The police officer put strands of her ripped out hair into a plastic bag 'I think I was in complete shock. Because at the time he was pushing me and attacking me I was thinking "I can't believe this is happening, what do I do now?" 'I was thinking of all the PST [personal safety training] moves we had been taught and which one would be most effective but I literally had seconds to think. 'I was really shocked, I couldn't say much afterwards for a bit.' Her attacker was given a suspended sentence of 12 weeks after pleading guilty to assault. West Midlands Police released the video to highlight the violence police officers are frequently open to. There were 669 assaults on West Midlands officers and staff recorded between April and December 2017. Due to those attacks, 356 days were lost as police men and women recovered from their injuries, with a cost equivalent to around 65,000 in sick pay. PC Agyei was arresting a man for breach of the peace when the man's 24-year-old son attacked her 'We need to bring justice to criminals who think that it is okay to abuse and hit out': There were 669 assaults on West Midlands officers and staff recorded between April and December 2017 Chief Constable Dave Thompson, said: 'I am stepping up to highlight the impact of assaults on our communities. Officers, PCSOs and staff are often the first and last line of defence. 'Our officers will always do the right thing and routinely put themselves in harm's way to protect the public, but we need to bring to justice criminals who think that it is okay to abuse and hit out. 'Time off recovering from a senseless attack is time taken away from the very communities that need them policing their streets and protecting them.' Donald Trump has been ridiculed after suggesting the US embassy was moving to an 'off location' as residents vent their fury at the president on social media. The president sparked fury after Tweeting about the relocation from Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, central London, across the River Thames to Vauxhall, even saying he cancelled his February UK visit over the decision. Trump 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!' His remarks were met with a combination of outrage, indignation and joy from residents and London politicians as one Twitter user proudly declared Battersea a Trump-free zone while another joked that the area's famous dog rescue home was celebrating the news. Responding to Trump's claim that the area was 'off location', @joebloggsart Tweeted a parody of Pink Floyd's 1977 Animals, with an inflatable pig resembling the president floating above Battersea Power Station, mirroring the prog-rock group's artwork. One user warned the president is 'TOAST' after 'slighting' the London Borough of Wandsworth, with an account dedicated to 10 Downing Street's cat adding: 'This just got personal.' The flag was raised outside the embassy today, as Trump's comments angered residents of Battersea Donald Trump declared Vauxhall an 'off location', sparking anger among the area's residents and businesses Another user ridiculed the Republican by suggesting he didn't want to visit because of the amount of dogs in the area, a nod to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Transaction manager Chloe Slattery, who lives in Battersea, told Mail Online that Trump was ignorant about her neighbourhood. Chloe Slattery branded the president ill-informed over his comments about the area The 27-year-old said: 'As with most statements by the President, this one is also ill informed. 'This is a very connected, sociable and safe area of London. Over the next few years the planned development for Battersea will transform an already thriving area into a must-visit part of the capital.' James Duncan-Hartill, 29, was similarly unimpressed with what the president had to say about the district and accused him of being scared of Londoners. 'Trumps recent tweet is an attempt to deflect from the fact that he is frightened of the UKs public opinion of him,' he told Mail Online. 'The Nine Elms area has seen a lot investment and redevelopment in recent years and really isnt considered an "off location". Perhaps Trump should ask Apple, who will have their UK HQ based there imminently, if they consider it off location and see what answer he gets.' The Labour MP for Battersea, Marsha de Cordova, accused Trump of being too scared of protests to visit, saying he was unfit for office in a statement. 'This morning's announcement by Trump that he will not be coming to Battersea to open the American Embassy is a welcome one,' she wrote. I cannot think of anyone in my lifetime more unfit to hold high office. 'To make claims about the location, when this part of Battersea is 15 minutes from Parliament, is an embarrassing excuse. 'It is obvious he is not coming to London because he is scared. He knows that thousands of Londoners would take to the streets to protest against his racist and misogynist politics.' An account dedicated to Downing Street's Larry the cat (pictured, above, and, the Tweet, below) branded Trump's 'attack' 'personal' Former mayor of Wandsworth Nicola Nardelli, who represents the Queenstown ward within which the Nine Elms development lies, said Trump was wrong to blame Obama for the so-called 'bad deal', pointing out the move was approved under Republican George W. Bush. 'It was under the Bush administration that the conditional agreement with Ballymore was signed,' she said. 'I think we should welcome the embassy, that opens next week, to this exciting, brand-new town centre in the centre of London, in the largest regeneration project in Western Europe, and wish the embassy and all who visit and work there every success.' Trump's blaming of Obama for moving the embassy came under fire as it was actually George W Bush (pictured in the White House Treaty Room) who approved the move Aydin Dikerdem, a Labour councillor for the Wandsworth ward of Queenstown, said Trump is not welcome there. 'The new embassy is 15 minutes from Parliament, we all know why he cancelled this visit,' he said. 'He cancelled this visit because he knew there would be mass demonstrations if he dared to come to the opening. 'He is not welcome in London and he certainly isnt welcome in Queenstown.' When Wandsworth Council leader Ravi Govindia was asked whether south-west London was an 'off-location', he responded: 'It is certainly centre-stage today. 'The US ambassador has spoken about the pride he and his staff feel in their new embassy. 'Not only are they moving to an iconic new zone one building that's closer to Downing Street than the current embassy, they're also a part of the 15 billion transformation of this part of central London that's bringing 20,000 new homes and 25,000 permanent jobs. 'It is also where tech giant Apple is moving its entire UK operation so it's clearly not an off-location for them.' Mr Botterill said his staff will look forward to the US embassy opening with or without the president's approval Ricardo Botterill, general manager of The Black Dog pub in Vauxhall Walk, told Mail Online Trump wasn't being fair to the area. 'Its a shame he considers Vauxhall as an off location as its an up and coming area in London and probably play a big part in its future,' he said. 'Why wouldnt he want to be in this area? Theres the iconic Battersea power station and MI5 as the US Embassys neighbour. 'We look forward in welcoming the US Embassy with or without his approval of the area.' The fall-out over Trump's remarks has even spread to central government, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson accusing Sadiq Khan of endangering relations with the United States. The London mayor had responded to Mr Trump's tweet by saying the president had 'got the message' from many Londoners who find 'his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city's values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance'. Trump's dismissal of Vauxhall was also questioned by David Hatcher, of Estates Gazette, who described it as 'a prime central London location'. 'At present to some it might look like a load of cranes and construction sites with not going on around them,' he said. 'However, Vauxhalls star has undoubtedly risen and Apples decision to locate its giant new headquarters at the iconic Battersea Power Station is perhaps the ultimate rubber stamp of approval that shows it is establishing itself as a prime central London location. 'Given its long-established history as an area rich with nightlife with ever more techie types with plenty of disposable income set to move, as well as those that have bought pricey flats, it will likely only become more appealing as time goes.' Others were kinder to Trump, comparing him to a London taxi driver for refusing to travel 'south of the river'. Twitter user @looksquiteyoung wrote: 'To be fair this is normally my reaction to getting invited somewhere south of the river too...' But Twitter user Mary Beatrice posted: '@realDonaldTrump "Off location"? Babe, south of the river is where it's at. But you're right, we didn't want you here anyway.' Situated in the London Borough of Wandsworth, Battersea boasts many attractions, including its iconic power station, which first started operating in 1933, when it was only half-built. Pictured: New US embassy map Battersea Power Station first started operating in 1933 despite being only half-built at the time It is also home to the capital's only licensed heliport on the south bank, as well as a family-run zoo designed specially for children in Battersea Park. Its Peace Pagoda - which offers panoramic views of Chelsea Embankment - was presented by Buddhist monk Nichidatsu Fuji in 1984 as part of a Japanese movement to promote peace across the globe following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Peace Pagoda was opened in Battersea as part of a global initiative following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki New Covent Garden Market - the biggest wholesale market of its kind in the UK - is situated near the new embassy And Nine Elms, where the embassy is located, is home to the New Covent Garden Market. The biggest wholesale flower, fruit and vegetable market in the UK, it spans 57 acres and is used by 200 firms. A man has admitted to stabbing and slashing at two strangers outside a bar - just hours after punching and biting his elderly mother and then burning down her house. Darren Stephens, 43, stabbed two strangers in an attack outside a bar in St Kilda, Melbourne in October after a disagreement. He pleaded guilty to the attack on Friday, and also admitted to punching his mother, biting her left thumb and then returning to her house to set it on fire, according to Nine News. Both frenzied attacks occurred within 18 hours of each other. Darren Stephens, 43, stabbed two strangers in an attack outside a bar in St Kilda, Melbourne in October after a disagreement He pleaded guilty to the attack on Friday, and also admitted to punching his mother, biting her left thumb and then returning to her house to set it on fire Both frenzied attacks occurred within 18 hours of each other Stephens punched and choked his mother at her home in Bentley on October 6, putting her in a headlock as she tried to call police. She tried to eye gouge Stephens but her son then bit her left hand, almost severing her thumb. After the attack her returned to her home and burnt it down to the ground. The next night, Stephens pulled a 30cm knife on two men outside a wine bar. He stabbed one man in the arm and another in the stomach, leaving wounds which would require multiple stitches. The man who was stabbed in the arm had to have part of his tricep surgically removed. He stabbed one man in the arm and another in the stomach, leaving wounds which would require multiple stitches The man who was stabbed in the arm had to have part of his tricep surgically removed One of the men who was stabbed can be seen grabbing a chair to defend himself, as Stephens calmly walks away in a bizarre ending to the savage attack. Stephens' mother was in court to see him plead guilty to arson and assault. Police found communication on his computer which showed him boasting about the attacks, saying 'Damn it... I even kind of started to eye gouge my own mother'. 'That was f***ing exciting, firetrucks and cop cars everywhere.' Stephens is due to appear before the County Court in March to be sentenced. The United Nations has branded President Donald Trump a 'racist' after he reportedly called African countries 's***holes'. Trump is said to have made the derogatory comments while asking members of Congress why the U.S. should accept more immigrants from Haiti and Africa, rather than places like Norway in rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal. In a flurry of tweets on Friday morning, the president denied using the vulgar phrase but admitted 'tough' language was used in the meeting. But by the time Trump had issued a denial, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville had already branded his comments as 'racist'. Racist: The United Nations human rights office said there was no other word that could be used to describe US President Donald Trump's comments other than 'racist' UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville (pictured in Geneva) said there was no other word that could be used to describe President Trump's comments other than 'racist' He said: 'If confirmed, these are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. Sorry, but there is no other word one can use but racist. 'You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as s***holes whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome. 'The positive comment on Norway makes the underlying sentiment very clear.' He continued: 'Like the earlier comments made vilifying Mexicans and Muslims, the policy proposals targetting entire groups on grounds of nationality or religion, and the reluctance to clearly condemn the anti-semitic and racist actions of the white supremacists in Charlottesville - all of these go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War II and the Holocaust. 'This is not just a story about vulgar language, it's about opening the door wider to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy the lives of many people. 'That is perhaps the single most damaging and dangerous consequence of this type of comment by a major political figure.' 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 This image 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 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 Is Trump right to call it a bad deal? Property experts say the US have sold the family silver after selling the old embassy for $680m and buying new one for $1bn As a New York real estate mogul and high-end hotel owner, Donald Trump should be speaking from a position of experience when he calls the new US Embassy a bad deal. The President claimed the Obama Administration sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for peanuts, only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. At a cost of $1bn (750m) the new embassy near Battersea is priced significantly higher than the $680m (500m) it is thought the old embassy in Mayfair was sold for. In with the new: The new US Embassy in Nine Elms, in south London, which is due to open for business on January 16 Standing in London's Grosvenor Square, it was bought by Qatari Diar the property development arm of the Qatari royal family for an undisclosed sum in 2009. At the time, experts had valued the site at 500m. It may never be known how much it was actually sold for because the US sold the lease not the land - which is owned by the Duke of Westminster. The details do not need to recorded with the Land Registry. Shortly before the sale, the old embassy was given Grade II listed status, which may have reduced the value further as this would restrict any development. The Qataris will now spend $1.4bn (1.08bn) to refurbish the building and turn it into a five-star Rosewood hotel with 137 bedrooms. The new US Embassy is a cube-shaped building, located in Nine Elms between Vauxhall and Battersea in south-west London. Christian Warman, director of central London estate agency Tedworth Property, states that US may have 'sold the family silver' - but that they had sold high and bought low. 'Grosvenor Square is one of London's finest addresses and the embassy was very prominent and hugely well connected to businesses and professionals who live and work in the area,' Mr Warman told MailOnline. 'In terms of whether the Americans have sold the family silver; yes Mayfair is always going to be a prime hub of London, but it's not unthinkable that Nine Elms will be considered prime central London in ten, 20 or 50 years, so you could argue that it's a good deal for America. Advertisement UK Prime Minister Theresa May, whose invitation to visit London Trump snubbed today, 'does not agree' with Trump's remarks, her office said. A Downing Street spokesman said he would not comment on 'alleged private remarks', but when asked if the Prime Minister viewed the countries Mr Trump was referring to as 's***holes', the spokesman replied: 'No.' The African Union continental body said it was 'frankly alarmed' by Trump's comments. 'Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice,' AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said. 'This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity.' South Africa's ruling African National Congress went even further and called Trump's comments 'extremely offensive.' Trump made the comments during a meeting with members of Congress on Thursday. '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. UN CONDEMNS TRUMP AS 'RACIST' FOR HIS 'S***HOLE COUNTRIES' COMMENT UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said: 'If confirmed, these are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. Sorry, but there is no other word one can use but racist. 'You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as s***holes whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome. 'The positive comment on Norway makes the underlying sentiment very clear. 'Like the earlier comments made vilifying Mexicans and Muslims, the policy proposals targetting entire groups on grounds of nationality or religion, and the reluctance to clearly condemn the anti-semitic and racist actions of the white supremacists in Charlottesville - all of these go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War II and the Holocaust. 'This is not just a story about vulgar language, it's about opening the door wider to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy the lives of many people. 'That is perhaps the single most damaging and dangerous consequence of this type of comment by a major political figure.' Advertisement Instead, he said, the U.S. should seek to assimilate people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met with a day earlier. 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.' TRUMP'S CHALLENGING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UN The row over Trump's 'racist' comments about allowing 's***hole countries' is another chapter in the president's difficult relationship with the United Nations. In December, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley blasted member states who overwhelmingly backed a proposal condemning the US for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and pledging to move its embassy there. The vote was 1289, with 35 abstentions. Only Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo joined the United States and Israel in opposing the measure. Another 21 countries didn't show up to vote. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley blasted countries that condemned the US for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital American ambassador Nikki Haley blasted anti-Israel member nations during a pre-vote debate, warning that there would be a price to pay for standing in President Donald Trump's way. 'This vote will be remembered,' she said as the entire UN General Assembly looked on. 'America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. That is what the American people want us to do. And it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that,' Haley lectured from the central podium. 'But this vote will make a difference on how Americans look at the UN and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the UN.' Back in September, in Trump's first speech to the UN, he drew a round of applause after attacking Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. He called Iran a 'rogue state' for its supposed nuclear ambitions as he criticized the nuclear deal struck by Iran and the Obama administration. 'We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles. And we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program,' Trump said, drawing applause from leaders of more than 180 nations in the room. 'The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States and I don't think you've heard the last of it, believe me,' he said. 'It's time for the entire world to join us in demanding that Iran's government end its pursuit of death and destruction.' 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 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 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.' '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.' The comments came as the Daily Mail revealed how Trump has cancelled his visit to the new US embassy in London. The president, who was due to visit the new diplomatic outpost in February, blamed the Obama administration for the fallout. Trump took to Twitter late Thursday night to talk down the administration's decision to sell the acclaimed American Embassy London, formerly located in Grosvenor Square. 'Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!,' Trump wrote. But, according to the embassy's website, the decision to change the location to the new Nine Elms area of Wandsworth took place during George W. Bush's time in office, prior to Obama's in January 2009. Trump was previously expected to make his first trip to the UK since entering office, but Government officials were newly informed he went cold on the idea. A new date has not been offered, raising the prospect of a major diplomatic snub. One senior source told the Mail that Mr Trump who was expected to officially open the new US embassy in London had cancelled because he was unhappy about the arrangements and the scale of the visit. Ministers are to give banks a secret list of illegal immigrants suspected of hiding in the UK and order them to close their bank accounts. The move comes as part of a fresh push to force those who have entered Britain illegally out of the country. In her first intervention since being promoted as immigration minister in Theresa May's Cabinet reshuffle, Caroline Nokes warned she will not 'turn a blind eye' to those who abuse the system. She said banks will be told to trawl through around 70 million accounts to check if they have been set up by people who sneaked into the country or overstayers. If the authorities suspect criminal activity they can hold the money and rule that it is only returned when a person has left the country. In her first intervention since being promoted as immigration minister in Theresa May's Cabinet reshuffle, Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes (pictured outside No10 on Tuesday) warned she will not 'turn a blind eye' to those who abuse the system The Home Office hopes to catch over 6,000 illegal immigrants in the first year of the new policy, according to an official forecast. Writing in The Daily Telegraph Ms Nokes said: 'Those affected by these measures have had every opportunity to regularise their immigration status and have failed or not attempted to do so we are not prepared to turn a blind eye to such actions.' She added: 'Some sections of the community have expressed concerns about this suggesting it will lead to innocent people having their accounts shut down. 'Let me be clear that is not the case. Banking services for individuals, including those granted refugee status, and British citizens who satisfy commercial requirements for opening and operating an account will not be affected. 'They have no reason to fear these measures. The Home Office hopes to catch over 6,000 illegal immigrants in the first year of the new policy, according to an official forecast (pictured, the City of London, where most banks have their UK headquarters) 'The purpose is to make it difficult for illegal migrants to enter or remain in the UK and to encourage them to return home.' It comes after the Home Office ordered a crackdown immigrants renting property n the the UK. A fleet of measures were introduced to enable landlords to evict illegal immigrant tenants more easily by allowing them to end a tenancy when a persons leave to remain in the UK ends. The secret Whitehall list will be managed by Cifas, an anti-fraud agency. Ms Nokes said the banking crackdown 'will prevent known illegal migrants from continuing to operate existing bank accounts'. She said that law abiding citizens will have nothing to worry a bout an a helpline is being set up to help those who think their account has been out on the list mistakenly. Centrelink overpaid $2.84 billion to welfare recipients last financial year but the Turnbull government has only recouped half the cash. The alarming numbers have raised fears thousands could be rorting the system for payments or could be on welfare dependency. The new Human Services Minister Michael Keenan blamed human error and fraud for the overpayments. 'It is important that system operates with integrity, that people are not overpaid more than they are entitled to,' he told reporters in Perth. Centrelink overpaid $2.84 billion to welfare recipients last financial year but the Turnbull government has only recouped half the cash Mr Keenan did however issue a warning for anyone who is currently manipulating the tax payer-funded scheme. 'If you have been defrauding the system, you can expect us to come down on you like a tonne of bricks.' The Human Services department has only recovered $1.64 billion in overpayments. Currently $430 million is handed out per day is being issued to recipients, but the department say they have found $30 billion in savings for cracking down on flaws in the current system. The Department of Human Services paid $2.84billion, but only prosecuted 709 people, despite investigating 13,595 fraud cases, The Daily Telegraph reported. Families with children received the largest chunk of change - $1.2billion. The Department of Human Services paid $2.84billion because of error and fraud, but only prosecuted 709 people, despite investigating 13,595 fraud cases 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. Labor frontbencher Doug Cameron said the Turnbull government was incompetent when it came to running Centrelink and there had been a merry go round of four ministers in four years. 'Last year 55 million calls went unanswered to Centrelink and average call wait times have increased,' he said adding extra staff were needed. Last year the Turnbull government coped criticism for mistakenly sending robo-debt recovery notices to 20,000 people. Jonathan Bennett, 23, was shot dead by police after he opened fire on a group of officers outside Charlotte Mecklenburg Police headquarters late Thursday Police have released dramatic audio of the moment a gunman who was suspected of killing his girlfriend opened fire on officers outside department headquarters in Charlotte before he was shot dead. Police in North Carolina say an officer was wounded in a shootout following an 'ambush' outside department headquarters in Charlotte. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said 23-year-old Jonathan Bennett was shot Thursday night after ambushing officers as they gathered in the parking garage next to police headquarters to discuss the death of a woman and the abduction of her child. Putney said several shots were fired at officers, who returned fire, killing Bennett. Police say the unidentified officer, reportedly a female, suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being shot in the leg. Putney said Bennett was a suspect in Thursday afternoon's shooting death of 24-year-old Brittany White. Police said Bennett had taken the two-month-old child they had together after the shooting. The baby was later found safe. 'He ambushed us,' Putney told The Charlotte Observer. Just before 11pm, between six-to-eight officers from the North Tryon Division and North Carolina Probation and Parole were standing in the parking next to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police headquarters. Police said Bennett then pulled up in a white vehicle and opened fire, shooting multiple rounds at the officers. Police in North Carolina say an officer was wounded in a shootout following an 'ambush' outside department headquarters in Charlotte. Bennett's body (seen above) is lying on the ground in the middle of the parking lot near police headquarters Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said several shots were fired at officers, who returned fire, killing Bennett Police say the unidentified officer, reportedly a female, suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being shot in the leg Putney said Bennett was a suspect in Thursday afternoon's shooting death of 24-year-old Brittany White The officers in the parking lot were being briefed on an investigation unrelated to Bennett when the shooting took place, according to WSOC-TV. Bennett suffered multiple gunshot wounds. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. In addition to his suspected role in the killing of White, Bennett was also due to stand trial next month for a felony probation violation in connection with a 2017 incident. Putney said it was doubtful there would be any body cam footage from the shooting late Thursday because it was an ambush. 'Times like this make you appreciate people who voluntarily put their lives on the line to keep us safe,' Putney said, adding that officers have a 'dangerous job.' A television reporter and a station photographer for WSOC-TV were filming a live shot just outside the parking area when they heard shooting. They then looked toward the parking lot and saw the body of a man lying in the middle of it at around 11pm. 'The only thing I could think about was to take cover,' the reporter, DaShawn Brown, said on the nightly newscast. Bennett suffered multiple gunshot wounds. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Bullet holes in a window at police headquarters in Charlotte are seen above Witnesses at the scene said they heard about 12 gunshots just before 11pm on Thursday A witness reported on Twitter that the wounded officer was 'in the bushes and could be heard screaming' before she was placed into a police car 'I saw officers scrambling. I looked and saw flashes from a gun. Im not sure, but it seemed like a dozen shots.' A witness reported on Twitter that the wounded officer was 'in the bushes and could be heard screaming' before she was placed into a police car. WSOC-TV obtained a recording of the audio dispatch that first reported the shooting at around 10:45pm. The officer on the dispatch sent an urgent request for back-up. 'We need units to the L.E.C. (Law Enforcement Center) now,' a dispatcher said in the recording. 'Any available officers that can start to the L.E.C.?' 'It's going to be shots fired,' another officer said over the radio. 'We got glass broken, came from the north side of the rotunda.' Another officer is heard saying over the radio: 'We have an officer down, officer down at the L.E.C. - shots fired.' After police opened fire at Bennett, an officer is heard on the radio urging back-up units on their way to slow down. 'Slow your traffic, slow your traffic, nobody get hurt,' the officer said. 'We need units to the L.E.C. (Law Enforcement Center) now,' a dispatcher calling for police back-up said in the recording. 'Any available officers that can start to the L.E.C.?' Officers at the scene then began to tend to the wounded policewoman who was shot in the leg At the same time, other officers began to treat Bennett, who was wounded. 'We're applying a tourniquet,' one officer is heard saying. 'If you'll mark it, mark the time for a tourniquet to [Bennett]' 'Slow the traffic. Suspect is in custody. Slow the traffic.' Officers at the scene then began to tend to the wounded policewoman who was shot in the leg. At the same time, other officers began to treat Bennett, who was wounded. 'We're applying a tourniquet,' one officer is heard saying. 'If you'll mark it, mark the time for a tourniquet to [Bennett].' Even after Bennett was shot and no longer posed a threat, there was concern that officers were vulnerable to another shooter in the area. 'I need additional units around the L.E.C., establish a perimeter,' an officer told the dispatch. 'We've got one confirmed shooter, we need to confirm we got no other shooters.' The SWAT team was called in to investigate the crime scene. It was later determined that Bennett acted on his own. Hours before the shootout, police were searching for Bennett after White, the mother of his infant daughter, was found dead in a home in west Charlotte. Police said that after White was fatally shot, Bennett took their daughter, Journei Bennett, with him. Journei, who is two months old, was later found by police safe and sound. Officers have yet to reveal where they found the toddler. Police asked the public for help in tracking down Bennett, who was considered armed and dangerous. According to WBTV, Bennett changed the license plates on his Ford Expedition to avoid detection before driving to the police headquarters. Since 2016, Bennett has served three stints in Mecklenburg County jail for crimes including assault on a female, communicating threats, and larceny. Since 2010, he has been charged with a litany of crimes, including felony breaking and entering, felony possession of stolen goods, larceny after breaking and entering, using a stolen card, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of marijuana, resisting an officer, trespassing, disorderly conduct, assault and battery and probation violation. He has been convicted in years past of felony breaking and entering, speeding to elude arrest, possession of drug paraphernalia, second degree trespassing, assault and battery, resisting an officer, and larceny after breaking and entering. A school has been blasted by a former student after placing 'censored' stickers over her GCSE artwork which showed two women kissing. Megan Angus accused Laurence Jackson school in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, of being 'homophobic', but education chiefs defended their actions saying it was done because they were 'mindful of the impact the sexually explicit drawing may have on younger students'. However, the school has apologised, admitting it may have been 'overzealous'. Miss Angus, 16, said: 'I think it is homophobic. I can't see why they censored it. When you go to an art gallery, they don't censor them there. I wanted my work to be shown how I left it.' Megan Angus's artwork, pictured, was censored by bosses at the Laurence Jackson school in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, who said it was 'sexually explicit' School bosses had glued seven 'censored' stickers around the piece, which showed women kissing and holding hands in their underwear in front of the LGBT rainbow flag. Miss Angus said that the painting had been 'ruined' as removing the stickers would also remove paint behind them. Explaining the drawing, Miss Angus, who now works as a lifeguard, said: 'We had to do an outsider piece and had five options. 'I did same sex relationships as they seem to be out of place in society. I wanted to get across that it shouldn't be frowned upon and it shows girls can be together. It is something I feel passionate about.' She said she was 'proud' of the work, which took her 40 hours to create and landed her a B grade last summer. Officials have denied that the decision not to display it in one of the Church Lane school's art rooms during marking was homophobic. Ms Angus, who was returning to pick up her GCSE artwork, said the decision was 'homophobic'. The school apologised and said they may have been 'overzealous' 'Due to the sexually explicit nature of some of the drawings in the student's work, a censored strip of paper was Blu-tacked over these areas,' a spokesperson said. 'As a secondary school, we needed to be mindful of the impact this may have on younger students. 'This piece of art work contributed positively to the student achieving a good grade at GCSE. 'In no way was she discouraged from producing work of this nature and her artistic talents were celebrated by our art department. 'Laurence Jackson School is in no way homophobic; sexually explicit images of any nature would have been censored if displayed. 'In retrospect, we may have been overzealous in censoring some images within the piece, and for that we apologise for any offence caused.' Last year, the school commended a male pupil who wore a skirt to class. A tanning salon owner who used her business as a front for a drug dealing operation has been jailed for eight years. Leanne Duffin, 31, thought she was 'untouchable' while posing as a successful businesswoman, a court heard. The tattooed criminal coaxed youngster into becoming addicts by selling them cocaine and then forced them to become drug dealers in order to repay their debt. Duffin's Cosmopolitan Suntan Salon acted as an elaborate front which helped her to sell class A drugs across Chorley, South Ribble and Preston, Lancashire. Leanne Duffin has been jailed for eight years for her using her tanning salon as a front for a drugs operation Duffin, 31, thought she was 'untouchable' while posing as a successful businesswoman, a court heard After a covert operation by police in Chorley and South Ribble, Duffin and her accomplices have been jailed. Mike Adamson, chief inspector of Chorley and South Ribble police, said: 'Her tanning salon was essentially a front. 'She was living the life of a successful businesswoman but she will be left with nothing. 'A lot of people knew what was going on, she was driving around in very expensive cars. The tattooed criminal coaxed youngster into becoming addicts by selling them cocaine and then forced them to become drug dealers in order to repay their debt 'She was also exploiting vulnerable young people who were using drugs, allowing them to build up debts and then forcing them to sell drugs to pay their debts off.' A covert operation was launched in 2016 in the area where Duffin had been supplying drugs, and members of her gang were finally arrested in May last year. Members of her organised crime group were charged with conspiracy to supply Class A drugs (Cocaine), Class B drugs (Cannabis) and money laundering. Duffin's Cosmopolitan Suntan Salon acted as an elaborate front which helped her to sell class A drugs across Chorley, South Ribble and Preston, Lancashire Duffin (left and right) preyed on 'vulnerable' people in order to further her own drug empire Duffin, from Wigan, Lancashire, has now been jailed for eight years, while her father Brian Duffin, 66, also from Wigan, was sentenced to six years. Geraldine Robinson, 51, was given four years, Jordan Whittle, 19, to three years and eight months and Kevin Hewitt, 51, for 12 months behind bars. Both Leanne and her father pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supplying Class A and B drugs, as did Robinson and Whittle. Hewitt pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supplying Class B drugs. Leanne's father, Brian Duffin (left) was jailed for six years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supplying Class A and B drugs. Jordan Whittle, 19, (right) was sentenced to three years Chinese business chiefs reportedly paid more than 12,000 to have dinner with former British prime minister David Cameron, as he visits the country to discuss a new UK-China investment fund. Deep-pocketed guests at a high-end social event in Shanghai were reportedly encouraged to pay 109,800 yuan (12,519) so they could meet Mr Cameron at the Shanghai International Ball and Leaders Forum, according to the BBC. It's said the price also guaranteed photographs with Mr Cameron, who is perceived as a typical English gentleman and successful politician in the Far East. A flyer promoting the Shanghai International Ball and Leaders Forum said guests could have dinner with former British Prime Minister David Cameron (left, file photo) at a price of 109,800 yuan (12,519). The high-end social event was held in a luxury hotel on January 9 (right) In 2015, Mr Cameron, the then British Prime Minister, impressed the Chinese public after taking their President Xi to his favourite pub for a pint (pictured) during Mr Xi's state visit to Britain Fancy meeting @David_Cameron to talk about that new #China UK investment fund hes leading? Got 12k for dinner and a pic. Hes in shanghai... pic.twitter.com/2tYTPDyCPn Robin Brant (@robindbrant) January 10, 2018 A digital flyer circulating on the social media suggested Mr Cameron would meet the affluent guests, the BBC said. The post claimed that seats were limited and it would be a great opportunity to connect with 'important figures'. It also boasted that the price to meet the former PM was much cheaper than to watch the Victoria's Secret annual show, which was held in Shanghai last November. The event was held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Shanghai on January 9. The Shanghai International Debutante Ball was held in the same hotel situated on Shanghai's iconic waterfront, The Bund. People dance at the Shanghai International Ball and Leaders Forum on January 9 Mr Cameron's spokesman told BBC the event in question had been the Global Alliance of SMEs' Women Leaders Forum, but did not comment on the alleged dinner arrangement. The former PM is seen drinking a pint with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his local pub in 2015 (right) The organiser claimed the event was aimed at presenting elite Chinese businesswomen on an international stage. Mr Cameron's spokesman told MailOnline Mr Cameron had attended the Global Alliance of SMEs' Women Leaders Forum in Shanghai, but did not comment on the alleged dinner arrangement. MailOnline has contacted the organiser of the Shanghai International Ball and Leaders Forum for comments on the matters, and is awaiting a reply. David Cameron held talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping yesterday in Beijing as part of his role leading a billion dollar investment initiative between the country and Britain. The former prime minister tweeted a photo of himself discussing plans for the 750 million UK-China fund and a 'golden era' in relations. Mr Cameron is acting as vice chairman for the fund to improve ports, roads and rail networks between China and its trading partners. David Cameron (right) holding talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) in 2015 Excellent meeting & enjoyable dinner with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, to talk about the Golden Era in UK-China relations & plans for the new UK-China Fund. pic.twitter.com/tnFpx1DNPp David Cameron (@David_Cameron) January 11, 2018 Alongside the photo of himself with the Chinese premier, Mr Cameron said: 'Excellent meeting & enjoyable dinner with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, to talk about the 'Golden Era' in UK-China relations & plans for the new UK-China Fund.' The UK-China fund's launch was announced as part of a series of deals hailed by Chancellor Philip Hammond during a trade visit to China. Around 1.4 billion worth of commercial deals were announced at the UK-China economic and financial dialogue in Beijing attended by Mr Hammond. In 2015, the then British PM impressed the Chinese public after taking their President Xi to his favourite pub during Mr Xi's state visit to Britain. Mr Cameron and Mr Xi each had a pint and a portion of fish and chips at The Plough at Cadsden in Buckinghamshire. The amazed Chinese people started turning up at Mr Cameron's local pub in their droves to eat fish and chips and drink real ale shortly after. A Palestinian asylum seeker has admitted murdering one man and wounding six others in an 'Islamist attack' at a Hamburg supermarket last year. Ahmad Alhaw said he 'takes responsibility for the very serious crimes he committed and explicitly recognises his guilt regarding all the charges,' the defendant's lawyer Christoph Burchard told judges in a high-security courtroom today. Prosecutors told the court in Hamburg that it was 'important' to Alhaw, 26, to 'kill as many German nationals of the Christian faith as possible'. 'He wanted his actions to be viewed in the context of an Islamist attack, and understood as a contribution to jihad worldwide,' they added. 'He wanted his actions to be viewed in the context of an Islamist attack, and understood as a contribution to jihad worldwide,' they added. Pictured: Ahmad Alhaw in court today Alhaw took an eight-inch knife from the shelves of a supermarket last July before using it to kill one and wound six in the assault. Pictured: The scene outside the supermarket after the attack Ahmad Alhaw (pictured) said he 'takes responsibility for the very serious crimes he committed and explicitly recognises his guilt regarding all the charges,' the defendant's lawyer Christoph Burchard told judges in a high-security courtroom today Prosecutors told the court in Hamburg that it was 'important' to Alhaw, 26, to 'kill as many German nationals of the Christian faith as possible' Alhaw took an eight-inch knife from the shelves of a supermarket last July before using it to kill one and wound six in the assault. He was arrested after passersby overpowered him. Alhaw was due to be deported after his asylum application was rejected, but the process had been delayed due to a lack of documents. Charging him with murder, as well as six counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, prosecutors said he likely acted with an Islamist motive. Alhaw was due to be deported after his asylum application was rejected, but the process had been delayed due to a lack of documents. Pictured: The scene of the attack in July Through an Arabic translator, Alhaw told the court he had sought asylum in Norway in 2009 after giving up dentistry studies in Egypt, hoping for a better life in Europe. Pictured: The scene of the attack in July He was 'fascinated' by the Western lifestyle and enjoyed drinking alcohol, with only 'phases' of religiosity, Alhaw said. Pictured: Police officers outside the supermarket after the attack Alhaw told interrogators that the crime 'had some connection with events on the Temple Mount' in Jerusalem, where Israeli authorities had recently imposed anti-terror controls for Muslim worshippers, prosecutor Yasemin Tuz told the court. 'The results of the investigation show that the accused sought out his victims indiscriminately, retaliating against people who in his view represent perpetrators of injustice targeting Muslims,' prosecutors had earlier said. Investigators, however, did not find any evidence to suggest that Alhaw was a member of ISIS. Rather, the defendant - a tall, slim, bearded figure who appeared in court wearing glasses and a blue turtleneck - had from time to time demonstrated 'suspect behaviour', 'transforming' his life towards radical Islam before 'again taking up a Western lifestyle,' Tuz said. Alhaw told interrogators that the crime 'had some connection with events on the Temple Mount' in Jerusalem, where Israeli authorities had recently imposed anti-terror controls for Muslim worshippers, prosecutor Yasemin Tuz told the court Through an Arabic translator, Alhaw told the court he had sought asylum in Norway in 2009 after giving up dentistry studies in Egypt, hoping for a better life in Europe. After his application was rejected, he moved around the EU, living in Sweden, Spain and finally Germany. He was 'fascinated' by the Western lifestyle and enjoyed drinking alcohol, with only 'phases' of religiosity, Alhaw said. But 'he had the feeling that he was not welcome in these countries,' he added. Alhaw himself declined to discuss his suspected religious radicalisation or details of his crimes. 'He knows that he has committed very serious crimes and knows he will be sentenced for them,' defender Burchard said. The killer risks life in prison, although Germany often grants parole after 15 years. Hearings began after he was deemed psychologically fit for trial. Palestinian knifeman Ahmad Alhaw killed one and wounded six in the supermarket attack in Hamburg last July. Pictured: The scene after the attack National news agency DPA said Alhaw had allegedly signed a statement during interrogation saying: 'Yes, I am a terrorist.' The trial is expected to last until March 2, with the six people wounded in the assault invited to the hearings only from January 26. The assault in the northern port city was the first Islamist attack in Germany since Tunisian Anis Amri drove a truck into crowds at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016, killing 12 and injuring 48. Amri was shot dead by police in Milan four days later, and the rampage was claimed by ISIS. Germany has been on high alert over the threat of a jihadist assault since that truck rampage. Like Amri, Alhaw was to have been deported after his asylum application was rejected by authorities at the end of 2016, but the process was held up by a lack of identity documents. The attacks have piled pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel over her decision to allow in more than a million asylum seekers since 2015. Railing against the migrants, the AfD party won over 90 seats in September's general elections - the best showing for a rightwing party in Germany since the end of the Second World War. A rural New South Wales dentist told at least one of his young patients under hypnosis that he was safe, asleep and wouldn't remember a thing. But the boy did remember what happened at Werner Otto Schwarz's practice in the 1980s. He was one of four patients to suffer devastating consequences as a result of being sexually abused. The disgraced former dentist, now 82, was on Friday jailed for at least eight years over his 'systematic and horrific' abuse of the boys who were as young as nine. A rural NSW dentist told at least one of his young patients under hypnosis that he was safe, asleep and wouldn't remember a thing It came after a jury in 2017 found him guilty of 16 counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse without consent. Judge Helen Syme, in sentencing Schwarz to a maximum of 16 years, said he used his skill as a hypnotist to put the boys in a relaxed state where they were more likely to accept the abuse. She said in the District Court one victim described feeling like a puppet while others felt they couldn't command their bodies to physically move. 'Even if they professed not to be hypnotised, they were terrified, and the effect was similarly debilitating,' the judge said. 'The use of this technique to render the young boys pliable to the offender's selfish sexual perversions is horrifying.' Judge Syme said Schwarz breached the trust and respect he had in the rural region where he worked - with his victims often too intimidated by his status to complain. Most were encouraged by their parents to take the hypnosis in the belief it would be beneficial, with one child going to help ease his fear of medical care and another to improve his school marks. Now middle-aged men, they continue to grapple with serious mental and relationship issues and suffer a phobia of medical professionals, the court heard. The judge said some of them had also experienced a backlash in their community after Schwarz was charged when they should have been commended for their courage. Schwarz, who appeared at his sentence via video link, will be 90 years old when he is eligible for parole in October 2025 'It is precisely attitudes like this that allowed such evil behaviour to exist and complaints to be discouraged,' she said. One of the victims, Philip Wright, said outside court the 'hefty' sentence brought to an end a very long process. He said he'd made a request to the prime minister's office to revoke a citizenship citation that Schwarz was awarded in 2010. 'This dentist who was trusted can no longer be respected,' Mr Wright said. Schwarz, who appeared at his sentence via video link, will be 90 years old when he is eligible for parole in October 2025. Boris Johnson today tore into Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan as he blamed the Labour leadership for Donald Trump cancelling his trip to London. The Foreign Secretary said Labour's leadership appears 'determined' to damage the special relationship and imperil America's investment in Britain. And in a colourful dig at Mr Khan, he pledged that the Government will not let the UK's relationship with its closest ally 'by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall'. His remarks come after the Labour London Mayor celebrated news that the US President had pulled out of his planned trip next month saying he had 'got the message'. While Mr Corbyn has been an outspoken critic of the President - who he has accused of fuelling 'racist incitement and misogyny' - and has demanded the invite for a state visit be axed. Boris Johnson (picturerd in Brussels yesterday) said Labour's leadership appears 'determined' to damage the special relationship and imperil America's investment in Britain And in a colourful dig at Sadiq Khan, Boris Johnson pledged that the Government will not let the UK's relationship with its closest ally 'by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall'. Mr Johnson wrote on Twitter today: 'The US is the biggest single investor in the UK - yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk. 'We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall.' TRUMP'S CLASHES WITH UK POLITICIANS December 2015: While a Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said there were 'no go zones' in London because of terrorism. He said claimed parts of the city were 'so radicalised' the police force were 'afraid for their own lives'. June 2017 The US President took to Twitter to hit out at Sadiq Khan's 'pathetic' response to the London Bridge terror attack. He sparked outrage in the UK when he tweeted: 'At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack,' the president wrote on his personal Twitter account, 'and Mayor of London says there is 'no reason to be alarmed!' Critics pointed out that the London Mayor was saying residents should not be alarmed at the increased police presence. October 2017 Mr Trump wrongly linked the rise in crime in England and Wales to 'Radical Islamic terror'. The US president sent a tweet referring to figures out yesterday showing crime increased by 13 per cent last year and warning 'We must keep American safe'. But British MPs tore into Mr Trump for talking 'nonsense' and said he is 'spreading fear and xenophobia' by wrongly blaming the rise on terrorism. November 2017 UK-US relations took a battering when Donald trump retweeted anti-Muslim propaganda put out by far right group Britain First. Theresa May criticised the President saying he was 'wrong' to share the video. Mr Trump hit back on Twitter: 'Theresa, don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!' Advertisement His remarks came shortly after Mr Khan - who has clashed with the US President on Twitter - celebrated news Mr Trump's visit to London to open the US embassy in Battersea has been ditched. Speaking today, Mr Khan said: 'It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city's values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance. 'His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests. 'This just reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place. 'Let's hope that Donald Trump also revisits the pursuit of his divisive agenda.' While Mr Corbyn has repeatedly criticised Mr Trump publicly and called for his visit to be axed. And last year he accused the US President of spreading 'racist incitement and misogyny'. He has has accused Mr Trump of threatening world peace through his actions in the Middle East and his rhetoric on North Korea. He said: 'President Trump's speech at the UN General Assembly in September signalled a wider threat to peace. 'His attack on multilateralism, human rights and international law should deeply trouble us all. 'And this is no time to reject the Iran nuclear deal, a significant achievement agreed between Iran and a group of world power to reduce tensions.' Nigel Farage, a friend of the US President, also said Mr Khan and Mr Corbyn are to blame for the trip's cancellation. He told the BBC radio 4's Today Programme: '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. 'Maybe, just maybe, Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party planning mass protests, maybe those optics he didn't like the look of.' Boris Johnson today tore into Jeremy Corbyn (pictured left yesterday) and Sadiq Khan (pictured right last month) as he appeared to blame the Labour leadership for Donald Trump cancelling his trip to London. Donald Trump, pictured in Washington earlier this week, last night announced he is not going to visit the UK next month to open the America n embassy Labour MP Chuka Umunna said it was 'very welcome he is not coming any more', adding: 'He runs counter to British values.' A spokesman for the Prime Minster said no dates had been 'locked in' for Mr Trump to visit the UK, adding simply: 'The invitation has been extended and accepted.' He added: 'The US is one of our oldest allies and our strong and deep partnership will endure.' The spokesman refused to be drawn on when No10 was informed that the visit to open the embassy was not going to happen. They also declined to comment on whether Mr Johnson was speaking for the government with his tweet about Mr Corbyn and Mr Khan. Questioned on whether the PM agreed with Mr Trump's views on South London, the spokesman said: 'Vauxhall is a vibrant and important part of London.' Advertisement A 19th century church in Germany was demolished this week to make way for coal mining. St Lambertus Cathedral a church known by locals as Immerather Dom in Immerath, a tiny farming village northwest of Cologne, was razed to the ground on Tuesday. The double-spired church, thought to have been built between 1880 and 1890, was torn down in the latest step in energy company RWE's demolition of the entire village in a bid to expand its access to the region's lignite supply. St Lambertus Church (pictured) was torn down by RWE Power to make way for coal mines despite protests from Greenpeace The double-spired church, known to locals as Immerather Don, is thought to have been built between 1880 and 1890 The church held its last Mass Service in October 2013, before being deconsecrated, according to Die Zeit. But Greenpeace activists had been protesting against its demolition, brandishing banners that said #ENDCOAL. Immerath was once home to a population of 1,200 but since RWE took over the land, its population has diminished. The energy company has built a new village seven miles away where Immerath's hospital has been relocated and its houses torn down and moved. Even the village cemetery's graves were dug up and relocated to the new village. Spectators look on as the St Lambertus church in Erkelenz-Immerath, western Germany, is demolished on Tuesday A village chapel with a modern design has also been constructed, with a small replica of the demolished cathedral placed in the new village's plaza. Lignite, a crumbly variety also known as brown coal, is mined is huge open pits and is therefore, easier and cheaper to access than other varieties. However, it is one of the worst fossil fuels to burn and the coal under Immerath could produce billions of tons of carbon emissions over the coming decades, the Huffington Post reports. It comes after Chancellor Angela Merkel's government faced criticism over their reported willingness to push back Germany's target for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. The demolition was the latest step in energy company RWE's demolition of the entire village in a bid to expand its access to the region's lignite supply The church held its last Mass Service in October 2013, before being deconsecrated. A modern chapel has been built in the new village seven miles away Immerath was once home to a population of 1,200 but since RWE took over the land, its population has diminished Merkel, who's been dubbed the 'Climate Chancellor' over her ambitious aims for renewable energy, had pledged before September's election to stick to the 2020 target. However, this week, Merkel's Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats are holding preliminary talks on extending their coalition of the past four years. Conservative negotiator Armin Laschet said on Monday they had wrapped up talks on energy policy, but gave no details. But German news agency dpa reported that the agreement involves officially giving up the country's target of a 40 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 compared with 1990, regarded by many as unachievable, but taking measures to close the gap as far as possible. The coal mined from under Immerath could produce billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the coming decades Residents from the village were relocated by German energy supplier RWE Power in an extension of their Tagebau Garzweiler open pit lignite mine A picture taken with a drone shows St Lambertus church after its demolition to make way for lignite mines on Tuesday Germany still gets about 40 percent of its electricity from coal-fired plants. The country plans to abandon nuclear energy by 2022, but Merkel has resisted calls to set a deadline for ending the use of coal, including lignite. Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state - a region known for lignite mining - stressed that Germany wants to comply with the 2020 targets set under the international Paris climate agreement. But he argued it can't do so by 'suddenly saying we are getting out of an energy source, lignite, without knowing what consequences that has for jobs, but also for energy prices.' A man has been sentenced to 15 months' jail for stealing a $50,000 gold bar by hiding it in his underwear. Matthew Alexander Roussety, 27, was working as a Perth Mint security guard when he smuggled the one kilogram bar from the refinery at Perth Airport in December 2016. The bar was a reject and going to be melted before Roussety took it home in his pants, ABC reported. Matthew Alexander Roussety (pictured), 27, has been sentenced to 15 months' jail after he stole a $50,000 gold bar from the Perth Mint by hiding it in his underwear Roussety was working as a Perth Mint security guard when he smuggled the one kilogram bar (pictured) from the refinery at Perth Airport in December 2016 Roussety set off metal detectors when leaving the refinery, but walked away by convincing security officers his metal zip was to blame. He then pocketed $44,500 when he took the bar to a second-hand gold dealership three months later, signing a declaration saying he legally owned it. The money was used to pay off his car and credit card debts, according to the publication. Roussety's plot unravelled when the dealership attempted to sell the bar back to the Perth Mint. Judge Bruce Goetze labelled Roussety's crime as one of 'greed and self-indulgence', adding that it caused low morale among Perth Mint employees who were questioned by customers over its security. Roussety (left) was working as a Perth Mint security guard when he smuggled the one kilogram bar from the refinery at Perth Airport in December 2016 Judge Bruce Goetze labelled Roussety's crime as one of 'greed and self-indulgence', adding that it caused low morale among Perth Mint (pictured) employees who were questioned by customers over its security Defence lawyer Gavin MacLean argued that his client simply had a 'brain snap', and had experienced 'genuine shame' since, Perth Now reported. But Judge Goetze said Roussety had committed a 'very serious' offence and had breached trust. Roussety has already returned $25,000 to the gold dealership and will continue to pay the remaining amount owing in $400 monthly installments. He will be eligible for parole after serving half of his term. Dan Harmon, creator of Community, has apologized to a writer who worked on the show for sexually harassing her. He used his HarmonTown podcast to confess his 'filthy, creepy behavior' towards Community writer Megan Ganz, who in turn called it a 'a masterclass in How to Apologize' and that she was able to forgive him. Harmon, who also created Rick and Morty, used the podcast to apologize to Ganz, who had confronted him on Twitter about his actions. Dan Harmon used his podcast to deliver a seven minute apology to Community writer Megan Ganz Harmon created and produced the NBC comedy television series Community. In his podcast he said: 'I mean, 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 these feelings were bad news. 'And so I did the cowardly easiest laziest thing you could do with feelings like that and I didn't 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 you're going home every night, who is actually smart enough and respectful enough to ask you, 'Do you have feelings for that young writer that you're talking about, that you're paying all this attention to?' And saying to her, "No.' Harmon said he that after he split up with his girlfriend he said: 'I went right full-steam into creeping on my employee now it was even less inappropriate after all. Now I wasn't in danger of being a bad person.' But after being 'humiliated' by rejection he said 'now I wanted to teach her a lesson'. Writer Megan Ganz worked as a writer on Community but said Harmon's behavior had affected her ability to trust bosses Ganz said it was a 'relief' to hear Harmon talk about the way he acted towards her She urged people to listen to the podcast, describing it as a 'masterclass in How to Apologize' The writer said has never felt it right to accept his apology in the past but now said she forgace Harmon He said he did 'things that I would never ever ever have done if she had been male and if I had never had those feelings for her'. '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.' Harmon finished up by saying: 'So I just wanna say, in addition to obviously being sorry but that's 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 hadn't mentioned something on Twitter, I would've continued to not have to think about it, although I did walk around with my stomach in knots about it.' Last week, Ganz described how his harassment had on her career. 'It took me years to believe in my talents again, to trust a boss when he complimented me and not cringe when he asked for my number. I was afraid to be enthusiastic.' After the podcast she tweeted: 'This was never about vengeance; it's about vindication' adding: 'I forgive you.' President Donald Trump on Friday denied making a widely condemned comment railing against accepting immigrants from 's***hole countries,' even as he admitted to using 'tough' language in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers. 'The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used,' Trump wrote, using unusually passive language in an effort to walk back the comment. 'What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!' Trump tweeted Friday. The president's latest comments were immediately contradicted by Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin, who was in the Oval Office meeting and says Trump made the 'vile and vulgar' comments repeatedly. The tweet came hours after a bombshell report about Trump's comments, which the White House did not immediately deny. Trump made a public case against an immigration deal Friday by complaining that people from 'high crime' countries get to come here after getting blasted for ranting that people from 's***hole countries get to come here.' Scroll down for video 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 The president's claim issued hours after the first reports of his comments that the White House did not deny at the time were directly contradicted by Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, who was in the meeting. 'In the course of his comments, [Trump] said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist,' Durbin told reporters Friday. 'I use those words advisedly. I understand how powerful they are. But I cannot believe in this history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday,' Durbin said. 'You've seen the comments in the press,' Durbin said. 'I have not read one of them that's inaccurate. To no surprise, the President started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly.' Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois says Trump 'said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist' at the Oval Office meeting 'He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly,' said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, who was in the meeting 'When the question was raised about Haitians, for example. We have a group that have temporary protected status in the United States because they were the victims of crises, disasters, and political upheaval,' Durbin continued. 'The largest group's El Salvadoran, the second is Honduran and the third is Haitian. And when I mentioned that fact to him he said Haitians, do we need more Haitians?' 'And then he went on and he started to describe the immigration from Africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure. That's when he used these vile and vulgar comments calling the nations they come from shitholes. The exact word used by the president not just once, but repeatedly. That was the nature of this conversation.' The president decided to use his 'tough' language in a bipartisan meeting that included Durbin, an original author of the 'DREAM Act' to provide protected status for people who came here illegally as children. Durbin also said he and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina confronted Trump when he made the comments. 'My colleague, Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, spoke up and made a direct comment on what the president said,' Durbin said in the Capitol, CNN reported. 'I was very proud of him. It took courage for what he did. And I made my own comments in response to it but for him to confront the president as he did literally sitting next to him took extraordinary political courage and I respect him for it.' Trump's public argument against the emerging deal to protect DACA recipients and make other immigration policy came after a flurry of rebukes from Democrats as well as Republicans in Congress. Trump also denied having said 'take them out' in regard to Haitians, as his administration moves to remove temporary immigration status for people who fled disasters in Haiti and El Salvador years ago. Democrats want to give some 'diversity' visas to these people as changes are made to a special program that lets people apply from around the world to come here. 'Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said 'take them out,' Trump wrote. 'Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!' Among those condemning the comments were Hatian-American Republican Rep. Mia Love of Utah, who called the reported comments 'unkind, divisive [and] elitist' and demanded that Trump apologize. Trump has not apologized, and the White House initially did not not deny he made the comments, which were reported by the Washington Post. 'NOT THE LANGUAGE USED': Trump's cleanup statement used an unusually passive voice, saying the words 'used by me' were tough Trump said the immigration deal was a 'big step backwards' He singled out 'high crime countries,' notably refraining from the term 's***hole countries,' which he reportedly used but denied Friday morning Trump predicted Democrats would threaten a government shutdown 'The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards,' Trump tweeted. Then he brought up concerns that the deal wouldn't fix what he calls 'chain migration' and a visa lottery system that lets people from an array of countries apply to come in. He also sought to cast blame on Democrats if there is no final deal, with a government shutdown deadline just days away. 'Because of the Democrats not being interested in life and safety, DACA has now taken a big step backwards. The Dems will threaten 'shutdown,' but what they are really doing is shutting down our military, at a time we need it most. Get smart, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' Trump wrote That system was put in place after the historic immigration system favored people from Europe. 'Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime...countries which are doing badly,' Trump continued. 'I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs,' he wrote in a series of tweets. Trump denied a report he made a comment about removing people who came here from Haiti after disasters struck their home country The president previously said he would sign whatever Congress delivered to him. Trump, frustrated with the nation'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 president, was open, however to immigrants from Asian countries, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing a White House official, because he felt that they help the country economically. The comments has caused outrage around the world, with the United Nations calling President Trump 'racist'. UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville (pictured in Geneva) said there was no other word that could be used to describe President Trump's comments other than 'racist' '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 Trump reportedly criticized African nations (Somalia is pictured above) during the meeting, angering the African Union 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. UN CONDEMNS TRUMP AS 'RACIST' FOR HIS 'S***HOLE COUNTRIES' COMMENT UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said: 'If confirmed, these are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. Sorry, but there is no other word one can use but racist. 'You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as s***holes whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome. 'The positive comment on Norway makes the underlying sentiment very clear. 'Like the earlier comments made vilifying Mexicans and Muslims, the policy proposals targetting entire groups on grounds of nationality or religion, and the reluctance to clearly condemn the anti-semitic and racist actions of the white supremacists in Charlottesville - all of these go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War II and the Holocaust. 'This is not just a story about vulgar language, it's about opening the door wider to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy the lives of many people. 'That is perhaps the single most damaging and dangerous consequence of this type of comment by a major political figure.' Advertisement 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. TRUMP'S CHALLENGING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UN The row over Trump's 'racist' comments about allowing 's***hole countries' is another chapter in the president's difficult relationship with the United Nations. In December, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley blasted member states who overwhelmingly backed a proposal condemning the US for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and pledging to move its embassy there. The vote was 1289, with 35 abstentions. Only Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo joined the United States and Israel in opposing the measure. Another 21 countries didn't show up to vote. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley blasted countries that condemned the US for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital American ambassador Nikki Haley blasted anti-Israel member nations during a pre-vote debate, warning that there would be a price to pay for standing in President Donald Trump's way. 'This vote will be remembered,' she said as the entire UN General Assembly looked on. 'America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. That is what the American people want us to do. And it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that,' Haley lectured from the central podium. 'But this vote will make a difference on how Americans look at the UN and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the UN.' Back in September, in Trump's first speech to the UN, he drew a round of applause after attacking Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. He called Iran a 'rogue state' for its supposed nuclear ambitions as he criticized the nuclear deal struck by Iran and the Obama administration. 'We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles. And we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program,' Trump said, drawing applause from leaders of more than 180 nations in the room. 'The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States and I don't think you've heard the last of it, believe me,' he said. 'It's time for the entire world to join us in demanding that Iran's government end its pursuit of death and destruction.' 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. This is the brilliant moment that Joe Wright, director of the new Second World War film Darkest Hour, leads 450 MPs in a warm-up rendition of Hey Jude, only stopping when Gary Oldman, who plays Sir Winston Churchill, enters the room. The clip was captured by actor Samuel West who said he had to wait 'a year' to post it. Oldman, who recently won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of legendary British wartime PM Winston Churchill, received a heroes' reception as he interrupted the performance. Been waiting to post this for a year. Joe Wright, director of Darkest Hour, leads 450 MPs in a warmup sing of Hey Jude between takes. Gary Oldman as Churchill makes an entrance at the end. Darkest Hour is released in the UK today. Hope you like it pic.twitter.com/UN6posK8zf Samuel West (@exitthelemming) January 12, 2018 The clip was uploaded to Twitter. The footage starts with director Wright conducting the 450 MPs while they sit in a version of the old House of Commons, built specially for the Darkest Hour movie at Leavesden Studios. The actors, who play the 450 MPs, can be seen swaying and singing-along to the Beatles' classic track while it blares in the background as they warm-up between scenes. At the end of the clip, Gary Oldman makes an appearance while dressed as Sir Winston Churchill. Director Joe Wright led 450 actors, playing MPs, in a rendition of 'Hey Jude' to warm-up between takes He is immediately noticed, despite the loud music, with the waving and cheering him. The hero's reception is the latest in a series of good news for Gary Oldman. The English actor won Best Actor at Thursday's Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California. The 59-year-old also won his first Golden Globe on Sunday for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama. The rendition was interrupted by Gary Oldman, who received a hero's reception as he entered in character as Winston Churchill This was followed by an announcement on Tuesday that Oldman was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actor In A Leading Role for his work in the British war drama. But despite the critical acclaim for his performance, Oldman identified another feat as his greatest while playing Winston Churchill. On Tuesday, he revealed to Jimmy Kimmel that the greatest feat he performed in character was to get his wife Gisele Schmidt to agree to marry him, while in heavy prosthetic makeup. 'I took her into the map room and as Winston Churchill I said 'Will you marry me?' and she said 'Yes.'' Gary Oldman, 59, won a Golden Globe award, a Critic's Choice award and has been nominated for a BAFTA for his portrayal of Winston Churchill But there wasn't much time to celebrate her answer, according to the Academy Award nominee: 'And then someone said "Hey Gary, we're ready for you [to shoot your scene].'' 'So you did not get a chance to consummate as Winston Churchill?' asked Jimmy, a question which the embarrassed JFK star studiously avoided. Oldman on his greatest feat as Winston Churchill 'I took her into the map room and as Winston Churchill, I said 'Will you marry me?' and she said 'Yes' 'So you did not get a chance to consummate as Winston Churchill?' asked Jimmy, a question which the embarrassed JFK star studiously avoided The Harry Potter actor has enjoyed a successful thirty-year career in the industry, but has only ever received one nomination at the Academy Awards. But it was finally Gary Oldman's time to shine on Sunday night, as he bagged the Golden Globe for his role as Winston Churchill - tipping him for Oscar success. Receiving a celebratory kiss from his wife Gisele Schmidt, whom he married in 2017, the screen icon, admitted he was 'very humbled and surprised' to accept the award for Best Actor in a Drama - despite receiving rave reviews for his portrayal of the Prime Minister. New love: The Harry Potter actor has enjoyed a successful thirty-year career in the industry, but has only ever received one Academy Award nod, pictured with Gisele Schmidt on Sunday The British actor proudly collected the Golden Globe award at the Beverly Hilton hotel, and was clearly overwhelmed as he took to the stage. Grapsing tightly onto his trophy, Oldman told the audience: 'I feel very humbled and surprised to have been asked to this stage.' He first thanked the highly skilled make-up and technical staff on set, who spent a whopping five hours transforming him into the politician every morning. In character: The acclaimed actor plays Winston Churchill in the new film The Darkest Hour He said: 'I would like to thank my magnificent makeup team. Your artistry has no equal. You were kind, you were funny, you were patient, and we got through 63 applications.' He then thanked his wife Gisele for tolerating that same makeup, and the huge level of commitment necessary for him to embody the character. 'She told her friends, 'I go to bed with Winston Churchill but I wake up with Gary Oldman,'' he began, before adding, 'which I suppose is better than the other way around,' causing the audience to chuckle. Flying solo: On Wednesday, the thespian strolled the inaugural Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society Awards red carpet by himself The new movie was also in the spotlight after rare papers and fascinating insights from the men and women who worked with Winston Churchill in his underground headquarters were revealed to mark its release. Documents, testimonies and photographs showing what life was like in the Churchill War Rooms, built underneath central London, were displayed.. The movie, which also stars Kristin Scott Thomas, tells the story about Churchill's early days as Prime Minister and recounts key moments of the war. The Imperial War Museum revealed rare papers and insights from the Cabinet War Rooms in 1945, such as this photo of Map Room Officers at work And remarkable pieces of history from the War Rooms - built in 1939 and used to carry out operations throughout the six-year war - have been released by the Imperial War Museums. They include a rare surviving example of a letter confirming a shorthand typist's appointment and insights from Churchill's private secretary, Elizabeth Layton, and other secretaries working in the underground bunker. The museum also shared a light-hearted message written by some of the female staff in the War Rooms on the subject of Operation 'Desperate' ahead of Winston Churchill's second visit to Washington in May 1942. They joked that 'silk stocking, chocolates and cosmetics' were 'acute shortages' in the UK and said 'has already been appointed' to bring them home from the US. Fox has cancelled its Patty Hearst biopic after the US heiress blasted the film claiming it romanticized her torture and rape at the hands of the Symbionese Liberation Army Fox has cancelled its Patty Hearst biopic after the heiress blasted the film, saying it romanticized her torture and rape at the hands of the Symbionese Liberation Army. 20th Century Fox pulled the plug on the project this Thursday after Hearst criticized the film in a scathing public message. Hearst was aged 19 when she was kidnapped by the left-wing guerrilla group in 1974 but denounced her former life and carried out an armed robbery on a bank in San Francisco with them. Fox based its film on the unauthorized biography American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffery Toobin. But Hearst, granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, took issue with the book's portrayal of her kidnapping. 'Jeffery Toobin's unauthorized book, 'American Heiress,' which cites one of my kidnappers as its main source, romanticizes my rape and torture and calls my abduction a "rollicking adventure",' she said in a statement released by her daughter Lydia Hearst's spokesperson. Hearst especially took issue with Toobin allegedly referring to his book as 'the last word on the subject,' she told TMZ. She added 'It was offensive to me that a man would have the audacity to tell a woman that he would have the last word on her trauma.' Toobin's book calls her abduction a 'rollicking adventure' and cites one of its main sources as Patty's captors. Although Fox has cancelled the movie project, a new documentary on CNN is still set to air this February. Pictured: Hearst during here captivity, left, and after she was sentenced for a bank robbery conviction Hearst, on the right of the picture, was filmed on CCTV carrying out a bank robbery with the left-wing group Although Fox has cancelled the movie project, a new documentary on CNN is still set to air this February. The six-part CNN original series, 'The Radical Story of Patty Hearst,' includes interviews with Bill Harris, who was part of the SLA, and Steven Weed, who witnessed her violent abduction. CNN also plans a weekly podcast entitled 'Patty Has a Gun: The Life and Crimes of Patricia Hearst,' which will be cohosted by Toobin and CNN's Brian Stelter. Hearst was apolitical when she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. A group of heavily armed men and women grabbed Hurst and bundled her into the boot of a car by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The gang was lead by Donald DeFreeze and wanted to overthrow capitalism. Following her abduction, the SLA released several communiques demanding millions of dollars worth of food donations in return for her safe release. The terrorists used the time to brainwash and locked her in a cupboard. In April 1974, the SLA released a message from Hearst claiming she had joined the revolution and was seeking to overthrow capitalism. Less than two weeks later she was seen on surveillance footage in a bank brandishing a semi-automatic assault rifle, On May 16, two members of the SLA tried to steal an ammunition belt from a Los Angeles shop and were forced to abandon their getaway van. The FBI were able to link the van to an SLA safehouse and raided the property the following morning. Six members of the SLA, including DeFreeze were killed during the shoot out. The house caught fire. Hearst escaped from the scene but was eventually captured in San Francisco on September 18, 1975. Her defense team tried to convince the jury that she had been brainwashed and abused by the terrorist organisation. She was jailed for seven years after her conviction, but was released within two years and eventually pardoned by Bill Clinton. He is a United Nations chief who travels the world championing press freedom. But Frank La Rue is less than keen to trumpet news about himself over allegations he is a sex pest. The high-powered diplomat is embroiled in an official inquiry into MeToo-style claims he sexually harassed a woman, it can be revealed. But when he was asked about it by the Mail, he said: I dont want to say anything, thank you very much and hung up the phone. Mr La Rue, 65, is an Assistant Director-General of Unesco, the UNs cultural arm, based in Paris. His publicly-funded job is to promote freedom of expression globally and organise World Press Freedom Day events. In speeches around the globe, he staunchly defends press freedoms as fundamental to democracy. But neither he nor Unesco seemed very keen on press coverage of themselves over the sex pest allegations. Married Frank La Rue faces claims of alleged sexual harassment against a woman which is said to have spanned several months in 2016 and 2017 Married Mr La Rue faces claims of alleged sexual harassment against a woman which is said to have spanned several months in 2016 and 2017. He is said to have backed down after she threatened to tell his wife, but later resumed his unwanted advances. In November last year, she reported an incident to Unesco bosses which resulted in an inquiry being launched. She also suffered an emotional breakdown and was treated by a doctor, according to informed sources. In diplomatic circles, it is being referred to as a MeToo incident a reference to the wave of sexual harassment allegations that followed the Harvey Weinstein scandal. It is understood that Mr La Rue is entitled to diplomatic immunity, although there is no suggestion he has sought to use it. In November last year, she reported an incident to Unesco bosses which resulted in an inquiry being launched in Mr La Rue Mr La Rue is being investigated by Unescos internal oversight service (IOS). A report is due to be delivered to the organisations director-general Audrey Azoula, who will decide his fate. Mr La Rue told the Mail he believed in responsible reporting. Asked if he denied sexual harassment, he ended the phonecall. Before joining Unesco in 2016, Guatemala-born Mr La Rue was previously the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion of freedom of expression. A Unesco spokesman said: As there is an ongoing investigation no comment can be made at this stage, other than to reiterate harassment in all its forms constitutes an attack on human dignity. Unesco, as an agency of the United Nations system, has a zero tolerance policy and specific procedures in this regard. They are well established and applied for each case following a complaint or referral. Flying Officer Chalmers (pictured with other surviving Dambusters) was awarded a Distinguished Flying Medal and a Distinguished Flying Cross following the 1943 raid Medals that belonged to a hero of the Dambusters' raid have been unearthed 75 years after the famous mission and are tipped to sell for 150,000. Flying Officer George 'Jock' Chalmers was a wireless operator in the last Lancaster bomber to make it back to Britain following the 1943 raid. Of the 133 crew who took part in the risky mission to destroy several dams in Germany's industrial Ruhr valley by using Barnes Wallis' 'bouncing bombs', 53 were killed. FO Chalmers' Lancaster, codenamed 'O for Orange', dropped its six tonne bomb on the Ennepe dam. It skipped across the water before exploding just short of its target. FO Chalmers signalled the news back to base before his crew turned for home. The return flight had to be made at tree-top height and as they reached the Dutch coast the plane came under attack from a German aircraft. The Lancaster was flying so low the shells bounced off the surface of the sea and over the bomber. Upon arriving at RAF Scampton, Lincs, FO Chalmers was personally greeted by Air Chief Marshal Sir Aurthur 'Bomber' Harris. He was awarded an immediate Distinguished Flying Medal. A Distinguished Flying Cross was added to this later on in the war. Now in the 75th anniversary year of the Dams raid, his medals have emerged for general sale for the first time. Along with them is his RAF log book that covers the period for Operation Chastise. The fascinating journal chronicles the training the crews did for the raid which involved flying beneath power cables over the Lincolnshire countryside. His entry for the raid itself is typically understated. FO Chalmers simply wrote afterwards: 'Low level attack on dams in Ruhr - successful.' FO Chalmers was awarded an immediate Distinguished Flying Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross was added to this later on in the war (both left). Also picture is The 19391945 Star and Air Crew Medal (both centre) Now in the 75th anniversary year of the Dams raid, his medals have emerged for general sale for the first time as well as his logbook His entry for the raid itself is typically understated. FO Chalmers simply wrote afterwards: 'Low level attack on dams in Ruhr - successful.' According to the log, FO Chalmers later flew with famous pilot Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire on raids using the 12,000lbs Tallboy bomb on the Saumer rail tunnel in northern France in June 1944. By the end of the war he had clocked up more than 12,000 flying hours over 60 sorties. In December 1946 he took part in the little-known Operation Guzzle - a mission to drop the remaining bouncing bombs left in storage after the Dams raid into the Atlantic. Only a limited number of gallantry medals were awarded to the surviving crews of the Dams raid and so when a set comes on the open market it usually command a high price. The surviving Dambusters with Gibon (centre) and Chalmers (far right) pictured at Buckingham Palace following the raid Medal dealers War and Son of Leominster, Herefordshire, have acquired FO Chalmers' medals and are now selling them. FO Chalmers was born in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire in 1921 and after leaving Aberdeen Academy he worked at the local Crosse & Blackwell factory before joining the RAF In 2015 the gallantry medals awarded to Flight Lieutenant Richard Trevor-Roper, an air gunner on Guy Gibson's plane, sold for 148,000 at auction. Steve Nuwar, of medal dealers War and Son of Leominster, Herefordshire, have acquired FO Chalmers' medals and are now selling them. He said: 'I can't think of anything we will ever own that will be more important than these medals. 'The Dambusters raid was the most famous raid Bomber Command were involved in in the war. 'People thought it was a bit of a showy thing that didn't really achieve much and cost a lot of lives. 'But British PoWs in Germany got to hear about it and saw the negative impact it had on the morale of the Germans. Of course for them it had His entry for the raid itself is typically understated. FO Chalmers simply wrote afterwards: 'Low level attack on dams in Ruhr - successful' the opposite affect. It was a real turning point for them. 'The Dams raid brought together great British attributes of weird and wacky science and innovation that was planned and perfected and then executed with extraordinary skill. 'Jock Chalmers' plane was the second-most decorated plane that took part in the raid. It was the last up and the last down and it limped home on three engines. 'There were a total of 34 gallantry awards in total for the crews. These included one Victoria Cross to Guy Gibson and 12 DFM of which one was given to Jock Chalmers. 'The Chalmers family sold the medals before Jock died in 2002 when they were bought by a collector from south Wales. 'We now own them and have put them on general sale.' FO Chalmers was born in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire in 1921 and after leaving Aberdeen Academy he worked at the local Crosse & Blackwell factory before joining the RAF. He qualified as a wireless operator and served in 10, 7 and 35 Squadrons before joining the 617 'Dambusters' Squadron in March 1943. After the war he worked in the civil service at Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and retired in 1984. He was married to wife Alma and they had five sons and four daughters. A 27-year-old female UK national has been arrested at Heathrow Airport after arriving on a flight from Ethiopia on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, Scotland Yard said. The woman arrived on a flight from Addis Ababa and was arrested on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorist Act 2006. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'She was detained under PACE and taken to a south London police station, where she currently remains in police custody. 'Enquiries continue.' The woman arrived on a flight from Addis Ababa to Heathrow Airport (pictured) and was arrested on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorist Act 2006. More to follow. Upstate New York local official Efrain Lopez, 55, is dead, after taking the lives of his ex girlfriend and her new love interest, police said Thursday An upstate New York local official shot himself dead after killing his ex girlfriend and her new love interest, police said Thursday. The victims were Margarita Soto and Jose Cruz, both 55, the Village of Ellenville Police Department said in a news release shared Thursday. Efrain Lopez, 55, who is believed to have taken his own life, has been identified as the shooter by police. Police received a phone call alerting them to a shooting in the parking lot of the Canal Lock Apartments, just before 10am. When the police arrived they found Soto and Cruz on the ground lifeless. Ulster County Sheriff Department also responded to calls reporting the incident. The two law enforcement agencies were initially met with reports that a suspect had fled on foot, toward a school in the area. A precautionary lock down was put in place by the Superintendent at the request of authorities, but was later lifted when authorities realized the apparent shooter had shot and killed himself. The victims were Margarita Soto (left) and Jose Cruz (right), both 55, of Ellenville The three individuals pulled into the parking lot at the Canal Lock Apartments at around the same time on Thursday morning, police said Lopez, who has been a long-time member of the Village of Ellenville Board of Trustees, was found dead in his vehicle shortly after the victims were found. The apparent murder-suicide appeared to be the result of 'an ongoing domestic dispute', police said. The three individuals pulled into the parking lot at the Canal Lock Apartments at around the same time, Ellenville Police Chief Phil Mattracion said, according to New York Daily News. At that point, Lopez and Cruz got out of their cars, and Lopez shot and killed Cruz with a .30-caliber rifle. The apparent murder-suicide appeared to be the result of 'an ongoing domestic dispute' between Lopez and Soto (pictured), police said When Lopez and Cruz got out of their cars at the Canal Lock Apartments, Lopez shot and killed Cruz (pictured) with a .30-caliber rifle Lopez then walked over to Cruz's vehicle, where Soto was in the passenger seat, and and fired the rifle through the window, also killing his ex. 'It is a tragedy of just unproportional magnitudes. I was shocked,' Mattracion said. 'There was many emotions running through me.' Lopez, who was also known as 'Ping,' had been long-term domestic partners with Soto. Cruz is reported to have been a new romantic partner for Soto. 'We do know [Lopez] wasnt happy about the situation,' Mattracion said, referencing eyewitness accounts of the shooter seeing his former lover with another man. Lopez, who was also known as 'Ping,' had been long-term domestic partners with Soto Cruz is reported to have been a new romantic partner for Soto Lopez was employed by the Ellenville Central School District in the custodial unit for the past 30 years. Mattracion said he was well-liked in the community. No information was immediately available as to public sentiement regarding Soto and Cruz. The Ulster County Medical Examiner's Office pronounced Soto, Cruz and Lopez dead at the scene. Ellenville is located in Ulster County, with a population of about 4,000. The town is situated less than 100 miles north of New York City. A cyclist who launched an expletive-laden tirade at an elderly female driver has received a 12-month good behaviour bond. Brian Ward represented himself in court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to using obscene language after a furious encounter in Brunswick, in Melbourne's inner-north. But despite his plea, Ward still argued with the magistrate in court that the word 'f***' is not obscene, 9 News reported. Scroll down for video Cyclist Brian Ward (pictured) received a 12-month good behaviour bond on Friday after he launched an expletive-laden tirade at an elderly female driver in Melbourne's inner-north on June 17 Ward represented himself in court, where he pleaded guilty to using obscene language after the furious encounter in Brunswick (pictured) Ward had recorded his journey down Sydney Road on June 17 when the 61-year-old driver began to pull into traffic. He then unleashed on the unsuspecting woman - who had a young child in the back seat - saying: 'Hey look, f***wit, get off your f***ing phone.' Ward told the woman to get off her 'f***ing phone' a further two times, before he lifted his bike up and kicked the car's bonnet. 'You're on your phone, which is illegal while you're driving. I'm filming you, I'm filming you. I've reported you to the police. You're a dangerous driver, you f***ing moron,' Ward continued to yell. In court on Friday, Ward attempted to justify his actions and told magistrate Jon Klestadt that his charge was 'vague'. Despite his plea, Ward still argued with the magistrate in court that the word 'f***' is not obscene Ward had recorded his journey down Sydney Road on June 17 when the 61-year-old driver began to pull into traffic Ward unleashed on the unsuspecting woman - who had a young child in the back seat - saying: 'Hey look, f***wit, get off your f***ing phone' 'Given how subjective and vague the charge is, the concept of obscenity is not defined by the law,' the unemployed cyclist said, 9 News reported. Magistrate Klestadt disagreed, telling Ward 'it's all about context' and what is regarded as obscene in once place will not always be true in another. Ward then told a Nine journalist outside court that he 'won', before threatening to charge her with harassment. Meanwhile, the man's road rage victim was given an infringement for using a mobile phone while driving. A Florida couple is facing charges of animal cruelty after airport security found a cat in their luggage moments before they were set to take off on a three-hour flight to Florida. The TSA found the six-month old cat inside the checked luggage, saving the pet from serious injury or even death. The pet, called Slim, was found was found hidden among clothes and other items in the pair's checked luggage as they prepared to fly from Erie, Pennsylvania to Tampa, Florida, on New Year's Day. A couple are charged with animal cruelty after a six-month-old cat was found in their bag Olivia Sari, 21, and Nicholas Larrison, 21, stuffed the cat into their checked baggage and it was only discovered by the TSA moments before they got onto a three hour flight to Florida The cat would likely have been in for a rough ride had the journey continued as the bag would have been tossed around by airport handling staff unaware there was an animal inside. It was only by sheer luck that TSA officials spotted the pet during pre-flight inspections. Airport police cited Olivia Sari and Nicholas M. Larrison, both 21 and of North Port, Florida, with a summary count of transporting animals in a cruel manner. The couple could also face fines and other costs. The pair were then forced to traveled home without the animal, Erie Times-News reported. The couple enjoy being around cats as Sari's pictures show - however they now face fines and possibly criminal charges after making a 'poor decision' The couple were forced to return to Florida without their cat which was taken to a shelter 'It was a poor decision made on the customers' part,' said Ian Bogle, the airport's director of public safety and facilities. 'Each airline has procedures for transporting pets on flights. It's not a difficult process, and the airlines are more than happy to accommodate pet owners, he said. 'Putting a pet in a checked bag is not the recommended way,' Bogle continued. 'Twenty-eight years I've been here. I've seen some unique things. I've been involved in plenty of unique things. This is a first.' Slim has since been handed over to the Humane Society of Northwestern Pennsylvania. A New Jersey doctor accused of orchestrating his wife's murder to protect an illegal opioiod ring he was allegedly running with a motorcycle gang has been moved to a different jail nearly 100 miles away after being threatened by a co-defendant. Dr James Kauffman, 68, and one of his alleged accomplices, 61-year-old Ferdinand 'Miserable' Augello, are charged in the death of Kauffman's 47-year-old wife, April, a radio talk show host who was gunned down in her home in May 2012. On Thursday, following brief initial court appearances via video links, prosecutors said Kauffman has been moved from the Atlantic County Jail in Mays Landing to the Hudson County Jail in Kearney, nearly 100 miles away, for his protection. 'We don't think it would be prudent for those two to be lodged together,' Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner said. Scroll down for video Dr James Kauffman, 68 (left), charged in his wife's death, has been moved to a different jail after his co-defender Ferdinand Augello, 61 (right) allegedly threatened to kill him Safe haven: Kauffman has been moved to Hudson County Jail in Kearney, New Jersey, for his protection Until this week, Kauffman had been lodged at the Atlantic County Jail in Mays Landing, New Jersey, along with his co-conspirator Augello The prosecutor said Augello was caught on wiretap discussing a plan to have Kauffman killed in jail before he could come to trial. Even before Kauffman was arrested, Augello had allegedly plotted to have a mobster relative of his to kill the doctor, but the scheme failed. 'Augello advised that he wanted Kauffman killed because he was concerned that Kauffman could implicate him in criminal activity,' a court affidavit stated. Scott Sherwood, a public defender representing Augello, declined to comment Thursday. Kim Pack, daughter of murder victim April Kauffman, poses with a photo of her late mother, talk-show host April Kauffman Kauffman has long maintained his innocence, a stance his attorney, Louis Barbone, repeated Thursday. 'We're saying what we've been saying for the past few years: He's not guilty,' Barbone said. On a video link with the judge, an unshaven and careworn Kauffman did not speak other than to reply 'yes' several times when asked if he understood his legal rights. Worse for wear: An unshaven Kauffman made his initial court appearance via video link on Thursday Augello also made his initial appearance; he is accused of plotting to kill Kauffman in jail Kauffman and Augello, who is a member of the Pagan Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, are both charged with murder in April Kauffman's killing, in addition to racketeering related to the illegal distribution of narcotics through Kauffmans former medical practice. The charges, including those relating to the wife's murder-for-hire and the alleged plot to kill James Kauffman, were announced Tuesday after more than five years of investigation. 'Hes sort of a one-man crime spree,' Tyner said of Kauffman, who was arrested last summer following an armed standoff with police at his medical practice. The others implicated in the case include Joseph Mulholland, 52, Beverly Augello, 47, and Glenn Seeler, 37, who are charged with first-degree racketeering. Paul Pagano, 61, and Tabitha Chapman, 35, were charged with second-degree racketeering. Joseph Mullholland, left, was suspected of carrying out the shooting. He was found dead from a drug overdose a year after the killing. Glen Seeler, 37, right, was charged with racketeering Paul Pagano, 61, left, Tabitha Chapman, 35, center and, Beverly Augello, 47, right, were charged with racketeering April Kauffman's daughter, Kimberly Pack, who had long alleged that her stepfather killed her mother, said the death 'forever changed my life.' 'I have been waiting patiently for justice, and today I was lucky enough to be granted justice,' Pack said. 'I think for the first time, today I can actually breathe.' James Kauffman, 68, April's husband whom she was attempting to divorce was charged with 1st degree racketeering Pack had earlier fought a legal battle against her stepfather sparked by his attempts to claim April Kauffman's two life insurance policies. His claim was turned down because prosecutors couldn't provide a letter saying he wasn't considered a suspect. April Kauffman was a local businesswoman who hosted weekly talk shows and advocated for military veterans. She had received a governor's award for outstanding community service a few days before her death. Prosecutors said James Kauffman gave free prescriptions to people sent by Augello and Augello would receive $1,000 per script or a number of pills after the script was filled. Those who received them either used the drugs or sold them, authorities said. In the summer of 2011, April Kauffman wanted a divorce and after James Kauffman objected she threatened to expose the drug ring, Tyner said. Tyner said that Kauffman told Augello about his wife's threats and solicited him to have her killed. The casket of April Kauffman is carried from Beth El Synagogue, in Margate, N.J., after the funeral service Monday May 14, 2012 Police work the scene of the fatal shooting of April Kauffman, a local radio talk show host, businesswoman and community volunteer found dead in her Linwood, N.J. Another six people connected to the gang were charged with racketeering in the drug ring, which prosecutors said continued until last summer. Kim Pack, daughter of murder victim April Kauffman is pictured After about a year, a man who agreed to do it, Francis Mullholland, was driven to the home, where the doors were left open, and was given a gun, authorities said. April was shot twice, and her body was found by a handyman. Tyner said Mullholland, who said he got about $20,000 in cash, was later found dead of a drug overdose. Mullholland originally was identified as a cousin of a member of the motorcycle gang, but a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office later said that was incorrect. She declined to release more details about him. Prosecutors said the drug empire lasted until June, when Kauffman was arrested on weapons charges at his Egg Harbor Township office. Authorities said he brandished a handgun as agents executed a search warrant and said, 'I'm not going to jail for this!' A hostage negotiator persuaded him to surrender. A Thai model who sparked outrage in her country after flashing her rear online to promote a bottom whitening cream has been charged over the racy sales tactic. Nitthakarn Nunthasuteepat, 25, made a video of herself demonstrating how the cream had turned her derriere a 'beautiful pale colour.' But the footage, which comes a week after a Bangkok clinic sparked controversy after claiming it attracts 100 men a month for penis whitening, prompted outrage on social media. Police arrested the model and charged her under consumer protection laws with 'mislabelling' the product. She now faces up to a year in prison or a fine of 100,000 baht (2,300) or both because of the cream, which she sells alongside vaginal tightening 'soaps' and face whitening masks. A Thai model who flashed her rear online to promote a bottom whitening cream has been charged over the racy sales tactic Col Chanannat Santhawanpat, chief of the Consumer Protection Sub-division Region 4 in Bangkok, said the product's container had insufficient details and could be misleading. Her video could be classed as pornography, he said. He added that Nunthasuteepat had been released on bail while officers pass the case to The Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate her products. Dr. Somchai Preechaavejkit, Deputy Secretary General of the FDA, added: 'The produce advertised is registered, as a cosmetic body care in the form of whithening substances, so it must be checked whether the message is displayed as requested with or without the whole label and substances used. 'We believe that there is an advertising fault because claiming there is an instant switch in colour of the bottom from dark to white is not allowed. Nitthakarn Nunthasuteepat made a video of herself demonstrating how the cream had turned her derriere a 'beautiful pale colour' Police arrested the model and charged her under consumer protection laws with 'mislabelling' the product Dr Preechaavejkit that the FDA will work with the police to check if the other products she sells are are correctly advertised or contain prohibited substances. Nunthasuteepat said she had been selling her creams through social media for around a year. She denied that she had intended to be provocative or that her products were non-compliant. The single mother claimed the video was just demonstrating the successful results she had when using the cream. 'I have a child to support and no husband. I am just trying to take care of myself and my daughter,' she said. 'I hope people can understand and accept my apology.' It comes a week after the Lelux Hospital in Bangkok sparked controversy in Thailand for its penis whitening service. The procedure, which uses laser whitening, got wide play on Thai television and social media after the hospital released images of a man undergoing the treatment. The hospital said it began offering the unconventional treatment six months ago, and now has three to four clients per day. It left the public both baffled and alarmed, but the clinic said they have more inquiries than ever. 'These days a lot of people are asking about it. We get around 100 clients a month, three to four clients a day,' Bunthita Wattanasiri, a manager for the hospital's Skin and Laser department told AFP. The whitening service costs around $650 for five sessions. A pet owner in China was devastated to find her missing dog dead after failing to agree on a cash reward with a woman who claimed to be the dog's new owner. Ms Wu, 21, was trying to speak with Ms He who was keeping the corgi. She then saw the pet's corpse lying on the ground below the window of Ms He's fifth-floor flat in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on January 11. Ms Wu (left) said her corgi Lion (right) went missing on December 23, and the woman also learnt that it was being taken away and kept by a woman known as Ms He The vet said the corgi died of a cerebral haemorrhage and it was likely to have fallen from heights. Ms Wu claimed that Ms He had cruelly killed the dog in revenge for the fact that she hadn't agree to give her the desired cash compensation. Ms Wu also claimed that Ms He had threatened to kill and eat the corgi. According to Ms Wu's accounts on Weibo, a Chinese social media account, her corgi, Lion, went missing in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on December 23. Lion was last seen by a security guard before it was being given away by two men who thought it was a stray dog. Lion was then given to a 34-year-old mother, surnamed He, and it was found dead under her building when Ms Wu tried to talk to her in person. Ms He wrote she had been negotiating with Ms He for over half a month to find ways to get Lion back. Screenshots of their conversation showed that Ms He threatened her to kill the dog if the dog was not behaving well. Failing to agree on a cash reward, Ms Wu finds Lion lying dead beneath Ms He's apartment She takes Lion to the nearest animal hospital as it can be seen bleeding and shivering Ms He mentioned that if her daughter hated Lion, she would kill it and eat it. She also asked Ms Wu to send over some money to buy food to the dog. Ms Wu suggested to buy Ms He another corgi and in return, to get Lion back. But Ms He insisted that her daughter only liked Lion. Ms Wu decided to go to Ms He's apartment in Longquanyi district, Chengdu, on January 11, accompanied by reporters from Cover News. However, the vet could not bring Lion back to life and said falling from height is the cause Ms He refused to open the door but Ms Wu claimed she can hear Lion's barking when she called its name. Police arrived shortly and went into the house on the fifth floor of a residential building. Ms Wu did not see nor hear a sound from Lion. Reporter noticed Ms He fled the house with her daughter when the officer suggested to check the ground floor. Footage then showed Ms Wu picking Lion lying on the ground floor, bleeding and shivering. Ms Wu rushed to an animal hospital with Lion but the on-duty vet said the corgi was too late to save. 'The cause of death is cerebral hemorrhage, which suggested that the dog might have fallen from a certain height,' said the vet. Ms Wu is now seeking compensation from Ms He through legal advice. She is also asking Ms He a public apology. A violent domestic abuser left his former partner with horrendous injuries including broken ribs and a fractured vertebrae in a prolonged attack before going on the run. Danny Jeeves, from Morden, south London, unleashed a vicious assault upon the woman who was left with broken ribs, a bruised lung and a split spleen. The 25-year-old also fractured one of his partner's vertebrae and gave her a black eye but failed to show up for his trial. He was convicted in his absence for grievous bodily harm at Guildford Crown Court and police were last night searching for the thug, who was due to be sentenced. Danny Jeeves left his former partner with broken ribs, a bruised lung and a split spleen after a prolonged attack. He was convicted of grievous bodily harm at Guildford Crown Court The 25-year-old, pictured, failed to show up for his trial and was convicted in his absence. Surrey Police advised the public not to approach him but to contact them if he is spotted Detective Constable Nicola Deadman, of Surrey Police, said: 'Danny Jeeves should be in prison now, after being found guilty of inflicting horrific injuries on his partner. 'He has been convicted of a very serious offence and for that reason I would ask the public not to approach him, but to contact us straight away if you know where he is. 'Danny Jeeves subjected his partner to a prolonged assault, leaving her with broken ribs, a bruised lung, a split spleen, a fractured vertebrae and a black eye. 'He belongs behind bars, where he can no longer pose a risk to his partner, or to anyone else. Please, help us ensure he is locked up.' His trial started on January 8 but Jeeves, who was on conditional court bail, last signed in at a police station on December 28 last year. If you have any information contact Surrey police on 101 quoting PR/45170036481, or call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Your paycheck is about to change, thanks to the new tax billed passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in late December. The first set of new guidelines from the IRS has been delivered to employers and payroll processors. The guidelines outline how much tax should be withheld from your paycheck. According to Yahoo Finance, the results look pretty good for everyone, at least initially. Scroll down for the new withholding tables... The IRS released new guidelines for employers' and payroll processors' calculation of your tax withholding on each paycheck, and the results look pretty good for everyone, at least initially The financial news organization analyzed 11 income categories, and found a net drop in tax withheld from paychecks in each of those 11 categories. That translates into a net increase in take-home pay with each paycheck, for each of those 11 categories. For individuals that earn near the national median income, which is close to $60,000 annually, that means an additional $112 per month in your pocket. That equates to an extra $1,344 each year, before taxes are filed. Yahoo Finance's examination of the numbers showed an expected net increase in take-home pay for married workers that are paid twice each month, from 2017 to 2018, across the board for annual incomes ranging from $10,000 to $1 million. But that might not necessarily stand when end-of-year filings are made. 'Its 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,' Rick Newman wrote in the column. Things that may also affect your final tax liability include pre-tax deductions taken from your annual income (which mean less tax paid overall), President Donald Trump signed the new tax bill into law on December 22, with no Democrats voting yes on the measure in either the House or the Senate; Only 12 Republicans voted no on the bill in the House, and only 1 Republican Senator abstained from voting at all The changes to the withholding tables are what will affect Americans immediately, and with lower withholding throughout the year for most income brackets, that will put more money in your pocket to start with. But other changes, which will come into play at filing time, will have a negative impact on the total tax bill for some. For instance, the standard deduction has been doubled, but the personal exemption has been dropped. 'For families with fewer than three dependent kids, thats probably a net gain,' Newman said. 'But for larger families it could push up their taxable income and their total tax bill.' Deductions for state and local taxes are also now capped at $10,000, which is a pretty big change for those in higher income brackets that pay state tax on that income, and for those with high state and local property or school taxes. Other changes to the tax law will mean a bigger final tax bill for 2018 for some These kinds of deductions aren't factored into what your employer automatically withholds from your paycheck. It's possible these new default withholding amounts may leave some underpaying, with a tax bill to even things out when they file for the 2018 year. Individuals can still ask their employers to withhold more taxes from each paycheck if they like, if that's a concern for them. You can expect these changes to start being implemented in payroll processing by mid-February, and showing up in your paychecks within weeks. This new tax overhaul passed the Senate with a vote of 51-48, with all yes votes coming from Republicans. Sen. John McCain of Arizona is the only Senate Republican who did not vote for the bill, because he abstained from voting at all. Every Senate Democrat voted no. The bill passed the House with a vote of 227-203, again with all yes votes coming from Republicans. No votes came from 12 Republicans and 191 Democrats, with two Democrats abstaining from the vote. Trump signed the tax bill into law on December 22. These new withholding tables are the result of the tax overhaul passing the Senate with a vote of 51-48, with all yes votes coming from Republicans; only 1 Republican abstained from voting Advertisement Russia's military has shown off its strength in an explosive live-fire drill featuring tanks, mines and rifle-wielding troops. The large deployment of personnel - including engineers and sappers from the Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet - detonated huge bombs during a mock beach landing at the Khmelyovka training ground in Kaliningrad. The firing range, in a Russian province conquered during the Second World War that borders Nato states Poland and Lithuania, has been used for similar war games in the past. The large deployment of personnel - including engineers and sappers from the Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet - detonated huge bombs during a mock beach landing at the Khmelyovka training ground in Kaliningrad. Pictured: A huge blast at the training site yesterday The firing range, in a Russian province conquered during the Second World War that borders Nato states Poland and Lithuania, has been used for similar war games in the past. Pictured: A Russian soldier fires his assault rifle on the beach It comes just days after the commander of the Estonian Defence Forces claimed Russia simulated a 'large-scale military attack against Nato' during war games in September. Pictured: Engineers and sappers with the Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet training in Europe yesterday Among the sophisticated technology on display yesterday was a UR-77 Meteorit mine-clearing system (pictured), which was tested out alongside mines buried in the sand A serviceman pops his head out of a UR-77 Meteorit mine-clearing vehicle during the major drill at the Khmelyovka training ground Part of the beach at the Khmelyovka training ground in Kaliningrad is blown up in a test explosion as Russian military personnel show off their equipment A sapper carries two mines across the beach in Kaliningrad during the war games yesterday. The province was taken from the Germans by the Soviet Union during the Second World War A close-up of a Russian mine as troops plant the explosives in the beach at the Khmelyovka training ground for a huge live-fire exercise Smoke coming out of a flare on the beach as troops crawl along the sand in an apparent mock landing yesterday Two young sappers point their assault rifles towards the headland as they move up from the shore during the exercise A row of troops looking on as three sappers work with wire on the beach in Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania Among the sophisticated technology on display yesterday was a UR-77 Meteorit mine clearing system, which was tested out alongside mines buried in the sand. Also on show were specialist troops with handheld mine-detection equipment and soldiers armed with assault rifles. It comes just days after the commander of the Estonian Defence Forces claimed Russia simulated a 'large-scale military attack against Nato' during war games in September. Several sappers armed with assault rifles point their weapons away from the shore as they participate in the training exercise A Baltic Fleet sapper stretches out his handheld mine-detection device as his comrades crawl along the sand behind him A flare produces thick black smoke as sappers crawl along the sand in what appears to be a simulation of a landing on a heavily mined beach A mine explodes underwater during the Navy drill in Russia's Kaliningrad province yesterday Russian military personnel work with a UR-83P mobile mine clearing system at the Khmelyovka training ground during a drill yesterday A massive programme of drills featuring tens of thousands of troops and code named 'Zapad' took place near the Belarus capital Minsk in the autumn. General Riho Terras said the exercises were a simulation of a conflict with the US-led Nato alliance. The war games, which occur every four years, showed off Russia's ability to build up its troops with very little notice in case of conflict, Terras said. A sapper holds a tool while carrying his assault rifle on his back during the training exercise on a European beach yesterday A mine explodes in the sand just feet from the water at the Khmelyovka training ground yesterday A huge explosion on the beach in Kaliningrad sends debris flying in all directions as sappers with the Russian Navy demonstrate their skills A sapper kneels and fires his assault rifle while standing near a flare as his comrades - one holding a mine-detector - crawl behind him A row of sappers march along a dirt path during the training exercises in Russia's westernmost province Troops from the Russian Navy on highlight during the exercise at Khmelyovka training ground yesterday A sapper plants a mine in the sand before burying it during the beach training session yesterday Sappers appearing to simulate a landing on the beach in Kaliningrad ready their equipment for the move inland Two military personnel stand by a UR-77 Meteorit mine-clearing system during the drill in Kaliningrad yesterday At the time of the simulation, there were fears Moscow was using the training as a cover to station soldiers and equipment in the country. Gen Terras told German newspaper Bild: 'Let me be clear: with the exercise Zapad 2017, Russia simulated a large-scale military attack against Nato. 'It was not targeted towards the Baltic states only, as it was a theatre-wide series of exercises spanning from high North to the Black Sea. 'The scale and extent of the entire exercise was far greater than officially stated.' A Texas college student has been questioned by the TSA at an airport security checkpoint after making a 'finger gun' salute. Diana Durkin, 19, explained to officers at Hobby Airport in Houston that gesture was merely her school's symbolic sign that she would perform whenever she saw a fellow Texas Tech University student out and about. But TSA officers pulled her aside to explain how her seemingly innocent actions were misinterpreted as a sinister sign that could land her in serious trouble. Diana Durkin, 19, is a passionate supporter of Texas Tech University's football team and made the 'gun salute' gesture while waiting in line for security at Houston Hobby airport After making the gesture, TSA security staff pulled her aside to question her The Texas Tech mascot has a lot to answer for when it comes toM iss Durkin's behavior An officer noticed the finger gun sign and immediately pulled her out of line for further questioning. Miss Durkin ended up tweeting her experience as she was given a talking-to by security personnel. 'In the airport security line and I see someone wearing a Texas Tech hoodie and I look at them and do the gun hand signal because wreck em amiright [sic]. tsa is now pulling me aside to talk to me,' she wrote in a her initial Twitter post. Miss Durkin explained toBuzzFeed that whenever Texas Tech students see each other, they often salute one another with a finger gun and a 'Wreck 'em' slogan. 'I love Texas Tech. I love the people, I love the school. Anytime I see someone I get really excited,' she said. It is that move which got her flagged by the TSA. The agent tapped her on the shoulder and sternly asked for her ID after spotting the gun symbols she was making. The salute is so popular that fellow student often signal one another out and about using it Miss Durkin was subjected to additional screening and a full body pat down Miss Durkin thought the story was funny and decided to share what was happening on Twitter ''What are you doing?' the agent asked her. 'You can't do that in an airport!' they explained. She was then subjected to a full body screening and patdown. 'Oh my gosh, they think I'm a terrorist Oh my gosh I'm going to jail,' Miss Durkin said she remembered thinking. 'I'm just sitting there, almost in tears, like, 'No, I'm just really dumb, I'm not a terrorist!'' Miss Durkin said the TSA eventually let her off with just a warning after she explained the innocent misunderstanding. She also attempted to reassure them that she had learned her lesson. Writing on Facebook, Miss Durkin said she is grateful that the situation didn't turn out differently and says she realizes that if she had been African-American she may have faced much harsher treatment from the officers. Miss Durkin has come under fire on social media and she has stressed how she realizes how the situation could have been vastly different had she beennnnnnnnn black Cheerleaders to spectators are all familiar with the Texas Tech gun salute - just not the TSA 'I am very lucky the situation was not worse. I do recognize that people of color are treated unfairly in situations like this and that racism and profiling is a epidemic in America that I do not condone or endorse. I am a huge advocate for Black Lives Matter, and for minority discrimination awareness. I think there is something very wrong with the fact that people of color in my position would have had to fear for their lives. Our country needs to change. 'I am truly sorry for anyone that is offended by my story. I don't know that more to say about this situation, except for apologize that our Country is in the turmulous state that it is in. I was not paying attention at all when I did this, it was a habit of a girl who loves her school. Please stop coming on my social media accounts and bashing me for this!! I just wanted this to be a funny story people would laugh at,' she wrote. Theresa May (pictured on a visit in London yesterday) has made clear she does not share Donald Trump's alleged view of African nations as 'sh*tholes' Theresa May has made clear she does not share Donald Trump's alleged view of African nations as 'sh*tholes'. Downing Street waded into the row after the US president, who has cancelled plans to visit Britain, lashed out at immigration levels from poorer states. During a private meeting with US politicians in the Oval Office, he reportedly questioned why so many people were being allowed in from Haiti and 'sh*thole countries' in Africa rather than places like Norway. Mr Trump has admitted using 'tough' language at the meeting but appeared to deny using the term which has triggered a wave of condemnation around the world. A Downing Street spokesman said he would not comment on 'alleged private remarks'. But asked if the Prime Minister viewed the countries Mr Trump was referring to as 'sh*tholes', the spokesman replied: 'No.' The alleged remarks were made at a meeting to discuss immigration policy and the future of the Obama-era programme called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Mr Trump said: 'The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used.' The United Nations human rights watchdog has condemned the alleged remarks as 'racist'. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: 'You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes'. Mr Trump triggered another huge political row today by cancelling his UK visit to open the new US embassy, with critics accusing him of 'throwing his toys out of the pram'. The US President condemned his predecessor Barack Obama on Twitter for selling the old site on Grosvenor Square in London's exclusive Mayfair district 'for peanuts'. Mr Trump tweeted overnight condemning the move to an 'off location' at Nine Elms, south of the River Thames, as a 'bad deal'. His tweet, which followed the Daily Mail exclusively revealing last night that the trip to London would be called off, sparked an overwhelming backlash on social media. Mr Trump (pictured with Mrs May at a summit in Germany last year) has admitted using 'tough' language at the meeting but appeared to deny using the term 'sh*thole' UK politicians claimed the trip was actually shelved because 'nobody' wanted him to come and Britain is 'not a big fan of his racist, sexist, unthinking behaviour'. But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tore into Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan - who claimed Mr Trump had 'got the message' that many Londoners staunchly oppose his policies - by describing the London Mayor as a 'puffed up pompous popinjay'. Downing Street - which said it agreed with Mr Johnson's comments - insisted the 'strong and deep' UK-US partnership 'will endure' despite the cancellation. The Baltimore man who filmed a hospital patient being dumped in the street wearing just a gown and socks on Tuesday night after being discharged said he was driven to record it because he was 'enraged' by how she was treated. Imamu Baraka was leaving his office on Tuesday night when he saw staff from The University of Maryland Medical Center walking away from the woman after escorting her to a bus stop. He filmed her walking around it, confused and crying it, in a video that has been viewed more than 2million times on Facebook. The hospital refuses to say what they treated the woman for or how long she had been there. According to Baraka, one of the security guards suggested she had been 'unruly' inside and that this was why they discharged her. When they discharged her, it was 37F, she was wearing just a hospital gown and socks, had blood smeared on her forehead and could not speak. The woman has not been named but had been missing for two weeks. Her family identified her from Baraka's video and she has since been reunited with him. Enraged: Imamu Baraka filmed the video on Tuesday night In his video, Imamu can be heard begging hospital staff to do more to help her. He called 911 when they ignored his demands and when police arrived, they took her back into the hospital. On Wednesday, the hospital's CEO apologized for the disturbing footage and vowed to get to the bottom of why the woman had been released. They maintained that its doctors and nurses gave her adequate care but said they had 'failed' to demonstrate 'compassion'. Baraka, a psychotherapist, lamented the hospital's treatment of her. 'She's in the heart of downtown Baltimore, with no clothing on. Vulnerable, fully exposed. I became enraged,' he told CBS Baltimore. The woman, who has not been named, was left wandering around in the freezing night wearing nothing but the gown and some socks The woman was struggling to walk and could not speak. She cried out several times and said once: 'Lord help me' The hospital workers are seen at the start of the video, walking away from the woman (who is to the right of this frame) after escorting her to the bus stop in a wheelchair Baraka explained in a separate interview with The Baltimore Sun that he decided to film the video to have proof of what he witnessed. 'No one would have believed me. The reason I did this is to protect her and to protect me,' he said. At a press conference on Wednesday, Dr. Mohan Suntha, the hospital's CEO and President, apologized unreservedly. 'We believe firmly that we provided appropriate medical care to a patient who came to us in need but where we absolutely failed and where we own that failure is in the demonstration of basic humanity and compassion. 'I share the community's shock and anger at what occurred... we are conducting an in-depth analysis,' he said. The hospital workers who were filmed leaving the woman by the bus stop have not been identified. Dr. Mohan Suntha, the hospital's CEO, apologized on Wednesday and said the hospital failed to demonstrate 'basic humanity and compassion' It is not yet clear what kind of disciplinary action they will face but Dr. Suntha said everyone responsible would be held accountable. When he uploaded his video on Tuesday night, Baraka pleaded with friends to spread it to bring the issue to light. 'I just witnessed this with my own eyes. I had no choice but to give this young lady a voice in this moment,' he wrote. Baraka then told hospital: 'You can do better. You must do better.' In a follow-up video, he said he was 'disgusted by the lack of empathy' shown. 'Clearly there are some mental health issues that appear to be going on with this individual. 'The idea that they're discharging her, if she's unruly which appears to be what one of the gentleman suggested, that's reason to involuntarily commit her to the behavioral health, psych ward, until they're clear on what's happening. 'You can't expect people with mental health issues to be pleasant because they are ill,' he said. A former Premier League star has been arrested in France and charged with gang-raping a 17-year-old. Steve Marlet was arrested alongside two other men as Auxerre police investigate an alleged rape in 1997. At the time Marlet played for the local club. The alleged crime was reported in 2012. Steve Marlet, 44, as been arrested in France and charged with gang-raping a 17-year-old Steve Marlet, playing for Fulham in 2002, runs during a premier league match against Arsenal in London. He was arrested alongside two other men as Auxerre police investigate The France international striker became Fulham's record signing in 2001 when the club paid Lyon 11.5million for him. In his four seasons at Craven Cottage the 23-cap international scored 11 goals in 54 top-flight appearances. However, he spent the last two years on loan to Marseille. Marlet began and ended his playing career with Paris club Red Star. He is currently technical director of the club. The 44-year-old spent Wednesday night in a police cell and appeared in court on Thursday, reports The Sun. Auxerre prosecutor Sophie Macquart-Moulin said Steve Marlet had been interviewed under caution about the gang rape and had been put under judicial supervision. The France international striker became Fulham's record signing in 2001 when the club paid Lyon 11.5million for him The 23-cap international's lawyer Herve Temine added: 'These are ancient claims, which my client disputes.' 'It is the same for a second man, while a third has been made a key witness. The victim was 17 years old when the events took place, and she reported them in 2012.' Local police chief Thomas Boudault said: 'The people concerned were interviewed, held in custody and then released in 1997. The case was closed at the time.' Marlet's lawyer Herve Temine added: 'These are ancient claims, which my client disputes.' He added his client would save his words for the judge. Steve Marlet denies the charges. In an interview that was released on Friday, as Donald Trump was under fire for cringe-worthy comments he made about immigrants from 's***hole nations, former President Barack Obama apprised that true leadership is about influencing peoples' perceptions. 'One of the things that Michelle figured out, in some ways faster than I did was part of your ability to lead the country doesnt have to do with legislation, doesnt have to do with regulations, it has to do with shaping attitudes, shaping culture, increasing awareness,' Obama said. The former president who is nearly a year out of office taped the interview for David Letterman's Netflix show 'My Next Guest Needs No Introduction' last fall. Obama's comments happened to drop just as Trump was battling a humiliating incident on Friday as he prepared to leave town ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Scroll down for video In an interview that was released on Friday, as Donald Trump was under fire for cringe-worthy comments he made about immigrants from 's***hole nations, former President Barack Obama apprised that true leadership is about influencing peoples' perceptions The former president who is nearly a year out of office taped the interview for David Letterman's Netflix show 'My Next Guest Needs No Introduction' last fall President Donald Trump has denied making a widely condemned comment railing against accepting immigrants from 's***hole countries,' even as he admitted to using 'tough' language in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers. 'The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used,' Trump wrote on Friday morning, in an effort to walk back the comment. 'What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!' Trump tweeted. The tweet came hours after a bombshell report about Trump's comments, which the White House did not immediately deny. Trump made a public case against an immigration deal Friday by complaining that people from 'high crime' countries get to come here after getting blasted for ranting that people from 's***hole countries get to come here.' The president's claim issued hours after the first reports of his comments that the White House did not deny at the time were directly contradicted by Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, who was in the meeting. 'In the course of his comments, [Trump] said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist,' Durbin told reporters Friday. 'I use those words advisedly. I understand how powerful they are. But I cannot believe in this history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday,' Durbin said. 'You've seen the comments in the press,' Durbin said. 'I have not read one of them that's inaccurate. To no surprise, the President started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly.' 'He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly,' said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, who was in the meeting 'When the question was raised about Haitians, for example. We have a group that have temporary protected status in the United States because they were the victims of crises, disasters, and political upheaval,' Durbin continued. 'The largest group's El Salvadoran, the second is Honduran and the third is Haitian. And when I mentioned that fact to him he said Haitians, do we need more Haitians?' 'And then he went on and he started to describe the immigration from Africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure. That's when he used these vile and vulgar comments calling the nations they come from shitholes. The exact word used by the president not just once, but repeatedly. That was the nature of this conversation.' Trump's public argument against the emerging deal to protect DACA recipients and make other immigration policy came after a flurry of rebukes from Democrats as well as Republicans in Congress. Trump also denied having said 'take them out' in regard to Haitians, as his administration moves to remove temporary immigration status for people who fled disasters in Haiti and El Salvador years ago. Democrats want to give some 'diversity' visas to these people as changes are made to a special program that lets people apply from around the world to come here. 'Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said "take them out," Trump wrote. 'Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!' Among those condemning the comments were Hatian-American Republican Rep. Mia Love of Utah, who called the reported comments 'unkind, divisive [and] elitist' and demanded that Trump apologize. Trump has not apologized, and the White House initially did not not deny he made the comments, which were reported by the Washington Post. 'NOT THE LANGUAGE USED': Trump's cleanup statement used an unusually passive voice, saying the words 'used by me' were tough Trump denied a report he made a comment about removing people who came here from Haiti after disasters struck their home country '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 Trump reportedly criticized African nations (Somalia is pictured above) during the meeting, angering the African Union In Letterman's Nextlix series, the former president, Obama, was reflecting on his own White House journey when he made the comments that hit home for Trump. Obama said he fell into a trap of droning on and on from behind a lectern. 'When you become president and you're in the Oval Office, you feel now I have to act presidential,' he said, 'and we lost track of what had gotten us there, and that was our ability to tell stories and relate to people.' To be fair, Obama said, he had two wars and a collapsing economy to contend with, and that creates a sense of seriousness. Moments later, Letterman asked him, hypothetically, about a country that has its voting process 'monkeyed with' by foreign countries. 'What is more damaging to that democracy?' Letterman asked. 'Would it be the diminishment by the head of the democracy of press, or would it be somebody screwing around with the actual voting process.' Obama replied that one of the biggest problems with the U.S. is 'the degree to which we don't share a common baseline of facts.' 'What the Russians exploited but it was already here, is we are operating in completely different information universes. If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet than you are if you, well, listen to NPR.' 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 Former president Barack Obama said he was a wreck when he dropped his daughter Malia off at Harvard University. The 44th commander-in-chief discussed move-in day when he appeared as the first guest on David Letterman's new Netflix talk show 'My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman'. Obama then described how he speaks with the 19-year-old regularly because he's 'pathetic'. Letterman's interview with Obama marked the former president's first television talk show appearance since he left office in January 2017. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Former president Barack Obama said he was a wreck when he dropped his daughter Malia off at Harvard University he appeared as the first guest on David Letterman's new Netflix talk show, 'My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman' (pictured) The former commander-in-chief then described to Letterman (pictured) how he speaks with the 19-year-old regularly and she'll text him emoji hearts because he's 'pathetic' Obama said, however, that Malia regularly keeps in contact with him. 'I get home and [Malia] knows I'm pathetic, so she's texted me hearts, and, you know, so we are talking on a regular basis' (Pictured, Obama and Malia make their way to board Air Force One, April 2016) Barack and Michelle Obama looked to be emotional (left) as they left Malia's dorm after saying goodbye to the freshman (right) and rushed into their waiting SUV with their eyes covered in August 2017 'It was like open-heart surgery man,' Obama told Letterman of moving his oldest daughter into her college dorm in August 2017. 'And it was was interesting to see how everybody handled things differently. Michelle had a cleaning glove and was scouring the bathroom...Sasha tries to be cool because she didn't want to admit that she was going to miss her sister so she was helping make the bed and fold clothes . 'I was basically useless.' Obama, 56, then launched into an anecdote about a desk lamp Malia asked to assemble that took much longer than he expected. 'It should have taken like five or three minutes. And it only had four parts and I'm sitting there and I'm just toiling way and it's taken half an hour. and I was just pretty pathetic,' he joked. He said he was able to control his emotions until he was out of sight of his daughter. 'I held it together in front of Malia. When we drove away, Secret Service is in the front pretending they can't hear as I'm sniveling in the back seat.' Obama (left, with Letterman) also shared a moment in which Sasha brought him up to dance on stage with Prince before he offered a bit of advice for fathers everywhere: 'I think the key is what we call staying in the pocket Letterman's interview with Obama marked the former president's first television talk show appearance since he left office in January 2017 (Pictured, Obama tapes an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman in May 2015) However, he says Malia regularly keeps in contact with him. 'What's changed I think from when we were kids is technology,' Obama told Letterman. 'So I get home and [Malia] knows I'm pathetic, so she's texted me hearts, and, you know, so we are talking on a regular basis.' In a clip that was released before the Friday premiere, Obama said he remember daughter Sasha, 16, on stage dancing with music icon Prince during one of his very last performances. 'This was probably three or four months before he died, and Prince asked Sasha to come up and dance,' Obama said in the clip released Wednesday. He said that then his youngest daughter pulled him up to join in, which surprised him 'because she always mocks my dancing.' 'I have dad moves,' Obama clarified to a long-bearded Letterman. Obama then offered a bit of advice for fathers everywhere: 'I think the key is what we call staying in the pocket. 'You gotta stay in the pocket, because I think everybody here knows dads who get out of the pocket. And they're trying stuff that they can't really pull off.' Letterman has mostly stayed out of the public eye since leaving television more than two-and-a-half years ago. His new show (pictured) resembles a scaled down version of his old program but with a more intimate dynamic. Upcoming guests include actor George Clooney, rapper Jay-Z and Pakistani education activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai (pictured) Letterman bid his final, emotional farewell on the CBS late-night show on May 20, 2015 in front of the studio audience and a huge 13.76 million viewers, paying tribute to his wife, Regina, and son, Harry, 11. The program, which started at 11:35pm, lasted more than an hour as CBS let it run long. The last time Letterman had so many viewers was in 1994, when his show aired after that year's Winter Olympics. Letterman has mostly stayed out of the public eye since leaving television more than two-and-a-half years ago. His new show resembles a scaled down version of his old program but with a more intimate dynamic. Next month, actor George Clooney will join Letterman onstage. Other guests in the six-episode special include rapper Jay-Z, radio shock jock Howard Stern, comedian Tina Fey and Pakistani education activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, the streaming service said. Missouri Governor Eric Greitens has denied allegations that he slapped his former mistress during an encounter in the same hospital just as his wife was giving birth to their child. The former mistress, who claimed that Greitens attempted to blackmail her with an explicit photo at the start of their affair, has also accused the Republican governor of assault, CBS News reported on Friday. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the claims made by a married woman with whom Greitens had an affair. The affair was revealed by the mistress' now-ex-husband. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner confirmed the probe in a statement Thursday after the 'serious' and 'troubling' allegations were made public through an audio tape released by the unnamed woman's ex-husband this week. Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (shown with wife Sheena Greitens in 2016) is denying allegations that he assaulted a former mistress while his wife was in the hospital giving birth to their child St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner (pictured left) announced her probe into Greitens after the Republican politician's married ex-mistress says he blackmailed her at the start of their affair. Greitens admitted to an affair, but denied blackmail claims Greitens is pictured with his family during a campaign event in August 6, 2016. He admitted to having a sexual relationship with the unnamed woman in March 2015 'It is essential for residents of the City of St. Louis and our state to have confidence from 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,' Gardner said in the statement. 'Both parties and the people of St. Louis deserve a thorough investigation of these allegations. 'If anyone has any information related to this matter, I encourage them to contact my office immediately.' The married father-of-two, 43, admitted Wednesday to sleeping with the married woman, but denied her claim suggesting that he tied her up, blindfolded her and snapped photos to later use as blackmail if she failed to keep quiet. The ex-husband's attorney, Albert Watkins, made another explosive allegation on Friday, accusing the governor of slapping his client after she told him she and her husband had sex during their attempt at reconciliation. 'When she admitted that she'd had sexual relations with her husband during a period of reconciliation, that the governor slapped her,' Watkins said. The attorney alleged on Friday that the governor first assaulted his client when they met face-to-face in a hospital where Greitens' wife was delivering their child. The governor is denying the allegations. The sexual relationship between the woman and the Republican politician, who assumed office in January 2017, began in March 2015, his former lover's now ex-husband revealed in the bombshell story to St. Louis TV station KMOV. In the audio recording, the 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. 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 The woman's ex-husband who spoke on the matter, still refuses to forgive Greitens for his 'inhuman' and 'evil' behavior 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 tape as she 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. 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 said 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 encounter later in the day - but did not include further information on what that entailed. The lawmaker is pictured wearing festive sweaters with his family in December 5, 2017. He has denied allegations from his former mistress who says he threatened her with a compromising photo The family man is shown during his campaign in July 26, 2016. Greitens attorney says the woman's claim is false 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. Meanwhile, Greitens' wife stood by his side, over what the lawmaker calls a 'deeply personal mistake' of his past. The woman's ex-husband, who spoke openly on the matter with the news station, added: 'I don't want to be a part of politics, I don't want to be a part of anything.' Greitens emerges as winner of the Missouri governor's race on Nov. 8, 2016. Following his affair, his wife Sheena (right) chose to stick by his side He also continues to refuse forgiveness for Greitens over 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.' He revealed 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 mystery woman who made Keanu Reeves beam while they were out to dinner on Monday night is a LA artist and photographer, DailyMail.com can reveal. The 53-year-old actor was in high spirits as he left Madeo a romantic Italian restaurant in West Hollywood with silver-haired beauty Alexandra Grant. The 44-year-old and Reeves have a history that goes back years, first collaborating together on a grown-up's picture book, Ode to Happiness, in 2011. The book was a success, sparking the poet-artist duo to create their second book together, Shadows, in 2016, with Grant photographing Reeves while he was filming John Wick. Since then, the two have been spotted together at art galleries, book signings, posed for Vogue Spain and even traveled to Germany to work together. Scroll down for video The mystery woman Keanu Reeves was spotted out to dinner with in West Hollywood on Monday night is artist and photographer Alexandra Grant (pictured) The poet-artist duo went on to create their second book together, Shadows, in 2016, with Grant photographing Reeves while he was filming John Wick. Pictured: Grant and Reeves at an art gallery Speaking of working with Reeves to the LA Times, Grant said: 'No one can move the way he can. He's a really extreme performer' According to the Fairview Park, Ohio native's website, Grant describes herself as a 'text-based artist who uses language and networks of words as the basis for her work in painting, drawing and sculpture.' Grant has been featured at shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore and other galleries across the country, as well as overseas. Speaking of working together on their second book, Grant told W Magazine: 'We can spend a lot of time debating. Like, "A raspberry hue? And should it be darker?" We can get obsessive.' Shadows is compiled of dark silhouette images of Reeves taken by Grant. Grant told the LA Times: 'No one can move the way he can. He's a really extreme performer. 'That's a huge piece of why those images are so interesting. I knew that if I moved the camera as we danced together, as photographer and subject, we could create these wonderful optical illusions.' The book features poetry by the Matrix actor, which accompanies the haunting images. Grant, 44, (pictured) has been close friends with the actor, 53, for years, first collaborating together on a grown-up's picture book, Ode to Happiness, in 2011 The John Wick actor hasnt been linked to a woman since 2015 when he was rumored to be dating transgender actress Jamie Clayton The two were spotted for a causal night out on Monday night, with Reeves wearing a black beanie and a hoodie. He was comfortable in jeans, a brown blazer, and a pair of worn lace-up boots. Grant wore an all-black ensemble and went make-up free other than a swipe of red lipstick. The silver-haired woman paired black jeans and booties with a long-line jacket and a graphic tee. The two were all smiles as they hopped into their vehicle after dinner. It's not everyday that the Lebanon native is seen smiling from ear to ear. He became known for his downbeat demeanor illustrated by the popular Sad Keanu meme an image of the actor sitting alone on a park bench that went viral back in 2010. Reeves hasnt been linked to a woman since 2015 when he was rumored to be dating transgender actress Jamie Clayton. Since meeting, the two have been spotted together at art galleries, book signings, posed for Vogue Spain and even traveled to Germany to work together. Pictured: Reeves and Grant at an art gallery Laid back: The duo were casually dressed for their dinner at Madeo a romantic Italian restaurant frequented by a long list of celebrities including Bella Hadid and Lionel Richie Reeves has never been married and his only child with girlfriend Jennifer Syme was stillborn in 2000. The couple split just weeks before Syme died in a fatal car crash. Over the years, Reeves has had several romantic relationships with co-stars including Sandra Bullock, Diane Keaton and Winona Ryder. The GQ proclaimed coolest actor in Hollywood, remains one of the top action stars. Charlize Theron talked with Seth Meyers about leveraging Reeves skills at the gym while training for her movie Atomic Blonde. We trained in the same facility and I saw him, she said. Hes a really good friend of mine. It was good to have him there, because its so hard to train at this level. Reeves will continue his on-screen hit man duties in John Wick 3 set to premiere in 2019. Sydnie Macfarlane, 28,(pictured in an image taken from social media) died after taking a lethal drugs cocktail, which she also fed to daughter Dolce Dada, nine, and three-year-old son Rhys Dada A depressed single mother facing eviction, the public exposure of an infidelity and the breakdown of a close friendship killed herself and her two young children, a coroner has ruled Sydnie Macfarlane, 28, a children's ward worker, died after taking a lethal drugs cocktail, which she also fed to daughter Dolce Dada, nine, and three-year-old son Rhys Dada, at their home in Greenwich, south-east London, between January 27 and 30 last year. The bodies were found in the mother's bed after concerned family members contacted police. She had also miscarried while pregnant with a third child, the court heard. Southwark Coroner's Court heard Ms Macfarlane had engaged with social services, and had previously expressed some suicidal thoughts, but had later appeared optimistic about life - particularly her plan to become a care worker. But the court heard Ms Macfarlane had also recently become distressed about an 'infidelity' exposed a fortnight before her death. Details of who was involved in the tryst were not disclosed in court. 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 Ms Macfarlane's friend Shauneen Langford-Bell said the mother-of-two had been very upset on the Friday before she died, saying: '(Ms Macfarlane) said she had lost me and she had nothing to live for.' Coroner Andrew Harris recorded verdicts of unlawful death for the children, and suicide for the mother. He said: 'She hid the depths of her depression from others and took a lethal overdose of drugs. 'She was suffering from increasing domestic stress including financial problems, a miscarriage, exposure of infidelity, the loss of a friend, potential custody battle for her children and imminent eviction. 'She was depressed, but she sought and received family help and didn't follow up on any anti-depressants or call any help lines. 'She hid the depths of her depression for others and took a lethal overdose of drugs.' The court heard Ms Macfarlane - who was described as having had a 'difficult childhood' with drug addict parents but who had never used drugs herself - was worried about being evicted, but family said she was being supported in lodging an appeal and was offered accommodation elsewhere. 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) 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 children's father Sean Dada, an engineer, said he also tried to soothe Ms Macfarlane's concerns about the children subsequently going into care if she was evicted, saying: 'It was not going to happen.' Prince Boampong, a psychiatric nurse who saw Ms Macfarlane in the August before her death, denied the patient's mental health was of serious concern, and said another medical opinion that she would not 'kill herself because of her children' was perfectly accurate. 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 He said: 'I would say she was going through stress. She was in distress, not insane. 'During the assessment she disclosed that she had been depressed since the age of 14. She was feeling in a low mood because of things going on in her life, the main trigger was housing problems. 'I asked her about the future, she said the future was positive. 'I asked her about the future, she said the future was positive. She was a health care assistant working in a children's ward and she wanted to go back to it when things settled down. Her death came as a shock.' He added: 'She disclosed she had been depressed since the age of 14. 'And for the past month she had been feeling in low mood because of things that had been going on in her life. The main trigger was her housing problem.' 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' The family were referred to social services in 2015 after Ms Macfarlane, during a conversation with the Department for Work and Pensions, made the comment: 'I don't think there is any point in me carrying on with the children cos I've got no money.' The inquest also heard from Jaqueline Augustene, grandmother of the two children and mother of their father Sean. She said she knew Sydnie 'had a difficult childhood because her parents were drug addicts and she had to look after her sister', but said she never did drugs and was against them. 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 She last saw her on January 25 and said: 'She was pre-occupied with texting.. 'But she seemed quite optimistic and she had applied for a job with St John Ambulance. She was quite positive. 'I have never seen her depressed, but I have seen her feeling down now and then.' She described Sydnie as a 'very kind hearted girl' but had 'changed in the months before she died'. The coroner absolved social services and health care teams of blame over the deaths, following a Serious Case Review. He said: 'It's speculation to claim these bodies could have prevented the deaths of these people. 'My view is the organisations concerned have learned from the lessons of this.' Members of the victims' family left court without comment. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116 123, or visit a local Samaritans branch - see samaritans.org for details. Advertisement They were the true pioneers of the American West thousands of young women aged 18 to 30 who worked six days a week at ground-breaking rail station diners that created dozens of small towns scattered 100 miles apart from each other in the Southwest and West. The majority of the brave women had traveled to these tiny and seemingly uninhabited areas leaving everything they knew behind, including their childhood homes and parents, just to have a chance to earn a decent wage and be independent, while unknowingly helping to change the landscape of the new U.S. territory gained after winning the pivotal Mexican-American War in 1848. The acquired states, including Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Colorado, Nevada and Utah, were largely unpopulated by Americans until people began migrating from the East Coast, Midwest and South for a fresh start at life by traveling via the newly built railroad system connecting the entire country. Many of those Americans were following the popular phrase, 'Go West, Young Man, Go West'. But in the beginning, the rides on the trains were dreadful long trips with essentially no real decent food to eat. There were no dining cars or fancy snacks available for purchase. Instead, the only viable option for passengers was to patronize a roadhouse, which often served rotten meat, cold beans and week's old coffee, during stops for the locomotive to refuel. Those grim conditions deterred many Americans from wanting to make the journey via the railroad system. That all changed when businessman Fred Harvey created rail station diners called Harvey Houses that provided high quality service delivered from his female employees known as The Harvey Girls starting in the 1870s. Over a period of 90 years, Harvey House employed more than 100,000 young women to work at Harvey Houses that were strategically situated about 100 miles apart from each other at numerous rail stations located in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, and more. The Harvey Girls were the true pioneers of the American West thousands of young women aged 18 to 30 who worked six days a week at ground-breaking rail station diners that created dozens of small towns scattered 100 miles apart from each other in the Southwest and West. During the 1800s and early 1900s, the elite and highly-trained young women worked for a decent wage at popular rail station diners called Harvey Houses. The majority of eateries were located at railroad stops in the expanding Western part of the country locations. Pictured above are Harvey Girls working at the Harvey House in Grand Canyon Harvey ran advertisements in newspapers along the East Coast and Midwest seeking single, young women with 'good moral character' and a host of other attributes to hire at Harvey Houses. 'Wanted: Young women 18 to 30 years of age, of good moral character, attractive and intelligent, to waitress in Harvey Eating Houses on the Santa Fe in the West. Wages, $17.50 per month with room and board. Liberal tips customary. Experience not necessary. Write Fred Harvey, Union Depot, Kansas City, Missouri,' the ads read at the time. Harvey House founder, Fred Harvey (above), came up with the concept of elevating railroad patrons' dining experience and addressing the issue of poor food for train passengers Surprisingly, thousands of women jumped at the chance for independence away from their parents without having to be married and immediately start a family, Harvey Girl expert Rosa Walston Latimer explained to DailyMail.com. Latimer, who is the granddaughter of a Harvey Girl, has published three books about the amazing group of female pioneers and is set to release her fourth - Harvey Houses of Arizona - in 2018. She said that outside of having 'good moral character', each woman had to have at least an eighth-grade education, be well-mannered and adventurous since they were given time to travel for free via the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) if they worked a minimum of six months with the company. The elite women who were selected for an interview had to travel to the company's headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri where they were interviewed and vigorously questioned about their backgrounds, Latimer explained. If hired, they had to sign a pledge swearing to that they had a high exemplary character because Harvey wanted his customers to have the most pristine dining experience while traveling. The women who agreed to the pledge, then went on to attend an intense six-week training program where they learned the rules of etiquette, how to properly set a table and ensure that none of the custom-made Harvey plates or glasses were cracked or chipped. In addition, they had to learn how to work with a sincere smile, no matter what the situation was at hand. Once training finished, the women were sent to a rural town to work at a Harvey House, where they had 12-hour shifts six days a week. When not at work, the women lived in free dormitories with a dorm mother who monitored them and ensured they kept up their 'high moral character' and seemingly perfect reputations. He is credited with creating the first national chain of eateries that allowed young women to gain independence without having to be married and beginning a family right away. Trains would pull into stations to refuel and passengers would go into Harvey Houses to quickly dine (above train 3517 pulls into Belen, New Mexico on the Santa Fe Rail Road) The businessman ran newspaper ads to find young women with 'good moral character' to hire at Harvey Houses. Thousands traveled to Kansas City, Missouri for an interview, and if selected they underwent six weeks of intense training where they learned the rules of etiquette and more. Above a Harvey Girl works at the location in Lamy, New Mexico Once training finished, the women were sent to a rural town to work at a Harvey House, where they had 12-hour shifts six days a week. They were not allowed to wear make-up or jewelry during their shifts and sported distinct uniforms that had to spotless every day. Pictured above in Syracuse, Kansas They also had a strict 10pm curfew where the dorm mother would routinely do bed checks as Harvey wanted all of the women who worked for him to be women of noble character and not to be confused with local prostitutes. Above Harvey Girls are pictured at Harvey House in Belen, New Mexico They also had a strict 10pm curfew where the dorm mother would routinely do bed checks as Harvey wanted all of the women who worked for him to be women of noble character and not to be confused with local prostitutes. Latimer noted that another stipulation in their contract was that they had to remain unmarried for at least the first six months to a year. But that clause came after Harvey found that he lost a number of Harvey Girls within their first few weeks to months of work at rail stations because they would marry men they met on the job. The elite and highly-trained group of Harvey Girls broke barriers, as they were essentially the country's first national corp of independent women working in the 1800s to 1900s making a decent wage independent from a man especially at a time where women did not have equal rights. The intriguing day-to-day lives of Harvey Girls helping to build-up the American frontier was even put on the big screen in 1946 when Judy Garland and Angela Lansbury stared in the hit musical titled, 'The Harvey Girls' with a story-line loosely based around finding love while working at a Harvey House in New Mexico. The movie's story-line is something that similarly occurred with Latimer's grandmother, Gertrude Elizabeth McCormack. Latimer knew nothing about her biological family until she received a packet in the mail when she graduated high school from her biological uncle. 'He included a family tree and talked about about how my grandmother had been a Harvey Girl,' Latimer said. 'At that point, I had no idea what a Harvey Girl was and I began to research. As I learned more about her, I discovered that there were thousands of women who worked as Harvey Girls. 'There were over 100,000 women who worked as Harvey Girls.' In addition, Harvey Girls had to learn how to work in the diners with a sincere smile, no matter what the situation was at hand. Above Harvey Girl Luz Moore (left) is pictured in Seligman, Arizona Harvey Girls had a stipulation in their contract to remain unmarried for at least the first six months to a year of employment. That clause came after the businessman found that he lost a number of women early on in their careers because they would marry men they met on the job. Above a Harvey Girl is pictured at the location in Belen, New Mexico with a male staff member The elite and highly-trained group of Harvey Girls broke barriers, as they were essentially the country's first national corp of independent women working in the 1800s to 1900s making a decent wage independent from a man especially at a time where women did not have equal rights. Above Harvey Girls are pictured at Harvey House in Belen, New Mexico Latimer said that prior to working as a Harvey Girl, she discovered that her grandmother was actually a nurse in Philadelphia in the early 1900s. 'She decided to pick up and move to live in Alaska. She heard that Fred Harvey, who had built and established these restaurants along the Santa Fe Railroad, was looking to hire educated women of good character,' Latimer explained. Latimer said that her grandmother then traveled to Kansas City, Missouri for her personal interview for the position, and when she passed, she was sent to Rincon, New Mexico, which is located about two hours and 40 minutes south of Albuquerque. Latimer explained that her grandmother gave up the dream of going to Alaska and settled in Rincon to work at the Harvey House where she worked consistently for three years. But her grandmother stopped working and became one of the 20,000 women who met their spouses while working at Harvey Houses. 'She met my grandfather, William Alexander Balmanno, who worked as a whaler in the Indian Ocean,' Latimer shared. 'He had gotten off his whaling ship and ended up in Deer Creek, New Mexico. He and a friend had decided to walk to California, but only got as far as Rincon. 'He needed money for the rest of his trip and decided to take a job with Santa Fe Railroad. He then met my grandmother and were married three months later.' The intriguing day-to-day lives of Harvey Girls helping to build-up the American frontier was even put on the big screen in 1946 when Judy Garland, John Hodiak and Angela Lansbury stared in the hit musical titled, 'The Harvey Girls' (above) The film's story-line was loosely based around finding love while working at a Harvey House in New Mexico. Above Judy Garland is pictured sporting her film costume, which was identical to the typical Harvey Girl uniform Latimer, who is a playwright and the author to four books about Harvey Houses located across the West, said her grandparents settled in Rincon before moving to Albuquerque for the rest of their lives. 'I am extremely proud because these women were adventurous and brave,' Latimer said of her grandmother's history as a Harvey Girl. 'It's hard to realize what the West and Southwest was like at this time. She was certainly brave because she was an orphan and didn't have any family. She was just really alone and set out on this amazing journey.' She added, 'This is a wonderful group of women. Many of them had not been away from home and had not been further than walking distance from the farm where they lived. But they went off to the interview and then to places in the West that people didn't know much about.' But through their tireless effort working long hours combined with their desire for independence, the Harvey Girls ultimately became the true pioneers of the America West by moving to these locations that were not established towns or cities. Thousands of women did not return back to where they were from and eventually settled in these areas after finding love and getting married, which eventually led to them beginning families and increasing the population in the West. 'It's a very strong part of women's history and our country and I feel like it's been under told for a long time,' Latimer said. After more than two months in hospital the last survivor of the Sutherland Springs church massacre returned home today in a fire truck. Ryland Ward, 6 was shot when a gunman stormed the rural First Baptist Church on November 5, in Texas which was deemed the worst in the state's histoy. The young boy had been recovering from his injuries in San Antonio University Hospital for months. But he rode home in style in a bright red fire truck from the Wilson County Fire Department. Ryland Ward (pictured), 6, is the last survivor of the Sutherland Springs church massacre to return home from hospital Volunteer firefighter Rusty Duncan told ABC News was a first responder that day, and he was the one who found Ryland and pulled him to safety. He said: '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.' 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's mother reached out to Duncan and they went to visit him together about a week after the shooting. Ryland was shot when a gunman stormed the rural First Baptist Church on November 5, in Texas He was heavily sedated and was going through surgery after surgery. Duncan has continued to visit Ryland in hospital up until his release and has even helped him to begin to walk again. His grandmother Sandy Ward said: 'It's just a miracle he survived and is doing as well as he is. He returned home in style in a fire truck from the Wilson County Fire Department Sutherland Springs community members gathered in wait, holding signs including 'Welcome home handsome' and 'Yay buddy.' 'We're just excited to get him to come home.' Sutherland Springs community members gathered in wait, holding signs including 'Welcome home handsome' and 'Yay buddy.' Fire Marshal Edwin Baker told KSAT.com that most of the personnel who will provided Ward's escort are the first responders who arrived at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs following the shooting. Nigel Farage raged at 'vindictive' Eurocrats after it emerged he is being docked 35,000 from his salary in a row over staffing costs. The former UKIP leader, who recently complained that he was '53, separated and skint', is being punished after EU parliament watchdogs concluded he had misused funds. He has been accused of using official budgets to pay assistant Christopher Adams, even though he was not working on parliamentary business. Mr Adams' contract was suspended last year. Nigel Farage during a parliamentary session last year. He accused Eurocrats of being 'vindictive' in the wake of the Brexit vote The European Parliament in session in Strasbourg. Mr Farage has been an MEP for two decades A EU parliament source told the Guardian: 'Since 1 January [2018] the European parliament has withheld 50 per cent in order to recoup the 40,000 due in salary that was paid to Christopher Adams and which cannot be proved by Farage.' Mr Farage confirmed to MailOnline that his pay was being witheld but insisted he 'absolutely rejected' any suggestion of wrongdoing. 'It is guilty until proven innocent,' he said. 'They can do whatever they like. Since Brexit they are just being vindictive.' Mr Farage said the situation was 'very difficult' and the punishment was 'arbitrary'. 'I have been (in the European parliament) 20 years. I absolutely reject what they say. 'But it is difficult to know what I can do about it.' Docking Farage's pre-tax MEP salary of 8,484 a month would mean he would have repaid his 'debt to the EU' by October 2018. MEPs earn 101,808 a year before tax and receive thousands more in expenses for staff, travel and office costs. Mr Farage has previously been accused of 'shameless hypocrisy' for agreeing to take a 73,000 tax-payer funded EU pension. The former UKIP leader (picture giving an interview yesterday) is being punished after EU parliament watchdogs concluded he had misused funds As an MEP, the former Ukip leader will be entitled to an annual pension of 73,000 when he reaches the age of 63. He is currently 53. The pension could be part-funded by Britain's estimated 50 billion 'divorce bill' - if there is a Brexit deal, reports the Sunday Times. Asked on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show if he would accept the money, Mr Farage replied: 'Of course I would take it. I have said that right from day one. Why should my family and others suffer even more.' Mr Farage said he did not expect the money would ever be paid. 'Given the arbitrary way the European Union behaves in terms of money, I would be very surprised if I get any of it. I don't think it will even occur,' he said. A woman who allegedly searched for tips on how to get away with murder before her husband was found dead in their Texas home was arrested for killing him. Sandra Garner was taken into custody on Wednesday, eight days after the death of 42-year-old Jon Garner. Police were called to the Garner's Maypearl home on January 2 following a 911 call from Garner claiming that a masked intruder had broken into their home and shot and killed her husband, the Waxahachie Daily Light reports. Jon Garner (right) was found shot to death in his Maypearl, Texas home on January 2. His wife, Sandra Garner (left) was arrested and charged with his murder Garner, pictured her in a mugshot photo, is being held at the Ellis County Jail on a $2million bond The couple, pictured above, had been married for 18 years before his death Garner, 55, later told investigators that she was 'awakened that night by two gunshots and saw a masked male holding a gun and flashlight inside her residence'. She claimed that the intruder told her he was not there to harm her and 'held a grudge against her husband because of work-related matters'. She then said she was forced to open a safe in the home and give the man approximately $18,000. Jon Garner, 42, worked as a general manager for DHL Express and We Pack in Texas. A funeral will be held on Saturday The alleged intruder told Garner to go into the bathroom and count to 100 until he left. He also threatened to come back and kill her if he heard police sirens at the home, Garner told investigators. Police seized several electronic devices during the investigation and searched the couple's home and vehicles. One device, authorities said belonged to Garner, contained an internet search for 'how to kill someone and not get caught'. A .38 caliber pistol was also found in her Ford Mustang. Police said the gun, which matched the one that was used to kill Jon Garner, had been wrapped in a paper towel and hidden inside two plastic bags. Authorities said an initial search of the vehicle did not turn up the weapon. It was apparent this firearm was moved to the vehicle after the initial search, Maypearl police chief Boyd Norton told the Waxahachie Daily Light. Garner initially told police that a masked intruder had broken into the Maypearl home and shot Jon Garner over a work-related grudge Police later found that Sandra Garner (right) had allegedly searched 'how to kill somebody and not get caught'. She's pictured here with her husband, Jon Garner (left) Police also found a gun matching the one that was used to kill Jon Garner in Sandra Garner's (pictured) Ford Mustang Garner is being held on a $2million bond at the Ellis County Jail for murder charges. Police have not revealed a motive for the crime. The couple had been married for 18 years before his death. He's survived by two children, Andrea Miller and Wes Miller. A funeral for Jon Garner, who worked as a general manager for DHL Express and We Pack, will be held on Saturday in Waxahachie. John Coatman is pictured arriving outside the Old Bailey today, where he was given a suspended 21-month jail term A disgraced former headmaster who was honoured by the Queen for his services to young people has been spared jail after admitting sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy. A court heard the teenager would visit John Coatman's home, where they would engage in 'rough and tumble' 'play fighting', which later took a sexual turn. Matters escalated when the pair undressed in Coatman's bedroom and the headteacher touched his 'younger charge' sexually on three separate occasions. In August 2016, retired Coatman, 76, was found guilty of gross indecency with a member of a youth group he was involved with in the 1970s. His conviction was thrown out by the Court of Appeal last April, because of an error on the charge sheet put before the jury. When the case returned to the Old Bailey for a retrial last month, Coatman pleaded guilty to an amended charge of indecent assault. Coatman, from Croydon, south London, was sentenced by Judge Anne Molyneux to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for two years. He was also made subject to a 12-month supervision order. The defendant was headteacher of St Andrew's secondary school in Croydon, but the complainant was not a pupil at the school, the court heard. Coatman retired in 1998 after 42 years as a teacher and was awarded an MBE in 2012. Coatman (pictured at the Old Bailey) retired in 1998 after 42 years as a teacher and was awarded an MBE in 2012 Prosecutor Mark Trafford QC said: 'The defendant's MBE for services to young people was something that he found difficult to comprehend under the circumstances.' Claims against Coatman, who has an inoperable cancer, surfaced in 2014. In a victim impact statement, the complainant said the incidents had left him with emotional and relationship difficulties in his later life, and that he also suffered from depression. Sentencing the former headteacher, Ms Molyneux said: 'You were in a position of considerable trust, and he (complainant) trusted you. He enjoyed being with you over a short period of time.' She added: 'At the time of the offence you were struggling to cope with the pressures of your life.' The court heard that, after being arrested, Coatman confided in a friend that he had been wrestling with his sexuality. Coatman showed no reaction as he was sentenced. Actor Regina Simons (pictured), 43, who was working as an extra on Seagal's 'On Deadly Ground', claims the director invited her to a wrap party at his Beverly Hills home and raped her Steven Seagal has been accused of raping a woman on the set of his 1994 film 'On Deadly Ground'. Regina Simons, who was working as an extra on the movie, claims Seagal, who was directing, invited her to a wrap party at his Beverly Hills home. But when Simons, then just 18, arrived there was only him. 'He took me into this room and then just closed the door and started kissing me,' she recalled. 'He then took my clothes off and before I knew it he was on top of me, raping me I wasn't sexually active yet. People always talk about fight-or-flight. But no one talks about the freeze.' The mother-of-two, now 43, met Seagal for the first time in 1993 during an open call for his film 'On Deadly Ground'. Seagal's previous movie 'Under Siege' had earned a total domestic gross $83million. Simons and her brother were selected from countless hopefuls lining up outside the audition by Seagal himself, who invited them to join him on set, Simons said. Soon they were both in Seagal's trailor. When Simons complained of a headache Seagal offered to give her a massage. Seagal's previous movie 'Under Siege' had earned a total domestic gross $83million She said he rubbed her hand and neck, which seemed an odd thing to do. They then moved on to the set. Later, during filming, Seagal would invite Simons to his house where the alleged rape would take place. Both Simons and Dutch former model Faviola Dadis have filed reports about Seagal to the LAPD in the last month. Both Simons and Dutch former model Faviola Dadis (pictured) have filed reports about Seagal to the LAPD in the last month. Dadis says she was groped by the actor and director during an audition in 2002 Dadis says she was groped by the actor and director during an audition in 2002. The LAPD detective who Seagal and Dadis said they spoke to declined to comment, reported blog site The Wrap. An LAPD spokesperson also confirmed it was investigating a separate case involving Seagal from 2005. More than a dozen women have accused Seagal of sexual misconduct. However, Simons is the first to publicly accuse him of rape. Inside Edition's Lisa Guerrero told the Hollywood Reporter in October last year how the actor reportedly invited her to his home for what she described as a private audition in 1996. More than a dozen women have accused Seagal (pictured) of sexual misconduct. However, Simons is the first to publicly accuse him of rape She had been suspicious about the request and arrived with a female casting director. Seagal allegedly answered the door in a silk robe and had her perform in front of him while he sat in a throne. Although Guerrero says Seagal never exposed himself or touched her, she described the whole encounter as 'so strange'. Guerrero told the news outlet that Seagal told her she could have a bigger role if she returned for a 'private rehearsal,' which she refused. Last week, actress Rae Dawn Chong made similar claims, alleging in The Wrap, that she was called to a private audition with Seagal at the Bel Air Hotel in the 1980s - where Seagal also answered the door in his bathrobe. The Commando actress recalled feeling 'heartbroken' by her agency at the time, believing they have 'pimped' her out. Chong claimed Seagal sat in a chair and 'manspread so I could see his junk. But he casually covered back up as if it was a mistake.' The actress said she left quickly after he asked her if he could touch her silk shirt. Chong says it did not end there, claiming Seagal continued to leave what she described as sex messages on her machine. In a 1998 interview with Movieline, Jenny McCarthy claimed that Seagal attempted to coerce the then fledgling actress to take off her dress during an audition for Under Seige 2. Seagal vehemently denied the claims. A law student experienced every New Yorker's worst nightmare when she fainted and fell on to the subway tracks in Brooklyn. Rikke Bukh, 22, fell into the path of a Manhattan-bound train at the Bedford Avenue station in Williamsburg as it approached the platform on Thursday around 11.15am. 'Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Did I hit her?' the L-train operator said, while jumping out to see if the woman was OK, according to the New York Post. Miraculously, Bukh survived her fall as she landed between the rail and platform wall. Rikke Bukh, 22, survived fainting and falling onto the subway track at a station in Brooklyn just as a Manhattan-bound train approached the platform on Thursday morning On-lookers were shook by what they saw, and what they thought they might have seen Bukh experienced every New Yorker's worst nightmare on Thursday, but lived to tell about it The young woman became dizzy and fell off-balance, off the platform and down into the track area, police told the New York Post. 'She just stumbled off sideways,' said a 26-year-old film distributor Jasper Basch, who witnessed everything. 'The train stopped, and she was underneath it,' Basch said. 'It was a terrifying thing to witness. You consider, oh my God, did I just watch somebody die?' Miraculously, Bukh survived her fall, as she landed just right, between the rail and platform wall, to save her life The young woman became dizzy and fell off-balance, off the platform and down into the track area, policed told the New York Post First responders arrived quickly, releasing Bukh to safety after about 20 minutes Twitter user @rhettrowan was also upset. 'Praying to whatever god is out there for the girl next to me who just fell onto the L train track,' the user wrote. 'I am completely traumatized my limbs are numb... I feel powerless.' First responders arrived quickly, freeing Bukh after about 20 minutes pinned under the train. Those watching were thankful firefighters got her out of there relatively quickly. 'I have to say, it was a comforting thing to see MTA employees were able to rush to respond like that,' Basch said. 'You have to give them credit. Everyone was really on top of it.' FDNY told the Post the woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition Bukh wasn't without injury, though she was pulled from below the train within 20 minutes A source mentioned Bukh was experiencing back pain after her fall down by the tracks Bukh wasn't without injury, though. FDNY said she was taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition. Her neighbor Don Lewis, 60, said she is well-liked in the community. 'She says "hi" to everyone, and I feel horrible she has to go through this. You cant help if you faint, but this is why you should stay away, far away from the tracks,' he said. Those watching were thankful firefighters got Bukh out of there relatively quickly Bukh, who appears to be well-traveled with many friends from her Facebook page, is well-liked in her community The cause of Bukh's dizzy spell remains unknown. Doctors were reportedly running tests on her. Bukh, who was born in Denmark, is studying law in New York City at Yeshiva Universitys Cardozo School of Law. She has lived in Copenhagen and moved to Brooklyn in July after graduating from the University of Florida. Bukh, who was born in Denmark, is studying law in New York City at Yeshiva Universitys Cardozo School of Law in the Village Elliana Shand, 4, has been found in Spain after she went missing with her mother Jessica Richards A four-year-old girl who went missing with her schizophrenic mother has been found in Spain, a High Court judge says. Mr Justice Hayden said on Friday, at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London, that Elliana Shand was safe and well. The judge had made a number of public appeals for help after Elliana and her mother Jessica Richards, who is in her mid 20s, disappeared. In late December Mr Justice Hayden had made a direct appeal to expats and British tourists after saying there was evidence to suggest that Elliana and her mother were in Spain. He said both had been found in Spain by Spanish police on Thursday. The judge praised the work of British and Spanish police and Foreign Office staff. He also praised Elliana's paternal grandparents, Sean and Eileen Doyle, who are both in their fifties and live in the Wembley area of London, for the efforts they had made to trace the girl. Mr and Mrs Doyle were at Friday's hearing. After the hearing, Mrs Doyle said they were 'over the moon'. Mr Justice Hayden indicated plans were in place to return Elliana to England within the next few days. Jessica Richards disappeared from her London home along with her daughter in May Elliana had been at the centre of private family court litigation. She had disappeared from her London home with her mother after social services staff at Barking and Dagenham Council intervened. Mr Justice Hayden had ruled that detail of the case could be made public and pictures of Elliana and her mother released to the media. In December he had urged anyone with information about Elliana to call police immediately. 'I am very concerned indeed about Elliana and her mother,' the judge had said. 'It is imperative that they are found so that we can be sure they are safe.' Mr Doyle, a Liverpool fan who campaigns for victims of the Hillsborough disaster, had also begged for help. 'Please think if you have seen them,' said Mr Doyle, whose son Craig, 29, of Southend, Essex, is Elliana's father. Mr Justice Hayden today said that both Jessica and her daughter had been found in Spain 'We know Jessica loves Elliana to bits. 'But Jessica is schizophrenic and Elliana is very small. 'They must be somewhere. Someone must have seen them. 'They both need help. Please, please help us find them. 'And if you see them please call the police straight away.' Mr Doyle, who comes from Liverpool, had added: 'We are so worried.' Celebrities and political commentators shared their outrage Thursday night over President Trump's reported description of Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as 's***hole countries.' During an afternoon Oval Office meeting about immigration with lawmakers, Trump reportedly asked the room: 'Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?' according to the Washington Post. He's said to have made the comments while pushing against reinstating protections for immigrants from those countries. According to the Post he then said that the US would be happy to welcome immigrants from countries such as Norway. Trump denied making the comments Friday morning, but not before they ignited Thursday's news cycle as movie stars, comedians, musicians and talk show hosts all condemning the President as racist. Scroll down for video Celebrities and political commentators shared their outrage Thursday night over President Trump's reported description of Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as 's***hole countries' 'Daily Show' host Trevor Noah came for Donald especially hard, saying: 'I don't know how break this to you, but I think the president might be racist' Other late night hosts, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jordan Klepper, also made similar proclamations about Trump's latest faux pas During 'Late Night' Seth Myers introduced a new segment in response to the president's comments called 'Seth has to step away for a minute,' in which he got up out of his chair and walked to the corner of his screen while mumbling incoherent frustrations CNN's Don Lemon also expressed his outrage over the alleged remarks, saying that while he couldn't tell Trump or his supporters to go f*** themselves, he can be a southerner and tell them 'bless your hearts' 'Daily Show' host Trevor Noah came for Donald especially hard, saying: 'I don't know how break this to you, but I think the president might be racist.' Noah used his own experiences, as someone from an African country, to explain why he felt that way. 'Personally, as someone from South S***hole, I'm offended, Mr President,' the host said. 'Because not only does he think brown countries are s***holes, he thinks, what, we're never going to know what he said? I mean, don't get me wrong, it might take a new weeks, but once the news donkey reaches our village we'll be so mad.' CNN's Don Lemon also expressed his outrage over the alleged remarks, saying that while he couldn't tell Trump or his supporters to go f*** themselves, he can be a southerner and tell them 'bless your hearts.' 'You know what you can do? I can't say that,' Lemon said. 'But you can go read a book, a history book. Because you might learn that some of the people from those s***hole countries were slaves who were brought here by force to help build this country, and then start your learning process from there.' Other late night hosts, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jordan Klepper, also made similar proclamations about Trump's latest faux pas. 'Sir, they are not s***hole countries,' Colbert said in his opening monologue on 'The Late Show'. 'For one, Donald Trump isn't their president.' Kimmel devoted most of his show 'Live!' to talking about the incident, starting out by reminding his viewers that 'this is an actual quote from the actual president of the United States.' He later called the comments 'unfathomable.' During 'Late Night' Seth Myers introduced a new segment in response to the president's comments called 'Seth has to step away for a minute,' in which he got up out of his chair and walked to the corner of his screen while mumbling incoherent frustrations. And Klepper, host of Comedy Central's 'The Opposition,' delivered a scathing review dripped in sarcasm. 'Yup, now thats how you speak truth to powerlessness,' he said of Trump's slight. 'I know what youre thinking: What do Norwegians have that Haitians and Africans dont? Its simple. Theyre all white-knuckle enthusiasts about making America great again.' Musician John Legend also expressed his outrage over the President's alleged comments Zoolander's Ben Stiller went on a multi-tweet rant about the incident. 'Haitians are a proud and resilient people and their country isnt (sic) a s***hole,' Stiller wrote, after commenting on the irony that Friday is the eighth anniversary of the Haiti earthquake Jerry Springer also voiced his concern, writing simply: 'When Trump calls other countries s***hole countries, does he realize that puts our own citizens in danger? How is that presidential? Chelsea Clinton, a regularly vocal adversary to many of Trump's most inflammatory comments, tweeted: 'Mr President, immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and the 54 countries in Africa likely helped build your buildings. Theyve certainly helped build our country' Jerry Springer also voiced his concern, writing simply: 'When Trump calls other countries s***hole countries, does he realize that puts our own citizens in danger? How is that presidential?' Anderson Cooper choked back tears as he emotionally discussed the issue on CNN on Thursday, giving a touching tribute to the people of Haiti and apologizing on Trump's behalf. You f***ing animal, you dog, you pig. I want to make a citizens arrest on d***stain Donald Trump. He is a f***ing terrorist, he is terrorizing me! Michael Rapaport 'Let me be clear.... the people of Haiti have been through more, withstood more, fought back against more injustice... than our President ever has,' he said. Musician John Legend also expressed his outrage over the President's alleged comments. 'The president is a racist,' he wrote, point blank. 'He has been for his entire public life. If you vote(d) for him, you do so because of that or despite that. We need a multi-racial anti-racist coalition to defeat him and try to heal our nation.' Zoolander's Ben Stiller went on a multi-tweet rant about the incident. 'Haitians are a proud and resilient people and their country isnt (sic) a s***hole,' Stiller wrote, after commenting on the irony that Friday is the eighth anniversary of the Haiti earthquake. 'Wishing all those affected by the earthquake, the last hurricane and everything else they have had to deal with all the best from our country.' Actor Michael Rapaport was so infuriated by the alleged comments that he posted an angry video of himself to his Instagram in which he calls the president 'D***-stain Donald Trump' Former FBI Director James Comey simply quoted the Statue of Liberty in his post about the incident Chef Jose Andres, who owns multiple restaurants across the country, also chimed in with a message for Trump. 'Mr @realdonaldtrump @POTUS Let me introduce you to some amazing young Haitian women and men!' he tweeted alongside a photo of six chefs Actor Michael Rapaport was so infuriated by the alleged comments that he posted an angry video of himself to his Instagram in which he calls the president 'D***-stain Donald Trump.' 'You f***ing animal, you dog, you pig,' Rapaport says while angrily pointing at the camera. 'I want to make a citizens arrest on d***stain Donald Trump. He is a f***ing terrorist, he is terrorizing me.' Chelsea Clinton, a regularly vocal adversary to many of Trump's most inflammatory comments, tweeted: 'Mr President, immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and the 54 countries in Africa likely helped build your buildings. Theyve certainly helped build our country.' Chef Jose Andres, who owns multiple restaurants across the country, also chimed in with a message for Trump. 'Mr @realdonaldtrump @POTUS Let me introduce you to some amazing young Haitian women and men!' he tweeted alongside a photo of six chefs. 'Learning in our @WCKitchen cooking school in Port au Prince. Dreaming of a great future. Their ancestors survived hardships. They deserve respect. And your apology!' Former FBI Director James Comey simply quoted the Statue of Liberty in his post about the incident. 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!' he wrote. 'This countrys greatness and true genius lies in its diversity.' And Star Trek actor George Takei wrote: 'I'm just gonna start calling him president S***hole.' Advertisement Oil rigs weighing thousands of tons are continuing to be stacked up in the Cromarty Firth today in Invergordon, Scotland. Rig platforms are being loaded up in the Cromarty Firth awaiting orders to transport them to scrapyards, due to a lack of demand for their services following the North Sea oil downturn. The port has been stacking the rigs up since crude oil downturn. Economic downturn: The oil rigs in Cromarty Firth, Scotland, are waiting to be transported to scrapyards The rigs, weighing thousands of tons, are being scrapped due to a lack of demand for their services Michael Spencer, the former Tory party treasurer and founder of the City firm Icap, said after the downturn: This is the worst start to a year Ive seen in my entire career. I dont think this will be over in a month, or even two or three months. Weve got more pain to come.' The Cromarty Firth has been used for the parking up of rigs since the start of the North Sea oil and gas industry. Long dismissed by many as a potential source of oil or gas, the North Sea has, over the last four decades, become the centre of one of the world's most productive energy industries. According to trade body Oil and Gas UK, industry contraction resulted in 65,000 job losses for offshore workers throughout Britain across 2014 and 2015. The Cromarty Firth port in Scotland has been used for the parking up of rigs since the beginning of the North Sea oil and gas industry After industry contraction, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire were the only two regions in Scotland to have a rise in people claiming Job Seeker's allowance 2014/15 The slashing of jobs has had catastrophic effects for Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, known for decades as Europe's oil capital. The two regions were the only two in Scotland to experience a rise in the number of people claiming Job Seeker's Allowance in 2014/15 - a year-on-year increase of 1,000. House prices have also plummeted. The period July to September 2016 was down 13.5 per cent on the year, with the value of properties dropping by 16.6 per cent. House prices in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire also fell - the period July to September 2016 was down 13.5 per cent on the year 'Weve got more pain to come': Michael Spencer, the former Tory party treasurer and founder of the City firm Icap, was not optimistic about oil's future after the downturn In the beginning of the North Sea's oil involvement, the industry was very prosperous as there was a huge need for gas and oil to flow Long dismissed by many as a potential source of oil or gas, the North Sea has, over the last four decades, become the centre of one of the world's most productive energy industries. The British industry in the Southern North Sea grew rapidly in the early years. The deepening economic crisis in the UK meant that there was enormous pressure on the industry to get gas, and later, oil flowing. For the oil and gas producers, there were great profits to be made. British self-sufficiency in oil and gas, which was previously an impossible dream, was becoming a possibility. The oil rigs painted a desolate picture on the Cromarty Firth in Scotland as they wait to be taken to scrapyards Authorities in Alabama say a 31-year-old mother of three children had sex with a 13-year-old boy on multiple occasions and also supplied him with drugs. Jennifer Rose Ingram of Deatsville was arrested this week and charged with six felonies, including three counts of second-degree rape, two counts of sodomy, and selling or furnishing a controlled substance to a minor. News of her arrest was reported by AL.com. Law enforcement officials allege that in November and December of last year, Ingram had sexual intercourse and oral sex with the boy in her home. Jennifer Rose Ingram of Deatsville was arrested this week and charged with six felonies, including three counts of second-degree rape, two counts of sodomy, and selling or furnishing a controlled substance to a minor Authorities in Alabama say Ingram, 31, had sex with a 13-year-old boy on multiple occasions and also supplied him with drugs Authorities say that she knew the boy was underage and that she confessed to having sex with him Authorities say that she knew the boy was underage and that she confessed to having sex with him. Ingram also told investigators that she bought illegal narcotics for both of them to use, authorities say. On at least one occasion, Ingram gave the boy the prescription drug Klonopin, which he proceeded to ingest, authorities say. Ingram also reportedly told investigators that the boy had consumed alcohol on at least one visit to her home. Ingram's Facebook page shows that Ingram is the mother to three young children. Her timeline also shows sad posts about losing her husband (above) Her husband, Deandre Moxley, died last July. His family said his death was sudden She was placed in Autauga County Metro Jail on bonds totaling $65,000. Authorities say that Ingram and the mother of the victim know one another, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. A witness told the boy's mother that he had allegedly walked in and caught Ingram and the victim having sex at Ingrams home, investigators say. The witness told the victims mother. When the mother asked her son about Ingram, he allegedly admitted to the relationship. Ingram's Facebook page shows that Ingram is the mother to three young children. Her timeline also shows sad posts about losing her husband, Deandre Moxley, who died last July. 'His death happened suddenly and his family did not have any kind of life insurance and they are not financially able to have him buried or cremated,' according to a GoFundMe page set up to help his family. This is the shocking moment a man was caught attacking his neighbour in a row over trees. CCTV footage shows John Foster, 36, attack Stephen Walker outside a house in Kinmel Bay, north-east Wales. Foster, a builder, and his accomplice Liam Williams, 34, left Mr Walker with facial injuries including a triple fracture to the left orbital floor that needed surgery. Despite serious injuries and admitting to the assault that was caught on camera, Williams and Walker walked free from court. In the footage Foster is seen repeatedly punching Mr Walker outside Walker's girlfriend's house and Williams is seen kicking Mr Walker in the head as he lies on the ground. Judge Rhys Rowlands told the pair they were 'looking for trouble and looking to be violent' in a hearing at Mold Crown Court, yesterday. Mr Walker had been cutting the branches down at his girlfriend's house with his friend Samuel Roberts. Anna Price, prosecuting, said Mr Walker's partner had asked Foster to have the trees cut back after seeking legal advice. However, after it was not done, she arranged for Mr Walker and Mr Roberts to carry out the work. Foster, and his employee Williams then arrived at the property, the court heard. CCTV footage shows John Foster, 36, attack Stephen Walker outside a house in Kinmel Bay, north-east Wales Foster, a builder, and his accomplice Liam Wiliams, 34, left Mr Walker with facial injuries including a triple fracture to the left orbital floor that needed surgery When Mr Roberts tried to break up the fight Williams threw a brick at him which hit him on the arm and damaged Mr Walker's truck. The pair plead guilty to Gross Bodily Harm on Mr Walker and common assault on Mr Roberts. Williams also admitted a further charge of damage to Mr Walker's vehicle. Judge Rhys Rowlands said the violence took place against a background of 'an unfortunate and unnecessary dispute' between neighbours' and that 'such disputes are not uncommon.' Mr Walker had been cutting the branches down at his girlfriend's house with his friend Samuel Roberts when the pair attacked them both Foster grabbed Mr Walker and punched him repeatedly causing him to fall over the wall (pictured) Judge Rowlands said: 'you fell on top of him and even then you continued to punch him' Judge Rowlands added that Foster and Williams had in this case lost 'all sense of proportion' of 'what was right and wrong'. The Judge also said Mr Walker had been contacted by Foster's partner and although he did not know the details of what was said it was clear she was 'difficult and stand-offish' and that she had directly caused the problem that evening. Mr Walker and Mr Roberts stopped trimming trees when asked by Foster's partner. But while they were tidying up, the defendants turned up and were 'determined to throw their weight around' the court heard. When Mr Roberts tried to break up the fight Williams threw a brick at him which hit him on the arm and damaged Mr Walker's truck Foster has a violent history despite keeping out of trouble for the last decade. Between 2000 an 2007 he ran up seven convictions including GBH, damage and battery. Both Foster and Williams were given a 22-month prison sentence suspended for two years and were placed on rehabilitation. Foster from Kinmel Bay was ordered to pay Mr Walker 3,500 in compensation and 750 prosecution costs. Williams from Rhyl, north east Wales, was ordered to pay 250 compensation to Mr Roberts with 250 prosecution costs. Duncan Bould, defending Walker, said his client had been out of trouble for ten years, had transformed his life. He added that Walker now ran a successful building company with six people and other sub-contractors relied upon him for work. Phillip Tully, defending Williams, said his client acted out of a sense of loyalty and friendship. This is the terrifying moment a giant ferry reversed into a docked cruise ship in the port of Barcelona. The authorities say the accident is 'unusual', particularly because visibility was good at the time. The incident happened at about 2pm when the ferry 'Fantastic' of the company Grandi Navi Veloci (NGV), from Tangier, Morocco, collided with the cruise ship Viking Star, which was docked in Terminal B of the port. The footage shows the huge ferry, called 'Fantastic', colliding with the docked cruise ship 'Viking Star' in the port in Barcelona At this stage, it is believed no-one has been injured and the emergency services are at the scene evaluating the damage. An investigation is already underway to find out if it was caused by a mechanical failure or human error. Union officials say the incident could have caused a tragedy and want urgent answers. The accident is 'unusual', particularly because visibility was good at the time, according to authorities. An investigation is underway to find out if it was caused by a mechanical failure or human error Witnesses say the ferry appeared to lose its engine power whilst docking and appeared to drift backwards, without any way of controlling it, until it collided with the cruise ship. At one stage, the ferry dropped anchor to try and stop it moving. A video of the accident was taken from a nearby crane. The Fantastic, 180 metres in length and owned by the same shipping company that until a few days ago had two ferries in Barcelona as police hotels, had arrived from Tangier at dawn and was going to continue its journey to Genoa. The Viking Star is a modern cruise liner of 228 metres in length, although of small capacity, it is considered a 'boat-boutique'. On this trip, it was carrying 820 passengers, who arrived on Thursday morning from Valencia and had planned to continue this afternoon to Marseille. At the moment the two ships are still moored in port. In addition to investigating the reasons for the collision, experts have to assess the damage on both ships to see if they can continue their respective trips. A spokesman for Barcelona port said: 'Today, around 2pm, there has been a slight collision between the GNV Fantastic ferry and the Viking Star cruise ship in the Port of Barcelona, in front of Terminal B. There have been no injuries and the damage is being evaluated. The damage is apparently minimal.' Michael Christopher Estes, 46, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of explosive material A man admitted in court Friday to leaving an explosive device at a western North Carolina airport last year, claiming his crime was a 'training scenario' meant to show that law enforcement agents weren't ready to stop terrorist attacks. Michael Christopher Estes pleaded guilty in a Raleigh, North Carolina court to one count of unlawful possession of explosive material. Another charge he originally faced - attempted malicious use of explosives - was dropped. The 46-year-old from Tennessee faces up to five years in prison at sentencing, which hasn't been scheduled yet. Court documents filed this week with his plea agreement reveal new details about why Estes left the Mason jar with explosives and nails at the Asheville airport in October. Estes told investigators he wanted to show authorities how easy it was to place the explosives because he believed terrorists were coming and Americans would have to 'fight a war on US soil,' according to court documents. A police officer is at the scene near the airport in Asheville, NC, this past October Authorities wrote documents that a timing device on the explosive hadn't actually been set to go off. 'He was adamant that his intention was not to hurt the public but to devise a training scenario,' prosecutors wrote. 'He believed that the country was under constant threat and the agencies were not getting adequate training to do their job.' The words 'FOR GOD & COUNTRY' were written on parts of the device that included Sterno fuel and ammonium nitrate, as well as shotgun shells and nails to serve as shrapnel, according to court documents. Estes was caught on surveillance cameras purchasing explosives. Some were purchased at Walmart and Lowe's It was rigged with a clock that had matches attached to a striker arm and could be set to ignite when the alarm went off, investigators wrote. Another message on the device said 'FOR ALL THE V/N VETS OUT THERE!!!' in an apparent reference to Vietnam War veterans. The explosive didn't go off, but caused a scare at the airport. Surveillance video shows Estes, wearing a black hat and clothes, leaving the device outside near the entrance to a baggage claim shortly after 12:30am on October 6. About six hours later, police were alerted to the suspicious bag, according to court documents. Passengers and employees evacuated the area while bomb technicians rendered the explosive safe. Authorities released a photograph made from the video and tips from the public led them to Estes, who was arrested the next day. Estes admitted to buying the materials to make the device at stores in the area. A lawyer representing Estes didn't immediately return a message seeking comment left Friday. One of the biggest Middle East crises in years was caused by the wife of an asylum seeker living in Britain, Qatar's foreign minister claimed yesterday. Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said his country's dispute with its Gulf neighbours began when it refused to hand the woman over to the United Arab Emirates. The mother-of-six and her husband, an unnamed Emirates opposition leader, fled to Qatar in 2013 during a period of political arrests against government opponents. Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said relations between his country and its neighbours nosedived because of a row over a UK asylum seeker's wife The UAE - and its fighter jet pilots (above) - are at loggerheads with Qatar over several issues The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, has refused to comply with his neighbours' requests Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman allegedly told the Qatari leader there would be no dispute if the wanted woman was handed over to the UAE The husband then moved to the UK where he sought asylum and was granted indefinite leave to remain. But his wife, who has now joined her husband in Britain, initially decided to stay in Qatar because she had family ties there. When she tried to renew her passport at the Emirates embassy her application was refused and the authorities demanded her extradition. Qatar's refusal to comply with the request led to UAE stepping up its attacks on the Doha government on social media and in the wider mainstream press. Qatar - the desert emirate left in the cold The tiny oil- and gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar has been ostracised by some of its bigger Arab neighbours over its alleged support for terrorism. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain led a string of countries in June that cut ties with Qatar over what they said was the emirate's financing of extremist groups and its ties to Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional arch-rival. Qatar at the time refused to comply with an initial list of 13 demands, arguing that it could not anything to jeopardise its sovereignty or contravene international law. A general view of Doha, Qatar is seen June 5, 2017 The emirate's satellite news giant Al-Jazeera has also emerged as a point of contention. It said several times in 2017 that it was battling a major cyber attack. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have banned Al-Jazeera from the airwaves and closed the channel's offices. One of the two big areas of contention between Qatar and its neighbours is its alleged support for jihadist groups including al-Qaeda and Islamic State. The other key area of disagreement is Qatar's relations with Iran, with which it shares the world's largest gas field. Shia Muslim Iran is Sunni Muslim-ruled Saudi Arabia's main regional rival and the two countries are in effect fighting a proxy war in Yemen. Advertisement Mr al-Thani said the UAE promised to stop the attacks if the woman was handed over. He claimed that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman had told the Qatari leader there would be no dispute if the woman was handed over to the UAE. In April 2017 Qatar asked the Emirates why the attacks were continuing and again was told that if the woman was handed over they would stop. But still the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, refused to comply with the request. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, then sent envoys to the Emir demanding she was sent back. Again this was refused. Mr al-Thani said: 'Prince Tamim refused to extradite the woman because she was not wanted in a criminal offence, and this would be contrary to international law and the Qatari Constitution.' Two months later, on 5 June, a Saudi-led alliance including the UAE launched a diplomatic and transport blockade of Qatar accusing it of cosying up to Iran and supporting terrorism, which Doha denies. Among its list of 13 demands, the quartet of countries ordered that all political dissidents were handed back to their countries of origin. Later U.S. intelligence sources claimed the crisis had been sparked in June when the UAE hacked Qatar's official website and planted incendiary quotes which were attributed to the Emir, and praising the quartet's arch-enemy, Iran. This allowed Qatar's enemies to point the finger at Doha and claim it was a divisive force in the region. This week Doha said its investigation into the hacking had revealed it was carried out by two of the blockading countries, but it would not name which ones. A family friend said the wanted couple are now living in hiding in the UK, terrified what will happen to them if they are forced to go back to the UAE. He said: 'If she had been handed over by Qatar she would have been tortured and held as a hostage until they handed her husband over. 'She would be sentenced to 10 years in jail and never see the sun again. Can you imagine what that would be like for a mother of six children, extradited just because her husband is an activist. I know people in the UK do not understand how that could happen, but it's true. They shouldn't believe the lies of these regimes. 'They are a very private, peaceful family who don't want to be identified, speak out or say anything. They fear for their safety and that of family members still living in the UAE, who have already received threats. This is why they do not speak. 'They have committed no crime. He is a peaceful man, not a terrorist, otherwise he would not have been granted status to remain the UK. All they did was ask for their freedom, to participate in society. They asked for very little.' Factfile on Qatar Terrifying video shows the moment Arizona police open fire on a suspected carjacker in Phoenix. A 31-year-old man allegedly stole a produce truck when he ran a red light and hit a van after being involved in multiple other crashes. Police say the man jumped out of produce truck stole a man's pickup truck, who had stopped to help after the accident. Arizona police shot a suspected carjacker in Phoenix on Wednesday The suspect holed himself up in the pickup truck as police approached, according to ABC 15. The owner of the pickup truck filmed the scene as police began attempting to negotiate with the suspect, who has not yet been named. The man exited the vehicle and appears to point a handgun at the officers, who then open fire. 'I take my phone and start recording and I see the door open a little and all of a sudden a guy jumps out with a gun,' said witness Harvey Sotelo. Video shows him getting out of the truck and allegedly pointing a handgun at officers Police discovered after they shot the suspect that he was actually armed with a replica gun 'I was crazy -uhh - I didn't expect that to happen. I expected the guy to get out and give himself up.' Police discovered after they shot the suspect that he was actually armed with a replica gun. 'I feel for the guy that got shot... I feel for the officer who had to make that split decision and shoot him,' Sotelo said. The suspect is currently in the hospital with serious injuries, but is expected to survive. Removal men began the process today of clearing out the old US Embassy in Mayfair ahead of the move to the state-of-the-art 750m building in Nine Elms. The trucks were seen outside the Grosvenor Square building on the day President Donald Trump caused his latest diplomatic storm by cancelling a proposed trip to London. President Trump criticised the location of the new building in his Tweet which announced he was no longer planning to visit London next month. A removal van was spotted outside the old US embassy building in Mayfair earlier today Donald Trump said he had no intention of attending the opening of the new 750m embassy Trump took to Twitter to criticise the location of the new embassy in south London and attacked former President Barack Obama for agreeing to the deal even though the decision to move was signed-off by fellow Republican president George W Bush President George W Bush signed a deal to move to the site in Battersea on the south side of the River Thames, leaving the historic embassy in Mayfair. Trump 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!' Earlier this month, the American flag was this month removed from the U.S. embassy in Grosvenor Square as part of the move to a location on the South Bank The old United States Embassy in London was situated on a historic square in the exclusive Mayfair neighbourhood, home to some of the city's most valuable real estate. The U.S. embassy has been based on the square since 1938 and the area was known as 'Little America' during World War Two as General Dwight D. Eisenhower's military headquarters were housed on the square. The Mayfair embassy opened in 1960 but was no longer fit for purpose as a result of new security considerations. Also, refurbishing the existing embassy was seen as prohibitive because the building was granted Grade II listed status in 2009 The US Embassy is moving from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms near Vauxhall, pictured The embassy, topped by a gilded bald eagle with a wingspan of more than 11 metres, opened in 1960 and was designed by the Finnish-American modernist Eero Saarinen. The embassy was also a focus for British discontent with U.S. policy. Anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960s drew thousand of Britons, including celebrities of the day like Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. In 2008, when George W. Bush was president, the United States signed a conditional agreement to acquire a site for the construction of a new embassy in the Nine Elms area of Wandsworth, southwest London. The new 12-storey building on the south bank of the river is at the heart of a huge regeneration project in a former industrial zone. The U.S. State Department ran a competition to design the new building in 2008. Its 750 construction was wholly funded by the sale of other properties in London. It will open to the public later this month. In 2009, the US embassy building in Mayfair was listed as a Grade II building including for 'special architectural interest for the strongly-articulated design and dynamic facades, well-detailed stonework and consistency of detail.' This would make it difficult to make certain alterations to the building and can reduce the value of properties. Lydia Muniz, director of the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations at the State Department, told the New York Times in 2015 that renovating the building would have cost 600 million and still would not have provided state-of-the-art security. In 2009, when Barack Obama was president, the United States agreed to sell its embassy in Mayfair to the Gulf investor Qatari Diar for an undisclosed sum to help fund a new embassy. The embassy says the new building was funded entirely by the proceeds of the sale of other U.S. government properties in London, not through appropriated funds. Local media reported the old building was sold for 500 million pounds. The investors are now planning to turn the site into a luxury hotel with shops, restaurants and bars. The previously sealed court filings in Harvey Weinstein's child support case were released earlier this week, seven days after Judge Michael Katz handed down his ruling in favor of the disgraced mogul. Lawyers for Eve Chilton, Weinstein's first wife and the mother of his three older daughters, stated in court filings that their client had made the decision to undergo enforcement proceedings as a means of securing the $5 million she and her two youngest daughters will be owed in support payments over the next six years. Her decision to file papers in New York Supreme Court was made after a lawyer for Weinstein allegedly told Eve that her ex would likely be unable to pay child support for at least one year. That was said to be the result of Weinstein dolling out much of his fortune to secure high-priced legal counsel while fighting back against over 100 allegations of sexual harassment and assault. In the end, Judge Katz ruled that since Weinstein was up to date on payments and had yet to show any pattern of default, he was forced to rule against Chilton's motion. Show me the bills: Eve Chilton (above in 1999) asked that Harvey Weinstein hand over $5 million she is due for child support and other divorce payments in a court filing last year oN IT: She initiated enforcement proceedings back in October after Weinstein, 65, allegedly threatened to stop paying support through a lawyer (above in 2003) The New York Daily News were the first to report details of the court filings back in December. Weinstein settled his divorce with second wife Georgina Chapman less than a week later, with the two expected to file papers later this month. That agreement will also require Weinstein to pay child support for his two children with Chapman. The money requested by Eve included more than $1.4 million in basic child support payments; $500,000 for healthcare; $124,000 for statutory add-ons; $500,000 for college and college prep; and various other expenses, plus money still owed to Chilton from the recent sale of a Westport, Conn., property. Weinstein no longer pays support for the couple's oldest daughter Lily, who is 22, but is still paying for daughters Emma, 19, and 15-month-old Ruth. 'Harvey has always paid his child support and will continue to honor his obligations,' said his rep, who dismissed claims that he might be delinquent for a considerable period of time as 'nonsense.' Eve was working as an assistant for Weinstein at Miramax back in 1986 when she caught her boss' attention, and within a year the two were exchanging vows. At that time there were no films with Oscar buzz or parties filled with A-list stars surrounding the couple, and Weinstein was far from the wealthy executive he would become one day. Eve on the other hand was the well-off daughter of a prominent New England family who enjoyed summers on Martha's Vineyard, meaning that it was Weinstein who appeared to be marrying above his rank. And for the next two decades, as the money started pouring in and the A-list stars piled on, Eve stood quietly by her husband's side while giving birth to their three daughters. After Eve, Weinstein (right) married the two-decades younger British-born designer Chapman (left) The couple's union came crashing down in 2004 however, and they soon went on their separate ways after agreeing to the terms of their divorce. In Weinstein's case that was into the arms of the two-decades younger British-born designer Chapman, with whom he now has a daughter India, 7, and 4-year-old son Dashell. In the case of Eve it was to towards a more peaceful existence in the suburbs, where she remarried Sal Martirano. The couple quickly combined their families as well, with Eve's new husband having two sons from his previous relationship that were roughly the same age as her daughters. A pastor at a mega-church in Tennessee who drove a teenage girl into the woods and sexually assaulted her has said he doesn't think he did anything wrong because she was 'flirtatious'. Andy Savage, the Teaching Pastor at Highpoint church in Memphis, got a round of applause from his congregation when he came clean about the incident more than two decades ago. Savage revealed that he was driving the 17-year-old girl home when he took a detour into a wooded area, pulled down his pants and asked her to perform oral sex on him, which she did, before fondling her breasts. Speaking about the incident on the Ben Ferguson Radio Show, the now-married pastor said: I do not believe I broke the law.' Savage admitted it was wrong, but said the victim, Jules Woodson, consented. The atmosphere was very flirtatious, he said. That flirtatious environment continued to move forward, which led to us making out, some heavy petting. It was a very mutual, spontaneous, physical moment and our hormones were obviously very much in that moment and she performed oral sex. Andy Savage, the Teaching Pastor at Highpoint Church in Memphis, Tennessee, was placed on a leave of abstinence The leave comes after Savage admitted to a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old girl more than two decades ago when he was the youth pastor at a different Texas church He said he told church leaders what happened and no one called the police. Andy Smith, a spokesman for Woodson, said Savage's radio interview made him sick. That entire radio show was a total re-victimization, pointing the blame on a then teenage girl who he said was a willing participant, Smith said. He was an adult and he was a pastor and he was in a place of trust. Shortly after the radio interview, the lead pastor at Highpoint announced that Savage would be placed on leave, effective immediately. Chris Conlee went on to say that the church is standing by Savage's side. Please know that we support Andy as a leader of our church, but we also understand this has been a difficult season not only for Andy and his family, but for our congregation as well,' he wrote in a message posted to the church's website. Conlee also said that a third-party organization has been hired to audit the church as well as Savage's ministry. 'We want to maintain trust in both Andy and our church leadership that we are not only doing things right, but we are doing right things. To that end, we are engaging a qualified, independent, third party organization to do a full audit of our church processes and Andys ministry,' the message read. While the audit is being completed, we will continue to support Andy and his family. The church has not said whether the leave will be paid. Highpoint Church's lead pastor Chris Conlee said in a statement posted on its website Thursday that they are sticking by Savage Jules Woodson penned a blog post saying Savage, who was 22 at the time, offered to drive her home after a church event but instead took her to a deserted road and asked her to perform oral sex on him. Pictured is an interior of one of the three megachurch branches of Highpoint Church, Savage's current employer Savage said in a radio interview that the incident was consensual after they had been flirting The 42-year-old pastor's troubled past came to light last week after a woman posted a lengthy message on WatchKeep saying Savage sexually assaulted her in 1998 after he offered to drive her home from church. At the time, Savage was a 22-year-old college student and youth minister at Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church in Texas. She was a 17-year-old high school senior and member of his youth ministry. Woodson said Savage turned down a deserted road, unzipped his pants, took his penis out, and asked her for oral sex. She said Savage told her he had a surprise for her before he drove past her house to the wooded area. 'I remember feeling special and excited,' she wrote. 'I assumed we were going to get ice cream.' Instead, she said, he turned off the car's lights and asked her to perform oral sex on him. 'I was scared and embarrassed, but I did it. I remember feeling that this must mean that Andy loved me,' she posted. She also said that Savage asked her to unbutton her shirt and then touched her breasts. Savage is now married and has five children, all boys Savage (pictured left with his co-pastor) apologized to his church during Sunday's service At the end of his apology, he received a standing ovation and applause. Pictured is an interior of a Highpoint Church location Following the incident, Savage asked Woodson to keep what happened a secret and took her home. Woodson wrote that she told church leaders what happened, and she was seemingly dismissed. 'Not only did I suddenly feel this immense guilt for doing what Andy had asked me to do but I also started to feel that this was my fault somehow because I didn't stop him,' she wrote. During Sunday's service at Highpoint Church, which was shared on the church's YouTube page, Savage apologized for 'any painful memories' or 'fresh wounds' the incident caused. 'I am sorry and I humbly ask for your forgiveness, I love you all very much,' he said, to which the audience stood up and roared in applause. Woodson told the New York Times she found the apology 'disgusting' and said the incident was never properly handled. President Donald Trump has decided to honor the terms of the Iran nuclear deal - for now - as he negotiates with Congress and the United States' partners in Europe to strengthen the international accord. Trump waived nuclear sanctions on Iran one more time on Friday as he butted up against a deadline to make a decision. 'Despite my strong inclination, I have not yet withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal,' Trump said in a statement. 'Instead, I have outlined two possible paths forward: either fix the deals disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw.' The U.S. president warned Tehran, 'This is a last chance. In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal.' The Department of Treasury meanwhile announced new sanctions on 14 Iranian entities, including the nation's top judge, Sadegh Amoli Larijani, for human rights violations. President Donald Trump has decided to honor the terms of the Iran nuclear deal - for now - as he negotiates with Congress and the United States' partners in Europe to strengthen the international accord Trump faced a decision this weekend to approve an extension of the Iran nuclear accord or scrap the deal altogether. The deadline was set against a wave of anti-establishment demonstrations in Iran that the country's top security force quashed last weekend after arresting the last of the protests organizers. Lawmakers opted not to take advantage of an opportunity to reimpose sanctions on Iran themselves last year. They're working on a companion agreement that addresses Trump's concerns about the existing deal, namely its sunset clauses. Trump's decision today to waive nuclear sanctions on Iran once again gives him a 120-day window to act on his desire to negotiate a secondary deal to reimpose sanctions on Tehran if it moves toward developing a nuclear weapon at any time. A senior administration official told reporters on a call prior to the announcement that this is the 'last such waiver' that Trump will issue and that he will now turn to the United States' allies to come up with a 'follow on' agreement. Treasury meanwhile announced new sanctions on 14 Iranian entities, including the nation's top judge, Sadegh Amoli Larijani, for human rights violations In a subsequent White House statement Trump said, 'Today, I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal. 'And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately,' he warned. 'No one should doubt my word. I said I would not certify the nuclear dealand I did not. I will also follow through on this pledge.' The president is open to remaining in a 'modified deal' with European allies, a senior official, said Friday, that would snap-back sanctions on Iran if it resumes its illicit behavior after the original, 10-year deal expires. But the administration does not plan to arbitrate a new deal with the Iranians, the official emphasized. 'It would be an agreement between the United States and our European partners to reimpose multilateral sanctions should the Iranians surpass the new triggers that we would lay out.' Sanctions put in place today by the United States on Iran, an official said on the call, will have a 'serious political impact' on the country. Larijani, the head of the judiciary, is the brother of Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament. 'So in other words, the designations today politically will go to the top of the regime and will send a very strong message about the United States,' the official said, 'that the United States is not going to tolerate their continued abuses -- their continued violations of the rights of their citizens.' Treasury Secretary Steve Munuchin similarly said in a statement that was released after the call had concluded: 'The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice. 'We are targeting the Iranian regime, including the head of Irans judiciary, for its appalling mistreatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest against their government. 'We are also targeting Irans ballistic missile program and destabilizing activities, which it continues to prioritize over the economic well-being of the Iranian people,' Mnuchin added. A section of the Treasury release on Sadegh Amoli Larijani said that he was being sanctioned directly because he has 'administrative oversight over the carrying out of sentences in contravention of Irans international obligations, including the execution of individuals who were juveniles at the time of their crime and the torture or cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners in Iran, including amputations.' Rajaee Shahr Prison in Iran and it's director, Iranian national Gholamreza Ziaei, were also targeted for human rights abuses. Trump and his administration had come to the defense of the protesters in Iran. The U.S. president said last week that they would have the full assistance of his government when the time was right. 'Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration,' he said in one of his tweets. 'The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!' The spontaneous demonstrations in response to economic conditions and government oppression, including censorship, and Tehran's enforcers' response offered another reason for Washington to punish Iran. In October, Trump said he would not certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement that was negotiated under the previous administration because it was in violation of the 'spirit' of the accord, citing its development of ballistic missiles and financial support for terrorism. 'We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror, and the very real threat of Irans nuclear breakout,' Trump stated. The Trump administration asked Congress then to come up with and pass legislation that addresses those issues. It said it would also like Congress to amend the legislation that gives lawmakers the authority to slap sanctions on Iran if it decides Tehran is in violation of the nuclear agreement, outlining 'trigger points' instead that would set off automatic sanctions. Trump said he wants Congress to fix 'the deals many flaws' such as existing sunset provisions. The administration would like nuclear sanctions to snap-back on Tehran if it falls back into old habits after prohibitions outlined in the deal have expired. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last week that Trump would be inclined to authorize another sanctions waiver if he felt that real progress was being made toward the changes he demanded in October. 'The president said he is either going to fix it or cancel it,' Tillerson told the Associated Press a week ago on Friday. 'We are in the process of trying to deliver on the promise he made to fix it.' The White House said Tuesday that Trump was keeping his 'options open' as he contemplated the decision. In his October remarks, Trump said he would keep a campaign promise to rip up the deal if it came to that. 'The deal is terrible. So what we've done is, through the certification process, we'll have Congress take a look at it, and I may very well do that,' he said. 'But I like a two-step process much better.' Trump is required to consider sanctions on Iran every 120 days. If he did not sign the sanctions waiver this week, the U.S. would have been violating its end of the nuclear agreement. Every 90 days Trump also has to certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear accord. He chose not to in October, and he will not sign it again this month, an senior official told DailyMail.com. Trump and his administration had come to the defense of the protesters in Iran, seen here on Dec. 30. The U.S. president said last week that they would have the full assistance of his government when the time was right Last week, Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Ben Cardin, the top-ranking Democrat, met with Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, about the changes to the existing sanctions regime that the president wanted. 'My sense is theres a little momentum right now, and it doesnt feel to me like were in a place where the president might do that, but who knows,' he told reporters. Corker on Friday said of Trump's decision to remain in the Iran deal at the time, 'Before us now is an opportunity to do better.' 'As I told the president when he called earlier today, we will continue working hard to achieve our shared goal: a better deal for America that will stand the test of time and actually prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,' the Republican lawmaker said. Cardin said in a statement: 'I remain open to discussing legislative options that would not violate the JCPOA and that have the support of our European partners. Congress, the President, and our European partners must remain open to constructive discussions on how to counter the Iranian threat without violating the JCPOA. 'Instead of leading an international negotiation on the agreement himself, however, the Presidents statement making threats and dictating final terms of potential negotiations with Congress and Europe makes it more challenging to achieve this objective,' Cardin accused. 'We need to keep pressure on the Iranian government.' Congressman Eliot Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committeee, likewise said, 'The decision to maintain sanctions waivers is the right one. But the Trump Administrations policy announced today sets impossible standards that would ultimately isolate the United States rather than isolating the regime in Tehran. 'Im all in favor of trying to address the agreements weaknesses,' Engel said. 'But the way to do so is to engage with international partners and build momentum to negotiate new provisions. The wrong approach is to bully countries with arbitrary and unenforceable deadlines.' Vice President Mike Pence said Trump's administration would stand with the protests in 'their hour of need' last week. It's anticipated that Trump could use the government's handling of protesters as a reason not to waive nuclear sanctions As Trump mulled the decision before him last week, the U.S. Treasury Department then hit five Iranian-based entities with new sanctions for their involvement in the Irans illicit production of ballistic missiles. Vice President Mike Pence meanwhile said Trump's administration would stand with the protesters in 'their hour of need.' 'The last administrations refusal to act ultimately emboldened Irans tyrannical rulers to crack down on the dissent. The Green Revolution was ruthlessly put down, and the deadly silence on the streets of Iran matched the deafening silence from the White House,' Pence said in as Washington Post op-ed. 'Today, the Iranian people are once again rising up to demand freedom and opportunity, and under President Trump, the United States is standing with them. This time, we will not be silent.' The demonstrations continued to weigh heavily on Foreign Relations committee members' minds on Monday as Trump neared the deadline for the nuclear sanctions decision. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez wrote to Mnuchin asking that the federal government to do more to assure U.S. tech companies that they would not be violating U.S. sanctions if they provide workarounds for protesters to use online platforms that the Iranian government has censored. 'I believe it is both in our national and moral interests to support these protesters and their desire for a free, democratic, and transparent Iranian government that doesnt needlessly waste Irans resources on foreign adventurism that has resulted in massive human rights abuses, funding of terrorist organizations, and the deaths of American soldiers,' they said. After four years of battling the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS), a Deschutes County couple have won back custody of their children. Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler had both of their sons, Christopher, 4, and 10-month-old Hunter taken away from them within days of their births. This was based on concerns raised by Fabbrini's family at the time of their oldest son's birth, questioning the couple's ability to parent, and lower than average IQ scores, according to Pacific Northwest News. But a judge on Thursday ordered that their older son, Christopher, be returned to them, after ordering the same of their infant son three weeks ago. Hunter, the infant, was returned to the couple four days before Christmas. Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler had both of their sons, Christopher, 4, and 10-month-old Hunter (pictured) taken away from them within days of their births, but now both have been ordered to be returned to their parents The parents' two children have lived almost their entire lives in foster care as a result of their removal form the Fabbrini-Ziegler home. 'I'm glad the case was successful, but it shouldn't have been this hard,' said Jamie Gerlitz, attorney for Fabbrini. 'I think the system is broken. DHS has a lot of power and it's really scary that it's taken these people four years to be heard.' Ziegler is seen here with both of his sons, Christopher, 4, and 10-month-old Hunter Hunter, the 10-month-old, was returned to the couple four days before Christmas Ziegler is seen here with her son, Hunter, after his birth in February Circuit Judge Bethany Flint entered the order that reunited three-fourths of the family, just in time for Hunter's first Christmas. 'I feel the threat articulated to Hunter is fairly amorphous,' Flint said, according to earlier reporting by Pacific Northwest News. 'I searched and searched for some sort of language that was provided to articulate what the current threat of harm is to Hunter right now. [...] There is no allegation that they're not able to meet his basic needs.' Circuit Judge Bethany Flint entered the order that reunited three-fourths of the family, just in time for Hunter's first Christmas The parents are seen here with Hunter in February Ziegler is shown after being reunited with his infant son, Hunter Flint also ordered the return of Christopher, which is now underway, but will be a slower process. The children were taken away from Fabbrini and Ziegler after Fabbrini's family expressed concerns as to the parents' cognitive and 'executive functioning' skills. The mother and father had their IQs tested, and Fabbrini's came back at 72. Ziegler's registered at 66. IQ averages fall between 90 and 109 in the US, according to Assessment Psychology. Hunter is seen here with a baby book and stocking around Christmas time The parents are shown here, with Fabbrin holding their 10-month-old son after his return home Ziegler's parents from out of state purchased the home the couple lives in, by themselves. Both Ziegler and Fabbrini are high school graduates, who have held jobs. Ziegler also has a driver's license and currently works in the mail department of the Bend Bulletin. Both parents have also taken parenting, nutrition and CPR classes, in an effort to show they are fit to raise their children. Among the reasons stated as support for the state's removal of their children were not reading to them, failing to put sunscreen on them, and providing fried chicken nuggets as a snack for a toddler, as opposed to healthier food. Flint determined the evidence did not support a determination that Fabbrini and Ziegler could not parent. The judge called missing points in the state's timeline, as presented, 'suspicious.' Fabbrini is seen here playing with Christopher, now age 4 Christopher holds up a Christmas card while his mother smiles behind him A key witness for the state was also found to be not credible, Gerlitz said. The state's case regarding Hunter, their infant, was dismissed by Flint in December. The judge denied the state's case to terminate Fabbrini's and Ziegler's parental rights as to toddler Christopher on Thursday, with a review hearing scheduled in two weeks. Ziegler cuddles up on the couch and enjoys quality time with one of his sons Between now and then, the parents are permitted unsupervised visits with their boy while the state establishes the timeline for a gradual return to their home. The slow transition is due to the fact that Christopher has lived with his foster parents since birth. A GoFundMe account was created in August in support of the couple's goal to regain custody of their boys. So far, more than $40,000 has been raised of their $200,000 goal. The Russian army has said that it has 'eliminated' the militants behind a mortar attack on a base in Syria on New Year's Eve that killed two Russian soldiers. At least seven planes were also reported to have been destroyed when so-called radical Islamists attacked the airbase, it has been claimed. It could be the single biggest loss of military hardware for Russia since it began supporting Syria's president Bashar al-Assad in 2015. Russia has released images showing its special forces destroying a base which it says rebels used to launch their new attack on the Hmeymim air base The Russian defence ministry says the rebel base was located on the border of Idlib province The New Year's Eve mortar on Russia's Hmeymim air base was probably the biggest setback for the Kremlin since its intervention in Syria in 2015 The planes were destroyed on New Year's Eve when rebel shelling rained down on the Hmeymim air base, according to a Russian daily newspaper. But now Russia says it has got is revenge. 'The command of our troops in Syria carried out a special operation to find and eliminate the group of militants that carried out the mortar attack on the Hmeimim base (Western Syria),' the Russian defence ministry said in a statement. Special forces tracked the fighters to their base camp near the border of Idlib province, the statement said. Russia says that drones used earlier this month to attack its airbase Hmeimim were high-tech and capable of precision strikes Russian President Vladimir Putin in December announced the partial withdrawal of his forces from Syria in December When the fighters, whose affiliation was not announced, were preparing to leave the base they were 'destroyed by a Krasnopol guided missile,' according to the ministry. 'A drone assembly and storage area was also discovered' the announcement said. Ten drones equipped with explosives attacked Russia's airbase in Hmeimim in the early hours of January 6, the military previously reported. There were no casualties. Russia's defence ministry on Thursday said that the drones used to attack two Russian military bases in Syria were so high-tech they were designed to offset jamming technology. They were also capable of launching precision strikes and could not have been made without foreign assistance, the ministry said. Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Syria last month where he ordered the start of a pullout of Russian troops, saying their task in the war-torn country had been largely completed. Three battalions of military police and officers of the Russian Center for Reconciliation would remain in Syria, as well as two Russian bases, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on a subsequent trip. Passenger Mike Gregory, 35, said he was covered in dozens of itchy bites after taking a 4,000 BA flight Given the hefty price tag and prestige, its the last place you would expect to find bedbugs. But a man has complained of being bitten by the insects in British Airways business class. Passenger Mike Gregory, 35, said he was covered in dozens of itchy bites after taking a 4,000 flight from London to Cape Town to spend the New Year with his family. His ordeal follows a similar case where a Canadian family was left covered in bedbug bites after flying BA in September. It is another embarrassment for the flagship carrier, which is fighting to restore its reputation after being accused of poor customer service and cutting perks. BA was also criticised over its response to an IT meltdown last May which resulted in hundreds of flights being cancelled and tens of thousands of passengers around the world being stranded. Mr Gregorys itching started on New Years Eve, a few hours after he arrived in Cape Town, where his wife and two small children live. The BA Gold Card holder had left London at 9.30pm the previous day and settled down to sleep but woke in the morning to find spots of blood on his pillow. I had an incredibly itchy waist, torso and hands, he said. I realised I had been bitten 120 to 150 times. The passenger said after I had an incredibly itchy waist, torso and hands' and realised he'd been bitten 120 - 150 times Mr Gregorys itching started on New Years Eve, a few hours after he arrived in Cape Town, where his wife and two small children live The businessman did some online research and realised this had all the hallmarks of bedbugs. The insects administer an anaesthetic substance which means victims usually only notice the next morning when red, itchy areas appear. There are often spots of blood on sheets from bugs crushed when the person rolls over. Mr Gregorys research also uncovered the incident involving the Canadian family flying from Vancouver to London. They spotted bedbugs on the seat in front and another crawling out from behind a TV monitor but claimed flight attendants said nothing could be done. After the nine-hour flight, the married couple and their seven-year-old daughter were left covered in bites. Mr Gregory saw a doctor who confirmed he had been bitten by bedbugs and advised him to stay out of the sun to prevent scarring. I was shocked and obviously appalled by it, he said. I was amazed it was even possible to have bedbugs on a flight. It has ruined my family holiday. The businessman, who spends up to 30,000 flying around 30,000 miles a year with BA and divides his time between Kent and Cape Town, complained immediately. After numerous phone calls, he was informed yesterday that the plane had been fumigated but only several days after he raised the alarm. The businessman did some online research and realised this had all the hallmarks of bedbugs The businessman, who spends up to 30,000 flying around 30,000 miles a year with BA and divides his time between Kent and Cape Town Bedbugs tend to hide after feeding to digest their meal of human blood and lay eggs. Mr Gregory added: This is not acceptable. It means it is quite likely that other passengers were bitten. A BA spokesman said the plane was investigated immediately and has now been fully treated with no further reports of problems. He added: We have been in touch with Mr Gregory to apologise. British Airways operates more than 280,000 flights on 280 routes every year and reports of bedbugs are extremely rare. As soon as we are made aware, we take steps to investigate, cordon off and treat the seat as necessary.' Hillary Clinton hit back at her former political opponent Donald Trump, accusing the man who beat her of holding 'ignorant, racist' views. Clinton weighed in Friday afternoon, after Trump had been pummeled in the media for hours over having reportedly inveighed during an Oval Office meeting against immigrants from 's***hole countries' coming into the United States. Trump also denied having said 'take them out' in regard to Haitians during the Thursday Oval Office meeting. Clinton piled on, bringing up the anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 and using it as a club to hit at her former rival. Hillary Clinton hit back at her former political opponent Donald Trump, accusing him of 'racist' views after his comments about 's***hole countries' 'The anniversary of the devastating earthquake 8 years ago is a day to remember the tragedy, honor the resilient people of Haiti, & affirm Americas commitment to helping our neighbors,' Clinton said. 'Instead, were subjected to Trumps ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesnt look like him.' Trump was quoted in the Washington Post as having said: 'Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?' during a discussion about immigration. Trump tweeted Friday that was not the 'language used' and denied saying 'anything derogatory about Haitians.' Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois on Friday said Trump had indeed made the comments about 's***hole countries.' Clinton invoked the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti Clinton brought up the devastating Haiti earthquake as she hit at Trump 'You've seen the comments in the press,' Durbin said. 'I have not read one of them that's inaccurate. To no surprise, the President started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly.' Vice President Joe Biden called out President Trump both for his words and purported beliefs following his reported comment calling countries 's***holes,' saying 'We're better than this.' 'Its not how a president should speak. Its not how a president should behave. Most of all, its not what a president should believe. Were better than this,' Biden tweeted Friday morning. Biden weighed in after the president on Twitter denied making the comment as reported, although Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois directly contradicted him. Clinton also accused Trump of racism and sexism during the 2016 campaign Vice President Joe Biden also blasted the comments Biden, who got a reputation for for public gaffes while in office, has not closed the door on a possible presidential run against Trump. 'The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used,' Trump wrote, using unusually passive language in an effort to walk back the comment. The tweet came hours after a bombshell report about Trump's comments, which the White House did not immediately deny. '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. He was fuming about the latest bipartisan deal on immigration. Biden apologized after a 2007 comment where he said of then-Senator Barack Obama: 'I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.' Biden's former Senate colleague Durbin came back to confront the president on the record. 'You've seen the comments in the press,' Durbin said. 'I have not read one of them that's inaccurate. To no surprise, the President started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly.' Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who Trump mocked mercilessly during the campaign, blasted the 'hateful racism' implied by Trump's quote. United States Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois says Trump 'said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist' at the Oval Office meeting 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 'For every one step forward @POTUS takes when it comes to judgement and good, coherent policy decisions, he Inexplicably and without fail takes ten steps back. I hope todays comments were just a crass and flippant mistake, and do not reflect the hateful racism they imply,' Bush wrote in a pair of tweets. 'We need comprehensive immigration reform that reflects our values as a country and recognizes our economic needs. This requires a merit-based system that attracts talented, freedom-loving individuals from across the globe, whether they are from Haiti, Norway or anywhere else,' he wrote. Among those condemning the comments were Hatian-American Republican Rep. Mia Love of Utah, who called the reported comments 'unkind, divisive [and] elitist' and demanded that Trump apologize to Americans and nations he so 'wantonly maligned.' Sen. Susan Collins of Maine Tweeted Friday: 'These comments are highly inappropriate & out of bounds and could hurt efforts for a bipartisan immigration agreement. The President should not denigrate other countries.' Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who hailed Trump as a great president after passage of the tax cut, Tweeted Thursday: 'I look forward to getting a more detailed explanation regarding the Presidents comments. Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin.' Advertisement A dry and calm weekend of weather in Britain will be offset by an icy arctic blast with blizzards and gale force winds expected to batter the country as temperatures plummet to -10C in some parts. The Met Office has issued an alert for snow for all of Scotland and most of Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday. Up to four inches could fall over those two days, with forecasters warning of blizzards and frequent lightning strikes, which could cause power cuts and mass travel disruption. Remote parts of Britain will be hit by freezing winds as temperatures could drop as low as -10C in Scotland and snow could even fall on higher grounds. A woman was spotted pushing a pram on bitterly cold and frosty morning in Aberystwyth, Wales, on Thursday. The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for fog, with very low visibility, for much of Wales Fog was seen covering parts of the Brecon Beacons in South Wales as the Met Office issued a yellow warning for large parts of the UK The famous Harland and Wolff cranes peer through the fog as a walker makes his way across Cave Hill on Thursday in Belfast, Northern Ireland People were seen walking in a park in Aberystwyth, Wales, with temperatures below freezing after a night of clear cloudless skies Your browser does not support the iframe HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later. A Met Office spokesperson said:'There could be power cuts and public transport delays come Monday and Tuesday. 'Mostly in the north, all of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland will bare the brunt of it.' In a warning issued by the Met Office, commuters in Scotland and Northern Ireland were told to expect frequent and heavy hail from Monday evening, continuing for much of the day on Tuesday. Travel delays on roads are also to be expected, with a small chance of cancellations to public transport. There is a small chance that power cuts will occur and other services, such as mobile phone coverage, may be affected. In addition some roads and pavements may become icy, increasing the chance of injuries from slips and falls. The Met Office warning read: 'Snow showers will be heaviest and most frequent across western Scotland. The largest accumulations of snow will be over high ground with over 10 cm building up above 200 metres. 'At low levels, accumulations of the order 2-5 cm will be more typical. Showers will also be accompanied by hail and lightning at times, particularly across northern and western Scotland. 'Here, there is potential for disruption to power supplies from frequent lightning strikes. Strong winds are also expected, with the potential for temporary blizzard conditions and drifting of lying snow, particularly over high ground. Almost the whole of Northern Ireland, and the west of England, including Liverpool, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Bristol and parts of Devon will also be affected by thick fog. James Madden, a forecaster for Exacta Weather, warned that snow will hit 'northern and western areas' next week. He said: 'We are currently in the calm before the storm, there are now strong signals for a potent wintry blast to arrive early next week. 'Westerly winds will clash with colder air to deliver widespread and heavy snow showers across some large swathes of the country. 'The snow will initially hit many northern and western areas and persist over several days, before impacting many other parts of the country at times during next week. 'We have to go back a few years to the last time we experienced anything of this potency, this is looking like becoming a notable and lengthy spell of widespread cold and snowy weather.' Meanwhile, motorists have been advised to allocate more time for their journeys this evening. A spokesman for the Met Office added: 'Patchy fog is expected to reform in places this evening and overnight. Slower journey times are possible and there is a chance of delays to flights.' Dog walkers were seen enjoying a sunny but cold day on Weymouth beach, in Dorset, on Thursday morning as parts of the UK will be hit by thick cloudy fog today A young woman walked her two dogs through the park in Aberystwyth and fog is set to continue to cover parts of south east Wales on Friday morning Tomas Marcinkus was lighting a cigarette before he ran over a woman lying in the middle of the road. He has been jailed for causing death by careless driving A milk delivery driver who was lighting a cigarette before he drove over and killed a drunken women lying in the middle of the road has been jailed. Tomas Marcinkus left victim Claire McKenzie 'catastrophically' injured but carried on driving, later telling police he thought he had gone over a bin bag. The 29-year-old, of Low Hill, Wolverhampton, was driving his Mercedes Sprinter van down Sutton New Road in Erdington, Birmingham, in November 2016, a court heard. Ms McKenzie, 35, had been drinking at a friend's party and ended up in the road as she walked home but the court was told the driver would have had a clear view of her. Marcinkus told police he had been lighting a cigarette and was jailed for 12 months and banned from the roads for two years after admitting causing the death by careless driving. Passing sentence at Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Mark Wall QC told him: 'Claire McKenzie was a highly-popular woman who had a partner and a family who were obviously devoted to her. 'Your carelessness was in trying to find and light a cigarette while you were driving your van. Claire McKenzie had been drinking at a friend's party when she walked home. She ended up lying in the middle of the road and was run over Ms McKenzie, pictured here with her friend Kim Holden, suffered catastrophic injuries in the incident and later died 'It was a large and heavy vehicle. You did not pay sufficient attention to the road ahead of you. 'Had you been concentrating, as you ought to have been, you would have seen her and avoided her, as others did. 'Had you troubled to look properly behind you after the collision, it would have been obvious to you what you had done.' Marcinkus had previous convictions for speeding, the court heard. Samantha Crabb, prosecuting, said that on November 10 Ms McKenzie had gone to a friend's birthday party, returning to her home just before 1am. However, she then left to go to a BP petrol station to buy some food. Then she set off back to her home again, walking along Sutton New Road. 'By that stage she was walking in an unsteady manner and was intoxicated,' Ms Crabb said. Just after 3.30am Marcinkus was driving a Mercedes sprinter van along the same road. Ms McKenzie was left fatally injured in the road after the driver thought he had driven over a bin bag. Marcinkus was tracked down later that day and arrested At this stage Ms McKenzie was lying in the road, which was a dual carriageway, although the defendant would have had a clear view of her. 'He drove straight over her as she lay in the road,' Ms Crabb said. 'She was caused catastrophic injuries to her head and upper torso.' Ms Crabb said police traced the van and arrested Marcinkus later that day. When quizzed, he said he had been aware of driving over something, hearing a noise and the van 'lifting.' He told police he believed he had run over a bin bag. He also described how, shortly before the incident, he got a cigarette by putting the packet up to his mouth and then lighting it. Floral tributes were left at the scene of Ms McKenzie's death in Erdington, Birmingham In a statement, the victim's mother Margaret McKenzie said her daughter was a 'beautiful girl both in and out'. She said she had played the part of Santa at a nursery and had 'touched so many hearts of the people she met.' She continued: 'We are utterly devastated beyond any words could say.' Christopher O'Gorman, defending, said Marcinkus, from Lithuania, came to the UK two years ago and had an unblemished work record. He said: 'He had no idea what it was he had collided with. 'Had he known, he would have taken the same steps that others do.' Health bosses desperate to contain the worsening flu outbreak have authorised the use of controversial antiviral drugs. Tamiflu and other antivirals should be given to the most vulnerable people with symptoms of flu, according to a health alert sent to all GPs. But officials also suggested the drugs be used as a preventative measure for elderly people, even if they have received the flu vaccine which is feared not to work for over-65s this year. Controversial drugs will be given to vulnerable people with flu symptoms. But officials also suggested the drugs be used as a preventative measure for elderly people, even if they have received the flu vaccine which is feared not to work for over-65s this year Tamiflu (above) and other antivirals will be given to the most vulnerable people with symptoms of flu, according to a health alert sent to all GPs In some parts of the country, doctors have been told to give all care home residents the antivirals whether they are ill or not in a bid to stop the crisis spreading. A leading scientist last night condemned the decision, saying there is no evidence antivirals are effective. If he is right, it will mean by the end of the winter countless pensioners will have received an ineffective flu jab, followed by ineffective antiviral pills, and still be at risk of getting flu. A MailOnline analysis shows that deaths in England will quadruple by the end of the month - if flu continues to escalate at the same levels Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, sent the alert on December 19 to all GPs in England granting them permission to use pills such as Tamiflu. This alert is sent at some point in the winter most years but this year it can be used as a preventative measure, not just as a treatment. However, Professor Carl Heneghan of Oxford University, who published a major study four years ago suggesting Tamiflu is ineffective, said: The chief medical officer seems not to be able to understand evidence-based medicine. Between the last week of December, dubbed 51, and the first week of January, dubbed one, England saw a 77 per cent jump in flu symptoms Currently, Scotland is reporting the highest number of GP consultations for flu in the UK - rising from 46.3 per 100,000 people to 107.2 per 100,000 people We have shown Tamiflu leads to only a small reduction in symptoms about the same you get from taking paracetamol. He added last night: The Government is scared of being seen to do nothing. 'But they have tied themselves into the position where they have to give these drugs every year. Northern Ireland will hit epidemic levels of flu at the same time as England and Scotland, according to an analysis of official figures Wales will reach its flu epidemic threshold by next week, if current trends continue WHAT FLU STRAINS ARE IN THE UK? There are many different types of flu circulating around the world, but four main types are being seen in Britain this winter. H3N2 - Dubbed Aussie flu after it struck Australia hard last winter, this strain is more likely to affect the elderly, who do not respond well to the current vaccine. This is one of the most common strains seen so far this winter, with 63 confirmed cases seen in official laboratories. H1N1 - This strain known as swine flu - is generally more likely to hit children, who respond well to vaccination. This has been seen nearly as often as H3N2 so far this year, with 50 cases confirmed in labs. In the past it was only commonly caught from pigs, but that changed in 2009 when it started spreading rapidly among humans in a major global pandemic. B / Yamagata - This is known as 'Japanese flu'. Only people who received the four strain vaccine - which is being slowly rolled out after it was introduced for the first time this winter - are protected against the Yamagata strain. Those who received the normal three strain vaccine are not protected, and it has been seen in 63 lab cases so far this winter. B / Victoria - This strain is vaccinated against in the normal three strain vaccine, but has hardly appeared so far this winter, with just four confirmed cases Advertisement Official figures show the NHS is in the midst of its worst flu outbreak in seven years. The problem is likely to have been made worse because the main H3N2 flu strain circulating this year is resistant against vaccination among the elderly. Advice published by Public Health England in September said GPs could consider using antiviral pills among healthy over-65s, because seasonal influenza vaccination may be less effective. No waiting list here, boast French A French hospital is using the NHS winter crisis to urge English patients to cross the Channel for quicker care. One leaflet from the Centre Hospitalier in Calais urges the British to choose it for elective surgery, adding simply: Why wait? Compared with waits of 18 weeks in the UK, patients who travel to France can be treated within four weeks, they say. The hospital is run in partnership with health chiefs in south Kent, and according to the Department of Health only patients living in this area are eligible. The clinical commissioning group for South Kent Coast first signed the deal with the hospital two years ago over fears that patients were waiting too long for procedures such as hip operations. Advertisement It added: Clinicians should note however, that such use is outside the NICE guidance recommendations and would therefore be a matter for individual clinical judgment. Tamiflu was subject to a major controversy after the NHS spent 600million stockpiling pills in the wake of the 2009 swine flu crisis. Officials last night insisted antivirals are effective. Nick Phin, interim deputy director of the National Infection Service, said: Flu is an unpredictable virus, but immunisation to prevent influenza and antivirals to treat and reduce spread are the best defence we have against it. A Department of Health spokesman said: Tamiflu is a licensed product with a proven record of safety and quality. They are particularly helpful to at-risk patients and those severely unwell with flu, especially when they are used when symptoms start. Some of Hollywood's biggest stars sat down with a television icon earlier this week to discuss the Time's Up movement. Reese Witherspoon, America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Tracee Ellis Ross, Shonda Rhimes, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and attorney Nina Shaw all assembled for a panel discussion with host Oprah Winfrey on Monday. That will air this weekend on CBS Sunday Morning, and in a preview released on Friday Oprah speaks to Witherspoon about the sexual assault she endured at the age of 16 while working for a director she has declined to publicly name. These women have all signed the Time's Up pledge in addition to donating their time, money and other resources to the cause, which aims to eliminate sexual misconduct across all industries. 'There's moments that you have to evaluate whether silence is going to be your only option, and certain times that was our only option,' said Witherspoon. 'But now is not that time.' Scroll down for video Ladies who launch: Reese Witherspoon, America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Tracee Ellis Ross, Shonda Rhimes, Kathleen Kennedy and Nina Shaw sat down with Oprah Emotional moment: the women were on hand to speak about the Time's Up campaign they launched, with Witherspoon (above) being brought to tears when she spoke about her sexual assault Hard: Witherspoon breaks down while revealing it is still emotional to discuss the incident, which is why she believes the Time's Up campaign is so important Oprah noted that she was in the room when Witherspoon first shared her assault story last year at the annual Elle Women in Hollywood Awards 'I don't know if I've gotten to that place yet, as you can see I'm still very emotional. I keep going back to, someone sent me this Elie Weisel quote,' said Witherspoon. That quote reads: 'We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.' The Oscar-winning actress, 41, said that the biggest role she and other A-list stars will play as part of the movement will be bringing a voice to the silenced and becoming allies to those women who have been ignored. 'You know, we have public voices. We have resources,' said Witherspoon. 'But women who are workers in this country have nothing to gain in certain times by coming forward. But we want to help. It gives me strength to hopefully help other women.' Ellis-Ross added: 'At this moment it's a campaign, and we're all sort of workers among workers and women among women, sort of rolling up our sleeves and doing whatever sort of comes to the forefront.' Kennedy then finished off by stating: 'We have to maintain the momentum of this conversation because they cant.' Giving: These women have all signed the Time's Up pledge in addition to donating their time, money and other resources to the cause Oprah at one point asked the women: 'How do we as a society have a mature, nuanced conversation about how men and women should be relating to each other?' She went on to explain: 'Because theres so many men and women now who are uncomfortable in their workplaces because of all thats been uncovered and arent just really sure how to be. What do we say to them?' Portman chimed in at this point to point out one of the most noted missteps many have taken when issuing apologies or making statements. 'We're humans. We're all humans. And I think it's treating people as fellow humans it's not because you have a daughter that you respect a woman, it's not because you have a wife or a sister,' explained the 35-year-old Oscar winner. 'It's because we're human beings, whether we're related to a man or not. We deserve the same respect.' Oprah's sit-down with some of the famous faces in the Time's Up movement airs Sunday at 9am on CBS. A mother-of-two from Colorado has been found dead after she vanished last month in suspicious circumstances. A park ranger discovered the body of Kimberlee Graves, 41, in Lory State Park west of Fort Collins on Tuesday. Her death has been ruled a homicide, but investigators have not said how she was killed. Scroll down for video Kimberlee Graves (pictured with her children) had been missing since early December but her body was found in Lory State Park west of Fort Collins on Tuesday A park ranger discovered the body of Kimberlee Graves, 41, (pictured) on Tuesday Police discovered that her home was ransacked and her car had been abandoned in a parking garage. Authorities say Graves was last seen at her home the night of December 4. A few days later, on December 8, a friend was unable to get a hold of her and requested a welfare check. When police arrived at her home no one answered and her car was also missing. Two days later, her friend who was still concerned entered her home and called the cops to say Graves' place had been ransacked. Graves was last seen on December 4. Four days later her friend called cops for a welfare check after her car was missing. The friend finally got into the home to find it had been ransacked Detectives working on her disappearance eventually found her red RAV4 SUV abandoned in a parking garage three days later. Fort Collins Police told CBS Denver the car had likely been driven by someone else following her disappearance. Police have not said if they have identified any suspects. 'At this point we need the community's help figuring out what happened and finding justice for Kimberlee,' said Kate Kimble, a spokeswoman for the Fort Collins Police Department. Graves' death has been ruled a homicide, but investigators have not said how she was killed At the time of her disappearance, a friend and neighbor for about eight years spoke to the media to say that he was concerned about the people Graves was associating with. 'Too friendly. People in her house all the time. She had a nice 2015 RAV4 and she would just let people drive it. Next thing I know it was side swiped, the window was broken out. I see someone keyed bad words into her door,' said Cordova to KDVR. 'I kind of got onto her about trusting people too much and now look.' Anyone with information abougt the case is asked to contact Fort Collins Police at 970-416-2825 or email tipsline@fcgov.com. Anonymous tipsters, who may be eligible for a cash reward, can call Crime Stoppers of Larimer County at 970-221-6868 or visit stopcriminals.org. Newly uncovered surveillance footage shows the final moments of a waitress as she walked home, shortly before she was killed with 'perfect shot' by a mystery assailant. Katherine 'Ketie' Jones' death in October, 2016, baffled police who said at the time they had no witnesses, no fingerprints and no motive for her murder. Now, new video has emerged which could finally give investigators vital clues to her killing. It shows the 26-year-old, known as Ketie to her friends, walking through the Plaza Midwood neighborhood, in Charlotte, North Carolina, at around 2am. Newly uncovered surveillance footage shows the final moments Katherine 'Ketie' Jones as she walked home, shortly before she was killed with 'perfect shot' by a mystery assailant Jones was killed with a single bullet wound to the chest in October 2016. She was 26, had no known enemies, no involvement in drugs, and was walking home 'dancing and singing', having spent time with friends after work when someone came up to her and killed her She was returning home from Midwood Country Club in Charlotte where she had gone with friends after finishing her waitress job at Midwood Smokehouse. Footage shows her ambling down the street, after she turned down a ride from a co-worker, as she made the mile-long walk back to her house, singing, dancing and sending her friends photos. Video captures her turning onto Hamorton Place. Moments later, a red car backs down Hamorton Place after her. Her body was found in the parking lot of a business on the corner of The Plaza and Hamorton Place the next morning. Police have released the video in hopes it could provide them with a lead in the case they admit is still 'wide open'. Anyone who recognizes the car or knows someone driving around the area at that time is urged to call. Footage shows her ambling down the street, after she turned down a ride from a co-worker, as she made the mile-long walk back to her house, singing, dancing and sending her friends photos Moments later, a red car backed down Hamorton Place after her 'All I need is one good (lead),' CMPD Deputy Chief Jeff Estes said. 'There are no witnesses that have come forward,' Charlotte-Mecklenburg Homicide Detective Shana Isenhour said. 'Personally, I think somebody got out of the car and approached herI think it was a complete surprise to her Based on the video it doesn't appear she would have time to defend herself,' Isenhour told Crime Watch Daily. Jones' mother has also issued a plea for any witnesses to come forward. 'I want the answers. I want justice for her. She doesn't deserve to go into death not being known what happened. Her story is not finished. It needs to be finished,' Ketie's mother Jevona Livingston says. Ketie's mother, Jevona Livingston,has also issued a plea for any witnesses to come forward Livingston says her happy go lucky daughter had no known enemies, no involvement in drugs, and was walking home 'dancing and singing', having spent time with friends after work when someone came up to her and killed her. 'She was dancing and singing all the way down the road. Dancing and singing to her death. I hate to say it, but it is true. 'She was even texting pictures to her friends in the minutes before she was shot. 'She had been in a bar with her friends after finishing work in the BBQ restaurant where she was a waitress. 'Police have said that from the moment she left the bar, they had it on camera. 'They could tell from her energy that she was in a good place.' She told DailyMail.com that her murder had left her without her 'soul mate and best friend'. Video courtesy WSOC It was just after 2am when Jones walked home from Midwood Country Club in Charlotte where she had gone with friends after finishing work Jones was a waitress at the critically acclaimed Charlotte restaurant, Midwood Smokehouse The BBQ restaurant has been visited by both President Obama and Hillary Clinton. Obama's pictures adorn the restaurant's walls But then, at 2.45am, in the darkness, she was murdered by a single gunshot. A bullet to the chest ended her life after what police say was a struggle which also left her bruised on her left cheek, left elbow, left hip and left lower back. Ketie's body was found by a neighbor who believed he had heard a firework being discharged and had gone to investigate. He found Ketie lying face down and thought she had tripped over on the sidewalk on the Plaza, behind the offices of a realtor. It was clear immediately that it was not a robbery; she still had her cellphone and purse when her body was found. Police could find nothing in her personal life: she had been single for some time following a split from her boyfriend, and lived for her cats. Officers have spoken to her co-workers who were with her that evening, friends she had known for years and members of her family, but no solid clues have emerged. They even investigated whether her murder could have been the result of a gang initiation in which a new member has to prove he - or she - has taken a life in order to be accepted. But that too has drawn a blank. Jones was walking down this road, Hamorton Place, when she had an encounter with an unknown assailant Lt. Alex Watson of Charlotte police told DailyMail.com: 'We are determined to get justice for her family. She was very well thought of and popular. 'But we are not in a position to put this [murder] into any particular category. 'We don't know if she met somebody earlier that evening or was followed from the bar. 'It is a tough one, but we are going to keep charging forward.' Her mother struggled to hold back her tears as she recalled the daughter who was her 'soul mate and best friend.' Mrs. Livingston said: 'Ketie was everybody's best friend. She was such a gentle heart who never hurt anybody. 'She was the type of girl who would take in stray cats and look after them. She also had two dogs. She was always taking in animals. 'There was never any hint at all of any trouble from her or to her from anyone. She was a loving young woman. 'I just cannot understand why this would happen to Ketie. She had no enemies that anybody knows of and she hadn't been in any arguments. Mrs. Livingston's tears fell as she added: 'I am suffering. Ketie was always the one that held me together. My mom passed in 2011 from cancer and I wouldn't have made it through if it wasn't for Ketie. 'I literally laid in my bed for three weeks and I don't normally drink, but I drank half a gallon of tequila because I found a bucket of it there. Jones was found face down, with a single gunshot wound to the chest, behind this building, the Berry Hill Realty office 'Ketie came over and said 'Mama, I know you're sadI am sad too. 'But I am damned if I am going to go through nanny stuff and now Mama stuff, so get up.' Her loving daughter nursed and cajoled her mother through one of the most difficult periods of her life, she said. 'She really was, in a strange sense, like my mom. She looked out for all of us, for me and her sister and her friends. 'She was a remarkable woman. Ketie was the smartest person you could meet. She was phenomenal.' In the days before her murder, Ketie had been trying to travel to Asheville in North Carolina to visit her mother for her birthday. But without a car she was unable to make the two hour journey. Her work colleagues recall how she missed out on meeting former President Obama and losing presidential candidate Hillary Clinton when they made a campaign visit to their restaurant. She was on a day off and merely shrugged her shoulders at not shaking hands with Obama. Pictures of his visit adorn the restaurant walls. But Ketie's friends and family have set up a fund to raise money for a scholarship in her memory. She studied briefly at New York's Marymount Manhattan College, but was unable to continue her drama course because of a lack of funds. The 26-year-old lived near Hawthorne Lane and Central Avenue, where she was headed before she was shot and killed at 2:45am A scholarship is being set up at the University of North Carolina to help a local student with a passion for the arts or drama who may have financial difficulties to attend classes. The project has a target of $25,000 and has already passed $18,000 with a number of fund-raising events in Charlotte. One of her best friends Brendan Coffey said: 'Ketie would be beside herself seeing how the love and trust in our community strengthened in the face of losing her, instead of giving into despair, mistrust, and anger. 'It's very difficult to look past the meaninglessness of what happened to Ketie. I struggle to think of why and how this happened every day. 'This project has helped by creating something meaningful to remember her, enrich the community she loved so much, and give deserving students the opportunity to pursue Ketie's passions at UNC Charlotte.' Her mother, speaking of her anger at Ketie's killer said: 'How could you? Who do you think you are? 'She did everything she could to help everybody she could. She put her heart out there and she doesn't deserve this. 'We deserve to know if it was random or by somebody she knew. 'It's scary to think that with all these memorials is this person around me? I don't know.' For more, tune in to Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen on Friday, January 12. Anyone with information about the shooting or those involved are asked to call 704-432-TIPS or Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600. To donate to the scholarship fund go to the Ketie Memory Jones Arts Award. Taking to the stage at the Beverly Hilton, a Golden Globe pressed into his hand, actor Ewan McGregor said: I want to take a moment to just say thank you to Eve, who always stood by me for 22 years. And my four children, I love you. In the usual run of things, a heartfelt thanks to ones wife and children during awards season is to be expected. Except that on Sunday night, everyone watching knew that in this case it was something rather out of the ordinary. For, just seven months ago, McGregor walked out on Eve, his wife of more than two decades, in favour of his much-younger co-star in the TV series Fargo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Why, you may ask, was he paying such a sweet tribute to the woman who had loved him with her whole heart (from the hell-raising years post-Trainspotting, right through to the current incarnation) so soon after dumping her? Cynics might suggest that the actor, 46, was trying to claw back some good PR in the teeth of a dismaying break-up. Just seven months ago, McGregor walked out on Eve, his wife of more than two decades, in favour of his much-younger co-star in the TV series Fargo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (pictured) Indeed, in the hours which followed his surprising acceptance speech, many luvvie voices on social media hailed his guts in mentioning his wife in the same breath as his new girlfriend, whom he also thanked by name. The prevailing message was that Ewans convention-busting speech was a display of gracious good manners. His decision to walk the red carpet solo, without his new woman (who, at 33, is nearly 20 years younger than his 51-year-old wife), was interpreted in the same light: to be the good guy. Just five miles away in another corner of Los Angeles, though, it appears the speech did not go down as well as hed hoped. So hurt was French-born Eve discreet, dignified and supportive, and who hasnt spoken a bad word about her husband, despite serious provocation over the years that she finally broke her silence. Speaking from the rather splendid Spanish-style former marital home in genteel Brentwood, a suburb of Los Angeles, she said simply, No, I did not like his speech, when approached by the Mail this week. Why not? For the same reasons you are here asking me about it, she replied, before adding: I am not going to say any more. The only interpretation of those words, spoken very calmly, is that the humiliation caused by her husbands behaviour has become too much. Ever since the tumultuous events of last spring and summer, Eve has attempted to keep life as happy as possible for the couples four daughters, who range in age from six to 21. To this end, Eve and her girls have just returned from a New Year Caribbean holiday as a fivesome. She has also introduced a new family member Azure, a hairless pedigree kitten, who is especially doted on by the middle daughters Esther and Jamiyan, both 16. (Jamiyan was adopted from Mongolia by the couple, and the youngest girl, Anouk, was also adopted, in 2011). The family celebrated Christmas without McGregor, star of Trainspotting and Star Wars. The five of them also celebrated Hanukkah on December 13, with homemade doughnuts with honey and orange blossom water which Eve, who is Jewish, proudly observed were made by her from a family recipe. No, I did not like his speech' said French born Eve Mavrakis about Ewan McGregor's speech Ewan, meanwhile, has moved to a bachelor pad nearby, taking with him his vintage Rolls-Royce, collection of motorbikes, his camper van and in November his valuable art works; a final painful affirmation that he wont be back. Eve, a production designer who put her own career on hold to raise their family, is now left to contemplate divorce. As they have lived in California since 2008, she will be entitled to file for divorce out there and can expect to get 50 per cent of his 26 million fortune, plus ongoing child support. Papers have yet to be submitted to court and none of the higher-profile attorneys in Los Angeles were saying this week if they were acting for either party. Indeed, unlike Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who each engaged legal teams from several big-hitting firms, but have yet to actually reach a settlement, Eve and Ewan seem to have not even taken initial steps in the process. The reason, it seems, is her utter devastation at this wholly unexpected turn of events. Eve, a production designer who put her own career on hold to raise their family, is now left to contemplate divorce from husband Ewan McGregor, they are pictured here at the exclusive Filmmakers Dinner during the Cannes International Film Festival in 2012 In all interviews over decades and as recently as last year Ewan insisted on her paramount importance to him. As she mused on Instagram in November, in bewilderment: What can I do? One source suggested this week that she is still hopeful of a reconciliation. Her New Year message, posted on Instagram, again reveals a very hurt woman. I am so thankful for my loving, caring girls, Eve writes. The protective reactions of her oldest daughter, Clara, who is a model and actress, point in the same direction. In the days after Ewans liaison became public, Clara posted a picture of her mum, with her father cropped out, and the caption: How frickin gorgeous is my mama?? Strongest, smartest most loving woman I know. My rock. It turns out that Eve is being supported by a large group of loving friends, who include the supermodel-turned-filmmaker Christy Turlington and her actor husband Ed Burns, the photographer Christy Schnabel and socialite Gina Goldman Schupfer. Aussie power couple Craig and Christine Gillespie he directed the forthcoming Tonya Harding biopic I, Tonya are also very firmly on Team Eve, and they invited her to a screening of the film in LA last week rather than Ewan. Ewan McGregor accepting the award for best actor in a limited series or motion picture made for TV for his role in Fargo at the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards - he thanked both his wife and lover in the speech Eves sadness and emotional frailty is so evident that Ewans mum, Carol, has been at pains to send regular supportive messages via social media. His affair took everyone by surprise. In 2016, Ewan was cast in the edgy series Fargo, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead married to a TV writer and distantly related to the late bombshell Ava Gardner chosen to play his love interest. The show was filmed in snowy Alberta, Canada, from January to April. Winstead came over for dinner to the McGregors in December 2016. At this dinner, with the children present, she apparently gigglingly confessed to having had a crush on Ewan when she was a teenager. In May, McGregor and Winstead returned to their respective homes and told their spouses that the marriages were now over. In June, Mary Elizabeth announced that she had split from her husband of seven years, Riley Stearns. She said: Weve decided to move on from our marriage, but we will stay best friends and collaborators for all our days. We are still ride or die, just in a different way now. I love you always, Riley. Not long after, Riley closed his Twitter account, saying: Keep almost tweeting stuff I shouldnt so I am saying bye for a while. But on the McGregor side, it seems that Eve was hanging on. On June 3, she posted a picture of Ewan playing a guitar in Montreal, captioned: My love plays the blues. It was only delaying the inevitable. In October, Ewan and his new love made a trip to the UK. They were spotted kissing in a restaurant near to Ewan and Eves London base in St Johns Wood, and friends confirmed that Ewan had left his wife. He and Mary were then seen together at the Lime Wood Hotel in Hampshire and on a trip to the Scottish highlands. Sources indicate that Ewan had announced to his wife in May that he was in love with his Fargo co-star, but insisted nothing had happened between them. Ewan McGregor and daughter Clara McGregor pose during the party for the performance of Much Ado About Nothing in 2010. The model has come to the defence of her mother since her parents split A source said: Ewan and Eve were a very affectionate and loving couple, but it all changed over the summer. It was very abrupt. He came back from Fargo and it was clear he and Mary had become close. He insisted that nothing physical happened between them and Eve accepted that. They tried to make their marriage work after he told her, but about a month later it was clear Ewan had made his decision. Another source adds: Eve is sure Ewan and Mary were together before he confessed his feelings for her. It is hard for her to believe him. Eve is doing her best to handle it with dignity. Eves life story is easily the equal of any of the dramas her estranged husband has acted out. Born in the Dordogne, she was raised in China by her devoutly communist parents. Her Greek father, Kostas, was a Marxist-Leninist professor who authored a controversial book about Trotsky in 1973. At that time he was a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Paris VIII. He then moved to Beijing with Eve, an infant, her older sister Marianne and her mother Annie who is French and Sephardi Jewish, and also ardently communist. The parents are thought to have taught French at what was then called Peking University. Eve spent her childhood years in China, attending a local school. Both girls became completely fluent Chinese speakers an early professional credit is acting as a translator in China on the set of the film Empire Of The Sun. The family then moved back to France she and Ewan met on the set of ITV legal drama Kavanagh QC, and were married in 1995 in a small village near Besancon in the east of France. Ewan, the son of teachers from Perthshire, was just 24 at the time. In an interview in 2015, he said: It was fantastic, in a way. I was living out my dream of being an actor and I was doing a lot of wild partying. So she was with me through all of that craziness. He later said: I knew right then that I really wanted to be with her and I knew I wanted to be with her in a different way to all the other many, many, many women I had been with up until that point. And I wasnt wrong. I made the right choice. Daughter Clara was born in February 1996, the same month Trainspotting was released. They bought a big house in London and Ewan started to learn French so that he could understand his daughter, who was being raised bilingual. When the children were small he would insist on bringing them on set with him. Hes also joked about how difficult French women are, but always then added he liked difficult women. Seeing my kids and being with my wife. That makes me truly happy, he said last year. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ewan McGregor began dating after meeting on the set of Fargo. She is pictured here in 2012 Ewan was the subject of persistent rumours about on-set flirtations, but always denied rumours of a fling with Nicole Kidman, his co-star in Moulin Rouge, and Renee Zellweger, in Down With Love and Miss Potter. The trouble, though, was his drinking. He said of Moulin Rouge, which was filmed in Australia: That was the darkest time, really. The film was one of the biggest and most amazing things Ive ever been involved in, but I was out of control. I couldnt keep all the balls in the air, if you like. Being a dad, being a husband, being an actor and being a drinker just didnt fit together, and the only one I was prepared to lose was that one. So I just kicked it. He has been teetotal since 2000 with the aid of a therapist and at one time attended AA meetings. By 2005, he had bought a holiday house for the family in Venice Beach, California, and soon afterwards they relocated to America permanently. He said: When youre far away from home its awful not to be with them. You just worry yourself to death. Wherever Eve and the kids are is home. Recently, he had a massive tattoo on his shoulder of a huge heart, and in it, in curling script, the names of his children and his wife. On Thursday night, however, he was back in his tuxedo to collect another award for Fargo. On this occasion, however, Mary Elizabeth, looking loved-up and every bit the celebrity girlfriend in 6,500 Delpozo gown, was very much by his side. Before stepping up to the podium, Ewan bent down to give her a kiss. No more pretence. No more Mr Nice Guy. One can only hope that poor Eve was looking away. An Iowa family is suing Norwegian Cruise Lines claiming a crew member sexually assaulted their 12-year-old daughter while she was asleep in their cabin during a February trip from Miami. According to the suit, 30-year-old Rajkumar Panneer Selvam entered the cabin around 1pm on February 16, 2017 while the girl was napping. The child, who was only identified by her initials in the suit, had been left alone in the room. It was the second-to-last day of the week-long cruise. Selvam, who was hired as a steward and had been cleaning the family's room during their week-long stay on the Norwegian Escape, allegedly started touching the child on the inside of her shorts near her upper right leg, the Miami Herald reports. A family in Iowa filed a civil lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Lines alleging that a steward sexually assaulted their 12-year-old daughter The family claims that 30-year-old Rajkumar Panneer Selvam came into their cabin while the girl was sleeping and sexually assaulted her before asking if he could clean the room. Selvam was found not guilty in trial despite allegedly admitting to the FBI that he touched the child on her 'buttocks and pubic region'. He then moved his hand underneath her underwear along her buttocks and vaginal area, the suit alleges. The girl rolled away and pulled the covers over her, but Selvam continued to touch her. The family alleges that he stopped when the child fully woke up. The suit says the the girl was 'in shock and frightened'. She tried to get help by walking to the adjacent room, where other family members and friends were staying, but no one was there. The child then encountered Selvam again, who asked if she wanted the room to be cleaned. When her parents returned, she told them what happened and the incident was reported the captain. She was able to identify Selvam because he had been to the room before to clean it. Selvam was detained until the ship docked, and the FBI was notified. The crew member told investigators that he had entered the room while the girl was in there sleeping and said he had touched her. Both entering a cabin with a guest inside and touching a guest is against company police. The parents, who had left the child in the room by herself, are seeking $75,000 claiming Norwegian failed to properly vet Selvam before hiring him. The incident happened in February 2017 as they were leaving Miami Selvam allegedly also admitted to touching the girl on the 'buttocks and pubic region with his hand while the minor was sleeping on the bed,' according to the Miami Herald. The FBI also obtained video surveillance that confirmed the victim's timeline. The case went to trial and the crew member, however, was found not guilty. In response, the family filed a civil lawsuit last week in Miami against Norwegian claiming the company did not properly vet Selvam before hiring him. The child is distraught. The parents are really distraught and they are concerned, their attorney John Hickey told the Miami Herald. The family is seeking in excess of $75,000 for emotional distress, bodily injury and medical expenses. Norwegian has not responded to the lawsuit. Charlie Chaplins dashing grandson Kevin is doing his part to keep the family name alive. I can reveal that the 23-year-old from Geneva has been hand-picked by designers Dolce & Gabbana to open their Mens Fashion Week show in Milan today. His catwalk debut might come as a surprise given that Kevin, son of Eugene Chaplin and Bernadette McCready, is a recent graduate of the EU Business School in Switzerland, where he studied finance. Kevin Chaplin: Can he do his grandfather's wonky walk? Charlie Chaplin is Kevin's illustrious grandfather But his career prospects were transformed when his model and actress sister Kiera, 35, introduced him to the celebrated Italian duo last summer, where they immediately snapped him up. Im so happy to have this opportunity to walk for Dolce & Gabbana, Kevin tells me. And Id like to think my grandfather would be very proud of me. So long as he does a comedy wonky walk. ........................................................................................................................................... No Pain, no gain for Clooney's pin-up ex George Clooneys ex, Lisa Snowdon, underwent a painful-looking procedure this week in a bid to maintain her looks. Lisa Snowdon: I know I look like a pin cushion!' The former lingerie model, who is six years older than Clooneys 39-year-old wife, Amal, shared this selfie, right, while having a 150 acupuncture session. I know I look like a pin cushion! But I can promise you this did not hurt, a few of the needles in my ears and along my eyebrows were a tiny bit uncomfortable but once they were in, I felt nothing, she wrote. No doubt her partner, entrepreneur George Smart, likes her just as she is. ........................................................................................................................................... Kirk's latest role: ad man for family brand Catherine Zeta-Jones may be worth 32 million but she has no shame when it comes to roping in family members to promote her luxury homewear company. Kirk Douglas, aged 101, can be seen surrounded by bedding items The 48-year-old actress shared this snap online from Christmas in which her Hollywood star father-in-law Kirk Douglas, aged 101, is surrounded by bedding items from Casa Zeta-Jones. My biggest fan gets exactly what he wants from Casa Zeta-Jones, she writes. Kirk, father of Catherines husband Michael, 73, is trying to appear relaxed in his fur-lined slippers, but fails to hide his obvious discomfort in this cringe-worthy scene of egregious self-promotion. ........................................................................................................................................... Are we human? Or are we dancers? They have danced together for 20 years, but Erin Boag has confessed that, on occasion, she cant abide her lantern-jawed dance partner, Anton Du Beke. Erin, 42, likens her partnership with Du Beke, whose real name is Anthony Paul Beke, to a marriage. You have your wonderful moments but you also have your very intense moments where you cant stand him, she says. But the next day its all forgotten. I have a certain respect for him. In 2009, Du Beke had to apologise abjectly after he told his Strictly Come Dancing partner, actress Laila Rouass, that her fake tan made her look like a P***. Tom and Sara Parker Bowles after 12 years of marriage Throughout his childhood, Tom Parker Bowles had to live with the unsettling knowledge that his mother Camilla was in love with a man who was not his father. It was a distressing and sometimes painful experience. At school and university, he was exposed to the gossip of contemporaries and had to endure snide remarks about the Rottweiler, as Princess Diana famously called her rival. He also endured mockery about his father, Andrew, who was ridiculed for laying down his wife for his country. Later came the glare of public fascination as he struggled to shake off the burden of his royal connection. Even when his parents separated, freeing Mrs Parker Bowles and the Prince of Wales to pursue their relationship openly, his surname was often more of a curse than a blessing. Remarkably, despite briefly gaining a reputation as a cocaine-snorting party animal, Tom emerged unscathed from the whole saga insisting that neither he, nor his younger sister Laura, should be cast as victims in the War of the Waleses. Which was why, when the news was made public yesterday that the easy-going and likeable 43-year-old food writer had parted from his wife Sara, it shocked his many friends, and has deeply saddened his mother and Prince Charles, who is also his godfather. After 12 years of marriage, Tom has moved out of the marital home in Shepherds Bush, West London, which he shared with Sara and their two children, and is renting a home nearby. There are apparently no plans for divorce. They are very clear the separation is not final, says a friend. There is no one else involved. Their priority is the children. Tom Parker Bowles kisses Sara on their wedding day in 2005 in Oxfordshire, England Prince Charles and Camilla were left 'deeply saddened' after hearing of the breakdown in Tom and Sara's marriage Although news of the separation came out of the blue, I understand there had been difficulties in the marriage for some time. Both are familiar figures on the London social scene, though in an interview last year Parker Bowles confessed that his idea of luxury was a blank page in the diary and spending time at home cooking and watching telly. Says a friend: Tom used to be very hard-partying, but he has quietened down a lot since the children came along. He is more likely to be seen doing things with the kids these days. Last year Tom and Sara took their ten-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son to Klosters, the Swiss mountain resort where Charles taught William and Harry to ski. Now, their split might cause complications over the invitations to Prince Harry and Meghans wedding in May. Toms name would almost certainly be one of the first on the list. Both William and Harry were at Tom and Saras Oxfordshire wedding in 2005, five months after Camilla herself was married to the Prince of Wales. Theres no reason why Tom and Sara shouldnt be at the royal wedding, but it may be awkward, says a chum. Tom Parker Bowles was spotted leaving his family home in London today Certainly, news of the marriage breakdown is especially troubling for Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. Camilla is extremely fond of her daughter-in-law, and adores having her grandchildren to stay at Ray Mill House, the Wiltshire home she kept on after marrying Charles. Charles himself is close to Tom and admires the way he has gone about his life. Tom has never played the victim card, which would have been very easy to do, says a courtier. He has accepted what life has dealt him and has got on with it. The Prince thinks thats commendable. But just how much those formative experiences are to blame for the split in his marriage can only be guessed at. Charles and Camilla had, of course, been lovers before Tom and his sister Laura were even born. They resumed their affair not long after Lauras birth, which made secrecy a part of her childrens earliest upbringing. A telling insight into the effect this had on Tom came when he was at Summer Fields prep school near Oxford. As he later recalled, he once stole sweets from another boys locker. The headmaster marshalled the entire school into the chapel and said he would keep them there until the thief came forward. After a ten-minute silence, the head then punished an entirely innocent boy, who was in floods of tears. Tom never owned up. He had learned from his mother that silence was the best policy. He was just as circumspect at Eton where, when anyone mentioned his mothers affair, he would retreat into a cocoon of silence. He hated people discussing it, a contemporary recalled. But discuss it we did you know what boys are like. He really didnt like that. At that age we all like our parents to be as conventional as possible. The comfort of an ordinary, settled childhood was denied to Tom. His father, Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, was always willing to stand aside for royalty, even when it came to his own wife, and made himself absent for long periods from Middlewick House, the family home in Wiltshire. A friend said that the couple had been having problems for some time, even though Tom gave up his partying ways That allowed Charles or Sir as Tom has always called the godfather who is now his stepfather to visit more or less at will, which undoubtedly had a disruptive influence on the children: few were surprised when Tom went off the rails. While reading English at Oxford University, he was arrested for possessing ecstasy and cannabis (and was cautioned after claiming they were for personal use). After university, he became a film publicist and compounded his mistake by admitting to a fondness for cocaine after being gulled by an undercover reporter. That confession led to his being banned by Prince Charles from Highgrove and St Jamess Palace, and from having any contact with the young Prince William. Charles felt that his mistresss free-spirited son was a bad influence. It was a siren warning that, when it comes to the good name of the monarchy, Charles will usually put the Royal Family first. But while those youthful indiscretions have long been forgotten, and despite their shared domestic history, Tom is not close to the royal Princes. In a rare moment of candour, he admitted last year: I dont hang out with William and Harry much. They are different ages and have different lives. Im a 43-year old hack. Even by the time he moved into the basement flat in Notting Hill, which featured in Performance the gender-bending, drug-soaked 1970 film starring Mick Jagger Parker Bowles had put his bohemian tastes behind him. He gave up smoking and insisted he no longer took drugs. I dont use them any more, he declared before his wedding. My life has changed. His journalism took off when he submitted a food column to Tatler magazine. His film career had ended amicably a couple of years earlier because of his habit of sleeping through morning meetings. After that, he spent a couple of years working with his cousin Ben Elliots concierge company Quintessentially, where he sourced food suppliers. But he preferred writing about food. At the same time, his union with Sara, whom he met at Oxford, and who used to work for fashion magazine Harpers Bazaar, was formalised in a traditional if star-studded ceremony, with guests including Jagger, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley. Saras Alexander McQueen bridal gown is thought to have inspired Kate Middleton to choose the same designer. Last year, Tom Parker Bowles offered an intriguing insight into his relationship. Marriage is about compromise, about two people who might be rather different, but who love each other very much, he observed. Marriage is a wonderful thing in the long term, but there are ups and downs. Friends were last night wondering if that might prove to be its epitaph. Major shareholders are in revolt over a completely unjustified 630million payout for housebuilding bosses. Persimmon has been under fire ever since it announced the bonus scheme, which is one of the biggest in UK business history. Chief executive Jeff Fairburn is set to pocket a windfall initially estimated at 131million. Up to 150 managers will join in the bonanza. Major shareholders are in revolt over a completely unjustified 630million payout for housebuilding bosses. Chief executive Jeff Fairburn could pocket 131million BlackRock, the worlds biggest fund manager and Persimmons largest shareholder, is expected to challenge the share scheme because it has vowed to clamp down on corporate excess. Aberdeen Asset Management, another major shareholder, is writing to the Persimmon board to voice its concerns. Two more leading City institutions, Axa Investment Managers and Royal London Asset Management, have opposed the payouts. Persimmon board members have opened talks with City investors in an attempt to head off a showdown. It seems to me that the board are increasingly concerned that they need to do something, said one major investor. They are speaking to shareholders at the moment and shareholders are expressing their concerns. Persimmon, which is based in York and is the countrys second-largest builder, sold 16,043 homes last year at an average price of 213,300. Persimmon, which is based in York (pictured) and is the countrys second-largest builder, sold 16,043 homes last year at an average price of 213,300 The company has come under fire for failing to cap the payouts eligible through its long-term incentive plan, or LTIP, which was agreed in 2012. The bonus pot has soared in value as the recovery in the property market fuelled by the governments Help to Buy mortgage scheme drove the Persimmon share price higher. Mr Fairburn was dubbed Mr 131million this week but the share price has since dipped, trimming his cut to 128million. A spokesman for Aberdeen, which has a 202million stake in Persimmon, said yesterday that it was awaiting developments. But fewer homes built Persimmon is building fewer homes than it was before the financial crisis, according to its own figures. Chief executive Jeff Fairburn says a hugely lucrative pay deal has encouraged the company to ramp up production. However Persimmon built 16,043 homes last year 658 short of the 16,701 it built in 2006 before the economic crash. Rivals have increased construction at a faster rate during the recovery without offering their bosses such huge payouts. While annual production at Persimmon has risen 70 per cent since the bonus scheme was approved in 2012, it has risen 96 per cent at Bellway and 109 per cent at Redrow over that time. Other builders have expanded over the same period, with annual production up 56 per cent at Barratt and 43 per cent at Taylor Wimpey. Sales have been boosted by Help to Buy. Advertisement Ashley Hamilton Claxton of Royal London Asset Management, which holds a 23.5million stake, said the bonus scheme did not take into account the impact that the national housing shortage and government support for the sector would have on performance. She added: We have longstanding concerns about pay at Persimmon. The companys performance has been impressive, but we continue to believe that the sheer scale of remuneration is excessive. We would ask that the chief executive and members of the pay committee acknowledge their errors and correct them. Mr Fairburn, 51, says the share scheme has encouraged the firm to build more homes. It has done exactly what it set out to do, he insisted. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said: These bonuses are absolutely and completely unjustified. But it is not just corporate greed. It is financed by the taxpayer. A man had been arrested at a property in Hurstville after a body was found with two stab wounds at the entrance to a southern Sydney train station. Horrified commuters made the grisly discovery just after 6am near the Forrest Road Entrance to Hurstville Railway Station, 9NEWS reported. Police have released a statement confirming that the man, had 'suffered severe lacerations'. Police have responded to reports of a 'stabbed body' found at Hurstville station on Saturday A large crime scene has been established near Hurstville train station as police investigate An 'edged weapon' was seized during the arrest, and the man currently in custody is at Kogarah Police Station is said to be assisting with police inquiries. A large crime scene has been established near the station, which is about 16km south of the city and is part of the St George area. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that bloodied white sheet covered what is believed to the body of the man - reportedly in his 50s - at the station entrance. Multiple people have suffered various injuries after a hot air balloon incident in the NSW Hunter Valley. A sudden wind change caused the balloon crashed into the ground on Campe Road at Greta, 20km from Cessnock around 7am on Saturday morning. A police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia 15 people were on board at the time of the incident and six have been injured. Multiple people have suffered various injuries after a hot air balloon incident The balloon hit the ground hard on Campe Road at Greta , 20km from Cessnock Fifteen people were on board at the time and six have been injured, police say Four people are understood to have suffered minor injuries, with two others serious but stable. A 20-year-old woman is suspected to have injured her spinal cord and an 80-year-old woman has multiple fractures. Due to the four-wheel drive access only, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was called to the location. Police say an investigation into the incident will be led by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Donald Trump faces the embarrassment of not being invited to the royal wedding, insiders said last night. The US President is notoriously sensitive to snubs and might have expected to be asked to attend Prince Harry and Meghan Markles big day. But a Royal Household source pointedly said: Although the guest list hasnt yet been announced, there is no reason he would be invited. The potential snub is a second setback to Mr Trump following the cancellation of a planned visit to Britain next month. Donald Trump faces the embarrassment of not being invited to the royal wedding, insiders said last night Speaking about Mr Trump being invited to Harry and Meghan's wedding, a source said: Although the guest list hasnt yet been announced, there is no reason he would be invited President Trump is at the centre of an extraordinary diplomatic row over the new US embassy in Battersea (pictured) In other US-UK developments last night: - UK officials privately expressed their hope that the President could come to Britain at some point this year; - Ministers are examining the idea of him visiting Scotland instead; - The Presidents claim that the lease on the old embassy in Mayfair had been sold for peanuts was supported by documents showing the US received nearly 200million less than thought. Mr Trump said he had called off the London trip because he disagreed with the decision to sell off the old embassy cheap. But observers suggested he did not want to run the gauntlet of protests. London mayor Sadiq Khan was among those on the Left who commented yesterday, saying it was clear that Mr Trump had got the message that many Londoners did not want him here. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also said he should not be invited. Boris Johnson took aim at both men last night, accusing them of putting Britains relationship with America at risk. He labelled Mr Khan a puffed up, pompous popinjay. Downing Street appeared to back his stance, with a source saying: We agree that any risk to the crucial US-UK relationship is not in our countrys best interests. The row over the visit, which sparked headlines around the world yesterday, threatens a new crisis in Britains relations with the Trump administration. There is now no date for a visit by the President, who has been in office for a year. 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' London mayor Sadiq Khan was among those on the Left who commented yesterday, saying it was clear that Mr Trump had got the message that many Londoners did not want him here Royal Household sources made clear that Prince Harrys nuptials were not a state occasion and would be, by royal standards at least, a more low-key, family affair than the wedding of his parents or brother. Although the wedding is being attended by the Queen, it isnt an official, state occasion. It is a family event, the source said. Unless the President was a close personal friend, which he is not, there would be no protocol, no reason for him to be invited. Harry and Meghan have made clear that this is very much an occasion and a celebration for their close family and friends. Downing Street said it was a matter for the Royal Household. Previous royal weddings of those low down the succession list have not been attended by US presidents. Richard Nixon was not present at the November 1973 wedding of Princess Anne to Captain Mark Phillips. Ronald Reagan was not present at the July 1986 wedding of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson. And Bill Clinton was not at the June 1997 wedding of Prince Edward to Sophie Rhys-Jones. But it does leave open the question as to whether Barack Obama, who was interviewed by Prince Harry for broadcast on Radio 4 only last month, is likely to be asked. And if he does turn up, we could send him to Scotland If Donald Trump comes to the UK, his visit could be centred on Scotland to cut the risk of mass protests. Ministers are examining plans for him to meet the Queen at Balmoral Castle before visiting one of his two golf courses in Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire. Officials believe using the Royal Familys remote estate would prevent embarrassing scenes where Mr Trump is confronted by thousands of demonstrators. A Cabinet source told the Mail: Balmoral is obviously an easier location to secure because it is a private estate. The President could fly in without being hindered by protests. Mr Trump is said to have expressed interest in playing a round of golf at the Queens nine-hole course at the Aberdeenshire castle. But Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon may scupper the idea of moving the Presidents visit north as she has spoken out against any state visit. It is also unknown if the President would want to make the trip if he was not given a full state visit, complete with carriage ride up The Mall to Buckingham Palace. Mr Trump traces his ancestry back to Scotland where his mother Mary Anne MacLeod was brought up on the Hebridean Isle of Lewis, which he describes as serious Scotland. She left for New York in 1930 aged 18 to work as a servant and six years later married successful property developer Frederick Trump. The golf course at Balmoral, dating from 1925, only opened to the public last year with a charge of 200 for a round for four players. Advertisement Harry now counts him as a close personal friend and his instinct would certainly be to do so. Michael Wolff, the US journalist behind a controversial book on Mr Trump, warned earlier this week that he doesnt like being snubbed. The Mail revealed yesterday that Mr Trump had scrapped his plan to make his first visit to UK as President next month to open the new 1billion US embassy in Nine Elms, south of the Thames. Sources suggested he was unhappy about the arrangements and the scale of the visit. Then, a few minutes before 5am, Mr Trump confirmed the story, tweeting that he had cancelled his trip because 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 1.2 billion dollars. He denounced the decision to move the embassy from Grosvenor Square as a bad deal, adding: Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! US ambassador to the UK Robert Johnson said he agreed that the embassys old location on Grosvenor Square was perfect but that a move was forced by security concerns following the September 11 terror attacks. Madame Tussauds arranged for Mr Trump to visit the embassy yesterday in waxwork form. Diplomatic staff and construction workers crowded around the model and posed for selfies. British officials were last night still hoping the President could come to Britain at some point this year. Ministers even discussed a plan for him to meet the Queen at Balmoral instead of London. But Mr Khan, who clashed with Mr Trump after he criticised his handling of the London Bridge terror attack, said: His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests. This just reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place. 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. 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 'Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out,' he told people in the meeting, according to CNN . Instead, he said, the US 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 US ally. 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. 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'. '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 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 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.' '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. The row over Trump's 'racist' comments about allowing 's***hole countries' is another chapter in the president's difficult relationship with the United Nations. In December, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley blasted member states who overwhelmingly backed a proposal condemning the US for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and pledging to move its embassy there. The vote was 1289, with 35 abstentions. Only Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo joined the United States and Israel in opposing the measure. Another 21 countries didn't show up to vote. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley blasted countries that condemned the US for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital American ambassador Nikki Haley blasted anti-Israel member nations during a pre-vote debate, warning that there would be a price to pay for standing in President Donald Trump's way. 'This vote will be remembered,' she said as the entire UN General Assembly looked on. 'America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. That is what the American people want us to do. And it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that,' Haley lectured from the central podium. 'But this vote will make a difference on how Americans look at the UN and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the UN.' Back in September, in Trump's first speech to the UN, he drew a round of applause after attacking Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. He called Iran a 'rogue state' for its supposed nuclear ambitions as he criticized the nuclear deal struck by Iran and the Obama administration. 'We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles. And we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program,' Trump said, drawing applause from leaders of more than 180 nations in the room. 'The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States and I don't think you've heard the last of it, believe me,' he said. 'It's time for the entire world to join us in demanding that Iran's government end its pursuit of death and destruction.' As a New York real estate mogul and high-end hotel owner, Donald Trump should be speaking from a position of experience when he calls the new US Embassy a bad deal. The President claimed the Obama Administration sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for peanuts, only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. At a cost of $1bn (750m) the new embassy near Battersea is priced significantly higher than the $680m (500m) it is thought the old embassy in Mayfair was sold for. In with the new: The new US Embassy in Nine Elms, in south London, which is due to open for business on January 16 Standing in London's Grosvenor Square, it was bought by Qatari Diar the property development arm of the Qatari royal family for an undisclosed sum in 2009. At the time, experts had valued the site at 500m. It may never be known how much it was actually sold for because the US sold the lease not the land - which is owned by the Duke of Westminster. The details do not need to recorded with the Land Registry. Shortly before the sale, the old embassy was given Grade II listed status, which may have reduced the value further as this would restrict any development. The Qataris will now spend $1.4bn (1.08bn) to refurbish the building and turn it into a five-star Rosewood hotel with 137 bedrooms. The new US Embassy is a cube-shaped building, located in Nine Elms between Vauxhall and Battersea in south-west London. Christian Warman, director of central London estate agency Tedworth Property, states that US may have 'sold the family silver' - but that they had sold high and bought low. 'Grosvenor Square is one of London's finest addresses and the embassy was very prominent and hugely well connected to businesses and professionals who live and work in the area,' Mr Warman told MailOnline. 'In terms of whether the Americans have sold the family silver; yes Mayfair is always going to be a prime hub of London, but it's not unthinkable that Nine Elms will be considered prime central London in ten, 20 or 50 years, so you could argue that it's a good deal for America. Concentrations of toxic contaminants in the air where you live and work in the UK can now be checked, thanks to a new tool. Postcodes have been ranked based on nitrogen dioxide levels recorded by a firm that measures and models air pollution. Diesel vehicles are a major source of the gas, which has been linked to respiratory disease. The app reveals that Hyde Park Corner and Marylebone Road in London have the most polluted postcodes, while areas near east Londons Blackwall Tunnel were also ranked highly for nitrogen dioxide. Scroll down for video The interactive app lets you type in your postcode and receive a rating from one to six, with one being the least polluted. London, Bristol and Leeds are all at the upper end of the results, while more than four in five postcodes in the UK are in the least polluted category POLLUTION HOTSPOTS IN THE UK Three quarters of the UKs worst pollution areas are in London. Marylebone Road and Hyde Park Corner and in the centre of the capital are two of the most polluted postcodes in the country. Hotspots near east Londons Blackwall Tunnel also received a high ranking. High Street Kensington received a rating of three, which means it is likely that nitrogen dioxide levels will exceed the annual legal limit. Leeds and Bristol city centres also scored relatively high ratings of four out of six. More than four in five postcodes in the UK are in the least polluted category. That includes many urban areas, including the city centres of Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle. Fewer than one per cent of postcodes are rated either 4 or 5 and no postcodes fall into the highest category. Advertisement The interactive app is the work of Leicester-based company EarthSense and the BBC. It lets you type in your postcode and receive a rating from one to six, with one being the least polluted. This reflects the likelihood that area will break the annual legal limit for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), an average of more than than 40 micrograms of NO2 per cubic metre. It is based on a dataset of air quality at a resolution of 100 by 100 metres (330 by 330 feet). This is based on a variety of data sources including road traffic data, satellite information and street map data. EarthSense says it is the most detailed model yet for assessing air quality in Britain. The company's technical director, Professor Roland Leigh, told the BBC: 'By focusing it down we can really isolate the hotspots of poor air quality, and better target our solutions. 'Air quality is actually getting better in Britain, and we are in a better state than a large number of countries - particularly across Asia. 'In Britain, it's always better to be outside exercising than inside avoiding pollution, even in the worst areas.' Pollution is thought to lead to the early deaths of 40,000 people a year in Britain. Three quarters of the UKs worst pollution areas are in London. Three quarters of the UKs worst pollution areas are in London. Marylebone Road and Hyde Park Corner and in the centre of the city are two of the most polluted postcodes in the country HOW MUCH NO2 IS SAFE? Nitrogen dioxide comes from vehicles, power plants, industrial emissions and off-road sources such as construction, lawn and gardening equipment. All of these sources burn fossil fuels. The US Environmental Protection Agency has issued guidance for safe levels of inhalation of Nitrogen Dioxide, measured in parts per billion breathed over the course of an hour. Safe to moderate levels range from zero to 100 parts per billion per hour. EPA GUIDANCE ON AIR QUALITY Air Quality Index (ppb) Likely impact Good (0-50) No health impacts are expected when air quality is in this range Moderate (51-100) Individuals who are unusually sensitive to nitrogen dioxide should consider limiting prolonged outdoor exertion Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (101-150) People with lung diseases, such as asthma, as well as children and older adults, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion Unhealthy (151-200) Sensitive groups should avoid outdoor exertion and everyone else should limit prolonged exertion Very Unhealthy (201-300) Sensitive groups should avoid outdoor exertion and everyone else should limit theirs Scientific evidence links short-term NO2 exposures, ranging from 30 minutes to 24 hours, with adverse respiratory effects including airway inflammation in healthy people and increased respiratory symptoms in people with asthma. Studies also show a connection between short-term exposure and increased emergency room visits and hospital admissions for respiratory illnesses. Individuals who spend time on or near major roads can experience NO2 exposures considerably higher than occur away from roads. These exposures are of particular concern for sensitive groups, such as people with lung disease including asthma, children and older adults. Advertisement Fewer than one per cent of postcodes are rated either four or five, and no postcodes fall into the highest category. Leeds and Bristol city centres also scored relatively high ratings of four out of six. High Street Kensington, where MailOnline is based, received a rating of three, which means it is likely that nitrogen dioxide levels will exceed the annual legal limit. High Street Kensington, where MailOnline is based, received a rating of three, which means nitrogen dioxide levels will likely exceed the annual legal limit Diesel vehicles are a major source of nitrogen dioxide, which has been linked to respiratory disease. In July, 2017, the government announced that new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2040 to improve air quality More than four in five postcodes in the UK are in the least polluted category. That includes many urban areas, including the city centres of Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle. In July, 2017, the government announced that new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2040 to improve air quality. The crackdown could also see the introduction of levies on busy roads for owners of the most polluting vehicles. The strategy was forced on the government by defeat in a High Court case on air pollution. From 2040, drivers will be able to buy electric cars only ending the near 150-year reign of the internal combustion engine. Taiwanese firm EQL technology has unveiled an adorable new smart home robot at CES. With a cartoonish face displayed on a small screen, Qubi at first glance seems much like other popular bots on the market but, at its base is a small detachable Roomba-style vacuum. According to the firm, the bot can clean your house, connect to other smart devices, and even send you security notifications, acting as both a home assistant and a security guard. Taiwanese firm EQL technology has unveiled an adorable new smart home robot at CES. With a cartoonish face displayed on a small screen, Qubi at first glance seems much like other popular bots on the market - but, it has a Roomba-style vacuum at the base EQL'S QUBI ROBOT At CES, Taiwanese firm EQL revealed a new home robot that doubles as a vacuum. It has a disc-shaped vacuum at the base that detaches from the cartoonish robot upper-body. The robot can also connect to Ripple smart home devices to turn on lights or carry out other actions. And, it can send you notifications about your health, including reminders to check blood pressure. The robot can also send security updates, and investigate any suspicious activity when you aren't home, and stream the video. Advertisement At CES, the firm demonstrated how the disc-shaped vacuums can drive around on their own to clean designated areas, and even collaborate with other bots. It has built in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology to understand its environment and its own movements in the space. The robo-vacuum is equipped with face and speech recognition, and works with EQLs Ripple smart home devices On the bottom is a vacuum cleaner and on the top is a robot, EQL Marketing Manager Casey Chang told Dailymail.com. It can take voice commands, and connect to our smart home devices. You can talk to the robot to start controlling these devices, like turn on the lights. You can also talk to the robot just to interact. Qubi, according to the firm, also looks out for your health and safety. The robo-vacuum is equipped with face and speech recognition, and works with EQLs Ripple smart home devices On the bottom is a vacuum cleaner and on the top is a robot, EQL Marketing Manager Casey Chang told Dailymail.com. The robotic assistant can give you health reminders, sending notifications throughout the day to check your blood pressure, for example. And, it can even guard your house. It has a camera on the top, so when the security sensors is triggered, for example if you are not home but somehow your door is open, the robot will go there to see what happened, Chang told Dailymail.com. And then you can see it through your smartphone to see whats happening in real time. At CES, the firm demonstrated how the disc-shaped vacuums can drive around on their own to clean designated areas, and even collaborate with other bots. It has built in SLAM technology to understand its environment and its own movements in the space According to the firm, the bot can clean your house, connect to other smart devices, and even send you security notifications, acting as both a home assistant and a security guard. When its done vacuuming, the two components reattach In vacuum mode, the small disc detaches from the rest of the Qubi bot to operate on its own. Then when its done vacuuming, the two reattach so Qubi can move around once again. The firm has plans to launch the product first in Tawain this summer, before eventually expanding to the US and other parts of the world. They have yet confirmed how much it will cost. A British satellite could provide a full colour, high-definition video of our planet from space, even picking up objects as small as 26 inches (65cm) big on the ground. The 'Big Brother' video satellite, which is currently still a prototype can capture videos of individual people from orbit in high definition. It was one of 31 payloads sent up in the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carrying dozens of satellites from India and six other countries. Scroll down for video A British satellite could provide a full colour, high-definition video of our planet from space, even picking up objects as small as 26 inches (65cm) big on the ground. Pictured is the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) taking off Within a few hours controllers had made their first contact with the UK satellite. The British spacecraft is a pre-production model and if it performs well the Guildford-based company Earth-i will create another batch of five. The forthcoming constellation - which will be known as Vivid-i - will be the first to give full-colour, high definition from space, writes the BBC. It will orbit at an altitude of 314 miles (505km) and can point at specific locations, taking pictures and creating two-minute films. 'We can collect up to 50 frames per second which is a lot of information', Earth-i CEO Richard Blain told BBC news. 'That allows us to stack the individual images and increase our effective resolution, achieving somewhere around 65cm [26 inches] to 75cm [30 inches],' he said, allowing it to capture moving cars and ships. The 'Big Brother' video satellite, which is currently still a prototype, could one day spot individual people from orbit in high definition. It was one of 31 payloads sent up in the PSLV It could also monitor urban traffic flow and make maps to provide information for relief efforts following natural disasters. After the initial batch of five are sent up by the end of 2019, Earth-i plans to put up five spacecraft annually. 'Today is a significant milestone for Earth-i and for the global space industry', said Mr Blain. 'We are now researching and testing the technology and data services for the Vivid-i Constellation using the still and video imagery from this prototype and showing our customers what will be possible in the future from new capabilities such as colour video from space', he said. EARTH-I 'BIG BROTHER' SATELLITE The Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has launched into space, carrying dozens of satellites from India and six other countries. One of the 31 payloads is a British spacecraft created by Guildford-based company Earth-i. The video satellite is a prototype of a that could one day provide footage of individual people from orbit in high definition and is capable of gathering 50 frames of images per second. It is a pre-production model and if it performs well Earth-i will create another batch of five. The forthcoming constellation - which will be known as Vivid-i - will be the first to give full-colour, high definition from space. It will orbit at an altitude of 314 miles (505km) and can point at specific locations, taking pictures of creating two-minute films. After the initial batch of five are up and working at the end of 2019, Earth-i plans to put up five spacecraft annually. Advertisement A. S. Kiran Kumar, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said the satellites successfully reached orbit after the polar satellite launch vehicle took off from Sriharikota, an island off Andhra Pradesh state in the country's southeast. Apart from two Indian weather satellites, the rocket also carried 28 micro and nano-satellites from Canada, Finland, France, South Korea and the United States. Also on PSLV was a Phase 1 LEO satellite that is a Canadian prototype to deliver broadband across the world. There was also a small radar-imaging satellite for Finnish start-up ICEYE. The launch is the latest in a string of successes for the Indian space agency. Apart from two Indian weather satellites, the rocket also carried 28 micro and nano-satellites from Canada, Finland, France, South Korea and the United States A. S. Kiran Kumar, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said the satellites successfully reached orbit after the polar satellite launch vehicle took off from Sriharikota, an island off Andhra Pradesh state in the country's southeast The launch is the latest in a string of successes for the Indian space agency. Last June, India launched its heaviest-ever rocket it hopes will eventually be able to carry astronauts into space, a feat that only Russia, the United States and China have achieved. The lift-off was postponed by a minute because of fear of collision with space debris, the New Delhi Television news channel said. The last launch of India's first privately built satellite failed in August because of a heat shield problem. In 2013, India launched a space probe that has been orbiting Mars since September 2014. In just ten years time your dog could talk to you instead of barking, according to leading experts. Advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning mean the Dr Dolittle dream of communicating with animals could soon be a reality. One researcher is currently collecting thousands of videos of dogs barking, growling and moving around, and is using them to teach an algorithm to understand canine communication. Scroll down for video In just ten years time your dog or cat could talk to you instead of barking or meowing, according to leading experts (stock image) Professor Con Slobodchikoff from Northern Arizona University is developing new technology that interprets the calls of the prairie dog and says it could eventually be used to interpret other animals. North American rodents prairie dogs have a sophisticated ways of calling group members and alerting them to danger. They warn other members of the pack about potential dangers in great detail even describing a threat as being a thin, brown coyote approaching quickly. 'I thought, if we can do this with prairie dogs, we can certainly do it with dogs and cats,' Professor Slobodchikoff, who has been studying the animals for more than 30 years, told NBC news. Back in 2013, Professor Slobodchikoff who is author of 'Chasing Doctor Dolittle: Learning the Language of Animals,' suggested this technology would be available within ten years with extensive research. A researcher for the internet shopping behemoth Amazon, William Higham - a so-called futurologist - has also declared these devices might now be available within a decade. Professor Con Slobodchikoff is developing new technology that interprets the calls of the prairie dog (pictured, stock) and says it could eventually be used to interpret other animals 'The amount of money now being spent on pets means there is huge consumer demand for this. Somebody is going to put this together', he said last year. Professor Slobodchikoff believes extensive filming with dogs could help decipher these animal's true behaviour and help us translate thoughts such as 'I want to eat now' or 'I want to go for a walk'. This technology could be fine-tuned so humans can talk back to animals and engage in conversation, he said. HOW DOGS 'TALK' TO OWNERS It may sound barking mad, but dogs are able to make their owners understand what they're trying to say through their barks and growls. A recent study has found that the majority of dog owners are able to identify their dog's emotions through their noises. Women were found to be especially good at understanding what their dog is saying, which the experts believe is down to their greater emotional insight. Researchers found women were correct at identifying the animal's intentions 65 per cent of the time, compared to 45 per cent for men. Dog owners of both sexes were also more accurate than non-dog owners by a similar range 60 per cent versus 40 per cent. Scientists recorded the sounds made by 18 dogs during activities. These included guarding their food, facing a threatening stranger, or playing a tug-of-war game. Overall, around 63 per cent of the 40 participants who took part in the study were able to identify the dog's emotions in the growls. The figure is significantly more than would be expected by guesswork alone, said the researchers. Advertisement If experts can use technology to understand a dog's thoughts we might be able to help those that are badly behaved or aggressive. 'You could use that information and instead of backing the dog into a corner, give the dog more space', he said. He predicts once people can start talking to animals, they'll realise they are living, breathing, thinking beings that have much to contribute to people's lives. Last year researchers found they could use artificial intelligence to work out if a sheep was happy or sad from its face. Advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning mean the Dr Dolittle dream of communicating with animals could soon be a reality, new research suggests. Rex Harrison was the first actor to play the character on the big screen in the 1967 musical (pictured) Experts believe this could help farmers detect pain and a range of other diseases. The technology for assessing facial expressions was first developed for use on humans, but researchers realised that it could be used to decipher emotions in animals. It is hoped that scanners could be placed at water troughs or wherever a flock gathers to automatically detect when a sheep is suffering. In a large herd the system could pick out sheep who are in distress. It could pick up common diseases such as foot rot and mastitis, a painful udder infection. Strange spiders that stalk their prey at night like arachnid assassins are more widespread than previously thought, a new study has found. Experts have identified 18 new species of pelican spiders, named for their resemblance to the beaked birds, on the tropical island of Madagascar. The terrifying looking creatures, once thought to be extinct, are remarkably similar in appearance to their ancient ancestors found preserved in amber. Scroll down for video Strange spiders that stalk their prey at night like arachnid assassins are more widespread than previously thought, a new study has found. Experts have identified 18 new species of pelican spiders on the tropical island of Madagascar Modern-day pelican spiders (left) are described as 'living fossils' and have barely changed from the ancient relics found from the late Jurassic era. They are named after the pelican bird (right) with which there is a striking resemblance PELICAN SPIDERS The spiders are no bigger than a grain of rice and have existed for 165 million years. They have an elongated neck-like structure and long mouthparts - called a chelicerae. They are found in South Africa, Australia and Madagascar. The creatures have barely changed and have been called 'living fossils'. They have been around for at least 165 million years and potentially since before the supercontinent Pangea split 200 million year ago. They do not make webs, instead hunting other spiders and killing them using their large pincers. Advertisement A research team led by Hannah Wood, Curator of Arachnids and Myriapods at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, identified species of the killer spiders never before described by science. They examined and analysed hundreds of examples of the arachnids, both in the field and through samples in museum collections. Pelican spiders can be found living in South Africa, Australia and Madagascar, but the team focused solely on species found on Madagascar. They classified 26 different species, including the 18 newly discovered varieties. Writing in the study, its authors said: 'Archaeid spiders, commonly called pelican or assassin spiders, are an ancient, paleoendemic group that has existed since Pangaean times. 'These spiders do not build a web to capture their prey. Instead, they are active hunters. 'They attest to the unique biology that diversified in Madagascar. 'I think there's going to be a lot more species that haven't yet been described or documented.' Pelican spiders were first found in a block of 50-million year old amber in 1854. The spiders are no bigger than a grain of rice and have existed for at least 165 million years. The 'assassins' follow silk trails left by other spiders until they reach their web and wait for their prey They were thought to be extinct until the animals were spotted on the island of Madagascar in 1881. Since then more species have been identified. The spiders are no bigger than a grain of rice and have existed for at least 165 million years. The front 'jaws' of the pelican spider are used to impale prey but when the animal is not hunting they fold down and the appearance of the large mouth parts gave rise to the 'pelican spider' name Their name comes from their elongated neck-like structure and mouthparts that protrude from their heads like an angled beak. Pelican spiders stalk their prey on their back six legs and lift their front two in the air to detect the web of their next kill. The 'assassins' follow silk trails left by other spiders until they reach their web. They then wait patiently until they have located their victim, before swiftly impaling them with their long, fang-tipped 'jaws', or chelicerae. The spiders then hold the captured creature away from their body, keeping themselves safe from potential counterattacks, until their victim dies. Modern-day pelican spiders are described as 'living fossils' and have barely changed from the ancient relics found from the late Jurassic era. Their long, fang-tipped 'jaws', or chelicerae, are used to impale prey Archaeid spiders, commonly called pelican or assassin spiders, are an ancient, paleoendemic group that has existed since Pangaean times Modern-day pelican spiders are described as 'living fossils' and have barely changed from the ancient relics found from the late Jurassic era. The researchers believe that the spiders may have existed as long ago as the super continent Pangaea, which started breaking up 200 million years ago. They then spread to different continents with the breakup of Pangaea, which began around 175 million years ago. The researchers believe that the spiders may have existed as long ago as the super continent Pangaea, which started breaking up 200 million years ago. They then spread to different continents with the breakup of Pangaea, which began around 175 million years ago Madagascar has long produced unique animal species and has been extensively studied by scientists in a variety of fields. Despite the incredible biodiversity and being an ecological gold mine, the island is suffering from widespread deforestation and habitat loss. Ms Wood says the discovery of so many new species is a prime reason to conserve what is left of its forest ecosystem. The full findings of the study were published in the journal Zookeys. From lash-regenerating mascaras to can't-believe-they're-not-real extensions, there are hundreds of products around to enhance eyelashes. Now scientists could be about to beat beauticians at their own game with flashing wireless light emitting diode (LED) false eyelashes. Japanese officials who showcased the green lights at this year's CES tech conference said these strange accessories could be worn in the dark at events such as parties and concerts. Scroll down for video Japanese officials who showcased the flashing green lights at this year's CES said these strange accessories could be worn at dark at events such as parties and concerts HOW DO THEY WORK? Researchers created the small 3.5-cm-long (1.4 inch) receiver device with an LED and antenna. They then attached this to commercially available false eyelashes. The power emitted by the microwaves is lower than government standards so researchers say wearing it would not have any harmful effects on the body. So far, the eyelashes can be powered from a distance of 1.5 metres from the transmitter. However, the team plans to further extend the range. Advertisement The technology, created by Ritsumeikan University and Shiseido Company relies on microwaves to transmit power remotely in a process called 'wireless power feeding.' At a public demonstration yesterday in Las Vegas experts unveiled the technology on a mannequin doll. 'I wonder if there could be a demand as a new type of fashion statement in the dark at events such as concerts, dance parties or firework events,' said a Shiseido official, according to The Asahi Shimbun. Researchers created the small 3.5-cm-long (1.4 inch) receiver device with an LED and antenna. They then attached the LED to commercially available false eyelashes. The power emitted by the microwaves is lower than government standards so researchers say wearing the lights would not have any harmful effects. So far, the eyelashes can be powered from a distance of 1.5 metres (5 feet) from the transmitter. However, the team plans to further extend the range. It also hopes to conduct a demonstration on people and not just mannequins. In the future, the group wants to apply the technology for lightweight wearable devices that allow the recording of the wearer's body temperature or pulse rate. Similar LED lights are already available to buy with lots of major retailers. The technology, created by Ritsumeikan University and Shiseido Company is called 'wireless power feeding,' and relies on microwaves to transmit power remotely Although they may look good, some have warned constant exposure to UV rays from lights could lead to the development of cataracts and macular degeneration. Macular degeneration results in blurred vision and in serious cases no vision at all. Heat from the lights could also make the eyes dryer causing irritation. However, there is yet to be any research on the long-term damage of theses accessories. Police in Bangkok - where LED lashes are very popular - have allowed them provided they come with appropriate warnings. Researchers created the small 3.5-cm-long (1.4 inch) receiver device with an LED and antenna. They then attached this to commercially available false eyelashes Researchers have previously claimed lengthening eyelashes could also have detrimental effects on people's health. Scientists say eyelashes should not be longer than a third the width of your eye, otherwise they are less effective at keeping eyes moist and clean. The research was carried out by scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology. They reported that, while some of the benefits of eyelashes were already known, there were lesser known effects that would be hindered by making them longer. We essentially found that there filtering aspect of eyelashes could help reduce the amount of airborne particulate [dust] deposited onto the eye, PhD student and author of the study Guillermo Amador told MailOnline. This is not the first time that light up LED lashes have hit the headlines. Swedish inventor Tien Pham exhibited light-up lashes at the Maker Faire exhibition held in San Mateo, California, in June 2017. Called Flashes, the false lashes don't just glow in the dark, they're also interactive In June last year, MailOnline reported how Swedish inventor Tien Pham has exhibited light-up lashes at the Maker Faire exhibition held in San Mateo, California. Called Flashes, the false lashes don't just glow in the dark, they're also interactive. If you move your head side to side, the colon changes. Jump up and down and the lights pulse. Put them in 'sparkle mode' and they twinkle. One drawback, however, was the battery pack connected to each strip by two invisible wires, attached to your head using hair clips, which have to be worn to power the gadgets. Mr Pham launched a Kickstarter campaign asking for $40,000 (30,000) to launch the product. Despite receiving pledges topping $113,800, (83,000), they have let to be launched commercially. Anyone who pledged $30 (20) or more was promised a pair of the lashes and a control pack, however. Similar products can be found online for as little as $4 (3) with more advanced models costing around $20 (15) Angry iPhone fans will have to wait until March to fix their handsets, despite promises from Apple to replace ageing batteries. The tech company previously admitted deliberately reducing the performance of older smartphones to extend their battery life. It offered to replace the power packs in the iPhone 6 or later even if the devices passed Apple's Genius Bar diagnostic test according to an internal memo. Customers have taken to social media to express their outrage at being told the firm has run out of stock and won't be getting more batteries in for at least two months. Scroll down for video Angry iPhone fans will have to wait until March to fix their handsets, despite promises from Apple to replace ageing batteries. The tech company previously admitted deliberately reducing the performance of older smartphones to extend their battery life (stock image) HOW TO TEST YOUR BATTERY Apple users can run a diagnostics test remotely. To initiate this contact the firm or schedule an appointment using the Apple Support App. Reports suggest customers who paid to have their batteries replaced before the announcement are eligible for a refund on request. Initially the company said the price would be effective from the end of January but has since said it applies immediately. Earlier models such as 5, 5S and 5C are not covered. Reports suggest customers who paid to have their batteries replaced before the announcement are eligible for a refund on request. Advertisement News of the delay first emerged from internal documents distributed to Apple Stores and Apple authorised service providers. Batteries for the iPhone 6+ are in particularly short supply, with a wait of 'approximately two weeks' anticipated for replacement batteries for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s Plus, according to reports in MacRumours. Batteries for other models like the iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPhone SE are expected to be available 'without extended delays' in most countries, the paperwork states. This may vary from country to country, with wait times expected to vary in some regions, particularly the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Russia, and Turkey. Customers in the US and UK have already begun to report being told about the delay by staff at Apple Stores. Many have taken to Twitter to vent their frustration at the Cupertino company. Among them is Ed Luczak, who said: 'iPhone 6 Plus. Speak to Apple make battery repair appointment get confrimation arrive and get told the batteries are no longer made. Check back in March. Hello Samsung!!' Customers in the US and UK have already begun to report being told about the delay by staff at Apple Stores. Replacing the battery requires disassembling the iPhone unit and exposing the internal hardware Danny DiMaio added: 'So Apple decides to break the battery on my iPhone 6s, which is in great condition, leaving it useless just so they can try and force me to buy a new iPhone. Who's going to hold you people accountable?' Darren Rose wrote on the site: 'Why does my iPhone 6 turn off when the battery reaches 40 per cent? 'Why am I still using Apple as a mobile phone provider when you want to force me to replace this handset after just three years? 'I no longer have any faith in Apple or your products.' Apple issued an unprecedented apology following its admission that it slows down older iPhones to save battery life. Ed Luczak said: 'iPhone 6 Plus. Speak to Apple make battery repair appointment get confrimation arrive and get told the batteries are no longer made. Check back in March. Hello Samsung!!' Danny DiMaio added: 'So Apple decides to break the battery on my iPhone 6s, which is in great condition, leaving it useless just so they can try and force me to buy a new iPhone. Who's going to hold you people accountable?' Darren Rose wrote on the site: 'Why does my iPhone 6 turn off when the battery reaches 40%? Why am I still using Apple as a mobile phone provider when you want to force me to replace this handset after just three years? I no longer have any faith in Apple or your products. Ramnarayan Natarajan joked: '@tim_cook I'm very angry and sad at the cheating you guys are doing by lowering battery life on purpose to older iPhone models forcing customers to opt for latest iPhone. I'm a sad 7+ user. As compensation gift me a free iPhone x. Will you?' Stephen McConnachie added: 'Apple uk advices iPhone 6 Plus needs a new battery but Apple cans get one till March' An internal memo stated customers should receive a battery for $29 (25), whether or not a diagnostic test proves it can retain more than 80 per cent of its original capacity. It comes as the firm faces several lawsuits from customers in states including California, New York and Illinois, as well as customers in Israel and France. The concession was made two weeks after the firm admitted it 'throttles' phones to extend their life and stop them from shutting down as batteries age and become less effective, triggering lawsuits across the world. Batteries for the iPhone 6+ are in particularly short supply, with a wait of 'approximately two weeks' anticipated for replacement batteries for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s Plus. This image shows CEO Tim Cook at the launch of the iPhone 6 on September 9, 2015 The company published a letter saying 'We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down', and revealed it is planning to show users exactly how much their battery has degraded. To appease angry customers, Apple said it is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 from $79 (79) to $29 (25) for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced. However, a report by French website iGeneration suggests that Apple will replace batteries even if they pass their diagnostics test. Apple users can run a diagnostics test remotely so you don't need to visit an Apple store. To initiate this, contact the firm or schedule an appointment using the Apple Support App. Reports suggest customers who paid to have their batteries replaced before the announcement are eligible for a refund on request. Earlier models such as 5, 5S and 5C are not covered. 'We apologize. Theres been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes were making', the company said. Last week the company published a letter saying 'We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down', and revealed it is planning to show users exactly how much their battery has degraded. Pictured is the iPhone 7 'First and foremost, 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,' Apple said. 'Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.' Apple will issue an iOS software update with a new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhones battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance. In addition a South Korea's Communications Commission has reportedly asked for an explanation of the issue from Apple, while in France a consumer group has filed filed preliminary, legal complaints in court. 'We are hoping to get some answers on whether Apple intentionally restricted the performance of old iPhones and tried to hide this from customers,' the Korean Commission said. French consumer association called 'HOP', standing for 'Stop Planned Obsolescence', has filed preliminary, legal complaints in court against Apple and Epson. APPLE'S BATTERY LETTER IN FULL 'Weve been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process. We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize. Theres been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes were making. First and foremost, 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. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that. How batteries age All rechargeable batteries are consumable components that become less effective as they chemically age and their ability to hold a charge diminishes. Time and the number of times a battery has been charged are not the only factors in this chemical aging process. Device use also affects the performance of a battery over its lifespan. For example, leaving or charging a battery in a hot environment can cause a battery to age faster. These are characteristics of battery chemistry, common to lithium-ion batteries across the industry. A chemically aged battery also becomes less capable of delivering peak energy loads, especially in a low state of charge, which may result in a device unexpectedly shutting itself down in some situations. To help customers learn more about iPhones rechargeable battery and the factors affecting its performance, weve posted a new support article, iPhone Battery and Performance. It should go without saying that we think sudden, unexpected shutdowns are unacceptable. We dont want any of our users to lose a call, miss taking a picture or have any other part of their iPhone experience interrupted if we can avoid it. Preventing unexpected shutdowns About a year ago in iOS 10.2.1, we delivered a software update that improves power management during peak workloads to avoid unexpected shutdowns on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE. With the update, iOS dynamically manages the maximum performance of some system components when needed to prevent a shutdown. While these changes may go unnoticed, in some cases users may experience longer launch times for apps and other reductions in performance. Customer response to iOS 10.2.1 was positive, as it successfully reduced the occurrence of unexpected shutdowns. We recently extended the same support for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in iOS 11.2. Of course, when a chemically aged battery is replaced with a new one, iPhone performance returns to normal when operated in standard conditions. Recent user feedback Over the course of this fall, we began to receive feedback from some users who were seeing slower performance in certain situations. Based on our experience, we initially thought this was due to a combination of two factors: a normal, temporary performance impact when upgrading the operating system as iPhone installs new software and updates apps, and minor bugs in the initial release which have since been fixed. We now believe that another contributor to these user experiences is the continued chemical aging of the batteries in older iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s devices, many of which are still running on their original batteries. Addressing customer concerns Weve always wanted our customers to be able to use their iPhones as long as possible. Were proud that Apple products are known for their durability, and for holding their value longer than our competitors devices. To address our customers concerns, to recognize their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apples intentions, weve decided to take the following steps: Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 from $79 to $29 for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, starting in late January and available worldwide through December 2018. Details will be provided soon on apple.com. Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhones battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance. As always, our team is working on ways to make the user experience even better, including improving how we manage performance and avoid unexpected shutdowns as batteries age. At Apple, our customers trust means everything to us. We will never stop working to earn and maintain it. We are able to do the work we love only because of your faith and support and we will never forget that or take it for granted. Advertisement HOP said it filed its complaint against Apple in Paris last week. A prosecutor opened an investigation into Epson in November, a judicial source said on Thursday, following a complaint filed in September by HOP in a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. Laetitia Vasseur, co-founder of HOP, told Reuters the aim of both complaints was to apply the French consumer law, which was modified in 2015 to include the notion of planned obsolescence. Apple is already facing lawsuits in the United States over accusations of having defrauded iPhone users by slowing down devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance. Under French law, companies risk fines of up to five per cent of their annual sales for deliberately shortening the life of their products to spur demand to replace them. All the US lawsuits - filed in U.S. District Courts in California, New York and Illinois - seek class-action to represent potentially millions of iPhone owners nationwide. A similar case was lodged in an Israeli court, the newspaper Haaretz reported. One of the lawsuits, filed in San Francisco, said that 'the batteries' inability to handle the demand created by processor speeds' without the software patch was a defect. 'Rather than curing the battery defect by providing a free battery replacement for all affected iPhones, Apple sought to mask the battery defect,' according to the complaint. The problem now seen is that users over the last year could have blamed an raging computer processor for app crashes and sluggish performance - and chose to buy a new phone - when the true cause may have been a weak battery that could have been replaced for a fraction of the cost, some of the lawsuits state. 'If it turns out that consumers would have replaced their battery instead of buying new iPhones had they known the true nature of Apple's upgrades, you might start to have a better case for some sort of misrepresentation or fraud,' said Rory Van Loo, a Boston University professor specializing in consumer technology law. But Chris Hoofnagle, faculty director for the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, said in an email that Apple may not have done wrong. 'We still haven't come to consumer protection norms' around aging products, Hoofnagle said. Pointing to a device with a security flaw as an example, he said, 'the ethical approach could include degrading or even disabling functionality.' The lawsuits seek unspecified damages in addition to, in some cases, reimbursement. A couple of the complaints seek court orders barring Apple from throttling iPhone computer speeds or requiring notification in future instances. Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas from Los Angeles have filed a lawsuit with the US District Court for the Central District of California. They are accusing Apple of interfering with their devices without consent. The pair are trying to get the case certified to cover all people in the United States who owned an Apple phone older than the iPhone 8. Their application for the lawsuit states: 'Plaintiffs and Class Members never consented to allow Defendants to slow their iPhones. HOW APPLE'S THROTTLING WORKS Apple says with a low battery state of charge, a higher chemical age, or colder temperatures, users are more likely to experience unexpected shutdowns. To get around this, it introduces software in iOS to manage the issue. 'This power management works by looking at a combination of the device temperature, battery state of charge, and the batterys impedancem' Apple says. 'Only if these variables require it, iOS will dynamically manage the maximum performance of some system components, such as the CPU and GPU in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns. 'As a result, the device workloads will self-balance, allowing a smoother distribution of system tasks, rather than larger, quick spikes of performance all at once. In some cases, a user may not notice any differences in daily device performance. The level of perceived change depends on how much power management is required for a particular device. In cases that require more extreme forms of this power management, Apple says users may notice effects such as: Longer app launch times Lower frame rates while scrolling Backlight dimming (which can be overridden in Control Center) Lower speaker volume by up to -3dB Gradual frame rate reductions in some apps During the most extreme cases, the camera flash will be disabled as visible in the camera UI Apps refreshing in background may require reloading upon launch However, it says the following areas are not affected: Cellular call quality and networking throughput performance Captured photo and video quality GPS performance Location accuracy Sensors like gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer Apple Pay Advertisement 'As a result of Defendant's wrongful actions, Plaintiffs and Class Members had their phone slowed down, and thereby it interfered with Plaintiffs' and Class Members' use or possession of their iPhones.' A second lawsuit, filed by five plaintiffs in the Northern District of the State of Illinois, accuses Apple of deliberately keeping its power management features under wraps to persuade people to upgrade to newer devices. 'Apple's iOS updates purposefully neglected to explain that its purposeful throttling down of older model devices and resulting lost or diminished operating performance could be remedied by replacing the batteries of these devices,' the lawsuit states. 'Instead, Apple's decision to purposefully slowdown or throttle down these devices was undertaken to fraudulently induce consumers to purchase the latest iPhone versions of the iPhone 7, as well as new phones such as the iPhone 8 and iPhone X .' In a statement sent to MailOnline, a spokesman for Apple said: 'Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. 'Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components. 'Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. 'We've now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.' There are all kinds of advice for falling asleep, from counting sheep to getting thicker curtains. But writing a to-do list could provide a new solution to prevent tossing and turning. Listing just 10 tasks you need to achieve over the next few days can help you fall asleep 15 minutes faster, neuroscientists have found. Scroll down for video Writing a to-do list could provide a new solution to prevent tossing and turning. Listing just 10 tasks you need to achieve over the next few days can help you fall asleep 15 minutes faster, neuroscientists have found (stock image) HOW 'TO-DO LISTS' SAVE YOU SLEEP The stress of unread emails and incomplete work may explain why people most struggle to fall asleep at the start of the working week. Almost half of people in Britain say stress or worry keeps them awake at night 54 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men. But a new study showed that writing a 'to do list' before bed can ease some of these anxieties. Study participants who wrote lists fell asleep on average nine minutes more quickly than those asked to write about completed tasks. Those who went into more detail were able to get to sleep 15 minutes faster. Lead author Dr Michael Scullin, from Baylor University in Texas, said: 'It seems this is a matter of really getting things out of your head. Putting down simply that you have things to do at work or home is way too broad. 'But writing that you have to return a call to Susan, pick up groceries on the way home, get milk or petrol because you are going to be driving, this specificity helps to offload all those things unconsciously ruminating around in your head.' Advertisement That is because worries about unfinished work and looming deadlines, or even just the pint of milk you have forgotten to buy, trigger brain activity which makes it hard to nod off. Writing a to-do list actually eases anxiety, it is believed, by 'offloading' nagging thoughts about the next day. When 57 people were asked to write either a list of activities they had already done or a to-do list before bed, the second group fell asleep significantly quicker. Those who wrote detailed to-do lists got to sleep 15 minutes quicker than everyone else. The study's lead author, Dr Michael Scullin, from Baylor University in Texas, said: 'We live in a 24/7 culture in which our to-do lists seem to be constantly growing and causing us to worry about unfinished tasks at bedtime. 'Most people just cycle through their to-do lists in their heads, and so we wanted to explore whether the act of writing them down could counteract night-time difficulties with falling asleep.' The stress of unread emails and incomplete work may explain why people most struggle to fall asleep at the start of the working week. Almost half of people in Britain say stress or worry keeps them awake at night 54 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men. The US researchers asked some study participants to spend five minutes before bed writing a list, in paragraph or bullet point form, of tasks they needed to remember to complete over the next few days. Other participants spent five minutes writing about tasks they had already completed. Dr Scullin said: 'There are two schools of thought about this. One is that writing about the future would lead to increased worry about unfinished tasks and delay sleep, while journaling about completed activities should not trigger worry. 'The alternative hypothesis is that writing a to-do list will "offload" those thoughts and reduce worry.' The stress of unread emails and incomplete work may explain why people most struggle to fall asleep at the start of the working week. Almost half of people in Britain say stress or worry keeps them awake at night 54 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men (stock image) To determine which theory would prove correct, researchers kept the two groups in the laboratory for four nights during the week, where their sleep was tracked using electrodes to monitor their brain activity. The results show those who wrote the to-do lists fell asleep on average nine minutes more quickly than those asked to write about completed tasks. Those who went into more detail were able to get to sleep 15 minutes faster. Dr Scullin, director of Baylor's sleep neuroscience and cognition laboratory, said: 'It seems this is a matter of really getting things out of your head. Putting down simply that you have things to do at work or home is way too broad. 'But writing that you have to return a call to Susan, pick up groceries on the way home, get milk or petrol because you are going to be driving, this specificity helps to offload all those things unconsciously ruminating around in your head.' The study is published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The poet W. H. Auden, in his Letters From Iceland, described north Icelanders as 'realistic' and 'unromantic'. North Iceland's glossy new tourist brochure, however, identifies the regional character as 'pure spirit'. But is this perhaps an example of subtle Icelandic humour? I suspect it might be. On day one of our three-day tour we visit the surreal, volcanic landscape around Lake Myvatn in a U.S. military Hummer adapted for tourists' comfort. 'Sterile, immature mountains, intense in the abnormal northern day,' was how Auden described it. Lunar wilderness: The volcanic landscape around Lake Myvatn is featured in Game of Thrones 'Blimey,' is how one of our party, a travel agent, puts it. Astronaut Neil Armstrong rehearsed his moonwalk here, and the appalling desolation featured in three episodes of the cult TV series Game Of Thrones. At one point we gather around the rim of an extinct volcano vent, listening to the guide. In the winter of 1903, he says, the local postman fell down the vent and couldn't climb out. Our guide's account of the postman's adventure is long, implausible and involves the first telephone call ever made in north Iceland. But the conclusion is a happy one. To celebrate, the guide produces a bottle of homemade moonshine, then a tower of plastic shot glasses, and we drink first the postman's health, then the telephone company's. 'Please be careful,' says the deputy guide, Halltor, a pokerfaced chap who had hitherto not spoken a word. 'We will drink a lot today. Pace yourselves.' In the afternoon we visit an old herring processing factory at a place called Ektafiskur. Our host, Elvar Reykjalin, is a fifth generation cod fisherman with a face as unexpressive as a lump of volcanic debris. This man unsmilingly welcomes us to his gutting station with a bottle of homemade alcohol. Once more we feel the liquid potency sliding down our oesophaguses like hot magma. Halltor catches my eye and waggles a stern finger. Now blinking back tears, we stand around a steel table and watch in respectful silence while Mr Reykjalin slits open a magnificent 15lb cod and guts it with skill. The liver is as big as a pig's. Three sweeps of the blade and it's on the table. Space to roam: Super Break's new Iceland package, starting Jan 2018, includes guided tours Three more incisions and the stomach is dangling between his scarred thumb and forefinger. Pressing out its contents to leave an empty, prophylactic-shaped sac, he asks us, with maybe a hint of lasciviousness, whether we have ever wondered why there are so few people in Iceland. Before we can answer, a flick of his wrist detaches an eyeball. This he pops into his mouth, like a gobstopper. Then runs around the table and menaces the most obviously squeamish member of our party with it. He makes us each eat a piece of rotten shark flesh, which is a famous Icelandic delicacy. At least that's what he tells us. Those who swallow, rather than gag or spit, are awarded a certificate and another shot of moonshine. I eat two lumps and receive a double shot. Finally Mr Reykjalin reveals the corpse of a weird primeval sea monster lying rotting in a tank. It's a 500-year-old Greenland shark. In its stomach they found an entire seal. 'Our lunch,' he says. 'The shark, not the seal. Or maybe it is the seal. I'll ask.' Murmurs of dismay from our party. 'I am joking,' he says, expressionless as before. Glasses at the ready: Icelanders like a tipple, and you'll find several breweries around Myvatn Then we go to the Kaldi brewery to bathe naked in wooden tubs of warm beer. Beside each tub is a frosty tap and clean glass. 'Drink as much beer as you like,' says the hostess. 'But not too much,' adds Halltor in a private aside to me. After that we visit the beermaking plant. The head brewer is sober of speech and manner. He dispenses his samples unstintingly by the half pint. There are nine different kinds of beer, the strengths ranging from five to nine per cent. The Kaldi Chocolate Christmas Porter is excellent. Halltor's glass, I notice, is always first and foremost for a top-up. We drive on to another brewery, this one called Segull 67, for another tasting. By now I have cast off all pretence of curiosity in the beer-making process and am seeing double. As our glasses jostle at the nozzle, I catch Halltor's eye. Up came the admonitory finger, but tipsily this time, and his poker face creases into laughter. Finally I got the joke. 'Pure spirit' indeed. 'Pace yourself' ha! If I had to characterise those north Icelanders in a phrase, it would be 'wonderful deadpan comedians'. Hubert Kastlunger has just pulled a Superman move. Admittedly, he has not leapt a tall building in a single bound. Nor has he keeled over in the presence of kryptonite. But he has whipped off his civilian clothes to reveal a far more striking outfit hidden underneath. Five minutes ago he was scything down Sponata, a pacey red run in the Dolomites ski resort of Alta Badia. Now he is standing in the middle of the piste-side bar La Munt, his orange jumpsuit removed in favour of a formal trousers, smart black apron, crisp white shirt and a bow-tie. Superman in a ski-suit: Hubert Kastlunger prepares to pour a few glasses of sauvignon blanc Better still, he is holding a bottle of pinot bianco, which he is about to pour out to the 10 members of his tour party, who are currently listening to him carefully. 'This is a very fruity wine,' he says, decanting the nectar within. 'Take a sniff. What do you notice? Green apple? That's typical of a pinot bianco. It's a wonderful wine to go with a fish course'. If Hubert sounds like a wine expert in a top-end restaurant, then that is partly the point. He is the focal point of 'Sommelier on the Slopes' - one of Alta Badia's innovative approaches to the winter. The idea is simple a three-hour guided jaunt that showcases the slopes of this Alpine hotspot, but also some of the best wines that are produced in this viticulture-friendly area of northern Italy. Staged seven times between December and March, the concept has proved popular this is the third ski season it has been offered. However, the end-game is not to glug down as much plonk as possible. The emphasis is on sampling a fine recent vintage or two, and testing their flavours. 'This is a typical sauvignon blanc,' Hubert continues, uncorking an outrider from the 2016 batch of said white wine at nearby producers St Michael-Eppan. 'It's soft, with a light touch of acidity. You can drink this with chunks of parmesan cheese, as an aperitif.' A popular place to spend the winter: Alta Badia has some 81 miles of pistes There are appreciative murmurs plus palate-cleansing cheese biscuits and glasses of water. Then, suddenly, we are off again. Hubert re-dons his ski-suit, and we are out onto the snow, taking a chairlift upwards before swishing down a series of red and blue runs to Utia L'tama, a mountain hut where a log fire is burning in defiance of the chill outside. But we are heating up nicely anyway as Hubert unveils a second pair of bottles a Gewurtztraminer, a Dolomites white-wine staple, all delicate fragrance and floral notes, and a Sudtirol St Magdalener. The latter, a punchy red, smells vinegary on inspection. 'But wait,' Hubert says. 'This wine improves as it warms up.' A few sips a few minutes later prove him correct. 'See,' he laughs. 'Before, it was a 5 wine. And now it is a 10.' It is tempting to burrow in for the afternoon, taking any one of these bottles along for the ride. But Hubert directs us outside once more. There are further twists and turns, the pace sufficiently unhurried that the whole group can ski as one, before the Rifugio Lee bar beckons as a final port of call. Here, Hubert once again in his sommelier attire unleashes a regional pinot noir ('you find berries and strawberries. It's a good wine to go with pasta') and a Lagrein Gries Riserva a splendid peppery red which has him purring. 'The best lagrein is produced around Bolzano,' he nods. 'Forty or fifty years ago, this would not have been not so good. But now it is one of the best wines in the South Tirol.' And with that he is gone, zipped up, whizzing down the hill, this Superman on skis. I watch him go, then retreat to the bar. I know I should follow. Laced across the mountains around me are 81 miles of blue, red and black pistes the slick, angled thoroughfares with which Alta Badia tempts plenty of winter-sports lovers to its idyllic corner of the Alps every season. I should go and tackle them. And I will. But the bottle of pinot noir is still winking, there on the table. Just one more glass, I think. And then I'll hit the slopes. She is one of Hollywood's most coveted stars, winning huge film roles and partnerships with plush brands including Bulgari. And Alicia Vikander revealed one of the secrets to her looks as she confessed she seldom wears make-up thanks to her fresh-faced skin, while speaking to Vogue at the launch of the Dubai resort - the 'fifth jewel' in brand's hotel offerings. The 29-year-old Tomb Raider beauty joined fellow stunner and ambassador Bella Hadid at the bash where they celebrated the grand opening of the new Bulgari Dubai Resort, during which she opened up about her beauty secrets. Scroll down for video Stunner: Alicia Vikander revealed one of the secrets to her looks as she confessed she seldom wears make-up thanks to her fresh-faced skin, as she spoke to Vogue at the launch of the Dubai resort - the 'fifth jewel' in brand's hotel offerings Alicia joined a long list of stars in heading to the opening of the new resort which sits on its own island incorporating mansions, residences and a yacht marina. While she is often seen frequenting the red carpet, the stunning star confessed when she is away from the glare of the world's press and spotlights she likes nothing more than to go make-up free - a fact she admits she is 'lucky for'. She told the fashion bible: 'For events I do use make-up but normally I don't. I might use a bit of eyebrow pencil and a lipstick but nothing else. 'I think it's one of the things I've been very lucky with. Because I don't use much make-up I do find it fun to try things. I have my little skincare routine - I do masks and a peel two or three times a week.' Glowing: The 29-year-old Tomb Raider beauty joined fellow stunner and ambassador Bella Hadid at the bash where they celebrated the grand opening of the new Bulgari Dubai Resort, during which she opened up about her beauty secrets Lucky girl: While she is often seen frequenting the red carpet, the stunning star confessed when she is away from the glare of the world's press and spotlights she likes nothing more than to go make-up free - a fact she admits she is 'lucky for' Sizzling: During the party, Alicia showed off her fantastic form in a darling pink dress with a unique high-low lacy hem. Her toned and tanned arms were on display with delicate cap sleeves hugging her shoulders During the party, Alicia showed off her fantastic form in a darling pink dress with a unique high-low lacy hem. Her toned and tanned arms were on display with delicate cap sleeves hugging her shoulders. The Danish Girl starlet added a pair of matching satin heels and accessorized with a sparkling diamond necklace to match an ornate bracelet. Joining her was Bella, 21, who looked ravishing in a silky yellow dress under which she seemed to go braless, with the high neckline featuring a deep opening across her chest. Mellow: During the party, Alicia showed off her fantastic form in a darling pink dress with a unique high-low lacy hem Pretty in pink: Her toned and tanned arms were on display with delicate cap sleeves hugging her shoulders Dazzling: The resort oozes Mediterranean charm with its design and luxurious features Plush: The stunning settings are just as luxurious as the brand Take a seat: The sweeping frock billowed down to her ankles to reveal a golden pair of heels that laced up to her calves Luxurious: The villas in the resort have all the luxuries any resident could ask for Drinking it in: The pool area boasts stunning mosaics The sweeping frock billowed down to her ankles to reveal a golden pair of heels that laced up to her calves. She added a small silver chain belt to her hips which highlighted her supremely slender waistline. Lena Perminova sparkled at the event in a matching three-piece pantsuit which included a glittering sequined bra. Jon Kortajarena looked dapper in grey trousers and a white blazer next to Alicia before stealing a kiss from Bella. Jasmine Sanders rocked a bright orange kaftan with golden embellishments lining her chest and a thigh-high slit in the hem. Star power: Bella seemed to be bra-less in the high neckline dress which featured a deep opening across her chest while Lena Perminova opted for a see-through sequined pantsuit Wow: The group partied the night away on the backdrop of the new resort, developed by Meraas, a leading Dubai based holding company All in the details: The resort is exclusively situated on the man-made seahorse shaped island of Jumeira Bay Views: Each room in the resort has the luxurious stamps of Bugari as a brand Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin wore a pair of winter white trousers with a navy blue blazer alongside Diala Makki in a gorgeous white dress. The group partied the night away on the backdrop of the new resort, developed by Meraas, a leading Dubai based holding company and exclusively situated on the man-made seahorse shaped island of Jumeira Bay. The 1.4 million-square-foot property is a first time development for Bulgari, both in terms of magnitude and scale. Handsome: Jon Kortajarena looked dapper in grey trousers and a white blazer Just one kiss: The Spanish model stole a kiss from Bella A vision: With its Mediterranean vibe, the complex features the Resort, joined by six residential buildings of 173 sea-facing apartments, 15 private mansions, a Beach Club, and Bulgaris first-ever Marina and Yacht Club Lavish: All rooms and suites have stunning views over the uniquely stunning Dubai skyline on one side or the Arabian Gulf, with balconies to give generous and up close views of the scenery With its Mediterranean vibe, the complex features the Resort, joined by six residential buildings of 173 sea-facing apartments, 15 private mansions, a Beach Club, and Bulgaris first-ever Marina and Yacht Club. The resort includes 20 hotel villas, 101 hotel rooms and suites, all furnished with the high-end Italian luxury furniture brands such as Flos, Maxalto, Fexform and others, in an expression of the quality of Made in Italy. All rooms and suites have stunning views over the uniquely stunning Dubai skyline on one side or the Arabian Gulf, with balconies to give generous and up close views of the scenery. Sweet: Jasmine Sanders rocked a bright orange kaftan with golden embellishments lining her chest and a thigh-high slit in the hem Looking good: Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin wore a pair of winter white trousers with a navy blue blazer alongside Diala Makki in a gorgeous white dress It wasn't just good genes making Joan Smalls stand out on Wednesday night. Because a good pair of jeans were the making of the model's minimal outfit as she joined Replay's Denim Revolution in Florence. The beauty was among a star-studded front row, featuring Adrian Brody, Bar Rafaeli and Meredith Mickelson, at the Replay Rocks Firenze presentation at Pitti Uomo. Scroll down for video In her jeans! Joan Smalls looked stunning in a leather crop top and jeans on Wednesday night, as she attended Replay's Denim Revolution presentation at the Pitti Uomo in Florence Victoria's Secret Angel Joan looked smoking in a pair of well-fitted dark denim trousers, which sat on her hips to showcase her taut middle. She wore a light duster coat provocatively draped over her shoulders to reveal a skimpy leather bask that helped to bring yet more glamour to her red carpet look. With strappy heels and statement layered jewellery, Joan offset her all-black look with a striking red lipstick. Showing her shape: Her belly top displayed her toned middle with her coat draped off her shoulders Striking: The model beauty teamed her image with striking red lips to contrast the black ensemble On the front row, Joan sat beside The Pianist actor Adrien, but spent the night partying with model pal Bar Rafaeli. Bar, the famous ex-girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio, dressed in a more casual fashion and styled out her jeans with a slogan T-shirt and bomber jacket. Adrien, meanwhile, was looking typically suave in a leather biker jacket with a rugged, unshaven appearance and slicked-back hair. Girls' night out: (From left) Meredith Mickelson, Joan and Bar Refaeli were the fashionistas on the front row As the party ran into the night, British duo DISCLOSURE took the stage as special guest performers on the night while a DJ set by OFENBACH opened the afterparty. The catwalk event was an unveiling of the new Hyperflex + women and mens collection of denim. Joan became the face of Replay in 2016, joining world-renowned models Irina Shayk and Stella Maxwell for her first - and raciest - campaign. The Touch It campaign, shot by visionary duo Mert & Marcus, featured the models posing topless to best showcase the four new TOUCH styles. Smouldering: Actor Adrien Brody found himself sandwiched between beautiful women at the show Jeanius: The presentation took place at the Pitti Uomo in Florence She hasn't dated anyone since her split from Brad Pitt in September 2016. Now an Angelina Jolie insider is taking steps to squash rumors that she's seeing Cambodian filmmaker and lyricist PraCh Ly. A source told People on Thursday that the rapper 'is a friend' and the 42-year-old 'respects his work.' NOT her new man: Angelina Jolie is taking steps to squash rumors that she's dating Cambodian filmmaker and lyricist PraCh Ly, here seen during her recent trip to the country The source added: 'She isn't dating anyone and won't be for a very long time. She is focused on her children and their needs.' Angelina met Ly, 38, through Loung Ung, a human rights activist and the author of the book behind her new Netflix movie, First They Killed My Father, according to Gossip Cop. They attended events in Cambodia together, but nothing more, the website said. Lining up: First They Killed My Father Writer Loung Ung posed with Ly, Angelina, and, far right, producer Rithy Panh at September's Cambodia Town Film Festival where the movie played The actress and director has been busy promoting the drama, which lost out to Germany's In The Fade in the Golden Globe's Best Foreign Language Film category in Beverly Hills on Sunday. However, the ceremony put her back in the public eye after she withdrew following her split with 54-year-old Brad. Her 14-year-old son Pax was her date for the Globes. Angelina also shares children Maddox, 16, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 11, and nine-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne with the actor. Busy schedule: The 42-year-old took her daughters Shiloh, 11, and Zahara, 13, plus Ung to the National Board Of Review Awards Gala at in New York on Tuesday As for how she is feeling, Angelina told People last fall: 'I have had my ups and downs. I guess I am a little bit stronger. 'We all have our difficult times, but as a mother you also have a responsibility first and foremost towards the kids. 'They are going through their formative years and everything else comes second to that.' Family affair: Angelina's son Pax, 14, was her date for Sunday's Golden Globes in Beverly Hills where her First They Killed My Father lost out to Germany's In The Fade for Best Foreign Film Angelina previously expressed hope that First They Killed My Father would shed light on the Cambodian genocide and the people would take pride in what the country endured in the late 1970s. 'I hope this doesn't bring up hatred. I hope this doesn't bring up blame,' Angelina told the BBC. 'I hope the people of this country are proud when they see it, because they see what they've survived.' First They Killed My Father is streaming on Netflix now. Advertisement Stars descended upon the blue carpet on Thursday night in Santa Monica for the 23rd annual Critics' Choice Awards. And Angelina Jolie led the way for this year's ceremony in a strapless white gown with feathered detailing and an asymmetrical hemline. Diane Kruger, Emma Roberts, Kate Bosworth and Saoirse Ronan joined Angelina on the carpet in white frocks as well for the awards show on Thursday at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California - a stark contrast to the all-black looks the acting world sported for the Golden Globes just four days prior, to show solidarity with victims f sexual harassment. Scroll down for video Making a chic arrival: Angelina Jolie, Emma Roberts, Kate Bosworth and Saoirse Ronan rocked the blue carpet in white frocks as well for the Critics Choice Awards in LA on Thursday - a stark contrast to the all-black looks for the Golden Globes four days prior Work it:Diane, 41, wowed in her custom Vera Wang ivory gown, which had a silver chain accent and draped sleeves Angelina was a vision in her form-fitting neutral gown, which hugged her svelte frame. The textured frock, which is a custom made Ralph & Russo gown, gave a glimpse of her sculpted pins beneath the draped hemline. The mother of six, 42, paired the textured look with chunky diamond Neil Lane earrings and ring, crimson lipstick and suede strappy cream heels. Angelina styled her long brunette hair half up and half down, opting for volume and subtle waves. Diane, 41, wowed in her custom Vera Wang ivory gown, which had a silver chain accent and draped sleeves; the German-born actress arrived with her boyfriend The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus, 49. Movie star! Angelina had all eyes on her as she posed on the blue carpet in her custom made Ralph & Russo gown with Neil Lane diamond jewelry Stunner: Angelina was a vision in her form-fitting neutral gown, which hugged her svelte frame; the textured frock gave a glimpse of her sculpted pins beneath the draped hemline Change: Angelina rocked the feathered strapless dress, which was in stark contrast to the all-black look she and the rest of the acting world sported at the Golden Globes earlier this week, to show solidarity with victims of sexual harrassment Cheeky: The mother of six, 42, paired the textured look with chunky diamond earrings, crimson lipstick and suede cream heels; pictured with author Loung Ung Glowing: Angelina styled her long brunette hair half up and half down, opting for volume and subtle waves Diane and Norman, who costarred in their 2015 film Sky, shared a kiss on the carpet. Blonde beauty Emma, 26, rocked a new hairstyle - a short fringe - on the blue carpet while sporting a silky strapless dress with a matching white blazer. She chose a silk satin Giorgio Armani gown and jacket, adding normal Silverman jewelry. The Scream Queens star was escorted by her longtime boyfriend, Evan Peters, 30. Emma carried a structured gold clutch, adding yellow diamond drop earrings, a large ring and matte pink lipstick. She's a legend! Angelina painted her full pout a red hue, adding kohl liner to her lids and a touch of bronze eye shadow No gray area! Diane Kruger and her boyfriend Norman Reedus coordinated in black and white ensembles; Diane cut an elegant figure in her custom ivory Vera Wang frock, which had a silver accent on her torso Switching up: Diane looked radiant in a white and silver gown, a dramatic difference from her metallic black gown at the Golden Globes And another one: Emma Roberts and her boyfriend Evan Peters chose a similar color palette as Diane and Norman; Emma wowed in her Giorgio Armani gown and jacket, adding Norman Silverman jewelry Satin accent: Blonde beauty Emma, 26, rocked a new hairstyle - a short fringe - on the blue carpet while sporting a silky strapless dress with a matching white blazer Meanwhile, Kate covered up in a long-sleeved lace Brock Collection gown featuring a large ruffle along her waist as well as beneath her chest; the Blue Crush star's carpet-grazing look was slightly see-through with a high-neck. The movie star paired the fashion forward look with large diamond earrings, red lipstick and her tresses pulled back into a tight bun. Kate, 35, posed up a storm with her husband of four years, director Michael Polish. Golden Globe winner Saoirse Ronan, 23, went for a ruched glittering neutral gown with a loose top half and a fitted skirt. The three-quarter sleeved gown by Michael Kors had a gathered accent over her lower stomach, which showed off her slim physique. Lovely in lace: Meanwhile, Kate covered up in a long-sleeved lace Brock Collection gown featuring a large ruffle along her waist as well as beneath her chest; the Blue Crush star's carpet-grazing look was slightly see-through with a high-neck Close: Kate, 35, posed up a storm with her husband of four years, director Michael Polish Stylish: Kate Bosworth and Alexander Skarsgard looked gorgeous as they struck poses inside the event Shining star! Saoirse Ronan, 23, went for a dramatic dark lip with a cream and silver sequined ruched gown by Michael Kors All about the details: Greta Gerwig (l), Rachel Brosnahan (c) and Sutton Foster (r) also chose lighter colored looks for this year's Critics' Choice Awards; Rachel is in a Zuhair Murad Resort 2018 light pink gown and Greta wore Fendi; Sutton chose an Adam Lippes dress Flawless: Alessandra Mastronardi (l) wowed in a Chanel Resort 2018 Grecian gown while Haley Bennett (r) stunned in her low-cut frock by Chloe with tan lace up heels Alison Brie, 35, looked like a goddess in her pale Grecian-inspired gown; the one-shouldered number had ruching along the top half with a fitted skirt. Heidi Klum, 44, and Kaley Cuoco also went for pale toned frocks - but with plunging necklines. Heidi, a supermodel and TV presenter, donned a cut-out sleeved sequined number with a deep neckline and a thigh-high slit; the frock is from the Fall 2017 couture collection for Georges Hobeika. Newly engaged Kaley chose a short sleeved version with a sheer skirt and large silver sequins. The Big Bang Theory beauty, 32, brought along her fiance, 27-year-old equestrian Karl Cook; they announced their engagement in early December. Winner: Margot Robbie beamed as she clutched onto her award for I, Tonya LBDs; Reese Witherspoon and Emilia Clarke stuck to their black dress code from earlier this week Trip: Laura Dern joined Reese and Emilia on the blue carpet as Reese laughed out loud Well dressed: Alison Brie, 35, looked like a goddess in her pale yellow Grecian-inspired gown by Roberto Cavalli; the one-shouldered number had ruching along the top half with a fitted skirt Look at those pins! Heidi Klum, 44, flaunted her sculpted legs in the beaded gown, adding wavy tresses and minimal makeup Wow factor: Heidi and Kaley Cuoco hit the carpet in plunging gowns in neutral colors; Heidi's frock is from the Fall 2017 couture collection for Georges Hobeika Date night: The Big Bang Theory, 32, beauty brought along her fiance equestrian Karl Cook; they announced their engagement in early December Sheer appeal: Zoe Kazan (r) chose a long-sleeved number with yellow accent sleeves by Valentino; Millicent Simmonds (r) donned a similarly colored frock with a firework-inspired design Handsome: Good looking Armie Hammer arrived with his stunning wife Elizabeth Chambers Golden goddesses: Mary J. Blige (l) chose a curve hugging gown while Carrie Coon (c) wore patterned piece and Madeline Brewer (r) donned a mermaid frock with a pale blue strapless top half and a rose gold bottom by Elizabeth Kennedy Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, 32, chose a sizzling Prada deep v-neck gown with silver sequins and a criss cross back; the pleated piece featured a beaded fringe belt. Sarah Hyland looked like a ballerina in her glittering black sleeveless dress, featuring a layered white puffy skirt. The Modern Family actress, 27, paired the Audrey Hepburn-inspired look by Naeem Khan with round earrings, red lipstick and pulled back hair. Joining Sarah on the black and white theme were actresses Reese Witherspoon, Emilia Clarke, Margot Robbie and Alexis Bledel. While Reese and Emilia both went for polka dot frocks, Margot chose a striped strapless gown from Chanel's Resort 2018 collection. What a wonder! Movie star Gal Gadot, 32, stunned in her shimmering gray gown by Prada with a black beaded belt Silver siren: Gal showed off her shimmering gown to its full extent as she worked the blue carpet Winning ensemble: Gal was joined by Wonder Woman producers Richard Suckle and Charles Roven, director Patty Jenkins, and Connie Nielsen, who posed with their Best Action Movie award for 'Wonder Woman' Cool girl style: Abbie Cornish, 35, styled her metallic chain-style frock with a silky black cover up Happiness: Ted Danson, 70, and wife Mary Steenburgen, 64, were all smiles at the event; Mary chose a shiny silver draped frock; the lovebirds have been married since 1995 Timeless: Modern Family star Sarah Hyland, 27, looked like a ballerina in her black and white frock, featuring a layered skirt Having a blast: The Modern Family actress paired the Audrey Hepburn inspired look by Naeem Khan with round earrings, red lipstick and pulled back hair Coordinating! Reese Witherspoon and Emilia Clarke struck a pose in similar frocks for this year's Critics' Choice Awards Margot, who starred in I, Tonya, went for a striped strapless dress with a colorful beaded belt; the unique frock had both ruffles and pleating throughout. Reese, 41, showed off her toned legs in her sleeves v-neck Prada gown with Roger Vivier heels and Nikos Koulis jewelry. Game Of Thrones actress Emilia, 31, opted for a long-sleeved Dolce And Gabbana calf-length number. Both Elisabeth Moss and Alison Sudol slipped on black dresses with embellishments while Laura Dern stepped out in a sleek Balmain jumpsuit. Keeping up: Reese (l) and Emilia (r) both went for polka dot frocks; Reese chose a mini version by Prada while Emilia, who stars on Game Of Thrones, opted for a longer version by Dolce And Gabbana Reunited: Big Little Lies co-stars Laura Dern and Reese struck a pose before heading inside to their seats; Laura is wearing a Balmain one-piece while Reese donned Prada A twist on the LBD: Both Elisabeth Moss (l) and Alison Sudol (r) slipped on black dresses with embellishments Blonde beauty: Australian star Margot Robbie went for a striped ruffled strapless dress with a colorful beaded belt; the detailed number is from Chanel's Resort 2018 collection Looking good: Laura Dern rocked a sleeveless jumpsuit by Balmain with a blazer collar; the actress flashed her lace bra Standing tall: Laura was just a few feet away from her Big Little Lies co-star; (from l to r) Laura, Reese and Emilia Always a good choice: Audrey Moore (l) and Carrie Keagan (r) both wore black cut-out frocks but Carrie's had sheer panels Classic: Alana Boden, Amber Nash, Justina Machado and Jackie Hoffman decided to go for black for this year's awards show Dainty: The former Gilmore Girls actress chose a black and white frock with embellished heels and a structured clutch Allison Williams went for a colorful lace dress with cut-outs and sheer panels, revealing her legs beneath the skirt; the brown, white and blue frock by Dolce And Gabbana with Beladora jewelry. The Girls star, 29, wore a headband with sleek hair, adding pale pink lipstick and brown shadow around her eyes. Jaimie Alexander, 33, went for a striped emerald and nude Georges Chakra Couture gown with a feathered train; the revealing frock put her cleavage as well as her legs on display. Jessica Chastain, 40, chose a loose fitting pleated green dress with a cut-out detail on the front and back; she stunned in a Vionnet Spring 2018 frock. Elaborate look: Allison Williams, 29, went for a colorful lace dress with cut-outs and sheer panels, revealing her legs beneath the skirt; the brown, white and blue frock by Dolce And Gabbana with Beladora jewelry Goddess: Jaimie Alexander, 33, deep emerald colored Georges Chakra frock had a striped design, sheer panels and a feathered train; she added sky high heels What a lady: Jessica Chastain chose a loose fitting pleated green dress with a cut-out detail on the front and back; she stunned in a Vionnet Spring 2018 frock Beautiful: The actress, 40, flaunted her sculpted back in the halter-style frock, which went perfectly with her red locks Nicole Kidman hit the blue carpet in a sheer hot pink Valentino gown with silver sequins, ruffles and a turtleneck-style neckline. The Australian actress, 50, styled the long-sleeved number with sleek hair, kohl lined lids and delicate diamond jewelry by Fred Leighton. Olivia Munn, who hosted the show, was a vision in her floor-length red gown featuring silver accents along her torso; she chose a Prada gown with Niwaka jewelry and Christian Louboutin heels. The 37-year-old star styled her ombre locks in waves with coral lipstick, gold eye shadow and bronzed cheeks. Jessica Biel sported a red, pink, black and white frock from Oscar De La Renta's Spring 2018 collection. The former 7th Heaven actress, 35, added classic movie star waves, bright red lipstick and statement earrings. Making heads turn: Nicole Kidman hit the blue carpet in a sheer hot pink Valentino gown with silver sequins, ruffles and a turtleneck-style neckline; she added Rene Caovilla heels and Fred Leighton jewlery Think pink: The Oscar winning actress struck a series of playful poses in her crystallised pink gown She knows how to pose: The Australian actress styled the long-sleeved number with sleek hair, kohl lined lids and delicate diamond jewelry by Fred Leighton Accolade: Producer Per Saari, actors Alexander Skarsgaard, Laura Dern,Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon producer Gregg Fienberg and Bruna Papandrea, pose with the award for Best Limited Series award for Big Little Lies Fancy: Olivia Munn was a vision in her floor-length red gown featuring silver accents along her torso; she chose a Prada gown with Niwaka jewelry and Christian Louboutin heels Glowing: She styled her ombre locks in waves with coral lipstick, gold eye shadow and bronzed cheek Gongs: O-T Fagbenle, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel - in chic Sophia Webster shoes - Samira Wiley, Elisabeth Moss, Ann Dowd, Madeline Brewer and Max Minghella from the Handmaid's Tale posed up with their awards Sheer appeal: Jessica Biel, 35, sported a red, pink, black and white frock Oscar De La Renta's Spring 2018 collection Shades of red: Elisa Perry, Betty Gilpin, Yvonne Strahovski and Samara Weaving all donned the bold hue for the awards' show Like a princess: The Florida Project star Brooklynn Prince, seven, wore a red frock with silver colored shoes Chic: Elisabeth Moss looked chic in a black lacy dress adorned with crystal flowers as she posed Constance Wu chose a pale red frock with layers of tulle, adding a headband and large earrings. Samira Wiley, Allison Janney and Holly Hunter wowed in navy frocks for the ceremony, while Laurie Metcalf chose a cooler tone - ice blue. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 33, and Kiernan Shipka, 18, both decided to go for lacy looks with neon accents. Elizabeth wore a Delpozo gown with Charlotte Olympia heels, an Anya Hindmarch clutch and Irene Neuwirth jewelry. Kiernan is also wearing a Delpozo look with Miu Miu platform shoes. Adorable: Brooklynn Prince posed besides Jacob Tremblay, 11, before heading inside the venue Layers of fabric: Constance Wu, 35, chose a pale red frock with layers of tulle, adding a headband and large earrings Having a blast! Kumail Nanjiani and his screenwriter wife Emily V. Gordon arrived in their coordinating looks; Skyler Samuels (r) donned a Giamba Fall 2017 gown, which featured an eye patterned belt Inseparable: Patrick Stewart and his wife of four years, singer Sunny Ozell; Sunny chose a low-cut v-neck dress with an embroidered red accent Actress Yara Shahidi, who is half-Iranian and half African-American, looked gorgeous in her purple patterned gown by Giambattista Valli. The 17-year-old's frock featured gold beading over her decolletage; she styled her dark brunette tresses pulled back into a center parted bun. The Critics' Choice Awards took place on Thursday night at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, California. The 23rd annual Critics Choice Awards also featured the second annual #SeeHer award, which recognizes an individual for challenging gender stereotypes. Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot accepted the award from director Patty Jenkins. So sweet: Leslie Mann and her husband, director Judd Apatow; Leslie chose and orange and glittering red number Shades of blue: Samira Wiley (l), Allison Janney (c) and Holly Hunter (r) wowed in the dark tone for the ceremony Having a fabulous time! Rachel Bloom couldn't stop smiling while shimmering in her sequined blue frock, adding black heels Elegant: Laurie Metcalf chose a light blue toned frock by Cristina Ottaviano, adding a matching clutch with diamond jewelry Bold move: Mary Elizabeth Winstead (l) and Kiernan Shipka (r) both decided to go for lacy looks with neon accents; Elizabeth wore a Delpozo gown with Charlotte Olympia heels, an Anya Hindmarch clutch and Irene Neuwirth jewelry; Kiernan is also wearing a Delpozo look with Miu Miu platform shoes Natural beauty: Actress Yara Shahidi, who is half Iranian and half African American, looked gorgeous in her purple patterned gown by Giambattista Valli; the 17-year-old's frock featured gold beading over her decolletage Pretty: Octavia Spencer chose a deep purple number by Tadashi Shoji while Chelsea Peretti, who posed with actor Jordan Peele, donned a fuchsia trouser and blazer set Pretty in pattern: Chrissy Metz, who stars in the hit series This Is Us, chose a lovely striped maxi; she stepped out in a custom Eloquii frock with Stuart Weitzman shoes, a Jimmy Choo clutch, Anabela Chan earrings and a Spallanzani ring Vibrant; Leslie Mann looked chic in her burgundy and scarlet flowing gown at the star-studded awards Flower power: Niecy Nash chose a low-cut floral dress with blue, pink, green and black tones while Natalia Dyer chose a high-neck version of a similar pattern with statement Sophia Webster heels Good looking duo: Actor Joseph Fiennes and his wife Maria Dolores posed up a storm upon arrival Love of floral: Amy Landecker cut a chic figure in her one-shouldered look while Mckenna Grace donned a high-neck verison Dapper: This Is Us stars Milo Ventimiglia, Sterling K. Brown and Justin Hartley looked handsome in their suits Suited up! Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Connick Jr. both looked dapper in their dark hued blazer, trousers and tie Talented: Hunky Alexander posed with the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie Made for TV or Limited Series for Big Little Lies Good looking group: Joe Keery (l), Nick Jonas (c) and Timothee Chalamet (r) were a handsome bunch at the awards show Good taste: Both David Harbour (l) and Aziz Ansari (r) donned a burgundy and black suit with a white button up Beaming: Sean Astin was also on the carpet sporting a tuxedo in the classic black and white shades Good choice: Andy Cohen (l) Liev Schreiber (r) \and Jack O'Connell rocked dapper suits and patent dress shoes Great night: Bill Pullman (l) and Marc Maron (r) couldn't help but smile on the blue carpet Poised: Jim Gaffigan chose a deep blue suit with black button up and suede dress shoes Unique: Rupaul (l) and Chris Sullivan (r) decided to go for bold patterns for their suits Wow factor:Actors O. T. Fagbenle, Kiernan Shipka and Freddie Highmore looked effortlessly cool as they posed up at the awards Stars: Ian McShane and wife Gwen Humble looked happy as they attended the glittering event Style: Actress Haley Bennett showed off her cleavage in a plunging dress with tan lace-up wedges She's the former Block contestant who pulled up at the Palazzo Versace in a $300,000 BMW earlier in the week. And Suzi Taylor continued her jaunt on the Gold Coast on Thursday, spending time with billionaire retailer, Gerry Harvey. The busty reality star, 45, was spotted sharing an innocent kiss with the 78-year-old entrepreneur whilst at the Magic Millions Yearling Sale. Nice to see you! The Block's Suzi Taylor was seen sharing an innocent kiss with Harvey Norman co-founder, Gerry Harvey at the Magic Millions Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast on Thursday She's a stunner! Suzi looked at home among Australia's moneyed elite, turning heads in a strapless white top which featured a flirty full-length zip down the middle At the event, Suzi looked at home among Australia's moneyed elite, turning heads in a strapless white top which featured a flirty full-length zip down the middle. The fastening device struggled to hold in the beauty's busty assets, as her cleavage spilled over the top of the garment. Leaving her raven haired locks out, the former real estate agent coated her plump pout in pink lip gloss. All smiles! The star was spotted giggling as she greeted Gerry- best known as the co-founder of retail giant Harvey Norman Cool and casual! Gerry looked rather relaxed in a white polo top and beige fedora At the sales, Suzi was spotted giggling as she greeted Gerry - best known as the co-founder of retail giant Harvey Norman. The business guru looked rather relaxed in a white polo top and beige fedora, while Suzi seemed eager to assist him in making a purchase on the day Looking for a bargain? Suzi seemed eager to assist Gerry in making a purchase on the day Expert advice: Suzi, a one-time Miss Magic Millions, seems quite the equine enthusiast as she listened in on an auction with Gerry Nice to see you! The pair were then see chatting before they innocently locked lips Pucker up! The Block babe placed her hands on the businessman's shoulder Suzi, a one-time Miss Magic Millions, seems quite the equine enthusiast as she listened in on an auction with Gerry. The pair were then seen chatting before The Block babe placed her hands on the businessman's shoulder and leaned in for a kiss. However, it was nothing more than a mere formality as Gerry, whose net worth is estimated at $ 1.55 billion and has been married to Harvey Norman's CEO Katie Page for 30 years. High-profile pals! Suzi's plump pout was getting a workout, as she leaned in to greet Gai with a kiss Old friends? The reality star appeared to be on familiar terms with the Melbourne Cup queen given the friendly introduction And it wasn't the only kiss Suzi was seen giving on the day- with the stunner also seen puckering up to famous horse trainer Gai Waterhouse. With her plump pout getting quite the workout, the reality star appeared to be on familiar terms with the Melbourne Cup queen given the friendly introduction. And like she was with Gerry, Suzi appeared to offer Gai expert advice on the horses, as the pair studied some paperwork with serious looks upon their faces. Studying up: Sales: Suzi appeared to offer Gai expert advice on the horses, as the pair studied some paperwork with serious looks upon their faces Daily Mail Australia reached out to Suzi earlier in the week for details on her current personal and profession lives. The real estate agent competed with her close friend Voni Cosier on The Block back in 2015, but has been inactive on her social media account since late 2016. Suzi and Voni made a $349,000 during their time on the popular reality show, meaning Suzi pocketed close to $175,000. She picked up a well-deserved Golden Globe award for Ladybird just last weekend. But Saoirse Ronan was back in Hollywood for the Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday night, sadly with less success in collecting a gong for Best Actress, ultimately losing out to Margot Robbie. The 23-year-old made a rapid transformation for the red carpet, having arrived in Los Angeles on a flight just hours earlier with a fresh, make-up free visage. Scroll down for video Give us a wave: Saoirse Ronan looked ultra-glamorous for her arrival at the Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday night in Hollywood Radiant with a dark lipstick, the Brooklyn beauty arrived with fresh hopes of a win at the 23rd Annual Critics' Choice Awards. She was nominated once again for her part as Lady Bird McPherson in the coming-of-age film Lady Bird. However, on the night, the award for best actress in a comedy was to go to Australian moviestar Margot for I, Tonya. Quite the Lady (Bird)! Make-up free Saoirse cut a casual figure in a wide-legged jeans as award nominee arrives back in Los Angeles earlier that day She had faced strong competition from Jessica Chastain (Molly's Game), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing) and Meryl Streep (The Post) for the envy-inducing title. Her red carpet appearance had certainly turned heads, as she slipped into a figure-hugging glittery Michael Kors Collection gown, complete with ruching at the waist. The dress featured a modest train followed her feet elegantly, while her hair was styled in a glossy, old-Hollywood style wave. Glittering gown: Her red carpet appearance had certainly turned heads, as she slipped into a figure-hugging glittery Michael Kors Collection gown, complete with ruching at the waist Congratulations: The star offered her congratulations to Margot Robbie, right, a fellow nominee for the best actress in a comedy award, which she took for I, Tonya Still friends! The girls proved there was no rivalry as they laughed up a storm together Glamorous: She offset her white gown with a striking, dark lipstick Saoirse successfully hid any sign of fatigue, despite jetting out of Los Angeles the morning after the Golden Globes only to swiftly return the morning of the Critics' Choice Awards. Buzzing from her win, the actress looked positively radiant on Thursday morning when she arrived again at LAX airport. She went make-up free and she framed her face with loose wisps of her unstyled golden tresses. Lots to catch up on! The trio looked deep in conversation as they snatched a moment to chat during the awards bash Living the high life! Attendees were treated to gallons of champagne and a slap-up meal inside the ceremony Plot: Saoirse plays Marion McPherson, a California nurse, works tirelessly to keep her family afloat after her husband loses his job The Lovely Bones actress was looked worlds away from her red carpet glamour as she made a low-key appearance on arrival in her wide-legged jeans. Fresh-faced Saoirse swamped her petite frame in a brown knitted sweater and she kept the chill at bay in a black woolen coat and fuchsia scarf. Saoirse has been nominated for a string of awards for her role in coming-of-age drama, which tells the story of a strong-willed 17-year-old girl (Saoirse) who maintains a turbulent bond with her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf). Fresh-faced: Buzzing with her Golden Globes win, the actress looked positively radiant when she went make-up free and she framed her face with loose wisps of her golden tresses Stunning: She has been the talk of the showbiz circuit after receiving critical acclaim for her leading role in her latest movie Lady Bird Prior to Sunday's win, the New York native was previously nominated for a Golden Globe for Atonement in 2008 and Brooklyn in 2016. The award-winning actress also received her ninth nomination for Actress in a Leading Role Film for the Irish Film/TV Awards. Saoirse will compete against Sarah Bolger (Halal Daddy) and Ann Skelly (Kissing Candice) for the coveted prize. Dramatically different: The Lovely Bones star looked worlds away from her red carpet glamour as she made a low-key appearance on arrival in her wide-legged jeans In November, the Golden Globes winner revealed she was 'dying' for her mum to see Lady Bird in an interview with Vulture magazine. She said: 'Were gonna go see it tonight. She only got into L.A. the day before yesterday, so I gave her a day to recuperate from the jet lag and were gonna go to the cinema tonight to go see it with a real audience. 'Im dying for her to see it. I think shes gonna love it.' Comfortable chic: Fresh-faced Saoirse swamped her petite frame in a brown knitted sweater and she kept the chill at bay in a black woolen coat and fuchsia scarf Glittering girl: No doubt the Brooklyn beauty was looking forward to her star-studded evening at the 23rd Annual Critics' Choice Awards as she is tipped for Best Actress Australian actor Lachy Hulme has weighed in on the recent Craig McLachlan sexual assault allegations, hinting that he believes the reports about his behaviour could be true. Posting to his Twitter account on Wednesday, Lachy gave his full support to Craig's accuser Christie Whelan-Browne following her claims that the actor indecently assaulted her during a stage performance of The Rocky Horror Show. In the cryptic social media post, the 46-year-old said he had known Craig for almost two decades but still 'stands with Christie' in the wake of the scandal. Does he know something? Lachy Hulme (left) posted a tweet on Wednesday admitting he's known Craig McLachlan (right) for 18 years... but is standing with his accuser Christie Whelan Browne in the wake of the sexual assault scandal 'For the record: I've known Craig McLachlan for over 18 years. For the record: I've never met Christie Whelan-Browne,' the Offspring star wrote. Lachy added: 'For the record: I stand with Christie Whelan-Browne.' Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Lachy Hulme's representatives for comment. Lachy and Craig have both enjoyed long and illustrious Australian film and TV careers and starred alongside each other in 2001 offering Let's Get Skase. Earlier this week, allegations were levelled against Gold Logie winner Craig, with multiple women suggesting he had behaved inappropriately towards them while working together. 'I stand with Christie Whelan Browne': Lachy has thrown his support behind the actress after she claimed the actor indecently assaulted her Co-stars: Lachy and Craig have both enjoyed long and illustrious Australian film and TV careers and starred alongside each other in 2001 offering Let's Get Skase On Monday, Christie Whelan Browne told ABC's 7.30 that Craig ran his finger along her panties during a sexually-charged scene where he had to kiss her body under a bed sheet in a stage performance of The Rocky Horror Show. But rather than stop there, she alleged Craig, playing transvestite mad scientist Dr Frank-N-Furter, traced the outlines of her private parts as she acted frozen in front of 2,000 people. 'One night when he was down in the bed he traced the outline of my vagina with his finger and I slapped his hand away,' she told the program. In tears, she added: 'The scene stopped when he went down and the rest was up to me to perform. That wasn't a character choice. That was him just being completely inappropriate.' Emotional claims: On Monday, Christie Whelan Browne told ABC's 7.30 that Craig ran his finger along her panties during a sexually-charged scene where he had to kiss her body under a bed sheet in a stage performance of The Rocky Horror Show Several other actresses have also made claims against the former Neighbours and Home And Away star. Angela Scundi, who also starred in 2014 production of the popular musical said she was threatened by Craig after refusing to take part in an overly salacious kiss. Former Home And Away star Erika Heynatz is another actress who has claimed Craig has acted inappropriately, accusing the actor of sexual harassment and bullying. The Doctor Blake star has fiercely denied the allegations, describing the claims of the three actresses as 'baseless'. 'They seem to be simple inventions, perhaps made for financial reasons, perhaps to gain notoriety,' he was quoted as writing. 'These allegations are ALL made up.' But the 52-year-old has stepped down from his role as Frank N Furter in the current production of the musical, as the production company behind it, the Gordon Frost Organisation, completes a 'full internal investigation'. Formal complaints have been lodged with Victoria Police, who are investigating the claims. She's one of Australia's top models who often flaunts her flawless appearance and enviable figure to spruik a number of brands and partnerships. But Jesinta Franklin (nee Campbell) has revealed she's already begun noticing signs of aging on her face. The 26-year-old confessed to having wrinkles while filming a live Instagram makeup video on Friday: 'I get lines. Smile lines.' 'I get lines': Jesinta Campbell, 26, admits to having wrinkles as she films makeup tutorial... after revealing her thoughts on Botox use Jesinta was being tended to by makeup artist Michael Brown when she made the candid confession. Michael had mentioned how he often used product to conceal other clients' crows feet and fine lines when Jesinta interjected. While Jesinta claimed to have visible smile lines, the model's complexion appeared flawless in the clip and pictures shared from the session. 'Smile lines': While Jesinta claimed to have visible smile lines, the model's complexion appeared flawless in the clip and pictures shared from the session Stunner! Jesinta's short blonde locks were voluminously parted to one side in a messy-yet-chic style The former Miss Universe Australia wore a white robe as she sat perched atop a stool. Jesinta's short blonde locks were voluminously parted to one side in a messy-yet-chic style. She happily showed off the products she was applying, including a light pink lipstick that was applied to her pout. 'Today's hero products': She happily showed off the products she was applying, including a light lipstick that was applied to her pout Gorgeous! Her makeup artist also shared footage of him applying a shimmery eye-shadow to her lids, referring to the stunner as a 'doll' Bronzed babe! The makeup artist also used his fingers to dab highlighter above Jesinta's cheek bones as she closed her eyes Her makeup artist also shared footage of him applying a shimmery eye-shadow to her lids, referring to the stunner as a 'doll'. The makeup artist also used his fingers to dab highlighter above Jesinta's cheek bones as she closed her eyes. Her impromptu discussion about aging comes after the former beauty pageant queen revealed she first began to see 'very subtle' aging in her skin just before she turned 25. 'But, I haven't really thought of [Botox] to be honest': Speaking to Gritty Pretty Magazine last year, Jesinta said she while she had switched her skincare over to anti-aging products she still hadn't considered Botox Speaking to Gritty Pretty Magazine, she said she had now changed all of her skincare over to anti-aging products but still hadn't 'really thought of [Botox]'. Jesinta, who is an ambassador for skincare range Olay, told the online publication she began to be conscious of her aging at 24. 'I have to admit that when I was about to turn 25, I did start thinking about the way I was going to age as I started to notice very subtle differences in my skin which lead me to completely changing all my skincare over to anti-aging products,' she said. 'But, I haven't really thought of [Botox] to be honest.' Jesinta, who claims she has 'smile lines', has plenty to be happy about, with the stunner married to AFL star husband Buddy Franklin. The pair tied the knot in an intimate Blue Mountains wedding in November 2016. It was Brooklynn Prince's night at the Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday. The delighted seven-year-old cried tears of joy as she accepted the Best Young Performer Award for her role in The Florida Project. And it didn't end there - with the young star even getting to meet her idol Angelina Jolie, who she instantly charmed. Scroll down for video Her night: It was Brooklynn Prince's night at the Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday as she took home the Best Young Performer Star sighting! After accepting the award, Brooklynn made her rounds to the the bevy of celebrity-stacked tables and stopped to chat with Angelina Jolie Brooklynn was the belle of the ball as she walked down the red carpet in the bright red dress that had sequined straps. And she melted hearts as she stopped to pose with fellow nominee Jacob Tremblay who was nominated for Wonder. At just 11, the young actor is a veteran of the red carpet - having previously won the same award in 2016 for Room. Brooklynn couldn't contain her emotions as she was called to the stage to accept her statue. Mother instincts: Angelina is great with kids as she has six of her own Hug it out: They gave each other a huge hug and posed for a photograph together She was helped up the stairs by her father as the presenters guided her to the microphone to give her speech. 'All the nominees are great and we should all go out and get ice cream after this,' Brooklynn joked through her tears. She then gave thanks to all those that made her win possible. 'All my voters... you guys are so awesome, thank you so much. God, I would like to thank you for this opportunity. Family affair: She was helped up on stage by her father Little help: The presenters guided her to the microphone to give her speech 'And I would like to thank the cast and crew for the wonderful support and to my family and my team,' she continued. Then she added a call to arms to help struggling single mothers and their children as The Florida Project told the story of Halley (Bria Vinai) trying to make ends meet to support her daughter Moonee (Brooklynn). 'To all the Halley and Moonee's out there... Guys, this is a real problem you need to go out and help,' she pleaded. The crystal star-shaped statue looked gigantic in the hands of the child as she hoisted her first acting award in the air. After accepting the award, Brooklynn made her rounds to the the bevy of celebrity-stacked tables and stopped to chat with Angelina Jolie. Big prize: The crystal star statue looked gigantic in the hands of the child as she hoisted her first acting award in the air So much emotion: The tiny thespian couldn't contain her emotions as she was called to the stage to accept her statue She smiled and laughed with the Oscar winner, herself a mother-of-six, who appeared delighted to meet the young star. They gave each other a huge hug and posed for a photograph together. Afterwards, Brooklynn got to meet Irish-American actress Saoirse Ronan as they posed together as well. Prince first started out acting when she was two years old. She landed her first job for Parenting Magazine where she was enlisted for a modelling shoot, before going on to bag a role in a commercial for Chuck E. Cheese. Making famous friends: She got to meet Saoirse Ronan as they posed together as well Brooklynn has found herself catapulted into the spotlight, thanks to her efforts in Sean Baker's new movie The Florida Project which tells the story of a group of misfit kids living in a low-cost motel just a stone's throw away from Disney World. The starlet takes on the leading role of six-year-old Moonee, a young girl living with her mother who 'courts mischief and adventure' with her friends. She features in almost every scene in the film and became known on set for avidly eating in scenes and her witty improvisation. Given free rein in some of her scenes, Prince revealed in an interview with Vulture that she was allowed to 'say what she wanted' on camera and was only given a handful of scripted lines at a time. Too cute: The seven-year-old actress was adorable in a bedazzled red dress at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California on Thursday And her endearing spirit shone through as she recalled eating '45 ice cream cones' in one scene, as she thought to make the most of the sweet treat on being told it would be taken away from her once the scene had wrapped. Brooklynn has been heavily tipped to win at Oscar, thanks to a particularly convincing upset at the end of The Florida Project. In a particularly emotional scene in the movie, Baker recalled how the little girl immersed herself in her character and gave a stellar performance while sobbing her heart out. Bell of the ball: Brooklynn was the bell of the ball as she walked down the red carpet in the bright red dress that had sequined straps The film producer recalled: 'I knew at that moment she was really gonna try, but then when we rolled the camera and she started crying we were behind the camera just in awe. 'As soon as she wrapped that scene up I was desperate to yell cut because I couldnt watch her any longer crying like this.' Discussing the prospect of the gong, Brooklynn admitted she would be 'honoured' to receive such an award, and would want to celebrate at home with her family. She told the Daily Mail of her blossoming career: Theres not a day that goes by where I think, Aaaagh, Ive got to do press today or Oh no, Im on set; its just the greatest experience. Buddies: They were too cute as Brooklynn put her arm around Jacob Its all in Gods hands but if I got an Oscar, Id be so, so happy. Id have a big party with all my family and my whole house would be filled with everything to celebrate. Growing up, I have always watched the Oscars and always wondered what the actors felt when they had their name called, or how they feel to win. But I would still be incredibly honoured if I only got a nomination. Reports have claimed that the new toast of Hollywood is set to join Angelina Jolie in the live action adaptation of The One and Only Ivan. The movie will follow a silverback gorilla named Ivan who lives alongside an elephant, Stella, and a stray dog in a cage in a shopping mall. He doesn't remember life prior to the mall, but begins to rediscover it when he finds himself taking care of a baby elephant and hatching a plan to escape from captivity. Adorable: And she melted hearts as she stopped to pose with fellow nominee Jacob Tremblay who was nominated for Wonder Meanwhile HBO drama Big Little Lies was the big TV winner of the night with four awards, including best actress, which went to Nicole Kidman. The series also scooped best limited series, while Kidman's costars Alexander Skarsgard and Laura Dern took home best supporting actor gongs. Dominating the movie categories Guillermo del Toro's fantasy flick The Shape of Water won best picture as well as best director. Former prizewinner: Jacob previously won the award in 2016 for Room The movie, which stars Sally Hawkins as a mute woman who falls in love with a scaled creature, also won best score and best production design. Meanwhile, best actor went to Gary Oldman for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Joe Wright's Darkest Hour. Best actress went to Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Backstage: The winner went backstage to pose with her prize Happy as can be! Brooklynn was having the best night of her life She's the Australian bombshell whose star power continues to rise Stateside. And Margot Robbie was looking every bit the Hollywood glamazon as she attended the Critics' Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday. The 27-year-old was joined by husband Tom Ackerley as she stepped out at the star-studded event in a gorgeous frilly striped ensemble. Simply frill-ing! Margot Robbie (left) dazzled as she stepped out in a strapless black and gold dress at Critics' Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday... with dapper-looking husband Tom Ackerley (right) by her side Cutting a stylish figure, the star effused beauty in the strapless gold and black striped frock. It was a winning outfit for the star, who also won Best Actress for her performance in I, Tonya. She was up against Tiffany Haddish for Girls Trip, Zoe Kazan for The Big Sick, Saoirse Ronan for Lady Bird and Emma Stone for Battle of the Sexes. Margot turned heads in the ensemble which was framed with a frilly neckline and cinched at the waist with a chunky gold metallic belt embellished with colourful jewels. Gold-star ensemble! Cutting a stylish figure, the I, Tonya star effused beauty in the strapless gold and black striped frock Stunner: The frock's hemline dropped the floor while the star's shoulders were left bare thanks to the strapless cut The hemline of the flowing dress skimmed the floor, covering her pins while her shoulders were left bare. The stunner accesorised the look with strappy gold heels and a black and gold clutch that complemented her outfit's colour scheme. Margot tied her trademark blonde locks into a messy-style bun for the occasion, leaving a few strands loose at the back. For her makeup, the former Neighbours star highlighted her flawless complexion and opted for bold eye liner for a dramatic eye look, teamed with a muted lip. Glam factor: Margot cinched the dress at the waist with a chunky metallic belt that was embellished with multi-coloured jewels That stylish touch! The former Neighbours star tied her blonde locks into a messy-style bun and accessorised with strappy gold heels and a black and gold clutch We can see why Margot's smitten! Tom Ackerley look dapper in a smart white collared shirt and trousers as he held a black blazer For his part, Margot's director husband Tom was also dressed to the nines, looking dapper in a smart white collared shirt as he held on to a black blazer. Margot, who secretly wed Tom in Australia in 2016, has previously gushed about life her beau. 'My husband and I were roommates before we were even dating, so I'm kind of living with my roommate and it's awesome,' the Wolf of Wall Street actress told Us Weekly in October. 'It's awesome': Margot has previously gushed about life with her man, who she wed in 2016 Nervous? Margo waited anxiously as the award for Best Actress was announced Winner: The Australian star looked dumbfounded as she collected her gong Victory: She was up against Tiffany Haddish for Girls Trip, Zoe Kazan for The Big Sick, Saoirse Ronan for Lady Bird and Emma Stone for Battle of the Sexes Haha! The great and good of Hollywood gathered to enjoy the revelry as Margot and Allison Janney appeared to find a bottle of Moet & Chandon hilarious Something's funny! Margot and Allison seemed to let the bubbles go to their head as they larked around with the bottles Catch up: Actor/director Greta Gerwig and actors Margot and Saoirse Ronan posed for a snap Winners table: Allison chatted to host Olivia Munn Happy girls: The winning actresses posed for a snap, having both won the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress gongs Fun night: The ladies were seen deep in conversation Stunner: Margot looked stunning as she sat and chatted Thrilled: Margot looked giddy as she reveled in her win Big Cats Rating: The Cruise: Return to the Mediterranean Rating: For all wildlife telly fans, theres a surge of anticipation ten minutes before the end of each documentary. Weve sat mesmerised by the ravishing footage of rare animals and dreamlike locations. Now its time for the Making Of, revealing the extraordinary measures taken by camera teams in order to capture those images. Big Cats (BBC1) ended with an account of the hunt for Himalayan snow leopards. Equipment had to be ferried up some of the most dangerous mountain roads in the world, before the BBC team endured weeks of searching in bone-splintering cold. Big Cats (BBC1) ended with an account of the hunt for Himalayan snow leopards which meant equipment had to be ferried up some of the most dangerous mountain roads in the world Little wonder that, when they finally spotted their big cat, director Anna Place was laughing and sobbing simultaneously much to the bemusement of the Nepalese trackers. But when I interviewed the shows producers late last year, it became plain that every expedition deserves its own mini-diary. Take that brief shot of a puma in Patagonia, galloping down the beach to slaughter a clutch of Magellanic penguins. Classicist of the night Dom Joly started spouting cod Latin as he and his two labradors explored Hadrians Wall, on Walks With My Dog (More4). Scouring the horizon for Celtic warriors, he declared: Not an ancient Pict in sight. Jobbus dunnus! Advertisement The kill was over in a few seconds. For director Nick Easton, though, it was the culmination of a brutal assignment: weeks of staking out the coastline, to see something that had never been filmed before. They endured gale-force winds and sandstorms that wrecked their hides, and a flash flood that cut the camp in two. Worst of all, the pumas knew humans were present and seemed to be mocking them. On their way to the beach, they repeatedly encountered sleek cats that stood and eyed them superciliously. But as soon as the cameras were in place, the animals disappeared. Another shot that lasted just moments showed a jaguar in the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil, seizing a caiman crocodile and crushing its skull with its jaws. Series producer Mike Gunton revealed that one crew had an all-too-close encounter with that big cat, when it scented them inside their hide and pressed its face against the night-vision lens. As the cats muzzle fills the screen, viewers might suppose the camera is simply zooming in. Not possible, says Gunton: thermal lenses dont do zoom. To me, and Im certainly not alone, these stories are as thrilling as the main footage. Instead of cramming them into a ten-minute featurette, the BBC should devote a full hour to behind the scenes stories from every episode. Reality shows do it, after all: Bake Off, The Apprentice and Big Brother each have spin-offs. The Beebs superlative wildlife films and Big Cats was outstanding surely deserve nothing less. Another shot that lasted just moments showed a jaguar in the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil The tales from behind the scenes on a luxury Mediterranean liner on The Cruise (ITV) were rather more banal. Theyre a poor advert for these expensive holidays: the majority of the 4,000 guests seemed to spend most of each day queueing to book excursions, then queueing for refunds when bad weather stopped the ship from sailing into dock. As he prepared to serve up an extra ton-and-a-half of food to all those passengers who were unexpectedly stuck on board, chef David came up with a description that no traveller wants to hear: Its a train smash, but this is what happens on ships. He didnt mean that as a joke, but it was funnier than Diane the stand-up comedian, who opened her act with a mordant growl to the audience: I know were gonna have a good time cos theres no kids in! Yikes thats less of a gag, more of a threat. The Cruise is doing for ocean breaks what Benidorm did for the package holiday. At this rate, well all stay at home. The blonde bombshell announced she secured a role as a lingerie waitress in the upcoming Nine series, Underbelly Files: Chopper. And on Friday, the star shared a cute throwback picture from her childhood as a 'gangster baby'. Wearing a red cap as a child in her cot, the now 29-year-old captioned the nostalgic snap: 'playa in her crib'. Scroll down for video Guess who! She's the controversial reality star who is returning to TV screens as a sizzling lingerie waitress in Underbelly ... but do YOU recognise her in this 'gangster baby' throwback? The aspiring American-born actress recently admitted to signing on for an Australian reality show last year to 'enjoy her 15 minutes of fame'. She appeared on last year's Seven Year Switch and soon became a stand-out star in the controversial dating series. Within one of the first episodes, the blonde shocked viewers by proudly showcasing a sex toy on screen. Last year, photos surfaced revealing the Florida native was previously known as 'Silly_Mermaid' and 'Mermz' and was an adult webcam model. Adorable youngster! The star grew up in America and has been pictured with curly blonde hair in her childhood flashback pictures It's Seven Year Switch's Kaitlyn Isham! The aspiring actress recently admitted signing on for an Australian reality show last year to 'enjoy her 15 minutes of fame' The person in the photo is Kaitlyn Isham! Earlier this month, she excitedly told Daily Mail Australia that she has secured a role as a lingerie waitress in the upcoming Underbelly Files: Chopper. Heading back to screens: Seven Year Switch star Kaitlyn Isham is set to make a steamy appearance in the highly-anticipated new Underbelly series, revealing to Daily Mail Australia she will play a lingerie waitress The highly-anticipated Underbelly Files: Chopper is set to air on the Nine Network in the coming months and tells the true story of Melbourne stand-over man Mark 'Chopper' Reid. 'I originally auditioned for the [role of] stripper but didn't get it', Kaitlyn told Daily Mail Australia. However, she enthusiastically added: 'But they let me be a bartender in lingerie'. Scintillating selfie: Kaitlyn also shared a selfie with her cleavage included One picture from the set shows Kaitlyn flaunting her curves in tight leopard-print lingerie. A pair of pink thigh-high stockings and suggestive black heels completes her naughty on-screen look. And, with her cleavage on full-display, the star also shared a scintillating selfie. Brush with fame: Kaitlyn cosied up to Vince Colosimo who plays the late criminal Alphonse Gangitano in the series The LA-based beauty also managed to get up close and personal with the show's main stars during filming. In one image, Kaitlyn beams while cosying up to Vince Colosimo, who plays the late criminal Alphonse Gangitano. And it appears the star won't be the only alluring blonde to feature in the series, with another snap showing her posing with a bevvy of babes who share the same hair colour. Bevvy of blondes: The series looks set to feature a number of genetically-blessed beauties After it was announced she was set to star in Seven Year Switch, Kaitlyn's past as a webcam model resurfaced. Sexually explicit images of the star were circulated online, prompting a statement from the Seven network which read: 'Kaitlyn is honest about her social website activity which happened several years ago during a very low point in her life.' Kaitlyn appeared on the series with her partner Mark Pisani, and although the couple have since split, the beauty's love life has showed no signs of slowing down. 'I'm dating, like, five people, including a girl,' Kaitlyn told the OK! magazine last month. Margot Robbie has won Best Actress in a Comedy for her career-best performance in I, Tonya at the Critics' Choice Awards. The 27-year-old was visibly shocked and appeared on the verge of joyous tears as the announcement was made in Los Angeles on Thursday. Her acclaimed, versatile performance as troubled former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding deservedly beat-out a particularly strong field. Go figure! Margot Robbie left stunned and on the verge of tears as she wins best actress at the Critics' Choice Awards for her amazing performance as skating outcast Harding in I, Tonya When the announcement came, there was hardly a dry eye in The Barker Hangar, as the girl from Dalby, Queensland outclassed Hollywood elites once more. The beauty appeared truly humbled, clasping a hand to her chest in shock. She was stopped by fellow-nominee Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) on her way to the stage and they shared an embrace. Margot also toppled Tiffany Haddish (Girl's Trip), Zoe Kazan (The Big Sick) and Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes) to claim the victory. Congrats! She was stopped by fellow-nominee Saoirse Ronan on her way to the stage and the pair embraced Not a dry eye! When the announcement came down, there was hardly a dry eye in The Barker Hangar, as the girl from Dalby, Queensland outclassed Hollywood elites once more The Australian was also nominated for Best Actress, but was beaten by Frances McDormand for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Meryl Streep (The Post), Jessica Chastain (Molly's Game), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) were also in the running. Victorious! Margot also toppled Tiffany Haddish (Girl's Trip), Zoe Kazan (The Big Sick) and Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes) to claim the victory Thanks! The 27-year-old points to a loved-one in attendance at the Critics' Choice Awards at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California Margot was looking every bit the Hollywood glamazon upon arrival at the Hangar, located at the South Side of Santa Monica Airport. The 27-year-old was joined by husband Tom Ackerley as she stepped out at the star-studded event in a gorgeous frilly striped ensemble. Cutting a stylish figure, the I, Tonya star effused beauty in the strapless gold and black striped frock. Hopeful! The Australian is also nominated for Best Actress Simply frill-ing! Margot (left) dazzled as she stepped out in a strapless black and gold dress at Critics' Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday... with dapper-looking husband Tom Ackerley (right) by her side He is one of Hollywood's most sought-after leading men. And Chris Hemsworth cut a dapper figure as he attended the 2018 Critic's Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday. The 34-year-old was accompanied by his brother Luke, 36, amid the social media storm that ensued after being pictured with Angelina Jolie at the Golden Globes. Scroll down for video Boys night! Chris Hemsworth was accompanied by his brother Luke (left) to the Critic's Choice Awards. Pictured with Call Me By Your Name star Armie Hammer (right) The Thor star looked resplendent in a navy blue suit with black lapel detail, flanked in a snap by his brother Luke and Call Me By Your Name actor Armie Hammer. He was also spotted with Israeli actress Gal Gadot, with whom he presented the Best Foreign Language Film award at last week's Golden Globes ceremony. While the superhero pair represent differing Marvel and D.C. Comics movie universes, Chris once said Wonder Woman would 'kick Thor's a**' on Twitter. Superheroes: He was also spotted with Israeli actress Gal Gadot, with whom he presented the Best Foreign Language Film award at last week's Golden Globes ceremony Chris was seated between Angelina Jolie and Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi during the Globes, with Taika sharing a shot of the trio to Instagram after the show. Chris' wife, Spanish actress Elsa Pataky, couldn't resist writing a cheeky comment under the snap. The 41-year-old, who shares three children with her husband, wrote: 'What a great couple' before cheekily adding: 'I mean you boys!' Three's company: Chris was seated between Angelina Jolie and Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi during the Globes, with Taika sharing a shot of the trio to Instagram after the show Cheeky: Chris' wife, Spanish actress Elsa Pataky, couldn't resist writing a comment under the Instagram snap Elsa's remarks came after viewers did a double take when Angelina was seated next to the Australian actor in the audience. The 42-year-old Oscar winner looked in happy spirits as she posed with Chris, who has frequently been compared to a young brad Pitt. Fans have often remarked that when Chris starred in Avengers, he looked very similar to Brad when he appeared in 2004 film Troy. They boast an incredibly impressive body of work between them. So Hollywood heavyweights Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston no doubt had plenty to chat about as they joined Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw for dinner at Scott's restaurant in Mayfair on Thursday. Seeming in great spirits, the quartet seemed to have had a great evening together, despite skipping The Critics' Choice Awards night that were held that evening in Los Angeles. Scroll down for video Out and about: Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw enjoyed dinner at Scott's restaurant in Mayfair on Thursday alongside Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston Hollywood heavyweights: Tom Hanks (L) and Bryan Cranston decided to enjoy some dinner in London during awards season instead of jetting back to LA for the Critics' Choice Awards The Post - which starred Hanks and was directed by Spielberg - had been nominated for Best Picture at the ceremony, and Hanks had received a Best Actor nod for his role. The duo seemed content missing the awards to enjoy a night out with Capshaw and Cranston, however, possibly discussing a hotly-anticipated collaboration. Spielberg, Hanks and Cranston have only worked on one project together in the past - Saving Private Ryan - which earned Spielberg a Best Director Oscar and Hanks a nomination for Best Actor. Cranston only appeared briefly in the flick and was not credited for his role. Not fussed: Seeming in great spirits, Steven seemed to have had a great evening with his friends, despite skipping The Critics' Choice Awards where his latest film The Post has been nominated for Best Picture Fun night out: Steven and Kate - his wife of 26 years - seemed in good spirits after dinner One to watch: Steven is one of Hollywood's most famed and respected directors Most recently, Spielberg and Hanks worked together in The Post, which follows The Washington Post's former publisher Kay Graham - played by Meryl Streep - who became the first female publisher of the American newspaper, while Hanks plays editor Ben Bradlee in the historical drama. It is set in the years following the Vietnam War - which was released in the US on December 22 - and centres around The Washington Post's race to secure and publish the classified Pentagon Papers in 1971, which exposed a government cover-up spanning decades. Hanks and Spielberg have a great history of working together in the past, with the pair collaborating for critically acclaimed films, Bridge Of Spies, Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal. In 2016, Spielberg and Cranston teamed up for All the Way - a biographical television drama film based on events of the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. Connection: Steven, Tom and Bryan have only worked on one project together in the past - Saving Private Ryan - which earned Steven a Best Director Oscar and Tom a nomination for Best Actor All-smiles: Tom and Steven have a great history of working together in the past, with the pair collaborating for critically acclaimed films, Bridge Of Spies, Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal Meanwhile, Cranston and Hanks have been close for decades, with the Breaking Bad star previously admitting the Oscar-winner was his mentor. He told The Hollywood Reporter: 'I have known [Hanks] for 30 years, and I've watched him on set. Our wives are very good friends, and my wife was in their wedding. 'I was able to watch firsthand how a young man who is a star comports himself and treats people and is able to create an atmosphere on the set that is fun and welcoming of thoughts and ideas and get-the-work-done and then, "See ya," go home. 'You can have it all. You don't have to be the tortured actor and make everyone's life miserable.' Strangers On A Train (Brighton Theatre Royal & touring) Verdict: Tense thriller Rating: Hanna (Arcola Theatre & touring) Verdict: Impressive solo Rating: Patricia Highsmiths chiller Strangers On A Train is one of those taut tales where you wish things would not keep going quite so terribly wrong. It mucks about with your mind to the point that you hope two cold-blooded murderers will escape detection. Alfred Hitchcock made a 1951 film out of this ingenious plot. Now it has reached the stage in an effective adaptation that opened in Brighton this week and will soon chug off on tour (stopping at Sheffields Lyceum Theatre next week, and eventually pulling into Cardiff at the end of March). Preppy architect Guy Haines is heading to Texas on a train, peacefully reading some Plato. Haines (played by Jack Ashton) is unhappily married. The adaption of the Patricia Highsmith thriller is being performed at the Brighton Theatre Royal before it goes on tour nationwide His peace is broken by an apparently convivial drunk, Charles Bruno (Christopher Harper). After a few drinks, Bruno persuades Haines to clink glasses on a horrible deal: he will kill Hainess wife if Haines will kill Brunos rich and overbearing father. This is one of several moments when you want to shout dont do it, chum! Highsmiths genius was to see that a bad idea can sink its hook into you and soon send your life into a frightful vortex. At the start of the play, Haines seems to have everything. By the middle of the show he is in danger of losing his job, his fiancee and his freedom. The action switches from the luxurious railway carriage to Brunos family home to Hainess flat, and later the house he shares with his second wife (once the first one has been bumped off). Director Anthony Banks copes with these challenging scene changes by using sliding panels and by setting some of the more marginal scenes in boxy corners. It all looks a bit like the old TV quiz show Celebrity Squares at times, but on the whole it works. The acting is pretty good. Mr Ashton makes a handsome, taciturn Haines. Mr Harper lends Bruno a nervy campness, although scenes with his mother (Helen Anderson) push credibility at times. Hannah Tointon is a delight as Hainess new woman she plays drunkenness particularly well and John Middleton does a fine turn as a former policeman who becomes suspicious after Brunos father is shot in his bed. An almost full Theatre Royal in Brighton seemed gripped, despite much flu-ridden spluttering (the theatres stalls might as well have been a doctors clinic). Highsmith is unrelenting in cranking up the misery for the foolish Haines. We are left in no doubt about the stupidity of ever agreeing, even when drunk, to murderous schemes. Yet still we sympathise with him because Bruno is such a swine. It helps that we never see either of the murder victims. I suppose Strangers On A Train also teaches us never to fall into too matey a conversation with anyone on a long, comfortable railway journey. There is little chance of that on the uncomfortable and unreliable service which links Brighton and London but you should not entirely discount the possibility of long-suffering passengers on Thameslink or Southern Railway developing murderous thoughts. Actress Sophie Khan Levy displays impressive memory in a 70-minute solo performance as a mother, Hanna, whose baby was swapped in a maternity hospital. Hanna was 18 when the child was born, and although she noticed something was wrong (er, the infant was the wrong colour), she did not press her concerns. Three years later a DNA test proves that she and a richer, older woman were given the wrong babies by a drunk nurse. Miss Khan Levy not only remembers a long monologue but also conveys the forgiving nature of this young mum. Sam Potters tale is mildly interesting, so far as it goes, though implausible in places (a real single mum from Hemel Hempstead might be rather less fey than Hanna). Actress Sophie Khan Levy displays an impressive memory during this 70-minute solo performance as a mother, Hanna Beyond the hardly revolutionary idea that family can transcend blood ties, it is hard to discern much philosophical novelty. The evening has some sweet reflections on early parenthood but most of these seemed lost on the Arcolas audience of trendy millennials, few of whom looked old enough to have started having children. For tour details of Hanna, visit papatango. co.uk. For Strangers On A Train, see atgtickets.com Darkest Hour (PG) Verdict: V is for Very good Rating: Gary Oldman already has a Golden Globe to show for his performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, grappling with Britain's survival in that tumultuous month of May 1940, when, within days of being installed as Prime Minister, Churchill had to deal with the catastrophe of Dunkirk. Oldman has duly been installed as favourite to bag an Academy Award, as Best Actor. He's very good indeed, though I fancy I caught a hint once or twice of some estuary vowels. I also take the doubtless contentious view that Churchill is not a difficult role for a fine actor the voice, the mannerisms, the Homburg, the cigar, the famous speeches and quips, the wobbling jowls, and wobbling other bits when he strides around naked dictating telegrams . . . there's so much familiar baggage to unpack. And although I'd hate to sound a note of dissent while all the statuettes come pinging in Oldman's direction, I think the actor who did it best was Albert Finney, 16 years ago in The Gathering Storm. Gary Oldman already has a Golden Globe to show for his performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (pictured) Moreover, Ronald Pickup, as the resigning PM, Neville Chamberlain, gives a necessarily quieter, but similarly accomplished, performance in a role originally earmarked for the late John Hurt. Really, what Joe Wright's film very valuably does, is remind us just how close Britain was in May 1940, even once Churchill had stomped into No. 10, to negotiating a peace treaty with Hitler. That's what Chamberlain devoutly wants, along with the appeaser-in-chief, the Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane). Initially, they have the strong support of the King (Ben Mendelsohn), who as Anthony McCarten's sometimes fanciful script has it, is at first implacably opposed to Churchill taking the reins. That he, practically alone, had recognised the menace of Hitler counts for little with George VI. 'Even a stopped clock is right twice a day,' the King snaps. Essentially, Darkest Hour is a thriller, skilfully woven out of events to which we all know the ending. It bowls along with terrific energy, and is a much better film than the recent Churchill, which admittedly was set later in the war, but presented the great leader, as played by Brian Cox, as a borderline dementia sufferer, and Miranda Richardson's Clementine as a scold. Here, Clemmie is played, with immaculate elegance, by Kristin Scott Thomas (left). If Winston is in thrall to anyone, it's to her, especially when she admonishes him for bullying his new young secretary, Elizabeth Layton (nicely played by Lily James). He is duly contrite, and starts getting a bit gooey with pretty Miss Layton. There's a sweet scene between them when she points out that he's doing his V-for-Victory sign the wrong way round. Oldman won his first Golden Globe award after he portrayed Sir Winston in the film (pictured on the London Underground) I had a slight sense of McCarten (who also wrote The Theory Of Everything) shoehorning in some of the more celebrated Churchill one-liners, such as his cheeky message to the Lord Privy Seal when he was 'sealed on my privy'. Nor is he averse to putting actual lines in the mouths of others, such as Edward R. Murrow's marvellous observation that Churchill 'mobilised the English language and sent it into battle'. That one is given to Halifax. The movie's daftest, most whimsical scene comes when Churchill, on his way to deliver a seismic speech to the House of Commons, is forced by terrible traffic into taking the Underground. Thus, having chatted to the hoi polloi on the Tube, does he emerge empowered by the defiant will of the British people. It's corny, but it sort of works. Perhaps Theresa May should give it a whirl. Gary Oldman was having his finest week after winning Best Actor on Thursday at the Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California. The 59-year-old English actor on Sunday won his first Golden Globe for Best Actor Motion Picture Drama for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. It also was announced on Tuesday that Gary was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actor In A Leading Role for his work in the British war drama. Scroll down for video Top honor: Gary Oldman is shown after winning Best Actor at the Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday in Santa Monica, California for his work in Darkest Hour Gary won the Critics' Choice Awards in a crowded field that included Timothee Chalamet, Daniel Day Lewis, James Franco, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hanks and Daniel Kaluuya. He previously had been nominated for a Critics' Choice Award in the Best Acting Ensemble category for 2008's The Dark Knight. Gary, writer/director Rod Lurie and the cast of The Contender in 2001 won the special Alan J. Pakula Award at the Critics' Choice Awards given 'for outstanding films of social and political significance'. The award is named after the director of the Watergate drama All The President's Men. British drama: The English actor is shown as Winston Churchill in a still from Darkest Hour On stage: Elisabeth Moss presented Gary with the Best Actor award at the Barker Hangar Tough field: Gary won Best Actor in a crowded field that included Timothee Chalamet, Daniel Day Lewis, James Franco, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hanks and Daniel Kaluuya Gary whose credits include Sid And Nancy, The Professional and Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead was supported at the awards ceremony at Barker Hangar by his new wife Gisele Schmidt. They were the picture of newly-wedded bliss as glamorous Gisele lovingly placed her hand on her dapper husband's chest. The London native looked dashing in his sleek tuxedo, complete with a bow tie for the finishing touches, and tinted shades for the glitzy occasion. Newly married: Gary looked dapper as he was supported by glamorous wife Gisele Schmidt at the Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica Punk rock: Chloe Webb as Nancy Spungen and Gary as Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols are shown in a still from the 1986 movie Sid And Nancy The villain: Natalie Portman is shown opposite Gary in a still from the 1994 movie The Professional Existentialist tragicomedy: Gary, Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss are shown in a still from the 1990 tragic comedy Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead On the arm of her husband, Gisele looked divine in her shimmering floor-length gown that featured a pleated skirt to flatter her age-defying figure. Gary recently revealed that he was in character as Winston Churchill, when he proposed to his now-wife. He joked with Jimmy Kimmel this week: 'There was a break in the filming, and we had talked about it and I just felt the urge. Critically acclaimed: Gary won Best Actor at the Critics' Choice Awards for his performance as newly-appointed Winston Churchill (pictured with on-screen wife Kristin Scott Thomas) He added: 'We were down in the war rooms, and I took her into the back room. And as Winston Churchill, I said "Will you marry me?"' Kimmel cheekily asked whether he got to 'consummate' as Churchill, and Gary continued: 'It's funny you should say that because my wife has often says she went to bed with Winston Churchill but woke up with Gary Oldman.' The couple have gone from strength to strength since they exchanged vows in a romantic ceremony in California in August 2017. Darkest Hour charts the British Prime Minister's torment when he is faced with the decision to either negotiate with Hitler or to wage war against all odds during the early days of World War II. Kristin Scott Thomas plays opposite Gary as his on-screen wife Clemmie Churchill in the critically-acclaimed film. The movie itself was also up for Best Picture and Best Score as well as Best Hair and Best Makeup at the Critics' Choice Awards and won for Best Makeup. War drama: Darkest Hour charts the British Prime Minister torment as he is faced with the decision to negotiate with Hitler or to wage war against all odds Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Verdict: A modern masterpiece Rating: Martin McDonagh's pulsatingly enjoyable film is a thriller, a dissection of small-town America, and a forensic study of what makes ordinary people tick, all in one. You could add tragedy to that, and comedy. As a story of a woman raging against a male establishment, it's also timely. No wonder it arrives in our cinemas with the lavish endorsement of last weekend's Golden Globe awards, having scooped four, including one for Best Picture in the drama category. If these things were political, which they are, Three Billboards would now ride the anti-Harvey Weinstein ticket all the way to the Academy Awards. But it's a film, not a cause, with a raft of performances which match the quality of McDonagh's writing and directing (just like those of Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell in his wonderful 2008 debut feature In Bruges). Above all, it gives the great Frances McDormand her meatiest role since Fargo more than 20 years ago. She is simply magnificent as fierce, grieving, mischievous Mildred Hayes, a woman at war with the world following the rape and murder of her daughter Angela, seven months earlier. With the Ebbing police department seemingly incapable of solving the terrible crime, Mildred takes the only course she feels is open to her, scraping together the money to rent three huge, dilapidated billboards, unused since 1986, just outside town. Sam Rockwell and Frances McDormand in the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri She deploys them to shame the local police chief, Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson, also terrific). 'How come, Chief Willoughby?' screams the last of the posters, in vast letters. How come there have still been no arrests in the months since the ghastly death of her daughter? Willoughby presides over an inept and racist force, but it is typical of McDonagh's screenplay, which is anything but predictable, that the chief is himself a man of integrity, devoted to his wife and two daughters and aghast not to have caught Angela's killer. He is also dying of cancer, and appeals to Mildred to give him a break. But she is unmoved. 'Well, they wouldn't be as effective after you croak, right,' she says of the billboards. McDonagh, though a Londoner, delivers a compellingly brilliant study of the mores of Hicksville, USA. Trump's America, if you will. The good folk of Ebbing are far more outraged by the upsetting posters than by the failure to catch the killer. The local priest comes round to talk Mildred into taking them down, only to get sent away with a very angry flea in his ear. Most indignant of all is a notably stupid cop, Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), a mummy's boy (and boy, you should see mummy) beneath whose racism and brutality Chief Willoughby mystifyingly discerns a core of decency. Rockwell, another of Sunday's Golden Globe winners as Best Supporting Actor, alongside McDormand (Best Actress) and McDonagh (Best Screenplay), is outrageously brilliant as Dixon. We can all but hear the cogs in his brain turning, albeit very slowly. Somehow, he even walks like a man with a single-digit IQ, and there is a shocking scene in which he turns his pent-up fury against the town's advertising man (Caleb Landry Jones). But let me just add, without issuing any spoilers, that there are no one-dimensional characters in this film. Martin McDonagh's pulsatingly enjoyable film is a thriller, a dissection of small-town America, and a forensic study of what makes ordinary people tick, all in one, writes Brian Viner Mildred herself must grapple with the uncomfortable knowledge that she wasn't as good a mother to Angela as she might have been, not that she spares too much thought for her surviving child, Robbie (Lucas Hedges), as she wages her singular moral crusade. As if all this weren't enough, there is oodles more to relish. Mildred has a lovelorn admirer, a sad, gallant dwarf (Peter Dinklage), and an abusive ex-husband (John Hawkes) now shacked up with a pretty, dim-witted teenager (Samara Weaving) who is not quite sure of the difference between polo and polio. These secondary characters, including Clarke Peters as a senior cop who arrives in town like the righteous sheriff in a Western, facilitate some of the film's most potent flashes of wit, and also some of its most heart-rending moments of tenderness. I have only one small gripe. The Australian actress Abbie Cornish is miscast as Willoughby's wife, Anne. She's too young, too voluptuously lovely, to be entirely convincing. But it's the tiniest blemish in a modern masterpiece. Elisabeth Moss won Outstanding Actress In A Drama Series at the Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday night. The 35-year-old actress, who earned the accolade for her performance on The Handmaid's Tale, dedicated her prize to the show's crew in Toronto. In her gracious speech, Elisabeth also offered her gratitude to her family and to the critics, and declared herself the 'biggest fan' of the competitors she had beaten. Scroll down for video Speech in hand: Elisabeth Moss won Outstanding Actress In A Drama Series at the Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday night Of the behind-the-scenes team, she said: 'There's a group of people back in Toronto, and I work with them 60 to 80 hours a week, every day, all day, every single department.' While delivering her speech - which went on long enough that the music began before it was over - the Scientologist also took time to praise Bruce Miller. Bruce, who created The Handmaid's Tale as a show, was in the crowd and was visibly moved when she vaunted his combination of 'success and kindness' from the stage. She also expressed her thankfulness for Bruce's 'empowering' decision to elevate her to the position of producer on the series. Gratitude: The 35-year-old actress, who earned the accolade for her performance on The Handmaid's Tale, dedicated her prize to the show's crew in Toronto On the way up: In her gracious speech, Elisabeth also offered her gratitude to her family and to the critics, and declared herself the 'biggest fan' of the competitors she had beaten That evening, the other nominees in Elisabeth's category were Viola Davis for How To Get Away With Murder, Claire Foy for The Crown, Evan Rachel Wood for Westworld, Keri Russell for The Americans and Robin Wright for House Of Cards. The Handmaid's Tale, a Hulu series, is based on Margaret Atwood's iconic 1985 novel about a brutally patriarchal society on land where the United States used to be. At Thursday night's Critics' Choice Awards, which are being held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, the show racked up four nominations and three wins. In addition to Elisabeth's nod-turned-victory, the program also won Outstanding Drama Series, a prize accepted by Bruce. Adaptation: The Handmaid's Tale, a Hulu series, is based on Margaret Atwood's iconic 1985 novel about a brutally patriarchal society on land where the United States used to be Third time's a charm: Elisabeth's leading performance as Offred also won her a Golden Globe Award last Sunday, as well as an Emmy Award last year Its fellow nominees in that category were The Crown, House Of Cards, Stranger Things, Better Call Saul, Westworld and This Is Us. Two actresses on the show, Samira Wiley and Ann Dowd, were nominated against each other in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series. Ann went on to win. Elisabeth's leading performance as June Osborne a.k.a. Offred also won her a Golden Globe Award last Sunday, as well as an Emmy Award last year. Bow-tied: The Handmaid's Tale also won Outstanding Drama Series, a trophy that was collected by the show's creator Bruce Miller (front) Doubled up: Ann Dowd (pictured) won Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series, having been nominated against her co-star Samira Wiley The Australian actress is known for her chic and often conservative, sartorial choices. And Abbie Cornish flaunted her star appeal at the annual Critics' Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday night. The 35-year-old star made a stylish entrance by providing a hint of cleavage in a glamorous floor-length gown by Tommy Hilfiger. Busting out! Actress Abbie Cornish looks sensational in glamorous cleavage-baring gown at Critics' Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday The Candy star highlighted her enviable curves in the figure-hugging frock covered in diamantes. Leaving her decolletage bare, the plunging cut gave an unrestricted view of her ample assets. The elegant dress had sheer sleeves attached, which showcased her slender arms. Peek-a-boob! Leaving her decolletage bare, the plunging cut gave an unrestricted view of thr Australian stunner's ample assets Her long blonde locks were worn out for the awards ceremony, with Abbie styling them in glamorous waves. Abbie, also known by her rapper stage name Dusk, completed the outfit with a pair of black strappy heels and simple silver jewellery. She enhanced her striking facial features with a flawless complexion, defined brows, lashings of mascara and a soft nude lip. Blonde beauty! The Sucker Punch star highlighted her enviable curves in the figure-hugging frock covered in diamantes While she wasn't nominated for an award, her film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was nominated in four categories. Abbie was nominated within the 'Best Acting Ensemble' category with her co-stars, with the film also up for Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is in Australian cinemas now She is known for looking preened to perfection at red carpet events. But Jorgie Porter proved she can nail casual dressing too, as she attended Chris Rock's celebrity gala on the opening night of his UK tour at Manchester Arena. The former Hollyoaks actress, 30, kept it cool in a cream sweater but amped up the glamour with sexy PVC trousers as she joined Coronation Street star Brooke Vincent for a night of comedy on Thursday. Scroll down for video Looking good: Jorgie Porter proved she can nail casual dressing too, as she attended Chris Rock's celebrity gala on the opening night of his UK tour at Manchester Arena on Thursday Letting her statement trousers do all the talking, Jorgie added height to her diminutive frame with a chic pair of peep-toe booties. Styling her golden tresses in tousled curls, she framed her eyes with lashings of mascara and plumped her pout with taupe lipgloss. Brooke, meanwhile, kept things casual in a black aviator jacket and simple skinny jeans. The 25-year-old soap star injected a dose of quirky glamour to the look with an eye-catching pair of Stella McCartney star-print flatforms. Chic: The former Hollyoaks actress, 30, kept it cool in a cream sweater but amped up the glamour with sexy PVC trousers Turning heads: She was joined by Coronation Street star Brooke Vincent, 25, who flaunted her recent weight loss in a black aviator jacket, skinny jeans and Stella McCartney flatforms Hats off to her! She injected a dose of Nineties cool to her look with an on-trend black baker boy hat The Manchester Arena played host the opening of Chris Rocks Total Blackout U.K. Tour on Thursday evening. Coronation Streets leading ladies laughed throughout the evening, arriving looking fierce at the exclusive VIP Gala event prior to the opening of the show. Gaz Beadle was also in attendance, and was no doubt kept a close eye in case his pregnant girlfriend Emma McVey at home had any sudden news. They're a long way away from the cobbles! Coronation Street stars Lucy Fallon (L) and Nicola Thorp kept things casual at the bash All the gang! Corrie actresses Dolly Rose Campbell, Victoria Ekanoye, Brooke Vincent, Bhavna Limbachia and Julia Goulding stopped for a sweet group photo Purple reign: Dolly Rose Campbell, who plays Gemma Winter on the soap, looked glamorous in a suede wrap dress Jorgie, who shot to fame as Theresa McQueen in Channel 4's Hollyoaks, recently admitted she was planning on relocating to the States for a fresh start. After a visit to the West Coast in August, she told The Sun: 'I'm moving back to LA at some point.' She continued: 'I'm not pressuring myself into getting a job, I never want to think like that. I love England so I want to come back and do stuff here. 'I'm not going to say I want to crack Hollywood or anything like that because I want to do as much stuff as I can over here too.' The move will no doubt be something she needs to discuss with rumoured new man Philip Parker, however, as she was recently spotted packing on the PDA with the hunk after they met on Celebs Go Dating earlier this year. Father-to-be: Geordie Shore's Gary Beadle was also in attendance, and was no doubt kept a close eye in case his pregnant girlfriend Emma McVey at home had any sudden news Having a whale of a time! Corrie star Dean Fagan appeared to be in great spirits on the night Man of the hour! Comedian Chris Rock entertained the crowds with a typically animated performance Olivia Munn offered a tongue-in-cheek toast to men on Thursday while hosting the Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California. The 37-year-old actress was joined by Niecy Nash, 47, for a Toast To The Good Guys segment at the awards ceremony held at the Barker Hanger. The ironic toast was made in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal that rocked Hollywood. Scroll down for video Toast roast: Olivia Munn and Niecy Nash made a Toast To The Good Guys on Thursday during the Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California 'We'd like to make a toast to all the good guys in Hollywood,' Olivia started as she thanked Hollywood executives who held meetings in hotel conference rooms instead of bedrooms. Niecy offered a toast to 'male casting directors who never said anything derogatory'. 'Hey, way to be regular human beings, guys! Good job,' Olivia deadpanned. Niecy then offered another toast saying, 'Thank you to all the men for speaking up at the Golden Globes'. Hosting debut: The 37-year-old actress made her debut as an awards show host 'They didn't actually say much there,' Olivia interjected about the awards ceremony on Sunday in Beverly Hills, California. Olivia then said, 'I do want to say thank you to the producers for paying Niecy and I the same amount of money and Mark Wahlberg a million bucks'. 'Say what?,' Niecy said. Pay disparity: Olivia and Niecy mocked the pay disparity in Hollywood Moms too: Niecy and Olivia also toasted the mothers of the good guys out there 'I know, he took a pay cut. It was really nice and generous of him. Thank you so much,' Olivia said. Olivia then offered another toast 'to all the mommas that raise them. To you, too'. The actresses were referencing the recent revelation that Wahlberg was paid over 1,000 times more than co-star Michelle Williams for reshoots on All The Money In The World. Opening monologue: Olivia opened the show pointing out Hollywood stars in the audience at Barker Hangar Designer outfit: The Oklahoma native wore a floral print ensemble from the Monique Lhuillier Spring 2018 ready-to-wear collection while toasting 'The Good Guys' Outfit change: The host during the awards ceremony later changed into a short colorful dress Upon arrival: Olivia arrived at the awards ceremony in a long red dress The film's director Ridley Scott did extensive reshoots of the film to replace Kevin Spacey who was accused of sexual harassment and assault amid the Weinstein fallout. Olivia started the show giving a birthday shout-out and rapping as she made her debut as an awards show host. The actress in a long-sleeved white polka dot gown welcomed the Hollywood luminaries in attendance at the event. Gorgeous gown: The Newsroom star wore a long white polka dot gown to start the show She called out Guillermo Del Tor, Gal Gadot, Angelina Jolie, Christopher Nolan, her 'former boss' Aaron Sorkin and Jessica Chastain in the crowd. 'We have a birthday girl in the house Mary J. Blige. She also got her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame today. So happy happy birthday,' Olivia said. She also asked for applause for the critics in the audience. 'I know a lot of people say they don't care what critics say, but I do,' Olivia admitted. 'You deserve a big musical number to open your awards show. So get ready for confetti, a gospel choir and Jay Pharoah'. Backup plan: Jay Pharaoh joined Olivia on stage at the start of the show Former Saturday Night Live star Jay, 30, then joined Olivia onstage and told her: 'We don't have none of that, go to plan B'. Jay then revealed that the backup plan was for both of them to rap. A keytar electronic keyboard was slung over Olivia who told Jay: 'I don't rap'. Rap time: Olivia and Jay as part of the backup plan both rapped Jay started with a smooth rap and then handed off to Olivia. 'Yeah to the critics, some of you might be arthritics, hope you're not anti-Semitic and definitely not syphillitc because that kills people,' Olivia rapped. 'Bars. Bam,' Jay said after her rap. High praise: Jay said 'bars' after Olivia's rap 'Why are you saying bars,' Olivia asked. 'That's what black people say when something is dope. Welcome to the community,' Jay said. Olivia then handed things off to Jay to present the first award for Best Comedy Movie. Fan favorite: Olivia has been a fan favorite since co-hosting Attack of the Show! in 2006 The Newsroom star later wore a bright red cap and white bonnet as she shouted out to The Handmaid's Tale star Elisabeth Moss to sign her headwear. Elisabeth, 35, laughed from her seat in the audience. The critics awarded Elisabeth with Best Actress in a Drama Series for her work in The Handmaid's Tale. Good one: Olivia wore a red cape and bonnet and asked The Handmaid's Tale star Elisabeth Moss to sign her headwear Hit show: The host had fun with her The Handmaid's Tale costume Olivia also poked fun at the critically acclaimed black comedy I, Tonya starring Best Actress winner Margot Robbie, 27, as figure skater Tonya Harding. She took part in a spoof trailer showing her as Tonya's skating rival Nancy Kerrigan for the fictional movie I, Nancy. Olivia wore a white ice-skating outfit and had her dark hair pulled back while portraying Nancy who was the victim of a 1994 attack ahead of the 1994 Winter Olympics. Spoof trailer: Olivia also took part in a spoof trailer for I, Nancy that played off the black comedy I, Tony starring Best Actress winner Margot Robbie Ice skater: The actress took on the role of Nancy Kerrigan in the trailer Brutal attack: The trailer featured Nancy who was the victim of a brutal attack ahead of the 1994 Winter Olympics That's funny: I, Tonya star and Best Actress winner Margot Robbie laughed at the spoof trailer Nancy took to Twitter and gave her approval as she posted: 'Loved @oliviamunn. She can play me anytime.' The Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists Association announced on January 3 that Munn would host their annual gala. Olivia can be seen later this year on the big screen in Ocean's 8, X-Men: Dark Phoenix and Dick Move. Loved it: Nancy took to Twitter and said that Olivia could play her anytime Nicole Kidman has thanked 'all of her children' after taking home Best Actress in a Limited Series for her role in Big Little Lies at the Critics' Choice Award in Los Angeles on Thursday evening. It comes after the actress was criticised for failing to mention her two adopted children, Isabella and Connor with ex-Tom Cruise, at the Golden Globes on Monday. 'I want to thank all of my children who show me so much love,' she said during her acceptance speech on Thursday. There it is! Nicole Kidman wins Best Actress for her role in Big Little Lies at the Critics' Choice Awards and dedicates award to 'all of her children' after failing to mention Isabella and Connor Cruise at the Globes 'I wanna thank all of my children who show me so much love': Nicole paid tribute to her four children Nicole has two daughters with husband with Keith Urban, Sunday Rose, nine, and Faith Margaret, seven. She also has two adopted children from her previous marriage to Tom Cruise, Isabella, 25, and Connor, 22. In her speech, the Queen of Hollywood added: 'I love being an actor. Thank you for letting me do it all the way through to this age and beyond. It really is an incredible honor.' Queen of Hollywood! The Critics' Choice Award was another big win for Nicole, who has also won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her part in Big Little Lies Team player! Nicole also paid gushing tribute to her Big Little Lies co-stars as she took to the stage She also paid gushing tribute to her Big Little Lies co-stars, stating: 'Every actor in this room knows you are only as good as the other actors you work with'. The series, which co-stars Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern, also won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Limited Series. While taking to the stage, Nicole stunned in a bright pink gown which featured beading and ruffled detailing. Family ties: Nicole's two daughters with Keith are Sunday Rose, nine, and Faith Margaret, seven Way back when: Nicole and Tom with Connor and Isabella in the late 1990s At Sunday's Golden Globes, Nicole gushed about daughters Sunday and Faith during her acceptance speech. And despite touching the crowd with her heartfelt words, some fans criticised the actress for failing to mention Isabella and Connor. The 50-year-old additionally paid glowing tribute to husband Keith Urban, her mother Janelle and sister Antonia. Acclaim: The series, which co-stars Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern, also won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Limited Series. All eyes on her! Nicole looked thrilled to be at the awards show in Los Angeles Besties! Both Nicole and Reese co-produced Big Little Lies together Another win! Nicole stunned in a bright pink gown which featured beading and ruffled detailing Girl power: Nicole cosied up with Laura and Reese The veteran actress accepted the ceremony's first honour and acknowledged how early in the evening her accolade was presented. 'First cab off the rank, yikes. Thanks. That means my daughters are still awake so Sunny, Faith, I love you, I'm bringing this home to you babies,' she gushed. It has been speculated that the reason behind her inability to talk about Connor and Isabella is due to her divorce from Cruise. 'Sunny, Faith, I love you, I'm bringing this home': Nicole had previously gushed about her two youngest daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret, during her Golden Globes acceptance speech at the star-studded awards ceremony on Sunday Oldest children: The Hollywood star did not mention her older adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise, Isabella, 25, and Connor, 22, in her Globes speech (pictured in 2004) Tom is a member of the Church of Scientology, and both Connor and Isabella are believed to still be with the church. It has been reported that when a Scientologist leaves, they are often cut off from their families and labelled a 'suppressive person' or 'SP.' An 'SP' is a 'Suppresive Person', a term reportedly given to former members of the church of Scientology, generally indicating they've been 'cut off' from their family. Golden girl! The veteran actress accepted the ceremony's first honour and acknowledged how early in the evening her accolade was presented Fans quick to criticise Nicole for her alleged 'snub' need only look back to hard-hitting 2015 documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. In it, director Alex Gibney implied the faith drove a wedge between the Australian actress and her older children. The Church of Scientology has since denied the claims, however, while Nicole has previously refuted speculation the religion prompted a divide between her and her kids. 'I've chosen not to speak publicly about Scientology,' she told Vogue in 2015. 'I have two children who are Scientologists - Connor and Isabella - and I utterly respect their beliefs.' "Someday these two will be included in a Nicole Kidman acceptance speech,' quipped one Twitter user following the speech She was recently the subject of rumors she was romancing a Cambodian filmmaker - speculation that has since been shot down by an insider. But Angelina Jolie was certain to turn plenty of heads as she attended the Critics' Choice Awards on Wednesday in a stunning white feathered dress that put her multiple back tattoos on display. The actress, 42, cut a heavenly figure as she mingled with fellow stars inside the show as she supported her film First They Killed My Father, which had been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. Simply stunning! Angelina Jolie was certain to turn plenty of heads as she attended the Critics' Choice Awards on Wednesday in a stunning white feathered dress that put her multiple tattoos on display Tatt's enough! Jolie's feathered dress showcased her numerous back tattoos Angelina looked absolutely divine in her stunning all-white look that she teamed with silvery velvet high heels that strapped around her ankle. She injected a pop of color to her heavenly look with her hot pink lipstick and matching shade of nail polish. The star looked to be having a ball as she enjoyed herself inside the show, munching on a snack. The actress even helped make the day of Critics' Choice Award winner Brooklynn Prince, giving the young actress a warm embrace. Snack time! The star looked to be having a ball as she enjoyed herself inside the show, munching on a snack Looking divine! Angelina looked heavenly in her stunning all-white look that she teamed with silvery velvet high heels that strapped around her ankle Hugs: The actress even helped make the day of Critics' Choice Award winner Brooklynn Prince, giving the young actress a warm embrace Angelina is the director of First They Killed My Father, which ultimately lost to In The Fade. The critically acclaimed star has not dated anyone since splitting from Brad Pitt in 2016. Now an Angelina insider is taking steps to squash rumors that she's seeing Cambodian filmmaker and lyricist PraCh Ly. Nominated: Angelina is the director of First They Killed My Father, which ultimately lost to In The Fade Star-studded! Jolie shared the spotlight with Adam Sandler and Ted Sarandos A source told People on Thursday that the rapper 'is a friend' and the actress 'respects his work.' The source added: 'She isn't dating anyone and won't be for a very long time. She is focused on her children and their needs.' Angelina met Ly, 38, through Loung Ung, a human rights activist and the author of the book behind her new Netflix movie, First They Killed My Father, according to Gossip Cop. They attended events in Cambodia together, but nothing more, the website said. Single life: The critically acclaimed star not dated anyone since splitting from Brad Pitt in 2016 They will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary this year and Kate Bosworth and Michael Polish still seem to be in the honeymoon phase. The actress, 35, and the producer, 47, put on a loving as well as very stylish show as they arrived for the Critics Choice Awards in LA on Thursday night. And Bosworth even wore a seemingly bridal-inspired white lace gown for the occasion that showcased her model-like figure. Scroll down for video Couple goals: Kate Bosworth, 35, and Michael Polish, 47, put on a very stylish show as they arrived for the Critics Choice Awards in LA on Thursday night The full-length gown from the Brock Collection had long sleeves and a round neck with embellished neckline. It also featured a giant white lace bow accent on one side. She accentuated her cheekbones by pulling her hair back from her face in a sophisticated up do and adding dark blush. She wore stunning diamond chandelier earrings and colored her lips a lush dark red. So in love: They will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary this year but the couple still seem to be in the honeymoon phase Gorgeous: Bosworth wore a seemingly bridal-inspired white lace gown with long sleeves and an embellished neckline that showcased her model-like figure Flawless: She wore her hair back from her face in a sophisticated updo and added stunning diamond chandelier earrings and a lush dark red lip color Polish clearly couldn't take his eyes off his gorgeous wife as they posed for photos. He looked dapper in a black two piece suit with a crisp white shirt and a black tie. It was a working night for Bosworth, however. During the televised show, she appeared on stage with The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus to present one of the awards. Job to do: It was a working night for Bosworth, however. During the televised show, she appeared on stage with The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus to present one of the awards She is one of Victoria's Secrets most famous brand Angels. And Alessandra Ambrosio showed off her impeccable physique in a burgundy polka dot bikini while on a beach in Praia Brava, Brazil, on Thursday. The 36-year-old model seemed to be having fun soaking up the sun as she shared a relaxing photo of herself drinking up a pina colada, via her Instagram account. Fun in the sun: Alessandra Ambrosio showed off her impeccable physique in a burgundy polka dot bikini while on a beach in Praia Brava, Brazil, on Thursday Alessandra captioned her photo using the lyrics of Rupert Holmes' song 'Escape'. The mother-of-two wrote alongside her beach photo: 'If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain'. Alessandra held up an artistic looking pineapple, which was garnished with smaller fruits and finished off with a straw. The Brazilian beauty kept cool underneath a straw fedora hat, which she fashionably teamed with black designer sunglasses. Beachy: The 36-year-old model seemed to be having fun soaking up the sun as she shared a relaxing photo of herself drinking up a pina colada, on her Instagram account At night, Alessandra also posted a photo of herself with a group of her girlfriends while they were at dinner. The 32-year-old wrote: 'Under the moonlight' along with multiple star emojis. Alessandra's Brazilian trip comes after her big announcement that she was leaving Victoria's Secret. The supermodel has been a model for the company for almost two decades- her most recent work was walking in the brand's annual fashion show in Shanghai, China. Girl's Night Out: At night, Alessandra also posted a photo of herself with a group of her girlfriends while they were at dinner Confirming the rumors via her Instagram page, she wrote: 'Words cannot describe how grateful I am to have been working for this amazing brand that inspires me and women all over the world. 'In my wildest dreams I would have never imagined doing 17 Victorias Secret Fashion Shows. Thank you Ed, and all my Victorias Secret family for making these memories unforgettable. 'Last night was so emotional to say goodbye to my angel sisters but we put on the biggest and best show ever. I could not have done this without all the love and support from my fans. Peace out: Alessandra's Brazilian trip comes after her big announcement that she was leaving Victoria's Secret 'It gives me great pride to be part the Victorias Secret movement! I will always be cheering for you! Love you forever.' The model kicked off her fashion career at the tender age of 12, and went on to appear in her first show for the lingerie brand in 2000. In the 2008 edition of the show, the mother-of-two famously returned to the runway just three months after giving birth to her first child, daughter Anja. She was selected to wear the coveted 'Fantasy Bra' on two occasions; modelling a $2.5 million version in 2012 and joining fellow Brazilian bombshell Adriana Lima, 36, to showcase the Dream Angels Fantasy Bras, worth $2 million apiece, in 2014. The model raises daughter Anja and son Noah with businessman fiance Jamie Mazur, 36, to whom she has been engaged to since 2008. Stars and punters are set to mingle at the Summer's premiere party on Saturday. That's if their outfit meets the Portsea Polo's notoriously strict dress code requirements. Luckily, Bachelorette winner and Polo veteran Lee Elliott teamed with stylists to give attendees a do's and don't guide in an interview with news.com.au. 'If you'd see it at a nightclub, don't even consider it': Lee Elliott and leading fashion experts have shared tips to on how to meet Portsea Polo's notoriously strict dress code 'If youd see it at a nightclub, dont even consider wearing it to the polo,' the professional plumber and amateur fashionista said. He'll be front and centre with Bachelorette Georgia Love and best-mate Cam Cranley at the ticketed Casa Amuk marquee on Saturday. Lee joked to the publication he'd attended too many Portsea Polo's at Point Nepean National Park to count. The hunk, whose tip for the guys is to pair white chinos with a crisp primary coloured shirt and a blazer, noted the dress code is more forgiving for men. 'Don't': 'If youd see it at a nightclub, dont even consider wearing it to the polo,' the professional plumber and amateur fashionista told reporters this week 'Boys can have a lot more fun with what they wear to the polo chinos, shorts, shirts, a tie if they want, and accessorise. Its a lot more relaxed,' he said. The Portsea Polo's in-house stylists echo similar sentiments, while practically everyone insists: 'don't even think about stilettos!' See ya there! He'll be front and centre with Bachelorette Georgia Love and best-mate Cam Cranley at the ticketed Casa Amuk marquee on Saturday 'For the ladies flowing dresses and wedges or sandals are the norm (heels best left at home),' the event's website offers. 'A summer hat or accessory can be an excellent way to finish off an outfit.' In addition to Lee's advice, they add: 'Loafers or boat shoes achieves a polished yet casual look for the day. Sunglasses are a must-have accessory in sunny Portsea.' Men have it easy! The hunk, whose tip for the guys is to pair white chinos with a crisp primary coloured shirt and a blazer, noted the dress code is more forgiving for men (pictured Anna Heinrich and Tim Robards) Meanwhile, Thurley's Helen OConnor warned told News Corp that women still need to tread carefully and not expose 'too much skin.' She added: 'Dont get mislead by the beachside location, beachwear is not appropriate and nor is embellished evening wear.' No heels! The Portsea Polo's in-house stylists echo similar sentiments, while practically everyone insists: 'don't even think about stilettos!' Thigh's the limit! Meanwhile, Thurley's Helen OConnor warned that women still need to tread carefully and not expose 'too much skin' (pictured Nadia Bartel and Bec Judd) Shift away: Helen also predicted a shift away from the event's unofficial white dress code, in favour of pastels (pictured Chris and Bec Judd) Helen also predicted a shift away from the event's unofficial white dress code, in favour of pastels. If punters can meet those requirements, they'll be able to mingle with the likes of Chris and Bec Judd, should they somehow gain entry to their Jaggard fitness marquee. Other celebrities in attendance will include Offspring's Asher Keddie, Nadia Bartel, Brooke Hogan and if the stars align, Shane Warne. Dakota Fanning sizzled in a red dress on Thursday at a screening of The Alienist in Los Angeles. The 23-year-old actress posed up a storm, flanked by her co-stars Luke Evans and Daniel Bruhl at the event held at The Paramount Lot in Hollywood. The 10-episode series will premiere on January 22 on TNT. Scroll down for video Smashing in scarlet: The Alienist held a premiere in Los Angeles on Thursday attended by its leading lady Dakota Fanning Dakota let her blonde hair cascade freely over her shoulders and accentuated her movie star features with a low-key makeup job. Luke, 38, modeled an exquisitely fitted charcoal suit with black tie, complementing the look with a pair of glinting wine-colored shoes. Goodbye Lenin star Daniel, who is 39, was feeling blue in a powder blue shirt beneath a midnight blue suit and a navy tie. Earlier that day, cast members of The Alienist sat for a panel discussion at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Los Angeles. Troika of talent: The 23-year-old sizzled in a sleeveless scarlet gown while posing up a storm, flanked by her co-stars Luke Evans (right) and Daniel Bruhl (left) A rose between...: Dakota shared a joke with her co-stars Keeping it simple: Dakota let her blonde hair cascade freely over her shoulders, accenting her movie star features with a low-key makeup job Aglow: She had clasped on a barely perceptible necklace What a laugh: The movie stars enjoyed a joke at the event between posing for photos Showing off her taut figure in a pleated white crop top, Dakota took the center seat with Luke and Daniel at either side of her. Dakota, whose younger sister is The Beguiled star Elle Fanning, wore her blonde hair down and clashed her top with a pair of pinstriped trousers. She added a pop of color to the look with a pair of deep red platform stilettos. Meanwhile, Luke - whose high-profile acting gigs include the second two parts of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy and the new live-action version of Beauty And The Beast - looked hunky as ever in a simple outfit. Dakot-HA! The jolly starlet was seen in hysterics as she enjoyed the glam event What a trio: That day Dakota had also posed with Daniel and Luke at the TCA Winter Press Tour in Los Angeles on Thursday So stylish: Dakota, whose younger sister is The Beguiled star Elle Fanning, wore her blonde hair down and clashed her top with a pair of pinstriped trousers Personality: She added a pop of color to the look with a pair of deep red platform stilettos Having a ball: The actors also all sat for a panel at the press tour to plug their show He folded up the sleeves of his checked shirt to show off his toned forearms, and teamed a pair of walnut brown trousers with even darker brown boots. The Pontypool native had left a few buttons of his top undone, accessorizing iwth a watch round his right wrist. Daniel slipped into navy trousers that complemented his dark blue sweater, coordinating brown boots with a brown coat. Cheery dispositions: Dakota and Luke grinned as Daniel gestured broadly Party of five: At each edge of the panel was an executive producer - besuited Jakob Verbruggen on one end and the red-and-black-clad Rosalie Swedlin on the other Matching it all up: Daniel had slipped into navy trousers that complemented his dark blue sweater, coordinating brown boots with a brown coat Premise: Created by Cary Fukunaga, The Alienist is an adaptation of Caleb Carr's 1994 crime novel, which is set in 1890s New York City At each edge of the panel was an executive producer - besuited Jakob Verbruggen on one end and the red-and-black-clad Rosalie Swedlin on the other. The three present members of the cast also stood for a photo together, each of them aiming smoldering stares at the camera. Created by Cary Fukunaga, The Alienist is an adaptation of Caleb Carr's 1994 crime novel, which is set in 1890s New York City. Star ascendant: Luke - whose high-profile acting gigs include =the new live-action version of Beauty And The Beast - looked hunky as ever in a simple outfit He folded up the sleeves of his checked shirt to show off his toned forearms, and teamed a pair of walnut brown trousers with even darker brown boots Mic'ed up: The Pontypool native had left a few buttons of his top undone, accessorizing iwth a watch round his right wrist She's the Australian supermodel who recently shared her support of Oprah's stunning speech at the Golden Globes. But on Friday, Megan Gale, 42, took to Instagram to share a win a little closer to home - when she managed to get both her children, newborn Rosie and three-year-old River, to sleep at the same time. Taking to her popular page, the makeup-free beauty beamed as she sat in her bedroom with newborn Rosie nestled in her lap. Sleeping beauties! Mother-of-two Megan Gale, 42, took to Instagram on Friday to celebrateher children , Rosie, and son River, 3, getting to sleep at the same time She captioned the image,'when both kids are asleep at the same time,' adding the smiling/clapping and party hat emoijis. The brunette beauty - whose shares her children with Richmond Tigers player Shaun Hampson, 29, - hasn't been shy about sharing her experience of motherhood with fans, taking to social media in a string of posts. When Rosie was born in October, Megan shared a tender black-and-white picture of the newborn sitting on her chest along with a heartfelt caption. Bonding: Earlier in the day, the model took to social media to share a tender moment with newborn Rosie 'We haven't known each other that long but she parties way harder than me,' she joked. 'When she's had too much, she just does a huge vom and keeps going ... What a machine.' She also revealed that the name Rosie was a nod to her grandmother, Rosella, with the baby's second names also taken from family members. Baby love: She often takes to social media to update fans on motherhood 'Rosie is a nod to my Nana (Dad's Mum, Rosella), May is my Mum's name, Dee is Shaun's Mum's name and obviously Hampson, the family name from Tom, Shaun's Dad,' the brunette beauty said on Instagram. More recently, Megan voiced her support for Oprah's speech at the Golden Globes - which centred on the Time's Up and #MeToo movements. 'Just when we thought we couldn't love Oprah any more,' she wrote under an image of iconic Oprah, adding the hashtags #whataspeech #nailedit #oprahforpresident @oprah. 'She parties way harder than me': Megan recently shared this snap of herself snoozing with Rosie, while jocularly comparing the baby to a friend who parties too much Adding her own voice to the movement, Megan criticised fashion magazines and news websites for focussing upon the outfits worn on the red carpet instead of the women wearing them. 'Today in Hollywood women are taking a stand by wearing black and trying to send a powerful message and showing a united front,' she started. 'Yet, despite all of that, these same women are still getting held up, compared, critiqued and picked apart for their fashion choices. I just don't get it. He is forging his 'dream career' in the States as a showbiz presenter on Extra. And Mark Wright continued his streak of superstar interviews on Thursday as he chatted to fellow-Brit Hugh Grant about his new movie Paddington 2, however the esteemed actor left the TOWIE star red-faced when he branded him 'riff-raff'. The 31-year-old reality star not only touched on their contrasting regional accents yet he also confused his adoring fans when he told Hugh: 'I'm from London' - despite launching his entire career off the back of his Essex origins. Mark soared to fame as the divisive Lothario during TOWIE's 2010 inauguration, as viewers watched him juggle romances with girlfriend of 10-years and later fiancee Lauren Goodger, Sam Faiers and Lucy Mecklenburgh. While he departed a year later following the third season, he went on to dabble in TV work including spin-off show Mark Wright's Hollywood Nights, a stint on I'm A Celeb, a hosting job on Take Me Out: The Gossip before he scooped his Extra role last year. Having interviewed stars including Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige and Liam Neeson, his latest celebrity chat was with Hugh, with whom he tried to bond over their UK roots however the A-lister was quick to point out the glaring differences. Mark, who has been born and bred in the glam home county, said: 'Now Hugh, I'm from London too. But we speak a little different. I'd say people from my neck of the woods would say you speak like a royal compared to me right?' Shocking: Mark Wright continued his streak of superstar interviews on Thursday as he chatted to fellow-Brit Hugh Grant about new movie Paddington 2, however the esteemed actor left the TOWIE star red-faced when he branded him 'riff-raff' Londoner? The 31-year-old reality star not only touched on their contrasting regional accents yet he also confused his adoring fans when he told Hugh: 'I'm from London' - despite launching his entire career off of his Essex origins Ladies man: Mark soared to fame as the divisive Lothario during TOWIE's 2010 inauguration, as viewers watched him juggle romances with girlfriend of 10-years and later fiancee Lauren Goodger (third, right), Sam Faiers (second, right) and Lucy Mecklenburgh (second, left) Way back when: While he departed a year later following the third season, he went on to dabble in TV work including spin-off show Mark Wright's Hollywood Nights, a stint on I'm A Celeb, a hosting job on Take Me Out: The Gossip before he scooped his Extra role last year What a guy: Having interviewed stars including Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige and Liam Neeson, his latest celebrity chat was with Hugh, with whom he tried to bond over their UK roots however the A-lister was quick to point out the differences were cast Hugh however was less convinced, as he responded: 'You're riff raff. It's nice of me to talk to you at all' - after which Mark could not help guffawing. As Mark shared a clip from the interview with his 1.4million Instagram followers, fans soon swarmed the comments section to comment on the chat. Users pointed out the change in his accent: 'Not so much an Essex boy these days... Mark that posh accent has to go why when people go America do they choose to talk completely different... bring out your inner riff raff... 'That new posh accent is crazy... haha your posh voice... what has happened to marks Essex accent? He sounds so different?!' Hilarious: Mark, who has been born and bred in the glam home county, said: 'Now Hugh, I'm from London too. But we speak a little different. I'd say people from my neck of the woods would say you speak like a royal compared to me right?' An Essex boy at heart: Users pointed out the change in his accent: 'Not so much an Essex boy these days... Mark that posh accent has to go why when people go America do they choose to talk completely different... bring out your inner riff raff' Sounds like a royal: Shortly before the interview, Mark spoke to Telegraph about his voice and why he had changed his accent to fit in when he ventured to the States Shortly before the interview, Mark spoke to Telegraph about his voice and why he had changed his accent to fit in when he ventured to the States. He said: 'I just wanted to match the show. Its already different enough that they have a UK guy, so I didnt want to change the style, it wouldnt work. I decided to have elocution lessons, theres no denying it. 'They were to speak more clearly, slowly, and less regional. Its easy for us to understand different American accents because we grew up watching American cartoons and movies, but they find the UK accent hard.' She's the genetically-blessed Bachelor winner, who is most commonly sighted sunning herself on the shores of Bondi. But it was a case of rain, rain go away for Anna Heinrich, 31, who battled wet weather while promoting the 2018 Alfa Romeo Portsea Polo event on Friday. Smiling through gritted teeth, the leggy model remained graceful and composed, as rain fell on her perfectly coiffed blonde locks. Scroll down for video Don't rain on my parade! Bachelor winner Anna Heinrich, 31, was forced to battle wet weather while promoting the Alfa Romeo Portsea Polo event on Friday Posing next to a red helicopter and two polo players on horseback, the reality TV star smiled and laughed, shrugging her shoulders, while flaunting her pearly white teeth and flawless figure. The blonde lifestyle blogger opting for a Forever New blue-and-white playsuit, which tied-up at the front and has feature cut-outs, along with a pair of strappy white heels. Like water off a duck's back, Anna took the less-than-ideal situation with good humour, uploading a behind-the-scenes video to Instagram, with the sarcastic comment,'Perfect conditions for a quick shoot.' Composed: Ever the professional, the reality show winner remained composed and graceful as rain fell on her perfectly coiffed blonde locks The former reality star then adding the hashtags, #PortseaPolo and #rainraingoaway. The video quickly gained interest with fans of the event ambassador, with one Instagram user writing, 'Poor thing so awkes [Awkward],' while referring to the rain, while another added, 'what sh** conditions.' However, good-natured Anna wasn't the only one to get caught out by the rain, with fellow ambassadors at this year's event, model Ellie Gonsalves and stylist Shaun Birley, also battling the poor conditions. Daring: Also serving as an ambassador for the event this year is model Ellie Gonsalves, who opted for a cleavage-baring ASILIO outfit Model Ellie, 26, wearing a red-and-white stripe, one-shouldered, cleavage-baring ASILIO outfit. The brunette beauty accessorising with a pair of gold statement earring by Christine Accessories, and white Louboutins, with floral detail on the soles. Meanwhile, stylist Shaun opted for a simple look with a blue pattern suit, paired with a white shirt and a pair of clear brown circular sunglasses. Gents style: Meanwhile, male style ambassador is stylist and social media star Shaun Birley The trio replaces Victoria's Secret model Shanina Shaik, who was ambassador at last year's event. Despite the predicted poor weather, the event is expected to bring a number of TV personalities, WAGs and sporting names. The high-class event is held at the Point Nepean National Park, Portsea, and features fashion awards and DJs and offers private marquees, and a range of exclusive VIP areas. Wet and wild: The trio battled wet weather but it appears Anna Heinrich caught the brunt of it during her solo shoot The look: The trio replace Victoria's Secret model Shanina Shaik, who served as ambassador for the event last year Model citizens: Model Ellie Gonsalves and stylist Shaun Birley appeared together in Melbourne before heading to Portsea before the event, which is held on Saturday Dry land: Last year, Bachelor winner Anna, 31, posed with her Bachelor fiance, Tim Robards, at the event She's no stranger to the Hollywood awards season, having only just walked the red carpet at the Golden Globes. And now Samara Weaving has attended another event, this time in a fiery red number which showed off her lithe frame. The 25-year-old was spotted on the 23rd Annual Critics Choice Awards on Thursday in Santa Monica where she caught up with Modern Family actress Sarah Hyland. Red hot! Samara Weaving flaunts her trim pins in a maroon pantsuit at the 23rd Annual Critics Choice Awards Turning heads, the pretty blonde wore a one-shouldered jumpsuit with a flattering peplum style waist in maroon. The tone of her ensemble perfectly set off her nude makeup and chic blonde hair, which fell loosely by her shoulders. Adding height to her frame, the Samara donned a pair of black wedged heels with lace detailing. Gorgeous! Turning heads, the pretty blonde wore a one-shouldered jumpsuit with a flattering peplum style waist in maroon Best friends! The 25-year-old attended the 23rd Annual Critics Choice Awards on Thursday in Santa Monica where she caught up with Modern Family actress Sarah Hyland Keeping her look chic and modern, Samara kept her jewellery to an absolute minimum, pairing the look with red-and-gold drop earrings. Making waves in Hollywood, Samara appears in the new Showtime series SMILF. The drama tells the story of a single mother in her mid twenties, navigating relationships, sex and her career. Knock 'em dead in red! Making waves in Hollywood, Samara appears in the new Showtime series SMILF The series premiered on November 5 in the US and also stars comedian Rosie O'Donnell. The niece of Australian actor Hugo Weaving, Samara debuted on Home And Away in 2009 as Indigo Walker, taking on the character for five years. She also stars in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. She won critical acclaim for her portrayal of an aspiring rapper in the 2017 film Patti Cake$. And Australian actress Danielle Macdonald looked every inch the rising star as she hit the red carpet at the Marie Claire Image Makers Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday. The 25-year-old was a vision of elegance in a velvet navy dress that hugged her figure. Dressed to the nines! Australian actress Danielle Macdonald, 25, hit the red carpet for the Marie Claire Image Makers Awards in Los Angeles, on Thursday Her chic frock also featured a ruched detailing at her waist held up with a vintage broach, adding a bit of glamour to her look. Danielle's award show ensemble was completed with a pair of nude pump heels. Her makeup look was kept simple with defined lashes, kohl rimmed eyes, subtle taupe eye shadow and a hint of peach blush on the apples of her cheeks. Understated: Her makeup look was kept simple with defined lashes, kohl rimmed eyes, subtle taupe eye shadow and a hint of peach blush Last year, she spoke to Confidential about her steady rise in Hollywood and her persistence in the industry. 'There are lot of things that play a part in it but the main is not giving up. Because I think eventually, if you don't give up and you work just as hard, things will find a way and everything will line up,' she said. Danielle, who has been dubbed as the new Rebel Wilson, moved to Los Angeles from her home in Naremburn, near Sydney, seven years ago. In character: She won critical acclaim for her portrayal of an aspiring rapper in the 2017 film Patti Cake$ Underdog role: In the film Danielle plays Patricia Dombrowski from New Jersey, who is an aspiring rapper The last year has been a whirlwind of triumphs for Danielle whose role as aspiring rapper Patricia Dombrowski from New Jersey, in film Patti Cake$ earned her rave reviews. She also scored a role alongside actress Jennifer Aniston in Dumplin', and White Girl Problems based on the novel by Babe Walker. In October, she was also awarded with the Screen Australia Breakthrough Award the Australian in Film event in Los Angeles. 'It's kind of amazing to see that progress happens over time. It's really cool. I haven't really wrapped my head around it,' she said about the award. She's a red carpet regular who never puts a foot wrong when it comes to fashion. And Ksenija Lukich showed off her chic sense of style at the Stella Artois Sensorium Dinner. The 27-year-old was all smiles as she struck a pose at the luxurious Jackalope Hotel in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula on Friday. Monochrome chic! Ksenija Lukich, 27, showed off her chic sense of style at the Stella Artois Sensorium Dinner at the luxurious Jackalope Hotel in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, on Friday She showcased her trim physique in a figure-hugging black-and-white print dress that featured ribbon detailing at the waist. The E! Australia presenter teamed her look with a leather jacket over her dainty shoulders and pair of heeled boots. She enhanced her eyes with smokey eye-shadow and a swipe of mascara, while adding to her makeup look with defined brows and nude toned lips. Chic: Model, actress and musician Abbey Lee Kershaw, 30, was also at the event, rocking an all black ensemble Model, actress and musician Abbey Lee Kershaw was also at the event, rocking an all black ensemble. The 30-year-old matched her lacy camisole top with culottes, strappy heels with a military style jacket to complete the look. Also by her side at the event was friend and model Jarrod Scott, who added a touch of colour to his all black ensemble with a faded orange T-shirt and a pair of yellow sneakers. Fashion friends: Also by her side at the event was friend and model Jarrod Scott, who added a touch of colour to his all black ensemble with a faded orange T-shirt and a pair of yellow sneakers Style buddies: Later at the event, the photogenic friends were spotted enjoying a deep conversation at the hotel's luxurious bar area Later at the event, the photogenic friends were spotted enjoying a deep conversation at the hotel's luxurious bar area. Newlywed and Kids WB presenter Lauren Philips was a vision of elegance as she posed for the cameras. Showcasing her slender legs, the brunette beauty looked festive in a floral mini dress and strappy nude heels. Her husband Lachlan Spark was right by her side and all smiles in his denim shirt and black pants combination. He's the Australian male model export who has walked the runway for the world's biggest fashion houses. And Jordan Barrett has joined forces with two other iconic faces in fashion by starring in an upcoming Stuart Weitzman campaign with Gigi Hadid, 22, and Kate Moss, 43. Sending fans into meltdown, the 21-year-old took to his Instagram to share the behind-the-scenes snap of himself posing with the blonde glamazons on Friday. Modelling trifecta! Jordan Barrett, 21, has shared a snap from behind the scene of an exclusive campaign alongside Gigi Hadid, 22, and Kate Moss, 43, For the Mario Testino photo shoot, the modelling industry bad boy had no hesitation with unbuttoning his white shirt and exposing his washboard abs, in Orlebar Brown swim shorts. He wrote in the caption: 'Count down is on, Behind the scenes trio with Kate Moss & Gigi Hadid on the latest Stuart Weitzman Campaign.' 'Thank you every time Mario Testino & SW family Susan Duffy and Giovanni Morelli,' he graciously added. Modelling bad boy: He wrote in the caption: 'Count down is on, Behind the scenes trio with Kate Moss & Gigi Hadid on the latest Stuart Weitzman Campaign' Jordan had with his arm around Gigi Hadid, who looked chic in a blouse that showed off her midriff and a tiny pair of white bikini bottoms. Proving that she's still got it, Kate posed sitting ground in a similar outfit to the eldest Hadid sister as she modelled the sassy footwear. Fans of the modelling 'it boy' applauded him for scoring the campaign, including one who wrote: 'Wow! What a shoot. Couldnt be doing any better Jordan! Way to go cant wait to see the finished product.' Fashionista: Fans of the modelling 'it boy' applauded him for scoring the campaign Another wrote: 'Yesss!! All my favorites in one picture.' The shoot comes after Jordan celebrated the New Year with his friends and family in Australia. He was spotted hanging with a handful of famous Australian faces during his time Down Under, including pal Cheyenne Tozzi. They have been enjoying the first week with their third child, a son Johnny, after announcing they were expecting back in June. And Abbey Clancy has continued to share adorable snaps of her adorable newborn on Instagram, with the most recent including her husband Peter Crouch. Abbey, 31, posted a snap on social media of a beaming Peter, 36, cuddling little Johnny as he took a sweet little yawn. Scroll down for video Proud dad: Peter Crouch, 36, appears to be the doting father to his newborn son Johnny, in an adorable snap posted by his wife Abbey Abbey captioned the post: 'My boys', as she revelled in the early days of new motherhood, despite admitting that her third pregnancy had been difficult. She has been loving every moment with her newborn so far, taking to Instagram to share a number of heart-warming snaps. The model posted a cute picture of herself preparing to take baby Johnny out in his pram, captioned, 'first day out'. Abbey also posted a sweet image of her younger brother meeting the new addition to the family - who is named after him. The Britain And Ireland's Next Top Model host shared a snap of Peter rocking the baby boy, revealing that he was 'watching TV with Daddy'. Sweet: Abbey announced the birth of little Johnny last week, and has been revelling in the first week of motherhood New mum: Abbey has been loving every moment with her newborn so far, taking to her Instagram to share a number of heart-warming pictures of the tiny tot Meet Johnny: Abbey also posted a sweet image of her younger brother meeting the new addition to the family - who is named after him Sweet: The Britain And Ireland's Next Top Model host posted a snap of her husband Peter Crouch rocking the baby boy, revealing that he was 'watching TV with Daddy' Another snapshot shows her daughter Liberty cradling her son, alongside the caption, 'Blessed'. The star gave birth to Johnny last Wednesday, a sibling for the couple's two daughters Sophia, six, and Liberty, two. Sharing the happy news on Instagram with a beautiful black and white photo of her gorgeous son, a besotted Abbey wrote: 'Baby Johnny crouch born 3/1/18 so in love with our baby boy happy healthy and beautiful.' Devoted dad Peter also shared a tribute to his firstborn son, writing: 'Here he is. Heir to the throne . Johnny crouch born 3/1/18.' Adorable: Abbey posted a snapshot of her daughter Liberty cradling her son, writing, 'Blessed' Bundle of joy: Abbey and Peter are clearly madly in love with their bundle of joy Congratulations: The model and TV personality gave birth to her third child last week Johnny is thought to be named after Abbey's musician brother John, who plays in band Judas. Revealing her nesting instinct was in full swing, Abbey humorously tweeted just days before her newborn's arrival on December 28, that she 'can't stop cleaning.' She announced she was expecting back in June and had been keeping fans updated with her pregnancy journey. The baby news comes as an early birthday present for the star, who will turn 32 on January 10. Besotted: Sharing the happy news on Instagram with a beautiful black and white photo of her gorgeous son, a besotted Abbey wrote 'Baby Johnny crouch born 3/1/18 so in love with our baby boy happy healthy and beautiful' Proud father: Devoted dad Peter also shared a tribute to his first son calling him 'the heir to the throne' During an appearance on This Morning in October, a then six-months pregnant Abbey admitted her third pregnancy had been difficult, with the star spending the first five months throwing up constantly. In the final week of her pregnancy last Friday, Abbey suggested she had grown tired of sporting a huge baby bump as she shared an amusing update with her followers on Instagram. The blonde beauty snapped her burgeoning bump from below and posted the shot to her page on the photo-sharing site, simply penning: 'Ugh,' alongside it. Nesting: Revealing her nesting instinct was in full swing, the star humorously tweeted just days before her newborn's arrival on December 28, that she 'can't stop cleaning' Bumping along: During an appearance on This Morning back in October Abbey admitted her third pregnancy had been difficult, with the star spending the first five months throwing up constantly' The star recently divulged on the perils of pregnancy ahead of the due date, admitting it has been 'a terrible five months'. The exhausted model admitted the majority of it has been spent with her 'head down the toilet, throwing up,' during an appearance on ITV's This Morning. Abbey, joked that she needed mum-of-three Holly Willoughby's advice. 'I need some tips off you Holly!' she said. 'You get no sympathy with your third pregnancy. Head down the toilet, throwing up. It's been a terrible five months.' Cosy:Family time: The Britain And Ireland's Next Top Model star enjoyed a low-key Christmas with her family But insisting she had weathered the worst of the pregnancy, Clancy said she was excited for the baby's arrival now, saying: 'I'm back, I feel great I'm just a little bit tired. I just cant wait to have it now.' The Britain's Next Top Model has been honest about her fears for the third baby in the past, admitting she is 'scared' to welcome a new addition to the family. Speaking to MailOnline, she said it was going to be 'hard work' and even joked that she and Peter will never 'leave the house again'. They both love posting photos of their adorable eight-month-old daughter India on social media. But Binky Felstead was not too happy when her boyfriend Josh 'JP' Patterson shared a snap from her own childhood online. Cheeky JP couldn't resist posting a photo of Made In Chelsea girlfriend Binky from her school days on his Instagram account on Thursday, promoting Binky to vow revenge. Scroll down for video Throwback! Josh 'JP' Patterson shared a school days snap of his girlfriend Binky Felstead on Instagram on Thursday, much to her horror 'Guess who??????' JP captioned the throwback snap, which shows his girlfriend in her school uniform and sporting glasses. Binky was less than impressed, commenting underneath: 'IM GOING TO KILL YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Before telling her fans: 'THIS WAS BEFORE ALL MY WORK DONE ON MY TEETH!!!!!!' The couple's fans were left flabbergasted by the pic, with one incredulous fan commenting: 'No way is that binky whaaaaaat.' Plotting her revenge? Binky was less than impressed, commenting underneath: 'IM GOING TO KILL YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' 'Hehehe revenge is sweet - I'm seeing an old school pic war about to escalate here,' mused another. 'If I was Binky I would kill you right now for that!!' added one follower. Others pointed out the similarity between Binky and her baby daughter. 'India looks like her mumma then!' wrote one fan. Meanwhile JP has spoken out on any future involvement on Made In Chelsea, the E4 reality show where he and Binky met. Lookalikes: Some fans pointed out the similarity between Binky and her baby daughter. 'India looks like her mumma then!' wrote one fan underneath the school snap The 27-year-old reality TV star has decided to step away from the show indefinitely in order to focus on being a father to India, but has admitted he'll always be 'grateful' for it. Speaking to The Sun Online, he said: 'We are two very blessed individuals to have been asked to go on that show. Binks did five or six years. I was on it for three years. It's ultimately got Binky and I to the position we're in right now. 'I think we'll be eternally grateful for it but I think it like anything in life as you grow older you start to look for new opportunities. When you've got young kids coming into the mix and it's not about partying and who fancies who.' New priorities: JP has spoken out on any future involvement on Made In Chelsea, the E4 reality show where he and Binky met, admitting he's concentrating on being a dad to daughter India However, the property developer is adamant he wouldn't rule out a cameo in the future and has admitted he and Binky, 27, are still in touch with their former cast mates. He explained: 'I think it's a natural thing, we're parents now I think the biggest priority in our life is our daughter. As much as we love that show, I think you've got to make a choice. I think you make a choice if you want to be on a reality show or be a parent. We keep in contact with them consistently. 'We have many friends on the show we see most days. I wouldn't count out a little cameo here and there but personally I would not go back on that show permanently.' Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige recently said that the next film of the highly-popular superhero franchise will be a 'finale.' And if that's the case than the Avengers as we know them have assembled for the last time. Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, and Paul Rudd were seen enjoying a bonding moment together as Avengers 4 wrapped filming in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday. The trio of talented actors had a laugh together after filming their final scene. Scroll down for video Avengers disassemble! Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, and Paul Rudd were seen enjoying a bonding moment together as Avengers 4 wrapped filming in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday. CAUTION: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD It seemed to be a joyous atmosphere on set as Iron Man Robert, 52, took selfies with people on set. There was even a very impressive cake featuring Thanos, who is the galactic arch-nemesis to the Avengers and played by Josh Brolin in the series. As Chris 36, was once again seen in full Captain America regalia on set, it has raised some questions about his fate in the franchise. He could be seen rocking the skintight red, white and blue costume, however, TMZ reported on Wednesday that it has been heavily rumored that his character dies in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War. Tony Stark is a legend! It seemed to be a joyous atmosphere on set as Iron Man Robert, 52, took selfies with people on set If that's the case then it is very interesting to see Chris on set, however, TMZ claims that he is actually wearing the original Captain America suit which means the scene they were shooting could be a flashback. In addition, he was also clean shaven which was different than the bearded Steve Rogers which could be seen in the Avengers 3 trailer. Filming on the superhero epic began back in August. The untitled Avengers film will be released on May 3, 2019. There is no sign of stopping for the superhero cinematic universe as Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige confirmed back in November that there will be 20 more films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Dark Lord: There was even a very impressive cake featuring Thanos, who is the galactic arch-nemesis to the Avengers and played by Josh Brolin in the series The 44-year-old filmmaker said that everything after the still-to-be-named Avengers 4 movie will be 'completely different.' In his interview with Vanity Fair, Feige said: 'Marvel is 22 movies in and we've got another 20 movies on the docket that are completely different from anything that's come before - intentionally. 'Avengers 4 will bring things you've never seen in superhero films: a finale.' He continued: 'There will be two distinct periods. Everything before Avengers 4 and everything after. I know it will not be in ways people are expecting. Everything after.' Avengers 4 will be the last outing for Evans, Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk) and Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) as their contracts are ending. However, it has been known for some time that the franchise will continue with the likes of newcomers Tom Holland (Spider-Man), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) and Brie Larson (Captain Marvel). Bam Margera is getting help after a DUI arrest last week. The Jackass star has checked into rehab, he revealed on social media on Thursday. 'Thanks to @johnnyschillereff of element skateboards for checking me into alcohol rehab today. No phones here, see yall soon,' he wrote. This comes just weeks after his wife Nicole Boyd welcomed their son Phoenix. Pals: Bam Margera is getting help after a DUI arrest last week. The Jackass star has checked into rehab, he revealed on social media on Thursday. 'Thanks to @johnnyschillereff of element skateboards for checking me into alcohol rehab today,' he said; he is second from left Arrest: Bam Margera has is getting help after a DUI arrest last week. The Jackass star has checked into rehab, he revealed on social media on Thursday. (pictured 2013) The 38-year-old pro skateboarder and former star of Jackass has often been open about his struggle with alcoholism. He was arrested on Sunday for DUI after allegedly approaching police officers, who are said to have detected the scent of alcohol on the reality star. The former Viva La Bam star was reportedly driving past CHP officers, who were already in the process of stopping someone else, and slowing down to speak with them, according toTMZ New dad: This comes just weeks after his wife Nicole Boyd welcomed their son Phoenix Police officers are said to have detected 'a strong scent of alcohol' on Margera as they spoke with him, and gave him a field sobriety test after having him pull over. Margera has made no secret of his struggle with alcohol abuse, though late last year the star opened up about overcoming his old habits and becoming sober. The reality star was booked on DUI after taking the test, and was released from jail at 2:30 PM. His bail was set at $15,000. This is the first time Margera has been arrested for DUI. 'He's with a friend out there and were trying to see if he wants to go to rehab or anything,' Margera's brother, Jess, told Page Six on Monday, adding they were attempting to help him from across the country. 'It was pretty bad': Margera has been candid about battling alcohol abuse, revealing that at his worst he would immediately begin drinking upon waking up (pictured far right in 2002) Margera welcomed his first child, a son named Phoenix Wolf, with wife Nicole Boyd on December 23, 2017. The reality star has been candid about battling alcohol abuse, revealing that at his worst he would immediately begin drinking upon waking up. 'At its worst, I would probably just wake up around 11 AM and instantly start drinking vodka and purple Gatorade; by the end of the night, I would probably have ten pints worth of it,' he told Vice in December 2017. 'It was pretty bad. It was weird, because there would be times where I would go on a three-day bender of drinking and then five days of not drinking. When that five days ended, I would go on a two-day bender.' Prankster: Margera soared to stardom after appearing on MTV's Jackass and his very own series, Viva La Bam Of his current routine, the star said: 'I've been good lately. No alcohol. Today, I had three little tacos [with] just chicken and guacamole and salsa, so not that bad. I had some tacos and watermelon seltzer waterthat's all.' He revealed last year on an episode of Vice's Epicly Later'd that he was secretly battling bulimia at the height of his fame in the early 2000s. He also admitted to People that the death of his friend Ryan Dunn, who was killed in a drunk driving accident, contributed to his drinking. Margera soared to stardom after appearing on MTV's Jackass and his very own series, Viva La Bam. He now lives in Barcelona with his wife Nicole Boyd. The couple welcomed their first child on December 23, 2017. She's been promoting her new swimwear range on her Instagram page to her 798k followers. And Friday was no exception for actress Elizabeth Hurley, 52, as she proudly flaunted her ample cleavage and designer chops in a racy social media post. Fans of the British beauty got an eyeful of the bombshell as she relaxed on a sun lounger during her sun-soaked beach trip. Scroll down for video 'Nothing beats a string bikini': Elizabeth Hurley, 52, as she proudly flaunted off her ample cleavage and designer chops in a racy Instagram post showcasing her aqua two-piece The bronzed beauty donned a jaw-dropped aqua blue bikini, accented with tiny gold hoops on the string straps, giving just a glimpse of her toned stomach and gym-honed arms. Elizabeth showed off her natural beauty in the make-up free pic, as she pulled her best model pout while keeping the sun rays out of her eyes with giant gold rimmed sunglasses. She swept her trademark brunette tresses up away from her face, leaving delicate wisps of hair to frame her youthful complexion. She captioned the saucy snap: 'Trends come and trends go, but nothing beats a string bikini #aquariusbikini #aqua.' Making a splash: It's not the first time Elizabeth has set tongues wagging with her social media uploads. On Monday, The Royals star continued to steal the limelight as she stripped down to a skimpy pink bikini during a sun-soaked throwback video It's not the first time Elizabeth has set tongues wagging with her social media uploads. On Monday, The Royals star continued to steal the limelight as she stripped down to a skimpy pink bikini during a sun-soaked throwback video. The model sent fans wild as she showed off her sensational age-defying physique while dancing seductively on an idyllic sandy beach. The Austin Powers star looked incredible as she spun around and shimmied to the camera as guitar music played in the background. Wearing a fuschia two-piece from her own bikini line, the mother-of-one certainly turned heads as she danced around on the pristine white beach. Looking good: The model and actress showed off her sensational age-defying physique while dancing seductively on an idyllic sandy beach Elizabeth, who has a 15-year-old son Damian with ex Steve Bing, ran her hands through her hair as she beamed at the lens. She captioned the seductive video: 'Happy Sunday. @elizabethhurleybeach #Islabikini.' Her followers went wild for the video, flocking to praise her incredible figure in the comments section. Throwing some shapes: The Austin Powers star looked incredible as she spun around and shimmied to the camera as guitar music played in the background Island life: The British beauty wore her half-wet tresses in tousled waves and appeared to show off her natural beauty by foregoing make-up 'I'm 52 and I am not going to eat ever again. Or Until I look like this, whichever comes first,' one quipped. Another gushed: 'Looked up youthful exuberance in the dictionary and I was re-directed here!' A third wrote: 'B***dy beautiful and ageless' while a fourth agreed: 'Wow, sure looks GREAT for fifty-two!' The veteran actress' skimpy display was a stark contrast to her look just days earlier, as she donned a camouflaged balaclava helmet. The words Watch out were emblazoned across the bottom of the snap, hinting that Hurley could be teasing fans with a possible new acting role. Beach babe: Wearing a fuschia two-piece from her own bikini line, the mother-of-one certainly turned heads as she danced around on the pristine white beach What's her secret? Fans went wild for the video, dubbing her 'beautiful' and 'ageless' Sensational: One follower gushed in the comments section: 'I'm so in love with you, you're a goddess' while another added: 'Looked up youthful exuberance in the dictionary and I was re-directed here!' Hurley was catapulted to stardom in 1994 when she wore a skimpy Versace dress held together with safety pins while attending the Four Weddings And A Funeral premiere with now-ex Hugh Grant. She later cemented her sex symbol status playing Mike Myers' love interest in the 1997 comedy Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery. Hugh recently talked about their relationship, admitting he bonded so much with Hurley as they were initially both out of work. Speaking on The Jess Cagle Interview, Hugh said: 'Were like brother and sister... I think its partly because we went from zero to somewhere together. Taking centre-stage: She first garnered international attention in 1994, when she donned a daring Versace safety-pin dress while accompanying then-boyfriend Hugh Grant to a film premiere 'We went through terrible years at the beginning when neither of us had any work, living in a tiny flat. It was quite bonding.' He also reflected on the cause of their split, admitting he was an 'idiot' for the 1995 scandal in which he was arrested for lewd conduct with a prostitute. The Notting Hill star was arrested over two decades ago in Los Angeles for his actions with a prostitute named Divine Brown a week before his movie Nine Months was due for release. Now reflecting on his actions, Hugh claimed he should have claimed he had a 'psychological problem'. He explained: 'I was just an idiot. I didnt try to say, "Ive got this psychological problem." I just said, "I did it"'. Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte is now married. The swimmer, 33, tied the knot with his girlfriend, Kayla Rae Reid, at a courthouse in Gainesville, Florida on Tuesday, according to TMZ. The couple, who have been engaged for over a year, have a seven-month-old son named Caiden Zane Lochte together. Just married! Ryan Lochte tied the knot with his girlfriend, Kayla Rae Reid, at a courthouse in Gainesville, Florida on Tuesday (pictured February 2017) The website reported earlier this week marriage was 'imminent' for the couple, after sources told TMZ they recently picked up their marriage license. The couple's wedding was witnessed by Ryan's father, Steven, according to TMZ. Ryan popped the question to Kayla on top of a mountain in Malibu in October 2016. The couple welcomed baby Caiden less than a year later on June 8, 2017. Baby love: The couple, who have been engaged for over a year, have a seven-month-old son named Caiden Zane Lochte together They have a spark! The couple rang in the New Year with a kiss and two sparklers 'After almost 26 hours of an unfortunate induced labor the greatest joy entered our lives. Caiden Zane Lochte born 6-8-17. 7lbs and 14oz of pure bliss,' Kayla gushed on Instagram as she announced the birth of their child. Not mention of the wedding on either one of their social media accounts, though the couple have been posting since the Tuesday nuptials. The proud parents both wished their son a happy seven months on Tuesday as they shared sweet images of their baby boy. That's her boy! The proud mom shared a sweet photo of her son as he turned seven months Before their son was born, Ryan raved about how excited he was to become a father. 'There's one thing that I know will happen: I'm going to spoil this kid rotten, but not with material things,' he told AOL in 2016. 'I'll do it with so much love; that's what I'm excited about. I'm excited to change diapers and all of that other father stuff I've dreamt about doing for years. I'm on cloud nine.' So cute: Lochte was amazed by how fast his seven-month-old was growing Were only twelve days and eight episodes in but it already looks as if 2018 could be a historic year for EastEnders. Historically awful that is It started on New Years Day with an hour-long special devoted to Aidan Maguires farcical armed robbery. Well he was armed. The rest of his ragbag gang had wooden guns. The first week of January also saw Albert Square coming to terms with the aftermath of the ill-conceived Project Dagmar storyline. Scroll down for video Awful: Were only twelve days and eight episodes in but it already looks as if 2018 could be a historic year for EastEnders. Historically awful that is... Months of James Willmott-Browns excruciating 1980 Yuppie boardroom cliches and villainous moustache twiddling, plus the tenuous sub-plots involving his children Luke, Fi, and Josh, came to nothing basically. The market and the Queen Vic were saved (again) and Max Branning returned all the deeds to the properties to their former owners. The soap had more hospital scenes than Holby City with Abi and Lauren Branning in Walford General having miraculously survived falling off the pubs roof. Abi was in coma admittedly but Lauren is hobbling off to Glasgow with Josh, gloriously untroubled by any thought of helping look after Abis newborn baby (soon-to-be orphan). Shocking scenes: During the show Masood was subject to racist abuse from Karen Oops: You know what? she screeched, losing her temper. Roll on Brexit ! Coming over here taking our jobs ! Screw thy neighbourIs that part of your sherry law?! Tanya Branning has proved similarly unsupportive. Having rushed back to Walford to save her daughters from Maxs evil machinations she disappeared after Abi was hospitalised/brain-dead. There was no sign of any Brannings in any of this weeks four episodes, which were arguably even more deranged. Masood was revealed to be living in a derelict ice-cream van. (Dont ask.) His uncle and aunties foster child disappeared and was then found again. Two's company: Despite half of the characters eternally needing work/money, only two people had bothered to apply for a job: Karen Taylor and Masood Plus another young runaway, Tiffany Butcher, told Whit that she had run away from Milton Keynes because her muvver (the legendary Bianca) had tried to kill herself. Meanwhile, Walfords version of The Italian Job was still limping on waiting to be put out of its misery, albeit without any sign of the police investigating it. This was despite having an eyewitness (Masoods uncle) and forensics from Mick Carters blood (after he was shot but before Masoods auntie had, inexplicably, patched him up). The protagonists had mysteriously vanished too. Aidan, Phil, Keanu, Mick, and Vincent had all left Walford at the same time somewhat suspicious and unlikely given that theyd discovered someone had pilfered their money. We now knew this was Ben Mitchell, as they probably would have - if theyd hung around. Kathys necklace would have been a clue. Emotional: Meanwhile, another young runaway, Tiffany Butcher, told Whit that she had run away from Milton Keynes because her muvver (the legendary Bianca) had tried to kill herself Mel Owen (Tamzin Outhwaite) had worked it out and shed been out of the series for 15 years. Sporting a floppy green hat as though disguised as Quentin Crisp, Mel followed Ben on to the Dover-Calais ferry, and looked as if she had conned the young criminal mastermind, switching his suitcase full of crisp fifty pound notes. Ben had ingeniously been planning to just carry it through French customs so was probably relieved when he was stopped before discovering the money had been replaced by copies of the Walford Gazette. All of which is left us with another distasteful, demoralising, contribution from Karen Taylor. Since the arrival of Karen and the Taylor family, EastEnders had, typically, tried to have its cake and eat it, vacillating between portraying them as generally crude, rude, and lazy while trying to see them as lifes victims: its own version of a Ken Loach family struggling to get by. Her son Keegan for example had initially been a realistically unpleasant teenage yob, spending months bullying Bex and stealing Arthurs bench in his campaign menacing Michelle. Gradually hed softened though only to help Aidan with the raid, as had his brother Keanu Taylor (supposedly the sweet, most honest one). Conned: Mel followed Ben on to the Dover-Calais ferry, and looked as if she had conned the young criminal mastermind, switching his suitcase full of crisp fifty pound notes Like so many supposedly strong salt-of-the-earth matriarchs with a heart of gold before her in the show, Karen Taylors impassioned speech to her kids when she found theyd been stealing mobile phones (about not fulfilling other peoples worst stereotypes and behaving like Chavs) sounded hollow but was at least well-intentioned. So not surprisingly, a lot of fans took to Twitter on Tuesday, shocked and appalled by the racist bile the writers had suddenly decided to attribute to her. Applying for the job of manager at the launderette, the perennially unemployed (unemployable) sponger assumed that Mr Papadopolous junior was a squatter rather than the owner, even though he was smartly dressed in a suit. We dont need no asylum seekers here ! she then berated him. Go back to wherever you came from ! Even he didnt understand her rambling explanation, asking are you from some sort of home? Ongoing: Walfords version of The Italian Job was still limping on waiting to be put out of its misery, albeit without any sign of the police investigating it Predictably she resorted to reiterating I need this job and my family need me to get it (although she hadnt applied for any others since shed been there). She defended being sacked in her previous job (for attacking her boss with a loo brush) with the sob-story that had been the week before Christmas and being fired meant she wouldnt be able to buy Keanu the computer game she had promised him. Papadopolous had directly challenged her for being racist and made her backtrack frantically but the Waynetta wannabe still did it again on Friday. Despite half of the characters eternally needing work/money, only two people had bothered to apply for the job: Karen Taylor and Masood. You know what? she screeched, losing her temper. Roll on Brexit ! Coming over here taking our jobs ! Screw thy neighbourIs that part of your sherry law?! Unforgivable: Why the writers and the shows new producer John Yorke think theres anything funny or charming about Karen Taylor is inexplicable, and unforgivable (She meant Sharia law. Karen Taylor was that lethal combination: prejudiced and thick.) You do know Im British? Masood mentioned calmly, presumably used to it. Where are you from then? she demanded. Karachi. Scotland she concluded gormlessly. Pakistan, he corrected. Then swan off back there ! Unusual: You might think that having witnessed this Mr Papadopolous junior would decide he would rather not employ Karen Taylor as his launderette manager, particularly as she had already racially insulted him too Cleaning: Instead he devised a ludicrous clean off between them to decide who should get the job. After theyd spilt bleach everywhere, Masood nobly took the blame (inexplicably given that shed told him to go back to Pakistan) You might think that having witnessed this Mr Papadopolous junior would decide he would rather not employ Karen Taylor as his launderette manager, particularly as she had already racially insulted him too. Instead he devised a ludicrous clean off between them to decide who should get the job. After theyd spilt bleach everywhere, Masood nobly took the blame (inexplicably given that shed told him to go back to Pakistan), ensuring Karen was given a weeks trial in charge. Karen offered him a bacon sandwich to thank him. Im a Muslim, he reminded her. Ill cut the fat off ! she chirped bewilderingly. At best this was ignorance being portrayed as lovable or colourful. Unsure: Producers seemed to think we are on her side and would see it as a good thing that shed got the job, judging by the way she celebrated with her kids But why the writers and the shows new producer John Yorke think theres anything funny or charming about Karen Taylor is inexplicable, and unforgivable. They seemed to think we were on her side and would see it as a good thing that shed got the job, judging by the way she celebrated with her kids. Either way she ended 2018s latest episode in charge of Albert Squares famous launderette. From Dot Cotton to Karen Taylor It summed up where EastEnders is at these days and how far it has fallen. Mark Wahlberg was seen for the first time since reports of his pay scandal involving Michelle Williams. The 46-year-old actor was spotted on set of his new film Mile 22 in Fayetteville, Georgia on Friday morning. He showed off his muscles in a tight black T-shirt tucked into black jeans with worn out brown leather boots. Scroll down for video On-the-go: Mark Wahlberg was seen for the first time since reports of his pay scandal involving Michelle Williams The outing comes just days after the report that he 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 last week. '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. Making moves: The 46-year-old actor was spotted on set of his new film Mile 22 in Fayetteville, Georgia on Friday morning Buff:He showed off his muscles in a tight black T-shirt 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. 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 last week, 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. 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 Wahlberg (above) had negotiated a $1.5million side deal 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 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. 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. 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) 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. 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) 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. After: Plummer (above) was called in to replace Spacey i November, having always been Scott's first choice in the role He was left distraught when his four-year-old son Conor fell to his death from the 53rd floor of a New York skyscraper in a horrific freak accident in 1991. And Eric Clapton has now opened up about his heart-rending grief in the aftermath of the tragedy, revealing he flew to Antigua to spend a year living as a recluse. The musical legend, 72, isolated himself on the Caribbean island and threw himself into writing songs in a desperate attempt to 'heal'. Scroll down for video Tragedy: Eric Clapton flew to Antigua to spend a year living as a recluse after son Conor, four, fell to his death from the 53rd floor of a New York skyscraper in 1991 (pictured in 1990) Eric opened up about his grieving process in an interview with presenter Liz Barnes for Planet Rock, to speak about the film A Life in 12 Bars, which documents his life. Conor died on March 20, 1991 when he fell out of a window that a cleaner left open in the Manhattan flat his mother, Italian model Lory Del Santo was renting. Recalling the gut-wrenching days after Conor's death, Eric said: 'I brought him home from New York with all of the Italian side of his mother's family and we went through the process of the funeral.' He explained that after the funeral, he rented a cottage in Antigua where he spent almost a year playing his guitar and barely communicating with the outside world. Ordeal: The musical legend, 72, isolated himself on the Caribbean island and threw himself into writing songs in a desperate attempt to 'heal' (pictured in September) Heartbreaking: Conor died in 1991 when he fell out of a window that a cleaner left open in the Manhattan flat his mother, Italian model Lory Del Santo was renting (pictured with Eric in 1989) 'When they left, I had this little Spanish string guitar, I became attached to that I went off to Antigua and I rented a little cottage there in a community and I just swatted mosquitos all day and played this guitar and stayed there for almost a whole year, without much contact with the outside world, and I tried to heal myself,' he said. 'All I could do was play and write these songs and I re-wrote and re-performed them again and again and again and again until I felt like I had made some sort of move towards the surface of my being and then I was able to come out.' The rock guitarist had received a heartbreaking love letter from Conor just hours after the child's funeral. Awful: Recalling the gut-wrenching days after Conor's death, Eric said: 'I brought him home from New York with all of the Italian side of his mother's family and we went through the process of the funeral' (pictured with Conor and Lory in 1991) Nightmare: Pictured, the skyscraper that Conor fell out of in a heartbreaking freak accident The youngster had written his first letter to his father days before the accident and his mum Lory, posted it to Clapton's London's home - arriving after the child's death. Lory said: 'The baby had learned to write a few words and he said to me, "Oh mummy, I want to write a letter to daddy, what shall I write?" I told him, "Well, write, I love you". He wrote that and we posted it like a regular letter. 'After Conor died, Eric and I arrived in London for the funeral. I was there when Eric received his mail just after the funeral and he opened it up and it was Conor's letter. That is a moment I cannot forget.' Clapton dedicated his song Tears in Heaven to Conor. It won three Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. Eric has a daughter Ruth, 33, with ex Yvonne Kelly. He has three other daughters with his current wife Melia McEnery - Julie, 16, Ella, 14, and Sophia, 12. Emotional: He explained that after the funeral (pictured), he rented a cottage in Antigua, where he spent almost a year playing his guitar and barely communicating with the outside world Clapton also opened up about meeting Jimi Hendrix in the interview, revealing they performed together in a moment that is 'historic' in his mind. 'The first time I met Jimi he came the London Polytechnic and Cream were playing there. We got up on stage and then Chas Chandler said, Ive got this friend who would love to jam, ' he recalled. 'It was funny those days, anybody could get up with anybody if you were convincing enough that you could play. He got up and blew everyones mind and me too, I just thought, Ah, someone that plays the stuff I love, in the flesh, on stage with me. 'I was actually privileged and its something that no-ones ever going to beat, that incident, that night. I mean, its historic in my mind but only a few people are alive that would remember it,' he admitted. Haunting: The rock guitarist received a heartbreaking letter from Conor saying 'I love you' just hours after the child's funeral - which Lory (pictured with Conor as a baby) helped him write Now teetotal for nearly three decades, Eric revealed in the highly-anticipated documentary that he would drink a bottle of cognac by midday, before snorting cocaine from a knife by lunch. His spiralling addictions caused him to threatened not only his loyal following but wrecked his romance with ex Pattie Boyd during the tumultuous period in his life. Talking about trying to win her over, he admitted: 'I wanted her to be impressed and I wanted her. I thought this might seal some kind of commitment that I dont think I was able to actually commit myself, but I wanted her to commit, to do the hard work. 'I think we went on for a little while longer trying to figure out what to do and then the end of that was when I said, Well if you cant make a decision about whether to be with me or not, Im going to just get stoned out of my mind and disappear from the face of the earth. I mean, very childish stuff. 'I think shes probably very conscious of the fact that shes inspired all of these songs, you know, Wonderful Tonight and Something and Layla and a lot of songs on the Layla album, although theyre not directly identifiable as being inspired by her, they were. Maybe it was a channel that I needed, maybe it was a focus that I needed, who knows.' Ashley Graham has been very proficient on social media. And the Vogue cover girl says she refuses to get anxious about what she posts because that is just a waste of time. On Friday the 30-year-old lingerie model told People: 'Im being my real raw self and thats what I always preach anyway. What you see is what you get.' Her style: Ashley Graham has been very proficient on social media. And she says she refuses to get anxious about what she posts because that is just a waste of time 'I always say be anxious for nothing because if this is my social media, if this is a platform for me to really get the word out and get my brand out then why am I gonna be anxious about it?' She added,The knockout said she follows 'all the models' because its 'great to see what everybodys doing.' But her favorite is Kathy Ireland. 'I wouldnt say that her Instagram is the best, necessarily, but I follow her because shes so business savvy. She posts her products, she doesnt post her personal life.' So AG: On Friday the 30-year-old lingerie model told People : 'Im being my real raw self and thats what I always preach anyway. What you see is what you get' This comes after she appeared on The View. The model, who has covered Vogue and Sport's Illustrated magazines, spoke candidly with the women of the panel about a scary situation that occurred when she was only 17-years-old. The 5'9' brunette sat with the ladies after greeting fans outside ABC studios while wearing a sheer top and black velvet pants in New York City on Tuesday. Her take: 'I always say be anxious for nothing because if this is my social media, if this is a platform for me to really get the word out and get my brand out then why am I gonna be anxious about it?' 'Come here, I want to talk to you,' Graham said during her appearance on the show that aired on Tuesday. 'He lured me into this hallway, pushed me into a closet. He exposed himself and he said, 'Look at what you did to me all day long. Now touch it.' Luckily she was able to escape but she admitted she never formally complained to higher ups about the incident. Sexy gal: Here she is seen on New Year's Eve with a naked shoulder Bare: The star also goes makeup free during her workouts like in this snap Had the situation happened to her today, she says she would've handled it all very differently. 'If I knew what I knew now and all these women were standing up and saying 'me too,' I would have smacked that guy,' she said. She added, 'I probably would have started screaming, called my agency.' Graham first detailed her story of sexual assault in her book A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like in 2017. She was just 10-years-old when a family friend's son made her tough his penis which she says left her 'with so many lingering questions.' The Nebraska native is currently promoting her stint as a judge on America's Next Top Model. She's preparing to make her Channel 10 television debut. But media analysts are predicting Lisa Wilkinson's transition from Today show co-host on the Nine Network will be anything but smooth. The 58-year-old's new role with The Project will be a huge challenge due to its 'vastly different' and younger audience, according to a Herald Sun report on Saturday. Scroll down for video Tough gig: Media analysts are predicting Lisa Wilkinson's transition from Today show co-host on the Nine Network to Channel 10's The Project will be anything but smooth Lisa has a 'nearly impossible' task ahead, media analyst Steve Allen told the publication. 'Today and The Sunday Project have vastly different audiences, and I see little chance of changing that,' Steve offered. 'So yes, the challenge is huge as reinvention is definitely required. But so too Ten know they need to change and to offer something different,' he continued. Challenging: Lisa has a 'nearly impossible' task ahead, media analyst Steve Allen said 'I think the whole Sunday Project is an odd place to start. In my view, it will be nearly impossible to break through in any meaningful way,' he added. The veteran journalist secured a reported $2.3 million salary to front The Sunday Project on weekends and helm the new digital site Ten Daily for Channel 10. This came after the former magazine editor left the Nine Network in a high-profile split due to a pay disparity dispute with her co-host, Karl Stefanovic. Making moves: Her Channel 10 deal came after the former magazine editor left the Nine Network in a high-profile split due to a pay disparity dispute with her co-host, Karl Stefanovic Reports at the time claimed Lisa attempted to negotiate a higher salary when she found out she was being paid $1.1 million per year compared to Karl's $2 million. A statement from Channel Nine said the network was 'unable to meet the expectations of Lisa Wilkinson and her manager on a contract renewal'. The Sunday Project has a challenging year ahead, going up against proven juggernauts like Channel Seven's My Kitchen Rules and Nine's Married At First Sight. He's the odds-on favourite to take home the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. But the likely accolade hasn't come easy for Gary Oldman, the actor revealing the painstaking process it took to transform him into the iconic British Prime Minister. Speaking with BW, the 59-year-old stated that it took nearly FOUR hours in the make-up chair every single morning before the cameras could start rolling. Is that really you? Gary Oldman told BW it took a team four hours each morning to transform him into Winston Churchill for his acclaimed performance in Darkest Hour (right) 'My pick up [time] would be 1.45am. Get to the set, they would shave my head, cover my neck in glue and then start the make-up process,' Gary revealed to the publication. He told BW that make-up took three hours and fifteen minutes every single morning, before another forty-five minutes in the wardrobe department. After the four hour preparation process, the iconic actor would then spend up to twelve hours each day shooting the film. Oscar buzz! Gary scored Best Actor at Thursday night's Critic's Choice Awards in Los Angeles 'Initially, one of my big concerns was stamina,' he conceded. However, it appears the hard work is well and truly paying off for the London-born legend. Last week, he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, while also scoring the same award at Thursday night's Critic's Choice Awards in Los Angeles. Iconic character: Gary (above) plays British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the tense World War II drama He is now an odds-on favourite to be nominated - and win- the coveted Best Actor Oscar, with fellow contenders expected to include James Franco, Daniel Day-Lewis and Tom Hanks. Meanwhile, in his interview with BW, Gary also praised Australian Ben Mendelsohn, who assumes the role of King George VI in the World War II drama. He revealed that his own British sensibilities blended well with Ben's Australian sense of humour, stating: 'He's such a character. It was glorious. Winston [Churchill] was known for wit and humour, so it wasn't out of place for us to just banter between takes'. She's been enjoying a romantic getaway with her boyfriend Tommy Mallet. And Georgia Kousoulou treated fans to a glimpse of her sun-soaked holiday as she shared a sizzling swimsuit snap from her hotel in Antigua on Friday. Flaunting her sensational figure, the 26-year-old TOWIE star posed up a storm as she posed on the balcony of her hotel. Scroll down for video Beach babe: Georgia Kousoulou treated fans to a glimpse of her sunsoaked holiday as she shared a sizzling swimsuit snap from her hotel in Antigua on Friday Showcasing her ample sideboob, the scanty one-piece featured plunging cut away detailing across the side. The thong cut swimsuit also offered a look at her peachy posterior, whilst she pulled the suit up to show off more of her tanned and toned pins. Sharing the snap to Instagram, the Greek beauty captioned the image 'Last day in paradise', whilst her boyfriend Tommy opted for a more humorous take as he uploaded the same picture, quipping: 'Move G your blocking the sun..' Cute couple: Georgia was on holiday with her TOWIE star beau Tommy Mallet, 25, who revealed plans to pen an autobiography, which he will send to fans who feel 'useless' Tommy was no doubt enjoying relaxing on his couples getaway ahead of his plans to pen an autobiography about his rise to greatness. He rose to fame as a star of The Only Way is Essex, joining the cast in 2014, and becoming a show mainstay until his department in October last year. The 25-year-old reality star first told fans of his plans to release a book when he posted a snap of a closed book on Instagram, captioning the post with plans to send the book to fans for free if they feel 'useless' and 'talentless'. Work in progress: Posting a snap of a closed book on Instagram, Tommy revealed he will write a book all about his road to greatness, and send it to fans for free Tommy captioned the post: 'Eating my favourite chocolate bar since I was a kid thinking back to this crazy journey I've been on in my 25 years. 'I'm in the process of writing a book about me, not only talking about the Up I've been on the last few years with business and towie also the bad I went through for years before finding what i was destine for. 'I won't be selling it online I will be sending it to people personally for free. People who feel stuck, useless, talentless & have no one to talk to I send you this ting when it's finished... #HardWorkBeatsTalent.' (sic) Magnum Opus? Tommy also posted a snap of him working on his book on his Instagram stories Fans immediately rushed to praise the star for his kind gesture, with some immediately requesting a copy of the book. One wrote: 'I love this. Would so love to read this,' while another commented: 'I feel like I need this right now! All the best and well done you!' A third wrote: 'I've been watching your journey and would find it so fascinating!' As well as being a star of TOWIE, Tommy has also set up the Mallet Footwear company, and is the co-owner of Essex nightclub Circuit. Supportive: Fans rushed to comment that they would love to read the new book, with some requesting a copy already The hunk also found love during his reality TV stint with girlfriend Georgia , though the star recently revealed he has been given a 'bible' of rules to follow by the blonde beauty. Speaking on ITV's Lorraine last year, Georgia said: 'A few? I set out like two pages! I had to for my own benefit,' before Tommy added: 'It's a bible!' She continued: 'But didn't it help us? I think all girls going forward should have rules, it just helps relationships.' They are leading ladies on the Melbourne social circuit. And Rebecca Judd, Georgia Love and Nadia Bartel showed off their glam squads on social media as they prepared for the city's annual Portsea Polo event on Saturday. The brunette beauties took to Instagram in the morning to reveal their transformations, prior to making appearances at the glittering social affair. Scroll down for video VIPs: Rebecca Judd, Georgia Love and Nadia Bartel (pictured) showed off their glam squads on social media as they prepared for the city's annual Portsea Polo event on Saturday Rebecca, 34, shared a snap on her way to the Point Nepean shindig. which is an approximate two-hour drive from Melbourne's CBD. The mother of four flaunted her dazzling engagement ring from Paul Bram, a $1515 shoulder bag by Prada and matching pink faux fur from Australian brand Unreal Fur. 'Portsea Polo bound in the cold and rain,' she bemoaned in the photo's caption. 'Portsea Polo bound in the cold and rain,' she bemoaned in the photo's caption Bec's fellow WAG, Nadia Bartel, was up bright and early to have her hair and makeup done by celebrity stylists Marie Uva and Chantelle Baker. She wore her dark blonde locks in waves with her signature middle part, opting for a smokey brown shadow on her eyes and a neutral lip colour. Reality star Georgia Love also appeared to start her day of beautification with hair stylist Marie from her UVA Salon. Pampered: Bec's fellow WAG, Nadia Bartel, was up bright and early to have her hair and makeup done by celebrity stylists Marie Uva and Chantelle Baker She credited Marie and co-worker Britt Fitzgerald with creating a low, messy ponytail with her mane, only showing off the back of her head in a snap. Georgia's boyfriend from her stint as the Bachelorette, Lee Elliott, recently shared his style tips for the Portsea Polo event with news.com.au. 'If youd see it at a nightclub, dont even consider wearing it to the polo,' the professional plumber and amateur fashionista said. Double up: Reality star Georgia Love also appeared to start her day of beautification with hair stylist Marie from her UVA Salon Karl Stefanovic has been photographed arriving at Gold Coast's Dr Portia Miller clinic, before leaving with a bandage on his arm. The Today show star, 43, was accompanied by his girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough, 33, her father Bob and other members of the Yarbrough family last week. According to the clinic's Facebook page, Dr Miller is a renowned Dermatologist, specialising in 'skin cancer, dermatitis and laser aesthetics'. Images have surfaced of Karl Stefanovic arriving at Gold Coast's Dr. Portia Miller clinic, before leaving a bandage on his arm An eyewitness told Daily Mail Australia 'the blinds were closed and the doors were locked' to the public for Karl's visit. The Channel Nine star arrived with Jasmine, while her father Bob was seen walking into the clinic with a woman her sister Jade. Later, Karl was seen exiting the establishment's garage in a white Renault. He wore a wide-brim hat, and rested a bandaged forearm on the driver's side window. The Today show star, 43, was accompanied by his girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough (R) 33, her father Bob and other members of the Yarbrough family An eyewitness told Daily Mail Australia 'the blinds were closed and the doors were locked' to the public for Karl's visit The Channel Nine star arrived with Jasmine, while her father Bob (L) was seen walking into the clinic with her sister Jade (R) The Today star was not said to have been wearing a bandage upon his arrival to the facility, although this has not been confirmed. Karl and Jasmine appeared happy and upbeat as they drove away. Later, Karl was seen exiting the establishment's garage in a white Renault He wore a wide-brim hat, and rested a bandaged forearm on the driver's side window The Today star was not said to have been wearing a bandage upon his arrival to the facility, although this has not been confirmed Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Karl's representatives for comment and clarification. The Dr Portia Miller clinic's range of services includes 'Erbium Laser' treatments to remove 'lumps, bumps and scars'. Karl and Jasmine appeared happy and upbeat as they drove away The specialist facility also specialises in skin cancer screenings and removal, cosmetic dermatology, paediatric dermatology and women's health. Their website promotes medical dermatology treatments to assist with conditions such as 'excessive sweating,' 'Eczema' and 'Rosacea / Blood vessels'. The Dr Portia Miller clinic's range of services includes 'Erbium Laser' treatments to remove 'lumps, bumps and scars' The specialist facility also specialises in skin cancer screenings and removal, cosmetic dermatology, paediatric dermatology and women's health Mel Gibson's ex girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva has claimed she is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder as a result of domestic violence perpetrated against her by the 62-year-old Hollywood star. In court documents, obtained byThe Blast, the 47-year-old alleges she's: 'been diagnosed with PTSD due to domestic violence and the protracted, expensive and difficult paternity battle I had to endure.' New troubles: Mel Gibson's ex girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva (left in 2010) has alleged in a court filing she is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder due to domestic violence perpetrated against her by the Hollywood star In addition to the PTSD claim, the Russia native also states that the stress associated with the violence and legal battle led her to develop a tumor located near her brain. 'As a result of the stresses of litigation and bankruptcy, I was recently diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma and will need to go through treatments in the near future, with increased medical bills,' said the mother of two. A pituitary adenoma is a type of tumor that grows on the pituitary gland, which is located very close to the brain in the skull. Moving on: Gibson was charged with misdemeanor battery, though ended up making a deal with prosecutors in 2011 While most are slow growing and benign, there are also invasive and cancerous varieties. She declined to state which type she had. Originally charged with misdemeanor battery, Gibson made a deal with prosecutors in 2011. He shares daughter Lucia, nine, with his ex. Meanwhile, the new papers were filed in response to a suit by a forensic accounting firm that Grigorieva employed during her child support fight with Gibson. Doting dad: He shares daughter Lucia, aged nine, with his ex (seen together in 2013) The company, White, Zuckerman, Warsavsky, Luna & Hunt, has said that Grigorieva owes them more than $108,000 and has refused to pay. In response to the suit, Grigorieva has stated that paying the money using funds from the settlement with Gibson 'could possibly result in a reduction of my child support and negatively affect the health and well being of my daughter.' Hacksaw Ridge director Gibson has since moved on in his personal life, and is now dating 27-year-old Rosalind Ross. A mother has died while her husband and son have suffered critical injuries after a head-on collision on the NSW south coast. The 36-year-old woman was in the car, reportedly with her husband and five-year-old son when their Subaru smashed into a Volvo at Milton on Thursday afternoon. She died at the scene, while her 36-year-old husband who was driving the car, was taken to Liverpool Hospital with critical leg and head injuries. Also in the Subaru was their five-year-old son who was initially taken to hospital in Milton with facial injuries, but later airlifted to Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick when his condition deteriorated, a NSW Ambulance spokesman told AAP. Both males are in a critical condition. The driver of the Volvo, a 39-year-old male, was taken to Milton Hospital for observation and will undergo mandatory blood and urine tests. If the authorities ever looked through the internet browsing history on my smartphone, they're going to find some strange entries. I've been reading up about "lobotomies" and "surgery without anaesthesia" and "how to commit someone". And I blame Aradale Mental Hospital in Ararat. After going on a two-hour ghost tour there, I had so many questions, which manifested into an internet wormhole about the history of Australian psychiatric treatment. We no longer call a psychiatric hospital a lunatic or mental asylum, but for more than 125 years Ararat Lunatic Asylum - its original name - was one of three institutions in Victoria tasked with accommodating the state's mentally ill. How authorities and doctors defined mental illness in the mid 1800s - and their cruel, patronising and patriarchal ways of treating people deemed "insane" - wouldn't past muster these days. Its location - some 205 kilometres from Melbourne - and isolation from prying eyes means we may never really find out everything that happened here. The asylum began welcoming patients in 1865 and continued to operate right up until 1998. It's now owned by Melbourne Polytechnic, who have repurposed parts of the complex, but it's hard to imagine it being anything other than an eerie, abandoned hospital. The ghost tour, which takes you through a handful of the 65 buildings at the huge complex, is conducted mostly in the dark because it's too dangerous to have running electricity in some of the old buildings. But for the most part, it feels like the long empty halls between thick walls and doors - so no one can kick them down - have withstood the test of time a lot better than the methods used by the people who ran the place. Despite its name, the goal of the ghost tour isn't to see otherworldly spirits. The asylum's disturbing history, told through anecdotes and tales, is eerie enough. But the tour's focus on the people who once walked Aradale's cavernous halls is an interesting and engaging way to learn about what it was like for the 900 patients who stayed at the asylum every year for more than a century. Did you know that back in the day, you only needed two signatures to commit someone, one of which could come from a publican? Seeing Aradale at night, when we are at our most vulnerable, provides a rare insight into the final, agonising moments of the more than 12,000 people who died behind its walls. Who needs ghosts when a tour guide acting the part of a stern, Victorian matron invites you to lie on the same cold metal slab where thousands of bodies were taken apart during autopsies by doctors who once thought anaesthesia-free surgery was the best way to treat a broken rib. IF YOU GO Two-hour ghost tours are held every Friday and Saturday at 8pm, or 9pm during daylight savings. Tickets are $40 per adult or $35 for children over the age of eight, who must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, www.www.aradaleghosttours.com.au or call 1300 856 668. GETTING THERE: Ararat is located at the foothill of the Grampians, 205km or a two-and-a-half drive southwest of Melbourne. Aradale is a 3km drive from Ararat. STAYING THERE: Seppelt Winery in nearby Great Western has several historic accommodation options. Bests Cottage was built in the 1860s and is the original home of the winery founder. It can accommodate five people for $140 per night. Book via the cellar door on (03) 5361 2239 or www.airbnb.com.au Melbourne will live up to its reputation of having four seasons in one day as the city braces for thunderstorms, damaging winds and possible hail following hot and humid conditions. Up to 15mm of rain is expected to fall from late Friday afternoon with eastern suburbs including Cranbourne, Pakenham and Lilydale likely to bear the brunt of heavy downpours, large hail and winds of up to 90 km/h, the Bureau of Meteorology says. It follows an uncomfortable night and a top of 35C in Melbourne on Thursday - the temperature was still 28C at midnight, dropping to a low but humid 23C by 8am. Queensland Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington has called for gender information to be once again stated on Queensland licences, labelling its removal in 2016 a "nanny state" move. Since October 2016 the government "secretly rolled out" a plan under which licences would no longer display gender information, in a move the LNP's Deb Frecklington says will hinder police and bouncers. "Where is this political correctness going to end?" she told reporters on Friday, adding that it had turned Queensland into the "nanny state of all nanny states." When a paramedic asked teenager Steve Mason Mourish if anything hurt after he crashed a stolen car into a bus, he replied: "My heart hurts. I'm sorry I killed my brother." Mourish was 18 years old, unlicensed and high on cannabis in April when he led police on a chase, reaching 155km/h in a 70km/h zone, before running a red light and crashing into a bus in Kewdale. His 16-year-old friend Jack Meier died in hospital, having suffered multiple injuries to his head, chest and abdomen. Bus driver Shawn Jessep, 46, was trapped in his vehicle and suffered three broken ribs and a fractured spine. Mourish's lawyer Simon Freitag told the WA Supreme Court on Thursday his client accepted responsibility for the harm he caused, and was appalled and distressed by what had happened. He said Mourish repeatedly told police at the scene that he was sorry, with one officer allegedly telling him: "That's what happens when you steal a car." Mr Freitag said it was "one of the coldest things" he had heard said at a crash scene. Mourish has pleaded guilty to several offences including unlawful killing, aggravated dangerous driving causing bodily harm and stealing. Mr Freitag said Mourish had a disadvantaged childhood, describing his life as "desperate and sad" even before the crash. He said Mourish lacked family support and was immature. Mourish, who appeared in court via video link from prison, kept his head down through most of the proceedings, resting his cheek on his hand. The court heard it was possible he suffered from foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) but there had been no confirmed diagnosis. Prosecutor David Davidson acknowledged there were "cognitive aspects" but said Mourish did have some capacity given he had obtained his learner's permit to drive. Mr Davidson submitted the crime was at the higher end of offending. Justice Bruno Fiannaca ordered a neuropsychological assessment and an assessment by a pediatric specialist to determine whether Mourish suffers from FASD, and if so, its potential relevance to his offending. He also requested the assessments address the relevance, if any, of substance abuse to Mourish's cognitive function. Justice Fiannaca will sentence Mourish on March 29. The Victorian government is standing by its sentencing laws after criticism from the police union over the punishment handed to a repeat cop-basher. Shaun Mowbray, 37, got a five month prison sentence after attacking two officers trying to arrest him in October, but not a six month mandatory minimum because he pleaded guilty to a lesser offence. "This person pled guilty to a lesser charge and that guilty charge was accepted by the prosecuting authorities in that case," Attorney-General Martin Pakula told reporters on Friday. Little pellets of poo found in the far north of Western Australia have scientists hopping with excitement after it was confirmed they belong to an endangered species of rock wallaby believed extinct on the mainland. Traditional owners conducting scientific monitoring in the northern Kimberley found the tiny evidence left by the nabarlek rock wallaby, which was thought to have disappeared from the Australian mainland in the 1970s. About the length of a school ruler, the furry grey critter is the nation's second smallest rock wallaby, distinctive for its light brown, brush-tipped tail and a black stripe which runs from forehead to nose and under its eyes. Australian Museum scientists in Sydney confirmed the find after they analysed DNA of rock wallaby scat collected by Uunguu Rangers, from the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation, in the Vansittart Bay area near Mungalalu Truscott Airbase. Head Uunguu Ranger Neil Waina said Wunambal Gaambera people were excited to discover nabarlek populations on the mainland. "To finally discover nabarlek still living on the Kimberley mainland after so many years of thinking they may have gone is a great boost for us and the work we are doing to keep our country healthy and intact," Mr Waina said. He credited a "right-way" burning project, which reduced the number of damaging burn-offs across Wunambal Gaambera country, for the safe return of the species. The nabarlek was thought to only survive on several offshore islands, where it was safe from fire, feral animals and grazing threats. A healthy population of the nocturnal marsupials was confirmed in 2016 to be living on an island off WA, in Wunambal Gaambera Country, after wallaby scats were found by rangers in a Lotterywest and World Wildlife Australia funded project. Isolated sub-species of nabarlek could also be roaming the Northern Territory, but evidence has not been recorded for many years. Rangers will now photograph the nabarlek with camera traps and plan to conduct further research to determine the size and spread of the Kimberley population. Regional Communications Minister Bridget McKenzie has defended the federal government's national program to fix mobile phone black spots following a Victorian exit. The Victorian state Labor government has announced it will go it alone in building mobile phone towers in regional areas after dumping the commonwealth's program. The state government blamed the decision on the Turnbull government failing to properly consult over site choices and a lack of transparency. Senator McKenzie defended the national program. "We made those commitments in the federal election on areas of need for regional communities and I'm really looking forward to making sure those communities get access to that infrastructure ASAP," she told ABC Radio. She said places like Aireys Inlet and Anglesea in Victoria see an eight-fold increase in population from tourism over summer and the infrastructure that covers 1000 people in the district can't support the influx. The minister declined to say whether there would be a fourth round of funding for the program in this year's federal budget. Labor frontbencher Stephen Jones said the Victorian decision was an indictment of a failed program. "In rounds one and two, 80 per cent of the locations announced were in Liberal or National Party electorates," he said. "Critical locations in areas of Victoria, particularly bush fire prone areas, have missed out." Mr Jones said round three funding was based on 2016 election promises not community needs. A South Sudanese-born man subjected to an ugly racist attack in Brisbane has blamed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton for the incident. Dave Anei said Mr Turnbull and Mr Dutton's statements on Melbourne's "African Gangs" problem had stoked division and were responsible for the attack, which was recorded in videos posted to Facebook. One of the video shows a shirtless man, who Mr Anei says followed his wife and children home, hurling abuse and shouting "Do you know who us Aussie c**** are mate?" Centrelink overpaid $2.84 billion to welfare recipients last financial year but the Turnbull government only recouped half the cash. The new Human Services Minister Michael Keenan blamed human error and fraud for the overpayments. "It is important that system operates with integrity, that people are not overpaid more than they are entitled to," he told reporters in Perth. "If you have been defrauding the system, you can expect us to come down on you like a tonne of bricks." The Human Services department has only recovered $1.64 billion in overpayments. Labor frontbencher Doug Cameron said the Turnbull government was incompetent when it came to running Centrelink and there had been a merry go round of four ministers in four years. "Last year 55 million calls went unanswered to Centrelink and average call wait times have increased," he said adding extra staff were needed. Last year the Turnbull government coped criticism for mistakenly sending robo-debt recovery notices to 20,000 people. Domestic travel has been blamed for the spread of the influenza virus across Australia following last year's deadly flu season. A new study using influenza surveillance data has found the flu virus spreads "almost instantaneously" throughout Australia with "remarkable synchrony". The report by Macquarie University researchers, released on Friday, shows people should be more worried about domestic travel's role in the spread of the flu than short-term commuter trips and sniffling passengers. All major cities appear to experience outbreaks of the flu at the same time each year according to the study, which collected data from more than 2500 postcodes between 2007 and 2016. Head researcher Dr Jemma Geoghegan says the flu vaccine remains an important part of the fight against the disease, but more needs to be done. "We would need a coordinated public health response because we know from my study that if something enters Australia it usually spreads quite quickly," Dr Geoghegan told AAP. The study follows a deadly year of influenza which swept across Australia in 2017 and claimed nearly 600 lives, mostly the elderly. The fast-mutating strain of influenza defied efforts to stop its spread and was blamed for the majority of deaths. Health authorities were forced to concede that the standard vaccine had not been very effective in the over-65s, fast-tracking moves to introduce a 'super' vaccine in Australia to better protect the elderly in 2018. "The whole world is always threatened by novel emerging human diseases, like the Ebola and Zika virus," Dr Geoghegan said. "In the event of an emergent human virus entering Australia - given the synchronicity of the flu - this would be devastating." Ashleigh Barty will compete for just her second career title after defeating compatriot Daria Gavrilova 3-6 6-4 6-2 in an all-Australian semi-final at the Sydney International. In a topsy-turvy match on Friday that included 11 breaks of serve, Barty needed just one in the third set to set up a final against Angelique Kerber or Camila Giorgi. Her strong campaign is strong preparation for next week's Australian Open in Melbourne, where she opens against world No.69 Aryna Sabalenka. "It's been a pleasure playing here this week and it's nice getting a bit of confidence going into our biggest tournament for us," Barty said after the match. Nerves allowed both players to draw a break early in the match, however Barty in particular had trouble on serve, holding just once on her way to losing the first set. The Ipswich product responded by reeling off the first three games of the second, but each time Gavrilova fought back, Barty continued to make inroads into her serve. Gavrilova's frustration spilled over in the ninth game of the set when, soon after levelling at 4-4, she double-faulted twice and received a code violation for cracking her racquet. Momentum was well and truly with Barty when she forced a deciding set and broke early in the third. While Gavrilova attempted to stay with Barty, she was broken to love in the seventh game. Former world No.1 Kerber and Giorgi, a qualifier, meet later on Friday. Australia's newest pace sensation stands at just 178cm but don't let that fool you - he's capable of some serious speed. Uncapped 21-year-old Jhye Richardson is a strong chance to debut in Sunday's opening one-day clash with England at the MCG, with Josh Hazlewood set to be rested. Pat Cummins will sit out the second ODI in Brisbane and Mitchell Starc is certain to be rested at some point. While fellow West Australian paceman Andrew Tye is also in the 14-man squad, Richardson has a golden opportunity to make a name for himself during the five-game series. The right-arm quick made a solid national debut last summer when he played in two T20s against Sri Lanka, although he was unable to consolidate his spot in the side. But he has continued to stake his claim as an impact bowler, hitting a top speed of 149km/h in the BBL last year, despite giving up 20cm on the big three who dominated the Ashes series. "From an early age, there was a lot of talk about how tall I was going to be but I didn't really think about it too much," Richardson said. "Someone like Dale Steyn, he's proved to everyone that you don't have to be tall and you don't have to be a solid bloke to be able to run in and bowl fast and bowl well. "I don't think it means you'll be better or worse, it just means you'll be different." Richardson hadn't spent any time with Steve Smith before arriving in Melbourne on Wednesday ahead of the Test players. But he would at least be on the Australian skipper's radar after a memorable Sheffield Shield meeting at Sydney's Hurstville Oval ahead of the first Ashes Test. The plucky youngster ramped up his pace and sent down a barrage of short-pitched deliveries, not that it stopped Smith from posting scores of 76 and 127 for NSW. Richardson is unsure whether his light frame will help his durability but he has already exceeded expectations this season, playing four out of WA's five Shield games so far. "Being 178cm and 73 or 74kg, there's not much to work with," he said. "But I think just the mechanics of bowling - having a locked front leg and fast-twitch fibres - just helps. Being able to be quite whippy, that's what I get (described) as fairly often as being a whippy bowler." The man who disposed of Timothy Pullen's body claims there is nothing left of the 34-year-old to find as he makes a bid for freedom despite Queensland's new No Body, No Parole laws. Stephen Renwick claims any microscopic remains of Mr Pullen's burnt body would have been washed away by Cyclone Debbie. But Mr Pullen's parents are suspicious of Renwick, who keeps changing his story. Renwick is serving a five-year jail sentence for disposing of the corpse near Collinsville, west of Airlie Beach, after he was killed over a $30,000 drug debt in April 2012. Renwick, who was initially charged with murder, originally claimed Mr Renwick's body had been wrapped in a blanket and dumped in a paddock. He pleaded guilty in June 2016 to the lesser charge of accessory after manslaughter with the promise he would reveal the location of Mr Pullen's remains. But a search of the area Renwick pointed to that same month led to nothing. In August 2017 the state government passed its "No Body, No Parole" laws, meaning killers and accessories would be kept behind bars unless they revealed the locations of their victims. Mr Pullen's parents were trotted out by Corrective Services Minister Mark Ryan to praise the legislation - only to find out Mr Ryan had not told them one of their son's killers, Benjamin Oakley, had just been approved for release. In September, Renwick wanted to lead police on another search, but this time claimed Mr Pullen's body had been wrapped in plastic, covered in logs and burned. At his parole hearing on Friday, barrister Josh Fenton said diesel was used to accelerate the fire, which burned for up to 90 minutes and reduced Mr Pullen's body to ash. "The tragic fact is the body has been reduced to such microscopic levels that it cannot be seen by the human eye," Mr Fenton said. Mr Fenton said Cyclone Debbie passed directly over the Collinsville area in March 2017, meaning any remains were likely washed away. He argued Renwick should be released on parole as he had co-operated satisfactorily with authorities and done his best to recall where Mr Pullen was cremated. Outside court, parents Leanne and Gary Pullen said they were unsure whether to believe their son had been cremated as the timing of Renwick's revelation was "extremely suspicious". Mrs Pullen said her local crematorium told her it was impossible to burn away all a person's remains as even their furnace left bone that had to be ground down. "What's the truth - is he maybe thinking that by saying he's cremated Tim that there won't be any evidence? I don't know," Mrs Pullens said. Mrs Pullen said her family would be "devastated" if Renwick were released as it meant all chances of finding her son would be gone unless someone discovered his remains by accident. "Throughout all of this, all I've ever wanted is to know is where Tim was," she said. "In my lifetime I want to be able to lay him to rest respectfully because what parent wants to leave this earth not knowing. "It's just a question in my head all day, every day." Five anti-coal protesters have been arrested and charged after they caused lengthy disruptions at Adani's Abbot Point terminal in central Queensland. The activists, including students from Sydney and Melbourne and an ex-serviceman from Cairns, locked themselves on to equipment late Thursday. Natalie Berry, 20, also suspended herself off a tree by a line attached to the company's railway line. She said no new mines should be built due to the reality of "catastrophic climate change". Melbourne student Tess Newport, 22, said she put her body on the line because "big corporations are taking advantage of people". Five people were arrested over the protest on Friday, police said. They were charged with interfering with the operations of a port, high-risk activity, trespassing, disobeying directions and obstructing police and are due to face Bowen Magistrates Court on February 13. In a video uploaded after their release from custody, the activists defended the disruption. Melbourne woman Juliet Lamont, 46, who protested with her daughter Luca, 19, said she wasn't usually the kind of person to resort to such drastic action. "We're in a climate emergency," she said. "There's absolutely no time for complacency." Adani hit out at the protest, dismissing it as "foolish". Abbot Point operations CEO Dwayne Freeman said the activists had seriously endangered both themselves and local workers while wasting police resources. "These people, who have no experience, knowledge or understanding of the operations involved with a heavy industrial site like ours are extremely fortunate to not have been seriously injured or killed," he said in a statement on Friday night. "We respect the right of people to conduct a peaceful protest but the protests that we are now seeing are no longer peaceful." Last month, the company blamed the Queensland government's decision to kill off a taxpayer-funded loan for its decision to ditch a $2 billion agreement with a major contractor. However it remained committed to building a contentious mine in the Sunshine State and said the "mutual" move to part ways with Downer EDI had no bearing on that. Today's Birthday, January 13: American actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus (1961-) Since carving out an iconic role as Elaine in Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus has confirmed her position as US television royalty with her work on hit political satire series Veep. Last September, the 57-year-old won a record sixth straight Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in the comedy category. But her joy was shortlived when, two weeks later, the beloved actress announced via social media that she was battling breast cancer. It was revealed in November that production on Veep's seventh and final season would be postponed as Louis-Dreyfus sought chemotherapy. Born in New York City in 1961, Louis-Dreyfus studied drama at Northwestern University before moving to Chicago to perform with the renowned Second City comedy troupe. She was cast as a Saturday Night Live regular in 1982, but after two years left the late-night show to launch her film career on Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters. However, it was her turn as the flawed, cynical and often-crazed Elaine Benes on New York-centric comedy Seinfeld, the brainchild of comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, that catapulted her to stardom. The popular show ran for nine seasons between 1989 and 1998 and Louis-Dreyfus' role as the sole primary female character won her a Golden Globe Award in 1993 and an Emmy Award three years later. Following the end of Seinfeld, Louis-Dreyfus starred in a number of shows, first Watching Ellie in 2002 and then for five seasons as Christine, on the New Adventures of Old Christine for which she won her second Emmy in 2006. In 2012, she returned to TV screens as Selina Meyer, the vice-presidential protagonist in critically-acclaimed comedy Veep. Entering its final season in 2018, the HBO show has collected 12 Emmys, two Critics' Choice awards, two Screen Actors Guild awards and a Peabody. Her other film credits include Enough Said, Deconstructing Harry and voice-over parts in animated films A Bug's Life and Planes. In 2014, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. The actress has been married since 1987 to Saturday Night Live comedian Brad Hall, whom she met while at Northwestern University, and they have two sons, Henry and Charles. A former British diplomat says his nation has no right to refuse diplomatic immunity for Julian Assange. On Thursday, Ecuador announced it had naturalised the Australian as part of its bid to free the WikiLeaks founder from its London embassy, where he's been holed up for more than five years. It came after the UK rejected a request that Assange be given diplomatic immunity so he could freely leave the embassy. Craig Murray, a former UK ambassador and human rights activist, says that from his legal analysis, the UK can't refuse Ecuador's request. "It is for the government of Ecuador, not the UK, to determine who is an Ecuadorian citizen," Mr Murray said in an emailed statement. "It is for the government of Ecuador, not the UK, to determine who is an Ecuadorian diplomat." Ecuador granted the 46-year-old asylum in 2012 as he tried to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations that have since been dropped. Assange still fears being sent to the US to face charges over WikiLeaks' release of secret US government documents. On Thursday, the British foreign office said it was in talks with Ecuador to resolve the mater but pressed "Assange to leave the embassy to face justice". Very high fire danger conditions are forecast across southwest Queensland with authorities warning residents to avoid any activity which could spark a blaze. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services will be keeping a close eye on the area and say people should be mindful of using power tools or machinery outside and postpone any planned burn offs. "It's dry as a bone out there," Rural Fire Service manager Tony Johnstone said. "When the land is this dry, a spark from a power tool or heat from a tractor exhaust could be enough to spark a bushfire." Melbourne's African community will hold further talks in a bid to tackle youth crime and ease racial tensions following weeks of political furore. It follows community leaders' initial discussions with police on Friday, two days after the announcement of an African-Australian task force. Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp called for calm ahead of the meeting and for commentary to be more tempered. "There is not a crisis in this state in relation to crime or the behaviour we're seeing of a relatively small number of people of African background," told ABC News on Friday. "We've seen, sure, a spike in antisocial behaviour over summer, over the last few weeks, but this is not a crisis." The state government hit out at what it said were "false claims" by the federal coalition and state opposition that Victoria's judiciary was soft on crime. "They said there was no consequence for a young person who breaches a condition of their bail," Victoria's Attorney-General Martin Pakula told reporters. "We saw just last week that that was completely untrue - there was a young person who was bailed, he breached his bail by having a mobile phone with him against bail conditions and he was remanded." Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton earlier blamed "civil libertarian" judges, while the state's shadow attorney-general John Pesutto labelled the justice system a "basket case". Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show NSW had 20,051 youth offenders in 2015-16, Queensland 12,931 and Victoria 8726. Saturday's meeting will gauge the African-Australian community's "temperature" over the issue and canvas suggestions going forward, one leader told AAP. Japanese troops will be able to conduct military exercises more easily in Australia under an agreement Malcolm Turnbull is hoping to cement next week during his visit to Tokyo. The prime minister will visit Japan on Thursday for an annual leaders' dialogue with his counterpart Shinzo Abe. The visit is Mr Turnbull's first overseas trip since his government released its foreign policy white paper last year and coincides with a tense period in Australia's relationship with China. Beijing this week lodged an official protest with Australia's embassy after International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells criticised China's assistance to tiny Pacific island nations as building "white elephant" projects and "roads to nowhere". However, the ongoing threat of North Korea's nuclear testing program is expected to dominate the agenda. The two leaders are committed to closer defence ties. Australia and Japan have been negotiating a visiting forces agreement since 2014. Mr Turnbull flagged there will be more joint exercises, information sharing and defence industry collaboration. "We are working to formalise this in our reciprocal access agreement that will further enhance our defence interoperability," Mr Turnbull said in a statement. It's understood the agreement will be signed later this year. Prime Minister Abe is pushing to amend his country's post-World War II pacifist constitution so the Japanese defence force can expand its role globally. Trade and investment are also a key focus of the trip. The Japan-Australia free trade pact is now three years old. Mr Turnbull and Mr Abe have been champions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement which is still in limbo. There were hopes the agreement could be revived at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Vietnam last year, sans the US; however, Canada threw a spanner in the works at the last moment. Negotiations between the 11 countries remain open-ended. Labor has seized upon research presented at a Reserve Bank of Australia workshop to back its case for doing away with negative gearing but the government says the paper is "preliminary and incomplete". The research paper found eliminating negative gearing would benefit renters and owner-occupiers and raise the number of Australians owning their own homes, Fairfax Media reports. The change would have a minimum impact on the economy while curbing the appetite of investors and the top 20 per cent of earners for owning multiple properties. The paper, posted on the RBA's website, is based on economic modelling carried out by Melbourne University's Yunho Cho, Shuyun May Li and Lawrence Uren. Earlier in the week NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was criticised for ignoring advice from her Treasury officials that the federal government should conduct a comprehensive study of negative gearing and capital gains tax arrangements "and consider alternative policies that would improve outcomes for Australians". Confidential federal Treasury advice published earlier this week contradicted Turnbull government claims that changing negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount would act like a "sledgehammer" on the Australian economy. NSW opposition treasury spokesman Ryan Park said on Thursday both the NSW and federal governments had misled the community about policies that could address the housing affordability crisis. Federal Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer, who labelled the Melbourne University paper "preliminary and incomplete", said Labor can't argue negative gearing and capital gains tax reforms would both make houses more affordable and have no impact on prices. Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said the research shows Australian households would be better off. It was one of Australia's most controversial movies with Russell Crowe leading a gang of skinheads through the streets of Melbourne to attack Asian immigrants. Now 25 years later, Romper Stomper, a six-part Stan series, picks up on the story from the 1992 film that seems even more relevant than ever before. "The first film is shockingly honest and truthful, and my hope is that the series starts a conversation exactly like that did," says Toby Wallace who plays Kane in the new series. "I think it's really important, especially for Australia at this time, to have that conversation and ask ourselves why these people exist, and really what drives people to act out in that way. It's incredibly relevant and really important I think." The film focused on a group of neo-Nazis whereas the series looks at extremists on both sides: Patriot Blue are a far-right nationalist group while there's an equally extreme Anti-Fascist group in opposition, and three young Lebanese Muslims caught between the conflict. "It's a different story, it's 25 years in the future. Things have changed. My character is completely different to any character from the film," he said. "He's very controlling, power-hungry, measured and almost respectable from the outside. I think that's terrifying in a way and quite honest to the time we live in now. "People shade their opinions under a facade. You could be talking to someone completely respectable and they could have these really dark views brewing up underneath." Wallace is hopeful the series will have an even greater impact than the film and get people talking about important issues. "The point is to start some sort of conversation, whether it be about some element of humanity or what drives people to do the things that they do. And with the extremists to question how people got there," he said. * Romper Stomper is available on Stan. A NSW man will face court over his alleged role in a crime syndicate involved in the organised theft of cash and jewellery in Sydney. Police say they arrested the 37-year-old in Manly on Friday as part of an investigation into more than 18 incidents mainly targeting jewellery dealers and others making withdrawals at financial institutions. A pattern of conduct was for thieves to distract their victims while other syndicate members stole from them, police allege. The 37-year-old has been charged with participating in a criminal group, knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime and possessing a prohibited drug. He's been granted conditional bail to appear at Manly Local Court in February. Police say they've so far charged six men and laid more than 100 charges in relation to an alleged combined theft of more than $700,000. Dutch-born former Republican congressman Pete Hoekstra was President Donald Trump's pick to represent the United States in The Hague, despite his controversial theories The US ambassador to the Netherlands is to meet Dutch Muslims after his arrival was clouded by his claim that the country is troubled by Islamist violence and no-go zones. Dutch-born former Republican congressman Pete Hoekstra was President Donald Trump's pick to represent the United States in The Hague, despite his controversial theories. Trouble erupted Wednesday when the new envoy refused to answer questions from Dutch reporters about his claims that Dutch Muslims had engaged in "burning cars and politicians." On Thursday, the State Department said the US administration does not stand by these allegations, nor does it believe as Hoekstra apparently does in Muslim controlled "no-go zones." But Hoekstra will not be withdrawn. Instead, he is going to try to explain his previous statements, made on US television in 2015, to the Dutch media and local communities. "The Ambassador made mistakes in 2015, made comments that should not have been made," Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Steve Goldstein told reporters. "He recognizes that, he apologized in December. He is doing an interview tomorrow," he continued. "He is honored to be the Ambassador. He's been received well by the Dutch government, and we hope that he can be received well by the people of the Netherlands." Asked whether the State Department agreed with Hoekstra's comments on the security situation and the place of Muslims in Dutch society, Goldstein said it did not. "Those comments were not the position of the State Department and you will never hear those words from this podium or in any form," he said. When he was asked why Hoekstra had not, himself, simply withdrawn the allegations, Goldstein said: "I appreciate that PR advice ... I share your view by the way." On Wednesday, despite being repeatedly asked at a heated news conference at his residence in The Hague, Hoekstra refused to say whether he still stood by his views. Angry Dutch reporters asked him several times whether he still believed there were "no-go areas" in The Netherlands, and to identify which politicians had been burned. In a clip from the 2015 event, reportedly sponsored by the far-right David Horowitz Freedom Center, Hoekstra appears on a panel discussing the spread of radical Islam. - 'Fake News' - "The Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos, chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned," he says. The film caused a stir in The Netherlands last month when during an interview with the NOS public broadcaster, Hoekstra denied ever making the comments, saying it was "fake news." But when the clip was played for him, the Dutch-born ambassador then denied accusing his interviewer on camera just moments before of "fake news." In a Twitter message on December 23, Hoekstra said: "I made certain remarks in 2015 and regret the exchange during the Nieuwsuur interview. Please accept my apology." A former representative for Michigan for 18 years in the US Congress, Hoekstra was born in the northern Dutch city of Groningen before his parents emigrated when he was just three. He takes up the post as US envoy left vacant for two years, and as immigration is set to again be a hot-button issue in the Dutch local elections due on March 21. "The Ambassador did not answer some of the questions that were asked of him. He recognizes that," Goldstein said. "He is going to do a long-form interview tomorrow, that is the plan, with a Dutch outlet," he added. "And he also plans over the weekend to be available within many of the communities in in the capital, including Muslim communities." Ravi Ragbir (L), was taken into custody at his annual appointment with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Manhattan, having lived for years under fear of deportation since a wire fraud conspiracy conviction in 2001 Immigration agents arrested a prominent New York activist on Thursday to be deported, sparking scuffles between his supporters and police as the Trump administration tightens its screws on migration. Ravi Ragbir, who last lived in his birth country of Trinidad and Tobago a quarter of a century ago, was taken into custody at his annual appointment with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Manhattan. He lived for years under fear of deportation since a wire fraud conspiracy conviction in 2001. He was saved previously thanks to a series of deferrals and by a former US administration that prioritized the deportation only of violent criminals. Witnesses said Ragbir was driven away in an ambulance after fainting, surrounded by a crowd of supporters shouting "Ravi, Ravi" trying to prevent the vehicle from leaving, which descended into scuffles. Police said 18 people were arrested for minor offenses such as disorderly conduct or obstructing paramedics, all but one of whom have since been released with one suspect due to appear before a judge. Elected New York council member Corey Johnson said police manhandled a fellow council member, calling it "totally unacceptable." An ICE spokeswoman said Ragbir "will remain in custody pending removal to Trinidad," saying he had exhausted his petitions and appeals. Ragbir has not lived in Trinidad for more than two decades. His US immigration lawyer wife and American-born daughter are "devastated," his lawyer Alina Das said. "He's a good man," Das told AFP, confirming that he had no right to further court hearings, but that she had nonetheless filed appeals demanding his release. "Ravi represents so much of what's great about this country, we'll continue to fight for him. We've fought tirelessly for him because we believe in him." Ragbir entered the United States on a visitor's visa in February 1991 and went on to acquire a green card, but in 2001 was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud while working for a mortgage lender. He spent three years under house arrest appealing his sentence and two years in a US federal jail. He was then incarcerated two more years in New Jersey and Alabama, awaiting deportation. His lawyers appealed but the Supreme Court declined to intervene. For years he had been running the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York, an interfaith network that trains dozens of volunteers to accompany migrants to ICE appointments and works to resist deportations. "I am living in fear," he told AFP last March. Activists protest the Guantanamo Bay detention camp outside the White House on January 11, the 16th anniversary of the US military's War-on-Terror prison in Cuba Eleven detainees at the US military's Guantanamo Bay prison sued President Donald Trump Thursday saying they were being illegally held on the basis of being Muslims. Following a strategy previously used by opponents of Trump's travel ban on visitors from six mostly-Muslim countries, the detainees cited Trump's tweets and other comments expressing anti-Islam sentiments as evidence. They also cited his comments that no Guantanamo detainees should ever be released, a shift from previous administrations' stances that the 41 detainees there should still face status reviews or be tried by military tribunals -- even if few of those proceedings have begun. "The president's opposition to prisoner releases from Guantanamo tracks other indiscriminate policy initiatives of his -- which have been struck down by the courts -- including the iterative bans on travel to the United States from certain majority-Muslim countries and the ban on transgendered Americans serving in the armed forces," the suit said. "His stance on Guantanamo calls for no less searching judicial scrutiny." It took note of recent mass murder attacks inside the United States to underscore Trump's alleged anti-Muslim views. Trump "more recently called for a Muslim man who killed several people in New York to be sent to Guantanamo and denied constitutional process, though he has never suggested that white male mass killers should ever be denied due process," it said. - Sixteen years of Guantanamo - The suit, filed in federal court in Washington on the 16th anniversary of the establishment of the Guantanamo facility, demanded the prisoners be granted habeas corpus rights to be charged or released. They argued that Trump's administration has signaled that it does not intend to ever release them, in violation of US and international law. No caption "President Trump, in contrast to his predecessors, has declared and is carrying out his intention to keep all remaining detainees in Guantanamo, regardless of their individual circumstances -- presumably even those the executive branch previously determined need no longer be detained," it said. "It is a demonstration of his antipathy toward this prisoner population, all foreign-born Muslim men, and toward Muslims more broadly, of the kind courts have properly rejected in recent months." - Novel legal approach - Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, called the habeas petition a novel new approach for the detainees, some in the prison since 2002. The approach is taking cues from news and events during the Trump administration. Speaking at the New America think tank, Greenberg, noted a new challenge that surfaced in the pre-trial hearing in Guantanamo on Wednesday of alleged September 11 attacks planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Sheikh Mohammed alleged Guantanamo prisoners were victims of persistent "sexual harassment" because guards were submitting them to repeated physical "groin searches" rather than using scanners. Greenberg and other activists speaking at New America said the Trump administration had changed government policy to essentially close the doors for any possible exit from the Guantanamo camp, which at its peak had 775 detainees. Under Trump, "you can't get out of Guantanamo any more via the law," said Andy Worthington, co-founder of the Close Guantanamo group. "You can only get out at the whims of the president of the United States." US President Donald Trump lashed out at immigrants from certain countries in a meeting with lawmakers, using profanity, several newspapers report President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out in a Thursday meeting with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why the US should accept citizens from what he called "shithole" countries. The comments, first reported by The Washington Post, sparked anger among Democrats, and revived questions about Trump's tendency to make racially charged remarks. Trump sat down with senators and congressmen at the White House to discuss a proposed bipartisan deal that would limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country and restrict the green card visa lottery in exchange for shielding hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to people briefed on the meeting who spoke with The Washington Post. The New York Times later reported the same comment, citing unnamed people with direct knowledge of the meeting. The president was referring to African countries and Haiti, both newspapers said, with the Post including El Salvador on its list. Trump then suggested the United States should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday. "Why do we need more Haitians?" he added, according to the Post account. "Take them out." - 'Fighting for permanent solutions' - Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin came to the White House to outline their bipartisan compromise, but found themselves in the room with several Republican immigration hardliners. Graham and Durbin are leading efforts to codify protections for so-called "dreamers," immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children. In exchange, the deal would end extended family "chain migration." Democratic Senator Dick Durbin (L) and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R) -- shown here in September -- are leading efforts to codify protections for so-called "dreamers," immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children It also reportedly would cut the visa lottery program by half and prioritize certain countries in the system, instead of scrapping it altogether as several Republicans have suggested as part of an agreement. The president and lawmakers are in the midst of intense negotiations about how to shield nearly 800,000 "dreamers" from deportation. Last year, Trump scrapped the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protected the immigrants, and set a deadline of March 5 for Congress to legislate a fix. The White House did not deny the account of Trump's use of language, but instead suggested the president was "fighting for permanent solutions" that strengthen the nation, in part through the use of a merit-based immigration system. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement. "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." In the past year, Trump has raised eyebrows with his stance on sensitive race issues in America. He has denounced NFL players who kneel during the national anthem in protest at police brutality against African Americans, and made questionable comments about a white supremacist rally in Virginia that turned violent. The New York Times recently reported that Trump had said in a separate June meeting on immigration that Haitians "all have AIDS," citing a person who attended the meeting. The White House denied those comments. - Furious Democrats... and Republicans - Democrats seized on Trump's slur against Haitians and Africans to suggest he is anti-immigrant. "We always knew that President Trump doesn't like people from certain countries or people or certain colors," congressman Luis Gutierrez said. "We can now we say with 100% confidence that the president is a racist who does not share the values enshrined in our Constitution." Republican congresswoman Mia Love was among those criticizing Trump's reported comments about Haitians Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky chimed in: "Just when you thought Donald Trump could not get any more racist, he digs down to an even deeper low." Some Republicans were also unhappy. Mia Love, a congresswoman from Utah who is of Haitian descent, called Trump's reported comments "unkind" and "divisive," and demanded an apology. "This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation," Love said in a statement. French auto giant is planning to offer a car-sharing program as part of plans to gradually re-enter the US market French auto giant PSA hopes to launch a car-sharing service in 2018 in the US, its latest baby step back after Peugeot exited the market in 1991. PSA in October launched in Seattle Free2Move, a smartphone application that aggregates car-sharing programs for users. Car-sharing apps allow users to rent vehicles for short periods of time, in contrast to traditional rental companies. The next move is to introduce PSA's own car sharing program in which it would rent out Peugeot built autos to consumers, said Larry Dominique, PSA's North American chief. "Aggregation is the first step and in 2018 we hope to launch one or two additional physical mobility services as well," Dominique told AFP in an interview ahead of next week's Detroit Auto Show. "We're still negotiating with the cities." The initiatives are part of the a strategy announced in April 2016 by Carlos Tavares, the chief executive of PSA, which sells cars made by Citroen and Opel, in addition to Peugeot. Peugeot withdrew from the US in 1991 following years of sales declines amid stiff competition from US and Japanese automakers. But company officials point to a long history in the US before that. Tavares has described a gradual US ramp-up process that could take 10 years in which PSA first engages through car-sharing apps and car sharing services before actually selling vehicles down the road. Part of the aim is to better learn customer preferences before making deeper investments. "We need to think about our approach to the US market in a new way," Dominique said. "We're trying to learn as much as we can." "There's no rush, no deadline for me to start selling cars in North America." Part of the caution is due to the heavily saturated nature of the US car market, where there are currently 18 carmakers, 42 brands and some 330 models, Dominique said. "We're at least a few years away from having any kind of vehicles that could be sold in the United States," said Dominique, 56, an auto industry veteran who previously worked at General Motors, Chrysler and Nissan. PSA's branding research suggests US consumers have a positive view of French merchandise such as wine, luxury items and goods that connote a "kind of a French lifestyle." But US consumers don't have a fixed opinion on the quality of French autos themselves. "So it's not negative, it's not positive," Dominique said. "It's neutral." PSA sees opportunity in the US an era of disruption with the rising role of electric cars, car connectivity and car sharing. A launch of car sharing would be one way to also get PSA cars back into the US if they resonate in the market. But the goal of the program is "about satisfying the customers rather than just put in our cars in services," Dominique said. Carrier factory worker Renee Elliott, seen here addressing a news conference on January 10, 2018, says she voted for President Donald Trump in the hopes that he would save her job A US heating and air conditioning company laid off more than 200 factory workers Thursday despite a deal with Donald Trump intended to keep the plant from moving to Mexico. Trump had hailed the late 2016 deal with the Carrier factory in Indiana, which he made shortly before becoming president, as keeping his campaign promise to save US manufacturing jobs. The $7 million tax incentive deal kept the plant from moving to Mexico and saved approximately 1,100 jobs. But Carrier's parent company United Technologies said the deal still allowed it to trim its workforce at the Indiana plant, and it engaged in two rounds of layoffs -- approximately 300 workers in July and another 215 on Thursday. "We continue to actively engage with our workers and the community to provide impacted employees with resources to make a smooth transition," the company said in a statement. Carrier factory worker Renee Elliott, who voted for Trump in the hopes that he would save her job, told a news conference Wednesday night that the president should have done more. "I now feel betrayed. I feel angry. And I feel forgotten," said the 44-year-old who had worked at the plant as a press operator for five years. The layoffs underscored the challenge of fulfilling Trump's campaign promise to save blue-collar American manufacturing jobs and prevent factories from relocating to other countries. "The president doesn't have much of a role in private sector job creation -- certainly not in the short term," Michael Hicks, economics professor at Ball State University in Indiana, told AFP. The US added 196,000 manufacturing jobs in 2017, but analysts say much of those gains are in positions requiring highly-skilled labor, such as operating robotics in automated factories. "If you have a high school degree or less, and you have been putting together ball bearings... those jobs are being automated very quickly," Hicks said. United Technologies has announced the closure of another plant in Indiana, as well, and an industrial bearings plant last year also shuttered in the state to move to Mexico, laying off 350 workers. Fiat Chrysler said a $1 billion investment would help it to modernize a plant in northern Michigan to "produce the next-generation Ram Heavy Duty truck," shifting production of the vehicle to the US from Mexico by 2020 Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler on Thursday unveiled a plan to invest $1 billion in a Michigan assembly plant and offer bonuses to tens of thousands of employees, saying the measures were possible because of US tax reform. The third-biggest US car maker said the investment would help it to modernize a plant in northern Michigan to "produce the next-generation Ram Heavy Duty truck," shifting production of the vehicle to the US from Mexico by 2020. To accommodate the increased production volume, FCA will add 2,500 jobs -- a figure that is "above and beyond" the job creations announced a year ago. The company will pay a one-time bonus of $2,000 to about 60,000 hourly and salaried employees in the United States, excluding top brass, in the second quarter of 2018. "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 US business environment by investing in our industrial footprint accordingly," said CEO Sergio Marchionne. The move was hailed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted: "Thank you Chrysler, a very wise decision. The voters in Michigan are very happy they voted for Trump/Pence." Late last year, the US Congress adopted a major overhaul of the country's tax code, in what was the first major legislative victory for President Donald Trump since he took office. The measure is expected to boost corporate profits of banks and other companies over the medium and long term by lowering the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Trump is also seeking to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, and has encouraged US businesses to bring jobs back home from across the southern border. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un warned the US in a New Year speech that he has a 'nuclear button' on his desk North Korea has stepped up tunnelling at its main nuclear test site, a US think tank said, even as tensions cool on the peninsula following the resumption of long-stalled inter-Korean dialogue. Satellite images showed increased activity at the Punggye-ri site, with mining carts and personnel frequently visible, and excavation waste piles growing, the respected 38North website said Thursday. "These activities underscore North Koreas continued efforts to maintain the Punggye-ri sites potential for future nuclear testing," it said. The last five of Pyongyang's six nuclear tests have been carried out under Mount Mantap at Punggye-ri in the country's north-west, all of them at the North Tunnel. After a series of small earthquakes in the area, 38North said last October that the site may be suffering from the geological condition "Tired Mountain Syndrome". The syndrome refers to the effect of below-ground nuclear blasts on the surrounding rock, which is extensively fractured and becomes increasingly permeable. The latest pictures indicated the North Tunnel was "dormant" with water draining from its entrance, but that "tunnel excavation has been stepped up at the West Portal". Elsewhere at the site there was unusual activity with some 100-120 personnel lined up in formation in the courtyard, their purpose unknown. The images were taken in December, shortly before North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un gave a New Year speech warning US President Donald Trump of a "nuclear button" on his desk, while also offering to hold talks with Seoul. The olive branch led to the first official dialogue between the two Koreas in more than two years, and an agreement for Pyongyang to send a delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in the South. The apparent rapprochement came after months of confrontation, during which Pyongyang carried out multiple missile tests and by far its biggest nuclear detonation to date. But North Korea made no promises on its weapons programme at the talks, and lashed out when asked about denuclearisation by South Korean journalists, saying it was not up for discussion. "The target of all our nuclear and hydrogen bombs and ICBMs and all other sophisticated weapons is the US," the North's chief delegate Ri Son-Gwon said. Since Kim inherited power in 2011, North Korea has made rapid progress towards its goal of developing a missile that can deliver an atomic warhead to the United States, which significantly strengthens its negotiating position. A member of the Tunisian security forces aims his weapon towards protesters during clashes on the outskirts of Tunis late on January 10, 2018 Sporadic unrest continued to shake parts of Tunisia Thursday, as authorities said more than 600 people had been arrested in a week of protest as anger at austerity measures boils over on the streets. Tunisia, whose 2011 revolt sparked the Arab Spring, has been convulsed with sometimes violent demonstrations since late Monday that have seen protesters clash with security forces and left dozens injured. The North African country is seen as a rare success story of the uprisings seven years ago that toppled autocrats across the region, but its failure to tackle poverty and unemployment have stirred economic resentment. In the latest violence young people in the northern town of Siliana hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at security forces, who responded with tear gas, an AFP correspondent said. Police detained 328 people on Wednesday for theft, looting, arson and blocking roads, the interior ministry said Thursday, after arresting more than 280 people over the previous two days. Tunisia Ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani said the violence was less intense than in previous days. Twenty-one members of the security forces were injured, according to Chibani, who said no civilians were hurt. AFP correspondents said most areas were calm late Thursday, and the presidency said the main political parties, unions and business organisations will meet on Saturday to discuss the situation. Tunisia is often seen as having had a relatively smooth transition since the 2011 uprising that toppled long-time 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 country has introduced hikes in value-added tax and social contributions as part of a tough new budget. Activists campaigning against the austerity measures have called for a huge protest on Friday. Political scientist Olfa Lamloum called the measures "the straw that breaks the camel's back". "Young people are disappointed with the revolution, especially because of the high cost of living," she said. - 'Nostalgia spreading' - Lamloum pointed to "deepening social inequalities" highlighted by official figures showing rising poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, particularly among young people. In Tebourba, where a man died during the first unrest overnight Monday to Tuesday, the mood was grim. "The political class is responsible for all this," said teacher Fatma Ben Rezayel in Tebourba on Thursday. "The region is totally marginalised." She deplored that "unemployed young people fed up with their poor lives" were being branded criminals by the authorities. The unrest started with peaceful protests last week, but escalated into clashes with police overnight Monday to Tuesday. A tyre is seen burning in the Ettadhamen neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Tunisian capital Tunis late on January 10, 2018 Unrest hit several areas including the central city of Kasserine, and Siliana, Tebourba and Thala in the north. Scuffles also broke out in some Tunis neighbourhoods. On Thursday, several dozen unemployed people protested in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the protests that sparked the 2011 uprisings. In Kasserine, youths tried to block roads with burning tyres and hurled stones at police, another AFP correspondent said. The main police station in the northern town of Thala was also torched, Chibani said. In Tebourba police fired tear gas at dozens of protesters, a resident said. One protester recalled what had happened to him. "I wanted to express my anger about being poor, and they responded with tear gas at my head," said Mohamed Rahmani, 21, his head in bandages because of 10 stitches. - Protest calls - Rail services were cancelled in some areas after a train was attacked in southern Tunis on Wednesday, local media reported. The opposition Popular Front party, accused by the authorities of supporting the rioters, urged the government to "find solutions for young Tunisians". Tunisian security forces detain a protester on the outskirts of Tunis late on January 10, 2018 "Peaceful demonstrations are part of the democratic equation, but damaging public property and harming citizens is illegal," said Hamma Hammami, spokesman for the leftist party. Tunisia has been under a state of emergency since 2015 following a series of deadly jihadist attacks. Conflict analysts International Crisis Group (ICG) warned the country's political class Thursday against succumbing to "authoritarian temptation". While politicians had so far resisted the urge to backtrack on reforms, the 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". Protests are common in Tunisia in January, when people mark the anniversary of the 2011 revolution. The uprising began in December 2010 after street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire and later died in a protest over unemployment and police harassment. At a cafe in Tebourba on Thursday, 41-year-old Sami shared coffee and a cigarette with a friend. "There's no work and no future here," he told AFP. "I don't have a dinar on me." For most of the last decade, the dunes, canyons and oases of this region were a no-go zone for French nationals, who were warned of travelling to the area. But things are starting to change. Sitting by a tent in the vast, sun-bleached Mauritanian desert, 71-year-old Elisabeth Godin smiles, unconcerned about her safety despite warnings from her friends and family. For most of the last decade, the spectacular dunes, barren canyons and oases of the Adrar region have been a no-go zone for European nationals. The danger of terrorist attacks and kidnappings is still real, reflected by Mauritania's decision to join four other countries in fighting jihadism in the Sahel. But after France eased its assessment of the security risk for the Adrar, a tiny number of French visitors are now returning, stirring hopes for the blighted local economy. "I missed the Sahara. The colours of the dunes, the wind on the sand, the starry skies," Godin, a retiree from La Rochelle in western France, told AFP. "When I sleep under the stars in the middle of the camp, I feel like I'm in a cocoon," she said, on a rocky plateau surrounded by acacia trees. Centuries ago the ancient Mauritanian towns of Chinguetti, Oualata, Tichitt and Wadan were key hubs for the camel caravan trade, which would snake across the Sahara selling gold and salt. "Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by the legends of the great caravans," said an awestruck visitor, Guillaume Jordan. - Jihadist blow - Adrar, a region 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, once had had a small but thriving excursion business, offering the extremes and the beauty of the desert to European travellers with a taste for adventure. In the 2000s, the region drew up to 14,000 visitors a year, mainly from France -- which, as the former colonial power, has a deep affinity with Mauritania -- but also the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Japan and Britain. But the activity was dealt a crippling blow when four French tourists were shot dead in 2007, an attack claimed by an Al-Qaeda affiliate. The following year, another local money-spinner, the celebrated Paris-Dakar off-road auto rally, was cancelled because of security concerns. The race was later relocated to South America. The tour business staggered on before all but drying up in 2011 after further jihadist attacks. The first seeds of hope were sown last March, when the French foreign ministry gave a cautious downgrade of the region's security risk. It rated the risk as "orange," meaning that travel there is "not advised except for essential reasons." Encouraged by the change, the French tour company Point-Afrique Voyages, relaunched chartered flights between Paris and Atar, the main regional city, at Christmas -- the first to fly this route since 2011. A total of 14 flights -- supported by some 350,000 euros ($422,000) in subsidies by the Mauritanian government -- have been scheduled until March 24. The flights are already half-filled, with more than 1,000 visitors signed up, says Point-Afrique Voyages. "Since the flights to Atar resumed, the figures for people coming by land have also risen," said Mohammed Ba ould Ne, head of Mauritania's National Tourism Office. Kadi Mehdi, director of Mauritanides Voyages, described 2018 as "a test season" for a revival of European visitors. The tourism industry's big challenge is to prove the country is safe, he said. "Dozens of police are constantly patrolling the area. We do not see them, but they are there," said Mehdi. - 'Benefits of tourism' - The flights and growing trickle of visitors provide hope to the many guides, camel owners and hoteliers who have been unemployed, many of whom are the economic victims of terrorism. "We have been at a near standstill for almost a decade. Now that planes are arriving, the city (Chinguetti) is starting to live again," said hostel owner Lemine Bahan. The trickle-down benefits of tourism should not be under-estimated, said Point-Afrique Voyages director, Maurice Freund. Mauritania is part of the so-called G5 Sahel group, which also includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger. These countries are setting up a five-nation force to combat extremists. "Mauritania has made enormous efforts to secure its territory," Freund said. But "military force will never solve the problems alone," he said. "Tourism is a tool for peace." Shinzo Abe will be the first Japanese leader to visit that region of Eastern Europe Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday urged Baltic NATO states to support pressure on North Korea, as he hammered home his hawkish message that Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes pose a global threat. Despite a recent cooling of tensions in the run-up to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, Shinzo Abe has insisted on "maximising pressure" on the North. "We should work closely together to maintain and strengthen a rule of law-based international order on North Korea, which is now a threat to the global community", Abe told reporters in Lithuania's capital Vilnius. His Lithuanian counterpart Saulius Skvernelis voiced support as did Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis with whom Abe met earlier in the day in Latvia's capital Riga. Briefing reporters, Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Norio Maruyama said that although the threat posed by Pyongyang was "unprecedented", the full implementation of UN sanctions would have "a very strong effect on North Korea." New UN sanctions passed against North Korea last month ban the supply of nearly 75 percent of refined oil products to Pyongyang and cap crude deliveries among other measures. Abe kicked off his visit in fellow Baltic eurozone state Estonia on Friday, where he also discussed deepening cybersecurity and economic ties. Japan is keen to raise its profile in the region as China bolsters its ties there. China is pushing its massive $1 trillion "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which seeks to build rail, maritime and road links from Asia to Europe and Africa in a revival of ancient Silk Road trading routes. On Sunday Abe will head to Lithuania's second largest city Kaunas to pay tribute to Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who saved 6,000 European Jews from the Holocaust by issuing visas to allow them to escape war-torn Lithuania. Abe is the first sitting Japanese leader to visit the Baltic states and will also visit Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania before returning to Tokyo Wednesday. A Marriott questionnaire in Mandarin triggered an uproar on Chinese social media Authorities in China have shut down Marriott's local website for a week and scolded Delta, Zara and a US medical firm Friday for listing Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong as separate countries. Alongside Marriott, the Spanish clothing giant Zara, Delta Air Lines and Medtronic -- a medical device company -- were all called out by Chinese authorities for "illegal" classification of regions that Beijing claims under its authority. Shanghai's cyberspace authority late Thursday ordered Marriott to close its Chinese website and app for a week and completely clear out illegal and irregular information, according to a government statement. The same authority said in a statement Friday that the websites for Zara and Medtronic had included Taiwan and "Republic of China (Taiwan)", respectively, in their country lists. The companies were urged to "immediately alter their illegal content and publish apologies." Separately, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) noted in an online statement that Tibet and Taiwan were listed as countries on Delta's official website. The airline has been instructed to "immediately rectify the situation" and "publicly apologise", CAAC said. Marriott's Chinese website now shows a message with an apology. "We never support any separatist organisation that damages China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," it says. "We apologise profoundly for any behaviour that will cause misunderstanding about the above stance." - 'Respect sovereignty' - In a customer questionnaire in Mandarin, Marriott 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. It triggered an uproar on Chinese social media as Tibet is an "autonomous region" firmly under Chinese control since the 1950s. Hong Kong and Macau are former British and Portuguese colonies, respectively, that are now "special administrative regions" of China. Taiwan has been self-ruled since splitting from the mainland after a 1949 civil war, but Beijing continues to claim sovereignty over the island. Shanghai authorities are probing whether the gaffe in the Marriott questionnaire violated national cyber-security and advertising laws. "We welcome foreign companies to invest and operate in China, but in the meantime they should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, respect our laws and regulations, as well as the feelings of the Chinese people," foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a regular press briefing. "I think this is the basic principle for foreign countries to conduct operations and investment in other countries." While Marriott apologised, public anger further escalated after the official Twitter account of Marriott Rewards liked a tweet from "Friends of Tibet", an India-based group that supports Tibetan independence and congratulated the hotel chain for listing Tibet as a country. Marriott president and chief executive Arne Sorenson soon issued a lengthy apology letter, which described the like as "careless". "Marriott International respects and supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China. Unfortunately, twice this week, we had incidents that suggested the opposite," said Sorenson. "Upon completion of a full investigation into how both incidents happened, we will be taking the necessary disciplinary action with respect to the individuals involved, which could include termination." Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (with Donald Trump) is known for wearing casual clothes even when meeting world leaders Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has a habit of chewing gum in public, even while meeting world leaders, has revealed he did it to ease pain from a spinal condition. The fiery 72-year-old has upset traditional decorum by lacing his speeches with curses, chewing gum in public, and wearing casual clothes, sometimes dispensing with socks. Duterte affirmed his gum habit during a speech to a private audience on Thursday, when he suggested how people should repay him for his public service. "Just pay me chewing gum because it eases up the pain when I'm chewing," he said, according to a transcript of the speech released by his office Friday. He suggested it had something to do with a "spinal" condition but did not elaborate. "It eases a bit," he added. Protocol-conscious Japanese officials were on faux pas alert ahead of a meeting with revered Emperor Akihito last year after a video of Duterte with Chinese President Xi Jinping showed him apparently chewing gum -- considered rude on such an occasion. A photo of Duterte meeting with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamouni in 2016 also showed him with rolled-up sleeves and an open collar, drawing unfavourable social media comments according to the Cambodian press. Duterte, the oldest ever Filipino president, regularly displays similar unconventional behaviour and fashion sense at official functions in the Philippines. In 2006 he revealed that he used to take fentanyl, a powerful painkiller that is often prescribed for cancer pain and other chronic ailments, because of a spinal injury from previous motorcycle accidents. Duterte has also said he suffers from daily migraines and ailments including a rare cardiovascular condition characterised by inflammation of blood vessels usually due to smoking. Chinese trade picked up last year on the back of a strong global economy China's trade surplus with the United States expanded last year, raising the possibility of fresh blowback from President Donald Trump who has often bashed Beijing over the issue and fanned fears of a trade war. The increase came despite a tumble in China's global surplus as domestic demand spurred a rally in imports. The figures on Friday showed the difference between exports and imports with the United States expanded 10 percent to $275.8 billion. Trade between the two countries has become a sensitive issue with the US president hitting out at what he considers unfair practices by Beijing and accusing it of killing US jobs, at one time describing its policies as "rape". The billionaire's comments and economically nationalist platform -- including pulling out of a key Pacific pact and threatening to tear up another with Canada -- have fanned fears of a trade war. But while the former reality TV star has repeatedly threatened to take retaliatory action against China if it does not narrow the gap, he has so far held back. During his November visit to Beijing, the two countries announced more than $250 billion in business deals providing some salve to Trumps fixation on trade. The increasing surplus is likely to give impetus to calls for tough measures. - 'Major uncertainty' - The US is expected to release the results of a major investigation into China's intellectual property practices this year. China has so far resisted taking major retaliatory action against US imports despite a volley of new duties and investigations from the White House. But historically, Beijing has responded to new US tariffs with tit-for-tat measures and it is unclear how long its leaders will restrain themselves. "A major uncertainty is potential China-US trade frictions," Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong told Bloomberg News. Friday's report from the General Administration of Customs showed China's exports expanded 7.9 percent while imports soared 15.9 percent. The humming global economy helped propel China's trade, giving its leaders more time to achieve their goal of transitioning the economy from one driven by exports and investment to a more stable model propelled by domestic consumption. "China's foreign trade continued to build on a solid foundation for steady growth, its potential being gradually unleashed," said customs spokesman Huang Songping. "As the global economy continues to recover and the Chinese economy turns to steady and sound growth, China's foreign trade outlook in 2018 is upbeat." - N.Korea imports dive - But the figures indicated a slowdown in trade activity at the end of 2017. Exports grew 10.9 percent for the month, slightly beating analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg News, but imports fell well short of expectations, growing 4.5 percent. Forecasts in a Bloomberg survey were for of 15.1 percent import growth. The rate is also a steep fall from November's 17.7 percent. "Although the trade data are often volatile, this latest decline - the largest in almost two years - is a sign that domestic demand may have weakened at the end of last year," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China Economist at Capital Economics. However, a plunge of 33 percent in imports from North Korea last year -- including a 81.6 percent drop in December -- will likely help temper Trump's anger. The president has connected the two issues a number of times. The December data show China has implemented a series of UN Security Council resolutions this year, targeting the North's most profitable exports. In 2016, China accounted for roughly 90 percent of the North's trade, with the secretive country's coal and iron exports bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars for the regime. China's exports to the rogue nation did expand 8.3 percent last year, but it has drastically cut its reported oil shipments in recent months. UN sanctions targeting other exports to the North will likely cut into China's trade figures next year. President Filipe Nyusi has vowed to push ahead with peace talks after holding a meeting with Afonso Dhlakama, head of Renamo, last August. Mozambique's military and the opposition Renamo group were both guilty of serious crimes before a 2016 ceasefire, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Friday detailing killings and torture. HRW called for justice over the violence that erupted between November 2015 and December 2016 as Mozambique appeared at risk of returning to its long and bloody civil war. Renamo rebels had fought a 16-year war against the ruling Frelimo party until 1992, and unrest again boiled over in 2015. "More than a year since the ceasefire was declared, the Mozambican government has not held anyone from its security forces or Renamo accountable," said HRW programme director Iain Levine. "The government should investigate abuses by both sides and bring those responsible to justice." The report gave evidence of torture and abduction by government soldiers, and of Renamo fighters launching deadly ambushes on public transportation and health clinics. President Filipe Nyusi has vowed to push ahead with peace talks after holding a meeting with Afonso Dhlakama, head of Renamo, last August. The meeting was held in the remote Gorongosa mountains where Dhlakama has been in hiding since 2015, surrounded by armed loyalists. Renamo, which also holds seats in parliament, is seeking greater decentralisation and better integration of its supporters into the police and military. Mozambique is still recovering from the 1976-1992 civil war during which one million people died in years of sporadic fighting between Frelimo and Renamo. HRW said its report was based on 70 interviews with victims, police officers, soldiers, politicians and activists. The government denied the allegations, while Renamo dismissed the report as "propaganda". "Justice for both government and Renamo forces is crucial for the ceasefire to become an enduring peace," Levine said. Le Togo, ou les deux-tiers des habitants vivent de l'agriculture de subsistance et plus de la moitie avec moins d'un dollar par jour, est en proie a une grave crise politique depuis septembre. Photo prise dans le quartier de Be le 4 octobre 2017. Opposition parties in Togo this weekend hold their first anti-government protest of the year, with progress on constitutional reform in an apparent stalemate after months of action. Thousands of supporters from a coalition of 14 parties are expected to turn out on Saturday, to renew calls for President Faure Gnassingbe to step down. A second protest exclusively for women has been organised for January 20. The parties want a change to the constitution to restrict presidents to a maximum of two, five-year terms of office, plus the introduction of a two-round voting system. Gnassingbe, who has been in power since 2005 and took over from his father who ruled the country for 38 years, has proposed the amendment. But it has been rejected because the measure is not retroactive, which would leave Gnassingbe free to contest the next two elections scheduled for 2020 and 2025. In his New Year message, Gnassingbe said dialogue was "the preferred way of resolving disagreement" and that he had "no doubt" the two sides would come together to resolve the issue. Opposition supporters in Lome, especially the young, want change, and particularly jobs, assessing that the Gnassingbe dynasty has changed little for ordinary people. Most of Togo's eight million people earn a living from subsistence farming and more than half live on less than a dollar a day. Unemployment among young people has reached 29 percent of the working population. "Nothing's right in this country. After years of study, we don't have jobs and still rely on our parents," said Yaovi Ewonvo, in the opposition stronghold of Be, in Lome. "The people who've led us for decades have failed and they need to recognise it. It's now time for them to go," said the 28-year-old Ewonvo, an IT management studies graduate. Be has been a hotspot for clashes between protesters and the security forces during almost weekly protests that have taken place across the country since late August last year. Many of the young demonstrators are supporters of the veteran opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre and his National Alliance for Change (ANC). West African leaders in November called for both sides in Togo to enter talks mediated by President Nana Akufo-Addo, from neighbouring Ghana, and Guinea's Alpha Conde. But talks have yet to start. Fabre first wants "measures for de-escalation", including the release of detained prisoners and the withdrawal of security forces from the north. Opposition supporters are sceptical about the chances of progress through dialogue, considering it to be a smokescreen by the government. Le Togo, ou les deux-tiers des habitants vivent de l'agriculture de subsistance et plus de la moitie avec moins d'un dollar par jour, est en proie a une grave crise politique depuis septembre. Photo prise le 4 octobre 2017 dans le quartier de Be, a Lome. A total of 16 people, including teenagers and two soldiers lynched by a crowd, have been killed since the protests began. Public buildings and private houses have been ransacked and burned. There had been speculation that the trip would be merged with a planned state visit to Britain offered to Trump by Prime Minister Theresa May The British government blamed the threat of mass protests for President Donald Trump's decision Friday to cancel a visit to London to open the new US embassy, and warned that criticism of the White House risked harming US-UK relations. Trump said he was abandoning next month's trip because he did not like the location and cost of the new embassy building. But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson suggested the decision was prompted by the opposition to Trump in Britain, and warned such critics "seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk". Prime Minister Theresa May offered Trump a state visit to Britain one year ago, when she became the first foreign leader to visit the White House after his inauguration. But the date has yet to be set in the face of deep hostility to the president in Britain, prompting speculation it could be turned into a lower profile trip focused around the opening of the new embassy. Trump tweeted overnight that he would not attend the ceremony, initially scheduled for next month. "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 1.2 billion dollars," he wrote. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon - NO!" - 'Finally got that message' - US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May met at the White House in January 2017 His decision not to come was welcomed by critics outraged by the US travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, and more recently, Trump's decision to re-tweet anti-Muslim videos posted by a British far-right organisation. "Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems he's finally got that message," tweeted Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. The mayor, a member of the main opposition Labour party, said there would have been "mass peaceful protests", and that it had been a "mistake" to invite him. There is likely some relief in the British government at Trump's decision, which would have caused at the very least a major policing operation. But Johnson accused Khan and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of damaging US-UK relations with their vocal criticism. "The US is the biggest single investor in the UK -- yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk," he tweeted. "We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall." - Strained UK-US ties - A spokesman for May's Downing Street office said the invitation for the state visit "has been extended and accepted. No date has been confirmed". "The US is one of our oldest and most valued allies and our strong and deep partnership will endure," he said. No caption Relations between May and Trump became strained in November after he re-tweeted anti-Muslim videos posted by a British far-right group. May condemned it, and Trump hit back that she should focus on terrorism in Britain, which suffered five attacks last year. In an article in London's Evening Standard newspaper on Friday, US ambassador Woody Johnson said Washington was "re-investing in the special relationship". "Our new embassy reflects not just America's special history with the UK but the special future ahead of us as we advance the prosperity and security of both our nations," he wrote. He conceded that the former building in upmarket Mayfair, central London, was a "perfect location" but noted it was viewed as too vulnerable following the September 11, 2001, attacks. The new 12-storey, cube-shaped building, designed by American architects KieranTimberlake, is located in a regenerated area on the south bank of the River Thames. It will be open for business on January 16, completing a decade-long project began by the administration of former Republican president George W. Bush. Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, who visited Trump following his election, said it was "disappointing" the president could not visit when he had been to so many other countries. Map of London locating the old and new US embassies But Stephen Doughty, an opposition Labour lawmaker, tweeted: "We are not a big fan of his racist, sexist, unthinking behaviour." In Trump's absence, the Madame Tussauds museum installed the president's waxwork outside the new embassy, causing construction workers to crowd round and pose for selfies. US President Donald Trump's use of the word "shithole" to describe some countries has left many media scratching their heads on whether to repeat the slur US President Donald Trump's use of the word "shithole" to describe some countries has sparked fury in some quarters and left many media scratching their heads on whether to repeat the slur. But spare a thought for the non-English language media outlets that had to translate the president's colourful epithet into local languages. Here are a few of their efforts: - Japan: 'Like toilets' - The famously polite Japanese media tied themselves in knots trying not to offend their readers, with national broadcaster NHK sticking to "filthy countries". The BBC's Japanese-language service translated the term into Japanese with a phrase for a tank to hold excrement, which is often used as manure. Newswire Jiji Press translated it as "countries like toilets", using a colloquial but not necessarily vulgar term. Meanwhile, the Sankei Shimbun added nuance by translating it as "countries as dirty as outdoor toilets". - South Korea: 'Beggar's Den' - South Korean media largely took their cue from the country's biggest news agency Yonhap, which rendered the term as "beggar's den". But the @AskAKorean account on Twitter had its own alternative. "I still think the more literal translation of 'shit bucket' would have worked better," it suggested. - Taiwan: 'Birds don't lay eggs' - The prize for the most roundabout translation has to go to Taipei's CNA news agency who translated it as "countries where birds don't lay eggs". - Vietnam: 'Rotten' Some countries in Southeast Asia struggled to translate the obscenity because of a lack of verbatim terminology but also due to the term itself, which might be considered too vulgar to translate literally. Local media in Vietnam varied in strength from "dirty countries" to "rubbish countries" to "rotten countries". Meanwhile, Voice of America's Thai service, which is backed by the US, printed an explanation of the word itself in their article on the outburst, writing that "this English word could translate as a 'hole of waste from excrement,' which reflects that he considered [them] low-class countries". - China: 'Bad' - Chinese media were very guarded in their use of the term, with most picking up the story from the overseas version of the People's Daily, which translated it as "languo", meaning "bad countries". - Philippines: 'Shithole' - In the Philippines, whose mainly English-language media have become used to their own president Rodrigo Duterte's foul-mouthed outbursts, newspapers were nowhere near as coy. "Trump: Why allow immigrants from 'shithole countries?' headlined the Philippine Star. burs-hih-ric/sah/amu Tunisian protesters confront security forces blocking access to the governorate's offices in Tunis during a demonstration over price hikes and austerity measures on January 12, 2018 Fresh scuffles broke out Friday as hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital and coastal city of Sfax, waving yellow cards and demanding the government reverse austerity measures. More than 200 young people rallied in Tunis following a call from the Fech Nestannew (What Are We Waiting For?) campaign for a major protest against the measures imposed at the start of the year. They held up yellow cards, chanted slogans and scuffled with riot police as they marched on administrative offices in the capital. "The people want the Finance Act repealed" and "The people are fed up with the new Trabelsi", they shouted, referring to the graft-tainted in-laws of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. "We believe that dialogue and reforms are still possible," said Henda Chennaoui of the Fech Nestannew campaign. "We've got the same demands we've been seeking for years -- to tackle real problems like the economic crisis and the high cost of living," she told AFP. Tunisian protesters wave yellow cards and shout slogans outside the governorate's offices in Tunis during a demonstration over price hikes and austerity measures on January 12, 2018 In Sfax, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Tunis, around 200 people vented their anger over rising prices, an AFP correspondent reported. "The people's money is in the palaces, and the children of the people are in the prisons," read one placard. Tunisian authorities said Friday the number of people detained in the wave of violent protests had risen to nearly 800, after a provincial town was hit by a night of unrest over the austerity measures. An AFP correspondent in the northern town of Siliana said police fired tear gas at dozens of youths who pelted them with stones during skirmishes that lasted around three hours overnight. - 'Heavy-handed' - Interior ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani said 151 people were arrested Thursday, taking the number detained for alleged involvement in the violence to 778 after several nights of unrest. Chibani said clashes between youths and police were "limited" and "not serious", and insisted no acts of violence, theft or looting were recorded Thursday evening. Amnesty International has accused the Tunisian authorities of using "increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies" during the anti-austerity protests Rights group Amnesty International accused the authorities of using "increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies and subsequently arrest protesters" during the unrest. "Tunisian security forces must refrain from using excessive force and end their use of intimidation tactics against peaceful demonstrators," the watchdog said. One man died in the unrest on Monday night, but the authorities have insisted the police were not responsible for this. A number of left-wing activists have been arrested by the authorities in recent days, after officials accused them of fuelling the violence. Several dozen members of the Popular Front party demonstrated Friday in front of a court in the town of Gafsa after the arrest of several local activists, an AFP correspondent said. Tunisia is considered a rare success story of the Arab Spring uprisings that began in the North African country in 2011 and spread across the region, toppling autocrats. But the authorities have failed to resolve the issues of poverty and unemployment. Protests are common in Tunisia in January, when people mark the anniversary of the revolution that ousted long-time dictator Ben Ali. Experts say it is unprecedented for judges to publicly criticise the head of India's highest court Four Indian Supreme Court judges took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the chief justice on Friday, warning a lack of impartiality could imperil the world's largest democracy. The judges said they were making their disagreement with Chief Justice Dipak Misra public after private talks failed to address what they said were serious problems with the running of India's highest court. They gave no specific details at a hastily arranged press conference. But in a letter released to the media they said the criticisms related to an alleged lack of transparency in the selection of judges to try cases, calling it a cause for "serious concern". "The administration of the SC is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in last few months," Justice Jasti Chelameswar, one of the four judges, told reporters. "Democracy will not survive if judiciary is not impartial," he said. In the letter to Chief Justice Misra, the judges said they would not divulge details of their concerns to avoid embarrassing the institution. But one of the four said their concerns related to a case involving the death of a lower court judge, B.H. Loya, in 2014 days before he was to deliver a final verdict in the case of a senior ruling party politician accused of ordering a murder. Loya was said to have died of natural causes but the Supreme Court is hearing a petition demanding an investigation into allegations he was murdered. Misra, who only took over as chief justice in September, did not respond to calls for comment on the allegations. Experts said it was unprecedented for a chief justice to face public criticism from judges. In the letter, the judges said there were instances of cases with "far-reaching consequences for the nation" being selectively assigned by the chief justice. They did not cite any specific cases. But Misra faced criticism in November when he overturned an order to recuse him from hearing a case involving alleged bribery by a medical college. The bribes were allegedly paid to a high court judge to influence a Supreme Court case that Misra was hearing, sparking concerns over a conflict of interest. India's Supreme Court has huge influence in India as it wields constitutional powers and in the past has revoked laws passed by the parliament that it considered infringed citizens' rights. Last year it upheld the fundamental right to privacy of citizens despite government opposition. It has currently 25 judges with six vacancies, with more than 50,000 cases pending before it. There was a mixed reaction from the judiciary, with former Supreme Court judge R.S. Sodhi saying the judges' behaviour was "immature and childish". Many were supportive, among them Prashant Bhushan, a Supreme Court lawyer and opposition politician. "They are doing a service to the nation by letting the country know that the chief justice is abusing and misusing his power as the master of roster to assign cases to particular benches, to junior judges to achieve a predetermined outcome," he said. Marvel's new editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski has been hiring talent in Asia Chinese superheroes will soon be joining the pantheon of larger-than-life Marvel universe mainstays Spider-Man, Iron Man and the X-Men, a company official said as the comic book giant makes a major thrust into Asia. As part of a push to grow its Asia fanbase, the Disney-owned franchise has released mobile games in China, opened "Marvel Stores" in South Korea and is searching for artistic talent in the Philippines, Marvel editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski said. "We have been making great strides especially in Asia. We try to hire more Asian creators, writers and artists to bring a piece of their culture to Marvel comics," he said in Manila where he visited a major university for fresh talent. The comic giant plans to introduce two new Chinese superheroes: "Sword Master" and "Aero" who will be based in China, Cebulski added. "They are going to be heavily based on Chinese culture and Chinese mythology but set in the modern world and they will interact with the other heroes (in the Marvel universe)," he said. These new characters will be drawn in the 'manga' style of Japanese comics that is more popular in Asia, he added. Cebulski, who has lived the last two years in Asia, serving as Marvel's vice president for the region, conceded that Marvel had not given Asian characters prominent positions in the past compared to mainstays like Captain America or the Hulk. But this is changing, he said. "We want to have stories that are reflective of every culture." There is huge fan expectation over Marvel's latest flagship movie -- Black Panther -- which will be released worldwide next month. The film stars Chadwick Boseman playing Marvel's breakthrough black superhero T'Challa, a king of a fictional African nation who first featured in the company's comic books in the late 1960s. Luke Cage, another popular black Marvel superhero, has also had a recent revival through a popular TV series on Netflix. But Asian superheroes are still comparatively rare in the Marvel universe despite the franchise's growing popularity there. In the Philippines, a former US colony, Marvel is already deeply ingrained in the nation's popular culture, said Cebulski. Filipino illustrators in turn have also provided art for Marvel comics since the 1970s. People from the Southeast Asian nation are now the third largest nationality of artists employed by Marvel, just behind Americans and Italians, Cebulski said. Since a cafe assault in July 2016, security forces have shot dead more than 70 alleged militants in a major crackdown Three suspected Islamist extremists were killed in a shootout with elite Bangladesh police who raided a building near the prime minister's office on Friday, a spokesman for the force said. Mufti Mahmud Khan said the suspects exchanged gunfire and threw a grenade at Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers who cordoned off the building following a tip-off. "They died in the shootout," Khan told AFP, saying all of them were Islamist extremists. Both the spokesman and local media said the alleged hideout was close to the office of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Her secular government has vowed to root out extremism in Muslim-majority Bangladesh in the wake of numerous attacks by radical groups in recent years. In July 2016 militants stormed a Dhaka cafe and massacred 22 hostages, including 18 foreigners. That attack was claimed by the IS group, although Hasina's government denies that international radical groups operate inside Bangladesh. Since the cafe assault, security forces have shot dead more than 70 alleged militants in a major crackdown. Palestinian knifeman Ahmad Alhaw killed one and wounded six in the supermarket attack in Hamburg last July A 26-year-old Palestinian man admitted Friday to killing a man and wounding six others with a knife in a Hamburg supermarket, an attack that stoked fears of Islamist terrorism in Germany. Ahmad Alhaw "declares that he takes responsibility for the very serious crimes he committed, and explicitly recognises his guilt regarding all the charges," the defendant's lawyer Christoph Burchard told judges in the high-security courtroom. Alhaw took a 20-centimetre (eight-inch) knife from the shelves of a supermarket last July, using it to kill one and wound six in the assault. He was arrested after passers-by overpowered him. Charging him with murder, as well as six counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, prosecutors said he acted with a likely Islamist motive. He told interrogators that the crime "had some connection with events on the Temple Mount" in Jerusalem, where Israeli authorities had recently imposed access controls for Muslim worshippers, prosecutor Yasemin Tuz told the court. "The results of the investigation show that the accused sought out his victims indiscriminately, retaliating against people who in his view represent perpetrators of injustice targeting Muslims," prosecutors had earlier said. "It was important to him to kill as many German nationals of the Christian faith as possible. He wanted his actions to be viewed in the context of an Islamist attack, and understood as a contribution to jihad worldwide," they added. Investigators, however, did not find any evidence to suggest that Alhaw was a member of the Islamic State (IS) group. Rather, the defendant -- a tall, slim, bearded figure who appeared in court wearing glasses and a blue turtleneck -- had from time to time demonstrated "suspect behaviour", "transforming" his life towards radical Islam before "again taking up a Western lifestyle," Tuz said. - 'Fascinated' by the West - Through an Arabic translator, Alhaw told the court he had sought asylum in Norway in 2009 after giving up dentistry studies in Egypt, hoping for a better life in Europe. After his application was rejected, he moved around the EU, living in Sweden, Spain and finally Germany. He was "fascinated" by the Western lifestyle and enjoyed drinking alcohol, with only "phases" of religiosity, Alhaw said. But "he had the feeling that he was not welcome in these countries," he added. Alhaw himself declined to discuss his suspected religious radicalisation or details of his crimes. "He knows that he has committed very serious crimes and knows he will be sentenced for them," defender Burchard said. - Sequence of attacks - The killer risks life in prison, although Germany often grants parole after 15 years. Hearings began after he was deemed psychologically fit for trial. National news agency DPA said Alhaw had allegedly signed a statement during interrogation saying: "Yes, I am a terrorist." The trial is expected to last until March 2, with the six people wounded in the assault invited to the hearings only from January 26. The assault in the northern port city was the first Islamist attack in Germany since Tunisian Anis Amri drove a truck into crowds at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016, killing 12 and injuring 48. Amri was shot dead by police in Milan four days later, and the rampage was claimed by the Islamic State group. Germany has been on high alert over the threat of a jihadist assault since that truck rampage. Like Amri, Alhaw was to have been deported after his asylum application was rejected by authorities at the end of 2016, but the process was held up by a lack of identity documents. The attacks have piled pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel over her decision to allow in more than a million asylum seekers since 2015. Railing against the migrants, the Islamophobic party AfD won over 90 seats in September's general elections -- the best showing for a far-right party in Germany since the end of World War II. India and China were involved in a showdown over a disputed Himalayan plateau last year India will handle China's growing assertiveness and has stepped up patrols on their disputed border to head off more standoffs, the country's top army officer declared Friday. The nuclear-armed neighbours have in the past gone to war over their border and last year were involved in a showdown over a Himalayan plateau claimed by China and Bhutan which is an ally of India. Indian army chief General Bipin Rawat said a military hotline was being set up between the two sides but insisted his troops are ready for new tensions. "We understand China is a powerful country but we are not a weak nation," Indian army chief General Bipin Rawat told a press conference when asked about the border dispute. "We have increased our troop levels... we have increased our patrolling intensity. We are capable of handling China's assertiveness. "We will not allow our territory to be invaded upon. Whenever intrusions take place we will defend because that's there in our charter." Hundreds of Chinese and Indian troops faced off last year on the Doklam plateau, a small strip close to the intersection between China, India and Bhutan. Rawat said Indian soldiers crossed into foreign territory during the standoff but only because Chinese forces had "big equipment and they meant business". "We knew they will try and claim the whole of Doklam. We felt a change in the status quo..(but) all effort was made by us to ensure it does not lead to a conflict. "Even if it would have escalated we were prepared (as) the terrain usually favours us." The border dispute began in mid-June after Chinese troops started building a road on the Himalayan plateau. India has an army base nearby and moved soldiers into the flashpoint zone to halt the work, prompting Beijing to accuse it of trespassing on Chinese territory. The two nations finally pulled back their troops in mid-August, averting a full-blown crisis. India and China fought a 1962 war over Arunachal Pradesh state and have a history of mistrust as they jostle for regional supremacy. China has fostered closer ties with India's arch-rival Pakistan in recent years. It has also invested in other countries in the region in a bid to win friends. India is revamping its military and bolstering its partnership with the United States and Japan. Both nations say they are committed to solving their border disagreements through dialogue, but progress has been glacial. Rawat said a military hotline with China was in the works to help defuse future border tensions. "We are moving very fast, very soon we will have a hotline with the Chinese. "As we are seeing increased activity along the LAC (Line of Actual Control), this can be deescalated through one-to-one talk at the highest level at the borders." A Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau is believed to be hiding out in the Sambisa Forest Boko Haram fighters have killed at least 20 loggers, militia members and residents told AFP on Friday, in the latest attack against civilians in northeast Nigeria. The attack happened on Monday when gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on a group of loggers collecting firewood at Kaje village, near the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. "They (Boko Haram) killed 20 people in the attack. Fifteen others are missing and presumed kidnapped by the attackers," civilian militia leader Ibrahim Liman told AFP. Details of the attack have been slow to emerge due to limited communications infrastructure after years of fighting in the remote region. Kaje resident Shuaibu Sidi corroborated Liman's account and said his brother was among the dead. Nigeria's government and military maintain that the Islamist militants, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, are on the verge of defeat. The conflict, which began in 2009, has killed more than 20,000 and forced some 2.6 million others from their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis in the region. But despite clear military gains in major towns and cities, hard-to-reach rural communities remain vulnerable to attack. On December 30, 25 loggers were shot dead at Maiwa village, which is three kilometres (nearly two miles) from Kaje, and three truck-loads of firewood was burned. Liman said: "We believe the same gunmen behind the Maiwa attack were responsible for the Kaje attack." - Previous attacks - The attackers were believed to have come from Boko Haram's main enclave in the Sambisa Forest area of Borno, which is accessible from the two logging sites, he added. Many of those displaced by the conflict are forced to rely on food handouts from aid agencies. Others have turned to felling trees in the semi-desert region to sell as firewood and use the proceeds to buy food. Boko Haram has increasingly targeted loggers in their armed campaign to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. They have accused them of spying for the military and the civilian militia, which assists troops with security. At least 31 loggers have not been seen since January 2 and are believed to have been abducted near the town of Gamboru, on the border with Cameroon. They had left the town to fetch firewood in a Boko Haram hotspot, 15 kilometres away, where 10 other loggers had been killed two weeks earlier. In August three loggers were decapitated near Aisa-Wulomari village, some 40 kilometres from Maiduguri, as they returned to the city. In April eight loggers were killed and their bodies burnt at Kayamla village, 10 kilometres from Maiduguri, as they collected firewood in the bush. Commander of the US Central Command Joseph Votel spoke to the head of Pakistan's army "over the week" US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel has assured the head of Pakistan's army that Washington "is not contemplating any unilateral action" inside the country, a statement from the Pakistani military said Friday. Votel, who spoke to General Qamar Javed Bajwa by telephone "over the week", also said that the "on-going turbulence" around a tweet by Donald Trump suspending aid to the country was "a temporary phase", according to the statement. The statement came after Trump froze up to $1.9 billion in funding to Pakistan, in a move designed to force its military and intelligence apparatus to halt its support for the Afghan Taliban and other Islamist groups. The move, first announced by Trump in a New Year's Day tweet, sparked indignation in Pakistan, which has long denied the US accusations of militant support, and accused Washington of dismissing the sacrifices it has made in the war on extremism. It also ignited speculation that the US could resume drone strikes or launch operations along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, where militant groups once operated with impunity. The Pakistani military said both Votel and an unnamed US senator phoned Bajwa to discuss security cooperation "over the week". "The General said that US values Pakistan's role towards war on terror and expected that on-going turbulence remains a temporary phase", the statement said. Votel also told Bajwa the "US is not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan", it continued. For his part Bajwa told Votel that the "entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed" over the US statements, but insisted Pakistan would continue to support peace efforts in the region despite being made a "scapegoat". He also said that Pakistan would not seek to unfreeze the funding, but does "expect honourable recognition of our contributions, sacrifices and unwavering resolve in fight against terrorism". Spokesman Colonel John Thomas said Centcom is in "continuous communication" with the Pakistan military, including recurring conversations between Votel and Bajwa. "We value mutual understanding of interests and concerns that we need to consider that might lead to a positive path forward," Thomas told AFP. Trump has been less charitable towards Pakistan. "They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" he wrote in his New Year's Day tweet, referring to Pakistan. Officials said the administration had frozen payments from the "coalition support fund" set aside to reimburse Pakistani spending on counter-terror operations, worth $900 million. Also in question is almost $1 billion of US military equipment that has allowed Pakistan access to advanced military technology. A Chinese firefighting vessel sprays foam on a burning Iranian oil tanker on January 12, 2018 Iran said Friday that a fresh explosion on a stricken oil tanker was complicating rescue efforts as Japan reported the vessel had drifted into its exclusive economic zone. "If it had not been for an explosion this morning, maybe the fire would have been extinguished by now," said Hadi Haghshenas, deputy director for Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation, in an interview with state broadcaster IRIB. 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. Haghshenas said a 12-member elite rescue team had been dispatched from Iran but was waiting in Shanghai for conditions that would allow them to land on the vessel. "The tanker is moving from the site of the accident, which was about 155 miles from Shanghai port, to Japanese waters and right now is about 135 miles from Okinawa Island," he said. Japan said it had provided a patrol boat because the tanker was now in its exclusive economic zone, while Iran requested helicopters and planes to help put out the fire. A Japanese coastguard spokesman said: "We offered support for efforts to deal with the accident but the Chinese side said they will handle the case by themselves." Iranian officials have criticised China's rescue efforts, but the Chinese transport ministry said Thursday that "terrible" weather conditions and toxic gases from the burning oil were hindering operations. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told AFP the government had put "a high degree of emphasis on the rescue work" and maintained "a welcoming and open attitude towards other countries coming to participate". Haghshenas said two fire emergency consultants from the Netherlands and Germany had also been hired "who are now at the scene giving advice to the Chinese". The 21 Chinese crew member of the Crystal, which did not burst into flames, were all rescued. Algerian Berber women prepare traditional food as they mark the Yennayer New Year in the village of Ait el-Kecem, south of Tizi-Ouzou, east of the capital Algiers, on January 11, 2018 The Berbers -- descendants of pre-Arab populations across North Africa -- are currently celebrating their New Year festivities. On Friday -- for the first time -- the Yennayer New Year is being marked as a national holiday in Algeria. The Berbers, who refer to themselves as the Amazigh, have long fought for greater recognition for their ancient ethnic group, their culture and language. In Algeria they make up roughly a quarter of the country's total population of 40 million and live mainly in the mountainous northern region of Kabylie. Here is some background on other Berber communities that have stretched across North Africa since long before the Arab conquests: - Morocco - On Africa's northwestern tip, Morocco is the country with the largest Berber community in the region. A file picture taken on January 12, 2015 shows Amazigh singer Fatima Tabaamrant performing during their new year celebrations in Tiznit, Morocco Their language -- of which there are three main dialects -- was only given official status alongside Arabic in a new constitution in 2011. One of the major consequences of this recognition has been the appearance of their Tifinagh alphabet on public buildings next to Arabic and French. Since 2010 the Tamazight TV channel has been dedicated to promoting Berber culture. Legislation currently under consideration by the government would diversify teaching in school to help bolster their language. Several years back lawmakers created a major stir by talking in the Berber language in parliamentary sessions. Despite advances, the Moroccan authorities still sporadically refuse to register Berber names on the official registry. The Amazigh flag was a major symbol in protests that hit the depressed Rif region in the north of the country last year, where the group is a majority. The Berbers in Morocco have long called for their New Year to be marked as national holidays like its equivalents in the Muslim lunar and gregorian calendar. - Libya - Persecuted under dictator Moamer Kadhafi, who denied their existence, the Berbers of Libya have called for their language be given official status and for greater political representation. They make up around 10 percent of the 6.4 million and live mainly in the mountains west of Tripoli or in the vast desert regions. Their demands have become more vocal in the turmoil-wracked country since Kadhafi's ouster and death in 2011. The Berber flag can now been seen on administrative buildings. Libyan women wave their new national flag and the flag of the Berber during an Amazigh festival in Tripoli on September 27, 2011 Textbooks in their language have also been produced but they have not been officially approved by the internationally backed government. Under a draft constitution endorsed by parliament, but still awaiting ratification in a referendum, the languages spoken by the various communities, including Tamazigh, are recognised as part of Libyan cultural heritage but not given official status. - Tunisia - In Tunisia estimating the number of Berbers is tough as official statistics based on ethnicity are prohibited. A Berber man dressed in traditional clothes rides a donkey-pulled-cart in the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdane on February 6, 2016 Outside their traditional heartland in the south, Berbers are mainly found in the capital Tunis following an exodus from the countryside. They complain of marginalisation and exclusion in a state that recognises only Arabic in its constitution. Jallol Ghaki, the head of the Tunisian Association of Amazigh Culture, estimates that while some half of Tunisians may be of Berber origin, the vast majority have been fully Arabised and only one percent speak the local Chelha dialect. While activists complain that the state takes no efforts to preserve or educate children about Berber culture, there have been some improvements since Tunisia's 2011 revolution. Media and civil society has opened up and in 2017 the minister for human rights in the country marked the Yennayer festivities by wishing the Berber community a Happy New Year. burs-feb/gk/del/dv Trump reportedly demanded to know why the United States should accept immigrants from "shithole countries", after lawmakers raised the issue of protections for immigrants from African nations, Haiti and El Salvador Africans have reacted angrily after US President Donald Trump reportedly referred to their nations as "shithole countries", with many accusing the US president of racism and ignorance. The 55-nation African Union condemned the remarks on Friday, while a statement from ambassadors of all countries from the continent at the United Nations demanded a retraction and apology. The African Group of UN ambassadors said it was "extremely appalled at, and strongly condemns the outrageous, racist and xenophobic remarks by the president of the United States of America as widely reported by the media". Ambassadors unanimously agreed the resolution after an emergency session to weigh Trump's remarks. The comment was "clearly" racist, said Ebba Kalondo, spokeswoman for AU chief Moussa Faki. "This is even more hurtful given the historical reality of just how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, and also terribly surprising as the United States remains a massively positive example as just how migration can give birth to a nation," Kalondo said. He stressed the US was "much stronger than the sum total of one man". Trump reportedly demanded to know why the United States should accept immigrants from "shithole countries", after lawmakers raised the issue of protections for immigrants from African nations, Haiti and El Salvador. However he later tweeted: "this was not the language used". The United Nations slammed the reported remarks as "shocking and shameful" and "racist". "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome," Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva. Botswana summoned the US ambassador to the country to "clarify if Botswana is regarded as a 'shithole' country", according to a foreign ministry statement calling Trump's comments "irresponsible, reprehensible and racist". Senegal followed suit with Foreign Minister Sidiki Kaba saying the government "firmly condemned the unacceptable remarks which undermine human dignity, especially of Africa and her diaspora". - 'Nothing new' - Trump was widely derided last year after twice referring to Namibia as "Nambia". Social media users across the continent posted images of modern skylines and beautiful nature from their countries with the hashtag "shithole". Many Africans reminded the US of its historic role in the continent's woes. AU chief Moussa Faki's spokeswoman said Trump's reported comment was "clearly" racist "President Trump, One day, I'll take you to a 'shithole' country called Ghana," wrote Ghanaian Edmond Prime Sarpong on Facebook. "First stop would be Osu Castle, Elmina Castle, and the over 40 Forts that detained about 30 million slaves, beaten and shipped out like sardine cans and then I will tell you the history of Africa and why people like you made that a 'shithole' continent." Prominent Kenyan commentator Patrick Gathara told AFP that Trump's words were nothing new. "This is no different from what Hollywood and Western media have been saying about Africa for decades. We have consistently been portrayed as shitty people from shitty countries." Some acknowledged problems in their countries, but blamed this on their poor leaders as well as Western nations. "Please don't confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent... Our motherland is the most blessed continent that has been raped by imperialists in collaboration with our shitty misleaders for generations," wrote Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi on Twitter. In South Africa, the ruling African National Congress party declared "ours is not a shithole country" and described Trump as "extremely offensive". - 'It's our shithole' - Some Nigerians did not hold back, with many on Twitter saying their country was a "shithole", but that it was "our shithole" to criticise. In Senegal's capital Dakar, administrator Idrissa Fall said "we cannot really say that he (Trump) is wrong". "African countries, and sometimes our leaders, do not exactly deal with the problems of the worst-off, that's what makes people immigrate". Even war-torn South Sudan weighed in, with President Salva Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny slamming the comments as "outrageous". However Juba businesswoman Jenny Jore, 31, told AFP that Trump's remarks were "on point". "It is thanks to our African leaders that we are insulted that way," she said. The 54-nation UN African Group, which does not include Western Sahara, demanded a "retraction and an apology" from Trump, while thanking Americans "from all walks of life who have condemned the remarks". Trump's latest comments provided ample fodder for talk-show hosts. South African comedian Trevor Noah, star of "The Daily Show", described himself as an offended citizen of "South Shithole" and also criticised Trump's preferred choice of Norway for immigrants. "He didn't just name a white country, he named the whitest -- so white they wear moon-screen," he said. burs-fb/ach/klm/jah Indian premier Narendra Modi has been keen buy weapons from local manufacturers The Indian army and the government are discussing ways to revive a $500 million order to buy Spike anti-tank guided missiles from Israel's state-owned defence contractor Rafael, military chief Bipin Rawat said Friday. India recently called off the deal to procure 8,000 missiles, souring the build up to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the country this week. Rawat said the deal was scrapped after the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) offered to manufacture similar missiles in line with premier Narendra Modi's pet 'Make in India' initiative. "They (DRDO) said... why you are going for a missile that we are capable of manufacturing and can give you better results," Rawat said. "That is what led to retracting of the RFP (request for proposal)." Rawat said the DRDO missiles were yet to be tested and would not be ready till 2022, which could hit India's operational capabilities in the interim. "So how do we bridge the gap between now and 2022? It's through the Spike. "Rather than going whole hog we are in the discussion with the government" to fill in the gap he said. "We can possibly look at a lesser number to meet the gap." India has been investing tens of billions of dollars in updating its Soviet-era military hardware to counter long-standing tensions with regional rivals China and Pakistan. Israel is a major weapons supplier to India, exporting an average of $1 billion of military equipment each year. In April last year the two countries signed a military deal worth nearly $2 billion which includes the supply of medium-range surface-to-air missiles, launchers and communications technology. But Modi has said he wants to end India's status as the world's number one defence importer and to have 70 percent of hardware manufactured domestically by the turn of the decade. A pilot sits in a cockpit of a UAE fighter jet in a photo published by the Emirates News Agency in September 2015 Gulf rivals Qatar and the United Arab Emirates traded accusations Friday over a complaint by Doha that an Emirati fighter jet had violated its airspace. Qatar, which has faced a boycott by Arab states including the UAE since last June, said it had lodged a protest at the United Nations about the violation which allegedly took place on December 21. The Qatari foreign ministry said on its Twitter account that it informed the UN secretary general and the president of the Security Council that the UAE jet "flew over the exclusive economic zone of Qatar" for one minute. The ministry said "that the UAE plane entered the airspace of the State of Qatar without prior knowledge or approval of the competent Qatari authorities." It called the incident "a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar, as well as a flagrant violation of the provisions of international law, conventions, charters and international norms." The UAE quickly denied the accusation. "The Qatari complaint about the Emirati violation of its airspace is untrue and confused," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter. "We are working to respond officially to it with evidence and proof. What we see is an escalation and unjustified," he said. "What has been happening under the table is now taking place in the open." Tensions have escalated in the Gulf since Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut all ties with Qatar in June, largely isolating the emirate in the oil-rich Gulf. The four countries accuse Doha of supporting Islamist extremists and being too close to Shiite Iran, Saudi Arabia's arch-rival. They have banned all flights to and from Doha and cut off most trade links. Qatar denies the allegations, arguing the bloc aims to incite regime change in Doha. Afghan mourners carry the coffin of one of the 13 victims of a suspected US airstrike in Achin district US Forces carried out an airstrike on an Afghan government militia after an apparent insider attack in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan sources have told AFP, killing as many as 13 fighters. The incident occurred Thursday as US soldiers were patrolling in the Islamic State-stronghold of Achin in Nangarhar province, according to Hakim Khan, a commander of the government militia involved in the incident. He said there had been a "shooting incident" after which US forces conducted an airstrike targeting the militia. Khan said at least 13 fighters were killed in the airstrike, though other sources gave conflicting figures. An AFP reporter saw at least eight militia fighters buried on Friday morning. NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan confirmed there had been an airstrike, but said it had targeted insurgents after they opened fire on an Afghan militia leader, a US soldier and an interpreter. It said 10 insurgents were killed but denied reports from local sources saying that American soldiers were among the dead. "An insurgent affiliated group posing as local militia... baited a local Afghan militia leader and a US service member with an Afghan interpreter into a compound under the pretense of a security...meeting," said spokesman Captain Tom Gresback. At the end of the meeting "multiple members of the insurgent group" started shooting, killing the militia leader and wounding the US soldier and interpreter. Gresback did not disclose which branch of the military the troops were from. Two sources -- Malik Amin, a local neighbourhood representative, and a militia fighter who survived the aerial bombardment -- told AFP that the airstrike came after an "infiltrator" in the militia shot at the American troops. So-called "green-on-blue" attacks in which Afghan forces turn on their comrades or their Western counterparts have been a major problem during NATO's long years in Afghanistan. Western officials say most insider attacks stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings rather than insurgent plots. A spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said two militants posing as militia commanders had killed 16 US service members. US and Afghan forces have been carrying out ground and air operations against IS fighters in Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan. While Afghan security forces are conducting most of the fighting against IS and Taliban militants, US troops operate alongside them in a training capacity and are frequently on the front lines. Achin is the same district where a US soldier was killed and four others wounded during a New Year's Day combat operation. strs-mam-amj/amu More than 650,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 A Rohingya woman and three children perished when a fire gutted their tent shelter in a UN camp in Bangladesh, authorities said Friday. Police and a Red Crescent official said a candle sparked the fire late Thursday at a UN-run transit camp for refugees in Ghumdum border village. "Seven people were severely burnt. They were shifted to a Red Crescent field hospital where two people died last night and another two died this morning (Friday)," Ikram Elahi Chowdhury, a regional head of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, told AFP. The victims had only arrived from Myanmar in the past week and were waiting at the transit centre to be shifted to a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar district. Joseph Tripura, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said an investigation had been started. "We are working closely with the Bangladeshi authorities to ascertain how the fire started and how tragedies like this can be prevented in the future," he said in a statement. More than 650,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 after Myanmar's security forces launched what the UN and US officials have called ethnic cleansing in the country's Rakhine state. Many refugees start at transit centres set up along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border before they are brought to the main refugee camps in Cox's Bazar. Aid workers have warned that flimsy tents and bamboo and tarpaulin shelters set up to house the refugees are potential fire traps. Tunisian security forces stand amid tear gas during clashes with protesters in the town of Tebourba on January 9, 2018 Tunisia has been shaken by a wave of protests against austerity measures that have seen nearly 800 people arrested over the past few days. The demonstrations come almost seven years after president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in a revolt that sparked uprisings across the Arab world. What is behind the latest unrest and where does the country go from here? - What's different this time? - The trigger of the protests was a finance law imposing tax hikes after a year of rising prices, but the demonstrators' demands are similar to those of 2011, says political analyst Selim Kharrat. Above all, the protesters are calling for dignity and jobs, echoing slogans of the 2011 revolution -- "Work, freedom, national dignity". "The same people are seeking these demands -- the young and jobless -- who are often unable to find other ways to express themselves" especially at the local level, said Kharrat. Protestors throw stones towards security forces in Tunis' Djebel Lahmer district early on January 10, 2018 after price hikes ignited demonstrations Unlike the 2011 protests, "the explosion of violence was almost immediate" this year, said political scientist Hamza Meddeb. The sudden boilover was a result of "very strong social anger" and "a political class increasingly cut off from the populace", said Meddeb, associate fellow at Chatham House. - Is the opposition behind the protests? - The Fech Nestannew (What Are We Waiting For) campaign that initiated protests against the 2018 Finance Act is close to the leftist Popular Front party. "But one would be giving this campaign a lot of credit to say that it is behind the current wave of protests," said Meddeb. The peaceful daytime rallies it organised failed to mobilise the masses, and many protesters rejected all parties, including the Popular Front, over broken protests in the past. The biggest demonstrations have been at night. "Many movements are spontaneous. They are born of the true anger of the disenchanted youths," said Meddeb. These include "apolitical elements who just want to fight, political elements that seek escalation and radicalisation, and criminal elements who take advantage of the troubles to loot and steal," he said. Tunisians shout slogans during a demonstration against the government and price hikes on January 9, 2018 But the involvement of impoverished youths in the protests has few political consequences, he said. This was especially the case for parties and unions which want the current government to stay intact ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2018 and 2019, respectively. - What could happen next? - Meddeb said the latest protests would have "no impact on the political system and stability of the country". The analyst expects the demonstrations to run out of steam after the anniversary of the 2011 uprising is marked on Sunday. "If the situation gets bogged down, there could be a (cabinet) reshuffle as a sign of concession," he said. This has been the usual response to social challenges in the seven years since the uprising. But Kharrat said a government reshuffle would only "delay the problem and lead to growing frustrations". "The longer we wait to respond to the demands of marginalised regions and populations, the more the mobilisations will become explosive," he said. Those behind disturbances are likely to face a tougher response, based on the success of the intervention of the security forces so far. Conflict analysts International Crisis Group have also warned the country's political class against succumbing to "authoritarian temptation". But Meddeb said that despite a more presidential system that goes against the 2014 constitution, such a temptation "can't materialise" because of the balance of power. "The country is at a very uncomfortable interval, between a democracy that has failed and a second impossible revolution", he said, with each side seeking to hold on to its gains. Iraqi Yazidis visit their temple during a ceremony on January 12, 2018, in the town of Bashiqa Northern Iraq's Yazidi community that suffered so terribly under Islamic State group persecution celebrated on Friday as it inaugurated a restored temple to the sound of traditional drums and flutes. Overlooked by conical domes of polished stone, hundreds of men in dishdasha robes and women veiled in white gathered at the site which was blown up by the rampaging jihadists in 2014. The temple at Bashiqa was one of 68 Yazidi temples destroyed by IS, officials said -- and one of the last of 23 in the region to be restored. Iraq's Kurdish-speaking Yazidis adhere to a faith that emerged in Mesopotamia more than 4,000 years ago. Rebuilt Yazidi temples in the town of Bashiqa northeast of Mosul on January 12, 2018 It is rooted in Zoroastrianism but has over time integrated elements of both Islam and Christianity. Yazidis pray to God facing the sun and worship his seven angels -- the most important of which is Melek Taus, or Peacock Angel. The Yazidi community in Iraq comprised some 550,000 people before it was scattered by the IS offensive. Orthodox Muslims consider the peacock to be a demon figure and refer to Yazidis as devil-worshippers. The jihadists murdered Yazidis in their thousands in 2014 and abducted thousands of women and teenage girls to make them sex slaves. According to the religious affairs ministry in Iraqi Kurdistan, some 360,000 Yazidis were displaced by the fighting with 100,000 leaving the country. Iraqi Yazidis at their temple on January 12, 2018 in the town of Bashiqa Of 6,417 Yazidis reported kidnapped by the jihadists, just 3,207 have been rescued or managed to escape their captors. Half of those still missing are women and girls, the ministry said. It also said that to date 47 mass graves of Yazidis massacred by IS have been discovered. UN investigators have said the IS assault on the Yazidis was a premeditated effort to exterminate an entire community -- crimes that amount to genocide. Friday's ceremony at the temple in the Bashiqa area some 15 kilometres (nine miles) east of Iraq's second city Mosul was an act of both revival and defiance. "This ceremony shows that life has returned despite the terrorism of IS and its bloody attacks," said 21-year-old Jihan Sinan. Around her, families posed for pictures as traditional dishes and sweets were handed out and celebrants danced to the tunes of traditional flutes. Religious leader Ali Rashwakari, 72, urged the international community to help "rebuild the temples and Yazidi regions" of Iraq. New York will keep its statue of Christopher Columbus after a review of "symbols of hate." Protesters, like these in October, want it removed and blame Columbus for "genocide" and "slavery" New York will keep its famed but controversial statue of Christopher Columbus following a review of "symbols of hate," as the United States debates tributes to figures whose legacies are increasingly questioned. Democratic Party Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered the 90-day review after deadly violence at a neo-Nazi rally in Virginia last August built nationwide momentum to remove symbols of the pro-slavery Civil War South. The commission recommended that just one of four statues on public land -- that of a gynecologist who experimented on enslaved black women without anesthesia -- be relocated from Central Park to a Brooklyn cemetery. A plaque dedicated to Philippe Petain, a World War I hero who later collaborated with the Nazis and lead Vichy France, would remain in place, the commission recommended. De Blasio had initially said the plaque would be the first to go. "Reckoning with our collective histories is a complicated undertaking with no easy solution," said de Blasio. "Our approach will focus on adding detail and nuance to -- instead of removing entirely -- the representations of these histories." As a result, information plaques about Columbus's life will be added and a monument to indigenous people erected near the statue at the gateway to Central Park. The commission also recommended adding "context such as wayfinding, on-site signage and historical information" to the Petain plaque on Broadway. Columbus, the so-called man who "discovered America," has been increasingly denounced as embodying the genocide of indigenous Americans. Protesters have gathered in front of the statue to denounce "genocide" and "slavery." The 42-page report recommended moving a statue of J. Marion Sims from Central Park to Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery and taking steps to explain the legacy of a man regarded the father of modern gynecology. It also recommended keeping a statue of former US president Theodore Roosevelt at the American Museum of Natural History, albeit with additional signage. Critics complain that the monument is an image of racial hierarchy, depicting a triumphant Roosevelt on horseback looming over Native American and African men. The first incident occurred January 8 near the home village of Gambian President Adama Barrow, seen in 2017, where supporters of the ruling United Democratic Party allegedly clashed with Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction members The Gambia has suspended permission for rallies and other public political events after clashes allegedly between supporters of President Adama Barrow and those of the former regime of Yahya Jammeh. Gambian police said in a statement issued late Thursday that permits for political parties to campaign were on hold while it investigated two violent incidents in rural areas this week. "The office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) notifies all political parties that all permits granted to conduct political activities have been suspended until further notice," the statement said. The Gambia holds local elections in April. The first incident occurred on January 8 near Mankamang Kunda, the home village of President Barrow, where supporters of the ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) allegedly clashed with Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) members on a nationwide tour. The APRC alleges its members were then attacked in separate incidents on Wednesday and Thursday, though police have yet to comment on the latter incident. "We were going to our party leader's compound in Tallinding with a jubilant crowd when our vehicles were attacked by supporters of the United Democratic Party," APRC National Mobiliser Yankuba Colley told AFP. "Our supporters were again attacked on Thursday by the UDP supporters in Busumbala," he added. A UDP MP, Alagie Darboe, told AFP the incidents were "between the APRC and the residents of the area, and not between APRC and UDP." The presidency has confirmed several people were wounded in the first confrontation, which involved stone throwing and destruction of several vehicles. "Investigations are underway regarding the two incidents and anyone found to have run afoul of the law would be dealt with," the police statement added. The APRC was once led by Jammeh, who left the country for exile nearly a year ago. He ruled the west African country with an iron fist for 22 years, amassing a slew of corruption and human rights abuse allegations during his time in office. APRC members once enjoyed an elevated status in Gambian society and reputedly gained perks denied to the majority of Gambians, most of whom live in poverty. The Oromos have been staging protests over government policies they fear would deprive them of their lands An Ethiopian court has sentenced prominent dissident Bekele Gerba and three other opposition figures to six months in jail for singing a protest song in court, a defence lawyer told AFP on Friday. The four, all members of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), have been in pre-trial custody since their arrest in late 2015 when a wave of anti-government protests broke out. Bekele, the deputy OFC chairman, and the three other party officials broke into song on Thursday after the judges ruled against his request to summon Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and other high-ranking government officials as defence witnesses, their attorney Ameha Mekonnen said. "They were furious, they were saying things that really undermined the judiciary," Ameha said. "After they made many complaints and ... then they continued to sing their songs." Three other prisoners in the courtroom for an unrelated case were also sentenced to three months in jail for clapping to the song, which criticised government land seizures. Though the OFC officials have been imprisoned for more than two years, that jail time won't count for the six month term for contempt of court, Ameha said. Bekele has become a cause celebre for protesters from the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromos, who started rallying more than two years ago over government policies they feared would deprive them of their land. The protests left hundreds dead and prompted parliament to declare a 10-month state of emergency in 2016. Originally charged under the country's terrorism law, the court last July downgraded Bekele's charges to "provocation" under Ethiopia's criminal code. Speculation that Bekele would be released began earlier this month after Hailemariam told reporters that the government would free some jailed politicians "in order to improve the national consensus and widen the democratic platform." But the prime minister provided no details, and none of the many politicians jailed in Ethiopia have been freed since the announcement. Donald Trump has leaned heavily on China to use its economic clout to rein in North Korea, but Kim Jong-Un has shown no sign of halting Pyongyang's race to become a nuclear power capable of striking the United States The White House on Friday welcomed news of a sharp drop in Chinese trade with North Korea, saying it would help put pressure on the regime of Kim Jong-Un. China reported earlier that its imports from North Korea plunged 33 percent last year -- and 81.6 percent in December. President Donald Trump's "administration is pleased that China is sharply reducing its trade with North Korea," the White House said. "This action supports the United States-led global effort to apply maximum pressure until the North Korean regime ends its illicit programs, changes its behavior, and moves toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," it said in a statement. Trump has leaned heavily on China to use its economic clout to rein in North Korea, but Kim has shown no sign of halting Pyongyang's race to become a nuclear power capable of striking the United States. In 2017, it conducted tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States as well as its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. After months of soaring tensions, North Korea agreed this week to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, in what was seen as a potential sign of a cooling-off period. The United States and South Korea reciprocated by calling off military exercises during the Olympics. On Wednesday, Trump told South Korean President Moon Jae-In the United States was open to holding talks with North Korea "under the right circumstances," according to the White House. But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the two leaders, who spoke by telephone, also "underscored the importance of continuing the maximum pressure campaign against North Korea." On Thursday, Trump suggested in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he could have a good relationship with Kim, though he left vague the extent of his dealings with the North Korean leader. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-Un," Trump said. "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised." A senior US official said Thursday the United States plans to lobby allies at a major meeting next week to stop and inspect suspect ships bound for North Korea. A young man was injured in the face after police fired warning shots to disperse worshippers outside Kinshasa cathedral Supported by throngs of worshippers and with western ambassadors in attendance, Catholic leaders in DR Congo hammered home a message of anger toward President Joseph Kabila on Friday at a mass to mourn victims of a crackdown. Police fired a couple of warning shots to disperse worshippers outside Kinshasa cathedral after the highly-charged mass, which was led by prominent government critic Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, an AFP journalist reported. Police said they fired only teargas, and two people were slightly injured. Armed officers arrived at the cathedral gates as the congregation was leaving a service to commemorate the six fatalities of a crackdown on New Year's Eve marches that demanded Kabila leave office. The mass, conducted in a packed cathedral, saw the congregation applaud and cheer Catholic leaders as they called on Kabila to uphold a 2016 church-brokered deal, which should have led to the president to hold election by the end of last year. To a wave of emotion, the names of the six dead were repeated three times. "If we have lost a brother, a sister, we have gained heroes, real ones, because they have mingled their blood with that of all those who have died for a change of power, the guarantee of democracy," declared deputy bishop Donatien Bafuidinsoni, bringing the congregation to its feet. Kabila, 46, has been in power since 2001, at the helm of a regime widely criticised for corruption, repression and incompetence. His constitutional term in office expired in December 2016, but he stayed on -- a move that stoked a bloody spiral of violence. Some worshippers at Friday's mass held up protest banners Under an agreement brokered by the church, he was allowed to stay in office provided new elections were held in 2017. After months of silence, the authorities said organisational problems meant that the vote would be held on December 23 2018 -- a postponement that has angered Western nations, but one that they have reluctantly accepted. The spokesman of the episcopate, Father Donatien Nshole, on Friday called on Catholics to "peacefully block all attempts to confiscate or seize power by non-democratic or anti-constitutional ways." "We are witnessing a campaign of propaganda, of disinformation, of libel even, orchestrated by heads of the institutions of the republic against the Catholic church and its leadership," Nshole charged. Friday's service was prominently attended by envoys from western nations, with the ambassadors of Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, the Netherlands and Sweden, and representatives from the United States, the European Union and the Vatican. Opposition leaders Felix Tshisekedi and Vital Kamerhe also attended. Campaigners from in the grassroots group Filimbi held up posters in the cathedral demanding the release of one of their leaders, who is being held. . - Outspoken cardinal - Friday's events mark the latest step in a confrontation between Kabila and DR Congo's highly influential Roman Catholic church. Roughly half of the country's 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 nation. For many people, Monsengwo has coalesced into the figurehead of protests against Kabila. Born into a royal family in the Sakata tribe in 1939, Monsengwo played a major role in forcing dictator Mobutu Sese Seko into moving the country towards a multi-party democracy. He also was an outspoken critic of the violence that for decades has swept through parts of DR Congo, including civil wars that left millions dead. Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, Archbishop of Kinshasa, is a prominent critic of DR Congo President Joseph Kabila Monsengwo's anger has visibly mounted as the December 31 2016 accord failed to meet its goals, and peaceful protests by Catholics on the deal's anniversary met with violence. Last week, he accused "our supposedly courageous men in uniform" of "channelling barbarism." "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. Monsengwo was slapped down almost immediately by the government, which said "insulting remarks" about the armed forces were unacceptable called on the church to remain neutral in politics. The government "cannot accept that such statements come from a minister of God," the government said, which hammered home "the secular nature of the Congolese state." US President Donald Trump allegedly used the incendiary slur to describe countries including Haiti during a meeting US diplomats serving in Haiti and African countries have been briefed to convey Washington's respect if they are summoned to explain President Donald Trump's alleged insults. So far, the State Department said, the US charge d'affaires in Haiti and ambassador in Botswana have been called in by their hosts after Trump reportedly dubbed these countries "shitholes." Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Steve Goldstein noted that Trump denies that he uses such language, but said the envoys had been briefed on how to respond to complaints. "We sent guidance to our folks and told them that we must reiterate that we have great respect for the people of Africa and all nations, and our commitment remains strong," he said. "The ambassadors and the charges will note what an honor it is to be in their posts and how much we value our relationship with the people of the nation where they represent us." "If any country asks our charge or our ambassador to come over, they will. They'll listen, that's their primary job to listen, and they'll reiterate the respect we have for that nation." Earlier, the government of Botswana had announced that it had summoned the US ambassador to explain Trump's comments, reportedly made on Thursday at a White House meeting on immigration. The statement said Gaborone had sought clarification on whether "Botswana is regarded as a 'shithole' country given that there are Botswana nationals residing in the US." "We view the utterances by the current American President as highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist," it added. US President Donald Trump grudgingly signed the Iran sanction waivers once again, but said it would be the last time US President Donald Trump grudgingly agreed not to reimpose nuclear sanctions on Iran on Friday, but officials warned that it would be the last time he issues such a waiver. Instead, a senior White House official said, Trump wants Washington's European allies to use the 120-day period before some sanctions relief again comes up for renewal to agree on tougher measures. At the same time as the renewed waiver was announced, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on 14 Iranian figures and companies, including the head of the country's judiciary, Sadegh Amoli Larijani. "The president's decision is to waive once more the nuclear sanctions that the terms of the JCPOA require the United States to waive in order to remain in the deal," the White House official said. "But in his statement, the president will also make clear that this is the last such waiver that he will issue." The official said that Trump now wants to work with America's European allies -- who all urged him to remain within the accord -- to develop a new agreement to replace the Iran deal. Tehran would not be involved in these discussions, as it was prior to the signing of the 2015 accord, but would be subject to US and European sanctions if it breaks the terms of the new arrangement. The new deal, the official said, would be permanent and would not begin to expire after a decade as was the case in the 2015 accord. It would target Iran's missile program and not simply its nuclear industry, and it would mandate UN inspections of Iranian sites. "If the president can get that agreement that meets his objective and it never expires, it denies Iran all paths to nuclear weapons forever, not for ten years, he would be open to remaining in such a modified deal," the official said. Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder warms up ahead of Al Gharafa's Qatar Stars League match in Doha Dutch international Wesley Sneijder made a winning debut in Qatar when his new side Al Gharafa beat fellow mid-table team Al Ahli 2-1 on Friday. Sneijder, the former Real Madrid and Inter Milan star who is Holland's most capped player with 133 appearances, was making his first start for Al Gharafa just four days after being unveiled as a player for the Doha side. The 33-year-old has signed an 18-month contract with the Qatari side following a disappointing few months at French Ligue 1 side Nice. Al Gharafa trailed to a first half goal from Yassine Chikhauol before striking back in the second period with Ahmed Alaaeldin scoring twice to secure the victory. The win lifted Al Gharafa to sixth place in the table but they are 15 points behind leaders Al-Duhail. Tunisian protesters confront security forces blocking access to the governorate's offices in Tunis during a demonstration over price hikes and austerity measures on January 12, 2018 Hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital and the coastal city of Sfax on Friday, waving yellow cards and demanding that the government reverse austerity measures. More than 200 young people rallied in Tunis following a call from the Fech Nestannew (What Are We Waiting For?) campaign for a major protest against the measures imposed at the start of the year. They held up yellow cards and chanted slogans amid a major deployment of riot police as they marched on administrative offices in the capital. "The people want the Finance Act repealed" and "The people are fed up with the new Trabelsi", they shouted, referring to the graft-tainted in-laws of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. "We believe that dialogue and reforms are still possible," said Henda Chennaoui of the Fech Nestannew campaign. "We've got the same demands we've been seeking for years -- to tackle real problems like the economic crisis and the high cost of living," she told AFP. Tunisian protesters wave yellow cards and shout slogans outside the governorate's offices in Tunis during a demonstration over price hikes and austerity measures on January 12, 2018 Friday's demonstrations came ahead of the seventh anniversary of Ben Ali's ouster on January 14, 2011. In Sfax, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Tunis, around 200 people vented their anger over rising prices, an AFP correspondent reported. "The people's money is in the palaces, and the children of the people are in the prisons," read one placard. Authorities said Friday the number of people detained in the wave of violent protests had risen to nearly 800, after a provincial town was hit by a night of unrest over the austerity measures. An AFP correspondent in the northern town of Siliana said police fired tear gas at dozens of youths who pelted them with stones during skirmishes that lasted around three hours overnight. Interior ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani said 151 people were arrested Thursday, taking the number detained for alleged involvement in the violence to 778 after several nights of unrest. - 'Heavy-handed methods' - Chibani said clashes between youths and police were "limited" and "not serious", and insisted no acts of violence, theft or looting were recorded Thursday evening. Friday's demonstrations were reported to be peaceful. Amnesty International has accused the Tunisian authorities of using "increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies" during the anti-austerity protests Rights group Amnesty International accused the authorities of using "increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies and subsequently arrest protesters" during the unrest. "Tunisian security forces must refrain from using excessive force and end their use of intimidation tactics against peaceful demonstrators," the watchdog said. The United Nations expressed concern at the number of arrests, and urged the authorities to ensure people can protest peacefully. One man died in the unrest on Monday night, but the authorities have insisted the police were not responsible for this. A number of left-wing activists have been arrested by the authorities after officials accused them of fuelling the violence. Several dozen members of the Popular Front party demonstrated Friday in front of a court in the town of Gafsa after the arrest of several local activists, an AFP correspondent said. Tunisia is considered a rare success story of the Arab Spring uprisings that began in the North African country in 2011 and spread across the region, toppling autocrats. But the authorities have failed to resolve the issues of poverty and unemployment. A spokesman for the prime minister in a statement said the protesters were "thugs aged between 17 and 21 who are not affected by the impact of the finance law". Political scientist Hamza Meddeb said there was "very strong social anger" over a "political class increasingly cut off from the population" and because protests had not yet resulted in any concrete improvement. Protests are common in Tunisia in January, when people mark the anniversary of the revolution that ousted long-time dictator Ben Ali. The authorities on Friday said four people had been arrested after a petrol bomb attack on Wednesday damaged the entrances of two Talmudic schools in a Jewish district of Djerba. The interior ministry said the aim of the perpetrators was to "sow chaos like that recorded in some parts of the country". Robert John Burck, an American street performer known as the Naked Cowboy, is seen during a visit to Madero street in Mexico City, where he is singing Trump's praises The Naked Cowboy, whose white underpants, bronzed chest and cowboy hat are fixtures in New York's Times Square, took his act to Mexico City this week, bravely singing of his love for Donald Trump and his border wall. Robert John Burck is famous for busking on Broadway sporting just a guitar and tighty-whities emblazoned with the words "Naked Cowboy" in red, white and blue, even in the dead of winter. But this January he is braving a different kind of chill in sunny Mexico City, by singing the American president's praises right in the heart of the capital. "Trump's gonna build a wall, that wall's gonna protect us all. Sounds like a good idea to me," he belted out during a recent outing. "I'm a Trumpster through and through." It's a risky act to pull in this era of strained relations between the United States and Mexico, where Trump's wall proposal and characterizations of Mexican immigrants as "criminals" and "rapists" have not gone down well. But Burck has been met mainly with bemusement as he strolls amid Mexico City's historic colonial buildings, strumming his guitar and pausing between numbers to invite tittering onlookers to smack him on the rear as they pose for pictures. The Naked Cowboy, 47, says he has been warmly welcomed, Trumpism and all. Robert John Burck was ironically in Mexico for a family vacation with his Mexican wife "Muchos fotos, mucho amor, mucho, you know, todo," he said in broken Spanish ("Lots of pictures, lots of love, lots of, you know, everything"). But the political junkie, who has in the past announced he was running for New York mayor and even US president, didn't budge from his defense of the wall. "There's no reason for people from Mexico to go to America illegally and then take the resources from America and bring them back to Mexico," he said. "Every country has a wall. Have you heard of the great wall of China?" - Mexican wife - Ironically, what brought Burck to Mexico is a family vacation with his Mexican wife, who was herself an undocumented immigrant when he met her in New York five years ago. She now has permanent residency, which he helped her gain, and sometimes joins his act as the Naked Cowgirl. The man who describes himself as "the most celebrated entertainer of all time" said he sees no contradiction. Robert John Burck, an American street performer known as the Naked Cowboy, poses with a young fan during a visit to Madero street in Mexico City "She went over illegally, she was illegal for many years," he said. "But she got a job when she got there, she went to college, she had a tax ID number, she married a gringo, and she is all good," he added, flexing his bulging biceps at the word "gringo" (American). Looking on in amusement, passerby Renata Carmona said she was surprised by Burck's act, but not his apparent inconsistencies. "The world is contradictory, we all are like that," said Carmona, 42. "We all have two sides. Even the moon has a dark side to hide." US President Donald Trump, seen boarding Marine One, cautioned he was signing Iran sanctions waivers "for the last time" US President Donald Trump announced Friday he would not reimpose nuclear sanctions on Iran, keeping a landmark 2015 deal alive... for now. The Republican leader grudgingly agreed to sign sanctions waivers, ensuring Washington will live up to its commitments for another 120 days, but he cautioned it would be "for the last time." During that four-month period, he wants Congress and America's main European allies to draw up a new deal -- without negotiating with Tehran -- to replace the "disastrous flaws" in the current agreement. "Despite my strong inclination, I have not yet withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal," Trump said in a statement. "Instead, I have outlined two possible paths forward: either fix the deal's disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw." The new deal -- which Trump envisions as being outlined in US law and involving Britain, France and Germany -- would impose tougher controls on Iran if sanctions relief is to continue. In particular, it will not begin to expire after 10 years as parts of the existing deal do, but instead would impose permanent restrictions on not just Iran's nuclear plants but also its missile program. "These provisions must have no expiration date. My policy is to deny Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon -- not just for 10 years, but forever," Trump said. "If Iran does not comply with any of these provisions, American nuclear sanctions would automatically resume." Trump is also urging Congress to reform US law so the president is no longer required to declare every 90 days whether he thinks Iran is in compliance, or to renew sanctions waivers every 120 or 180 days. Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, took to Twitter to describe Trump's decision and the announcement as "desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement." The 2015 deal, he said, "is not renegotiable. Rather than repeating tired rhetoric, US must bring itself into full compliance -- just like Iran." - Street protests - Trump's decision was announced alongside another package of new sanctions -- punishing not Iran's nuclear program, but its alleged abuse of human rights in a crackdown on recent street protests. The most prominent new name on the Treasury sanctions blacklist, which forbids Americans from doing business with the targets, is the head of Iran's judiciary, Sadegh Amoli Larijani. The US Treasury said Larijani, the brother of Iran's parliamentary speaker and former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, is to blame for the torture and degrading treatment of prisoners. The Iranian nuclear agreement Washington policy hawks hailed Trump's decision, which they said would concentrate minds in Europe, where leaders have urged the US president not to sabotage a deal they see as a landmark diplomatic success. "So Trump now has issued explicit May deadline to Congress and Europeans: Fix Iran nuke deal or no more sanctions waivers," wrote Mark Dubowitz, head of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "Is he bluffing? I don't think so. Busy four months ahead." But supporters of the existing deal between Iran and six world powers, including the former officials in Barack Obama's administration who negotiated it, denounced Trump's plan. Diplomacy Works, a pressure group set up by former secretary of state John Kerry to defend the deal, was scathing. "Today, we learned that the president's plan includes bullying our allies into fundamentally altering the terms of a deal that they know is working for our mutual security and have publicly stated they have no interest in amending," it said. - 'Solid agreement' - The other signatories to the deal -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- and the European Union, which oversaw the talks, were watching carefully. The British and German foreign ministries said they had taken note of the decision and would confer with France before deciding on a course of action. "The UK has a clear position on the Iran nuclear deal: we regard it as a crucial agreement that makes the world a safer place by neutralizing the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran," the British Foreign Office said. The EU said it would hold internal consultations and was "committed to the continued full and effective implementation" of the deal. America's allies see the accord as the best way to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions and a victory for multilateral diplomacy. Tehran categorically denies it is seeking to develop atomic weapons. But Trump argues that Obama gave away too much to Iran in sanctions relief, without forcing the Islamic republic to end its ballistic missile program and support for militant groups. While there may be some relief that Trump has yet to torpedo the hard-won accord, there were clear signs of frustration from European capitals in the runup to the decision. 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." And Russia spoke out strongly in favor of the accord, calling it "the result of a consensus among many parties." UN inspectors have certified Iran's compliance with the deal nine times, most recently in November. Edgar Ray Killen, shown here in 2005, was convicted in the 1964 murders of civil rights activists Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner A Ku Klux Klan leader convicted in the infamous killings of three civil rights workers memorialized in the film "Mississippi Burning," has died in prison, officials said Friday. Edgar Ray Killen was serving a 60-year prison sentence for spearheading the 1964 slayings of the men who were in the southern US state as part of a drive to register black voters. The case galvanized public opinion against segregation and helped lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. It also inspired the Oscar-winning 1988 film "Mississippi Burning." Officials said the 92-year-old Killen died late Thursday. "The cause and manner of death are pending an autopsy. However, no foul play is suspected," the Mississippi Department of Corrections said in a statement. Killen was accused of orchestrating the shocking murders of the three political workers -- two white men and one black man. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner initially went missing after being arrested by local police and then released. The sheriff's deputy who arrested them informed Klansmen of their detainment, and Killen then orchestrated a KKK mob to attack the men. The three men were initially considered missing, and the FBI joined in the search to find them. Weeks later, their buried bodies were discovered at a farm, shot at point-blank range. Chaney, the only African American among them, had been badly beaten. Killen had escaped punishment for almost four decades, his initial trial ending in a hung jury. He had been living as a part-time preacher and lumber mill operator, but was also an organizer in the KKK who had established a local group. The case was reopened in 2005, and Killen was convicted and sent to prison. He was the only one of the culprits to be convicted of murder charges. US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have been negotiating with Democrats for weeks over an elusive deal on 2018 federal spending US lawmakers will resort to passing a short-term federal spending deal next week to avoid an embarrassing government shutdown, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday, as prospects for a long-term 2018 agreement dimmed. A move to extend temporary funding beyond the January 19 deadline would be the fourth such extension, known as a "continuing resolution," since September, and would signal that the country's two warring political parties might be too far apart on budget issues and immigration to strike a bipartisan agreement this year. "We will have to do something short term," Ryan told a political forum in his native Wisconsin, when asked whether Congress would be able to reach a deal before government lights go out next Friday at midnight. But the top Republican in Congress stressed he did not believe lawmakers will allow federal operations to stop. "No I don't think there will be" a shutdown, Ryan said. Republicans have accused Democrats of slow-walking the budget process in a bid to strengthen their hand in negotiations on the sensitive issue of immigration. Democratic leaders say they want an immigration deal to be attached to a broader budget package. Lawmakers and the White House have sought to craft a compromise that tightens border security including funding a wall on the border with Mexico and limits other entry programs like the green card visa lottery in exchange for shielding young immigrants from deportation. Nearly 800,000 people who came to the US illegally as children were protected under the Obama administration, but Trump will scrap the so-called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on March 5 unless Congress legislates a fix. But after a tense White House meeting with lawmakers during which Trump was accused of using a racist slur, the negotiations took a sharp downward turn. "Because of the Democrats not being interested in life and safety, DACA has now taken a big step backwards," Trump tweeted. "The Dems will threaten 'shutdown,' but what they are really doing is shutting down our military, at a time we need it most." Congressional negotiators have spent weeks battling over top lines for military and domestic spending, with Republicans and Democrats alike warning that failure to strike a deal would harm US military readiness and capability. Lawmakers are also looking to finalize an $80 billion disaster relief bill, the largest of its kind, and re-authorize a child health insurance program. "We will continue the ongoing dialogue with all partners, including countries like Russia and China who absolutely will play an important role in moving towards peace on the Korean peninsula," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said China and Russia -- despite not being invited to a conference in Canada on the North Korea crisis -- must help defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday. Canada and the United States are co-hosting foreign ministers from more than a dozen countries in Vancouver on January 15-17 with the goal of strengthening diplomatic efforts toward denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. Trudeau said Canada "looks forward" to engaging with international partners at the summit. "At the same time," he added, "we will continue the ongoing dialogue with all partners, including countries like Russia and China who absolutely will play an important role in moving towards peace on the Korean peninsula." The so-called Vancouver Group is formed by the countries that fought in the 1950-53 Korean War. They include South Korea, Britain, the Philippines and Australia. "We all know that the international community is playing an extremely important role in defusing, de-escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula," Trudeau said. "Continued dialogue and many different venues is going to be the path forward," he added. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said when the summit was announced in December that the meeting would seek to increase pressure on North Korea to negotiate an end to its nuclear program. President Donald Trump on Thursday questioned why the U.S. should allow more immigrants from "shithole countries" after senators discussed revamping rules affecting entrants from Africa and Haiti, according to three people briefed on the conversation. A sampling of reaction to Trump's remark: __ "President Trump's comments are yet another confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views. It also reinforces the concerns that we hear every day, that the President's slogan Make America Great Again is really code for Make America White Again." - Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. __ "I look forward to getting a more detailed explanation regarding the President's comments. Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin." - Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. __ Trump's comments are "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation." - Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, whose family came from Haiti. __ "The United States' position as a moral leader throughout the world has been thoroughly damaged by the continuous lowbrow, callous and unfiltered racism repeatedly espoused by President Trump. His decision to use profanity to describe African, Central American and Caribbean countries is not only a low mark for this president, it is a low point for our nation." - Statement from the NAACP. __ "President Trump has been consistently honest about the white nationalism behind his immigration policies. His latest salvo is directly contrary to the decision Congress made in 1965 to do away with the racist per-country quotas of the past and bring our immigration policies in line with the civil rights era." - Lorella Praeli, American Civil Liberties Union director of immigration policy and campaigns. __ "Immigrants from countries across the globe - including and especially those from Haiti and all parts of Africa - have helped build this country. They should be welcomed and celebrated, not demeaned and insulted." - Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. __ "We can now we say with 100% confidence that the President is a racist who does not share the values enshrined in our Constitution or Declaration of Independence." - Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. __ "He's demonstrated himself to be unfit, unknowledgeable about the history of this country and the history of contributions that immigrants, particularly Haitian immigrants, have made to this country." - Illinois state Sen. Kwame Raoul, whose Haitian parents who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1950s. __ "He's trying to win me back." - Conservative commentator Ann Coulter. BALTIMORE (AP) - A top Baltimore hospital executive has apologized after a woman wearing only a gown and socks was discharged at a bus stop at night, what one man who later came to her aid said left him outraged and stunned. Dr. Mohan Suntha, president and CEO of University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus, told a news conference Thursday that the hospital "failed" after a video posted on Facebook showed the unidentified woman mumbling and appearing disoriented in frigid weather outside. Speaking with reporters, Suntha also said Thursday there were no excuses for what happened to her. "We believe firmly that we provided appropriate medical care to a patient who came to us in need, but where we absolutely failed, and where we own that failure, is in the demonstration of basic humanity and compassion as a patient was being discharged from our organization after having received that care," he said. "We do not believe that what occurred Tuesday night in any way defines who we are as an organization. There has been a lot of conversation since this incident came to light," Suntha said. He added that the woman wasn't mistreated while in the hospital's care and that the incident was isolated and that hospital officials were working on an extensive internal review. The hospital confirmed in a statement that the woman was discharged Tuesday night. Imamu Baraka, identified in local reports as the man who witnessed events unfolding and also sought to help the woman, told The Associated Press on Thursday night that he was stunned. Consequently, he said, he decided to record what he could on cellphone video. "I saw the unthinkable, another human in a wheelchair being wheeled out in the dead of cold," he said in a phone interivew, describing frigid temperatures in the 30s and a cold wind blowing at her hospital gown and exposing her to the elements. Baraka, who said he has a psychotherapy practice in a building across the street from the hospital, said he rushed back to his office and grabbed his cellphone to return and record events, growing increasingly angry. He said he even challenged those who wheeled her out to the street. "I asked them three times, I asked them specifically, 'Are you going to leave this lady out here like this?' They kept walking. They then went inside of the building." He said he went and asked a security guard outside the hospital for a supervisor and was told "I am the supervisor." He said he then went and tried to help the woman and dial 911 for an ambulance. He said once the ambulance arrived, he asked its crew where they were going to take her, and they replied "back to the hospital." Recalled Baraka, "I said, 'Are you kidding me, they just dumped her on the curb.'" It wasn't immediately clear what happened to the woman after she was driven back toward the hospital. He said he went through a range of emotions that night, his voice still thick with emotion Thursday. "At first I was shocked. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And I move beyond that to the next level from being shocked. I became ... irritated and fearful for the young lady. And then I became angry," he recalled. He said he remains concerned for the woman and has sought out her mother and also spoken with the hospital CEO since then about the steps they promised to take in light of what happened. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The Latest on the Toyota-Mazda factory coming to Alabama (all times local): 8:15 p.m. Alabama's total incentive package to land Toyota and Mazda's new U.S. factory will top at least $700 million after local incentives are added. Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corp. president, speaks during a press conference, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala., where the Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda announced plans to build a huge $1.6 billion joint-venture plant in Huntsville, that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. Several states had competed for the coveted project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and will produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP) The Huntsville City Council on Thursday approved a $320 million local incentive package for the factory. That is in addition to $380 million offered by the state in tax abatements, investment rebates and the construction of a worker training facility. The city's offer to the Japanese auto manufacturers included providing the land, building a road to the factory and property tax abatements worth $107 million over 20 years. Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said the project will bring economic benefits to the region for generations. The factory will employ 4,000 people. "If there ever was a slam dunk deal, this is a great one," Battle said. ___ 10 p.m. Alabama has entered the fast lane in its bid to become a major auto making hub in the South, landing a coveted $1.6 billion joint venture plant of Toyota and Mazda that is to eventually employ thousands. The new plant will be located in Huntsville, Alabama - already a hub for the region's aerospace industry - and will produce 300,000 vehicles per year, a combination of the Toyota Corolla compact car and a new small crossover SUV from Mazda. Production is expected to begin by 2021. Toyota and Mazda will join Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai which operate assembly plants in Alabama. The Center for Automotive Research says Alabama is tied with Tennessee as the fifth-largest producer of vehicles in the country last year, according to the Center for Automotive Research Mark Yarbrough, Limestone County Commission chairman, Tommy Battle, Huntsville mayor, Greg Canfield, Alabama Secretary of Commerce, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Masamichi Kogai, Mazda Motor Corp. president and CEO, Masahiro Moro, Mazda Motor of America Inc. president and CEO, Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corp. president, and James Lentz, Toyota North America CEO, during a press conference, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala., The automakers Toyota and Mazda announced plans to build a huge $1.6 billion joint-venture plant in Huntsville, that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. Several states had competed for the coveted project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and will produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP) Governor Kay Ivey looks on during a press conference, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala., where the Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda announced plans to build a huge $1.6 billion joint-venture plant in Huntsville, that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. Several states had competed for the coveted project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and will produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP) Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey speaks during a press conference, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala., where the Japanese automakers Mazda and Toyota announced plans to build a huge $1.6 billion joint-venture plant in Huntsville, that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. Several states had competed for the coveted project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and will produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP) Masamichi Kogai, Mazda Motor Corp. president and CEO, speaks during a press conference, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala., where the Japanese automakers Mazda and Toyota announced plans to build a huge $1.6 billion joint-venture plant in Huntsville, that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. Several states had competed for the coveted project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and will produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP) Akio Toyoda, right, Toyota Motor Corp., speaks as Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, center, Masamichi Kogai, Mazda Motor Corp. president and CEO, listen during a press conference, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala., where the Japanese automakers announced plans to build a huge $1.6 billion joint-venture plant in Huntsville, that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. Several states had competed for the coveted project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and will produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP) Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, right, Masamichi Kogai, Mazda Motor Corp. president and CEO, and Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corp. president, applaud during a press conference, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala., where the Japanese automakers announced plans to build a huge $1.6 billion joint-venture plant in Huntsville, that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. Several states had competed for the coveted project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and will produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. (Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP) NEW YORK (AP) - For some Walmart employees, the day brought news of a pay raise. Others learned they were out of a job. Walmart said Thursday that it is boosting its starting salary for U.S. workers and handing out bonuses. The announcement came as the company also confirmed it is closing dozens of Sam's Club warehouse stores - a move that a union-backed group estimated could cost thousands of jobs. The world's largest private employer said it was closing 63 of its 660 Sam's Clubs over the next weeks, with some shut already. Up to 12 are being converted into e-commerce distribution centers, the company said. FILE - In this June 5, 2017, file photo, a worker stacks merchandise outside a Walmart in Salem, N.H. Walmart 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. The retailer said Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, changes to its compensation and benefits policy will impact more than a million hourly workers in the U.S., with the wage increase effective next month. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File) It did not disclose how many people would lose their jobs, but said some workers may be placed at other Walmart locations. Making Change at Walmart, a campaign backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, estimates that 150 to 160 people work at each Sam's Club store, meaning the closures could affect about 10,000 people. Lauren Fitz, 22, said she was at her other job as a church secretary when a colleague texted to say that the Sam's Club where they both worked in Loveland, Ohio, had closed. Fitz had been pleased earlier to read the news that Walmart was boosting starting salaries and offering bonuses. "I thought, 'This is really cool.' And then to find out that my store is closing," said Fitz, who said she had worked as a sales associate in the jewelry department for two months. At home, she got a call from her manager and had a letter in the mail saying the store had closed and she could seek employment at another Sam's Club or Walmart store. Local news reports said Sam's Clubs stores were closing in Texas, California, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana and Alaska, among other states. "Transforming our business means managing our real estate portfolio and Walmart needs a strong fleet of Sam's Clubs that are fit for the future," Sam's Club CEO John Furner said in a statement. "We know this is difficult news for our associates and we are working to place as many of them as possible at nearby locations." Earlier in the day, Walmart cited the sweeping Republican tax overhaul 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. President Donald Trump cheered the announcement with a tweet, saying, "Great news, as a result of our TAX CUTS & JOBS ACT!" White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders later said she would not comment on the Sam's Club closings but that the wage increases were a sign that the tax measures "are having the impact that we had hoped." Walmart representatives did not respond to a question about the timing of the dual developments. 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. 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 the 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 rise 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. While many department store chains such as Macy's and Sears are struggling, retailers as a whole are still trying to hire. The retail industry is seeking to fill 711,000 open jobs, the highest on records dating back to 2001, according to government data. The longer those jobs go unfilled, the greater pressure on employers to offer higher wages. Walmart, which reported annual revenue of nearly $486 billion in the most recent 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. It joins dozens of companies including American Airlines and Bank of America that have announced worker bonuses following the passage of the Republican tax plan that slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The company said the wage increase benefits all hourly U.S. workers at its stores, including Sam's Club, as well as hourly employees at its websites, distribution centers and its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters. The one-time bonus between $200 and $1,000 will be given to Walmart employees who won't receive a pay raise. In all, Walmart employs 2.3 million people around the world, 1.5 million of which are in the U.S. ___ AP Business writers Michelle Chapman in Newark, New Jersey; Chris Rugaber in Washington, D.C.; and Joyce M. Rosenberg in New York contributed to this report. LONDON (AP) - President Donald Trump has canceled a trip to London to open the new $1 billion U.S. Embassy in the British capital, avoiding protests promised by political opponents. Some U.K. lawmakers had said Trump was not welcome in Britain after he re-tweeted videos from a far-right British group and criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan following a terror attack last year. But Trump said his decision, announced in a late-night tweet, was due to concerns about the embassy's move from the elite Mayfair district to a far less fashionable area of London south of the Thames River. The Madame Tussauds wax figure of US President Donald Trump is seen outside the new US Embassy in Nine Elms in London, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. President Donald Trump says he canceled upcoming trip to London because he doesn't like the choice of a new embassy. Some British lawmakers have questioned whether Trump would be welcome in London after some of his earlier comments. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) "Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" Trump tweeted. The State Department, however, announced plans for relocating the London embassy in 2008, while George W. Bush was still president, because of concerns about security following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. At the time, U.S. Ambassador Robert Tuttle said the decision to move to the five-acre site came after a "long and careful process." While the former embassy was on Grosvenor Square, in a tony area of designer boutiques and expensive restaurants, the new building is in a former industrial area south of the Thames that is being redeveloped into a new commercial and residential district. The current ambassador, Robert "Woody" Johnson, said the change was necessary even though the U.S. had been linked to Grosvenor Square for more than 200 years. "Security concerns after September 11 meant we had to move to a location that could better protect American citizens and our British neighbors," he wrote in an article for London's Evening Standard newspaper. Johnson, a Trump appointee, also said the new embassy was entirely paid for by the sale of other London properties and "did not cost the U.S. taxpayer a cent." A Trump visit has been on the cards since British Prime Minister Theresa May visited the United States a few days after Trump's inauguration last year. May proclaimed the strength of the "most special relationship" between the two countries and the government extended an invitation for a state visit as a guest of Queen Elizabeth II. But a full-blown state visit replete with golden carriages and pomp has been deferred amid the threat of huge anti-Trump protests. The idea had gradually evolved into a working visit in which Trump would open the London embassy. In December, Johnson said he was looking forward to welcoming the president. In the meantime, the relationship between May and Trump has come under strain. The uproar came after Trump re-tweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by a leader of the far-right group Britain First - a tiny group that regularly posts inflammatory videos. May's spokesman said the president was wrong to retweet the group's content - prompting Trump to tell May in a tweet that she should focus on "the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom" instead of him. The exchange prompted further calls to dump the visit. The mayor of London - who has been criticized by Trump in tweets - said Trump appeared to have "got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city's values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance." "His visit ... would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests," Khan said. The British government said the opening of the embassy was a matter for the United States. But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson blamed Khan and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for discouraging the U.S. leader from coming. "The US is the biggest single investor in the UK - yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk," Johnson said in a tweet. "We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall." The Madame Tussauds wax figure of US President Donald Trump is seen outside the new US Embassy in Nine Elms in London, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. President Donald Trump says he canceled upcoming trip to London because he doesn't like the choice of a new embassy. Some British lawmakers have questioned whether Trump would be welcome in London after some of his earlier comments. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) FILE - This Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017 file photo shows the Canyon garden at the new United States embassy building during a press preview near the River Thames in London. President Donald Trump says he is canceling an upcoming trip to London because he doesn't like the Obama administration's choice of a new embassy there. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool, File) FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017 file photo, a general view of the main lobby entrance with a large Department of State embossed seal, along with all the names of the ambassadors to the Court of St James's at the new United States embassy building during a press preview near the River Thames in London. President Donald Trump says he is canceling an upcoming trip to London because he doesn't like the Obama administration's choice of a new embassy there. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool, File) The Madame Tussauds wax figure of US President Donald Trump is seen outside the new US Embassy in Nine Elms in London, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. President Donald Trump says he canceled upcoming trip to London because he doesn't like the choice of a new embassy. Some British lawmakers have questioned whether Trump would be welcome in London after some of his earlier comments. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) The Madame Tussauds wax figure of US President Donald Trump is seen outside the new US Embassy in Nine Elms in London, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. President Donald Trump says he canceled upcoming trip to London because he doesn't like the choice of a new embassy. Some British lawmakers have questioned whether Trump would be welcome in London after some of his earlier comments. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) A general view of the new United States Embassy building, with signs for the local railway stations outside, in London, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. President Donald Trump says he canceled upcoming trip to London because he doesn't like the choice of a new embassy. Some British lawmakers have questioned whether Trump would be welcome in London after some of his earlier comments. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) The Madame Tussauds wax figure of US President Donald Trump is seen outside the new US Embassy in Nine Elms in London, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. President Donald Trump says he canceled upcoming trip to London because he doesn't like the choice of a new embassy. Some British lawmakers have questioned whether Trump would be welcome in London after some of his earlier comments. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan's foreign ministry says Indian troops have opened fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing a 65-year-old woman. Islamabad says Thursday's shooting was the latest cease-fire violation by India in the village of Kot Kotera. A ministry statement says Pakistan on Friday summoned an Indian diplomat to lodge a protest over the killing. There was no immediate comment from New Delhi. Pakistan claims India has violated the Kashmir cease-fire 70 times so far this month. Pakistan and India often accuse each other of cease-fire violations in divided Kashmir, which both countries claim in its entirety. The two nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two of the three wars between them over Kashmir since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - A Somali military officer says one Somali soldier has been killed in brief clashes between Somali and Kenyan troops in a border town. Mohamed Ahmed says the Somali soldiers fought Friday morning with Kenyan soldiers on patrol in Elwak, a town near the Kenyan border. He says the Kenyan soldiers mistook the Somali soldiers for al-Shabab extremists and that the clashes lasted more than 20 minutes. The Somalia-based al-Shabab has carried out numerous deadly attacks inside Kenya in recent months. Kenya is one of several regional countries contributing troops to an African Union force in Somalia fighting al-Shabab. NEW DELHI (AP) - Four Indian Supreme Court judges complained openly Friday about the functioning of the country's top court, including the role of the chief justice. The four, led by Justice Jasti Chelameswar, held an unusual news conference in the Indian capital at which they said they did not agree with the allocation of work by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Chelameswar said the four judges met with Misra on Friday and demanded changes, but he did not agree with them. He said many undesirable things had happened in the court in recent months, but gave no details. Misra has not commented on the allegations. The four judges said they were not resigning and would be back in court on Monday. Last year, Chelmeswar criticized the country's collegium system in which the chief justice and four judges of the Supreme Court recommend appointments and transfers of judges across the country. The Supreme Court last year rejected a government move to have representatives in the group handling appointments and transfers of judges to the highest courts. R.S. Sodhi, a retired Supreme Court justice, said the judges' decision to express their grievances openly was appalling. He said they should have sought redress within the system. There are currently 25 judges on India's Supreme Court, with six vacancies. TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Republican U.S. Rep. Martha McSally called on the national GOP to "grow a pair of ovaries" as she launched her Senate bid Friday, joining the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake by embracing President Donald Trump and his outsider playbook in one of the nation's premier contests. The 51-year-old retired Air Force combat pilot cast herself as a tough-talking outsider as she vowed to work closely with the Republican president to combat illegal immigration. "There should be no sanctuary for anyone breaking our laws and harming our people," said McSally, wearing a military flight suit as she faced dozens of supporters in a Tucson airport hangar. "You better believe I will keep working with President Trump." FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2018 file photo, House Homeland Security Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., right, speaks during a news conference with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. on Capitol Hill in Washington. McSally called on the national GOP to "grow a pair of ovaries" as she launched her bid for the U.S. Senate on Friday, Jan. 12, joining the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake by embracing President Donald Trump and his outsider playbook in one of the nation's premier Senate contests. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) Like few others, the Arizona election is expected to showcase the feud between the Republican Party's establishment and its fiery anti-immigration wing in particular - all in a border state that features one of the nation's largest Hispanic populations. The race will test the appeal of the Trump political playbook - which emphasizes the dangers of illegal immigration and demands border security above all else - in a state where nearly 1 in 3 residents is Hispanic and roughly 1 million are eligible to vote, according to the Pew Research Center. McSally, a two-term congresswoman already backed by many GOP establishment leaders in Arizona and Washington, first announced her candidacy in a fiery video early Friday that touched on border security and Sharia law and featured Trump himself. "Like our president, I'm tired of PC politicians and their BS excuses," McSally said. "I'm a fighter pilot and I talk like one." "That's why I told Washington Republicans to grow a pair of ovaries and get the job done," she added. After her Tucson appearance, McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly a combat mission, boarded a World War II-era fighter plane that she was flying to Phoenix and Prescott for subsequent announcement events. McSally enters a dynamic Republican primary field that features a nationally celebrated immigration hardliner, 85-year-old former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was pardoned by Trump last year after defying a judge's order to stop traffic patrols that targeted immigrants. The primary also includes former state Sen. Kelli Ward, an outspoken Trump advocate who was an early favorite of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Despite the aggressive rhetoric in her announcement video, some of McSally's conservative critics dismiss her as an establishment favorite whose record doesn't match her tough talk. She refused to endorse Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign, and she referred to his sexually predatory comments caught on the "Access Hollywood" tape as "disgusting." Yet she has tacked right in recent months and aligned herself with Trump as the 2018 campaign season neared. "Thank you, Mr. President," she wrote Friday morning, retweeting a post from the president that attacked Democrats who are contemplating a government shutdown to protect young immigrants known as "Dreamers." ''As we discussed on Tuesday, we won't allow our troops to be held hostage by DACA negotiations. Our military is relying on us." McSally also co-sponsored an immigration plan released by House conservatives this week that would reduce legal immigration levels by 25 percent, block federal grants to sanctuary cities and restrict the number of relatives that immigrants already in the U.S. can bring here. The bill, which is unlikely to survive the GOP-controlled Senate, also provides temporary legal status for young immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. Democrats see Arizona as a rare opportunity to pick up a Senate seat in 2018 as their party struggles to defend vulnerable incumbents in several other Republican-leaning states. Trump won Arizona in 2016 by less than 4 points. Democrats have another advantage: Their party's leading candidate, three-term incumbent Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, faces a relatively weak Democratic field, while McSally and her Republican opponents are expected to wage a bruising Republican contest until the state's late August primary elections. But McSally avoids her Republican opponents altogether in her announcement video, focusing instead on her military service while adding a jab at Sharia law - a reference to her fight against a military policy that required female soldiers in some Muslim-majority countries to wear robes over their service uniforms. "I absolutely refused to bow down to Sharia law," she said. "After eight years of fighting, I won my battle for the religious freedom of American servicewomen." She added, "After taking on terrorists in combat, the liberals in the Senate won't scare me one bit." While some Trump loyalists and conservative groups don't necessarily agree, McSally is viewed as the stronger Republican candidate in a general election in which successful candidates must extend their appeal beyond their party's most passionate voters. Democrats, meanwhile, are practically giddy about what they view as a race to the right in the Republican field that could make it difficult for the primary winner to prevail in November. "Whoever escapes the GOP primary in August, they will be held accountable for touting their radical stripes at every opportunity and willingness to take stances on issues that are simply out of touch with Arizonan voters," state Democratic Party spokesman Drew Anderson said. ___ Christie reported from Phoenix. Representatives from North and South Korea shook hands in the first meeting between the rivals in more than two years in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the neighbors. In other images from the Asia-Pacific region this week, hundreds of thousands of Filipino Catholics jostled as they tried to get closer to the statue of the Black Nazarene during an annual procession in Manila. In South Korea, an annual ice festival drew over 1 million visitors, including a trout-catching contest in Hwacheon. In this Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, file photo, South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, left, shakes hands with the head of North Korean delegation Ri Son Gwon before their meeting at the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea. South Korean media said North and South Korea have begun talks at their border about how to cooperate in next month's Winter Olympics and how to improve their long-strained ties. (Korea Pool/Yonhap via AP, File) An 8-month-old critically endangered Bornean orangutan showed off its two front teeth at the Singapore Zoo. ___ This gallery was curated by Associated Press photo editor Masayo Yoshida in Tokyo. ___ Visit the AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com Visit AP Images online: http://www.apimages.com In this Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, file photo, Filipino Roman Catholic devotees jostle for position as they try to get near the image of the Black Nazarene during a raucous procession to celebrate its feast day in Manila, Philippines. A massive crowd of mostly barefoot Filipino Catholics joined the annual procession of a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ under tight security. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File) In this Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, file photo, Hong Kong judges don wigs and robes attend the opening of the legal year at City Hall in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File) In this Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018, file photo, Kashmiri villagers offer funeral prayers near the coffin of a policeman during his funeral in Rehama village 72 kilometers (45 miles) north of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Four policemen were killed Saturday when rebels fighting against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir detonated a bomb on a street they were patrolling, police said. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan, File) In this Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018, file photo, Alex de Minaur of Australia plays a shot in his semi final match against Ryan Harrison of the U.S. during the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard, File) In this Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018, file photo, a girl casts a line through a hole drilled in the surface of a frozen river during a trout catching contest in Hwacheon, South Korea. The contest is part of an annual ice festival which draws over 1,000,000 visitors every year. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File) In this Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, file photo, artists wearing Japanese traditional clown masks march during the First Konpira Festival at Kotohiragu shrine in Tokyo. The shrine is dedicated to sailors and seafaring. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File) In this Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, file photo, an Indian paramilitary contingent march in front of India Gate, the landmark war memorial during rehearsals for the upcoming Republic Day parade amidst morning fog on Rajpath, the ceremonial boulevard, in New Delhi, India. India celebrates Republic Day on Jan. 26, highlighted by a march past by different branches of the military as well as a display of arms and missiles. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File) In this Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, file photo, Khansa, an eight month old critically endangered Bornean orangutan shows off it's two front-teeth, at the Singapore Zoo 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 Photo/Wong Maye-E, File) In this Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, file photo, a guest pets Sony's new Aibo robot at a Sony show room in Tokyo. Sony launched "aibo", a dog type pet type robot, into Japanese market Thursday. At the Aibo showroom in Tokyo's shopping district, by-standers enjoyed interacting with the robot flipping its ears and wagging its tail as it looks up the people with smiling face. This is the relaunch of Sony's dog type robot which had been originally launched in 1999 as one of the pioneers of such pet type robots. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File) In this Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, file photo, a man takes pictures next to TV screens showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Moon Jae-in's New Year's speech at the Yongsan Electronic store in Seoul, South Korea. Moon said he'll push for more talks and cooperation with North Korea to resolve the nuclear standoff, a day after the two Koreas held high-level talks for the first time in two years and agreed to cooperate in next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File) SYDNEY (AP) - Angelique Kerber won her eighth consecutive match of the new season, coming from 3-1 down in the final set to beat qualifier Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-3 to reach the Sydney International final on Friday. Kerber, a former No. 1 and the 2016 Australian Open champion, won all four singles at the Hopman Cup and now all four in Sydney en route to the final. She will face Ashleigh Barty, who beat Australian compatriot Daria Gavrilova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the other semifinal. Angelique Kerber of Germany celebrates her win over Camila Giorgi of Italy in their women's semifinal singles match at the Sydney International tennis tournament in Sydney, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft) In a match that included 11 breaks of serve, Barty needed just one in the third set. "It's nice getting a bit of confidence going into our biggest tournament for us," Barty said of next week's Australian Open. Gavrilova's frustration with her serving were evident in the ninth game of the set when, soon after leveling at 4-4, she double-faulted twice and received a code violation for smashing her racket. In men's semifinals, Russian qualifier Daniil Medvedev booked a spot in the final by upsetting fourth-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. Medvedev will next play Australian 18-year-old Alex de Minaur, who defeated Benoit Paire of France 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. The 167th-ranked de Minaur, who will play his first ATP Tour final on Saturday, advanced to the Brisbane International semifinals last week. Ash Barty of Australia hits a forehand to compatriot Daria Gavrilova during their women's semifinal singles match at the Sydney International tennis tournament in Sydney, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft) Daria Gavrilova of Australia points to her head while playing compatriot Ash Barty during their women's semifinal singles match at the Sydney International tennis tournament in Sydney, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft) MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's parliament has given preliminary approval to a bill that could oblige some journalists to register as foreign agents. The bill that passed the first reading at the State Duma on Friday allows the government to designate individuals who are "performing the function of a media outlet" as foreign agents. The legislation is the latest tit-for-tat between Russia and the U.S. over government-funded media outlets. The media dispute began in November when Kremlin-funded RT television was registered with the U.S. Justice Department as a foreign agent following a demand from Washington. In retaliation, Russia adopted a bill that allows the government to designate international media outlets as foreign agents. The new bill raised concern that the Russian government could be using it against foreign correspondents in Russia. PARIS (AP) - The eurozone's new leader says he hopes to use his term to bring the 19 countries that use the currency closer together and make them more resistant to crises. Outgoing leader Jeroen Dijsselbloem of the Netherlands formally handed over power Friday of the eurogroup - in the form of a symbolic bell - to Portugal's Mario Centeno in a ceremony in Paris. Centeno's mandate starts Saturday. "A lot has been done. We exited the crisis. But we have to face it, the job is not yet complete," Centeno said at the ceremony, describing a "window of opportunity" to deepen monetary union. "It is very important to meet our citizens' expectations and to build a more robust and resilient euro area." Outgoing leader Jeroen Dijsselbloem, right, of the Netherlands formally hands over power of the so-called eurogroup, in the form of a symbolic bell, to Portugal's Mario Centeno during a ceremony in Paris, Friday, Jan.12, 2018. The euro zone's new leader says he hopes to use his term to bring the 19 countries that use the currency closer together and toughen their ability to weather future crises. (AP Photo) Centeno met Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron, who is leading efforts to bring the euro-using countries closer together. Centeno meets later Friday with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. The eurogroup brings together the finance ministers of the 19 countries using the shared currency and was at the forefront of fighting debt crises in recent years. Centeno takes over at a time when the eurozone is in far better shape. The eurozone economy is growing strongly, while worries over Greece's future in the bloc have subsided. Portugal was among countries that needed a bailout during Europe's debt crisis. Centeno was credited with helping improve Portugal's economy in recent years as its finance minister, keeping a firm hand on spending while keeping left-leaning allies happy by reducing some austerity measures. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's state-run news agency says Turkish authorities have detained 10 suspected Islamic State militants, including an alleged leader who was in charge of agriculture for the group. Anadolu Agency said Friday the suspects were detained in operations in the provinces of Kayseri, central Turkey, and Gaziantep, near the border with Syria. It quoted Kayseri Gov. Suleyman Kamci saying the alleged IS militant - allegedly known as the IS group's "agriculture minister" was detained in Kayseri, as part of operations against people suspected of finding recruits. The agency identified him as Tarik A., but didn't provide further details. Turkey has suffered a series of deadly attacks blamed on IS militants, including a New Year's attack last year at an Istanbul nightclub by a gunman that killed 39 people. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Outgoing Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe told a national television audience he'd knock President Donald Trump to the floor if the president ever tried to intimidate him. During an interview Thursday on MSNBC's "Hardball," Chris Matthews asked McAuliffe how he would respond if Trump tried to intimidate him during a debate by hovering over him, as he did during the 2016 presidential election with Hillary Clinton, a close friend of McAuliffe's. "You'd have to pick him up off the floor," McAuliffe said. FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2018 file photo, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe gestures as he addresses a joint session of the the 2018 session in the House chambers at the Capitol in Richmond, Va. McAuliffe told a national television audience he'd knock President Donald Trump to the floor if the president ever tried to intimidate him. During an interview Thursday, Jan. 11 on MSNBC's "Hardball," Chris Matthews asked McAuliffe how he would respond if Trump tried to intimidate him during a debate by hovering over him, as he did in a 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton, a close friend of McAuliffe's. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) When Matthews laughed and asked if he meant he would "deck" Trump, McAuliffe answered with a straight face. "You want to get in my space ... you punch me, I'm going to punch you back twice as hard." "But if he ever came over and leaned on me and got in my space, that would be the last time Donald Trump ever did that. I promise you that," he added. McAuliffe, who was a top Democratic fundraiser before being elected governor in 2013, is set to leave office Saturday. He has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate. McAuliffe has been a vocal critic of Trump, particularly after Trump said "both sides" shared blame after white nationalists and counterprotestors clashed during a deadly rally in Charlottesville in August. During the "Hardball" interview, McAuliffe also called Trump "an embarrassment to our country." ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Federal lawmakers who represent New Jersey from both parties have asked the U.S. Justice Department to keep internet gambling legal. In a letter Thursday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the lawmakers urged the department not to rescind its 2011 legal opinion that says internet gambling is permissible under federal law. Internet gambling is a thriving industry in New Jersey, helping Atlantic City's seven casinos recover from a three-year period in which five of the city's 12 casinos closed. The additional money brought in online often makes the difference between an up month and a down month for Atlantic City casinos. In this Nov. 21, 2013, photo, Joseph Brennen tries to log on to a gambling site while at a highway rest stop in Egg Harbor Township N.J., on the first night of New Jersey's Internet gambling test. On Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, New Jersey lawmakers from both political parties urged the U.S. Justice Department to keep internet gambling legal, responding to a request from two U.S. senators to reverse a 2011 ruling that internet gambling does not violate federal law. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) Figures released Friday show Atlantic City's casinos won $245 million online in 2017, an increase of nearly 25 percent from a year earlier. The letter was signed by New Jersey's two Democratic senators, Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, along with Republican Reps. Frank LoBiondo, Leonard Lance, and Tom MacArthur, and Democrats Josh Gottheimer, Albio Sires, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Bill Pascrell Jr. and Donald Payne Jr. It was a response to a letter in November from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California asking the Justice Department to change course and have Congress determine whether to permit online gambling. That unlikely pairing voiced concern about a rapid, unchecked spread of gambling - something that has not happened. Only four states - New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware and Pennsylvania - have legalized internet gambling, and New Jersey's regulatory standards are considered the strictest in the nation. Graham and Feinstein repeated their warning of several years ago that the Justice Department opinion permitting internet gambling "could usher in the most fundamental change in gambling in our lifetimes by turning every smart phone, tablet and personal computer in our country into a casino available 24 hours a day, seven days a week." But the New Jersey lawmakers said their state has proven online gambling can be done safely and responsibly. "Placing a blanket prohibition for online gambling would be an antiquated approach to a 21st century issue, punishing states like New Jersey, which have invested in creating a safe and secure online gaming structure, while also permitting black market operators to put millions of Americans at risk," the letter from the New Jersey delegation read. The Justice Department said it has received the New Jersey delegation's letter, but it would not say whether it is considering changing its 2011 opinion regarding internet gambling. In a 2016 interview during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump, the former Atlantic City casino owner, told The Associated Press he would not take a position regarding online gambling, saying he has many friends on both sides of the issue. ___ Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Two days of protests and looting in western Venezuela over food shortages have left at least three people dead and 16 more injured. The mayor of Arapuey in the state of Merida tells El Universal newspaper that the dead include a 17-year-old shot during a demonstration Wednesday and two others hit by gunfire Thursday at a business where people had formed a line for food. Separately, the president of the National Federal of Cattle Ranchers says at least two farms were attacked by mobs of people who slaughtered cows. An opposition lawmaker posted a video on Twitter showing a dozen men attacking a cow with rocks and a machete as one says, "We are hungry." Venezuela is in the midst of deepening economic crisis. PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Do the intersecting lives of a fashion designer and the serial killer who murdered him add up to a political saga? Absolutely, says Ryan Murphy, the powerhouse executive producer of "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story," season two of the FX showcase that debuted with 2016's Emmy-winning "The People v. O.J. Simpson." "It was a political murder," Murphy said, defending the striking use of "assassination" in the title of the 10-episode series that begins airing at 10 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday. The 1997 shooting by Andrew Cunanan of the groundbreaking Italian designer is enveloped in social issues that resonate today, Murphy and series stars Edgar Ramirez and Ricky Martin said. This image released by FX shows Edgar Ramirez as Gianni Versace in a scene from "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story," premiering Jan. 17, on FX. (Jeff Daly/FX via AP) Cunanan ("Glee" star Darren Criss) was a "person who targeted people specifically to shame them and to out them, and to have a form of payback for a life that he felt he could not live," Murphy said during a Q&A with reporters. Ramirez, who plays the adult Versace, and Martin, who portrays his longtime partner, Antonio D'Amico, concurred in separate interviews with Murphy's assessment. Versace, who was 50 and reaching new heights of success when he was gunned down in front of his lavish Miami Beach estate, died because of prejudice, said Ramirez (who, with weight added and hair dyed and thinned for "Versace," is unrecognizable as the actor who appeared in "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Carlos"). Although Cunanan was on the FBI's most-wanted list and circulated openly in Miami Beach before Versace became his final victim in a cross-country rampage, he wasn't stopped because of his gay connections, Ramirez said. Cunanan, 27, fatally shot himself about six weeks after Versace's murder. "The underlying subject is homophobia and how homophobia killed him," Ramirez said. "That's something that comes up over and over when we look into the investigation. ... Cunanan was on the news every night, on the most-wanted list, and for some reason all the law-enforcement authorities couldn't get him." The California-born Cunanan, portrayed as a deeply disturbed con man, had cultivated relationships with wealthy older men and reportedly had been lovers or friends with two of the five men whose deaths are blamed on him. The other victims included a wealthy Chicago developer and a New Jersey cemetery caretaker. Illuminating anti-gay bias is important because the LGBTQ community still must fight it, Martin said. As a member of the community, the pop star-actor said, he feels compelled to use his fame to combat hate and discrimination. "If I don't use the power that that music gives or, in this case, a character like this gives me, I'd be allowing the crime to happen," Martin said. His friendships with Ramirez and Cruz were other inducements to join the series, as was its depiction of the Versace-D'Amico relationship. Their attachment was illuminated in a conversation Martin had with D'Amico, who in the show's opening scene is shown discovering Versace's body immediately after the shooting. "Ricky, my love for Gianni, our love, was open,'" Martin quoted D'Amico as saying. "And I've lost him and I've never been the same." The series unfolds back in time from the murder, finally detailing the journeys of Versace and Cunanan from humble roots to, respectively, fame and infamy. In a pivotal scene, Donatella Versace confronts her brother about his intention to come out in the late 1980s. She argues the nearly unprecedented move could wreck their business empire, one built on Versace's talent for combining the glamour of couture with the sexiness and excitement of celebrity. Versace stands his ground, backed by D'Amico. Based on the book "Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History" by journalist Maureen Orth, the drama has drawn fire from Versace's family. In a statement, it was dismissed as "a work of fiction" because family members didn't authorize the book or participate in the screenplay. The series' producers and the publisher of the 1999 book defended it. Orth's book is "a carefully reported and extensively sourced work of investigative journalism," Random House said in a statement, and FX Networks and Fox 21 Television Studios said they stand by Orth's "meticulous" reporting. While details of private conversations were unavailable for the dramatization, as with the O.J. Simpson series, the "Versace" screenplays by Tom Rob Smith are "very emotional and accurate at the same time," Murphy said. A scene with one victim, who's portrayed as begging for his life before Cunanan kills him, is based on the body's injuries, Smith said. "What was that conversation like? So you have these tiny points of truth, and you then try to connect the tissue between it. But I would never use the word 'embellishing' or 'making up'" It's trying to join those pinpoints," Smith said. ___ Online: http://www.fxnetworks.com/ ___ Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber@ap.org and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber. Ricky Martin participates in the "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" panel during the FOX Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour on Friday, Jan. 5, 2018, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) This image released by FX shows Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace in a scene from "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story," premiering Jan. 17, on FX. (Jeff Daly/FX via AP) WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Some European Parliament members are calling for the dismissal of the Polish deputy head of the parliament after he made a very hostile comment about a Polish European lawmaker. Ryszard Czarnecki, from Poland's ruling conservative party, used a derogatory term to comment on words spoken by Roza Thun und Hohenstein, a European Parliament lawmaker from Poland's main opposition party. The two parties are at loggerheads over the current shape of Poland's politics. Under the current government, elected in 2015, Poland is in deep conflict with European Union leaders who say its policies violate basic EU values. Poland's government says it is misunderstood. Thun, who has spent decades fighting for Poland's sovereignty and democracy, has appeared in a film by German state NDR Television in which she said that under the ruling Law and Justice party, Poland was turning away from the EU and was veering toward a "dictatorship." Czarnecki, reputed for making strong statements, reacted by comparing Thun to Poles who during World War II denounced other Poles and Jews to the occupying Germans. Liberal European lawmakers said in a letter to parliament head Antonio Tajani that such words were "deplorable behavior (that) cannot be connected with the European Parliament" and called for Czarnecki to be dismissed. There has been no criticism of Czarnecki's words from Poland's government. Tajani will discuss the call for Czarnecki's dismissal next week, his press office said Friday. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The U.S. poet laureate has embarked on a series of trips to bring her poetry to rural pockets of the country, with stops in Native American communities and other places she says her work hasn't taken her in the past. In an interview, Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy K. Smith said Friday that she has grown curious about how conversations about poetry have evolved in wide swaths of the United States beyond the reach of book festivals. She is launching the tour - which began this week in New Mexico and will take her to the rural South in the coming months - because she also wants to show how poetry can help people see the world from other perspectives. "I love it when a poet teaches me to see something that I've seen a thousand times before but in a different way," she said. "It's like somehow, in some way, the world has changed for me. I could walk around with all of the different perspectives that I encountered on the page." FILE - In this April 16, 2012 file photo, Pulitzer Prize winning poet Tracy K. Smith poses outside her apartment in New York. Smith has embarked on the first of several trips to bring her poetry to rural pockets of the country where she says book festivals rarely take her. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File) The Library of Congress in June appointed Smith poet laureate, saying she has shown readers how to think and feel through big ideas. The honor of being the nation's poet comes with few obligations beyond readings in Washington, D.C., allowing appointees to establish individual projects and priorities as they aim to create appreciation for their craft during their yearlong tenure. In New Mexico, Smith visited Cannon Air Force Base outside Clovis, an agricultural community on the state's far eastern plains. On Friday afternoon, she visited the Santa Fe Indian School, where she met with students and learned about their cultures and classes. Students at the school owned and operated by the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico take classes in Native American history, tribal languages and tribal government and as well as algebra, English and science. While Santa Fe itself is a cultural capital of the Southwest, many of the students hail from tribal communities in more isolated areas of New Mexico and much of the United States and board in dormitories. For Avery Conners, a high school student from Ohkay Owingeh, a tribal pueblo north of Santa Fe, Smith's visit marked a chance to delve into the poet's work. A sophomore, Conners said she's found poetry to be among her favorite forms of writing, especially pieces with surreal themes. She was taken, she said, with Smith's work "Fire Escape Fantasy" - a poem in the collection "The Body's Question" about success and the strains of modern life - because it seemed to explore themes she often weighs. "My generation is full of indifference," she said. "People are focused on being successful." Jarvis Spotted Corn, also a sophomore, took advantage of Smith's visit to share with her his poem "Mountain in the Sky," a piece that touches on loss and cultural identity. For Smith, 45, the New Mexico tour offers a chance to expand her own perspective on the world and the West. She has not previously spent time in Native American communities. On Saturday, she'll visit Santa Clara Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, which is along the Rio Grande near the Jemez Mountains and home to some famed Native American potters and artists. "As a writer, I travel a lot to cities and to universities," she said. "I want to know what the conversation about poetry feels like in other parts of the country." Smith's trips are organized in coordination with congressional delegations and the Library of Congress. In 2012, Smith's "Life on Mars" won the Pulitzer Prize. Three years later, her memoir "Ordinary Light" was a National Book Award finalist for nonfiction. She sees poetry as a means for readers to slow down, and think more passionately and deeply in a world where she says the lights, alerts and sounds of cellphones have changed how people act, connect and think. The daughter of an Air Force veteran, she was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and raised in Fairfield, California. She teaches in the creative writing program at Princeton University. Kayla Coriz, left, a high school senior from Santo Domingo Pueblo, N.M., gives U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith a tour of the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, N.M., Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Smith has embarked on the first of several trips to bring her poetry to rural pockets of the country where she says book festivals rarely take her. (AP Photo/Mary Hudetz). U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, left, admires a sculpture at the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, N.M., Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Smith has embarked on the first of several trips to bring her poetry to rural pockets of the country where she says book festivals rarely take her. (AP Photo/Mary Hudetz). Kayla Coriz, left, a high school senior from Santo Domingo Pueblo, N.M., gives U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith a tour of the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, N.M., Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Smith has embarked on the first of several trips to bring her poetry to rural pockets of the country where she says book festivals rarely take her. (AP Photo/Mary Hudetz). U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, left, speaks with Cassandra Salazar, a high school senior from Nambe Pueblo, as she tours the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, N.M., Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Smith has embarked on the first of several trips to bring her poetry to rural pockets of the country where she says book festivals rarely take her. (AP Photo/Mary Hudetz). FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, who is recovering from a series of strokes and a fall last year, said Friday that he is closing his Dallas energy-focused hedge fund after what he described as "one hell of a roller coaster ride." "It's no secret the past year has not been good to me, from a health perspective or a financial one," the 89-year-old Pickens said in a statement published on his LinkedIn page. Slumping oil and natural gas prices knocked him off Forbes magazine's rich list in 2013. Pickens founded BP Capital in 1996 after building one of the country's biggest independent oil companies, Mesa Petroleum. FILE - In this May 30, 2017, file photo, oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens poses for a photo before a series of man-made lakes leading from The Lake House to The Lodge on his Mesa Vista Ranch in the panhandle of Texas. Pickens announced Friday, Jan. 12, 2018, that he is closing his Dallas energy-focused hedge fund. In a statement published on LinkedIn, the 89-year-old Pickens says that "it's no secret the past year has not been good to me, from a health perspective or a financial one." (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, File) The fund's "performance was down in the last several years," Jay Rosser, Pickens' chief of staff, said Friday, declining to provide numbers. "The whole energy space has been hard hit. We're sadly in good company," he said. Pickens expressed pleasure at how the fund fared, despite the highs and lows. "It has been one hell of a roller coaster ride," he said in the statement. "I've seen oil prices bounce around from $10 a barrel up to $147, down to $26 and now appear to be inching up ever so slowly. I'm ecstatic that I've hung on long enough to see it all unfold. I've thrived and profited on the volatility in the energy space. But for me, personally, trading oil is not as intriguing to me as it once was." Pickens said two other investment vehicles, BP Energy Partners and BP Capital Fund Advisors, will remain open. The energy-trading fund's closure is Pickens' latest effort to get his financial affairs in order. He listed his prized Texas Panhandle ranch for $250 million in November. He also put his Dallas mansion on the market for $5.9 million, but Rosser said Pickens plans to stay in Dallas and continue to come into the office every day. Pickens rose to national prominence in the 1980s when he led a series of takeover attempts, targeting Phillips Petroleum, Unocal and Gulf Oil, among other companies. He's also given away more than $1 billion to philanthropic causes, according to Rosser. Pickens said in the statement that he will continue to engage in philanthropy and politics and to provide his perspective on energy and cultural issues. He hosted a fundraising meeting of America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC, at his ranch in October. He plans to host a summit to discuss a planned veterinary school at Texas Tech University at his ranch later his month, Rosser said. ATLANTA (AP) - The city of Atlanta had a policy of conducting unlawful, warrantless searches of commercial properties, a federal judge ruled this week in a case brought after officers searched a motorcycle club's meeting space. U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell issued the ruling Tuesday in a civil rights lawsuit filed by Devon Brown after city officers entered and searched a space Brown had rented in a commercial building to use as a private clubhouse for his motorcycle club. Pannell said the city violated Brown's Fourth Amendment right of protection against unreasonable search and seizure and that the amount of damages owed to Brown will be determined by a jury at trial. The lawsuit names the city, six police officers, a buildings department inspector and two senior investigators with the city solicitor's office. The city is reviewing the court's order and considering the appropriate course of action, spokeswoman Jenna Garland said in an email Friday. Pannell wrote in his order that Brown can seek punitive damages, finding that "there is sufficient evidence in the record for a reasonable jury to conclude that Individual Defendants' actions exhibited callous or reckless indifference to Brown's federal rights." Brown, a veteran Fulton County sheriff's deputy, and other members of the Dirty South Slab Riders motorcycle club were celebrating a bachelor party on Feb. 8, 2014, in the space Brown had rented, the lawsuit says. There were signs outside that said "No Trespassing" and "Private Club," and the windows were blacked out so people outside couldn't see inside. There was no food or alcohol for sale, but members had brought their own food and drinks to share. Police and compliance officers had search and arrest warrants to go into a business where officers said they had witnessed misconduct, including alcohol sales to minors, Pannell's order says. But that business was closed, so they didn't do that inspection. A police sergeant recalled hearing about other businesses in the area that were operating outside legal business hours and doing other illegal things and decided to "attack" some of those areas, the judge wrote. Despite the signs outside the motorcycle club location, the officers believed it was a commercial property open for business and entered the unlocked door without knocking after noting cars in the parking lot and hearing loud music, the judge wrote. They didn't have a search warrant and began a compliance check based on their observations, the order says. They asked Brown, who had identified himself as the club's president, for business and alcohol licenses, and after he said he didn't have either and didn't think he needed them, the officers arrested him. A municipal court judge found him guilty of violations of the city code: failure to obtain a business license and failure to comply with liquor licensing provisions. A Fulton County Superior Court judge overturned that ruling on appeal, finding that the club was not a business or bottle house. In his order, Pannell cited deposition testimony from Sgt. Bryant Burns, one of the officers named in the lawsuit, and another police detective who wasn't involved in the search saying it was common practice to enter an establishment without a warrant to perform compliance checks. "We often find that a lot, more often than not, we'll sometimes devote our time to just checking business licenses," Burns testified. "So there may be a building that has multiple suites in it, so we'll go from suite to suite, checking on that business license." Pannell found that "Burns' testimony tends to show that the city had a policy or custom of conducting unlawful, warrantless searches of commercial properties." Edgar Ray Killen has died in prison at the age of 92, the state's corrections department announced Friday The 1960s Ku Klux Klan leader convicted decades later in the 'Mississippi Burning' slayings of three civil rights workers died in prison Thursday night at the age of 92. Edgar Ray Killen was serving three consecutive 20-year terms for manslaughter when he died 9pm Thursday inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary. An autopsy was pending, but no foul play was suspected, a state corrections department statement said. His conviction came 41 years to the day after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, all in their 20s, were ambushed and killed by Klansmen. The three Freedom Summer workers had been investigating the burning of a black church near Philadelphia, Mississippi when a deputy sheriff arrested them on a traffic charge. Killen was serving three consecutive 20-year terms for manslaughter in the killings of civil rights workers (left to right) Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman Killen's conviction in 2005 came 41 years to the day after the murder of the three men. He is pictured left in an undated mug shot, and right in court in 2005 They were then released after the sheriff alerted a mob of Klansmen. Mississippi's then-governor claimed their disappearance was a hoax before their bodies were dug up. The slayings, which were dramatized in the 1988 movie 'Mississippi Burning,' shocked the nation and helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Killen, a part-time preacher and lumber mill operator was 80 when a Neshoba County jury convicted him of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, despite his assertions that he was innocent. He was the only person ever to face state murder charges, and the only one to end up in state prison. 'It wasn't even murder it was manslaughter,' David Goodman, Andrews younger brother, observed on Friday. 'His life spanned a period in this country where members of the Ku Klux Klan like him were able to believe they had a right to take other people's lives, and that's a form of terrorism,' Goodman said. 'Many took black lives without impunity.' Goodman said Killen's passing is a reminder that issues of racism and white nationalism remain today. He pointed to the violent rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia as an example. The slayings, which were dramatized in the 1988 movie 'Mississippi Burning,' shocked the nation and helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pictured are members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party holding sketches of the slain workers in August 1964 The three Freedom Summer workers had been investigating the burning of a black church near Philadelphia, Mississippi when a deputy sheriff arrested them on a traffic charge. They were then released after alerting the sheriff alerted a mob of Klansmen, who hunted them down and killed them According to the indictment, after Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner were attacked by a mov of roughly 19 Klansmen, who were all organized by Killen. Pictured above investigators uncover the workers' remains During his state trial in 2005, witnesses testified that on June 21, 1964, Killen went to Meridian to round up carloads of Klansmen to ambush Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, and told some of the Klan members to bring plastic or rubber gloves. Pictured are the workers bodies after they were brutally murdered in 1964 Killen wouldn't say much about the killings during a 2014 interview with The Associated Press inside the penitentiary. He said he remained a segregationist who did not believe in racial equality, but contended he harbored no ill will toward blacks. Killen said he never had talked about the events that landed him behind bars, and never would. Long a suspect in the 1964 slayings, Killen had made a livelihood from farming, operating his sawmill and preaching to a small congregation at Smyrna Baptist Church in Union, south of Philadelphia, Mississippi. FBI files and court transcripts from a 1967 federal conspiracy trial reveal that Killen did most of the planning in the ambush killings of the three civil rights workers. According to testimony in the 2005 murder trial, Killen served as a kleagle, or organizer, of the Klan in Neshoba County and helped set up a klavern, or local Klan group, in a nearby county. Killen wouldn't say much about the killings during a 2014 interview with The Associated Press inside the penitentiary. He said he remained a segregationist who did not believe in racial equality, but contended he harbored no ill will toward blacks. Killen said he never had talked about the events that landed him behind bars, and never would Rita Schwermer Bender (right), widow of Michael Schwerner, and Barbara Chaney Dailey, the sister of James Chaney, are pictured leaving the memorial service for Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner in 2005 Nineteen men, including Killen, were indicted on federal charges in the 1967 case. Seven were convicted of violating the victims' civil rights. None served more than six years. Killen's federal case ended with a hung jury after one juror said she couldn't convict a preacher. During his state trial in 2005, witnesses testified that on June 21, 1964, Killen went to Meridian to round up carloads of Klansmen to ambush Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, and told some of the Klan members to bring plastic or rubber gloves. Witnesses said Killen then went to a Philadelphia funeral home as an alibi while the fatal attack occurred. The three bodies were found 44 days later, buried in a red-clay dam in rural Neshoba County. In February 2010, Killen sued the FBI, claiming the government used a mafia hit man to pistol-whip and intimidate witnesses for information in the case. The federal lawsuit sought millions of dollars in damages and a declaration that his rights were violated when the FBI allegedly used a gangster known as 'The Grim Reaper' during the investigation. The lawsuit was later dismissed. In the AP interview, Killen repeated his contention that he was not a criminal, but a political prisoner. Of one thing he was certain: 'I could have beat that thing if I'd had the mental ability.' When she learned of Killen's death, Chaney's sister, the Rev. Julia Chaney Moss, said her first thought was that 'God has been kind to him. And for that I am grateful.' 'My last thought on this is just that I only wish peace and blessings for all the families as well as the families of the perpetrators,' she added. WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A judge has ruled a Kansas woman accused of decapitating her ex-boyfriend's mother is not competent to stand trial. Judge Faith Maughan on Friday ordered 35-year-old Rachael Hilyard of Wichita back to continue treatment at Larned State Hospital. Her status will be re-evaluated after 90 days. Hilyard is charged with first-degree murder in the April 2017 death of 63-year-old Micki Davis, the mother of Hilyard's ex-boyfriend. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said a hospital evaluation found Hilyard could regain competency if she continues treatment. Prosecutors say Davis was attacked when she went with her 9-year-old grandson to collect some belongings from a home. The boy was able to run away and call 911. Davis' decapitated body was found in the garage and her head was in the kitchen sink. WASHINGTON (AP) - Insurgents posing as friendly militia members lured a U.S. and Afghan team to a meeting in eastern Afghanistan, triggering a shootout and a coalition airstrike on the compound, the U.S. military said Friday. U.S. Navy Capt. Tom Gresback said the insurgents baited the team, inviting an Afghan militia leader, a U.S. service member and an interpreter to a security shura meeting Thursday. Once the meeting was over, the Taliban-linked insurgents opened fire, killing the militia leader and wounding the American service member and the interpreter. The Taliban quickly claimed credit for the attack but overstated the casualties, the U.S. military said. The Taliban said the attack was carried out by two insurgents disguised as local militiamen. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press the attackers had infiltrated the local force months earlier. In Afghanistan, local militias are often paid by the U.S. and are partnered with them in operations in remote regions. Gresback said that after the wounded were moved to safety, a coalition airstrike targeted the compound, killing 10 insurgents. The mission was in Mohmand Valley, in Afghanistan's remote Achin district of Nangarhar province. According to Gresback, local Afghans began moving back to Mohmand Valley earlier last summer after being forced from their homes in 2015 when the Islamic State group affiliate began to take hold in the southeastern portion of Nangarhar. The U.S.-led coalition, working with the Afghan forces, has waged a persistent campaign against the IS group. VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis' trip to Chile and Peru, originally aimed at highlighting the plight of indigenous peoples and the delicate Amazon ecosystem, is being overshadowed by the Catholic Church's dismal record confronting priestly sex abuse in Chile and political turmoil in Peru. On the eve of the trip, vandals attacked five churches with firebombs in the Chilean capital of Santiago and warned in a leaflet that "the next bombs will be in your cassock." That was an unprecedented threat against the pope and a violent start to what were already expected to be the first-ever protests against Francis on a foreign trip. The Vatican agreed to the Chile visit knowing that the local church had lost much of the moral authority it earned during the Pinochet dictatorship, when bishops spoke out against human rights abuses when other institutions were silenced. But now, the Catholic Church in Chile has been largely marginalized, criticized as out-of-touch with today's secular youth and discredited by its botched handling of a notorious pedophile priest. FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2017 photo, demonstrators sustain afloat the Mapuche nation's flag during a protest against the arrests of several Mapuches, in Santiago, Chile. Pope Francis will meet with indigenous groups during his Chile, Peru visit beginning Jan. 15, 2018. The Chilean stop is more delicate as the visit comes as some radical Mapuche groups have been staging violent protests, occupying and burning farms, churches and lumber trucks to demand the return of their land. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo, File) In Peru, Francis had hoped to highlight the need to protect the vast Amazon and its native peoples. But he now has to contend with a president who only narrowly escaped impeachment a few weeks ago, sparked massive protests by issuing a politically-charged pardon and is embroiled in a continentwide corruption scandal. Here are things to look for in Francis' Jan. 15-21 trip, his 22nd overall and sixth to his home continent. ___ THE POPE AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE History's first Latin American pope will meet with indigenous groups in both Chile and Peru, evidence of his longstanding commitment to supporting native Americans in their struggles against poverty, discrimination and the exploitation of their lands. The Chilean stop is more delicate: Francis will celebrate Mass for the Mapuche in southern Araucania on Wednesday and then break bread with a dozen or so indigenous at a private lunch. But the visit comes as some radical Mapuche groups have been staging violent protests, occupying and burning farms, churches and lumber trucks to demand the return of their land. Protests are planned in Temuco during Francis' visit, and pamphlets left Friday outside the burned churches in Santiago exhorted the Mapuche cause. Chile's largest indigenous group resisted conquest for 300 years, until military defeats in the late 19th century forced them into Araucania. Many Mapuche there now live in poverty on the borders of timber company land or ranches owned by the descendants of the Europeans who colonized the area after the indigenous resistance was quelled. ___ THE POPE, MIGRANTS AND THE POOR Francis, whose defense of refugees and migrants is well-known, is expected to address Chile's growing immigrant community when he travels Thursday to the northern city of Iquique, home to nearly two dozen migrant slums. Even though its numbers are comparatively small, Chile had the fastest annual rate of migrant growth of any country in Latin American in 2010-2015, according to U.N. and church statistics. Most of the newcomers are Haitians. While Chile isn't experiencing the anti-immigrant backlash seen in the U.S. and Europe, the incoming right-wing government of President Sebastian Pinera is looking to crack down. In Peru, Francis will also visit Trujillo and the northern areas hard hit by floods and mudslides last March in the worst environmental calamity to strike Peru in nearly two decades. The El Nino storms killed more than 100 people and destroyed bridges, infrastructure and homes in hundreds of villages in an already poor area. Peru's president estimates it will take $9 billion for the country to rebuild within five years. ___ CHILE'S SEX ABUSE SCANDAL Chile's church has yet to recover its credibility following the scandal over the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a charismatic preacher who had a huge following in Santiago and was responsible for training hundreds of priests and five bishops. The Vatican in 2011 sentenced Karadima to a lifetime of "penance and prayer" after confirming what his victims had been saying for years but what Chile's Catholic leadership refused to believe: that Karadima had sexually abused them. Francis reopened the wounds of the scandal when in 2015 he named one of Karadima's proteges as bishop of the southern diocese of Osorno. Karadima's victims say Bishop Juan Barros knew about the abuse but did nothing, a charge Barros denies. Osorno dissidents are planning protests in Santiago to coincide with Francis' arrival Monday. ___ POLITICS AND CORRUPTION IN PERU Francis frequently rails against corruption, calling it more insidious than sin and a plague that harms the poorest the most. But if he utters the word "corruption" in Peru, it will have particular significance. Last month, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski narrowly avoided impeachment after an investigative committee revealed documents showing the Brazilian construction giant responsible for Latin America's biggest corruption scandal, Odebrecht, made $782,000 in payments to Kuczynski's private consulting firm more than a decade ago when he was a minister. The former CEO of Odebrecht has admitted that company executives paid bribes and campaign contributions to secure public works contracts around the continent. Soon after he survived the impeachment vote, Kuczynski set off protests by pardoning jailed former President Alberto Fujimori. Many Peruvians believe the pardon was done to secure support during the impeachment vote from a political party led by Fujimori's son. ___ THE POPE AND THE AMAZON When Francis flies deep into the Peruvian rainforest to meet with indigenous peoples at the end of his trip, he'll be symbolically opening a major church meeting on the Amazon that is scheduled to start in October 2019. Francis has called the Synod on the Amazon to bring bishops and cardinals from around the world to the Vatican to propose new ways to minister to Amazonian people and care for the "lung" of the Earth. The area around Puerto Maldonado, at the confluence of two rivers on Peru's southern border with Bolivia, has the greatest biodiversity in Peru's Amazon, but is also home to a logging and gold-mining industry. In his landmark 2015 encyclical "Praise Be," the pope railed against the exploitation of the world's natural resources by wealthy multinationals at the expense of the poor and indigenous peoples who need those resources to survive. The archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, said he expected the pope might speak out about the use of child labor in Peru's gold mines, the largest in South America, particularly when he visits a home for exploited children. Just last week Francis urged governments to prioritize the elimination of child labor "in all its forms." A church employee surveys the damage caused by an overnight fire bomb attack at the Emmanuel Catholic Church, in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Three churches were attacked with fire bombs in Santiago overnight, dropping leaflets at the scene against the upcoming visit of Pope Francis, and calling for a "free" Mapuche nation. Nobody was injured or arrested. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) Deputy Interior Secretary Aleuy Mahmud exits the Santa Isabel de Hungria Catholic Church, past a door damaged in an overnight fire bomb attack, in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Three churches were attacked with fire bombs in Santiago overnight with leaflets dropped at the scene against the upcoming visit of Pope Francis, and calling for a "free" Mapuche nation. Nobody was injured or arrested. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) A woman holds up a leaflet left in an overnight fire bomb attack at the Emmanuel Catholic Church, in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Three churches were attacked with fire bombs in Santiago overnight, dropping leaflets at the scene against the upcoming visit of Pope Francis, and calling for a "free" Mapuche nation. Nobody was injured or arrested. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) A church employee walks past a door damaged in an overnight firebomb attack at the Santa Isabel de Hungria Catholic Church, in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Three churches were attacked with fire bombs in Santiago overnight, dropping leaflets at the scene against the upcoming visit of Pope Francis, and calling for a "free" Mapuche nation. Nobody was injured or arrested. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) FILE - In this June 24, 2016 file photo, Pope Francis deplanes upon his arrival in Yerevan, Armenia. Francis' trip to Chile and Peru, beginning Jan. 15, 2018, originally aimed at highlighting the plight of indigenous peoples and the delicate Amazon ecosystem, is being overshadowed by the Catholic Church's dismal record on confronting priestly sex abuse in Chile and political turmoil in Peru. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) Deputy Interior Secretary Aleuy Mahmud, center, exits the Santa Isabel de Hungria Catholic Church, past a door damaged in an overnight fire-bomb attack, in Santiago, Chile, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. On the eve of a papal visit, vandals fire-bombed three churches in the Chilean capital and warned in a leaflet that "the next bombs will be in your cassock", an unprecedented threat against the pope and a violent start to what were already expected to be the first-ever protests against Pope Francis on a foreign trip. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) FILE - In this June 9, 2016 photo, a group of masked men stand destroy a crucifixion of Jesus Christ after they removed it from a Catholic church, in Santiago, Chile. The Vatican agreed to the Jan. 15-18 Chile papal visit knowing well that the local church had lost much of the moral authority it earned during the Pinochet dictatorship. But now, the Catholic Church has been largely marginalized, criticized as out-of-touch with today's secular Chile and discredited by its botched handling of a notorious pedophile priest. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez, File) FILE - In this March 3, 2010 file photo, Haitian cousins Pierre Richard Desarmes, from left, Philomene Seraphin, and Jean Mary Pierre, chat online from San Bernardo, Chile, with family members living in Haiti. Chile has experienced Latin American biggest migrant boom, outpacing Mexico and Brazil with migrant numbers increasing some 4.9 percent from 2010-2015, according to U.N. and church statistics. Most of the newcomers are Haitians. (AP Photo/Jorge Sanchez, File) FILE - In this April 2, 2014 file photo, locals inspect a boat washed ashore by a small tsunami, in the northern town of Iquique, Chile, after magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck the northern coast of Chile. Pope Francis is expected to address Chile's growing immigrant community when he travels to the northern city of Iquique on Jan. 18, 2018, home to nearly two dozen migrant slums. (AP Photo/Cristian Vivero, File) NO PUBLICAR EN CHILE FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2015 file photo, Fernando Karadima, Chile's most infamous pedophile priest, leaves a courthouse after testifying in a case that three of his victims brought against the country's Catholic Church, in Santiago, Chile. Chile's church has yet to recover its credibility following the scandal over Karadima, a charismatic preacher who had a huge following in Santiago and was responsible for training hundreds of priests and five bishops. The Vatican in 2011 sentenced Karadima to a lifetime of "penance and prayer" after confirming what his victims had been saying for years, but that Chile's Catholic leadership refused to believe: that Karadima sexually abused them. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo, File) FILE - In this March 17, 2017 file photo, a woman is pulled to safety in a zipline harness in Lima, Peru. Pope Francis specifically wants to visit Trujillo and the northern area hard hit by floods and mudslides last March in the worst environmental calamity to strike Peru in nearly two decades. The El Nino storms killed more than 100 people, ruined thousands of field of crops, destroyed bridges, infrastructure and 800 villages, along with thousands of homes in an already poor area. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2017 file photo, people wearing masks of Peruvian politicians pretend to be prisoners during a protest calling for justice after the Odebrecht corruption scandal in Lima, Peru. Pope Francis frequently rails against corruption during his foreign trips, calling it more insidious than sin and a plague that harms the poorest the most. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File) BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - The husband of a Peruvian immigrant living in a Colorado church to avoid deportation has been arrested by U.S. immigration agents. Eliseo Jurado-Fernandez, 30, was detained by immigration agents during a trip to the grocery store, according to his wife, Ingrid Encalada Latorre, the Daily Camera reported Thursday. He was not living with his wife at the church and she called the arrest "an attack on me," speaking through an interpreter at Boulder Unitarian Universalist Church, where she has been living for less than a month. FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2016 file photo, Ingrid Encalada Latorre walks with her son, Anibal, while taking sanctuary at a Denver Quaker center. Latorre, who has since taken refuge in another church, said her husband, Eliseo Jurado-Fernandez, was detained by immigration agents during a trip to the grocery store Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says he was not targeted because of Encalada Latorre's decision to take sanctuary. (AP Photo/P. Solomon Banda, File) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Jurado-Fernandez illegally entered the United States in 2004, was convicted of driving while ability impaired in 2007 and has three other misdemeanor convictions. In a statement, immigration and customs field office director Jeffrey Lynch said Jurado-Fernandez came to the agency's attention during an investigation into his wife but that his arrest was not connected to her taking sanctuary. "Contrary to misguided speculation, ICE did not target Jurado-Fernandez in retaliation for Encalada Latorre taking sanctuary from deportation in a Colorado church," he said. Encalada Latorre had planned to return to her hometown of Cusco, Peru with her children, who are U.S. citizens, in October after failing to win a pardon from Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, for a conviction for possessing falsified or stolen identification papers. But she changed her mind and took refuge in a church for a second time. She had previously spent six months in a Quaker meeting house in Denver before reuniting with her family after immigration officials said they would not seek her arrest while she appealed her conviction. Jurado-Fernandez was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. as a teenager to join his parents, according to the American Friends Service Committee Colorado, which works with churches to house immigrants facing deportation. His father is a U.S. citizen and his mother is a permanent resident, the group said. ___ Information from: Daily Camera, http://www.dailycamera.com/ MADRID (AP) - Britain and Spain say they have held their first informal Brexit-related talks this week in Madrid touching on how Britain's future departure from the European Union could apply to Gibraltar. The EU's guidelines on negotiations for Britain's future relationship with the bloc granted Spain veto rights over the issue of Gibraltar, the tiny outcrop at the tip of the Iberian Peninsula that London has controlled for three centuries against Madrid's wishes. The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday that high-ranking officials from the ministry received a British delegation on Thursday. It did not elaborate. The British Foreign Office said the "informal meeting" was "productive" and that Gibraltar authorities had been involved in setting it up and were briefed on it. It added Britain is committed to defending Gibraltar's priorities. __ Kirka reported from London. KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Witnesses say police in Congo's capital have fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse people attending a mass at Kinshasa's Catholic cathedral to honor people killed in clashes with security forces. Catholic churches and activists had called for the New Year's Eve protests against President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down. They came one year after the Catholic church oversaw the signing of an accord that set a new election date to ease tensions in the vast, mineral-rich Central African country. Kabila, whose mandate ended in December 2016, had agreed to set an election by the end of 2017. But Congo's election commission later said the vote cannot be held until December 2018. Critics accuse Kabila of postponing elections to maintain his grip on power. Billings author and attorney Carrie La Seur earned so much praise for her 2014 debut novel, The Home Place, that finishing the next book was bound to be intimidating. Adding to that pressure is the fact that La Seur has an option for a third book with publisher HarperCollins. The idea for her latest book, The Weight of an Infinite Sky, was to create a story inspired by Shakespeares Hamlet and set it in Montana. La Seur will debut the book in Billings with a reading at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16, at This House of Books, a co-op store she helped found. She also makes stops at Bozemans Country Bookshelf on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 6 p.m. and Missoulas Fact and Fiction Books on Thursday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. The book's release is part celebration, part relief. The creative life isn't always an easy transition. "I've taken up meditation and I am allowing a limb to grow," La Seur said. She originally pitched the synopsis for the book and her agent liked the idea. But unlike her first novel, the story went through a number of drafts to get it to the finished product. La Seur started by creating a female protagonist returning to Montana to run the family ranch. Another early version had violent Asian gangs in it "just for fun." I thought this was so interesting, but the whole thing just fell apart, La Seur said. She kept the character, but changed the gender, and eliminated the gang. The protagonist became Anthony Fry, the only son of a Montana cattle rancher who returns to his home state to take over the business that his family had run for generations. The name Fry is a nod to her mothers family name, Fly, who ranched in Bighorn County for generations. Montana story This feels very much like a Montana story of the younger generation torn between keeping the family legacy and trying to break free from it. A fathers death and an unlikable uncle moving in brings out the Hamlet in the story. La Seur said she spent a decade writing her first book, but had half that time to write Infinite Sky. Like "The Home Place," Infinite Sky is set in the Billings area. Anthony returns home after his acting stint in New York City doesnt pan out and finds work at a childrens theater camp very similar to summer camps led by NOVA Center for the Performing Arts. One of his young students is Brittany, a character who readers will remember from The Home Place. Adding to the tension in her latest book is a battle between Anthony and his ranching neighbors and a predatory mining company trying to get mineral rights. Since LaSeur works as an environmental attorney and founded the legal nonprofit, Plains Justice, she is following the mantra of writing what you know. Plains Justice provides public interest energy and environmental legal services. Her legal background and attention to detail bring authenticity to the book and its characters. Yet she also captures the struggle of making a living off the land and the temptation of selling the farm and moving to town. Rhodes sweethearts After earning a degree in English and French from Bryn Mawr College, La Seur met her husband Andy Wildenberg when they were interviewing for a Rhodes Scholarship. They were both selected and she went on to earn a doctorate in modern languages from Oxford University and a law degree from Yale University. Still, the writing bug kept pestering her. La Seur said, like others who had strong verbal and writing skills, she was directed to the legal profession, not writing school. And like others before her, including Scott Turow and John Grisham and even Franz Kafka, she is finding she can shift from law to writing. La Seur is already at work on her third book, which is inspired by a Minnesota activist who shares a similar surname with La Seur. People kept asking if I was related to Meridel La Sueuer. She wrote short stories and was a poet and a seamstress and an activist. The book wont be a biography because Meridel apparently hated biographies. Still, she was a fascinating person who took the name of her mothers second husband, who served as a socialist mayor of Minot, North Dakota, where La Seur graduated from high school. La Seur is on a creative roll that hopefully never ends. JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Edgar Ray Killen, a 1960s Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted decades later in the "Mississippi Burning" slayings of three civil rights workers, has died in prison at the age of 92, the state's corrections department announced Friday. Killen was serving three consecutive 20-year terms for manslaughter when he died at 9 p.m. Thursday inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. An autopsy was pending, but no foul play was suspected, the statement said. His conviction came 41 years to the day after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, all in their 20s, were ambushed and killed by Klansmen. FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2005, file photo, Edgar Ray Killen sits in court in Philadelphia, Miss. Killen, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted in the 1964 "Mississippi Burning" slayings of three civil rights workers, died in prison at the age of 92, the state's corrections department announced Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File) The three Freedom Summer workers had been investigating the burning of a black church near Philadelphia, Mississippi. A deputy sheriff in Philadelphia had arrested them on a traffic charge, then released them after alerting a mob. Mississippi's then-governor claimed their disappearance was a hoax, and segregationist Sen. Jim Eastland told President Lyndon Johnson it was a "publicity stunt" before their bodies were dug up. The slayings shocked the nation, helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and were dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning." The movie title came from the name of the FBI investigation. Killen, a part-time preacher and lumber mill operator, was 80 when a Neshoba County jury of nine white people and three black people convicted him of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, despite his assertions that he was innocent. Prosecutors said Killen masterminded the slayings, then went elsewhere so he would have an alibi. Killen was the only person ever to face state murder charges, and even then, it was the lesser charge of manslaughter that put him in state prison. "It wasn't even murder. It was manslaughter," David Goodman, Andrew's younger brother, observed Friday. "His life spanned a period in this country where members of the Ku Klux Klan like him were able to believe they had a right to take other people's lives, and that's a form of terrorism," Goodman said. "Many took black lives with impunity." Schwerner, a white New Yorker, moved to Mississippi in early 1964 to work on black voter registration and other projects. Chaney was a black Mississippian who befriended him. Andrew Goodman, another white New Yorker, underwent civil-rights training in Ohio and arrived in Mississippi a day before he, Schwerner and Chaney were killed. Investigators searching for their bodies found bodies of other black men who had been killed in Mississippi, including two who were brutalized before being dumped in the Mississippi River. Schwerner's widow, Rita Schwerner Bender, said on the day Killen was convicted that the slayings were part of a larger problem of violence in Mississippi against black people and others who challenged the segregationist status quo. "Preacher Killen did not act in a vacuum and the members of the Klan who were members of the police department and the sheriff's department and the highway patrol didn't act in a vacuum," she said. Goodman said Friday that Killen's passing is a reminder that issues of racism and white nationalism remain today. He pointed to the violent rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, as an example. Killen wouldn't say much about the killings during a 2014 interview with The Associated Press inside the penitentiary. He said he remained a segregationist who did not believe in racial equality, but contended he harbored no ill will toward black people. Killen said he never had talked about the events that landed him behind bars, and never would. Long a suspect in the 1964 slayings, Killen had made a livelihood from farming, operating his sawmill and preaching to a small congregation at Smyrna Baptist Church in Union, south of Philadelphia, Mississippi. According to FBI files and court transcripts from a 1967 federal conspiracy trial, Killen did most of the planning in the ambush killings of the civil rights workers. According to testimony in the 2005 murder trial, Killen served as a kleagle, or organizer, of the Klan in Neshoba County and helped set up a klavern, or local Klan group, in a nearby county. Nineteen men, including Killen, were indicted on federal charges in the 1967 case. Seven were convicted of violating the victims' civil rights. None served more than six years. Killen's federal case ended with a hung jury after one juror said she couldn't convict a preacher. During his state trial in 2005, witnesses testified that on June 21, 1964, Killen went to Meridian to round up carloads of Klansmen to ambush Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, telling some of the Klan members to bring plastic or rubber gloves. Witnesses said Killen then went to a Philadelphia funeral home as an alibi while the fatal attack occurred. The three bodies were found 44 days later, buried in a red-clay dam in rural Neshoba County. In February 2010, Killen sued the FBI, claiming the government used a mafia hit man to pistol-whip and intimidate witnesses for information in the case. The federal lawsuit sought millions of dollars in damages and a declaration that his rights were violated when the FBI allegedly used a gangster known as "The Grim Reaper" during the investigation. The lawsuit was later dismissed. In the AP interview, Killen repeated his contention that he was not a criminal, but a political prisoner. He spoke of his many friends, Sen. Eastland among them. Of one thing he was certain: "I could have beat that thing if I'd had the mental ability." When she learned of Killen's death, Chaney's sister, the Rev. Julia Chaney Moss, said her first thought was that "God has been kind to him. And for that I am grateful." "My last thought on this is just that I only wish peace and blessings for all the families as well as the families of the perpetrators," she said. ___ Rebecca Santana reported from New Orleans. Associated Press writer Jack Elliott Jr. contributed to this report. ___ This story has been updated to correct Goodman's quote from "without impunity" to "with impunity." FILE-In this 1964 file photo released by the FBI, the bodies of three civil rights workers are uncovered from an earthen dam southwest of Philadelphia, Miss. The photograph was entered as evidence by the prosecution in the trial of Edgar Ray Killen, who was convicted in 2005 for three counts of manslaughter in the deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. (AP Photo/FBI, File) This undated photo provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows Edgar Ray Killen, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted in the 1964 "Mississippi Burning" slayings of three civil rights workers. Killen died in prison at the age of 92, the state's corrections department announced Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP) NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - The first sailor to face a military trial related to a decadelong corruption scandal has pleaded guilty to ethics violations charges. The Virginian-Pilot reports 49-year-old Chief Warrant Officer 4 Brian Ware was sentenced Thursday to six months of confinement and a $10,000 fine in connection to the "Fat Leonard" scandal. "Fat Leonard" refers to defense contractor "Fat Leonard" Francis, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to managing a conspiracy in which bribed Navy officials helped him overcharge the Navy for fuel, food and other services. Ware, assigned to aircraft carrier USS Ronald Regan, is one of five sailors who have been charged. Prosecutors argued for a harsher sentence, but Ware's defense attorney countered that Ware is a "small fish" in a big scandal that's ensnared higher-ranking officials. ___ Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, http://pilotonline.com CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on lawsuit to allow 11-year-old to receive marijuana treatment while at school (all times local): 3:40 p.m. The Illinois attorney general's office has told a federal court it will allow a suburban Chicago school district to administer medical marijuana to an 11-year-old leukemia patient to treat her for seizure disorders. The commitment made to Judge John Blakey on Friday came two days after the student's parents sued Schaumburg-based District 54 and the state for the girl's right to take medical marijuana at school. Illinois' medical cannabis law prohibits possessing or using marijuana on school grounds or buses. The parents said the policy violates the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. School district officials said they will administer cannabis to the sixth grader until they get further clarification from the attorney general. An assistant attorney general told Blakey his office would allow the school to administer the drug until the office can figure out how to address the state law. After Friday's hearing, the girl's parents said they were relieved and excited by the outcome. Another hearing is scheduled for Jan. 19. ___ 12:06 a.m. The parents of a suburban Chicago elementary school student suffering from leukemia are suing a Schaumburg-based school district and the state of Illinois for her to have the right to take medical marijuana at school. The Chicago Tribune reports that the plaintiffs of the federal lawsuit, who are identified by initials, contend the state's ban on taking the drug at school is unconstitutional. They say it denies the right to due process and violates the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The 11-year-old student is being treated for leukemia with chemotherapy. The lawsuit says that as a result, the girl suffers seizure disorders and epilepsy. The lawsuit notes her physicians have certified her to receive medical marijuana to treat the epilepsy. Illinois' medical cannabis law prohibits possessing or using marijuana on school grounds or buses. Superintendent Andy DuRoss says School District 54 will abide by the law. ___ Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly $300,000 in taxpayer funds has been spent to settle 13 claims against members of Congress or their offices since 2003 that include sexual harassment or sex discrimination, according to statistics released by a House committee on Friday. The Committee on House Administration released a list of settlements stemming from claims against member offices between 2003 and 2007 that include three cases involving sex discrimination that total more than $27,000. The new statistics add to a running list of settlements released last month to the committee by the Office of Compliance, an office created under the 1995 Congressional Accountability Act to deal with employment disputes on Capitol Hill. The office oversees the process of filing sexual harassment or discrimination complaints. FILE - In this Dec. 19, 2017, file photo, Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, arrives for a meeting of House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Treasury Department has paid out almost $300,000 in taxpayer funds to settle claims brought against Congressional offices that include sexual harassment and sex discrimination since 2003. One of those settlements, for $84,000, stemmed from a 2014 lawsuit brought against Farenthold by his former communications director. Farenthold denied the allegations. But after the settlement was revealed late last year Farenthold pledged to pay the money back. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) The statistics, released as part of a committee investigation into the process of filing complaints on the Hill, do not include any identifying information aside from settlement amounts and the basis for the claim; no names are provided. Office of Compliance Executive Director Susan Tsui Grundmann said in a letter to the committee that the office only keeps track of settlements paid out of the Treasury account. The most recent total is significantly smaller than totals for later years: From 2008-2012, the Treasury Fund paid more than $174,000 to settle eight cases that involved either sexual harassment, sex discrimination or both. And between 2013 and 2017, two cases involving sex discrimination or harassment were settled, totaling $91,000. One of those settlements, for $84,000, stemmed from a 2014 lawsuit brought against Rep. Blake Farenthold by a woman who was his former communications director. Farenthold denied the allegations. But after the settlement was revealed late last year Farenthold pledged to pay the money back. Last week, spokeswoman Stacey Daniels said that the congressman is now "waiting to see what changes the House makes to the Congressional Accountability Act before repaying the funds." Farenthold, now under investigation by the House Committee on Ethics, announced in December that he won't run for re-election. He's among a half-dozen lawmakers who have been forced to resign or abandon their re-election campaigns amid allegations of sexual misconduct, as the #MeToo movement continues to roil Hollywood, the tech and media industries, and Capitol Hill. "As I have stated from the beginning of this review, one case of sexual harassment is one case too many," said Committee Chairman Gregg Harper, R-Miss., in a statement. Harper, who has been chairman since January of last year, announced last week that he isn't running for re-election. The process of filing discrimination complaints on Capitol Hill came under fire last year for being opaque and largely unknown, and for requiring staffers to sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to begin the process of mandatory mediation. Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said House lawmakers are expected to introduce a bill next week that will likely overhaul the process, making it more transparent. WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A California man accused of making a hoax emergency call that led to the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man in Kansas was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter. Tyler Barriss made his first court appearance in Kansas via video link from jail on Friday following his extradition from Los Angeles. The 25-year-old is also charged with giving false alarm and interference with a law enforcement officer. Bond was set at $500,000. A message left for the local public defender's office wasn't immediately returned. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett told reporters following the brief hearing that he is still reviewing whether any charges will be filed against the police officer, and once he makes a determination that decision would be made public. He said he was awaiting a final autopsy report. The hoax call reportedly was made after a dispute over a small wager online in a "Call of Duty" online video game tournament, according to Dexerto, a news service focused on gaming. An investigation is still ongoing as to other people alleged to be involved in a game online, Bennett said, adding that involves a forensic analysis of machines, phones and computers. "There is no other situation quite like this to reference," Bennett said. "I am not going to stand right here and say I am not considering anything else. That would be untrue." Bennett acknowledged the "sort of novelty" of the case, noting the public interest in it and questions about whether lawmakers may need to change laws when it comes to computer-related crimes. "The law is catching up with technology," he said. "I guess I am stating what seems fairly obvious to me without making commentary about this case." In Kansas, involuntary manslaughter carries a sentence of 31 to 136 months, depending on a defendant's criminal history, Bennett said. Prosecutors allege Barriss was in Los Angeles when he called police on Dec. 28 with a fake story about a shooting and kidnapping at a home in Wichita, Kansas. The caller who phoned Wichita police said in a relatively calm voice that he had shot his father in the head and was holding his mother and a sibling at gunpoint, according to the 911 recording. He said he poured gasoline inside the home and "might just set it on fire." When police responded to the address, an officer fatally shot 28-year-old Andrew Finch after he opened his door. Police have said he moved a hand toward his waistband and an officer, fearing he was reaching for a gun, fired a single shot and killed him. Finch was unarmed. Barris has a history of making such hoax calls, which are sometimes called "swatting." CHICAGO (AP) - The Illinois attorney general's office on Friday told a federal court it will allow a suburban Chicago school district to administer medical marijuana to an 11-year-old leukemia patient to treat her for seizure disorders The commitment made to U.S. District Judge John Blakey came two days after the student's parents sued Schaumburg-based District 54 and the state for the girl's right to take medical marijuana at school. Illinois' medical cannabis law prohibits possessing or using marijuana on school grounds or buses. Parents Jim and Maureen Surin contend the policy violates the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Chicago Tribune reported . Since getting her state medical marijuana card the first week of December, Ashley Surin has been wearing a patch on her foot and rubbing marijuana oil on her wrist. The lawsuit points out the patch is occasionally ineffective in controlling her seizures. That is when the girl uses cannabis oil drops with small amounts of THC on her tongue or wrists to regulate her epilepsy. The Surins asked District 54 officials to allow the girl to store and use cannabis on school grounds but were denied because of prohibitions in state law. School district officials said Friday they will administer cannabis to the sixth grader until they get further clarification from the attorney general. An assistant attorney general told Blakey his office would allow the school to administer the drug until his office can figure out how to address the state law. After Friday's hearing, Surins said they were relieved and excited by the outcome. Another hearing is scheduled for Jan. 19. ___ Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Authorities on Friday arrested a friend in the killing of a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student whose body was found buried in a shallow grave at a California park. Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 20, of Newport Beach was taken into custody for investigation of homicide after DNA evidence linked him to the death of college sophomore Blaze Bernstein, Orange County Undersheriff Don Barnes said. Woodward was the last person to see Bernstein alive, Barnes said. FILE--This undated file photo provided by the Orange County Sheriff's Department shows Blaze Bernstein. A suspect has been arrested in the death of 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student Bernstein,whose body was found this week at a Southern California park. (Orange County Sheriff's Department via AP, file) Woodward was interviewed by investigators after Bernstein was reported missing by his parents on Jan. 3. A sheriff's investigator wrote in court filings that Woodward appeared nervous, had scratched hands and dirt under his fingernails, and avoided touching doors with his hands while leaving the sheriff's office building. Bernstein was home visiting his family in Lake Forest during winter break when Woodward picked him up on Jan. 2 and drove with him to several places before winding up at a park. Woodward told investigators that he left the park after Bernstein went out and didn't return or respond to social media messages. The two knew each other from high school, Barnes said. He said investigators were still trying to determine a motive and would not release details of the crime, which he called a murder. Prosecutors said they would review evidence as they determine what charges to file. Barnes said Woodward had asked for a lawyer. It was not immediately possible to reach Woodward in custody, where he listed his occupation as "Nerf games," according to the jail's website. Authorities searched for Bernstein for nearly a week with assistance from drone pilots and found his body on Tuesday after recent rains partially exposed it. The death of Bernstein rocked the community of Lake Forest, 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Hundreds of people held a candlelight vigil to remember him. It was the only homicide reported in Lake Forest in at least the past four years, according to authorities. Bernstein had attended Orange County School of the Arts for creative writing. He was recently chosen to edit a culinary magazine at the University of Pennsylvania. His parents urged community members to keep his memory alive by working to improve the world. "With his death, a beautiful light has been extinguished and we encourage you to continue to shine his light, through acts of loving kindness," the family said in a statement read by attorney Annee Della Donna. ___ This story has been corrected to Woodward appeared nervous during police interview, not Bernstein. A staunch ally of Jeremy Corbyn has quit Labours frontbench in mutual agreement with the leader after freelancing on policy outside his brief by suggesting doubling of council tax on better-off homes. Chris Williamson leaves his role as shadow fire and emergency services minister in what a source said was a mutual decision with Mr Corbyn to allow him to campaign on a broader range of issues. His council tax plan was seized on by the Tories, who mocked up an image featuring the MP and the message I want to double your council tax, posting it on social media. Labour's Chris Williamson has put forward plans that could see council tax doubled. We think everyone should be protected from excessive council tax rises. Do you agree? pic.twitter.com/FvrbUyJ7Bz Conservatives (@Conservatives) January 10, 2018 The Derby North MP has been a controversial figure since winning his seat back from the Tories at Junes snap election after a visit from Mr Corbyn during the campaign. In August he attracted criticism for speaking out against US sanctions on Venezuela as the Labour leader faced huge pressure to condemn socialist president Nicolas Maduros regime for attempting to assume nearly unlimited powers and detaining opposition figures. Later that month, Mr Corbyn was also forced to dismiss Mr Williamsons suggestion of women-only train carriages to combat increasing sexual violence on public transport. Jeremy Corbyn visited Chris Williamson in his Derby North constituency during the June election campaign (Danny Lawson/PA) Mr Williamson said: I will be standing down from my role with immediate effect so that I can return to the backbenches, where I will be campaigning on a broader range of issues. I will continue to loyally support the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn from the backbenches and hope to be a voice for the partys members. Mr Corbyn said: I am grateful for Chriss work on the frontbench, particularly on fire safety following the appalling Grenfell Tower fire. I know that on the backbenches, Chris will be a strong campaigner on a range of crucial issues as well as serving his constituents with dedication. Under Mr Williamsons council tax initiative, the levy could be frozen for properties in Bands A to C, with a progressive rise after that leading to a 20% increase for Band D homes valued between 68,000 to 88,000, and a 100% hike for Band H ones worth more than 320,000. He stressed the plan was not Labour Party policy and would need to be backed in local referendums before it was introduced. I have decided to step down from the front bench in order to campaign on a wider variety of issues, read my full statement here: https://t.co/ZPAzf9CExO Chris Williamson (@DerbyChrisW) January 11, 2018 Mr Williamson told HuffPost UK that the differential progressive council tax idea was conceived out of frustration at local authority cuts to generate income to fund services. Revealing the plan on Wednesday, he told HuffPost UK: You can imagine the Daily Mail and Daily Express would go to town on a proposition like this. Its not a panacea, its a response to a terrible situation. I think its an argument that could be won. This is not Labour Party policy, its an idea I came up with at a local level and its got a little bit of traction in other parts of the country. Its a reaction to an emergency that local government has been placed in. It is understood that Mr Williamsons role and other vacant junior positions on Labours frontbench will be filled by Mr Corbyn in due course. David Cameron has held talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping as part of his role leading a billion dollar investment initiative between the country and Britain. The former prime minister tweeted a photo of himself discussing plans for the 750 million UK-China fund and a golden era in relations. Mr Cameron is acting as vice chairman for the fund to improve ports, roads and rail networks between China and its trading partners. David Cameron holding talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015 (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA) Excellent meeting & enjoyable dinner with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, to talk about the Golden Era in UK-China relations & plans for the new UK-China Fund. pic.twitter.com/tnFpx1DNPp David Cameron (@David_Cameron) January 11, 2018 Alongside the photo of himself with the Chinese premier, Mr Cameron said: Excellent meeting & enjoyable dinner with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, to talk about the Golden Era in UK-China relations & plans for the new UK-China Fund. The UK-China funds launch was announced as part of a series of deals hailed by Chancellor Philip Hammond during a trade visit to China. Around 1.4 billion worth of commercial deals were announced at the UK-China economic and financial dialogue in Beijing attended by Mr Hammond. Shares in GKN have rocketed after the engineering firm revealed that it has rejected a 7 billion takeover bid from Melrose. The company said on Friday that it rebuffed an opportunistic and unsolicited proposal from the turnaround specialist as it undervalued GKN. The offer represented a price of 405p per share, comprising 80% in new Melrose shares and 20% in cash. The GKN Group headquarters in Redditch (PA) The board of GKN has considered the proposal together with its financial advisers and has unanimously rejected it, having concluded that the proposal is entirely opportunistic and that the terms fundamentally undervalue the company and its prospects. In addition, the proposal would materially dilute the exposure of GKN shareholders to the meaningful upside opportunities that the board believes are present within the company, GKN said. Shares in GKN rocketed 24% or to 413p in morning trading following the announcement. The takeover tilt comes at a difficult time for GKN, which in November ditched its incoming boss less than two months before he was due to take the top job as it warned over another hit in its troubled US plant. The group ousted Kevin Cummings, GKNs aerospace head, who was due to take over from incumbent chief executive Nigel Stein in January. The firm has instead appointed non-executive director Anne Stevens as interim chief executive and on Friday confirmed her as the companys permanent boss. GKN, which makes wing tips for Airbus and parts for car giants including Mercedes and Jaguar Land Rover, also revealed last year that a review of its US aerospace plants had uncovered additional write-offs of between 80 million and 130 million. It had previously expected to write off 15 million on its Alabama facility, relating to revised assumptions on programme inventory and receivables balances, which sparked a wider review across the division. Krista Jean Mougey was born October 19, 1983, joining her parents Larry and Carole Mougey and her big sister Karissa. She grew up in Colstrip, enjoying the beauty of Eastern Montana and filling her role as Her Daddys only son. She loved anything outdoors camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, swimming, and photography. She found her passion in life wildlife science as a freshman in high school and never wavered. Her high school years were filled with science-based activities and achievements. She spent 3 summers at the Montana Science Institute at Canyon Ferry and participated in local, state, and national science fairs 3 years in a row. In addition, she participated in choir, band, pep band, speech and drama, photography, and many other activities. After graduation in 2002 as a valedictorian at Colstrip High School, she attended the University of Montana as a Presidential Scholar. She graduated in 2007 with a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and a B.A. in Environmental Studies. She moved on to Texas Tech University where she completed her Masters in Wildlife Science and Ph.D. in Wildlife, Aquatic and Wildlands Science with Graduate Certification in Geographic Information Science and Technology. Her research allowed her to travel to the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, the British Virgin Islands, Grand Cayman, and Canada, as well as throughout the United States. She touched many lives through her years of teaching and research. Krista was thrilled to begin her professional career in Montana. She arrived at Montana State University Billings in mid-summer of 2017. Her unique expertise, enthusiasm, extraordinary work ethic, vision for the future, and genuine care for her students impressed all who had the pleasure of working with her. Her colleagues remarked on Kristas graciousness, competence, insight, and good-heartedness. She helped establish the Global Information Systems Center at MSUB, which has since been deemed the Ge-Whiz Lab. Students loved Krista and sought her advice and professional knowledge regularly. Krista brought an energy and excitement to the university that will be missed by many. She left this earth far too soon on January 6, 2018, due to complications following outpatient surgery. Krista treasured time spent with family and friends. She loved music, dancing, animals, cooking, reading, and being outdoors. She was one of the most thoughtful, kind, and supportive people on this earth. She was dearly loved by her family, friends, students, and colleagues, and loved back with an enthusiasm that defies definition. Although her life was short, she lived every day to the fullest. She is survived by her loving and forever heartbroken parents, Larry and Carole Mougey, and sister Karissa, brother-in-law Rob, and nephew Isaac Atkinson. Also grieving her loss are her cousins Janel, Michele, Kelly and Heather, as well as numerous extended family and her many wonderful friends throughout the world. Among those preceding her in death were her grandparents Billie and Frank Mougey, Doris and Robert Homan, her Uncle Ron and Aunt Lynn Mougey, and several close friends. A celebration of Kristas life will be held Monday, January 15, 2018, at 11 AM at the Smith West Funeral Chapel, 304 34th Street West, Billings, MT 59102. Condolences can be shared online at Smithfuneralchapels.com. To honor Kristas passion for and dedication to higher education, contributions may be made to The Dr. Krista Mougey Memorial Scholarship in care of MSU Billings Foundation, 1500 University Drive, Billings, MT 59101. The British public have mocked President Trumps decision to cancel his planned trip to London over the relocation of the countrys embassy. Mr Trump said he thought the embassys move from Grosvenor Square in Mayfair to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, was a bad deal and the building was in an off location. But the prospect of demonstrations against his appearance could also have been a factor in the presidents decision to cancel the visit. The new US Embassy in south London (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Jokes at the presidents expense, including poking fun at the inaccuracy of his statement and comparing him to a London taxi driver for refusing to travel south of the River Thames, flooded social media. Hundreds of replies to the presidents tweet took issue with the idea that his predecessor Barack Obama was the person who authorised the change of location. Thats just not true Donald. The decision to move the U.S embassy in London was initiated by G.W Bushs administration. You cant keep blaming your wonderful predecessor. The fact is the UK people dont want you to visit the UK and you know that. Andy Greatbatch (@Baltimorebound1) January 12, 2018 One such reply from Andy Greatbatch read: Thats just not true Donald. The decision to move the U.S embassy in London was initiated by G.W Bushs administration. You cant keep blaming your wonderful predecessor. The fact is the UK people dont want you to visit the UK and you know that. Some Londoners humorously noted that they too would resist crossing the Thames. Twitter user @looksquiteyoung wrote: To be fair this is normally my reaction to getting invited somewhere south of the river too To be fair this is normally my reaction to getting invited somewhere south of the river too... https://t.co/7VCzoFLwCv Charlie Docherty (@looksquiteyoung) January 12, 2018 Others, however, praised the Nine Elms and Battersea area. Twitter user Mary Beatrice posted: @realDonaldTrump Off location? Babe, south of the river is where its at. But youre right, we didnt want you here anyway. Off location? Babe, south of the river is where its at. But youre right, we didnt want you here anyway. marybeatrice (@marybeatrice) January 12, 2018 For some online, the practicalities of the president opening a building were a source of mirth. I cant believe for a second you would be trusted with scissors! said Allan Lindsay. Many of the replies to Trumps tweet solely featured pictures of the Queen laughing and smiling. A second referendum on Britains withdrawal from the EU would overturn the decision to leave, according to a new poll. The ComRes survey for the Daily Mirror found 55% backing for Remain, against 45% for Leave. The results were released a day after former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said he was coming round to the idea of a second referendum, which he predicted would confirm the 52%-48% victory for Leave and kill off opposition to Brexit for a generation. (PA Graphics) Remain campaigners welcomed Mr Farages comments, with former cabinet minister Lord Adonis saying: Bring it on. Labour MP Chuka Umunna told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that the version of Brexit offered to voters in 2016, including an additional 350 million a week being made available for priorities like the NHS, is not transpiring to be delivered. The debate that we had was hypothetical, said Mr Umunna. We now know the reality. If Brexit is materially different from what people were sold, then Parliament has a right to keep an open mind. At the end of the day, if we do end up with another referendum, how on earth can it thwart the will of the people if the people are the ones who have the final say on the deal? However, Mr Farage swiftly backtracked on the idea, telling the Daily Telegraph: To be clear, I do not want a second referendum, but I fear one may be forced upon the country by Parliament. That is how deep my distrust is for career politicians. This poses a big question for Leavers. Do we stick with the view that the result will stand or acknowledge the fact that we face this potential threat? Downing Street ruled out a fresh vote on EU membership but bookies cut the odds of a poll in 2019 to 5-1. The last thing Ive ever wanted is another EU referendum, but I fear it may be forced upon us. We have to be prepared. #FarageOnLBC https://t.co/dVSrQvrdeK Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) January 11, 2018 Voters questioned for the ComRes poll showed little appetite for going back to the ballot box, with just 43% saying that they want a second referendum against 51% who did not. Just 30% said they were confident Theresa May would get a good Brexit deal, compared with 65% who were not. The debate over whether the public should get a vote on the deal obtained by the Prime Minister was thrust back into the spotlight by Mr Farages suggestion that a second vote would draw a line under criticism by key Remainers, such as Tony Blair and Lib Dem former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg. EXCLUSIVE - Nigel Farage says "just maybe Im reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum on EU membership".@Nigel_Farage | @Matthew_Wright | #wrightstuff pic.twitter.com/T0fROToskr Jeremy Vine On 5 (@JeremyVineOn5) January 11, 2018 Appearing on Channel 5s The Wright Stuff on Thursday, he said: What is for certain is that the Cleggs, the Blairs, the Adonises will never ever ever give up. They will go on whinging and whining and moaning all the way through this process. So maybe, just maybe, Im reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum on EU membership. 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 businessman Arron Banks, a close ally of Mr Farage who poured funds into Ukip and one of the Leave campaigns, said the vote would have to be re-run. But Ukip leader Henry Bolton said: Ukip policy on a second referendum remains unchanged. The party opposes a second referendum. :: ComRes questioned 1,049 British adults on January 11 for the Daily Mirror. The US embassy in London said its move to a new location has been completed within budget just hours after Donald Trump described it as a bad deal. Mr Trump has refused to travel to the UK to open the new American embassy, hitting out at its move from Grosvenor Square in the prestigious Mayfair district of central London to an off location at Nine Elms, south of the Thames. Despite the president publicly blaming predecessor Barack Obama, the US embassy said the plan to finance the project was developed in 2007, at a time when George W Bush was in the White House. Mr Trump tweeted: 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! On Friday night, a spokesman for the US embassy said: The US chancery in Grosvenor Square had aged beyond its ability to be improved to current security and life safety standards without extensive investment in infrastructure that would require appropriated dollars. In 2007, the Department developed a plan to finance a new embassy project through a property swap for existing US government property in London. This solution allowed construction of a new chancery that meets all security standards, yet used no taxpayer dollars to fund the project. The spokesman said the budget was approximately one billion dollars (730 million) and includes the site purchase, design, and construction costs. The US Embassy in London has put out a statement essentially correcting Trumps tweet this morning. pic.twitter.com/Ep3pp3JkNI David Mack (@davidmackau) January 12, 2018 He added: The project has been executed within the established budget. The search for a new embassy site in London considered more than 50 sites. A multi-disciplinary team of professionals considered over 170 criteria, to include physical security requirements, and determined that the Nine Elms site was the best overall location for the US government. The new embassy in Nine Elms is one of the most secure, hi-tech, and environmentally-friendly embassies the United States has ever built. We are strongly committed in the special relationship between our two countries and we are confident the new embassy will provide the necessary platform to continue our cooperation. Mr Trumps cancellation of a visit to Britain has left the Government and City Hall at loggerheads as Boris Johnson accused London Mayor Sadiq Khan of endangering the so-called special relationship. The US is the biggest single investor in the UK - yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk. We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall. Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 12, 2018 There was initially confusion as Downing Street was unable to say whether the Foreign Secretary was speaking for the Government when he said Mr Khan and Jeremy Corbyn were putting the crucial relationship at risk. Mr Khan had said the US president had got the message from Londoners and would have been met by mass peaceful protests if he went ahead with plans to open the new embassy. A Number 10 source said: Boris expresses himself in his own inimitable way, but we agree that any risk to the crucial US-UK relationship is not in our countrys best interests. A Downing Street spokesman said Mrs May would tell Mr Trump he is welcome in London. Asked about the PMs views on south London after the president described the embassys new site as an off location, the spokesman said: I think Vauxhall is a vibrant and important part of London and home to many businesses. Obviously Apple are moving their headquarters there. Prime Minister Theresa May met US President Donald Trump in September (Stefan Rousseau/PA) The spokesman added: A state visit (invitation) has been extended and accepted and we will confirm the details in due course. No date was confirmed for any visit, the one you are referring to now. The opening of the US embassy is a matter for the US. Mr Trumps announcement followed speculation that he would formally open the embassy at a ceremony in February. The new building will open for business on January 16. Mrs May controversially extended the offer of a state visit, officially on behalf of the Queen, when she became the first world leader to meet Mr Trump in the White House following his inauguration last year. Since then, however, the president has indicated he does not want to take up the invitation if he is going to face mass demonstrations and it had been expected he could make a low-key working visit rather than a trip which involved all the trappings of a state occasion. Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney and Karen Bradley will meet again next week in the hope of making progress on the powersharing deadlock. Mr Coveney, who flew into London from a visit to the Middle East to meet the newly appointed Northern Ireland Secretary, said the talks had been very good and he expected they were going to work very well together. The Irish deputy prime minister said there remained significant challenges but both governments wanted to find a way to resolve the stand-off. (Stefan Rousseau/PA) SofS Bradley had a productive first meeting with Tanaiste @simoncoveney, discussing the commitment of both governments to work together to restore devolution to Northern Ireland. pic.twitter.com/pQTFxn00FR Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) January 12, 2018 He said: Everybody knows that there are time constraints in terms of the work that we need to do but also I think everybody agrees that we want devolved government again in Northern Ireland. The meeting came after a week where political relations in Northern Ireland were further strained, this time by controversies around the 1976 Kingsmill massacre in south Armagh. Mr Coveney attacked the really, really stupid and insensitive actions of Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff, who posted a social media video of him with a Kingsmill branded loaf on his head on the anniversary of an atrocity that saw republican paramilitaries shoot dead 10 Protestant workmen. Mr McElduff, who apologised and insisted the video was not a reference to the massacre, was suspended by Sinn Fein for three months. Have deleted video post. Had not realised or imagined for a second any possible link between product brand name and Kingsmill Anniversary. Barry McElduff (@BarryMcElduff) January 6, 2018 Unionists reacted angrily, both to the post and the extent of Sinn Feins punishment, and the incident appeared to further reduce the already bleak prospects of a deal to restore powersharing. The situation was exacerbated on Wednesday when a number of unionist politicians retweeted a graphic satirical cartoon that portrayed the Mr McElduff controversy by depicting the aftermath of the Kingsmill outrage, with blood running from a bullet-riddled van. The incidents prompted the sole survivor of the Kingsmill shootings, Alan Black, to implore politicians on all sides to stop trying to poke each others eye out and instead help the victims. However, a week of political rancour and animosity appeared to end on a more optimistic note when two senior DUP and Sinn Fein members engaged in more conciliatory exchanges on BBC NIs The View on Thursday night. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley as she arrives in #Belfast for her first day of engagements in Northern Ireland: pic.twitter.com/azMHcrdWoO Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) January 10, 2018 In a forthright condemnation of the Kingsmill outrage, Sinn Feins John ODowd, who lost three family members at the hands of loyalist paramilitaries the day before Kingsmill, said he was ashamed by the sectarian attack. The DUPs Edwin Poots welcomed the remarks and said his party was determined to see devolution returned. Mr Coveney said: I think the unfortunate things that have happened in relation to Kingsmill this week and the absolutely understandable upset of families because of a really, really stupid and insensitive occurrence is a reminder of just how important legacy and reconciliation is. So, thats why I hope people will get some encouragement from the tone of the interaction between Edwin Poots and John ODowd last night, which I hope is the tone we can continue in. Speaking after the meeting, Mr Coveney also told reporters that he did not believe there was any ambiguity in the agreement reached in December on the Northern Ireland border during Brexit negotiations. He said: I dont think there is any ambiguity in the context of an all-Ireland economy and the need to protect north-south cooperation in the context of the Good Friday Agreement. A surgeon burnt his initials on a patients liver after conducting a difficult transplant in a naive and foolhardy attempt to relieve tension in the operating theatre, a court has heard. Simon Bramhall, 53, resigned from his job at Birminghams Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 2014 after another surgeon found SB branded on a failed donor liver, the citys Crown Court was told. The consultant pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by beating last month after prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm relating to two patients. Opening the facts of the case against Bramhall, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said one of the two victims initialled by the world-renowned surgeon had been left feeling violated and suffering ongoing psychological harm. Mr Badenoch told the court that Bramhall used an argon beam machine to write his initials on the organs of two anaesthetised patients at the end of transplant operations in February and August 2013. Undated handout photo issued by West Midlands Police of Simon Bramhall, a specialist surgeon, who has admitted a charge of assault by beating at Birmingham Crown Court after marking his initials on the livers of two patients during transplant operations. Acknowledging that Bramhalls actions had not caused either patients new liver to fail, Mr Badenoch said: This case is about his practice on two occasions, without the consent of the patient and for no clinical reason whatever, to burn his initials on to the surface of a newly-transplanted liver. One of the victims, referred to in court as Patient A, received a donor organ in 2013 in a life-saving operation carried out by Bramhall. But the donor liver failed around a week later for reasons unconnected to its implantation and another surgeon spotted Bramhalls initials on the organ. A photograph of the 4cm-high branding was taken on a mobile phone and Bramhall, who now works for the NHS in Herefordshire, later admitted using the argon beam coagulator to mark Patient As liver. Mr Badenoch said of the initial transplant operation: Mr Bramhall had to work exceptionally hard and use all of his skill to complete the operation. At the end of the operation he performed a liver biopsy using the argon beam coagulator, and then used it to burn his initials. A nurse who saw the initialling queried what had happened and Bramhall was said to have replied: I do this. The court heard that Bramhall later told police he had flicked his wrist and made the mark within a few seconds. He knew that the action could cause no harm to the patient. He also said that in hindsight this was naive and foolhardy a misjudged attempt to relieve the tension in theatre, Mr Badenoch said Marcos Alonsos form over December and early January makes him a Fantasy Premier League must-have. Press Association Sport has produced a new Form Score assessing the performance of all players in the league over the last six games, based on points scored, cost and FPLs bonus points system. Alonsos three goals, an assist and four clean sheets in that time mean he has scored no fewer than six points in any of those games, seeing him fractionally ahead of Manchester Citys Raheem Sterling (five goals, three assists) at the top of the form charts. Alonso and Sterling are neck-and-neck at the summit (PA Graphic) Both have a form score of 93.9 out of a possible 100, with Alonso just ahead at the second decimal place and also cheaper by 1.6million. Kevin De Bruyne, a virtual ever-present in the league this season and one of the keys to Citys dominance, follows his team-mate in third on 86.0 while Premier League (and FPL) top scorer Mohamed Salah who at one stage led the backdated tables for five straight weeks is next at 84.1. Further down the top 10, mixed in with the likes of Harry Kane and Roberto Firmino, there are a couple of interesting names to be found. Riyad Mahrez is back to the form which brought him the PFA player of the year award and Leicester the Premier League title in 2016, while Jesse Lingard continues to excel for Manchester United at just 6.3m. Chelseas Willian (6.7m) scores 82.2 just behind Mahrez but bear in mind that the Chelsea midfielders total is based almost exclusively on his goal-and-two-assists performances against both Stoke and Huddersfield. The Town game will drop out of the calculation after this week. Trent Alexander-Arnold, right, scores against Swansea (Peter Byrne/PA) Most fascinating of all is the case of Trent Alexander-Arnold. The young Liverpool full-back has played in only three of the six games but has a goal, an assist and two clean sheets, picking up three bonus points in the process, for a form score of 81.5. His average score in the system underpinning the bonus point awards is comparable to De Bruyne in the latter stages of Citys 18-match winning run, suggesting his form is sustainable. He will not play every week but pick him up cheaply, start him and have a reliable substitute on standby. Brightons Pascal Gross is the cheapest outfield player with 100 points to his name, while Bournemouth midfielder Andrew Surman and Swansea forward Jordan Ayew also stand out as pound-for-pound stars. Pascal Gross matches David De Gea as the cheapest 100-point player (PA Graphic) Burnleys defenders also continue to provide value, but face both Manchester clubs in their next two home games. There is further encouragement for Alonso and co with Chelsea topping our chart of expected points over the next three games. Leicester, Brighton and Bournemouth are not the most threatening opponents, while City have to go to Liverpool on Sunday and Manchester United and Tottenham meet on January 31. West Ham have a favourable run simulations based on bookmakers odds average out to a projected 4.59 points over their next three games meaning Marko Arnautovic and, fitness permitting, Aaron Cresswell and Andy Carroll could be tempting pick-ups. An emotional Liam Neeson has received an award from the President of Ireland for his contribution to the country and humanity. Receiving the honour, the Irish actor revealed that he was wary of giving public addresses. "My fear, and its a genuine fear, is public speaking. "Everyone says `oh, youre an actor, you should be good at that. Its just not true," he said. Neeson was presented with the Presidential Distinguished Service Award by President Michael D Higgins at his official residence in Dublin the Aras an Uachtarain on Friday. The award highlights the outstanding work by Irish people living overseas across a range of areas, from sport to science, charity or community support. Listen: President Higgins today presented actor Liam Neeson with the Distinguished Service Award: https://t.co/1S4lh68btZ pic.twitter.com/pOuYKXkWv0 President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) January 12, 2018 The Taken star, who appeared slightly emotional as he received the award, said he was "honoured" and "very humbled". He said he would continue to "fly the flag for Irish arts" and the charity Unicef, of which he is a goodwill ambassador. Distinguished Service for the Irish Abroad award President Higgins described the Ballymena native as a "splendid Irish man abroad" and a "worthy recipient" of the award. "We started the awards in 2012 to give recognition to the contribution of Irish people living abroad who have made a distinguished contribution, not just to Ireland, but to humanity in general. "And indeed, that is the case in the case of Liam Neeson", he said. Mr Higgins added: "I think our reason for having the award is to be able to say the Irish family isnt defined by national borders or territories. "It is defined by care, compassion, a shared culture and heritage, a common sense of responsibility, a consciousness of our historic experience and also the importance of Ireland contributing dynamically to a future that would be humane and more compassionate and just. "Liam Neeson qualifies by all of this criteria". The citation for Neesons award reads: "As an extremely gifted and internationally renowned film actor, Liam Neeson has helped to raise Irelands profile and awareness of Ireland and Irish artists around the world, especially in the United States where he is based." The Commuter premiere The actor, who also starred in Steven Spielbergs highly acclaimed Schindlers List, is a strong supporter of the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, where he started his career, and the Irish Arts Centre in New York, where he currently lives. While in Dublin the star is due to attend the gala screening of his new movie The Commuter on Friday evening. A man charged with hacking into more than 250 cloud storage accounts of Hollywood stars and ordinary people has agreed to plead guilty. Federal prosecutors said the charge against 26-year-old George Garofano stems from the investigation into the 2014 celebgate scandal in which the private photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst and others were made public. Garofano, from North Branford, Connecticut, agreed to plead guilty to unauthorised access to a protected computer. Jennifer Lawrence was among the victims ( Ian West/PA) He faces up to five years in prison. Prosecutors say he sent emails that appeared to be from Apple encouraging victims to reveal iCloud usernames and passwords, or to enter them on a website where he could retrieve them. Garofanos lawyer told Hartford Courant his client is a good person who was taken advantage of by more sophisticated hackers and is remorseful. A suspected thief is in a critical condition after an explosion at a cash machine in Glasgow. Police were called to the incident on Thursday night outside a row of shops on Glasgow Road in the Yoker area of the city. A 51-year-old man was found at the scene and taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital where his condition is described as critical. Cash machine Another man was spotted fleeing the area. Police believe the men may have been attempting to steal the ATM at the time. Detective Inspector Fiona Macarthur said: Inquiries are at a very early stage to establish the full circumstances and officers are currently examining CCTV as well as speaking to local businesses and residents. One line of enquiry is that two men were attempting to steal the ATM and one of them has been injured in the process. I would appeal to anyone who was in the area late last night and saw or heard anything suspicious to please get in touch. A 25-year-old man has died after being assaulted and stabbed in west London, Scotland Yard said. The victim, who has not been named, was found injured in Old Oak Road, Shepherds Bush, at around 3.55pm on Thursday, Scotland Yard said. Police believe the man was attacked outside Ollgar House, a block of flats in Ollgar Close, before staggering to the nearby street. Police tape Murder investigation launched in Shepherds Bush https://t.co/RzE3FRGEtH pic.twitter.com/dIi0Gfsyyy Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) January 12, 2018 Officers and Londons Air Ambulance attended but he was pronounced dead at the scene at 5pm. Two men aged 27 and 28 have been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in police custody. Next of kin have been informed and a post-mortem examination is due to be held. Detective Inspector Beverley Kofi said: This is another tragic murder with a young male victim who has met a violent death. We believe that the incident started at Ollgar House, in Ollgar Close, and the victim was assaulted and stabbed before staggering and collapsing in Old Oak Road. We believe there were a number of people involved, but we are still working to establish the circumstances and a possible motive. We have made two arrests and continue to pursue a number of lines of inquiry. We need the publics help to piece together what happened who the victim was seen with, the incident itself and the immediate aftermath. Anyone with information is urged to contact police on 0208 358 0100 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. A Billings man who prompted a five-hour standoff with police when he refused to leave his garage in 2016 admitted illegally possessing a dozen firearms. Jimmy Mark Walker, 36, pleaded guilty on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Billings to being a felon in possession. A second count is to be dismissed at sentencing under a plea agreement. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sullivan said in court records that acting on information that Walker, who was on state felony supervision, had firearms, investigators with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and officers with Montana Probation and Parole went to Walkers residence on Aug. 24, 2016. Officers talked to him briefly before he entered a garage in the neighborhood of North 30th Street and 11th Avenue North and closed the door, Sullivan said. Walker refused to come out and a five-hour standoff began at about 8 p.m. Billings police SWAT officers used a long-range acoustic device, nonlethal shotgun rounds and a negotiator to urge Walker to surrender, which he eventually did, Sullivan said. During a search of the garage, investigators found 12 firearms, including nine long guns and three handguns. Walker was convicted on a drug charge in Yellowstone County and sentenced in 2010. Walker faces a maximum 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan said he would recommend Walkers plea be accepted by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters, who will sentence him. Walker remains in custody. A four-year-old girl who went missing with her schizophrenic mother during the summer has been found in Spain, a High Court judge says. Mr Justice Hayden said on Friday, at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London, that Elliana Shand was safe and well. #Breaking Four-year-old girl Elliana Shand, who went missing with her schizophrenic mother during the summer, has been found safe and well in Spain, a senior family court judge says pic.twitter.com/9MUU2uT0zJ PA Media (@PA) January 12, 2018 The judge had made a number of public appeals for help after Elliana and her mother Jessica Richards, who is in her mid 20s, disappeared. In late December Mr Justice Hayden had made a direct appeal to expats and British tourists after saying there was evidence to suggest that Elliana and her mother were in Spain. Sean and Eileen Doyle with granddaughter Elliana (Family handout/PA) He said both had been found in Spain by Spanish police on Thursday. The judge praised the work of British and Spanish police and Foreign Office staff. He also praised Ellianas paternal grandparents, Sean and Eileen Doyle, who are both in their fifties and live in the Wembley area of London, for the efforts they had made to trace the girl. Mr and Mrs Doyle were at Fridays hearing. After the hearing, Mrs Doyle said they were over the moon. Bayern Munich have extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga after securing a 3-1 victory at Bayer Leverkusen on the evening the division resumed after the winter break. They moved 14 points clear of second-placed Schalke, who on Saturday visit RB Leipzig, through goals from Javi Martinez, Franck Ribery and James Rodriguez. Leverkusen, who remain fourth, reduced Bayerns lead in the 70th minute with a finish from Kevin Volland. Bayern Munich beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 to open up a 14-point gap at the top of the Bundesliga (Marius Becker/AP) Starting the year as they left off @FCBayernEN and @bayer04_en put on quite a show, but ultimately it was a deserved win for the reigning champions https://t.co/7pHfNq1vo4 #B04FCB 1-3 pic.twitter.com/HW7623BGIx Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) January 12, 2018 However, amid their attempts to apply pressure during a competitive fixture, they were unable to prevent Rodriguez restoring the defending champions two-goal lead and sealing all three points. Arturo Vidal had already threatened against his former team when in the 32nd minute Spanish midfielder Martinez gave Bayern the lead. This time Vidal saw a header blocked after Arjen Robbens corner from the right. When Leverkusen then struggled to clear, Martinez responded first and did so by shooting powerfully from close range and inside the near post beyond Bernd Leno. The second Bundesliga goal of 2018 came just before the hour mark, from Ribery. After receiving possession in space on the left wing, the 34-year-old ran forward into the penalty area, cut inside on his right foot, and finished low inside the near post. Volland scored in the 70th minute from a similar effort. After taking the ball on the right, he ran into the visitors penalty area before finding space on the edge of the D and shooting in off of the far post. If Leverkusen were then in contention for a draw, they had further attempts on goal through Sven Bender, Volland and then Lucas Alario. Rodriguez instead ensured that Bayern took all three points with a fine, stoppage-time free-kick after being brought down by Bender on the edge of the area. The forward, on loan from Real Madrid, curled a perfectly weighted effort over the Leverkusen wall and into the top left corner, securing Bayerns first victory at the BayArena for five years. Their caretaker manager Juup Heynckes who incidentally oversaw that past victory also handed new signing Sandro Wagner his debut from the bench, in the absence of the injured Robert Lewandowski. His team next host Werder Bremen, while Leverkusen visit Hoffenheim. BERLIN, Jan 11 (Reuters) - There is no end in sight to Germany's economic boom and the next government should lower taxes gradually starting next year when the European Central Bank is expected to unwind its monetary stimulus, the Ifo institute's chief economist said on Thursday. "The economy is firing on all cylinders, the upswing is entering a new boom phase," Timo Wollmershaeuser told Reuters in an interview, adding there were production bottlenecks and an over-utilization of capacities in practically all sectors. He urged the next government to take the strong economic growth into account when considering more fiscal stimulus. "If the economy continues to perform so well, it would be wise to postpone the planned tax cuts and implement them only gradually, ideally not until 2019 when the ECB is likely to turn off its money tap," Wollmershaeuser said. He confirmed Ifo's growth forecasts for the German economy to expand by 2.6 percent this year and by 2.1 percent in 2019. "It could even be a bit more, there are more upside than downside risks to this forecast," Wollmershaeuser said. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber,) BEIRUT/AMMAN, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Rebels launched a counter attack against Syrian government forces and their allies in Idlib province on Thursday, seeking to roll back an advance that is fuelling tension with neigbouring Turkey. Fighting raged in the area, where a government offensive backed by Iran-backed militia has gathered pace in the last two weeks, according to rebels and a military news service run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is fighting on the government side. Idlib province is the biggest chunk of Syria still held by rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, with a population swollen by Syrians who have fled government advances in other parts of the country. Assad has defeated rebels in many parts of western Syria with critical help from Russia and Iran. The recent military escalation in western Syria has included an unprecedented attack by a squadron of drones on Russian military bases and has cast a shadow over Moscow's efforts to convene a Syria peace congress later this month. The Hezbollah-run news service said the army and its allies were repelling a "fierce assault" by the Nusra Front, formerly al Qaeda's affiliate in the Syrian war, and groups linked to it. Rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) said in a statement they had set up a joint operations room to repel the offensive and to take back areas seized by the government in northeastern Hama and southern Idlib. "The operation is to hit the belly of the regime deep into liberated territories and to encircle their advancing forces," said Abdul Hakim al Rahamon, a senior official in Jaish al Nasr, an FSA faction taking part. Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance led by the Nusra Front, the dominant force in Idlib, said it had already made gains. "With Allah's) blessings we drew plans and prepared ourselves and are encircling them," said Abu al Naji, a commander from Tahrir al Sham. "We have killed many." Rebels said they had captured some 15 villages and seized 60 government fighters. A Syrian military source denied this and dismissed rebel talk of a counter attack as propaganda. The source said fierce battles were however underway in the area and army advances were continuing. Rebel sources said warplanes had struck Khan Sheikhoun and Saraqeb, two major population centres in Idlib province that are among several towns that have been targeted in the latest offensive. The latest push by the army and its allies has alarmed Turkey which has been deploying forces inside northern Idlib and setting up bases which it says are part of agreements with Iran and Russia over a descalation zone in Idlib. The Turkish government said the Idlib offensive was endangering the effort to reach a resolution of the conflict and accused the Syrian government of using the pretext of fighting militants to wage a widescale attack. Ankara is concerned that wider fighting in the province could bring tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing from the battlefields on its borders far beyond the numbers now fleeing. Many Syrians living in rebel-held areas see Turkey's military intervention as a bulwark against a relentless bombing campaign by Syrian and Russian airforces they blame for killing and injuring hundreds of civilians in urban areas in recent months, away from the frontlines. (Reporting by Tom Perry and Suleiman al-Khalidi, Editing by William Maclean) By Krisztina Than BUDAPEST, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Budapest Airport expects to make its first significant annual profit for 10 years in 2018 after a 14.5 percent rise in passenger traffic last year, its chief executive said on Thursday. The business is benefiting from continued growth in passenger and cargo traffic, lower debt servicing costs and a strong operational performance as the Hungarian economy powers ahead with growth at about 4 percent. "Budapest is a very strong destination ... tourism is booming here," CEO Jost Lammers told Reuters. "For 2018, that is when we now expect (we will) make a profit ... (for) the first time in 10 years." Over the past 10 years 2016 was the only year in which the company posted a small profit, helped by a one-off gain from tax changes. UBS said in a note on Thursday that Hungary is expected to achieve the biggest growth in short-haul capacity among major European countries in the first half of 2018 -- 19.7 percent in the first quarter, with 12.2 percent projected for the second. Budapest Airport, owned by Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), another Canadian pension fund and a Singapore fund, made a loss in 2017, Lammers said, attributing that partly to a one-off upfront fee for a debt restructuring. "Due to Hungary being investment grade, Budapest Airport being a strong asset with strong operational performance, we were able to get much, much better conditions going forward," he said of its debt. "That will help us a lot for 2018." Lammers declined to give more specific profit guidance. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said last July that it was taking part in the financial restructuring of the airport operator, providing a loan of 100 million euros ($120 million) as part of an overall package worth up to 1.32 billion euros. Budapest Airport plans 160 million euros of investment through to 2020, and has already invested one third of this amount. Lammers said the company conservatively forecasts 5-6 percent growth in passenger traffic this year, adding that the double-digit growth of the past three years was probably unsustainable. Cargo volumes, meanwhile, jumped 13.4 percent year on year to 127,145 tonnes, with further growth expected. "Now we start the tender for the construction of a new Cargo City project," Lammers said, adding that the company aims to focus on both passenger and freight traffic. He said it is targeting pharma companies and suppliers for carmakers Daimler and Audi, aiming to persuade the businesses to fly spare parts to Asia directly from Budapest rather than trucking them to Germany first. ($1 = 0.8310 euros) (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by David Goodman) ACCRA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo on Thursday named a former attorney-general as anti-graft prosecutor to probe specific cases of corruption including those committed by politicians. There is widespread belief among civil society groups in Ghana that corruption is on the rise, especially among public office holders. The appointment of Martin Amidu, who briefly served as attorney-general under former president John Mills, was in fulfilment of a campaign promise by Akufo-Addo ahead of elections in December 2016. Ghana's parliament passed a law in November establishing the office of an independent anti-graft prosecutor to fight corruption and recover looted resources. Ghana's courts are currently probing a 52 million cedi payment on a government contract that state prosecutors said was unjustified, while parliament on Monday began a hearing on reports the trade ministry charged foreign investors between $25,000 and $100,000 to enable them to sit close to the president at a recent dinner. Both the trade ministry and the other accused have denied any wrongdoing. Akufo-Addo said Amidu, who has won accolades for successfully pursuing cases of corruption in court, merited the position. "(He) has the requisite integrity, competence, courage and independence of character to discharge effectively the responsibilities of this new office," he said. The appointment requires approval by parliament. Amidu was appointed by Mills as Minister of Justice in January 2012 but was fired only days after his appointment under unclear circumstances. He has since been a critic of the government at the time, now the main opposition party, accusing some of its officials of corruption. He had served as deputy attorney general in the last four years of Ghana's military government under longtime ruler Jerry Rawlings. (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Toby Chopra) Jan 12 (Reuters) - New Zealand's overseas investment regulator is investigating Agria Corporation, the largest shareholder in New Zealand agriculture firm PGG Wrightson Ltd , PGG said on Thursday, confirming media reports. PGG Wrightson said the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) was investigating Hong-Kong based Agria on "good character" grounds. The move comes after Agria, which owns more than 50 percent of PGG Wrightson, was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) last year. That followed an investigation by the NYSE which said there were indications Agria had engaged in trading intended to artificially inflate its stock price. The OIO can block investments if it finds that foreign owners are not of "good character." It recently turned down Chinese conglomerate HNA Group's bid to purchase Australia and New Zealand Banking's asset finance firm UDC Finance because it was uncertain of HNAs ownership structure and could not assess the owners' character. The regulator is also using the character test as grounds to probe American television personality Matt Lauer's ownership of a New Zealand farm. (Reporting by Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Mark Potter) By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Authorities in eastern Libya said on Thursday they had arrested and would deport 81 migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia who had escaped from smugglers after failing to reach Europe. The migrants were reported to authorities by an imam at a mosque on the coast to the south of the Libyan city of Benghazi, officials said. "They were arrested in the Zueitina area at a camp of illegal migrants," said Ahmed al-Arifi, an official from the department for countering illegal migration in the eastern city of Benghazi. "They were arrested for deportation back to their countries." Libya is the main departure point for migrants trying to reach Europe by sea, with nearly 120,000 crossing the central Mediterranean last year. Almost all leave from western Libya, though departures dropped sharply in July last year when some armed factions began blocking crossings. Most of the migrants are from West African countries, though some East Africans enter Libya through Sudan. Arifi said a total of 5,686 migrants had been deported from eastern Libya last year, up from 2,912 in 2016. One of the Eritrean migrants, speaking at a detention centre in Benghazi, said he had arrived in Libya in March last year from Sudan, after paying $4,000 for the journey. He was taken across the Sahara desert to the western Libyan smuggling hub of Sabratha, and waited there with other migrants for about four months before being told the sea route had been closed. Armed groups began preventing boat departures in Sabratha in July, and a major smuggling group was pushed out of the city in September. The Eritrean said he had then crossed back through the town of Bani Walid to Ajdabiya in the east, close to Zueitina. Smugglers had demanded another $2,000 for the trip to Europe, but he was unable to pay and fled mistreatment at their hands. "I wanted to go to Italy to work but unfortunately it wasn't possible," he said. "We suffer from severe poverty in our country and there's a dictatorial system. "Now because we were treated badly by smugglers we are suffering from illnesses and skin diseases. We don't want to return to our country, we want to go to Europe." (Writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by Andrew Roche) BERLIN, Jan 12 (Reuters) - German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt is backing an "intelligent reduction" of Germany's growing wild boar population to prevent a further spread of African Swine Fever (ASF), the Rheinische Post newspaper reported on Friday. The DBV German Farmers' Federation called for a 70-percent cut of the country's wild boar population, saying hunters should also be allowed to kill sows and newborn piglets, the newspaper said. Germany, a major European Union pig producer, has been watching with growing concern reports of the highly contagious disease as it spreads westward across Europe. Wild boars have been found infected in the Czech Republic and Poland, and the disease can easily spread to pigs. The disease is harmless to humans, but there is no vaccination to stop its spread in pigs. Heightening the risk, Germany's wild boar population has also risen in recent years as increased corn production for biogas plants offer the animals more food and better shelter. In the German capital of Berlin, playgrounds carry signs that say, "Keep gates closed to prevent wild boars from entering." Some German states offer financial incentives ranging up to 25 euros per wild boar to encourage more hunting. The farmers' group plans to present recommendations in Berlin later on Friday to avert the spread of the highly contagious fever, including the use of dogs to sniff out food supplies during border checks and increased disinfection of transport vehicles used by pig farmers. Schmidt told the paper that it made sense to cull the wild boar population and lift limits on when the animals can be hunted. "An intelligence reduction of the wild boar population plays an important role in prevention," he said. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Sandra Maler) JAKARTA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Indonesian regional and central government officials on Friday signed an agreement with state holding company PT Inalum that lays the foundation for the transfer of Freeport-McMoRan Inc's giant Grasberg copper mine to local control. Indonesia and Papua have long pushed for greater control over Grasberg and the new ownership structure may ease tensions over spoils from the world's second-biggest copper mine, which has been a focal point for local separatists. Indonesia and Freeport agreed in principle in August to set up the U.S. company's rights to Grasberg under a new mine license system from an existing contract of work, and the American miner said it would divest up to 51 percent of its local unit to "Indonesia interests". Under the agreement signed on Friday, Papua Provincial Government and the Mimika Regency will jointly own rights to a 10 percent share in PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) once they have been divested, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. "This portion of share ownership rights is for the interests for the indigenous land owners and members of the community facing permanent impacts," the statement said. "The agreement signed today is a strategic step forward in efforts to acquire shares divested by PTFI," it said. A Jakarta-based spokesman for Freeport Indonesia declined to comment on the matter. Inalum, which holds ownership of all state-owned mining companies, has been nominated to acquire an additional 41.64 percent in Freeport Indonesia, which would take Indonesia's share of PTFI to 51 percent, up from 9.36 percent now. The 10 percent to be held by Papua and Mimika would be part of this Inalum holding, government officials have said previously. A government source with knowledge of the matter said the memorandum of understanding signed on Friday was an initial step in the acquisition process and would allow the transaction involving the Indonesian parties to be carried out through a "single window". "The next step that still needs to be worked on is the completion of rights and obligations between shareholders and Freeport, as well as the valuation," the source said. Coal and Minerals Director General Bambang Gatot said on Thursday the government is targeting to complete contract discussions with Freeport by June, noting that divestment issues had not been resolved yet. Freeport's divestment may involve liquidation of a joint venture that Freeport Indonesia, operator of Grasberg, formed with Rio Tinto in 1996. Under that venture, Rio has a 40 percent interest in PTFI'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. Indonesia's proposal could see Rio's interest in Grasberg output being converted to shares in PTFI to make up the lion's portion of the government purchase, provided all parties can agree to the structure and price of the deal, Mining Minister Ignasius Jonan said in December. A Melbourne-based spokesman for Rio declined to comment. (Reporting by Cindy Silviana and Wilda Asmarini in JAKARTA; Additional reporting by Jim Regan in SYDNEY; Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Tom Hogue) In a pair of unanimous votes Thursday, the Billings Public Library Board declined to remove a DVD and a book as requested by separate library patrons. One was the 2012 Australian horror-thriller, Daddys Little Girl. In a report to the board, Library Director Gavin Woltjer quoted reviews assigning the film to a subgenre of horror films known as rape-revenge films. Scores of online reviews note the degree of violence in the film as gratuitous, Woltjer wrote. In his memo, Woltjer cited this passage in the librarys Collection Management Policy: The selection process takes into account that Library users represent different points of view, some of which may be controversial. The collection will try to represent these views by offering, whenever possible, a balanced perspective of issues. The library purchased the DVD in 2016. Since then, it has circulated 42 times. In the U.S. and Canada, 127 other public libraries own Daddys Little Girl, but none other in Montana. The library patron requesting the films removal called it too disturbing, advising staff and the board to check it out and decide for yourself. Woltjer and other library staff recommended keeping it in the collection. I find crimes against children abhorrent, said board member Cheryle Fisher of Shepherd, but I dont think we should remove it. Im sorry that things like this occur, said Stella Fong, who chairs the board, but I agree with the recommendation from the staff to keep it. The other request for removal was over the book Aghora II: Kundalini. Woltjer said he has not read the book but called it one of many perspectives along the religion/spiritual spectrum. The man who wanted the book removed said it included a two-sentence statement about a yogi master practicing on corpses." The man said the book teaches "an evil science." The book has circulated seven times since its September 2016 acquisition. Its held in 21 other libraries in the U.S., but none other in Montana. Board member Roger Young said that as a practicing Christian, I receive the Lords body and blood. Some people would look at that as gruesome. Its not up to us, said board member Jennifer Quinn, to be judging the content of a book. We need to be careful, said board member Lloyd Mickelson, about removing books because someone has an objection about it. After the votes, Woltjer called library collections a tricky business. Theres a lot in our collection right now I dont agree with, and there are individuals out there who dont agree with my viewpoints, he said, telling the board he appreciated you not taking this off the cuff, but bolstering what a library should do for the community. These patrons took the time to voice their opinion, and I think that should be honored, Woltjer added. They both "provided reasons why they didnt want them, and I think that is commendable. Board members said they could not recall in recent years removing material based on a library patrons complaint. From time to time the library reclassifies or relocates material based on patron concerns, they said. An example is moving a book from the childrens section to the teen shelves. PRAGUE, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Czech financial markets on Friday. ALL TIMES GMT (Czech Republic: GMT + 1 hours) =========================ECONOMIC DATA========================== Real-time economic data releases.................... Summary of economic data and forecasts........... Recently released economic data.................. Previous stories on Czech data............. **For a schedule of corporate and economic events: http://emea1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/Apps/CountryWeb/#/2E/events-overview =========================EVENTS================================= PRAGUE - Czechs will vote in the first round of a presidential election on Friday and Saturday. Story: Related stories: =========================NEWS=================================== PRESIDENT: Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis backed incumbent Milos Zeman in the country's presidential election, which starts with a first round on Friday and Saturday. Story: Related stories: CENBANK: The Czech National Bank is splitting its foreign exchange reserves into two parts to better manage the portfolio after its foreign holdings soared during nearly four years of currency market interventions, Governor Jiri Rusnok said on Thursday. Story: Related stories: CEE MARKETS: Central European currencies and government bonds retreated on Thursday as minutes from the ECB's December meeting triggered some expectation that it may shift to more hawkish rhetoric. Story: Related stories: ---------------------- MARKET SNAPSHOT ------------------------ Index/Crown Currency Latest Prev Pct change Pct change close on day in 2018 vs Euro 25.501 25.537 0.14 0.1 vs Dollar 21.149 21.224 0.35 0.61 Czech Equities 1,107.68 1,107.68 0.54 2.74 U.S. Equities 25,574.73 25,369.13 0.81 3.46 Pvs close or current levels vs prior domestic close at 1600 GMT ***For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX For updates on CEE currencies TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets =========================PRESS DIGEST========================== IKEA: Furniture giant IKEA will open an 800 sqm shop in the centre of Prague, becoming the fourth European city where the company has this concept, Lidove Noviny reported. Separately, IKEA sales in the country rose 4 percent to 9.7 billion crowns ($458.46 million) in the 2016/2017 fiscal year ending in August, Hospodarske Noviny said. Lidove Noviny, page 14; Hospodarske Noviny, page 17 (Reuters has not verified the stories, nor does it vouch for their accuracy.) Prague Newsroom: +420 224 190 477 E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com ($1 = 21.1580 Czech crowns) (Reporting by Prague Newsroom) By Kanupriya Kapoor JAKARTA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Several hundred Indonesian Islamists held a protest rally outside Facebook's headquarters in Jakarta on Friday, accusing the social media giant of discrimination for blocking some pages operated by hardline groups for allegedly spreading hate. The protesters, many dressed in white and including members of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), marched from a mosque to Facebook's offices in the capital of the world's biggest Muslim-majority country. "We want to remind Facebook to remain neutral and balanced," Slamet Maarif, a spokesman for FPI, told reporters. "There are many accounts that spread hate about Islam, ulamas, that are allowed to operate. There are accounts that talk about Islamic humanitarian aid, those are blocked," said Maarif, adding that the group still planned to use Facebook and intended to open new accounts. Facebook said its policy was to delete content that violated its community standards. "Our community standards are made to prevent organisations or individuals that urge hate speech or violence against those who hold different views," said a company representative, who declined to be identified. A spokesman for Indonesia's communications ministry, Semuel Pangerapan, said, "We have never requested that FPI's accounts be closed." Some Islamist groups in Indonesia use social media extensively and FPI usually has about 100 accounts on Facebook, as well as on other social media platforms such as Twitter. The rally was peaceful, though more than 1,200 police officers were brought in to guard the offices, media said. Indonesians are avid users of social media and Facebook had 115 million users in the second quarter of 2017, according to media citing its country manager, ranking the country fourth globally after the United States, India and Brazil. Some of the protesters on Friday made live video streams of the rally to air via Facebook. The vast majority of Indonesians practice a moderate form of Islam, though a reputation for religious tolerance has come under scrutiny as hardline groups muscle their way into public and political life in the young democracy. President Joko Widodo has expressed concerns over hoax stories and hate speech spread online and has pledged to "clobber" any group threatening to destroy Indonesias tradition of pluralism and moderate Islam. At a rally late last year in Jakarta by Muslims opposing U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a body of Muslim clerics urged a boycott of U.S. and Israel products if Trump did not revoke his action. So far there has been no indication the measure will gain traction and Indonesia's vice president said calls to stop using U.S. goods and technology were misguided. (Additional reporting by Cindy Silviana; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) HELSINKI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Finnish government has voiced concern over surprise inspections on Finnish cargo ships visiting Russian ports in recent weeks, saying delays had been a problem for shipping companies. Neighbouring Russia carried out seven thorough inspections in the past two weeks on Finnish ships at St Petersburgh and other ports, without giving a specific reason, a government minister said on Friday. Such inspections usually take place for Finnish ships only a few times a year globally. "The inspections have been exceptional ... It is a challenge for the shipping companies, it makes their operation more difficult," Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner told Reuters. "There have been inspections by Russian ports for ships from other countries as well, but in this time range, most of the inspections have been carried out on Finnish ships." The Russian transportation ministry declined to comment but Berner said that seafaring authorities from the two countries had held discussions, with talks due to continue next week. "It seems these inspections will not continue for the time being. We will confirm this on Monday in a call between ministries", Berner said. EU-member Finland shares a 1,340km (833 miles) border and a difficult history with Russia. It has accused Moscow of several airspace violations and propaganda attacks in recent years. Finnish media have suggested the increase in Russian port inspections could be in response to an inspection by Finland on a Russian cargo ship in November because of an oil leak. Berner described such claims as speculation. "There is no evidence of connection (to Finland's inspection)," the minister said. Under international seafaring law, inspectors can hold a ship back at ports if it lacks certificates or poses some kind of security threat. (Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell; Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov in Moscow; Editing by David Goodman) By Tom Miles GENEVA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A U.N. contingency plan for an earthquake in Indonesia foresees a scenario where 10,000 people would die within 24 hours with 47 million more affected, according to emergency response planning documents. The U.N.-led exercise to prepare for disaster in one of the world's most quake-prone regions, is based on a magnitude 7.8 quake in the Sunda Strait, close to the capital Jakarta, similar in size to one that struck the Caribbean this week. "Within the first 24 hours, approximately 10,000 deaths with a substantial number of missing people is reported," said the contingency plan based on a worst-case scenario. A further 60,000 people would be seriously injured and 200,000 lightly injured, while 9.6 million would be temporarily displaced. Although 2.5 million people would need immediate help, fewer than one in 10 would get it. Electricity and telephone networks would go down for as long as two weeks, and large scale oil and chemical spills would cause fires and disrupt fuel supplies for a week after the quake. There would be major disruption to air and sea ports. In 2004 the Indian Ocean tsunami killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia. Since then, a culture of disaster prevention has spread around the world, said Denis McClean, spokesman for the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Indonesia has established disaster management agencies at national and local levels and a tsunami warning system, he said. But as in most earthquake-prone countries, it needed to improve building regulations. "It is buildings which kill in earthquakes," McClean said. The scenario, which assumes an earthquake affecting west Java and Sumatra with no tsunami, was developed by Indonesia's geophysics and meteorological agency BMKG, based on a huge 1699 earthquake in Batavia, the location of modern-day Jakarta. Further scenario modelling should look into multiple disasters such as a tsunami or flooding in a big city, bringing in more accurate data on damaged buildings and infrastructure, the documents said. The World Bank reckons natural disasters cost Indonesia 0.3 percent of its GDP annually, but a 2015 report on disaster risk management prepared by Indonesia's government said a major earthquake, occuring once every 250 years, could cause losses in excess of $30 billion, or 3 percent of GDP. In December a 6.5 magnitude quake killed at least three people when it hit Java, Indonesia's most densely populated island, at a depth of 92 km (57 miles), and buildings in Jakarta swayed for several seconds. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) SOFIA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday he welcomed a deal to form a governing coalition in Germany, saying the agreement was a huge benefit for Europe. "In terms of the substance I'm very happy with what the CDU/CSU and the SPD have agreed," Juncker said during a news conference in Sofia. "It is a significant, positive, forward-looking contribution to European policy debate in Europe," he added. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) agreed after all-night talks on Friday to a blueprint for formal coalition negotiations. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Sofia, writing by Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels; editing by Philip Blenkinsop) By Jason Hovet and Robert Muller PRAGUE, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Czechs start voting on Friday in the first round of a lengthy presidential contest in which eight contenders aim to defeat the veteran leader and strongly anti-immigration incumbent Milos Zeman. The vote, which will end in a run-off in two weeks time, is seen as a referendum on the 73-year-old Zeman, whose criticism of immigration from Muslim countries and push to boost ties with Russia and China has divided the country. Czech presidents have limited executive powers but have a strong influence on public opinion, appoint central bankers and judges and are pivotal in forming governments - a process the European Union and NATO member country is now going through. A former centre-left prime minister, Zeman has warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has called for the removal of EU sanctions imposed over Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea. He has also looked to boost trade with China and was the only western leader to attend a military parade in Beijing in 2015. But he has drawn criticism for ignoring Chinese human rights issues that Czech foreign policy had previously focussed on. Zeman leads polls and should pick up a strong vote outside Prague and other cities on Friday and Saturday, but is expected to fall short of winning over 50 percent of the vote and may face a strong challenger in a run-off set for Jan.26-27. First-round voting starts at 2:00 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Friday and ends Saturday at the same time. His most serious challenger is Jiri Drahos, a chemical engineer and former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences who has campaigned on anchoring the Czech Republic's place in Europe. Michal Horacek, 65, a songwriter and businessman, could also wrestle for a spot in the run-off while former centre-right Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and diplomat Pavel Fischer have also seen a rise in support in the final weeks. The outcome may influence Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis's chances of finally forming a cabinet as his first attempt to rule in a minority administration is likely to be rejected by parliament next week. Zeman has backed Babis even as the billionaire businessman has struggled to get support from other political parties while he battles police allegations he illegally obtained EU subsidies a decade ago. Babis denies wrongdoing. Zeman and Babis are among the most popular politicians in the country of 10.6 million that is largely eurosceptic and rejects accepting migrants from the Middle East and north Africa. Babis said on Thursday he would vote for Zeman for his experience and defence of national interests. (Reporting by Jason Hovet and Robert Muller; Editing by Richard Balmforth) BUDAPEST, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Hungary summoned Romania's ambassador on Friday to complain about remarks from Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose who earlier this week appeared to physically threaten ethnic Hungarians demanding autonomy. In reaction to a resolution signed by three ethnic Hungarian political groupings calling for the autonomy of part of Romania where ethnic Hungarians have a sizable population, Tudose told private television Realitatea TV: "I have sent message that if the Szekler flag flies over the institutions over there, they will all fly next to the flag. Autonomy for Szeklers is out of the question." "As long as they sing in their yard, that is one thing, but from a legal point of view things are very clear," Tudose said in a a video of the interview. Szeklers account for a large chunk of ethnic Hungarians living in the Romanian region of Transylvania. On Thursday night, Tudose added on his Facebook page: "As a Romanian and a prime minister, I refuse any dialogue concerning the autonomy of a part of Romania. It would go against the constitution of this country, which guarantees from the first line, the unity and indivisibility of the Romanian state." He did not refer directly to his earlier comments. Budapest has been supportive of ethnic Hungarians' autonomy aspirations and Hungarian politicians reacted with fury to the remarks. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Friday was cited by national news agency MTI as saying that Tudose's "comments in which he practically threatened representatives of ...a national community with execution, are entirely unacceptable." Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who will seek reelection for a third consecutive term on April 8, had granted ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring countries citizenship shortly after he took office in 2010 as part of his efforts to restore a battered sense of national pride. Many Hungarians view the 1920 Treaty of Trianon as a national tragedy because it took away two-thirds of the country's territory and left millions of ethnic Hungarians living in what are now Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine and Serbia. Orban has won popularity at home by reaching out to Hungarians outside the country's borders who were allowed to vote in the national election for the first time in 2014. Late last year Hungary and Ukraine clashed over a new law in Ukraine banning teaching in minority languages, with Budapest threatening to retaliate by blocking Ukraine's aspirations to integration in the European Union. (Reporting by Krisztina Than in Budapest and Luiza Ilie in Bucharest; Editing by Toby Chopra) By Venus Wu HONG KONG, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Having seen a court disqualify her friend from holding a seat in Hong Kong's legislature, 21-year-old Agnes Chow stands ready to step into the breach by contesting his seat for a pro-democracy movement that has provoked China's wrath. "We can't afford to be scared," said the soft-spoken university student, who will announce her candidacy on Saturday. "People think if they don't touch politics they will be fine but this is not the case anymore," Chow told Reuters, referring to what she perceived as creeping interference by Beijing's Communist Party rulers in the city's freedoms. If she wins the Hong Kong Island constituency in March, Chow will become Hong Kong's youngest ever lawmaker. The by-election is one of several necessitated after the Chinese parliament issued a legal interpretation that eventually led to the debarring of six opposition lawmakers, leaving the pro-democracy camp with 24 seats in the 70-seat legislature and also effectively taking away some of its veto powers under Hong Kong's complex system. Chow's friend Nathan Law, 24, was one of the disqualified lawmakers. During the coming week, Law, along with several other opposition leaders like 21-year-old Joshua Wong, will return to the courts, defending their role in the largely peaceful protests that blocked major roads in the former British colony for 79 days in 2014. The High Court could jail Wong and 19 other protesters, with sentencing expected on Wednesday, while in a separate hearing Law is appealing an eight-month jail term that he has already partially served before being released on bail. "When my friends are going to jail for defending democracy ... I keep thinking, 'how can I do more and take up more responsibility?'," said Chow, who has been a student leader since 2012. "It forces us to grow." ANXIOUS TIMES Hong Kong has been governed under a "one country, two systems" formula since its return from British to Chinese rule in 1997, allowing freedoms not enjoyed on mainland China that include an independent judiciary but not a fully democratic vote. The failure of the "Umbrella Movement" protests to wrestle concessions on democracy from Beijing, coupled with prosecutions of at least 100 protesters, mostly youths, discouraged many young people from going back out on the streets. The street occupations also prompted the Chinese government to tighten control of the city, and there is little sign that Beijing is winning favour with Hong Kong's young. In the latest survey conducted by the University of Hong Kong of 130 youths, only 0.3 percent identified themselves as "Chinese," a new low since polling began in 1997. On the flip side, around 70 percent of respondents - the highest ever - saw themselves as "Hong Kongers". Several civil disobedience leaders from 2014 studied or taught at the university, but while the survey showed where sentiments lay its student body has become less politically active, to a point where noone wants to lead the student union. "Everyone feels numb," said incumbent union president Wong Ching-tak. "The issues keep coming but you can't do anything, and if you do something you face imprisonment." While recent protests have failed to garner huge numbers, some activists say the pressure for change is slowly brewing beneath the surface. "I don't necessarily think we'll see a revolution with big fanfare, but an underground community that slowly expands," said Yau Wai-ching, 26, who was ousted from the legislature. "And this community takes a different stance against the government ... This can be a revolution too." (Reporting by Venus Wu; Editing by James Pomfret & Simon Cameron-Moore) By Tatiana Voronova and Vladimir Soldatkin MOSCOW, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Russian conglomerate Sistema, which has to make a big payment to energy giant Rosneft to settle a business dispute, is in talks with one of the country's sovereign wealth funds about transferring two of its companies, sources said on Friday. The negotiations concern the possibility of the state-owned Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) taking over control of two retail and power businesses from Sistema, a banking source and a source close to the conglomerate told Reuters. Asked by Reuters for comment, RDIF said it had no plans to take over the assets, and Sistema said it was not planning to transfer the assets to the fund. The dispute centred on mid-sized oil company Bashneft , pitting Rosneft's chief executive Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, against Sistema owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov, a billionaire who some Russian media reports suggest is close to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Under the settlement announced last month, Sistema has to pay Rosneft 100 billion roubles ($1.8 billion) by March 30 and RDIF has agreed to lend Sistema 40 billion roubles. Russia's largest lender Sberbank will also help Sistema to raise funds before the deadline. Sistema put up two of its assets, toy retailer Detsky Mir and the Bashkirian Power Grid Company, as collateral against the RDIF loan. The talks centre on the possible transfer of these firms to the fund. "The parties have been in discussion over the terms and the deal structure," a banking source said. Another source, close to Sistema, confirmed that such talks have been under way and that the terms of the deal have not yet been agreed. It was not clear whether they would include any cash payments to Sistema or it would be non-cash transaction. RDIF said in the emailed comments that the fund did not plan to acquire or in any way "gain control" over the assets. "RDIF acts as the arranger of the 40 billion-rouble-financing secured by these assets, as it was set in the amicable agreement," the fund said. Sistema's spokesman said that the company was not considering transferring control over Detsky Mir and Bashkirian Power Grid Company to RDIF. The RDIF's possible acquisition of the assets would mark a boost for the fund, which is headed by ex-banker Kirill Dmitriev. RDIF, which manages capital of $10 billion, was launched in 2011 with the aim of attracting foreign investments to Russia. ($1 = 56.5008 roubles) (Reporting by Tatiana Voronova and Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Katya Golubkova and David Stamp) By Tom Miles GENEVA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Vietnam has challenged U.S. anti-dumping measures against Vietnam's exports of fish fillets, a filing published by the World Trade Organization showed on Friday. Vietnam says Washington has broken WTO rules in the way it has imposed punitive tariffs on Vietnamese fish it claims are being "dumped, or sold at an unfairly cheap price, on the U.S. market. U.S. imports of fish fillets from Vietnam have grown from $100 million in 2007 to more than $520 million in 2016. That made Vietnam the third-biggest U.S. supplier after Chile and China and the U.S. the top export market for Vietnamese fish. The United States has 60 days to settle the complaint, or Vietnam could ask the WTO to adjudicate. Washington has faced a slew of trade disputes over its use of anti-dumping duties in the past two decades, and has lost many of them after its calculation methods were found to be out of line with WTO rules. Earlier this week, the WTO published a wide-ranging Canadian trade complaint, lodged in December, against the U.S. use of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs. The United States called that complaint a "broad and ill-advised attack" that could cause a "flood of imports from China and other countries". The Vietnamese complaint was the fourth dispute initiated by Vietnam since it joined the WTO in 2007. Two of its previous complaints took aim at U.S. anti-dumping actions against Vietnam's shrimp exports. The long-running shrimp battle finally ended in 2016 when the United States agreed to remove duties on a Vietnamese shrimp exporter and to refund duty deposits that it had paid. At the time, the two countries were partners in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks. But under President Donald Trump the United States has withdrawn from those negotiations. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Larry King) A Stillwater County Sheriff's Office deputy responding to an interstate crash Wednesday morning was left with minor injuries when a pickup hit his parked patrol vehicle. The incident is the most recent in a string of crashes in which Montana law enforcement responding to traffic incidents have been hit by other vehicles driving in the area. The Helena Independent Record reported that five Montana Highway Patrol vehicles were hit in five separate crashes in December 2017. At around 9 a.m. the 2014 Ford F-150 driven by the deputy was parked on the right lane shoulder atop a hill near I-90 mile marker 411 to control traffic. Below, a fire truck and ambulance were responding to a crash between a tanker semi and a pickup. Approaching the deputy's car, an eastbound pickup tried to move into the right lane to get around a semi. The driver said he lost control before he hit the deputy's truck while the deputy was inside it, according to MHP Trooper Shane Warehime. "He was almost sideways when he hit the deputy's vehicle," Warehime said. After hitting the deputy's car, the pickup then spun out in front of the semi and was hit again, with both impacts on its passenger side, before coming to a stop in the median. The driver of the pickup declined medical treatment afterward, Warehime said. With snow falling on the icy road, Warehime said the pickup driver was going too fast to keep control. Wednesday's collision was the first "in awhile," for the Stillwater County Sheriff's Office, according to public information officer Tammie Mullikin. The deputy was given the rest of the day off and might have some soreness but was otherwise deemed OK after a hospital checkup, Mullikin said. The collision won't make the deputy's job any easier, Mullikin said. With his 2014 Ford F-150 "definitely not functional," the deputy will be driving a Crown Victoria for the remainder of the winter, a rear-wheel drive vehicle that doesn't handle nearly as well on often icy and snowy county roads. A photo provided by the sheriff's office doesn't really do justice to the damage the deputy's vehicle sustained, Mullikin said. The vehicle might be totaled and it looked like the truck's frame was bent in the crash, Warehime said. Between the original crash and the second crash, traffic wasn't completely clear in the area for roughly two hours. The driver of the pickup was cited for a basic rule violation and for failure to slow and change lanes for a stationary emergency vehicle. "People need to slow down and change lanes and give all of us room to work snowplows, wreckers, firetrucks, EMS. We're out there trying to help people, and we don't want to get injured," Warehime said. "We want to go home to our families as well." By Joe Brock JOHANNESBURG, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe was sacked as president illegally and the international community must help remove the "military government" that has taken power or risk the country descending into chaos, an exiled Mugabe loyalist said on Friday. Mugabe, 93, stood down last November, a week after the army and his former political allies turned against him, ending nearly four decades of rule marred by allegations of corruption, human rights abuses and economic negligence. His former vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, whose sacking prompted the military takeover that forced Mugabe out, was sworn in as president and the general who led the de facto coup, Constantino Chiwenga, was installed as his deputy. Mugabe's resignation came in the form of a written statement and he has not spoken since. "The president was alleged to have resigned. There is no evidence," Jonathan Moyo, a cabinet minister under Mugabe, told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location, in one of the first detailed accounts from a Mugabe supporter since the coup. "It is completely unsustainable for anyone to say Mugabe resigned voluntarily when we know the army took over all institutions of the state and confined him to his residence. You have to be applying a Banana Republic model to say he resigned." Moyo was the fiercely combative mouthpiece for a faction in the ruling ZANU-PF party that opposed Mnangagwa and backed Mugabe's 52-year old wife, Grace, to succeed him. Mugabe's departure brought tens of thousands of jubilant Zimbabweans onto the streets and was widely cheered by leaders in Africa and the West. But Moyo said the international community, including the African Union and the United Nations, was making a huge mistake if it legitimised a government that came to power via a coup. "This is a military government. You cannot send the arsonists to be the fire brigade," he said. He said the public was currently living in unprecedented fear of the former soldiers who have taken political office but eventually the masses would not stand for an "illegal regime". "FLOODGATES TO CONFLICT" "If you don't intervene when there has been such an outrageous, brazen attack on a constitutional order, you are simply opening the floodgates to conflict," he said. "If they don't act, just as the sun will rise tomorrow, Zimbabwe will be another Somalia. There will be bloodshed." Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment. But in response to earlier criticisms levelled by Moyo, government spokesman George Charamba said on Thursday the issue of legitimacy or illegitimacy did not arise. He pointed to large demonstrations in November calling for Mugabe's departure and "across the political spectrum support" for his replacement by a new administration. "So really this is a bitter, bitter defeated politician," Charamba said. Many of Mugabe's political allies were either arrested by the military in a series of spectacular raids in the early hours of Nov. 15 or they fled into neighbouring countries. Moyo said he narrowly escaped with his life. "This was not Mickey Mouse stuff. There was heavy gunfire for 15 minutes. They shot stun grenades in the house. I was there with my wife and children," Moyo said, adding that he has since fled to another country over fears for his safety. "They still have aspirations to harm me." Grace Mugabe's accelerating presidential ambitions contributed to Mnangagwa and the military taking action to prevent her taking over from her ailing husband. Moyo, a figure reviled in much of Zimbabwe for his often brutal verbal assaults on detractors, says he has no regrets. "I will never, ever accept the proposition that those who use violence have outsmarted me," he said. "I would rather be hated for standing for my principles and believing in the rule of law than be feared that if people don't agree with me I will unleash the tanks." (Reporting by Joe Brock, Editing by William Maclean) By Kirsti Knolle and Shadia Nasralla VIENNA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Airline Niki's sale to British Airways parent IAG was thrown into further doubt on Friday when a battle between Austrian and German officials over who should handle its insolvency proceedings intensified. Niki filed for insolvency in Berlin last month after Germany's Lufthansa scrapped plans to buy the Austrian arm of insolvent Air Berlin. After hurried talks to find a new owner for Niki before it lost its valuable runway slots, IAG agreed to buy the business and make it part of low-cost unit Vueling. However, the deal was put at risk after a German court said this week that Niki was not under German jurisdiction. An Austrian court in the town of Korneuburg on Friday approved a request by passengers' rights group Fairplane, which argued that as Niki is registered in Austria the case should be handled there. Fairplane also saw a conflict of interest in appointing the same administrators for Niki and its German parent and debtor Air Berlin. "The main proceedings will take place in Austria," a Korneuburg court spokesman said on Friday. According to national law, the case has to start from scratch after the ruling. Niki's newly appointed Austrian administrator Ulla Reisch said she would cooperate with her German counterpart and aimed to find a solution for the carrier within three weeks. "We will not start from the beginning as if there had never been proceedings in this case," Reisch told Reuters, adding that she will consider the IAG deal but was also open for new deals if they were better. "I think a solution can be found within two to three weeks," Reisch said. German administrator Lucas Floether, however, said he was considering legal action against the neighbouring country's court decision, having already agreed the deal with IAG. "The opening of this case contradicts European insolvency regulation," he said in a statement. IAG, which had committed to pay the January salaries for Niki staff, said it was monitoring the situation. Niki owes 153 million euros to around 200 creditors, according to Austria's creditors body KSV 1870. Fairplane, which said it has claims of 1.2 million euros against Niki for 3,000 passengers, welcomed the Austrian court's decision. "This is an important decision to minimize damage at Niki and to safeguard passengers rights," Fairplane said in a statement. (additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London, editing by Georgina Prodhan and Keith Weir) By Mitra Taj and Philip Pullella LIMA/VATICAN CITY, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Pope Francis next week visits Peru, a country divided over former autocrat leader Alberto Fujimori, whose pardon from prison by the current president has reopened wounds from one of the country's darkest periods. Peruvians will watch closely to see if the Argentine pope signals any concern over the pardon after he arrives on Thursday from Chile on the second leg of a South America trip, where corruption and the plight of indigenous people will likely come up. President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker, last month narrowly survived an impeachment bid over a graft scandal with the help of Fujimori's loyalists in Congress, and pardoned Fujimori three days later. Fujimori, 79, had served less than half of a 25-year sentence for corruption and human rights crimes for commanding death squads to combat a Maoist-inspired insurgency during his 1990-2000 right-wing populist government. Opponents of both Fujimori and Kuczynski will be seeking a papal condemnation, even if only in general terms, of human rights abuses and corruption. "Hopefully the Pope will show solidarity with the victims," said human rights activist Gisela Ortiz, whose brother was one of nine university students killed in a massacre of civilians that Fujimori was found guilty of ordering. She called on Francis to meet with her and other family members of Fujimori's victims. "We want to express how worried we are about the injustice we're living in," she said. Kuczynski, 79, cited medical reasons for granting Fujimori the pardon and has said it was fundamentally about forgiveness. He denies it was part of a backroom deal. Rosa Rojas, who is also seeking a meeting with the pope, said she still struggles with the loss of her husband and eight-year-old son, who were killed in Fujimori's battle against the Shining Path rebels. Combat between state security forces and the Shining Path and other guerrillas left an estimated 69,000 dead in Peru between 1980 and 2000, with 75 percent of victims comprised of indigenous people, according to Peru's truth commission. "With the pardon, wounds that were healing have reopened," Rojas said. 'CORRUPTION IS THE PLAGUE' Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, hinted strongly that the pope would address corruption during the trip. Parolin, who ranks only second to the pope in the Church's hierarchy, told Vatican media that the pope feels fighting corruption is important because "it blocks development and the overcoming of poverty". During a previous trip to Latin American Francis said: "Corruption is the plague, it's the gangrene of society". But Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said there were no plans for the pope to meet the family members of Fujimori's victims. Despite his downfall, many Peruvians admire Fujimori, crediting him with pacifying Peru, fixing a broken economy and tending to the needs of the poor. Recent polls show that a majority of Peruvians support the pardon. His populist following, led by daughter Keiko and son Kenji, remains one of the country's most potent political forces. Fujimori's supporters are also seeking a gesture of papal understanding for the pardon, but Church sources say that is unlikely. Human rights is expected to come up when Francis visits the Amazonian town of Puerto Maldonado to address increasing risks to the region's indigenous people - including reclusive tribes that shun contact with outsiders - from rampant wildcat gold mining, illegal logging and drug trafficking. "Their territory is increasingly being invaded, their space is becoming smaller and smaller; the livelihoods with which they have survived for so many centuries are being destroyed," said Father Manuel Jesus Romero. "Fishing, hunting, trees and rivers are more and more in danger. Therefore their lives are in danger," he told the newsletter of REPAM, a Pan-Amazonian Church Network. The South America trip will be 22nd overseas trip of Francis' pontificate and the sixth to the continent of his birth. (Reporting By Mitra Taj in Lima and Philip Pullela in Vatican City; Editing by Alistair Bell) BAMAKO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Mali and neighbouring Senegal will deploy 1,000 troops in an operation to pacify central Mali, which has suffered growing violence by Islamists previously confined to its desert north, a security source with knowledge of the plan said. General M'Bemba Moussa Keita told state radio on Friday that an operation was planned to "secure the central regions". The security source told Reuters the aim was to enable presidential elections expected at the end of this year to go smoothly. He added it would focus on the area around the medieval Islamic city of Mopti on the Niger river. Some 200 troops from neighbouring Senegal would join the operation. Senegalese army spokesman Abdoul Ndiaye confirmed that Senegalese troops were already being deployed for this offensive -- many were in Mali anyway on U.N. peacekeeping duties -- though he declined to give the precise number. Islamist groups have for more than a decade destabilised the sparsely populated desert north, but in the past three years they have exploited conflicts between Fulani cattle herders and farmers in Mali's wetter, more populated centre. That has shifted the battlefield closer to the richer south and capital Bamako, a fact highlighted by a string of attacks blamed on Fulani Islamist fighters from central Mali -- most spectacularly one on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako in November 2015 that killed dozens of people. (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako and Diadie Ba in Dakar; Writing by Tim Cocks, Editing by William Maclean) By Marc Frank HAVANA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Cuban sugar mills were shuttered this week in eastern and central parts of the country, due to a stalled cold front that dumped heavy rainfall on the area already reeling from crop losses due to drought and Hurricane Irma. The area accounts for some 70 percent of the crop. Cubas decapitalized sugar industry is particularly vulnerable to the weather with only around 15 percent of plantations boasting adequate irrigation and drainage. Roads are in poor condition even during the best of times. This years crop was already damaged by an 18 month drought, followed by Hurricane Irma in September which damaged 40 percent of the cane to varying degrees. Azcuba, the state-run sugar monopoly, planned to produce 1.6 million tonnes of raw sugar this season, down from the previous seasons 1.8 million tonnes, according to a local expert with access to industry information, requesting anonymity. The harvest runs from late November through April, with cane usually yielding the highest sugar content from January through March. However, due to the hurricane most mills were scheduled to open around the New Year. Communist Party Second Secretary Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, speaking in eastern Granma province earlier this week, urged workers to prepare for when the rains lifted. "The sugar industry cannot decide it is defeated by the humid weather, which is a problem across the country. They must drain the plantations ... improve the roads, clean and repair with efficiency," Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, quoted him on Wednesday as stating. It can take up to two weeks for milling to recover after heavy rains. "Since January 7th the province has reported milling at no more than 9 percent of plan," this weeks Communist Party paper in eastern Las Tunas province reported. "Worse, the situation could continue for who knows how many more days, not just due to possible rainfall, but the high degree of humidity in the plantations," the newspaper, Periodico 26, said. Cuba consumes between 600,000 and 700,000 tonnes of sugar a year and has an agreement to sell China 400,000 tonnes annually. It sells the rest on the open market. Sugar was long Cubas most important industry and export with output reaching 8 million tonnes in 1991, but today it ranks eighth in exports behind sectors such as tourism, tobacco, nickel and pharmaceuticals. (Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by David Gregorio) By Anastasia Moloney BOGOTA, Jan 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The plight of Chile's indigenous Mapuche people and their struggle for land rights will come under the spotlight as Pope Francis travels to the country on Monday amid growing tension between the Mapuche and loggers and farmers. The Argentine pontiff will visit the city of Temuco, the capital of Chile's impoverished southern Araucania province, where he is expected to meet with members of the Mapuche. The region of sweeping valleys and forested hills has been the epicentre of a long-simmering conflict and sporadic outbursts of violence between security forces and the Mapuche as part of a struggle over land they claim as their ancestral home. The Mapuche say when the Chilean army invaded their territory in the late 19th century, their lands were taken and many given to settlers, and forestry and logging companies. "The Pope will visit a very symbolic area - one where land from the Mapuche was seized by the military campaign," said Hernando Silva, head of legal at Citizen Watch, a watchdog on indigenous rights. "The human rights situation faced the Mapuche people is the biggest and most complicated one in Chile." VIOLENT STRUGGLE For decades, the Mapuche, Chile's largest indigenous group, have been fighting to recover their lost lands, sometimes by violent means. The conflict has intensified in recent years and Mapuche insurgents have clashed with police, set up road blocks and burnt houses, trucks, and forest plantations. The government has so far returned little fertile land, according to Pamela Munoz, a Mapuche, who heads the Kume Mongen Foundation that works to promote Mapuche culture. "The government has returned lands but not lands that are fit and apt for agricultural development," Munoz said. About two-thirds of the Mapuche, who make up around 10 percent of the 18 million population, live in poverty in cities across Chile, while the rest mostly live in the southern provinces of Araucania and Bio Bio. Logging and forestry plantations have harmed the environment and indigenous traditional way of life. "Many Mapuche communities are affected by non-native trees plantations, such as pine and eucalyptus forests, planted by large corporations," Munoz said. "These not only destroy native trees, from which many of our people live, but also deeply hurts the water supply." To stem the conflict, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, urged Chile to begin talks with the Mapuche. "It cannot be that there is constant violence and counter violence because that's really going to decimate the population of the Mapuche," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In June, outgoing Chilean President Michelle Bachelet asked for forgiveness from the Mapuche people for "errors and horrors" committed by the state and pledged to build roads and provide drinking water in remote areas and more rapidly transfer land. ANY REAL DIFFERENCE? Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, will visit the majority Catholic nation of Chile over four days. "He (the pope) is very conscious about the issues of indigenous people so I'm sure he will say something about that and it would really help raise visibility," Tauli-Corpuz said. But the Pope is likely to face protests from some Mapuche during this tour as the community has blamed the Catholic Church for complicity in the seizure of Mapuche lands. In recent years, churches have been the target of arson attacks carried out by a resistance Mapuche group calling itself 'Weichan Auka Mapu'. According to Munoz, many Mapuche will be sceptical that the Pope's visit will make any real difference to their lives. "The Pope's visit will generate media interest but the Pope doesn't represent any authority for us," Munoz said. After Chile, Pope Francis heads to Peru and the jungle city of Puerto Maldonado to focus on the problems facing Amazon indigenous communities struggling against deforestation. (Reporting by Anastasia Moloney @anastasiabogota, Editing by Ros Russell.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org) By Michael Hirtzer CHICAGO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures tumbled nearly 3 percent on Friday, on pace for their biggest daily decline since August, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed larger-than-expected U.S. winter wheat plantings. Corn futures fell to life-of-contract lows, while soybeans turned higher in a recovery from four-month lows in the wake of the midday USDA supply and demand data. The government raised its estimate for U.S. corn production due to record-large yields and trimmed its estimate for the U.S. soybean harvest, even as that crop remained the biggest ever. The USDA estimated 2018 winter wheat plantings at 32.608 million acres, the smallest since 1909 but above analysts' expectations for 30.100 to 32.000 million. "The biggest thing was the (U.S.) wheat acres being up instead of down," said Linn & Associates analyst Roy Huckabay. "I've got 1.5 million more wheat acres than I thought I had, and that means I've got to reduce my new-crop corn and bean acres." Chicago Board of Trade March wheat was down 12-1/2 cents at $4.20-3/4 per bushel, its lowest since Dec. 20, at 12:24 p.m. CST (1824 GMT). CBOT March corn dipped to a contract low of $3.46, down 2-3/4 cents. "We were talking about a (corn) reduction, and we didn't get it, and so I think that's why we're seeing the market sell off," said Price Futures Group analyst Jack Scoville. CBOT March soybeans were up 3-1/2 cents at $9.53-1/2 per bushel, rebounding from their session low of $9.44-1/2. The USDA earlier announced a sale of 320,000 tonnes of U.S. corn to unknown destinations, the largest one-day sale of the crop since November. China's soybean imports in December were nearly record-large, according to Reuters calculations based on customs data. The country, the world's largest soybean buyer, was experiencing strong demand in the run-up to next month's Lunar New Year holiday. (Additional reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago, Mark Weinraub in Chicago, Nigel Hunt in London and Naveen Thukral in Singapore'; Editing by David Gregorio and Lisa Von Ahn) LIMA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Peruvian prosecutors raided the offices of local construction conglomerate Grana y Montero , Brazilian builders OAS and Andrade Gutierrez and other companies on Friday, the attorney general's office said on Twitter. Grana y Montero said it was cooperating with the "construction club" investigation led by a team of prosecutors tasked with fighting corruption. OAS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Andrade, which has signed a plea deal in Brazil over kickbacks in the country's massive "Car Wash" graft scandal, declined comment. The attorney general's office has not provided details on the wrongdoing it suspected the companies had been involved in. Prosecutors in Peru have been probing construction companies to determine if they colluded to secure contracts or took part in some $30 million in bribes that Brazilian builder Odebrecht has acknowledged paying to local officials. As part of the operation on Friday, authorities targeted 42 properties and arrested a former adviser to the Transportation Ministry, one of six people it expected to detain, the attorney general's office said. Peru is set to award some $2.2 billion in contracts this year to rebuild infrastructure damaged by flooding. Last year, the government barred companies that have acknowledged or been convicted of corruption from taking part in new contracts, and restricted Odebrecht's financial transfers. Grana, Peru's biggest builder, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Last month, the company's former chairman and three other construction executives were placed in pretrial detention over bribery allegations that they deny. "Grana y Montero reaffirms that the company is opposed to any anti-competitive practice, and welcomes the investigation that is under way," Grana said in a statement. Grana's shares in Lima had risen by 2.5 percent before falling back to a 2 percent gain after the attorney general office's announcement. (Reporting By Mitra Taj; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Peter Cooney) Friends star Matt le Blanc is currently in Sri Lanka, filming for popular British motoring show, BBC Top Gear. Top Gear, the long-running show travels to locations around the world, performing extreme stunts and challenges to see what the featured cars are capable of doing. The Top Gear crew was in the Eastern Province, earlier this week, for the first part of their shoot. Matt had reportedly visited Kandy yesterday and was expected to be in Colombo today. Cant take your eyes of those colourful Apps? Then probably you are having a relationship with your tech device! This relationship isnt as healthy as you may think of. Technology has so far become part and parcel of our lives and we simply cant stay away from these sophisticated devices. This addiction has made headlines more often than we have possibly imagined and researchers are now exploring ways to encourage people to detach themselves from these devices. The anti-social effect these devices have instilled in us has become quite an unpleasant sight. As much as it is rude to be glued to your devices during a conversation or during class, it also has various social, psychological and physical impacts. Speaking to Health Capsule, Dr. Ramani Ratnaweera, Consultant Psychiatrist at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, elaborated on these risks imposed on youth and the importance of detaching from these devices at an early age. Cheaper mode of information The Internet gives enough information to add in, in case you run out of facts. Over the years, the Internet has proved itself to be an easily accessible source of information. But the credibility of its facts and sources has most often been debated. According to Dr. Ratnaweera, the internet is the cheapest mode of acquiring information. Therefore children rely on the Internet to find information. This is in terms of academics. But in terms of non-academics, children use the internet to access social media and also play games. Social media is a highly addictive factor associated with the Internet. From all groups children get addicted to it quite fast. Therefore even if theres a major exam, they will find some time to log in to social media and chat with their regular friends. It is the Internet that makes teens get addicted to their tech devices. If not it would be a game which would allow them to be engaged, she said. Stimulation of the prefrontal cortex Speaking further, Dr. Ratnaweera said that a chemical reaction is triggered in the brain when children or teens use the Internet. When using the internet their prefrontal cortex gets activated. The prefrontal cortex is of significant importance when top-down processing is needed. Top-down processing by definition is when behaviour is guided by internal states or intentions. When people develop an addiction theres an increase in the secretion of dopamine. Therefore they use the Internet and are addicted to it like they would be addicted to smoking, alcohol or drugs. Thereafter they cant process their thinking capacity to manage time or for other complex mental activities, she explained. The prefrontal cortex is highly interconnected with much of the brain, including extensive connections with other cortical, subcortical and brain stem sites. It also receives inputs from the brainstem arousal systems, and its function is particularly dependent on its neurochemical environment. According to the Dual Systems Model, the interplay between the prefrontal cortex and socio-emotional system of the brain is relevant for adolescent development. An anti-social trend Social media became a social phenomenon altogether. What started off as a platform to get to know new friends became a platform for people to exchange ideas and today it is considered as a new media. To enable this task, sophisticated devices need to function as expected. Therefore, we now have everything at the click of a button. Dr. Ratnaweera further said that teens eventually end up upgrading their technological devices to compete with their friends. So they eventually start working on a desktop, but would want a sophisticated smart phone in the end. Around 60% of children use mobile phones in Sri Lanka and they have a Facebook account. Because theres an App for Facebook it could be easily accessed and children tend to be using it regularly. One of the risks is that they associate with people they dont know. One could have over 1000 friends on Facebook, but how many of them would they actually know? Parents now dont have time to talk to their children. They are in their own worlds. Back in the day, the family used to get together at the dining table, but this doesnt happen anymore,affirmed Dr. Ratnaweera. Once they connect with their devices, teens develop anxiety, depression and loneliness. They expect their virtual friends to solve their problems, but this doesnt happen. Even with their exams and other work, teens would still want to log in to their accounts and see whats new. These teens are usually very stubborn and there seems to be many problems among children and parents as well. It is natural to see them glued to their phones even later in the night without sleeping. Research suggests that students who text longer in the dark also sleep fewer hours and were sleepier during the day than those who stopped messaging when they went to bed. The effects of a blue light emitted from smartphones and other devices are intensified when viewed in a dark room. This short wavelength light can have a strong impact on daytime sleepiness symptoms since it can delay the release of melatonin, making it more difficult to fall asleep even when seen through closed eyelids. Physical impact We often see that those staying in one place often become plump over a period of time. Lack of physical activity will eventually develop other conditions such as diabetes and obesity. This could also be observed in children and teens addicted to the Internet. Dr. Ratnaweera further said that those who are addicted to their devices have physical issues as well. They are usually very fat, dont eat well and dont exercise as well. They also develop other conditions such as backaches and weak eyesight. When you go to a party those days, children and teens used to play around. But today we see the opposite because everybody is glued to their devices. They seem to be alone in their own world and it is rude not be socializing with the rest of the crowd. Children spend more than six hours of the week on their phones and they lack sleep as well,she added. Internet addiction could also bring about changes in lifestyles and it could have an adverse impact on the growth and development of Internet addicts. It could also affect emotional well-being and would bring about various side effects as a result of this addiction. Interventions Its important to intervene on behaviours such as Internet and technology addiction at an early age. Once adolescents develop a habit, it would be difficult to get them out of it. Dr. Ratnaweera said that during counselling sessions they often try to take them out of this habit. We therefore encourage them to read books and engage in other activities. We make parents aware of their children and also convince them how important it is to closely associate with their children. Children can think creatively and these abilities would be suppressed if they develop such addictions. Parents need to supervise and guide children in their developmental stages. We also do Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) where we try to get them back to socialize with people and disconnect them from these devices, she concluded. Warning signs of technology addiction include : A sense of euphoria while plugged in Neglecting friends and family Skimping on sleep Being dishonest about usage Feeling anxious, ashamed, guilty or depressed as a result of technology use Withdrawing from other activities that were once pleasurable Physical symptoms of technology addiction include : Billings Catholic Schools will meet with attorneys for a family claiming a stake in the St. Francis Upper building with the potential to reach a settlement. District Judge Gregory Todd postponed the case and ordered the parties to hold a settlement conference before March 5. A man named David Cunningham, who has power of attorney for his mother, Burnley Cunningham Wadsworth, is seeking a share of the deed to the former Catholic school building. Wadsworth is the great-granddaughter-in-law of Annie Morrissey, who was the sister of Kate Fratt, according to Cunningham's court filings. A wealthy widow, Fratt donated the grounds and money for the school to the Catholic Diocese in 1916. The donation was made on the condition that the property is used as a parochial school. Otherwise, interest in the property would be split between groups of family members and the diocese. Billings Catholic Schools is seeking a court order giving it full ownership of the property so it can sell it. Parties are due back in court to settle pending motions by April 20. Sri Lankas #1 investment banking firm and the preferred partner in financial markets, Capital Alliance Partners Limited (CAL), enters the year 2018 on a high note. Having sealed a number of transactions across all 3 business verticals in Debt Capital Markets, Equity Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) advisory, CAL consolidated its dominance as the leading Investment Bank in Sri Lanka. The transactions highlighted CALs ability to liaise with investors and clients alike to successfully close cross border transactions with leading entities in Sri Lanka and across the globe. During 2017, Jetwing Symphony Limited (JETS), the investment arm of the renowned leisure brand Jetwing, went public by way of an Initial Public Offering, raising LKR 753mn for 10% of its shareholding. In spite of the leisure industry having a negative outlook amongst investors, CALs ability to forecast market conditions and understand the needs of the investors helped CAL secure two cornerstone investors, who took up 50% of the total issue value and provided confidence to other investors. The issue was oversubscribed on the opening day. Its noteworthy that CAL introduced a formal book building process into Sri Lankan markets after an absence of nearly 10 years. Continuing its success in Debt Capital Markets, CAL was the sole financial Advisor and Manager to the LKR 3bn Debenture issue for LB Finance PLC. CAL functioned in both an advisory and administrative capacity as managers to the issue, generating a significant demand from all institutional investors and high net worth individuals. The issue received over LKR 3.3bn in subscription before close of day, despite it being the first listed issue after many months of uncertainty surrounding tax treatment of interest income. Notably, CAL was also a placement agent to the first Basel III compliant convertible debenture issue in Sri Lanka, for Sampath Bank. The issue generated a significant amount of enthusiasm amongst investors to be oversubscribed by 1.5 times the issue value cumulatively raising LKR 9 bn. Being the first Basel III compliant issue in the country, this issue set the benchmark for any and all future debenture issues in the country. This was the largest debenture issue for the year 2017. Further, CAL was the sole Financial Advisor and Manager to the LKR 2.75bn Debenture issue of Lanka ORIX Leasing Company. The issue was privately placed and the first debt introduction in the market after a significant time period, successfully completed through CALs expertise. Going from strength to strength during 2017, CAL went on to advise Lanka Century Investments (LCI) PLC, on the Management backed acquisition of Millennium ITs enterprise solutions business from the London Stock Exchange Group. LCI, with the strategic intent of diversifying into the IT solutions and services industry, provided financial backing for the acquisition to buy a 100% stake of Millennium Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, the enterprise solutions business of Millennium IT. CAL strategically brought together a consortium of investors (comprising of the Management of MIT ESP and LCI), structured in a way that proved beneficial to all investors. The Management consortium bought this stake of 2,755,863 shares in MIT for a consideration of LKR1.08 billion. CALs M&A team also functioned as buy side Advisors to Sunshine Holdings PLC to increase latters shareholding to 60% in Estate Management Services (Pvt) Ltd, buying out Tata Global Beverages Limited at a valuation of LKR 9bn. CAL played a critical role in providing valuation recommendations, strategic fit of acquisition, deal structuring, negotiations with the sell-side and advice on financing of the transaction, making this the second cross border M&A transaction for the year. Commenting on this trend of exponential growth, Ajith Fernando, Managing Director of CAL said: The CAL team is proud to have secured and executed some of the leading deals including an IPO and cross border transactions in the past year. As a full service investment bank including equity brokering, asset management and financial advisory, CAL is uniquely positioned to offer Sri Lankan corporates the opportunity to leverage on our expertise and impeccable credentials to meet their financial objectives. Our extensive portfolio of services encompasses every expert requirement for a successful transaction, placing us distinctly at the forefront of the industry. By Harshana Sellahewa Cisco recently unveiled its new strategic initiative Cisco Start, committing itself to help drive Sri Lankas digital transformation by focusing on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and skills development and to showcase how digitisation can fuel economic growth, world-class innovation, sustainable competitiveness and prosperity. The concept of solutions being driven to address specific customer challenges has been with Cisco since its inception in 1984. Cisco is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when connecting the previously unconnected. Today, the American multinational technology conglomerate is headed by CEO Chuck Robbins. A digitised country aims to drive GDP growth, create jobs and foster innovation, enhance research and education, stimulate entrepreneurship, accelerate business innovation, develop economic cluster initiatives, and support infrastructure. SMEs account for almost 52 percent of Sri Lankas GDP and employ a workforce over a million people, making it one of the most critical high-growth segments in the country. With Sri Lanka looking to drive growth through digitisation, SMEs have become an essential component to the countrys digital transformation journey. Speaking on the launch of the initiative, Cisco India and SAARC Commercial Sales Managing Director Sudhir Nayar stated: Sri Lanka is an important market for Cisco. The launch of Cisco Start demonstrates our commitment to accelerate digitisation of SMEs in Sri Lanka. SMEs play a vital role in driving Sri Lankas growth in this digital world. With Cisco Start, SMEs now have access to digital technologies that can help them digitise and secure their businesses in the digital era. Digitisation has emerged as the most transformative means to ensure growth and balance the socio-economic divide. In Sri Lanka, we are partnering with leading service providers, banks, healthcare providers, as well as the government in their digitisation efforts. We are honoured to work with the people of Sri Lanka to accelerate their digital economy, and help further the governments vision to create sustainable competitiveness and prosperity, Nayar further added. As part of Ciscos commitment to accelerate digitisation in Sri Lanka and support skills development, Cisco Networking Academy is engaged with several universities, the government, and local defence establishments. The Cisco Networking Academy programme in Sri Lanka with 10 partners across the country has trained over 13,000 students since inception. The cloud-delivered skills-development programme offers a high quality curriculum that helps students learn how to design, build, secure and maintain digital infrastructure and prepare for jobs in the digital economy. To help Sri Lankan students acquire the skills necessary for 21st century jobs, Cisco also invests in providing workforce development programmes such as Women Rock IT, Find Yourself in the Future and tech skills development competitions. Cisco is also streamlining the processes and incentives for its vast partner and distributor network in Sri Lanka. Cisco Director Mukundhan Manimandiran commented: Cisco is a 100 percent partner-led company, and we have over 100 partners in Sri Lanka. They significantly expand Ciscos customer reach around the world with innovative solutions and services based on Cisco technology. Apart from making it easier to do business with Cisco, we have significantly increased our channel efforts to augment partner capabilities and profitability. Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Sri Lankas market leader in credit and debit card cumulative point-of-sale usage, has broken new ground in hybrid card functionality with the launch of the countrys first dealer loyalty debit card in partnership with Sri Lankas foremost cement manufacturer Insee Cement, formerly known as Holcim Lanka. Insee Cement, the brand behind the countrys leading retail cement products such as Insee Sanstha and Insee Mahaweli Marine, rewards islandwide dealers through the companys dedicated loyalty programme Ilakkaya. The landmark partnership with Commercial Bank of Ceylon for the launch of the Insee Illakkaya loyalty debit card enables dealers to enjoy all benefits, offers and promotions available to Commercial Bank debit cardholders by redeeming loyalty points earned through the purchasing of Insee Cement, products and solutions. The launch of this multi-function hybrid card is another example of Commercial Banks prowess in adapting technology to offer greater convenience and innovative convergence, the banks Chief Operating Officer S. Renganathan said. Issued to all dealers of Insee Cement, the chip-enabled Insee Ilakkaya loyalty debit card with near-field communication (NFC) tap & go technology, is linked to the dealers respective Commercial Bank savings accounts and enables them to earn loyalty points, which are credited to their savings accounts each month. These points can be accessed and utilised by dealers via their loyalty cards. In addition to earning points from Insee when purchasing Insee cement, cardholders can also earn Max loyalty points when using the Insee Ilakkaya loyalty debit card at Commercial Bank partner merchant outlets. The loyalty card is currently issued in Debit Gold and Debit Platinum variants. Insee Cement is manufactured by Siam City Cement (Lanka) Limited, a member of Siam City Cement Public Company Limited (SCCC), the leading cement manufacturer in Southeast Asia, founded in 1969 in Thailand. The company manufactures Insee branded Sanstha, Mahaweli Marine, Mahaweli Marine Plus, Rapid Flow, Rapid Flow Plus and Extra cement products. Insee Cement is the first certified Green Cement in Sri Lanka with the Green Labelling certification awarded by the Green Building Council. The company is the only fully-integrated cement manufacturer in Sri Lanka. Siam City Cement Executive Vice President and Commercial Director Jan Kunigk stated that the company believes in empowering dealers and their families through such innovative and highly applicable initiatives, ensuring that the dealers are rewarded for their significant role in the industrys value chain. In finding a like-minded partner in Commercial Bank, one of the countrys leading financial institutions, Insee Cement is confident of strengthening its relationship with the companys dealer network islandwide, he added. Huawei, the number one growing smartphone brand in Sri Lanka, commenced a Facebook Group recently as a platform for Huawei users to showcase their photography talents through the quad lenses of the newly launched nova 2i. All members of the group have the opportunity to share photographs and discuss tips for capturing the perfect shot receive photography tips from professional photographers and further engage with other photography enthusiasts. Furthermore, the Huawei Facebook group conducts monthly photography competitions, commencing with its on-going Sights of Sri Lanka phone photography contest. Huawei users are encouraged to participate in the Sights of Sri Lanka photography competition by sharing photographs which capture the history, culture or beauty of Sri Lanka. Speaking about the new concept, Huawei Device Sri Lanka Marketing Manager Ruwan Gamage said: One of the main attributes that we have seen with the Huawei nova 2i is that it leverages on innovative features such as its first quad camera with a bezel-less full view display, making it the perfect smartphone to capture and view photographs. The Huawei nova 2i also happens to be one of the best smartphones in its price category, when compared with other products in the market place. The new Huawei Facebook group will bring together amateur and professional photographers alike, who could express their creative talent through the art of photography. The purpose of this group is to create a platform for Huawei users to exchange beautiful photographs captured with their Huawei phones, exchange views, interact with other members online and exchange best practices and individual know-how with regards to smartphone usage and settings. Group members would also have access to photography tips and tricks from professional photographers as well as the chance to take part in some exciting competitions to win amazing prizes. The page tagged Huawei Nova Series Sri Lanka has garnered positive feedback and has gained traction with over 1200 plus group members under a month. Huawei would like to invite all customers who own a Huawei device with the passion for photography to log on to Facebook and join the Huawei Nova 2i Series Sri Lanka Facebook page and start sharing experiences around them. REUTERS: Indias capital market regulator late this week barred Price Waterhouse from auditing listed companies in the country for two years, after a probe into a nearly decade-old accounting fraud case in a software services company that became Indias biggest corporate scandal. Ramalinga Raju, founder and former chairman of the erstwhile software services exporter Satyam Computer Services, stunned Indian markets and investors in January 2009, when he admitted that the firm had overstated earnings and assets for several years, in a fraud of more than US$1 billion sometimes referred to as Indias Enron. Price Waterhouse was Satyams auditor during the period in which the fraud was perpetrated. In its order, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, said any entities or firms practicing as chartered accountants in India under the brand and banner of PW, shall not directly or indirectly issue any certificate of audit of listed companies, or their intermediaries that are registered with the regulator for a period of two years. The network structure of operations adopted by the international accounting firm should not be used as a shield to avoid legal implications arising out of the certifications issued under the brand name of the network, SEBI said in a 108-page order. In India, all audit functions within the group are conducted under the Price Waterhouse (PW) brand, with a network of local firms operating under the banner. The broader PwC entity handles consulting, tax advisory and other businesses. The SEBI order relates to a fraud that took place nearly a decade ago in which we played no part and had no knowledge of, Price Waterhouse said in a release. There has been no intentional wrong doing by PW firms in the unprecedented management perpetrated fraud at Satyam, nor have we seen any material evidence to the contrary, said Price Waterhouse, adding it was confident of getting a court to stay the order before it becomes effective. To avoid operational difficulties, SEBI said its order will not impact audit assignments relating to the ongoing 2017-18 financial year, already undertaken by firms forming part of the PwC network. SEBI also ordered Price Waterhouse, Bangalore and two of its erstwhile partners to jointly forfeit wrongful gains of about Rs.131 million (US $2.06 million) plus interest within 45 days. Indian IT firm Tech Mahindra, part of the Mahindra Group, bought control of Satyam in an auction in April 2010. Satyam and PricewaterhouseCoopers agreed in 2011 to pay a combined US$17.5 million to settle U.S. probes into the accounting fraud. The Rajapaksa govt resorted to several unorthodox measures in prosecuting the war. The officials are in a quandary because they do not know what decision would be taken by the political executive. The ambivalent attitude of this divided at the top Govt is such that one does not know whether amber would turn to green or red! The doctors found his condition too critical to move him . So emergency surgery was done at Kalubowila with a team of doctors rushing to Kalubowila from Borella There is disappointment on almost every front and the reasons are known to all. Disillusionment has set in By D.B.S. Jeyaraj Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his misguided astrological and numerological wisdom held the seventh presidential elections on January 8th 2015. When the date was announced most people yearning for a regime change in Sri Lanka noted the symbolic significance of January 8th in a different context. It was on January 8th 2009 that Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge , the well known editor of The Sunday Leader was brutally assassinated in broad daylight while on his way to work. Many of Lasanthas family,friends,colleagues and readers had been consistently demanding that justice be done for the murdered editor but to no avail. It was an open secret then that the hands of Rajapaksa regime were stained with the blood of Lasantha Wickrematunge. So when the presidential poll was fixed for Jan 8th 2015 there was an optimistic feeling in these circles that the Rajapaksa regime would be overthrown on the date of Lasanthas death. If that happened it would have been truly an instance of poetic justice,it was felt then. The unexpected happened and on Jan 8th 2015 Maithripala Sirisena obtaining votes cutting across race,religion, class and regional differences was elected president. There was buoyant optmism in Sri Lanka as Sirisena became president and Ranil Wickremesinghe Prime Minister. A good governance Govt was set up. A 100 day program was drawn up. The country basked in the glow of a gloriously radiant dawn. Alas!that dawn has proved to be a false dawn! Anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge is also observed and mourned by those near and dear to the slain editor. An inevitable question arises on Jan 8th. Have the murderers of Lasantha Wickrematunge been charged in courts? There is disappointment on almost every front and the reasons are known to all. Disillusionment has set in. An important yardstick to measure the performance of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Govt is provided on Jan 8th. Even as the anniversary of President Sirisenas electoral victory is celebrated on Jan 8th , the death anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge is also observed and mourned by those near and dear to the slain editor. An inevitable question arises on Jan 8th. Have the murderers of Lasantha Wickrematunge been charged in courts? The answer sadly is NO! Nine years has passed since Lasanthas death and three years have passed since Sirisena was elected president but no one has been charged in courts so far for Lasantha Wickrematunges murder. There have been many twists and turns in the process of investigations and some of those have been published in sections of the media. Sri Lankas politcal grapevine has been buzzing overtime with developments concerning Lasanthas murder. Govt bigwigs talk positively of breakthroughs in probes and of potential indictments from time to time but the ground reality has been a NATO (no action talk only) so far. Men In Black On Motorcycles Lasantha Wickramatunge was murdered on January 8th 2009. On that fateful morning, a domestic aide had detected signs of potential danger. Some unknown men dressed in black on motor cycles were hovering around in the vicinity of Lasanthas residence. The domestic aide warned Lasantha. When Sonali Samarasinghe, his wife heard about the hovering motorcyclists she pleaded with Lasantha not to go out of the house at that time. But Lasantha refused to do so and started out in his car to office asking Sonali to come later in her car. The motorcyclists had followed the vehicle and Lasantha had telephoned an influentialperson on his mobile phone and told him of the suspicious activity of the motor cyclemen. Lasanthas car was on Attidiya rd near the Bakery Handiya junction when the stalking assassins got into action. They converged around like predators encircling prey when the vehicle was close to the Malagalage Junior School. Lasantha Wickrematunges murder was not the only act of injustice that was perpetrated during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Lasantha paid the supreme price but he was not the only victim from the fourth estate fraternity. According to some eye-witness accounts there were four motor cycles in all. Two had cut across in front of the car blocking Lasantha and forcing him to brake suddenly. Two other motor cycles moved up on either side of the car.The assassins in black wore helmets. Like the four horsemen of the apocalypse, these messengers of death closed in on Lasantha. The windscreen was smashed. The assassins then yanked the door open. Pulling out their instruments of death the black souls launched their cowardly attack against the unarmed journalist whose only weapon was his pen writing the bold truth. The assassins then mounted their bikes and sped away. There was a sentry point manned by the Air Force about 100 metres away. Several onlookers saw the terrifying assault. But the assassins simply vanished.The unconscious Lasantha was bleeding profusely. He was first taken to the nearest Kalubowila hospital. An ambulance was prepared to take him from Kalubowila to the National hospital. The doctors found his condition too critical to move him . So emergency surgery was done at Kalubowila with a team of doctors rushing to Kalubowila from Borella. The medical personnel strove hard for hours to resuscitate him. After four hours of battling for life Lasantha passed away.Thus ended the saga of one of the bravest human beings I have ever known. Thus ended the life of a fearless scribe, crusading for justice and peace. An irredeemable loss for journalism and Sri Lanka. A Huge Personal Loss Lasanthas death has been a huge, personal loss to me.He and I were colleagues on The Island in the eighties of the last century. We were also residents of Kotahena then. Later on after I moved to Canada I was for many years a columnist writing from Toronto at The Sunday Leader which he edited.But Lassie Boy as I called him was a friend in every sense of the word. How I miss him! Lasantha Wickrematunges murder was not the only act of injustice that was perpetrated during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Lasantha paid the supreme price but he was not the only victim from the fourth estate fraternity. Prageeth Eknaligoda was made to disappear;Poddala Jayantha was white-vanned and assaulted .Keith Noyahr was abducted and tortured.Upali Tennekoon and his wife were attacked. The plight of Tamil media personnel has been terrible. Several journalists have been reportedly killed in the past. The unfettered investigations conducted by the Police Criminal Investigation Department(CID) after the current govt assumed ofice has resulted in a breakthrough in the probe into Lasanthas killing Although a large number of journalists have been killed, made to disappear, assaulted and tortured in the past, the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge has received the greatest attention on a national and international scale. The main reason for this is that Lasantha Wickrematunge was the most high - profile journalist or Editor to be killed. He was a fearless editor who spoke truth to power and by doing so irked the powers that be.The brutal cold -blooded mode of his murder and the means adopted by the Rajapaksa regime to stifle and obstruct investigations indicated very clearly that Lasantha could not have been murdered without the sanction of those in power at that time. Hence the assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunge is regarded as an emblematic case symbolising the state of impunity in Sri Lanka. If there is justice for Lasantha then there could be justice for all. If there is no justice for Lasantha then there cant be justice for the others too. Therefore the tardy progress made by this Govt in prosecuting those allegedly responsible for killing Lasantha Wickrematuge has been most disappointing and disheartening. The lack of an indictment in courts so far has in a way been an indictment on the Sirisena- Wickremesinghe regime in the court of public opinion. Lasanthas elder brother and Sri Lankas Consul-General in Sydney , Lalraj Wickrematunge gave voice to this feeling of frustration in his message on the 9th death anniversary.Wickrematunge known as Lal to all stated in his message - Justice Has Not Been Done Nine years has passed since Lasantha was done to death in the most dastardly fashion. Nine years has passed and justice has not been done. Murder, not restricted to Lasantha but of other journalists, was carried out with impunity at a time when apathy reigned amongst the people At present there is a sense of hopelessness at the manner the present administration is handling investigations. Should political authorities be guiding murder investigations, one may ask. Some may argue that it is the duty to do so since the very same murders have been used to garner votes at election time. Presently, the murders are used to remind people of how brutal a regime was when they occurred. But what about bringing the perpetrators to book? Many such investigations are all but concluded. The need is to arrest the suspects and charge them for murder. Letting time pass by till it is convenient may turn out to be counterproductive, as history has evidenced The last regime was defeated on the backs of those committed journalists who laid down their lives when even those in Parliament were quivering before a marauding group in control of every sphere of human activity in our land. Justice needs be done not as a favour. Justice needs be done to prevent a repetition. Else, they would have died not for the people but for a chosen few to replace the defeated Murder, when it is committed by criminals outside of politics, is investigated in haste and convictions obtained in a couple of years.Failure to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Lasantha could even open the door to the prime suspect or suspects to be elected the President or Prime Minister of our land at a future date. Who knows? Lal Wickrematunges message contains two saient points of crucial importance. Firstly he says that many of the investigations into murders are all but concluded. The need is to arrest the suspects and charge them for murderobserves Lal. Secondly Wickrematunge says At present there is a sense of hopelessness at the manner the present administration is handling investigations and goes on to ask Should political authorities be guiding murder investigations? The Elephant In The Room If one were to take Lal Wickrematunges many layered statement at face value and also read between the lines, one inescapable conclusion could be arrived at about Lasanthas killing. The investigation into Lasantha Wickrematuges murder and those responsible - both the minions and their masters - have been identified. The elephant in the room is the absence of political will at the highest levels of Govt to go ahead with an appropriate legal course of action. This writer being a closely associated with Lasantha Wickrematunge in both a professional and personal capacity for many years has been following the process of investigations into the slain editors murder since his demise. The situation in the Rajapaksa era was that of constricting,diverting or obstructing the investigation. The motions were seemingly followed but there was no intention from inception to conduct a genuine probe. There were many red herrings. Files have been sent to the Attorney - Generals Department it is learnt. It appears from all accounts that there is enough evidence for a Prima Facie case in the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge The situation under the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government is somewhat different. There has been a genuine investigation, despite fits and starts , into Lasanthas murder. The investigating sleuths seem to have garnered necessary evidence and identified the perpetrators but the obstacle appears to be foot dragging by those in the upper echelons of political power.Under the Rajapaksa regime it was a case of red light for the probe. Under this govt the green light was given for a free and fair investigation. Much of that probe is now over. However the law enforcement authorities are unable to proceed further to indict and prosecute because the amber light is flashing.The officials are in a quandary because they do not know what decision would be taken by the political executive. The ambivalent attitude of this divided at the top Govt is such that one does not know whether amber would turn to green or red! Failure to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Lasantha could even open the door to the prime suspect or suspects to be elected the President or Prime Minister of our land at a future date. Who knows? From what has been reported in the media so far and from what I have been able to gather through my own sources the current situation and background in brief seems to be this. The war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE)was pursued with renewed vigour after Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected president in November 2005. Mahinda appointed his brother Gotabhaya as Defence secretary. Acting upon the advice of his brother the defence secretary,President Rajapaksa appointed Sarath Fonseka as Army commander. The triumvirate comprising President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Army Chief Sarath Fonseka was hailed for providing political, administrative and military leadership respectively in the triumphant war against the Tigers. From what has been reported in the media so far and from what I have been able to gather through my own sources the current situation and background in brief seems to be this. Officially Sanctioned Unofficial Executions The Rajapaksa govt resorted to several unorthodox measures in prosecuting the war. Officially sanctioned unofficial executionsof those perceived as enemies of the state and those portrayed as threats to national security were allegedly committed. Many were killed in cold blood or white vanned. It soon came to a point when dissidents or those expressing contrary views were also depicte as enemies,threats and traitors. The media was controlled or managed through a carrot and stick method. While one set of media personnel were given computers as carrots, another group of more independent journalists were administered the stick in small,medium and large doses. Dealing with national security threats in the media was deemed necessary. A special unit was set up for this purpose specifically in late 2007 or early 2008. This squad consisted of specially selected operatives from the army and naval intelligence along with some underworld gangsters to provide a facade if and when necessary. This unit operated out of the re-furbished Manning Market premises. The special unit was structurally semi-official and functionally autonomous. The unit was commanded by an officer who was subsequently promoted to the rank of Major. This unit commanding officer was not answerable to the Army commander or Military Intelligence chief. He reported to and took directives only from a single authority ensconced in the upper echelons of the defence establishment. The rationale for setting up such a unit was to suppress or prevent any criticism of the manner in which the war was being conducted or the personal conduct of the top brass of the armed forces. This was deemed necessary because it was important to ensure that the armed forces were not de-moralized in any way. The special unit would deal with the media while the armed forces could continue their fight against the LTTE. What happened as is usual in situations like this was that the thin line separating real and imaginary threats got blurred. Persons perceived as being critical of the regime or those offering constructive criticism were also regarded and treated as enemies and traitors. It was against this backdrop that this unit performed sordid tasks such as abductions, assaults, white vanning and attacks on media personnel. The most heinous crimes committed against journalists were arguably the killing of Lasantha and disappearance of Prageeth. Top Rungs Of The Defence Establishment The unfettered investigations conducted by the Police Criminal Investigation Department(CID) after the current govt assumed ofice has resulted in a breakthrough in the probe into Lasanthas killing. Telephone records have been meticulously delved into and many crucial calls traced. Even the telephone number from which the call was purportedly made ordering to give the works to Lasantha has been traced. The units commanding officer and most operatives have been identified. All the murderers involved in the assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge have been identified. Vehicles used for attacks have been seized and the houses used as torture chambers have been located.Some of those involved in the assassination including a high ranking officer were produced in court and later released on bail. Several persons in the top rungs of the defence establishment including former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Ex- Army chief Sarath Fonseka have been questioned. Files have been sent to the Attorney - Generals Department it is learnt. It appears from all accounts that there is enough evidence for a Prima Facie case in the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge Files have been sent to the Attorney - Generals Department it is learnt. It appears from all accounts that there is enough evidence for a Prima Facie case in the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge. But matters have not procceeded to the stage of indictment and prosecution due to the lack of political will. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe regime calls itself a unity govt but the reality is that of strong disunity both at the top as well as the rank and file. The recent Treasury bond scam carnival as well as President Sirisenas threats of swordplay have proved the existence of a great divide beyond doubt. Hence most issues are approached divisively.Confusion is compounded. This bi-furcated approach often working at cross purposes seems to be the root cause of perceived lethargy on the question of Wickrematunges murder. One school of thought opines that President Sirisena is allegedly responsible for the delay as he does not want members of the armed forces to be prosecuted at this point of time. Moreover there is speculation that President Sirisena enjoys a special relationship with ex defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. It is also a blatant fact that Maithripala strove shamelessly to strike up a deal with the Mahinda faction for the local authority polls. The possibility of a Mahinda-Maithripala rapprochement after polls is not entirely ruled out by political analysts. The United National Party(UNP) on the other hand faces an embarassing difficulty. The UNP including Ranil Wickremesinghe blamed former Army commander Sarath Fonseka for Lasanthas killing at that time. Some UNP stalwarts went on record that a unit under Fonsekas supervision was responsible for the attacks on media personnel. One does not know whether the UNP allegations against Fonseka were correct or incorrect or partly correct. But the fact remains that Sarath Fonseka is today a cabinet minister of this UNP led government and is the UNP organizer for Kelaniya. So where does the UNP stand on the allegations levelled by that party against Sarath Fonseka over the killing of Lasantha Wickramatunge? Apart from the Fonny factor there is also a viewpoint that the UNP is soft pedalling the issue in order to weaken the divided SLFP further. In The Court Of Public Opinion One does not know whether the theories and hypotheses being propounded are right or wrong, but the fact remains that no tangible progress by way of indictment and prosecution has been made. Nine years has passed since Lasantha Wickramatunge was assassinated on January 8th. Three years has passed since Maithripala Sirisena was elected president on January 8th. The killers of Lasantha Wickrematunge are yet to be brought to justice. As stated before Lasanthas killing is an emblematic case of tremendous significance. Until and unless this Govt secures justice for Lasantha Wickrematunge , this Govt will remain in the dock at the court of public opinion both nationally and internationally. President Sirisena who is learning the intricacies of swordsmanship has been silent about Lasantha Wickramatunge on January 8th. Perhaps more important matters like obtaining a one year extension of his term of office may have occupied the presidential mind.Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Media minister Mangala Samaraweera who both interacted closely with Lasantha, have chosen to issue statements. The Prime Ministers statement was in general about the third anniversary of President Sirisenas election on Jan 8th with particular references to the slaying of Wickramatunge. Premier Wickremesinghe in his statement said One of the most heroic victims of this culture of brutality, Lasantha Wickramatunge, wrote in his last ever editorial of how it was the family of President Mahinda Rajapaksa that operated what he called the machinery of the state. His editorial, written in anticipation of his own murder, could not have been clearer: Now, it is clear to all who will see that machinery has operated so well that my sons and daughter do not themselves have a father. Today, three years from the inception of the Unity government, also marks nine years from the date that Lasantha Wickramatunge was killed. We vowed then, that his killers would face justice, as would the perpetrators of so many acts of violence perpetrated against media personnel in the dark days of the former regime. The government remains committed to this goal, which is an essential step in allowing the country to permanently rise out from under the threat of lawless rule by the sword. Fearless Editor Of The Sunday Leader Finance and media minister Mangala Samaraweera issued a statement specifically relating to Lasantha. Mangala said in his statement - Today, 8 January 2018, marks the ninth anniversary of one of the most heinous crimes ever committed against Sri Lankas constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression. It was nine years ago, today, at 10:45 a.m. that I received the news that Lasantha Wickramatunge, the fearless editor of The Sunday Leader, and my dear friend, had been ambushed and attacked as he drove to work. A few hours later when Lasantha succumbed to his injuries, Sri Lanka lost one of the most enigmatic and courageous journalists that the world had ever known In the aftermath of this cowardly assassination, the media, legal fraternity, civil society and the political opposition parties joined together as one, demanding justice for Lasantha by way of a thorough and impartial investigation and condemning those who gave aid, comfort and shelter to his killers. For six years, we struggled in vain, until on 8 January 2015, the people of Sri Lanka threw out the Rajapaksa regime and placed their faith in the Unity Government led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramesinghe Our moral and civic duty to demand justice for Lasantha has been replaced with the responsibility for delivering that justice, by enabling and ensuring a thorough and impeccably independent police investigation, led by the officers of the Criminal Investigation Department. This investigation has already exposed the intricacy of the measures taken by the previous regime to cover up the murder. From the false cause of death in the original post-mortem report to the irregular transfer of the investigation away from the CID, and the death of a key witness-turned-suspect in custody, it is clear that no stone was left unturned One does not know whether the theories and hypotheses being propounded are right or wrong, but the fact remains that no tangible progress by way of indictment and prosecution has been made Despite these and whatever obstacles that come before us, this Government is committed to providing the CID and the Attorney Generals Department with whatever resources and support they require to indict and convict those who committed, aided and instigated Lasanthas murder. Failure is unacceptable. This is a debt of honour that we owe not just to Lasantha and his family, but also to the citizens of Sri Lanka, who have been deprived of one of the foremost champions of their democracy. Conviction In a Court Of Law Today, I call upon all media institutions, the legal fraternity, private sector and civil society organisations, once again to unite with us in rendering all possible aid to the police in this investigation, by seeking out and volunteering relevant information, identifying and safeguarding possible witnesses and responding to any requests promptly and thoroughly. Only by the conviction in a court of law of those responsible for this insoluble bloodstain in our national history can we honour Lasanthas sacrifice. So Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe assures us that President Sirisena and he remain committed to the vow of making Lasanthas killers face justice. Media minister Mangala Samaraweera has reiterated that this Government was committed to providing the CID and the Attorney Generals Department with whatever resources and support they require to indict and convict those who committed, aided and instigated Lasanthas murder. He further says Failure is unacceptable. Fighting words indeed from the Prime minister and Media minister. Too much time has been spent in talk without any action. It is time for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government in general and the United National Party (UNP) to stop talking the talk and instead start walking the walk The NATO syndrome of no action talk only must be abandoned. Meaningful constructive action must be taken to bring to book the assassins of Lasantha Wickrematunge. Both the arrows as well as the archers. Lasantha Manilal Wickramatunges 60th Birthday falls on April 5. It is to be hoped that his killers would have been indicted by that date. D.B.S. Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com According to a rumour making rounds these days a leading businessman with close connections to a very high political authority has planned to transfer the ownership of one of his business undertakings to the state to cover a massive payment he is required to make to the government. However, on being told that the value of the assets of his particular business undertaking falls far short of the amount of money he has been required to pay as a punitive measure, the business tycoon is said to have discussed with the political authority friend at a midnight tryst how to get over the problem. The man now legally bound to pay a hefty amount of money in recompense is reportedly planning to make the full payment by a transfer of lesser important assets in a bid to retain his main business interests intact. After meeting with the high political authority, the business tycoon is said to have held council with a team of lawyers. Yangon (dpa), 10 January 2018 - The Myanmar militarys involvement in the deaths of 10 Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State, admitted by the commander in chief, is just a fraction of the abuses for which security forces are culpable, rights groups say. Following the discovery of a mass grave in Inn Dinn village, the military launched an investigation into the incident last month. On Wednesday, it admitted that ethnic Rakhine villagers and security forces killed 10 Royingya Muslims in the village on September 2 last year. In separate statements, Fortify Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch all described the admission as the tip of the iceberg and urged an international investigation. The spokesman from the Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar told dpa: The [military] statement underscores the need for an independent investigation and media reporting on allegations of such human rights violations. REUTERS: The Sri Lankan rupee closed weaker yesterday as dollar demand from importers and banks surpassed mild conversions by exporters, dealers said. The spot rupee ended at 153.80/85, compared with Wednesdays close of 153.70/80. There was demand today from a state bank probably to pay some oil bills. Then we saw some demand from a foreign bank too, said a currency dealer. The inflows were not that heavy today. Pressure on the currency from imports is expected to prevail until the central bank sorts out new regulations for derivatives, dealers said. Sri Lanka aims to raise US$500 million this month via development bonds (SLDB), the Central Bank said on Monday, as the government faces unprecedented debt repayment this year. The currency fell 2.5 percent last year and 3.9 percent in 2016. The Central Bank, while announcing its key economic policies for the year last week, said it has allowed for more flexibility in determining the exchange rate based on market conditions. It has intervened only to smooth rupee volatility and build up reserves, the banking regulator said. DPA, 12th JANUARY, 2018 - Ivory worth 15 million baht (469,800 dollars) smuggled from Nigeria has been seized in Thailand, customs officials said on Friday. Three elephant tusks and 31 ivory pieces weighing a combined 148 kilograms were seized at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Kulit Sombatsiri, director general of the customs department told a press conference. The smuggled goods were shipped from the Nigerias commercial centre of Lagos to Bangkok on an Ethiopian Airlines flight on December 20. Two weeks later, as no one came to pick up the packages, airport officials opened them up to find the smuggled goods, Kulit said. The registered address in Thailand also doesnt exist, the director general said. The massive size of the tusks indicate that they did not belong to Thai elephants. We will need to conduct a DNA test to determine where they really come from, he added. Ivory trade has been outlawed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but smuggling from Africa into Asia persists. Rocky Mountain College announced on Friday accreditation for its first doctoral program. Starting in January 2019, the college will offer a Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree. After three years of planning, the program received final approval by the Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities, the college said Friday. The OTD program will not only meet a rising need for occupational therapy professionals in our region, said Rocky Mountain College Provost Stephen Germic in a release. It will also be the first doctoral program offered in the long and distinguished history of Rocky Mountain College. Dr. Twylla Kirchen, a Rocky alumna, will come on as the founding director for the program. Kirchen, who holds a Ph.D. in occupational therapy, was most recently the director of a similar program at James Madison University in Virginia. Germic said it was Kirchen who first expressed a desire to start the program at Rocky, and she was involved from the start. Rocky Mountain College President Dr. Bob Wilmouth credited Germic for leading the school through the planning and approval stages of the doctoral program. "We really are attempting to improve the human condition," he said. Wilmouth said that the expansion into this particular doctoral program was strategic, complementing its other program offerings and the potential industry openings in the Billings health care sector. The program will be housed on the top floor of the recently finished Charles Morledge Science Building, a nearly $10 million facility that will cater to natural science programs and laboratory work. In addition to class and office space, the occupational therapy floor will include a mock living space, where students will study therapy meant to aid patients in everyday living conditions. Kirchen will lead six other faculty members and a few support staffers. As many as 90 students could be in the program at a given time. Germic said the college took three years to implement the program to make it as robust as possible. "We're building this program to the highest standards of occupational therapy in the nation," he said. Oops....! We couldn't find that... 404 error Unfortunately the page you were looking for could not be found. It may be temporarily unavailable, moved or no longer exist. Check the URL you entered for any mistakes and try again. Alternatively, search for whatever is missing or take a look around the rest of our site. Seven people filed election paperwork for elected positions in Yellowstone County on Thursday. The following people filed election paperwork: Clerk and Recorder Jeff Martin for clerk and recorder. Justice of the Peace David Carter for justice of the peace. Sheriff Mike Linder for sheriff. Matt Rich for auditor. Current Treasurer/Assessor/Superintendent of schools Sherry Long for treasurer/assessor/superintendent of schools. County Commissioner Robyn Driscoll for county commissioner in District 3. Jeanne Walker for justice of the peace. Rich, who filed for county auditor, was the only non-incumbent to file Thursday. Previously Rich worked as anti-drug group Safe Montana's campaign manager for ballot initiative I-176, which proposed repealing Montana's medical marijuana program and aligning state drug laws with federal statutes. Roughly 8,000 rejected signatures left I-176 below the threshold of verified signatures needed for it to land on ballots for the November 2016 election. The previous county auditor, Debby Hernandez, and her husband, former Justice of the Peace Pedro Hernandez, both retired on Nov. 30. The current county auditor is Scott Turner, who was appointed by county commissioners in December. Turner retired in 2015 after 28 years working for Yellowstone County, 26 of which he spent as finance director. After he was appointed in early December, Turner said he would decide after being in office a few months whether he wanted to run for election. Jeanne Walker, a former attorney, was appointed by Yellowstone County commissioners in early December to fill Pedro Hernandez's vacated position. Candidates may continue to file for election with the Yellowstone County Elections Office until March 11. The longtime deputy clerk of the Montana Supreme Court has filed to replace his boss in the November elections. Rex Renk, a Helena Democrat, filed on Thursday in the statewide race for clerk of the Supreme Court. So far, he is the only candidate. The current clerk, Ed Smith, is retiring when his term expires in January 2019. Smith served in the elected position for 30 years. Renk announced his candidacy in a press release Thursday. His campaign will be guided by a 56-person steering committee, which includes six former Montana Supreme Court justices, according to the press release. Renk has worked as deputy clerk for 23 years. He was appointed in 1991 by Smith, but took a three-year hiatus in the 1990s to pursue a doctoral degree, which he decided not to complete, he said in an interview Thursday. Renk has a bachelors degree in history from Carroll College and a masters degree in history of the American West from Washington State University. The clerk position is a partisan race. The terms are six years. Livingston-based Park County Environmental Council and local landowners filed an administrative appeal on Thursday to protest the March 13, 2018, competitive oil and gas lease sale proposed by the Bureau of Land Management's Butte Field Office. Of the 63,496 acres of federal public land up for auction throughout Montana, some of the leases border the community of Livingston, the Yellowstone River, and would be within view of the communitys downtown. These leases could open the door for the oil and gas industry to frack and drill on the edge of Livingston," said Michelle Uberuaga, of PCEC, in a press release. "Oil and gas development in this area could have significant impacts to the Yellowstone River, our public health, and the community. It just doesnt make sense to put our community at risk for $8,580 a year." Dan Vermillion, owner of Sweetwater Travel in Livingston and the chairman of the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission, echoed Uberuaga's concerns and called on Ryan Zinke, a Montana resident and the Secretary of the Interior, to acknowledge the issue. Tourism and agriculture are the two biggest economic sectors of Park Countys economy," he said in the news release. "Public lands play a vital role in supporting both of these sectors. Oil and gas development on these public lands in the Yellowstone watershed will threaten our local economy, our property values, and our way of life." Ellen Winter has lived on Swingley Road, near some of the potential lease sites, for 12 years. She is concerned about the health impacts of development near her family's home as well as the recent sale price that some BLM leases have fetched. "Ive heard that companies can scoop up these leases for as little as $2 an acre," she said. "That doesnt seem like fair market value for public lands on the edge of the Yellowstone River." Bengaluru: Infosys' new CEO Salil Parekh on Friday said he will lay out strategic priorities for the company by April, for which a review is underway. In his first media interaction after taking charge as Infosys CEO and MD on January 2, Parekh on Friday said that his immediate priorities would include connecting with employees and clients to build a "roadmap for future" that will be announced in April. Stressing that each of its clients is facing digital disruption, Parekh said that this creates an opportunity for the company. He said that building on strategy initiated by Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani, the company is conducting a review structured around four dimensions, namely, new market opportunities, client relationships, people, and service offering portfolio. "Over the next three months, I am meeting with several of our clients, employees, partners... working with our leadership team and the Board to test the assumption and the approach and then build a comprehensive view along with four critical elements," he said. Parekh added that the entire exercise would be concluded by April when he lays out the "strategic priorities" for the company going forward. Parekh was brought on board after the abrupt resignation of Vishal Sikka, who had quit in August following public spat with co-founders led by N R Narayana Murthy. The founders had alleged corporate governance lapses and questioned the USD 200 million Panaya acquisition under previous management while also flagging the high severance pay to former employees. Under Parekh, Infosys is now attempting to bring the focus back on growth and business. A sum of Rs 150 crore will be spent on raising the capacity of faucets manufacturing facility located in Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. Chandigarh: Bath fittings and sanitary ware major Jaquar Group on Thursday 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. There is a fear that the Centre intends to use deposits to rescue failing banks. Hyderabad: Banks in the two Telugu states have started imposing undeclared restrictions on cash withdrawals, bringing back memories of the travails of demonetisation in November 2016. The restrictions are because cash deposits have fallen by more than half in three months. The panic created by messages posted on social media about the FDRI Bill is said to be preventing people from depositing their money. Customers are also cancelling their fixed deposits. A provision in the Bill suggests that depositors' money can be used to save failed banks. Normally, 60 per cent of cash disbursals made by banks return in the form of deposits. This has now come down to 20 per cent. Moreover, the RBI has drastically reduced cash supplies and has asked banks to manage with the available deposits. Huge withdrawals before Sankranti were stated to be adding to the shortage. As ATMs go dry, withdrawals from banks have exceeded the deposits, forcing banks to impose unofficial restrictions. People in semi urban and rural areas are not allowed to withdraw above Rs 5,000 per day. In urban areas the limit ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000. An official of a leading public sector bank said that the cash crunch began in November 2017 and has worsened this month. For three weeks, there have been virtually no deposits and customers are making a beeline to withdraw cash from their accounts. With the RBI too cutting down currency supplies, the gap between deposits and withdrawals has widened so much that we are struggling to pay even Rs 10,000 per day for customers in the city and ` 5,000 in semi urban and rural areas, he said. Each bank branch used to have cash reserves of Rs 60 lakh per day on average of which they would pay out nearly Rs 30 lakh, Rs 10 lakh was held as reserve and the remaining Rs 20 lakh used to be loaded in ATMs. Now, we do not have cash reserves of even Rs 20 lakh per day. Whatever cash reserves are available with us are not enough to meet withdrawals. So we have stopped loading cash in ATMs completely, he said. The shortage is expected to last for another 10 days. TS government officials held a meeting with bank officials on Thursday and discussed the cash crunch. TS State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) convener and SBI general manager S. Manikandan said, Whatever cash goes out never comes back to the banks; really, they (banks) are finding it very difficult. This situation may continue for about one week or 10 days, he said. Hyderabad: Airtel customers alleged that the telecom major is blocking SIM cards randomly and is asking for Aadhaar details to activate the same. Other telecom players like Vodafone and Idea are facing similar allegations from customers. Customers voiced concern on social media, and said that the service provider was blocking SIMs which were not linked to Aadhaar. In many cases, Airtel asked for the Aadhaar number to replace even faulty SIM cards. The Delhi-based Bharti Airtel national communication team denied deactivation of SIMs due to Aadhaar linkage. They, however, blamed it on technical snags. Ms. Sangeeth Arvind Kumar, whose SIM was deactivated, said, My SIM was blocked and when I visited the help desk at Patny Circle, I found seven more customers with the same grievance. I submitted my Aadhaar details and it was unlocked on the same day. Mr. Akshay Goud from Bansilalpet also went through a similar ordeal. He said, My SIM abruptly stopped working. The helpline staff said that it needed my Aadhaar number to activate it. Mr Anant Desai, a banker from Ameerpet, added, Even SIM replacement and a new SIM, Airtel is insisting on Aadhaar. Many took to social media, tagging Airtel officials. In a statement to Deccan Chronicle, the communication team of Bharti Airtel, said, While we have also come across such tweets, there is no such thing and there is no truth in these allegations. We do not block any SIM and neither do we force customers to link their Aadhaar. It is really disappointing to see some people using social media to malign brands. It only adds to the confusion among other customers. Asutosh J. G, Bengaluru This happened with me 2 weeks ago. They said they would issue a replacement SIM for faulty one after four days since I dont have a Aadhaar card (sic). Only after several calls and mails, they reinstated the connection. C A Rajani Damani, Guwahati, Assam I have also experience this, the help center didnt replace my sim on basis of other ID proof such a passport /pan card, they demanded Aadhaar (sic). Edwin Rajan, Chennai Yes true, My friends Airtel sim got disconnected when asked airtel connect showroom they are asking to link Aadhaar and buy a new sim (sic). Ibrahim S, Bengaluru My Sim was blocked for 3 months before. Went to Airtel store to get it replaced. Upon replacement I refused them my aadhaar details and was told activation is instant for aadhaar and not for other proofs (sic). Bilal Motorwala, Mumbai They tried to do the same thing with me, when I asked for government notification and any court order making it mandatory, the staff baffled and back tracked (sic). Note: To all the complaints that tagged Airtels official handle, there has been a standard response stating, We have not blocked any SIM due to this, kindly note, Aadhaar-based authentication is a faster SIM replacement process compared to normal paper document based process, hence we recommend Aadhaar-based SIM replacement. New Delhi/Geneva: Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh 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 Shah Rukh 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. Teen Mom star Kieffer Delp was arrested in Pennsylvania on Wednesday for operating a meth lab. Possession of methamphetamine and possession with intent to deliver were also among the six charges levied on him, reports TMZ.com. The police informed that they were called to an apartment building late Wednesday night and made the discovery. Cops evacuated the building during the arrest because of a strong odour inside. Kieffer is a known drug user and hes previously been arrested for punching a girl and her male friend. When Chennai-based ad film makers Naresh Nil and Bharadwaj Sundar decided to do a different photo series for their personal satisfaction, after myriad ideas and brainstorming sessions, they zeroed in on the subject Dark is Divine. (Photo: DC) All these years, the popular imagery of Hindu deities has been of fair-skinned model-like figures with chiselled torso sporting a halo like the images seen on Sivakasi calendars. When Chennai-based ad film makers Naresh Nil and Bharadwaj Sundar decided to do a different photo series for their personal satisfaction, after myriad ideas and brainstorming sessions, they zeroed in on the subject Dark is Divine. Featuring everyday men, women and children, the photo series showed gods and goddesses as dark-skinned figures. No sooner than they uploaded the photos on Facebook, it broke the Internet; with close to 5,000 shares and over 3,500 likes. If you call it a revolutionary act, the duo would correct you, The photos and idols of gods we have been seeing are in no way close to reality. Of course, no one has seen God, but the images need to be true according to the epics. Ours was an attempt to do it right along with pointing to peoples obsession with fairness. Naresh and Bharadwaj have been friends since college days and their startup firm has been working on ad films, fashion photo shoots and musicals since 2012. At times, in between work pressure time for clients, they do a few works "from their heart". The Dark is Divine series is one of those. Earlier, we have done two videos 60 jobs, 60 seconds for May Day and an A cappella version of Jana Gana Mana for Independence Day. This idea came up a couple of months ago and after doing a bit of research, we started working on it, recalls Naresh, who handled the photography part. Bharadwaj reveals that they had planned it as a 12-photo series and, due to time and budget constraints, narrowed it down to six. The seventh one - of Sita and Lava-Kusha was not planned earlier. Our makeup artist Sridevi Ramesh, who is also a plus-size model, was inspired by the work and expressed interest that she be part of it. And so she became Sita, he says. The photos have it all the grace, aura and divinity; even the postures are maintained in the traditional way. They havent attempted to change even the poses. Bharadwaj explains why, We were already bringing a change and didnt want to make it more abstract. Both of them agree that before looking into movies for blaming popular culture for inculcating a liking for fairness, one should introspect. Everything starts from home. Every mother wants their son to marry a fair girl, a Lakshmi. Thats what needs to change, Naresh says. Bharadwaj adds, Theres so much negativity associated with dark skin. Lord Ram and Lord Krishna, who are dark-skinned according to Puranas, are portrayed as fair or blue. Even Ganesha is all white-skinned in paintings, movies and idols. Have we ever seen a white elephant? As part of breaking stereotypes, the two preferred normal people over models. Even the children featured belonged to family and acquaintances. While a lot of people have appreciated the work, not all are happy about it. Its natural. God is a sentimental subject. When we try to break what people have been seeing for long, they will naturally be upset. But this is our one small step towards making a change, Bharadwaj says. This photo series, they hope, will bring acceptance to all those dark-skinned women who are expected to be like Lakshmi. The new Pawan Kalyan rabblerouser Agnyaathavaasi, which opened on Wednesday, marks the return of Tamil veteran actress Kushboo to Telugu cinema after 10 years. Speaking exclusively to this writer, Kushboo, a busy politician these days with the Congress party, took time off to explain why she chose to make a comeback in a Pawan Kalyan film. Says the actress who was last seen in Telugu in S S Rajmouli's costume drama Yamadonga, "I have been away from cinema, and not just in Telugu, for a long time. For me to do a film again, especially in Telugu, it was very important that I play a very vital role and I loved my role in Agnyaathavaas when director Trivikram offered me this." In fact, the director says Kushboo, who at one point did films simultaneously in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, was adamant that she would do the role. After 10 years to do a film in Telugu it had to be a special one. Agnyathavaasi is that special one. The entire set-up was very appealing and eventually rewarding. Pawan and the crew treated me like a member of their family. Trivikram had offered me films earlier. But I was not very keen then as I did not like the roles. This time he came to me and said, 'Ma'am, you cannot say no to this.' And I didn't say no. How could I? He made an offer I couldn't resist." Kushboo says she enjoyed working with Pawan Kalyan. "Pawan is a very cool co-star. He's a man of a few words but very comfy to work with." Sadly, Kushboo has not been able to dub her own Telugu lines in Agnyaathavaas. "I speak Telugu very well. But my voice was dubbed by Sarita. Does that take away from my performance in Agnyaathavaas? No, I don't think so. That character needed a voice like Sarita's," she concluded. BENGALURU: Nearly one person dies of tubercolosis every two minutes in India, said Professor Jaykumar Menon, the award-winning international human rights lawyer and social entrepreneur. Professor Jaykumar began the Open Source Pharma Foundation, which looks at generating breakthroughs in affordable public healthcare; the initiative has drawn over $110 million in funding the likes of Tata Trusts, Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and the Soros Foundations. Speaking at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bengaluru, Menon said, "We are working on complex issues that affect Indian and global society. Our first target, therefore, is Mycobacterium tubercolosis, which inhabits approximately a quarter of the human population in India." The problem, he says, may run deeper than the prevalence of tubercolosis. According to the World Health Organisation, India is amongst a handful of countries that follow the 90/10 rule. Only 10% of R&D funding is spent on TB, which comprises 90% of the global burden of disease. "India has a high number of cases, but this is a global issue. Our idea is to create a new generation model." The open source model uses crowdsourcing and collaboration to create intellectual property that can be accessed by anyone. Wikipedia, he explains, is an example of this. The cost of generics is on the rise and Menon stresses the importance of more targeted care. "A lot of people cannot afford the newer drugs in the market," he remarks. "We have a group of people from multiple sectors, software, technology and drug pipelines to work together on neglected diseases." Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, he says, "In the pharma industry, the logic is to produce generic drugs which don't require the payment of an intellectual property fee. We are just like a Linux for computers. We have made drugs that are instantly generic, therefore affordable. It's a radical model, yes. We're focussing on TB at the moment but the principle will apply to all diseases." Governments are spending huge amounts to work towards this, so why not make products open and affordable, Menon asks, adding, "We're in the early stages, but we may start clinic trials by 2019." Menons open source innovation has drawn over $120m in funding Jaykumar Menon is an award-winning international human rights lawyer and social entrepreneur. A former Professor at McGill University, Professor Jaykumar is also the founder of the Open Source Pharma Foundation, an initiative that looks at the open source model to bring about breakthroughs in affordable, quality public healthcare. The initiative has attracted $120 million in funding. In the early days of his career, Menon represented student leaders of Tiananmen Square, helped the victims of the Bosnian genocide win a whopping $4 billion dollar lawsuit and has helped free a man from Indiana's death row. He was also the 15th lawyer to represent a man wrongfully convicted of murder in New York and the one to finally bring him his acquittal. He is also a founder of the India Nutrition Initiative, developing salt double-fortified with iron and iodine to address the world's most widespread form of malnutrition. Menon is currently a research fellow at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He holds a JD and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and completed a BA and one year of medical school at Brown. He was recently awarded the Brown University alumni association's highest honor, for living a life of "usefulness and reputation." Hyderabad: A 33-year-old man who grew ganja plants on his terrace was arrested by excise officials on Thursday. Gyaneshwar Goud, the accused, planted them in earthen pots on the penthouse of his residence at Old Hafeezpet. There were no fruits as the plants were young. When we questioned, he said it was done as a hobby. Nevertheless, the plants were destroyed, said Mr Gandhi Naik, inspector, prohibition and excise, Serilingampally. Instances of drug addicts growing ganja plants under artificial lighting inside the rooms and penthouses in the city are not new. Last year, the police arrested Syed Hassan for allegedly growing ganja plants at his three BHK flat at Manikonda. The police seized 40 weed pots. The accused used LED lights, humidifiers and air-conditioners to make the environment suitable for ganja plants. Phosphorous, potassium, aquasol, aquadene and clay stones, used during different phases of growing the plant, were also seized. In March last year, a 60-year-old guard was caught by the police for cultivating ganja. Basant, another tenant in the house, is absconding. After a special election last week in which former Northern Cheyenne President Jace Killsback was re-elected by a two-vote margin just three months after he was removed by the tribal council the runner-up candidate is asking a tribal judge to hold a new election. In a complaint filed Monday in Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court, former councilwoman Donna Fisher alleged that the delivery of absentee ballots was delayed by a pair of federal holidays preceding the election. Those delays impacted the outcome of the election, Fisher claims. The election schedule was established Oct. 7, 2017, by the tribal council, one day after it voted 9-1 to remove Killsback from office. Fisher is asking the judge to void the results of the Jan. 2 election and order that a new one be held between the two candidates. Police picked up the other vendors and during investigations, found out that the gang murdered Shah Jahan and buried him near the railway tracks in Valliammal nagar there. Chennai: Business rivalry between mobile phone accessories vendors on suburban electric trains led to a quartet ganging up and murdering a 28-year-old man near Gummidipoondi. The gang after murdering the man had buried him in a vacant plot along the railway track, police sources said. The victim has been identified as Shah Jahan of Thiruvottiyur. He made a living by selling mobile phone accessories on suburban electric trains plying on Chennai-Gummidipoondi line. He was staying with his family in Vivekananda Nagar in Gummidipoondi, police said. On January 8 , his family members filed a missing complaint after which police began investigations. Preliminary investigations revealed that Shah Jahan used to have several run-ins with other vendors on trains over his dominating ways. Police picked up the other vendors and during investigations, found out that the gang murdered Shah Jahan and buried him near the railway tracks in Valliammal nagar there. Police sources said that the quartet had invited Shah Jahan on the night of January 8 to talk out things when things got ugly. The four of them told investigators that Shah Jahan used to threaten and extort money from other vendors claiming that he was a rowdy and he controlled the business on trains on the stretch. On Monday night, during the discussion, Shah Jahan had taken a knife and attempted to attack them. In retaliation they, rounded him up and murdered him with the same knife and buried him, police said.We have written to the revenue officials to exhume the body. Further investigations will continue after that, a police officer said. HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government, set to provide Rs 4,000 per acre per season to farmers under the Investment Support Scheme, has decided to request the Centre and the RBI to take steps to ensure sufficient liquidity in banks. This was to ensure that farmers could withdraw money without any hassle. The government completed its survey on money disbursal methods among farmers and the preference was for the bank cheque format, though there was a demand for direct transfer of the amount into the bank account while some wanted cash payment. The government decided to extend this scheme to farmers from the Kharif season. Nearly Rs 5,600 crore would have to be allocated for the scheme. In view of limited cash disbursement to states after demonetisation, the state government has decided to request Centre and RBI to take steps to ensure there is sufficient cash in banks. A delegation led by finance minister Etala Rajender would be visiting New Delhito pursue the matter. Elaborating details of the survey, agriculture secretary C. Parthasa-rathi said the views of nearly 63,000 farmers from 624 villages in 30 districts were collected. He said 31.58 per cent farmers preferred payment by cheques. Around 27.5 per cent, mainly from Warangal (urban and rural), Rajanna Sircilla and Jangaon wanted the government to transfer the money directly into their bank accounts. Almost the same percentage was keen on cash payment. The survey details were communicated to the cabinet sub-committee formed to finalise modalities for the scheme. Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said the scheme would be started from the Kharif season. Following the exercise of purification of land records, it was found that cultivable land in the state was 1.42 crore acres and the number of farmers was 71.75 lakh. There is no cap on number of acres. According to our data, 97.2 per cent farmers have less than 10 acres of land. Suggestions were also made to exclude non-cultivable land from the scheme, he said. A few senior bureaucrats are already being burdened with two to three departments even as four more IAS officers have applied for Central deputation. VIJAYAWADA: The state government needs more than 40 IAS officers as of now. Following non-filling of posts and also delay in postings of IAS officers, several administrative works have been stalled or slowed down in the Secretariat and also in various departments. The need of the State has been communicated to the Centre, said a bureaucrat. With the increased demand we are accommodating the IRS and Indian Forest Service officers in various departments, he added. The state government is scouting for IRS and IFS officers, who want to serve AP cadre at least for a period of three years, as per the norms of DoPT. In fact, the APTIDCO and even EDB have such non-IAS officers, following the dearth of the IAS officers. Last year, in the month of September, Deccan Chronicle had reported about the Central deputation requests for IAS and IPS officers, based on the information obtained under the RTI Act. Since then, one more senior bureaucrat Ms Sumita Dawra went on Central deputation. On one hand, dearth of IAS officers is hampering the administration and on the other, IAS officers are placing requests for deputation. A few senior bureaucrats are already being burdened with two to three departments even as four more IAS officers have applied for Central deputation. Rawat said the time had come for India to shift focus to its northern border, adding that the country was capable of handling China's assertiveness along it. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: "We cannot allow our neighbours to drift away to China," Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat on Friday told media in Delhi stating that Indian Army was capable of handling China's assertiveness along the border. The Army chief also said that India won't allow its territory to be intruded by any country, asserting that China may be a powerful country but India is not a weak nation either. He said India was dealing successfully with the pressure exerted by China and trying to not escalate the situation. Rawat said the time had come for India to shift focus to its northern border, adding that the country was capable of handling China's assertiveness along it. "Troops are earmarked and they are ready to tackle if any such situation arises," he said. Referring to the US warnings to Pakistan over its handling of terrorism, General Rawat said India will have to wait and see its impact. Terrorists are a disposable commodity in Pakistan and the Indian Army approach has been to ensure that it feels the pain, he said. Concerned about cyber and information warfare, Rawat said, "India requires to have good firewalls and systems". (With inputs from PTI) Hyderabad: In a setback to Telangana government, the Centre has sent back the Preventive Detention Amendment Act, 2017 that was passed by TS Legislature in November 2017. The government brought an amendment to the existing PD Act to check supply of spurious seeds, fake certificates, online gaming, gambling etc. Since the subject such as seeds, online gaming/ gambling also fall under Centres purview, it was necessary for the state government to first refer the Amendment Act for Centres approval before passing the Bill. After examining the provisions of the new law, the Union home ministry examined sent it back to the TS government along with que-ries over certain provisions. The home ministry has sought clarification wheth-er the state government had the power to bring such an Act. It also asked the state to clarify whether the subjects that were brought under the Act came under the purview of the state government or the Centre. The TS government had brought an ordinance to amend the PD Act in June 2017, and later replaced the ordinance with an Act by passing the Bill in the winter session of the Legislature in November. The home ministry sought clarifications from both the Governor and the state government. The state submitted it clarifications to Governor who forwarded them to the home ministry. The new Act will come into force only if the Centre approves the clarifications. If not, the state will have to amend to the Act again as sought by the Centre. With PD Amendment Act lying pending with the Centre, the government has directed police department not to file cases under the new Act. The state is likely to bring further amendments to the Act in the ensuing Budget session. Hyderabad: In a major operation to zero-in on a notorious chain-snatcher, who strikes only during the festivals, the Cyberabad police deputed more than 100 policemen all over the state. The decision comes after a lone bike-borne chain-snatcher went on a looting spree on Wednesday night in KPHB and Miyapur. In less than 15 minutes, the snatcher targeted three women within 3 km and looted 12 tola gold. The police said that the same accused had targeted women during the Dasara and Diwali seasons in 2017. The police added that the snatcher is targeting women as Sankranti preparations are on in the city. Earlier, the police had declared a Rs1 lakh reward on information about the festive snatcher who is involved in 18 cases in less than two months in KPHB, Chandanagar and Miyapur. S. Ravi Kumar, Miyapur ACP, said that special teams have been deputed to trace the snatcher. The snatcher had entered into the city from Sangareddy district. He targeted a woman at Phase IX in KPHB at around 7.45 pm. K. Naga Rathnam, 65, was returning home after purchasing groceries from the supermarket. While passing through Bachpan Play School, the bike-borne snatcher looted her three tola fold chain and sped away. Around 10 minutes later, another woman fell prey to the same snatcher in Vasanth Nagar under the KPHB police station limits. Dasari Saroja, 60, was walking at around 7.50 pm when the snatcher approached her and took away four tola gold chain. The CCTV footages recovered showed that the snatcher was wearing a check shirt. Less than 10 minutes later, the same snatcher looted gold chain from a woman in Miyapur, who was putting rangoli in front of the house. Srilatha, 35, a housewife residing at Venkataramana Colony in Gokul flats, lost her five tola gold chain. CHENNAI: The principal special court for CBI cases, Chennai, on Thursday has granted bail to M. Natarajan, husband of jailed AIADMK (Amma) general secretary V.K. Sasikala, based on order of the Supreme Court in connection with an illegal import of luxury car from the United Kingdom over two decades ago. On January 3, his nephew V. Bhaskaran another convict in the case, had appeared before the court and secured bail. According to the prosecution, a Toyota Lexus car was imported in 1994 by Natarajan declaring it was a used vehicle of 1993 model and evaded tax to the tune of `1.06 crore. The CBI registered a case against Natarajan, his nephew V. Bhaskaran, Yogesh Balakrishnan, a resident of London and Sujaritha Sundararajan, the then Manager of Indian Bank, Abhiramapuram Branch, Chennai. They subst-ituted the original sale invoice with a photocopy of an invoice fabricated by changing the vehicles manufacturing date to July 1993. After several rounds of litigation, the CBI court in 2010 sentenced Natarajan, V. Bhaskaran, Yogesh Bala-krishnan, and Sujaritha Sundararajan, to undergo RI for two years and imposed a fine of `40,000 on Yogesh Balakrishnan and `20,000 each on Natarajan, Bhaskaran and Sundararajan. The high court also directed the trial court to secure the accused and remand to judicial custody to undergo the remaining period of the sentence if any. Meanwhile, they approached the Supreme Court challenging the order of the high court. Directing them to deposit Rs 25 lakh each, the apex court recently directed them to approach the trial court and obtain bail. When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday before the principal special court for CBI cases, M. Natarajan appeared before judge A. Thiruneelaprasad and submitted relevant documents. Natarajan, who had undergone liver and kidney transplantation in October last, reached the court hall located on Madras high court premises in the morning covering his face with a mask.On perusing documents and sureties submitted by him, judge A. Thiruneelaprasad granted him bail. The Attorney General says, 'tremendous exposure will to be given to what has happened and it will seriously affect public confidence in the Supreme Court of India'. (Photo: ANI/Twitter) New Delhi: Attorney General KK Venugopal on Friday said that the unprecedented move by four judges of the Supreme Court to hold a press meet to act against the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, "could have been avoided". He said that the judges would act in "statesmanship" to resolve the issue in the next few days, a report in NDTV said. "Supreme Court judges are all statesman with vast experience and knowledge, and I am sure by tomorrow, the entire issue would be resolved," Venugopal said. The Attorney General said "tremendous exposure will to be given to what has happened and it will seriously affect public confidence in the Supreme Court of India". His reaction came after four Supreme Court judges addressed the media, appealing to the nation to save their institution if they wanted democracy in the country to survive. In a first in the history of Indian judiciary, the four senior judges held a press meet to say the sometimes administration of the Supreme Court was not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months. Also Read: SC admin not in order, democracy at stake, say 4 top judges in open dissent The four Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph addressed the media at Justice Chelameswars home, an event that Chelameswar said was extraordinary in the history of any nation but that they were compelled to do it. Also Read: Top 4 SC judges revolt against Chief Justice, question biased decisions Speaking on behalf of the four judges, Justice Chelameswar expressed his lament over the corrosion and compromise taking place within the institution of the judiciary and especially within the portals of the Supreme Court. Chennai: Hindu scholars and several faithful, including many women, held demonstrations here and elsewhere in the state on Thursday protesting against noted poet Vairamuthu's comment on Andal being a devadasi, notwithstanding his expression of regret. The award-winning poet's photographs were burnt and slogans were raised condemning him at the demonstrations held near the Triplicane Parthasarathy temple and at the famous Andal temple in Srivilliputhur. Social media was flooded with angry posts attacking Vairamuthu for his Andal comment and also the DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi for her comment made at a recent Dravidar Kazhagam conference in Trichy that Lord Venkateswara is powerless and helpless since he needed a guard wielding machine gun to look after his hundi in Tirumala temple. Hindu Munnani founder-organiser Rama Gopalan has issued a strongly worded statement against both Vairamuthu and Kanimozhi, while demanding public apology from both. Some Hindu outfits have threatened legal action, which prompted DK leader K. Veeramani to issue a statement saying such cases would be faced boldly in the appropriate forums. It has become fashionable for these so-called rationalists and Dravidian leaders to say all kinds of obnoxious things to hurt Hindu sentiments. Can they say anything even mildly annoying about the other communities? They dare not, said BJP national secretary H. Raja. Terming Kanimozhis Balaji comment as frivolous and highly objectionable, noted writer Malan said, If God is powerless, what makes Kanimozhis family members to visit temple after temple seeking divine intervention whenever they are mired neck-deep in problems? I would suggest that Kanimozhi check with her mother about Gods power instead of speaking recklessly just because she was on a DK platform. However, it is not as though Kanimozhi and Vairamuthu are friendless among the literati and glitterati even amid all this cannon fire. I am sure it is perfectly right a rationalist to take such positions, said senior journalist Gnani Sankaran referring to the Kanimozhi comment. He added, If a devotee or a believer has the right to believe in miracles, then a rationalist has an equal right to debunk the miracles. Noted actor-director-activist Lakshmi Ramakrishnan regretted that in the controversy over Vairamuthus Andal comment, the context appeared lost. Faithful gather near Parthasarathy Swamy temple in Triplicane to protest against Vairamuthus remarks on Andal. (Photo: DC) People should have the freedom to express and we must not object to that. At the same time, people should speak without hurting religious sentiments. Having said that, debates and discussions are very healthy, very important. If someone has a genuine quest or search, they have a debate on something, we should encourage that, If we shut them up, it would be pure hypocrisy, she said. Complaint against Vairamuthu Hindu religious outfit, Hindu Munnani on Wednesday filed a complaint against DMK MP Kanimozhi and poet Vairamuthu for allegedly hurting religious sentiments in a speech and a newspaper column recently. According to the complaint, Kanimozhi had made derogatory complaints against Lord Balaji and his temple during an atheist conference at Tiruchy. The complaint also said that poet Vairamuthu, in his column in a Tamil daily on December 8, had written about Andal, again hurting religious sentiments. The complainant sought police action against the MP and the poet. New Delhi: In a major admission, India confirmed on Thursday that national security adviser Ajit Doval had indeed met his Pakistani counterpart Lt. Gen. Nasser Khan Janjua (Retd) recently but justified the meeting, saying that while terror and talks cannot go together, talks on terror can definitely go ahead. The meeting is learnt to have taken place in Bangkok on December 26. The external affairs ministry said: The focus of the talks was on terror, cross-border terrorism. MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar said: I am saying that talks have taken place on how to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from this region, adding India raised (the issue of) cross-border terrorism in these talks. The MEA said the talks were part of operational-level talks. 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, the MEA spokesman said, adding that such operational-level talks are not announced. Nevertheless, the talks indicate that New Delhi while realising the reality of the Pakistan Army and ISI actively sponsoring terror in India are also in favour of continuing some sort of engagement quietly with Pakistan. The very fact that the two NSAs had to meet in Bangkok bears testimony to this. Also, observers feel that the views of the Pakistan NSA would indicate in some way what the Pakistan Army wants to be conveyed to India. The meeting also took place just one day after the wife and mother of imprisoned former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav had met him in Islamabad. All of the Department of the Interior agencies operating in Montana would see their regional headquarters shift under a reorganization proposal by Secretary Ryan Zinke. Following up on a pledge he made in his first days in office, Zinke said in a video statement he wants to move decision-making authority to front-line superintendents and managers so right actions can be quickly made without excessive paperwork or burdensome administrative requirements. While specifics of that plan were not made available, a map from Zinkes office shows Interior agencies would report to 13 regions based on natural watersheds instead of state boundaries. Zinke spokeswoman Heather Swift declined to provide more information about the plan, saying in an email that there is no final version. The meeting the secretary had this week was an internal brainstorming session with career officials to talk about options and ideas, Swift wrote. The secretary laid out his philosophy for organizing the Department along watersheds rather than political boundaries. The concept would push more decision making to local and regional areas and allow for better streamlining of services and public lands management. Montana would be divided along county lines that roughly follow the Continental Divide. A new Region 8 would oversee the state west of that line, including Glacier National Park, the Blackfeet and Flathead Indian Reservations, the National Bison Range and half of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. Region 8 also would include almost all of Idaho, a quarter of Oregon and a third of Washington. Proposed Region 5 would encompass the rest of Montana, including Yellowstone National Park, the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, and the Rocky Boys, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck, Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian reservations. Region 5 would extend east and south to fold in half of Minnesota, parts of Iowa and Missouri, half of Kansas, a quarter of Colorado and most of Wyoming. A change of that magnitude presents special challenges, according to University of Montana associate professor of political science Sara Rinfret. Zinke has talked about having public hearings, but for this to go forward, you need to have buy-in from the employees, said Rinfret who leads the masters of public administration program. "If you dont have buy-in and input from your staff in a major reorganization, its going to be really difficult. Interior agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service already have well-known, local footprints, Rinfret said. That makes it hard to parse the meaning of moving decision making to front-line staff. Whats the problem youre trying to solve? Rinfret said. Youre talking about budget cuts. Are you cutting staff? Have you been transparent with career civil servants? Have you had the local stakeholders at the table? Whats working and what isnt? You have to define the problem first or people lose trust. The Interior Department already has the majority of its administrative staff outside of the capital, with about 9,000 employees in Denver compared to 6,500 in Washington, D.C. The whole agency has about 70,000 employees. In his video address, Zinke noted that 16 percent of his department workers are at retirement age. In five years, that grows to 40 percent. Its field offices and facilities now operate through regions based on state groupings. Changing so many boundaries and moving employees around would require congressional authorization in many cases. Theres also a question of whether those agencies can make major employment changes when so many are led by people without congressional confirmation. According to the new map, Glacier would report to a headquarters of the new Region 8, but Yellowstone would operate out of Region 5. Both parks now report to the NPS Intermountain Region, covering eight states with headquarters in Denver and Santa Fe. Michael Reynolds is listed as the NPS deputy director exercising the authority of director for the National Park Service. Montana has seven Indian reservations. The Flathead and Blackfeet reservations would be in new Region 8 while the rest would be overseen at new Region 5. Currently, the BIA Rocky Mountain Region office in Billings works with all but the Flathead Indian Reservation, which is connected to the BIA Northwest Region office in Portland, Oregon. BIA is managed by an Interior Department assistant secretary, where John Tahsuda is the acting leader. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversees Montana and seven other states from its Region 6 Headquarters in Lakewood, Colorado. The agency lists its leader as Greg Sheehan, principal deputy director. Zinke created that position in 2017, but Sheehan still has acting status. The Bureau of Land Management now uses a Montana-Dakotas regional office in Billings. Five of the 12 national BLM regions, including Montanas, have unconfirmed, acting directors. The agencys organization chart lists its leadership as Brian Steed, Deputy director, policy and programs exercising authority of the director, and Michael Nedd, acting deputy director, operations. The White House reportedly approved a draft reorganization plan in June, and all agencies had until September to file final versions and 2019 budget requests, according to Federal News Radio. None of Montanas congressional delegation had additional information about the Interior reorganization as of Thursday. I look forward to learning more about Secretary Zinke's vision for making land management decisions closer to the ground, closer to the resources, and closer to the people, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., wrote in an email. The office of Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., noted "it appears to be missing critical details that could have a significant impact on Montana." Apart from Swamy, other former judges and senior advocates of the Supreme Court also reacted to the press meet. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The country was taken by storm on Friday as four top Supreme Court judges virtually rebelled against the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, at a press meet after he brushed aside their grievance with the judicial system. Lawyer and senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, and former Supreme Court judges were quick to react to the 'virtual rebellion' by the four top judges of the apex court. "We can't criticise them, they are men of great integrity and have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. PM must ensure that the 4 judges and CJI, in fact whole SC come to one opinion & proceed further," Swamy said. Not all reactions, however, were quite so welcoming. Retired SC judge, Justice RS Sodhi said, "I think all 4 judges should be impeached, they have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say, we have parliament, courts, police functioning." While another former apex court judge PB Sawant, spoke in favour of the judges, saying, "they had to come before media and take this unprecedented step. This means that there is a serious dispute, either with Chief Justice of India (CJI) or some internal dispute." Former Supreme Court judge, Mukul Mudgal also spoke along the same lines as PB Sawant. "There must be some serious reason that they were left with no other option but to hold a Press Conference. But what connection Loya has with this? I know nothing about this & I don't want to make comments about any political matter," Mudgal said. The same support also rang true in lawyer and politician Prashant Bhushan's words, who said, "It is certainly a very serious development which has cast a huge shadow on the Chief Justice. Somebody had to confront the situation, where CJ is blatantly misusing his powers, hence the unprecedented step." Other Supreme Court advocates also reacted to the press meet which is being called the first of its kind in the country. Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid expressed sadness and pain, along with "a sense of agony that highest court of land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media." Senior Lawyer Ujjwal Nikam's reaction was fraught with worry for the future of India's judiciary. "This is a black day for Judiciary. Today's press conference would cause a bad precedent. From now on every common man could look at all judicial order with suspicion. Every judgement will be questioned," Nikam said. Supreme Court advocate KT Tulsi said, "It's quite shocking. There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking." Indira Jaising, Supreme Court Advocate and head of NGO Lawyer's Collective, however, saw this move as historic. She welcomed the gesture and said it was extremely well done as the people of India have a right to know what is going on within the judiciary. KOZHIKODE: 'Pulkodikootam', the samiti under which the people in the coastal area of Payyoli agitated demanding supply of drinking water, has made it clear that it has not called off the protest after the MLA convened a talk on January 7. "We have demanded immediate drinking water distribution in the coastal belt where more than 250 families are suffering for decades. That plea has not been heard," said samiti chairman M. Samad. In the meeting, MLA K. Dasan announced a drinking water project costing a crore in Payyoli. But the samiti says that though they welcome the project, there was apprehension over its implementation. "The project is envisioned to be set up at the premises of old panchayat office compound which could be acquired for NH development. Secondly, we have no idea how long we have to wait for the completion of the project. So, the immediate need is to supply fresh drinking water in the area," Samad said. Yellowish water is the issue in the wells of the coastal belt and according to the study conducted by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM), excess iron content is present in the water, which is common in the entire stretch. "We are living with this contaminated water since decades. The daily usage of this water affects our health and lives. It is high time authorities pay heed to us. We are facing social ostracism due to the non-availability of proper drinking water," says Padmaja, a homemaker. 'Pulkodikootam' has also demanded that the project be handed over to the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) for its smooth implementation. But Payyoli municipality vice-chairman, Madathil Nanu says that the project would be completed soon and the issue has been solved. Thiruvananthapuram: A Keralite woman who set up the first library in a Tanzanian village by collecting books through Facebook is among those who will attend Loka Kerala Sabha today. Somy Solomon had initiated Kichankani Library, a social media-driven initiative two years ago by collecting books from all over the state and even abroad to set up the library. Over, 7,000 books came to build up a library in Kichakani, 35 km away from Dar es Salaam, one of the developed cities of Tanzania. Ms Solomon, who has been writing in Malayalam online against the racial bias the people of the state have towards Africa, said the construction the library was in progress with the help of the local body. Many people have been contributing building materials. The plan is to convert the library into a learning centre to train villagers to write and read English and the local language Swahili and in computer skills. Ms Solomon had taken up two other major issues like lack of access to education and drinking water in the area. She said the organisers of Sabha have communicated that they would provide an opportunity to speak on Kerala diaspora in Africa. "I can only speak on the problems in East African countries such as Tanzania and Rwanda. The issues in countries such as Burkina Faso in Western Africa are different," she told DC. Ms Solomon had reached Tanzania after her marriage in 2012 as her husband worked as a hotel manager there. While eating biryani, he developed seizures and collapsed. The hotel staff rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead. Hyderabad: An unidentified man, who was eating biryani at a hotel in Miyapur, collapsed and died on Thursday. According to the police, on at around 2.30 pm, the deceased came to Hotel Shabnam at Allwyn X Road and ordered a beef biryani. While eating biryani, he developed seizures and collapsed. The hotel staff rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead. Based on a complaint from hotel manager, a suspicious death case has been registered and the body is sent for a postmortem. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Maharasthra government to file the autopsy report into the death of former CBI judge BH Loya who died in mysterious circumstances in December 2014. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Santana Gouder while describing the issue as a serious matter, asked the state government to file its reply by January 15. It said, "this matter requires bi-parte hearing rather than ex-parte" At the time of his death, Loya was presiding over the CBI court hearing the alleged Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. He died of cardiac arrest on December 1, 2014, according to hospital records, a day after he attended the wedding ceremony and reception of the daughter of fellow Judge Sapna Josh. In 2017, the Caravan reported that Loyas family members claimed that the 48-year-olds death was suspicious. Relying on a report in the Caravan Magazine, the lawyers association moved the Bombay High Court contending that Loya was under tremendous pressure while he presided over the alleged Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. Before the commencement of hearing senior counsel Dushyant Dave, representing Bombay Lawyers' Association said, the high court was already seized of the matter and the top court should refrain from hearing the issue. The bench asked Dave to specify why the Supreme Court should not hear the petition. To this, he said, "the Bombay High Court is seized of the matter and in my opinion the Supreme Court should not hear this matter. If the court goes ahead with the hearing, it may have implications before the high court." Senior advocate Indira Jaising, who was also present in the courtroom, said she also had instructions from Bombay Lawyers' Association to pray that the top court should not hear this matter. The Bench, however, went ahead and heard the matter and posted it for further hearing on Monday. A file photo of shops set ablaze in New Delhi in 1984. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday appointed former Delhi High Court Judge S.N. Dhingra to head the special investigation team (SIT) to probe afresh the 186 anti-Sikh riots cases that were closed by the earlier SIT without any probe. A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud had on Wednesday said it would name the panel on Thursday. Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand and counsel for parties submitted a list of panels and the court directing justice Dhingra to head the SIT. The other members are: Mr Rajdeep Singh IPS, (retd) and Mr Abhishek Dular, serving IPS officer in the BSF. Students of Ethiraj College of Women and Valliammal College for Women, Anna Nagar, celebrate Pongal on their college premises on Thursday. (Photo: DC) CHENNAI: Southern Railway has announced special fare special trains between Madurai-Coimbatore to clear extra traffic rush during Pongal festival. Special fares special trains (06083/06084) between two stations are scheduled on January 13, 2018. Sholavandan, Dindigul, Oddanchatram, Palani, Udumalaippettai and Pollachi are the stoppages between the two stations. Advance booking for these trains will begin on Friday at 8.00 am. Train rescheduled: Owing to late running of pairing trains, Ernakulam - Barauni Raptisagar Express (12522) scheduled to leave Ernakulam at 10.15 am on January 12, 2018, has been rescheduled to 6 pm hours on the same day. Kanniyakumari - Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Himsagar Express (16317) scheduled to leave Kanyakumari at 2.15 pm on January 12, 2018, has been rescheduled to 2.30 pm on the same day. The victim's daughter lamented that her mother is food deprived and requested the Indian authorities to rescue her. (Photo: ANI) Hyderabad: The family of a Hyderabadi woman, who is stranded in Saudi Arabia, requested External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to bring her back to India. The victim, Parveen Begum, was promised of a job in a hospital in Al-Qassim in Saudi by two men. However, on reaching Saudi, she was forced to work as a maid. Victim's daughter Tasleem Fatima said, "My mother was looking for a job due to financial problems. Two agents Md Osman and Md Maksood approached us and offered a job in a hospital in Al-Qassim. Later, after she reached Saudi, they made to work her as a housemaid." The victim's daughter lamented that her mother is food deprived and requested the Indian authorities to rescue her. "She is being tortured by her employers and has not even been provided with adequate food to eat. It's been five months and they just paid one month's salary to my mother. I request MEA Sushma Swaraj, Indian embassy and the Telangana government to rescue my mother," she added. Chennai: A 68-year-old woman was killed after she was marauded by two pet dogs in her house in Avadi on Wednesday. The victim was identified as M. Gowri (68) of Govardhanagiri in Avadi. She was staying with her husband, Madhavan on the ground floor while her son and daughter-in-law stayed on the first floor, police said. The family raised two Rottweiler pups, aged 1 and 5 and since they were not friendly with the elderly couple, they were usually kept away from them, either on the first floor or in the terrace. On Wednesday evening, Gowri went to the terrace unaware of the dogs presence there when she was marauded by them. The woman was also suffering from a mental condition and hence couldnt raise alarm, police quoted the victims son as saying. The womans face was disfigured and by the time, she was moved to a hospital, she was declared brought dead. Avadi police registered a case and are investigating. The government, however, is unlikely to take the risk of linking the dole with the actual cultivation due to the proximity of elections. Hyderabad: The farmers investment support scheme could become a major problem for the Telangana state government in the next rabi season (which starts in October) when the 2019 Assembly elections would be close. The state government has decided to give investment subsidy for the kharif season (starting in July) at the rate of Rs 4,000 per acre, irrespective of whether the land is cultivable or not. Around Rs 5,600 crore is required for the investment subsidy in the kharif season. Normally, in the rabi season, most farmers cultivate only 50 per cent of the land they cultivated for the kharif crop. Since the policy states that investment subsidy has to be distributed to all farmers, whether they cultivate the crop of not, a huge part of the money will go to all farmers regardless of the area of cultivation during the rabi season. If the government withholds the subsidy for those who have not cultivated any crop, it will earn their displeasure and this will reflect badly in the elections. The state government does not have exact the number of farmers and is depending on their bank accounts to distribute the investment support money. According to the records, there is 1.42 lakh hectares of agricultural land in the state and there are 71.75 lakh bank accounts of farmers. The total gross cropped area is 62.88 lakh hectares, and the average net cropped area is 49.61 lakh hectares. Some of the land listed as agricultural is rocky and cannot be cultivated. Officials have suggested that the subsidy not be provided for this land but Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao did not agree to this suggestion and had ordered the officials to distribute the investment support subsidy to all farmers for both seasons whether their land is cultivated or not. Government officials claim that this will place a heavy burden on the state exchequer, but politics, it seems, will trump common sense any time. A mural painted on the East Broadway Avenue basement stairwell of the Cowan Building, without city approval, has been allowed to remain in place by the Bismarck Renaissance Zone Authority, who questioned whether the artwork met city criteria for the installation of public art. In November, the Rejuvenation Place, 401 E. Broadway Ave., hired artist Bailey White to paint the stairwell, which is used as a Hollywood exit for clients who dont want to use the main entrance. The artwork features celebrity portraits. According to city ordinance, public art is not to be installed on any side of a building adjacent to public right-of-way. However, the entire mural is painted below the sidewalk grade and has limited visibility from the right-of-way. We werent aware of the regulation, said Adam Berger, co-owner of the Rejuvenation Place. We just figured it was our stairway. Because the artwork appears below the sidewalk grade, some authority members questioned if the mural truly is in the wrong. If they had come to us beforehand, I wouldve supported it, said authority member Joe Fink, noting the mural isnt highly visible from the public right-of-way. Chairman Curt Walth, who cast a dissenting vote, said he was concerned about setting a precedence. My concern is were opening the door for other requests to come in, he said. Authority member George Keiser voted to have the mural painted over, as well. Ignorance is no excuse. There is an ordinance. To say, Well, I didnt know about it, doesnt count, because then were going to have people doing whatever they want on their property and saying, I didnt know about that, he said. Thats not the way government works. Thats not the way ordinances work. According to city officials, the public art ordinance is in place to ensure an appearance of uniformity and to prevent businesses from painting large murals of their logos on the sides of buildings, distracting traffic. I dont think anyone intended to do harm, said Josh Askvig, city commissioner. Hopefully, its a learning tool. The Dakota West Arts Council, with assistance from the citys community development department, has been working on creating a public arts policy for the past five years. We hope to get it out there to business owners, as well as local and regional artists, so they know when they come, especially downtown, that there are regulations and steps they have to go through, said Eileen Walsh, executive director of the Dakota West Arts Council. The authority approved the mural by a vote of 4-2 Thursday. While madrasas in Uttarakand are planning to introduce Sanskrit as one of the languages. (Representational Image) HYDERABAD: While madrasas in Uttarakand are planning to introduce Sanskrit as one of the languages, a few Islamic schools here are already teaching students the language. Sanskrit is a course in the Al Mahadul Asli Al Islami at Shaheennagar in the Old City. Students pursuing higher courses of comparative studies are taught Sanskrit as they have to study the religious books of other communities, said rector Moulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani. The students are also taught Telugu, Persian and English. Mufti Mastan Wali, rector at Jamiat-ul-Mominath, Moghalpura, said they were planning to introduce the language. It is a good language and my teacher, who was from Bihar, always praised it. I learnt Sanskrit through him and we are planning to introduce it in our institution, he said. Several institutions in the city are planning to introduce the language as the students are from northern states and it would help them in getting jobs, he felt. Superintendent Mohd Obaidullah of Jamia Nizamia, one of the biggest Islamic seminaries, said, We have a version of Ramayana written in Sanskrit at our library. People who are pursuing comparative studies at higher Islamic institutions study it. Visitors also can also at the holy book, he said. Devotees offer prayers to Goddess Sammakka and Saralamma ahead of biennial Jatara at Medaram on Wednesday. (Photo: DC/File) HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government has decided to use different platforms like social media, blogs and international TV channels to attract tourists for the upcoming Medaram Jatara. Chief Secretary S.P. Singh issued the directions during a review meeting to discuss arrangements for the festival to be held from January 31 to February 3. Mr Singh directed officials to extend invitations to tribal, tourism and culture ministers, bureaucrats and tribal MPs of all states to visit the jatara. He appointed former Warangal collector Vakati Karuna to oversee the festival. He wanted a separate cell be constituted under culture department to take care of arrangements. Mr Singh laid emphasis on ensuring hygiene and modern toilets for the devotee. The Chief Secretary has also directed officials to make arrangements on par with the Kumbh Mela. He asked officials to make special boarding and lodging arrangements for foreign visitors. The Chief Secretary has also asked officials to arrange helicopter services for the jatara. He asked the police to ensure fool proof security arrangements for the jatara and ensure smooth flow of traffic during the entire period. 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 Vijayawada: AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Nadu urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend support for the construction of the capital Amaravati during his meeting on Friday. After the meeting, Mr Naidu told mediapersons that issues related to delimitation, Polavaram, state fin-ances and the Reorganisation Act assurances were taken up. The Chief Minister urged Mr Modi to set up the institutions in Andhra Pradesh, which fell in Schedule 9, besides setting up a taskforce to see that assurances of the Reorganisation Act were implemented. He sought measures to complete the Dugarapatnam Port and reminded the Prime Minister about the assurance of finance minister Arun Jaitley about issues related to the special package. Mr Arun Jaitley had said that all aspects in special category status would be part of the special package, Mr Naidu said. The CM wanted Mr Modi to ensure the release of Rs 16,000 crore under externally aided projects. The two also discussed railway zone delimitation. He said the Rs 3,979-crore revenue deficit had been released and wanted the remaining amount to be given. An amount of Rs 2,500 crore had been given for Capital Amaravati construction and Rs 1,000 crore for development of Vijayawada and Guntur cities. Educational institutions, under the 13th Schedule, were given only Rs 460 crore out of the Rs 11,000 crore. My vision is only about development, Mr Naidu said, adding that he was more interested in AP development, than the politics. There was nobody else but he who exerted pressure on the Centre, Mr Naidu said and hoped to overcome hurdles if the Centre extended support. The earlier government had deceived AP, the CM said, adding that the NDA government would extend its co-operation. Chennai: Two years have passed since the launch of Chennai smart city project and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation of Urban Transformation scheme for 33 municipalities in Tamil Nadu. But both the projects are progressing at snail's pace and the results are yet to bring a visible change to Chennai. According to the ministry of urban development sources, the Centre released funds to all the states under the Amrut scheme and for Tamil Nadu the first installment of Rs.316 crore was released last year against the total central share of Rs.1582.80 crore. The total approved size of State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) of Tamil Nadu is Rs.3834.49 crore for 2016-17. Under the Amrut scheme, projects related to water supply sewerage and parks approved in 2016-17 should have been in shape by now. And as per the directions of Amrut scheme the state government should identify the gaps in infrastructure. But TN has been lagging in its policies like zero waste management and addressing intermodal transport issues, said an informed official in the secretariat. "Traffic congestion has become worse as the Amrut has failed to take shape in TN despite the Centre sanctioning 20 per cent of the approved central assistance last year", said Thiru Vi Ka Nagar legislator Thayagam Kavi. The ministry of urban development issued guidelines and advisories on solid waste management, sewerage, water supply, urban transport but the state needs more impetus on the subjects and there is no remarkable progress on these subjects the state local bodies have failed to address issues like waste management and traffic congestion, he said. The authorities are talking about smart cities and Amrut schemes but sewer overflow goes unchecked in my constituency. Sanitation is another eyesore in all slaughter houses, the DMK MLA added. However state official sources said that the project was progressing as per schedule without any delay. Even last month there was a high-level meeting by the local administration minister and the works are gaining momentum, sources said. New Delhi: India needs to shift focus from its border with Pakistan to that with China, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat said on Friday, cautioning that the country cannot allow its neighbours to drift towards China, virtually asking the government to effectively implement its neighbourhood first policy. Admitting that Chinese troops have been ramping up pressure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), he asserted that China may be a powerful country but India too is not a weak nation. In a media address on the eve of the Army Day, Rawat said countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have to be kept on board as part of a broader strategy to deal with China, and India must make wholehearted efforts to continue extending support to them. We cannot allow the neighbourhood to be drifted away from us whether it is Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Afghanistan. These nations have to be kept on board, and I think we have to put in our wholehearted effort to ensure we continue to support them, he said. The Army chiefs comments assume significance given that in recent past, China has been deepening ties with some South Asian nations and providing them with huge financial aid, which, some experts feel, may draw India's neighbours including the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal towards Beijing. Bengaluru: A judge should not be seen speaking outside the court of law but what happened Friday is most unfortunate, said former Supreme Court judge and Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde. Coming down heavily on the four judges (of the Supreme Court) - Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph, who addressed the media in Delhi against the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice Hegde said "the four judges have denigrated the countrys highest institution, the judiciary, and reduced it to the level of a street fighter, he said. I am not supporting the CJI but am deeply disturbed at the steps taken by the four judges. They could have approached the President or written to him and asked him to discreetly approach the government for an independent inquiry on the matter. There have been controversies in the past and there are bound to be differences among the judges because they are independent thinkers but airing them in the public was never an option. It happened in my time also but the issues and controversies were never brought out in the open. I feel very sorry about todays incident. It will rock the confidence of the people in the judiciary and also allow the Executive and Legislature to take advantage of the internal fight in the institution. Judiciary is like Defence. The two institutions never discuss their internal matters or wash their dirty linen in public. What happened today has no precedence. It should not have happened whatever be the provocation, he said. He added that the judiciary has its own discipline. Theres an unwritten law that judges should not be seen speaking outside the courts. They are learned men of stature and impeccable credentials, which is why there are no written tests or interviews for their appointment. The institution of judiciary is already marred with allegations of corruption and controversies. The judges going to media with their grievances could have been avoided. Mysuru: Responding to a stung BJPs social media campaign,I am RSS, I am BJP, arrest us, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah shot back on Friday, The police does not have to arrest them as the people will do it themselves. They will teach a lesson to organizations that try to spark unrest among them, sow seeds of communalism and hate people of another religion in the name of dharma. He was speaking to reporters in Mysuru, which has turned into a fortress with high security following the BJPs threats to resort to a jail bharo in protest over him calling its members and those of the RSS Hindutva terrorists. While a police complaint has been filed by BJP state spokesperson, S Suresh Kumar and BJP leader, P N Sadashiva with the Bengaluru police commissioner against Mr Siddaramaiah for his statement, police sources say it does not constitute a cognisable offence under the Indian Penal Code. So as such the police cannot take cognizance of any complaint made in this regard, they added. Meanwhile at the Malavalli helipad, the Chief Minister said he was going to Delhi on Saturday to discuss the coming state elections with the central leadership. On Congress president Rahul Gandhis tour of Karnataka, the chief minister revealed that it was tentatively scheduled for January 27, 28 and 29. Asked about the Cauvery verdict expected from the Supreme Court, he said, We are hopeful it will be in our favour. GUNTUR: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu stated Amaravati would get a definitive shape in the next six months with several constructions being carried out concurrently now. He laid the foundation stone for AP Forensic Science Laboratory (APFSL) at Thullur of Amaravati on Thursday. The CM said that APFSL would be constructed with Rs 400 crores of funds in 5 acres of land at Thullur. The CM also stated that the government would not allow anti-social activity and bad elements in AP and added that the government had restrained crimes by using the latest technology. Mr Naidu also said that law and order and peace in society were the three most important aspects of a healthy country or state that led to its progress and development. Hence the State government was working to turn AP into a role model in law and order preservation. He said that AP Government is on top using latest technology. The CM added that Fiber Grid was the best example under which AP government was offering phone, internet connection and TV connection through fiber optic cables. Mr Naidu said that everyone should enhance their knowledge and know the latest technologies and added everyone should make good use of the Fiber Grid scheme for an improved quality of life but also said that technology should not be used to kill time with no production. The CM claimed that AP was the only State in India which did not announce any increase of electricity tariffs in the future and stated that the government was continuously working to provide "wind" and "solar" power to the public of AP in the future. On the law and order situation in the state, Mr. Naidu lamented that some persons were committing crimes and hoping to avoid punishments with the help of loopholes in the law. He added that this was just not acceptable and asked the police department to work towards providing stern punishments to the culprits with the help of technology. Talking of ongoing roads and other constructions in Amaravati, the CM said that Amaravati would shape up in the next six months and development process would be speeded up even further. AP DGP N. Sambasiva Rao said that AP FSL would get the best lab recognition amongst other countries in the future with its usage of the most modern technology. Minister for municipal administration P. Narayana, Principal Secretary Home Affairs, Anuradha, Guntur ZP chairperson, SK Johny Moon, district collector K. Sasidhar were present. The team from the Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy, New York University who visited the HHMSBP NSS College for Women, Neeramankara, Thiruvananthapuram having a traditional Kerala lunch. Thiruvananthapuram: A team of teachers and students from the Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy, New York University (NYU) as part of their research on the higher education system in the country visited the HHMSBP NSS College for Women, Neeramankara, Thiruvananthapuram, on Tuesday. The team was led by Ann L Marcus, professor and director, and Teboho Moja, programme director. Head of the Department of English, HHMSBP NSS College, Sreedevi K Nair told Deccan Chronicle that the education system of Kerala was part of their curriculum. The English department was the host for the programme. I welcomed the team to the session and spoke of the historical background of the Indian education system. This was followed by presentations by faculty members of the department, Lakshmi Menon, Asha Prabhakaran and Aswathy A. They introduced Kerala, its culture, and its education system from the academic and administrative perspectives. Gayatri Krishnan, final year B.Com student, and Haripriya R J Nair of first year MA English, also made presentations about their experiences at school and college, said Ms Nair. The introductory session was followed by an interactive one where the team from NYU formed groups to interact with the students of the college to get first-hand information about their experiences within the educational system. The event wrapped up with a lunch in traditional Kerala style, said Mr Nair. As a business graduate of Brown University, Miss America 2018 and Bismarck native Cara Mund saw herself as an attendee of the Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner. She did not expect to one day find herself as the events speaker. I think its great, Mund said of the business environment in her hometown. I think its really a booming town and it feels so different now even since leaving for college. Mund spoke to the group of area business leaders of her experience leading up to becoming Miss America. She founded North Dakotas Annual Make-A-Wish Fashion Show ten years ago and she hopes others see that age makes no difference for those who want to be leaders. It was Munds message of leadership that Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce President Brian Ritter hoped would be passed on to the organizations membership. She is a tremendous example for this entire community, he said. Shes an inspiration and hopefully she inspires everyone in this community to try for more. From a personal perspective, Ritter said both he and Mund were born and raised in Bismarck. Its incredible to see someone with the same background and what shes been able to accomplish at such an early age, he said. As for Mund, shes proud to be from North Dakota and is hopeful she will leave a legacy inspiring men and women from the state and beyond. Upon winning her title she said she received many messages from others living in a rural area who before didnt think it was possible for someone from a small town to accomplish. Even she was surprised. I dont know why I didn't dream big enough, she said but the process taught her she was just as capable as any woman from another state. Mund said she faced many people who told her she couldn't reach her goals and it took her a number of times to win the Miss North Dakota title. But she didn't give up. "The only person who can limit you is yourself," Mund told the crowd. "She exemplifies what Leadership Bismarck-Mandan Alumni Association stands for," said association president Amy Hornbacher. "She's driven; she's passionate; she brings vision to reality." And she can inspire others to dream big, Hornbacher said of Mund. Hornbacher said having Mund as a representative of Bismarck shows the country, "we're good people here and we can reach huge goals." Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and ministers Geeta Mahadevprasad and Dr H.C. Mahadevaappa at the launch of developmental works in Saragur in Mysuru on Thursday. (Photo: DC) Mysuru: Far from being apologetic for his remarks made on Wednesday against the BJP and Bajrang Dal, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah once again called their members "Hindutva terrorists" here on Thursday. Speaking to reporters at three different places, the Malemahadeswara hills, Sargur and Mysuru airport, he said, "I am also a Hindu but with humanity and they are Hindus without humanity. That is the difference between I and them." Asked if he was justifying his remarks, he shot back, "What do we call those who behave inhumanely in the name of Hinduism and those who play politics with death?" As for BJP members launching a protest against him from Friday for calling them terrorists, he said, "Let them go ahead. It's a democracy." On the rise of communal politics in the state, the Chief Minister wanted to know who was responsible. "They (saffron outfits) do not have any other issue except communal to harp on. They think there will be polarisation of votes this way. But it will go against them," he warned, stressing once again that his government would take stringent action against any organisation, whether PFI , SDPI or Bajrang Dal if it sowed seeds of communalism, and abetted conflict between people of different religions. Mr Siddaramaiah also slammed BJP national chief, Amit Shah for seeking an account of the money released from the Centre to Karnataka, saying, " "Who is he to ask for an account? I am answerable to the legislature and people of Karnataka, not Mr Amit Shah." In reply to another question, he said the Centre had given Karnataka Rs 11,000 crore lesser than its actual share of funds over the past three- and-a- half years. "There is also discrimination in the amount of calamity funds released to the state. They gave Rs 1500 crore as calamity funds to the state, but Rs 3800 crore to Gujarat and Rs 8000 crore to Maharashtra." On BJP leader, V Somanna's challenge that he would retire from politics if Mr Siddaramaiah won from Gundlupet or Chamundeswari, he asserted, "I will win. But let him not retire." Addressing the Sadana Samavesha in Mysuru, he expressed confidence that the Congress will return to power and cited the overwhelming response to his tour. Bengaluru: Goa chief minister, Manohar Parrikar's categorical statement that Goa was not in favour of any out-of-court settlement on the Mahadayi issue came under serious attack from politicians from the Gadag district where the Mahadayi agitation is on. Leading from the front, RDPR minister, H.K. Patil on Thursday demanded that BJP leaders like Jagadish Shettar, Prahlad Joshi and B.S. Yeddyurappa whom Mr Patil alleged, had mislead the public over the Mahadayi issue, should resign from the postitions they were holding. On Wednesday, Mr Patil said Mr Parrikar's statement exposed the BJP's bundle of lies. "Since BJP misleads the farmers of north Karnataka, they have no moral right to seek votes in that region," Mr Patil said. He said the BJP was known for such mischief and such acts would not benefit the state. "In the Mahadayi river, 220 tmc water is available and the state has every right to utilise 45 tmc of water. The Goa government's decision not to share water is against the principles of the federal system," he added. JD (S) MLA, Kona Reddy too echoed similar views in a press conference held separately. A few weeks ago, Yeddyurappa had claimed that Goa CM Parrikar had expressed his willingness to release water from the Mahadayi for parched north Karnataka but the Goa BJP later dismissed such claims. Hyderabad: TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy promised socio-economic and political empowerment of Goud community if the Congress was voted to power in 2019. At a public meeting organised by Telangana Goud Sangham, Mr Reddy said the Congress and the Goud community had been together for decades. The Congress always gave importance to the Goud community and nominated its members to various posts. He said if voted to power, the Congress would provide 5 acres of land to each of the nearly 8,000 toddy tappers cooperative societies. In case government land was not available, it would be purchased from private persons. He also promised that on the lines of Gujarat and Kerala, toddy would be taken away from the excise department and made part of Village Khadi Board. He added that the licence period for toddy sale would be doubled to 10 years. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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 US 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 PM, 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 A new twist of events may scuttle President Donald Trumps strategy for ending the longest war in US history. By suspending nearly all military assistance to Pakistan, Trump has literally taken a gamble in what the entire world views as a complex conflict in Afghanistan. In a tweet that reflected unwanted diplomatic brinkmanship, he assailed Pakistan for fooling the US for years and giving the Americans nothing but lies and deceit in return for $33 billion in military and development assistance over the past one and a half decade. As for the aid figure he received from the Congressional Research Service, it is factually erroneous. The agency documents allocated aid, not the funds actually dispersed. His tempestuous post has warmed the cockles of Kabul officialdoms heart. They have long been urging the US to coerce Pakistan into honouring its commitments to cracking down on militants, who are attacking military and civilian targets in Afghanistan. For obvious reasons, they are euphoric about the denial of more than a billion dollars in US aid to Pakistan. Unable to deal with security, economic and political challenges on the domestic front, the Afghan government wants the US to play hardball with Pakistan over the issue of terrorism. But they tend to lose sight of the patent reality that pressure tactics, including the aid freeze, will in no way contribute to stabilising Afghanistan. Trumps decision stands in sharp contradiction to his characterisation of Pakistan as a key ally in the campaign against militant outfits, notably in Afghanistan. Despite an uptick in air strikes by US-led coalition and Afghan forces, the Taliban and the militant Islamic State group continue to make territorial gains and stage high-profile attacks. Last weeks deadly assault in Kabul is a case in point. At least 20 policemen and civilians lost their lives in the massive suicide bombing, reportedly claimed by the ISIS, which left 27 people wounded. With the suspension of security assistance, Washington has upped the ante in bullying Islamabad to change its policy towards Kabul. The move, however, does not seem to take into consideration Pakistans crucial role in achieving a political settlement in the war-torn neighbour. In fact, an arm-twisting approach risks escalating tensions and impeding peace efforts. Over the past 17 years, strong-arm tactics have only led to mistrust something that has torpedoed efforts at eradicating terrorism. With this in mind, the Trump administration should resist calls for imposing more restrictions on Pakistan. A tit-for-tat response from Pakistan closing supply lines for Nato troops and blocking its airspace for the Americans will ramp up the cost of the war. Although the US is trying to build flexibility into the ground lines of communications to avoid overreliance on a single option, Pakistan remains critical to the delivery of supplies to the 14,000 US forces based in Afghanistan. Washingtons confrontationist posture has only added to the complexity of political stand-off with Islamabad over its new policy that was rolled out in August 2017. Subsequent visits to Islamabad by secretary of state Rex Tillerson and defence secretary Jim Mattis failed to win Pakistans support for the military mission across the border. If American claims about the presence of Afghan Taliban and Haqqani leaders in Pakistan are true, Islamabad can nudge the militants to the negotiating table. For peace talks to resume, the US should shun counter-productive measures that can harm its rollercoaster relationship with Islamabad. Unconvinced by Pakistans narrative, the US military may step up drone strikes against rebel networks in the tribal region. Such raids, however, could result in collateral damage and denunciation of the Trump administration from human rights watchdogs. For a reality check, Trump should take a look at the Global Terrorism Index report, which notes a marked decline in terrorism in Pakistan since 2014. The fall is essentially linked to military operations in the tribal belt. Barack Obama had also withheld millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan in 2011 and 2016 a plan that fizzled out. Having already experienced many US aid cuts in previous years, Pakistan will manage to ride out the present crisis. But it should not rule out even harsher actions from an American President known for his hair-trigger temper. As things stand, America must accept the fact it is losing the war in Afghanistan and allies around the globe. Surprisingly, Trump is spoiling for a fight with North Korea and Iran at a time when the Afghan Taliban are on the march and the Ghani government is on the retreat. By arrangement with Dawn The Supreme Court has ordered the appointment of a new three-member Special Investigating Team to probe 186 anti-Sikh riot cases. Judicial intervention is possibly the only way the families of the victims and survivors who suffered trauma in late-1984 can get a modicum of justice. These cases were closed by an earlier SIT without any probe conducted, that was established after judicial scrutiny by a court-appointed supervisory panel. Theres no clarity on what can be expected from fresh probes over 33 years after one of the most shameful moments in free Indias history. But theres no question that the cases, shoddily handled by investigators till now, must be pursued. At least 3,325 people were killed, with Delhi alone accounting for 2,733 deaths. Its curious, though, that despite 12 inquiry panels being appointed, theres no reason to believe that the victims have got justice. Beyond the question of how long the fresh probes will continue and whether the Supreme Court can expect time-bound results after a transparent inquiry, its more important to ensure that the families of victims and survivors have been adequately compensated, even if the riots were in reaction to the assassination of a titanic national leader. While a formal apology may do its bit to assuage the hurt sentiments of a major community which bore the brunt, theres no doubt that amelioration will lie in the government examining thoroughly if adequate compensation in money and jobs had been provided. The politics over the fallout of the terrible events of history will grind on, but it must not be allowed to get in the way of delivering justice to the victims. In an unprecedented step that has serious implications for the administration of justice in the country, the four seniormost Supreme Court judges after the Chief Justice of India held a press conference on Friday to vent serious concern over connected issues that have a bearing on the independence of the judiciary, a cornerstone of democracy. Top judges of the Supreme Court had resigned in the 1970s when the government superseded them to elevate Justice A.N. Ray to CJI. In that case of tailor-making the CJI, the surrender of judicial independence was implied. In the present case, judicial integrity and independence are more direct considerations. Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi (next in line to be Chief Justice), Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph told the media that they had met CJI Dipak Misra earlier in the day to convey their concerns, urging him to set matters right. However, according to them, the CJI did not pay heed. At that point they said they felt they had no recourse but to address the public through the press in discharge of their debt to the nation. They also released a seven-page letter they had addressed to the CJI. Making an official letter public is a matter of debate, as much as holding a press conference, which is probably unprecedented anywhere in the world. But there can be no getting away from the concerns raised by the senior judges. These are basically two the allocation and strength of a bench to deal with different kinds of cases, and not regarding as final the memorandum of procedure sent to the government by CJI Misras predecessor in March 2017 (after consultations within the five-judge collegium) and endorsed through a judicial order. The stark suggestion is that cases are being allocated and benches being constituted by the CJI in an arbitrary manner, without regard for convention, in order to obtain pre-determined outcomes. This is a grave matter. It is implied here that this is a way to appease the executive. It appears hearing the case of the mysterious death of CBI judge B.H. Loya, who was trying the Sohrabuddin murder case in which Amit Shah, now BJP president, was an accused, has been posted for Monday in the court of a relatively junior SC judge. On the subject of the memorandum of procedure (for the appointment and transfer of high court and Supreme Court judges), the senior judges indicate that the present CJI has spoken of its finalisation, although it has already been finalised. CJI Misras stance thus presumably leaves room for governmental interference in appointing and transferring judges. At this stage only the CJI can resolve the knotty issues through an act of statesmanship. Parliament and the executive should avoid the temptation to intervene. That can politicise issues, a disquieting thought. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to wing it to frosty Davos for the World Economic Forums annual meeting later this month, his bete-noire Congress president Rahul Gandhi decided to be different and spend the coming week in his parliamentary constituency of Amethi, in rural Uttar Pradesh. Both seek inspiration and support. But from very different sources. As usual, bombast is expected to rule at Davos. Consider the title of this years meet Creating a shared future in a fractured world. It completely obfuscates the fact that everything the world has done over the past 40 years has conspired to keep the majority share of the fruits of development within the elites. The rising inequality and congealing wealth at the very top is witness to the failure of the open economy model to deliver growth benefits across the population. Chinas President Xi Jinping contested this proposition in his address at Davos last year. Yes, China has lifted 700 million people out of poverty more than any other nation. But relative poverty has increased even in China. As if this was not enough, automation and artificial intelligence shall, over the next two decades, push ever greater masses of unfortunates outside the virtuous cycle of income enrichment. This is a prime concern for India, with 60 per cent of our current population less than 31 years of age. It doesnt end there. Once we create this dystopian world in which the few, engaged humans work within the insulated eco-system of high tech, the large mass of humanity will be on the outside looking in. They would be fed by subsidies thrown at them. Consider that block chain if applied widely to everyday transactions can scupper the employment of auditors, accountants, lawyers and judges all of whom earn a living out of the problem of authenticating facts. Possibly, the efficiency benefits of automation may be high enough to finance generous handouts to the losers. But it would be a sorry society surviving on aid, rather than individual effort. We know already how debilitating aid dependency is. This model of growth is not sustainable and needs to be junked. But it is unclear what should replace it. Davos is unlikely to help in that direction. There is never time at Davos to get beyond the breaking news. Consider also the assertion that the world is a more fractured place today that it was a few years ago. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just last year at Davos, China, a habitual outlier, took the lead to reinforce the need for world integration. Compare this with the China of just 40 years ago which was not even a member of the World Bank, and which joined the World Trade Organisation only in 2001. The rapid increase in the share of domestic GDP exported today is another indication that the world has shrunk, not fractured. Davos is more about striking deals than philosophising about the world order. Prime Minster Modi is a consummate deal-maker. So, expect some significant commercial action at Davos. After all, Davos is not the United Nations, where nations talk at each other. It is a forum for leveraging business opportunities through public-private partnerships. India has already thrown its hat into the ring of frugal innovation in space technology, with our Mars mission. Davos would be a good opportunity to emphasise the peaceful development of missile technology by India in stark and sharp contrast to China, Pakistan and North Korea. No country has taken steps, on the scale we have, to root out corruption using digital technology, banked transactions and the Goods and Services Tax. These have together negatively impacted economic growth in the short term. To be sure, there have been glitches along the way. But steadfast remedial action is delivering financial inclusion for all. This is more than just an economic revolution since it goes to the heart of culture and social practices. Mr Modi was one of the first to warn the developed world that terrorism was a hydra which strikes rich and poor alike. India has for long suffered cross-border terrorism, which seeks to offer an alternative religious goal to Indian Muslims, who are a significant minority. India was a secular country even before the term secular was inserted into our preamble of our Constitution during the Emergency by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Also, India has never been a socialist country, even though that term was inserted into the Constitution at the same time. Land ownership has always been personal in India. The concept of property rights is deeply embedded into our culture. The state-owned industrial monoliths the visible outcomes of socialism and the entire employment in the government sector, has never exceeded around five per cent of total employment. Its the spirit of entrepreneurship which the government is trying to liberate, facilitated by light touch regulation, the rule of law and supportive infrastructure. US President Donald Trump seems to have upset Prime Minister Modis moment at WEF. The ebullient and volatile POTUS is likely garner all the sunshine. But Mr Modi is sure to use their joint appearance at Davos. He will fashion events and his remarks in a manner which point to a genuine partnership between the United States, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia and India. Together, these economic actors contribute nearly two-thirds of the current world GDP. More important, they share some institutional and cultural attributes, which even by the jaded standards of today, can be called morally superior like due regard for citizens rights and a commitment to enhancing the transparency with which the State functions. Davos will be a tough challenge for Prime Minister Modi. He needs a credible story to explain why growth the holy grail of the Davos crowd has lagged in India even as growth has picked up world-wide. It would be great if he could substantiate that while headline growth has lagged, shared growth has increased. That, after all, is the model the World Economic Forum is looking for. Rajnikan and Rajnikant Were offered a bleak choice. They were asked if opposites Could speak with just one voice They said it was impossible They were an Indian pair Though one said Cant and one said Can Throughout their sacred nations span Of history contradiction was the plan Of classical despair.... From Hey Bhagwan What About Hindustan by Bachchoo This week, amid a lot of manufactured enthusiasm, Theresa May, the hanging-by-a-thread Prime Minister of the UK, announced a Cabinet reshuffle. In the Brexit referendum she was a Remainer but switched sides to gain the leadership. She then recruited with one exception, leaders of the Leave campaign to high Cabinet positions and there theyve stayed. These leavers are not prophets who see great prosperity for the population after leaving the EU, but calculating politicians appealing to the little Britain lobby, the straightforward xenophobes, others who hark back to an era of Britains haughty imperial independence and still others who are intellectually challenged and bought the lying promise that milk and honey would flow if they voted leave. Theresa, trapped in the divided politics of the Tory Party announced this reshuffle promising that her Cabinet would reflect contemporary Britain. That was the PR. Her arithmetic didnt stretch to appointing 48 per cent of Remainers to her Cabinet to reflect the way the country voted in the referendum. It only meant more women and some token ethnic minority MPs would be promoted to junior, by and large token positions. The Big Brexibeasts stayed firmly in place. The pledge to appoint women ended up in two more being recruited to the ranks of the senior Cabinet and three ethnic-minority-wallahs being given positions in junior roles. Starting with the premise that all politicians in a democratic system are hustlers, from Brutus and Cassius to Boris Johnson and Michael Gove (both waiting with knives in their cloaks), we can make an assessment of the rise of the British Asians to positions of some stamp if not actual power. Sajid Javid retained his position as the Cabinet housing minister. Sajid and his brother Atif are the sons of a Mirpuri father who came to Britain and got employment as a bus driver. They studied, worked hard and both brothers went into investment and finance. It is not surprising that Sajid landed up in the Tory Party and made his way in it. What is surprising is that while he is minister for housing with recently renewed pledges from Theresa May to spend government subsidies of billions of pounds on new housing, she has nominated Sajid. One of his responsibilities will be to put restrictions on the rented housing sector. The press is beginning to wonder if this is a wise PR choice as Atif Javid runs a property company, which runs a fund for buy-to-let customers. There is no conflict of interest so far. But will the brothers remain friends? The sons of Pakistani bus-drivers and conductors have done well. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan is one such and Zubin Mehta.... er..no sorry, wrong kind of conductor! After the Second World War two historical trends entered the definition of Britain. The electorate who had fought for King and country voted in a Labour government, defeating the war hero Churchill. Labour reformed education and health provision for all and there was born an optimism that the rigidities of class would be eroded. The aspiration and the provision of some opportunity resulted in the partial rise of a meritocracy with the sons and daughters of the working class going to universities and occupying the professions. At the same time, coincident with decolonisation, the reluctance of the British working class to undertake the jobs at the bottom of the employment ladder, made space for immigration from the colonies. The Javid brothers and Sadiq are evidence of the ambition of immigrants to use the meritocratic climbing frame to get into the professions and succeed in politics. Priti Patel, a Tory minister who resigned because of indiscretion and maverick conceit last year, is also a product of this meritocratic trend. Her parents were, or possibly still are, Gujarati corner-shop owners. Two new additions to the junior ranks of the Tory cabinet are Nusrat Ghani and Suella Fernandes. Nusrat is an apparatchik in the department of transport and Fernandes has been assigned to the Brexit department to lend weight to the team stuck in the quicksand of negotiations with the EU, with British business and with dissenters within her party. Neither Ghani nor Fernandes were born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths. Ghani is the daughter of immigrants from Mirpur and Fernandes is the daughter of parents who came to Britain from India via Kenya after the nationalist African governments began purges of Asians. Ghani and Fernandes espoused the competitive, rewards-for-achievers Tory ideology, presumably through privations and aspirational promptings of their immigrant backgrounds. Ghani stood in 2010 for election in Birmingham Ladywood, a constituency with a large Muslim working class population and lost to Shabana Mahmood, the Labour party candidate. In the 2015 election she won a parliamentary seat from the constituency of Wealden. Suella Fernandes stood as Tory candidate in 2005 in Leicester, another constituency where the ethnic vote is decisive and lost to Keith Vaz, an Indian Christian. She went on to be nominated as a candidate for Fareham in Hampshire, a very white constituency, in 2015 and was duly elected. Wealdon and Fareham are constituencies which have negligible numbers of ethnic voters. They are inclined to vote Tory. The election of Ghani and Fernandes indicates that these Tory constituencies are voting on ideological lines and dont care if the Tory candidate is a woman, is brown, black or is a transgender Walrus. The same cant be said of very many Labour constituencies with ethnic MPs who are elected with substantial appeals in their manifestoes to their religious affiliations (almost inevitably to Islam) and their ethnicity. But thats another story = and worth telling. Anderson Cooper delivered an emotional tribute and defense of Haiti after President Donald Trump's remarks referring to Haiti and some nations in Africa as "shithole countries." "Let me be clear, the people of Haiti have been through more, withstood more, fought back against more injustice than our President ever has," Cooper said. Cooper ended his prime time program by reflecting on his longstanding relationship with Haiti. "I was taught math in high school by a Haitian immigrant named Yves Volel, who worked hard, dedicated himself to teaching kids," he said. "He ultimately returned to Haiti and was assassinated while running for president." Cooper added that he has frequently traveled to Haiti, both professionally and personally. "I first went there in the early 1990s as a young reporter," he said. "In 2010 my team from CNN was the first international team of journalists on the ground after the earthquake struck. Like all countries, Haiti is a collection of people -- rich and poor, well educated and not, good and bad." Cooper went on to talk about the strength and resilience of the Haitian people. "I have never met a Haitian who isn't strong," Cooper said. "You have to be to survive in a place where the government has often abandoned its people. Where opportunities are few and where Mother Nature has punished the people far more than anyone should ever be punished." Friday will mark eight years since the poverty-stricken nation was hit by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. Cooper cited the significance of the anniversary and recounted his coverage of the 2010 earthquake. "For days and weeks without help from their government or police, the people of Haiti dug through rubble with their bare and bloodied hands to save complete strangers -- guided only by the cries of the wounded and the dying," Cooper said. "I was there when a young girl named Bee who'd been trapped in rubble for nearly a day was rescued by people who had no heavy equipment ... they just had their God-given strength and their determination ... and their courage." Cooper became emotional as he tried to continue to share rescue stories from the devastating earthquake. "I was there when a 5-year-old boy named Monley was rescued after being buried for more than seven days. Do you know what strength it takes to survive on rainwater buried under concrete -- a 5-year-old boy?" Cooper concluded his tribute by saying that the White House can learn from the dignity expressed by Haitian people. "Haitians slap your hand hard when they shake it," Cooper said. "They look you in the eye, they do not blink. They stand tall. They have dignity. A dignity many in this White House could learn from. A dignity the President with all his money and power could learn from as well. On the eve of the anniversary of the earthquake, on this day when this President has said what he has about Haitians, we hope the people in Haiti listening tonight in Port au Prince and Jacmel, and Miami and elsewhere -- we hope they know our thoughts are with them, and our love is with them." CHENNAI: K.Sivan, the newly appointed chairman of prestigious Indian Space Research Organisation had to overcome several challenges even before finishing his school as he hailed from the very poor family from Sarakkalvilai near Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district. His brother stopped his education to enable him to continue his higher studies and Mr.Sivan himself as a class 9 student sold mangoes in the nearby market to pay his school fees. A day after his appointment as Isro chairman, the renowned rocket scientist has shared his difficult childhood and student days in an exclusive interview with Deccan Chronicle on Thursday. I came from a very poor family. My elder brother stopped his education to enable me to pursue higher studies. My father Kailasa Vadivu who was a farmer used to sell Mangoes in a market. I used to carry mangoes on a bicycle to the market and sell it to pay my tuition fees, he recollected about his early child hood days. He did his primary schooling at government elementary schools in Sarakkalvilai and then went to high school near his village. After graduating from Hindu College in Nagercoil he moved to Madras Institute of Technology for B.Tech in Aeronautical engineering. I pursued my higher studies with the scholarships. My father sold some of our family lands to fund my education. my father Kailasa Vadivu and mother Chellam is no more, he said. In MIT, professors like S.Narasimman, N.S. Venkatraman, A.Nagarajan, R.Dhanaraj and K.Jayaraman inspired and guided him. Unfortunately, some of his professors are no more. We were known as thrimoorthies in the college as three of us were bearing the names of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. His colleagues are pointing out that he is an expert in flight trajectory guidance and control software. I wrote software called Sitara which was used in the launch vehicles to control the rockets trajectory, Mr.Sivan said. This software earned him fame within the space organisation. After the failure of GSLV rocket with an indigenous cryogenic engine, he was handed over the responsibility to correct the errors in the engine. The success of GSLV rocket with an indigenous cryogenic engine was a significant milestone. Our team work has made it possible the success, he added. He has also helmed the project team which is developing reusable launch vehicles before becoming the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. He also wrote a book on the integrated design of space transportation system jointly with another famous scientist and former director of VSSC B.N.Suresh. When asked about his vision for the space organization Mr.Sivan said, Many future missions were already decided and we want to complete those missions. I want to develop satellites with more societal applications, he said. TN leaders congratulate new Isro chief Sivan Congratulations poured in for Isros new chief K. Sivan from Tamil Nadu's political leaders on Thursday. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Opposition leader M. K. Stalin and PMK chief S. Ramadoss wished Sivan on his new role. Sivan, who hails from Kanyakumari district, was on Wednesday appointed as chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). In his message sent to the eminent scientist, Palaniswami said it is a matter of pride for Tamil Nadu that a person from our state has attained such a high position through ability and dint of hard work. It is a fitting recognition of your long and distinguished career in space research. On behalf of the people and Government of Tamil Nadu, I congratulate you on your elevation and wish you all success in your new position, the Chief Minister said in his message. In a message posted on his Twitter page, Stalin wished Sivan extraordinary success in his efforts to take our nation's space establishment to further heights. In a release, Ramadoss said it was proud moment for Tamil Nadu since a person from the state will now head Isro. Since he will head the Isro, Sivan should take steps to announce Mahendragiri Research Centre as a standalone research institute and set up a launch pad at Kulasekarapattinam. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. WhatsApp Messenger, which has made our lives easier and connected people like never before seems to be making headlines yet again. The Facebook-owned messaging platform has time and again claimed that its end-to-end encryption is impeccable and the users are at no data breach risk. But according to a report by wired.com, cryptographers from Germany addressed the issue at 'Real World Crypto Security Conference' on January 10 and said that anyone who controls the app's servers could insert new people into private group chats without needing admin permission. Paul Rosler, one of the researchers reportedly said,"The confidentiality of the group is broken as soon as the uninvited member can obtain all the new messages and read them." Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos replied to the claims by the researchers and tweeted: "There is no secret way into WhatsApp groups chats." In a statement to IANS on Thursday, a WhatsApp spokesperson said: "We've looked at this issue carefully. Existing members are notified when new people are added to a WhatsApp group. We built WhatsApp so group messages cannot be sent to a hidden user. The privacy and security of our users are incredibly important to WhatsApp. It's why we collect very little information and all messages sent on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted." Facebook-owned WhatsApp added end-to-end encryption to every conversation two years ago. WhatsApp is also testing a feature where it will likely 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. 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. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Nokia is expected to launch a stream of new devices this year, namely the Nokia 4, Nokia 7 Plus, and the Nokia 1 which is an entry-level model that's expected to be the first Android Oreo Go Edition (lighter version of Android Oreo to run apps smoothly) device of Nokia. A picture of the Nokia 1 device just got leaked Chinese internet. The popped out picture gives us the rear shell of the device. According to the picture, the phone could be the real deal and possibly made of plastic or polycarbonate materials, this one is styled according to other mid-range Nokia devices. The camera and flash cutout are in a protruding oval module and has the Nokia branding in the centre. and the Nokia 1 will likely feature a 720 x 1280-pixel IPS LCD display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage. The phone might be equipped with a Snapdragon 400-series or MediaTek chipset. As for pricing, Nokia 1 might launch at about Rs 6,000 in India by March, this year. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Trump said he wanted people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met and held a press conference with on Wednesday. (Photo: File) Washington: US President Donald Trump slammed his lawmakers on Friday in a meeting about proposals for immigration reform. He reportedly asked senators why the US has to shoulder the burden of refugees coming to the country after Third World natural disasters, when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvadore and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump said, referring to African countries and Haiti, according to media reports. He also added that US does not need more Haitians and instructed his team to take them out. Trump said he wanted people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met and held a press conference with on Wednesday. 'Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!,' Trump said on Twitter. (Photo: File) Washington: US President Donald Trump cancelled a visit to London scheduled for early this year, saying he was disappointed with the "Obama administration having sold" the US embassy in the British capital. "(The) 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 1.2 billion dollars," Trump said in a tweet late on Thursday. However, the embassy website showed that the decision to move the location was taken months before Barack Obama took office in January 2009. The US Embassy & Consulates in the UK said in October 2008 the embassy would be relocated for security reasons. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!," Trump said on Twitter. The Daily Mail earlier reported the cancellation of Trump's UK visit in which he was expected to inaugurate the new embassy. The United States is leaving behind an imposing 1960 stone and concrete embassy in London's upmarket Grosvenor Square - an area known as 'Little America' during World War II, when the square also housed the military headquarters of General Dwight D Eisenhower. The new embassy on the South Bank is a veritable fortress set back at least 100 feet (30 meters) from surrounding buildings - mostly newly-erected high-rise residential blocks - and incorporating living quarters for the US Marines permanently stationed inside. The USD 1 billion construction, overlooking the River Thames, was wholly funded by the sale of other properties in London. Kim has warned the United States that he intends to build a nuclear arsenal capable of hitting the United States, prompting threats of military action by Washington. (Photo: AFP) Washington: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he "probably" has a very good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, a change in tone for Trump after exchanging insults with Kim over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. Trump has derided the North Korean leader as a "maniac" and referred to him as "little rocket man." Kim has responded by calling the US president a "mentally deranged US dotard." "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-Un," Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised." Kim has warned the United States that he intends to build a nuclear arsenal capable of hitting the United States, prompting threats of military action by Washington. Asked whether he has spoken with the North Korean leader, Trump told the newspaper: "I don't want to comment on it. I'm not saying I have or haven't. I just don't want to comment." In November, Trump said while on a trip to Vietnam that becoming friends with Kim "might be a strange thing to happen but it's a possibility." Kim, in a speech last week, said the "nuclear button is always on my desk," prompting Trump to respond in a tweet that his nuclear button is "a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" In the Journal interview, Trump suggested his combative tweets are part of a broader strategy. "You'll see that a lot with me," he said, "and then all of the sudden somebody's my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. I'm a very flexible person." Trump told the newspaper a decision by the United States and South Korea to postpone military exercises until after next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea "sends a good message to North Korea." North and South Korea held their first talks in two years on Tuesday. Trump told a news conference in Washington on Wednesday the United States would be willing to speak to Pyongyang "under the right circumstances." Dumala has been invited by Congressman Kevin Yoder to attend State of the Union address, an annual message presented by the US president to a joint session of the Congress. (Photo: AP) Washington: Sunayana Dumala, the wife of murderd Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla, has been invited to attend US President Donald Trump's maiden State of the Union address, a media report has said. Dumala's husband, Kuchibhotla, was shot dead in a hate crime by an American navy veteran at a bar in Olathe city last year. Dumala, 32, fell out of status because her permission to reside in the US was tied to Kuchibhotla through marriage but she managed to regain her residency status. She has been invited by Congressman Kevin Yoder to attend Trump's State of the Union address, an annual message presented by the US president to a joint session of the Congress. The State of the Union address will be held on January 30. "She is a very powerful symbol of who the system is failing," Yoder was quoted as saying in the report. "One of the reasons I have become so passionate about this immigration issue is that we need to send a message to the Indian community and other immigrant groups that we are a loving country that is welcome to all," said Yoder who is a member of the Congressional caucus on India and Indian Americans. Dumala said she now plans to travel to India to observe the first death anniversary of her husband. She said she has been overwhelmed by the response from friends, families, neighbours and strangers. "That answer was quick... it came like, 'You do belong here'," she said. Washington: The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee says he wanted to interview the president's daughter as part of the panels Russia investigation, along with other witnesses who Republicans arent inviting. Rep. Adam Schiff said Thursday that Republicans have declined to invite many witnesses that would be valuable to the probe, including Ivanka Trump and several people who he says have additional information about a June 2016 meeting between Russians and the Trump campaign. There are witnesses who have knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting and what it was about prior to the meeting that have not been brought before our committee, Schiff told reporters. At the Trump Tower meeting, several Trump campaign officials met with Russian operatives under the impression that they might receive damaging information about the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. The meeting has captured the interest of congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller. Assange has been living in the building in Knightsbridge, London since he was granted asylum there in 2012. (Photo: AFP) London: Ecuador has given citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the countrys London embassy for over five years, and is seeking a dignified and just solution to his situation with Britain. The British government said earlier on Thursday it had refused a request by Ecuador for Assange to be given diplomatic status as part of the South American countrys efforts to resolve his dilemma. Assange has been living in the building in Knightsbridge, London since he was granted asylum there in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations. Swedish prosecutors dropped their probe into the allegations but British police said Assange would be arrested for breaching bail conditions if he left the embassy. Assange, who denies the allegations, feared 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 US history. 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, Ecuadors foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa told a press conference. 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 did not give details on how granting Assange citizenship might help in avoiding his arrest by British police. 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. 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. The former computer hacker enraged Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables that laid bare often highly critical US appraisals of world leaders from Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Saudi royal family. The United Nations human rights office rejected as 'racist' and inciting xenophobia the reported remarks by US President Donald Trump describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from 'shithole' countries. (Photo: File) Geneva: The United Nations human rights office on Friday rejected as racist and inciting xenophobia the reported remarks by US President Donald Trump describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from shithole countries. Trump on Thursday questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as shithole countries, according to two sources familiar with the comments made in the White House. These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word one can use but racist, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing when asked about the comments. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as shitholes, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome, he added. The issue was more than vulgar language, Colville said. Its about opening the door to humanitys worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy lives of many people. Trump had also failed to clearly condemn the anti-Semitic and racist actions of white supremacists in Charlottesville at a rally in Virginia last August, Colville said. Read: Get people from Norway, not sh**hole countries: Trump on immigration The program that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status. In November, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua. It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalize their presence in the United States. Nicaraguans were given until January 2019. The future of the Dreamers should not be used as a bargaining chip to negotiate the most severe and restrictive immigration and security measures possible. These are human beings, not commodities, Colville said. Dreamers is term used for undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children. William Spindler, a UN refugee agency spokesman, declined to comment directly on Trumps purported remarks: But what I can say is that UNHCRs position is always that people forced to flee war or persecution, and needing asylum, should be given protection by whichever country they are in, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity or place or country of origin, Spindler said. The showroom offers a wide selection of vehicles from various makes and is staffed by women only. (Photo: AFP) Jeddah: 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 in late 2017, 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. Sunayana Dumala, the wife of slain Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla, has been invited to attend US President Donald Trump's maiden State of the Union address, a media report has said. Dumala's husband, Kuchibhotla, was shot dead in a hate crime by an American navy veteran at a bar in Olathe city last year. Dumala, 32, fell out of status because her permission to reside in the US was tied to Kuchibhotla through marriage but she managed to regain her residency status. She has been invited by Congressman Kevin Yoder to attend Trump's State of the Union address, an annual message presented by the US president to a joint session of the Congress. The State of the Union address will be held on January 30. "She is a very powerful symbol of who the system is failing," Yoder was quoted as saying in the report. "One of the reasons I have become so passionate about this immigration issue is that we need to send a message to the Indian community and other immigrant groups that we are a loving country that is welcome to all," said Yoder who is a member of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. Dumala said she now plans to travel to India to observe the first death anniversary of her husband. She said she has been overwhelmed by the response from friends, families, neighbours and strangers. "That answer was quick... it came like, 'You do belong here'," she said. Bus services returned to normal in Tamil Nadu today after transport workers withdrew their eight-day-old strike over wage-related issues. In a huge relief to the public, especially ahead of the harvest festival "Pongal" falling on January 14, buses were seen plying normally on roads since this morning. The government has declared a holiday today for schools and colleges in view of Pongal, resulting in five-day holidays for students. CITU leader A Soundarrajan had last night announced that the indefinite strike was being "temporarily" called off, shortly after the Madras High Court appointed an arbitrator to settle their wage dispute with the government. "The strike is being temporarily withdrawn keeping in mind the welfare of the people of the state," he had said, adding that workers would resume work from this morning. Workers of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), owing allegiance to 17 trade unions, including those affiliated to the DMK and Left parties, had launched the strike on January 4 following the failure of talks with the government on wage revision. While the unions wanted a 2.57 times hike, the government offered only 2.44, resulting in the stalemate. The workers struck work citing other demands also like pending dues for serving and retired personnel. The strike had severely crippled the public sector bus services causing immense hardship to the public, including office-goers in cities, though the government tried to maintain services by roping in temporary drivers and private buses. The AIADMK-backed union, besides some others, had not participated in the protests. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hailed ISRO scientists for the successful PSLV C-40 mission, saying the moment signifies the agency's achievements as well the country's "bright future" in the space programme. ISRO successfully launched India's weather observation satellite Cartosat 2 Series and 29 other spacecraft onboard its dependable Polar rocket PSLV-C40 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The launch by "@isro signifies both its glorious achievements and also the bright future of India's space programme," he said a tweet. The launch of the 100th satellite by @isro signifies both its glorious achievements, and also the bright future of India's space programme. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018 Extending his "heartiest congratulations" to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its scientists on today's achievement, Modi said the success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country's rapid strides in space technology to citizens, farmers and fishermen. Further, benefits of India's success "are available to our partners," he added. "Out of the 31 Satellites, 28 belonging to 6 other countries are carried by today's launch," he said in another tweet. Today's successful mission came after a rare failure in August last year when the PSLV-C39 could not release the backup navigation satellite IRNSS-1H due to a technical snag in the fourth and last stage. The DMK MP reportedly said "What is Lord Venkateswara; he is only God for the rich, while the poor languish in long queues. How can he save his devotees if he cannot save his own Hundi? If Lord Venkateswara is a real God with power, why he needs security". Karunasagar Kashimsetty an advocate and also president of Hindu Sanghathan located in Saidabad in his complaint to the police said that he read an article in a vernacular news paper, which quoted the MP saying, "Tirumala Venkanna Emee Devudu? (What God is Tirumala Venkanna) and was deeply hurt by her comments on the Lord. "Her comments have deeply hurt religious beliefs and devotion of crores of Hindus who believe him as God of Kaliyug," he said. The advocate seeking action on the DMK MP, argued that crores of devotees from all over the world worship Lord Venkateswara, Kanimozhi being an atheist has no right to question the religious beliefs of Hindus. "I have asked the police to register a case against her under IPC 295-A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), " he said. Saidabad circle inspector, Sathiaah has said that he would seek legal opinion before taking further action. A France-based hacker going by the pseudonym, Elliot Anderson, has reported a potentially massive security flaw in UIDAI's mAadhaar app that could allow malicious entities to steal a user's Aadhaar data and by extension, their identity. In a series of tweets, Anderson detailed the flaws of the mAadhaar app, starting with how the app stores information in a local database on the user's phone, which by itself is not a problem because that is how most apps work on Android. Hi #Aadhaar ! Can we talk about the #BenefitsOfAadhaar for the #India population? I quickly check your #android app on the #playstore and you have some security issues...It's super easy to get the password of the local database for example...https://t.co/acjp6tUjqs Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 10, 2018 On deeper inspection, Anderson found that the app saves the users' biometric data on the local database, whose password is generated using a random number with a hardcoded string with 123456789 as the seed. 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 Which was found to be the exact same code posted by a user on stack overflow as part of their query: Did they copy paste this https://t.co/5KKSysotQO? Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 10, 2018 Anderson then suggested removing the developer endpoint from the release application. It can be good also to remove the "developer" endpoint from the release apk... pic.twitter.com/3kNwIJUWRO Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 10, 2018 When the Aadhaar autopsy started to pick up steam on social media, Anderson was hit with a string of questions about the manner in which the password is generated. To that, Anderson posted a POC on github detailing the process: 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 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 Anderson looked into the official documentation and learnt that the app stores the user's ID, Aadhaar number, name, date of birth, address, gender and photo. According to the official documentation, https://t.co/fZz5p2cic2, EKYC Profile Data contains the following data: - User_Id - Aadhar_Id - Name - Dob - Gender - Address - Photo - ... pic.twitter.com/x1TI9uXXTM Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 11, 2018 Eventually, after a lot of digging, Anderson found the password salt used by the Aadhaar app, which was embarrasing, to say the least: Anderson decided to contact Khosla Labs, the company that made the Aadhaar app, to show them some of their glaring mistakes and oversights: Hi @KhoslaLabs, @UIDAI ! Let me show you the power of git. If an Android dev want to integrate AadhaarBridge in his #android app, he will visit this page: https://t.co/JNWD63dUe4 Because he is curious, he will click on the "SDK For Android" and the "Sample Application" pic.twitter.com/HKMpquY8yo Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 11, 2018 But oops! You removed the sample application (apk file) and the library (jar file) from the repo. I guess you want to discuss before giving him the info pic.twitter.com/abeQz8bi1y Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 11, 2018 But hey come on! This is a GIT repo, I just have to checkout on the correct commit to get the latest library and APK pic.twitter.com/hqUsJq1jQu Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) January 11, 2018 Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Friday directed the senior police officials of Malnad and coastal districts to take stringent action against those instigating communal violence in the region. Taking stock of law and order situation in the Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts in a meeting held with the senior police officials of the aforementioned districts at Police Commissioner's office here, the Home minister told the police to act tough against both Hindu and Muslim goondas. With the Assembly elections round the corner, the communal forces have become active. They try to gain political mileage by exploiting religious sentiments. The police should prepare a list of goons involved in creating communal disturbance and should constantly monitor their movements, The Home minister told the police officers. During the meeting, the Home minister obtained the detailed information from the police officers on the communal clashes reported in Karwar, Sirsi and Mangaluru city. The police officials also apprised the minister on a girl committing suicide due to the alleged harassment by the Bajarang Dal and BJP leaders in Mudigere. Mangaluru Police Commissioner T R Suresh, IGP (West zone) Arun Chakravarthy, Dakshina Kannada SP C H Sudhirkumar Reddy, Udupi SP Lakshman Nimbargi, Uttara Kannada SP Vinayak Patil, Chikkamagaluru Addl SP K H Jagadish among others were present in the meeting. Later in the day, to a query on banning the communal outfits, the Home minister said, "We have to take action against both Hindu and Muslim organisation involved in instigating religious sentiments. PFI, SDPI and a few Hindu outfits are said to have involved in creating communal disturbance in the coastal districts. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is busy touring state for Sadhana Samavesha. An appropriate decision will be taken once he returns from the tour." The Home minister heaped praise on the Dakshina Kannada police for arresting the culprits in three cases reported in the recent past. A soldier was injured in a landmine explosion near the Line of Control in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir, the Army said today. The soldier, who was part of patrolling team, was injured when he stepped on a landmine near the LoC on Wednesday, an Army official said. He said the injured soldier was evacuated to 92 Base Hospital of the Army here and his condition is now stable. The Supreme Court today posed searching questions to a petitioner seeking re-investigation in the assassination case of Mahatma Gandhi and asked him to satisfy it on aspects of delay and his locus to raise the issue. The apex court made it clear that it would go only by law and not the stature of the person involved in the case. A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao told the petitioner not to get carried away by the greatness of the person involved as the issue was whether there was any evidence available in the matter. "You (petitioner) have to answer a couple of very important points. One of them is delay. The other is locus. The third is the fact that because of the delay, every piece of evidence pertaining to the incident is lost," the bench said adding that almost all witnesses related to the case have passed away. The court was hearing a plea filed by Mumbai-based Dr Pankaj Phadnis, a researcher and a trustee of Abhinav Bharat, who has sought reopening of investigation on several grounds, claiming it was one of the biggest cover-ups in the history. Meanwhile, Phadnis requested for time to respond to the report filed by senior advocate Amarendra Sharan, who has been appointed as an amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter. Sharan, in his report filed in the court, has said there was no need to re-investigate Mahatma's assassination case as the conspiracy behind the murder and identity of assailant Nathuram Vinayak Godse who had fired the bullets have already been duly established. The bench granted four weeks time to the petitioner to file his response to the report of the amicus. During the hearing, the bench told the petitioner that the issue was whether any admissible evidence was available at present. Sharan, in his report filed in the court, has said claims regarding existence of British special intelligence unit by the name 'Force 136' and its alleged role in the assassination was not substantiated. The report has said that records of the case established that an independent judiciary had adjudged the crimes of Nathuram Vinayak Godse and other accused in the matter and justice was served. "The bullets which pierced Mahatma Gandhi's body, the pistol from which it was fired, the assailant who fired the said bullets, the conspiracy which led to the assassination and the ideology which led to the said assassination have all been duly identified," the report has said. The petitioner has questioned the 'three bullet theory' relied upon by various courts to hold conviction of accused Godse and Apte, who were hanged, and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who was given benefit of doubt due to lack of evidence. Regarding the claim by the petitioner about the alleged fourth bullet, the amicus has said that as per records of the case, only three empty cartridges and two spent bullets were found at the place of occurrence and no fourth spent bullet or empty cartridge was found from there. The report has also said Godse was arrested at the spot with the murder weapon, a semi automatic Beretta pistol which could load seven cartridges at a time, and the records suggested that only three bullets were fired. Phadnis has challenged the decision of the Bombay High Court which on June 6, 2016 had dismissed his PIL on two grounds -- firstly, that the findings of fact have been recorded by the competent court and confirmed right up to the apex court, and secondly, the Kapur Commission has submitted its report and made observations in 1969, while the present petition has been filed 46 years later. 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. The UK judge presiding over the extradition trial of Vijay Mallya has granted bail to the embattled liquor baron till April 2 as she heard arguments from the defence against the admissibility of evidence presented by the Indian government. 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 left India in March, 2016. 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. Mallya's hearing yesterday 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) is expected to respond at the next hearing itself after the defence concludes its arguments. That hearing date is yet to be determined but expected within the next three weeks. The 62-year-old was back in the dock at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London as his defence team laid out arguments against the admissibility of much of the evidence presented by the Indian government. 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 Thursdays 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 the investigating officers in the case. She pointed to over 150 pages of "near identical material" purporting to be statements 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 and 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. 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. 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 Jammu and Kashmir government today said 51 people were killed and over 9,000 injured, including over 6,000 due to pellets, during the eight months-long unrest in Kashmir after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in 2016. In a written reply to the question of a National Conference MLA in the state Assembly, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said 51 people were killed in Kashmir division from July 8, 2016, to February 27, 2017, in the unrest. She said 9,042 people were injured in the firing of bullets, pellets, Pava-shells and others during the period. Of these, 6,221 were injured due to pellets, 368 due to bullets, four due to Pava shells and 2,449 suffered other injuries, she said. As many as 782 suffered eye injuries of which 510 were hospitalised, she said, adding that 5,197 cases of pellet injuries were treated at district hospitals and the rest were referred to super speciality hospitals. The highest number of deaths--16--took place in Anantnag district followed by 13 in Kulgam district, 7 in Pulwama and 5 in Kupwara, Mufti added. Donald Trump has cancelled a "working visit" to the UK planned for next month to officially launch a new US embassy, blaming a "bad deal" struck by the previous Obama-administration to relocate the base from central London to an "off location". The US president launched his attack on Twitter against the embassy's move from Grosvenor Square in the posh Mayfair area of the city to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, in a 1.2 billion dollar project. 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!". US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will now step in for the launch of the new embassy site, which will open to staff on January 16. The short visit by Trump in February was not the full State Visit proposed by British Prime Minister Theresa May on the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II, for which no date has yet been set. Downing Street has declined to comment on Trump's cancellation of the working visit to the UK. Sections of the UK media claim that the visit was cancelled amid fears of mass protests as the embassy's plan to move from Mayfair to Nine Elms in London pre-dated the Barack Obama administration and was first reported in October 2008, when George W Bush was still the president. The new building will open on January 16. Citing security and environmental reasons, the US State Department had agreed to sell the current embassy building in Grosvenor Square to the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co, which intends to turn it into a luxury hotel. 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". Trump had also been scheduled to hold talks with Theresa May in No 10 Downing Street, with February 26 and 27 marked in the diary for the visit. Downing Street had hoped to announce the dates this week. The working visit cancellation follows a strain in UK-US relations, with May criticising Trump's decision to retweet material posted by the far-right extremist group, Britain First, last November. Trump had responded by tweeting directly to the British PM that she should focus on tackling domestic terrorism. Though China is exerting pressure along the northern border, India is not a weak nation that it cannot defend itself, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat asserted on Friday. "Though China is a powerful country, we are not a weak nation either. We are capable of handling the assertiveness from the Chinese military," Gen Rawat said here during his annual media interaction ahead of Army Day. The increased Chinese transgression stems from the fact that Indian troops have stepped up patrolling along the northern borders, even covering areas not visited by them in the past. "We have increased the troops at Ladakh and they are patrolling more frequently. Due to increased patrolling, there are sometimes engagements and clash. They (China) have also increased their patrolling because of which there now appears to be more transgression," he said. For instance, in 2017 there were 415 instances of transgressions from the Chinese side as against 271 a year before. Similarly there were 146 face-offs between Indian and Chinese border guarding troops in 2016, but the number rose to 216 in 2017. The 3,488-km Line of Actual Control between India and China is a disputed and non-demarcated boundary where transgressions occur because of the two countries' "different perception" about the border. "We need to shift our focus to the northern border where infrastructure development has to be accelerated. For too long we focussed on the western border," he said. On the Doklam stand-off, Gen Rawat said there was always the possibility of Chinese troops returning once the snow melted as large number of items, including cots for People's Liberation Army soldiers, were left behind in the pre-fabricated structures that were set up for the PLA troops to stay in harsh weather. Big advantage Asked about the Tuting road construction incident in which a Chinese team entered almost 800 mt inside the Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh, he said the intrusion appeared to be a case of a mistaken alignment (of a road) that was sorted out. "We are in the commanding position in the Siang valley (in Arunachal). Along the northern border, we have tremendous advantage. The situation is not similar to 1962," the Army Chief said, referring to the war five and a half decades ago that India lost to China. India has extended a fresh financial assistance of USD 45.27 million for upgrading Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour in northern Sri Lanka into a commercial port and strengthening the country's efforts to become a regional maritime hub. Sri Lanka's Ministry of Finance and Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) signed an agreement in this regard on January 10, the Indian High Commission said. "An agreement for Indian financial assistance for USD 45.27 million (LKR 6.9 billion) for upgrading Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour was signed on January 10 in New Delhi by David Rasquinha, Managing Director, Export-Import Bank of India and RHS Samaratunga, Secretary to Treasury of Sri Lanka," the statement said. The upgrade project would make KKS Harbour a full-fledged commercial port, further strengthening Sri Lanka's efforts to become a regional maritime hub, the statement said. It would also assist in reconstruction efforts in northern Sri Lanka. In terms of the MoU between India and Sri Lanka for rehabilitation of KKS Harbour, four out of the six phases of the rehabilitation have already been completed under India's grant assistance. This includes preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR), works related to Geotechnical studies, wreck removal and disposal, dredging and hydrographic survey. The fresh assistance of USD 45.27 million would be used for the remaining two phases involving works relating to the rehabilitation of the breakwater and existing pier, construction of a new pier for commercial cargo handling, installation of port infrastructure facilities, etc. "The signing of the MoU is a reflection of the continued commitment of Government of India to assist Sri Lanka in its development journey," the statement said. The KKS port was rendered useless after the LTTE attacked it during the civil war. The port was key in connecting the Jaffna peninsula with the rest of Sri Lanka and also India. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today indicated that the film "Padmavat" will not be allowed to be released in his state. The film is likely to release on January 25. Asked if the film would be banned in Madhya Pradesh, Chouhan told reporters today, "Jo Kaha tha, wo hoga (What I had said, will happen)." However, he did not clarify. Chouhan was talking to reporters after attending a state-level mass `Surya Namaskar and Pranayam' event organised to mark the birth anniversary of spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda. The film has received a clearance from the Central Board for Film Certification after the change of title and some script modifications. While speaking to some members of the Rajput community on November 20 last year, Chouhan had made it clear that the film would not be allowed to release in the state if it contains scenes "breaching the honour" of the Rajput queen Padmavati or features "distorted facts". "We will not tolerate any distortion of historical facts. The entire country is speaking in one voice that historical facts were distorted (in the movie)," he had said. The film is mired in controversy after some Rajput groups opposed it. The period romance featuring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in lead roles was earlier scheduled to be released on December 1. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has a companion in Nepal when it comes to facing trouble from colleagues. If the press conference of four Supreme Court judges putting Chief Justice Dipak Mishra in the line of fire rocked the country on Friday, Nepal had its share of shock two days ago when its Supreme Court ordered a probe against its Chief Justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli. While Misra is facing accusation from his brother judges over allocation of work to benches of his "preference" and over-all administration of the apex court, Parajuli is at the eye of a controversy over his citizenship and date of birth. On Wednesday, a bench comprising Justices Purushottam Bhandari and Bam Kumar Shrestha of Nepal Supreme Court ordered investigation into the authenticity of Justice Parajuli's citizenship document and education certificates. This came during a contempt of court case against an activist Dr Govinda KC, who had alleged that Justice Parajuli was "corrupt". Nepal media has reported that Parajuli had instructed a Supreme Court staff to file a contempt case against the activist, who was "critical of the apex court's controversial rulings" affecting medical education sector. The court also ordered the release of the activist. Parajuli is accused of possessing two citizenship cards procured through fraud and that he changed his date of birth in the second one to enable him to assume the post of Chief Justice. While a number of senior judges have favoured an investigation against the Chief Justice of Nepal, Nepal Times and Himalayan Times reported that there are also calls from a section of jurists that Justice Parajuli should resign from the post. Presenting a long list of judgements made by the court in favour of private medical colleges, Kathmandu Post reported, the activist had accused the judiciary of serving the interests of "mafias and medical college owners". Over 70 activists of the Rajasthan- based Karni Sena were detained here today while protesting outside the Central Board of Film Certification's office against the clearance given to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmavat", earlier titled "Padmavati". Over 30 Karni Sena supporters were detained from Haji Ali during another protest, a police official said. "Over 70 supporters of the Karni Sena were detained from Cumballa Hill area in south Mumbai, while protesting outside the CBFC office without police permission," Zone II Deputy Commissioner of Police Dnyaneshwar Chavan said. Additional security personnel were deployed outside the office after the organisation threatened to stage the protest. Opposing the CBFC's decision to release the film, a Karni Sena leader said, "Merely changing the name of the film isn't enough. The CBFC which has been running ever since the time of Britishers doesn't know how to work." The Karni Sena has also demanded the resignation of Prasoon Joshi, the chairman of CBFC. The CBFC had given the Deepika Padukone-starrer a U/A certificate and suggested many changes, including altering the title. At the CBFC examining committee meeting on December 28, it was decided that the movie would be given a U/A certification as long as the makers incorporate the suggestions and modifications suggested. Some of the key modifications suggested include those pertaining to disclaimers, pertinently adding one regarding not glorifying the practice of Sati. Beating market expectations, Bengaluru-based, IT giant Infosys on Friday reported a net profit of Rs 5,129 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2017, up 38% as compared with Rs 3,708 crore for the corresponding quarter last year. The company had clocked a net profit of Rs 3,726 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2017. The jump in profits has been backed by the reversal of tax provisions worth Rs 1,434 crore, arising out of Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) signed by the company with US Internal Revenue Service (USIRS). However, the gross profit of the company declined to Rs 6,344 crore, as against Rs 6,433 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. While the revenues of the company jumped by 3%% to Rs 17,794 crores, from Rs 17,273 crores. On the geographical front North America (60.4%) has been the biggest contributor to the companys revenues in the quarter, followed by Europe (24.4%), and India (3.0%). Based on the client industry vertical, Banking and Financial Services, Insurance (BFSI) was the largest contributor to the revenues with a contribution of 33.1%, followed by Retail and Life Sciences (22.7%), Manufacturing and Hi-Tech (21.8%), and Energy, Utilities, Communications and Services (22.4%), during the quarter. The amount of per share dividend recognised as distributions to equity shareholders for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 includes final dividend of Rs 14.75 per equity share and an interim dividend of Rs 13 per equity share. The earnings per share of the company grew by 39%, and stood at Rs 22.55, as against Rs 16.22 in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. We are progressing towards stability and are well positioned to serve our clients in the new areas of demand Salil Parekh, CEO and MD, Infosys said. Meanwhile, Rajesh K. Murthy, President, has resigned from the company citing personal reasons. The company has also acquired 79 new clients during the quarter, taking the number in the segment to 1,191, as against 1,173 in the previous quarter. On the estimates front, the company has maintained its revenue guidance at 5.5%-6.5% in constant currency. We had 8% year-on-year growth and 24.3% operating margin with US$ 593 million of free cash flow, Parekh added. The company's shares closed 0.26% higher, at Rs 1,078.40 on Bombay Stock Exchange. North Dakota attorney general Drew Wrigley says doctors who perform abortions should be able to disclose the patients personal health information as part of their defense to avoid prosecution. North Dakotas abortion ban, which is currently on hold because of a lawsuit, makes the procedure illegal except in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is in danger. Doctors would have to prove those exceptions in court in order to be cleared of a Class C felony. The attorney general said he couldnt find any cases that address the scenario and it would not violate the privacy rule. Political parties and the legal fraternity on Friday were shocked and surprised at four senior Supreme Court judges going public over their differences with Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra over administrative issues. However, there were mixed opinions over whether it was correct for the judges to air their differences and on whether the government should intervene to resolve the crises in the apex court. "We are very concerned to hear four judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court," the Congress said in a brief statement on Twitter. Congress leaders and senior counsel Salman Khurshid, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram went into a huddle to discuss the repercussions of the developments and later briefed Congress President Rahul Gandhi. "It is a matter of anguish and pain...something serious has happened for the four top judges to come out the way they have," former Law Minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid said. However, he had reservations over government intervening in the matter to sort out the differences amongst the judges. "It is for the court to sort it out...conversations among judges will lead to a solution," Khurshid said. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed deep anguish over the developments in the Supreme Court. "Judiciary and media are the pillars of democracy. Extreme interference of the central government with the judiciary is dangerous for democracy," she said. Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee said it was very distressful that the judges held a press conference. "Confidence of public is important for efficient working of the judiciary. It was not a good move, I am not in favour of this. Repercussions will not be good," Sorabjee said. CPI leader and Rajya Sabha member D Raja termed it as "extraordinary" for the four judges to go public about their differences with the CJI. "It shows deepcrisis in our judiciary. "Parliament is supreme in our democracy. In such a situation, Parliament will have to debate this mater & sort out problems by meaningful suggestion," Raja told reporters here. Senior counsel Prashant Bhushan, who had a face-off with Chief Justice Misra recently, accused him of misusing his power. "Kudos to four senior-most judges of SC who addressed a press conference to apprise the people about the extraordinary abuse of 'master of roster' powers by CJI in selectively assigning politically sensitive cases to hand-picked junior judges for the desired outcome," Bhushan said. Senior lawyer KTS Tulsi said the judge's action was "quite shocking". "There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see the pain on their faces while they were speaking," he said. Strengthening cooperation in key areas of trade and defence, including a possible inking of a multi-million dollar Israeli anti-tank missiles deal, is on the table during the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Sunday, with its envoy today terming Indo- Israel ties as irreversible. Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon also downplayed India's stand at the United Nations General Assembly over the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in place of Tel Aviv, saying New Delhi's view "cannot influence" Indo-Israel ties. 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. Netanyahu will be on a six-day visit to India starting Sunday, during which he will hold comprehensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his stay, he will also visit Gujarat and Mumbai. Without going into the contours of a possible agreement for Israeli Spike missiles, Carmon said the Spike project is an example of "Israeli engaging in Make in India" because it can be implemented through partnership between an Israeli company and Indian company. 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. Carmon said apart from top Israeli officials, a delegation of 130 businessmen will accompany Netanyahu during his visit. A Mumbai Sessions Court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Mojo's Bistro co-owner and investor Yug Tuli, in connection with the Kamala Mills compound fire. Special public prosecutor Prakash Shetty had objected to the anticipatory bail plea. Tuli is based in Nagpur and had been absconding from 29 December, the day fire broke out in the compound. According to the report of the Mumbai Fire Brigade, the fire possibly started at Mojo's Bistro due to the exhaust fan and flammable articles at Mojo's Bistro. The fire later spread owing to the cotton curtains, wooden bamboo sticks and tarpaulin. The fire then engulfed 1Above and gutted both restaurants, Shetty said. Tuli's lawyer Shyam Dewani said the fact that none of the diners at Mojo's Bistro were killed or hurt indicates that the fire did not originate there. In a shocking incident the acquaintances of an accused in a murder case allegedly chopped off the tongue of a man, who was an eye witness in a matter, in Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad district, to prevent him from deposing in the court. The victim was admitted to the district hospital. One of the culprits has been arrested. According to the police sources, four people caught hold of the eye witness Janak Raj Singh, while he was watering his field near his village, on Thursday evening and chopped off a portion of his tongue with a sharp edged weapon. Singh, who was bleeding profusely, managed to reach his home at Palia Pratap Shah village after the incident and was rushed to the district hospital by his family members, the police said. Singh, according to the police, was an eye witness in the murder of one Jitendra Tiwari near the village around a year back. The case was currently pending in the district court. Singh's wife Sanju Devi said that her husband had earlier been warned against deposing in the case but he had ignored the threat. ''Now we will see how you (Singh) depose in the court,'', the attackers told Singh, his wife said. Police said that one of the attackers, identified as Ram Padarath, has been arrested and a hunt had been launched to nab the other three. BJP activists staged a demonstration in front of General Thimmaiah Circle to protest against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who termed RSS, BJP activists as "terrorists". The protesters burnt an effigy of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and shouted slogans against Siddaramaiah. They demanded an apology from the Chief Minister and sought a ban on PFI. Addressing the protesters, MLA K G Bopaiah said, "This is the last administration by chief minister Siddaramaiah. His statements do not become his status." MLA M P Appachu Ranjan said, "The chief minister has failed to maintain law and order in the state and has failed to arrest those involved in the murder of Hindu youths. The state government is inactive. The people of the state will teach Congress a lesson. The BJP will come to power after the election and will protect the interest of all." BJP district unit president B B Bharathish, general secretary Balachandra Kalagi and others will take part. BJP activists attempted to lay siege to the Congress office in Chikkamagaluru on Friday to protest against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah referring to RSS and Bajrang Dal men as "terrorists". The protesters shouted slogans against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Police tried to prevent them from reaching the Congress office by placing a barricade near K M Road. Police also arrested 77 protesters including MLA C T Ravi, MLC M K Pranesh and others. In retaliation, the Congress leaders displayed Congress flags at the BJP protesters and held placards against the BJP. Speaking on the occasion, MLA C T Ravi challenged the chief minister to provide proof for his accusation. "If we are terrorists, arrest us. Otherwise, CM should seek an apology," he said. Roughly nine out of 10 persons in the state have received personal benefits under various 'Bhagyas' the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government launched since coming to power nearly five years ago, official data shows. Nearly two dozen welfare schemes have apparently reached more than 5 crore beneficiaries, a poll vault the Congress is counting on ahead of the Assembly polls. Siddaramaiah has been personally reaching out to beneficiaries during his ongoing, month-long Navakarnataka Nirmana tour, handing out benefits to people. For instance, a total of 10,808 people were lined up in the Chamarajanagar Assembly constituency to receive benefits under various schemes during his recent visit there. Since May 2013, the government largesse has reached 15.65 crore beneficiaries under various schemes, including those rolled out by the previous governments such as the Arivu education loan scheme, the Bhagyalakshmi girl child assistance scheme, the Yeshasvini health insurance among others. However, welfare schemes rolled out by the Siddaramaiah regime - 18 to be precise, catering to below poverty line (BPL) households, farmers, minorities, backward classes and Dalits - have 5.87 crore beneficiaries, Chief Minister's Office (CMO) numbers show. It is this reach the ruling Congress is banking on ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls. The party's central leadership is already pushing out the narrative of the 'Karnataka model'. "This will be our pitch to the people," said Rajya Sabha MP M V Rajeev Gowda, who heads the AICC research department. AICC national spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi also defended the government's Ahinda focus. "It is the responsibility of the government to uplift weaker sections of society much as it may be criticised." The populist Anna Bhagya scheme takes the cake. In the government's book, the scheme reaches 1.14 crore BPL families, but the beneficiary number is shown as 3.79 crore. That is because an average family has four persons, a CMO official explained. The beneficiary number swells further because one person is highly likely to be covered under multiple schemes. For instance, a household receiving rice under Anna Bhagya will also get free gas cylinder under Anila Bhagya. "Both schemes are different, so they can target the same beneficiaries," the official said. Interestingly, the state government's expenditure on subsidies has doubled since the Congress came to power, from about Rs 12,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 24,000 crore this fiscal. The Supreme Court on Friday termed as serious the issue of "mysterious" death of special CBI judge B H Loya and asked the Maharashtra government to produce all records before it. Judge Loya, 48, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, had died on December 1, 2014, in Nagpur where he had gone to attend a wedding. A series of news reports recently tried to raise questions over his death. BJP president Amit Shah and senior police officers, who were accused in the case, were subsequently discharged. Acting on two petitions seeking an independent probe into the events and circumstances surrounding Loya's death, a bench of Justices Arum Mishra and Mohan M Shantanagoudar asked the Maharashtra government's counsel to bring all records for consideration on Monday. The court rejected a plea by senior advocates Dushyant Dave and Indira Jaising not to consider these two petitions. The counsel contended that they were representing Bombay Lawyers Association which had already filed a similar petition before the Bombay High Court and that is coming up for hearing on January 23. "We will not go by what the high court is doing. We will hear the matter. This is a serious matter," the bench said. As advocate Varinder Kumar Sharma initiated arguments briefly on behalf of the petitioner, Congress sympathiser and relative of Robert Vadra, Tehseen Poonawalla, the court said, "This matter requires bi-party hearing rather than exparte." It put the matter for hearing on January 15. Advocate Anita Shenoy appeared for petitioner Maharashtra-based journalist Banduraj Sambhaji Lone. Rep. Kevin Cramer will seek re-election to the U.S. House, declining a matchup against Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp this year and reshaping a race that national Republicans have hoped will boost their slim majority. Cramer, a third-term congressman, made the announcement Thursday, Jan. 11, on radio to KFYR talk show host Scott Hennen. Though Cramer had publicly weighed a Senate campaign for months, his decision to instead pursue re-election in the House will mean a dramatically different set of races. In the Senate race, Heitkamp is left with one confirmed Republican challenger: farmer and state Sen. Tom Campbell of Grafton. In the House race, hopefuls will now contend with an incumbent who has been a name in North Dakota politics for years. In a Thursday interview, Cramer described last weeks Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Cramer said he, his wife and his 10-year-old son heard the president promise support for a Senate run. We just felt like this was not the time for us to do that, Cramer said, citing a need to spend time with his family. That was the first priority. The next priority was looking at North Dakota, leaving the House seat to a freshman, while running the risk of not winning the Senate seat. Cramer was quick to say he could have won the race -- he was encouraged to run in December 2016 by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- but that these things are never lay-ups. He added that key retirements in the House are building his clout as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (Trump) wanted me to have no doubt that he was going to be in my corner. (But) Im also realistic enough to know that the president doesnt jump on Air Force One and run to Tioga for you, Cramer said. I also reassured him that Im not the only person who can win this race. Trump won by 36 points in North Dakota, where Heitkamp is the only Democrat elected to statewide office. Cramers announcement came as the election season began to heat up with accusations of unethical behavior. On Monday, North Dakota Democrats asked for an ethics investigation into a tweet from Cramers official account that discussed campaign polling, a move Cramer called petty. Democrats also have criticized Cramer for reimbursing himself and paying family members through campaign funds. However, Cramer has defended the payments for campaign work and said there's nothing illegal or unethical about them. Congressman Cramer chose to forego a tough U.S. Senate race against a popular incumbent with a strong record of reaching across the aisle, building consensus, putting North Dakota first, and getting results, North Dakota Democratic-NPL Executive Director Scott McNeil said in a statement. CNN reported last year that controversial remarks from Cramer had spooked GOP officials, who wondered if he was the best choice for the Senate race. Cramer had said there was validity to a controversial White House comparison between Adolf Hitler and Syrias Bashar al-Assad. He also criticized Democratic women wearing white to a Trump speech to Congress in solidarity with the womens suffrage movement and to show Trump their support of various womens issues. When pressed on Thursday, Cramer questioned the storys credibility and denied that his prior comments affected his decision. A former member of the states Public Service Commission and state Republican Party chairman, Cramer was first elected to the U.S. House in 2012. He won the seat vacated by Rick Berg, who narrowly lost to Heitkamp in that years Senate race. Cramer has since been re-elected by wide margins twice, tallying 69 percent of the vote in the 2016 race. This year, he faces a challenge from Democrat Ben Hanson, a former Fargo state legislator. It doesnt really change anything with Kevin in the race, Hanson said in response to Cramers announcement. Ive been critical of the way Kevin has conducted himself in office, and I will continue to be, because we need someone in office who will represent folks here in the state. Heitkamp said shes not concerned about whether she will face Cramer, Campbell or other candidates. In any political campaign that I am in, I never think about running for or against someone, she said. I think about pursuing the job, and this is a job that weve worked very hard to represent North Dakota, to represent rural communities and really all of rural America. Cramers declaration leaves Campbell alone in the GOPs Senate primary field. He released a statement calling Cramer a dear friend and a committed conservative, and he seized the opportunity to encourage Republicans to back his campaign. With todays announcement, now is the time for North Dakota conservatives to focus squarely on defeating Senator Heitkamp this November, and I am committed to doing exactly that, he said in a statement. Several others have publicly declined a Senate run, including state Rep. Rick Becker of Bismarck. Berg said Thursday hes not running either. State Republican Party Chairman Kelly Armstrong, a state senator from Dickinson, said I think there are a lot of people who are surprised by Cramers decision, but he was still confident in the partys chances of unseating Heitkamp. He was unaware of others who are weighing a run. Obviously Kevin had universal name recognition and hes won elections on the statewide ballot before, Armstrong said, before pointing to Trumps popularity here and the states conservative nature. The things line up very well for the NDGOP. Indian Army can call Pakistan's nuclear bluff, said Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat on Friday, while affirming that pounding of the neighbouring Army posts harbouring terrorists would continue. "Unless the pain is felt by the Pakistan Army, it would send terrorists, who are disposable commodities for them. We will continue to destroy the Pak posts housing the terrorists. Already, Pakistan has suffered 3-4 times higher casualties due to the retaliatory action following the ceasefire violation," he said in his annual media briefing ahead of Army Day. Since November 2003, India and Pakistan have been maintaining a ceasefire along the 740-km Line of Control between the two nations. However, ceasefire violations by both sides has become a norm in recent years with 2017 witnessing an unprecedented 830-plus violations along the LoC as against 228 in 2016. The Army chief said India was repeatedly receiving requests from Pakistan to honour the 2003 ceasefire agreement because the damage was heavier on the other side. Not let up "If there is a drop in infiltration at the LoC, we will revert to ceasefire, but till then firing will continue. They (Pakistan) are feeling the pain," he said. In Jammu and Kashmir, the focus of the military action would shift to areas in north Kashmir such as Baramulla, Pattan, Sopore, Kupwara, Handwara, Lolab and areas north of Bandipora. These are areas that Pakistan-based terrorists use to infiltrate before they move to south Kashmir. Since the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani in July 2016, Indian Army's counter-terrorism activities were focussed primarily in the four urban districts of south Kashmir. However, there is no let up on the number of terrorists and infiltrators. More than 200 terrorists were killed but nearly 120 youth were radicalised till December. The Army also captured 39 terrorists, but terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is far from over as the tap of radicalisation is still open and functional. Education corrupted Gen Rawat suggested a revamp of the education system in Jammu and Kashmir to stop youth from drifting towards jihad. "Education in government schools has been corrupted. In schools, there are two maps, one of India and the other of J&K. The message going to a child's mind is that he/she has a separate identity as J&K resident. Also some control has to be exercised on Madrasas and Masjid," he said. "We don't want 20 years later some very wise men in this country say that Justice Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph sold their souls." This was how Justice Chelameswar justified himself and three other brother judges calling an unprecedented press conference to articulate that less than desirable things are happening in the Supreme Court, the country's highest seat of judiciary. With 2,284 days as Supreme Court judge so far and another 161 more to go before he retires, no one will say that Justice Jasti Chelameswar did not raise his voice whenever he felt it was necessary. He is described by some in the Bar and outside as the "rebel" or the "chief dissenting" judge, who will turn 65 on June 23. One who minces no words when it comes to taking a position even against his fellow judges, Justice Chelameswar's was the lone dissenting voice on judges appointment case and gave his approval for the setting up of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). He was very clear that the existing collegium system must go and fought for its transparency as he felt it has become "a euphemism for nepotism". He also wrote to the then Chief Justice of India, informing him of his decision not to attend future meetings of the collegium. He always put his views on record when issues of appointment came to him. Justice Chelameswar was also instrumental in the decision to put the collegium decisions on the Supreme Court website. In the bribery case involving medical colleges, Justice Chelameswar referred the petition that Chief Justice Dipak Mishra should not hear the case to a five-judge Constitution bench. However, it was annulled by the chief justice a day later, saying he is the master of the roster and he alone has the prerogative to constitute benches. He along with Justice Rohington Nariman had also delivered the landmark judgement nullifying Section 66(A) of Information Technology Act, that was considered a block for free speech. Justice Chelameswar also referred the issue of Right to Privacy to a Constitution Bench. An ardent admirer of Telugu literature, Chelameswar graduated in Physics from Madras Loyola College while he got his LLB from Andhra University in 1976. He was designated as Senior Counsel in 1995 and appointed Additional Advocate General in October same year. He was appointed as additional judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court on 23 June, 1997 and as a permanent judge in May 1999. In May 2007, he was elevated as Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court and later transferred to the Kerala High Court in March 2010. A year later, he became a judge in Supreme Court. The US will continue to be a country of immigrants and that will not change, said newly-appointed American envoy Kenneth Juster, while asserting that the ongoing review of visas, including the H-1B category, was only for "refinements". Juster's comments came against the backdrop of reports that the Trump administration was considering tightening H-1B visa rules that could lead to deportation of about 7,50,000 Indians. The US government, however, has denied these reports. "We have four million Indian-Americans in the US. So we are a country of immigrants and that's what helped drive our economy and growth and made us where we are and that's not going to change," he said while delivering his first policy speech since taking over as ambassador. He said that the US is looking at how various categories of visas are working and whether they need refinements. "We take more immigrants then any other country in the world," he said. Every year, the US grants 85,000 H-1B visas to highly-skilled applicants, including roughly 70% for Indians, seeking employment and educational opportunities. According to the National Foundation for American Policy, more than half of privately-held companies worth $1 billion or more in the US had at least one immigrant founder, with many entering America on an H-1B visa, including the CEOs of both Microsoft and Google. Meanwhile, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India remains engaged with the Trump administration as well as the Congress on the H-1B visa issue. "We have shared our concerns to the US side. We have told them that this is a mutually beneficial partnership which should be nurtured and supported," he said. Kumar said India continued to closely monitor the developments relating to the issue, adding that alarmist projections on possible difficulties to Indian professionals have been laid to rest by the Department of Homeland Security in the US. Tata Chemicals on Friday said its board has approved sale of its Haldia fertiliser unit in West Bengal to Netherlands-based Indorama Holdings BV for Rs 375 crore. In a regulatory filing, the company said its board approved sale of the Phosphatic fertiliser business by way of slump sale on a going concern basis to IRC Agrochemicals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indorama Holdings BV. "The transaction would involve transfer of Haldia plant, trading business of bulk and non-bulk fertilisers along with immovable, movable properties, working capital and product brands but excluding outstanding subsidy amounts," it said. The board also approved the execution of definitive agreements in this regard subject to regulatory approvals. Commenting on the development, Tata Chemicals Managing Director R Mukundan said, "The company continues to move forward on its strategy to focus on speciality chemicals and consumer food business while maintaining leadership in Inorganic Chemicals Business." Tata Chemicals further said that the divestment is in line with its strategic direction to focus on speciality chemical and food businesses, while maintaining leadership in in-organic chemicals. The company's speciality chemical portfolio includes sodium bicarbonate business, agrochemicals through its subsidiary, Rallis India in addition to the planned investments in the greenfield sites in Nellore for nutraceuticals and in Dahej for the HD Silica business. Its food business includes pulses, spices under Tata Sampann brand in addition to edible salt brand Tata Salt. Tata Chemicals is amongst leading soda ash manufacturers in the world, with operations in India, Kenya, South Africa, the UK and the US. Shares of the company rose by 0.78% to settle at Rs 735.80 a piece on the BSE on Friday. Mounting pressure on Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday demanded a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the "suspicious" death of judge B H Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, involving BJP President Amit Shah. Rahul also came out in support of the four Supreme Court judges who raised "extremely important" points over the functioning of the apex court. "The points that have been raised by the four judges are extremely important. They mentioned there is a threat to democracy. It needs to be looked into carefully," Rahul told a press conference on Friday evening after meeting senior lawyers including P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Vivek Tankha, Salman Khurshid and Manish Tewari. Referring to the case of special CBI judge Loya, which is believed to have triggered the revolt in the Supreme Court, Rahul said it called for proper investigation by an independent SIT. "They have made a point about judge Loya's case. It needs to be investigated properly. It needs to be looked at from the highest levels of the Supreme Court," the Congress president said. 'Unprecedented' He termed the action of the four judges "unprecedented". "Such a thing has never happened before. It is unprecedented and I think all citizens, who love the idea of justice, who believe in the honourable Supreme Court, are looking at this issue closely and I think it is important to be addressed," he said. In a statement, the Congress appealed to the full court of the Supreme Court to take up the issues raised by the four judges and find solutions that were "consistent with the traditions and conventions of judiciary". Judge Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, had died under mysterious circumstances in 2014. The apex court had on Thursday agreed to hear two separate pleas seeking independent probe into the death. "I am also a member of BJP and RSS. Book cases against me and arrest me. First, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has to show evidences to support his statement of likening BJP and RSS with terrorist elements," said Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar. After paying respects to the statue of Swamy Vivekanand, on the occasion of Vivekanand Jayanti, at Unkal Lake here on Friday, he told media persons that Mr Siddaramaiah has lost his mental balance, and is speaking like a mad person. When Congress is dividing the society for its caste and appeasement politics, the RSS is working to unite the society, with utmost dedication and patriotism. If the chief minister has the guts, he should ban Popular Front of India (PFI), or should send a proposal in this regard to the Union Government, he challenged. 'Cong afraid' Mr Shettar said, the Congress leaders are afraid of RSS, BJP National President Amit Shah, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddarmaiah are afraid that the rule of Congress in the State would end, if Mr Shah and Mr Modi visit the State. Mr Rahul's visit to the State was postponed, after Mr Modi's programme was fixed, Mr Shettar said. In reply to Shiv Sena's entry to State politics, he said, "several such parties have come and gone, and nobody can trouble us". On Mahadayi Instead of thinking about taking another all-party delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leaders in Goa should be first convinced to resolve the Mahadayi water sharing dispute through talks, Mr Shettar noted. Holding the State Congress party itself responsible for Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's 'U-turn' on Mahadayi issue, Mr Shettar charged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah acted against the interest of Karnataka, instead of utilising the opportunity which was available after Mr Parrikar wrote a letter to State BJP President B S Yeddyurappa. "We somehow managed to get a positive response from Mr Parrikar in the efforts to hold talks on Mahadayi water sharing. Mr Siddaramaiah should have submitted that letter before Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal, and should have convinced Goa Congress leaders for talks. As Goa Congress started protesting, Mr Parrikar had to say that the row had to be settled by the tribunal itself," he said. Mr Siddaramaiah took unilateral decision by saying that Mr Parrikkar's letter to Mr Yeddyurappa is not valid, without consulting legal experts. The Congress wants to keep the Mahadayi issue alive. As the matter is before the tribunal, the need is of consensus among political parties in the concerned States, and not the prime minister's intervention, he added. Mayor D K Chavan, Corporator Umeshgouda Kaujageri, BJP leaders Nagesh Kalburgi, Tippanna Majjagi, Mahendra Kauthal, and others were present. A severely weakened Lokayukta institution finds it helpless to punish two junior officials who tampered with DPAR records and withheld information about its investigation from the department's top bureaucrats. The Upalokayukta found the breaches while probing a complaint by a freedom fighter and recommended criminal action against the two Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms junior officials aUndersecretary Manjunath and section officer K R Puttarudrayya-- in November. But in a clear disregard for the Lokayukta institution, which has become obvious after the government stripped the institution of its powers, it is yet to receive details on action taken against the officials or dispersal of pension to the freedom fighter. The freedom fighter, S Adinarayana Reddy, filed his complaint in 2013 saying his pension was still not granted. Chikkaballapura Deputy Commissioner submitted before Upalokayukta that he is yet to receive any response for the two recommendations for Reddy's pension sent to DPAR. Following no action taken report', DPAR's undersecretary was summoned in March. "He sought a fresh recommendation," an official said. "At this stage, a notice was served to DPAR Principal Secretary. When he did not turn up (to respond at Lokayukta), a bailable warrant was issued in May. The same day, the section officer appeared unauthorized and said no Principal Secretary was posted at DPAR." The Lokayukta grew suspicious and checked with the Additional Chief Secretary, when it emerged that the senior officials of DPAR were never informed of the notices from Lokayukta. The Undersecretary also issued endorsements to both Lokayukta and the complainant without authorisation of the higher officials. "The duo also prepared a report without the knowledge of their seniors in DPAR," the official added. The police said on Friday they had cracked 80 cases of burglary with the arrest of a habitual offender. Syed Ahmed (32) from Tumakuru had broken into houses in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mandya, according to the Basavanagudi police. They have recovered gold jewellery worth Rs 24 lakh from him. Ahmed got into crime in 2011, and developed a unique modus operandi. He went around city neighbourhoods wearing a suit. He would press the calling bell. If someone opened the door, he would pretend to be selling household products. People invariably refused to buy, and he would walk away. If no one answered the door, he would prise it open with a crowbar. After about half a dozen burglaries, he began to use call girls in his operations. He would lure them with offers of money and gold and get them to go with him on tours. He would drape them in burqas and take them around in rented vehicles, giving the impression he was a married man. Ahmed would then visit jewellery shops and sell stolen jewellery, saying he was in dire need of money. His asking prices were low and the shops would buy from him without much haggling. New girl every time After selling his loot, he would drop the call girls back without revealing his identity. He used a new woman for each operation and drank liquor with the money he got from the buyers, police said. Camera clues When the Basavanagudi police learnt about the similarities in two house-breaks, they began checking CCTV footage. When they began picking up habitual offenders, Ahmed fell into their hands in Mysuru. After a detailed interrogation, he confessed to the crime, police said. Each time he was arrested, he came out on bail and got back to his old ways, a senior police officer told DH. Washburns city commission president held onto his seat in Tuesdays recall election. In results made official Wednesday night, Larry Thomas bested challenger Derek Laning by 190 votes to 157. Thomas said he thinks most voters thought the recall was unjustified. The same as before, I am dedicated to working for the betterment of the community and its citizens, he said. Recall committee members sought to oust Thomas over what they said were open meeting law violations, a hostile work environment and disregard for others. Thomas previously called those claims totally fabricated. Petitioners were able to exceed the 99 signatures they needed to trigger the recall, but saw their candidate defeated Tuesday. Speaking Thursday morning, recall committee chair Kristi Jaeger said the election was their chance for our voices to be heard. It might not have been the results that we were thinking, but we are hoping and praying that moving forward, it will get better and our city can recover and focus on thriving in the future, she said. Laning said hes disappointed in the recalls results but added he wishes Thomas the best. I hope he begins to work with people and bring the town together, not divide, Laning said. He has a lot of experience from his time when he was a city employee, and use that to benefit Washburn. In 2014, Laning lost re-election by four votes, the same year Thomas won his first election for a commissioner's seat. Laning said he doesnt yet know if hell seek a commissioners seat this year or in 2020. Its always a possibility, he said. Thomas is up for re-election in 2020 but said its too far off to make any decision on running. He has been commission president since Duane Bauer's resignation in 2015, winning re-election the next year. Thomas' time on the commission has not been without other controversy. In September, commissioners voted 3-1 to expedite the installation of security cameras at city hall due to harassment allegations city employees made about Thomas. He criticized their allegations and called the security system "a waste of money." Washburn's recall election was the third to proceed to the ballot box from several local efforts around North Dakota last year. Courtenay and Kindred voters each recalled a city council member last fall. An Arnegard city councilman resigned last summer after recall committee members received their petition to circulate for signatures. State elections specialist Lee Ann Oliver said last week that petitions were approved in November for efforts to recall a New England city commissioner and Warwicks mayor. Badlands Recall Committee chair Brooks Kummer said his groups effort is active again to recall two McKenzie County commissioners after a months hiatus. Elsewhere in 2017, recall petitioners failed to oust Bismarcks mayor, a Fargo city commissioner, LaMoure Countys states attorney, a McKenzie County commissioner and Napoleons mayor, mostly for signature-related issues. Oliver said that local recall efforts in North Dakota have increased from five in to 2014, seven each in 2015 and 16 to 11 last year. Four Nepali men working as house security were arrested for burglary, as the CCTV cameras captured the men breaking and entering a house in Banashankari. Indeed, Bheem Bahaddur Thapa (31) and his associates Jayaraj Bahaddur Puri (25), Dharmaraj Bhaddur Bahora (40) and Ganesh Bahaddur Thapa (24) did not expect the CCTV cameras to work as they had yanked off the power supply to the house before venturing in. What they did not count on was the UPS turning on and letting the cameras record their felony. Bheem worked as a security guard adjacent to the house of software engineer, Shashikiran, at Banashankari. Shashikiran asked Bheem to watch over his house as he was going out of town with his family. Opportunity seized Bheem instead saw an opportunity to burgle the house. The security guard snapped the power supply to the house in the hope of disabling the CCTV cameras, which he knew were constantly watching and recording movements. But the UPS had snapped on and kept the cameras functional. They had plans to split the Rs 14 lakh worth of valuables looted from the house and flee to Nepal, but the Banashankari police tracked Bheem and recovered the booty. They subsequently arrested his other three accomplices. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) S D Sharanappa urged residents to do a background check on the security men before employing them. Background checks The DCP also asked them to have recent pictures of the house securities, local/permanent address and contact details of the referrer. While serving as a way of averting any crimes by the hired men, the details will also help the police track them down in the event of a burglary. The Defence Ministry has released Rs 377 crore to Karnataka state authorities to pay compensation for the land owners at Karwar, who parted with their properties for the naval base. The payment in respect of at least 12 more cases would be released by January 31. The decision comes within weeks of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's visit to the naval base on December 28 when she met the former land owners, who appraised her of the pending cases and the delay in payment of compensation. The minister had promised fast-track clearance of the cases. "This amount has already been deposited with SLAO, Karwar for onward disbursal to land owners through the execution courts," said the Defence Ministry statement. Between 1988 and 2000, the central government acquired around 2,412 acres of private land in 13 villages of Karwar and Ankola taluks to set up the naval base. At the time of acquisition, land owners were paid Rs 22.55 crore as compensation. Unsatisfied, the land owners moved the court for an enhanced compensation package. The court enhanced the compensation package to Rs 4.60 lakh per acre, which was later confirmed by the Supreme Court in September 2012. Accordingly, the Defence Ministry released Rs 377.12 crore as enhanced compensation in 997 such cases till date from 2004-05. In the remaining cases, the ministry would be clearing the proposals by February 2018, subject to the competent authorities giving necessary clearance at the state level. Panaji: The dispute over sharing of the Mahadayi river water escalated on Friday with the Goa government accusing Karnataka of resuming construction of a canal on a tributary of the river in "total disregard" for the Supreme Court directives. The Goa government said that it has photographs to prove its claim that Karnataka has violated the court orders. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar directed state Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma to write to the Karnataka government, asking it to stop the construction work. "As directed by the chief minister, Goa chief secretary is writing a letter to the chief secretary of Karnataka to immediately stop the work of bund (canal) at Kalasa tributary. The copy of which would be given to the media tomorrow," a satement from the Chief Minister's Office said. The Goa government had dispatched a team of officials to the site on Friday morning after a few media reports claimed that the work on the canal has been started by Karnataka. Goa Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar said the inspection conducted by the team of officials from his department confirmed that Karnataka has resumed the work on constructing the canal on a Mahadayi tributary at Kankumbi. Kankumbi is a village in Belagavi district of Karnataka near the north-eastern part of the Goa-Karnataka border. "Karnataka has started the construction of a head regulator and allied work on the Kalasa nallah in total disregard of the orders for the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal and the Supreme Court directives," the minister told reporters here. "I have photographs to prove the claim that Karnataka has violated the court order," he said. "The government of Goa is seized with the issue and letters will be sent to Karnataka raising the issue. It will also be taken up with the Mahadayi tribunal," Palyekar added. The Centre has formed a tribunal to look into the river water sharing issue between Goa and Karnataka. On Wednesday, Parrikar had said that the ongoing dispute with Karnataka will be fought before the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal. Last month, Parrikar had written to Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa, saying that Goa could share the river water with Karnataka for drinking purposes, and expressed his willingness to hold bilateral talks. Parrikar's missive had evoked strong criticism from certain quarters. The letter created a controversy as it was addressed to the BJP leader and not to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. 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. Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Friday said there is no proposal to ban any organisations and, there is a need to initiate action against both Hindu and Muslim organisations involved in instigating communal sentiments. Popular Front of India (PFI), Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and some Hindu outfits are said to have been involved in creating communal disturbance in coastal districts. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is touring the state. After he returns, a detailed discussion will be held in this regard, the minister said. Taking stock of law and order situation in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts at a meeting with the senior police officials of these districts, at Mangaluru Police Commissioner's office here, the home minister told them to act tough against both Hindu and Muslim goondas. Reddy directed the senior police officials to take stringent action against those instigating communal violence in Malnad and coastal regions. With the Assembly elections round the corner, communal forces have become active. They try to gain political mileage by exploiting religious sentiments. The police should prepare a list of goons involved in creating communal disturbance and constantly monitor their movements, Reddy said. He obtained detailed information from the officers on the communal clashes reported from Karwar, Sirsi and Mangaluru city. The officials also apprised the minister of a girl committing suicide due to the alleged harassment by Bajarang Dal and BJP leaders at Mudigere in Chikkamagaluru district. Mangaluru Police Commissioner T R Suresh, IGP (Western Range) Arun Chakravarthy Jeji, Dakshina Kannada SP C H Sudhirkumar Reddy, Udupi SP Lakshman Nimbargi, Uttara Kannada SP Vinayak Patil, Chikkamagaluru Additional SP K H Jagadish among others were present. Bengaluru, dhns: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's statement branding RSS workers as terrorists is a nonsensical remark, said Prahlad Damodardas Modi, the younger brother of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "RSS workers strove day and night during the India-Pakistan war and calling them terrorists is absolutely not acceptable. They shed their blood to protect the country and it is nonsense to make such a remark," he said here on Friday. Prahlad Modi was in Bengaluru to take part in Vivekananda Jayanti celebrations at Sri Krishna International School. "Congress drags the issue of my sister-in-law (Jashoda Ben, Narendra Modi's wife) the way Kaurava's dragged Draupadi into politics. They (Congress) do not have anything else to talk. Their only job is to show people the wrong direction," he said. During his speech at the programme, Prahlad Modi drew a parallel between Narendra Modi and Swami Vivekananda. "Both Narendranath Datta (pre-monastic name of Swami Vivekananda) and Narendra Modi share the same name and both are striving to protect our religion and dharma. Both of them are alive in every corner of India either with their ideologies or with their work towards dharma," he said. He said he runs a small shop and the income from it was enough to sustain his family. "I do not wish to be in politics. Our family does not want to make a fortune out of it," he added. Bengaluru: Industries Minister R V Deshpande has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to make Bengaluru India's second capital. In his letter to Modi dated January 5, made public on Friday, Deshpande has stated that India needs a second capital very urgently and Bengaluru was "best placed to fulfill that role." A country of the size and scale of India cannot be managed from one location, the minister stated. "It is also important to pay attention to the long-held feeling among people of the southern Indian states that Delhi is far away and the decisions and processes of governance and administration are not responsive to the demands of South India." Bengaluru is India's most cosmopolitan city and safe from natural calamities. Deshpande wrote "It is also safe from attacks of external forces as it is not close to the physical borders of the country." The city houses people with many different languages and "probably the only city where one could find a large number of software engineers as much as classical language scholars." Deshpande added that Bengaluru had "cultural diversity" and "civic robustness" and was India's innovation capital. Making Bengaluru India's second capital would require establishing a second seat of the Supreme Court, a second Union Public Service Commission office and conduct of the winter session of Parliament in the city, Deshpande suggested. "It would give voice to the aspirations of millions of south Indians to feel that they are part of the national mainstream." Deshpande has also written to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, urging him to take up the matter of making Bengaluru India's second capital with the Centre. Election commission officials of Karnataka have recommended Assembly elections in a single phase, as in 2013. Speaking to reporters on Friday, chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar said a single day of voting would deter "bad and rowdy elements". They will not be able to vote multiple times, impersonate others or intimidate other voters, he said. "This was also an opinion expressed by one of the political parties," he remarked. In 2013, the Assembly election was held in a single phase. The decision lies with the Election Commission of India, which will weigh the pros and cons of a single phase as against two phases, he said. In 2013, polling was held on May 5 and votes were counted on May 8. Earlier this week, a six-member team of Central election officials visited Bengaluru to review preparedness for the Assembly elections. They had indicated the election could be held between the last week of April and the first week of May. The two options had their merits and demerits, Kumar said. "When the elections are held in two phases, bad elements may go from one constituency to another, which has happened before," he observed. Holding elections in a single phase calls for a large deployment of police personnel from the Centre and the state, and that poses practical difficulties, he said. In 2013, the Centre had deployed 44,000 personnel, while more than 80,000 from Karnataka, including Home Guards and forest guards, had performed election duty. "This time around, as a large number of new voters have applied, the number of polling stations will increase. This will require the additional deployment of forces," he said. Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Subscriber content preview SEATTLE On Saturday, WSDOT will close the Battery Street Tunnel in Seattle to allow potential contractors to inspect it for decommissioning. WSDOT plans to pick a contractor in late spring to demolish the Alaskan Way Viaduct. That job includes decommissioning the tunnel and reconnecting surface streets across Aurora Avenue North. . . . Subscriber content preview CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) Oregon State University has received a $2 million donation for its new concert hall. The Corvallis Gazette-Times reports the university is looking to raise $60 million for a new arts and education complex with an acoustically superior concert hall that can seat between 400 to 600 people. . . . Subscriber content preview OLYMPIA (AP) Gov. Jay Inslee is asking U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to remove Washington, along with the entire Pacific coastline, from a list of proposed sites for potential offshore oil and gas drilling. In a letter sent Thursday, Inslee cited the recent decision to remove Florida's coastlines from the proposed program, writing that every state should be granted a similar opportunity to protect its marine and coastal waters. . . . Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said yesterday that it planned to spend $1 billion to shift production of heavy-duty pickup trucks from Mexico to a factory in Michigan, where it will add 2,500 new jobs as a result. The automaker further said it would award $2,000 bonuses to each of its 60,000 hourly and salaried employees in the US. ''These announcements reflect our ongoing commitment to our US manufacturing footprint and the dedicated employees who have contributed to FCA's success,'' the company's chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, said in a statement. According to the automaker, both actions were ''made possible in part'' by the tax bill that president Trump signed into law last month. He added, ''it is only proper'' that employees share in the savings generated by the tax bill. ''We openly acknowledge the resulting improvement in US business environment by investing in our industrial footprint,'' he said. Employees will be paid bonuses and any profit-sharing or performance-related bonuses in the second quarter of 2018. President Trump commended the move yesterday on Twitter: ''More great news as a result of historical Tax Cuts and Reform.'' Fiat Chrysler revealed its plans to modernise the plant, in Warren, Michigan, on the eve of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which is to open to the media and industry visitors on Sunday. CEO Sergio Marchionne said in a statement that the announcements reflect the company's ongoing commitment to manufacturing in the US. Mark Hackel, Macomb County executive, said the announcement yesterday came as part of an ongoing narrative. He added that Detroit's Big Three had invested billions in Michigan and Macomb County in the last few years, which was a statement to the strength of the region. ''This is unbelievable,'' Hackel said. ''This is an amazing statement. ... We are basically Ram county now. (Marchionne) has a big hug coming from me at the auto show next week.'' Imagine your property is stolen and then having to have this conversation. Government authorities: Good news, we recovered your stolen property! You: Thats great! When can I get it back? Gov: Eh, the bad news is we can only give you back 56 percent of what was stolen. You: Well, I guess thats better than nothing. Gov: The good news is that youll receive cash as restitution for the rest. You: Oh wow. Thats incredible! Gov: The bad news is that youll get paid the restitution over 30 years. You: Thats a long time to get back what is owed me. Is there more . . . good news? Gov: Why yes, actually, there is. The good news is that you get to pay taxes on the restitution. You: Wait, what? My property was stolen and Im expected to pay tax on it? How is that good news? Gov: Well, its good news for us because it makes the Communists happy. Thats the gist of what is going on in Czech Republic. When the Communists seized Czechoslovakia in 1948, they confiscated all the property owned by churches. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the country became a liberal democracy and in 1993 split into the independent Czech Republic and Slovakia. For years Christians in the country tried to get back their stolen lands. In 2012, the Czech government finally agreed to compensate the churches for what was stolen from them by the former Communist government. Under the plan, according to the New York Times, the nations 17 churches, including the Roman Catholic and Protestant sects, would get back 56 percent of their old property now held by the stateestimated at the time to be worth $3.7 billion. Then, over the next three decades, the churches would also get $2.9 billion. Now, the AP reports that the new Czech minority government led by populist billionaire Andrej Babis has agreed with a proposal to tax the compensation that the countrys churches receive for property seized by the former Communist regime. Not surprisingly, the proposal came from the Communist Party. The Communists steal the property and then, when they are forced to give it back, try to steal some of it back again. As Father Stanislav Pribyl, the secretary general of the Czech Bishops Conference, says in the AP story, the restitution is not a gift. It is a partial reimbursement for the property confiscated by the Communists which had been intended to support the livelihood of priests and religious in the then Czechoslovakia. Pribyl says the Communist Party and its allies are trying to justify their original confiscations by this attempt at taxation. Pribyl added that the agreement between the State and Church was signed between the two parties in a treaty, and the present government should respect the rule of law. The situation in the Czech Republic is outrageous, but not at all surprising. As the old saying goes, never get involved in a land war in Asia, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, and never trust the Commies to respect the rule of law. Coffee County Sheriff Dave Sutton has been named the next president of the Alabama Sheriffs Association. Sutton, who has been the countys sheriff since 2007 and currently is the ASA first vice president, will be honored as the organizations new leader on Jan. 23 in Montgomery. He will serve a 1-year term in the office. Im elated to be selected by my peers to be pres of the association, Sutton said. Theres 67 sheriffs and Im just very hap about it. Looking forward to it. Sutton said his duties as president will include working with the state legislature on issues pertinent to law enforcement, such as prison reform, mental issues and legislation related to firearms. He also will work oversee ASA staff meetings, among other aspects of the office. Sutton will be the second Coffee County sheriff to serve as the organizations president. Brice Paul was president in 1984. After serving with the Army in Vietnam from 1968-69, Sutton began his law-enforcement career as a police officer in Texas. He entered flight school at Fort Rucker in 1975, and also did duty at Fort Hood and Fort Sam Houston in Texas, Redstone Arsenal, Germany, Korea and Saudi Arabia. He is a veteran of Desert Storm/Desert Shield. Sutton has served as the assistant dean at the School of Medicine on Fort Rucker and an ROTC instructor at Enterprise High School. Sutton retired in 1995 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was elected to sheriff in 2007, according to www.coffeeso.us. Going into law enforcement kind of married itself with being in the military, he said, adding that the part of being a sheriff he likes best is the interaction with the community and people. Sutton graduated from Big Spring High School in Texas in 1965 and earned his Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from Hardin Simmons University in Texas. The Gaither Vocal Band is coming back to Dothan Jan. 20. When it does, it will bring a group that has remained popular in Christian and gospel music for decades due to two reasons, neither of which can be understated. We believe what were singing, group founder Bill Gaither said recently in an interview with the Dothan Eagle. Im not so sure everybody does. Second, although the group has had dozens of iterations (as a trio and a vocal band) over its 37 years, there has been one constant Bill Gaither. Considered one of the greatest Christian songwriters of the modern era, Gaither has been the driving force behind a band that has seen numerous Christian artists come to spend a few years, then move on to wildly successful solo careers. Michael English, Steve Green, Mark Lowry, David Phelps, and Guy Penrod are just a few band members over time who have enjoyed successful solo careers. Gaithers ability to plug in new talent and create a harmony people love to hear is unprecedented considering how many different combinations the band has included. Gaither said the groups harmony is enjoyable to hear, but the message of the songs is what connects the group to its fans. Weve never tried to sugarcoat things, Gaither said. One of the reasons we have been able to stay around is that weve been honest with people. Bad times are going to be with them. We believe there has been a fall of the human race and we are all trying to find our way back and there is a Savior that made it possible. So we believe what were singing. Were honest with people, and I believe in the art form, he added. When the Gaither Vocal Band comes to Dothan, the group will include Gaither on bass, longtime tenor Wes Hampton, along with newcomer Reggie Smith on tenor as well, Adam Crabb of the popular Crabb family on lead, and Todd Suttles on baritone, now going into his fourth year with the band. Matthew Holt, going into his third year, is on piano. You never quite know what a new group is going to sound like, but those voices are so good together, Gaither said. No group is the same as the other. So you just go with it and you say My lands, its different and I love it. Gaither, an Indiana native, said he loves the crowds in the South. It has a lot to do with what we might sing. If were in Dothan, we are going to be expecting a lot of Baptists and Pentecostals, and they really respond, Gaither said. If were in Minneapolis, we might expect a lot of Lutherans and Catholics. Its not as loud but they love us just as much. Fans who attend the Jan. 20 concert will hear a lot of the old classics, plus some new songs from the bands most recent release, We Have This Moment. Despite the bands longevity, first-timers continue to discover the Gaither Vocal Band. Gaither said many newcomers tell him they didnt get what they were expecting. A lot of people tell me they thought there would be a lot of preaching and condemning, Gaither said. I dont think a lot of people want to spend two hours being condemned. A lot of what we do comes out of John 17, where Jesus himself is praying and he is praying to the Father that his people become one. It is no surprise that a band like the Gaither Vocal Band uses a prayer for harmony as a standard for its music and ministry. A New Jersey accounts receivable management firm has purchased the Vantage Sourcing call center in Taylor and plans to add more than 100 jobs in the near future. The 100-plus positions MRS BPO, LLC will create are in addition to the current workforce of about 70 at Vantage, said Matt Parker, Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce president. MRS leadership wanted to retain an experienced base of employees, Parker said. The purchase of Vantage is MRS first move into the South, Parker said. The acquisition gives MRS a third domestic call center location with 200 or more seats and provides employees who complement its collections business, according to a company statement. Acquiring a quality organization like Vantage helps to forward our growth objectives and offer additional services, said MRS chief customer / growth officer Chris Repholz. The integration of the two companies will begin immediately, and clients of both companies will continue to receive the great quality and results to which theyre accustomed. We are very excited about Vantage Sourcing becoming part of the MRS family, added Vantage CEO Scott Stanford. We have similar cultures, and I know that Dothan is going to appreciate the new jobs and career growth that MRS will bring as part of this acquisition. Those who are hired will undergo a six-week paid training process, and employees have opportunities to earn incentives, Parker said, adding that MRS has a strong clientele base. Local officials expressed delight regarding the purchase and expansion. This is great news for the Town of Taylor and Houston County, Alabama, Taylor Mayor Billy Snell said. Our citizens are ready and willing to work, and we are excited about the opportunities with this expansion. Many thanks to MRS for its commitment to grow and expand this local call center. Economic growth and job opportunities are always at the forefront our work in Houston County, added Houston County Commission Chairman Mark Culver. As we start this New Year, this is a great day for the Town of Taylor, Houston County, and all the citizens who will have a new opportunity for gainful and meaningful employment. Thank you to MRS for their investment in our area. The Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce, Southeast AlabamaWorks, Dothan Career Center, Alabama Department of Commerce, and Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT) will all work with MRS as they train and hire these new employees. As the project moves forward, more details on employment opportunities and application process will be forthcoming in the coming weeks. Eagle staff writer Jeremy Wise contributed information to this report. The Boys and Girls Clubs of America has revoked the charter of the Hawk Houston Boys and Girls Club in downtown Dothan, the club announced Thursday. The revocation took place Dec. 13, ending a charter that had been place for more than 53 years, according to the club. No reason was given for the revocation, and the release from Hawk-Houston indicated more information would be forthcoming. The Hawk-Houston Board of Directors will continue to focus on the mission of providing educational and supportive services to the youth and families in our community. By so, we are actively seeking alternatives for resuming our comprehensive services in a timely manner, the club stated in a written release. Patricia McQuistion gave the U.S. Army 35 years of her life. To her, that was not enough. The retired lieutenant general now serves as the Association of the United States Army vice president for membership and meetings. She joined the civilian organization shortly after her retirement and focuses on ways to strengthen a group that supports the Army in several ways. I came into the Army from birth. My dad retired as a first sergeant, I joined the ROTC and after college, I joined, McQuistion told the audience at the Fort Rucker-Wiregrass AUSAs annual Kick-Off Luncheon Thursday at the Dothan Civic Center. I believe in soldier in life. In her new role, McQuistion considers ways to increase the groups membership. AUSA, which champions itself as the Voice of the Army, offers a variety of services to soldiers past, present, and future, she noted. Mentorships provide soldiers with a glimpse of career options after they leave the service. We educate the soldiers about career opportunities, McQuistion said. Well connect those who serve with those who did and those who will. Additionally, the organization exists to educate Congress about the challenges facing todays Army, and inform industry leaders about ways they can help the branch. The group also provides information, often conducting research projects on national security matters and publishing the results, McQuistion said. The former three-star general said todays culture creates a need for support now more than ever. Over 10 percent of our forces are engaged in operations every day in (several) countries, she said. We have more than 1 million soldiers but only 1 percent of the nations population will serve in the military. I know its hard to think about with Fort Rucker here, but 99 percent of the nation may not be connected in any way to the military. McQuistion said AUSA conducts Meet the Army gatherings in areas where the military presence may not be strong. AUSA must get the word out. We must inform the public what the Army is doing, McQuistion said. With Meet the Army, we get leaders talking to the Army. With the need for more members, McQuistion and her staff have sought ways to encourage enrollment. One way has been the revamping of the benefits package. Members get discounts on certain items they purchase and also get to share in professional development opportunities. We have 86 people who work at the national headquarters, she said. We walk in every day asking What are we going to do today to make life better for our members and our chapters? McQuistion applauded the Wiregrass areas support for AUSA. Its nice to be back at Fort Rucker, she said. I never served here, but I visited a lot. You cant have a conversation about Fort Rucker for long without hearing about the community support. It is an incredibly community. It is just early January and the Japan Travel Fair 2018 is the first travel fair in Malaysia to take place this year. Held from 11-14 January and at The Starling Mall in Petaling Jaya, this mini fair is all out to promote the various destinations in Japan. The objective of the Japan travel fair is purely to get more awareness to the consumers, namely those living in the suburban areas of Petaling Jaya and its surroundings. This time around, JNTO or the Japan National Tourism Organization, has selected the venue at one of the new shopping malls in Damansara Utama. Japan Travel Fair Malaysia Travel agents at the Japan Travel Fair in Starling Mall You can find all things Japan at the fair, meaning, all sorts of information about destinations around Japan. In total, there are 20 booths with various Japanese vendors from all over Japan and also some of the local Malaysian tour companies. Instead, you will see more unique destinations that are not too far from the usual popular places. Train travel is one of the main highlights as they are the best method to move from city to city in Japan. The JNTO Booth at the Starling Mall in Damansara Utama You can get travel brochures for these interesting places from the main JNTO booth at the travel fair. The main mission is to introduce other regions from around Japan to Malaysians. If you should already know, most Malaysians have been to Japan, and to the main commercial cities. For first-timers visiting here, you should know that commercial places in Japan are not being promoted here at the fair. This means destinations like Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo and Hokkaido information booths are not available.Instead, you will see more unique destinations that are not too far from the usual popular places. Train travel is one of the main highlights as they are the best method to move from city to city in Japan.You can get travel brochures for these interesting places from the main JNTO booth at the travel fair. The main mission is to introduce other regions from around Japan to Malaysians.If you should already know, most Malaysians have been to Japan, and to the main commercial cities. This is where contest and performances are conducted. A beautiful photo booth is also located next to the JNTO booth. Japanese Yukata photo sessions at the travel fair This photo booth is where you can wear the Japanese Yukata to take photos against the famous Japanese bamboo wall, which is quite nice. At this year's Japan Travel Fair, there is the main stage area just next to the JNTO main information booth.This is where contest and performances are conducted. A beautiful photo booth is also located next to the JNTO booth.This photo booth is where you can wear the Japanese Yukata to take photos against the famous Japanese bamboo wall, which is quite nice. In another section, there are about 10 booths from various Japanese and Malaysian travel agents that specialize in Japan tours. This is where you can get information on the many types of packages being offered. Some of the Japanese travel agents Travel Agents at Japan Travel Fair 2018 H.I.S Travel Malaysia Japan Travel Bureau Parlo Tours Apple Japan J-Horizons Hello Holidays Roystar Travel Pearl Holiday Travel MHTT Some of the Japanese prefectures and businesses participating Japanese Travel Companies at Japan Travel Fair 2018 These vendors are where you can get first-hand information about the destinations, in regards to logistics, accommodations, food and places of interest. You would also be in for a surprise as there are not one, not two but three different train companies from Japan participating at the Japan Travel Fair. There are also some tourism prefectures taking part and they are; Okinawa Tourism Tokyo Disney Resort Chi Hotel & Resort Ishikawa Prefecture Shizuoka Prefecture JR East Hotels JR West Tokyo Metro Asakusa-Ueno Visiondata Visitors on the first day of the Japan Travel Fair 2018 Fun activities at the fair The event itinerary for Japan Travel Fair 2018 Visitors to the travel fair can get valuable information from the above companies, and if you still need more information, you can just visit the main JNTO booth or any of the travel agents there. There are numerous brochures available on various parts of Japan for you to take home and read. They have destinations, food, adventure, Muslim travel and more, and if you have questions, you can always ask the JNTO Malaysia staff. A section of the travel fair at The Starling Mall in PJ The Tokyo Metro booth seems to be one of the popular vendors as there is a lot of information for anyone planning to visit Tokyo. Namely travelling around this metropolis where the daily train passes are the most important item one needs. And if you fill up their questionnaire, you can get a special gift from them which is quite interesting. Even I filled up a form for that unique souvenir from Tokyo Metro. Watch the Japan Travel Fair 2018 Video As for fun and games, visitors can have the opportunity to meet a real live Pokemon at the Japan Travel Fair 2018. This is only on the selected hours. But there is a cute Pokemon game where anyone can play to win some cute Pokemon sticker sheets. You can also find out the previous Also invited to participate are selected Japanese prefectures, hotels & resorts and train operators from all over Japan.These vendors are where you can get first-hand information about the destinations, in regards to logistics, accommodations, food and places of interest.You would also be in for a surprise as there are not one, not two but three different train companies from Japan participating at the Japan Travel Fair.There are also some tourism prefectures taking part and they are;Visitors to the travel fair can get valuable information from the above companies, and if you still need more information, you can just visit the main JNTO booth or any of the travel agents there.There are numerous brochures available on various parts of Japan for you to take home and read. They have destinations, food, adventure, Muslim travel and more, and if you have questions, you can always ask the JNTO Malaysia staff.The Tokyo Metro booth seems to be one of the popular vendors as there is a lot of information for anyone planning to visit Tokyo.Namely travelling around this metropolis where the daily train passes are the most important item one needs.And if you fill up their questionnaire, you can get a special gift from them which is quite interesting. Even I filled up a form for that unique souvenir from Tokyo Metro.As for fun and games, visitors can have the opportunity to meet a real live Pokemon at the Japan Travel Fair 2018. This is only on the selected hours.But there is a cute Pokemon game where anyone can play to win some cute Pokemon sticker sheets.You can also find out the previous Japan travel fair in Malaysia as I had visited the event to see what was being promoted. The last event was held at One Utama Shopping Mall in Petaling Jaya. Following on the heels of an encounter with a reporter in the Netherlands where he gaslighted the reporter twice in the span of a couple of minutes, former Michigan legislator Pete Hoekstra held a press conference and things went decidedly not well. Hoeksta, the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, confronted this time not by just one reporter but multiple reporters, was once again asked about comments he made in the past about radical Islamic terrorists burning politicians in the Netherlands as well as the presence of so-called no-go zones. Since no politician in their country has been burned by terrorists and no-go zones do not exist there, a reporter asked Hoekstra if he could now admit he had lied. Hoekstra said he had issued a statement apologizing and then refused to answer the question, despite being asked multiple times. Unfortunately for Hoekstra, the reporters in the Netherlands arent as forgiving as the ones he has encountered in the USA. Excuse me, I asked you a question, the first reporter said. Mr. Ambassador, can you mention any example of a Dutch politician who was burned in recent years? another asked. This is the Netherlands you have to answer questions, another told him. All told, Hoekstra was asked the question five times and refused to answer it even once: In fact, Hoekstra did NOT apologize for the comments regarding the burning of politicians and no-go zones in the Netherlands. Rather, he apologized for the exchange during the Nieuwsuur interview: Please see my comments regarding recent interview. Thank you. Pete pic.twitter.com/gxQOcZ8Duk Pete Hoekstra (@petehoekstra) December 23, 2017 Pete Hoekstra embarrassed himself in Michigan as a candidate for U.S. Senate where Debbie Stabenow mopped the floor with his failed campaign. Now, in true Trumpian fashion, Hoekstra has taken his gig international and is now embarrassing the entire country as an ambassador. Perhaps its time for Michiganders to investigate the possibility of a formal process for disowning a politician from their state. 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Last year, Russia took 43% of Brazilian pork exports. Since 2012, Russia's share of the Brazilian export market has grown from 25%, partly due to Russia's widely reported ban of pork from many other countries. Also, since 2012, China's share of Brazilian pork exports has increased from 1% in 2012 to 8% in 2017, peaking at 14% in 2016. This has led to China jumping up to become Brazil's third-largest export market for pork. However, the pork division of the UK Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board said that with Russia, and to an extent China, dominating Brazilian pork exports, there may be some uncertainty surrounding Brazilian pork trade in the longer term. "Both of these countries have ambitions to grow their own domestic pork production over the next few years, which is likely to reduce overall requirements for imported product", AHDB Pork said. It added that Brazil's exports to other countries have recorded only slight changes over the last 10 years, and that entering new markets has proved somewhat difficult. "Therefore, domestic demand will likely need to pick up, if exports do slow". Over the past 10 years, Brazil has increased its pork production from around 3 million tonnes per annum (carcass weight equivalent) to over 3.75 million tonnes in 2017. The lion's share of production is consumed domestically, and up until 2015 around 400,000-500,000 tonnes of fresh/frozen pork was exported annually. This increased to 629,000 tonnes in 2016 and was 593,000 tonnes in 2017. The Every Student Succeeds Act allows states and districts to come up with their own interventions for struggling schools, with the caveat that improvement strategies have to some sort of evidence to back them up. So how strong are state ESSA plans when it comes to school improvement? Its a mixed bag, concludes a report released Friday by the Evidence in Education Lab at Results for America , a non-profit organization that studies school improvement. The good: Almost every state46 out of the 51, including the District of Columbiaincluded at least some one promising practice for building and using evidence in their plans. Eleven states were stand-outs in this area: Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. Nine statesConnecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Tennesseepledged to distribute federal school improvement dollars at least in part on the strength of school and districts plans to use evidence-based interventions. Eight statesConnecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Tennesseehad strong proposals for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of school improvement plans. And seven statesConnecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Rhode Islandhad meaty plans for lending districts a hand in choosing evidence-based interventions for foundering schools. The not-so-good: Just three states had strong plans for using evidence to decide when to step in and offer struggling districts additional help, according to the report. And only nine states put a premium on evidence and continuous improvement in designing district applications for school improvement funding. This is Results for Americas second look at evidence and improvement in ESSA plans. Check out their first examination here . For another take on this issue, check out a review released in December by Bellwether Education Partners , a consulting organization. Bellwethers report states, mostly produced plans that are vague and noncommittal about how they will support low-performing schools. Read the new Results for America report here: Want to learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act? Heres some useful information: Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . Guangzhou's GDP in 2017 surpassed two trillion yuan ($309 billion), according to Wen Guohui, mayor of Guangzhou, who delivered the city's 2018 government work report on Jan 11 during Guangzhou's two sessions. The city is the fourth in China to have an annual GDP of over two trillion yuan, following Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Guangzhou is home to more than 900 key projects launched by Fortune Global 500 enterprises, with total investment value reaching 500 billion yuan. Its GDP per capita reached 150,000 yuan, ranking top among major cities in China, according to Zhou Jianjun, director of the Guangzhou municipal development and reform commission. Wen Guohui, mayor of Guangzhou, delivers Guangzhou's 2018 government work report on Jan 11. [Photo/southcn.com] In 2017, Guangzhou launched a raft of reforms to promote trade, reduce its costs and cut production and management expenses for enterprises. By cutting taxes, reducing customs clearance fees and lowering prices for electricity and natural gas over 80 billion yuan was cut from companies' financial burden. From January to November, 2017, Guangzhou invested more than 144 billion yuan in 345 key projects in areas including infrastructure construction, high-tech industry, environmental protection and improvements to people's livelihoods. To further boost its high-end and high-tech industries, the city also founded a special 10 billion-yuan investment fund for the biomedical industry and established a biological industry association to lure more related resources to settle in Guangzhou and build the city into a biomedical hub. To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020. Educators across the country are rallying around their students of Haitian and African descents after President Donald Trump demanded to know why the United States should accept immigrants from Haiti and the shithole countries in Africa. Trumps comments come at a time when more foreign-born black people live in the United States than at any time in historyand many of the residents are children enrolled in the nations K-12 public schools. The president made the remarks while rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that would have offered more visas to underrepresented countries in Africa and countries with expiring Temporary Protective Status, including Haiti. Upon hearing the proposal, Trump asked several members of Congress why the U.S. would want people from Haiti and more Africans instead of places such as Norway, a European country. U.S. schools are educating tens of thousands black, foreign-born English-language learners. More than 13,000 of the students are from Haiti, according to a 2015 U.S. Department of Education fact sheet. The same report found that nearly 4,000 of the students were from Kenya, more than 2,000 each from Ethiopia and Somalia and another combined 3,800 students were from unspecified African countries. This morning in classrooms across our country, Americas teachers are dealing with the fallout. What happens in classrooms if children simply mimic or repeat the presidents vulgar and vile comments or share their racist overtones? American Federation of Teacher President Randi Weingarten wrote in a statement. The countries and the people the president targeted need to know that the American people do not stand for Trumps hateful and racist words. A 2015 study from the Pew Research Center found that the black African immigrant population in the U.S. grew from 570,000 to 1.4 million, an increase of nearly 140 percent, since 2000. Those immigrants are less likely to be in the United States illegally and more likely to speak English when compared with the overall U.S. immigrant population. When African-born students arrive in U.S. schools, they arent always well received. Education Week has written about racial strife in St. Cloud, Minn., home to a growing community of residents from Somalia. While many schools welcomed students from Haiti after an earthquake ravaged the country in 2010 , the federal government has announced it will cancel visas for roughly 59,000 Haitians living under protected status in the U.S. The decision means that immigrants from Haiti who currently have Temporary Protected Status, a program that allows immigrants from countries in crisis to live and work in the United States legally, must return to the nation by July 2019 or be subject to deportation. A 2017 Migration Policy Institute study found that the nations Haitian immigrants are concentrated in central and South Florida, and the New York City and Boston metropolitan areas. After President Trumps remarks Miami-Dade schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho took to Twitter to voice his support for Haitians and immigrants. Immigrants from nations referred to today with insult enrich South FL and our nation- including the youngest among them, who I fear are questioning what hurts more - how anyone could perceive their family's homeland in such a way or how anyone can remain silent about it. #IamThem pic.twitter.com/O1BJykwBGS Alberto M. Carvalho (@MiamiSup) January 12, 2018 My heart is with #Haiti on this 8th anniversary of the earthquake that changed everything. To all my Haitian brothers and sisters, including the tens of thousands of Haitian-American children and teens learning and striving in @MDCPS schools, we stand by you. pic.twitter.com/WFMtVcV18w Alberto M. Carvalho (@MiamiSup) January 12, 2018 Today, @MiamiSup spoke to several Haitian-American students @MNW_Bulls1955 and reminded them that anyone can succeed in this country, regardless of where they come from, social conditions, skin color or religion. pic.twitter.com/5MziiYKCv0 Miami Dade Schools (@MDCPS) January 12, 2018 The KIPP, or Knowledge Is Power Program, charter school network in Massachusetts signaled their support for Haitian students. At KIPP Boston this morning we stand with our Haitian students and families. pic.twitter.com/v1xET50GgG KIPP Massachusetts (@KIPPMASchools) January 12, 2018 In Minnesota, home to many students from Somalia, school leaders in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul wrote social media posts in support of foreign-born students. We respect all @SPPS_News students, staff and families. We are proud that you choose to call SPPS home. We also appreciate the vast homelands represented in our community. We value the cultures and traditions that originate from communities near and far. #AllAreWelcome #IamSPPS pic.twitter.com/cIMN3uTmB6 Joe Gothard, Ed.D. (@JoeGothard) January 12, 2018 Since Trump took office last January, Homeland Security has also canceled Temporary Protected Status for the northern Africa nation of Sudan. As my colleague Catherine Gewertz reports, the College Board responded to Trumps comments with a pledge to donate $100,000 to an African school that builds college readiness. .@CollegeBoard responds to Trump immigration comments with $100k pledge to African school that builds college readiness. CEO Coleman says: "America's colleges are hungry for the strength and talent of African, Haitian and Central American students." Catherine Gewertz (@cgewertz) January 12, 2018 Heres a look at some data on foreign-born black students in U.S. schools. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member of the House education committee, urged U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Thursay not to scrap a directive issued by the Obama administration with the aim of driving down disproportionately high discipline rates for students of color. That 2014 civil rights guidance , which has been criticized as too heavy-handed by some conservative organizations, is key to dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, Scott said in a statement after his first meeting with DeVos, during which he shared the education priorities of House Democrats. States and school districts need the tools and resources provided by this guidance package to ensure compliance with federal education and civil rights laws which require that they identify and address any racial bias in discipline policies and practices, Scott said. Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Title IV-A grants are another valuable tool, which is why I also urged the Secretary to support school districts in using ESSA dollars to keep students in school and out of prison. As we begin this new year, I hope that Secretary DeVos and I will continue to have productive conversations on ending the school-to-prison pipeline and other issues important to students and families. The discipline guidance, issued by the Obama-era Education and Justice Departments, put schools on notice that they may be found in violation of federal civil rights laws if they discipline students of one racial group at higher rates than others, even if their policies were written without discriminatory intent (read more on that principle, called disparate impact ). The guidance, and accompanying resources, suggested schools reduce the use of exclusionary discipline practices, like suspensions, for minor offenses in favor of practices like restorative justice and broader school climate efforts. Supporters of the federal directive say students of color have been most heavily affected by suspensions for non-violent behavior, like truancy, dress-code violations, and defiant behavior, an infraction that can be inconsistently applied. Vague rules are prone to be applied through a biased lens, they argue. For example, what one teacher may interpret as defiance, another teacher may see as a result of student trauma or fear. But critics of the guidance have said some districts applied racial quotas on suspensions to comply with the rule and to keep their discipline data from showing disparities, creating unsafe school environments. DeVos has met with both critics and supporters of the guidance. She has not said publicly if she will rescind the guidance, but the Education Department has rolled back several other civil rights measures under her leadership, including guidance on the rights of transgender students and on addressing sexual assault. Related reading on school discipline: Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox. John Cena has a great 2018 planned out for himself. Cena will once again take on two of the most challenging and messiest things in life: kids and slime! The pro wrestler is once again hosting the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. This will be Cena's second time playing "master of ceremony" for the animated award show that is for kids, teens, and young adults. This makes Cena the third celebrity that ever hosted the award show back-to-back, behind the late, Whitney Houston and Rosie O' Donnell. Cena's A Big Kid Cena stated that he's looking forward to partaking in the annual award show and compared it to being on the WWE. "Every show is just outstanding and what they do for the kids in the audience and the kids at home is spectacular. The show is for the kids and so designed for the audience absolutely and it's so fun. You get to be a big kid," Cena stated. The actor already looking for new ways to top last's year show and make it another memorable night for everyone. Dancing With His Love In addition to his upcoming projects, Cena will soon begin a new chapter in his life. Cena is engaged to pro-wrestler and model Nikki Bella. The couple became engaged after five years of dating in April 2017. "It's kind of a special time where there is a little bit of lull and I'm really looking forward to spending some time with Nicole and work on that. Hopefully, in the next few weeks the wedding planning is really going to amp up!", Cena stated. Bella was a contestant on Dancing With the Stars' 25th season in 2017 with Artem Chigvintsev as her partner. The Ferdinand actor may be taking lessons from Chigvintsev in order to prepare for the big day. "He's fantastic though so we will see basically if he's around. It depends on him," Cena stated. Cena will be starring in the upcoming movies: Bumblebee the Movie and Blockers, that are scheduled to be released this year. The actor has already appeared in the films: 12 Rounds, Legendary, The Reunion, Trainwreck, Sisters, Daddy's Home, Daddy's Home 2. The 2018 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards will air on Mar. 24, 2018. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert is scheduled to go live on Jan. 30 just minutes after President Donald Trump addresses the nation. This will be the second time during President Trump's administration that the late night host will respond to the President's State of the Union. Colbert first aired a live episode on Feb. 28, 2017, which featured actress Lisa Kudrow and former White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. The Jan. 30 guests are expected to be Pod Save America hosts Tommy Victor, Jon Favreau, and John Lovett, and 2 Dope Queens hosts Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams. Country music superstar Chris Stapleton is scheduled to be the show's musical guest. The State Of Colbert While the Late Show with Stephen Colbert debuted several months after then-candidate Trump announced his presidential campaign on June 16, 2015, the former Colbert Report host had slowly mocked the real estate tycoon's every move. But when Trump won the presidency in 2016, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert was not ready for the shocking win. Days after Trump claimed the presidency, the CBS late night show changed in a new direction that has helped the show dominate the late night ratings race. With the help of his writing staff, Colbert has taken on President Trump throughout his administration and called him out using brutally honest humor. Cartoon Donald Trump One segment that has softened the blow of President Trump's election came in the form of Cartoon Donald Trump. In several segments such as show openings, audiences laughed at the antics of the cartoon version of the 45th President of the United States. The cartoon version of President Trump was often interacting with cartoon versions of his inner circle ranging from his children to disgraced ex-White House staffer Steve Bannon. On Dec. 18, 2017, Showtime announced that it would bring Cartoon Donald Trump's misadventures to its viewers in a 10-episode animated series called Our Cartoon President. The series is expected to follow cartoon President Trump as he deals with life in Washington, D.C. Colbert, along with The Late Show executive producer Chris Licht, will be an executive producer of the series. The series will debut on Jan. 28. Honest Celebrity Interviews Another factor that has helped Colbert define his place in the late night community is his honest interviews. On Dec. 4, 2017, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was the first show to welcome disgraced TV host Billy Bush following his firing at NBC regarding the lewd Access Hollywood tape. Throughout the nearly 13 minutes that Bush interacted with Colbert, he condemned the President and adamantly declared that the voice that viewers heard on the video belonged to the President of the United States. Colbert also confronted several Hollywood heavyweights Ben Affleck and James Franco regarding their particular sexual misconduct allegations against them when both actors made their separate visits to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in Gujarat in 1996 for the first time following L K Advanis Somnath to Ayodhya Yatra in 1989, and the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992. In December 2017, it was its sixth consecutive victory in the assembly elections. Its vote share has increased by 1 percentage point since 2012. Its rival, the Congress party, gained 2 percentage point votes more than in the previous assembly elections. Comparing this assembly poll with the last Parliament elections in 2014, the BJPs vote share has sharply declined from 59% to 49%, whereas the Congress gained 8.5 percentage points (Figure 1). During the 2014 Parliament elections, the BJP captured all 26 seats of Parliament with majority votes in 169 out of 182 assembly segments. Since 2002, all elections in Gujarat have been Narendra Modi-centric. During the last two elections in 2012 and 2014, he appealed to the voters, every vote you cast for local BJP candidate is a vote for me (Deshpande and Mehta 2014). Even though he did not say so explicitly, his 2017 campaign was a clear plebiscite on his performance as the Prime Minister. Khalifa Haftar, Libyas military strongman and the leader of the Libyan National Army said that his country was not yet ready for democracy as Libya is preparing for elections later this year in a move to put an end to instability. Mr. Haftar, however, said that the UN-backed poll would put an end to the chaos, which has been ravaging Libya since the 2011 toppling of Muammar Gaddafi. Marshall Haftar, whose self-proclaimed Libyan National Army is in control of vast parts of the Libyan territory, has endorsed the elections. He is thought to run for the office as part of his so-called war against extremists and terror, though he also warned that he would not accept rigged poll and would, in that case, militarily take control of the country. The UN said that all Libyans could run for the upcoming elections. The UN had started planning the ground for elections in late 2018 in September last year with the aim to amend a December 2015 peace plan. Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said the United Nations saw elections to be held in Libya later this year as a route to a peaceful and inclusive end to the transition phase, adding that the goal is a Libyan goal: to end the transition phase with an inclusive peaceful process that produces a unified government that is a product of the will of the Libyan people. The hopes for the 2018 elections are very high. The UN would like to see them stabilize the country, although holding the poll itself poses a risk of bringing even more division within the already complicated landscape. Hi all. Just recently I have decided to apply for Canada and Australia simultaneously. My noc is 2147 and already have 8777 in ielts. My csr is 360. Which pnp program should I look forward to? Also sinp is asking for a license to apply for pnp, which can be obtained by assessing your education through the designated body. I actually dont have any formal education regarding my noc but have done certifications etc. how will I proceed for that? Any help would be great. Thanks in advance. Cheers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Hi all, My roles are more into bookkeeping like reconciliation, invoicing, BRS, journal entry postings and preparation of reports. Few of roles are matching with NOC 1131 can anyone please guide if i opt for this code will it be ok ? also can someone please share the reference letter thread as i have some difficulty i getting the reference letter from employer... WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to several 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 countries mentioned by the lawmakers. Trump then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. The president, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt that they help the United States economically. 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." Lawmakers were taken aback by the comments, according to people familiar with their reactions. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., had proposed cutting the visa lottery program by 50 percent and then prioritizing countries already in the system, a White House official said. A White House spokesman defended Trump's position on immigration without directly addressing his remarks. White House officials did not dispute the account. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement issued after The Washington Post first reported Trump's remarks. ". . . 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." Trump built his candidacy and presidency around hard stances on immigration, vowing to build a wall along the Mexican border and cut legal immigration by half, among other positions. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have increased immigration raids, including dozens this week at convenience stores across the country. Trump's comments Thursday also put further scrutiny on his long-standing tendency to make racially charged remarks - including attacks on protesting black athletes and his claim that there were fine people "on both sides" after neo-Nazis rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump falsely claimed for years that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and took out advertisements calling for the death penalty for members of the Central Park Five - four black youths and a Hispanic youth who were accused of a brutal rape in New York and later exonerated. The president's remarks were quickly met with scorn from Democrats and some Republicans and could throw another wrench into bipartisan discussions on immigration, which had shown promise in recent days, according to legislators. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said the comments "will shake the confidence that people have" in the ongoing immigration policy talks. "Democrats and Republicans in the Senate made a proposal. The answer is this racist outburst of the president. How can you take him seriously?" Gutierrez said. "They [Republicans] don't believe in immigration - it's always been about people of color and keeping them out of this country." Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said on Twitter that Trump's remarks "are further proof that his Make America Great Again Agenda is really a Make America White Again agenda." Some Republicans also raised objections. Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, whose family is from Haiti, said in a statement that Trump's remarks were "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation." "My grandmother used to say, 'Digame con quien caminas, y te dire quien eres.' 'Tell me who you walk with, and I'll tell you who you are,' " said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., who represents most of Harlem and is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. "If he's walking around with white supremacists and supporting them, this kind of talk doesn't surprise me." The New York Times also reported last year that Trump said immigrants from Haiti have AIDS. The White House denied that report. In a statement condemning Thursday's remarks by Trump, Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Paul G. Altidor, said that "the president was either misinformed or miseducated about Haiti and its people." He said the Haitian Embassy was inundated with emails from Americans apologizing for what the president said. Democrats were quick to note that Trump employs Haitians at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and that he praised Haitian Americans during a roundtable in Miami in September. "Whether you vote for me or don't vote for me, I really want to be your greatest champion, and I will be your champion," Trump said at the roundtable. Alix Desulme, a city council member in North Miami, home to thousands of Haitian Americans, said the president's latest remarks were "disgusting." "Oh, my God. Oh, my God Jesus," Desulme said. "I don't know how much worse it can get." "This is very alarming. We know he's not presidential, but this is a low," he said. "It's disheartening that someone who is the leader of the free world would use such demeaning language to talk about other folks, referring to folks of color." Trump's critics also said racially incendiary language could damage relationships with foreign allies. For many of Trump's supporters, however, the comments may not prove to be particularly damaging. Trump came under fire from conservatives this week for seeming to suggest that 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. Outlining a potential bipartisan deal, the lawmakers discussed restoring protections for countries that have been removed from the temporary protected status (TPS) program while committing $1.5 billion for a border wall and making changes to the visa lottery system. Lawmakers mentioned that members of the Congressional Black Caucus had requested that some African countries be included in a deal, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. The exchange was "salty" on all sides, this person said, with the president growing profane and animated while discussing immigrants from other countries. "It did not go well," this person said. The administration announced this week that it was removing TPS status for citizens of El Salvador. Haitians were added to the TPS program because of a strong earthquake that devastated Haiti eight years ago. Trump had seemed amenable to a deal earlier in the day during phone calls with lawmakers, aides said, but shifted his position in the meeting and did not seem interested in the bipartisan compromise. The scene played out hurriedly in the morning. Graham and Durbin thought they would be meeting with Trump alone and were surprised to find immigration hard-liners such as Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., at the meeting. White House and Capitol Hill aides say Stephen Miller, the president's top immigration official, was concerned there could be a deal proposed that was too liberal and made sure conservative lawmakers were present. After the meeting, Marc Short, Trump's director of legislative affairs, said the White House was nowhere near a bipartisan agreement on immigration. "We still think we can get there," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the daily White House news briefing. - - - The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe, Maria Sacchetti and Erica Werner contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: The Fix's Eugene Scott explains how Trump's "shithole countries" comment is the latest example of his history of demeaning statements on nonwhite immigrants.(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) Embed code: This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Edward Benavides, the longtime city executive who has served as the CEO of the citys Tricentennial Commission since late 2015 has resigned from the position, according to a memo. Today the Executive Committee of the San Antonio Tricentennial Commission accepted the resignation of CEO Edward Benavides, according to a memo written by City Manager Sheryl Sculley. The resignation is effective immediately. Until a permanent replacement is approved by the Commission, Assistant City Manager Carlos Contreras will serve as interim CEO. Contreras also will continue his duties as Assistant City Manager. Benavides has come under fire recently for how he and former Chief Operating Officer Asia Ciaravino had handled an exclusive media partnership with KSAT-TV. The San Antonio Express-News reported late last month that the Tricentennial Commission had negotiated for months with KSAT officials on a partnership before releasing an Request for Proposals the day after WOAI-TV had complained about what it saw as an unfair process. I applaud Edwards willingness to step aside and minimize distractions as San Antonio commemorates its 300th birthday, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said. The Tricentennial is the most important moment in our lifetime to exhibit who we are and what our city will be in its next era. Tricentennial leaders have also admitted that the organization's fundraising efforts have been lackluster. The city will celebrate its 300th birthday in 2018. In the commissions infancy, it had once pondered a year of events with a budget exceeding $50 million, largely from private contributions. Now, the budget is set at $10.3 million. Earlier this month, though, commission leaders announced a $500,000 contribution from USAA, bringing total fundraising to about $6.1 million. The memo, obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, says Benavides Sculley's former chief of staff and a "valuable asset to the city" will be reassigned to another position in the municipal government. Officials are promising that the celebration will come off without a hitch, as its slated to begin in about six weeks with a massive downtown New Years Eve celebration. Lionel Sosa, one of the co-chairmen of the Tricentennial Commission, said he laments the decision for Benavides to step down. He has been a strong supporter of the bureaucrat and said he believes in his abilities and professionalism. Sosa also acknowledged that the volunteers will likely need to work harder now than ever before. We all take this very, very seriously, Sosa said of the volunteer officials overseeing the trajectory of the celebration. We have volunteered numerous hours for two years, and I bet this takes a good 15 hours a week or more on each of the volunteer staff. He said hes confident that San Antonio will put on a worthy tricentennial. The proof is going to be in the pudding, he said. Is it going to be a wonderful New Years Eve celebration? Yes it is. Commission President Robert Thrailkill also thanked Benavides in a separate press release. We appreciate Edwards steadfast commitment to the Tricentennial planning effort, he said. Edward worked extremely hard to prepare for the official celebration of San Antonios 300th birthday. We respect his decision to do what he believes is in the best interest of the city. Meanwhile, Sculley issued a statement backing Benavides. Edward has been to be a valuable asset to the City of San Antonio, and will be reassigned within the City organization, she said in a news release. Im grateful for the passion and commitment he gave to the Tricentennial effort, and there is no question that the year-long celebration will be a great success and source of pride for our community. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AUSTIN - Democrat Andrew White said Thursday he would work to end the death penalty if elected governor, taking on a politically sensitive issue and painting a sharp contrast with the Republican he hopes to face in November. Im against the death penalty. I think its broken. I think its broken because it does not create a deterrent. It doesnt reduce murder, weve proven that, so the data says it doesnt work, right? White said to reporters after a forum hosted by the Texas Tribune. The data says we put innocent people on death row, and its expensive. The position puts the candidate in line with the position arrived at by his late father, former Gov. Mark White. The Democratic former governor touted executions over which he presided when he sought to regain his office in 1990, but later regretted that move, telling the Express-News in 2014 that it was beneath the dignity of the office. He became an advocate for reform. If he gets his partys nomination and beats Gov. Greg Abbott in November an uphill climb Andrew White said he would work to pass a law to eliminate the death penalty and would commute sentences as possible. State law allows a governor to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve of a death sentence. The governor may grant clemency if that action is recommended by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, a panel that is appointed by the governor. White said if governor, he would appoint people to the board who oppose the death penalty. He could do so as existing board members terms expire or they otherwise leave. White said he had talked with his father about the issue. I was a little ahead of him on this issue, and its funny, because my dad, when he figured it out, he got behind it big time, White said. Asked whether he believes an innocent person has been executed, White said he didnt know. I cant speculate. That breaks my heart and kills me. I dont want that to ever happen, White said. Efforts to chip away at the death penalty have faced a tough road in the Texas Legislature, although lawmakers in 2005 approved and Gov. Rick Perry signed a measure providing the option of life without parole for capital crimes. There previously was a choice only between the death penalty and a life sentence with the possibility of parole. That was seen as making it difficult for jurors to decide against execution, since the perpetrator could be back on the street. Abbott supports the death penalty, as did his 2014 Democratic opponent, then-Sen Wendy Davis although as a Fort Worth City Council member in 2000 she voted to impose a moratorium on the practice. White is competing in a big field for the Democratic nod for governor that also includes former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez. Her campaign didnt immediately respond when asked her position on the death penalty. The Texas Democratic Partys platform calls for abolishing the death penalty and replacing it with the punishment of life in prison without parole. It also advocates a moratorium on capital punishment while the state undertakes an unbiased and objective study of the entire process. Peggy Fikac is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | pfikac@express-news.net | @pfikac Edward Benavides, the controversial former executive director of San Antonios Tricentennial Commission who stepped down in November but remained a highly paid city employee, has decided to quit rather than be reassigned to a different city position, according to a memo sent from City Manager Sheryl Sculley to the City Council on Friday. But under the terms of his separation agreement, Benavides will continue to earn his $6,529 bi-weekly salary through the end of March, and hell continue to collect car and cellphone allowances as well. In exchange, Benavides will be available to answer any questions about his work on the Tricentennial and agrees to disparage neither the city nor the Tricentennial. If he does, itll cost him $1,500 per occurrence. Since November, Benavides has been on paid leave, using accrued time he earned over his past two decades as a city employee. He stepped down after substantial criticism over his handling of contracts and what some said was an aloof and arbitrary management style. Benavides declined to comment Friday, saying that his letter of resignation speaks for itself. He says in the letter dated Thursday that he has been a career public servant, mostly with the city of San Antonio. The majority of my career has been dedicated to the City of San Antonio and the organization served an integral role in my public service career as evidenced by increasing professional growth opportunities over the course of my tenure with the City, he wrote. In all my work and contribution, I have lead (sic) with integrity, high ethical values and professionalism. I am proud and appreciative of my public service career and it has been an honor to serve the community of San Antonio. Benavides stepped down from the commission after substantial criticism and cited continuing negativity as his reason for leaving. Assistant City Manager Carlos Contreras was appointed interim executive director shortly thereafter. Hes now the permanent head of the commission, Sculleys memo says. Vanessa Hurd, the former CEO of the Doseum whod served on the commission and has been consulting with Contreras and the board, was named deputy director of the commission. Formerly Sculleys chief of staff, Benavides earned nearly $168,000 annually, up from $132,804 in his previous position. Benavides was expected to return to work this year. City officials were working to match him with a position within the municipal government. Instead, he tendered his resignation on Thursday, effective March 30. As part of his separation agreement, he will remain available until March as a resource to Carlos for questions that arise regarding the planning and execution of the Tricentennial events occurring during Commemorative Week, which will take place May 1-6th, 2018, Sculley wrote. Benavides had been criticized for his handling of multiple contracts with the Tricentennial Commission, including an exclusive media partnership with KSAT-TV. He and his then-lieutenant, Asia Ciaravino, negotiated exclusively for months with the station before a competitor complained to Sculley. She directed Benavides to issue a call for proposals, which ultimately resulted in deals with KSAT and Univision. Benavides, whose brother Brandon is a producer at KSAT, has said that he was transparent about the relationship and did nothing wrong. He was also criticized for making major decisions without consulting the volunteer board charged with oversight. Since controversy erupted, Sculley has said oversight responsibility lies with the commissions board not her office. She told columnist Brian Chasnoff in December that she hadnt been involved in Tricentennial planning and while she acknowledged meeting regularly with her former chief of staff, she didnt get into the weeds. Wed meet from time to time, Sculley told Chasnoff. But I didnt review any contracts. I met with Edward just to say, Are things OK? Do you need my help? But I wasnt reviewing all the contracts. In her three-page memo, Sculley wrote that when the council created the Tricentennial Commission a local government corporation it ceded all planning and decision making authority to the Tricentennial Commission, and absolved the city of the need to approve any of the commissions contracts. The commission, she wrote, is not required to adhere to City rules and regulations for procurement. As Contreras and Hurd settle into permanent positions, theyll soon receive more assistance. Sculley indicated that she plans in the coming days and weeks to assign additional city support staff. Meanwhile, Contreras is drafting a plan to bolster Tricentennial staff for the balance of the year to ensure success of all Tricentennial activities, Sculley said. Councilman Greg Brockhouse, a Tricentennial critic, mocked Mayor Ron Nirenbergs campaign slogan (the city you deserve) when he reacted to Benavides separation agreement. That is an amazing compensation package for someone who resigned from the 300 following a series of leadership failures. I doubt many others working at the City of San Antonio would have received that sweetheart deal for the same performance, he said in a text message to the San Antonio Express-News. The severance you deserve. Councilman Manny Pelaez said hes known Benavides as a good man and friend. I know these last few months have been difficult for him and his family. I know that his desire to serve has always been authentic and that he gave a lot of himself to our tricentennial efforts, Pelaez said in a text message. Ive been reminding people to avail themselves of the benefits of perspective. San Antonio has been around for 300 years. Well be around for another 300. The issues that gave rise to Edwards departure arent going to derail SA300 and wont impact our dedication to celebrating this important time in our history. Josh Baugh is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jbaugh@express-news.net | @jbaugh AUSTIN Only a small percentage of low-income Texans who get their health care through Medicaid would have to work to receive benefits should the state decide to adopt work requirements, according to figures provided by an advocacy organization. The Trump administration announced Thursday that states can now require able-bodied adults to work or participate in other community engagement to qualify for Medicaid. In Texas, the health care program primarily insures low-income children, who make up more than 75 percent of the 4.4 million enrollees, according to the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities. There are only about 150,000 impoverished adults covered by Medicaid who arent pregnant, elderly or disabled. A parent of two must make less than $230 a month, or $2,760 a year, to qualify for Medicaid in Texas. If your income is that low, you need a lot more than just for somebody to hand you a list of jobs to go apply for, said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director at the CPPP. For this population, it would be an utter waste of resources. Texas has one of the lowest qualifying incomes in the country for adults and is one of 18 states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The federal poverty level for an individual in 2017 was $12,060 a year, but states are allowed to use a lower level for their programs. It remains to be seen whether lawmakers have the political appetite to add new work requirements; neither Gov. Greg Abbott nor Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick returned requests for comment. The next legislative session doesnt begin until January 2019, after elections in November. The states Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees Medicaid, said it would comment when its appropriate without indicating when that might be. Any future proposal would need review from federal officials. At least 10 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Utah, have already requested Medicaid enrollees engage in work, job training or community service. State Sen. Charles Schwertner, who chairs the chambers Health and Human Services Committee, said the federal policy change gives states more control over their own Medicaid programs. Ive said for years that Medicaid is a costly and broken system and that we need to explore all available options to put this program on a more sustainable fiscal trajectory, Schwertner, R-Georgetown, said in a written statement. I believe that every Medicaid or welfare recipient who is capable of working, particularly those in expansion states, should be expected to bear some responsibility for the cost of their own health care. Sen. Carlos Uresti, vice chair of the committee, said the Legislature should further study the issue. The data shows if you are on Medicaid you are very likely disabled, elderly, pregnant or a child, Uresti, D-San Antonio, said in a statement. The Legislature should further study the issue, just as we have other Medicaid eligibility requirements, before making any decisions that could unnecessarily drive families and children further into poverty. Allie Morris is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. | amorris@express-news.net | @MorrisReports This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A relative of a man accused of murder in a fatal shooting in 2015 on the West Side told a jury that his nephew admitted that he killed the victim. Larry Isaac, 31, testified Thursday for the prosecution in the murder trial of Robert Martinez, 21. Martinez is accused of killing Steven Cerna, 19, who was fatally shot Feb. 20, 2015, his body found in a drainage ditch known as Hells Gate, in the 1100 block of Shadwell. Authorities said three men, including the defendant, lured Cerna to a motel with the promise of drugs or money and later killed him. Testimony began Tuesday with prosecutor Melissa Saenz telling the jury that Cerna, whom his mother testified suffered from a mental illness, was slain in retaliation over a killing that he had nothing to do with. Defense attorney Leland McRae contends that his client did not kill Cerna, there are no witnesses who saw him at the scene and that authorities pinned the crime on the wrong man. Isaac testified that he thought his brother, Albert Isaac, who allegedly helped lure Cerna to a motel with Martinez, was involved in the killing. Larry Isaac told the court that when he asked Martinez in a phone call where Cerna was, Martinez told him, In the dirt. Isaac testified that he asked his nephew who did it, and Martinez replied, I did. When asked by McRae, Isaac, who is in jail on a separate kidnapping charge, admitted that he testified in exchange for a lighter sentence as part of a plea agreement that would lower a potential 20-year prison sentence to a maximum of nine years. I got the deal of a lifetime, Isaac said. Closing arguments are expected to begin Friday morning in the 290th state District Court, presided by Judge Melisa Skinner. If convicted, Martinez faces up to life in prison. Elizabeth Zavala is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | ezavala@express-news.net | @elizabeth2863 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Rey Saldana and Greg Brockhouse used to be buddies. In 2011, Brockhouse worked on Saldanas insurgent campaign for the City Council, helping a 24-year-old Stanford grad upset a prohibitive favorite, former interim Councilwoman Leticia Cantu. After the election, Brockhouse who had previously worked as a council aide for Mary Alice Cisneros smoothed Saldanas transition to City Hall by serving for seven months as his chief of staff. Those days seemed far away in the wee small hours of Thursday morning. Saldana and Brockhouse engaged in an email skirmish over Brockhouses allegation that some of the undocumented immigrants trapped in a tractor-trailer found at a Walmart in Saldanas South Side district last July were members of the MS-13 gang. Ten immigrants died in the sweltering trailer. Brockhouse, whose council district includes the far West Side of San Antonio, made that allegation in a Wednesday letter sent to U.S. Attorney John Bash (and forwarded to Brockhouses council colleagues). The letter called for an investigation into the handling of a more recent incident: the Dec. 23 arrest of Herbert Nichols, the driver of a tractor-trailer smuggling 12 suspected undocumented immigrants. Police Chief William McManus charged Nichols under a state law and released the passengers, a move which Brockhouse has questioned. More for you Police chief stands by decision in immigration case Brockhouses letter to Bash lamented a breakdown in process between SAPD and the Department of Homeland Security and said the passengers in the tractor-trailer should have been held until their identities were discovered and the federal immigration laws upheld. What really irked Saldana was Brockhouses word choice when he wrote that deceased passengers in the tractor-trailer found at Walmart were later identified as known MS-13 gang members. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in a Thursday statement, confirmed that one but only one of the deceased immigrants in the tractor-trailer had been identified by special agents as an MS-13 member. (Previous media accounts had used the word suspected in reference to that gang connection.) Early Thursday, at 1:43 a.m., Saldana fired back. As someone who witnessed the body bags of the deceased as well as spoke to a grieving mother at the Ad Hoc memorial set up at Wal-Mart I truly hope you have some irrefutable evidence that some of the men from the July incident were members of MS-13, Saldana wrote, in an email CCed to other council members and staffers. He added that Brockhouses letter to Bash paints immigrants with a broad and negative brush thats so often used as an instrument of hate and bigotry towards immigrants. Saldanas critique aggravated Brockhouse, who is sensitive to suggestions that hes a draconian border hawk. He insists that he merely wanted background checks, not deportation, for the immigrants found in the tractor-trailer last month. Brockhouse responded with an email telling Saldana that he was way out of line, and adding, The problem with this whole conversation is you sent an email at 1:43 am. You should have approached me first. Surprisingly, given the tone of the exchange, Saldana told me Thursday he read through the letter with no problem until he got to the known MS-13 phrase. I thought it was fair to ask for a review, Saldana said. But we have to be very careful as elected officials. Brockhouse said Saldanas email came from a purely vindictive location, and added, This is a good example of why you dont send emails at 2 a.m. This kind of tension would have seemed unimaginable when Brockhouse and Saldana celebrated together on election night in 2011, but its been a long time coming. From Brockhouses perspective, the rift began in 2013 when Saldana declined to endorse him in a council race against District 6 incumbent Ray Lopez. Things got testier when Brockhouse went to work as a consultant for the San Antonio Police Officers Association. During the most recent round of collective bargaining between SAPOA and the city, Saldana criticized the union for what he regarded as a push for unsustainably expensive benefits and a reluctance to hold officers accountable for police misconduct. Nonetheless, Saldana said he and Brockhouse maintain a cordial relationship. I have no ill will to him, Saldana said. But I do have ill will to people who might try to use broad brushes and paint people, especially with an issue as critical as this to the country at this time. Gilbert Garcia is a San Antonio Express-News columnist. Read more of his stories here. | ggarcia@express-news.net | @gilgamesh470 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate San Antonio hit pause Thursday on the incentive program that has helped bring numerous upscale apartment complexes to the downtown area, as Mayor Ron Nirenberg encourages a shift to policies that focus on affordable housing. The City Council voted as part of its consent agenda to stop city staff from awarding more incentives under the Center City Housing Incentive Policy, created in 2012 to promote new housing in San Antonios hotel-dominated downtown. The incentives were part of former Mayor Julian Castros push for a Decade of Downtown, and worked under the assumption that that if new residents move in, jobs and retail businesses would follow. Projects previously got incentives automatically as long as they met certain requirements, but now they will need council approval. Over the last few years, the housing-first strategy in downtown San Antonio has worked with respect to the number of units available. However, land values and home values are rising to the point where its becoming one of the least affordable places to live, Nirenberg said in an interview. Thats a challenge for us long-term, because affordability has been one of our competitive advantages. CCHIP has awarded developers with just over $97 million worth of incentives for 64 developments with 6,543 housing units, according to John Jacks, director of the citys Center City Development Office. The program offers property tax breaks, cash grants, fee waivers and forgivable loans. City and county incentives for downtown development have come under scrutiny lately as local politicians such as County Commissioner Kevin Wolff and District 6 City Councilman Greg Brockhouse question whether theyre still necessary in hot real estate markets such as the Broadway corridor and the Pearl. Many of San Antonios most expensive apartment complexes have received money from CCHIP, including $4.5 million for the recently opened Jones & Rio complex in north downtown, where the average rent was $2.25 per square foot a month in January, according to research firm ApartmentData.com. The average rental rate in San Antonio now is $1.07 per square foot a month, the firms data show. Local developers have pushed back against criticism of downtown housing incentives, saying theyre needed to build up a tax base in the urban core and to help cover the cost of replacing deteriorated infrastructure. San Antonio needs more urban housing to compete with other cities in attracting talented young workers, they say. Steve Yndo, a local developer known for building high-end lofts and townhomes in Southtown and around the Pearl, said encouraging affordable housing is a good use for city funds, but he doesnt like the idea of an incentive policy that mandates affordable units. High construction costs make it difficult to build affordable housing in some neighborhoods, he said. Construction costs are so tough, labor is so scarce, that even just trying to keep your costs and your pricing within the bounds of reason is hard enough without mandating building at an affordable level, he said. Some developers, such as NRP Group, have built or plan to build apartment complexes in the urban core with affordable units by making use of state and federal housing tax credits. But its difficult for many developers to acquire the know-how to make use of those programs and get financing for projects under them, Yndo said. The aspect of CCHIP that awarded incentives without council approval known as an as of right policy was beneficial to developers because it eliminated another hurdle in the construction process, he said. Along with raising financing and dealing with the logistics of construction, downtown developers often have to get approval from the citys Zoning Commission and Historic and Design Review Commission. The city has commissioned a housing study to evaluate the program which is set to expire in June and to consider an affordability requirement for new housing incentives. At the same time, a Housing Policy Task Force that Nirenberg created in August is researching possible changes to the citys housing policies. The council likely will hear recommendations in May and vote on them this summer or early fall, the mayor said in the interview. Nirenberg said he expects the geographical boundaries of the citys incentive policies to change and for incentives to no longer be given without council approval. But he said he will leave the policy specifics to the five-member task force, which is headed by former San Antonio Housing Authority President and CEO Lourdes Castro Ramirez and includes representatives of Alamo Architects, Pape-Dawson Engineers and Vantage Bank. Its to be determined whether the city will scale back the total amount of incentives it gives to developers, Nirenberg said. Everything is on the table, he said. I will say I expect more judicious use of incentives in areas of town where the property values have been rising out of line. District 1 City Councilman Roberto Trevino, whose district includes downtown, said he would support requiring development projects to have an affordable component to get incentives. He said he would like to see areas with fast-rising property values, such as the near East and North sides, included in the policy. Property values more than doubled between 2007 and 2017 in some areas to the north, east and south of downtown, according to data he provided from the Bexar Appraisal District. What we want is mixed levels of incomes in neighborhoods that is a good approach, Trevino said. We dont want to create areas that see opportunities and others that do not. City staffs housing study also will analyze how to craft policies for specific parts of the city, including downtown, Southtown, the near East Side and the near West Side, as well as Midtown, the area the stretches along U.S. 281 on the near North Side, according to Thursdays council agenda. The citys goal has been to create 7,500 housing units in the downtown area by 2020. At this point it has achieved 89 percent of that goal; 6,696 housing units either have been built, are under construction or are set to break ground this year, the council agenda said. CCHIP was last modified in 2016, when the City Council voted to shrink the programs coverage area in response to complaints that rapid development was overwhelming neighborhoods near downtown. The program formerly had a 36-square-mile footprint but shrank to cover 5.2 square miles including downtown and parts of the near East Side, near West Side and Southtown. Richard Webner is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | rwebner@express-news.net | @RWebner Smart Ags AutoCart system can help farmers work more efficiently By Diego Flammini News Reporter Farms.com An Iowa-based software company is giving farmers another tool to streamline their harvest. Smart Ag, which is based out of Ames, is releasing, on a limited basis, its AutoCart system. The cloud-based system is designed for driverless tractors pulling grain carts. The system lets farmers use their own tablets to set staging and unloading locations in fields, adjust equipment speeds, monitor locations and command the grain cart to sync its speed and direction to that of a combine. Combine operators can signal the autonomous tractor and grain cart to come and receive the harvested grain. And after the grain cart is loaded, AutoCart automatically directs the grain cart to an unloading point in the field. The technology allows producers to update their equipment easily, regardless of manufacture, according to Colin Hurd, founder and CEO of SmartAg. We believe agriculture is best when farmers have choices, Hurd said in a release yesterday. The best way to improve our customers operational capacity is to enable them to use automation and driverless technology on their farms. Practical trials on local farms proved successful. Kyle Mehmen is a fifth-generation corn and soybean producer from Plainfield, Iowa. The product could be a game changer for agriculture, he said in the release, having trialed the AutoCart on his farm. And there could be more automation on the way. Smart Ags product, SmartHP, is a plug and play system that allows farmers to turn almost any machine into a driverless one, according to the product description. The company also has plans to produce automation systems for spraying, tillage and planting. Once we have the core machine automated, its really a software challenge to do other operations with it, Hurd said. Youre not just investing in an autonomous grain cart youre investing in an autonomous farming solution. Agrio can help farmers identify issues in their fields By Diego Flammini News Reporter Farms.com Farmers can use a new mobile app to identify problems in their field and determine how they should proceed to protect their crops. A producer takes a photo of a weed, disease or pest in the field and uploads it to the apps mobile server. Within minutes, the app Agrio will identify the image and provide the farmer with recommendations on how to proceed. Approximately 30 crops and hundreds of weeds are programmed into the app, but those numbers are always changing, said Dr. Nessi Benishti, Agrios creator and a senior algorithm researcher from Oxford University. We have experts on the back end of the app that communicate with farmers around the world, he told Farms.com today. We continue to upload different crops, weeds, diseases and pests. The app is also capable of warning farmers when action is necessary. When a grower uploads an image to the app, he or she is asked to input the location and weather conditions. Using that information, Agrio can tell a farmer when he or she needs to apply herbicides, fungicides of pesticides. We can give recommendations and tell farmers they need to start getting ready because their fields could be susceptible to damage, he said. Early detection is super important so we want to notify them as soon as they need that information. In addition, Agrio allows farmers from around the world to connect with one another. After uploading pictures of weed, disease or insect pressure from their fields, producers can consult their colleagues for advice on how to manage the issue. We had a potato farmer in Fiji upload a photo of a diseased potato to the app, Benishti said. Not only did the user receive information from us, but also from agricultural specialists from the United States. Agrio is available for free on Apple and Android devices. Dont forget to visit the Farms.com apps page for a complete listing of ag-specific apps. "Education is pulling its weight, but upon reflection we realise we took it too far when it comes to education services and we now need to get the balance right. The arrest of Hong Kongs former home secretary, Patrick Ho, and a co-defendant for allegedly bribing Africa officials on behalf of a Chinese energy company, has triggered accusations that America uses FCPA enforcement to promote a political agenda. The Beijing mouthpiece Wen Wei Po asked if the U.S. action was genuinely intended to safeguard fairness and justice or merely a move to head off a perceived threat to its hegemony? Beijings Global Times said there are deep international political motives behind the case. The timing of Hos arrest, his defenders said, showed it was an American reaction to warming Sino-Russian trade ties, according to the South China Morning Post. The day before his arrest on FCPA and money-laundering charges, CEFC Energy, the company that funds Hos NGO, signed an oil supply agreement with the Russian state oil company Rosneft. Is FCPA enforcement political? If politics is only about trying to make another country look bad, the answer is no. But if politics means using FCPA enforcement to protect American companies overseas, and guard its national security, then yes, FCPA enforcement is political. The DOJ said Ho used his China-funded NGO to bribe officials in Uganda and Chad. The purpose of the alleged bribery was to lock up oil and gas rights for a Chinese state-owned enterprise. That means cutting off America and its companies from energy resources. The 2012 DOJ-SEC Resource Guide made it clear that creating a level playing field for American companies doing business overseas is a core aspect of FCPA enforcement policy. And in the release about Hos arrest, Acting Assistant Attorney General Ken Blanco said the DOJ is committed to investigating and prosecuting corrupt individuals who put at risk a level playing field for corporate competitiveness, regardless of where they live or work. Their bribes and corrupt acts hurt our economy . . . ., Blanco said. (The itals are ours.) Beyond that, the feds have openly described the FCPA as a tool to protect Americas national security interests. In 2014, Leslie Caldwell, then the chief of the DOJs criminal division, said: Fighting foreign corruption is not a service we provide to the global community, but rather a necessary enforcement action to protect our own national security interests and the ability of our U.S. companies to compete on a global scale. In 2017, the Trump Administrations National Security Strategy (NSS) affirmed the fight against corruption as a cornerstone of American foreign policy. In a warning apparently directed at China and Russia, the NSS said: Strategic competitors often exploit rather than discourage corruption and state weakness to extract resources and exploit their populations. As with most FCPA prosecutions, its hard to say exactly what triggered the investigation into Patrick Ho. An American or European oil company might have heard rumors of Chinese bribery and reported them to the DOJ. An internal whistleblower could have emerged. Or maybe some of the money flow was picked up by a bank or government agency through AML or anti-terrorism surveillance. However the investigation started, the evidence the FBI gathered and described in the 54-page criminal complaint emails for three years, bank records, witness statements led to Hos arrest. That outcome was predictable once the evidence showed that there had been alleged bribery, and that it threatened both Americas national security and the level playing field. For China, Hos arrest has created a problem for its global-player image. If authorities there didnt know what Ho and CEFC Energy were allegedly doing right under their nose, then they were negligent and incompetent. If the Chinese authorities did know but didnt act, then the DOJ caught them in flagrante delicto. Either way, its embarrassing. But Chinas embarrassment is a byproduct of Hos arrest, not the purpose behind it. Perhaps over time, Beijings loss of face will give way to a more positive response, and somehow contribute to advancing Chinas anti-corruption awareness and enforcement efforts. ___ Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. Brooklynn Prince wanted to celebrate her Critics' Choice Award with ice cream. Brooklynn Prince The seven-year-old actress cried tears of joy after she beat off competition from 'Gifted' star McKenna Grace, 'Logan' actress Dafne Keen', 'Wonderstruck's Millicent Simmonds, and 'Wonder' actor Jacob Tremblay to pick up the Best Young Performer honour for her role as Moonee in 'The Florida Project' at the annual ceremony on Thursday (11.01.18). The youngster, who wore a red dress with sparkly straps, was helped onto the stage at the Barker Hanger by her father, and when she took the microphone, she asked her fellow nominees to hang out with her after the event. She said: "All the nominees are great and we should all go out and get ice cream after this." She then went on to thank those who had made her win possible. She said: "All my voters... you guys are so awesome, thank you so much. God, I would like to thank you for this opportunity. "And I would like to thank the cast and crew for the wonderful support and to my family and my team' " In 'The Florida Project', Brooklynn played the daughter of Halley (Bria Vinai), a struggling single parent trying to make ends meet, and she called for more support to those in similar situations. She said: "To all the Halley and Moonee's out there... Guys, this is a real problem you need to go out and help." After accepting the award, Brooklynn was seen mingling with the stars on other tables, and was warmly embraced by Angelina Jolie after they chatted together. Earlier in the evening, the young actress had posed on the blue carpet with her fellow nominee, 11-year-old Jacob, who had previously won the Best Young Performer honour in 2015 for 'Room'. Ellen Degeneres' father has passed away. Ellen Degeneres The 59-year-old television talk show host revealed during an emotional segment of 'The Ellen Degeneres Show' on Thursday (11.01.18), that her father Elliot has passed away at the age of 92. In a video clip which was also shared to her Twitter account, Ellen said: "Before we go to break, there's something else I want to talk about. I mentioned yesterday when I was talking about all the mudslides that are going on in my community of Montecito, which is heartbreaking, I said that I had a lot going on in my life. In addition to what's going on in Montecito, I lost my dad this week." Ellen then showed a picture of her father with her when she was a child, and explained he had lived a "good long life". She continued: "That is my dad, Elliot. That's me when I was, I don't know how old I was, but I do remember that picture. He was 92 years old, he had a good long life, and he lived his life exactly how he wanted. He was Christian Science his entire life, he never had medicine his whole life - never went to a doctor. I never had a vaccination. We never had medicine growing up. And he lived to be 92." The 'Finding Dory' actress also shared that her father "was very funny" and she believes that she and her brother, Vance, "got our sense of humor from him." She said: "[My dad] was very proud of me. He loved this show and he was a kind man, very accepting man. There was not one bone of judgment in his body." In a tweet shared to Ellen's account, she explained that her father's passing was expected, and she was able to say goodbye before he passed. She wrote: "This week, at the age of 92, my father Elliott DeGeneres passed away. He lived a good long life. It wasn't unexpected. I was able to say goodbye." Hdrellez is regarded as one of the most important seasonal festivals in both Turkey and parts of the Middle East. Called Day of Hzr (Ruz- Hzr) in Turkey, Hdrellez is celebrated as the day on which the prophets Hzr (Al-Khdir) and Ilyas (Elijah) met on Earth. It is believed that Hzr and Ilyas meet on earth only once every year. While Hzr helps and guides people who are in a difficult situation, and also brings abundance, Ilyas is believed to be the protector of the waters. It is also believed that, as they symbolise abundance, everywhere they step turns green, and everything they touch becomes more fruitful or healed. Hzr and Ilyas symbolise abundance. Photo by dijitalseyahatname. Celebrating Hdrellez Turkish communities around the world celebrate Hdrellez as a spring festival on May 6 while Christians in the Balkans mark it as St. Georges day on April 23. In the folk calendar used by the people, the year used to be separated into two: summer was between May 6 and Nov. 8, known as the Days of Hzr, while winter was between Nov. 8 and May 6, known as the Days of November. So May 6, representing the end of winter and the start of summer, is a reason to celebrate. Across the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, different traditions and rituals have developed, many of which are focused on bringing good luck with the arrival of spring. While differing greatly from country to country, the event is often marked with the cleaning of homes and clothes, feasting or ceremonies held near open water or shrines. In the evening of the day before Hdrellez, people write or draw their wishes such as a home, car or child on paper and attach it to a branch of a tree or (a rose tree) or bury it under the tree, while some throw it into the sea or a river. Some also bury money under a rose tree for abundance. Meanwhile, it is considered that eating the first lamb of spring leads to health and recovery. Another belief is boiling flowers or plants and drinking the water to heal diseases, and that the water rejuvenates people and makes them beautiful if they wash with it for 40 days. Among the Roma community in Turkeys northwestern province of Canakkale, there are dancers in colourful clothing and people jump over bonfires for good health. The roots of the celebration pre-date Islam or Christianity. An intangible cultural heritage This spring festival was added to UNESCOs list of intangible cultural heritage in 2017. According to UNESCO, the rituals have deep-rooted cultural meanings and provide the community with a sense of belonging and cultural identity and an opportunity to strengthen relations. Have a look at this amazing video of the Hdrellez celebrations. UNESCO has listed 20 cultural practices found in Turkey. These include the Mevlana whirling dervishes, the Karagoz and Hacivat shadow plays, oil-wrestling in Krkpnar and Turkish coffee. Sources: Hurriyet Daily News/Turkey.Home/Wikipedia The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has urged Kyrgyzstan to increase its apparel import from Bangladesh. At a meeting with Temirbek Erkinov, honorary consul of Kyrgyz Republic in Bangladesh, at the BGMEA office in Dhaka, BGMEA president Siddiqur Rahman discussed scope of bilateral trade between the two countries. Rahman briefed Erkinov about the development and prospects of the garment industry in Bangladesh, and urged the Kyrgyz businessmen to import more apparel from Bangladesh, BGMEA said on its website. On his part, Erkinov called on Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to invest in various emerging sectors, including apparel industry, in Kyrgyzstan. He said that the Kyrgyz government will provide land, gas and other infrastructural facilities to Bangladeshi investors. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has urged Kyrgyzstan to increase its apparel import from Bangladesh. At a meeting with Temirbek Erkinov, honorary consul of Kyrgyz Republic in Bangladesh, at the BGMEA office in Dhaka, BGMEA president Siddiqur Rahman discussed scope of bilateral trade between the two countries.# In case of joint investment, the Kyrgyz government will facilitate easy loan for the Bangladeshi investors who will also be able to take workforce from Bangladesh if they want, he added. A business delegation of BGMEA is expected to visit Kyrgyzstan in March/April this year. (RKS) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India The Berlin Fashion Week gets under way on January 16.presents a preview to one of the most happening events of the fashion industry. From January 16 to 19, Berlin will attract over 200,000 fashion professionals from all over the world. What makes the Grey City so attractive to the fashion industry are the early datesa good one month before Milan and Paris, the kick-off takes place in Berlin, where retailers get an overview of the latest trends for the next season. No other city in the world offers such an early preview. In Berlin, all segments are representedfrom womenswear and menswear to shoes and accessories, from the lowest price range via the middle market to high-fashion brands. There are six hotspots: 1. Messe Berlin // Panorama Berlin Selvedge Run Innatex At Panorama Berlin around 800 brands from the middle-market like Miss Sixty, Bench or Camel Active would be around. For the first time, Panorama will cooperate with Selvedge Run. The best thing that could happen to this tradeshow with its authentic menswear brandsbecause the earlier venue at Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg was too far away for many retailersis a good swap: Selvedge Run with its 80 exhibitors now takes place in the Marshall-Haus. This architectonic pearl from the post-War period is just a stone's throw away from Panorama. Brands like Red Wing Heritage, Japan Blue Jeans and Nigel Cabourn now shine in a new light. Another newcomer at Panorama is Innatex. The tradeshow for sustainable textiles has been an institution at the Germans green scene usually at Hessian Hofheim-Wallau two times a year. Now, it makes its debut at the Berlin Fashion Week. Around 40 brands including Frieda Sand, Naturalmente and Komodo will be at Panorama in a separate area called Xoom. Panorama Berlin x Innatex Berlin Expo-Center City // Jaffestrae (entrance south) // 14055 Berlin From January 16 to 19, Berlin will attract over 200,000 fashion professionals from all over the world. What makes the Grey City so attractive to the fashion industry are the early datesa good one month before Milan and Paris, the kick-off takes place in Berlin, where retailers get an overview of the latest trends for the next season. # Tue 16.1. Thu 18.1. panorama-berlin.com, innatex.muveo.de Selvedge Run Marshall-Haus @ Berlin Expo-Center City // entrance: Messedamm 22 // 14055 Berlin Tue 16.1. Thu 18.1. selvedgerun.com 2. Station-Berlin // Premium Show & Order Anyone interested in international designer fashion should not miss Premium. Around 1.000 brands from the middle to high segments will show up at Station-Berlin in Gleisdreieck. A sporty-elegant style with brands like Casall, Desigual Sport, Pyrates and Dresp will be the focus. For the first time, Premium will showcase Show & Order, which has belonged to the Premium Group for three seasons now. The fair for international womenswear, accessories and lifestyle products used to be held at a former power station. This time it will be organised at Kuhlhaus, a separate building in the Premium area, over three floors, and featuring around 200 brands including Freaky Nation, Cashmere Couture or Stella McCartney Swimwear. Premium Station-Berlin // Luckenwalder Strae 4-6 // 10193 Berlin Tue 16.1. Thu 18.1. premiumexhibitions.com Show & Order Kuhlhaus @ Station-Berlin // entrance: Luckenwalder Strae 3 // 10193 Berlin Tue 16.1. Thu 18.1. showandorder.de 3. Arena // Bright Seek In the halls where buses of the Berlin Traffic Association would be parked, concerts, flea markets and fashion fairs are organised nowadays. The Arena is ideal for a tradeshow like Seek, which has been located there since January 2015. In July 2016, the skater fair Bright moved there as well. While Bright with its 280 brands like Iriedaily, Cleptomanicx or Huf attracts young skaters, Seek targets urban hipsters with its 250 labels like Fila, Kappa or Helly Hansen. Both tradeshows are worth a side trip because the influence of streetwear and skaterwear in fashion is reckoned to be big at the moment. Bright Arena // entrance: Am Flutgraben 1 // 12434 Berlin Tue 16.1. Thu 18.1. brighttradeshow.com Seek Arena // entrance: Eichenstrae 4 // 12434 Berlin Tue 16.1. Thu 18.1. seekexhibitions.com 4. Kraftwerk // Greenshowroom Ethical Fashion Show Berlin #Fashiontech FashionSustain For the first time, Greenshowroom and Ethical Fashion Show would be organised at Kraftwerk, and would include 180 brands. This would be new as well since the Funkhaus, where the green fairs took place last year is too far away. At a time when more and more people have been reflecting about where their clothes come from, ecological awareness is of paramount importance. This has been recognised by Messe Frankfurt in launching FashionSustain, which will revolve around sustainable technologies. FashionSustain is part of #Fashiontech, established by the Premium Group. This conference too would take place at Kraftwerk, and would deal with the digitalisation of fashion through discussions and workshops. Greenshowroom x Ethical Fashion Show Kraftwerk // Kopenicker Strae 70 // 10179 Berlin Tue 16.1. Thu 18.1. greenshowroom.com, ethicalfashionshowberlin.com #Fashiontech Kraftwerk // 1th floor // Kopenicker Strae 70 // 10179 Berlin Tue 16.1. fashiontech.com FashionSustain Kraftwerk // 1th floor // Kopenicker Strae 70 // 10179 Berlin Tue 16.1. + Wed 17.1. fashionsustain.messefrankfurt.com 5. Kronprinzenpalais // Der Berliner Mode Salon The Kronprinzenpalais where State guests of the erstwhile German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Germany, would be officially welcomed is now a fashion hub. Christiane Arp, editor-in-chief of Vogue Germany, took up the task of increasing awareness about German design, and this time at the palace around 40 labels will display their creations. These would include established brands like Strenesse and Talbot Runhof and Berlin newcomers like William Fan and Lou de Betoly. One highlight would be the group exhibition in the afternoon of January 16. Der Berliner Mode Salon Kronprinzenpalais // Unter den Linden 3 // 10117 Berlin Tue 16.1. Thu 18.1. derberlinermodesalon.com 6. Ewerk // Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Uncertainty prevailed after Mercedes-Benz announced that it would no longer be the title sponsor of Berlin Fashion Week. A few weeks ago however, it surprisingly changed its mind. The automaker continues to sponsor Berlin Fashion Week, but in a modernised way: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is now simply called MBFW. The new location is Ewerk in Mitt, and the new slimmer format would show only a handful of select designer brands like Cashmere Victim, Riani and Dawid Tomaszewski. MBFW Ewerk // Mauerstrae 78-80 // 10117 Berlin Tue 16.1. + Wed 17.1. mbfashionweek.com Fibre2Fashion News Desk India The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has opposed the recommendation of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to withdraw 4 per cent customs duty and 5 per cent sales tax on the import of cotton from India and other countries, especially when the country had already suffered a loss of Rs 500 billion due to reduced cotton production.The association feels the step will prove detrimental to domestic cotton growers and has urged Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi not to notify the recommendation for the benefit of the agriculture sector, according to media reports in Pakistan. The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has opposed the recommendation of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to withdraw 4 per cent customs duty and 5 per cent sales tax on the import of cotton from India and other countries, especially when the country had already suffered a loss of Rs 500 billion due to reduced cotton production.# PGCA said when more than 1.3 million bales were lying in ginning factories, allowing import of cotton will tantamount to adversely hampering the interests of the growers and ginners who heaved a sigh of relief after cotton prices were raised to a reasonable level recently.The cotton ginning industry sees no justification for withdrawal of tax and customs duty on cotton imports at the cost of Pakistans farmers, arguing fibre import via land or sea was not in the interest of national economy.Last year, cotton harvest in Pakistan had dropped by 30 per cent and if appropriate measures were not taken, the situation could deteriorate further and affect domestic output, PGCA added. (DS) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) recently said the promised abolition of all duties on cotton yarn imports will enhance value-addition, improve exports and reduce trade deficit. According to PRGMEA chief coordinator Ijaz Khokhar, The step will help reduce business costs and bridge production-consumption gap.The sharp increase in cotton yarn prices has hit the export-oriented value-added textile sector hard, said Sheikh Luqman Amin, senior PRGMEA vice chairman. The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) recently said the promised abolition of all duties on cotton yarn imports will enhance value-addition, improve exports and reduce trade deficit. According to PRGMEA chief coordinator Ijaz Khokhar, The step will help reduce business costs and bridge production-consumption gap.# During his visit to the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry some time back, the prime minister was also urged by PRGMEA to restore the role of industrial associations in disbursement of duty drawbacks under the revised PMs exports incentive package to ensure transparency, according to Pakistani media reports. (DS) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) recently signed a memorandum of understanding with an official delegation from South Korea led by the country's consul general in Mumbai Kim Soungeun for cooperation between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Gujarat and Korean firms, with a focus on automobile, defence, chemicals and textiles sectors.Gujarat businessmen foresee a lot of potential in collaborating with South Korean companies, which have developed capabilities in manufacturing and technology. That would reduce dependence on China as well. The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) recently signed a memorandum of understanding with an official delegation from South Korea led by the country's consul general in Mumbai Kim Soungeun for cooperation between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Gujarat and Korean firms, with a focus on automobile, defence, chemicals and textiles sectors.# Partnerships with South Korean companies can help the lubricants, auto parts and defence equipment industry in Gujarat, media reports from the state quoted GCCI president Shailesh Patwari as saying. Kim saw a lot of potential in cooperation in textiles. (DS) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Saudi Aramco recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Nesma Holding Company, al-Aliaa Foundation of Infrastructure Development, and Hail Charity to set up a textile factory in Hail city in north-western Saudi Arabia. The factory will train workers in sewing and embroidery, production line work and create a healthy and productive work environment.The agreement was signed by Hail governor Prince Abdulaziz bin Saad bin Abdul Aziz, vice president of Aramco Nasser bin Abdul Razzaq al-Nafisi, Nesma's Saleh Bin Ali al-Turki, Eng. Abdullah bin Ibrahim al-Rakhis of al-Aliaa Foundation and Hail's Saud Fahd al-Abdah, according to a press release from the company. Saudi Aramco recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Nesma Holding Company, al-Aliaa Foundation of Infrastructure Development, and Hail Charity to set up a textile factory in Hail city in north-western Saudi Arabia. The factory will train workers in sewing and embroidery, production line work and create a healthy and productive work environment.# Nafisi stated that this MoU represents one of Aramco's initiatives in the field of citizenship, emphasizing the importance of women's participation in the market. (DS) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India ROME (dpa-AFX) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCAU) announced plan to invest more than $1 billion in Michigan Plant, Add 2,500 New Jobs and Pay $2,000 bonus to U.S. Employees, following passage of U.S. tax reform legislation late last year. FCA said 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. The 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. 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. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Facebook (FB) said it is making major changes to its News Feed, prioritizing personal posts from family and friends over videos and posts from businesses and news media. In a blog post, co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the sweeping changes are being made to 'encourage meaningful interactions between people,' even as he acknowledged it may hurt the company's bottom line. 'As we roll this out, you'll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media,' Zuckerberg wrote. 'By making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable.' Users were finding that business and media posts were 'crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other,' Zuckerberg said. He added that academic studies and internal research found that feeling 'more connected and less lonely . . . correlates with long term measures of happiness and health.' 'On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos - even if they're entertaining or informative - may not be as good,' Zuckerberg said. 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. The Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair, Hong Kong Baby Products Fair, organised by the HKTDC, and the Hong Kong International Stationery Fair, jointly organised by the HKTDC and Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, together with the Hong Kong International Licensing Show which closed on Wednesday attracted around 126,000 buyers. During the Fairs, a number of seminars, buyer forums and product demo and launch pad were held to provide an exchange platform for global industry professionals to examine the latest industry developments. Events included the Hong Kong Toys Industry Conference 2018 and thematic seminars on such topics as STEAM toys, digital marketing strategies and design trends. HKTDC Communications & Public Affairs Department Sam Ho Tel: +852 2584 4569 Email: sam.sy.ho@hktdc.org Katherine Chan Tel: +852 2584 4537 Email: katherine.cm.chan@hktdc.org HONG KONG, Jan 12, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Featuring more than 2,940 exhibitors from around the world, the Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair, Hong Kong Baby Products Fair and Hong Kong International Stationery Fair concluded successfully yesterday. Together with the Hong Kong International Licensing Show, which closed on Wednesday, the first four fairs organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) this year attracted around 126,000 buyers, up around six per cent over the previous year.More than 49,000 buyers went to the Toys & Games Fair, while close to 33,000 and around 21,000 buyers visited the Baby Products Fair and Stationery Fair respectively. In addition, more than 22,000 visitors attended the Licensing Show.Benjamin Chau, Deputy Executive Director of the HKTDC, said the four fairs have successfully attracted buyers and suppliers from around the world and further bolstered Hong Kong's role as an international exhibition and sourcing hub. He said: "As the global economy stabilises, the four fairs have achieved satisfactory results. Buyers from such emerging markets as India, Malaysia, Russia, Poland and Turkey, and those from developed markets including the US, Canada, Netherlands and Sweden recorded satisfactory growth. Besides, there was a double-digit percentage increase in the number of buyers from the Chinese mainland. The HKTDC will continue to provide an international trade and exchange platform for industry professionals to generate more business opportunities for all."This year's Toys & Games Fair, Baby Products Fair and Stationery Fair featured an assortment of new products, designs and educational toys, as well as smart baby products and creative and eco-friendly stationery to cater to the buyers' different needs.Johnny Sze, Director & Vice General Manager, Eastcolight (Hong Kong) Limited, a Toys & Games Fair exhibitor from Hong Kong, said his company started producing STEAM toys, which strengthens the learning of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, four years ago. The toys are designed to improve children's logical thinking, observation and concentration skills and nurture their creativity. He said the Fair is an important platform for the company which had generated 70 per cent of the annual sales turnover. The company is keen to develop emerging markets. On the first day of the fair, he met with several buyers from India with strong purchasing power. One of the buyers, representing an amusement park in India, was interested in setting up a shop there to sell Eastcolight's products. There was also a Thai buyer who expressed interest in bringing the brand's products to his market.Italian exhibitor Pali S.p.A. joined the Baby Products Fair for the second consecutive year. Claudio Biferali, the company's Research & Development Manager, said Pali is a leading baby products brand in Italy that provides a wide range of quality wooden cots, strollers and highchairs. He said the company doubled its booth size this year with more products on offer, and the response was better than last year. It attracted strong interest from existing customers and new buyers from different markets, like Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Ukraine. He expected to conclude more business deals this year.At the concurrent Hong Kong International Stationery Fair, a buyer from a Thai book store Asia Books found three new vendors that include a Japanese stationery brand Kokuyo and sourced some licensed stationery items by famous brands. Gesarin Anek, the company's Marketing Manager, said the Stationery Fair is a place for sourcing high quality, innovative and unique products. Also, the concurrent Toys & Games Fair offered additional business connections.During the Fairs, multiple thematic seminars, talks and a large-scale conference were held to facilitate industry exchange. Events included the Hong Kong Toys Industry Conference 2018, where global industry experts examined such topics as the future development of toys retailing, the opportunities brought by e-commerce, big data applications and toys licensing.To encourage suppliers to leverage online-to-offline (O2O) promotional opportunities, the HKTDC has enhanced the sourcing function of its trade fair websites by launching the new year-round "Exhibitions Online" platform at the Toys & Games and Baby Products fairs. In addition to featuring fair updates and the latest industry sourcing information, the platform allows suppliers to connect with global buyers anytime and buyers to source industry-specific products from dedicated fair websites.Also, with the prevalence of mobile technologies, the HKTDC has launched the e-Badge for buyers to enhance their fair experience.For more comments from exhibitors and buyers: http://bit.ly/2mgyIqk- HKTDC Hong Kong Toys & Games FairEdition: 44thNo of Exhibitors: 2,100 exhibitors from 45 countries and regionsFair Websites: hktoyfair.hktdc.comProduct Highlights: Click here http://bit.ly/2CeSvxd- HKTDC Hong Kong Baby Products FairEdition: 9thNo of Exhibitors: Over 580 exhibitors from 27 countries and regionsFair Websites: hkbabyfair.hktdc.comProduct Highlights: Click here http://bit.ly/2CxQgJy- Hong Kong International Stationery FairEdition: 18thNo of Exhibitors: Some 260 exhibitors from 15 countries and regionsFair Websites: www.hkstationeryfair.comProduct Highlights: Click here http://bit.ly/2iZDyVIPhoto download: http://bit.ly/2ARlhCEAbout HKTDCEstablished in 1966, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body dedicated to creating opportunities for Hong Kong's businesses. With more than 40 offices globally, including 13 on the Chinese mainland, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a platform for doing business with China, Asia and the world. With 50 years of experience, the HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to provide companies, particularly SMEs, with business opportunities on the mainland and in international markets, while providing information via trade publications, research reports and digital channels including the media room. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. Follow us on Google+, Twitter @hktdc, LinkedIn.- Google+: https://plus.google.com/+hktdc- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/hktdc- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/hong-kong-trade-development-councilSource: HKTDCContact:Copyright 2018 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. BRUSSELS, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Systech International, the global technology leader in serialisation, track and trace, and brand protection grew its European presence in 2017 by 50% with new accounts in France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Finland. The company also added new Authorized Solution Partners to its global network offering integrated turnkey solutions with Systech UniSeries', the industry standard for serialising products to meet the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD), as well as the Company's expanding track and trace and anti-counterfeiting technologies. Systech deployed the world's first serialisation and aggregation project in Europe over a decade ago and has now implemented serialisation for 19 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. With 30 years of industry experience, Systech utilizes award-winning configurable software technology, including vision, serialisation workflow, and number management to ensure delivery of quick and cost-effective serialisation solutions to large and small pharmaceutical companies, including multinationals, regional manufacturers, and CMO/CPO's. Alastair Taylor, Director of European Sales for Systech says, "We're helping customers meet the February 2019 regulation deadline and maintain compliance in a way that's efficient and minimally disruptive. We deliver software and services with packaging equipment (OEM) agnostic solutions, allowing us to work with any partner and any packaging line, whether new or retrofitted." Servicepoint Oy, one of Systech's sales and integration partners, is implementing Systech's serialisation solution in Finland for Santen Pharmaceutical, the leading Northern European ophthalmic drug manufacturer. The implementation includes Systech serialisation software integrated with packaging machinery by Inno4Life, also a Systech partner. Matti Rosengren, Vice President, Manufacturing EMEA from Santen says, "Servicepoint is delivering a rapid deployment, pre-configured Systech serialisation module by this summer, well within our budget and timeline, and we are benefitting from a streamlined site integration and validation process." "Servicepoint is one of few European suppliers able to provide a complete, integrated, serialisation solution to pharmaceutical packaging lines, including consulting, design, build, installation, testing, and maintenance," says Pekka Hoffren, CEO, Servicepoint. About Systech International: Systech provides expedited regulatory compliance and has more than 4,000 software implementations in 35 countries. Global Authorized Solution Partners stand ready to assist companies in meeting their country's regulatory deadline and countries of export. Systech and its partner network ensure tight integration of a serialisation solution, facilitated data communication, and decreased overall project risk. Contact: Systech International Stacey Owens-Perrotta T +1 609 235 3639 stacey.owens-perrotta@SystechOne.com Vilnius, Lithuania, 2018-01-12 08:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On 20 December 2017, the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of VILNIAUS BALDAI, AB (identification code 121922783, address Savanoriu ave. 178B, Vilnius, LT-03154) decided to pay out 0,27 Eur dividend per share. Dividends will be paid to the shareholders who at the end of the tenth business day following the day of the Annual General Meeting that adopted a decision on dividend payment, i.e. on 08 January 2018 were shareholders of VILNIAUS BALDAI, AB. From 16 January 2018 the dividends will be paid out in the following order: - to the shareholders, who's VILNIAUS BALDAI, AB shares are accounted by a financial brokerage company or credit institutions, which provide securities accounting services, the dividend amount, after deduction of Personal or Corporate withholding income tax applicable by the laws of Lithuania, will be transferred to the shareholders' accounts held with a respective financial brokerage company or credit institution; - to the shareholders, who's VILNIAUS BALDAI, AB shares on behalf of the Company are accounted by the authorised custodian Siauliu bankas AB, the dividend amount, after deduction of Personal or Corporate withholding income tax applicable by the laws of Lithuania, will be transferred to the shareholders' accounts with Lithuanian commercial bank as indicated by the shareholders (requests with account indications should be submitted to any branch of Siauliu bankas, AB. The list of the branches of Siauliu bankas, AB can be found here). For additional information on payout of the dividends please contact Siauliu bankas AB tel. 1813. Procedure for the will be taxed Dividends - dividends paid to natural persons-residents of the Republic of Lithuania and natural persons-residents of foreign countries are subject to withholding Personal income tax of 15 per cent; - dividends paid to legal entities of the Republic of Lithuania and legal entities-residents of foreign countries are subject to withholding Corporate income tax of 15 per cent, unless otherwise provided for by the laws. Kontaktinis asmuo: Finansu vadovas Jonas Krutinis Tel.: +370 (5) 252 5700 The former owner of BHS, Dominic Chappell, has been found guilty of three charges of failing to provide vital documents to the pensions watchdog. Chappell, 51, was charged with neglecting or refusing to respond to three section 72 notices demanding he hand over vital documents and information relating to the purchase of the company. - Guardian Plans for a 1.3bn tidal power lagoon in Swansea could still be backed by ministers despite government indecision on whether to support it, according 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. PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Hainan Airlines Holding Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of HNA Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CFM International for the purchase of LEAP-1A engines to power 55 Airbus A320neo aircraft, along with a long-term support agreement for Hainan Airlines Holding and its affiliates. The MOU is valued at $4.2 billion. The LEAP engine entered commercial service in August 2016 and is providing its 30 operators with a 15 percent improvement in fuel efficiency, with an equivalent reduction in CO2 emissions; and lower noise and NOx emissions. 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. IRW-PRESS: Spearmint Resources Inc.: Spearmint schliet Erwerb von zwei Mineralkonzessionsgebieten in BC ab Spearmint schliet Erwerb von zwei Mineralkonzessionsgebieten in BC ab Spearmint Resources Inc. (SRJ oder das Unternehmen) (SRJ-TSX.V) (SPMTF-OTCBB) (A2AHL5--FWB) mochte bekannt geben, dass das Unternehmen den Erwerb von zwei Mineralkonzessionsgebieten in BC abgeschlossen hat und nun im Besitz samtlicher Anteile (100 Prozent) am Magnesiumprojekt WHY WEST in der Nahe von Rossland (BC) und den Konzessionen BUDDY in der Region Golden Triangle (BC) ist. Die Konzessionen BUDDY grenzen unmittelbar an die Konzession EL North, die sich auch im Besitz von Spearmint befinden. Diese Konzession liegt wiederum in direkter Nachbarschaft zum Grundbesitz von Garibaldi Resources Corp. (GGI - TSX Venture) in der Region Golden Triangle (BC). Die Claims haben eine Grundflache von rund 4.400 Acres. James Nelson, President von Spearmint, sagte dazu: Der Erwerb dieser beiden neuen Projekte verdeutlicht die Entschlossenheit der Geschaftsleitung von SRJ, das Unternehmen weiterzuentwickeln. Diese Regionen konnten beide wichtige Bausteine fur die weitere Entwicklung von Spearmint sein. Die Region Golden Triangle in British Columbia hat sich als Bergbaugebiet von globalem Interesse bewahrt und wir sehen der bevorstehenden Bohrsaison 2018 mit Spannung entgegen. Die vor Kurzem angekundigte Privatplatzierung, die wir in Kurze schlieen sollten, umfasst Flow-Through-Mittel, die wir in BC und in die Vanadiumkonzessionen in Quebec investieren werden. Wir erwarten, in Kurze auch die Betriebstatigkeit in unseren Lithiumprojekten in Clayton Valley aufzunehmen. 2018 sollte fur Spearmint das geschaftigste Jahr seit Langem werden. Die am 7. Dezember 2017 angekundigte Privatplatzierung sieht die Ausgabe von Non-Flow-Through-Einheiten mit einem vollstandigen Warrant (drei Jahre Laufzeit und 0,08 $ Ausubungspreis) zum Preis von 0,05 $ sowie von Flow-Through-Einheiten mit einem vollstandigen Warrant (zwei Jahre Laufzeit und 0,10 $ Ausubungspreis) zum Preis von 0,065 $ vor. In Verbindung mit dieser Privatplatzierung konnten Vermittlungsprovisionen bezahlt werden. Bei Fragen hinsichtlich der Privatplatzierung setzen Sie sich bitte unter der gebuhrenfreien Rufnummer (in Nordamerika) 1 855 646 6901 oder per E-Mail an info@spearmint.ca mit uns in Verbindung. http://www.irw-press.at/prcom/images/messages/2018/42059/SRJ NR Jan 12 closes acquisition_DEprcom.001.jpeg Uber Spearmint Resources Die aktuellen Projekte von Spearmint beinhalten ein Portfolio mit Lithiumkonzessionen. Die Lithiumprojekte Clayton Valley in Nevada, die aus zwei Konzessionen mit einer Grundflache von 800 Acres bestehen, grenzen an die Projekte von Pure Energy Minerals (PE.v) und Cypress Development Corp. (CYP.v) an. Das Unternehmen verfugt auerdem uber drei Lithiumprojekte in Quebec: die 4.485 Acres groe Lithiumkonzession Pressiac, die 524 Acres umfassende Lithiumkonzession Whabouchi und die 2.636 Acres groe Lithiumkonzession Whabouchi Lakes West unweit der Projekte von Nemaska Lithium Inc. (NMX.t) und Critical Elements Corp. (CRE.v). Spearmints Vanadiumprojekte Chibougamau, die aus funf unabhangigen Konzessionen mit 9.735 Acres Grundflache bestehen, grenzen an die Vanadiumlagerstatte im Vanadiumprojekt Ilmenite von BlackRock Metals (Privatunternehmen), das Projekt von Vanadiumcorp Resource Inc. (VRB-TSX.V) und das Vanadiumprojekt von Vanadium One Energy Corp. (VONE-TSX.V) oder befinden sich in deren Nahe. Spearmints Projekte umfassen auch drei Goldschwerpunktgebiete in British Columbia: die Goldkonzessionen im Golden Triangle, die aus vier unabhangigen Konzessionen mit 4.095 Acres Grundflache bestehen und an ein Projekt von GT Gold Corp (GTT.v) grenzen; die Konzessionen Gold Mountain, die aus drei unabhangigen Konzessionen mit 1.245 Acres Grundflache bestehen und an ein Projekt von Barkerville Gold Mines (BGM.v) grenzen, und das 3.052 Acres groe Kupfer-Gold-Projekt NEBA, das an den Grundbesitz von Aben Resources Ltd (ABN.v) grenzt. Das 8.482 Acres groe Nickel-Kupfer-Projekt EL North von Spearmint umfasst die zusammenhangenden Konzessionen EL North und EL North 2. Wenn Sie in den Nachrichtenverteiler von Spearmint aufgenommen werden oder an der Privatplatzierung teilnehmen mochten, senden Sie Ihre E-Mail-Adresse bitte an info@spearmintresources.ca. Gema den Bedingungen der Vereinbarung ist SRJ verpflichtet, einen Betrag von 19.850 Dollar zu bezahlen. Kontaktinformationen: Tel: 1604646-6903 www.spearmintresources.ca info@spearmintresources.ca James Nelson President Spearmint Resources Inc. Die TSX Venture Exchange und deren Regulierungsorgane (in den Statuten der TSX Venture Exchange Inc. als Regulation Services Provider bezeichnet) ubernehmen keinerlei Verantwortung fur die Angemessenheit oder Genauigkeit dieser Pressemeldung. Die Ausgangssprache (in der Regel Englisch), in der der Originaltext veroffentlicht wird, ist die offizielle, autorisierte und rechtsgultige Version. Diese Ubersetzung wird zur besseren Verstandigung mitgeliefert. Die deutschsprachige Fassung kann gekurzt oder zusammengefasst sein. Es wird keine Verantwortung oder Haftung: fur den Inhalt, fur die Richtigkeit, der Angemessenheit oder der Genauigkeit dieser Ubersetzung ubernommen. Aus Sicht des Ubersetzers stellt die Meldung keine Kauf- oder Verkaufsempfehlung dar! Bitte beachten Sie die englische Originalmeldung auf www.sedar.com , www.sec.gov , www.asx.com.au/ oder auf der Firmenwebsite! SPEARMINT RESOURCES INC. Suite 1470 - 701 West Georgia Street Vancouver, BC V7Y 1C6 Borsenkurzel: SRJ -- TSX Venture Exchange SPMTF -- USA A2AHL5 -- FWB Die englische Originalmeldung finden Sie unter folgendem Link: http://www.irw-press.at/press_html.aspx?messageID=42059 Die ubersetzte Meldung finden Sie unter folgendem Link: http://www.irw-press.at/press_html.aspx?messageID=42059&tr=1 NEWSLETTER REGISTRIERUNG: Aktuelle Pressemeldungen dieses Unternehmens direkt in Ihr Postfach: http://www.irw-press.com/alert_subscription.php?lang=de&isin=CA84738 11005 Mitteilung ubermittelt durch IRW-Press.com. Fur den Inhalt ist der Aussender verantwortlich. Kostenloser Abdruck mit Quellenangabe erlaubt. ISIN CA8473811005 AXC0070 2018-01-12/09:05 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), a fund led by bitcoin entrepreneur Barry Silbert, announced Thursday a 91-for-1 stock split of the Trust's issued and outstanding shares. In a statement, Grayscale Investments, LLC, the sponsor of the fund and a unit of Digital Currency Group, Inc. that builds and supports bitcoin and blockchain companies, said that under the split, shareholders of record on January 22 will receive 90 additional shares of the Trust for each share held. The stock split will be effected on January 26 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on January 22. Following the stock split, the Trust's shares will continue to be quoted on the OTCQX under the symbol 'GBTC.' As of now, the trust has 1.92 million shares and immediately after effectiveness of the stock split on January 26, the Trust would have 174.41 million shares outstanding. Bitcoin Investment Trust allows retail traders to make bets on bitcoin. It is run by Silbert, a former Wall Street investment banker and a big supporter of cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, major brokerage services have blocked the bitcoin fund recently. As per reports, Wells Fargo & Co., which runs the WellsTrade online brokerage service, joined Merrill Lynch in prohibiting its brokers from selling Bitcoin Investment Trust Fund. Merrill Lynch, the brokerage arm of Bank of America, earlier had blocked financial advisers and clients from trading in bitcoin-related investments, including Bitcoin Investment Trust. Reuters reported that that as of December 8, Merrill Lynch stopped signing off on new orders for the Bitcoin Investment Trust, citing suitability and eligibility standards of the product. WealthManagement.com recently reported that Wells Fargo is not allowing its advisors trade the bitcoin fund or bitcoin futures. As per the report, Wells Fargo Advisors or Wells Fargo Securities do not have any current plans to create a trading desk for cryptocurrencies. Wall Street majors and regulators around the world are taking a cautious approach towards cryptocurrency, which is highly volatile and unregulated. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Taiwanese semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), announced Friday the filing of a patent infringement lawsuit against China-based Micron, covering three memory products sold in China that violate UMC's patent rights. UMC has requested the court to order Micron to stop manufacturing and selling the allegedly infringing products. The company also demanded a compensation from Micron for a total of 270 million Chinese yuan in damages. The filing was against Micron Semiconductor (Xi'an) Co., Ltd. and Micron Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court of the People's Republic of China. The company said the lawsuit covers three areas that allegedly infringe upon UMC's patent rights in China, including specific memory applications that relate to DDR4, SSD and memory used in graphics cards. 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. BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - South Korea's finance minister on Friday sought to calm the cryptocurrency market after an announcement a day ago that the country's justice ministry was planning a ban on crypto exchanges, sending prices of digital currencies such as Bitcoin sharply lower. 'The issue of shutting down exchanges, told by the justice minister yesterday, is a proposal by the justice ministry and it needs consultations among ministries,' Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Friday. Justice Minister Park Sang-ki had said on Thursday that his ministry was preparing legislation that bans any transactions based on virtual currencies via exchanges due to grave concerns regarding the excessive exuberance in the cryptocurrency market. Following the news, the price of Bitcoin plunged as much as 14 percent to below $13,000, and over $100 billion was wiped out in market capitalization. As of 4.37 am ET, Bitcoin was down 0.63 percent at $13,500 and Ethereum was lower by 4.01 percent at $1,184.19, on coinbase. The total market cap was $696.25 billion as of 4.35 am ET on Friday versus $691.00 billion at the same time on Thursday. The South Korean government has been voicing concerns for the past several months over the cryptocurrency craze, as the currency surge gained steam despite severe falls in between. The country has witnessed intense interest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin with its citizens, both young and old, investing heavily in these with the hope of making a quick profit. South Korea hosts several crypto exchanges, but prices of cryptocurrencies in the country tend to be much higher than elsewhere, reportedly over 40 percent, as buyers exceed those willing to sell. Such premium is called 'Kimchi premium' in the local media, in an allusion to the famous Korean dish of spicy pickled cabbage. The justice minister noted that foreign investors are considering the Korean trade in virtual currencies as abnormal due to the excessive prices relative to other markets across the world. Different Korean market regulators have initiated a joint effort to curb the unbridled trading in cryptocurrencies. 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. At the start of the week, South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit and Financial Services Commission had launched a probe into six commercial banks, which were offering trading accounts to crytpocurrency exchanges in the country. The Bank of Korea has reportedly formed a task force to study the impact of cryptocurrencies on the financial system. '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 had said. 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. The Yonhap reported that Shinhan Bank, one of the main retail banks, and the state-run Industrial Bank of Korea decided not to offer anonymous cryptocurrency accounts for cryptocurrency trading. 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. Tax authorities also visited leading digital currency exchanges, Bithumb and Coinone, this week on concerns over tax evasion. 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 reported. More than 2 million Koreans own digital currencies. The country has sought deeper co-operation with regulators in China and Japan in curbing intense speculation in cryptocurrencies. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de LONDON (dpa-AFX) - GKN plc (GKN.L), an engineering business for the aerospace and automotive markets, Friday rejected a preliminary and unsolicited takeover proposal from Melrose Industries PLC (MRO.L) of 405 pence per share. The company said it intends to separate the businesses. Further, GKN said its fourth-quarter trading was in line with expectations and that it continues to expect 2017 profit before tax to be slightly ahead of 2016. GKN shares were gaining around 26 percent in the morning trading in London. GKN also said that Anne Stevens, currently Interim Chief Executive, has agreed to become the Group's new Chief Executive with immediate effect. Regarding the rejection of the Melrose offer, GKN said the offer is entirely opportunistic and that the terms fundamentally undervalue the company and its prospects. In its statement, Melrose also confirmed that it made a proposal on January 8 to acquire GKN for 405 pence for each GKN share, payable 80% in new Melrose shares and 20% in cash. This represents 1.49 new Melrose shares and 81 pence in cash for each GKN share. The offer would result in GKN shareholders owning approximately 57% of the enlarged group. The terms represent a premium of approximately 24% over the closing share price of GKN on January 5, 2018, the last business day prior to the approach. Commenting about GKN's intention to separate the businesses, Melrose said it believes that shareholder value would be maximised by it significantly improving the businesses prior to any separation. The potential acquisition represents a significant opportunity for Melrose to execute on its strategy of maximising inherent value of specialised industrial businesses it owns. Meanwhile, GKN said its Board will communicate further details on the optimal method of separation in due course. The timing of the separation will be determined by the need to maximise the economic benefits and minimise the costs associated with separation. In London, GKN shares were at 420.60 pence, up 26.42 percent and Melrose shares were at 229.50 pence, up 6.74 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de BENGALURU, India, January 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Reported year-on-year revenue growth of 8.0% in USD terms for the quarter and 24.3% operating margin 1. Highlights of financial results for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2017 (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/610722/Infosys_Logo.jpg ) Q3 revenues grew year-on-year by 8.0% in USD terms; 5.8% in constant currency terms Q3 revenues grew sequentially by 1.0% in USD terms; 0.8 % in constant currency terms Q3 operating margin improved to 24.3% from 24.2% in Q2 18 Q3 EPS at $ 0.35 , year-on-year growth of 46.1% and sequential growth of 38.2% , year-on-year growth of 46.1% and sequential growth of 38.2% Q3 EPS of $ 0.35 includes positive impact of $ 0.10 from Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) with the US IRS includes positive impact of from Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) with the US IRS 9 months year-on-year revenue growth at 6.5% in USD terms; 5.6% in constant currency terms Q3 cash flow from operating activities were at $ 657 mn , compared to $ 441 mn in Q2 18 , compared to in Q2 18 Utilization excluding trainees at all-time high of 84.9% Q3 standalone attrition declined to 15.8% from 17.2% in Q2 18 FY 18 revenue guidance in constant currency retained at 5.5%-6.5% FY 18 operating margin range unchanged at 23%-25% Financial Highlights Consolidated results under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 Revenues were $ 2,755 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 for the quarter ended Operating profit was $ 669 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 QoQ growth of 1.4%; YoY growth of 4.5% for the quarter ended QoQ growth of 1.4%; YoY growth of 4.5% Net profit was $ 796 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 QoQ growth of 37.6%; YoY growth of 45.4% for the quarter ended QoQ growth of 37.6%; YoY growth of 45.4% Basic EPS at $ 0.35 for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 During the quarter, on account of the conclusion of an APA with the US IRS, net profit has increased which has led to an increase in Basic EPS by $ 0.10 for the quarter Consolidated results under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 Revenues were $ 8,134 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 YoY growth of 6.5% in reported terms; 5.6% in constant currency terms for the nine months ended YoY growth of 6.5% in reported terms; 5.6% in constant currency terms Operating profit was $ 1,966 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 YoY growth of 4.3% for the nine months ended YoY growth of 4.3% Net profit was $ 1,915 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 YoY growth of 19.9% During the nine months period ended December 31, 2017, on account of the conclusion of an APA with the US IRS, net profit has increased which has led to an increase in Basic EPS by $ 0.09 "It is a privilege for me to be appointed as the CEO & MD of Infosys, helping our clients navigate the digital future and employees build new skills and capabilities. Our Q3 performance is strong. We had 8% year-on-year growth and 24.3% operating margin with US$ 593 million of free cash flow," said Salil Parekh, CEO & MD. "We are progressing towards stability and are well positioned to serve our clients in the new areas of demand," he added. "Increased adoption of our digital offerings and new services helped stabilize price realization. We were able to grow client relationships across revenue categories," said Pravin Rao, COO. "During the quarter, we provided compensation increases and higher variable payouts to our employees. Our investments in employees continues to deliver results as reflected in lower attrition." "Our operating margins were stable on the back of broad-based improvement in operational efficiency parameters. Our cash generation continued to be robust during the quarter," said M.D. Ranganath, CFO. "We successfully executed the share buyback of Rs. 13,000 crores in line with our capital allocation policy." 2. Outlook for FY 2018 The Company's outlook (consolidated) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, under IFRS is as follows: Revenues are expected to grow 5.5%-6.5% in constant currency*; Revenues are expected to grow 6.5%-7.5% in USD terms based on the exchange rates as of December 31, 2017 ** *FY 17 constant currency rates - AUD/USD - 0.75; Euro/USD - 1.09; GBP/USD - 1.30 **Currency rates as of December 31, 2017 - AUD/USD - 0.78; Euro/USD - 1.20; GBP/USD - 1.35 3. Board and Management Changes Based on the recommendations of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, the Board in its meeting held on December 2, 2017 appointed Salil Parekh as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Company with effect from January 2, 2018 for a period of 5 years, subject to the approval of shareholders and other regulatory requirements, if any. The Board re-designated Pravin Rao as the Chief Operating Officer and Whole Time Director with effect from January 2, 2018 upon stepping down as the interim Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director in accordance with the terms of his appointment. Further, Pravin Rao shall hold the office of Whole Time Director up to August 17, 2022. The postal ballot notice dated January 3, 2018 seeking the approval of shareholders including the terms of appointment of the above changes is available on the Company's website at the following link- https://www.infosys.com/investors/Documents/postal-ballot-jan2018.pdf Rajesh K. Murthy, President, has resigned from the company for personal reasons. His last date with Infosys will be January 31, 2018. The Board places on record its deep appreciation for his commitment to Infosys over the last 26 years and wishes him the very best for his future endeavours. 4. Committee of Directors The Committee of Directors was formed on April 13, 2017 to support and advise the management in executing the Company's strategy. With the appointment of Salil Parekh as the CEO and Managing Director of the Company, the Committee of Directors stands dissolved with effect from January 12, 2018. 5. Update on Shareholders consultation by SRC The Company has completed the previously announced shareholder consultation. The feedback received was presented and taken on record by the Board on January 11, 2018 6. Signing of the Advance Pricing Agreement ("APA") with the US Internal Revenue Service Infosys has concluded an Advance Pricing Agreement ("APA") with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"). Under the APA, Infosys and the IRS have agreed on the methodology to allocate revenues and compute the taxable income of the Company's U.S. operations. This agreement covers financial years from 2011 to 2021. The APA will enhance predictability of Infosys' tax obligations in respect of its U.S. operations. In accordance with the APA, Infosys has reversed tax provisions of approximately US$ 225 million made in previous periods which are no longer required (both under International Financial Reporting Standards and Indian Accounting Standards). Further, in line with the APA, Infosys expects to payout approximately US$ 233 million due to the difference between the taxes payable for prior periods as per the APA and the actual taxes paid for such periods. This amount is expected to be paid over the next few quarters. The reversal of the tax provisions of approximately US$ 225 million had a positive impact on the consolidated Basic EPS for the quarter ending December 31, 2017 by approximately US$ 0.10. Further, on account of the APA methodology, Infosys expects its overall effective tax rate to be lower by about 100 basis points for future periods covered under the APA. 7. Share buyback The Board, at its meeting on August 19, 2017, approved a proposal for the Company to buyback its fully paid-up equity shares of face value of INR 5 each from the eligible equity shareholders of the Company for an amount not exceeding INR 13,000 crore. The shareholders approved the said proposal of buyback of Equity Shares through the postal ballot that concluded on October 7, 2017.The Buyback offer comprised a purchase of 11,30,43,478 Equity Shares aggregating 4.92% of the paid-up equity share capital of the Company at a price of INR 1,150 per Equity share. The buyback was offered to all eligible equity shareholders (including those who became equity shareholders as on the Record date by cancelling American Depository Shares and withdrawing underlying Equity shares) of the Company as on the Record Date (i.e. November 1, 2017) on a proportionate basis through the "Tender offer" route. The Company concluded the buyback procedures on December 27, 2017 and 11,30,43,478 equity shares were extinguished. The Company has funded the buyback from its securities premium and general reserve. In accordance with section 69 of the Companies Act, 2013, the Company has created 'Capital Redemption Reserve' of $ 9 million equal to the nominal value of the shares bought back as an appropriation from general reserve. About Infosys Ltd. Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve these effectively.Our team of 200,000+ innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake. Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this release including those concerning our future growth prospects, predictability of the Company's tax obligations in respect of its US operations, the amount and timing of tax payments to be made by the Company, the impact on consolidated Basic EPS, and the Company's overall effective tax rate for future periods, are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding the profit margins for client contracts that are executed in whole or in part by the Company's US operations, as well as changes in US tax laws. Additional risks that could cause actual results to differ materially are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at http://www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law. Infosys Limited and subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of (Dollars in millions except equity share data) December 31, 2017 March 31, 2017 ASSETS Current assets Cash and cash equivalents 3,226 3,489 Current investments 389 1,538 Trade receivables 2,057 1,900 Unbilled revenue 573 562 Prepayments and other current assets 891 749 Income tax assets 84 - Derivative financial instruments 13 44 Total current assets 7,233 8,282 Non-current assets Property, plant and equipment 1,853 1,807 Goodwill 583 563 Intangible assets 94 120 Investment in associate - 11 Non-current investments 957 984 Deferred income tax assets 184 83 Income tax assets 863 881 Other non-current assets 122 123 Total non-current assets 4,656 4,572 Total assets 11,889 12,854 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current liabilities Trade payables 79 57 Derivative financial instruments 1 - Current income tax liabilities 397 599 Client deposits 24 5 Unearned revenue 362 274 Employee benefit obligations 227 209 Provisions 71 63 Other current liabilities 1,040 954 Total current liabilities 2,201 2,161 Non-current liabilities Deferred income tax liabilities 100 32 Employee benefit obligations 8 - Other non-current liabilities 36 24 Total liabilities 2,345 2,217 Equity Share capital- INR 5 ($0.16) par value 2,400,000,000 (2,400,000,000) equity shares authorized, issued and outstanding 2,173,143,893 (2,285,655,150), net of 10,805,896 (11,289,514) treasury shares as of December 31, 2017 (March 31, 2017), respectively 190 199 Share premium 243 587 Retained earnings 11,099 12,190 Cash flow hedge reserve - 6 Other reserves 161 - Capital redemption reserve 9 - Other components of equity (2,158) (2,345) Total equity attributable to equity holders of the company 9,544 10,637 Non-controlling interests - - Total equity 9,544 10,637 Total liabilities and equity 11,889 12,854 Infosys Limited and subsidiaries Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Dollars in millions except share and per equity share data) Three months Three months Nine months Nine months ended ended ended ended December 31, December 31, December 31, December 31, 2017 2016 2017 2016 Revenues 2,755 2,551 8,134 7,639 Cost of sales 1,773 1,601 5,208 4,832 Gross profit 982 950 2,926 2,807 Operating expenses: Selling and marketing expenses 136 131 405 402 Administrative expenses 177 179 555 519 Total operating expenses 313 310 960 921 Operating profit 669 640 1,966 1,886 Other income, net 149 121 413 347 Share in associate's profit / (loss) - - - (1) Write-down of investment in associate - - (11) - Profit before income taxes 818 761 2,368 2,232 Income tax expense 22 214 453 635 Net profit 796 547 1,915 1,597 Other comprehensive income Items that will not be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss: Re-measurements of the net defined benefit liability/asset 2 (1) 3 (10) Cumulative impact on reversal of unrealized gain on quoted debt securities on adoption of IFRS 9 - - - (5) Equity instruments through other comprehensive income, net - - - - Items that will be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss: Fair valuation of investments, net (4) - 2 - Fair value changes on derivatives designated as cash flow hedge, net 1 4 (6) 4 Foreign currency translation 229 (189) 182 (243) Total other comprehensive income, net of tax 228 (186) 181 (254) Total comprehensive income 1,024 361 2,096 1,343 Profit attributable to: Owners of the Company 796 547 1,915 1,597 Non-controlling interests - - - - 796 547 1,915 1,597 Total comprehensive income attributable to: Owners of the Company 1,024 361 2,096 1,343 Non-controlling interests - - - - 1,024 361 2,096 1,343 Earnings per equity share Basic ($) 0.35 0.24 0.84 0.70 Diluted ($) 0.35 0.24 0.84 0.70 Weighted average equity shares used in computing earnings per equity share Basic 2,275,074,804 2,285,651,730 2,282,186,771 2,285,638,678 Diluted 2,276,381,570 2,286,229,042 2,284,287,492 2,286,076,462 NOTES: 1. The unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance sheets and Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for the three months and nine months ended December 31, 2017 have been taken on record at the Board meeting held on January 12, 2018 2.A Fact Sheet providing the operating metrics of the company can be downloaded from http://www.infosys.com 3. Other income for three months and nine months ended December 31, 2017 includes interest on income tax refund of $ 31 million and $ 41 million respectively 4. During the quarter ended December 31, 2017, on account of the conclusion of an Advance Pricing Agreement ("APA") with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"), the Company has in accordance with the APA, reversed income tax expense provision of $ 225 million which pertains to previous periods which are no longer required. Consequently, profit for the period has increased and therefore has led to an increase in Basic earnings per equity share by $0.10 for quarter ended December 31, 2017 and $0.09 for nine months ended December 31, 2017 5. During the quarter ended June 30, 2017, the Company has written down the entire carrying value of the investment in its associate DWA Nova LLC, an Infosys Innovation Fund Investment. The impact of write down on Q1 18 net profit is$ 11 million IFRS-INR Press Release: https://www.infosys.com/investors/reports-filings/quarterly-results/2017-2018/q3/Documents/IFRS-USD-press-release.pdf Fact Sheet: https://www.infosys.com/investors/reports-filings/quarterly-results/2017-2018/q3/Documents/fact-sheet.pdf Contacts Investor Relations Sandeep Mahindroo +91-80-3980-1018 Sandeep_Mahindroo@infosys.com Media Relations Sarah Vanita Gideon +91-80-4156-3998 Sarah_Gideon@infosys.com Chiku Somaiya +1-7136706752 Chiku.Somaiya@infosys.com LONDON, 2018-01-12 12:36 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The insurance industry is in a state of flux. For one, it's adapting to a new era of risk, in which a cyber attack could be as economically damaging as a hurricane. On top of this, the modern tools of big data, mobile phones and advanced analytics are ushering in a new generation of products that can be tailored to each individual customer. Meanwhile, the usual pressures relating to digital developments are exacerbating the 'commoditisation' of insurance, which has been brought on by internet comparison sites and the like. Against this backdrop, World Finance has published its yearly line-up of the best companies in global insurance, recognising those that continue to grow and expand, even in spite of an ever-changing landscape and modern-day risks. It is telling that, according to a survey by PwC, the insurance industry ranks higher than any other in terms of the percentage of CEOs that are: "extremely concerned about the threats to their growth prospects from the speed of technological change, changing customer behaviour, and competition from new market entrants." For those in the industry, technology is both friend and foe: it is forcing change while simultaneously creating an arena for the most innovative businesses to thrive. Crucially, those that are now investing in new digital approaches will dominate the market in the future. Ultimately, the most promising businesses are readily equipped for the wider social, economic and technological changes that are underlying market trends. The World Finance Global Insurance Awards 2017 celebrate those that are staying ahead of these developments and driving ahead with innovative solutions. Each year, the World Finance in-house judging panel compiles the list of winners after consulting key business metrics and talking with a number of industry experts. To read more about the winners and why they've made the cut, pick up the latest issue of World Finance, available online, on mobile and in print now. www.worldfinance.com World News Media is a leading publisher of quality financial and business magazines, which enjoys a global distribution network that includes subscriber lists of prominent decision-makers around the world. CONTACT INFORMATION World News Media Elizabeth Matsangou Editorial Department +44 (0)20 7553 4162 elizabeth.matsangou@wnmedia.com The Management Board of AS Silvano Fashion Group, registry code 10175491, registered address Tulika 15/17, 10613 Tallinn, (hereinafter "SFG") held an Extraordinary General Meeting (hereinafter: "EGM") of shareholders on 12th of January 2018 at 11:00 (Estonian time) in Nordic Hotel Forum conference hall "Arcturus", address Viru valjak 3, Tallinn, Estonia. The meeting started at 11:00 and ended at 11:30. The meeting was held in the Estonian language. Notice convening the meeting was published 20/12/2017 on the website of the Tallinn Stock Exchange, Warsaw Stock Exchange Information System and Silvano Fashion Group website www.silvanofashion.com and 21/12/2017 in the daily newspaper "Eesti Paevaleht". According to the notice convening the meeting was based on the weighting of votes in the Estonian Central Register of electronic extract from the list of shareholders as of 4 January 2018, at 20:00, and at the start of the meeting the participants registration form. AS Silvano Fashion Group share capital is 10.8 million euros and the total number of shares is 36 000 000, EUR 0.30 per share. Twenty six (26) shareholders attended the Meeting representing 22 837 926 votes, constituting 63,44% of the voting rights of the company. Thus, the meeting had a quorum. Resolutions adopted at the meeting: 1. The amendment of the profit distribution decision approved by the Annual General Meeting held on 29th of June 2017 and additional distribution of profit of AS Silvano Fashion Group. To distribute the profit by paying dividends to the shareholders from the profit of the company based on the approved annual report of 2016 as follows: 1.1. The list of shareholders of AS Silvano Fashion Group entitled to profit distribution shall be fixed on 26th of January 2018 end of day of settlement systems (dividend's ex-day 25.01.). 1.2. EUR 0.30 per share shall be payable to the entitled shareholders as a dividend at the latest on 29th of January 2018. Voting results: In favor: 22 835 466 votes or 99,99% of the represented votes at the meeting and 63,43% of total share capital Against: 0 votes or 0,00% of the votes represented at the meeting and 0% of the total share capital Impartial: 0 votes or 0,00% of the represented votes at the meeting and 0,00% of total share capital Did not vote: 2 460 votes, or 0,01% of the votes represented at the meeting and 0,01% of the total share capital The resolutions were adopted at the Meeting following the procedure for passing of resolutions set forth in laws and in the Articles of Association of the Company. The protocol of the meeting, and related documents shall be made available to investors within 1 (one) week from the Meeting at SFG website www.silvanofashion.com Jarek Sargava Silvano Fashion Group Member of the Board E-mail: info@silvanofashion.com Tel: +372 684 5000; Fax: +372 684 5300; Address: Tulika 15/17, 10613 Tallinn http://www.silvanofashion.com WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Willbros Group, Inc. (WG) announced Friday that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell certain U.S. mainline pipeline assets to WB Pipeline, LLC, an affiliate of Meridien Energy, LLC. Assets included in the sale consists primarily of cross-country pipeline construction equipment. After the deal, WB Pipeline, LLC will operate under the name Willbros Pipeline. Willbros revealed that some senior management, including the Oil & Gas segment President Harry New, will be joining WB Pipeline, LLC immediately; while others may join WB Pipeline, LLC once existing pipeline projects have been completed. Funding for the deal will occur in stages throughout the first quarter of 2018. Willbros said it will continue to serve the U.S. oil & gas industry through its Facilities, Pipeline Integrity and Lineal businesses. 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. Regulatory News: Ipsen (Euronext: IPN; ADR: IPSEY) today announced the appointment of Richard Paulson as Executive Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer of Ipsen North America, responsible for all commercial operations throughout the region. Mr Paulson will assume oversight of all areas supporting the North American business effective from February 5th. The role reports directly to David Meek, CEO of Ipsen, and Mr Paulson will be a member of the Ipsen Executive Leadership Team. He joins Ipsen from Amgen where he most recently served as Vice-President and General Manager of the Oncology Business Unit. David Meek, Ipsen's CEO, commented, "We are extremely delighted to welcome Richard to Ipsen, to drive the continued growth of our North American business and further our development as a leading biopharma company focused on innovation and specialty care. Richard brings a wealth of great leadership experience, vision, and a track record of exceptional execution in leading and growing businesses, both in the US and internationally. He will bring great passion and energy to our work with patients." During a 10-year career at Amgen, Richard Paulson held a number of positions in the company, including General Manager, Central and Eastern Europe, and subsequently General Manager Germany, before assuming leadership positions in Amgen's Oncology Business Unit. Prior to joining Amgen, he held international positions in general management, marketing and market access with Pfizer. He also served in a number of sales and marketing roles with increasing seniority for GlaxoWellcome in Canada. He holds an MBA from the University of Toronto. Richard Paulson added: "I am honored to join Ipsen at this time of rapid transformation and growth, as the company progresses in its evolution as a leading global biopharma company. Throughout my career, in markets around the world, I have been passionate about building and leading diverse, high-performing teams, and driving innovation for patients. I am extremely excited to join this dynamic company, with its clear mission and commitment to developing patient-focused solutions that put the patients' needs first." With the former President North America Cynthia Schwalm leaving Ipsen to pursue other interests, Ipsen would like to thank Cynthia for her many contributions to the growth of Ipsen's North American business, and wishes her well in her future endeavors. About Ipsen Ipsen is a global specialty-driven biopharmaceutical group focused on innovation and specialty care. The group develops and commercializes innovative medicines in three key therapeutic areas Oncology, Neurosciences and Rare Diseases. Its commitment to oncology is exemplified through its growing portfolio of key therapies for prostate cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, renal cell carcinoma and pancreatic cancer. Ipsen also has a well-established Consumer Healthcare business. With total sales close to 1.6 billion in 2016, Ipsen sells more than 20 drugs in over 115 countries, with a direct commercial presence in more than 30 countries. Ipsen's R&D is focused on its innovative and differentiated technological platforms located in the heart of the leading biotechnological and life sciences hubs (Paris-Saclay, France; Oxford, UK; Cambridge, US). The Group has about 5,100 employees worldwide. Ipsen is listed in Paris (Euronext: IPN) and in the United States through a Sponsored Level I American Depositary Receipt program (ADR: IPSEY). For more information on Ipsen, visit www.ipsen.com. Ipsen Forward Looking Statement The forward-looking statements, objectives and targets contained herein are based on the Group's management strategy, current views and assumptions. Such statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those anticipated herein. All of the above risks could affect the Group's future ability to achieve its financial targets, which were set assuming reasonable macroeconomic conditions based on the information available today. Use of the words "believes," "anticipates" and "expects" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, including the Group's expectations regarding future events, including regulatory filings and determinations. Moreover, the targets described in this document were prepared without taking into account external growth assumptions and potential future acquisitions, which may alter these parameters. These objectives are based on data and assumptions regarded as reasonable by the Group. These targets depend on conditions or facts likely to happen in the future, and not exclusively on historical data. Actual results may depart significantly from these targets given the occurrence of certain risks and uncertainties, notably the fact that a promising product in early development phase or clinical trial may end up never being launched on the market or reaching its commercial targets, notably for regulatory or competition reasons. The Group must face or might face competition from generic products that might translate into a loss of market share. Furthermore, the Research and Development process involves several stages each of which involves the substantial risk that the Group may fail to achieve its objectives and be forced to abandon its efforts with regards to a product in which it has invested significant sums. Therefore, the Group cannot be certain that favourable results obtained during pre-clinical trials will be confirmed subsequently during clinical trials, or that the results of clinical trials will be sufficient to demonstrate the safe and effective nature of the product concerned. There can be no guarantees a product will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that the product will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Other risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the Group's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the Group's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions. The Group also depends on third parties to develop and market some of its products which could potentially generate substantial royalties; these partners could behave in such ways which could cause damage to the Group's activities and financial results. The Group cannot be certain that its partners will fulfil their obligations. It might be unable to obtain any benefit from those agreements. A default by any of the Group's partners could generate lower revenues than expected. Such situations could have a negative impact on the Group's business, financial position or performance. The Group expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements, targets or estimates contained in this press release to reflect any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which any such statements are based, unless so required by applicable law. The Group's business is subject to the risk factors outlined in its registration documents filed with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers. The risks and uncertainties set out are not exhaustive and the reader is advised to refer to the Group's 2016 Registration Document available on its website (www.ipsen.com). View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180112005187/en/ Contacts: Ipsen Media Ian Weatherhead Vice-President, Corporate External Communications Tel.: +44 (0)7584 230549 E-mail:ian.weatherhead@ipsen.com or Marisol Peron Vice-President, North American Internal External Communications Tel: +1 908 275 6330 Email: marisol.peron@ipsen.com or Brigitte Le Guennec Senior Manager, Corporate External Communications Tel.: +33 (0)1 58 33 51 17 E-mail: brigitte.le.guennec@ipsen.com SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - US money transfer giant MoneyGram struck a deal with the blockchain-based payment settlement company Ripple to pilot the latter's native currency XRP in MoneyGram payment flows. The price of XRP, popularly known as Ripple, surged as much as 15 percent on the news on Thursday, when most major currencies were down due to fears of a severe crackdown by South Korean authorities. Ripple is the third largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap data. For a brief time in December, XRP had overtaken Ethereum to be the second largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. As of 6.10 am ET on Friday, XRP was up 17.94 percent at $2.07 with a market cap of $80.06 billion on CoinMarketCap. The deal is significant as questions are raised to the use of cryptocurrencies in real life. Banks are exploring ways to lower transaction costs by adopting the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The Dallas-based MoneyGram said it will pilot the use of XRP in payment flows through xRapid, Ripple's solution for on-demand liquidity for financial institutions. Ripple's transactions fees are just fractions of a penny, compared to Bitcoin fees of about $30 per transaction, the company noted. Similarly, the average transaction time for XRP is 2-3 seconds with other top digital assets ranging from 15 minutes to an hour, it added. 'We are excited about this pilot and a long-term strategic partnership with MoneyGram,' Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a statement. 'The inefficiencies of global payments don't just affect banks, they also affect institutions like MoneyGram,' he noted. Both companies will also explore MoneyGram's integration into Ripple's ecosystem through the latter's standard payments interface, xVia. Since hitting a record of $3.84, the price of Ripple has fallen steadily after leading crypto data website coinbase rejected news of including XRP into its list of currency it tracks. The Ripple price also took a hit after South Korean authorities took steps to curb the excessive speculation in digital currencies that led to some Korean exchanges being excluded from the crypto market cap tracker CoinMarketCap. Ripple is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in South Korea, one of the leading markets for cryptos, where both young and old have been investing heavily in these currencies with the hope of making a quick profit. The San Francisco-based Ripple was founded in 2012 as a provider for a realtime payment processing system that is based on a blockchain or a public distributed ledger which validates transactions on consensus. While Bitcoin is a digital currency based on the blockchain, Ripple is a real-time payment settlement network with a virtual currency that works on an enterprise blockchain that claims to have more than 100 customers across the globe, including American Express and UBS. A major criticism leveled against Ripple is that it is not decentralized entirely as the validators in the distributed network are known entities such as banks and financial services companies, unlike Bitcoin's blockchain that relies on anonymous miners. This has prompted some players in the crypto space to name XRP the 'banksters' coin'. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 12, 2018) - Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. (CSE: LDS) (OTCQB: LDSYF) (FSE: LD6) (WKN: A14XHT) ("LDS" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed a non-brokered private placement financing (the "Financing") of a total of 5,500,000 units (the "Units") at a price of Cdn$0.50 per Unit (the "Issue Price"), for total gross proceeds of Cdn$2,750,000. Due to strong investor demand, the Financing was oversubscribed. Each Unit sold in the Financing consisted of one common share of the Company (each a "Unit Share") and one common share purchase warrant (each a "Warrant") entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share (a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.75 per Warrant Share for a period ending one year from the date of issuance. The Company may accelerate the expiration date of the Warrants if the daily volume weighted average share price of the Company's common shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange (or such other stock exchange as the Company's common shares are then trading on) is equal to or greater than Cdn$1.50 for 10 consecutive trading days. The securities issued under the Offering will be subject to a hold period expiring on May 12, 2018, pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. Grant of Stock Options On January 11, 2018, the Company granted an option to acquire up to 500,000 stock options to Mr. Arni Johannson, the Company's consultant and management's nominee for a director position at the upcoming Annual General Meeting to be held on January 25, 2018. The option is exercisable into common shares of the Company at an exercise price of Cdn$1.15 per common share and expire on a two-year anniversary of the grant. About Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. The Company's technology produces infused strips (similar to breath strips) that are not only a safer, healthier option to smoking but also a new way to accurately meter the dosage and assure the purity of the product. From start to finish, the production process tests for quality and composition of all the ingredients used in each and every strip, resulting in a delivery system that is safe, consistent and effective. On behalf of the board of directors of Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. Brad Eckenweiler, CEO & Director FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: investor.relations@lifestyledeliverysystem.com 1-866-347-5058 Cautionary Disclaimer Statement: The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's 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 Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. In addition, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Although Congress has prohibited the US Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws, this prohibition must be renewed each year to remain in effect. 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. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has reportedly lashed out at immigrants in a foul-mouthed outburst in an Oval Office meeting with Congressmen, evoking widespread condemnation, including from a UN spokesman. 'Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?' Trump said in a meeting with senators and House members Thursday about immigration reform. The Washington Post and The New York Times reported the comments, quoting people with knowledge of the meeting. The meeting was convened to discuss a proposed bipartisan deal that would limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country and restrict the green card visa lottery in exchange for shielding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. By calling them 'shithole countries,' the president was apparently referring to impoverished African, Central American, and Caribbean countries like Eritrea, Haiti, and El Salvador. Instead, the billionaire-turned-politician suggested the United States should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister visited him the previous day. The White House didn't deny that Trump used that slur, but said in a statement that 'Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people'. UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said the comments from the President are shocking and shameful. 'I'm sorry but there is no other word for this but racist.' Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, who is the Chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said he is ashamed of the President, whom he called a racist. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) accused the President of falling 'deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of racism and xenophobia'. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de 120118 APEO OPOSES MINING, ENCOURAGES OTHER ECONOMIC INDUSTRIES BY- TRISH BARANANGKO The Business Management Consultant for TTanata Artwork Services LTD, Mr APEO TIMOCI TEATA said mining is not a preferred Industry that Bougainville should look at in preparations for self-Governance. Speaking at the Public Seminar hosted by the Umi Wan Festival at Bel Isi Park Today, Mr APEO through experience with the environmental committee at Lihir Goal Mine said Companies are aware of damages caused but they dont expose such issues as they fear the risk of losing money at stock exchange. Given this experience, Mr APEO said the issue of mining should be put side. Speaking in regard to the three Pillars of Referendum, the Government should consider other economic Industries such as Agriculture, Fisheries, Tourism, Manufacturing and Livestock. He said that these Industries are renewable resources unlike mining. Mr APEO said that Small Business Enterprise (SME) is another aspect that Bougainville should adapt in order to help develop the given Industries so that Bougainvilles Economy is moved forward thus boosting the level of Bougainvilles Economic Development and securing a financially equipped economy in preparation for Bougainvilles Political Journey. Ends// MUMBAI, India, January 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bharat Book Bureau announces the addition of the report "US Fertility Clinics Market" to its offering. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130128/590935 ) Summary The market for fertility clinics in the US should reach a value of $3.6 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow to $4.5 billion by 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6% for the period of 2017-2022. Report Includes -An overview of the US market for fertility clinics -Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2012 through 2016, estimates for 2017, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2022 -Examination of the critical market characteristics of the fertility market, including technological developments, the value chain, market dynamics, and key market trends -Market breakdowns by diagnostics services and assisted reproductive technology -Coverage of major government regulations, recent industry developments, and the competitive landscape -Information on leading companies, including their services and recent developments Get a sample page of US Fertility Clinics Market Report: https://www.bharatbook.com/request-sample/743045 Chapter 1: Introduction BCC Research's goal in performing this study was to determine the market and future demand growth for fertility clinics over the five-year period from 2016 through 2020 in the US. Of particular focus was characterizing and quantifying the potential of the market for fertility clinics in the US, and segments (i.e., assisted reproductive technology, diagnostic services and surgeries). The report also evaluates various market opportunities in detail. Factors that affect the market such as drivers, restraints, and trends have been discussed. The key objective was to present a comprehensive discussion of where the state-of-the-art is in fertility clinics and forecast the future commercial potential for the key market segments. This discussion provides a basis for companies to make strategic choices about developing new products and markets or deciding which applications are needed in their organizations. The study will benefit fertility clinics operators, clinic staff, customers of fertility clinics, governments around the world, and others. Study Goals and Objectives -To sum up the US fertility clinics market size. -To estimate the growth rate of the US fertility clinics market. -To segment the market in the deepest possible way. -To identify major drivers and restraints. -To identify key trends and technology updates in the field. Reasons for Doing This Study Increasing number of single moms and rise in average age of new moms has led to increasing demand for assisted reproductive technology techniques. Global industry leaders and large organizations see an expanded role for egg freezing and new technologies such as Vitro Maturation (IVM) in the fertility clinics industry. The US fertility clinics market is growing due to increasing obesity that can cause hormonal imbalances and problems with ovulation in women and low sperm quality in men. The growth is also stimulated by decreasing fertility of a women. These factors are expected to drive the fertility clinics market in the US. The market for fertility clinics in the US is fragmented with a few large players having small share of the market. Major players in the market include IntegraMed, New Hope Fertility Clinic, Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey, and others. Scope of Report This research report categorizes the US fertility clinics market by segments. These segments include assisted reproductive technology, diagnostic services and surgeries. Information Sources -Public information via annual reports to shareholders as well as other government reports that are available for public review. -Company marketing information, advertising, company press releases, state and local news sources, and subscription-based information. -Online research including third-party references. -Trade associations, directories and publications. -Telephone interviews with both current customers and prospects. -Various private industry sources. Methodology Research methodology followed in this report is a top-down approach. Various sources were used to arrive at the total market figure, which was broken down into various applications and sub markets based on primary and secondary data. Both a quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to derive the market size and growth rates. Many secondary sources were reviewed, and extensive primary research was conducted with key opinion leaders, marketing managers, product managers and end users. Market numbers have been calculated in constant U.S. dollars. Geographic Breakdown This report is focused on the fertility clinics market in United States of America alone To know more about report and who is it suited for, head over to: https://www.bharatbook.com/healthcare-market-research-reports-743045/us-fertility-clinics.html About Bharat Book Bureau: Bharat Book Bureauis the leading market research information provider for market research reports, company profiles, industry analysis, country reports , business reports, newsletters and online databases Bharat Book Bureau provides over a million reports from more than 400 publishers around the globe. We cover sectors starting from Aeronautics to Zoology.In case the reports don't match your requirement then we can do a specialized Custom Research for you. Contact us: Bharat Book Bureau E: info@bharatbook.com P: +91-22-27810772/27810773 LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/company/bharat-book-bureau Twitter:https://twitter.com/researchbook Blog:https://www.bharatbook.com/blog/ W: http://www.bharatbook.com OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Cryptocurrency prices have rebounded after the fears of a severe crackdown by South Korean authorities waned as comment's from the country's finance minister suggested that the proposal to ban digital currency exchanges need more consultations and would take lot of time to materialize. Meanwhile, a deal between the blockchain-based payment processing network Ripple and MoneyGram propped up the price of former's native currency Ripple or XRP. Here is a wrap up of the main news from the crypto market in the last 24 hours. 1. South Korea Seeks To Calm Crypto Crackdown Concerns South Korea's finance minister on Friday sought to calm the cryptocurrency market after an announcement a day ago that the country's justice ministry was planning a ban on crypto exchanges, sending prices of digital currencies such as Bitcoin sharply lower. 'The issue of shutting down exchanges, told by the justice minister yesterday, is a proposal by the justice ministry and it needs consultations among ministries,' Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Friday. Justice Minister Park Sang-ki had said on Thursday that his ministry was preparing legislation that bans any transactions based on virtual currencies via exchanges due to grave concerns regarding the excessive exuberance in the cryptocurrency market. 2. Ripple, MoneyGram Tie-up Sends XRP Soaring US money transfer giant MoneyGram struck a deal with the blockchain-based payment settlement company Ripple to pilot the latter's native currency XRP in MoneyGram payment flows. The price of XRP, popularly known as Ripple, surged as much as 15 percent on the news on Thursday, when most major currencies were down due to fears of a severe crackdown by South Korean authorities. Ripple is the third largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap data. For a brief time in December, XRP had overtaken Ethereum to be the second largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. As of 6.10 am ET on Friday, XRP was up 17.94 percent at $2.07 with a market cap of $80.06 billion on CoinMarketCap. 3. KFC Canada To Accept Bitcoin For Limited Offer Product You can now buy Kentucky Fried Chicken in Canada by paying in Bitcoin. The limited time 'Bitcoin Bucket' launched by KFC Canada on Thursday is not available over the counter, but via BitPay for home delivery. The product is available at a price equivalent to 20 Canadian dollars in bitcoin. The current price for the product can be calculated through a Facebook-based live-tracker of dollar's exchange rate with bitcoin. KFC Canada will charge an additional $5 fee for the service, according to the check-out process on its website. 4. Ukraine Sets Up Working Group To Develop Crypto Regulation Ukraine has set up a multi-agency working group, which includes the central bank and the stock market watchdog, to develop legal proposals to regulate the cryptocurrency market. The National Security and Defense Council Chief Oleksandr Turchynov said in a statement that the legal vacuum in the crypto market due to due to lack of legislative and regulatory framework 'poses a threat to the economy and security of the state'. In December, an executive of the cryptocurrency firm Exmo was kidnapped in Ukraine and was released on payment of $1 million in bitcoins. 5. Line, Japan's Most Popular Chat App, Goes The Crypto Way Japan's leading messaging app provider Line Corp. is planning to integrate cryptocurrencies into its messaging platform, Bloomberg reported this week, citing sources familiar to the matter. The company already has a mobile payment service, Line Pay, and has a virtual currency that is used in games and to buy content, mainly attractive and expressive stickers. The company wants to create products that will keep users coming back to the app. Line is the latest among a long list of companies that has embarked on the virtual currency and blockchain wagon. Current Prices As of 9.05 am ET, Bitcoin was up 0.97 percent at $14,080.20, Ethereum was higher by 5.22 percent at $1,278.56 and Ripple was up 10.66 percent at $2.10 on CoinMarketCap. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de MADRID, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, General Dynamics European Land Systems signed a contract to deliver up to 227 PIRANHA 5 wheeled armored vehicles in six different configurations to the Romanian Armed Forces. The contract has a total value exceeding $1 billion. It is part of the Romanian Army's plan to modernize its legacy wheeled armored vehicle fleet. Prime Minister Mihai Tudose and Deputy Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu attended the signing ceremony held at the National Defense Ministry headquarters. The modern PIRANHA 5 vehicles will be produced in Romania under a strategic cooperation and transfer of technology project between General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag and the Romanian company Uzina MecanicA BucureEti (UMB). Since 2006, the Romanian Armored Forces has fielded variants of PIRANHA vehicles which have been deployed in various missions in-country and abroad, demonstrating its reliability and performance. "The Romanian Army is one of the most important PIRANHA users in Europe. We are very honored by this contract award as it reflects the high confidence and satisfaction the Romanian Army has in our vehicles," said Oliver Durr, Vice President Wheeled Vehicles and Managing Director of General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag. "With this step, we have established a sustainable collaboration with a trusted partner which has a significant industrial footprint in Romania," said Thomas Kauffmann, General Dynamics European Land Systems Vice President International Business & Services. "The transfer of technology and the local production of these vehicles present an enormous opportunity to the Romanian industry." With more than 11,000 systems fielded, the PIRANHA is one of the most successful 8x8 wheeled armored vehicles in the world. About General Dynamics European Land Systems General Dynamics European Land Systems, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) and conducts its business through five European operating sites located in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. With more than 2,000 highly skilled technical employees, the companies design, manufacture and deliver world-class land combat, systems, including wheeled, tracked and amphibious vehicles, bridge systems, armaments, and munitions, to global customers. More information is available at www.gdels.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/628047/General_Dynamics_Romania.jpg Logo -https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/81320/general_dynamics_logo.jpg WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - General Motors Co. (GM) said it plans to mass-produce self driving cars that will have no steering wheel, pedals or manual controls by 2019. The automaker has filed a safety petition with the Department of Transportation for its fourth-generation self-driving Cruise AV, its first production-ready vehicle built from the start to operate safely on its own. GM has petitioned the federal government for approval to adjust sixteen motor vehicle standards so that it can test the cars with no human backup drivers. The company is building its self-driving vehicles at its assembly plant in Orion Township, Michigan. 'This comprehensive, integrated approach to safety, combined with testing in one of the most complex environments in the world, allows us to safely take the next step - elimination of the steering wheel, pedals and other manual controls - from the vehicle,' GM said. The automaker noted that by eliminating the steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal and other human driver controls, the left front seat became another forward-facing front passenger seat. According to GM, the vehicle will start to move after customers enter the vehicle and meet all pre-conditions, such as closing the doors and pressing the begin ride button. A customer having an emergency may end the ride at any point by making a stop request, and the vehicle will pull to the side of the road at the next available safe place. In the event of a malfunction, the vehicle will provide explanatory information to the passengers, as well as offer communications with a remote operator. The vehicles will also have OnStar Automatic Crash Response. Waymo, Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving technology company, is preparing to launch a commercial ride-hailing program in Phoenix using driver-less Chrysler Pacifica Minivans. Waymo has made a limited number of autonomous vehicles without steering wheels and pedals. Ford has said it plans to launch a fully-autonomous vehicle by 2021. In February 2017, the automaker said it will invest $1 billion during the next five years in Argo AI to develop a virtual driver system for Ford's autonomous vehicles. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de DUBLIN, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Spectrophotometer Market 2017-2021" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global spectrophotometer market to grow at a CAGR of 11.97% during the period 2017-2021. Global Spectrophotometer Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market. According to the report, one driver in the market is increasing use in cell culture. Cell culture refers to the cell removal from a plant or animals and their subsequent growth in a supportive artificial environment. The cells can be removed from the tissue directly and separated by mechanical or enzymatic methods before cultivation. They can also be derived from a cell strain or a cell line that is already been established. Factors such as the increasing incidence of chronic diseases, funding for cell-based research, growing regulatory approvals for vaccines based on cell culture, and technological enhancements in cell culture products will drive the cell culture market growth during the forecast period. One trend in the market is increased consolidation. There has been a major change in the market landscape due to a series of M&A in the global spectrophotometer market. Vendors are adopting M&A to acquire technological expertise, enhance product portfolio, and expand their geographical presence. This has allowed the vendors to reduce their manufacturing cost and increase their production capacity, thereby allowing them to achieve economies of the scale. Further, the report states that one challenge in the market is raw material procurement challenges. As per the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, it is mandatory for public companies to disclose a list of minerals known as conflict minerals, which are used for manufacturing spectrophotometers. The disclosure document about the supply chain of procuring minerals from the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo is one step to stop illegal procurement of minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The list of these conflict minerals includes tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold (3TG). Market trends Increasing investments and adoption of spectrophotometer in environmental monitoring Increased consolidation Growing use of smartphone spectrophotometer Key questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? Key vendors Thermo Fisher Scientific Agilent Technologies Hitachi High-Technologies PerkinElmer Shimadzu Other prominent vendors Analytik Jena Beckman Coulter Biochrom Xylem Bio-Rad Laboratories Bruker Cole-Parmer Hach Hunter Associates Laboratory INESA INSTRUMENT JASCO METTLER TOLEDO PG Instruments VWR X-Rite Xylem Key Topics Covered: Part 01: Executive Summary Part 02: Scope Of The Report Part 03: Research Methodology Part 04: Introduction Part 05: Market Landscape Part 06: Market Segmentation By Application Part 07: Regional Landscape Part 08: Decision Framework Part 09: Drivers And Challenges Part 10: Market Trends Part 11: Vendor Landscape Part 12: Key Vendor Analysis Part 13: Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dcsxh7/global?w=5 Media Contact: Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Business inventories in the U.S. increased by slightly more than anticipated in the month of November, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Friday. The report said business inventories climbed by 0.4 percent in November, while economists had expected inventories to rise by 0.3 percent. Revised data showed no change in business inventories in October compared to the originally reported 0.1 percent drop. The bigger than expected increase in business inventories was partly due to a rebound in wholesale inventories, which rose by 0.8 percent in November after falling by 0.4 percent in October. Manufacturing inventories also increased by 0.4 percent in November after rising by 0.3 percent in October, while retail inventories inched up by 0.1 percent after coming in unchanged in the previous month. Additionally, the Commerce Department said business sales surged up by 1.2 percent in November after climbing by 0.8 percent in October. Wholesale and manufacturing sales jumped by 1.5 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, while retail sales increased by 0.9 percent. With sales rising faster than inventories, the total business inventories/sales ratio edged down to 1.33 in November from 1.34 in October. 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. A.M. Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating "bbb" of ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company) (ZEP-RE) (Kenya). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. The ratings reflect ZEP-RE's balance sheet strength, which A.M. Best categorises as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and marginal enterprise risk management (ERM). The company's risk-adjusted capitalisation has strengthened further since year-end 2015, primarily as a result of robust internal capital generation from strong operating performance combined with a pause in growth due to local currency depreciation and lower economic growth in ZEP-RE's regional markets. Technical performance has been maintained, in part due to growth in the proportion of premiums contributed by facultative reinsurance, which has grown to 23% of gross written premium (GWP) in the first half of 2017 from 11% over the same period in 2015. Performance benefits from a good track record of prior year reserve releases. ZEP-RE's return on capital is anticipated to be in the region of 10-11% for 2017, somewhat lower than the company's five-year average (2012 to 2016) of 12.2%. This is mainly driven by an expected lower level of investment returns on bonds and bank deposits in Kenya and other regional markets, and also higher capital levels in relation to the premiums being written. The combined ratio is expected to remain at approximately 90%. ZEP-RE remains focused primarily on East African markets, with Kenya contributing 45% of GWP in the first half of 2017. The company continues to build its presence in its core markets and to expand in territories with attractive profit potential. Although ZEP-RE has maintained resilient profitability in challenging markets, A.M. Best believes the competitive landscape may add negative pressure to ZEP-RE's earnings over the longer term. The company has a developed set of ERM responsibilities and internal reporting commitments alongside ambitious targets to enhance ERM activity. Nevertheless, A.M. Best views East African markets as presenting a considerable challenge to companies attempting to manage their risks effectively. This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on A.M. Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Understanding Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper media use of Best's Credit Ratings and A.M. Best press releases, please view Guide for Media Proper Use of Best's Credit Ratings and A.M. Best Rating Action Press Releases A.M. Best is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright 2018 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180112005407/en/ Contacts: A.M. Best Anthony Silverman, +44 20 7397 0264 Associate Director, Analytics anthony.silverman@ambest.com or Christopher Sharkey, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159 Manager, Public Relations christopher.sharkey@ambest.com or Tim Prince, +44 20 7397 6320 Director, Analytics timothy.prince@ambest.com or Jim Peavy, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644 Director, Public Relations james.peavy@ambest.com 120118 Massat calls for a responsible Referendum Ready Constituencies By- Trish Baranangko Bougainville is transiting a critical period because of the issue of Referendum which will be held in June 15 2019. This was according to the Member for Tonsu, Ezekiel Masat during the seminar hosted by the Umi Wan Festival of Arts and Music held at the Bel Isi Park today. In acknowledging the concept developed by the Umi Wan Festival which triggers Bougainvilles Unification, the Member said that the Festival has created an avenue for people to be aware of issues around them. He said that given this period, the people can be able to learn and understand the Referendum Issues thus preparing themselves for the Referendum Election to be held next year. Mr Masat said that it will be very unfair if the people are not fully informed of the issues of Referendum. He said having minimum knowledge of the Referendum, it will be of no use when trying to impart other additional aspects of Referendum to the people. The member is firm that the people must be fully informed and prepared before they make the decision for Bougainvilles political future. In light of the Referendum Ready Concept, the Member mentioned that the Bougainville House of Representatives has passed a resolution in 2016 for each constituency to be responsible for the Referendum readiness. According to the Member, So far, only two Constituencies which are, Bolave Constituency in Bana District and Hagogohe Constituency in Buka District have declared a referendum ready constituency. The Member said that all Constituencies should adhere to the three requirements earmarked for a Referendum Ready Constituency. This includes weapons disposal, economic development and internationally accepted standard of good governance. Ends// WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A group of U.S. Senators representing coastal states have informed the Trump administration that they don't want oil and gas drilling off their coasts, and are demanding the same exemption given to Florida recently. Florida was granted a special exemption by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. The US Government Tuesday had agreed to give special consideration to ecologically sensitive Florida coast within a week of unveiling a five year plan that would open most of the country's offshore waters to oil and gas drilling. In a letter sent to Secretary Zinke on Thursday, 22 senators strongly opposed the Trump Administration's offshore drilling plan, saying it is harmful to the environment and public health, and could devastate coastal economies. 'Just like Florida, our states are unique with vibrant coastal economies. Providing all of our states with the same exemption from dangerous offshore oil and gas drilling would ensure that vital industries from tourism to recreation to fishing are not needlessly placed in harm's way,' the letter said. The states, which have opposed new leases off their coasts, are Florida, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Connecticut, California, Oregon, and Washington. The exemption given to Florida is seen as a clear indication of the political importance that President Donald Trump attaches to Florida, where he narrowly won the state's 29 electoral votes in the presidential election. Governor Rick Scott, a popular leader in Florida, is touted as the GOP candidate for Senate election later this year. 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. Marketing operations pioneer to unveil the latest innovations for retail at conference CHICAGO, 2018-01-12 17:19 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aprimo, a global provider of marketing operations and digital asset management technology, today announced its presence at NRF 2018 Retail's Big Show in New York City from January 14-16. Aprimo is among select partners who will exhibit alongside Microsoft at booth #2803. Attendees at the largest retail show in the U.S. are invited to meet Aprimo to learn how to deliver more consistent and engaging omnichannel shopping experiences. With its Microsoft Azure-based solutions, Aprimo helps retailers optimize storefronts, consumer touchpoints and point of sale, by streamlining the creation and delivery of innovative product experiences. Aprimo also provides streamlined processes, detailed budget management and alignment with organizational objectives. Aprimo's exhibit will include a client showcase featuring one of its key retail customers, the world's largest home improvement retailer. Hosted in Azure, this retailer uses Aprimo Digital Asset Management (DAM) to centralize its digital content in one repository, to quickly find and reuse content and serve as a single source of truth for omnichannel brand consistency. As a result, it can create and publish content more seamlessly across channels to provide engaging and consistent shopping experiences. This retailer is one of many clients in the retail and consumer packaged goods space that use Aprimo's solutions. In addition, Aprimo supports world-class brands including CVS, Pandora, IKEA, DICK'S Sporting Goods and Samsonite. "Things are changing quickly in the world of marketing, and in marketing technology - and a retailer's ability to evolve digitally will have a huge impact on whether or not they grow, or see sales decline. It's a really simple proposition but not easy. To remain relevant, brands need to be able to produce and manage consumer and shopper relevant content at scale," said Mark Fera, Aprimo's Senior Vice President of Industry Solutions. "We are delighted to participate with Microsoft at NRF to share the most innovative ways retailers can solve large and complex challenges they face with the right process, technology, and digital marketing solutions." Pinar Salk, Industry Solutions Director - Retail, Microsoft said, "We are pleased to welcome Aprimo as part of our presence at this year's NRF Retail Big Show. We have been a long-time partner of Aprimo and are excited to stand alongside them as they demonstrate solutions that are integral to the retail industry. It is through the work of our customers and partners, like Aprimo, that we can stay ahead of ever-changing customer expectations to provide the experiences customers want." NRF 2018 Retail's Big Show takes place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City from January 14-16, 2018. To meet with Aprimo, visit booth #2803 or book a meeting at https://www.aprimo.com/nrf2018. About Aprimo Aprimo's performance driven Marketing Operations and Digital Asset Management technology gives marketers the advantage to govern and grow their brand. Aprimo delivers the advantage with its innovative Marketing Operations Hub. We allow marketers to manage budgets, data, people, and content throughout the ideation, workflow and campaign delivery of the brand experience while maximizing provable ROI. For more information visit www.aprimo.com. Media Contact: Michael Grimm Michael.grimm@finnpartners.com MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 01/12/18 -- Valener Inc. ("Valener") (TSX: VNR)(TSX: VNR.PR.A) and Energir, L.P., the new Gaz Metro, plan to announce their first quarter 2018 results on Friday, February 9, 2018, at approximately 8:00 a.m. (ET). A conference call to discuss the firm's results will be held at 1:30 p.m. (ET) and will be open to the public. Dial-in: 647-788-4922 or toll-free 877-223-4471 Webcast: accessible under "Events and presentations" in the "Investors" section of Valener's web site Replay: A replay of the call will be available for 30 days at 416-621- 4642 or toll-free at 800-585-8367 (access code: 3091506). The webcast will be available for 365 days on Valener's web site. Overview of Valener Valener is a public company held entirely by its shareholders and serves as the investment vehicle in Energir. Through its investment in Energir, Valener offers its shareholders a solid investment in a diversified and largely regulated energy portfolio in Quebec and Vermont. As a strategic partner, Valener, on the one hand, contributes to Energir's growth, and on the other, invests in wind power production in Quebec alongside Energir. Valener favours energy sources and uses that are innovative, clean, competitive and profitable. Valener's common shares and preferred shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the "VNR" symbol for common shares and "VNR.PR.A" for Series A preferred shares. www.valener.com Overview of Energir With more than $7 billion in assets, Energir is a diversified energy company whose mission is to meet the energy needs of its 520,000 customers and the communities it serves in an increasingly sustainable way. In Quebec, it is the leading natural gas distribution company and also produces, through its subsidiaries, electricity from wind power. In the United States, through its subsidiaries, the company operates in nearly fifteen states, where it produces electricity from hydraulic, wind and solar sources, in addition to being the leading electricity distributor and the sole natural gas distributor in Vermont. Energir values energy efficiency and invests both resources and efforts in innovative energy projects such as renewable natural gas and liquefied and compressed natural gas. Through its subsidiaries, it also provides a variety of energy services. Energir hopes to become the partner of choice for those striving toward a better energy future. www.energir.com Photos, videos (b-roll) and logos are available in Energir's Multimedia library. Contacts: Investors and analysts Mariem Elsayed 514-598-3253 investors@valener.com Media Marie-Christine Demers 514-598-3449 http://www.twitter.com/energir www.energir.com/pressroom HAMBURG, Germany, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandhills East has announced plans to open an additional office location in Hamburg, Germany. The Manchester-based company is behind a number of leading print and online resources connecting buyers and sellers of plant equipment, construction and heavy machinery, and commercial trucks and trailers across Germany, Europe, and beyond. Sandhills East is among several international subsidiaries of Sandhills Publishing, the Nebraska, USA-based tech company behind such brands as Machinery Trader, TractorHouse, Truck Paper, and AuctionTime.com. The new office continues a larger trend of international growth, following a number of strategic acquisitions, new product launches, and brand extensions, as well as the recent opening of offices in New Zealand, the Netherlands, and South Africa. Sandhills East is actively recruiting for open internships and full-time positions at its numerous office locations across Europe, including Hamburg. Sandhills' print publications and websites are the go-to resources for buying and selling farm and agriculture equipment, commercial trucks and trailers, plant equipment and heavy machinery, as well as parts and attachments for these assets. Print publications are distributed to buyers at key distribution points in markets all over the world, and local website domains help buyers source the equipment they need quickly and easily. In Germany, Sandhills East distributes Machinery Trader Europe, TractorHouse Europe, and Truck Buy & Sell International. It acquired Truck Buy & Sell International (one of the most prominent heavy duty vehicle magazines in Europe) and Transporter (a monthly magazine targeting buyers and sellers of lighter-duty vans, trucks, and other vehicles) in early 2017. Across Europe, Sandhills East's portfolio also includes: Truck Locator, Van Locator, trucks-Business.fr, Commercial Vehicle Dealer, CercoCamion.com, CamionSuperMarket, Trasporto, Farm & Plant Buyers Guide, Farm Machinery Locator, MOMA Agri, agri-Business.fr, A Come Agricoltura, tp-Business.fr, TODO V.I., Maquinaria OP, TrattoriSuperMarket, Cantierissimo con Carrellistica, Plant Locator, and Resale Weekly. Sandhills East also builds and hosts custom websites, and provides a number of cloud-hosted business apps and resources to dealers and manufacturers in its core industries. These mobile-friendly added-value resources include everything from inventory management to equipment valuations and market trends powered by real-time asset and industry data. Sales reps at offices all over the world work closely with equipment sellers to implement effective sales and marketing campaigns that deliver results. "Germany is one of Europe's central hubs for transacting farm and agriculture equipment, construction machinery, and commercial trucks and trailers," explains Sandhills Publishing's Chief Administration Officer Nancy Paasch. "A local office in Hamburg furthers our presence in Europe, and enables us to better serve buyers and sellers locally and beyond." Sandhills East and Sandhills Publishing are actively recruiting for positions in Hamburg, the U.S., and offices worldwide with hundreds of open positions, particularly for internships and careers in sales. For more information or to submit an application, visit www.Sandhills.jobs. About Sandhills Sandhills Publishing has served the heavy machinery industry since 1978. The company has since added publications and websites serving the trucking, agriculture, aviation, and technology industries. Its successful brands include: Machinery Trader, CraneTrader, Truck Paper, TractorHouse, AuctionTime, RentalYard, MarketBook, Controller, Executive Controller, Charter Hub, and more. As a subsidiary of Sandhills Publishing, Sandhills East builds on the company's decades-long presence in its core industries. Sandhills East was established in 2011, expanding to include office locations across Europe. The company continues to expand its existing presence in the markets it serves through the ongoing international growth of new and existing products and services that meet the needs of buyers and sellers worldwide. Contact Sandhills East +44 (0) 1618718760 feedback@sandhills.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/473503/SandhillsEast_Logo.jpg LONDON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump revealed in a post on Twitter late Thursday that he is canceling a trip to London to open the new U.S. embassy. Trump claimed the cancellation was due to a decision by former President Barack Obama to move the embassy, although the relocation was initiated under former President George W. Bush. 'Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!' Trump tweeted. The first steps toward the relocation of the U.S. embassy in London were taken in October of 2008, a month before Obama was elected. Then-Ambassador Robert Tuttle said the decision to move the embassy reflected the realization that the construction of a new facility was the best way to achieve the goal of a 'modern, secure and environmentally sustainable embassy.' A past statement from the U.S. embassy also noted that the new facility was funded entirely by the proceeds of the sale of other U.S. government properties in London, not through appropriated funds. Meanwhile, some British politicians such as London Mayor Sadiq Khan argued that Trump's decision to cancel his visit actually reflected concerns about mass protects. 'President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and action the polar opposite of our city's values,' Khan said in a statement. Khan called it a mistake for U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May to invite Trump and said he hopes the president also revisits the pursuit of his 'divisive agenda.' Trump engaged in a public back-and-forth with May last November after he retweeted three anti-Muslim videos originally posted by the deputy leader of the far-right, ultranationalist group Britain First. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oprah Winfrey is purportedly not 'actively considering' a run for president in 2020, but that has not stopped pollsters from analyzing a potential matchup between the media mogul and President Donald Trump. Results of a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll released Friday showed Winfrey with a double-digit lead over Trump among registered voters. Fifty percent of voters said they would vote for Winfrey if the 2020 election were held today, while 39 percent said they would vote for Trump. The poll showed a significant partisan divide, with 91 percent of Democrats supporting Winfrey and 85 percent of Republicans backing Trump. Winfrey leads 46 percent to 37 percent among Independents. Winfrey benefits from strong support among African American and Latino voters, while white voters are split 45 percent to 44 percent slightly in favor of Trump. However, the survey also found that 54 percent of voters do not want Winfrey to run for president compared to 35 percent that would like to see her run. Winfrey's powerful speech at the Golden Globes last Sunday was seen by many as a move toward a presidential campaign. Gayle King, Winfrey's best friend, said earlier this week that the former talk show host is 'intrigued' by the idea of running for president but is not 'actively considering' a run. The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey of 1,092 registered voters was conducted January 8th through 10th and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.0 percentage points. (Photo: Alan Light) 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. Grants Stock Options Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 12, 2018) - Cardero Resource Corp. (TSXV: CDU) (FSE: CR5) ("Cardero" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update regarding the Company's participation right in the Carbon Creek coal joint venture, its option to acquire a 100% interest in the Zonia copper project and, grants stock options. Carbon Creek Participation Right As announced on October 16, 2015, in connection with an overall debt re-organization plan, the Company entered into a management agreement with its former subsidiary, Cardero Coal Ltd. ("Cardero Coal"), dated October 15, 2015, under the terms of which, the Company agreed to manage the Carbon Creek Joint Venture on behalf of Cardero Coal. Pursuant to the management agreement, the Company was granted participation in any sale ("Retained Right") of the Carbon Creek metallurgical coal asset for a period of 10 years expiring October 15, 2025. The Retained Right operates on a sliding scale such that the Company would receive a greater percentage of the proceeds if the asset is sold faster. In consideration of the extension of the term of an aggregate of 8,700,000 share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") held by E.L. II Properties Trust exercisable at a price of $0.20 per share from a term ending October 15, 2018 to October 15, 2020, Cardero Coal has agreed to extend the term of the Retained Right to October 15, 2027 and amend the sliding scale participation percentages to that set forth in Table 1 below: Table 1: Retained Participation Right Year of Sale Initial Amount Retained by the Lenders Percentage of Remaining Sale Proceeds Retained by Cardero 2017 US$15,000,000 95% 2018 $20,000,000 80% 2019 $25,000,000 50% 2020-24 $30,000,000 35% 2025 $30,000,000 30% 2026 $30,000,000 25% 2027 $30,000,000 0% As the beneficial owner of Cardero Coal and E.L. II Properties Trust, the holder of the Warrants, being Robert Kopple, is a director and a control person of the Company, the transactions contemplated by the amendments to the management agreement constitute a 'related party transaction' for the purposes of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. This transaction is exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of such instrument and policy, as the fair market value of the Shares does not exceed 25 per cent of market capitalization of the Company. The extension of the term of the Warrants is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Amendment to Zonia Option The Company also announces that it has entered into amending agreements dated September 14, 2017 and January 8, 2018 (the "Amending Agreements"), in relation to the option agreement dated August 27, 2015 (the "Option Agreement"), as amended between the Company and Redstone Resources Corporation ("Redstone"). Pursuant to the Option Agreement, the Company was granted the right to acquire up to a 100% interest in the Zonia Copper-Oxide deposit in consideration of, among other things, the aggregate cash payment of US$2,225,000 in cash and issuance of an aggregate of 16,500,000 common shares over a three-year period. Pursuant to the Amending Agreements, Redstone has agreed to certain extensions of the timing of payments in cash in consideration of, among other things, amendments to the timing of shares issuances and the payment by Cardero of interest in relation to USD1,423,250 remaining to be paid in cash pursuant to the Option Agreement. The new schedule of timing of payments pursuant to the Option Agreement is as follows: Date Cash to Redstone (USD$) Cardero Shares Within 2 business days of execution of the Letter Agreement ("Exclusivity Fee") $25,000(paid) 0 On or before August 30, 2015, payable to the US Bureau of Land Management, as a Maintenance Fee for certain unpatented lode claims $6,350(paid) 0 On the Effective Date $150,000(paid) 1,000,000(issued) January 31, 2016 $75,000(paid) 1,500,000(issued) July 31, 2016 $75,000(paid) 0 January 31, 2017 $450,000(paid) 2,500,000(issued) July 31, 2017 - 2,500,000(issued) January 8, 2018 $500,000(paid) 4,000,000(issued) July 31st, 2018 $923,650 0 October 31st, 2018 - 5,000,000 Total $2,225,000 16,500,000 The interest payments due to Redstone in relation to the remaining cash payments due pursuant to the Option Agreement accrue from October 1, 2017 and are payable through the issuance of common shares of the Company in the amount of 100,000 shares per month for each of October, November and December 2017 and 65,000 shares per month from January 2018 until July 31, 2018 when the final cash payment is due. The interest payments are subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Sale of Shares of Centenera Mining In order to fund the cash payment due pursuant to the Option Agreement of US$500,000 due on January 8, 2018, the Company has entered into a share purchase and sale agreement dated January 3, 2018 (the "Agreement") with E.L.II Properties Trust (the "Purchaser") for the sale of 5,000,000 common shares in the capital of Centenera Mining Corporation (the "Shares"). Pursuant to the Agreement, the Purchaser will pay aggregate consideration of $650,000 for the Shares, representing a per Share purchase price of $0.13. As the beneficial owner of the Purchaser, being Robert Kopple, is a director and a control person of the Company, the transactions contemplated by the Agreement constitute a 'related party transaction' for the purposes of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. This transaction is exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of such instrument and policy, as the fair market value of the Shares does not exceed 25 per cent of market capitalization of the Company. The sale of the Shares is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Grant of Stock Options The Company also announces that, pursuant to its Stock Option Plan, it has granted incentive stock options to certain directors, officers, employees and consultants allowing them to purchase up to an aggregate of 3,000,000 common shares in the capital stock of the Company. The options are exercisable on or before January 12, 2020 at a price of CAD 0.16. ABOUT CARDERO RESOURCE CORP. Cardero Resource Corp., headquartered in Vancouver, is a resource company focussed on building a minerals exploration and development company. Cardero has the exclusive option to acquire up to a 100% interest in the Zonia Copper Oxide Project, located in Arizona. Zonia is a near-surface copper-oxide resource and a brownfields site having already been mined in the late 1960s and '70s. The entire resource (NI43-101 as amended and dated October, 2017), as currently defined, is located on private land and Cardero's plan going forward is to complete detailed engineering in anticipation of permitting the Project. The resource as currently defined has been pre-stripped and is ready for mining to begin. In September 2016, Cardero completed staking a total of 57 claims, the Silver Queen block, covering 424.5 hectares (1049 acres) adjacent to the southeast edge of Zonia. The Company has plans for exploration work on the Silver Queen claims which will include geological mapping, soil sampling and geophysics. The Company also has two option agreements covering five nickel-cobalt properties in south eastern British Columbia the, Kootenay Project totalling approximately 8,000 hectares. The Project is within the prospective Lardeau Group, which hosts numerous volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits, including the past-producing Goldstream mine located north of Revelstoke. Detailed information is available at the Company's web site at www.cardero.com. The common shares of the Company are currently listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (symbol CDU), the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (symbol CR5) and OTCBB (symbol CDYCF). For further details on the Company readers are referred to the Company's web site (www.cardero.com), Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com On Behalf of the Board of Directors of CARDERO RESOURCE CORP. "Stuart R. Ross" (signed) Stuart R. Ross, CEO and President Contact Information: Stuart Ross or Marla Ritchie 604 408 7488 General Contact: Email: info@cardero.com Toll Free: 1-888-770-7488 Tel: 604 408-7488 Fax: 604 408-7499 Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Forward Looking Information: This news release includes certain information that may be deemed "forward looking information". Forward-looking information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "plans" or similar terminology. All information in this release, other than information of historical facts, including, without limitation, the availability of financing to the Company and the Company's plans in relation to exploration programs and exercising its options regarding the Zonia project are forward-looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in such forward-looking information are based on reasonable assumptions, such expectations are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information include changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, regulatory changes, delays in receiving approvals, and other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulatory authorities in Canada. Mineral exploration and development of mines is an inherently risky business. Accordingly, actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. For more information on the Company and the risks and challenges of our business, investors should review our continuous disclosure filings which are available at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. This press release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States. LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 12, 2018 / Charles Laverty, a former 'Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year,' has been in numerous senior management roles over the years and is now CEO of Advanced Bifurcation Systems. Under him, Advanced Bifurcation Systems has brought in a new CFO, Ken Richards, launched a growth capital fundraising round and received much positive media attention. The latest executive to join the leadership team is Scott King, Chief Compliance Officer. King, Richards and Vice President of Global Business Development, Drew Foster, all have years of experience in medical devices and believe that the method they are offering has the potential to become the standard of best practice in the years ahead. Their method provides a simple and effective way to improve the way bifurcation lesions are handled when doing coronary angioplasties. The new method offers the surgeon a way to put stents into both vessels of the bifurcate lesion virtually simultaneously. This is made possible by using a dual catheter system. The bifurcating stent is automatically aligned with this method, avoiding the problem of overlaps and gaps experienced by surgeons at present. Charles Laverty believes this groundbreaking method could in some cases prevent the need for open-heart surgery. Patients would be able to have procedures done as day surgeries potentially reducing healthcare cost. It would also reduce problems with stents failing, meaning less return visits to surgeons. The 20 years of research done by Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mehran Khorsandi and CTO, Henry Bourang, led to the development of this method. Dr. Khorsandi recently had an opportunity to share the method at the European Bifurcation Club meeting in Portugal, sponsored by ABS. Thought leaders in the cardiac intervention field responded enthusiastically to his speech. ABS currently has 10 patents in progress but has already accumulated 34. This represents significant intellectual property for a startup that still must be approved by the FDA. The company's application is currently being prepared. ABS is in the process of developing plans for submission to the United States Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies. The next critical step for the company is requesting approval and the company is developing all required regulatory processes for the respective regulatory agencies. The first capital fundraising tranche was closed and the company is putting plans in place to start human trials in New Brunswick, Canada. Charles Laverty says he looks forward to working hand in hand with New Brunswick health professionals and believes that quality data will come out of the trials. The company is in the process of opening a facility in New Brunswick, Canada which will serve global customers once the human trials have been completed and the company receives regulatory approval. Contact: Advanced Bifurcation Systems Charles Laverty Chief Executive Officer charles_laverty@advancedbifurcation.com (949)432-4824 SOURCE: Advanced Bifurcation Systems 120118Weapons Disposal key for Bougainvilles Unification, says Nakin By- Trish Baranangko The National Member for North Bougainville, William Nakin has raised serious concern on the status of Bougainvillians in preparations for the Referendum. In his presentation at the Bel Isi Park during the Umi Wan Festival Semiar, the Member publicly asked the people of Bougainville if they are ready and willing to stand alone as an Independent Country. He questioned what kind of Nation Bougainville is building in preparations for Referendum. He said that Bougainville has not done well in weapons disposal as it is still below the required level of its fiscal self-reliance. He also said that Bougainville needs to do more in maintaining law and order and the rule of law. In his statement, the Member said that although weapons disposal is not a condition of holding the Bougainville Referendum in accordance with Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA), it is definitely a serious threat to peace loving, simple village people of Bougainville who will take part in the Referendum for Independence on the 15th of June 2019. The Member made a public appeal to Bougainvillians who are still holding onto weapons of war to surrender their weapons to the ABG. In support of this process, the Member publicly announced the Contributions of the National Government in providing a sum of K12m in 2018 to the ABG specifically for weapons disposal. He urged the public to participate meaningfully in the process of weapons disposal as it possess the real threat of holding a free, fair and safe Referendum. The Member said that a weapons free Bougainville society is an ideal component for Unification resulting in the most needed aspirations of Bougainvillians which is Independence for Bougainville. Ends// Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 12, 2018) - Northern Graphite Corporation (TSXV: NGC) (OTCQX: NGPHF) ("Northern" or the "Corporation") announces that John McNeice, CA, CPA has been appointed Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary. Mr. McNeice has extensive experience managing the financial affairs of junior resource companies. In connection with his appointment, Mr. McNeice has been granted options pursuant to the Corporation's stock option plan to purchase 200,000 common shares of the Corporation at a price of $0.50 per share for five years. The options vest over 18 months. Mr. McNeice's appointment is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Northern also announces that it has granted options pursuant to the Corporation's stock option plan to its Chief Executive Officer and non-executive directors to purchase a total of 600,000 common shares of the Corporation at a price of $0.50 per share for a period of five years. About Northern Graphite Northern is a Canadian company with a 100% interest in the Bissett Creek graphite deposit located in southern Canada, relatively close to all required infrastructure. Bissett Creek is an advanced stage project that has a Full Feasibility Study and major environmental permit. Subject to the completion of operational and species at risk permitting, which are well advanced, Northern could commence construction in 2018 pending financing. The Company believes Bissett Creek has the highest margin, best flake size distribution and lowest marketing risk of any new graphite project, and has the added advantages of low capital costs and realistic production levels relative to the size of the market. For Additional Information Please Contact: Gregory Bowes, CEO at (613) 241-9959 This press release contains forward-looking statements, which can be identified by the use of statements that include words such as "could", "potential", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "likely", "will" or other similar words or phrases. These statements are only current predictions and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. The Corporation does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. 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. CityStasher, a London, UK-based network of locations to leave luggage, raised $1.1m in seed funding. The round was led by Venture Friends with participation from Howzat Partners, Charlotte Street Capital and angel investors including James Gibson. In conjunction with the funding, George Dimoupolous, partner and co-founder at VentureFriends, will join CityStashers board. The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach across Europe (France, Germany, Italy and Spain). Led by Jacob Wedderburn-Day, CEO, CityStasher operates a network of 200 local stores, hotels and other venues where travelers can leave their bags securely for a given time. Users pay once, 6 per bag, for 24 hours of storage and can add an extra 24 hours for 5 per bag. Luggage is covered up to 750 against damage, loss and theft. An online customer service assist 24/7. FinSMEs 12/01/2018 AngelList and Accomplice are launching Spearhead, a San Francisco, CA-based program that funds and mentors founders with up to $1m of investing capital. Co-founded by Jeff Fagnan of Accomplice and Naval Ravikant of AngelList, Spearhead is dedicated to backing and mentoring founders with up to $1M of investing capital. The fund backs founders with a $200K fund so they can start angel investing. They also receive mentorship, including monthly masterclasses from top angel investors and VCs like Jeff Fagnan, Naval Ravikant, Salil Deshpande, Yanda Erlich, Cack Wilhelm, Elad Gil, Jake Zeller, and others. If they make promising investments, founders receive up to $1M to invest over 2 years. AngelList provides the technology and back office (lawyers, accountants, etc.) while investments dont require Accomplices approval. Interestes founders can apply here by January 26 to join the first cohort. FinSMEs 11/01/2018 Threatcare, an Austin, Texas-based provider of a proactive cyber defense platform, acquired Savage Security, a Knoxville, TN-based provider of cybersecurity services and applied research. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. With the acquisition, Threatcare gains the ability to provide additional services alongside Violet, its cybersecurity industrys virtual assistant, while Savage Securitys founders will continue their services work with the benefit of larger staff and funding. Savage Security will shift to Threatcares branding while continuing to provide its research and services. Founded in 2016 by Adrian Sanabria and Kyle Bubp, now the Director of Strategic Services for Threatcare, Savage Security provides subscription services to its clients, which include monthly allotments of consulting hours, security advisory alerts and strategic guidance. In addition to assessments, Savage also provides product testing and due diligence for vendors and manufacturers. Led by Marcus Carey, founder and CEO, Threatcare allows organizations to defend against cybersecurity threats by improving vulnerability management and defense capabilities. Its Violet platform is a BAS Technology (Breach and Attack Simulation Technology) that allows security teams, incident responders, and network forensic practitioners to reduce their attack surface by continuously monitoring their cybersecurity posture. FinSMEs 12/01/2018 New Delhi: A not-for-profit organisation has pitched for stern action by the Anti-Profiteering Authority against those builders who are "enriching themselves" under the "guise of GST" causing loss to homebuyers. In its budget recommendation to the Finance Ministry, the Forum for People's Collective Efforts (FPCE) also requested the ministry to allow deduction of EMI from total income for assessing tax in case a person is also paying rent due to the failure of developers to timely delivery of flats. The FPCE, which is working for the cause of homebuyers, said the double burden of Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) and rent is breaking the backbone of a homebuyer for no fault of his or her. "In cases where the assessee is paying both EMI and rent and date for scheduled handover of possession has passed, there should be deduction of EMI paid from the total income of such assessee over and above any other deduction being currently provided," FPCE president Abhay Upadhyay recently said in a letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Among other recommendations, he also suggested that Anti Profiteering Authority needs to take stern action against those builders who are "enriching themselves" under the "guise of GST" causing loss to home buyers. He also pitched for enhancement of House Rent Allowance to higher of "either the actual rent paid or the allowance received" in order to incentivise the salaried class, who have been the "most honest taxpayers" of the country. For full coverage of Union Budget 2018 click here. Air India has got a new lease of life with the government allowing foreign direct investment up to 49 percent in the bleeding national carrier. On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet allowed foreign direct investment in the fully state-owned company. However, the foreign investor will have to get the approval of the government. The government has not yet stated how much is the quantum that it is willing to disinvest in the beleaguered career. In an exclusive interview to MoneyControl, Jayant Sinha, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation hinted at the government will be holding a minor stake. 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, Sinha said. Sinha further 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. Click here for the complete interview in MoneyControl. New Delhi: Scores of listed companies will soon have to scout for new auditors with markets regulator Sebi banning firms in the Price Waterhouse network from issuing audit certificates for two years in the multi-crore Satyam case. A major player in the auditing space, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) has a total of 11 network firms and employs around 3,000 people in India. In a significant order on Wednesday, Sebi barred PwC network firms from issuing audit certificates to any listed company in India for two years after finding the audit major guilty in the multi-crore Satyam Computer Services scam that came to light in January 2009. Besides, the watchdog has directed the audit major and its two erstwhile partners who worked on the IT firm's accounts to disgorge wrongful gains worth over Rs 13 crore. Currently, PwC network firms carry out auditing activities for about 75 listed companies, an official in the know said. These companies would soon be required to look for new auditors in the wake of the Sebi order even though the regulator has made it clear that the ruling would not impact audit assignments relating to the financial year 2017-18 undertaken by the PwC network firms. While there would be no direct impact, Sebi's ruling could also raise questions about PW network entities' auditing of unlisted and other entities. A senior chartered accountant said impact of the Sebi ruling on auditing business of PW network firms and others cannot be assessed immediately. It needs to be seen whether it would benefit the smaller firms or not, he added. 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. Besides, Price Waterhouse Bangalore and its two erstwhile partners -- S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri -- have been directed to jointly and severally disgorge the wrongful gains of "Rs 13,09,01,664 with interest calculated at the rate of 12 percent per annum from 7 January, 2009 till the date of payment". Further, Gopalakrishnan and Talluri have been restrained from directly or indirectly issuing any certificate of audit of listed companies, compliance of obligations of listed companies and intermediaries registered with Sebi for three years. PwC to contest Sebi ban PwC on Thursday said there has been no intentional wrongdoing by its firms in the Satyam case and expressed confidence of getting a stay on the Sebi order. It said it will contest a two-year auditing ban by SEB) over a fraud nearly a decade ago at a company it audited, but even if it succeeds in preventing the move Indian business experts expect damage to the auditors business. The firm, which audited software services exporter Satyam Computer Services during the period in which the $1 billion fraud took place, said it was disappointed by SEBIs 108-page order on Wednesday. Satyam founder and former chairman Ramalinga Raju stunned Indian markets and investors in 2009 when he admitted that it had overstated earnings and assets for several years, in a fraud sometimes referred to as Indias Enron. There was no intentional wrongdoing by PW firms in the unprecedented management perpetrated fraud, Price Waterhouse said in a statement after the SEBI order, adding that it had learnt the lessons of Satyam and invested heavily to build a high-quality audit practice. Experts, however, said even if PwC manages to get a court to issue a stay order on the SEBI ban, it faces the risk of losing clients. In India, court processes often take years and there could be multiple courts involved. Listed companies who are being audited may think of moving to other auditors due to the uncertainty, even if Price Waterhouse manages to get a stay order, said Shriram Subramaniam, who is founder of proxy advisory InGovern. He said he expected the SEBI order to potentially impact 20-30 percent of PwCs Indian revenues and benefit its rivals. PwC India's network is made up of 11 chartered accountant firms with about 3,000 employees, and has around 75 listed companies as clients, a PW spokesman said. These include Tata Steel and Piramal Enterprises, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the SEBI action. Global repercussions In India, all audit functions within the group are conducted under the Price Waterhouse (PW) brand, with a network of local firms operating under the banner. The broader PwC entity handles consulting, tax advisory and other businesses. There could also be a knock-on effect on PwCs businesses in other parts of the world, said Pratibha Jain, a partner at law firm Nishith Desai Associates. They might lose a lot of business on the other sides, not just audit, and they have to report it in other jurisdictions. Its a global conglomerate and this may have global repercussions for them, she said. In its order, SEBI said while PwCs loose-knit network arrangement enabled partner firms to derive the advantage of its global brand value but did not lay down any supervisory mechanisms to check the quality of the performance of the firms. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) had also pointed at failure of quality control in PW India, it said. SEBI also ordered Price Waterhouse, Bangalore and two of its former partners to jointly forfeit wrongful gains of about 131 million rupees ($2.1 million) plus interest within 45 days. Satyam, which was bought by Indian IT firm Tech Mahindra in an auction in 2010, and PricewaterhouseCoopers agreed in 2011 to pay a combined $17.5 million to settle U.S. probes into the fraud. Big 4 and Big 8 Last year at the foundation day of chartered accountants' apex body ICAI, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for creating four big Indian accounting firms that are counted among the world's Big-8 even as he cautioned CAs against misuse of their all-powerful signature. Referring to the 'Big 4' -- a term used for the world's four biggest audit firms -- the prime minister had said there are so many accounting firms in India but none of them has managed to find a place among the top global players. "People talk of the Big 4 accounting firms. Sadly, there is no Indian firm there. By 2022, let us have a Big 8, where 4 firms are Indian," Modi had said. The top global accountancy firms include PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG. (With inputs from agencies) 12018 BOUGAINVILLE IN SEARCH FOR A NEW IDENTITY SAYS MOMIS By Aloysius Laukai The ABG President Chief DR. JOHN MOMIS told the people of Bougainville that Bougainville has embarked on a journey of discovery in search of a new National identity. President Momis made these remarks at the Opening of the YUMI WAN festival in Buka on Wednesday. He said that the Bougainville Peace Agreement which is enshrined in the national constitution of Papua New Guinea gives Bougainville a rare opportunity to create the kind of society and the kind of nation we want in accordance with our vision of having as both the subject and the object of integral human development. He said the people must be powered to participate meaningfuly in the process of liberation from structural and attitudinal impediments in order to be active agents of change and development and not mere recipients of good and services. The ABG President said in Bougainville true to our noble tradition we are trail blazers and pioneers of bold and innovative and transformative political and socio-economic initiatives in response to our felt needs and human aspirations. He said that we are not afraid to think outside the box in order to pursue our objective of combating the syndrome of dependency, powerlessness and dehumanization. President MOMIS further stated that in Bougainville we dream dreams that one day we will be free as we build a just society where every man and woman and child will be respected as created in the image and likeness of God. Ends Hauling professionals over coals gives perverse pleasure to the lynch mob, especially when they happen to be doctors or chartered accountants (CAs). Both serve the public more fully and intimately than advocates whose fancy fees are often talked about in awe and sometimes in anger. But common folks seldom get to rub shoulders with them unless they are dragged to court. CAs and doctors, however, cannot be avoided because taxes and death cannot be avoided! Arthur Andersen, one of the then big five auditing firms, was banned for lifetime in 2002 following its ignominious role in shredding evidence against Enron and its promoter Kenneth Lay. The bar has not stopped its non-culpable partners from practicing under different banners and avatars. Closer home, the Sebi has banned for two years PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for its convenient look the other side policy when Satyam Computers promoter B Ramalinga Raju went on a rampage to the extent of forging bank fixed deposit receipts to explain the inflated sales and the resultant inflated profits to impress foreign investors. In addition, it has also put the two partners who were directly complicit in the shenanigans, Srinivas and Talluri, in a permanent doghouse. What has raised eyebrows is the order to disgorge around Rs 13 crore plus interest at 12 percent per annum Sebi has slapped jointly and severally on the firm and the two culpable partners. It is baffling to say the least. Disgorgement requires precise quantification of the loot. Is it SEBIs case that the extent of payoff to keep silent or look the other side was Rs 13 crore or thereabouts? And the joint and several order raises a pertinent issue. Was the payoff to the partners or to the firm? Of course the liability of partners under the partnership law is joint and several. Sebi seems to have introduced a new twist by roping in the firm too to share the liability. In the US, Kenneth Lay was called upon to disgorge $230 million -- the money made by him through ramping up of Enron share prices, by blithely using employees retirement benefit funds. In India, Lalu Yadav, the feisty former chief minister of Bihar, is alleged to have looted Rs 900 crore in the infamous fodder scam but no disgorgement order has been passed though he has been convicted in two of the six cases. Sebi perhaps wants to blaze a trail but it should enlighten the public first. At the more fundamental level, the Sebi must be lauded for reading the riot act to auditors who all along have insulated themselves with the Teflon quality that is conferred on the profession by the more than century-old verdict of the House of Lords in the famous Kingston Cotton Mills case--- auditors are watchdogs not bloodhounds. Auditors of the world are exalted and it continued till Enron happened. And in India till Satyam happened. The grim message is auditors can no longer take shelter under this self-serving alibi of not being bloodhounds. Thus the Sebi order has two extreme reactions bold and deterrent on the one extreme and overreach and overkill on the other. Purists have one more objection--- how come Sebi arrogated to itself the power to debar a firm and its partners when such power has been rightly or wrongly vested in the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) as a self-regulatory measure? Will this deter youngsters from choosing auditing as a profession? Mounting cases against doctors has had two consequences--- defensive medication leading to bloating of medical bills and youngsters shying away from the medical profession. Something similar can happen to wannabe auditors. India's investigations into kickbacks and scandals follow a dreary and predictable path; more so, when it comes to military and quasi-military purchases. Pretty much what happened with the stink from the 411 Bofors 155 millimetre shoot and scoot artillery guns is repeating itself with the probe into the AgustaWestland deal for 12 VVIP choppers that went sour on us and were returned amidst a flurry of accusations. In the case of the Bofors issue, Ottavio Quattrocchi, a friend of the Gandhis, was chased around the world after 'evidence' revealed that he had two accounts presumably for the kickback to be cleansed and in February 2007, was arrested in Argentina on an Interpol notice. The effort to have him extradited after the detention was wishy-washy and the presiding judge let him off by saying, "India did not even present proper legal documents". To add insult to injury, India was asked to pay Quattrocchi's legal expenses. He died in 2013 without ever being indicted. By the same token, the Bofors representative Win Chadha lived openly not too far from India and had even expressed willingness to come home if given a guarantee that he would not be arrested. Sadly familiar and pretty much being repeated now that the two sought after 'gentlemen' in the Agusta deal, Giuseppe Orsi, former chief of the Italian state-controlled defence group Finmeccanica and Bruno Spagnolini, the previous head of Finmeccanica's helicopter unit AgustaWestland, have been set free by a Milan appellate court. Both had been sentenced to four and eight years by a lower court, which was found to have 'erred' in its assessment of the evidence Immediately after, this sentencing blew us back into the water and has now made the singular probe a domestic affair with no hope of ever getting these two to trial here. The CBI announced that it did not care about the Italian job vis-a-vis its ruling and it had enough evidence to proceed with its now five-year-old and rusty investigation. To what end? We spend huge sums of money knowing full well that we will never get these individuals to face Indian justice. We couldnt even get Warren Anderson after the Union Carbide tragedy in Bhopal. But there is a more important point that needs to be underscored. If the Indian evidence is so tangible, why is it not given credence by foreign governments and judicial systems? What the Argentinian judge said is almost echoed by the one in Milan, stating that the evidence against Orsi and Spagnoli was insufficient and did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that either was guilty of corruption. Not just that, it went as far as to place on record that Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi, former Indian air chief, the main target in the scandal, was not found to be the conduit for any wrongdoing. The chasm between India's contention of the mountain of evidence and the Italian molehill (if that) does make one wonder if the absurd time lapse on the home front so scorches the evidence and leaves the trail ice cold that it becomes a pointless investigation. There is a lot of screaming and shouting in the beginning, a feeding frenzy by the media, a prolonged silence, the occasional resurrection of the scandal and a free pass to all the accused. Even if these two men were allowed to enter an appeal to the appellate court in December 2016, there must have been some material that made the lower court feel there was prima facie evidence to sentence them to jail time. That is mutually exclusive from being overturned on a technicality. That material with the add-ons from India should have been sufficient for the appeal to fail. But it didn't, and the burr under the saddle is that we, as in the Bofors case and Quattrochi's, did not conduct due diligence and put forth chapter and verse of the evidence in our possession. With the two top guys out of the picture and shining with innocence, the probe at home is another money wasting exercise with no end in sight. We sent the choppers back in 2013, killed the deal and now should just leave it be. There is no getting to the bottom of it because the Italians have taken the bottom out of it. In an unprecedented move, the second senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, Justice J Chelameswar and three other senior judges on Friday held a press conference on various issues relating to the apex court judiciary, inviting criticism and support from different quarters. Besides Justice Chelameswar, the other judges were Justices Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph. The four apex court judges said the administration of the Supreme Court is "sometimes not in order" and many "less than desirable things" have taken place. "Sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened...," Justice Chelameswar said. 'All four judges should be impeached' Speaking to ANI, retired judge RS Sodhi said, "I think all four judges should be impeached. They have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say. We have parliament, courts, police functioning". Issues don't matter. It is their complaint on administrative matter. They are only 4, there are 23 others. 4 get together and show the Chief Justice in a poor light. It is immature & childish behaviour: Justice R S Sodhi (retd) on press conference pic.twitter.com/jGFOtMCp4d ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Senior lawyer in the Supreme Court, Prashant Bhushan told NDTV, he has never seen "such blatant abuse of power" as during Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra's tenure currently. He also added that if "he (Misra) has any self-respect, he should resign." Former judge Santosh Hegde also reacted sharply and told CNN-News18, "The country should be ashamed of what happened today. I agree with the four judges, but making a public statement like this will take away the impression of Supreme Court in the mind of the public." Speaking to Times Now, ex-attorney general Soli Sorabjee said the move was not a good one and it "will have repercussions". Reactions also poured in on Twitter: Kavita Krishnan, Secretary, AIPWA We dont want wise men saying 20 yrs from now that Justice Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Kurian Joseph sold their souls and didnt do the right thing by our constitution: #JusticeChelameswar#SupremeCourt#JusticeLoya Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) January 12, 2018 KC Singh, former diplomat #SupremeCourt rebellion is a twin attack. One on CJI based on National Medical Ciuncil case. Other on Gov via the handling of death of Jus Loya case. K. C. Singh (@ambkcsingh) January 12, 2018 Sharad Yadav, JD(U) Very serious & critical that four sitting Judges of d Supreme Court of India for d first time in d history of India came out before d media to air their grievances. Judiciary is one of d most important pillars of democracy & not only this but other pillars are also in danger. SHARAD YADAV (@SharadYadavMP) January 12, 2018 Subramanian Swamy, BJP leader We can't criticize them, they are men of great integrity & have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. PM must ensure that the 4 judges & CJI, in fact whole SC come to one opinion & proceed further: S.Swamy pic.twitter.com/dYj6MJPhkO ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Ujjwal Nikam, senior lawyer This is a black day for Judiciary. Today's press conference would cause a bad precedent. From now on every common man could look at all judicial order with suspicion. Every judgement will be questioned : Ujjwal Nikam, senior lawyer pic.twitter.com/lIPabrRNjS ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Assam Congress We were left with no choice except to communicate it to the nation that please take care of the institution.Dont want people to say 20 years later that we did not take care of the institution #JusticeChelameswar #SupremeCourt #judgespressconference @OfficeOfRG @INCIndia pic.twitter.com/jCyZMFBExT Assam PCC (@INCAssam) January 12, 2018 Salman Khurshid, senior advocate Deeply sad & pained, also feel a sense of agony that highest court of land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media: Salman Khurshid, senior advocate on press conference by 4 Supreme Court judges. pic.twitter.com/vtGg2JRQYJ ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Hari Prabhakaran, joint secretary, AIADMK IT wing Justice Chelameswar: WE DON'T WANT TO BE BLAMED FOR SELLING OUR SOULS - hope he s referring to #2GVerdict #SupremeCourt #JudgesPressConference Hari Prabhakaran (@Hariadmk) January 12, 2018 Hasiba Amin, Congress coordinator Every institution in our country being compromised. RBI, UGC, Universities, ECI, MCI and now Supreme Court. We need to save our country. This is not small. #DemocracyInDanger Hasiba (@HasibaAmin) January 12, 2018 Dinesh Gundu Rao, working president, Karnataka Congress Unprecedented, earth shattering situation. #SupremeCourt senior most judges have made the gravest allegations. Does this allude to #JudgeLoya case?? Is Modi govts control over #CJI a reason?? https://t.co/iCYoRmLCi1 Dinesh Gundu Rao (@dineshgrao) January 12, 2018 PB Sawant, ex-Supreme Court judge Judges had to come before media & take this unprecedented step. This means that there is a serious dispute, either with Chief Justice of India (CJI) or some internal dispute: PB Sawant, former Supreme Court judge on press conference by 4 Supreme Court judges pic.twitter.com/UosAImUvPX ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Sanjay Nirupam, Mumbai Congress leader This may become a turning point in Indian polity. Judges talking to media abt faultlines in #SupremeCourt internal working & raising doubts on the conduct of fellow judges openly. It has potential to shake strongest pillar of our democracy#JudgeVsJudge https://t.co/DkiIKKPMlf Sanjay Nirupam (@sanjaynirupam) January 12, 2018 Indira Jaising, Supreme Court advocate I think it's a historic Press Conference. It was very well done. I think we, the people of India, have a right to know what is going on within the judiciary & I welcome this: Indira Jaising, Supreme Court advocate on PC by 4 Supreme Court judges pic.twitter.com/0Mav1DzmjI ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 With inputs from PTI Click here to follow LIVE updates on Supreme Court judges Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu's six-day visit to India from 14 January the second by an Israeli prime minister comes at a time when the two countries' ties are left with a bit of a sour taste in mouth due to India's vote at the United Nations. Defying all expectations of an abstention, India chose to vote against Israel and the US and in favour of a UN resolution, co-sponsored by Turkey and Yemen, which rejected Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. Netanyahu's visit also comes at a time when roughly 1,000 villages and towns in India have witnessed protests led by Islamic clerics against Israel and the United States on the issue of Jerusalem, but more of that later. Some writers, like Ram Madhav of Bharatiya Janata Party, credited Narendra Modi for de-hyphenating India-Israel relations from its Palestinian fixation, especially since he became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel in July 2017, and did not visit Palestine. However, this argument on de-hyphenation is half-correct. In the run-up to Modi's visit to Israel, which marked 25 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations, India made elaborate diplomatic manoeuvres to keep, rather than de-hyphenate, the hyphenation. For example, less than two months before Modi's trip, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was hosted by India for four days in May 2017, and New Delhi expressed "political support to the Palestinian cause." Also, in October 2015, Pranab Mukherjee became the first Indian president to visit Palestine, and of course Israel. So, the hyphenation with Palestine will remain, as seen at the UN where India aligned with two of its worst enemies, China and Pakistan, to vote against the two of its best strategic partners in modern times: Israel and the United States. In addition to this diplomatic hyphenation, India's vote at the UN on 21 December also reveals an intellectual virus that resides in the Indian mind: As a nation, in all spheres of life, we walk at the speed an elephant walks. The foreign ministry of Israel has refused to comment on India's vote, but it did register a diplomatic protest. In recent decades, India has not witnessed protests by Muslims against the West, not even on hot-button religious issues such as the cartoons and caricatures of Prophet Muhammad. Even the Left organisations have not been able to motivate Indians to organise anti-globalisation protests of the likes of Occupy Wall Street movement. However, on 22 December, a Friday, Islamic clerics led protests against Israel and America in about 1,000 towns and villages of India against the US president Donald Trump's decision recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Although India's mainstream media did not report it, these protests were led by both Sunni and Shia Muslim groups from Maharashtra to Tripura and from New Delhi to Bengaluru, Chennai and beyond according to a review of these protests appearing in the Urdu media and published by the Washington DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute. Most of these protests were concentrated in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind was the lead religious group which led the protests, but Shia organisations such as Majlis Ulema-e-Hind also participated. The Shia organisations marked it as Al-Quds Day, Al-Quds being the Islamic name for Jerusalem. It was Iran which began the annual Al-Quds Day to liberate Jerusalem, and is marked by Muslims on the last Friday of Ramzan, the fasting month. In the Aasfi mosque of Lucknow on 22 December, Shia cleric Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawwad Naqvi told the worshippers: "Muslims have the first right on Jerusalem and Israel has forcible occupation. If Muslims boycott Israeli products, this will be like an economic bomb for America and Israel... We are drinking poison (by buying American and Israeli goods)." Jerusalem was a holy city for Jews for several centuries before the birth of Islam. After the Victory of Mecca, Muslims stopped facing Jerusalem in prayer. It remains a holy city for Jews, Muslims and Christians. Muslims do have spiritual claim on Jerusalem and are not prevented from praying in Al-Aqsa mosque, or in the Dome of Rock, a wall of which is known as the Western Wall where Jews pray. Nowadays, Turkish nationals come, one by one, to pray in the Dome of Rock, because Turkey, longing to lead the Muslim Ummah, wants to control it and therefore, it sponsored the UN resolution in support of which India voted. The Indian mind is not wired for quick breakups. India's hyphenation of Israel with Palestine will remain in the coming years. However, when Benjamin Netanyahu arrives, India-Israel relationship will certainly be upgraded to its next level. Israeli contributions to agricultural projects in India as well as in defence, science and technological fields is extensive. When Modi went to Israel, the two leaders sat in a desalination jeep which can purify 20,000 litres per day of sea water and 80,000 litres per day of muddy and contaminated river water. Netanyahu will gift that jeep to Modi, a powerful symbol of where our bilateral relations are headed to. Tufail Ahmad is Senior Fellow for Islamism and Counter-Radicalization Initiative at the Middle East Media Research Institute, Washington DC. He tweets @tufailelif New Delhi: Strengthening cooperation in key areas of trade and defence, including a possible inking of a multi-million dollar Israeli anti-tank missiles deal, is on the table during the visit of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Sunday, with its envoy on Friday terming Indo- Israel ties as irreversible. Israeli ambassador to India Daniel Carmon also downplayed India's stand at the United Nations General Assembly over the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in place of Tel Aviv, saying New Delhi's view "cannot influence" Indo-Israel ties. 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. Netanyahu will be on a six-day visit to India starting Sunday, during which he will hold comprehensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his stay, he will also visit Gujarat and Mumbai. Without going into the contours of a possible agreement for Israeli Spike missiles, Carmon said the Spike project is an example of "Israeli engaging in Make in India" because it can be implemented through partnership between an Israeli company and Indian company. 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. Carmon said apart from top Israeli officials, a delegation of 130 businessmen will accompany Netanyahu during his visit. Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Friday said that India will not allow its territory to be invaded by anyone and asserted that Indian Army troops were earmarked should a situation arise in the future. He asserted that China may be a powerful country but India is not a weak nation either. "The time has come for India to shift focus to its northern border," he said while adding that "the country was capable of handling China's assertiveness along it". Amid aggressive Chinese efforts to increase its influence in the region, the army chief said that India cannot allow its neighbours to drift away to China. "China is a powerful country but we are not a weak nation," Rawat told reporters in New Delhi. Yes, China is exerting pressure. We are dealing with it. Yes we should try that it is not escalated. We will not allow our territory to intruded. Troops are earmarked, should a situation arise our troops are ready to cater: Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat in Delhi pic.twitter.com/Heuw6N7QVK ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 To a question about Chinese incursions into India, he said, "We will not allow our territory to be invaded by anyone." "We need modern weapons and technology. We have to look at what we require to fight the future wars. We have to get systems that are best suited for our requirements," he added. He further said that the Chinese troops have maintained their presence in Doka La though their numbers have thinned. He added that road construction had been going on in Doka La since 2000 but the Chinese soldiers had come close to Tosa Bala, dividing north and south Doka La in June last year just before the India-China standoff started. Referring to the US' warnings to Pakistan over its handling of terrorism, Rawat said India will have to wait and see its impact. We need modern weapons and technology. We have to look at what we require to fight the future wars. We have to get systems that are best suited for our requirements: Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat in Delhi pic.twitter.com/WqXZpA3c4u ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Terrorists are a disposable commodity in Pakistan and the Indian Army's approach has been to ensure that it feels the pain, he said. It is becoming a worrisome phenomenon that people are just rushing into operations to get success and at times are taking risks well beyond their capacities, he said. Becoming a worrisome phenomenon that people are just rushing to Ops to get success&at time taking risks well beyond their capacities.Why are they taking risks?They are more concerned abt tasks at hand to get success,that is why sometimes it is leading to higher casualty rate:COAS pic.twitter.com/QwqlzPukB4 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 "Why are they taking risks? They are more concerned about the tasks at hand to get success... that is why sometimes it is leading to higher casualty rates," Rawat said, according to ANI. "We may have neutralised several terrorists but we have also caught 39 of them alive because we wanted to give them a second chance," Rawat added. With inputs from agencies 'Unprecedented' seemed to be the word of the day in the media. As much as the word may have become hackneyed and generalised, Friday's developments warranted the use of the term. Divisions in the Supreme Court burst into the open for the first time after four senior most judges came out publicly against the Chief Justice of India, an office that presides over the third pillar of our democracy. Four out of the five members of collegium took the unprecedented step of addressing the media to accuse Chief Justice Dipak Misra of breaching rules and "selectively assigning" cases that have "far-reaching consequences for the nation" to "junior judges." At a hurriedly called press conference at his residence, Justice J Chelameswar and three other colleagues said the Supreme Court administration was "not in order" and their efforts to persuade Justice Misra even this morning "with a specific request" failed, forcing them to "communicate with the nation" directly. The judges raised a host of issues, generally indicating that all was not well within the judiciary. But their primary contention remained on the way the CJI exercised his administrative powers and allotted crucial cases to benches, apparently bypassing these senior most judges. The four judges Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Madan B Lokur besides Justice Chelameswar released a letter they wrote to Justice Misra a couple of months ago, conceding that he was the master of roster but that was "not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual of the Chief Justice over his colleagues". What is the SC roster the dissenting judges objected to? As this Firstpost article explains, in the early years of its existence, the Supreme Court had only seven judges and they would all hear matters together, which means all judges would have a chance to hear all the cases. But as the court expanded and its workload increased, the Supreme Court became an institution with multiple benches. Matters are heard by benches comprising one, two, three, five, seven judges or more judges depending on the matter. The record of the allotment of cases to benches is called the roster. The CJI is the first among equals at the Supreme Court and his judgments carry no more weight than any other judge of the court. But the CJI does have more administrative powers, which includes control on the roster. This means it is up to the CJI to decide which set of judges hears which matters, but like all powers, this discretion too must be exercised with some caution. A particular judge may have domain expertise in an area of law and therefore would be suitable for a particular matter while another judge may not. These decisions are often taken by the CJI while assigning matters. While there is usually a system that is followed for most regular cases, when it comes to constituting special benches or assigning matters of constitutional import, the exercise of this power becomes as important as some of the decisions of the court itself. The clash among the judges in the highest court also comes in the wake of a controversial order in November in which Justice Misra declared that the Chief Justice "is the master of the roster" having exclusive power to decide which case will go to which judge. The CJI had given the order a day after a two-judge bench headed by Justice Chelameswar had passed an order that a five-judge bench of senior most judges in the apex court should be set up to consider an independent probe into a corruption case in which bribes were allegedly taken in the name of settling cases pending before Supreme Court judges. Holding that the CJI was only the first among equals, the four judges contended that there were well-settled and time-honoured conventions guiding the CJI in dealing with the strength of the bench required or the composition thereof. "A necessary corollary to the above mentioned principle is the members of any multi-numbered judicial body, including this court, would not arrogate to themselves the authority to deal with and pronounce upon matters which ought to be heard by appropriate benches, both composition-wise and strength-wise with due regard to the roster fixed," they wrote in the letter. They said any departure from the two rules would not only lead to "unpleasant and undesirable consequences of creating doubt in the body politic about the integrity of the institution" but would create "chaos". The Justice Loya case angle Another key word that kept cropping up in Friday's controversy and the subsequent debates was the Justice Loya case. This was because, that although the justices refrained from naming specific instances to point out the problems they had with CJI, a PIL requesting probe in Justice Loya's death was an anomaly. Asked specifically if they were upset over reference of the matter seeking a probe into the suspicious death of Judge Loya, Justice Gogoi said: "Yes." Judge Loya, who was hearing a case relating to the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in an alleged fake shootout in which BJP chief Amit Shah was named an accused, died of cardiac arrest in 2014. His family has raised doubts over the circumstances in which judge Loya died and sought an independent probe into it, alleging that the judge received a bribe offer just days before his death to let off Shah. Also, the judge who replaced Loya in the case, acquitted Shah just two weeks after Loya's death. Pleas seeking probe came up for a hearing in the Supreme Court on Friday when the top court expressed concerns over it and said it was a "serious issue". It asked the Maharashtra government to produce all the documents related to the case before 15 January. In a seven-page letter, the four judges said they were not mentioning details of the cases only to avoid embarrassing the institution because "such departures have already damaged the images of this institution to some extent". Reacting to the allegations raised by the judges, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, holding a press conference, sought an independent SIT probe into the case. Appointment of judges Another controversial issue which has been stewing for a long time was brought up. The four judges also touched upon the delay in finalising the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) on appointment of judges over which the Supreme Court had locked horns with the government. The government, the letter said, had not responded to the communication and "in view of this silence it must be taken that the MoP has been accepted by the government on the basis of the order of this court". Although a two-judge bench hearing a petition by lawyer RP Luthra about the delay in finalisisng MoP rejected Luthra's challenge seeking cancellation of the appointment of judges without the MoP, the two justices found merit in the arguments stating that "there should be no further delay in finalisation of MOP in larger public interest". The matter, however, was transferred to a three-judge bench. On 8 November 2017, a three-judge bench, comprising Misra and Justices AK Sikri and Amitava Roy recalled the 27 October, 2017 order by Goel and Lalit saying that "these are not matters to be taken up on the judicial side like this. This recalling of the order is what the four justices Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Joseph refer to in their letter. "Any issue with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure should be discussed in the Chief Justices' Conference and by the full court. Such a matter of grave importance, if at all required to be taken on the judicial side, should be dealt with by none other than a constitution bench." "The above development must be viewed with serious concern," they added. Justice Chelameswar told the media that they were "convinced that unless this institution is protected and maintains its requirements, democracy will not survive in the country or any country... The hallmark of a democracy is independent and impartial judges. "Since all our efforts failed... Even this morning, on a particular issue, we went and met the Chief Justice of India with a specific request. Unfortunately we could not convince him that we were right." Justice Gogoi said they were "discharging debt to the nation that has got us here". BJP slams Congress, govt takes hands-off approach Sambit Patra of the BJP, speaking to ANI, said: "This is an internal matter of the Supreme Court. Attorney-General has given statement. No politics should be played. Surprised and pained that Congress which has been rejected number of times by people in elections is trying to gain political mileage, it has exposed itself." The government appeared to distance itself from the controversy, saying the judges should sort out the issue themselves. Minister of State for Law PP Chaudhary said: "Our judiciary is one of the known, recognised judiciaries in the world. It is an indepenedent judiciary. At this stage I think no agency is required to intervene or interfere. The Chief Justice and other members should sit together and resolve. There is no question of panic." CNN-News18, quoted highly placed government sources as saying: "This has happened before between Justices Bhagwati and Mehta. Its a clash of personalities and government needn't get into it. The government is the arbiter of society, and not the judiciary. Ideally, the four judges should stay away from meeting politicians." The response came after reports of CPI leader D Raja meeting Justice Chelameswar came. Raja, however, ruled out suggestions that politicians should not meddle in the controversy, saying he was affected as a citizen. He said that Parliament cannot remain a mute spectator and it will have to device methods to sort out problems like this in the top judiciary. Two more Supreme Court judges, Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageshwar Rao, are understood to have called on Justice Chelameswar. With inputs from agencies On Friday, Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph addressed the media to highlight their grievances about how cases are allocated in the Supreme Court. #WATCH: Supreme Court Judge J.Chelameswar says, 'All 4 of us are convinced that unless this institution (Supreme Court) is preserved & it maintains its equanimity, democracy will survive in this country, or any country. pic.twitter.com/FBYSeLClH6 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 The following is the full text of the letter issued by the four Supreme Court judges: Dear Chief Justice, It is with great anguish and concern that we have thought it proper to address this letter to you so as to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this court which has adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivery system and independence of the high courts besides impacting the administrative functioning of the Office of the Honourable Chief Justice of India. From the date of establishment of the three chartered High Courts of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, certain traditions and conventions in the judicial administration have been well established. The traditions were embraced by this court which came into existence almost a century after the above mentioned chartered high courts. These traditions have their roots in the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence and practice. One of the well-settled principles is that the chief justice is the master of the roster with a privilege to determine the roster, necessity in multi-numbered courts for an orderly transaction of business and appropriate arrangements with respect to matters with which member/bench of this court (as the case may be) is required to deal with which case or class of cases is to be made. The convention of recognising the privilege of the chief justice to form the roster and assign cases to different members/benches of the court is a convention devised for a disciplined and efficient transaction of business of the court, but not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual of the chief justice over his colleagues. It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the chief justice is only the first amongst the equals nothing more or nothing less. In the matter of the determination of the roster, there are well-settled and time-honoured conventions guiding the chief justice, be the conventions dealing with the strength of the bench which is required to deal with a particular case or the composition thereof. A necessary corollary to the above-mentioned principle is the members of any multi-numbered judicial body including this court would not arrogate to themselves the authority to deal with and pronounce upon matters which ought to be heard by appropriate benches, both composition wise and strength wise with due regard to the roster fixed. Any departure from the above two rules would not only lead to unpleasant and undesirable consequences of creating doubt in the body politic about the integrity of the institution. Not to talk about the chaos that would result from such departure. We are sorry to say that off late the twin rules mentioned above have not been strictly adhered to. There have been instances where case having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the chief justices of this court selectively to the benches "of their preference" without any rationale basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs. We are not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this institution to some extent. In the above context, we deem it proper to address you presently with regard to the Order dated 27 October, 2017 in RP Luthra versus Union of India to the effect that there should be no further delay in finalising the Memorandum of Procedure in the larger public interest. When the Memorandum of Procedure was the subject matter of a decision of a Constitution Bench of this court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association and Anr versus Union of India [(2016) 5 SCC 1] it is difficult to understand as to how any other bench could have dealt with the matter. The above apart, subsequent to the decision of the Constitution Bench, detailed discussions were held by the collegium of five judges (including yourself) and the Memorandum of Procedure was finalised and sent by the then Honourable Chief Justice of India to the Government of India in March 2017. The Government of India has not responded to the communication and in view of this silence, it must be taken that the Memorandum of Procedure as finaslied by the Collegium has been accepted by the Government of India on the basis of the order of this Court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SUPRA). There was, therefore, no occasion for the bench to make any observation with regard to the finalisation of the Memorandum of Procedure or that that issue cannot linger on for an indefinite period. On 4 July, 2017, a bench of seven Judges of this court decided In Re, Honourable Shri Justice CS Karnan [(2017) 1 SCC 1]. In that decision (referred to in RP Luthra), two of us observed that there is a need to revisit the process of appointment of judges and to set up a mechanism for corrective measures other than impeachment. No observation was made by any of the seven learned judges with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure. Any issue with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure should be discussed in the Chief Justices' Conference and by the full court. Such a matter of grave importance, if at all required to be taken on the judicial side, should be dealt with by none other than a Constitution Bench. The above development must be viewed with serious concern. The Honourable Chief Justice of India is duty bound to rectify the situation and take appropriate remedial measures after a full discussion with the other members of the collegium and at a later stage, if required, with other Honourable judges of this court. Once the issue arising from the order dated 27 October, 2017 in RP Luthra verus Union of India, mentioned above, is adequately addressed by you and if it becomes so necessary, we will apprise you specifically of the other judicial orders passed by this Court which would require to be similarly dealt with. With kind regards, [J Chelameswar] [Ranjan Gogoi] [Madan B Lokur] [Kurian Joseph] Follow all the LIVE updates here New Delhi: India has signed an MoU with the United Kingdom to enable the return of illegal Indian migrants within a month of their detection by authorities abroad. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Friday confirmed that the pact was signed by him and UK Minister of State for Immigration Caroline Nokes in Britain on Wednesday during his visit along with an Indian delegation for a week. "We finalised long-pending India-UK MoU on the returns of illegal migrants and sharing of criminal records," Rijiju tweeted. The Memorandum of Understanding, which would affect hundreds of Indians, comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to the UK in March. The UK has consistently raised the issue of return of illegal migrants with India. Rijiju said he also discussed "issues of visas for dependents and students, social security, distressed Indian women and extradition". 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," said the official. While the UK claims that the number of illegal migrants is in thousands, Indian agencies have found only 2,000 Indians are overstaying. The minister on Thursday also thanked the UK government for its cooperation in the ongoing extradition case of liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya. He had also held talks with the Britain'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 cooperation in the Mallya extradition case," a senior official present at the meeting said. Mallya, 62, is wanted in India to stand trial on charges of not repaying loans of around Rs 9,000 crore to various banks. Besides the extradition case, issues such as the rise of fundamentalism and Sikh extremism were discussed during Rijiju's meeting with the UK minister. New Delhi: Welcoming talks between North Korea and South Korea, India on Thursday said any solution to the Korean Peninsula must address concerns about Pyongyang's proliferation linkages. India also hoped that the engagement between the two countries would help reduce tensions and pave the way for peace in the peninsula. "We hope that the engagement between the two sides will help in reducing tensions and pave the way for bringing lasting peace and reconciliation in the Korean Peninsula," external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters. The countries had two days ago held high-level talks at Panmunjom, a village located in the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, amid escalating tension in the region following a series of ballistic missile tests by North Korea. The missiles have the capability to strike the US mainland, according to Pyongyang. The talks were the first high-level engagement between the two countries after December 2015. "India supports efforts to bring about peace, stability, reconciliation, de-nuclearisation and reunification of the Korean peninsula through dialogue and diplomacy," Kumar said. At the same time, he said any solution to the regional problem must also take into account and address concerns about the proliferation linkages of North Korea's nuclear and missile programme. There were reports that North Korea had proliferation linkages with Pakistan Auto refresh feeds The heat shield has also come off safely as things seem to be on course for a successful ISRO launch. Second stage separation has happened as planned and the third stage has been ignited. The separation will happen after 8 minutes and 11 minutes from lift-off. The fourth stage has been ignited, the part of the vehicle that carries the 31 satellites. The Fourth Stage Cut-off is expected to happen 16 minutes and 36.8 seconds from launch time. This will happen when the vehicle reaches an altitude of 509.365 kilometres from sea level. Congratulations to the new chairman of @isro Dr #KSivan . May #ISRO reach new heights under your leadership. The contributions of outgoing chairman Shri AS Kiran Kumar to Indian space mission has been invaluable. After beginning a 28-hour countdown on Thursday morning, ISRO seems all set to go ahead with the launch of the PSLV-C40/ Cartosat-2 Series mission. The mission will include ISRO's 100th satellite launch and is expected to launch at 9.29 am from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which has been a workhorse for ISRO will take into orbit a total of 31 satellites, of which the Cartosat 2-series satellite and two others are Indian satellites. The 28 others are hosted by six different nations. Based on information provided by ISRO, the Cartosat 2 series satellite is the third satellite in the Cartosat series which is made with the objective of providing high-resolution scene-specific spot imagery which will be used for Land Information System (LIS) as well as Geographical Information System (GIS)-based applications. The satellite is on the heavier side, weighing 710 kg. Jammu: Reaching out to youth of Jammu and Kashmir, the Mehbooba Mufti government on Thursday 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 countrys recent economic development, but also its great cultural diversity. Its 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 childrens 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 to frame a uniform Employment Code for the state, containing all the 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-Ks Accredited journalists have also been covered under mediclaim 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. Mumbai: A sessions court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Yug Tulli, the absconding co-owner of the Mojo's Bistro pub, in the Kamala Mills fire case. Seeking pre-arrest bail for his client, Tulli's lawyer contended that the devastating fire at the Kamala Mills compound on 29 December, which had claimed 14 lives, had started from the adjoining 1Above pub. Hence, the owners of Mojo's Bistro could not be blamed for the tragedy, he argued. However, the prosecution said that a report of the Mumbai Fire Brigade as well as eyewitnesses said the fire had started at Mojo's Bistro. In its preliminary probe report, the Fire Brigade had said the blaze possibly started at Mojo's Bistro due to the flying charcoal embers of a hookah. The husband of Parul Lakdawala, one of the fire victims, had filed an intervention application, opposing the anticipatory bail plea of Tulli, saying that the latter was responsible for the death of his wife and others. The police have already arrested Yug Pathak, a co-owner of Mojo's Bistro. 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 29 December against the owners of 1Above: Kripesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar. The three have now been arrested and remanded to police custody. On 29 December, the fire had swept through 1Above and the adjacent Mojo's Bistro resto-pub at the Kamala Mills compound here, resulting in the death of 14 persons. Mumbai: A Mumbai sessions court on Thursday reserved its order till Friday on the anticipatory bail application filed by Yug Tuli, an absconding co-owner of the Mojo's Bistro pub in the Kamala Mills compound. Tuli's advocate Shyam Divani told the court that the fire started from another adjoining '1Above' pub and spread to Mojo's Bistro hence Tuli cannot be blamed. Divani also said that Tuli 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 '1Above', 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 Tuli 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 Tuli, 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 Tuli were added to the FIR, lodged on 29 December against the owners of '1Above' pub - Kripesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar. The three have already been arrested and remanded to police custody. On 29 December, fire had swept through the '1Above' and adjacent Mojo's Bistro resto pub in the Kamala Mills compound, resulting in the death of 14 people. WHY DONT YOU READ THESE? Taking the podium for the first time after his elevation as the US Ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster outlined an agenda for India-US ties that he himself described as "ambitious". Beginning his speech by praising India, Juster went on to recall that President Ram Nath Kovind had called him a "friend of India". He described the early exchanges between the two countries as being strained but marvelled at how far they had come. While concentrating on the diplomatic relations between the two nations, he also said that the best example of the relationship might well be the Indian diaspora in the United States. He also assured listeners that the US will continue to be a country of immigrants and that the ongoing review of visas, including the H-1B category, was only for "refinements". His comments came in the backdrop of reports that the Donald Trump administration was considering tightening H-1B visa rules that could lead to the deportation of about 750,000 Indians. The US government, however, has denied these reports. "We have four million Indian-Americans in the US. So we are a country of immigrants and that's what helped drive our economy and growth and made us where we are and that's not going to change," said Juster. Turning his attention to the Asia-Pacific region, he noted its importance and said that the US in its National Security Strategy had identified India as a "leading power" in the region. He then spoke about the strategic partnership between the two nations and the history of the same. Insisting that the US will remain committed to the region, Juster then laid down the five pillars that he believed could provide the framework for the partnership. Speaking about the defence relationship between the two countries, Juster said that the US wants to work towards the long-term security and stability of the Asia-Pacific region. He said that there are multiple ways to attain this, including military exercises, sale of military hardware and technology, military exchanges, and sharing of information on terrorism networks. The remarks come in the backdrop of increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region. He then turned his attention to the second pillar: Economic relations. Noting that while bilateral trade has increased manifold over the years, Juster said that there is still plenty of room to grow. Interestingly, he said that "America First" and "Make in India" are not incompatible. Instead, he said that investing in each other's markets will be mutually beneficial. Here, he also made the only China reference in his speech as he said that many US companies are looking for alternatives to China and India could seize the opportunity to be the hub for US businesses in the region. Adding that greater India-US trade will lead to increased capital flow and further transfer of intellectual know-how, he even speculated that eventually the two nations could sign a Free Trade Agreement. However he did acknowledge that we are a long way from such a scenario. Juster's third pillar was that of energy and environment. He pointed out that India's constant growth means that its energy needs are going to be substantial in the near future. He offered US help in all forms of energy including coal, crude oil, nuclear power etc as well as the supporting services and infrastructure necessary to best harness the same. Pivoting to science and technology, Juster called them the fourth pillar of the relationship and noted collaborations between ISRO and NASA as well as the joint strides in medical innovation. Finally, Juster spoke about regional cooperation. He spoke specifically about Afghanistan and emphasised the need to eliminate its reputation as a safe haven for terrorists. He also noted that collaborations with other nations like Japan and Australia to nurture multilateral groupings in the region. While concluding his speech, Juster asked the two nations to approach each other as friends and to treat each other with respect and trust. Noting that terms "true friends" and "natural allies" have been used for the two countries, he asked that they now give substance to the phrases and build a strong and durable partnership. No reference to Pakistan in speech While he made no reference to Pakistan in his speech, when he was asked why terror groups active against India were not named while suspension of aid to the country, 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. 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. Click here for the full text of Kenneth Juster's remarks. With inputs from agencies New Delhi: The Maldives has assured India that it will adhere to its "India First" policy in terms of its foreign relations during a meeting in New Delhi between external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and her Maldivian counterpart Mohamed Asim. "Discussions centred around strengthening of the development partnership between India and Maldives and enhancing defence and security cooperation," the external affairs ministry said in a statement late on Thursday. "External Affairs Minister conveyed our commitment to achieving the full potential of our relationship in line with India's Neighbourhood First policy," it stated, following the meeting between Sushma Swaraj and Asim, who is also Maldives President Abdulla Yameen. "The Special Envoy reaffirmed his government's India First policy and emphasised that Maldives attached the highest priority to its ties with India." Thursday's meeting assumes significance after the Indian Ocean archipelago nation signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with China last year in a surprise move. The main Opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) led by former President Nasheed raised a red flag after the FTA was rushed through Parliament on 29 November in a record one hour without any debate. What was surprising was that it was signed even after President Yameen, during a visit to New Delhi, said that his country would sign an FTA with India first. Following Thursday's meeting with Sushma Swaraj, Asim called on prime minister Narendra Modi. "They discussed the ties between India and Maldives as close neighbours bound by shared history, culture and maritime interests in the Indian Ocean," the prime minister's Office said in a statement. "Special Envoy Asim reiterated the commitment of Maldives to maintain close relations with India under Maldives' 'India First' policy," it stated. Modi affirmed that India would always be a reliable and close neighbour of Maldives supporting it in its progress and security. According to the statement, Asim also reiterated President Yameen's invitation to Modi to visit Maldives. "Prime Minister conveyed his gratitude for the invitation and agreed to the visit at a suitable time," the PMO statement said. New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu met prime minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday and urged him to fulfil all the commitments made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. During the hour-long meeting, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President discussed with Modi unfulfilled promises under the Act and submitted a 17-page memorandum. The meeting assumes significance as it comes amid indications of strain in the relations between the TDP and its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Naidu, who called on Modi after one-and-a-half year, appealed to Modi to take immediate steps on long pending demands keeping in view the next year's simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assembly. The TDP has already dropped hints that its patience with the Centre was growing thin. The party MPs had also met Modi on the last day of the winter session to submit him a memorandum. Naidu wanted the Centre to immediately sanction Rs 58,000 crore required for the Polavaram project. He urged Modi to ensure that sufficient funds were allocated in the central budget for development of the new state capital Amaravati. He also wanted Modi to take urgent steps to increase the number of seats in the state Assembly from 175 to 225 as committed in the Reorganisation Act. The TDP brought to Modi's notice that the state was yet to receive Rs 3,000 crore from the Centre towards the expenditure incurred so far on Polavaram project. He sought release of the money. Naidu said the Centre should totally fund the cost of the project, which has been declared a national project. Naidu told Modi that Andhra Pradesh suffered huge losses due to bifurcation of the state as it had to face financial problems. He said further delay in fulfilling the commitments given in the Act will add to the problems. New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday told a Delhi court that it would file a chargesheet against Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son-in-law and others within a week in a case of alleged terror-funding in the Kashmir Valley to fuel an unrest. It told the court that the investigation in the case against Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah, popularly known as Altaf Fantoosh, and others was at the concluding stage and that the evidence on record was being summed up. "The final report in the case will be filed shortly," the NIA is believed to have told the court during an in-chamber proceeding. The court allowed the agency's plea to extend by a week the judicial custody of eight accused persons Fantoosh, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Shahid-ul-Islam, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar and Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali. The NIA had earlier told the court that it had received information that Hafiz Saeed, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), and the separatists, including members of the Hurriyat Conference, were acting in connivance with banned outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Dukhtaran-e-Millat and others to raise and receive funds from inside and abroad through illegal channels, including hawala. The money was being raised to fund separatist and terrorist activities in restive Jammu and Kashmir, it had said. The agency had also alleged that the accused were involved in triggering an unrest in Jammu and Kashmir through anti-India demonstrations and bandhs. Shah was in the custody of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, which had put him under preventive detention immediately after Eid earlier this month. Geelani's close aides, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar and Peer Saifullah, were arrested by the NIA from the Valley. Shahid-ul-Islam is the spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Saeed, the Pakistan- based chief of JuD, a front of the banned LeT, has been named in the FIR as an accused, besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference, HM and Dukhtaran-e-Millat. The houses of those arrested were raided by the NIA sleuths last month. The raids were a part of the agency's efforts at clamping down on the separatist groups allegedly receiving funds for carrying out subversive activities in the Valley. The NIA had claimed that it recovered accounts books, Rs two crore in cash and letterheads of banned terror groups, including those of the LeT and HM, during the raids. Buxar: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's cavalcade was pelted with stones on Friday while he was on his way to a village as part of the state-wide Vikas Samiksha Yatra. The chief minister was unharmed. An unfazed Kumar, who went on to address a public meeting in Dumraon block, said, "Some people feel disturbed over my commitment to progress of the state. They try to mislead and provoke others but people should not get perturbed over such minor happenings". An official accompanying the chief minister told PTI over phone that some people had hurled stones at the cavalcade but it did not hamper the movement of the carcade. He said the cavalcade moved ahead for the village where the chief minister launched 168 schemes worth Rs 272 crore before addressing public meeting. It was not immediately known who were the persons who indulged in stone-pelting and what was their grouse. The chief minister said, "My purpose is not to run government from the state capital but to assess ground realities and progress of development schemes so that basic amenities like roads, clean water and power reach every village, in fact, every locality, in the state. If anybody is trying to mislead people about my mission, the reality will speak for itself and the mission would never get derailed". He also spoke at length about his mission of ban on sale and consumption of alcohol and the drive against dowry and child marriage as also measures being taken by the government for skill development of the youths so that they got better job opportunities. The CM told security personnel deployed at the venue of the public meeting "do not worry about any protests. If some people want to raise slogans and show black flags." Kumar has been criss-crossing the state as part of "Vikas Samiksha Yatra" to take stock of implementation of developmental programmes at the grassroot. Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday summoned India's acting deputy high commissioner over alleged "unprovoked firing" by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC) in which an elderly woman was killed. The foreign office claimed that a 65-year old woman was killed in Peer Khana village on Thursday after Indian troops violated the ceasefire in Kot Kotera Sector. Director general (South Asia and SAARC) Mohammad Faisal summoned the acting Indian deputy high commissioner and "condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations" by Indian forces on 11 January, the statement said. He said "despite calls for restraint, India continues to indulge in ceasefire violations." "This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when the Indian forces committed more than 1900 ceasefire violations, Faisal claimed. He said the ceasefire violations by India are a "threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation." In a move that could script history, the Supreme Court collegium recommended the name of Senior Advocate, Indu Malhotra as the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as a judge of the apex court on Thursday. 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. With legal experience spanning more than 25 years, 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. Born in Bengaluru Malhotra was born in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) in 1956, daughter of noted lawyer Om Prakash Malhotra. A political science postgraduate, she graduated in law from Delhi University, becoming a lawyer in 1983 and enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi, according to The Indian Express. She qualified as an Advocate-on-Record in the apex court in 1988, securing the first position in the examination and was awarded the Mukesh Goswami Memorial Prize on Law Day. She came into the limelight in August 2007, when the Supreme Court designated her as the senior advocate, the second woman to do so after Justice Leela Seth, author Vikram Seth's mother, in 1977. Arbitration expert Specialising in arbitration, Malhotra has served as a member of the Central government-appointed High Level Committee (HLC) in the Ministry of Law and Justice to review Institutionalisation of Arbitration Mechanism in India'. The senior lawyer has appeared in several domestic and commercial arbitration. Malhotra has also authored the third edition of The Law and Practice of Arbitration and Conciliation, 2014. Malhotra is also the author of OP Malhotra on the law and practice of Arbitration & Conciliation published by Thomson Reuters, Legal. Represented statutory bodies before Supreme Court As per The Financial Express, she has also served as Standing Counsel for the State of Haryana, and represented statutory bodies such as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), before the Supreme Court. She is also associated with the NGO Save Life Foundation and was the counsel in the 2013 case when the Supreme Court recommended a number of laws for good Samaritans who save lives in road accidents, according to The Asian Age. Malhotra has appeared in a number of educational matters relating to admissions, appointments in colleges and other institutions. She has also served as amicus curiae, to assist the court on a number of occasions. Justice M Fathima Beevi was the first woman to be appointed as a judge of the apex court in 1989. Following her, Justice Sujata V Manohar, Justice Ruma Pal, Justice Gyan Sudha Misra and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai made it to the top court as judges. According to established practice, the recommendations of Malhotra's elevation will be sent to the government. The government can return the file once, but it usually agrees to it if the collegium reiterates its recommendation. Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee voiced "anguish" over the happenings in the Supreme Court on Friday where four top judges virtually revolted against the Chief Justice of India, saying the development made people sad as citizens. She also said "extreme interference" of the Centre in the functioning of the judiciary was "dangerous" for democracy, but did not elaborate. "We are deeply anguished with the developments on Friday about the Supreme Court. What we are getting from the statement of the four senior honorable Judges of Supreme Court about the affairs of the court makes us really sad as citizens," Banerjee said in a statement. "Judiciary and the media are the pillars of democracy. Extreme interference of Central government with judiciary is dangerous for democracy," she said. The four judges J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph in an unprecedented move, called a press conference where they listed out several problems, including "selective" allocation of cases by CJI Dipak Misra. They said the problems that afflicted the top court of the country could destroy democracy. Follow our LIVE updates on the issue here Four senior Supreme Court judges mounted a virtual revolt against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra on Friday, as they listed a string of problems that they said were afflicting the country's highest court. At the unscheduled press conference held at his residence, Justice J Chelameswar said that the administration in the country's top court was "not in order" and said that Indian democracy is 'in danger.' Chelameswar, accompanied by Justices Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph heavily criticised the Chief Justice and said that they had failed to persuade him to take "remedial measures" on issues affecting the institution. The press conference the first of its kind event in independent India drew critical reactions from political squares and the legal fraternity. Opposition sees red The Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday said democracy is in "danger", while the CPM called for a thorough probe. For the first time in history, 4 sitting SC judges publicly questioned the functioning of the Supreme Court. Is the Modi Govt interfering with India's judiciary? #DemocracyInDanger pic.twitter.com/T79EeYyMPU Congress (@INCIndia) January 12, 2018 CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said a thorough investigation was required to understand how the independence and integrity of the judiciary was getting "affected", after the judges said many "less than desirable" things had taken place in the apex court. He said it was necessary for the three wings of democracy the executive, the legislature and the Judiciary to ensure that whatever issues had been raised were corrected. "This merits a thorough, proper investigation and understanding of how independence and integrity of judiciary is being interfered or is being affected, which is impermissible in a secular democratic republic," Yechury said. West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee voiced "anguish" over the judicial crisis in the Supreme Court. She also said "extreme interference" of the Centre in the functioning of the judiciary was "dangerous" for democracy, but did not elaborate. "We are deeply anguished with the Friday's developments about the Supreme Court. What we are getting from the statement of the four senior judges of Supreme Court about the affairs of the court makes us really sad as citizens," Banerjee, said in a statement. "Judiciary and the media are the pillars of democracy. Extreme interference of central government with judiciary is dangerous for democracy," she said. Earlier in the day, CPI leader D Raja's visit to Chelameshwar's residence raised eyebrows. However, Raja said that he met the senior Supreme Court judge over the "extraordinary step" and rubbished that his visit had any political affiliations. Have known him for a long time. When I came to know of the extraordinary step taken by him & other judges, I thought must meet him. Not giving it political colour. These are concerns for everybody, it's about future of country & democracy: D Raja on meeting Justice #Chelameshwar pic.twitter.com/yHyMxz8KcD ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Presser shocks legal fraternity The legal fraternity termed the press conference "unprecedented", as some experts called it "shocking" while some others said there could have been some compelling reasons for such a move. Former union law ministers Salman Khurshid, Hansraj Bharadwaj and Ashwani Kumar, and former judges RS Sodhi and Mukul Mudgal expressed concern over the press conference, while senior advocates Indira Jaising, and Prashant Bhushan welcomed the move. Deeply sad & pained, also feel a sense of agony that highest court of land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media: Salman Khurshid, senior advocate on press conference by 4 Supreme Court judges. pic.twitter.com/vtGg2JRQYJ ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Justice Sodhi questioned the move of the top judges approaching the media, calling it "appalling" "How can you administer Supreme Court by press conference. Are you going to hold a referendum and ask people what is right and wrong," Sodhi said. Former law minister Ashwani Kumar said it was a "sad day" in the history of India that judges were "compelled" to bring in public domain the happenings in the top court. He also called for a collective resolve to address the issues flagged by the judges "instead of finding fault with what they have said". "...I hope that the honourable CJI and all those concerned will take urgent remedial measures," the Congress leader said. Former law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj said that it was the current Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's responsibility to see how the judiciary functions. It's the loss of prestige of the entire institution. If you lose public's trust what remains? Judiciary must remain pillar of democracy. It's responsibility of Law Minister to see how it functions: Hansraj Bhardwaj, former Union Law Minister on allegations made by the 4 SC judges pic.twitter.com/kcnn9DoNX0 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Firstpost spoke about the matter with Satish Maneshinde, one of the country's top lawyers. He expressed shock at what had happened and said that it needs to be examined by a full bench of the Supreme Court. He said that the matter was of great concern to everyone and the position of the Chief Justice has been made awkward by Friday's proceedings. "If what has been alleged has actually been happening, then the judiciary is not independent. The government has distanced itself from the matter from now. However we must not keep quiet, and must take up this issue," said Maneshinde. When asked about the government's role in the matter, he said, "while it doesn't have any powers of judicial administration, the legislature could move for impeachment of the judge(s). And this indeed might be the only option if the allegations made are actually true. The judges wanted to air their greivance in public which hadn't been resolved in private. It is good that we are finding out what happens before closed doors as the functioning of the court was earlier quite opaque." Meanwhile, retired Justice AK Ganguly said that the move would create apprehensions in the minds of the people. Feel very disturbed over the issue, this should not have happened, but it has and there might be strong reasons for them. Consequence would be it would create apprehensions in minds of ppl: Justice(Retd) AK Ganguly on press conference by four Supreme Court judges pic.twitter.com/z3KDkLKsqb ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan appreciated the four senior Supreme Court judges for taking on the CJI, saying they had made people aware of the "extraordinary abuse of power" by the latter. Truly unprecedented! Kudos to 4 seniormost judges of SC who addressed a Press Conf today to apprise the people about the extraordinary abuse of 'master of roster' powers by CJI in selectively assigning politically sensitive cases to hand picked junior judges for desired outcome Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) January 12, 2018 Meanwhile, former solicitor general N Santosh Hegde said he was "devastated" by their action which has caused "irreparable" damage to the institution. "As a retired judge of the Supreme Court, I feel devastated... For some reason or the other, their cause is justified, (but the) relief they are seeking is wrong.... Going to the media? No. Judiciary was always considered as a family. Family disputes are never taken to the streets," he said. He added, "It amounts to a constitutional crisis now. And it will lead to all sorts of criticism from aggrieved people from the judiciary and people who have benefited from the judiciary will not speak about it. And in the long run, judiciary is (will become) another subject matter of Tom, Dick and Harry," he said. The former Karnataka Lokayukta and the retired Supreme Court judge said that the judiciary is totally different from the legislature and executive, and by raising allegations in public, the four judges have brought them to the same level. However, former Maharashtra advocate general Shrihari Aney backed the four Supreme Court judges. These are very senior judges & come only after CJI. They wouldn't have taken the step without thinking. If it has fallen upon them to take action, it's up to us to understand what led to that: Shrihari Aney, former Attorney General on allegations made by 4 #SupremeCourt judges pic.twitter.com/dp6cPWyFOL ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Follow all LIVE updates on the issue here With inputs from PTI Thiruvananthapuram: A former Chief Justice of India and two other judges have termed as "unprecedented" the press meet by four senior sitting judges of the Supreme Court on Friday complaining over its administration and wished that a full court meeting be called soon. Former Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan told the media that he was neither for nor against the four judges on what they did. "What is happening is very unfortunate and this should have been avoided. "The credibility of the judiciary should never be questioned and the turn of events might send a feeling to the common man, that things are not going the right way. A full court should be called soon," said Balakrishnan. KT Thomas, another Keralite, who retired as a judge of the apex court said "now the ball is in the court of Chief Justice (Dipak Misra), who is the best person to resolve the issue". "Never before has such a thing happened when judges hold press meets. I did read the letter that the four judges had given and they spoke of some procedural lapses and the CJI has to speak now. A full court should be called," said Thomas. Another retired judge of the apex court, KS Radhakrishnan, said the seven-page-letter of the judges was "just a general one". "The letter should have been specific and clearly stated which was the case and such details. The general norm is that if a particular judge has any interest in any case, it's not heard by that judge," said Radhakrishnan. On Friday, at a hurriedly called press conference at the residence of Justice J Chelameswar, the No.2 in the apex court hierarchy, the judges said it was with "no pleasure" that they had been "compelled to make public what they were upset with". Justice Chelameswar was flanked by Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurien Joseph and Madan B. Lokur. He said the four of them were convinced that "for the survival of democracy an impartial judge and justices are needed". "All of us are convinced that unless this institution is protected and maintain its requirements, democracy will not survive in the country or any country. "For survival of a democracy, it is said... the hallmark of a democracy is independent and impartial judges." Without disclosing what they were upset about, Justice Chelameswar said a lot of things had been written in the media and it was not a political controversy. New Delhi: The government on Friday made it clear that it was not going to intervene in the issue of four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court dubbing the situation in the top court as "not in order" at a press conference, saying the judiciary would resolve the matter itself. "Our judiciary is reputed all over the world, is independent and will sort out the matter itself," Minister of State for Law PP Chaudhury said. Meanwhile, highly placed sources in the government said that since it was an internal matter of the judiciary, the government had no say in it and did not wish to interfere. But, at the same time, they said that the apex court should settle the issue at the earliest as the faith of the people in the judiciary was at stake. In an unprecedented move, four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court today called a press conference and said that the situation in the apex court was "not in order" and many "less than desirable" things had taken place. The second senior-most judge after the chief justice of India, Justice J Chelameswar, said, "Sometimes, the administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months." The other judges present at the press conference were justices Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph. Sources in the law ministry said Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had briefed the prime minister in this regard. Follow all live updates on the issue here. New Delhi: The decision of four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court to hold a press conference was on Friday termed as "unprecedented" by the legal fraternity, with some experts terming it as "shocking" while some others saying there could have been some compelling reasons for such a move. Some legal luminaries also said the turn of events had raised a question mark about the credibility of the judicial system. Senior advocates KTS Tulsi, former union law ministers Salman Khurshid and Ashwini Kumar, former judges Justice RS Sodhi and Justice Mukul Mudgal expressed concern over the unprecedented press conference, while senior advocate Indira Jaising welcomed the move and congratulated the four judges. BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy said when such judges come out to do a press conference, it is necessary to take them seriously rather than finding fault. Swamy said the prime minister should take an initiative and contact the chief justice and the four judges to resolve the whole situation through the process of consultation. However, Justice Sodhi questioned the move of the top judges approaching the media and asked how they can administer the Supreme Court through press conferences. "I am so pained at the outcome of the things... It is appalling. How can you administer Supreme Court by press conference. Are you going to hold a referendum and ask people what is right and wrong," Justice Sodhi said. Justice Mudgal said the four senior-most judges were bringing the issues to light which according to them was necessary to be brought to the public notice. He said they must have had compelling reasons to go public and "they are not publicity hungry judges and do not crave for unnecessary publicity". Terming the presser as "a welcome step", senior lawyer Indira Jaising congratulated the four judges for the "bold move" and said: "As they said they are discharging a debt to history, namely to let the nation know that something is going wrong and needs to be corrected." She said the intention of the press meet was "to build a consensus to owe a debt of duty to the institution as a whole and ensure that this institution survives for you and me." Advocate Prashant Bhushan also termed the event as unprecedented and said the judges took extreme decision to hold press conference under compelling circumstances. "These four judges are very responsible. If they are doing this, the situation would have definitely gone out of control. They said the CJI was misusing his administrative powers to allot all cases," Bhushan said. Senior lawyer KTS Tulsi said the step was quite shocking and one had never thought that "things would come such far compelling the four senior-most judges to adopt this course of action." "I am sure they (four judges) have exhausted all other remedies. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking. The whole matter is with respect to judicial propriety. The question is of natural justice. Whatever is the law for common man, it is applied much more rigorously as far as judges are concerned because they must always be above suspicion," Tulsi said. Similarly, former union minister and senior advocate Khurshid said there were some deep differences among the judges about how the apex court should function, terming it as a matter of anguish. "I can only hope that conversation among the judges will not snap and will continue and that with accommodation and logic it will be settled. It has come too far," Khurshid said. Former Law Minister Ashwini Kumar said it was "a sad day for Indian democracy." "This press conference is a strike at the root of the institutional integrity of the higher judiciary. It has raised question marks about the credibility of the system as such and has directly cast aspersions at the head of the Indian judiciary. "I think the people of this country who have had highest regard to the highest judiciary will now be forced to think aloud as to whether we have gone gravely wrong somewhere," he said. Accompanied by three senior judges Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, Justice J Chelameswar himself said "this is an extraordinary event in the history of any nation, more particularly this nation and an extraordinary event in the institution of judiciary ... It is with no pleasure that we are compelled to call this press conference. "But sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months." Follow all live updates on the issue here. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday described the concerns expressed by four Supreme Court judges over the institution's functioning as "extremely important", and also sought an investigation into the death of judge BH Loya by the "highest level" of the apex court. Making a brief statement at a press conference, Gandhi also said that Justice J Chelameswar's remark that democracy will not survive in the country unless the Supreme Court was preserved, was "extremely important" and that it needed to be "looked into carefully". Special CBI judge Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter case, had allegedly died under mysterious circumstances in 2014. The apex court had on Thursday agreed to hear two separate pleas seeking an independent probe into the death. BJP chief Amit Shah, who had been accused in the case, was discharged from the matter after Loya's death. One of the four senior-most judges, who held an unprecedented press conference, had said that the matter involving Judge Loya's death was one of the issues underpinning their differences with Chief Justice Dipak Misra. "They have also made a point about Judge Loya's case. I think that is also something which needs to be investigated properly and looked at from the highest levels of the Supreme Court... All citizens who love the idea of justice, who believe in the Supreme Court, are looking at this issue and it's important that it is addressed," Gandhi said. The Congress also issued a statement in which it said the issues raised by the four judges were "extremely disturbing" and have "far-reaching consequences for values we hold." AICC Press Release: INC Statement on the 4 SC Judges Press Conference on the functioning of the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/txekcEupkL Congress (@INCIndia) January 12, 2018 "The honourable judges have specifically highlighted two issues: (1) The long silence of the Government of India to the Memorandum of Procedure that was finalised by the Supreme Court and (2) the assignment of cases in the Supreme Court to what is described as selectively to the benches of their preference without any rational basis for such assignment. In answer to a question from the media, the honourable judges referred to the PIL concerning the death of judge Loya, which the family of judge Loya believes was under suspicious circumstances," read the statement released by Congress at the press conference. In an unprecedented move, the four senior-most judges in the Supreme Court spoke out in the open on Friday and accused Chief Justice Misra of not strictly adhering to the rules in assigning cases to appropriate benches, which they said could create "doubts" about the integrity of the top court. Speaking to the media at the residence of Justice J Chelameswar, the judges said the Supreme Court administration was "not in order" and released an undated letter they wrote to Justice Misra in which they conceded that the chief justice was the "master of roster" but this was "not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual, of the chief justice over his colleagues". Earlier in the day, senior Congress leaders including P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Ahmed Patel, among others, had called on Gandhi to brief him about the implications of the four senior judges of the Supreme Court publicly attacking Misra. Among the other party leaders who visited Gandhi's residence were Salman Khurshid, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Vivek Tankha, Manish Tewari and KTS Tulsi. The leaders briefed him about the political and legal implications of the unprecedented development, which was termed as "an extraordinary event in the history of judiciary". With inputs from agencies Opacity in the management of the judiciary, and particularly, in matters of appointment and allocation of cases before the Supreme Court of India is the precept of the principle of judicial independence as propounded by the Court in the Second Judges Case. The court essentially limited the role of the executive in the manner of appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, and therefore, by extension, the Chief Justice of India. The principle behind this was that without the senior-most judges retaining total control on such matters, they would be subject to political games. But nothing is devoid of its own politics, and today what we see is that the politics of the Supreme Court is as much a matter of public interest (and not merely nosy curiosity), and hence must be trammeled as much as the discretionary powers of politicians and bureaucrats. It is this very opacity which justifies the collegium system established extraordinarily by the Supreme Court in its 1993 judgment. We are today faced by a situation where this opacity has adversely affected, in the eyes of four of the senior-most judges of the land (excluding the CJI, of course!), the proper functioning of the court in terms of the dischage of the administrative functions of the CJI. It is therefore quite consistent with the events of the day that Justice J Chelameswar was the only dissenting judge in the NJAC Judgment a judgment that reinforced the idea of opacity. What he and his brother judges complain of is that the current Chief Justice of India has, as the Master of Roster (a phrase that common people have had to recently acquaint themselves with), extended this principle of opacity and used it to protect what he feels is solely the turf of his office. And this, Justice Chelameswar and his brother judges find to be impermissible, a threat to the institution itself. Opacity has thus extended to internal workings the general principle, it would thus appear, has by its own application defeated its purpose. But it is in the extraordinary step of calling a press conference that one feels that irreparable and irreversible damage has been done to the principle of opacity. It is thankfully so, in the view of this author. After exposing the inner workings of the Supreme Court through the media, it would be hypocritical for Justice Chelameswars group to claim that the solution is merely to correct the ways of a seemingly errant CJI and to return to matters as they were. Just as Pandora could not put the lid back on her box, it ought to be apparent to all watchers that the Supreme Court cannot shut the door on an interested public again. Those who have never litigated before the Court would not have imagined that bench allocation can be cause for such acrimony. Those who feel that they were unjustly dealt with by the court in the past will wonder if things would have been different if another bench had heard their case. And therein lies the permanence of the damage to the courts credibility. Things simply ought not to be the same again. The author is a practising advocate before various courts in Delhi, including the Supreme Court. He tweets @TweetinderKaul. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday termed as a "serious matter" the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, and sought response from Maharashtra government on pleas seeking an independent probe into it. The top court said, "This matter requires bi-party hearing rather than ex parte". A bench of justices Arun Mishra and MM Shantanagoudar asked Maharashtra government counsel Nishant R Katneshwarkar to file reply by 15 January. At the outset, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing Bombay lawyers association, said the high court is seized of the matter and the apex court should not hear the pleas. "The Bombay High Court is seized of the matter and in my opinion the Supreme Court should not hear this matter. If the court goes ahead with the hearing, it may have implications before the high court," Dave said. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for one of the petitioners Maharashtra-based journalist BR Lone, said that she has also instructions from Bombay lawyers association that this matter should not be heard by the top court. The bench, however, said it will look into the petitions but will also consider the objections raised. Advocate Varinder Kumar Sharma, appearing for another petitioner Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla, said this is a case where a mysterious death of a judge has taken place on 1 December, 2014 and it needs to be investigated. The bench then asked Katneshwarkar to file the post mortem report and other relevant documents regarding the death of Judge Loya besides taking instruction from the government. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on 15 January. Loya had died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on 1 December, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. Auto refresh feeds "The democracy cannot survive without an independent judiciary. All our efforts to convince the Chief Justice have failed," he added. "With no pleasure in our hearts that we do this. But sometimes, the administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. We owe a responsibility to the nation to do this," says Justice Chelameswar. It appears that the four judges are upset with the Chief Justice Dipak Misra When pressed by the media, he acquiesced that this was about the BH Loya death case. "Today we went to the Chief Justice and asked him to do a certain thing," says Justice Chelameswar. "The four of them gave a signed letter to the CJI. We wanted a thing to be done in a particular manner. The thing was done an unsatisfactory manner," said Justice Chelameswar. However, they only had one copy of the letter. They have sent someone to get some photocopies of the letter. The judges try to distribute copies of the letter they gave to the CJI Justice Gogoi says there is nothing else to say, everything is in the letter Senior Advocate and former president of the SC Bar Association Dushyant Dave in The Indian Express has pointed at serious issues in the constitution of benches and the allocation of work to such benches by the Chief Justice. Bar and Bench had detailed the clash which took place between the CJI and Justice Chelameswar in November in Kamini Jaiswal's petition. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, on being asked if it is about CBI Judge BH Loya said, 'yes' "It's quite shocking. There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking," SC advocated KTS Tulsi tells ANI. "Issues don't matter. It is their complaint on administrative matter. They are only 4, there are 23 others. 4 get together and show the Chief Justice in a poor light. It is immature & childish behaviour," Justice R S Sodhi was quoted as saying by ANI. I think all four should be impeached. Four judges cannot come together and speak against the CJI like this. Why should the CJI cow down to them? "We are not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this instituition to some extent," Supreme Court judges' letter to CJI Dipak Misra. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra will meet Attorney General KK Venugopal shortly after the countrys top judiciary was rocked by an unprecedented press conference by four sitting judges. News18 reports that the meeting will take place at 1.30 pm. "Certain orders... have adversely affected judicial functioning... and independence of High Courts..." In another part, the letter reads, "Well settled... that Chief Justice is only first among equals nothing more, nothing less." The Chief Justice seeks to consult Venugopal on how to move further on this unprecedented development. We can't criticise them, they are men of great integrity and have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. Prime Minister must ensure that the four judges and Chief Justice of India, in fact, the whole Supreme Court come to one opinion and proceed further, ANI quoted Subramanian Swamy as saying. 1) Is top judiciary being run on whims? 2) Are most senior judges being bypassed by the CJI? 3) Are all big cases against Govt being assigned to "selective" benches 4) Is Govt interfering with highest judiciary? 5) Doesn't CJI need to answer? On Friday, Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph addressed the media to highlight their grievances about how cases are allocated in the Supreme Court. Read the full text of the letter issued by the four Supreme Court judges Sources tell ANI Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad about the allegations made by the four Supreme Court sitting judges. "Deeply sad and pained by the development. Also feel a sense of agony that highest court of land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media," says senior advocate Salman Khurshid. Former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde, was quoted as saying, "It is very unfortunate that the internal dispute of the judiciary was brought out in this manner publicly. What the four judges have done today by holding the press conference to bring out their dispute in public is that theyve denigrated the institution of judiciary... When the judiciary goes for public opinion it spells the end of judiciary." But it comes with a caveat, when the matter involves the Chief himself, the Chief shouldn't be involved in the decision to preserve integrity of the institution. But in this case, Misra didn't follow that procedure at all. The Chief Justice determines which judges/benches hears cases of a particular type (i.e Criminal Appeals go to X, Civil Appeals go to Y, Writs go to Z). When it comes to constituting larger benches though, that becomes CJI's absolute discretion (3 or more judges), just like any boss can decide who gets what special assignments. Ideally, the Chief gets this power cause he's expected to know who's the best person for the job. CJI determines which judges/benches hears cases, but when the matter involves the CJI himself, the chief shouldn't be involved Judges had to come before media and take this unprecedented step. This means that there is a serious dispute, either with Chief Justice of India or some internal dispute, says PB Sawant, former Supreme Court judge on press conference by four sititng Supreme Court judges Soon after the four judges ended their media address, the Chief Justice had called upon Attorney General KK Venugopal to chart his next course of action. According to sources in the Supreme Court, CJI Dipak Misra is likely to make a statement at a special hearing in a short while when the apex court resumes its proceedings for the day. The market crashed to its lowest to 34349.99 points at 12:45 pm, taking a hit by 256 points as compared to the figures at noon before the presser. The Bombay Stock Exchange stood at 34606 points at noon on Friday and fell to 34550.2 points at 12:15 pm, at the time the press conference of the Supreme Court judges began and further fell to 34423.8 at 12:35 pm, exactly five minutes after the press conference ended, plummeting by 183 points in a span of half an hour. The markets responded adversely after four Supreme Court judges held a press conference for the first time in the history of Independent India. Former Maharashtra Advocate General Shreehari Aney says, "I agree, some damage has been done to the office of Chief Justice of India (CJI), but this is not a permanent damage" Going to the press is the last resort. And if the four judges have taken this last resort it also says that there is something seriously wrong with the judiciary. But I wish these issues were settled internally. The required changes within the system should have been brought about internally." By this I dont mean to imply that Im supporting the Chief Justice of India. The four judges have got good reasons to challenge the monopoly of the CJI. But they should have challenged him in the confines of the four walls of the judiciary. There are reasons for people to be aggrieved with the system but unlike other wings the executive and the legislature the judiciary doesnt discuss its disputes in public. It is bound to protect its own integrity. "It is very unfortunate that the internal dispute of the judiciary was brought out in this manner publicly. What the four judges have done today by holding the press conference to bring out their dispute in public is that theyve denigrated the institution of judiciary. If the four judges have taken this last resort it also says that there is something seriously wrong with the judiciary: Santosh Hegde People have the right to know what's going on within the judiciary: Indira Jaisingh "We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court. #DemocracyInDanger," the Congress' official Twitter handle said. The Congress said "democracy is in danger" after four seniormost Supreme Court judges came out in the open to say that the situation in the apex court was "not in order". CJI Dipak Misra had called Attorney General KK Venugopal for the Unitech case and not about the judges press conference as some media outlets are putting it out, Bar and Bench tweeted. "The CJI is hearing cases like he does everyday," Bar and Bench further reported. "This is an internal matter of the judiciary, it is best they solve it themselves, a top source told CNN-News18 , adding that Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has received a copy of the dissenting note circulated by Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph. Top government sources told News18 that the Centre is likely to distance itself from the crisis, in the hope that the judges will be able to sort it among themselves. Let the judges sort it out among themselves: Centre plans to distance itself from crisis We can't criticise them, they are men of great integrity and have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. PM must ensure that the four judges and the CJI, in fact whole Supreme Court come to one opinion and proceed further, Swamy said. Bar Council of India says it was unaware of judges' internal matter, will meet tomorrow to discuss issue Speaking to IndiaToday senior advocate Indira Jaisingh said, "We all know that the Chief Justice of India is the master of the roasters, but he cannot behave arbitrarily. He has to take on record the feedback provided by his colleagues." Yes CJI is master of rosters but he can't be arbitrary in his choices: Indira Jaisingh Former Supreme Court Judge AK Ganguli said that the CJI cannot afford to be rigid on issues like this after all this is not a matter of clash of egos but a matter of principle. These should have been thrashed out within the institution, he added. "I heard that the justices said that they tried and approached the CJI but did not succeed. Well, the CJI must try and resolve this internally as he must first earn the confidence of his peers, that is how he will become the Chief and not my merely by seniority," Ganguly said. Judges should not make it an issue of egos but principle: Former judge AK Ganguly CNN-News 18 reported that the four judges who have come out in public against the CJI had differences on the matter of appointment of judges. While Justice Chelameswar was the lone dissenting voice, who spoke against the Collegium system, Justice Gogoi and Justice Joseph, however, said that the traditional system must be upheld. Meanwhile, CPM, another Left-wing party has demanded a thorough investigation "to understand how the independence and integrity of judiciary was being affected." According to a report by CNN-News28, CPI's D Raja met Justice Chelameswar, one of the four Supreme Court judges who held a press conference earlier today, speaking out publicly against the CJI. However, it was not clear whether Raja's meeting with the Supreme Court judge was related to the matter. Reports say that Raja shares a close family relation with Justice Chelameswar. According to CNN-News18, Chief Justice Dipak Misra will confirm later whether he wishes to go public with his response over the issues raised by four senior Supreme Court judges. It is likely that the CJI chooses to address his colleagues first, before going public with a statement, the report said. News18 said it has learnt from sources close to Justice Chelameswar that the judge is ready to hold a discussion with his colleagues to sort out the issue. He has also reportedly said that his intention was never to humiliate the CJI but he did what he could to raise his point. Mamata Banerjee tweeted on the issue, expressing her anguish and disappointment on the open fall out between Supreme Court judges. She, however, also added that "extreme interference of Central Government with Judiciary" is dangerous for society. The Congress senior leadership is in a huddle before they address the press on the party's stand on the crisis that unraveled today. The party will hold a press briefing at 6.30 pm. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a plea seeking inquiry on the death of Justice Loya. This issue was raised up today after four Supreme Court judges went public with their allegations that CJI is not following procedure on allotment of cases. When one of the media persons asked the judges, whether their grievance about allotment of cases also related to the Justice Loya case, the judges nodded in affirmative. Some legal luminaries also said the turn of events had raised a question mark about the credibility of the judicial system. The decision of four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court to hold a press conference was today termed as "unprecedented" by the legal fraternity, with some experts terming it as "shocking" while some others saying there could have been some compelling reasons for such a move. "As a retired judge of the Supreme Court, I feel devastated. "For some reason or the other, their cause is justified, (but) relief they are seeking is wrong...going to the media? No. Judiciary was always considered as a family. Family disputes are never taken to the streets," he told PTI. Expressing deep anguish over four Supreme Court judges going public on issues related to the apex court, former Solicitor General of India N Santosh Hegde today said he was "devastated" by their action which has caused "irreparable" damage to the institution. "What has happened today could have been avoided. The judges will now have to act in statesmanship and ensure that the divisiveness is wholly neutralised and total harmony and mutual understanding will prevail in future," he said. - PTI Attorney General KK Venugopal said the unprecedented move by the four Supreme Court judges in holding a press conference "could have been avoided" and the judges would now have to act in "statesmanship" to ensure complete harmony. The case of RP Luthra versus Union of India was specifically mentioned in the letter sent by four judges of the Supreme Court to the Chief Justice of India. The case pertained to appointments to the higher judiciary and the memorandum of procedure for doing soissues which were highlighted in the press conference called by the judges on Friday. A particular judge may have domain expertise in an area of law and therefore would be suitable for a particular matter while another judge may not. These decisions are often taken by the Chief Justice while assigning matters. While there is usually a system that is followed for most regular cases, when it comes to constituting special benches or assigning matters of constitutional import, the exercise of this power becomes as important as some of the decisions of the court itself. The record of the allotment of cases to benches is called the roster. The CJI is the first amongst equals at the Supreme Court and his judgments carry no more weight than any other judge of the court. But the CJI does have more administrative powers, which includes control on the roster. This means it is up to the CJI to decide which set of judges hears which matters. In the early years of its existence, the SC had only 7 judges and they would all hear matters together. But as the court expanded and its workload increased, the Supreme Court became an institution with multiple benches. "The judiciary is independent and reputed. They will resolve it themselves. The government should have no need to intervene," said MoS Law PP Chaudhary. Surjewala quoting the letter written by the four judges said that the Congress party is deeply disturbed by these developments. Speaking to the press, Congress spokesperson said that while the Congress party was deeply disturbed by these development, we would request the senior most judges to hear the case and appoint an independent SIT to probe it. "All citizens are looking at this issue and it must be addressed. It is an unprecedented move, so the questions raised by the four judges should be thoroughly looked into," Rahul Gandhi said. The four judges Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Madan B Lokur besides Justice Chelameswar released a letter they wrote to Justice Misra a couple of months ago, conceding that he was the master of roster but that was "not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual of the Chief Justice over his colleagues". At a hurriedly called press conference at his residence, Justice J Chelameswar and three other colleagues said the Supreme Court administration was "not in order" and their efforts to persuade Justice Misra even this morning "with a specific request" failed, forcing them to "communicate with the nation" directly. Divisions in the Supreme Court burst out in the open on Friday when four senior most judges took an unprecedented step of addressing the media to accuse Chief Justice Dipak Misra of breaching rules in assigning cases to appropriate benches, with one of them pointing to the plea regarding the mysterious death of Special CBI judge BH Loya. Omar Abdullah voices support for SC judges, says 'worst thing we can do is wish it away' Speaking to ANI , former additional solicitor general of India and the Supreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh said, "If they had to come for a press conference, then they should have said something substantial. Just creating doubts in the minds of people will not serve the interest of the judiciary. This was not properly planned. They didn't say anything about Justice Loya." Former ASG Vikas Singh says judges' press conference was not planned, should have said something 'substantial' Justice Chelameswar, who is set to retire as an apex court judge on 22 June this year, has also dealt with several important issues including Aadhaar and the JNU case which had witnessed violence inside the Patiala House Court complex in New Delhi. Justice Chelameswar was the lone judge who had dissented when a five-judge bench had struck down the constitution amendment and held as unconstitutional the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act. He was part of the nine-judge constitution bench which had declared right to privacy as a fundamental right. Justice Chelameswar had stoked controversy several times and was in the news for not attending the collegium meetings on the appointment of judges for higher judiciary. He is the second senior most judge of the apex court after Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra. Speaking to CNN-News18, Attorney General of India KK Venugopal said the press conference held by four senior Supreme Court judges could impact public confidence. "Public confidence in the Supreme Court of India may be affected. We will settle this matter completely," he said. CNN-News18 reported that the Supreme Court Bar Association will hold a meeting on Saturday over the judges' press conference on Friday at 5 pm. The SC Bar Association chief Vikas Singh will brief media at 6 pm. The news of their sudden exit spread like wildfire in the corridors of the apex court, sending a shockwave among the journalists, lawyers and litigants and leading the scribes to scramble to the venue of the presser, about four kilometres away. All four of them left the Supreme Court premises within minutes and gathered at the 4, Tughlaq Road Bungalow in Lutyen's Delhi, the official residence of Justice Chelameswar to hold an unscheduled press conference no Supreme Court judge had ever addressed the media publicly. Around 11.30 am, Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Kurian Joseph rose for the day in their respective court rooms, numbered 2 and 5. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, in the meantime, rushed through and disposed of most of the day's listed business, while Justice Madan B Lokur heard matters in his chamber. But a brewing judicial firestorm, invisible to all except four judges, erupted an hour later, taking the nation by surprise and plunging the judiciary into an unprecedented crisis whose reverberations will continue to ring for years to come. Nothing seemed amiss when the Supreme Court started work at 10.30 am on Friday, as always. Judges strode out of their chambers, lawyers fussed through the papers, litigants hung around and reporters took their assigned seats in court rooms. He further added that people would be failing in their national duty if they did not take note of this. "If political parties, or anyone concerned about the future of democracy in the country, don't take note of this, we fail in out national duty. It is a serious matter. All those who care about the future of the country and of democracy should raise their voice," Sinha said. Speaking to reporters, former finance minister Yashwant Sinha attacked the Central government over the short Winter Session of Parliament and said, "If the country's Parliament is not in order, the Supreme Court is not in order, then democracy is under threat in the country. If the four senior judges have gone public then how is it a Supreme Court matter alone? If you read the letter, one thing is clear that Supreme Court judges or benches were appointed selectively to hear certain cases." This has led to imagination of the country running wild. The institution derives its respect for the credibility it has garnered over these years. If the credibility goes, who will respect the institution? The press conference has only led to speculation, he added. There is no question of impeachment in this case. This has to be addressed within the system rather than going to press like this. You go for a press conference to reveal, but the intention of this press conference was to conceal, he told News18 . The Supreme Court Bar Association on Saturday dismissed possibility of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra's impeachment and said there was "no question" of it. Mishra further added that Bar Council is set to have a meeting at 5 pm on Saturday and meet the four senior judges on Sunday. "We have a meeting at 5 pm today (Saturday). Tomorrow (Sunday) our delegation will meet those senior judges, Chief Justice of India and other judges and request them to not bring issues like these in front of public," he said. According to ANI , chairman of Bar Council of India Manan Kumar Mishra criticised the four Supreme Court judges for holding a press conference on Friday. "Holding a press conference on a minor issue of roster is saddening," he said. "Let's hope everything works out very well. I am sure everything will be settled," he told reporters in New Delhi. Attorney General KK Venugopal expressed the hope that the crisis in the top judiciary following a revolt by four Supreme Court judges would be "settled". Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that "there is no crisis" when asked about the way forward to resolve the crisis. Asked whether their (judges') act had amounted to a violation of discipline, Gogoi refused to comment - PTI Justice Kurian Joseph said there was no constitutional crisis in the apex court and there are only problems in procedure they had objected to. "There will be no constitutional crisis and there are only problems in procedures and that will be corrected," Justice Kurian told reporters. IANS News18 reported that Bar Council of India's meeting has ended and it is expected to address media shortly. The Bar Council of India discussed the contents of the letter sent to the CJI on Friday, said Manan Mishra, council chairman. "There are enough mechanisms to address this inhouse. We discussed the contents of the letter. We have decided to form a seven-member delegation of judges. We will be meeting all the judges at the Supreme Court. We have already got appointment from 50 percent of the SC judges," said BCI chairman Manan Mishra He further said that the first move is to meet the rest of the judges, which means all judges excluding the CJI and the four judges who wrote the letter, reported News18. BCI chairman Mishra said that the matter has to be sorted out anyhow and cannot go out in the media again. On behalf on the Bar Council of India, he also appealed to the judges not to create such an opportunity again. The matter cannot go out in the media again: BCI chairman The Supreme Court Bar Association said that instead of playing out in public, the matter should be resolved in closed court. SCBA president Vikas Singh said that the association will meet the CJI before meeting the four judges. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Sunday separately met high-level delegations of top two lawyers' bodies -- BCI and SCBA -- and assured them that the crisis erupting after the revolt by the four seniormost judges against him would be sorted out soon and congeniality would prevail. "Our family is pained by the chain of events in past few days. Please don't harass us," Judge BH Loya's son, Anuj Loya said to the media during a press conference on Sunday. A seven-member Bar Council India (BCI) panel led by its chairman Manan Kumar Mishra had a 50-minute meeting with the CJI after hectic parleys with several apex court judges, with whom they shared the views of the apex body of the Bar regulating the lawyers. Mishra said they would hold a press conference on Monday to apprise about the BCI's day-long parleys with the judges of the apex court in the wake of the crisis. The BCI chairman said the panel met Justices J Chelameswar, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, and they also assured that everything would be sorted out. He did not mention whether the panel had any talks with Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who was not in the city. And there were all indications that there was something stinking in the corridors of the Supreme Court, to borrow a phrase from Justice Markandey Katju (he was referring to the Allahabad High Court). All this was exposed in a jiffy as the judges pointed fingers at CJIs alleged indiscretion in allocating cases to benches and his other administrative functioning. It was brewing for some time is the general refrain if you talk to anyone conversant with what is going on. Letters were being secretly written to judges and circulating, pointing out skeletons in cupboards hidden from public view. Insinuation and innuendo over the formation of benches on certain issues of critical economic and political importance were the order of the day. For those who have access to portals of the Supreme Court, the spectacle of four of its senior most judges raising the banner of revolt against their Chief Justice did not come as a surprise, but rather a conspiracy to alter the course of history. According to The Times of India , there have been fifteen 'super sensitive' cases which have been handled by junior judges and not the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court. These cases include Bofors, Rajiv Gandhi assassination, LK Advani's trial in Babri masjid demolition, Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter, Best Bakery and the case that changed how BCCI, reported the publication. According to Hindustan Times, the petition challenging the validity of the Aadhaar scheme will be heard by a five-member Constitutional bench on Wednesday. According to Hindustan Times, there are three more cases that will be heard by the Constitution bench this week. One of the cases refers to an IPC code that makes adultery a criminal offense for a man but not a woman. Another case that will come up for hearing is Section 377, which criminalizes homosexuality. The final case pertains to the ban on women from entering the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. Of frequent reference is also the case of caste. It is argued that the judiciary, populated by as much as 95 percent of its constituency by individuals of the Brahmin caste, is Brahmanical. This criticism resurfaced in the defiance and subsequent punishment of Justice CS Karnan whose persecution, it is said, was about his caste. Based on the letter to the CJI, the four justices made public on Friday, it seems clear that the main point of contention at present is the delay in implementing the Memorandum of Procedure towards the appointment of judges in India. "...there should be no further delay in finalisation of MOP in larger public interest," the SC order in the Luthra case had said and was reiterated by the four judges as well in their letter to the CJI. The RP Luthra case is at the centre of the whole fiasco. To convey the "less than desirable" things taking place inside the apex court, the four justices referred to a letter that they had written to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. The letter mentions an order passed in the case RP Luthra vs Union Of India Ministry Of Law And Another respondents passed on 27 October. What does the order in the RP Luthra case say that made the four justices speak publicly against the CJI? "We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court. #DemocracyInDanger," the Congress' official Twitter handle said. The Congress said "democracy is in danger" after four senior-most Supreme Court judges came out in the open to say that the situation in the apex court was "not in order". According to a News18 report, Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde is brokering peace between Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on one side and four other senior-most judges Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph on the other. According to Times Now, Attorney General KK Venugopal, who is heading to the Supreme Court, has said that all the courts will be functioning as usual and that everything is okay in the Supreme Court. Regardless of the roster, it will be "business as usual" today at the Supreme Court, the four judges have reportedly told members of the Bar Council. "The judges will hear whatever is assigned to them," said sources. According to NDTV, every day, before work begins, all judges convene at the judges lounge and have coffee. However, the report claimed that on Monday, all court staff were asked to leave the lounge. Four retired judges including an ex-Supreme Court judge have written an open letter to the Chief Justice of India urging him to resolve the ongoing crisis. According to an Economic Times report, the four judges have backed the four rebelling judges on the issue of allocation of cases. Four senior-most Supreme Court judges, who had held an unprecedented press conference and raised issue of assignment of cases, today attended court and took up routine work, PTI reported. The four judges -- Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- have taken up their respective business on the first working day of the top court after the 12 January press conference. According to NDTV, Supreme Court advocate RP Luthra has raised the judges issue before the Chief Justice of India's bench. The advocate is believed to have said that there is conspiracy to destroy the institution and Misra must take action. The report added that Misra listened to him and smiled without answering him. Attorney General KK Venugopal was quoted by NDTV as saying that everything has been settled after an informal meeting in the morning today. he added that the courts are functioning. Nevertheless, Chief Justice Misra is yet to reach out to Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph, who took him on in an extraordinary press conference on Friday last. He said that the view expressed by the retired judges is "quite similar to the views of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) that till this crisis is resolved, the important matters should be listed before a five-judge Constitution bench of senior judges". Justice Shah confirmed having written an open letter along with the other retired judges and told PTI, "We have written the open letter which the other judges named in the letter have also consented to." An open letter by former apex court judge PB Sawant, ex-chief justice of Delhi High Court AP Shah, former Madras High Court judge K Chandru and ex-Bombay High Court judge H Suresh was given to the media. It has also gone viral on social media. "I met the CJI and handed over a copy of the resolution. He said that he would look into it and ensure there was congeniality in the Supreme Court at the earliest," Singh told PTI after his 15-minute meeting with the CJI. Supreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh on Sunday met the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and handed over a resolution on the crisis in the apex judiciary to him. The senior lawyer told PTI that he handed over a copy of the SCBA resolution to the CJI, who assured him that he would look into it. Sinha, however, insisted that it was for the apex court to sort out the crisis after the four senior judges virtually revolted against the country's chief justice on Friday, raising questions on "selective" case allocation and certain judicial orders. "Every citizen who feels for democracy should speak up. I will ask party (BJP) leaders and senior cabinet ministers to speak up. I will appeal to them to get rid of their fears and speak up," he said. Sinha said "if four senior most Supreme Court judges say democracy is under threat, we have to take their words very seriously"" "The Chief Justice's administrative power effectively transform itself into a power to significantly influence the outcomes of cases (sic)," Bhatia further said. Bhatia argued that two features in the Indian legal system "the splitting up of the Supreme Court into multiple different benches, and the massive backlog of cases" make these powers problematic. "In this context, the Chief Justice's powers to assign cases to benches and to decide when a case is to be heard become very significant," he said in one tweet. Advocate Gautam Bhatia, in a series of tweets, said on Friday that in the last 20 years, the office of the Chief Justice of India has received a lot of power without having any system of accountability to keep it in check. When asked how can such a major development be solved "internally", BCI chief Manan Kumar Mishra said that it was a matter "within a family" which has been resolved after the judges meet in the CJI's chambers at 10.30 on Monday morning. Two days after four Supreme Court judges held a press conference citing lack of accountability and integrity in the apex court, the Bar Council of India told the media on Monday that "it was an internal issue and it has been resolved internally." Justice Loyas son, Anuj, said he did not have any doubts about the way his father died three years ago. "I had an emotional turmoil, hence I had suspicions about his death. But now we don't have any doubts about the way he died," he told reporters at a press conference. The family of Justice BH Loya on Sunday said the death of the special CBI judge , who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh "fake encounter" case, was being politicised and urged all parties to refrain from taking advantage of the situation. "Why drag the Judge Loya case into this? As you can see, Judge Loya's family has said that they do not have any doubts on the matter," says BCI chief Manan Kumar Misra. "We did not want any political party to take advantage of the situation. Everyone are discharging their duties and everything has been resolved as the Attorney General has also said," BCI chief Manan Mishra told media on Monday. The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Monday said its members have met 15 judges of the Supreme Court following the crisis in the apex judiciary and they have assured that the issues have been resolved. "Kahani khatam ho gaya (the story is now over)", BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told a press conference in New Delhi. He also said that political parties should not try and take mileage out of the January 12 press conference by the four senior most apex court judges to flag some problems, including the assigning of cases. The story is over, says BCI; asks politicos to not take advantage of issue "All four senior most judges have resolved the differences and are attending the court. There is no need of any action on these four judges; all of them are honest and men of integrity," said BCI Chairman, Manan Kumar Misra. A day after Attorney General KK Venugopal called the ongoing crisis in Supreme Court a "storm in a tea cup", on Tuesday said the crisis seems to be unresolved and hoped it will be "fully settled" in a couple of days. CBI judge BH Loya, was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case when he passed away. After doubts were raised around the circumstances of his death, two pleas were filed by BR Lone, a Maharashtra-based journalist and activist Tehseen Poonawala, seeking a probe in the death. BR Lone's petition sought a probe saying there were several contradictions emerging in the matter, according to The Indian Express . Tehseen Poonawala, in his plea contended that circumstances of the death of the judge were questionable, mysterious and contradicting. A Constitution Bench comprising CJI Dipak Misra, Justice AK Sikri, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan has been constituted to hear important cases including those on Aadhaar, decriminalisation of homosexuality, validity of adultery law under IPC, entry of women into Sabarimala temple etc. It will start the hearings from 17 January. The Bar Council of India on Tuesday said there was "absolutely no crisis now" in the Supreme Court and normalcy will be restored soon in the higher judiciary that saw four top judges coming out in the open against the Chief Justice of India. Judge BH Loya's death case must not be confidential, the Supreme Court said in a 5-minute hearing. Everything must be before the public. Tehseen Poonawala told Times Now that SC has ordered that all documents should be given over to him. He said that his faith in the judiciary has been restored as the case was not dismissed. SC said that all documents must be given to me: Tehseen Poonawala Maharashtra government tells Supreme Court that barring certain confidential reports placed by it, the petitioners can access other documents. CJI meets the four dissenting judges. Holds talks for 15 minutes over possible solutions to the issues raised The discussion took between the CJI and the four dissenting judges, reported CNN-News18. The meeting was cordial and everyone agreed that the issues were important than the personalities. The issues are expected to be resolved by the end of the week. The discussions are expected to continue tomorrow, according to NDTV. However it could take some time to resolve everything as many issues were raised by the dissenting judgments. Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday said he had filed a complaint against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in the medical college scam case and requested five senior most apex court judges, including the four rebel judges, to hold an in-house inquiry into the matter. "Nagpur Police undertook a thorough investigation in this case and his death was due to a heart attack", Shivaji Bodkhe, Joint Commissioner of Police, Nagpur told reporters. "The postmortem, as well as the forensic reports too, confirm the same. There was nothing unusual in the report," he said. The Nagpur Police on Tuesday said that there was no cause for suspicion regarding the death of judge Loya and that he had indeed died of a heart attack. The Supreme Court made certain observations in the Bofors case regarding who can file a case in criminal matters, reported The Times of India . This could have an effect on the Loya case as all the PILs in the case have been filed by advocate associations or individuals who had no connection with the judge. However there are numerous instances where incidents have come up where Aadhaar's secureness has been questioned. These include app-based flaws, disclosures on government websites, third party leaks, sale of data etc. Click here for report on all of these incidents. Despite the number of reports over the last couple of years, UIDAI has constantly maintained that the server and the data itself, especially biometric data is safe. He goes on to insist that we should "applaud the UIDAI for being responsive to the concerns of the public. We need to recognise that providing a unique, secure identification, with instant authentication anywhere, to 1.3 billion Indians is an evolving endeavour." In an article in the Hindustan Times , Nandan Nilekani argues that the concern about the linking of Aadhaar to various services are over-hyped and baseless. Policy expert Alok Prasanna Kumar weighs in on the possible change of bench in the Loya case Suhrith Parthasarathy argues in The Hindu that the government will, no doubt, argue that Aadhaar can bring about many benefits. However any policy, howsoever poorly framed, will likely bring about certain gains. The question is ultimately one of proportionality and justice. Arguing that the government's aim is to create a seamless police state, which will chill our freedom and give the State rampant power he asks whether the Supreme Court will dare to stop this. In the five years that the Supreme Court has been hearing the Aadhaar petitions, the number of people issued Aadhaar numbers have gone up from 20-25 crore in 2012 to 119 crore, reports NDTV . Legally speaking, the petition is being termed as an 'intervention application' which has yet to be accepted by the SC. There is no clarity on when it will be heard according to legal experts who have spoken to ET. According to an Economic Times report, a petition has been filed by the Digital Lenders Association of India (DLAI) which comprises startups such as CapitalFloat, LendingKart, ZestMoney, IndiaLends as well as early-stage investment firms and companies which provide authentication services and background verifications. These companies are particularly appealing to ensure advantages such as eKYC offered by Aadhaar help a lot in real-time verification of customers. The court will take up 29 pleas against Aadhaar. The final hearing on the pleas challenging Aadhaar comes five years since the first was filed. Livelaw reported that the petitioners argue that details for Aadhaar are collected by private contractors and NGOs hired by UIDAI without any safeguard. This makes them prone to misuse. They claimed that empirical research shows that the biometric identification denoted for UID, namely the the iris scan and fingerprint identification, is faulty and is could be abused. "A new day seems to be in order in the Supreme Court after clouds over its cohesiveness and probity. The CJI should now show the light and redeem the institution's glory by getting all his brother and sister judges along, to end this crisis and convert it into a chance to bring about all necessary institutional reforms," writes Utkarsh Anand on News18 . "Tuesday was a sunny day at the Supreme Court after days of clouds over its cohesiveness and probity" Petitioners argue that if the Aadhaar programme is allowed to continue unimpeded, it will hollow out the Constitution Petitioners: The case at hand is unique. There are few judicial precedents to guide us Petitioners: The State is empowered with a switch by which it can cause the civil death of an individual Shyam Divan for the petitioners: You cannot live as a citizen of India without an Aadhaar Shyam Divan takes Court through work of the petitioners to counter the State's claims that there are only elitist concerns against Aadhaar India Today reported that the CJI is meeting the judges for lunch. Three of the dissenting judges are present at the meeting. Justice Chelameswar is absent. Justice Bobde and Justice Goel are not present as well. A total of five countries Uruguay, New Zealand, France, Brazil, and England and Wales legalised gay sex in 2013. Here is the full report on how the world has changed its views on homosexuality since 2013. The final arguments in Aadhaar case begin before the Constitution Bench of Supreme Court. At the start of the arguments, Attorney General sought time bound arguments. A-G reminded the Bench that Ramjanmabhoomi land title dispute case is also scheduled to be taken up from 8 February. Senior Advocate Shyam Divan today submitted in court that Aadhaar seems too alter the relationship between the citizen and the State, while diminishing the status of the citizen. All rights, a citizen could earlier freely assert have now been made part of a compulsory barter, averring, The barter compels the citizen to give up his biometrics voluntarily, unless the number is seeded in databases of the service provider, the citizen is denied access to these most essential facilities. "Inalienable and natural rights are dependent on a compulsory exaction. Justice Chandrachud asked that if the government ensures that Aadhaar data is used only for the purpose it is collected, will it address the concerns raised by the petitioners. To this the petitioner's lawyer replied that the design in itself is bad as it allows State domination. Shyam Divan further argued that the problem is not that whether the State is actually tracking its citizens or not but the fact that the Aadhaar makes it possible. Ensuring Aadhaar data is not misused not enough to grant it legality, petitioners argue in case Justices AK Sikri and DY Chandrachud seek to know how is the Aadhaar biometrics system different from the biometrics for US Visa? #AadhaarCase | Shyam Divan also argues that #Aadhaar Act cannot be used to deny basic amenities, rights or benefits pic.twitter.com/nSUvl1Gb4L #Aadhaar case: Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Shyam Divan, appearing for petitioners, told the five-judge Constitution bench that ' #Aadhaar may cause death of citizens' civil rights. A people's Constitution is being sought to be converted into a State's Constitution.' Senior Advocate Shyam Divan today submitted in court that Aadhaar seems too alter the relationship between the citizen and the State, while diminishing the status of the citizen. All rights, a citizen could earlier freely assert have now been made part of a compulsory barter, averring, The barter compels the citizen to give up his biometrics voluntarily, unless the number is seeded in databases of the service provider, the citizen is denied access to these most essential facilities. "Inalienable and natural rights are dependent on a compulsory exaction. Justice Chandrachud asked that if the government ensures that Aadhaar data is used only for the purpose it is collected, will it address the concerns raised by the petitioners. To this the petitioner's lawyer replied that the design in itself is bad as it allows State domination. Shyam Divan further argued that the problem is not that whether the State is actually tracking its citizens or not but the fact that the Aadhaar makes it possible. Ensuring Aadhaar data is not misused not enough to grant it legality, petitioners argue in case Justices AK Sikri and DY Chandrachud seek to know how is the Aadhaar biometrics system different from the biometrics for US Visa? #Aadhaar : You make take several steps to prevent leakages. But still an architecture which allows surveillance is not be permissible, Shyam Divan. SD: the UK abandoned its identity system beacause it was "unsafe, untested.... and could be a threat to personal rights." (still quoting the Standing Committee) Latest updates: Congress leader and senior advocate Salman Khurshid termed this a sad day as he commented on the unprecedented public fall out between the Supreme Court judges. He said that the roster related differences will always remain, until a computerised system is introduced. The Congress party will addres a media briefing at 6.30 pm today. According to latest reports, the Chief Justice of India is hearing cases like he always does. Bar and Bench reported that there will be no media briefing at 2 pm as media earlier reported. The report also clarified that CJI Dipak Misra met Attorney-General KK Venugopal over Unitech case and not to discuss the judges press conference. Meanwhile, top government sources told News18 that the Centre is likely to distance itself from the crisis, in the hope that the judges will be able to sort it among themselves. "This is an internal matter of the judiciary, it is best they solve it themselves, a top source told CNN-News18, adding that Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has received a copy of the dissenting note circulated by Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph. Reacting to the press conference which shocked everyone, The Congress said "democracy is in danger" after four seniormost Supreme Court judges came out in the open to say that the situation in the apex court was "not in order". Meanwhile, several former judges, current advocates and politicians reacted to the unprecedented press conference held by four sitting Supreme Court judges. The opinion on whether the four sitting judges were right in calling the press conference was heavily divided by few supporting them and others saying that the move was "childish and immature" and that they have denigrated the institution and the sanctity of the judiciary. Meanwhile, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra will address the media shortly and ANI reported that Attorney General KK Venugopal will accompany him. The CJI, earlier, met Venugopal soon after the countrys top judiciary was rocked by an unprecedented press conference by four sitting judges. At the press meet, Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior-most judge in the top court, said the administration of the top court is not in order and that efforts to convince Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had failed. Chelameswar sounded caution over the survival of democracy and replying to a question on whether the CJI should be impeached said it was for the nation to decide. Apart from J Chelameswar, other sitting judges present included Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph. The media briefing has been organised by Justice Chelameswar at his house. The four judges who will address the media are Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur, Justice Kurian Joseph. "It is an extremly painful moment for all four of us and there is no pleasure in holding this press conference," Justice J Chelameswar told the press on Friday. Justice Chelameswar, the second senior most judge in the Supreme Court, today said the administration of the apex court is "sometimes not in order" and many "less than desirable things" have taken place. Besides Justice Chelameswar, the other judges were Justices Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph. "Sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened...," Justice Chelameswar said. The press conference was called at his Tughlaq Road residence here. Ahmednagar: Social activist Anna Hazare on Friday congratulated the four Supreme Court judges for airing their views about the way the top court was functioning. The areas of concern flagged by the four senior judges of the apex court "show that there is some kind of a nexus between some people in this government and some judges", the octogenarian told PTI. This nexus had harmed the democracy, Hazare said and congratulated the four judges for making their concerns public. There should be an inquiry and the chief justice of India as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government should come out with a clarification on the issue, he said, speaking over phone from Ralegan Siddhi, his native village. Four senior judges of the Supreme Court on Friday mounted a virtual revolt against the chief justice of India, listing a litany of problems that they said were afflicting the country's highest court and warned that these issues could destroy the Indian democracy. New Delhi: The issues raised by the four senior Supreme Court judges in the unprecedented press conference on Friday are an "internal" matter of the judiciary, highly placed sources said, indicating that the government is unlikely to interfere. The government has no say in it and does not wish to interfere, the sources said. It is an internal matter of the judiciary, the sources in the government said. However, they also added that the apex court should settle the issue at the earliest as the faith of the people in the judiciary is at stake. In an unprecedented move, four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court on Friday called a press conference and said the situation in the top court was "not in order" and many "less than desirable" things have taken place. The second senior judge after the Chief Justice of India, Justice J Chelameswar, said, "... sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months". The other judges who were present at the press conference were Justices Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph. Official sources in the law ministry said Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has not met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard so far. Click here for LIVE updates on Supreme Court judges row In an unprecedented turn of events, four judges of the Supreme Court conducted a press briefing where they raised questions of propriety against the functioning of the apex court. The second senior judge after the Chief Justice of India, Justice J Chelameswar, was accompanied by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice MB Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph at the briefing. The judges said that the situation in the top court was "not in order" and many "less than desirable" things have taken place. Justice Chelameswar said all the four judges "failed to persuade CJI that certain things are not in order and therefore you should take remedial measures. Unfortunately our efforts failed. And all four of us are convinced that democracy is at stake and many things have happened in recent past." Asked what these issues were, he said they included the "allocation of cases by CJI". When asked by the media if the issue was about the case involving the death of CBI Judge BH Loya, Justice Gogoi said, "yes." However, this was hardly the first time that fissures have appeared between the Chief Justice and the other judges. Kamini Jaiswal case In November 2017, the court was involved in heated drama when it overturned the order passed by a two-judge bench headed by Justice Chelameswar to set up a larger bench to hear a plea for an SIT probe into graft allegations involving a retired Orissa High Court judge. After a 90-minute hearing, the Constitution bench consisting of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice RK Agrawal, Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Amitava Roy and Justice AM Khanwilkar said that the CJI was the "master of rolls" and he alone can assign cases to different benches and decide composition of benches. The order had come a day after the two-judge bench headed by Justice Chelameswar ordered the setting up of a five-judge constitution bench to hear a corruption case involving former Orissa High Court judge, IM Quddusi. Quddusi, who was the High Court judge between 2004 and 2010, is alleged to have helped a private medical college to admit students to MBBS courses despite the Supreme Court barring the institutes from doing so. A petition filed by Supreme Court advocate Kamini Jaiswal had sought an investigation into the case by a court-monitored SIT. The petition was taken up for hearing by the bench headed by Justice Chelameswar. The five-judge bench eventually rejected Jaiswal's plea seeking the special probe, calling it 'contemptuous' and 'derogatory'. Justice Jayant Patel's resignation Going further back to September 2017, the senior-most judge of the Karnataka High Court, Jayant Patel, resigned without clearly stating the reasons for quitting. While Patel did not cite any particular reason for his resignation, reports suggest that he was unhappy about not being made the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court and also about his transfer to Allahabad. In an interview to Bar and Bench, Patel said that he wants to be relieved from the institution. The ubiquitous theory was that Patel was not keen on going to Allahabad on a transfer. In Karnataka High Court, he was due for elevation as Chief Justice or Acting Chief Justice after incumbent SN Mukherjees retirement on 9 October but instead, he got transferred to Allahabad High Court. This wasn't the first time that Patel had been transferred just before he was due for a promotion. Earlier too, the Gujarat High Court Bar had raised the issue of non-appointment of Patel as Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court and had written a letter to the collegium regarding vacancies in high courts. This was when he was transferred as a judge in the Karnataka High Court after being an acting Chief Justice. It is instructive to note here that Patel was the judge who had ordered a CBI probe in the fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan, while he was posted at the Gujarat High Court. Following the resignation, the Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association had gone on a strike and filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging Patel's transfer just before his elevation as the chief justice of Karnataka High Court, The Times of India had reported. The Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC) and the Advocates Association of Bengaluru also condemned Patel's transfer. Legal circles had expected Patel to be elevated to the Supreme Court if he was not elevated as the chief justice because the apex court has no representation from Gujarat since Justice AR Dave demitted office, according to The Economic Times. Click here to follow LIVE updates on the SC judges issue. With inputs from agencies Editor's note: The case of RP Luthra versus Union of India was specifically mentioned in the letter sent by four judges of the Supreme Court to the Chief Justice of India. The case pertained to appointments to the higher judiciary and the memorandum of procedure for doing soissues which were highlighted in the press conference called by the judges on Friday. The following article details how the Supreme Court's order in the RP Luthra case played a part in the controversy which erupted on Friday. A 2015 decision by five judges of the Supreme Court in Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association v Union of India & Anr [(2016) 5 SCC 1] struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and kept in place the collegium system for the appointment of judges. Under this system, the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court act as a collegium and appoint the judges of the higher judiciary. They follow a procedure which involves consultation with the central and concerned state governments and this procedure is known as the Memorandum of Procedure (MOP). One of the outcomes of the NJAC case was that the MoP was to be tweaked and modified in order to take into account more recent developments, particularly keeping in mind the interest of transparency. After the decision in the NJAC case, there was a long tussle between the government and the Supreme Court about the MoP. Former CJI TS Thakur came out openly in criticism of the government for holding up judicial appointments citing the fact that the MP had not been finalised yet. But in March 2017, the MoP was finalised and sent to the government during the tenure of Chief Justice JS Khehar. In May 2017, the Supreme Court sentenced a sitting judge of the Calcutta High Court to six months imprisonment for contempt. The case titled In re.: Hon'ble Shri Justice C.S. Karnan [(2017) 1 SCC ] was a judgment delivered by a bench of seven judges of the Supreme Court. It was the first time in the history of India and perhaps the history of the Commonwealth of Nations that a sitting judge of the higher judiciary had been convicted of criminal contempt. In a separate concurring opinion authored by Justice Chelameswar, he raised the following: "This case, in our opinion, has importance extending beyond the immediate problem. This case highlights two things, (1) the need to revisit the process of selection and appointment of judges to the constitutional courts, for that matter any member of the judiciary at all levels; and (2) the need to set up appropriate legal regime to deal with situations where the conduct of a Judge of a constitutional court requires corrective measures - other than impeachment to be taken." (Paragraph 26, Justice Chelameswar Separate Opinion in In re.: Hon'ble Shri Justice C.S. Karnan [(2017) 1 SCC) This brings us to the order dated 27 October 2017 in RP Luthra v Union of India. In this case, the petitioner prayed that the MoP be finalised at the earliest and that appointments for the Chief Justices of the High Courts should be initiated prior to the date at which the outgoing Chief Justice is scheduled to leave. This raised an interesting query. If the MoP had been finalised in March 2017 itself, how would this still be an open question? This case was heard by a two-judge bench, and it referred to the Justice CS Karnan case and decided to consider submissions on the finalisation of the MoP and appointment of Chief Justices to the High Courts. This decision was passed during the tenure of the current Chief Justice Dipak Misra. In the early years of its existence, the Supreme Court had only seven judges and they would all hear matters together. Which meant that each case would come before all the judges of the Court. But as the Court expanded and its workload increased, the Supreme Court became an institution with multiple benches. Matters are heard by benches of the court comprising of one, two, three, five, seven judges or more judges depending on the matter. The record of the allotment of cases to benches is called the roster. The Chief Justice is the first amongst equals at the Supreme Court and the Chief Justices judgments carry no more weight than any other judge of the Court. But the Chief Justice does have powers on the administrative side. These powers include controlling the roster. This means it is up to the Chief Justice to decide which set of judges hears which matters and this power, like any other power, is something that needs to be exercised with care. A particular judge may have domain expertise in an area of law and therefore would be suitable for a particular matter while another judge may not. These decisions are often taken by the Chief Justice while assigning matters. While there is usually a system that is followed for most regular cases, when it comes to constituting special benches or assigning matters of constitutional import, the exercise of this power becomes as important as some of the decisions of the court itself. For example, last year much controversy fell upon the court due to the manner in which petitions concerning the UP Medical College Scam petitions were listed. This author at the time wrote about the controversy in detail and will not repeat himself here. But this is just one example of how, the mere act of bench constitution and listing of matters begin to bring an institution into a shroud of unnecessary controversy. This afternoon, something unprecedented happened. Four of the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court after the Chief Justice held a press conference at the residence of Justice Chelameswar wherein they expressed certain reservations about the manner in which the Supreme Court was presently being run. They presented their issues in the form of a letter that they had earlier addressed to the Chief Justice. The letter in particular dealt with the 27 October 2017 order in RP Luthra v Union of India. It sought to know how a decision that concerned a matter settled by a Constitution Bench was assigned to a bench of two judges. Further, the letter alleges that matters were being assigned by Chief Justices of the Supreme Court to benches of their preference. In the press conference, they said that democracy was at stake and that there was "selective assignment of cases to preferred judges" and that "sensitive cases were being allotted to junior judges". They flagged concerns about the handling of the judge Loya case (Judge Loya was the special CBI judge who was hearing a murder case against Amit Shah and mysteriously died in 2014). In the letter they sent to the Chief Justice, they state that the Chief Justice is the first amongst equals, nothing more, nothing less. This is the first time in the history of India that there has been open dissent within the ranks of the Supreme Court and the judges at the press conference expressed pain at the fact that they had to resort to taking such a step. However, they felt this step was necessitated. They had raised the letter with the Chief Justice two months ago, but their plea was not heeded and they had raised similar plea this morning, but no steps were taken. As of writing this story, there has been no statement from the office of the Chief Justice of India. If the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court are saying that the Chief Justice is allocating matters according to his preference and there are issues that arise from these allocations, it means that all is not well with Indias top court and that is something that the nation ought to be seriously worried about. The most problematic thing about the 27 October 2017 order is that it reopens the MoP. The Government had not responded to the MoP sent by the Supreme Court in March of 2017, which meant that it was deemed that the government had accepted it. New judicial appointments had been made under the revised MoP since then. But the 27 October 2017 order reopened the question of the MoP and allowed for the government once more to give its comments via the Attorney General. This was effectively a backdoor reopening of a settled issue without resorting to an ordinary judicial process and to be frank, before todays letter from these four judges, most people in the country were not aware of this order of grave constitutional significance. How did an MoP that was final in March suddenly become non-final in October of the same year? How did a matter that was to be decided by a five judge bench, suddenly get reopened by a two judge bench? Does this not cast doubts as to how matters concerning issues in which the government is involved are being allocated? The letter is scathing in its words and content. It is going to go down as an indictment of the Chief Justices tenure as first amongst equals in administering the court. For all we may know, there may have been zero foul play involved here and everything that was happening was in accordance with law and practice. But the manner in which the cases have been allocated shows that there has been a deviation from propriety that would have ordinarily been required and expected from a judicial institution. Judicial intuitions do not exercise coercive power. Only the executive does that, for it is the executive that has the power to compel people to do things by force (i.e the police, the army etc). The judiciary exercises institutional soft power, a power that is founded on trust and is based on its ability to act with integrity. For this power to be sustained, the institution must be one that is raised to a level where even the slightest doubt about its integrity cannot be cast. The tenure of the current Chief Justice has so far seen more than one controversy now, one regarding the UP Medical Colleges, one concerning the allocation of the judge Loya case and one today with four of the senior-most judges stepping up and saying that there is something wrong with how he is allocating cases. Todays events call for introspection on what led to them, what necessitated them and how these institutions will recover from them. The reform of these institutions has to come from within, for an institution is only as good as the people who run it and a democracy is only as good as its institutions. If our country and our institutions have to survive, our judiciary needs to begin to introspect and see how the events in the last few months have affected the public confidence. Remedial measures need to be taken. Far too much is at stake to allow for these remedial measures to be taken by a body politic, for if our most independent of institutions are allowed to be politicised, everything that is worth defending and keeping in our democracy will be lost. Follow live updates here New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj helped an Indian woman in bringing back the mortal remains of her son, with whom she was travelling from Australia to India, after he died suddenly at the Kuala Lumpur international airport. The minister's response came after a netizen sought her help in the matter through a tweet. Dear @SushmaSwaraj @MEAIndia * URGENT AND KIND REQUEST *one of my close friend & his mom travelled from Australia to India. In Kuala Lumpur International Airport, my friend collapsed suddenly and passed away. My Friend's mom is alone in KLIA and don't know much to get help.(1/2) Ramesh (@rameshkumar132) January 10, 2018 Following his tweet, Swaraj assured help from the Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur and said the body would be flown to India at the government's expense. Later, she tweeted, Narendranath Datta was, even for his time, was a very unusual man. In the twenty-first century, whose precursor he barely lived to witness, civilisation has become an axis of contestation; it is accepted, and not only understood, that civilisation is a political idea which Europe employed to rebrand its imperial pursuit of colonialism as a cultural crusade against savage, barbaric civilisations. In India, this took the shape of a somewhat different image that of the fallen civilisation, whose depredations were its barbarism in need of Britannic civilisation. Datta, however, was the first to speak of civilisations in light of the two that impinged so greatly on his philosophical world, the spiritual East and the dynamic, progressive West to have done so in the nineteenth century is as unprecedented as it appears. Datta, or as we now call him, Swami Vivekananda, may not have lived for long, but it is evident that his ideas have outlasted his atypically short life. Prime Minister Narendra Modi frequently cites Vivekananda as a source of inspiration, lauding the monk for breathing life into a moribund civilisation and thus igniting the serene flame of resurgence "after thousands of years of slavery", a faithful reiteration of Vivekananda's representation of India's Islamic past. Many organisations and political groups use the swami in their rich tributes, and for the young among them, such as the ABVP, 12 January has become the National Youth Day. One is not quite sure why that could be, but it is apparent that Vivekananda still lives. To answer this question is to remember this modern monk and his encounters with civilisation, pertinent in so far as India today attempts to understand and articulate its civilisation against the shadow of the West. Datta was born in Calcutta in 1863 to a family of diverse religious and philosophical inclinations. It is rarely known, let alone acknowledged, that there is a great pre-history to the making of the monk and that much of it is antithetical to the ideas that Vivekananda would subsequently develop and embrace. He was deeply influenced by the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, a faction of the Brahmo Samaj, whose cardinal attempt was to fashion a Hindu faith and society in strict consonance with the prototype of Christianity. Indeed, there was a considerable identitarian fluidity in the period as conversions to Christianity were widespread, offset in some cases by a waapsi to Hinduism, as Keshab Chandra Sen dramatically made, establishing the Nava Vidhan. Datta read JS Mill, Immanuel Kant, JS Mill, even Friedrich Hegel in the period, coming to be influenced by Herbert Spencer's meditations on education. Although he was lauded for his intellectual rigour and genius, this, in the bare history of ideas, was unexceptional in reference to what Vivekananda would later go on to do the colonial encounter forced on the nineteenth-century intelligentsia a sentiment of civilisational inferiority against the West and a related, simultaneous desire to facilitate the work of colonialism by urging the emulation of the West, even in matters of faith. Much of it took the form of the movement for social reform in general and Sens Band of Hope in particular, identifying evils like Sati and even 'drinking and smoking' as civilisational depredations against a forgotten ancient glory. In this period, Datta came to locate himself in the intellectual trends of monotheism and European transcendentalism, premised on ingenious modern readings of certain monumental texts that were dubbed to be India's sacred texts in line with the Bible, especially the Upanishads. Vivekananda's meeting with Ramakrishna, a chance event presaged by the former's interest in the meaning of the 'trance', would fire his passion and imagination like the universalism of theological ideas never could. Much of what Ramakrishna was, or did, militated against the dogma that had been the intellectual root of Vivekananda's world. If Vivekananda preferred, even needed, the simple and settled comfort of language and words, Ramakrishna only had silence to offer, stressing that language, and by extension modernity, were imperfect instruments of understanding the world and approaching the otherworldly. Vivekananda came to reconsider his own inclination of lampooning idolatry, aligning his religious life with Ramakrishna's dazzling, even maddening mysticism for the great goddess, Kali. Ramakrishna seamlessly drew many like Vivekananda to his attraction, offering a private world of love and intimacy beyond the Kali Yuga that the British had brought on the Bengali middle class, initiating them into modern ideas that were both tantalising and tyrannically stifling. This is what Sumit Sarkar has suitably called the regime of chakri-bhakti, and there appears little reason to contest it. Contrary to conventional views on the subject, it was the death of Ramakrishna that inaugurated the making of Vivekananda, so radically, albeit apologetically, as he would depart from the ways of the master without recourse to the Brahmo ideas that he had left behind. The one encountered at the Parliament of Religions in September 1893 is not only a different person but a phenomenon emblematic of many of the nationalist trends of the period. Although he came from intellectual origins in social reform and later, into Ramakrishna's idea of recourse to the private realm of bhakti away from the public realm of colonialism, it is at the parliament that Vivekanand would come into his own intellectual being. This is often ignored, sometimes deliberately in emphasis on the monk's role in nationalism, that his words were for a specific audience and this audience was the West Dipesh Chakrabarty has argued that Vivekananda's charm was most perceptible particularly among those that the West had marginalised within its contours: women, homosexuals, even vegetarians. To this audience, Vivekananda presented a public Hinduism in its modern making, geared both towards revivalist trends of the period and nationalist self-assertion that would have to be, given its material inferiority, civilisational and therefore religious in nature. This was an unapologetic Hinduism, unlike the religion of social reform, which could gather even the confidence to assert its theological superiority to the materialism of Abrahamic religious traditions. Vivekananda was deeply moved by the Upanishadic injunction ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti (that which exists is one, only called by many names), but also keen in emphasising that Hinduism was the mother of all religions and that his particular tradition, Vedanta, which he was endeavouring to present as Hinduism, was the oldest of all traditions. Vivekananda was very prominent, but representative of a larger trend of constructing Hinduism as religion monolithic, monotheistic, and bound by a non-duality between God and Man, positing serving mankind as serving God itself. This was a difficult task in a social fabric fractured by caste and sectarian divides, and in understanding this task, Vivekananda called for a militant, masculinist Hinduism that had to revitalise not only a religion but an entire civilisation. Is Vivekananda relevant? His relevance is debatable, but that he is prevalent is incontestable. Vivekananda, without perhaps intending, supplied the premise of much that would be Hindutva later in his times and ours. Hindutva is not only a religious pursuit, but the political assertion of a civilisation always identified with the religious community known as the 'Hindus' awakening from a historical slumber after 'centuries' of subjugation. While Vivekananda's other was the West, Hindutva's other is the Muslim. For this reason, if Vivekananda is read, perhaps his present, postcolonial appropriation will not be so seamless. This is illustrated in two instances, and it is with these that we must end. In Sharatchandra Chakravarty's Swami-shishya samvada, we find a preacher of the cow-protection movement who would today be known as the gaurakshak meeting Vivekananda to ask for donations to the cause. Vivekananda asks if they had done anything for their 'brothers and sisters' suffering in the terrible famine in central India, and when told that they serve mother cow and not humans reaping their karma, remarked: "Yes, that the cow is our mother, I understand: who else could give birth to such accomplished children?" At a time when the aforesaid terrorise in the portentous name of the cow, this is an injunction to revisit, as is Vivekananda's own meditation at an extirpated temple, supposedly by 'Muslim invaders'. Vivekananda feels a wave of fury, promising the goddess of the temple that the assault would be avenged. The goddess, in sublime serenity, came to his mind, eloquently asking: "Well, if you must; but who are you to save me?" If religion becomes a political cause against a particular religious community, as it so often does, then Vivekananda is not only prevalent but also relevant in addressing its many contradictions he is, then, in very different ways, a thinker of and for our times. Agartala: The Election Commission proposes to deploy a record 30,000 Central paramilitary Force (CPMF) personnel for next month's Assembly elections in Tripura, a top police officer said on Friday. "The Election Commission has asked the Union home ministry to deploy around 30,000 (300 companies) CPMF personnel in Tripura for conduct of the Assembly elections in the state next month. Therefore, the MHA has decided to deploy them well ahead of the polling day," said the officer who wished not to be identified. He said: "The CPMF would comprise Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). The CPMF troopers, led by senior officers, have started arriving from Friday. They would reach the state in a phased manner and would fan out across the state." The state already has over 35,000 security force personnel comprising state and CPMF, including BSF, CRPF and Tripura State Rifles. During the last Assembly elections in February 2013, around 20,000 CPMF personnel were deployed in the mountainous bordering state. Meanwhile, an official of the state Election Department said the Election Commission is likely to declare the schedule of assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland within a week or so. The three northeastern states would go to polls simultaneously in February. Several delegations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had met the poll panel in New Delhi and urged it to hold the assembly elections in a free and fair manner. Communist Party of India-Marxist state Secretary Bijan Dhar told the media on Friday: "The BJP is trying to defer the Assembly polls in Tripura to get undue political mileage. "The party has been conspiring against the Left Front government in the state, but their every effort would be foiled by the conscious people of the state." The BJP, however, denied the allegations. Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy on Wednesday met Union home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi and discussed various issues. A Raj Bhavan official said the governor talked about the prevailing law and order situation in the poll-bound state. Although the official did not disclose what exactly transpired between the two leaders, the meeting assumes importance in view of the BJP's allegation of deteriorating law and order situation in the Left-ruled state. The final electoral rolls of Tripura were published on 5 January. According to the final rolls, on the basis of which the elections would be held, in all 2,569,216 voters, including 1,265,785 females, have been enrolled in the electoral rolls increasing by 2.52 percent voters from last year's voter list. "We are getting ready on all fronts to hold the assembly elections smoothly. The Election Commission is in close touch with the state officials about the preparations of the elections," Tripura chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanti said. The poll panel has already announced that Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines attached to the Electronic Voting Machines would be used in all the polling stations of the three states. Even before the announcement of the election schedule, all the political parties, including the ruling CPM-led Left Front and Opposition BJP and the Congress, have started hectic political activities and campaigning to woo the voters. United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit. Marty W. RHODES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. WYOMING DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; Michael Pacheco, Warden, Wyoming State Penitentiary; Wyoming Attorney General, Respondents-Appellees. No. 17-8080 Decided: January 11, 2018 Before PHILLIPS, McKAY, and McHUGH, Circuit Judges. Marty W. Rhodes, Pro Se ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY * Wyoming state prisoner Marty W. Rhodes, appearing pro se, seeks a certificate of appealability (COA) to challenge the dismissal of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. We deny a COA and dismiss this matter. I. BACKGROUND Mr. Rhodes is serving consecutive sentences for child abuse and third-degree sexual abuse of a minorup to twenty years, in total. See Rhodes v. State, 348 P.3d 404, 407 (Wyo. 2015). His convictions and sentences were affirmed by the Wyoming Supreme Court on April 27, 2015. Id. at 415. On July 8, 2015, Mr. Rhodes filed a Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis with the Wyoming Supreme Court, which was denied on August 4, 2015. Nearly a year passed. On July 21, 2016, Mr. Rhodes filed a document entitled Petition for Post Conviction Relief with Request for Evidentiary Hearing in a Wyoming trial court. That court dismissed the petition in January 2017. On February 9, 2017, Mr. Rhodes petitioned the Wyoming Supreme Court a second time, this time by a Petition for Writ of Certiorari. Again, the Wyoming Supreme Court denied relief. Its second and final order in Mr. Rhodes's case was entered on February 28, 2017. Finding no help in Wyoming's courts, Mr. Rhodes turned to the federal system. On May 31, 2017, he filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. 2254 for a writ of habeas corpus by a person in state custody. Mr. Rhodes was again unsuccessful. The federal district court dismissed his petition, finding it time-barred under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). Under AEDPA: A 1-year period of limitation shall apply to an application for a writ of habeas corpus by a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court. The limitation period shall run from the latest of (A) the date on which the judgment became final by the conclusion of direct review or the expiration of the time for seeking such review; (B) the date on which the impediment to filing an application created by State action in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States is removed, if the applicant was prevented from filing by such State action; (C) the date on which the constitutional right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court, if the right has been newly recognized by the Supreme Court and made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review; or (D) the date on which the factual predicate of the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence. 28 U.S.C. 2244(d)(1). However, [t]he time during which a properly filed application for State post-conviction or other collateral review with respect to the pertinent judgment or claim is pending shall not be counted toward any period of limitation under this subsection. Id. 2244(d)(2). Applying 2244(d), the district court concluded that Mr. Rhodes's one-year window to seek federal habeas relief commenced on August 4, 2015, when the Wyoming Supreme Court denied his Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis. Three-hundred and fifty-two days later, on July 21, 2016, Mr. Rhodes filed his request for post-conviction relief with the state trial court. That filing, the federal district court reasoned, tolled Mr. Rhodes's limitations period with thirteen days to go. See 2244(d)(2). The suspension of AEDPA's limitations period continued during the pendency of Mr. Rhodes's appeal of the state trial court's order to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Id. But the limitations period restarted when, on February 28, 2017, the Wyoming Supreme Court denied Mr. Rhodes relief for the second and final time. Thus, according to the district court's calculations, Mr. Rhodes needed to file his federal habeas petition within the next thirteen daysthat is, on or before March 13, 2017. Because Mr. Rhodes's petition was not filed until May of 2017, the district court concluded it was time-barred pursuant to 2244(d)(1)(A) and (d)(2). Next, the district court concluded that 2244(d)(1)(B)(D) did not save Mr. Rhodes's petition. As to 2244(d)(1)(B), it acknowledged Mr. Rhodes's argument that he was blocked from getting the entire record of his trial until after the one-year timeframe had expired, but it concluded Mr. Rhodes identified no impediment created by state action in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States that could extend the accrual date. The district court also held that Mr. Rhodes failed to indicate any possible prejudice he may have suffered by not having the trial transcript sooner. As to 2244(d)(1)(C), the district court held it inapplicable because Mr. Rhodes had not cited any newly recognized, and retroactively applied, constitutional right. As to 2244(d)(1)(D), the district court again considered Mr. Rhodes's allegation that Wyoming delayed in providing him a transcript of the trial court proceedings. It concluded that such a delay is not the type of factual predicate necessary to justify application of 2244(d)(1)(D) and, besides, the factual basis for Mr. Rhodes's asserted grounds for habeas relief, i.e., ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, and judicial misconduct, was clearly known to him long before he physically received the trial court hearing transcript. Finally, the district court held that Mr. Rhodes has not supported any actual innocence exception. See McQuiggin v. Perkins, 569 U.S. 383, 392, 133 S.Ct. 1924, 185 L.Ed.2d 1019 (2013). Having found no legal or factual basis to support tolling of AEDPA's limitations period, the district court held that Mr. Rhodes's petition is time-barred and must be dismissed. The district court further declined to issue a COA, based on its belief that no jurist of reason would find it debatable that Mr. Rhodes's petition is time-barred. The district court entered its judgment on September 26, 2017; Mr. Rhodes filed a timely notice of appeal on October 16, 2017. Mr. Rhodes's application for a COA is now before us. II. ANALYSIS On appeal, Mr. Rhodes has filed a twenty-six page combined opening brief and application for certificate of appealability. He expounds eight claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, nine claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel on direct appeal, three claims of prosecutorial misconduct, and four claims of judicial misconduct. But there is nary a word addressing the reasons for dismissal actually given by the district court. A state prisoner needs a COA to appeal a denial of federal habeas relief. Davis v. McCollum, 798 F.3d 1317, 1319 (10th Cir. 2015). To obtain the certificate, Mr. Rhodes must make a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right. 28 U.S.C. 2253(c)(2). And where, as here, the district court disposed of a habeas action as time-barred, a petitioner must also show that jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court was correct in its procedural ruling. Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484, 120 S.Ct. 1595, 146 L.Ed.2d 542 (2000); Ring v. Lightle, 655 Fed.Appx. 657, 658 (10th Cir. 2016). Upon careful review of the procedural history, we agree with the district court's conclusion that Mr. Rhodes's petition is time-barred. Indeed, Mr. Rhodes has not even attempted to address whether jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court was correct in that procedural ruling. He is therefore not entitled to a COA. See Davis, 798 F.3d at 1319 (To demonstrate an entitlement to a COA, the prisoner must show that reasonable jurists could debate whether the issues presented were adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further. (quoting Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003))). III. CONCLUSION For the foregoing reasons, we DENY a COA and DISMISS this appeal. FOOTNOTES . Because Mr. Walker is pro se, we liberally construe his filings, but we will not act as his advocate. James v. Wadas, 724 F.3d 1312, 1315 (10th Cir. 2013). Carolyn B. McHugh Circuit Judge 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. In his first policy speech since taking over as the US ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster pitched for greater strategic depth in bilateral ties, going to the extent of suggesting that military liaison officers be posted at each others theatre commands. If we manage to temporarily suspend our reflexive suspicion of US diplomatic overtures, it is possible to see that the proposal signifies a natural progression of a relationship that is based on an extraordinary convergence of internal and external objectives. Much of Justers stress during the inaugural address on Thursday was on the strengthening of military ties with India. It is evident that the Donald Trump administration is serious about pursuing the goals laid out in its recently unveiled National Security Strategy (NSS) where India is lauded as a leading global power and its leadership role in the greater Indo-Pacific region has been encouraged. The 68-page document, released in December, envisaged a stronger strategic and defence partnership and vowed to expand defence and security cooperation with India, a Major Defence Partner of the United States, and support Indias growing relationships throughout the region. Juster was, therefore, staying true to the policy direction when he called for expansion of officer exchanges at our war colleges and our training facilities, and even at some point post reciprocal military liaison officers at our respective combatant commands. His proposals also included a multi-service drill involving armies, navies, marines and air forces of the two countries. This a departure from Indias annual war games with the US which are single service exercises. India and the US are already signatories to the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), which allows interoperability between two militaries and close logistical cooperation for repair and replenishment of supplies. Justers proposal is the next logical step that ties in with the larger US plan to use India as leverage to put a check on Chinas bellicosity and, in graduated steps, upgrade the ties to a status that it shares with its NATO allies and close defence partners. We seek to assist Indias efforts to build up its indigenous defence base and capabilities, as well as enhance the inter-operability of our two forces as major defence partners in the Indo-Pacific region. We need to patiently make step-by-step progress on these defence initiatives rather than expect to resolve all issues at once. Does a closer strategic tie with the US erode our strategic autonomy? This is a baseless fear. For one, the bedrock of Indias foreign policy still lies firmly in Nehruvian ideal of non-alignment. Consider Indias recent vote against the US at United Nations. Second, the US has no interest in turning India into its protectorate. Indias usefulness lies in its rising strategic profile in South Asia which the US wishes to harness with an eye on China and the size of its economy, where the US perceives a mutually rewarding trade relationship. Not surprisingly, Justers speech had references to a free-trade agreement and he also welcomed steps by India to continue its reform agenda, expand market access, and further enhance the protection of intellectual property, not forgetting to nudge New Delhi towards expeditiously (resolving) trade and investment disputes. India must leverage Trump administrations policy prerogatives to further its own objectives. Trumps rather exaggerated wooing of India might be rooted in self-interest, but that is exactly how foreign policy is formulated and the US is committing no sin in pursuing its interests. As Akhilesh Pillalamarri notes in The Diplomat, While India has its own national interests, which it naturally desires to itemise at its own convenience, the current US administrations NSS represents a good opportunity for India to enhance its influence and security... Other than China and Pakistan, few other countries would oppose India taking on a greater role in the Indo-Pacific. If another great power, the United States, wishes to facilitate this, then all the better for India to capitalise on the attitudes of the American government. We need not take Trumps claims about being Indias true friend at face value. This not only because Trump is given to rhetorical bombast, the US presidents ability to stay a policy course is suspect. However, that, or Indias historical aversion to military ties with the US should not influence us into spurning US overtures. Lets be real. The rise of an assertive China presents an unprecedented geopolitical, strategic, economic and military threat to India, and we will need a strong relationship with the US to ensure a semblance of balance in Asias power equation. The Trump White House presents India with the best opportunity to leverage bilateral ties. This is because in his transactional attitude to diplomacy, Trump sees a profitable venture in pursuing close ties with India, and he will chase the opportunity to cut a deal which he feels will be favourable for the US. His unscrupulousness and lack of political correctness wash away institutional impediments that would have otherwise come in the way of swift policy changes. Why is it an advantage for India? Notwithstanding ideological inclinations, political compulsions, policy frameworks or personal prerogatives, the Oval Office demands of its incumbents a moral balance and adherence to norms of presidency. The pressure of leading the worlds most powerful country that wields unabashed exceptionalism sobers even the toughest of men. Not Trump. His moral turpitude, expediency and lack of an ethical mooring make him a unique POTUS. As The Economist notes, Trumps opportunism and lack of principle, while shameful, may yet mean that he is more open to deals than most of his predecessors. For instance, the world was stunned when Trump grew impatient with US lawmakers efforts to protect immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, and according to a Washington Post report, asked lawmakers, Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? He rooted for more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt they help the United States economically, added the report. It is not for India to be judgemental about the nature of Trumps convictions. We should channelise a great power to our advantage. A 45-year-old constable in the Uttar Pradesh Police was arrested on Thursday for allegedly abducting and raping a seven-year-old girl from his locality in Greater Noida. Subhash Singh, a constable working with the sales tax department in Gautam Budh Nagar, was beaten by locals before being handed to the police, Hindustan Times reported. Police sources quoted by the report said that the incident occurred at around 3 pm on Wednesday in Greater Noida's Surajpur locality, where the accused and the victim lived in adjacent buildings. The victim's mother, a single parent, works as a labourer in a factory. "He took the child forcibly to his apartment. People heard her screaming and rushed to Singh's house. They rescued the girl, but he managed to run away," a neighbour quoted by the report said. "When he returned at around 4 am, two women spotted him and raised an alarm," the neighbour added. According to The Times of India, the accused assaulted the girl for half an hour and fled from the spot as people started gathering due to her cries for help. The victims' family members and the locals were disturbed over the brutal assault and lost their cool. They then roughed up the constable with shoes and sandals before handing him over to the police, the report adds. Akhilesh Pradhan, SHO Surajpur police station, was quoted by the report as saying that the police have registered a case of rape and POCSO Act against the accused. "He was produced in court and sent to judicial custody," Pradhan said. The child has been sent to the district hospital at Sector 30, Noida for medical test and reports are awaited, the report added. By Swagata Yadavar New Delhi: One in four Indian women (26.8 percent) is married before 18, and 7.8 percent of women aged 15 to 19 are pregnant or mothers, according to the latest available 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 data. While the percentage of women married before 18 decreased from 47.4 percent in 2005-06 (NFHS-3) and 16 percent of women aged 15 to 19 who were mothers a decade ago the use of contraceptives in married women aged 15-49 years dropped from 56.3 percent to 53.5 percent. While 2.7 percent of boys and 8 percent of girls reported their sexual debut before the age of 15 in 2005-06, the latest comparative data have not been released. Yet, social and policy barriers do not allow the sexual and reproductive needs of adolescents (10 to 19 years) to be addressed because many of those who have sex are unmarried and below the age of consent, said Sunil Mehra, executive director of MAMTA, a Delhi-based non-profit working on adolescent and reproductive health issues. As a result, 33.6 percent of Indias population is born of adolescent pregnancies; delaying the onset of child-bearing could reduce Indias projected 2050 population of 1.7 billion by 25.1 percent, according to a 2013 United Nation Population Fund review. India has 253 million adolescents, more than any other country and equivalent to the combined populations of Japan, Germany and Spain, but the country is not doing enough to ensure that they become productive adults, IndiaSpend reported in November 2017. That process begins with making more adolescents familiar with sexuality, but the opposite is happening. Fewer states teach adolescent sex education than before Spurred by concerns of HIV-AIDS, the Indian government in association with United Nations agencies introduced an adolescence-education programme (AEP) in 2005. Adolescent health featured for the first time as a national programme in 2006 under the National Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health Strategy (NARSHS), which included health clinics that offered preventive, promotive, curative and referral services for adolescents (10-19 years) and youth (19-24 years). Within two years of inception, the AEP was banned in 12 states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, Scroll.in reported on 1 August, 2014. For instance, the website reported, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the illustrations were too graphic; he wanted adolescent education focused on yoga and Indian cultural values. The National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) removed contentious illustration and words considered explicit, such as intercourse, condoms and masturbate, Scroll.in reported, adding that in April 2009, a Rajya Sabha committee chaired by M Venkaiah Naidu now Vice President of India and then member of Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) said the adolescent-education programme would promote promiscuity of the worst kind, strike at the root of the cultural fabric, corrupt Indian youth and lead to the collapse of the education system and the decrease of virginity age [sic]. It is difficult to say how many states are implementing the Adolescence Education Programme, since several states that banned it earlier have begun implementing it, such as Kerala, said Dipika Srivastava, programme coordinator at TARSHI, a New Delhi-based NGO working on sexuality. However, even where the programme is being implemented, the quality of implementation is open to question, she said. Given that sexuality education addresses long-held attitudes and cultural or moral norms, effective implementation is key to making sure young people get accurate, non-judgmental information related to sexuality, said Srivastava. More teens are having sex, few use birth control In Bihar, of more than 10,400 adolescents (15-19 years) surveyed, 14.1 percent of unmarried adolescent boys and 6.3 percent of unmarried adolescent girls had premarital sex; and of them, 22 percent boys and 28.5 percent girls had premarital sex before 15 years, according to a 2016 report by the Population Council, an advocacy. No more than 20.3 percent of unmarried boys and 8.2 percent of unmarried girls used a condom consistently, the study found. Among married girls aged 15-19 who cohabited with partners, only 11.2 percent ever used contraception within marriage and 45.2 percent had an unmet need for spacing between children. Similar results emerged in the advocacys survey in Uttar Pradesh (UP), where 17.2 percent of adolescent boys (15-19 years) and 6.2 percent of adolescent girls were found to be sexually active. UP and Bihar together account for 30 percent of Indias adolescent population of 253 million, enough to be the worlds fifth-most populous country. Nationally, while the three national health surveys (1992-93, 1998-99, 2005-06) reported an almost equal proportion (59.1 percent, 59.8 percent and 58.2 percent) of pregnant and adolescent mothers, there was a steady increase in the first pregnancy among adolescents (11.7 percent, 12.4 percent and 14.4 percent). Early marriage and low contraceptive use are the reasons behind this trend, said a 2015 review in Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. What is clear, said experts, is that Indian adolescents are more sexually active than ever. Indian adolescents are sexually active Multiple studies (here, here and here) have shown that Indian adolescents, like adolescents in most countries, are sexually active; yet, services for unmarried adolescents are non-existent in India, said Sunil Mehra. Reproductive health services include counselling on menstrual disorders, menstrual hygiene, use of sanitary napkins, use of contraceptives, sexual concerns, sexual abuse and gender violence. While there has been a recent uptake in activities around menstrual hygiene and iron folic supplements through schools and immunisation through anganwadi (day care centre) workers, sexual and reproductive health is completely neglected, Mehra said. The public-health system is not prepared to serve the sexual and reproductive needs of the adolescents, said a 2015 review in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry. Healthcare professionals often lack knowledge about sexual and reproductive needs, and since sex is itself a taboo subject, sexual histories of adolescents are usually not recorded. Incorrect information has the potential to create misunderstanding in the youth making them less likely to adopt healthy practices and attitudes toward sex enabling them to maintain lifelong sexual health, said the journal review. That isnt likely to improve any time soon because government programmes for sexually active adolescents are not particularly popular. The government has programmes, but almost no teens know In October 2014, the government started the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) or National Adolescent Health Programme, which, like adolescent-friendly health clinics (AFHCs) set by under NARSHS, made village health clinics sensitive to adolescent needs about 7,500 nationwide are so enabled, according to a health ministry source. The ministry of health and family welfare has not made public any evaluation of these programmes. Independent studies reveal widespread ignorance. No more than 5 percent of young men and 8 percent of young women in the studied villages were aware of AFHCs, even though their villages were located between 5-10 km away, said a 2014 study conducted by the Population Council in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. No young man and 0.8 percent of young women sought services from the AFHCs. The main reason 82-90 percent (these data are a range because questions asked covered three health problems) of adolescents did not seek help was because they thought their problems were not serious enough; the second-most common reason was because they were too embarrassed, the 2014 study found. No more than 1 percent of boys and girls aged 10-14 interviewed knew about RKSK and only 4-7 percent received health services and information from an accredited social health activist (ASHA) or anganwadi worker, according to this 2017 study. However, with RKSK, the effort is now to engage adolescents through peer educators from their own villages who would speak about various life skills, including nutrition, mental health, non-communicable diseases, gender and sexual and reproductive health, while sensitising ASHAs, auxiliary nurse midwives, anganwadi workers, counsellors and medical officers to offer non-judgemental services for adolescent sexual and reproductive needs, said Indrani Banerjee Bhattacharyya, assistant director, Quality Assurance, Child in Need Institute, a non-profit. Lack of access to contraception, unintended pregnancies Not accessing government health services either due to lack of awareness or embarrassment can have far-reaching effects. Adolescent fertility rates contributed 17 percent to Indias total fertility rate number of children a woman would bear in a lifetime in 2012 and about 14 percent of births in women aged below 20 were unplanned, according to the aforementioned 2015 study in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. Half of Indias 48.5 million pregnancies were unintended, FactChecker reported in December 2017. Amita Dhanu, director, Family Planning Association (FPA) India, a 67-year-old nonprofit, provided the example of 19-year-old Sana (name changed), who was in a relationship and was only aware of emergency contraceptive. So, whenever she had unprotected sex, she used only emergency contraceptives. The consequences were that when Sana missed her periods once, she took an emergency contraceptive to induce an abortion. But she didnt get her periods again and came to one of 39 FPA India clinics nationwide and was found to be pregnant emergency contraceptives cannot induce abortions after pregnancy; she had had unprotected sex again. She was counselled about oral contraceptives and provided a safe abortion. Service providers and staff at these [FPA India] clinics are trained to address adolescent health issues, said Dhanu. The environment at the clinics is friendly and services are available at timings suitable to young people. Without sex education and counselling, adolescents are also at a high risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STI) and even HIV. In the age group of 15-19, of those who had sexual intercourse, 10.5 percent of girls and 10.8 percent of boys reported having STI or symptoms of STI and 0.07 percent of girls and 0.01 percent of boys were found to be HIV positive, according to the 2005-06 National Family Health Survey. Youngsters between 15-24 years contribute to 31 percent of Indias AIDS burden despite accounting for 25 percent of its population. It is obvious, said experts, that contraceptives are not adequately available. The need for emergency contraceptives Among contraceptives that are available for adolescents, intra-uterine devices and morning pills cannot be recommended, since they are meant for those with regular sexual activity. The only option is a condom, yet, it means girls have to rely on their male partners for protection, which is not ideal, said Vivek Malhotra, director, Population Health Services (India), a nonprofit that tries to make contraceptive products affordable. Emergency contraceptives as an alternative should be made affordable and widely available, he said. Today, emergency contraceptives are available as commercial products, over the counter, but they are priced too high to be accessible for adolescents, said experts. If not in schools, emergency contraceptives should be available in colleges and sold at an affordable rate by the government, they said. Adolescents who do not know about contraceptives or have adequate access to them are likely to have early and unplanned pregnancies. Early and unplanned adolescent pregnancies are highly prone for adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as eclampsia seizures during pregnancy, low birth weight, early neonatal death and congenital malformation. Pregnant adolescents are also more likely to leave school, affecting their and their familys future. This article has been produced with the financial assistance of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). The content of this article is the sole responsibility of Family Planning Association, India, and IndiaSpend and under no circumstances can be regarded as reflecting the position of IPPF. (Yadavar is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.) Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has written to vice chancellors and principals of all universities and colleges in the state expecting them to ensure academic ambience in the premises so that students are not influenced by any propaganda or anti-social elements. He also emphasised on better dialogue between students and the university to avoid any confrontation and said the problems of students, if any, should be resolved on priority. "It is expected of the VCs and principals to maintain academic ambience in the premises of universities and colleges so that students are not influenced by any propaganda or anti-social elements," Adityanath said in his letter. "The activities of unscrupulous elements in hostels should be kept on watch and outsiders' influence on students should be take care of," he said, suggesting installation of CCTV cameras in campuses. The chief minister said security of new comers should be ensured, incidents of ragging should be checked and strict disciplinary action should be initiated against those involved in such activities. "Initiatives of state and Centre like Stand up India, Start up India, Clean India, Digital India should be briefed to students. Points related to national unity and integrity should be included in the syllabus and students should be told about moral values," he said. Adityanath also emphasised on meeting between head of departments with parents and regular classes in universities and colleges. He also suggested holding of seminars and conferences and inter-university programmes for grooming students Jammu: An MLA of Jammu and Kashmir's ruling PDP on Thursday 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 (militants) who are from Kashmir, killed in any situation, are martyrs. They are our brothers. Militants are also our brothers. They are our children. They are children aged 11 to 14 and they do not even know what they are doing," Mir told reporters when asked if he considered terrorists killed in Kashmir as martyrs. 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 in Jammu. He urged the Centre's special representative on Jammu and Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma to talk to all in the state. 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. New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of betraying farmers by not providing them 50 percent plus minimum support price for their produce and giving loan waivers to big industrialists but not to farmers. Congress spokesperson RPN Singh said that before coming to power prime minister Narendra Modi and the BJP had promised to give farmers 50 percent plus MSP but is now dithering from doing so, even after four years in power. He said the BJP had also mentioned this promise in their manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but has gone back on it. Singh said that prime minister Modi in 2014, during elections, had made five big promises providing two crore jobs each year, giving farmers 50 per cent plus MSP for their produce, depositing 15 lakh into each Indian's bank account after getting back black money stashed abroad, eradicating corruption from the root and taking strong measures at the border to ensure national security. "Today, four years after he assumed power, the PM has not kept one of the promises. Farmers, who are the backbone of our country, are suffering and are forced to commit suicides after facing apathy at the hands of the BJP government," he told reporters. Singh claimed that while the average growth in agriculture sector during the 10 years of UPA government was 4 percent, under the BJP-led dispensation it has shown a growth of only 1.9 percent in October 2017, as per a government report. He said that even rural wages that grew 17 percent during the UPA government were currently growing by 6.5 percent. Singh claimed that farmers were suffering as they are either beaten up or fired upon in BJP-ruled states. The Congress leader also stated that while the prime minister has failed to fulfil his promises made to farmers, he is now talking of doubling farm income by 2022, which he said was aimed at "deceiving" them. He said that while the UPA gave a farm loan waiver of Rs 77,000 crore that benefited every farmer in the country, the NDA, which is earning 9 lakh crores through tax on petrol and diesel, has waived off 1.53 lakh crore loans of big industrialists but not of farmers. He alleged that 35 farmers are committing suicide every day in the country and a total of 33,000 farmers have taken their lives due to debts, but the government is not concerned about their welfare. Singh also termed the liberalisation of the FDI policy by the government a measure that would destroy the small and medium businesses in the country Election Commission is most likely to announce the poll dates for Assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland on Friday. According to Zee News, the Assembly elections are likely to be held in February and voting in all the three northeastern states will be conducted in a single phase. The terms of the Assemblies in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura with 60 seats each will expire on 6, 13 and 14 March respectively. The final electoral rolls of Tripura were published on 5 January with names of 25,69,216 voters, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti had said. For the first time, the third gender option was included in the final rolls and 11 people had registered their names under the category, Taranikanti had said. Of the remaining 25,69,205 voters, 13,03,420 are males and 12,65,785 females. The final rolls were published after looking into all claims and objections filed from different quarters of Tripura. On Thursday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that the election in Nagaland will be held on schedule, amid demands by the state's civil society groups for deferring the polls to facilitate a solution to the vexed Naga insurgency issue. This was conveyed by the home minister to Nagaland chief minister TR Zeliang when the latter met him in New Delhi on Wednesday. "HM 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," the office of the home minister tweeted. During the meeting, the chief minister also gave some suggestions to the home minister for a solution to the vexed Naga issue. "HM told him that the negotiations of various Naga groups with the interlocutor will continue," another tweet said. In the final electoral rolls of Meghalaya, women outnumbered men, making up for 50.4 per cent of the registered voters. The voters' list, published on Tuesday, has names of 18,30, 104 voters, of which 9,23,848 are women, CEO FR Kharkongor said. The final list was released after looking into the claims and objections filed from different quarters of Meghalaya. Meghalaya, with a population of 3.2 million people, has a literacy rate of 74.4 %, according to the official records of the state government. With inputs from PTI Mumbai: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday blamed the BJP-RSS for the recent violence at Koregaon-Bhima and the resulting caste tension in Maharashtra. Addressing a public meeting at Sindhkhedraja in Buldhana district of Maharashtra after paying homage to Jijabai, the mother of warrior king Shivaji, the AAP supremo said the Maratha king had worked to achieve an all-inclusive society. The meeting was held on the occasion of Jijabai's birth anniversary. "The BJP-RSS (supporters) attacked Dalits at Koregaon Bhima, leading to caste tensions. We condemn this," he said and alleged, "To instigate riots, on the basis of caste and religion, and rule is the BJP's creed." Dalits visiting a war memorial at Koregaon Bhima in Pune district to commemorate an 1818 battle in which the army of the East India Company, consisting of Dalit Mahar soldiers, had defeated the forces of the Brahmin Peshwa rulers had come under attack on 1 January. It had led to protests in various parts of Maharashtra. Some pro-Hindutva leaders had opposed the 200th anniversary celebrations of the battle. Kejriwal also criticised the BJP-led Maharashtra government for allowing private schools to flourish allegedly at the cost of government schools, saying that a government that could not run schools had no right to rule. He also alleged that the BJP in Maharashtra had "crushed" the dreams of social reformer couple Mahatma Phule and Savitribai Phule, as well as that of Shivaji. The AAP leader pointed out that when he became the chief minister of Delhi three years ago, the condition of the government schools was bad in the national capital. "Only the poor used to send their children to the government schools then. In three years, we have started 300 new state-of-the-art government schools with modern amenities. "The Delhi government's budget is Rs 40,000 crore and still we managed to repair the schools and start new ones. The Maharashtra government's budget is Rs 3 lakh crore and still it is shutting down the government schools," he said. Stating that his government had conducted an audit of the power companies in the national capital, Kejriwal said "today, Delhi has the cheapest power tariff", whereas earlier it had the highest tariff. He said the farmers of the country needed to come together to launch an agitation, demanding the implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report on remunerative prices for their produce. "We gave Rs 50,000 per hectare to the farmers in Delhi when they faced a crop-loss due to unseasonal rains," he said. Former Congress MP Sudhir Sawant joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at Kejriwal's rally. Chennai: Apollo Hospitals on Friday submitted two suitcases packed with documents related to the treatment given to then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa to an inquiry commission set up to probe her death. The commission headed by retired judge A Arumughaswamy had asked Apollo to submit all the documents related to the treatment of Jayalalithaa, who died in December 2016. This follows allegations that Jayalalithaa's death was triggered by poor medical attention. The panel has ordered deposed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala's advocate Raja Senthurapandian to appear before it on 22 January. Sasikala had been a long-time confidante of the late AIADMK leader and liveda at her residence in Chennai. Meanwhile, rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran and his supporters called on Sasikala in prison in Bengaluru on Friday. United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Yahki Jamar JACKSON, a/k/a AB, Defendant-Appellant. No. 15-4404 Decided: January 11, 2018 Before SHEDD, AGEE, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges. James B. Craven, III, Durham, North Carolina, for Appellant. Sandra Hairston, Acting United States Attorney, Kyle D. Pousson, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee. Yahki Jamar Jackson pleaded guilty to distribution of cocaine base and received a 151-month sentence. Counsel 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 issues, but questioning whether Jacksons sentence was substantively reasonable, whether he qualified as a career offender due to his age at the time of the predicate felony common law robbery offense, and whether he received ineffective assistance of counsel due to counsel allegedly not visiting him in prison to explain the presentence report to him. Jackson argued in his pro se supplemental brief that he no longer qualifies as a career offender in light of Johnson v. United States, U.S. , 135 S.Ct. 2551, 2557, 2563, 192 L.Ed.2d 569 (2015), which declared the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. 924(e) (2012), unconstitutionally vague. Following a review of the record pursuant to Anders, the court directed the parties to file supplemental briefs addressing whether Jacksons prior conviction for felony common law robbery was a qualifying conviction under the career offender guideline. We first conclude that the issues raised in the original Anders brief are without merit. See U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual 4B1.1(a) (2014) (defendant must be at least 18 years old at the time of the instant offense to qualify as a career offender); United States v. Helton, 782 F.3d 148, 151 (4th Cir. 2015) (presumption of reasonableness for sentence within the Sentencing Guidelines range); United States v. Faulls, 821 F.3d 502, 507 (4th Cir. 2016) (on direct appeal, attorneys ineffectiveness must conclusively appear on the record). However, the issue of whether a North Carolina felony common law robbery conviction is a valid predicate conviction under the Sentencing Guidelines career offender residual clause warrants further discussion. Because Jackson had North Carolina convictions for felony common law robbery and felony possession with intent to manufacture cocaine, the probation officer determined that Jackson qualified as a career offender under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual 4B1.1(a), (b)(3) (2014). At sentencing, Jackson did not object to the determination that he qualified as a career offender. Under the Sentencing Guidelines, a defendant is a career offender if (1) he was at least eighteen years old at the time he committed the instant offense of conviction; (2) the instant offense of conviction is a felony that is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense; and (3) he has at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. USSG 4B1.1(a). At the time of Jacksons sentencing, 4B1.2 defined a crime of violence as any offense under federal or state law, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, that: (1) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another, or (2) is burglary of a dwelling, arson, or extortion, involves use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another. USSG 4B1.2(a) (emphasis added to the residual clause). Section 4B1.2(a)(1) involves the force clause and 4B1.2(a)(2) involves the residual clause. Further, the commentary to 4B1.2 enumerated robbery as a crime of violence. USSG 4B1.2, cmt. n.1. Although Jackson acknowledged that, at the time of his sentencing, the contested conviction was considered to be a crime of violence for sentencing purposes, on appeal he contends that this is no longer true, relying on Johnson and United States v. Gardner, 823 F.3d 793, 801-04 (4th Cir. 2016) (North Carolina common law robbery does not qualify as a violent felony under the ACCA). In Johnson, the Supreme Court held that the residual clause of the ACCAs definition of violent felony, which includes any offense that involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another was void for vagueness. Id. at 2563. The Supreme Court subsequently decided in Beckles v. United States, U.S. , 137 S.Ct. 886, 197 L.Ed.2d 145 (2017), that the Sentencing Guidelines are not subject to vagueness challenges under the Due Process Clause and therefore 4B1.2(a)(2)s residual clause is not void for vagueness. Accord, United States v. Mack, 855 F.3d 581, 585 (4th Cir. 2017). In light of the holding in Beckles, we may rely on the residual clause in deciding that North Carolina common law robbery is a crime of violence under the career offender guideline. Because Jackson did not object to his career offender status in the district court, this issue is reviewed for plain error. United States v. Price, 777 F.3d 700, 711 (4th Cir. 2015). To satisfy plain error review, Jackson must show that (1) an error was committed, (2) the error was plain, and (3) the error affected [his] substantial rights. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). An error is plain if, at the time of appellate consideration, the settled law of the Supreme Court or this [C]ircuit establishes that an error has occurred. United States v. Ramirez-Castillo, 748 F.3d 205, 215 (4th Cir. 2014) (internal quotation marks omitted). However, even if Jackson makes the requisite showing, correction of the error lies within this courts discretion, which we exercise only if the error seriously affected the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Price, 777 F.3d at 711 (brackets and internal quotation marks omitted). The threshold question is whether a North Carolina felony conviction for common law robbery qualifies as a crime of violence under the residual clause of the career offender guidelines. USSG 4B1.2 cmt. n.1 (Crime of violence includes robbery). We recently held that North Carolina common law robbery categorically qualifies as robbery, as that term is used within 4B1.2(a)(2). United States v. Gattis, 877 F.3d 150, 155-56 (4th Cir. 2017). Because we have now held that North Carolina common law robbery categorically qualifies as an enumerated offense under the career offender guideline, Jacksons claim challenging his career offender enhancement on this basis is meritless.* There was no error, let alone plain error. In accordance with Anders, we have reviewed the entire record in this case and have found no other meritorious issues for appeal. We therefore affirm Jacksons conviction and sentence. This court requires that counsel inform Jackson, in writing, of the right to petition the Supreme Court of the United States for further review. If Jackson 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. Counsels motion must state that a copy thereof was served on Jackson. 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 FOOTNOTES . Robbery is now an enumerated offense under USSG 4B1.2. Effective August 1, 2016, the definition of a crime of violence has been amended to expressly include robbery as an enumerated offense in 4B1.2(a)(2) itself rather than relegating this crime to the commentary. It was not an enumerated offense within the text of the guideline at the time Jackson was sentenced. However, as Gattis explains, although robbery is now included in the enumerated offenses clause in USSG 4B1.1(a)(2), the Guidelines still do not define robbery. Gattis, 877 F.3d at 155-56. Thus, Gattiss holding applies equally to the 2014 commentary at issue here. PER CURIAM: Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. Mumbai: The Maharashtra unit of the Congress on Friday hit out at Union minister Nitin Gadkari for "insulting the Indian Navy" and demanded an apology from him. "Gadkari should apologise for insulting the Indian Navy by saying he will not give an inch of land to Navy officers in Mumbai and asking them to go on Pakistan border. We condemn these remarks," Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said. Wondering why all Navy officials need to stay in posh South Mumbai, Ports minister Gadkari had 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 had said. Gadkari's public displeasure came 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. Sawant charged why Gadkari was insisting on a floating hotel which can be threat to Mumbai's security. "This should be probed," he demanded. Sawant alleged that BJP's patriotism was sham and was not applicable to private companies. He claimed that the Navy took objection to helipad and redevelopment projects in south Mumbai due to security issues especially in the backdrop of the 26/11 terror attacks. The Congress leader said Gadkari's comments were damaging the morale of Navy officers. In view of the upcoming Assembly elections in eight states this year, and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a dinner meet at his residence in New Delhi on Thursday. BJP's top brass including party chief Amit Shah and NDA Cabinet ministers, reportedly deliberated over a host of organisational issues and took stock of the present political situation in the country. The meeting which lasted more than three hours till 10 pm, saw all BJP general secretaries including P Murlidhar Rao, Saroj Pandey, Ram Madhav, Bhupendra Yadav, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Anil Jain and Arun Singh in attendance, according to The Asian Age. A senior party leader told PTI organisational issues were discussed at length. According to NDTV, Modi was likely to discuss the status of various government schemes in the states going to elections this year - Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Karnataka, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Sources told The Print that Modi urged the party to engage in fresh communication strategies in the poll bound states and reviewed the work done so far. The report also stated that the plan was to seek detailed reports from each state on the implementation of Central and state government schemes in a run-up to the Assembly polls and 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well. One of the most important things the BJP intends to do this year is target more millennial voters. In his last Mann Ki Baat address, Modi spoke about youngsters who would become eligible to vote in 2018. The prime minister specifically addressed the youth between 18-25 years of age and urged them to fulfil the dream of a 'new India'. He called them the 'new India youth' and said that a new India must be free of corruption and casteism. It should also provide equal opportunities for all. According to DNA, more than 2 crore people who were born in 2000 will be eligible to vote this year. To this end, a mobile app called 'Millennium Vote Campaign is set to be launched on 18 January. To increase it's voter-connect, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) has been asked to help youngsters in registering themselves as voters. The party is also planning a 'College Connect' campaign to target college students, stated the DNA report. According to Business Standard, other elements of the voter-connect campaign include polling booth connect, and encouraging blood donations on 23 January, on the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose. RSS' student wing Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), after losing several student elections in universities, has been tasked with reaching out to the youth, focusing on outreach to Dalits ahead of BR Ambedkar's birth anniversary on 14 April, reported Business Standard. Thursday's dinner meet also reviewed the recent electoral victories in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Himachal Pradesh last year and if more effort was required to ensure government schemes reached the people. Modi recently created a separate group on the NaMo app for BJP office bearers to interact directly with him. The meeting comes as the BJP gears up to fight a number of Assembly polls and the Modi government readies to present its final full-fledged budget in February. The BJP, which currently holds power in 19 states, 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. In a bid to maximise its chances of winning the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP is said to be planning a Rashtriya Raksha Yagna next to Red Fort from 18-25 March. Sources speculated 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. With inputs from PTI Congress is working hard on getting its communication right. After the relative success of the Gujarat campaign, the grand old party wants to replicate the template at the national level, with a dose of improvisation. The revamp exercise was kick-started by the Congress' communications department in Karnataka: A state which will be going to the polls in the first half of 2018. After Karnataka, the focus would be Rajasthan, followed by other poll-bound states. Though there will be a centralized model, the communications department will tweak it as per local requirements like in the North Eastern states. In Karnataka, the communications department has almost shortlisted candidates for the role of spokespersons and media panelists. After selection, all would undergo training at workshops. According to party sources, after receiving an unexpected positive response in Gujarat election from its campaigning, Congress president Rahul Gandhi emphasised on strengthening the partys communication strategy keeping with the changing times and modes of communication. Special focus has been given to social media. The issue also came up during the recent Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting headed by Rahul as newly-elected party president. The strategy focuses on real-time dissemination of information, faster response and better synchronisation with the press. Were following Gujarat template and building a fresh narrative. As part of our strategy, we want better system in place, faster response time and better synchronisation with the media. Congress is revamping communications teams and strategy across the states, Priyanka Chaturvedi, national convener, communications and national spokesperson in Congress told Firstpost. In the preliminary phase, the communications department in Karnataka has shortlisted candidates from the applications received from social media platforms, through emails, from professionals and from partys frontal organisations such as the Youth Congress and the National Students' Union of India (NSUI). The department has also been holding events to tap local talent. The next step is forming panels comprising shortlisted new candidates and the existing ones. Weve received large number of applications. Some of the candidates are as young as 21 years. A fresh graduate came to our office and wished to become a Congress spokesperson because he has a lot of anger against demonetisation. He said he had witnessed how due to demonetisation many families lost jobs and his friends found it hard to pay college fees. The youth are highly enthusiastic as they are feeling that the liberal space has been denied to them, she said. The strategy: Restructuring of the partys communications department will be both at vertical and horizontal levels. Recruitment of fresh faces from partys frontal organisations, from amongst the social media platform, public and professionals for the posts of spokespersons and panelists. The communication strategy at state level will be replicated at the district levels as well. The objective is to go hyper local. Candidate needs to have an understanding of the political movement of the Congress and its philosophy, and willing to be a part of the change that the party wants to bring. Communications department is also roping in advertising professionals, script writers, documentary and film makers and communication experts. Post-selection, specialized training through workshops to be imparted on presentation of issues, counter-narrative, counter allegations against the party at panel discussions, The strategy aims at building a fresh narrative and disseminating real time information to all forms of media print to social media and in public. Similar to Gujarat model, an information technology cell has been created in Karnataka The communication would focus on positive aspects and highlight the good policies of the Congress-ruled Karnataka government. However, it wont shun from taking an aggressive posturing as and when required. The strategy aims at highlighting the weaknesses and failures of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and BJP-led governments at the states. Karnataka election is very important for us. As Rahul ji has emphasized, we want fresh faces there. They should be articulate and be able to hold a debate or discussion well. Weve asked people to join us and four months back we recruited a few by posting our requirement on Linkedin, an All India Congress Committee source said. The recent verbal duel between the Congress and the BJP in Karnataka with the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah calling BJP and the Sangh Parivar as the "Hindutva terrorists" is being seen as a part of the revamped strategy which aims at taking opponent head-on. According to a senior party leader, the Congress seems to be clear on its strategy. Were now on an attacking mode," the leader said. "You must have seen our president in Bahrain. Congress doesnt support extreme Left or extreme Right, as it believes on 'Left of Centre' ideology and were prepared to answer these communal and divisive forces during forthcoming elections. The war of words between the Congress and BJP's 'star campaigner' Yogi Adityanath, sparked by the recent exchange of hostilities with Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah during Yogi's visit to the state, escalated in the form an 'attack' video on social media that poked fun at the Hindu hardliner. A minute-long video clip, titled 'Here's a recipe for a BJP star campaigner. We don't recommend it,' tweeted by the party's official handle with the hashtag '#RecipeForDisaster' takes a dig at Yogi, by making references to his 'criminal record, his zero attention to development and his Hindutva antecedents'. Here's a recipe for a BJP star campaigner. We don't recommend it. pic.twitter.com/j5lIAvc4Oa Congress (@INCIndia) January 11, 2018 The recipe for Yogi, as per the Congress, comprises one kilogram of criminal records, one litre of saffron dye, half a cup of crocodile tears, one cup homophobia, two tablespoons of misogyny, and zero attention to development. All these ingredients then need to be simmered on a communal flame and brought to a boil, garnished with ignorance and served with hate in Karnataka. The video wraps up with the sign-off: '#RecipeForDisaster, coming to your state soon!' The attack video comes just days after Yogi's spat with Siddaramaiah in which the Uttar Pradesh chief minister had dared the latter to prove his Hindu credentials by banning cow slaughter in the state. To this, Siddaramaiah had angrily retorted: "I have reared cows, grazed them and even cleaned the dung. Has Yogi Adityanath done all these?" On Friday, when four senior most judges of the Supreme Court (SC) wrote a sensational chapter in India's judicial history by holding a press conference and publicly raising a banner of revolt against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, it looked as though there was a full-blown crisis in administration of highest judiciary and political parties would not try and politicise such a serious issue. But by late evening, the whole controversy took a political twist with Congress president Rahul Gandhi holding a press conference and demanding an investigation into the death of judge BH Loya by senior most judges and also to look into the contention by the four judges that Indian democracy was under threat. It should be noted here that judge Loya, who'd been hearing Amit Shahs alleged involvement in Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, died of a heart attack. Though it was declared that his death was due to cardiac arrest, the Congress is taking a cue from four judges and demanding that the case be investigated by senior apex court judges. By saying that the matter should be investigated by senior most Supreme Court judges, the Congress is effectively saying that the matter should be investigated by these four judges who, apart from the CJI, are the senior most and who raised a banner of revolt against Misra. The fact that Rahul chose to hold briefing after a a prolonged meeting with party elders P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari, (all lawyer turned politicians) and Ahmed Patel is indicative of the importance he and his party want to attach to the judges' public outburst. The Congress does not mind turning the issue which should have been left to the judiciary to sort out political. Events preceding Rahuls press conference suggest that the Congress and some of its political allies are gearing up to extract political mileage out of this crisis in our higher judiciary. Consider what happened before the Congress jumped into the arena with whatever strength it had under its command: Rahul at the podium for briefing and P Chidambaram, Ahmed Patel, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari, and others in the audience at All India Congress Committee headquarters. The indications that the issue had turned political were already in. Hours after Justice Chelameswar led three fellow judges to speak out and go public with their grievances, he invited Communist Party of India Rajya Sabha MP D Raja to his residence and to tell him what was distressing him. The fact that Rajas landing at Justice Chelameswar's official residence and seeing him off with a handshake at the doors was recorded by some television news channels gave a political twist to the entire incident. In his numerous media briefings D Raja said, I saw the press conference. I called Justice Chelameswar to know what was distressing him. He told me if you are around then please drop in. Raja went on at length to suggest why this needed to be discussed and debated in Parliament. The onus was on Parliament to find solution to the crisis of confidence in higher judiciary, he said. Do you think as a political person we should keep quiet? Being a political person, representing political party in country interest and future of democracy? The question is: Should the second senior most judge in Supreme Court have met a left-wing politician from the ranks of the Opposition, who is also an ally of Congress, and discussed with him the discord he and some fellow judges had with CJI? Political intervention in matters of judiciary and judicial administration is a strict no-no, be it higher judiciary or lower judiciary. Raja and Justice Chelameswar meeting on such a critical issue broke that golden rule. The meeting gave an impression that the sections of Opposition parties were on the side of four senior judges in their fight against CJI. Thats not a very healthy situation. It raises too many questions for the judges and parties concerned. Remember, the Supreme Court is not only custodian of Constitution and law, but an institution in which the people of India have invested their faith and trust. All those disturbing questions which arise now, after the press conference and after Raja met with a senior judge dents the people's faith in higher judiciary. Explaining why he went to meet the judges, Raja told Republic TV he went to "find out the reasons for the judges' agony" because "I represent Parliament." Raja representing Parliament in his meeting with Justice Chelameswar is too big a statement to ignore. He was acting on his own. He was not chosen by the two Houses of Parliament, by the Lok Sabha Speaker or the Rajya Sabha Chairman. Raja is the only representative of the CPI in the Rajya Sabha (he was elected with the support of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa). CPI does not have strength on its own in state Assemblies to elect a Rajya Sabha member. In the Lok Sabha, CPI has only one MP. But then, Raja is a seasoned senior leader and thus his influence in politics, particularly in the Opposition ranks, is disproportional to his partys strength in Parliament or outside. In contrast to the CPI leaders activism on the subject, Modi government decided to stay away from the whole issue and let the judiciary sort it out. Only Sambit Patra of the BJP, speaking to ANI, said: "This is an internal matter of the Supreme Court. Attorney-General has given statement. No politics should be played. Surprised and pained that Congress which has been rejected number of times by people in elections is trying to gain political mileage, it has exposed itself." tech2 News Staff Apple has been under fire for the past few weeks owing to its confession that it is actively slowing down older iPhone models to prevent unwanted shutdowns. Now it looks like some real fire is also at play as, reportedly, after an iPhone battery burst into flames at Apple's store in Zurich another one has caught fire in Valencia, Spain. Oh dear. An AppleInsider report states that the battery caught fire while it was being repaired, so at least it's not a case of spontaneous combustion, as it was with the notorious Note 7. We don't know the model of the affected iPhone but fortunately, there were no injuries as the store was evacuated in time. Apple is at the centre of multiple class-action lawsuits from at least three more countries other than the US for its iPhone throttling scandal. Two cases of batteries catching fire only worsens the situation Apple finds itself in. Although analysts have mostly defended Apple's 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. Consequently, Apple has offered $50 off on all battery replacements for iPhones and has also promised a software update in early 2018 which will give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone's battery. Let's just hope that no more batteries explode. tech2 News Staff Jet Airways has reportedly come out with rules that are concerned with 'smart-luggage' being carried by passengers on its airlines and will be in effect from 15 January. This would make Jet Airways join the ranks of several other airlines such as United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, Qantas, and British Airways, all of whome have issued regulations on smart-luggage. When we say smart-luggage we mean luggage that comes fitted with GPS tracking, charging ports or any kind of electrical equipment. The main concern here is that most of these smart-baggages have Li-ion batteries, which are considered a fire hazard. As per a report by The Hindu, a Jet Airways spokesperson gave the new regulations in accordance with the International Air Transport Association (IATA). According to the regulations, all passengers with bags having a Li-ion battery will need to detach the battery and carry it separately in the cabin baggage. Checked-in baggage with non-removable Li-ion batteries will not be permitted on the airline. The passenger is responsible for declaring the removal of the battery from the smart-bag to the airline staff. Jet Airways will not be accountable for any damage or loss occurring due to the removal of batteries. The Hindu claimed in its report that a Mumbai International Airport official told them,"since Jet Airways has a sizeable US operations, the new regulations were being effected,". Smart-bags are in their very early stages in India, and the official claimed that "It is more of a US trend, where smart bags come fitted with lithium-ion batteries and motors allowing them to be used as a personal transportation device, either as a stand-up scooter, or sit on vehicle. These devices do not even meet the criteria of a mobility device." tech2 News Staff The prospect of finding life on Mars has been deeply discussed by scientists and researchers for quite a while now. The presence of water on the red planet has long been a topic of debate amongst many, and now a new report has claimed that the surface of Mars may be hiding huge quantities of surface ice. The report, by Wired, claims that it is not sure how pure this ice is or in what form it is present in. The rocky terrain on Mars makes it difficult to dissect information about what's on or below the surface of the red planet. The probes currently present on Mars can reportedly only dig up to a depth of a few centimeters into the planet's surface and radar can give us details to about a further 10-20 meters or so. However, scientists, using a powerful camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, seem to have discovered several sites where land has been eroded over time, giving a direct view of the subterranean layers of the planet's crust. The frozen water found in these sites are mineable, according to this week's issue of Science. These newly discovered sites (eight sites to be precise) show the formation of ice starting from as low as one meter and stretching to nearly 100's of meters below the surface. NASA claims that the ice closer to the surface could be quite pure and should be easy to extract as well. Richard Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in an interview with Wired that "On Mars, when you see something bright, it usually means ice. And the spectrometer readings support that this is water ice and not ice-cemented soil, which would be much harder to convert into water as a resource." However, there is a slight problem. The sites discovered are reportedly between 55 and 60 degrees north or south of the equator, where temperatures can drop extremely low. Future Mars missions would most likely be landing close to the equator, where warmer climate may melt the ice closer to the surface, making it harder to mine. IANS Home Minister Rajnath Singh on 12 January congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the successful launch of its 100th satellite, and said the step is a "big landmark in India's journey into the space". The ISRO launched the 42nd Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), PSLV-C40, on 12 January from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota and it placed 31 satellites across two orbits. "Congratulations to team ISRO on the successful launch of its 100th satellite with Cartosat-2 series Satellite Mission. The scientists at ISRO have made the nation proud with their successes on several occasions. They have done it again by hitting a century," Rajnath tweeted. Of 31 satellites, three are Indian and 28 are from Canada, Finland, France, South Korea, the UK and the US. The ISROs achievement of launching 100 satellites is historic in many ways and a big landmark in Indias journey into the space. The scientists at ISRO have carved a special place in the astronomical space. Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) January 12, 2018 Rajnath said that ISRO's achievement of launching "100 satellites is historic in many ways and a big landmark in India's journey into space". "The scientists at ISRO have carved a special place in the astronomical space." Washington: US president Donald Trump is sending at least half a dozen of his cabinet members to participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos later in January. Trump, who is likely to advance his "America First" agenda with world leaders at this year's WEF, would be the first sitting US president to attend the high-profile summit since Bill Clinton in 2000. The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2018 would be held from 23 to 26 January in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, under the theme 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'. Trump's itinerary has not been announced yet. In a statement, the White House said the delegation would be led by the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Among other members of the presidential delegation are the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Labour Secretary Alex Acosta, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and Kirtstjen Nielson, Secretary of Homeland Security. Other members of the delegation are Robert Lighthizer, United States Trade Representative; Thomas Bossert, presidential adviser for Homeland Security and Counter-terrorism; Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, USAID Administrator Mark Green; and Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner of Food and Drugs. Mnuchin told reporters at the White House news conference he expects president Trump will talk about trade: reciprocal, free and fair trade. "We have obviously been very clear with the Chinese on the issue that we have with the trade deficit, making sure that US companies can compete fairly. And the president will talk a lot about his economic program and the impact on the global economy," Mnuchin said. Later in a statement, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the official delegation would also include Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Adviser HR McMaster, and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn. United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Charles W. PARKER, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-4404 Decided: January 11, 2018 Before MOTZ, DUNCAN, and THACKER, Circuit Judges. Nancy S. Forster, FORSTER, JOHNSON & LECOMPTE, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. David A. Hubbert, Acting Assistant Attorney General, S. Robert Lyons, Chief, Criminal Appeals & Tax Enforcement Policy Section, Gregory Victor Davis, Katie Bagley, Tax Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. A jury convicted Charles Parker, Jr., of conspiring to file false tax returns, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 371, and presenting false claims to the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS), in violation of 18 U.S.C. 287. Parker raises several challenges to his conviction and one challenge to his sentence. Parker contends that the court erred in granting the government's motion in limine to exclude documents evidencing IRS internal procedures, infringing his right to testify, providing an improper jury instruction, and denying his motion for a mistrial. Finally, Parker challenges the application of a leadership enhancement to his sentence. Finding no reversible error, we affirm. I. We first describe Parker's conduct leading to the charges then set forth the parts of the trial and sentencing relevant to his appeal. A. Parker hired Certified Public Accountant (CPA) James Newby to prepare his federal income tax returns for 20042008. In 2008, Newby informed Parker that he owed federal income taxes for the 2007 tax year. Instead of filing the return prepared by Newby, however, Parker paid another preparer, Harry Williams, $7,500 in cash to prepare a second tax return. This second return used fictitious Forms 1099-OID reporting over $400,000 in both false income and false withholding to generate a large refund. The IRS issued Parker a $283,875 refund. The IRS soon discovered the fraud. It sent a letter demanding repayment from Parker and executed a search warrant for Williams's home. J.A. 292299. With Williams under investigation, Parker sought out another preparer, Penny Jones. Parker paid Jones $750 per return. Jones helped Parker prepare a fraudulent tax return for 2008 as well as amended returns for three prior years using false Forms 1099-OID to inflate Parker's income and withholding and claim large refunds. Parker also referred four acquaintances, Elan Garner, Troy Madoo, Kerry Robinson, and Perpetual Iriele, to Jones to have her prepare fraudulent tax-returns for them. These acquaintances sent Parker their financial information, and Parker forwarded this information to Jones. Parker paid Jones to prepare fraudulent returns for each person using fictitious Forms 1099-OID. For example, Robinson and Iriele, who were married, filed a joint return in which they claimed a $1.5 million refund. After signing their return, they sent it to Parker, who attached fraudulent Forms 1099-OID prepared by Jones and sent the completed return to the IRS. During processing, the IRS corrected a math error on the return and issued Robinson and Iriele a $1.7 million refund, from which Robinson and Iriele paid Parker $182,370. Jones then warned Robinson and Iriele, through Parker, to move all assets out of their names. In all, Parker submitted five false returns in his name and helped four others file nine additional false returns. Based on these returns the IRS paid approximately $2 million in refunds. A grand jury charged Parker with one count of conspiring to defraud the United States and six counts of presenting false tax returns to the IRS. Parker proceeded to trial on all counts. B. At trial, the district court granted the government's motion in limine to exclude an IRS field manual and refund form, which outlined procedures for processing refunds of more than $1 million. Parker proffered that he planned to use both documents to cross-examine an IRS manager on the specific procedures used to process the Robinson and Iriele return. Parker argued that the documents were relevant to the intent element of the conspiracy charge: if an IRS agent could not identify the return as fraudulent, [h]ow is a layperson [who] does not work for the I.R.S., is not a tax accountant, is not a preparer to know a return is fraudulent? J.A. 316. In support of its motion in limine, the government argued that the IRS's procedural documents were absolutely irrelevant to the defendant's knowledge of whether he was committing crimes and that Parker's aim was to smear the I.R.S. and distract from the point of whether the defendant knew that what he was doing was in fact criminal. J.A. 31314. Furthermore, the government explained that Parker did not know the IRS procedures at the time of the fraud, and thus information about how many people at the I.R.S. looked at the refund before it was cut has nothing to do with the defendant because the defendant had no idea that was the case. J.A. 321. The district court granted the government's motion, explaining that the fact that a whole bunch of people looked at [the Robinson and Iriele tax return] and didn't figure out that it was fraudulent [was] not relevant to [Parker's] intent. J.A. 324. After all, contributory negligence on the part of the IRS is not a defense to tax fraud. J.A. 313. The court asked, Are we putting the I.R.S. on trial or your client on trial? J.A. 317. The record shows that entry-level processors in the Revenue Accounting department who used this field manual and refund form only evaluated returns for accuracy and completeness, not for fraud. See J.A. 393, 420 (testimony of Shauna Henline, explaining that these processors were entry level people, were only reviewing the 1099-OIDs that were attached, and rely on the honesty of the taxpayers). However, Parker was permitted to elicit information from an IRS witness about other details of the reviewers procedure related to Robinson and Iriele's return, including that the refund would have been processed manually and received special attention. J.A. 41718. Newby testified for the government at trial. During his cross-examination, Parker attempted to have Newby concede that tax filers rely on the advice of the tax preparer in preparing their tax return. J.A. 77576. However, Newby did not agree with the premise of Parker's questions. When asked by Parker about whether a client relies on a tax preparer, Newby responded: A: We have a 2007 tax return from Mr. Parker that showed one amount and then another 2007 [return]. Why couldn't he just come back to me and say, listen, I've got some information you might not be aware of? A: This was my concern to begin with J.A. 776; Parker moved for a mistrial, contending that Newby was giving opinions, characterizing what [he] filed [as] foolish. J.A. 776. The court denied the motion for a mistrial, but instructed the jury to disregard Newby's statement and instructed Newby to not provide opinions. J.A. 77677. Undeterred, Parker again continued with his line of questioning. See J.A. 78182, 78990. Unsurprisingly, Newby again did not agree with the questions asked by counsel, as highlighted by this exchange: Q: And you don't know what other judgments a different tax preparer who signed her name or put her name on a tax return, you can't tell this jury what judgments were made by another tax preparer who prepared Mr. Parker's tax returns. Correct, Mr. Newby? A: That's incorrect. Q: What? You A: I can surmise from the 2007 return that I prepared and the 2007 return that I saw somebody else prepare, something is amiss. Q: Right. But it's the tax preparer [who] would be amiss. That the tax preparer is the person who prepared the tax return. Correct? A: Something has to be amiss to go from owing $1,700 to getting a refund of $399,000. Q: And the person [who] would be amiss or to use your phrase earlier, hanky-panky, would be the person who prepared the tax return. Correct? A: Everybody knows how much income they've earned and everybody knows you do not get a refund that's five times more than your income. Q: Everybody knows that? A: That is right. And to me, personally, that's how I feel and I'm offended that you think I wouldn't know the difference. Because common sense is the purest form of intelligence. You cannot come in my office and expect to get a refund five to ten thousand dollars more than you made. You can't do it. It's not done without hanky-panky. And I'll stand on that. J.A. 79091. Parker again moved for a mistrial, objecting to Newby expressing an opinion on the stand. J.A. 79192. The court noted that Parker had been aggressively questioning Newby, and that when you push him real hard, at some point he's going to argue back at you. J.A. 792. The court further remarked that there was no evidentiary basis for the inference that Parker was attempting to get Newby to make, and that he's not going to say that for you. J.A. 79293. The court denied the motion. J.A. 793. Near the end of trial, Parker's attorney informed the district court that Parker would not testify. The court questioned Parker on his understanding of his constitutional rights: You have a constitutional right to remain silent and not to testify [but also] the absolute right to take the stand [on] your own behalf and give your side of the story in whatever way you want. J.A. 892. The court then added: Do you understand also if you were to testify falsely and you were ultimately found guilty, the fact that you testified falsely potentially could result in an increase in the range of sentence that the advisory guidelines would recommend. I am not bound by these guidelines. But if you were to testify falsely, that potentially could result in an increase in your offense level, if you were to be found guilty. J.A. 893. Parker confirmed that he understood, and Parker's attorney did not object. After the government rested, the district court gave the jury the following willful blindness instruction: If you find that the defendant was aware of a high probability that the tax returns at issue were false and that the defendant acted with deliberate disregard of the facts, you may find that the defendant acted knowingly. However, if you find that the defendant actually believed that the tax returns at issue were true, he may not be convicted. J.A. 951. Parker objected to this instruction arguing that he could not be willfully blind to a conspiracy. J.A. 853. Parker also requested that the jury be instructed on multiple conspiracies; one involving just Williams and Parker and one involving Jones, Parker, and the other individuals for which Jones prepared tax returns. The government responded by clarifying that Williams was not listed on the conspiracy charge and that there was only one conspiracy involving Parker, Jones, and all of the other people involved with the pair. The district court agreed with the government and rejected Parker's request noting that the overall conspiracy was to conspire to use these bogus 1099-OID forms to prepare multiple fraudulent tax returns to obtain unwarranted refunds. J.A. 865. The jury subsequently found Parker guilty on all counts. C. The probation officer prepared a presentence report and applied a 4-level leadership enhancement pursuant to the United States Sentencing Guidelines (the Guidelines) 3B1.1(a) because Parker recruited accomplices into the conspiracy, secured Jones as the tax preparer, and provided her instructions on how to prepare the fraudulent returns. Parker objected to the application of the leadership enhancement. At sentencing, the district court overruled Parker's objections to the Guidelines calculations. J.A. 110408. In addressing the leadership enhancement, the court first noted that the evidence at trial established that the conspiracy had five or more participants. J.A. 1106. The court found that while other people may have been very culpable, their culpability did not alter the fact that Parker was in the thick of recruiting people to be participants in a fraudulent tax return scheme. J.A. 1107. The court further noted that Parker supervised Jones preparations of the returns for Madoo, Garner, Robinson, and Iriele. J.A. 1107. The court sentenced Parker to a sentence of 97 months imprisonment. J.A. 1131, 1138. Parker filed a timely notice of appeal. J.A. 1143. II. Parker contends that the district court committed two evidentiary errors during his trial. First, Parker argues that the district court erred in excluding testimony regarding the IRS's procedures in handling a tax return requesting a million-dollar refund. Second, Parker contends that the district court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial because his former accountant offered allegedly improper lay opinion testimony. We address each in turn. A. Parker argues that the district court erred by not allowing him to introduce the evidence of the IRS's internal procedures. He asserted at trial that [i]f the IRS cannot tell on the face of [a tax return] that it's a false return, how is a layperson, to know a return prepared by a tax preparer is in fact a false return? J.A. 319320. We find that the district court did not err in this respect. We review[ ] a district court's evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. United States v. Alvarado, 840 F.3d 184, 188 (4th Cir. 2016). A district court abuses its discretion when it (1) acts arbitrarily, as if neither by rule nor discretion, (2) fails to adequately take into account judicially recognized factors constraining its exercise of discretion, or (3) rests its decision on erroneous factual or legal premises. Id. at 189 (citing James v. Jacobson, 6 F.3d 233, 239 (4th Cir. 1993)) (internal quotation marks omitted). We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding evidence of the IRS's internal procedures. Rule 402 of the Federal Rules of Evidence provides for the admission of all relevant evidence, with certain exceptions. Evidence is relevant if: (a) it has any tendency to make a fact more or less probable than it would be without the evidence; and (b) the fact is of consequence in determining the action. Fed. R. Evid. 401. Evidence that the IRS failed to adhere to its internal procedures is of no consequence to determining intent because it is not probative of Parker's intent to defraud the IRS. United States v. Miller, 520 F.3d 504, 511 (5th Cir. 2008); see Fed. R. Evid. 403. Stated differently, whether the IRS could determine the claim was false is not relevant to whether Parker knew, or was willfully blind to the fact, that the claim was false. Therefore, the district court did not err in excluding the IRS's internal procedures. B. Next, we turn to Parker's argument that the district court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial after Newby's opinion statements during cross examination. We assume for the sake of argument that Newby's statements were inappropriate lay opinion statements. We review a district court's denial of a motion for a mistrial for abuse of discretion. United States v. Johnson, 587 F.3d 625, 631 (4th Cir. 2009). We normally presume that a jury will follow an instruction to disregard inadmissible evidence inadvertently presented to it, unless there is an overwhelming probability that the jury will be unable to follow the court's instructions and a strong likelihood that the effect of the evidence would be devastating to the defendant. Greer v. Miller, 483 U.S. 756, 766 n.8, 107 S.Ct. 3102, 97 L.Ed.2d 618 (1987) (internal citations omitted) (quoting Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 208, 107 S.Ct. 1702, 95 L.Ed.2d 176 (1987); Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 136, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968)). Here we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion. It instructed the jury to disregard Newby's inappropriate comments. Parker has not shown that the jury would not be able to do so. Furthermore, Parker invited any error in his former accountant's testimony by asking questions during cross-examination that elicited the disputed response. See United States v. Neal, 78 F.3d 901, 904 (4th Cir. 1996) (holding that inflammatory testimony elicited by defense counsel from government witness during cross-examination was invited error); see also Noel v. Artson, 641 F.3d 580, 591 (4th Cir. 2011). Parker's questions to his former accountant were part of his trial strategy of attempting to convince the jury that Parker did not know the tax returns were fraudulent because they were prepared by accountants Williams and Jones. See United States v. Lespier, 725 F.3d 437, 450 (4th Cir. 2013) (recognizing that miscarriage of justice exception to invited error doctrine does not apply when defendant's actions are based on sound trial strategy). We therefore find that the district court did not abuse its discretion. III. Parker argues that the district court erred in declining to instruct the jury on multiple conspiracies and further erred in instructing the jury on willful blindness. We address each argument seriatim. A. Parker advances an argument in his briefs that is slightly different from the one that he made at trial. At trial he argued that there were two conspiracies, one involving Williams, and another separate conspiracy involving Jones and the individuals for which she prepared returns. He now contends that the evidence at trial established several different conspiracies in light of Jones preparing tax returns for several different individualseach pairing representing a separate conspiracy. Appellant's Br. at 19. We find that the district court did not err in its instruction. We review for abuse of discretion the district court's denial of a proposed jury instruction. United States v. Sonmez, 777 F.3d 684, 688 (4th Cir. 2015). To show such an abuse, a defendant must establish that his proposed instructions (1) were correct, (2) were not substantially covered by the charge that the district court actually gave to the jury, and (3) involved some point so important that the failure to give the instructions seriously impaired the defendant's defense. Id. (alterations and internal quotation marks omitted). [A] district court must issue a multiple conspiracies instruction where the evidence supports a finding that multiple conspiracies existed. United States v. Stockton, 349 F.3d 755, 762 (4th Cir. 2003). This instruction is not required, however, unless the proof at trial demonstrates that [the defendant] w[as] involved only in a separate conspiracy unrelated to the overall conspiracy charged in the indictment. United States v. Nunez, 432 F.3d 573, 578 (4th Cir. 2005) (internal citation omitted). Moreover, the failure to give a multiple conspiracies instruction is reversible error only where the defendant establishes substantial prejudice by showing that the evidence of multiple conspiracies [was] so strong in relation to that of a single conspiracy that the jury probably would have acquitted on the conspiracy count had it been given a cautionary multiple-conspiracy instruction. United States v. Bartko, 728 F.3d 327, 344 (4th Cir. 2013) (citing United States v. Tipton, 90 F.3d 861, 883 (4th Cir. 1996)) (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted). We discern no abuse of discretion here. The evidence amply established that there was only one conspiracy. While Parker notes that Jones prepared tax returns for several individuals, Parker was the connecting figure among all of the conspirators. The evidence established that Parker paid Jones to prepare the returns. Iriele testified that Parker gathered all of her documents and that Parker transmitted the documents to Jones. J.A. 554558. The evidence supports the conclusion that these transactions were related and not separate conspiracies. Accordingly, we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in this regard. B. Turning to the willful blindness instruction, Parker contends that the Government introduced insufficient evidence to instruct the jury on willful blindness. We review for abuse of discretion a district court's decision to give a particular jury instruction. United States v. Ali, 735 F.3d 176, 187 (4th Cir. 2013). It is well established that where a defendant asserts that he did not have the requisite mens rea to meet the elements of the crime but evidence supports an inference of deliberate ignorance, a willful blindness instruction to the jury is appropriate. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Such an instruction is appropriate only in rare circumstances. Id. Thus, for the instruction to issue, (1) the defendant must subjectively believe that there is a high probability that a fact exists and (2) the defendant must take deliberate actions to avoid learning of that fact. United States v. Hale, 857 F.3d 158, 168 (4th Cir. 2017) (quoting Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 563 U.S. 754, 761, 131 S.Ct. 2060, 179 L.Ed.2d 1167 (2011)). If the district court erred in issuing the instruction, the error is harmless where there is sufficient evidence in the record of actual knowledge on the defendant's part. United States v. Lighty, 616 F.3d 321, 37879 (4th Cir. 2010). We discern no abuse of discretion in instructing the jury on willful blindness. Parker contended that he acted in good faith, putting his mens rea at issue. Yet the evidence showed that Parker had a subjective belief that the returns were fraudulenthe lied to the IRS agents investigating Williams and he received and passed on advice that his coconspirators should attempt to hide their million-dollar refund. See Hale, 857 F.3d at 169 (finding subjective knowledge in part when defendant attempted to warn individual about police investigation). Additionally, Parker had previously consulted with an accountant who advised him that he owed the IRS money for 2007 and failed to question Jones about why his coconspirators would need to hide their refund. See United States v. Jinwright, 683 F.3d 471, 479 (4th Cir. 2012) (finding defendants avoided learning of tax liability when auditors advised the defendants that they were underreporting their income, but defendants never raised these concerns with their personal CPA, who could easily have explained the law). Even if the district court had erred in this respect, the error was nonetheless harmless because there is sufficient evidence in the record for a jury to arrive at the conclusion that Parker had actual knowledge. Parker knew how much income he had earned and that the information in the OIDs was false. Additionally, he instructed others to move all of their assets out of their names when the IRS started to catch up to their scheme. Therefore, there was sufficient evidence of actual knowledge to render harmless any error in instructing the jury on willful blindness. IV. Parker contends that the district court infringed his due process right to testify by warning him that if he committed perjury he could receive an enhancement for obstruction of justice under the Guidelines. We disagree. Because Parker did not object to the district court's warning about the possible consequences of committing perjury, we review this issue for plain error. United States v. Catone, 769 F.3d 866, 871 (4th Cir. 2014). Thus, to succeed on his claim, Parker must show (1) that the [district] court erred, (2) that the error is clear and obvious, and (3) that the error affected his substantial rights, meaning that it affected the outcome of the district court proceedings. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). If Parker meets this burden, we retain discretion whether to recognize the error and will deny relief unless the district court's error seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). While a defendant has a right to testify at his trial, the right to testify does not include a right to commit perjury. United States v. Dunnigan, 507 U.S. 87, 96, 113 S.Ct. 1111, 122 L.Ed.2d 445 (1993). The district court simply provided Parker with information on the potential consequences of testifyinginformation necessary for him to make an informed decision about whether to testify. The district court's comments may have contributed to Parker's decision not to testify but do not create a constitutional infirmity. Although we have not addressed the issue in a published opinion, two of our sister circuits have concluded that a district court does not err in warning the defendant about the potential obstruction of justice sentencing enhancement in advising a defendant about his right to testify. See United States v. Johnson, 627 F.3d 578, 582 (6th Cir. 2010); United States v. Padron, 938 F.2d 29, 30 (2d Cir. 1991) (per curiam). We agree and conclude that Parker fails to demonstrate that the district court plainly erred. See United States v. Maxwell, 285 F.3d 336, 342 (4th Cir. 2002) (In the absence of [Supreme Court or Fourth Circuit] authority, decisions by other circuit courts of appeals are pertinent to the question of whether an error is plain. (internal quotation marks omitted)). V. Finally, Parker contends that the district court erred in applying a 4-level leadership enhancement. We accord due deference to a district court's application of the [S]entencing [G]uidelines. United States v. Steffen, 741 F.3d 411, 414 (4th Cir. 2013). A defendant qualifies for a 4-level enhancement to his offense level if he was an organizer or leader of a criminal activity that involved five or more participants or was otherwise extensive. U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual 3B1.1(a) (2015). The district court's determination that a defendant was an organizer or leader is a factual matter reviewed for clear error. United States v. Thorson, 633 F.3d 312, 317 (4th Cir. 2011). Factors distinguishing a leadership or organization role from lesser roles include: the exercise of decision making authority, the nature of participation in the commission of the offense, the recruitment of accomplices, the claimed right to a larger share of the fruits of the crime, the degree of participation in planning or organizing the offense, the nature and scope of the illegal activity, and the degree of control and authority exercised over others. USSG 3B1.1 cmt. n.4. The enhancement is appropriate where the evidence demonstrates that the defendant controlled the activities of other participants or exercised management responsibility. United States v. Llamas, 599 F.3d 381, 390 (4th Cir. 2010) (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting United States v. Bartley, 230 F.3d 667, 674 (4th Cir. 2000)). We conclude that the district court did not clearly err in applying the leadership enhancement. Parker recruited several individuals to join his tax fraud scheme. While Parker contends that Jones was the leader, there can be more than one leader in a criminal activity. USSG 3B1.1 cmt. n.4. Additionally, Parker received a larger share of his coconspirators million-dollar refund than did Jones. Moreover, Parker walked some coconspirators through the process of filing their fraudulent return, even personally mailing their return to the IRS. See Bartley, 230 F.3d at 673 ([T]he enhancement is justified if the defendant managed or supervised the activities of at least one other person in a scheme that involved five or more participants.). Thus, the leadership enhancement appears to have been appropriate. VI. We dispense with oral argument at the parties request. Because we conclude that the district court did not err or abuse its discretion, Parker's conviction and sentence are AFFIRMED. FOOTNOTES . Form 1099-OID reports income derived from discounted bonds or notes. That is, it is used to report the difference between the price of which a financial instrument is issued and its stated redemption price at maturity. Testimony of IRS Special Agent Shauna Henline J.A. 272. . During direct examination, Newby indicated that the fact that a tax preparer did not sign a return may indicate some hanky panky or foolishness, because the preparer did not want to put his or her name on the return. Parker objected and was overruled. J.A. 729730. DUNCAN, Circuit Judge: Affirmed by unpublished opinion. Judge Duncan wrote the opinion, in which Judge Motz and Judge Thacker joined. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. Washington: The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee says he wants to interview the president's daughter as part of the panel's Russia investigation, along with other witnesses who Republicans aren't inviting. Representative Adam Schiff said on Friday that Republicans have declined to invite many witnesses that would be valuable to the probe, including Ivanka Trump and several people who he says have additional information about a June 2016 meeting between Russians and the Trump campaign. "There are witnesses who have knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting and what it was about prior to the meeting that have not been brought before our committee," Schiff told reporters. At the Trump Tower meeting, several Trump campaign officials met with Russian operatives under the impression that they might receive damaging information about the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. The meeting has captured the interest of congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Ivanka Trump talked to at least two of the meeting's participants on the way out. "I think that if there's credible information that Ivanka Trump had contact with any participants in that meeting, at the time of the meeting, that she should be brought in," Schiff said. "She may have more valuable insights on a variety of other issues as well." Schiff said the committee has interviewed a total of 56 witnesses, less than half of the number of witnesses the Senate intelligence committee has interviewed in its own investigation into Russian interference and whether the Trump campaign was involved. The House interviews are done by lawmakers, and often run for much of the day. The Senate panel's interviews are done by staff. He laid the blame on House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes, Republican from California, who stepped aside from the probe for several months while the House Ethics Committee investigated whether Nunes had at one point divulged classified information. Schiff said he and Texas Representative Mike Conaway, who has led the probe since Nunes stepped aside, have "tried to keep the investigation on track," but "the chairman has a different agenda." Nunes has been focused on a dossier of allegations about Trump's ties to Russia and whether it has been inappropriately used by the FBI. Democrats have said that's just an attempt to divert from the Russia probe. Republicans have in turn criticised Democrats for trying to draw out the probe and say there's no clear evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia. They have indicated they want the investigation to wind down in the early months of this year. London: US president Donald Trump cancelled a trip to London scheduled for next month to open a new embassy, blaming Barack Obama for selling off the old one for "peanuts" in a bad deal. More than a year into his presidency, Trump has yet to visit London, with many British voters promising mass protests against a US leader they see as crude, volatile and opposed to their values on a range of issues. "(The) reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars," Trump said in a tweet late on Thursday. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" Trump said. Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 The decision to acquire a new London embassy site on the south bank of the Thames was announced in 2008 under George W Bush along with the plans to put the Grosvenor Square site in Mayfair up for sale. A pillar of Britains foreign policy since World War Two, the so-called "special relationship" with Washington has taken on added importance as Britain prepares to leave the European Union in 2019 and seeks new major trade deals. But senior British officials have been dismayed by some of Trumps pronouncements, particularly a proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States and most recently when Trump rebuked Prime Minister Theresa May on Twitter after she criticised him for retweeting British far-right anti-Islam videos. A Downing Street spokesman declined immediate comment. May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his inauguration in January last year, and they were filmed emerging from the White House holding hands. She later said Trump took her hand in a gentlemanly gesture as they walked down a ramp. During that trip a year ago, May extended an invitation to make a state visit - which includes pomp, pageantry and a formal banquet with Queen Elizabeth - by the end of 2017. That state visit, which is different to his now cancelled working trip, has still not yet taken place, though British officials insist it has not been cancelled. The American flag was this month removed from the US embassy in Grosvenor Square - an area known as "Little America" during World War Two, when the square also housed the military headquarters of General Dwight D Eisenhower. The new embassy on the south bank is a veritable fortress set back at least 100 feet (30 meters) from surrounding buildings - mostly newly-erected high-rise residential blocks - and incorporating living quarters for US Marines permanently stationed inside. The $1 billion construction, overlooking the River Thames, was funded by the sale of other properties in London. Washington: US president Donald Trump has said that he feels "betrayed" by his former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon who was highly critical of him and his family in a book published last week. Bannon who worked with him first as his campaign manager and then as his chief strategist at the White House was fired by him last August. In a book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House published last week, Bannon is extensively quoted as being highly critical of him and his family, even going to the extent of claiming that the president was not interested in winning the presidential election and that first lady Melania wept after the election result because she did not want Trump to win. "I feel betrayed because you are not supposed to do that, but I have many people that work for me who were far more important than Steve, right there," Trump was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal. "I always liked Steve, but Steve became very ineffective because he was such a lightning rod. And Steve, in the end I fired Steve," Trump said. Soon after the excerpts of the book was released, Trump in a statement said that Bannon has nothing to do with his presidency and that he has lost his mind. "Is that relationship permanently broken between you and Steve?" he was asked. "You never know, I don't know what the word permanent means. We will see what happens, but Steve had nothing to do with my win. Well, certainly very little," he asserted. "Steve's greatest asset is he was able to convince a corrupt media that he was responsible for my win. Hope, just out of curiosity, you were there from day one. What do you think Steve in a percentage had to do with my victory? I mean he was there. Corey [Lewandowski] had more to do with it," Trump said. Asserting that the liberal media dislikes him, Trump said he is smart. "I was successful, successful, successful. I was always the best athlete, people dont know that. But I was successful at everything I ever did and then I run for president, first timefirst time, not three times, not six times. I ran for president first time and lo and behold, I win. And then people say oh, is he a smart person? I am smarter than all of them put together, but they cant admit it. They had a bad year," Trump said. "When I won against the 17 people, you cant then say that oh, gee, somebody comes in two months after I won, and he gives me new policy, new idea. I cant change those ideas, those ideas are wedded," he said. Trump said that Bannon's remarks against his son were horrible. "My son had a brief meeting based on the fact that he thought whatever he thought. And somebody said bad stuff on an opponent. I dont know of one politician in Washingtonif youre a politician and somebody called up that they have information on your opponent that might be negative," he said. Washington: China has not done enough on the issue of North Korea for the US, President Donald Trump has said but appreciated the "great chemistry" he shares with Chinese President Xi Jinping. North Korea last year increased the pace of its missile programme. Since February, Pyongyang has fired off 23 missiles. On 29 November, the North Korean leader said that his country had achieved full nuclear statehood after what he said was the successful test of a new missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States. Fears of a catastrophic conflict between the US and North Korea spiked as the leaders of the two nations taunted each other, with President Donald Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Rocket Man'. Trump has called on China to do more to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. "Not helpful enough, but they have been very helpful. Let's put it this way, they have done more for me than they ever have for any American president. They still havent done enough," Trump was quoted as saying in The Wall Street Journal. "But they have done more for me than they have, by far, for anyI have a very good relationship with Xi. I like him. He likes me. We have a great chemistry together. He has done far more for us than they ever have for any American president. With that being said, its not enough. They have to do more," Trump insisted. As a result of Chinese help so far, Trump said he has not been tough on China as he would like to be. "We have been much tougher on China, but not nearly as tough as I would be, but they are helping us a lot with North Korea, he said in response to a question. "And you see in North Korea what's happening with North Korea all of a sudden. Chinas been helping us a lot, so you can veer a little bit differently, but for the most part everything I have said I have done," he said in response to a question on his electoral promise of being tough on China. North Korea, he said, is a big problem. "It is a big problem, and they should not have left me with that problem. That should have been a problem that was solved by Obama, or Bush, or Clinton or anybody, because the longer it went, the worse, the more difficult the problem got," he said. Trump also said that he probably has a "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but did not confirm or deny if he had spoken to the leader in Pyongyang. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. I have relationships with people, I think you people are surprised," Trump said. "Just to be clear, you haven't spoken to the North Korean leader, I mean when you say a relationship with Korea," he was immediately asked. "I dont want to comment on itI dont want to comment, Im not saying I have or I havent. But I just dont," Trump responded. The US president denied that delaying military exercises on the Korean Peninsula for the Olympics sends the wrong message to the North Koreans, that he is in some way bending to them. Washington: President Donald Trump suggested in an interview on Thursday that he has developed a positive relationship with the North Korean leader, but declined to say whether they have spoken. No sitting US 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." 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 on Wednesday for the inter-Korean dialogue, saying North Korea was feeling the pressure of a US-led campaign of sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile development. He said the US 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 US mainland. Trump has called Kim "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission." Kim called the 71-year-old American president "the mentally deranged US 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 US 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. 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 Washington: 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 23 February 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 on Wednesday reported that even though his execution by lethal injection is set for 23 February, 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. In his first public speech after taking over as the US Ambassador to India in November, Kenneth Juster spoke 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". Here is the full text of the remarks given by Juster on 11 January, 2018: Thank you very much, Raja, for that kind and generous introduction. Thanks as well to your colleagues at Carnegie India and my colleagues at the U.S. Embassy for their hard work in putting this event together. And, of course, thank you everyone for being here this afternoon. It is an honor to be with you to deliver my inaugural address as the U.S. Ambassador to India. I have been fortunate to be deeply involved in U.S. relations with India since 2001 both in government and in the private sector. Throughout this time and even before I have often marveled at Indias ancient history and rich culture. The Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished almost 5,000 years ago, featured the worlds first planned cities. It began a remarkable story of a subcontinent that has produced major religions, classical languages, and countless contributions to the fields of science, art, and literature, among others. Now, as I embark upon my journey as Ambassador, I would like to begin a conversation with you my Indian friends about the impact our relationship can have on the 21st century and beyond. The thoughts I offer will be complete only with your input. So I look forward to your reactions. Friend of India Let me acknowledge at the outset that there are many benefits to being named U.S. Ambassador. In particular, people from all walks of my life as well as some I have never met have surfaced to say wonderful things about me. While it may not all be true, it sure feels good! One compliment that does resonate with me was offered by the President of India when I presented my credentials: he called me a friend of India. It is a comment that others have made as well, which I consider a great honor. I have reflected on what it means to be a friend of India and why I think it is significant. When I first began working on policy matters involving India as Under Secretary of Commerce, our two countries faced challenging and complicated issues related to the transfer of sensitive U.S. technology with both military and conventional applications so called dual-use items. India sought increased access to this technology, while the United States 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. Our initial exchanges on this subject were quite formal and somewhat strained, due to the wide gulf in our positions. However, we soon developed a series of reciprocal steps to enable us to gain confidence and move forward. And look how far we have come. 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. And we are working closely with India and our international partners to secure Indias membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. At the same time, the United States has gone from a restrictive policy regarding the export of dual-use items to India to a much more liberal one. I think it was the way in which U.S. and Indian officials approached this transformation that led some to call me a friend of India. Let me briefly describe that approach. It began as it always should with respect. While U.S. and Indian diplomats certainly pursued their respective national interests, we also listened carefully to each other, sought to understand the others point of view, and searched for commonalities and mutually beneficial solutions. We also trusted each other. This involved being open and candid. Do what you say and say what you do may be an old cliche, but it is critical to building trust. Of course, we simply disagreed from time to time. But as friends, we still accepted each other, because we shared a fundamental set of interests. Acceptance enabled us to work through disagreements and move forward without animosity or rancor, and certainly without jeopardizing our relationship. Another critical attribute of our approach was confidence. Because friends believe in each others good intentions, we felt confident in occasionally taking risks even big risks that ultimately could help us reach our desired destination. And, finally, we demonstrated resilience and constancy. We appreciated the big picture and bounced back from disappointments or setbacks that inevitably occurred along the way. We did not allow ourselves to be diminished by lapsing into a tit-for-tat relationship. And, of course, it certainly helped to have a good sense of humor. These qualities respect, trust, acceptance, confidence, and resilience and constancy were critical to the success we achieved. They are also an intrinsic part of our people-to-people relationships, perhaps best exemplified by the large Indian diaspora in the United States that fully engages in American life, yet still maintains close ties to India. Indian entrepreneurs, in particular, have successfully bridged our two cultures and made a significant mark on the American technology landscape, while also benefiting India. Today, approximately 33 percent of all immigrant-founded startups in the United States have Indian founders, a number which far exceeds that of any other group. Surely, the human dimension of interactions between Indians and Americans has contributed to this incredible statistic. It is my hope that this same spirit and drive, which is also reflected in the bond between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi, will permeate the routine interactions between government officials of our two countries as we seek to fulfill the potential of our strategic partnership. Our Values and Interests As members of diverse, dynamic, multi-religious, and pluralistic democracies, Indians and Americans share the fundamental values of individual liberty, hard work and enterprise, open societies, human rights, and the rule of law. These values underpin a friendship bolstered by conviction, rather than merely by expediency. Based on our values, we have common interests in playing by the rules, enjoying freedom of trade and commerce, and resolving disputes peacefully in accordance with international law. The Indo-Pacific Region Our shared values and common interests inform our vision for the Indo-Pacific region. This area encompasses the worlds largest and fastest-growing economies and its most populous nations. Its waters contain many of the vital choke points for global trade. Its geography is rich in natural resources. And it is fast becoming the center of gravity of the evolving international system. As the U.S. National Security Strategy recognizes, India is a leading power in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. For India and the United States, the Indo-Pacific is vital to the security and prosperity of our people as well as others. Together, we want to: 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, we want to preserve regional stability and security, prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and eliminate the scourge of terrorism. The U.S.-India Strategic Partnership The U.S.-India strategic partnership is designed to strengthen both countries and to have a beneficial impact on this region. The principles just enumerated are inclusive, and we welcome working with any nation that embraces them. Over the past 17 years, the United States and India have made enormous strides together. Some of the landmark steps along the way include the expansion of our defense cooperation and combined military exercises, the work of the High Technology Cooperation Group and the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership, the historic civil nuclear deal, the nearly six-fold increase in U.S.-India trade, the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative and the designation of India as a Major Defense Partner, and many other initiatives related to commerce, energy, the environment, science, technology, health, and other fields. Significantly, there has been strong, consistent, and sustained support for this partnership from the major parties in each of our countries, across multiple changes of government. And yet, despite all of this, we still get asked, Is the United States a reliable partner that will remain fully engaged in the region? or What will be the next signature initiative to propel our relationship forward? While I believe these questions are misplaced, they nonetheless represent anxieties that we must overcome. Only when we stop doubting our mutual commitment to this partnership and stop looking for another initiative to prove its worth, will we really know that things are proceeding well. In reviewing the past 17 years, I believe we have laid a strong foundation for a strategic partnership that can have a significant, positive impact on the 21st century and beyond. It is now time to build upon this foundation in a flexible but purposive manner. We must move beyond our growing pains and create something that makes sense for both of us over the long term something that helps shape a stable architecture for the region. 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. 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 Indias 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. Let me briefly touch on five pillars that can provide the framework for our durable partnership. Defense and Counter-Terrorism One key pillar is our cooperation on defense and counter-terrorism to enhance the long-term security and stability of the Indo-Pacific region. A related and equally important objective is to continue our support to India as a net provider of regional security, capable of responding successfully to threats to peace, especially in the Indian Ocean and its vicinity. We can advance these objectives in several ways, which we expect to discuss this spring in our new 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue and incorporate in a roadmap to drive action on both sides. One way to increase cooperation is through military exercises. 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. This modest expansion of military training would allow both countries to enhance what we learn from each other and increase our comfort, ease, and confidence in working together. A second key area of cooperation involves military hardware and technology. In little more than a decade, U.S. defense trade with India has expanded from virtually nothing to over 15 billion dollars, and includes sales of some of Americas most advanced military equipment. We want to see this trend continue because Indias defense needs are vast and because the United States, as a global leader in developing advanced military technology, is committed to enhancing Indias security. A prominent example of this commitment was the Trump Administrations decision last June to approve the sale of the Sea Guardian Unmanned Aerial System, positioning India to be our first non-NATO partner or treaty ally to acquire this advanced platform. In line with Indias desire to produce more of its equipment in its own country, I want to emphasize that the United States is more than just another supplier. Major U.S. defense companies are already in India producing components for complex defense systems. Moreover, our Defense Technology and Trade Initiative and the U.S. designation of India as a Major Defense Partner are designed to strengthen our defense cooperation, including opportunities for co-development and co-production. We seek to assist Indias efforts to build up its indigenous defense base and capabilities, as well as enhance the inter-operability of our two forces as major defense partners in the Indo-Pacific region. A combination of interests underpins the future success of these initiatives the Indian government interest in technology and engaging in the co-development and co-production of military equipment; the U.S. Government interest in safeguarding information and technology; our mutual interest in increasing the inter-operability of our forces; and the shared interests of our companies in growing and creating jobs in both countries. These interests will never be perfectly aligned, and the burdens cannot fall only on one party or another. Rather, as we did earlier with dual-use technology, all parties need to be creative in finding commonalities and mutually beneficial solutions that will enable them to derive value from the process. We need to patiently make step-by-step progress on these defense initiatives rather than expect to resolve all issues at once. 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. A third way to advance defense cooperation is through military exchanges. Our experience shows that these exchanges qualitatively increase familiarity and build trust based on relationships developed and nurtured in the classroom and in other settings. Over time, we should expand officer exchanges at our war colleges and our training facilities, and even at some point post reciprocal military liaison officers at our respective combatant commands. One last, very important point regarding this pillar is our critical and growing cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism. Each of our countries has suffered horrific terrorist attacks and continues to be targeted. We have a strong mutual interest in eliminating this threat to our societies. President Trump and other U.S. leaders have been clear that we will not tolerate cross-border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere. As part of this effort, last month we launched the first-ever U.S.-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. Economic and Commercial Relations Let me turn to a second pillar in building out our strategic partnership our economic and commercial relationship. India is in the midst of an economic surge as it integrates more fully into the global economy. In turn, the U.S. trade and investment relationship with India continues to grow. Bilateral trade has gone from approximately 20 billion dollars in 2001 to 115 billion dollars in 2016. Of course, given the size of our respective markets, there is still plenty of room to expand the flow of goods and services in both directions and, in the process, for trade to become more reciprocal. The United States counts on all of our partners to work with us to ensure fair and balanced trade. We are concerned about persistent trade deficits, including the one we have with India. We welcome steps by India to continue its reform agenda, expand market access, and further enhance the protection of intellectual property. And we 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 Modis effort to improve Indias long-term growth rate in a sustained way. In this regard, the Prime Ministers determination to move India further up on the World Banks Ease of Doing Business index is inspiring. America First and Make in India are not incompatible. Rather, investing in each others markets will be mutually beneficial it will increase our economic interactions and volume of trade, lead to collaboration on emerging technologies, and create jobs in both countries. 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 defense relationship. A number of U.S. 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. India can seize the strategic opportunity through trade and investment to become an alternative hub for U.S. business in the Indo-Pacific region. Accelerating the economic and regulatory reform process already begun by Prime Minister 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 liberalization will also enable Indian products to more readily become part of the global supply chain, thereby accelerating job creation. There are many benefits to growing our bilateral economic relationship and making India a regional hub for U.S. business. We saw on display at the recent Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad the critical and positive impact that an enabling environment for innovation has on a nations economy. America is a leader in entrepreneurship and innovation, and already has extensive linkages with India in the technology sector. Opening Indias market further to U.S. trade and investment will spur our collaboration on many emerging technologies that will drive and protect our economies, including those related to advanced manufacturing and cyber security. Greater U.S. 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. Increased openness to U.S. goods and services, and an expanded presence of U.S. companies, will also stimulate private sector investment in improved infrastructure and overall connectivity. As an example, U.S. companies have innovative technologies that could support Indias ambitious goal to create 100 smart cities across the country. In addition, a U.S.-India joint venture is already producing locomotives that meet global emissions standards to modernize Indias railways. And civil aviation is another important area where an enhanced partnership will help advance both of our economies. Increased heft in our economic relationship would necessarily provide a broader and deeper, long-term U.S. commitment to India and the Indo-Pacific region. This would complement our growing defense and counter-terrorism partnership, and moderate any policy differences that might arise along the way. 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 U.S.-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. As with our experience with high technology exports and the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership, a vision of where we want to go could help spur the resolution of many of todays trade and investment disputes and signal to international companies that India is fully open for business. Energy and the Environment A third pillar ripe for enhanced strategic cooperation is energy and the environment. With the projected growth of Indias economy, the increasing size of its population, the rise of its middle class, and the urbanization of its landscape, Indias energy needs for sustainable and inclusive development are going to be substantial for many years to come. The United States is uniquely positioned to offer India a comprehensive energy partnership. This includes all forms of energy coal; crude oil; natural gas; and nuclear power; as well as technology related to clean fossil fuels, smart grids, energy storage, and renewable resources. Indeed, last year the United States exported its first major shipment of crude oil to India. The United States can also help provide the supporting services, infrastructure, and technology that are necessary for Indias efforts to further develop domestic sources of energy and enhance energy security. The U.S.-India Strategic Energy Partnership will convene early this year at the Ministerial level, and we look forward to welcoming Energy Secretary Perry to New Delhi. One highlight is our joint work on power and energy efficiency. As India strives to bring stability to its expanding power grid, U.S. companies offer the technology and expertise to meet the demands on overloaded transmission and distribution systems. In addition, we are collaborating on the types of policies, regulations, and financial investments that will support the development of a sustainable and profitable grid. Our environmental collaboration extends to the oceans and maritime areas, consistent with Prime Minister Modis commitment to the blue economy. This includes scientific exchanges on ocean biodiversity, and mining and marine pollution, all of which should help sustain fisheries and coastal communities for decades to come. Indeed, these efforts could be expanded on a regional basis in order to protect the broader marine environment. Science, Technology, and Health A fourth pillar of our partnership is our focus on sustainable and inclusive development with regard to the welfare of our people. This includes critical work in science, technology, and health. Our U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund has supported a range of innovative projects, including those to advance healthcare, improve the environment, and modernize agriculture. And beyond earth and into space, NASA and ISRO scientists frequently collaborate demonstrating that there truly are no boundaries to our partnership. 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. That is why we are 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. We are also engaged in the Global Health Security Agenda, which includes acting to combat antimicrobial resistance and strengthen detection, prevention, and response to epidemics. In addition, our health agenda addresses the complex problem of HIV as well as the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. Regional Cooperation The final pillar in building out our strategic partnership is regional cooperation to promote stability and welfare. Let me briefly highlight a few areas of collaboration. One is Afghanistan, where we both have a strong interest in promoting peace, security, and prosperity. Our leaders are committed to supporting Afghanistans National Unity Government and helping build that countrys democratic institutions. We are each investing substantial resources on Afghanistans reconstruction and future. These efforts not only advance regional development and stability, but help to eliminate safe havens for terrorists. A second area for coordination is multilateral activities with other like-minded countries in the region, including Japan and Australia. We already conduct the Malabar naval exercise with Japan, and the scope of our trilateral dialogue is steadily expanding. For the first time in ten years, we have held quadrilateral consultations with Australia, discussing our vision for increased prosperity and security in a rules-based Indo-Pacific region. We should continue to nurture multilateral groupings in the years ahead, as we look for opportunities to collaborate with all of our like-minded partners. In a similar vein, we should enhance our efforts to promote connectivity within South Asia, which is one of the least economically integrated regions in the world. The United States is already looking at how we can leverage our assistance programs in the region to finance national infrastructure projects. We should coordinate with India, other countries, and the multilateral development banks on financing for regional infrastructure projects. One last area to mention is humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the Indo-Pacific region. An effective response to any disaster requires civil-military coordination that is planned, exercised, and resourced. The United States and India bring different capabilities to this task and can benefit from working together when crises occur. Conclusion In sum, we have a very ambitious agenda for the U.S.-India partnership. In todays turbulent world, one constant is and always should be the strength of this partnership. I sincerely believe it is as consequential as any relationship in international affairs both in the opportunities we have and in our potential impact on the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. While both India and the United States cherish our independence and sovereignty, the true value of our partnership is that it can better enable each of us to positively influence global affairs and achieve our greatest aspirations for the security and prosperity of our people. Of course, for this to happen, we must approach our task as friends with respect, trust, acceptance, confidence, and resilience and constancy. President Trump has referred to India as a true friend. And Prime Minister Modi has echoed Prime Minister Vajpayees description of our countries as natural allies. It is now up to us to give further content and substance to these terms. We must build a partnership that is strong and durable, while also flexible and adaptive. Let us seize the opportunity before us, so that future generations look back on this period as a time when we truly transformed U.S.-India relations. Thank you very much. The entire text of the testimony has been taken exactly as provided by the US Embassy and has not been edited by Firstpost. Washington: Leading immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir, an Indian-descent from Trinidad and Tobago, was arrested on Thursday during a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ordered immediate deportation, irking local community in New York. A large number of his supporters, including several Indian-Americans, gathered outside the Jacob Javits Federal Building where he was detained. "Ravi is an acclaimed community leader, a loving father, and a steadfast immigrant rights activist. His detention is entirely unwarranted and reflects the Trump administration's predatory behavior in New York City and across the country. Ravi must be released immediately," said Congressman Joe Crowley, a top Democratic leader. Ragbir arrived in the US from Trinidad and Tobago in 1991 on a visitor's visa. He became a lawful permanent resident in 1994. According to New York Immigration Coalition, Ragbir has lived with the threat of deportation for nearly a decade, as the result of a 16-year old conviction for wire fraud. He was placed into removal proceedings in 2006 and spent 22 months in immigration detention before being released in February 2008. During immigration detention and since his release, Ragbir has worked tirelessly to end the use of immigration detention, stop deportations, and secure relief for countless individuals. Previously, ICE officials had granted Ragbir prosecutorial discretion, including a stay of removal that was in effect until next week. Known as a fixture in the immigrant rights movement, Ragbir was awarded the 2017 Immigrant Excellence Award by the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, given to those who show "deep commitment to the enhancement of their community." ICE justified its decision and said he will remain in custody pending removal to Trinidad. "Over the last 12 years, Mr. Ragbir's immigration case has undergone extensive judicial review at multiple levels of the nation's judicial system, including both immigration courts and federal appeals courts," said Rachael Yong Yow, ICE public affairs officer. In each review, the courts have uniformly held that Ragbir does not have a legal basis to remain in the US, ICE said. In an exercise of discretion, the agency had previously allowed him to remain free from custody with periodic check-ins, while his case was under court review, Rachael said. "He has since exhausted his petitions and appeals through the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the US District Court. He will remain in custody pending removal to Trinidad," she said. "In addition to Mr. Ragbir's immigration violations, he has a previous federal conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, rendering him an aggravated felon. He was sentenced to 30 months incarceration, and ordered restitution in the amount of $350,001," said ICE spokesperson. Bangkok: Japanese's foreign minister on Friday urged Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to guarantee the safe and voluntary return of Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in troubled Rakhine state. While Foreign Minister Taro Kono is visiting Myanmar, the Japanese government announced a grant of $3 million to Myanmar's government to help facilitate the repatriation of the Rohingya. Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees on 23 November and Myanmar said it would start the process by 23 January. The exact numbers and extent of the repatriation is still unclear. "We have decided to provide the aid in response to the agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to represent an international message of support so that the repatriation can be carried out promptly," said foreign ministry official Shinobu Yamaguchi in a statement. Kono's three-day visit to Myanmar includes traveling to Rakhine state. Humanitarian groups and independent media are prohibited from traveling to the area freely. More than 650,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape a brutal crackdown in which security forces have been accused of systematic abuses tantamount to ethnic cleansing. During a meeting on Friday, Kono asked Suu Kyi's government to allow humanitarian and media access to the affected area, the resettlement of returned refugees, and the implementation of recommendations made by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Kono also said Japan plans to give further aid to improve humanitarian conditions and development in Rakhine state. "We are thankful to Japan for its willingness to support the needs both for short term and long term," Suu Kyi said at the joint news conference. Yamaguchi stressed that Japan will monitor how the repatriation will be carried out. "The money will be paid in a timely manner based on the progress of repatriation," Yamaguchi added. Myanmar's state-run media on Wednesday said authorities have started the land work to construct buildings to accommodate returned refugees from Bangladesh in northern Rakhine, where refugees will be temporarily placed after their citizenship is scrutinized. United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America PlaintiffAppellee v. Ted Howard FULK, also known as Seth Allen DefendantAppellant No. 16-4088 Decided: January 11, 2018 Before SMITH, Chief Judge, MELLOY and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges. Melisa K. Zaehringer, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Davenport, IA, for PlaintiffAppellee. Ted Howard Fulk, Iowa Department of Corrections, Fifth Judicial District, Des Moines, IA, pro se. Terence L. McAtee, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Federal Public Defender's Office, Davenport, IA, for DefendantAppellant. Defendant Ted Howard Fulk pleaded guilty to one count of failure to register as a sex offender in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2250, his fourth conviction related to registry requirements. The district court sentenced him to thirty-seven months imprisonment and ten years supervised release. His supervised release includes a special condition requiring court approval before traveling outside of the state of Iowa. Fulk appeals the length of supervised release and the special travel condition. We affirm. In July 2015, the police stopped Fulk while he was driving in Des Moines, Iowa. Fulk identified himself as an Australian named Seth Matthew Allen. Fulk did not have a valid driver's license and was arrested. Fingerprinting revealed Fulk's true identity, including that he was a sex offender. On release, Fulk registered with the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, but he did so under the name Seth Matthew Allen. Shortly thereafter, police initiated a second traffic stop and arrested Fulk for failing to comply with the sex offender registry. Law enforcement had discovered that Fulk had been living in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, as an unregistered sex offender since at least September 2014. During Fulk's sentencing hearing, the district court thoroughly reviewed his biographical and criminal history. The district court noted Fulk had previously used several known aliases. While his residential and employment history are largely unknown, the district court pointed out that Fulk had lived in Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Tennessee. The court also took notice of Fulk's desire to move to the United Kingdom with his girlfriend, a British citizen. At the time of the sentencing hearing Fulk was incarcerated at the Muscatine County Jail. The district court noted that during his time at the jail, Fulk acquired more than fifteen disciplinary charges. The district court also found that Fulk made a false sexual assault claim against a correctional officer. Fulk contacted several governmental and non-governmental agencies, at times making false claims about the jail. The court noted that Fulk wrote a letter to his girlfriend, while his mail was monitored, that contained troubling threats against jail employees. Accordingly, the district court expressed a need to have some consistent longevity in who is keeping an eye on him. I. Ten-Year Term of Supervised Release Fulk contends that the ten-year term of supervised release is unreasonable. We review the reasonableness of his sentence under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). Additionally, where a district court imposes a sentence within the advisory guideline range there is a rebuttable presumption that the sentence is substantively reasonable. United States v. Ruelas-Mendez, 556 F.3d 655, 657 (8th Cir. 2009). Fulk's ten-year term of supervised release is well within the advisory guideline range of five years to life and should be presumed to be substantively reasonable. Furthermore, the sentencing court has substantial discretion in determining how to weigh the statutory sentencing factors. United States v. Morais, 670 F.3d 889, 893 (8th Cir. 2012). A district court is not required to recite each of the sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. 3553(a), as long as the record makes clear that they were considered. United States v. Powills, 537 F.3d 947, 950 (8th Cir. 2008). Here, the district court thoroughly discussed, on the record, the elements of Fulk's biographical and criminal history. The district court also discussed the specific factors that supported Fulk's term of supervised release. Finally, Fulk argues that at sentencing both parties recommended a five-year term of supervised release and not the district court's sentence of ten years supervised release. However, [s]entencing recommendations are just thatrecommendationswhich do not bind the district court. United States v. White, 367 F.3d 968, 970 (8th Cir. 2004). Instead, as discussed above, the sentencing court has substantial discretion in weighing the sentencing factors and need not articulate independent reasons for deviating from a joint recommendation. As the term of supervised release is within the sentencing guidelines, and the district court more than sufficiently considered the 3553(a) factors, we find the ten-year term of supervised release to be reasonable. II. Special Travel Condition Fulk appeals the special travel condition included with the terms of his supervised release. The special travel condition provides [t]he defendant is not permitted to travel outside the state of Iowa during his term of supervision without further order of the Court. Generally, [w]e review the district court's imposition of special conditions for abuse of discretion. Morais, 670 F.3d at 895. Under 18 U.S.C. 3583(d), a district court has broad discretion to impose special conditions, as long as the conditions satisfy all three statutory requirements. 670 F.3d at 895. At issue are the first two requirements, specifically, whether the special travel condition (1) is reasonably related to the sentencing factors set forth in 3553(a), and (2) involve[s] no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary for the purposes set forth in 3553(a). Id. To determine whether a special condition satisfies these requirements, the court must make an individualized inquiry into the facts and circumstances to avoid categorical sentencing and must make sufficient findings on the record to be statutorily compliant. Id. First, the special travel condition is sufficiently related to the statute's sentencing factors to satisfy the reasonable-relation requirement. Special conditions are reasonably related to the statutory sentencing factors if they are tailored to the nature and circumstances of the offense, the defendant's history and characteristics, the deterrence of criminal conduct, the protection of the public from further crimes of the defendant, and the defendant's educational, vocational, medicinal or other correctional needs. United States v. Bender, 566 F.3d 748, 751 (8th Cir. 2009) (quoting United States v. Crume, 422 F.3d 728, 733 (8th Cir. 2005)). Here, the district court imposed the special travel condition based on the nature and circumstances surrounding the July 2015 traffic stops and Fulk's fourth conviction for failing to register as a sex offender. The district court tailored the special travel condition to Fulk's residential history, his recent actions in the Muscatine County Jail, and the potential risks posed by his future travel plans. The district court made detailed findings, on the record, and did so in a manner that was specific to Fulk as an individual, rather than Fulk as a member of a class of individuals. Under the second factor, a condition of supervised release is statutorily permissible as long as the condition does not involve a greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary to deter criminal conduct, to protect the public, and to provide the defendant with necessary care, treatment, and training. See 18 U.S.C. 3583(d)(2) & 3553(a)(2)(B)(D). See also Morais, 670 F.3d at 896. In United States v. Ringgenberg, we concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing a special travel condition prohibiting travel within forty-five miles of Sioux City or Fort Dodge, Iowa, without prior approval of the probation office. 494 Fed.Appx. 685, 686 (8th Cir. 2012) (per curiam). We held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the special travel condition was reasonably necessary to protect the public, satisfying the second factor of 18 U.S.C. 3553(a). Id. Similarly here, we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in including the special travel condition in Fulk's supervised release. A review of the record shows that the district court identified public safety concerns, including Fulk's history of evading registry requirements, using false names, and lying to law enforcement officers. The court also noted concern about Fulk's behavior at the Muscatine County Jail, including the letters that contained a threat against jail employees and false claims about the jail. Fulk also made a false sexual assault accusation against a correctional officer. Based on these facts, the district court could reasonably question whether Fulk would adhere to his registration requirements without the special travel condition. Fulk contends that the special travel condition involves a greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary because the special travel condition is redundant. Unchallenged, standard conditions of his supervised release include requirements that he provide notice to the probation office at least ten days before a change in residence or employment and that he cannot leave the Southern District of Iowa without the permission of the court or probation office. While there is potential geographical overlap between these standard conditions and the special travel condition, the district court expressed a specific need to have some consistent longevity in who is keeping an eye on him. Further, Fulk argues the special travel condition is overly broad. A special condition of supervised release is only unconstitutionally overbroad if its overbreadth is real and substantial in relationship to its plainly legitimate sweep. United States v. West, 829 F.3d 1013, 1020 (8th Cir. 2016) (quoting United States v. Thompson, 653 F.3d 688, 695 (8th Cir. 2011)). Fulk cites cases that discuss, at some length, the elements of overly broad special conditions. Based on the facts at hand and the district court's reasoning, as described above, we do not find those cases to be inconsistent with the special travel condition in this case. See generally United States v. Deatherage, 682 F.3d 755, 764 (8th Cir. 2012). Finally, we expect the district court will not arbitrarily refuse approval of Fulk's request to travel outside of the state of Iowa when appropriate safeguards are available. As discussed above, the record indicates that the district court balanced the need to encourage adherence to the registry requirements with a potential deprivation of liberty. Therefore, we find no abuse of discretion by the district court in imposing the special travel condition. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court. FOOTNOTES . The Honorable Stephanie M. Rose, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa. MELLOY, Circuit Judge. The recent address by new US ambassador to India Kenneth Ian Juster was a masterpiece of linguistics. It hit all the right notes and made the controversial seem entirely reasonable. References to India's ancient history and contributions to the field of science would have pleased the religious Right, while references to India as a "leading power" also made earlier in President Donald Trump's National Security Strategy were designed to make Indians feel important. The apparent readiness to embrace India as a strategic partner, however, is hedged by the role Washington wants India to play, and that will deliver US' objectives. First, India is recognised as a 'leading power' for the purposes of the India-Pacific region. The term 'India-Pacific' has also been minted, keeping in mind what is required of India in the context of "China Rising". A red line seems to have been drawn towards the west, where the most intractable issues that bedevil India's strategic interests lie. Apart from Pakistan where the US military aid has been cut, even while economic aid continues in other countries, India has had to pay a heavy price because of US policies. The Indian economy has paid for sanctions on Iran, and the conflict in Yemen and Syria. Apart from the heavy reliance on Iran for oil imports, presently at $10.5 billion, is the fact that any Indian strategy for peace in its region has to perforce include Tehran, and to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia. A second issue is the seven aspects listed as the basis for India-US cooperation. While much of this is unexceptionable in absolute terms for example, a peaceful resolution of disputes; set as it is in the language of US' confrontation with China it is one that could make Indian policymakers uncomfortable. This includes references to the 'rule-based order', the guarantee of freedom of navigation and overflight both of which were left out of the Indian statement after the meeting of the Quadrilateral group comprising India, US, Japan and Australia in November 2017. Instead, the Indian statement simply called for a 'free and open India-Pacific'. India has major differences with China on land. However, with regard to the sea, Indian warships have been challenged only on one occasion and objected to on another. In September 2011, INS Airavat was challenged over the radio while passing through the South China Sea, but not otherwise interfered with. Another was in 2016 when China objected to Indian ships participating in the Malabar Exercises conducted in the area. Any differences in this area are far more likely to be dealt with quietly on a bilateral basis, rather than through a risky and unreliable multilateral construct. US references to a 'regional architecture', therefore, need to be treated with caution. A close reading of the statements by individual countries who were part of the so-called 'Quadrilateral' showed a somewhat unseemly haste to deny that there was an effort to gang up against China. India may consider continuing its support to the grouping at present since it commits to nothing more than what has already been agreed to in bilateral agreements. However, an eventual regional architecture should ideally include countries of South East Asia, so that one grouping is knit into the other. A third aspect of Juster's speech was a reference to India as a 'net provider of regional security', a phrase that has been bandied about for years without any significant initiative from India. That changed when the government launched an airlift operation to Yemen in April 2015, one that also rescued US citizens. Indian aircrafts also rescued US citizens after the earthquake in Nepal, even while delivering disaster relief. While our record in assistance in disaster management is considerable, some forethought needs to be applied as to what kind of security situations we are capable of, or what we would want to deal with. The intervention in the Maldives in 1988 is a shining example of what we can do, while the Sri Lankan intervention was an example of what we should not. A capability analysis should be clearly outlined before the forthcoming two-by-two (2 by 2) ministerial dialogue, which involves the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence on both sides. Of these two, the latter needs to significantly enhance its capabilities to appreciate and react to fast-changing events. The fourth aspect is that of arms imports from the US. Recently, media carried reports that Trump has called for military attaches and ambassadors to play a bigger role in drumming up orders for US weaponry. The ambassador instead seems to be offering cooperation in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, and fighter aircraft production. The further reference to co-production of a Future Vertical Lift Platform or Advanced Technology Ground Combat Vehicle is, however, tied to the earlier paragraph of "shared interests of our companies in growing and creating jobs in both countries". In other words, these goodies are on offer provided the US is satisfied that it creates jobs back home. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is equally determined that Indian youth should get the promised jobs, a key aspect of his election and post-election speeches. There's a tough fight ahead. Apart from this, a further flight into the arms of US manufacturers risks alienating Russia, who remains a major and closer source of power. Fifth is the suggested level of military-to-military exchanges. Juster makes an almost 'off-the-cuff' suggestion, which is the posting of military liaison officers in respective combatant commands. This would be anathema to most Indian bureaucrats, as well as the intelligence agencies. Yet, it is vital that Indian representatives are placed in key nodes of CENTCOM (central command) which is the area from which India is presently locked out, to our cost. No reciprocity yet, until we learn to guard our files and our tongues. Sixth is the issue of upgrading India's status as an investment destination. The suggestion that US Inc is unhappy with China and may well relocate to India is a tempting prize. Juster calls this 'a strategic lens on an economic relationship', which it certainly is. In 2016, the US direct investment position in India was $32.9 billion, an increase of 10.0 percent from 2015. Direct investment in China was $92.5 billion. That's a lot of money to move around. Such investment will not just kickstart the expected climb of the Indian economy but also bring in the infrastructure and jobs that is at the forefront of the policies of the present government. The prime minister has been facing strong headwinds in his efforts to improve and simplify the regulatory process that hampers investment. Juster recently heaped praise on the state of Telangana in terms of its ease of doing business, with all approvals being granted in 15 days. Greater autonomy to states to negotiate their own investment areas and a willingness to protect investments in unstable political climates is a key area often highlighted by visiting business delegations. That, and endemic corruption and delay. In the end, it is the ability of Indian institutions especially the bureaucracy to rise to the occasion and decide just how best India's own interests are served by the proposed ties that fall marginally short of a virtual alliance. In this exercise, the Ministry of Defence in particular needs to upgrade itself to a certain agility in thinking and response. Our reactions are usually based on fear, which in turn is born out of a lack of specialised knowledge on what is required in a particular situation. Too often, government officers and academia alike are carried away by buzzwords and the latest feed from the internet. For instance, while the Indian Ocean is certainly of vital importance to us, the clear and present danger is from the land to the east and the west. Historically, the largest number of wars have been fought with enemies barring a certain trading company coming through land corridors. The language of the "Indian Ocean power" may be heady, but we need to take care that our powder is truly dry before getting our feet wet. Islamabad: Pakistans army chief told a top US general the nation felt betrayed at criticism that it was not doing enough to fight terrorism, the military said on Friday, after US president Donald Trump accused Pakistan of lies and deceit. Pakistans army said in a statement that US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel told General Qamar Javed Bajwa the United States was not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan. (Bajwa) said that entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed over US recent statements despite decades of cooperation, the army said, referring to a conversation between Bajwa and Votel. Ties between the United States and Pakistan worsened after Trump on 1 January tweeted that Washington has got nothing but lies and deceit from Pakistan despite sending billions of dollars in aid. Islamabad: Pakistan will not seek the resumption of suspended US military aid and feels "betrayed" by the recent critical statements of the American leadership against Islamabad's fight against terrorism, army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has said. President Donald Trump has accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network fighting in war-torn Afghanistan. On 1 January, Trump tweeted that the US had "foolishly" given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid in the last 15 years and had gotten nothing in return but "lies & deceit." Washington has confirmed that it will withhold nearly $2 billion in aid to Pakistan. General Bajwa received two telephone calls from Commander US Central Command (CENTCOM) General Joseph L Votel and one from an unidentified US Senator over the week to discuss Pakistan-US security cooperation post the President Trump tweet, the army spokesman said in a statement on Friday. He said that General Votel apprised General Bajwa about the US decision regarding Security Assistance and Coalition Support Fund and said that US values Pakistan's role towards war on terror and expected that ongoing turbulence remains a "temporary phase". "The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) reiterated that Pakistan will not seek resumption of aid but expect honourable recognition of our contributions, sacrifices and unwavering resolve in fight against terrorism for peace and stability in the region," according to the statement. The freezing of US military aid to Pakistan also includes $255 million due to it for military equipment and training under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) fund, and $700 million under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) - paid to the country for conducting operations against militant groups. General Bajwa further said that Pakistan will keep supporting all initiatives for peace in Afghanistan despite the tendency to "scapegoat" Pakistan, as peace in Afghanistan is the only way to move towards enduring peace and stability in the region. General Votel also conveyed that "US is not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan but is seeking cooperation to tackle Afghan nationals who, in US view, use Pakistan's soil against Afghanistan." "This view, he (General Votel) felt, was undermining in Washington, Pakistan's contributions in war against terrorism," the statement said. The COAS said that entire Pakistani nation felt "betrayed" over US recent statements despite decades of cooperation and the unanimous national response reflected the same sentiments. "The COAS said that Pakistan shall continue its sincere counter terrorism efforts even without US financial support in accordance with our national interest and shall remain committed to bring it to its logical conclusion along with other stakeholders," the statement said. General Bajwa said that Pakistan has suffered hugely due to great power contestation in the region. He also said that Pakistan is fully aware of US concerns on activities of Afghan nationals in Pakistan. "We are already undertaking multiple actions through Operation 'Radd ul Fasaad' to deny any residual capacity to terrorists of all hue and colour for which return of Afghan refugees is an essential prerequisite, he said. General Votel acknowledged the effectiveness of some of the recent actions taken by Pakistan to ensure that Pakistan's hospitality to Afghan refugees is not misused in anyway and also agreed that both countries stand to gain from cooperative engagement. The army did not share the identity or details of the call by US Senator. However, the calls confirm what foreign office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said that the two sides were in touch to resolve the difference since Donald Trump's scathing new year tweet. "The two sides continue to communicate with each on various issues of mutual interest at different levels. Since, it is being done outside media glare, I cannot share further details with you," Faisal had said. Lahore: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ordered the police chief of Pakistan's Punjab province to arrest within 36 hours the culprit behind the brutal rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl that shook the country. The LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, hearing a petition filed by an advocate to arrest the culprit, expressed surprise that despite reports of earlier incidents of similar nature from Kasur district of Punjab province, none of the cases were brought to the court. The chief justice ordered the police to submit details of all the cases of child sexual abuse that had taken place in the area, adding that he would also demand a report on the cases from the sessions judge, the DawnNews reported. The chief justice warned that the court would not tolerate any delay in the case, at which the IGP assured him that the culprit would be caught. The hearing was adjourned until 15 January. On 10 January, protests had erupted in Kasur after the child's body was found in a garbage heap. Autopsy reports revealed that the girl was subjected to rape, torture and was then strangled to death. The horrific incident triggered public outrage throughout the country with people demanding justice for the child. The girl's murder was the 12th such incident reported in Kasur district in a year. Kasur had made headlines in 2015 as well when it was revealed that a gang of paedophiles was busted for running a child sex ring in the city. Meanwhile, the Punjab government appointed RPO Multan Idress Ahmad to head the probe, a day after the girl's father demanded to change head of the joint investigation team (JIT) formed to investigate the horrific incident. Amid the nationwide outrage over the incident, a gatekeeper at a school in Karachi's Ibrahim Hyderi area was taken into custody for allegedly sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl, the daily reported. Police said the gatekeeper had allegedly attempted to assault the child Thursday, after which she went home and told her parents. Dhaka: Three militants were killed on Friday in a raid by Bangladesh's anti-crime elite force on a militant hideout near Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's office in Dhaka. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Director General Benazir Ahmed confirmed the death of the three militants, Xinhua news agency reported. "Bodies of three militants were seen on the fifth floor of the building where they were hiding," he told journalists. He said security forces surrounded the house suspecting it to be militant hideout. Two RAB personnel were injured as the militants fired bullets and hurled a grenade. The militants also exploded several bombs as the law enforcers asked them to surrender. At least three persons, including the owner of the house, were detained. It was not known whether the prime minister was in her office during the raid on the hideout, which is located less than a half kilometer away. RAB spokesman Mufti Mahmud Khan said a bomb disposal unit of the RAB was working at the spot where some IEDs (improvised explosive devices) had been found. In the wake of the deadly July 2016 cafe attack, Bangladesh has conducted a series of large-scale operations against the militants. Neo-JMB, an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, was blamed for an attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery which killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners. Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday rejected South Koreas call for more steps to help comfort women, a euphemism for women forced to work in Japans wartime military brothels, and urged Seoul to honour a 2015 pact on the divisive topic. Japan and South Korea share a bitter history that includes Japans 1910-45 colonisation of the peninsula and the comfort women issue is especially touchy. The US allies are key to efforts to rein in North Koreas nuclear and missile program . South Korea said this week that the 2015 agreement, struck by President Moon Jae-ins conservative predecessor, had failed to meet the victims needs and resolve the feud. The 2015 agreement was a promise between the two nations. Keeping this promise is an international and universal principle. We cannot accept South Koreas unilateral demands for additional measures, Abe told reporters. We have been sincere in executing every promise we made. We want to continue to strongly ask South Korea to do the same. Seoul is not seeking to renegotiate the agreement, which the two sides had said would finally and irreversibly end the feud if both sides stuck to it. Under the deal, Japan apologised again and promised $8.99 million for a fund to help the women. But South Korea has urged Tokyo to take added steps, including a fresh apology. Japanese media reports have said Abe may not attend the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea next month because of the feud, although the governments top spokesman said on Thursday that it had not been decided. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, PlaintiffAppellee, v. Brett DEPUE, DefendantAppellant. No. 15-10553 Decided: January 11, 2018 Before: Richard C. Tallman and Consuelo M. Callahan, Circuit Judges, and David A. Ezra,** District Judge. Mario Valencia (argued), Henderson, Nevada, for DefendantAppellant. Adam Flake (argued), Assistant United States Attorney; Elizabeth O. White, Appellate Chief; Steven W. Myhre, Acting United States Attorney; United States Attorney's Office, Las Vegas, Nevada; for PlaintiffAppellee. OPINION Brett Depue (Depue) orchestrated a massive mortgage fraud scheme victimizing at least thirty people, depressing housing prices across the Las Vegas region, and causing a total loss in tens of millions of dollars. Depue appeals from his jury convictions of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud; and from the 262month sentence the district court imposed. Depue argues that the district court: (1) abused its discretion under the Constitution and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure when, amidst deliberations, it dismissed a juror who had complained of being poisoned, possibly by another juror; (2) plainly erred in using the sales prices rather than the loan principals in arriving at the total loss calculation for the purpose of calculating Depue's sentence; and (3) plainly erred in calculating, for United States Sentencing Guidelines (Guidelines) purposes, the loss amount of just over $25 million from the Government's summary chart allegedly containing some errors. We hold, first, that a trial judge may excuse a juror at any time for any material problem impeding fair deliberations as long as it was not due to the juror's views of the merits of the case. We also hold Depue has not shown that the district court committed plain error when it considered evidence for Guidelines-based sentencing purposes which the defendant had made no effort to address below. I. Factual and Legal Background Depue operated a number of Nevada businesses such as ABS Investments Group, LLC, and Liberty Group Investments, LLC. From February 2005 to May 2007, Depue conspired with about fourteen others to defraud federally-insured banks. The conspiracy consisted of recruiting straw buyers to purchase homes they had no intention of occupying, which Depue would then control. Depue paid the straw buyers up to $5,000 to buy houses in their names using their credit histories, occasionally purchasing five houses per straw buyer. Sometimes, in order to raise the likelihood that the lenders would lend to the straw buyers, Depue would even put the straw buyers names on his own bank account. Depue directed his co-conspirators to prepare mortgage applications containing false and fraudulent information about their employment, income, assets, and intent to occupy the property as a primary residence. Using this scheme, Depue and his co-conspirators obtained mortgage loans for 110 homes in Las Vegas and Henderson between April 2005 and April 2007. Through this operation, Depue victimized at least thirty people, and made $1415 million. Initially, Depue orchestrated straw-buyer transactions in which the straw buyers purchased properties using 100% financing. The properties were purchased at above asking price, and the difference was disbursed at closing to one of Depue's entities. Then Depue began using double escrows in which a middleman purchased a property and soon thereafter resold it to a straw buyer at an inflated price, frequently on the same day. The difference between the price sold to the straw buyer and the middleman purchases were distributed to Depue's company as seller proceeds. Paperwork made it appear as only one sale, removing evidence of the middleman. The banks eventually foreclosed on the properties, contributing to the decrease in housing property values across the Las Vegas area. It is estimated that the lending financial institutions lost more than $25 million due to Depue's fraud. Initially, the Government indicted Depue on twelve counts: wire fraud and aiding and abetting pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 2, 1343, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 1349. The Government dismissed four of the counts against Depue during his first trial, which resulted in a mistrial on the remaining eight counts. In February 2012, Depue's second trial on the remaining eight counts began. Depue chose to proceed pro se. On March 6, 2012, the jury found Depue guilty on all eight counts. Depue appealed his convictions to the Ninth Circuit. In an unpublished opinion, we vacated Depue's convictions and remanded because Depue's waiver of his right to counsel had not been sufficiently knowing and intelligent. United States v. Depue, 595 Fed.Appx. 732 (9th Cir. 2015). In Depue's third trial, held in July 2015, he again proceeded pro se. Depue called no witnesses and made no opening or closing statements. Depue did not challenge the Government's evidence or question its witnesses. Depue raised no objections whatsoever. Again, Depue was convicted on all eight counts. A. Dismissal of Juror No. 9 During the first day of jury deliberations, Juror No. 9 sent a signed note to the trial judge stating: I feel as though someone in this room has poisoned or drugged either my drink or the food I brought for lunch. To address this matter, the district judge excused the jury and discussed summoning Juror No. 9 with the Assistant U.S. Attorney and Depue. Depue responded, in three instances: So as long as [this juror] has enough courage to stand up and do the right thing and to continue his duty, then I'd like to see that. If he is dismissed, then I most definitely want a 12th juror to replace him; it seems like the best route, as far as my opinion is, this [juror] just needs to just tough it out, not worry about if he did get poisoned or not, because who knows, and just finish the trial; and just tell him, hey, just do your job, man up, you know, if you can handle it and just do what you need to do. Juror No. 9 was then brought before the judge, who asked him to explain, without violating any confidences about the jury deliberations, why he suspected that one of the other jurors or a court official had poisoned him. Declaring himself to be the odd man out, Juror No. 9 complained of a pounding in his heart, dizziness, a slight headache, and stomachache. When pressed for a further explanation, Juror No. 9 said he suspected that one of the individuals took interest in how much [he] ate, along with the way he had been feeling when [he] came in here. The trial judge asked whether Juror No. 9 had order[ed] [his] lunch through court personnel or br[ought] [his] lunch. Juror No. 9 said he had brought a canned drink from outside and had obtained two drinks from the court refrigerator, neither of which had been tampered with. The judge tried to ascertain the timeline. The juror said he had left the jury room at least two or three times prior to lunch in order to address his emphysema issues and to brush his teeth. The district court asked the on-duty Court Security Officer (CSO): Are you aware of any time that others were in there or around his food or drink when he was not there? To this, the CSO responded that Sir, I can't attest to [Juror No. 9's experiences in the restroom], but, from 8:30 this morning, every juror has been accounted for, either in the [jury] room or in the break room. Delving into the emphysema symptoms, the judge inquired whether that illness ever cause[s] the conditions of which the juror complained, namely the palpitations[,] perspiration[,] [and] dizziness. The juror denied that emphysema causes these symptoms in him, but asserted that [t]he only thing I feel it causes is having to expel phlegm. The judge then asked whether the juror feel[s] that [he] can continue as a juror in this case. The juror commented that [he], at this point, do[es] not trust someone in that jury room The judge then asked Juror No. 9 whether [he] can participate in deliberations if there's somebody in that group that [he] can't trust. The juror answered: Notnot especially, no. Explaining that it would be improper to have [the juror] attempt to continue to serve under the circumstances, the judge then excused Juror No. 9. The judge also arranged for the juror's medical checkup. The judge then instructed the CSO to facilitate Juror No. 9's departure and to ensure the medical checkup occurred. Depue objected to the juror's dismissal. Depue stated he wanted a full complement of twelve jurors to adjudicate the questions attending his culpability and that he also wanted [Juror No. 9] to stay on the jury. Depue asserted that if [Juror No. 9] really is the only holdout, rather than allowing another person to poison and remove him because he's a dissenter, he ought to be retained. In response, the judge commented that we only have his feeling that he's the holdout or that he is a holdout and I'm not confident that [the juror is] the only holdout in the jury. The judge continued: [I]t would be patently unfair to force [the juror] to continue and it would jeopardize the efficacy of a jury verdict. The judge opined that such a course of action could impair [the juror's] health even more, or force him to capitulate Depue then stated that there was a connection between the alleged poisoning of Juror No. 9 and the poisoning Depue himself had suffered many, many, many times over the three and a half years he spent in prison. The judge commented that he lacked any evidence of [this accusation,] and declined to consider this matter. The judge brought the jury back to the courtroom and notified the jurors that Juror No. 9 had been excused. The judge cautioned that the jury was not to speculate about anything beyond the juror's health concern, announced that the alternate juror would replace Juror No. 9, and instructed the jury to restart deliberations from the beginning. The following court day, the newly-constituted jury resumed deliberations. That same day, the jury convicted Depue on all eight counts. B. Calculation of the Loss Amount During Sentencing Depue's sentencing hearing took place on November 9, 2015. In its Sentencing Memorandum (SM), the Government calculated the total offense level as 39, based in large part on a determination of loss greater than $25 million. U.S.S.G. 2B1.1(b)(1)(L). Depue's criminal history category was I. The Guidelines provide that for loss greater than $25 million, the court will add 22 offense levels to the base offense level. See U.S.S.G. 2B1.1(b)(1)(L). The Government submitted evidence that the total sales price for the properties in Depue's mortgage-fraud ring was $55,070,000; the sale from foreclosure was $29,581,950; and, as a result, the total loss was $25,488,050. U.S.S.G. 2B1.1(b)(1)(L). The Government increased the number of properties Depue had used, from 102 (the number it alleged during the second trial) to 106 in its SM following the third trial. The Government asserted that [t]he vast majority of these properties were purchased with 100% financing, and were foreclosed, and that [t]he unpaid principal on these loans was approximately equal to the original loan amounts, which with 100% financing, also equaled the straw buyer's purchase price. Therefore, the Government took the total sales price to be roughly equivalent to the aggregated principal loan amounts. The Government asserted that since the total loss exceeded $25 million, under U.S.S.G. 2B1.1(b)(1)(L) a 22level enhancement was appropriate. The Government recommended the lower-end sentence of 262 months, the same sentence imposed on Depue following his second trial. Depue did not object to the PreSentence Report's (PSR), the SM's or the district court's range calculation method or result. The trial judge asked Depue if there were any errors in the PSR. Depue mentioned only his qualms about the dates of incarceration. The trial judge gave Depue a second opportunity to object at sentencing, but Depue did not object. The district court imposed concurrent terms of imprisonment: 262 months on Count One; 240 months, each, on Counts Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Ten. The district court imposed restitution in the amount of $1,567,429.93, five years supervised release, and an $800 assessment fee. Depue filed a timely notice of appeal. II. Standards of Review A district court's dismissal of a juror during deliberations is reviewed for abuse of discretion, and a district court's factual findings relating to the issue of juror misconduct are reviewed for clear error. United States v. Vartanian, 476 F.3d 1095, 1098 (9th Cir. 2007). When a defendant fails to timely object to the district court's calculation of a sentence, we review for plain error. United States v. Hammons, 558 F.3d 1100, 1103 (9th Cir. 2009). Plain error is (1) error, (2) that is plain, and (3) that affects substantial rights. Id. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 73235, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993). If these three conditions are met, the court may then exercise its discretion to grant relief if the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Hammons, 558 F.3d at 1103 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Finally, on plain-error review, the defendant carries the burden of showing a reasonable probability that, but for the error, he would have received a lesser sentence. United States v. Joseph, 716 F.3d 1273, 1280 (9th Cir. 2013). III. Discussion A. Juror Dismissal The question is whether, under the Sixth Amendment and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure (Fed. R. Crim. P.) 23(b)(3), a district court abuses its discretion when it dismisses a juror who might be a hold-out for reasons not stemming from the juror's views on the merits of the case. We hold that a district court does not, under those circumstances, abuse its discretion. The Sixth Amendment provides, in salient part: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed. U.S. Const. amend. VI. The Amendment prevents a district court from depriving a criminal defendant of the right to an impartial jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community. Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 53536, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975); see also Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. 719, 727, 112 S.Ct. 2222, 119 L.Ed.2d 492 (1992) (stating that the jury must stand impartial and indifferent to assess the criminal defendant's culpability). Historically, the right to be tried by one's impartial peers has protected criminal defendants against a spirit of oppression and tyranny on the part of rulers, and was the great bulwark of their civil and political liberties. United States v. Gaudin, 515 U.S. 506, 51011, 115 S.Ct. 2310, 132 L.Ed.2d 444 (1995) (quoting 2 J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States 54041 (4th ed. 1873)). Thus, the Sixth Amendment would become ineffective if, in order to shift a verdict, a trial judge could tinker with the jury's composition. Fed. R. Crim. P. 23(b)(3) enables a district court to dismiss a juror during deliberations for good cause. Good cause includes: a juror's physical incapacity, Murray v. Laborers Union Local No. 324, 55 F.3d 1445, 1452 (9th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1219, 116 S.Ct. 1847, 134 L.Ed.2d 948 (1996); a juror's untruthfulness or misconduct, including violation[s] of the court's instructions to the jury, Vartanian, 476 F.3d at 109899; and a juror's [inability] to deliberate impartially. United States v. Symington, 195 F.3d 1080, 1085 (9th Cir. 1999). But good cause broadly embraces all kinds of problemstemporary as well as those of long durationthat may befall a juror during jury deliberations. Murray, 55 F.3d at 1452 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Generally, [t]he decision to excuse a juror is committed to the district court's discretion. United States v. Christensen, 828 F.3d 763, 806 (9th Cir. 2015) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Should a problem with a juror arise after deliberations have commenced, the trial court [must] determine[ ] the circumstances of what transpired, the impact on the jurors, and whether or not the [problem was] prejudicial. Bell v. Uribe, 748 F.3d 857, 867 (9th Cir. 2014). But if the record evidence discloses any reasonable possibility that the impetus for a juror's dismissal stems from the juror's views on the merits of the case, the court must not dismiss the juror. Symington, 195 F.3d at 1087. Trial judges remain empowered with the necessary authority to handle special challenges concerning juror dismissal. Id. at 1086. They are not obligated to spell out the reasons they excuse a juror because we review judgments, not the reasons guiding the courts below. California v. Rooney, 483 U.S. 307, 311, 107 S.Ct. 2852, 97 L.Ed.2d 258 (1987). We uphold the dismissal because Juror No. 9 was removed for reasons other than his views on the merits of the case. Specifically, Juror No. 9 was removed because: he said he was physically unwell; he said that he could not serve with his fellow jurors; he said he did not trust someone in the jury room; and/or he made conclusory allegations against them. Juror No. 9's views on the case played no part in the district court's decision to dismiss him. Although Juror No. 9 declared that he was the odd man out, the trial judge ignored this remark and continued to question Juror No. 9 as to his ability to serve as a juror. The court later observed that it had only Juror No. 9's assertion that he was the odd man out and that there might well be more than one hold-out juror. Consequently, this case presents a type of physical incapacity or all kinds of [juror] problems allowing for juror dismissal. Murray, 55 F.3d at 1452. The district court sensitively probed Juror No. 9's poisoning allegation by questioning him about the sequence of events, whether the medical symptoms he said he was experiencing may have been caused by his emphysema, and the circumstances under which the alleged vandalism to his bike took place. The trial judge could not have delve[d] [any] deep[er] into [Juror No. 9's] motivations without impermissibly intrud[ing] on the secrecy of the jury's deliberations and jeopardiz[ing] the integrity of the deliberative process. Symington, 195 F.3d at 1086 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Moreover, a trial judge is charged with maintaining the courtroom's dignity as well as managing the expeditious flow of voluminous information, motions, evidence, and actors. In this case, Juror No. 9's allegations did not reflect favorably on his mental state. The trial judge spared him, the parties, and the court the indignity and expense of investigating his mental state. The district court carefully investigated Juror No. 9's fitness to continue to serve as a juror, and its conclusion that he was unfit was not an abuse of discretion. B. Calculation of the Loss Amount for GuidelinesBased Sentencing Because Depue did not object to any alleged Guidelines errors during his trial or sentencing, the question whether the district court erred in calculating the total offense level is subject to plain-error review. Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b) (A plain error that affects substantial rights may be considered even though it was not brought to the court's attention.). An error is plain if the criminal defendant shows each of the following: he did not waive his right to challenge an alleged mistake at trial or sentencing; this mistake was clear; it affected his substantial rights; and leaving the error uncorrected will undermine the fairness, integrity and public reputation of judicial proceedings. Puckett v. United States, 556 U.S. 129, 135, 129 S.Ct. 1423, 173 L.Ed.2d 266 (2009). The first prong is that the defendant must not have intentionally relinquished or abandoned his claim. MolinaMartinez v. United States, U.S. , 136 S.Ct. 1338, 1343, 194 L.Ed.2d 444 (2016) (citing Olano, 507 U.S. at 73233, 113 S.Ct. 1770). Before the district court, Depue said that his only problems with the PSR concerned the incarceration dates, which means Depue affirmatively waived his right to challenge the PSR's computations. Depue even called the computations correct and accurate. Furthermore, Depue did not avail himself of the second opportunity to object that the district court gave him. Because Depue affirmatively waived his right to challenge the alleged Guidelines errors, he fails to satisfy the first prong of the plain-error analysis. Accordingly, Depue cannot satisfy the plain-error standard. IV. Conclusion The district court did not abuse its discretion under the Sixth Amendment and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure when it removed Juror No. 9 because it reasonably determined he was unfit to continue to serve as a juror for reasons that were unrelated to his views on the merits of this case. Also, Depue cannot show plain error in the district court's calculation of the total offense level because he affirmatively waived his right to challenge the alleged Guidelines errors. Depue's convictions and sentence are AFFIRMED. FOOTNOTES . Straw buyers are individuals who permit residential real estate to be bought in their names to facilitate the acquisition of property and to conceal the identity of the true purchaser from the lenders. . A district court properly begins sentencing proceedings by [attempting to] correctly calculat[e] the applicable Guidelines range. Peugh v. United States, 569 U.S. 530, 133 S.Ct. 2072, 2080, 186 L.Ed.2d 84 (2013) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). CALLAHAN, Circuit Judge: United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Theodore Frederick LEE, Respondent-Appellant. No. 15-16869 Decided: January 11, 2018 Before: RAWLINSON and BYBEE, Circuit Judges, and SMITH,* Chief District Judge. Thomas J. Clark, Supervisory Attorney, Jeremy Hendon, Trial Attorney, Kathleen Eileen Lyon, Esquire, Attorney, DOJU.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division/Appellate Section, Washington, DC, for Petitioner-Appellee George Peter Kelesis, Esquire, Attorney, Bailus Cook & Kelesis, Ltd., Las Vegas, NV, E.O.C. Ord, Cheng Zhang, Ord & Norman, San Francisco, CA, for Respondent-Appellant MEMORANDUM ** Theodore Frederick Lee (Lee or Appellant) appeals from the district court's orders and accompanying judgment granting the United States (Government or Appellee) motion to dismiss on mootness grounds and denying Lee's motion for reconsideration. We review de novo the district court's grant of a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. Viewtech, Inc. v. United States, 653 F.3d 1102, 110304 (9th Cir. 2011). The denial of a motion for reconsideration is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Tracht Gut, LLC v. Los Angeles Cty. Treas. & Tax Collector ( In re Tracht Gut, LLC ), 836 F.3d 1146, 1150 (9th Cir. 2016). We affirm. In the course of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) investigation of Lee, it issued an administrative summons with respect to his federal income tax liabilities for 2006. When Lee did not comply, the Government filed a petition to enforce the administrative summons in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. Subsequent to the Government filing its petition to enforce, but prior to the district court entering an enforcement order, Lee complied with the summons by producing the documents and testimony requested. This prompted the Government to move to dismiss on the basis of mootness, a motion the district court granted. Pursuant to Rules 59 and 60 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Lee moved for reconsideration of the district court's dismissal order; however, that motion was denied. First, Lee argues that the district court erred in finding that Lee's compliance with the IRS summons mooted any continuing interests or controversies. Lee's argument is not persuasive. An Article III federal court has no authority to give opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions, or to declare principles or rules of law which cannot affect the matter in issue in the case before it. United States v. Golden Valley Elec. Ass'n, 689 F.3d 1108, 1112 (9th Cir. 2012) (quoting Church of Scientology of Cal. v. United States, 506 U.S. 9, 12, 113 S.Ct. 447, 121 L.Ed.2d 313 (1992)). If an intervening circumstance deprives the plaintiff of a personal stake in the outcome of the lawsuit, at any point during litigation, the action can no longer proceed and must be dismissed as moot. Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk, 569 U.S. 66, 133 S.Ct. 1523, 1528, 185 L.Ed.2d 636 (2013) (quoting Lewis v. Cont'l Bank Corp., 494 U.S. 472, 47778, 110 S.Ct. 1249, 108 L.Ed.2d 400 (1990)). Here, Lee voluntarily complied with the IRS summons, which was the subject action prior to the Court issuing an enforcement order. This voluntary production of the records sought was an intervening circumstance that rendered the action moot. IRS summonses are not self-enforcing. See 26 U.S.C. 7604. The IRS, therefore, must seek enforcement from a federal district court. United States v. Gilleran, 992 F.2d 232, 233 (9th Cir. 1993); see also United States v. Clarke, U.S. , 134 S.Ct. 2361, 2367, 189 L.Ed.2d 330 (2014) (Congress made enforcement of an IRS summons contingent on a court's approval.). In the context of such proceedings, the district court is strictly limited to enforcing or denying IRS summonses. United States v. Jose, 131 F.3d 1325, 1329 (9th Cir. 1997). Lee's compliance with the IRS summons took both options off the table. Because Lee's compliance with the summons obviated any need for an enforcement order by the district court, the district court correctly dismissed the case as moot. Lee relies on Church of Scientology, 506 U.S. at 1213, 113 S.Ct. 447, to suggest that despite compliance, a district court may retain the authority to exclude or return the evidence covered by the summons. Church of Scientology is distinguishable. In that case, the district court entered a summons-enforcement order, and the requested materials were delivered to the IRS while an appeal from that order was pending. Id. at 1011, 113 S.Ct. 447. Indeed, unlike here where compliance occurred before the district court ruled on the Government's petition, in Church of Scientology the validity of the summons was still under review when compliance occurred. Nothing remained for the district court to do once Lee complied. Thus, Church of Scientology is inapposite. Additionally, we are unpersuaded by Lee's suggestion that he has a due process right to seek suppression of the records he voluntarily produced prior to an enforcement order. Because a taxpayer may challenge an IRS summons at an enforcement hearing, [t]he taxpayer therefore has no liberty or property interest protectable by due process prior to the enforcement of the summons. Gilleran, 992 F.2d at 23334 (emphasis added). Lee's additional arguments, which largely attack the validity and good-faith nature of the summons, are not properly before the Court and, in any event, do not alter our mootness determination. We have considered Lee's additional averments and deem them to be without merit. Finally, it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to deny Lee's motion for reconsideration because Lee has failed to demonstrate any ground sufficient for reconsideration. See Sch. Dist. No. 1J v. ACandS, Inc., 5 F.3d 1255, 126263 (9th Cir. 1993) (outlining standard of review and grounds justifying reconsideration). Accordingly, the orders of the district court are AFFIRMED. OnePlus in an interview with CNET has just confirmed that it will begin talks with U.S carriers to break into the mainstream. The companys Pete Lau said that it is the right time and opportunity for OnePlus to scale up and also mentioned that the next OnePlus flagship to go official towards the end of Q2, which is sometime in June. A potential deal with carriers in the US would put the company is the big radar and would bring the company a higher-profile distribution partner and better sales. OnePlus 5T is the fastest- and best-selling product since its launch in November, while OnePlus 5 is the previous best selling model claims Pei. He further mentioned that next flagship (OnePlus 6) with Snapdragon 845 would launch by the end of second quarter of 2018 in line with the OnePlus 5s launch last year. OnePlus has been largely successful in selling its products through its online website and it is only recently the company began partnering with carriers in Europe. Lau said that he isnt sure of launching a second phone in 2018, but the company did manage to do so in the past two years with the OnePlus 3T and OnePlus 5T. In the interview, he further mentioned that the face unlock feature introduced with 5T would find its way in beta version to OnePlus 3 and 3T soon. Lau acknowledged the challenge of raising awareness of the brand and said that the brand will continue to keep a humble approach for now. Source Intel today announced that the security patch fixing Meltdown and Spectre patches incurring 6% performance drop in most modern CPUs while the impact is bigger on older chipsets. The company further says that performance impact should not be significant for average computer users. Intel added that it didnt receive any reports of the exploits obtaining customer data, but said that it will continue to patch things. The performance impact of the mitigation on 8th generation platforms (Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake) with SSDs is small across a variety of workloads and the expected impact is less than 6%, but in some cases, the impact might vary up to 10% depending on the nature of use cases. The performance impact on 7th generationGen Kaby Lake-H mobile platforms is close to 8th with 7% drop on the SYSMark2014SE benchmark. As for the 6th generation Skylake-S platform, the impact might be slightly higher ranging from 7% to 8%, but mostly in-line with 7th and 8th generation platforms said Intel. The company said that in the coming week it will offer a representative set of data for mobile and desktop platforms that were launched within the past five years. The company assured that it will work on creative solutions with our industry partners to reduce those performance impacts wherever possible. Intel said that performance might affect only with certain tasks and regular use of the computer wont be affected. Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel Corporation, to Technology Industry Leaders in an open letter said: We encourage our industry partners to continue to support these practices. There are important roles for everyone: Timely adoption of software and firmware patches by consumers and system manufacturers is critical. Transparent and timely sharing of performance data by hardware and software developers is essential to rapid progress. The bottom line is that continued collaboration will create the fastest and most effective approaches to restoring customer confidence in the security of their data. This is what we all want and are striving to achieve. Source 1, 2 Mr. Bert Vandenkendelaere (Unilin/Belgium), Mr. Michael Proschek (Schweighofer/Austria) Mr. Uwe Kies (InnovaWood/Belgium) and Mrs. Maria Noichl (MEP) The European Confederation of Woodworking Industries (CEI-Bois), the European Organisation of the Sawmill Industry (EOS) and the European Panel Federation (EPF), organized the 6th Club du Bois meeting under the chairwomanship of Mrs Maria Noichl, MEP, on 10 January at the European Parliament in Brussels. The meeting gathered an important number of MEPs, industrials and experts from the Wood and Forest-based family. It was organized in a networking cocktail format and focused on the theme of Innovation in the Woodworking Industry. The event was opened by a welcoming speech from MEP Mrs. Maria Noichl and followed by insightful presentations from Mr. Bert Vandenkendelaere, on the Innovative product approach, Mr Michael Proschek on Integrating innovation in the sawmill business and Mr Uwe Kies on the Digital Innovations in Woodworking Industries. The speakers were able to illustrate with concrete examples some of many key innovations in the Wood Industry and their contribution to the circular economy, resource efficiency, sustainability but also increase of productivity, transparency, credibility and job creation. The meeting ended with a fruitful question and answer session, which allowed the participants to exchange views on their experience, knowledge and practices. The Chattanooga Chamber announced finalists for the 2018 Small Business Awards: 1-20 Employees: Chattanooga School of Language Papercut Interactive Shah Trucking 21-44 Employees: Manufacturing Repair & Overstock The Bitter Alibi Variable Technologies 45-200 Employees: MediTract Murmaid Mattress Reliance Partners Nonprofit: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Chattanooga Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy Chattanooga Goodwill Industries With his newly minted title as the worlds richest person, Amazons (NASDAQ:AMZN) Jeff Bezos announced on Friday that he is donating a piece of his $108 billion fortune to fund 1,000 college scholarships for Dreamers. TheDream.US, the nations largest scholarship program for Dreamers, said Bezos donated $33 million in a scholarship grantone of largest grants in the organizations historyto give 1,000 undocumented immigrant high school graduates who are part of the Deferred Action for Children Arrivals (DACA) program the opportunity to go to college. My dad came to the U.S. when he was 16 as part of Operation Pedro Pan, Bezos said in a statement. He landed in this country alone and unable to speak English. With a lot of grit and determination and the help of some remarkable organizations in Delaware my dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways. MacKenzie and I are honored to be able to help todays Dreamers by funding these scholarships. The organization said it currently has over 2,850 students enrolled in its program with partnerships with more than 70 low-cost colleges in 15 states across the country. TheDream.US president Candy Marshall said Bezos gift is a shot in arm for Dream students at a time when some are questioning whether they should be in the United States at all. In September, President Donald Trump ended DACA protections and has faced multiple court challenges in the months following his decision. The program, however is set to end on March 5. In August, Bezos joined a long list of other business leaders, including Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg, who have since signed an open letter to Trump urging him to retain protections for immigrant Dreamers. Unless we act now to preserve the DACA program, all 780,000 hard working young people will lose their ability to work legally in this country, and every one of them will be at immediate risk of deportation. Our economy would lose $460.3 billion from the national GDP and $24.6 billion in Social Security and Medicare tax contributions, the letter said. On Monday, Bezos dethroned Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates of the worlds richest person title with a net worth of $108 billion, compared to Gatess net worth of $93.8 billion, according to Bloombergs Billionaire Index. Newly laid off Sams Club employees have turned to BJs Wholesale, Inc. for work after Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), the retailers parent, announced it was closing more than 60 locations across the country on Thursday. BJs Wholesale Club said in a statement that it has received numerous inquiries from Sams Club employees since the news of the shutdowns were announced, adding that it is accepting resumes. BJs Wholesale Club is hiring, and anyone interested in joining our team can go to bjs.com/careers or visit their local club, the company said to FOX Business. BJs, one of Sams Club biggest rival, said it has also seen an immediate increase in Sams Club members since Wal-Mart announced the closing 63 locations spanning from New York to Puerto Rico. The news of the abrupt shutdowns, which were reported in several states, came on the same day that Wal-Mart announced its plans to boost its starting hourly wage to $11 hour and to hand out $1,000 bonuses to over a million employees, which it said was a result of President Trumps tax reform bill. 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, Walmarts president and CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement early Thursday morning. Hours later, Sams Club CEO John Furner, wrote a company-wide email that explained to employees why the abrupt shutdowns were needed. "Transforming our business means managing our real estate portfolio we need a strong fleet of clubs that are fit for the future. 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. We've decided to right-size our fleet and better align our locations with our strategy. ... We will work to place as many associates as possible in new roles at nearby locations, and we'll provide them with support, resources, and severance pay to those eligible, Furner wrote. Sams Club currently has 597 store locations in 46 states, compared to BJs, which operates 215 clubs and 133 BJs Gas locations in 16 states across the country. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (NYSE:FCAU) said late Thursday it will distribute special bonuses to U.S. employees and add 2,500 new jobs as a result of the tax reform bill signed by President Donald Trump. The Italian-American automaker will pay each U.S. hourly and salaried employee a $2,000 bonus in the second quarter of 2018. The plan includes a total of 60,000 workers, excluding senior leadership. The creation of 2,500 new jobs will support an expansion at Fiat Chryslers Warren Truck Assembly Plant in Michigan. Fiat Chrysler said the tax plan will enable the company to invest more than $1 billion in additional funds in the factory, where it will build the next generation of Ram heavy-duty pickup trucks once production shifts from Mexico in 2020. The investment announcement comes a year after Fiat Chrysler revealed initial plans to invest in Warren for the launch of the new Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. At the time, CEO Sergio Marchionne noted that Fiat Chrysler hadnt made a final decision on moving production of heavy-duty trucks from Mexico, saying Trumps policies could factor into the final decision. Fiat Chrysler said its plant investments remain contingent on the final approval of state and local incentives. These announcements reflect our ongoing commitment to our U.S. manufacturing footprint and the dedicated employees who have contributed to FCA's success, Marchionne said. "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. Shares of Fiat Chrysler rose 1.4% to $23.75 in after-hours trading. Oil prices rose for a sixth day on Friday after Russias oil minister said that global crude supplies were not balanced yet, alleviating market concerns about a wind-down of the OPEC-led deal to reduce production. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said ministers from leading OPEC and non-OPEC producers will discuss the possibility of exiting the deal at a coming committee meeting, but said that we see that the market surplus is decreasing, but the market is not completely balanced yet. His comments boosted prices, which rebounded from earlier decline, though the market has not hit the heights it touched on Thursday, when Brent crude topped $70 a barrel for the first time since December 2014. Markets remained buoyed by the comments throughout the session, shrugging off data that suggested the U.S. production may continue to surge. Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 61 cents to settle at $69.87 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 rose 50 cents to $64.30. WTI hit its strongest since late 2014 at $64.77 on Thursday. For the week, Brent rose 3.3 percent while WTI jumped 4.7 percent. The agreement between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia reached in late 2016 to cut 1.8 million barrels of crude daily is due to last until the end of 2018. Novak said the current oil price was short-term, and he would discuss the situation at a ministerial monitoring committee meeting in Oman, scheduled for Jan. 21. Russias Lukoil Chief Executive Vagit Alekperov said Russia - part of the global agreement with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to reduce supply - should start to exit the pact if crude prices remain at $70 a barrel for more than six months. Major oil producing-countries have grown concerned that as prices remain near these levels, it will spur additional production from U.S. shale patches in Texas and North Dakota, risking overwhelming the market with additional supply, and hurting OPECs market share. U.S. energy companies added 10 oil rigs this week, the biggest increase since June, bringing the total rig count to 752, the most since September, General Electric Cos (GE.N) Baker Hughes energy services firm said. [RIG/U] Fatih Birol, head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, said oil prices at $65 to $70 risked encouraging more oversupply from U.S. shale drillers. If you look at any kind of momentum indicator this is telling you this is way overbought, said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. However, there are definitely issues supporting the market. U.S. crude production fell in the most recent week by nearly 300,000 barrels per day to about 9.5 million bpd, which analysts attributed to the deep freeze across most of the country. The U.S. Energy Department expects production will blow through 10 million bpd in the next few months, en route to 11 million bpd by next year, rivaling Russia and Saudi Arabia. Futures contracts show an expectation for prices to pull back by year end, with the December U.S. crude futures contract CLZ8 currently trading just above $60 a barrel. Later-dated futures trading lower than the spot price is known as backwardation, and is expected to inhibit production because it implies a lower price for future barrels sold. The world's largest publicly owned maker of tobacco products announced via its website it wants to exit the cigarette business. Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM), which has been under pressure from anti-smoking organizations and increased government regulations, has been working on "reduced risk" alternatives to smoking, laying out plans to make that its sole business. However, the strategy is more of a pivot than a total makeover. Here is what investors can expect going forward. Tech comes to the tobacco industry All sorts of industries -- from retail to finance to industrial manufacturing -- are getting disrupted by technology. Philip Morris, seller of brands like Marlboro, has decided to take a stab at disrupting itself rather than waiting for a new upstart or consumer preferences to do so. The company has spent years researching and publishing data on new reduced risk smoking alternatives. The result is a portfolio of heated and vaporized tobacco systems utilizing a variety of methods that mimic a cigarette but don't produce smoke. According to studies and findings sponsored by the company, the products carry far fewer (but still some) health risks and side effects than traditional smoking because of the absence of harmful byproducts produced when incinerating tobacco. Philip Morris' flagship product, initially launched in Japan and slowly getting approval in other countries, is the electronically heated tobacco delivery system known as IQOS. Not yet available in many markets, especially ones like the U.S. that have stiff regulations for the tobacco industry. Despite its limited availability, IQOS has been off to the races. Through three out of four quarters reported for 2017, total heated tobacco units shipped were over 20.5 billion compared to only 3.7 billion during the same period in 2016. That's impressive growth, but the sales volumes are still insignificant compared to Philip Morris' overall business. Total units of cigarettes shipped in the same period were 565.6 billion, making heat-not-burn products a mere 3.5% of the total. However, the rapid growth in smokeless tobacco has been enough to prompt Philip Morris to announce its goal to exit the cigarette business. The company stated, in true New Year's resolution-style, its intention to fully replace cigarette sales with its up-and-coming lower-risk brands like IQOS. The real reason for change Philip Morris hasn't provided a date or specific timeline for its transformation, and the company will continue marketing and selling cigarettes in the meantime. That has given anti-smoking organizations another reason to be critical of the cigarette manufacturing leader. But that also means investors don't have to worry about uncertain results from a radical overhaul of the business. Many investors may have started worrying years ago, though. Philip Morris is interested in replacing cigarettes, because cigarette sales are already in decline. The reason? Better consumer education on health risks, increased government scrutiny and taxes, and higher prices driven by cigarette companies themselves trying to increase profits despite declining volumes. To illustrate, Philip Morris' shipment of cigarettes fell 7.6% in the first three quarters of 2017. That's on top of a 4.1% and 1% decrease in 2016 and 2015, respectively. The company has been able to increase revenue anyways by using price hikes, but the trend is obviously an unsustainable one in the long-term. When looking at the numbers, this recent declaration from Philip Morris looks more like an attempt to stay ahead of the curve, rather than a revolutionary change in thinking about smoking. Big tobacco is a business after all, and sales and profits matter first and foremost, whether for better or for worse. 10 stocks we like better than Philip Morris InternationalWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Philip Morris International wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of January 2, 2018 Nicholas Rossolillo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. After a sharp and painful downturn, oil prices spent the vast majority of 2017 above $50 per barrel. And over the past six months, prices have steadily increased, to the point where Brent crude is getting close to $70. That's a level we haven't seen since 2014. And while there's some risk -- and even some expectation -- that higher production in 2018 will bring prices back down, oil companies are able to make money at far lower prices than they could even two or three years ago. Even better for investors, the market still hasn't come back for a lot of solid oil stocks. Our contributing investors particularly like Transocean LTD (NYSE: RIG), Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES), and Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE: RDS-A)(NYSE: RDS-B), and think they're worthy investments to start 2018. A best-in-class operator trading at fire-sale prices Jason Hall (Transocean): Since 2014, spending on offshore oil and gas investments has fallen every year. Essentially, every drilling contractor has been forced to scrap and idle vessels to cut costs, and competition for the trickle of new contracts awarded has been fierce, driving dayrates down substantially. This put several big drillers out of business, several more in bankruptcy even now, and saw a significant amount of consolidation, as companies went into survival mode. This destroyed billions of dollars in wealth, but has also created wonderful opportunities. Right now, Transocean strikes me as an excellent risk-reward investment. Since the oil-price peak in 2014, Transocean has cut its debt and liabilities more than 30%, cut expenses, cleaned up its fleet, and maintained a strong cash hoard to support any cash-flow shortfalls. This also gave management the ability to act quickly if the right opportunity emerged. That opportunity emerged last year, when Transocean acquired Songa Offshore and its high-spec fleet that already has more than $4 billion in backlog contracts. As we enter into 2018, the offshore market has started to thaw, and Transocean is leaner than it was at the outset of the downturn, and with a better fleet. It's also far cheaper, with shares trading for 36% of book value. For context, Transocean traded for 1.2 times and higher for much of the past decade -- 3 1/2 times higher than the current valuation. If offshore shows even minimal spending growth from here, Transocean is primed to be a steal. A turnaround play that's already turning John Bromels (Hess) With oil prices currently above the $60/barrel mark, there are lots of opportunities for outperformance among oil companies. The problem is, the market has already caught on and has bid up the shares of many of 2017's biggest losers in anticipation of a strong 2018. Luckily for investors, there still may be time to pick up some of these underappreciated gems -- like Hess. Hess is a bit of a hidden gem among independent oil and gas exploration and production companies. While it went into debt during the oil-price slump of 2014 -- along with practically all of its peers -- the company has kept its debt load manageable, with a debt-to-capital ratio of 33.8%, among the lowest in its peer group. Hess also has $2.5 billion in cash on hand to fund its growth plans, which include embarking on a promising offshore joint venture with ExxonMobil in Guyana, and adding rigs to its leading position in the Bakken Shale. In spite of all this, Hess's shares fell 23.8% in 2017. And even since oil prices started to rise about six months ago, the company's stock has lagged the performance of its peer group -- as measured by the SPDR S&P 500 Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF. But all of that's starting to change. Hess's shares have already jumped 10% this year. That makes January a great time to buy into this surprisingly stable oil company. Re-positioned and poised to perform Tyler Crowe (Royal Dutch Shell): It wasn't that long ago that Shell looked like a questionable investment. After acquiring BG Group back in 2015, the company was undergoing a complete corporate restructuring that involved $30 billion in asset sales. For anyone looking at the situation at the time, it was hard to say exactly what kind of performance an investor could expect when so much of the company's future depended on how that restructuring played out. Today, though, that corporate shakeup is nearly complete, and the company looks like a much stronger company than it has in decades. CEO Ben van Beurden has transformed the company from one that typically lagged its peers in terms of returns on capital employed to a business geared toward consistent double-digit returns and generating gobs of free cash flow. It hasn't quite reached those levels of return just yet. With international oil prices around $65 a barrel today, there's a good chance we could see those kinds of returns sooner rather than later. On top of that, it looks like Shell's stock still is trading at a reasonable valuation. When you combine all of these elements together, it would appear that Shell is the best buy among the integrated oil and gas majors. If you're looking for oil stocks in 2018, Royal Dutch Shell could be a good place to start. 10 stocks we like better than Royal Dutch Shell (B Shares)When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Royal Dutch Shell (B Shares) wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of January 2, 2018 Jason Hall owns shares of Royal Dutch Shell (B Shares) and Transocean and has the following options: long January 2019 $15 calls on Transocean. John Bromels has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Tyler Crowe has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The Scenic City Women's Network will host its 14th annual Praise Breakfast at 7 a.m. on April 18, at the Chattanooga Convention Center. Keynote speakers will be Jackie Green and Lauren Green McAfee, of Hobby Lobby and Museum of the Bible. Tickets can be purchased here. Aflac shares sank in trading on Friday amid multiple reports that it is being sued for allegedly exploiting workers and engaging in fraudulent accounting practices. The insurance firm stands accused of various offenses, such as misleading employees about potential compensation, misclassifying employees as independent contractors, wage theft and doctoring earnings reports. The Intercept was first to report the allegations this week, citing interviews with current and former employees as well as allegations in three pending lawsuits. Recent media stories regarding Aflac contain false allegations made by a very small group of independent contractors. Aflac intends to aggressively fight these allegations beginning with filing for their dismissal, the company said in a statement Friday. The unfounded articles allege claims including insider trading, fraudulent sales and financial manipulation. The Company has investigated these claims and found them to be without merit. Aflac shares were down more than 7% in trading as of Friday afternoon. Overall, the companys stock is up more than 22% compared to January 2017. The insurance firm also stands accused of pressuring employees to sell policies to their friends and relatives, as well as using illegal tactics such as policy bundles to meet sales goals. The Intercept said its report Thursday is the first in a series aimed at Aflacs internal practices. Aflac earns more than $20 billion in annual revenue. The firm recently joined other companies in rewarding employees due to the passage of a GOP-backed tax reform plan. Aflac increased its 401(k) match program and made an extra contribution of $500 to each employees savings. Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne was an early supporter of bitcoin and blockchain, bitcoins underlying technology, despite continued skepticism of cryptocurrencies. This dollar stuff, its just some fiat currency based on the surplus taxing authority of the U.S. Treasury of which I assert there is zero ... Its about time the world switches to real money. Either gold or bitcoin, Byrne told FOX Business Maria Bartiromo in November. Byrne has not only been outspoken about cryptocurrencies, but Overstock has offered financial support as well, by accepting bitcoin and investing in blockchain. Weve been involved with blockchain for for years. We were the first company [worth] over a million dollars to take bitcoin, we were at $1.5 billion, weve been a very key player in the blockchain revolution, Byrne told FOX Business Stuart Varney on Varney & Co. According to Byrne the company is not planning to get rid of its ecommerce roots. No, no, no, not at all, we love our business. Byrne explained that the company is making money from the success of its wide-ranging investments in blockchain. The main event is, whats happened is we created a group called Medici within Overstock, its a venture capital group run by a good friend of mine Jonathan Johnson. Its a venture capital group thats made 11 blockchain investments. One of the investments is the Bitt app, which is a mobile digital currency wallet that allows users to exchange digital currencies with their smartphones without a traditional bank account. Its the leading business in the world. Its blockchain meets central banking, its called Bitt.com, and its down in Barbados. Chinese regulators have rebuked fashion brand Zara, Delta Air Lines and medical device maker Medtronic for calling Taiwan a country on their websites in a new show of Beijing's intense sensitivity about the self-ruled island. Zara, Delta and Medtronic were ordered Friday to remove the "illegal content" and issue public apologies. The airline regulator told other carriers to check their own websites. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and regularly lashes out at publishers of books, maps and other materials that refer to it as a country. Earlier, the hotel chain Marriott was ordered to shut down its mainland China website and app for a week after a customer survey included Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong among a list of countries. Beginning in February, Americans can expect to see tax reform changes reflected in their paychecks, now that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has unveiled its new withholding tables. However, the new system, updated by the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department in under one month, could leave more room for miscalculation where withholding amounts are concerned. I think there could [be slightly more room for error], John Myett, director of government affairs at payroll processing firm ADP (NASDAQ:ADP), told FOX Business. For more complex filers, they really want to take a closer look at whats being withheld. The issue comes in with paperwork. Because the new tax law was passed in late December, the IRS did not have enough time to create, disseminate and collect new W-4 forms, something Myett said would have been a herculean task. Instead, for this year, employers will be able to use the forms already on file, which were not designed for the new system. Its also going to take time to educate taxpayers on certain adjustments, including the elimination of personal exemptions. In order to implement this within the timeframe that people were expecting because they want to get it implemented as quickly as possible, doing a new W-4 first wouldve been unrealistic, Myett said. Myett added that this scenario complicates matters less than it could have if a system had been designed around a W-4 that does not yet exist. This situation has raised concerns that Republicans rushed the legislation through before it was ready. Democrats expressed fear that Americans will owe a larger chunk of change to the IRS at the end of the year due to the confusion and potential miscalculations. But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied those assertions on Thursday at the White House press briefing, saying any claims that we're doing this for political issues are ridiculous. Myett, who is charged with implementing the changes, also doesnt feel that the timeline has been rushed. Thats pretty much realistic and pretty much what weve seen in the past with late tax rate changes, he said. The IRS will have a tool for individuals to calculate how much should be withheld from their income on its site by the end of February. The agency and the administration have urged taxpayers to utilize this tool once it becomes available, and to notify employers if anything needs to be changed. Myett is hopeful the IRS will roll out updated W-4 forms, the next big challenge, within the next two to three months. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the throne in Saudi Arabia, has taken steps to modernize the country with a bold, progressive blueprint to change the country socially, economically and politically with Saudi Vision 2030. Hes facing a lot of challenges in Saudi Arabia right now, on the military front, the economic front and the social front and he has worked the last two years on the plan called Vision 2030 to meet these challenges and to fix the issues that he has identified, Kacy Grine, Ares Holdings Chairman and advisor to Prince Al-Waleed, told FOX Business Maria Bartiromo on Mornings with Maria. According to Grine, the plan is a significant turning point in Saudi Arabias history I think what the Crown Prince is doing and leading right now, its maybe the most important thing in Saudi modern history, its a reverse of the Islamic revolution in 1979 in Iran and instead of taking us 100 years ago, hes taking us 100 years ahead. A key initial step in the plan is the countrys corruption crackdown that has led to the arrest of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, billionaire and member of the Saudi royal family, among others. According to Grine, along with sending a message to the Saudi people, this crackdown is also reassuring foreign investors. I think the message to say that nobody is above the law is a very important message to send to the Saudi peopleand to foreign investors. Grine says the corruption crackdown will ease foreign investors concerns about doing business in Saudi Arabia. The concern that, you know, most of the people have right now in the U.S., and in France, is that the message in Saudi Arabia should be that you have a rule of law that nobody is above, but, it is very important to define the rule of law and to present it to make the foreign investors secure about it. Though Grine is a friend and advisor to Prince Al-Waleed, he says he has only spoken to him once since his arrest and does not know what charges he faces. Shaw Communications, Inc. (NYSE: SJR)Q1 2018 Earnings Conference CallJan. 11, 2018, 3:30 p.m. ET Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: Operator Thank you for standing by and welcome to Shaw Communications' First Quarter Fiscal 2018 Conference Call and Webcast. Today's call will be hosted by Mr. Jay Mehr, President of Shaw Communications. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. Following the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, simply press * and 1 on your touchtone phone at any time during the call. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing * and 0 on their telephone. Before we begin, Management would like to remind listeners that comments made during today's call will include forward-looking information and there are risks that actual results could differ materially. Please refer to the company's publicly filed documents for more details on assumptions and risks. Mr. Mehr, I would now like to turn the call over to you. Jay Mehr -- President Thank you, Operator, and Happy New Year to everyone joining Vito and myself on the call today. We appreciate everyone being flexible regarding the timing of the call this morning. Given last week's sad news of the passing of Shaw Communications Vice-Chair and former CEO, Jim Shaw, Brad and the family are in preparations for his service tomorrow and, therefore, are understandably unavailable to lead us through today's conference call. However, Brad did ask me to convey his deepest gratitude to everyone for their kind and thoughtful messages that he has received over the last week. On a personal note, I wanted to take just a moment to express the immense impact that Jim has had on my career and me, personally, as I spent most of my 22 years at Shaw working alongside Jim. Those of you listening who knew him, know that he is a larger-than-life personality and was an icon within our industry and the overall Canadian business community. Jim was instrumental to our company's success as he led Shaw Communications as CEO for 12 years and has been part of our business for over 35 years. Jim's significant contributions to this company are evident today and it's reflected in our position as a leader in the Canadian industry. 10 stocks we like better than Shaw CommunicationsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Shaw Communications wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of January 2, 2018 Jim was one of my most influential mentors, for sure, and I'll carry fond memories of him. Our hearts remain heavy with sadness as we say goodbye to a visionary leader and friend. Jim, you will be dearly missed and I know I speak for every Shaw employee, including myself, when I say we're focused on not letting you down as we continue to build this great company. Moving onto the formal remarks, we've entered Fiscal 2018 in an enviable position. Last year, the optimization of our asset base continued as we deployed Corus and secured valuable spectrum that enabled us to continue the execution of our long-term strategic initiatives. Our financial position has never been stronger and we're making significant progress with respect to our wireless and wireline investments. Our customers are our motivation, guiding our actions, and they're at the center of every decision that we make. We continue to invest in our business so that we can offer innovative products and services that will meet their demands and future expectations, as well as create value for all stakeholders. Our wireless business is well-situated to deliver growth as we've built on a foundation of RLT advanced network, the reform of our 10 megahertz AWS spectrum, which was recently completed in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton, significantly expanding Freedom to direct-sale market is this spectrum supports nearly all RLT devices in use in Canada. This work is also well under way in Toronto in the GTA. At the same time, the company has also begun deploying the recently acquired 2500 megahertz spectrum further improving network quality with this efficient use of Spectrum over 4 million Canadians in our wireless footprint not in contract to now bring their own device to Freedom Mobile and enjoy the benefit of RLT advanced network. More than ever, customers are acutely aware of the costs of their wireless bills and, until recently, they were forced to accept limited amounts of data as part of their premium price wireless service. We launched our Big Gig data plans in October and consumers, the media, and the competition took notice. Not only are we providing customers with options for 10-plus gigabytes of data in their monthly plan, but we can do so at a price that is both sustainable for us and affordable for Canadians. We launched the iPhone in early December and have already seen significant improvements in the levels of our acquisition and retention of customers. We are excited that we were able to offer this iconic device prior to the holiday season and, in fact, December sales of iPhones have exceeded our expectations. The increased customer demand since launching Big Gig and the iPhone continue to highlight the desire from customers to get more data for less and supports our overall wireless growth strategy. Throughout F18, we will continue to enhance the wireless experience as we deploy our 2500 and 700 megahertz spectrum across our footprint, improving both the quality and coverage aspect of the network as well as launching VoLTE by the end of the fiscal year. We'll also continue to improve the breadth of our current wireless distribution, including the increased marketing support for our recently launched online sales channel. We believe all of these factors, including our network distribution improvements, iPhone carriage, and attractive data packages will have a meaningful impact on our subscriber loading, compared to the historical results since completing the acquisition of WIND in March of 2016. In our wireline consumer business, we've delivered a sixth consecutive quarter of internet RGU growth, primarily due to the success of our flagship WideOpen Internet 150 product, which is available to over 99% of our footprint. Today, over 90% of our new internet customers are taking speeds of 75 megabits-per-second or higher and over half of those are opting for a two-year value plan. The strength of our network is evident in our broadband subscriber results and we expect the trend to continue as we meet and exceed the demands of our customers. Video results reflect our balanced approach to subscriber growth and retention. We've reduced our promotional activity and focused our efforts this quarter on higher-value video subscribers. We continue to be excited about our premium TV service, BlueSky, now fully integrated with Netflix and the BlueSky roadmap, which enables further innovation, transforming the video landscape. Shaw Business continues to deliver consistent growth. The success that we're experiencing in this segment is primarily due to our smart portfolio advantage services that focus on small-to-medium sized businesses. In December, we launched a fourth product in this portfolio, SmartSurveillance. Through our best-in-class partner approach, we will continue to provide innovative products and services to complement our connectivity services. I will now turn the call over to Vito to review the Q1 Fiscal 2018 results. Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Thank you, Jay, and good morning, everyone. Before I get into a detailed financial results, I would like to remind listeners that, effective Q1 of this year, our reporting consists of two separate segments, wireless, which has not changed from previous disclosure, and wireline, now combines consumer and business. We will continue to provide separate revenue and RGU metrics for each of consumer and business and EBITDA will be a combined result on the basis that costs have become increasingly inseparable between the two segments. On a consolidated basis, first quarter revenue of $1.25 billion increased 2.7% and EBITDA decreased 4.6% to $481 million over the comparable period. Let's review each segment in more detail. Starting with wireless, revenue of $175 million in the quarter, increased by $37 million or 26.8%, and EBITDA of $35 million, increased 16.7%, over the same period in Fiscal 2017. Improvement in wireless is primarily related to the increase in subscribers of approximately 130,000, relative to a year ago, for a total wireless customer base of almost 1.2 million as of the end of November. It's important to note that many of the positive developments Jay referred to earlier, such as the iPhone launch and the spectrum reform are subsequent to the quarter-end and, therefore, has no impact on the current quarter results. In wireline, consumer revenue declined to $935 million, or down 1.3%, while business revenue increased 6.1% to $140 million. Wireline EBITDA of $446 million, declined 5.9% over the comparable period. The decline in year-over-year results was primarily driven by consumer video as the impact of increased promotional activity that took place in the second half of Fiscal 2017, as well as higher planned corporate costs, more than offset growth in internet and business. While, overall, wireline results were down year-over-year, consumer internet and business remain important growth drivers. Capital spending in the quarter increased to $353 million, or $84 million higher than Q1 Fiscal '17. More than half of the increase was driven by wireless network investments, including spectrum reforming, deployment of 2500 small-cell coverage, and maintenance. Free cash flow in the first quarter of $51 million compares to $158 million in the prior quarter, excuse me, in the prior year. The decline in the current quarter is due to increased network investment and lower wireline EBITDA. Net income for the quarter of $114 million, compared to $89 million in the first quarter of Fiscal 2017. The increased reflects the prior period non-operating loss, partially offset by lower EBITDA and higher income taxes in the current quarter. We continue to have significant flexibility as leverage remains at under 2.0X and we have approximately $445 million of cash and $1.5 billion in liquidity through undrawn lines of credit. In summary, we delivered first-quarter results in line with our expectations and consistent with our message from last quarter. We remain committed to our balanced approach in wireline and we'll focus our efforts and spend on higher-quality subscribers. We can also confirm that we remain on-track to meet F18 guidance, whereby, we expect consolidated operating income before restructuring costs and amortization to go to approximately $2.1 billion, a year-over-year projected increase of approximately 5%, capital investments of approximately $1.38 million, and free cash flow of approximately $375 million. I also want to remind everyone that we expect the majority of the EBITDA growth to come in the second half of Fiscal '18, consistent with our messaging that we provide when we provided guidance back in October. Let me provide you with a bit more detail on the growth drivers in the balance of the year. Wireline EBITDA growth ramps in the second half of the year, due primarily to improved broadband margins. We see continued migration to higher internet shares and, as you saw in November, we increased the effective average internet pricing, including value plans, through a culmination of a reduced promotional period and pricing increases. We continue to believe that our internet products have pricing power as customers increasingly expect a fast and reliable internet service. Our business segment is expected to deliver consistent topline growth with strong margins and, in our wireless business, we expect to increase our subscriber base and load more customers on $50.00-plus rate plans as a result of the network enhancements and the Big Gig data plans. With that, I'll turn the call back to Jay for some closing remarks. Jay Mehr -- President Thanks, Vito. We spent several years laying the foundation for growth and the potential opportunities for our business have never been better amid the unrelenting pace of change, disruption, and competition where we focus on execution and staying the course. I firmly believe we have a winning combination of products and services combined with a talented management team that will deliver growth for all stakeholders. Thank you and we'll turn it back to the operator for questions. Questions and Answers: Operator We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, please press * and 1 on your touch-tone. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please ensure you enlist a handset before pressing any keys. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press * and 2. Anyone who has a question may press * and 1 at this time. Our first question comes from Vince Valentini of TD Securities. Vince Valentini -- TD Securities -- Managing Director Thanks very much. Let me start by just saying Jim will be dearly missed and pass on my condolences to everybody at the company and the family. I know it's a tough time. My question to start with, maybe for Vito, can we just level-set expectations on the wireline side? So, you went back to 3 and 6-month promotions versus the 12-month promotions in November. Does that mean we should see RPU and, therefore, margins immediately snap back in Q2 or does it take a little while for that to filter through your billing cycles? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah, Vince, it's Jay. I'll start and let Vito add some details to it. Yeah, so we're doing what we said we were going to do and we got the results that we expect to get. In fact, our Q1 results were a little bit ahead of budget and plan on EBITDA -- not really notably ahead, basically, right on top of the results. There's no question the way the change of promotional packages and prices work is you get RGU gain at the front-end and you get a financial gain in the back-end in the six-month time lag is about right. As you think about the timing of all this, Q1 looks a lot like Q4 did and, on the wireline side of the business, Q2's going to continue to look a lot more like Q1 in the second half of the year. I mean, you won't recognize the wireless side of the business in Q2 because it's different than anything you've seen before, so that part of Q2 will be different. And the primarily revenue growth that comes from all of the pricing and promotional changes, our material's starting in Q3 and then you get the full value of it in Q4. So, it's a time lag, but we believe we've got the right approach. Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Yeah, thank you, Jay. I think you nailed it there. Vince, when you look at the EBITDA for the wireline versus prior quarters, we were actually flat prior quarter, obviously down versus prior year and I think you can see that that's the start of the pricing starting to take effect and the continued migration in packaging and we'll see that continue and improve as we move forward. So, definitely back-half-loaded as the base shifts into the higher pricing and the promos fall off a bit. Vince Valentini -- TD Securities -- Managing Director Okay. Great. And, if I can shift for a question on wireless, so, to pick up on what you're saying there, Jay, that we won't recognize things in Q2, are you willing to be any more definitive at this time as to what your sub-ads and RPU look like in the six-weeks or so since Q1 ended? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah, sure. Well, I would tell you that I'm going to share a bunch of stuff and you'll probably come away thinking I haven't shared that much because that's what you usually say, Vince. I think, if you look at our transition into Big Gig, the launch of Big Gig was certainly successful for us and we saw some nice but small migration in the base. In the month of October and November -- end of October, beginning of November -- we didn't really see impact. We didn't see an increase in growth sales volume. We saw the ads coming in at a higher price point and around starting to approach the $50.00 -level at that point, and so we're seeing a healthier base and we were seeing about 1% of the base a month moving up in terms of $6.00 or $7.00 a month in RPU. So, that's what you've seen in November. We might have frozen the market a bit, both with our iPhone announcement and then also with our iPhone presales, so starting on Black Friday, we did iPhones on presale, but all of those iPhones we sold we see in the December numbers because they were all filled -- most of them -- that December 8th/9th weekend kind of activity. I would say a couple things about our new business -- because it does feel like a new business starting in December -- and it was, on the last call we said to you nobody every underestimated the importance of Apple to our business, which meant to say that we were in active negotiations and we knew how important it was. To be clear, I underestimated the importance of the iPhone to our business. It has changed all aspects of our wireless business. We're adding customers, all of them north of $50.00 in recurring revenue. We're selling a lot of phones and you can see this in our numbers. We haven't historically been a place that sells phones -- it's a high percentage of our net-adds and that has changed -- so I think you're going to see a net gain in Q2 that's meaningfully stronger than what you've seen from us at any time and that's imported a really, really healthy revenue component to those net-adds. Obviously, we had four or five days of record disconnects when we had our competitors jump into the space right before Christmas on greater distribution. And, to be clear, our 3G base is exposed to those kinds of things -- we've been exposed to Public Mobile in the past and we were certainly exposed over those four or five days -- so maybe not quite the net quarter that we might have thought at one point it was going to be, but it's going to be very different than what we've seen in the past. Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jay, I'll just add the RPU commentary there, Vince, very similar to the wireline side. I think it's going to obviously take some time for these customers who are coming in at a rate greater than $50.00 to have a more meaningful impact on our overall weighting and you'll see that more back-half end-loaded and into F19, obviously, as we move forward. Vince Valentini -- TD Securities -- Managing Director Okay. If I can add one last clarification, there, so you obviously had this huge surge of iPhone sales, given the promotions you had Black Friday and the beginning of December. From your learnings from that experience, do you think you need to be that aggressive in the future, offering $0.00 8s and 10s, or is that viewed as a temporary versus your more consistent promotional behavior? How should we think about that? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah, I would say to you the thinking this way: The Big Gig pricing is our pricing and Paul will tell you he doesn't like the change rate plans pricing -- there's lots of complexity in distribution, it takes people a period of time to get in the cycle, it takes customers a period of time to get into the cycle. Our Big Gig pricing is our pricing and don't expect to see us move from that on weekly or monthly basis. We're going to have a pricing umbrella so, if we have some things that happen on pricing -- like happened before December -- I think we came down $10.00, which I think was a measure of growth to get in the marketplace. We need a pricing umbrella just for where we are in the segment and I think everyone understands that. So, Big Gig pricing is our pricing -- device pricing and financing is a lever that we will use as we come in and out of the market. You only get to launch the iPhone once. This business has waited for an iPhone for a long time -- we chose to launch it with impact and we think that was a great call. What we do with device pricing, that's much more in response to the competitive environment and what happens on a go forward basis. And part of it is the zero-down component and part of it is the amount of subsidy -- all of that is being worked into our analysis. With that having been said, we like the results that we're getting on the current pricing and we think it's sustainable, but you might see us make some adjustments on hardware pricing. Vince Valentini -- TD Securities -- Managing Director Thanks. Operator Our next question comes from Jeff Fan of Scotiabank. Jeff Fan -- Scotiabank -- Equity Research Analyst Thanks. Good morning, and I just want to express my condolences to the Shaw family as well. Just a few follow-ups from the questions before and the answers before. Jay, I think you mentioned that bids around the wireless competition in those three or four days. You mentioned that you saw a bit of a record disconnect -- is that what you pointed to -- and I guess you mentioned the 3G base and so I guess my next question would be how big is your 3G base how quickly are you whittling that down? And then, just along the lines of competition in wireless, I think you made the point that you only launch an iPhone once and that, since your coming party, did what the big three did in the market kind of dull some of, I guess, the upside that you would have expected to see from the iPhone, given how active they were in responding in those three or four days' period? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah, great. Thanks, Jeff. I don't know that I intended to use those exact words, but I did use the words "record disconnect" so they were correct. Look, the market got activated and, if you were in a mall over those four or five days or talking to people, the wireless market got active and I guess you could argue we were a source of that activation. And I would make the argument that, if the big three want to activate the market, in the long run, we'll win because we'll benefit from people shopping around and so forth. We took big disconnects over those four or five days, as you can imagine. You've seen our historical base at $37.00 RPU and they're exposed to those kinds of offers from other competitors so we were going through strong daily net gains going into those days and, clearly, that short period of time, our gross sales held up nicely and we continue to get lots of movement from the big three, but they got some movement from us over that period of time. That having been said, not to overstate that -- unfortunately, you can't replace the five key selling days before Christmas with five days in February, which is probably by design, but I think it was a healthy moment in time where the marketplace had a chance and, probably, in the medium term, if 10-gig for $60.00 including voice has become a thing, we're the place you can get it in the marketplace and so I think, in the medium term, that helps us. When I made the comments about the 3G base, correct me, I identified that, as we reform and move into LT, that large chunks of the 3G base will convert to LTE on a network basis and we will get to the point where we have, maybe, 250,000 or 300,000 3G customers on the 3G network. I was maybe being a little lazy in my words. When you talk about the old legacy base that's at the $37.00 RPU, we're going to be able to move a portion of that base up into our $50.00-plus RPU pricing but, remember, a bunch of that base is in a different space -- it's in the space now occupied by Public Mobile Chatter and Lucky and where we're occupying now is a more mid-market space that's almost above that. So, we're not necessarily going to be able to wave a magic wand, convert that space to LT, and have it all miraculously come to $50.00 RPU so I think we're going to continue to do our best in serving the segment that we have while we're growing a very different looking customer profile as we go forward. Jeff Fan -- Scotiabank -- Equity Research Analyst Great. And then maybe just a quick one on the Corus cable side. The video loss in the quarter -- when you compare to last year, you didn't have BlueSky in the market but, this quarter, you had it -- and the loss seems to be a little bigger. So, I understand you slowed down some of the promotional activities which probably caused that, but I guess the question would be how should we think about, I guess, video ads or maybe cable RGUs, overall, for the remainder of the year of Fiscal '18? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah, I think so. A couple things to think about there: one is we are certainly in an adjustment quarter and our plan is to also have it be pretty substantive increase in Q2, although a smaller increase than we had in Q1 and then our plan to adjust it will be able to move as we move through that segment of customers to neutral or slight positives starting in Q3 and continuing into Q4 is the way we look at the business today. If you think about the impact of BlueSky in the business, BlueSky is working. You probably heard us talk before about the three video segments that are evolving in the marketplace. There's the TV-lovers, that is the TV customer who watches TV on a television set, often in a shared family room or some kind of shared room where more than one person in the household is watching the TV together a couple of times a week. Those are our classic BlueSky customers. We do very well in this segment, we did very well in this segment in Q1, we continue to do well. The other two segments are the price-sensitive and the streamer segments. The price-sensitive is that group that is prepared to pay $15.00 or $20.00 a month for video. We have played in that space, promotionally, but we never make any money there. And part of it is because we've been trying to market our legacy product to that group and you can't make money on a $20.00 video product with a legacy cost structure, and a set-top box, and $100.00 truck roll, and three calls into the call center -- that space just doesn't make sense -- so you've seen it pause on that group and you see that in our 2-1 video subsidy and you see that a little bit in Q2. On the streamer segment, it's a little similar to the third segment -- it's a little similar to the price-sensitive group -- but it's really about consuming on devices and we don't have a pure play product there -- you can watch the Chromecast Roadmap and predict what we're going to do in those areas. So, we think BlueSky's working and our customers that have BlueSky love it and they're our highest value customers. And I think you'll just see us stabilize the base as we go through the rest of Q2 and then go to RTU side in Q4. In general terms, phone has been pretty sticky for us, internet is doing well and we're going to continue to see gains. Satellite was a hair softer in Q1 than expected. There's the normal seasonal factor in Q1 -- I don't know that there's anything all that structural happening in satellite, but we are a few thousand behind where we, ideally, would want to be. We should look forward... satellite business is going to be tough. We're going to manage it for profitability. RPU is holding up nicely on satellite video and I don't think we're going to chase the RGU number to try and replace high-end value customers with where the low-end low-customer lifetime value. I think we're really going to be focused on retention there. Jeff Fan -- Scotiabank -- Equity Research Analyst Great. Thanks, Jay. I'll pass it along. Operator Our next question comes from Phillip Wong of Barclays Investment Bank. Philip Wong -- Barclays Investment Bank -- Quantitative Analysis Hi, good morning. First, I also want to express my condolences on the passing of Jim. In terms of my question, I want to ask, first, on the BYOD RPUs, was wondering if you could give any color on the types of RPUs that, first, you're seeing or that you expect to get, just given the expanded adjustable market. Yeah, on the BYOD market from the reforming, I'd imagine that we'll see a nice lift in the segment, in addition to those customers buying a new iPhone from you. Just trying to assess the magnitude of the corresponding lift to RPU from the BYOD segment that you expect. Jay Mehr -- President Great. Thanks, Philip. So, to be clear, our whole business has been a BYOD business for a long time. We have sold a small percentage of phones on activations, well beneath the average. The challenges in our BYOD business has put everybody on this 3G network because the phones were not compatible with even our LT spectrum. So, we've always been in the BYOD business and you see that in our $37.00 RPU. Over the course of November, we did see a nice uptick in RPUs similar to what we were seeing on the base of that $6.00 or $7.00 in the BYOD space. As we balance subsidy with monthly recurring revenue, we're working on is there a $10.00 break, which there often has been for BYOD and we'll work our way through that? To be clear, in Q2, we haven't put any energy into BYOD. We only have LT-activated in the western markets so I think you'll see us fire up on that when we're ready to go everywhere. And then, also, it's hard to say two things at once and we've been saying iPhone as loudly as anyone will listen. So, our BYOD customers tend to come on about $10.00 less than our iPhone adds today, in terms of their monthly, and it's a space we have not really leaned into LT yet. Philip Wong -- Barclays Investment Bank -- Quantitative Analysis Right. Got it. No, that's very helpful. I was just wondering, from the 3G, say if I'm an iPhone 7 user and now I can go onto your network, whereas that would have been 3G before the reforming, then how much more I would be willing to pay to go on your network and the $10.00 remark is helpful. Jay Mehr -- President I guess big opportunities for the second half. We're not going to get bored with iPhone -- because we've been waiting a long time, we're going to drive that and, the second half of the year, the value proposition you just described is going to be right at the heart of our market. Philip Wong -- Barclays Investment Bank -- Quantitative Analysis Got it. No, that's very helpful. If could sneak in a second one, you've obviously talked a lot about the strong demand on the iPhone for you guys and having a much bigger lift for your business than you had expected. Was just wondering, to the extent that it's also requiring you to spend a little bit more to support that growth, is there any corresponding offset to potentially mitigate the impact to the full-year free cash flow? Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Philip, it's Vito here. Clearly, these subscribers that are coming in, there's a reinvestment there in the lift in RPU into subsidy and into cost acquisition -- all that is embedded in our EBITDA guidance. In respect to, obviously, recent capital requirements and whatnot, we guided last October, we expect to see, to some degree, the effect that we're exceeding our own expectations. We'll have adjustments to that, but all very, very manageable, obviously, with our balance sheet liquidity and cash on hand so nothing significant to report at this point. Philip Wong -- Barclays Investment Bank -- Quantitative Analysis Right. Got it. No, very helpful. Thanks very much, guys. Operator Our next question comes from Greg MacDonald of Macquarie Capital Markets. Greg MacDonald -- Macquarie Capital Markets -- Managing Director Thank you. Good morning, guys and, like the rest, I'll express my condolences to the group. So, quick question I want to have is on the wireline basic subscribers, in particular, and maybe just a little more color on the profile of the declines and, potentially, impacts on RPU or pricing power there? We do know that there was some competitive activity in the quarter -- pull back its promotional activity, I think, it was in early December -- so there was an impact from a competitive standpoint there, but the press release also makes reference to a change in customer mix. I wonder, are you talking cord-cutting or, Jay, the reference to streamers that you're talking about? To what extent is cord-cutting -- which is having a bigger impact in the U.S. -- to what extent is that having an impact in Canada, either in basic customer declines or also in the loss of pricing power? Thanks. Jay Mehr -- President Great. Thanks, Greg. It's not the perfect quarter for us to talk about the video landscape because we have the adjustment things around promotional customers that we don't make a lot of money on and so I don't want you to look at our video RPU numbers and say the world is changing for video. But, that having been said, even after our video numbers stabilize again, the world is changing for video. The video landscape is changing for the entire industry. I don't necessarily accept that Canada's all that different than the U.S. -- I think, in North America, things are changing. Things are changing with the amount of streaming content, things are changing, quite frankly, just the amount of content that's available in the cloud for free through what people call "piracy" and whatever words they use to describe it, including on sports. The video world is changing and there's things happening on video that people will try and lean in and adjust to make their own numbers look better and stuff like that. There is stuff going on here. To be clear, of all companies, I think our two-year head start on BlueSky, combined with our wireless assets, put us on the sunny side of where the most industry changes are and I don't think there's anything scary for us. I think we've had such video competition early that others haven't had that our video RPUs have already adjusted and our video market shares have already adjusted. So, I think we're on the sunny side of the changes in the video market, but the world and consumers are changing and we can't control that. Greg MacDonald -- Macquarie Capital Markets -- Managing Director So, to be clear, Jay, when you're describing in the release on change in video customer mix, I thought that that was more related to what's happening in your promotional activity, as opposed to quarteting. Am I correct in making that assumption? Jay Mehr -- President You are correct on that piece. So, to be clear, what that statement totally refers to is we had a mix of TV-lovers and price-sensitive customers that we're playing in. We basically removed all of the offers that made video available for $15.00 and $20.00 a month and, as such, we didn't add any price-sensitive customers. You can imagine that segment has a high degree of churn as it comes off promotional periods. Now, what you saw, we had a good quarter in our traditional TV-lover space. So, that comment on the press release was about the structural change in our promotions. Greg MacDonald -- Macquarie Capital Markets -- Managing Director Okay. Great. That's helpful. And a quick follow-on, if I could, on wireless. For the second half of the quarter with Big Gig being in the market, could you talk even contextually about the profile of existing customers increasing their data plans going onto the Big Gig plan versus the impact of gross adds? That would be helpful. Existing versus new? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah. Thank you, Greg. If you look at migration within the base, there's always migration in the base and, because so much of our base has been BYOD and so forth, there's lots of room for customers to move up and down. In the history of WIND and in our time owning the asset, all of that would net up over the course of a month to be about 1% of the base, maybe 2% in an active month and, historically, that would be quite neutral or maybe down $0.50 in terms of monthly recurring. From October 22nd to the end of November, that activity increased a bit in terms of overall migration and, when you net all the pluses and all the minuses in terms of people adjusting their monthly billing, they came up about $7.00. And, interestingly enough, as November unfolded, that moved a little bit even more forward in moving high $5.00s into the low $7.00s in terms of the activity. So, it's clear that we've hit the marketplace so that there's a portion of our base that really likes this Big Gig abundant data approach and is going to buy into it. To be clear, though, you need to be patient. Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Yeah. About 1%, right? Jay Mehr -- President If you've got 1% or 2% of your base adjusting on a monthly basis and all of our new adds coming in at over $50.00, we're going to get a lot of RPU in a year or two here. Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer But heading in the right direction. Jay Mehr -- President But it takes a period of time for that to flush through the base. Greg MacDonald -- Macquarie Capital Markets -- Managing Director Yeah, and I'm drawing the conclusion that, clearly, the bigger impact is the iPhone and the ability to sell that type of product into the Big Gig plan, right? Jay Mehr -- President That's correct. Greg MacDonald -- Macquarie Capital Markets -- Managing Director But, when you say increased a bit, am I to conclude 1% going to 2% or something like that? Jay Mehr -- President Directionally, you're on the right track. Greg MacDonald -- Macquarie Capital Markets -- Managing Director Okay. Thanks very much, guys. Operator Our next question comes from Aravinda Galappatthige of Canaccord Genuity. Aravinda Galappatthige -- Canaccord Genuity -- Managing Director Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions and I also want to pass on my condolences to the family. My first question is on wireless. I know you can't get too detailed here, but I was wondering if you're willing to offer some kind of color on the mix of the net adds you're winning in wireless these days, both regionally and in terms of general standings, obviously, most of the wins are still in the city in Toronto -- has that mix changed in recent times? Are you seeing more of a balance to the west, as well, or has it been steady mix over the last several quarters? Jay Mehr -- President You've correctly identified that our wireless business is quite heavily awarded to the GTA -- has been. We saw some pickup in Alberta, in B.C. for sure, and there was some really interesting movement in the Vancouver market. Vancouver's actually, I guess, not unlike Toronto to a point. It's quite a price-sensitive market just because of the relationship of the cost of housing to people's income and so we saw some nice movement in the Vancouver market. But, to be clear, our December business continued to be anchored in Toronto -- maybe slightly less slow than in previous months with the GTA matters to our wireless business. Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer I'll just add that, on a net basis, as well, predominantly post-paids is where it all landed -- healthy gross adds both on post-paids and pre-paids, but nice churn improvement on post-paid so, when you look at the net adds, significant majority of it is, effectively, post-paids. Again, another RPU future indicator. Aravinda Galappatthige -- Canaccord Genuity -- Managing Director Okay. Great. Thanks for that. And, just a quick follow-up on the wireless side, your experience as you reform the AWS-1, I know you've completed that in the West -- what's been your experience in terms of network performance and capacity there? And what are your expectations as you move that process to Ontario where there's probably going to be much greater need for capacity? Do you feel that reforms spectrum can support what you potentially add in terms of demand in Ontario? Jay Mehr -- President Great. Yeah, to be clear, the reforming happened so quickly in the west and has also happened in most parts of Ontario, with the exception of the GTA -- it's hard to sell other communities until you get the GTA up to speed so it really hasn't been our focus. It happened so quickly because it wasn't congestion, right, and so you could simply... we didn't have enough customers to cause congestion in the west and so you could simply move the spectrum over and there were a small number of sites you had to fill in with 2500 in order to relieve congestion. The fact that Toronto's taking longer is partially just because some of construction is harder in Toronto and it just take longer to get that connected there, but it's more because we've got a lot of customers in Toronto and a lot of activity and so we just can't pull back that 10 megahertz of AWS-1 without replacing it with 2500. The team has done a terrific job and a shoutout to our entire technology team and, particularly, the team under Brian in wireless. The planning process of, of course, 2500 is extremely dense and allows us to manage tremendous amounts of capacity. The plan works and we're able to actually improve the customer experience as we do the reform. And, as the LT network continues to be wide open, even internal, so from a congestion point of view, it all works -- it just takes us a little bit longer. The good news is we've had the iPhone to be our focus for this four, five-month period so we haven't lost anything and we'll be able to come hard with the LT as we complete it. Aravinda Galappatthige -- Canaccord Genuity -- Managing Director Great. Thank you. I'll pass the line. Operator Our next question comes from Tim Casey of BMO Capital Markets. Tim Casey -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst Thanks. I just wanted to revisit a comment you made, Jay, where you thought... the expression you used, you thought you were on the "sunny side of industry developments," yet you described your video business as really focused on TV-lovers -- you can't make money in the price-sensitive statement and you don't have a product yet for the streamers, yet, by your own admission, that legacy component or market is the one that is transitioning away. And it seems that, whenever you stop price lever, there's almost an immediate impact in subs. I'm just wondering if you could square those comments for us? And, I guess, as a follow-on, you've indicated, on the wireless side, your pricing is your pricing. That doesn't seem to be the case on wireline -- it seems to be more dynamic -- and I'm just wondering if you can reconcile those thoughts? Thanks. Jay Mehr -- President Yeah. Great. Thanks, Tim. If you think about our approach to video, we continue to do well in that TV-lover space and we love the BlueSky product and so does our customer because it integrates the internet digital experience and TV and it's the best in cost, experience in the globe. To be clear, even within our BlueSky base, maintaining RPU is a new up. We're not seeing big RPU gains as we deploy Blue Sky into that base, but we are seeing increased stickiness, reduction of churn, the combination of BlueSky and Internet 150 is a terrific package and when we also add wireless to that customer, that's a beautiful customer -- lifetime value customer -- so that's a super important part of our business. When we said clearly that we couldn't compete in the price-sensitive or streamer space on our legacy cost structure, that was about us being very clear that the old cable company is not going to be able to compete with Netflix, and Google, and Amazon in the video space. To be clear, Shaw's going to compete in that space, but we're not going to compete in that space as a traditional cable company. We've got a tremendous roadmap in the whole Chromecast so BlueSky's our first deliverable but the whole Chromecast roadmap is what we've signed on for and we are wholly committed -- and this will be a bigger thing on the wireline side of the business just because of scale -- we're totally committed to creating a modern digital experience, which can both drive customer satisfaction and material bottom line savings. And, as we deliver that modern service delivery model with the modern push, there's money to be made in that space. I think, to be fair, it's probably less money than in the legacy space -- Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Less monetary results. Jay Mehr -- President Yeah. Less monetary results, but we're working hard on not just the next set of product offerings but, probably more important, that digital self-serve no set-top box cost structure that'll be critical for us to be in that space. So, today, you see us focus on TV-lovers because we've got the best product on the globe for that and we're working hard not only to deliver the next set of products, but digital, low-cost, self-serve, data-driven business model that really becomes the new Shaw in that space. Tim Casey -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst When do you think we get there, Jay? Jay Mehr -- President I think you get the customer-facing solutions, certainly, in Calendar 2018, certainly, and you get major inroads in terms of self-install in Calendar 2018. If you start talking about the completely digital mobile phone Shaw, I think, really, you make progress in that area, but that's more of a 24 to 36-month to completion in the transformation. We're spending an awful lot of time on the wireline side of our business -- multi-year transformation, new operating model. We'll have more to say on this in the Q2 call and you may even see it in the next coming weeks on the operating model side that we're starting to make some significant moves on that time. Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer And, Tim, in the meantime, you've got internet really strong, you've got our B&B really strong, you've got, obviously, wireless and everything we've talked about, so feeling pretty good about those four components and how they're working through. Tim Casey -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst Thank you. Operator Our next question comes from Drew McReynolds of RBC Capital Markets. Drew McReynolds -- RBC Capital Markets -- Managing Director Thanks very much and condolences to everyone as well. Two questions: first, Vito, maybe just provide us an update on your thinking with respect to the Corus stake -- if anything, it's changed there. And then, secondly, on the internet side, clearly, you guys are holding your ground and probably doing a little bit better. Can you just comment on the competitive dynamics within fiber-to-the-home footprints? Have they changed relative to, perhaps, some of your commentary over the last year or two or is it just fairly status quo within those footprints from a competitive intensity standpoint? Thank you. Jay Mehr -- President Vito, why don't you take the internet and then maybe sweep up the Corus one, as well? Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Sure. Okay. Well, let's start with the internet one. Look, the strength of our wireline networks has us well-positioned. We're making moves into Docsis 3.1 and we have built into the model another level of speed and service in the marketplace that would allow us to compete with fiber-to-the-home activity from our competitors so we think that we're in good shape there. We think there are significant customer value in our broadband product and, quite frankly, in the broadband product that we offer rather than fiber internet provider. And, with that value comes pricing power and so, as we continue to deliver faster speed and unlimited data, I think we think we're moving in that regard. And I think it's fair to say, Drew, that fiber-in-the-home area isn't our competitor compared to non-fiber-to-the-home -- that, in general terms, we are now in that same three or four points higher in the non-fiber-to-the-home competitive area, as opposed to three or four points lower in the fiber-to-the-home competitive areas. We have quite equal market share in most of the markets that we are in -- very different than the U.S. and I think even different than parts of Canada -- so there's still upside for us in that space. We don't think we're missing anything and we continue to make investments in our wireline network and feel pretty good with where we are on there. If I can comment briefly on Corus -- I don't really have a lot to add to the public discussion around Corus -- I think we'll leave that for others. It was never our intention to hold this investment in perpetuity and, from our perspective, or from my perspective, look, we have a terrific balance sheet, we've got a solid EBITDA growth story, and we have no urgent cash requirements. Yeah. Good? Jay Mehr -- President Nothing much more to add there. Drew McReynolds -- RBC Capital Markets -- Managing Director Okay. Thank you. Operator Our next question comes from Maher Yaghi of Desjardins Securities. Maher Yaghi -- Desjardins Securities -- Media and Tech Analyst Thank you for taking my questions and my condolences to the family as well. I wanted to ask you, Jay, about your comment on the promotional activity that happened in December. You discussed it to a good extent, but I wanted to understand why do your customers who pay in the $35.00, $40.00 range -- as you said, mostly are 3G customers -- seeking promotions at $60.00 for 10-gigs while you have in the market a product for $50.00 and 10-gigs? What is driving or what drove these customers to go to the competitor for something that you already offered and they could have taken advantage of already? So, I'm trying to understand what you need to do to keep those customers happy more than what you are doing already. Jay Mehr -- President Thank you for the question. I would say two things on that. One is I know I understand the philosophy that the direction of the base of customers that we bought when we bought WIND is determinant of our success in the wireless business. I would make the argument that, when we bought WIND, it wasn't about the customer base -- it was about the spectrum, and the network, and the opportunities, and the chance to point the business in our direction that we're now pointing. And so, I understand that people would like to see us aggressively monetize the historical base and bring them up the chain. We're going to do some of that but, clearly, when we talk about our aspirations in the wireless business, it's to play in a different space and, today, we're in quite a different market position because that's what was available to us. The reason the big three are having such success with Lucky and Chatter and, perhaps, while it's very difficult for us to compete with them in that space -- when we look at their distribution, when you look at their network, when you look at their in and out of roaming areas -- that just the fact that we don't have that many levers and the consumer who is angry at the big three for their data overcharges, there's lots of room for us there and it's harder for them to respond in that space than it is for them to come up with something cued on Public Mobile or Chatter. So, I think that's how we're thinking about the business. If you're asking us about why we have higher churn than the other carriers and why we're exposed to that side of the base, I think that's, quite frankly, where our business was and is. We do have higher churn. We have a pre-paid base that's available for competitors to reach into. We don't have our base secured in the same way as others have their base secured. There is no question, in the voice world, there's still in and out of service areas -- with included roaming and other things -- that has the complexity in our value equation that isn't a complexity with the big three. And so, when I talk about our pricing umbrella, the reason why we're not going to be a junior member of the big four is, if we offer exactly the same prices like the other three guys do with exactly the same offers, we won't win -- there is in and out of market roaming, and there's some things with network, and there's we've got a less secure base and higher churn than they have. We are playing a different game which is what we're up to. Maher Yaghi -- Desjardins Securities -- Media and Tech Analyst And, just a follow-up, I always thought it's cheaper to, let's say, upgrade a customer that you already have than going out and grabbing a customer from the competition and having to subsidize or do any... Is there an opportunity to, now that you saw that there is a good amount of customers -- your own customers -- on 3G that are readily willing to pay $60.00 for 10-gigs, is there an opportunity here to upgrade them before they go somewhere else? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah. Maher Yaghi -- Desjardins Securities -- Media and Tech Analyst And what do you need to do to do that? Jay Mehr -- President For sure, there's an opportunity. For sure, there's an opportunity and I think we have the opportunity to focus as we go forward and more relatively simple wireless operation and we're doing one thing at a time and with the opportunity to expand our addressable market with iPhone -- and we chose to do that and we've got no regrets on that level of focus. I understand we could have focused on other things in December, but I think we focused on the right thing. To be clear, we saw disconnect, in those four or five days, I really don't have that much to say -- I guess on the phone first -- I don't have much to say about the wireless desktop that we are primarily a spectator in. The big three were the primary participants in this. Our loss, our disconnects over those four or five days, must have been a small, small, small fraction of the swath that those three guys did to each other and we were kind of a spectator in the shopping malls over those four or five days. So, we indicated that we went from making some of those days on the previous days -- slack days for a few days -- which was a tremendous amount of activity for us. That four or five day-story isn't really for us to tell -- the big three will have a lot more to say about that than we will. Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer And, Maher, I'll just add to Jay's comment that, in fact, on the focus in December, clearly, with the iPhone launch, upgrades were significantly higher than they have traditionally been in the month and we recognized the cost of acquisition differential there for sure. Maher Yaghi -- Desjardins Securities -- Media and Tech Analyst Thank you, guys. Operator Our next question comes from David McFadgen of Cormark Securities. David McFadgen -- Cormark Securities -- Analyst Oh, great. Thank you. Thanks for taking my question and please also convey my condolences to the Shaw family. Just a couple of questions. So, on the video subscribers, you talked earlier about Q2's probably going to be negative, as well, Q3, neutral to positive, Q4 positive. Do you think that you could actually finish up Fiscal 2018 on a neutral basis or is the result in Q1 just too much of negative? And then, secondly, on the wireless RPU, if you look at Quebecor's experience -- within two quarters of them offering iPhone, their RPU is growing at a double-digit rate -- do you think we could start to see some meaningful uplift on your wireless RPU within two quarters or is it just too early to say? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah. Great. I'll take the first one, David. I'll let Vito take the second. Look, we don't guide on RGs, particularly because it's such a competitive environment and things go up and down. I don't want you to think we're sitting with a control panel, and we're adjusting the various levers, and we know exactly to the single-units where we're going to land. We are being very purposeful in our step-by-step approaches in both wireless and wireline. And, to be clear, our wireline plan that we're operating the business to, today, does not get us back to neutral in video, but does get us back to potential growing and being more neutral on a quarterly basis in Q3 and Q4. And there's a good news story: as you do the math back from guidance, you can see the benefit of what we're doing here and what that means for the EBITDA story in the back-half. And I'm sure you can do the math there, yourself, on that. We're not prepared to give up that financial benefit that we're winning in the second half of the year that add another 5,000 video subs or something like that, but we are excited about getting through this part of the business so that we can get back to some stability. You want to talk about wireless? Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Sure. David, your comment about Quebecor is interesting. We've got some network, perhaps, differentials there between us and them on that side of things but, you know what, circle Q4 of this Fiscal '18 as one to watch. Definitely, we've talked about, through the course of the call, the weighting of the incoming value customers should start to see some meaningful impact in our back-half, particularly, Q4 and into F19 as well. David McFadgen -- Cormark Securities -- Analyst Okay. And if I can just add one additional question on wireless -- do you think, within, say, the next 12 months, you would actually bundle a wireless product with your existing telecom services OS? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah, clearly, as we work our step-by-step approach on both the wireline and wireless sides of the business, bundle's going to be a hugely important part of the modern digital Shaw experience. 12 months? It's possible. You might be on the light end, but it's certainly possible. David McFadgen -- Cormark Securities -- Analyst Okay. And would that at all be contingent upon any, say, CRTC ruling on wireless roaming or something like that? Jay Mehr -- President Yeah, there are so many variables in our business and we are in a disruption-heavy competitive environment so, yeah, there's a level of agility that is required and I think it's actually a competitive advantage of ours, not only as consumers' behaviors and needs change, but also as regulations change. I think there's decent line in sight that the costing model on roaming is a model with calculations and a decent line of sight of where we'll probably land there, which is probably good on voice, not great on data. We'll see where it lands and I think that'll be instructive -- 600 is super important for us -- but we're building a business around that stuff landing wherever thinking it's going to land. I don't think that will be determinant. I think the bigger part of this is really we're taking a step-by-step approach to wireline and a step-by-step approach to the wireless and then, over time, those steps bring those things closer together in support of a more modern service-delivering model and a model of a new Shaw, really, in terms of how we're approaching things. And I think, if you look at the last 18 months closely, you can see, in terms of our quota markets, we've already started out with BlueSky, and WideOpen, Internet 150, and the Smart suite of services, and Big Gig and hero devices with iPhone. And you see lots of those quota markets come together in many ways in the operating model -- the digital self-serve, the data segmentation -- we'll come in behind that and enable the coming together of the two sides. And so, I think we're in control of our destiny and aren't necessarily waiting for external things to happen. David McFadgen -- Cormark Securities -- Analyst Okay. Alright. Thank you. Operator This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Mehr for any closing remarks. Jay Mehr -- President Yeah, thank you again for the call. It's going to be a difficult day here today with the AGM and the services for Jim tomorrow. Again, on behalf of Brad, I want to thank you for all of your kind thoughts and we know that Jim would want us to be completely focused on the business. We're going to take a minute or two and not be totally focused over the next day or two, but we are going to continue to build this business as we go through these difficult times. We have a plan -- we're being purposeful with what we're doing with both the wireless and the wireline side, meaningful moves on operating level coming forward in the next couple of weeks, more in store in Q2 and we couldn't be more excited about the opportunities for our business, both in terms of market share gains on the wireless side, internet, revenue opportunities, opportunities in business in our long-term story. Thank you very much for your time today. Operator This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day. Duration: 68 minutes Call participants: Vito Culmone -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jay Mehr -- President Vince Valentini -- TD Securities -- Managing Director Jeff Fan -- Scotiabank -- Equity Research Analyst Philip Wong -- Barclays Investment Bank -- Quantitative Analysis Greg MacDonald -- Macquarie Capital Markets -- Managing Director Aravinda Galappatthige -- Canaccord Genuity -- Managing Director Tim Casey -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst Drew McReynolds -- RBC Capital Markets -- Managing Director Maher Yaghi -- Desjardins Securities -- Media and Tech Analyst David McFadgen -- Cormark Securities -- Analyst More SJR analysis This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. 10 stocks we like better than Shaw CommunicationsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Shaw Communications wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of January 2, 2018 The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has announced he will challenge Kelli Ward for Arizona's open Senate seat to advance President Donald Trumps agenda and policies. I have a chance to continue protecting the people of Arizona and the country, supporting the President, since I supported him since from day one, July 2015, Arpaio told FOX Business Charles Payne. The Republican senatorial candidate, known for his provocative approach to combatting illegal immigration, continues to be against amnesty policies and described how he would allow Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to return to the U.S. My idea was, when you come across these people, deport them, Arpaio said. Let them understand where their parents and even they come from, be ambassadors. While they are there, we have religious groups that go over. We have the Peace Corps, the old Peace Corps, let them go over there and let them come back legally. Arpaio, whose parents immigrated to America from Italy, said he is ready to be challenged by the Democratic Party who he says tries to label him as anti-immigrant and a racist. I am not a racist. Actually, a lot of people are being called a racist these days. When they cant get you on one thing, they always throw the race card. So let them go, I am ready for them, he said. Arpaio served 24 years as sheriff of Maricopa County. After he was convicted of criminal contempt, Arpaio was pardoned by President Trump in August 2017. President Donald Trump is under fire this week for allegedly using vulgar language when questioning why the U.S. would accept immigrants from countries like Haiti. Trump denied using any foul language, saying over Twitter, Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on Friday said he supports President Trumps immigration policies and slammed the left-wing media for not focusing on reforming Americas broken immigration system. This is fake outrage by the liberal left, the mainstream media, who doesnt want to focus on the real issue. They dont want to focus on the fact that we have a broken immigration system that this president has pledged to reform, he told FOX Business Trish Regan on The Intelligence Report. Lewandowski said Democrats should be more focused on the policies Trump is trying to put in place. They dont want to focus on the fact that chain migration now takes up 44% of all the immigration that takes place in our country. They dont want to talk about the fact that Australia and Canada have a merit-based immigration system. When you look at it, we need to have immigration laws that are enforced, he said. Prior to the incident on Thursday, the commander in chief received praise from both sides of the aisle for holding an immigration reform meeting with lawmakers in front of TV cameras. Lewandowski said illegal immigrants arent just a burden on the U.S. economy, but can be costly to small towns. You look at some of the places in the southeast who have been overrun by illegal immigration, their towns and their communities can no longer afford to be successful because of the cost of services, the police departments, the fire departments, the hospitals, the emergency responders are so overwhelmed with responding to individuals who are in the country illegally. Its a burden on the taxpayers, he said. Lewandowski believes that Trump isnt a racist and that he only wants the best law-abiding immigrants admitted into the country. Hes the furthest thing from a racist. The president I like to say is an equal opportunist, whether youre a white male, a white female, an African-American male or Hispanic, he treats everybody the same. He holds you to a very high standard, and if you cant do the job, he asks you to leave. He just wants the best, and he wants the best for our country, he said. Dr. Mehmet Oz sprang into action Wednesday night when a passenger on his flight from New York to Las Vegas collapsed. I was grabbed by a stewardess on the plane after a 30-year-old guy collapsed, he told Page Six on Thursday. I got him to lie on his back and [put] his feet up on the emergency doors, and with that I began to get a reasonable pulse and blood pressure. The host of The Dr. Oz Show, who was on his way to the Consumer Electronics Show, then used electrode pads from the planes Automated External Defibrillator to create a makeshift EKG test. I couldnt tell if he was having a heart attack or not, Oz said. His blood pressure was really low but his heart rate was really high. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, said that upon landing, the passenger was immediately escorted off the plane in a wheelchair and taken to the emergency room. I was worried about a clot going to his lungs which is common in airplanes, he said. While he was laying on the ground he started to shake and he went from being clammy to he had a temperature of 103 by the time he got to the ER. Oz said he stayed in touch with the passenger after the incident, and found out mans collapse was likely caused by the flu. The evaluation so far is leaning towards a bad flu and a high fever caused his collapse, Oz said. This isnt the first time the television host has come to a strangers rescue. In 2013 he helped a woman who was struck by a taxi in Manhattan. This article originally appeared in Page Six. Actor Rob Lowe took to Instagram on Thursday to slam actress Bella Thorne, who complained on Twitter that the road closures in Santa Barbara, Calif., forced her to miss her boyfriends concert performance. This attitude is why people hate celebrities/Hollywood. Bella, Im sorry you were inconvenienced. We will try to move out our dead quicker, Lowe posted. 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. Thornes tweet read, Fk u 101 so santa Barbra (sic). Im missing my boyfriends (sic) first date on his tour. The 20-year-old, who got her big break on Disney Channel's "Shake it Up," has since deleted the tweet and on Thursday tweeted, Fk just caught up on some news had no idea why 101 was shut downget home to your family safe." 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?" resident David Weinert asked. "That's 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 from people who hadn't been able to contact family members or friends. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Former porn star Jenna Jameson expressed her anger towards vandals who defaced a Holocaust memorial in Greece. On Wednesday, Jameson took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the incident by retweeing Avi Mayer, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency, who posted a statement about the memorial that was desecrated in Thessaloniki, Greece. The vandals spray painted the bottom of the Holocaust memorial with the words "Free Palestine." Mayers tweet read: Appalling: Holocaust memorial in Thessaloniki, Greece desecrated with Free Palestine graffiti. 94% of the citys 50,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis, virtually wiping out the Jewish community; today only about 1,000 Jews remain. Jameson commented on the tweet and said, These people are scourge of the earth. Thessaloniki, Greeces second largest city after Athens, is in the process of constructing a new Holocaust Museum according to the Athens-Macedonian News Agencys radio station. The Las Vegas-born star, who married Israeli Lior Bitton in 2015, converted to the Judaism in recent years. Since converting, the 43-year-old has been vocal about her support Israel. In addition to tweeting about the Thessaloniki memorial on Wednesday, Jameson also retweeted Mayers post about the death of a rabbi on Tuesday night. Rabbi Raziel Shevah, the Israeli father of six murdered by a Palestinian assailant last night, is being laid to rest at this time in Havat Gilad. May his family know no further sorrow, Mayer tweeted. Jameson shared her support for the rabbi and commented on Mayers tweet: May his memory be a blessing. Megyn Kelly, who with Matt Lauer's departure is now NBCs highest paid news star, has reportedly upset NBC executives by attempting to book former E! News host Catt Sadler on the "Today" show after Sadler walked away from her gig on NBCs sister station last month because of gender wage gap issues. They are appalled [Kelly] would use their own airtime to criticize the company, an insider told the New York Post. Sadler quit her job with NBCUniversals cable network last month when she learned that her co-host, Jason Kennedy, was making nearly double her salary. Meanwhile, Kelly was hired by NBC last year with a whopping eight-figure salary that raised eyebrows across the industry. Sadler, who was an E! employee for 12 years, had just begun her run as host of E's new two-hour live daytime show, the Daily Pop, in addition to working nights on E! News. But after discovering the salary gap, the TV host said she was not being paid what a veteran employee working two jobs should make. Another NBC personality, Will & Grace star Debra Messing, recently embarrassed NBCUniversal by bringing up the situation during the networks red carpet coverage before Sundays Golden Globes. The awkward state of affairs for NBC executives would be amplified if Sadler elaborated on Kellys troubled hour of the Today show. Now Megyn is going to put Catt front and center on NBC! Yikes, the insider told the Post. An executive from E brought something alarming to my attention namely, that there was a massive disparity in pay between my similarly situated male co-host and myself. More recently, when E reached out to renew and extend my deal, I learned that he wasnt just making a little more than I was," Sadler explained in her blog. "In fact, he was making close to double my salary for the past several years. Sadler has also urged women to know the importance of their worth in the industry. Ironically, Kelly reportedly makes about $13 million more than "Today" co-anchor Hoda Kotb, who reportedly makes roughly $7 million per year while Kelly hauls in over $20 million. Kotb was recently named as the full-time replacement for disgraced Matt Lauer, although she took the gig at a hugely discounted rate. Kellys reported $20-plus million a year salary is believed to be more than Kotb and co-host Savannah Guthrie make combined, despite the fact that the 7-9 a.m. ET hours of Today, which Kotb and Guthrie host, make a lot more money for NBC than Kellys struggling 9 a.m. ET hour. Kellys hour of Today has performed poorly in the ratings compared to the vastly less expensive Today hour it replaced, and has been plagued by a series of gaffes and cringe-inducing segments. Kelly was even recently criticized for mentioning the benefits of fat-shaming. While Kotb appears happy to have the spotlight that comes with co-hosting the flagship program for now, its safe to ponder if she will eventually get jealous of Kelly, who hosts the fledgling 9 a.m. hour wedged in between Kotbs two gigs. Hoda isnt complaining about the money. She has landed the big job she always dreamed of, and most definitely deserves, an insider recently told the New York Post. But the figures underline the huge wage disparity at NBC News. The Sadler incident isnt the first time Kellys been accused of shooting inside the tent at her new employer. Following Lauers firing, she hosted the lawyer for one of his accusers on her Today hour and the lawyer harshly criticized NBCs treatment of his client. NBCs Kelly woes are just one reason its beleaguered news division has had a rough few months. NBC News has been widely criticized for its decision to spike Ronan Farrows reporting on Hollywood heavy hitter Harvey Weinstein that has racked up Pulitzer Prize buzz since being published in The New Yorker. Embattled NBC News President Noah Oppenheim and his boss, NBC News Chairman Andy Lack, have been under pressure for their lack of transparency on the issue and Farrow has since bolted for HBO. Observers have recently mused whether NBC executives reluctance to expose big stars bad behavior was linked to what Vanity Fair called a glass houses problem. Lack and Oppenheim have still not explained why they sat on another one of the biggest stories of the decade just over a year ago: 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 prestigious Harvard University, where they worked as editors together on the student newspaper. In addition to refusing to air two of the biggest stories in recent memory, NBC News has had a variety of other high-profile issues lately. Among them, longtime Today star Lauer was fired for sexual misconduct; MSNBC admitted that star Chris Matthews had settled with a former producer who accused him of sexual harassment, and the network fired Morning Joe regular Mark Halperin for sexual misconduct and suspended contributors Glenn Thrush and Harold Ford Jr., who had also been accused of inappropriate behavior with women. NBC News did not respond to a request for comment. Fox News Morgan M. Evans contributed to this report. Regina Simons, an extra in Steven Seagals 1994 film On Deadly Ground, has accused the famous actor of rape. She is a new addition to the women who have recently accused Seagal of sexual assault and misconduct. In an interview with The Wrap, Simons told the publication that she was raped by the star at a wrap party for the movie, which she said took place at his Beverly Hills home in 1993. Simons said when she arrived at Seagals home, she found that she was the only person in attendance. Simons was 18 at the time. He took me into this room and then just closed the door and started kissing me, she told The Wrap. He then took my clothes off and before I knew it he was on top of me, raping me I wasnt sexually active yet. People always talk about fight-or-flight. But no one talks about the freeze. Other women have accused Seagal of sexual misconduct, but Simons is the first to accuse the actor of rape. The now-mother of two stated she was completely caught off guard when the actor, whom she called three times her size, allegedly forced himself on her. I was crying when he was on top of me, she said. Even now, my 43-year-old mind knows how to process this and understand what a loving relationship is and what consensual sex is. And there was none of that. Simons, who told The Wrap that at the age of 18 she wasnt allowed to date, said that the alleged incident heavily affected her acting. She moved home to Utah where she was originally from, and later returned to Los Angeles, where she now works as a case advocate for Native-American families. In November, Dutch model Faviola Dadis, shared a post on Instagram claiming that Seagal sexually assaulted her during an audition in 2002. Steven asked if I would take off my clothes and walk for him in my bikini, she said. After doing so (he was on the couch and I was at a far enough distance to do a catwalk for him), he approached me and said he wanted to act out a romantic scene. I was hesitant and expressed this, then he started fondling my breasts and grabbing my crotch, an excerpt of the post said. I quickly yelled This audition is over! and tried to run out of the room but was blocked by his security. I started making a noticeable amount of noise, and his security realized I would alert someone, and let me leave. Dadis was inspired to come forward with her story after actress Portia de Rossi detailed an alleged uncomfortable encounter with Seagal during an office audition during which she says the actor unzipped his leather pants in front of her while they were in his office. Both Dadis and Simons told The Wrap that they filed reports about Seagal with the LAPD in December. The LAPD detective who worked with both Dadis and Simons declined to comment on the case, citing confidentiality. Meanwhile, another spokesperson for the LAPD said the department is investigating a separate case involving Seagal from 2005. In addition to Rossi, Dadis and Simmons, Seagal has previously been accused of harassment and misconduct by other actresses including Julianna Margulies, Jenny McCarthy, Katherine Heigel and "Inside Edition"correspondent Lisa Guerrero. McCarthys told the Daily Beast in October that Seagal demanded she strip during an audition for the film Under Siege 2 in 1998. A spokesperson for Seagal shut down McCarthys claims and said that the actress never audition for the role. According to The Wrap, Seagal is currently traveling around Asia and Russia. Fox News has confirmed that Washington Post reporter Janell Ross was placed on leave after speaking at a top-secret meeting of liberal leaders last November, where Democratic donors including billionaire George Soros outlined the future of their progressive agenda. Ross verified Twitter account has been silent since Dec. 1 and the paper hasnt published a story from her since Nov. 29, a week after she was outed as a participant at the Democratic Alliance. Citing two people familiar with the matter, CNN first reported that she was placed on leave and that her return to the Post is viewed as unlikely. Back in November, a Post spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon that Ross took part in the California event without notifying her superiors that she would be attending. The Democracy Alliance, which hosted the event, bills itself as the largest network of donors dedicated to building the progressive movement in the United States on the groups official website. The liberal group also claims to play a leading role in fostering the infrastructure necessary to advance a progressive agenda in the United States. The group intended to keep the identities of its members and guests confidential, according to the Beacon, but the paper obtained a detailed conference agenda that lists both events and featured guests. One of the surprising guests was Ross, who used to pass as a somewhat impartial reporter for the prestigious Post. While the papers slogan is, Democracy Dies in Darkness, she apparently wanted to keep her bosses in the dark about attending the liberal planning session and hanging out with prominent Democratic donors such as Soros. According to the agenda published by the Beacon, Ross panel aimed to help the liberal attendees get the economic narrative right" and was immediately followed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) speaking about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Members of the secretive liberal group who attended the shady presentation each promised to donate at least $20,000 to advance its left-wing agenda. The session was part of a three-day conference at the luxurious La Costa Resort located in Carlsbad, Calif., last November, where the group plotted their 2018 "resistance" and game plan, according to the Beacon. A quick glance at Ross archive page on the papers website reveals her agenda. One headline lumps President Trump into the same category as O.J. Simpson, while others touch on issues of race and gender discrimination. She covered the 2016 presidential election closely, but the majority of her stories appear to be anti-Trump in retrospect. It is not clear when she was placed on leave or if a decision has been made about whether or not she will return to the paper. A Washington Post spokesperson declined comment. There's a more humane way to cook lobster and in Switzerland, it's now the law. The Switzerland's government has barred the culinary practice of throwing lobsters into boiling hot water while they are alive, The Guardian reported. The government said the crustaceans must be stunned before being boiled. The practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water, which is common in restaurants, is no longer permitted, the government order stated. Lobsters will now have to be stunned before they are put to death. TOURISTS RELIEVED AS ACCESS TO SNOWBOUND SWISS TOWN RETURNS The government explained the crustaceans can be stunned by electrically shocking the sea creature, or by the mechanical destruction of the crustaceans brain. Animal rights activists and scientists have claimed lobsters could feel significant pain when they are thrown alive into boiling water. TRUMP TO TAKE POPULIST AMERICA FIRST MESSAGE TO GLOBALIST DAVOS SUMMIT The government also ordered the live crustaceans to be transported in their natural habitat and not on ice or icy water. The Swiss have also cracked down on illegal puppy farms and devices that discipline dogs when they bark, Reuters reported. The order will go into effect on March 1. The latest social media fad could be fatal, doctors warn. The Tide Pod Challenge has taken social media by storm but the craze could be extremely harmful to humans. Teenagers have been posting videos of themselves chewing and gagging on the small, colorful detergent pods and daring others to follow suit. Some social media users have posted videos of themselves cooking the pods before eating them, WSB-TV reported. However, the pods, which contain ethanol, polymers and hydrogen peroxide are extremely toxic and can make people very sick if consumed, CBS News reported. CALIFORNIA GIRL, 12, DIES FROM INFECTION MISDIAGNOSED AS FLU, FAMILY SAYS Marc Pagan, 19, told CBS News he consumed a pod on a dare but knew the detergent was not meant to be eaten. "A lot of people were just saying how stupid I was or how why would I be willing to do that," he said. "No one should be putting anything like that in their mouths, you know?" The challenge appeared to begin as a joke in an article in The Onion, a satirical news organization. In 2017, College Humor posted a satirical video of a man eating the pods because they looked inviting and delicious, USA Today reported. PICTURE OF ALS-STRICKEN GRANDFATHER SAYING GOODBYE TO DYING GRANDDAUGHTER, 5, GOES VIRAL Dr. Alfred Aleguas Jr. of the Florida Poison Information Center, said any amount of detergent from the pods that is swallowed can lead to diarrhea and vomiting. In extreme cases, the pods can be life-threatening. A Tide spokesperson told CBS News the pods were not meant to be played with. "They should not be played with... Even if meant as a joke. Safety is no laughing matter, Tide said in a statement. The company advised that if the detergent is swallowed, the person should drink water or milk and then contact poison control. The pods have been blamed for at least 10 deaths, according to CBS, two from toddlers and eight from senior citizens with dementia. Gal Gadot caused a social media uproar when she attended the National Board of Review awards Tuesday night in a dress by the designer Elie Saab. The Wonder Woman star was photographed at the New York event wearing a blue cut-out Elie Saab dress to the annual gala, from the designers Read-to-Wear Spring Summer 2018 collection. But the revealing thigh-high slit and abdomen cutout weren't what drew ire from the designer's fans on Instagram it was the actress wearing it. Gadot is Israeli and an ex-Israel Defense Forces combat trainer. Saab is a Lebanese fashion designer. The two countries have been at war since the Israeli-Lebanon conflict in 1948. Tensions have continued to be strained. Lebanon has boycotted Israel as part of the Arab League Boycott of Israel since 1955, and has refused trade with the Middle East nation. In 2017, Lebanon actually banned the film Wonder Woman because of Gadots role. BLANCA BLANCO RESPONDS TO CRITICISM AFTER IGNORING ALL-BLACK DRESS CODE AT AWARDS Within this cultural context, Saabs favorable Instagram post of Gadot in his design was seen as a reprehensible by his fans. A flawless @gal_gadot in ELIE SAAB Ready-to-Wear Spring Summer 2018 at the national board of review annual gala in New York, Saab captioned the since-deleted photo. Several Lebanese people took to social media to ask Saab why he would be proud to dress an Israeli, and expressed their dismay. Heba Bitar, a correspondent for Lebanese-based television channel Al Mayadeen, wrote on Twitter, I love and respect Elie Saab, but is he really happy an Israeli actress wore a dress he designed?" Another wrote: I dont have a problem with her wearing @ElieSaabWorld but I do have a problem with posting her picture from Elie Saabs account and bragging about an ex Israeli soldier wearing his dress! Dont ruin one the few things that make us proud Lebanese people! Elie Saab makes us proud. The designer responded by deleting the post on Instagram, which also drew its share of criticism. Some praised the designer for his response: Good that he removed it because its shameful to advertise it. I hope he didnt ask her to wear it but her stylist did, one commented. At least, at ElieSaabs, they show respect to their followers. Unlike another lebanese international designer who blocked his followers when they criticized a post praising bar rafaelli for wearing his designs! Elie Saab dresses #Zionist IDF soldier Gal Gadot, then posts about it, then deletes the post because people started to spit on him. @ElieSaabWorld Shameful, one wrote in a since-deleted Tweet posted by BBC. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS While others felt the issue shouldnt be discussed in the first place. Elie Saab did far more for his country than you could ever dream of. Show some respect, one person responded to correspondent Bitars original post. am glad your name got mentioned in BBC.. Sad it is linked to such a closed-minded comment not fit for 2018, another wrote in response to Bitar. In 2014, Gadot faced backlash for her support of the Israeli armed forces during the Gaza War which she posted on Instagram and Facebook. Over 2,100 Palestinians and 67 Israeli soldiers and six Israeli civilians were killed during the seven-week Gaza conflict. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which defers deportation for about 700,000 illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, has been the topic of intense negotiations between President Trump and members of Congress this week. But this discussion is premature. Action to improve border security must come first. The president wants to begin phasing out the existing DACA program in March though a federal judge this week temporarily blocked ending the program while a lawsuit is pending. The Trump administration is challenging that order. But the possible end to the program in coming weeks has driven Democrats to seek legislation to change the law to allow DACA recipients to stay in America. Our country is filled with generous people. Each year we let over 1 million people legally immigrate to our country. More come legally for school and work. But at the same time, hundreds of thousands enter our country illegally by crossing our southern border. It has been a longtime problem that, once again, became a huge campaign issue in 2016 elections. Republicans, led by President Trump, recommitted to building a wall along our southern border to stem the tide of illegal border crossings with its attendant problems. Democrats promised to grant legal status to DACA recipients and urged even broader changes to immigration laws leading to amnesty for the estimated 11 million illegal aliens in our country today. We need to enforce our internal immigration laws and remove the incentives to enter and stay in America illegally. Only after all these things have been done should we start to debate further immigration reforms. The American people elected Donald Trump as president and Republican majorities in the House and Senate. In keeping with the electoral outcome and the long-term health of America, we should not put the DACA cart before the build-a-wall horse. Before Congress passes any legislation on DACA or a broader amnesty bill for those who are in the United States illegally, we must fund, start, and complete building of the border wall. Congress must also add additional infrastructure on the border to make sure it is as secure as possible. We also need to enforce our internal immigration laws and remove the incentives to enter and stay in America illegally. Only after all these things have been done should we start to debate further immigration reforms. In 1986, amnesty was granted to 3 million illegal aliens. We were promised secure borders, strong enforcement, and a host of other immigration reforms in exchange for what was billed as a one-time amnesty program. The amnesty was quickly given but we have been waiting for more than 30 years for the other promises to be delivered. If there is one thing I have learned in my brief time in D.C., it is to make sure the other party upholds its promises before giving up the leverage I hold. Somehow, the other side is never capable of fulfilling its end of the bargain. Today DACA delays the appropriate legal action against people who are in America illegally. DACA has a plethora of problems, and most recipients arent the valedictorians that the media would like the public to believe. Pro-DACA sources admit that more than 20 percent of self-described DACA recipients have already dropped out of school. Insiders warn that there is a severe lack of vetting within the program. Further, a person receiving DACA benefits can be a criminal, committing up to two crimes without being disqualified, and can be up to age 36 when applying! DACA distracts the public and fails to meet the objectives the American people expressed support for in the voting booth. Voters indicated the desire for a border wall or fence and other border security measures. Thats a big reason many Americans made Donald Trump president. Moreover, permanent DACA status does not satisfy the DACA recipients I have talked to. Why? Because it is, ostensibly, only a benefit for these illegal aliens and is not citizenship. Instead, DACA recipients want a pathway to citizenship full amnesty and all the benefits that come along with it for themselves, their parents (who brought them here illegally in the first place), and the entire group of people in the chain migration scheme a long list of extended family members, their spouses and children. As a result, the movement to provide a fix for DACA recipients has morphed into the passage of the clean DREAM Act a plan to allow millions of illegal aliens to remain in the United States. DACA recipients have been dubbed Dreamers. Even if Congress extends or makes permanent the DACA program, Democrats and Dreamers wont rest until they achieve full amnesty with passage of the DREAM Act. They want illegal aliens to move ahead of the millions of people have been waiting to enter the country legally or who have been here legally for many years on temporary visas. I cant help but think of the many friends I have who have become naturalized American citizens. Most have taken 10 to 12 years. They did it the right way. Is it humane to reward people who broke the law over those who have waited years and followed all the rules? Extending DACA or passing a larger amnesty bill before we build the promised border wall, before we take other actions to improve border security, before we beef up internal enforcement of our immigration laws, and before we remove the incentives to come and stay in America illegally would be a colossal mistake. President Trump has said it would only take a year to complete the wall, though others estimate it would take longer. Lets take that year or more of construction and complete the wall before we discuss DACA and immigration reforms. I will do all I can to keep the commitments to uphold the law that I made to my constituents on the immigration issue. Someone needs to tell Congress that when it comes to marijuana, the genie is out of the bottle. Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sparked bipartisan protests among members of Congress with his decision to reverse the Justice Department policy begun under the Obama administration that took a hands-off approach to state legalization or partial legalization of marijuana. Sessions instead gave U.S. attorneys discretion to enforce the laws enacted by Congress to the extent they see fit against the possession and sale of marijuana in states that have legalized medical or recreational use of the drug. The action by the attorney general poses a threat to the freedoms of all those involved in the pot industry in the 29 states and District Columbia that have legalized it for medicinal use and the seven states plus the District of Columbia that have legalized recreational pot. Vermont will soon join that group, after its Legislature gave final approval this week to a bill legalizing recreational pot and Republican Gov. Phil Scott said Thursday he will sign the bill into law. One of the most important steps we can take in furthering research into medical marijuana and its components like CBD is to decriminalize it on a national level, removing it from the list of narcotics, where it currently sits with the likes of heroin and cocaine. The war on drugs is one the federal government has been losing for decades. In my opinion, Sessions is taking us backwards, putting drugs right back into the hands of criminals by allowing federal prosecutors to more aggressively enforce federal laws outlawing marijuana. Instead, we could be regulating an industry that was worth $17.9 billion in the U.S. in 2017 alone. Addressing the opioid crisis our country is currently facing would be a better use of federal funds and manpower. But thats a whole other can of worms. The truth is, there is great potential in the treatment of a myriad of diseases with compounds found in medical marijuana. From epilepsy and brain disorders to cancer pain and PTSD, the research limited as it may be is promising. One of those compounds in particular is cannabidiol, or CBD. Strict guidelines and enforcement of laws limiting the availability of marijuana in the United States has meant global research is outpacing our national efforts to study this healing compound. As recently as November, the World Health Organization published a study on the safety and efficacy of CBD, concluding that in experimental models of abuse liability, CBD appears to have little effect on conditioned place preference or intracranial self-stimulation. . . . In humans, CBD exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential. One of the most important steps we can take in furthering research into medical marijuana and its components like CBD is to decriminalize it on a national level, removing it from the list of narcotics, where it currently sits with the likes of heroin and cocaine. The federal government needs to endorse the medical marijuana industry to further important research and make it available to patients who are not responding to synthetic medications or other treatments. This seems like a no-brainer, since the federal government actually owns U.S. Patent No. 6,630,507 granted in 2003 to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the potential use of non-psychoactive cannabinoids to protect the brain from damage or degeneration caused by certain diseases. As for recreational adult use of marijuana, why not begin regulating and taxing a rapidly growing industry that could fund important government projects, while helping to make its use safer by keeping it off the streets, where its often laced with potentially harmful drugs and chemicals? It will be interesting to see how this plays out with both Democrats and Republicans vowing to file lawsuits and defy the administration to protect the rights of their constituents in states like Colorado and California, where both medicinal and recreational use are legal. Currently, these states are protected under the RohrabacherBlumenauer amendment that prohibits the Justice Department from spending funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws. But with that prohibition set to expire Jan. 19, it may all go up in smoke. Theres no such thing as a coincidence in Washington, so why the sudden, furious effort by Democrats and the media to give cover to the Steele dossier? As in, the sudden, furious effort that happens to coincide with congressional investigators finally being given access to FBI records about the Trump-Russia probe. This scandals pivotal day was Jan. 3. Thats the deadline House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes gave the Federal Bureau of Investigation to turn over documents it had been holding for months. Speaker Paul Ryan backed Mr. Nuness threat to cite officials for contempt of Congress. Everyone who played a part in encouraging the FBIs colonoscopy of the Trump campaigncongressional Democrats, FBI and Justice Department senior career staff, the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama political mobs, dossier commissioner Fusion GPS, the press corpsknew about the deadline and clearly had been tipped to the likelihood that the FBI would have to comply. Thus the dossier rehabilitation campaign. Weeks before, the same crew had taken a desperate shot at running away from the dossier, with a New York Times special that attempted to play down its significance in the FBI probe. You can see why. In the year since BuzzFeed published the salacious dossier, weve discovered it was a work product of the Clinton campaign, commissioned by an oppo-research firm (Fusion), compiled by a British ex-spook on the basis of anonymous sources, and rolled out to the media in the runup to the election. Oh, and it appears to continue to be almost entirely false. When the best youve got is that a campaign orbiter made a public trip to Russia, you havent got much. But with Congress about to obtain documents that show the dossier did matter, it was time for a new line. And so the day before the Nunes deadline, Fusion co-founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch broke their public silence to explain in a New York Times op-ed that what really matters was their noble intentionto highlight Donald Trumps misdeeds. The duo took credit for alerting the national security community to a Russian attack. Keep reading Kimberley Strassel's column in the Wall Street Journal. Editor's note: The following column first appeared in the Washington Post. 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 that 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 of 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 that 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. Assuming Kim is rational then, it is possible that the United States could conduct a limited surgical strike and North Koreas response would be minimal. 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. Time magazine's new cover, showing Donald Trump's yellowish hair on fire in a cartoonish blaze, symbolizes how the media view the president as a hot mess. But some of the president's fiercest critics on the right are starting to recognize how their sides animosity is burning out of control. The relentless negativity of the #NeverTrumpers actually helps him by making his detractors seem obsessed and unwilling to credit him for just about anything. They give the president a big target, one that is widely distrusted by his base. And they can seem incredibly condescending toward the man in the White House. This is not just an extension of liberal bias. Many in the #NeverTrump movement are on the right, having tried to block him from winning the Republican nomination and now convinced that he is damaging their movement. David Brooks, the moderately conservative New York Times columnist, has been extremely harsh toward the president, likening him to a small child and generally rendering him as unfit for office. But in a bit of a reassessment, Brooks now says the critics have gone too far. People who meet with the president, he says, are often surprised to find "that Trump is not the raving madman they expected from his tweetstorms or the media coverage. They generally say that he is affable, if repetitive. He runs a normal, good meeting and seems well-informed enough to get by ... "The White House is getting more professional. Imagine if Trump didn't tweet. The craziness of the past weeks would be out of the way, and we'd see a White House that is briskly pursuing its goals: the shift in our Pakistan policy, the shift in our offshore drilling policy, the fruition of our ISIS policy, the nomination for judgeships and the formation of policies on infrastructure, DACA, North Korea and trade." In other words, for all the sound and fury, the president is doing a reasonably good job. But the anti-Trump movementof which Brooks is a "proud member""seems to be getting dumber. It seems to be settling into a smug, fairy tale version of reality that filters out discordant information" and views Trump as "a semiliterate madman surrounded by sycophants who are morally, intellectually and psychologically inferior to people like us." In perhaps the unkindest cut, Brooks says "the anti-Trump movement suffers from insularity. Most of the people who detest Trump don't know anybody who works with him or supports him." That last point buttresses something I've been saying for a long time, that some of the opposition to the 45th president is not just ideological, not just stylistic, but cultural in nature. And those who suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, just like those who suffered from Obama Derangement Syndrome, may be deluded into thinking the whole world agrees with them. Another #NeverTrumper, Bret Stephens, who joined the Times from the Wall Street Journal, hasn't softened his view of the president. But he does allow that "if the anti-Trump movement has a crippling defect, its smugness ... We're the moral scolds who struggle to acknowledge the skeletons in our own closet, the smart people whose forecasts keep proving wrong. We said Trump couldn't win. That the stock market would never recover from his election. That he would blow up NATO. That the Middle East would erupt in violence when Jerusalem was recognized as Israel's capital. "The catastrophes haven't happened, and maybe that's just a matter of luck. But by constantly predicting doom and painting the White House in the darkest colors, anti-Trumpers have only helped the president. We have set an almost impossibly high bar for Trumpian failure." It may well be that the Trump-bashing crowd lowers expectations to the point where the president can look good simply by presiding over, say, a substantive negotiating session on immigration. But if some of the movement's own commentators are seeing its members as smug and insular, it suggests that the fire over the Trump presidency may be consuming them instead. Its not every day that Greek mythology can explain legislative conundrums in Washington, D.C. Lawmakers are trying to forge a DACA compromise, alter the nations immigration system, build a border wall, author an agreement on defense spending and avert a government shutdown all by next Friday. This requires some serious parliamentary navigation. Go too far on DACA and that upsets one set of lawmakers. Too far on immigration and that inflames another group. Not enough for defense, and other lawmakers go ballistic. Then the government shuts down. Its like Scylla and Charybdis, quipped Rep. Francis Rooney R-Fla., after a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Wednesday. To the uninitiated, Scylla and Charybdis (pronounced SILL-uh and kuh-RIBB-duss) were mythological sea monsters in the Strait of Messina off the Italian coast. Adroit sea captains had to sail between Scylla and Charybdis to traverse the strait. Travel too close to Scylla to avoid Charybdis and you may crash into jagged rocks. Veer toward Charybdis to dodge Scylla and a cyclonic whirlpool may devour your vessel. For the record, when Odysseus set sail, he steered toward Scylla. Odysseus thought it was better to lose a few sailors on the craggy shoals compared to sinking the entire ship in the whirlpool. Lawmakers now stare at a similar quandary. If conservatives get too close to DACA or if liberal Democrats float too close to defense spending danger awaits. And out there, somewhere, lurks the most malevolent creature of them all: the government shutdown. That could be the consequence next week if Congress swerves too close to either hazard. President Trump invited a host of bipartisan, bicameral lawmakers to the White House Tuesday for an extraordinary session addressing DACA, immigration policy and border security. It was as though everything changed. And yet, nothing really did. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the tone of the White House huddle. Yet shortly after the conclave, the New York Democrat reminded reporters that the devils in the details. House Republicans, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., rolled out a GOP immigration reform/border security measure hours later. I think it is a good bill, said Paul Ryan. I think we will be able to put together a DACA compromise that has a majority support from our party. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promptly trashed the plan. Do you think it is a vehicle if [Ryan] gets half of his caucus? Do you think Democrats are going to vote for that bill? That is completely out of the question, declared Pelosi. The federal government is funded through Jan. 19. Schumer insists lawmakers work out a DACA solution and attach it to a spending bill by next Friday to fund government operations. It must go in a must-pass bill and the only must-pass bill that we see coming down the road between now and March 5 is this [stopgap measure]. So we continue to believe, insist, that it must be in this bill, said Schumer. Its a tall order to sort out border security and immigration policy by next week. Democrats may not help Republicans fund the government if theres no DACA plan. Republicans could need Democratic votes to avert a shutdown. Congress has punted on a comprehensive spending plan three times since September. Rank-and-file Republicans are beside themselves when it comes to doing yet another short-term spending bill. Many Republicans could abandon the leadership and vote no. We spend money like its West Virginia ditch water, groused Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., about the lack of a budget accord. Its unclear if West Virginia lawmakers appreciate Kennedys assessment of the Mountain States commodities. Kennedy muses that some lawmakers could be purveyors of perfection demanding a bill which checks all boxes simultaneously. But even the Louisiana Republican has his own demands. Ill vote to shut government down if they want to throw in a bunch of nonsense in the bill, said Kennedy. Kennedy believes attaching a DACA agreement constitutes nonsense. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., said in December he wouldnt help the Republican leadership approve any more emergency spending bills without a permanent DACA fix. A lot of members in leadership just want to postpone the inevitable, said Curbelo. Then theres the military spending issue. Defense hawks implore congressional leaders to bolster defense spending. Defense advocates are pushing to lift dollar caps which limit the Pentagon budget. I dont think we can pass a [short-term] bill without a deal on the [defense] caps, predicted House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas. Democrats demand parity. If Republicans remove the curbs on defense, then Democrats argue Congress should eliminate spending strictures on non-defense programs, too. This is complex. Still, everything boils down to DACA. Three factors are at work. What can Trump accept? How far can congressional Republicans bend on DACA? How far can Democrats bend on immigration and a border wall? Pelosi suggests Democrats wont budge from their demands just to fund the government next week. We have to have a deal in hand, said Pelosi. And Republicans are just as locked in as Pelosi. DACA amnesty will cost American taxpayers far more than it will cost to build a wall, augured Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, one of the most ardent foes of a compromise for DREAMers. One can see where just enough votes would slip away to fund the government if there isnt an agreement on DACA to enlist Democratic votes and there isnt an agreement to enlist defense hawks and there isnt an agreement to enlist border security proponents like King. Someone will have to sail closer to either Scylla or Charybdis. Either choice is a bad one. And either theyll lose a few sailors if they drift closer to Scylla or endanger the entire mission by steering toward Charybdis. Capitol Attitude is a weekly column written by members of the Fox News Capitol Hill team. Their articles take you inside the halls of Congress, and cover the spectrum of policy issues being introduced, debated and voted on there. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to close the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The California Democrat's request coincided with a lawsuit filed by 11 Guantanamo prisoners, who want the Trump administration to release them. Feinstein, who serves on the Senate's Judiciary and Intelligence committees, has been fighting against the detention facility since its creation 16 years ago, under President George W. Bush, and has called on both the Bush and Obama administrations to relocate all the detainees and close the prison. This prison has cost taxpayers more than $5 billion, and the propaganda value for terrorists has been even greater, Feinstein said in a statement on the 16th anniversary of the opening of the facility. Its time to close this prison once and for all, so today I call on President Trump to restart the review process for those prisoners who havent been cleared for transfer or charged with a crime, she added, noting that the prison has been a stain on our national conscience. Trump has refrained from releasing or transferring anyone from the prison during his first year in office. Lawyers representing the prisoners said the no-release policy constitutes perpetual detention that violates the U.S. Constitution and acts of Congress that gave the detained men held certain rights. To support their case, lawyers are citing Trumps Twitter account, where he apparently ruled out any possible releases from the prison. There should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield, the president tweeted in January 2017. The lawsuit notes that unlike Trump, the Obama and Bush administrations together released nearly 750 men after careful case-by-case considerations. Continuing, still indefinite detention after all this time is unprecedented and experimental, said Pardiss Kebriaei, an attorney from the Center for Constitutional Rights who is representing prisoner Sharqawi Al Hajj of Yemen. The White House has not yet published any documents outlining the policies regarding the Guantanamo prison, but it so far refused to release any of the five detainees who were determined to be eligible to depart by multiple government agencies. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Calling it "decaying and rotten," President Trump announced he is withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal and will be imposing more sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation. Trump signed a presidential memorandum on May 8 withdrawing the U.S. from the controversial agreement signed by his predecessor in 2015. He said he will be re-instituting the highest level of sanctions and warned other countries against helping the Iranian government. Trump said the U.S. would "not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail" and will not allow "a regime that chants 'death to America'" to get nuclear weapons. The nuclear deal with Iran has long been a point of contention, especially among Republicans who opposed it. The administration extended waivers on Irans nuclear sanctions earlier this year, keeping alive the landmark deal for an additional few months. Read on for a look at the agreement and why its so controversial. What is the Iran nuclear deal? The Iran nuclear deal framework officially the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" was a historic agreement reached by Iran and several world powers, including the U.S., in 2015, under Barack Obamas presidency. In part, the deal was made to reduce Irans ability to produce two components used in making nuclear weapons: plutonium and uranium. In return, crippling economic sanctions on Iran were to be abated. "Every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off," Obama said at the time. "This deal is not built on trust. It is built on verification." WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL AFTER TRUMP DITCHES ACCORD A point of contention for many opponents is the deal's so-called sunset clause which would ease some of the restrictions on Irans nuclear program over time. The deal was reached after two years of negotiations. Certification that Iran is complying with the deal must be sent to Congress every 90 days. The first under the Trump administration noted that Tehran was in compliance. In October 2017, Trump decertified the nuclear deal under U.S. law, saying the sanctions relief was disproportionate to Iran's nuclear concessions. He contended the arrangement was contrary to America's national security interests. What has Trump said about it? During the presidential campaign, Trump accused Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then his opponent, for making Iran a world power under the nuclear deal, which he called the highest level of incompetence. If you take a look at Iran from four, five years ago, they were dying, Trump said during an event in September 2016. They had sanctions, they were being choked to death and they were dying. They werent even going to be much of a threat. On Twitter, Trump has referred to the agreement as a direct national security threat, a catastrophe that must be stopped, the dumbest & most dangerous misjudgments ever entered into in history of our country and the best deal of any kind in history for Iran. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned the U.S. would pay a high cost if it backs out of the agreement. What happens next? Trump is expected to reimpose all sanctions on Iran that were lifted as part of the 2015 deal, according to the Treasury Department. These sanctions include precious metals, banknotes, shipping, the automotive sector and petroleum. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the agreement could survive without the participation of the U.S., but has warned that his country would restart enriching uranium "in the next weeks." If that happens, and the deal collapses completely, businesses and banks doing business with Iran would have to scramble to extricate themselves or run afoul of the U.S. Oil markets are also on the alert following Trump's decision. However, analysts told CNBC the impact of the reimposed sanctions might not have the same impact it once did. And while some countries may limit their oil purchases from Iran out of respect to the U.S., there are other countries that might refuse to do so, according to CNBC. Fox News' John Roberts, Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report. House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes told Republican colleagues in two closed-door meetings this week he has seen evidence that shows clear "abuse" of government surveillance programs by FBI and Justice Department officials, according to three sources familiar with the conversations, raising more questions about whether the controversial anti-Trump dossier was used by the Obama administration to authorize surveillance of advisers to President Trump. The California Republican made his comments in private meetings with GOP colleagues as he tried to round up votes in favor of renewing a key section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as Section 702, which eventually passed in the House on Thursday. That part of the law specifically gives the U.S. government the power to get access to communications, such as emails or phone calls, of foreigners outside the United States who may be plotting a terrorist attack but does not allow the government to target Americans. HOUSE VOTES TO RENEW FISA PROGRAM, FOLLOWING MIXED MESSAGES FROM TRUMP Before the vote, Nunes told GOP lawmakers they could trust him that he has not seen abuse of that section of the law dealing with foreigners, but that other sections of the law have in fact been misused by government officials to conduct surveillance of Americans. Nunes vowed that he plans to address his concerns by trying to share the evidence with the entire House later this month, after the debate over Section 702 is complete, according to the three sources familiar with the conversations. Nunes said he would "read all 435 members of Congress into major abuses with other areas of FISA and will read members in ASAP" on those problems, according to one of the three sources familiar with the conversations. While Nunes was not specific about the abuses, his comments came after a Washington Examiner report that during the week of January 1, representatives from four key congressional panels -- including the House Intelligence Committee -- examined FISA documents from the Obama administration in a secure room at the Justice Department. That session at the Justice Department, confirmed by Fox News, came after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray agreed to make the documents available to lawmakers under pressure from Nunes. Nunes had fired off a late December letter to Rosenstein blasting the DOJ and FBI for its "failure to fully produce" documents related to the anti-Trump dossier, saying at this point it seems the DOJ and FBI need to be investigating themselves. Byron York of the Washington Examiner reported this week that representatives from these committees had the opportunity to view documents that cut to "the question of whether the FBI used unverified material from the dossier -- a Clinton campaign opposition research product -- to apply for permission to spy on Americans." Nunes privately told GOP lawmakers that he will be pushing as early next week to secure access for all 435 members of Congress to see the same documents to decide for themselves what happened, as some of his Republican colleagues have already said they believe the dossier was a significant factor in surveillance of Trump officials. "But I think that there is a broader question here," conservative North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows told Fox News this week. "Why would the FBI use a Democrat paid-for dossier to actually surveil another campaign? But the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, California Rep. Adam Schiff, charged in December that Nunes is doing the bidding of the White House by pursuing questions about the dossier as a distraction from the panel's probe into questions of Russian collusion in the 2016 campaign. "It's more of the same problem we saw early in the investigation, when the chairman had difficulty removing himself from his role during the campaign of being a proxy for the White House," Schiff told MSNBC. Feminist activists say they are tossing out their famous pink pussy hats in an effort to be more inclusive and not to offend transgender women or women of color. Phoebe Hopps, founder and president of Women's March Michigan, said the movement is dropping the symbolic pink knitted hats with cat ears because they are discriminatory to women who do not have typically female genitalia or their genitals are simply of a different color. I personally wont wear one because if it hurts even a few peoples feelings, then I dont feel like its unifying, Hopps told the Detroit Free Press. I care more about mobilizing people to the polls than wearing one hat one day of the year. "I personally wont wear one because if it hurts even a few peoples feelings, then I dont feel like its unifying." Phoebe Hopps, a Women's March organizer She added: It doesnt sit well with a group of people that feel that the pink pussy hats are either vulgar, or they are upset that they might not include trans women or nonbinary women or maybe women whose (genitals) are not pink. The hats initially drew attention during the 2016 presidential campaign following the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which then-candidate Donald Trump expressed lewd remarks about women. The headwear soon gained a symbolic association with anti-Trump protests in the run-up to the Womens March across the U.S., which was held Jan. 21 last year, the day after Trump was inaugurated. The event attracted droves of activists who objected to Trumps presidency. Hopps is organizing anniversary marches, to be held this coming Jan. 21. Multiple national and state organizations within the broader anti-Trump movement have attempted to move away from the pussy hats for several months now and no longer use the hats when promoting the events, she said. LaShawn Erby, co-chair of a local Black Lives Matter chapter in Lansing, Mich., said she will use the anniversary to speak out about the discriminatory hat during her remarks. I will say this one thing: It is a problem, Erby told the newspaper. It was the summer of 2016, and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson was speaking with Christopher Steele, the former British spy he enlisted to cobble together dirt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trumps ties to Russia. He said we should tell the FBI, it's a national security issue, Simpson recalled to congressional investigators in August, according to a transcript of a closed-door interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee released this week. The release of the Simpson transcript by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, has thrust the anti-Trump dossier back into the spotlight. It has also filled in holes about how the dossier ended up in the hands of the FBI. Simpson told investigators he first spoke with Steele about conducting opposition research into Trump in May or June of 2016. That was around the time Trump secured enough delegates to clinch the GOP nomination. INSIDE THE TRUMP DOSSIER HANDOFF: MCCAIN'S 'GO-BETWEEN' SPEAKS OUT That dossier, which includes unverified allegations and disputed information about President Trump's connections with Russia, was being funded by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, Simpson told the committee. Simpson has acknowledged Fusion GPS initial research into Trumps Russia ties was initially commissioned by the conservative Free Beacon during the Republican primary, though the website has said it had no knowledge of Steele or the dossier. According to the transcripts of his interview, Simpson recalled discussing with Steele, during the summer of 2016, their decision to turn the dossier details over to the FBI. He thought from his perspective there was an issue - a security issue about whether a presidential candidate was being blackmailed, Simpson said. Simpson recalled telling Steele he had to think about whether they should contact the FBI, saying he wasnt sure who to give it to. In any event, he said, Don't worry about that, I know the perfect person, I have a contact there, they'll listen to me, they know who I am, I'll take care of it, Simpson recalled. In their New York Times op-ed earlier this month, Simpson and fellow Fusion GPS co-founder Peter Fritsch acknowledged also working with Steele to share the dossier with Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain after the election. McCain has said he also turned the information over to the FBI. KIMBERLEY STRASSEL: WHATS REALLY BEHIND THE FURIOUS EFFORTS BY DEMOCRATS TO SPIN THE TRUMP DOSSIER We helped him do that, Simpson and Fritsch wrote. The goal was to alert the United States national security community to an attack on our country by a hostile foreign power. Ultimately, the liberal website BuzzFeed published the dossier online last January, airing its unverified allegations about the president. Several months later, in May 2017, former FBI Director Robert Mueller was tapped to lead a special counsel investigation into Russias attempted meddling in the election. Republicans have questioned whether the Steele dossier was the impetus for the FBIs investigation into the Trump campaign, indicating a politically motivated witch hunt. Trump this week called the probe a phony cloud over this administration, denying any collusion between his campaign and Russia. But amid congressional inquiries, Simpson and Fritsch have been attempting to downplay the significance of the dossiers role in sparking the investigation. We dont believe the Steele dossier was the trigger for the FBIs investigation into Russian meddling, Simpson and Fritsch wrote. As we told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp. President Trump hit back Friday at the growing outrage over reports that he questioned why the U.S. was taking immigrants from s---hole countries, claiming the remarks attributed to him are wrong while taking aim at a so-called immigration deal touted by a group of senators. In a flurry of tweets, Trump both defended his immigration stance while claiming the reports about his meeting were inaccurate. 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! Trump tweeted early Friday. The language the president referred to came during talks Thursday with lawmakers at the White House. Despite Trump's denial, multiple sources have confirmed what was said, and the White House did not deny it overnight. Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here? the president said, according to sources. He made the comments while discussing immigration from Haiti, as well as some Central American and African countries. He reportedly added that the U.S. should admit more people from countries like Norway. One senator at the meeting, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters Friday that Trump repeatedly used vulgar language to describe countries in Africa. Trump, though, denied having said anything "derogatory" about Haitians. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said 'take them out.' Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" Trump tweeted. TRUMP SHOULD EXPLAIN HIS REMARKS, HAITI AND SOME AFRICAN NATIONS SAY The accounts of the meeting drew condemnation from global leaders as well as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Utah Republican Rep. Mia Love, a Haitian-American, said the president's comments were "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values." Amid the backlash, the president on Friday also slammed the supposed DACA deal, which a group senators were hammering out with the goal of extending protection for young illegal immigrants brought to the country as children. Trump on Friday detailed what he thinks is missing from the plan. The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressman was a big step backwards. Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly, Trump tweeted Friday. The reference to high-crime countries seemed to be an explanation of the concerns Trump expressed about certain nations at Thursday's meeting. The "deal" in question was floated by a group of six senatorsRepublican Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Democratic Sens. Durbin, Michael Bennett, D-Colo., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J. They did not detail what was included in their deal. 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, the senators wrote in a joint statement. We are now working to build support for that deal in Congress. DEAL OR NO DEAL? SEVERAL SENATORS CLAIM TENTATIVE AGREEMENT ON IMMIGRATION Democrats are working to preserve the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was ended by Trump in September. Trump has said he will only agree to a deal with Congress on immigration if it includes funding for his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs. I want to fund our military, not do a Dem defund, Trump tweeted minutes later Friday. He added: Because of the Democrats not being interested in life and safety, DACA has now taken a big step backwards. The Dems will threaten shutdown, but what they are really doing is shutting down our military, at a time when we need it most. Get smart, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Congress has until Jan. 19 to pass a temporary spending bill to prevent a government shutdown. The president tweeted again, moments later, blasting Democrats for their approach. "Sadly, Democrats want to stop paying our troops and government workers in order to give a sweetheart deal, not a fair deal, for DACA. Take care of our Military, and our Country, FIRST!" Fox News' Alex Pappas, John Roberts and Serafin Gomez contributed to this report. The personal blog of Peter Lee a.k.a. "China Hand"... Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel, and an open book to those who read. You are welcome to contact China Matters at the address chinamatters --a-- prlee.org or follow me on twitter @chinahand. President Trump has cancelled plans to visit the United Kingdom next month, according to reports out of London on Thursday. Trump will instead send Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in his place to christen Americas new embassy in the British capital, The Daily Mail first reported. He later blamed a move by former president Obama for the decision to cancel. Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Trump tweeted. Despite the Feb. 26-27 cancellation, Trump is still expected to visit England later this year, with a Downing Street rep saying: An invitation for a state visit has been extended and accepted. Mass protests would have likely greeted Trump, with Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn telling followers they should send the US president a clear message by demonstrating again him. Even Prime Minister Theresa May has clashed with Trump after he re-tweeted anti-Muslim propaganda from a far right British party. Click for more from the New York Post. The leader of the Congressional Black Caucus said Thursday that President Donald Trumps comments on immigrants from Haiti and Africa are proof that his Make America Great Again slogan is code for Make America White Again. U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., responded to Trump lamenting about "s---hole" countries during immigration negotiations with lawmakers in the Oval Office, Fox News confirmed. The Washington Post first reported the comments. President Trumps comments are 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. Richmond also accused Trump of being more concerned with stemming the flow of African immigrants than helping Dreamers. Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that we can negotiate in good faith with a person who holds such vile and reprehensible beliefs, Richmond said. The congressman's comments echoed remarks made by others in Congress. As an American, I am ashamed of the president, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said. 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. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said, Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House. Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, whose parents were Haitian immigrants, urged Trump to apologize, saying his comments were unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values. About a dozen people, both Republicans and Democrats, were in the room at the time Trump made the comments, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. 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 reported. 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, principal deputy White House press secretary. Fox News Chad Pergram contributed to this report. Throughout the first year of his presidency and even as he campaigned for the office President Trumps rhetoric regarding North Korea has been harsh. He warned earlier this year that Americas nuclear capabilities were much bigger [and] more powerful than that of the Asian nation. And at the end of 2017, Trump designated North Korea a state sponsor of terror again a classification that came with additional sanctions. On the heels of a planned, historic summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trumps tone softened, saying great progress has been made. But Trump ultimately cancelled that meeting, citing "open hostility" from North Korea. From agreeing to meet with Kim to dubbing him Little Rocket Man, heres a look at what Trump has said about North Korea and its leader over time. Back together again After meeting with a North Korean official in the White House for more than an hour, Trump announced the June summit with North Korea is back on. We'll be meeting on June 12 in Singapore," the president told reporters after the meeting. Let's call the whole thing off Trump announced on May 24 that he has decided to pull out of the June summit with North Korea. "We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant," Trump said in a letter to Kim. "I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting." "You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used," Trump said. "I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you," he added. "In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated." Deal or no deal? After speaking with the South Korean president amid threats from the rogue regime to cancel talks, Trump suggested the historic summit between him and Kim might not happen after all. If it doesnt happen, maybe it will happen later. You never know about deals. Ive made a lot of deals, Trump said on May 22. You never really know. It may not work out for June 12. Trump said he wants the Korean peninsula to be denuclearized in an all in one manner. I can guarantee Kims safety. He will be safe. He will be happy, Trump said. His country will be rich. Trump also said hes noticed a change in Kims attitude recently. I cant say that Im happy about it, he added. Save the date Trump officially announced that he would meet with Kim in Singapore on June 12. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! Trump said in a tweet. The announcement came hours after Trump and the first lady welcomed the three Americans freed from detention in North Korea at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland early on May 10. After Trump met with the three men, he publicly thanked Kim for releasing the prisoners. Were starting off on a new footing, Trump said. Positive gesture of goodwill In announcing that a date and place has been set for his much-anticipated meeting with Kim, Trump also confirmed three American prisoners have been released. The three Americans Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song are returning to the U.S. with newly-confirmed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump said in a tweet. The president confirmed the three men are also in good health. WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE HISTORIC SUMMIT BETWEEN TRUMP, KIM JONG UN White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Trump appreciates Kim Jong Uns action to release these American citizens, and views this as a positive gesture of goodwill. Another American detainee, Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017 after he was released back to the U.S. with severe brain damage. Good relationship formed Trump has confirmed that CIA Director Mike Pompeo his pick to lead the State Department secretly met with Kim in April and a good relationship was formed. He said the meeting went very smoothly. The president also disclosed that the U.S. and North Korea have held direct talks at extremely high levels in preparation for the summit. Kim will do what is right After Kims first reported visit to China, Trump said there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility, Trump said in a March tweet, adding that he is looking forward to his upcoming meeting with the North Korean leader. He also gave North Korea the benefit of the doubt earlier that month, saying he believes the country will abide by its pledge to suspend missile tests. When Trump delivered a speech in Pennsylvania, the crowd booed the mention of Kim, but the president stopped them. No, it's very positive ... no, after the meeting you may do that, but now we have to be very nice because let's see what happens, let's see what happens, Trump said. Invitation accepted Trump accepted an invitation from Kim to meet, the White House said. While a time and place has yet to be determined, the two leaders are expected to meet by June. The invitation to convene was extended by Kim. Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze. Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached, Trump said on social media. Meeting being planned! The deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the World. Time and place to be determined, he later said. Possible progress As North Korea is reportedly willing to negotiate its nuclear weapons, Trump cautiously acknowledged possible progress. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned, Trump said on Twitter. The World is watching and waiting! May be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction! At a later White House news conference, Trump said he believed North Korea, which has a long history of deception and threats to target U.S. cities with nuclear missiles, is sincere. We have come certainly a long way, at least rhetorically, with North Korea, Trump said. Of the possibility for peacefully resolving the nations deep differences, he said: Itd be a great thing for the world, would be great for North Korea, it would be a great thing for the peninsula. But well see what happens, Trump said. Spirit of the Olympics At the conclusion of the 2018 Winter Olympics, North Korea sent the U.S. a message through South Korea, saying it has ample intentions of holding talks with America. During a meeting with the nations governors at the White House in February, Trump said those talks will only occur under the right conditions. The administrations position has been that North Korea must get rid of its nuclear and missile programs first before any talks can take place. Relationship status: Its complicated In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump reportedly said he probably has a very good relationship with North Korea. Trump also suggested that he is open to diplomacy with the country hes spent years criticizing, the newspaper reported. I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised, Trump said. The Wall Street Journal released the audio and transcript of the interview after Trump denied making the comments. 'Success for the world' Trump told South Korea that he would be open to talks with its northern neighbor under the right circumstances, the White House said. Trump also took credit for the talks between North and South Korea ahead of next months Winter Olympics. At a January Cabinet meeting, Trump said it was his administrations pressure on North Korea that caused the rogue nation to negotiate with the South. "Without our attitude that would have never happened," 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." Whose button is bigger? After Kim warned Trump about North Koreas nuclear capabilities, Trump hit back on social media, arguing that his Nuclear Button is bigger [and] more powerful. North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,' the president tweeted. 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! Kim previously warned the U.S. should know that the button for nuclear war is on my table. The entire area of the U.S. mainland is within our nuclear strike range, he said. The United States can never start a war against me and our country. Good news or bad news? Trump insinuated at the start of the new year that sanctions and additional pressures are having a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea, Trump said. Kim now wants to talk to South Korea for the first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not we will see! In his tweet, Trump was seemingly referring to the recent, dramatic escape of at least two North Korean soldiers across the heavily militarized border into the southern country He also alluded to Kims recent comments indicating he would send a delegation to the Winter Olympics to be hosted in South Korea. Trump also took credit for the talks between North and South Korean leaders. 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, Trump said in a Jan. 4 tweet. Fools, but talks are a good thing! 'Sick puppy' While giving a speech on tax reform at a Missouri event in November, 2017, Trump digressed from the topic to call the North Korean leader a "sick puppy." His comments drew hoots from the crowd. State sponsor of terror Trump re-designated North Korea a state sponsor of terror on Nov. 20, 2017, citing its support of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil. During a Cabinet meeting, Trump announced the designation came along with new sanctions on the murderous regime as part of the administrations maximum pressure campaign in dealing with North Korea. He said these sanctions will be the highest level of sanctions on the North. North Korea was on the list but was taken off by the Bush administration in 2008. Why can't we be friends? In a series of tweets while in Vietnam, Trump said he doesn't know why the North Korean dictator would "insult" him. Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me old, when I would NEVER call him short and fat? Trump said. Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen! The comment came after Kim referred to Trump's speech in South Korea as reckless remarks by an old lunatic. 'Dont try us' In Asia, Trump issued a stern warning to North Korea, saying it would be a fatal miscalculation for the country to attack the U.S. or an ally. This is a very different administration than the United States has had in the past. Do not underestimate us. And do not try us, Trump said during an address at South Koreas National Assembly. North Korea has interpreted Americas past restraint as weakness, Trump said. 'Lets make a deal' While on his Asia trip, Trump implored North Korea to come to the table for talks on its nuclear weapons program. Trumps request for North Korea to make a deal was in stark contrast to his previous hardline rhetoric when it comes to the rogue nation. "It makes sense for North Korea to come to the table and make a deal that is good for the people of North Korea and for the world," Trump said during a news conference alongside South Korean president Moon Jae-in in November 2017. Trump also said hes seen a lot of progress in dealing with North Korea but still called the country a worldwide threat. In a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo the day before, Trump repeated his assertion that the era of strategic patience with North Korea was finished. Some people say my rhetoric is very strong but look what has happened with very weak rhetoric in the last 25 years, Trump said then. 'Rocket Man' is on a 'suicide mission' After dubbing him Rocket Man in a tweet, Trump eventually tried out the new nickname for Kim during his inaugural address to the U.N. General Assembly. During his speech, Trump vowed to totally destroy North Korea if the country so provokes him. He also said Kim was on a suicide mission. No more talking After North Korea said it successfully launched a missile over Japan, a U.S. ally, and into the Pacific Ocean, Trump initially had a subdued response. "Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world," Trump said in a written statement after North Koreas missile soared almost 1,700 miles into the Pacific Ocean, triggering alert warnings in northern Japan and shudders throughout Northeast Asia. "All options are on the table." The missile launch was said to be a precursor to North Koreas containment of the U.S. territory of Guam by Kim, according to state-run media. But in a tweet, the president suggested the U.S. is finished talking to North Korea. The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer, Trump tweeted. The U.S. is 'locked and loaded' Trump took to social media in August 2017 to proclaim that the U.S. military is locked and loaded in case North Korea act[s] unwisely. 'Fire [and] fury' isn't 'tough enough' With the threat of nuclear violence growing, Trump warned North Korea on Aug. 8, 2017 that he would unleash fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before. But when tensions continued to rise and North Korea threatened to attack Guam, Trump said maybe that comment wasnt "tough enough." "Lets see what [Kim] does with Guam. He does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before what will happen in North Korea," Trump said. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump was "sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un can understand, because he doesnt seem to understand diplomatic language." Kim Jong Un is 'not getting away with it' Trump said Kim has disrespected our country greatly. He has said things that are horrific. And with me, hes not getting away with it, Trump said. He got away with it for a long time, between him and his family. Hes not getting away with it. Its a whole new ball game. 'Strategic patience is over' After meeting with the South Korean president in Washington, D.C., in June 2017, Trump said that the era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed. Frankly, that patience is over, he said. As Trump made these comments, the U.S. was rocked with the death of Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old American college student who suffered extensive brain damage while being held captive in North Korea for more than a year. There are 'worse things' than assassinating Kim Jong Un In an interview with CBS News during the presidential campaign, Trump said he could get China to make [Kim Jong Un] disappear in one form or another very quickly. When asked if he was talking about assassinating the North Korean dictator, Trump shrugged. Well, you know, Ive heard of worse things, frankly. I mean, this guys a bad dude and dont underestimate him, Trump said. Any young guy that can take over from his father with all those generals and everybody else that probably wants the position, this is not somebody to be underestimated. 'What the hell is wrong with speaking?' Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Atlanta that should Kim want to come to the U.S., he would be accept[ed]. I wouldnt go there, that I can tell you. If he came here, Id accept him, but I wouldnt give him a state dinner like we do for China and all these other people that rip us off when we give them these big state dinners, Trump said in June 2016. What the hell is wrong with speaking? Trump said, referencing the criticism he received for being willing to talk with North Korea. Its called opening a dialogue. 'Maniac' During a GOP presidential debate in September 2015, Trump railed on the maniac in North Korea while answering a question about Planned Parenthood and womens health issues. Nobody ever mentions North Korea, where you have this maniac sitting there, and he actually has nuclear weapons and somebody better start thinking about North Korea and perhaps a couple of other places. But certainly North Korea, Trump said. You have somebody right now in North Korea who has got nuclear weapons and who is saying almost every other week, Im ready to use them, and we dont even mention it, he continued. China needs to solve the problem Even before he was president, Trump urged China to step in and help alleviate problems with North Korea. North Korea is reliant on China. China could solve this problem easily if they wanted to but they have no respect for our leaders, Trump tweeted in March 2013. In April 2013, Trump continued that line of thinking, adding that North Korea cant survive, or even eat, without the help of China. He then accused China of taunting the U.S. As president, Trump has said he is very disappointed in actions China has taken regarding North Korea, particularly allowing oil to go into the nation. He also said a Chinese envoy to North Korea had no impact on Kim. Additionally, Trump has said hes spoken to Chinas President Xi Jinping regarding the provocative actions of North Korea as well as the planned meeting between Trump and Kim. President Xi told me he appreciates that the U.S. is working to solve the problem diplomatically rather than going with the ominous alternative, Trump said in March 2018. China continues to be helpful! 'Wack job' In April 2013, Trump urged then-President Barack Obama to be very careful with the 28-year-old wack job in North Korea. At some point we may have to get very tough, he tweeted. 'Negotiate like crazy' Trump warned that the U.S. needed to do something to stop North Korea in 1999 during an interview with the late Tim Russert on Meet the Press. "Do you want to do it in five years when they have warheads all over the place, every one of them pointing to New York City, to Washington and every one of us, is that when you want to do it, or do you want to do something now? Trump said. You'd better do it now. And if they think you're serious they'll negotiate and it'll never come to that. He said then that if he ever became president, the first step he would take would be to negotiate like crazy to make sure that the country would get the best deal possible. Trump also predicted then that in three or four years, North Korea would have weapons aimed all over the world, including at the U.S. Fox News' Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report. President Donald Trump's "s---hole countries" remark Thursday drew sharp reactions from the U.N. human rights office -- as well as the nations to which the president referred in his comment. It also prompted the U.S. government's Africa Media Hub to issue a statement reiterating the U.S. commitment to working with its African allies. "US deeply respects the people of #Africa & values its partnerships with them," the tweet read in part. The U.N. office said Friday that Trump's reported use of an expletive to describe Africa and other countries could "potentially damage and disrupt the lives of many people." U.N. spokesman Rupert Colville said that "you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as `s---holes'." He said Trump's reported comment could endanger lives by potentially fanning xenophobia: "It legitimizes the targeting of people based on who they are." Colville says Trump's reported comments "go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War II and the Holocaust." Meanwhile, the U.S. government's Africa Media Hub was trying to put out the flames sparked by Trump's comments. Without directly referring to Trump's statement, a tweet said that "US remains committed to working together w/Africans to realize the promise of a more peaceful, more productive, more prosperous 21st century Africa. US deeply respects the people of #Africa & values its partnerships with them." Haiti requests meeting Haiti's ambassador to the U.S. has formally requested that a Trump administration official explain the comments, according to reports. Ambassador Paul Altidor told journalist Yamiche Alcindor on Thursday that he and the government of the Caribbean nation vehemently condemn what the president said and do not understand why he made the comments. Haiti's ambassador also brought attention to the nation's enduring relationship with the U.S., noting that the country's soldiers had fought alongside America as far back as the Revolutionary War. African nations react In Africa, some governments found themselves in an awkward position. As top recipients of U.S. aid, some hesitated to jeopardize it by criticizing Trump. In South Sudan, government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said that "unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say." But African media outlets and the continent's young, connected population were less shy. "Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate," South African media outlet Daily Maverick wrote. South Africa's ruling party is calling Trump's comment on African immigrants "extremely offensive." Deputy Secretary General Jesse Duarte of the African National Congress told reporters that developing countries have difficulties but noted that the U.S. itself has millions of people out of work or without health care. The African Union said it was "frankly alarmed" by Trump's statement. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice," AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo told the Associated Press. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity." White House comments The comments were directed at people from Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras and African countries during bipartisan talks on immigration that were held inside the White House. The president added that the U.S. should admit more people from countries like Norway, the Washington Post reported. The White House responded with a statement, but did not deny Trump had made the comments. Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people, White House spokesman Raj Shah said. The Associated Press contributed to this story A personal lawyer for President Trump and a former porn star both denied a late Friday report claiming the adult-film actress was paid in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen arranged the payment of $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, in October 2016. This reportedly was after she and her lawyer negotiated a nondisclosure agreement to prevent her from publicly discussing the supposed sexual encounter with the billionaire businessman. But Cohen vehemently denied the claim. These rumors have circulated time and again since 2011," Cohen said in a statement to Fox News. "President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms.Daniels. In a letter, obtained and reviewed by Fox News, Clifford also denied all allegations. "I recently became aware that certain news outlets are alleging that I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago. I am stating with complete clarity that this is absolutely false, Clifford said in a letter signed by "Stormy Daniels." My involvement with Donald Trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more. Clifford wrote in the letter that when she met Trump, he was gracious, professional and a complete gentleman to me and EVERYONE in my presence. Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false, the letter read. If indeed I did have a relationship with Donald Trump, trust me, you wouldnt be reading about it in the news, you would be reading about it in my book. But the fact of the matter is, these stories are not true. The Journal previously reported that Clifford had been weighing an appearance on ABCs Good Morning America last fall to discuss Trump. On Friday, the Journal reported that the payment was made through Clifford's lawyer. This would have come as Trump was facing mounting allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate remarks, including the release of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape. Trump has long rejected the accusations from over a dozen women who have made such claims against him. The White House, at the time, called those revived accusations false. This week, Cohen filed a "defamation action" against BuzzFeed News and its editor-in-chief over allegations about him that were published in the anti-Trump dossier compiled by a former British spy. Cohen also filed a federal defamation lawsuit against Fusion GPS, the research firm that hired former MI6 agent Christopher Steele to compile the dossier. Fox News' John Roberts contributed to this report. President Donald Trump said in an interview Thursday that the FBI agent who was removed from the Russian-interference probe and once referred to the president as a loathsome human being committed an act of treason. Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the text message from Agent Peter Strzok, where he mentioned an "insurance policy" if Trump was elected, was tantamount to treason. Strzok was removed from Special Counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe in July. The agent had been deeply involved in the Clinton email inquiry and was in the room when she was interviewed by the FBI. He later helped investigate whether the Trump campaign worked with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Strzok wrote a text message on Aug. 15, 2016, to Lisa Page, with whom he was romantically involved, saying, I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andys office -- that theres no way he gets elected -- but Im afraid we cant take that risk. Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40." "Andy" is believed to be a reference to FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. A man is tweeting to his lover that if [Democrat Hillary Clinton ] loses, well essentially do the insurance policy. Well go to phase two and well get this guy out of office, Trump told the Journal. This is the FBI were talking about that is treason. That is a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act. Aitan Goelman, Strzoks attorney, told the paper that it was beyond reckless for the president to accuse a man who devoted his entire adult life to defending this country, of treason. It should surprise no one that the president has both the facts and law wrong, Goelman said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. President Trump announced Friday that he will extend waivers for Iran nuclear sanctions, keeping alive the landmark Obama-era deal for at least another few months but said this is the "last chance" to fix the pact before the U.S. withdraws. In a stern statement, Trump said he's waiving the sanctions to secure European allies' agreement to address the "terrible flaws" in the 2015 deal negotiated by his predecessor. Despite my strong inclination, I have not yet withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal. Instead, I have outlined two possible paths forward: either fix the deals disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw, Trump said. "This is a last chance," Trump warned. "In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately." He added, "No one should doubt my word." White House officials said Friday that the waivers would be the "last" signed by the president. In addition to the waivers, the Treasury Department rolled out more targeted sanctions on Iran for human rights abuses. The Trump administrations proposal to revise the 2015 deal is likely to be met with resistance from European nations. Foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Brussels this week and decided they want to protect the deal against any decisions that could undermine it. Trump's demands include: immediate inspections at sites by international inspectors, ensuring Iran never even comes close to possessing a nuclear weapon and denying Iran paths to nuclear weapons forever (not 10 years like under current law). White House officials said Friday that if the president can deny Iran a path to nuclear weapons forever, Trump would be open to remaining in such a modified deal. This would not entail direct negotiations with the Iranians, but would be something the U.S. works out with European partners only, a White House official said Friday. Trump called on European countries to join the U.S. in fixing the deal's "significant flaws," but warned that if other nations fail to act, he would "terminate" the deal. "Those who, for whatever reason, choose not to work with us will be siding with the Iranian regime's nuclear ambitions, and against the people of Iran and the peaceful nations of the world," Trump said. Trump's decision has been expected since earlier this week. The sanctions that Trump has to waive deal with Iran's central bank and were suspended under the nuclear deal. Meanwhile, the administration is trying to secure a fix from Congress on the requirement for Trump to address Iran's compliance every three months. In October, Trump decertified the nuclear deal under U.S. law, saying the sanctions relief was disproportionate to Iran's nuclear concessions, and describing the arrangement as contrary to America's national security interests. The president noted he was open to working with Congress on bipartisan legislation regarding Iran, but that any bill he signs must have four critical components. Trying to strike a balance, the Treasury Departments separate sanctions were designated for 14 individuals and entities in connection with human rights abuses and censorship in Iran, and support to designated Iranian weapons proliferators. The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice. We are targeting the Iranian regime, including the head of Irans judiciary, for its appalling mistreatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest against their government, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement Friday. Mnuchin said the Treasury will also target Iran's ballistic missile program and destabilizing activities, which he says Iran "continues to prioritize over the economic well-being of the Iranian people." Protests have rocked the Islamic Republic in recent weeks, in a replay of the 2009 Green Movement, a social media-driven uprising that was quelled by the theocratic rulership. Irans government has blasted the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom for supposedly instigating further protests, calling them enemies of Iran. Iran's Zarif slammed the Trump administration on Twitter. "Trump's policy & todays announcement amount to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement, maliciously violating its paras 26, 28 & 29. JCPOA is not renegotiable: rather than repeating tired rhetoric, US must bring itself into full compliance -just like Iran," Zarif said. Fox News' Kristin Brown and The Associated Press contributed to this report. President Trumps early-Friday denial that he used vulgar language in reference to immigration from certain countries only fueled the Capitol Hill furor over the remarks, with one leading Democrat standing by press accounts and accusing the president of using hate-filled language. Two Republicans, meanwhile, said they could "not recall" the president using the language -- following reports that he questioned why the U.S. was taking immigrants from s---hole countries. In a flurry of tweets Friday morning, Trump had both defended his immigration stance while claiming the reports about his meeting with senators were inaccurate. 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! Trump tweeted early Friday. But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was in the room, later told reporters the accounts of Trumps comments were accurate. He said these hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly, Durbin said, calling the words vile and racist. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., whom Durbin said voiced objections to Trumps comments during the meeting, did not dispute the reported remarks in a statement Friday. Following comments by the President, I said my piece directly to him yesterday. The President and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel. Ive always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals, he said, adding that he appreciated Durbins statements and has enjoyed working with him and many others on this important issue. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a prominent GOP critic of the president, also tweeted that, The words used by the President, as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance, were not tough, they were abhorrent and repulsive. Even Trumps 2016 rival Hillary Clinton weighed in, tweeting that the eight-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake should be a time to remember the tragedy, but, Instead, were subjected to Trumps ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesnt look like him. Yet Sens. David Perdue, R-Ga., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., seemed to back the president in a written statement saying: "President Trump brought everyone to the table this week and listened to both sides. But regrettably, it seems that not everyone is committed to negotiating in good faith. In regards to Senator Durbins accusation, we do not recall the President saying these comments specifically but what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest." The language the president referred to came during talks Thursday with lawmakers at the White House. Despite Trump's denial, multiple sources have confirmed what was said, and the White House did not deny it overnight. Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here? the president said, according to sources. Trump reportedly was talking about countries in Africa, while also questioning why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti. Durbin added, "When the question was asked about Haitians ... he said, `Haitians? Do we need more Haitians?"' Trump took particular issue with the characterization of his comments on Haiti. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said 'take them out.' Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" Trump tweeted. TRUMP SHOULD EXPLAIN HIS REMARKS, HAITI AND SOME AFRICAN NATIONS SAY The accounts of the meeting drew condemnation from global leaders as well as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Utah Republican Rep. Mia Love, a Haitian-American, said the president's comments were "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values." Amid the backlash, the president on Friday also slammed the supposed DACA deal, which a group senators were hammering out with the goal of extending protection for young illegal immigrants brought to the country as children. Trump on Friday detailed what he thinks is missing from the plan. The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressman was a big step backwards. Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly, Trump tweeted Friday. The reference to high-crime countries seemed to be an explanation of the concerns Trump expressed about certain nations at Thursday's meeting. The "deal" in question was floated by a group of six senatorsRepublican Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Democratic Sens. Durbin, Michael Bennett, D-Colo., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J. They did not detail what was included in their deal. 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, the senators wrote in a joint statement. We are now working to build support for that deal in Congress. DEAL OR NO DEAL? SEVERAL SENATORS CLAIM TENTATIVE AGREEMENT ON IMMIGRATION Democrats are working to preserve the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was ended by Trump in September. Trump has said he will only agree to a deal with Congress on immigration if it includes funding for his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs. I want to fund our military, not do a Dem defund, Trump tweeted minutes later Friday. Fox News' Alex Pappas, John Roberts and Serafin Gomez and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Firefighters and marine salvation workers struggled on Friday to extinguish flames on a stricken oil tanker off the coast of Shanghai. This handout picture taken and released on January 12, 2018 by the Transport Ministry of China shows the Chinese firefighting vessel "Donghaijiu 117" spraying foam on the burning oil tanker SANCHI at sea off the coast of eastern China. [Photo: VCG] Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration said there is still a large fire on the Panama-registered oil tanker SANCHI. It is likely to explode and sink, the administration said at a press conference on Friday. SANCHI, carrying 136,000 tonnes of light crude oil from Iran, has been burning since it collided with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, about 160 nautical miles east of the Yangtze River estuary in Shanghai on Jan. 6. Thirty-two crew members of the tanker, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, are missing. Xie Qunwei, deputy director of the bureau, said Chinese rescuers have braved grave danger to approach the tanker. A severe fire broke out on the 274-meter tanker on Jan. 10 and Jan. 11, he said. "The oil tanker has been burning and it is already tilted to the right. By Friday noon, it had drifted over 141 nautical miles to the southeast and it is drifting south," said Xie. More than 15 vessels are engaged in rescue work. One of the vessels has been reloaded with 100 tonnes of extinguishing materials and will arrive at the area on Saturday morning. "It is highly likely that the tanker will explode and sink. There is intense toxic air from burning, and bad weather conditions have complicated rescue," he said. China's Maritime Safety Administration has launched an investigation into the incident. The Hong Kong bulk freighter was berthed Wednesday at a pier in Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province, authorities said. 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 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] 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 . 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. 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 Pangaeabefore it began breaking apart roughly 200 million years ago. Originally published on Live Science. This is a rush transcript from "Your World," January 11, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. TRISH REGAN, GUEST HOST: Wal-Mart announcing cash bonuses and wage hikes today, just another example of American workers benefiting from corporate tax cuts almost instantly. But has this changed the Democrats' view of tax cuts? We're asking Democratic Congressman from California Brad Sherman. Good to see you, sir. REP. BRAD SHERMAN, D-CALIFORNIA: Trish, thanks for having me on to talk about this deficit-exploding, job-outsourcing, economic disaster for our country. (LAUGHTER) SHERMAN: You're being fair and balanced. When Tucker had me on to talk about nonsense, he promised that he would have me on once the tax bill was published. But he's been a coward every single time. REGAN: Well, oh, dear. SHERMAN: Because he knows he cannot defend this tax bill. REGAN: Yes, that's not fair. Hey, that's -- come on now. That's not fair. SHERMAN: Well, what is not fair? REGAN: And you know what? You're here on this show right now with me. SHERMAN: Right. REGAN: And we're going to talk about all this, because you think it's going to be painful for the deficit, et cetera. It's funny how these talking points have kind of reversed, right, because I seem to recall that was a conservative talking point. But have at it, sir. What is your biggest concern right now, especially when you look at Dow 25000, GDP growth better than 3 percent, unemployment at record lows and wages now increasing, thanks to hundreds of companies giving out wage increases? SHERMAN: There are some small wage increases. In some extent, these wage increases are just to match minimum wage statutes that have been passed in Democratic states. Wal-Mart says they're raising to $11 an hour. We require that in California. And then they can say, well, it's because we love the Republicans. No, it's because California requires it. (CROSSTALK) REGAN: You know that Wal-Mart has actually given out bonuses to the tune of a grand, right, something that Nancy Pelosi calls just crumbs. But $1,000 is a lot of money, sir. SHERMAN: Well, if you look at the economy as a whole, with hundreds -- with well over 100 million employees, the fact that a few companies are giving a few bonuses doesn't disguise the fact that, when we have Democratic tax policies in force, we have much higher economic growth rates than when we have Republican economic policies and tax policies in force. REGAN: Really, because over the last, what, eight years under President Obama, that didn't turn out so well. You had average growth of 1.5 percent. It should have been a whole lot better. But we had no economic policy out of the Obama administration. (CROSSTALK) SHERMAN: Trish, you have got to look at what tax law is in force, not who's sitting in the White House. It took several years for Obama to change his tax policies. We have had Democratic tax policies with almost 2.33 economic growth. Compare that to the low economic growth we had under George Bush's tax policies. Look at Reagans' and looks at Clinton's economic -- when their tax law was enforced and signed into law. (CROSSTALK) REGAN: You know that, Congressman. Clinton benefited from the tech boom. There was the actual structural shift in our economy at that point in time. And you know what? He wasn't able to sustain it. SHERMAN: We had structural shifts in our economy at all times. And Clinton promoted that tech boom. (CROSSTALK) REGAN: Congressman, I guess I'm just troubled by... (CROSSTALK) REGAN: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know what? Go read an economics 101 textbook. You can actually chart this stuff out. When you put more money in the hands of people and more money in the hands of corporations, the people and the corporations that are actually earning it in the first place, that equals growth. SHERMAN: The last 30 years of history proves you wrong. REGAN: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. SHERMAN: When we have had Republican tax policies in force, we had lower economic growth. REGAN: Look at what happened with President Reagan. SHERMAN: And I'll tell you why. Because you run that huge deficit. You think you're putting more money in the hands of people. But then the federal government goes into the capital pool and takes the money out. We're going to be borrowing $1.7 trillion. That's taking money out of the economy, out of where it is available for factory expansion. (CROSSTALK) REGAN: Congressman, where are you going to get the growth? Where are you going to get the economic growth, sir? SHERMAN: We had higher economic growth in 2016, in terms of jobs, than 2017. But after we passed ObamaCare, after we passed Dodd-Frank, we suddenly had two million or more, almost three million in one, new jobs every year. Now, that's peeled off a little bit with Trump. And it will peel off more. (CROSSTALK) REGAN: You're kind of all over the place. You talk about ObamaCare, this from someone who's fiscally conservative, as you just suggested. You're so concerned about the deficit, yet you want more entitlement programs. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense. SHERMAN: I'm not here talking -- did I say I was for more entitlement programs? I'm here to preserve Medicare and Social Security. REGAN: You want more ObamaCare. You are telling me that ObamaCare was good for the economy. (CROSSTALK) SHERMAN: No, ObamaCare correlated with a great increase in the number of jobs created each year. We were told it was a job-killer. But we had far more jobs created each year after it was adopted than before. REGAN: Well, I think those numbers, sir, can be disputed. (CROSSTALK) SHERMAN: You can dispute them by -- you can have alternative facts if you want. But if you look at the official statistics of this country, you will-- and... REGAN: I guess I just want to go back to what is happening right now, what is happening right now in our economy. Do you not like what you see? Congressman... SHERMAN: What? You're going to -- let's go through the list. REGAN: I want to ask about here and now, OK, here and now. Do you not like what you see? SHERMAN: Here and now, we created only two million jobs last year. We created 2.25 million jobs the year before. After we adopted ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank, we created over two million jobs, the year before, only one million jobs. Those are the real facts, not the alternatives facts. (CROSSTALK) REGAN: The news today, the news that Wal-Mart is giving out bonuses. SHERMAN: The news today is that Wal-Mart is closing 63 Sam's Clubs, and they didn't put that in their press release. REGAN: Uh-huh. Well... SHERMAN: You don't want to talk about the 63 Sam's Clubs and the thousands of people losing their jobs. REGAN: Wait. Wait. Wait. Businesses close all the time, because you're not going to keep a store open in a community where it is not prosperous to keep it open. SHERMAN: And bonuses are given all the time. That's why we have a Christmas and a New Year's. That's the point. Bonuses are given all the time, close -- open all the time, close all the time. You can't attribute that to a tax bill. (CROSSTALK) REGAN: It's almost as though I fear some members of your party do not want to see this economy succeed, because, if this economy succeeds, people will credit Donald Trump with that. And you don't want that happening. SHERMAN: We want it to succeed. That's why we're there fighting to preserve Social Security and Medicare. That's why we're there trying to make sure that we don't deport millions and millions of people. REGAN: Nobody is taking way Social Security. SHERMAN: That's why we're there not wanting the federal government to close down and the economic problems that would have. We're working to improve the economy every day. And if America succeeds, everybody succeeds. But you look at this tax bill, here's what it does for factories. You can have a zero percent tax on the profits of your factory only if you move it overseas. That's the offshoring provision of this bill. Not only does it provide 85 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent. It provides a 100 percent tax break for those who move their factories overseas. Those are the facts. You can make up alternative facts if you want. REGAN: There's $2.7 trillion sitting overseas, possibly more. There's now an opportunity to bring all that money back onshore so that it's working for us. SHERMAN: Right. And we could have done that with Democratic policies as well. REGAN: We need policies, sir, that make us competitive, competitive, because it is a competitive world out there. And America should lead the way on this. You know that. You know that. SHERMAN: We are competitive because we have the best workers and the best entrepreneurs. We do -- now we are competing for who can give the most money to the top 1 percent. REGAN: But you want to stifle that -- entrepreneurs, then. You want to stifle that work ethic by taxing people more and more and more to cover your concerns about, your sudden concerns and recent concerns about debt. SHERMAN: This bill raises taxes... REGAN: Unfortunately, I am out of time. I got a hard commercial break coming up. SHERMAN: I have been fighting for a balanced budget for a lot of years. I was part of the first balanced budget we adopted in the '90s. REGAN: Representative, it's good to see you. I appreciate hearing your side. Thank you very much. OK, we're going to taking a quick break. SHERMAN: I wonder if Tucker has the courage to do the same. END Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. Guests at certain Walt Disney World resorts reportedly now have the option to buy additional FastPasses, allowing them to skip ride lines for an added cost. But not everyone is a fan of the new program. A spokesperson for Disney confirmed the new pilot program to Spectrum News 13 on Tuesday and said it is slated to be introduced this weekend. #FITSPIRATION PHOTOS ARE ACTUALLY DEPRESSING, SAYS STUDY Currently, FastPasses are free with the price of admission and allow guests to reserve a specific time slot for certain rides and skip the long standby lines. However, this new option, available to club-level resort guests only, allows people to purchase three additional FastPasses for $50 per day. A minimum three-day purchase is required, totaling at least $150 per person for the new feature. Club-level rooms can be found in many Disney deluxe resorts, like the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Contemporary Resort, Grand Floridian Resort and Yacht Club Resort, and also encompasses cabins at Disneys Wilderness Lodge, bungalows at the Polynesian Village, and various suites at the Swan and Dolphin Hotels, according to Travel and Leisure. While skipping lines to ride your favorite attractions seems like a plus, many fans are worried what this new pay-to-ride option means for the future of Disney. On social media, people have expressed their frustration with the ever-increasing cost associated with a Disney vacation. But Walt Disney World certainly isnt the first theme park to offer a paid feature to skip the line. Nearby Universal Studios, Six Flags and Cedar Fair all offer similar added passes to spend less time waiting, Theme Park Insider reports. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS A spokesperson for Walt Disney World did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. A family from Iowa has filed a civil lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Lines, alleging that a 30-year-old room steward sexually assaulted their 12-year-old daughter while she slept. The family, which had embarked on the Norwegian Escape on a cruise out of Miami in Feb. 2017, is claiming that Norwegian was negligent in the hiring of Rajkumar Panneer Selvam, the employee who was tasked with tending to their stateroom during the cruise, and whom they accused of sexually assaulting their daughter on Feb. 16 of that year, reports The Miami Herald. CRUISE PASSENGER ON SINKING TOUR BOAT RECALLS SCARY EXPERIENCE: ' I WAS IN SHOCK' According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Miami last week, the girl was napping alone in their cabin when Selvam entered the room and placed his hand beneath her shorts, along her buttocks and vaginal area. Selvam continued to touch her even after she rolled away, the family alleges, but stopped once the girl woke up, and then asked her if she wanted her room cleaned. The girl soon informed her parents of the incident, and they notified the cruise staff. Selvam was subsequently detained until the ship docked, at which point the captain informed the FBI of the alleged incident. Selvam, however, has since been tried and found not guilty by a jury in Miami, despite an affidavit of support filed by an FBI agent which stated that Selvam acknowledged that he touched the girls buttocks and pubic region with his hand, skin to skin, while the minor victim was sleeping on the bed. CARNIVAL TRIUMPH, AKA THE 'POOP CRUISE' SHIP, HAS PASSED LATEST SANITARY INSPECTION In response, the family is now suing Norwegian Cruise Line, claiming they failed to properly vet Selvam before he was hired. Indeed, the Herald reports cruise lines typically employ foreign workers whose records may not be as easily available. "The whole business model of the cruise industry is to man the ships with personnel from developing countries," said John Hickey, the Miami-based maritime lawyer representing the family. He also added that this practice can hinder a cruise company from conducting "a proper and thorough background investigation on any employee." Hickey further stated that, since the NCL has known about this case since February 2017, they've had ample time to reach out and try to rectify the family's compaint. "We have given [Norwegian Cruise Line] notice, so theyve had every opportunity to reach out and see what it was that would satisfy this claim," added Hickey. The family is now seeking damages of upwards of $75,000 to deal with emotional distress and medical expenses incurred. The Herald adds that reports of sexual assault among cruise passengers is not uncommon, but rarely do they involve staff members. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS A representative for the Norwegian Cruise Line declined to comment on the lawsuit. A fire broke out at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey Friday morning, causing a partial evacuation of Terminal C followed by long lines at security. DISNEY WILL ALLOW CERTAIN GUESTS TO BUY MORE FASTPASSES, BUT NOT EVERYONE IS HAPPY ABOUT IT An underground transformer led to the fire in a PSE&G manhole near Gate 71, resulting in some terminal and flight interruptions, NJ Advance Media reports. Social media photos showed long lines to get through security after travelers were allowed back inside the terminal, with wait times of up to an hour. By 2:15 p.m., officials posted on Twitter that lines were starting to move again, but to allow extra time if youre traveling through Terminal C. The fire was extinguished and no one was injured. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said there was no smoke or fire inside the terminal. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Associated Press contributed to this report. A former classmate of University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein, whose body was found Tuesday in a California park, was reportedly nervous when he was interviewed by detectives, who have launched a homicide investigation into the 19-year-olds death. Investigators with the Orange County Sheriffs Department interviewed a supposed friend of Bernsteins who was seemingly anxious as they spoke to him, The Mercury News reported, citing an affidavit. The friend, a former classmate at Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana, was breathing heavy, talking fast and visibly shaking as he spoke to investigators about his encounter with Bernstein on the night he went missing. The friend told law enforcement that he and Bernstein spoke via Snapchat on Jan. 2 the night he went missing. He reportedly picked Bernstein up to hang out and catch up in a Hobby Lobby parking lot before driving to meet another friend from high school shortly before midnight at Borrego Park. The friend said Bernstein left his car and walked into the park alone, while he waited in his car for about an hour and attempted to contact Bernstein on Snapchat. Around 1 a.m., the friend claimed he left the park and drove to his girlfriends house roughly 30 minutes away, before returning to the park around 3:40 a.m. The friend said Bernstein never responded to him on Snapchat. On Jan. 4, according to The Mercury News, investigators spoke to the friend at Borrego Park and noticed small scratches on his hands with dirt under the fingernails. The friend reportedly said he fell into a dirt puddle when he was sparring as part of a fight club he was in. IVY LEAGUE MURDER? UPENN STUDENT FOUND DEAD IN CALIFORNIA PARK; HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED The friend allowed two detectives to search his car, where they reportedly found hiking and camping equipment in the rear of the vehicle, a large empty plastic bin on the backseat, and a black belt on the passenger seat floorboard. While detectives said the friends story stayed fairly consistent as they continued to interview him at sheriffs headquarters in Santa Ana, he allegedly couldnt remember his girlfriends last name or where she lived. Detectives also said the friend avoided touching doors at the sheriff's offices following an interview. "On their way out of sheriff's headquarters, (investigators) noticed 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," the newspaper quoted the affidavit as saying. Carrie Braun, a spokesperson for the sheriff's department, said at a press conference Wednesday that while no arrests have been made, deputies are "still following up on multiple leads." Bernsteins body was found in the brush surrounding Borrego Park after days of searching by rescue teams, with assistance from drone pilots, the Orange County Sheriffs Department announced Wednesday. An autopsy was expected to take place later that day. Bernstein was a pre-med student at the Ivy League University, who was back home in Lake Forest on winter break and reportedly expected to return to campus on Sunday. More than 300 people attended a candlelight vigil for Bernstein at the park Wednesday night. A Colorado funeral home is under federal investigation over accusations it doubled as a body broker firm, buying and selling human body parts, a Reuters special report revealed Tuesday. The FBI started looking into Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors and Donor Services a few months after it was discovered that both businesses were being operated out of the same building and by the same owner, according to the report. It described a body broker as a company that acquires dead bodies, dissects them and sells the parts for profit to medical researchers, training organizations and other buyers. While Sunset Mesa legally is permitted to own and operate both businesses, Reuters found that there was no other active instance where a funeral home, crematory and body broker had the same owner and were in the same facility. Such a partnership may raise ethical concerns because it creates a financial incentive for the funeral home. The conflict of interest of having a side business in body parts just leads to problems, Steve Palmer, a funeral director in Cottonwood, Ariz., and former member of the policy board at the National Funeral Directors Association, said. 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. At the focal point of the FBI probe: funeral director Megan Hess, who did not return Fox News request for a comment. The report also noted that a former employee at Sunset Mesa was troubled by Hess mother, who was responsible for embalming and dismembering the dead bodies. The ex-employee said that she witnessed a collection of gold teeth that Hess mother allegedly extracted from the corpses fillings or crowns and that the family cashed in on the gold to pay for a trip to Disneyland in California. In Colorado and most other states, it's legal for funeral homes to sell items taken from corpses, including the gold found in teeth. Other staff members also said that it was never disclosed to donor families that the corpses would be sold for profit a potentially illegal practice. Specifics of the scope of the FBI investigation are unclear. The Justice Department did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. The last victim still hospitalized after a gunman opened fire at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November left the hospital Thursday, receiving a grand ride home in the front seat of a firetruck. Ryland Ward, 6, was among 20 others who were wounded when the First Baptist Church came under attack on Nov. 5. Ward had been shot five times in the elbow, stomach and leg, and was also having issues with his kidney and a shattered femur. The gunman killed 26 people, including Wards stepmother, Joann, and his two sisters, 5-year-old Brooke Ward and 7-year-old Emily Garza. 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, hospital spokeswoman Elizabeth Allen said. Ward celebrated his 6th birthday during his hospital stay. With a procession of patrol cars and other firetrucks escorting him, Ward rode home in a firetruck driven by firefighter Rusty Duncan from the hospital in San Antonio to Sutherland Springs. Duncan told the San Antonio Express-News he was the responder who rescued Ward from the church after it had been attacked. I was just checking for survivors, and I felt a little tug on my pant leg, Duncan said. I had no idea what it was. I looked down and a little hand was coming from under somebody. While the procession was driving the some 45 minutes to Sutherland Springs, motorists pulled to the side of the road into town, and some stepped from their vehicles and waved at the child. POLICE NAME TEXAS CHURCH SHOOTING VICTIMS, FROM THE PASTOR'S DAUGHTER TO A PREGNANT MOTHER Shannon Demski, who used her phone to track the procession from the hospital, told the newspaper that she believes Ward is proof that Texans stand strong for each other. Another nearby resident, Terri Adams, said that their prayers have been answered. He suffered a great injury but he remained strong and has recovered beyond what anyone expected, Adams said. 5-YEAR-OLD TEXAS CHURCH SHOOTING VICTIM WISHES FOR CHRISTMAS CARDS The truck then carried the child past a sheriffs barricade to his house, which was kept off-limits to the public. A GoFundMe page set up the day of the mass shooting in Wards honor has raised more than $156,000 of its $200,000 goal. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A historian in Maryland pleaded guilty Thursday to theft after being accused of stealing more than 200 military dog tags and other historic items belonging to the U.S. government, according to a statement from the district attorneys office. Through the end of 2012 to mid-2017, Antonin DeHays, 33, stole identification cards, personal letters, photographs, a bible, and portions of a downed U.S. aircraft, as well as dog tags, from the public research room at the National Archives, the Maryland District Attorneys Office said. In total, more than 400 items were reportedly taken. Included among the items were two dog tags once belonging to a Tuskegee Airman, who died in 1944, officials said. DeHays reportedly donated one of the items to a museum, and in exchange, was permitted to climb inside a single-seat fighter airplane from World War II. VETERANS MEMORIAL IN GEORGIA VANDALIZED, FACES $200G IN REPAIRS Additionally, officials said they found DeHays had sold several of the historic items online. DeHays would reportedly try to cover his tracks by occasionally removing the pencil etchings from the dog tags, which could have potentially identified them as belonging to the National Archive. The district attorney statement included portions of text messages he reportedly sent to interested customers, sharing details of the items condition. When describing dog tags he was selling, he reportedly said they were burnt and show some stains of fuel, blood very powerful items that witness the violence of the crash. DeHays also kept some of the stolen records at his home in College Park, which were found by authorities during a raid. PILOTS OF EX-MILITARY PLANES HONOR VETERANS THROUGH FLIGHT Aside from being a historian, DeHays also worked part-time at the Maryland-based nonprofit National History Day. Following his arrest in June, the group issued a statement saying DeHays was no longer working there and called his actions deplorable. DeHays was charged with theft of government property and could face up to 10 years in jail, the district attorneys office said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A gigantic national flag and Party flag made of flowers laid out on the green lawn in Shanghai's People's Square.[File Photo: IC] The second plenary session of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee will be held from Jan. 18 to 19 in Beijing, according to a decision made at a Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee meeting on Friday. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting. A pit bull attacked and killed a woman caring for animals at a pet "hotel" in Louisiana. The mauling happened around 11 p.m. Tuesday at the Happy Hounds Hotel in West Monroe, a spokesman for the Ouachita Parish Sheriffs Office said. Glenn Springfield added that deputies found the severely injured woman who later died from her wounds. On Wednesday, Springfield confirmed reports by multiple news outlets identifying the victim as Laura Williams Ray, of West Monroe, a mother with multiple children who worked at the facility. Investigators said she was caring for animals staying overnight when she was attacked by the 50-pound dog, according to KNOE. Happy Hounds owner Leanne Stuckey said her heart was breaking for Rays family. Our hearts go out to the family, Stuckey said Wednesday to The News Star. Im just grieving for them. Ouachita Parish Animal Control has the dog. The investigation is ongoing, authorities said. District Attorney Steve Tew told The News Star that his office is reviewing the case and will be looking at all options. The DAs office can initiate an action to have the dog euthanized, according to The News Star. Staci Choate, a registered veterinary technician, told MyArkLaMiss.com that many things can cause a dog to respond violently, but those traits are learned. Terriers in themselves are high energy, theyre very active, theyre people pleasers, they want to be with their family. Thats why we see a lot of trouble with Pit Bull Terriers because they are [such] a people pleasing breed, that they do whatever their people want them to do, Choate told MyArkLaMiss.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A Rhode Island rap artist whose songs include a tune titled "Sell Drugsz" was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday -- for selling drugs. Thirty-year-old Michael Persaud, a.k.a. Montana Millz, pleaded guilty in October to drug-trafficking charges. According to prosecutors, Persaud sold and delivered nearly three-quarters of an ounce of fentanyl and two grams of heroin to an undercover East Providence police detective between October 2016 and February 2017. Authorities added that on at least two occasions, Persaud's girlfriend drove him to the delivery site. Prosecutors also said that police seized an additional ounce-and-a-half of fentanyl during a search of a Providence home where the mother of one of Persaud's children lived. Persaud's lawyer, Matthew Smith, told the Associated Press the sentence was "fair and just." Prosecutors had asked for a six-year prison term. Persaud also awaits sentencing in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, where a jury convicted him of drug charges this past August. Click for more from the Providence Journal. The Associated Press contributed to this report. An Alabama woman faces an assortment of rape, sodomy and drug charges in a case where the alleged victim is a young teenage boy. Jennifer Rose Ingram, 31, of Deatsville, faces three counts of rape, two counts of sodomy and one count of furnishing a controlled substance -- marijuana -- to a minor, age 13, Autauga County Sheriff Joe Sedinger said in the Montgomery Advertiser. AL.com said she was Ingram was booked into the Autauga County Metro Jail on bonds totaling $65,000. "Even if the acts were consensual, he cant legally give consent because he is under 16. Sheriff Joe Sedinger Its unusual having a woman charged with rape, Sedinger said.It does happen, but not very often, he told the Advertiser. In this case she was charged due to the age of the young man. Even if the acts were consensual, he cant legally give consent because he is under 16. According to the sheriff's comments in the Advertiser report, Ingram and the mother of the victim know one another. A witness reportedly told the victims mother that he had walked in and caught Ingram and the victim having sex at Ingrams home. The mother confronted the boy and he allegedly admitted to the relationship, reports say. AL.com reported that the alleged crimes happened in November and December of 2017. Court records state Ingram had sexual intercourse and oral sex with the boy while at her home, the website reported. The website also said that Ingram, interviewed by the authorities, confessed to having sex with a child she knew to be 13, according to a deposition in the case. In a riveting television moment this week, a California man shed tears and claimed that he murdered a teenager in Northern California nearly 25 years ago. Brian Keith Hawkins, 44, walked into the KRCR-TV station in Redding, Calif., and said he wanted to confess to the 1993 killing of Frank McAlister, the outlet reported. Hawkins said his newfound faith in God led him to seek forgiveness. The station agreed to the interview, but stated it could not air it until after he turned himself in and police corroborated the confession. "I know the wrong can't be changed but this is the closest I can come to doing the right thing," Hawkins told the station. Hawkins named two accomplices: siblings Curtis Culver, 45, and Shanna Culver, 46. Nearly 25 years ago, they set up a phony drug deal in Shingletown, Calif., to rob McAlister of money he brought to buy methamphetamine, Redding Police said in a news release. They robbed him, and Hawkins and Curtis Culver stabbed him to death, leaving his body in the woods and dumping his car in a Costco parking lot, according to police. McAlisters family had reported him missing, but his remains would not be found until the following year by a hiker in Shingletown, about 29 miles east of Redding. McAlister's grandmother, Avis Rice of Anderson, told the Redding Searchlight that she and her family members were stunned to learn of the arrests so long after the murder. "It is such a shock to us," she told the paper. Hawkins and the Culver siblings were arrested and were being held in the Shasta County jail. This was the Redding Police Departments first big break in the two-decades-old cold case. A female student who told school administrators she'd been sexually assaulted by a teacher was suspended and then forced to apologize to the accused perpetrator and hug him, according to an indictment against three Colorado school officials handed down Wednesday. Principal David Gonzales, Vice Principal AJ MacIntosh and counselor Cheryl Somers-Wegienka of Prairie Middle School in Aurora, Colo. were named in the indictments, FOX31 Denver reported. The Cherry Creek School District informed parents MacIntosh and Gonzales were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the court proceedings. Somers-Wegienka stopped working at the school before the indictment. FALLOUT FROM LOUISIANA TEACHERS ARREST RAGES ON The indictment stems from the unidentified teen's 2013 report that she was being sexually assaulted by Brian C. Vasquez, who has since been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting and exploiting students. The girl said she reported the allegations to MacIntosh and Gonzales, however, the two administrators told the student the allegations would ruin Vasquezs family and career and stressed what a "valued teacher" he was, the Denver Channel reported. The teen said Gonzales asked her to recant the allegation, and, once she had, administrators suspended her, the Aurora Sentinel reported. In a separate meeting with MacIntosh, Vasquez, a counselor, Gonzales and the teen's parents, she was reportedly forced to apologize to Vasquez and hug him at the end of the meeting, FOX 31 Denver reported. But in August, Vasquez, 34, was arrested for allegedly sexually exploiting students. The teacher, who had been employed at the school for seven years, told police he sexually assaulted a student and others, the Denver Channel reported. Vasquez faces at least 31 felony counts, court documents stated, though he originally faced eight felony counts for charges of abuse and sending nude photos to underage students. Vasquez was a social studies teacher at the school but has been placed on administrative leave. PRIVATE SCHOOL REVEALS PAST MISCONDUCT BY TEACHERS MacIntosh said she did not remember the student reporting the alleged sexual assault, according to the indictment. "MacIntosh further claimed that she could not remember her involvement in any aspect of the disciplinary process resulting in CV's suspension from school, even when presented with official documentation from the school district bearing her signature, and confirming her presence (at a meeting), the indictment stated. Gonzales also said he did not remember the student reporting the alleged assault against Vasquez as well. The three administrators face a misdemeanor charge of failing to report child abuse or neglect. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Last year Cornell University undergraduate Neetu Chandak appeared on Fox and Friends to share her objection to a course description that seemed overly critical of President Donald Trump while glorifying former President Barack Obama. Now, in an essay in The College Fix, Chandak says her remarks on Fox expressing concerns about liberal bias at the college and the explicit agenda of the course led to threats on her life and such constant harassment that she sought therapy and was afraid to leave her apartment. It is difficult to express conservative views as a college student without being called names, attacked personally, or even threatened by peers, Chandak said in the essay. I had done the interview, not to show support or disagreement with any particular person, but to show the ridiculousness in comparing eight years of Obamas presidency to the first 100 days of Trumps term, she said. While I expected disagreement from many Cornellians for my views, I was mentally and emotionally unprepared for the backlash, name calling, and threats to my physical safety. The name of the course is "America Confronts the World," and the course description linked xenophobic nationalism to Trump and pragmatic cosmopolitanism to Obama, setting a tone that she believed students would be expected to echo. Chandak, who won Miss Upstate New Yorks Outstanding Teen in 2013, and was crowned Miss Seneca Falls in 2016, now is a senior. She said she was made to feel afraid even to go to class, and she considered taking online courses. Considering that Cornell Universitys College Republicans president was physically assaulted right after Trump was elected shoved to the ground and called a 'racist bitch' threats around here are no joke," she said. A campus newspaper, the Cornell Sun, even did a story about her appearance, and quoted college Republicans saying that while the wording of the course description seemed skewed toward Obama and liberalism, they believed the professor would have welcomed other viewpoints. Chandak is skeptical. "From my situation, many found it acceptable to be hateful toward me because they perceived me as hateful," she said. "What hypocrisy." Chandak bemoaned the chilling effect condemnation of conservative views has on college campuses, and said all students are robbed of broader perspectives. "I am not alone in my struggle," she said. "Many people holding views similar to mine will likely not express their beliefs in the classroom or on campus out of fear of facing the isolation and threats I faced. This becomes a disadvantage for college students as the entire point is to learn about various ideas." About 100 people rallied Thursday in Abbeville, La., in support of an elementary school teacher who was forcibly handcuffed and removed from a school board meeting Monday night after questioning a superintendents pay raise. Waving signs heralding free speech and chanting Stand by Deyshia, supporters gathered in light rain on behalf of Deyshia Hargrave, whose removal from the meeting was captured in a video that attracted national attention. Abbeville is about 150 miles west of New Orleans. The video shows Hargrave confronting Vermilion School Superintendent Jerome Puyau about a roughly $30,000 pay raise he received from the school board in a 5-3 vote. But Anthony Fontana, the Vermilion Parish School Board president, 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. Fontana has not returned calls for an interview with the AP, but has defended his actions and those of the officer. After being freed from jail and returning to school Tuesday, Hargrave said she was trying to turn the ordeal into a learning experience. Please dont let the conversation end with me, Hargrave said. Please go to your local school board meetings. Speak out, be vocal. Asked by the AP on Thursday who's directly to blame for the incident, Hargrave said "Anthony Fontana." Puyau, who said he began receiving death threats 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." Earlier, Hargrave told the AP she believes 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. Hargrave 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 Associated Press contributed to this report. BANGALORE, India (AP) _ Infosys Ltd. (INFY) on Friday reported fiscal third-quarter net income of $796 million. On a per-share basis, the Bangalore, India-based company said it had net income of 35 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 25 cents per share. The results met Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was also for earnings of 25 cents per share. The business consulting services provider posted revenue of $2.76 billion in the period, which beat Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.74 billion. Infosys shares have risen 6.5 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has risen 14 percent in the last 12 months. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on INFY at https://www.zacks.com/ap/INFY A lawyer representing victims of the Las Vegas shooting slammed a "hard to believe" statement put out by MGM Resorts that noted numerous interactions between hotel staff and the gunman -- all while police doubled down on the decision to withhold details from the public nearly four months after the grisly massacre. Hotel staff at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino had contact with [Stephen] Paddock or entered his suite more than 10 times over the course of his stay, including the three days leading up to October 1 MGM Resorts, the hotel owner, admitted last week in a statement obtained by Fox News, adding all the interactions with Paddock were normal in nature. Their little paragraph of we have normal interaction leaves a lot out, Michelle Simpson Tuegel, an attorney representing several victims of the massacre, told Fox News. I would like to know what they were classifying or defining as normal behavior." Tuegel said her clients, such as 21-year-old college student Paige Gasper, who was left with shattered ribs and a lacerated liver, are healing and feel better, but there is still a long, rough road ahead. As for MGMs statement, though, Tuegel said she's looking to find out what else these employees have to say about what they saw and heard in the days leading up to the shooting, and what they may have failed to see, whether possibly due to negligence or a lack of proper training from hotel management. Paddock with a huge stash of firearms in his 32nd-floor suite gunned down 58 people across the street who were attending a country music festival on Oct. 1. He wounded hundreds more. Why didnt someone say something when he brought all these bags [with weapons] up? Tuegel asked, adding it's hard to believe the amount of ammunition and weapons in the room and no one saw or picked up on anything. Some portions of the 32nd floor are now being used again to accommodate an increased influx of guests, but there are still no plans to rent out Paddocks rooms, which remain closed, Debra DeShong, MGMs senior vice president of corporate communications and industry affairs, told Fox News in an e-mail. "I would like to know what they were classifying or defining as 'normal behavior.'" Michelle Tuegel MGM Resorts is focused on supporting the health and welfare of our guests, the company said in the statement put out last week. Importantly, as it relates to the terrible tragedy on Oct. 1, there were numerous interactions with Stephen Paddock every day at the resort, including a room service delivery and a call with housekeeping on Oct. 1, all of which were normal in nature. As a result of these interactions, there was no need to conduct a welfare check. Partially in response to the Las Vegas massacre, several resorts and hotels nationwide have begun instituting mandatory room checks after a certain period of time -- regardless of whether a guest has hung a "do not disturb" sign on the door. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which has been notoriously tight-lipped about the shooting, doubled down this week in refusing to provide any new information about the attack or give an update on the investigation a move likely to infuriate members of the public wondering why officials have said so little in the months after the massacre when so many questions remain. Lawyers representing the department have filed a 13-page response to a lawsuit from several media companies seeking to unseal records related to the investigation, KSNV reported, claiming the department's secrecy is necessary. Despite the death of Stephen Paddock, there remains an active criminal investigation, one of the police departments attorneys, Jackie Nichols, wrote in the response, according to KSNV. The response claimed privacy is needed during the pre-indictment stage of an investigation, but did not say if an indictment is looming. Paddock, who killed himself after the shooting, has been identified as the lone gunman; however, it's unclear if anyone else aided his plot. But police department lawyers, in the response, wrote access would reveal investigative techniques used by law enforcement. Nichols did not respond to numerous requests from Fox News for comment. Both the Ballard Spahr law firm -- which is representing KSNV, The Associated Press and other news organizations in the lawsuit -- and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told Fox News it would not comment on the litigation. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday. Dan Kulin, a spokesperson for the Clark County coroner, also would not provide an update on the investigation into Paddocks brain, which was sent to Stanford University months ago. The FBI said in late December the agency probably wouldn't brief the public about the motive of the attack until their report is released sometime before the tragedys first anniversary. The lack of updates from the Las Vegas Police and the FBI about the shooting has led to daily bashing of both agencies on social media, and appears to be playing some role in stoking conspiracy theories as information-starved members of the public continue to play the role of amateur detective. Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo railed against some of his critics in October, saying that conspiracy theories and thinking that we are trying to hide stuff or are conspiring together to hide stuff is ridiculous. But since then, investigators working the case routinely have denied interviews, leaving speculation and rumors swirling. 102 Days ... and counting. We want answers. We need answers. We deserve answers, one Twitter user wrote Thursday. And lastly with 58 dead & hundreds injured and the blood of so many innocent concert-goers soaking the ground of Las Vegas, why has it been so consistently been difficult to get straight answers? why the secrecy? uncertainty? shadiness? who is hiding what, and why? #VegasStrong said another this week. As I retire after almost 25 years as President of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, I cant help but reflect on how Wisconsin government and politics have changed over the decades. Perhaps the most significant change that has occurred is the increasingly partisan and polarized nature of dialogue and decision-making in the public arena. Part of this is due to the deterioration of our national discourse, but part is also due to Wisconsin being one of about a dozen states with a full-time, professional legislature. What makes us different from most of these states dominated by career politicians, however, is scale. California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania are populous, urban, and large. By comparison, Wisconsin is relatively small. Regardless of size, many of these states have the same problems: take-no-prisoners partisanship; state budgets that are often tardy and almost always narrowly balanced, usually with gimmicks and timing tricks; official financial statements that show GAAP deficits; and subpar bond ratings. Wisconsin fits the description to a T, regardless of party in control. This is not an accident. In professional legislatures, the psychology changes: The goal is to keep ones job, and that means getting reelected. Difficult tax and budget problems are papered over, pushed past the next election. In career legislatures, such as ours, power becomes increasingly centralized in the hands of a few party leaders. Party discipline is strictly enforced, and dissension is not tolerated. Legislative leaders have tremendous power because they control the political fate and, therefore, career of their backbenchers. They name committee chairs and members; they send bills to committees and determine whether they will receive serious consideration; they influence and direct special-interest campaign donations; and, in some cases, punish uncooperative caucus members by encouraging primary opposition. The nature of primary elections and Wisconsin elections generally is part of the significant change that has occurred in our politics. In recent decades, when given the opportunity, both Democrats and Republicans have gerrymandered legislative districts in hopes of achieving partisan advantage. The Democrats did so in 1983; the GOP, in 2012. The fallout is evident, as the 2016 elections indicate. After the August primary, about half of state legislators were effectively reelected, with no November challenger, or only a token minor-party opponent. Lawmakers need not be accountable to voters if there is no ballot choice. And lack of accountability is an invitation to incumbent arrogance, abuse of party power, and even corruption. But the problem with our elections goes deeper. Because of how legislative districts are drawn and because of where people choose to live, few districts are competitive, with seats regularly changing party hands. That makes August party primaries pivotal. They are low-turnout affairs dominated by true believers and party activists, and subject to monied intervention by special interests. To win a primary in Democratic Dane County, a candidate moves to the far left; to win a primary in Republican Waukesha County, the reverse is true: GOP hopefuls compete for a subset of voters on the right. Thus, candidates who win primaries are committed partisans, who owe their careers to single-issue or ideologically motivated voters. Arriving in Madison, they have no incentive to work with members across the aisle, or even members of their party from more diverse districts. They need only answer to the few who elected them. With the two legislative parties populated with such members, the result is to be expected: partisan bickering, gotcha politics, and inability to compromise. Wisconsins growing labor force shortage and transportation finance impasse illustrate the adverse effect of career politics. The argument for a full-time professional legislature was its ability to anticipate and confront emerging challenges. However, whether the issue is tax policy, transportation, changing demography, fiscal management, school finance, or higher education, Wisconsin state government under both parties has been largely unable to think long-term and strategically. Critique of state government is easy. Undoing decades of combative partisan conflict among career politicians is not. Regulatory tinkering with elections or campaign spending addresses symptoms, but real change rests on lasting structural change. A first step is a nonpartisan, citizen-driven approach to legislative redistricting. This will only be effective, however, if partisan primaries are ended in favor of all-candidate, cross-party primaries. Election changes might also include reducing state restrictions on minor candidates, instituting rank voting (where voters rank candidate choices), and adopting Illinois discarded use of multi-member districts and bullet voting. The latter would help elect an occasional Democrat from Waukesha or Republican from Madison. Returning to a part-time citizen legislature is also key, but must involve more than ending full-time salaries and benefits, cutting staff, or even instituting term limits. A citizen legislature also requires shorter, fixed-length sessions, and a larger assembly so that districts are smaller, easier to represent, and less costly to contest. Committee work by electronic means becomes important. The state senate might also be reformed to restore the founders vision of the upper house as a true check and balance on the lower house. Wisconsins senate has become mostly a means to prolonging an assembly career. Electing senators in the spring on a nonpartisan ballot to a single eight-year or two six-year terms might also ensure a more deliberative and independent body. Changing institutional structure and process might help diversify the ranks of professional legislators and return us to an era when public service, rather than a political career, motivated a run for the legislature. It would also bring back to the Capitol greater experience in local government, small business, and parenting. The ideas offered here are not panaceas but could promote discussion of how to restore Wisconsins tradition of civil discourse, mutual respect, and citizen governance. 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 Friday night sex-ed event promising Michigan State students an opportunity to make their own sex toys has suddenly been canceled. The three-hour workshop, titled Condoms, Cookies & Consent, said it would offer sexual health based trivia and the chance to make your own external and internal simulation devices (i.e. dildos)!, The College Fix reported, citing a since-removed description posted on the universitys website and in fliers handed out on campus. The event was postponed and is in the process of being rescheduled, Residential and Hospitality Services spokeswoman Kat Cooper told The College Fix. UAB supports and encourages healthy relationships for students, the schools University Activities Board posted on Twitter. Upon review of this weekends sexual health education event: Condoms, Cookies and Consent, UAB has decided to reschedule this program in the future. The description of the event also said students could win sexy prizes such as body chocolate. Representatives from the universitys Olin Health Center, the Sexual Assault Crisis Intervention team and the Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence prevention program had been scheduled to give a discussion. But one student told The College Fix the content and message of the workshop wasnt entirely clear. I dont think [MSU] is promoting safety by helping students create stimulators for their sexual pleasure, the student said. An Oklahoma City mom who fatally forced a crucifix and medallion down her daughter's throat because she thought the woman was possessed by the devil was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday. Juanita Martinez Gomez, 51, was found guilty in the death of her daughter, Geneva Gomez, 33. The jury only deliberated for 20 minutes. Jurors recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole. Juanita Gomez did not display any emotion when the verdict was read, The Oklahoman reported. "We think it was a just verdict," Suzanne Lavenue, the assistant district attorney, told the media after the trial. "It was an incredibly heinous murder. The victim suffered quite a bit before her life was ended. The crime scene was horrific. It was obvious that there'd been an extensive struggle all over the house." WOMAN KILLS POSSESSED DAUGHTER BY SHOVING CRUCIFIX DOWN HER THROAT, POLICE SAY Juanita Gomez said she punched her daughter multiple times and shoved a crucifix and medallion down her throat and watched her die. Police believe the murder occurred Aug. 27, 2016. When police arrived at the scene, they found Geneva Gomez lying on the ground inside her mothers Oklahoma City home with her arms spread out as if she had been crucified. A large crucifix had been placed on her chest. The medical examiners office ruled Gomez died from blunt force trauma to the face and head. She also had puncture wounds to her throat and her hair had been pulled out, court documents stated. Geneva Gomezs boyfriend, Francisco Merlos, who found her body, said during the trial his girlfriends face was unrecognizable, CBS News reported. You couldnt recognize her face at all, Merlos said. TRIAL BEGINS OF WOMAN IN SLAYING OF DAUGHTER WITH CRUCIFIX Police said Juanita Gomezs hands were swollen and she had bruises on her arms. She reportedly told officers the marks were from her daughter after they fought while she was attempting to rid Satan from her body. Police said Gomez attempted to clean the house following the slaying to rid it of evil blood. Investigators found hair that belonged to the victim and cleaning wipes in the trash. A psychologist found her competent to stand trial and said she was feigning memory problems to appear incompetent. She did not testify. The trial began Monday. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A North Carolina man suspected of killing a woman hours before died early Friday from a gunshot wound he sustained in a shootout with police outside a headquarters, authorities said. Jonathan Bennett, 23, drove into the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police headquarters at around 11 p.m. on Thursday as officers were meeting outside the building, Fox 46 Charlotte reported. Bennett ambushed the officers with gunfire and injured at least one. Police said officers returned fire, hitting Bennett. He was detained and taken to the Carolinas Medical Center-Main where he later died, according to Fox 46 Charlotte. The officer who was wounded in the ambush was also taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Times like this make you appreciate the people who voluntarily put their lives on the line to keep us safe. Unfortunately some people use that against us, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said. Putney said authorities will reevaluate whether additional security will be needed at the headquarters. Police said Bennett was wanted in the murder Brittany White, 23, who he had a child with. Police were called to a west Charlotte home earlier Thursday and found the woman dead, according to the News & Record. Bennett took the 2-year-old daughter with him after fleeing the homicide. She was later found safe, the Charlotte Observer reported. A second infant was also found safe in the west Charlotte home, police said. The first astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage reached out Friday to schoolchildren on the hurricane-bashed island. Flying aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Joe Acaba fielded questions from students at the Puerto Rico Institute of Robotics in Manati. One student asked how Puerto Rico looked from space after Hurricane Maria struck in September. Acaba said the first thing he noticed was the lack of lights, making the island almost impossible to see at night. A boy noted that after the hurricane, it was difficult for some Puerto Ricans to eat given the limited variety of available food. Does Acaba find the limited space menu tough to swallow? The menu, while pretty good, repeats every week or two and does get monotonous, Acaba said. Of course, he said it doesn't compare to such Puerto Rican specialties as pasteles, stuffed meat pastries wrapped in banana leaves popular around Christmas, and rice with pigeon peas and pork. "I'm ready to get home and have a great meal," he said. Acaba, a former school teacher, is supposed to return to Earth at the end of February. He arrived at the space station a week before Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, already reeling from Hurricane Irma. The astronaut's parents were from Hatillo, Puerto Rico, and moved to the U.S. He was born in Southern California and grew up there, but has lots of relatives still in the U.S. territory. Technical difficulties with the institute's Skype connection ate up nine minutes of the 23-minute conversation. Acaba switched between English and Spanish in answering students' questions, ranging from his experience as a teacher to daily life aboard the orbiting outpost. He assured the students that the drinking water recycled from the six-man crew's urine actually tastes great and is as natural as it gets. As for sleeping, he said he's getting some of the best sleep of his life. The students were brought to the institute from across Puerto Rico for the event. Selected by NASA in 2004, Acaba remains the space agency's only astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage. ___ AP reporter Danica Coto contributed to this report from Puerto Rico. ___ Online: NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Authorities in South Carolina said theyre on the hunt for an inmate who escaped from custody on Friday. Brent Tyson Austin, 41, who was serving jail time for drug possession, managed to flee from the Union County Courthouse around 1:45 p.m., according to a wanted poster from the South Carolina Department of Corrections. He was said to be jailed at the Wateree Correctional Institution. HOPEFUL RAPPER ATTEMPTS TO ROB MEMPHIS WINGSTOP TO GET OWNER RICK ROSS ATTENTION Austin may have stolen a pickup truck, a 2000 Dodge Dakota extended cab, in his effort to escape, Union County Sheriff David Taylor told WYFF 4. The word Intimidator is reportedly written on the vehicles front windshield and the truck has a South Carolina license plate reading GWT 404, the outlet said. The inmate is a white man, 5 feet 4 inches tall with brown eyes and has tattoos on his arms, according to the wanted poster. Investigation and apprehension efforts are in effect, the poster said. A South Carolina woman returned home from vacation to find another family had moved into her recently purchased house. Upon arriving to the home, Katherine Lang noticed a dog and a cat wandering the property, as well as a pair of women talking inside, the Beaufort Gazette reported. I said, What are you doing in my house? Lang told the paper. It became clear to me what happened. It turns out Tyggra Shepherd, 22, who thought she had found the perfect place to settle in her family as they relocated from Kentucky, was a victim of an online scam, the paper reported. Shepherd told the paper she found the three-bedroom furnished home advertised in a Facebook group for $850 a month posted by a woman named Rosie Ruggles. She wired $1,150 for the fake lease, and was told to use the unlocked back door to start moving her belongings into the house because the person delivering the keys had been arrested. Lang bought the house in October, but was still living at her previous home waiting for it to sell. After returning from vacation, she decided to check on the pipes due to the recent cold weather and thats when she noticed the unwelcomed guests. A schedule has been set for Shepherd to move out, and Lang has decided to soon move into her new home. Click here for more from the Beaufort Gazette. President Donald Trump has canceled a trip to London to open the new $1 billion U.S. Embassy in the British capital, a move that avoided protests promised by political opponents. Some U.K. lawmakers had said Trump was not welcome in Britain after he re-tweeted videos from a far-right British group and criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan following a terror attack last year. But Trump said his decision, announced in a late-night tweet, was due to concerns about the embassy's move from the elite Mayfair district to a far less fashionable area of London south of the Thames River. "Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" Trump tweeted. The State Department, however, announced plans for relocating the London embassy in 2008, while George W. Bush was still president, because of concerns about security following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. At the time, U.S. Ambassador Robert Tuttle said the decision to move to the five-acre site came after a "long and careful process." While the former embassy was on Grosvenor Square, in a tony area of designer boutiques and expensive restaurants, the new building is in a former industrial area south of the Thames that is being redeveloped into a new commercial and residential district. The current ambassador, Robert "Woody" Johnson, said the change was necessary even though the U.S. had been linked to Grosvenor Square for more than 200 years. "Security concerns after September 11 meant we had to move to a location that could better protect American citizens and our British neighbors," he wrote in an article for London's Evening Standard newspaper. Johnson, a Trump appointee, also said the new embassy was entirely paid for by the sale of other London properties and "did not cost the U.S. taxpayer a cent." A Trump visit has been on the cards since British Prime Minister Theresa May visited the United States a few days after Trump's inauguration last year. May proclaimed the strength of the "most special relationship" between the two countries and the government extended an invitation for a state visit as a guest of Queen Elizabeth II. But a full-blown state visit replete with golden carriages and pomp has been deferred amid the threat of huge anti-Trump protests. The idea had gradually evolved into a working visit in which Trump would open the London embassy. In December, Johnson said he was looking forward to welcoming the president. In Washington, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump's comment was solely about an embassy-related visit. She suggested a formal visit could still, but offered no details. "We are still working with our U.K. allies to find a date for a visit for the invitation that was offered and accepted, " she said Friday. In the meantime, the relationship between May and Trump has come under strain. The uproar came after Trump re-tweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by a leader of the far-right group Britain First - a tiny group that regularly posts inflammatory videos. May's spokesman said the president was wrong to retweet the group's content - prompting Trump to tell May in a tweet that she should focus on "the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom" instead of him. The exchange prompted further calls to dump the visit. The mayor of London - who has been criticized by Trump in tweets - said Trump appeared to have "got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city's values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance." "His visit ... would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests," Khan said. The British government said the opening of the embassy was a matter for the United States. But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson blamed Khan and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for discouraging the U.S. leader from coming. "The US is the biggest single investor in the UK - yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk," Johnson said in a tweet. "We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall." ___ Catherine Lucey in Washington contributed to this story. The father of a U.S. Navy veteran who died of leukemia in December says he is "fuming mad" because his ex-wife was denied a visa to attend their son's funeral. The father of Ngoc Truong, who served in the Navy for four years before losing his battle with cancer Dec. 17, said his ex-wife, a native of Vietnam, applied for a visa twice, but was denied both times, WREG-TV reported. "That's what made me fuming mad. Fuming," the father, a resident of Blytheville, Ark., told the Memphis, Tenn., station. Truong was only 22 when he died. He was planning to study graphic design after leaving the Navy in October, the report said. The Navy veterans father said he wasnt provided a reason for why his wife was denied a visa. "He's already done for this country, but what has this country done for him? What did this country do for him?" Truong asked. Transcribed on Truongs headstone is a variation of President John F. Kennedy's famous quote. "Don't ask what your country did for you, but ask what you did for your country," the inscription says. Click here for more from WREG-TV. The FBI has posted new age-progressed photographs of the individuals who allegedly hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 in 1986, the bureaus Washington office announced Thursday. The new images were made by using older photos of the suspects, acquired by the agency in 2000, and age-progression technology, the office said. The four suspects, listed on the FBIs Most Wanted Terrorists page, include Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal and Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar. They were allegedly part of the Abu Nidal Organization, which was once considered a foreign terrorist group by the State Department, the FBI said. PORT AUTHORITY BOMB SUSPECT PLEADS AT THIS MOMENT, NOT GUILTY Pan American World Airways Flight 73 was attacked on Sept. 5, 1986 in Karachi, Pakistan with 379 people onboard the plane, the FBI said. Two Americans were said to be among the 20 people killed and more than 100 others were injured. The FBI said theyre offering a reward of up to $5 million each for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the alleged hijackers. Information about the suspects of the attack can be sent to the FBI, an American Embassy or Consulate or entered on the bureaus online tip website, they said. An Afghan official says a Taliban attack has killed three policemen in western Farah province. Mohammad Naser Mehri, spokesman for the provincial governor, says the attack took place early in the morning on Friday, targeting a highway security outpost in the province's Bala Buluk district. Mehri says more than 80 Taliban fighters took part in the attack. Police called in reinforcements, which repulsed the attackers. There was no immediate Taliban comment or claim of responsibility from the insurgent group. Meanwhile, in western Ghor province, Abdul Hai Khateby, the spokesman for the provincial governor, says explosives prepared by a would-be suicide bomber blew up on Friday, killing a family member and wounding four. The would-be bomber was away at the time of the explosion. Khateby says police are looking for him. Significant tunneling has been detected at North Koreas Punggye-ri nuclear test site, according to a Washington-based think tank specializing in tracking the Hermit Kingdom's activities. Satellite images from December show increasing efforts to maintain the test site where North Korea has conducted the last six underground nuclear tests, claims a report Thursday by 38 North. The publication is run by Johns Hopkins University. News of a tunnel reportedly crumbling at the nuclear site in October likely because of the country's sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September, which potentially killed 200 people -- sparked a lot of speculation about the site's future. But the analysis of satellite images suggests that although the North Portal of the site where the last five nuclear tests were conducted remains dormant, tunnel excavation in the West Portal has been stepped up. Throughout December 2017, mining carts and personnel were consistently present around the West Portal and there was significant expansion of the spoil pile, the report says. There also appear to be new rails on top of the spoil pile. On December 28, there were also a large number of personnel (~100 to 120) observed in seven different formations whose purpose is unknown in the Southern Support Area, it adds. It is rare to observe personnel in this area, the report says. The report concludes that such activities underscore North Koreas continued efforts to maintain the Punggye-ri sites potential for future nuclear testing. News of apparent active nuclear test site comes just days after North Korean officials met with South Korean officials for the first time in more than two years. On Tuesday, North Korea agreed to send a delegation to next months Winter Olympics in the South and to discuss easing military hostilities. The communist regime in the North has long been boasting about the continuing development of nuclear weapons and its strike capabilities. In November, the regime said its new intercontinental ballistic missile can carry a super heavy nuclear warhead that could reach the U.S. mainland. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Authorities in Republic of Congo have arrested a general who had been close to the president on allegations of planning a coup. Local media reports said Friday that former armed forces inspector Gen. Norbert Dabira was detained Wednesday. The reports say Dabira had "planned to destroy the presidential plane while in flight" and that Gen. Nianga Mbouala is accused of being a possible accomplice. Mbouala was dismissed as the commander of the Republican Guard last week and is under house arrest. Human rights groups have criticized President Denis Sassou N'Guesso for alleged rights violations and called for the release of political prisoners. Two candidates who ran against Sassou N'Guesso in 2016 elections, Gen. Jean Marie Michel Mokoko and Andre Okombi Salissa, have been jailed without trial. A Canadian man who was accused of sexually exploiting a 13-year-old girl was allowed back in school after a judge moved to delay his sentence so he could finish his college courses. Connor Neurauter, 21, a University of Calgary student, pleaded guilty in November to one count of sexual interference with a minor," the Toronto Star reported. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, two years of probation and must register as a sex offender. Neurauter began serving his sentence Jan. 4 but a judge is allowing him to serve his remaining time after he finishes his spring semester at the university, the Toronto Star reported. COLORADO ADMINISTRATORS INDICTED FOR SUSPENDING STUDENT WHO REPORTED SEX ASSAULT BY TEACHER When Neurauter was 18-years-old, he requested photos from a 13-year-old girl and the two had a short relationship. The teenager alleged Neurauter choked her before giving her a bra as a present, the BBC reported. Neurauter threatened to show the nude photos of her to her family if she did not keep quiet about the relationship. The girl was not named due to a publication ban. The University of Calgary has not expelled Neurauter but advised him to not return to campus for the remainder of the term. The school said they could not expel him because the incident occurred before he was a student at the university. "This does not mean that the university condones sexual violence or harassment, nor does it mean that we prioritize the rights of a convicted individual over the safety of our university community," Dru Marshall, the schools provost told CBC. INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED GIRL, 15, SUSPENDED AFTER REPORTING GANG RAPE AT NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL, LAWSUIT SAYS An online petition, started by Kaitlyn Casswell, began demanding the university expel Neurauter. As of Friday, the petition had been signed by over 55,000 people. The victims mother told CBC she wanted the university to expel Neurauter due to safety issues, but was proud of her daughter for coming forward with the allegations. "I said this is because of you, because of you standing up," the woman told CBC. Four senior judges of India's Supreme Court have come out in the open complaining about the working of the country's top court. The four, led by Justice Jasti Chelameswar, in a rare move held a news conference in the Indian capital and said they did not agree with the allocation of work to them by their senior, Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Chelameswar says the four judges met Misra on Friday and demanded remedial action, but he did not agree with them. He says many things less than desirable have happened in the last few months. He did not give details. He says unless the sanctity of the Supreme Court and its 25 justices is preserved, the democracy could not survive in this or any other country. Misra has not commented. The Vatican and the White House are at odds again, this time over President Donald Trumps reported use of vulgar language to refer to certain countries during immigration talks. The Vatican newspaper, LOsservatore Romano, published a front-page article on Friday calling Trumps reported comments particularly harsh and offensive. Choosing to leave out the word s---hole, the paper said that the remarks immediately sparked controversy and indignation. The alleged comments came during a DACA meeting on Thursday. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was in the room with the president, told reporters that the comments were accurate. He said these hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly, Durbin said, calling the words vile and racist. The Pope has criticized Trump in the past over his immigration policy. During the 2016 campaign, Pope Francis said that a man with such views was not Christian, after being asked about Trumps views on immigration and his plans to build a border wall, Reuters reported. Trump fired back at a campaign event calling the Pope disgraceful. For a religious leader to question a persons faith is disgraceful. The 2021-22 Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District (CFAUSD) and schools report cards were released publicly by Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) on Tuesday. Out of nine schools, one school received the designation of Significantly Exceeding Expectations, three schools received Exceeds Expectations, and four schools received Meets Expectations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made a triumphant visit to the newly liberated city of Kherson. He hailed the Russian withdrawal from the southern city as the beginning of the end of the war but also acknowledged the heavy price Ukrainian soldiers are paying in their grinding effort to push back the invaders. Retaking Kherson was one of Ukraines biggest successes in the nearly 9-month-old war and delivered another stinging blow to the Kremlin. But large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine are still under Russian control, and the city of Kherson itself is without water, power and heat, and remains within reach of Moscows shells and missiles. Heavy fighting continued elsewhere in Ukraine. THE POST (PG-13) 3 STARS This film about the Washington Posts publishing of The Pentagon Papers eventually works, despite Steven Spielbergs penchant for sentiment at the cost of storytelling and history. What gives the film power in the final act isnt just the newspapers decision to publish the bombshell details of government lies and failures in the war with Vietnam, but the slow and steady steeling of Post Publisher Katherine Graham. The film could have more accurately been called The Kay Graham Story, as Spielberg creates an exaggerated and abbreviated personal trajectory for the publisher who inherited the reigns of what was just a regional newspaper when she became publisher when her husband died. Indeed, at the films start Graham is painted as an uncertain and worrisome socialite who knows how to throw a dinner party but isnt sure she can handle appearances when the newspaper goes public on the New York Stock Exchange. Thankfully, Graham is played by Meryl Streep, whose playing of this woman surrounded by mansplaining men goes beyond simple stereotyping because of her talent and nuanced performance. She somehow manages that despite appearing in what feels like half the movie in matronly nightgowns, with big hair that sets this squarely in 1971. Soon enough, we also meet Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), whos sick and tired of his newspaper getting beat to stories of substance by The New York Times. Hanks doesnt bring enough gravitas and toughness to the role. Thats especially true when you recall the more bombastic and imposing Jason Robards as Bradlee in All the Presidents Men, which can be seen as the Part Two to this film. The Post gets a chance to beat their news rival when they also get hold of the Pentagon Papers study and the government uses legal action to stop The Times from publishing for a few days. The decision over whether to publish becomes Grahams crucible as publisher, the chance for her to transition from flighty, worried neophyte to stone-cold boss and power player. In this day when women are calling for more equality in the workplace, theres a scene near the films end that those ready for more of that will find emotionally riveting. Its the moment when she corrects a roomful of men telling her not to publish, saying flat out that The Post is no longer her fathers paper, or her husbands. Its hers, says Graham, with the decision to publish hers alone. While that part of the story works, especially when you see the respect Graham garners from women by films end, the film as historical drama leaves a bit to be desired. Some of that may well be the fact that this is one of those movies where working in the business being shown on screen can be a problem. To this reviewer, whos spent his life in the newspaper business, The Post staffers and even Bradlee too often seem like clueless bumblers, out-of-touch as they play at a cat and mouse game of seeking the Pentagon Papers and then publishing them. Yes, I know the scene that shows staffers descending on Bradlees home in Georgetown to prepare the story is historically accurate, down to her daughter selling the staffers lemonade and his wife serving sandwiches. But the scenes in the newsroom feel flat and underwhelming, the staffers featured seemingly clueless as they struggle with what to do next. The other thing that weakens this as a piece of history is the way Spielberg steadily tries to connect and show similarities between Richard Nixon, and our current president, Donald Trump. Its such an obvious, overdone thing that it distracts from the story. Still, the movie manages to deliver. Theres a moving, powerful and historically accurate climax when the Posts presses roll, the First Amendment winning out so that the American people could finally learn how their government had lied to them for decades about Vietnam. Rated PG-13 for language and brief war violence. 116 min. Playing locally at Marquee Southpoint 9, Paragon Village 12 and Regal Fredericksburg 14. The vice president of a solar energy company faced a skeptical audience Thursday night as he laid out plans for the $600 million project in rural Spotsylvania County. Garret Bean, vice president of development for Utah-based Sustainable Power Group, said the companys proposed 3,500-acre, 500-megawatt solar farm off West Catharpin Road would produce enough energy to power 82,000 homes a year. It would be the biggest solar farm in Virginia and one of the largest on the East Coast, smack dab in what one resident referred to as the middle of nowhere. But the massive project in western Spotsylvania is actually pretty easy to comprehend, Bean told about 100 people at an informational meeting in Craigs Baptist Church. Its a panel on a stick, and it generates power and sends it into the grid, said Bean, who works out of the companys satellite office in Long Beach, Calif. The approximately 1 million solar panels would be from 5 to 7 feet tall. Some residents wondered why the company settled on rural Spotsylvania, where internet and cell service can be hard to come by. Others expressed concern over the projects impact on home values and the traffic and noise it will create during the 14-month construction period. And some questioned whether Spotsylvania would even benefit from the proposal. Bean said the company chose the site because of its proximity to a Dominion Energy-owned substation, where it can tap into the electrical grid. It would sell the power the solar farm generates to corporations throughout Virginia and possibly other states. We are not selling power directly to youall we are doing is putting it into the electrical grid, he said. Bean also noted that much of the land is being timbered, clearing the way for the solar farm. One man complained that it looks like a bomb has gone off on the property, which hunt clubs have used for decades. Bean, addressing concerns about property values, said the county requires a minimum 50-foot buffer between the solar farm and adjacent properties. He said the company would plant trees, if needed, to help hide the solar panels. Essentially, we can stay out of sight, out of mind for the most part, Bean said. The project would help Spotsylvania by creating hundreds of jobs during construction, and 10-15 full-time positions after that, he said. The solar farm would also increase the propertys taxable value, resulting in more revenue for Spotsylvania, Bean said. The company plans to purchase about 6,350 acres near Fawn Lake, though the actual solar farm would encompass 3,500 acres. One man asked whether hunters could use the undeveloped land. Bullets dont go well with panels, Bean said with a smile. So our preference is not to allow hunting. The Spotsylvania Hunt Club has leased much of the property from Riveroak Timberland Investments for the past two decades, and hunters have been using it for at least 60 years. Daniel Menahem, a project manager for Sustainable Power Group, said the company hopes to find other property for the displaced hunt clubs. And he said the firm would pay to lease a new hunting site for a few years. Where you gonna find 5,000 acres? one man shot back. The company plans to begin construction in August and wrap up in late 2019. Bean said he knows construction traffic is a concern and that he hopes the company will try to limit it to off-peak hours. The company must obtain a special-use permit, which requires at least two public hearings and approval by the Board of Supervisors. Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) does not have a specific timeline for when it will appoint a permanent CEO and president of HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, but an HSHS Western Wisconsin Division spokesperson said Thursday, Jan. 11 that the search process has begun. The hospital is searching for a replacement for Julie Manas, whom the hospital announced was no longer with the organization in a Tuesday, Jan. 9 press release. The hospital plans to work quickly to permanently fill the position, the release said. Mary Starmann-Harrison, president and CEO of the HSHS system, has been appointed to fill in as the interim CEO. Starmann-Harrison has been in her current role since March 2011. In an email Thursday, Starmann-Harrison said the change in the hospitals CEO and president position was mutual. We all agreed there was the need for a transition in leadership, Starmann-Harrison said. We need to change direction and work with a different strategy going forward. Tuesdays press release also stated that the hospital was moving in a new direction, and Starmann-Harrison said HSHS Sacred Heart and HSHS St. Josephs will be continue to grow. Both HSHS Sacred Heart and St. Josephs are well positioned to not only continue to provide quality health care to Chippewa Valley residents but to expand services, Starmann-Harisson said. We see growth opportunities, and we continue to provide high-quality, patient-centered care. The hospital thanked Manas in its Tuesday press release for her nearly six years of service, which included a recent partnership between the L.E. Phillips Libertas treatment center and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, which Manas announced in November 2017. Manas also oversaw HSHS Western Wisconsin Division, which includes HSHS St. Josephs Hospital in Chippewa Falls. In a TV appearance just days before he leaves office, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he would punch President Donald Trump if he ever got too close during a debate. McAuliffe, often mentioned as a possible Democratic challenger to Trump in 2020, made the comment Thursday night during an appearance on MSNBCs Hardball with Chris Matthews. "You'd have to pick him off the floor ... You punch me, I'd punch you back twice as hard." @TerryMcAuliffe on if Trump were to try and intimidate him. #Hardball pic.twitter.com/pWUhgW1ZfT Hardball (@hardball) January 12, 2018 Bringing up the Godzilla way Trump leaned over Hillary Clinton in a televised debate last year, Matthews asked McAuliffe what hed do if Trump tried the same move with him. Youd have to pick him up off the floor, McAuliffe said. You mean youd deck him? Matthews replied after a few seconds of seemingly stunned laughter. Listen, this guy got in my space, you want to get in my space, Ive always said, Chris, you punch me, Im gonna punch you back twice as hard, McAuliffe said. And it wouldnt be hard to do it. McAuliffe will leave office Saturday after completing his four-year term. Virginias term limits prevent him from running for re-election, but McAuliffe has openly flirted with the idea of a presidential run. McAuliffe hasnt always taken a strongly adversarial stance toward Trump. After Clinton, his longtime friend, lost the presidential race last year, McAuliffe said he had known Trump for decades and looked forward to working with him. Trump also donated $25,000 to McAuliffes 2009 campaign for governor in Virginia. In 2014, Trump tweeted a picture with McAuliffe at Trump Winery outside Charlottesville. With Terry McAuliffe, Gov of Virginia, at the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, VA--largest on East Coast. @GovernorVA pic.twitter.com/onCh3WxPWL Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2014 Soon to be free of any responsibility to play nice with the president, McAuliffe offered up his formula for beating Trump. This guy thinks he can intimidate everybody. Its disgraceful. Its embarrassing, McAuliffe said. When we take him on, back in his face, with the facts, dont take anything from him and hit him back as hard as you possibly can. But if he ever came over and leaned on me and got in my space, that would be the last time Donald Trump ever did that. I promise you that. Suddenly, debt matters to Democrats Its good to reflect on what we hear so we can make sense of confused thinkingin this instance, the rhetoric on the Republican tax cut. Democrats complained about the cuts because they are concerned about the national debt. Really, after Obama ran an $8 trillion national debt and Democrats didnt complain? The debt matters, now? Democrats complain about reducing taxes, but they are not interested in the fact that they can continue to pay higher taxesany amount they choose. Dont hold your breath waiting for Democrats to pay more taxes out of the goodness of their heart. Democrats also complain that big corporations get a tax reduction, ignoring the fact that U.S. corporations have been at a disadvantage in trade with foreign countries. Germany and Australia are already concerned that the tax cut will bring more trade to the U.S. at their expensemore jobs for the U.S., maybe? Before the tax cut passed, Democrats said the little guy would not benefit from the tax cut, just the rich. After the tax cut passed and some corporations gave the workers a bonus, now Democrats said that was just political posturing by the corporations and that they should have given money to the employees anyway. During the next election, remember that neither of our illustrious Virginia Democrat senators (Warner and Kaine) supported the tax cut. I doubt if Sen. Warner had time to read the tax bill anywayhes busy investigating collusion regarding the 2016 election. David Kendall Stafford Free Freightnet Membership List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours. News 20 Harvey-damaged homes helped by state program jenniferreynolds / JENNIFER REYNOLDS/ The Daily News Homeowner Linda Ahmed, right, talks with Steve Mataro, a partner with DSW Homes, on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, about the Partial Repair and Essential Power for Sheltering Program, or PREPS, which helped her get back into her home after it was damaged during Hurricane Harvey. jenniferreynolds / JENNIFER REYNOLDS/The Daily News Steve Mataro, a partner with DSW Homes, checks a door his staff installed at Linda Ahmeds house in Galveston on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. The new door and other repairs to Ahmeds home were completed through the Partial Repair and Essential Power for Sheltering Program. jenniferreynolds / JENNIFER REYNOLDS/The Daily News Linda Ahmed shows a photo she took of the water-damaged flooring from her home on Thursday. Ahmed, who has been living with family and friends since Hurricane Harvey damaged her house in Galveston, is finally able to live in her home with the repairs through the Partial Repair and Essential Power for Sheltering Program. GALVESTON A state program designed to provide immediate disaster housing assistance after Hurricane Harvey has finished basic repairs on 20 homes in Galveston County. And contractors on Thursday completed the first home on the island in the same program. The historic storm damaged about 20,000 homes in the county, and in the following months, the state identified 6,820 Galveston County residents who were eligible for a program meant to allow them to stay in their homes as they made repairs. More than four months later, the Partial Repair and Essential Power for Sheltering Program, or PREPS, has completed 20 projects in Galveston County, the Texas General Land Office said Thursday. Along the Texas coast, the land office reports 147 completed projects and another 1,875 homes in progress. The land office as of Wednesday had made 61,304 calls and sent 32,739 emails to Texas residents who would qualify for the program, land office spokeswoman Brittany Eck said. The program is not a complete repair program, and is limited to making $20,000 worth of repairs, Eck said. The work is fast, taking only two days in some cases, Eck said. The names and contact information came from Federal Emergency Management Agency applications, Eck said. In Galveston County, contractors are working on another 168 homes for the program while another 143 are ready for work to begin. FIRST ON THE ISLAND Linda Ahmed returned to her Galveston home Thursday. Its the first home on the island that contractors have completed through the Partial Repair and Essential Power for Sheltering Program, contractor Steve Mataro said. Dozens more are in the queue, he said. While most of the countys 20,000 Harvey-damaged homes are on the mainland, about 154 homes in Galveston are estimated to have sustained damage from wind or flooding during Harvey. The damage total was about $1.42 million, Galveston officials said. Most of the homes have an estimated average of $5,000 in damage, while 14 homes reported an average of $30,000 in damage. One home on the West End had major damage, to the tune of $300,000, from a fire that occurred during the hurricane, city officials said. Ahmeds house is on the East End, a couple of blocks from the seawall. She stayed with family and friends in Dallas for most of the past four months. Her home on Avenue N still had a couple of inches water two weeks after Harvey hit the Texas Coast on Aug. 25, 2017. I saw it and thought, Im not able to stay here, she said. The mold that grew under the floorboard exacerbated her asthma, but that wasnt the only problem. The front door wouldnt shut because floodwater swelled the wood. She had to use a padlock, but she didnt feel safe staying there, she said. She has lived in the house for most of the past 35 years. Hurricane Ike in 2008 displaced her from her home for a time, she said. The post-Harvey basic repairs to her house included some replaced Sheetrock, a new air-conditioning window unit, a new heater and a new door that fits and shuts properly, she said. Ahmed is limited to just one small bedroom and bathroom, but shell be able to make other repairs while living at home, Mataro said. NEW HOTLINE Of the 6,820 FEMA applicants in Galveston County who were eligible for the program, the land office only was able to reach 2,069 residents by Thursday, Eck said. Only 832 of those residents opted to participate while another 1,237 opted out of the program, Eck said. One reason why the land office has had a hard time contacting residents is that some suspected the calls were scams and didnt understand or trust the information, Eck said. Others did not recognize the phone number, so just didnt answer the unknown call. To combat this problem and to help residents get other information, the land office opened up a new phone line Monday. Anyone who has a question about the Partial Repair and Essential Power for Sheltering Program or any other land office housing program can call 888-958-0877. Many people need more information about the housing programs, Mataro said. He encourages residents to find the answers. Dont give up, Mataro said. Call. GLO hotline Information on Texas General Land Office program specifics and eligibility are posted online at www.texasrebuilds.com under short-term housing for individuals. The Texas General Land Office also opened a housing hotline at 888-958-0877. The Long Beach Pledge will provide $500 a month for one year to 250 families living in the city's west-central 90813 ZIP code. ROSE (roz) n. One of the most beautiful of all flowers, a symbol of fragrance and loveliness. Often given as a sign of appreciation. RASPBERRY (razbere) n. A sharp, scornful comment, criticism or rebuke; a derisive, splatting noise, often called the Bronx cheer. We hereby deliver: ROSES to good news for Oregon State University's efforts to create a new $60 million arts and education complex on its Corvallis campus: The university this week announced that it had received a $2 million gift commitment to help construct a smaller concert hall inside that complex. The gift means that the university has raised more than $27 million toward its $30 million fundraising goal; the idea is that OSU then would approach the Legislature for a matching $30 million in state bonds. The gift comes from the family of the late Lynne Detrick of West Linn, a longtime arts advocate. The university hopes to use that money to construct a 400- to 600-seat concert hall to showcase relatively intimate musical performances, such as those put on by OSU's outstanding choral groups. The arts complex will be an expansion and enhancement of the LaSells Stewart Center. If all goes as planned, the Lynne Detrick Hall should provide a nice companion space to the 1,200-seat Austin Auditorium, which also is expected to get a facelift as part of the project. ROSES to everyone who's planning to get involved in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event or community service project this weekend. We've heard of various events planned around the mid-valley, including a variety of projects on Saturday involving Oregon State University students. It's a good way to offer something back to the community during a time when we honor and reflect upon King's accomplishments and legacy. If you'd like a natural area in which to contemplate, consider taking advantage of this offer from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management: On Monday, those agencies will waive fees at day-use recreation sites in Oregon and Washington. RASPBERRIES to the flu, and especially to news that Oregon is on track to suffer through another record season for the ailment. The bad news is that flu season still has two or three months left to run. The good news is that it's still not late to get a flu shot. Although this year's vaccine is not a particularly good match for the flu strains in circulation, it still offers a measure of protection. RASPBERRIES, as always, to scam artists. They're out in abundance these days, and judging by recent entries in our Police Log, they're fleecing victims out of hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars with distressing frequency. Here's a scam that's back in fashion throughout the mid-valley: You get a call from an "officer" at a "law enforcement agency" who tells you that, for some reason you can't recall, officers are en route to arrest you. (Your caller ID might even show that the call is coming from the law enforcement agency.) You can prevent your imminent arrest, but only by purchasing some of those cash cards for the person on other end of the line. And the person on other end of the call is unusually focused on keeping you on the line. It's a scam. This is not how real law enforcement agencies work. And, frankly, any transaction that calls for you to pick up a bunch of cash cards for someone you don't know is almost certainly a scam. Hang up. Call your real local law enforcement agency to report the scam. And keep your guard up: Unfortunately, science has yet to develop the vaccine to keep you safe from scammers. ROSES to Emily Simmons, a senior at Philomath High School, for her work to provide a little light for foster children in their darkest moments. For the last couple of years, Simmons has been collecting snacks, toys and toothbrushes for children just entering the foster care system. She places the items in decorative photo boxes, with notes to let the children know they're loved. These welcome boxes are a project of Every Child Oregon, an organization that seeks community support for foster families and children. Simmons is the county coordinator for the welcome box program. Her aim is to give those foster children something that is theirs at a time when they often have nothing and, maybe even more important, tender words to help her get through a tough time. Simmons deserves a big bouquet for her work, and you can give her a hand: The online version of today's Roses includes a link to the Every Child website showing how you can create a welcome box. (mm) Police looking for witnesses : 16-year-old girl threatened with knife Bornheim-Roisdorf A 16-year-old girl was threatened with a knife and robbed by an unknown man in Bornheim-Roisdorf on Thursday afternoon. The police are looking for help from the public. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken It was around 4.50pm on Thursday afternoon when a 16-year-old girl was robbed and threatened with a knife on Brombeerweg in Bornheim. She was out for a walk when she was threatened by an unknown man near the crossing of Buchholzweg. Apparently he had walked behind her for a while. The man demanded the 16-year-old hand him her handbag. Afterwards he fled towards Essener Strae. Despite an immediate search by the police the culprit could not be identified yet. The police are asking the public for help. The culprit is described as 20 to 25 years old, approximately 1.80 metres tall, with light-coloured to dark-blonde hair. He did not wear showy glasses nor a noticeable beard. He wore bright coloured trousers, a brown outdoor jacket, a tight-fitting grey hat and loafers. The man had a normal build and spoke German without an accent. Police search flats : Arrest made after incident with fireworks in Tannenbusch Bonn The police in Bonn have found three suspects in the case of an attack with fireworks in Tannenbusch. A 23-year-old man was taken into custody. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The police in Bonn have found three suspects in the case of an attack with fireworks in Tannenbusch. A 23-year-old man was taken into custody. Three days before New Years Eve, unknown culprits threw fireworks out of a moving car. Now the police have investigated three suspects in connection with this incident, the police revealed on Thursday. According to the spokesperson, the car which was used was a rented vehicle. After searching two flats in Buschdorf and Beuel, a 23-year-old man was arrested in the early hours of Thursday. The man did not provide any details about the incident during his arrest. He has been released from custody in the meantime, according to the police. Another 23-year-old and the 19-year-old renter of the car are under investigation for attempted grievous bodily harm and dangerous interference with road traffic. The police have no filed charges or reports by injured parties on record yet. The investigation continues. One teenager filmed the incident near the Tannenbusch-Center from a skyscraper on the opposite side and published the video online. So far, the police have neither spoken to witnesses nor injured parties. If you have any information in regard to this case, please contact the police at 0228/150. Labour Court : Legal action against Solarworld dismissed Bonn The Local Court Bonn has dismissed a legal action by the former council chairman of the Solar World AG. Peter Finger and his deputy had filed a suit against their contract termination. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The Local Court Bonn has dismissed a legal action by the former council chairman of the Solar World AG. Peter Finger and his deputy had filed a suit against their contract termination. Both of the former Solar World employees have - like several of their colleagues - filed a suit against their dismissal in November 2017, because they expect a transfer of holdings. The reason: Former CEO of the Solar World AG, Frank Asbeck, has founded a new company called Solarworld Industries GmbH after the insolvency of the Solar World AG. The new company consists of parts of the Solar World AGs insolvent assets. He then re-employed 77 former employees of the once 3,000-strong workforce in Eastern Germany, where the Solarworld Industries GmbH produces solar cells and modules. The headquarters of the new company is still Bonn though. There, 45 staff are employed. For Peter Finger, who has been Green Party council fraction spokesperson as well, and his colleagues who are also suing the company, this is clear proof that there is a transfer of holdings happening, according to their legal counsel on Thursday during the proceedings. The Solar World AG contested this and was proven right by the court. Already prior to the pronouncement of judgement at the end of the proceedings, board chairman Wilfried Lohr-Steinhaus indicated that the court does not see a transfer of holdings. A partial transfer can be ruled out. In a new company a structure has to be obviously connected in an organisational way. That kind of structure we don't see here, the chambers chairman told this newspaper. Especially because the insolvent Solar World AG did not produce anything itself but solely directed the subsidiary companies. It has yet to be decided if an appeal will be filed, said Finger. Foreign Minister to lecture about Europe : Sigmar Gabriel accepts teaching assignment at the university in Bonn Bonn Germanys Foreign Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, is going to lecture about Europe at the university in Bonn. He is also Federal Vice Chancellor and will take up the teaching assignment in spring this year. His future in politics is currently considered uncertain. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken SPD politicians and the college confirmed the plans on Thursday. Gabriel will teach at the politics faculty, his lectures covering Germanys role in Europe and the world. Gabriel was in the federal city on Thursday, where he also took part in a panel discussion at the Bonn Academy for Research and Teaching of Practical Politics (BAPP). His involvement is a great chance for the university and our students, said University Headmaster Michael Hoch in an interview with this newspaper. He will deliver valuable impulses in the teaching of politics. The commitment of the Foreign Minister is part of Hochs plan to focus the universitys emphasis more on the subjects of Europe and to extend the German-French relationship further. Gabriel could be a great help, with his experience and his contacts. According to information the GA editorial team has received the commitment could be extended beyond the seminar. The current teaching assignment runs independent of his position as Foreign Minister, a post which he might or might not keep under a new coalition. The political future of the SPD politician at Federal level is currently considered uncertain. Gabriel was not taking part in the exploratory talks of SPD and CDU. Rumour has it that Martin Schulz, Gabriels predecessor as SPD boss, has ambitions to become Foreign Minister. Meanwhile, there is great joy at the university. The arts nowadays have to focus on their applicability, said the Dean of the philosophical faculty, Andreas Bartels. Sigmar Gabriel can thus provide an important input with his impulses. An opportunity for foodies and beer lovers to get lost in a world of food and drink from a hand-selected range of food trucks and breweries from around New Zealand. clarajancita at 12-01-2018 10:22 AM (4 years ago) (f) A Libya Deportee, Destiny Kelly, has been arrested and detained by the Edo State Police command for allegedly abducting and robbing a female National Youth Service Corps member, Joseph Jennifer. A Libya Deportee, Destiny Kelly, has been arrested and detained by the Edo State Police command for allegedly abducting and robbing a female National Youth Service Corps member, Joseph Jennifer. Kelly, (30), was arrested with two of his accomplices, Christopher Agbonugo (23) and another 29-year-old Endurance Aburimeh. Kelly who said he was deported from Libya in late February, 2017, said he organised the abduction and robbery on December 2, 2017. One of the suspects, Christopher, was said to have posed as a cab operator, while the Libya Deportee and his partner in crime posed as passengers. According to one of the suspects, Aburimeh, they picked their victim at Ramat Park, Ikpoba Hill and headed towards the Ring Road. Addressing journalists on her ordeal in the hands of her abductors, the victim, Jennifer said they forced her head down to her lap, beat her mercilessly and collected her phone, N4000 and ATM card. Kelly, (30), was arrested with two of his accomplices, Christopher Agbonugo (23) and another 29-year-old Endurance Aburimeh. Kelly who said he was deported from Libya in late February, 2017, said he organised the abduction and robbery on December 2, 2017. One of the suspects, Christopher, was said to have posed as a cab operator, while the Libya Deportee and his partner in crime posed as passengers.According to one of the suspects, Aburimeh, they picked their victim at Ramat Park, Ikpoba Hill and headed towards the Ring Road.Addressing journalists on her ordeal in the hands of her abductors, the victim, Jennifer said they forced her head down to her lap, beat her mercilessly and collected her phone, N4000 and ATM card. Quote One of them went to the bank to collect money from my bank account, but he could not collect money. They became angry and beat and tortured me in the car. Even I myself could not withdraw money from the account because the Federal Government just paid money into the account and have not opened it for my use.They returned to the girl, beat and tortured me, Jennifer narrated. She later reported the incident to the police for investigation. Luck however ran against the hoodlums when the police tracked the victims phone to Christopher who was using the phone, and arrested him. Jennifer narrated.She later reported the incident to the police for investigation. Luck however ran against the hoodlums when the police tracked the victims phone to Christopher who was using the phone, and arrested him. Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 12-01-2018 10:22 AM (4 years ago) | Hero clarajancita at 12-01-2018 12:16 PM (4 years ago) (f) Ghanaian school-girls have been banned from crossing a river while they are menstruating - and on Tuesdays. The ban, apparently given by a local river god, has outraged children's activists, especially as girls must cross the river to reach school. It means girls in the Upper Denkyira East district, in the Central Region, could miss out on their education. Sub-Saharan Africa is already struggling to keep girls in school during their periods. The UN's scientific and education organisation, Unesco, estimates one in 10 girls in the region does not attend school because they are menstruating. Unicef's menstrual hygiene ambassador Shamima Muslim Alhassan told BBC Pidgin that the directive, which applies to part of the River Ofin, violated girls' right to education. It seems the gods are really powerful aren't they?" she said. Ghanaian school-girls have been banned from crossing a river while they are menstruating - and on Tuesdays. The ban, apparently given by a local river god, has outraged children's activists, especially as girls must cross the river to reach school. It means girls in the Upper Denkyira East district, in the Central Region, could miss out on their education.Sub-Saharan Africa is already struggling to keep girls in school during their periods. The UN's scientific and education organisation, Unesco, estimates one in 10 girls in the region does not attend school because they are menstruating.Unicef's menstrual hygiene ambassador Shamima Muslim Alhassan told BBC Pidgin that the directive, which applies to part of the River Ofin, violated girls' right to education. It seems the gods are really powerful aren't they?" she said. Central Regional Minister Kwamena Duncan has given indications he will coordinate with the Ashanti regional minister to find a solution. Many cultures have myths and taboos around menstruation. In Madagascar, some females are told not to wash during their periods and in Nepal some women are forced to sleep in huts away from the rest of the family. Central Regional Minister Kwamena Duncan has given indications he will coordinate with the Ashanti regional minister to find a solution. Many cultures have myths and taboos around menstruation. In Madagascar, some females are told not to wash during their periods and in Nepal some women are forced to sleep in huts away from the rest of the family. Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 12-01-2018 12:16 PM (4 years ago) | Hero felicilin at 12-01-2018 01:44 PM (4 years ago) (f) Nigerian actress, Mercy Aigbe, 40 is taking her ravishing looks more seriously this year as she has continued to whet the appetite of her over 2 million Instagram fans with elegant photos. Nigerian actress, Mercy Aigbe, 40 is taking her ravishing looks more seriously this year as she has continued to whet the appetite of her over 2 million Instagram fans with elegant photos. She has been pictured rocking different expensive hair style with the black and blonde colours. Her flawless look remains a point of attraction melting the hearts of men. Mercy Aigbe who loves traveling abroad on vacation is also a director and businesswoman. She is best known for her Yoruba language movies. She hails from Benin City, Edo State and speaks Yoruba language perfectly. She has been pictured rocking different expensive hair style with the black and blonde colours. Her flawless look remains a point of attraction melting the hearts of men.Mercy Aigbe who loves traveling abroad on vacation is also a director and businesswoman. She is best known for her Yoruba language movies. She hails from Benin City, Edo State and speaks Yoruba language perfectly. Post Reply Posted: at 12-01-2018 01:44 PM (4 years ago) | Hero 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 1999-2007, 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 Pittsylvania County, 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. /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/ TSXV: SXL MIRAMICHI, NB, Jan. 11, 2018 /CNW/ - SLAM Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: SXL) (the "Company") announces it has closed the second and final tranche of the private placement announced December 12, 2017. The Company sold 500,000 flow-through units (the "FT Units") and 1,500,000 non-flow-through Units (the "Units") to raise an additional $100,000. This combines with $235,000 placed in the first tranche for a total placement of $335,000. Each Unit was priced at $0.05 and comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company and one common share purchase warrant. Each FT Unit was priced at $0.05 and comprised of one common share in the capital of the Company issued on a "flow-through" basis and one-half of one common share purchase warrant issued on a non-flow-through basis (each whole common share purchase warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one non-flow-through common share at a price of $0.055 for a period of 36 months from the date of issuance. The 2,350,000 Warrants issued in the first tranche will expire December 28, 2020. The Units and FT Units are subject to a four-month and one day hold period from the date of issuance. The Company paid 320,000 shares in lieu of the $16,000 cash finders fee that was due to an Agent on the first tranche. The Company also issued 160,000 broker warrants and 160,000 compensation shares to the Agent in connection with the first tranche. The broker warrants were issued with the same terms as the Warrants described above. No finders fees were paid in the second tranche. Mike Taylor, President and CEO of the Company, purchased 500,000 FT Units with a subscription for $25,000 worth of FT Units in the second tranche. The private placement remains subject to the approval of the TSXV. Proceeds received from the FT Units will be used to fund exploration on SLAM's cobalt and base metal projects in New Brunswick. Proceeds received from the Units will be used for general corporate purposes. About SLAM Exploration Ltd: SLAM is a project generating company that holds an NSR royalty on the Coulee, Superjack and Nash Creek zinc?lead?copper?silver deposits and owns a portfolio of cobalt and base metal properties in the Bathurst Mining Camp ("BMC") of New Brunswick. The Company intends to utilize its extensive BMC mineral database to explore and develop properties in this historic mineral-rich region. Other projects include the Menneval gold project and, in Ontario, the Reserve Creek gold project. Additional information about SLAM and its projects is available at www.slamexploration.com or from SEDAR filings at www.sedar.com. Follow us on twitter @SLAMGold. Qualifying Statements: Mike Taylor, P.Geo. President and CEO of SLAM Exploration Ltd., as the Qualified Person, approves the scientific and technical disclosure in the news release. Certain information in this press release may constitute forward-looking information, including statements that address the Private Placement, the closing of the Private Placement, future production, reserve potential, exploration and development activities and events or developments that the Company expects. This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward looking-statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to the Company. There are a number of risk factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those described herein. Information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE SLAM Exploration Ltd. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan 11, 2018) - 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). TORONTO, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. (the Company or Cobalt 27) (TSX-V:KBLT) (FSE:27O) is pleased to announce that Mr. Andrew Ham has joined Cobalt 27s Advisory Board. Mr. Ham has a PhD in Structural Geology and over 20 years of buy-side, industry and research experience in diverse commodities and on six continents, he has an extensive network in the mining and investment sectors. Andrew was the Director of Mining Analysis for Sun Valley Gold LLC, a US-based, SEC-registered investment advisor in the precious metals sector. Previously, he was the Director of Mining Research/Senior Analyst for Passport Capital LLC, a San Francisco-based global investment firm, Senior Consultant in Structural Geology for SRK Consulting, a global geology and engineering firm, in both Australia and Canada. After being awarded his PhD in Structural Geology from James Cook University, Andrew spent two years there as a post doctoral research fellow before moving to industry. Mr. Ham is an independent resource consultant and the Managing Director of Hammer Analysis Ltd., until late 2017. The Company, subject to TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) and disinterested shareholder approval, has granted an aggregate of 660,000 incentive stock options and restricted share units to certain of its directors, officers, advisors and consultants. The incentive stock options granted are exercisable at $11.80 for a period of 5 years expiring January 10, 2023. Following the award of stock options and RSUs the Company currently has an aggregate of 2,023,749 options issued representing approximately 6% of its issued and outstanding share capital. About Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. is a minerals company that offers pure-play exposure to cobalt, an integral element in key technologies of the electric vehicle and battery energy storage markets. The Company owns over 2,982 Mt of physical cobalt and manages a portfolio of 7 cobalt royalties. The Company intends to continue investing in a cobalt-focused portfolio of streams, royalties and direct interests in mineral properties containing cobalt, while potentially adding to its cobalt physical holdings when opportunities arise. ON BEHALF OF Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. Anthony Milewski Chairman For further information contact the Company at 647.846.7765 and please visit Cobalt 27s website at www.co27.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, most of which are beyond the Company's control. Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties underlying these forward-looking statements materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this release and, other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise it to reflect new events or circumstances. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release. This press release is not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia) or any other jurisdiction outside Canada. This press release does not constitute or form a part of any offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction outside of Canada. None of the Companys securities have been or will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act), or the securities laws of any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to a U.S. person absent registration or pursuant to an available exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. There will be no public offering of securities in the United States. Vancouver, BC (FSCwire) - 92 Resources Corp. (the Company) (TSX.V: NTY) (OTCQB: RGDCF) (FSE: R9G2 is pleased to report results from the recently completed 2017 field program at its wholly owned Hidden Lake Lithium Project (the Project or Property), Northwest Territories. The Property is situated within the central parts of the Yellowknife Lithium Pegmatite Belt along Highway 4, approximately 40 km east of Yellowknife. Program highlights include: Eight channel samples from the HL6 pegmatite assaying more than 1.00% Li 2 O, to a peak of 2.57% Li 2 O Significant grades of tantalum discovered in the HL8 pegmatite i 5.1 m channel grading 162 ppm Ta 2 O 5 , to a peak of 233 ppm Ta 2 O 5 The discovery of a new lithium bearing pegmatite HL13 The 8 day field program focused on the evaluation of new targets in close proximity to the D12, HL1, HL3, and HL4 pegmatites, where up to 3.31% Li 2 O has been sampled in prior programs. This work included mapping and channel sampling of the HL6 and HL8 pegmatite bodies, which were discovered at the end of the 2016 field season with grab samples up to 1.86% Li 2 O (see news release dated November 28th, 2016). The HL6 pegmatite returned the highest lithium grades during the 2017 program, with up to 2.57% Li 2 O sampled, and remains a strong target for drill testing along with the D12, HL1, HL3, and HL4 pegmatites (Table 1). Although less lithium was sampled from the HL8 pegmatite compared to HL6, the HL8 pegmatite returned signification grades of tantalum up to 233 ppm Ta 2 O 5 , with a 5.1 m channel grading 162 ppm Ta 2 O 5 (Table 2). Spodumene bearing pegmatites are often zoned with distinct zones of lithium and tantalum, as well as zones which overlap. The discovery of tantalum zones in the area is encouraging and bolsters the Projects potential for tantalum, as well as for coupled zones of lithium and tantalum, to be discovered elsewhere on the Property. The Company is also pleased to report the discovery of a new lithium-bearing pegmatite on the Property (HL13) with 0.48% Li 2 O returned from initial sampling. This new pegmatite is relatively large with an approximate length of 200 m and shares a similar trend and character as that of HL1, HL3, HL4, and D12. The discovery highlights the potential for additional pegmatites to exist on the Property, with the total number of lithium-bearing pegmatites discovered at Hidden Lake now seven (Figure 1). Table 1: HL6 Channel Sample Highlights Channel Sample Width (m) Li 2 O % HL6-C2 125456 0.95 1.29 HL6-C3 125460 0.96 1.26 HL6-C3 125461 0.75 2.57 HL6-C4 125462 0.94 1.25 HL6-C4 125463 0.96 1.54 HL6-C6 125468 1.00 1.54 HL6-C7 125470 1.00 1.05 HL6-C8 125474 0.95 1.11 Table 2: HL8 Channel Sample Results Channel Sample Width (m) Ta 2 O 5 ppm Li 2 O % HL8-C1 125479 0.74 161 0.18 HL8-C1 125480 1.01 131 0.18 HL8-C1 125481 1.02 114 0.74 HL8-C1 125842 1.00 233 0.12 HL8-C1 125843 1.33 171 0.20 HL8-C2 125477 0.99 159 0.17 HL8-C2 125478 0.81 139 0.45 Samples were analyzed by Activation Laboratories in Kamloops, B.C., by their sodium peroxide fusion ICP-OES+ICP-MS Ultratrace 7 package. Any samples with lithium values that exceeded detection limit were subsequently analyzed by the sodium peroxide fusion ICP-OES lithium ore analysis package. The tantalum values determined by ICP-OES+ICP-MS and may require confirmation by XRF. The Company is in the process of planning an early 2018 drill program where the overarching objective will be to delineate sufficient tonnage/grade to support an initial mineral resource estimate for the Project. A portion of the program is expected to be funded through the $140,000 grant awarded under the Northwest Territories Mining Incentive Program (see news release dated June 13th, 2017). NI 43-101 Disclosure Darren Smith P. Geol., of Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release. About 92 Resources Corp. 92 Resources Corp. is a modern energy solution company, focused on acquiring and advancing strategic and prospective modern energy related projects. The Company currently holds six properties in Canada, with three principal assets: the Hidden Lake Lithium Property, NWT, the Corvette Lithium Property, QC, and the Golden Frac Sand Property, BC. The Hidden Lake Lithium Property is strategically located within the heart of the Yellowknife Pegmatite District with 2016 exploration results returning 1.90% Li 2 O over 9 m and grab samples up to 3.3% Li 2 O. The Property is easily road accessible and its proximity to infrastructure provides for numerous development advantages. The Corvette property consists of 76 claims, totalling 3,891 hectares, situated within the Guyer greenstone belt, which is also a favourable geological environment for gold occurrences. A summer 2017 due diligence site visit has returned samples of 3.48% and 7.32% lithium dioxide from spodumene-bearing pegmatite exposed at surface. The Golden Frac Sand Property covers more than a 4 km length of the Mount Wilson Formation, which consists of high purity, white, quartzite and friable sandstones. Its strategic location in western Canada and proximity to infrastructure, provides competitive access to the oil and gas markets where high-quality frac sand is an essentially input. The adjacent Moberly Silica Sand Mine, owned and operated by Heemskirk Canada Ltd., produces a number of high-purity products and as of February 2017, became subject to a takeover bid by Northern Silica Corporation valued at $42.3 million AUD. For further information, please contact Adrian Lamoureux, President & CEO at Tel: 778-945-2950, E-mail: adrian@92resources.com or visit www.92resources.com. On Behalf of the Board of Directors, ADRIAN LAMOUREUX Adrian Lamoureux, President & CEO Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Forward Looking Statements: Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements may be identified by words including anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, expects and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Companys future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward looking statements. Figure 1: Hidden Lake 2017 Exploration To view the graphic in its original size, please click here To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/92 Resources01122018.pdfSource: 92 Resources Corp. (TSX Venture:NTY, OTCQB:RGDCF, FWB:R9G2) To follow 92 Resources Corp. on your favorite social media platform or financial websites, please click on the icons below. Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. https://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 FSCwire COLUMBUS The lone occupant escaped unharmed Thursday morning when a camper started on fire south of Columbus. Firefighters were called to 759 S. 33rd Ave., near the junction of highways 30 and 81, around 11 a.m. and remained on scene for about 90 minutes. Columbus Fire Chief Dan Miller said the camper is a total loss following the fire, which was caused by an electrical malfunction. The American Red Cross was contacted to provide assistance for the displaced occupant. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether states will be allowed to collect what could amount to billions of dollars in taxes from online retail sales.The justices agreed to hear South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., in which the state contends that a 1992 ruling prohibiting collection of sales taxes from any seller that does not have a physical location in the state is outdated.That old ruling stated that Quill Corp., a Delaware floppy disk seller, did not have to pay state sales tax in North Dakota because it did not have a physical location there. State legislators and others who want to change the "nexus" laws argue that the ruling in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota has improperly outlasted the era of the floppy disk.States estimate they could collect $26 billion in sales taxes on products sold remotely -- online and via mail order. Currently, taxes are not collected on most remote sales, though Amazon, the biggest online seller, has agreed to do so in many states.The 2016 South Dakota law requires remote retailers to collect and remit sales tax in the state if they have more than 200 transactions or $100,000 in sales in the state. The state sued Wayfair Inc., Overstock.com Inc. and Newegg Inc. to try to force them to comply with the law. Other states have similarly tried to collect, but the efforts have been tied up in court for years.In 2017, six states enacted laws or set tax rules that addressed the lack of tax on remote sales -- Alabama, Indiana, North Dakota, Virginia, Tennessee and Wyoming. All but Virginia had Republican governors and majority GOP legislatures, which are not generally in favor of tax increases. But Main Street concerns about the tough competition from out-of-state sellers carried the day. After months of speculation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) opened the door on Thursday for states to require some low-income people to work in order to qualify for government-sponsored health insurance.Its a large and sharp reversal from Medicaid in the past, says Judith Solomon, vice president of health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.Conservative states had asked the Obama administration many times to allow them to impose work requirements. It continually refused, arguing that the policy goes against the goals of the program, which are to give more people access to health insurance.Republican governors immediately praised the Trump administration's announcement.It will allow states to control the costs of their Medicaid programs by helping more people enter the workforce," tweeted New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.Whenever possible, we should always endeavor to help South Carolinians in need find their path to gainful employment and away from the temporary assistance of government, tweeted South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.Ten states -- Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Utah and Wisconsin -- have already requested a waiver from CMS so they can add work requirements to Medicaid. Kentuckys waiver was approved on Friday, according to CMS documents obtained by The New York Times. The new guidance from CMS, however, says many Medicaid beneficiaries should be exempt from work requirements: That includes children, people with disabilities and people in treatment for substance abuse disorders. And the definition of "work," according to CMS, should include job training, volunteering or caring for a relative.This new guidance paves the way for states to demonstrate how their ideas will improve the health of Medicaid beneficiaries, as well as potentially improve their economic well-being, Brian Neale, CMS deputy administrator, said in a press release.But work requirements aren't the only idea that states have for health care, and it remains to be seen just how much flexibility CMS will give.Most of the states' waiversrequesting work requirements also include other unprecedented proposals like drug testing requirements and limits on how long someone can have Medicaid coverage."When you take all of these things together, it takes away from what the ACA [Affordable Care Act] was trying to do, which was a seamless way to get health coverage, says Kelly Whitener, associate professor at Georgetown Universitys Center for Children and Families.In Kentucky, for instance, the waiver will also freeze people's coverage if they fail to report any changes in their employment or income. That will be a problem, says Solomon, because low-income people tend to work in retail and food service jobs, where hours can vary from week to week.Meanwhile, Arizona and Maine both requested five-year time limits on how long people could stay on Medicaid, and Wisconsin wants to drug test applicants.While those policies have a shot at getting the Trump administration's approval, Solomon says there's at least one proposal that doesn't: asset testing. Asset testing, which Maine has requested to do, would determine a person's eligibility for Medicaid based on their property value and savings -- not just their income. But Solomon says its specifically prohibited under Medicaid law.No CMS lawyer would allow [it]. It wouldnt have a legal leg to stand on, she says.The Obama administration didn't reject every request for change. It approved a small number of conservative states' waivers, including those that require beneficiaries to pay a small monthly premium and freeze coverage when premiums arent paid.Work requirements could have the biggest impact in states that did not expand Medicaid under the ACA. Out of the 10 states that have proposed work requirements, two of them -- Kansas and Wisconsin -- have refused federal money to make more low-income people eligible for Medicaid. Utah enacted a slim Medicaid expansion for chronically homeless people with substance abuse issues, and Maine voters passed Medicaid expansion last fall -- although its implementation is up in the air More non-expansion states -- Alabama, Mississippi and South Dakota -- are also considering waivers that would make eligibility even slimmer. Alabama in particular already has stringent eligibility requirements: You have to be a parent and make $3,000 or less per year for a family of four to qualify for health insurance.Although the first waiver has been approved, the road to work requirements could be longer than their supporters hope: Health policy experts anticipate that lawsuits will be filed quickly. 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. Nebraska is now the first Republican-controlled state to launch its own attempt to save net neutrality rules.On Friday, state Sen. Adam Morfeld (D) introduced legislation in the state legislature to enshrine net neutrality regulations in law on the state level.Morfelds bill would keep broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast from slowing down or blocking internet content and from cutting deals with content companies to give them faster connection speeds.Its unclear how likely that the bill is to pass in Nebraska, but Morfeld told The Lincoln Star Journal that it has already received bipartisan support from other state lawmakers. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement today about the U.S. District Court's decision to dismiss a federal lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of Alabama's voter ID law.Today, U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler ordered the lawsuit filed by Greater Birmingham Ministries, Alabama NAACP and individual plaintiffs against the State of Alabama be dismissed.The lawsuit specifically targeted House Bill 19 of 2011, which requires absentee and in-person voters to show a photo ID in order to cast a regular ballot."Today's decision to dismiss the lawsuit is without a doubt the right decision," Marshall said. "Alabama's voter identification law is one of the broadest in the nation with procedures in place to allow anyone who does not have a photo ID to obtain one."Part of Coogler's court order reads "...a person who does not have a photo ID today is not prevented from voting if he or she can easily get one, and it is so easy to get a photo ID in Alabama, no on is prevented from voting."Marshall said he is proud of the Constitutional Defense attorneys who spent the law 15 months traveling and interviewing witnesses, election officials and citizens who are fighting voter fraud. The prosecutor for the city of St. Louis will investigate blackmail allegations against Gov. Eric Greitens that threaten to end his political career.The allegations, first reported by KMOV in St. Louis, surfaced shortly after Greitens delivered his annual State of the State address Wednesday night. The ex-husband of Greitens' mistress gave the TV station an audio recording of the woman confessing the affair and accusing Greitens of blindfolding her and taking a nude photo against her will to blackmail her into silence.St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner announced late Thursday afternoon that her office would launch an investigation into Greitens' actions.Her decision came shortly after Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley's office indicated that it lacked jurisdiction on the matter and after several Missouri lawmakers called for Greitens' resignation."The serious allegations against Missouri Governor Eric Greitens are very troubling," Gardner, a former Democratic member of the Missouri House, said in a statement. "After further consideration, I have decided to launch a formal investigation into the alleged actions of Governor Greitens."It is essential for residents of the City of St. Louis and our state to have confidence in their leaders."Greitens, a Republican who has been working to build a national profile, has admitted to the extramarital affair but through his attorney has vehemently denied the blackmail allegations. The woman involved in the matter has not made a comment, and the allegations were recorded without her knowledge by her ex-husband and released to the media without her consent.Numerous Democratic lawmakers have called for Greitens to resign in the wake of the report. At least one Republican state senator says that if the allegations are true, Greitens should either resign or be impeached."The only way we can remove this cloud is to get all the facts," said Sen. Gary Romine, a Republican. "We need this to move as quickly as possible. If it exonerates him, we can move on. If it doesn't, he needs to resign or face impeachment."Romine was part of a bipartisan group of state senators that signed a letter asking Hawley, the Republican attorney general, to investigate the allegations that Greitens threatened to blackmail a woman with whom he had an affair in 2015.Hawley, a Republican who is mounting a campaign for U.S. Senate, is already investigating use of a self-destructing messaging app by members of the governor's staff. However, Hawley's office put out a statement indicating that it lacked jurisdiction to begin an investigation into the alleged blackmail.Rep. Brandon Ellington, a Kansas City Democrat, issued a statement saying the governor could no longer serve while facing the accusations."I respect the governor's right to privacy, however, the reports against him regarding ... blackmail cannot be shielded as a family matter because blackmail is a felony," he said. "Due to the serious nature of these accusations, I believe Eric Greitens cannot effectively function as governor and I strongly urge him to resign.""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," Senate Democratic leaders Gina Walsh of St. Louis County and Kiki Curls of Kansas City said in a statement.Most GOP leaders in Missouri reacted cautiously. They did not disown Greitens, but they did not rush to defend him, either. Republican legislative leaders canceled their weekly Thursday news conference, citing an impending ice storm."Like many Missourians, we find these serious allegations shocking and concerning. As this situation is evolving, we expect the governor to be honest and forthright," Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, a Joplin Republican, and other GOP leaders said in a joint statement Thursday morning.The House adjourned without taking action on two bills it was expected to pass: a lobbyist gift ban and a bill pertaining to human trafficking."While the details of the story continue to emerge, the allegations made against the governor last night are deeply concerning. The governor must be forthright and accountable for his actions," House Speaker Todd Richardson, a Republican, said in a statement along with other GOP House leaders.Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Republican, declined to weigh in on the controversy."I have thoughts, but they remain private," Cierpiot said. "There's just not enough information."Rep. Bryan Spencer, a Republican, urged caution."We don't know the facts. All we hear is what's in the news," Spencer said. "It's too early. There's too many times where people get in front of an issue without knowing the facts and look like fools."Spencer noted that the governor admitted to the affair but said that more evidence would be needed to justify an investigation into the blackmail allegations."I want to see if there's evidence that warrants something. I don't want to go on just an allegation. In today's society, we can destroy people with just accusations," he said.Rep. Mark Ellebracht, a Democrat, has called for a criminal investigation."My heart goes out to Mrs. Greitens and her family. They deserve all the privacy they can get. ... Infidelity is unfortunate, but it is not illegal," he said. "Blackmail is illegal. ... It is not fair for the governor to hide behind his family and use them as a shield for what should be a criminal investigation."Rep. Jerome Barnes, a Democrat, said Greitens should resign regardless of whether the blackmail allegations are proven."He's a Navy SEAL. We have high standards to be a Navy SEAL. There should be high standards to be a governor also," Barnes said.Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, a Democrat, made a similar demand on Twitter, citing the governor's campaign promises."On his web site and throughout the campaign, Eric Greitens declares: WE MUST END THE CULTURE OF CORRUPTION. Now, I'm asking him to walk the walk. Resign immediately!" Nasheed said.She later said on the Senate floor: "I don't know any woman who would go to her husband and lie about having an affair and how it happened. It's appalling that this chamber is so quiet on that issue."Fallout over the allegations spilled over into national politics.A campaign ad for Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner featuring Greitens will no longer be airing, a testament to the perceived danger for Republicans in standing behind Missouri's governor. And in Iowa, where Greitens campaigned late last year, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds is facing pressure to return campaign contributions she received at the fundraiser he keynoted for her last year.Greitens had been raising his national profile since first taking office just over a year ago. He traveled the country extensively to court GOP donors, and was widely considered to have aspirations for the White House.Greitens, Missouri's first Jewish governor, is scheduled to headline the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual event in Las Vegas next month. Matt Brooks, the group's executive director, said Thursday that the organization plans to stand with Greitens."Eric is family to the RJC and as such our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family during this difficult time," Brooks said in an email. "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." 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. With elections looming, the U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday that it will review two lower-court rulings that ordered Texas to redraw 11 political districts found to be discriminatory.Texas officials appealed the August rulings, which invalidated two congressional districts and nine Texas House districts, saying they were intentionally formed by Republicans in the Legislature to discriminate against minority voters, who tend to favor Democrats.Friday's decision to combine the Texas cases and hear oral arguments in the spring came almost four months after the Supreme Court, acting on a Texas request, blocked the lower court's efforts to begin redrawing the districts to allow time to consider whether to review the rulings.The stakes in the case are high. Texas voters will choose candidates in the March 6 primaries according to the current districts, but the Supreme Court's ruling is not expected until summer, when primary winners will be campaigning in advance of the November general elections.What's more, if the court upholds the finding that the Texas maps were drawn to intentionally discriminate, the state could be required to get federal approval for changes to its voting laws.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton praised the high court's action, calling the lower-court rulings "inexplicable and indefensible" and saying they could produce electoral chaos if allowed to stand in an election year."We are eager for the chance to present our case before the U.S. Supreme Court," said Paxton, a Republican who has argued that the two Texas maps were not intended to discriminate against minority voters.Eric Holder Jr., chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and U.S. attorney general under former President Barack Obama, said the Texas case gives the Supreme Court a chance to send the message that "racial gerrymandering and intentional vote dilution is unconstitutional and diminishes the voice of minority citizens.""By ending illegal gerrymandering, we can ensure that our elected officials represent the diversity of American communities," Holder said.The yearslong fight over the state's political districts, drawn earlier this decade after 2010 census numbers were released, rose to national prominence on Aug. 15, when a three-judge federal court panel in San Antonio concluded that two Republican-drawn congressional districts violated the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act:--District 35, held by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, which the court said was gerrymandered along racial lines to provide Doggett with a Latino primary challenger and to eliminate another district with significant Hispanic and African-American populations that consistently voted for Democrats.--District 27, held by U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, which the court said was improperly drawn to reduce the voting strength of Latinos. Now stretching from southern Bastrop County to the Gulf of Mexico, the district originally extended south to Brownsville and was heavily Hispanic.In a separate ruling about a week later, the same court ordered nine Texas House districts in Bell, Dallas, Nueces and Tarrant counties to be redrawn, saying they also were created to discriminate against minority voters.Friday's action focused even sharper attention on voting rights at the Supreme Court, which is already hearing partisan gerrymandering challenges to districts in Wisconsin and Maryland, raising the potential for far-reaching changes to the way political districts are drawn.And the court's docket might soon expand. Also on Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered groups that challenged congressional districts in North Carolina -- which were struck down earlier this week for giving Republicans an improper advantage over Democrats -- to respond by Wednesday to an appeal by state officials.In Friday's announcement, the court said nothing about a related appeal by the Texas Democratic Party, which argued that the two maps should be tossed out for improper partisan gerrymandering.Even so, Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the state Democratic Party, praised the Supreme Court's action, saying it shined a light on a Republican "pattern of discriminating against Texans of color.""We will again be before the Supreme Court to examine Texas Republicans' stacking of the deck through systemic discrimination against people of color," Hinojosa said. "This is a welcome development on the eve of MLK weekend, when we should all reflect on how discrimination continues to exist." Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew White called Thursday for Texas to abolish the death penalty, saying if elected governor he will work to erase the hallmark law that has fueled the nation's busiest death chamber in past decades.Speaking with reporters after a candidate forum, White said he would commute the death sentences of condemned convicts, if given the chance, and would lobby the legislature to do away with the lethal injection law."It is a flawed system. It is not a deterrent. It does not work," White said after the forum sponsored by the Texas Tribune, an online news site. "The data says we put innocent people on death row. Our system needs to be changed."White's late father, former Gov. Mark White, supported the death penalty while in office but in recent years became an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, due in part to death-row convicts who were proven innocent during appeals and amid growing questions about whether the system was a deterrent to crime as intended.At least one other Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Tom Wakely, has announced he will seek to abolish the death penalty -- a position taken by Democrats in the past, contrasting with Republicans' support of the death penalty.During the forum, White also said he supports diverting the $800 million Texas spends for border security to education, and letting the federal government pick up the tab for securing the Texas border -- an about-face from current state policy. Description GIS 12 January, 2018 : Cheques totalling Rs 13.1 million were handed over to 228 families for casting of roof slabs under the Grant for Casting of Roof Slab of the National Housing Development Co Ltd (NHDC). The cheque donation ceremony was held yesterday at Sir Harilal Vaghjee Memorial Hall in Port Louis in the presence of the Minister of Housing and Lands, Mr Purmanund Jhugroo. The NHDC offers a maximum grant of Rs. 75,000 to households with monthly total basic salary not exceeding Rs. 10,000 for the casting of roof slabs to complete their construction. Households with monthly total basic salary between Rs. 10,001 and Rs. 15,000 receive a maximum grant of Rs. 40,000. On this occasion, the Minister saluted the efforts and hard work of the beneficiaries in putting a roof over the heads of their families. He stated that since 2015, Government has disbursed Rs 254.8 million to encourage 4,183 families in the construction of their housing unit. Minister Jhugroo reiterated Governments commitment to eradicate poverty and help low-income families and recalled the various instruments implemented to tackle poverty and support vulnerable families. They include the introduction of the National Minimum Wage; the establishment of the Negative Income Tax where instead of paying taxes, individuals earning less than or equal to Rs 9,900 per month, receive financial support from Government; and the payment of a salary compensation of Rs 360 per month across the board. The Minister also made an appeal to the population to engage in socially and environmentally responsible behaviour and avoid dumping their waste in drains and rivers. Following adverse climatic conditions, heavy rains and drains clogged with debris are causing floods in several areas. Mr Jhugroo called for a change in habits and mindset, and stressed the necessity to adopt the right approaches and attitudes to be more resilient to climate change and its impact. Code for America has reaffirmed its commitment to its network of brigades, doing so with a medium post that details how and why the groups will be so important in the coming year. The Code for America Brigade Network is a national alliance made up of community organizers, developers and designers across the country. Member groups use tech and tech-based projects in service of the communities in which they are located. The idea is that government can be improved by people who live in communities in order to enhance quality of life, and much has been made of this brigade programs future since a fundraising setback in 2016 resulted in restructuring. Code for Americas medium post, however, makes clear that the brigades will be a big part of its work and mission in 2018. 2018 is going to be a big year for the network that weve built together, the group wrote in its post. Brigades are where we as a community can make the country work for all its people. Achieving the vision of a government fit for the digital age is only possible with significant investment and commitment to cities, communities and networked localism through the brigades. The post also runs down a list of recent brigade accomplishments, noting that they have made an impact in places ranging from Asheville, N.C., to Tulsa, Okla. The post also looked back at the significance of 2017 for Code for America, describing the outgoing year as one of progress and of laying down the groundwork for impact over the next five years. San Jose Police Department puts use-of-force data online The San Jose Police Department has launched a public Web portal that allows users to access data about officer use of force, making San Jose, Calif., the largest city in the country to put such information online. The police department built this platform in collaboration with Police Strategies LLC, attributing it to ongoing efforts to make its work more transparent and also to improve relations between the police and the community they serve. The launch of the public-facing website also fits into a larger shift within the department toward data-driven decision-making, according to a press release announcing the creation of the portal The portal, in fact, provides a comprehensive risk management tool that can be used to make data-driven decisions and develop evidence-based best practices, police officials wrote in the release. The system can also be used to examine racial disparity issues providing meaningful insights for the community and actionable results for the department. The launch of the portal and the police department expressing a desire to move toward data-driven decisions fits into a larger trend taking place nationwide: public safety agencies are beginning to embrace analytics as a route to making improvements. The Tuscon Police Department recently created a new position for a crime analyst that would use the practice, while the Philadelphia Fire Department moved to hire a senior lead GIS analyst to help create an analytics team in that city, noting that it is moving toward increasing its use of data in day-to-day operations, and GIS and analytics will be a large part of this initiative. San Antonio releases list of challenges for its STiR-esque CivTechSA program San Antonio has released a list of seven challenges for its new CivTechSA program , a variation of the San Francisco-born Startup in Residence Program (STiR) that has now gone nationwide Both STiR and CivTechSA seek to bridge the gap between startup companies and city government by embedding technologists and entrepreneurs within public agencies and having them work on municipal problems. In a recent post on LinkedIn , organizers of CivTechSA announced that the city had defined the problems and ideal solutions that it would like participants to tackle. The list included projects to serve the citys animal car services department, airport, public transit, downtown event-hosting spaces, economic development agencies, department of health and human services and solid waste management department. The challenges and ideal solutions were as varied as the agencies and systems in need of help. Anyone interested in participating or obtaining more information can email the organizers at civtechsa@geekdom.com As with the STiR program, applicants will be selected to collaborate with these agencies over a 16-week period, giving the technologists invaluable insight into how to work with and sell to government, and giving the government agencies projects that can help them in overcoming long-standing obstacles. The primary difference between CivTechSA and STiR is that it is designed for cities like San Antonio that have a less mature startup ecosystem, a situation it aims to overcome by fostering student participation as well. NYU Tandon and NYC Cyber Command launch a new cybersecurity masters program New York City is now home to a cybersecurity masters degree program, launched as a joint effort between New York University (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering and New York City Cyber Command. This program, dubbed the New York Cyber Fellows, is an online initiative created in conjunction with leading employers within New York City, aiming to alleviate an acute shortage of highly-trained cybersecurity professionals that has become an increasingly relevant problem for both the jurisdiction and the rest of the nation. The program will also help answer the call issued by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose New York Works initiative seeks to add 10,000 cybersecurity experts to the citys workforce within a decade. The program offers scholarships that cover as much as 75 percent of tuition for U.S. residents, thereby bringing the total tuition of the program to $15,000, which makes it the lowest of any cybersecurity program in New York City. A more affordable degree in this field means more New Yorkers will develop the skills to defend our digital city and land a great job. Were proud to work in partnership with NYUs Tandon School to launch the program this fall and I encourage New Yorkers to apply now, said Mayor Bill de Blasio in a press release announcing the program . This is exactly the kind of program New York needs to attract companies in this fast-growing sector, and to help New Yorkers compete for those good jobs. Applications are open now and the deadline to apply for the upcoming fall semester is May 1. Appledore Inc., the makers of a homeless information management platform aimed at municipal governments, has created a set of free online tools for cities These tools are available on the website for the information management platform, which is called Outreach Grid . Outreach Grid was developed as part of the Startup in Residence program, and its developers worked with West Sacramento. These new tools for cities are largely designed to be used by public servants who work with the homeless, much as Outreach Grid is. They include client self-report tools and point-in-time count tools, which would allow homeless service organizations to conduct counts of the population in their jurisdiction digitally as well as to coordinate outreach efforts and data via mobile devices. We wanted to empower organizations to coordinate a high-level understanding of homelessness in their cities, said Appledore Inc. co-founder Tiffany Pang in a press release . Given how important this work is and how few resources there are aimed at addressing the coordination of homelessness efforts, we decided to make our entry level tools freely available to all. On Jan. 5 of the new year, emergency managers sent a letter to the FCC requesting, among other things, to allow a more precise targeting of alerts during a potential disaster and to accomplish via device-based geo-targeting and to do it before May 2019.On Tuesday, the FCC responded with a 49-page proposal, calling for device-based geo-targeting, which would send alerts to cellphones in areas targeted as small as one-tenth of a mile in radius. This would be a huge upgrade from the current Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system, which allows for targeting cellphones in a county.This and other recommendations, could be approved at a Jan. 30 meeting in Washington, D.C. If approved, the upgrades would have to take place by November 2019.Nick Crossley, president of the U.S. Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers, one of five groups, (also including the National Emergency Number Association; the National Emergency Management Association; the United States Conference of Mayors; and Big City Emergency Managers) who wrote the Jan. 5., letter, said the proposal is As much of a win as you can get, for the time being.They still have to vote on it, Crossley said. Its a pretty quick turnaround. Were still going to come in again before the hearing and wed like them to tighten up the requirements a bit, but were pleased for right now.Along with the geo-targeting, the emergency management groups are asking for multimedia alerts those that incorporate photos, videos, maps infographics, etc., to allow citizens to take advantage of current technology and improve the understandability for people with limited English proficiency.Many to one feedback was another request, which would allow consumers to respond to polling questions issued by emergency management or public safety officials about current conditions during a disaster. It would provide a more interactive response by citizens and allow officials to better respond with resources.Also requested was multilingual messaging for a broader capability to reach non-English-speaking residents.Hamilton Bean, professor at the University of Colorado-Denver, said that aside from the geo-targeting, the proposal didnt quite get at what the group was asking for. He said the proposal mentioned aligning the deadline for Spanish language with the order to increase character length from 90 to 360 but was vague in addressing some of the concerns.I think this is a step in the right direction, but I dont see it fully responding to the concerns that were raised in that letter, Bean said.That said, the geo-targeting capability is extremely important to the emergency management community. The more you are able to geo-target with increased specificity, [the more] you are going to reduce the reluctance of emergency managers to use that system because a lot of people are afraid they are going to over-alert and turn people off and the people are going to turn off the settings, Bean said.That scenario played out in recent disasters, including the Northern California wildfires where emergency managers opted not to send out alerts because of a lack of geo-targeting.We will become more dependent on those mobile emergency alerts as we go into the future and try to use every tool possible, Crossley said. Obviously the letter states pretty clearly how important this is to us. (TNS) - Ohio's Village of Geneva on the Lake fire department recently received 17 bullet proof vests.Fire Captain Andy Kaschalk said the department received the high-strength, light-weight vests at the end of December after receiving a state grant to buy them in May.We applied for them as an extra safety measure for our department, not to alarm the public, Kaschalk said. These are basically a response to the many active shooter situations that have sprung up over the last few years.He said if offered a chance to ensure the safety of its firefighters it was always better to be safe than sorry.If ever there was an active shooter situation, it would be the polices job to neutralize the shooter and our job to get wounded people out of harms way and treated, he said.Kaschalk said the vests were only for safety in situations like domestic problems, assault or when guns were on the scene.We didnt buy them to alarm the public, just to ensure safety if we ever faced a situation like that. We work in situations where safety is important. We want to be able to go home every night, he said.He said all 17 members of the fire department had been fitted for their own individual vests and were made aware of how to use them.Theyre flexible and light and look like a winter vest, he said.The vests cost $10,000, which was paid for with the Department of Commerce grant. Also as part of the grant, six sets of level 5 ballistics steel plates were purchased and will be equipped onto the ambulances. These plates also protect against rifle fire and will be available for the police department, he said.Each first responder will now be equipped with trauma packs that contain equipment like Quickclot, tourniquets, webbing and other supplies needed to stabilize and remove a patient from the scene.These trauma packs are used to control bleeding, Kaschalk said. We need these tools to stabilize the wounded in case we were ever in one of those active shooter situations.Geneva-on-the-Lake Fire Chief Tim Mills said he hoped he would never have to need the vest, but was glad to have one. He said Kaschalk did an excellent job researching the vests and getting the grant.In summer the village gets visitors from everywhere, he said. I hope I never have to put one on, but active shooter situations are in the news recently and its good to know were prepared. We want safety to be first. Its a good precaution to take, especially on certain types of calls.2018 the Star Beacon (Ashtabula, Ohio)Visit the Star Beacon (Ashtabula, Ohio) at www.starbeacon.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. LAS VEGAS Now that 54 jurisdictions have joined the FirstNet first responders network, its applications store is actively seeking developers and will soon convene technologists to work on solutions for public safety personnel, officials said at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).This March in San Francisco, FirstNet will host its inaugural hackathon for ideas to revolutionize public safety and law enforcement communication, AT&T's Prathima Simha told an audience at CES in Las Vegas. AT&T is FirstNet's service provider.This event will bring together developers, first responders, designers and creators to hack new and innovative solutions for our nations first responders, AT&T said in a statement via email after the panel discussion titledIts ecosystem, Simha said, encompasses devices and apps, and is an end-to-end system that provides resources to third parties, to create, certify, monetize and distribute apps and solutions to first responders.FirstNet SIM cards have been available to public safety agencies for some time, along with pre-emption and priority status.The next question becomes how do these FirstNet apps get to the applications store? The FirstNet Developer Program is open to everyone. Large companies, midsize, small companies. Individual innovators and of course public safety agencies to join the program, said Simha, who works in product management and marketing for AT&T.Apps will be rigorously screened for security, performance and reliability before being certified and made available. The ecosystems ultimate goal, Simha said, is to bring stakeholders closer together and enable collaboration.FirstNet has said it intends to complete its core network in March through 56 states and territories, and wrap a complete infrastructure buildout around 2020.Law enforcement officials who attended the morning session and two others on Jan. 11 dedicated to the future of public safety communications said the network and its additional bandwidth will be welcome.Current app developers in the public safety realm often promise and deliver effective products. But as Kevin McMahill, undersheriff at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told the room, the impact of deployments can be blunted by a lack of local resources and an indifference to technology.Oftentimes, what happens is in that local environment, that pipeline that comes into your local police department doesnt have the capacity to allow you to do things like take video or take pictures and get it out to the user in the field, McMahill said.This opportunity that FirstNet provides gives us an opportunity in law enforcement to be far more effective than we ever have been. To me, its just this unlimited opportunity, he added.Other speakers throughout the morning warned that officials will have to plan for warehousing and analyzing all of that data, but advancements were also a consistent theme of the gathering.Also during the apps ecosystem discussion, Nathanial Wish, founder and managing partner of Responder Ventures , a venture capital firm dedicated to funding public safety technology, announced the upcoming launch of Responder Labs, a new incubator in partnership with Amazon.The company began as venture capitalists and now has eight portfolio companies having looked at more than 400 during the past two years, Wish said in an interview. But founders have discovered the process is about more than just providing funding.Weve expanded our platform of innovation to include Responder Labs, which is our incubator platform. Were formally launching in March, our first cohort with Amazon, Wish said, confirming the endeavor is funded by Responder Ventures and sponsored by Amazon.We think that will enable people that havent been in public safety before and dont know the sales process, to educate them and bring them through a whole boot camp workshop, to help get those solutions to the first responders, he said, adding, Thats the end goal here. (TNS) WASHINGTON In a sobering reminder of a U.S. lag in the tech-based national security race against China, a panel of experts told a House committee that the country faces an uphill battle to gain dominance in the field.Among the newest challenges, Pres. Donald Trumps anti-immigrant rhetoric and a lack of focus from the White House on the technology initiatives, including artificial intelligence, are fueling worries the United States could now fall further behind, several lawmakers and experts said.This as the Pentagon remains largely occupied with fighting Americas longest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with steel, iron and people at the potential detriment of developing future weapons, one expert told a House Armed Services Committee subpanel Tuesday afternoon.Despite significant efforts by Congress and the Department (of Defense), other nation-state actors have made advances in emerging technological areas that endanger, and in some cases obviate, U.S. technological superiority, said Rep. John Langevin of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat of the subpanel. Battlefield application of Chinas technological advancements, such as hypersonic speed, artificial intelligence and cyber tools, are absolute game-changers in areas where I believe the United States must maintain superiority.The conversation marked a stark reminder of the wide list of threats facing the United States from around the world aside from the 17-year war on terrorism as well as increasing worries of a nuclear engagement with North Korea.The House Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities, which hosted Tuesdays hearing on Chinas pursuit of emerging and exponential technologies, has reviewed the countrys advances in cyber capabilities, information warfare and weapons systems such as hypersonics and so-called directed energy weapons that can involve laser-based systems.China continues to increase their research and development investments at an alarming pace, and is rapidly closing many of their technology gaps, said Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., chairwoman of the House subcommittee.The White Houses lack of attention on the China threat, and Trumps rhetoric on immigration, could be compounding efforts to keep China from gaining dominance, experts said. The rhetoric alone could drive innovations outside the United States, said Paul Scharre, director and senior fellow for the technology and national security program for the Washington think tank Center for a New American Security.I think its too early to tell whether we will see significant damage from the current administrations policies on immigration issues, Scharre said. But the cultural perception is certainly damaging. People will say look theres too much uncertainty I am going to go elsewhere.This, as the White House has yet to appoint a director to its Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP. And the offices division for national security appears to have no personnel, said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif.I am concerned, Speier said. The White House has not conveyed an alarm that this function is critical.Dean Cheng, senior research fellow with the Asia Studies Center at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, was critical of past efforts by the office to work collaboratively with China and said perhaps an empty seat is preferable. But other experts disagreed.The lack of leadership in the White House on this issue is a concern, said Scharre.William Carter, deputy director and fellow with the technology policy program at the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed.A lot of what was done in the [President Barack] Obama administration was to task people with gathering information to finding answers to some of these tough policy challenges, Carter said. I worry that at the working level they are going have no one to report to when they find answers. Those were important questions we are going to have to answer, not just for national security purposes.However, an organization shift at the Pentagon could refocus efforts on addressing the tech-based race with China, Stefanik said. This year, the Department of Defense is slated to re-establish its post for undersecretary of defense and research and engineering.It needs to be the prime mover to drive change and foster innovation within the department, Stefanik said. The threats we face from China and others demand that we energize and organize our government to ensure that policy keeps pace with technology in order to define a national science and technology strategy, and to close the gap with China.The Pentagon, for example, still faces a challenge thinking beyond the traditional defense industrial base.Their key metric is still metrics in steel, iron and people, Scharre said. If you talk to the Navy, they are going to talk about ships, the number of aircraft carriers. If you talk to the Air Force, they talk about the number of tactical fighter aircraft and bombers. The Army cares about the number of Army brigade combat teams. And those are the key metrics of national power. In World War II, that was a war won by steel and iron, right? The Allies outproduced the Axis powers. Thats not the era we are in today. Those are not necessarily the right metrics.China is increasingly relying on their own companies to advance their technological efforts, which could translate into economic gains and reduce their foreign dependency, Stefanik said.Among Chinas national-level plans, the country is aiming to achieve dominance in artificial intelligence by 2030 and has a top-down, government-driven agenda to collaborate between industry, academia and civil society, she said.There are also obvious national security implications should they corner the market on advanced technologies critical to national security, Stefanik said. But Chinas technological dominance is not a forgone conclusion. What we learn today and in future hearings must be translated into action to inform and reform the Department of Defense in support of national level efforts, so that the United States remains home to the worlds leading experts, researchers, and technological breakthroughs. (TNS) COLUMBUS, Ohio State Rep. Kathleen Clyde, a Democratic candidate for Ohio secretary of state, said Wednesday she's preparing to introduce a pair of bills designed to safeguard the state's elections against cyberattacks.Clyde spoke about the bills at the Ohio Association of Elections Officials annual conference in Columbus. She was motivated to draft the legislation after it was reported that Russia attempted to interfere in the presidential election in 2016."Many believe that this problem will only continue and we need to make sure that we are preparing for any attempts to hack our voting systems," Clyde said in a phone interview prior to the conference.Unless Clyde is able to get Republican sponsors, her bill is unlikely to get through the GOP-dominated Ohio state legislature.Clyde was joined at the conference by her likely Republican rival in the Ohio secretary of state race, state Sen. Frank LaRose. He said he would have to see Clyde's legislation before commenting on it.The federal government revealed that Ohio was one of 21 states whose election system was targeted by unknown hackers in 2016. The hack in Ohio was unsuccessful. Election officials in three states told the AP that the attempts could be linked to Russia.One of Clyde's bills would establish a cybersecurity director within the Secretary of State's Office. The director would make recommendations on how to keep elections secure in Ohio. The bill also would establish a cybersecurity advisory council, made up of volunteers from the business and technology community, law enforcement, voting advocates and elections officials from both political parties. The council would be selected by the Secretary of State's Office.The other bill would require that counties conduct elections audits: a hand count of randomly selected ballots, done to verify the accuracy of the results. Counties are currently mandated to conduct these audits because of a directive of the secretary of state. Clyde wants to put the requirement into law.It would also require all counties to use voting equipment that produces paper ballots that have been marked and doubled-checked by voters.Voters would mark the ballots by either a touch screen or pencil, and would be able to look over their selections before their ballots are cast. LINCOLN Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, who is leading the charge for major property tax relief legislation, rejected Gov. Pete Ricketts' new tax reduction plan on 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 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. LINCOLN The Nebraska Legislature rejected a bill Thursday that would have prohibited the sale and trade of ivory in Nebraska, mirroring 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 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 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 out 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. GREENSBORO Limited water service has been restored for the more than 30 business and residential customers affected Wednesday when cleaning chemicals entered a city water line. All samples collected from the main distribution line inside the impacted area in the 2600 block of Phoenix Drive came back clear, the city said today in a news release. More sampling is being conducted with results expected to be available Friday night, according to the release. Officials said customers can continue to use the water for non-potable uses such as bathing and washing clothes. If the second round of tests come up clear, full water service usage can resume. Mike Borchers with the city's water department said previously chemicals from a car wash flowed into a water line that was being repaired. He said work crews noticed green, soapy water coming from a nearby water hydrant they were using to check the water line. Borchers said the car wash has a well system that doesn't have a backflow device to prevent the chemicals from getting off the premises. The well system wasn't supposed to be connected to the city line, he said. 1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war. 2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. 3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength. 4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. 5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites. 6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. 7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. 8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. 9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress. 10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N. 11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.) 12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party. 13. Do away with all loyalty oaths. 14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office. 15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. 16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. 17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks. 18. Gain control of all student newspapers. 19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. 20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions. 21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures. 22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms." 23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art." 24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press. 25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV. 26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." 27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch." 28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state." 29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis. 30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man." 31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. 32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. 33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus. 34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. 35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. 36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions. 37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business. 38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand. 39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. 40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. 42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems. 43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. 44. Internationalize the Panama Canal. 45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD Madonna Badger said after she sued the city over the fire that killed her daughters and parents that it was not for monetary award but to try to learn why her home was hastily demolished without her knowledge, and to ensure it would not happen to someone else. That is what she has done, according to her settlement with the city, released Thursday. The document states that Badger and the city agreed to the passage of two ordinances one that requires the city to notify the state fire marshal whenever a house fire results in a death, and one mandating that the city notify the state fire marshal and the homeowner before demolishing a structure involved in a fatal fire. Badger and the city also agreed that reflective markers will be placed on all the fire hydrants in Stamford. She settled for a monetary award of $150,000 to cover legal fees. They are terms that will advance the public good, said her attorney, Frank Corso of Corso Law in Boston. The settlement is the last of three reached with the city in the fire, which killed Badgers daughters, Lily, 9, and twins Sarah and Grace, 7, and her parents, Pauline and Lomer Johnson, at her Shippan Avenue home on Christmas Day 2011. The girls father, the late Matthew Badger, brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the city that was settled last year for $6.65 million. Madonna Badgers brother, Wade Johnson, filed a similar suit on behalf of his parents, which the city settled last year for $1.35 million. The city has settled for a total of $8.15 million in the fire cases. Kathryn Emmett, Stamfords director of legal affairs, said Thursday that reflective markers have already been placed on more than half of the citys 2,000 fire hydrants, and the rest will be added soon. The Stamford Advocate reported in the days after the fire that city radio communications revealed firefighters spent several minutes looking for a hydrant when they needed another water supply while battling the blaze before sunrise that Christmas. The measures requiring state fire marshal and homeowner notifications are already in place, Emmett said. The Board of Representatives passed them as amendments to existing ordinances in November. The settlement states that fire, building and all other city departments must notify the state fire marshal whenever someone dies in a house fire. Connecticut law has left that up to municipalities, but it is now mandatory in Stamford to notify the state fire marshal, Corso said. The settlement agreement is a contract that says the state shall be notified in all instances, he said. Its a directive. If you dont do it now, you havent followed the law. Some representatives have criticized the amended demolition ordinance because they say it leaves too much discretion to the chief building official, who may make a reasonable determination that immediate action is required due to an imminent danger and order a house demolished. But Corso said the settlement requires that the state fire marshal and the homeowner be notified before demolition. The measures originate with the events surrounding the citys handling of Badgers house at 2267 Shippan Ave. following the fire. Her civil lawsuit, filed in federal district court, alleged that the city improperly disposed of her house without her permission, destroying any possible evidence, to cover up its inadequate inspections of renovation work. The city fire marshals office investigated the cause on its own, choosing not to call in the state fire marshal. The next day, the building official had the house demolished. Within another day, the debris was carted away, which was also done without Badgers knowledge. The city determined the blaze began in ashes that were swept from the fireplace and placed in the mudroom at the rear of the house. Badger, who crawled out of her bedroom window during the fire and ran along the porch roof toward her daughters rooms, has said the ashes were cool and swept from the hearth, not the fireplace. She has questioned why the electrical meter was exploding as she stood on the scaffolding outside her house, trying to get into her daughters window. She could not have the electrical meter inspected because it was carted away and dumped before she knew it was gone, Badger has said. acarella@stamfordadvocate.com. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GREENWICH Law enforcement wouldnt engage, Joette Katz remembered. It had taken weeks to even find the girl, and she was about to be sold to some creeper out of state. Then, Katz and her team found an angle. The case had a gang connection, they said, and suddenly the officers perked up. Police rescued the victim last year, just in time. At least, they rescued her in time to stop the sale. Her face had already become collateral damage. A dollar sign tattooed across her skin branded her as a commodity. She was her pimps property. Katz refrained from providing additional details about the case, including the community in which it took place, but said the girl was one of hundreds of Connecticuts kids who have endured sex trafficking. As commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, Katz identified 202 youth sex trafficking victims in 2016 alone. Of them, 184 were girls, 17 were boys, and one was transgender. Out of DCFs six regions, the largest population of trafficked youth fell in the Stamford-Norwalk-Bridgeport area, which includes Greenwich. This is going on in your neighborhood, in your backyard, Katz told a local audience on Thursday evening. At a panel hosted by the YWCA Greenwich, she and four other experts briefed listeners on youth sex trafficking in the United States, and particularly in Connecticut. The well-attended event was dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. only days before the national holiday commemorating his life. We are very proud this evening to carry on Dr. Kings legacy, said Mary Lee Kiernan, president and CEO of YWCA Greenwich. Kiernan explained that the panels primary objective was two-pronged: To provide a robust understanding of the topic, and to give a sense of what individuals can do to join the fight against trafficking. When we talk about trafficking, it is a form of contemporary slavery, said Krishna Patel, general counsel and director of justice initiatives at Grace Farms Foundation, a former federal prosecutor and the evenings moderator. I do think its the civil rights issue of our day. Patel spelled out the reality of the problem: Connecticut-based children are being raped for money. Constantly. Eight hundred kids. We can eradicate that. And we can be a model, she said. But, she continued, driving out youth sex trafficking will take a Herculean effort from an activist mass, not to mention a political will she hasnt yet seen. If you stay silent, I really feel like you are being complicit, Patel said. As an issue, sex trafficking is still fairly young, especially Stateside. Prostitution may be the oldest profession, but any real political understanding that people are being forced to provide commercial sex without consent on domestic soil is something that has only emerged in the last few decades. The first comprehensive federal law to address trafficking was not enacted until 2000. If youd asked me 10 years ago about human trafficking, I would have said that was somebody elses problem, admitted U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th, who attended part of the panel. In Connecticut, there are contradictory statutes on the books that in the past have impeded justice for victims. For example, until recently, a minor of a certain age was vulnerable to prostitution charges for engaging in commercial sex, even when an adult partner could be accused of second-degree sexual assault for having relations with that same underage person. You have to understand that she is a victim, and that shes not guilty of that crime, said Rod Khattabi, director of safety and justice initiatives adviser at Grace Farms Foundation and a former head of Homeland Security in Connecticut. However, victims often dont see themselves as such. Because of the intimate relationships pimps tend to foster with the kids they abuse, a family-like bond makes victims feel indebted to their perpetrators and skeptical of law enforcement. I work a lot of cases involving minors who associate themselves with a pimp who treats them well, and somehow they feel obligated to please him. And thats what they do, Khattabi said. Sometimes, he added, it can take days to establish trust between an officer and a victim. Occasionally, a kid will refuse to cooperate at all, as he said happened with a 14-year-old girl from the Bronx. Another huge problem is that today, pimps pedal children through popular websites like Backpage.com, and because of stipulations in the 1996 Communications Decency Act, it is nearly impossible to hold online platforms accountable. Vincent T. Nappo, who works at a Seattle-based law firm that handled a high profile civil case against Backpage, spoke about what he found on the classified-ad website after three minor victims came to his office. In 2011, there wasnt anything hidden at all. It was blatant commercial sex trafficking, he said. There was absolutely no ambiguity here. After reviewing 50,000-70,000 pages of records, he found that Backpages employees clean advertisements of obvious language that signals a child is being trafficked before posting them online. They would automatically and manually remove these indicators and then they would publish the sanitized ad, Nappo said. On Jan. 9, heads of influential Connecticut organizations, including YWCA Greenwich, co-signed a letter to Attorney General George Jepsen urging him to sue Backpage on the state level. Connecticut should not, and cannot, wait for the current Federal administration or other States to step up, but should do what it takes to fight sex trafficking here in Connecticut and bring Backpage to justice, it stated. On Thursday night, panelists asked the audience to read the letter and then contact officials to push for follow-through. For much of the audience, about half of whom raised their hands when asked if they had seen the documentary I Am Jane Doe on youth sex trafficking, information about Backpage probably wasnt all that new. But revelations about the lack of cooperation some agencies encounter when trying to prevent trafficking may have come as more of a surprise. Katz underscored one of the largest obstacles shes encountered in terms of combatting the crime. In Connecticut schools, shes a persona non grata. I think theres this perception that if I come, Im bringing it with me, she said. The Department of Children and Families has offered to provide free training in high schools to raise awareness about youth sex trafficking. But Katzs overtures have gone unheard. When Khattabi worked for Homeland Security, he reached out to high schools with the hope of speaking to students on the issue. He was constantly turned down. To Nappo, it was unfathomable that Connecticuts educational institutions would be unwilling to work with local agencies on prevention. Forget high school, the victims he advocates for are in middle school, he said. And, he continued, if an information session by law enforcement or DCF could save even one person from victimhood, that alone should be enough. After outlining some of the challenges agencies face when trying to combat trafficking, the panelists redirected their attention to how audience members could help. Jillian Gilchrest, who chairs the Connecticut Trafficking in Persons Council, said people should challenge systemic tendencies, like the over-sexualization of children and the idea that men need access to commercial sex. Khattabi told the audience to call their senators and advocate for change. And Nappo gave two courses of action: First, he said, identify local organizations fighting trafficking and pitch in. Then, he said, pull out a pocketbook and give to those parties. $100. $200. $50. Anything, he said. Katzs advice was more circumstantial. If you're standing in a hotel lobby and you see a young girl with a lot of makeup on with some credit card paying for a room, get engaged, she said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MIDDLETOWN Mayor Dan Drew on Friday announced he is dropping out of the gubernatorial race. After discussions between us and with our families, we have decided to end our campaigns for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, Drew and his running mate, Liz Linehan, said in a statement sent out just after noon. Ultimately it became very difficult to raise the required funds to qualify for public financing. Other campaigns are on their way, and we look forward to supporting the Democratic team. Drews campaign was already showing signs it was unraveling earlier this week. His campaign reported a negative balance when factoring in unpaid expenses on its most recent election filing late Wednesday night. The night before, the three-term mayor lost his seat on the Democratic Town Committee as a part of a larger coup attempt by a rival party faction. A number of that groups members have allegiances to former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, who has raised $146,000 for a potential run for governor that is seeming more likely by the day. We are proud of running an issues-based campaign focused on middle class economic equality, working peoples rights, and creating more opportunity for the people of Connecticut, Drew and Linehan said in their statement. We believe in that future because we believe in the people of Connecticut. Drew said people made more than 4,000 contributions to his campaign, and it raised $280,000 since the start of the exploratory committee in January 2017. We have appreciated that grassroots support so much, Drew said in the statement. Well continue to work for a society that protects people who need it, provides opportunity, and that doesnt exploit the vulnerable. Its been an honor to pursue that goal. The Middletown Common Council recently approved a $20,000 investigation into a gender discrimination complaint involving Mayor Dan Drew. Drew has called that complaint baseless. Drew previously had come under general criticism from both Democrats and Republicans when it was revealed he had sent letters to the homes of town employees requesting $100 donations for his campaign. The state Election Enforcement Commission is investigating that matter. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The number of high-school-aged teens who are having sex dropped markedly over a decade, a trend that includes substantial declines among younger students, African-Americans and Hispanics, according to a government report released Thursday. The survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed especially steep declines in the past two years. It adds to evidence about ongoing progress in reducing risky behavior by teenagers, who are becoming pregnant, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and using marijuana at lower rates than younger people before them, according to public health surveys. "Early initiation of sexual activity is associated with having more sexual partners, not using condoms, sexually transmitted infection and pregnancy during adolescence," the report noted. It called the falling rate of sexual activity among 9th- and 10th-graders "especially encouraging." The researchers said they could not attribute the trend "directly to any specific intervention," but experts have previously cited a number of factors, most importantly access in school and online to straightforward information about sex and contraception. Now Playing: A new study found some interesting results about today's American teenager. The developmental trajectory of adolescence has slowed, with teens growing up more slowly than they used to." Jean Twenge, psychology professor at Sandiego State In terms of adult activities, 18-year-olds now look like 15-year-olds once did. The study looked at "adult" activities from national surveys of US teens from 1976 to 2016. The rate of high schoolers having sex dropped 41 percent since 1991, and in 2016, teens were drinking less than they ever have since the 90s. The researchers concluded that the modern day American teen is way too warped up in technology, and they may prefer their smartphones over social interaction with one another. Video: Wibbitz Laura Lindberg, principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that studies reproductive rights and health, noted that the vast majority of the decline occurred between 2013 and 2015. "So we need to see if this is a short term blip or this is something that is going to continue," Lindberg said. "The drops are very large in 2015, and that raises questions of survey value." The results differ from another national survey conducted in teenagers' homes, which shows little change in sexual activity. The National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys cited in Thursday's report are conducted in school. Still, she said, the finding that ninth- and 10th-graders are delaying sexual initiation is a welcome development that most likely results from the end of federally funded school programs that taught abstinence until marriage. In 2010, she said, the Obama administration replaced that curriculum with "medically accurate" information about sex and contraception. In July, the Trump administration cut funding by more than $200 million for groups across the U.S. that work to prevent teenage pregnancy. "The big takeaway for me here is that even with the observed delay in sex, by the time they graduate high school, it's still the case that more than half of student have had sex," Lindberg said. "So we need to do what we can to encourage delay and support healthy choices" when teens begin having sex, she said. Overall, 41.2 percent of high school students reported ever having sexual intercourse in 2015, down from 46.8 percent two years earlier, the same rate found in 2005, according to the CDC's National Youth Risk Behavior Surevey. More strikingly, 48.5 percent of black students in the survey said they'd had sex in 2015, a steep drop from 60.6 percent just two years earlier, and 67.6 percent in 2005. Over the same two years, sexual activity among Hispanic high-schoolers fell from 49.2 percent to 42.5 percent. Among whites, there was a smaller decrease, from 43.7 percent to 39.9 percent. Among ninth grade boys, 27.3 percent said they had had sex, down from 32 percent in 2013 and 39.3 percent in 2005. For ninth grade girls, 20.7 percent had begun having sex in the 2015 survey, a sharp decrease from 28.1 percent in 2013 and 29.3 percent in 2005. The CDC report looked at data from 29 states that had conducted the survey and found some disparities among them. But only two--Wyoming and North Dakota--found no decline in high school sexual activity over the decade. Other reports show that teenage pregnancy and smoking hit all-time lows in 2016, with just 11 percent of teens saying they had smoked a cigarette in the previous month. Alcohol and marijuana use has also declined in recent years, though not as sharply. Admittedly hard to watch, even if they may not feel it. Photo: Adolfo Pardo/Getty Images The Swiss government has apparently considered the lobster, and decided the crustaceans must now be stunned before going into boiling water. As part of a big overhaul of Switzerlands animal-rights laws, legislators in Bern have issued a ruling that says, as of March 1, the practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water, which is common in restaurants, is no longer permitted, according to the Agence France-Presse. Citizens looking to skip the fondue and enjoy lobster Thermidor instead will have to humanely zonk them out somehow first. Animal-rights advocates argue lobsters know theyre being boiled alive. (Theres even a myth they scream, although they lack vocal cords.) But its actually a long-standing debate about whether invertebrates can feel pain, and if so, how much. Researchers often point out pain is sort of subjective, but that the lobsters nervous system roughly 100,000 neurons in size, compared to 100 billion in humans probably isnt advanced enough to do more than twitch instinctively at the stimulus of heat. Maybe not, but critics will quickly note the creatures can still look super upset when it happens: Theyll flail around, or even jab a claw into the air. The Swiss government has not made solving this quandary easy. It wants citizens to, in some form or fashion, numb their dinner before killing it. Great, you may think Ill put my lobster on ice. But not so fast: Switzerlands new ruling also forbids putting live marine animals on ice or in icy water, saying they must always be held in their natural environment. Which you could argue is ironic, considering nothing about landlocked Switzerland is natural for lobsters but its the new law either way. The government does offer two acceptable ways to prepare your crustacean for its final demise: electric shock of some kind, or the mechanical destruction of its brain. Guy Woodward: My 10 New Years resolutions By Guy Woodward 1. DRINK WHEN I WANT Particularly in the nauseatingly pious Dry January. This is not to belittle the dangers of alcohol. I have written before of the risks of the wine and spirits trade adopting such a position, and am a staunch advocate of minimum pricing which would seem the only way of the multiples actually taking some responsibility for the products they sell. But, as a consumer, I begrudge being socially pressured by the public health lobby. Now we also have Go sober in October, as promoted by Macmillan Cancer. Again, this is not to dilute the ravages of cancer or the 4% of diagnoses that are attributed to alcohol (I lost my mother to breast cancer though she was teetotal), but thats two months of the year we are being told to abstain. Whats next? Be parched in March? Stay dry in July? 2. MAKE MORE COCKTAILS I favour a cocktail as an aperitif when Im out, but rarely do I take one at home, even when entertaining. Why? Im lazy and opening a bottle of fizz seems so much easier. Amateur mixology would be more fun though and would help make some inroads into those dusty bottles of Cognac, whisky and indeterminate liqueurs languishing in the kitchen cabinet 3. SHOP AT MAJESTIC LESS My laziness isnt limited to cocktail-making. Majestic is my closest and, with parking, easiest merchant to visit, and I often use it for topping up on weeknight wines. But I cant help feeling that its range and approach has become a little pedestrian of late (more on this next month), making my intake similarly predictable. 4. OFFER MY SERVICES AS COPYWRITER FOR ENGLISH WINES PR DEPARTMENT English fizz should be the wine story of the decade and I am among its most committed supporters. But, god, its marketing material is dull. And I cant say Im optimistic that it will improve under the new banner of WineGB, headed up by a nice chap in a suit, whose CV spans B2B advertising and leading a district council. Sexy stuff. 5. EASE OFF THE WINE DINNERS This is more of a plea to PRs and event organisers, in truth. With the right guest list and a favourable seating plan, wine dinners can be more useful forums for learning than tastings, but we dont need five courses, cheese and coffee to stimulate conversation. And our waistlines definitely dont need these either. Instead, keep it short and sweet, and start earlier. (First-world problems, I know. Speaking of which) 6. DECANT MORE Almost invariably I find that a bottle half-drunk and left with a stopper in overnight offers up more interest the following evening. Decanting would fulfill the same function, but it just seems so faffy. I know I need to get over myself. Just dont tell Jane MacQuitty, who, in possibly 2017s most deluded, desperate attempt by a wine writer to position oneself as down with the people (its a close-run thing with Will Lyons byline photo) claimed that wines dont need to breathe. A bottle of wine hasnt got lungs, and all that happens when you pull the cork is you expose the wine to the air and it starts to deteriorate. Decanting is also, according to Jane, another waste of time. Dear, oh dear 7. MAKE IT TO THE END OF ONE OF ANDREW JEFFORDS COLUMNS At the risk of further alienating my fellow scribes yes, Andrew is the wine worlds most cerebral writer, and yes, his words are crafted with the elegance of a particularly ethereal Chambolle-Musigny, but come on, Andy, lighten up! The latest 1,300-word missive tackled the absorbing topic of how Catalonian secession from Spain, the British voting to leave the European Union [and] the US abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership, seeking to renegotiate both NAFTA and the Korus FTA with South Korea, and failing to progress the TTIP agreement with the EU might facilitate the flow of wine across national borders. It was, as Jefford himself admitted, tortuous, complex and problematic (OK, that was the process he was talking about, not the column). But then this is a man who tweets only in haiku. 8. BE LESS PREJUDICED In my mind, I dont like Gewurztraminer or Torrontes. Im sure there must be some good ones out there, but Ive yet to find them. To be honest, Ive rather given up looking. Which is a little blinkered of me, its true. Maybe 2018 will be the year. 9. BE MORE PREJUDICED Theres a limit to my appetite for discovery. Yes, sheep-stomach-fermented Slovenian Sangiovese is all the rage, and I really must get up to speed on Peruvian Pinot, but I like Aussie Chardonnay and Rioja, OK? 10. DELIVER THIS COLUMN ON TIME AND UNDER 800 WORDS Even if it means breaking off in the middle of (Hedgeweek) Hedge funds focused on India and China were the strongest overall performers in the hedge fund industry in 2017, according to eVestments December 2017 Hedge Fund Performance Report. Overall the global hedge fund industry experienced a strong year, returning 8.83 per cent. This is a welcome return to strong performance following the 5.7 per cent hedge funds returned in 2016 and the -0.71 per cent aggregate return the industry delivered in 2015. From a regional perspective, Asia outperformed the rest of the world in hedge fund returns, with Asia-focused hedge funds overall returning 21.47 per cent in 2017. To read this article: The problems and congestions in the public transport system are a cause of grievance at the moment, Olli Isotalo, the head of technical and environmental services at the City of Espoo, admitted to Uusi Suomi on Thursday. The City of Espoo and Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) have opened a dialogue to reduce the traffic congestions caused by the recent opening of the western extension of Helsinki Metro. Espoo, he added, naturally expects that the problems will be resolved by HSL. There are no other options. People must be able to get around both in the morning and evening. Public transport should be such that you dont have to fret about it, he stressed. The city is eager to find a solution through dialogue particularly because if the problems cannot be solved without providing supplementary transport services, it would likely have to bear most of the costs. Isotalo explained that roughly half of the costs would be covered with fare revenue, while the other half would fall on the shoulders of the municipality acquiring the services. The negotiations have yet to yield any concrete sums or proposals. Isotalo, however, estimated that a decision should be made as early as by the end of January. Im confident that well get a few proposals for proposals during the course of January. HSL said in advance that after the feeder traffic services are launched, itll gather experience for a while and then well see whats really the problem instead of following our initial hunch. Weve been focusing so far on identifying whats technically feasible: what could be done quickly and what would take more time. Once we find a suitable solution, well start looking at the costs. We arent approaching this problem with only the costs on our mind, even though theyll of course be factored in in the latter stages, told Isotalo. Rainer Kujala and Christoffer Weckstrom, doctoral candidates at Aalto University, have calculated that the opening of the western track extension and the subsequent discontinuation of bus services have added up to ten minutes to commutes from various parts of Espoo to Kamppi, Helsinki. Henrik Vuornos (NCP), a councillor for the City of Espoo, stated earlier this week that a roughly ten-minute increase in commute times is unacceptable. He argued that although the priority should be to provide feeder services to the new metro line, other options should also be on the table. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi A CHARITY volunteer who leads walks for the visually impaired was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queens New Year Honours. Alan Futter, 78, of Orwell Close, Caversham Heights, was a trustee of Reading Association for the Blind from 2000 to 2015 when he retired. He was vice-chairman from 2003 to 2008 and chairman from 2008 to 2015. He has continued to be the lead volunteer for the charitys rambling group and every other Monday he recces what route the sight-impaired ramblers will walk the following Monday. The route has to be carefully planned as sight-impaired walkers need to be able to face the challenge in order to enjoy the walk in safety with the support of volunteers. Mr Futter has also volunteered for the Chiltern Society and has helped to organise the replacement of stiles with gates in South Oxfordshire, allowing access to the countryside for disabled people. He said: Im very, very pleased but really the pleasure I get is helping the visually impaired and you get such appreciation from them. Its never a chore, you always enjoy doing it. I shall continue to do it for as long as I possibly can. My grandson is severely visually impaired and he was born like that. I felt that when he was born I really had to get involved with a charity like this. Its almost like a family they look forward very much to their walks and you get a terrific spirit with the group. The majority of my helpers are from the Henley area Binfield Heath, Woodcote and Peppard. Mr Futter, a retired rail operational manager, leads walks primarily in the Chilterns. Brian Head, of West Street, Henley, who is a member of the rambling group, said: As a totally blind person, it is an inspiration to take part in walking with such a vibrant group of individuals. Marion Haynes, community fund- raiser for the charity, said: We cannot thank our volunteers enough for their continued support of the charity. Volunteers are rewarded to see sight-impaired people fulfilling their lives and keeping active. Sight impairment can lead to isolation, loneliness and vulnerability and to be able to enjoy the countryside and form friendships is so important. If you are interested in volunteering either with the rambling group or in the Day Centre at Walford Hall in Reading, call Mrs Haynes on 0118 957 2960 or email funder1@raftb.org Thursday morning at the AAS pulled space telescopes into the spotlight with a morning press conference highlighting the work our instruments in space have helped astronomers to complete. Keith Gendreau of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center spoke about the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) aboard the International Space station, and how its data is working to provide a completely independent method for navigating deep space using the pulses received from millisecond pulsars via the SEXTANT software. These astronomical objects spin so regularly that they can be used in lieu of atomic clocks and GPS positioning for both near-Earth orbit and missions throughout the solar system and beyond. Pulsar navigation can provide either a failsafe for manned missions, or a go-to positioning option for spacecraft to improve positioning, regardless of distance from Earth. Next up was Will Clarkson of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, who showed that the Hubble can be used to peer into the galactic center and chart the motions of stars based on their chemical composition. Clarkson and his colleagues are wondering whether stars of similar composition follow similar orbits it turns out, they do and want to know what that says about stellar evolution in the bulge of our galaxy and beyond. Their ultimate goal now is to use scenarios of stellar and galactic evolution to produce properties that can be tested using observations to help astronomers better pin down how our galaxy was built. Julie Comerford of the University of Colorado, Boulder, shared a fascinating detection of a supermassive black hole inside a galaxy that has undergone two separate burps, as she called them, spewing out gas following a feast of dust and gas. These burps are not surprising, as models show that supermassive black holes should flicker like this go through a cycle of feasting, burping, and napping frequently. Comerfords group found this to be true, with this particular black hole showing evidence of a burp 100,000 years ago, then a dormant period preceding the much more recent burp. This particular black holes activity is likely related to interaction with a nearby companion, but a companion is not necessary to spur these monster black holes feasts. Our own central supermassive black hole shows evidence of these burps as well, in the giant Fermi bubbles mentioned in my blog yesterday. The mornings press conference wrapped up with a presentation by Brett Salmon of Texas A&M University on the discovery of a distant galaxy just 400 million years after the Big Bang. This smudgy galaxy is nonetheless the most resolved galaxy astronomers have ever seen at this distance, measuring about 2,500 light-years across (about half the size of the Small Magellanic Cloud) and just 1/100th the mass of our Milky Way. Followup with the James Webb Space Telescope should allow astronomers to determine whether it is disk-dominated or still too young for a significant disk component to have formed. This particular time in the age of the universe, when it was just a few percent of its current age, marks what astronomers think should be the transition from chaos to order in galaxies. Thursday afternoons press conference switched tacks to focus on molecules, dust, disks, and planets. Brett McGuire announced that the Green Bank Telescope has found complex molecules in the Taurus Molecular Cloud; the successful detection of benzonitrile in this region of cold gas marks the largest molecule discovered via radio observations to date. This molecule can be used as a tracer for polycyclic aromatic molecules, which tie up about 10 percent of the universes carbons and can combine to ultimately form organic molecules. Marc Kuchner then spoke about the beautiful and complex rings and spiral structures astronomers often see in planetary disks. These structures, which develop in the disks around young stars, are often believed to be an indication of planets forming within the disks. But, it turns out, no planets are needed to get these structures to arise only an effect called photoelectric instability, which occurs as UV light from the young star hits dust grains in the disk, knocking off electrons and causing localized heating of the gas. This result comes from simulations performed with NASA supercomputers, following 400,000 particles embedded in gas and watching how they interacted with UV light over time. Kuchner stresses that this work doesnt mean none of the structures we see in disks are due to planets, just that we cant always assume the existence of planets inside a disk that shows these patterns. Jessie Christiansen of Caltech shared details about the K2-138 system, a planetary system of at least five sub-Neptune-sized planets crammed in close to a star just a little smaller and cooler than the Sun. This system is unique in many ways, including the fact that it was the first multiple-planet system found by citizen scientists and its the first in which there is an unbroken chain of orbital resonances linking each planet. Each planet is in a nearly 3:2 resonance with the one beyond it, the largest chain of resonances like this found so far. A sixth planet candidate lies further along the chain; if confirmed, it not only continues the trend, but suggests there may be more undiscovered planets in the gaps in resonance between the last known planet and this new one. The system can now be used by astronomers to learn more about how planets migrate inward toward their star, as its clear the planets didnt form where they sit today. Finally, we heard from Giovanni Strampelli of the Space Telescope Science Institute, who spoke about the discovery of new stellar companions some stars, some brown dwarfs, and some planets around stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster. He discussed the challenges of finding companions using images of this region, and finally showed results that included some brown dwarf-brown dwarf pair, and a possible planet-planet pair (though, of course, just because an object falls within the planetary mass range, doesnt mean its necessarily a planet). This was the last press conference of the meeting, as much of the press myself included will be heading offsite tomorrow to visit the Space Telescope Science Institute and learn more about the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. I spent the rest of my day threading my way through the booths and posters in the Exhibit Hall, which was much, much bigger than the one at the summer meeting. Its been a busy meeting thus far, so Im looking forward to a slightly slower day tomorrow, even if Im pretty excited to visit STScI and learn more about JWST. HARRISBURG Marissa Faust waited all year to experience the rodeo thrills of sitting on a live horse, roping a steer and barrel racing. The 10-year-old Halifax girl did those things and more Thursday at the First Frontier Circuit Finals Rodeos annual Exceptional Kids Rodeo, a laid-back part of the 102nd Pennsylvania Farm Show. First Frontier cowboys and cowgirls escorted children with disabilities and disadvantages around the Large Arena to various rodeo activities. Our rodeo circuit has 13 states, said Kevin Clanton, president of the First Frontier Circuits Finals Rodeo. We get a lot of support from Harrisburg. We wanted to do something to give back to the community. The giving back was appreciated by the children, whose eyes sparkled with delight as they became rodeo champions for an hour. Each youngster was paired with a cowboy or cowgirl who helped them make their way around the circuit. For the fourth straight year, Marissa was paired with Olin Ellsworth of Warrensburg, New Jersey. Marissa is very special to me, Ellsworth said. She and I are buddies. That was obvious when the little girl with developmental disabilities didnt speak much but never stopped smiling at Ellsworth. When he helped her lasso a small wooden calf, she looked up in wonder. When she sat atop a simulated bucking bronc and two cowboys gently rocked the bale of hay underneath, she laughed in delight. When she sat atop a quarter horse named Jello, she gently petted his coat. Cowboy Tye Eglin of Gloversville, New Jersey, who owns Jello, smiled. I just love seeing the excitement the kids have sitting on a horse, he said. Marissa took special joy in barrel racing. She selected a pink stick horse with a white mane, straddled it and ran with Ellsworth, on his own stick horse, around three barrels. I like Olin, she whispered shyly when asked her favorite part of the rodeo. Other children seemed equally happy. Sophia Eck of Wrightsville, who has cerebral palsy and attended the rodeo in her wheelchair, did barrel racing as Alana Roth, Miss First Frontier Circuit, pushed the wheelchair. I love to see these kids having so much fun, Roth said. Parker Gilbert, 4, of Hershey, climbed aboard the bucking bronc a few times, enjoying each ride and sometimes exuberantly waving his cowboy hat to the imaginary crowd. As the rodeo ended, each child was given a cowboy hat, T-shirts and memories to last a lifetime. The First Frontier Circuit Finals Rodeo will perform in the Large Arena at 7 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday. Tickets can be purchased outside the PA Preferred Banquet Hall. Around 3:20 p.m. Nov. 29, someone struck a 9-year-old girl who was in the first block of Fifth Street in Newport and fled the scene. No further details were provided. Two buildings on Laurel Run Road in Southwest Madison Township were broken into and property including a safe box and a crossbow were stolen between 12 a.m. Dec. 25 and 8 a.m. Jan. 9. Police reported Jan. 4 that Jamie R. Cooper, 41, of New Cumberland, was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person after a domestic incident on Dec. 27 in the 400 block of Centerview Avenue. Police said Cooper had assaulted a female relative, breaking her arm and fracturing her hip. The incident happened earlier in the day before the report, but police said the victim was unable to call for help. It was only when a third person arrived that her condition was discovered. Cooper was arrested and posted $30,000 cash bail. WISE, Va. -- A West Virginia woman has pleaded guilty for grand larceny, credit card fraud, attempted credit card fraud and credit card forgery. Wendy Goad, 38, of Comfort, West Virginia was working as a substitute home health care nurse in Wise County, Virginia. While working for an elderly woman, Goad took two bags of items belonging to the victim out of her house, according to a news release from Chuck Slemp, Wise County Commonwealth's Attorney. Goad then took the elderly victim to another location and came back while the victim was not at her residence to removed more items from the house. The victim also gave Goad her bank card to buy six grocery items. However, Goad used the card at multiple locations. Specifically, Goad signed the victim's name and got $495 of items at Walmart. Goad later returned and attempted to use the card at Walmart again, but this attempt failed. Goad is scheduled to be sentenced on March 14, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. in the Wise County Circuit Court. The Farmington City Council approved a first and second reading for an agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for the construction of a J-turn intersection during regular session on Thursday. Farmington City Administrator Greg Beavers began communications with the Missouri Department of Transportation in August of last year noting the construction of a new facility with 700 jobs near the intersection of Perrine Road and U.S Highway 67 would cause serious traffic concerns for that area. Fast forward to Thursday, where council approved the $1.7 million project for the intersection improvements. The city will pay $200,000, with the grant from MoDOT in the amount of $1.2 million, along with $103,000 from the Southeast District of MoDOT. The project will go out for bid in March. Beavers applauded the cooperation of the county to approve and authorize for the portion of county land in the project to MoDOT for the speed in the time from the project was discussed to this moment. I think we did the right things. We hired a consultation to come in and evaluate that intersection. We made a case to Missouri Department of Transportation local district office and also to the state office in Jefferson City. Everybody concurred with the need Missouri Department of Economic Development did. The county cooperated with us in supporting that project also. In about the course of five to six months, were going to have this (project) out for bid, he said. To do that in the transportation world, in the state world, is a great accomplishment and demonstrates a lot of cooperation on a lot of different levels to make it happen. From my seat here in this game, I really appreciate everyones assistance in getting this done. Mayor Larry Forsythe commended Beavers for his work in getting the project off the ground. In other business, Beavers told the council he and finance director Michelle Daniel are expected to attend a meeting with other city leaders on Friday regarding municipalities placing a use tax proposals on the ballot for the collection of internet sales tax. If you look nationwide, there are a lot of local municipalities that are suffering because internet sales have shifted so much away from your sales tax growth, he said, noting news reports of major retailers such as Sears and Kmart closing brick and mortar stores. In Missouri, state legislation was passed in 2016 allowing the state to collect state sales tax on merchandise sold on the internet. Individual cities, however, are required to put the issue before voters to collect the sales tax on internet purchases. In Farmington, weve been an exception to that general rule of people seeing a decline in sales taxes because, strategically, some of the things that weve done weve still experienced tremendous growth even during the recession, he said. Our sales taxes were stable they werent growing much, but we were never seeing them fall off. The city has more than one sales tax up for reauthorization in the next few years, which include the one-fourth cent sales transportation and parks and storm water sale tax in 2020, as well as the half-cent capital improvements sales tax in 2023. I just dont know that in our position asking the voters for that additional layer on internet sales is in our best interest for Farmington, but thats a decision for council to make, he said. Were going to discuss it with the other communities. He added the administrative services committee of council will discuss the issue as well to gauge council feedback. In other business, the council approved a resolution renaming Jaycee Park on Perrine Road to Veterans Park. Mayor Forsythe noted it was his decision to bring this name change, noting the Jaycees are no longer an active organization in the community and his wish to honor those who serve the country both active and retired military. Read more about the change in the Jan. 18 issue of the Farmington Press. Council also approved an amendment to the municipal code regarding alcohol-related traffic ordinance violations adding a ban for passengers in a vehicle to have an open container. First readings by title only were held on a final record plat for property at 120 Holly Tree Lane, as well as the designation of 102 W. Columbia St. as historic property. In reports, council approved the hiring of Kris Kappler as a police officer. Council next meets for regular session at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 22. BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. The Tri-Cities Airport Authority has been awarded a $4.1 million grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportations Aeronautics Economic Development Fund, the airport authority said Thursday. The purpose of the fund is to promote job creation and investment opportunities in the aerospace industry, according to a written statement. The funds are to be used for the expansion of Aerospace Park, a 160-acre site adjacent to the airport that, when completed, will be marketed to attract firms from the aerospace industry to the region. Almost $23 million has already been invested to install utilities, construct an access road and grade 21 acres of the site. Airport Executive Director Patrick Wilson said the city and county partnership to fund the park has generated a great return on investment. The regional cooperation demonstrated by Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport, Tennessee, and Sullivan County and Washington County in Tennessee helped set the Aerospace Park initiative apart from other projects, Wilson said. This regional partnership made it possible to attract such a large grant from TDOT. In November, the mayors of Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol, Tennessee, and the counties of Sullivan and Washington signed the Aerospace Park intergovernmental financing agreement, giving Tri-Cities Airport the go-ahead to purchase $8.5 million in revenue bonds to fund the expansion. Bristol, Tennessee, allocated almost $800,000 in its budget to help fund the almost $18 million project, Kingsport will pay just over $1.5 million, Johnson City and Washington County, Tennessee, will pay almost $2 million each, while Sullivan Countys portion is nearly $2.3 million. Bristol, Virginia, a member of the Airport Authority that governs the airport, declined to participate because of ongoing financial difficulties. The airport will use $8.5 million of funding provided by the city-county regional partnership, the $4.1 million grant from TDOT and a $350,000 grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority for the next phase of the development. This is a major step forward in developing a world-class site that will attract high-quality jobs and private sector investment, Airport Authority Chairman Jon Smith said. According to a written statement from the airport, engineering work for the next phase will start immediately and site construction could start as early as September. The search continues for a suspect in a reported home invasion in Fredericktown Tuesday evening. According to the Fredericktown Police Department, officers are seeking Glenn O. Frick. He is thought to be armed with a .357 magnum revolver. Frick, 47, was last seen Wednesday morning in the wooded area behind the Fredericktown Animal Hospital on Business Route 67. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Frick. He is charged with first degree burglary and armed criminal action. A cash-only bond has been set at $100,000. According to court documents, on Jan. 9 the suspect reportedly went into a home in the 300 block of East College Street. Two women who lived there came home to find Frick inside the home. He reportedly pointed a rifle at one of the women and told her that he did not want to hurt her and just wanted her car. The report said during the incident Frick also pointed a pistol at the other woman before leaving. He took a glass piggy bank from the home that held nearly $200 in cash or coins. The police department has been in touch with Mark Wardlow of Southeast Missouri Behavior Health in order to have a health facility bed ready for Frick once he has been arrested in order to evaluated his mental state. "Once found, Frick will be immediately transported to the behavioral health hospital so that he may be properly treated for his condition," Fredericktown Police Chief Eric Hovis said. According to the police department, Frick made contact with a local man about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday requesting to use his cell phone. The resident allowed Frick to use the phone. Police were able to acquire an emergency search locator through the phone company to locate the phone. This led to the wooded area behind the Fredericktown Animal Hospital. Hovis contacted the state prison search and rescue dog team for assistance. Prior to their arrival another resident contacted authorities saying he had spotted someone matching Frick's description behind his home off County Road 262. Once the dogs began to track Frick's scent behind the Fredericktown Animal Hospital, he was spotted by authorities some 50 yards ahead of them and was last seen running in a northerly direction. The Fredericktown Fire Department assisted with the use of its thermal imaging cameras, however they were still unable to locate Frick. Searchers have not been able to use air assistance the past two days due to weather conditions. Frick was also 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 said he was spotted inside one of the company's vehicles on the back lot next to the creek. Employees said they spoke with Frick, asking if he needed any help. Frick responded saying the union is "trying to kill me." He 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. The rifle was seemingly the same one displayed in the home invasion which prompted the search. In an effort to keep the community safe, the Fredericktown Police Department has been conducting extra patrols. Fredericktown School District buildings were placed on a community lockdown for the second consecutive day. "After receiving this new information, a phone call was made to our school district," Hovis said earlier in the week. "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 (Wednesday) morning and since they had not found (Frick) yet it was decided to go ahead with the lock down," Superintendent Brett Reutzel confirmed. "It was for precautionary reasons." Hovis assured the community that resource officers are placed at the schools every day and not just when a situation like this occurs. "I along with other officers have aided in school morning drop offs and departures, and will continue to do so until the apprehension of Mr. Frick," Hovis said. "I am extremely proud of the way our school district maintains that safety is paramount for our children, no matter the inconveniences." 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. Family members have indicated 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 instead thinks someone is after him. "With the threat of extreme cold and inclement weather approaching it is believed that Mr. Frick will be seeking warmth and shelter," Hovis said. "Please remember to lock your outbuildings, homes and vehicles. If you see (him), please immediately call 911 and report it so our response teams can apprehend Mr. Frick and get him the help that is much needed." The Fredericktown Police Department is working alongside the Madison County Sheriff's Department, Missouri State Highway Patrol, Missouri Behavioral Health, Missouri Department of Conservation and the U.S. Marshal's office to bring the situation to a safe and peaceful resolve. Frick is described as 5 foot 11 inches tall and approximately 145 pounds, and was last seen wearing blue jeans and a blue hooded shirt. If you have any information on his location, contact your local police department or Fredericktown Police Department at 573-783-3660. The Daily Journal will update the story as information becomes available. BRISTOL, Tenn. Through a hands-on arts project, local residents in Bristol began talking about diversity on Thursday as part of Martin Luther King Jr. activities taking place across the Mountain Empire. About a dozen adults visited the YWCA in Bristol for the UNITY Project, an event held jointly by the YWCA, the Appalachian Peace Education Center and the Emory & Henry College Inclusion and Diversity Center. Were going through a hands-on arts project, said Alana Simmons, one of the organizers. It gets us to recognize how, even though our world may seem divisive and we have differences, there are things that bring us together in this big community. Each participant was given a list of identifiers including parent, homeowner, arts lover, gun rights supporter and gun control supporter and asked to select the labels they thought described them. One person might have selected a half-dozen of the 28 identifiers. When they were comfortable, participants would go up to the front of the group and stand in front of a peg board with identifiers placed at various points. They would then take a piece of yarn and wind it around the pegs of the words they had selected. When everyone was done, the web of identifiers had created a striking piece of artwork. We think about our identity and how that makes us unique, said Simmons, who noted that a similar project is held each year at Emory & Henry for first-year students. But then sometimes we forget that our differences kind of separate us and have us operating in these silos. The UNITY Project is intended to help visualize the makeup of the community and the various people who live there. Regardless of how you look, where youre from or what language you speak, were all just one big community, Simmons said. King, who is being remembered locally this week, focused on unity of the community, Simmons said. We just want to get people involved and get them to speak about differences in the community, Simmons said. This is something different. It gets people out of their seat. It gets people to talk about unity. Simmons said the organizations hope to host the UNITY Project again, perhaps on a larger scale. DEAR HARRIETTE: My daughter is a true teenager. Even when it is freezing outside, she doesn't want to wear a coat. All of the kids these days wear big sweatshirts instead of true outerwear. I see them and know this is their style, but I also know that when it is below freezing outside, they need to be properly dressed. I don't like forcing my daughter to do things at this age, but I don't want her to get sick. How can I get her to understand? -- Putting My Foot Down, Cambridge, Massachusetts DEAR PUTTING MY FOOT DOWN: Remember that you are the parent here. Make it clear to your daughter that she has no other option in the bitter cold than to wear her coat. These days there are lightweight coats made with new technology that are extremely warm without being bulky. If your daughter does not have a coat like that, you might consider buying her one. They are available in virtually every price range, and a lot of young people wear them. No matter what, let your daughter know that she must wear a coat on cold winter days. If she does not, you should take away privileges like her phone -- something she will truly miss. DEAR HARRIETTE: My next-door neighbors invited my husband and me to go on a trip with them to Europe this summer. They just asked because they wanted to give us enough time to prepare if we want to go. I love the idea. My husband and I have never taken a vacation out of the country. We love our neighbors, and it would be fun to go with them. My husband is nervous about the trip. He reminded me of the terrorist attacks in France and Belgium. He cautioned me about other parts of Europe, too. I pointed out that these things happen in the United States as well. I suggested that we take a risk to enjoy this moment with our friends. He is not interested. We have until the end of January to get back to our friends. How can I convince him to go for it? -- Ready for Vacay, Winston-Salem, North Carolina DEAR READY FOR VACAY: Your husband's concerns about safety are valid. It is true that there have been a number of terrorist activities in European countries -- as they have also occurred stateside. Added to this concern is the fact that your husband is not a traveler. He is probably nervous in general about going overseas. Show him photos of the places you might visit and talk about the possibilities of what you can do while you are on the trip. Tell him that you really want to go and that you would like him to reconsider the trip. Add that the best way to not give in to terrorism is to live your life to the fullest, without fear. You may want to invite your neighbors to talk with the two of you about the plans for the trip just to get your husband engaged in the discussion. Talking about it may get him to open up to the idea. 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. 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Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Aharon Appelfeld, seen in a 2010 photo in France, wrote fiction about the Holocaust but rejected the label of Holocaust writer. JERUSALEM (JTA)-Aharon Appelfeld, an Israeli author who published more than 45 books in Hebrew and won his country's top prize for literature, has died. Appelfeld, a Holocaust survivor, died early Thursday. He was 85. His most recent book was published three months ago; his books were translated into many languages. Most of his fiction dealt in some way with the Holocaust, mainly its effect on his sometimes autobiographical characters, and the beginnings of the State of Israel. He fought in Israel's 1948 War for Independence. Much of his work is autobiographical. Appelfeld rejected the label of Holocaust author, however, calling it limiting. Appelfeld won the Israel Prize for literature in 1983, and twice received the Prime Minister's Prize, as well as the Brenner Prize for literature in 1975 and the Bialik Prize for literature in 1979. He was shortlisted as a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize for 2013. He taught at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev until his retirement in 1979. Appelfeld, whose given name was Ervin, was born in the former Kingdom of Romania in an area that is now Ukraine. His mother was murdered by the Nazis when he was about 8, and he and his father were sent on a forced march to the Transnistria labor camp. Separated from his father, Appelfeld escaped the camp and hid for two years-including in the forest with a band of thieves and in the home of a Ukrainian prostitute. He then joined the Soviet Army, where he traveled to Bulgaria. Following World War II, he spent time in a displaced persons camp in Italy before joining a group of orphaned children in immigrating to Palestine in 1946. Appelfeld was reunited with his father in 1957 in Israel after finding his father's name on a Jewish Agency list of survivors. In Israel, he earned an undergraduate degree and a master's degree in Hebrew and Yiddish literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is survived by his wife and three children. Congregants from Temple Hadar Israel in New Castle, Pa., gathering at the local Tifereth Israel cemetery to bury ritual objects from their defunct synagogue, Dec. 31, 2017. Congregants from Temple Hadar Israel in New Castle, Pa., gathering at the local Tifereth Israel cemetery to bury ritual objects from their defunct synagogue, Dec. 31, 2017. NEW CASTLE, Pa. (JTA)-It was a frigid 10 degrees on Sunday, the last day of 2017, but some 20 people gathered at Congregation Tifereth Israel's cemetery in this city of 22,000 on the Ohio border. A blue tent and folding chairs had been set up for attendees, and a pit in the ground had been opened. No hearse would be arriving at this unusual burial, which was not for a person. Still, a few attendees choked up when they greeted each other with hugs and wiped tears from their cheeks. This was a subdued sort of mourning because no friend or relative had been taken from their midst. Nor was the "death" a sudden one. Indeed, the congregation had been preparing for this day for years. Deep below, the hole was lined with cardboard boxes containing yahrtzeit plaques, tallit prayer shawls and other ritual items that cemetery caretakers had carefully lowered in a few days before. The mourners had come to bury, in a sense, their synagogue. Congregation Tifereth Israel was founded nearly 125 years ago. In 1894, synagogue members lived in a busy town with a suddenly booming economy. Linked first to the canal system and later to the railroad, the population of New Castle swelled at the turn of the 20th century as the town's manufacturing base grew. Tin plate and paper mills and steel and ceramic factories brought great prosperity to the region. Ancillary businesses cropped up to support the growing population. Many of these-drug stores, department stores, furniture stores, groceries-were owned by New Castle's Jewish residents. Bright eyed and lively, Bruce Waldman told me that he was born in New Castle in 1942, and that one day he will be buried here. His plot in the Tifereth Israel cemetery is already designated. Waldman's father also was a New Castle native and is buried here. His grandfather, who was among the New Castle Jewish community founders, had emigrated from Eastern Europe via Pittsburgh, 50 miles south. When Waldman was a boy in the 1950s, the town's population reached its peak of 48,834. At the time, the Jewish community boasted two synagogues, the Reform Temple Israel joining Tifereth Israel, with 300 to 400 active families in total. As the economy changed in the 1960s, New Castle's population dwindled, along with so many other Rust Belt cities. By 1990, the numbers had dipped to 28,334 residents; today the number stands at about 23,000. Those looking for a more robust Jewish community for their children went elsewhere. Others simply moved away for better economic opportunities. Waldman's two sons left for college and never returned. One now lives in Sydney, Australia, and the other in New York. Faced with shrinking numbers, the town's two Jewish congregations merged in 1997. The newly named Temple Hadar Israel operated out of the Tifereth Israel building and remained affiliated with the Conservative movement. The consolidation helped retain some vibrancy. Still, as the population continued to age and young people became scarce, it became difficult to gather a minyan, or quorum, for Shabbat services. Members began to consider the possibility of winding down synagogue operations. "We never ran out of money," Sam Bernstine, the congregation's president said, "but we ran out of people." About five years ago, Temple Hadar Israel members reached out to the Jewish Community Legacy Project, or JCLP, an organization that works with small, dwindling congregations to help insure their legacies. A partnership of the Jewish federations, the Reform and Conservative movements, and two national Jewish historical societies, the JCLP helps congregations preserve historic documents, catalog and dispose of ritual objects, create oral histories and divvy up assets. JCLP says it has worked with 50 such communities and identified 100 more that meet its criteria for assistance. Bernstine cares deeply about the congregation, which helped raise him after he lost his mother to cancer when he was 9 years old. His loyalty, though, never got in the way of his pragmatism. "Do you want a dignified end?" he asked his fellow congregants. "Or do you want the last person left to have to shut off the lights?" Bernstine said his goal was to have the congregation face its own end in a "respectful manner," to be "in control of our own destiny." Step by step the synagogue divested of its material assets. The congregants sold the building, with the agreement that they could rent backspace from the new owners and continue to meet in the sanctuary. They donated their synagogue records, photographs and a few ritual items to the Rauh Jewish History Archives at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, the Klau Library of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the Lawrence County Historical Society. The yahrtzeit plaques posed a more delicate problem because each of them has a connection to a particular person. Members who still live in New Castle claimed their family members', and efforts were made to locate relatives of those who grew up in New Castle but were now scattered across the country. Whoever took control had to face the question of what to do with the plaques. "I am not going to throw them out, but I don't want them hanging in my living room," one woman told me, speaking about her parents' plaques. She placed them in a box and keeps them in her basement. Alan Samuels took his parents' plaques to the cemetery and affixed them into their headstones. Temple Hadar's nine Torah scrolls went to congregations across the world to help those struggling to get by and reinvigorate others. One went to the new Progressive congregation Beit Centrum Ki Tov in Warsaw and another was sent to a tiny community in Indonesia that recently revived its connection to the Jewish world. One went to a Houston congregation that suffered damage in the recent floods. Other recipients included a Reconstructionist congregation in Cleveland, a Reform temple in South Carolina and three summer camps. Next month, the last remaining scroll will be donated to the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh amid a weekend of festivities. Even with the great care to find a home for each ritual object, some remained orphaned. Among them were prayer books, prayer shawls, curtains for the Torah ark and many unclaimed yahrtzeit plaques. Rather than dispose of them, a burial was planned. On Dec. 30, the members of Temple Hadar Israel held prayer services in their sanctuary for the last time. Every person was called to recite a blessing during the Torah reading-an honor known as aliyah-and people offered reflections at the final kiddush lunch. The following day, congregants drove through the snowy cemetery grounds to the pit that held the last of their items. Their part-time rabbi, Howard Stein of Pittsburgh, was not in attendance, as his own father had passed away the day before. I attended as part of my research into what congregations do with their material objects when they merge, downsize or shut down. A few weeks prior, Stein told me that his plan was to conduct the ceremony like a funeral. In his absence, the event was brief, ad hoc and raw. One man read a passage about the Cairo geniza, a famed storehouse of centuries of damaged Jewish texts and ritual objects. Another man spoke about honoring the word of God in the same way that we honor a deceased person. The ground was too cold to shovel dirt. Instead, congregants took hold of a few final items-including the prayer books that had been used for Shabbat services the day before-and together tossed them into the hole. Alanna E. Cooper A hole at the cemetery was lined with cardboard boxes containing yahrtzeit plaques, tallit prayer shawls and other ritual items from the once vibrant synagogues in New Castle that merged to form Hadar Israel. To close the ceremony, Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program and Archives, offered a few words of reflection on the verse from Ecclesiastes: "There is a time for scattering stones and a time for gathering stones." Although Temple Hadar Israel has disbanded, Lidji explained, its stones have been gathered in the archives and here, too, in the cemetery. "These are big things that say 'we are here' and 'we belong here,'" he said. The markers convey that "everything that happened here matters, and will continue to matter." As Lidji concluded, someone in the huddled group spoke up. "Shall we say Kaddish?" this person asked, referring to the Mourner's Prayer. Their prayer books were in the pit, but everyone seemed to know the words by heart. They recited the prayer together, memorializing their shared past, their last act as a congregation. Final hugs were exchanged as the group dispersed with lowered heads. They returned to their cars, driving in a procession up the snowy hill and out of the cemetery. Alanna E. Cooper is director of Jewish Lifelong Learning at Case Western Reserve University and an adjunct assistant professor in its Department of Anthropology. In all, 3,633 North Americans immigrated to Israel among some 29,000 total new immigrants in 2017. TEL AVIV-As a group of well-wishers waved tiny Israeli flags and shouted "Welcome home," Diane Hewitt of Hoboken, New Jersey, stepped off the El Al jet that had just flown her to Tel Aviv from New York, cradling her 8-year-old blind beagle, Annie, in her arms. A retired jewelry industry executive, Hewitt, 65, had always dreamed of moving to Israel, but she didn't want to leave behind her daughter, Sarah. But after Sarah herself immigrated to Israel a year ago and married an Israeli, there was little to keep Hewitt in her city across from Manhattan. "I came to Israel for the first time in 2014, got off the plane and fell in love," Hewitt said as she petted Annie, who had accompanied her as an ESA, or emotional support animal (Hewitt has Parkinson's disease). "You feel at home, and everybody is family. It's a feeling like no other." Hewitt arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Dec. 27 along with 92 other new immigrants aboard the last of 19 Nefesh B'Nefesh "aliyah flights" in 2017. The specially designated flights brought the total number of immigrants to Israel from the United States and Canada to 3,633 for the year. Overall, about 29,000 immigrants from around the world arrived in Israel in '17. The last year has seen a noticeable shift in the types of immigrants coming to Israel from North America, according to Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, co-founder and executive director of Nefesh B'Nefesh. The nonprofit organization works with Israel's Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, The Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL) and JNF-USA to facilitate Jewish immigration to Israel from the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Over the last year, there has been a rise in the number of single, non-Orthodox young adults moving to Tel Aviv, Fass said. About 65 percent of Americans and Canadians immigrating to Israel as families consider themselves Orthodox, while approximately 60 percent of single olim are non-Orthodox, he noted. Most immigrants move to locales with strong English-speaking communities, such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Modiin, Beit Shemesh and Raanana. But a growing number are finding homes elsewhere. In 2017, Nefesh B'Nefesh launched "Go Beyond," an initiative organized in partnership with KKL to encourage new immigrants to settle in Israel's less densely populated northern and southern regions. Hundreds answered the call. All told, last year's 3,633 arrivals from North America-ranging in age from 5 weeks to 102 years-included 377 families, 677 children, 358 Israeli soldiers, 54 doctors and 16 psychologists. Broken down by state and province, they came mostly (in descending order) from New York, California, New Jersey, Florida, Ontario, Maryland and Quebec. Then there were those who, like Betsy and Michel Messeca of Albuquerque, New Mexico, hail from places not known for having large Jewish communities. Betsy, 72, is a fifth-generation New Mexican whose German Jewish ancestors settled in the Southwest in the 1860s. Michel, 76, was born in Cairo, left Egypt in 1957 and moved to France. The couple met in Paris. Upon retirement, they moved to Albuquerque. Then, in the waning days of 2017, they picked up once more and moved to Raanana. The year's last aliyah flight also included Aviya Johnson, a 40-year-old African-American school nurse from Oakland, California. A longtime member of Congregation B'nai Israel in nearby Vallejo, Johnson said she decided to make aliyah with her daughter, Shmira, because "in America, there are so many things that hinder us as Jews, so many barriers wrapped around our daily lives." Johnson plans to live in Karmiel, a northern town. Among the other popular destinations in northern Israel in 2017 were Safed, Zichron Yaakov and Tiberias. The top choices for those settling in the south were Beersheba, Ashkelon, Eilat, Ofakim and Mitzpe Ramon. "We want to make sure individuals in the Diaspora know there are options and real opportunities in areas that they might not have explored," Fass said. He noted that smaller towns in northern and southern Israel are "far more affordable than Tel Aviv or Jerusalem." Since its founding in 2002, Nefesh B'Nefesh has brought nearly 55,000 people to Israel from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. December's most recent arrivals included Phyllis Zur and her Israeli-born husband, Nitzan, of West Orange, New Jersey. "I had a lifelong dream to become a citizen of Israel," Phyllis Zur said. "It's taken me until now, at age 72, to realize it." "I believe Israel is the insurance policy of the Jewish people," she added while waiting for her luggage. "I want to be an example to my grandchildren." This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with Nefesh B'Nefesh, which in cooperation with Israel's Ministry of Aliyah, The Jewish Agency, KKL and JNF-USA is minimizing the professional, logistical and social obstacles of aliyah, and has brought over 50,000 olim from North America and the United Kingdom in the past 15 years. This article was produced by JTA's native content team. Sam Glaser, one of America's foremost composers, performers and interpreters of Jewish music will be visiting Central Florida Jan. 19-21 as the Artist-in-Residence at Temple Israel and Temple Shir Shalom in Winter Springs. Both congregations invite the community to attend four events: A Reform-style musical service and festive oneg on Friday, Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. (no charge); A Conservative-style musical service followed by kiddish and study with Glaser on Saturday, Jan. 20, at 10 a.m. (no charge); a Gala Concert presented by Temple Israel with Temple Shir Shalom on Saturday, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m. (tickets for purchase); and a free family concert on Sunday, Jan. 21 at 12:30 p.m. Glaser was born in 1962 to a Jewish family in Los Angeles and was composing and performing by the age of seven. He recorded his first full-length album by age 11. He graduated the University of Colorado with a B. A. in business and a minor in music. He also attended the Berklee College of Music and the UCLA Film Scoring Program. Glaser has released 24 albums as well as four collections of lyrics and poetry, four musicals, five sheet music songbooks of his Jewish music and an SATB choral book, "Kol Haneshama." He performs annually before thousands and has toured the world over, and has won Parent's Choice, John Lennon, and International Songwriting Competition awards. He produces music through his own record company, Glaser Musicworks, as well as producing scores for film and television. He has also produced albums for other recording artists. In 1995, Glaser was appointed music coordinator for the department of Continuing Education at the American Jewish University where he supervised the music curriculum and directed the Cultural Arts program. Glaser performs for a wide array of audiences, from those in the Reform and Conservative movements to the Modern Orthodox and Chassidim. He has performed at the top Jewish national conventions including General Assembly, Limmid, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Coalition for Advancement of Jewish Education, Cantors Assembly, URJ Biennial, Orthodox Union and Hadassah. Glaser is gifted in his work with young people. He acted as director of the renowned Yad b'Yad Youth Theater Troupe, music specialist at Camp Ramah, music director for the JCC Macabee Games and as music director for the Brandeis Collegiate Institute. He also frequents religious school retreats, NFTY, USY and NCSY at collegiate Hillel Houses. Glaser lives in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles with his wife, Shira, and children, Max, Jesse, and Sarah. Central Florida is so privileged to see Glaser in concert this year, thanks in part to a grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando. Visit or for ticket purchase information. Temple Israel is located at 50 South Moss Road, Winter Springs, Fla. 32708. PARIS (JTA)When Delphine Horvilleur, Frances best-known female rabbi, began appearing regularly in the media, her friends and relatives feared it would expose her to threats or attacks by anti-Semites. Several years later it appears they were only partially wrong. Horvilleurs media profile does invite hate speech and abuse onlinebut mostly from other Jews. Following a reference to Jerusalem during a television interview last month, Horvilleur, 43, has again become the punching bag of the local branch of the Jewish Defense League and a vocal minority of ultra-conservative Jews. She says they are feeling emboldened in a community that is shifting rightward and curling inward amid lingering security fears and feelings of abandonment by authorities. Stopping short of threatening to harm her physically, several dozen individuals have written a series of hateful statements against Horvielleur on far-right sites, Facebook and other social media following a Dec. 25 interview about Jerusalem for the France Inter broadcaster. In the interview, she said that Jerusalem should not be used a political pawn by any party although it is Israels capital. She also said the city may become a Palestinian capital as well pending negotiations. That rather mild disagreement with those who think Jerusalem is unequivocally and indivisibly a Jewish capital led the French Jewish Defense League, or LDJ, to accuse her of stabbing Israel in the back. On its official Twitter account on Dec. 27, the LDJ wrote: The scum Delphine Horvilleur proudly displays her Kapo credentials. Unfortunately, Jews didnt have a choice during the Holocaust. But this liberal, left-wing excrement is a disgrace to our community. DelphineHorvilleurshameful Jewess! Kapos were Jews who worked for the Nazis as police officers inside ghettos and camps. A far-right activist called Yosh Nakache sent Horvilleur a threatening text message warning that unnamed people would come and explain to you loud and clear to stop speaking for the real Jewish people instead of your made up liberal one, adding The more you speak out, the more escalated the reaction will be. Reviled by some of her detractors for being a woman rabbione of the recent posts called on her to return to the kitchenand by others for being a left-leaning Jew, this has been the most intense episode of incitement against Horvilleur, already a longtime favorite target for a handful of French Jewish provocateurs. Horvilleur, an author of several books on theology, is the editor of a Jewish magazine and a married mother of three who lives in the heart of this capital city. She said she has not filed a police complaint, but is considering how to proceed. Im not going to assume a victim role here, so, yes, I feel safe and wont be intimidated, Horvilleur said. The incitement against Horvilleur isnt an uncommon reaction in a community where many feel on edge. A wave of anti-Semitic and Islamist attacks has caused thousands of French Jews to leave and is exposing those who remain to the worst security threats experienced by their community since the Holocaust. Jews with extreme views on the right as well as the left regularly come under vociferous attacks by coreligionists for their perceived betrayal This happens regularly to Eric Zemmour, a Jewish historian cherished by the anti-Semitic far right and some on the far left for his defense of French citizens who collaborated with the Nazis. Or Rony Brauman, a former president of Doctors Without Borders and a pro-Palestinian activist who in 2016 said, when commenting about the stabbing of an observant Jew in Marseille, that wearing a kippah is after all also a sign of a kind of allegiance to the policies of the State of Israel. But the attack on Horvilleur was different because, despite being a Reform rabbi in a community that is predominantly Orthodox and increasingly conservative, she is a mainstream leader of French Jewry, with strong pro-Israel credentials. Horvilleur was invited last year to officiate alongside the Orthodox chief rabbi, Haim Korsia, at the funeral of Simone Weil, a Holocaust survivor who became health minister and one of Frances most influential politicians. Though it was not Korsias choicehis office attempted to downplay Horvilleurs role at the funeralthe ceremony was nonetheless an interdenominational first in France. The statements she made during the France Inter interview were no exception for Horvilleur, an eloquent speaker whose observations and wry sense of humor have helped make her MJLF Beaugrenelle congregation one of the best attended in Paris, with hundreds of families filling the synagogue to capacity on holidays. Jerusalem is being instrumentalized on all sides today, Horvilleur said in the interview when asked about President Donald Trumps Dec. 6 declaration that the United States recognizes the city as Israels capital. Trump declared something which is an administrative reality. For Israelis, Jerusalem is today the incontestable capital of their country, but this lacks a certain broader vision. For some, she added, it became almost a theological assertion, as though Donald Trump suddenly became a pope or a great rabbi. In others it triggers the desire to contest Israels legitimacy to exist under any circumstances Asked whether Jerusalem could also become the capital of a Palestinian state, Horvilleur gave what she acknowledged in an interview to JTA was a cautious answer. It could, yes, there would need to be reflection on a solution that takes into account the attachment of everyone to the citywhich doesnt change the fact that today, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, she told the France Inter interviewer. Following the incitement against Horvilleur, the CRIF umbrella of French Jewish communities published a statement stating that it condemns the hateful remarks against Horvilleur, adding that those who made them should be prosecuted and convicted. But the statement did not indicate that the hateful messages were by other Jews. The Liberal Union of Jews in France, or ULIF, denounced the incitement in a statement that noted the hate speech came from within the community and that the Jewish tradition is unequivocal in its disapproval of such rhetoric. Nearly 2,000 people joined a Facebook group titled Supporting Delphine Horvilleur just two days after it was created. But the Consistoire, the organization that represents most of Frances Orthodox synagogues, has not spoken out on the issue. It seems that this fringe minority suddenly is succeeding in getting away with its actions as the still majority stays mum, Horvilleur said. That may be a result of lessons learned from the last time the Consistoire waded into an acrimonious internal debate between ultra-conservatives and an outspoken female spiritual leader to many French Jews. In June, a rabbi from Marseille harshly criticized Liliane Vana, a philologist and expert on Jewish law, for her role in organizing a seminar at a local Jewish community center that featured women reading the Torahan action that some Orthodox Jews believe is sacrilegious. As the Consistoire gingerly attempted to walk back the harsh verbal attack, the event escalated into a scandal. It prompted two small demonstrations by young Orthodox men and a slew of insults and threats by other French Jews, in Marseille and beyond, all critical of Vana That rather banal statements trigger such an outpouring of hate is a sign of how intolerant our Jewish community has become to respectful disagreement, which is the essence of Jewish democratic values and thought, Horvilleur told JTA. French Jewry is ill, and only it can cure itself. JERUSALEM (JTA)International Jewish student leaders will launch an international anti-Semitism awareness campaign on campuses worldwide and vowed to reject any attempts to deny the Armenian genocide. The World Union of Jewish Students at its 44th World Congress, a five-day assembly that ended Monday, also aimed to seek partnership with organizations fighting for religious pluralism in Israel and committed not to work with members or affiliates of Austrias populist Freedom Party, or FPO, which is part of the new government coalition. The group said it would boycott FPO officials. Some 157 Jewish college students from 36 countries served as delegates to the congress. The students came from Eastern, Central and Western Europe, North and South America, Australasia, South Africa, India, Turkey and Israel. The group declared March Anti-Semitism Awareness Month and laid the groundwork to coordinate its campaign in partnership with a number of government ministries and campus organizations. At its general assembly, which was part of the congress, the WUJS elected a new president: Avigayil Benstein, 24, is completing her undergraduate degree in international relations and Middle East studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She was born and raised in Israel, and served as a foreign press liaison in the European desk of the Israel Defense Forces spokespersons office. Benstein, the daughter of WUJS alumni from the United States and the United Kingdom, succeeds Yosef Tarshish, 26. The American Union of Jewish Students voted in the election for the first time after being promoted to partial member from observer status. The resolutions on FPO and the Armenian genocide were among a number of binding policy motions passed at the General Assembly. The one on Austria declars against the normalization of right-wing extremism in light of the formation of the new government in Austria that includes FPO. WUJS resolved to remember the Armenian genocide, and to condemn and reject any attempt to deny, distort or ignore its historical reality. Another resolution called to raise consciousness and encourage public discourse on matters of Jewish pluralism in the State of Israel, and to seek partnership with organizations fighting for religious pluralism in Israel. WUJS is the international umbrella organization supporting independent Jewish student associations all over the world. It was established in 1924 by Hersch Lauterpacht, and previous WUJS leaders include Albert Einstein, Chaim Bialik, Sigmund Freud and Chaim Weizmann, as well as David Ben-Gurion, and A.B. Yehoshua. Super Bowl Sunday is just weeks away. That means the annual World Wide Wrap sponsored by the Mens Club of Congregation Ohev Shalom is just weeks away as well. Each year, Mens Clubs from Conservative and Masorti synagogues throughout the United States and beyond present this Federation of Jewish Mens Clubs program to encourage greater participation in the ancient and deeply meaningful ritual of wrapping tfilin. This year, Ohev Shalom Mens Club member and Jewish Academy of Orlando Head of School Alan Rusonik will start the morning with a new presentation. As Rusonik explains it, those who attend will have the opportunity to learn how tfilin is made, examine the inside of the tfilin, and talk about its meaning and significance. Following the presentation, Rabbi David Kay will guide participants in the mechanics of wrapping tfilin as an introduction to the Sunday morning minyan service. An elaborate breakfast will be served at the conclusion of the service. Three Mens Club members will then step forward with a surprise dramatic program to get everyone in the mood for the big game later that day. The program will be held at Congregation Ohev Shalom, 613 Maitland Concourse Parkway South in Maitland, starting at 9 a.m. sharp on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. Admission is free, but donations at the door are welcome and appreciated. The Palestinians rejected President DonaldTrump's threat to cut US aid to the Palestinian Authority over its refusal to return to the negotiations table, saying their "rights are not for sale." Trump tweeted Tuesday that "we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don't 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?" he stated on Twitter. Earlier, at a press conference at the United Nations, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley made similar remarks in response to questions about the future of US aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. "The Palestinians now have to show to the world that they want to come to the table. As of now, they're not coming to the table but they asked for aid. We're not giving the aid, we're going to make sure that they come to the table and we want to move forward with the peace process," she said. Trump "doesn't want to give any additional funding, or stop funding, until the Palestinians agree to come back to the negotiation table, and what we saw with the [UN Jerusalem] resolution was not helpful to the situation," Haley said. "We're trying to move for a peace process, but if that doesn't happen, the president is not going to continue to fund that situation." PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi described Trump's tweet as "blackmail." "We will not be blackmailed," she said. "President Trump has sabotaged our search for peace, freedom and justice. Now he dares to blame the Palestinians for the consequences of his own irresponsible actions." Ashrawi charged Trump with violating international law, saying he "single-handedly destroyed the very foundations of peace and condoned Israel's illegal annexation of the city" by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel capital last month. The Palestinians announced on several occasions that they have abandoned the US-led peace negotiations after Trump's declaration on Jerusalem and instead will act to obtain full Palestinian United Nations membership, seek further Security Council resolutions and prosecute Israel at the International Criminal Court. These moves are meant to "face all these [US] plans aimed at liquidating the Palestinian national project," Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Tuesday. Such moves breach the Palestinians' obligations under 1993 Oslo peace accords. WASHINGTON (JTA)Efforts by the Trump transition team to kill a 2016 UN Security Council resolution slamming Israels settlement policies were more widespread than was previously known, according to a Wall Street Journal report The report Friday said the effort encompassed a number of transition officials beyond Michael Flynn, the national security adviser-designate who was previously known to have made the effort. Also involved in the effort were Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, who directed Flynn to make the calls, and Nikki Haley, the designated ambassador to the United Nations who put in a call to her outgoing counterpart, Samantha Power. In November, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about a call he made to the Russian ambassador at the time asking him to stop the December 2016 vote. Flynns wrongdoing rests in the lie, not in the actual call. Kushner is believed to be a target of the same federal investigative team that extracted the guilty plea from Flynn. The team, led by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, is looking into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and transition teams and Russia. Flynn quit as national security adviser after serving only several weeks because of questions about his contacts with Russian officials. Some observers have said that the Trump teams intensive foreign policy moves during the transition may have violated the Logan Act, a law on the books since the 18th century that has never been successfully prosecuted. The law, which bans private citizens from conducting foreign policy, is now widely considered unprosecutable, especially when transition officials are involved, as they may be considered employees of an incoming government. The Trump team made the effortultimately unsuccessfulat the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Obama administration did not vote for the censure, but also did not use the U.S. veto to stop the resolution. It was the only time in two terms that the Obama administration had allowed through a UN resolution opposed by Israel. (JTA)-If a Palestinian appears to be committing a terror attack, do they deserve to die on the spot? The answer is yes, says Michael Oren. The former Israeli ambassador to the United States, now a deputy minister in Israel's Cabinet, tweeted last week that the Israel Defense Forces should change its rules of engagement, such that soldiers should "shoot to kill" suspected terrorists, instead of just incapacitating them. "Soldiers who catch terrorists while carrying out attacks must be ordered to shoot to kill not neutralize," Oren tweeted Dec. 27. "Soldiers responding to terror attacks cannot determine if terrorists are neutralized, as the current open-fire order states. Soldiers are not doctors. But they must ensure that the terrorists pose no further threat." Oren's comments touch on a debate that has coursed through Israeli society since 2015, when a wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks swept across Israel and Israeli forces killed many of the assailants. The debate intensified in 2016 when an Israeli soldier killed a terrorist who was already incapacitated or, in IDF-speak, "neutralized." But Oren has a problem with just "neutralizing" attackers. Soldiers, he said, lack the necessary expertise to know when an assailant can no longer cause harm, and killing is the only definite way to remove the threat. In his tweets, and again while speaking to JTA on Tuesday, Oren raised the example of Omar al-Abed, who was convicted last week of murdering three Israelis in a July attack on the West Bank settlement of Halamish. Al-Abed was neutralized, but then tried to attack the Israeli paramedics who were treating him following the attack. "When the medics came to attend to him, he jumped up and could have killed them," Oren told JTA. "A young soldier in the middle of a terror attack is not a doctor. Even the term [neutralized] is very vague, highly subjective and non-medical." Before becoming Israel's ambassador to his native United States in 2009, Oren was a preeminent historian of the Middle East and Israel. He ended his term as ambassador in 2013 and was elected to Knesset two years later as part of the center-right Kulanu party. Oren's position appears to contradict the IDF's own code of ethics, which instructs soldiers to treat civilians with dignity and to "do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property." Asa Kasher, one of the code's co-authors, wrote in the Forward in 2016 that terrorists should be treated as civilians, not as enemy soldiers. "Soldiers are required to treat a terrorist wielding a knife as a criminal, not as an enemy in a battlefield," wrote Kasher, a philosophy professor at Tel Aviv University. "The terrorist's attempt to kill or injure ought to be foiled, but killing him is sanctioned only if there is no effective alternative-only if it's a last resort." Even the IDF's own chief of the general staff has urged soldiers to show restraint, saying in 2015, "The army cannot speak in slogans such as 'kill or be killed.'" Oren, who also was raised in the U.S., disputed the idea that "shoot to kill" runs counter to the code of ethics. He said he is only advocating the measure when terrorists are clearly in the midst of an attack. Determining whether someone is committing terrorism, Oren said, is easier than determining whether they are neutralized. "You see the person shooting, you see the person stabbing," he said, adding that when he served in the Israeli army, "We were taught to shoot to kill in overcoming a Syrian position. That threat is not eliminated until the terrorist is eliminated." Oren isn't alone in advocating deadlier measures for terrorists. Avigdor Liberman, Israel's defense minister, wrote on Facebook in 2015 that "no terrorist should come out of an attack alive" and has sponsored a bill making it easier to sentence terrorists to death, which passed an initial Knesset vote on Wednesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advocated the death penalty for al-Abed, the Halamish terrorist. In July, al-Abed stabbed three family members to death in their home as they were eating Shabbat dinner. The military advocate general may seek the death penalty, but is not in this case, instead requesting four consecutive life sentences for al-Abed. Only one person has been sentenced to death in Israeli history: Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Holocaust. Oren told JTA that he is "ambivalent" about a bill mandating that terrorists receive the death penalty, but said that "shoot to kill" would solve the problem and would be supported by most Israelis. "That should be the standing order if you see someone in the midst of a terror attack," he told JTA. "Israelis themselves don't understand this notion of neutralization. During the stabbings there hasn't been a big outcry over 'We should be trying to save these guys.'" At a press conference at the United Nations on Tuesday, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley fielded questions about the fate of US funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, the primary UN agency responsible for funneling aid to the Palestinians. In a video posted by Reuters, Haley responded to a question regarding whether the US would continue to fund the agency in light of the Palestinians threat to unleash all the weapons we have in the UN, by saying, [President Trump] doesnt want to give any additional funding, or stop funding, until the Palestinians agree to come back to the negotiation table, and what we saw with the [UN Jerusalem] resolution was not helpful to the situation. Were trying to move for a peace process, but if that doesnt happen, the president is not going to continue to fund that situation, Haley emphasized, without clarifying whether the term situation referred specifically to UNRWAs operations. Haley stressed that the US seeks the resumption of the peace process, stressing, The Palestinians now have to show the world they want to come to the table. As of now, theyre not coming to the table, but they ask for aid. Were not giving the aid, were going to make sure they come to the table and we want to move forward with the peace process. Haleys responses were provided against the backdrop of an announcement in December that the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israels capital and plans to move its embassy there, which was met by a UN resolution condemning the move. The Palestinians announced shortly thereafter that the US will no longer play a role in mediating an agreement with Israel. NEW YORK (JTA)JTA doesnt give out Person of the Year honors, but if we did Id be tempted to nominate Michael Kadar, the Israeli-American teenager accused of making hundreds of bomb threats against Jewish community centers in early 2017. As I wrote soon after his arrest: [T]he JCC bomb threat hoax wasnt just an isolated swastika daubingit was an ongoing story affecting Jewish institutions in nearly every American Jewish community. It shaped a communal narrative that something ugly and insidious was happening out there. And it fueled a political crisis among most American Jewish organizations and the White House, with the former accusing the latter of taking too long to denounce anti-Semitism and to comfort Jews traumatized by the bomb threats and at least two major cemetery desecrations. Kadar, 18 at the time of his arrest in April, deserves the dubious distinction for another reason: He personifies a Jewish question, perhaps the Jewish question of 2017, which is, How do you define anti-Semitism? Kadars circumstances are of course peculiar to him, asking if a series of hoaxes that terrified Jewish institutions stop being anti-Semitism because the caller is Jewish. The question I am talking about is both semantic and political, pitting left against right on at least two battlegrounds. The first is the college campus, and the second is the national political scene. On college campuses (and wherever the fight against the Boycott Israel movement is engaged), groups intent on fighting anti-Israel activity often insist that Israels enemies are anti-Semitic, certainly in effect, and usually by intent. They point to slogans and imagery that draw on age-old stereotypes of Jewish control and collusion. They ask why of all the countries in the worldincluding those with gruesome human rights recordsIsrael is singled out for threats and boycotts. Examples of the blurring of anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism abound. In September, the student government at the University of Wisconsin-Madison held a vote on an anti-Israel resolutionon Passover. A student legislator at McGill University tweeted punch a Zionist today and somehow survived impeachment; an anti-Zionist student group at the same Montreal university admitted that it used anti-Semitic propaganda to prevent a Jewishand presumably anti-BDScandidate from being re-elected to the student government. A lawsuit against San Francisco State University insists the school failed to protect Jewish students when it allowed pro-Palestinian protesters to disrupt a speech by Jerusalems mayor. But theres a big gap among Jewish activists when it comes to defining the challenge. Left-leaning groupson campus and on the outsideworry that labeling even hostile political rhetoric as hate speech puts Jews on the wrong side of the free speech debate. They say that a tool that has only recently been applied to anti-Semitic activity on campusTitle VI of the Civil Rights Acttakes too broad a brush in defining anti-Semitism and ends up blaming legitimate critics of Israel of creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students. Two of the most active groups in promoting the use of Title VIthe Zionist Organization of America and the Lawfare Projectare on the right. And they Argue that the tactics of the boycott Israel movement, especially when they include comparing Israel to Nazi Germany or denying Israels right to exist, are contemporary examples of an age-old hatred. A shadowy group called the Canary Mission bypasses the legal arena by publishing a virtual, and ethically suspect, blacklist of faculty and students it deems are affiliated with movements that seek the destruction of Israel, routinely engage in anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions, and promote hatred of Jews. On the political front, the anti-Semitic debate broke in almost exactly the opposite way: The left was quick to label President Donald Trump as a fomenter of anti-Semitism and some of his aides and minions as anti-Semites outright. The failure of the White House to name Jews in its formal statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Daylike Trumps tepid condemnation of the racist and anti-Semitic marchers at Charlottesvillewas not just an inadvertent mistake, many on the left reasoned, but a dog-whistle to the nationalist, and sometimes racist and anti-Semitic, right that supported Trump Similarly, the left insists former White House strategist Steve Bannon was no mere economic nationalist but a cynical demagogue who was willing to play on familiar anti-Semitic tropes to stir the Trump base. Right-wing groups, most notably the ZOA, were quick to defend Trump and Bannon. They would point to the strongly pro-Israel stance of Breitbart News with Bannon as its head and Trumps triumphant visit to the Western Wall at the beginning of his term. Bannon spoke at a ZOA fundraiser, and the organization issued numerous statements accusing the Anti-Defamation League of being too hard on the Trump administration and too soft on pro-Palestinian activistsespecially the Palestinian-American feminist leader Linda Sarsour. (The ADL notes that it has called out anti-Semitism on the right and among progressives alike.) Meanwhile, right-leaning Orthodox Jews felt their gamble on Trump paid off when he recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital. Right-left divides arent new to Jewish communal politics, but applying them to the fight against anti-Semitism appears to be. Once upon a time, the Jews antagonists were obvious: Louis Farrakhan, David Duke, Hamas, the U.N. General Assembly, neo-Nazis here and in Europe. They havent gone away, but now the Jewish left accuses the Jewish right of downplaying the dangers of the alt-right. The Jewish right says the real threat to Jews is not from pro-Trump internet trolls but from progressive campus groups, including Jews on the far left, who condemn Israel but really mean the Jews. The left thinks it a vital Jewish mission to enter into social justice coalitions with other minorities, including Muslims; the right says Black Lives Matter lost all moral authority when it joined the pro-Palestinian cause. Or maybe its not such a new phenomenon after all, because behind the debate are a familiar series of issues that have long divided the Jewish activist class: tikkun olam vs. peoplehood; universal justice vs. particularist priorities; a broad human rights agenda vs. a narrower focus on Israel. A polarized political climate only created the conditions for divides that were there all along. By Daniel Krygier Like all empires and despotic regimes, the Iranian Mullah regime has a shelf life that it desperately seeks to prolong. The renewed popular protests in Iran against the regime and the deteriorating living conditions in the country could potentially bring profound positive change for Israel, the Middle East and the world. Alongside Turkey, Iran stands out as a Muslim non-Arab country in a Middle East region dominated by the Arab world. Prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Israel and Iran enjoyed close economic and security relations. Iran was never a democracy but under the Shah, Iranian society embraced Western-style modernity and education. Despite nearly four decades of harsh Islamist rule, much of Iranian society remains committed to modernity and peaceful relations with the West and the outside world. Unlike the more traditional Islamic Arab world, state-sponsored anti-Semitism appears to have failed to strike deeper roots among much of Iranian forward-looking society that secretly embraces the modern lifestyle and freedom of Israel and the rest of the Western world. The Iranian Ayatollah-led regime has for decades invested in expanding its predatory influence throughout the Middle East and beyond at the expense of its own people. While most Iranians live in poverty under an oppressive regime, Irans Islamist leadership has invested heavily in establishing a Shiite empire stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Unlike Iraqs former dictator, Saddam Hussein, Irans regime has masked its aggression and imperialist ambitions by outsourcing its dirty work to its proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Assad in Syria and the Houthis in Yemen. It should come as no surprise that Iranian students disproportionally led the fresh protests against the regime. Many educated young Iranians are fed up with the Islamist oppressive rule, grinding poverty, corruption and the fact that their living conditions take a backseat to the regimes imperial aggression. Young Iranians are increasingly protesting against the regimes waste of precious national resources in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza at the expense of the Iranian The 2009 protests versus today The situation in Iran today differs compared to 2009, when the regime ruthlessly crushed the Iranian opposition. Unlike Obamas meek response, President Donald Trump has expressed strong American support for the freedom-seeking protesters and condemned the Iranian regime. While the protests in 2009 were mainly about a rigged election and against a specific candidate, todays protests are against the Iranian Islamist regime as a whole. Obamas nuclear deal appeared to infuse the Iranian regime with a prolonged lease of life by filling the Islamists coffers with billions of dollars. However, despite this and the removal of international sanctions, the living conditions have not improved for average Iranians. It appears that the Iranian regime has increasingly overstretched its resources by financing global terrorism and Islamist influence at the expense of its own citizens. A question of time It is still unclear how the latest protests in Iran will unfold and whether the US will back its vocal support for the demonstrators with deeds. However, one thing is clear: it is merely a question of time before the Iranian Islamist regime collapses. When that happens, Israel and Iran can restore its pre-1979 relations. It will also mean a deathblow for Israels mortal enemies, Hezbollah and Hamas, that depend on Iranian support. A pro-Western and pro-modern Iran could further join Israel and the Kurds as defenders of a peaceful and prosperous Middle East. Finally, it would also significantly weaken global Islamist terrorism in the West and beyond. Daniel Krygier is a political analyst with World Israel News. President Donald Trumps recent announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital and declaring that the U.S. will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem did not happen in a vacuum or come out of nowhere. It did not happen solely because of Jewish influence, either. It happened because millions of good Christians in America urged the president to do so. But where did this groundswell of Christian support come from? It was exactly 40 years ago when I initiated some of the earliest dialogues ever between evangelical Christians and Jews. Little did I realize then that these Christians, whom most people never even heard of, would grow in numbers and influence both in America and around the world, and would become such a crucial base of support for Israel and the Jewish people. Five years later, in 1983, I founded the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship), with the goal of building bridges of cooperation and understanding between evangelical Christians and Jews as well as broad, grassroots support for the State of Israel. The notion of changing 2,000 years of bitter history and replacing it with a partnership marked by friendship and acts of unconditional love (without missionary activity) was regarded at the time as an unattainable pipe dream. But I went ahead nonetheless, despite the criticism, skepticism and attacks. I began bringing evangelical leaders to Israel to meet various prime ministers, starting with Menachem Begin, and to the White House to press for pro-Israel policies. Later, we launched the Christian tourism to Israel industry, in partnership with the National Religious Broadcasters, the umbrella organization of all those involved in evangelical Christian media. Today, more than 1 million Christians visit Israel each year. From there we proceeded to grow broad-based political support for Israel among evangelicals, opening an office in Washington, D.C., and a Stand for Israel advocacy program that today reaches millions of people around the world every day. Finally, 20 years ago, we began raising funds from Christians, primarily through TV and direct response marketing, to help Jews immigrate to Israel from the former Soviet Union, feed and care for needy Jews in Israel and around the world, and provide security for Israel and Jewish institutions worldwide. It would take four decades of hard work as well as the financial support of just a few hundred Jews in the earlier years, and later of 1.7 million Christians, to reach the point where we are todaythe largest global source of Christian support for Israel. Over the years The Fellowship often came under attack, initially by Reform and liberal Jews and establishment Jewish groups, and later mostly by extremist haredi Jewish leaders and rabbis who even refused our overtures of help because the funds came from Christians. Some still refuse to accept our help even today. But eventually The Fellowship was, in the words of former Sen. Joe Lieberman, vindicated. Today, The Fellowship helps roughly 1.4 million people each year, in Israel and around the world. Our $140 million annual budget supports the most vulnerable segments of Israeli societythe poor, the elderly, Holocaust survivors, people with disabilities, immigrants, minorities, terror victims, veterans and others. Indeed, The Fellowship is today the largest philanthropic welfare organization in Israel. In addition, we provide $30 million a year from Christians to help the worlds most destitute Jews in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere with basic needs such as food, medicine and heating fuel. Weve brought more than 750,000 Jews on aliyah from 28 countries where they were threatened by anti-Semitism, terror and economic despair, and helped found the U.S. aliyah organization Nefesh BNefesh. We provide millions of dollars in security assistance to more than 100 Jewish communities worldwide. Over the years our Christian partners have contributed more than $1.4 billionmostly with an average sacrificial donation of $76 per personto help Israel and the Jewish people. These are not wealthy mega donors, but people who care wholeheartedly for Israel and relate to her and the Jewish people with unconditional love. I am recounting this not to herald our organizations impact, but to remind us all of how the growth of Christian support for Israel and the Jewish community during the past four decades contributed to President Trumps historic announcement on Jerusalem. Today, phrases like Jews and evangelical Christians supporting Israel barely raise an eyebrow; as if it were a given. But Christians faithful support for Israel was never a given. Nor is it todayespecially if we measure it in terms of the dwindling level of support for Israel from the next generation of evangelicals. We owe these Christians a debt of gratitudeof hakarat hatov (Hebrew for the recognition of good). There are an estimated 100 million Pentecostal Christians in China alone, and hundreds of millions more in Latin America, the Far East and other regions. Most of them are where the evangelical community in America was 40 years ago, when I first began working with them. They have not yet been taught that it is their biblical duty to stand with Israel and to bless the Jewish people. It is imperative that the Jewish community invests in educating them, reaching out to them, and rallying their continued supportand that of their childrenin the years ahead. Much more needs to be done if we seek to rely on evangelical support in the future. Evangelical Christians remain an essential, steadfast, strategic partner for Israel, both in the U.S. and around the world. But their continued friendship is not a given. We need to invest in their burgeoning communities and in the next generation of evangelicals to ensure that they too stand with Israel and that their support grows rather than diminishes in the years to come. Our survival, and that of the State of Israel, depend on it. Most of all, we need to unequivocally and unabashedly say Todah rabah (Hebrew for Thank you very much) to President Trump and to our evangelical Christian friends. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. The Palestinians say no ties with the US, no meetings with US peace emissaries, and a big no to Washingtons recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. All of these negatives have combined to turn President Donald Trumps twitter arsenal against the PA. According to the US president, the Palestinians had no legitimate reason to be furious over his recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital because Israel would have had to pay for his declarations with concessions in future negotiations. The United States currently gives the Palestinian Authority over $300 million in annual aid and is the largest overall supplier of financial support for the Palestinians. The US wants a return on its money, Trump says Washington was paying for nothing, and the US received no appreciation or respect in return. There is apparently no going back for the Palestinians. PA President Mahmoud Abbas insists that the US relinquish its traditional role as the mediator of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and even recalled its envoy to the United States for consultations, in protest of US actions. How will PA make up for lost aid? Prof. Menachem Klein of Bar Ilan University says the PA is totally dependent on external funding, but will survive without American aid. Klein told World Israel News, If the US holds back funds, it will definitely create a crisis, but it will not bring on a collapse of the PA. They will make up for the loss of funds by appealing to the Europeans, Qatar and Turkey. They can find alternatives. Europe recently cut support due to domestic needs but they can redirect. As far as returning to the peace process, Abbas will definitely not cave in to US demands, Klein continued. He will push for an umbrella of mediators. like the Middle East Quartet, including the US, Russia, the EU and the UN instead of the US as the sole mediator. They view the current situation as a total failure of the US peace process. They believe that Trumps administration is fraught with arrogance and is disconnected from reality. Trumps tweets will not bring them to their knees. Dan Diker, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told WIN, The US contributes less than 10 percent of the PAs budget, but this is the first time they have been sent to the woodshed by its largest government sponsor. The US had already threatened to hold back payments due to the Palestinians policy of paying salaries of convicted terrorists in Israeli prisons. Trump will now punish the Palestinians for boycotting the US administration and the peace process. Life for Palestinians worse since Oslo Accords According to Diker, In private meetings and in public pronouncements (in Arabic), the Saudis, Jordanians and Egyptians have said they are sick and tired of Palestinian rejection of the peace process and their boycott of the Americans. The PA is desperate for money and they will plead for additional funding from a reluctant Europe and elsewhere. The Iranians have their own problems, but they can increase donations to Hamas in Gaza, which may now receive less funding from the PA to pay salaries for its civil servants. Because of developments we will see more and more Palestinians reaching out to Israel for jobs and economic cooperation. They are sick and tired of their government. Life has gotten worse since the Oslo accords and there is a feeling of restiveness, Diker said. LINCOLNTON A Denver man was apprehended in South Carolina after being charged with assaulting his girlfriend with a knife, according to a Lincoln County Sheriffs Office press release. Wade Wallace Doering, 30, of Denver, has been charged with one felony count each of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and first-degree kidnapping. On Tuesday, the stabbing victim, Morgan Michelle Oates, 25, of Denver, was taken to the Sherrills Ford Fire Department in Catawba County seeking help for stab wounds in her foot and shoulder, according to the release. Oates was transported by ambulance to a Lincoln County hospital. Oates told Catawba County officers that her boyfriend, later identified as Doering, was the person who stabbed her, according to the release. Lincoln County deputies and detectives went to a residence in the 8100 block of Optimist Club Road where the incident occurred, but Doering had already left the scene. Detectives learned the suspect was picked up by an unknown male in a red pickup truck and believed to have been transported to Spartanburg, South Carolina, according to the release. Doering was taken into custody by local authorities in a Greenville, S.C., hotel room Thursday, according to the release. Officers recovered the weapon used in the stabbing incident in Lincoln County. In addition to charges accrued in the Lincoln County incident, Doering has been charged in South Carolina as a fugitive from justice, according to the release. This domain has expired. If you owned this domain, contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your provider, visit https://www.tucowsdomains.com/ In two ways, the crisis in the Supreme Court, which erupted publicly on January 13, was long in the making. One is the fact that over the last few decades, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) more than once relinquished office under a cloud. No enquires were held despite a public clamour. As far as this particular crisis is concerned, the judges said they had written to the CJI Dipak Mishra two months ago. But he seemingly did not address their grievances. All four are judges of impeccable character. Their disclosure marks the end of the collegium system. It is futile to say that the four judges should have gone to the President. The split in the Supreme Court now is wide open. The CJI needs to respond to the grave charges that have been made. First and foremost, the principle must be accepted. It was laid down by chief justice Griffiths of the Australian high court in R vs Nicholls that if any judge were to make a public utterance of such character as to be likely to impair the confidence of the publicin the impartiality of the courtif it were a fair comment would, so far from being a contempt of court, be for the public benefit. The same holds good for judicial conduct, which raises questions. In his classic Judges, Lord Pannick said that the criticism of the judges will not damage the rule of law. It may, by identifying defects in the legal system, promote the cause of justice. In this instance, the confidence in the judiciary has been impaired by the differences between the CJI and senior judges. That the court is hopelessly divided as is evident from the strong language used by Justices Aggarwal, Arun Mishra and AM Khanwilkar in their judgment on November 14, 2017 when they say understandably that the CJI is the master of the roster. This is precisely the grievance of four judges, who say that the the CJI has been behaving in the assignment of cases in an arbitrary manner. He is due to retire shortly. The full court cannot resolve the matter, only the CJI and the senior judges can. Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt hath lost his savour, werewith shall it be salted? (St Mathew 5:13) (AG Noorani is a constitutional expert and author) Shah Rukh Khans kids have left Mumbai for their school in London, leaving him sad. The actor posted pictures with son Aryan and daughter Suhana a few days ago when he dropped them at the airport. Holidays as they say should really be given a speeding ticket...hate dropping my kids to the airport....when holidays end, he captioned the photo. Now, many Instagram fan accounts dedicated to Suhana are sharing a picture of her cooking what looks like pasta in her school dormitory. She is wearing a thick, furry jacket and stirring a panful of steaming pasta. A post shared by TelevisionsWorld (@televisionsworld) on Jan 11, 2018 at 10:08pm PST Suhanas pictures from a relatives wedding also went viral recently. The 17-year-old was seen in gorgeous outfits with her mother Gauri Khan and father. She wishes to be an actor just like her father when she is older and Shah Rukh supports her dreams. Suhana is more theatre-oriented and has been doing plays in college. The best part is that she doesnt want to learn (acting) from me. She wants to be an actor in her own right. She can be an actor if she has the passion and guts to work five times harder than me and get paid 10 times less than I do, if times dont change for women actors. I want her to experience what my female co-stars have gone through. My daughter will be an actor like them and I want to feel the pain, he had earlier said about her. Shah Rukh and Gauri also have a four year old son, AbRam. Shah Rukh will be seen next in Anand L Rais Zero with Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif. Follow @htshowbiz for more Gujarat became the third state on Friday to block controversial Bollywood movie Padmavat as Madhya Pradesh indicated it will stick to an older ban order on the period drama that faces violent protests despite censor board clearance and a change of name. Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani told reporters that an order banning the movie, which depicts the life of legendary Rajput queen Padmini or Padmavati, is already in effect. The film is slated for release on January 25, say industry sources. The Gujarat governments earlier order banning screening of the film stays. There is no scope to release in the state unless any changes in the earlier order are made, Rupani told the media. Film #Padmavat will not be released in Gujarat: Chief Minister Vijay Rupani (File pic) pic.twitter.com/jkUpQ0inIv ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 His comment came on a day Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hinted that his governments stance of banning the movie last November was unchanged. Jo kaha tha wo hoga (What I had said will happen) was Chouhans curt response. Rajasthan has already banned the film. The movie is facing violent protests by members of a caste group, the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, who blame the director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and lead actors of insulting Rajputs and the communitys honour. The protesters have issued death threats against Bhansali and Deepika Padukone, who plays Padmini, over allegations that the queen romances Muslim emperor Alauddin Khilji in the movie a charge the filmmakers have denied. Historians are divided on whether the queen existed. The films December 1 release was put off and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) cleared the movie after ordering a change in the title, from its earlier Padmavati, and five modifications. But the protesters arent happy and have warned of a public curfew if the film is released. The film might also face problems in other states such as Himachal Pradesh, where Rajputs form more than a third of the population, though chief minister Jai Ram Thakur has remained non-committal about this governments response to the controversy. In November 2016, when the Karni Sena and some other Rajput groups led protests against the film, Rupani had said, Considering the appeal from the community, which says the film hurts their sentiments, the government has decided to ban the film. At that time Rupani had maintained that he did not need to watch the movie as the ban was ordered purely to respect the sentiments of people. Cities like Surat and Rajkot had seen protests against the film. A Rangoli by a local artist at a Surat shopping mall portraying Padukone as Rani Padmini was vandalised by the fringe group members. Award-winning director Bhansali is Gujarati, whose previous films like Hum Dil Chuke Sanam and Ramleela were based around the states culture. In the third week of November, Madhya Pradesh had become the first state to ban the film. Calling Rani Padmini Rashtramata (Mother of the Nation), Chouhan had said the film that distorted historical facts would not be allowed to be released. The insult will not be tolerated, Chouhan had. He had said even if the movie was passed by the censor board for release in the country, it wont make it to the screens in the state. Follow @htshowbiz for more Activists of the Shree Rajput Karni Sena on Friday gathered outside the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) office here on Friday to protest against the coming release of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmaavat. Security was beefed up outside the CBFC office. A few protestors were taken away by the police, but released after a few hours. Members of the Rajput outfit, under the leadership of its President Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi, gathered outside the CBFC office to express dissent over the censor boards decision to allow the release of the controversial movie. Some of them were seen holding aloft the movies poster with a red mark denoting a cross on it. Jeevan Singh Solanki, Karni Senas Maharashtra state Secretary, told IANS: We will not let the film release in the country under any circumstances. Some states have already agreed with us and, therefore, banned it. We want the film to be banned in the whole country. We are going to urge our Prime Minister to ban the film because the movie will ruin the heritage and culture of the Rajput community. The filmmaker has played with the sentiments of the Rajputs, said Solanki, adding that they will write to the Maharashtra Chief Minister to ban Padmaavat in the state. The movie will not be released in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, but Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said there is no problem in screening the movie in cinema halls in the state. Despite threats by the Karni Sena to disrupt the films release, the Uttar Pradesh government has not issued any orders regarding ban on its screening. A delegation of Karni Sena had also met Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Dehradun earlier this week, but no announcement has been made yet. Asked if they were ready to watch the film pre-release to clear their doubts, Solanki said: The whole projection of our community is wrong. We do not want to see the film. It should be banned. The film, cleared by the CBFC after five modifications and renamed from Padmavati to Padmavat and now titled Padmaavat, is scheduled to release on January 25 across India. CBFC gave it the green signal with a U/A certification in consultation with a three-member advisory panel. 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 films leading lady Deepika Padukone. This led to the question whether the movie showcases any intimacy between Khilji and Rani Padmavati. Subsequently, Karni Sena activists assaulted Bhansali on the films set in Jaipur and another set in Kolhapur was vandalised. They even threatened Deepika and Bhansali. Activists of the Shree Rajput Karni Sena on Friday gathered outside the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) office here on Friday to protest against the coming release of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmaavat. According to news agency ANI, 96 people were arrested. 96 people detained by Gamdevi police when they were protesting outside CBFC office against #Padmavat: Mumbai police ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Members of the Rajput outfit, under the leadership of Sukhdev Singh Gogameri, gathered outside the CBFC office to express dissent over the censor boards decision to allow the release of the controversial movie. Jeevan Singh Solanki, a Karni Sena member, told IANS, We will not let the film release in the country under any circumstances. Some states have already agreed with us and therefore banned it. We want the film to be banned in the whole country. We will not stop here. We are going to urge our Prime Minister to ban the film because the movie will ruin the heritage and culture of Rajput community. The filmmaker has played with the sentiments of the Rajputs.. Asked if they were ready to watch the film pre-release to clear their doubts, Solanki said: The whole projection of our community is wrong. We do not want to see the film. It should be banned. Virendra Singh, the spokesperson of Karni Sena, on Friday told IANS that members from the outfit and even other Rajput associations assembled here to protest. The film, cleared by the CBFC after five modifications and renamed from Padmavati to Padmavat and now titled Padmaavat, is scheduled to release on January 25 across India. The film will, however, not be released in Rajasthan and Gujarat. CBFC gave it the green signal with a U/A certification in consultation with a three-member advisory panel. Follow @htshowbiz for more French dairy company Danone SA has finally decided to close down its dairy business in India, after three failed attempts to make a mark in one of the worlds fastest growing consumer packaged goods markets. We will discontinue some of the SKUs (stock keeping units) sold in India, said a Danone India spokesperson. The company will discontinue SKUs which have been making a minority contribution to its overall business in India which include the UHT (ultra-high temperature processing) and fresh dairy products, it said in a statement. With Danones decision to close down its dairy unit, the companys factory at Rai, Sonipat, near Delhi will stop production. Despite repeated efforts, dairy remained a small business accounting for around 10% of the companys revenue in India. Globally, dairy is the largest business for Danone. In 2016, dairy accounted for 10.73 billion of Danones 21.9 billion global sales, according to the companys results statement. Despite being in the business in India for many years, Danones dairy portfolio in India was consisted of flavoured yogurt, lassi and misti doi and milk. The companys products were available across 20 cities covering 200,000 retail outlets, but its flagship yogurt was available only in six cities. Danone has decided to rationalise its product portfolio in India to allow for accelerated investments and a sharper focus on growing its nutrition portfolio which is more than 90% of the business, and where the company already enjoys leadership position, the company said in the statement. This was Danones third attemptfirst on its ownto crack Indias estimated Rs80,000 crore to Rs90,000 crore dairy market which is dominated by cooperatives like the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd that owns the Amul brand. The largest yogurt maker in Europe had two failed joint ventures (JVs), from which it had to exit. The Europes largest yogurt maker first entered India in the 1990s in joint venture with the Wadia Group to build a biscuits portfolio for Britannia Industries Ltd which lasted 13 years and included a dispute over the intellectual property of Britannias Tiger biscuits brand. The dispute ended as Danone globally exited the biscuits segment. The company had its second attempt in early 2000s in joint venture with Rahul Narang Group. The JV ended in 2015, after Danone exited from the beverage space in India where it had brands Qua and Blue manufactured and distributed by two JVsDanone Narang Beverages Pvt Ltd and Narang Danone Access Pvt Ltd. Globally Danone has four lines of operationsdairy, beverages, early life nutrition and advanced medical nutrition. The French company re-entered the market on its own in 2010 with the dairy business and in 2015 re-organized its operations to merge the dairy arm with its nutrition business, which includes the acquired nutrition business of Wockhardt in India. We have great ambitions for our business in India and remain committed to invest and grow in India through well-established brands such as Protinex, Aptamil, Farex, Dexolac and Neocate. In order to maximize growth opportunities, we are continuously analysing our portfolio and sharpening our focus to accelerate investments on the best performing categories and products. For this reason, we will discontinue some of the SKUs sold in India, said the Danone India spokesperson. On 17 January 2017, Danone had said the company will focus on its nutrition business, and not dairy, to double its revenue in India by 2020, Mint reported. Our focus is to bring nutritionally superior and relevant products to India, and 2017 has been a testimony of that with 10 new launches including some from our global portfolio, according to the Danone spokesperson. While about 80% of Danones revenue in India comes from its early nutrition or infant foods business, globally the segment contributes only 5 billion in 2016. Danone, which also sells Farex baby food and Protinex supplements that it acquired from Wockhardt Ltd, had earlier said that the company had invested Rs1,800 crore in India during the past six-seven years, primarily on building manufacturing facilities in Haryana and Punjab, setting up the head office in Mumbai and the acquisition of Wockhardt Groups nutrition business in 2011. Danones decision of exiting dairy business comes at a time when local entities of PepsiCo Inc and Coca-Cola Co, home-grown biggies like ITC Ltd have entered the market eyeing a pie from the dominant players like Swiss Packaged food company Nestle India Ltd and home-grown Amul brand with focus on the value-added segment. An Abu Dhabi-bound Etihad flight that took off from Phuket was diverted to the Mumbai airport on Thursday night after an elderly Austrian passenger complained of uneasiness and chest pain. The passenger was deplaned from the Boeing 777-300ER and rushed to the Holy Spirit Hospital in Andheri (East). The pilot of Etihad airways EY 431 contacted the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) after the 63-year-old woman passenger fell sick. Medical help was provided to the passenger as soon as the aircraft was parked. A team of doctor and paramedics on-board attended to the patient and rushed her to the hospital,said senior airport officials. The flight landed at the airport at 10.21pm and took off at 12.03am. Etihad Airways was not available for any comments. Mumbai airport offered medical aid to the highest number of passengers in August, 2017, in the last ten years. August saw 2,833 medical services . The airport has seven ambulances, making it the largest number of ambulances on standby at any Indian airport. 1. The following are excerpts from an AFP news report, dated 09 January 2018, under the headline "Some N.Korean businesses defy China shutdown order" at http://en.rfi.fr/wire/20180109-some-nkorean-businesses-defy-china-shutdown-order (Begin excerpts)Some North Korean businesses in China had closed their doors on Tuesday but others remained open, despite Beijing's deadline to shut down under UN sanctions intended to strip the regime of cash....the halting progress in shutting down the businesses demonstrated the uneven enforcement of a commerce ministry directive for them to close by January 9....elsewhere in China's frigid northeast, the hub of North Korean economic activities in the country, some restaurants, travel agencies and seafood stalls planned to stay open....Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China upholds its UN obligations and will "seriously punish" those who violate sanctions....The North's roughly 100 eateries in China brought in annual revenue of about $10 million, said Chung Young-June, a scholar at the Institute for Sinology at Seoul's Yonsei University."They've been providing (the North's leader) Kim Jong-un with private money," Chung said. Closing the restaurants will have a big "negative effect on the North Korean leadership". (End excerpts)2. In North Korea, the spectre of death is constantly hovering in the air, waiting to swoop down on anybody (even if he is a foreigner, e.g. Otto Warmbier) who fails to fulfill the whims and fancies of the devil incarnate.According to https://www.express.co.uk/travel/ar...-un-north-korea-dictatorship-execution-killed (Begin excerpts)...If you're still thinking of taking a trip to North Korea, we explore some of the most shockingly normal things that could have you EXECUTED....In 2012, a North Korean official was executed by mortar shell for drinking during the 100-day mourning period of the late Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. Kim Jong-Un demanded the official be obliterated with no trace of him behind, down to his hair.Citizens are forbidden from watching anything but state propaganda. In the last two years, North Korea has publicly executed around 130 people for watching South Korean TV....in 2013, 80 Christians were executed in a stadium for owning bibles.All music in North Korea is controlled by the state and must glorify the regime. All western music is seen as a crime against the state and will get you killed.International calls will incur the death penalty. In 2013, a North Korean man was publicly executed by firing squad for calling his friend in South Korea... (End excerpts)3. There is a Chinese saying, "Working under the emperor is akin to being near a tiger." In December 2013, Fatboy Kim's uncle, Jang Song-Thaek, was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow the communist regime. It was reported that Jang's direct relatives have been put to death upon the orders of the fat boy. Jang's children, brothers and grandchildren have been condemned to death.On 30 April 2015, North Korea's former Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol was executed by anti-aircraft fire in front of an audience of hundreds. Mr Hyon was reported to have fallen asleep during an event attended by Kim Jong-un and had not carried out instructions. The news came weeks after the reported execution of 15 senior officials.4. In conclusion, let us see why some Korean businesses dare to defy China's shutdown order as though China is their own territory.(a) Let's consider the first factor. When we look at the reign of terror in North Korea, we can see that North Koreans will not dare to do anything, whether inside or outside the rogue state, without the tacit consent of their fearsome "emperor". The fact that Fatboy Kim lets his citizens break Chinese law shows that he does not give a damn about China's sovereignty.Another example of his disrespect and defiance against the Chinese leadership was the assassination of his half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on 13 February 2017. Many international observers believe that Kim Jong Nam was under the protection of China as potential leverage against the rogue state's dictator. In a daring show of defiance and challenge, Kim Jong Nam's body was transported back to Pyongyang via Beijing. It was akin to mocking the Chinese leadership: "See, your chosen king is now lying lifeless before your eyes!"(b) The second factor is China's half-hearted attempt at applying UN sanctions on North Korea. China could exert enormous economic pressure to bring North Korea down to its knees if it chooses. In contrast to its iron-fist policy towards Taiwanese separatism, Hong Kong's pro-democracy activism and South Korea's Lotte Group over the THAAD deployment, China remains extremely reluctant to apply strict sanctions on North Korea. Such tolerance of the North Korean nuclear threat, which could bring China back to the tragic era of the late Qing Dynasty, is beyond comprehension.China is reportedly targeting at least 2,000 missiles at Taiwan, a non-nuclear-armed region whose inhabitants are of Chinese descent. In order to protect its people from nuclear obliteration, how many missiles is China targeting at nuclear-armed North Korea? Perhaps none at all. Im not a fan of advocating mass suicide by women as a method of safeguarding some male notion of honour, but I am going to watch Padmavat. I am not a fan of Sanjay Leela Bhansali either, and yet, watching his latest movie is the only way I can think of that I as an individual citizen can mark both my protest and my support: Support for the right to make films, write books and voice opinions without being brow-beaten into submission and protest against the craven abdication of state to such bullying. Even by the standards of our perennially outraged nation, the sustained protest over imagined offences in a film as yet unseen about a character whose historical authenticity is not established is unprecedented. From vandalism to assault and threats; from inviting erstwhile royals for their stamp of approval to parliamentary committees, the controversy has ranged from the absurd to the scary. Incredibly, despite the upheaval, the film is now, one minor title change and four notifications later, ready for release, cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification. The censorship of movies and books is no longer new or, even sadly, shocking. Film-makers are routinely asked for no-objection certificates from the subjects they portray the makers of Modi Ka Gaon, a tribute to Narendra Modis development policies were asked to get a no-objection from Modi, according to The Hoot. A documentary on Amartya Sen was denied certification when its director refused to excise the words Hindutva, cow and Gujarat. Sexy Durga becomes S. Durga, and still cannot be screened at the Goa film festival. And on it goes. But Padmavat has been cleared for release; its attempted censorship and ban comes from non-state actors and Vasundhara Rajes decision to block its release in Rajasthan out of respect to the sentiments of the people is meek acquiescence to these non-state actors. This is the office of the chief minister acting as a super-censor, abrogating to itself the powers to decide what citizens in a democracy should or shouldnt see. This is about an elected government bowing to majoritarian force; about a group that makes open threats and gets its way because it has muscle and political patronage. This is, quite simply, failure of governance. Equally shameful is the silence by Congress, but then, lets not forget, it was the Congress that began the slide with the banning of Salman Rushdies The Satanic Verses. And what do we make of the silence of the Bollywood fraternity with a few honourable exceptions? If a powerful industry is so shaken, what does this tell us about a chilling effect? In 2015, after weeks of sustained threats over his book, Madhorubagan the Tamil writer Perumal Murugan announced his exile as a writer. A year later, the Madras High Court ruled that the author should be able to write and advance the canvas of his writings. Last year, saw the assertive resurgence of the writer with the launch of a collection of poems and short stories. No civilised society can advance by silencing the voice of its poets, writers, film-makers, photographers, chroniclers. Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life, the American writer E.B. White once said. Recent events have shown just how easy it is to silence that voice, metaphorically, and even literally. The murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh last year is a frightening reminder to all of us of what could happen to those who voice inconvenient opinions. There is no room for dissent or an alternative view. How can one individual stand up to this, particularly when the state fails to deliver justice, fails to apprehend those who break the law, fails to stand up for the rights of individual citizens? Padmavat is not a political film and, yet, seeing it can become a political act, else how do we as individuals take a stand against the muscle of bullies and the might of a complicit state? Sometimes, the simple act of watching a movie can send a message. Its time we sent it. Namita Bhandare writes on social issues and gender The views expressed are personal SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The unprecedented media conference by four of the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court - Justice J Chelameswar is second only to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Mishra, and Justice Ranjan Gogoi is slated to be the next top judge - has divided opinion in predictable ways. Supporters say the judges have shown courage; Justice Chelameswar says they were compelled to speak out because democracy will not survive unless the institution of the Supreme Court is preserved. Their critics say this sort of public unionism is mutinous and inappropriate; one politician who preferred anonymity said they were behaving like judge politicians. What no one can doubt - not even those who have attacked the historic and unusual decision to hold a media conference - is the personal integrity of the four men whose utterances have triggered a constitutional crisis. Given their reputations for impeccable rectitude, the anguish and dissent expressed by Justices Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Kurian, over the functioning of the highest courts cannot be brushed away or ignored or consigned to a one-day news cycle. It will have to be confronted, discussed, addressed and resolved. And the person who has to lead that process must be the CJI - even though he is the precise target of their ire. Any other intervention, especially by the government, amounts to executive interference and wrenches open the door for political meddling in the future, irrespective of which party is in power. At the heart of the crisis the word crisis is an understatement for this open war in the judiciary - are two issues: how judges are appointed and how sensitive and big-ticket cases are assigned. And though not spelt out explicitly in the letter written by the dissenting judges to the CJI, there is also a clear allusion to judicial corruption. The story goes back to November 2017 and the allegation by a hawala operator that a retired judge of the Orissa High Court, IM Quddusi, had taken a bribe in return for the promise of a favourable verdict from the Supreme Court in a case related to medical admissions. A scam in a medical college in Lucknow led to the first public clash between Indias top two judges. Justice Chelameswar and Justice S Abdul Naseer passed an order asking that a larger bench decide the demand for a SIT probe into the allegations of judicial corruption. A separate seven-member constitutional bench led by the CJI (from which two judges recused themselves) nullified Justice Chelameswars judgment and declared the CJI to be the master of the roster. Now, the dissenting judges have sought to remind the CJI that he is only a first among equals, nothing more and nothing less. In response to questions from the media, Justice Gogoi also confirmed that the assigning of another key case became a flashpoint for differences - the sudden death of CBI special judge Justice BH Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case and whose family wants a probe into the circumstances of how he died. Minutes before the judges press conference, the Supreme Court said the issue was a serious matter and admitted the petition despite pleas by senior counsels Dushyant Dave and Indira Jaising not to do so as the Bombay High Court was already hearing the same case. The letter of protest by the four judges does not name the specific cases over which the courts roster became a battleground (only to avoid embarrassing the institution) but pulls no punches in saying, There have been instances where cases having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justices of this court selectively to the benches of their preference without any rational basis. Though it might be tempting for their detractors to label the outspoken judges and speculate on the reasons for their disruptive methods, they defy any easy stereotyping. Justice Chelameswar was the lone dissenting voice when the Supreme Court decided to scrap the National Judicial Appointments Commission passed with 100% unanimity in Parliament. Reform so that you may preserve, he said by way of explanation in 2015, prophetically exposing the vulnerabilities of the collegium consensus in appointing judges. He called the proceedings of the collegium absolutely opaque to the public and history. Justice Gogoi has taken the maximum personal risk by participating in the media conference, given that he is next in line to head the Supreme Court. So no matter what your political ideology is, as citizens, we must reject status quo as a response to this judicial crisis. The Supreme Court has been our moral conscience; it has upheld individual liberty as part of the right to privacy, struck down triple talaq, shown a determination to decriminalise homosexuality, recognised the rights of transgenders and has almost always been more liberal and brave than our elected leaders in delivering justice. While no one wants a proxy media battle between our judges, the CJI cannot be a silent onlooker either. He must come up with an action-plan to defuse this crisis. What he does next decides the future of the judiciary - and that of Indias democracy. Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist and author The views expressed are personal SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON DEHRADUN: The Hazardous Substances Management Division has written to two Union ministries and an autonomous body in response to a petition seeking ban on toys given away with fast foods for the safety of children. Activist Ajay Kumar had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November, urging him to ban plastic toys that are given as freebies with packaged snack items. Kumar took the action after learning about the incident where a 4-year-old boy died after swallowing a toy that came along with a packet of potato chips in Andhra Pradeshs Eluru town. In October, another 4-year-old had choked to death in Kandivali area of Mumbai. Subsequently, the Prime Ministers Office directed the representation-cum-public grievance to the Hazardous Substances Management Division which is under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), for pursuing the matter. The division has written to the joint secretaries of ministry of health and family welfare and department of commerce (under the ministry of commerce and industry) as well as to the director of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for initiating action as appropriate. The January 4 letter, a copy of which is with HT, is signed by Amardeep Raju, a scientist at the division. Kumar, who is based in Dudhli village on Dehraduns outskirts, said several companies selling childrens food items were providing plastic, rubber or spring toys to allure them. Children are unable to differentiate between edible things and toys, leading to such tragedies. I hope after the PMOs intervention, action is taken by the authorities to prevent such incidents from recurring, Kumar, who has raised other important issues in the past as well, said. Sharda Tripathi, a member of Uttarakhand state commission for protection of child rights, recommended an immediate ban on such items. Children get attracted to such toys after watching TV ads. Precious lives are being put at risk by such toys every day. Action should be taken immediately on this front. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Two interstate sex determination rackets have been busted in Uttarakhand both with links to Haryana which is notorious for its skewed sex ratio within a span of six months. The discovery of the alleged rackets has put a spotlight on how Uttarakhand may be turning into a destination for those looking to stealthily carry out gender tests of the unborn child, in a violation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act. On Thursday, PCPNDT committee of Haryanas Ambala district along with Dehradun districts inspection and monitoring committee (DIMC) raided a private diagnostic center on Haridwar Road for allegedly conducting sex determination tests. The raid was conducted after Ambalas DIMC reported the alleged PCPNDT violation by the clinic to their Dehradun counterparts, a top district official said. Two ultrasound machines were seized at the center. We also seized 25,000 in cash used during the transaction, Dehradun sub divisional magistrate (sadar) Pratyush Singh, who led the joint team, said. He further said that two agents from Ambala and one agent from Almora who allegedly brought pregnant women to Dehradun for the sex determination tests, were also arrested during the raid. Haryana and Dehradun police personnel were also present during the raid. We are taking action against the center and the agents as per the PCPNDT Act, Dehradun district chief medical officer Dr YS Thapliyal said. In August last year, a team of Haryanas health department from Gurugram and Rohtak districts had busted another illegal sex determination racket being run from an ultrasound center in Roorkee in Haridwar district, even as the local health authorities had no hint about it. Four accused, including a radiologist and three agents, were arrested during the raid for their alleged involvement in the racket that was being allegedly operated out of Pataudi in Haryana. Haryana had the second lowest sex ratio at birth (877) among the 29 states, preceded only by Delhi (866) according to the 2011 Census. In March 2017, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar claimed that the states sex ratio at birth had touched the 950 mark (950 girls against 1000 boys) for the first time in the states history. At 863, Haryanas Rohtak district had the lowest sex ratio at birth in the state, as per the state government. Easy accessibility from Haryana and lack of stringent checks could be reasons touts are bringing people here for such tests. The department needs to build a strong information network to curb the trend, a senior official from the health department, who did not want to named, said. In both the cases, the hill states health department was caught off guard about the activities, with the Haryana health department taking lead in gaining inputs and alerting their Uttarakhand counterparts. Navin Baluni, health advisor to chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat (who also holds the health portfolio), said such activities were being led by agents hailing from outside the state, which made tracing the culprits difficult. The government is committed to ensuring implementing of the PCPNDT Act and instructions are being given to health and police officials to keep an eye on and carry out strict monitoring for its violation. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A body of Hindu seers has urged the Uttarakhand government to double the subsidy it grants to Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims. This was after cabinet minister Satpal Maharaj on Thursday gave the nod for increasing subsidy from Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000, which is at par with the grant given by Delhi. Bharat Sadhu Samaj vice-president Brahamswarup Brahamchari said Uttarakhand being the abode of gods should open its heart for the pilgrims. Given the fact that Uttarakhand hosts the Kailash yatra, the state should increase the subsidy amount to at least twice of what it grants at present. Another seer, Haridwar-based Maha Mandaleshwar Hari Chetannand Maharaj, said it was a welcome step that several states were coming forward to help the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims. But the ambit of subsidy should be extended to other pilgrimages as well, he said. The Ministry of External Affairs conducts the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage for which it shortlists the pilgrims out of several hundred applications it receives. Currently, the fee for undertaking pilgrimage is Rs 3.50 lakh, which may go up to Rs 4.80 lakh as per a recommendation made by the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd (KMVN), an Uttarakhand government entity and nodal agency for the pilgrimage. Last year, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath doubled the subsidy for Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. Earlier, Adityanaths predecessor Akhilesh Yadav had doubled the subsidy to Rs 50,000 during his stint. Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are among the other states that provide money to their residents going for the pilgrimage. Gujarat had announced subsidy for such pilgrims in 1998. The western state provides Rs 20,000 in subsidy, Haryana gives Rs 50,000 while Rajasthan is at par with UP, granting Rs 1 lakh subsidy for their pilgrims. Dharchula in Uttarakhand falls along the route of the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. Pilgrimage from another route Nathu La was stopped last year in the backdrop of the Doklam crisis. The pilgrims, who were supposed to take the route from Sikkim, were later accommodated in the batches that started from Uttarakhand. Beginning from May every year, the pilgrimage snakes from 17,500 ft high Lipulekh pass and culminates at Kailash Mansarovar lake. (With inputs from Sandeep Rawat, Haridwar) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Rapes committed allegedly by strangers in the city in 2017 were the lowest in the last four years, the Delhi Police said on Thursday, while presenting its annual crime report. The police data also showed that the number of rape incidents in the city had declined marginally too. Of the 2,049 rapes reported till mid-December last year, only 69 or 3.37% were allegedly committed by strangers or people whom the victims did not know, the police figures showed. Last year, 74 or 3.57% of all 2,064 rapes were allegedly committed by strangers. In an interview last month, police chief Amulya Patnaik, had attributed the decreasing involvement of strangers in rape cases to increased efforts of the police to make the streets and women safer. On Thursday, Patnaik said the police were focused on preventive crimes, particularly those against women, rather than only reacting after a crime has happened. Friends, neighbours and relatives of rape victims turned out to be main perpetrators of the crime, police said. These three categories of people were allegedly involved in almost 72.27% of all rapes reported in the city last year. Dependra Pathak, Delhi Polices chief spokesperson, said rape victims were increasingly coming forward with complaints against their fathers, brothers and other family members. Protectors are becoming violators, but this trend too will go down once the fear of being prosecuted sets in, said Pathak. The police, in a statement on Thursday, also said that of all rapes reported last year, 508 cases (24.79%) were allegedly committed by men who were either in a live-in relationship with the victim or refused to marry them. Even as the number of rape cases dipped by 0.73%, the crack rate improved with success in 92% of all cases, police said. In 2016, the police were able to solve only 86% of all cases. Last year, the police arrested a total of 2,275 persons for rapes, a 10% jump compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, molestation cases too saw a substantial dip of about 19% last year, police figures showed. Compared to 4,035 such cases in 2016, last year 3,273 molestation were reported. Police said they solved 83.26% of these complaints and arrested 3,604 men for the crimes. The Delhi government has decided to ban movement of horses, mules, and donkeys in and out of the city border due to the spread of Glanders disease, rural development minister Gopal Rai said on Friday. Glanders disease has been detected in around 40 horses in the city over the past two months and the government will issue a notification on the ban within two days, he said after a meeting of Delhi government with officials of the Union animal husbandry department, police, army and city municipal corporations. In December, west Delhi was notified as a controlled area after seven horses tested positive for the disease. An animal husbandry department official told IANS that this was the first outbreak in the city. htreporters@htlive.com A non-resident Indian allegedly molested a US national at a five-star hotel in Delhis Chanakyapuri earlier this week, police said on Friday. The accused, 25-year-old Anmol Singh Kharbanda, was arrested on Wednesday for an incident at Taj Diplomatic Enclave, commonly known by its previous name Taj Palace. Kharbanda was sent to Tihar jail after a court remanded him to judicial custody for two weeks. Police said Singh had told them he was a contractual employee for an internet giant in the US, but a spokesperson of the firm denied that he worked for them. Kharbanda and the 52-year-old woman were staying in different rooms of the hotel. He allegedly invited her to his room, tried to sedate her, and sexually assault her, police said. Delhis additional commissioner of police BK Singh said the incident happened around 10pm on Monday night. Kharbanda, who works in California, had drinks with the woman in his room. She has alleged that he tried to grab her and molested her after offering her laced drinks, said Singh. The Taj Diplomatic Enclave spokesperson said they are cooperating with police in the investigations, adding that the woman had informed the staff and left the hotel after the incident. We have been in contact with the woman guest, a formal complaint with the authorities was also facilitated by the hotel team. This matter is now under police investigation...Safety and security of our guests and associates is paramount, the spokesperson added. Based on her statement, we registered a case of molestation and causing hurt by means of poison, at the Chanakyapuri police station. Her statement was recorded before a magistrate, after which Kharbanda was arrested, said Singh. Delhi records a high number of rape and sexual assault cases every year, among the highest in major cities in the country. More than 72% of all sexual assault cases in 2017 involved people known to the victims friends, neighbours and relatives, according to police data. A research scholar from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) who had reportedly gone missing from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Monday had not been kidnapped, police said adding that the man had gone to Patna and returned on Thursday. The 29-year-old reportedly told police he had gone to Patna for a dip in the Ganga. JNU Students Union (JNUSU) president, Geeta Kumari took to Facebook on Thursday to announce the students safe return. Mukul Jain, the missing student from SLS (School of Life Sciences) has been found. He went out for personal work and left his stuff in the lab [sic], posted Kumari. Jain, who is pursuing his research under a guide from IGNOU and a co-guide from JNUs School of Life Sciences, was reportedly last seen leaving JNU on Monday. He was using a laboratory at the JNU for his research, his JNU co-guide said. JNU spokesperson said that they had no information regarding where Jain had been. Deputy commissioner of police (south-west) Milind Mahadeo Dumbere said that Jain claimed he had gone to Patna for a dip in the Ganga on Monday and had been there till Wednesday. He told as that he left for Patna immediately after leaving the JNU campus on Monday. He took a train from Delhi and reached there a day later. After spending a day in Patna, he took a train back and returned Thursday morning, said Dumbere. Dumbere added that it remained unclear why Jain had gone to Patna or what he did there. All he has confided in us so far is that he had gone to take a dip in the Ganga, said Dumbere. Asked if the news of Jains disappearance going viral made him cut his trip short and return, Dumbere said it is an angle being looked into. Jains disappearance drew headlines due to initial similarities with the 2016 disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed. Najeeb, a first year JNU biotechnology student went missing from a JNU hostel on October 15, 2016, the morning after a scuffle with students allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He is yet to be traced. A rape survivor in India is traumatised in many ways. The first is the violence she suffers at the hands of the perpetrator of the crime; the second is the delay at the behest of the criminal justice system; and the third is the injustice and indignity from the medical system. Intrusive tests on victims are banned, yet doctors continue to conduct these in India. More than three years ago, the ministry of health and family welfare framed guidelines against the degrading practice of what is called a two-finger test, a method used to assess whether the victim is a virgin. Even before that, the Supreme Court had held that this test cannot be used against a rape victim to suggest that she is of loose morals and, therefore, not deserving of being treated as a victim of violence or coercion. Many doctors place undue emphasis on the injuries the woman has suffered; it is implicit that a lack of them could suggest consent. The law clearly states health professionals provide psychological and social care to the victim even while gathering evidence. The victim should be encouraged to speak of her trauma in a professional and caring environment, not just be subject to an invasive medical procedure. It is often based on this sketchy evidence provided by the two- finger test that the criminal justice system proceeds. If this test finds that the woman has not suffered any visible injury or that she is not a virgin, her reputation can become vulnerable to being attacked. The main aim of any legal system should be that victims are not frightened of coming forward to report them. But here, even though many more women are willing to seek justice today, they are not willing to suffer more humiliation at the hands of the police, doctors and lawyers. In a letter to the health ministry, experts have said this is a violation of the privacy of the victim. Gender sensitisation is a term which is bandied about quite casually when it comes to womens rights. A good way of ensuring that such sensitisation really means something is to ensure that women are not subject to practices which violate their human rights. 1. American reconnaissance satellites have reportedly spotted Chinese ships suspected of selling oil to North Korean vessels about 30 times since October. China has apparently been secretly selling oil to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions and its own promises to drastically curb trade with the country. Meanwhile, South Korea has seized a Hong Kong-registered ship that allegedly transferred oil to a North Korean vessel in violation of United Nations sanctions. It has also seized a second ship (a Panama-flagged vessel) suspected of transferring oil products to North Korea in violation of international sanctions. The US has asked the Security Council to blacklist all 10 vessels, but China objected to the proposal, diplomats said, and agreed only to blacklist four ships.2. According to https://www.vox.com/world/2017/12/28/16825434/trump-north-korea-oil-china (Begin excerpts)While China has promised to do so and given the green light to harsh sanctions against Pyongyang at the UN in recent months, the latest reports are a reminder that Beijing routinely fails to deliver on its promises when it comes to getting tough with North Korea.Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said on Wednesday that she was not aware of the Chosun report but denied that Beijing has violated any UN rules.Experts say that the reports are not conclusive, but are credible and should be taken seriously. Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told me that satellite images are reliable and that the Chosun Ilbo report is likely accurate. (End excerpts)3. Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea, according to two senior Western European security sources, providing an economic lifeline to the secretive Communist state. Like China, Russia has denied breaching UN sanctions on North Korea.4. There are increasing signs that North Korea is buckling under pressure of UN sanctions. That explains the desperate attempts by the "drowning" North Korean devil incarnate to get a lifeline from his two patrons (China and Russia) or a third party such as private companies. It won't be surprising that more foreign ships could be seized for breaching UN sanctions on North Korea in the future. It would be more effective to seize North Korean ships which are caught red-handed in the illicit trade. Like birds returning to their nests after going out to search for food, North Korean vessels could be easily seized while they are returning to ports with their illicit cargoes. The US must intensify its sanctions against North Korea, even enforcing a naval blockade if necessary.5. In conclusion, the UN sanctions are just an interim measure to force North Korea (hopefully) to dismantle its nuclear program. The illegal oil transfer to North Korean ships is akin to the failed attempt to cover all the cesspools as narrated in http://defendingthetruth.com/political-humor/63814-political-satire-old-man-mountain-10-a.html In the fictitious story, the two hostile tribal chieftains pledged measures in fight for clean air but they still kept a number of cesspools open for "the big business" of their people.North Korea has vowed or promised to punish those countries (including China and Russia of course) which support the latest U.N. sanctions. It said: "Those countries that raised their hands in favor of this sanctions resolution shall be held completely responsible for all the consequences to be caused by the resolution and.If the entire US is within striking range of North Korean nuclear missiles, as claimed by the rogue regime, the whole of China, Russia and Europe should fall within the range. It is beyond comprehension that China and Russia can tolerate the North Korean nuclear threat which is too close for comfort.China and Russia have forgotten the history that they were conquered by the "uncivilized" Mongols in the 13th century and threatened by Hunnic tribes in earlier centuries."If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience." -- George Bernard Shaw.Unless we take Fatboy Kim's threats as the babbling of a baby, it is quite likely he will punish China and Russia sometime in the future. Then history will repeat itself and once again China and Russia will fall victim to an invasion by a smaller state. Students studying in unrecognised schools and madrasas and vedic pathshalas may soon be termed out-of-school-children, a government panel has suggested. The panel made the recommendation while suggesting mapping of all unrecognised institutions during a survey to identify out-of-school children. These institutions may and may not provide regular mainstream education. Children attending all such institutions (unrecognised schools) are to be treated as out of school, even if they provide regular education. All these unrecognised institutions such as unrecognised schools, unrecognized madrasa, vedic pathshalas, gompas and other form of non-formal education centres must be mapped and children enrolled therein are counted as out-of-school children, the panel said in its report. The panel was formed to devise pathways for re-engaging out-of-school children headed by HRD minister of state (school education) Upendra Kushwaha. The recommendations of the panel will be taken up by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) when it meets on Monday. The meeting will be chaired by human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar. The committee has also suggested that there is a need to have a standardised definition of out-of-school children. This definition needs should be uniform and be used by all data sources of the country. To ensure students do not drop out of schools, the committee has also recommended that children from the marginalised sections need to be incentivised for their attendance in schools. The report points out that the government of Haryana has a system in place under which Rs 1 per day per child is provided to children of nomadic tribes for their attendance in schools. Similarly, West Bengal government gives an annual scholarship of Rs 500. The panel suggested that government should work towards developing an Aadhaar-linked child tracking system under which information about students age and educational status should be linked with their unique identity numbers. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON To test and assess its own preparedness in the event of an emergency as well as acquaint residents with the scenario during a terrorist attack, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) carried out a mock drill at the MG Road Metro station on Friday. CISF officials said that with the Republic Day celebration around the corner and a high alert in place, such drills are important in helping them assess their security preparedness. Situated on the Yellow line of Delhi Metro, MG Road station, along with HUDA City Centre Metro station, has the highest footfall of all the Metro stations in Gurgaon. The drill started at 11.30am and lasted till12.20 pm. It was carried out in the presence of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Gurgaon police and Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC) officials. Quick Reaction Teams (QRT), dog squads and the bomb disposal squads of the CISF and the Haryana police swept the Metro stations as part of the exercise. Three CISF jawans, dressed in civilian clothes, played dummy terrorists during the drill. On spotting them, a message from the control room of the Metro station went out to all the authorities concerned, inspector Rajender Singh of the CISF said. Rajender is responsible for security all Metro stations of the DMRC. Read I Gurgaon: City tests disaster-preparedness during mock drill Rajender added a message was also sent out to Sector 29 police station and the Metro police officials at Iffco Chowk metro station. Quick reaction teams of both Haryana police and the CISF were the first to arrive at the scene, he said. Such drills help us assess the coordination between multiple security agencies, response time in the event of an emergency and areas of improvement in the run-up to the Republic Day celebrations, Rajender said. To ensure commuters do not panic and are aware of the drill, DMRC officials made regular announcements through the public address system. On July 18, 2017, security officials had carried out a mock drill at the Guru Dronacharya Metro station. In the general ward of Gurgaon Civil hospital in Civil Lines, 75-year-old Jagannath Kumar, whose spine was injured after falling from the cycle, was lying on a hospital bed with one of his legs tied up and a brick hanging on the other end. The brick was used as a traction bag, as the 200 bedded hospital lacks medical equipments. Kumar was staring blankly at his fractured leg on the morning of January 8, as he was to spend about a week more on the same bed with brick hanging to his leg. Soon I will be operated by the doctors here. This brick which is tied to my leg is the best treatment for me, I was told by the medical staff, said Kumar. Kumars plight is shared by many other patients who daily visit the hospital in the hope of getting treatment. Some are not even as lucky as Kumar, to at least get a bed. The Civil Lines hospital has 200 in-patients and everyday it receives more than 3,000 outpatients, but the staff there can be seen struggling to meet the demand due to shortage of manpower. In the past one decade, Gurgaon has witnessed its population growing at an alarming pace but the health care facilities and infrastructure have not been updated in keeping with that pace. As per Census 2011, Gurgaons population was 15.14 lakh, which has now swelled to over 25 lakh as per rough estimates by various agencies of the district administration. There is a large chunk of population who cannot afford treatment and health care in private hospitals. Hundreds of patients queue up for the appointments, despite no guarantee that the patient will be examined by the specialised doctors. The hospital building, also needs a repair. For the past three years, several incidents took place when patients were injured because of the collapse of the ceilings. I came here to get my son examined for skin infection, however, even after visiting the hospital three times I am unable to get to see the doctor, said Kamla Devi, a resident of Jharsa village, while waiting in a queue at Civil hospital in Civil Lines on January 8. The hospital has only one dermatologist, sources said. The hospital has 57 doctors and 77 staff nurses , despite the sanctioned posts being 105 for doctors and 167 for staff nurses. Because of the shortage of doctors, staff, and even medical equipments, the patients are not attended to properly, alleged patients and their attendants. With the lack of infrastructure and other facilities, including equipments to conduct MRIs patients are also referred to hospitals in New Delhi. Read I Gurgaon Fortis bills family of 7-yr-old dengue victim for 660 syringes and 2,700 gloves, Nadda promises action Even in the emergency unit, patients have to wait for hours to get themselves admitted. I came with my five-year-old son at 9:30am and even after waiting for two hours we are unable to get us enrolled in emergency service. My son is suffering from pneumonia, said Kalam Ahmed, a resident of Kapashera village. Though Ahmads son required immediate treatment, the hospital did not have ventilators or oxygen masks for him for two hours. Inside the wards, bins are overflowing, and parts of the ceiling often collapse. There is a shortage of surgical gloves and the MRI service is not functioning for the past six months, hospital sources said. We have everything in place and there is no shortage at all. We are working on a plan regarding the hospital building which is in poor condition. The building came into being in 1967, thus it is very old. We will either repair it or will get a new building soon, said BK Rajora, chief medical officer, Gurgaon. A similar scenario is at the Civil hospital in Sector 10. No one cares about us here. They do not inform if they are closing the hospital for a day. There is no information on which doctor is available on which day, said Ganga Ram, a resident of Sector 9, who visited the Sector 10 hospital with along his wife who was suffering from fever and respiratory problems. Sources in the hospital said there is a shortage of basic equipments, including surgical gloves, cotton, patients robe and saline drips, however, the chief medical officer denied the claims. The hospital has got 100 new beds, however, the facility is yet to be functional and even medicines are often not available. At present the hospital Sector 10, which was inaugurated in the year 2000, has a total of 10 staff nurse whereas the required strength is on 26, said the hospital staff. I was asked to get medicines from outside. I came here to get checked up as I am feeling tired and feverish because of sudden weather change, said Narender Singh, a resident of Sector 10. We have requested the state government for more staff nurses. Once we get the required strength, the hospital will open its wards, said Pradeep Kumar, principal medical officer, Civil hospital, Sector 10. The three-storey hospital building has lifts but they are not operational in the absence of electricity connection. VOX POP There is no designated counter for pregnant women. There is a need to increase the number of counters and staff. The queue at the counter to get a medical card is very long. Pancham Kumar Singh, resident, Sector 45 We are forced to visit private hospitals as the service in the government hospital is very poor and they dont have all the medical facilities needed. Rekha Devi, resident, Sector 17 The hospital lacks hygiene. Even the attendants who come with patients are likely to fall sick if they stay in the hospital for few days. Krishna Devi, resident, Sector 5 The Sector 10 hospital does not have medicines. The medical staff tells patients attendants to get medicines from outside; thats inconvenient and expensive. Manju Devi, resident, Sector 10 SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The health department will set up a team of specialised doctors to inquire into the death of an 11-year-old boy at a city-based private hospital. The team will probe the allegation of medical negligence made by the boys parents in the wake of his death in November. The heath department did not receive the inquiry report from a medical team that had been set up earlier to probe the charge. The team was to submit its report last month. A health official claimed that since the doctors associated with the health department are busy probing some cases of medical negligence against private hospitals, the report on this particular case was delayed. BK Rajora, chief medical officer, Civil Hospital, said that the team set up earlier has been disbanded. We have now set up a team of doctors, who specialise in paediatrics, to investigate the case. We have already got the details of the childs condition from the private hospital where he was treated. We have also received a complaint from the police and are aware of the allegation levelled (against the hospital) by his parents, Rajora said. Parents of 11year-old Prateek Kumar said he was suffering from diarrhoea and was admitted to Park Hospital at South City 2 on November 21. A resident of Basai, Prateek was the youngest of three siblings, and died on November 22. The parents alleged that the 11-year-old was administered the wrong medicine through an injection, as a result of which he died. They filed a complaint at the Sadar police station. After conducting a probe, the police submitted its report to the health department for further investigation. Read I Gurgaon: Six doctors of Artemis hospital booked for medical negligence Rajora said that once the team files its report, it will be sent to the Medical Council of India (MCI) for further investigation. We will send the report to the MCI, which has a board to carry out further probe and take a call on whether the death could, indeed, be attributed to medical negligence, Rajora said. The hospital, in a statement issued last month, said all procedures were followed and the boy was administered the right medicine for his condition. We hope the committee will bring out the truth. The boys post-mortem report was inconclusive and his viscera sample has been sent for further tests. As per our records, the boy was administered proper dose of Midazolam (the medicine). If something were to happen to him, it would have happened in 15 minutes, not two hours after being administered the medicine. He was under close observation. We also want a fair probe and are keenly awaiting the panels report, Dr. V S Bhalla, medical superintendent, Park Hospital, Gurgaon, said. Five women have publicly accused Hollywood star James Franco of sexually inappropriate behaviour, 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 Francos 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 Times Up pin in solidarity with victims of sexual harassment. It was like a slap in my face, she told the paper. James Franco arrives at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) 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. Francos attorney told The Times the account of Franco removing the protective guards was not accurate, and pointed to Tither-Kaplans 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. Actor and honoree James Franco poses at the inaugural IndieWire Honors in Los Angeles. (REUTERS) 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. Francos 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 didnt want him to hate me, so I did it, she told the Times. The power dynamic was really off. Francos 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. Follow @htshowbiz for more An Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) research scholars decision to join militancy has left security experts concerned, who said the 26-year-old did not appear to be in touch with radical elements before becoming a part of Hizbul Mujahideen. Two security officials, one from Jammu & Kashmir police and another from the Intelligence Bureau, said at present they did not have enough leads to confirm what pushed Mannan Wani to join the militant ranks. He was not educated at a madrasa and had not been in touch with any radicalised elements, said a Jammu & Kashmir police officer, adding that Wanis family too had no record of being involved in militancy or separatist politics. The officer said Wanis Twitter account showed that he closely followed political and social issues that were not exclusive to his home state. An IB officer said they were examining whether the research scholar had indeed been hassled and humiliated during security checks on his way back home last month, as was claimed by his friends on social media Its definitely not a trend but the fact is radicalism feeds off radicalism. The political atmosphere outside Kashmir will definitely have some bearing on Kashmiri youth going out to study. It is counter-productive for national integration, security expert Ajay Sahni said Expressing concern over Wani joining militancy, Centres special representative for J&K, Dineshwar Sharma, said Any youth joining militant ranks is bad news and I sincerely hope that Kashmiri youngsters do not choose the path of violence. We will do everything in our power to stop this from happening. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Driving from the town of Jowai in the West Jaintia Hills to the village of Mukhep in the East Jaintia Hills, Sannio Siangshai, 43, wistfully looks out of the car at barren fields. I am a child of the mines. My mother was a coal miner. That allowed us to get education and join professions like the media. But look at the destruction around us. Once coal is dumped on a field, not a blade of grass grows. I have seen river streams turn acidic, unusable. You cant drink water, there is no aquatic life, you cant wash clothes, streams disappear. You do need scientific mining. A few minutes earlier, Siangshai, wearing the hat of a professional journalist with no personal view on the matter, had suggested that the biggest issue in the Jaintia Hills - which sends seven members to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly - was the 2014 National Green Tribunal ban on coal mining. Official estimates suggested the state used to then produce 5.8 million metric tonnes of coal annually. It was the second largest contributor to the states revenues. And suddenly, with the ban, labourers had lost jobs, owners were angry, economy was disrupted. And everyone blamed the Congress government for not preventing the ban with sound policies, Siangshai said. As we drove across, there were a row of lorries causing a traffic jam, a frequent occurrence, even more intense before the official ban. The lorries were transporting exactly what had been banned, down through the Jaintia Hills to the rest of the Northeast, and even across the border to Bangladesh. Siangshai mocked the regulation, There is law and there is reality. Three contrasting images define the state of Meghalayas most precious resource. A concern over the environmental impact of coal mining and even appreciation for the ban in the long term; the strongly-held view that the ban is wrong in the short term; and the rampant illegal mining that persists because of an NGT loophole because of which already extracted coal is allowed to be transported (letting miners use it as a cover). This situation defines how the Indian state - in its central, state, regulatory and enforcement avatars - can act at cross purposes. And it shows how economy and environment can shape the mood of a substantial section of the electorate as a state heads to polls. The life of a miner If someone stands at the intersection of it all, it is a miner. A non-tribal who started as a labourer in a coal mine 38 years ago; who became a sardar, head,of labourers; who slowly acquired a piece of land, and then more land, who then began mining and trading, and is now sitting on exploited and unexploited coal worth 500 crore; who ensured that both he and his family converted to Christianity to be a part of Meghalayas milieu. But as he personally drives a small car, and sits on a stool in a small tea shop, there is no trace of wealth earned through mining, or anger at the ban. He agrees to speak on the condition of anonymity. My people, my fellow miners wont like it. I must tell you. What NGT has done is right for future generations. There has to be a system. So does it mean that people in the area, and local owners, were fine with the ban? He laughed. No. All that matters for everyone is today, the present. See, mining is legitimate. The government should have had a system. A lot of these resources will be finished soon. In East Jaintia, 70% reserves are over. But the point is no one cares about tomorrow. They want to punish the Congress. It should have brought a policy. When asked how the ban had affected people like him, he smiles and says, Look at the trucks. I can take you to mines. Nothing has changed, except that we dump it discreetly. But if illegal transactions are continuing, what is the problem for him? They have made us a chor, thief. I am scared of the law. Why are they making us do things which we dont want? In real terms, he claimed miners were paying as much money, but to officials and not the states economy. Everyone in government is making money but not the government itself because miners and transporters and traders overload, they take illegally extracted coal. There are many cement factories to which coal is going directly, with no checks, which means no revenues, with complicity of people in government. All of this has left him in a peculiar position. He made most of his money under the Congress, but blames the sa- me party. And so he felt that it was time to give a chance to others. NPPs Conrad Sangma spoke about mining in Parliament. If the BJP comes to power, given they are at the Centre, they will do something at least and solve it. Lets try it. And the politics In Meghalayas political field, all actors are privately conscious of the need to protect the environment, but they publicly want to be seen as favouring the economy over the environment in what has got framed as a zero sum game - since they believe that is the popular sentiment. This bind is now playing out electorally. Insisting that he had done his best to resolve the issue, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma rejected any allegation that illegal mining was happening at all. It is not taking place. If it is, we are monitoring it. There are checks. There is an enquiry. Cases are registered. No one will get away. He also rejected any allegation - rife in the state - that his family was involved in mining and said they had moved out of the business in 2007-08. Conrad Sangma, the NPP leader, blamed the government for the overall coal economy. It began with environment, moved to safety of miners, and has now moved to ownership. Government of India wants to know how private individuals mine here despite nationalisation of coal. Our position is they do so legally, and are exempted under the sixth schedule. GOI then asks show us proof that this is indeed allowed. Meghalaya government has not been able to offer this, frame a scientific mining policy and clear the issue. I wont make big promises but we will resolve the issue. For now, the Meghalaya political establishment seems to have come to a contract. Do little to resolve the structural constraints to mining. Let it continue blindly since private coffers are being filled up. At the same time, show oneself to be the victim. But politicians and the voters know this is not tenable, and the elections may well bring matters to a head. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The CBI has taken over from Kerala police investigation into the unnatural death of a college student in Thrissur district in January last year. The Supreme Court had last month directed the Central agency to probe the sensational case. The Thiruvananthapuram unit of the CBI on Thursday submitted a re-registered FIR before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Ernakulam, for further investigation as per the December 5 order of the apex court. The CBI has not named anyone as accused in the FIR. Jishnu Pranoy, a first year engineering student was found hanging in the hostel of Nehru College of Engineering and Research Centre, Pambady in Thrissur, in January last year. His parents had then alleged that the boy had suffered brutal physical and mental harassment at the hands of the college management. The Pazhayannur police had registered a case on January 6, last year, on the basis of a statement given by Jishnus classmate Amal I T. In its FIR, the police had said Jishnu was caught by an invigilator for copying during the examination conducted at the college on January 6, 2017 and due to mental tension he attempted suicide by hanging himself in the bathroom of the mens hostel. His friends rescued Jishnu and took him to the Taluk hospital in Ottappalam but he died on the way, it had said. Jishnus parents and friends did not accept the police version and staged protests in the state with the support of student organisations and political parties seeking justice. Jishnus mother Mahija had moved the Supreme Court in October last year seeking a CBI probe into the matter. The Supreme Court on December 5 directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into the mysterious death of the engineering student. Indias market regulator barred Price Waterhouse from auditing listed companies in the country for two years, traders in Old Delhi complained about hackers blackmailing them, and a Pakistan TV news anchor made headlines. These stories made news on Thursday. Here is more about them. SEBI bars Price Waterhouse from auditing listed firms for two years The Securities and Exchange Board of India late on Wednesday barred Price Waterhouse from auditing listed companies in the country for two years, after a probe into the nearly decade-old accounting fraud case at software services company Satyam. Ramalinga Raju, founder and former chairman of Satyam, stunned Indian markets and investors in January 2009, when he admitted that the firm had overstated earnings and assets for several years, in a fraud of more than $1 billion sometimes referred to as Indias Enron. Price Waterhouse was Satyams auditor during the period in which the fraud was perpetrated. Three owners of Mumbai restaurant blamed for deadly fire arrested Brothers Kripesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and their partner Abhijeet Mankar allegedly violated safety rules at their restaurant 1Above, where a fire on December 29 in Mumbais Kamala Mills killed 14 people. They have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other offences under the Indian Penal Code, said police. Hackers hit traders in Old Delhi, demand Bitcoin as ransom Traders in Old Delhi are being blackmailed by hackers who demand ransom in Bitcoins to release documents critical to their businesses. The Delhi Police has got complaints from three traders, but more people could have paid ransom in Bitcoins and didnt contact the authorities. 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. CBSE Class 12 board exam schedule tests students patience Students, parents and teachers have complained against the schedule for the Central Board of Secondary Educations Class 12 exam beginning March, saying some dates clash and give them little time to study. Three humanities stream exams are scheduled from April 5 to 7 without a break. The JEE entrance exam for technical institutions is scheduled for April 8, a day before the CBSEs physical education exam. New judges for Supreme Court and High Courts recommended Senior advocate Indu Malhotra and Uttrakhand High Court chief justice KM Joseph have been recommended as new judges of the Supreme Court. Malhotra will be the second woman judge in the current bench of Supreme Court judges. Joseph, as chief justice, set aside Presidents rule in Uttarakhand in 2016. German cryptographers claim to find a way to infiltrate WhatsApp Group chats A team of German cryptographers says it has discovered flaws in WhatsApps Group chats despite its end-to-end encryption, that makes it possible to infiltrate private group chats without administrator permission. Anyone who controls the apps servers could insert new people into private group chats without needing admin permission, Wired.com, citing cryptographers. Minister Nitin Gadkari lose his cool with Indian Navy Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari wants Indian Navy officers to vacate their official homes in affluent South Mumbai after the force opposed the construction of floating jetty. 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, he said. 3 Army soldiers injured after falling from chopper during drill Three soldiers were injured when they were slithering from a helicopter and the rope came undone during rehearsals at Delhis Parade Ground for the Indian Army Day parade. A senior Army officer said a probe has been ordered and slithering will not feature in the line-up of events for the parade this year. UP police constable rapes child, beaten up by people A police constable working with the sales tax department in Gautam Budh Nagar allegedly raped a seven-year-old girl who was playing near his home. Subhash Singh was beaten up by a mob of over a hundred people and later arrested. A video of people beating up Singh was seen on social media. Pakistani TV anchor hosts bulletin with child daughter to rape, murder Kiran Naz, a TV news anchor with Pakistans Samaa TV channel, is being praised for her courage after she hosted a bulletin with her child daughter to protest a brutal rape and murder in the country. Today Im not Kiran Naz. Today, Im a mother. This is why I am sitting here with my daughter, she said while commenting about the crime against an eight-year-old girl in Pakistans Punjab province. The girls body was found in trash. Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Friday that India needs to shift its military focus from its western border with Pakistan to its northern border with China, and called for partnerships with neighbouring countries to check Chinas growing assertiveness in the region. Naming Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan and Afghanistan, Rawat asserted that India must not let these nations drift away from us. China is a powerful country, he said, but stressed that India isnt a weak nation. Talking to reporters at his customary briefing before Army Day on January 15, the general said that Chinese troops were still present in reduced numbers in north Doklam a plateau at the strategic India-Bhutan-China tri-junction where India and China were locked in a 73-day border standoff last year. This de-escalation may have happened due to winter. They may return here or somewhere else after the winter months. If they come again, we will see what to do, Rawat said, responding to a question on the situation in Doklam. He said the Indian Army had intensified patrolling along the Line of Actual Control and that had led to an increase in contacts with the Chinese army. We are seeking support of other nations to see that we are not isolated completely in a situation in Asia against an assertive China. That is the next step that is being taken and therefore you will find that a quadrilateral is formed, Rawat said, referring to the grouping of the US, India, Japan and Australia in the Indo-Pacific. On the western front, Rawat said the Indian Army was ready to call Pakistans nuclear bluff. If we really have to confront the Pakistanis and the country gives us a task, we are not going to say we will not cross the border because they have nuclear weapons, he said. Rawat also called for education reforms in Jammu and Kashmir, describing the current curriculum corrupted. What is being incorrectly informed to the students is through the madrasas and masjids. Some control has to be exercised over them, he said, and questioned why two maps one of India and one of J&K were displayed in classrooms of government schools in the state. Jimgorn said: What "circumstantial evidence"??.....Trump is a global businessman...of course he talked to Russian here and there....Same with Senators and others working in the Government...How are Manafort, Flynn,Popadopolus and the other one connected to any "Collusion".??.....Mueller got jack-****....This whole Russian Collusion hoax is falling apart.....That is why you guys are all obsessed with Trump calling a ******** a ********.... Click to expand... Should global business people be mindful of representing America, and should they adhere to democratic principles? Like Walmart may be giving people higher wages as a result of the change in taxes, but Trump employees were not paid as well others doing the same jobs for someone else. Democracy is about the welfare of all, and capitalism is not. I don't think we would have to worry so much about national defense if the capitalist were not making enemies. When Trump goes to Isreal and talks about where the capital and American embassy should be, is doing this as the president of the US or a businessman? I am nervous about a global business person also being our president. All wings of the Chinese military have stepped up drills at home and abroad focusing their training on the plateau region post Doklam, the official media reported on Friday. The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has been executing military training instructions issued by President Xi Jinping on January 3 by conducting drills at home and abroad involving its ground forces, Navy, Air Force, rocket (missile) force and armed police, it said. The Peoples Liberation Armys official media cautioned the troops on Thursday of imminent threats and to avoid complacency. The drills included by the Chinese navy at Djibouti base in the Indian Ocean, which was officially stated to be a logistics base. The PLA Daily, official mouthpiece of the 2.3 million strong military, said Chinas most advanced military aircraft including the J-20 stealth fighter jet, the Y-20 transport aircraft, the H-6k bomber, and the J-16, J-11B J-10C fighter jets have all conducted training exercises since the beginning of 2018. The J-20 is conducting air combat training with other fighter planes including the J-16. The J-20 is also practising beyond-visual-range air combat, and other aircraft, including the Y-20 and the J-10C, are training at unspecified airports on a plateau region in order to improve their capability in long-range military transport and air combat, the PLA Daily reported. The plateau region refers to the Tibetan plateau which covered a long Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China. Indias ground force has some advantages in quantity in the border areas, so if conflict happens, Chinas air force needs to seize domination of the skies and immediately create an overwhelming advantage for China, a retired PLA officer who used to serve in the air force and asked not to be identified, was quoted as saying by the Global Times. So increasing military training in the plateau region is highly necessary, he said. The drills assumed significance as potential military conflicts in plateau regions have been on the rise since the border friction with India last year, the official said. China and India were engaged in a 73-day tense standoff at Doklam in the Sikkim sector which ended on August 28. The report highlighted a potential military conflict between India and China in the backdrop of hectic parleys between the two countries to improve relations. This included Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi holding talks with top Indian officials on the sidelines of Russia, India and China meeting at New Delhi last month followed by the 20th round of border talks there between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval during which both sides agreed to make efforts to restore peace and stability along the LAC. Modern Navy, a WeChat public account run by the PLA Navy, reported on Wednesday that the PLA Marine Corps stationed in Chinas first overseas logistic base in Djibouti conducted a series of combat training missions including countering reconnaissance from hostile aircraft, encountering combat in a desert, and tracking and annihilating terrorists. Experts said the possibility of military conflict around China has increased in recent years, the PLA Daily said. In regions like the Korean Peninsula, China-India border area and the Taiwan Straits, the PLA needs to be prepared for all possibilities. Our overseas interests in regions like Africa and the Middle East are also under threat due to local instability, Xu Guangyu, a retired major general and senior adviser of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association told the daily. Four Supreme Court judges took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the chief justice on Friday, warning that a lack of impartiality could imperil democracy in the country. Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Bhimrao Lokur and Kurian Joseph, in a letter released to the media, said their criticisms related to an alleged lack of transparency in the selection of judges to try cases, calling it a cause for serious concern. Heres a look at the careers of the four judges: J Chelameswar Justice Jasti Chelameswar Justice Chelameswar is the second-most senior judge in the Supreme Court. He studied physics at Loyola College in Chennai, before switching to law at Andhra University in Vishakapatnam. Chelameswar was designated as a Senior Advocate in 1995 and was appointed as a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 1997. He has served as the Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court, and later Kerala High Court. Chelamsewar was elevated to the Supreme Court in October 2011, along with the current Chief Justice Dipak Misra. In 2015, Chelameswar was the only dissenting voice when the Supreme Court struck down with a 4:1 majority a constitutional amendment on how judges are appointed. Chelameswar ruled in favour of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and argued that the collegium system had become an euphemism for nepotism. Chelameswar was also part of the nine-judge bench that delivered the historic Supreme Court verdict declaring privacy as a fundamental right. Chelameswar is due to retire in October 2018. Ranjan Gogoi Justice Ranjan Gogoi Justice Gogoi is next in line, in order of seniority, to become the Chief Justice of India in October 2018. This would make him the first judge from the Northeast to be elevated to position of CJI, before he retires in November 2019. Gogoi was a permanent judge at the Gauhati High Court in 2001 before he became the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court. He was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2012. In 2016, Gogoi issued a contempt notice to retired Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju in a review petition after Katju criticised Supreme Court proceedings on his blog. M.B. Lokur Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur Justice Lokur studied at Modern School in Delhi and St Josephs in Allahabad. He studied history at Delhis St Stephens College, before pursuing law at the Faculty of Law in Delhi University. Lokur practised as an advocate in the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court. He was designated Senior Advocate in 1997; the next year, he was appointed as the Additional Solicitor General of India. Lokur became an Additional Judge of the Delhi High Court in 1999 and then was its Acting Chief Justice as well. He served as the Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court and Andhra Pradesh High Court, before he became a Supreme Court judge in 2012. He was reappointed as the head of the Supreme Courts e-committee for digitisation of courts, which has undertaken the ambitious project of making the apex court paperless. He is due to retire in December 2018. Kurian Joseph Justice Kurian Joseph Born in Kerala, Justice Joseph completed his schooling in the state, before obtaining a law degree from the Kerala Law Academy Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. He started practising law in 1979 in the Kerala High Court, was appointed as Additional Advocate General and Senior Advocate, before he became a judge in 2000. He served twice as Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Kerala. Before he was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2013, he was the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court from February 8, 2010 to March 7, 2013. Joseph will retire in November 2018. Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Friday some schools in Jammu and Kashmir were allegedly teaching students with two maps one of India and another of the state. Addressing the media on the eve of Army Day, Gen Rawat said, In the schools in Jammu and Kashmir, what teachers are teaching should not be taught. In schools in J&K, there can be seen two maps, one of India, another of J&K. Why do we need a separate map for J&K? What does it teach the children? Most misguided youth come from schools where they are being radicalised. The army chief also said some control has to be exercised over madrassas and mosques that spread misinformation. The other issue is madrasas, what is being incorrectly informed to them (students) is from madrassas and masjids, he said. At the press conference, Gen Rawat also said India will not allow its territory to be invaded by anyone, and asserted that China may be a powerful country but India was not a weak nation either. Amid aggressive Chinese efforts to increase its influence in the region, the army chief said India cannot allow its neighbours to drift away to China. China is a powerful country but we are not a weak nation, he said. Asked about Chinese incursions, he said, We will not allow our territory to be invaded by anyone. Referring to the US warnings to Pakistan over its handling of terrorism, Rawat said India will have to wait and see its impact. (With ANI inputs) A hotline will be set up between the Indian and Chinese armies very soon, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said Friday. It is moving very fast. Very soon we will have a hotline with the Chinese side, the Army Chief said at a press conference. He said both India and China were very keen on having a hotline between the Indian Armys Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) and the Chinese officer holding similar position. The Army Chief said a hotline will help resolve incidents such as transgressions along the border promptly. We are very keen to start the hotline. The Chinese are also very clear, he said. Currently, India and Pakistan have a hotline between their DGMOs. Replying to a question on procurement of Spike anti-tank missile from Israel through government-to-government route, the Army Chief said such a proposal was being considered. 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. Gen. Rawat said the government was considering procuring the missile system from Israel using the government-to-government route. India has extended a fresh financial assistance of $45.27 million for upgrading Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour in northern Sri Lanka into a commercial port and strengthening the countrys efforts to become a regional maritime hub. Sri Lankas ministry of finance and Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) signed an agreement in this regard on January 10, the Indian High Commission said. An agreement for Indian financial assistance for $45.27 million (LKR 6.9 billion) for upgrading Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour was signed on January 10 in New Delhi by David Rasquinha, Managing Director, Export-Import Bank of India and RHS Samaratunga, Secretary to Treasury of Sri Lanka, the statement said. The upgradation project would make KKS Harbour a full- fledged commercial port, further strengthening Sri Lankas efforts to become a regional maritime hub, the statement said. It would also assist in reconstruction efforts in northern Sri Lanka. In terms of the MoU between India and Sri Lanka for rehabilitation of KKS Harbour, four out of the six phases of the rehabilitation have already been completed under Indias grant assistance. This includes preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR), works related to Geo-technical studies, wreck removal and disposal, dredging and hydrographic survey. The fresh assistance of $45.27 million would be used for the remaining two phases involving works relating to the rehabilitation of the breakwater and existing pier, construction of a new pier for commercial cargo handling, installation of port infrastructure facilities, etc. The signing of the MoU is a reflection of the continued commitment of Government of India to assist Sri Lanka in its development journey, the statement said. The KKS port was rendered useless after the LTTE attacked it during the civil war. The port was key in connecting the Jaffna peninsula with the rest of Sri Lanka and also India. India is friends with both the UK and the European Union and is hopeful that the divorce between them after Brexit wont be very acrimonious, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said here on Friday. Highlighting that India has revived the stalled talks on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), the Commerce and Industry minister stressed that New Delhi was keen to work on closer trade ties with both the UK and the 28- member economic bloc. The decision the EU and Britain have taken as a result of the referendum is between them. We are friends with both and hope for a very good outcome and good relations, Prabhu told reporters. Even divorces can be mutually agreed and we hope this divorce is not very acrimonious and both sides part on a happy note, he said. During his ongoing visit for the India-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting in London, the minister held bilateral talks with UK international trade minister Liam Fox and met with leaders of UK business and industry. He said all groups had expressed a growing interest in Indias growth story and that India-UK ties were very strong and equally balanced from both sides. The recommendations of the Joint Trade Review conducted by both countries were also presented to ministers to continue the work of the India-UK working group on trade, established to remove hurdles in the path of a post-Brexit free trade agreement (FTA). India is on track to grow faster and these talks were extremely forward looking but much more needs to be done. However, we have begun the year on a very good note, Prabhu said. During the bilateral discussions, India also raised its concerns over the mobility of its professionals and reducing prohibitive visa fees and called for a scheme which would allow Indian professionals to apply for a six-month UK visa and get access for two years. The services sector has to be present on the ground to provide services and the ease of getting visas creates lots of issues for professionals. We stressed on the difference between mobility and migration and I am sure of a positive outcome, Prabhu said. On the bilateral front, the minister also revealed the setting up of a new special cell within Invest India to encourage UK companies do business in the country and a planned joint event on start-ups to be held in India in March. The energy and advanced manufacturing sectors were highlighted as some of the focus areas for what Prabhu described as a new industrial revolution. Confirming Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the UK in April for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) summit hosted by Britain, the minister said India was keen to promote intra-Commonwealth trade and inject new dynamism into the bloc. The Commonwealth must first create wealth and work on trade issues, he said. Addressing a separate session on Commonwealth as a Trade and Investment Bloc organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council and UK India Business Council today, Prabhu called on the private sector to tap into the huge potential of the group. India is fully committed to promote the idea of the Commonwealth as a strong trading bloc and remove roadblocks. There is huge potential of investment within the Commonwealth and it is the right time to reinvent it into a new entity altogether, he said. During his UK visit, Prabhu will also address a gathering of students and academics at the London School of Economics (LSE) on the Role of Trade and Investment in Driving Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. He will also address the Indian diaspora in the UK alongside Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju at an event organised by the Indian High Commission in London. Indian space agency Isro launched its 100th satellite along with 30 others in a single mission on Friday from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. Thirty-one spacecrafts, including weather observation Cartosat-2 series satellite, were launched by PSLV-C40. Out of the 31, 28 satellites are foreign, while three are from India. When the last satellite is ejected out it will become the hundredth satellite...the first century we have done. It is the maiden century. So PSLV-C40 marks maiden century of Indian satellite, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satellite Centre Director M Annadurai told PTI. As the space agency adds another feather in its cap, heres a look at its ten big achievements: Launching 104 satellites in a single mission, 2017: On February 15, 2017, ISRO garnered international attention when it launched 104 satellites using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), an Indian rocket. The launch took place at Sriharikota and successfully managed to put these satellites into their desired orbit in one go. 101 were foreign satellites out of the 104 launched. It also included the Cartostat-2 series, Indias earth observation satellite. Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, 2016: The seven-satellite system created Indias very own satellite navigation system that could potentially offer services like terrestrial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, navigation aide for hikers and travellers, visual and voice navigation for drivers. The launch of the 7th navigation satellite brought India much closer to the GPS club. Experts said an Indian-owned system will be particularly useful in times of war to gain positional accuracy. Launching 20 satellites, 2016: Before it made the 104 satellite record, in June, Isro launched 20 satellites in one mission, a personal best for the space agency. Apart from Isros own satellites and those built by university students in the country, the mission carried satellites from the US, Canada, Germany and Indonesia. Reusable Launch Vehicle, 2016: In May, Isro successfully tested the Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) that was built on a budget of Rs 95 crore. The winged flight vehicle dubbed as Indias space shuttle that glided back onto a virtual runway in the Bay of Bengal in a 10-minute mission was the first stage of a fully re-usable vehicle. A reusable launch vehicle can bring down launch costs by up to ten times. Read | As ISRO readies to launch Cartosat-2 satellite today, tension builds over August disaster Mangalyaan, 2014: India joined an exclusive global club when it successfully launched the Mars Orbiter Mission on a shoestring budget that was at least 10 times lower than a similar project by the US. Only the United States, Russia and Europe have previously sent missions to Mars, but what made Indias achievement stand out was that it succeeded on its first attempt, which even the Americans and the Soviets could not. The Rs 450-crore project revolved round the Red Planet and to collect data on Mars atmosphere and mineral composition. Chandrayaan, 2008: Indias first unmanned lunar probe was launched almost a decade ago and was a landmark in Indias space mission. Isro joined an elite list of just six space organisations to send an orbiter to the moon. A Tricolour was hoisted on the moon but Isro lost contact with Chandrayaan soon after. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, 1993: It was developed in the 1990s and has become the Indian space missions most reliable workhorse. The PSLV carried out its first mission in 1993 but its first successful outing was the next year. For the next 20 years, it launched various satellites for historic missions such as the Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan. PSLV remains a favourite among various organisations as a launch service provider and has launched over 40 satellites for 19 countries. Indian National Satellite system, 1983: Indian National Satellite System (INSAT), 1983: Launched by ISRO, INSAT is a series of multi-purpose geostationary satellites. It helped with telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue operations. The satellites built a communication system all across Asia Pacific region. There are nine working satellites in the group. Aryabhatta, 1975: The Aryabhata spacecraft that was named after the famous Indian astronomer was the countrys first satellite. It marked a milestone in Indias space programme because it was completely designed in the country and launched from a Russian facility in 1975. Known better by its popular name Insat, the system is a network of satellites that facilitates communications and broadcasting across the south Asian region. The first satellite in the series was placed into orbit in 1983 and ushered in a revolution in Indias television and radio broadcasting, telecommunications and meteorological sectors. Nine satellites are operational. The Supreme Court on Friday termed as a serious matter the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, and sought response from Maharashtra government on pleas seeking an independent probe into it. The top court said, This matter requires bi-party hearing rather than exparte. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar asked Maharasthra Government counsel Nishant R Katneshwarkar to file reply by January 15. At the outset, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing Bombay lawyers association, said the high court is seized of the matter and the apex court should not hear the pleas. The Bombay High Court is seized of the matter and in my opinion the Supreme Court should not hear this matter. If the court goes ahead with the hearing, it may have implications before the high court, Dave said. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for one of the petitioners Maharashtra-based journalist B R Lone, said that she has also instructions from Bombay lawyers association that this matter should not be heard by the top court. The bench, however, said it will look into the petitions but will also consider the objections raised. Advocate Varinder Kumar Sharma, appearing for another petitioner Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala, said this is a case where a mysterious death of a judge has taken place on December 1, 2014 and it needs to be investigated. The bench then asked Katneshwarkar to file the mortem report and other relevant documents regarding the death of judge Loya besides taking instruction from the government. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 15. Loya had died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleagues daughter. The legal fraternity on Friday reacted with shock, and even indignation, after four senior Supreme Court judges went public with allegations of abuse of power by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. While some in the legal fraternity supported the outburst by justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph, others raised questions against them. (Catch LIVE updates here) Former CJI KG Balakrishnan termed the developments as painful and unfortunate and felt such incidents will erode public faith in the judiciary. I dont blame anyone. Judges should have settled differences among themselves. They should not have come to the open like this, he said in Thiruvananthapuram. Former Delhi high court judge justice RS Sodhi called for impeachment of the four judges, saying they have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. We have all had differences. But never have we gone to press. This is appalling. This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say; we have parliament, courts, police functioning, he said. Issues dont matter. It is their complaint on administrative matter. They are only four, there are 23 others (in the SC). Four get together and show the chief justice in a poor light, it is immature and childish behaviour, he added. Former attorney general of India Soli Sorabjee said he was very upset about this. I wish the four Supreme Court judges hadnt done this. This will have severe repercussions on judiciary, he was quoted as saying by Indian Express. Senior lawyer Ujjwal Nikam described the developments as a black day for judiciary. From now on, every common man could look at all judicial order with suspicion. Every judgment will be questioned, Nikam said. Calling the presser quite shocking, senior Supreme Court lawyer KTS Tulsi said the four judges must have exhausted all possible remedies before going public. There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking. Top SC lawyer Prashant Bhushan thanked the judges for taking the unpleasant, extraordinary stand. These four judges are very responsible. If they are doing this, the situation would have definitely gone out of control. They said the CJI was misusing his administrative powers to allot all cases, Bhushan said. Indira Jaising, another top SC advocate told NDTV she supported the judges move. I think we, the people of India, have a right to know what is going on within the collegium and I welcome this. On the judges going against the CJI, she pointed out that they are not anti-CJI. They want to build a consensus. When asked about the alleged mysterious death of former CBI court judge B H Loya, who was presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, she said it could have been the tipping point. The fact that it was listed in court today (Friday) is an indication, she told the news channel. Senior advocate and Congress leader Salman Khurshid told ANI he was deeply pained and also feel a sense of agony that highest court of land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media. PB Sawant, a former Supreme Court judge said this was an unprecedented step. This means that there is a serious dispute, either with CJI or some internal dispute. Former attorney general Shrihari Aney said the four judges wouldnt have taken the step without thinking. If it has fallen upon them to take action, its up to us to understand what led to that, he added. (With agency inputs) Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal blamed the BJP and RSS on Friday for the January 1 riots in Koregaon-Bhima which claimed one life. The Aam Aadmi Party supremo said if people want riots, then they should elect the BJP, which follows a specific pattern in this. He alleged that BJP-RSS workers attacked Dalits in the Pune village of Koregaon-Bhima which led to caste tensions all over Maharashtra subsequently, including a statewide shutdown on January 3. Kejriwal, who was on a days Maharashtra tour, addressed a public rally at Sindkhedraja, the birth place of Rajmata Jijabai, the mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, in Buldhana district. He also targeted state education minister Vinod Tawde, for shutting down thousands of schools permanently, and said those who cant run schools, how can they be expected to run the state government efficiently. Incidentally, Kejriwal has earned kudos for improvements and empowement of public schools in Delhi state. Maharashtra is the land of great personality like Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule, who dedicated their lives for the education of women and children. They started Indias first school for children but the BJP led government here is shutting down thousands of schools, he said. He urged the people to think whether they had voted the BJP-led government to shut down schools. The Delhi CM alleged that the BJP in Maharashtra had crushed the dreams of the Phules and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by its actions. He stressed the need for the Maharashtra government to allocate more funds to the education sector, considering its annual budget is Rs 3 lakh crore, as compared to the Delhi budget of Rs 48,000 crore. Accusing the Maharashtra government of corruption, Kejriwal said: You have to choose between riots or food, employment, education and peace. If you want riots, then vote for the BJP. He highlighted the achievements of the Delhi government in the education, power and farming sectors and lamented the plight of farmers in Maharashtra. On the occasion, Col. Sudhir Sawant (retd), a former Congress Member of Parliament from Konkan, joined the AAP. Currently, Obamas papers are stored in a private facility a handsome and sprawling, bright white brick building on a commercial strip on West Golf Road in suburban Hoffman Estates. Officials initially thought the papers would be kept in Chicago. But after they spent $300,000 to ship Obamas documents to the Chicago region and about $223,000 a month to store and provide security for tens of millions of textual records, artifacts and audio visual materials here, they decided to ship them back to Washington once a decision is made on where to keep them permanently, a spokeswoman with the National Archives and Records Administration said. In a first, four sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India held a press conference on Friday saying that the administration of the countrys highest court was not in order. The judges also warned that democracy would not survive in the country unless the institution was preserved. The conference that highlighted the growing rift between senior justices and the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, was held at Justice Chelameswars residence in New Delhi. Here are the highlights: 9:50 pm: BJPs Sambit Patra said, Surprised and pained that Congress which has been rejected number of times by people in elections is trying to gain political mileage, it has exposed itself. This is an internal matter of the Supreme Court,AG has given statement. No politics should be played: Patra 8:14 pm: Unfortunate and dangerous for democracy. Itll create more problems than solve. Since the judges have spoken theyve done disservice to country because if judiciary is weakened, questions arise in peoples minds, it already has, says former LS speaker Somnath Chatterjee. 8:00 pm: Social activist Anna Hazare said the areas of concern flagged by the four senior judges of the apex court show that there is some kind of a nexus between some people in this government and some judges. 7:47 pm: Congress statement on the four Supreme Court Judges press conference. AICC Press Release: INC Statement on the 4 SC Judges Press Conference on the functioning of the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/txekcEupkL Congress (@INCIndia) January 12, 2018 7:45 pm: All citizens who love the idea of justice are looking at this issue, needs to be addressed: Rahul Gandhi 7:44 pm: Unprecedented points raised by the honourable judges need to be looked into carefully, even Justice Loyas death needs to be investigated properly: Rahul Gandhi 7:41 pm: Congress president Rahul Gandhi says Justice Loya case must be looked at by highest levels of the SC. Read full story here. The four judges who criticised the CJI are the senior most judges of the court after Dipak Misra. 7:36 pm:Observations made by honourable Judges are extremely disturbing and have far reaching consequences: RS Surjewala,Congress 7:18 pm: Judges outburst unfortunate, says former CJI K G Balakrishnan. 6:40 pm: Supreme Court termed as a serious matter the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge B H Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Seikh encounter case, and asked Maharashtra government to file his autopsy report. This is a serious issue. We would like counsel for state of Maharashtra to seek instructions and file the post mortem report and other relevant documents by January 15, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar said. 6:22 pm: Attorney General K K Venugopal said the unprecedented move by the four senior Supreme Court judges in holding a press conference could have been avoided and the judges would now have to act in statesmanship to ensure complete harmony. What has happened today could have been avoided. The judges will now have to act in statesmanship and ensure that the divisiveness is wholly neutralised and total harmony and mutual understanding will prevail in future, he said. 6:10 pm: What led to the unprecedented standoff between four judges and CJI? Read here 6:00 pm: Former judge R S Sodhi criticised the appeal made by four judges of the Supreme Court of India, said they showed Chief Justice Dipak Misra in a poor light, reports ANI. Issues do not matter, but it is their complaint on administration that matters. They are only four but there are 23 others. These four got together and showed the chief justice in poor light. It is immature and childish behaviour. I think all four judges should be impeached, Sodhi said. 5:56 pm: The judiciary is independent and reputed. They will resolve it themselves: MoS Law PP Chaudhary on Supreme Court crisis. 5:20 pm: Former attorney general Shrihari Aney said, These are very senior judges & come only after CJI. They wouldnt have taken the step without thinking. If it has fallen upon them to take action, its up to us to understand what led to that. 5:15 pm: Read the profiles of the four judges who spoke out against Chief Justice of India here. 5:05 pm: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee voices anguish over the happenings in the Supreme Court. We are deeply anguished with the developments today about the Supreme Court. What we are getting from the statement of the four senior Honble Judges of Supreme Court about the affairs of the court makes us really sad as citizens, Banerjee, also Trinamool Congress chief, said in a statement. Judiciary and the media are the pillars of democracy. Extreme interference of central government with judiciary is dangerous for democracy, she said. 5:00 pm: Congress leaders and senior advocates Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari and P Chidambaram arrive at Rahul Gandhis residence. 4:57 pm: Have known him for a long time. When I came to know of the extraordinary step taken by him & other judges, I thought must meet him. Not giving it political colour. These are concerns for everybody, its about future of country & democracy: CPI leader D Raja on meeting Justice Chelameshwar. 4:54 pm: Former solicitor general of India N Santosh Hegde said he was devastated by their action which has caused irreparable damage to the institution. As a retired judge of the Supreme Court, I feel devastated. For some reason or the other, their cause is justified, (but) relief they are seeking is wrong...going to the media? No. Judiciary was always considered as a family. Family disputes are never taken to the streets, Hedge said. 4:51 pm: Senior advocates K T S Tulsi, former union law ministers Salman Khurshid and Ashwini Kumar, former judges Justice R S Sodhi and Justice Mukul Mudgal expressed concern over the unprecedented press conference. I am so pained at the outcome of the things... It is appalling. How can you administer Supreme Court by press conference. Are you going to hold a referendum and ask people what is right and wrong, Justice Sodhi said. I am sure they (four judges) have exhausted all other remedies. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking. The whole matter is with respect to judicial propriety. The question is of natural justice. Whatever is the law for common man, it is applied much more rigorously as far as judges are concerned because they must always be above suspicion, Tulsi said. Senior advocate Indira Jaising welcomed the move and congratulated the four judges 4:40 pm: Feel very disturbed over the issue, this should not have happened, but it has and there might be strong reasons for them. Consequence would be it would create apprehensions in minds of people: Justice(Retd) AK Ganguly. 4:35 pm: Former finance minister and BJP senior leader Yashwant Sinha said he stands firmly with the four judges of the Supreme Court. Seen some of the comments. Stand firmly with the four judges. Instead of criticising them let us concentrate on the issues raised by them. If the highest court is compromised then democracy is in peril. Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) January 12, 2018 What the judges are hinting at is loud and clear. Hope we get at the truth of Judge Loya's death. Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) January 12, 2018 4.20pm: The Supreme Court Bar Association will meet in New Delhi on January 13 to discuss the aftermath of the press conference held by four senior judges, complaining about the functioning of the top court. 4.15pm: A former CJI and two other judges term the press meet unprecedented, according to a report by IANS. Former Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan said he was neither for nor against the four judges on what they did. What is happening is very unfortunate and this should have been avoided. 4.10pm: Former Union law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj said, Its the loss of prestige of the entire institution. If you lose publics trust what remains? Judiciary must remain pillar of democracy. Its responsibility of (the) law minister to see how it functions. 4pm: Congress leader and senior advocate Kapil Sibal to meet party president Rahul Gandhi at 5pm today over the press conference by the four Supreme Court judges. 3:48 pm: CPI MP D Raja leaves after meeting Justice Chelameshwar at his residence in Delhi, reports ANI. 3.30pm: The CPI(M) said a thorough investigation was needed to understand how the independence and integrity of judiciary was being affected. This merits a thorough, proper investigation and understanding of how independence and integrity of judiciary is being interfered or is being affected, which is impermissible in a secular democratic republic, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said. 3:00 pm: Truly unprecedented! Kudos to 4 seniormost judges of SC who addressed a Press Conf today to apprise the people about the extraordinary abuse of 'master of roster' powers by CJI in selectively assigning politically sensitive cases to hand picked junior judges for desired outcome Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) January 12, 2018 2.34pm: Congress says democracy is in danger. The partys official Twitter handle says: We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court. #DemocracyInDanger,. 2.20pm: Support and backlash after Supreme Court judges criticise CJI. Read full story here. 2.10pm: Judges had to come before media and take this unprecedented step. This means that there is a serious dispute, either with Chief Justice of India (CJI) or some internal dispute, says PB Sawant, former Supreme Court judge. 1.54pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to law minister RS Prasad about the allegations made by the 4 Supreme Court judges: ANI quoting sources. 1.40pm: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to address the media at 2 pm, Attorney General K Venugopal to also accompany him, reports ANI news agency. 1.18pm: I think all four judges should be impeached, they have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say. We have parliament, courts, police functioning: Justice RS Sodhi (Retd) 1.11pm: We are not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this institution to some extent: Supreme Court judges in letter to CJI. 1.08pm: The four judges had written a letter to the CJI two months ago airing their grievance about selective assigning of important cases to judges who are junior to them. 1.05pm: Issue of CBI Judge BH Loyas death serious, requires bi-party hearing, says Supreme Court. Read story here. 1pm: Four senior Supreme Court judges speak out against CJI Dipak Misra, say need to preserve institution for survival of democracy. Read the full report here. 12.45pm: Cases having far-reaching consequences for the nation were assigned to benches of their preference without any rationale. Not mentioning details only to maintain the integrity of the organisation: Letter written by the 4 judges to CJI. 12.35pm: There is an issue of assignment of a case which is raised in that letter (to CJI): Justice Ranjan Gogoi, on being asked further if it is about CBI Judge BH Loya. 12.30pm: We are not saying anything, judges say when asked if they want the CJI to be impeached. 12.29pm: Nobody is breaking ranks... Dont put words in our mouths, Justice Madan Lokur says when asked if its a no-confidence vote against CJI. 12.27pm: Construe it as a sign of responsibility to the nation and not protest: Justice Gogoi 12.25pm: We are speaking for ourselves. We didnt discuss this with anyone else: Justice Chelameswar on being asked if this was a consensus view. 12.20pm: We tried to persuade the CJI to take steps but failed. Unless the institution of Supreme Court is preserved, democracy wont survive in this country: Justice Chelameswar. 12.17pm: Justice Chelameswar: Dont want people to say 20 years later that we did not take care of the institution. 12.16pm: Administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. Time and again as senior members of the court, we thought we hold responsibility to the nation to the institution, says Justice Chelameswar. 12.10pm: Jasti Chelameswar, Madan Lokur, Kurian Joseph have arrived at the venue. Waiting for Justice Ranjan Gogoi. Voters in several assembly constituencies represented by the ruling Congress in Meghalaya were surprised when many of them got cheques worth Rs 5,000 ahead of the next months elections in the state, prompting the opposition to accuse the Mukul Sangma government of wooing people with money. Many luck voters, most of them women, from Mylliem, Mawphlang and Sohiong in East Khasi Hills district rushed to the Upper Shillong branch of Bank of Baroda on Thursday to encash the cheques signed by their local block development officers (BDO). I was surprised to see a long queue of women who got the cheques at the bank. Some of them were not even aware why they got it, Agnes Kharshiing, president of local NGO Civil Society Womens Organization (CSWO), said. The upcoming elections are expected to witness an intense battle between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is attempting to come to power in the Christian-majority state. The Election Commission is likely to announce poll dates for Meghalaya, and also for Tripura and Nagaland, within the next few days. This is highly improper. The Congress did nothing for Meghalaya in the past five years. Now they are trying to woo voters with money. People are not fools, Meghalaya BJP chief Shibun Lyngdoh said. The saffron party is also contemplating to approach the poll panel and complain about the issue. The Congress has denied any wrongdoing and said that the cheques were distributed as part of ongoing schemes for womens empowerment. Such cheques are distributed every year. In my constituency, 2,000 women have been given sums under the women economic empowerment scheme, Congress MLA from Mawphlang, Keneddy Cornelius Khriem, said. East Khasi Hills district deputy commissioner PS Dkhar said the money has been given to beneficiaries as per rules and theres nothing wrong as election dates have not yet been announced. But questions are being raised on how the beneficiaries are chosen. We have heard the only criterion was that beneficiaries should have voter ID cards. In some families, three to four people got the cheques. We are filing an RTI query on how these cheques were distributed, CSWOs Kharsiing said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday presented a long wish-list to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought his intervention to fulfil all the promises made to his state under AP Reorganisation Act. The hour-long meeting in New Delhi took place amidst reports of strained relations between the TDP and its alliance partner BJP. Especially after the recent victory of the BJP in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, the Andhra BJP leaders have adopted a belligerent stand against the TDP and announced that their party would go it alone in the next assembly elections in the state in 2019. Naidu, who is also TDP president, had to wait for last one and a half years to get appointment of the Prime Minister despite his repeated requests. Modi finally agreed to give audience to the Andhra CM after hectic lobbying by the TDP MPs. The last time Naidu had a one-on-one meeting with Modi was on August 25, 2016. Though he had a meeting with the Prime Minister on January 24, 2017, it was part of an official delegation, which he had led in the capacity of the convenor of the committee on demonetisation. We didnt discuss politics. I made a detailed representation of the issues concerning the state which have been pending clearance from the Centre for the last two years. At present, my entire focus is on securing maximum benefits from the Centre in the next one year, and not politics. I am confident that the Prime Minister would resolve all the issues and he gave an assurance to that effect, Naidu told media, after the meeting. Stating that Andhra Pradesh had suffered a lot due to unscientific bifurcation of the erstwhile combined state, the chief minister, in his 14-page memorandum to the Prime Minister, requested that the Centre release adequate funds to offset the revenue deficit in the budget, which was essentially due to lack of capital. Out of the total estimated revenue deficit of Rs. 16,078 crore, only Rs 3,979 crore had been released so far to offset the shortfall, he pointed out. The other demands listed in the memorandum include: Release of additional central share of Rs 16447 crores promised for five years till 2020 for Centrally Sponsored Schemes as per the special financial package in lieu of special category status; permission to clear other outstanding loans borrowed for externally aided projects; approval for the revised estimated cost of Rs 58,000 crore towards Polavaram project besides reimbursing the expenditure made so far; release of sufficient funds for expeditious construction of new capital in Amaravati; establishment of railway zone at Visakhapatnam and establishment of central university at Anantapur. Naidu also wanted Modi to take urgent steps to increase the number of seats in the state Assembly from 175 to 225 as committed in the AP Reorganisation Act. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested an alleged member of a terror organisation on Friday in connection with the ambush on an Indian Army convoy in 2015 in Manipur in which 18 personnel were killed, an official said in New Delhi. The agency seized a pistol and five live rounds from Naorem Premkanta Singh, a member of the banned Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), in an operation jointly conducted by the NIA and the Manipur Police, he said. He was found involved in an NIA case related to the ambush on army personnel in Chandel district, Manipur, on June 4, 2015, in which 18 army personnel were killed, a statement from the agency read. It said he participated in the ambush on army personnel of the 6th Dogra Battalion and had been absconding since then. During the investigation, a reward of Rs 2 lakh was announced by the NIA on any information leading to his arrest. The special NIA court, Imphal, had also issued a non-bailable arrest warrant. The court has announced him a proclaimed offender, it said. Pakistans foreign ministry says Indian troops have opened fire in Kashmir, killing a 65-year-old woman. Islamabad says Thursdays shooting was the latest cease-fire violation by India in the village of Kot Kotera. A ministry statement says Pakistan on Friday summoned an Indian diplomat to lodge a protest over the killing. There was no immediate comment from New Delhi. Pakistan claims India has violated the Kashmir cease-fire 70 times so far this month. The parliamentary standing committee on external affairs has urged the government to facilitate the entry of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) into foreign service in order to expand the countrys diplomatic corps. The panel also pulled up the ministry for being completely silent over its earlier recommendation of recruiting eminent scholars into foreign service and termed the MEAS reticence disturbing. The recommendation comes in the wake of the panel continuously expressing concern over limited size of Indias diplomatic corps. The measures to increase the strength of diplomatic corps should be undertaken in a timebound manner, the panel headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told the ministry of external affairs. The committee would like to emphasise that all-out efforts should be made to augment the numbers of the diplomatic corps by conducting regular cadre reviews, lateral entry and broadening the recruitment net such as through facilitating the entry of NRIs, the committee said in a report. In its reply to the panel, the external affairs ministry said it has revised the guidelines for the recruitment of consultants from academia and private sector on contract basis as per the existing government norms. The ministry added that it would continue to recruit people through deputation from other ministries, departments and the armed forces. The strength of countrys diplomatic crops, including the feeder service, is estimated to be at 2,700. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON An unprecedented crisis has hit the highest court in the country, the Supreme Court of India. The priests of the temple of justice have revolted against the high priest, the Chief Justice of India (CJI). For the first time in the apex courts 68-year existence, four seniormost judges Justices J Chelameswar, R Gogoi, M Lokur and Kurian Joseph have publicly questioned the CJI over the allocation of work and the constitution of benches. The judges complained on Friday that the administration of Supreme Court is not in order and there have been things less than desirable that have happened in the court. They went on to suggest that the CJI, who is the master of the roster, was assigning cases having far-reaching consequences selectively to benches of his preference. The manner in which these allegations were levelled against the leader of the judiciary was even more alarming than the substance of the charges. This is an extraordinary event that exposes a rift in the Supreme Court and pits the CJI against his brother judges. The credibility of the office of the Chief Justice of India and the functioning of the incumbent, Justice Dipak Mishra, has been questioned by the four judges one of whom, Justice Gogoi, is slated to become the next CJI. On the one hand, this development provides a window into the manoeuvrings that go on behind closed doors in the higher judiciary. At the same time, however, the allegations portray the highest judiciary in a bad light. As things stand, the task of the CJI is going to be difficult from here on particularly in matters of appointment and administration and there will be serious repercussions not just for the judiciary but for the nation. Appointments to the high courts, which are woefully understaffed with some working at half strength, will be affected, and transfers and elevation of judges to the apex court will be hit. Differences between judges is not new there have been instances of judges disagreeing with each other in the past, but these events have never made the headlines; they happened in private, and were resolved internally. So, what is the way ahead for the higher judiciary? One option would be for the CJI to reach out to the four judges, tell them to put the past behind, and assure them that he will seek their help and guidance in future. The second option could be for an eminent jurist such as Fali Nariman or the Attorney General of India KK Venugopal to broker peace. A third option could be to get a retired chief justice such as Justice Venkatachaliah (senior enough for all the judges to listen to) or Justice Lodha, who has worked with all the judges in question in the past to mediate. Finding a solution is important, in the interest of the institution and the nation. The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has opposed the NDA governments decision allowing foreign investment up to 49% in Air India and the easing of norms for FDI and FIIs, claiming that it would hurt domestic manufacturing and go against campaigns such as Make in India. The SJM and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, both affiliated to the RSS, will meet in the first week of February to chart out an action plan to counter the governments move. While the SJM has put its objections on record, BMS general secretary Vrijesh Upadhyay said the labour outfit of the Sangh will carry out an audit of the existing FDI investments to ascertain their outcome. We would have preferred the government to remain the owner of the national carrier (Air India), but we will reserve our comment till after the audit, Upadhyay said. The SJM on the other hand has cautioned that domestic interests would be hurt by doing away with the clause that made it mandatory to source 30% of purchases from India for five years after the opening of the first store by a foreign company. ... As a result of this decision, foreign companies would get the freedom to procure products from anywhere in the globe. This would go against the interests of the domestic manufacturing and also discourage future investment in manufacturing in India and therefore, would go against the own declared policy of the government of encouraging Make in India, Ashwani Mahajan, national co-convenor of the SJM, said. He said the current mood in the domestic manufacturing is far from encouraging, in the absence of new investment. The SJM has also asked the government to revisit its decision to allow 49% foreign investment in Air India. We appreciate that the government wants to find a solution to the problems plaguing the national carrier, but FDI is not the solution. Monetising the assets and reducing debts would have been a better solution, Mahajan said. He went on to add that the government must fix responsibility for the problems that have surfaced at the airline and adhere to the report of the parliamentary committee, which has recommended holding off disinvestment. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Several people were injured after BJP and ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers clashed on Friday morning in Kolkata. The incident took place ahead of the BJP Yuva Morchas (BJYM) Pratirodh Sankalp Abhiyan, a bike rally organised to resist the misrule of the Trinamool Congress. The Trinamool Congress members had assembled at the spot to observe Swami Vivekanandas birth anniversary. While the BJYM alleged that they were attacked by TMC goons when they were trying to take out the rally, local TMC MLA Smita Bakshi denied the allegations and said those who were trying to gain a foothold in Bengal are behind the violence. TMC leaders alleged that the clash occurred after BJP activists misbehaved with local women and hurled abuses against its leadership. Several youths sustained injuries and were seen bleeding from their heads and mouths. Televisions aired videos of youth smashing chairs and furniture and wildly wielding sticks. The vehicle alloted to the observer appointed by Calcutta high court to oversee the smooth passage of the rally was also damaged. Though a large contingent of policemen led by Kolkata Polices joint commissioner (crime) Praveen Kumar Tripathi, deputy commissioner (north and north suburban division), Subhankar Sinha Sarkar , was dispatched to the spot, arterial roads were blocked by the protesters. It is a matter of great shame that BJP should indulge in violence on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. It amounts to dishonouring him, said TMC Lok Sabha MP and Mamata Banerjees nephew Abhishek Banerjee . Soon after the clash broke out, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh and party leader Mukul Roy reached the spot. TMC supporters launched attacked minutes after our motorcycle rally started. Many of our supporters are severely injured, alleged Ghosh. The attack was deliberate even after the rally started with police permission, Roy said. The unprecedented press conference by four Supreme Court judges on Friday evoked mixed reactions among political parties and leaders with the Congress saying the virtual revolt against the Chief Justice of India has put democracy in danger. While the CPI-M sought a probe into the goings on in the top court, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha backed the four judges J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph. The four, along with CJI Dipak Misra, are part of the Supreme Court collegium that selects judges to the apex court and high courts. We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court, the Congress said in a tweet with the hashtag #DemocracyInDanger. Later, Congress president Rahul Gandhi described the concerns expressed by the Supreme Court judges as extremely important, and also sought investigation into the death of judge Loya by the highest level of the apex court. Making a brief statement at a press conference, Gandhi said Justice Chelameswars remark that democracy will not survive in the country unless the Supreme Court was preserved, was extremely important and that it needed to be looked into carefully. They have also made a point about Judge Loyas case. I think that is also something which needs to be investigated properly and looked at from the highest levels of the Supreme Court... All citizens who love the idea of justice, who believe in the Supreme Court, are looking at this issue and its important that its addressed, Gandhi said. The Congress also issued a statement where it said the issues raised by the four judges were extremely disturbing and have far-reaching consequences for values we hold sacred. CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the allegations by the judges merit a thorough, proper investigation and understanding of how independence and integrity of judiciary is being interfered or is being affected, which is impermissible in a secular democratic republic. He added that the it is necessary for all three wings of our democracy the executive, the legislature and the judiciary to ensure that whatever has been raised is corrected. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also reacted to the developments, saying the statement by the four senior judges makes us really sad as citizens. Judiciary and the media are the pillars of democracy. Extreme interference of the Central government with judiciary is dangerous for democracy, she said. Former finance minister and senior BJP leader Sinha backed the four judges in a series of tweets saying that instead of criticising them, people should concentrate on the issues raised by them. The press conference of the four senior judges of Supreme Court was absolutely unprecedented. Most important take away when national interest is at stake ordinary rules of business do not apply. What the judges are hinting at is loud and clear. Hope we get at the truth of judge Loyas death, he said referring to special CBI judge BH Loya whose death has come under the scanner after a news magazine raised questions about the circumstances in which he died. Another BJP leader, Subramanian Swamy, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi must intervene in the matter. We cannot criticise them (the four judges). They are men of great integrity and have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could have made money as senior counsels, he told news agency ANI. We must respect them. Now when these four have raised these issues, then the Prime Minister should intervene in the matter as the head of the governance, he added. Swamy said the senior judges have taken a great leap in the interest of the country and the Prime Minister must ensure that the four judges and the Chief Justice of India, in fact whole Supreme Court should come to one opinion and proceed further. General Dynamics European Land Systems signed a contract with the Romanian government today, to deliver up to 227 Piranha 5 wheeled armored vehicles in six different configurations to the Romanian Armed Forces. The contract value exceeds US$1 billion. The vehicles will be produced in Romania under a strategic cooperation and transfer of technology project between General Dynamics European Land Systems Mowag and the Romanian company Uzina Mecanica Bucuresti (UMB). The procurement of new wheeled armored vehicles is part of the Romanian Armys plan to modernize its legacy wheeled armored vehicle fleet. Four top judges of the Supreme Court held an unprecedented press conference in Delhi on Friday, saying the administration of SC was not in order and their attempts to persuade the Chief Justice of India to rake remedial steps had failed. (LIVE UPDATES) Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph raised issues, including allocation of cases, by CJI Dipak Misra. Here are top quotes from the press conference: Sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened..., says Justice Chelameswar. We tried to persuade the CJI to take steps but failed. Unless the institution of Supreme Court is preserved, democracy wont survive in this country, Justice Chelameswar. We met CJI with a specific request which unfortunately couldnt convince him that we were right, therefore, we were left with no choice except to communicate it to the nation that please take care of the institution: Justice J.Chelameswar There is an issue of assignment of a case which is raised in that letter (to CJI): Justice Ranjan Gogoi, on being asked further if it is about CBI judge BH Loya, he appeared to say yes. Nobody is breaking ranks... Dont put words in our mouths, says Justice Madan Lokur says when asked if its a no-confidence vote against CJI Dipak Misra. It is an extremely painful moment for all four of us and there is no pleasure in holding this press conference: Chelameswar. Therere many wise men saying many wise things in this country. We dont want wise men saying 20 years from now that all four senior-most judges sold their souls: Justice Chelameswar. TTV Dhinakaran has a spring in his step these days. The expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader is riding high on a big victory in the RK Nagar bypoll last month, and experts say his entry in the Tamil Nadu assembly has made the government anxious. But most of all, his win as an independent over the AIADMK and opposition DMK by a margin even bigger than that of late CM J Jayalalithaa, who represented the constituency till her death in December 2016, has helped him position himself as the true inheritor of her legacy. The 54-year-old leader now appears unfazed by the raft of corruption charges against him and his aunt, sidelined AIADMK leader VK Sasikala, who is serving a four-year term in jail. Even the taunts of Mannargudi mafia, the name of their ancestral village used to describe the aunt-nephew duo, dont seem to stick. Do I look like a gangster? he asked reporters this Sunday with a smile. A lot was written about us saying we were Mannargudi mafia and worse things, but people of RK Nagar have accepted me. Only they (BJP) have made me popular, he added, apparently referring to the corruption cases against him that he alleges were foisted by the saffron party. I will fight out the cases legally. Political commentator Ramu Manivannan of Madras University felt that Dhinakaran, who was sidelined weeks after he assumed control of the party last year, has shown that he was not a Yes Man. He also believed Dhinakaran had the edge when compared with the popular perception of his rivals: Chief minister E Palaniswami and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam. But what Dhinakaran can achieve in a 234-assembly fight remains to be seen though for sure he is certainly a pick among the crowd in Tamil Nadu, Prof Manivannan said. Dhinakaran himself is confident of keeping the government nervous with his talk of sleeper cells and his backing of any no-confidence motion brought by the DMK. There is a ban on AIADMK MLAs and ministers on meeting and greeting me. But some of them stealthily greet and pay respects, he says. The AIADMK has 116 of the 234 MLAs, the DMK has 89 and with its allies totals 98. Eighteen MLAs loyal to Dhinakaran stand disqualified and their petition is in Madras HC. Despite increasing speculation, the ruling faction has kept its flock together and even got back its iconic two leaves symbol. Then there is the taint of large-scale misuse of money power in the RK Nagar bypoll, which was scrapped once after the Election Commission found proof of voter bribery. But experts believe Dhinakarans public persona might garner him more popularity in the coming days. Dhinakaran seems to have overcome the perception of hailing from a mafia family of Tamil Nadu to a darling of his cadre and media, especially when it comes to his cool and composed style of communication, said political analyst John Arokiaswamy. When compared to the rest of the leaders, his mastery of communication and ground outreach make him a potential big leader, he added. But with a rider. He can be a significant player provided his political career is insulated from potential legal setbacks, Arokiaswamy said. The charges are many: Violations of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, corruption, money laundering, bribing election commission officials and even sedition. If any of these stick, experts warn, his rise could be a temporary phenomenon. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Three women religious preachers have alleged they were raped at gunpoint by five volunteers at an ashram last month in south Bihars Nawada district, police said on Friday. The sadhvis have told the police in Govindpur, 117km south of state capital Patna, in their complaint that the five sewadars or volunteers of the Sant Kutir Ashram raped them on December 12. They said that they had been staying at the ashram at Barahiya Mor, 10km from Govindpur police station, for the last six years. On December 12, when we were cooking food, the five accused forcibly entered our room and raped us at gunpoint. They also fired in the air when we resisted, they said. We left for West Bengal out of fear after the incident. However, some people in the ashram convinced us to return and register an FIR (first information report), they said. The sadhvis said more about 45 people from various states stayed at the ashram, of which 20 were women. Nawada superintendent of police Vikas Burman said the matter was reported to the police on January 4. The FIR was registered the same day and their medical examination was conducted on January 10, he said. The statement of the sadhvis was recorded in a court under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code the next day, Burman added. Two of the women are from Uttar Pradesh and one from Gaya district in Bihar, he said. The accused Kalpnath Choudhary, Girija Shankar Choudhary, Tapasyanand and Ajit Choudhary, all residents of Basti district in Uttar Pradesh, and Dilchand Patel of Chhattisgarh, are absconding, the police said. Raids were on to arrest the accused, Burman added. Stakeholders in the tourism industry on Friday opposed the Archaeological Survey of Indias (ASI) proposed hike on ticket rates for both foreign and domestic tourists visiting the Taj Mahal. They objected to the second hike in two years and stressed on the need to focus on tourist problems like crowd management instead of commercialisation of historical monuments. According to the ASI proposal, ticket rates will be hiked for domestic tourists, nationals from SAARC and BIMSTEC countries and foreigners from other nations. The ticket cost at monuments in Agra will include the share of both ASI and Agra Development Authority (ADA). The current charges for the ticket for Indians at the Taj Mahal are Rs 40 out of which Rs 30 goes to ASI and Rs 10 to ADA. It has been proposed to raise the cost to Rs 50 out of which Rs 40 will go to ASI. Foreigners at the Taj Mahal are presently charged Rs 1000 which is shared equally by ADA and ASI but as per the notification dated December 21, the ASI proposes to enhance its share to Rs 600 which would raise the ticket cost to Rs 1,100. We received the notification two days ago. According to the procedure, the same has been circulated for inviting objections to it within 45 days said Dr Bhuvan Vikram Singh, superintending archaeologist for Agra circle, ASI office, Agra. Tourism trade bodies are preparing to file objections to the proposal. Trade pundits have expressed displeasure over the fact that ASI officials were aware of the notification about the hike but they didnt share the information during meetings held on January 2 and 3. Foreigners are already paying a hefty amount of Rs1,000 for visiting the Taj Mahal despite crowd mismanagement and lack of facilities and infrastructure. However, nothing concrete has been decided to resolve these problems ... but the second hike within two years is not welcome, complained Rajeev Saxena, secretary of the Tourism Guild of Agra. The industry has also objected to the secrecy maintained by ASI officials about the notification saying it wasnt discussed at a meeting in January. Inflow of foreign tourists is on the decline. Instead of providing incentives, ASI seems to have failed in reading the writing on wall, complained Saxena who stated that objections will be filed to oppose the proposed hike, especially for foreigners. The notification for the proposed hike is dated December 21, 2017 but it was not discussed during the meeting held on January 2 where we got an opportunity to interact with the director general of ASI, Usha Sharma. This has created a trust deficit and raised questions on transparency as we came to know about the notification today, added Saxena. President of the Federation of Travel Association for Agra, Rajiv Tiwari is also drafting a set of objections and is of the opinion that the hike is no answer to crowd mismanagement. It is not for the first time that ticket rates are being hiked. Foreign tourists are already being charged an adequate fee and any further rise will not be welcome from the tourism point of view, stated Tiwari. The president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Agra, Rakesh Chauhan said,We will file objections and oppose the proposed hike in ticket rates. We will also call for effective measures to addressing crowd management, stated Chauhan. Indians and those from SAARC and BIMSTEC countries will now have to pay Rs 10 per head extra to visit UNESCO World Heritage properties or category A monuments, including the Agra Fort. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A youth was arrested in Bihar on Friday after he allegedly issued a death threat to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, police said here. Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj told media persons that a police team arrested accused Pramod Kumar alias Poyama from Fatuha in Patna district. According to police officials, a video went viral on social media on Friday in which Pramod threatened to blow up Nitish Kumar, along with his bodyguards. Soon after the video went viral, the police came into action and arrested the accused, Maharaj said. A team of police officials is interrogating the youth to know why he posted the video on social media. According to unconfirmed reports, the arrested youth was angry with Nitish Kumar over the current sand crisis in the state which hit his business. Televangelist Zakir Naik, who is being probed under terror and money laundering charges by the NIA, is projected as a hero in a school book here. The Islamic Mission School in Dodhpur area of Aligarh published a book Ilm-un-Nafe for Class 1 that has chapters on nine famous Muslim personalities. One of them features Zakir Naik, founder of Mumbai-based NGO Islamic Research Foundation. The school management claimed that the book aimed at enhancing childrens general knowledge was published two years back, but in the new session the chapter on Naik would be removed from it. The book has chapters on renowned Muslims and one chapter is on Zakir Naik, said the author of the book, Kunen Kausar, who is also the manager of the school. A member of school management Suhail Ahmad holding a copy of the book Ilm-un-Nafe. (HT Photo/Mahipal Singh ) When the book was published two years back, there was no case against Zakir Naik. Now, the chapter on him will be removed in the fresh book issued for the next session, added Kausar. Page number 42 of the book features nine photographs of Islamic heroes. Naiks picture figures in the middle row. The other eight photographs are of authors and preachers including Sheikh Ahmad Deedat, Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui of Muzaffarnagar, Islamic scholars Maulana Tariq Jameel, Israr Ahmad of Pakistan, Yusuf Estes, Abdullah Tariq, Harun Yahiya and Bilal Philip. To recall, Naik was in the news when two Bangladeshi terrorists had accepted that they were motivated by his thoughts. The Islamic preacher left the country in July, 2016. Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot Friday termed as bad the practice by some leaders to declare state unit chief as partys chief ministerial candidate. This projects the party in poor light even as the partys state unit chief comes under the illusion that he will become the CM. The PCC chief starts dreaming and projecting himself as the next CM. This is not a decent practice being followed in the Congress. It doesnt even spell good for the party, the senior Congress leader told media persons in Sikar. Assembly polls are slated to be held Rajasthan later this year. Congresss state unit is headed by former MP Sachin Pilot, who has never talked about harbouring any chief ministerial ambitions. Gehlot said, Anyone who becomes the state Congress chief is projected as CM candidate by his or her close media friends. The two-time CM claimed that he too was projected as CM candidate by a few party members during his tenure as PCC chief. It is not about this election. All previous party chiefs were projected. Efforts were made to project me too when I was PCC chief. But, I never lobbied for or demanded any post. I was rewarded for my loyalty, he added. He was responding to media queries on Congresss chief ministerial face for the upcoming assembly election. First, let us form the government. The party leadership will decide who will lead it, Gehlot said, adding that he would remain loyal and abide by all orders of the Congress high command. Reached for reactions, state party spokesperson and Jaipur district unit president Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said, Ashok Gehlot is a senior leader and it is only he who can react to his statement. However, a senior party leader, on condition of anonymity, said, He seems to have sent out a message. Contacted, several former PCC chiefs and other senior leaders refused to comment. At least 11 monkeys were found killed near the National Highway-8, about 66 km from Jaipur, in Rajasthan on Wednesday. Forest officials said they were beaten with sticks and then splashed with an abrasive chemical probably an acid by unidentified people. The animals were identified as langurs, a black-faced simian commonly found in the Indian subcontinent. A video of a man beating a monkey somewhere in Rajasthan had earlier gone viral on the social media, but HT could not verify when it was shot. Hanuman Jandu, a former sarpanch of nearby Gidani village, sent a second clip depicting the burnt body of a monkey and another injured simian. The matter came to light while some people in a pick-up truck were dumping gunny bags at Bhadara ki Dhani, a hamlet located near Gidani, at 8 am on Wednesday. The villagers saw some monkeys scurrying away from the spot. When they checked the spot, they found the bodies of 10 langurs. Though an eleventh simian was still alive, it was badly injured. They informed the police, who called the forest department, said Jandu. Assistant conservator of forests (Dudu) Rama Avatar Doodwal said the injured monkey did not survive the trip to the veterinary centre. It seems like outsiders killed the simians with some acid-like chemical. The bodies have been sent for a post-mortem examination, and the report is likely to come in a day or two, he added. Manish Saxena, wildlife activist and chairman of Wing of Research in Local Development, said killing the langur a protected animal was punishable under the Wildlife Protection Act-1972. The people who carried out this gruesome act should also be booked under the Prevention to Animal Cruelty Act-1960, he added. Dudu deputy superintendent of police Kushal Singh also shared Doodwals view that outsiders were responsible for the killings. The Rajasthan forest department has launched a probe into the case. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Rajasthan High Court Friday said it would watch the Bollywood film Padmavat before taking a decision on quashing an FIR against movie director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and lead actors Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh. Hearing a petition filed by Bhansali and the two actors, seeking the quashing of an FIR lodged against them at Deedwana police station of Rajasthans Nagaur district, the court posted the matter to January 23. In March last year, Virendra Singh, a resident of Nagaur district, had filed a case at Deedwana police station seeking action against Bhansali and films lead actors for hurting religious sentiments. Bhansali, Padukone and Singh had later moved a petition before the high court to quash the FIR. The petitioners counsel, Nishant Bora, said since the name of the film has been changed to Padmavat from Padmavati, the FIR had become pointless. Justice Sandeep Mehta, however, refused to pass any order on the petition before watching the film and asked the Bora to arrange a screening for the court. After the screening of the film, the high court will decide on the FIR. The directors consent is necessary for the screening of the film. So, we have sought time from the court till January 23. After getting the reply from the films director, we will file a reply in the court, said Bora. Public prosecutor JP Bhardwaj said, The high court has already stayed the arrest of the accused. The court will take the decision on FIR after watching the film. The film, loosely based on a 16th century poem written by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi, has remained in controversy for the past one year, ever since Bhansali began shooting in January last year in Jaipur. The movie is facing violent protests by members of Shri Rajput Karni Sena who have accused Bhansali and the two lead actors of insulting Rajput communitys honour. The movie is slated to hit cinema halls on January 25. Rajasthan government has already announced that it will not allow screening of the film in the state despite CBFC clearance. In a statement, chief minister Vasundhara Rajes office had said that Queen Padminis sacrifice is deeply linked to the states glory and honour, she is not just a figure in history for us but a symbol of our pride. We will not let her dignity be tarnished at any cost. The BJP on Friday filed a complaint against Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and state Congress working president Dinesh Gundu Rao for making derogatory statements against the party. While Siddaramaiah said on Wednesday that the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh harbour extremists, Rao claimed that the saffron party ran the risk of becoming a terrorist organisation. The complaint was lodged with the Bengaluru police commissioner by a BJP delegation led by senior leader S Suresh Kumar under Section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race or language). Kumar condemned the chief ministers remarks, terming it as an attack on the countrys biggest political party. They have uttered statements that amount to the character assassination of an organisation, he told mediapersons. BJP is the largest political party in the world, administering 19 state governments and the central government, and it does not deserve such epithets. Other BJP leaders also threatened to file a slew of criminal defamation cases against the Congress. Rao, however, said his comment was justified in the light of the BJPs attempts to sow communal discord across the state. The statements of BJP leaders attempting to spread fear are on record, he added. Senior Congress leaders are set to meet party president Rahul Gandhi in the national capital on Saturday to discuss their state of preparedness for the May assembly polls. This controversy is likely to feature in the discussions. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Airbus is developing a rotary-wing unmanned aerial system for naval application, under a newly awarded contract signed with the French Armament Directorate (Direction Generale de lArmement DGA), the Naval Group and Airbus Helicopters consortium. The contract covers risk reduction studies ahead of construction of a future, tactical helicopter drone demonstrator to be tested aboard warships. The demonstration project will lead to trials of the drone launch system, mission system and airborne vehicle, conducted from a French Navy vessel. The platform proposed for this demonstration Based is the VSR700 drone system being developed by Airbus Helicopters. This 700-kg drone, derived from the Cabri G2 light civilian helicopter, is a certifiable, autonomous flight systems designed for naval operations. In June 2017 Airbus began autonomous flights tests using an unmanned Cabri G2 prototype, validating the integration of the flight control systems and the vehicles new engine system, paving the way for the first flight of the VSR700 in 2018. The project is part of the Navy Airborne Drone System (SDAM), to be employed aboard the future Intermediate-Size Frigates (FTIs) expected to enter service by the middle of the 2020s, as well as other naval ships operated by the French Navy ships. The new drone will be used as a technology demonstrator to assess the technical risks associated with the SDAM program and the vessel-drone integration and select the principal technologies for the program. Naval Group and Airbus Helicopters will jointly be responsible for the industrial project management and shall coordinate wider input from French industry/sector. The two companies will jointly act as the programme design authority and shall have Helicopteres GUIMBAL, Thales Systemes Aeroportes, Safran E&S and ONERA as their principal subcontractors. The VSR700 can exceed 10 flight hours of operational autonomy with a payload capacity of up to 150 kg, offering performance levels that have, until now, been the reserve of aircraft of a significantly higher category and size. The system will benefit from all the know-how of Airbus Helicopters in terms of automated flight control (the guarantee of a unique automatic deck-landing capacity in rough seas), autonomous navigation system, secure data link, the integration of sensors such as radar and optronic systems, the management of complex mission systems and the certification of military aircraft. This expertise, which builds on a heritage going back more than 70 years, allows Airbus Helicopters to design a drone system that precisely meets the needs of the French Navy. The aerial vehicle has low maintenance requirements and strong synergies with the ships existing logistical footprint, thus limiting support and operations costs, while its compact size is compatible with the simultaneous use of an on-board helicopter across different surface ships. Chief of the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party Dilip Ghosh on Friday vowed to carry out rallies on the Hindu festival of Ram Navami with weapons despite Kolkata Polices order banning the display of arms in 2018 in a possible confrontation between the saffron camp and the ruling Trinamool Congress. We know that the police have banned armed processions this year. But we have asked our party workers to start preparations to march with weapons so that the dazzle of arms is visible from a distance, Ghosh said at a gathering of party workers. Kolkata Police issued a public notification on December 20 last year banning the display of weapons in the city this year. I asked the party workers whether they are ready to digest this ban on display of weapons. They said they wont, and I asked them to prepare from now, Ghosh said. Ghosh described the Kolkata Police order as motivated and biased. He also alleged that it was prompted by the fear of the state government over the euphoria over Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti celebrations. We will wait and see whether this applies to Muharram as well, Ghosh said. This year Ram Navami will be celebrated on March 25 and the timing is crucial as the rural polls in Bengal, which are being seen as a rehearsal for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, are supposed to be held in April-May. Rama Navami marks the birthday of Lord Rama, believed to be the seventh incarnation of Vishnu. Saffron camp workers staged a motorcycle rally in April last year in Kolkatas Bhawanipore, the home turf of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, with swords and tridents. Rallies with weapons were also taken out in other areas of Bengal with senior BJP leaders including Ghosh taking part in them. It triggered a major controversy in the state with the ruling party and a section of the intellectuals describing the move as alien to Bengali culture. Ghosh supported brandishing of swords and tridents at Ram Navami rallies in 2017 and argued that it would help in uniting people against anti-national forces and appeasement politics. According to the Bengal BJP chief, while the slogan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Banerjees slogan is Muslim Ka Sath, Trinamool Ka Vikas. Muslim organisations, however, welcomed the move by the city police. Trinamool Congress secretary general and education minister Partha Chatterjee said that if there is any attempt by any political party to display weapons, the police have every right to prevent it to ensure the safety and security of people. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has appealed to its expelled student Mannan Bashir Wani to shun the anti-national outfit he has allegedly joined and return to normal life. The universitys department of geology conducted a meeting of faculty members, non-teaching staff and research scholars on Thursday before making the appeal. The department of geology and the university stand by the nation and make a sincere appeal to Mannan Wani to return to normal life, as AMU always imparts a feeling 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, said a resolution passed by the department. Meanwhile, 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 unauthorized people. If an unauthorized person is found in a hostel accommodation, students residing in the room, wardens and provosts will be held accountable and stern actions will follow, said a university notice, adding that residents of various halls of residences had to inform their wardens and provosts about the places they would visit and the reasons for travelling before leaving their halls to avoid disciplinary action. This is to ensure the safety and security of students, said the notice. The VC has also asked the wardens and provosts to make frequent rounds of their respective halls even at late hours. Any activity that is unbecoming of a student and is against the laws of the country will be dealt with severely. It is the joint responsibility of all that a congenial and healthy environment is created and maintained on the campus, said the AMU notice. Pradeep Saxena A 41-year-old doctor allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of a room at his Vipul Khand-5 residence in Gomti Nagar on Wednesday midnight. Police said the victim had not left behind any suicide note but initial inquiry suggested that he took the grave step after confrontation with his wife over some personal issue. The deceased was identified as Dr Uma Shankar Gupta who ran his private clinic. He is survived by his wife Deepti Agarwal who is assistant commissioner in commercial tax department, and four-year-old daughter Aarti. The couple was married around six years ago. Inspector of Gomti Nagar police station PK Jha said probe suggested the doctor returned home at around 10pm and hanged himself at around 11.30pm. He said the victims wife, daughter and mother-in-law were present in the house when he took the grave step after locking up himself in a room. He said the doctor was rushed to a nearby hospital but was declared brought dead. He said cause behind his grave step could not be established but he had confrontation with wife over some issue. He said the body has been handed over to the family after conducting its post-mortem examination and further probe is on. Police busted a sex racket in Kashi during the wee hours of Thursday and arrested 33 persons, including eight women and the kingpin of the racket, from a banquet hall in Kabeer Nagar area. The cops also recovered about Rs 70,000 and beer and liquor bottles from their possession. All the arrested persons were sent to jail after being produced in court, said inspector of Bhelupur police station Ashesh Nath Singh. Singh said he received a tip-off on Wednesday night that a group of people, involved in a sex racket, had gathered at the banquet hall. He added that when he and other policemen raided the hall, some women gathered there were performing semi-nude dance. Most of them were in an inebriated state. Some of the youths were in objectionable position, too. Seeing the police team, they tried to flee, but all of them were nabbed and brought to the police station, he said. During interrogation the arrested persons, most of them traders, admitted that they were involved in a sex racket, Singh said. While the men are in the age group of 20 to 40 years, seven of the women are in their early twenties, he said and added that five of the women are from Varanasi and three from other cities. A case has been registered under Section 3/5/7 of Anaitik Dehvyapar Nivaran Adhiniyam-1956 against the arrested persons. Further investigation is on in the case, he said. Uttar Pradesh government proposes to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to enable listing of small and medium industries in the stock market and get more funds for them. A letter is being sent to CEO of BSE Ashish Chauhan to consider signing of the MoU and also help in setting up a facilitation centre at the two-day Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate on February 21. We are requesting the CEO for the MoU. We will set up facilitation centres for the SMEs at the summit and help them get listed at the stock exchange. We are also inviting the listing head of BSE Girish Joshi for interaction with them on the listing procedure and bring about financial literacy among them, said Infrastructure and Industrial Development commissioner Anoop Chandra Pandey. The state government also proposes to hold a special session with the bankers for interaction with the investors at the summit. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) will partner a special session for banks at the summit. UP has a Credit Deposit (CD) ratio of 46 percent and we want to bring about an improvement in the present situation. We hope the bankers will understand the problems of investors and lend more for investment in the state, said Pandey. The government is putting in all efforts to make the investors summit a success. Besides sending a message of it bringing about an improvement in the law and order situation in the state, it has been holding roadshows to attract investors to the summit. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath himself had attended a roadshow and met leading industrial groups in Mumbai. While roadshows have been organized at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangaluru and Kolkata, another is proposed at Ahemdabad on January 18. The state government claims to have received proposals for investment of about Rs 2.53 lakh crore for different projects from leading industrial houses and entrepreneurs ahead of the summit. Investors have shown interest in information technology, food processing, alternate energy, energy, textiles, animal husbandry, transport, tourism, film, science and technology and industrial development sectors. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON It is said that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. But when it comes to the Banda district jail, even the Bahubalis want to stay away from it. A senior police officer, posted in Banda, said since the jail is located on the outskirts of the town, its inmates have to brave extreme climatic conditions during summer and winter. Besides, it lacks facilities, is stuffed much beyond capacity and houses dreaded dacoits who cause trouble for Bahubalis, said the officer who did not want to be named. The latest case of Mafioso-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari complaining of chest pain and being admitted to SGPGI, Lucknow hints towards the fear of the Banda jail among its inmates. Not only Ansari but the likes of Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, Anil Dujana, Purushottam Naresh Dewedi, Atiq Ahmad and Sundar Bhati, who are feared in their areas, hate the jail. During incarceration in this jail the Bahubalis use various tricks to get shifted to another jail or get themselves admitted in hospital in a bid to stay away from it. The jail was upgraded to divisional jail level without improving facilities in it. Often the undertrials have to fetch potable water from outside the jail premises. The capacity of the prison is 600 but about 1,400 undertrials are lodged in it, said the officer. What the Bahubalis fear most is that several notorious dacoits are lodged in the jail. Some of them are: Radhey Yadav, Goppa Yadav, Tohini alias Tehsildar, Deepak Patel, Naresh Patel and Gyan Singh. They are active in the Bundelkhand region and are lodged in Banda jail. Though rivals in the jungle, these dacoits are united in the jail. They do not permit outsiders to dominate and often attack them, the officer said. When Ansari, a BSP MLA, complained of severe chest pain on Tuesday, the Banda administration immediately shifted him to SGPGI, Lucknow. However, the report of doctors on Thursday that angiography of Ansari was normal has sent him back behind bars in Banda jail. His family members protested but the administration remained unmoved. The state government has sought reports from Banda district magistrate Mahendra Bahadur Singh and superintendent of police Shalini (she goes by one name) on the issue as it feels that the chest pain case might be another ploy of Ansari to shift from the Banda jail. In 2005 he was shifted from Lucknow jail to the citys King Georges Medical University (KGMU). In 2002 when independent MLA from Kunda Raja Bhaiya was put in Banda jail by the then BSP government, his supporters moved a petition before the state government to shift him to another prison. In 2003, when Mulayam Singh Yadav became chief minister he went to Banda and announced the release of Raja Bhaiya at a public meeting. In 2012 when Raja Bhaiya was made prisons minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government, he recounted his tough days in Banda prison during a debate on the floor of the legislative assembly. Notorious gangsters of West UP Anil Dujana and Sunder Bhati, too, used their political connection to shift to another jail in Central UP. Former BSP MLA Purushottam Naresh Dewedi was resident of Banda yet his family members moved a petition to shift him to another jail after he was arrested in a rape case. Atiq too moved a petition seeking transfer from Banda jail. Read more: BSP leader Mukhtar Ansari suffers heart attack in UP jail, hospitalised Talking to HT on phone, superintendent of Banda jail Ram Sewak said Ansari has been lodged in an isolated high security cell. The clinic located in the prison runs round-the-clock and if required we call senior doctors from the district hospital, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In a world with rapidly shrinking attention spans, brands seem to be pulling all sorts of bizarre tricks out of their hats to stand out. The latest contender is the Swedish company IKEA, which is known for its ready-to-assemble furniture. In a Swedish publication, Amelia Magazine, an IKEA ad featured a babys crib with the text: Peeing on this ad may change your life. Basically, the interactive advert doubles up as a home pregnancy test. If the result is positive, the woman is eligible for a discount on the IKEA crib. It is unclear whether the reader has to bring the urine-soaked page to the store to avail the discount. The crib which otherwise costs 995 krona (approx. Rs 7,780) will be on sale for 495 krona (approx. Rs 3,870). Unsurprisingly, the ad has drawn some sharp reactions on social media. Sample a few tweets: No, @Ikea. No one wants to pee on a magazine ad to get a coupon code. Just no. https://t.co/cCQM81c6p3 Tricina (@tricina) January 10, 2018 *hits joint* "hey...hey steve...we should you know pregnancy tests, what if...what if we made a pregnancy test ad that women could pee on...*hits joint again*...then they can give the cashier the pee-covered ad in exchange for a surprise" https://t.co/4fhqWUwS60 (@rebelremus) January 10, 2018 All the respect for IKEA for putting out free pregnancy tests but like... Y'all couldve done it in a more sanitary way https://t.co/woPMq2ltPT Alicia (@Pvnkmarshmallow) January 10, 2018 Well, whatever the customer response, it sure has got people talking. So we guess, the objective here has been achieved. And how! Follow @htlifeandstyle for more Downsizing Director - Alexander Payne Cast - Matt Damon, Hong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, Jason Sudeikis, Neil Patrick Harris, Laura Dern Rating - 4.5/5 Often, while watching a movie, it might surprise you with a moment of absolute clarity it could be a line of dialogue, a scene, or a bit of music that makes you wonder if it was a fluke. The cynicism is understandable because, as we can all agree, moments such as this are rarer than an understated Nicolas Cage performance. However, this is not a thought that will cross your mind during Downsizing, the new movie by one of the finest living American filmmakers, Alexander Payne. Its a movie that offers, by my admittedly shaky estimation, at least one idea of pure, unshackled brilliance every ten minutes. After a point -- Id say it comes during a particularly jaw-dropping twist at the end of the first act -- youre either going to feel massively cheated, or youre going to be convinced youre witnessing a work of genius. Downsizing imagines a world of the future in which one thoroughly Scandinavian scientist (dishevelled, bespectacled, overweight, blonde) invents something that is described as a bigger deal than the moon landing. He creates a gizmo that, after the pull of a lever and the push of couple of buttons, can reduce the size of organic matter on a cellular level. If this were a 50s Ed Wood movie, wed be calling his invention a shrink ray. So he points the thing at himself and 36 other brave volunteers, and together, they become the worlds first small community. And this is where Matt Damon comes in. He plays an Average Joe who used to have dreams but because of some bad luck (and a crippling lack of ambition) never got around to achieving them. Like millions of others like him, hed seen the Scandinavian scientists presentation on TV years ago. And like millions of others whove witnessed similar remarkable inventions on TV screens over the years from self-driving cars to virtual reality he wondered if it would ever become a mass reality. It did. Soon, going small emerges as a lifestyle choice. Communities of five-inch-tall people crop up all over the country, settlements that boast negligible crime rates and across-the-board happiness. Posters advocating the benefits of downsizing pop up by reducing yourself in size, you reduce your carbon footprint; you create less waste, you eat up fewer resources, and more enticingly, if youre five inches tall, even a diamond necklace set in platinum wont cost more than a $100. Egged on by an old acquaintance whod downsized more because of a mid-life crisis than any particular affinity for saving the planet, Damons character, Paul, decides to take the leap. A farewell party is organised, friends bid teary goodbyes, assets are liquidated and all of Pauls teeth are removed. Five hours later, hes welcomed to Leisureland, the most attractive of all communities for small people. Downsizing will be divisive, no doubt. It is the sort of movie that constantly keeps reinventing itself every 30 minutes -- it goes from low-key comedy to high-concept satire to full-blown science fiction; it has the sheen of a big budget Hollywood tent-pole but the soul of, well, an Alexander Payne movie. For those unfamiliar with his work, Paynes movies are small-scale satires about relationships fathers and sons (Nebraska), fathers and daughters (The Descendants), best friends (Sideways), even a retiree and his adopted Tanzanian child (About Schmidt). They all feature fairly successful white men whove just realised that life is long and miserable and can only be improved by a recklessly impulsive decision. Downsizing is irrefutably his most ambitious film yet. Ironically for a movie whose central character is as big (or small, depending on your philosophy of life) as a can of Coke, the ideas he presents are some of the biggest he has ever tackled sustainability, class, prejudice, and the very nature of existence. One short scene in particular, aboard a bus segregated into two halves one for the small and the other for the normal people is stunningly evocative. How could it not be? And with the arrival of Ngoc Lan a Vietnamese dissident shrunk against her will by her government, whod illegally entered Leisureland inside a FedEx package the movie makes yet another bold diversion from where it seemed like it was headed. As played by Hong Chau, its the films most outstanding performance which takes it (and Paul) towards a more grandiose conclusion than anyone wouldve anticipated. Even utopias, he learns, need someone to do the dirty work. Theres always someone to clean the puke off the floor after a rave and theres always someone to be waved away when they approach you with a tray of food. Sometimes, that someone can be a brave young dissident who should have been writing books and appearing on television. Downsizing is the sort of movie that will only improve with age, when many of the concepts it imagines turn into reality. Right now, its ahead of its time, understandably rejected by audiences (and in an unbelievable betrayal, also by the critics). They should pick on someone their own size. Watch the Downsizing trailer here Follow @htshowbiz for more The author tweets @RohanNaahar ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) recently appointed a US company, Louis Berger, as consultant for the Versova-Bandra Sea Link (VBSL) project, which is a part of the coastal road plan in the city. The company, which was awarded the Rs-109 crore contract , will carry out a feasibility study, prepare tenders and review construction of the 17.17-km sea link. In July 2015, the US-based firms India unit was under scrutiny after senior officials of the company admitted to having bribed ministers to bag consultancy projects in Goa and Assam. The state government had ordered an inquiry into consultancy contracts awarded to the firm in August 2015. A Louis Berger spokesperson said the company had self-identified and self-reported improper payments made in 2010 and worked towards transforming it into one of the most ethical companies in India. We separated the former managers from the company following the results of our early investigations. We have invested more than $25 million over seven years to transform Louis Berger into one of the most ethical companies in India, ranging from bringing in new management aligned with our top ethical culture, new ownership and the establishment of world-class compliance systems, policies and cultural standards. Today, we are a highly ethical company with some of the most stringent internal controls and compliance measures in our industry. We have cooperated fully with Indian authorities, just as we did in the United States, said the spokesperson. The firm has also been named as a consultant for a package of the 701-km Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, which is being executed by the MSRDC. It has been around a month now that we have awarded the contract to Louis Berger for VBSL. They have started work, said Kiran Kurundkar, joint managing director of MSRDC. Louis Berger has served as a consultant for big-ticket infrastructure projects in Mumbai. A senior MSRDC official, who is involved in the project, added, There is no issue in awarding contracts as they were never blacklisted... It is the consultant for the third package of the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway project, and it is the only package to get environmental clearance. However, BJP secretary Vivekanand Gupta, who had filed a complaint with a magistrates court in Mumbai seeking criminal action against the authorities and Louis Berger, asked, Despite admitting to paying bribes for projects, why are contracts being awarded to the firm? The Rs7,502-crore sea link, which is a part of the coastal road plan, will connect south Mumbai to the western suburbs. The work will start from April 2018. MSRDC officials believe that by late 2021 the sea link will be built. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON After permitting private companies to open schools in Maharashtra, the state government is now considering allowing educational trusts in the state to start their own education boards and set their own curriculum and examinations, said education minister Vinod Tawde. The private boards and their affiliated schools would function the way autonomous colleges and private universities do. The government is currently discussing the proposal with experts, said Tawde. The standardised curriculum of the state board restricts schools that may want to add subjects according to their local requirements. It is difficult for a single education board to offer a wide variety of subjects, said Tawde. The proposal comes at a time when the state governments recent moves pertaining to school education have become contentious. The state assembly recently passed a bill to amend the Maharashtra Self-Financed Schools Act, 2012, allowing private companies to open schools. Earlier, the government had decided to shut around 4,000 low-enrolment schools and transfer the students to nearby schools. Basanti Roy, former Mumbai divisional secretary, Maharashtra state board, said, The education sector has been privatised to a considerable extent, and one feels that the government is slowly withdrawing itself from education space. She said that a certain degree of standardisation is necessary school education. The government should conduct a proper study before allowing private boards, she added. Jesus Lal, chief executive officer (CEO), Universal Education Group, has welcomed the proposal. The requirement of skill sets is changing very quickly. Educational organisations with a proven record must be allowed to run their own boards, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON An RTI activist was arrested from Byculla on Friday for his alleged role in ex-corporator Ashok Sawants murder. Anil Waghmare became the fifth person to be arrested in the case. He is suspected of contacting Jagdish Pawar aka Jagga, one of the accused, who is on the run. With Waghmare in custody, the police are hoping to arrest Pawar at the earliest. Cops are also searching for another accused, whose identity has been withheld. Police sources said Waghmares name cropped up during investigation on the second day after the murder. He lives in the same locality and was allegedly tasked with providing information about Sawant. The police suspect Pawar had asked Waghmare to tail the two-time Shiv Sena corporator to understand his routine. Waghmare was taken into custody this [Friday] morning. He was in touch with one of the main accused after the plot to murder Sawant was hatched almost two months ago, said Anil Mane, senior inspector, Samta Nagar police station. Before Waghmare, the police arrested Sohail Dodhia, who is said to be Pawars friend. Ganesh Jogdand, hired by Dodhia to ferry the assailants, was arrested soon after. The police even detained a 17-year-old from Pune, one of the three people who attacked Sawant on Sunday night with a sharp weapon. Vishal Gaikwad was arrested on Thursday for sheltering the accused. The police suspect the murder was committed owing to an old dispute between Pawar and Sawant, after the ex-corporator turned down his request of hiring him as a bodyguard. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Five months after 34-year-old Ajay Athaval drowned in a flooded nullah during heavy rains, the police handed over his body to his family. Athavals body was found floating ashore the Nhava Sheva beach in September. As the body was beyond recognition, the Uran police conducted a DNA test to identify it. Athaval went missing during heavy rains on August 29. While he was trying to save two girls, he fell into a flooded nullah in Ramnagar. He had been missing since then. Several attempts were made to search for his body. Both the Thane Municipal Corporation and the district disaster management cell had conducted extensive search operations at all the nullahs and creeks in Thane. A police officer from Srinagar police station said, On September 11, a body was found by the Uran police along the Nhava Sheva beach near Uran, 50 km from Thane. They contacted the Thane police. The body was decomposed and beyond recognition. A family from Panvel too had claimed that the body belonged to their son who had gone missing on the same time. The police decided to conduct a DNA test. Athavals mothers DNA was matched with the body. Sulbha Patil, senior police inspector from Srinagar, said, The Uran police conducted the DNA test and intimated us that the DNA of the body matches with the mother. They have handed over the body to the family who conducted the last rites in Ramnagar on Friday evening. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Claiming that the probe into the Kamala Mills fire is being conducted by the same officials responsible for the blaze, the Congress said it will move the Bombay high court, seeking probe led by the Central Bureau Investigation (CBI). The party has also demanded that civic chief Ajoy Mehta and his immediate juniors be suspended. Leader of the Opposition in legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said he would file a public interest litigation next week to demand a CBI probe into the fire that killed 14. Mehta approved the rooftop policy, despite the general bodys opposition. He abruptly stopped the demolition drive, which saw action against 135 such eateries in two days after the fire. He also announced that the BMC wanted restaurants to remove illegalities on their own in 15 days. All these steps are suspicious, said Vikhe Patil. He added that Mehta and other officials should be booked under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code. Mehta said he was pressured into not taking action against the people responsible for the fire. By not disclosing the names of the leaders he is protecting their interests. If the state government is serious about giving justice to the victims' families, it should announce a CBI probe into the fire, he said. Vikhe Patil, was accompanied senior party leaders including former minister Suresh Shetty. They called the Bhima Koregaon violence a state-sponsored incident. The leaders said that the violence and the reaction following it was the result of the governments failure to act in time, despite inputs by intelligence agencies. Vikhe Patil said the judicial probe announced by the government into the violence should be monitored by the Bombay HC. Gadkari must apologise for insulting Indian Navy Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant has demanded an apology from Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari over his insult to the Indian Navy. Gadkari had criticised the Navy for opposing the construction of a jetty at Nariman Point on Thursday, saying it should patrol the Pakistan border instead. This is not the first time that the Navy has denied permission to development projects. It had objected to helipads and other projects in the past, citing security reasons. Asking the Navy to move out of Mumbai may hamper its morale and indirectly help countries such as Pakistan, Sawant said. Julio Ribeiro, the 1953 batch officer and former Mumbai police commissioner, who went on to become the director general of police of Gujarat and later Punjab, and was also the Indian ambassador to Romania, needs little introduction. At 89, Ribeiros demeanour bears no indication of the two assassination attempts that the Khalistan Commando Force made on him. Working at an office in the basement of Mahalaxmi Chambers, he no longer fights militants, but the corrupt administration. He recently filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay high court, following the fire that gutted two upmarket restaurants in the Kamala Mills compound and killed 14. He said corruption, which is prevalent across departments and among officials occupying topmost positions and even the lowest rungs, is responsible for incidents such as the fire. I got a call from an NGO that runs a hospital for the underprivileged. BMC officials had visited the hospital to check fire and safety norms, and had told the NGO members that they would issue a clear certificate if they paid Rs35,000, he said. When the hospital authorities agreed to comply, officials gave them a long list of norms, along with the address and number of a company that could carry out the work, he said. The hospital authorities, however, floated a tender, getting the work done at half the cost. Ribeiro, who has sought an audit of eateries across all BMC wards, said the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006, mandates that a fire officer inspect the premise of each eatery and issue certificates twice a year in January and July. He said none of these inspections were carried out. We prosecute people who give bribes, but we also need to prosecute those who take bribes. What is the point of transferring an officer from one ward to another? He is likely to repeat his actions in the next ward too. Such officials should be suspended, he said. He said BMC officials demolished 300 illegal structures and sealed many eateries a day after the fire. This indicates that officials, of the fire department or the building proposals department, were complicit. They know about all the illegalities, but choose to turn a blind eye for pecuniary gains. They are the actual culprits, he said. The way forward is for citizens to say We will not tolerate this, he added. To make its presence felt in Maharashtra, Aam Admi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday visited Sindkhed Raja, the birthplace of Jijamata, mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji, in Buldhana district. Addressing a gathering after paying his tributes to Jijamata on her birthday, the Delhi chief minister targeted the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its failure to solve the problems of farmers in the state. He pointed out that the state had promised to implement the Swaminathan Committee recommendations if it came to power, but has done nothing so far. He also said Maharashtra farmers were committing suicides owing to agrarian crisis and the stated has done little to provide them relief. The condition of farmers in Maharashtra is pathetic. When crops failed in Delhi, we granted compensation of Rs50,000 a hectare to farmers, he said, adding that it was the first time since independence that such a huge compensation was given to farmers. I also found out that Maharashtra is set to close thousands of schools. Is this the reason we voted for this government? A party which cant run schools, can we expect it to run the government? he asked. Kejriwal said his government opened 300 new schools in Delhi after coming to power. They have swimming pools, lifts, gyms and all other facilities, he added. It was possible in Delhi to make healthcare free and improve schooling because there is an honest government. Not the one that steals from the poor. Speaking on the recent violence at Bhima-Koregaon, Kejriwal said the people of Maharashtra must choose between riots or food, employment, education and peace. If you want riots, vote for the BJP, he said, adding if Maharashtra wants better education, healthcare, employment and a peaceful society, then the people must kick out BJP and Congress. New entrant Former Congress Lok Sabha member Sudhir Sawant joined the Aam Admi Party (AAP) with his along at Sindkhed Raja. A former army man, Sawant defeated heavy-weight politician and former railways minister Madhu Dandavate from Rajapur constituency in Konkan. Before joining the AAP, Sawant alleged that the BJP-led NDA and the Congress-led UPA were two sides of the same coin, who are implementing rightist agenda in the country. He said both the governments were anti-farmers, anti-labours and anti-downtrodden. Both were dividing the people in the name of religion, Sawant alleged. The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has said it will begin plying special buses for women by March. The city will get 50 Tejaswini buses from the state government. The TMC will not float fresh tenders for the buses and they will be bought from the same company providing buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) nscheme. The state, in its budget for 2016-17, had dedicated 300 Tejaswini buses for women commuters and had made a provision for Rs50 crore for it. The 300 buses were for six municipal corporations including Kalyan-Dombivli, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Mumbai and Thane. Sandeep Malvi, Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) manager, said, We are planning to buy the buses by March and start the operations before March-end. We have received around Rs6 crore in the first slab from the state government, of the total budget of Rs14.62 crore required to operate the buses. The women-special buses will be midi-buses with 27 to 30 seats and with a floor height of 900mm. The state will decide the colour and other features of the buses. The TMC has formed a committee to implement the project as per the state guidelines. The committee includes the civic commissioner, additional commissioner, chief accounts and finance officer and TMT manager. The committee was supposed to decide the model of the buses, the number of buses and also if the buses will be air-conditioned or not. The state has asked to float tenders . If we carry out the tender process, more than eight to ten months will be lost and we have been asked to start the operation of these buses by March or the funds provided will lapse. Instead, during tendering of midi-buses under the JNNURM scheme, we had stated that the authority has the right to increase 25% buses. The agency is already providing 190 midi-buses under the JNNURM scheme and is ready to provide 25% more, which is, around 50 midi-buses as per the contract. These buses will be used as the Tejaswini buses, said Malvi. The municipal corporation will also have to construct separate depots to park the buses as the existing depots do not have enough space. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON After residents complained of light pollution, the Mumbai city collector asked all gymkhanas in Marine Drive to switch off floodlights by 10pm. An order issued by the collectors office also said the district administration will ask the state government to draft norms around light pollution and flood light setups in the city with consultation from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and Mumbai police. HT had reported on November 28 that for the last two years south Mumbai residents have been having sleepless nights with glaring lights from Wilson Gymkhana grounds facing their homes. Kalbadevi resident Nilesh Desai filed more than 20 complaints with the police and the district collectors office. Both departments issued notices to Wilson Gymkhana highlighting that bright lights were a nuisance for residents. The collectors office on Wednesday directed the Wilson Gymkhana to come up with a plan to change directions of flood lights to ensure they dont affect locals and cause accidents at Marine Drive. A circular highlighting these guidelines will be sent to all gymkhanas soon, the order said. The complainant made his statement regarding the trouble caused by floodlights. The collector instructed Wilson Gymkhana to use floodlights till 10pm, read the order. Considering the police complaint, the directives and corrective measures need to be implemented within 10 to 15 days, and conveyed to this office. Last month, a meeting was chaired by Mumbai city collector Sampada Mehta, Desai and a representative from Wilson Gymkhana. Based on the meeting, the collectors office issued the order on Wednesday. Like we have norms for noise pollution, there should be norms for light pollution, and the collector agreed with this point. She also said there is no need to have events beyond 10pm and more awareness on light pollution is needed, said Desai. Officials from Wilson Gymkhana said they will follow all the guidelines. We are already switching off floodlights at 10pm. We are working on a plan to change the direction of the lights, and will submit the draft to the collectors office soon. We will also work with local residents to ensure they face no further difficulty, said Amin Pawar, senior manager, Wilson Gymkhana, who attended the meeting with the collector. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Thousands of builders, construction workers and architectures thronged the headquarters of Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) on Friday to protest the open land tax (OLT) imposed by the civic body. The builders walked from Sahajanand chowk in Kalyan (West) to KDMC headquarters. Last month, the members of Maharashtra Chambers of Housing Industry (MCHI), Kalyan, have warned of a massive protest against the increased OLT in the twin cities of Kalyan-Dombivli. Builders said the KDMC levied an OLT of Rs1,400 for every one metre of open land, which they claimed was the highest in Maharashtra. They pointed out that for the same size of open land, OLT in the neighbouring Thane city was only Rs60. The builder lobby had approached chief minister Devendra Fadnavis twice and demanded reduction in the OLT. In April 2017, they even approached Thane guardian minister Eknath Shinde following which the civic body was asked to reduce the OLT rate. However, there has not been any reduction in the tax rate so for. Municipal commissioner P Velarasu has tabled a proposal in the general body seeking reduction in the OLT rate, which is yet to be discussed. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In a letter to health ministry, activists have demanded the suspension of Reshma Desai, principal of a city-based nursing institute, for allegedly forcing her students to sell lottery tickets for a fund-raising initiative for the 13th National Conference of Society of Midwives, India (SOMI), to be held on February 22 and 23. Desai initially refused the allegations and claimed to have taken the tickets back. These werent lottery tickets, but fund raising tickets, similar to the one sold in schools, she said. However, when asked why she asked the students to sell the tickets of an event which is not affiliated with the government, she said, There is no such event. The information youve received is absolutely incorrect. Activists questioned the organisations authority to hold a fund-raising initiative as the events pamphlets, posted on social media, did not include the registration number of the trust. Desai has been appointed as the organising vice-chairperson of the event. According to sources at the institute, Desai had handed out 11 booklets of lottery tickets to 150 students in December 2016. and asked them to sell the tickets at Rs20 each. On December 25, more than 20 pediatric diploma students in the second-year wrote a letter to Desai requesting her to take the tickets back. We (students) have come from distant parts of the state (to Mumbai) and we will have to shell our study time and money (for travelling), to sell the tickets which is not possible for us, reads the letter. RPY Rao, president, Society for Awareness of Civil Rights, said, Desai coerced and forced the students to collect money which is a criminal act. Rao has demanded that an enquiry be set up against Desai. Sanjay Deshmukh, secretary, said, If the letter has arrived in my office, I will look into the issue on Monday and act on it accordingly. Science enthusiasts, including faculty from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, from the city have formed a group called Curiosity Circle, Mumbai, which will host a series of popular science talks by eminent scientists in the coming months .The talks will be held every second Saturday of the month at different venues across Mumbai. The idea behind the initiative germinated last August, when thousands of scientists, teachers and researchers took part in March for Science from August Kranti Maidan to Girgaum Chowpatty, to promote scientific thinking. They also asked the government to increase funding for evidence-based science. Abhijit Majumder, assistant professor, department of chemical engineering, IIT-B, who is an active member of the group, said at least 10 of them met several times after the march to decide the format of the talks. The idea is not limited to discussing an individual scientists research findings, but also to discuss the history and philosophy behind it, which I believe are crucial to appreciate science, he said. The first lecture will be held at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mankhurd, on 13 January 2018, at 5:30pm. The talk What science entails, beyond practical science will be delivered by mathematician and professor SG Dani from Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences. The lectures will be recorded and uploaded on a website along with a blog from the scientist giving the talk. Dr Nagarjuna G, professor, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, said that the initiative is to reach out to as many people, especially people who dont hold a science background. This is an effort to promote a culture of scientific thinking among people, most importantly among the non science community as most people think of science as just facts and information. But, there is so much that is changing about the way we already know things in science. He added that he is hopeful, that scientists from other cities will pick up the idea and conduct similar talks, to widen the reach of science to people. A similar outreach programme called Chai and Why, by scientists at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 2008, conducts popular science talks twice a month. A $50 million classroom and laboratory building for Oregon State Universitys marine studies initiative will be built at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport as previously announced, OSU President Ed Ray declared on Thursday. Ray initially announced the decision in August 2016 but agreed to review the move amid criticism that the site was unsafe. The Hatfield center, home to marine science facilities operated by OSU and various state and federal agencies, is located on Yaquina Bay in a tsunami inundation zone. After safety questions were raised, Ray created an oversight committee with an independent review panel to evaluate the design, engineering and construction of the new building, a key part of the universitys push to expand its marine studies offerings in Newport. The committees charge was to ensure the university was on track to keep a number of promises about the new facility, mainly related to safety. Among other things, OSU pledged that: The marine studies building would be constructed to survive a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. The building would be able to survive a tsunami resulting from a natural disaster such as a Cascadia Subduction Zone quake. The building would be repairable following a less severe tsunami. The building would be able to serve as a vertical evacuation site in the event of a major tsunami. The rest of the campus would be served by a preferred horizontal evacuation route. The project would be built on time and on budget. In November, OSU unveiled plans for a building that would meet those goals. The three-story, 72,000-square-foot structure will include an exterior ramp leading to a rooftop evacuation site with room to accommodate 900 people in the event of a tsunami. At the same time, the university announced that student housing to serve the Newport campus would be built on higher ground. On Thursday, Ray publicly endorsed the oversight committees work and said that plans to construct the marine studies building at the Hatfield Marine Science Center site would proceed. I am confident that the results of this oversight, analysis and significant public engagement will result in a safer and more resilient marine studies building and overall HMSC campus, Ray said in a news release. By constructing the Marine Studies Building at HMSC with a vertical evacuation component, Oregon State University will provide for greater safety for the Yaquina Bay community and all of those who visit, work and study at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, the president added. At the same time, the building will serve as an Oregon, national and global model for safety and resilience within coastal communities. In a report issued Dec. 13, the oversight committee said it was satisfied that OSU had achieved most of its goals for the marine studies building, including the ability to survive a 9.0 earthquake and a severe tsunami, be repairable following a less severe tsunami and serve as a safe and accessible vertical evaluation site. But the report also expressed some concerns. For one thing, it noted that OSU has removed the horizontal evacuation route from the project and plans to pursue that effort separately with community partners. It appears that the horizontal evacuation route is at risk from liquefaction and lateral spreading, the report states, adding a recommendation that OSU ensure that an adequate horizontal evacuation route is completed within a reasonable timeframe. The report also states that the project is several months behind schedule and significantly over budget, although it doesnt say by how much, and expresses concerns that cost overruns could eat into program offerings in marine studies. OSU Vice President Steve Clark, the universitys chief spokesman, said OSU officials are aware of those issues and are addressing them. The university is working with the city of Newport, Lincoln County and local emergency service providers to find ways to fortify the evacuation route from the campus area to Safe Haven Hill, the nearest ground high enough to be considered safe from a tsunami, Clark said. The budget issue, he added, would be addressed by a combination of additional fundraising and cost cuts designed to minimize any impacts on marine studies programs. Nana Patole, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Bhandara-Gondia, is formally back in the Congress. After he met party chief Rahul Gandhi in Delhi last week, the Congress on Thursday formally announced Patoles return by posting a photo of a meeting on Twitter. The development may lead to a confrontation between the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over choosing a candidate for Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha by-poll. The by-election was necessitated after Patole resigned as a BJP MP over anti-farmer policies of the Central and state governments. He joined the BJP during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and defeated NCP heavyweight Praful Patel, now a Rajya Sabha member. After quitting the BJP just before the first phase of the Gujarat assembly polls on December 9, Patole criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party leadership over agrarian crisis in Maharashtra. He had shared stage with Rahul Gandhi during the Gujarat polls. As a Congress leader, he had been elected from Sakoli assembly constituency since 1999. Patole said he was interested in contesting the by-poll, but clarified that the final decision would be taken by the Congress leadership. He also said the NCP was unlikely to oppose his candidature. But the NCP wants Parful Patel to contest the seat. State NCP president Sunil Tatkare said, Our senior leader Praful Patel has been contesting from the seat for years. The Congress cannot take the decision without consulting us. According to a senior Congress leader, even if the two parties decide to join hands in by-poll, the sitting MP gets the preference. There are many instances in which both parties have given up the claim, if a sitting MP represents either of the election symbols, he said. Mohan Prakash, All India Congress Committee general secretary and in-charge of Maharashtra, said, The decision about the candidate and the alliance with the NCP will be taken at the appropriate time. At this point, we are happy that Patole has re-joined the fold. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Around 100 Shri Rajput Karni Sena workers were detained on Friday for protesting outside the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) office at Peddar Road, Mumbai, in connection with the release of film Padmavat. Protesters said changing the name of the film from Padmavati to Padmavat was not enough. The police are detaining us without any reason. We are not here for any type of rebellious activity, we just wanted to talk to the CBFC and tell them that Padmavat film violates Indian history and request them to not release it, said Prakash Singh Parmar, a Karni Sena worker. Protesters outside the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) office at Peddar Road, Mumbai, on Friday. (Vijayanand Gupta/HT Photo) He added that Karni Sena wanted to request the censor body to not do anything that would hurt anyones cultural beliefs. We all came here to have a discussion, but they have detained us. They have changed the name of the film, but that does not change anything, Parmar said. Another Karni Sena worker Ganpat Singh said the film should be banned completely. Sanjay Leela Bhansalis movie is now set for a January 25 release, after the CBFC recommended five modifications, including changing the title. The movie features Deepika Padukone alongside Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. Mapping out future suburban railway network agenda for the city and its burgeoning metropolitan region, the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) on Friday proposed extended MUTP-3A (Mumbai Urban Transport Project) that would consist of projects worth Rs49,500 crore on Friday. The list includes already sanctioned CSMT-Panvel elevated corridor and Panvel-Diva-Virar suburban corridors. The projects under MUTP-3A were discussed at a meeting held by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and railway minister Piyush Goyal at Sahyadri guesthouse, where the MRVC made a detailed presentation. Once approved by the railway board, the projects, which are part of the railways vision for the Mumbai till 2022, will move for nod of the NITI Ayog and Central cabinet before they are approved by the state cabinet. The state and railways plans to split cost of the projects as 50:50. Instead of the scrapped Bandra-Virar elevated, the MRVC has proposed to extend the Harbour line between Goregaon and Borivli, which is estimated to cost Rs745 crores and add two more lines between Borivli and Virar for segregation of suburban and long-distance trains. The 5th and 6th line project between Borivali and Virar is estimated to cost Rs1,963 crore. We can say instead of Bandra-Virar elevated corridor, the city will now get Goregoan-Virar corridor, said a railway official, adding the elevated corridor is between CSMT-Panvel and a some bit of the elevated portion will be on the Goregaon-Borivli corridor. For quadrupling of the busy Kalyan-Asangaon and Kalyan-Badalapur section on the central railway (CR), the MRVC has proposed a fourth line between Kalyan and Aasangaon and two more lines between Kalyan and Badlapur, estimated to cost Rs161 crores and Rs1,387 crore, respectively. It has also proposed to buy 210 air-conditioned suburban locals worth Rs16,380 crore under MUTP-3A. The Rs1,391-crore communication based traffic control (CBTC) project, which will ensure rise in the speed of the trains on the Harbour line, too, was discussed in the meeting. The railways have earmarked Rs946 crore for upgradation of suburban stations. They have planned modernisation of 16 local stations, including Lower Parel, Khar Road, Mira Road, Goregaon, Virar, Ghatkopar, Dombivli, Nala Sopara, Bhayander, Mulund, Bhandup, Wadala Raod, Sion, GTB Nagar, Chembur and Shahad. It is learnt that Fadnavis requested the Railway minister to restrict the states share to 50%. He also has directed the government officials to form a committee of state officials to co-ordinate with the railways for speedy completion of the projects. Fadnavis said that he was looking forward to complete the project at the earliest. The upgradation of the local railway stations will make commuting comfortable, said Fadanvis. Railway and state government have already undertaken MUTP-3 worth Rs 10,900 crores. The already approved project contains Panvel-Karjat doubling, Airoli-Kalawa elevated link, Virar-Dahanu quadrupling, besides procurement of 47 AC locals. Officials from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) have decided to train undergraduates from the Bombay Veterinary College (BVC) to help them in rescuing or tranquillising wild animals such as leopards. Only those students, who are about to complete their degree will be trained so that officials can seek their help as volunteers after graduation. The decision was taken to overcome the acute shortage of veterinarians in the state. The forest department has only two veterinarians for the entire state, which creates problems in emergency situations. In December, the SGNP veterinarian and the team reached the spot late where a leopard had to be rescued from a housing colony in Andheri. At present, veterinarians from the animal husbandry department work for the forest department. The SGNP officials said they will start with capsule courses for undergraduates followed by comprehensive courses in the future. A senior official from the forest department said, Though the college helps us in conducting post-mortem of animals, students pursuing a Bachelors degree in veterinary science (BVSc) do not have wildlife in their syllabus, which does not allow them to be a part of man-animal conflict emergencies. The official added, By introducing short courses and teaching them to tranquilise an animal, we want to avoid any delay in handling a situation that requires immediate action. We are in talks with the college and aim to commence the course within a month, said Ahmed Anwar, chief conservator of forest, SGNP. Dr Shailesh Pethe, SGNP veterinarian, said after the students graduate, they can assist officials during emergencies On December 10, when a leopard from SGNP was spotted near a gurudwara in the Sher-e-Punjab residential colony, forest officials were able to relocate the animal only after twelve hours after it was spotted. The parks rescue team was stationed at Chalisgaon on another mission when the incident took place. They had to rush to the spot as the animal had to be darted to be relocated. This delayed the operation, Anwar said. Talking Myths Project WHERE: Studio Tamaasha, Bungalow No 76, Aram Nagar Part 2, Behind Physioflex Gym, Mumbai WHEN: Saturday, January 13 TIMINGS: 7 pm COST: Rs 100, available at bookmyshow Indian epics and myths are rich with references of same-sex love. We have form-changing gods, and tales of gender bending for love and war in the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranas. How do they compare to myths around the world? A session by the Talking Myths Project hopes to draw parallels and contrasts. Utkarsh Patel, professor at Mumbai University, will discuss same-sex love in Greek, Indian, Chinese, Egyptian and even Japanese myths and folktales. The project, launched by Patel, Vidya Kamat and Arundhuti Dasgupta Singhalat, is designed to revive oral storytelling for a new generation. Its also the first of its kind archive of myths, folktales, and legends of the sub-continent in the oral form, along with credited sources. The subject is timely, as the Supreme Court re-examjnes Section 377 and Mumbai preps for the Queer Azadi march on February 3 with a month full of LGBT events. We often hear that homosexuality is a Western import, that it is unnatural and wrong, Patel says. Ill present examples of gay-lesbian relationships in Indian myth, Patel says. Sapan Saran, co-founder of Studio Tamaasha, believes the myths have the power to affect change in the real world. We need to take back the narative from the right-wing, have an objective view and look at comparative discussions to understand these themes. Same-sex love in myths around the world In China The Chinese have a dedicated god for homosexuals. Hu Tian Bao fell in love with an imperial officer, but when Bao was caught peeping at him through bathroom wall the officer sentenced him to death by beating. Bao died but appeared in a friends dream announcing that his was a crime was of love. He was appointed the god of homosexuals by the spirit world. In Japan Same-sex relationships were introduced by two gods, Shinu and Ama, the servants of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. When one died, the other committed suicide and the two were buried in the same grave. It is believed, the sun did not shine the next day, until the bodies of the lovers were exhumed and buried separately. However, there is no explicit material to prove that the homosexual overtones were the reason for the offence. In Egypt The god Seth was envious of his nephew Horus, the child of his brother Osiris and Isis. So Seth killed Osiris out of jealousy and there have been references of sexual encounter between Seth and Horus depending on which version you follow, Horus was either raped or seduced by Seth. When a vehicle dealer from Oshiwara approached the Amboli police station to register a complaint about his missing Bolero, officers turned him away without filing a first information report (FIR). The Bolero was later used to smuggle a large consignment of arms out of Uttar Pradesh. This is not a solitary incident in which a complainant has been cold-shouldered by the police. But things will change for the better, if the Maharashtra police are to be believed. The state police are developing a software to be introduced in police stations for accountability and transparency. Though the software features are sketchy, sources said it will be incumbent on the police to mention the nature of a complaint and action taken by them in the system. This is likely to ensure people get satisfactory response to their grievance. A senior police official in the state DGP office said the need for such a system was felt many times after people complained that they were mistreated at police stations. The software is likely to be introduced in a few police stations, including Mumbais, on a pilot basis, before covering the entire state . Former director general of police Praveen Dixit said the initiative would increase accountability. The current set-up in police stations is a people-driven system. While some policemen are friendly with people, others may be not. At the same time, complainants are unsure what action was taken to resolve their grievance, he said. Once the software is introduced, the full data would be available, including action taken, Dixit said. He pointed out that there are agents who take money from people to facilitate police action. But the software will eliminate the role of agents and expedite follow-up, he said. Senior officers can also monitor progress, he said. Another senior official said with the introduction of the software, respective police stations have to act on a complaint within a stipulated time. The system will be linked to the annual confidential report (ACR) of the police personnel (appraisals). Most cases wherein the victim is turned away from the police station pertain to missing persons, stolen vehicles and even some serious crimes, an official said. Though there is no vested interest in not filing an FIR, the police want to avoid paper work, the official said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Gautam Budh Nagar district forest department has prepared a proposal to beautify and revamp the 4.5 square-kilometre Okhla bird sanctuary situated along the Yamuna bank near Kalindi Kunj barrage on Delhi-Noida border. Forest officer for the Gautam Budh Nagar division, HV Girish, submitted a proposal in this regard to the union minister of state for art, culture, environment, forest and climate change, Dr Mahesh Sharma. The minister, who is also a member of Parliament from Gautam Budh Nagar constituency, had assured the forest department of help in beautifying the sanctuary and also provide facilities to those who visit this wildlife habitat. We had met the minister in his Delhi office and discussed in detail the plan to provide facilities to visitors at the sanctuary. After we submitted a proposal in writing to the minister, he assured of taking steps so that work on providing the facilities could start at the site without further delay, Girish said. Revamping the sanctuary involves putting in place a state-of-the-art interpretation centre, nature club, nature trail, CCTV control centre, digital library and bird guides, along with other amenities and facilities. Officials said the facilities will be as approved by the Government of India for sanctuaries. Officials said that the number of visitors is expected to increase if more facilities are provided, as the newly opened Magenta line of the Metro link provides a sound travel option for Delhi-NCR birders. Following orders from Uttar Pradesh principal secretary (industries) in February 2017, the forest officials had prepared a proposal to revamp the bird sanctuary but no step has been taken till date. Notified in 1990, the Okhla bird sanctuary is now one of the 466 important birding areas in India. It is home to 30 species of migratory birds that arrive here from mid-October to mid-November every year. In a 2010 order, the Supreme Court had directed the Noida authority to develop a green buffer at the north and north-eastern side of the sanctuary to reduce direct disturbance to the wildlife. However, nothing has been done so far. Whenever we receive orders from the state or Central government, we try to take steps to protect the sanctuary and increase facilities for visitors but we can play only our role. The decision has to come from top officials, Girish said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In 2007, James Mann, a former Beijing correspondent for the Los Angeles Times penned a slim book titled The China Fantasy whose real punch lay in its subtitle: Why capitalism will not bring democracy to China. At the time the book was dismissed as a curious polemic that went against the grain of the prevailing wisdom that over time, China would progressively liberalise and become a democracy, just as South Korea and Taiwan had. Successive administrations argued that the goal of American policy must be to integrate China into the international community. And a slew of specialists forecast the eventual democratic future of China. Looking back at Americas China hallucination, you can speculate whether it was the Americans who deluded themselves or that they were cleverly played by the Chinese. As recently as 2012, Chinese leaders like its Premier Wen Jiabao spoke of the need for political reform and democracy. Often this was carefully tailored for global audiences such as, in one instance, a meeting of the World Economic Forum. After 2017, that illusion is gone. As the Trump administrations new national security strategy laments, for decades, US policy was rooted in the belief that support for Chinas rise and for its integration into the post war international order would liberalise China. Contrary to our hopes, China expanded its power at the expense of the sovereignty of others. The US suddenly realises that not only is China a competitor, but it could well be a principal threat to the American homeland and its global primacy. Americas global hegemony is the sum total of its domination in various regions of the world like Europe, Middle East, or East Asia. Today when the Americans look at East Asia, they see a hugely enriched and militarily powerful China increasingly challenging them. This is where India comes in, as a principal balancer of China in a region now termed the Indo-Pacific. China looms large in the western Pacific, even though the US remains the most powerful nation from the military point of view. But Japan, tainted by its past, even now finds it difficult to assume a larger role in the security of the region. Vietnam and Australia lack heft and are economically dependent on China. By stretching the region to incorporate India and the Indian Ocean, China looks smaller. Indias economy may be a fifth of Chinas and its military much weaker, but its size, location and potential make it a peer competitor of China. By mid-century, Indias economy could exceed that of the US and be second only to China. And you can be sure, this will be accompanied by the rise of Indian military capacity as well. Because of its border dispute and the China-Pakistan relationship, New Delhi has never had any illusions about China. It has actively engaged Beijing, and made no bones that it sees it as an adversary. In recent years, as China surged economically and militarily, things have become a bit difficult. Beijing is now expanding its reach in South Asia. It has recently taken a 99-year lease of Hambantota Port that it had earlier built; this month, a coalition of pro-China Communist parties have swept the elections in Nepal and the Maldives has ratified an FTA with China. Chinese naval vessels, rare in the Indian Ocean a decade ago, are now deployed routinely. And last week, the visiting Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi blandly told India that China disapproves of the concept of spheres of influence. Under its new strategy, the US promises that it will help South Asian nations maintain their sovereignty as China increases its influence in the region. It also says it will support India in its leadership role in Indian Ocean security and throughout the broader region. India needs the US, as much as the Americans need us. The arrival of Xi Jinping as the most powerful political figure since Deng Xiaoping has changed things. Far from liberalizing, Xi is doubling down on the hold of the Communist Party on the country. Xis speech and in the recent 19th Party Congress was a profound rejection of western values, particularly liberal democracy. His idea of reform is the need to build an efficient authoritarian state which he offered as a model for other countries. If the Pakistan experience is anything to go by, we must accept that it is uncommonly difficult for the US to get rid of its international fantasies. Even so, in word and deed till now, the Trump administration is sold on the Indian partnership. There is an opportunity here which can serve us well, if we relentlessly pursue the national interest and not get distracted by illusions, of which we have our own share. Manoj Joshi is a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation The views expressed are personal Over the last 20 years, India has led the world in reducing loss of life from disasters. Learning from the 1999 super cyclone that claimed about 10,000 lives, Odisha and other states on the shores of the Bay of Bengal have avoided large-scale loss of life from major cyclonic storms. An even greater threat to human life and critical infrastructure is posed by the fact that 59% of Indias landmass is prone to earthquakes. One of the worst such events of recent times was the Gujarat earthquake in January 2001 which took some 20,000 lives, affected 16 million people and caused damage and economic losses in the region of U$6.6 billion. The scale of that tragedy led to the adoption by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of a zero tolerance approach to avoidable deaths due to earthquakes and the adoption of guidelines which place a strong emphasis on earthquake engineering education. In a world where disasters cost the global economy $520 billion every year and push 24 million people into poverty, it has never been more important to move from managing disasters to managing the risks which drive them. These risks include poverty, bad planning, lack of building codes, destruction of protective ecosystems, climate change and population growth in disaster-prone areas. One of the most visible signs of failure in disaster risk management is when hospitals, schools, roads, public utilities and transport hubs are damaged or destroyed by disaster events. This is often because they have been built in the wrong place or to an insufficiently high standard to withstand common, recurring hazards such as floods, storms and earthquakes. In June 2016, the prime minister announced the adoption of Indias first national disaster management plan which is based on the priorities for action of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: understanding disaster risk in all its dimensions, strengthening disaster risk governance, investing in disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness, and building back better in the post-disaster reconstruction phase. This important initiative coupled with Indias steadfast commitment to implementing the Paris Agreement on climate, has done much to raise the profile of efforts to reduce disaster losses across the world. It has also heightened the interest of many governments in collecting the necessary data on disaster losses to better inform investment decisions in resilient infrastructure. This data will also be important in establishing base lines for measuring progress on reducing disaster losses. It is estimated that Asia will need investments to the tune of US$1.7 trillion per year between now and 2030 to maintain growth, eradicate poverty and to act on climate change. Ensuring that this development is disaster resilient will help to achieve several key targets outlined in the Sendai Framework which are also vital to the success of the Sustainable Development Goals, including reductions in disaster mortality, numbers of disaster-affected persons and economic losses. Indias advocacy for adoption and implementation of the Sendai Framework will bear fruit in saved lives, secure livelihoods and a better quality of life for all. Robert Glasser is the UN secretary generals special representative for disaster risk reduction and the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction The views expressed are personal She sits in a dimly-lit room, surrounded by scores of trophies covered with dust. The only thing shining in the dusky room is a heavy roll of white cloth, which she uses for cremating and burying bodies of the unknown and poor dying in the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER). Amarjit Kaur Dhillon, 61, has dedicated her life to giving dignity to the dead. At the last count in December 2005, she had conducted the last rites of 100 bodies. I stopped counting after that, she sighs, pointing to a big heap of files. Born and bought up in Patiala, Dhillon moved to Chandigarh in 1980 when she got a job in the Punjab and Sind Bank. After working for 20 long years, she took voluntary retirement in 2000 to serve the needy. First brush Her journey of social service started in 1991, when she and her bank colleagues collected 2.5 lakh to fund the kidney transplant of a gunmans son. It was then I realised the importance of money in saving human lives. In fund raising, I found a way to save lives, says Dhillon. She started raising funds for Red Cross, which used to organise medical camps. In 2000, she surprised everyone by arranging a lakh in less than a month. Pointing to a cobweb-covered award, she says, On May 8, 2000 I got my first state award by then Punjab health minister, who called me Alladin ka Chirag. She also started helping the poor patients at PGIMER. It was in 1998 that I first visited PGIMER with my mother and found so many patients in need of help, remembers Dhillon. As she started dedicating more time to poor patients, work became a drag. Raising funds Finally, in 2000, she decided to quit her job to pay full attention to fund raising. Ask her if it is difficult to convince people to donate money and she says, Many people want to help the poor, but dont know how. Many want to donate money, but dont know whom to trust. I am just a link between patients and donors, she says, adding, I have never faced any difficulty in arranging funds, its as if the divine is with me. On days, when she could not help people financially, she would lend them moral support. How it started Once, she found herself drawn to three children playing outside an operation theatre. Their father from Bihar had undergone a heart surgery and their mother was inside looking after him, recounts Dhillon, who started visiting them every day, bringing food and clothes. On May 3, 2000, a nurse came running to me for help, saying their father had passed away and their mother had lost consciousness. That was the first time she dealt with a body. I took the children to the gurudwara inside PGIMER and their mother to Red Cross for booking a funeral van, she recounts. The next morning, the two women cremated the body in Sector 25. Eighteen years on, she has lost count of the number of bodies she has cremated or buried. Kaam karne waalon ko sochnaa nahi padta, bas icha honi chahiye aur kaam aapko khud dhoondh lega (Those who really want to work dont need to think much. All they need is a strong desire to do good), she says. Impressed by her services, Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited gave her some funds to which she added some more to purchase a mini-ambulance. Stories in files Dhillon may have stopped counting the bodies, but she has a record of each and every person she has cremated or buried from 2001 to 2017. Files are sorted year-wise, with every detail like the picture of the deceased, death certificate, FIR, hue-and-cry notice issued by the police and other information. Pointing to the files, she says, There are so many sad stories here. When asked whether anyone had ever approached her for details, she says, Only one. It was a love story. A boy studying in IIT Kanpur fell in love with his landlords daughter. The duo ran away to Jammu, to stay with the girls relatives. However, the relative informed the family and the couple fled Jammu, she recounts. They jumped from the train and were rushed to PGIMER in a critical condition. While the boy died, the girl lost her legs, says Dhillon. The police insisted that the body be cremated the same day though she wanted to wait for a day. My heart told me that his father must be searching for him, and it would not be right to cremate him like this, she recalls. Forced by the cops, she cremated the body, but took the mortal remains. The next day, the father approached me. I felt terribly sad for him, sighs Dhillon. She was shocked when she learnt about the ambulance scam in PGI. There is a seriousness attached to some issues. What can be more serious than death, and these people have made a joke out of it, she fumes. Bday at cremation ground Amarjeet Kaur Dhillon also tries to fulfill the last wishes of the dead. Once she got a call from doctors at PGIMER, asking her to convince the parents of a child from Gorakhpur to cremate him here instead of trying to take him back home. The doctors said they couldnt arrange the transportation cost, recalls Dhillon. She asked the mother if the child had any last wish. The mother instantly replied that he wanted to go home on his birthday, wear new clothes, goggles, cut a cake and eat noodles. The child had died on his birthday. Dhillon promised to fulfill his last wish before the cremation. It was raining heavily that day. I bought new clothes, goggles, shoes for the child. I also bought a cake and my sister-in-law cooked noodles at home. We packed all this and left for the crematorium where dressed up the boy, cut the cake, celebrated his birthday and then cremated him. Family support Dhillon believes there is a divine force behind her. When I was a child, I would see my neighbor, fondly called Veerji cremating the bodies of unknown people. He had one cart on which he would take the bodies to crematorium and perform the last rites. May be his actions influenced me. Dhillon is unmarried, but her younger brother and his family stay with her in Chandigarh. She says her sister-in-law,Manjit Kaur is her pillar of strength. Manjit Kaur says, She is doing great service and she has full support of our family. I ensure that I drive her around whenever she has to run errands. STRAP THE FINAL FAREWELL SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Corvallis School Board voted Thursday night to send a nearly $200 million bond proposal to voters this May, following a nearly yearlong facilities planning process. The proposal, if approved by voters in the district, would be used to fund infrastructure and safety upgrades at all district schools and would replace two district elementary schools with new buildings. Entering the meeting, the key decision left to be made by the board was the size of the bond proposal. The board members decided on a proposal that school staff said will have an average rate around $1.97 or $1.98 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Last month, the district staff said the current bond, which expires in 2020, had an average rate of $1.64 per $1,000 of assessed value. District staff said for a family with a $250,000 house, the previous bonds cost would have averaged about $32 per month over its 20-year life. Major projects included in the plan are replacements for Lincoln and Hoover elementary schools, critical repairs at all schools, replacing all modular classrooms at district elementary schools with new permanent classroom space and expansions of career and technical educations spaces at secondary schools. Board member Judy Ball was the lone vote against the bond proposal. She said she could not support a bond as large as this, saying she saw $21 million in projects she thought were unnecessary, such as a renovated dining center at Cheldelin Middle School and $9 million in repairs at Franklin K-8 School. Ball added that local taxing agencies work together to decide when each will go to voters so that taxing measures don't have to compete with each other. She said this obscures just how much taxpayers have to pay. She referenced the metaphor of a frog in a pot of water that doesn't realize it is boiling because the temperature in the pot has increased gradually. "Eventually, our taxpayer is going to be cooked," Ball said. However, Jay Conroy, a board member, said he often has used the boiling frog metaphor discussing how class sizes have been allowed to creep up over time. He said he worried that if the district put off projects that could be included in the bond, it might create future maintenance costs that had to be paid from general funds, which would take money that could be used to keep class sizes from going up more. "We're boiling frogs left and right in the classroom," Conroy said. Ed Junkins, also on the board, said he agreed with Ball's concern about the tax burden in the community. "I hope other groups have painful discussions like this and consider the bigger picture as Judy (Ball) has urged," he said. Sarah Finger McDonald, a board member, said she heard from community members that a rate of $2 per $1,000 of assessed value was acceptable and she had a goal of being under that. McDonald added that she was happy the district's schools would be getting seismic safety upgrades if voters approve the bond. "If there is a Cascadia event, I want my children, all of our children, to walk out of our schools." Vince Adams, the board's chair, said he thought the proposal was a fiscally sound one because it would address needs now rather than letting their costs inflate over time. "I am happy with this number because it is an investment in the future." The Chandigarh bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has issued notice to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Punjab chief secretary after a Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officer moved the tribunal seeking promotion and induction into the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) against vacancies from the state civil service quota. The matter will now come up for hearing on January 23 once the reply has been filed. Madhvi Kataria, posted as a special secretary with the public works department, Punjab secretariat, moved the tribunal requesting it to direct UPSC to look into the promotion procedure from PCS to IAS. The petition seeks directions to convene review selection committee meeting in view of upgrading her annual confidential reports of 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 from good to very good and from very good to outstanding, thereby bringing in change in her service. This is a ground that is considered for promotion by the UPSC for 2015 and 2016. As such, it has a direct impact on her claim to grant her promotion in the IAS cadre, especially at a time when her juniors have been considered and promoted with consequential benefits, the petition argues. The applicant further pleaded that UPSC is duty bound to consider her promotion because the state government in its order on December 6, 2017, has already forwarded her case for convening of review selection committee meeting. A detailed order in this regard was passed on December 14, the petition argues. Two days after robbers fled with at least Rs 1.5 crore worth jewellery from businessmans house in Sector 33 here, the police have turned to the software to bring clarity to the grainy footage of Santro car, suspected to have been used by the four armed dacoits. Called the Blurred Image Filter Software, it was also used to get a clear picture of the accused auto-rickshaw driver in the November gangrape incident. Police said the images retrieved are grainy as the cameras installed in the locality do not have adequate resolution and night vision. On January 9 evening, four masked men with pistols walked into Ajit Jains house and held his family hostage. Jains wife Ritu Jain was hit on the face with the butt of the weapon. She runs a jewellery boutique, sells gold jewellery online and also designs wedding jewellery. The accused allegedly came in a black Santro and police are trying to trace the registration number of the vehicle used by the accused. Sources said the CCTV footage retrieved by the police of Santro car is not very clear and thus the software is being used to get some clarity on the cars number. The software costs for 900 US dollars and has a one year membership. The police sources said the car used by the accused had LED lights, which makes it difficult to read the number. The software was bought by few UT police officials from a US firm after the need for it arose in the November gangrape case. Police verifies past, present staffers Different police teams have questioned about 21 persons, including present and former employees of businessman Ajit Jain. A team visited the cold store owned by Jain in Lalru and questioned the employees. The police have procured the list of the employees who were on leave and even the former employees whose verification is being done. Apart from this the police is doing verification of the servants employed by Jain family at home. These include two watchmen, a driver and full time servants and part time maids. As per the police, Jains son, who was away to Vietnam with his wife has returned, would be submitting complete list of jewellery stolen. Jain lodged three FIRs earlier Even though Jain has been denying any enmity with anyone, but he had got three cases registered. He had lodged complaint of extortion, cheating and assault before. Police are yet to verify a resident of Panchkula against whom Jain had got a case of cheating registered. At an earlier occasion a man had entered Jains house with a rod following which a complaint of assault was registered by Jain. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Taking cognisance of the worsening air quality in Chandigarh, the environment department of the UT administration has decided to commission a study to identify the main pollutants responsible for the increasing levels of air pollution in the city. Director, environment, UT administration, Santosh Kumar said, We are planning to commission a study to identify the contributory factors that are resulting in an increase in PM 2.5 levels. The study will investigate whether the air quality is being worsened due to pollen, stubble burning, use of petroleum products, among others. It will also research upon the degree of damage caused by these factors. He added that these elements have not been investigated in any study conducted in the city so far. We understand that the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur is working on a similar study on Delhi. CITYS AIR QUALITY WORSENING At present, the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee (CPCC) monitors air quality at five places in the city: Sector 17, Industrial Area, Punjab Engineering College, IMTECH, Sector 39, and Kaimbwala village. The data collected by CPCC over five years indicates a steady increase in the levels of respiratory suspended particulate matter (RSPM) (PM 10) and high levels of PM 2.5. PM 10 and PM 2.5 are fine particulate matter which are easily inhaled by humans and can travel deep into the respiratory tract. Their prolonged exposure is injurious to health. The permissible limit of PM 10 is 60 microgram per cubic metre. However, in Chandigarh, its average level throughout the year is over 100 at all five testing locations. With an average score of 118, Industrial Area was the worst hit location in the city last year. Similarly, the permissible limit of PM 2.5 is 40 microgram per cubic metre. However, at 68, Industrial Area recorded the highest levels in the city. PGIMER, PU CONDUCTING JOINT STUDY Meanwhile, the school of public heath, Post Graduate Institute of medical Education and Research and the Panjab University are also conducting a joint study on the citys air quality. In March 2017, department of science and technology, Chandigarh handed over a two-year project titled Seasonal Variation in PM 2.5 concentration in Chandigarh to the two institutions. The joint study is being conducted under this project. Dr Ravindra Khaiwal, associate professor, environment health, PGIMER said, The objective of the study is to understand how concentration of PM 2.5 varies with change in season. We are also trying to understand the dispersion of fine particles and their relation with meteorological parameters. He added that the level of PM 2.5 almost doubles during winter. To check how pollution level varies with change in season, experts have placed PM 2.5 samplers in two placesone residential and another at a place where vehicular traffic is in excess. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Two suspected members of the outlawed Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) were killed in an encounter with the Hazaribagh district police on Thursday night. TPC is a splinter group of the CPI (Maoist) active in few districts north of state capital Ranchi, including Hazaribagh, Chatra and Kodarma. Superintendent of police (Hazaribagh), Anup Birthare said the encounter happened at Konai Khurd village under Padma police station limits on Thursday midnight after a joint team of Hazaribagh district police and members of the 22nd battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was rushed to the area following information about a TPC team active in the area to collect levy from stone crusher owners. We received information around 11 pm last night that a TPC team had vandalised property to collect levy from crusher owners under Padma police station. A team was rushed to the area. By the time, the TPC team had reached another crusher in Konai Khurd village. When police reached there, the TPC members opened fire. In counter-firing, two TPC members were killed on spot, Birthare said. While three of the five-member TPC team, which was riding a motorbike, managed to escape, Birthare said the raiding team recovered one AK 47 and INSAS rifles besides around 200 live ammunition from the two dead ultras, along with two mobile phones and posters and literature of the banned group. Both recovered arms were police rifles looted in the past by the ultras, Birthare said. While the identity of the two would be ascertained only after verification by their family, Birthare said by the nature of the arms recovered, those killed seem to be highly ranked. Generally commanders who are ranked highly carry rifles such as AK 47 and INSAS. As per the initial intelligence, the two are members of the group led by TPC commander Mani Kant alias Chaudhary, Birthare said, adding that arrangements are being made for their identification by family members. At least 15 members of the Hazaribagh district police, with four officers and 11 constables, led the encounter. The director general of police DK Pandey announced a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh for the team. Besides the award, each member of the encounter team would be given a Rs 5,000 cash award, Birthare said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Bangkoks 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 Bangkoks 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 citys electrical system. Wireless Road, which got its name from hosting one of Thailands first radio transmitting stations, is among dozens of streets targeted in the early phase of the de-cluttering campaign. Large stretches of Sukhumvit Road, a central artery that cuts through high-end neighbourhoods and tourist hotspots, have already been cleared since November. Tourist hotspots have already been cleared of dangling cables since November. (Shutterstock) 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 Bangkoks 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 a streets wiry web. The billionaire later deleted the Facebook post, which blamed the cluster of wires on people illegally tapping into the grid. 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 clean-up was moving forward. No more disorderly stuff So far 1,184 utility poles have been removed from three of the citys 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. While there are no hard figures, Bangkok authorities say that is just a fraction of the citys cables but is still a major 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. Thailands military rulers have launched a flurry of campaigns to impose some order on their chaotic capital in recent years, including clearing away many of Bangkoks 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. Martin Fletcher, a 30-year-old teacher from England, agreed. Bangkoks very famous for having all the electrical wires and its a bit like spaghetti, and theyve been cleared... its a lot nicer now, he said. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more Africans woke up on Friday to find President Donald Trump had finally taken an interest in their continent. It wasnt what people had hoped for. Using vulgar language, Trump on Thursday questioned why the US would accept more immigrants from Haiti and shithole countries in Africa rather than places like Norway in rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal. African governments quickly found themselves in an awkward position. As top recipients of US aid, some hesitated to jeopardise it by criticising Trump, especially as his administration has sought to slash foreign assistance. Unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say, South Sudan government spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny told The Associated Press. African media outlets and the continents young, increasingly connected population were being less shy. Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate, South African media outlet Daily Maverick wrote. Many on the worlds second most populous continent reached for their smartphones, long-practiced in defending the vast and varied region from easy stereotypes. While 40% of the worlds poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund, the region also has billionaires, reality shows and a growing middle class. Some quickly decided to own Trumps vulgar language or throw it back in his face. Good morning from the greatest most beautiful shithole country in the world!!! South African Broadcasting Corporation anchor Leanne Manas tweeted. As someone from South Shithole, Trevor is deeply offended by the presidents remarks, The Daily Show tweeted of its South African-born host, Trevor Noah. In Kenya, East Africas economic hub, political activist Boniface Mwangi pleaded: Please dont confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent. Botswana on Friday officially asked the US ambassador whether Donald Trump considers the nation a s***hole country, describing the American presidents disparaging comments about African countries reprehensible and racist. Trump had sparked outrage on Thursday after he questioned during a meeting with lawmakers why the US would want to take in immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to them as s***hole countries. He also suggested the US should welcome immigrants from places such as Norway. He later seemed to backtrack, tweeting this was not the language used by him. But by then, the damage had been done. The Botswana Government has also enquired from the US Government through the Ambassador, to clarify if Botswana is regarded as a s***hole country given that there are Botswana nationals residing in the US, and also that some of Botswana may wish to visit the US, said a statement from the countrys ministry of international affairs and cooperation. The Government of Botswana is wondering why President Trump, must use this descriptor and derogatory word, when talking about countries with whom the US has had cordial and mutually beneficial bilateral relations for so many years, it added. The statement further said: Botswana has accepted US citizens within her borders over the years and continues to host US guests and senior government officials, including a Congressional delegation that will come to Botswana at the end of this month; that is why we view the utterances by the current American President as highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist. Trumps remarks provoked angry reactions from other corners. Haiti summoned the charge daffaires of the US embassy to protest the derogatory term, while South Africas ruling ANC party described Trump as extremely offensive. The UN too criticised the remarks as shocking and shameful and racist. China has suspended Marriotts Chinese website and mobile app for a week after it emerged that the hotel chain mailed a survey questionnaire to members that listed Tibet, Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan as independent countries. The hotel could also be fined for breaking Chinese laws. The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is one of two autonomous provinces in China, while Hong Kong and Macau are designated as special administrative regions. China claims Taiwan an independent, democratically-run island as a renegade region to be reunified with the mainland in the not-too-distant future. Further, one of the hotels official Twitter accounts was found to have liked a Tibetan separatist group. Marriott issued a swift apology to the Chinese government and said that the company doesnt support separatist movements. Marriott International respects and supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China. Unfortunately, twice this week, we had incidents that suggested the opposite, the companys president and CEO Arne Sorenson said in a statement. 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 apologise, the statement said. Earlier, a report on the official Xinhua news agency said that Marriott sent out a questionnaire to its Chinese members on Tuesday with the question Which country are you from?, listing Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as options. Screenshots of the questionnaire went viral on Weibo and stirred a strong public backlash. Shanghai authorities investigated Marriott International after the US-based hotel corporation categorised Chinese territories as countries in a mail questionnaire, angering its Chinese members, the report said. It added that on Thursday, Shanghais cyberspace administration ordered Marriott to shut down its Chinese website and app for a week. The Xinhua report quoted market observers as saying it operates 270 hotels with nearly 100,000 rooms in China. After triggering outrage across continents, President Donald Trump on Friday denied using the word s***hole to describe Haiti and African countries during a White House meeting on immigration and said he had only used tough language. During a meeting with lawmakers on Thursday, Trump had questioned why the US would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, people who were present told the media. Why do we have all these people from s***hole countries coming here? Trump had said during a discussion on a legislation to grant citizenship to undocumented people brought to the US as children. Despite Trumps denial, Democratic senator Dick Durbin, who was present at the meet, said the president repeatedly used the term s***hole during discussions, and said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist. The New York Times later reported the same comment, citing unnamed people with direct knowledge of the meeting. 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 Trumps remarks sparked outrage. The African Union said it was alarmed, with its spokesperson telling AP: Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice. UN human rights commission spokesperson Rupert Colvile told a briefing: There is no other word one can use but racist. Haitis embassy in Washington said it had sought an explanation from US officials, while Botswana officially asked the US ambassador whether Trump considers the nation a s***hole country, describing the American presidents disparaging comments about African countries as reprehensible and racist. Trumps remarks were also slammed at home. President Trump may speak as the President of the United States, but he doesnt speak presidentially or for the United States, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthy, a Democrat, tweeted. Bill Kristol, a conservative NeverTrumper, tweeted: Oprah would not, in an Oval Office meeting with senators, use the term s***hole (countries). Kristol has been urging talk-show host Oprah Winfrey to run for presidentship. The White House rushed to contain the outrage. 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. 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 said. (With inputs from Agencies) A family was taken hostage in Switzerland on Friday to force the head of a precious metals company to hand over large amounts of gold, police said. The hostages were later released unharmed, while a manhunt was underway for the six hostage-takers in neighbouring France, the regional Neuchatel police said in a statement. At dawn, six individuals took a family hostage in Chaux-de-Fonds, in western Switzerland, the statement said. Police spokesman Pierre-Louis Rochaix said the family consisted of a father, mother and a child aged around 10. They were taken hostage at their home, he said, adding that no physical violence appeared to have been used. The father, who heads precious metals company Cendror, was forced to go to his office to fetch a large quantity of gold and hand it over to the hostage-takers, the police statement said. The kidnappers had taken the family with them to an area called Biaufond, where they left them before heading towards the nearby French border. Once the police were notified, a large contingent was deployed, first in Switzerland and subsequently in France, where national police are searching for the perpetrators, the statement said. A Neuchatel prosecutor has opened criminal proceedings in the case, it added. LEBANON When a resident of the Edward C. Allworth Veterans Home dies, as many as 70 people line the hallway as he or she leaves the building for the last time in what is known as a walking out ceremony. That is the type of family first mentality Denise Rohan, the first female National Commander of the two-million member American Legion, said Thursday afternoon during a visit to the facility that is home to 154 veterans and their spouses. In the military, soldiers are paired with Battle Buddies, she said. They take care of one another at all times. But when those soldiers leave the military, they are on their own. They dont have a Battle Buddy to count on. I think their fellow veterans, members of the American Legion, should take on that role. Rohan, who lives in Verona, Wisconsin, and was named national commander in August, said she hopes that before her one-year term of office is over, many American Legion members will embrace her family first challenge. Right now, our Vietnam veterans have retired or are retiring, she said. I hope they will step up and become Battle Buddies for our young men and women as they come home from their tours of duty. "Family first" includes monitoring and supporting Americas veterans hospitals. There are problems, but I believe most staff members love and care about our veterans, Rohan said. Accountability has been an issue. Many veterans are afraid to go to a veterans hospital, and it is becoming difficult to hire staff for them. The issue snowballs and contributes to our veterans suicide problem. "Family first" means inviting the general community to American Legion activities, Rohan said, and reminding people about the many programs they may have benefited from, such as Boys and Girls State. Rohan is an Iowa native who joined the Army in 1974 fresh out of high school, somewhat by accident. I really didnt know what I wanted to do, she said. My two older sisters were in college and I wasnt sure that was what I wanted. A friend talked myself and another friend into going with her for a physical for the military. She failed and we passed. For Rohan, it was a fortunate mistake. The military creates a sense of community, purpose and service to others, Rohan said. My dad was a volunteer firefighter. My parents were volunteer EMTs and active at church. Serving was how we were raised. Rohan served two years as a quartermaster and quartermaster instructor at Ft. Lee, Virginia. Its where she met her future husband, Mike, a Kentucky native who made the Army and National Guard a 28-year career. The couple then settled in Wisconsin, where Rohan spent 29 years with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She retired in 2012, and became the first female state American Legion commander. But her first encounter with the American Legion set her jaw. A recruiter came to the couples home to invite her husband to sign up. When Rohan told the recruiter she was a veteran as well, he suggested she join the American Legion Auxiliary. She declined the offer. Two years later, she joined a post in another community. But when I visit the original Legion post, my photo is there and there is a sign that reads, Remember, women are veterans, too. She could have been a member of our post, she said with a smile. Veterans home administrator Kelly Odegaard and program director Jeremy Woodall told Rohan and local and state officers that the veterans home has a capacity of 154 residents, including veterans and their spouses. There are 11 houses with 14 residents each. About 80 percent of the residents are men. More than 40 served during the Korean War and more than 30 served in WWII. There are four women and 24 spouses. Odegaard said it is not a nursing home, retirement community or homeless shelter. We are a skilled nursing facility, Odegaard said. Everyone here has to have served or be a spouse of a veteran and they must meet medical needs criteria. The average length of stay at the home is three-and-a-half months, Odegaard said, although some residents have lived there since it opened. When a room comes open, it is refreshed to look just like the first day we opened, Odegaard said. The facility is unlike other veterans homes because it is based on the small home model. Every resident has his or her own room and bathroom, even if their spouse is with them. Specially trained Certified Nursing Assistants take care of the residents, including cleaning their room, doing laundry, assisting with hygiene and even cooking them a bacon cheeseburger sandwich in the middle of the night. Odegaard said the community of Lebanon and all of Linn County has been extremely supportive of the home and its residents from day one. We have a great relationship. They treat us like rock stars, Odegaard. Our payroll is about $7- to $8-million per year, and thats all local. Rohan toured the three-year-old facility and stopped numerous times to shake hands and talk with residents. At the end of her tour, a half-dozen residents in wheelchairs lined up to shake her hand and she made each one feel important like a family. World War II and Korea veterans often take a minute to watch me and decide if I was selected because I am a woman or because I worked my way up, she said. Then, they want to tell me about their daughters or granddaughters who are serving. They are so proud of them. Rohan visited American Legion posts in Brownsville, Canby, Lebanon and Albany and was to meet with Gov. Kate Brown on Friday. A banquet in Rohan's honor will be held Saturday at the Lebanon Legion Post 51. Sunday, Rohan and her husband, her official aide, will travel to Puerto Rico. The FBI on Thursday released age-progressed photographs of four men involved in the 1986 hijack of Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, which had resulted in the death of 20 people, including Indian flight attendant Neerja Bhanot. The hijackers Wadoud Muhammad Hafiz al-Turki, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, Muhammad Abdullah Khalil Hussain ar-Rahayyal, and Muhammad Ahmed al-Munawar were all members of the Palestinian Abu Nidal terrorist outfit. No matter how much time has passed, we owe it to the victims and their families to never give up on them, an unidentified case agent from the bureaus Washington office said in a statement. The lead agent in the case, also unidentified in the announcement, said images of the suspects obtained by the FBI in the year 2000 were age-progressed by the FBI laboratory. Were hoping that with the age-progression photos next to the original photos maybe that will jar some memories or maybe someone has seen these guys walking around, he said. There is a $5 million reward for information leading to their arrest. Pakistani authorities had arrested all four terrorists involved in the hijack from the scene, later nabbing a fifth person Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Safarini, their apparent leader. The four hijackers were tried and convicted, and were given the death sentence, later commuted to life in prison. Safarini was handed over to the US in 2001. He accepted a plea deal in 2003 and was sentenced in 2005 to 160 years in prison. In January 2008, the justice department had said, the (remaining) four hijackers were reportedly released from Pakistani custody. They were never to be seen again. The Mumbai-Frankfurt-New York flight, carrying 379 passengers and crew, was captured by the terrorists during a stop-over in Karachi on September 5, 1986. Alerted by a cabin attendant, the flight crew escaped, preventing the plane from taking off. The hijackers demanded pilots be sent to fly the plane to Cyprus, and shot an Indian American man in the doorway to press their point, and rolled the body off on the tarmac. The hijacking lasted 17 hours during which Bhanot, the 23=year-old flight attendant, suffered a bullet wound that killed her hours later at a hospital. Her bravery in saving lives of passengers won her the Ashok Chakra award and her story was told in the 2016 film Neerja. As the country with the largest economy in the Commonwealth, India must take up its leadership and introduce dynamism to create wealth, minister for commerce and industry Suresh Prabhu said on Friday. The Commonwealth must create wealth and look at how to promote intra-Commonwealth trade and business. India as the largest economy must take up its leadership, there is need to put dynamism into the Commonwealth, he told newspersons in London, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the upcoming Commonwealth heads of government meeting in April. Commonwealth-related issues were among key issues the minister discussed with Britains international trade secretary Liam Fox during his ongoing visit here. He also interacted with British business leaders. A special cell had been created in his ministry to deal with British investment into India. As Britain leaves the European Union, it sees India as a key country for trade. On the oft-repeated eagerness expressed in London to forge a free trade agreement with India, Prabhu said New Delhi was open for talks on the possibility of opening markets. We are friends with both the EU and the UK. We hope they have good relations. We are open to negotiations with anyone, he said. Fox announced that the national export credit agency, UK Export Finance, has more than doubled its financial support to enable UK businesses to trade with India. This means 4.5 billion will now be available for UK companies exporting to India as well as Indian buyers of UK goods and services. The India-UK trade was worth 15.7 billion in 2016, with UK exports to India amounting to 5.8 billion. Indian foreign direct investment in the UK was worth 1.5 billion in 2016, while UK investment into India rose to 13.2 billion in 2016. Fox said: 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. Its in our shared interest to boost prosperity, generate jobs, develop skills, and enhance the competitiveness of both our countries. As an international economic department, we will continue to work closely with the Indian Government to break down the barriers to boosting trade. That includes more than doubling trade finance support for UK exporters and Indian buyers of our goods and services. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Leading immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir, an Indian-descent from Trinidad and Tobago, was arrested on Friday during a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ordered immediate deportation, irking the local community in New York. A large number of his supporters, including several Indian-Americans, gathered outside the Jacob Javits Federal Building where he was detained. Ravi is an acclaimed community leader, a loving father, and a steadfast immigrant rights activist. His detention is entirely unwarranted and reflects the Trump administrations predatory behaviour in New York City and across the country. Ravi must be released immediately, said Congressman Joe Crowley, a top Democratic leader. Ragbir, executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC, was detailed by ICE authorities during a routine check-in. Soon thereafter hundreds gathered outside the federal immigration building in downtown New York City to show solidarity with Ragbir. Ragbir arrived in the US from Trinidad and Tobago in 1991 on a visitors visa. He became a lawful permanent resident in 1994. According to New York Immigration Coalition, Ragbir has lived with the threat of deportation for nearly a decade, as the result of a 16-year-old conviction for wire fraud. He was placed into removal proceedings in 2006 and spent 22 months in immigration detention before being released in February 2008. During immigration detention and since his release, Ragbir has worked tirelessly to end the use of immigration detention, stop deportations, and secure relief for countless individuals. Previously, ICE officials had granted Ragbir prosecutorial discretion, including a stay of removal that was in effect until next week. Known as a fixture in the immigrant rights movement, Ragbir was awarded the 2017 Immigrant Excellence Award by the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, given to those who show deep commitment to the enhancement of their community. ICE justified its decision and said he will remain in custody pending removal to Trinidad. Over the last 12 years, Mr. Ragbirs immigration case has undergone extensive judicial review at multiple levels of the nations judicial system, including both immigration courts and federal appeals courts, said Rachael Yong Yow, ICE public affairs officer. In each review, the courts have uniformly held that Ragbir does not have a legal basis to remain in the US, ICE said. In an exercise of discretion, the agency had previously allowed him to remain free from custody with periodic check- ins, while his case was under court review, Rachaelsaid. He has since exhausted his petitions and appeals through the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the US District Court. He will remain in custody pending removal to Trinidad, she said. In addition to Mr. Ragbirs immigration violations, he has a previous federal conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, rendering him an aggravated felon. He was sentenced to 30 months incarceration, and ordered restitution in the amount of $350,001, said ICE spokesperson. Northern Iraqs Yazidi community that suffered so terribly under Islamic State group persecution celebrated on Friday as it inaugurated a restored temple to the sound of traditional drums and flutes. Overlooked by conical domes of polished stone, hundreds of men in dishdasha robes and women veiled in white gathered at the site which was blown up by the rampaging jihadists in 2014. The temple at Bashiqa was one of 68 Yazidi temples destroyed by IS, officials said -- and one of the last of 23 in the region to be restored. Iraqs Kurdish-speaking Yazidis adhere to a faith that emerged in Mesopotamia more than 4,000 years ago. It is rooted in Zoroastrianism but has over time integrated elements of both Islam and Christianity. Yazidis pray to God facing the sun and worship his seven angels -- the most important of which is Melek Taus, or Peacock Angel. The Yazidi community in Iraq comprised some 550,000 people before it was scattered by the IS offensive. Orthodox Muslims consider the peacock to be a demon figure and refer to Yazidis as devil-worshippers. The jihadists murdered Yazidis in their thousands in 2014 and abducted thousands of women and teenage girls to make them sex slaves. According to the religious affairs ministry in Iraqi Kurdistan, some 360,000 Yazidis were displaced by the fighting with 100,000 leaving the country. Of 6,417 Yazidis reported kidnapped by the jihadists, just 3,207 have been rescued or managed to escape their captors. Half of those still missing are women and girls, the ministry said. It also said that to date 47 mass graves of Yazidis massacred by IS have been discovered. UN investigators have said the IS assault on the Yazidis was a premeditated effort to exterminate an entire community -- crimes that amount to genocide. Fridays ceremony at the temple in the Bashiqa area some 15 kilometres (nine miles) east of Iraqs second city Mosul was an act of both revival and defiance. This ceremony shows that life has returned despite the terrorism of IS and its bloody attacks, said 21-year-old Jihan Sinan. Around her, families posed for pictures as traditional dishes and sweets were handed out and celebrants danced to the tunes of traditional flutes. Religious leader Ali Rashwakari, 72, urged the international community to help rebuild the temples and Yazidi regions of Iraq. Seventeen ministers affiliated to Nepals Maoist Center resigned on Friday. All Maoist ministers - 17 (10 cabinet and seven ministers of state) - were divested of their portfolios; they could enjoy some perks but would no longer have control over ministries and so would not be able to use them during elections. Nepali Congress and its allies would be the ones retaining control. Giriraj Mani Pokhrel, Minister without Portfolio (the then Health Minister) submitted the resignation letter from the Maoist Center during the cabinet meeting of Friday, Press advisor of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Govinda Pariyar said. Maoist leaders Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Janardan Sharma, Tek Bahadur Basnet, Girirajmani Pokhrel, Pradbhu Sah, Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, Shiva Kumar Mandal, Asha Khanal and Santa Kumar Tharu were amongst the 17 ministers. Following the announcement of an alliance between the Maoist Center and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist in October last year, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba stripped Maoist Center ministers of their portfolios. Maoist ministers cited delay in National Assembly elections and stripping them off posts as reasons behind their resignations. Nepal ended Indias monopoly on internet access on Friday by opening a new optical fibre link across the Himalayan mountains to China. Nepals information and communication minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet and Chinese ambassador Yu Hong inaugurated the link during a ceremony in Kathmandu, reflecting Chinas growing engagement in a region seen as Indias backyard. Till Friday, landlocked Nepal was totally dependent on India for access to the worldwide web through connections at Biratnagar, Bhairahawa and Birgunj, for which it pays a substantial sum as fees and royalties. Besides state-run Indian firms, Nepal has been acquiring bandwidth from private players such as Tata and Airtel and BSNL Nepal Telecom (NT), the government-owned telecom service provider, has now acquired bandwidth from China Telecom Global Limited, with its head office in Hong Kong. NT signed an agreement with the Chinese company in December 2016 to acquire bandwidth. The Chinese optical fibre link enters Nepal at Rasuwa, 175 km north of the capital Kathmandu. A successful test of the link was conducted last week before it became operational on Friday. This will add new dynamics to Nepal-China ties, Basnet said while inaugurating the facility. He noted that infrastructure had also been created to extend the Chinese railway network to Nepal. Ambassador Yu said China is the second largest investor in Nepal and also send many tourists to the country. Kamini Rajbhandari, the general manager of NT, said, Nepals internet dependency on India has ended from today and we are able to diversify our business. Nepals has a 25-GBPS link with India while the Chinese link is 1.5 GBPS, comparatively slower than the Indian connection. We are connected with China at only one point now, which can be increased in the future, said Rajbhandari. The cost of internet services will remain the same, officials said. NT spokesperson Prativa Baidhya declined to disclose details of the fees paid by Nepal to the Indian side or the new deal with China. A report issued in October by the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, the regulator for the telecom sector, showed more than 61% of the countrys population of more than 26 million is connected to the internet, mostly through mobile devices. More than 6,500 new users are connected to the internet every day, the report said. A majority of people used the services of Nepal Telecom but its market share fell to 52.02% in the last fiscal, compared to 55.15% in the previous fiscal. The internet was first introduced to Nepal in 1993 by a venture between the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (RONAST) and a private firm, the Mercantile Office Systems. The Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai had a UNDP-funded internet connection and RONAST set up a system whereby it could connect to Mumbai to transfer email messages. The first optical fibre link to India was built four years later. Service providers have said data use in Nepal has been increasing constantly with more people using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and communication platforms such as Viber, Messenger, WhatsApp and WeChat, especially to communicate with family members abroad. Nepal is largely dependent on India for economic, trade and transit activities. It was only in August 2016, after a prolonged blockade of the border with India, that Nepal forged a trade and transit treaty with China during the tenure of former premier KP Sharma Oli and imported fuel from the northern neighbour for the first time. Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa told a top American general that the nation felt betrayed by criticism that it isnt doing enough to fight terrorism, against the backdrop of the suspension of security-related aid worth about $2 billion by the US. Bajwa further said Pakistan wouldnt ask for restoration of the financial assistance but it expects honourable recognition of its contributions to the war on terror. Over the week, Gen Joseph L Votel, head of the US Central Command, telephoned Bajwa twice to discuss bilateral security cooperation following President Donald Trumps tweet accusing Islamabad of lies and deceit in the war on terror. Bajwa also received a call from an unnamed US senator. The Pakistani militarys media arm said in a statement that Votel had apprised Bajwa about the US decision regarding suspension of security assistance and reimbursements from the Coalition Support Fund. The statement quoted Bajwa as saying that the entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed over US recent statements despite decades of cooperation. He added, Accordingly, (the) unanimous national response reflected the same sentiments. The army chief reiterated that Pakistan will not seek resumption of aid but expect honourable recognition of our contributions, sacrifices and unwavering resolve in (the) fight against terrorism for peace and stability in the region. Ties between Pakistan and the US worsened after Trump, in his first tweet of the year on January 1, said Washington has got nothing but lies and deceit from Pakistan despite providing it more than $33 billion in aid since 2002. Soon after, US officials announced that security-related aid for Pakistan worth about $2 billion would be suspended. Votel was quoted as saying that the US values Pakistans role in the war on terror and expected that ongoing turbulence (would be a) temporary phase. He further told Bajwa that the US is not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan but is seeking cooperation to tackle Afghan nationals who, in the US view, use Pakistans soil against Afghanistan. Votel said this issue was undermining Pakistans contributions to the war on terror in Washington. Bajwa said Pakistan would continue its counter-terrorism efforts even without US financial support in accordance with our national interest and shall remain committed to bring it to its logical conclusion along with other stakeholders. He also said Pakistan has suffered hugely due to great power (competition) in the region and that Islamabad is fully aware of US concerns on activities of Afghan nationals in Pakistan. Pakistan has already undertaken multiple actions through military operations to deny any residual capacity to terrorists of all hue and colour for which return of Afghan refugees is an essential prerequisite, Bajwa said. The statement said Pakistan is unilaterally strengthening border controls but bilateral border management must also be Kabuls top priority. Bajwa further said Pakistan will keep supporting all peace initiatives in Afghanistan despite the tendency to scapegoat Pakistan. Peace in Afghanistan is the only way to move towards enduring peace and stability in the region, he added. Votel acknowledged the effectiveness of some actions by Pakistan to ensure that its hospitality to Afghan refugees is not misused in anyway. The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ordered the police chief of Pakistans Punjab province to arrest within 36 hours the culprit behind the brutal rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl that shook the country. The LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, hearing a petition filed by an advocate to arrest the culprit, expressed surprise that despite reports of earlier incidents of similar nature from Kasur district of Punjab province, none of the cases were brought to the court. The chief justice ordered the police to submit details of all the cases of child sexual abuse that had taken place in the area, adding that he would also demand a report on the cases from the sessions judge, the DawnNews reported. Read more | Humanity is dead: Pakistani anchor hosts bulletin with daughter to protest 8-yr-olds rape, murder The chief justice warned that the court would not tolerate any delay in the case, at which the IGP assured him that the culprit would be caught. The hearing was adjourned until January 15. On January 10, protests had erupted in Kasur after the childs body was found in a garbage heap. Autopsy reports revealed that the girl was subjected to rape, torture and was then strangled to death. The horrific incident triggered public outrage throughout the country with people demanding justice for the child. The girls murder was the 12th such incident reported in Kasur district in a year. Kasur had made headlines in 2015 as well when it was revealed that a gang of paedophiles was busted for running a child sex ring in the city. Meanwhile, the Punjab government today appointed RPO Multan Idress Ahmad to head the probe, a day after the girls father demanded to change head of the joint investigation team (JIT) formed to investigate the horrific incident. Amid the nationwide outrage over the incident, a gatekeeper at a school in Karachis Ibrahim Hyderi area was today taken into custody for allegedly sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl, the daily reported. Police said the gatekeeper had allegedly attempted to assault the child yesterday, after which she went home and told her parents. A Pakistani court on Friday handed down life sentence to a 24-year-old misogynist who stabbed at least 17 women, leading to the death of one of the victims. Muhammad Ali said that he hated women and found fun in hurting them. He prowled at night and targeted lonely women, using a kitchen knife. He had terrorised residents of the garrison city of Rawalpindi in 2016. He was arrested by the counter-terrorism police in August, 2016. Additional district and sessions Judge Raja Qamar Sultan found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison on the murder charge and gave him 10 more years in prison for attempted murder. Ali has said in a statement that after his mother died in miserable circumstances, his father married another woman who did not treat him well. Later, he was dumped by the girl he loved. Anum Naz, a 26-year-old nurse at a local hospital, died after being stabbed by him. Women flocked to Le Mall in Jeddah on Thursday to check out the kingdoms first car exhibition aimed at women, a few months after Saudi Arabia granted them the right to drive. Pink, orange and yellow balloons hung in the malls showroom as women posed for photos and selfies in front of the cars. One woman in the drivers seat fixed her face cover. Another wrapped her turquoise-painted fingernails around the steering wheel, feeling it out. In a decree issued in September, King Salman ordered by June an end to the ban on women drivers, a conservative tradition that has limited womens mobility and been seen by rights activists as an emblem of their suppression. Saudi women are seen at the first automotive showroom solely dedicated for women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia January 11, 2018. (REUTERS Photo) Saudi Arabia is the only country that bans women drivers. The landmark royal decree has been hailed as proof of a new progressive trend in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32, is the face of that change. Many young Saudis regard his recent ascent to power as proof their generation is taking a central place in running a country whose patriarchal traditions have for decades made power the province of the old and blocked womens progress. Ive always been interested in cars, but we didnt have the ability to drive, said Ghada al-Ali, a customer. And now Im very interested in buying a car but I would like the payments and prices to not be very high. Saudi Arabias cost of living has risen after the government hiked domestic gas prices and introduced value-added tax (VAT) in January. Saudi women tour a car showroom for women on January 11, 2018, in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah. (AFP Photo) The exhibition focused on fuel-efficient cars and provided a team of saleswomen to help their new customer base. The showroom carried signs emblazoned with the slogan Drive and Shop, a play on words in Arabic, using the female form of the verbs. It is known that women are the largest section who shop in malls, said Sharifa Mohammad, the heads the exhibitions saleswomen. This whole mall is run by women anyway. All the cashiers are women. Everyone in the restaurants are women. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management will waive fees at day-use recreation sites in Oregon and Washington on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This fee waiver includes many picnic areas, boat launches, trailheads and visitor centers. Concession operations will continue to charge fees unless the permit holder wishes to participate. Fees for camping, cabin rentals, heritage expeditions or other permits still apply. The fee waiver does not apply to SnoParks, although they might be located on national public lands. The SnoPark permit program is sponsored by the states of Oregon and Washington. Other Forest Service and BLM fee-free days are: Feb. 19, President's Day; June 2, National Trails Day; June 9, National Get Outdoors Day; Sept. 22, National Public Lands Day; Nov. 11-12, Veterans Day weekend. The United Nations on Friday slammed US President Donald Trumps reported description of African nations and Haiti as shithole countries as shocking and shameful, and racist. If confirmed, these are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. Sorry, but there is no other word one can use but racist, Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva. US President Donald Trump will extend sanctions relief granted to Iran under its 2015 nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers, leaving the accord intact for now, according to a person familiar with the decision. However, Trump, who has vowed to scrap the pact, was expected to give the US Congress and European allies a deadline for improving it, the person said. Without improvements, Trump would renew his threat to withdraw from the agreement. Trump had faced a Friday deadline to decide on whether to waive the sanctions. A decision to withhold a waiver would have effectively ended the deal that limits Irans nuclear program. The White House is expected to announce the decision on Friday. While Trump approved a sanctions waiver, he also decided to impose new, targeted sanctions on Iran, the person said. Two senior Trump administration officials told Reuters on Wednesday that the president, a Republican, had privately expressed reluctance to heed the advice of top advisers recommending he not reimpose the suspended sanctions. Trump has argued that his predecessor, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, negotiated a bad deal for the United States in agreeing to the nuclear accord. Hailed by Obama as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear ambitions. It was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. Trump had come under heavy pressure from European allies to issue the sanctions waiver. Different views Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. It has said it will stick to the accord as long as the other signatories respect it, but will shred the deal if Washington pulls out. The US Congress requires the president to decide periodically whether to certify Irans compliance with the deal and issue a waiver to allow US sanctions to remain suspended. Trump in October chose not to certify compliance and warned he might ultimately terminate the accord. He accused Iran of not living up to the spirit of the agreement even though the International Atomic Energy Agency says Tehran is complying. Hardliners on Iran in the US Congress have called for the reimposition of the suspended sanctions and an end to the nuclear deal, while some liberal Democrats want to pass legislation that would make it harder for Trump to pull Washington out without congressional consent. Trump and his top advisers have been negotiating with US lawmakers on Capitol Hill to try to change sanctions legislation so that he does not face a deadline on whether to recertify Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal every 90 days. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker has been working on amending a US law to include trigger points that if crossed by Iran would automatically bring back US sanctions. Turkeys foreign ministry said Turkish citizens travelling to the United States face the risk of arbitrary arrest, saying they should revise travel plans and take precautions if they do decide to travel. Earlier this month, a US jury found a Turkish banker guilty of helping Iran evade US sanctions in a case which has strained diplomatic relations between the NATO allies and which Turkey has dismissed as politically motivated. In a travel warning statement on its website dated Jan. 11, the ministry also said there had been an increase in terror attacks and violent incidents in the United States recently. US Forces carried out an airstrike on an Afghan government militia after an apparent insider attack in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan sources have told AFP, killing as many as 13 fighters. The incident occurred Thursday as US soldiers were patrolling in the Islamic State-stronghold of Achin in Nangarhar province, according to Hakim Khan, a commander of the government militia involved in the incident. He said there had been a shooting incident after which US forces conducted an airstrike targeting the militia. Khan said at least 13 fighters were killed in the airstrike, though other sources gave conflicting figures. An AFP reporter saw at least eight militia fighters buried on Friday morning. NATOs Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan did not immediately confirm there had been an airstrike, but did say there had been an active ground engagement. It denied reports from local sources saying that American soldiers were among the dead. One US service member was wounded and is in stable condition at a medical treatment facility, said spokesman Captain Tom Gresback. He did not disclose which branch of the military the troops were from. Two sources -- Malik Amin, a local neighbourhood representative, and a militia fighter who survived the aerial bombardment -- told AFP that the airstrike came after an infiltrator in the militia shot at the American troops. So-called green-on-blue attacks in which Afghan forces turn on their comrades or their Western counterparts have been a major problem during NATOs long years in Afghanistan. Western officials say most insider attacks stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings rather than insurgent plots. A spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said two militants posing as militia commanders had killed 16 US service members. US and Afghan forces have been carrying out ground and air operations against IS fighters in Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan. While Afghan security forces are conducting most of the fighting against IS and Taliban militants, US troops operate alongside them in a training capacity and are frequently on the front lines. Achin is the same district where a US soldier was killed and four others wounded during a New Years Day combat operation. The Trump administration has publicly said and acknowledged that it expects Pakistan to do the right thing and turn over terrorists to the US. We would hope that Pakistan would come to the table and that they would turn over those terrorists that we have asked be turned over, Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of state for public affairs, said at the state departments daily briefing on Thursday. Weve indicated very clearly that we are that we believe that can happen They have not yet come forward. Goldsteins statement comes a week after the administration suspended nearly $2 billion in security aid to Pakistan for its continued failure to take decisive action against terror groups operating on its soil. This was perhaps the first mention of one of specific actions US officials said they wanted Pakistan to undertake for the resumption of aid flow. Yes, the demand for handing over terrorists seems new, said a long-time observer of US-Pakistan relations, who would speak only on condition of anonymity. Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at Wilson Center, said, So far as I understand, the US has previously demanded that Pakistan take action against specific terroristshow many and what type is unclear, but I do know that there have been specific demands. For the US, asking that specific terrorists be turned over makes sense because its an easily measurable demand: either Pakistan turns them over or it doesnt. There was no response from the state department to an emailed question if Goldsteins remarks marked a departure from the norm. Specific US requests to Pakistan have long been a subject of much speculation, especially after the administration indicated it was willing to work with its one-time ally one more time. The United States had earlier never spelt out publicly the specific actions it wanted Pakistan to take, other than the overarching generic demand to deny safe haven to the Haqqani Network and the Taliban. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson handed over a list of specific asks to the Pakistan leadership during a visit in October, but he never spelt out the details, neither did the state department. Pakistan first said the list contained names of 75 terrorists and entities but not Laskar-e-Taibas Hafiz Saeed, and then pared it down to 20 names. The United States did not confirm or deny either of those two claims, maintaining such conversations are privately conducted between two governments. Some news reports have suggested the United States had asked for the custody of a Haqqani Network terrorist Pakistan had captured during the purported rescue of an American-Canadian family held captive by the outfit for five years. India has submitted a written assurance to the Westminster magistrates court that controversial businessman Vijay Mallya will be able to access private medical care if he is extradited and held at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai. The assurance was among details about jail conditions submitted to chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot, who had sought them during a hearing on December 14. India had previously submitted a detailed note on conditions at the jail, including medical care available. A senior Indian official associated with the case told reporters here on Friday: We have also assured the court that he will be able to access private medical care if needed. According to a medical report read out in court, 62-year-old Mallya suffers from diabetes, coronary artery disease and sleep apnoea. Doubts were expressed by defence witness Alan Mitchell, an expert on prisons, on the medical attention he would receive as there are said to be four doctors in the Arthur Road Jail for a population of nearly 3,000 prisoners. The next hearing in the extradition case is expected to be scheduled in the next three weeks. Mallyas bail was extended till April 2 at the last hearing on Thursday. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The legal team representing controversial Indian businessman Vijay Mallya has been raising issues to delay his extradition case though India is receiving excellent cooperation from UK authorities on this issue, minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said here on Friday. Rijiju raised several issues with his counterparts during his visit to London, including visas, return of illegal migrants, anti-India activities by what he described as fringe elements in the Sikh community, and Indian women being abandoned or divorced by their UK partners. The Mallya case is going in the right direction but the defence side is raising issues to delay matters. We also discussed pending cases of 14 individuals wanted by India and 12 others wanted by British authorities from India, he told reporters. He denied the Indian side was ill-prepared in the case. Mallyas defence team on Thursday raised several questions at the Westminster magistrates court on the quality and admissibility of several documents submitted by India, many allegedly worded according to a template, including similar typos in them. Rijiju and UKs new immigration minister Caroline Nokes finalised the text of two memoranda of understanding to be signed during the April visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. One MoU is on the return of illegal Indians in the UK and the other on the exchange of criminal records. British authorities, he said, had responded positively to Indias concerns over some UK-based groups trying to foment their ill-designed agenda. Khalistan is no longer an issue in India but fringe elements abroad were trying to defame India, he added. They (British authorities) have been prompt. They will take care of such elements (and) will see that anti-India acts are not encouraged in the UK. We India and the UK are very important to each other, he said. During the talks with Nokes, Rijiju raised the issue of extending to India a UK visa pilot in China that offers cheaper and longer duration visas. The visa issue was also raised by minister for commerce and industry Suresh Prabhu, who too is visiting London. Prabhu mentioned the cost and ease of getting UK visas for businesspersons during his meeting with secretary for international trade Liam Fox. Securities minister Ben Wallace was interested in learning from India about dealing with Islamic radicalisation, and how even though India has the second largest Muslim population, there were negligible instances of Indians joining the Islamic State, Rijiju said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON US President Donald Trump on Thursday, during a meeting with lawmakers, questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as shithole countries. Why do we have all these people from shithole countries coming here? Trump said, according to a report in Washington Post. The President went on to suggest that the United States should welcome more people from countries like Norway. Trump addressed a joint news conference with Norway prime minister on Wednesday. His remarks came during discussions about a legislation granting citizenship to undocumented people brought to the United States as children an estimated 700,000 people, of whom 8,000 are from India. The immigrants face deportation after Trump ended an Obama-era regulation protecting them. Trump has agreed to consider legitimising their stay demanding in return enhanced border security, which includes his promised wall along the border with Mexico, an end to visa lottery and chain migration systems. Senators Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and Richard Durbin, a Democrat, were discussing their proposal on the status of these undocumented children covered by Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). It included a plan to use visas saved from ending the lottery for those already here. Trump was dismayed when he was informed that such people would include immigrants from Haiti. The President asked why the United States should admit people from Africa, which is a major source of immigrants for the diversity visa lottery. Many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers slammed the president for his remarks. President Trump may speak as the President of the United States, but he doesnt speak presidentially or for the United States, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthy, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter. Bill Kristol, a conservative NeverTrumper, wrote on Twitter, Oprah would not, in an Oval Office meeting with senators, use the term shithole counties (countries). Oprah also would not to go to Davos. Kristol has been urging talk-show host Oprah Winfrey to run for US presidentship, since her speech at the Golden Globes. The White House rushed to contain the outrage. 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 even as angry reactions poured in. 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 added. In an apparent response to his critics, Trump took to Twitter late on Thursday night. 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! The program that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status. In November, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua. It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalize their presence in the United States. Nicaraguans were given until January 2019. (With agency inputs) A panel the size of a laptop computer fell off one of the Japanese prime ministers jumbo jets, the defence force said on Friday, a potentially embarrassing mishap amid concern over the dangers posed by parts falling off US military aircraft based in Japan. Officials noticed the panel was missing from the Boeing 747, one of two jetliners used by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for foreign trips, after it flew from Tokyo to its base on the northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday, a spokesman for the Japan Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) said. The part, measuring 38 cm (15 inches) by 20 cm, has not been found. It is an access panel near the pylon connecting one of the engines to the right wing. There was no sign of it on the runways so its going to be very difficult to locate, the spokesman said. A recent string of incidents involving US aircraft based on Japans southern island of Okinawa prompted Japans Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera on Tuesday to ask his US counterpart James Mattis to implement measures that would prevent any recurrences. Those incidents, which included a window falling from a helicopter onto a school playground last month, have fuelled public opposition to the US presence on the strategically located island at the edge of the East China Sea. The air force would conduct an investigation to determine why the panel had fallen off Abes plane, the ASDF spokesman said. The two government jumbos left Tokyo on Friday carrying Abe, government officials and Japanese business representatives on a six-day trip to Eastern Europe, including stops in Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia and Romania. Abe did not board the 747 that lost the panel. Japan has ordered two Boeing 777 planes to replace the ageing jumbos after March 2019. It also plans to switch to ANA Holdings for maintenance work from rival Japan Airlines Co. A 27-year-old British woman was arrested on Friday at the Heathrow Airport on suspicion of preparing for terrorist acts, police said. Officers from the Metropolitan Polices Counter Terrorism Command arrested the woman, who arrived on a flight from Addis Ababa, under section 5 of the Terrorist Act 2006, Metro.co.uk reported. She was detained under PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act) and taken to a south London police station, where she currently remains in police custody, police said. BROWNSVILLE February is Fossil Fun Month at the Living Rock Studios, 911 W. Bishop Way, Brownsville. Guy DiTorrice, the "Oregon Fossil Guy," will host two hands-on presentations: 6 p.m. Feb. 1 for adults and 1 p.m. Feb. 15 for young persons. Programs will feature recently-excavated fossils from the Willamette Valley, eastern Oregon and the Oregon coast. The highlight of the program is the unveiling of a fossilized Woolly Mammoth juvenile tooth plate found by a farming family near Albany. DiTorrice has repaired and stabilized the fossil for eventual museum display. Printed literature and sample fossils are provided to those in attendance. R.S.V.P. via email at oregonfossilguy@hotmail.com or by calling 720-326-3573. Its trove of artifacts celebrates a hair-raising era. Call it the early Wild West, a time of hair-raising and sometimes fur-flying adventure when men were men and beavers were beavers. By the beginning of the 18th century, French, Dutch and English traders were pushing into the North American interior in search of the beaver, whose fur was used to make hats and coats. The United States joined the race for beaver at centurys end but didnt get serious about it until 1806, after Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had completed their expedition to the Pacific Ocean. From the Missouri River launch, trappers and traders played a major role in the eventual settlement of the West. By the 1840s, silk hats were the rage, and beavers and beaver hats were all but forgotten. But the romance of the mountain man era lives on at the Museum of the Fur Trade, just east of Chadron in the northern Nebraska Panhandle. Since 1955 the museum, founded by Charles E. Hanson Jr. near the heart of the Western fur-trading region, has showcased that industry, from its colonial origins to its decline. It occupies the site of James Bordeauxs original trading post, established in 1837 for the American Fur Co. A reconstructed trading post sits atop the original foundation, while the museum complex houses the main exhibits. From its inception, Hanson held to the advice given him: The size of the museum doesnt matter as much as quality. A small museum can be either a junk pile or a jewel box. Its up to your board to decide which it shall be. To that end, the museum board has focused on research and educational outreach. The Museum of the Fur Trade covers far more than just local ground. Exhibits deal with all things related to the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Canada, the Great Lakes, the Rockies and the Southwest and as far east as Greenland. British, French, Russian and Spanish traders get their due, as do American traders, Indians and others. The pelts might have gone toward rather frivolous items, but all that mattered to the voyageurs and mountain men was the money they could make by meeting demand. For well over 100 years, no proper gentleman in Europe or the Eastern United States appeared in public without his beaver hat, and women during the same period adorned their clothing with beaver fur. The museum collection includes more than 6,000 artifactssuch typical trappers items as axes, knives, guns and canoes, as well as the blankets, clothing and beads that belonged to the Indians who traded and rendezvoused with these early frontiersmen. Virtually every type of item exchanged between American, European and Indian traders is on display. Among the more unusual items are quill smoothers, gimlets for drilling holes and game boards. Visitors can also browse rare maps, contracts and documents from the fur-trading companies, as well as U.S. government records that document the Indians. Textiles were among the most prized trade goods. From clothing to blankets, the museum boasts one of the worlds most comprehensive collection of textiles. The oldest known trading blanket stands out. Other notable items include a New Mexican woven serape from 1830 and beaded deerskin coats from 1820s Manitoba, Canada. Silver became a fashionable trade item by 1750, and Indian wardrobes of the 19th century incorporated silver armbands, wristbands, ear wheels, nose decorations and circular moon gorgets. These are on exhibit, as is a 12-inch silver cross worn by Oglala Sioux Chief Young Man Afraid of His Horses. Visitors will marvel at the gun collection, particularly the personal firearms of such notables as Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, mountain man Kit Carson and Canadian-born trader John Kinzie. The Museum of the Fur Trade is on U.S. Highway 20 three miles east of Chadron, an hours drive northeast of Fort Robinson State Park. The museum is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day from May 1 through the end of October and otherwise by appointment. For more information visit www.furtrade.org, call 308-432-3843 or e-mail museum@furtrade.org. Originally published in the December 2010 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here. Freebooter Nikolai Ashinov sought a foothold for Mother Russia in the Red Seabut his African misadventure only caused embarrassment Its 19th century struggle with the British empire for control of Central Asia left imperial Russia out of the European division of Africa and its resources. But with the 1869 opening of the Suez Canal, some in Russia floated the possibility of establishing a warm-water port that would also control access to the Red Seas southern entrance. However, Russias Foreign Ministry had little interest in expansion to Africa, leaving execution of the scheme to a roguish adventurer named Nikolai Ivanovich Ashinov, a Terek Cossack from the Chechen lowlands. Though poorly educated, the charismatic Ashinov displayed sufficient resolve to attract support. Such a base, he explained, would both offer an entry point to Christian Ethiopia and govern the shipping lanes that transported Indias wealth to Britain. Ashinov, however, left out one vital detailhis target port, Tadjoura, lay within French Somaliland (present-day Djibouti). Carried out by an unlikely cadre of Cossack warriors and Russian Orthodox priests, Ashinovs attempted occupation of an abandoned Egyptian fort there in 1889 sparked an international crisis and led to what Czar Alexander III deemed a sad and stupid comedy. Ethiopia barely registered on the Russian consciousness until 1847, when Lt. Col. Egor Petrovich Kovalevsky led a two-year Russian expedition from Alexandria to Cairo, up the Nile and Blue Nile into Sudan, then followed a tributary into Gojjam (northwest Ethiopia) in search of gold deposits. A year later Russian monk Porfiry Uspensky, having met with Ethiopian monks in Jerusalem, claimed (incorrectly) the rites of the Russian and Ethiopian Orthodox churches were nearly identical and suggested sending a religious mission to the Ethiopian emperor. The end goal, the politically minded monk proposed, was to send Orthodox missionaries to the region, thus spreading Russian influence. Nothing came of the plan, but in 1855 Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II sent a letter to the czar suggesting a joint effort to wrest Jerusalem from Ottoman control. The timing was bad, however, as Russia was reeling from its losses in the Crimean War. Meanwhile, the French were taking an interest in the challenging Gulf of Tadjoura region. In 1856, Henri Lambert, the French consul in Aden, became the first European to visit the port of Obock, where he negotiated trading rights with the local sultan. Lambert was murdered three years later after inserting himself into a local political dispute, but in 1862 the French signed a treaty of alliance with the regional Afar sultan and purchased Obock. The French initially found little use for the port and considered selling it to the Egyptians, who were expanding their African empire with a modernized military heavily reliant on Western mercenaries, including veterans of the American Civil War. In 1874 Egyptian troops began occupying the coast southward from Tadjoura. By 1882 passing French ships were reporting the presence of Egyptian forces at colonial holdings in the Gulf of Aden. French interest in the area picked up the next year after authorities in the British-held port of Aden refused to recoal French naval ships. By then the Egyptian military presence was pervasive in Obock, which France had still made no effort to occupy. Ethiopias destruction of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Gura in March 1876 was the beginning of the end of Egypts efforts to expand its influence in the Horn of Africa. By 1884 Cairo had agreed to abandon its bases along the Ethiopian and Somali coasts, a withdrawal the European powers were ready to exploit. That year France dispatched statesman-ambassador Leonce Lagarde, Count of Rouffeyroux, to oversee its interests as military governor of the region. Fresh from colonial service in Cochin China and Senegal, Governor Lagarde established himself on the south side of the Tadjoura Gulf and gradually expanded French rule into the rest of the region, sowing the seeds for a French colony. Though the Italians and British managed to occupy some of the abandoned Egyptian ports, Lagarde beat Royal Navy warships to Tadjoura by only a few hours, adding it to the newly established French protectorate by agreement with the local sultan. Weeks later, as the last Egyptian forces withdrew from the timeworn bastion of Sagallo, French troops from the cruiser Seignelay occupied the decaying fort over British protests. Nikolai Ashinov had begun his career as an adventurer in the caravan trade to Persia and Turkey before volunteering for service in the Russo-Turkish War of 187778. Though he claimed to be an ataman, or Cossack leader, others denounced him as an imposter. During a visit to Constantinople, Ashinov encountered two Circassian Muslims returning to the northwestern Caucasus from Cairo who told him of a fertile land to the south of Egypt whose inhabitants practiced an ancient form of Christianity. Ashinovs first trip to Africa came in 1885, when he landed at the Red Sea port of Massawa, which Italy had just occupied as Egypts rule in the region collapsed. The Cossack quarreled with the Italians (who were also eyeing Ethiopia) before heading inland. Though accounts differ on whether Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV met with Ashinov, the latter claimed to have obtained a vague permit to establish a Cossack settlement on the Gulf of Tadjoura. Ashinov did meet with the influential Ethiopian Gen. Ras Alula and made a reconnaissance of Tadjoura. Ashinovs motivation was grounded in Slavophilism, a 19th century intellectual movement focused on preserving traditional Russian culture. It emphasized the primacy of the Russian Orthodox Church, rejected Westernism and sought continual expansion of the empire. The expansionists were particularly drawn to the Red Sea coast and Ethiopia, given the regions strategic value and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which seemed to offer common ground between the two nations. The preferred base for such efforts, the Gulf of Tadjoura, had been claimed but was not yet fully consolidated by the French. Regardless, leading merchants and administrators (including Alexander IIIs brother) began to line up behind Ashinov in hopes that were he able to establish a Cossack colony, the czar would step in and proclaim it an official Russian overseas territory. Despite misgivings about Ashinovs character, Alexander appears to have toyed with the idea in the face of protests from the Foreign Ministry, which sought to cultivate France as an ally. In the end the czar neither supported nor prevented the African initiative, preferring to fall back on plausible denial and see how events unfolded. Ashinov failed to raise support during a visit to Paris in 1887, despite pitching his idea as a joint Russo-French venture. But the lack of overt opposition likely assured him he had the tacit support of both France and Russia. In 1888 he returned to Tadjoura, where he collected two Ethiopian priests selected by Yohannes to attend the 900th anniversary of the Russian Orthodox Church. Ashinov took the priests to celebrations in Kiev and then St. Petersburg. They met the czar at the insistence of Alexanders closest adviser, who plainly laid out the case for the emperor: In such enterprises the most convenient tools are cutthroats of the likes of Ashinov. Depending on whose backing he sought, Ashinov represented his proposed Cossack mission to Tadjoura as either strategic, commercial or religious in intent. The Foreign Ministry, loath to place international relations in the hands of a rogue Cossack, remained vigorously opposed to Ashinovs scheme. Others were more forthcoming. As Russian scholars worked up detailed analyses of the Tadjoura region, Minister of the Navy Adm.Ivan Alexeyevich Shestakov sent the Russian gunboat Mandjur ahead to Aden to support the Cossacks. To bolster Ashinovs religious cover, Alexanders adviser assigned Father Paissi, a Russian Orthodox archimandrite, to ostensibly lead the mission. Paissi was also an Orenburg Cossack with military experience in Central Asia. A party of Russian monks lent further credence to the venture. The Ashinov missioncomprising some 150 armed Terek Cossacks, Paissis monks and a number of women and childrenleft Odessa on Dec. 10, 1888, and landed at Tadjoura on Jan. 18, 1889, after taking a circuitous route on three different ships to avoid detection. As the last ship, the Austrian steamer Amphitrite, made its way down the Suez Canal, the Italian gunboat Agostino Barbarigo, suspicious of the foreign-flagged ship, gave chase. As Amphitrite neared its destination, it managed to slip the Cossacks past the patrolling French sloop Meteore. Once ashore, Ashinov abandoned the pretense of a religious mission to Ethiopia and revealed his intention to establish a permanent Russian settlement. Informed of the landing party, Lagarde dispatched an officer from Meteore to warn the Cossacks that any abuse of the local Afar population would be met with a harsh response. But when his men asked permission to raid the Afar herds for meat, Ashinov foolishly acquiesced. During the raid, his men raped an Afar girl. Ashinov paid off the local sultan, and as the French expressed no interest in removing the Cossacks, he resumed the search for an appropriate site to settle. By months end the mission had occupied the abandoned Egyptian fort at Sagallo. Renaming it New Moscow, the Russians erected a makeshift chapel and raised a specially designed flagtheir nations white, blue and red tricolor overlaid with a yellow saltire cross. Ashinov, Paissi and the handful of Cossack families took refuge in the forts blockhouse, while the rest sheltered outdoors in tents. Though it was winter, the daily average high temperature of 80 degrees under a relentless tropical sun made the work of repairing the fort a taxing effort for the northern intruders. Discipline quickly dissolved, and Ashinov was forced to distribute cash to his followers to dissuade them from further raiding. On a regional scope the settlement posed a direct threat to the colonial ambitions of Italy and Britain, who particularly feared the possibility of Russian arms winding up in the hands of indigenous tribes. Through diplomatic channels, they urged France to assert its claims in Tadjoura and bring a quick end to the Cossack occupation. However, France itself was not necessarily hostile to the Russian incursion. Indeed, it may have welcomed cooperative efforts in the region to challenge Britains dominance of the approaches to the Suez Canal, which itself had come under British control. The French and Cossacks engaged in a brief propaganda warAshinov trying to convince the Afar tribesmen the French were but a minor power, while Lagarde gave them the impression the Russians were only there with French permission. The governor sent emissaries to Ashinov to demand he turn over his groups excess weapons, lower his flag and raise the French flag. Ashinov demurred, claiming he could do nothing without the permission of the local Afar sultan, Muhammad Leita, who was conveniently away fighting the Somalis. Never a diplomat, Ashinov failed to recognize he was being offered an opportunity to remain so long as he observed certain formalities. Meanwhile, his unruly Cossacks continued their depredations, and all the noble religious rhetoric surrounding the purpose of the expedition came crashing down. Not all the Cossacks were pleased with the chaotic conditions and lack of leadership. The Afar tribesmen had turned over several Russian deserters to the French in Obock, and these disaffected settlers shared a true picture of the disorder prevailing in New Moscow. When the French Foreign Office lodged a formal complaint, a furious Czar Alexander sent word through the Russian envoy in Paris, disavowing any involvement with Ashinovs mission. The Cossacks were on their own. Satisfied Ashinovs expedition had no official backing in Russia, the French government ordered Rear Adm. Jean-Baptiste Leon Olry, commander of the Levant Naval Division, to expel the intruders. With Olry at the helm, the cruisers Seignelay and Primauguet steamed for Obock, where they picked up Lagarde and were joined by the gunboats Meteore and Pingouin. At that stage of the fiasco the czar was heeding the counsel of the Foreign Ministry and demanded this beast Ashinov be removed from Tadjoura as soon as possible. After Paris received notice the Russians had decided to send the gunboat Mandjur from Aden to deal with the contentious Cossack themselves, the French government sent orders to Olrys squadron to stand down. Due to the poor communications of the day, the orders didnt arrive in time. On February 17 the French flotilla arrived off Tadjoura and assembled in front of Sagallo. Olry promptly sent a courier ashore from Seignelay with a written demand that Ashinov lower the Russian flag, evacuate the fort and stack the Cossack weapons. He was granted a half-hour to complyhad the sight of the warships lining up in battle formation not already brought him to his senses. Some 20 Cossacks understood the implications and swam out to the French ships to surrender. Meanwhile, the deadline slipped by with no sign of compliance from the fort. Olry waited an additional half-hour before having gunners fire a warning shot well over the blockhouse. Another five minutes passed in dreadful silence. Panic gripped the Russians when the French naval guns opened a 15-minute barrage. As the shells exploded around them, Ashinov reportedly ordered the Cossacks to create a line of defense on the beach, a suicidal command they wisely ignored. Though the French fired 11 large projectiles, most of their fire came from the newly introduced 47 mm naval version of the Hotchkiss revolving cannon. Cossack skill in arms and horsemanship provided no defense against naval guns, and the Russian holdouts had little alternative but to run for the surrounding brush or cower within the forts ruined walls and pray. By the time the shelling was over, one man, two women and three children were dead, with 20 more wounded. The bombardment had pounded the fight out of the Russians, and Ashinovs confidence had taken a shocking beating. He left it to Father Paissi to deal with the French, with Ashinovs wife serving as interpreter. Paissi angrily protested the action but found little sympathy. French opinion was the Cossacks had brought it on themselves after passing up numerous opportunities to stand down. Over the coming days French troops collected the garrisons weapons and oversaw the embarkation of the Russians to Obock. To prevent a reoccupation of Sagallo, Olry ordered the remaining fortifications destroyed with explosives. Paissi and his monks were allowed to proceed on a religious mission to the Ethiopian court. After transport to Suez, the surviving Cossacks were placed under arrest by Russian authorities and on March 4 put aboard the cruiser Zabiyaka for a humiliating return trip to Odessa. Ashinov was received like a bad odor back in Russia. Given the czars anger with him, the Cossack freebooter was perhaps lucky to have received only three years exile in the Volga River region; the Foreign Ministry had recommended five years in Siberia. In 1890 Ashinov fled, first to Paris and then London. Ordered home by Alexander III in 1891, he was resentenced to 10 years exile on his wifes estates in Chernigov in northern Ukraine. Ashinovs adversary Lagarde went on to become French ambassador to Ethiopia and in 1897 was granted the honorific Duke of Entoto by Emperor Menelik II. Even as Ashinov was embroiled in his failed effort to create an African New Moscow, the Russian minister of war was organizing his own Ethiopian mission using a trusted and far less erratic officer, Lt. Vasiliev Federovich Mashkov, an Anglophobe and strategic thinker. In October 1889 Mashkov arrived in Meneliks court with the apparent support of Lagarde. French and Russian interests were converging over a mutual desire to wrest control from the British of the sea routes passing the Horn of Africa. Mashkovs follow-up visit in 1891 led to the eventual formation of a Russian military advisory mission and the delivery of Russian mountain guns the Ethiopians used to defeat the Italian army at Adwa in 1896. France and Russia viewed Italy as an ally of the British in the contest for the Horn. Capt. Aleksandr Vasilevich Eliseev visited Tadjoura and the nearby Sultanate of Rahayta in 1895 with an eye to establishing relations. He, too, was accompanied by a Russian Orthodox archimandrite, as the idea of uniting the Russian and Ethiopian churches persisted through the end of the century. Eliseev died that same year of an illness he contracted abroad, but the Cossack connection continued as Eliseevs protege Capt. Nicolay Leontiev, a Kuban Cossack, saw that mission throughalarming the British with stated plans to contact the Mahdist regime in Omdurman. Following up a few years later was Col.Leonid Konstantinovich Artamonov, who served Menelik as a trusted military aide. Artamonov and two Cossack soldiers accompanied the military expedition of Ethiopian commander Tessema Nadew to the White Nile in 1898 in advance of both Horatio Kitcheners British forces and the French mission led by Jean-Baptiste Marchand, but the diseased and exhausted Ethiopians were compelled to withdraw after raising the Ethiopian flag near Fashoda. That same year Russia established formal relations with Ethiopia and built an impressive embassy in Addis Ababa, guarded by 40 Cossacks. France meanwhile consolidated its territories and protectorates in the Tadjoura Gulf region in 1896 as French Somaliland. In the end the Ashinov misadventure had little effect on warming Franco-Russian relations. In the face of growing British might no mere Cossack could significantly influence geopolitical imperatives. Russia had suffered an embarrassment, but France had suffered littleif anything, the resolve it demonstrated in its dealings with both Ashinov and Moscow had elevated its prestige in the Horn. Despite Russian attempts to become a player in the Horn of Africa, its inability to establish a permanent presence on the coast was to have devastating consequences. In 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War, Japans destruction of Russias Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur, Manchuria, forced Moscow to send its outdated Baltic Fleet to tackle Adm. Heihachiro Togos British-built battleships. A year earlier London had denied the Russians use of the Suez Canal after they had fired on British fishing vessels in the North Sea, having mistaken them for Japanese torpedo boats. After an 18,000-mile journey around the Cape of Good Hope, the exhausted Russian fleet fell easy prey to the Japanese at the Battle of Tsushima. Ashinov and his backers had grasped the strategic importance of a Russian base in the Horn of Africa, but the Cossack adventurers erratic behavior had instead unwittingly contributed to imperial Russias military decline. Andrew McGregor is director of Toronto-based Aberfoyle International Security. For further reading he recommends The Russians in Ethiopia: An Essay in Futility, by Czeslaw Jesman, and Russia and Black Africa before World War II, by Edward Thomas Wilson. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. LINN COUNTY SHERIFF Hoodoo trespass A 9 p.m. call Wednesday from the 27400 block of Big Lake Road about a drunk person at Hoodoo Ski Area revealed a young man and his date had gone snowboarding near the closed lodge, and after becoming intoxicated required help. The deputy discovered Jordan Dean, 32, used a wooden sign to bang on a window at the lodge. The window broke, and Dean was cited for criminal mischief and criminal trespassing. Rizoma Gallery Street Art Festival Teddy Baden in Falkoping, Sweden As is often the case we usually take many more photographs that we have time to process or upload. Often if we miss a window we dont always have the time to go back and catch up as there is always some new project, event/street art or mural piece to photograph and just not enough hours in the day.On other occasions, we have worked the photographs and the blog post ends up stuck in draft mode while we either wait to capture a photograph of the finished wall or perhaps a better final image that we are happy with - one where the light is better or there are no cars parked in front of the wall is is often the case.Looking back we have realized there a number of such unpublished posts and we are currently working or way through some of these draft posts to get them online.After a flying visit to Berlin we jumped on a plane to Sweden which was a first for us - to check out the Rizoma Galleries' street art festival in the town of Falkoping. We flew into Gothenburg and caught a two-hour train from the city centre to Falkoping. The Rizoma gallery was set up in 2016 as a space to host art exhibitions, workshops, gigs, events, film screenings, talks, and a street art festival.The week we traveled to Falkoping was the second edition of the festival and with the gallery having strong connections with Mexico collective Board Drippers a number of Mexican street artists were invited to paint at the festival. As well as the Mexican and local artists we caught up with London stencil artist Teddy Baden.Post-Olympic Games and the Hackney Wick we once loved has changed beyond recognition. Large sways of low-level industrial units and spaces occupied by the area's artists have been razed to the ground. Generic high rise developments are springing up, replacing many of these spaces with equally high prices that are far beyond what not just artists but many Londoners can afford to pay.Baden is still living and working from his studio in Hackney Wick, but like many of the artists being priced out of that neighbourhood, he is making plans for the future and looking beyond Hackney Wick.Along with a former resident and another artist they are putting plans in motion to build an international artist residency program in a unique space in the Swedish countryside - an hour outside Falkoping.Baden was in town during our visit and was one of the artists invited to paint a mural as part of the Rizoma Galleries street art festival. We caught up with Baden over two days as he worked on an electrical building - relocating all four sides of the building using large scale stencils featuring some of his signature dog characters. Check out the collection of images of the artist at work below on a mural he has called "Even Superheroes Get Tired".Teddy Baden stenciling his signature on his finished 'Even Superheroes Get Tired' mural in Falkoping, Sweden.Painting his mural in a residential part of the city, saw a number of the local kids stopping by each day after school to watch Baden working on his colorful mural.Mural complete it was time for a beer or two but first a few selfies!!Hookedblog on Instagram @Hookedblog Teddy Baden on Instagram @teddybaden Rizoma Gelleri on Instagram @rizomagalleri Find Hookedblog on Facebook Fine Gael Senator and spokesman on EU Affairs, Neale Richmond is calling for a new referendum. He made his comments after arch Brexiteer Nigel Farage said on British television yesterday that their should be a second referendum in order to put any debates around the contentious issue, once and all, to bed. This article can only be read with a Premium Account Please Log In or Subscribe to continue reading As sincere and lyrical as any track by Leonard Cohen, the latest track from The Lost Brothers nicely sets things up for the release of their new album. The Lost Brothers have shared the track as they gear up for an extensive tour throughout February/March. They'll be supported by The Waterboys' Steve WIckham for several tour dates. Speaking about the track, Oisin Leech said: "We wrote the song 'Halfway Towards A Healing' at the foot of Slieve Foy in Carlingford we spent a few days walking the lough and that song was written over whiskey and chowder soup. It was the coldest week of the year and there was a lot of snow on high ground . We just decided to let the storm clear and camped out in the town for few days exploring the old curiosity shops. This song came along. Gavin Wood sent us his idea for the video and we loved it. It was filmed directly across the Irish Sea from Louth on the shores of Liverpool. Ten years ago this month Mark and I met in Liverpool so it's a good circle." Halfway Towards A Healing will be officially released on January 26. Advertisement The Lost Brothers play at The Sugar Club, Dublin on February 8. Tickets are priced at 22.50+ and are available from Ticketmaster.ie. JANUARY 30TH - LONDON : THE LEXINGTON FEBRUARY 1ST - SHEFFIELD : PICTURE HOUSE SOCIAL FEBRUARY 2ND - LIVERPOOL : THE LEAF FEBRUARY 8TH - DUBLIN : THE SUGAR CLUB FEBRUARY 9TH - WEXFORD : WEXFORD ARTS CENTRE FEBRUARY 10TH - WATERFORD : ST. PATRICKS GATEWAY FEBRUARY 14TH - BELFAST : THE BLACK BOX FEBRUARY 15TH - CARRICK : DOCK THEATRE FEBRUARY 16TH - VIRGINIA : THE RAMOR THEATRE FEBRUARY 17TH - BALLYBOFEY : BALOR ARTS THEATRE FEBRUARY 23RD - LIMERICK : DOLANS FEBRUARY 24TH - CORK : LIVE AT ST. LUKES MARCH 11TH - NEW YORK : IRISH ARTS CENTRE MARCH 12TH - NEW YORK : PAUL MULDOON'S PICNIC MARCH 13TH/15TH - AUSTIN : SXSW August 16, 1946 January 6, 2018 Denelle Balschweid passed away Saturday, January 6, peacefully in her home. Deni was born in Alameda, California to Gary and Irene deRemer. She grew up traveling and graduated from Inglewood High School in 1964 where she excelled at modern dance and creative writing. After graduating high school, she moved to Oregon where she would spend the next 54 years of her life. Deni was married to Jon Balschweid for 33 years. She was the lead vocalist of Dr. Jons Jazz Band, which performed in Japan in both 1988 and 1994. Aside from her amazing vocal abilities, she co-hosted Good Time Jazz on KGAL radio with Jon in 1984 and 1985 and coordinated ten different jazz festivals in Albany. In 1984, Deni also worked with the City of Albany and the Musicians Union to coordinate their first concert that is known as River Rhythms today. There are many things Deni enjoyed doing. Some of them included having family gatherings with all of her family in one place, painting companies windows during the holidays, and making those around her laugh. She could be found supporting her eldest daughter Lisas horse adventures, loving the outdoors with her son Bryan, in the stands and keeping score at her daughter Felicias softball games, and cheering loudly at her granddaughter Danielles rodeo events. No amount of miles could keep her from her families extracurricular activities. Deni was an active member of South Albany Community Church until the last few years. She very much enjoyed volunteering at Sunrise Elementary School and hosting birthday parties at the Mennonite Home. Deni is survived by husband Jon Balschweid; brothers, Harald Leuba (Nancy) and Jeff deRemer; sister Genie Schiller (Heinz); daughters Lisa Schiller (Billy) and Felicia Henderson (Eric); son Bryan Schiller (Laura); grandchildren, Danielle Schiller and Joseph and Joshua Schiller; great grandson Chase; dog Boston; and cat Maddie. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Parkinsons Resources of Oregon and/or the Humane Society. A celebration of life will take place at South Albany Community Church (2418 SE Geary St. Albany, OR 97322) on Saturday, February 10th at 11am followed by a reception. AAsum-Dufour Funeral Home is handling the arrangements (www.aasum-dufour.com). The Bray trio open 2018 with smouldering R'n'B ballad which balances feelings of lust with introspective vulnerability. Featured vocalist Karen Cowley says of the song: Maybe Its My Nature is about having a wandering eye, and the feelings of guilt that come with that. The song addresses three different people: a partner, a dead poet, and myself. She adds - I find that female characters in a lot of popular media still seem to lack sexual agency or fall into age old stereotypes. I wrote this song at a time when I was particularly fed up of hearing and seeing the same depictions that dont resonate with how I feel. Wyvern Lingos long-awaited, self-titled debut album is out Friday 23rd February on vinyl, CD and download on Rubyworks. The band will be on tour in Ireland, the UK and Europe in support of the album release. See full tour dates below: 23rd Feb, The Button Factory, Dublin Album release party Advertisement 24th Feb, Glor, Ennis 25th Feb, Connollys of Leap, Cork 1st March, McHughs, Belfast 2nd March, Dolans, Limerick 3rd March, St Lukes Church, Cork 8th March, Mike The Pies, Listowel 9th March, Roisin Dubh, Galway Advertisement 10th March, Source Arts Centre, Thurles 11th March, Spirit Store, Dundalk 14th March, Sound, Liverpool 15th March, The Mash House, Edinburgh 16th March, Stereo, Glasgow 17th March, Think Tank Underground, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne 18th March, The Castle Hotel, Manchester Advertisement 20th March, Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds 21st March, Louisiana, Bristol 24th March, Prinzenbar, Hamburg 26th March, Privatclub, Berlin 27th March, Studio 672, Cologne 28th March, Upstairs at The Paradiso, Amsterdam Most University of Texas aerospace engineering students will likely remain in the state to work for NASA, government contractors, startups and a host of other technologically advanced organizations, according to David Daniel, deputy chancellor for the University of Texas System. "Don't worry about young people being interested in aerospace," Daniel said Thursday at an aerospace conference in League City hosted by the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas. "Boy, are they interested." There are about 1,000 undergraduates and 350 master's or doctoral students who are studying in Arlington and Austin. They will deepen the state's talent pool and help ensure economic growth in an ever-advancing technological society, he said. Already, the talent pipeline - and succeeding job market - is strong in Texas, Daniel said, but a potential constraint could be one of perception. Aerospace, for instance, conjures up images of planes or rockets. But in reality, the sector has expanded to include robotics, artificial intelligence, medical devices and more. Students, he said, need to know of those broadening potentials. The University of Texas, for instance, has programs focused on composite materials and the recovery of oxygen from carbon dioxide. Both will help humans reach Mars. Researchers at Texas A&M University are examining supersonic flight, and they're creating food that astronauts eat in space. Rice University teaches its students about space policy. "There's an enormous business opportunity that's going to happen somewhere, and jobs are going to be created somewhere," Daniel said. His goal is to keep those jobs and opportunities in Texas, a topic discussed at the conference, which drew more than 250 researchers, scientists, engineers, CEOs, medical professionals and former astronauts. Janine Iannarelli, president and founder of Par Avion and presiding chair of the Texas Aerospace and Aviation Advisory Committee, said the state's job market will be even more demanding as the traditional aviation sector suffers from a shortage of pilots, mechanics and others who operate or maintain aircraft. Iannarelli emphasized the importance of inspiring children toward a career in aviation and keeping them engaged as they get older. "It is incumbent upon those of us who are already in the industry to help foster interest in developing an aerospace studies to help support continued growth," she said. To keep Texas' general aviation sector competitive with neighboring states, she said recommendations from the state advisory committee include eliminating sales tax on goods and services as they relate to general aviation. Texas is losing business to states that have eliminated these sales taxes. Also key is collaboration among the government, industry and academic institutions, which several presenters discussed. David Leebron, president of Rice, recited a portion of the famed "moon speech" that former President John F. Kennedy gave at the school. "We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a state noted for strength," Leebron recited. "And we stand in need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance." Leebron said such collaboration, as well as a strong energy sector that could provide engineers and technical expertise, helped attract Johnson Space Center to Houston in the first place. "It wasn't only the collaboration that made it a reality, that provided what we needed to send men into space," Leebron said, "but it was that collaboration that brought together the politics and industry and the capacity of both of the academic institutions." NASA's Commercial Crew Program is an example of such collaboration. The agency is working with SpaceX and Boeing to create spacecraft and launch systems that will carry crews to the International Space Station. Both companies highlighted their Texas presence at the event Thursday. Boeing conducts its crew training in Houston, said Christopher Ferguson, deputy program manager of operations for the Boeing Commercial Crew Program. Its mission planning and flight operations will also be in Houston. SpaceX has a rocket engine testing facility in McGregor and is building a launch site in Boca Chica, said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX. The latter project, she said, will be ready late this year or early next year for early vehicle testing. SpaceX will then continue working toward making it a launch site. Both have unmanned and manned test flights scheduled for this year. "We're not in really a competitive mode - though I'm sure we both feel very competitive about who's going to get to station first with astronauts," Shotwell said. "There's two very independent providers working to provide capability to get American astronauts back on American vehicles to the International Space Station." And separate from NASA, the companies are eyeing bigger targets. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, would like to colonize Mars. And Boeing is considering space tourism, helping people and cargo reach a private space station or working with other nations interested in developing a space program. "After we've served our flagship customer, which of course is NASA astronauts, we'll have opportunities to do things beyond the flagship customer," Ferguson said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Shara Serrano pulled into the Kroger parking lot and waited a few minutes as a store clerk loaded her trunk with the groceries she ordered online earlier that day. "The convenience has been absolutely great," the Meyerland mother of two said, "especially when I don't have the time to go shopping with the kids." Serrano is one of millions of consumers whose online shopping habits are transforming the grocery business, fueling demand for new food manufacturing plants and cold storage facilities. In the Houston area alone, customers like Serrano have spawned a frenzy of industrial development. Goya Foods, for instance, recently announced plans to nearly double its Houston manufacturing footprint. The New Jersey-based food company is adding 324,000 square feet of new warehouses, offices and support buildings to its 380,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Brookshire, west of Houston. The plant's expansion will help Goya reach new consumers across the Bayou City and the western U.S. Preferred Freezer, a New Jersey-based cold storage company, last year opened its fourth facility in the Houston area. The 180,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Pasadena, southeast of Houston, can hold 10 million cubic feet of frozen meats, seafood, produce and juice, held at temperatures ranging from 36 degrees to minus 4 degrees. From there, the frozen food is distributed to grocery stores, restaurants and food service companies, both in the U.S. and abroad. Experts predict that foreign grocers, including Germany-based Aldi and Lidl, will have to build their own warehouses once they reach critical mass. To meet the growing demand for construction, Houston-based engineering firm Lockwood, Andrews and Newnam recently expanded its food distribution and manufacturing services in the southern U.S. LAN, a subsidiary of planning and architecture firm Leo A Daly, plans to provide planning, design, site selection and construction management services to clients in the growing industry. "Grocery is one of the last retail categories to really experience a dramatic revolution in the online space," said Kelli Hollinger, director of Texas A&M's Center of Retailing Studies. "As more and more consumers have positive experiences with meal subscription services or trying out click-and-collect, that's going to rapidly change consumer behavior." No more cleanup on aisle 10 Although groceries lag home goods and apparel in online sales, it's one of the fastest-growing e-commerce segments. About 1 in 5 American households shop for food online. Busy families are using grocery delivery startups like Instacart and Shipt. Working professionals are buying dinner kits from meal-subscription companies like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh. And Amazon has taken notice. The e-commerce giant last year bought Austin-based Whole Foods for $13.5 billion. Demand for food processing, preparation and storage facilities is growing with Houston's rising population and e-commerce preferences. "We are seeing more of those food-related users floating around," said Chad Parrish with First Industrial Realty Trust, one of the largest U.S. owners and developers of industrial real estate. "You will see more and more of those users coming into the market." Figuring it out It's still uncertain how much e-commerce will accelerate demand for food processing and storage facilities, said Rusty Tamlyn, a commercial real estate broker with HFF. "It's really early on," Tamlyn said. "Amazon hasn't figured out how to operate Whole Foods yet and if they're going to use their stores as distribution centers. Everyone's been trying to figure out how to deliver groceries and not lose a ton of money." Delivering groceries has always been a challenge for traditional grocers and e-commerce startups. Companies such as Peapod have been trying since the 1990s to make the low-margin grocery business profitable in the online era. Most experts believe food will be delivered, not out of regional warehouses and distribution centers, but from existing grocery stores closest to consumers. Focusing on the "last mile" of distribution is key for the grocery industry, where products like ice cream can easily melt in Houston summers. "It's a tough business for people to try to make money on home delivery of perishables," Tamlyn said. "A lot of people lost millions of dollars with home delivery." Aaron Hinderer, director of sales and operations for Preferred Freezer, said e-commerce's impact hasn't yet hit the company's cold-storage business in Houston. The company has four cold-storage facilities in Houston where millions of pounds of frozen foods are stored. Hinderer estimates frozen food for online sales represents about 5 percent of Preferred Freezer's overall business. That includes ancillary products like gel-packs, which are used to keep prepared dinners cold in meal kits. However, Hinderer expects the e-commerce side of the business to expand. "E-commerce is growing," Hinderer said. "It's still a very small part of our business, but it's taking away market share." Shopping lists to ClickList Grocers are increasingly offering curbside pickup and home delivery services to compete with e-commerce rivals. Kroger, one of the largest grocery chains nationally, began offering online grocery shopping two years ago in Houston. The Cincinnati-based grocer launched ClickList, which allows customers to order groceries online and have them available for pickup or delivery. Today, 57 of Kroger's 111 stores in the Houston area offer curbside pickup, while 30 stores also offer home delivery. Pickup costs $4.95 per order, and home delivery costs $11.95 per order. Although online orders represent less than 10 percent of its business, Kroger expects it will grow. Although Kroger declined to disclose exact numbers, it said thousands of Houston families have used ClickList since it launched. The company plans to expand ClickList to more than 20 local stores in 2018. "We see e-commerce as the way of the future," said Jason Payne, Kroger's e-commerce manager overseeing Houston. "We've put a great deal of investment in e-commerce." Each of Kroger's ClickList locations features a dedicated e-commerce space spanning 450 to 1,000 square feet. Inside, there are computer terminals tracking online orders, freezer and refrigerated spaces as well as a dry foods staging area. Outside, the supermarket is mapped out much like an e-commerce fulfillment center. Black stickers on the ground note aisle and shelf numbers. An army of 15 to 60 e-commerce clerks pushing carts full of black bins fan out across the store, picking up items using handheld scanners that tell them which products to pick up and what route to take around the store. Online shoppers can leave notes for their clerks, telling them to pick up fruits of a certain ripeness or exactly which brands of toothpaste they like. Orders are scanned multiple times to ensure accuracy. This year, Kroger will also debut its own meal kits in 20 stores across Houston. The semi-prepared kits, similar to Blue Apron, will offer dinner for two adults between $14 and $20, Payne said. Brick and mortar surviving H-E-B also offers curbside pickup and home delivery, but the San Antonio-based grocer is doubling down on its brick-and-mortar locations, opening nine Houston stores in 2018 across hip urban neighborhoods and family-friendly suburbs. Grocery stores, which have added banks, gas stations and flower shops in recent years, still have much to offer online shoppers, like Meyerland mother Serrano, H-E-B president Scott McClelland said. "We think the rise of e-commerce, of people ordering groceries or having home delivery will increase, but we don't think the relevance of a grocery store done right is going to go away," McClelland said. "What you put into the store, how people utilize a grocery store, may change, but we still think there's a place for grocery stores." Nancy Sarnoff contributed to this story. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 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. 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. Now Playing: President Trump Talks New Tax Bill At White House Press Briefing Video: Time 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. 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. "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. "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. 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. 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. Appellate lawyer Jessica Zavadil Barger has been promoted to name partner at Wright Close & Barger. The Houston law firm, founded by Tom Wright and Howard Close, was formerly named Wright & Close. Patricia Salmon has been named vice president of operations at Goodwill Houston. Before joining Goodwill Houston, Salmon was the chief operating officer and a senior vice president at Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay, in Oakland, Calif., for more than a decade. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Rockspring Capital has found investment opportunities amid the energy sector downturn and Hurricane Harvey's aftermath. Jim McAlister, CEO of the Houston-based real estate private equity firm, says those challenges have not overshadowed the region's strengths. He recently shared his thoughts with the Chronicle. Q: Has Houston's economy fully recovered from the downturn in the energy sector? A: Not yet. But the headwinds are turning into tailwinds. In speaking with energy executives around town, the typical cycle for a recovery is 21 months or so. This cycle has been 42 months, and they are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Energy companies are hiring again. In addition, the national economy is doing great, which helps to accelerate Houston's energy and non-energy industries, which are already doing very well. Q: Did your firm take advantage of Houston's energy sector slump? A: The downturn allowed us to buy certain assets, such as energy-sensitive residential assets, at a discount to the previous asking price and the sales price of comparable assets. Q: Did Hurricane Harvey impact Houston's real estate market? A: Harvey had little impact on the real estate market overall, although some neighborhoods in Houston still have a lot of damage from flooding, and these neighborhoods will take many more months to recover. Harvey's effects are seen more in the residential space than in the commercial space. Generally, the storm is forcing a re-evaluation of some specific flood-prone areas. Moving forward, flood plain maps will be more conservative and builders will be held to higher standards in these areas, which will add costs to the developers. But we see this more as an opportunity than as a setback. General economics and strong fundamentals are driving the economy and the market, and Harvey had zero effect on that, particularly single-family lots. The market is doing great in most every sector except the office sector. Q: Why isn't the office sector picking up? A: The office sector was overheated because the energy sector had become too hot around 10 years ago. Q: How does Rockspring Capital operate? A: Acting as our funds' general partner, we buy undervalued real estate assets in the Texas area and get these properties ready for future development. We have defined and foreseeable exit strategies for our real estate investments. We also buy up covered land plays (transitional areas), determine what uses would be most optimal, and reposition assets where the demographics or land values have dictated a different use. We then prepare the areas to be transitioned to more advantageous uses. These properties are often older, light industrial or multifamily properties that have leases in place which generate income while we position the properties for their transition to a higher and better use. These opportunities are unique in Houston because the city doesn't have zoning laws. Our investors - pension plans, foundations and endowments, wealth managers and high net worth individuals - are our limited partners. Investors from all over the world invest in our funds, although our investors are primarily from U.S. and Canada. Q: How is the retail sector doing in Houston? A: Retail is doing well in Houston. Unlike many other places in the country, Houston was not overbuilt and has grown at a very sustainable pace. Some malls are even expanding, and brick and mortar companies are still attractive in many areas. Big box stores are not popping up as much as before, particularly during the last four years. In general, when a developer buys a large area of land and decides how to divide it up, the developer will allocate less acreage to retail than in the past, but it will still provide for smaller retail stores in the area. There is still steady demand for that category. Q: Has the decline in retail stabilized? A: Yes, for now. Most people already have access to the internet, and there still remains a need for physical retail stores. But there may be a dramatic change in technology in the future that causes a further decline - technology changes fast, and so you never know. Q: Why does Texas, and particularly Houston, attract so much investment from foreign investors? A: The zoning and land use laws in Houston are very business-friendly. Cities with less restrictive governments and less land-use regulation are more resistant to downturns. They don't get hit as hard during a recession. More importantly, Texas has very strong fundamentals: good population growth, including migration and immigration from Latin America, plenty of water, land and great weather. States compete for workers, and we get many from Latin American countries coming into Texas. It's also easier to make money in Texas. Strong landowner rights, no income taxes, good medical care (people come from Latin America to access Houston's Medical Center), low housing costs, and ready supply of economical labor. All these factors are very important - we have a good recipe for growth and opportunity. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Sam's Club is shuttering 63 stores nationwide, including three locations in the Houston area, in a major effort to pivot its resources toward e-commerce. The members-only wholesaler began closing the stores on Thursday, the same day its parent company, Walmart, announced pay bumps and bonuses it attributed to the recent corporate tax cuts. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer plans to raise starting wages for all hourly employees to $11 an hour, expand parental leave and adoption benefits, and pay a one-time bonus of up to $1,000 to eligible employees. Sam's Club employees, many of whom learned of the closings as they arrived at work in the morning, will receive 60 days of severance pay, including the newly announced raises and bonuses. Employees will be considered for other positions within the comany, a spokeswoman said. Sam's Club employs about 150 workers at each store, meaning more than 9,000 employees across the country, and about 450 in the Houston area, will be affected by the closures. Three Houston-area stores closed Thursday. They are: 1615 South Loop West, south of NRG Park. 13331 Westheimer, in the Market Square at Eldridge Parkway shopping center. 22296 Market Place Drive in the Valley Ranch Town Center in New Caney, northeast of Houston. In total, four Sam's Clubs in Texas are closing, including one in San Antonio. After the closures, there will be 17 Sam's Clubs in the Houston area, according to the chain's website, and nearly 600 stores nationally. Members can request a refund of their $45 to $100 annual membership fees at any of the closed locations. The closures are the latest in a string of high-profile store closings as traditional brick-and-mortar retailers struggle to compete against e-commerce companies. Several major retailers, including Walgreens, Sears, J.C. Penney and Macy's, have announced store closures in recent months. CEO John Furner, who took the helm of Sam's Club in Feb. 2017, said in October that he was evaluating the company's national portfolio of stores as it looked at building more online fulfillment centers in 2018. Sam's Club has two e-commerce facilities, including one in Fort Worth. It plans to convert 12 of its closed stores into fulfillment centers, while remodeling some of the stores that will remain open, Furner said in an email to employees Thursday. "Transforming our business means managing our real estate portfolio. We need a strong fleet of clubs that are fit for the future," Furner wrote in the email. "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." Sam's Club reported a 4.4 percent increase in net sales during the third quarter. Walmart's stock price ended Thursday up 0.35 percent to $100 per share. Venky Shankar, a professor with Texas A&M's Retailing Center, said he anticipates more store closures in 2018 with the growing popularity of online shopping. With the rise of e-commerce, retailers are finding they need fewer brick-and-mortar stores to serve their buyers. In the case of Sam's Club, where families may bulk shop once a month, closing stores and converting some into e-commerce facilities is a no-brainer, Shankar said. "The luxury of having huge stores is no longer a viable concept in a city like Houston," Shankar said. "Some malls will disappear and be replaced by office and warehouses. This is just the beginning; there could be more to come." The impact of Sam's Club's closures on the Houston real estate market will likely be minimal, despite the company vacating hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail space, said Jason Gaines, a retail broker with Houston-based commercial real estate firm NAI Partners. Walmart owns its stores and real estate, so shopping mall developers aren't on the hook for missed rent. Furthermore, discount stores like Sam's Club or Costco are more self-contained shopping destinations, and less retail anchors like grocery stores that drive foot traffic to adjacent businesses, Gaines said. "Sam's Club or Costco, those are not terrific tenants for driving neighboring traffic," Gaines said. "People are typically going to a Sam's Club, loading up and going back home. There's little pain in that sense." For Signorelli Co., Sam's Club's closure in Valley Ranch Town Center in New Caney represents an opportunity for The Woodlands-based developer to attract new retailers to the massive shopping center northeast of Houston. Sam's Club was the first deal Signorelli inked in the mixed-use project back in 2014, when the center was just a piece of dirt. Since the retail center opened in 2016, Valley Ranch Town Center has added a Kroger, several family restaurants like a Chili's and other big box stores like Academy, PetSmart, Burlington Coat Factory, Party City, TJ Maxx, Ross and Hobby Lobby. A Cinemark movie theater is set to open later this quarter. Although Sam's Club was the largest anchor tenant in Valley Ranch Town Center, occupying some 140,000 square feet, CEO Danny Signorelli said he is not worried about filling the space. Signorelli said is talking with 35 to 40 retailers interested in the center, due to its location in the Interstate 69 corridor near Kingwood. "When we launched Valley Ranch Town Center, the highest and best use was a discount store, but today, the highest and best use is a higher-end store," Signorelli said. "We look forward to working with Sam's Club to repurpose the building as Valley Ranch Town Center grows and evolves." Digital producer Dana Burke contributed to this story. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Houston employers need to dot their i's and cross their t's, because immigration agents are stepping up demands of: "Show me your papers!" U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expanding inspections of Form I-9s, which are used to verify an employee's eligibility to work in the U.S. Fines for leaving a space empty can range from $216 to $2,156. This is part of ICE implementing President Donald Trump's executive order on border enforcement. Thomas Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told a conference at the Heritage Foundation in October that he plans to hire 10,000 new workplace enforcement officers and increase inspections by 400 percent to 500 percent to slow down illegal immigration. RELATED: Immigration officials raid dozens of 7-Eleven stores "As long as they get jobs, they will try to come, so we are stepping up work site enforcement," Homan said in comments recorded by C-SPAN. "We have already increased the number of work site inspections and work site operations, and you will see that significantly increase in this next fiscal year." "Now we're going to prosecute the employer who knowingly hired the illegal aliens, and we're going to prosecute, detain and remove the illegal alien workers." ICE agents launched a nationwide sweep of 98 7-11 stores on Wednesday, arresting 21 people for immigration violations. Homan promised similar raids in the future. Several employers told me before the 7-11 raids about recent ICE inspections, and they've asked not to be named for understandable reasons. One employer said the inspection cost the company 32 hours of human resources time, $4,200 in legal fees and sent one employee, whom ICE accused of being in the country illegally, scrambling for his naturalization papers and a congratulatory letter from President George W. Bush. Charles Foster, a legendary immigration attorney who worked for Bush and advised President Barack Obama, said his clients are reporting increased, and sometimes overzealous, ICE operations. "This is a complete change of policy. They are going back to aggressively enforcing every law available," Foster said. Foster said ICE suffers from a shortage of experienced agents, and new agents often exaggerate the severity of technical violations. RELATED: Businesses feel the pinch as undocumented consumers limit shopping expenses "In practice, that has been the greatest risk since it is often difficult for the government to prove that the employer had actual knowledge that the employee was unauthorized," Foster said. "These paperwork violations can add up to significant amounts, and they are often piled up in order to give the government leverage in negotiating settlements." Foster recommended self-audits to make sure all forms are on file and in order, and the ICE website provides guidance on how to do it. Employers who think they may have hired someone with false papers should investigate immediately or risk criminal charges. Asplundh Tree Experts, one of the nation's largest tree-trimming companies, pleaded guilty in September to knowingly hiring people not authorized to work. The company agreed to a $95 million fine, the largest immigration settlement in U.S. history. Employers, though, can go too far. Chinese restaurant chain Panda Express agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty and set up a $200,000 compensation fund for mistreating authorized immigrants. Panda Express made them repeatedly and needlessly produce immigration documents to reverify their ongoing work authorization. The company did not make the same demands on U.S. citizens. "The anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Naturalization Act prohibits such requests for documents when based on an employee's citizenship status or national origin," the Justice Department said. RELATED: U.S. farms face shrinking immigrant labor pool Employers are justified in thinking they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. This is complicated and politically charged stuff, especially now. A company facing a formal audit will need an attorney, especially in Houston, where one in four people was born in another country. Undoubtedly, the vast majority of immigrants who work in the U.S. illegally are seeking wages and a better life for their families. But there is no good argument for knowingly hiring someone who is unauthorized to work here. Homan and I differ, though, on the solution. Houston employers constantly complain of a labor shortage, which is why some hire unauthorized workers. The answer is immigration reform, not deportation. Reform solves several problems. Currently, unscrupulous employers hire immigrants to underpay them so they can make lower bids and win more contracts. More than a quarter of day laborers in Houston say they were cheated out of promised wages, according to a study published in November by the University of Illinois at Chicago. Honorable employers want immigration reform so they can hire these same workers and pay them a fair wage. Higher wages would also encourage more unemployed citizens to re-enter the job market and boost the economy. Until we get reform, though, employers need to get their papers in order, because federal agents may soon appear at your door demanding, "Papers, please." This column was updated after reports of the nationwide sweep of 7-11 stores. 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 President Donald Trump may or may not be sincere in trying to reach a bipartisan deal on immigration. Regardless, though, it would help if he knew when to just keep his mouth shut. On Tuesday, Trump made waves (and raised hopes) when he convened a bipartisan meeting and laid out the framework of what could be a deal on immigration. Here are the general outlines of that deal: Offer protection to the 800,000 or so young immigrants who came to this county illegally, often as very young children who entered the country with their parents. The status of these immigrants, the so-called "Dreamers," has been in limbo since Trump said he was ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protected them against deportation. Limit family-based immigration, in which one relative can sponsor another; Trump often calls this "chain migration." End the diversity visa lottery system. Improve border security. Trump also has broadly suggested that he might consider means other than his proposed border wall to do this, and the fact is that other high-tech methods likely would be a better investment. On Wednesday, Republicans in the House stepped forward with their own plan, which clashed with the deal Trump was pitching the day before: Their proposal would crack down on illegal immigration and dramatically reduce the number of legal immigrants coming to the United States. But Trump on Tuesday had anticipated something like this, and said then that he was willing to take the heat. Then came Thursday, when Trump was in the middle of a meeting with members of Congress at the White House. According to an account in The New York Times, they were discussing the emerging deal on immigration when Trump expressed alarm at the fact that the deal could benefit Haitians. He asked that they be left out of the deal and apparently also used a vulgar term to describe countries in Africa. The implication was clear: Trump doesn't want those people coming to the United States. In fact, he also apparently said that he would prefer immigrants to the United States come from places like Norway. So once again, it remains unclear exactly what Trump actually believes about immigration although, judging from the available evidence, it seems to be whatever comes to his mind. Trump's remarks (and "ill-considered" is too mild a term to characterize them, but we'll leave it at that for the time being) certainly don't help the cause of the immigration deal the president himself was pushing just two days before. But it's not out of the question that Trump could work to get the deal back on track. You may have noticed that this president rarely apologizes for anything he says, but he could consider that option here. (More likely, he'll just deny saying this, but it was telling that hours went by after the news broke on Thursday without any such denial or, for that matter, confirmation from the White House.) Assuming he's serious about immigration reform, Trump then could prepare to take the heat, as he put it, as he worked toward these key goals: Revamping our system for dealing with guest workers so it connects better with the employers who need those workers. Offering legal immigrants clearly designated and relatively straightforward paths to citizenship. Crafting humane and rational policies to deal with refugees. And, yes, developing more effective strategies to guard the border. (Here's a spoiler alert: Effective strategies to do that likely won't involve building the wall.) President Richard Nixon, a Cold War hardliner, opened a new era in American diplomacy by going to China. Trump's China moment could involve spearheading the immigration reform we've needed for decades in the United States. But he needs to demonstrate in actions and, yes, in carefully chosen words that he's serious about this work. (mm) 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. It used to be that Houston parents frustrated or unsatisfied with the school they happened to be zoned to were out of luck. Unless the family could afford private school tuition or move to a new home in order to find a better school, they were stuck. The school choice movement has brought more access to more educational options to all families, regardless of their income or ZIP code. The popularity of these options, including public charter schools and in-district magnet programs, highlights that parents want a voice and a choice when it comes to their child's education. More and more, parents are recognizing that one-size-fits all doesn't work. Houston has been a national leader in the school choice movement for decades. Educational options flourish here. Houston ISD the seventh-largest school district in the country has one of the nation's most robust magnet school programs, including some of the highest-ranked programs nationally. In fact, HISD has more than 120 magnet schools, which offer specialized programs and distinct curricula: Fine arts programs like the excellent High School for the Performing and Visual Arts or dual-language schools like the Arabic Immersion School fall into this category. Houston is also home to many of the biggest and most successful charter networks in the state. Public charter schools like YES Prep, KIPP and Harmony Public Schools are open-enrollment schools that exist outside of a traditional district. These schools are often smaller than HISD schools and offer programs and curriculum that can be attractive to parents. But, since charter schools are still public schools, they are held to the same standards for student achievement. And since all these options are public, there's no tuition required. SCHOOL REFORM: Charter school? Wrong question. Right question: Is it good? The only problem is that it's not always simple for parents to navigate these options. To start, each school has its own application and requirements, and those applications open and close on different days. For example, a parent considering two public charter schools and a magnet school could be submitting three separate applications. For two children, the paperwork doubles. If a parent doesn't speak English, it can be intimidating to go to a school in person to figure out how to apply, and bilingual staff may not be available to help. Consider the story of Rosezina Williams. She knew her neighborhood school wasn't the right fit for her daughter, Ashley, and son, Sayvion. Williams explored the public charter school options near her home, and selected three that would be a good fit. When it came time to apply to those schools, she faced a stack of paperwork: three separate applications for each child. It takes a lot of work to find schools that are a good fit for your child. The application shouldn't be an obstacle between the student and the right education for him or her. Submitted But finding and applying to the right school is now easier for Houston parents, thanks to Apply Houston, a city-wide common application for PreK to 12th-grade schools, that was recently launched. The first of its kind in Texas, the application reflects an agreement among multiple school networks to share, collaborate and simplify the process on behalf of parents. With just one application, parents can now apply to multiple schools for all their kids. School applications can be wrapped up in less than 10 minutes. HOW WE REBUILD: After Harvey, we shouldn't expect any less of our schools In its launch year, Apply Houston's participating schools are KIPP Houston Public Schools, YES Prep Public Schools, Promise Community Schools, A+ Unlimited Potential and Etoile Academy. That gives parents more than 50 schools to choose from and apply to. Apply Houston is the brainchild of Families Empowered, a Houston-based nonprofit organization which helps parents understand school choice. It took years of planning and cooperation among competing schools to make Apply Houston a reality. Though Apply Houston launched with five public charter school networks, the goal is to get more schools and districts to participate. Parents deserve a marketplace of high-quality school options that is easy to navigate and has a simple application process. Apply Houston is the first step in making that dream a reality. Rachael Dempsey is the Strategic Communications Manager of Families Empowered, a school-choice nonprofit empowering parents to engage in a marketplace of schools. Bookmark Gray Matters. The only problem is that it's not always simple. A cold front accompanied by high winds will have mariners exercising extra caution in Galveston Bay. The National Weather Service office for Houston and Galveston issued a low water advisory through at least this afternoon, and possibly into Saturday morning. Strong northwesterly winds at about 30 to 40 knots - and as high as 45 knots at times - have been pushing water back out into the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in water levels as low as two feet below mean low water depths in Galveston Bay. "When there's low water like this the ship channel itself is already a very narrow piece of Galveston Bay -- so as you have water being driven out of the bay, it can create really shallow areas in places that normally wouldn't be so shallow," said Molly Merrifield, a meteorologist for the NWS office for Houston and Galveston. "So we encourage mariners to be very careful, and if they're out at all to be a lot slower than normal just so they don't run into any grounding issues." Merrifield said that the National Weather Service starts to get concerned when the water level drops to a foot and a quarter or a foot and a half below mean low water depths. A weather service graph for water levels at Manchester, along the Houston Ship Channel, showed that the water dropped more than 2 feet below mean low water depths about 9:30 Friday morning. So far, the water depths have not grounded any ships. The Coast Guard had no incidents to report. The Port of Galveston did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although a post on the port's facebook page indicated that a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship docked at the port with no difficulty. Merrifield said that the low water advisory is in effect through 4 p.m. this afternoon and that water levels had already begun to creep back up as the winds begin to shift. "Later today we're expecting the winds to continue to slacken off a little bit and veer a little bit more to the north," Merrifield said. "With a more northerly trajectory versus northwesterly, the conditions are less favorable so we think that will allow some of the water to come back into the bay." Two MontgomeryTwo Montgomery County Jail inmates who tested positive for the flu recently died at an area hospital, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office confirmed Friday. The deaths of inmates Mosheer Rashid, 41, and Carl Bible, 35, bring the total number of flu-related deaths in Montgomery County to three this season. The third victim, a 70-year-old man, passed way Tuesday in the hospital. "It's been a horrible flu season for everybody," MCSO Lt. Scott Spencer said. "It's nationwide." Now Playing: Dr. Michael Blocker, Infectious Disease Specialist from Novant Health joins us to discuss guarding yourself against the flu. Video: Brandpoint Rashid was booked into jail Sept. 27 on a felony assault charge. He was first seen for an illness Dec. 8 by medical staff at the jail. He then improved with treatment until feeling ill again Dec. 10, the Sheriff's Office said. The next day, Rashid was rushed to Conroe Regional Medical Center to seek treatment for Influenza A. As his condition worsened on Dec. 17, a judge released Rashid from custody on a personal recognizance bond. He died two days later in the hospital. Although his death is not considered an in-custody death by law, MCSO jail administration, homicide and violent crimes detectives and the Texas Rangers are investigating it. Bible was booked Dec. 21 on a charge of possession of a controlled substance and a Harris County warrant for failure to register as a sex offender. Bible first complained of difficulty breathing Dec. 23. He was treated several times by jail medical staff Dec. 24 and Dec. 25. On Dec. 25, he was taken to Conroe Regional Medical Center for treatment for influenza pneumonia. He was moved to intensive care Jan. 4 and died Jan. 5. His death also is under investigation by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office jail administration, homicide and violent crimes detectives and the Texas Rangers. Spencer was unsure whether the inmates were housed together or near each other when they were both in the jail. He did say the Sheriff's Office is offering free flu shots to inmates. Inmates, jailers and other jail staff are not, however, required to have a flu shot, he said. "When we learn about a person being sick, we start a contamination (process)," Spencer said. "We have medicine, an upgraded medical staff. If we find an individual with the flu, we have the option of ... putting them in an isolation area." As of Jan. 7, a Montgomery County flu activity report provided by the Montgomery County Public Health District showed 546 reports for flu-like illness, 211 for Rapid Flu A and 20 Rapid Flu B. At the beginning of the season in the week ending Oct. 7 in Montgomery County, there were 15 cases of Flu A, five cases of Flu B and 441 flu-like illnesses for a total of 461 cases reported. The most cases so far this season were reported in the week ending Dec. 16, with 273 Flu A, 18 Flu B, 104 non-differentiated and 748 flu-like illness for a total of 1,143 cases. The week ending Dec. 30, there were 379 Flu A, 27 Flu B and 405 flu-like illnesses for a total of 811 cases. The MCPHD recommends everyone 6 months and older should get a flu vaccine. People who are more vulnerable to serious flu complications include older people, very young children, pregnant women and people with certain health conditions. However, MCPHD noted it is possible to get sick with the flu even with the flu vaccine. According to the health district, certain strains are chosen to be included in the vaccine each year, flu viruses are constantly changing, and not every strain can be covered by the vaccine. "In addition to having a flu vaccine, the most important ways a person can prevent getting influenza is to wash their hands frequently with soap and water or sanitize with alcohol hand sanitizer and to avoid touching your own face, nose, and eyes, which can spread virus on your hands into your own respiratory track," Public Health Clinic Medical Director and Local Health Authority for Montgomery County Dr. Charles Sims stated. "If you think that you have influenza symptoms, you can avoid spreading it to others by covering your cough and avoiding school, work, or crowds while you have fever or other influenza symptoms." Joan Kelley, vice president of Quality at Conroe Regional Medical Center, said while there has been an increase in flu cases in 2017-18 compared with 2016-17, this year's outbreak is not as severe as the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. "Seeing a surge of flu cases in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals may seem worrisome, but is not that unusual," Kelley said. "In order to allow the months of time it takes to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine, production must begin well in advance of flu season. Although researchers and scientists try their best to anticipate what flu strains will cause this year's outbreak, they cannot be 100 percent accurate and the result can be only partial protection against this year's strain of flu." "Nevertheless, routine annual vaccination against influenza is highly recommended and is your best line of defense against catching the flu," she added. Conroe Regional Medical Center follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for how to prevent getting or spreading the flu. "Every day preventative actions include avoiding contact with those with the virus, covering your nose and mouth with a tissue for coughs or sneezes, then immediately disposing of the tissue, washing your hands frequently with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub, avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth, and disinfecting surfaces and objects that may have been contaminated with germs," Kelley stated. "If you have the flu, you should limit your contact with others! The CDC recommends you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine." The flu season started in October and can last as late as May, according to the CDC. Montgomery County did not have any flu-related deaths in the 2016-17 flu season, MCPHD stated. Jay R. Jordan contributed to this story A key Democratic senator who was at the Oval Office meeting on immigration said President Donald Trump's denial that he called Haiti and African nations "shithole countries" is "not true" and that Trump made the "vile and racist" comments. "He said things which were hate-filled, vile and racist," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was at the meeting, told reporters Friday morning. "I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in that oval office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday." Furthermore, Durbin said that "my thought that we might get a bipartisan agreement approved by the White House died yesterday." Durbin's statement came after Trump attempted to deny comments that were widely reported by news organizations after the closed-door meeting. "The language used by me," Trump said in a Twitter posting on Friday morning, "was tough, but this was not the language used." Durbin said he had read press reports on the comments and hadn't seen any inaccuracies in the reporting. Trump made the apparent denial after the White House didn't dispute the quotations a day earlier. Asked about the account, White House spokesman Raj Shah said "certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people." The White House didn't immediately respond Friday to a request for comment about whether Trump was specifically denying using the term "shithole countries." Trump's remarks prompted criticisms from around the world, including some of those countries named. The African Union said it was "frankly alarmed" by the comments, according to the Associated Press. An opposition lawmaker in Ghana called upon developing nations to boycott the U.S. until Trump leaves office. The United Nations human rights office in Geneva called the remarks "shocking, shameful," Agence France Presse reported in a tweet. The language was also condemned by lawmakers in the U.S. -- mostly Democrats but including at least one prominent Republican. "If the reports are true, he should take them back. I disagree with them completely," Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, told Fox News Friday. "We have very good legal immigration in our state." Trump's remarks were made in a meeting with lawmakers who suggested restoring protections for people from those countries as part of a broader bipartisan agreement on immigration issues, the three people said. The Washington Post first reported Trump's comments. Shah went on to list the White House's demands for an agreement that would protect undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children and stressed that the president favors merit-based immigration. "The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards," Trump said in a series of tweets Friday. He criticized lack of funding for a border wall between U.S. and Mexico, provisions he said would worsen chain migration and the diversity visa lottery and that the U.S. "would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly." "I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level," Trump continued. "I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs." The president made the comments on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti, killing as many as 300,000 people. On Thursday, Haitian President Jovenel Moise demanded a meeting with the top American diplomat in the country, Charge d'Affaires Robin Diallo, according to State Department officials. Moise was expected to lodge a formal protest. Michele Sison has been confirmed as the new U.S. ambassador, but has not yet arrived. The officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss a diplomatic matter, are concerned that the episode may provoke protests in Haiti because commemorations have been planned to mark the anniversary. The Post reported that Trump singled out Haitian immigrants further, telling lawmakers they should be dropped from any deal. "Why do we need more Haitians?" Trump said, according to the newspaper, which cited people familiar with the meeting. "Take them out." Trump waited hours before denying making the reported comments about Haitians and alleging that they were made up by political foes. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country," he tweeted Friday. "Never said 'take them out.' Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" In the U.S., strong criticism followed initial reports of the Oval Office episode, with most though not all of it coming from Democrats. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who wasn't in the meeting, in a tweet called the president's remarks, "Breathtakingly offensive. Worse, it's ignorant of American ideals." The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, said the president's statement "reinforces the concerns that we hear every day, that the President's slogan Make America Great Again is really code for Make America White Again.' " In the strongest reaction from a Republican, Rep. Mia Love of Utah, a child of Haitian immigrants, demanded an apology and said the president's remarks were "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values." "My parents," Love said, "came from one of those countries but proudly took an oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with." Sens. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and Durbin were among the lawmakers who met with Trump at the White House to present a deal that a small group of lawmakers had reached on immigration issues. About a half dozen lawmakers were in the meeting, which also included Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, legislative director Marc Short and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, according to one person briefed on the meeting. Rep. Steve King, Republican from Iowa, supported Trump on Twitter Friday. "Hang in there Mr. President @realDonaldTrump. If those countries aren't as you described, Democrats should be happy to deport criminal aliens back to them. &End #AnchorBabies, too," he tweeted. The lawmakers discussed restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries, the Post reported, which for nearly three decades have been granted to help people who are temporarily unable to return to their countries because of armed conflict, disasters or other conditions. The administration announced this week that it would end the protection for people from El Salvador in 2019. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to the Post, which quoted two people briefed on the meeting. Trump then suggested the U.S. should instead accept more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. Trump was reported in December to have made similarly disparaging comments last year about people who had received U.S. visas in 2017. He said that people from Haiti "all have AIDS" while people from Nigeria would never "go back to their huts," the New York Times said. Shah said in an email 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. 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." --- Bloomberg's Nick Wadhams contributed. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Empower Texans hated state Rep. Mark Keough before it loved him. The hard-right political organization excoriated Keough in a piece on its website in January 2017. The Woodlands Republican had given a speech seconding the nomination of state Rep. Joe Straus, a longtime Empower Texans nemesis, for another term as Texas House speaker. "Sadly," the article stated, "Keough appears to be simply the latest politician to run as a conservative only to sell out their word and their principles to support a corrupt Democratic coalition in the House." A year later, Keough is challenging Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal in the March 6 Republican primary. Empower Texans has endorsed Keough. No one from Empower Texans returned my call to explain this shift, which Doyal found perplexing: "It surprises me that they would be as critical of the state representative as they were, and then endorse him," Doyal said. He said no representative of Empower Texans had ever contacted him. A more interesting question might be why this statewide political organization, described in a 2013 Texas Monthly article as "one of the most influential advocacy groups in Austin," cares who wins the GOP nomination for Montgomery County judge. The Empower Texans website lists dozens of recommendations for statewide offices, seats in the Texas House and Senate, and judgeships, but just seven for candidates running for county offices around the state. But Montgomery County is not just any county in Texas. An unusual combination of qualities gives it strategic importance in the broad sweep of Texas politics. It's a large, steadily growing Houston suburban area that's conservative to its core; its voters supported Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a 3-to-1 margin. "It's only going to be more and more influential as we move into the next decade," said Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones. "If you look at Republican vote shares, Montgomery County has an outsized influence." Many Montgomery County voters, of course, may never have heard of Empower Texans. As Jones explained, though, its endorsement could have indirect effects. "It has an impact on political activists and elites, and from there it starts to filter down," Jones said, as these influencers talk to their friends and families. The impact could be even greater, he said, if Empower Texans follows up with direct mail and other messages branding Keough the "true conservative" in the primary campaign. In addition to endorsing Keough, Empower Texans posted an article this week suggesting that the longtime Montgomery County GOP chairman, Walter Wilkerson, had taken actions favoring Doyal despite bylaws that call for the party to be neutral in contested primaries. The article didn't include comment from Doyal or county party leaders, who told me that the allegation was baseless. Doyal said the activist group's support for his opponent doesn't concern him. He acknowledged, though, that followers of Montgomery County's robust tea party movement, which is ideologically aligned with the anti-establishment positions of Empower Texans, might take notice. "You're not going to get them all, plain and simple," he said, referring to endorsements. "We're going to run our race at the grass-roots level." Keough said he doesn't see any inconsistency in Empower Texans' endorsement of him after having published a critical article. "There is not a Freedom Caucus guy or any conservative that they've endorsed in the past that they haven't been critical of at some time," he said. Keough said Empower Texans has a "huge following" among Montgomery County conservatives, and he thinks its support will boost his campaign. "I'm very excited about it," he said. Whether voters share his excitement will soon become evident; the primary is less than eight weeks away. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AUSTIN Nicole Rechner already knew this to be true: Texas education officials denied or delayed special education services for students across the state for more than a decade. After all, her 13-year-old son, Demarcus Fuller, was one of those students. But Thursday, Rechner wept when she learned a U.S. Department of Education investigation had determined that Texas Education Agency officials illegally led school districts across Texas to delay or deny special education services to students by setting an arbitrary cap on services. I can say there are some serious flaws in the system because when I need help, I cant find it, she said. For more than a decade, TEA judged a school districts performance based in part on the percentage of students receiving special education services. But the benchmark, set at 8.5 percent, prompted school districts to deny or delay access to special education resources, the Department of Educations Office of Special Education Programs said in a 14-page letter to Texas education officials. Nationally, 13 percent of students receive special education. Immediately after the release of the federal findings, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered Education Commissioner Mike Morath to craft a corrective action plan within seven days. The report mirrors a 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation that found tens of thousands of students with disabilities were denied special education services because of the cap. TEA officials have repeatedly said the benchmark was not a cap, and instead was an indicator of performance. But the federal report confirms districts viewed the enrollment target as a cap. 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 departments acting assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services. The state must now comply with at least four corrective action steps, but its unclear what penalties the state could face if it does not comply. TEA eliminated the policy two months after the Chronicles investigation. In May, Abbott signed a law prohibiting the use of a performance indicator based solely on the number of students receiving special education services. 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 his letter to Morath. TEA must take steps now to significantly increase the oversight provided to ensure our special education students are receiving the services they deserve Morath said in a written statement that he shares Abbotts urgency to quickly address issues identified in the federal report. More importantly, I share the Governors commitment to doing whats 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, Morath said. The federal probe began in late 2016, after the Chronicle spoke to dozens of teachers, educators and disability rights groups who say schools have repeatedly denied services to students with dyslexia, autism and other disabilities. Federal education officials reviewed documents, data and met with parents and school officials from 12 school districts including Houston, Laredo, Austin and Leander. The department found 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. Rechner knows firsthand how hard it has been to get her teenage child the services he needs. She first requested a special ed evaluation from Houston Independent School District for Demarcus in 2013 after he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The district didnt act. He didnt get an evaluation until 2016, only after Demarcus told a private psychiatrist that he didnt want to live anymore and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Even after he was evaluated, he struggled to get the resources he needed, such as access to a counselor or a special seat on the school bus. Eventually, Rechner enrolled Demarcus in a new school, which seemed to work for a while. But in the last six months, she said, hes been hospitalized twice and arrested, spent Thanksgiving in a juvenile detention facility and is pushing away his probation counselor. I do hope that the changes that are being made or the things that are being caught lead to changes being made so that it doesnt become too late for the next kid, Rechner said. Texas also violated other federal regulations, 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 states dyslexia program and other special education laws. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said she has worked with Morath on resolving special education issues, and appreciates TEAs 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). Steven Aleman, a policy specialist with Disability Rights Texas, said the federal governments 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. The department did not lay out a specific date for when it expects to see the states plan, but Abbott wants it within seven days, as well 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. Shelby Webb contributed to this report. On the half-hour drive from her Sunnyside home to her Fourth Ward school each morning, Tchanori Kone often sees homeless people gathered near downtown highway overpasses. "I wondered why can't they have homes like other people, like us," said Tchanori, a fifth-grader at Gregory-Lincoln Education Center. "There can be children that are homeless and aren't going to school and aren't getting anything to eat." Tchanori's desire to help the people she sees, to give them access to better health care and education and jobs, became the bedrock of her speech Friday at the 22nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition, where she took first place among 12 competitors. The event features fourth- and fifth-grade students from across Houston ISD, who deliver memorized speeches of three to five minutes, each inspired by the words of the civil rights icon. The competition is held each year at downtown Houston's Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, which was founded in 1866 by emancipated slaves and became the city's first African-American Baptist church. With several hundred people crowded into church pews, including Superintendent Richard Carranza and school board trustees Diana Davila and Jolanda Jones, the elementary school students delivered their speeches responding to a common prompt: What is your dream for today's world? This year's question led Tchanori to write a speech about eliminating the poverty she has witnessed across Houston. She argued that King, who died 50 years ago this April, would be disappointed in American efforts to help the poor, and said it's the responsibility of citizens to change that. "I want all of our top government officials to take poverty, failing schools and health care seriously," Tchanori said during her speech. "The way to do this is through political action and voting." She said she penned her speech after conversations with her 16-year-old brother and her mother, Tandiwe Kone, who frequently discusses societal issues with her daughter. Utilizing tips she picked up from a couple sessions with the Texas Southern University Debate Team, Tchanori gave a confident and measured speech. "She has a spirit about her that's really calming," said Kesley Lewis, Tchanori's speech coach and math teacher at Gregory-Lincoln Education Center. "Nothing really excites her outwardly, but she has a passion and a drive and she's really, really focused." Tchanori emerged victorious from a competition that began with a few hundred students from 24 schools. Caleb Kiteka, of Windsor Village Elementary School on the city's southwest side, finished in second place for a speech that focused on ending mass shootings and avoiding war with North Korea. Defending champion Nhedrick Jabier, of Crespo Elementary School on the city's southeast side, earned third place following his speech about achieving dreams that seem impossible. Tchanori received a $1,000 prize, while Caleb took home $500, Nhedrick got $300 and the remaining competitors were awarded $100 each. The judges were University of Houston Law School Dean Leonard Baynes, U.S. District Court Judge George Hanks Jr., EEOC District Office Director Rayford Irvin, KTRK-TV anchor Melanie Lawson and NAACP Houston Chapter Executive Director Yolanda Smith. In the finals, students often focused on promoting equality, reducing violence and avoiding international conflicts. Several addressed current events, such as the mass killings in Las Vegas and Orlando, escalating tensions with North Korea and the presidency of Donald Trump. "We've heard some of it in the past, and we want them to do that," said Claude Treece, the event's chairman and CEO of Gardere, the competition's sponsor. "There are many current events that have gotten attention in the media and people who care about those things. Kids pick up on that, and I'm glad that they think about that." A message of understanding and unity was behind each speech, regardless of the political influence. Shawn Ward, a student at Pleasantville Elementary School on the city's east side, drew loud applause after his speech about compassion. "We have forgotten that compassion is a sign of strength, not weakness," Ward said. "We have failed because we're no longer compassionate toward each other." Editor's note: A previous version of this story contained an inaccurate last name for Shawn Ward. Houston ISD Superintendent Richard Carranza applauded the U.S. Department of Education for providing guidance to the Texas Education Agency on how to better serve disabled students. But while the district has made seismic changes to its own special education department after a Houston Chronicle investigation showed it and school districts statewide systematically delayed or denied special education services to thousands of students, the number of Houston ISD students identified as disabled has remained relatively low. Last school year, 15,487 students in Texas' largest school district were classified as having disabilities. This year, 15,435 were identified by December. HISD Trustee Anne Sung said those numbers may not tell the complete story. "What we know is when parents are requesting evaluations, we're being more responsive this year," Sung said. "The other thing we've really challenged the district to do this year is for the district to identify students. Even if a parent is not banging on our door, we're keeping track of when teachers of people in the school notice a student needs to be evaluated." On Thursday, the DOE released its findings following an investigation of Texas' special education practices. The agency found that 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. 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 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. The DOE visited Houston ISD in March to review its special education programming. Carranza said he was glad to see the federal government offer clarification. Carranza became HISD's leader in September 2016. "We're just thrilled the USDOE has issued some guidance to the TEA," Carranza said. "I know we're going to work diligently with the TEA to implement corrective actions. There has been work done before the DOE issued this report, and we've been working along those lines as well." Houston ISD had the second-lowest rates of students identified as special education in the country among urban school districts in the 2015-2016 school year. Only Dallas ISD had a smaller share of special education students than HISD's 7.26 percent, according to the Chronicle investigation. Substantial changes have come to HISD's special education department since the Chronicle published its investigation. Former Director of Special Education Sowmya Kumar resigned in March after facing criticism over her practices. The district has hired an external auditor to study its special education department, which Carranza said should be completed this semester. The Board of Education created an ad hoc committee to study the subject. HISD's special education department has been reorganized to create more efficient communication and to codify practices, Carranza said. The department's assessments and intervention teams are now combined. The district updated its special education manual, and district officials have trained teachers, principals, counselors and special education staff on those standardized practices. Among the most emphasized changes -- schools can no longer use RTI before testing a student for disabilities. "We tried to make very clear what the expectations, policies and procedures are so that it doesn't leave room for interpretation," Carranza said. Sung said two changes have already made a big difference: a new online system that allows central administration to track any requests for special-education testing, and the hiring of several special ed parent liaisons. "What I'm hearing from parents and advocates is that 'Yeah, before where we'd request, request and feel we'd hit a brick wall, now we have an advocate who can help get it done," Sung said. Alejandra Matos contributed to this report. *** 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 AUSTIN - Gov. Greg Abbott has a whopping $43.3 million in the bank for his re-election campaign, a record amount for a statewide official that will prove a steep hurdle for the nine Democrats and other challengers seeking to boot him from office. New fundraising summaries made public on Thursday show the 60-year-old, first-term incumbent Republican holds what will likely prove an insurmountable lead over any opponents and, as the campaign season gears up, could indicate that he plans to spend more than the $48 million he did four years ago. It also signals Abbott's political strength and popularity in a solid Red State, political observers said. "With 11 months of fundraising to go in the 2018 electoral cycle, Gov. Abbott's $43.3 million campaign war chest indicates two things," said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Houston's Rice University who tracks campaign spending. "One, even though Gov. Abbott did not draw a top-tier Democratic challenger, he is still going to run a first-class professional campaign with the optimal goal of matching - if not surpassing - his 20-point margin of victory over Wendy Davis in 2014. Two, it means that Gov. Abbott will have all the money he needs to fund this over-the-top campaign effort." In releasing the totals of Abbott's fundraising report to be filed by Monday, his campaign said the fund-raising haul confirms that most Texans agree with Abbott's positions that his message is resonating with Texans - an assertion that quickly drew howls from several Democrats running against him. "I am honored and grateful for the continued support of so many throughout this great state," Abbott said Thursday in a statement. "2017 was a banner year for Texas as we added more jobs than any other state, reached the lowest unemployment rate in 40 years and ranked as the state with the best economic climate. "There is more work to be done, and with the upcoming campaign in full swing, I will continue to promote ideas that will continue to elevate the Lone Star State to new heights." In the past six months, Abbott's report shows that he added an additional $9 million to his campaign coffers - an amount that, when added to the governor's previous fundraising tally of around $41 million, means that he raised as much as $50 million - a king's ransom even in Texas politics. While Abbott spent $48 million to get elected in 2014, compared with $40 million that Davis spent on her losing campaign, the record amount spent on a governor's race in Texas was in 2002, when incumbent Republican Rick Perry and Laredo businessman Tony Sanchez spent around $95 million, with Sanchez' writing checks for more than $62 million to fund his unsuccessful campaign. Rise in first-time donors Abbott's campaign said his latest contributions include more than 53 percent from first-time donors, and that 85 percent of all his donors are Texas residents. Additionally, the campaign said he received donations from each of Texas' 254 counties. In all, Abbott's campaign said more than 38,000 individual contributions for his 2018 race have brought in $19.1 million, with more than 93 percent of those donations coming from Texas. Additionally, the campaign saw a rise in new contributors last year, with 57 percent of all donations from first-time donors. While Abbott's campaign and Republicans applauded the incumbent governor's record campaign fundraising total, Democrats have insisted the total underscores how beholden Abbott is to big business and special interests who have contributed a large portion of the total. Abbott also has faced criticism for taking sizable donations from Texans that he names to state boards and commissions. The 259 men and women he has nominated since becoming governor in January 2015 have contributed roughly a combined $14.2 million to Abbott's campaigns since 2001, when he was elected attorney general, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Jones said the $43.3 million Abbott now has in the bank will come in handy as he seeks to identify and mobilize likely GOP voters in Texas and burnish the Republican Party brand in the Lone Star State. "As is the case nationwide, President Trump represents a millstone around the necks of Republican candidates here in Texas, making some of them susceptible to the blue wave that is sweeping the country," Jones said. "The efforts by Gov. Abbott's campaign will represent a lifeline to many Republicans facing credible Democratic challenges and should help numerous Republicans avoid being swept out of office by an anti-Trump blue wave." Ready for challenge At a recent rally, former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez seemed to brush off Abbott's money: "He'll have the money and I'll have the people." At an Austin forum on Monday, Democratic challenger Andrew White said he intends to raise enough money to compete against Abbott in the general election - though he declined to detail how much he has in the bank now, for his primary race against Valdez and seven other contenders. "My goal is not to win the primary, it is to win the general election," he said. Also on Thursday, Justin Nelson, the lone candidate challenging embattled Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, said he has raised more than $900,000 in his bid to show voters he's serious about taking on one of the state's most politically vulnerable officials. Nelson and Paxton are unopposed in March's primary election and will face off in the November general election. Paxton, a first-term Republican to the attorney general's office, is beloved by tea party Republicans but has spent the majority of his tenure under indictment and fighting allegations he committed securities fraud prior to taking office. He last reported in July 2017 having about $5 million for his election campaign. His spokesman would not comment on what Paxton currently has on hand. Nelson, an Austin-area attorney and Democrat, plans to report that he raised $911,778, all collected since he announced in November he would take on Paxton. He contributed $500,000 of it himself, according a news release. The Supreme Court of Colorado will soon rule on whether a person has a constitutional right to not procreate. The dispute is between Drake Rooks and his ex-wife, Mandy Rooks. The couple were married in 2002. They had three children using in vitro fertilization, but were left with six frozen embryos. In 2014, they divorced. Now they are embroiled in a legal battle over what should become of those "snow babies." Mandy, 40, who reportedly always dreamed of having a large family, would like to use some or all of them to have more children. Drake, 50, says absolutely not. "It just seems like a guy should be able to decide whether he wants more children or not and with whom," he told the Denver Post. Mandy counters, "No one has the right to tell me I have to kill my offspring." And what of the embryos' rights? In 1978, Louise Brown, the first "test tube" baby, was born. Six years later, in 1984, the first child who had been a frozen embryo was brought safely to term. As often happens, technology developed faster than the social wisdom to handle it. At a time when family obligations were being overruled in favor of self-expression, the commodification of babies created new confusions. If abortion is a woman's constitutional right what rights do fathers have? If a mother can independently decide to terminate a pregnancy, does she also have a constitutional right to initiate a pregnancy, or, more precisely, to finish one without his consent? An estimated 1 million embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen in the United States. Not all are viable, but it's impossible to know which are and which aren't. Nor do we yet know how long an embryo can remain in that twilight state and still be brought to term. Sofia Vergara, the actress best known for her role on "Modern Family," became a real-life symbol of the confusion besetting family lives when, in 2015, her ex-boyfriend Nick Loeb sued her for custody of two frozen embryos they had created together. The original plan, apparently, was for the embryos to be carried to term by a surrogate mother and raised by Loeb and Vergara. But the relationship ran aground, and Loeb has pursued several lawsuits to gain custody of the embryos he has named Emma and Isabella. Vergara, who has since married someone else, wants them to remain frozen indefinitely. Loeb believes that the embryos are people. He is not asking for financial support from Vergara, merely that the embryos be entrusted to him. One of her lawyers offered a window into what has happened to the idea of family in our time. "If it is really a family that Loeb wants, he should hire a surrogate and an egg donor and create one without dragging Vergara through another unnecessary legal battle," said Fred Silberberg. So much for love, marriage and baby carriage. Now it's single man, surrogate and egg donor. Romantic. The lawyer for Drake Rooks argues, "It kind of runs against all decency forcing a parent to have a child they don't want." Well, but when does that decision get made? At the time of sperm donation or at the time of embryo thawing? After all, when a man's wife becomes pregnant the usual way, he doesn't have standing to object a week or several months later that he no longer wishes to be a father. He is committed. Should it be different in cases of assisted reproduction? IVF and related technologies were initially resisted by many in the pro-life camp. Some feared they would lead to "designer babies." That hasn't happened. The "Nobel Prize sperm bank," for example, went nowhere. People are not clamoring for brilliant gametes. They usually just want their own kids. The technology is sometimes used to cull embryos carrying genetic disorders, but for the most part, IVF brings great joy to otherwise infertile couples. The trouble comes when embryos are treated as disposable. It isn't the technology that is dangerous, but indifference to the embryos' humanity. It is entirely possible to take advantage of modern science without sacrificing human dignity. Emma Wren Gibson was frozen as an embryo in 1992 and born just before Thanksgiving of 2017. She and her adoptive mother were conceived within one year of one another. This mind-bending story is possible because Emma's birthparents had faced a quandary like other couples who had leftover embryos. In their case, they donated Emma to a clinic that offers orphan embryos for adoption. It's not clear why Emma had to wait so long, but doubtless she will one day be grateful for the chance at life. Her parents, Tina and Benjamin Gibson, view her as a "precious Christmas gift from the Lord." 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." A Harris County man convicted of helping notorious serial killer Dean Corll lure at least 28 boys to their deaths is up for possible release following a hearing last week. David Owen Brooks has gone before the parole board roughly 20 times in the more than four decades since he was sent to prison for his role in the so-called Houston Mass Murders, committed between 1970 and 1973. A law passed in 2015 means that if he isn't released this time, it could be another 10 years before he's up for parole again. "The bottom line is serial killer and parole are oxymoronic terms to begin with. And in this case, there's no compelling reason to release him," said city of Houston victim advocate Andy Kahan, who headed up to parole hearing in Angleton along with the parents of Stanton Dreymala, believed to be Corll's last victim. "We're 99.9 percent confident he'll be denied, so we were really just pursuing getting the maximum set-off," Kahan said. James Dreymala, the victim's father, was more cautious. "This is not the first time we've gone through this so we know that, again, it's not over till it's over," he said. He and his wife Elaine are believed to be the last surviving parents of Corll's victims. The killings came to light in 1973 after 17-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley called police to say that he'd shot Corll, the 33-year-old electric company worker who'd masterminded the gruesome slayings. Henley said he had killed Corll after the man threatened to rape and kill him and two other teens during a party at a bungalow. Henley told police he could lead them to several other bodies. Inside a stall at Southwest Boat Storage, authorities discovered the remains of 17 slain and tortured boys buried under the dirt floor, covered in plastic and a layer of lime. Eventually, Henley admitted that he and David Owen Brooks, then 18, had lured the unsuspecting victims. The serial killer had paid the pair $10 to $200 per child. In some cases, Brooks and Henley had helped with the torture and killing. Eventually, police probed other sites and found at least 28 victims. "This was one of the most notorious serial killings in this country's history," Kahan said. "The term 'serial killer' wasn't even invented yet; it wasn't even known to criminologists. Hence it was always called the Houston Mass Murders." Brooks was first eligible for parole in 1979 and Henley the following year. They've since been up for release every 18 months to 3 years, though Henley was given a 10-year set-off in his last parole review in 2015. When Brooks was sentenced, the death penalty had been discontinued in Texas. A decision on his latest attempt for release on parole is expected in several weeks. Though the Dreymalas expressed concern about the possibility of Brooks' release, Kahan was more confident and said it boiled down to a question of whether the set-off would be ten years or something less than that. "I have a better chance of growing my hair back than he does of getting parole," Kahan said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Middle schoolers will descend Saturday on Johnson Space Center's grounds in a battle to determine who can create the most "age-friendly city." It was a task laid out in this year's 26th annual Future City Competition. Working in teams that include an educator and a mentor in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math field, students will present their vision for a city that can accommodate the country's aging population. "Older adults are living longer, staying in the workforce longer and living independently for longer than ever," a competition news release stated. "By 2050, older adults will outnumber children under the age of 14." The competition's theme was developed after the World Health Organization released a plan to help cities respond to this change. That plan includes accessible and safe transportation options as well as proper social welfare programs and health care services. Students used SimCity software to develop a virtual design, wrote a 1,500-word essay and built a scale model of the city. Their Saturday presentations are open to the public, from 12:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Gilruth Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center. More information can be found here. The team that wins in Houston will advance to the finals, held in Washington, D.C., in February. Along with more than 40 teams from the United States, the Houston winner will face off with international teams from countries including China and Egypt. The first place winner at February's competition will get a trip to Space Camp and $7,500, second place will get $5,000 and third place will get $2,000, according to the competition's website. Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. Meyerland families looking for a glimmer of hope in the Hurricane Harvey recovery proposal currently stalled in the Senate will be disappointed to learn that the words "Brays Bayou Project" appear nowhere in the 184-page bill. In fact, no bayou infrastructure plans are listed at all. Nor does Congress mention a third reservoir, an Ike Dike or any of the must-build proposals that Houston needs to update our flood management infrastructure for the 21st century. That's because Congress can't spend money on those specific projects. Directing federal funds to Houston's individual needs would be considered earmarks, and that practice has been prohibited since 2011. Houston's experience after Harvey should be proof enough that this legislative experiment has been an utter failure. RELATED: Congress people need the power to steer funding toward specific projects at home ALSO: Fight flooding now! Without the ability to write line-item expenditures, our local delegation and city advocates have been forced to craft legislative language that - they hope - will instruct executive agencies to prioritize Houston flood infrastructure. For example, the bill states that special consideration will be given to "projects located in areas that have had multiple major disaster declarations in recent years." The layperson translation: Spend money in Houston, which has suffered from the Tax Day flood, Memorial Day flood and Hurricane Harvey. RELATED: Earmarks is not a bad word Or at least that's how it's intended to be read. The government administrators tasked with these duties might find their own interpretations. The Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for building Houston's major flood control projects, doesn't exactly have a trustworthy track record on this front. The Corps' most recent water resources project list only included 19 out of the 114 projects that local entities submitted to the agency. So if the Corps isn't listening to local voices, how does the government agency decide which projects to build? RELATED: Representatives should take the power of the purse back from the presidency That's a very good question, because nobody seems to know. "There is a real lack of transparency in their analysis," Steve Cochran, associate vice president for coastal protection at the Environmental Defense Fund, told E&E News, an online media company that covers energy and environmental policy. "It is difficult to understand where their numbers come from, and there is no real requirement that they be justified in a way that would allow people to engage in conversation with them." But until Congress brings back earmarks, the Kingwood communities inundated by Lake Conroe and west Houston neighborhoods transformed into flood pools will have to rely on the Corps' process, instead of relying on their elected representatives. Members of our local delegation have spent years trying to craft some compromise on bringing back a form of earmarks. Democratic U.S. Reps. Al Green and Gene Green, and Republican U.S. Rep. John Culberson, all backed an amendment that would have allowed Congress to direct spending in limited and transparent circumstances. They're not alone. Earlier this week, Donald Trump offered off-the-cuff support for resurrecting earmarks. "Our system lends itself to not getting things done, and I hear so much about earmarks - the old earmark system - how there was a great friendliness when you had earmarks," the president said. The House Rules Committee, led by Dallas Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, plans on holding a hearing next week on earmarks. Any Texan in D.C. who cares about rebuilding after Harvey should testify loud and clear that Congress must reassert its authority on funding infrastructure. Houston deserves a delegation willing to take personal responsibility for federal spending instead of treating it like a job for federal bureaucrats. The ink wasn't even dry on the president's new National Security Strategy before the cacophony of criticism started - most especially from that segment of the foreign policy and pundit community for whom this administration's mere existence is anathema. Despite all the protestations, I believe a close examination of the world the NSS describes and the strategies it offers to meet its challenges are spot on. (But before taking any commentator's word, I would urge you to read it and draw your own conclusions at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/NSS-Final-12-18-2017-0905.pdf). I personally found much of the criticism tragicomic, especially coming from those who so lauded the Obama administration's foreign policy "accomplishments." A reminder of a few highlights after eight years of "strategic patience" or dithering (word choice based on your point of view): mishandling of the Arab Spring, which led to the rise of the Islamic State (Obama's "Junior Varsity") with hundreds of thousands dead and millions of refugees from Iraq and Syria civil wars; Russia's unchallenged annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine; the "Red Line" in Syria erased; North Korea's unhindered advance in developing nuclear weapons; Iran's expanded influence throughout the region, and a low point in relations with Israel and key Arab allies. At times it seemed the Obama administration was dealing with a world it imagined - with unicorns prancing about the leprechaun guarding his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - rather than the one that actually existed. Conversely, the new NSS is without naivete and sees the world of 2018 for what it is: highly fluid and competitive, with emerging long-term threats to our nation and the ideals we cherish regarding democracy and free markets from an array of geopolitical adversaries - state and non-state. These threats employ a full range of traditional and non-traditional means (political, technological, economic, cultural, informational, asymmetric, etc.) to weaken us, our allies and the entire post-World War II global system we helped establish. As the NSS states: "Our adversaries will not fight us on our terms." A good overarching theme is a recent quote from National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster: "Geopolitics are back, and back with a vengeance, after this holiday from history we took in the so-called post-Cold War period." This NSS names names and correctly describes the activities our adversaries and enemies are pursuing to hurt us and our way of life. China and Russia challenge American power, influence and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity. They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence. The document goes on to catalog other nations and actors (e.g. terrorists, international criminals) who threaten us, as well as realistically examining the geopolitical dynamics in the world's various regions. While the NSS proposes an extensive list of strategies for meeting the threats and challenges we face, the predominant remedy relies on an "America First" approach using four themes: "Protect the American People, the Homeland, and the American Way of Life"; "Promote American Prosperity"; "Preserve Peace Through Strength"; and "Advance American Influence." I know the term "America First" is a red flag for many administration critics - but from my long career of dealing with diplomats and representatives of other nations, I never met anyone whose primary goal was not to advance the interests of his or her own country. It's important to note that "America First" is not "America Only" - as of course countries have intersecting mutual interests. Also, imbued into the document are references to the historical and cultural aspects of America that have made our nation great: "Liberty, free enterprise, equal justice under the law and the dignity of every human life are central to who we are as a people." It also correctly states, "There can be no moral equivalency between nations that uphold the rule of law, empower women and respect individual rights and those that brutalize and suppress their people." At the same time, it accepts reality: "The United States offers partnerships to those who share our aspirations for freedom and prosperity. We lead by example," but "We are not going to impose our values on others. Our alliances, partnerships, and coalitions are built on free will and shared interests." This, unfortunately, is the world that is and the one with which we must deal. In the end, despite the 2018 world's myriad problems that offer serious challenges to our nation and our way of life, the NSS offers a realistic way forward. And America's success will come - as it always has - because what we do as a nation is based on who we are as a people. "We are proud of our history, optimistic about America's future and confident of the positive example the United States offers to the world. The National Security Strategy celebrates and protects what we hold dear - individual liberty, the rule of law, a democratic system of government, tolerance and opportunity for all." But please - read the document for yourselves; we need a well-informed citizenry much more than pundits or experts who want to "help us understand." Nagy is the former vice provost for international affairs at Texas Tech and served as U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia from 1999 to 2002 and to Guinea from 1996 to 1999. Folks who aren't from the Lone Star State are often surprised when I tell them Skeeter Boats, the leader in performance fishing boats, is based in Kilgore. They're even more surprised when I tell them about the more than 150 lakes and reservoirs scattered throughout Texas and the recreational boating industry that supports more than 31,000 jobs in the state. Recreational boating accounts for $6.8 billion in annual economic benefits in Texas alone, and totals more than $121 billion in economic impact across the United States. The more than 570,000 registered boats in our state support more than 1,700 businesses. But this economic achievement is being threatened by an unusual foe: the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). RELATED: The fuel standard has created unintended consequences and is ripe for overhaul RELATED: Perry is right to oppose a national corn-based ethanol mandate RELATED: Sins of oil will be shouted from the rooftops What appears to be an environmentally friendly policy harbors an inefficient and ineffective program that negatively impacts recreational boaters. The RFS, created under the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005, is a national policy that requires a predetermined volume of petroleum-based fuels used by American consumers to be replaced by renewable fuels - largely defined as biomass-based diesel, cellulosic biofuels, advanced biofuels and total renewable fuels. The most common renewable fuels include corn-based ethanol and soybean-based biodiesel. The overwhelming majority of boats in Texas are small and towable - the kind you throw on a hitch behind your truck and take down to your local lake for a weekend with the family. These boats rely on small outboard engines, which have been shown to develop severe corrosion in their fuel systems when filled with E15 ethanol-based fuels. E15 - an ethanol-blended fuel that has become widely popular - is federally prohibited for use in many engine types including marine engines and poses a significant risk to engine performance and boater safety alike. RELATED: Now is the right time to talk about ethanol RELATED: Farm Bill's subsidies don't hit right targets ALSO: Don't let candidates put Iowa special interests above Texas One thing is clear: The RFS might have been enacted with good intentions, but it is not without significant issues. At its inception, the RFS was championed by biofuel lobbyists as part of a whopping $188 million effort between 2008 and 2014 to get more corn-based products into American homes. Corn and soybeans happen to be some of the top crops to receive growing subsidies - paid for by taxpayers. Boaters aren't the only ones impacted by the policy. To the contrary, all Americans feel the pain caused by such an effort at the pump. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that full compliance with the RFS mandates would increase gas prices by 13 to 26 cents per gallon. The net cost for the average citizen? A $277 hidden tax, paid annually straight to the bank accounts of "big ethanol." Thankfully, the effort to push ethanol-based fuel has not gone unnoticed by elected officials. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz spoke out against the standard in November and recently a group of 10 senators met with President Trump to discuss much needed reforms to U.S. biofuel policy. But what do those reforms look like? First of all, until we've addressed some glaring problems with E15 being served at the pump, we need to stop all discussion of E15 expansion. Some members of Congress have called for an expansion of the fuel type as recently as this year. The damage this fuel does to engines is well-documented and must be stopped. Second, we need the RFS to implement more extensive education for consumers. All too often boaters encounter dangerous issues with their engines as a result of E15 - particularly when E10 is unavailable, making E15 the only fuel available at their local stations. Little did consumers know that continued use of E15 caused damage - they simply assumed the gas they get at the pump is safe. Finally, our elected officials must call on the Environmental Protection Agency to mandate E10 - an ethanol-blended fuel that is not detrimental to small engines - be readily available at all locations that sell E15. It's imperative that consumer choice at the pump is both protected and promoted. Without these common-sense solutions, the plight of boaters - in Texas and across the country - will continue to undercut the economic benefits this market segment provides the American economy. Speciale is president of the Yamaha Marine Group. an outboard supplier to 120 independent boat brands in the United States. On December 22, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law by President Trump. What has happened in the succeeding three weeks is just the beginning of a long and empowering process to reward the American worker for years of sacrifice, dedication and hardship. In these three weeks, over two million U.S. workers have seen bonuses, pay raises, and benefit increases totaling more than one billion dollarsthats right more than $1,000,000,000. Whether you are in Missouri and work at an AT&T store, for Boeing or Southwest Airlines, you have already seen the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act through the bonuses issued from your employer as a result of the new law. Right here in southeast and south central Missouri, we are no exception. We have seen companies like Express Employment Professionals with employees in Rolla hand out $2,000 bonuses to more than 200 non-executive level employees. In addition, Commerce Bank with operations in Cape Girardeau has said that 3,450 employees will receive bonuses and U.S. Bancorp with a presence in Willow Springs has said that 60,000 employees will receive bonuses and wage hikes all have cited passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as the driving reason. Beyond bonuses, companies like Walmart with a distribution center in St. James and stores in places like Perryville, Kennett, Potosi and elsewhere have said that as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, they will increase hourly wages starting in February and hand out bonuses to all hourly workers. The new law has also now put them in a position to be able to offer up to 10 weeks of paid maternity leave to employees. Elsewhere, many utility providers are passing the new tax savings on to customers in the form of lower rates, helping millions of families who struggle every month to keep the lights on while also feeding a hungry family. This is what this tax bill was all about, allowing you to keep and save more of what you earn and what is already yours. Like I said, this is just the beginning. Millions more Americans will notice something different in their February paychecksthey will be higher. Even without bonuses, pay raises, or benefit changes, the new lower tax rates in effect starting this year will result in a smaller amount being deducted from your paycheck than ever before. Thats right, what yours is yours, not Washingtons you should be free to do with that money what you see fit investing in your farm, buying new clothes for your children, going out to a family dinner, or simply saving for your familys future. As the calendar moves further into 2018, I look forward to continuing to stand next to our President to deliver the kind of change that so many of you have called for. Reducing the taxation burden and making sure you are more empowered and liberated than the Washington machine was a good beginning, but so much more work lies ahead. Investments in our nations crumbling infrastructure and also making real and substantive changes to bring work requirements back into government assistance programs are major challenges that I am ready for, but which still lurk ahead. Providing relief from the crushes of a tax code too big, too cumbersome and which was taking too much was something I have long fought for and believe in, I look forward to continuing to fight for you with that same determination and vigor in these new challenges we now face. Jason Smith represents Missouris 8th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. Contact him at 573-335-0101 or visit https://jasonsmith.house.gov A Texas County Sheriffs Department deputy will join the Houston Police Department this month as it expands its force. Jacob Shannon, 27, who served with the county as a court deputy and as a road officer, will assume the newly created position on Jan. 25. He was also a reserve police officer in Houston. Shannons addition will expand the Houston police force to seven full-time officers. The position was created by the Houston City Council in the 2018 fiscal year budget that began Jan. 1. Houston Police Chief Tim Ceplina said interviews were conducted last week with four finalists. Ceplina said he was excited to hire someone who is already familiar with the departments policies and procedures. Shannon served in the military as a police officer, and graduated from a law enforcement academy in July 2015 before joining the county sheriffs department. Shannon comes from a law enforcement family. His father is the Howell County sheriff, and his uncle is police chief in West Plains. A Houston teenager is held without bond on three felony charges following a shooting incident near Austin Lake on Saturday. Texas County Prosecutor Parke Stevens Jr. charged Daustin C. Luck, 18, of 17773 Brushy Creek Road at Houston, on Wednesday with first-degree assault (a class B felony), armed criminal action and resisting or interfering with a felony arrest. Word of the ordeal began at about 1:45 p.m. Saturday after the Mountain Grove Police Department reported a man and woman were at the police station and said several shots from a pistol were fired at them and their vehicle on Austin Lake Road, off of Highway MM. Texas County Deputy Melissa Emerick traveled to the MGPD station and spoke with the pair, who both said they went to get the mans vehicle at Dollar General and found that it had been vandalized, with flat tires, broken windows and busted out taillights. The man told the deputy he found out that Luck had been the vandal, and contacted him. Luck reportedly said he wanted to meet the man at Austin Lake, but when the pair went there, he wasnt present. The man said that after waiting a while, they left, but came across Luck driving on Austin Lake Road. The pair reportedly pulled over, and Luck pulled in behind them. The man told the deputy that when he got out of his vehicle and began walking toward Luck, the suspect got out of his vehicle and fired a pistol (that appeared to be a revolver) multiple times at him. The man said he heard one bullet pass by his head and he ran back to his vehicle and quickly went to the MGPD station. Emerick reported that while the man was being interviewed, he received a phone call from Luck, who threatened to blow his and his familys heads off. The man then received a text from Luck indicating he wanted to meet up again. The deputy told the man to agree to the meeting and get the location. Luck said he was at a storage unit facility on Lone Pine Road, and that information was shared with other officers. Two other deputies and a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer traveled to the location and Luck was apprehended. But when Luck was being placed in Emericks patrol vehicle, he became combative twice. As officers contained Luck, the trooper placed leg restraints on him. But as Emerick began driving away, Luck kicked between the seats and struck the county officers right arm. Luck was warned that he would be tased if he continued his behavior, and he relented and was taken to jail. But upon arrival, he became combative with jail staff and was placed in a padded holding cell for safe keeping. Information in opposition of Measure 101, furnished by Julie Parrish (Measure 101 Chief Petitioner to Stop Healthcare Taxes on public schools, college students, small businesses, and everyday Oregonians), states on page 36 of the voters' pamphlet that college students attending Oregon's universities are required to have health insurance. HB 3276, by Rep. Nathanson, dated March 24, 2017, states that none of the public universities in Oregon require all of their students to carry insurance; most of them require only international students to carry insurance. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. The school looks to the town census to get an idea of how many kindergartners to expect, but the form isn't clear about counting preschool-aged children. Williamstown Elementary Asks Parents of Preschoolers to Note Them on Census Chairman Joe Bergeron and interim Superintendent Kimberley Grady at Tuesday's meeting. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. The Williamstown School Committee on Tuesday made a special appeal to parents completing the recently distributed town census: Make sure you include preschool-aged children. The town this week mailed out the annual Street Listing Form. The data collected from that survey helps inform the elementary school about how many children to expect in each year's incoming kindergarten class. In the past, it has proven to be a not quite precise tool. "Last year on the first day of registration, we had 15 kids walk in who weren't on the census," Principal Joelle Brookner reminded the committee. Part of that is attributable to families who move to the college town between the time of the winter census and school registration in the summer. But part of it also is attributable to a census form Brookner characterized as "ambiguous" on how to deal with minors in a household. "Whoever is watching, we urge you strongly to include children on the census," Brookner said, directing her comment to the cameras from the town's community access television station, WilliNet. "After looking at the form this year, it doesn't seem to emphasize: Make sure you include your children." It's a state form, Brookner told the committee, and there is not much that Town Hall can do about any ambiguity. But given recent history, the school can do something about a potential late influx of pupils, and Brookner is recommending that the school again have four kindergarten sections in fall 2018, even though its own preliminary census data only has 41 children for certain. The subject came up as the School Committee took its first look at preliminary enrollment numbers schoolwide and Brookner's recommendations for school choice slots and the number of sections per grade -- an important factor in budgeting. Ultimately, those decisions will rest with the Transition Committee that, as of Jan. 1, governs the newly expanded Mount Greylock Regional School District. But the Transition Committee has agreed to take recommendations from the three "legacy" committees that govern Williamstown and Lanesborough elementary schools and Mount Greylock middle and high school. "All the available advice and thoughts the WES Committee can give will be valuable," said Joe Bergeron, who chairs both that Committee and the Transition Committee. "That's a practice we're trying at the Transition Committee level: leaning heavily on the people who are already committee members at the three schools." Interim Superintendent Kimberley Grady told the elementary school committee she will bring the school choice recommendations for all three schools to the Transition Committee in March, which gives the WES Committee one more meeting, in February, to weigh in with its recommendations. Brookner Tuesday came to the group with a recommendation to open 12 new school choice slots, the bulk in the lower grades and five in the upper grades -- two in next year's fourth grade and three in next year's sixth grade. The principal told the committee she did not necessarily expect to see all of the upper grade slots filled, but the school historically has no trouble filling choice slots in the primary grades. Grady said she would be reluctant to go as high as three school choice slots in Williamstown's sixth grade, a jump that would potentially create 10 school choice seats in a class of 55. While the elementary school would have that capacity, it would mean a class of 87 between WES and LES heading to Mount Greylock in the fall of 2019. Grady told the committee that the ideal class size for the renovated Mount Greylock is between 90 and 94, and the 87 figure did not take into account tuitioning students from Hancock. "That's fine," Brookner said. "I'm not overly wed to any of these numbers." In other business on Tuesday, the committee learned that the fiscal 2018 budget -- the last for which the committee is responsible before its dissolution on July 1 -- is tracking according to schedule. Mark Chapulis from The Management Solution in Auburn, the district's business manager, also told the committee that preliminary numbers on the FY19 budget show the school will have an increased cost of 2.2 percent for salaries based on level staffing. Like so many other things, the FY19 budget will be the domain of the Transition Committee, which on Thursday began its negotiations with the three school's collective bargaining units to bring their contracts into alignment, Grady told the committee. "[District counsel is] working closely with us," Grady said. "They've compiled a hundred-page document of similarities and and differences between the contracts." Grady and Bergeron also reported that work is progressing with the lease agreement with the town, which will now lease the WES building to the regional school district, and the new policy manual that will govern the PreK-12 district. Because of all the conversations she had with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in the runup to November's vote on regionalization, Grady had a good feel for the issues that needed to be addressed once that regional expansion took effect on Jan. 1. "I think the big ticket items have all been at least touched on," she said. "Now, it's just bringing them across the finish line." Tuesday evening also marked the annual public recognition of the sixth-graders chosen as winners of the school's Renzi Citizenship Award, named for former teacher, principal and superintendent Helen Renzi. Noelle Dravis, Julia Goh, Caleb Low and Judge Martin were elected by a vote of the fifth- and sixth-grade teachers, specialists, administrators and selected paraprofessionals and recognized for their "kindness, enthusiasm and helping others," during their time at WES. "I know I say this every year, but it's true: It's a very difficult decision every year," Brookner said. "There are always revotes and tie-breaker type things. "One of the things we value most about the school is that we're nurturing good citizens." Stamford, Vt., school officials Barbara Malinowski, Jessica Tatro and Cindy Lamore, and Kimberly Roberts-Morandi attend Clarksburg School Committee's Thursday meeting. Clarksburg School Officials Vote to Continue Talks With Stamford The School Committee on Thursday voted to continue talks with Stamford and use the $25,000 obtained by the late state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi toward a feasibility study. CLARKSBURG, Mass. Six months after her death, state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi continues to fulfill promises to her constituents. Superintendent Jon Lev was informed just hours before Thursday's meeting that $25,000 was available to pursue research on merging or aligning with Stamford School. With that information, the School Committee formally voted to continue discussions and to use the $25,000 toward a study of a possible merger with the Vermont school. Both school committees had thought the talks begun last year would be stalled for lack of funding after Cariddi, who had supported the initiative, died last June. But prior to that, she'd tucked the $25,000 into the state's $39 million budget for fiscal 2019. "She had told us at one of our meetings that she was going to try to get us some money through the legislative budget to help us try and come up with an agreement," Lev said. "After she passed away ... we never heard anything and just figured we needed to start over again." Instead of starting over, thanks to Cariddi, the Massachusetts town is now looking at Vermont for some matching funds to begin the process. The idea of merging has been pushed forward by changes in educational laws in Vermont, better known as Act 46, which calls for small school districts to begin forming unions to enhance education and save money through collaboration. The concept is not unlike that proposed by the Berkshire County Education Task Force that is encouraging school districts to collaborate but with the goal of creating a "super district" to deal with declining enrollment and rising costs. For Stamford, however, the union option would force it to collaborate and create a new governmental structure with school districts to the north, including Halifax some 25 miles away over winding roads. That didn't makes sense , say school officials, for a district that faces south and sends almost all its students to Massachusetts high schools. Last year, Stamford voters rejected the proposed union in favor of looking into the viability of an interstate school district. Clarksburg Select Board Chairman Jeffrey Levanos and Town Administrator Carl McKinney made the proposal at an informational meeting in Stamford and an ad hoc committee was formed in Stamford to look at options and pursue legislative support. Kimberly Roberts-Morandi, a member of the ad hoc committee and also an administrator in the North Adams Public Schools, said the next step would be for Clarksburg to request to engage in a study of what it would be like for these two towns to come together "so we can maintain the integrity of small town schools." The study will look at options for cooperation and governance and also the legal issues that may arise. "In order for Vermont to move forward, they need Massachusetts to actually initiate," she said. The group had meet with its three state delegates in December state Sens. Philip Baruth and Brian Campion, and state Rep. Laura Sibilia all of whom backed the idea and with Lev and Clarksburg Town Administrator Carl McKinney. Lev said he had also spoken with Cariddi's successor, state Rep. John Barrett III to update him on the progress. "[McKinney] needs permission from the town to send a letter to the state that says we intend to move forward with a study, or we're requesting permission to move forward with a study," Roberts-Morandi said, adding McKinney should have received an email with the process set out. "The day that he says that letter has been submitted, Vermont already moves forward with another step, too." Stamford's legislators have informed the Vermont General Assembly that they will be requesting to study an interstate agreement between the two towns specifically. The ad hoc group and Stamford school directors prepared a report (also given to Clarksburg) on how joining Clarksburg would fulfill the requirements of Act 46. It was possible, they said, that they could go to Montpelier to testify before the Senate Committee on Education, of which Baruth is chair. "It would also have to be an act of Congress that will sanction it as well, so we know it will take time," Cynthia Lamore, chairman of the Stamford Board of School Directors, said. But, she added, "it is inevitably up to the people." Lamore thought the option to cooperate would help keep both schools open, citing the possibility of utilizing both schools for space, and blending curriculums to ensure Stamford students are prepared the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests in high school. School Committee member John Solari seemed to flummox the Stamford contingent when he asked why not just join the Northern Berkshire School Union? The school union is comprised of five school districts Clarksburg, Florida, Monroe, Rowe, and Savoy that share a superintendent, business manager and special education. Such a scenario would not change the governance or organization of Stamford School since each school district functions separately and representatives to the superintendency committee are selected by each board. "I don't think we even thought that was a possibility," Lamore said. Their model has been an existing Vermont/New Hampshire interstate school district. "I think this is why we need the money to look at all the different possibilities and what would work the best for both towns," Lev said. "I think this is why we need a consultant ... what's going to work for Vermont, what's going to work for Clarksburg. ... There may not be any choices." The school officials also addressed the special town meeting held the last week in December during which an article about negotiating an agreement was tabled. Lev said did not think its rejection would set the talks back in any way. School Committee Chairwoman Patricia Prengruber said the problem was not with having an article but rather the way it was written, which seemed to indicate an agreement was at hand and that it would be totally between the towns, not the school districts. School officials said they were not informed that the article would be on the warrant. "There's so many questions we have and so many hoops to jump through, and all sorts things," Prengruber said. "I'd like to take my time. I'd like to be aware of what's going on." Lev agreed, saying both school districts should be listening to staff, parents and residents to ensure any decision would be good for the students and the schools. Former Mayor Alcombright Rejoins MountainOne NORTH ADAMS, Mass. Former North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright has rejoined MountainOne Bank. "We are very pleased to announce Dicks return to MountainOne in the newly created position of Vice President Local Business and Customer Relations Manager," said Bob Fraser, MountainOne president and chief executive officer. "While his elected role as mayor of North Adams has concluded, his new position will keep him very much in the public eye, representing MountainOne and advocating on behalf of customers and the community. Dick brings a wealth of local knowledge and strong community connections to us, and we are excited about the contribution and impact he will be able to make in our local communities." Alcombright said he was pleased to return to MountainOne. "I was on the original team that coined the MountainOne name back in 2002, when Hoosac Bank and Williamstown Savings Bank joined together. It's meant to pay homage to the highest elevation in Massachusetts, Mount Greylock, while also symbolizing the combined strength of a local bank, insurance agency, and investment division that make up MountainOne," he said. "The evolution of rebranding Hoosac Bank and other company names to MountainOne has helped to simplify the message out in the community, and continues to move the bank forward. MountainOne's ability to adapt and stay relevant means we are able to provide jobs to nearly 200 employees, continue to improve products and services for customers, and support many local community organizations. And, with the commitment to our headquarters right here in North Adams, that's all good for the local economy." Finance & Development, Jihad Azour PDF version Countries of the Middle East and North Africa have an opportunity to pursue the reforms needed to ensure prosperity for decades to come The uprisings of 2011 ushered in a period of unprecedented change in the Middle East and North Africa. While demands for political transformation commanded the worlds attention, those calls were largely motivated by unresolved socioeconomic issues. Demonstrators in the streets of Cairo and Tunis demanding bread, dignity, and social justice expressed widely held aspirations for basic economic rights, along with greater prosperity and equity. Almost seven years later, notable progress has been achieved in terms of public finance reforms. However, these reforms still have a long way to go to reduce disparities in the distribution of wealth within most countries of the region or narrow the development gaps between them. Protracted regional conflicts, low oil prices, weak productivity, and poor governance have inflicted a heavy toll. Growth has not been strong enough to reduce unemployment significantly; a staggering 25 percent of young people are jobless. As a result, countries in the Middle East and North Africa now face a stark choice between short-term retrenchment and resolute pursuit of the long-term reforms needed to secure their future economic prosperity. Forsaking important economic adjustments needed to strengthen inclusive growth and modernize the state and private sectors would set the region back, possibly for decades. A healthy global economy provides a welcome opportunity to accelerate the pace of reform. While countries in the region have maintained macroeconomic stability, growth has been far too slow to keep pace with an expanding population, with the result that unemployment is rising. Economic growth has averaged just 3.6 percent a year since 2011, a pace one-third below that of the previous decade (see Chart 1). The overall unemployment rate of 10 percent does not appear alarming, but it ranges from less than 1 percent in Qatar to more than 18 percent in Jordan, and women and youth are disproportionately affected. Maintaining the status quo will only make things worse. The IMF estimates that if growth continues at its post-2011 pace, average unemployment could rise above 14 percent by 2030. Furthermore, conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen have taken a tragic toll: half a million people are estimated to have died in these conflicts since 2011. In Syria alone, 12 million people have been displaced. The economic impact has been devastating: homes, hospitals, roads, and schools have been damaged or destroyed, with an estimated cost four times the countries preconflict GDP. The exodus of refugees from conflict areas is adding considerable pressure to budgets, infrastructure, and labor and housing markets in host countries, such as Lebanon and Jordan. The conflicts have also disrupted trade, tourism, and investment. Oil-exporting countries, meanwhile, are grappling with a steep decline in energy prices that has led to large fiscal deficits and a decline in growth. On average, deficits increased to more than 10 percent of GDP in 2016, and public debt has doubled to more than 30 percent of GDP since 2014. Still, these figures mask significant deficit-reduction efforts. The non-oil primary balancewhich excludes the impact of oil prices and can be seen as the fiscal effort undertaken by governmentshas improved by more than 12 percentage points of GDP since 2014. Budget deficits also remain elevated in oil-importing countries, even though these countries are benefiting from lower oil prices (see Chart 2). Deficits exceed 6 percent of GDP on average, and debt levels surpass 90 percent of GDP in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. Although these countries have managed to reduce deficits enough to maintain economic stability, they need to make additional resources available to address social and development issues. Growth is projected to increase to more than 4 percent this year as a result of stronger private consumption and exports. Development plans Policymakers in the region recognize the need to generate more employment and stronger growth and have added these goals, along with better inclusion, to their national development plans. If well executed, these plans could go a long way toward meeting those goals. Recognition of the need to grant equal rights to women and better integrate them into the labor force will be particularly important. Recent movesincluding Saudi Arabias decision to allow women to driveare steps in the right direction, but more is needed. Education and labor market policies will also be key, given that about 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30. With proper opportunities and education, the regions young people could fuel unprecedented economic growth and generate a demographic dividend like the one that propelled the Asian Tigers a few decades ago. Governments are making efforts to stimulate trade and investment. Many countriesfrom Jordan to Saudi Arabiahave reduced trade barriers. Morocco and Tunisia have joined the G20 Compact with Africa aimed at promoting private investment, which should help improve infrastructure. Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia have made efforts to diversify their manufacturing bases, supporting exports and jobs. Morocco, for instance, has attracted automakers, including PSA Peugeot Citroen and the Renault Group, by providing good infrastructure, power supply, and skilled labor. As a result, its automotive sector aims to create 90,000 jobs by 2020. How much more growth could more trade bring? The IMF estimates that if the region matched its best one-year improvement in openness so far, the average annual pace of economic growth would rise 1 percentage point over the next five years, compared with a baseline forecast of 3.3 percent. Job creation Governments are also putting job creation at the forefront of their policy agendas. These plans aim to develop the private sector by providing better job opportunities for youth and women and increasing access to finance. They also seek to provide better public services, improve transparency and accountability, and contribute higher and more efficient social and investment spending. Many of these themes were already at the forefront of the debate in 2014 when regional leaders gathered in Amman to define policies to boost jobs, growth, and fairness in the Arab world. They remain at the center of debate today as people demand faster and deeper change. Fortunately, stronger global growth and innovations in technology help create a favorable environment for reforms. It will take time to generate results, so policymakers should act sooner, rather than later, and seize the opportunity to strengthen economic stability and promote growth for the benefit of society as a whole. Governments need to develop and execute agendas for inclusive growth: medium-term action plans that offer practical solutions to pressing priorities and help restore the confidence of investors and citizens. Five levers will be critical: sound fiscal policy, financial inclusion, reform of the labor market and the educational system, improved governance, and a stronger business environment. This approach will also enable governments to rethink their growth models and implement more equitable social contracts over time, while preserving macroeconomic stability. The first step is a vision that inspires citizens; specific goals and a strategy for achieving them should follow. Fiscal reforms remain the main policy lever to promote inclusive growth. Countries with larger fiscal buffers and lower debt can gradually reduce deficits to avoid unnecessarily curbing growth; those with large deficits and high debt, such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Mauritania, need to step up their deficit-reduction efforts. Fiscal reforms One way to reduce deficits is to raise more revenue by broadening the tax base. The regions average tax-to-GDP ratio of less than 10 percent is low relative to the average of 18 percent in emerging markets. Reducing exemptions, combating tax evasion, and a more progressive personal income tax will also help, as will slimming down excessive public sector wage bills. These make up almost 10 percent of GDP in the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, compared with an average of 6 percent in emerging and developing economies as a whole. Reducing the discrepancy between public and private sector wages will help absorb the 27 million young people projected to enter the workforce in the next five years. Currently, many qualified young people choose to remain idle for long periods as they wait for highly paid public sector jobs to become available. Some countries have already shown that savings from such measures can be used to increase investment and spending on much-needed social services. Eleven countries have replaced fuel subsidies that apply to the whole population with cash transfers targeted at the poor. Among such countries is Egypt, which has raised targeted cash transfers tenfold, to 1.7 million households, over two years. But progress is uneven, and more social spending is needed to improve growth and living standards significantly over the medium term. Accelerating the sale of state-owned companies will helpas will selecting and managing projects with a view to robust economic returns to improve the quality of public investment. Increasing access to finance will go a long way toward fostering private sector activity. About two-thirds of the population lacks a bank account, and bank loans to small and medium-sized firms, at 2 percent of GDP, are among the lowest in the world. Better bookkeeping by companies would help improve access to finance because banks could more easily assess credit risk. Capital markets also need to be developed further to make it easier for companies to obtain equity and debt financing. Leveraging technology With 60 percent of the regions population using mobile phones, financial technology presents an opportunity to give more consumers access to financial services. Yet most countries in the region have not enacted reforms to allow nonbanks to enter this space. Regulators should develop frameworks that promote innovation while protecting consumers and data privacy and preventing money laundering and terrorism financing. More broadly, technology can boost productivity and growth; green technology in particular, including solar energy, offers considerable promise. But while technology can make workers more efficient and create jobs in new sectors, it may also render some jobs obsolete. Income and employment gaps could continue to grow if these workers are not effectively reintegrated into the economy. Thats why improved education and training are critical. Except in a few countries, such as Bahrain, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, the pool of working-age adults with postsecondary education is far smaller than the global average of 17 percent. Education should focus more on skills demanded by employers in industries such as electronics, automobiles, aeronautics, and financial technology. Education will also be the key to promoting gender equality. Women participate in the labor force at just one-third the rate of men. Policies that encourage women to work, such as flexible hours and child care services, help bring more women into the formal job market and boost productivity and growth. But those are just a start. Its hard to imagine a bright economic future for the region without profound changes in rigid conceptions of social and gender roles. Equal access to finance, training, and technology should be the foundation for empowering women and enabling them to compete on an equal basis with men. Building trust Along with lack of jobs, corruption and inefficiency were among the sources of popular discontent that fueled the uprising. Improving governance would not only help address social grievances, it would also boost business confidence and investment. Most countries in the region still rank in the bottom half of global indexes that measure governments ability to function effectively and control corruption, and the rankings have deteriorated in recent years (see Chart 3). Governments should provide the resources and legal authority to improve transparency and financial management while also fighting corruption. The devastation of war poses the gravest test of all. Refugees need food, housing, education, and help finding jobs; host countries cant afford to bear these burdens alone. When conflicts end, the next task will be to mobilize the resources needed to rebuild infrastructure and institutions and bring displaced people back into the labor force. Postconflict countries tend to experience volatile patterns of financing. Strong coordination at the international level will be needed to ensure adequate support. Official financing should come in the form of grants, or on highly concessional terms, and needs to be complemented by significant private sector flows, including donations and remittances. There is little doubt that the region is at a crossroads in its modern history, with potentially significant consequences for global prosperity. There has never been a more critical time for policymakers to focus on empowering a sizable pool of untapped talent. Progress will be limited if women, who represent half the population, do not have opportunities to succeed. Transition will therefore not be sustainable without accelerating the pace of reforms, with economic inclusion as a primary goal. The global recovery provides a unique opportunity, and when peace returns to the region, the impact of reforms undertaken today will be magnified many times over. Action therefore is needed now to raise growth and living standards in a sustainable fashion and meet the aspirations of the people in the region. Inaction would be disastrous and would mean continued economic stagnation, rising unemployment, social tensions, and protracted conflict. Now is the moment to move from goals to action. JIHAD AZOUR is director of the IMFs Middle East and Central Asia Department. PHOTO: ISTOCK / VALTRON84 Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Prosecutors in Genoa are investigating an exhibition devoted to Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani after an expert concluded almost all of the 21 paintings were fake. The art historian, appointed by a local court as part of a prosecutor's probe, determined that at least 20 of the 21 paintings displayed during the 2017 Ducal Palace exhibit were clearly forged, Italian news agency ANSA reported. The palace closed the show three days early in July, after a massively successfully run, when prosecutors began investigating doubts art experts had expressed over the authenticity of the paintings being attributed to Modigliani. It is now seeking damages for the embarrassment caused by the episode from the private organisers and calls are growing for it to refund everyone who visited the exhibition. Consumer rights activist Furio Truzzi urged exhibition-goers to seek refunds based on fraud. His organisation has set up a hotline for people who bought tickets or travelled to Genoa to see the show. In a statement when it shut down the exhibit in July, the Ducal Palace said the private company was responsible for the selection of the works to be displayed and said it would "seek legal protection for its rights and public image". Meanwhile Italian art collector Carlo Pepi, who was among the critics who questioned the provenance of the works displayed in Genoa, described the paintings as ''garbage" in an interview on Italian state TV's RaiNews24. Modigliani, the early 20th century artist whose style as a painter and sculptor was distinguished by elongated necks and faces, died in poverty in Paris in 1920 aged just 35. A genuine Modigliani. His 'Jeanne Hebuterne', 1919 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) Modigliani fakes have long caused embarrassment in his native country as unscrupulous fraudsters have sought to capitalise on the artist's posthumous fame. Three marble heads fished out of a canal in Leghorn in Tuscany during the 1980s were initially hailed as long-lost Modigliani masterpieces but it turned out a trio of local students crafted the sculptures as a prank in 1984. The owners of the paintings put on display in Genoa are likely to seek a counter-opinion from other experts, since actual works by Modigliani would be worth millions of dollars. The court-appointed expert, Isabella Quattrocchi, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Italian news reports said she concluded that, among other details, the pigment on the exhibited paintings wasn't consistent with the kind Modigliani used. 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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 Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted one of the exhibit's two curators who defended his work, saying he wasn't the authenticator of the selected paintings. Curator Rudy Chiappini said: "I gathered the information and the documentation that was supplied to me for every canvas. "If there have been irregularities, you need to go back to the source, to whoever made the first attribution" that Modigliani created the paintings. "I, until proof to the contrary, remain of the idea that the artworks are good" ones, the newspaper quoted Mr Chiappini as saying. On the eve of the show's March opening, Mr Chiappini said: "Setting up an exhibition of Amedeo Modigliani is always a new adventure." He added: "I believe that although he painted less than 300 paintings in his life, it's always worth going through his career, starting from a new painting." Additional reporting by AP Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Martin McDonaghs Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was the biggest film winner at the 2018 Golden Globes, scooping four awards including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. It was an epochal moment for the writer-director, not least because he is on record as saying that films saved his life and one senses his theatrical work was initially conceived as a means to break into the film industry. Despite this, McDonagh is arguably the most brilliant living playwright, and his stage work offers a clear blueprint for what came later. Incredibly, the writers first six plays were written in an intense 10-month long period between 1994 and 1995. McDonagh had left school at 16 and spent several years unemployed while living in south London. Eventually, he secured a low-level position in the civil service but gave it up to have a go at writing. With no formal training and a social life that consisted largely of watching films and eating takeaway, he produced a trilogy of plays set in and around County Galway, an area the writer knew well from holidays as a child. McDonagh has said he has a respect for the whole history of films and a slight disrespect for theatre, not least because of the ludicrous amount of money required to actually attend a show in the West End or on Broadway. Perhaps, as a result of this attitude towards the form, the plays proved uniquely provocative but immensely popular. Indeed, in 1997 he became the first playwright since William Shakespeare to have four plays running simultaneously on the professional London stage. The first of McDonaghs plays, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, set the tone in 1996. The tale of an ageing spinster and her domineering elderly mother, this was a work influenced as much by the films of Quentin Tarantino as the plays of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. Dark, violent and grotesquely funny, McDonaghs debut was a critical and commercial success. The writer received criticism in some quarters for how male-oriented his first two feature films seemed, and yet his debut stage work was dominated by women and passed the Bechdel test with ease. A Skull in Connemara followed in 1997 before McDonagh completed the Leenane trilogy with The Lonesome West. The latter concerned two bickering brothers in the immediate aftermath of the supposedly accidental murder of their father. Undoubtedly influenced by Pinters The Dumb Waiter, The Lonesome West now feels like an In Bruges prototype. A scabrous, hilarious examination of toxic masculinity, the play only lacks the majestic line about Tottenham Hotspur that would prove the highlight of McDonaghs big screen debut with In Bruges, a film that turns 10 this year. The Aran Islands plays were even more ambitious and outrageous than the Leenane trilogy. The Cripple of Inishmaan proved as provocative as its title, and the revival starring Daniel Radcliffe enjoyed acclaim in London and New York in recent years. The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001) directly addressed The Troubles in Ireland and must be one of the bloodiest plays ever staged in the West End, so lets hope the Noel Coward Theatre in London has plenty of cleaning supplies since it will be revived there in June. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Trailer 2 Detractors suggested that the batch of plays written in the mid-1990s had exhausted the literary talent of their creator, but McDonagh responded with The Pillowman in 2003, a Kafkaesque tale of a writer living in a police state being interrogated about his grisly short stories and their similarities to a spate of murders in the town. Like his disappointing second feature, Seven Psychopaths, The Pillowman deconstructed the artistic process but, quite unlike that film, its a masterpiece. Arguably McDonaghs magnum opus, the production in New York with Jeff Goldblum remains the best thing I have seen on a stage. A Behanding in Spokane, staged in New York just a couple of years before the release of Seven Psychopaths was, like Three Billboards, a departure for the writer since it took place in the United States and touched on racial prejudice. Again, like Three Billboards, the play courted controversy with some feeling McDonagh was too far removed from the realities of racism in America to tackle the issue. Tellingly, A Behanding in Spokane remains the only one of his plays that is yet to be staged in London. The playwrights most recent effort, Hangmen, felt almost cinematic in scope and suggests a symbiotic relationship might have developed between his works in the two different mediums. The play told the story of the fictional Harry Wade, Englands second-best hangman, in the aftermath of the abolition of hanging in this country in 1965. A return to form, Hangmen, like McDonaghs latest film, was an awards success with an all-star cast. It remains to be seen whether the writer will choose to focus on film or theatre for the remainder of his career, but its safe to assume his preoccupations and themes wont change radically in the foreseeable future. His next project will debut at the Bridge Theatre in London in October and has a title that could apply to just about any of his work: A Very Very Very Dark Matter. Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} After Disney confirmed they had bought 21st Century Fox, the future of the studios X-Men franchise was brought into question. Would The Mouse bring the mutants into their own Marvel Cinematic Universe, or let them continue separately? Whatever the case, Fox has done a huge rearrange on when their upcoming X-Men spin-offs are reaching cinemas, massively changing the upcoming schedule. First, The New Mutants a trailer for which was released late last year has been delayed ten months, now coming 22nd February 2019 when originally scheduled for this April. As a result, Deadpool 2 has been brought forward to 18 May, meaning well be seeing Ryan Reynolds next flick two weeks earlier than previously. The much delayed Gambit, which has also lost director Gore Verbinski, touches down 7 June 2019 rather than 14 February that same year. Meanwhile, X-Men: Dark Phoenix wont be affected by the changes. 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 Disney look likely to have full ownership of Fox by February next year whether the release schedule moves again remains to be seen. Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Before X-Men and The Dark Knight resuscitated the superhero movie from a camp extinction, comic book fans could only dream of stories such as The Infinity Gauntlet ever reaching cinemas. Yet, by some miracle, that story will finally be adapted later this year in Avengers: Infinity War the culmination of 10 years of Marvel movies. Fans are exceedingly ecstatic, but Infinity War wont be the only superhero movie reaching cinemas this year. Despite only one DC Extended Universe outing Aquaman a total of nine superhero blockbusters will be released this year. UPDATE: Fox has delayed The New Mutants from April until next year while Deadpool 2 has been brought forward. So, whats coming this year? Lets have a closer look. Black Panther, 16 February 2018 (Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU) First look at Marvel's Black Panther Show all 13 1 /13 First look at Marvel's Black Panther First look at Marvel's Black Panther See caption boxCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther Credit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther See caption boxCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther See caption boxCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther See caption boxCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther See caption boxCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther See caption boxCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther See caption boxCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther See caption boxCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther See caption boxCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther See captionCredit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 box First look at Marvel's Black Panther Credit: Matt Kennedy/ Marvel Studios 2018 First look at Marvel's Black Panther Photograph by Kwaku Alston First up, theres Black Panther. Introduced in Civil War, Chadwick Boseman's leads a star-studded cast including Lupita Nyongo, Michael B. Jordan, Angela Bassett, Sterling K. Brown, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis, and Martin Freeman all directed by one of the most exciting new filmmakers around, Creeds Ryan Coogler. Avengers: Infinity War, 4 May 2018 (MCU) Avengers: Infinity War - Trailer Almost exactly 10 years after Robert Downey Jr. appeared as Iron Man for the first time and the largest movie in the MCU to date will arrive in cinemas. Bringing together the Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and many more, Infinity War should be utterly mind-blowing for comic-book fans. Deadpool 2, 18 May 2018 (FOX) Deadpool 2 - 'Wet On Wet' Teaser Trailer Deadpool was a surprise box-office sensation that managed to launch Ryan Reynolds to even greater heights. With John Wick director David Leitch helming the movie and Josh Brolin joining the cast alongside Zazie Beetz, we expect some great action pieces and more crude laughs. The Incredibles 2, 2 June 2018 (Pixar) Incredibles 2 - Teaser Trailer Everyones favourite superhero family returns this summer. Having last appeared in cinemas in 2004, anticipation has only been increasingly building ever since. Ant-Man and the Wasp, 6 July 2018 (MCU) With the MCU in limbo following Infinity War but before the untitled 2019 sequel, Disney has decided to release the sequel to Ant-Man, which now features the Wasp in the title. Theres not much information regarding the plot likely to protect Infinity War spoilers but Michelle Pfeiffer will play the presumed dead Janet Van Dyne. Venom, 5 October 2018 (Sonys Marvel Universe) And here begins the confusion. Will Sonys Tom Hardy-starring Venom be related to the MCU similar to how Spider-Man is? Apparently not. Does that mean were dealing with another completely separate Spider-Man world without actual Spider-Man? Apparently so. But, then again, Sony is trying to make them seem linked, so what's up? Whatever the case, were intrigued by the planned R-Rated spin-off which will apparently have horror twists. X-Men: Dark Phoenix, 2 November 2018 (FOX) Returning to the main X-Men story, Dark Phoenix sees James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, and Michael Fassbender reprising their long-running roles as Professor X, Mystique, and Magneto. Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and Evan Peters also return to their roles, the story focussing on Turners Jean Grey. Jessica Chastain is the most notable newcomer, playing the films villain. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 14 December 2018 (Sony animation) With Phil Lord and Chris Miller having stepped away from the Han Solo spin-off, their next project is the animated Spider-Man movie, centring on the character Miles Morales. The duo have written the feature, while Bob Perschietti and Peter Ramsey are directing. The multi-dimension storyline looks set to be a lot of fun. Aquaman, 21 December 2018 (DC Extended Universe) The only DC movie to reach cinemas this year, and first since the relatively disastrous Justice League, Warner Bros. is hoping Aquaman will bring fans back on board their cinematic universe. James Wan of Saw, The Conjuring, and Furious 7 fame will be helming the blockbuster, hoping to bring some horror elements to the series. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} After an explosive report by The Washington Post claimed Donald Trump referred to African countries and Haiti as s***holes, CNN presenter Anderson Cooper decided to tackle the subject. I want to take a moment to talk about Haiti, one of the places the president of the United States called a s***hole country, he started the segment. Cooper then spoke about his experiences with Haiti and the countrys people, revealing his maths teacher was a Haitian immigrant who was later assassinated when running for president of Haiti. The presenter also spoke about visiting the country multiple times throughout his career reporting on the 2010 earthquake also venturing there on holiday. Like all countries, Haiti is a collection of people, he said. Its rich and poor, well-educated and not, good and bad. But Ive never met a Haitian who isnt strong. You often have to be in a country where a government has abandoned its people, opportunities are few, and mother nature has punished the people far more than anyone should ever be published. 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 let me be clear tonight, he continued. The people of Haiti have been through more. Theyve been through more, theyve withstood more. Theyve fought back against more injustice than our president ever has. Anderson then spoke about the earthquake that hit Haiti eight years ago, detailing how between 220,000 and 300,000 people died but strangers helped each other. I was there when a young girl, whod been trapped in rubble in nearly a day was rescued by people who had no heavy equipment. They only had their God-given strength and their determination and their courage, he said. Cooper then began to choke up. I was there when a 5-year-old boy was rescued after being buried for more than seven days. Do you know what strength it takes to survive on rainwater, buried under concrete? A 5-year-old boy, buried for seven days. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up He finished by adding: Haitians slap your hand hard when they shake it, they dont blink. They stand tall and they have dignity. Its a dignity many in this White House could learn from. Its a dignity the president, with all his money and all his power, could learn from as well. Watch below. Trumps comments have been decried across the board, late night hosts mocking the President, including Trevor Noah, who said: Personally, as someone from South Sh*t Hole, Im offended, Mr. President. Sign up to IndyEat's free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our Now Hear This email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyEats email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Everyone loves Mexican food, but not the worker, says Yajaira Saavedra, 29. Outspoken, direct, and passionate, Saavedra does not let her undocumented status silence her. She stands behind a host podium, her cheeks pushed against the rim of her large glasses frames as she smiles and welcomes customers to La Morada, her familys Oaxacan restaurant on Alexander Avenue. The restaurant spells out the familys political views from the front door, which reads Oaxaca Resiste, and inside where a collage of stickers reads Black Lives Matter and 'Dont Frack'. Recommended Trump move to end DACA protection for young immigrants halted by judge The restaurant feels like a family living room with Oaxacan mortars, black pottery, and a wall filled with books, an informal community lending library. On a Saturday night, tables for four overflow with extra chairs, friends and family hanging off the edges sharing plates of mole or tacos. The news from a television above the books announces the latest version of a Muslim ban from the deporter in chief as Saavedra says. Not shying away from their undocumented status, her family may not be able to vote at a poll, but vote every day with their food. From where its sourced, how its served and prepared, to how they have used their restaurant as community safe haven. La Morada is more than locale, its a statement. Not just against the White House, but the white-washing of gentrification creeping into the South Bronx. La Morada started in 2009, in the Mott Haven neighbourhood of the South Bronx, which sits at the southern tip of the borough, right across the Harlem River from Manhattan. That was eight years ago, before trendy nicknames like SoBro or the Piano district cropped up. As Saavedra puts it, Thats how it starts, you rename the neighbourhood. Its no secret that developers have been moving into the area, notably Keith Rubenstein, who according to NPR, is building seven new residential towers on the waterfront that will offer 1,400 luxury apartments with precious views of the Manhattan skyline. The Bronx is now rising like a phoenix from the ashes of crime and destruction, and people have been taking notice. The New York Times recently named the South Bronx one its 52 places to visit in 2017. Anthony Bourdain ran a special highlighting food from the area, the Bronx is becoming a tourist destination painted with the same rhetoric that transformed Williamsburg from a Hispanic neighbourhood into millennials new landing spot. However, Saavedra says the Bronx of immigrants and blue-collar workers is not giving in, We are resisting, we are still standing. Her deep attachment to the community comes from the support they gave her and her family when faced with the barriers to opening a restaurant. Given their undocumented status her family was unable to secure loans, grants, or get any sort of small business subside, especially in 2009, a peak of the recession. If it werent for community support and patronage, her familys savings would have been spent in vain. Yajaira is outspoken, direct and passionate The restaurant was conceived as a place for Saavedra s family to finally have a place of their own, where she and her mother, father, and brother were welcomeoften feeling unwelcome while growing up undocumented. All family members had worked for years in restaurants across the city but wanted a place of their own. Now she worries the community that once welcomed her family from Washington Heights, is redefining itself by welcoming Apple Stores and Whole Foods. A case in point: The addition of a Birch Coffee shop, a chain of fair trade cafes, leads her to points out a key discrepancy: its not as if the Bronx was devoid of espresso to begin with. Hello! The Dominicans make delicious $2 espresso. The Hunts Point location closed, perhaps a good omen, but other trendy shops like Filtered Coffee exist near the sites of the proposed new apartment complexes. Gentrification makes the Bronx out to be a desert, unclaimed, abandoned. La Morada is a prime example of the elitism of that attitude. While the borough still suffers from abnormally high asthma rates, an inaccessible waterfront littered with the remnants of abandoned factories, and a lack of public green space, as Saavedra sees it, an Apple store does nothing to change those realities. The grassroots community building that locales like La Morada have fostered is the momentum allowing the boroughs inhabitants to reclaim and repurpose abandoned land as well as oppose corporate invasion from companies like Fresh Direct. In the opening to Bourdains Bronx special he says, Youve been to Brooklyn, maybe its time you took a look at the Bronx. As the patron saint of hipster foodies his call to explore the lesser known borough makes an illusion to gentrification in its plea. His subtext reads as: Brooklyn is old news, it has long-since been converted to vintage stores and coffee shops, the Bronx is on the brink, still untouched by Manhattanite footprints. It expels a certain lure of culinary appropriation to claim the exotic and lesser-known as urban cultural capitalwith no regard for how that may impact the local community. There is lack of appreciation for what we are, for our culture, customs, says Saavedra frustrated by visiting customers complaining about the prices being too high for Mexican food or that the food is not like Chipotle. Our culture is not seen as our own, she says. The Bronx isnt fated to be the next Bushwick or Bedstuy. The birth place of hip-hop is still rich with cultural heritage. By holding onto our values, we stay strong, we fight gentrification, says Saavedra, ready to face the strong economic force knocking at her door. Bitcoin approached its 2022 price high on 28 March following a crypto market surge (Getty Images) For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} After a meteoric rise throughout the month of March, BTC saw a slight correction ahead of the Bitcoin 2022 conference geting underway in Miami. The worlds most valuable cryptocurrency is enjoying a rare moment of stability but could be boosted by any major positive news coming out of the worlds largest bitcoin conference. Other leading cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB) and Ripple (XRP), have all mirrored bitcoins movements, however dogecoin has seen big gains in recent days. The crypto market calm could be about to come to an end, according to some analysts, who anticipate big moves from announcements coming out of Bitcoin 2022. The Miami event is the same one that El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced last year that his country would be adopting BTC as a legal form of tender. You can follow all the latest news and updates in our live blog below. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Nothing like a good political controversy over a big corporate takeover battle to liven up the new year, and the tilt at engineering giant GKN taken by investment outfit Melrose is certainly whipping one up. First, the background: GKN is a FTSE-100 listed multinational that designs and makes components and systems for aircraft, cars and machinery. It has been under a bit of a cloud since October, when it admitted that troubles at its US aerospace arm would force it to take a large write down and hamper profit growth. This has inevitably led to speculation about a potential bid and/or a break-up. In the meantime, GKN has installed a new management team led by Anne Stevens, whose CV contains names like Ford and Lockheed Martin and who knows a thing or two about turnarounds. Shes put together a new strategy that will see the business split into two units under one holding company, with a promise to boost earnings in both. The question is whether shell get the chance to put it into effect. Melrose thinks it can do a better job. Its first approach at 7bn has been resoundingly rejected, but most observers expect it to come back before too long. Melrose is one of those spectacularly successful business that have made pots of money without anyone outside of the City ever having heard of them. It has done this by buying up struggling manufacturing businesses, sorting them out and selling them on. The controversy comes through Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable, who has contrasted GKN the engineer with Melrose, which he describes as a financial engineer. It matters because GKN employs 6,000 people in the UK at 14 sites, out of a global workforce of 58,000. If the Governments much-vaunted industrial strategy is to be successful, a company like GKN could be expected to play a highly important role. The businesses Melrose takes out only remain in its ownership for a relatively short time (three to five years is quoted) and there are two debates to be had about its interest. The easiest one to resolve is about whether its good for shareholders. GKN has a credible CEO in Ms Stevens, and she has put forward a credible plan. Melroses interest has been sparked by weakness in the share price caused by the US issue, and that might prove to be temporary. However, at some point every company has its price. The question is whether Melroses estimation of GKNs medium- to long-term worth ultimately matches that of its shareholders. Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. The second question, however, is whether a Melrose victory in that debate would be good for the UK. Of course, Melrose would likely argue. Well make GKN a better, more profitable business, and the UK will win from that. As things stand, however, that amounts to little more than PR because it knows that the only audience it really has to worry about is the City. Questions of ownership concerning businesses like GKN have traditionally been left to the market in this country, in a way that contrasts with the way things are done in much of the rest of the world. With the Governments industrial policy in theory heralding a more interventionist approach in the interests of UK plc, its fair to ask, as Sir Vince does, whether that shouldnt change in the interests of UK plc too. He is writing to Business Secretary Greg Clark in an attempt to put him on the spot. The latters reply should tell us a great deal about whether the industrial strategy he is supposed to oversee amounts to anything more than PR itself. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} South Korea appeared to soften its stance on cryptocurrencies on Friday, rowing back on justice minister Park Sang-ki's comments indicating that the government planned to ban trading in the assets. A shutdown of cryptocurrency exchanges was just one of the measures prepared by the Ministry of Justice, but its not a measure that has been finalised, a spokesperson for the South Korean Presidential Office said, according to local media. The price of bitcoin dropped sharply on Thursday after Mr Park suggested that South Korea planned to ban cryptocurrency trading in the country. :: 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 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 in the early hours of Thursday morning UK time, before paring some of its losses. 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. Bitcoin rallied to a high close to $19,800 on December 16 before falling 28 percent, driven by a new generation of investors that can now bet on and against Bitcoin prices with futures contracts. Graphic shows changes in bitcoin value from December 1, 2017 to January 10, 2018. (Graphic News) The justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges, Mr Park said. Any legislation imposing a ban would be subject to a majority vote of the 297-member National Assembly. Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. The 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. 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. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The crisis at Carillion deepened on Friday after reports that lenders had effectively rejected a rescue plan and that two of the Big Four accountancy firms were preparing to act as administrators. Both EY and PwC are believed to be vying to take on the role should Carillion collapse. The company is thought to require at least 210m in short-term funding to continue operating and implement a turnaround plan. But lenders effectively rejected a rescue proposal tabled by Carillion on Friday because it failed to present a solid proposition for restructuring the business, the Press Association reported. Carillion revealed half-year losses of 1.15bn in September and is struggling under 900m of debt and a 590m pension deficit. The company is in crunch talks over its future with ministers and the Pensions Regulator. Recommended HS2 contractor Carillion to meet with lenders after two profit warning Carillions worsening health could put some of its 19,500 UK employees jobs at risk. It has also raised fears that taxpayers could be left with the cost of running some of the companys government contracts. The company is a major supplier to the Government, maintaining prisons across the country and managing around 900 schools. It is also a key contractor on the 56bn HS2 rail project. Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said the collapse of Carillion could provoke a serious crisis. It would have major implications for the outsourced government contracts the company holds, as well as the firms thousands of workers, those in the supply chain and those who rely on Carillion's pension fund. The Government, who despite warnings carried on with its programme of outsourcing public services to this company, must stand ready to bring these contracts back into public control, stabilise the situation and safeguard our public services. A spokesperson for the Pensions Regulator said the organisation remained closely involved in discussions with Carillion and the trustees of its pension schemes. Rehana Azam, national officer of the GMB union, said jobs must be protected. Handing Carillion bosses a blank cheque bail-out is completely unacceptable, Ms Azam said, adding that the company had an abysmal track record on protecting workers. Carillion, which has had to contend with a slowdown in many of its major markets, has seen its share price plummet from 230p a year ago to less than 15p on Friday. The firm is currently under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority over the timeliness and content of announcements made between December 2016 and July 2017. I am a retired newspaperman. I am 69 and live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 45 years, Lou Ann. We grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather. More on who I am is here. Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.com For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Engineering firm GKN has rejected an unsolicited 7bn approach by turnaround specialist Melrose, and set out plans to split its automotive and aerospace divisions. GKN, which makes plane and car parts, said on Friday that it had turned down an offer from Melrose on 8 January that valued the company at 405 pence per share. The GKN board described the offer as opportunistic, and said that it fundamentally undervalued the company. Melrose now has until 5pm on 9 February to decide whether it intends to make a firm offer for GKN or not. Melrose told the Stock Exchange on Friday there would be significant operational and commercial benefits arising from its ownership of GKN's businesses, reversing a history of existing GKN management not delivering on margin targets. GKN also confirmed plans to split its aerospace and automotive divisions, and said that Anne Stevens would take over as chief executive with immediate effect. Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the separation of units has been on the cards for years, with little obvious crossover between the two businesses". Historically, the pension deficit has held the group together, but with the sprawling footprint likely to have contributed to recent profit warnings, the reasons for divorce now seem to outweigh the costs of splitting, he said. The money to be made from a split is likely to have been what drew turnaround specialist Melrose to the table in the first place the challenge for newly confirmed chief executive Anne Stevens is to deliver a better result for shareholders than the 405p she turned down today, he added. GKN employs 58,000 people across 30 countries in aerospace and automotive engineering. In October, GKN issued a profit warning after experiencing problems with its North American aerospace business. The following month, the FTSE 100-listed company announced that Kevin Cummings, who had previously ran the aerospace division, would not be taking over as chief executive on 1 January and was leaving the company. Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Health Check email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A senior Conservative MP has hit out at the Governments disingenuous use of statistics when talking about the scale of the winter crisis affecting the NHS. Health minister Philip Dunne claimed bed occupancy was below safe levels on Christmas Eve when asked about pressures by Dr Sarah Wollaston, MP for Totnes, Devon but this was the only day that has been true all winter. Mr Dunne, who was Jeremy Hunts deputy as minister of state for health until he lost his position in this weeks reshuffle, was asked to provide information on the current bed-occupancy levels in the NHS in England. He said: I can confirm to my honourable friend that, at Christmas Eve, the bed occupancy rate was 84.2 per cent, below the target of 85 per cent that we set going into this particular winter period. 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 Of course the rate fluctuates daily and I do not have the figures for the most recent days. Mr Dunne, at that time, had figures from 20 November to 31 December, with only four days around Christmas when hospitals strive to discharge patients to their families dipping below 90 per cent occupancy, although experts say running above 85 per cent is unsafe. Dr Wollaston, who chairs the House of Commons Health Committee and has been calling for a cross-party effort to find solutions for the sustainable funding of the NHS, said on Twitter: The table below shows why that is so disingenuous. Unless the scale of the problem is understood and openly discussed, we wont get progress on the solution. An assessment by the House of Commons library agreed, saying: As you can see, average occupancy across the country was below 90 per cent on only four days over this period, so the Christmas Eve occupancy of 84.2 per cent was indeed anomalous. The Department of Health and Social Care said the minister was simply highlighting a case of hardworking staff hitting the target, but Dr Wollaston told The Independent: To present me, as chair of the Health Committee, with that number when I ask a serious question about bed occupancy, it isnt right. Recommended Everything to do with the NHS is definitely going to plan We need government to demonstrate that they understand what the problem is you cant see how they can be working on a solution if they wont accept the level of challenge. The latest occupancy figures, covering the first week of 2018, show that the 95 per cent of beds were full and a coalition of senior A&E doctors warned Theresa May that patients were dying prematurely in corridors because of pressures. The Prime Minister and Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt have dismissed talk of an NHS winter crisis, saying the health is better prepared than ever and that 55,000 operations cancelled to put resources in A&E are part of the plan. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: While recognising the significant pressure the NHS has come under this winter, the minister simply highlighted this statistic as an example of hardworking staff delivering on the 85% bed occupancy level they were asked to achieve during this winter. "The Government is supporting the NHS this winter with an additional 437million as well as 1 billion extra social care funding this year. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he expects new sanctions on Iran as US President Donald Trump was expected to decide on whether to extend sanctions relief to the country under the 2015 nuclear deal. Mr Mnuchin said during a news conference at the White House: "We continue to look at [the sanctions]. We've rolled them out and I think you can expect there will be more sanctions coming." In October, the President decided not to re-certify the historic deal, signed by Iran and six world powers - a signature foreign policy achievement by predecessor President Barack Obama. It opened the door for harsher economic sanctions to be placed on the country, the mitigation of which was a key inducement for Iran to comply with the deal. Tehran had pledged to rein in its nuclear program in return for some easing of those economic restrictions imposed on it by the US, the United Nations, and European Union. European allies have urged the President to extend the sanctions relief in order to save the deal. Mr Trump also spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron on the phone today as well. Woman branded hero for removing hijab during anti-government protests in Iran The pair discussed a number of topics, including the Iran deal. Mr Macron appeared to have tried appealing to Mr Trumps displeasure with the enforcement of the deal while pushing for continued sanctions relief. "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 better stability in the Middle East," Mr Macrons office said in a statement about the call. In one possible compromise, Mr Trump could choose not to reimpose the sanctions that were eased under the nuclear deal but punish Iran on other matters. Iran protests in pictures Show all 11 1 /11 Iran protests in pictures Iran protests in pictures University students at an anti-government protest inside Tehran University, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests in pictures A university student at a protest inside Tehran University while a smoke grenade is thrown by anti-riot Iranian police, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests in pictures University students at a protest inside Tehran University, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests in pictures University students run away from the police during an anti-government protest inside Tehran University, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests in pictures An image grab taken from a handout video released by Iran's Mehr News agency reportedly shows a group of men pulling at a fence in a street in Tehran, 30 December 2017 AFP/Getty Iran protests in pictures Demonstrators gather to protest in Tehran, 30 December 2017 AP Iran protests in pictures Iranians chant slogans as they march in support of the government near the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, 30 December 2017 AFP/Getty Iran protests in pictures Iranians chant slogans as they march in support of the government near the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, December 30 2017 Iran protests in pictures Iranian clerics take part during a state-organized rally against anti-government protests in the country, in the holy city of Qom, south west Iran, 3 January 2018 EPA Iran protests in pictures In this photo provided by the Iranian Students' News Agency, a clergyman takes a picture of a pro-government demonstration in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, Iran, 3 January 2018 ISNA via AP Iran protests in pictures Pro-government demonstrators gather at the Massoumeh shrine in Iran's holy city of Qom, some 130 kilometres south of Tehran, 3 January 2018 AFP/Getty One US official told Reuters that if that was the case, the administration would impose new, targeted measures against Iranian businesses and people. Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein said he expected Mr Trump to decide on whether to continue sanctions relief for Iran on 11 January, but uncertain about when the announcement would be made. Mr Trump's decision will come on the heels of several days of anti-government protests throughout Iran. Thousands have taken to the streets demanding an end to President Hassan Rouhani's term in office. Mr Trump previously tweeted a call for the government to respect the wishes of its people and the White House issued a statement appearing to be in support of the Iranian people's "right to express themselves." "Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever," the President tweeted, also posting: "the entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change" and touted that other than US military might, its people's will is what leaders in Iran feared the most. However, reimposing sanctions eased under the 2015 deal could prove harmful to the very citizens for whom Mr Trump had expressed support. Agencies contributed to this report. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trumps attorney reportedly arranged a $130,000 (95,000) payment to a former porn star as part of a deal to prevent her from speaking about an alleged sexual encounter with Mr Trump. According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), longtime Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen arranged the payout to Stephanie Clifford in October of 2016. In a statement emailed to the Independent, an attorney for Mr Cohen denounced the story as a Complete and utter lie. This is recycled old fake news that has no validity whatsoever and everyone named, including Mr. Cohen vehemently denies this, attorney David Schwartz said in an email. It is fake news like this that has people questioning what is real and what is fake. Similarly, the White House blasted in a statement old, recycled reports, which were published and strongly denied prior to the election. An attorney whom the WSJ said had represented Ms Clifford declined to comment, citing attorney-client privilege. The paper also published a comment purported to be from Stormy Daniels, a stage name used by Ms Clifford, denying sexual contact with Mr Trump and saying, Rumours that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false. Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's personal attorney (Reuters) (REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein) Numerous women have accused Mr Trump of unwanted sexual advances, allegations Mr Trump has consistently rejected as false. The White House has said its official position is that the accusers are liars. 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 Earlier this week, Mr Cohen filed defamation lawsuits against the opposition research firm Fusion GPS and the news outlet BuzzFeed over a dossier, published by BuzzFeed, that laid out Mr Trumps potential ties to Russia and included salacious claims about Mr Trumps sexual history. A complaint alleges that the dossier falsely claimed Mr Cohen had an inappropriate and possibly criminal relationship with the Russian government and argues that the dossiers publication caused him significant financial and reputational damages. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Police have arrested 20 men as part of an investigation into historic abuses by a grooming gang that operated in West Yorkshire. The suspects, aged between 28 and 43, were detained in three days of raids across Calderdale and Kirklees. Two have been released on police bail and another 18 remain under investigation. Detective Inspector Allan Raw, of West Yorkshire Police, said the force was committed to investigating current and historic cases. These are abhorrent crimes that affect the most vulnerable in our society, he added. Tackling any form of child abuse is not something that any one agency can do in isolation though which is why we work closely with local authorities and other organisations and charities to support victims, bring offenders to justice and make our communities safer. We would urge anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse, no matter when it took place, to report it to the police. Please be assured that you will be listened to, taken seriously and supported by professionals with experience of dealing with these kind of offences. Police launch raids targeting gang who trafficked girls around England to be raped A group of 15 men have already been jailed for systematically abusing teenage girls in the Calderdale area, after being convicted of offences including rape, grooming and trafficking. Prosecutors said the gang attacked victims in cars or plied them with drink and drugs at their homes. This weeks arrests were part of the same investigation, which centres on allegations made a woman who was the victim of sexual abuse as a child in the Halifax area between 2006 and 2009. They came after another suspected grooming gang was uncovered by Cleveland Police, with officers arresting 10 suspects in Stockton-on-Tees and Sheffield on Tuesday. A 30-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of rape and the others, aged between 18 and 47, were detained for offences including conspiracy to rape and commit human trafficking, blackmail, causing girls to engage in sexual activity and drugs offences. Intelligence gathered so far suggests that an unknown number of young women have been trafficked within Cleveland and beyond the area for several months, being raped by multiple men after being driven to residential homes. Police struck after a woman from Teesside came forward to say she had been taken to different parts of the country and abused. Her evidence has identified 10 other potential victims and investigators expect the number to rise as the operation continues. 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 There have been several large-scale police operations against grooming gangs in the wake of revelations that victims in Rotherham were ignored or accused of criminal offences over years of abuse. More than 700 potential victims were identified by Operation Sanctuary, which investigated grooming gangs operating in Northumberland and Tyne and Weir bordering Cleveland. Officials warned at the time that there was every likelihood this is happening in every town and city across the country, urging police and local councils to actively search for grooming activity. More than a dozen men have been jailed for their part in the Newcastle-based ring, and groups have been prosecuted for sexual exploitation in Oxford, Bradford and Rochdale. Last month, The Independent revealed that a new suspected grooming gang had been uncovered in London, with at least four girls aged between 13 and 15 reporting rape. Police said a criminal gang was operating out of a McDonalds in Stratford, targeting victims before taking them to different locations where they were sexually assaulted. Drugs and alcohol are frequently used by grooming gangs to incapacitate girls or coerce them into sex, with the criminality later discouraging victims from going to police. There are several methods of grooming, with the best-known boyfriend model seeing an abusive relationship used to force victims into sex with others. Children can also be trafficked, befriended online or in the so-called party model targeted by groups of men who lure them to gatherings with offers of drinks, drugs, money and car rides. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Serial sex attacker John Worboys, who is known as the black cab rapist, will not face further charges unless new referrals are made by the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said. The 60-year-old was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting 12 victims in 2009. Croydon Crown Court heard at the time that he gave his victims champagne spiked with drugs before attacking them in the back of his taxi. After his trial, detectives said that over the course of his 13-year career as a London taxi driver, he could have attacked more than 100 female passengers. At least 19 allegations that emerged after his conviction were not prosecuted, following consultation between the CPS and Metropolitan Police. There are no cases currently live. Scotland Yard said it had no new information to send to the CPS, who in turn said it had no plans to reassess 93 cases that had not been prosecuted against Worboys. Our decision-making was on the basis of all available evidence and there are no plans to review it, the CPS said in a statement. We would consider further charging advice in the event of matters being referred to us by police. If cases did not pass the evidential test there would have to be new evidence available that altered that assessment before they could be prosecuted. No cases can be prosecuted unless they pass the test in the Code for Crown Prosecutors. A spokesperson for Londons Metropolitan Police said: As no new information has been received at this time, there is currently no live Met investigation. Should any further information come to light it will be fully investigated. In 2009 Worboys was handed an indeterminate sentence with a minimum term of eight years to be served before the parole board could approve his release. But last week a three-person panel cleared him to be freed nine months into his ninth year in prison. He served less than a year for every woman he was convicted of attacking, even though he had already served around a year on remand before his trial. He is set to be freed from jail within weeks, but the parole board insisted he would be released with stringent licence conditions. 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 CPS decision not to reassess the cases comes despite calls from a law firm which represents 11 of his victims for it to undertake a thorough review of all available evidence against Worboys to see if he could be convicted of more crimes. Slater and Gordon said in a letter to the CPS, that Worboys was only prosecuted for a small fraction of the crimes he is alleged to have committed. Some 105 people have made complaints to the police about him, it added. Supporting the plea, one of his victims said: 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 hes 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. Unless these cases are reopened we can have no faith in the justice system. In response to the CPS' decision not to reasses the unprosecuted crimes, specialist abuse lawyer Richard Scorer, from Slater and Gordon said: Our clients and the wider public need to feel satisfied that no stone has been left unturned, and every option is pursued, when it comes to keeping this dangerous rapist behind bars. Whether this is deemed as new evidence or not, it is clear it should be re-evaluated with a view to a new prosecution of Worboys." Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Gemstones from the Crown Jewels were stashed in a biscuit tin hidden from the Nazis at Windsor Castle during the Second World War, a BBC documentary is to reveal. The precious stones were buried in a deep hole following orders from King George VI in case they fell into enemy hands following an invasion, researchers found. The Queen, who spent the war years at Windsor Castle for her safety, did not know the full details of the story until told by royal commentator Alastair Bruce, who presents the documentary due to be screened on Sunday. It was known the precious stones had been taken to the Berkshire fortress in the early years of the war. But the BBC One programme, about the Crown Jewels and Elizabeths coronation, will reveal for the first time how historic artefacts including Black Princes Ruby from the Imperial State Crown were secreted under a sally port a secret exit from the castle used in times of emergency. The remarkable story was unearthed for The Coronation by Oliver Urquhart Irvine, the royal librarian and assistant keeper of the Queens Archives. Mr Bruce told The Times: What was so lovely was that the Queen had no knowledge of it. Telling her seemed strangely odd. The royal commentator told the newspaper how an electric set of letters from Sir Owen Morshead, former royal librarian, to Queen Mary, the mother of George VI, shed light on the mystery. Sir Owens documents describe how a hole was dug in chalk earth, which was covered to hide it from enemy bombers, and two chambers with steel doors created. A trapdoor used to access the secret area where the tin box was kept still exists today. In the one-hour documentary, the Queen also speaks candidly and with humour about being head of state, the experience of her coronation, and the symbolic importance of artefacts associated with the sovereign. She jokingly states you cannot look down when wearing the Imperial State Crown, which weighs 2lbs 13oz (1.28kgs), as your neck would break. She also recounts how she was brought to a standstill when her robes ran against the carpet pile in Westminster Abbey during her coronation. The Imperial State Crown is worn by the Queen when delivering her speech during the state opening of Parliament, and, with the priceless artefact in front of her, she points out it has been reduced in height since her father King George VI wore it. Looking at the crown, the Queen said: Fortunately, my father and I have about the same sort of shaped head. But once you put it on, it stays. I mean, it just remains on. Mr Bruce said the head has to be kept still when wearing it and the Queen agreed: Yes. And you cant look down to read the speech, you have to take the speech up. Because if you did your neck would break, it would fall off. So there are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise theyre quite important things. The crown was made for George VIs coronation in 1937 and is set with 2,868 diamonds including 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and hundreds of pearls, including four known worn as earrings by Queen Elizabeth I. It also features a gemstone known as the Black Princes Ruby, believed to have been worn by Henry V in his helmet at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. 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 The Queen acceded to the throne on 6 February,1952 when her father died unexpectedly in his sleep at Sandringham in Norfolk. Despite the country being in the grip of post-war austerity, a glittering coronation was staged on 2 June the following year at Westminster Abbey. The documentary features footage of the Queen processing through the Abbey and highlights how her coronation dress was embroidered in silk with pearls, and gold and silver bullion thread. The Queen recounted: I remember one moment when I was going against the pile of the carpet and I couldnt move at all. They hadnt thought of that. The documentary is part of the Royal Collection Season, a major partnership between the BBC and Royal Collection Trust, which also features the four-part television series Art, Passion And Power: The Story Of The Royal Collection. The Coronation will be screened on BBC One at 8pm on Sunday. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The company which provides the Queens lingerie has lost its royal warrant after its former owner published her autobiography. Rigby & Peller, a luxury underwear firm founded in London, has held the official royal warrant since 1960, meaning it fits lingerie and underwear for several past and present senior female members of the royal family, including the Queen, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. The warrant was withdrawn shortly after June Keaton, who fitted bras for the Queen during the 1970s and 1980s, released a book called Storm in a D-Cup. Queen Elizabeth II's most 'unroyal' moments Ms Kenton published her autobiography in March 2017 which gave details of her role as the official corsetiere to the Queen, when she would regularly visit Buckingham Palace. She said it was an unbelievable decision as there was nothing in the book to be upset about. She told the BBC: 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. I only ever said I went there, not what happened. I have never, ever spoken about what I do there with her, or the Queen Mother or Princess Margaret. I think it's unbelievable. It's just upsetting at the end of my life, but what can I do. I can't fight with Buckingham Palace and I wouldn't want to, but it's hard. The luxury bra fitter said she would never reveal details of what went on during the fittings; all she had revealed in the book was that she had visited the palace. Ms Kenton, who has worked in the lingerie industry for 60 years, said: I've been honourable throughout my life - it's unbelievable they don't like the book, there's nothing in it that they could remotely be upset about. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA It's a sweet story of a corsetiere. I probably should have submitted it to them but I didn't think anything would be required. She said she had first been told by someone in Buckingham Palace that they did not like the book around six months ago. The 82-year-old bought the luxury bramaker with her husband in 1982 for 20,000 and sold the majority stake in the business for 8m in 2011 though she remains on the board. The Royal Warrants Association denied the loss of the status had anything to do with the publishing of the book, telling the BBC that 20 to 40 warrants are cancelled every year with a similar number granted. Royal warrants are granted to named individuals whose companies have provided services to the royal household with goods or service for at least five years out of seven. Recommended 11 places where Queen Elizabeth II shops This entitles them to display the royal coat of arms. It is not available for members of professions such as banking, law or journalism. Harrods is famously one of the companies that lost its royal warrant in 2000. The Palace said the reason for the withdrawal was a significant decline in the trading relationship between the department store and Prince Philip. The Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Charles are the only members of the family who can grant warrants. Buckingham Palace declined to comment. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump has announced that he will not be visiting London this year after all. But it's not quite so clear why. The President has sent a controversial and divisive tweet about the fact that he's not coming because he's upset about the deal the Americans made for their new embassy building, which was he was scheduled to open during his trip. He didn't want to bless it with his presence, he suggested, and so cancelled the entire thing. In a tweet posted at midnight, he wrote: "Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" But there are a series of problems with that tweet at least six, at our count. Here they all are: "Reason I canceled my trip to London" This, of course, is the reason Mr Trump sent the tweet: rumours are abounding that the visit was actually cancelled because Trump was disappointed in the amount of ceremony and events that would take place when he arrived. That was referenced by mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who said Mr Trump "got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our citys values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance" and referenced the widespread protests that were likely to greet the presidential visit. 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 Who is actually right isn't clear. But there is good reason to doubt the President's account: among other things, the visit has been planned for months, and none of the reasons cited by Mr Trump are actually new. "I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold" the embassy The Obama Administration didn't make the decision to sell the embassy, though the deal was finished when Obama was in office. The move to leave the old embassy began in 2008, under George W Bush, as can be seen from the fact that the embassy itself posted a news release at the time. Even the Bush administration didn't really make that decision, though, since it wasn't entirely theirs to sell. The US didn't own the embassy but leased it from the Duke of Westminster a strange arrangement that made it unique among US embassies and led to protracted and often fractious negotiations as the Americans looked to sort it out. "Perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London" The old US embassy is located in Grosvenor Square, at the centre of Mayfair, where it has occupied two different addresses since it arrived in 1938. It's true that it is one of London's most upscale and posh areas seen in the fact that the old building is expected to become a luxury hotel when it's vacated by the Americans. Still, "best located" is probably a classic Trumpian boast. Most of the rest of the international embassies in London are located on the other side of Hyde Park, towards Kensington. Many of them are directly overlooking the park and some are next-door-neighbours with Kensington Palace, the official residence of royals including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; it's hardly a down-at-heel area. It might be that Mr Trump prefers the east side of Hyde Park, and the opportunity to walk down into the West End and London's trendy Soho district. But he's probably at least exaggerating to make a point. Ultimately, how nice the location is didn't really matter anyway the problem has always been that the Mayfair location made it a prime target for a terror attack. As security has been upgraded in response to that worry, neighbours have complained that it is unsightly. For years, locals have been arguing it was a bad or at least unsafe place to have an embassy, and it's those concerns that are thought to have contributed to the US's decision to move from the old location. Sold for "peanuts" The price that the old building went for was never disclosed. But estimates put the value of the sale to the investment arm of the Qatari royal family at about 500 million, roughly in line with the expected cost of the new US embassy building at the time, though considerably more than it actually cost, as we'll get to shortly. The President's expertise in real investment and his claims to be good at making deals might have enabled him to get more for the sale. But it's hard to describe half a billion pounds as "peanuts". "An off location" Like the argument over whether or not Grosvenor Square is the best place to have an embassy, you can argue about whether Nine Elms is an "off" or "on" location for an embassy based on what you think of the future of London housing and what you look for in an area. But even if you don't like the area around the south bank of the Thames, it's not fair to suggest that nothing is going on. The area for now is rife with cranes and other building work, putting together not just the US embassy but a range of different housing and business buildings. They include the revamping of the old Battersea power station, and a building that will have a specially installed sky pool on its top allowing swimmers to view the US embassy and London beyond. What's more, the new embassy's location and the space around it allows for all kinds of anti-terror measures that would never have been possible at the old place. The high-tech protections at the Nine Elms building include a special moat that has been built around it there would never have been either the space or the support from neighbours to install something so modern in the more staid environs of Mayfair. Mr Trump may have used his real estate and investment knowledge and decided this was a bad bet, and that may be what he means by an off location. But the area looks something like the parts of Manhattan that he got rich upgrading taking a once largely dilapidated area, using lots of money to build and upgrade it, and then selling it to wealthy buyers. "For 1.2 billion dollars" Mr Trump may have extra insight into how much the building cost. But he may also be exaggeration: the embassy has in fact been reported to have cost about $1 billion and that high price was largely to fund the extra defences against terror that the building needed, which was the real reason for moving it in the first place. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A fresh vote on whether Britain should leave the European Union would overturn the result of the Brexit referendum, new polling has found. The snap survey conducted after Brexit architect Nigel Farage made an unexpected call for a second referendum found 55 per cent would opt to remain in the EU and 45 per cent to leave if there was another vote. The original vote was 52 per cent to 48 per cent in favour of Brexit. The findings mirror polling for The Independent, which signalled a shift in public opinion to give Remain backers their biggest lead since the 2016 referendum, with 51 per cent favouring Remain and 41 per cent backing Leave. Recommended Second Brexit referendum debate explodes after Farage wades in Former Ukip leader Mr Farage reignited the debate over a possible second referendum, when he claimed pro-EU voters and politicians would never stop whingeing and whining unless another vote put the issue to rest. He told The Independent: Im considering the possibilities that this might have to happen, and I dont think Leavers should completely ignore the fact that it could. Quite a lot of us have been feeling this way for some time. The ComRes poll, for the Daily Mirror, found 43 per cent of voters backed the prospect of a second referendum while 51 per cent opposed the idea. Among Brexit supporters, the survey found 95 per cent were opposed to a rerun of the 2016 vote, while 77 per cent of Remain voters were in favour of another referendum. Two thirds of people lacked confidence that Theresa May can secure a good Brexit deal, with 30 per cent very or fairly confident. The poll of more than 1,040 people laid bare the divisions over the EU by political party, as 64 per cent of Labour voters backed a second referendum, with 31 per cent against. In contrast only 18 per cent of Tory voters want a second poll with 79 per cent dismissing the idea. 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 If there was another referendum, 75 per cent of Labour voters would back remain, with only 25 per cent favouring leave. Some 30 per cent of Tory voters would vote remain and 70% leave. Older voters were most opposed to a second poll by 68 per cent to 28 per cent, while younger voters were 54 per cent in favour and 27 per cent against. Downing Street dismissed Mr Farages suggestion yesterday. Theresa Mays official spokesman said: "We will not be having a second referendum." Bacardi has issued a statement in response to Pernod Ricards claim that the new Havana Club Forever Cuban campaign is misleading. The Forever Cuban campaign features Cuban-American actor, Raul Esparza reciting Island Body - a poem written exclusively for the campaign by Cuban-American poet and author, Richard Blanco. The poem tells exiles that regardless of where they live, their identity cannot be taken away referencing the exiling of Havana Club from Cuba. In the statement, Bacardi says that Pernod Ricard, owners of Havana Club, have together with the Cuban goverement, been lying about the history of the brand for more than 20 years. Pernod Ricard owns the international rights to the Cuban Havana Club brand outside of the US due to its ban on Cuban imports, put in place in 1961 when the Cuban revolution became communism. However, Bacardi has been selling its own Puerto Rico - based Havana Club, in the US since the mid-1990s. The full statement reads: Pernod Ricard and the Cuban dictatorship have perpetuated a lie since they began their collusion in 1993, and continue to do so today. Since Pernod will not share the true story of Havana Club Rum with their consumers (and with the world), we will. In 1959, Cubas communist revolutionaries confiscated and nationalised the Havana Club distillery and exiled the Arechabala family, who created Havana Club in 1934. While the revolutionaries seized the distillery and trademark by force, they could not steal the recipe or the expertise that it took to produce Havana Club. That expertise left Cuba with the Arechabala family when they were exiled from their homeland. In 1994, Ramon Arechabala passed the Havana Club recipe and production techniques to the Bacardi Family who are also Cuban exiles so that they could preserve the legacy and allow the brand to live on. Cubas revolutionaries confiscated and nationalised many family businesses. They imprisoned those who resisted, and tortured those who opposed them. But they did not know how to produce or distribute rum. In 1993, the Cuban regime found a willing partner to help them profit from their stolen trademark - French liquor conglomerate Pernod Ricard. Since then, the Cuban government and Pernod Ricard have generated millions of dollars by selling an imposter rum poured into a bottle and marketed under a stolen name. Unlike Pernod Ricard, the Bacardi and Arechabala families are not misleading consumers. Our Havana Club Rum is now proudly made in Puerto Rico. It is based on the original recipe and techniques that were used by the Arechabala to make Havana Club in Cuba prior to the Cuban revolution. Our new marketing campaign affirms that, while our rum is now made in Puerto Rico, our heart and soul will be Forever Cuban. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Labour should publish its gender pay gap, according to the partys shadow equalities minister. Dawn Butler, the MP for Brent Central, also said the party is currently setting up an LGBT+ advisory board which will include activists from a range of backgrounds, helping to shape Labours policy. Asked in an interview with House magazine whether the party should publish its gender pay gap, Ms Butler said: Yes I do. I think everybody should publish their gender pay gap. I think that you have to see it and measure it to be able to correct it and so it is time for everything to be corrected, she added. I really do think that 2018 is the year, well it is the year for women anyway 100 years since some women received the vote so I do think in 2018 we are starting as we mean to go on. Asking for pay parity is just a right and everybody needs to fulfil their obligations. Ms Butler also said that trans women should be considered in all female shortlists for the party if they want to be included. She said there was no need to make a big fuss about those who decide to transition, adding they should be allowed to be their true authentic self. It is understood that under Labour's selection procedures trans women can stand on all-women shortlists. We will take each step at a time, Ms Butler added. I think if a trans woman wanted to be included in an all-women shortlist then that should be considered. I just dont think people really need to make a big fuss about it. I mean if one of my team members came into the office and decided that James wanted to be called Jane and was now a woman I would not say prove it, what do you mean? I would just accept where he is and his journey or where she is and her journey and that she is being her true authentic self. I am in favour of equality. I dont really care how people want to live their lives, if they are not hurting anyone then equality is equality and you should fight for somebody elses rights as strongly as you fight for your own because that is how we get true equality. For me I want people to be their true authentic self whatever that may be. And she criticised Theresa May, claiming the Prime Minister is not a feminist in my eyes after her decision not to remove Toby Young from the board of the Office for Students following the reemergence of past homophobic and misogynistic comments. I dont think she is a friend of women, she added. I think that and I have got good reason for saying that 86 per cent of the cuts have fallen on the shoulders of women from her Government. And I just dont see how women could sit back and watch that happen. I think Toby Young and what he said about women and his misogynistic comments that Theresa May said shes not impressed with she should have put her foot down, she should have insisted that he went, instead of going on national TV to defend him. Our Prime Minister went on national TV to defend somebody that was completely inappropriate for the position. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Nigel Farage has blamed Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan for backing protests that could have deterred Donald Trump from visiting the UK. The ex-Ukip leader hit out after news broke overnight that the US President had cancelled a visit planned for next month to open his countrys new embassy in London. As well as the visit to open the embassy, Mr Trump is supposed to be in line for a state visit. But the idea appears to have been put on ice amid concern about demonstrations. Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Today programme, Mr Farage said: Its disappointing. Hes been to countries all over the world and yet hes not been to the one with whom hes closest. I think its disappointing. Maybe just maybe Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party planning mass protests, maybe those optics he didnt like the look of. News that Mr Trump had ditched his visit in February to open the new US embassy at Battersea was broken by the Daily Mail, which confirmed no new date had been offered for the trip. With demonstrators having threatened mass protests if Mr Trump ever set foot in the country, the President himself took to Twitter to explain the cancellation. 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 He claimed it was because the Obama administration had made a bad deal by moving the embassy, though official records show it was the previous Bush administration that had signed it off. Mr Trump is understood to be sending US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instead and while Downing Street has declined to comment, No 10 is aware the working visit had been postponed. Theresa May's office also continues to insist that the offer of a state visit to Mr Trump, with the pomp, ceremony and meeting with the Queen that it entails, still stands. Michael Wolff: Trump presidency will end if Russia investigation touches on his finances It was first made when the Prime Minister visited Washington last year and was pencilled in for later in 2017, but was pushed back as concern grew about protests, particularly at Buckingham Palace. In the intervening period Mr Trump strained relations further with a series of controversial comments about the UK, including attacking Mr Khan's handling of terror strikes and falling out with Ms May after promoting propaganda from a British far-right group. While Mr Khan and Mr Corbyn have both criticised the idea of Mr Trump coming to the UK, protests for when or if the President comes have been organised by independent groups. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage is having half his MEPs salary docked following a European Parliament investigation into the alleged misspending of EU funds. Mr Farage and seven other Ukip MEPs were last February accused of spending money meant to fund their offices on Ukip party matters leading the Parliaments financial watchdog to launch an investigation. The Guardian reports that Mr Farage will now pay back 35,500 (40,000) through having his salary withheld, after auditors concluded he had indeed misspent the funds. Recommended Nigel Farage meets with EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier The allegations centred around claims that EU-funded parliamentary assistants were actually working for the national party and doing work unrelated to the duties of MEPs. Under EU rules, full-time assistants to MEPs are not allowed to do paid work for national parties, while part-time assistants must have their second jobs vetted by the European Parliament watchdog to prevent conflicts of interest. Following the revelation, Mr Farage told the MailOnline website that the EU was just being vindictive to him because of his role in the Brexit vote and that he was being treated as guilty until proven innocent. He said he rejected the parliamentary authorities' claims. A spokesperson for the European Parliament authorities said she could not officially confirm the situation regarding Mr Farages salary. However, she said that in cases where an MEP cannot provide any justification or proof that their funded assistants are doing work directly related to the European mandate of the MEP, then the administration may recover the money by withholding part of the MEPs salary. Mr Farage has been an MEP in the European Parliament since 1999 (EPA) An Efdd Group spokesman told The Independent: There is a vindictive campaign by the European Parliament of selective persecution of Eurosceptic MEPs, parties and groups. This allegation is all part of their politically- motivated assault. Last month Mr Farage raised eyebrows when he said he was skint at 53 years old, despite being entitled to the 90,000-a-year MEPs salary and living in a 4 million townhouse. He will also be entitled to claim an EU pension, understood to be worth 73,000 a year. Ukip is more reliant on EU funding than other British political parties because of its success in European Parliament elections entitling it to Brussels-funded staff. Brexit Concerns Show all 26 1 /26 Brexit Concerns Brexit Concerns Brexit will put British patients at 'back of the queue' for new drugs Brexit will put British patients at the back of the queue for vital new drugs, the Government has been warned forcing them to wait up to two years longer A medicines regulator has raised the alarm over a likely decision to pull out of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the EU itself. ealth Secretary Jeremy Hunt dropped the bombshell , when he said he expected the UK would quit the EMA because it is subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice. Getty Images Brexit Concerns London to lose status as 'gateway to Europe' for banks One of Germanys top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as gateway to Europe for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the BundesbankGermanys central banktold a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were equivalent between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market, the BBC reports. Jason Hawkes Brexit Concerns Exodus The number of financial sector professionals in Britain and continental Europe looking for jobs in Ireland rocketed in the months after the UK voted to leave the European Union Shutterstock Brexit Concerns Brexit is making FTSE 100 executives richer Pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEOs performance -- and some stocks are soaring. ritish equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues back into the weakened pound. Sterlings fall also made UK stocks more affordable for overseas investors. Rex Brexit Concerns Theresa May: UK to leave single market Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". Getty Brexit Concerns Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court Getty Brexit Concerns Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns Migrants with luggage walk past a graffiti on a wall as they leave the 'Jungle' migrant camp, as part of a major three-day operation planned to clear the camp in Calais Getty Brexit Concerns Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp Getty Brexit Concerns The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) which distributes approximately 700 meals daily in the northern Paris camp states that it is noticing a spike in new migrant arrivals this week, potentially linked the the Calais 'jungle' camp closure - with around 1000 meals distributed today EPA Brexit Concerns Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain Reuters Brexit Concerns Many farmers across the country are voicing concerns that Brexit could be a dangerous step into the unknown for the farming industry Getty Brexit Concerns Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote PA Brexit Concerns The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging Getty Brexit Concerns Immigration officers deal with each member of the public seeking entry into the United Kingdom but on average, 10 a day are refused entry at this London airport and between 2008 and 2009, 33,100 people were detained at the airport for mainly passport irregularities Getty Brexit Concerns A number of global investment giants have threatened to move their European operations out of London if Brexit proves to have a negative impact on their businesses Getty Brexit Concerns Following the possibility of a Brexit the UK would be released from its renewable energy targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive and from EU state aid restrictions, potentially giving the government more freedom both in the design and phasing out of renewable energy support regimes Getty Brexit Concerns A woman looking at a chart showing the drop in the pound (Sterling) against the US Dollar in London after Britain voted to leave the EU Getty Brexit Concerns Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum Getty Brexit Concerns Applications from Northern Ireland citizens for Irish Passports has soared to a record high after the UK Voted in favour of Leaving the EU Getty Brexit Concerns NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit Getty Brexit Concerns The latest reports released by the UK Cabinet Office warn that expats would lose a range of specific rights to live, to work and to access pensions, healthcare and public services. The same reports added that UK citizens abroad would not be able to assume that these rights will be guaranteed in the future Getty Brexit Concerns A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain Reuters Brexit Concerns The collapse of Great Britain appears to have been greatly exaggerated given the late summer crowds visiting city museums, hotels, and other important tourist attractions Getty Brexit Concerns The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market Getty The Eurosceptic outfits failure to win MEPs in Westminster elections or hold onto council seats has deprived it of other potential sources of revenue such as short money, or the top-slicing of councillors allowances. Mr Farage has been an MEP for South East England since 1999. Though no longer leaders of Ukip, he chairs the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy parliamentary group, in which Ukip sits in the European Parliament. Close Trump referred to Haitians and Africans as coming from s***hole countries Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump was embroiled in a row extending half-way around the world after reportedly using the term shithole countries to describe Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations in a White House meeting about immigration. Seeking to limit the fallout from the reported comments, the US President described his language as tough but denied using a vulgar slur. The controversy came as he announced he was cancelling his visit to the UK and will now not be travelling London as expected to open the new US embassy next month. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said the US President had backed down in the face of huge public opposition in Britain and the likelihood of widespread protests. Mr Trump is quoted as having asked: Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?" The Republican said he had cancelled his London visit because of his opposition to the decision to move the US Embassy from Mayfair to Battersea. MPs did not rush to express their disappointment, with many suggesting the real reason for the cancellation was British public opposition to the visit. Former Labour leader Ed Miliband wrote in a tweet to Mr Trump: "It's because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message." Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Boris Johnson has launched an attack on Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan, accusing them of endangering the UK-US relationship after the President cancelled a scheduled visit to Britain. Echoing comments similar to that of the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, the Foreign Secretary said he would not allow the so-called special relationship to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall. The US is the biggest single investor in the UK yet Khan and Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk, Mr Johnson added on Twitter. But Downing Street was more reserved in its response to the cancellation of Mr Trumps planned visit to Britain next month to open his countrys new embassy in London. The US is one of our oldest and most valued allies and our strong and deep relationship will endure, a spokesperson said, reiterating the line that the invitation for a state visit has been extended and accepted with details confirmed in due course. It was also unclear this morning as to whether Downing Street was aware that Mr Trump was about to cancel the visit to open the embassy, with Theresa Mays spokesman limiting himself to saying that no date had ever been confirmed. He said: The opening of the US embassy is a matter for the US. Later, a Number 10 source confirmed that Mr Johnson had been speaking for the Government, telling The Independent: Boris expresses himself in his own inimitable way but we agree that any risk to the crucial US-UK relationship is not in our countrys best interest. Nigel Farage: Donald Trump cancelled UK visit over public protests led by Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Today programme after the US President confirmed a report in the Daily Mail that his planned visit at the end of February had been cancelled, Mr Farage aired similar views to the Foreign Secretary. Recommended Trump says he cancelled UK trip in protest at Obama sale of US embassy Its disappointing, he said. Hes been to countries all over the world and yet hes not been to the one with whom hes closest. I think its disappointing. Maybe just maybe Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party planning mass protests, maybe those optics he didnt like the look of. But Mr Johnsons comments also come amid almost universal international condemnation of Mr Trumps racist comments. On Friday it emerged that the US President had reportedly referred to Haiti and African countries as s***hole countries during a meeting with congressional leaders in the Oval Office. 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 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. Responding to the incendiary comments, the UN spokesperson said: If confirmed these are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word you can use but racist, he added. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Girls have reportedly been banned from crossing a river while menstruating by authorities in a central district of Ghana. As a result they are said to miss 20 out of 60 days of their school classes. They have also been blocked from crossing on Tuesdays due to an apparent directive from a river god that is being enforced by traditional leaders, BBC Pidgin, the corporation's West African digital service reported. Recommended The majority of women are ashamed of their periods The Ofin River ruling affects girls in Upper Denkyira East district. "Sometimes I think that we need to ask for some form of accountability from these gods who continue to bar a lot of things from happening, to account for how they have used the tremendous power that we have given them," said Shamima Muslim Alhassan, a United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) menstrual hygiene ambassador. The UN believes one in 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa miss school during their period - potentially totally a fifth of a school year. Elsewhere, a woman has died in a remote village in Nepal because of a tradition in which women are exiled from their homes and forced to live in huts during menstruation, said government administrator Tul Bahadur Kawcha. The 21-year-old is believed to have died from smoke inhalation from a fire she lit in the hut to keep warm in the freezing temperatures in the mountain village. She woman was found dead on Monday. Mr Kawcha said the tradition is still practiced in some remote villages despite a government ban on the practice and a law introduced last year to punish people who force women to follow the custom. The new law goes into effect in August this year, with violators who force women into exile during menstruation facing up to three months in prison or a fine of 3,000 Nepalese rupees (21). Many menstruating women are still forced to leave their homes and take shelter in unhygienic or insecure huts or cow sheds until their cycle ends, though the practice - called "Chhaupadi" - was actually outlawed a decade ago. Without any penalties, the custom continued in many parts of the majority Hindu Himalayan country, especially in the western hills. 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 While exiled in isolation, some women face bitter cold or attacks by wild animals. A report last year from America's prestigious Columbia University, which concluded the enduring taboo around periods was endangering women's health around the world. A lack of facilities "augments the challenges girls and women face in conducting daily activities while managing vaginal bleeding, including participating in school or work, going to the market or fetching water", the authors wrote. They added that a "culture of silence" meant many people were not able to tell the difference between healthy or normal bleeding and that which might indicate a health problem. Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} US President Donald Trump's remark that African nations and Haiti are "s***hole countries" and that the US would be ill-advised to accept immigrants from them has continued to stir strong responses. None more so than from the African Union (AU), which said it was "frankly alarmed" by the President's statement before addressing America's dark history in relation to the continent. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice," AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity." She adds that "we believe that a statement like this hurts our shared global values on diversity, human rights and reciprocal understanding." African governments quickly found themselves in an awkward position. As top recipients of US aid, some hesitated to jeopardise it by criticising Trump, especially as his administration has sought to slash foreign assistance. Unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say, South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told the Associated Press. But South Africa's ruling African National Congress called Trump's comments extremely offensive. Deputy secretary general Jesse Duarte said developing countries do have difficulties but the United States itself has millions of people out of work or without health care, and we would not deign to make comments as derogatory. South African opposition leader Mmusi Maimane called Trump's comments abhorrent... The hatred of [Barack] Obama's roots now extends to an entire continent. African media outlets and the continent's young, increasingly connected population were not being shy. Well, that is the perfect definition of racism. That is all I have to say, Kenyan entrepreneur Wangui Muraguri told the AP in his Nairobi office. Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate, South African media outlet Daily Maverick wrote. Many on the world's second most populous continent reached for their smartphones, long-practiced in defending the vast and varied region from easy stereotypes. While 40 percent of the world's poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund, the region also has billionaires, reality shows and a growing middle class. Some quickly decided to own Trump's vulgar language or throw it back in his face. Good morning from the greatest most beautiful 'shithole country' in the world!!! South African Broadcasting Corporation anchor Leanne Manas tweeted. As someone from South Shithole, Trevor is deeply offended by the president's remarks, The Daily Show tweeted of its South African-born host, Trevor Noah. In Kenya, East Africa's economic hub, political activist Boniface Mwangi pleaded: Please don't confuse the (hash)shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent. Trump's comments highlighted months of concerns about his lack of focus on Africa, including empty ambassadorial posts in key countries like South Africa, Egypt, Congo and Somalia. A list maintained by the Washington-based American Foreign Service Association says eight such posts are vacant. Trump has expressed negative opinions about the continent in the past. Every penny of the $7 billion going to Africa as per Obama will be stolen - corruption is rampant! he tweeted in 2013. The US President is hurting himself both at home and abroad with his latest comments, some Africans said. He has not only insulted Africans, he has also insulted African-Americans, said Sylvester Odion Akhaine, associate professor of international relations at the Lagos State University in Nigeria. Internationally, such language will deepen the isolation of the United States, a country that is already losing its global prestige. 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 As outrage spread, the US government's own Africa Media Hub tried to put out the flames. Without directly referring to Trump's statement, it tweeted that US remains committed to working together w/Africans to realise the promise of a more peaceful, more productive, more prosperous 21st century Africa. US deeply respects the people of (hash) Africa & values its partnerships with them. The controversy is unlikely to end there. The AP contributed to this report Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Fox News hosts have jumped to the defence of Donald Trump after the US President reportedly referred to El Salvador, Haiti and unspecified African nations as s***hole countries. The billionaire made the comment during a meeting with congressional leaders in the Oval Office on Thursday, according to US media. Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? Mr Trump said after being presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants from the countries in question. He asked to know why the US would not instead accept people from places like Norway, whose prime minister he had met with the day before. In a statement, the White House defended Mr Trump's policies on immigration and did not deny he had made such comments. Despite them being met with widespread condemnation, prominent Trump supporter and Fox News host Tucker Carlson attempted to justify the Presidents words. Option A: El Salvador isn't a s***hole, so they don't need 17 years of Temporary Protected Status, and migrants from there should be sent home immediately, he wrote on Twitter. Option B: El Salvador is, in fact, a s***hole. Donald Trump claims US sold Norway 'F-52' aircraft that doesn't exist Nearly 200,000 Salvadorans were given Temporary Protected Status immigration permits in 2001 after a series of earthquakes rocked the Central American country. Jesse Watters, a political commentator for Fox News, offered a different defence. I think its either fake news or if its true, this is how the forgotten men and women in America talk at the bar, he said. This is how Trump relates to people. If you are in a bar in Wisconsin and you are thinking they are bringing in a bunch of Haiti people or El Salvadorians [sic] or people from Niger, this is how some people talk. 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 justification had echoes of Mr Trumps locker-room talk defence over his now infamous 2005 boast about being able to sexually assault women. Greg Gutfield, co-host of the Fox's talk show The Five, admitted the President was wrong, before trying to justify the comment. Youve got to ask why cant citizens stay in their country and fix their country? he said. Why is it that they cant do that? How do you describe a country where its impossible for you to fix it? He went on to compare apartments he had lived in to the countries Mr Trump criticised. Everyone has lived in an s-hole, he said. Haiti has formally summoned an American official to explain what Mr Trump meant by his comments, according to MSNBC. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} US President Donald Trump has confirmed he will not travel to the UK to open the new American embassy. Trump was reportedly concerned about the welcome he would receive in the UK. The President is understood to be sending US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instead. But writing on Twitter, Mr Trump said he thought the embassy's move from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms, south London, 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! The United States announced plans to move from its current embassy building in Mayfair in 2008 and the new building will open on 16 January. 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's decision not to come to the country comes despite Prime Minister Theresa May saying that a future visit was still on the cards last week. Mrs May controversially extended the offer of a state visit when she became the first world leader to meet Mr Trump in the White House following his inauguration last year. Since then, however, the President has indicated he does not want to take up the invitation if he is going to face mass demonstrations. Last month, the White House said it would announce details soon of Mr Trump's proposed visit to the UK. Mrs May and Mr Trump fell out spectacularly in November over his retweeting of anti-Muslim videos posted online by the deputy leader of the far-right Britain First group, Jayda Fransen. Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images At the time, the PM said Mr Trump was wrong to retweet the videos, and the US president hit back at Mrs May on Twitter by telling her to focus on destructive radical Islamic terrorism in the UK, rather than on him. PA Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A father reported his own son in to the police after he found nude photos of a toddler on his phone. Police in O'Fallon, Missouri, said 17-year-old Andrew Spensberger faced charges of "possession of child pornography" over the "inappropriate" pictures of a two-year-old child. Andrew's father Paul Spensberger called the police after confiscating his son's phone as punishment for other "bad behaviour", local TV station Fox 2 reported. Police said the pictures were of a relative of the father's girlfriend. Police said Andrew had planned to sell the photos "for cash". According to US media reports, when confronted by his father he said he had taken the pictures to sell to a high school classmate who he suspected of being a paedophile. Andrew, who suffers from behavioural problems and attends a special needs school, said he had hoped to get $350 for the photograph and needed the money as he owed it to others, it was reported. Paul Spensberger was quoted by the Mail Online as saying he felt he had no choice but to contact the police in the hope his son, who has been in trouble for theft in the past, would learn a lesson. The Mail Online said the father said he "[didn't] know if [he] would do the same thing again now", adding that Andrew "feels like s***", and is "scared, facing time in prison". 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 Spensberger later told Fox 2 that he denies saying some things that are being quoted by another media outlet. Andrew was handed a Class D felony charge by the St Charles County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, police said, with a $10,000 bond for a first offence. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Rampant crime and gang activity in Mexico has prompted the US State Department to issue a stringent travel advisory, warning tourists to completely avoid five Mexican states, an advisory level often reserved for nations at war. The State Departments highest do not travel advisory places the states of Colima, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Guerrero at the same warning level as war-ravaged Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The advisory delivered a stark reminder of the formerly ritzy seaside resort city Acapulco fall from grace. Once a glamorous playground for the Hollywood jet set, including Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth, the resort in Guerrero state now has one of the highest murder rates in the world, having fallen victim to vicious gang warfare in recent years. Armed groups operate independently of the government in many areas of Guerrero. Members of these groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence towards travellers, said the State Department. Overall, the State Department placed Mexico at the second of its four-stage travel advisory levels. Exercise increased caution in Mexico due to crime... violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, car-jacking, and robbery, is widespread, it said. The advisory underscored the limitations that the US government faces in providing emergency services in many areas of Mexico because US government employees are prohibited from travelling to those areas. 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 Clashes between rival drug gangs contributed to a record number of murders in Mexico last year, according to official data, dealing a fresh blow to President Enrique Pena Nietos pledge to bring gang violence under control with presidential elections due in July 2018. In recent months, about a dozen politicians, officials and candidates for elected office have been killed in states where there are struggles between criminal groups for the control of drug trafficking routes. Reuters Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A US rapper who wrote a song called Sell Drugsz has been sentenced to three years in prison for selling drugs. Michael Persaud, who performs under the name Montana Millz, was sentenced in Providence, Rhode Island, for trafficking heroin and fentanyl a painkiller and anaesthetic often mixed with heroin that is more potent than morphine. The 30-year-old had sold an East Providence undercover detective drugs several times over a four-month period, starting in October 2016, according to prosecutors. Persaud is also awaiting sentencing in Pennsylvania for similar charges (Instagram) Authorities believe Persaud sold the detective nearly three-quarters of an ounce of fentanyl and less than a 10th of an ounce of heroin. The rapper, from Johnston, denied the charges against him. Prosecutors had originally asked for a six-year prison term, but Persaud's lawyer, Matthew Smith, said the three-year sentence was "fair and just." 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 Persaud is awaiting sentencing in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, after a jury convicted him of 16 drug trafficking and conspiracy charges in August 2017. Fentanyl has been linked to an alarming rise in drug deaths in north America. Pop legend Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose, according to autopsy results released last year. Montana MIllz other songs include Picture Me Rollin, Groupie Hoes and Armed and Dangerous. Additional reporting by AP Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} 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, Chicago prosecutors said on Thursday. Cook County juvenile court judge Patricia Mendoza sentenced the two 15-year-olds on Wednesday and ordered them to register as sex offenders, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the district attorney. The pair pleaded guilty to child pornography in November. They were originally charged with aggravated sexual assault and manufacturing and dissemination of child pornography. Police said at the time of the attack in March that five or six males had assaulted the girl, whose family contacted authorities when she went missing. People who were watching the attack live did not call police, they said. Reuters Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump referred to "s***hole countries" during a White House meeting about immigration reform "repeatedly", the Democrat Senator Dick Durbin has said. He was responding after the US President tweeted to say he "did not use this language". In the course of his comments he said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist ... I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday, Mr Durbin said. Join our live blog as the world reacts to Donald Trump's alleged comments. He added: The President started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly. After being presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African countries, Mr Trump reportedly said: Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? 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 He asked to know why the US could not instead accept people from places like Norway, whose prime minister he had met with the day before. Mr Trump eventually issued a denial on Twitter, saying the language he used was "tough" but different to what was claimed. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country," he continued. "Never said 'take them out'. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" But Mr Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois, offered a scathing version of events from inside the Oval Office on Thursday. UN say alleged Trump comment is "racist" When the question was raised about Haitians for example he said Haitians, do we need more Haitians? Mr Durbin said. And then he went on to describe the immigration from Africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure, thats when he used these vile and vulgar comments, calling the nations they come from s***holes. The exact word used by the President not just once but repeatedly. Mr Durbin said he told the 71-year-old how painful the word chain migration was for many African-Americans whose ancestors had arrived in the US as slaves. Mr Trump simply replied with Thats a good line, according to the senator. The term chain migration tends to be used by immigration hardliners when referring to the process of residents sponsoring family members to join them in the US. On Friday, a UN human rights official branded Mr Trump's alleged comments "shocking and shameful", and said "there is no other word you can use but 'racist'". "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 's***holes', whose entire populations who are not white, are therefore not welcome," UN human rights spokesperson Rupert Coleville said. The African Union (AU), a group representing all 55 countries on the continent, said it was "frankly alarmed" by the US President's alleged comments. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice," AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity." Mr Trump made immigration reform a central theme of his campaign and on Thursday met with members of Congress in an attempt to thrash out a deal. Since taking office, he has announced he will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several groups in the US, including Haitians and Salvadorans. TPS is an immigration status for certain countries experiencing crises such as natural disasters or war. Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump's reported remark branding Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations as "s***hole countries" has been branded racist by a UN human rights official. "If confirmed these are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States," spokesperson Rupert Coleville said. "There is no other word you can use but 'racist'." "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 's***holes', whose entire populations who are not white, are therefore not welcome." The US President made the comment during a meeting with congressional leaders in the Oval Office on Thursday, according to US media. Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? Mr Trump said after being presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants from the countries in question. 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 He asked to know why the US would not instead accept people from places like Norway, whose prime minister he had met with the day before. The White House defended Mr Trump's policies on immigration and failed to deny he had made such comments. Mr Coleville added: "This isn't just a story about vulgar language, it's about opening the door to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia." Mr Trump eventually issued a denial on Twitter, saying the language he used was "tough" but different to what was claimed. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country," he continued. "Never said 'take them out'. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" The African Union (AU), a group representing all 55 countries on the continent, said it was "frankly alarmed" by the US President's alleged comments. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice," AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity." Donald Trump forced the BBC to say 'sh*****e' during morning bulletin Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, compared Mr Trump's comments to Nazism. "To the Nazi's, the purest Aryans were the Nordic people of Germany and Norway," he wrote on Twitter, alluding to Mr Trump's complaint that more Norwegians were not allowed into the US. "Connection?" he added. Mr Trump made immigration reform a central theme of his campaign and on Thursday was meeting with members of Congress in an attempt to thrash out a deal. Since taking office, he has announced he will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several groups in the US, including Haitians and Salvadorans. TPS is an immigration status for certain countries experiencing crises such as natural disasters or war. Haitians became eligible for TPS following a 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean island nation, and from which it is yet to recover. The White House said it will end the designation for Haiti by July 2019. On 8 January the Department of Homeland Security announced it was ending TPS status for around 200,000 Salvadorans. The privilege was given to El Salvador following a series of earthquakes in 2001. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} CNN host Don Lemon has labelled Donald Trump racist after reports the President called Haiti and African states s***hole countries. Opening his programme on Thursday night, Mr Lemon said: The President of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that. His comments come amid international outrage that Mr Trump described Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations as s***hole countries in a meeting with US politicians on Thursday. Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? Mr Trump said in an Oval Office meeting while discussing protections for immigrants, the Washington Post reported. Mr Trump reportedly suggested the US should bring in more immigrants from Norway, whose Prime Minister he met with earlier this week. The CNN host called the Presidents comments disgusting, adding there is other language he would like to use if he were not on television. But you know what? Theyre not shocking, Mr Lemon said. Theyre not even really surprising. Because this is who Donald Trump is. Fellow CNN host Anderson Cooper also called the presidents remarks racist earlier on Thursday. The White House has made no attempt to deny Mr Trump made the comments. Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people, a statement from White House spokesman Raj Shah said. Like other countries 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 presidents comments have been widely condemned. 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 Mia Love, a Utah Republican whose family came from Haiti, said Mr Trumps remark was unkind and divisive in a statement posted on Twitter. David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, said Mr Trumps comments were a betrayal of Americas future as well as of its history. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Hillary Clinton has blasted President Donald Trumps reported description of Haiti and African nations as shithole countries, calling his views racist. The anniversary of the devastating earthquake 8 years ago is a day to remember the tragedy, honor the resilient people of Haiti, & affirm Americas commitment to helping our neighbors, Ms Clinton tweeted. Instead, were subjected to Trumps ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesnt look like him. Mr Trump has denied that he used the term shithole countries to describe Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations in a White House meeting about immigration. Seeking to limit the fallout from the reported comments that triggered outrage around the world, the US President described his language as tough but denied using a vulgar slur. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? he said, according to the Washington Post, after being presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants from those countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal. 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 He added that the US should admit more people from places like Norway. Despite Mr Trump's denials, a top Democratic senator - Dick Durbin - said the President repeatedly said these hate-filled things. Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Norwegians have expressed solidarity with Haiti and several African nations by saying they do not want to go to the US, describing it using the alleged words of Donald Trump as a s***hole. The US President has provoked fresh controversy after allegedly asking a group of senators why the US had to allow in immigrants from s***hole countries in Africa and the Caribbean rather than from places like Norway. He was immediately denounced as a "racist" who praised white immigrants over ethnic minorities with the UN calling the comments shocking and shameful. But Norwegians and their Scandinavian cousins on Twitter decided to mock Mr Trump and America itself instead by asking why they would want to go to a country without free healthcare and rampant gun crime. One user, Christian Christensen, a Stockholm-based American professor, wrote: Of course people from Norway would love to move to a country where people are far more likely to be shot, live in poverty, get no healthcare because theyre poor, get no paid parental leave or subsidized daycare and see fewer women in political power. Another, Christian Gerhard, said: Being from Norway and the country Trump wants immigrants from. Would not even consider to emigrate to s***hole USA as long as Donald Trump is president there. Meanwhile, Kathinka Froystad addressed the President directly, saying: Dear Mr President, I am glad you enjoyed meeting my prime minister, but I am quite happy where I am and would not even dream of settling down in the US during your s***hole, racist and misogynist regime. Others pointed out that when Norwegians were emigrating to the US 100 years ago, it was to escape the war and poverty that many modern immigrants and refugees face. While others said Mr Trump did not perhaps know what he was letting himself in for by welcoming more Norwegians as the countrys egalitarian politics clashes with his winner takes all brand of nationalism. Mr Trump has denied the allegations saying he used tough language in the meeting but did not used those words to describe Haiti or any African country. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Trump administration is attempting to block another undocumented immigrant in federal custody from seeking an abortion for the fourth time in as many months. A 17-year-old girl has been pushed.. further into her pregnancy after the federal government denied her attempt to get an abortion with her own money two weeks ago, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday. The denied abortion is the latest example of the efforts taken by Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Director Scott Lloyd, a former antiabortion activist, to keep young women seeking refuge in the United States from access to abortion. Under the directive of a memo written by Mr Lloyd last year, at least three other women have been told they cant receive the procedure, and advocates are concerned there may be many more going unnoticed. What haunts me What keeps me up at night is the thought that there are young women out there that we might never know about, who are forced to carry their pregnancies to term against their will because the government coerced them, persuaded them to do so, and they will never have a voice, they will never get to us, Brigitte Amiri, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Reproductive Freedom Project, told The Independent. So far, the attempts to deny these young women from having abortions has been thwarted once the ACLU has gotten involved, but the specific federal policy which has its roots in the administration of President George W Bush has remained in tact. Of those three young women who the government has previously tried to deny abortion access, at least one was pregnant as a result of rape. 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 Lloyd has personally pushed for stronger anti-abortion policies in the agency he oversees, saying that the agency is in custody of the young women and their children, and that it cannot allow killing while those parties are in its care. [W]e are being asked to participate in killing a human being in our care, Mr Lloyd wrote in a memo discussing the rape victim's pregnancy, which was unsealed as a part of a lawsuit last month. I cannot direct the program to proceed in this manner. We 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. The ACLU argues that denying these young women access to abortions is a violation of their constitutional rights, and note that the Supreme Court has upheld abortion as a constitutional right. The latest young woman, referred to as Jane Moe in court filings, has not received a court date so far, but Ms Amiri says she expects one promptly. A spokesman with the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families -- which runs ORR -- said in a statement that the administration does not believe it is its responsibility to facilitate abortions, but that Jane Moe has options if she chooses them. "The Jane in this case, Jane Moe -- who entered the country illegally -- has the option to voluntarily depart to her home country or find a suitable sponsor," the spokesman said. "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." Ms Amiri, responding to that reasoning, said that the logic is "absurd", and noted that many of the women had fled dangerous conditions in their home countries. The ACLU is pushing for the Supreme Court to recognition a class-action lawsuit from these young women, which they hope could overturn the policy that allows the government to attempt to deny abortions in the first place. Until then, abortion cases will continue to be considered peace-meal. I think the idea is, yes, we have won on behalf of these young women, Ms Amiri said, expressing concern that keeping the anti-abortion policy in place could push women into the shadows, but until we get this policy struck down, theres the potential that well never hear from these women. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump has rejected reports that he ranted about immigration from s***hole countries in a closed-door discussion at the White House. The US President said there was a tough meeting but that this was not the language used. His denial followed a series of tweets in which he again called for a merit-based system of immigration. Addressing reports about his use of expletives, Mr Trump tweeted: 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! According to the Washington Post, when plans were floated to protect some immigrants as part of the DACA deal Mr Trump asked: Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here? Rupert Colville, a UN human rights spokesman, called Mr Trumps offensive remarks about Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations racist, saying there is no other word you can use. But the President later reiterated his denial, adding: Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Democratic senator Dick Durbin, who was present at the Oval Office meeting, said during a press conference on Friday that reports of Mr Trumps hate-filled, vile and racist language were accurate. The President used the word s***hole not just once but repeatedly, Mr Durbin said at an event in Chicago. Recommended Trump says he cancelled UK trip in protest at Obama sale of US embassy Earlier on Friday morning Mr Trump had criticised a so-called bipartisan DACA deal as not going far enough in protecting the US from large numbers of people from high-crime countries. The DACA programme Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals offered work permits and a reprieve from deportation to immigrants brought to the US as children. Mr Trump ended the scheme but said he wanted it enshrined in law alongside other immigration measures including his promised border wall. On Friday he tweeted: The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards. Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly. I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs. I want to fund our military, not do a Dem defund.... Because of the Democrats not being interested in life and safety, DACA has now taken a big step backwards. The Dems will threaten shutdown, but what they are really doing is shutting down our military, at a time we need it most. Get smart, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! 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 Following his denial, he continued: Sadly, Democrats want to stop paying our troops and government workers in order to give a sweetheart deal, not a fair deal, for DACA. Take care of our Military, and our Country, FIRST! Leaders abroad reacted strongly to Mr Trumps reported comments, with the African Union saying it was frankly alarmed by the language allegedly used given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves. This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity, spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo added. Botswanas government said it had hauled in the US ambassador there to clarify whether Mr Trump considered the southern African country a s***hole. Ugandas state minister for international relations, Henry Okello Oryem, called Mr Trumps alleged remarks unfortunate and regrettable. And Haitis government said it was deeply shocked and outraged, adding that these insulting and reprehensible statements in no way reflect the virtues of wisdom, restraint and discernment that must be cultivated by any high political authority. Reports of Mr Trumps comments and his subsequent denials came as he announced he would not visit the UK to open the new US embassy in Battersea. The Nine Elms Lane site overlooking the Thames was an off location and had cost the country $1.2bn (880,000,000), the President said. However, the US ambassador to the UK writes in the London Evening Standard today that the new building is the most secure, hi-tech and environmentally friendly embassy that the United States has ever built. Contradicting Mr Trump, Robert Johnson said it had not cost the US taxpayer a cent as it was funded by the sale of other property. The previous embassy in Grosvenor Square was in a perfect location, he admitted, but security concerns after 9/11 had forced the move. Anti-Trump campaigners had promised to hold massive protests if the billionaire's trip to Britain went ahead. In response to Mr Trumps announcement, London mayor Sadiq Khan said: Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems hes finally got that message. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Despite his hatred of the Iran nuclear deal, President Donald Trump has left the accord intact for now but has given European allies 120 days to agree to a new deal or the US will pull out. Mr Trump is waiving nuclear sanctions against Iran for the last time, administration officials said comments that were quickly followed by a stark warning from the President: Either fix the deals disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw. The action is the third time Mr Trump has given a reprieve to the agreement negotiated by the Obama administration, even though he has called it the worst deal ever. Recommended Trump official says he expects new sanctions to be imposed on Iran Mr Trump has also approved sanctions against the head of Irans judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, who the administration holds culpable for the violent crackdown on recent anti-government protests. Mr Larijani is among 14 individuals and entities that were designated on Friday to be sanctioned by the administration for human rights abuses, censorship in Iran and for providing support to Iranian weapons proliferators. The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. We are targeting the Iranian regime, including the head of Irans judiciary, for its appalling mistreatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest against their government. We are also targeting Irans ballistic missile program and destabilising activities, which it continues to prioritise over the economic well-being of the Iranian people. Mr Trump said in a statement he is open to working with Congress on bipartisan legislation regarding Iran. But any bill I sign must include four critical components, he said. First, it must demand that Iran allow immediate inspections at all sites requested by international inspectors. Second, it must ensure that Iran never even comes close to possessing a nuclear weapon. 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 He continued: Third, unlike the nuclear deal, these provisions must have no expiration date. My policy is to deny Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon not just for ten years, but forever. If Iran does not comply with any of these provisions, American nuclear sanctions would automatically resume. Fourth, the legislation must explicitly state in United States law for the first time that long-range missile and nuclear weapons programmes are inseparable, and that Irans development and testing of missiles should be subject to severe sanctions. Under the 2015 agreement with six nations, Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear programme for at least 10 years in exchange for the loosening of economic sanctions that had crippled its economy. The signatories of the accord were the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the EU. After the Presidents announcement on Friday, Obama officials who helped negotiate the 2015 agreement reiterated that the accord ensures Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. It is also critical that the US remains part of the deal, they said. Wendy Sherman, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs during the Obama administration, said on a press call that it would hurt the USs credibility if Mr Trump does not maintain the agreement. A senior Trump administration official said Fridays decision represents the next step in the strategy that Mr Trump announced last October, when the President said he had chosen not to certify that Tehran was complying with the deal. However, at the time, Mr Trump also stopped short of scrapping the accord altogether, saying he wanted his administration to work with Congress and other nations to address the deals many serious flaws. Even though Mr Trump has now imposed a 120-day deadline on his European partners, it does not appear like they have the appetite to negotiate a follow-on agreement regarding Iran. On Thursday, European foreign ministers met in Brussels with Irans foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, seemingly to press Tehran about its destabilising activities in the Middle East. I dont think anybody has so far produced a better alternative, said the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson. 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 EUs foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, said, The deal is working it is delivering on its main goal which means keeping the Iranian nuclear program in check and under close surveillance. During a phone call, French President Emmanuel Macron also urged Mr Trump not to scrap the deal. Mr Macron reaffirmed Frances determination to see the agreement strictly enforced and the importance for all of its signatories to abide by it, his office said in a statement. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump has suggested he has a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader he previously threatened to totally destroy over the country's increasingly serious nuclear threats. I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, Mr Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised. North Korea has repeatedly threatened to turn the US into darkness and ashes using the nuclear weapons they are developing at a surprisingly rapid rate. Though Mr Trump once said he would be honoured to meet Mr Kim, he has increasingly responded to Pyongyang's threats with bombastic statements of his own. Last week, after Mr Kim spoke of having a nuclear button on his desk during a public address, Mr Trump responded by tweeting that he, too, had a nuclear button and that was much bigger and more powerful than Mr Kim's. Mr Trump attempted to explain the aggressive tweets on Thursday, telling the Journal: Youll see that a lot with me, and then all of the sudden somebodys my best friend. I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. Im a very flexible person. North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Show all 13 1 /13 North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Pyongyang residents react after the news of the successful launch of the new intercontinental ballistic missile AFP/Getty Images North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un signing an order to test-fire the newly developed inter-continental ballistic missile KRT via AP Video North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch A news broadcast displays Kim Jong Un's signed document AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch People cheer as they watch the news broadcast announcing Kim Jong Un's order to test-fire the new inter-continental ballistic missile AFP/Getty Images North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Residents react after the document signing AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Pyongyang residents celebrate Kim Jong Un's announcement AFP/Getty North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Cheering Pyongyang residents react AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch To counter North Korea's missile test, South Korea fired missiles into the East Sea The Defence Ministry/Yonhap via REUTERS North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch The Hyunmu-2 missiles firing during the drill South Korean Defense Ministry vi North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch The exercise was carried out in an attempt to counter Kim Jong Un's order South Korea Defense Ministry via AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch The South Korean army continue to carry out military exercises AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Where K-9 self-propelled howitzers were taking part in a drill Rex Features North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch US soldiers are also present in the border city of Paju AFP/Getty Images Despite his previous, inflammatory rhetoric, Mr Trumps comments seem to suggest a newfound willingness to engage with the North Korean leader something he has previously chided Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for suggesting. Asked if he had spoken with Mr Kim, the President said cryptically: I dont want to comment on it. Im not saying I have or havent. I just dont want to comment. North Korea and South Korea open line of communication North Korea recently sat down with South Korea for their first diplomatic talks since 2015. While they reached no consensus on Pyongyangs nuclear programme, the two countries did agree to have North Korea participate in the upcoming Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. On a phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in after the talks, Mr Trump suggested he was open to discussion between the US and North Korea as well. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the President would consider the idea at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances. At the same time, US troops are reportedly training in the kind of tunnel warfare and buying the specific kinds of gear necessary to wage war in North Korea. Multiple outlets have also reported that the Trump administration is debating the possibility of pursuing a bloody nose strategy a first, targeted strike to deter North Korea from proceeding with its weapons testing. South Korea said Mr Trump denied perusing a "bloody nose" strategy in his call with Mr Moon this week. Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump walked out of a photo call to shouts of Mr President, are you a racist? from reporters, amid a growing storm over allegations he referred to Haiti and several African nations as s***hole countries. The President was signing a proclamation honouring Martin Luther King Jr Day in the Oval Office, alongside Vice President Mike Pence and several members of Congress. As Mr Trump got up to leave the room after the signing, several members of the press asked for him to comment on the allegations in the Washington Post that he had asked why the US should accept more immigrants from Haiti and s***hole countries in Africa, rather than nations like Norway. One reporter asked: "Mr President, will you give an apology for the statement yesterday?", before another said: "Mr President, did you refer to African nations as s***holes?" As the leader walked out of the room, another shouted: "Mr President, are you a racist?" Mr Trump, who is known for his confrontational style when dealing with journalists questioning his comments, policies or his record, appeared to ignore the reporters and left the room without responding to any of the questions. 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 Mr Trump allegedly made the comments in a meeting with US senators on Thursday to discuss the status of people subjected to the DACA scheme known as "Dreamers" who came to the country illegally as children and were given protection from deportation by former president, Barack Obama. He had announced he was ending this protection last year but the move was blocked by a federal judge on Tuesday. In the meeting, a bipartisan group of senators proposed a compromise which Mr Trump rejected. The Republican denied making the comments in the meeting, saying he used "tough language" but suggested had not referred to the countries as "s***holes". 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 The comments have attracted a furore among the international community with the Haitian ambassador to the US formally asking that a US official explain the remarks. A senator present at the meeting subsequently insisted Mr Trump had used the term "s***holes" repeatedly, adding: In the course of his comments he said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist ... I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday." Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} During a meeting of bipartisan senators at the White House on Thursday, Donald Trump reportedly called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations s***hole countries. The comments were the latest in a long history of racist remarks by Trump. In 2017, as president, he came under fire for saying there were "many fine people" on both sides of the Charlottesville protest which included white supremacists. But his campaign was accused of being rooted in racism from the start; calling Mexicans rapists, battling parents of a Muslim soldier killed during war, supporting violence against minority protesters at his rally and vehemently supporting a wall between the United States and Mexico. Trumps comments this week saw a plethora of pundits calling him a racist. Anderson Cooper said Trumps comments werent racial or racially charged, they were racist. Jimmy Kimmel expressed his disbelief over Trumps statements saying it was unfathomable it is that hes running our country. CNN's Anderson Cooper: 'The people of Haiti have... fought back against more injustice than our President ever has' Republican Rep. Mia Love fired back at Trumps comments as well saying, The President comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nations values. This behaviour is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took an oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with. Former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton honoured the people of Haiti and called out Trumps ignorant, racist views. A lot of people were furious with Trumps comments, but not everyone was outraged. Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren asked, If they arent s***hole countries, why dont their citizens stay there? The Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro said the problem with Trumps remarks was that he used a curse word and that he said it behind closed doors unlike Joe Biden, while Conservative pundit Ann Coulter said that s***hole countries should be given respect by being called s***hole nations. Conservative host Tucker Carlson defended Trumps s***hole statements saying, Those places are dangerous, they're dirty, they're corrupt, and they're poor, and that's the main reason those immigrants are trying to come here. White supremacist leader David Duke called Trumps comments the perfect truth saying he should act on it. In response to the right-wing defences of Trumps statement, people have slammed them on Twitter. Jesse McLaren rhetorically asked Lahren Is South Dakota a s***hole because you came out of it? One Twitter user made a meme featuring Ann Coulter holding a sign saying Im a miserable person who peddles hate to make money off of dumb republicans. In the day following Trumps explosive remarks, the United States ambassador to Panama has quit. Hes had reporters shout at him, are you racist? and the UN has condemned his comments as racist. Trump has denied using the word s***ole in the meeting, however Dick Durbin has claimed he used it repeatedly. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Comments made behind closed doors in the Oval Office by President Donald Trump have reverberated throughout the world, leaving American officials scrambling to contain the damage. Mr Trump was reported Thursday as having called Haiti and African nations s***hole countries during a meeting with Congressional leadership as they discussed proposals for an immigration policy overhaul. The specific comments which Mr Trump later denied specifically, though, perhaps not in tone have led Americas diplomatic efforts to engage in damage control, while foreign nations and critics have heaped on criticism. Recommended African Union condemns Trump comments The US deeply respects the people of #Africa & values partnerships w/ them. There has been no change in our dedication to partners & friends across the Continent, the US embassy in South Africa tweeted following the reports. We remain committed to working together to realise the promise of a more prosperous 21st century Africa. The US State Department's office of African Affairs tweeted similar sentiments. "The United States will continue to robustly, enthusiastically and forcefully engage in #Africa, promoting this vital relationship, and to listen and build on the trust and views we share with our African partners," the office tweeted. 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 In Haiiti, the top US official there was reportedly summoned to meet with Haiti's president to explain the President's remarks. That official, Robin Diallo, is planning on reiterating America's strong relationship with Haiti, and on listening to the Haitian leader's concerns, according to an US official. And, while the American media has been hesitant to call Mr Trumps actions and comments in the White House racist, others had no problem with doing so following the recently alleged comments. US diplomats may have been scrambling to right the ship, but the criticisms were coming in like a tidal wave. There is no other word one can use but racist This isnt just a story about vulgar language, its about opening the door to humanitys worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia, Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as s***holes, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome. The African Union also joined in to note the overtly racist tones. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice," Ebba Kalondo, a spokesman for the union, said. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity of opportunity." Reports surfaced indicating that Mr Trump had used the vulgar language while meeting with several top members of Congress, wondering out loud why the United States should accept immigrants from Haiti or Africa and why the US cant only accept people from places like Norway. Mr Trump had recently met with the leader of Norway. The President, according to sources who had been in the room, was particularly upset with the American visa lottery system, which he has frequently denounced publicly. Americas visa lottery system was created in 1996 with he passage of the Immigration Act, which sought to create greater immigration diversity for the US. While the President has said that the program allows countries to send over their worst people, the program does impose specific educational or training requirements to qualify, which can be met with two years of training or work experience or a high school degree. The program is separate from Temporary Protected Status designations, which have allowed people from Haiti and El Salvador to receive temporary legal status in the US. The Trump administration has lifted those protections for those countries, thrusting the legal future of nearly a million people who have benefited from the program into question. Mr Trumps sh***hole comments led some countries to throw some shade at the President by way of a formal inquiry. Botswana, for instance, released a statement condemning the comments and pointing out that the two countries have enjoyed an amicable relationship and regularly see citizens travel between the two. The Botswana Government has also enquired from the US Government through the Ambassador, to clarify if Botswana is regarded as a s***hole country given that there are Botswana nationals residing in the US, and also that some of Botswana may wish to visit the US, the release read. The former prime minister of Haiti, Laurent Lamothe, who resigned in 2014, attempted to shame Mr Trump. SHAME ON TRUMP! The world is witnessing a new low today with this #S***holeNations remark! totally unacceptable! uncalled for moreover it shows a lack [of] respect and IGNORANCE never seen before in the recent history of the US by any President he tweeted. Enough is enough!! As for Norway, the country that Mr Trump held up as the example of the kind of place hed like to receive immigrants from, they werent sold on the Presidents deal. On behalf of Norway: Thanks, but no thanks, Torbjoern Saetre, a politician in Norways Conservative Party, tweeted. We are not coming. Cheers from Norway, one woman wrote. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump has denied that he used the term shithole countries to describe Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations in a White House meeting about immigration. Seeking to limit the fallout from the reported comments that triggered outrage around the world, the US President described his language as tough but denied using a vulgar slur. However, asked if he was a racist, the US leader stormed out of the White Houses Roosevelt Room where he had been attending a Martin Luther King Jr Day event. The question was posed by American Urban Radio Networks White House Correspondent and CNN contributor April Ryan, who initially asked if he was going to give an apology for the statement yesterday? She followed up with: Mr President, are you a racist? He did not answer as he hurriedly left the room. Mr Trump has been widely criticised for the comments he reportedly made during a discussion about immigration from African nations. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? he said, according to the Washington Post, after being presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants from those countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal. He added that the US should admit more people from places like Norway. Mr Trump did not initially challenge the comments, which were heavily criticised by diplomats and both rival politicians and members of his own party. He later took to Twitter to deny that he had used the phrase. The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used, he wrote, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, an Obama-era action that gives people brought to the US illegally as children the temporary right to live, study and work in America. He added: What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made a big setback for DACA! A separate tweet said that he never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. He claimed his comments had been made up by his Democratic rivals, adding: I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! But Dick Durbin, a top Democratic senator, said Mr Trump repeatedly said these hate-filled things. The White House has not denied the Presidents use of racially-tinged rhetoric, either. Mr Durbin added: The president erupted several times with questions, and in the course of his comments, said things which were hate-filled, vile and racist. Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Show all 30 1 /30 Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Threatening to shut down Twitter after being fact-checked After the president tweeted that voting by post would be "substantially fraudulent", Twitter attached a warning label to his tweet and referred readers to a site which explained how the claim was "unsubstantiated". Trump then said Twitter was "stifling free speech" and that he may have to shut it down, something which he would not have the power to do AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Flippantly dismissing a serious allegation of sexual assault When author E Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her, the president responded: Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Insulting the Mayor of London as he landed in London Just before touching down at Stansted Airport for his state visit, Trump took time out to @ the London mayor Sadiq Khan on twitter. He said that Khan has done a "terrible job"as mayor and that he is a "stone cold loser" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Taking plenty of "Executive Time" The president's official schedule sets aside the hours from 8 to 11am daily for "Executive Time". Further intermittent periods of "Executive Time" are scheduled throughout any given day, ranging from 15 minutes to 3 hours. His duties in these hours have not been officially disclosed, though Axios reports that he spends them watching TV, reading the newspapers and tweeting Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the president has faced difficulty in raising the required $5bn at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and Congress's refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Joking about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet from 13 November 2018, the president mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Railing against the Mueller investigation The president has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Trump Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the president claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it would not have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Colouring in the US flag wrong The president coloured in the US flag wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The president announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the president made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the president reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape". Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying: There are a lot of killers. You think our countrys so innocent? Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Asking for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump couldnt help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzeneggers show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of The Apprentice which buoyed Trumps celebrity status years ago Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the worst call he had had so far Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Trumps travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administrations argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the president picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be little Rocket Man as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticising Khan for saying there was no reason to be alarmed after the attack. Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Trump mocked MSNBCs Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to join him. He noted that she was bleeding badly from a face-lift at the time, and that he said no MSNBC Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Retweeting cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of fake news Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Trumps firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Trumps White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didnt mention jews or even the word jewish in the written statement Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Anger over Inauguration crowd size Trumps inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didnt, the day was very dreary Reuters I use those words advisably. I understand how powerful they are. But I cannot believe that in the history of the White House and in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday. He said: Youve seen the comments in the press. Ive not read one of them thats inaccurate. Rupert Colville, a UN human rights spokesman, called Mr Trumps offensive remarks about Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations racist, saying there is no other word you can use. Mr Trumps reported comments have also forced his own diplomats to go on the defensive. The US deeply respects the people of #Africa & values partnerships w/ them. There has been no change in our dedication to partners & friends across the Continent, the US embassy in South Africa tweeted following the reports. We remain committed to working together to realise the promise of a more prosperous 21st century Africa. The USs most senior official in Haiti was also reportedly summoned to meet with countrys president Jovenel Moise, to explain Mr Trumps remarks. Former Haitian President Laurent Lamothe said the world is witnessing a new low today and called the US leaders remarks totally unacceptable! It shows a lack of respect and ignorance never seen before in the recent history of the US by any President, Mr Lamothe tweeted. Republican Congresswoman Mia Love, the nations first Haitian-American representative, said the presidents remarks were unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nations values. This behaviour is unacceptable from the leader of our nation, Ms Love said in a statement. My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took an oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with. Mr Trumps administration announced last year that it would end the Temporary Protected Status designation for Haiti by July 2019 a move that could force tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants to either leave the US or live in the shadows. TPS is offered to legal US residents and undocumented immigrants when war, natural disaster, an epidemic or other extraordinary conditions temporarily make return to their native country unsafe. It protects individuals from deportation and authorises them to work in the US. This week, the Trump administration also announced that TPS protections for nearly 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador would end in 2019. Responding to Mr Trumps reported comments, El Salvadors Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez tweeted about Salvadoran contributions to the US, saying a good part of those who helped rebuild New Orleans after Katrina were Salvadoran. I feel proud to be Salvadoran. Former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband, currently president of the International Rescue Committee, said the Trump Administration (is) leading a race to the bottom on refugees and immigrants that is a betrayal of Americas future as well as of its history. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump has confirmed he will not come to the UK to open the new US embassy next month, blaming the Obama administration's decision to move it to an "off location" in a "bad deal". Reports last night had said the president would not be attending because he was concerned about a hostile reception, a lack of "bells and whistles" and the fact he would not be able to meet the Queen. Mr Trump then tweeted this morning to confirm he would indeed not be gracing the opening with his presence, and offered an explanation for his decision. "Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars," the President said. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" The US announced plans to move to the new site in October 2008 - when George W Bush was in the White House. 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 is understood to be sending US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instead. Downing Street declined to comment on the particular case but reports suggested No 10 was aware the working visit had been postponed. 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 new 750m embassy at a ceremony in February. The new building will open for business on 16 January. The President had reportedly been due to meet with Prime Minister Theresa May at No 10, with 26 and 27 February provisionally scheduled in the diary. Downing Street had hoped to firm up the dates this week, the Daily Mail reported. The decision is in contrast to comments made by the US Ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, at the end of last year that Mr Trump was planning to visit in the new year, and comments by Ms May last week that he "will be coming to this country". Ms May controversially extended the offer of a state visit when she became the first world leader to meet Mr Trump in the White House following his inauguration last year. The new US embassy in Nine Elms, London (PA) Construction continues at the site of a new diplomatic quarter along the Thames (Getty) (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Since then, however, the President has indicated he does not want to take up the invitation if he is going to face mass demonstrations. Last month Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for his supporters to go out in force to send Mr Trump a "clear message" that he is not welcome if he comes to the UK. The opposition to his visit meant the original plan for an official state visit, which would include a chance for Mr Trump to meet the Queen, was downgraded to a "working visit" which carries much less prestige. Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images In addition, Ms May and Mr Trump fell out spectacularly in November over his retweeting of anti-Muslim videos posted online by the deputy leader of the far-right Britain First group, Jayda Fransen. At the time, the PM said Mr Trump was "wrong" to retweet the videos, and the US president hit back at Ms May on Twitter by telling her to focus on "destructive radical Islamic terrorism" in the UK, rather than on him. The White House has yet to respond to The Independent's request for comment. Additional reporting by PA For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Chinese authorities have demolished a well-known Christian megachurch, inflaming long-standing tensions between religious groups and the Communist Party. Witnesses and overseas activists said the paramilitary People's Armed Police used dynamite and excavators to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church, which has a congregation of more than 50,000, in the city of Linfen in Shanxi province. ChinaAid, a US-based Christian advocacy group, said local authorities planted explosives in an underground worship hall to demolish the building following, constructed with nearly $2.6m (1.9m) in contributions from local worshippers in one of China's poorest regions. Recommended Chinese Communist Party cracks down on religion The church had faced "repeated persecution" by the Chinese government, said ChinaAid. Hundreds of police and hired thugs smashed the building and seized Bibles in an earlier crackdown in 2009 that ended with the arrest of church leaders. Those church leaders were given prison sentences of up to seven years for charges of illegally occupying farmland and disturbing traffic order, according to state media. There are an estimated 60 million Christians in China, many of whom worship in independent congregations like the Golden Lampstand. Millions of Christians, Buddhists and Muslims also worship in state-sanctioned assemblies. But the surging popularity of non-state-approved churches has raised the ire of authorities, wary of any threats to the officially atheist Communist Party's rigid political and social control. The Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen, Shanxi province, pictured in 2009 (AP) Freedom of religion is guaranteed under China's constitution, so local authorities are often seen as using technicalities to attack unregistered churches. Charges of land or building violations and disturbing the peace are among the most common. The state-run Global Times newspaper reported the official reason for the demolition was the building did not hold the necessary permits. "A Christian offered his farmland to a local Christian association and they secretly built a church using the cover of building a warehouse," a government department official was quoted as saying. Religious groups must register with local religious affairs authorities under Chinese law, the report said, adding the church was illegally constructed nearly a decade ago in violation of building codes. Pictures distributed by ChinaAid showed the church's steeple and cross toppled in a large pile of rubble. The repeated persecution of Golden Lampstand Church demonstrates that the Chinese government has no respect for religious freedom or human rights, said ChinaAid president and founder Bob Fu. He added: ChinaAid calls on the international community to openly condemn the bombing of this church building and urge the Chinese government to fairly compensate the Christians who paid for it and immediately cease these alarming demolitions of churches. 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 A pastor at a nearby church, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he saw large numbers of paramilitary police on Tuesday surrounding the area around the church, which was being taken apart by heavy machinery. He later heard a loud explosion. The Golden Lampstand Church was built by husband and wife evangelists Wang Xiaoguang and Yang Rongli as a permanent home for their followers. The couple had been preaching around Linfen since 1992, establishing congregations in improvised spaces such as factory dormitories and greenhouses. While authorities did not block the church's construction, they later cracked down on it, and the couple and other church leaders were sent to prison. ChinaAid said authorities also demolished a Catholic church in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, on 27 December. Officials smashed crosses and confiscated statues, the Eucharistic altar, and other religious artefacts as they demolished the building with heavy machinery, the organisation said. The demolition prompted more 100 church members to protest in front of government offices this week. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Black snow has been blanketing a city in Kazakhstan, leaving residents worried by the coal coloured flakes. Officials in Temirtau said they were investigating as locals blamed emissions from the city's numerous factories for the phenomenon. Some of them told The Astana Times that there was a strange smell wafting around the city. Environmental experts, prosecutors and city representatives have come together to investigate. They were joined by officials from the central Karaganda region where the city is based. Many residents have blamed the country's biggest steel production plant - Karaganda Metallurgical Combine - which is based in the city that is home to Kazakhstan's iron industry. Alibek Bekmukhametov, who head's the a region's Ecology Department told local media that the plant exceeded the legal emissions limits. It is owned by ArcelorMittal Temirtau, a subsidiary of the global industrial giant ArcelorMittal. The Independent has reached out to the company for comment, but none had arrived at the time of publication. Temirtau is considered the worst city in the country for harmful emissions. In December 2017, Kazakhstan's meteorological agency recorded levels of hydrogen sulphide in the city, which exceeded the government-mandated limit by more than 11 times. The previous year, the country's statistics committee found almost 600,000 tons of harmful substances had been released into Karaganda's air. 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 plant also failed to meet general environmental protection standards, Mr Bekmukhametov said, noting that the company would be fined a total of 150m tenge (3.3m) for the breaches. The company told local media it had pledged $56.4m (49.4m) to improve its cleaning equipment. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A 21-year-old woman has died in a remote village in Nepal after she was forced to live in a hut due to the fact she was menstruating, according to a government official. The young woman, who was found dead on Monday, is believed to have died from smoke inhalation from a fire she ignited in the hut to ensure she kept warm in the chilly temperatures of the mountain village. The ancient Hindu custom of prohibiting women who are menstruating from taking part in normal family activities and having contact with men of the household because they are deemed impure is known as chhaupadi. The practice was outlawed in 2005 but has remained prevalent in the remote west of the country. Dozens of women and girls have died in Nepal - one of the poorest countries in Asia - in recent years as a result of the tradition despite campaigns by activists and government measures to bid farewell to the practice. Tul Bahadur Kawcha, the government official, said the practice was still carried out in some remote villages despite a law being introduced last year to punish people who force women to follow the tradition. The new law, which included a grace period to give citizens time to get used to it, comes into force in August this year. Officials have long claimed overhauling archaic, culturally entrenched attitudes cannot take place over night. The law will result in violators who force women into exile while they are on their periods facing up to three years in prison or being forced to cough up a fine of 3,000 Nepalese rupees. The Hindu custom of relegating women to sleep outside despite temperatures in Nepal being able to plummet to below zero degrees celsius in winter comes from concerns women will anger the gods or contaminate the home if they stay inside. In rural areas, it is widely perceived that not following the practice will engender misfortune in the form of natural disasters or sickness or death among family members or livestock. While married women generally stay outside for only a few days, others can be banished for the entirety of up to a week. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty On top of experiencing isolation, they can be prohibited from drinking milk and given less food to eat while they are on their period. The news comes after a number of cases of deaths which stem from women being excluded due to menstruating. Back in November 2016, Dambara Upadhyay died alone after spending four nights outside. The 21-year-old was found by her sister-in-law with blood coming out of her nose. Despite local police suggesting she might have experienced a heart attack the initial post-mortem report was not able to establish a cause of death. While other deaths have been attributed to wild animal attacks, the most common cause is smoke inhalation from fires lit in an attempt to stay warm in cold climes. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Police in Pakistan are stepping up a manhunt for a possible serial killer after an eight-year-old girl was found raped and murdered in Kasur, eastern Punjab, sparking widespread protests. Government spokesperson Malik Ahmad Khan said authorities were searching for a suspect who kidnaps and kills young girls after Zainab Ansaris body was found on Tuesday. It comes after police revealed at least 10 similar cases had rocked the city since January 2017. Investigators now say they have found traces of the same DNA on six of the girls, including Zainab, according to a police document seen by the BBC. All of the girls, who lived within a 3km radius, went missing from near their homes and were dumped on rubbish sites or in abandoned houses nearby. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Mr Khan vowed to bring Zainabs killer to justice and said chief minister Shehbaz Sharif would be personally following the case. Police released an e-fit of the suspect after CCTV footage captured the unidentified man walking with Zainab on 4 January. Her body was found on a rubbish tip a mile from her home five days later. Zainabs father Ameen called on the government to publicly punish the perpetrator. If the culprits are punished publicly then it will serve as a deterrent for preventing similar cases, he said, according to GeoNews. Zainabs family raised the alarm after she did not arrive home from her religious studies class earlier in the month. Her 16-year-old sister Laiba spoke of the familys anguish at what happened to her. I am not crying because she is dead. My heart breaks to think that she was hurt. I cannot bear it, she told Dawn. How long will it take before you all forget about my sister? It comes after the Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered the inspector general punjab (IGP) to arrest the perpetrator within 36 hours, amid growing public anger over authorities seeming inaction. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A newsreader in Pakistan appeared on air with her daughter to protest at the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl. Today I am not Kiran Naz, she said. Today I am a mother. Thats why I am sitting with my daughter. She added that she had "nothing else to talk about" except Zainab Ansari, who was abducted, sexually assaulted and killed in Kasur, a city in the country's Punjab region. Her body was left in a rubbish dump It is true that a child's corpse is the heaviest," Ms Naz told viewers of news channel Samaa TV with her own daughter on her lap. "Today Pakistan is buried beneath the burden of the little one's funeral. News of Zainab's death sparked an international outcry and there have been violent protests in Kasur as well as the cities of Lahore and Karachi. At least two people died and dozens more were injured in Kasur when protests turned violent. Four police officers have since been arrested for firing into crowds, but the state has not confirmed whether the deaths are linked. Pakistani students light candles during a protest rally to condemn the rape and killing of Zainab (AP) Punjab's Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, met with Zainab's father Ameen Ansari to hear his concerns and assured him that justice would be done, officials said. Mr Ansari, who was on a pilgrimage to Mecca when his daughter was taken, had previously said authorities did little to try and find her. My relatives and neighbours told me that the police used to come, have food and leave, he said. While they didnt do anything, my friends and family spent day and night looking for my daughter. 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 Kasur's police chief has subsequently been fired by Mr Sharif, a state government statement said. Footage has emerged of the last time the child was seen alive. CCTV captured Zainab, who was on her way to a religious studies class, being led away by an unknown man on the evening of 4 January. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An Australian man has died after being bitten by a snake while trying to protect his dog. The 24-year-old, who has not been identified, was attacked as he tried to remove the snake from the mouth of his dog at his home in Tamworth, north-west of Sydney. He was rushed to hospital where an antivenom was administered but died within an hour of his arrival, according to police. He went to investigate his small dog barking and found the dog to have a small brown snake in his mouth, Sergeant Josh McKenzie told ABC News. Hes then gone to try and separate the dog from the snake and was bitten on the finger. Brown snakes are the worlds second most venomous terrestrial snakes and among Australias most deadly creatures. They are characteristically aggressive and are highly adaptive, frequently found in farms and urban areas where their usual prey is mice. As many as 300 people are bitten by snakes in Australia each year, but there are few associated deaths. 18 people have died from snake bites in the country since 2011. 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 Dan Rumsey, from the Australian Reptile Park in Sydney, said snakes only tend to bite when threatened and it was imperative to stay calm and seek medical treatment to avoid the venom spreading. Venom travels through your lymphatic system, he told ABC. You need to put pressure on the wound and the limb that has been bitten. Most people are bitten on the hands or ankles. As ridiculous as it sounds, you need to stay calm. That will slow down the circulation, getting to hospital as quick as you possibly can. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Angela Merkel may yet avoid facing the German electorate for a second time in six months, after all-night talks with her social democrat opponents in Berlin saw a breakthrough towards a coalition deal. The SPDs party board signed off a deal on Friday that would permit the partys leadership to negotiate a coalition agreement with Ms Merkels centre-right CDU. Three months have elapsed since the Bundestag elections in September without any government having been formed, after a number of false starts and difficult arithmetic in the German national parliament. The SPDs leader Martin Schulz had previously ruled out continuation of the so-called grand coalition with Ms Merkel, which existed before the election leaving her to search for other coalition partners. The centre-left party took heavy losses in September elections after opponents including the far-right AfD portrayed the deal between the two biggest parties as an establishment stitch-up. The party sank to its worst result since the first West German elections in 1949. But after talks for a so-called Jamaica coalition between Ms Merkel and the Greens and liberal FDP collapsed, the SPD opened exploratory talks with the CDU in order to avert a political crisis. The Jamaica coalition, named for the black, green, and yellow colours of the parties, would have been the only viable majority coalition without the SPD. The SPD leaderships decision to open talks for a grand coalition must now be put to party members in a ballot at party congress on 21 January before anything can begin in earnest. The vote could be difficult for Mr Schulz, given that his previous decision to refrain from a coalition was popular with his supporters. The far-right AfD party entered the German parliament for the first time in September (Getty) (Bongarts/Getty Images) A 28-page preliminary blueprint drawn up in exploratory talks includes plans to strengthen the eurozone by cooperating with France, and a pledge to end arms sales to countries involved in the war in Yemen: a reference to Saudi Arabia. The document is open to revision during full talks, however. 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 Key SPD commitments to improving universal healthcare and making the tax system more progressive appear to have been watered down or dropped from the draft. There will be difficult tasks to come, Ms Merkel said. The coalition negotiations probably wont be easier than the exploratory talks. The CDUs previous negotiations with the Greens and FDP collapsed in late November at an advantaged stage after the liberals dropped out. The Jamaica coalition was as yet untested at a national level and had only been present in some state parliaments. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A mother will have to pay a 10,000 euro (9,000) fine if she posts pictures of her teenage son on Facebook without his consent, after a court in Rome ruled in his favour. The 16-year-old raised the issue during divorce proceedings involving the boy's parents. Under Italian law, the subject of the photo owns the copyright, rather than the person who took the picture, as is the case in the UK. So as the teenager was featured in the pictures his mother was sharing, the judges ruled that he could lawfully request their removal from the social media site. As a result, they made an order in December for her to remove photos and videos of the boy or face a fine, La Repubblica newspaper reported. She will also have to pay her son if she posts new images of him. Privacy and copywright laws vary from nation to nation. In France, anyone convicted of publishing and distributing images of another person without their consent can face a fine of 45,000 euros (40,000) and up to a year in prison. In 2016, French police urged parents to avoid posting photos of their children on social media. They said the images could infringe on their privacy and security. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty In the same year, a woman in Austria sued her parents for post her childhood pictures on Facebook. The woman, who was 18 at the time, said she had repeatedly asked her parents to remove more than 500 photos of her from the social media site, but they had refused. They knew no shame and no limit - and didnt care whether it was a picture of me sitting on the toilet or lying naked in my cot - every stage was photographed and then made public, she said. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Dutch university which had its buildings checked as a result of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, has been forced to close one of its teaching buildings because it represents such a high risk of fire and fire spread. Rotterdams University of Applied Sciences said that cladding on the oldest section of its Kralingse Zoom building did not meet current fire safety standards and it had immediately closed it. Ron Bormans, its chairman of the board of directors, said it was an extraordinarily unpleasant thought that students and staff had been using a potentially dangerous location. As a result of the fire in London, we had all our buildings checked," he told local media, referring to June's blaze in North Kensington that killed 71 people. "First internally, then externally. We thought: that will be fine. But it turned out that there was such a high risk of fire and fire spread, that it seemed in my view irresponsible to keep the building open. We realise that this is an extremely drastic decision, but the safety of our employees and students is our priority. We will do everything in our power to minimise the impact of this decision. All parties involved are carefully informed about the progress. Around 3,500 students from Rotterdam Business School and international programs are normally taught in building section C of the Kralingse Zoom. The building closed and lessons and exams have been cancelled until early next week, a university spokesperson said. The university has now commissioned independent research into fire safety, with the final report expected next week. Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Show all 31 1 /31 Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Jeremy Corbyn hugs a woman after the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Prince Harry leaving after the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures A woman appears emotional as she leaves the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Jeremy Corbyn consoles a mourner AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Mourners carry pictures of victims of the fire and white roses as they leave St Paul's cathedral AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Mourners carry white roses as they leave St Paul's cathedral after attending a Grenfell Tower National Memorial service AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Jeremy Corbyn consoles a relative of a victim AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Mourners leave after attending the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Labour opposition party leader Jeremy Corbyn embraces a mourner AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures People hold photos and flowers as they leave after the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Mourners hold up photos of victims as they leave St Paul's cathedral after attending a Grenfell Tower National Memorial service AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures People hold photos and flowers as they leave after the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Service members carry a Grenfell banner Rex Features Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures People at the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Prime Minister Theresa May attends the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Marcus Mumford, Adele and Carey Mulligan attending the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Attendees hold a banner at the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Prince Harry, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Duchess of Cornwall and The Prince of Wales attend the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures The Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott arrive at St Paul's Cathedral REUTERS Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Members of the public gather outside St Paul's Cathedral ahead of the Grenfell Tower national memorial service Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry attend the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Mourners arrive at St Paul's cathedral for a Grenfell Tower National Memorial service AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Firefighters arriving for the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Mourners arrive at St Paul's cathedral for a Grenfell Tower National Memorial service AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Mourners arrive at St Paul's cathedral for a Grenfell Tower National Memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures People arrive for the Grenfell Tower Memorial Service Rex Features Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Mourners arrive at St Paul's cathedral for a Grenfell Tower National Memorial service AFP/Getty Images Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Former footballer Les Ferdinand (right) arriving for the Grenfell Tower National Memorial Service at St Paul's Cathedral PA Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Police officers arrive at St Paul's Cathedral for a memorial service in honour of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire REUTERS Grenfell Tower memorial service: in pictures Mourners arrive at St Paul's cathedral for a Grenfell Tower National Memorial service AFP/Getty Images Cladding installed during a 2016 refurbishment of the Grenfell Tower, is suspected to have aided the rapid and unprecedented spread of the blaze, trapping dozens of residents inside. The exact cause of the fire will be determined by the ongoing public inquiry but an interim report on fire safety found UK building regulations were unfit for purpose. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Polands President has warned Brussels to refrain from stigmatising, dividing and antagonising EU member states, following a European Commission recommendation to censure the Polish government. In a speech on Thursday night, Andrzej Duda said the institutions of the EU should be serving the EU member states and not the other way around, suggesting that Brussels' overreach was also partly responsible for Brexit. Speaking at a New Year reception held for foreign ambassadors at the presidential palace in Warsaw, Mr Duda said the EU institutions held no monopoly on European values after the Commission warned Poland was undermining the rule of law and independence of the judiciary with new laws. Recommended Support for EU membership reaches record high in Poland Europe is and should be strong with the will of its nations, whereas the community institutions should serve that will, Mr Duda said. If we reverse that hierarchy and place institutions above nations, we will distort the right order of things. A consequence of such an aberration are societies departing from the idea of the common Europe, a phenomenon we could observe in a series of elections in the old EU member states throughout 2017. EU institutions should shoulder their part of responsibility for the social disappointment with integration and analyse mistakes they made. Community institutions are tasked with conducing a harmonious European policy, rather than stigmatising, dividing and antagonising European nations. He added: Whoever claims to have a monopoly on defining what Europe is supposed to be, without asking others about their opinions and taking their arguments into account, is a usurper of the European idea. The forthright speech comes weeks after the Commission recommended the triggering of Article 7.1 of the European Union treaty against Poland that would deem Poland to be in violation of European values. The Commission is concerned about 13 laws passed by the Polish government over the last two years that centralise powers to appoint judges including those who rule on the validity of election results in the hands of the countrys government. The common pattern of all these legislative changes is that the executive or legislative powers are now set up in such a way that the ruling majority can now systematically interfere with the composition, power, and administration or functioning of these authorities thereby rendering the independence of the judiciary completely moot, Frans Timmermans, first Vice President of the Commission said in December. Mateusz Morawiecki, Polands Prime Minister, was in Brussels for talks earlier this week with Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, though there is not yet sign of a thaw. The Commission has given Poland three months likely until the next European Council meeting to take back the reforms. Mateusz Morawiecki and Jean-Claude Juncker met for talks in Brussels this week (Getty) (Getty Images) The next step in the Article 7 procedure will be for EU heads of state to consider the Commissions procedure and to vote on it. This is expected to take place at the March meeting of the European Council, in order for the proposal to pass, a super-majority of four-fifths is required. The European Parliament would also have to support it. The Article 7.1 motion put forward by the Commission will warn that there is a clear risk of a serious breach by a Member State of the values of the EU which include the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty If the breach continues then member states can be asked to vote again, under Article 7.2, to confirm that there is a serious and persistent breach which if passed could see Polands voting rights in EU institutions suspended. However, the second vote would be harder to pass, because it requires the unanimous consent of the other EU member states and Hungarys right-wing authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said he would vote against such a move. Mr Orban has also been accused of pursuing anti-democratic reform. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A zoo in Sweden has said it euthanised healthy lion cubs because it could no longer keep them. Boras Djurpark, an animal park around 25 miles from Gothenberg, admitted it had put down nine healthy lion cubs since 2012. Bo Kjellson, chief executive of the park, said healthy animals sometimes had to be euthanised if they were rejected by their pride, or cannot be rehomed elsewhere. I think they were killed after two years, Mr Kjellson told Swedish broadcaster SVT. At that time we had tried to sell or relocate them to other zoos for a long time but unfortunately there were no zoos that could receive them, and when the aggressions became too big in the group we had to remove some animals. And then it had to be them. It's no secret in any way and we do not try to hide that were working this way. So it's unfortunately a natural path for groups of lions. Mr Kjellson said the zoo was unsure of what would happen to the other lions. Boras Djurpark CEO said the cubs could not be rehomed (Boras Djurpark) That we will see in the future. Currently, the group works well, but some of them may become surplus animals, and then we will try to place them elsewhere. It could be so that we have to put them to death. Only two of the 13 cubs, born to three separate litters, have survived the past five years. Two lions died of natural causes and the remaining cubs were put down. Helena Pederson, a researcher in animal studies at Gothenburg University, told SVT the euthanisation of animals in zoos raised the question of whether such institutions should be open. 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 clear that there is a contrast to the public's perception of what a zoo is," she said. To kill animals as part of the organisation, I think that upsets quite a few. I think we need to contemplate on why it's important for us to have zoos and if it's worth the price the animals pay for it. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Women flocked to Le Mall in Jeddah on Thursday to check out the kingdom's first car exhibition aimed at women, a few months after Saudi Arabia granted them the right to drive. Pink, orange and yellow balloons hung in the mall's showroom as women posed for photos and selfies in front of the cars. One woman in the driver's seat fixed her face cover. Another wrapped her turquoise-painted fingernails around the steering wheel, feeling it out. In a decree issued in September, King Salman ordered by June an end to the ban on women drivers, a conservative tradition that has limited women's mobility and been seen by rights activists as an emblem of their suppression. Recommended Saudi Arabia allows women to attend football matches for first time Saudi Arabia is the only country that bans women drivers. The landmark royal decree has been hailed as proof of a new progressive trend in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32, is the face of that change. Many young Saudis regard his recent ascent to power as proof their generation is taking a central place in running a country whose patriarchal traditions have for decades made power the province of the old and blocked women's progress. I've always been interested in cars, but we didn't have the ability to drive, said Ghada al-Ali, a customer. And now I'm very interested in buying a car but I would like the payments and prices to not be very high. More prospective customers visit the pop-up shop in Jeddah (AFP/Getty) Saudi Arabia's cost of living has risen after the government hiked domestic gas prices and introduced value-added tax (VAT) in January. The exhibition focused on fuel-efficient cars and provided a team of saleswomen to help their new customer base. The showroom carried signs emblazoned with the slogan Drive and Shop, a play on words in Arabic, using the female form of the verbs. 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 known that women are the largest section who shop in malls, said Sharifa Mohammad, the heads the exhibition's saleswomen. This whole mall is run by women anyway. All the cashiers are women. Everyone in the restaurants are women. Reuters Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Thousands of Bulgarians gathered in downtown Sofia to protest further construction of pistes and ski lifts in Pirin National Park. Environmentalists came together on 11 January to demonstrate against the governments decision to allow the expansion of the ski area at the Unesco World Heritage Site. Protesters said the move would breach nature protection laws, destroy hundred-year-old pine trees and subsequently endanger local wildlife. I am here because I am a Bulgarian and a European citizen and the governments decision is in contradiction with Bulgarian and European legislation, journalist and protester Simeon Tabakov told Reuters. Recommended Unesco just added 21 new places to your bucket list Demonstrators chanted Save Pirin, Mafia and We want nature, not concrete as they marched, and carried placards saying Bulgaria, wake up and fight and Citizens against the mafia. They also called for the resignation of Neno Dimov, Bulgarias environment minister. The environment ministry has said it has only approved construction on two per cent of the Pirin National Park, which is home to the popular resort of Bansko, to bolster winter tourism. However, the government is simultaneously allowing the building of facilities to collect drinking water in 48 per cent of the parks territory, which opponents argue opens half the park up to construction. A smaller rally turned up in support of the building of another ski lift in the park, which they argue will cut queuing times. There is currently only one lift up from the base of Bansko resort. There were a number of other protests happening in Sofia throughout the day, with police protesting over pay and a number of other demonstrations protesting the European Union. Protests were timed to coincide with the start of Bulgarias six-month EU presidency stint. The Pirin Mountains were added to the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites in 1983, and the site now covers Pirin National Park apart from two areas developed for winter-sports tourism. The area comprises diverse limestone mountain landscapes with glacial lakes, waterfalls, caves and predominantly coniferous forests. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has demanded an immediate and public apology from Delta Air Lines for listing Tibet and Taiwan as countries on its website. The CAAC said on 12 January that it had asked the airline to investigate the incident, reports Reuters; until Friday morning it was possible for customers visiting Deltas complaint and comment section on its Chinese website to select Tibet and Taiwan as their country of origin. As of 8am GMT the Tibet option had been removed. The aviation authority has requested foreign airlines that fly to China to look at their websites, apps and customer-related information to ensure they strictly comply with Chinas laws and regulations to prevent a similar thing from happening. Recommended China furious with Marriott Hotels after chain lists Tibet as country No one from Delta Air Lines was available for comment at the time of writing. Chinese authorities also reproached the fashion brand Zara and medical device maker Medtronic for referring to Taiwan as a country on their websites. The UK 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. It also advises tourists: Avoid becoming involved in any protests or calls for Tibetan independence. Dont film or photograph any such activities. This comes after The Independent reported that China lashed out at hotel brand Marriott for describing Tibet as a separate country. The global hotel chain issued a profuse apology after sending an email to members of its loyalty scheme in which they 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. 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. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Newquay is officially the UKs fastest growing airport for the second year running, with passenger numbers increasing by 22 per cent in 2017. The Cornish airport handled 454,000 travellers last year. In 2016 it abolished an unpopular 5 charge for departing passengers. Passenger numbers have doubled since 2015, but still amount to only two days traffic at Heathrow. Meanwhile, the battle between Britains top six airports for fastest growth has ended in a narrow victory for Edinburgh and Luton at 8.6 per cent, just ahead of Manchester. But Gatwick and Heathrow have consolidated their positions as the worlds busiest one- and two-runway airports respectively. Edinburgh, in sixth place, opened 32 new international routes increasing passenger numbers to 13.4 million despite a small decline in domestic travellers caused by Ryanair abandoning its route to Stansted due to the pilots roster foul-up. The chief executive, Gordon Dewar called it a real triumph and one that we are delighted by. Luton, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year, handled 15.7 million passengers. The airport grew strongly despite the collapse in October of Monarch, which was based at Luton. Nick Barton, the airports chief executive, said: Throughout 2018, passengers will see the airport transformed as we officially open our new terminal. But in absolute numbers Luton remains a distant fifth behind Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted. Recommended Heathrow airport reports record passenger numbers for 2017 Heathrow handled five times as many passengers, with 78 million passing through last year. The Government has confirmed its support for a third runway at Heathrow, as recommended by the Davies Commission. But Gatwick has reported a 5.2 per cent rise in passenger numbers, with a total of 45.6 million in 2017. This exceeds the Davies Commissions estimate of the airports capacity, which it assessed at 45 million. Gatwicks chief executive, Stewart Wingate said: We have ambitious plans to build on the success achieved in 2017 and reach 50 million passengers per year. Manchester has consolidated its position as the UKs third-biggest airport, growing 8.5 per cent and handling 27.8 million passengers. Stansted, in fourth place, grew by 6.5 per cent to 25.9 million. Its capacity is currently capped at 35 million. Both Manchester and Stansted are owned by MAG, which says they are the biggest two airports in the UK with significant spare runway capacity. Only a handful of European airports have matched or exceeded Newquay Airports rate of growth. Most are in Eastern Europe, including Tbilisi and Kutaisi in Georgia, Tirana in Albania and Chisinau in Moldova. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} On Wednesday 10 January, Africas critically endangered mountain gorillas got a major boost when the Rwandan Government received 27.8 hectares of land from the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) to create more gorilla roaming space in the famous Volcanoes National Park. This is the first expansion in three decades for Africas oldest park. Rwanda has recorded an unprecedented 3.7 per cent annual increase in mountain gorillas over the last decade, with numbers rising from 380 in 2003 to 480 at the last census in 2010 (the next census results are expected in March). This population growth has demonstrated the potential for mountain gorillas to thrive in larger and less vulnerable numbers, as well as the need for more space. Currently, the primates frequently roam outside the park boundaries, putting them in direct conflict with the surrounding community. Mountain gorillas are highly susceptible to diseases transmitted by humans, so theres a crucial need for a buffer zone between their habitat and human settlements to better protect both people and gorillas. AWF, with support from the Annenberg Foundation, purchased land directly adjacent to the park from Serena Hotels in 2017 to provide more space for the rare primates. Gorillas are a global treasure. The fact that people travel from all over the world and are willing to pay $1,500 USD to see mountain gorillas demonstrates the extraordinary value of these awesome mammals, said Benjamin Mkapa, co-chair of AWF and former president of Tanzania, after the land-exchange event on Wednesday. Following the donation from AWF, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) Chief Executive Officer Clare Akamanzi said, Todays donation to Volcanoes National Park is a major step in the consolidation of Rwandas conservation gains for the benefit of communities today and future generations. Through gorilla conservation and tourism, we are directly benefiting from these wonderful animals. The gorillas must be very excited and beating their chests about this. Rwanda has demonstrated that a country can support a robust economy including infrastructure development whilst simultaneously protecting the environment, said AWFs President Mr. Kaddu Sebunya, during the park ceremony in Kinigi, northern Rwanda. He added that if mountain gorillas are going to survive in the long term, Volcanoes National Park must be strategically protected, and he challenged the African elite to lead the transformation of the continent and protect its natural resources. Conserving Africas wildlife is too important, too urgent, to be left largely to charity and the West alone, said Mr. Sebunya. Increasingly we see success when governments take charge of the vision, and when citizens own the narrative of conservation. What Rwanda and the RDB leadership are teaching us, is that there is nothing inevitable about conservation challenges in Africa today. In 2016, Volcanoes National Park generated an impressive $16.4 million USD from park entry fees. 10 per cent of earnings from gorilla tourism in Rwanda are funneled back into the local community to support shared social services, infrastructure development, employment, community engagement, empowerment, and livelihood development. Visitor numbers have grown 82 per cent since 2007, proving that there is also an increasing demand to see the primates in their natural habitat. Mountain gorillas are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and are only found in the Virunga Massif and in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda). They represent one of the four great apes that live in Africa, but are the only great ape whose population is increasing. Wednesdays land donation marks another step in the right direction for Rwandas animal and human populations, furthering a model of growth and sustainability that has set the benchmark for conservation and development efforts across the continent. The handover ceremony, comes on the back of a large tourism investment forum held in Uganda in late 2017, co-hosted by AWF and Ugandas Giants Club, that demonstrates AWFs commitment to support tourism as part of Africas economic future. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} It almost seems pointless these days to respond to the inflammatory remarks of the US President no sooner has he maligned one target before hes moved, scattershot, to the next. It does seem, however, that Donald Trumps recent remarks on immigration, referring to some countries as sh*tholes, represent a certain nadir of his Presidency. They show both a profound lack of understanding of modern history and the forces that underpin mass migration. Therefore, it is worth pausing for a moment to reflect on what exactly hes spluttering about. Trump has apparently singled out Haiti as a sh*thole and decried the number of migrants that originate from there. On a very base level, one can almost understand his thought process Haiti is a nation that has endured some terrible challenges in recent history, why (supposedly) import the troubles they face? It is the second part of his remarks that beggar belief. He wonders why the US doesnt accept more migrants from places like Norway. Late night hosts mock Trump's 'sh*****e' comment If hed taken the time to explore and understand the history of migration to the US, hed know that throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the United States welcomed hundreds of thousands of Scandinavian migrants. More importantly, they made the journey across the Atlantic because, well, their home countries were sh*tholes. Entire villages through Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland emptied en-masse for the US at various points in the 19th century. Ships registers and census data easily prove this. They were fleeing hunger (caused by repeated crop failures), overpopulation, disease and a growing inequality gap that was killing many. Once there, the new arrivals took advantage of legislation such as the Homestead Act to acquire cheap land. Others laboured in mines or forestries to produce the raw materials that built the United States we know today. These were roles that the United States could not, or did not want to fill cheap labour to take the brunt of the challenges faced. While we live in a rapidly post-industrial age, migrants from struggling nations such as Haiti now fill much the same role as their 19th century Scandinavian counterparts they take the jobs that the locals overlook. They drive Ubers, they deliver food, they work as nannies, they serve in the armed forces all the while dreaming of making it as many Scandinavian migrants did. They are the very backbone of the service economy. Tragically for Americans, Trumps view on these arrivals is a modern reflection of those who decried those arriving at Ellis Island in the early years of the 20th century. Instead of seeing the opportunity they represent, his dark nativist beliefs see only their homelands problems and shadows of the racial science once peddled by eugenicists. There can be no doubt that his racism poisons the debate. Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images It has often been stated in profiles and other writings on the man, that Trumps beliefs mirror the pseudo-scientific racial hierarchies of scientific racism peddled by figures such as Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau over the last 150 years. These theories now totally debunked by decades of genetic research place northern Europeans at the apex of the hierarchy as a master race, while all those under it are seen to suffer increasing physical and mental efficiencies, with indigenous Africans and Australians at the bottom. This racial hierarchy also formed one of the key pillars of Nazism, with northern Europeans forming the superior Aryan race that had once ruled the world. It is widely reported that Trump allegedly used to keep a book of Hitlers speeches on his bedside table, as reported in a 1990 interview with Trumps ex-wife, Ivana. It is very conceivable that Trump has fully assimilated these beliefs into his worldview and even worse, continues to swallow the lies perpetrated by de Gobineaus ideological descendants, such as Richard Lynn and J Philippe Rushton, luminaries of the Alt-Right, who believe that Africans and Native peoples have a tendency towards criminality and violence. That the so-called leader of the free world could hold such beliefs is not only troubling, but terrifying. Amusingly, in singling Norway out as a preferred source of migrants, Trump seems ignorant of the great truth that underpins all migration you head where the security and opportunities lie. On the WHO rankings of the worlds best healthcare systems, Norway ranks 12 the US ranks 37. As of 2016, Norway is first on the UNs Human Development Index the US is at number ten. If Trump believes that Norwegians are going to want to take a hit to their standard of living, hes more delusional than we thought. The United States, it is often said, is a nation of migrants. New arrivals seeking a better life are the source of much of its energy, vitality and innovation. Without them, stagnation and a fall in living standards is almost certain over time. Let us hope that the confused and malicious rantings of the President do not lead to it becoming yet another sh*thole from which people seek a better life. Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump's presidential campaign began - within the first five minutes - with his accusing immigrants from Mexico of being criminals. Not all of them, mind you; some of them, he assumed, were good people. Some. A few. This ended up being a prominent theme in his presidency, painting immigrants as criminals with a broad brush, such as when he travelled to Long Island to position the violence perpetrated by the MS-13 gang as an unavoidable result of immigrants entering the country illegally. A few months into his campaign, Trump shared an image on Twitter that suggested that the vast majority of killings of white people in the United States were committed by black people. This isn't at all true. Most white people are killed by white people. But Trump never apologised or corrected the tweet, instead quietly deleting it. The same theme cropped up repeatedly afterward, including his constant tying together of black Americans, inner cities and violent crime. A month after that tweet, Trump declared that the United States should disallow entry to anyone who is Muslim. No other caveats or subcategories were identified, just a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, full stop. Once in office, this became his ban on immigration from Muslim-majority nations, a ban that multiple courts understood as nothing more sophisticated than what he'd proposed in December 2015. Nearly every time a Muslim is accused of terrorism, Trump seizes on it as a way to link Muslims to terrorism. Last month, he kicked up an international incident when he retweeted misleading anti-Muslim videos from a racist British activist. (When a white supremacist was charged with terrorism last year, the administration was all but silent.) All of that context - that Hispanics, Muslims and black Americans are dangerous - is worth considering in light of the comments that have trickled out of the White House over the past few weeks. On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that during an Oval Office meeting earlier in the day, Trump had angrily lamented having all these people from shithole countries come here. Those countries were ones like Haiti or African nations, our Josh Dawsey reported - not like Norway, whose prime minister Trump met with Wednesday and whose citizens he expressed comfort in allowing across our borders. (Update: The New York Times writes that Trump also asked, Why do we want people from Haiti here?) That view of immigrants is in keeping with his description of the visa lottery as a system that selects the worst immigrants for entry into the United States. Trump sees immigrants as belonging to one of two categories, good or bad - and the bad immigrants are often the ones who aren't coming from Europe. The comments reported by Dawsey also bring to mind a report from the Times about a similar meeting in June, during which Trump allegedly referred to Afghanistan as a terrorist haven, described residents of Haiti as all hav[ing] AIDS and migrants from Nigeria as being unlikely to go back to their huts once they came to the United States. The White House Press Secretary denied that Trump made those comments. In a statement sent to Dawsey, the White House did not explicitly deny that Trump made the shithole comment. We dance around the word racist a lot, because calling someone a racist is a heavy charge that's often nearly impossible to prove. New York radio host Jay Smooth once drew an important distinction that's worth remembering. Instead of saying someone is racist, it's more useful to point out that the things they said are racist, because that is both more defensible objectively and less likely to seem like an ad hominem attack. So: Saying that Haiti and African countries are shitholes, unlike Norway, and claiming that Nigerians live in huts and that Haitians have AIDS and that Afghans are terrorists - and, for that matter, that Mexican immigrants are criminals and that black Americans live in the crime-ridden inner cities and that Muslims are too dangerous to allow into the country? Those are racist statements. Americans, perhaps unfamiliar with Mr. Smooth's distinction, are generally willing to ascribe racial bias to the president. Half the country thinks he's biased against black people, according to a November poll conducted by The Post and ABC News. A Quinnipiac poll last month found that 57 percent of Americans think Trump doesn't respect people of color as much as he respects white people - a finding that's certainly bolstered by the comments Dawsey reported today. Those polls came in the aftermath of the unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, during which a woman was killed when a man slammed his car into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white supremacist rally. After that violence, Trump equated the views of the neo-Nazi and racist protesters with the views of those who turned out to oppose the white nationalist views. Days after the protests, he called out the racism as unacceptable - and the next day declared that there were very fine people on both sides, including the side protesting arm in arm with the Nazis. Trump didn't like to call the racists racist, but, as our Chris Ingraham noted, was often willing to call black people racist on Twitter - three times as often as he used the term to describe white people. Racial tension is why Trump is president. His excoriation of illegal Mexican immigrants - and the fight with corporate entities and celebrities that ensued - built up a core base of support within the Republican Party that helped him earn the party's nomination. Analysis of the general election found that a key reason that less-educated Americans were more likely to support his candidacy was racial attitudes. In swing states, voters preferred Hillary Clinton on the economy - and Trump on the issues of terrorism and immigration. 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 Often, successful presidential candidates shed their campaign-trail rhetoric in search of a message that can be used to unify the American people behind the presidency. Trump has never made any effort to do so. He has the same attitudes now as he did on the campaign trail, clearly, and those attitudes seem to be that blacks, Hispanics and Muslims are dangerous or otherwise undesirable. Call that what you will. The Washington Post Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} It was never Jean Betrand Aristides wish to leave Haiti. In the early hours of 29 February 2004, with rebel forces advancing on Port-au-Prince and opposition leaders refusing a compromise, he was given a blunt offer from Luis Moreno, deputy chief of the US embassy. Come with or stay, he was told by the diplomat, who arrived with a contingent of US Marines. Live or die. Had Washington wanted to save the priest-turned politician who became Haitis first democratically-elected president, it could have done so. A decade earlier, after Aristide was forced out by a CIA-backed coup, Bill Clinton returned him to office using those same Marines. Aristide had pleaded to the international community to save him (Getty) But by 2004, the US was done with the man who preached liberation theology, sought to raise wages in a nation that had become a sweatshop for the US garment industry and resisted demands from the International Monetary Fund to liberalise the economy. That Leap Day morning, Aristide was hurried to a jet and flown into exile in the Central African Republic. Is Haiti a s**thole? Some Haitians might actually agree with the reported comments of Donald Trump. Life is undeniably tough in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. While it sits just a 90-minute flight from Miami, things could scarcely be more different. Three-quarters of the population lives on less than two dollars a day and a full 50 per cent on just one dollar. Only sub-Saharan Africa is poorer. CNN's Anderson Cooper: 'The people of Haiti have... fought back against more injustice than our President ever has' Haiti has the proud history of being the only nation created by an uprising of slaves. But since that revolution culminated in the countrys independence in 1804, democracy has struggled in the former French colony. Between 1956 and 1986, the country was dominated by the murderous dictators Francois Papa Doc Duvalier and his son, Baby Doc. Four years after Baby Doc fled to France, it seemed that Aristide, who swept to power with 70 per cent of the vote, was poised to bring change. So he might, had he not antagonised the countrys small elite or their supporters in Washington. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty If Donald Trump was interested in history he would know this. He would know the challenges Haiti has faced, and the way his own country has hampered its development. He would know how, even now, the US Embassy and State Department are major player in the countrys politics, throwing their support behind those candidates it approves of, and blocking the path of those it does not like. The US has spent a lot of energy over the last 100 years in preventing the emancipation of ordinary Haitians citizens and every time there was a chance of this it was blocked, said academic Peter Hallward, author of Damming the Flood. Aristide claimed he was kidnapped when he was flown from the country (Getty) If Trump was interested in history, he would also know the role the US has played in El Salvador, a country to which he now wants to return 200,000 people who fled here to avoid poverty and violence and were given temporary protective status (TPS). He would know that in the 1980s more than 75,000 people were killed and another 10,000 disappeared during its civil war, between a right-wing government supported by the US and leftist rebels. He would know that today El Salvador is one of the deadliest countries in the world outside of an recognised war zone, a place with up to 70,000 active gang members most of them aligned to two main outfits Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and Calle 18. The gangs were originally established in the Los Angeless extensive prison system. During the 1990s, many gang members were deported to El Salvador, which was still recovering from the civil war. Since then, they have established strongholds throughout the country and are involved in extortion, people trafficking, robbery and prostitution. They are also major players in the drugs trade, fuelled by Americans passion for cocaine. Given the peril faced by youngsters in three Central American countries, Barack Obama in 2014 established a programme to provide a safe-entry for children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose parents were already living legally in the US. Last summer, Trump terminated the scheme. Trump has denied he used vulgar language to describe Haiti or African countries, but Democrats at the meeting insisted he did use such words. Whats clear, is that while Trump defends his actions by claiming he is putting America first, he is blind to the fact that Americas behaviour in its back yard on Central America has frequently hampered the development of those countries or worse. If he bothered with history, hed know how s**tholes come about. CONCORD- This week, the City of Concord hosted another annual Nascar Safety and Operations Summit at Embassy Suites. The Concord Police Department and Charlotte Motor Speedway Security were recognized by NASCAR for their enhanced security efforts for last years Bank of America 500 in October, which took place one week after the tragic shooting in Las Vegas. The three-day conference, held at the Concord (North Carolina) Convention Center, featured numerous presentations and small-group seminars that addressed best practices in the safety, track services, medical and security functional areas. The summit is a key part of our commitment to providing world-class support to our fans and competitors, said Jim Cassidy, NASCAR senior vice president, racing operations. It also serves as an opportunity to recognize the dedicated professionals behind the scenes who contribute to the success of our sport. This years keynote speech was delivered by Dr. Ed Racht, chief medical officer for AMR and associate chief medical officer of Evolution Health, who has served for more than 20 years in the medical field. Amid the training sessions, NASCAR also presented awards to individuals and tracks for outstanding performance during the 2017 season. The 2017 honorees included: Track Services Mission Award: Tim Arfons Teamwork Award: Darlington Raceway Innovation Award: Jay Donnay and Jason Payne Excellence in Track Services Award: Ignatius Kosier, Atlanta Motor Speedway Norrie Baird NASCAR Track Services Training Award: Andrew Brandl, Road America Medical Above and Beyond Award: Chuck Willard, Chicagoland Speedway Medical Director Award: Douglas Swanson, Dr. William Liang Nursing Director Award: Connie Tompkins, Kerry Lane Teamwork Award: Charlotte Motor Speedway, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Security Security Award: Chief Gary J. Gacek, Concord NC Police Department, Doug Cremer and Tom Vesey, Charlotte Motor Speedway; Alan Watson and Andy McWilliams, Talladega Superspeedway; Greg Scott and Darren Cook, Kansas Speedway; Matt Brannock, Martinsville Speedway; Bill Hindman and Brett Adams, ISM Raceway; Jay Fraioli and Al Garcia, Homestead Miami Speedway The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will kick off the 2018 season with the Advance Auto Parts Clash on Sunday, Feb. 11 at Daytona International Speedway. 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. 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. 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. 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 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 Osteen Jr., a George W. Bush appointee. Osteen dissented on part of Wynn's rationale, however. 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." 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 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. 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. - - - The Washington Post's Fred Barbash contributed to this report. ncarolina-1stld-writethru Please join us for Business After Hours on Jan. 18 from 5:30-7 p.m. This month will be a Meet the Doctors evening, as it is hosted by Cruson Dental Arts, Slothower Pediatrics and Taylor Chiropractic. The community will have to a chance to meet Dr. Cruson, Dr. Slothower, Dr. Taylor and Dr. Parsons. The event will take place at 1810 Pinion Road (Taylor Chiropractic). Cruson Dental Arts offers a wide array of services so you can be proud of your smile during lifes most important moments. They take time to get to know your oral health history and smile concerns so they can design the smile of your dreams. They can brighten, straighten, or reshape your smile so it reaches its full potential just in time for your next big opportunity. Slothower Pediatrics strives to provide the best pediatric care when you need it, at an affordable cost. They offer a wide array of services including complete care for infants, children, and adolescents, neonatal care, routine well child care, preventative care and immunizations, developmental screening, vision, and hearing tests, mental health issues and much more. Unlike conventional medicine, which focuses on attempting to treat disease once it occurs, Taylor Chiropractic emphasizes improving your health in an effort to reduce the risk of pain and illness in the first place. Most people would rather be healthy and avoid illness if they could. This is one of the main reasons for the big surge in the popularity of their wellness center. Please join us and meet the doctors at Business After Hours. It is also a great place to network and meet other business leaders and community members. There will be food, beverages and raffles. The Elko Area Chamber will be raffling off one year of free membership to any business that is not currently a chamber member, and also raffling off free advertising on our website for current chamber members. Business After Hours is free and open to the public. In many ways, America has seen tremendous progress in areas of diversity and inclusion over the past few decades, yet simply reading last years top news headlines proves that we still have room to grow before we become a true melting pot of various cultures and ideas. Despite the ever-present notion that the world is becoming more divided, there are numerous individuals, organizations and institutions that demonstrate a resolve to promote diversity throughout our state. Once a year, Indiana Minority Business Magazine, a sister-publication of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper, honors those who bring diverse values, backgrounds and abilities together for the benefit of consumers and employers. On Jan. 12, at 5:30 p.m., our Champions of Diversity awards dinner will take place at Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Indianapolis, honoring those who have fought for diversity within and beyond the realms of race and gender. The following are profiles of the 13 IMBM Champions of Diversity 2018 recipients. Please join the Indianapolis Recorder in congratulating these companies and individuals for their continued commitment to diversity and equality. AIS Whether you have IT problems or just want to prevent them, AIS (Apex Infinite Solutions) has the answer for you. AIS prides itself on offering big company solutions and support to countless small businesses across Indiana. AIS works with leading partners in the industry such as Microsoft, Synology and Xerox to provide clients with the most current and effective IT solutions. Diversity has been a very important goal for the company, in both the composition of its staff and its outreach to the community. Central Indiana Community Foundation Known as a catalyst for progress, the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) has provided both the vision and resources for improvements in many central Indiana neighborhoods. As the steward of more than $720 million in charitable assets, it connects donors with causes they care about. CICF maintains a diverse focus at all levels of its community involvement, from planning to operations. People across America are familiar with the phrase Hoosier hospitality, and CICF ensures that all communities in central Indiana are touched by this kindness. Citizens Energy Group Citizens Energy Groups commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce is evident in the companys policies and practices. In 2014, the company introduced an initiative to reduce unemployment rates in Marion County and to expand the number of trained and qualified job candidates in the community. In addition, in 2011, Citizens Energy Group initiated a supplier diversity outreach campaign to promote the utilization of qualified minority-, women- and veteran-owned business enterprises for competitive access to opportunities. This database currently contains over 600 certified minority-, women- and veteran-owned business enterprises. Tony Ezell Tony Ezell is vice president and chief customer officer at Elanco US Inc. Before working with Elanco US Inc., he spent more than 20 years working with Eli Lilly and Company, with a focus on improving customer experience by helping the company move from product-centric outlook to one based on needs, tensions and frustrations customers face. Financial Health Federal Credit Union Financial Health Federal Credit Union, an organization that aims to help low-income individuals achieve fiscal freedom, has an underserved area designation, consisting of 10 ZIP codes in the urban core of Indianapolis. The credit union offers lending and financial wellness programs that assist inner-city residents of Indianapolis in navigating their financial situation by providing credit-builder loans, savings accounts with benefits that encourage saving for emergency situations, financial counseling, free tax preparation and financial wellness workshops. Geoffrey A. Gaither The Honorable Geoffrey A. Gaither, senior magistrate at the Marion County Juvenile Court in Indianapolis, is deeply committed to community service and uplifting minority youth and young adults. He is an adjunct professor at IUPUI and Martin University, as well as a motivational speaker with a passion for reaching young people. To that aim, he initiated The Young Womens Empowerment Conference series targeted toward women in the juvenile justice system, as well as a Male Mentoring Conference to promote the impact mentorship can have on success. Gaither now leads the Dual Status Court in Indianapolis. Danette Garza Danette Garza is CEO of Gary, Indiana-based Jack Gray Transport Inc., which provides bulk transportation, and Lakes & Rivers Logistics Inc., which offers bulk and break-bulk stevedore services at Buffington Harbor. Garza also owns Continental Languages LLC, a company that provides on-site and remote linguistic interpreters in more than 100 languages to attorneys, courts, local businesses and medical groups. Garza is a proven business leader and entrepreneur who has extensive executive experience in operations and driving results through management. Indiana Grand Racing & Casino Indiana Grand Racing & Casino, along with parent company Centaur Gaming, is committed to being a multi-cultural company. Indiana Grand ensures a culture of diversity and inclusion with required diversity education in annual team member training, thoughtful policy-making and more. Centaur Gaming is committed to purchasing from local minority- and women-owned businesses. As of Dec. 31, 2016, $64.8 million in local and regional purchases had been made from MBE vendors, with $61.7 million from WBE vendors. Indiana Undocumented Youth Alliance The Indiana Undocumented Youth Alliance (IUYA) is dedicated to empowering young immigrants by helping them reach their highest potential and become full members of American society. At the same time, it also fights for fair and just policies that affect undocumented and documented immigrant families. IUYA is unique from most organizations in its field, because it is youth-led and is organized at both the state and local level. Scholarships are provided for students in financial need, and meaningful alliances have been formed with diverse organizations across the state. By the very nature of its work, IUYA is a strong contributor to diversity throughout Indiana. Peace Learning Center Peace Learning Center, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit, strives to educate, inspire and empower people to live peacefully with the aim of reducing violence and increasing kindness in the community. The Center works directly with schools, community nonprofits, businesses, juvenile correctional facilities and faith groups to facilitate peace education sessions. Since 1997, the Center has shared its values peaceful resolution of all conflicts, strength of diversity in the community, the potential of youth, and responsible stewardship of the environment and community resources with more than 175,000 people in Indianapolis and beyond. Dawn R. Rosemond Dawn R. Rosemond is a partner in Barnes & Thornburgs Fort Wayne, Indiana, office and serves as the firm-wide director of diversity, professional development and inclusion. In that role, Rosemond spearheads the firms diversity and inclusion initiatives and serves as co-chair of the firms Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Rosemond is also a member of the firms Litigation Department and serves on the Pro Bono Committee. Rosemond, a published author, created leadership and personal development platform REIGN designed to lead people to the realization that they were created to reign in this life and hosts dynamic talks around the country to fulfill this purpose-driven agenda. Salesforce Salesforce is recognized as the worlds leading company offering the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. As an innovator in cloud computing, Salesforce specializes in providing convenient cloud-based applications for sales, service and marketing that dont require monitoring by IT experts. Although based in California, Salesforce has also developed strong ties to Indiana and has adopted the state as a new home. Under the leadership of its founder, chairman and CEO Marc Benioff, Salesforce has led successful efforts in the business community to fight for legislation to prevent discrimination against Hoosiers based on race, gender, religion and sexual orientation. Dr. Nichole Wilson Dr. Nichole Wilson has made it her mission to impact the lives of others through her leadership in health care and service to the Indianapolis community. Wilson is the vice president of retail health services for Community Health Network. The University of Indianapolis selected Wilson to be featured in their nationwide marketing campaign highlighting their most successful alumni. Wilsons dedication to service and philanthropy is evident through her board involvement with College Mentors for Kids, the Womens Fund of Central Indiana, the Indianapolis Public Safety Foundation and the Madame Walker Theatre Center. Champions of Diversity Demand for fresh fish during the Comstock boom days was met by resourceful fishermen who brought their catch to market from Stillwater Marsh east of Fallon and from Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes. Some of the local Indians made a good living bringing wagonloads of salmon-like cutthroat trout to the gourmet restaurants and fish markets in Virginia City and other Western Nevada markets. When Fremont first came through the area on his expedition of 1843-44, he discovered Pyramid Lake. Just east of there was a large basin that was nothing more than a dry alkali flat at that time, with a small puddle at one end. It became known as Mud Lake. In 1862, there was a major flood that filled the basin to a depth of about 80 feet. The lake was then renamed Winnemucca Lake after Paiute Indian Chief Winnemucca. Before long, the lake supported a large population of salmon-sized cutthroat trout. Fishing on the lake became so productive that several boats, including at least one steamer named the Wm. Jamison, were used to catch the fish and bring them to a cannery set up at Wadsworth. In the 1880s, a substantial fishing camp was established about 25 miles north of Gerlach on the shore of Winnemucca Lake. The camp was operated by a man known only as Adobe Charlie. He had several fishing boats and operated a convenience store where he sold drinks, snacks and fishing tackle. Even though the level of the lake was beginning to drop dangerously low by the late 1920s, Adobe Charlie decided to construct a new boat where he could take fishermen, girls and drinkers out to party during the Prohibition days. The boat was a side paddle wheeler propelled by a model-T Ford engine. When the beautiful new boat was finished, the lake had only about seven to eight feet of water left. On the maiden voyage, Charlie quickly crossed the lake and circled around to return to the camp. Before he reached shore, the boat hit a mud bank and became hopelessly mired. Adobe Charlies boat never floated again. In fact, ruins of the craft deteriorated away on the dry alkali bed that was once Winnemucca Lake. The lake had begun a steady process of drying up after Derby Dam was constructed on the Truckee River in 1907. By 1939, the wonderful fishery had dried up to the point it became a desert once more. In 1959, I was on a hunting trip to the Black Rock Desert area. When we passed Winnemucca Lake, I noticed something out-of-place out on the dry lakebed. I asked Tom Bradshaw, one of my fellow hunters, what the big black spot was out on the white sand. Tom told me it was a boat that had been there since the Prohibition days. The following year, my girlfriend and I went back with camera in hand and walked out to see and photograph the wreck of Adobe Charlies dream boat. Every year, thousands of people travel the road to Gerlach past the dried-up wreckage of Adobe Charlies boat on their way to Burning Man without even knowing the desert they are traveling through was a lake full of fish a hundred years earlier. I have included with this article one of the photos I took of the boat in 1959. Today there is not much left of the boat just a few scattered timbers, planks and ribs. Both the fishing camp and the boat remains have been recorded as historical sites with the Nevada State Museum. I wish to thank Oyvind Frock for much of the historical information he provided to me about the boat and Adobe Charlies fishing camp. The African Union on Friday blasted President Donald Trump for his profane comments about African countries and other nations, and recalled the U.S. history of bringing in slaves from the continent. Mr. Trump used the words shithole countries to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African countries in response to lawmakers who suggested they restore protections for immigrants from there, the Washington Post reported Thursday. The White House has not disputed the report. Responding to the remarks, AU spokeswoman, Ebba Kalondo, reminded Trump that many Africans arrived in the U.S. as slaves, adding that Trumps profane statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice. She described the U.S. as a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity. In her statement, Kalonda said the African Union and its partners would continue to address the causes of migration while also fighting against racism and xenophobia. Meanwhile, South Africas governing African National Congress party took to Twitter to chide Trump over his offensive choice of words. Others responded to the derogatory slur with humour. Good morning from the greatest most beautiful shithole country in the world!!! Leanne Manas, a news anchor for South Africas SABC broadcaster, wrote on Twitter. Source:(dpa/NAN) Nigerians light experience another days of black out, as another explosion rocked the pipeline criss-crossing the Ugbokodo community near the Warri refinery in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State. According to reports, the incident sources occurred around 4am, forced residents of the community to scamper for safety in the bushes when they discovered that the inferno that resulted from the explosion was advancing towards their homes. It was gathered that some residents, including children, who fled into the bushes, were still missing as of 4:30pm when one of our correspondents left the community. The PUNCH learnt that the explosion was as a result of leaks from a gas pipeline in the community, which had earlier been reported to the management of the NGC. According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, repair work commenced immediately on the facility in order to address the fresh incident. The NNPC, however, did not state what caused the fresh explosion on the pipeline. It took the combined efforts of the men of the fire services of the NGC and the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company as well as other agencies to put out the fire at about 8am. No life was lost in the incident, which created panic among residents of the area. Residents of the community who later protested the development accused the management of the NGC of negligence as the community had reported the malfunctioning pipeline to its Ekpan-Warri office without any action being taken. The protesters led by the Unuevworo of Ugbokodo community, Chief Tobore Ajisha, alleged that the explosion could have been avoided if the leaking pipeline was immediately fixed when members of the community reported the leakage to NGC officials in writing. Ajisha stated that the community also placed a call to the management of the Nigeria Gas Processing and Transporting Company when the explosion occurred but the firm allegedly refused to act quickly until the inferno gathered momentum. Efforts to speak with the NGCs spokesman in the Warri area office, Violin Antaih, were unsuccessful as calls and SMS sent across to him were not unanswered and not replied. But confirming the explosion, the Commander of the Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe, Rear Admiral Suleiman Apochi, said he had yet to get a full briefing on the development as of the time he was contacted. This is coming four days after the resumption of gas supply to six power plants Egbin (Lagos), Omotosho I and II (Ondo), and Olorunsogo I and II and Paras Energy (Ogun) after the completion of the repair work on the pipeline, which was damaged by a fire incident last week. The plants did not generate any megawatts of electricity for four straight days until Monday when the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System, which supplies gas to them, came back on stream. Source: ( Punch Newspaper ) 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. 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. Source: ( AFP ) Activities were temporarily halted this evening at the arrival section of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, following the unruly behaviour of some aides of the Nigerian musician, David Adeleke aka Davido. One of the aides of Davido whose name was simply given as Kayode a became upset and beat up an official at the airport who asked him to produce his baggage tags at the airport today, later beat up officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Aviation Security (AVSEC), a department under the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and a staff of Checkport over an attempt to check the tags on the checked luggage of Davido on an Emirates flight. It was gathered that Davido who had arrived the country through an Emirates flight around 5 pm, had 17 checked luggage, which the aides refused to allow the officials of the Checkport verify with the attached tags. Crisis broke out when a Checkport staff at the airport attempted to verify some of the checked luggage with the attached tags, but, rather than allow the staff to carry out his official duty, the aide (Kayode) insisted that he would not allow him to verify the luggage, which after much arguments and insistence, led to fisticuffs. Kayode punched the Checkport staff on the face, which attracted other security officials at the terminal who immediately attempted to arrest the aide. But, rather than obey, he resisted arrest and pummelled another airport staff at the baggage claim area. When he seemed uncontrollable, the security officials mobilized and forced him to a restricted area within the terminal known as tango city. Tango City is a place where touts and unruly persons are detained within the terminal before being transferred to a police station for further a possible interrogation and possible prosecution. At Tango City, the aide allegedly continued his attacks on security officials by hitting a female AVSEC official who was taking notes of the incident in the tummy and later pushed another Customs personnel who landed awkwardly and cut his wrist in the industrial fan in the area. As all these were going on, Davido was aware of the on-going crisis inside the terminal ran to hide in a car outside the terminal where he awaited the release of his aides and luggage in vain having mobilized some officials with cash to take care of the problem. An eyewitness told our correspondent that the entire 17 luggage belonging to Davido are yet to be released to him and information gathered indicated that one of the luggage might contain a huge sum of cash in foreign currencies. As at the time of filing in this report, it was not clear if the aide had been transferred to the State CID as threatened by the security officials, but it can be established that the luggage are still being withheld by airport security officials. The eyewitness said: Whenever Davido arrives the airport, he usually leave his check-in luggage for his aides to clear. Immediately he arrives on a flight, he goes out and will start doling out money outside the terminal. Today, he arrived as usual with several luggage and about 17 in all. The rule is that whenever you arrive, you are expected to release your tags to the Checkport staff for confirmation and verification, but rather than comply with the simple rule, one of his aides insisted he wont allow them to check the tags. He rebuffed everyone who were carrying out their lawful duties and resorted to attack the officials. No fewer than four officials were beaten by the person in question with at least two of them soaked in blood. When he was uncontrollable, he was bundled into the cell and he insisted that he must be taken to a police station. This however, attracted Davidos attention who was already out of the terminal. He had to return, but the security officials refused to hand over the luggage to him. One of the luggage we even gathered contained some money in foreign currencies. -IBJA Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), a human rights attorney has given the Department of State Services 48 hours to either release the 10 Cameroonian separatists in custody or take them to court. The senior advocate said this in a letter addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris. Falana added that if the DSS failed to act, he would approach a court and demand for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights. He said, Take notice therefore that if our clients are not released from illegal custody or arraigned in court within 48 hours of the receipt of this letter we shall not hesitate to apply to the Federal High Court to secure the enforcement of their fundamental rights to personal liberty guaranteed by Section 35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended and article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. Falana noted that the 10 Cameroonians-Mr. Julius Tabe, Mr. Wilfred Tassang, Dr. Nfor Nfor, Prof. Augustine Awasom, Dr. Cornelius Kwanga, Dr. Henry Kimeng, Elias Eyambe, Nalova Bih, Dr. Ojong Okongo and Dr. Fidelis Che came into Nigeria legally. Falana, therefore, described their arrest by the DSS as illegal. He added, Our clients are the leaders of the movement agitating for the creation of the Republic of Ambazonia in Cameroon. 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 apart from Prof. Augustine Awasom who is a United States citizen. Our clients were assembled for a meeting at Nera Hotel, Abuja on Saturday, January 6, 2018. However, before the commencement of the meeting a team of armed operatives of the State Security Service invaded the venue, abducted our clients and took them away to an undisclosed place. The lawyer said by not disclosing information on the abduction to the relatives of the Cameroonians, the DSS violated section 6 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act which imposes a duty on any authority having custody of a suspect to notify the next of kin or relative of the suspect of the arrest at no cost to the suspect. Source: ( Punch Newspaper ) Media personlaity Kemi Olunloyo, has reached out to Cameroonian celebrity Dencia, upon gaining her freedom. Recall Miss Olunloyo, was locked up in Port-Harcout prison for 90 days upon her re-arrest last year. Kemi, who was freed some days ago, thanked Charles Oputa aka Charly Boy for her freedom and used the opportunity to beg the government to de-congest the prisons. She had written; I have been released from Port Harcourt maximum prison for the third time in 12 months. To the Federal government of Nigeria, pls decongest #PHMax. Our young #Igbo #Ogoni #Ikwere#Calabar #AkwaIbom males are all LOCKED UP and not fed adequately. Many wasting away with skin and health problems. The Federal Ministry of Interior needs to intervene FAST! Special thanks to @areafada1 and #ourmumudondomovement which I helped launch @tvcconnect Dec 13th 2016 for my release. Dencia reached out to her afterwards. Read their exchange below; Source: Naijaloaded Officials of the Edo State Police Command have shot dead a suspected member of a kidnap syndicate in Ovia South-West Local Government Area of the state. It was gathered that the hoodlums had on Wednesday emerged from the bush along the Benin-Lagos expressway and blocked a portion of the road, making it impassable. A team of policemen from the Okada division were said to have stormed the area, after a distress call, and engaged the kidnappers in a shootout. The suspected criminals were said to have fled to the Benin-Auchi road and also engaged another set of policemen in a gun battle, which left one of the hoodlums dead. The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Johnson Kokumo, told our correspondent on Thursday evening that, an AK 47 rifle, a machete and some charms were recovered from the dead suspect. Kokumo also said that the victims of the hoodlums were rescued. The commissioner said, You can even see an underwear affixed with charms. Their (kidnappers) own area of specialisation is that they are resident in the bush, come out to the road to kidnap people and move them into the bush. It is from the bush camps that they negotiate for ransom. Nemesis caught up with him (deceased) and the victims are here. One of the victims, who gave his name as Ahmed Muhammed, said that the suspected kidnappers had accosted him and forced him and others into the bush, where their phones were forcefully taken. I was coming from Warri at about 10:30pm when I saw about 10 men blocking the road. They ordered us to wait and threatened to shoot us. We ran into the bush before the police came, Muhammed, a truck driver stated. Another victim, Chigbum Edeh, from Enugu State, explained that he was travelling to Lagos when he encountered the kidnappers. Edeh, who claimed to be an escort of goods, said.As we were on our way on the Auchi road, they (hoodlums) blocked the road. The driver of the vehicle and I ran into the bush. While in the bush, we heard gunshots. But the police later came to take us to their station. Source: ( Punch Newspaper ) ELKO A Spring Creek man was arrested Thursday on multiple charges related to a pre-Christmas break-in at C-A-L Ranch in which more than a dozen firearms were stolen. Brian E. Adams Jr., 26, was booked on one count of burglary and 16 counts of grand larceny. Elko police Lt. Mike Palhegyi said an officer responded to an alarm at the store shortly after 2 a.m. Dec. 11. He noticed a broken pane of glass so he called for backup, Palhegyi said. Inside, officers found broken display cases. The burglars apparently fled through the back door. Sixteen assorted handguns were stolen and have yet to be recovered. Subsequent investigation identified Adams as a suspect, and he was arrested Jan. 11 at the Elko County Jail. His bail totaled $345,000. Adams was also arrested Jan. 2 for felony possession of a controlled substance, use or possession of drug paraphernalia, and trespassing, according to Elko Daily Free Press files. He was also placed under citizens arrest on Dec. 19 for trespassing at Smiths, on Nov. 10 for resisting a public officer and giving a false statement to obstruct a public officer, and on Oct. 9 for trespassing at Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital. New Telegraph The House of Representatives yesterday refused to allow the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, to defend the 2018 budget estimates for the ministry. Vanguard One of the suspects in the New Year killing of worshippers at Omoku, Rivers State, disclosed, yesterday, that they carried out the killings to avenge the arrest and humiliation of the mother of their leader, Don Waney, coupled with the destruction of Waneys mansion. Punch Many residents of Makurdi in mourning gathered on Thursday at the IBB Square as bodies of the victims of the Fulani herdsmen attacks of January 1 and 2, 2018, in parts of Benue State were given a mass burial. Thisday To ensure a smooth transition into civil life for the retirees of the Armed Forces, the Senate Committee on Defence, has pledged more support for the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (NAFRC). Daily Times The Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday carried out a major cabinet reshuffle, dropping three commissioners and appointing five new ones. Guardian Residents of Lagos and Abuja have begun heaving sighs of relief from the recent fuel scarcity, leaving people in Imo, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Kano and other parts of the country longing for similar respite. Daily Trust The Court of Appeal in Abuja has refused an application seeking to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting the rerun election for the Anambra Central Senatorial District of Anambra State. Tribune The Federal Government on Thursday disclosed that it has arrested three suspected human traffickers involved in the enslavement of Nigerians in Libya and are currently under investigation. The Nation Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Audu Ogbeh explained yesterday why the Federal Government substituted the plan to create ranches with that of cattle colonies. The Nigerian Police Force on Thursday in Abuja paraded Desmond Okotubo, the prime suspect in the January 1 killings in Omoku, Rivers State. The Force spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, explained that the suspect was picked up at his hideout in Mpape, a ghetto community in Abuja. See Photos below: ELKO A former Elko obstetrician/gynecologist is being sued for medical negligence stemming from a 2013 procedure that burned a hole in a patients bowel. Opening arguments began Jan. 10 in the jury trial of Dr. Gary Wright, who specialized as an OB/GYN in Elko from 2005 to 2016. Elko District Judge Al Kacin is presiding. The plaintiff, Jessica Van Hoy, is seeking unspecified damages, alleging Wright negligently injured her when the bipolar electrocautery tool he used in a laparoscopy to remove an adhesion burned her bowel and that he failed to convert the surgery to a full-open procedure to examine the area for damage. The procedure took place April 3, 2013, at Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital. Van Hoys attorney, Charles W. Spann, told the jury that because of her complicated medical history, Wright should have obtained a second opinion instead of sending her home. After the surgery, Wright told Van Hoy and her husband about the burn to the bowel and told them to contact him if there was pain. Spann said Van Hoy experienced severe pain, nausea and sweating 15 minutes after leaving the hospital and returned to NNRH that afternoon. Van Hoy was operated on the next day, about 31 hours after her first surgery, to repair the hole, and was hospitalized for nine days. Anthony Lauria, representing Wright, told the jury that burns or thermal spread can take place when using an electrocautery tool, or Kleppinger, and that injuries to bowels are common in laparoscopies. Lauria said Wright did not see any evidence of fluid leaking into the abdomen as a result of the burn to the serosa tissue of the small bowel before concluding the procedure. Lauria also stated that Wright knew most burns heal on their own. Lauria told the 10-member jury that the defense planned to call other physicians during the trial, explaining that in some of their depositions they stated Wright met the standard of care and was not negligent, adding that the totality of evidence presented in the trial would show that Wright was not negligent. Wright is board certified in Nevada, Hawaii and Texas and he opened his own practice at the Pinion Road Medical Clinic in 2008, according to Free Press files. He was the department chair of the OB/GYN unit at NNRH from 2010 to 2013. Wright moved to Texas in 2016 and is expected to testify in his own defense during the trial. The trial is expected to continue through the rest of the week. While the Mexican government is no stranger to the complexities of transactions executed with digital currencies, it has focused its efforts in trying to lay down a much needed regulatory framework for the use of virtual currencies in order to counter money laundering or terrorist financing activities. To that end, a Financial Technologies Law (FinTech Bill) was submitted to Congress by the Ministry of Finance, which was approved unanimously by the Mexican Senate early in December 2017. It has now been sent for review by the lower house of Congress (expected to pass during the first months of 2018). The FinTech Bill regulates financial technology institutions (FTIs) and proposes that FTIs operate virtual assets, such as cryptocurrencies, while imposing measures to bring virtual currency exchanges through FTIs under the regulatory purview of Mexicos Central Bank (Banxico). If the FinTech Bill comes into force in its current form, FTIs will require authorisation from Banxico to operate virtual currencies in Mexico. It is expected that Banxico will define which virtual assets may be traded in Mexico, as well as the groundwork for their operation, through secondary legislation. Although this is unlikely to be viewed as a priority by the Mexican authorities in a presidential election year, it seems that in order to close the loop on the regulation of virtual currencies it is necessary to issue guidance on the taxation of cryptocurrencies and of transactions executed using these as means of payment. It is important to distinguish between the different types of users of virtual currency. In general, two main types of users can be identified: Investors, which use cryptocurrencies as a new asset class for storing their wealth (i.e. expecting the asset to increase its value over time); and Those who use virtual currencies as a payment method to purchase goods or services (including other cryptocurrencies). In the international tax context, most countries have taken one of two main approaches to regulate digital currencies: (i) treating digital currency as an asset or commodity, or (ii) passing legislation to recognise virtual currencies as legal tender. As touched on earlier, the Mexican authorities have provided very limited guidance as to the legal nature of digital currencies and/or the taxation of transactions executed using these as a means of payment, but they have, however, confirmed that cryptocurrencies have no legal tender in Mexico as they are not government backed. The above is very relevant for Mexican tax purposes as it seems to discard the possibility of having to tax cryptocurrency as if it were a foreign currency for Mexican purposes. This results in not having to consider price variations of virtual currency as taxable income on an accrual basis (as would be the case for foreign exchange gains accrued by Mexican residents holding foreign currency) which, considering the volatility of virtual currencies, could have staggering consequences for their holders. This approach, however, is not beneficial for value added tax (VAT) purposes, as it implies that the trading of cryptocurrencies in Mexican territory could be subject to VAT, whereas the trading of currencies is generally VAT exempt. In our view, in terms of the current Mexican legal framework, which was clearly not conceived having in mind the existence of cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies should be considered assets, as they are something that may be subject to appropriation. Taxation of investors in digital currency should occur until they dispose of such assets (i.e. exchange them for cash), at which point they should compare the adjusted basis that they had in their virtual currencies (i.e. purchase price) against the fair market value of such assets as of the date of disposal in order to determine if they triggered a taxable gain or loss. It is important to note that foreign investors should not be subject to taxation in Mexico on gains realised from the conversion of virtual currencies into Mexican pesos, as such income should not be considered to derive from a Mexican source of wealth. In turn, the payment of goods or services using cryptocurrency should be viewed as a payment in kind for Mexican tax purposes, where the cryptocurrency used as payment should be considered sold by the acquirer of the goods or services, who should determine its taxable gain or loss upon transferring the cryptocurrency to the seller under the terms described in the previous paragraph. Specifically, an exchange of a cryptocurrency for another property (e.g. commodities, other cryptocurrencies, etc.) should be viewed as a barter trade for Mexican tax purposes, where both the asset that is being acquired and the cryptocurrency used for its payment are considered to be sold simultaneously. Transactions settled in cryptocurrency are particularly complex from the VAT side, as Mexico imposes VAT on the transfer of goods if such transfer takes place in Mexican territory, which is somewhat unclear in the case of transactions settled in cryptocurrency. VAT legislation provides that a sale is deemed to occur in Mexican territory if the asset being transferred is in Mexico at the time of shipment or, if no shipment is required, if the physical delivery of the asset takes place in Mexico. In the case of intangible assets, the sale is considered to occur in Mexican territory when both the purchaser and seller are residents of Mexico. In our view, cryptocurrencies should be considered intangible assets, as they are assets that lack physical substance, in which case their sale should only be subject to VAT in Mexico if both the purchaser and the seller are residents in Mexico, but this position remains to be confirmed by the tax authorities. It is important to note that this determination is particularly intricate in the cryptocurrency space, as buyers and sellers do not necessarily have visibility as to the residency of their counterpart. Investors should be aware that while no specific tax legislation has been issued regarding cryptocurrencies, under existing general tax principles, transactions settled using cryptocurrency may give rise to taxable events in Mexico. This article was written by Oscar Lopez Velarde Perez and Santiago Diaz Rivera Bravo of Ritch, Mueller, Heather y Nicolau, S.C. for International Tax Review. Oscar Lopez Velarde (olopezvelarde@ritch.com.mx) Santiago Diaz Rivera Bravo (sdiazrivera@ritch.com.mx) Ritch, Mueller, Heather y Nicolau, S.C. www.ritch.com.mx NEW YORK, NY - January 12, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Today, New American Economy (NAE) released a report on the contributions of immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa to the U.S. economy. Between 2010 and 2015, the number of African immigrants in America more than doubled - rising from roughly 723,000 people to more than 1.7 million. Power of the Purse: How Sub-Saharan Africans Contribute to the U.S. Economy suggests that African immigrants punch well above their weight in many respects. These immigrants naturalize at high rates, they attain higher levels of education than the overall U.S. population as a whole, and are more likely to have earned their degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, or STEM, field. They also make meaningful contributions to several vital sectors of the economy - including healthcare - where employers have persistent challenges finding enough workers. The report, Power of the Purse, finds: African immigrant households contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy through their spending and tax payments. African immigrants earned $55.1 billion in 2015. Their households paid $10.1 billion in federal taxes and $4.7 billion in state and local taxes - giving African immigrants an estimated spending power of more than $40.3 billion that year. African immigrants boast higher levels of education than the overall U.S. population, with a particular focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. 40 percent of African immigrants have at least a bachelors degreemaking them 30 percent more likely to achieve that level of education than the U.S. population overall. Of this group, about one in three, or 33.4 percent, have STEM degrees, training heavily in demand by todays employers. African immigrants are well positioned to fill gaps in our workforce as the baby boomers retire. In 2015, almost three out of every four African immigrants, or 73.4 percent, were in the prime of their working years, falling between the ages of 25 and 64. Less than half of the U.S.-born population fell into that age bracket. African immigrants make meaningful contributions to our economy as entrepreneurs. In 2015, the country was home to over 90,000 foreign-born entrepreneurs from Africa. A large share of this group worked in the broader transportation sector, and 5,700 were working in real estate and accounting industries. A large share of African immigrants is working in the healthcare sector, a segment of our economy that is already facing unprecedented levels of demand. In 2015, the number of open healthcare positions in our economy far exceeded the number of unemployed workers with experience in the field.3 This makes the contribution of African immigrants particularly important. In 2015, almost 30 percent of Africans in the workforce were employed in the healthcare and services industry, compared to just 13 percent of the U.S.-born working population overall. Read the full research report here. About New American Economy New American Economy (NAE) brings together more than 500 Republican, Democratic and Independent mayors and business leaders who support immigration reforms that will help create jobs for Americans today. Coalition members include mayors of more than 35 million people nationwide and business leaders of companies that generate more than $1.5 trillion and employ more than 4 million people across all sectors of the economy, from Agriculture to Aerospace, Hospitality to High Tech and Media to Manufacturing. Learn more at www.newamericaneconomy.org. More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders 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. 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Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and new Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley will meet again next week in the hope of making progress on the powersharing deadlock. Mr Coveney, who flew into London from a visit to the Middle East to meet the newly appointed Northern Ireland Secretary, said the talks had been "very good" and he expected they were "going to work very well together". The Tanaiste said there remained "significant challenges" but both governments wanted to find a way to resolve the stand-off. He said: "Everybody knows that there are time constraints in terms of the work that we need to do but also I think everybody agrees that we want devolved government again in Northern Ireland." The meeting came after a week where political relations in Northern Ireland were further strained, this time by controversies around the 1976 Kingsmill massacre in south Armagh. Mr Coveney attacked the "really, really stupid and insensitive" actions of Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff, who posted a social media video of him with a Kingsmill branded loaf on his head on the anniversary of an atrocity that saw republican paramilitaries shoot dead 10 Protestant workmen. Mr McElduff, who apologised and insisted the video was not a reference to the massacre, was suspended by Sinn Fein for three months. Unionists reacted angrily, both to the post and the extent of Sinn Fein's punishment, and the incident appeared to further reduce the already bleak prospects of a deal to restore powersharing. The situation was exacerbated on Wednesday when a number of unionist politicians retweeted a graphic satirical cartoon that portrayed the Mr McElduff controversy by depicting the aftermath of the Kingsmill outrage, with blood running from a bullet-riddled van. The incidents prompted the sole survivor of the Kingsmill shootings, Alan Black, to implore politicians on all sides to stop trying to "poke each other's eye out" and instead help the victims. However, a week of political rancour and animosity appeared to end on a more optimistic note when two senior DUP and Sinn Fein members engaged in more conciliatory exchanges on BBC NI's The View on Thursday night. In a forthright condemnation of the Kingsmill outrage, Sinn Fein's John O'Dowd, who lost three family members at the hands of loyalist paramilitaries the day before Kingsmill, said he was "ashamed" by the sectarian attack. The DUP's Edwin Poots welcomed the remarks and said his party was determined to see devolution returned. Mr Coveney said: "I think the unfortunate things that have happened in relation to Kingsmill this week and the absolutely understandable upset of families because of a really, really stupid and insensitive occurrence is a reminder of just how important legacy and reconciliation is. "So, that's why I hope people will get some encouragement from the tone of the interaction between Edwin Poots and John O'Dowd last night, which I hope is the tone we can continue in." Speaking after the meeting, Mr Coveney also told reporters that he did not believe there was any ambiguity in the agreement reached in December on the Northern Ireland border during Brexit negotiations. He said: "I don't think there is any ambiguity in the context of an all-Ireland economy and the need to protect north-south cooperation in the context of the Good Friday Agreement." Meeting Mr Coveney inside the NIO offices, Mrs Bradley said: "We have a shared objective - restoring devolved government to Northern Ireland as soon as possible." She noted that she had now had discussions with all the main parties at Stormont and Mr Coveney. "I look forward to reflecting on those conversations over the weekend to decide the way forward," she added. A man whose wife died during surgery for an ectopic pregnancy at the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin has sued in the High Court, writes Ann O'Loughlin. Malak Thawley was 35 years of age, a teacher and a US citizen who was expecting her first baby with her husband Alan when she died at Holles Street on May 8, 2016. The High Court was today told by Mr Thawelys Counsel what happened was a cascade of negligence and it was one negligent act after another". Exemplary damages are also being sought in the case. Senior Counsel Liam Reidy SC said the doctor who carried out the surgery was an inexperienced junior surgeon and was not supervised. Counsel told the court how inept the entire process at the hospital was illustrated in the fact that when they decided to cool Mrs Thawleys brain with ice, two doctors were sent across the road to a pub to get ice as there was none in the hospital. Counsel said the fact that the Minister for Health ordered a statutory inquiry into the case gave no comfort to Mrs Thawleys widower and he cant get over his wifes death and has severe hopelessness. The hospital is being sued over the death of Mrs Thawley and her husband is also suing for nervous shock. Liability has been admitted in the case which is before the court for assessment of damages only. Alan Thawley (31) Brusna Cottages, Blackrock, Dublin has sued the National Maternity Hospital Dublin over the death of his wife and for the nervous shock he suffered as a result. Her husband Alan sat in court as his counsel Liam Reidy SC opened the case before Mr Justice Anthony Barr. The couple had been living in Ireland for three years at Blackrock in Dublin when Ms Thawley died. Counsel said they had been profoundly happy and excited when she became pregnant. As a surprise gift, her husband had arranged a scan at six weeks. At the scan, they were told to go to Holles Street for advice about the ectopic pregnancy. Counsel said it was a Sunday and an ultrasound at Holles Street confirmed the ectopic pregnancy. Mr Thawley he said had googled ectopic pregnancy and had seen it could be treated with certain medicine, but Counsel said he was told that because the foetal sac had a heartbeat the only option was a surgical intervention. The couple felt they should follow the advice. Counsel said to this day Mr Thawley regrets the decision made, but the couple were reassured it was a routine procedure which would take thirty minutes. Mrs Thawley was taken to theatre at 4pm. Alan never saw her again, Counsel said. At 5.30pm a nurse told him a lot of blood was found in the abdomen and at 6.30 pm a doctor came to him and he was told his wife had lost ten units of blood but they were dealing with it. Counsel said Mr Thawley felt he was not being told the full picture. At 7.30pm The Master of the National Maternity Hospital Dr Rhona Mahony came to him and told him the situation was very serious and doctors were doing everything they could. Dr Rhona Mahony. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins She said there is a chance your wife could die. About twenty minutes later, she returned with a specialist surgeon and said Malak is dead. Counsel said Mr Thawley was told a trocar had been inserted in the abdomen and it had torn the aorta. Mr Reidy said Mr Thawley remembered saying are you telling me it was a mistake and the surgeon said yes it was medical misadventure. Counsel said Mr Thawley was in a state of shock and disbelief. When he returned to Holles Street the next day Counsel said the Master Dr Mahony said all surgery has risks and what happened was an accident. The case before Mr Justice Anthony Barr continues. SPRING CREEK A domestic dispute turned deadly Thursday night at a home in Spring Creek when a man reportedly shot his wife and was then shot by law enforcement officers. Elko County Sheriff Jim Pitts said deputies were called to the home on Spring Creek Parkway at about 8:45 p.m. Pitts said the wifes sister let officers in the house, and they heard arguing in a bedroom. When officers opened the door, the husband shot the wife and officers shot the husband, identified as Jared S.R. Williams, 31. Karen Williams, 33, was estranged from her husband and had recently moved into the home, according to Pitts. The couple had three children together. They and a fourth from the wifes previous marriage were in the home at the time of the incident, and have been placed in the care of their aunt. Pitts said Jared Williams worked for an express delivery service. Washoe Crime Lab from Reno was processing the crime scene and the OIS (Officer Involved Shooting) team from Carson City is investigating. The Lander County Sheriffs office is serving as coroner. Pitts said further details about the shootings will be released after investigation. President Donald Trump questioned why the US should permit more immigrants from "shithole countries" after senators discussed revamping rules affecting entrants from Africa and Haiti, sources said. Trump made the remark in the Oval Office as two politicians described details to him of a bipartisan compromise among six senators that would extend protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants and strengthen border protections. The senators had hoped Trump would back their accord, ending a months-long, bitter dispute over protecting "Dreamers". But the White House later rejected their proposed agreement, plunging the issue back into uncertainty just eight days before a deadline that threatens a government shutdown. During their conversation, Dick Durbin, of Illinois, the chamber's No 2 Senate Democratic leader, was explaining 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 some other way for them to apply. Durbin said people who had fled to the US after disasters hit their homes, in places including El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti, would be allowed to stay in the country. Trump specifically questioned why the US 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 US, according to three people briefed on the conversation. The president suggested that instead, the US should allow more entrants from countries like Norway. Trump met this week with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. Asked about the remarks, 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. 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". AP Some staff of the Rendezvous Bar in Bishopstown, in the citys western suburbs, were informed of the move by text message yesterday. It is understood the business has gone into liquidation. The man who has run the venue since the early 2000s, Michael ODonovan, was not available for comment yesterday. It is not clear what prompted the closure. But trade sources said the possibility that the business was facing possible closure had been flagged to some in the industry before Christmas. Mr ODonovan and his parents have been involved in the hospitality and licensed trade in Cork for decades. His parents ran the former Westpark Hotel and The Darby Arms pub in Ballincollig, before both venues were sold. The hotel was subsequently demolished. The family later bought the Rendezvous on the Model Farm Road around 1999 and Mr ODonovan took over the running of the business. The venue focused strongly on its food offering and carved out a reputation as one of the citys top gastropubs. Its proximity to Cork University Hospital, University College Cork, and Cork Institute of Technology made it a popular day-time dining spot. The pub underwent an extensive revamp several years ago but the venue suspended food service for several months about three years ago. Sources said when food service resumed, the venue never quite recovered the lost trade and business declined. However, trade sources said given its location it is one of the few bars and restaurants in the sprawling suburban area it would be an attractive offering for a potential buyer. The number of burglaries in Ireland fell by a quarter in the final two months of 2017, say the gardai. According to provisional figures, there was a rise in burglaries, nationally, for a number of months, up until October last. However, gardai claim this trend was reversed by the commencement of the winter phase of Operation Thor in November and December, burglaries fell by 23% In the south-east of the country, 40% fewer burglaries were reported in December, compared to October. A similar trend occurred in other areas, with a 29% drop reported in the east and a 25% drop in the west. In the south, 22% fewer burglaries were reported in December, compared to October; 18% fewer burglaries were reported in the Dublin metropolitan region; and 15% fewer in the north. The gardai say burglaries usually rise by 20% in the winter, when daylight is at its lowest level, unless preventative measures are taken. As a result, the force prepared an operational plan for the winter phase of Operation Thor, which involved targeted enforcement and preventative activity, designed to prevent potential burglars from exploiting the reduced hours of daylight between November and April. Operation Thor has also been targeting organised crime gangs involved in burglaries and, in recent weeks, a number of people have been arrested, having been identified in high-powered get-away vehicles. Ten targets recently arrested under Operation Thor have a combined total of 155 criminal convictions Assistant Commissioner in Special Crime Operations John ODriscoll said it has been a positive start to the winter phase of the crime-tackling initiative. 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, he said. The positive start to the winter phase of Operation Thor is encouraging and we intend achieving more success throughout the remaining months. Earlier this week, Mr ODriscoll met with the most senior detectives in each garda region to review activity undertaken to date under Operation Thor. They said additional actions will be taken in 2018. The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) was also represented at the meeting. Operation Thor led to a 30% reduction in burglaries, following its introduction in November, 2015 and is a multi-strand approach to tackling burglaries, with an emphasis on prevention. It actively targets organised crime gangs and repeat-offenders, through co-ordinated crime-prevention and enforcement activity based on intelligence and the latest burglary trends. The gardai have again emphasised that the public has a crucial role to play in enhancing their home security and are advising people to Lock Up and Light Up, as most burglaries occur between 5pm and 11pm in winter and because more than 50% of burglaries take place either through the front or back door. Failte Ireland has recently tendered for an online ticketing/booking system, selling, but not limited to, real-time tickets for licenced bus tours, walking tours, rail tours, licenced boat trips, events, and attractions. The project is to enable its Tourist Information Offices network nationwide facilitate walk-in visitor bookings. The system offered will have an already proven track record of reliability with a significant amount of approved and licenced tours, events, and attraction products available for booking and sale. It will be available for use in the Failte Ireland Tourist Information Office network at no cost to Failte Ireland or to the consumer. The successful provider will generate a return on investment through commissions only. The system operators must recruit and manage the product providers, train them on how to upload and manage their availability, and provide ongoing support. The successful tenderer would be responsible for the training of Tourist Information Office staff nationwide on the use of the system. If user-experience is deemed unsatisfactory, modifications to how the system works will be required. The successful tenderer will be required to order and manage the Visitor Leap Card stock for the Suffolk St and Upper OConnell St Offices in Dublin. The Leap cards are available for purchase from the National Transport Authority at a discount and will need to be delivered to the two Dublin Tourist offices based on the level of demand. Failte Ireland spokesman Alex Connolly said the e-ticketing plan was a response to consumer behaviour where increasingly people wish to book directly online. Meanwhile, Cork City Council this week confirmed planning permission for Failte Ireland to open a new city centre tourist office on the corner of St Patricks St and Lavitts Quay. It will provide a more convenient information point for visitors arriving to the city by bus and rail than its current tourist office on the Grand Parade. E-ticketing plan to allowtourists to book online Mr OCallaghan made the claim as an Irish Examiner survey of Fianna Fails 23-person front bench found that five favour unrestricted abortion access up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, nine have concerns or are opposed, and nine including leader Micheal Martin have yet to express a view. On Wednesday, the Cabinet formally discussed the Oireachtas committees cross-party recommendations that the Eighth Amendment should be repealed and replaced with legislation allowing unrestricted abortion access in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the recommendations which will be debated in the Dail and Seanad next week may be a step too far for the country. However, he noted: But also having read the committee report, I understand the logic behind that [12-week limit], why they came to that decision, particularly given the widespread availability now of the abortion pill and the fact that people are getting that over the internet and are using it without medical supervision all over Ireland every day. And, in a sign of the sensitive nature of the recommendations, Fianna Fail front bench TDs said they are similarly divided with Mr OCallaghan among those most vocally opposed to the 12-weeks proposal. I do not support the proposal for abortion up to 12 weeks as I am concerned it would significantly increase the number of pregnancies with Down syndrome or other disabilities that are terminated, Mr OCallaghan said, although he added that the current system is too restrictive and should be amended. The other seven Fianna Fail frontbench TDs with concerns about the 12-week option are housing spokesman Barry Cowen, foreign affairs spokesman Darragh OBrien, transport spokesman Robert Troy, rural affairs spokesman Eamon O Cuiv, disability spokeswoman Margaret OMahony Murphy, childrens spokeswoman Anne Rabbitte, and mental health spokesman James Browne. Those in favour are Brexit spokesman Stephen Donnelly, communications spokesman Timmy Dooley, the partys Seanad leader, Catherine Ardagh, and defence spokeswoman Lisa Chambers and health spokesman Billy Kelleher, both of whom sat on the Oireachtas committee. Asked about Mr OCallaghans claims yesterday, Mr Kelleher said the committee recommendations specifically ruled out abortion in these circumstances and that tests for most genetic conditions are only possible at 20 weeks, not 12 weeks. The Irish Examiner contacted all front-bench members and while there are mixed views about implementing recommendations for the abortion referendum, most TDs who spoke oppose the current plans. Many Fianna Fail TDs also said there is confusion and a vacuum as the Government has yet to decide on how to proceed, with ministers having mixed views on the abortion referendum. An Oireachtas committee recommended repealing the Eighth Amendment the part of the Constitution which recognises the equal right to life of a mother and her unborn child and instead allowing women access abortion without restrictions for pregnancies up to 12 weeks. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin will lead a meeting of the front bench on Tuesday, where the report will be discussed, ahead of the larger parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday. While some front-bench members have yet to decide their position, many are reluctant to accept the committees recommendations. Some prominent party TDs also want to wait until the Government reveals what legislation is being planned if the Constitution is changed. Housing spokesman Barry Cowen told the Irish Examiner: Were a bit in the dark. The ball is firmly in the Governments court. If it is repeal on its own, it would be carte blanche, abortion on demand, which will not sit comfortably with the public. Id have concerns. The electorate needs to be told what will follow. Foreign affairs spokesman Darragh OBrien agreed, saying: We are in a bit of a vacuum. Twelve weeks is not something I could personally support. Justice spokesman Jim OCallaghan said he opposed allowing terminations up to 12 weeks without restriction. I do not support the proposal for abortion up to 12 weeks as I am concerned it would significantly increase the number of pregnancies with Down syndrome or other disabilities that are terminated. However, Health spokesman Billy Kelleher, who sat on the committee, pointed out that tests for Down syndrome and other disabilities were only available at 20 weeks, one of the reasons the 12-week cut-off was chosen. Disabilities spokeswoman Margaret OMahony Murphy said: I do not think people are ready for 12 weeks and Im totally against the 12-week limit. However, others on the front bench said change was needed. Brexit spokesman Stephen Donnelly said: Im in line with the partys recommendation to the Oireachtas committee, in favour of 12 weeks, no questions asked, especially where it affects the health of a mother. Communications spokesman Timmy Dooley also said he supports the recommendations, adding: Politicians should facilitate debate on this, but campaigning is not an essential part. A number of FF TDs who did not return calls, including finance spokesman Michael McGrath, are also known to oppose liberalising Irelands abortion laws. Housing spokesman Barry Cowen told the Irish Examiner: Were a bit in the dark. Where Fianna Fail TDs stand The four are among a total of 72 patients recalled after concerns were raised in relation to imaging work overseen by a doctor who no longer works at the hospital. That number could rise further, as more than 12,000 scans have yet to be scrutinised. The South/Southwest Hospital Group (SSWHG) failed to respond to queries last night as to whether there were any further cases of serious missed diagnosis, in addition to the seven already identified. To date, 33,950 scans have been reviewed from a total of 46,235. The X-rays, CAT scans, and ultrasounds included in the review involve 26,756 individual patients. Imaging has been reviewed in relation to 20,367 patients. News of the review broke before Christmas, when it emerged that the SSWHG was re-examining thousands of scans after patient safety concerns emerged during the summer, when the hospital was notified of three serious reportable events. Clinical director Claire OBrien said abnormalities were found by a staff member at the hospital, which led to a decision to examine the work of a former staff member. Dr OBrien said there were serious cases of delayed diagnoses at the hospital. The hospital confirmed before Christmas that the number of serious delayed diagnoses arising from the review had increased from three to seven. Yesterday, as part of a review update, the SSWHG said 73.4% of the review is complete... accounting for 76% of 26,756 individual patients. The number of patients who have been recalled for repeat imaging to date is 72, it said in a statement. Patients whose scans are being re-examined are from Kerry, north Cork, and south Limerick. The look-back which involves up to a dozen consultants, including a number of external doctors is being conducted in reverse order chronologically, from July 2017 back to March 2016. Xia Lin, aged 34, of 1 Cathedral St, Shandon, appeared at Cork District Court yesterday where she pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to 30-year-old Lin Chaun Jacky Lai. Judge John King asked if the accused had any compensation to offer the injured party. Lin, through solicitor Shane Collins-Daly, said that her resources are limited, that she has four children, and receives just over 200 per week in social welfare. The victim, who was present in court, expressed a different view of Lins resources. She is full of money, she said via an interpreter. Judge King said: If she wants to avoid a custodial sentence, she will need to put her best foot forward. Garda Joseph Pigott was on duty coming up to 7pm on October 1, 2016, at Bridewell Garda Station when he saw an incident on Cornmarket St. I observed a female chasing another female on the street. I made my way out of the station, he said. When I arrived I found Ms Lin slamming the injured partys head on the ground. She held on to the injured partys hair and scratched her face. The injured party showed me her front teeth were loose. Her injuries were very apparent and blood was coming from her right cheek. I arrested Ms Lin and conveyed her to the Bridewell Garda Station. She made full admissions to us. Inspector Gary McPolin said Lin had no previous convictions. Mr Collins-Daly said the assault arose out of an ongoing dispute between the parties Ms Lai had asked Lin to mind furniture for her and then asked for it to be returned. Mr Collins-Daly said there was also tension between them as a result of working for different businesses in the supply of Chinese food products in this area of Cork. The defendant later clarified that she only visited the shop and did not work there. Mr Collins-Daly said: There would have been a degree of provocation. I dont want to be seen to be criticising the injured party too much, but if it went to hearing there would have been a lot of things in dispute. Garda Pigott was in the right place at the right time. Things were said on both sides. It escalated when the injured party began to video what was happening and the defendant sought to take the video from the injured party. Whether my client was provoked at first each gave as good as they got. Whatever happened at first, she [the defendant] certainly went over the top. She is pleading guilty. We would say it was entirely a once-off incident. Ms Lai said she was left with a mark on her right cheek. If I see her I am scared, she said. Sentencing was adjourned to February 15. The Irish language has only a marginal role on the vast majority of Irish radio stations, despite a legal obligation to include it. Apart from RTE, most stations use Irish in a trivial or culturally stereotypical way. The findings are in a study of the use of Irish on Irelands radio stations. Four commercial stations Galway Bay FM, KCLR FM, Midwest Radio, and Today FM and one community station Ros FM broadcast no Irish at all in their schedules. The study also found that four commercial stations 98FM, C103, 96FM, and Q102 have no dedicated Irish language or bilingual programme and broadcast only Irish language or bilingual inserts three or four times per day. These last, on average, 60-90 seconds, or less than half an hour a week, in total. The research was carried out by John Walsh of NUI Galway and Rosemary Day of Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, and presents data on the provision of Irish language programming by 59 radio stations in 2017. Under broadcasting legislation introduced in 1988, all radio broadcasters are obliged to include the Irish language in their programming, but the research on use of the Irish language on radio found that it is a marginal presence on the airwaves. The number of weekly hours that are broadcast in Irish or bilingually is very low compared to the stations overall outputs, with average weekly output in Irish of 3:23 hours, including repeats. Programmes in Irish are mainly broadcast outside of peak hours, such as after 7pm, overnight, or early on Sunday morning. Among commercial stations, the highest weekly Irish language output is from the youth station, iRadio, but the majority of these hours are broadcast overnight, when listenership is negligible. Counties with large Gaeltacht areas, including Cork, Donegal, and Galway, are also not adequately served with Irish language programming by local stations. The report concludes that the Irish language has only a marginal role on radio stations, other than those broadcasting in Irish, in spite of statutory provisions regarding Irish in the licensing process. With a small number of exceptions, stations broadcast only minimal amounts of Irish, almost invariably outside peak hours, it said. The lack of Irish-language programming during primetime across most schedules is a cause of concern, as it represents the marginalisation of the language to times when listenership is lowest. Apart from RTE, no station broadcasts a daily news service in Irish and the output tends towards the trivial [lets make Irish fun] or culturally stereotypical [traditional music]. The study recommends strengthening different aspects of legislation, encouraging stations to produce their own Irish-language content, and that the BAI re-introduce an Irish Language Advisory Committee and Irish language officer. Gardai have been informed about the incident and the LWETB says that a process to ensure the money is refunded has been put in place. The probe has come to light in newly-published 2016 accounts of the board, which spent more than 24m of its 51m budget on further education and training. It said LWETB management were told of a suspected fraud during 2016 in relation to a third party providing training to students. After an investigation, the loss incurred was estimated at 96,527. But in a report on internal controls signed in early December, board chairman Frankie Keena said this was based on current knowledge and may need to be adjusted. Since the incident, tighter controls have been put in place around recording of attendance and the payment of students. A process is in place to ensure monies will be refunded to the ETB, he wrote. In response to a query about the nature of the suspected fraud, LWETB said it has informed all the appropriate authorities in relation to the matter. As well as gardai, the issue has been notified to the Department of Education, the further education and training authority Solas, and the boards own audit committee and its internal auditors. When the investigation of the incident is completed, all appropriate actions will be taken by LWETB, a board spokesperson said. The Department of Education told the Irish Examiner it was aware of a suspected fraud issue in relation to LWETB, and said it has been regularly kept up to date on the issue by the board. It would not comment any further because of an ongoing investigation into the matter. LWETB contracts out training in dozens of disciplines each year to independent trainers and community organisations, who teach a range of skills to different levels at locations throughout the Midlands. All contracted providers are expected to submit student attendance sheets and a summary of the training delivered when they issue monthly invoices for payment to the board. The board administered payments of 8.4m in training allowances to students on a range of further education and training programmes in 2016. These included nearly 1.4m to those attending on Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) and Youthreach programmes. A further 1.9m was paid in training allowances for apprentices, and nearly 2.5m for students at community training centres, local training initiatives or courses provided by specialist training providers. LWETB provided training during 2016 to more than 1,500 course-participants at 83 locations. Those included services provided under the Laois-Offaly ETB training budget, for which LWETB was responsible up to the end of February 2016. Academics from Queens University in Belfast and Ulster University will spend a year examining the institutions operation between 1922 and 1999. They will interview former residents and comb government and institutional records. It is claimed that, as recently as the 1980s, new-born babies were being forcibly taken from their mothers and given up for adoption by nuns in the Norths laundries, women forced into homes in Belfast and Newry after becoming pregnant. A working group overseeing the review is chaired by Norah Gibbons but campaigners have called for a full public inquiry. It is essential that we develop a strong evidence base about the operation of these institutions in the last century, said Ms Gibbons. The research will not only look at historical records. Critically, it will also involve listening to and collating the accounts of women who resided in mother and baby homes or worked in Magdalene laundries. Her inter-departmental group was established at the end of February last year following a request from Stormont ministers to investigate historical abuse at the homes. Eunan Duffy, who was born in the Marian Vale mother and baby home said a full public inquiry is needed immediately. There are people dying off on a regular basis waiting for justice in whatever form that comes, he said. All this is doing is kicking the can down the road. The publication of the McAleese Report into the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland 2013 resulted in a State apology by Enda Kenny in 2013. However, the report and the subsequent redress scheme have since come in for severe criticism. An investigation of the redress scheme by the Office of the Ombudsman, published in November, found the Department of Justice failed to examine all available evidence when it wrongly refused some Magdalene laundry survivors access to redress payments. Pejazyr Cakolli was last week awarded 50,000 by the Labour Court after it found that he was unfairly dismissed by Swissport Ireland Ltd over his refusal to drive vehicles that did not carry insurance or tax disks on publically-accessible roads at Shannon Airport. In an interview, Mr Cakolli said his dismissal and his two-year fight at the Labour Court and Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) have taken a tremendous toll on him. Mr Cakolli said that following his dismissal I was psychologically very poor. Employed with Swissport Ireland since 2005 before his dismissal in 2015, Mr Cakolli said he was really happy with the Labour Court outcome which overturned an earlier adjudication officers decision which found in Swissport Irelands favour. Mr Cakolli said he was shocked when sacked in 2015 for refusing to drive the company vehicle: I was 100% sure that they wouldnt sack me over it. Mr Cakolli lives in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare, with his wife and their seven-year-old boy, Zyhdi, who is profoundly deaf and will require surgery for a second cochlear implant later this month. Mr Cakolli who was born in Kosovo, brought up in Poland but has attained Irish citizenship since moving here in 2003 said he is now optimistic he can get new work after being vindicated in the Labour Court. He said that over the last two years and in the row with Swissport while still employed there, he took strength from his late grandfather who spent the Second World War in a Nazi concentration camp after saying no to an offer to join the German army. Mr Cakollis grandfather was freed in 1945 and led a normal life and got married and had a family. The Cakollis took out a mortgage for their new home in 2015 and he had to tell his wife of his difficult decision to refuse the drive the company vehicles which cost him his job: The job was very important to me and we had just bought a new home but I couldnt continue to drive the company vehicles. Swissport still has time to appeal the Labour Court decision and a spokeswoman for Swissport said yesterday: We are disappointed by this judgment, which is contrary to the findings from the original hearing. "We are certain that all of our vehicles and drivers were appropriately insured to be driven on roads where the public have access. We are currently considering the options open to us in light of legal advice and therefore it is inappropriate to comment further at this point. Ennis-based solicitor, Conor Glendon, who represented Mr Cakolli, said: Pejazyr did the right thing and unfortunately, he has paid a penalty for it in losing his job. No amount of money can compensate him for the loss of his career and certainly not 50,000. The demands are being made by some Independent Alliance ministers in a bid to avoid a similar trolley crisis, as witnessed last week, reoccurring next year. The bed crisis has been exacerbated by the current flu outbreak, with experts predicting it will last another six weeks. The HSE estimates that more than 23,000 people contracted the virus last week alone, with as many as 1,500 sufferers admitted to hospitals already under pressure after the Christmas holidays. The HSEs assistant national director for public health, Kevin Kelleher, said 4,700 people were treated by their GP for flu symptoms last week, but the overall numbers are far higher. In general terms, youd expect that figure to be four, five times more in terms of how many people have got the flu because not everybody goes to their GP, said Dr Kelleher. So you can have a degree of multiplication. In terms of the 500 hospital admissions, for flu-related illness, the HSE public health expert said you could multiply this figure by three. We have one hospital in each of the hospital groups around the country and they give us very much more detailed information about respiratory admissions to hospitals, said Dr Kelleher. Its only eight hospitals out of the 40-odd so you cant say its comprehensive. You can guesstimate that it would be three or four times that number. Dr Kelleher said this years flu season is worse than last years and is expected to last another six weeks. Health Minister Simon Harris, who has said an additional 191 beds have been added in recent weeks, will bring his bed capacity review to Cabinet in 10 days time. Minister of state for disabilities Finian McGrath, who sits at Cabinet along with his colleague, John Halligan, have demanded a significant increase in the bed capacity in the countrys acute hospitals this year. It has been claimed that, during a Cabinet discussion on Wednesday, Mr McGrath warned that the Government needs to focus on the issue and we need 500 beds in 2018. Mr Harris is believed to feel that around 500 new beds are needed this year but financial approval for them has yet to be secured. Mr Harris is committed to increasing bed capacity, delivering on the GP contract as well as progressing the Slaintecare reforms and won approval for that at Cabinet yesterday. Last week, more than 25,000 people attended emergency departments around Ireland. This week that number is nearly 23,000. In terms of admissions, just over 7,000 people were admitted last week. This week, that number fell slightly to about 6,600. These figures are an increase on 2017. The HSE opened all of its surge beds on January 10, to deal with the demand, which amounts to 550 beds, but yesterday the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation recorded 544 people on hospital trolleys. Mr Harris yesterday also announced the launch of the recruitment process for the executive director for Slaintecare. The executive director will be charged with leading and managing this reform programme, working in partnership with key stakeholders across the health system, Mr Harris said. 5.45am Ive an early start as I live in Naas and work in Dublin city centre. My children at Leaving Cert and university level get themselves out. I take the train to Heuston and walk to the office on North Brunswick St. 7.30am My first task is to address correspondence from the previous evening, before a meeting in respect of hospital overcrowding. I started in this role on January 1, so Id a busy first week as overcrowding was particularly acute. Collating trolley figures occupies the first few hours every morning. 10am I meet with the architect, quantity surveyor and our head of professional development to discuss the Richmond re-development project. We bought the Richmond Building next door to our current head office in 2014, and we work to very tight deadlines as it is due to open soon. It will provide us with an education and event centre that will allow us greatly expand the range of courses we provide. Noon Our executive council meets over two days on a monthly basis so Ive constant prep work in relation to that. Im also in daily contact with our president. Lunch is hit and miss. 2pm Our annual delegate conference takes place in May so Im in regular contact with our branches to ensure motions come in on time. The branches hold their own AGMs prior to the conference because they elect the delegates and effectively set the agenda. I aim to attend three AGMs a week over the coming weeks. 3pm Ive some media work to do. As a native of the West Kerry Gaeltacht, Im fluent in Irish so I have interviews in English and Irish. 4pm When training is under way for our nurse representatives or meetings of members are held, I usually attend to provide national updates of INMO work. Once a month, I attend a meeting of the national executive of ICTU, of which Im a member. The INMO is also affiliated to the International Council of Nurses. Their workforce forum allows us compare our nurses working conditions with conditions elsewhere. 6pm Currently, evenings are busy with AGMs. I enjoy hillwalking, reading and travel during downtime. Im a keen promoter of the Irish language. WASHINGTON President Trump continued to soften a few of his hardcore positions on immigration Tuesday at an extraordinary, bipartisan, deal-cutting meeting with lawmakers at the White House. Attempting to broker a compromise for the $18 billion wall he wants to build on the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump seemed to be willing to sign a clean standalone bill that would let most of the undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children remain in the country. I will take all of the heat you want to give me, Trump told House and Senate leaders, acknowledging that any move to retain the Obama administrations Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program would infuriate his political base. The clean bill idea didnt originate with Trump, but with Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who said the idea was part of the price for breaking the budgetary logjam to pay for the wall. But at a key point in the televised legislative strategy meeting, Trump appeared to suggest that he could support legislation, as he put it, for a clean DACA bill. And at another point, said he was willing to let Congress handle the details and would sign the bill they sent him. Trump was not only ready to compromise on DACA, but on the length of the wall as well, and possibly the cost. It didnt need to be built along the entire 2,000-mile border, but far less than that, he said. Theres lots of places where you dont need a wall because of nature. Youve got a mountain and rivers, you got a violent river, Trump said, adding that he would like to build (it) under budget, ahead of schedule. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, one of the presidents harshest critics, called his remarks on the reduced length of the wall the best part of the meeting. Its not a 2,000-mile physical wall. Weve been begging him to say this kind of stuff before. Its only 700 to 800 miles total, Flake told The Washington Post. In fact, with border security surveillance measures, the actual wall would only cover 316 miles. The tone of the discussion, and Trumps eagerness to strike a deal, triggered warm responses from some of his sharpest critics in both parties. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tweeted that he was encouraged by Trumps bipartisan outreach to both sides of the aisle. The president seemed fully cognizant of the dangerous political territory he was entering, and repeatedly said in the meeting that he planned to push for a comprehensive immigration reform bill after reaching a deal on DACA. But maybe Trump wasnt acting out of the goodness of his heart to save the Dreamers from mass deportation. A federal judge in San Francisco sent a little message to the administration Tuesday, in the form of a nationwide preliminary injunction preventing the Trump government from abolishing the DACA program. U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the DACA work protections will remain untouched for the 690,000 immigrants as long as the case continues to wind its way through the courts. The judge has not only ruled on the merits of the case, but made it clear to the Trump administration that he is not to harm them in any way until a final decision is reached. Plaintiffs have clearly demonstrated that they are likely to suffer serious irreparable harm absent an injunction, Alsup wrote. Before DACA, individual plaintiffs, brought to America as children, faced a tough set of life and career choices turning on the comparative probabilities of being deported versus remaining here. DACA gave them a more tolerable set of choices, including joining the mainstream workforce. The lawsuit was brought by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with the attorneys general of Maine, Maryland and Minnesota, the University of California, and DACA recipients, among others. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs said the administration had failed to follow the law in its decision to end the program. Last year on Sept. 5, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the DACA program would be terminated and no further applications or renewals would be accepted. But Judge Alsup intervened Tuesday, ruling that while the case was being heard, anyone who had DACA status on Sept. 5 could reapply. Now Trump appears to have had a sudden change of heart. Why? Near the end of last year, polls showed 73 percent of voters supported legislation to protect Dreamers from deportation, according to a Politico Morning Consult poll. And 54 percent wanted to give them a path to citizenship. And thats when Trump switched his position on Obamas DACA program in a New York minute. LIVE. Zhirayr Sefilyan's trial (video) 12.20 The commander of the Shushi special battalion Zhirayr Sefilyan wanted to make a statement today at the trial but the judge Tatevik Grigoryan urged him to stand up before speaking. As a result, Zhirayr Sefilyan and the judge started speaking at the same time. Sefilyan announced that he was leaving the session hall for as long as the members of the Sasna Tsrer community, Armen Bilyan and Smbat Barseghyan, who were on hunger strike, were not transferred to Armavir penitentiary. He left the session hall, but before that, the judge made a decision to dismiss Sefilyan for 4 hours. Gevorg Safaryan also left the courtroom for the same reason. Today, his interrogation was to continue, and after he left, the judge announced Gevorg Safaryan's testimony to be over. At the very beginning of the trial of Zhirayr Sefilyan and others, advocate Arsen Mkrtchyan, as a sign of the protest, stated that he left the courtroom for 18 minutes. He thus expressed his protest to the law adopted in the first reading in the National Assembly, according to which judges can fine advocates for the violation of the court hearing. Judge Tatik Grigoryan decided to interrupt the session for 20 minutes after the advocate's announcement. By the way, today Tigran Yegoryan could not enter the courtroom. The court stewards tried to search him, the latter opposed About gold mine project in Amulsar presented by Lydian International It is no news that on December 24, 2017, international independent experts declined the invitation of Armenias Minister of Nature Protection Artsvik Minasyan to participate in the trilateral meeting with Lydian Internationals consultants to discuss the problems of gold mine project in Amsular. Despite this, weve learned that Ministry of Nature Protection and Lydian are having a closed discussion today morning. In their reply, the international independent experts had also mentioned the reasons for rejection and promised to present in a few days their final evaluation of this project in a short and concise manner. Armenian Environmental Front (AEF) civil initiative has received via email the final evaluation (in English) and its summary from chemical/environmental engineer Harout Bronozian. We present you the summary. Amulsar Gold Project: Overview of Concerns with the Amulsar Gold Project, Potential Consequences, and Recommendations. Final Submission. 10 January 2018 For the attention of Lydian International, Lydian Armenia, the Armenian Government and ALL others concerned. Greetings, The Bronozian Consultants have conducted a series of reviews of the Amulsar Gold Project in Armenia over the past eight months. The overall purpose of our work has been to provide a critical, detailed, and independent technical evaluation of the project aimed at identifying the potential operational and long- term consequences of the mine. We attach our final review: a summary of the potential consequences of the project and technical recommendations for Lydian to enable them to better develop their environmental strategy. The submission contains a prioritized list of concerns and recommendations; a more thorough list of all concerns, potential consequences, and recommendations from our reviews; a limited list of similar mines around the world and their environmental consequences; the documents we reviewed; and the reports and memoranda we have produced. Our overall conclusion remains that the high risk of acid drainage and contaminant leaching, the poor geochemical evaluation, the inadequate water quality predictions and mitigation measures and Lydians inexperience combine to make this an environmentally high-risk project during mining and for a lengthy period after operations cease. We are also concerned about public statements made by Lydian that the deposit is completely oxide, which erroneously implies that acid rock drainage (ARD) will not develop during or after mining. These statements do not reflect the reality of the situation on Amulsar Mountain if the mine is developed as planned. Accurate statements regarding the acid-forming components in this deposit from Lydian must be mandatory. Lydian has responded to our reviews and have stated consistently that they remain confident in the global best practice mitigation measures developed for the Amulsar project. Public statements and reports by Lydian make it clear, however, that they have severely underestimated the potential adverse impacts of the mine, especially to water quality, which has been our primary focus and is commonly the most critical and long-term environmental concern for large-scale metal mines. Additionally, while Lydians consultants appear to have experience in certain aspects of mine operation and closure, we have seen no evidence that their principal consultant in the area of acid mine drainage, GRE, is experienced in the evaluation and understanding of ARD, geochemical characterization and interpretation of testing results, mitigation measures specifically aimed at ARD, and the effective treatment of ARD. We have extensive experience in these areas and provide a perspective that is independent of the mine proponent. The project is located in an area that supplies clean water for drinking and agricultural uss across Armenia. There is a high risk, given the current mine and mitigation planning, that acid drainage and contaminant leaching will pollute groundwater; springs; the Arpa, Darb, and Vorotan rivers; and the Kechut Reservoir (Amulsar topography and surface waters are shown here: https://goo.gl/l5pWkJ ). We hope that the Ministry of Nature Protection will review this final submission and re-evaluate Lydians proposed environmental plan in light of the likely long-term negative environmental impacts of this project. Moreover, contrary to allegations made by Lydian on January 8, 2018, we did not agree to attend a meeting in Yerevan with the Ministry of Nature Protection (MNP) and Lydian in January, 2018. We carefully considered the invitation sent by the MNP (attached) and declined the meeting, the reasons for which were well articulated in our letter of December 24, 2017 (attached in English and Armenian). We are ready to assist the MNP and the Armenian Government directly and to meet with them regarding the Amulsar Gold Project. We present our independent opinions but their implementation and responsibility for this project lies with Lydian and the Armenian Government. 100 years ago December 22, 1917 The Bishop of Southampton launched an appeal for financial support from the Island for welfare work among female munition workers at Cowes and East Cowes. One plant had seen the number employed rise from 200 to 800 women. He said: The women of the nation have risen splendidly to the very great emergency, and it is perfectly certain the munitions of war could not have been supplied, except for the great work of women. 75 years ago December 26, 1942 A former Cowes works manager was awarded an MBE for his work during an air attack. Robert Stewart worked during an air raid in Devon and was commended for his leadership, courage and unshaken devotion during the raid. He was also commended for restoring production so quickly at the works following the air raid. 50 years ago December 26 1967 An export order worth 3 million (more than 51 million in todays money) was awarded to a Bembridge firm. The firm had to make the Islands largest order to date for 52 Islander aircraft. This would take up the majority of the 1968 production line. 25 years ago December 24, 1992 It wasnt just the Grinch who stole Christmas after a Christmas tree went missing from East Cowes. Gill Dexter, who owned the tree, was so angry at the theft she placed a poster in her porch window saying: Merry Christmas to whoever stole my tree. The tree was decorated with a 40-year-old fairy, which belonged to Mrs Dexters mother. 10 years ago December 21, 2007 A highly contagious stomach bug halted operations at St Marys Hospital. Doctors were also asked to restrict visits to patients while an outbreak of gastroenteritis was dealt with. Ucoms mobile customers will benefit from the best internet roaming rate of 8 AMD/MB when travelling to Georgia, Egypt or the UAE Ameriabank Launches Google Pay and Google Wallet Support for Card Users in Armenia Karen Vardanyan donated 112 million drams for the medical equipment for National Center for Infectious Diseases. UCOM HAS INTRODUCED FUTURE NETWORK WI-FI 6E ROUTERS Google Ad Statement by the Spokesperson on the conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan Google Ad Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol Armenia and Azerbaijan to do so without delay An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan". UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022 Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces VF Corp., N.C. State establish partnership VF Corp. said Thursday that it has formed a multiyear partnership with N.C. State University that will help the Greensboro-based apparel company with advancing innovative products. The partnership is also aimed at supporting student development, such as internships, student projects and competitions, as an extension of VFs work with the schools College of Textiles. The new partnership includes the universitys Poole College of Management, which adds expertise in business analytics and supply chain management. VF will gain executive education opportunities for employees and create a company presence on N.C. States Centennial Campus in Raleigh. Richard Craver Small-business fund gains $2M for loans The Carolina Small Business Development Fund said Thursday that the Casey Foundation has given it $2 million to be used for loans. The fund, based in Raleigh, also received $50,000 in grant money to support its Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center with Shaw University. Since 2010, the funds lending program has provided 594 small-business loans for a combined $43.4 million and led to the creation of nearly 2,000 jobs in North Carolina. The fund said the Casey Foundation donation will enable it to expand access to capital to entrepreneurs in underserved markets. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, founded in 2017, focuses on underfinanced entrepreneurs and communities in southeast Raleigh. Richard Craver IRS rolls out new income-tax tables WASHINGTON Taking the first concrete step toward the Republican tax plans promise of fatter paychecks for millions of people, the Trump administration on Thursday issued new guidelines for how much employers should withhold as taxes from workers pay. The IRS published the new income-tax withholding tables to conform to the sweeping $1.5 trillion tax overhaul, the first major rewrite of the tax code in 30 years, which became law last month and took effect Jan 1. The new law provides steep tax cuts for corporations and wealthy Americans while offering more modest reductions for most low- and middle-income families and individuals. Businesses across the country must adopt the changes by Feb. 15. That means employees could start seeing the changes reflected in their paychecks next month, the IRS said. President Donald Trump and the Republican architects of the tax plan have deflected criticism of the unpopular legislation, insisting at every turn that Americans will come to love the new law when they see their heftier paychecks next month with less money withheld in anticipation of lower income taxes. The Associated Press Ford says some Ranger trucks should be parked Ford is telling owners of about 2,900 Ranger small pickups not to drive them after finding out that an exploding Takata air bag inflator killed a driver in West Virginia. Steve Mollohan, 56, of the Hedgesville, W.Va., area died July 1 in nearby Martinsburg, according to Rob Peirce III, a Pittsburgh-based lawyer for the firm representing the family. Ford said it was notified of the accident in December. An investigation determined that the trucks 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 recall in the U.S. and Canada for Rangers with inflators made on that day because of the immediate danger they pose. Ford dealers will repair the trucks at owners homes or tow them in for work, spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said. Ford also will offer loaner vehicles. A woman was shot and killed in west Charlotte Thursday afternoon, in what Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are calling a domestic incident. Officers were called to the 4100 block of Carlyle Drive around 1:40 p.m. Thursday, where they found the victim shot inside a home. She was pronounced dead at the scene, and has not been identified by police. Officials say 23-year-old Jonathan Bennett is a suspect. Bennett and the woman had an infant child together, and Bennett took the child with him following the shooting, police said. A second child was in the home, but was unharmed, police said. The missing infant was identified as Journei Bennett, according to officials, and an Amber Alert is expected to be issued. Police said Jonathan Bennett was last seen driving a white Ford Expedition, with New York license plate HUP3071. Thursdays killing marks the citys first homicide of the year, and the first since Dec. 22, following a particularly deadly year in Charlotte. Winston-Salem Journal Winston-Salem police arrested a man Thursday in connection with the death of a Dobson woman whose body was found last week, after she had been reported missing on Christmas Eve. Anton Thurman McAllister, 41, was found in an abandoned apartment on State Street and charged with conspiracy to commit a felony and concealment of a death resulting from unnatural causes, police said. Ann Marie Carter, 34, was found dead Saturday near 3420 Old Greensboro Road in the citys northeastern section. McAllister is accused of failing to notify a law enforcement officer of Carters death, knowing that Carter didnt die of natural causes, and secretly disposing of Carters body, an arrest warrant said. Police are treating Carters death as a homicide. An autospy has been conducted on her body at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Police havent discussed the autopsys findings. Police Lt. Michael Cardwell has declined to discuss how or when Carter died. Cardwell has also declined to describe the relationship between Carter and McAllister. Its wasnt a random encounter, Cardwell said Wednesday at a news conference about the case. McAllister also is accused of conspiring with Carter to sell a controlled substance, which is a felony, another warrant says. Investigators didnt identify the substance. Witnesses told officers that they last saw Carter and McAllister together in Carters car shortly before Carter was planning to meet with a relative. After Carters disappearance, police detectives initially looked for McAllister to interview him, police said at that time. McAllister was being held Thursday night in the Forsyth County Jail with his bond set at $150,000, police said. He is scheduled to appear court Feb. 1. McAllister lives in Winston-Salem, but he doesnt have a permanent address, police said. Cardwell also described McAllister as a homeless man who often sleeps in a white 1991 Jeep Cherokee. Police said no other persons are being sought in connection with Carters death. Nevertheless, local police are continuing to investigate. That investigation remains active and authorities continue to follow investigative leads and gather evidence, police said in a statement about the case. Anyone with information about Ann Marie Carters death can call Winston-Salem police at 336-773-7700 or Crime Stoppers at 336-727-2800. ON THE SILVER RIVER, Fla. (AP) 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. 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 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. 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. 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." 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. 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. ___ Follow Jason Dearen on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen 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 an Oval Office discussion on Wednesday about potentially restoring protected status for refugees from El Salvador, Haiti, and African nations, President Trump let fly his latest superlatively sensitive bit of commentary: Why are we having all these people from s----hole countries come here? Trump said, referring to African countries and Haiti. He then suggested the United States should instead bring in more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he also met with on Wednesday. Oh, where to begin. Its likely that Norwegians might prefer to stay where they are, what with their functional health-care systems and social safety nets, to go along with leaders who arent attempting to make each day more vulgar, uncertain, and generally appalling than the one before. In the majority of the northern European nations our president fetishizes, feelings towards the United States range from confusion to pity to disgust. (See the recent tribulations of our new ambassador to The Netherlands, Peter Hoekstra, who was so roundly mocked by the Dutch that he may well flee back to the United States.) Its also more than likely that decades of U.S. policy occupations, blockades, electoral interference and meddling in internal conflicts might have something to do with the struggles of countries such as Haiti and El Salvador. Granting their immigrants refuge from crises we may have helped seed is the least we could do. And with our own internal conflicts Sky-high infant and maternal mortality rates! Escalating nuclear conflict! Extreme poverty, to the degree that the United Nations has begun to investigate! maybe now isnt the best time to be calling anyone else names. Yet all this, somehow, is secondary. What is most disheartening about our presidents statement is that it betrays the values we used to be proud to defend. Heres the thing: America has always taken immigrants from s----hole countries. Ireland was suffering from a terrible famine when its citizens began to flee to our shores; Italy wasnt in great shape either. (Frankly, every country has had its unattractive moments, including our own.) Yet the United States has best embodied its promise when it has acted as a place of welcome. Our darkest moments have occurred when we turned the needy away. Not that any of this matters to our president. This was not a considered examination of policy or history. It is clear that ignorance and racism are the inspiration for our presidents latest round of uninformed commentary. Perhaps, as has been whispered, our president takes his cues from the last person who has spoken to him. Perhaps he found the Norwegian prime minister particularly engaging. Even so, our president has now stated outright that he wants more white immigrants and fewer s----hole black and brown ones. For the better part of 20 years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has engaged in a relentless assault against democratic institutions abroad, universal values and the rule of law. He has carried out these attacks with an asymmetric arsenal: cyberattacks; disinformation; support for fringe political groups; the weaponization of energy resources, organized crime and corruption; and even military aggression. Putin has used such techniques because he has operated from a position of weakness, hobbled by a faltering economy, a substandard military and few followers on the world stage. And his attacks have grown in intensity and complexity over the past few years, driven by a desire to also repress democratic aspirations among his own citizens. While our European partners have taken steps to better defend themselves, the United States has done little to protect its institutions. Despite the efforts of some in national security leadership, as well as dedicated career public servants across the executive branch, one person is preventing a strong, government-wide response that holds Russia accountable for its destabilizing activities: the president of the United States. Never before has the White House so clearly ignored a national security threat. If we fail to respond with the urgency this threat requires, the regime in Moscow will be further emboldened not just to undermine European stability but to build on its success in interfering in our 2016 presidential election by undermining the 2018 midterm elections and the 2020 presidential election. These are some of the findings of a report that I released Wednesday. Research began in the months following the 2016 election because it is critical that the American people better understand the scope and scale of the Russian government threat to democratic institutions and support the steps necessary to defend our system of government and our very society. The report shows that Putins threat to our nation, and our allies, is growing. The Russian presidents rap sheet of meddling in Europe is long and sordid. Several countries in Europe have realized the danger that the Kremlin poses and have taken serious steps to build resilience against Putins aggression. These governments have bolstered cyberdefenses, conducted media literacy efforts, gone after Russian organized crime and started to diversify energy supplies, rallying multiple sectors of society in mutual defense government, corporations, civil society, the media, academia and students. The same cannot be said in the United States. But even beyond electoral interference, the report also found examples of Kremlin-backed efforts to affect the daily lives of Americans and things that they care about: cheating Americans out of medals at the Olympic Games and supporting cybercriminals who attack American businesses and who steal the financial information of millions of American consumers. So what should we do about it? First, President Trump must provide unequivocal presidential leadership to mobilize our own government and the American people. Second, the United States must embark on an effort to build more resilience here at home and in democratic institutions across Europe the best defense against Russian interference. Third, the United States and our allies should go on the offence and expose and freeze Kremlin-linked dirty money, placing Moscow under a preemptive and escalatory sanctions regime as a deterrent to future attacks on democratic institutions. Fourth, we should work with social-media companies and hold them accountable for their role in allowing the Kremlins disinformation campaigns to spread unchecked, toxifying public discourse. Out of the ashes of World War II, the United States led the world in constructing the current liberal international order through democratic institutions, shared values and accepted norms. The enduring transatlantic bond between America and Europe the foundation for that order is anathema to Putin, who seeks to protect little more than his own power and wealth. The United States must therefore work closely with our European allies to counter the Kremlins ongoing, intensifying assault on democracy around the world. Right-hand drive protest (video) The members of the right-hand drive initiative announced on January 8 that they were demanding a meeting only with the Prime Minister and would wait until he returned from his four-day vacation. Today they gathered in front of the Government building again. Instead of the Prime Minister, Alexander Ghazaryan, Head of the RA Government Citizens Reception and Appeals Department, accepted them again. "Our target is not meeting with the Prime Minister but solving the problem," said an activist Artashes Hartenyan. Yesterday the Government of Armenia adopted a draft resolution prohibiting the import of cars with the right-hand drive. Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielyan has instructed to draft a relevant law, to urgently submit to the Government next week and then to the National Assembly. The participants of the protest were indignant that the Ministry of Transport, Communication and IT instead of providing statistical information on the problems caused by cars with right-hand drive during their protest, did it afterwards. They question this information. "The Minister of Transport and Communication has learnt creating statistics fromTigran Mukuchyan. It's absurd to create a night's statistics. How can one create statistics overnight which prove that these cars are potentially hazardous? This is a dishonest step by the Ministry, "said Ara Melikjanyan, Head of Logos Human Rights. The participants of the protest brought with them proposals to the Government. To the question of "A1 +", how likely were they to make changes in the already made decision with their suggestions, irritated the representative of the government present at the press conference. Journalists responded that the question was wrong and logical and was directed not to him. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on Wednesday dismissed [opinion PDF] a lawsuit challenging the states voter ID law. Alabamas voter ID law [text, PDF] was passed in 2011 in an effort to combat potential voter fraud. The law requires Alabama residents to present a form of photo identification when they go to the polls to vote. Among the types of photo identification allowed under the law are IDs from colleges/universities, employers and unexpired drivers licenses. If Alabama residents have never held a valid form of identification, the law indicates they are able to obtain a free ID for voting purposes in various locations including the Secretary of States Office and the local county board of registrars offices. The lawsuit [JURIST report] was brought against the state of Alabama by Greater Birmingham Ministries [advocacy website], which claimed that Alabamas voter ID law violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. Plaintiffs alleged a history of voter discrimination in Alabama and racist statements (referring to Black voters as illiterates and aborigines) made by several legislators during recorded conversations contemporaneous to the passage of the Photo ID Law but that did not involve the Photo ID Law. In response, Secretary of State John Merrill argued that the Photo ID Law was not passed with a discriminatory purpose but was passed to combat voter fraud, increase voter confidence, and to modernize elections, all policies held by the Supreme Court to be legitimate and furthered by a photo ID law. Judge L Scott Coogler agreed with Merrill in his opinion, saying: minorities do not have less opportunity to vote under Alabamas Photo ID law, because everyone has the same opportunity to obtain an ID. Black, Hispanic, and white voters are equally able to sign a voter registration form or registration form update. They have the same opportunity to get to a registrars office, and to the extent there is a difference in convenience, they have the same opportunity to request a home visit. He further says the photo identification law cannot have a discriminatory impact on voting when the law does not prevent anyone from voting. The case was dismissed and left the photo ID law intact. Eleven Guantanamo inmates filed a writ of habeas corpus [text, PDF] in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Thursday claiming that their indefinite detention is due to President Donald Trumps anti-Muslim stance. The inmates argue they can only be kept at Guantanamo if their individual circumstances show that they would return to the battlefield. However, the lawsuit claims that Trumps declaration that all Guantanamo inmates will remain in the prison does not take into account any of their individual circumstances, but instead is based on Trumps antipathy towards Muslims. Some of the petitioners have been at Guantanamo for the entirety of its 16 years in use. Two of the prisoners were in the process of being released under the Obama administration, but their releases were not finalized. The Trump administration has stopped the release process for these inmates. The petition states that the detentions of the prisoners violates the due process clause of the Constitution, claiming that the detentions violate duration limits on detention, preponderance of the evidence is not sufficient for indefinite detention, and the continued detention of the inmates who were declared by the government to ready for transfer is arbitrary and senseless. Guantanamo has seen ongoing litigation regarding its detention of prisoners since its inception. Four detainees were released [JURIST report] on the final day of Obamas administration on January 20, 2017. On January 18, 2017, a district court had refused [JURIST report] to intervene when the Defense Department overruled a government review board that declared another prisoner was cleared to be released. A 100-cell section of Guantanamo Bay known as Camp 5 was shut down [JURIST report] in September 2016 after all inmates were transferred to other areas of Guantanamo Bay. The US House of Representatives [official website] approved a bill [S 139 text, PDF] Thursday that extends Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. The bill was approved by a vote [vote record] of 256-164. Title VII allows the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website] to target foreign persons outside of the US for surveillance and intelligence gathering. Title VII was set to expire December 31, 2017. However, the current bill will extend the expiration date six years to December 31, 2023. The bill also increases the maximum penalty for the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents from one year of imprisonment to five years of imprisonment. Contractors of the intelligence community are also added to the whistle blower protections sections of the National Security Act of 1947. Privacy concerns have caused a significant amount of debate regarding the implementation of surveillance laws. In March the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy [official website], Joseph Cannataci, condemned [JURIST report] surveillance laws in the US, UK, France and Germany. Edward Snowden was a government contractor when he disclosed [JURIST report] documents detailing US surveillance efforts in 2013. KEARNEY Veteran Buffalo County Board member Joe Brayton of rural Kearney will face a pair of challengers as he seeks re-election this year. Kearney businessman Tim Higgins announced on Thursday he is campaigning for Braytons seat. Rod Flanigan of Kearney, a professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, also is running for the District 3 seat, which covers north Kearney, Riverdale and its surrounding area. Both of Braytons challengers have held elective office Higgins on the Kearney Public Schools Board of Education and Flanigan on the City Council in Bluffdale City, Utah. Brayton will be the incumbent on the Republican county board ticket. Flanigan and Higgins also are Republicans. So far, no Democrats have filed for the District 3 seat, Election Commissioner Lisa Poff said. Brayton, a former county roads employee, is finishing his second four-year term on the county board. Higgins has served on the Kearney Public Schools Board of Education since 2001, and is in the second year of his fourth term on the KPS board. Flanigan served from 2006-2011 on the council in Utah. He operated Syntek Engineered Sales in Bluffdale before moving to Kearney in 2011 to become an associate professor in UNKs Industrial Distribution Program. Higgins is the managing partner for Kearney Runza stores in Kearney. Incumbents have until Feb. 15 to file for re-election. Challengers have until March 1 to file. Other Buffalo County officials who have filed for re-election, but are not challenged at this time are: - Sherry Morrow, Republican, District 5 county commissioner - Janice Giffin, Republican, county clerk - Sharon Mauler, Republican, clerk of district court - Jeff Wirth, Republican, public defender - Kellie John, Democrat, register of deeds - Jean Sidwell, Democrat, treasurer - Ethel Skinner, Republican, Assessor Buffalo County incumbents who have not yet filed for re-election are: - Ivan Klein of Gibbon, District 1 county commissioner - Kent Greder of Kearney, District 7 county commissioner - Shawn Eatherton, county attorney - Neil Miller, sheriff - Trenton Snow, surveyor @erikadpritchard KEARNEY Jim Salestrom found an empty weekend and wanted to help out a musician in his hometown. "Im glad that I have a weekend off and I can come back to Kearney and try to raise some money for Miles," Salestrom said from his home in Colorado. "I think Ive met Miles once or twice, but Yandas has been my hometown music store forever. I have very, very fond memories of spending many afternoons at Yandas drooling over guitars and looking at the amplifiers." Salestrom, who grew up in Kearney and performed with artists such as John Denver, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, learned about the accident that injured Miles Margritz. The musician answered the call for performers to help at a benefit concert scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at The World Theatre. Admission is $10. "Its a really nice thing to help out a family thats gone through a real tragedy," Salestrom said. "My brother, Chuck, is going to play with me. Ill get to sing with Steve Main and his wife." Margritz manages the Yandas Music store in Grand Island. On his way to the companys Christmas gathering, a car collided with Margritzs vehicle at the intersection of Highway 281 and Old Potash Highway. The accident claimed the life of Jose Ortiz, 27, of Grand Island and left Margritz badly injured. Kearney-based musician Chad Biggs helped organize the benefit for Margritz. "Hes my neighbor and our wives work together," Biggs said. "Being a musician and his work at Yandas allowed us to cross paths a few times. And weve become friends from living across the street." Biggs said that Margritz, his wife Christy and their two children appreciate the well wishes and financial help of the community. "The original idea for the benefit was to get a few area bands together," Biggs said. "And then Jim Salestrom answered the post that I put up. The benefit took a different turn. All of the musicians from around here know Miles and have worked with him quite a bit. One of the musicians is driving back from Kansas City for a 25-minute opening set." Additional performers at the concert include Alexa Kriss, Luke Mills and Nicki Rezac. After putting out the call for performers, Biggs received offers from more than 150 people wanting to help. "My phone was going off like crazy with people wanting to be part of this," he said. "Its neat to watch." Biggs requested that audience members bring cash to event. He noted that the goal is to financially benefit the Margritz family without creating overhead costs. "Its been great to see this benefit all come together," Biggs said. "It really is thanks to Jim for answering the add. Everything is falling into place." Biggs knew of Salestrom but has not met him before. "If youre a musician in Kearney, youve heard his name," Biggs said. "Ive been getting to know him through email for the last couple weeks. Hes absolutely one of the nicest guys and easy to work with. I cant say enough about how thankful we are for him. Salestrom often returns to Kearney to perform. During the holidays he performed in Montana with Debbie Boone. "Im headed down to Florida to play with one of the guys from the Zac Brown Band and my son, James," Salestrom said. HOLDREGE Lower Republican Natural Resources District directors approved two steps Thursday to advance a Platte-Republican Diversion Project being developed with the Holdrege-based Tri-Basin NRD. The Tri-Basin board approved the same project-related motions at its Tuesday meeting. The boards authorized negotiations to proceed with landowners Malcom and Nicole Dornhoff of Heartwell to purchase a property at the projects water diversion point. The plan is to divert excess Platte water, when available, from Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation Districts E65 Canal, under Highway 23 west of Smithfield and into the east branch of Turkey Creek for transport to the Republican River. The goal is to help ensure Nebraskas compliance with the Republican River Compact. LRNRD General Manager Todd Siel said this morning that Tri-Basin General Manager John Thorburn is taking the lead in that negotiation, but both NRD boards must approve a final agreement. Thorburn said Tuesday that the Dornhoff property is at the upper end of the project. Nebraska Department of Natural Resources officials told the NRDs that to qualify for the required state water permit, the districts must own the site where Platte water will be diverted from the CNPPID system. Work continues on the permit application. The other step now taken by both NRD boards was to approve a contract with the Nebraska Natural Resources Commission that specifies terms for use of the $897,300 Water Sustainability Fund grant awarded to pay 60 percent of the diversion project cost, which was estimated in a feasibility study at $1.4 million-$1.5 million. Terms include using grant money only for construction costs, not legal expenses related to the permit, and that the DNR permit must be approved before any qualified construction expenses will be reimbursed. In other business at Thursdays LRNRD meeting in Alma, the board: - Was told that average irrigation water use in the district was 6.5 inches per acre in 2017, which compares to a 2005-2016 average of 7.5 inches. LRNRD irrigators are under five-year allocations of 45 inches per acre, or an average of 9 inches per year. - Was updated on agreement progress with the Nebraska Bostwick Irrigation District for a project to install 38 automated canal gates on Bostwicks irrigation system before the start of the 2018 irrigation system. The project to enhance canal efficiency and allow more water to be retained in Harlan County Lake year after year is approved for $2 million from the Water Sustainability Fund. The LRNRD has committed an additional $1 million. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., is in the pocket of the nations beet and cane sugar cartels. Fischer continually votes to maintain the U.S. sugar program. Why? It is really quite simple. Fischer received well over $25,000 in political donations from the sugar cartels since coming to Washington in 2013. Thanks to Fischer and others, the U.S. sugar program continues. The sugar program is a Soviet-style command and control scheme that restricts planting and imports. This inflates the price of sugar in the United States to almost double the world price. So, when you go to the store to buy a snack cake or anything sweetened, you pay more. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the program means Americans pay $3.5 billion every year in increased grocery costs, which breaks down to upwards of $50 per family. In Sen. Fischers four years in office, she repeatedly voted against sugar reform costing each Nebraska family an additional $200 for groceries. You have to ask yourself, is my senator really fighting to make life better, or is she just another politician in it for the campaign contributions? Its time for Fischer to step up and end this costly government giveaway to the cartels. The Independent Bakers Association is an international trade association that fights to protect the interests of mostly family-owned wholesale bakers and allied trades. For more information about IBA and sugar program corruption, visit IBAbaker.com. Nicholas A. Pyle, Washington, D.C. China opened its market to U.S. beef last year for the first time since 2003, and Nebraska provided the first shipment of American-grown beef. New analysis by Wendong Zhang, an Iowa State University expert on Chinas economy and agricultural sector, points to potential opportunities for various Midwest ag products such as beef and corn, complementing already robust export opportunities for soybeans and distillers grains. International competition for the Chinese agricultural market is strong, especially from Brazil. But Zhangs analysis indicates that the United States should be able to realize trade gains, long term, through smart marketing and by tailoring products to the Chinese market, plus diplomatic pressure for China to reduce trade barriers. China provides a huge market for several of Nebraskas main agricultural products. That Asian nation buys 43 percent of Nebraskas exported soybeans and soybean products; 93 percent of sorghum, 54 percent of distillers grains and 57 percent of hides and skins. The surge in Chinas demand for soybean and soybean-product imports has been spectacular, going from $5.5 billion in 2005 to almost $25 billion by 2016. The growing Chinese demand for beef is also striking, as that country sees major increases in middle-class living standards. Zhang notes that since 2008, Chinese per-capita beef consumption has increased by about 27 percent, from about 10 pounds per person in 2008 to about 12.7 pounds now. Although thats modest when compared to the U.S. figure of 79 pounds per capita, the important thing is that beef demand in China a nation of 1.3 billion people is increasing significantly. U.S. corn producers also have the potential for long-term export opportunities, though our countrys corn sales to China are far smaller than U.S. exports of soybeans. Nebraskas $820 million in 2015 soybean- related exports to China by far exceeded our $20 million in corn exports. Zhang writes: As the Chinese people demand more pork and beef with rising per-capita income, China will likely need more corn and corn substitutes in the future. The United States, along with Ukraine and Brazil, would likely be a major player if that were to happen. China offers promising opportunities for U.S. producers, if we pursue well-chosen marketing and diplomatic strategies. Omaha World-Herald We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Maggy Gisle laughs while standing for a photograph in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday May 9, 2017. Gisle fought for two decades for the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls but she says the current commission isn't giving her much to cling to.Gisle, an abuse victim, former addict and sex worker who spent 16 years on the Downtown East Side, said Friday she was shocked to find out through the media that the inquiry lost a second executive director, adding its communication "really sucks."THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck 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) A man rides a bicycle down a road damaged from storms in Montecito, Calif., Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. 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. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) Teachers bow their heads in prayer at the start of 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) An emergency worker looks down from an overpass toward a flooded area of Highway 101 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 Tuesday's storm after mudslides slammed this wealthy coastal town. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) 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) A man who robbed a local hotel while disguised as a woman was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday. Armed with a large knife, Christopher Hornezes, 29, robbed the Kenosha Best Western, 7220 122nd Ave., on April 7, 2016, while wearing heavy makeup and panty hose. He was seeking drug money and fled to Illinois, where he committed more crimes, according to prosecutors. Kenosha Circuit Court Judge David Bastianelli also sentenced the Zion, Ill., man to five years supervision for robbery with threat of force, a felony. According to court documents, Hornezes walked into the hotel around 11:40 p.m. and asked staff where the bathroom was located. Then, out of nowhere, Hornezes sprinted from the bathrooms to the front counter, jumped over the counter and pointed a kitchen knife at a female worker. He managed to grab cash and flee in a stolen vehicle. Hornezes was released from an Illinois prison the day before the April 7 incident and also robbed several Lake County, Ill., businesses while dressed as a woman. He was apprehended by U.S. marshals a few days later in Waukegan, Ill., and in March 2017 was sentenced to 13 years in prison in Illinois. During his sentencing hearing Thursday, Hornezes apologized for his actions and asked Bastianelli for leniency, saying, I want to change. Ive done a lot of wrong, Hornezes said. Im not myself when Im on drugs, and I know I need to stop. Hornezes also said news reports about his criminal activity are embarrassing and strained his relationship to family. However, Assistant District Attorney Jason Zapf offered a list of crimes Hornezes committed throughout his life and detailed the April robberies. The defendant came in wearing a disguise, basically jumped the counter with a knife, told the staff there to sit down and shut up and made away with money, Zapf said. Weve learned that at the time he was basically on a spree of similar type behavior: three armed robberies in Illinois and a vehicular hijacking ... occurred around the time of this offense. Bastianelli said he is responsible for protecting the public. Youre 29 years of age and your prior record, what youve accumulated, usually is something I see where someone has essentially come into my court around 45 years of age. Youve done a lot of bad things to a lot of people, Bastianelli said. BEIJING, Jan 12 (Reuters) - China's December imports from North Korea slumped 81.6 percent year-on-year to $54.34 million, China's customs said on Friday. China's exports to North Korea also declined, down 23.4 percent from a year ago to $260 million in December, Huang Songping, customs spokesman said in a briefing in Beijing. For 2017, China's imports from North Korea fell 33 percent from a year ago to $1.72 billion, while exports to the country rose 8.3 percent to $3.34 billion. (Reporting by Yawen Chen and Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) 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. BEIJING, Jan 12 (Reuters) - China's December imports missed market expectations, rising only 4.5 percent year-on-year, while exports beat forecasts with 10.9 percent growth, official data showed on Friday. That left the country with a trade surplus of $54.69 billion for the month, according to a Reuters calculation based on official data. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected December shipments from the world's largest exporter to have risen 9.1 percent, slower than the 12.3 percent increase in the previous month. Imports had been forecast to rise 13.0 percent, softening from an 17.7 percent gain seen in November, with the trade surplus tipped at $37.0 billion last month from November's $40.21 billion. Exports rose 7.9 percent for the year, while imports increased 15.9 percent in dollar terms, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. After several lean years, China's trade performance rebounded in 2017 thanks to strong demand at home and abroad. While exports are contributing to China's growth once again, its strong appetite for industrial commodities such as iron ore and coal has also boosted resources prices worldwide in a boon to the global economy. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) SHANGHAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - China stocks shrugged off soft trade data to rise on Friday morning, helped by gains in banking and energy firms. ** China's exports and imports growth slowed in December after unexpectedly surging the previous month, adding to signs of ebbing economic growth as the government extended a crackdown on financial risks and factory pollution. " Although the trade data are often volatile, this latest decline (in import volumes)...is a sign that domestic demand may have weakened at the end of last year," Capital Economics Senior China Economist Julian Evans-Pritchard wrote in a note. ** At 04:02 GMT, the Shanghai Composite index was up 3.31 points or 0.1 percent at 3,428.65. ** China's blue-chip CSI300 index was up 0.2 percent, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 0.3 percent, the consumer staples sector up 0.33 percent, the real estate index up 0.26 percent and healthcare sub-index up 0.57 percent. ** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong rose 0.84 percent at 12,398.89, while the Hang Seng Index was up 0.29 percent at 31,211.32. ** The smaller Shenzhen index was down 0.08 percent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.47 percent. ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.41 percent while Japan's Nikkei index was down 0.05 percent . ** The yuan was quoted at 6.482 per U.S. dollar, 0.24 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.4978. ** The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Shenzhen Heungkong Holding Co Ltd up 10.09 percent, followed by Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co Ltd gaining 9.92 percent and Sundy Land Investment Co Ltd up by 8.29 percent. ** The largest percentage losses in the Shanghai index were Avic Shenyang Aircraft Co Ltd down 10 percent, followed by Jiangsu Protruly Vision Technology Group Co Ltd losing 5.03 percent and BOCO Inter-Telecom Co Ltd down by 5.01 percent. ** So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is up 3.57 percent, while China's H-share index is up 5.0 percent. Shanghai stocks have risen 3.57 percent this month. ** The top gainers among H-shares were Air China Ltd up 5.62 percent, followed by BYD Co Ltd gaining 3.71 percent and China Merchants Bank Co Ltd up by 2.82 percent. ** The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd which has fallen 1.18 percent, Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric Co Ltd which has lost 1.0 percent and CRRC Corp Ltd down by 1.0 percent. ** About 10.32 billion shares have traded so far on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 65.2 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 15.82 billion shares a day. The volume traded was 17.38 billion as of the last full trading day. ** As of 04:02 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 27.74 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. ** The Shanghai stock index is above its 50-day moving average and above its 200-day moving average. ** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 15.46 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 1.9 percent. ** So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Shanghai stock index has risen by 1.10 percent to 30.04 trillion yuan. ** In Hong Kong, the sub-index of the Hang Seng index tracking energy shares rose 1.8 percent while the IT sector rose 0.3 percent. The top gainer on Hang Seng was CNOOC Ltd up 2.79 percent, while the biggest loser was Wharf Real Estate Investment Company Ltd which was down 2.40 percent. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ China stock market graphics suite ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Luoyan Liu and John Ruwitch; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) (Kitco News) - Hypothetically, bitcoin could succeed as real money, but in practice it will be an uphill battle due to countless obstacles standing in cryptocurrencys way, said Goldman Sachs in a report. In theory, yes, if it proves capable of facilitating transactions at a low cost and/or providing better risk-adjusted returns for portfolios, said the team led by Zach Pandl, co-head of foreign exchange and emerging markets strategy. In practice, Bitcoin and other digital currencies face significant practical hurdles to wider adoptionincluding potential government regulation and excessive volatility. When evaluating whether or not bitcoin could succeed as a form of money, Pandl said that the bar looks set very high, but noted that bitcoin does usually flourish in countries that have currency instability and/or capital controls. Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies more generally) may offer viable alternatives in countries and corners of the financial system where the traditional services of money are inadequately supplied, Pandl wrote. The report explained that it would be difficult for bitcoin to break the wall posed by already established currency systems and monetary services. On top of that, if bitcoins blockchain technology was to be adopted globally by the banks, it could make it even more difficult for bitcoin to establish itself as regular money, Goldmans report added. Bitcoins extreme price volatility also works against it when it comes to wider usage and acceptance, said Pandl. The recent fluctuations in Bitcoin and its relatives suggest they are much too volatile to serve as money. Volatility would likely need to come down dramatically (either naturally or through the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies designed to better stabilize purchasing power via supply adjustments) before we see broader adoption, the report stated. Unfair To Compare Gold To Bitcoin As Crypto Space Lacks Depth ABC Bullion https://t.co/A6eX15HUZ2 pic.twitter.com/Bl7ZZCO7zM Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) January 11, 2018 In the end of the day, it is clear that before any kind of global bitcoin usage is established, the popular digital currency needs to overcome various regulatory risks, such as possible government bans, Pandl clarified. Just this week, South Koreas government announced its plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, which sent bitcoin prices in a downward spiral. Since that announcement on Thursday, South Korea's justice ministry softened its message, but still said that the ministry has been preparing a special law to shut down all cryptocurrency exchanges, but we will push for it after careful consideration with related government agencies, Yonhap news agency quoted the ministry as saying. Bitcoin was last seen at $13,418, up 1.24% on the day, according to Kitcos aggregated charts. (Corrects spelling of doctor's first name to "Ronny" instead of "Ronnie" in penultimate paragraph) WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he expects a medical examination he is to undergo on Friday will go well and that he would be surprised if it did not. Answering questions from reporters after an event on prison reform at the White House, Trump said with a smile, "It better go well, otherwise the stock market will not be happy." "I think it's going to go very well. I'll be very surprised if it doesn't," he said. The medical checkup at Walter Reed Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Maryland, will be the first for Trump since he took office nearly a year ago. Trump's medical exam was announced early last month after he slurred part of a speech in which he declared the United States recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Michael Wolff, author of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," has charged in promoting the book that Trump lacked the mental fitness to serve as president, drawing fire from Trump, his aides and supporters. Trump's physical exam is not expected to include a mental acuity test. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters the exam will be conducted by presidential physician Ronny Jackson. A statement about the results will be released on Friday. At the White House on Tuesday, Jackson will give details on Trump's health and take questions. (Reporting by Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) * Regional stocks track equities in Asia, Wall Street * Vietnam extends gains, hits 10-yr high * Philippines on track for 6th weekly increase By Sandhya Sampath Jan 12 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets rose on Friday, tracking gains in Asian equities and Wall Street, as strong Chinese trade data, higher oil prices and indications of a strong U.S. corporate earnings season lifted sentiment. Asia shares ex-Japan rose 0.4 percent after two sessions of declines, while U.S. indexes closed at record highs overnight. China's exports denominated in yuan rose 10.8 percent year-on-year in 2017, government data showed. Global oil prices eased on Friday after hitting their highest levels in three years the previous day. "Market has started the year on a very positive note, and we are looking at a bullish outlook globally, in terms of economic growth," said Jose L. Vistan, research head at Manila-based AB Capital Securities. Thai shares rose as much as 0.7 percent to hit a record high, with gains led by energy and financial stocks. PTT Exploration and Production PCL surged as much as 3.2 percent to a 30-month high, while Siam Commercial Bank PCL rose 1.3 percent. Philippines climbed as much as 0.6 percent, with financials and industrials accounting for three-fourths of the gains on the index. BDO Unibank Inc was up 1.3 percent, while International Container Terminal Services Inc added 0.9 percent. "Given the strong growth globally, the Philippines stands out because we are projected to be the fastest growing in Southeast Asia, which is attracting a lot of attention from investors," said Vistan. The index is on track to post its sixth straight week of gains. Singapore's FTSE Straits Times Index snapped two days of declines, with financials and industrials up. United Overseas Bank Ltd gained 0.6 percent, while Jardine Strategic Holdings Ltd rose 1.1 percent. Vietnam extended a nearly fortnight-long rally to touch a 10-year peak, and is on track to add about 4 percent on week. Real estate stocks were among the top gainers, with Vingroup Joint Stock up 0.5 percent. Indonesian shares edged up as much as 0.4 percent, with energy and financial stocks leading the gainers. An index of the country's 45 most liquid stocks rose 0.2 percent. Malaysia inched up, snapping three sessions of losses, and is on track to post its seventh straight weekly gain. For Asian Companies click; SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS Change as of 0333 GMT Market Current Previous close Pct Move Singapore 3521.32 3512.68 0.25 Bangkok 1814.49 1802.8 0.65 Manila 8850.87 8813.25 0.43 Jakarta 6397.369 6386.339 0.17 Kuala Lumpur 1820.38 1816.88 0.19 Ho Chi Minh 1053.88 1048.17 0.54 Change on year Market Current End 2017 Pct Move Singapore 3521.32 3402.92 3.48 Bangkok 1814.49 1753.71 3.47 Manila 8850.87 8558.42 3.40 Jakarta 6397.369 6355.654 0.66 Kuala Lumpur 1820.38 1796.81 1.31 Ho Chi Minh 1053.88 984.24 7.08 (Reporting by Sandhya Sampath; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath) (adds details, analyst comment) By Chen Aizhu BEIJING, Jan 12 (Reuters) - China's natural gas imports soared to a record high in December to battle a winter supply crunch, while crude oil imports eased sharply from November, customs data showed on Friday. December gas imports, including pipeline imports and tanker shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG), came in at 7.89 million tonnes, 20 percent above November's previous record of 6.55 million tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. Imports for the whole of 2017 jumped 27 percent over 2016 to a record of 68.57 million tonnes. A massive government push to heat millions of homes and power thousands of factories with natural gas in northern China has led to demand for the fuel outpacing supplys, while delivery infrastructure has found it hard to cope. "LNG imports last month reached new highs according to our cargo monitoring and pipeline imports from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan also ramped from previous month," said Diao Zhouwei, analyst of IHS Markit. Record imports by state energy firms and higher Chinese production have pushed down domestic wholesale LNG prices in north China. Prices were around 5,500 yuan ($848.44) per tonne this week, off 45 percent from peaks seen in late December. December's crude oil imports hit 33.7 million tonnes, or about 7.94 million barrels per day (bpd). That compared to November's 9.01 million bpd, the second-highest level on record. Buying eased in December as refiners and fuel distributors drew on inventories after hefty stockpiling in the previous month, said Seng-Yick Tee, analyst with SIA Energy. Imports throughout 2017 were up 10.1 percent over the previous year at a record 419.6 million tonnes, or 8.39 million bpd, up 770,000 bpd, according to Reuters calculations. (tonne=7.3 barrels of crude oil) ($1 = 6.4825 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Chen Aizhu; editing by Richard Pullin) Jan 12 (Reuters) - Vietnam posted a trade surplus of $2.92 billion in 2017, up from a $2.52 billion surplus a year earlier, the customs department said on Friday. Exports last year jumped 21.2 percent to $214.02 billion, while imports rose 20.8 percent to $211.1 billion, Vietnam Customs said on its website. The Southeast Asian nation posted a trade deficit of $233.5 million in December, with exports down 1.7 percent from a month earlier to $19.7 billion, while imports increased 2.5 percent from November to $19.9 billion, the report said. (Reporting by Mi Nguyen; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) 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. SAO PAULO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Yields on Brazilian interest rate futures inched up on Friday after ratings agency S&P lowered the country's sovereign credit rating to BB-, citing a greater risk of policy uncertainty amid this year's general election. The Brazilian currency weakened slightly at open before turning flat in early trade. (Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Alison Williams) 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. SAO PAULO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Brazil's securities regulator on Friday prohibited local investment funds from buying cryptocurrencies, making it the latest global markets watchdog to call for caution with the volatile asset. Cryptocurrencies cannot be considered financial assets, regulator CVM ruled, in effect barring funds from investing directly in assets such as bitcoin. Local funds interested in investing indirectly in cryptocurrencies by taking a stake in foreign funds should await further clarification from CVM, the ruling added. CVM and Brazil's central bank published a joint statement in December that warned of risks associated with cryptocurrencies. Brazilian policymakers have so far stopped short of introducing regulation. The value of bitcoin , the world's No. 1 cryptocurrency, plummeted on Thursday after South Korea's government said it planned to ban virtual currency trading, although it has since trimmed some of those losses. The cost of bitcoin in U.S. dollars soared 1,500 percent last year, sparking concerns of a potential bubble. (Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr.; Writing and additional reporting by Bruno Federowski, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) By Tom Daly BEIJING, Jan 12 (Reuters) - China's commodities buying spree eased slightly in December, with copper, iron ore and crude oil imports all falling from bumper levels a month earlier, the latest sign that Beijing's anti-smog crackdown is slowing industrial activity. The drop contributed to an overall deceleration in China's imports and exports, which highlighted ebbing momentum in the world's second-largest economy. Natural gas and coal imports meanwhile surged last month, the General Administration of Customs said on Friday, amid fuel shortages that left millions of homes freezing across the north of China and factories in the south roiled by forced cutbacks. Imports of soybeans hit their second-highest monthly total in December of 9.55 million tonnes, and a record 95.54 million tonnes for the year. Shipments of oil, gas, copper concentrate and iron ore all also set new record highs in 2017, as the world's top consumer of commodities continued to scoop up lower-priced raw materials to feed its vast heavy industry. "I think the slowdown is really mild - mostly in line with seasonality," said Victor You, an analyst with CLSA in Hong Kong, who tracks China's iron ore, coal, copper and copper concentrate imports, as well as its exports of steel products and aluminium. "If we look at an annual basis then iron ore is at a new annual high," he added, also noting a "10 percent plus pick-up" in aluminium exports for the second month in a row. Iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange dropped 2.1 percent to 544 yuan ($84.28) a tonne on Friday. China's crude oil imports were down 12 percent last month, albeit from near-record levels above 9 million barrels per day in November, weighing on futures prices on Friday. Buying eased in December as refiners and fuel distributors drew on inventories after hefty stockpiling in the previous month, said Seng-Yick Tee, analyst with SIA Energy. December oil products exports hit a record 6.17 million tonnes, as refiners churned out more fuel than the country could absorb. This has contributed to a fall in Singapore refinery profit margins to below $6 per barrel this month, their lowest seasonal level in five years. GAS AND COAL: STANDOUTS Gas imports hit a new annual record, smashing the previous high by 20 percent, on the back of a massive gasification drive that gained momentum late in the year as temperatures in northern China dropped . With the plan to heat millions of homes with the fuel proving overambitious, and leading to shortages, there was also a 3.2 percent month-on-month boost in coal imports in December after the government eased restrictions on imports to keep the country warm. ($1 = 6.4550 Chinese yuan renminbi) <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ China's commodities imports ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Josephine Mason and Christian Schmollinger) By Helen Bartholomew LONDON, Jan 12 (IFR) - European stock exchanges, including Cboe Europe and Aquis Exchange, have aligned minimum pricing increments for Swiss share trading with Zurich's SIX Swiss Exchange, which some believe may have been granted an unintended competitive advantage by MiFID II. The Swiss bourse saw its market share in domestic securities jump to 75% at the start of 2018 - up 10 percentage points from a year previously. The cause, some believe, was more granular pricing resulting from a mismatch in calculation data between EU and EEA exchanges under the MiFID II tick size regime. The Swiss exchange adheres to the MiFID II regime, applying the same tick size logic as its EU counterparts, but as a non-EU venue it bases those calculations on its own activity. EU venues, in contracts, were forced to ignore the largest market for Swiss stocks, instead basing tick sizes on activity at the largest EU venue for the instruments. For the stocks in question, that is Cboe Europe, which had market share of around 13% in Swiss stocks on the January 3 implementation date, down from over 17% from a year earlier. That changed this morning when Cboe Europe and Aquis Exchange moved Swiss stocks traded on their venues to a new tick table, aligning with more granular domestic increments. That affects around 40 instruments at Aquis and 168 at Cboe. "The regulators are aware of our decision to do so and this is part of a wider analysis by the regulators of the post-MiFID II impact on trading third-country listed securities," Cboe said in a statement. The change appeared to garner immediate rewards for Cboe Europe, which saw market share in the instruments rise back to almost 16% in mid-afternoon trading. The Swiss Exchange saw its share of domestic stocks slip below 72% at the same point, data from Cboe Global Markets show. EU exchange groups have lobbied on the issue, noting wider concerns associated with misalignment of tick sizes. In the wake of the first MiFID overhaul of equity markets a decade ago, a race to reduce tick increments was abruptly halted by an agreement for greater consistency. As a result, systems have become used to shares being traded at the same tick size across all venues. Problems can occur when smart order routers attempt to send orders from one venue to another as the prices may not be divisible. "The whole scope of MiFID I was to create a level playing field. If you inadvertently stifle that with the second iteration by constraining your scope of trading to fewer venues, no one is winning" said David Howson, chief operating officer at Cboe Europe. A spokesperson for SIX in Zurich declined to comment on market share given the limited number of trading days under the new regime, noting only that figures vary day-to-day and are influenced by various factors. "The market share of SIX has been very strong in Q4 due to our focus on order book quality, which has been significantly stronger than on other venues," he said. (Reporting by Helen Bartholomew) Jan 12 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker repeated on Friday his expectation for two interest-rate rises this year thanks to a "pretty good" U.S. economic outlook. "I see two rate increases as the likely appropriate path for 2018," Harker said in prepared remarks in Ivyland, Pennsylvania that largely reflected a speech he gave a week ago. (Reporting by Jonathan Spicer Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve fined five large U.S. banks a combined $35.1 million to settle cases of mortgage servicing flaws dating back to 2011. The central bank announced the fines against Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley , CIT Group , U.S. Bancorp , and PNC Financial as part of a broader effort to terminate enforcement actions begun in 2011 and 2012 against large banks for mortgage servicing shortcomings. Ally Financial , Bank of America , HSBC North America Holdings, JPMorgan Chase and SunTrust Banks had already paid penalties for similar issues. All 10 banks had enforcement actions under the Fed ended on Friday, as the regulator cited "sustainable improvements" in their servicing practices. (Reporting by Pete Schroeder Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) ACCRA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Bank of Ghana said the yield on its weekly 91-day bill edged up to 13.36 percent at an auction on Friday from 13.32 percent at the last such sale on Jan 5. The bank said it had accepted 497.89 million cedis ($110 million) worth of bids out of the 498.39 million cedis tendered for the paper, which will be issued on Monday. Ghana's treasury bill yields, which were around 23 percent a year ago, have eased steadily as the government has cut down on excessive borrowing under an IMF assistance programme that has also helped renew investor confidence in the economy. For full details, click here: ($1 = 4.5250 Ghanaian cedis) (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Hugh Lawson) * Local cotton prices jump 15 pct in 6 weeks on thin supply * Prompts traders to cancel contracts to export 400,000 bales * Buyers like Bangladesh switch to U.S., Brazil for supplies By Rajendra Jadhav MUMBAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Indian cotton traders have cancelled contracts to export some 400,000 bales of the fibre after a rally in domestic prices and the rising rupee made overseas sales unattractive, the president of the Cotton Association of India told Reuters. The switch, triggering penalty payments by traders, has left cotton buyers in leading markets like Bangladesh, Vietnam and China seeking to make up shortfalls by tapping suppliers in the United States, Australia and Brazil, said association head Atul Ganatra. The cancellations and higher local prices could cut India's exports to 5 million bales, each of 170 kg, in the 2017/18 marketing year started on Oct. 1 - nearly a quarter below an initial estimate, Ganatra said. Prices surged more than 15 percent in the past six weeks after pest infestations squeezed supplies in the world's biggest producer of the fibre. "Some exports contracts for Bangladesh, Vietnam and China could not be fulfilled due to the sudden rise local prices," Ganatra said. He didn't identify the traders who cancelled export deals in moves confirmed by six dealers contacted by Reuters. After hurricanes raised doubts about the supplies from top exporter U.S. late last year, Indian traders signed a flurry of contracts. Indian traders have so far shipped 1.5 million bales of the 2.5 million bales contracted since Oct. 1, when the current year began, dealers said. Last year India exported 5.8 million bales of cotton. The country's traders are offering cotton to Asian buyers at around 87 cents per pound, including cost insurance and freight, nearly 4 percent more than rival supplies from the U.S., the dealers said. But India has struggled to keep supplies steady after infestations of pests like pink boll worms cut output, lifting domestic prices to 87 cents per lb. Also, the Indian rupee recently rallied to its highest level in 30 months, further slashing exporters' margins and making it difficult for most merchants to stick to their export commitments, said Vinay Kotak, a director at Kotak Commodities, a Mumbai-based brokerage. Depleting supplies from India have also led to a shortage in the global market, lifting international prices to their highest level in 3-1/2 years - and helping the United States, Brazil and some other key suppliers increase their market share, especially in Asia. "The mills have to go somewhere else to import cotton," said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton. "They will come to the U.S., West Africa, and later to Australia and Brazil. Those are the main origin points." The U.S. has committed to sell 678,720 bales of cotton to Bangladesh so far this season, more than double the quantity sold a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bangladesh had emerged as a big buyer of Indian cotton thanks to competitive prices and lower freight costs, sourcing nearly half of its annual import requirement of 7 million bales from India. "But now we are in trouble, as many of our contracts with India got stuck over a sudden jump in prices," said Muhammad Ayub, finance director at the Bangladesh Cotton Association. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Additional reporting by Ruma Paul in DHAKA, Chris Prentice in NEW YORK and Vijaykumar Vedala in BENGALURU; Editing by Mayank Bhardwaj and Kenneth Maxwell) JAKARTA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Indonesian regional and central government officials on Friday signed an agreement with state holding company PT Inalum that lays the foundation for the transfer of Freeport-McMoRan Inc's giant Grasberg copper mine to local control. Indonesia and Papua have long pushed for greater control over Grasberg and the new ownership structure may ease tensions over spoils from the world's second-biggest copper mine, which has been a focal point for local separatists. Indonesia and Freeport agreed in principle in August to set up the U.S. company's rights to Grasberg under a new mine license system from an existing contract of work, and the American miner said it would divest up to 51 percent of its local unit to "Indonesia interests". Under the agreement signed on Friday, Papua Provincial Government and the Mimika Regency will jointly own rights to a 10 percent share in PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) once they have been divested, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. "This portion of share ownership rights is for the interests for the indigenous land owners and members of the community facing permanent impacts," the statement said. "The agreement signed today is a strategic step forward in efforts to acquire shares divested by PTFI," it said. A Jakarta-based spokesman for Freeport Indonesia declined to comment on the matter. Inalum, which holds ownership of all state-owned mining companies, has been nominated to acquire an additional 41.64 percent in Freeport Indonesia, which would take Indonesia's share of PTFI to 51 percent, up from 9.36 percent now. The 10 percent to be held by Papua and Mimika would be part of this Inalum holding, government officials have said previously. A government source with knowledge of the matter said the memorandum of understanding signed on Friday was an initial step in the acquisition process and would allow the transaction involving the Indonesian parties to be carried out through a "single window". "The next step that still needs to be worked on is the completion of rights and obligations between shareholders and Freeport, as well as the valuation," the source said. Coal and Minerals Director General Bambang Gatot said on Thursday the government is targeting to complete contract discussions with Freeport by June, noting that divestment issues had not been resolved yet. Freeport's divestment may involve liquidation of a joint venture that Freeport Indonesia, operator of Grasberg, formed with Rio Tinto in 1996. Under that venture, Rio has a 40 percent interest in PTFI'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. Indonesia's proposal could see Rio's interest in Grasberg output being converted to shares in PTFI to make up the lion's portion of the government purchase, provided all parties can agree to the structure and price of the deal, Mining Minister Ignasius Jonan said in December. A Melbourne-based spokesman for Rio declined to comment. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Indonesia lays groundwork for transfer of Grasberg mine to local control ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Cindy Silviana and Wilda Asmarini in JAKARTA; Additional reporting by Jim Regan in SYDNEY; Writing by Fergus Jensen; Editing by Tom Hogue) * GRAPHIC-2017 asset returns: * LME/ShFE arb: (Adds analyst comments, updates prices, changes dateline from SYDNEY) By Eric Onstad LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Zinc prices edged up to their highest in more than a decade on Friday, supported by potential shortages and low inventories, but some investors were concerned about the lofty levels. Benchmark zinc on the London Metal Exchange rose to $3,409 a tonne, the strongest since August 2007, and was up 0.3 percent at $3,395 by 1120 GMT. Zinc prices have rallied 11 percent since early December and were the top gainer among LME metals last year, surging 32 percent. "Global exchange inventories have declined to about six to seven days of global consumption, so stocks are tight, and China's environmental checks will continue, so that will limit supply growth domestically," said Xiao Fu, head of commodity market strategy at Bank of China International in London. "Fundamentally it's tight, but people are getting worried at these high price levels. Funds are probably a bit reluctant to chase the rally from here. We think there's moderate upside, we're cautiously bullish." LME inventories have tumbled 58 percent over the past 12 months to 180,150 tonnes after closures and suspensions of big mines in recent years. * COPPER - LME three month copper dipped 0.2 percent to $7,128 a tonne, pressured slightly by Chinese data. * CHINA TRADE DATA - China's unwrought copper imports fell 4.3 percent in December from a month earlier, but imports still stood at the second-highest level in 2017. * CHINA COPPER PREMIUM - The Yangshan copper premium was down to $74 a tonne from a peak of $80 in late December, Alastair Munro at broker Marex Spectron said in a note. * COPPER DROP FORECAST: Capital Economics said it expects copper to retreat as the year progresses, averaging just $6,800 a tonne in the first quarter and $6,250 in the second quarter. * ALUMINIUM - LME aluminium was the best performer on the exchange, rising 2.2 percent to $2,222.50 a tonne, shrugging off news of higher Chinese exports. * CHINA ALUMINIUM EXPORTS: China's exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products rose for a second straight month in December, by 15.8 percent from November. * DOLLAR - Base metals got support from a weaker dollar , making commodities priced in the greenback cheaper for buyers using other currencies. * NICKEL: LME nickel recovered from an overnight sell-off to trade 0.7 percent firmer at $12,710 a tonne. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by James Regan in Sydney; Editing by Mark Poter) * GRAPHIC-2017 asset returns: * LME/ShFE arb: (Updates with closing prices) By Eric Onstad LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Zinc prices edged up to their highest in more than a decade on Friday, supported by potential shortages and low inventories, but some investors voiced concern about the lofty levels. Benchmark zinc on the London Metal Exchange climbed to $3,409 a tonne, the strongest since August 2007, before paring gains by the close to $3,383.50, up 0.1 percent. Zinc has rallied 11 percent since early December and was the top gainer among LME metals last year, surging 32 percent. "Global exchange inventories have declined to about six to seven days of global consumption, so stocks are tight, and China's environmental checks will continue, so that will limit supply growth domestically," said Xiao Fu, head of commodity market strategy at Bank of China International in London. "Fundamentally it's tight, but people are getting worried at these high price levels. Funds are probably a bit reluctant to chase the rally from here. We think there's moderate upside, we're cautiously bullish." LME inventories have tumbled 58 percent over the past 12 months to 180,150 tonnes after closures and suspensions of big mines in recent years. * COPPER - LME three-month copper dipped 0.4 percent to finish at $7,109 a tonne, pressured slightly by Chinese data. * CHINA TRADE DATA - China's unwrought copper imports fell 4.3 percent in December from a month earlier, but still recorded their second-highest level in 2017. * ALUMINIUM - LME aluminium was the best performer on the exchange, rising 1.8 percent to end at $2,214 a tonne, shrugging off news of higher Chinese exports. * CHINA ALUMINIUM EXPORTS: China's exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products rose for a second straight month in December, by 15.8 percent from November. * ALCOA - Aluminum producer Alcoa Corp locked out union workers at its smelter in Quebec as an old contract expired at midnight and talks on a new agreement failed. "This smelter is a key supplier into the North American market, and U.S. Midwest transaction premiums have already moved above 10c/lb," Colin Hamilton at BMO Capital Markets said in a note. * NICKEL - LME nickel recovered from a sell-off in the previous session to close 0.8 percent firmer at $12,725 a tonne. Munro said nickel was the second-biggest long of the LME complex based on Marex estimates. There also was evidence that Chinese investors were seeking to sell into the recent rally, he added. * DOLLAR - Base metals got support from a weaker dollar , making commodities priced in the greenback cheaper for buyers using other currencies. * PRICES - Lead , untraded at the close, was bid down 0.6 percent at $2,535, and tin rose 0.3 percent to finish trading at $20,275. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS LME/ShFE arb ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by James Regan in Sydney; Editing by Dale Hudson and David Evans) Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Friday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour): DATA Statistics office to release foreign trade data for January-November 2017 at 1300 GMT. RAIFFEISEN BGZ BNP Paribas is about to start due diligence at Raiffeisen Bank International Polish unit Raiffeisen Polbank, Parkiet daily said quoting unnamed sources. KGHM KGHM expects 2018 copper production from own concentrates in Poland to be higher than last year, Parkiet daily quoted the miner's CEO as saying. BORYSZEW , IMPEXMETAL Private equity fund Advent International is interested in buying some assets owned by Boryszew and Impexmetal, which are controlled by a Polish businessman Roman Karkosik, Puls Biznesu daily said quoting unnamed sources. The value of the potential deal is estimated at around 600 million euro. ****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.**** For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX (Reporting by Warsaw Bureau) Reindeer herders in an Oroqen village in Genhe county of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region are gradually losing their traditional nomadic lifestyle.[Photo provided to China Daily] Li Wuwang, 35, a media professional, is taking an unusual route to entertain and educate his online audiences. Yang Yang reports. In 1911, an American missionary William Marcus Young arrived in Laodabao, a remote Lahu ethnic village on the border between Southwest China's Yunnan province and Myanmar. From him, villagers learned choral singing and how to play the guitar. Since 1920, choral singing and playing the guitar have become a tradition in the village, where people have long used music to express their thoughts and emotions. Now about 80 percent of the 473 villagers can sing and play the guitar. This story is one of the most popular episodes of a short documentary series called Great Tribe broadcasting on the internet since Nov 14, 2017. Other popular episodes include a story about an Oroqen village in Genhe county of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in North China, which is gradually losing its traditional nomadic life of raising reindeer, and an episode about a remote hidden Mongolian ethnic village near Kanas Lake in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Each of the 10 episodes in the first season of Great Tribe lasts about 12 minutes, not long enough even to tell the long history of an ancient village. But Li Wuwang, 35, the founder of Cicada Modern that made the documentaries, says that with these short videos, he wants to spark curiosity about these remote villages that are almost forgotten by people. "It's just like our slogan says: to see the curious East," he says. "There are many facets to a village, but we don't want to make encyclopedic documentaries. We want to present them from a specific angle," he says, adding that the aim of the first season is to find elements of the villages that will resonate with audiences. By Diana Asonova MOSCOW, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Russian gold producer Arlan plans to have doubled gold output from its mine in 2020, expecting the price for the precious metal to rise further, the firm's director for development said. Russia, the world's third largest gold producer, has seen its gold mining expand in recent years with a weakened rouble helping cope with relatively low global gold prices since 2014. Arlan opened its Pavlik gold mine in Magadan in Russia's far east in 2015 with a $550 million loan from a company affiliated with the Russian state development bank Vnesheconombank, or VEB. The privately-owned company produced 6.5 tonnes of gold in 2017 and expects to raise that to 6.8 tonnes this year. Arlan targets a further output increase to 13 tonnes in 2020 and aims to maintain that level for 10 years, Sergei Terentyev, Arlan's director for development, told Reuters in an interview. To raise output, the firm needed to double the amount of ore it could process to 10 million tonnes a year by 2020 from five million tonnes, he said. The expansion would cost about $200 million, which the firm aimed to borrow from Russian state banks, Terentyev said, adding that talks could be concluded soon. He said selling bonds to raise funds was also an option. Gold prices rose 13 percent last year, reaching a high of $1,357 per ounce in early autumn. "I think we will see gold prices at $1,400 an ounce this year," Terentyev said, adding that he expected the $2,000-mark to be crossed in future. Gold peaked at $1,920 in 2011. Russia's far eastern Magadan region, also known as Kolyma, is famous for gold deposits, where prisoners of Stalin's Gulag labour camps were forced to work during Soviet times. The area will host Russia's largest gold mine, Natalka, when its owner Polyus hikes its output by 2019. Russia produced 193.58 tonnes of gold in the first eight months of 2017, up from 179.73 tonnes in the same period of 2016. (Reporting by Diana Asonova; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Katya Golubkova and Edmund Blair) * Thai shares hit record high * Vietnam extends gains, hits 10-yr high * Philippines posts sixth weekly gain By Sandhya Sampath Jan 12 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets ended higher on Friday, led by Thailand, tracking gains in broader Asia as strong Chinese trade data and optimism ahead of the U.S. corporate earnings season buoyed sentiment. Asian shares ex-Japan rose 0.8 percent following two sessions of declines, after data showed China's exports rose 10.8 percent in 2017. . Wall Street's three major stock indexes hit record highs overnight with earnings for S&P 500 companies expected to have increased by 11.8 percent in the recently-ended quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. "We are looking at a bullish outlook globally, in terms of economic growth," said Jose L. Vistan, research head at Manila-based AB Capital Securities. Thai shares closed 0.4 percent up, after hitting a record of 1,816.81, helped by gains in financials and utilities. Siam Commercial Bank PCL rose 2.6 percent while Gulf Energy Development PCL surged 9.3 percent to a record. The index ended the week 1 percent higher, its seventh straight weekly gain. The Philippine index pared early gains to end flat as a rise in real estate stocks was offset by a fall in consumer staples. It finished higher for a sixth straight week. "Given the strong growth globally, the Philippines stands out because we are projected to be the fastest growing in Southeast Asia, which is attracting a lot of attention from investors," Vistan added. Singapore shares snapped two sessions of losses and ended 0.2 percent higher as sentiment got a boost after data showed the city-state's on-year retail sales in November jumped the highest in nearly two years. Industrials and financials ended higher, with SATS Ltd , the top performer on the index, adding 2.9 percent. The benchmark index rose 0.9 percent on the week, marking its third straight weekly gain. Vietnam settled 0.2 percent higher, led by real estate stocks. Vingroup Joint Stock Company rose 5.4 percent. The index posted its fourth weekly gain, adding 3.7 percent. Meanwhile, Indonesian shares reversed course to end 0.3 percent lower, but finished the week marginally higher. For Asian Companies click; SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS Change on day Market Current Previous close Pct Move Singapore 3520.56 3512.68 0.22 Bangkok 1810.19 1802.8 0.41 Manila 8814.62 8813.25 0.02 Jakarta 6370.065 6386.339 -0.25 Kuala Lumpur 1822.67 1816.88 0.32 Ho Chi Minh 1050.11 1048.17 0.19 Change on year Market Current End 2017 Pct Move Singapore 3520.56 3402.92 3.46 Bangkok 1810.19 1753.71 3.20 Manila 8814.62 8558.42 3.00 Jakarta 6370.065 6355.654 0.23 Kuala Lumpur 1822.67 1796.81 1.44 Ho Chi Minh 1050.11 984.24 6.69 (Reporting by Sandhya Sampath; Editing by Vyas Mohan) HANOI, Jan 12 (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 0618 GMT. January 12 USD/VND mid-point 22,406 USD/VND interbank 22,708/22,711 USD/VND unofficial 22,695/22,710 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.53/36.75 Interbank offered rates Overnight 2.0-2.7 1 week 2.2-3.0 1 month 3.8-4.5 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) COLOMBO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's central bank said it has suspended four officers and taken disciplinary action against several others following alleged irregularities in a 2015 government bond auction. In a statement Thursday night, the monetary authority also said it has initiated several legislative changes aimed at preventing irregularities arising in connection with future bond issues. (CORRECT?) Last week, President Maithripala Sirisena said a commission investigating the 2015 bond sales has recommended legal action against the finance minister and the central bank governor at the time. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka statement said it has taken measures to improve the management and control of public debt and the government pension fund, and is studying the commission's recommendations. "The central bank has already implemented some of the recommendations therein, while measures have already been initiated to implement most of the other recommendations," it said. "The Monetary Board has consulted the Attorney General, as appropriate, in the actions it has taken." In the 2015 auction, more than half of the bonds were sold to Perpetual Treasuries Ltd, a subsidiary of a company owned by the son-in-law of then-central bank governor Arjuna Mahendran. Sirisena said the presidential commission of inquiry concluded that Perpetual Treasuries made profits through illegal means, and it blamed the bank governor and other officials. Mahendran, his son-in law and Perpetual Treasuries have denied any wrongdoing. In its statement, the central bank also said that it will initiate measures to carry out forensic audits on the issuance of Treasury bonds during the 2008 to 2014 and the Treasury bond auctions held in March 2016, as recommended by the commission. The commission report was presented in the parliament on Wednesday, but was not debated. Several members were injured in a fistfight that broke out as opposition parties as well as a faction of the ruling coalition demanded parliament be reconvened earlier than the scheduled Jan. 23 opening to debate the panel's findings. Opposition lawmakers have alleged the bond auction cost the state more than $1 billion because of rising borrowing costs. ($1 = 153.50 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Shihar Aneez and Richard Borsuk) ZURICH, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Swiss blue-chip SMI was seen opening 0.3 percent higher at 9,529 points on Friday, according to premarket indications by bank Julius Baer . Here are some of the main factors that may affect Swiss stocks: ROCHE The European Union approved Roche's multiple sclerosis medicine Ocrevus, one the Swiss company's key new drugs that likely neared $1 billion in revenue in its first nine months on sale in the United States. For more news see BANKS British Prime Minister Theresa May told bankers from firms such as UBS and Goldman Sachs they were a priority for her in the Brexit talks, just as new warnings emerged of job losses in the London financial sector unless there is a trade deal. May met in Downing Street with some of Europe's most powerful financiers including Mark Tucker, the HSBC chairman, Axel Weber, the UBS chairman, and Richard Gnodde, chief executive of Goldman Sachs International . DAVOS President Donald Trump's delegation to the World Economic Forum in Davos this month will include Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a senior administration official told Reuters. The Swiss Alpine town of Davos is used to celebrities and high-rollers, but even it is relishing new attention being heaped on it with U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to attend the World Economic Forum COMPANY STATEMENTS * Swissquote Group Holding SA revises income and profit growth upwards; FY total earnings now expected to amount to 186 million Swiss francs, pre-tax profit around 45 million * Inficon Holding AG prelim fy sales of $373 million (prior year $309.7 million); prelim fy operating income of $73 million (prior year $51 million) * Wisekey International Holding AG full-year 2017 preliminary unaudited pro forma revenue $54.3 million * Aryzta AG appoints Dave Johnson as CEO North America * Valora Holding AG raises Schuldschein issue worth EUR 170 million ECONOMY (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/ JOHANNESBURG, Jan 12 (Reuters) - South Africa sold 1.8 billion rand ($145 million) worth of three-month Treasury bills on Friday, at an average yield of 7.4 percent compared with 7.585 percent last week, central bank data showed. The bid-to-cover ratio rose to 4.0 from 1.7. Auction date: 12/01/2018 Settlement date: 17/01/2018 Days 91 182 273 364 Amount received (R'bln) 7.175 3.838 7.553 7.042 Amount on offer (R'bln) 1.8 2.0 2.1 2.3 Amount allotted (R'bln) 1.8 2.0 2.1 2.3 Bid-to-cover ratio 4.0 1.9 3.6 3.1 Avg discount rate (pct) 7.27 7.29 7.28 7.14 Average yield (pct) 7.4 7.56 7.7 7.68 ($1 = 12.3918 rand) (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Alexander Winning) 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. ISTANBUL, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Here are news, reports and events that may affect Turkish financial markets on Friday. The lira stood at 3.7712 against the U.S. dollar at 0551 GMT, little changed from Thursday's close of 3.7710. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond was at 11.78 percent in spot trade on Thursday and rose to 11.82 percent in Friday-dated trade. The main BIST 100 share index rose 0.99 percent to 114,718.80 points on Thursday. GLOBAL MARKETS Asian stocks resumed their ascent on Friday, supported by U.S. earnings optimism and a rise in oil prices while the euro edged higher as the European Central Bank signalled an end to its massive stimulus. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5 percent, following two straight sessions of decline. Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.1 percent. CONSTITUTIONAL COURT RULING Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter on Friday the Constitutional Court had overstepped limits set out in the law with its ruling to release two journalists on the grounds their rights had been violated while in custody. ERDOGAN President Tayyip Erdogan will make a speech at a Marmara University anniversary event (1130 GMT). PM YILDIRIM Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will meet judges and prosecutors at his office (0700 GMT). He will also meet British trade minister Liam Fox and the chief executive of Rolls Royce Warren East (0900 GMT). He will also meet the head of the national intelligence agency Hakan Fidan (1230 GMT). SIMSEK Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek will speak at a meeting of the MUSIAD business association (1130 GMT). CURRENT ACCOUNT The central bank will release current account data for November (0700 GMT). CENTRAL BANK SURVEY The central bank will announce its monthly survey of economists' and business leaders' expectations for the economy (1130 GMT). 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) (Includes additional detail and context, separate Goldman fine) By Pete Schroeder WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve fined five large U.S. banks a combined $35.1 million to settle cases of mortgage servicing flaws dating back to 2011. The central bank announced the fines against Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley , CIT Group , U.S. Bancorp , and PNC Financial as part of a broader effort to terminate enforcement actions begun in 2011 and 2012 against large banks for mortgage servicing shortcomings. Ally Financial , Bank of America , HSBC North America Holdings, JPMorgan Chase and SunTrust Banks had already paid penalties for similar issues. All 10 banks had enforcement actions under the Fed ended on Friday, as the regulator cited "sustainable improvements" in their servicing practices. Goldman is set to pay the largest fine of the five announced today, totaling $14 million. Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $8 million, CIT will pay $5.2 million, U.S. Bancorp will pay $4.4 million, and PNC will pay $3.5 million. All told, the Fed said it had assessed $1.1 billion in fines against 14 banks for mortgage servicing shortcomings, which became widely known in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis as more homeowners struggled to stay current on their loans. At the same time, the Fed announced it was terminating enforcement actions against a pair of mortgage servicers. Lender Processing Services, Inc., succeeded by ServiceLink Holdings LLC, and MERSCORP Holdings, Inc., formerly known as MERSCORP, Inc., both faced enforcement actions from financial regulators for issues tied to foreclosure-related services. In a separate enforcement action, the Fed announced it had fined Goldman Sachs $90,000 for violations tied to the National Flood Insurance Act. (Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) (Adds comment from Eder) FRANKFURT, Jan 12 (Reuters) - German chipmaker Infineon Technologies said its supervisory board would propose appointing Voestalpine Chief Executive Wolfgang Eder to the board with an eye to having him take over the chairmanship eventually. "The Supervisory Board considers Dr. Eder perfectly suited to take on the chairmanship of the supervisory board in the medium term," it said in a statement on Friday. Current supervisory board Chairman Wolfgang Mayrhuber, 70, will resign, effective as of the company's annual shareholders' meeting on Feb. 22. Supervisory board member Eckart Suenner will succeed Mayrhuber until Eder becomes chairman, Infineon said. Eder will present his candidacy at the shareholders' meeting, a Voestalpine spokesman said. "The time investment required of a member of Infineon's supervisory board is limited and therefore should be viewed as completely independent of the position as Chief Executive of Voestalpine," Eder said in an emailed statement. (Reporting by Maria Sheahan, additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla in Vienna; editing by Christoph Steitz and Jason Neely) (Adds details from webcast, market reaction, analyst comment) By Bruno Federowski SAO PAULO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Brazil has made slower-than-expected progress in cutting government spending ahead of presidential elections, a Standard & Poor's director said on Friday, a day after the agency downgraded the country's rating deeper into junk territory. S&P managing director Lisa Schineller mentioned successive delays in voting a plan to trim social security spending as a sign of "wear-and-tear" slowing down progress in balancing the budget. The new rating is underpinned by "slippages and mixed signals in terms of tackling fiscal policy correction," she said In a webcast, adding that growth-inducing macroeconomic reforms or increased austerity efforts could pave the way for an upgrade. Financial markets mostly brushed off the downgrade as investors had largely anticipated such a move since President Michel Temer met with ratings agencies in December. Some analysts even said the downgrade could help Temer pressure lawmakers into approving his social security plan. Still, analysts at Eurasia Group said the short-term political consequences of the downgrade would be "minimal," keeping an estimate of a 30 percent probability that the overhaul would be approved. S&P on Thursday lowered its long-term rating for Brazil sovereign debt to BB- from BB, with a stable outlook, citing less timely and effective policymaking. Lawmakers have scheduled a lower-house vote on an unpopular pension bill for February 19, but Schineller highlighted the difficulty of passing such as measure months before an election which seems "even more open" than previous votes. Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has criticized Temer's austerity platform, is currently leading polls but could be barred from running if his conviction for corruption is upheld on January 24. Below him, the field is divided between various potential candidates from law-and-order congressman Jair Bolsonaro and businessman-turned-mayor Joao Doria to nationalist Ciro Gomes. Asked about the elections, Schineller said S&P would balance campaign rhetoric against what can effectively be implemented. "Campaigning on difficult fiscal reform is not something that will generate a lot of votes," she said. "You have seen, over time in Brazil, that pragmatic policies come into play afterwards, including from former President Lula in the 2002 election cycle." (Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrew Hay) 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 Jan 12 (Reuters) - Following are domestic prices of Vietnam's key commodities. Unit: Million dong per tonne Item Jan 8-12 Jan 2-5 Location Robusta beans 36.0-36.8 35.4-36.9 Central Highlands Black pepper 62.0-65.0 68.0-70.0 Southern region Refined sugar 15.0-16.0 15.0-16.0 Southern region Summer-autumn paddy 6.1-6.6 6.1-6.6 Mekong Delta SJC gold 3.654-3.675 3.666-3.676 Hanoi, HCMC City NOTES: Gold prices are low/high selling prices quoted in million dong per 3.75-gram ingot during the week by top manufacturer SJC. Prices in the previous week are updated. Coffee export prices Rice export prices Historical data Central bank's gold auction ($1 = 22,708 dong) (Reporting by Mi Nguyen; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) 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. Gov. John Hickenlooper's state of the state address Thursday was his last as governor. The entire speech can be watched at the bottom of this article. "The joy of these past seven years has been every bit as intense, and just as sweet," Gov. Hickenlooper said nearing the end of his speech. The governor touched on topics from education to infrastructure, highlighting El Paso County voters. "El Paso County voted for new lanes on I-25. Coloradans want to invest in our quality of life, because of our affection for Colorado," Gov. Hickenlooper stated. The governor says Colorado voters must be given the chance to decide how to fund the state's roads. Hickenlooper told lawmakers in Thursday's state of the state address that recent progress in funding highways is well-needed - but not enough. Democrats have long sought to ask voters to raise taxes to pay for an estimated $9 billion backlog in road repairs - not to mention billions of dollars more in anticipated highway needs. Republicans insist issuing bonds, not raising taxes, is the way to go. The governor noted that Colorado hasn't raised its 22 cents-a-gallon gasoline tax in about 25 years. The tax helps fund roads. He says the state has been driving "on a flat tire for about a quarter of a century." He touched on the environment, specifically citing changes in Pueblo. "Xcel has submitted a plan to close two coals plants in Pueblo," Gov. Hickenlooper explained during his speech. "This will clean our air and lower costs for consumers and lead to greater investments that support 21st-century careers. What is it the critics dont like? Is it the cleaner air or the lower utility bills? Clean air matters. Xcel is also working with Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel, one of the cleanest steel plants in the world, to move toward renewable energy while protecting Pueblos future as a center for steel manufacturing. We need everyones support to make this a reality. Pueblo is known as Steel City, but soon it could also be 'Solar and Wind City.' Most of us agree that science shows climate change is happening at a significant rate in large part because of humans. But even those of us who disagree on climate change can agree that we need to protect the Colorado environment our grandchildren will grow to love. With a strong economy where they can find jobs. Many Republican lawmakers have strived to protect a struggling coal industry. The governor urged lawmakers to address an underfunded public employees' pension fund; attack the opioid epidemic; and promote rural development to bridge the economic divide between the Denver metropolitan area and rural eastern and western Colorado. He insisted that his administration's emphasis on clean energy continue. Near the beginning of his speech, he gave praise to a 7-year-old girl from Colorado Springs. "Were putting our faith in people like 7-year-old Ashley Scott from Colorado Springs. Two years ago, she started a holiday benefit and purchased blankets, socks and gloves for the homeless. This past year, she partnered with twenty businesses, her school, and the community to do even more. She said 'doing this makes me feel happy. The homeless need a Merry Christmas, too.' Ashley, were grateful for you," Gov. Hickenlooper said with a smile. "Its a shame youre not 23 years older. You could run for governor! Everyone else is doing it." He ended with a personal catchphrase, "Giddy Up", to sustained applause from both sides of the aisle. By Jhoo Dong-chan The government will introduce additional measures to curb housing prices, as the prices in southern Seoul continued to skyrocket despite stern housing price policies introduced Aug. 2. But analysts are skeptical of the efficacy of the government's measures. On top of a plan to raise property taxes, the authorities have been conducting on-site investigations of property owners suspected of making speculative investments in multiple homes in southern Seoul. "I believe speculative investments have been behind the soaring housing prices in southern Seoul," Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said on Thursday during a meeting with other government agencies. Kim said the authorities will continue the crackdown on speculative investigators. Kim called for the National Tax Service to investigate owners of multiple houses in the area. If they are found to commit any irregularities such as tax evasion and unlawful property inheritance, they will face punitive measures including possibly criminal investigation by prosecutors. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also said during a recent press conference that it has decided to increase the apartment supply in the capital. The ministry has nominated 31 possible areas in Seoul where it will build apartment complexes in the selected areas, it added. Analysts, however, say these punitive measures won't become fundamental solutions to soaring housing prices. "Punitive measures cannot be an effective cure. It's like the government has admitted its anti-speculation steps didn't work and it lacks remedies to effectively tackle surging housing prices," Shinhan Bank analyst Ko Jun-seok said. "The government has run out of options. It can ill-afford to resolve chronic problems of liquidity glut and housing shortage in the area anytime soon." According to the Korea Appraisal Board, Seoul apartment prices rose 0.98 percent over four weeks between Dec. 11 and Jan. 8. The Aug. 2 measures turned out to be ineffective at least in Seoul. The government is considering raising property taxes as the last means of stabilizing the prices, but this is likely to come only after the local election in June. According to Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, housing prices rose 2.36 percent in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province last year, while rosing a mere 0.68 percent in other regions. Some provinces experienced a plunge. Apartment prices in Seongsan-gu in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, dipped around 10 percent last year. By Yoon Ja-young The country's junior Kosdaq market is continuing to soar on a boom of bio shares and expectation on a government plan to boost the market. It is narrowing the gap with the main bourse KOSPI which has been remaining stagnant lately. The tech-heavy Kosdaq closed at 873.05, Friday, up 2.41 percent from the previous day. A sidecar circuit breaker was activated around 1:57 p.m. on over a 6 percent rise of Kosdaq150 futures. It was the first circuit breaker since 2016 when it was activated twice. Kosdaq once recorded a 4 percent rise in the afternoon session, but somewhat stabilized toward the closure of the trading session. The main index KOSPI, meanwhile, closed at 2,496.42, gaining 0.34 percent. The gap between the KOSPI and Kosdaq was 1,623.37, which compares with 1,860.7 points' gap marked on Nov. 1. Back then, Kosdaq hovered below 700 while the main index continued a bullish move led by IT giants. That is when Samsung Electronics touched a record high 2.86 million won. Since then, however, the junior market marked over 22 percent rise, while KOSPI fell over 2 percent. Samsung Electronics closed at 2.41 million won Friday, down 0.08 percent from the previous day. It has been sliding recently due to performances that fell below the market expectation. Analysts also cite strengthening Korean currency and possible oversupply of chips in the global market as negatives on the chipmaker. Leading the junior Kosdaq market are pharmaceutical shares. Biosimilar developer Celltrion, which is top on Kosdaq in terms of the market cap, recorded a double digit rise Friday. Celltrion Pharm soared near 30 percent. Some analysts say that the junior market is showing signs of overheating. "Kosdaq rose around 15 percent due to massive purchasing by small investors and foreign investors following the ex-dividend. As a result, the Kosdaq150 index and Kosdaq pharmaceutical index are showing signs of short-term overheating," said Byun Joon-ho, a strategist at HMC Investment and Securities. However, he said the investors would not let the index fall too far, citing the weak dollar, expectations on bio shares and launch of comprehensive benchmark indices as positives for the market. The government unveiled plans to promote the Kosdaq market Thursday, on determination that the tech-loaded bourse should be empowered to support start-ups that would be new growth engines for the economy. It includes setting new benchmark index KRX300, establishing a 300 billion won Kosdaq scale-up fund, and exempting transaction tax on pension funds' investment on the junior market. "The direction of the policy is noteworthy. The government is determined to boost the Kosdaq market," said Lee Kyung-min, a strategist at Daishin Securities. "As the government policies and reforms that can affect the Kosdaq market, both directly and indirectly, get more shape, the market will draw more attention of investors." He expected large shares with visibly good performance to lead the junior bourse. Seo Bo-ick, an equity strategist at Eugene Investment and Securities, pointed to pension funds' investment as the positive factor. "Purchase of shares by pension funds has had significant impact on movement of Kosdaq. As major pension funds will be induced to increase Kosdaq in their investment portfolio, it will work positively on the market," he said. The government unveiled plans to launch new benchmarks incorporating Kosdaq to induce more investment by institutional investors. The KRX300 incorporating both KOSPI and Kosdaq will officially be launched by the Korea Exchange on Feb. 5. It will include 232 KOSPI shares and 68 shares of Kosdaq. "The launch of KRX300 will be a trigger for the launch of related products, changing the portfolio of institutional investors on top of increasing Kosdaq investment by pension funds," he said. He said Kosdaq's small and medium sized shares may get more momentum compared with KOSPI's large shares. Improving fundamental of Kosdaq listed firms is also positive sign. Kim Byung-hwan, an analyst at KB Securities, points out that the market consensus regarding net profit increase of Kosdaq was 38 percent while they expect 13 percent increase in case of KOSPI listed firms. "Though the policy package would not have immediately visible changes in the market, they will definitely strengthen positive outlook on the 2018 Kosdaq," the analyst said. By Jhoo Dong-chan Cryptocurrency investors in the country are petitioning Cheong Wa Dae against its move to ban trading of virtual currencies. Over 80,000 investors have signed the petition so far as of Friday. If the petition is signed by 200,000 citizens within 30 days of it being posted on the Cheong Wa Dae website, the Presidential office should come up with its official stance on the petition. The petition says: "Each individual is subject to be responsible for his or her own investment. But the government has continuously claimed virtual coin trading is an absolute losing game for everybody, misleading the public and media." It also says that some people could "make their dreams come true through cryptoceurrency trading. Some can even buy a house, a hope that contributes to our lives." A series of similar petitions have been posted on the Cheong Wa Dae website. So far, 555 petitions have been posted there. Despite investors' demand, the nation's credit card companies have reportedly decided to ban investors' purchase on foreign cryptocurrency exchanges using their cards. According to The Credit Finance Association, the nation's eight credit card companies are working on their processes to ban investors' credit and check card purchases on foreign virtual coin exchanges. The decision follows the justice ministry's announcement yesterday that it is preparing its bill to ban cryptocurrency trading and shut down the nation's virtual coin exchanges. "Card companies have voluntarily joined the government's move to ban cryptocurrency trading. But we don't know about their timetable to ban investors' foreign purchase," a Credit Finance Association official said. Executive Double Room/Courtesy of Grand Ambassador Seoul Associated with Pullman By Kim Se-jeong With the year-end and New Year's parties over, it's time to disconnect and recharge. For those who want to remain at least partly connected by technology, take a look at the rooms on the executive floor of the Grand Ambassador Seoul Associated with Pullman. The hotel's internet of things (IoT) package offers all the comfort and relaxation you could possibly imagine. Scan QR code This screen capture shows the app to control room conditions The service starts by scanning the QR code on the room wall. If you don't have a scanner app, you can download it onto your smartphone or tablet. With the downloaded application, you can control almost everything you see in the room, ranging from curtains to ordering an extra pillow for the night. Also, you can control the television with smartphone, and lights and lamps scattered across the room, probably the most convenient feature of all. If you simply click "Deep Sleep" or "Release Stress," lights go up and curtains close automatically to create a pre-arranged mood. Food to relax The IoT package offers a variety of late-night snacks, both light and heavy, that would help you relax. What makes this even more wonderful is the dishes are delivered to your room and you don't have to pay anything for some dishes _ the hotel gives a 50,000 won voucher for late-night snacks. Dishes you don't have to pay extra for are seared salmon fillet with half lemon, steamed broccoli, onion, pine nuts and raisins served with a ginger and green vegetable juice; a baked fillet of seabass crusted with almonds, lemon and spinach served with aloe, berries and beet juice. If you want lighter snacks, options are avocado and dark green salad with toasted nuts and plain yogurt; oatmeal with plain soy milk and banana slices; and banana milk with cinnamon served with walnuts and whole wheat toast. Hot shower A shower always helps with rest. There's nothing IoT about its shower devices but the bathroom is spacious enough to house a shower cabin and bathtub, and shower amenities will also help you feel more relaxed. Take your pick and relax. Gym/swimming pool The hotel's gym and indoor swimming pool are free for IoT package guests. You don't need an outfit for the gym, which provides shirts, pants and shoes. But you need your own swimming suit. The swimming pool is far from busy which means you can do whatever you want and take your time. The gym is more crowded than the pool as it is also open to non-hotel guest members but it's manageable. The hotel also has a sauna close to the swimming pool and the gym. Executive privileges IoT package guests can enjoy privileges that are usually available in the hotel's 74 executive rooms. The executive lounge is where guests can enjoy between-meal snacks and drinks. The lounge also offers a breakfast which is only open to executive room guests, making the atmosphere more private and quiet. A hotel chef fries eggs for you. Why Grand Ambassador Seoul The hotel's lobby By Yi Whan-woo After the two Koreas agreed to resume dialogue, hopes are running high there will also be positive changes in the relations between United States and North Korea. And the PyeongChang Winter Olympics may provide them a platform for dialogue. North Korea's state media has recently refrained from cursing the U.S., and U.S. President Donald Trump, Wednesday, signaled his openness to talks with the North "under the right circumstances." The U.S. Department of State on Thursday downplayed the possibility of their possible talks. But the high-level talks between the two Koreas early this week are fueling optimism it may also help Washington and Pyongyang move toward a thaw. Analysts raised the possibility on a meeting between U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Choe Ryong-hae, who has emerged as North Korea's No. 2 man recently, if its leader Kim Jong-un decides to send Choe to PyeongChang. Trump has already decided to send Pence to lead the U.S. delegation to the Olympics, slated for Feb. 9 to 25. But Kim has not determined who will lead the Olympic delegation. "North Korea will certainly take it into account after Pence was confirmed to join the PyeongChang Olympics," said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University. "It may want to send someone who can match Pence in terms of rank and protocol." Some diplomatic sources pointed out Kim Jong-un's younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, may come to PyeongChang as well, if Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka attends the Olympics. Ivanka Trump has been one of South Korea's sought-after guests for its first Winter Games, although it remains uncertain whether she will come. A North Korea expert said Pence and Choe may not have "productive" talks even if they both attend the Olympics and have a chance to chat. "Pence may briefly touch on issues of denuclearization of the North on the occasion of the Olympics, but nothing more," said Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. "The explorative talks between the two sides will be meaningful if North Korea ever hints at its denuclearization. But it has not done so yet." Meanwhile, Trump suggested he could have a good relationship with Kim Jong-un. But he refused to say if the two have spoken. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un," he told The Wall Street Journal during an interview, Thursday. "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised." Washington has been stepping up its pressure on the repressive state. On Jan. 16, the U.S. and Canada will co-host a foreign ministerial meeting in Vancouver among 16 countries to discuss North Korea's nuclear crisis. Many of the 16 countries were part of the U.N.-led coalition during the 1950-53 Korean War, as well as other important parties such as Japan, India and Sweden, according to the State Department. China and Russia, shareholders of security on the Korean Peninsula, are excluded. State Department director of policy planning Brian Hook said Washington is working with Beijing on enforcing sanctions against Pyongyang. He also said China and Russia will be briefed about the meeting later. By Kim Jae-heun Daegu Mirae College will shut down as of Feb. 28 due to financial difficulties, the Ministry of Education said, Friday. The college suffered shrinking admissions in the last few years, leading the school to become the country's first technical college to close down. Aekwang Institute, the educational foundation of Daegu Mirae College, applied for the school's abolishment and the ministry approved it. Daegu Mirae College opened in 1980 as Daeil Industrial College in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province. The college began to go downhill last September when former President Lee Ye-sook was imprisoned for bribing civil servants in the education ministry. In addition to her confinement, Daegu Mirae College has since faced other internal complications. The college received the lowest rating of E in a university structural reform evaluation last year, and its enrollment of new students fell to fulfill only 34.8 percent. As Aekwang Institute went through a hard time recruiting new students, the school's financial problems were prolonged and the institute decided it would be impossible to run the school. It applied for college abolishment approval last June. There have been cases where the ministry has ordered technical colleges to close down over corrupt management but this is the first time a school has applied for shutdown approval and the ministry accepted it. Daegu Mirae College's 264 students on the register or on a leave of absence will be automatically transferred to nearby schools in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province and put under the same or similar majors they had been pursuing. If a similar department does not exist, their choice of transfer schools can expand to those located in other nearby cities or provinces. The Ministry of Education said it will ensure students who have not found a suitable school can continue their studies at private organizations. The ministry added it has not yet completed its consultations with nearby colleges to accept Daegu Mirae College students. The students that have already graduated from the college can still issue relevant certificates from the Korea Foundation for the Promotion of Private School. The education ministry on Dec. 13 ordered Seonam University to shut down by February and banned the school from enrolling new students. The founder of that school was caught embezzling money in 2012, leading to the school's abolishment within five years. But its medical students are going through a hard time transferring, as nearby Chonbuk National University students and their parents are strongly opposed to accepting them. By Kim Se-jeong A Seoul court on Friday accepted prosecutors' request to freeze assets owned by ousted President Park Geun-hye who is on trial for corruption. The Seoul Central District Court issued its ruling on her assets worth at least 5.8 billion won her Seoul home worth 2.8 billion won, 3 billion won cash held by her lawyer Yoo Young-ha and an unknown amount in her savings account until her final verdict. The prosecution made the request for fear of her assets being sold off or transferred. Park faces 20 corruption charges, two of which involve allegations she received bribes from the National Intelligence Service between May 2013 and July 2016. According to the prosecution, she received at least 3.65 billion won ($3.43 million). She used that money to cover her medical expenses and buy personal mobile phones. She also gave part of that money as cash gifts to her close aides in Cheong Wa Dae. The prosecution continues to investigate whether her confidante Choi Soon-sil received any part of that money. A nighttime view of Mt. Nam from the rooftop of Sewoon Mart / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul By Kim Ji-soo Looking for relics in the dynamic city of Seoul may be a challenge, especially when commercial and residential skyscrapers are being constructed throughout the city. Residents, developers and government officials are working together to strike the right balance between city development and preservation. Beyond the streets of Myeong-dong or Insa-dong are landmarks of the city that seem lost in time. One of these landmarks, which the people and the city government have chosen to renovate, is the Sewoon (Sanga) Mart arcade. It is one of the city's oldest commercial and residential buildings, constructed in 1968 under a government-led development initiative. Located in the central district of Jung-gu, the eight-story Sewoon Mart arcade is home to a variety of electronics shops that sell arcade games, cathode ray tube TVs and others. The newly renovated arcade now has a walk deck on the third floor, linking it to neighboring buildings with similar structures. Various ventures rent its new offices. In September 2017, the rooftop opened to the public. One wintery Monday afternoon, the few visitors on the rooftop took in the panoramic view to the north, which includes Mt. Bukhan and Jongmyo Shrine, a royal ancestral shrine from the Joseon Kingdom. A nighttime view of Jongmyo Shrine atop Sewoon Mart's rooftop / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul Lee, 70, was one of the visitors that afternoon. "It's nice to see all the way northward from here, through Jongmyo and Mt. Bukhan," he said. He had stopped by to see what the new rooftop view offers. "This type of space means Korea has come far," Lee said, before leaving for his Chinese language class nearby. To the east and west of the Sewoon Mart's rooftop are alleyways lined with shanties that appear to host mom-and-pop businesses, another area awaiting redevelopment. Visitors to the rooftop may be surprised to discover such pockets of old neighborhoods in this city. To the south, Mount Nam comes into view. Byun Yoo-jin, 25, a recent architecture graduate who works in an architecture office in Seoul, was also at the rooftop that afternoon with her friend. "We came to study Sewoon's architecture, and what has been done to it," Byun said. "Maybe because it's winter, it seems empty. Perhaps more events can take place on the rooftop." During daytime, a view of old-style building seen from Sewoon's rooftop / Korea Times photo by Kim Ji-soo After the 1950-53 Korean War, an illegal shantytown occupied the spot until 1968, when it was cleared away for the government-led construction of eight long, narrow mixed-use residential and commercial buildings, giving Seoul a modern face. After going through ups and downs, in 2016 the Seoul Metropolitan Government began the rehabilitation of the area. In addition to the renovation of the Sewoon Mart building, in 2008 the northernmost tower of the complex, Hyundai Mart, was torn down. Now, a newly opened plaza stands on Hyundai Mart's spot, right across from Jongmyo Shrine. The city government has been hosting public events such as fashion shows and art festivals in Sewoon Mart's inner courtyard and on its rooftop, and plans to host more. The city government wants to open to the public the rooftops of the Daelim and Jinyang buildings to the south. Last year, the city government hosted a drone festival on the fifth floor of Cheonggye Mart and is currently preparing to open the 17th floor of the Jinyang Mart building, which is close to Mount Nam. No date has been set for the opening, as it is part of a city rehabilitation project that still requires the residents' and community leaders' consent. "The idea is to publicly share the rooftop space on these commercial buildings, especially those within four major gates of Sungnyemun (Namdaemun), Heunginjimun, Donuimun and Sukjeongmun, which limits visitors' ability to enjoy city views," said Yang Byeong-hyeon, a city government official. The walk deck will be extended to the southernmost Jinyang Mart building by 2020. Another rooftop that is being prepared for public opening is one of the four on the Nakwon Music Arcade building, which was also constructed in 1968. The building's rooftops are on the fourth, fifth, sixth and 16th floors. The 16th floor rooftop offers views of the Constitutional Court, Cheong Wa Dae, Mt. Nam and the new Lotte World Tower in Jamsil. By Kim Jae-heun Air routes and seaways from Jeju Island were cleared Friday after two days of isolation caused by the sweeping cold wave and heavy snowfall. The weather left 7,047 travelers stranded on the island on Thursday night. The very first Asiana Airlines flight that departed from Gimpo International Airport landed safely at 6:59 a.m., followed by a T'way aircraft with 168 passengers which took off at 8:19 a.m. to Gimpo. Seventy-seven flights took off and landed _ normalizing Jeju International Airport to its fullest operation. However, the Jeju airport still has not lifted its issuance of a wind shear warning and 7,000 travelers are stranded on the island. Airlines will operate 224 flights _ providing air transportation for 44,639 people _ and they are considering additional flights for snowbound travelers. The Jeju Department of Korea Airports Corporation predicted all of the stranded visitors can return home within a day. The Jeju Regional Meteorological Administration has cleared the heavy-snowfall watch issued in the southern, northern and western regions of the island as well as Chuja Island as of 10 a.m. The organization also lifted a high seas warning issued for the eastern region as of noon. The sea route situation has improved too. The regional weather agency cleared its high seas watch for the coastal waters off Jeju Island and the western part of the southern sea as of 1 p.m. Seven passenger ships traveling in five courses to Mokpo, Yeosu and Wando began operation again and small boats were allowed to go out in the sea for fishing. Still, five ferries operating in three seaways are held back from sailing. The main roads of Jeju City are open again after subdued weather conditions and snow-clearing, but the roads in island's mountainous interior are still under control. The heavy-snowfall warning is still in effect on the mountains in Jeju Island and Mount Halla has been off-limits since Tuesday. The Korea Meteorological Administration said the snow clouds will wear thin and snowfall in the coastal area will come to end eventually. It also forecasts snowfall in the mountainous area will continue until late afternoon. The weather will recover average temperatures as of Saturday afternoon, said the weather agency. 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 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 People pass the electronic board celebrating the 66th birthday of President Moon Jae-in at a subway station in downtown Seoul, Friday. / Korea Times By Oh Young-jin A conservative newspaper reporter faced a firestorm of online criticism for making a "wrong" statement during President Moon Jae-in's Jan. 10 New Year news conference. "Any article critical of the President triggers angry, emotional responses from your backers," a vernacular Chosun Ilbo daily reporter said. "Would you tell them to stop them so the reporters will be able to write without any fear?" President Moon replied that he had his share of critics as a politician and told the reporter not to pay too much attention to them. Then, articles the reporter filed to his paper's website and Naver portal were bombarded with tens of thousands of criticisms _ some telling him to stop whining. "We may be critical of you as a reporter as you are of the President," and "Why do you ask the President to stop citizens' protests of your paper?" were the tenor of the postings. True, there is bad blood between the liberal president and the conservative paper. But it may show more to come _ a populist dictatorship in the making, if not already one. Moon has enjoyed high popularity since his May 2017 inauguration _ approval ratings having rarely gone below 70 percent. That number includes Moon's fierce supporters and more benign brand of liberal-minded supporters, together with conservatives who are disillusioned by the incompetence of President Park Geun-hye, a conservative leader who was impeached, removed from office and is being tried for corruption and sundry other charges. Candlelight protests are under way for the ouster of President Park Geun-hye in this undated photo. / Korea Times Also helping Moon is the opposition in total disarray, led by Hong Joon-pyo, a throwback from the dictatorship era of Park's father, the army general-turned-president, Park Chung-hee. Hong is petty-minded enough to be a Trojan horse that would sabotage any conservative comeback. So there is no opposition to speak of that will give checks and balances to the President. That has been made possible by his populist agenda, and its successful application could only embolden him more. Moon ordered a review of the Korea-Japan agreement signed in December 2015 on "comfort women," former Korean sex slaves forced to serve at Japanese military brothels during World War II. The review hit an "emotional chord" with the public but strained ties with Japan further and raised a credibility issue on the international stage. The review found the deal wrong but decided not to go back on the agreement. The Moon government raised a big fuss over the defense deals with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that are said to contain Korea's obligation to provide military support for the Middle Eastern country if it asks for help. Korea and UAE exchanged top-level envoys but the government didn't disclose what transpired. "Taegukgi rallies" are to counter calls for the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. /Korea 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 magician's 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 country's thorniest issues. Here's something you won't 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 he'll 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, we're 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 president's own making. He decided in September to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, under which the Dreamers were receiving protection. But let's 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 don't 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. The above editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. By Kim Ji-myung This argument may look like playing the devil's advocate against the much publicized and praised practice of "blind interviewing" or "blind hiring" or even "background-blind hiring," challenging one of the aggressive Moon government's policies. The Presidential Office has recently announced that six specialists were recruited through a blind recruitment method, which resulted in employing six ladies. According to the announcement, their positions are: employment statistics expert, translation/interpretation expert, cultural interpreters (2 persons), video expert, and photo editor. It even added that the Ministry of Personnel Management evaluated their blind recruiting process as "the most exemplary of all the blind recruitment cases." Well, no one would raise an objection against the righteous purpose of providing a chance for "fair competition" in job interviews by removing potential biases based on the personal information of the applicant. As early as 2003, the national Human Rights Commission strongly recommended the business community to recruit people based purely on work-competence related information. But of course, recommendations seldom change customs and practices. This HRC made an authoritative ruling that rejecting a short, handicapped applicant for a police position was against the law. It happened that around that time, the lively scene of physical testing for police recruitment was aired, showing healthy men and a few women applicants run the test course carrying several sacks of sands. If the job of a police officer requires one to chase, catch and control a criminal by force, physically incapable people should not be employed for such a mission, in my view. They should be given other chances for positions that suit their competence. A recent newspaper article criticized Korea for being "notorious for its intrusive hiring practices" because job applicants were demanded to reveal not only sensitive personal information, such as weight, height, and marriage status but also their parents' jobs and income levels. Yes, this has been the practice in Korea. When I was in elementary school, on the first day of the new class year, the teacher checked the number of pupils whose parents owned their own houses (or rented), had telephone lines, TV sets, what kind of cars they drove, and the like. Some pupils from poor families might have felt embarrassed or ashamed but it was taken as a necessary process for the school to understand their pupils. Is it violation of privacy to ask personal questions in Korea? Maybe it is now. But for thousands of years, Koreans had not developed a sense of privacy. There was no need for such a concept when they were born into an extended family and lived there until death. A tip of "privacy" could be critical as to decide life and death of the person in the West. For example, there was time if one was found to be a Jew, that private information would bring her or him to death. On the contrary, in Korean culture, if a person was left alone in privacy, it often meant isolation without being taken care of. The Koreans still greet people saying "Hi, have you eaten?" which could be none of their business by the Western standard. According to "Admonitions on Governing the People: Manual for Administrators" written by Jeong Yagyong in 1818, not only the administrator but all of the villagers should work on the problem if there was a grown man or woman who was not married or a widower living alone. In traditional Korea, the whole village, or even the country, lived like in an extended family. It takes time to adopt and apply institutions from other parts of the world, although Korea has developed and achieved its own style of democracy and prosperity faster than others. I hope the writers and journalists would be more mindful of cultural and historical differences between Korea and the United States, from where Korea borrows many modern systems. And there is no all-good or all-bad system. Blind interviewing in the United States has a goal different from Korea, which is to hire a diverse workforce. This is not to deny the advantages of blind hiring but to point out that the practice of asking "intrusive" questions has not necessarily meant an illegal, anti-egalitarian approach, connected with some form of corruption. Don't dismiss the past across the board to praise the present. The writer is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is Heritagekorea21@gmail.com. By Park Hyong-ki To promote SK Innovation as a young and cool brand, the company has invited college students to be the judge of the company's 2018 advertizing campaign. About 150 students will review the company's corporate advertisement plans proposed by advertizing agencies. They will then select the most promising one that could further help consumers identify SK Innovation as innovative. The company invited college students via Facebook to sign up as judges to give marks on ad agencies bidding for an SK Innovation account. Some 150 were selected, with various backgrounds, including those who currently study marketing and advertising. "There are also students who simply want to experience the corporate advertising world," an SK Innovation spokeswoman said. Last year, it had 40 students reviewing and judging its ad campaign in the bidding. SK Innovation has been using the concept of "artvertising," which integrates art, drawing and music with conventional advertising methods. It has corporate ads featuring an actor pencil drawing SK Innovation's offshore plants and workers in fast motion, and another ad using the Turkish art of marbling. One of the criteria the judges will be looking at will include whether the proposed ads reflect SK Innovation's drive to promote social and sharing values, it said in a press statement. ELKHORN A former caregiver to a multiple sclerosis patient has pleaded not guilty in a case that alleges she broke the law by providing the patient with marijuana to ease his symptoms. Annmarie Schackmuth, 48, of Twin Lakes, is charged with felony delivery of marijuana, which carries a potential maximum penalty in Wisconsin of three years and six months in prison. Schackmuth, a state-licensed caregiver, is accused of giving marijuana to a multiple sclerosis patient at Just Like Home assisted-living facility in Sugar Creek, where she worked. Other states have legalized marijuana for medical uses, but Wisconsin lawmakers have opposed such a change in state law. Exercising during holiday season combats calories, improves mental health The cookies are baked and that glass of milk has been set out for Santa but you find yourself low on energy and need to combat those holiday blues. The... Winter an ideal time to beef up lawns, plant new additions The recent week-long visit of late-summer warmth may have been a distraction from the seasonal change on the horizon, but the piling up pin oak and maple droppings combined... PRESS RELEASE Japans Abe Promises Proper Response to Chinas Belt and Road on Case-by-Case Basis Jan. 11, 2018 (EIRNS)Following his meeting with Toshihiro Nikai, Secretary General of Japans ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and Yoshihisa Inoue, Secretary General of the Komeito Party (the LDPs coalition partner), Premier Shinzo Abe said Japan will "properly respond to" individual cooperation programs related to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, Xinhua reported. Nikai and Inoue have returned from China where they had met Chinese President Xi Jinping. Inoue suggested to Abe that Japan should not miss the current opportunities to improve Sino-Japanese relations, and should try to realize exchanges of high-level visits between China and Japan, according to Kyodo News. Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his Dec. 28 meeting with the Japanese delegation, called on China and Japan to enhance party-to-party exchanges and cooperation, reported Xinhua at the time. "Xi spoke highly of the role of the China-Japan ruling party exchange mechanism in promoting bilateral relations, and hailed the efforts made by Nikai and Inoue to promote exchanges between the ruling parties of China and Japan, saying they have strengthened bilateral practical cooperation and friendship. For their part, Nikai and Inoue said Japans ruling coalition stands ready to enhance communication and exchange with the Communist Party of China (CPC) and make greater contributions to the development of Japan-China relations," wrote Xinhua. PRESS RELEASE China and Italy Discuss Belt and Road in Milan Jan. 11, 2018 (EIRNS)While the European Union's Mediterranean Seven leaders were arriving in Rome yesterday, a major conference on "Belt and Road: Building a Concrete Roadmap with Italy and Chinas Joint Growth," was taking place in Milan, sponsored by the Italian Industry Ministry and the Chinese Trade Ministry and by the Lombardy Association of Industry (Assolombarda), and organized by the Italy-China Business Forum. Reporting on the event, Formiche wrote that "The conference showed that already in 2014-2016, the [Belt and Road Initiative], which is to connect Europe and China, sharply reducing transport time for freight, has created 180,000 jobs in infrastructure." "The New Silk Road plan will favor cooperation among more than 60 countries which, together, constitute 63% of the world population, 30% of GDP and 35% of international trade exchanges," said Carlo Bonomi, chairman of Assolombarda. Bonomi pointed to the fact that Lombardy alone has a volume of over 15billion trade with China, almost half of the entire Italy-China trade (38 billion). Zhou Xiaoyan, general director of the European division of the Chinese Ministry of Economic Development, remarked that the Italian and Chinese economies can be complementary. In fact, in the first ten months of 2017 trade has increased by 13.9%, while Chinas imports from Italy have increased 22%. Chinese firms have invested over 11 billion in Italy over recent years. Fabrizio Lucentini, a director of the Italian Ministry for Economic Development (industry), said that Italian firms should increase contacts with all countries which are part of the BRI. Pirelli co-chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera called for changing views on China, which is not a threat for the European economy. Bank of China chairman Chen Siqing stressed that in the next five years, 46% of global growth will come from regions involved in the BRI. There were three panels: one on financing, with Italys Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, the Silk Road Fund, and Bank of China Holdings; and two on infrastructure. PRESS RELEASE France and China Extend Space Cooperation During President Macrons Visit Jan. 11, 2018 (EIRNS)French National Center for Space Studies (CNES) Administrator Jean-Yves Le Gall and Acting Administrator China National Space Administration (CNSA) Wu Yanhua signed a Memorandum of Understanding on space science, technology, and exploration on Jan. 9, during French President Emmanuel Macrons visit to China. Both the French and Chinese Presidents attended the signing. Le Gall characterized the agreements as taking a "spectacular step forward." France and China have nearly completed the China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSat) and in the new memorandum of understanding, it was agreed that there will be a wide dissemination of the data collected by the satellite. CFOSat will study waves and wind over the ocean surface for three years, to improve understanding of marine meteorology, ocean dynamics, and climate variability, Andrew Jones reported on the GBTimes website today. Such data will be applied to forecasting and tracking extreme weather events such as storms, and increasing understanding of complex ocean systems. It is scheduled for launch later this year from China. The following day, President Macron visited the AIT Center of the China Academy of Space Technology, where CFOSat is being assembled and tested. China and France will also collaborate on a space science mission, the Space Variable Objects Monitor, which will study gamma ray bursts, and is scheduled to launch no earlier than 2020. China and France have a history of collaboration, particularly in space science, but this is being broadened. French astronauts, along with others in the European Space Agency, are learning Chinese, and training with Chinese colleagues in China. This, in preparation to participate in Chinas space station. CNES head Le Gall told President Macron that France will be supplying medical instruments for the Chinese space station, according to Reuters. PRESS RELEASE Trump Open to Direct Talks with North Korea Under the Right Circumstances Jan. 11, 2018 (EIRNS)U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone with South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday, and said afterwards that he was open to the possibility of direct U.S.-North Korea talks "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances," the White House said in a statement, Reuters reported. According to the South Korean side, Trump also told Moon that there would be no military action while North-South talks were going on, thus rejecting the Wall Street Journal report of Jan. 8 on the "bloody nose" strategy of limited military strikes on North Korea. As for the North-South talks, "Who knows where it leads?" Trump said afterwards. "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." All of this is "raising hopes" for a thaw on the Korean Peninsula, reports the Korea Herald. "The two leaders assessed that inter-Korean talks could go beyond the PyeongChang Olympics, and lead to U.S.-North Korea talks on denuclearization," Yoon Young-chan, press officer for the South Korean presidential administration said in a statement. Chinese President Xi Jinping, following his own telephone conversation with Moon today, expressed full support for inter-Korean dialogue. 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, reported Xinhua. 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. Moon told Xi that South Korea attaches great importance to Chinas important role in solving the dilemma on the Korean Peninsula, and appreciates Chinas support for inter-Korean dialogue, and efforts to push for settlement through dialogue and safeguard peace and stability on the peninsula. The first time John Freeman lost his laptop, he panicked. He was traveling through Charles de Gaulle airport in summer 2016, and he only spoke a smattering of French. I thought, Im never going to get this back. And it had three years of not-backed-up writing on it, he recalled. Luckily, a New York University student more fluent in French was able to retrieve it, but losing the laptop three times since at Heathrow, JFK and LaGuardia hasnt taught the editor, writer and critic to keep a tighter grip on his property, only to mark it more clearly. Leaning across his kitchen counter, which doubles as his desk, he points out the stickers of his contact information and the covers of his namesake literary anthology Freemans. When Freeman started Freemans, the journal might have seemed like the moment where he made his mark. As a former president of the National Book Critics Circle and editor of Granta, he had spent most of his career as a critic and a champion of writers, helping showcase a number of literary heavyweights. With Freemans, he also introduced new voices and encouraged many authors to expand their ideas beyond the pages of the journal itself. Mohsin Hamid recalls, for instance, one party conversation where the two of them made a joke about novels being a form of self-help and thats where the idea for my third novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, came from. Publishing insiders have countless stories like this late-night confabs, a moment of inspiration, and Freeman telling them, Now thats a story. Laura Buccieri, one of his former students, refers to him as John Freeman, story hunter. I think of John as one of the preeminent book people of our time Dave Eggers Advertisement I think of John as one of the preeminent book people of our time, said Dave Eggers. He seems to know everyone, and has read every book, and reviewed most of them too. And meanwhile, he edits his magazine, and writes poetry, and apparently is some kind of semi-pro runner too. He would appear to be a hyperactive, high-intensity guy, but instead he does it all while being very low-key and unassuming. And his positivity and decency is so crucial to the health of the literary community, its impossible to overstate how important it is to have someone as generous and upstanding as John at the center of it all. Note the writing poetry comment. The poetry, after all, was what Freeman was afraid would be lost from his errant laptop not the submissions of the countless MFA students, international discoveries and other new voices he constantly seeks out during his travels, all of which were backed up by email exchanges. I was more worried about three-legged poems that were wandering around, looking for a home, he said. Freemans own home is a readers paradise the renovated loft in the Chelsea neighborhood, at 4,000 square feet, is spacious and well lighted, thanks to a skylight. Its lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, with rolling ladders stacked with even more books. (The shelves themselves were installed by literary agent Edward Orloff). Long sofas, chaises and daybeds offer multiple spots to curl up with a good book or chat up one of many possible visiting authors, some of whom come to do business with his partner, literary agent Nicole Aragi. (She keeps a collection of fuzzy animal slippers for guests.) Its all so cozy. Rebecca Solnit attended a December holiday shindig at chez Freeman. I kind of felt like I was in a movie about a New York literary party, she said. When people fantasize about that sort of thing, this was pretty close to what theyre probably fantasizing about. Freeman, however, doesnt like to stay in the comfortable zone. He sits at the kitchen counter to write, or goes to a nearby cafe. And the three-legged poems were something deeply personal, born of his need to find a way to express his grief when his mother began deteriorating from dementia. It wasnt like I thought, Oh, now Im going to be a poet. I didnt think of myself as a writer. I just thought writing was a useful communication tool, and poetry was more direct. His mother, Mary, eventually succumbed to Parkinsons and Alzheimers in 2010, after a series of misdiagnoses. Perhaps if we knew the correct diagnosis sooner, my poems would have been different, Freeman said. Less searching. Freemans poems tended to be about my mom, but then they started to move sideways, and became a way of knowing her, or trying to. Most of the poems in his first collection, Maps, are quietly reflective, but one in particular is full of rage: The Money is based on a real incident concerning the issue of inheritance. Both sets of Freemans grandparents were well off, but both of his parents chose to pursue careers as social workers, where they didnt make a lot of money. As a consequence, Freeman grew up middle class, living in Sacramento as a youth. When he moved back to New York, he says he was only vaguely aware of the familys wealth his grandmother co-signed on his first apartment, but he still struggled to get by. (My first job in publishing, I earned $20,000 a year, and I got $560 every two weeks, he said. My rent was $390.) He even considered nude modeling again. (He had earned $50 an hour posing for art classes during tough times.) Freeman inherited some money on his mothers death enough to buy and renovate the loft, quit his post as editor of Granta and feel ready to start a journal of his own. But Freemans expanding horizons were clouded. His brother Tims share of the inheritance was placed in a special needs trust, and he ended up spending a year living in New York homeless shelters. When I was 18, 19, my brother was diagnosed as a schizophrenic, Freeman said. And our family, it felt like we were hit by a bus, a genetic bus. I was floored by the movie Donnie Darko, because that was finally a metaphor for what happened the airplane engine falls out of the sky. Its one of those things that I live with every day. I could have been like Tim. I could have had the gene that causes schizophrenia, but I dont. Its not like I worked hard to get it out of my system. Given his family history, its no wonder that Freeman is interested in the topic of inequality the subject of a separate anthology series (Tales of Two Cities: The Best and Worst of Times in Todays New York and Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation). In the first, he shared Tims story in his introduction, but his brother asked him not to publish it. Then I wrote back to him and asked, What if you wrote your own version, and we run that too? Freeman said. I have no idea why that instinct came to me, but Im so glad it did, because his essays great. Freeman continues to work as an editor hes expanded his journal digitally on LitHub, even as Grove/Atlantic plans to scale back the print schedule to once a year. And hes planning to increase his output as a writer on topics that contextualize the way we live and how we view America, starting with a collection of essays about growing up in the West. Hes also working on an essay about the values of citizenship, engagement and action. I dont want to write propaganda, he said, but I feel like right now, were living in a period where its difficult to participate in debate or live in the public sphere. Language is being constantly vandalized, and its deforming what it means to be American. Freemans heart lies in the field of fiction, however. As rewarding as it is to be editing the work of writers like Haruki Murakami, Louise Erdrich, David Mitchell and Joyce Carol Oates, he still wonders if he might not have a novel of his own inside him. He did wrote one back in his 20s, actually a male weeper, he says, set in the 1970s NASCAR circuit world. (It was called The Mystery Ride of Bobby Ledew). Unfortunately, it was rejected by four agents, which was like a dream-killer at the time. But he then met one of the agents who passed on the book it was Aragi, in fact and she surprised him: Are you still writing? she asked. That gave me a tiny boost, he said, laughing. You dont ask that of someone whose work you hate. The dream lives on. Vineyard is a writer and editor in New York. Laurie Gwen Shapiros The Stowaway has the makings of a high-concept true story for the ages: Teen upstart from Queens becomes the toast of Jazz Age America by finagling a coveted spot on a storied explorers bid to helm the first flight over the South Pole. The Stowaway revolves around the converging compulsions of dashing blueblood Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd, equal parts serious explorer and glory-hound, and Billy Gawronski, 17, first-generation Polish-American from the outer boroughs. Renowned for his 1926 aerial crossing of the North Pole but beaten by Charles Lindbergh to aviations blue ribbon the first transatlantic flight and stung by doubt cast on his Arctic feat (his claimed time seems infeasibly fast), in 1928, Byrd needs a reboot. Reprising his flyover in Antarctica would seal his legend and plant Old Glory (hed heave it out midair) on the alabaster wastes of Earths hardiest frontier. Abetted by PR pioneer Edward Bernays, Byrd peddles admissions to his preparations and splashes stories in the slicks to drum up interest and funds. Advertisement Meanwhile, stultified in drab Bayside and underwhelmed by his studies at Textile High, Gawronskis imagination is inflamed by accounts of Byrds expedition, which offered an escape hatch from the desultory prospect of inheriting his old mans upholstery business. He vaults into the turbid Hudson and slips aboard one of Byrds Antarctic-bound ships at anchor off Manhattan (Byrd plans on overwintering on the ice before taking to the air in springtime). Shapiro narrates this period piece with gusto. But pushed beyond an elevator pitch, The Stowaways high concept stalls. Gawronski is rousted, ejected and returned to his parents custody. But not before he charms Byrd, who sees in the youth a chutzpah after his own heart. Gawronski is not to be denied; he steals aboard another vessel in Byrds fleet. Again, hes busted but, now 18, hitches a ride to Virginia to intercept it at its first port of call. Byrd caves, won over by Gawronskis indomitable spirit (and presumably recognizing good copy when he sees it the episode is enacted before a reporter). Gawronski is hired on; their fates conjoined. America was gripped by Byrdmania. Besides Gawronskis serial infiltrations, Byrd fielded tens of thousands of applications from prospective fellow travelers, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts included. Aspects of the enterprise seem keenly contemporary a proto-GoFundMe project filmed for the edification of those back home (With Byrd at the South Pole won the 1930 Academy Award for cinematography). Anticipating reality TV, some hopefuls bunked in a shared house. Otherwise, its emblematic of a vanished era: a heady moment when stocks ticked up toward ever giddier highs, the future felt wide open and a high school graduate with nothing to declare but ambition and audacity certainly no marketable skill could, like Gatsby, find a real-world outlet for his adolescent daydreams. Thus, it appears as amateurisms last gasp. Byrds subsequent Antarctic exploration would be confined to experts on the governments dime no freebooting opportunists as ballast. Throwing this into sharper relief, the expedition is hinged over the 1929 Wall Street Crash; Byrd returns to an America on the skids toward full-blown depression. Shapiro narrates this period piece with gusto. But pushed beyond an elevator pitch, The Stowaways high concept stalls. The ocean passage devolves into a breezy travelogue that Shapiro offputtingly treats like a bucket-list excursion: Animal lover that he was, every whale call had [Gawronski] bolting to the bridgeHeyearned to see a blue, the largest animal on EarthAfter days, he finally saw his blue. More generally, The Stowaway meanders like a gap-year round-the-world trip. Bounced from the team pre-winter Byrd figures the teen is more valuable back home sustaining interest there Gawronski marks time in Bayside before returning to collect Byrd after his flyover. It doesnt help that theres a distinct whiff of publicity stunt about his presence on the expedition in the first place ginned up by a scoop-hungry journalist and blared by Byrds press office. Gawronski struggles to parlay his 15 minutes into a second act. Thanks to strings pulled by Byrd, he enrolls as a dentistry major at Columbia but drops out. As the imperative to bring in money forecloses on more exalted possibilities, he endures a stint in the family business. Works of high adventure and derring-do draw on a certain compact between reader and writer. The reader is opened up to a ripping yarn and wholesome uplifting fare about the human spirit. But its incumbent on the writer to cast the spell and induce the reader to submit. For all the glitter of its premise, The Stowaway fails to work this magic. Which may be another way of saying its all in the execution. Eventually Gawronski landed in the Merchant Marines. Among his first cargoes: the 1936 U.S. Olympic team, including Louis Zamperini, subject, Shapiro notes, of Laura Hillenbrands Unbroken. In Zamperini, Hillenbrand struck high-concept gold: juvenile delinquent turned Olympic track star and bombardier endures adversity privation adrift in enemy waters then abuse at the hands of brutal captors before finding redemption in forgiving his tormentors. But to suppose Unbrokens power lies in its fortuitous subject matter slights Hillenbrands artistry. Unbroken is a tour-de-force, setting standard for narrative nonfiction that this book never meets. The Stowaways titular character appears strictly in silhouette, straitjacketed as a rapscallion, loveable scoundrel, rascal and reformed roustabout. This could be rooted in the limitations of the record; a more filled-out picture may simply be unrecoverable. But Shapiro is invested in the caricature of Gawronski as angelic scamp and anything that might ruffle its smooth contours is discounted. En route south another crew member writes disparagingly of Tahitian women sentiments that could never have flowed from urbanite Billys pen, she avers. All of which begs the question of whether The Stowaway isnt a book that would have made a great magazine article. In pursuit of the blockbuster narrative nonfiction grail, it comes across as inflated. Like a photographic miniature blown up to poster size and tricked out in Instagram hues, its definition blurs; you lose yourself in the pixels. Phillips has written for the Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Financial Times, Times Higher Education and other publications. The Stowaway: A Young Mans Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica Laurie Gwen Shapiro Simon & Schuster: 256 pp., $26 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. Steve Mollohan, 56, of the Hedgesville, W.Va., area died July 1 in nearby Martinsburg, about 80 miles northeast of Washington, D.C., said Rob Peirce III, a Pittsburgh-based lawyer for the firm representing Mollohans family. Ford said it was notified of the accident in December. After some investigation, the automaker determined that the trucks inflator was made the same day as an inflator that exploded and killed a South Carolina man driving a Ranger in 2015. Advertisement Ford is now issuing an urgent new recall in the U.S. and Canada for Rangers with inflators made that day because of the immediate danger they pose. 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. 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. Its 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 that it was notified of Mollohans death Dec. 22, and that it inspected the vehicle Dec. 27. It is the second death 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 didnt know if there was a manufacturing problem the day the inflators were made. 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 2016, Ford recalled about 391,000 Rangers in the U.S. and Canada from the 2004 through 2006 model years to replace the drivers air bag inflators. The recall came after the government announced the December 2015 death of Joel Knight, 52, of Kershaw, S.C., that was caused by a Takata air bag inflating in his 2006 Ranger. As of July 28, 2017, the most recent quarterly report from Ford available on the NHTSA website, only 3.7% of the recalled 2004-through-2006 Rangers in the U.S. had been repaired, removed from service or the owners were unreachable. Thats an extremely low completion rate. On average, recalls have a 75% 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. Weve 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 dont 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. Peirce, the lawyer for the firm representing Mollohans family, said Mollohan bought his Ranger used. We have not seen any evidence he was notified of the recall, he said. The accident in which he was killed involved three vehicles at low speeds, Peirce said, adding that his firm believes Mollohan would have survived if the Takata rupture had not occurred. Several other automakers have low completion rates for replacing Takata air bags. A November report from an independent Takata recall monitor showed that automakers have fixed only 43% 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 its 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-Fla.), whose state has seen three deaths caused by the inflators, said NHTSA has known the Ranger inflators were deadly since Knights death in December 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. The Trump administration has finally made good on a long-standing threat to undermine Medicaid. The Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that it will look kindly on proposals from states to impose work requirements on Medicaid. The agency doesnt call it a work requirement, of course. It refers to incentivizing community engagement among able-bodied, working-age Medicaid beneficiaries. It says work or participation in other community engagement activities could be a condition for Medicaid enrollment. The agency followed up on Friday by approving Kentuckys application to add a work requirement and other conditions to its Medicaid program. Make no mistake: This is an unprecedented change of policy, and a dagger pointed directly at the heart of the Affordable Care Acts Medicaid expansion. Thats clear from the coded language in the announcement by Medicaid and Medicare Administrator Seema Verma referring to able-bodied enrollees. Advertisement It will be transformational, something we have not seen in America in a quarter century. Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, announcing that work requirements for Medicaid in his state have been approved Thats how conservatives and Republicans customarily describe the Medicaid expansion population, which for the first time encompassed childless, non-disabled adults in addition to the traditional Medicaid population of children, their parents, pregnant women, seniors and the disabled in low-income households. Conservatives have cloaked their attacks on Medicaid expansion by implying that its able-bodied recipients have been cutting into the resources for those needy populations. Indeed, the terminology has been used by Verma before, as in this Nov. 7 speech at a Medicaid conference. We owe beneficiaries more than a #Medicaid card; we owe them the opportunity and resources to connect with job skills, training and employment so they can rise out of poverty. Administrator Seema Verma (@SeemaCMS) January 11, 2018 Verma tried to put an uplifting spin on the new policy on work requirements: We owe beneficiaries more than a Medicaid card, she tweeted; We owe them the opportunity and resources to connect with job skills, training and employment so they can rise out of poverty. A few points need to be made about this. First, Medicaid is a healthcare program. It is not now, and never has been, a jobs program. Imposing work or job search requirements can only interfere with its main purpose, in part by discouraging its target beneficiaries from signing up. This factor alone is likely to produce legal challenges to the Trump policy: Although the law allows HHS to waive certain Medicaid rules at the request of state officials, the law requires that those changes be likely to assist in promoting the objectives of Medicaid. Work requirements, which discourage rather than encourage enrollment, dont meet that test, which is why they were consistently rejected by the Obama administration. Second, redefining work as community engagement doesnt fool anyone. Who do these people think theyre kidding? Theyre trying a cynical subterfuge to conceal that theyre adding a work requirement to Medicaid. Third, work requirements are just a stalking horse for imposing other obstacles in the way of Americans seeking Medicaid. We know this from the record of Kentucky, where Republican Gov. Matt Bevin started with a work requirement, and moved on in his proposal for a waiver of Medicaid rules into a fully punitive plan that imposes premiums on the poorest residents of his state and threatens to throw enrollees off their coverage for as long as six months for missing a payment. Bevin announced that Kentucky Helping to Engage and Achieve Long Term Health, or the Kentucky HEALTH program (the name of which sounds like it was crafted by the Dept. of Redundancy Dept.) would launch in July. He said that 95,000 out of the more than 440,000 Medicaid expansion recipients could lose their coverage as a result of the new requirements, speaking as if this were a good thing. It will be transformational, he said at a news conference. Something we have not seen in America in a quarter century. Yes, thats true. No one who understands that Medicaids purpose is to provide people with healthcare would even think of proposing a system like that. The proposal is still before HHS, but its expected to be approved. The most important points about a work requirement for Medicaid are that it isnt necessary and it doesnt work. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of census data, nearly 80% of adults on Medicaid already live in working families, and about 60% work themselves without having been subject to a work requirement. Of those who dont work, almost all have a good reason. More than a third are ill or disabled, 9% are retired, 30% are taking care of their home or family members, 15% are going to school, and 6% havent been able to find work. Conservatives like to assert that Medicaid somehow suppresses the desire to work, but that appears to be a fantasy. Studies have found no evidence for it. For example, a study published in the journal Health Affairs in 2016 found that Medicaid expansion did not result in significant changes in employment, job switching, or full- versus part-time status. What the evidence does show, however, is that work requirements attached to social programs are ineffective. The best research involves TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which replaced traditional welfare and added a work mandate. Several studies have shown that TANF recipients who are able to work do so whether or not theyre subject to the requirement, which suggests that its not necessary. Those who find employment end up in low-wage jobs, typically earning about as much as the TANF and food stamp benefits their earnings replaced. Work had not lifted them out of poverty or increased their income relative to what they had received from TANF and food stamps, one study found, contrary to Vermas aspirational language. The work requirements failed to reflect that many of the program enrollees faced social, educational or physical barriers to employment, conditions that are likely to be replicated among unemployed Medicaid recipients. Moreover, the work requirements added bureaucratic burdens that affected program administrators as well as enrollees, sometimes severe enough to discourage enrollment. Maybe thats the point. Of course, nothings wrong with state agencies encouraging needy people to seek out employment, job training, even volunteer work. But they dont need Medicaid as a goad to set up such programs. More to the point, the Medicaid work requirement fails to recognize that good health is often a prerequisite to employment; turning that relationship upside-down or inside-out, so that people cant get healthcare unless theyre working or seeking work wont bring people either health or employment. It should be obvious by now that all this talk about raising people out of poverty by jeopardizing their healthcare is cynical persiflage. Whats really going on is an attempt to turn Medicaid into a welfare program, which will make it easier to chop. The first step in that process is the depiction of its beneficiaries as the undeserving poor, a depiction with a history that goes back a hundred years, at least. Vermas line about able-bodied Medicaid recipients is part of a long tradition, and a thoroughly discreditable one. As the person in charge of bringing health coverage to millions of Americans, she should be ashamed. Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com. Return to Michael Hiltziks blog. UPDATES: 12:27 p.m.: This post has been updated to reflect that the federal government approved Kentuckys work requirements for Medicaid on Friday. With 27 engines generating 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, the Falcon Heavy rocket is one of SpaceXs most ambitious projects yet. And now, with questions swirling about the reported loss of the classified Zuma satellite that lifted off Sunday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the highly anticipated Falcon Heavy demonstration launch later this month may have taken on even more importance for the companys military and intelligence prospects. The new rocket gives the Hawthorne space company heavy-lift capability, meaning SpaceX could hoist massive satellites for commercial customers or lucrative national security missions. As SpaceX looks to increase its share of defense business, those customers are very much interested in reliability, said Carissa Christensen, chief executive of consulting firm Bryce Space and Technology. For good reason: Zuma, for instance, reportedly cost more than $1 billion. Now is not a good time for questions about SpaceXs ability to deliver what that community wants, which is reliable performance, she said. That community will be paying attention. Christensen noted that SpaceX has been unambiguous in defending its role in Sundays launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. As reports began to bubble Monday that the Zuma satellite may have plunged back toward Earth, the company issued a statement: We do not comment on missions of this nature; but, as of right now, reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally. On Tuesday, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell released an even stronger statement and pushed back against reports that a second-stage malfunction may have been to blame, saying that 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, she said. Information published that is contrary to this statement is categorically false. SpaceX has continued on with preparations for the Falcon Heavy, which was scheduled for a brief static fire test this week, and an upcoming Falcon 9 launch for satellite operator SES and the Luxembourg government. Analysts say that further indicates the company did not see a problem with its rockets. An SES spokesman said the company was in constant contact with SpaceX and is totally confident for its launch date at the end of the month. (Raoul Ranoa) Little is known about the Zuma satellite not even the name of the U.S. government agency that owns it. The payload was intended to be launched into low-Earth orbit. Defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp., which built Zuma and procured the launch service from SpaceX, said in a statement Monday: This is a classified mission. We cannot comment on classified missions. SpaceX was certified by the U.S. Air Force in 2015 to carry national security satellites, a move that broke up a longtime and lucrative monopoly held by a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. called United Launch Alliance. Last year, SpaceX launched two national security missions with its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. The company has said it plans to seek certification from the Air Force for the Falcon Heavy for future national security launches. SpaceX found that developing such a huge rocket was more of a challenge than initially expected. Falcon Heavy was first announced to the public in 2011, with company Chief Executive Elon Musk promising a demonstration flight by the end of 2012. Falcon Heavy is just one of several heavy-lift rockets currently under development by commercial companies and NASA. Jeff Bezos Blue Origin has unveiled plans for a rocket called New Glenn, which will eventually be available in two-stage and three-stage versions. ULA has proposed a new rocket called the Vulcan that would replace its current intermediate and heavy-lift vehicles. Orbital ATK is looking to develop its first intermediate and heavy-lift vehicles known for now as the Next Generation Launcher. And NASA is continuing work on its Space Launch System. SpaceX has plans for an even larger reusable rocket and spaceship system called BFR, which would eventually replace the companys current lineup. Musk has said BFR could be used for missions ranging from taking satellites to low-Earth orbit to colonizing Mars. If were talking about expanding exploration, it will be good to have more capabilities, said Olga Bannova, research associate professor and director of the space architecture graduate program at the University of Houstons college of engineering. In the meantime, Falcon Heavy, like its smaller cousin the Falcon 9, will advance SpaceXs goal of cutting launch costs by reusing rockets. After the demonstration launch, SpaceX will attempt to land all three engine cores two on land-based pads and one on a sea-based droneship in a feat Musk has described as a type of synchronized aerial ballet. Falcon Heavy launches start at $90 million, compared to the starting price of $62 million for the smaller Falcon 9, according to SpaceXs website. ULA has advertised the starting cost of its Atlas V rocket at $109 million. The ventures larger Delta IV rocket the most powerful rocket currently used by the Air Force to carry military satellites is being phased out because it is costly to produce. However, Musk has also tried to downplay expectations for this demonstration launch, saying there was a good chance the rocket would not make it to orbit on its first go. The Falcon Heavy will be carrying Musks midnight cherry Tesla Roadster as its payload to ensure that the rocket works with heavy cargo aboard. Musk has said on Instagram that the car will be launched on a billion-year elliptic Mars orbit. In the past, the first few launches of a new rocket were expected to have a fairly high failure rate. But modern computer modeling and analytics have changed that expectation. A strong showing on Falcon Heavys first outing will enhance the perception of SpaceXs capabilities and will also contribute to the view of its market value, Christensen said. But a failure would not be devastating, she said, noting that the company is given credit for its ambitious goals. The Falcon Heavy also benefits from the development of its predecessor, the Falcon 9, said Phil Larson, assistant dean at the University of Colorado, Boulders College of Engineering. They know the Falcon 9 well, said Larson, who formerly worked at SpaceX and was a senior advisor for space and innovation in the Obama administration. They already have a lot of great data, and I think this sets them up well for this demonstration launch. samantha.masunaga@latimes.com Twitter: @smasunaga With more than 2 billion users, Facebook for years gave media outlets a shot at a vast audience that could help offset declining circulations. But after a year in which the spread of fake news, Russian interference and divisive politics sullied Facebooks reputation and user experience, efforts to deliver media content over the platform may have felt like more trouble than they were worth. For the record: An earlier version of this article included a quote provided by the Financial Times that was incorrectly attributed to the companys chief commercial officer, Jon Slade. On Thursday, Facebook said it would change its News Feed algorithm to prioritize posts from friends and family that spark the most interaction over posts from brands and publishers. Advertisement The company said the move was aimed at improving users well-being, even at the cost of diminished advertising revenue. The change will also help distance the company from the pitfalls of politically charged content that has saddled the platform since the 2016 presidential campaign. In a post Thursday, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the changes were spurred by research that showed people had a more positive response to social media when interacting with people they cared about. We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long term measures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos even if theyre entertaining or informative may not be as good, Zuckerberg said. The change will benefit Facebooks long-term prospects, analysts say, but it will almost immediately harm news publishers that increasingly turned to the social network for distribution. What it means for publishers With circulations dwindling, publishers flocked to Facebook in recent years as an imperfect alternative to reach a wider audience that had grown more reliant than ever on the social network to remain informed. Publishers often did this begrudgingly, knowing that they were delivering free content to Facebook in hopes visitors would click it, bringing traffic to their own websites. Now with Facebook returning to its roots by prioritizing the baby pictures and rants of relatives so common before, publishers will have an even harder time reaching audiences. These businesses are hugely vulnerable to the whims of a third party, and thats not a position any business wants to find itself in, said Richard Broughton, research director of research firm Ampere Analysis. There are various reports that some 25% of news publication referrals come from Facebook, a sign that publishers need Facebook more than Facebook needs publishers. And while publishers decisions seem to have little effect on the social network and its ability to generate billions in revenue, Facebook has the ability to make or break certain publications. Digital media publishers have been burned before by changes to Facebooks newsfeed algorithm. In late 2014, the social network tweaked its algorithm to focus on high-quality content. Shortly after the change, viral news site Upworthy, best known for its You wont believe what happened next headlines that spread like wildfire on Facebook, saw its traffic plummet from 90 million in November to 48 million the following January a drop of 46% in two months. To safeguard against this kind of volatility, an increasing number of publishers have tried to wean themselves off advertising dollars by building branded content arms or a strong base of paid subscribers. Few have been successful, though, and the subscription model is unlikely to work for everyone. Major news organizations and specialized publications have the ability to court loyal customers. Some medium-sized companies might be able to band together, like some broadcasters in Europe have, to collectively sell advertising. But it will be a challenge for anyone going at it on their own, analysts say. Its the sites in the middle theyre the ones that are really stuck, Broughton said. What it means for Facebook Facebooks advertising revenue will take a hit from the changes to the News Feed, but analysts say it will help de-clutter the platform and give users a more positive experience. The companys shares fell 4.4% Friday to $179.37. We believe these changes will be beneficial to Facebook in the medium and long term, said Mark Mahaney, an analyst for RBC Capital Markets. In our view, making the feed more relevant should boost user and engagement growth over time. Facebook is making the service more social and less media, and thats likely a positive for the vast majority of users. Mahaney said a recent survey his investment bank conducted showed 11% of Facebook users were extremely satisfied with the platform, down from 15% a year ago. De-emphasizing news could also allow Facebook to withdraw from the controversies that saddled the company the past year which included widespread criticism that the company did not do enough to mitigate hoaxes, propaganda and content planted by Russian operatives aimed at dividing the American public. Change was needed before Facebook becomes irrevocably associated with things like fake news, experts said (though making it even harder for news organizations to reach audiences wont do anything to amend charges Facebook is contributing to the decline of journalism). By prioritizing posts from friends and family people are more inclined to respond to, Facebook believes it can deliver a more meaningful experience to its users. At its best, Facebook has always been about personal connections. By focusing on bringing people closer together whether its with family and friends, or around important moments in the world we can help make sure that Facebook is time well spent, Zuckerberg said. The changes doesnt mean news articles will disappear from Facebook. But in order for them to be seen in News Feeds, they have to be posted by friends and family and represent content Facebooks algorithm believes a user will engage with. And depending on a persons network of friends and family, that potentially ensures users remain in ideological silos one of the chief criticisms about Facebooks social impact in recent years. I wish that Facebook would not just connect us with the people we know and agree with our social filter bubbles but also would devote effort to making strangers less strange, to robbing the demagogues and hate mongers of their favorite weapon: the Other, Jeff Jarvis, a professor at City University of New Yorks Graduate School of Journalism, wrote in a blog post. david.pierson@latimes.com Follow me @dhpierson on Twitter UPDATES: 3:25 p.m.: This article was rewritten to analyze what Facebooks shifts to its news feed will mean for the company and for publishers. 11:18 a.m.: This article was updated with new information. 7:05 a.m.: This article was updated with Facebooks stock price in early Friday trading. This article was originally published at 7 a.m. Watching Alex Azar, President Trumps nominee for health secretary, testify before the Senate Finance Committee this week, I realized hes more impressive than Id previously thought. Unlike Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Azar isnt alarmingly ignorant about the department hed run. Unlike Scott Pruitt, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, hes apparently not determined to tear down the very things hes supposed to safeguard. But Azar is still the wrong guy for the job. This weeks hearing, one of a series of Azars encounters with senators on his road to leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services, began with the committees Republican chairman, Orrin Hatch, making clear that conservatives liked what they saw. Advertisement If confirmed, Mr. Azars work will impact the lives of every single American. Now thats a big job, Hatch declared. It requires knowledge, experience and most important strong leadership. Fortunately, our nominee brings all of this to the table. Well, OK then. Ill acknowledge that Azar came off in his more than two hours of testimony as bright, articulate and well-versed in the arcana of healthcare a refreshing change from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos lack of awareness about public education, which didnt deter GOP senators from putting her in charge. The problem with Azar isnt his smarts. Its the fact that hes coming from a gig as head of U.S. operations for Indianapolis drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co., making him a likely advocate for the pharmaceutical industry rather than patients. The problem with Azar is that earlier in his career, he landed a plum job at HHS after being active in former President George W. Bushs campaign. Then, after gaining some healthcare regulatory experience, he jumped ship to become a drug-industry lobbyist. The problem with Azar is that if your goal is to drain the swamp, this guys the friggin Creature from the Black Lagoon. For me, the key moment in this weeks hearing came an hour into the proceedings when Azar was questioned about sky-high drug prices by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who noted that the prices of a number of prescription drugs more than doubled while Azar was running Lilly. Did you ever lower the price ever of a Lilly drug sold in the United States? Wyden asked. Azar didnt flinch. Drug prices are too high, he responded. That is not the question, Wyden countered. Did you ever lower the price? Then came this remarkable admission from Azar: I dont know that there is any drug price of a branded product that has ever gone down from any company on any drug in the United States. Go ahead, read that again. No price of any branded prescription drug, from any pharmaceutical company, ever going down in this country. Not one. Ever. Azar quickly added that he hoped he could work with lawmakers to address this, although he offered no specifics about what that might entail. By all indications, Azar isnt about to bite the drug industry that fed him. Limiting how much drug companies can charge for meds a common practice in other developed countries is such a non-starter for the free-market-minded United States that Azar wasnt even asked about such a possibility. On the other hand, he was asked by Democratic lawmakers if hed be open to allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies on behalf of the programs 44 million beneficiaries. This is also how government-run health plans in other developed countries keep drug prices down. Republicans have consistently blocked any such move in this country, knowing the financial hit this would cause their friends in the drug industry. Azar said allowing Medicare to haggle with the drug industry would result in preferred formularies similar to how private insurers operate. In other words, thered be reasonable prices for some drugs and higher prices for others. He said this could have a detrimental effect on seniors. I dont believe we want to go there in restricting patient access, Azar said. In fact, the nations largest advocacy group for seniors, AARP, says this is precisely where we want to go. Its time to let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices and reduce barriers to global price competition by allowing for the safe importation of lower-priced drugs, the organization says. There is no reason for Americans to continue paying the highest prescription drug prices in the world. Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizens Access to Medicines Program, said Azar knows full well that drug companies routinely jack up prices for new medicines so that, even after insurers negotiate, patients are routinely gouged at the drugstore. The countrys top health official must count standing up to this corporate abuse a top priority of the job, he said. That is what most Americans want. What the Trump administration wants, though, is yet another businessman approaching public service as a for-profit endeavor. Hatch, the Republican committee chairman, praised Azar for having important insights about healthcare based on his years as a senior pharmaceutical exec. Thats undoubtedly true. But dont count on those insights working in your favor. David Lazarus column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com. Metaphysical Orozco Two Jose Clemente Orozco murals at MUSA, the Museum of the Arts in Guadalajara, Mexico, are traveling for exhibition at the L.A. Art show thanks to 3D video mapping, simulated in this video. As in his past visits to Walt Disney Concert Hall in the dual roles of violinist and conductor, Itzhak Perlman defined his function here as the preserver of normalcy. While premieres and spectaculars dot most of the agenda at the Los Angeles Philharmonic this winter, Perlman deals just in standards by the old masters, leaving the pathbreaking to others. And he will probably remain a reliable draw for as long as he wants to perform; Thursday nights house looked virtually full. Part of the ritual of a Perlman concert is the way in which he enters the hall. For some time now, he has been using a motor scooter to make his entrance, followed by the arduous task of hoisting himself out of the vehicle and carefully making his way up the three steps to the podium. Always cheerful, he jokingly encouraged the applause with gestures from his hands, and as the ovation gathered steam when he reached his seat, he rolled out one of his quips sotto voce, For my next performance ... [laughter] ... well actually play the music! Advertisement Yet in contrast to his lighthearted personality and irrepressible urge to entertain, Perlmans musical outlook these days continues to be weighty, serious and impervious to whatever trends happen to be in vogue. Perlmans conception of the J.S. Bach Violin Concerto in A Minor, which he led and played from his scooter, was little changed from his recording with Daniel Barenboim and the English Chamber Orchestra from the 1970s perhaps a bit faster but still a throwback to the days of hearing Bach through a mid-20th-century filter of heavy textures and broad tempos. His violin playing remained in shape, with just enough songful sweetness in the slow movement, though recessed in volume within the compact ensemble of just 24 players. There was programmatic consistency in Perlmans conducting agenda two grand sets of variations, one by Brahms (the Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn), the other by Elgar (the Enigma Variations). According to the program book, both pieces were first played by the L.A. Phil in the same year, 1925, most likely a fortuitous coincidence. The Brahms variations went by agreeably; Variations V and VI bopped along with pinpoint work by the wind instruments, the finale had sufficient grandeur, if not a whole lot of energy. Leonard Bernstein used to say that the real enigma of the Enigma Variations is how Elgars appropriation of the language of Germans like Schumann, Wagner and Brahms still manages to sound like a personal affirmation of the high point of the British Empire. Yet Perlmans weighty conception reminded me more of the pieces Central European roots than anything British in feeling, with the long pauses between some of the variations nearly converting a unified piece into a suite. For anyone approaching these two works for the first time, these performances would have given them a decent, well-played idea of their potential. For more depth and power, though, one would have to turn elsewhere. L.A. Phil with Itzhak Perlman Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. When: 8 p.m. Saturday Tickets: $87 to $225 Info: (323) 850-2000 or www.laphil.com The guilds have all spoken. Now all thats left is to hear from the motion picture academy. Welcome to the Gold Standard, the newsletter from the Los Angeles Times that helps guide you through the ins and outs of the awards season leading up to the Oscars. Im Glenn Whipp, The Times awards columnist and your newsletter host. Advertisement Directors and producers guilds weigh in With the five nominees unveiled on Thursday, the Directors Guild of America Awards offered a slate that countered both the all-male set that Natalie Portman savaged from the podium at the Golden Globes last weekend and the racial homogeneity that sparked two years of #Oscarssowhite. The nominees: Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Jordan Peele (Get Out), Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk) and Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). Looking ahead to Oscar nominations on Jan. 23, I wouldnt bet against anyone in this group. And thats with full knowledge that the DGA and academy slates havent matched in eight years. The Producers Guild apparently had a tie, resulting in their first set of 11 nominees. The volume reaffirms what we already know that its a wide-open Oscar year. Also significant: Two movies directed by women made it in. Oprah captures the Golden Globes mood The 75th Golden Globes were the first major awards show during Hollywoods #MeToo movement, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. didnt miss its cue. Films and television shows driven by women Lady Bird, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Handmaids Tale, Big Little Lies and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel prevailed at a ceremony marked mostly by serious speeches focusing on months of allegations and admissions of sexual harassment within Hollywood. Oprah Winfreys rousing acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award a stirring, spiritual call to arms provided the evenings powerhouse moment. Was it a kickoff to a 2020 presidential run? Of course not. But it gave people something to talk about for days. You can read The Times complete coverage of the event and its after-parties here. The team behind The Florida Project: Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite and Sean Baker. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times ) Deep dive into The Florida Project Yes, Im still holding out hope that enough academy members saw and loved The Florida Project to propel Sean Bakers acclaimed movie to a best picture Oscar nomination. I spoke with Baker and actors Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince and Bria Vinaite for a story that looks at the movies empathetic portrait of humanity and how it was created. Will The Florida Project be nominated? I surveyed the best picture category, paying close attention to the fact that the academy has added 1,457 members more women, more minorities, more international filmmakers in the past two years. That kind of shakeup is going to lead to a change in the kinds of movies and performances deemed Oscar-worthy. We already saw that with Moonlight winning best picture last year. Feedback? Id love to hear from you. Email me at glenn.whipp@latimes.com. Cant get enough about awards season? Follow me at @glennwhipp on Twitter glenn.whipp@latimes.com Twitter: @glennwhipp They are the ultimate followers. They go under the knife, get their cheeks sculpted, foreheads frozen, noses streamlined, necks and chins contoured, lips filled and apply makeup with a precision that leaves them nothing short of a Kim Kardashian facsimile. Keeping Up With the Kardashians has taken on a whole new meaning, thanks to an influencer subculture of Kardashian lookalikes thats emerged online. This group of women, some now barely distinguishable from the real thing, have become influencers in their own right who boast anywhere from 500,000 to one million followers on Instagram. For them, following the second eldest Kardashian sibling isnt enough they need to be her, or at least look just like her. And looking like Kardashian is no longer just a very expensive hobby its becoming a business. Influencer marketing agencies claim that brands seeking influencer support for product launches or to raise awareness that cant afford the real thing now have their pick when it comes to Kardashian-esque types. A quick search on Instagram shows that these lookalikes have worked with brands from Estee Lauder Cos. Inc.-owned Glamglow in the Middle East and MAC Cosmetics in the United Arab Emirates to Iconic London, Gerard Cosmetics and Loving Tan. Advertisement The reason all these copycats is twofold: the Internet and modern medicine. If not for the advent of social media and its widespread adoption Kardashian has one of the largest followings in the world at 106 million its unlikely this army of clones would have been able to attract the attention and massive audiences theyve managed to today. Plus, theres the whole medical side. Cosmetic procedures from plastic surgeons and dermatologists both of the invasive and noninvasive variety yield better results than ever before. There are more accessible options pricewise, too: Those who cant afford a $15,000 rhinoplasty can now get a non-surgical nose job achieved with filler that costs $1,000 or even less outside of major U.S. cities. Regular people wanting to look like celebrities is not a new phenomenon. Doctors claim Megan Fox and Emilia Clarke are among the celebrities patients often ask to look like, with Angelina Jolies jawline a popular request since the early Aughts, but Kardashian has trumped all of the above. The length to which some women are going to look exactly like Kardashian is startling. Dr. Jason Diamond, a plastic surgeon linked to Kardashian after she documented her visit to his Beverly Hills office via Snapchat video, stated confidently that Kim is far and away the most highly requested face there is not even a close second. Kim has an amazing face. Thats a big part of the reason why she is who she is. Kims angularity to her cheeks are better than almost anyones on the planet the neck and chin and the way they come together. The contour is better than just about anyone, Diamond told WWD. He noted that anyone can strive to have better angularity and there are many different procedures to get there, including facial sculpting with various fillers, mini invasive neck lifts and rhinoplasties both surgical and nonsurgical. Diamond said he noticed the phenomenon in Dubai where he also has an office before it hit America, where the overwhelming majority of patients started bringing in pictures of Kardashian five to six years ago. He maintained that 90 percent of his Dubai patients wanted to look exactly like Kim, and to this day, it remains that way. Inclusive of his U.S. patient base, the rush to acquire Kardashians features has been going strong for about five years. Patients ask for her nose, jawline, neck, cheeks and most often, her overall symmetry and balance. I see people who just want her features and I see people who want to look exactly like her, Diamond said, but it depends on what canvas hes starting out with. In general, we have to assess the persons expectations and their anatomy.Most of the time when people initially talk to me, a lot of people say they want to look just like her[but] we have to set realistic expectations. I take and treat every person like their own canvas their faces are absolutely one of a kind. Similarly, Dr. Simon Ourian, a Beverly Hills-based cosmetic dermatologist whos been publicly associated with the Kardashian-Jenner family, pinpointed five to six years ago as the time patients started asking to look like Kardashian. Whats new is that its gone beyond desire and can get very close to looking like these people. If you have the basic bone structure, with a little makeup or little cosmetic treatments, you can look like that person. Its really doable. Thats whats so amazing. You really can look like these people because we have better tools and skills than we did 10 to 15 years ago, Ourian said. He isnt exaggerating. Some of the doppelgangers who most closely resemble Kardashian are Jelena Peric, a Croatian influencer with one million followers who goes by @j_make_up, and Sonia Ali, a Dubai-based beauty blogger and makeup artist with 738,000 followers. (Ali shares the account with sister Fyza Ali who happens to look a lot like Kylie Jenner.) Another who bears a striking resemblance to Kardashian is Kamilla Osman, a Canadian who get ready for this was reportedly dating Tyga, Jenners ex-boyfriend. Two years ago, the then 20-year-old Osman admitted to the media that she had only gotten her lips and nose done, the latter for medical reasons. Peric, Ali and Osman couldnt be reached for comment. Then there are Kardashian BFFs Larsa Pippen and Carla Dibello. Even they have begun to morph into their best friend, so much so that sometimes its hard to distinguish whos who in photos that Pippen and Dibello post from their Instagram accounts @larsapippen where she has one million followers and @carladibello currently 505,000 followers. But Ourian, who obviously cant comment on any of the patients he treats although Pippen has posted videos of visits to him, including the nonsurgical skin-tightening treatment she received on her abdomen last July insisted he doesnt just specialize in creating Kardashian-inspired features because he knows her personally, hes just meeting patient demand. When news got out that I work on her face, on a regular daily basis people started telling me they wanted her cheekbones, her nose, her lips, her eyes, the way her eyebrows are lifted its an ongoing request, Ourian said. Hes honed his craft by studying every landmark on Kardashians face by both drawing and sculpting it. He uses clay as a medium to assess and sculpt what kind of cheekbones resemble hers most closely, and told WWD he has studied her face probably more than anyone elses face. By just merely looking like her you can get a job and be an influencer yourself. Theres a huge group of people who just look like Kim and some of them have over two, three million followers. They havent really done anything, they just look like her. People follow them because they look like her, Ourian said. And brands are increasingly seeking to partner with these Kardashian copies. Sherri Langburt, founder and chief executive officer of influencer marketing agency BabbleBox, said two brands just recently requested to work with Kim-esque influencers who have the same cache as Kardashian, from her look to posting aesthetic. On the influencer side of the business, Langburt is also seeing an uptick in these Kardashian copycats, noting that some look extremely similar like to the point that if her hair changes, their hair changes or if shes seen wearing something then theyre wearing something similar. We definitely have a lot of influencers who when they fill out their profiles, when they talk to us or when we start collaborating, a lot of what they tell us about themselves is that they were inspired by Kim K and that theyre trying to take after her. Thats how a lot are shaping themselves, Langburt said. She started to see these Kardashian lookalikes appear en masse about two years ago. But there is a marked difference between a patient inspired by a particular facial feature or body part on a celebrity versus asking ones doctor (or doctors, which would likely be the case since one would have to undergo a series of surgical and non-surgical procedures) to turn them into a Kimbot. Kit Yarrow, a San Francisco-based psychologist, professor and author, likened the outbreak of Kardashian dupes to an extreme continuum of copying someones lipstick or hairstyle they might admire a relatively healthy action. At the other end of the spectrum, though, are what Yarrow described as people so insecure about what they personally have to offer that the only way they think they will be loved, admired or appreciated is to take on the persona of someone else. Yarrow thinks individuals who are confident and think they look good as is are less likely to use influencers on social media to guide their behavior even with something as harmless as trying a nude lipstick Kardashian mightve been sporting on Instagram. We can expand that to someone who wants to look exactly like any celebrity. Theres something about Kim that seems to inspire mimicry, and the more that people want to acquire that persona or look more like her, the more we understand them to not feel like they have anything unique or special to offer themselves. Its an extreme form of narcissism, Yarrow said. While it might sound counterintuitive at first, she explained that narcissists, who tend to feel quite empty, put all of their emphasis on a look that they feel like, in this case, makes them worthy with others, the emphasis might be on power. Yarrow called the seed of narcissism an emptiness that she compared to a shell with nothing inside hence the emphasis on the external, how they look and how others perceive them. In other words, its a desperate grab for attention that they hope will instill feelings of self-love, but unfortunately, narcissists dont understand that loves comes from more than how you look. When you look at a Kim K lookalike, they decided that they love that particular look in their mind, so they feel that if they have that look they will be liked by other people[and] thats one of the saddest things Ive ever heard, it just breaks my heart, Yarrow said, adding that the advent of social media culture has done this group no favors. She said: They can get enough gratification and positive feedback from their appearance that it momentary makes them feel full and fill in that gaping hole of need for love and appreciation. So when they get a like or a sponsor for a post, I think they can get enough gratification that it propels them to keep working at it. Unfortunately, likes from thousands of complete strangers on the Internet is a false metric of personal approval. In reality, social media has become the enabler for this new subculture. Maureen Brewster, a lecturer at The New Schools Parsons School of Design and expert in fashion and beauty in pop culture, agreed that social media has exacerbated societys obsession with celebrity, including the group who admire Kardashian so much that theyve gone and got new faces to resemble her. But on a broader scope, social media has allowed the public at large to develop weirdly personal relationships with actress, reality TV stars and influencers, said Brewster, admitting she herself is guilty of personalizing her relationship with celebrities. For instance, Snapchat allows her to look at Kardashians updates amongst the updates of her friends, and thats very powerful the fact that the content is situated amongst ones personal content. She remains fascinated by how strong peoples reactions to Kardashian are and how angry people get while talking about the 37-year-old reality star turned mogul. People are fascinated by it because were kind of repulsed by that level of fandom. I dont think when you hear people talk about this that its usually admiration. Youre not thinking, Wow what a great tribute, when someone does something like this to any celeb no matter who they are, and Kim Kardashian especially, Brewster said. On top of the regular criticisms or judgment that someone would have against someone who participates in this activity and follows this lookalike culture, you have a lot of negative opinions about the Kardashians and what they represent, Brewster explained. Its not just because of how they got there, but theres a lot of layered problems with the way they attained that fame. Its not just in the way that people judge reality stars, or Kims sex tape that shes famous for [and her] being sexualized. For me, theres some negative surrounding the fact that people have rightly called them out for appropriating black culture. Brewster is clear shes in no way putting the family down, and from a celebrity perspective tremendously respects the family Kardashian and Kris Jenner, in particular. She said a key takeaway for anyone watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians is the overarching theme of hard work, the labor of celebrity and the labor of being a businesswoman. This is portrayed by what seems like an endless series of meetings that members of the Kardashian-Jenner clan must attend to make sure their respective businesses are running smoothly. Admittedly, Brewster acknowledged the complicated psychology and narrative relating to plastic surgery. When she tries to imagine why these women would elect to undergo so many procedures to become a Kardashian-lookalike, a part of the reason is that murky angle relating to identity and perceptions of beauty but another part goes back to what Kardashian represents. And again, its also a handful of positive associations. Its hard work [doing all that she does] and being an HBIC [head bh in charge], shes someone who has made herself. People see her as a self-made celebrity and thats really attractive to people, Brewster added, pointing out that she doesnt think we can ignore that to look like Kardashian is certainly going to attract a certain amount of attention as well. I cant help but think in this culture of social media and Instagram that some of this might be [happening] to boost their own followings and create a measure of their own celebrity. The Los Angeles County district attorneys office has launched a comprehensive review of past criminal cases featuring deputies placed on a secret Sheriffs Department list of officers whose histories of misconduct could undermine their credibility in court. Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said she ordered the examination in response to a Times investigation last month that identified 24 deputies on an older version of the confidential list, including many who were disciplined or convicted of crimes. Prosecutors, she said, are combing through cases in which those deputies might have testified and are trying to determine whether defendants should have been notified about the misconduct. Advertisement The deputies have been identified as potential witnesses in more than 4,400 felony criminal cases since 2000, according to a Times analysis of district attorney records, though it is unclear how often they testified or how significant a role they played in those cases. Lacey said she could not recall a similarly large undertaking by her office since the Rampart scandal of the late 1990s, when accusations of perjury, evidence-tampering and other serious misconduct against dozens of LAPD officers led prosecutors to undo the convictions of more than 100 defendants. These are things prosecutors need to know to make sure that justice is done, she said of the deputy misconduct detailed by The Times. As far as Im concerned, its part of our obligation to look into those cases in which the officers testified in the past and review those cases. The newspapers investigation provided the public and prosecutors with the first glimpse of who had been placed on the Sheriffs Department list. The union that represents rank-and-file deputies went to court to block Sheriff Jim McDonnell from giving the deputies names to prosecutors, who are required by law to tell criminal defendants about evidence that would damage the credibility of an officer called as a witness. Last year, an appellate court ruled that the list of about 300 deputies must remain secret, citing Californias strict laws protecting the confidentiality of police discipline. But Times reporters reviewed a 2014 version of the roster that included 277 deputies, and scoured court and law enforcement records for details of how deputies landed on it. A Times analysis showed that the deputies were potential witnesses in more than 62,000 felony cases since 2000. Its unclear how many names have since been removed or added or whether deputies on the 2014 list are included in the current version. The newspaper published the names of deputies who had been convicted of crimes, found by sheriffs investigators to have committed misconduct or been flagged by prosecutors for behavior that raised serious concerns about their conduct. Law enforcement and court records show: One deputy poured taco sauce on an inmates shirt to fabricate blood from a jail brawl. Another pepper-sprayed an elderly man in the face and then wrote a false report to justify arresting him. A third tipped off a suspected drug dealers girlfriend that the dealer was being watched by police. Lacey said while all of it was bad, she was particularly alarmed by a case from 2000 in which a deputy pulled over a woman and received oral sex from her in his patrol car. County and law enforcement documents reviewed by The Times show that the woman later told authorities that Deputy Scott Maus didnt use force or threaten her but that she didnt consent and felt intimidated by an armed deputy in uniform, according to county records. Prosecutors at the time concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove Maus acted against the womans will. Most of the deputies are still on the force. California is among 22 states that keep officer discipline from the public, but it is the only one that blocks prosecutors from seeing entire police personnel files. The review by prosecutors could result in convictions being overturned, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who now is a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. If you envision a case in which the key witness was the officer, and it comes out that he lied in past instances, that could undo all sorts of convictions, she said. Lacey, whose office is supposed to keep track of officers with credibility problems in case they testify, said she and her prosecutors learned for the first time about some of the deputies by reading the Times report. I was surprised but also appreciative of the journalism because we do need to know all of the issues relating to the officers featured in the article, Lacey said. A district attorneys spokeswoman said the agency is reviewing cases in which deputies testified after committing misconduct. The office is adding the deputies names to an internal watchlist of officers with potential credibility issues so that prosecutors can notify defendants in future cases if the deputies are called to testify. The agency is also sending letters to defendants from prior cases in which some of the deputies testified, Lacey said. Still, a defendant who has already been convicted could have a hard time proving that new revelations of an officers misconduct would have changed the outcome of his or her case, said Suzanne Luban, a lecturer in law at Stanford Law School. Luban said that convicted defendants have a high legal burden in proving that any new evidence of misconduct by a police witness would have made a difference in the outcome of their original case. Leaders of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the union that sued the sheriff, declined to comment, citing a pending Supreme Court case. But the president of another guild representing deputies highlighted the confidential nature of the information and cautioned against using it as the sole metric of an officers career. Many of these misconduct cases are from many years ago and these employees were punished at that time, said Lt. Brian Moriguchi, president of the Professional Peace Officers Assn. What about their conduct since then? What about their records for saving lives? The so-called Brady list is named for Brady vs. Maryland, a landmark 1963 Supreme Court decision that requires prosecutors to alert defendants to favorable evidence, including information that could undermine the credibility of government witnesses. McDonnell said his effort to give the deputy names to prosecutors is part of his attempt to reform the Sheriffs Department, which was upended by a jail abuse scandal that resulted in the criminal conviction of more than 20 agency officials, including former Sheriff Lee Baca. maya.lau@latimes.com ben.poston@latimes.com corina.knoll@latimes.com For more news about the sheriffs Brady list, follow us on Twitter: @mayalau, @bposton and @corinaknoll. UPDATES: 3:30 p.m.: This article was updated to add a statement released by the president of the Professional Peace Officers Assn. This article was originally published at 6:30 a.m. On the day before Orr Yakobis final quarter at UC San Diego, he was arrested by border officials after his roommate took a wrong turn and drove into Mexico. Yakobi, 22, is originally from Israel and came to the U.S. on a visa with his family when he was about 5, according to his attorney. He continued to live in the U.S. after his visa expired. He joined the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, in 2013, his attorney said, which gave him a renewable two-year permit protecting him from deportation and authorizing him to work. DACA does not authorize recipients to reenter the U.S. if they leave. Advertisement Ryan Hakim, 20, the roommate who was with Yakobi during his arrest, said he knew Yakobi couldnt leave the U.S. but never knew why. Before the incident, it seemed irrelevant to their friendship, he said. The two roommates were shopping Sunday at Las Americas Premium Outlets, a bustling shopping center off the last exit in the U.S. for the 5 and 805 freeways. They wanted to spend a little time together before school made their lives busier. Yakobi bought cologne, and Hakim bought sweatpants. When they were done shopping, they got into Hakims Volkswagen Jetta to go home. They werent familiar with the area, Hakim said, so when he turned left onto the 805 Freeway from Camino de la Plaza, neither thought they were heading for Mexico. Once we entered the freeway, we didnt have a safe opportunity to avoid crossing the border, nor did we have time to react or come up with a solution to prevent crossing the border, Hakim said. Entering Mexico was a complete and honest mistake. It took them about 45 seconds to leave the country, he said. Yakobi was scared, Hakim recalled. He knew that he didnt have documents to reenter the U.S. I was freaking out as the driver, and he was freaking out for his own safety, Hakim said. As soon as they were in Mexico, Hakim turned back toward the border. When he pulled up to a Customs and Border Protection officer, they tried to explain what happened, showing her receipts with time stamps to prove theyd just been shopping at Las Americas. It didnt matter, Hakim said. She sent them to secondary inspection. After officers questioned Yakobi inside the port of entry, they took him away in handcuffs. CBP officers determined that Mr. Yakobi is currently inadmissible to the U.S.; he was turned over to agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said CBP spokeswoman Jacqueline Wasiluk. Yakobi was placed in a temporary holding cell before being transferred to Otay Mesa Detention Center. A spokeswoman from Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that he is still being held there while he waits for a hearing with an immigration judge. His lawyer, Jacob Sapochnick, is working to get him released while his court case is pending so that he can finish his degree. All I can think about is Orr. Im having a hard time focusing in my classes, Hakim said. It was all innocent. There was no intention of leaving. It makes it more frustrating that this guy was not trying to leave the country. Hes an American. He lives in this country. Hakim said Yakobi taught him how to approach the world with positivity and self-confidence. Hes one of the most impactful people I have ever met in my life, Hakim said. Hakim rallied Yakobis friends, the Jewish community and the university community to help. A petition he posted online calling for Yakobis release gathered 761 signatures in the hours after it went up. Yakobi is majoring in computer science and was already freelancing as a programmer. He was part of a prize-winning start-up team at the university last year. He also worked as a DJ in the Los Angeles area, a business he started in high school with a friend. UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla sent a letter to ICE on Yakobis behalf calling for his release. He is a valued and active member of our UC San Diego community, and we would very much like to have him return to our campus so he can fulfill his ultimate goal of obtaining his degree, Khosla wrote. Politicians including Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego), Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch) are also trying to help, Yakobis attorney said. Morrissey writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com The Los Angeles man at the center of what is believed to be the first fatal swatting incident in the U.S. has been charged with manslaughter in connection with a hoax phone call that led to a deadly shooting in Kansas, records show. Tyler Rai Barriss, 25, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and interference with law enforcement, according to court records made public Friday. Barriss has also been accused of making a false alarm, a felony. Authorities allege that a dispute over an online video game led Barriss to call a Wichita, Kan., police dispatcher and falsely claim that he had shot his father and was holding two other people hostage inside a Wichita home on Dec. 28. Advertisement But Barriss was in Los Angeles, not Kansas, and there was no hostage situation. When Wichita police responded, a man, later identified as Andy Finch, 28, emerged from the front door and was fatally shot by an officer. Police have said they believed Finch was armed when he moved his hands toward his waistband and then motioned toward officers. The shooting occurred at the home of Finchs mother, according to an attorney representing his relatives. Barriss made his first appearance in a Wichita courtroom Friday afternoon and a preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 25, according to Sedgwick County Dist. Atty. Marc Bennett. He is being held in lieu of $500,000, and is represented by a public defender. In Kansas, a defendant can be charged with murder when prosecutors believe that a death has been caused due to the commission of certain felonies. But causing a false alarm is not among the inherently dangerous felonies listed under the states felony-murder statute, so prosecutors sought the manslaughter charge instead, Bennett said during a phone interview. Law enforcement sources told The Times last week that the dispute that led to the hoax call stemmed from an argument over an online matchup in Call of Duty: World War II, a recently released first-person shooting game. Neither Barriss nor Finch was involved in the disputed game, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The sources said investigators believe that someone involved in the dispute asked Barriss to make the call. Bennett said that others have been identified as potential suspects in the case, but prosecutors are still deciding if they should face criminal charges. As you might imagine anytime computers and gaming machines are involved, theres a fair bit of forensic analysis involved, he said. Bennett could not immediately say why Finchs address became the target of the hoax call. If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Barriss could face up to 11 years and three months in prison, depending on his criminal history, Bennett said. Prosecutors are also reviewing a Wichita police officers decision to shoot Finch, Bennett said. The officer, identified only as a seven-year veteran of the Wichita Police Department, was placed on leave after the shooting, authorities have said. Barriss had a reputation for helping people gain revenge against online enemies and gaming opponents through swatting placing a hoax phone call about a dangerous situation in order to trigger a massive police response at an address to frighten its occupants. He pleaded no contest to charges of making false bomb threats in the Los Angeles area in recent years, sparking evacuations at a Glendale television station and two schools, records show. Glendale police believe he was involved in at least two dozen other swatting and hoax calls around Southern California. The Los Angeles Police Department was investigating Barriss on allegations that he made similar calls in late 2017, and had planned a meeting with federal prosecutors before arresting the 25-year-old in connection with the Kansas incident. Barriss has also been linked to swatting incidents in Illinois and New Hampshire, according to court records. This week, Canadian police issued an arrest warrant for Barriss, accusing him of placing an eerily similar call just six days before the Kansas shooting. Barriss was allegedly targeting the home of a young woman he met online, authorities in Calgary said. The Calgary Police Service allege that Barriss called 911 at about 7:40 p.m. on Dec. 22 and told an operator he killed his father and was holding his mother and younger brother hostage in the 2300 block of 17b Street S.W. Calgary tactical officers descended on the neighborhood, evacuating the surrounding area before a woman at the home also called police to warn them she believed she was the target of a fake call. The woman exited the house and officers confirmed that the initial report of a shooting and hostage scenario was false. Barriss was arrested by the LAPD this month and agreed to waive extradition and be taken to Kansas to face charges. james.queally@latimes.com richard.winton@latimes.com Follow @JamesQueallyLAT & @lacrimes for crime and police news in California. UPDATES: 4:25 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Sedgwick County Dist. Atty. Marc Bennett, details from court records and background about a separate hoax in Calgary of which Barriss is accused. This article originally published at 12:40 p.m. Authorities on Thursday arrested a 52-year-old Rialto man suspected of fatally stabbing a panhandler outside a North Hollywood business. The pair exchanged words before the Wednesday morning incident, and while authorities dont know what was said, the exchange appears to have incited the suspect, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement. The suspect, identified as Kurtis King, left and came back in his vehicle, quickly got out and tackled the panhandler on the sidewalk, police said. King allegedly stabbed the victim five or six times and fled. Advertisement Police were called to the scene, near the 6000 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, where they found John David Bannan III with multiple stab wounds. Paramedics pronounced him dead about 9:15 a.m. King is being held on $2-million bail, according to jail records. Anyone with information about the stabbing is asked to call Los Angeles Valley Bureau Homicide Detective John Doerbecker at (818) 374-1941. alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com Twitter: @AleneTchek In hard hats and gloves, the rescuers inched along the west side of Montecito Creek on Thursday, looking for signs of people buried in the rubble. A red fluid trickled through the water at a culvert now packed with boulders. Robert Stine, the search manager, marked the spot on a GPS. Later, hed have a search dog sniff it. It could be blood, or it might not be, Stine said. We cant tell. Advertisement About 20 feet down, in the creek, a searcher spotted a piece of a white sock with a blue stripe, caked in mud. We got an article of clothing! he shouted, spray-painting a nearby rock orange. Again, Stine saved the coordinates. Rescue workers find a sock amid the mud and debris along Montecito Creek after a major storm caused deadly mudslides this week. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times ) And so, tediously, meticulously, the searchers scoured the devastation left behind after violent mudslides sent giant boulders tumbling and powerful streams surging through neighborhoods, sweeping homes off their foundations, mangling cars and taking at least 17 lives. Hundreds of rescuers slogged though the destruction searching for survivors. But as time passed, their prospects turned more grim. Two days after Tuesdays deluge, up to 43 people were still missing. There have been many miraculous stories of people lasting many days, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters Thursday afternoon. We certainly are searching for a miracle right now. Back at Montecito Creek, a cadaver dog joined Stines crew and sniffed the marked areas but got no scent. The fluid was probably gear oil, they figured. They packed up to go to the next spot. Rescue teams carried shovels and crowbars, and duct-taped their boots on so they wouldnt lose them in the mud. They trudged past broken tables and fallen trees. One rescuer picked up a crumpled Polaroid photograph covered in dirt. A rescuer holds a dirt-covered Polaroid photo that was found along a creek in Montecito after violent mudslides tore through. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times ) They probed at the muck with poles, feeling for hidden hazards: pools, open manholes or septic tanks lurking below. Its essentially quicksand, said Capt. Mark Seastrom of the Ventura County Fire Department. If theres a hole, well fall and keep going until hitting the bottom. On Thursday, search teams finally got into some neighborhoods buried beneath mud and blocked by wreckage. Ventura County Fire Capt. Bob Schuett was staring at a map of Montecito as his partner drove along a ravaged roadway. The duo led a crew of 43 assigned to find stranded residents in northeastern Montecito on Park Lane, Romero Canyon Road, Bella Vista Drive and East Valley Road. Some of those reported missing live in the area, said Schuett, whose team has rescued at least six people this week. Off East Valley Road, a five-member team from San Diego and two search dogs, Stella and Decker, convened at the entrance of a destroyed property. OK, search, handler Brent Brainard called out to Decker, a black Labrador and Weimaraner mix. Decker raced off along debris piles in the backyard, trying to catch a scent of survivors. When people survive disasters, Brainard said, they tend to find empty spaces where they can wait things out. Brainard kept a close eye on Decker as he balanced on piles of trees reaching to the houses second story. As each pile was searched, pink tape was placed on its trees to show that it had been checked. As Decker moved closer to the house, however, he was suddenly swallowed by mud. Oh a swimming pool! Brainard shouted. Decker just went in! After scrambling to rescue Decker, it was Stellas turn to investigate the area. She disappeared into the pool, too this time at the other end. When both dogs were back on solid ground and had shaken off the muck, the team prepared to move on, but not before leaving a warning for the next team to enter the premises. They tagged the wall outside the property: pool. Had Decker or Stella found a survivor, the dogs would have been rewarded with toys. Stella, who is missing half of her jaw after having a tumor removed in June, gets a soft plush toy instead of the typical old fire hose. (She will retire in April of next year.) Weve never had to go through mud like that, said Matthew Kirk, Stellas handler of eight years, of the mudslides. Its definitely very challenging. Conditions in Montecito were entirely new for the San Diego team. I havent been on anything like this in California before, said Brainard, who has had Decker for four years. The devastation reminded Scott Fuller, a logistics team manager with the search crew, of what Hurricane Katrina left behind. This is next level the trees, the electrical wires, the gas we just discovered. This place is a wreck, Fuller said. I look at this and I go, how are these people ever going to recover from this? But they will. With resilience, help from the state and feds, a lot of hard work they will somehow. Mozingo and Mejia reported from Montecito, and Tchekmedyian from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Matt Hamilton in Montecito contributed to this report. joe.mozingo@latimes.com brittny.mejia@latimes.com alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com A video taken during Tuesdays rainstorm in Burbank, showing a car speeding down a hillside street while surrounded by a torrent of mud and water, had garnered more than 62,000 views on social media as of Thursday afternoon. The video was uploaded to Instagram by Burbank Firefighters Local 778 with the caption Urban Prius bobsledding in #Burbank! With its headlights and windshield wipers on, the vehicle could be seen in the 26-second video going down Country Club Drive surrounded by a rush of mud, water and debris. The firefighters union could not be reached for comment. The cars driver, Desionne Franklin, told KTLA that he never experienced anything like Tuesdays storm. Prior to his wild ride, Franklin, a native of Dallas, had taken to his Instagram account earlier that morning to post a video of the rushing water. Man, look at California, he says in the video. Several hours later, he received word that the storms condition had worsened and that the neighborhood was being evacuated, according to KTLA. Franklin told the TV station that he and his girlfriend soon then packed into the Prius. "When I got halfway down the hill, I just felt this burst of water hit the back of the car, he told KTLA. The Prius then hydroplaned down the hill for a short while before Franklin was able to regain control of the car and make it to safety, the TV station said. The vehicle escaped the rushing debris flow with just scratches and bumps. I just got pushed down the side of hill by a wall of water and mud, Franklin said in a later Instagram video.Rocks flowing, mud flowing everywhere, barely made it out. Edgar Ray Killen, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted in the 1964 Mississippi Burning slayings of three civil rights workers, has died in prison at the age of 92, the states corrections department announced Friday. The one-time Klan leader was serving three consecutive 20-year terms for manslaughter when he died Thursday night at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the states corrections department said. An autopsy was pending, but no foul play was suspected, the corrections statement said. Advertisement Killens conviction came 41 years to the day after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, all in their 20s, were ambushed and killed by Klansmen. The three Freedom Summer workers had been investigating the burning of a black church near Philadelphia, Miss. A deputy sheriff in Philadelphia had arrested them on a traffic charge, then released them after alerting a mob. Before their bodies were eventually dug up, Mississippis then-governor had claimed their disappearance was a hoax. The slayings shocked the nation, helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and were dramatized in the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning. This 1964 FBI photograph shows the burned station wagon used by James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. (Rogelio Solis / Associated Press ) The part-time preacher and lumber mill operator was 80 when a Neshoba County jury convicted him of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, despite his assertions that he was innocent. Killen was the only person in the case to face murder charges, though he was ultimately convicted of manslaughter. He refused to say much about the killings during a 2014 interview with the Associated Press. He said he remained a segregationist and did not believe in racial equality, but contended he harbored no ill will toward blacks. Killen said he never had talked about the events that landed him behind bars, and never would. Long a suspect in the 1964 slayings, Killen had made a livelihood from farming, operating a sawmill and preaching to a small congregation at Smyrna Baptist Church in Union, south of Philadelphia, Miss. According to FBI files and court transcripts from a 1967 federal conspiracy trial, Killen did most of the planning in the ambush killings of the civil rights workers. According to testimony in the 2005 murder trial, Killen served as a kleagle, or organizer, of the Klan in Neshoba County and helped set up a klavern, or local Klan group, in a nearby county. Nineteen men, including Killen, were indicted on federal charges in the 1967 case. Seven were convicted of violating the victims civil rights. None served more than six years behind bars. Killens federal case ended with a hung jury after one juror said she couldnt convict a preacher. During his state trial in 2005, witnesses testified that on June 21, 1964, Killen went to Meridian to round up carloads of Klansmen to ambush Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, telling some of the Klan members to bring plastic or rubber gloves. Witnesses said Killen then went to a Philadelphia funeral home as an alibi while the fatal attack occurred. The three bodies were found 44 days later, buried in a red-clay dam in rural Neshoba County. In February 2010, Killen sued the FBI, claiming the government used a mafia hit man to pistol-whip and intimidate witnesses for information in the case. The federal lawsuit sought millions of dollars in damages and a declaration that his rights were violated when the FBI allegedly used a gangster known as the Grim Reaper during the investigation. The lawsuit was later dismissed. In the AP interview, Killen repeated his contention that he was not a criminal, but a political prisoner. Of one thing he was certain: I could have beat that thing if Id had the mental ability. When she learned of Killens death, Chaneys sister, the Rev. Julia Chaney Moss, said her first thought was that God has been kind to him. And for that I am grateful. My last thought on this is just that I only wish peace and blessings for all the families as well as the families of the perpetrators, she added. President Trump agreed Friday to extend sanctions waivers on Iran to keep the landmark nuclear disarmament deal intact, but vowed to quickly withdraw from what he called the disastrously flawed accord unless it is significantly revised. No one should doubt my word, Trump said in a harshly worded, two-page statement that also announced separate economic sanctions on 14 Iranian entities and individuals. Trump said he had reluctantly agreed to extend the waivers only in order to secure the support of Americas European allies to fix the agreement. This is a last chance, he warned, declaring he would not do so again. Advertisement He did not set a deadline, but under U.S. law the president is required to waive sanctions every four months. Unilaterally reimposing the sanctions would put the United States in violation of an international agreement that was unanimously approved by the United Nations Security Council in 2015. Iranian officials have stressed they will not reopen negotiations on the accord, which required Tehran to dismantle or destroy most of its nuclear infrastructure in exchange for easing of most international sanctions. The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has repeatedly found Iran is complying with those obligations. Senior administration officials said the White House intends to negotiate with European allies a menu of triggers to reimpose multilateral sanctions if Iran oversteps those lines. But the officials also want the triggers to include Irans growing ballistic missile program, which was not part of the nuclear deal, and to remove sunset clauses that allow some nuclear restrictions to ease or phase out over time. The idea is they [should] never expire, a senior administration official, speaking anonymously, said of the restrictions in briefing reporters ahead of the announcement. Iran should be denied all paths to a nuclear weapon forever. The 14 Iranian individuals and entities sanctioned Friday include a notorious prison and members of the Islamic Republics judiciary who have sentenced dissidents to death. Also blacklisted were Irans cyberspace agency, which administration officials said restricts its citizens access to the internet; Iranian defense industry firms that repair and maintain helicopters and aircraft; a Malaysia-based company that allegedly supports Iranian naval missile production; and a Chinese businessman who allegedly supplied financing and equipment to Irans electronics industry. The head of Irans judiciary, Sadegh Amoli Larijani, was put on the U.S. blacklist. He is the brother of the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, the officials said. These designations politically will go to the top of the regime, said another administration official, also speaking anonymously, and send the message that the United States will not tolerate the violation of the rights of [Iranian] citizens. The administration long has argued that all of Irans malicious behavior, including its human rights abuses and support for militant groups across the Middle East, should be included in an international regimen of punishment. The nuclear deal was negotiated with Iran by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. All sides agreed that it would only cover Irans apparent efforts to develop nuclear weapons, which was in violation of U.N. resolutions, and not other issues. Trump has sharply criticized the agreement and vowed to rip it up, but his national security advisors have urged him to wait while they work with Congress and U.S. allies in an effort to strengthen its provisions. As he did in October, Trump again declined to certify to Congress that the nuclear agreement is in the nations best interest. Noncertification to Congress does not affect the actual accord, however. The consequences would have been far-reaching if Trump had decided not to continue waiving nuclear-related sanctions. It would defy other members of the Security Council as well as most U.S. allies. It also could hand Iran a pretext to start limiting U.N. inspections or restart its nuclear program. Sticking with the deal but imposing new nonnuclear sanctions while seeking to change the agreement was a compromise position. Most U.S. trade with and investment in Iran already is banned under separate U.S. sanctions for Tehrans human rights abuses, ballistic missile program and support for terrorism, but the administration and its supporters said more are needed. European allies had strongly urged the White House to stick with the nuclear deal, saying a decision to abandon it would strain the transatlantic partnership. French President Emmanuel Macron, in a telephone call with Trump on Thursday, emphasized Frances determination to see the strict application of the deal and the importance of all the signatories to respect it, Macrons office said. The smooth implementation of the agreement should be accompanied by a stepped-up dialogue with Iran on its ballistic missile program and its regional policy in order to guarantee greater stability in the Middle East, the French statement added. Trump told Macron that Iran had to stop its destabilizing activity in the region, the White House said. The accord required Tehran to dismantle its main nuclear reactor, drastically cut back on uranium enrichment, get rid of thousands of centrifuges and export most of its heavy water. Compliance has been verified repeatedly by the U.N.s International Atomic Energy Agency. In exchange, most international sanctions on Iran were eased, allowing the country to trade on the global oil market and rejoin international banking systems. Widespread protests in Iran over the last few weeks have focused on the countrys faltering economy, however, as well as high unemployment and government corruption. tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter UPDATES: 1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with details from President Trumps statement. 11:20 a.m.: This article was updated with details from a White House briefing. This article was originally published at 3 a.m. Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Friday, Jan. 12, and heres whats happening across California: TOP STORIES Warnings about deadly mudslides came too late Officials had been warning for days that heavy storms could produce strong mudflows. But when the rains moved in early Tuesday morning and the storm proved much worse than forecasters predicted, emergency agencies struggled to get the word out to Montecito residents on their cellphones about the urgent danger. By the time alerts finally got out, it was too late for most residents still inside their homes. There was no way to escape. Los Angeles Times Advertisement The makings of disaster: The Thomas fire was halted on the steep slopes just above Montecito, sparing the enclave. But the same dramatic landscape that made the Thomas fire so hard to fight making it the largest fire on record in California propelled rivers of mud and rock on a devastating rampage, toppling houses, tossing cars around like pieces of Legos and carrying 3-foot-wide boulders all the way to the beach. Its almost unimaginable what I saw today, one official said. Los Angeles Times More about the mudslides: 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 was rapidly closing. Among the dead: four children. Los Angeles Times Montecito residents returned to a war zone. Los Angeles Times Surveying the damage from the air. Los Angeles Times La Conchita feels Montecitos pain. The town has been there before. Ventura County Star Who is still missing? KEYT From the state capital There has been a lot of talk in Sacramento of taking action to ease Californias housing crisis amid rising rents. But a bill that would have led to the expansion of rent control in California communities died in an Assembly housing committee Thursday. Los Angeles Times Plus: Breaking down Gov. Jerry Browns final budget. Los Angeles Times L.A. STORIES More on the way? A venomous sea snake found slithering on the sand in Newport Beach earlier this week was one of a growing number of the serpents apparently drawn far north of their usual habitat by the spread of warm ocean temperatures. Los Angeles Times Not good: A part fell from an airliner taking off from John Wayne Airport and landed on a moving vehicle recently in Newport Beach. Los Angeles Times Its art: 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. Los Angeles Times POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT Shutdown OKd: Diablo Canyon, 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. We chart a a new energy future by phasing out nuclear power here in California, one official said. San Diego Union-Tribune Big settlement: Energy giant BP has agreed to pay California $102 million as part of a settlement of allegations that it overcharged the state in sales of natural gas. Los Angeles Times Virtual school: Gov. 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. Los Angeles Times Lonely: In the Bay Area, the fear of living in a place no one can afford. The Mercury News With friends like this: So how helpful was Oprah Winfrey to Hillary Clinton in 2016? Politico CRIME AND COURTS DNA testing: The mystery over the killing of Orange County pre-med college student Blaze Bernstein took another twist. Los Angeles Times El Chapo godson: 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. Los Angeles Times RIP: Dave Toschi, the San Francisco police detective who led the long-running yet unsuccessful investigation into the Zodiac serial killings a half-century ago, has died. Associated Press THE ENVIRONMENT Blown away: Back in February, a 199-mph gust was clocked in the Sierra. Now experts say it was the fastest wind ever recorded in California. SF Gate CALIFORNIA CULTURE Social media switch-up: In what could be the biggest refocusing of social media in years, Facebook says its going to focus more on friends and family and less on news. New York Times History lesson: How coffeehouses in the Bay Area helped launch the anti-Vietnam war movement in the 1960s. New York Times Whodunit: Was that Northern California home really built by Frank Lloyd Wright? Millions are at stake, and potential buyers are demanding proof. Wall Street Journal Re-envisioned: The Irvine Spectrum, one of the regions biggest malls, has to fill space vacated by Macys. Its plan: A lot of gourmet food. And its part of a larger trend. Orange County Register Whats on your fingernail? First there were fitness wearables. Then the focus turned to fashionable wearables. The latest evolution, seen throughout this weeks CES in Las Vegas: more functional, futuristic and sometimes far-fetched wearables. Los Angeles Times Coming forward: The creator of the Media Men List, an anonymous, crowdsourced spreadsheet documenting allegations of sexual misconduct by men in the publishing industry and other media, identified herself. Los Angeles Times No Golden Globes repeat: A diverse slate of Directors Guild nominees. Los Angeles Times Whoops: About Elon Musk and that Silicon Valley sex party . Business Insider CALIFORNIA ALMANAC Los Angeles area: mostly sunny and 71. San Diego: mostly sunny and 69. San Francisco area: foggy and 58. Sacramento: partly cloudy and 60. More weather is here. AND FINALLY Todays California memory comes from Diego McCoy: I am a third-generation San Diegan. I loved growing up there the trips to the beach at 16 with our friends. We would go to Mission Beach and La Jolla the most. We had to drive down and get a spot before 10 a.m. (that is huge when you are 16!). We would all lie down the sun, reading our books, eating our snacks, running into the water. When we were at Mission Beach, we would walk to Jack in the Box or Robertos. The food tasted so good after being in the sun so long. We would just sit and talk and sleep in the sun and flip over before we burned. Those were the days. Trying to get the perfect tan and hanging out with your friends! The 80s in San Diego. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.) Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad. In an off-the-cuff comment with legislators gathered in the Oval Office on Thursday to discuss immigration, President Trump laid bare his world vision. There are wealthy white countries such as Norway, which are welcome to send immigrants to the United States. Then there are what the president called shithole countries Haiti and all the nations of Africa whose people (overwhelmingly black and brown) the president doesnt think belong here. Trumps comment was outrageous, immature, inhumane and vulgar and it shames the nation. Its shocking that an American president would think so reductively and heartlessly about so much of the world. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the president himself will feel shame. Instead, hell bluster and bray about fake news and try to drag in the 2016 election results and the stock market, and in the end, he is unlikely to be punished by his base for what he said. But his comments stand for themselves. What do we want Haitians here for? the president reportedly asked. Why do we want all these people from Africa here? Why do we want all these people from shithole countries? Then he added: We should have people from places like Norway. Advertisement The Washington Post first reported the presidents comments, based on information from people briefed on the meeting. The White House quickly issued a statement that didnt deny the comments, but defended Trumps efforts to fight for the American people. None of whom, apparently in the eyes of the White House, are people who trace their ancestry to Africa, Haiti or El Salvador, which was also part of the immigration policy discussion. Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people, spokesman Raj Shah told the Post. 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. So Trumps dismissal of a large portion of the world is framed now as an argument for merit-based immigration? Thats self-serving baloney. Its hard to interpret Trumps statement comparing Haiti and Africa with Norway, in effect as anything other than an attack on people of color around the world. But even those who dont interpret it that way should be appalled that the president would express such disdain and disgust for countries where poverty is rampant, where people struggle because they lack the economic advantages of Americans, where wars are not infrequent. Ten months ago, the Los Angeles Times editorial board published a multipart series about President Trump calling him Our Dishonest President. We called him that because of a pattern of lies, misstatements and denials of reality that we argued were designed not just to deflect criticism, but to undermine the very idea of objective truth. But sometimes Donald Trump is at his scariest when hes saying what he truly believes. Trumps dwindling ranks of supporters say they like him because he calls things as he sees them. Hes not polished hes the antithesis of the smooth-talking pol, the Washington insider, the denizen of the D.C. swamp. Fine. But now he has offered us another glimpse into what the unfettered Trump sees. The ugliness here isnt in the view, but in the viewer. Add these comments to the long list of embarrassments weve suffered as a nation since Nov. 8, 2016. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook. The Trump administration, aided by a willing but slim majority in Congress, began to comprehensively dismantle public lands protections in 2017. The regulatory results were fairly astonishing. They amount to an unprecedented rollback of conservation norms that date back to Theodore Roosevelt, who made the preservation of natural resources national policy more than a century ago. Trumps disassembling of public lands protections include drastically slashing the size of national monuments in Utah, opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, jettisoning protections for sage grouse throughout vast areas of the arid West and taking a headlong dive into increased fossil-fuel production. The latter involves ending moratoria on coal and oil-and-gas leasing, terminating methane emission controls, scuttling hydraulic fracturing regulations and eviscerating federal consideration of the long-term costs of carbon emissions on the planets environment. Americans have lived through public land scandals such as the Teapot Dome affair in the 1920s, in which bribery by oil companies sent the secretary of Interior to prison. In the 1980s, the Reagan administrations secretary of the Interior privatized federal coal in Wyomings Powder River Basin without trying to obtain fair market value for it. But those giveaways pale before what is going on now. Advertisement The legal grounds for the Trump turnaround in national policy will be tested in the courts over the next few years. In some cases, the administration may be unable to show a rational reason for changes in course that were conscientiously vetted and adopted just a few years ago. But the politics of this abrupt about-face should be debated now, as the Trump public lands revolution takes effect. The effect of the Trump revolution is to redefine the public in public lands, or at least the public that matters. Do the American people owners of the scaled-back Utah monuments as well as the surrounding lands favor removing Native archaeological and sacred sites from those areas without a clear cost-benefit accounting of the lands value for drilling or mining? Do the people favor oil drilling in the Arctic refuge after 40 years of wildlife protection when there is no need for new domestic supplies of oil? How about ending sage grouse protections that were agreed on by all stakeholders, including the federal government, after years of study and negotiation? No one in the administration seems to care about such questions. Why not? And why would lands owned by all Americans be threatened by a government nominally committed to protecting the rights of all? Theres plenty of evidence that well-organized and well-funded special interest groups such as oil and gas companies, mining concerns and public land grazers are much more likely to succeed at persuading regulators of the wisdom of their claims than are the members of the general public. The Trump rollbacks in public lands protections are highly unpopular among most Americans. The latest State of the Rockies poll, conducted by Colorado College, found that in the seven mountain states, voters prefer safeguarding air, water, wildlife and recreation on public lands over mining and drilling by a massive 3-1 margin. Moreover, as Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke admitted, almost all of the 2.4 million public comments submitted to Washington during the administrations review of national monuments favored no change in their size or status. No matter: The effect of the Trump revolution is to redefine the public in public lands, or at least the public that matters. Those with a financial stake in mining, grazing and logging now enjoy preferred status. The shift is especially clear in two budget proposals. Under Trump, the Park Service has suggested raising entry fees at the most popular national parks from $25 or $30 to $70 per car. At the same time, congressional Republicans aim to substantially cut the Park Service budget. Meanwhile, the administration has resisted increasing royalties on public-lands fossil-fuel leases and has rejected charging fair-market value for grazing permits. (It costs taxpayers more than $100 million annually to administer the grazing program.) Perhaps the Trump revolution is the predictable byproduct of the political dynamics affecting public lands. Outspoken, anti-federal westerners have had a disproportionate effect on senators such as Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), to whom the president expressly dedicated his shrinking of the monuments. Coupled with the enormous advantages given extractive industries through campaign contributions which can be hidden from the public as dark money the concerns of a relatively small segment of the rural West have captured the Republican Party, including the current administration. The irony is that Nevada, Utah and Arizona are in the Top 10 of urban American states. The West as a whole is the most urbanized region in the country and has been for at least 125 years. And metropolitan residents everywhere will share in paying the costs of the administrations reckless commitment to continued fossil-fuel dependence in the form of climate change-affected forest fires, floods and more subtle environmental damage such as lost species and biodiversity. Although the maladies of our current political process are not limited to public land decisions, the failure to protect the publics proprietary interest in federal lands will have adverse effects perhaps irreversible ones long after the incumbent administration is a mere memory. In the meantime, the publics best hope lies in numerous ongoing federal court suits, which may be able to slow Trumps assault on our shared heritage. Michael C. Blumm, Jeffrey Bain Faculty Scholar and professor of law at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., has taught public lands law for nearly four decades. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook All migrants have two lives the one they are living now, and the one from before. In El Salvador, Rosa Maria was a sociologist. After fleeing to Long Island, N.Y., in 2002, she found work cleaning Manhattan apartments by day and fast-food restaurants by night. Her children have embraced the American dream. One daughter is studying to be a psychologist; her son is a journalist. The Trump administrations decision to end temporary protected status for about 200,000 Salvadorans will soon bring Rosa Marias second life to an end. Salvadorans were first granted TPS in 2001 after a large earthquake struck El Salvador, but the Department of Homeland Security now argues that the original conditions no longer exist. As of September 2019, Rosa Maria who lives, works and pays taxes in the United States could be forcibly deported to El Salvador. She wonders what is waiting for her there and is terrified that all of her toil and suffering will be for naught. Advertisement The scale of Salvadoran migration to the U.S. is simply enormous. The scale of Salvadoran migration to the U.S. is simply enormous. There are about 2 million Guanacos, as they are called, living abroad, or 1 in 3 Salvadorans, most of them here in the U.S. In 2017, migrant remittances from this country peaked at $400 million, accounting for roughly 17 % of El Salvadors GDP. There are more than 13 daily flights from the U.S. to El Salvador, packed full of migrants visiting home with American products. Not all Salvadoran migrants have enjoyed protected status. Since the end of El Salvadors civil war in 1992, the U.S. has deported massive numbers of Guanacos. Among them are so-called irregular migrants who served jail sentences in the U.S. The deportees quickly set up chapters of violent street gangs such as the MS-13 and Barrio 18 in fragile, postwar El Salvador. Now people such as Rosa Maria will be thrown into the mix. El Salvador is a dynamic and beautiful country. But its cities and towns are among the most dangerous on the planet; criminal gangs are responsible for widespread extortion of businesses and horrific acts of violence on a daily basis. This is precisely why thousands of Salvadorans try to reach the U.S. every year. Organized violence touches the lives of most Salvadorans. Interviews conducted by Doctors Without Borders in 2017 found that 40% of migrants deported from the U.S. had originally fled because of violence. The United Nations refugee agency documented more than 17,000 asylum seekers from El Salvador in 2016, a 76% increase from the year before. Since the Trump administrations announcement this week, a debate is raging in Salvadoran media over who is to blame for the revocation of TPS. It might be more productive for Salvadorans to ask themselves how prepared they are for their brothers and sisters, los hermanos lejanos, to return home. Right now, the answer to that question is: not prepared at all. Salvadorans have relied on billions of dollars in remittances that are about to dry up. The government doesnt offer much in the way of returnee services beyond a hotline and reception centers. Small local organizations chip in, offering grants to start small businesses, or certification courses so returnees can market the skills theyve picked up in the U.S. Local churches and human rights organizations also offer some assistance to those who fear for their lives and need to relocate. It isnt much. Deportees interviewed in 2017 by Cristosal, a local human rights organization, said they would rely on their families for help with reentry, putting a strain on already-poor communities. Many migrants will find themselves ensnared in the same life-threatening conditions that caused them to flee. The deportados may face stigmas as well: Employers may assume they have criminal records, like previously deported Salvadorans, and prefer not to hire them for the scarce jobs available. Overall, deported Salvadorans will have to fend for themselves. At least thats a skill they have honed after many years of working, saving and surviving under precarious circumstances in the United States. Isabel de Sola is the founder of Foropaz, a platform for Salvadorans seeking peace. Robert Muggah is the research director of Igarape Institute. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook Gratulerer, my fellow Norwegian Americans, for a United States president at long last has invited our cousins toughing it out in the Old Country to migrate to the land of freedom and chronic traumatic encephalopathy not like those undesirables inhabiting shithole countries. By now, weve all probably heard that Trump used a scatalogically charged epithet to say what he really thinks of those countries in Latin America and Africa that, contrary to all available evidence, continue to send their wretched refuse to our shores. What the roughly 4 million of us with parents, grandparents or long-ago Viking descendants from the smallest Scandinavian nation also noticed was Trumps idea of the prototypical non-shithole country: our humble Norway. Trump reportedly wanted to know why Norway doesnt send more of its people to the United States, evidently unaware that his (accurate) opinion of that country as better than a dump pretty much answers the question he asked: The Scandinavian social democracy, as its two linguistically similar neighbors do, has a higher per-capita GDP, life expectancy and, for what its worth, happiness rating than the United States. It also has universal healthcare, a ridiculously large sovereign wealth fund and top-notch infrastructure. Advertisement In fact, the Norwegian Americans I know often share stories of Googling citizenship requirements hoping theres some kind of loophole for the grandchildren or even great-grandchildren of emigrants when they return to the States after a visit to the Old Country. It wasnt always this way in fact, far from it, and Trump was a young adult precisely when Norway made its dramatic transition from its status as the relative shithole of western Europe to a modern, wealthy social democracy. No, Norway wasnt as poor prior to the development of its oil resources as many people think, but up until the 1960s it was fairly common for ambitious Norwegians to embark for the United States if they could. The lesson for Trump, especially as he pushes to remake Americas immigration system, is obvious: Nations that occupy the proverbial sewer tend not to stay there (just ask any descendant of Irish or Italian immigrants), and if they do, the upwardly mobile, adventurous people willing to abandon the only world theyve known for an equal chance and success or failure are an asset to this country. Surely Erna Solberg the Norwegian prime minister who visited with Trump on Wednesday, standing alongside the president for a news conference and providing an object lesson on deft statecraft and competent English knows this, as she acknowledged the presence of millions of people in the United States who trace their ancestry back to Norway. More to the point, immigration in Norway is every bit as polarizing an issue there as in the United States, with Norwegian politics over the last two elections having undergone a lasting shift that has resulted in a tenuous governing alliance between hard-right nationalists and Solbergs own conservative party. But Solberg knows the fortunes of Norway, a country of only 5 million people, are linked inextricably with those of the world. Almost everyone there speaks English (youll be disappointed if you visit hoping to practice your Norwegian), and many maintain close ties to family members in places like America. Saying that entire regions of the non-white world are no better than what we flush down our toilets would probably set in motion the resignation of any Norwegian prime minister and it ought to do the same for our president. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Our presidents petulance is showing again. President Trump announced via Twitter late Thursday that he has canceled a trip to Britain in which he was supposed to cut the ribbon for the new U.S. embassy in London. But now hes suddenly decided hes not a fan of the new embassy and blamed Obama for a bad deal in having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for peanuts, only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. That decision to move actually was made by President George W. Bush, because renovating the former embassy to meet new security standards made less sense than building from scratch in a more open area. Although it is true that the lease (the property is owned by the Grosvenor family) for the former embassy was sold during the Obama administration, reportedly for upwards of 500 million pounds, or more than $685 million. Hardly peanuts. Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 Advertisement So why would the president lie about something like that? Who knows? The guy lies as he breathes. The real reason Trump likely decided he shouldnt visit a country with which the United States has a centuries-old relationship may have had more to do with the reception he was likely to receive. Tens of thousands of protesters were expected to take to the streets, and nearly 1.9 million people signed a petition urging the British government to not grant Trump an official state visit. Members of Parliament said they would not invite him to address them because, as Commons Speaker John Bercow said: An address to both Houses of Parliament is not an automatic right, it is an earned honor. And my view is that he has not earned that honor. Think about that. Great Britain is among the countrys oldest friends, and our president is all but persona non grata there. Rather than go through with the visit, Trump whose need to be adored seems pathological backed down. And then he tried to deflect blame for the fiasco from his own behavior and statements he riled the British by, among other things, retweeting anti-Muslim videos from a far-right British nationalist by falsely attributing an action to Obama. The White House could have simply issued a statement that the timing is not right for such a visit, and leave it at that. Instead, the president tweets something that is transparently false, and create a controversy where one needed not exist. And if Trump is going to decide which countries or even states to visit based on how well hell be received, well, our president will be inhabiting a shrunken world. scott.martelle@latimes.com Follow my posts and re-tweets at @smartelle on Twitter. To the editor: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is to be commended for releasing the August 2017 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony of Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, the firm responsible for the research leading to the controversial dossier on President Trump. (Sen. Dianne Feinstein releases Fusion GPS transcript, escalating dispute with Republicans over Russia probe, Jan. 9) Simpsons testimony was not classified, so it should have been made public as soon as it was available. We have had to put up with a lot of lies and innuendo about the validity of the dossier, and we needed a balanced account of why this document was published in the first place. For years, Trump promoted the lie that President Obama was not born in the United States, even going so far as to say he found proof for his claim. Since then, Trump has lied repeatedly about many issues. Advertisement I dont see any congressional investigation into those lies, and yet the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee care so much about determining the truthfulness of the Trump dossier. This is one instance where citizens are demanding the truth, with the hope that honesty in politics could become the norm and possibly lead to better protection against foreign interference in our elections. Barbara Snider, Huntington Beach .. To the editor: We are fortunate to have a strong leader as Californias senior senator. Feinstein understands that the Russian meddling in our election will likely occur again if something is not done about it. Her decision to release the transcript of Simpsons testimony is a step in the direction toward the changes that need to be made to protect our democracy. Thank you, Sen. Feinstein, for your strength and dedication. Roberta Schiller, Los Angeles Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook. Last week, I noted that Donald Trumps erratic behavior, especially on Twitter, had prompted our letter writers to take a more strident tone than usual in their criticism of the president. Several said Trumps outbursts posed a grave threat to our country, and they demanded his removal from office. But as he tends to do, Trump outdid himself by reportedly designating residents of Haiti and the countries of Africa as sewer inhabitants and wondering why more immigrants from Norway, whose prime minister he had recently met, do not come to the United States. The reaction from our letter writers was swift and harsh, and much of it repeated the vulgarity used by Trump. Speaking of vulgarities, readers will find language in the letters below that is normally not published in family newspapers. Complaints can be sent to the White House. Advertisement Encinitas resident Jeff Skiljan warns of worse language to come: The latest manifestation of this presidents racism is not at all surprising, in light of his past comments regarding President Obamas alleged birthplace, Mexican immigrants being rapists and drug dealers, the benign motivations of many of the Nazi marchers at Charlottesville, and the nationality of the judge who presided over the Trump University litigation. Those who paid attention to the campaign and the first year in office cannot be surprised by anything Trump says or does. He will not change. Daleen Larkin, Altadena Its just a matter of time before Trump slips and uses the n-word, finally resolving any doubts about his true nature and thus where the real shithole of the planet lies: in the mind of the occupant of the Oval Office. Altadena resident Daleen Larkin makes a similar point: Those who paid attention to the campaign and the first year in office cannot be surprised by anything Trump says or does. He will not change. Stephen McCarthy of Monrovia reminds Trump why many immigrants come here: I am proud of the Irish shithole my ancestors came from. They came here because it was a shithole beset by famine, poverty and political oppression just like almost every other immigrant who has come here. Thats why they come here. Thats why they work hard to make a better life here. Thats why they all made this country great. Rich people like Trump only reap the rewards of immigrants without lifting a finger to do honest work. Edward Drenner of Palmdale says Americans bear collective responsibility: The longer we, the people and our representatives, allow this president to use vulgarity to express ignorance of our values as Americans without censure, we are saying it is OK. Shame on all of us. Shame on America. Chet Chebegia of San Marcos suggests a punishment: The president should be more than criticized. He should be taken out back of the White House to a wood pile, paddled and then put in the corner for an hourlong timeout. Trump needs a good fifth-grade teacher at the White House, and Im willing to volunteer. Reggie Kenner repeats a mothers warning: Yup, there he is again, cranky Grandpa, a few generations removed from reality. You remember Mom told you to just ignore Grandpa and, whatever you do, not to argue with him. Think hes alone in his opinion? He was elected. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will consider allowing states to require all online sellers to collect sales taxes, revoking an old rule that costs states billions in lost revenues. The justices said they would hear an appeal from South Dakota and 35 other states that says the current physical presence rule is outdated and unfair in an era when Americans do much of their shopping online. In 1992, when home shopping was dominated by mail-order catalogs, the high court ruled a state may require out-of-state companies to collect sales taxes only if the company had outlets or warehouses within the state. The justices said then that requiring companies to do more would amount to discrimination against interstate commerce. Advertisement But the explosion of internet sales has put pressure on Congress and the court to reconsider the issue. Traditional retailers joined the fray, arguing it is unfair to require them, but not their online competitors, to charge sales tax with each purchase. States and counties told the court they lose between $13 billion and $34 billion each year because they cannot collect sales taxes on all online purchases. While Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce, the House and Senate have not agreed on a law to regulate tax collections for online sales. State lawyers were cheered two years ago when Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the court should reexamine the 1992 decision in Quill Corp. vs. North Dakota. That decision was questionable even when decided, and is now inflicting extreme harm and unfairness on the states, Kennedy wrote in a concurring opinion. Justice Neil Gorsuch also voiced skepticism about the 1992 decision when he was an appeals court judge, describing it as having created a sort of judicially sponsored tax shelter. Kennedys comments prompted South Dakota to launch a new attack on the physical presence rule. On Friday, the court said it will hear the case of South Dakota vs. Wayfair in April, with a ruling likely by late June. The justices also said they will review several legislative districts in Texas to decide whether they were drawn to dilute the voting power of Latinos. The case is Abbott vs. Perez. david.savage@latimes.com Twitter: DavidGSavage Reports of President Trumps statements during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday were met with quick reactions worldwide. Heres a look at how politicians, world leaders, media and late-night TV show hosts reacted to the news. California "The president's reported comments about our allies in Latin America and Africa are disgusting. They diminish America's standing in the world and should be denounced by every member of Congress," she said on Twitter. "To our brothers, sisters, and friends in immigrant communities at home and across the world, know that we stand with you. Immigrants don't just belong in America, immigrants have helped build America," the senator said on Twitter. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom "You're a joke and a racist, President Donald J. Trump. Resign," he said on Facebook. Antonio Villaraigosa "Sad to report -- this is not fake news. Another reminder -- we must speak as one to protect immigrants. Join us," the former Los Angeles mayor said on Twitter. Washington The Wisconsin Republican said President Trump's vulgar slur about Africa was "very unfortunate, unhelpful," according to the Associated Press. I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday, Durbin told reporters Friday, after Trump tweeted a denial of sorts. Ive seen the comments in the press, Durbin continued, referring to reports about the White House meeting that he attended. I have not read one of them thats inaccurate. "I think it was stupid and irresponsible and childish. He's president of the United States. That's not how a president behaves." We do not recall the president saying these comments specifically, Cotton and Perdue said in a joint statement. But what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest. The anniversary of the devastating earthquake 8 years ago is a day to remember the tragedy, honor the resilient people of Haiti, & affirm Americas commitment to helping our neighbors. Instead, were subjected to Trumps ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesnt look like him," she said on Twitter. Worldwide Botswana The government of Botswana is wondering why President Trump must use this descriptor and derogatory word when talking about countries with whom the U.S. has had cordial and mutually beneficial relations for so many years." Haiti The Haitian Ambassador to the U.S., Paul Altidor, told NPR: "We've been a strong neighbor. We've been a good friend of the people of the United States. Today, Haitians are still here working hard, contributing to the social and economic fabric of this country." Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Senegal "I am shocked by President Trump's statements on Haiti and Africa. I reject and condemn them vigorously. Africa and the black race deserve the respect and consideration of everyone," said Senegalese President Macky Sall in a tweet. The African Union The continent's leadership body was "frankly alarmed" by the comment, according to AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice," she said. Media coverage Don Lemon This is CNN Tonight, Im Don Lemon. The president of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that, the news host said on air. Here's how newspapers presented the news: (Daily News) (La Opinion) (Los Angeles Times) Late-night TV In a segment about Trump's remarks earlier Thursday, Trevor Noah said Guys, I dont know how to break this to you, but I think the president might be racist. ... As someone from South Shithole, Im offended. Trump promotes sons Justice with Judge Jeanine interview President Trump promoted via Twitter an interview with his son Eric Trump just before it aired Saturday night on Fox News Justice with Judge Jeanine. Eric Trump on @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews now! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 Eric Trump called into the show to defend his father from criticism prompted by the first government shutdown in more than four years, as well as a series of Womens March events that saw protesters in dozens of cities take to the streets to oppose the presidents policies. .@EricTrump joined me over the phone from Mar-a-Lago ! pic.twitter.com/Hro3TzUW52 Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) January 21, 2018 Speaking to host Jeannine Piro who is reportedly an old friend of the presidents Eric Trump offered effusive praise for his father, ticking off glowing statistics to illustrate the strength of the U.S. economy and gains against Islamic State fighters overseas. My fathers working like no ones ever worked before to bring back this country and to fulfill his promise to make America great again, said the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. He also repeated a sentiment recently expressed on Twitter by his father: That Democratic lawmakers forced a government shutdown on the anniversary of the presidents inauguration in a bid to distract from his achievements. You look at this whole government shutdown, and the only reason they want to shut down government is to distract and to stop his momentum, Eric Trump said. I mean, my father has had incredible momentum. Hes gotten more done in one year than arguably any president in history. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print 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 Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement 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 Jess Gilman, a retired Costa Mesa police officer who spent years working as a local school resource officer, died Thursday. He was 56. Gilman died unexpectedly in his sleep, according to family and friends. The 28-year police veteran started his career at the Baldwin Park Police Department in 1986. Two years later, he joined the Costa Mesa Police Department, where he stayed until he retired in October 2012. Gilman first began working with children during Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, training at elementary schools. In 2012, he told the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board about his first day in the program at what was then Davis Elementary School. I walked in and I introduced myself and this little kid walks up and goes, Hi, Im Colby, like the cheese, Gilman said. I thought, Boy, was I in the right place at the right time, and it just took off from there. This has been the greatest run. My careers been absolutely blessed. He spent 12 years in Costa Mesa as a school resource officer, or SRO, watching over elementary, middle and high school students, according to his LinkedIn profile. After his retirement, the Police Department announced it didnt have enough staff to fill the SRO slot, so in 2013 Gilman again assumed the role at Estancia and Costa Mesa high schools until 2014. Those who knew him said his love for the community was obvious. Phil DAgostino, Newport-Mesas director of student and community services, who worked with Gilman when DAgostino was Costa Mesa High Schools principal, told the Daily Pilot in 2012 that there are a lot of things big about Jess, but in my years of working with him, I have found that nothing is bigger than his heart. Costa Mesa Police Chief Rob Sharpnack said in a statement that Gilman was a gentle giant who stood out as a mentor to youngsters throughout the city. Jess was a husband, father and loyal member of our department, Sharpnack said. We are sincerely thankful for his contributions to the organization and community as a whole. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Gilman family. RIP, Jess. Gilman is survived by his wife, Rhonda Wager Gilman, and children Aaron, Rebecca and Nathan. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @HannahFryTCN A Hollywood man was apprehended by Glendale police Tuesday evening after he attempted to flee from officers during a routine traffic stop, authorities say. At around 11:10 p.m., an officer tried to stop a silver Toyota Corolla that was allegedly speeding near Pennsylvania and Altura avenues in La Crescenta, according to Tahnee Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for the Glendale Police Department. The driver failed to stop, and a chase ensued. Lightfoot said the driver eventually lost control of the Toyota 3 miles into the pursuit and got into a collision on the Glendale (2) Freeway on-ramp at Verdugo Boulevard. The driver then exited the vehicle and attempted to flee from police by running up the freeway embankment, according to the Lightfoot. He was eventually found in the 3600 block of Stancrest Drive and has since been identified as 34-year-old Hovanes Ashteokenyan. Lightfoot said Ashteokenyan had a lengthy criminal record and was on post-release community supervision at the time of his arrest. Police also discovered that the rear license plate on his vehicle belonged to a different car. He was charged with felony evading by the Los Angeles County district attorneys office on Thursday. andy.nguyen@latimes.com Twitter: @Andy_Truc Even snow geese leave home in winter. The noisy white birds that call the Arctic region home travel south to California and Mexico to find good nesting spots and good eats. The geese are among the millions of migrating birds that take to the sky along avian freeways across North America called flyways. You dont have to be a pro to enjoy the show. Bird festivals throughout the country offer field trips and workshops that highlight the best spots to see flocks of geese, cranes and other species on the wing. California A snow goose comes in for a landing. (Elaine Thompson / Associated Press ) Advertisement Watching huge flocks of snow geese swirl down from the sky, amid a cacophony of honking, is a little like standing inside a snow globe, says the Cornell Lab of Ornithologys website. You can see the large white birds with black tipped wings in the northern Sacramento Valley at the Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway from Jan. 24 to 28, which is based in Chico. It offers more than 75 field trips ($14 to $45; some are already sold out) for bird-watching tours to places such as the Colusa and National wildlife refuges. A free workshop will teach you how to tell the difference between snow geese, Ross geese and blue morphs. (11 a.m. Jan. 27). Info: Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway Texas Whooping cranes are a rarity. The tallest North American bird with white bodies and red caps numbered around 20 in the 1940s, according to the Cornell Lab. Their rebound has been northing short of remarkable, with up to 400 expected to land on the Gulf Coast around Port Aransas. The Whooping Crane Festival from Feb. 22 to 25 offers guided boat tours of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to see the cranes after their 2,500-mile-journey and other species. ($50 per person). Info: Whooping Crane Festival Washington state Sandhill cranes dance in a field. (Nati Harnik / Associated Press ) Sandhill cranes look a lot like whooping cranes, except with gray bodies and more plentiful numbers. They swoop through California wetlands and fields in January, usually at places such as Los Banos, Calif. If you miss them, head to the Othello Sandhill Crane Festival in Othello, southeast of Seattle, from March 23 to 25. The festival offers tours of the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge to see the cranes. Boat birding tours ($65), farm tours ($25) and crane viewing tours to feeding sites when the birds are loudest ($14) are all part of the program. Info: Othello Sandhill Crane Festival California Marbled godwits are big-time travelers. The bird with a mottled brown back and long, upturned beak breeds in the middle of the U.S. and then winters on the coast. Godwit Days in Arcata from April 18 to 24 celebrates the shore birds with a free tour of Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge (7:30 a.m. April 19), where you should see godwits plus Aleutian cackling geese and black brandts. While youre there, dont miss visiting the redwoods nearby. Info: Godwit Days Utah Burrowing owls have long legs and stay close to the ground. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times ) Burrowing owls arent really night owls. The sandy brown birds with large yellow eyes and long legs can be seen hunting close to the ground during daytime hours. They live underground in burrows (hence the name) and are one of the owls to see at the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival from May 17 to 21 based in Farmington, a 15-minute drive from the lake. Field trips include an Owl Prowl ($35) to Antelope Island State Park to see burrowing owls as well as great horned, barn, long-eared and short-eared owls. Youll also see bison on the island. The lakes habitat draws raptors, shore birds and a good variety of smaller birds too. Info: Great Salt Lake Bird Festival travel@latimes.com @latimestravel Relations between the United States and Taiwan have long been based on a sort of diplomatic sleight of hand. Officially, there is no U.S. ambassador to Taiwan, which mainland China considers a renegade province. Unofficially, the United States maintains a quasi-governmental entity called the American Institute in Taiwan essentially, a shadow embassy whose head is a de facto ambassador. Officially, the president of Taiwan is never invited to the United States. But the Taiwanese leader periodically schedules travel that requires her to change planes at U.S. airports, and uses the layover time to hold unofficial meetings with members of Congress and other U.S. officials. Advertisement That odd diplomatic dance isnt expected to change anytime soon, given the extreme sensitivity of the issue to China. But Congress is calling for relations between the U.S. and Taiwan to be a little cozier, and Beijing is not happy about it. A bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives this week called for an increase in the rare, low-key visits between senior officials in Washington and Taiwan. The Taiwan Travel Act, which now moves to the Senate, was introduced last year by California Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch) and Ed Royce (R-Fullerton). It says Washington should encourage visits between the United States and Taiwan at all levels, including military and administrative. U.S. officials have made just six visits since the two sides cut formal ties in 1979 as Washington established diplomatic relations with Beijing. Taiwan is a strong friend and critical partner to the United States, Royce told the House floor this week. Congress has been central to this long-standing bond championing a strong relationship with Taiwan and pressing successive administrations to fulfill their obligation to sell defensive arms to Taiwan. In China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Thursday that the act sends the wrong signals and warned against U.S. official contact with Taiwan. If the bill passes the Senate and gets the signature of President Trump, it would open a new door for Washington to arrange visits in either direction, shoring up a strong informal strategic relationship with democratic Taiwan against an expanding China. Visits are legal today for both sides but seldom arranged, in deference to Beijing. Washington values its links to the $11.2-trillion-plus Chinese economy and Chinas role in regional issues such as containing North Koreas missile development. That act is a signal to prove that Taiwan-U.S. relations [can] become better and better, said Wu Chung-li, a political science research fellow at Academia Sinica. But it will offend Beijing, he said. No question about it. China and Taiwan have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war in the 1940s, when the Nationalists fled the mainland and based their government in Taiwan. China today considers Taiwan part of its territory and insists on eventual unification, by force if needed. It condemns overtures abroad that cast Taiwan as a state with the right to foreign diplomacy. China protests whenever Taiwans president stops over on U.S. soil and sometimes when American officials visit the island. An envoy to the Chinese Embassy in Washington warned last month of a military response if the U.S. Navy sent a ship to Taiwan, as was reportedly being discussed. Any move in the United States to recognize Taiwanese officials is taking a huge risk, Chinas Global Times, a nationalistic Communist Party tabloid, said in an editorial Thursday. The mainland will surely act to make sure Taiwan and the U.S. pay the price for their high-level exchanges. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has stopped on U.S. territory six times since taking office in May 2016, all in transit to other countries. Washington says it allows the transit stops for the comfort, safety and convenience of Taiwanese leaders. On a stop in Los Angeles in July 2016, Tsai met House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and former President Clinton. She thanked Ryan for backing U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the governments Taiwan Today news website said. Washington authorized major weapons sales to Taiwan in 2010, 2015 and in June. In January 2017, Tsai transited in Houston and San Francisco at either end of a visit to Latin America. She saw Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott during the Houston stop, over Chinas objections. The head of the American Institute in Taiwan often stands in for regular government officials in meeting Taiwanese presidents on stopovers. The institutes unofficial status mutes protests from China. The islands Foreign Ministry issued a statement Wednesday expressing welcome and sincere thanks for the U.S. House of Representatives [for] taking specific measures to raise U.S.-Taiwan relations and support our countrys international engagement. Tsai has irritated China by rejecting Beijings condition that both sides hold talks as parts of a single China. In moves possibly aimed at sending Tsai a message, China last year blocked Taiwans observer status at the World Health Organizations annual assembly. On Jan. 4, China opened four civilian flight paths in the shared Taiwan Strait without notifying Taipei. China sometimes leverages its more than 170 diplomatic allies, compared with just 20 nations that recognize Taiwan, to marginalize the island in foreign affairs. The head of a Washington-based Taiwan advocacy group urged senior U.S. officials to visit Taiwan more often. If China does not let Taiwan join the annual WHO meeting in Geneva, the U.S. should send the secretary of Health and Human Services to Taipei to, for instance, observe Taiwans first-rate healthcare system, said Coen Blaauw, executive director of the Formosan Assn. for Public Affairs. One Taiwanese analyst, however, said the Taiwan Travel Act wont fundamentally change the relationship with the U.S. Liu Yih-jiun, public affairs professor at Fo Guang University in Taiwan, said the act would be little more than a diplomatic courtesy. Its some kind of lip service, no more than that, Liu said. Jennings is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Sarah D. Wire in Washington and special correspondent Jessica Meyers in Beijing contributed to this report. The anger was swift and the shock not surprising, but the humor spontaneous social media posts of breathtaking images of African savannas, sunsets and wildlife tagged with the word shithole drove home a point about making sweeping generalizations of an entire continent. President Trump himself was probably not prepared for the global fury after he made crude remarks about El Salvador, Haiti and all of Africa. According to people in the room, the president added: We should have people from places like Norway. Advertisement It didnt take long for social media to explode with condemnation. @realDonaldTrump, wrote former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Twitter, your mouth is the foulest shithole in the world. With what authority do you proclaim whos welcome in America and whos not. Americas greatness is built on diversity, or have you forgotten your immigrant background, Donald? President Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador also unleashed his displeasure on Twitter. The declaration of the president of the United States strikes at the dignity of the Salvadoran public, he wrote in Spanish, adding in a second tweet that the country formally protests and energetically rejects such statements. On the eighth anniversary of Haitis devastating earthquake, Haitian Ambassador Paul Altidor said Trumps comments were misinformed and misguided. Weve been a partner, weve been a strong neighbor, weve been a good friend of the people of the United States, he said on National Public Radio. And today Haitians are still here working hard contributing to the social and economic fabric of this country. Altidor went on to say that Haitis government had summoned the U.S. charge daffaires, a top diplomat, to clarify the remarks and possibly demand an apology. #TANZANIA is home and if these pics are #WhatMakesMyCountryAShithole then so be it!! pic.twitter.com/EU0FRMqKaE Michael Neligwa (@Neligwa_) January 12, 2018 Some of Altidors compatriots posted images on social media of white-sand beaches, turquoise water and abundant produce to celebrate Haiti. Lets stand up and remind @realDonaldTrump on this special day, what a real #shithole looks like. #Haiti, wrote Samuel Dameus on Twitter. Speaking to reporters at a news briefing in Geneva, United Nations human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said there was no word to describe Trumps comments other than racist. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as shitholes whose entire populations are not white [and] are therefore not welcome, Colville said. As for Norway, Trumps admiration wasnt mutual at least on Twitter, where users pointed out that Norwegians enjoy benefits such as universal healthcare, free higher education and paid parental leave that would not entice many to leave for the U.S. As a Norwegian, the idea that anyone from Norway would consider moving to the USA strikes me as rather hare-brained, wrote Johannes Brodwall, a software developer in Oslo. Im a Norwegian who enjoyed studying & working in the US. The only thing that would attract me to emigrate to the US is your vibrant multicultural society. Dont take that away @realDonaldTrump, wrote Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council Africans felt especially aggrieved. At a bustling market in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, some saw Trumps remarks as highly insulting. Others thought the comments would make the U.S. a less attractive destination for Ghanaians and help solve the countrys brain drain. Ghanaian shopkeeper Million Anamoo said Trumps remarks were divisive. We dont discriminate. So we dont expect another country to discriminate, he said. One shopkeeper, Million Anamoo, said, Trump is scaring us. Whites and blacks should work together like a piano. America is one of the best countries. Ghana here is a free country, a peaceful country. We receive all tourists. We dont discriminate. So we dont expect another country to discriminate. We have cocoa here. We have gold here. We export our cocoa to America so that Americans can make chocolate. Hannah Akurigo, 32, who was selling clothes, admonished Trump to stop insulting Africans and advised him to visit Ghana and find out for himself how nice the people there were. We are very lovely people. He should come to Ghana. We let white people in, and now they turn up to insult us? We are not like shit. Hes saying hes civilized, but we Africans are more civilized than him. We think before we speak. We are not like the way that they say: we live in trees, we are like monkeys. He should just come and experience Africa. Hannah Akurigo, 32, who sells clothes at a bustling market in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, admonished Trump to stop insulting Africans and advised him to visit Ghana and find out for himself how nice the people there are. One young Kenyan with the Twitter handle @VeneeChay referenced Americas history of using African slave labor, tweeting: They wouldnt even be where they are without us picking cotton for them. A post on the Twitter account for Chester Missing, a satirical South African television puppet character, said Trumps remarks were ironic from a dude running a country built on stealing people from said shithole. Some focused on Africas human capital and the contributions of its educated middle class. I hold two degrees myself not bad for people from #shitholecountries as viewed by Trump and the likes, tweeted Ayandiswa Mthembu, a South African, of Vanderbijlpark in Gauteng province. In Kenya, where a young urban generation is technically savvy and active on social media, some posted pleas for understanding, while many tweeted their outrage. So @realDonaldTrump Calls African Countries #shitHole and African Presidents are quite over it? Africa is the Greatest continent! pic.twitter.com/Ar0iadh7dL #ArtEndFGM (@Mamboleokenya) January 12, 2018 Political activist Boniface Mwangi from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi called on Trump to distinguish Africans from the countrys political leaders. Please dont confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent, he tweeted. Botswanas government was the first on the continent to condemn Trumps statements, referring to them as highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist. Botswana summoned the U.S. ambassador to express its displeasure over the remarks and to inquire as to whether Botswana was a shithole country: The government of Botswana is wondering why President Trump must use this descriptor and derogatory word when talking about countries with whom the U.S. has had cordial and mutually beneficial relations for so many years. Botswana called on the African Union and regional leadership bodies in Africa to condemn Trump over his comments. Since taking office, Trump has barely mentioned Africa. The main action he has taken affecting the continent is to sharply reduce foreign aid. His sudden characterization of the entire continent shocked many and angered others who saw it as part of a stubborn Western narrative characterizing Africa as a country and not a continent of 54 highly varied nations. I am shocked by President Trumps statements on Haiti and Africa. I reject and condemn them vigorously. President of Senegal Macky Sall In some countries, people lampooned Trumps characterization of Africa by posting picturesque landscapes with elephants, sweeping green savannas, beaches and the hashtag #shithole or some variation thereof. Senegalese President Macky Sall said he was stunned by Trumps remarks. I am shocked by President Trumps statements on Haiti and Africa. I reject and condemn them vigorously. Africa and the black race deserve the respect and consideration of everyone, Sall said in a tweet. The African Union the continents leadership body was frankly alarmed by the comment, according to AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo. Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice, she said. Some were pointed with their outrage. This racist trash shows we not only need immigration reform but also presidential reform, said Kenneth Roth, director of Human Rights Watch, in describing Trumps comments. In South Africa, officials from the government and opposition also expressed outrage. Jessie Duarte, deputy secretary general of the governing African National Congress, said the comments were extremely offensive. Developing countries do have difficulties. These difficulties are not small things, she told a news conference. Ours is not a shithole country. Neither is Haiti or any other country in distress, she said, adding that America has its own problems like poverty and unemployment. We would not deign to make comments as derogatory about any country facing difficulties, she said. Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane of the Democratic Alliance added that Trumps comments were abhorrent. He confirms a patronizing view of Africa and promotes a racist agenda. Africa-U.S. relations will take strain from this, with a leader who has failed to reconcile humanity. The hatred of Obamas roots now extends to an entire continent. Zimbabwes ambassador to Senegal, Trudy Stevenson, said Trumps comments were revealing. How embarrassing for #America, and insulting to #Africa, she tweeted. Times staff writer Dixon reported from Johannesburg and special correspondent OGrady from Accra, Ghana. Times staff writer Nina Agrawal in New York contributed to this report. robyn.dixon@latimes.com Twitter: @RobynDixon_LAT UPDATES: 3:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details and reactions from around the world. This article was originally published at 11:30 a.m. This week the United States told its citizens not to visit five violence-ridden Mexican states, placing them on the same warning level given to war-torn Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria. The State Departments newest travel advisory for Mexico included do not travel warnings for the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas and the Pacific coast states of Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan and Sinaloa. The advisory, released Wednesday, gave the states its highest-risk Category 4 warning, the same classification the U.S. has given conflict-racked nations such as Libya and Yemen. Violence has been on the rise across Mexico in recent years. Last year, the nation recorded more homicides than in any year since the government began releasing statistics in 1997. But the bloodshed has been concentrated in certain areas. Here is a breakdown of what is happening in each of the five Mexican states on the State Departments list and why the U.S. thinks citizens should stay away. Mexican soldiers march past the incineration of 23.5 tons of cocaine in Manzanillo, in Colima state. (Alfredo Estrella / AFP/Getty Images) Colima Known for: The fourth smallest state in Mexico, Colima has the smallest population, with 650,000 residents. The city of Manzanillo, on the Pacific coast, boasts one of Mexicos busiest ports, while the citys beaches have long drawn both domestic tourists and international cruise ships. Homicide rate: 83 deaths per 100,000 people in the first 11 months of 2017. Whats happening: Rival cartels have been battling for control of Manzanillos port, a primary point of entry for drugs from South and Central America as well as for precursor chemicals coming from Asia that are used to manufacture synthetic drugs. Violent crime and gang activity are widespread, the U.S. warned in its travel advisory. Do not travel. A Mexican federal police officer detains a man after a shootout broke out between police and gunmen on a central avenue in downtown Acapulco on Nov. 12, 2017. (Bernandino Hernandez / Associated Press) Guerrero Known for: One of Mexicos poorest states, Guerrero is home to what was once the countrys poshest resort. Acapulco, set on a bay surrounded by high rises and the Sierra Madre del Sur, used to attract Hollywood stars and Mexicos elite. Homicide rate: 59 deaths per 100,000 people in the first 11 months of 2017. Whats happening: The cartel that once dominated Acapulco and the rest of the state fractured years ago, leaving smaller criminal groups to violently vie for power. There are more than a dozen gangs fighting in Acapulco, which is now Mexicos homicide capital. Up in the Tierra Caliente, a region that encompasses parts of northern Guerrero and neighboring Michoacan state, gangs have been battling for control of poppy production. Poppy grown in Guerrero and other states has made Mexico the No. 1 exporter of heroin to the U.S. Armed groups operate independently of the government in many areas of Guerrero, the U.S. warned in its travel advisory, adding that members of those groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence towards travelers. Members of Cherans Forest Police patrol the woods outside town to prevent illegal logging. The patrol is part of efforts by residents to combat the influence of criminal gangs on this town in Mexicos Michoacan state. (Liliana Nieto del Rio / For The Times) Michoacan Known for: A mostly agricultural state, Michoacan is a key avocado and lime producer. It is also a top sender of migrants to the U.S. Homicide rate: 59 deaths per 100,000 people in the first 11 months of 2017. Whats happening: Violence erupted in Michoacan starting in the mid-2000s, as cartels battling for control of methamphetamine production expanded to extortion and kidnapping. The governments failure to bring order spawned a citizen vigilante movement, and to this day, masked citizen police roam the state. In some towns, they have taken over local governments. People take photos of slain journalist Javier Valdez on May 15, 2017, in Culiacan, Mexico. He co-founded the newspaper Riodoce and was a legendary chronicler of drug trafficking in Sinaloa state. (Fernando Brito / Associated Press) Sinaloa Known for: A long, skinny state that hugs the Pacific coast, Sinaloa is known for its ample agricultural production and as the birthplace of banda a beloved musical genre heavy on brass and percussion. It was also the birthplace of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, a poor kid who sold oranges in the street before becoming Mexicos most infamous drug cartel leader. Homicide rate: 41 deaths per 100,000 people in the first 11 months of 2017. Whats happening: After Guzmans arrest and extradition to the U.S. last year, his Sinaloa cartel fragmented into warring factions. Those factions are fighting each other as well as well as gangsters aligned with the ascendant Jalisco New Generation cartel, which has quickly taken control of wide swaths of the country with its brutal tactics. Violent crime is widespread, the U.S. warned in its travel advisory for Sinaloa. Packages of U.S. cash were found hidden in a bus crossing Mexicos Tamaulipas state this month. More than $980,000 was seized. (Mexican navy) Tamaulipas Known for: A border state located on Mexicos Gulf coast, Tamaulipas has long been defined by its proximity to the United States. A large amount of Mexican trade travels through the state, and U.S. citizens frequently cross into Matamoros and Reynosa, across the border from Brownsville and McAllen, Texas, respectively. Homicide rate: 20 deaths per 100,000 people in the first 11 months of 2017. Whats happening: Tamaulipas has been engulfed in violence between factions of the Gulf cartel and the Zetas criminal group. While the homicide rate there is not as high as in other states, extortion and kidnappings are rampant. About one-fourth of all kidnappings in Mexico occur in the state. Violent crime, such as murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, extortion and sexual assault, is common, the U.S. travel advisory said, adding that armed criminal groups have targeted public and private passenger buses traveling through the state, often taking passengers hostage and demanding ransom payments. Local law enforcement has limited capability to respond to violence, the advisory warned. To read the article in Spanish, click here kate.linthicum@latimes.com Majestic Realty Co. Thursday night got approval for its final planned warehouse on 441 acres of former Bethlehem Steel land. The 508,821-square-foot warehouse is expected to be a distribution center, joining existing Crayola and Walmart distribution facilities at the Majestic Bethlehem Center. About 9,000-square-feet of the new proposed building will be dedicated to office space. Majestic's Eric Scheler told the Bethlehem Planning Commission that they were working with a prospective clients on the building, but declined to provide further details, like the potential number of jobs created. The commission unanimously granted Majestic conditional approval for the warehouse at 3769 Commerce Center Blvd. off Route 412 on former Steel that has been redeveloped into an industrial park. Majestic's master plan for the site calls for eight buildings with the potential to expand two. Thursday's review of building five is the final warehouse to come before the commission. Three buildings are built and already occupied by Crayola, Walmart and California Cartage Company. Majestic's fourth building -- a 1-million-square-foot speculative warehouse build with the potential to add on another roughly 950,000-square-feet -- is now ready to go, said Scheler, who is vice president and district manager of Majestic's Bethlehem office. While under construction, that warehouse caught fire in August, sending plumes of black smoke across Bethlehem. Earlier this year, Majestic got approvals from the city and Lower Saucon Township for two warehouses, one a 300,000-square-foot and the other a 450,660-square-foot speculative build. The larger warehouse sits in Lower Saucon. Back in November 2016, Majestic Realty received approval for another massive 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse. Upon full build-out, the Majestic site will feature 8 million square feet of warehouse. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Tips from concerned residents led to a Bethlehem raid Thursday morning that netted various drugs and five arrests, city police said. A little after 6 a.m., police raided an apartment at 414 Pawnee St. Detectives found seven adults in the three-room apartment, and one male jumped out of a second-floor window as officers arrived, police said. The jumper was taken to St. Luke's University Hospital for treatment of moderate injuries from the fall, police said. Police found seven grams of cocaine, six grams of methamphetamine, 30 packets of Fentanyl, two ounces of marijuana, and 40 pills of Clonazepam, a sedative, in the apartment. Officers also seized handgun ammunition, $3,700 in cash, and alleged packaging materials including plastic bags, glassine packets, and several digital scales. Josh Boswell, 22; Desmond Smith, 25; Sean Patillo, 23; and Kaliah Santiago-Colon, no age provided, all face multiple counts of possession with intent to deliver and possession charges. Patillo is also accused of giving a false name. After police learned his real identity, they discovered Patillo was wanted for three warrants out of Northampton and Montgomery counties. Two of the warrants were for drug cases, police said. Christopher James will be charged via summons with possession of cocaine and a small amount of marijuana. Boswell's bail was set at $20,000, Santiago-Colon's bail was set at $50,000, Smith's bail was set at $100,000 and Patillo's bail was set at $250,000. All were sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of bail. Police said the investigation began in December, following tips from concerned residents. Police allegedly learned the apartment served as a drug distribution point, and had a "steady flow" of customers. Patillo was arrested in November 2016, after city police found six packets of heroin and two bags of cocaine inside a backpack, as well as several empty plastic bags, in the car Patillo was driving. Patillo pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, and was sentenced to one year of probation in that case, records show. Patillo was arrested in July while still on probation, charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and harassment. He was due in Northampton County Court next month in that case. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The Bethlehem Planning Commission rejected controversial plans for a psychiatric hospital by Bethlehem Catholic High School because they were incomplete, but the developer vowed to appeal. The 4-1 vote came Thursday evening after a lengthy -- and at times heated --meeting where developer Abe Atiyeh unsuccessfully pushed for a third project extension and then asked the board for conditional approval. Tom Barker was the only commission member to vote in favor of granting conditional approval to the proposed psychiatric hospital at 1838 Center St. The remainder of the commission was wary of Atiyeh's long history with the property and his radio silence for the last six months. They declined to give him more time to address, what the chairman called, "monumental deficiencies." "We're going to appeal it," Atiyeh said following the vote. Back in 2013, the planning commission approved Atiyeh's plans for an 80-bed, one-story hospital at the corner of Center and Dewberry Avenue with the caveat it could not be a treatment center. He's moving forward with those plans and he believes a psychiatric hospital is allowed. But the resubmission would give him more options and another five years to deliver on those plans, he said. In 2016, Acadia Healthcare abruptly pulled its plans for an 80-bed psychiatric hospital on the land by Bethlehem Catholic High School ahead of a planning commission meeting. Then in May of 2017, Atiyeh submitted a proposal almost identical to his 2013 approved plans where the hospital was now called a psychiatric hospital. The submission came just hours before city council took its first vote to restrict where such hospitals can be built. But Thursday's discussion did not focus on the type of hospital. City officials say the May submission was missing key portions of a land development plan, like the landscaping, erosion control and stormwater management portions. The city notified Atiyeh of these problems in a July letter, which the developer still had not responded to Thursday. "It's nearly six months," said Darlene Heller, city planning director. "We've not received any correspondence at all." But Atiyeh's team maintained the plans were identical to the 2013 approved plans and the city had a complete new set of plans. Assistant City Solicitor Ed Healy said Bethlehem Manor submitted deficient plans in hopes of gaining approval to avoid the pending ordinance. Commission member Louis Stellato said he was very concerned that no one from Bethlehem Manor LLC had replied to the July letter, yet Atiyeh had asked for and been granted both a 60-day and 90-day extension. The extensions expire at the end of the month. On Thursday, attorney James Kratz asked the commission to give Atiyeh an extension until April 30 because his two regular attorneys were unavailable for Thursday's meeting. "It's a scheduling issues," Kratz, who said he was not well versed in the project, said. "I don't see a pressing issue on this." Steven Goudsouzian, an attorney representing homeowners who opposed the project, urged the board to reject the extension request. "The neighborhood deserves some closure on this," he said. The city argued Bethlehem Manor said in December it did not need another extension, so it was put on the agenda to meet the deadline. Healy said the planning commission did not need to accept limitless extension requests. "There was plenty of time given," he said after the meeting. The extension led to a very heated exchange between the commission, city officials and develpers. Atiyeh pressed all of the commission members to say whether any council or city officials had contacted them about his project ahead of the meeting. "Hopefully, you'd be truthful," Atiyeh said. "Mr. Atiyeh, by no means are we are on trial here," Chariman Rob Melosky said. "... Absolutely not have I been contacted by anyone concerning this." Eventually, Melosky asked the board if anyone wanted to make a motion to grant the extension, but no one acted. Atiyeh then said he was prepared to have the application fully reviewed. "We understand you are not going to grant the extension," Atiyeh said. "We will accept every condition on that list." Atiyeh claimed he was delayed in responding to the city's July letter because he was dealing with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation issues related to the 2013 plans. City officials dismissed the PennDOT permiting as irrelevant to the new sumission. David Harte said he submitted the full plans for the project on Atiyeh's behalf. Perhaps one got misplaced, but they can easily be provided, he said. Melosky then made a motion to give Atiyeh one month to respond to all of the plan's deficincies. It failed with only Barker and Melosky supporting it. Finally, member Matthew Malozi made a motion to deny the preliminary land development plan, which was supported by Malozi, Stellato, Melosky and member Joy Cohen. But the vote is far from the final word on the controversial plans for the site. Atiyeh got the plans in just hours before city council announced it planned to change city zoning to tighten where psychiatric hospitals can be located. Council eventually voted to change city zoning so that behavioral health facilities and psychiatric hospitals are categorized as treatment centers, meaning they would require special approvals by the zoning hearing board and only be allowed in certain areas. Atiyeh believes the submission rejected Thursday is grandfathered under the old law. If he were to resubmit his plans, they would be subject to the new restrictions. The developer also says his 2013 approvals clear the way for him to open a psychiatric hospital on the property. But Healy said that determination would be made when the zoning officer issues a certificate of occupancy for the property. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A retired Bethlehem Area School District administrator and current school board member is challenging state Rep. Marcia Hahn for her seat. Hahn, a Republican, is in the midst of her fourth term representing the 138th legislative district. She faces a Democratic challenger from Dean M. Donaher, of Hanover Township, Northampton County. The former educator said he was inspired to run because the status quo in Harrisburg is not working anymore. "As a long-time community leader in our region, I will fight for each and every family, child and senior citizen in Harrisburg," Donaher said in a news release. Donaher is tired of state lawmakers' inaction tackling the problems and issues real Pennsylvanians face, he said. If elected, Donaher says he will be focused on enhancing the education opportunities for all children, creating a stronger job market, generating a plan to reduce property taxes, gauging the opioid and heroin epidemic and preserving the states's farmlands and open spaces. Over the last year, Pennsylvania's economic growth has fallen behind the national rate, Donaher said. "It really is a shame that the only way a middle-income family is going to see an increase in take home pay is through a revision to the tax code. Our working families deserve better," he said. "Let's fight to see that employees get real raises in their pay, not just temporary relief through a federal law written by lobbyists." When Donaher retired from the school district in 2015, he was director of student services. During his 30-year career as an educator, Donaher taught math, was an assistant principal at both Liberty and Freedom high schools and principal of Liberty. "I have seen up close and personal how working families and children struggle by no fault of their own," Donaher said. "Making sure I am doing all I can for my community that has been so good to me continues to be my priority." He was elected to a four-year, at-large term on the school board in November 2015 following his retirement. He serves on the Northampton Community College board of trustees and is president of the board of the Five Star Heart Project, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching "the fundamentals of hard work, discipline, and sacrifice to middle school students through sports." Donaher is also chair of the pastoral council of the Holy Infancy Roman Catholic Church and a member of the South Side Vision 20/20 steering committee. "There is much work to be done to better our neighborhoods and community," Donaher said. "I will fight to improve the lives of Pennsylvania's families, children, seniors, and to help generate a better economy for all of our citizens." The district encompasses portions of Bethlehem and Moore townships, as well as Bushkill, East Allen, Hanover, Lower Nazareth and Plainfield townships and the boroughs of Bath, Chapman, Pen Argyl and Wind Gap. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The owner of a Palmer Township home converted into apartments suffered smoke inhalation in a fire Thursday afternoon, an official said. One firefighter was also injured in the fire reported at 4:33 p.m. at 2710 Freemansburg Avenue, according to township fire Assistant Chief Jim Alercia. Firefighters from eight departments responded, and the effort took more than an hour to bring the fire under control. The home had been sectioned off into multiple apartments on the first and second floors, Alercia said. Only one was being rented, but the tenant was not home at the time of the fire. The landlord, Betty Brandao, was in the building at the time of the fire and was assisted outside by Palmer Township police, Alercia said. She was tended to at the scene by EMS. The fire started in a first floor apartment and spread to the second floor through an interior wall, Alercia said. The cause remained under investigation by the Palmer Township Fire Investigations Office. Responding along with the Palmer Municipal Fire Department were the Wilson Borough, Williams Township, Bethlehem Township and Nancy Run, Freemansburg, Upper Nazareth and Hanover Township fire departments. This was Northampton County's second house fire Thursday in which a firefighter was hurt, following a stubborn blaze in the morning in Moore Township. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. UPDATE: Landlord treated, firefighter hurt in Palmer apartment building fire Firefighters from multiple municipalities were responding to a dwelling fire Thursday in Palmer Township. It was reported about 4:30 p.m. at 2710 Freemansburg Ave. Authorities closed the road between Dunkle and Leiman streets, a Northampton County emergency dispatch supervisor said. There were no immediate reports of any injuries, the dispatcher said about 5:15 p.m. The building appeared to be occupied, based on reports of people coming out of it as firefighters were responding, the dispatcher said. Smoke is visible from a house fire the evening of Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018, at 2710 Freemansburg Avenue in Palmer Township. (Jim Deegan | Lehighvalleylive.com contributor) The Palmer Municipal Fire Department was on scene, with assistance from at least Nancy Run Fire Co. in Bethlehem Township, reports from the scene indicated. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Donald Kemmerer confessed to police he molested a 7-year-old girl. But he changed his story, proclaimed his innocence and went to trial anyway. He was convicted of four charges by a Northampton County jury on Tuesday, including aggravated indecent assault. Donald Kemmerer Northampton County Judge Paula Roscioli sentenced him Thursday to 12 years and 11 months to 35 years in Northampton County Prison, according to online court records. The 31-year-old Effort, Monroe County, man molested the child in Bethlehem some time between July 2016 and January 2017. "I am deeply sorry for what I did. It will never happen again," he wrote in a confession to police. Roscioli sentenced Kemmerer in the aggravated range for the charges of aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of a child. Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Laura Majewski argued for severe sentences because Kemmerer showed no remorse and committed the crimes while he was a registered sex offender in Pennsylvania. "I believe that no matter what the sentence handed down today is, it will never compare to the sentence that this 7 year old child will serve," Majewski told the judge Thursday. "Hers will be for life." Kemmerer did not select the victim at random. They knew each other. Kemmerer pleaded guilty in 2011 to six counts of sexual abuse of children in Monroe County. He was sentenced in Monroe County to three years of probation. As part of the plea deal, 46 charges were withdrawn. He was acquitted of 13 charges by the jury on Tuesday in Northampton County. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. GARDAI have released two men who were being questioned in connection with the murder of Martin Clancy last weekend. One of the men, who is aged in his early forties, was arrested on Wednesday night as part of the investigation into the death of the 45-year-old, whose body was found at his home at Little OCurry Street on Sunday night. He was questioned by detectives at Mayorstone garda station on suspicion of witholding information from gardai investigating the death of Mr Clancy, whose funeral will take place in Moyross on Monday morning. Separately, a man who was arrested in Cork city earlier this week has also been released without charge. The man, whose is aged in his mid twenties and from Limerick, was detaiined at Roxboro Road garda station under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. He was released from garda custody shortly before midday this Friday. A garda spokesperson has confirmed that investigations are continuing and that a file is to be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. A FORMER Limerick Sinn Fein councillor who left the party over bullying allegations has described Maurice Quinlivans defence of suspended MP Barry McElduff as ridiculous. Cllr Lisa-Marie Sheehy, 23, who quit Sinn Fein last September, also said the fact party bosses have only expelled the MP for three months demonstrates the attitude of the party to people who do wrong. Mr McElduff, who represents West Tyrone in the North, sparked anger this week after he posed with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head on the anniversary of the 1976 attack in the village of the same name, where 10 Protestants were killed, allegedly by the IRA. Limericks only Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan took to Live95FMs airwaves to defend his party colleague this week, saying it is an incredible coincidence that the picture was posted 42 years to the day of the atrocity. Cllr Sheehy, who now sits as an Independent, tweeted a link to this story, typing: A coincidence? Because he normally videos himself putting various other sliced pans on his head and just got unlucky? Speaking on Live95FM, Mr Quinlivan said he felt that the three month suspension handed down is adequate. I genuinely do not believe he set out to cause offence. Its an incredible coincidence, and I believe thats what happened. The party acted quickly. Our party leaders in the North met with him, and as a result he has been suspended for three months, he said. But Cllr Sheehy of Glenroe retorted: A coincidence? Come on! Maurice Quinlivans explanation was so ridiculous, and it just shows the attitude of the party to people who do wrong, who cause offence, who are insensitive and upset other people by their actions. I just wanted to highlight the ridiculous nature of his comments really. They were laughable, she said. The youngest female councillor in the country believes Mr McElduff should have considered stepping down in the wake of the controversial video. It was an intentional upset. Things can happen, people make mistakes, we all understand that. But that was an intentional hurt. Three months suspension does not reflect the hurt caused, she added. For his part, Mr McElduff apologised for the post, and offered to meet Unionist families. In a Tweet, he wrote: Had not realised or imagined for a second any possible link between product brand name and Kingsmill anniversary. Fine Gaels Junior Minister, Limerick TD Patrick ODonovan says the three-month suspension does not go far enough. He said: The behaviour, I think Simon Coveney described it as stupid yesterday, I think that is putting it mildly. I think the reaction of the relatives spoke volumes for the hurt that had been inflicted. But Sinn Fein has made the decision to impose the sanction, and it is what it is, but the relatives dont believe that it is appropriate and to be quite honest about it I would agree with them." Mr Quinlivan declined to comment further when contacted. A MAN who is accused of throwing a pipe bomb through the front window of a house on the southside of Limerick city is to be tried on indictment at the circuit court. Stephen Grace, aged 26, who has an address at McGarry House, Alphonsus Street, Limerick is charged under the provisions of the Explosives Substances Act in connection with an incident which occurred last September. It is alleged he was in possession of an improvised explosive device namely a pipe bomb at Galvone Road, Kennedy Park in the early hours of September 22, 2017. A number of homes were evacuated for several hours after the pipe-bomb was thrown through the sitting room window of a house in the area shortly before 1am. While the suspect device did not go off and nobody was injured in the incident, gardai requested the assistance of the army bomb squad from Cork who rendered it safe. A full investigation was launched and Mr Grace was subsequently arrested and charged in connection with the incident. A file was prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions following the incident and during a review of the case at Limerick District Court on Tuesday, Sergeant John Moloney confirmed the matter is to proceed on indictment at Limerick Circuit Court. Noting that formal directions had been received fro the Director of Public Prosecutions, Judge Mary Larkin agreed to adjourn the matter for a fortnight to facilitate the preparation of a book of evidence. Once it is completed, the case will then be sent forward for trial most likely towards the end of this year. If convicted on indictment Mr Grace faces a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment. The defendant was remanded in continuing custody having been previously refused bail. THERE was a heated exchange at this months Adare Rathkeale municipal district meeting which led to one councillor walking out, after another was accused of launching a personal attack. Fianna Fail Cllr Kevin Sheahan queried a municipal allocation of 50,000 going back a number of years, for a slipway at Ringmoylan in Pallaskenry work for which has not yet been undertaken. During the same meeting this Tuesday, Cllr Sheahan also insisted on calling Independent Cllr Emmett OBrien, Mr OBrien, to which Cllr OBrien responded that he wished to be called by his proper title. Cllr Sheahan said that he sits uncomfortably and cant rest easy on 50,000, resting in council accounts for a project in Pallaskenry Ive seen nothing on. Cllr Sheahan went on to say that he has met nobody in Pallaskenry who thinks a slipway is a good idea. I walked the streets in Pallaskenry and noticed that the footpaths are bad. I dont see evidence that its getting the help it needs, and theres 50,000 of municipal funds losing its value bit by bit. Independent Cllr OBrien, himself from Pallaskenry, said that Cllr Sheahans comments were most dispiriting and most disappointing. We started off the year united but immediately theres an attack, said Cllr OBrien. The former Fianna Fail councillor pointed out that emergency personnel are unable to access the Shannon Estuary at Ringmoylan, which he said has become known locally for tragedy. To politicise this slipway is outrageous, he added. Cllr OBrien made reference to a tragedy in 2014 in which a woman lost her life. Emergency craft were forced to enter the water at Foynes and in Clare during that incident, he said. Cllr OBrien added that it was also a concern to him that the money has been sitting in a council account. This is an attack on Pallaskenry which has been neglected for 30 years, said Cllr OBrien, making reference to the time before his own election in 2014. To criticise this is the most callous form of attack since Ive been elected and since before Ive been elected. Talk to families who have lost loved ones there, he said. During the exchange, Cllr OBrien muttered this is continuous and walked out, taking his belongings with him. Cllr Kevin Sheahan said: I am within my right to wonder whats happening with 50,000 as a councillor! The meeting was adjourned for five minutes after which all councillors returned to the table including Cllr O'Brien. Cathaoirleach Cllr Richard ODonoghue said that thereafter, speakers would get three minutes each. There were to be no personal attacks or he would adjourn the meeting immediately. He also said everyone is entitled to their proper title. A council engineer confirmed that the delay in delivering the slipway is due to landowner issues. MINISTER Shane Ross has asked Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to look at route options for the Limerick to Cork motorway, which could delay the stop-start project for up to three years. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe have both said the 1 billion project is certain to be included in the governments 10-year capital plan later this month. However, what is not so certain is the route. When the project was shelved in 2011 due to the economic downturn, the plan was for an 80km motorway from the junction with the N21 at Attyflynn to the proposed Cork northern ring road near Blarney. The corridor chosen was to run to the west of the current N20. Up to 3,000 attended public consultation days on the route options. In the intervening years there have been many calls for a shorter motorway from Limerick to Cahir, which would then link with the M8 and Cork. To seek clarity for his constituents, Deputy Niall Collins tabled a Dail question to the Minister for Transport. He asked: Will the proposed M20 follow the route previously planned or will the planning now being undertaken by TII assess alternative routes? Minister Ross replied: In relation to the Cork to Limerick strategic road link, as stipulated in the Public Spending Code and this Department's Capital Appraisal Guidelines, TII is required to carry out a detailed appraisal, including options analysis." The Limerick Leader understands that if the TII is allowed dust off plans for the corridor chosen it could get the project to An Bord Pleanala by 2020. Construction work could then start by 2021 / 2022 with possible completion in 2027 / 2028. However, if they have to go back to the drawing board it will add a minimum of three years. Deputy Collins said landowners on the chosen corridor have been living in limbo since the project was stopped. They haven't been able to plan for the future. It is hanging over them. They need to know if the motorway is going to be in that corridor or not. The answer I got back implies they are being asked to start from scratch and that the TII is being tasked with looking at all options. Landowners across the south of the county don't know where they stand, said Deputy Collins. He said this epitomises Fine Gael's spin over substance tactics. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made a big statement last October that the project will be included in the 10-year capital plan. On Friday, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said it is seen as a top priority in government circles. They are all talk but still no actual answers of where it is going to go. It was a simple question, said Deputy Collins. Following a query from the Leader, a TII spokesperson said: TII is anticipating working with Limerick County Council and engage with consultants on reviewing options for the Limerick to Cork strategic road link as required in the Departments Capital Appraisal Guidelines. Over the last few months a review has been on-going to see which elements of the previous M20 route selection process can be utilised to assist with future route option analysis. A media query to the Department of Transport went unanswered. After a follow up email, they said it would be best to talk to TII on project itself. As the department has responsibility for overall policy and funding the Leader sent two more emails asking for clarity. There was no response. Gerald Quain farms on, or very near, the previously chosen corridor in Creggane / Colmanswell on the Limerick side of Charleville. Theres no question but that farmers in the north Cork and south Limerick areas who are on the route now find themselves in a kind of limbo where they are unable to plan or commit to their farming ventures until they know the actual route envisaged and the various sub-options around that. Were on hold in terms of how well be farming and farming, as everyone should know, is all about planning ahead. Detailed route plans have to be made as quickly as possible and then those plans have to communicated to the farmers concerned without prejudice to their rights and with every respect for the individual landowners. Ill conclude by pointing out that this south Limerick-north Cork region probably accounts for 15% to 20% of all the milk produced in the state its the heart of the Golden Vale and probably the best natural milk-producing region in the EU this isnt any kind of low value waste ground or scrub that were talking about here, said Mr Quain. After Minister Donohoes comments on Friday where he said the M20 is a top priority, Dr James Ring, Limerick Chamber chief executive, said he would be interested to see timescales. We cannot rest up just yet. It's all well and good to say we are going to build a road. Obviously Im aware of the fact that the routes may be have to be looked at again. This time last year it wasnt on the agenda at all. It is a priority which is great to hear. But in terms of a timescale, we want it to happen as soon as possible. We cannot afford to wait five or ten years for this to start. Its worth noting we are meeting with the secretary general in the department this month to discuss, not just the M20 but to discuss transport infrastructure in general. But we will be relaying to him just how important it is that this road starts as fast as possible, said Dr Ring. A FILE is to be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions following the arrest of two men following a hijacking in County Limerick last week. A man and his son were traveling in a blue Volksagen Jetta which was initially flagged down by three men near the Tesco store at Gortboy, Newcastle West at around 12.30am on January 2, last. The culprits then threatened them and forced the father to drive them to Askeaton where they assaulted him before fleeing on foot. While shocked and upset, the occupants of the car were not seriously injured. The Limerick Leader has learned that two men aged 37 and 17 who were arrested by gardai on Thursday have since been released without charge. Following their arrest, they were detained at Newcastle West garda station under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act before being released. Gardai are appealing to anyone who was in the area and who may have dashcam footage from around the time of the incident to contact them at 069 20650. Computer & Technology Dont get lost in the panel jungle How to choose the right monitor 12.01.2018 10:44:56 - (live-PR.com) - Employees and IT decision-makers spend a lot of hours in front of their monitors each day. Kevin Yang, Technical Product Manager Europe at MMD explains what you should know about panels when you pick your new monitor. Q: What are the most important features and benefits of IPS and VA panels? We believe that the various panel types have been somewhat stereotyped - Employees and IT decision-makers spend a lot of hours in front of their monitors each day. Kevin Yang, Technical Product Manager Europe at MMD explains what you should know about panels when you pick your new monitor.Q: What are the most important features and benefits of IPS and VA panels?We believe that the various panel types have been somewhat stereotyped over the years. IPS as well as VA panels have been in the market for almost 20 years, and the original versions of those panels had a bad name in certain aspects. Compared to LCD TN panels, IPS once had the reputation of suffering from slow response times, blurring, and ghosting, but that is no longer the case. Modern IPS panels are much improved, with reasonable response times for example, and suit many different application purposes. The same applies to VA panels, which have always been famous for having a better contrast ratio than IPS and TN. On the downside VA panels were said to have poor response time and to lack colour accuracy, in comparison to IPS. However, todays monitors no longer have these problems; we have VA panels with fast response times and even Quantum Dot technology that allows a better colour quality than IPS. Q: What kind of panel is best suited for graphic designers or video makers? Colour accuracy is very important to graphic designers, which is why IPS panels are recommended for this group. We would say this is also the case for video makers, except they need excellent resolution as well, since higher resolution monitors make it easier to edit video. For example, rather than having two monitors next to each other, one for the video and one for the control panels, they should go for minimum 34-inch 21:9 monitors that allow both on one screen, which is a real benefit. Q: How about companies looking to increase employee productivity? It mostly depends on what kind of work employees are going carry out on the monitor, but generally speaking it is better to have a panel with a flicker-free backlight or a low blue light functionality. This avoids headaches after long hours spent in front of the screen and reduces shortwave blue light rays, which are potentially harmful to the eyes. If the user has a multi-screen setup, borderless panels are the best choice because they enable a better integration of the screens. Q: And what should home users look for? For general home use, a regular monitor with Full HD for web browsing is more than enough, but casual gamers might want a large-screen monitor on which they can play console games and watch videos. Q: Which refresh rate should a typical home or office user look for? 60 Hz is currently the top choice for these users only dedicated hardcore gamers would benefit from 144 Hz panels. In fact, over the next year we are going to launch super high-resolution monitors, even 8K, with the very best colour quality, HDR technology, and yet they are still at 60 Hz because there is just no need to go beyond that. Right now, there are no movies or multimedia content that can benefit from a faster refresh rate than 60 Hz; it is really just for hardcore gaming. About MMD MMD is a wholly owned company of TPV established in 2009 through a brand license agreement with Philips. MMD exclusively markets and sells Philips branded LCD displays worldwide. By combining the Philips brand promise with TPVs manufacturing expertise in displays, MMD uses a fast and focused approach to bringing innovative products to market. MMD serves the Western European markets from its headquarters in Amsterdam. The Eastern European and CIS markets are served by a local office in Prague. Through its network of local sales teams MMD works with all major IT distributors and resellers. The companys design and development centre is located in Taiwan. over the years. IPS as well as VA panels have been in the market for almost 20 years, and the original versions of those panels had a bad name in certain aspects. Compared to LCD TN panels, IPS once had the reputation of suffering from slow response times, blurring, and ghosting, but that is no longer the case. Modern IPS panels are much improved, with reasonable response times for example, and suit many different application purposes. The same applies to VA panels, which have always been famous for having a better contrast ratio than IPS and TN. On the downside VA panels were said to have poor response time and to lack colour accuracy, in comparison to IPS. However, todays monitors no longer have these problems; we have VA panels with fast response times and even Quantum Dot technology that allows a better colour quality than IPS.Q: What kind of panel is best suited for graphic designers or video makers?Colour accuracy is very important to graphic designers, which is why IPS panels are recommended for this group. We would say this is also the case for video makers, except they need excellent resolution as well, since higher resolution monitors make it easier to edit video. For example, rather than having two monitors next to each other, one for the video and one for the control panels, they should go for minimum 34-inch 21:9 monitors that allow both on one screen, which is a real benefit.Q: How about companies looking to increase employee productivity?It mostly depends on what kind of work employees are going carry out on the monitor, but generally speaking it is better to have a panel with a flicker-free backlight or a low blue light functionality. This avoids headaches after long hours spent in front of the screen and reduces shortwave blue light rays, which are potentially harmful to the eyes. If the user has a multi-screen setup, borderless panels are the best choice because they enable a better integration of the screens.Q: And what should home users look for?For general home use, a regular monitor with Full HD for web browsing is more than enough, but casual gamers might want a large-screen monitor on which they can play console games and watch videos.Q: Which refresh rate should a typical home or office user look for?60 Hz is currently the top choice for these users only dedicated hardcore gamers would benefit from 144 Hz panels. In fact, over the next year we are going to launch super high-resolution monitors, even 8K, with the very best colour quality, HDR technology, and yet they are still at 60 Hz because there is just no need to go beyond that. Right now, there are no movies or multimedia content that can benefit from a faster refresh rate than 60 Hz; it is really just for hardcore gaming.About MMDMMD is a wholly owned company of TPV established in 2009 through a brand license agreement with Philips. MMD exclusively markets and sells Philips branded LCD displays worldwide. By combining the Philips brand promise with TPVs manufacturing expertise in displays, MMD uses a fast and focused approach to bringing innovative products to market. MMD serves the Western European markets from its headquarters in Amsterdam. The Eastern European and CIS markets are served by a local office in Prague. Through its network of local sales teams MMD works with all major IT distributors and resellers. The companys design and development centre is located in Taiwan. www.mmd-p.com Contact information: MMD Prins Bernhardplein 200, 6th floor 1097 JB Amsterdam Contact Person: Xeni Bairaktari Phone: + 31 20 5046945 eMail: eMail Web: http://www.mmd-p.com Author: Peter Link e-mail Web: http://www.united.de Phone: +49 30 7890760 12.01.2018 10:44:56 - Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. McLaren, the second most successful team on the F1 grid, is already raring to go and hopeful of putting itself back where it belongs: near the front of the grid. McLaren boss Zak Brown recently said the team's desire to win was off the charts, thanks mainly to its new partnership with engine supplier Renault, a catalyst for change at the Woking-based outfit. Speaking Thursday at the Autosport International show in Birmingham, Brown confirmed McLaren's positive outlook. "Were very eager to get to Australia," said the McLaren boss. "Weve obviously had a significant power deficit that we think Renault will fix for us and that should get us back towards the front of the field. "What slot I dont know, but it will be towards the front. "We had a really good chassis last year. We know the majority of what we put on the chassis over the year correlated and worked," added the American executive. "The improvement that you saw over the year, the most significant part of that was our chassis development." Being powered by an engine which achieved three race wins last season - with Red Bull Racing - provides an obvious boost to McLaren's prospects. "They've got the power," Brown said of Renault. "Though they've got some reliability issues when they turn the power up. "Mexico was a setting issue, but Max [Verstappen] did win the race in pretty dominant fashion, so they've got a fast engine. "I actually think the top three are pretty close, and have all won races last year, so there's clearly not that big of a deficit between them. "We have some areas we can improve, we're not perfect, but the lack of power was the single biggest area of weakness, so I think when we get the Renault in the back we should see a substantial difference in Australia. "We're happy with our working relationship with Renault, and we should hopefully get back to where people are used to seeing McLaren at the front of the field. "We think we can be on the podium, but its tough," he said. Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter Czech on the harmony Debashish Chaudhuri, the Indian-born conductor of the Bohuslav Martin orchestra on their second Indian tour and his own musical journey /news/talking-point/czech-on-the-harmony-111645963033015.html 111645963033015 story The Indian classical music (ICM) traditions both in north and south India are disciplines that are far older and more developed than European classical music. Photo: Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra The term Rach 2" never fails to strike fear in the hearts of pianists. It refers to the formidable Piano Concerto No. 2, the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoffs masterpiece. Its the mountain that every professional pianist aspires to climb. Lasting a little less than 40 minutes, the piece affords the pianist a display of dazzling virtuosity with breathless leaps and runs from top to bottom of the keyboard. Rachmaninoff flamboyantly provides one tear-jerking melody after another. The concertos sombre second movement (or part) was memorably used to great melancholic effect in David Leans 1945 film Brief Encounter. Delhiites experienced the magisterial composition live in concert by Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra on Friday. The ensemble will continue the four-city India tour, performing next in Mumbai, Goa and Kolkata. Its their second visit, after the 2016 tour, with the Indian-born conductor Debashish Chaudhuri. Chaudhuri was born and educated in Kolkata before moving to the noted Prague Conservatory in the Czech Republic. Hes lived there for almost two decades. In an email interview, he speaks of his musical journey, challenges of such a tour and the dynamics of rehearsals when his wife, Jana Chaudhuri, is the piano soloist. Edited excerpts: How did your musical journey begin? My parents loved music and I recall watching them sing together in the evening: Indian songs, Rabindrasangeet, Nazrulgeeti, folk songs and even kirtans with my grandparents who also enjoyed music. My parents also played instruments but never professionally, it was just for fun. The love of music was quite strong in our home as a source of joy. As a child my parents noticed how music relaxed me, so they gave me a violin when I was 7. I went through several instruments and phases before finally studying conducting in conservatories in Prague and Italy. Is the full orchestra visiting India? How was the experience on your last visit? There are well over 100 musicians in the orchestra who alternate in concerts. We are travelling with 60 members to India. 2016 was a very special occasionthe first Czech orchestra to visit India after 57 years. The moment I remember the most was the second I walked on to the stage, living the dream of bringing the orchestra to India and to see the house full. The next moment came right at the end when the entire audience joined in spontaneously singing with the orchestra, who were so surprised, but it gave them more energy to play and the whole hall was resounding in pure happiness. European classical music right from the very beginning explored and developed polyphonically...more than one note sounding at the same time...in some kind of relationship and logic.- Debashish Chaudhuri What are the challenges of undertaking such a tour? The challenges and the resources needed are enormous. The logistical coordination took over two years alone of constant work by my manager Lenka (Dobias Cerna) planning with our Indian partners. We also had to buy extra seats in the planes exclusively for the cellos and the tuba, while the largest instruments, such as the timpanis and double basses, had to be locally sourced and transported separately as cargo on road. Also, we have to deal with the humidity, which affects the tuning of the instruments. There are too many fine details. When you are conducting and your wife is the soloist whats the dynamic between you two? When my wife is the soloist, it has a lot of advantages because we can spend a lot of time working on the piece and discussing various aspects technically, musically, historically. It always gives us more insight into our performances. The other side of the coin is that because the relationship is much closer, the tempers can often flare more than usual, but the results are always more rewarding. Do you also follow Indian classical music? What according to you are the similarities or differences between the Eastern and Western traditions? Not as much as I would like to. The Indian classical music (ICM) traditions both in north and south India are disciplines that are far older and more developed than European classical music. European classical music right from the very beginning explored and developed polyphonically, this means more than one note sounding at the same time, in some kind of relationship and logic. Indian music is much more rhythmically complicated, whereas Western classical music (WCM) is more complicated harmonically, where different notes sound at the same time in logical relationships which give different colours. Is improvisation not possible at all in WCM? It is very hard to explain this, but it is not possible in a way that is allowed in ICM. However, there is a very fine line between improvising and tremendous interpretation. Yes, each note that we have to play and for how long is written. But there is still so much about that single note that is not possible to write. And it is that space which has given birth to the art of interpretation, which, in my opinion, is as infinite as the art of improvisation. How have the orchestra members responded to India? Czechs are a very adventurous and humble people who have always had great respect for India. The last tour left a profound impression on them, and changed their lives positively musically as well as personally. I think that would be only possible through the cultural shock one gets in India. What I am very happy about is that the Czechs are the people who appreciate the shock and Im sure it will be the same this year. The orchestra is touring India till 19 January. For venue, timings and ticket details, visit www.filharmonie-zlin.cz/en/ Around the world in 10 exhibitions From 10th century ceramics at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto to reactionary art in So Paulo, here's your guide to the best 2018 cultural events /news/talking-point/around-the-world-in-10-exhibitions-111645962788008.html 111645962788008 story The jewel in the crown of the Hapsburg empire for long, its wedding-cake buildings and ornate cafes were subsidized. Photo: Alamy There are a lot of social, political, economic, and ecological unknowns going into 2018. The future of art in the coming year, in contrast, is pretty much set in stone. Visitors the world over have museum, biennial, and non-profits advance programming to thank: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for instance, can schedule an exhibition as much as four years in advance. A lot of these exhibitions require years of planning. There are loans from other museums and private collectors to negotiate, wall text and catalogues to write, shipping to arrange, and, often must crucial of all, special funding to secure to make the exhibition possible. In short, in an increasingly tumultuous world, culture remains the one constant. For anyone in need of reassurance can head to any of these 10 most exciting exhibitions on the horizon this year and take heart. Moriz Nahr: Photography And Modernism at the Leopold Museum in Vienna 24 August29 October Its hard to overstate the convulsive urban and social change that Vienna was subjected to at the turn of the century. The jewel in the crown of the Hapsburg empire for long, its wedding-cake buildings and ornate cafes were subsidized in large part by the outlying Crown Lands," which, by 1900, were beginning to make concerted efforts towards autonomy. Insulated as it was, Vienna began to feel the effects of change: its city fortifications came down, the middle class grew, and it ever-so-slowly began to embrace technology and modernism. Moriz Nahr (1845-1945), a pioneer of the photographic medium, was appointed court photographer to the archduke Franz Ferdinand, and thus was on-hand to capture the changes from the highest (and occasionally, lowest) levels. This will be a spectacular, not-to-miss exhibition of his oeuvres highlights. The Fatimid dynastys staggeringly sophisticated caliphate reached its peak in the 10th and 11th centuries. Photo: Wikimedia Commons The World Of The Fatimids at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto 10 March2 July The Fatimid dynastys staggeringly sophisticated caliphate reached its peak in the 10th and 11th centuries. Stretched along North Africa and the Middle East, its capital in whats now Cairo, Egypt, fostered a boom in arts and sciences, eventually surpassing virtually any other contemporaneous civilization. The Aga Khan Museums show will include an array of delicate, intricate objects that include ceramic lusterware, rock crystal, and ivory. In a show that first appeared at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2017 as part of Los Angeles Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, which explored Latin American art throughout the city. Photo: Rafael Doniz Painted In Mexico, 1700-1790: Pinxit Mexici at the Met Fifth Avenue in New York 24 April22 July In a show that first appeared at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2017 as part of Los Angeles Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA," which explored Latin American art throughout the city, this show, a collection of more than 100 artworks, will travel to New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art this year. Put in the context of the Mets prodigious collection of European masterworks of the same period, the show will take on a new importance as questions of colonialism, international exchange, and art history are put in stark and fascinating relief With more than 130 works in total, this is one of the first exhibitions to re-examine (or for many, introduce) one of the most influential, if not talented, artists of the 20th century. Gabriele Munter at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark 3 May19 August Its always nice to be genuinely surprised by an artist you know nothing about. Given that very few people have ever heard of Gabriele Munter (18771962), lets hope everyone else feels that way too. Munter co-founded the influential Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter with Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Lyonel Feininger, and others, but her oeuvre actually spanned numerous styles and periods. With more than 130 works in total, this is one of the first exhibitions to re-examine (or for many, introduce) one of the most influential, if not talented, artists of the 20th century. Success of Michel Sittow (14691525), an Estonian artistic savant who was sought after by European heads of state, proves that celebrity goes back a long way Michel Sittow: Estonian Painter At The Courts Of Renaissance Europe at the National Gallery in Washington, DC 28 January13 May People have the tendency to assume that celebrity is a contemporary phenomenon, but the success of Michel Sittow (14691525), an Estonian artistic savant who was sought after by European heads of state, proves that celebrity goes back a long way. Thirteen of the artists known paintings will be assembled alongside those of one of his contemporaries, Juan de Flandes, in the museums West Building. For the past three decades, Venice, Italy, has hosted an international architecture exhibition in the Giardini. Photo: AFP 16th International Architecture Biennale in Venice 26 May25 November For the past three decades, Venice, Italy, has hosted an international architecture exhibition in the Giardini (a public park filled with pavilions hosted by countries around the world), and in its Arsenale, a massive, ancient warehouse where biennial organizers install exhibitions by architects and artists. While the biennale can have its slightly wonky, academic side, theres always a dazzling, spectacular component to the show, too: Uncanny structures, unheard of materials, and new technologies are sure to make it a must-see. Plus, youll be in Venice, so how bad can it be. Historically there was so much art crowded on to the academys walls that it transcended a salon-style exhibition. Photo: Wikimedia Commons The Great Spectacle: 250 Years Of The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London 12 June19 August Every summer for the past two and a half centuries, Londons Royal Academy of Art has put on a rambling, blockbuster show that highlights work by British artists. Historically there was so much art crowded on to the academys walls that it transcended a salon-style" exhibition and came to resemble something closer to wallpaper. To mark the 250-year anniversary of the Summer Exhibition, the Royal Academy has created a retrospective that marks the exhibitions highlights, both historical and contemporarythe show promises to run the gamut from Joshua Reynolds to Wolfgang Tillmans. The National Portrait Gallery has been collecting daguerreotypes for 50 years and to mark this, it has planned a large installation to commemorate the milestone. Photo: Alamy Daguerreotypes: Five Decades Of Collecting at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC 15 June 20182 June 2019 Daguerreotypes were the precursor to modern-day photography. The process, which was ubiquitous in the mid-19th century, involved exposing a treated silver plate to light through an early camera. The National Portrait Gallery has been collecting daguerreotypes for 50 years and to mark this, it has planned a large installation to commemorate the milestone. These arent just fascinating artworks; they are also stunning chronicles of the birth of modernism. Ostensibly a highly theoretical show, the exhibition features documentation of literal revoltpaintings, films, photographs, even engravings Uprisings at the Contemporary Art University Museum in Mexico City 24 February29 July Although this was planned well in advance, Uprisings, a sweeping show curated by the star French art historian Georges Didi-Huberman, feels awfully topical. Ostensibly a highly theoretical show, the exhibition features documentation of literal revoltpaintings, films, photographs, even engravingsset within the largest public institution in Mexico. For details, visit the museum website. Set in locations throughout the city and in a massive modernist pavilion designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the biennial comes at a delicate time for art in Brazil. Photo: AFP 33rd Sao Paulo Biennial in Sao Paulo 7 September-9 December Generally considered one of the most important contemporary arts events in South America, the Sao Paulo Biennial has a history of combining unknown artists with the type of discourse that the international contemporary art world knows and loves. Set in locations throughout the city and in a massive modernist pavilion designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the biennial comes at a delicate time for art in Brazil: last year, protestors shut down an exhibit of Queer Art in the city of Porto Allegre, claiming that the works by blue-chip artists such as Lygia Clark promoted pedophilia". How organizers of Sao Paulos biennial tread an increasingly reactionary social line remains to be seen, but regardless, the show itself is not to be missed. Bloomberg Malika Kishwar: A forgotten Indian queen in Paris The tragic story of Malika Kishwar, who rests in an unmarked grave in France's most famous cemetery /news/talking-point/malika-kishwar-a-forgotten-indian-queen-in-paris-111645963102481.html 111645963102481 story She lies buried amidst sepulchres that house the remains of many who are still famous. There is Jim Morrison on the premises, the American rock legend whom trains of tourists come to pay homage, like pilgrims bearing flowers. Edith Piaf, the waif who sang her way to greatness, finds her peace nearby, as does Frederic Chopin, the composer whose pickled heart is in Warsaw but whose body dissolves in the French capital. Benjamin Franklins grandson rests here, and in the vicinity there is a man believed to have been sired by Napoleon. Oscar Wildes sculpted grave competes with Marcel Prousts neat bed of stone, and many more still are the artists, writers, and persons of esteem who crowd the hillside cemetery that is Pere Lachaise in Paris. And yet, between them all, under a platform of rugged rock, lies this tragic Indian woman. Her name and cause have been largely forgotten, but since 1858, she has been here, longer than many of her revered neighbours. Tourists walk by with cameras, oblivious to her unmarked square existence. But every now and then there is a stray visitor who arrives on a quest: to locate the final resting place of that remarkable woman, the last queen of Awadh. I was that visitor a few days ago, when I trekked up Paris most famous graveyard to look for this forgotten tomb. The lady appears in yellowed old books by several names. She was to some Malika Kishwar, while others knew her as Janab-i Aliyah, Her Sublime Excellency, mother to the ruler of Oude", Wajid Ali Shah. In 1856, when the British deposed this nawab from his ancestral seat in Lucknow, his family departed for colonial Calcutta, with all the money they could gather and what dignity they had left. But while the son (a crazy imbecile" in the eyes of his sneering oppressors) prepared to fade quietly into history, the mother was determined to win back that which was her familys by right. That very year, this woman who knew little beyond her sequestered palace, set foot on a ship, determined to sail to England so she might speakwoman to womanto the English queen in person. After all, declared the middle-aged begum, Victoria was also a mother"; she would recognize the despair her people had unleashed, and restore to the House of Awadh territory, titles, and its rightful honour. And so proceeded Malika Kishwar, her health already in decline, braving cold winds in a foreign land, to plead the cause of royal justice. The mission was doomed from the start. Advisers were many and much was the money they sought for the privilege of their counsel. The results, meanwhile, were nowhere to be found. As historian Rosie Llewellyn-Jones records, Kishwar discovered quickly enough that Queen Victoria, in her circular dress", had little power to bestow anything more than polite conversation on her and her Awadhi linewhen an audience was granted, they spoke about boats and English mansions, not about imperial treacheries and the unjust business in Lucknow. In the British parliament, things got worse. A prayer at long last prepared was dismissed on spurious bureaucratic grounds: the begum was to submit a humble petition", words that she failed to use in the document laid before the House. While her son accepted British imperium, the mother was obstinate in battle. So, when she wished to travel, they sought to dragoon her into acknowledging their suzeraintyif Malika Kishwar and her menage wanted passports, she would have to declare herself a British subject". The begum refused to do anything of the sort, prepared, at best, to be under British protection", but never anybodys subject". And legal quibbles aside, the Great Rebellion of 1857 compounded mattersthere was now no prospect of relinquishing even a fragment of British power when the hour called for a demonstration of obdurate strength alone. Awadh was lost forever. The tide having turned, in 1858, the begum decided to return at last, defeated and unhappy in the extreme. But in Paris she fell ill and died on 24 January. The funeral was simple, but there was yet some dignity and staterepresentatives of the Turkish and Persian sultans gave this Indian queen the regard the British denied her and her line. A cenotaph was constructed by the grave, but it has long since fallen to pieceswhen decades later the authorities at Pere Lachaise sought funds to repair the tomb, her exiled son decided from Calcutta that it was simply not worth his pension, while the colonial state was even less inclined to honour a difficult woman lying several feet underground in an alien European country. And so, since that time, in a graveyard full of magnificent memorials, the queen of Awadh has remained, a shell of broken stone sheltering her from the weeds and overgrowth that alone have made a claim upon her and the story that she tells. Others of her suite also suffered. A younger son had come with her, Sikandar Hashmat by name. He died in England, and was carried to join his mother in her unmarked grave. A grandsons infant child was also buried within, turning the tally in Paris to three. But it was in London that one more of the delegation fell, this one a baby princess, born to Sikandar Hashmat from his Rajput wife on British shores. I walked around a dull little place called Kilburn to look for this grave. And there, in a cemetery, after an hour between tombs set in the soggy English ground, I found a memorial to the child: Princess Omdutel Aurau Begum, who died 14th April 1858", months after her grandmother who was once a queen. But Omdutel, all of 18 months, had a minor triumph where her royal grandmother had nonelying by a pathway in that cemetery in Kilburn, her grave at least bears her name. The begum, on the other hand, has become to the passing tourist at Pere Lachaise in Paris a plinth on which to rest, smoking a cigarette and looking on to a horizon full of the dead, till a stranger might appear to tell how they have under them pieces of a fascinating woman, and the remains of one of Indian historys most unhappy tales. Medium Rare is a column on society, politics and history. Manu S. Pillai is the author of The Ivory Throne: Chronicles Of The House Of Travancore. He tweets at @UnamPillai Tigers on an island Protecting forest corridors is essential to ensure the genetic diversity of tigers /news/talking-point/tigers-on-an-island-111645962476962.html 111645962476962 story On the night of 29 December, the large male tiger Bajirao was run over by a speeding vehicle on National Highway 6 near Bajargaon in Maharashtra. Bajirao, a favourite with tourists, was the dominant male tiger from Bor Tiger Reserve, Indias smallest tiger reserve, with an estimated population of 10-12 tigers. Incidentally, Bors critical tiger habitat" of 138 sq. km is smaller than Bajiraos home rangea 150 sq. km area that spans swathes of forest and human-dominated land in the districts of Wardha and Nagpur. According to tourist safari guides, Bajirao was an infrequent visitor to Bor. That night, the tiger seems to have run out of luck outside the protective cover of the reserve. It probably got blinded by the high beams of passing vehicles. Around 35% of Indias wild tigers may share Bajiraos fate as they live dangerously outside protected reserves. Unplanned development is turning protected areas like Bor into isolated islands. Three studies on tiger genetics published in 2017 draw alarming connections between the demolition of forest corridors and its effect on the reproductive progression of the big cat. If current trends of deforestation continue, then inbreeding, diseases and the lack of genetic variations will push the species towards extinction. What affects tiger connectivity? Prachi Thatte is a wildlife biologist and the principal author of Maintaining Tiger Connectivity And Minimizing Extinction Into The Next Century: Insights From Landscape Genetics And Spatially-explicit Simulations, a new research paper published by the journal Biological Conservation. The study examined the population connectivity of tigers across nine tiger reserves in central India, including Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Satpura, Tadoba-Andhari and Bor. Our research suggests that there is a high probability, as much as 56%, for tigers to go locally extinct from small reserves like Bor if the current population gets isolated from other reserves. Tigers need to remain connected with other subpopulations to maintain a healthy genetic variability. As the median number of tigers within most reserves are low for a viable population interlinking, forest corridors are vital for the future of tigers," she says. Thattes study began in 2012 and has involved five years of rigorous work. The first two years were spent collecting tiger scat samples across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. This was followed by standard laboratory work and analysis at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), in Bengaluru. Of the 580 scat samples Thatte managed to collect after long treks through prime tiger forests, 289 showed up as positive tiger poo. Every day we can process 12 samples and it takes two days to know the species. Then we go for individual identification. It takes another week for 10 samples," explains Thatte. Its a painstaking research as the DNA that we get from faecal samples is poor in quality. Its also low in quantity due to weathering. DNA is only found in the outer layer and once the cells leave the body, they perish. Its like a huge torn-up book which we try to investigate," says Uma Ramakrishnan, associate professor at the NCBS and an award-winning molecular ecologist. She is a co-author of the paper. Towards the end of her postdoctoral research at Stanford University, Ramakrishnan often wondered if there was only one type of tiger in India. It seemed odd to her that India, with 60% of wild tigers in the world, should have very little genetic variation. When she returned to India in 2004, this was a vital factor behind the setting up of her lab in NCBS, which specializes in studying population genetics and the evolutionary history of mammals. P. Anuradha Reddy at the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, Hyderabad. Photo: Kumar/Mint From the 289 positive identifications, Thatte could narrow down to genetic data of 116 individual tigers from nine tiger reserves. This data was simulated through the permutation and combination of 86 different scenarios. These factored in the various future impacts of land use change, human settlements and road-rail networks. The empirical data points to an increasing human footprint on the landscape, from traffic intensity to dense human settlements, and dwindling genetic variety. Current infrastructure development does not incorporate conservation goals while developing project plans. The widening of NH-7 in the Kanha-Pench landscape, for example, has been without adequate wildlife corridors. This undermines the ongoing tiger conservation work in this important biodiverse landscape. The fact that genetic diversity has reduced over time, points to the urgent need to restore and protect corridors between tiger reserves. The future is bleak for the species if forest corridors are not interlinked. This is hard scientific proof one can use while defending a case in court," says Ramakrishnan. The tiger genome In August, Meghana Natesh, another researcher working under Ramakrishnan, published a collaborative genome-wide data study of tigers in India. The study, Conservation Priorities For Endangered Indian Tigers Through A Genomic Lens, is a first of its kind. It revealed the existence of three genetically distinct clusters of tigers in India. The genome not only defines an organism but also encapsulates its evolutionary journey. It holds many secrets about the species history as well as its future. In my lab we do it the hard way, diving deep into the world of genetics, investigating and asking the difficult question," says Ramakrishnan, who is also the co-author of Nateshs research paper. The future is bleak for the species if forest corridors are not interlinked. This is hard scientific proof one can use while defending a case in court.- Uma Ramakrishnan She analysed 38 individual tiger samples from 17 different protected areas to divide the Indian tiger into three genetic basketsthe northwestern cluster, the southern cluster and the central Indian cluster. The tiger genome is 2.4 billion base pairs long. While previous studies looked at 10-12 regions in the genome, Natesh and Ramakrishnan analysed data from over 10,000 regions. They looked at the genetic variation of the entire tiger genome using single-nucleotide polymorphism, the most common genetic variant in DNA. Genetic variation is the raw material for evolution and survival of future generation of tigers. They need to remain connected. Our analyses reveals that tigers from the northwestern cluster (Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve) are genetically isolated and the genetic diversity in the reserve is much lower in comparison to all other clusters which are, as of now, well connected with each other. The loss of genetic connectivity is something to worry about because the long-term health of Ranthambhores tigers will now depend on how they are able to connect with neighbouring tiger populations from central India ," Natesh says. Ranthambhore currently boasts a population of around 65 tigers, including cubs. However, the 392 sq. km tiger reserve doesnt have the capacity to sustain such tiger numbers. Being solitary and territorial in nature, the young tigers of Ranthambhore will soon venture out of the protected area. There are countless examples of such stray tigers either falling victim to poachers or getting crushed under superfast trains on the Delhi-Mumbai railroad. Tigers of central India Tigers usually arent like Bajirao, bold enough to move into human-dominated landscapes. Most choose to be far from human activity, moving through rough terrain along high forest ridges to avoid any contact. This was cited by scientist P. Anuradha Reddy after observing genetic data from 309 tigers over an area of 697,000 sq. km in central India. In her research paper, Tiger Abundance And Gene Flow In Central India Are Driven By Disparate Combinations Of Topography And Land Cover, published in June, she showed how dispersing tigers use the entire central Indian landscape to roam. Reddy works at the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad. According to her, growing urbanization and an increase in mining, rail and road links, irrigation and thermal projects are further fragmenting the iconic tiger landscape of central India. These developments now stand as barriers that limit the gene flow of tigers. The study tries to explain how tigers move through this highly fragmented landscape and understand the genetic-carrying capacity of different protected areas," she says. Reddy hopes that policy makers and park managers prioritize core areas and corridors, using empirical data. Subhoranjan Sen, field director, Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, has been keeping a tab on Kanha-Pench and other corridors around Pench. He gives the example of a sub-adult male tiger from the Pench Tiger Reserve. He was photographed in Pench in 2008. Thereafter he disappeared only to appear in 2011 in the Mukki range of Kanha Tiger Reserve. He established a territory here and reigned as the dominant male for over three years, siring several litters of cubs. This tiger used the Kanha-Pench corridor, which is now threatened by a plan to broaden the national highway that runs through the Pench Tiger Reserve," he says. Sen also gives another example of a male born in Nagzira, who made his way to Pench in Maharashtra and then to Pench in Madhya Pradesh between 2015 and 2016. Park managers and tiger conservationists acknowledge that the need of the hour is to keep tigers connected for future healthy genetic legacy. But what concerns Sen and other park managers is that while the tiger numbers have been increasing over the years, the forested areas that harbour them have been decreasing. In October 2016, one of the sub-adult males from Alikatta in the centre of Pench turned up in camera trap images in the Matkuli range in Satpura Tiger Reserve. This is the first photographic evidence of the viability of the highly neglected Pench-Satpura corridor. This corridor passes through mostly degraded forests and is threatened by coal mines, roads and other issues. In February 2016, another sub-adult from Pench was found in a crop field adjacent to the corridor just south of Chhindwara," he says. Further, four tigers have completed the migration from Pench in Madhya Pradesh to the Bhandar reserved forests to the west of Nagzira in Maharashtra. Until now it was believed that tigers migrating across long distances were exclusively males. As a pleasant surprise, two of the four tigers that successfully negotiated the over 160km stretch were females," adds Sen. It is projected that half of Indias human population will live in cities by 2030. Urban areas, both old and new, will need space to grow. If this space is nibbled out of forest corridors, then this will snap the genetic umbilical cord and jeopardize the future generations of Indias tigers. Kerala diaries Coming off a standout 2017, Malayalam cinema is the Indian film industry to watch right now /news/talking-point/kerala-diaries-111645962652893.html 111645962652893 story Looking back at Indian film in 2017, it seems clear that the year belonged to Malayalam cinema. Two films from KeralaLijo Jose Pellisserys Angamaly Diaries and Dileesh Pothans Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyumwere amongst the years best, and would have featured on more top 10 lists if it were humanly possible to keep up with all the different language cinemas of India. Director Mahesh Narayan debuted with the tense Take Off (available on Hotstar), about the rescue of Indian nurses held by ISIS in Iraq, an incident which also formed the basis for the execrable Salman Khan starrer Tiger Zinda Hai. And the year ended strong with Aashiq Abus Mayaanadhi, which released on 22 December to excellent reviews. The Kerala film community was also the one pushing the establishment, testing boundaries. Sanal Sasidharans festival indie S Durga (original title: Sexy Durga) was the years most controversial film after Padmavat, thanks to the Central Board of Film Certificationwhich asked for multiple cutsand the International Film Festival of India, which dropped the title after announcing it as part of the festival lineup. The Malayalam film community rallied behind Sasidharan, with Rajeev Ravi, Aashiq Abu, Pellissery, Pothan, Geethu Mohandas, Ajithkumar B., Anwar Ali and others signing a petition protesting the exclusion of the film. And it was a Kerala institutionthe Kodungallur Film Societywhich filed a petition in the Supreme Court to recall its controversial November 2016 judgement that made the playing of the national anthem mandatory in cinema halls. Angamaly Diaries (available on DVD) opened in Kerala in March, and through unusually strong word of mouth, played in isolated screenings in cities across the country. A kinetic film about small-town hooligans in Angamaly in Ernakulum, Kerala, Pellisserys fifth feature had a tapestry reminiscent of Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lunds City Of God, but soaked in local colour, slang and food, with a gallows humour all its own. A breathtaking 11-minute unbroken take capped it all, but one of the biggest compliments one could pay this film is that, even without the shot, Angamaly Diaries would have been the most visually and sonically dazzling cinematic experience of 2017. Still from Angamaly Diaries (2017). Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (available on Hotstar)quiet, sly, measured could not be more different on the surface from Angamaly Diaries. Yet, it is, in its own way, just as audacious, building from a straightforward incident of chain-snatching and adding detail upon detail until the moral complexity attains a level of uncommon richness. Fahadh Faasil (whos also in Take Off ) gives a mercurial performance as the fatalistic chain-snatcher, and director Pothan and cinematographer Rajeev Ravi continue the unfussy style that one historically associates with Malayalam cinema. Its excoriation of small-town police work and the way its narrative hinges on the intersection of crime and destiny brings to mind Vetrimaarans Visaranaialbeit a far more easy-going (though no less empathetic) experience than the 2015 Tamil release which was Indias Oscar entry and arguably the best film of the year. Ravi, best known for his partnership with Anurag Kashyap (Dev.D, Gangs Of Wasseypur), is from Kochi, Kerala. In addition to shooting Thondimuthalum, he directed the atmospheric 2016 neo-noir Kammatti Paadam, his third Malayalam film. For the next five years you should see interesting films come out of Kerala," he says over the phone. We lost our way in the 1990s, copying Tamil, Telugu cinema. Now that were making original stories, looking at whatever is happening around, were back to making good films." With a roster that includes Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, John Abraham and Shaji N. Karun, Malayalam cinema has always had a tradition of qualityan idea of which might be gained from the fact that it follows Bengali (22) and Hindi (14) with 11 wins for National Award for Best Feature Film. Where these recent films perhaps deviate from this lineage is in their accessibility to the multiplex, rather than the festival, viewer (not that Kerala audiences are resistant to a little art cinema). With a crop of talented actors (Faasil, Nivin Pauly, Parvathy, Dulquer Salmaan), boundary-pushing directors like Pellissery and Sasidharan, and a willingness to seek out rooted, resonant stories, Malayalam cinema is where it all seems to be happening. Unsurprisingly, Bollywood has come knocking: Parvathy starred opposite Irrfan Khan in Qarib Qarib Singlle last year, and Salmaan is making his Hindi film debut with Akash Khuranas Karwaan. Pauly will star in the Malayalam-Hindi Moothon by Geethu Mohandas, director of Liars Dice, Indias official Oscar entry for 2014. And, according to Ravi, theres a palpable energy now in the industry. I worked there (Kerala) after a long time," Ravi says of shooting Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum. There is excitement, and the market is opening up. Its a good scene." Ultra Violet: Pantone colour of 2018 As Pantone declares Ultra Violet the colour of 2018, here are eight ways to include it in your wardrobe and home /news/talking-point/ultra-violet-pantone-colour-of-2018-111645962016101.html 111645962016101 story Jumpsuit by Payal Khandwala This silk jumpsuit by the designer colour-blocks ultra violet with a deep red. At Payal Khandwala, Colaba, Mumbai; Rs16,800. Year after year, Pantone Colour Institute, the global colour trends company, announces the colour that we will see across design, fashion, technology, art, food, advertising, travel and beyond. In 2016, it was a pairing of Rose Quartz and Serenity (a pale pink and powder blue); Greenery, a zesty green, in 2017; and this year, it is Pantone 18-3838, better known as Ultra Violet. Complex and contemplative, Ultra Violet suggests the mysteries of the cosmos, the intrigue of what lies ahead," says Pantone on its website. As the year progresses, we are sure to come across imaginative ways of painting our landscape ultra violet, but for the moment, here are eight ways to surround yourself with the colour and its close cousins. Go cat-eye and ultra violet. Sunglasses by French Connection Go cat-eye and ultra violet. At French Connection stores countrywide; Rs4,150. In its Cruise 2018 collection, the label does its version of the Pantone colour by patchworking it with leather and crystal studs. Pumps by Gucci In its Cruise 2018 collection, the label does its version of the Pantone colour by patchworking it with leather and crystal studs. At Gucci.com; Rs72,500. A soft suede lining adds to the luxury of this mini bar. Mini bar by Trunks Company A soft suede lining adds to the luxury of this mini bar. At the Trunks Company, Jaipur and Sabyasachi Store, Mehrauli, New Delhi; Rs1 lakh onwards. Teak wood, splayed leg, and upholstered in a deep purple, Cleopatra is quite a royal. Cleopatra by Baro Teak wood, splayed leg, and upholstered in a deep purple, Cleopatra is quite a royal but modern statement piece for your living room. At Baro-india.com; Rs55,000 plus taxes, plus fabric. This limited edition jewelled watch covers a rainbow of colours. Imperiale Joaillerieby Chopard 581 sapphires and more than 1,000 hours of work, this limited edition jewelled watch covers a rainbow of colours but is anchored in a majestic purple. At Chopard.com; price on request. The make-up studios 2018 collection, Velvet Mattes, is in 12 deepest, darkest tones. Midnight Breeze by M.A.C The make-up studios 2018 collection, Velvet Mattes, is in 12 deepest, darkest" tones, including a blackened grape" shade of lipstick called Midnight Breeze. At M.A.C stores; Rs1,500. This little kitchen appliance, now in purple,promises to be as oil-free and healthy as possible. Caruso Air fryer by Wonderchef Love your fries but not the calories? This little kitchen appliance, now in purple,promises to be as oil-free and healthy as possible. At Wonderchef.in; Rs10,999. Four free and fake online courses for new India Here are four guaranteed hit courses entrepreneurs can consider starting and their possible course descriptions, using borrowed language from popular Mooc (massive open online courses) websites /news/talking-point/four-free-and-fake-online-courses-for-new-india-111645963130421.html 111645963130421 story I was browsing distractedly when I encountered a smiling, curly haired business school professor who had made it his lifes mission to ask tough questions such as If youre so smart why arent you happy?" The best part was that he taught a free online course on happiness. Alas! I was a dropout after the first week and I remain as angst-ridden as before, but online course mania has hit almost everyone around me. One teenager I know experiments with esoteric courses such as Dog Emotion and Cognition and Moral Foundations of Politics, both on Coursera, even as her mother implores her to pick something more useful. My niece, who sleepwalked through her last years of school, has magically morphed into a diligent student in the US who spends a large chunk of her free time taking history courses on Khan Academy and The Great Courses. Indians sign up for everything from art appreciation to magic in the Middle Ages, my Twitter query found. We are Courseras second-largest market after the US. In 2015, Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, invested an undisclosed amount in non-profit Khan Academy to provide free online education to Indians. I want to contribute to this online learning revolution too. Here are four guaranteed hit courses entrepreneurs can consider starting and their possible course descriptions, using borrowed language from popular Mooc (massive open online courses) websites. The truth about cows About this course: We will explore how nationalists study bovine behaviour, and in particular how this behaviour is shaped by the rapid mainstreaming of the political fringe. We evaluate the scientific rigour of studies, and highlight the often ingenious methods adopted by researchers to understand the behaviour of the desi cow (the Jersey cow module is unavailable for users in the Indian subcontinent). What is your cow revealing to you when she moos? Understanding bovine behaviour will enable you to better understand her needs and strengthen your relationship with her. We dispel common behavioural myths by looking through a scientific lens via a syllabus especially designed in Rajasthan. This Mooc explores different scientifically validated methods that can help you to better understand bovine behaviour, to enrich your lives and help you to be a better, more confident citizen. Plus: How to use panchgavya (if you dont know what this means, this course will change your life) to improve your happiness and fulfilment levels in New India. Religious and cultural diversity in Indian life and history About this course: Learners will deepen their understanding and appreciation of ways in which religious and cultural diversity have destroyed Indian institutions, ideology, law and social relationships, from Aryabhatta to the present. The primary focus of the course is on how the Mughal empire oppressed" the country during its more than two-century rule and is responsible for every modern-day evil, right down to the high incidence of diabetes because of the proliferation of Mughlai cuisine in all parts of the country. The course will include video lectures from celebrity politicians who have previously accused (and rightly so) Mughals and Britishers of looting, ruining and cheating India". The course will highlight the wastage incurred by various emperors, chief among them Shah Jahan, who, in 1632, had the absurd idea of constructing an ostentatious Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna. Assignments will include a 2,000-word paper on strategies to redirect the 200,000 international tourists that visit the Taj Mahal every year to more nationalistic sites such as the Akshardham temple in Delhi. Those who enjoyed this course must also try: Experiencing Great Events of Ancient and Medieval India (about wonders such as huge aeroplanes that could move in all directions, including backwards, unlike modern planes which only fly forward, and the real story of how Greek philosopher Pythagoras stole credit from an Indian mathematician). Gender, family and social change in contemporary India About this course: Participation is restricted to Indian men so they can speak openly and without criticism from the fairer sex. The course will focus primarily on contemporary discourses concerning gender inequality. It critically analyses themes of gendered performance and power in a range of social spheres, such as education, law, culture, work, medicine and the family, paying special importance to the growing irrelevance of the Indian man in a disturbing new world where women do as they please. The class will be highly interactive, combining case studies, videos, debates, guest speakers (all male, of course) and in-class simulations. Students will brainstorm on several themes, such as how to bring back the Golden Era before women started wearing jeans/owning cellphones and how to reclaim PornHub from women. The popular porn website revealed in 2015 that women constituted 30% of its viewers from India. Patriotic education and fitness This is inspired by the US college that recently introduced a mandatory course for freshmen with the same name. The four-credit course is a general education course. The US college website that came up with this genius idea says it is designed to support the institutions patriotic goal: To encourage an understanding of American heritage, civic responsibilities, love of country, and willingness to defend it." We have seen a decrease in the understanding of our military and the important role it plays in our democracy," the college president said on the website. We will do our part to correct this." This course can be immediately indigenized and implemented here. We already have many of the basics in place; we term anyone who doesnt toe the official line a traitor" and we believe many of them live on our college campuses. We chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai and have Proud Indian" Twitter bios, we think its patriotic to keep Pakistanis out of our films and concert halls and we get angry when anyone criticizes the military. A smart entrepreneur would offer it free for citizens with a valid Aadhaar card. Priya Ramani shares whats making her feel angsty/agreeable. She tweets @priyaramani Nupur Dhingra Paiva: Children have complex inner worlds Author-psychotherapist Nupur Dhingra Paiva on the inner life of children, why parenting is about love and anger, and when 'screen time' is good for a child /news/talking-point/nupur-dhingra-paiva-children-have-complex-inner-worlds-111645961780578.html 111645961780578 story Do you know an inscrutable, inarticulate man who is helpless around children? Psychotherapist and debutant author Nupur Dhingra Paiva explains how he got to be that person in her book, Love And Rage: The Inner Worlds Of Children. She tells you about children with unspoken emotions and fearshow ordinary and yet explosive these can be. Paiva practised psychotherapy in the UK, before she moved to Delhi. In the Capital, she found a new loneliness, not because of the citys sheer size or coldness, and she tells you why in this interview. She also explains why children arent the weeds many parents consider them to be. Books on psychotherapyand other fields of medical sciencepublished in India are seldom anchored in engaging narratives. There have been some exceptions recently, such as Shyam Bhats How To Heal Your Broken Heart. Paivas book uses the fact of her being a child psychotherapist as the basis for an engaging socio-personal narrative. Her writing is unpretentious, the book is without jargons, and filled with uncomfortable insights, even into the most unremarkable of childhoods. Edited excerpts from the interview: Youve been a practising child psychotherapist for several years. Was it difficult to distill your experience and knowledge in a 235-page book? It wasnt. I tend to be succinct in my writing (though perhaps not when I speak!), where the aim is to put difficult, complex things on paper in a way that is accessible and jargon-free, but also impactful. Writing the book was a process for which I had to dig very deep so that it was meaningful. I could not write from the surfacethose drafts were either bland or blank. You write that you felt lonely in your profession when you moved to Delhi from the UK and started your practice. Can you elaborate? The work we do as mental health professionals is very misunderstood. Having been taken over by the medical model, mental health gets confused with madness (more severe forms of mental ill-health; difficulties with reality-testing and everyday functioning) and the public perception of the importance of emotions, of the intangible, out-of-sight parts of our lives is, frankly, incomplete, inadequate or non-existent. In fact, we are illiterate, completely unschooled in this area. And yet it is central to our relationships, to material success in school and in the world of work. We are more likely to seek help for a wart or acne (external, visible blemish, though not always painful) than for emotional distress, which is always painful. In case of the latter, we start back-peddling, working hard in the opposite direction to deny that anything hurts at all. Childrens emotional lives are even more misunderstood or unseen. We are still more ready to accept that adults can be depressed or anxious, manic, psychotic or bipolar (words that are available for us to use, without really understanding what they mean) but we are extremely reluctant to imagine that children can have complex internal lives. That there is more to them than basic needs and bad behaviour; that there is stuff that needs something other than instructions or food. Whether it is teachers, doctors or parents, many adults fall into the trap of looking at things only on the outside the grades, the weight, the absence of illness, the compliance to instructions. Our children are much more than that. They have complex inner worlds. Being surrounded by a social context of this kind made my early years of working in Delhi very lonely, until I found like-minded professionals. Now we band together, it is a very small group and we are only too aware of the work we have to carry out in building awareness. We are all doing our own little/larger bit to make people more self-aware. Love & Rage: The Inner Worlds Of Children By Nupur Dhingra Paiva, Yoda Press, 235 pages, Rs450. Parents, especially in India, as your book suggests, view approaching a counsellor for their children as a failure of parenting. Some parents might consider it over-parenting and let a child go through everything like they did when they were children. We dont want to recognize emotional distress as being worthy of attention. Not every emotional event needs to be attended to by a counsellor or professional, but every emotional event does need attention. Usually, the parent is the best person to do it, provided they are available or able to see it. Parents have their own baggage as well. So the way they did when they were children is not necessarily a good yardstick. Ironically, it is the only yardstick we have and the kind of parents we become to our children depends almost entirely on the parents we had (plus some education and reading). I am not of the view that Bacche to apne aap hi pal jaate hain. They arent weeds. Even plants dont grow without proper care in our cities today. Children need to be slowly tutored, mentored or guided (choose your word) to regulate their own emotions and handle their relationships. They cannot do this on their own. There are options other than the extremes of being over-protective or neglectful. As the mother of a six-year-old daughter, I found your book insightful and, at the same time, aware that perhaps all children, including mine, will benefit from counselling. Should all parents consider it? Yes, parents would benefit from keeping their minds open to the idea, especially if they feel there is something distressing their child repeatedly or chronically or there is some behaviour that is unusual, erratic, destructive. Whether it is a young child whose experience we dont connect with or a teenager whose anger seems out of proportion, a trained counsellor can help to bridge the gap between parent and child as well. Whether it is teachers, doctors or parents, many adults fall into the trap of looking at things only on the outsidethe grades, the weight, the absence of illness, the compliance to instructions.- You write about psychotherapeutic imperialism" the psychotherapist considering herself knowledgeable and capable of rescuing others, although she has her own shortcomings. That is one of the concerns expressed by those who believe counselling is not a solution to life, or rather, psychotherapy cant save you from everything and make you perfect. Your thoughts? Psychotherapy never claimed to make anyone perfect or happy. There is a difficulty here itself our assumption that there is anything that is perfect when it comes to being human. Parents or children. There isnt. The process of psychotherapy only claims to make you self-aware. Self-observant. Many things in our lives actually need to be mourned, accepted that they happened and cannot be changed. So psychotherapy is not a solution to life at all. It cant take anything away. It is helping you to adapt to the life you received (as parents or personality) or make changes (if you want to). Can a child get dependent on therapy? This is like asking Can a child get dependent on their mothers? The short answer is, Yes, they are and can be dependent on their mothers. But just like the aim of mothering is to hand-hold a child through the different stages (a 3-month-old needs very different things from their mother than a 10-year-old or a 16-year-old. The mother is the same. The child is the same. Or are they?). When therapy works well, it has a built-in component of learning to notice /acknowledge ones dependence and the desire for dependence and move ahead from it. Learning to say goodbye to people we like/love/depend on is part of life and good therapy helps you to learn that too. In one of the fascinating chapters in the book, In The Beginning, you write that experiences during infancy become our neuronal wiring" and shapes us in significant ways. Can effects of traumatic or unpleasant experiences of this stage be reduced or done away with in the years leading up to adulthood? There is a lot of research now on the lasting effects of our earliest experiences including in-utero experiences. These become hardwired into us and impossible to explain in words since they were happening before words came to us. Before that part of the brain (the pre-frontal cortex) was created. In such situations, psychotherapy is almost too little too late. Effects of early traumatic experiences can be addressed depending on the age at which these traumas took place and whether they were sustained, longterm traumas or an isolated on-off event. They are rarely done away with. Working with trauma is a very specialized field in psychotherapy and not something just anyone can handle. You write about the experience of being an adopted child briefly. What is the one advice youd give to adoptive parents? Prepare to be tested. You will have to prove that you are going to stay the distance, no matter whatwhich is something biological children take for granted. So there will be times of difficult/very difficult behaviour. Isnt being maternal the most stressful experience? As you write in the book, sometimes being ordinary, with failings, isnt enough. When it comes to the maternal role, it needs to be accepted that it is extremely difficult. In psychoanalytic theory, we have a concept of good enough" mothering, good enough" fathering. We dont look for perfect", we look for real", and the real is always mixed. There is always conflict, always love and anger together. Both in the mother and the child, that is what makes it all so stressful. How often should a child play and what kind of play uniformly benefits a child? Everyday ideally and a variety of play. Children let us know their preferences. Some like more boisterous physical play, others prefer quiet imaginary play, some like reading or drawing the kind without instruction praise, feedback or reward, but just for themselves. Just for itself, for the joy it brings, not the outcome. Mostly, all children need all of this. Lets face it, we cant avoid screen time for our children today. When does it become harmful? Children do need to watch some television or use digital devices to know how to use them. Since this is inevitable, it is best to teach them how to regulate themselves as well. Just they way we teach them to cross the road or use the stove. Smartphones, tablets, computers and the internet encourage endless scrolling" and it is a kind of a drug. It becomes addictive because in that process you can forget about your real life. It takes away the anxieties of what you have to actually deal with and instead you can binge watch Netflix or a YouTube channel or your Twitter or FaceBook feed. So if we can watch ourselves to see what effect it has on us, we can use that experience to help our children regulate the timing and quantity of screen time. Is it being used to distract a child when they cry? Or when they dont want to eat? It is being used as a nanny so the parents can have some quiet time? The occasional use of all of this -- we all do it. The question is, is it becoming a pattern? Is the child or the parent dependent on this device to manage some other interaction? You emphasize, in what you describe as the most difficult chapter to write, the importance of a fathers involvement in the life of a boy, especially in a society which is bringing up boys who are violent towards women. Do you believe this applies across the world or is more relevant to India? Because my client group is in India and the stories I have to tell, which make it all real are also local, I want to say that this applies to us. However, these ideas of mine are by no means original and there is ample material I have referred to from all over the world. So it is not just a struggle we face. It applies to all societies where gender roles are very disparate and where men go out to work and do not see their children for most of the week/year. Is therapy the only solution to learning difficulties in children? How can parents accept learning difficulties and with them give their children a fulfilling life? If a learning difficulty can be accepted as real by the parents that is half the battle won. Psychotherapy is usually needed for this part the emotional part of it. Once accepted, learning difficulties are actually best handled by specific tutors who are trained to work with children whose ways of grasping the world are different from what we are used to. Occupational therapy, Arts-Based Therapy, ABA, for autistic spectrum disorders these are some of the often used therapies for learning difficulties. The many surprises of a Peruvian road trip Driving through the Andes to coastline, the writer encounters pre-Incan scribbles, a healing pool, and precious bird poo /news/talking-point/the-many-surprises-of-a-peruvian-road-trip-111645962301024.html 111645962301024 story Speeding down the smooth tarmac road draped around the Andes mountains like a black satin ribbon, I revelled in sliding the car, a Nissan Versa, through a series of hairpins and tight corners. The road from Abancay to Nazca in Peru is perhaps one of the most exciting Ive ever driven, with fantastic snow-capped views. It was so much fun, in fact, that by the time I reached the plains close to Nazca by noon, I felt the cars brakes had suffered considerably. To let them, and myself, recover a bit, I decided to make an unplanned night halt. Nazca is a nondescript desert town, not the sort of place I would normally stop at, but it has innumerable hotels and great restaurants. This is because of the artwork sketched in the desert by a pre-Incan civilization over 1,000 years ago. Called the Nazca Lines, they refer to the geometric lines drawn across the desert and also to the mysterious animal geoglyphs that accompany them. The perplexing part about these lines and shapesabout 300 of them over a 500 sq. km areais that they can only be seen in their entirety from the sky. The fact that you could be standing among them and not even know they exist, adds to their mystery. Luis, the proprietor of the hotel I managed to book at the last minute, convinced me to taking a sightseeing flight over the Nazca Lines. It was a beautiful day, and he helped me find an hour-long flight for $70 (around Rs4,438). Within 40 minutes I was at the airport, getting my passport checked and being weighed before boarding a little six-seater Cessna with three others. The pilot handed out barf bags, just in case, as he would have to bank left and right frequently to ensure passengers on both sides of the plane got great views of the lines 3,000ft below. But I was too distracted to feel any nausea. As we took off, I saw that while the area surrounding Nazca was quite green, there was brown desert beyond. Once we were over the desert, the co-pilot pointed out the first geoglyph, the whale. Then came the astronaut, named for his fishbowl-like head. Next up were the monkey and the hummingbird. In 2014, activist organization Greenpeace had placed a message next to the latter, hoping to draw the attention of world leaders attending a UN climate summit in Lima. In doing so, they walked all over this Unesco World Heritage site. When archaeologists do so, they wear special, weight-dispersing padded shoes to prevent damage. The lines have suffered damage in the past too. When we flew over the tree, bird and lizard, I noticed that the latters tail was cut in half by the Pan-American Highway that runs across it. This is because not many, barring the locals, knew of the existence of the Nazca Lines when the construction of the road was started in 1938. There are many theories about how and why these lines were made in the sixth century. Archaeologists, mystics and scientists have suggested everything from aliens, ancient balloonists and superhumans to the divine. The designs remain a mystery. Street art in El Chaco. After Nazca, I drove 146km (two-and-a-half hours) north to Huacachina, a laid-back village where Bob Marley and The Beatles croon over loudspeakers about love and psychedelia. Its built around an emerald oasis, ringed by palm trees and surrounded by golden sand dunes. Travellers laze around the lake that is said to have curative powers, alternating between sunbathing, boating or sipping pisco sours at the bars on the promenade. More active visitors trudge up the steep dunes for about 45 minutes, before zipping down on sandboards. I took the easy way out by booking a seat on a dune buggy. The driver took us to the very top of a dune, from where I slid down the steep slope, and waited to be picked up to be driven to the next. We ended at a vantage point, watching the setting sun paint the landscape yellow and orange. The cafes and pubs come alive after sunset and the thump of 1970s disco music goes on late into the night. The last strains were fading when I left for El Chaco, 75km away, in time to catch the 8am boat to Islas Ballestas. Called the more affordable" Galapagos, the Ballestas islands are home to rich and varied avian and marine life. The 2-hour tour from Marina Turistica de Paracas doesnt disembark on the islands but passes close to them. On the 30-minute one-way journey to the islands, the boat, which has no cabin, was bombarded by guano, seabird droppings. Tourists exclaimed their disgust. However, one should remember that this precious bird poop caused a clash between Spain and its former colony Peru in 1864. By the 1850s, Britain was importing 200,000 tonnes annually (the number went up steadily) of the nutrient-rich guano, a more efficient fertilizer than cow dung. Much of this came from Islas Ballestas and Perus other bird-filled islands. Realizing their monetary value, Spain occupied the Chincha Islands in 1864, until it was evicted after a two-year war. The guano continues to be harvested and exported todayalbeit peacefullyby Perus ministry of agriculture. Exploring the islands bays and natural arches from the boat, we saw numerous bird species, including the Peruvian booby and pelican, Guanay cormorant and Humboldt penguins. We were also fortunate enough to see a few dolphins. By the end of it all, I was congratulating myself on ignoring all those who had warned me against driving around Peru. The roads had been fabulous, the traffic orderly, and Google Maps had guided me perfectly. And as happens with all great road trips, I had enjoyed scenic sights and made unexpected discoveries. *** Plan your trip Perus eased visa requirements for Indian nationals mean that you can get a visa on arrival if you have a visa with a minimum six-month validity from any of the following countriesthe US, Canada, the UK, Australia or any Schengen country. Both Budget and Avis car rentals are present in Peru and are easy to book in advance online. Google Maps works perfectly in Peru and I bought a prepaid SIM card that gave me 6 GB data for less than Rs1,500 Zoroastrians in India to explore cultural boundaries An annual tour is bringing together young Zoroastrians from across the world to explore their culture in India and even find a partner /news/talking-point/zoroastrians-in-india-to-explore-cultural-boundaries-111645962362086.html 111645962362086 story As the tall blue bus rounds the corner of Mumbais Crawford Market on to Mohammed Ali Road, the Sunday morning street traders squint up at the tourists assembled on its open upper deck. Some of them wave, and one guy blows a cheerful kiss to the 22-year-old American with a camera strapped around her neck. She returns the gesture, laughing. Theres the husband your family wanted you to find on this trip," one of the other girls jokes. It cant be," the 22-year-old shoots back, mouth curving. Hes not Parsi!" They are a gathering of nearly two dozen young Zoroastrians who have never lived in India. Some, born in Iran, arent even Parsi, a word which defines a subcontinental social group. Theyre at the end of a fortnight-long trip, part of Return To Roots (RTR), an annual programme run by their co-religionists to give diaspora youthanywhere between the ages of 22 and 35an anchor in the nerve centre of Zoroastrianism, on the western coast of India. The group at the Bhikha Behram, Mumbai There may be fewer than 200,000 Zoroastrians in the world, by some accounts. The 2011 census of India indicated that just under 60,000 live in India. Most live in Mumbai, where they grew to be a dominant force in public life under British rule; and in Gujarat, where the first immigrants landed, fleeing persecution in Iran between the eighth and 10th centuries AD. A second wave of Iranis" arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, escaping Qajar-era pogroms. Many of their descendants now live and work abroad, away from what the RTR programme director, Arzan Sam Wadia, a 44-year-old architect from New York, sometimes refers to as the motherland". It was for such young Zoroastrians that RTR was conceived in 2012 by a group of young expatriate Zoroastrians, Wadia included, who met at a community event in New York. Wadia, a Parsi born and brought up in Mumbai, now leads the programmes annual two-week trip. It is open to any young Zoroastrian who applies to join, and can cover, at least partially, the door-to-door cost of $5,000 (around Rs3 lakh) a head. A kernel of inspiration comes from Israel, where the government helps run the Birthright Israel" programme meant to inculcate the spirit of the Jewish homeland in young members of their diaspora, helping them understand both religion and culture, past and present. In contrast, RTR is privately funded by friends and well-wishers, of whom there are many among Indias wealthy Parsis (a previous group even managed a rendezvous with Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons). Its not a call to resurrect a glorious past, or take sides in ongoing Zoroastrian battles over issues that deeply affect the community, including its sharply dwindling numbers and strict laws governing marriage outside the faith. Its some good news in the middle of all that," Wadia says. To see young people come together to explore their culture instead of more bickering." ***** The very first RTR fellowship took place in 2013, and included 14 young people. Some trips coincide with important events on the Parsi calendar. In 2015, they looped in a quick flight to Delhi to see four museum exhibits, including the National Museums landmark The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism In History And Imagination, part of the ministry of cultures spotlight on Zoroastrian religion and culture. The Union governments efforts to preserve Parsi ways of life have not bypassed RTR. In December, minister for information and broadcasting Smriti Irani, who takes her Zoroastrian husbands last name, even called out to the group in a speech at a festival held in the pilgrimage town of Udvada, Gujarat, home to the Iranshah", an ever-burning sacred fire said to have been brought to India from Iran in 715 AD. The group at the statue of Hormusjee Cowasjee Dinshaw The group, wearing Return To Roots" T-shirts, was in the audience for that event, part of their tour of Parsi history. Before the tour wrapped up on 2 January, they had lunched in Mumbais legendary restaurant Jimmy Boy, and had dinner with the citys splashy builder-baron Jimmy Mistry. They had dwelt on the fabulous nobility of the Parsi past in historic mansions in Surat and been to chikoo farms in Dahanu. They saw how the kusti, the traditional girdle worn to prayers, is made. They went to the Gujarati countryside to meet Parsi farmers living in tiny impoverished communities outside Navsari (the coastal city has a very old Parsi community), without the safety net the community provides to even the most penurious Parsis in Mumbai. The double-decker bus tour through parts of South Mumbai was one of the last events on their schedule, designed to acquaint them with the high points of the citys secular Parsi history. They gazed up at the statues of the Congress stalwart Dinshaw Vacha and the merchant prince Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy at Churchgate, and the historic buildings of Dadabhai Naoroji Road. They attended respectfully to the walk leader, Parsi scholar Khojeste Mistree, as he delivered a talk at the sacred Bhikha Behram well, where some older Parsis could be seen praying privately behind them. We make it very clear that this is not a pilgrimage," Wadia says. But of course, the tour is designed to inculcate a spirit of reverence for Parsi religious culture. How could it be otherwise in the presence of the atash behrams, the consecrated fires at the heart of the holiest Parsi temples, of which only nine remain in the world, eight of them in India (and four of those in Mumbai); or at Malabar Hills tower of silence, one of the last remaining places in the world where Zoroastrians may conduct the traditional funerary practice of exposing the dead to the elements? The catch is that same rules apply to these young Zoroastrians as to any Parsis in India who want to enter a fire temple or perform acts of worship therein: their parents, or at least their fathers, must be of the faith. Khojeste Mistree is often quoted as an eminent conservative voice on these matters in the Parsi press, and an RTR participant, who preferred not to be named, told me that at the end of the bus tour walk, Mistree went up to many of the young visitors and told them, as though pronouncing a benediction: You must marry within the community. You must marry within the community." ***** For generations, these strictures have divided Parsis, as is evident from the debates that still rage weekly in the pages of Mumbais Jam-e-Jamshed newspaper (or the comments section of Parsi Khabar, the website Wadia edits). They have also heartbreaking consequences for families. Among the RTR fellows this year was 30-year-old Jasmine Baetz, a Canadian ceramic artist who lives and works in the US, and was visiting India for the first time. Baetz is married to an American; her Parsi mother was sundered from her orthodox roots in India for marrying, as Baetz puts it, a dude from Ontario". For Baetz, the return to India was an opportunity to learn about, and perhaps find connection with, a community that had seemed to reject and exclude her. Arzan Sam Wadia taking a picture of the 2017 RTR fellows in Mumbai Friends and relatives, some of them in their 80s, welcomed her into their homes. Shes eaten more Parsi food than her stomach can handle (Wadia told me that the programme supports as many Parsi-owned businesses as possible through its duration, which includes its hospitality and catering choices). She questioned the rules prohibiting fire temple entry and worship through the trip, but did not break them; nor did the RTR programme encourage circumvention. Change is coming to the community, and part of what we want to give young people on this tour is the full range of opinions on a lot of things that matter to us," Wadia says. But were also not going to break rules." The community in North America may be much more liberal than what Ive seen here," Baetz says. This may be partially true. Even in Mumbai, where Parsi orthodoxy and Parsi power coincide, its possible to find liberal clerics to conduct a Navjote, the religious initiation, for children whose fathers are not Parsijust as Baetzs mother, finding no support among her co-religionists in Toronto, found a priest in California to do Baetz and her brothers Navjote. - Arzan Sam Wadia There was one group of people for whom RTR was a homecoming in more than one sensesix young Karachiites, almost all of whom were on their fifth or sixth visit to India, where many have close family ties. The governments pro-Parsi stance did not quite make the trip frictionless for Pakistani participants; at least one person got his visa mere hours before his flight was due. They were not necessarily on this trip for a sense of renewal. Ancestral wealth and stately old relatives who pronounce Tata" like barter" are part of their own lives at home; sea-facing Mumbai apartments and the fire temples that dot the Gujarat coast mean childhood vacations, and meeting other young Parsis is often, as one young man said under his breath, about finding a wife, wife, wife". Welcome to the subcontinent. Theres a lot of Parsi land and wealth in Pakistan," Wadia says. But there are 1,200 Parsis in Karachi. For them to come here and see those many Parsis just at one wedding at the Colaba agiarythat means something." Someday, Wadia hopes to take the programme to Pakistan and Iran places central to Parsi history, and perhaps also portents of the communitys future in India. Today, India has the largest population of Zoroastrians. What if, someday, that isnt the case?" Wadia asks rhetorically. What does the motherland mean, then? What happens to everything of value here?" The answers are not easy, but the questions he hopes to provoke with this return to roots are meant to keep the flame alive. #investing #crypto #retirement $BTCUSD As the cryptocurrency market matures, there are an increasing number of options available to add the digital currency to retirement plans. Bitcoin has been consistently gaining momentum over recent yrs Last year, BTC, the native cryptocurrency of the Bitcoin network hammered gold and the S&P 500 with a 164% return. Gold, by comparison, rose 21% last year, and the S&P 500 Index gained 13%. Even with the current rebounding post-VirusCasedemic economy, Bitcoin continues to lead the pack as the most profitable asset class of the three. YTD it is up 69.55%, compared with a loss of 5.11% for gold and gainer of 19.26% for the S&P 500. With that performance, its not surprising 40% of young investors recently said they were interested in including bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in their retirement plans. Bitcoins potential for growth is balanced, the risk becomes mitigated in the long term when you understand its properties. Bitcoin has a fixed supply of 21-M coins, which means that unlike with fiat (paper) currencies like USD, no more can be created once the circulating supply reaches that number. That is a Key upside for Bitcoins projected value over time, which is expected to increase as the purchasing power of fiat currencies decreases because of inflation. For long-term investors it accentuates the assets limited supply. What is most interesting is that the Bitcoin stock-to-flow model suggests BTC could reach $1-M per coin by Y 2024. Hedge against inflation Bitcoins price has also consistently outperformed gold since its inception in Y 2010. Heres how much $1 would be worth if invested in the given year. 2020 BTC: $3.78 | Gold: $0.93 2019 BTC: $4.38 | Gold: $1.28 2018 BTC: $5.14 | Gold: $1.49 2017 BTC: $15.39 | Gold: $1.44 2016 BTC: $64.24 | Gold: $1.36 2015 BTC: $146.02 | Gold: $1.68 2014 BTC: $74.70 | Gold: $1.41 2013 BTC: $434.83 | Gold: $1.38 2012 BTC: $4,631.80 | Gold: $1.13 2011 BTC: $3,109.53 | Gold: $1.12 2010 BTC: $776,397.69 | Gold: $1.56 One of the leading ways to invest in bitcoin for retirement is through a Bitcoin Individual Retirement Account (IRA). A Bitcoin IRA is self-directed, meaning the account owner chooses which investments they wish to make. That opens the doors to investing in alternative asset classes like real estate, precious metals and cryptocurrency. Bitcoin IRAs work much like traditional ones, except your money goes toward cryptocurrency instead of mutual funds. Like with a Roth IRA, you pay taxes upfront on the assets you hold instead of when you come to withdraw them. That is advantageous for investments that yield high returns, as Bitcoin has a tendency to do. Bitcoin IRAs also have yearly contribution limits akin to traditional ones, typically around $6,000. Many self-directed IRA providers include an all-in-one package, where the bitcoin IRA company partners with specific crypto exchanges. While 13% of all Americans traded crypto in the last yr, only 2-5% of all IRAs are invested in alternative assets, according to the Retirement Industry Trust Association. A number of Bitcoin ETFs have come to market up in the past yr to meet the growing demand of institutional investors entering the crypto market. A small 401(k) provider called ForUsAll has partnered with crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) to give their customers the option of investing up to 5% of their retirement funds into cryptocurrencies. A 401(k) is an account that allows an employee to dedicate a percentage of their pre-tax salary to a retirement account, often matched by their employer. The funds are typically invested in stocks, bonds and mutual funds, but demand is rising from retail investors to add cryptocurrency as an available asset. According to the Investment Company Institute, 20% of the $34.9-T US retirement market is made up of 401(k) plans, worth $6.7-T. If you want to avoid the hassle of setting up a Bitcoin retirement account, there are benefits to buying cryptos directly from an exchange and holding it yourself long term. You avoid having to pay middleman fees, which can become costly if you plan on making a lot of transactions. You will also be able to contribute as much or as little as you want, avoiding minimum and maximum contributions found in traditional 401(k) and IRA setups. This method also lends itself to the use of 3rd-party software from companies which automates exchange purchases so that you can more easily control your positions. Investing digital assets long term is a great way to diversify your portfolio, and with more Northside than other alternative assets. While the asset is still in its infancy compared with a commodity like gold, it has delivered an annual average return of 891% (2011-2020.) Gold, over the same frame, has returned an annual average of 4.08%. Have a prosperous day, Keep the Faith! 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. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate San Antonios CPS Energy may add another $15 million to its solar rebate program. The municipally owned utility could ask its board of trustees as early as February for approval, CPS CEO Paula Gold-Williams said Thursday after she made a bimonthly presentation to City Council. CPS has used around $12 million of $15 million approved by the CPS board last January, and its expected to last a few more months. Its a program thats working really well and its got a great benefit in terms of cost efficiency and it just helps to meet a need and a demand, Gold-Williams said. We really believe the board is going to be very receptive we cant speak for them but we feel very positive about it. The current rebates are 60 cents a watt and CPS gives up to a 10 cent additional rebate for projects that use locally-made modules and inverters. The average size of a residential system is 7 kilowatts, which would cost roughly $28,000 and give a homeowner around a $4,200 rebate at the 60-cents-a-watt rate, according to Rick Luna, senior manager of product development at CPS Energy. Gold-Williams said she doesnt see a need to do any major changes to the rebate amounts, which have steadily decreased over the life of the program. The previous rebate had been 80 cents a watt. As for the local incentive, Gold-Williams said we like that part and CPS Chief Operating Officer Cris Eugster said a third of the panels going out through the solar rebate are going out through Mission (Solar Energy), a solar panel manufacturer based in San Antonio. CPS Energy has been offering solar rebates under the Save For Tomorrow Energy Plan, or STEP, which aims to save 771 megawatts of daily power use by 2020, enough to power 150,000 homes on a hot Texas summer day. CPS Energy has saved at least 602 megawatts of daily power usage through STEP initiatives. Gold-Williams also confirmed that the utility plans to expand its community solar program, which offers access to solar panels for CPS customers who either cannot install them on their roofs or cannot afford large systems. The utility plans to start construction of a new 5 megawatt installation in June. CPS signed up 240 customers during a 1.2 megawatt pilot program that was completed in 2016. Gold-Williams also said the utility is still unsure about whether it will ask for a rate increase its still just crunching numbers. Again, she said, we look for opportunities to save we dont see (a rate increase) yet, but were still crunching. CPS hasnt raised rates since 2014. Rye Druzin is a San Antonio Express-News energy reporter. Read more of his stories here. | rdruzin@express-news.net | @druz_journo Goddess of Anarchy: The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical By Jacqueline Jones Basic. 480 pp. $32 --- Lucy Parsons occupies an unusual position in American history: a prominent woman noted as much for her acts of brilliance and bravery as for her evasiveness and contradictions. Parsons spent most of her life in Chicago, where a park named in her honor calls her the first "Chicana socialist labor organizer." Born circa 1853, Parsons said she was of Mexican and Indian descent and from Texas - an Aztec genealogy dating before Columbus. Elsewhere she's been recognized as "the first Black woman to play a prominent role in the American Left." These differing narratives are indicative of a life that defies easy categorization and has challenged assessments of Parsons' legacy. Parsons was an anarchist, socialist, journalist and labor organizer who commanded audiences by the thousands. Beginning in the late 1880s, she scathingly criticized the American political economy and the titans of industry for exploiting working people. She was one of the most outspoken defenders of free speech and free assembly who was relentlessly persecuted by state agents opposed to her militancy. Crowds sat in rapt attention, awed by her shocking speeches extolling the virtues of radical revolution and armed self-defense. They were curious, too, about the confident, "swarthy," femme persona with a flair for dramatic disruption. Parsons would boldly march from the back of the room to the front to seize the lectern at events where she was not the invited speaker. Despite her audacity, Parsons kept some things hidden. When pressed by a reporter to reveal her background, she demurred: "I am not a candidate for office, and the public have no right to my past. I amount to nothing to the world and people care nothing of me. I am battling for a principle." With "Goddess of Anarchy," prize-winning historian Jacqueline Jones has written the first critical, comprehensive biography of Parsons that seeks to peel back the layers of her complex life. Jones amassed an incredible body of records - local, state and federal government documents; prolific newspapers; organizational and personal correspondence; and Lucy and husband Albert Parsons' extant writings. Through these documents Jones uncovered evidence that Parsons was not of Mexican or Indian ancestry. Her research shows, too, that Parsons was not, as many have thought, born Lucia Eldine Gonzalez but as Lucia Carter in Virginia in 1851. Her mother was black, and her father was white (and probably her slave owner). Her family moved to Waco, Tex., during the Civil War, where Lucia worked as a cook and seamstress in the homes of white families. As a teenager, she married an older, formerly enslaved man, Oliver Benton, aka Oliver Gathings, and had a child who died as an infant. Around 1869, Lucia met Albert Parsons, a printer and a former Confederate soldier born in Alabama in 1845; he would dramatically change the course of her life. Parsons had joined the Republican Party and was rising in local politics and journalism in Waco when he and Lucia had an affair while she was married to her first husband. Lucia and Oliver probably had never legally married, following traditions of informal unions adopted by slaves and newly freed people, although he continued to express grievances about his wife's abandonment years later. Lucia and Albert legally wed in 1872, weeks before interracial unions were outlawed in Texas. It quickly became clear that they could not enjoy a life unencumbered by prejudice. They departed for Chicago in 1873, and Lucia changed her name to Lucy en route. The couple had their first child, Albert Jr., in 1879 and a daughter, Lulu, in 1880. Lulu died of an illness at age 8. When Albert Jr. was 19, Lucy Parsons convinced a judge that he was violent and should be admitted to an insane asylum because he disobeyed her and joined the Army. Jones is unsparing in calling this an act of "gratuitous cruelty." Albert Jr. endured abuse by guards and inmates because of his mother's ideas, until he died from tuberculosis at 30. In the first half of the biography, Jones, a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, explores the complex relationship between Lucy and Albert Sr. They were an extraordinary, volatile twosome who presented themselves to the world as equals. They were both charismatic leaders who drew large followings. Their political awakening rose in concert after they moved into German American neighborhoods and joined socialist and trade union circles in Chicago. He joined the Knights of Labor, the Workers Party of the United States and the Socialist Labor Party. She joined the Working Women's Union. After the Great Strike of 1877, the couple denounced the limitations of the two-party political system, criticized industrial elites' use of state resources to advance their own interests at the expense of workers, and advocated the use of dynamite and guns to blow up buildings and kill capitalists. They embraced anarchy, but they were not doctrinaire. They also continued to adopt varied political strategies and institutional allegiances. In 1886, a labor protest at Haymarket Square in Chicago turned violent. Police officers and others were killed. Albert was one of several men arrested as an assumed leader of the melee, and charged with conspiracy and murder. In 1887 he was executed, after running out of appeals made against an unfair trial. After her husband died, Lucy Parsons took center stage. She became "a revolutionary cadre of one" who fought to stay relevant and remain in the newspaper headlines. She wrote profusely and traveled extensively to deliver speeches, out of both financial necessity and political passion. Parsons was paradoxical: She spent her life fighting for the downtrodden but showed no interest in the plight of African-Americans. She denied her African ancestry, although, according to Jones, few of her contemporaries were persuaded by her fictional origins, and they assumed she was black, as indicated by the constant references to her skin color and hair texture in skeptical newspaper accounts. She spoke no Spanish, which made her claims to a Chicana heritage even less persuasive, but the story was meant to claim native status in the old Southwest in part to repel the dismissive charges of "foreignness" leveled against immigrant dominant anarchists. She did not and could not try to pass as white but chose the next best alternative as an exotic, non-black "other." She rarely addressed issues facing black people, and when she did, she expressed more antipathy than sympathy. And yet, the only black person who would have spoken to more white Americans across the nation than Parsons would have been Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist. Parsons is a remarkable woman who managed to get past many of the barriers that impeded members of her race and sex. She was primarily an autodidact who became a writer and speaker, with eclectic and densely erudite proclivities, of some distinction. She presumed her right to take the stage to voice her critique of the vicissitudes of economic inequalities, which would still be considered incendiary today. Despite being harassed and arrested, she persisted until her death in 1942. Jones' richly researched and engagingly written biography establishes Parsons' rightful place in the pantheon of American radicals. Yet it leaves open the question of her legacy among African-Americans. Parsons may not have identified herself as black, but she nonetheless expanded the possibilities of what it meant to be black. --- Hunter is a professor of history and African-American studies at Princeton. Her latest book is "Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century." Epic Drives of the World: Explore the Planet's Most Thrilling Road Trips By the editors of Lonely Planet Lonely Planet. 328 pp. $35 --- Back in July, when we were complaining about the heat instead of the cold, I set off on a long road trip across North America in a van that's a little home. It was a dream I'd cherished for three years, and I was full of that tingling restlessness the Swedish call (BEGIN ITAL)resfeber(END ITAL). Man, I wish I'd had a copy of Lonely Planet's "Epic Drives of the World" when I was planning my itinerary. This enticingly illustrated book offers 200 trip ideas across the world. There's a journey for everyone: Route 66 for the nostalgic nomad, a trek through Bhutan and the Himalayas for the more intrepid, a wine-tasting mosey through Argentina, and even a motorcycle cruise from Abu Dhabi to Jebel Hafeet on "what many have called the world's best motorcycle (and driving) road." There are weekend trips, week-long sojourns and months-long, soul-cleansing odysseys. And the pictures are ravishing: a Massachusetts lighthouse on a grassy sward under an azure sky; a winding two-lane road through New Zealand's Southern Alps that disappears into the snow-dusted hulk of Mount Cook; the Blue Ridge Parkway in autumn under trees turbaned in oranges, reds and yellows. Fifty vivid essays by a stable of Lonely Planet writers recount journeys across Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. The book abounds with advice, such as this for a safari through South Luangwa National Park in Zambia: "When attempting a three-point turn on a riverbank, you should check the rear-view mirror for oncoming hippos." Good to know. At the end of each essay, Lonely Planet offers three "more like this" trips, including escapes from the city, mountain drives and watery routes. "The most important role of these tales from the road is to inspire you to pack an overnight bag and hop behind the wheel to explore something new," the editors note in their introduction. It's a modern riff on John Muir's clarion call to wanderers: "Who has not felt the urge to throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence?" --- Smith is a former editorial aide for The Washington Post Book World. Stalin's Meteorologist: One Man's Untold Story of Love, Life, and Death By Olivier Rolin. Translated from the French by Ros Schwartz Counterpoint. 179 pp. $26 --- On Jan. 8, 1934, Alexey Feodosievich Wangenheim, the Soviet Union's premier meteorologist, had a date with his wife, Varvara Ivanovna Kurguzova. They had tickets to "Sadko," Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera about a merchant's adventures upon the sea and beneath it. Kurguzova waited under the Bolshoi's colonnade. Her husband, meanwhile, was nearby, at the secret police headquarters on Lubyanka, getting booked. A loyal, giddily optimistic communist whose titles included director of the U.S.S.R. Hydrometeorological Department, he was facing a torrent of absurdity in place of an accusation. He was falsifying weather forecasts to undermine the battle against drought? He was a saboteur? He was - a spy? Reality be damned, Wangenheim was convicted for economic sabotage under Article 58, Paragraph 7; sentenced to 10 years of rehabilitation through labor; and ultimately executed. He might have passed into oblivion, except killings have a well-studied peculiarity: Their traces linger. Thus, by chance, Olivier Rolin, a French journalist, came across Wangenheim's letters and drawings. This happened in 2012, while Rolin was visiting the Solovetsky Islands, the site of a 15th-century monastery that had been repurposed into the first camp of the Gulag. Delicate drawings and watercolors of clouds, the aurora borealis, the frozen sea, an Arctic fox, a hen, a samovar and many plants, some pressed, some drawn, were assembled into a self-published journal. The artwork was for Wangenheim's 4-year-old daughter, Eleonora, named after the youngest daughter of Karl Marx. The journal also contained letters to Kurguzova. Rolin's writing is haunting, poetic. "He was an expert on clouds," he says of Wangenheim in the opening line of "Stalin's Meteorologist." As Wangenheim's letters chime in, the biographer and his subject become a duo. "I am utterly alone here," Wangenheim writes to Kurguzova. "During my walks, I talk to the moon and ask it to give my greetings to my darlings. It shines on you at the same time as on me." To understand Stalin, you need Shakespeare, and Rolin invokes Macbeth's conception of life as but "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." He calls on an ensemble of writers, poets, witnesses and visionaries - Anton Chekhov, Vasily Grossman, Anna Akhmatova and Osip Mandelstam - to ground the story. Maxim Gorky, the "Soviet Voltaire," gets dragged in by his lapels. Rolin reminds us about Gorky's glorification of the use of prison labor at the time and place of Wangenheim's martyrdom. At the island prison, Wangenheim joined a Chekhovian assemblage of Russian intelligentsia. A disturbing acronym from that time denoted each of these men as a "bich," short for "byvshy intelligentny chelovek" - a former intellectual. There was a 30,000-volume library at the prison. Wangenheim worked there. The professor sifted through the monastery's documents, studying monastic economy. He took measurements of snow accumulations beneath the monastery wall. He read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in French and asked Kurguzova for an English-Russian dictionary. Fellow prisoners attended his talks. The range of subjects was impressive: the Arctic climate, polar exploration, the conquest of the stratosphere, the feasibility of travel to the moon and Mars with a jet engine. With urgency, he composed petitions to Comrade Stalin, arguing that his conviction was unjust. "All my thoughts and desires go out towards you, towards you and the Party - which must re-establish the truth," he wrote to Kurguzova. "I am not losing faith, I don't want to lose it." One of Wangenheim's art projects, assembling rock chippings into a flattering portrait of Stalin, puzzles Rolin even as he holds it in his hands. Why was it not a caricature? Why wasn't Wangenheim fighting back? Why did this slave glorify his enslaver? "I would rather admire him, but he was not admirable and that is perhaps what is interesting," Rolin contemplates. "He is an ordinary innocent." One day in late October 1937, Wangenheim and 1,115 other prisoners were marched through the gates of the former monastery. The scene of this Chekhovian procession led this reader to the neurotic realization that Chekhov himself, had he lived 33 years longer, might have been labeled a bich and relegated to share their fate. Families were later told that these men had been sentenced to an additional 10 years without a right to correspond, a formulation that later still was deciphered to mean they were tried in absentia and executed. The details of this mass murder would emerge six decades later, thanks to modern-day citizen-detectives from a wonderful organization called Memorial Research Center, who pieced together shreds of evidence from the secret police archives to find the execution site in the forest near the White Sea-Baltic Canal. These sleuths also identified the executioner. He is believed to have committed 1,111 murders over five days in late October and early November 1937, working singlehandedly, painstakingly, using a short-barrel 7.62 Nagant revolver on the bottom of a muddy pit; one bullet per skull. Capt. Mikhail Matveyev was an udarnik, a shock worker indeed. Rolin imagines the scene: "The dogs bark excitedly. Captain Matveyev finishes his cigarette, throws the butt in the fire, knocks back a slug of vodka, wipes his mouth, jumps into the grave and cocks his Nagant." Altogether, 7,000 zeki, or prisoners, from multiple camps were killed in that forest between 1934 and 1941, and it's a safe guess that hundreds of them had lived lives that could sustain books as smart as this one. By infusing Wangenheim's travails with a storyteller's virtuosity, erudition and moral outrage, Rolin shows that it doesn't take much to arrest a man, accuse him of all manner of slop, ship him to an Arctic prison, strip him naked and fling him into an open pit, but short of putting a bullet through his skull, there is no way any of this nonsense will extinguish his moral and intellectual core. Wangenheim was no bich. The nobility of his spirit survived to the end. He was a Russian intellectual until his final breath. Kurguzova never learned where her husband was executed. Their daughter, Eleonora, who became a well-known paleontologist, did learn the truth. She made annual pilgrimages to her father's mass grave, and she compiled the commemorative album that captivated Rolin's attention. Like her namesake Eleanor Marx, Eleonora died by suicide. On Jan. 9, 2011, 77 years and a day after her father's arrest, her body was found on the ground by the Moscow apartment building where she lived on the ninth floor. --- Goldberg's novel "The Chateau" will be published in February. He is the author of "The Yid," a novel about Stalin's death, and a co-author, with Ludmilla Alexeyeva, of "The Thaw Generation: Coming of Age in the Stalin Era." He is the editor and publisher of the Cancer Letter. The Last 100 Days: FDR at War and at Peace By David B. Woolner Basic. 349 pp. $32 --- There is a point, not very far into David B. Woolner's excellent accounting of Franklin D. Roosevelt's last months in office, where one realizes that this history, intentional or not, is going to be a presidential death watch. "Was he too ill during these last months to properly carry the burdens of office?" the author asks in his preface. "Did Stalin dupe him at Yalta because FDR was too weak to resist? Should he have run for a fourth term? Did he ever admit to himself how unwell he was? What role did the members of his family or his closest confidants play - if any - in his ability to lead despite his reduced capacity for work?" All valid questions that Woolner seeks to answer in "The Last 100 Days," a remarkably well-researched book on the president that Americans consistently rank among the greatest. Indeed, FDR had an amazing ability to maintain a Herculean schedule, as a self-described juggler who could handle domestic pressures as well as, later, a two-front world war that would have taxed the abilities of mere political mortals. For this, voters rewarded him with an unprecedented third term in 1940 as war clouds had already gathered over Europe and the Pacific, and again in 1944 when victory in Europe was believed to be in sight. As Woolner notes, FDR kept up this work ethic almost to the moment of his death in Warm Springs, Ga., on April 12, 1945. What is not so clear - how could it ever be? - is whether the work kept Roosevelt going or was his undoing. Certainly, there have been many critics who have doubted that Roosevelt had the capacity to lead in his diminished state. One charge that still has some sticking power is that he gave away the ship at Yalta, subjecting Eastern Europe to decades of communist tyranny and an ensuing Cold War. Woolner acknowledges the critics but offers a more nuanced view that FDR got most of what he sought at the Big Three summit in Crimea, which primarily was agreement for the establishment of the United Nations. Moreover, Woolner enlightens us with his analysis of FDR at Egypt's Great Bitter Lake after the Yalta summit, where the president tried to bring up the question of Jewish immigration to Palestine with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. Like most presidents who followed him, Roosevelt was rebuffed, and the issue of Middle East peace remains one of the greatest mirages of our times. But it is the telling of the five-week, half-a-world-away voyage by ship and airplane to Yalta that is the fascinating aspect of this book, and here Woolner really shows his historian's chops. The trip itself was the stuff of legend, an especially dangerous ocean crossing at a time when German U-boats still prowled the Atlantic. Then there was the return trip, equally as fraught but now with growing alarm over the president's condition. "This is really a ship of death and everyone responsible in encouraging that man [FDR] to go to Yalta has done a disservice to the United States and ought to be shot," as Alexander Kirk, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, put it in a sentiment that others, perhaps not as crudely, expressed upon seeing FDR in his sickened state - many for the last time. To make matters worse, FDR's personal secretary, Gen. Edwin "Pa" Watson, had taken ill and died as the ship, the USS Quincy, made its voyage back to the United States. Roosevelt's inner circle was getting smaller, with deaths such as Watson's, and resignations and illnesses for others, yet the president soldiered on. "For all of these reasons," Woolner writes, "perhaps the most remarkable odyssey the president took in the spring of 1945 was not his trip to Yalta but his journey down the center aisle of the US House of Representatives on the morning of March 1, where in full view of the packed and wildly cheering chamber, he made his way in his wheelchair." This, according to Woolner, was FDR coming to grips with his disability: Labor Secretary "Frances Perkins found this 'casual, debonair' reference to his disability, 'made without self-pity or strain,' deeply moving. Choking up, she, like Eleanor [Roosevelt], realized that what FDR was admitting - not only to the audience but to himself - was 'You see, I am a crippled man.'" Disability acknowledged and his health still deteriorating, Roosevelt was nevertheless looking forward to addressing the initial conference of the United Nations in San Francisco and even hinted to associates that he and Eleanor would visit England. Neither would come to pass. After first making a trip to his home in Hyde Park, N.Y., FDR ventured south to Warm Springs, where he would enjoy the company of cousins Margaret "Daisy" Suckley and Laura "Polly" Delano, as well as a visit from Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, and rest up for San Francisco. Death interrupted. He was only 63. This book is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of Roosevelt. Its focus on his last 100 days allows the author to explore his presidency when he was most vulnerable, diagnosed with a failing heart but still holding the fate of the world in his hands. The fact he saw this challenge through to the end helps explain the juggler in him, as well as the complexity of the man. --- Hill is a former senior editor for The Washington Post News Media Services. For Christmas this year, Missy Mazzoli's aunt knitted her a black sheep. It was an affectionate gesture. Mazzoli, 37, is one of the top composers of her generation, but to a family of non-musicians in Lansford, Pennsylvania, a small town about an hour from Philadelphia, her career seems to have come out of left field. Mazzoli's early musical predilections ran to the video of "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses ("I was obsessed with the drama of it," she says). As for fitting in: "My family are all special-ed teachers," she says, laughing, pleased rather than put off by the gift. In the new music world, however, Mazzoli is less a black sheep than a sacred cow: an "it" girl of the contemporary scene. Seven or eight years ago, she started making waves with her chamber-ensemble-cum-girl-band, Victoire, a group with a funky alt-classical vibe that she formed as an outlet for performing her own music. Listening to the band's post-minimalist drones overlaid with expressive spasms of melody in an electronic haze, you might not have guessed that Mazzoli's work was going to veer into the world of mainstream opera. But on Jan. 19, the Washington National Opera will be presenting the world premiere of her third opera, a 70-minute piece called "Proving Up," and the opera world counts the company lucky to get it. "Proving Up," which Mazzoli wrote with the prolific librettist Royce Vavrek, based on a short story by Karen Russell ("Swamplandia"), is the latest entrant in the lists of WNO's American Opera Initiative commissions. Now in its sixth year, the initiative involves three 20-minute chamber operas (this year's trio will be performed on Saturday, twice each) and one hour-long work. Though it was envisioned as a training ground for young composers, the hour-long piece has become less of a steppingstone than a showcase: a nod to new work by a company where money is too tight to commission such work for the main stage. As a result, its "young" composers, increasingly, are people who already have another opera or two under their belts ("Proving Up" was co-commissioned by Opera Omaha and New York's Miller Theater). "There's often a centrifugal force toward certain people," says Francesca Zambello, WNO's artistic director, who approached Mazzoli about the commission several years ago, when Mazzoli was an artist-in-residence at Opera Philadelphia. "Composers," Mazzoli observes jokingly, "are 'young' until they die." Between the commission and the premiere, however, came the work that put Mazzoli even more squarely on the map: an operatic adaptation of Lars von Trier's film "Breaking the Waves," also written with Vavrek, that premiered at Opera Philadelphia in 2016 and came to the Prototype Festival in New York a few months later. "Breaking the Waves" was a turning point, not only for Mazzoli, but also for the companies that commissioned it. It's a powerful, distinctive opera, well-written for the voice, dramatically effective, with a luminous sound world that bears as many traces of Benjamin Britten as of Mazzoli's minimalist antecedents. She strove to find music that would respond to the Scottish landscape: "a sensual bed of material" corresponding to Scotland's lush greenness, with jagged rocks and storms reflected in "these crazy unexpected things every time you turn a corner." And she invested her characters, Zambello says, with "a real aural world," which Zambello compares to Debussy. Hearing it the for the first time at an early workshop during Mazzoli's Opera Philadelphia residency, David Devan, general director and president of Opera Philadelphia, says that "eight bars in, we were punching each other in the arm. It sucked us in, and was just rich and stark at the same time. David (Levy, senior vice president for artistic operations,) whispered, 'This is opera!' " "Breaking the Waves" was a critical and popular success. "It elevated Missy to a different place in the field," says Beth Morrison of the Prototype festival. "I think it will be one of the works in the canon done by large opera companies. Being a commissioner on that has been a really important thing for me and my company." It's a striking thing to hear from Morrison, who has become a one-woman proponent of cutting-edge opera across the country. But Morrison is also particularly bound up with Mazzoli's trajectory - the women have known each other since they were students, both attending Boston University and, some years later, Yale at the same time. In Morrison's early days as a presenter, Mazzoli approached her with other composers who became significant collaborators, among them David T. Little ("Dog Days"); and Morrison helped midwife Mazzoli's first opera, "Songs From the Uproar," bringing in Vavrek to help craft the libretto of what was essentially a dramatic song cycle about the late-19th-century Swiss explorer and writer Isabelle Eberhardt, who posed as a man, converted to Islam and was killed in a flash flood at the age of 27. "Breaking the Waves" is more conventionally operatic (with multiple characters, sets and a plot). One key factor in Mazzoli's development was the Opera Philadelphia residency, a three-year program with no fixed parameters that is designed to steep composers in the workings of an opera house and see what comes of it. Mazzoli, Devan says, was a logical candidate, as "a born collaborator" whose music is "always trying to tell a story." But it took the residency, which allows composers to sit in on any aspect of the production process they please, to crystallize these elements in her. "It was life-changing for me," Mazzoli says. "I am not exaggerating. In my experience, you don't really learn to write opera in grad school: Few university programs have that component to their composition program. Not until that residency, at 31, was I immersed in opera. I was sitting there doing a scene workshop with the director Daniel Fish and it hit me, 'Oh my God - this is what I'm supposed to do.' " "Breaking the Waves" represented a step away from Mazzoli's teachers and influences - the world of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and her teachers David Lang and Louis Andriessen, the visionary Dutch composer - toward a distinctive voice of her own. "Proving Up," similarly, represents a step away from "Breaking the Waves." "I definitely felt more confident in my operatic writing abilities," Mazzoli says, "but at the same time, I was very conscious of the desire not to repeat myself." She used a considerably different and more unorthodox musical language - one that includes eight guitars, played like percussion instruments, and a harpsichord - in this story about homesteaders in Nebraska in the 1860s who, required by the Homestead Act to have a house with a glass window, share a single window between families, installing it in one house long enough to get a claim approved, then quickly moving it on to the next one. In the story, someone steals the window, "and things go downhill from there." "It was born of my desire to write a story about the American Dream," Mazzoli says, adding, "After the last election, this came into sharper focus. ... In the current climate, could a hard-working American do everything right and still fail?" Facing such questions also helped her address the topic of "where does my music fit in with the world at large; how can I address these issues swirling around me without being ham-handed or preaching to the choir? What is the role of opera in dealing with these issues?" Mazzoli's story is something of an American dream - from the time that she, as a high schooler, was teaching tap dance to children and one of the fathers put up a sign in the studio advertising piano, drum and composition lessons. "Oh my God - you can study composition?" she thought, and was soon taken under this teacher's wing (he was a percussionist with the Philly Pops). Now a teacher, and a leading woman in a field that still has too few of them, she has set out to provide role models for teenage would-be composers. The Luna Composition Lab, a partnership with New York's Kaufman Center, provides mentorship, regular lessons and field trips to concerts for a small group of female-identifying composers between 13 and 19, drawn from every corner of the country. Now in its second season, the program is "a very simple pattern," she says, "but I think it's very effective." As a female composer, she says, one is aware "I'm entering a world that is inhospitable to me." Strong role models can make a huge difference for the next generation of black sheep. Some 3,382 cases of measles were detected in Ukraine during 11 months of 2017, including five deaths, Health Minister Ulana Suprun told reporters on Thursday. According to her, all the lethal cases were recorded in Odesa region, where three children and two adults died from this disease. "Back in September 2017, when serious outbreaks of measles disease began in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Odesa regions, we established a headquarters for the Health Ministry and recommended that in these areas we limit the stay of unvaccinated children in children's groups - schools, kindergartens. Ternopil and Ivano- Frankivsk regions heeded and their incidence declined, and Odesa region continued to allow children to go to school without vaccination. After the death of five people, they finally realized that this should be banned, and now they demand that children be vaccinated," she said, while adding that almost 80% of measles were not vaccinated. Suprun also reported that at present the measles vaccine is in sufficient numbers in all areas. She recommended, in the case of information on the lack of vaccines, to report this to the Health Ministry's hotline or to the agency's Facebook page. "We will be able to answer you how many vaccines are available in your area, or redistribute, if there are no vaccines for some reason in your area," she said. Previously, the Health Ministry reported that in Ukraine over the past 15 years, outbreaks of measles have been recorded three times: in 2001, 2006 and 2012. In particular, 13,000 people had measles in 2012. Employees at the New Caney Sam's Club, located at 22296 Market Place in the Valley Ranch Town Center, say they were shocked Thursday morning to learn the store was closing and they were being laid off. Maintenance worker Miguel Betancourt, 19, says he was hired a little more than a week ago and claims managers were interviewing new hires as late as Wednesday. "I am not blaming the store management. I know things are being done through corporate. They could have given us a warning though. They just let us show up for work to be told, 'You're done,'" Betancourt said. Betancourt questions why Walmart, the parent company of Sam's Club, announced employee pay raises and bonuses on Thursday and then closed 63 stores, cutting the jobs of 9,000 people in the U.S. and 450 in the Houston area. The two other Houston-area Clubs closing are located at 1615 South Loop East and 13331 Westheimer in the Eldridge Parking shopping center. "During orientation, they preach about integrity and not being a no-show on the job. I think it's messed it. It just shows that as a company they don't have any integrity," he said. A marketing student at Lone Star College in Kingwood, Betancourt still lives with his parents and is more upset about his coworkers' losses than his own. "There were a lot of people working hard there to provide food for their families. I am concerned about them. They devoted a lot of time to the company to end up in this sad situation," he said. Betancourt and other employees at the New Caney store who were willing to discuss the layoffs with the Observer say they were shocked the store was being closed. Some learned they were laid off when they showed up for work. Others received a FedEx letter that contained information about the store closure. "We are going to be paid through March 16, which is good, but it is going to create a real hardship on me if I don't find another job right away," said Hastin Jamison, 19, of New Caney. Working part-time in maintenance, Jamison earned about $530 every two weeks, which he says barely covered his car payment and share of apartment rent. "I liked my job but I think I am going to look for something else now. I am interested in working for a bank and focusing on going to college full-time, and I want to be able to afford a college education," he said. As the sole provider in her home, Wendy Phelps, 44, is hoping she can land a new position at the new Walmart in New Caney or the one in Porter. "My husband can't work right now because he was in a car accident. He's out for the next eight weeks at least," she said. "There is really nothing available to help us since we didn't have personal injury protection in our insurance policy, but we are determined to make it work." Even before the layoff, money was tight for the Phelps family. "Since my husband hasn't been able to work, I've been paying half of the bills in one check and then the other half with the next check," she said. "I just think it's strange because they just built that store and are now closing it." Walmart shifts focus to online The store closings, says Walmart spokesperson Anne Hatfield, are part of the company's new strategy to focus on online sales. "This is all about positioning the company for growth in the future. Online sales are growing. In the first half of fiscal year 2018, online sales were up 27 percent. That shows you where our members are shopping," Hatfield said. "But this isn't about Clubs versus online sales. It's about striking the right balance. We need to put our investment into supporting our online growth and closing these Clubs will allow us to do that." Walmart currently has two ECommerce hubs in the U.S. in Fort Worth, Texas, and Swedesboro, N.J. supporting all of its online sales, according to Hatfield. Walmart's corporate leaders have determined another 12 hubs are needed to keep up with the online sales demand. "We are looking to convert up to 12 of our Clubs into fulfillment centers. We are in the process of identifying which of these locations will be best. We have figured out one in Memphis, Tenn., but it's too early to know about the others," she said. As for the manner in which employees were notified about the layoffs, Hatfield defended the corporation, saying there is never a good time to deliver bad news. "We asked associates to come to the store Thursday morning so we could have a conversation in person with them and answer any questions they had. There is no easy way to lay people off," she said. Though many of the employees at the New Caney location were fairly new as the store opened just a year ago, Hatfield said some employees may still qualify for Walmart's new bonus system, which is based on length of service. Full-time and part-time employees who have been with Walmart for 20-plus years qualify for a one-time bonus of $1,000. Walmart also announced this week it was raising its starting hourly wage to $11, effective in the Feb. 17 pay cycle. The company also expanded its parental and maternity leave policy, providing full-time hourly employees with 10 weeks of paid maternity leave and six weeks of paid parental leave, and added financial assistance of up to $5,000 per child for any employee adopting a child. The money is applied to adoption agency fees, translation fees and legal expenses. A Katy man is being held on a $1 million bond in Connecticut after a judge there designated him a fugitive from justice for his alleged role in a New Year's Day slaying in Stafford, authorities said Friday. Giuseppe Briguglio, 19, was arrested about 10 p.m. January 11 at a home in Ansonia, Conn, about 10 miles northwest of New Haven. Also taken into custody at the scene was Jessica Lynn Musante, 17, who had recently lived in Sugar Land but was originally from the area, police in Connecticut said. Briguglio and Musante were charged with murder in connection with the Jan. 1 shooting death of William James Outlaw, 22, of Missouri City, Stafford police said. The victim was discovered shortly before 2 a.m. after police were called to investigate reports of gunfire at the Estates of Fountain Lake apartments, 10498 Fountain Lake Drive. A body in an apartment breezeway was later identified as Outlaw, Stafford police said. Stafford police did not release information about a possible motive for the slaying but said their investigators along with Texas Rangers developed information that led to Briguglio and Musante being identified as possible suspects in the fatal shooting. Police in Connecticut confirmed Musante is originally from Shelton, a town about five miles away from where she was eventually arrested along with Briguglio. It was officers from Musante's hometown who discovered a possible address where she could be found in Ansonia. As Stafford investigators were securing arrest warrants in Fort Bend County for Briguglio and Musante, police in Ansonia were surrounding the home where they were found. "We ordered the occupants out of the house over our (public address) system," said Lt. Patrick Lynch with the Ansonia Police Department. "There was no weapon recovered in the (Stafford homicide) and we weren't sure they were still armed." Lynch said six people came out of the house: Briguglio, Musante and four people who lived there. "There was no resistance. They were taken into custody," he said. The people who lived in the house were related to one of Musante's friends. They were later released after police concluded they were unaware she and Briguglio were suspects in the Texas murder case, officials said. "They were very cooperative. There was no indication they helped them in any way, shape or form," Lynch said. Musante was identified as a suspect in the slaying by Stafford investigators. Ansonia police said she is considered a juvenile under Connecticut law and can't be named by them. Musante is currently in juvenile custody there. Briguglio was arraigned Friday in court in Connecticut. It wasn't immediately know whether Briguglio and Musante will fight extradition to Texas. Their bonds for the murder charge have been set at $250,000 and $100,000, officials said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Hundreds of student art pieces will be on display Saturday at the Conroe High School 9th grade campus for a Western-themed art show and exhibit. Dr. Robert Horton, who heads the Fine Arts department for the Conroe Independent School District, said the show is part of "the auspice of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo," which takes place in early March. "We have 650 student art pieces that have been submitted from all 61 campuses," Horton said, referring to the collection on display at the ninth grade campus. "They are all on the theme of Western life and heritage." The show is scheduled for Saturday at the Conroe High School ninth grade campus on Sgt. Ed Holcomb Boulevard North between 3 and 5 p.m. The pieces will be displayed on boards in the large gym of the school. The student art pieces, which are created during the school day on campus, could be anything from landscapes to sculptures and can display people, scenery, livestock, Horton said, noting that it includes anything that involves Western life. "The quality of the work by the students is exceptional," he said, adding that the generic theme is an intentional way of not stifling the children's creativity. "And the guidance they receive from their teachers is one of the keys." Of the 650 pieces submitted, 25 high school pieces will be selected by judges for display at the Hayloft gallery at the Rodeo and the students will be eligible for a scholarship, Horton said. Five pieces from elementary school and junior high school students will also be selected, he added. The art will be on display throughout the entirety of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. About 135 school districts across Texas are part of the School Art Program for the rodeo. Last year, about 200,000 entries were submitted each year to the rodeo's program. Since 1965, more than 9.2 million entries have been recorded, according to information from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo's website. "This competition gives students to be successful in this very texas medium and it's thoroughly appreciated by the district and the community," Horton said. The benefits of creative thinking are enumerable. Having this skillset will enable you to tackle problems with unique perspectives, come up with special ideas and, overall, be a more effective performer. One challenge to becoming more creative is the difficulty of quantifying creativity. It is much easier to learn and subsequently demonstrate skills in software engineering, for example. That being said, companies and people are drawn toward creative thinkers. The more that those around you listen to your opinion and the more frequently you propose unique ideas, the higher an indication of these skills. Therefore, over time, you can gauge progress based on how others respond to you and your work. The other challenge, though, is that sometimes others will not recognize your creativity. They might shoot down an awesome idea because it sounds crazy unconventional. Understanding this and learning to navigate it will keep your confidence levels high so that you can continue to grow. With these perspectives in mind around quantifying creativity, here are nine guaranteed ways that you can become a more creative thinker to better tackle your life and problems: Related: I Started Saying 'No' to These 6 Things. My Life and My Business Got a Lot Better. 1. Read People have chronicled years of their work or life experiences into books. Knowing more and having different perspectives will help you become more creative. You will be able to take others' ideas, pieces of knowledge and individual experiences and apply them to your present situations. Reading is one of the best ways to pick up this knowledge and empathy. It is easy to make excuses for not having enough time to read but if you make reading a priority, you will be able to find the time and undoubtedly become more creative. Related: 10 Simple Daily Practices That Will Make You Happier 2. Pick up an art. Having some sort of artistic outlet in your life will dramatically help with creativity levels. Albert Einstein came up with many of his famous revelations while playing the violin. In the book Originals, Adam Grant -- a researcher and professor at Wharton -- found that "Nobel Prize-winners are twice as likely to play a musical instrument, they're seven times as likely to draw or paint, 12 times as likely to write fiction or poetry, and... 22 times as likely as their peers to perform as actors, dancers, or, yes, magicians." Whether it be an instrument, drawing, acting or anything else, finding an artistic outlet will fire different parts of your brain. Those spark serenity and a stillness that will make you a more creative person. Related: 12 Scientifically Proven Ways to Reinvent Yourself 3. Surround yourself with a wider range of personalities. Empathy is a huge key to creativity. Most people surround themselves with others who are similar to them. While doing so is comfortable, it is not beneficial when working toward creativity. There are others within your vicinity who have lived dramatically different lives. Meeting them, understanding their backgrounds and learning how they think will widen your perspective about the world. That will, in turn, increase the creative vigor you can take through life. Related: 5 Powerful Ways to Become Your Best Self 4. Spend more time in nature. Being outdoors also sparks creativity. Escaping from the stresses and routine of life, even for brief periods, can get your head out of a rut. Finding short times to be outside throughout your week will give you a chance to get away from all of the technology and noise in our daily lives. Plus, it is an excuse to go have fun and explore. Related: Why You Should Take Your Work Outdoors 5. Meditate Mental stillness allows you to eliminate many of the thoughts that constantly ruminate in your head. When you are always thinking about a past or future event, for instance, it takes your mind away from tackling the current situation. Meditation is a great way to develop this stillness. With a meditation practice you can learn to let your mind be entirely in the present situation. Doing so will allow you to exert more concentrated effort on the tasks at hand. You can pull in more knowledge from different parts of your brain. Consequently, you will be more creative in each moment. Related: How Meditation Can Transform Your Business 6. Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep can kill creativity. Although we feel the urge to always be on the move, when we are tired, we are not able to use as much of our brain. Plus, exhaustion makes it harder to retain information upon learning it. Therefore, with less sleep, we learn less that we can apply to situations and we cannot perform as effectively on any given task. Making sleep a priority will help your creativity, without a doubt. Related: Sleep In and Make Millions: Why You Don't Need to Wake Up at 5 A.M. 7. Exercise Feeling healthy is a great way to have more confidence throughout our days. This confidence often leads to less worrying and more mental energy being exerted at the task at hand. Plus, while actually working out, people tend to be hyper-present. This might trigger an idea or a thought you had not considered before. Related: 7 Reasons Every Entrepreneur Should Start the Day With Exercise 8. Do more of what you love. There is a correlation between happiness and creativity. The better that our spirits are, the higher functioning we act on a daily basis. Subsequently, a great way to increase happiness levels is to do what you love. This could be hobbies, spending time with loved ones or anything else. Additionally, when doing what we love, we tend to be in a very present state. Some have called this state 'flow.' As mentioned above, being in a present state pays large dividends toward creativity. Not to mention that doing what you love might spark additional ideas and help you find new interests where you can be creative. Related: You Can Motivate Yourself to Start Again After a Business Failure 9. Take more risks. Taking risks will boost creativity by giving you a larger set of life events. When you have experienced more things, you will be able to apply those memories and lessons to each new situation that you are in. While you can do more in life without taking risks, fear is often an inhibitor toward trying something new. Therefore, be open to taking more chances. By going out of your comfort zone and doing what others might be unwilling to do, you will develop a deeper breadth of memories and past experiences that you can apply to new problems. Related: 9 Reliable Ways to Cultivate Creative Thinking I Broke Up With TV Last Year and We're Not Getting Back Together 5 Important Resolutions That Grow Your Business and 10x Your Life Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - President Donald Trump's dismissal of Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as "shithole countries" whose inhabitants are not desirable for U.S. immigration shocked people around the world and provoked swift condemnation. The president made the remarks Thursday during a White House meeting with lawmakers and suggested that immigrants from Norway would be preferable. Trump has since apparently denied making the off-color remark, describing the language he used only as "tough." "The African Union Commission is frankly alarmed at statements by the president of the United States when referring to migrants of African countries and others in such contemptuous terms," said Ebba Kalondo, the spokeswoman for the African Union. "Considering the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the U.S. during the Atlantic slave trade, this flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice." She added that the statement was particularly unpleasant coming from the leader of a country that is a "global example" of how a strong and diverse country can be the product of migration, and she expressed hope that eventually "the values the U.S. is known for because of its particular experience with migration will come to bear." The reaction from the United Nations human rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, was uncharacteristically blunt. He described the remark as "racist." "There is no other word one can use but 'racist,' " he said at a briefing in Geneva. "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes,' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome." In Haiti, people took to Twitter to share pictures of their country - verdant green hills, palm trees in the sunset, and sparkling turquoise water. Haiti's ambassador to the United States condemned the statement and said his country has asked for an explanation of Trump's comments from U.S. officials. "In the spirit of the people of Haiti we feel in the statements, if they were made, the president was either misinformed or miseducated about Haiti and its people, " the ambassador, Paul Altidor, said in a statement. Altidor said the Haitian Embassy in Washington was inundated with emails from Americans apologizing for Trump's remark, which he found heartening. Haiti's largest newspaper condemned it as "racist and disgraceful" and said such comments have "no place in the relations between nations or people, even less so in the mouth of a president of a nation friendly to Haiti." In Africa, there were similar reactions celebrating the beauty of the continent's countries. A well-known presenter for South Africa's broadcaster SABC tweeted: "Good morning from the greatest, most beautiful 'shithole country' in the world!!" The deputy secretary general of the African National Congress, the party once led by Nelson Mandela, hit back at Trump's comment during a news conference in South Africa. "Ours is not a shithole country. Neither is Haiti or any other country in distress," Jessie Duarte said. Meanwhile, the Daily Maverick, a Johannesburg-based news site, wryly suggested that "Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate." Botswana gave a rare official response to the remarks, summoning the U.S. ambassador there "to clarify whether Botswana is regarded as a 'shithole' country" as well, and wondering why "President Trump must use this descriptor and derogatory word when talking about countries with whom the U.S. has had cordial and mutually beneficial bilateral relations for many years." The statement concluded by calling the remarks racist. A State Department official said Friday that Senegal had also summoned the U.S. ambassador to that country for an explanation. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the matter, spoke on the condition of anonymity. Kenyan political cartoonist Victor Ndula, who has criticized Trump's immigration policies in the past, drew a " 'White' House map of Africa," with regions labeled as "west of the shithole," "southern shithole" and "horn of the shithole" for Kenya's Star newspaper. "It's derogatory and sad to belong to countries that have been labeled 'shithole' countries," lamented Moses Osani, a communications specialist on his lunch break in Nairobi. "Immigrants also contribute to the economy of the U.S. We have relatives who work so hard, some three jobs a day, working and hoping for a breakthrough for their families back home." On the other side of the continent, Senegal's president, Macky Sall, said he was "shocked" by Trump's comments. Africa and those of African ancestry "deserves the respect and consideration of all," he wrote on Twitter. Vicente Fox, a former president of Mexico and a harsh critic of Trump, also noted on Twitter America's immigrant history. "Your mouth is the foulest shithole in the world," he wrote, addressing Trump. "With what authority do you proclaim who's welcome in America and who's not. America's greatness is built on diversity, or have you forgotten your immigrant background, Donald?" In El Salvador, news of the comments quickly shot to the top of media websites. "Donald Trump insults El Salvador," read one headline. El Salvador's foreign minister, Hugo Martinez, said he is seeking an official response from U.S. authorities. "It's always been a foreign policy priority of our government to fight for the respect and dignity of our countrymen independent of their immigration status," he said. "Our countrymen are hard-working people, who are always contributing to the countries where they're living and, of course, also in our country." In light of Trump's alleged preference for immigrants from Norway, a number of users on social media were resharing a Norwegian website launched in 2016 aiming to persuade Trump-skeptical Americans to immigrate to Norway. "We are offering acute aid to descendants of emigrated Norwegians, and other Americans, considering a new start abroad," read a welcome message on the website, "in light of the results of the U.S. presidential election." One Norwegian official in Brussels deadpanned that the country might consider changing its official tourism slogan from "Powered by Nature" to "Not a Shithole," before saying that the whole situation was a bit awkward. Norwegians on social media also questioned the attractiveness of immigrating to a country without free health care, paid parental leave or gun control."I'm a Norwegian who enjoyed studying & working in the US. The only thing that would attract me to emigrate to the US is your vibrant multicultural society. Don't take that away," tweeted Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Reaction across the United States, home to a large population of immigrants from these countries, was emotional. Illinois state Sen. Kwame Raoul, the son of Haitian immigrants, said there was no "apologizing out of this." "He's demonstrated himself to be unfit, unknowledgeable about the history of this country and the history of contributions that immigrants, particularly Haitian immigrants, have made to this country," Raoul, a Democrat, told CBS. "It makes me embarrassed to have this guy as the president of my country." Republican pollster Frank Luntz quoted a report and said that 43 percent of immigrants from African countries have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 33 percent of the U.S. population overall. Farah Larrieux, a Haitian immigrant and organizer in Miami, referenced statements Trump made in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood while campaigning before the 2016 election that he wanted "to be the biggest champion" for Haitian Americans. "This is beyond politics. The guy has no respect for anyone. I am trying not to cry," she told CBS. "I can't understand how someone goes from making a statement in Little Haiti saying I want to be the biggest champion of Haiti to calling Haiti a 'shithole.' It makes me sick." Journalist Amelie Baron ran down a list of stereotypes promoted about the country in recent years, referencing a flap in which a Weather Channel meteorologist claimed that Haitian children were so hungry they ate trees, another statement reportedly made by Trump in 2017 that Haitian immigrants "all have AIDS" and Trump's remark Thursday. "How bad some US citizens judge Haiti," she wrote. - - - The Washington Post's Maria Sacchetti in Washington, Rick Noack in Berlin, Michael Birnbaum in Brussels, Josh Partlow in Mexico City, Rael Ombuor in Nairobi and Kevin Sieff in Cotonou, Benin, contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: The Washington Post's Eugene Scott explains how Trump's "shithole countries" comment is the latest example of his history of demeaning statements on nonwhite immigrants.(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) Embed code: IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is providing a financing package of over EUR 30 million to IMMER Group, a leading Eastern European producer of flexible packaging, represented by PJSC Ukrplastic in Ukraine, to support export-led economic growth. A respective loan agreement was signed in January 2018, IFC told Interfax-Ukraine. IFC's financing package, which includes 15 million euro in debt mobilized from other lenders, is designed to support growth of IMMER Ukrplastic, Ukraine's largest manufacturer of flexible packaging materials whose production facilities are based in Kyiv. "IFC's engagement helps the IMMER Group's broader effort to open new markets and help diversify its exports to the European Union," IFC said in an announcement. "IFC's financing comes at a crucial time. Ukraine's economy is returning to growth and we are looking to capitalize on this, growing in different market segments, launching new, innovative products for the food processing and agribusiness sector, and diversifying our export markets," said Irina Mirochnik, IMMER Group president. IFC says the project will contribute to boosting food security and helping to improve sustainable agricultural practices by providing high quality food packaging materials and new products to the agricultural sector, including biodegradable mulch and silage films. IFC had previously specified that IMMER Group is a 100% family business owned by Irina Mirochnik and her three daughters. The main asset of the group is Ukrplastic, which occupies 11.3 hectares in Kyiv with 34 facilities whose total area is 74,000 square meters. It employs 1,447 people. In addition, IMMER Group in February 2017 launched a new production of IMMER Digital in Ventspils (Latvia) with 31 employees to increase its share in the European market, according to IFC. This facility is engaged in such limited operations as digital printing, lamination, the manufacture of bags and labels. The group also includes IMMER Design Studio in Riga (Latvia). In addition, the group has 15 warehouses in Kyiv, 11 warehouses in Russia, Europe and across the rest of Ukraine. Ukrplastic in 2016 boosted net revenue by 9.5%, to UAH 2.129 billion. Its net profit was UAH 129.51 million, whereas it was in the red in 2015 with net loss estimated at UAH 261.15 million. There is no information about financial results in 2017. By the end of 2016, Farsiko Enterprises Limited owned a 99.7756% state, whereas by the end of 2017, it was held by IMMER Limited (both Cyprus-based), according to the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine. BEIJING - A Chinese university has fired a well-known professor over multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, a significant step for China's fledgling #MeToo movement. Beihang University announced late Thursday that an investigation found Professor Chen Xiaowu "did sexually harass female students" and would lose his post as vice president of the university's graduate school. His teaching certificate has also been canceled. Early this month, an academic living in the U.S., Luo Xixi, wrote online that, as a student many years ago, Chen lured her to his sister's home and forced himself on her. She escaped in tears. After going public, five other former students came forward with allegations of their own. The fact that Chen was stripped of his post - and that the news was covered by the Communist Party-controlled press - is a small win for the Chinese women who have spoken out in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. In a statement, Luo called the news an "initial victory." "For the past three months we have been waiting anxiously all the time," she wrote. "Luckily, this waiting and expectation have not been a letdown." In the wake of the Weinstein scandal, several Chinese women have made news by publishing allegations of sexual assault or harassment online. Their stories have been met with a mix of incredulity and anger. The ruling Communist Party appears unsure about what to make of the movement. In the aftermath of the Weinstein news, state media first seized on the chance to criticize U.S. culture, arguing - contrary to evidence and common sense - that harassment doesn't happen in China. When cases started to emerge, authorities tried to censor some discussions, worried perhaps that public sentiment could turn on other authority figures or officials. But Luo's case proved difficult to suppress. She was based overseas and quickly found other survivors. Together, they took their story to the university. Chinese feminists are glad to see the university take decisive action, but wonder why the university has just removed Chen from his post rather than fired him. Xiao Meili, a feminist based in Guangzhou, who has penned an open letter asking her alma mater, the Communication University of China, to come up with a plan to combat campus sexual harassment, said she was unimpressed by the result. "They've stripped him of many of his [job] titles, but he didn't lose his job and can continue working at this university," she said. "I don't think it's a milestone. I think it would be progress if they fired the professor." The long-term goal of China's MeToo movement, according to Xiao, should be to encourage more women to come forward. "I really hope we can continue doing this, so then all those sexual harassment perpetrators will get a real punishment." Sophia Huang, a woman who galvanized the movement by going public with an account of an alleged sexual assault by a former supervisor, agreed that the movement has a long way to go. She is calling on Chinese universities to do more to prevent sexual misconduct and create the channels for victims to seek redress. --- The Washington Post's Luna Lin in Beijing contributed. A former Maryland state delegate who was seeking the Republican nomination to replace outgoing Democrat John Delaney in the U.S. House dropped out of that race Friday, saying he wants to focus exclusively on efforts to curtail the opioid epidemic. Matt Mossburg, who served one term in the Maryland General Assembly in the 1990s, is a recovering opioid addict. He said running for Congress hindered his efforts to lobby for the issue in Annapolis. "People don't want to hear Republican or Democrat when chances are either they or someone they know is struggling with addiction," Mossburg said. The move helps clear a path to the nomination for Amie Hoeber, a defense contractor who challenged Delaney in 2016 and has the funds to compete in Washington's expensive media market. Another GOP candidate, nurse practitioner Lisa Lloyd, is seeking office for the first time and lacks Hoeber's fundraising network, name recognition and ability to self-finance. Mossburg said he will stay neutral in the primary, which is June 26. Six Democrats are seeking the nomination to succeed Delaney: retired intelligence officer Andrew Duck, pediatrician and novelist Nadia Hashimi, former aerospace executive Chris Hearsey, Del. Aruna Miller, state Sen. Roger Manno and Total Wine co-founder David Trone. There has been speculation that Mossburg would withdraw from the race to work on the opioid crisis for Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, who has made addiction issues a priority in his administration. "I have spoken with people in his administration about working with him, but there's nothing on the table," he said in an interview Friday. Mossburg is trying to rally support for the creation of a state task force to examine the pros and cons of using other drugs to treat opioid addition, and to look for ways to ensure elected officials maintain strong oversight of the pharmaceutical industry. He decided to run for Congress last year after sharing his experience during a public hearing on opioid legislation. After losing his statehouse seat in the late 1990s, he developed a four-year addiction to narcotics. He relapsed in 2010, after eight years, while he was the main caregiver for his then-wife, who was seriously injured in a car accident. "I was like a tornado blowing through people's lives, just causing wreckage and blaming everybody else for our problems and not taking personal responsibility," he says in a campaign video. By the summer of 2013, Mossburg was broke and living out of his car. For most of a year, he said, he couldn't take care of himself and contemplated suicide. Eventually he ended up in the hospital. From there, he entered to a 28-day rehabilitation program. Now in what he calls "active recovery," he wants to expand detox centers, sober houses and peer-to-peer networks. He does not endorse using other drugs - such as methadone and buprenorphine - to wean people off opioids. Maryland's 6th District stretches from liberal Washington suburbs in Montgomery County to more conservative counties reaching into Appalachia. Its boundaries are the subject of a gerrymandering lawsuit that is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday detailed a list of witnesses and documents Democrats say Republicans have kept them from accessing during the panel's Russia investigation, and blamed the committee's chairman and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., for attempting to end the probe before it is complete. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said that committee Republicans had blocked Democrats' efforts to subpoena Deutsche Bank for financial records related to President Donald Trump's family on the suspicion that Russians "may have laundered money through Trump properties." Democrats also were stymied in their effort to subpoena executives at Twitter, Schiff said, to secure the direct messages that members of Trump's inner circle exchanged with representatives of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, who Democrats believe acted as Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign. Schiff complained that Republicans were unwilling to press those members of the Trump team who participated in a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower for a complete record of their communications over email, telephone, and encrypted applications. Then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr. attended the meeting, which was initially billed to Trump Jr. as a means of securing information damaging to Trump's political opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. According to two people with knowledge of the materials, the phone records Trump Jr. turned over to the panel were heavily redacted. Schiff added that GOP leaders refused to seek testimony from additional witnesses with knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting, including Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and the president's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump. "If there's credible information that Ivanka Trump had contact with any participants in that meeting at the time of that meeting . . . I think it would be valuable to have her come and testify before the committee," Schiff said. He added that he believes the committee should invite former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon to testify, saying "it's my expectation that he will be doing so." In a new book, author Michael Wolff writes that Bannon thought the Trump Tower meeting was "treasonous." Schiff's complaints come as the House GOP begins to pivot its attention away from questions of possible Russian collusion and toward those about the FBI's conduct during its probes of Trump's alleged Russia ties and Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. The phenomenon has inspired Democrats across Congress to strike out on their own, drafting reports and publicizing findings to date from the various Russia probes underway in the House and Senate. Several Republican members of the House Intelligence panel have said in recent weeks they are eager to end the Russia investigation and issue a report, claiming they have nearly exhausted the roster of individuals they could interview. Schiff said Thursday that the committee has interviewed 56 witnesses - half the number of people that have appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Schiff said, meaning there are "dozens" of witnesses they have yet to bring in. He blamed panel chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., for ruling against bringing in certain witnesses, "even when he recused himself" from running the committee's probe. Nunes had deputized Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, to run the Russia probe while the House Ethics Committee investigated allegations that Nunes had improperly publicized classified information; he was cleared of those allegations in December. A spokesman for Nunes declined to comment. Schiff also said that he would hold Ryan responsible if the House probe "is prematurely curtailed for political reasons." Ryan responded in a statement: "While Mr. Schiff tries to distract from the serious, bipartisan review that's been underway for nearly a year, we will stay focused on following the facts and working to safeguard the upcoming election." Shawn Brimley, a senior Pentagon and White House official who pressed the U.S. military to embrace a future of increasingly rapid technological change, died Jan. 9 at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. He was 40. The cause was complications from colon cancer, said Colin Kahl, a friend. Brimley was most recently vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, a defense and foreign policy think tank that produced many of the top officials at the Pentagon and State Department during the Obama administration. He served in the government from 2009 to 2012, first as a special adviser at the Pentagon and then as director of strategic planning at the National Security Council. Otherwise, much of his Washington career was spent at CNAS. As a White House official and later at CNAS, Brimley pushed the military to prepare for a new era of robotic warfare. His ideas helped drive the Pentagon's "third-offset strategy," which sought to reshape the U.S. military in preparation for a possible conflict with a major power such as Russia or China. The concept, which originated with a CNAS study that Brimley co-authored, was announced by then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in 2014 as Pentagon policy. It presumed that the United States would be badly outnumbered in a regional conflict with China or Russia and would need to use its technological advantages to offset its enemies' quantitative superiority. The strategy harked back to the Cold War, when the U.S. military sought to offset the Soviet Union's greater manpower with investments in nuclear weapons to deter Moscow. Later, the U.S. military made big investments in stealthy, deep-strike aircraft, precision bombs and missile systems capable of hitting rear-echelon Soviet forces. Together with Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, Brimley envisioned that the United States would be able to use swarms of drone aircraft, undersea robotics and rapid advances in artificial intelligence to overcome a massive enemy force. "He and Bob Work saw a coming competition with Russia and China as great powers and recognized that the U.S. could not stand still and retain its advantage," said Michele Flournoy, undersecretary for policy in the Pentagon under Obama and a former chief executive at CNAS. The third-offset strategy also foresaw a future in which advanced Chinese missiles would push vulnerable U.S. aircraft carriers further out to sea. Driven by the new strategy and the Chinese threat, the Pentagon is starting to invest in unmanned bombers and aircraft-carrier-capable drones that can strike from longer ranges than conventional aircraft. Shawn William Douglas Brimley was born in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga on June 27, 1977. After serving five years in the Canadian army, he graduated in 2001 from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and received a master's degree in security policy studies in 2007 from George Washington University. Brimley's father was an engineer who worked in the Canadian space program and was twice a finalist for the country's astronaut corps. The two shared a passion for military strategy and technology. Brimley's father recalled his son saying as a teenager that he wanted to be "a strategic analyst." In 2007, Brimley became one of the founding employees at CNAS. He was sworn in as a U.S. citizen before entering the Obama administration. Brimley often described himself as a "think-tank nerd." At a time when government service is often disparaged, he embraced work in U.S. national security as a calling. "Maybe because he was an immigrant, he really believed in the power of American leadership and America's unique role in the world," said Derek Chollet, his boss in the White House. "There was that idealism about him." Former colleagues recalled Brimley's goofy sense of humor. He bought an elaborate, sports-mascot-like parrot suit for a Halloween party. For a CNAS Christmas party, he dressed up as Santa Claus and then ordered the think tank's president, Richard Fontaine, to sit on his lap and tell him whether he had been "naughty or nice." Brimley would surprise colleagues at work by hiding behind a corner and taking shots at them with a Nerf gun as they tried to work, co-workers recalled. "Brimley was a policy wonk's idea of a policy wonk," a friend, Andrew Exum, wrote in an essay for the Atlantic. Survivors include his wife of 13 years, Marjorie Clark Brimley, and their three children, Claire Brimley, Austin Brimley and Tommy Brimley, all of Washington; his parents, Sheryll and Bill Brimley of Ontario; and two sisters. Former colleagues said that one of Brimley's most important contributions had been encouraging younger people to pursue national security as a profession. "He was engaging and self-deprecating, with a borderline inappropriate sense of humor," said Kahl, a onetime national security adviser to former Vice President Joe Biden. "It was really easy for younger people to relate to him. He believed strongly in public service, no matter who the president." For nearly a year now, a collection of lawyers challenging President Donald Trump's travel ban and other immigration policies have argued, with considerable success, that they are driven not by legitimate national security concerns but by bigotry. On Thursday, Trump once again made their arguments a little easier to prove. For these litigators, the president's vulgarities are a gift and they do indeed keep on giving. It's almost as if he's throwing his own cases, albeit inadvertently. His suggestion in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers that the United States should stop accepting immigrants from "shithole countries" is exactly the type of statement plaintiffs' lawyers have cited as evidence, for example, of the president's animus toward people from the Muslim-majority countries covered in the ban. Such statements - be they tweets, quotes from news interviews or remarks from Trump's surrogates - have been used effectively to show unconstitutional discriminatory intent. One federal judge after another has agreed that Trump's own words have undermined the Justice Department's stated defenses of his executive order, which is now in its third iteration. As one federal appeals court judge wrote in May, the travel ban "in text speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination." Trump appeared to blow his top on Thursday during a private discussion with lawmakers about proposals to protect immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" he asked, according to accounts provided to The Washington Post. He went on to say that the United States should bring in more people from Norway. Legal observers were also quick to note that Trump's statements, which were not disputed by the White House, could become an obstacle for the administration as it tries to convince judges that the ban is constitutional. "It might come up in the travel ban cases because the central constitutional question in those cases is, is the president motivated by animus against particular religious groups or groups defined by national origin," Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center told MSNBC. The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that the president has the power to exclude people from certain countries as long as he can show it's for legitimate national security reasons. But an immigration policy targeting people on the basis of race or religion would violate the Constitution's Equal Protection or Establishment clauses. Just how many "shithole countries" are covered by Trump's executive order isn't clear. Depending on what Trump meant, it could be several. The latest version restricts travel from three African nations, Chad, Libya and Somalia. It also names North Korea, of which Trump is no fan, as well as Iran, Syria, Yemen and Venezuela. Six of those eight countries have Muslim majority populations. "This new evidence," Rosen said of Trump's remarks, "distinguishing between people from some countries - African countries and those from Norway - might be invoked to suggest unconstitutional animus, and it's possible that judges in the lower court cases could cite it." Indeed, it's quite likely that legal briefs being prepared by lawyers challenging Trump's immigration orders will now be quickly amended to include the president's latest utterances. "As I put the finishing touches on the travel ban brief to the Supreme Court tonight, the President's words remind us again of how his un-American racist ideology impacts policy," tweeted Neal Katyal, a lawyer on the travel ban case out of Hawaii. Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law who has defended Trump's executive orders, suggested that a federal appeals court handling a related travel ban case may call for additional briefings "on which countries affected by the ban are 'shithole.'" We've been down this road before. In November, Trump threw a wrench into his administration's effort to defend the travel ban by sharing on Twitter three inflammatory anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right British activist. Days later, administration attorneys had to appear in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to argue the case. Judges seemed baffled that Trump could tweet such videos and then expect courts to rule solely on the travel ban's official language, as Roll Call reported. "What do we do with that?" Judge James A. Wynn Jr. asked a Justice Department attorney. "Do we just ignore reality and look at the legality to determine how to handle this case?" Judge Pamela A. Harris also signaled that the president's tweets clashed with the administration's justifications for the ban, according to Roll Call. "Even with deference," she said, "construing them in the light most favorable to the president, it's tricky to see the national security rationale in those." The next round of cases expected to wind up in the courts will surely be challenges to Trump's decision to end the temporary protected status (TPS) program that has allowed Haitians and Salvadorans to remain in the U.S. They too are certain, when the time comes, to rest their cases in part on his latest bias-laden words about their homelands. MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank - Since becoming mayor of Maale Adumim more than 20 years ago, Benny Kashriel has doggedly campaigned for his community to be recognized as part of Israel. Now, with President Donald Trump in the White House, Kashriel thinks it may just happen. His settlement is around four miles east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. Most of the international community considers its construction to be illegal, built on land captured during the 1967 war. Still, it has steadily grown from what began as a cluster of prefabricated buildings erected by 23 families in the 1970s into a burgeoning satellite city of Jerusalem. Palm trees line the wide roads of what looks like a Florida suburb. Red-roofed houses and high-rises are home to 42,000 people, who are served by all of the accoutrements of a modern city: schools, restaurants, cafes and a shopping mall. Expansion here is particularly contentious because it could cut off Arab areas of East Jerusalem from other Palestinian territory and hobble the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Still, Maale Adumim keeps growing. In the industrial park on its outskirts, already home to 360 businesses, ground has just been broken on "Design City," a nearly 600,000-square-foot, 160-outlet interior-design retail mall. While previous U.S. administrations called settlements an obstacle to the peace process, the Trump administration has been more restrained in publicly criticizing them, a clear break from the frequent censure under President Barack Obama of Israeli settlement activity. Emboldened by a more supportive White House, Israeli leaders have proposed a flurry of bills and resolutions that, in part, would annex areas of the West Bank and re-engineer Jerusalem's demographic balance by redrawing the city's map to exclude Arab neighborhoods and include Israeli settlements. Last year, Israeli lawmakers introduced a measure, called the Greater Jerusalem bill, that would expand the city's municipal boundaries to include 19 settlements, including Maale Adumim. For the moment the bill has stalled, not yet making it to a vote in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. But other efforts are underway. Betty Herschman, advocacy director at Ir Amim, which monitors developments in Jerusalem as they relate to the peace process, said Israel has seen a "groundswell of unilateral proposals." On New Year's Eve, the central committee of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud party adopted a nonbinding resolution proposing annexation of all West Bank settlements to Israel and allowing unfettered construction. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the crowd that Trump's presidency presents a "historic opportunity." "Today we have a president in the White House who says explicitly, yes, he understands that the obstacle to peace is Palestinian incitement, not settlement in Judea and Samaria," he said, mentioning the names some Israelis use to refer to the West Bank. "We must not miss this opportunity." Some political observers see the Likud action as motivated by domestic politics, a populist move as Israeli elections approach. But Hagai El-Ad, the director of Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, said there is a battle underway between those who want to continue "smart occupation," which manages to "fly two inches below international outrage" while incrementally shifting facts on the ground, and those who advocate "dumb occupation" - moving forward with formal annexation. Trump's presidency has given new vigor to the latter, he said. Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, in particular, was taken by both Israelis and Palestinians as an endorsement of Israel's policies. "They've been encouraged by the current administration, especially after the resolution on Jerusalem," said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's executive committee. "They feel like they have a free hand now. We are at a very, very critical juncture." In his office in Maale Adumim, Kashriel says the change of attitude toward settlements under the Trump administration was immediately apparent. All previous U.S. administrations had largely shunned the settler community, he said. "They boycotted us. They never wanted to meet us," he said. But Kashriel was invited to Trump's inauguration in Washington. "I think they wanted to show us there is a change in the atmosphere in Washington," he said. That was followed by an invitation to Fourth of July celebrations at the U.S. ambassador's residence north of Tel Aviv. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his family are longtime supporters of Israeli settlements in the West Bank as is Trump's ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman. "So you see that there is change," Kashriel said. "This is the reason now that the Knesset members are all the time raising these resolutions." "The most important goal is to strengthen the Jewish majority in Jerusalem," said Intelligence Minister Israel Katz, who wrote the text of the Greater Jerusalem bill. While the bill would incorporate Jewish neighborhoods into the city, the legislation also would downgrade the status of Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem that are separated from the rest of the city by Israel's separation barrier. Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin said by splitting these areas off from the municipality, the city's Jewish character would be increased. That effort has stumbled, however, because of objections from some members of the right-wing ruling coalition that it would essentially split Jerusalem, which Israel sees as its eternal capital. Areas outside the security wall already have become virtually lawless and with few services. Although they are legally part of Jerusalem, the municipality does not provide services to areas on the other side of the barrier for security reasons. But these neighborhoods are not under the control of the Palestinian Authority, either. Israeli authorities have turned a blind eye to unabated Arab construction in those neighborhoods, compared with tight restrictions on permits in Arab areas inside the wall. Munir Zagheir, a community representative for Kafr Aqab, one of the areas Elkin suggests removing from the municipality, says there has been a long-term effort to pull Palestinians out of central Jerusalem and "empty Arabs to the sides". Only about a mile from Kashriel's office, 58 families of Arab Bedouins live in a ramshackle collection of tents and shacks called Jabal al-Baba. Attalah Jahleen, their 42-year-old representative, said the community's fortunes have deteriorated over the past year. "Before Trump took office, the American consulate used to visit us on a regular basis," he said. "Since Trump took over, nothing." The families received eviction orders late last year, and there have been dozens of demolition orders, with Israeli authorities attempting to resettle them elsewhere. Trump administration officials, he said, "have given up on us." --- Video Embed Code Video: Protesters in Jerusalem on Dec. 8, decried President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.(Loveday Morris,Sarah Parnass,Ruth Eglash/The Washington Post) Embed code: Head of the Pension Fund of Ukraine, Oleksiy Zarudny, has said the maximum size of a pension in Ukraine has risen to UAH 13,800 since January 1, 2018. "This year, in connection with the growth of the living wages, the maximum pension ceiling has increased from UAH 10,740 to UAH 13,800," he said during a meeting with veterans of the Azovstal Steel Mill in Mariupol (Donetsk region) on Friday. Zarudny noted that the average size of pensions in Donetsk region is UAH 3,200. Hungarian low cost airline WizzAir in 2017 transported more than 685,000 passengers to/from Kyiv and Lviv, which is 64% more than in 2016, according to a press release from the company. "The first international flight of WizzAir departed from Kyiv to London in 2008. Since then, the company remains faithful to Ukrainian passengers, offering more and more interesting opportunities to meet their demand. The airline contributed to the development of the local labor market in aviation and tourism, as well as creation of 515 jobs in related industries," the report says. The company said the second aircraft was delivered to the WizzAir base in Kyiv in August 2017, the third one will replenish the fleet of the airline in June 2018. Thanks to the resumption of flights from Kharkiv in 2018 and the launch of eight new flights throughout the year, the company will offer its passengers 29 low cost routes from Ukraine to ten countries. "This year the company will provide 1.1 million seats on its Ukrainian flights, which are already on sale. This figure contains a 60% increase over the previous year," the press release said. A dental management company with multiple Texas clinics has agreed to a nearly $24 million settlement with federal prosecutors after being accused of submitting false claims to state Medicaid programs - including Texas' - and performing unnecessary dental work on children. The settlement with Benevis LLC - as well as its affiliated Kool Smiles clinics - was announced Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department. The company said in a statement Friday that the settlement was voluntary, and did not involve any admission or determination of wrongdoing. DOJ lawyers said in a press release that Benevis, through its more than 130 Kool Smiles clinics in 17 states, had also been accused of submitting false claims for medically unnecessary treatments, including baby root canals, tooth extractions and stainless steel crowns. DOJ also had alleged that Kool Smiles knowingly submitted false claims to the Texas Medicaid Program for First Dental Home, which is aimed at providing dental services to children under 3 years old. The chain had years ago come under fire in Texas after it was reported that it was paying bonuses to dentists to hit production targets. "Today's settlement sends a very clear signal: Fraud in the federal healthcare system will not be tolerated, "U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas John F. Bash said in a statement. "Especially when that fraud involves performing unnecessary procedures on kidshere, unnecessary baby root canals and tooth extractions, among other procedureswe will not hesitate to use every tool at our disposal to punish those who break the law." In a statement, the company said it had not admitted to any wrongdoing. "The settlement agreement with the government does not relate to any claims regarding the quality of the dental care provided to patients," the company wrote in a statement. "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 government's allegations." DOJ's investigation was sparked by five lawsuits filed under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act, through which private citizens can file suit on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in a portion of any funds recovered. Three former Kool Smiles employees will receive payments totaling more than $2.4 million, DOJ said. Texas will receive a share of the roughly $10 million recovered in false state Medicaid claims. Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that the company reached a settlement with DOJ, and did not admit to any wrongdoing. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the man accused of fatally shooting a San Antonio Police Department officer in front of Public Safety Headquarters in 2016. Otis Tyrone McKane, 32, faces a capital murder charge, accused of shooting Det. Benjamin Marconi on Nov. 20, 2016. The charge carries a punishment of either death by lethal injection or life in prison without parole. Bexar County District Attorney Nicholas Nico LaHood, who has indicated he plans to personally try the case, filed a notice of intent to pursue the death penalty last week. Its a decision never taken lightly, he said by phone Friday evening. Marconi, 50, who was assigned to the Special Victims Unit and was a 20-year SAPD veteran, was working overtime on patrol and had pulled over a motorist in front of Public Safety Headquarters around 11:45 a.m. that Sunday. He was inside the squad car when a man approached and shot him twice in the head. McKane was seen on surveillance video hanging around headquarters the day of the shooting, and the next day was seen, also on video, entering the Bexar County Courthouse, where he got married. Police arrested McKane, then 31, about 28 hours after the slaying. He told police he was upset about a child custody battle and had lashed out by killing the officer. Our first responders deal with people in many situations, but when somebody could allegedly do something as heinous as this, no one is safe, LaHood said. McKane has a court appearance scheduled for Feb. 28 in the 379th District Court, presided by Judge Ron Rangel. Court records indicate McKane will be represented by defense attorney Raymond Edward Fuchs. LaHood said it is unclear when McKane's case will go to trial, but once jury selection begins, it could take up to a month to seat a panel. Elizabeth Zavala is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | ezavala@express-news.net | @elizabeth2863 The years-long legal fight over Texas political maps is expected to go before the U.S. Supreme Court for oral argument this spring, creating the possibility that some of the states congressional and state House districts might be scrambled before the November 2018 elections. The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up the redistricting case, which centers on state political maps that advocacy groups argue were drawn to intentionally dilute minorities voting power. The court didnt set a hearing date for oral arguments, but court observers say it likely will be in the spring. A lower court last year invalidated two of the states 36 Congressional districts and nine state House districts, ruling they were drawn with discriminatory intent. Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted a temporary suspension of the lower court rulings. Both Congressional districts 27 and 35 are affected, held respectively by Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, and Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin. Farenthold is not seeking reelection. None of the affected House districts are in Bexar County, but several are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision in the redistricting case by the end of June, when its term ends. By then, the March 6 party primaries will already be decided and the general election campaigns will be in full swing. The effect on the races will depend on what the Supreme Court decides. A ruling that calls for a redrawing of any of the maps would not only affect districts specifically identified in the case, but could also have a ripple effect, altering the boundaries of surrounding seats. We are expecting the case to be heard in June with a decision before the November elections, said Rolando Rios, an attorney for the plaintiffs. If the decision is affirmed, which we fully expect, this would allow the San Antonio three judge court to impose an appropriate remedy with new deadlines in time for the November 2018 general elections; that is exactly what was done during the 1990 and 2000 redistricting lawsuits. Chad Dunn, the Texas Democratic Party's general counsel, welcomed the news. Anytime the U.S. Supreme Court wants to take a look at the voting rights of citizens in the nation or in Texas thats a good thing, he said. Obviously this case has been pending for a long time, any step that moves us closer to a final resolution is progress. Paxtons office didnt immediately return a request for comment. amorris@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A relative of a man accused of murder in a fatal shooting in 2015 on the West Side told a jury here that his nephew admitted he killed the victim. Larry Isaac, 31, the uncle, testified Thursday for the prosecution in the murder trial of Robert Martinez, 21. Robert Martinez is accused of killing Steven Cerna, 19, who was fatally shot Feb. 20, 2015, his body found in a drainage ditch known as Hells Gate, in the 1100 block of Shadwell. Authorities said three men, including the defendant, lured Cerna to a motel with the promise of drugs or money and later killed him. Testimony began Tuesday with prosecutor Melissa Saenz telling the jury that Cerna, whom his mother testified suffered from a mental illness, was slain in retaliation over a killing that he had nothing to do with. Defense attorney Leland McRae contends that his client did not kill Cerna, there are no witnesses who saw him at the scene, and that authorities pinned the crime on the wrong man. Isaac testified he thought his brother, Albert Isaac, who helped lure Cerna to a motel with Martinez, was involved in the killing. Larry Isaac said when he asked Martinez in a phone call where Cerna was, Martinez told him, In the dirt, Isaac told the court. Isaac testified that he asked his nephew who did it, and Martinez replied I did. When asked by McRae, Isaac, in jail on a separate kidnapping charge, admitted that he testified in exchange for a lighter sentence, as part of a plea agreement that would lower a potential 20-year-sentence to a maximum of nine years in prison. I got the deal of a lifetime, Isaac said. Closing arguments are expected to begin Friday morning in the 290th state District Court, presided by Judge Melisa Skinner. If convicted, Martinez faces up to life in prison. Elizabeth Zavala is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | ezavala@express-news.net | @elizabeth2863 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate An online search asking "how to kill someone and not get caught" turned into a piece of evidence leading to the arrest of a North Texas woman accused of killing her husband, according to a report from The Dallas Morning News. Sandra Louise Garner, 55, of Maypearl, Texas, was jailed Wednesday on a charge of murder. Her bond was set at $2 million. RELATED: San Antonio-area teacher, coach allegedly had improper relationship with student Garner is accused of fatally shooting her husband, Jon Garner, 42, on Jan. 2 at their home. The night of the alleged killing, Sandra Garner called authorities and relayed a detailed story, said Maypearl Police Chief Boyd Norton. Now Playing: Wife allegedly killed husband, hid body behind a wall Video: Fox 26 Houston According to The News' report, Garner said she woke up to two gunshots and a masked gunman in her home. The gunman told her he had a work-related grudge against her husband, and that he wasn't going to hurt her. Before he left, he stole $18,000 from a safe and told her to go into a bathroom and count to 100 as he fled, she reportedly said. RELATED: SAPD: Masked robber made man get on ground, then shot him in the back As authorities investigated the killing, they came across an electronic device on which they found an "internet link related to how to kill someone and not get caught," Norton said. On Jan. 5, Maypearl police also also found a .38 caliber shell in Jon Garner's body that matched a pistol that was found in a Ford Mustang in the couple's driveway, wrapped in paper towels and two plastic bags, authorities said. Norton said the pistol hadn't been there when they initially searched the car on Jan. 2. Based on that evidence, police secured a warrant for Garner's arrest and booked her into jail. 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 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee says he wants to interview the president's daughter as part of the panel's Russia investigation, along with other witnesses who Republicans aren't inviting. Rep. Adam Schiff said Thursday that Republicans have declined to invite many witnesses that would be valuable to the probe, including Ivanka Trump and several people who he says have additional information about a June 2016 meeting between Russians and the Trump campaign. "There are witnesses who have knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting and what it was about prior to the meeting that have not been brought before our committee," Schiff told reporters. At the Trump Tower meeting, several Trump campaign officials met with Russian operatives under the impression that they might receive damaging information - "dirt" - about the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. The meeting has captured the interest of congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller. More Information Other developments Bannon hires lawyer: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has retained attorney William Burck for the House Intelligence Committee probe. He has yet to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's invetigative team. Agent a traitor?: President Donald Trump has accused an FBI agent who was removed from special counsel Mueller's investigative team of "treason." Trump made the comment in an interview Thursday with The Wall Street Journal. He was referring to Peter Strzok, who was removed last summer after the discovery of anti-Trump texts. From wire reports See More Collapse The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Ivanka Trump talked to at least two of the meeting's participants on the way out. "I think that if there's credible information that Ivanka Trump had contact with any participants in that meeting, at the time of the meeting, that she should be brought in," Schiff said. "She may have more valuable insights on a variety of other issues as well." Schiff said the committee has interviewed a total of 56 witnesses, less than half of the number of witnesses the Senate intelligence committee has interviewed in its own investigation into Russian interference and whether the Trump campaign was involved. The House interviews are done by lawmakers, and often run for much of the day. The Senate panel's interviews are done by staff. He laid the blame on House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif, who stepped aside from the probe for several months while the House Ethics Committee investigated whether Nunes had at one point divulged classified information. Schiff said he and Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, who has led the probe since Nunes stepped aside, have "tried to keep the investigation on track," but "the chairman has a different agenda." Nunes has been focused on a dossier of allegations about Trump's ties to Russia and whether it has been inappropriately used by the FBI. Democrats have said that's just an attempt to divert from the Russia probe. Republicans have in turn criticized Democrats for trying to draw out the probe and say there's no clear evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia. They have indicated they want the investigation to wind down in the early months of this year. Decision on return of Ukrainian military hardware left in Crimea to be made by Ukrainian leadership The Ukrainian military hardware remaining in Crimea is in operational condition and the decision on Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to return it will be made by the Ukrainian leadership, Ihor Voronchenko, commander of the Ukrainian Navy, said. "The decision will be made at the level of the top military and political administration of the state. But this issue needs to be thoroughly studied," he said on 112.Ukraine TV channel on Thursday. Voronchenko said there were eight combat ships in Crimea and only one of them, the big landing ship Olshansky, was not in running condition, and the corvette Lutsk was undergoing maintenance. There are enough infantry fighting vehicles to equip two battalions and also enough armored personnel carriers for two battalions in the coastal units, Voronchenko said. There were seven artillery divisions and four mortar batteries, he said. The aircraft have been flown to 'mainland Ukraine', he also said. Voronchenko said official Kyiv had gone to international courts regarding the hardware and the ships that remained in Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia is ready to give Ukraine its combat equipment left in Crimea. WASHINGTON - The Trump administration said Thursday that it plans additional sanctions on Iran that are separate from those covered under the international nuclear deal with Iran, an indication that President Donald Trump is unlikely to break the 2015 deal now. The president's top national security advisers met with Trump on Thursday afternoon at the White House ahead of a deadline Friday for the president to again exempt Iran from a suite of tough economic sanctions imposed years ago. Announcement of the decision was expected Thursday night or Friday morning. If those sanctions are reimposed, the United States would violate the deal brokered by his predecessor that lifted sanctions in exchange for a rollback of Iran's nuclear development program. "You're going to be finding out very soon," Trump said Thursday when asked about Iran. "You'll be finding that out very soon." U.S. officials and others have said Trump is expected to take the recommendation of senior advisers that he keep the old nuclear-related sanctions in suspension, while announcing new ones that would target other aspects of Iran's behavior, including mass arrests during anti-government protests this month. "I am expecting new sanctions on Iran," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday. "We continue to look at them, we've rolled them out, and you can expect there will be more sanctions coming." He did not say when, but other officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they expect the announcement of additional sanctions to be coordinated with what, to Trump, is the distasteful task of granting a waiver under the Iran deal he has blasted as weak and a giveaway to Iran. Trump also faces a deadline Friday to say whether he will "certify" to Congress that Iran is complying with the deal and that it remains in U.S. interests to adhere to it. Trump declined to make that certification in October, throwing the deal into limbo but not breaking it outright. Britain, France, Germany and the European Union united Thursday to call on the United States to protect the Iran nuclear pact. European powers that co-signed the deal say Iran has complied with its terms and deserves the sanctions relief it was promised. The Trump administration and congressional leaders have sought European agreement on ways to toughen the deal, and such agreement is considered essential before U.S. legislation could go forward. A legislative "fix" Trump requested in October has not materialized. Handout AUSTIN -- Mike Collier, a retired Kingwood accounttant running as a Democrat for lieutenant governor, on Friday said he will report raising about $500,000 in his bid to unsert Repubnlican incumbent Dan Patrick. Collier said his campaign-finance report due Monday will show he has about $143,000 in cash on hand. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The Texas State Aquarium is joining a worldwide quest to improve the health and living conditions of dolphins in captivity. The goal is pretty simple: determine how physical habitat, animal training and environmental enrichment impact the welfare of aquatic animals such as dolphins and whales. WANT TO SEE THE DOLPHINS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL? ADMISSION TO THE AQUARIUM IS ONLY $1 ON MONDAY. The effort comes in the form of a study, funded by a $740,000 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Corpus Christi-based aquarium is one of 44 facilities in seven countries that will participate and get a chunk of the money. Now Playing: Researchers at Brookfield Zoo are trying to find out if dolphins in captivity are actually happy Video: Fox32 "We can't ask a dolphin how it's doing, so we have to look at indicators of welfare" such as stress level and social behaviors, said Lance Miller, principal investigator on the study and the Chicago Zoological Society's senior director of animal welfare research. Since 2003, The Texas aquarium has been home to Dolphin Bay, a 400,000 gallon, 12 foot-deep saltwater pool inhabited by Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Aquarium officials did not return repeated requests for comment. We've worked with the Texas aquarium quite a bit," Miller said. "So, they were an obvious partner." Across all institutions, data will be gathered on 290 common and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, 20 beluga whales, and eight Pacific white-sided dolphins. First, Miller said scientists will develop indicators of welfare, such as stress levels, that could be determined by taking a blood sample. This would be similar, he said, to a person having their cholesterol levels taken during an annual physical. The next part of the study will focus entirely on the dolphins. Scientists will tag the animals with what Miller called a "fancy Fitbit" to measure their behavior: how far and how fast they are swimming, along with what parts of the exhibit they're using, for example. They also will videotape the animals movement in the exhibit to see how they are socializing and exploring, he added. "Bottlenose dolphins ... are generally regarded as a species that thrive in professional care," a Texas aquarium news release stated. "But there is a surprising lack of scientific-based inquiry into what conditions optimize good welfare of cetaceans in managed environments. Most animal-care decisions are made using information gained from research on a smaller scale combined with professional judgment from decades of experience." Data from the study likely will be published in 2020, the release stated, and used to improve living conditions in zoos and aquariums worldwide. "We are excited to be a part of this groundbreaking study," Jesse Gilbert, senior vice president and CEO of the Texas aquarium, said in the release. "The opportunity to obtain objective data from such a large number of institutions will provide a tremendous amount of information regarding cetacean welfare." Alex Stuckey covers science and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. The U.S. State Department has included Ukraine in the second group of countries out of four in terms of level of security for U.S. citizens the countries in which they should exercise increased caution. "Exercise increased caution in Ukraine due to crime and civil unrest. Some areas have increased risk," reads a travel advisory posted on the website of the Department of State. In particular, it is recommended not to visit Crimea and eastern parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. "There is extensive Russian Federation military presence in Crimea as part of Russia's occupation and attempted annexation of this part of Ukraine, which the international community, including the United States and Ukraine, does not recognize. There are continuing abuses against and arbitrary imprisonment of foreigners and the local population by the occupation authorities in Crimea, particularly abuses against individuals who are seen as challenging Russian authority on the peninsula," reads the advisory. Regarding Donbas, the travel advisory notes that "Russia-led forces continue to control areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, where the ongoing armed conflict has resulted in over 10,000 deaths." "Individuals, including U.S. citizens, have been threatened, detained, or kidnapped for hours or days after being stopped at checkpoints controlled by Russia-led forces. The U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens traveling in Donetsk or Luhansk since U.S. government employees are restricted from traveling to the eastern parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and to adjacent regions," reads the document. In addition, in the event of travel to Ukraine, U.S. citizens are advised to avoid demonstrations and crowds, not to physically resist any robbery attempt, and to monitor local media for breaking events and adjust your plans based on new information. On the travel advisories website, all countries of the world are divided into four groups. While travelling to these countries, U.S. citizens should exercise normal precautions (first group), exercise increased caution (second group), reconsider travel (third group), or should not travel at all (fourth group). Russia and Turkey were included in the third group because of terrorism (both countries), harassment (Russia) and arbitrary detention (Turkey). While in Russia, it is recommended not to visit Chechnya and Elbrus, and in Turkey travelers are advised not to go to southeast provinces and to the border with Syria. The travel advisory for Russia says that U.S. citizens "are often victims of harassment, mistreatment, and extortion by law-enforcement and other officials." "U.S. consular assistance to detained individuals is often unreasonably delayed by Russian officials. Russia also enforces special restrictions on dual U.S.-Russian nationals. Due to the Russian government-imposed reduction on U.S. diplomatic personnel in Russia, the U.S. government has reduced ability to provide services to U.S. citizens," the document reads. All other neighbors of Ukraine, including Belarus and Georgia, were included in the first group, and it is not recommended to visit the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia that are not controlled by the Georgian government. When traveling to Transdniestria it is advised to exercise extreme caution. The first group also includes Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Albania, and South Korea. At the same time, the second group includes Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Britain (terrorism), Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Kosovo, China, India, Indonesia, Colombia, Jamaica, Maldives, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and many other countries for various reasons. The third group includes the British Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic (the consequences of natural disasters), Cuba (attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Havana), Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela, (crime), Lebanon (crime, terrorism, armed conflict), Pakistan and Sudan terrorism), and a number of other countries. The fourth group includes Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. There are now four major Democrats and three Republicans running for governor. In California, that means there are too many Republicans in the race. Hey, thats not just my opinion. Ask Jim Brulte, chairman of the California Republican Party. We have three excellent candidates running for governor, Brulte said the other day after Republican and former Sacramento congressman Doug Ose jumped in the race. And if all three stay in, we run the risk of having an all-Democrat runoff. So at least one of the GOP candidates has to go, for the sake of voters who want the chance to choose a Republican for governor in November. And for the sake of every other California Republican running for office this year. Brultes evaluation is based in the raw math of Californias top-two primary system and the dwindling appeal of Republicans west of the Sierra. Roughly 39 to 41 percent of the votes in the June 5 primary are expected to be cast for Republicans, according to Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data, which provides voter information to campaigns and pollsters in both parties. About 59 to 61 percent is expected to be cast on the Democratic side of the ticket. The two other Republican candidates businessman John Cox of Rancho Santa Fe (San Diego County) and Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach (Orange County) are pulling about 9 percent each, according to the December Berkeley IGS Poll. That leaves 23 percent available to Ose and the dozens of unknowns who typically clamber onto the ballot. (Two Democrats, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, top the Berkeley IGS Poll.) Ose, whose name recognition doesnt extend far beyond the Sacramento area, would have to attract virtually all of that remaining Republican support to be one of the top two finishers who advance to the general election in November. Thats unlikely at this point. With three candidates in the race, It gets very hard to do the math to find some scenario where a Republican gets enough votes to slip into the runoff, Mitchell said. Its a math problem. It makes a Dem-on-Dem race more likely if you continue to split the Republican vote. Especially if one of those Republicans doesnt catch fire (with voters). One (GOP candidate) has to break 20 percent, and they will make it into a spot in the runoff, Mitchell said. And if one Republican doesnt make the runoff, then its bad news for every down-ballot Republican. Analysts say if voters arent excited about the race at the top of the ticket governor or U.S. Senate or a provocative ballot measure, they may not vote. That leads to another problem. Republicans really need a GOP gubernatorial candidate on the November ballot because theyre unlikely to have anybody running for Senate. With no major GOP candidate in the race, the Senate campaign is shaping up to be a Democrat-versus-Democrat battle between incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein and state Senate President Pro Tem. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles. Hey, thats not just my opinion. Ask Shawn Steel, the Republican national committeeman who has been a top party official for decades. Numberswise it doesnt look good, Steel said this week. So maybe it is time for a party elder like, say, Shawn Steel to pull one of the gubernatorial candidates aside and say something like, You really dont want to be governor, do you? Its really a terrible job. Why not take the summer off? They never appreciate that advice, Steel said. No, they dont. In fact, the three Republicans are doubling down on staying in the race. Cox, who is largely funding his campaign with his own money, pulled another $1 million out of his wallet last week after Ose jumped in. Hes already put $3 million of his own cash into his campaign. On Thursday Allen, the only candidate on the GOP side without deep pockets, was on Twitter breathlessly touting the results of a rather suspect new survey that showed, in his capitalized letters: TRAVIS ALLEN NOW TOP REPUBLICAN FOR GOVERNOR. Unmentioned in Allens tweet is that the survey also included dozens of candidates, real and imagined, like Democrat Steve Westly and Republican Ashley Swearengin, the former mayor of Fresno. Both said months ago that theyre not running. As for Ose, he said nobody told him not to run. Just the opposite. In fact, Ose told me this week, most of the people inside the (GOP) institutional interests have told me quietly and privately, Hallelujah. One can see how mainstream Republicans would welcome Ose. Cox has never held elective office, and Allen is a three-term Assemblyman who doesnt have much statewide name recognition and hasnt been a fundraising machine. Ose was a three-term congressman who left office because he promised voters hed serve only three terms in Washington. However, in 2014 he ran for Congress again, and lost to Rep. Ami Bera, D-Elk Grove (Sacramento County), by only 1,455 votes. Perhaps equally alluring to Republican Party officials is the prospect that Ose, a wealthy real estate developer, would self-fund his campaign. That means the party wouldnt have to help him raise money. That, however, is not going to happen. Self-funding is a mistake, Ose said. Its been proven to be a cul-de-sac for most campaigns. If you do that, you get branded as a wealthy white person who is trying to buy the race. If you can or cant raise money, thats a testament to what youre offering people. I will go raise the money to fund my campaign. So there you have it. The California Republican Party is stuck with three candidates for governor. Three guys who have no intention of leaving the race. You got to wonder, Steel told me. Is someone going to blink? Not unless someone makes them. Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov has called the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin about the return of Ukrainian ships from Crimea "a humiliating handout" and calls not react to it, he said it on his Facebook page in two posts. "The bandit, who already feels by his mean soul the inevitability of an international court and a fair punishment for his crimes, cannot yet stop in his attempts to humiliate Ukraine. It will end with the fact that simultaneously with the return of Crimea, the government of Russia will pay compensation to Ukraine for the disastrous consequences of the temporary occupation of Crimea and unleashed war in the east of Ukraine," Chubarov said. "Those who didn't give a darn at Putin's humiliating handout: if you do not have the honor and national pride, at least do not subject them to the universal shame. This is unacceptable to please the enemy and disappoint friends. Don't dishonor Ukraine!" he said, adding: "Just know, we will stand out and return everything - Crimea, Donbas, and free our fellow citizens!" As reported, Putin declared about Russia's readiness to transfer military ships and aircraft from Crimea to Ukraine. Belarus' initiative of launching negotiations similar to the Helsinki Process of the 1970s aims to ease the confrontation in Europe, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the news agency Xinhua. "When President Alexander Lukashenko said we should think about launching or, perhaps, reanimating negotiations within the framework of the Helsinki Agreements, beginning the so-called Helsinki II process, he meant that we should do away with the confrontation and the confrontational and dividing rhetoric our region is witnessing today," Makei said. "We should think about the principles and objectives of cooperation, above all, in the political and military fields, in order to build confidence in each other," Makei said. "There is no trust so far. All we are trying to do now is to trade accusations and engage in finger-pointing. This should stop," he said. Russia's hybrid military forces have attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas nine times in the past 24 hours, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action and another four as wounded in action, the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) headquarters has reported. "In general, nine shelling attacks of ATO forces by militants have been recorded over the past day. Russian-occupation groups continue disregarding the cease-fire agreements for the New Year and Christmas holidays and shelling the defense fortifications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the mortars banned by the Minsk agreements," the ATO staff said on Facebook on Friday morning. In the Luhansk sector, the enemy fire was most intense near the Svitlodarska Duha bulge. The enemy fired 120mm and 82mm mortars and heavy machine guns near the village of Luhanske, as well as grenade launchers of various types and small arms on the defenders of the village of Novoluhanske. In the latter case, the Ukrainian military were forced to suppress enemy fire. Furthermore, the illegal armed groups violated the ceasefire near the village of Novozvanivka, firing heavy machine guns. In the Donetsk sector, the Mariupol sector was the epicenter of instability. There, the occupiers actively engaged the Ukrainian positions near the villages of Shyrokyne, Hnutove and Lebedynske using 120mm and 82mm mortars. Defenders of the village of Pisky were shelled from grenade launchers of different types. It should be noted that the aggressor continues its aerial reconnaissance efforts. The enemy drones, banned by the Minsk agreements, were spotted seven times in various sectors near the contact line. Heres some gouda news for you cheese lovers out there: Say Chiizu, Thailands stretchiest Hokkaido-style cheese toast will be arriving on our shores this January. The takeaway kiosks will open in various locations include VivoCity, [email protected], The Clementi Mall and White Sands Shopping Centre, with an actual dine-in cafe launching in February 2018. The Secret Behind the Iconic Cheese Pull? Say Chiizus famous cheese is whipped with specially imported Japanese milk, mixed with a blend of fresh cheese such as mozarella to create the perfect texture for that stretchy cheese-pull the brands known for. With plans to open at total of 10 outlets across Singapore by the end of 2018, you can rest assured you wont have to stretch yourself across the island to indulge in a spot of stretchy cheese fix. Say Chiizus takeaway kiosks will open at VivoCity (15 January), [email protected] (16 January), White Sands Shopping Centre (17 January), and The Clementi Mall (18 January). Sarah Khan Photos: Say Chiizu Read More: Cheese Please: 10 Places to get your cheese tart fix in SG Comfort Food: 7 Places with the best mac & cheese dishes in Singapore Sinfully Molten Cheese: 10 Best places to get raclette in Singapore The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine initiates amendments to the legislation so that penalties or criminal liability may be imposed on Ukrainian artists performing in Russia. As they say in the statement of the regulator, circulated on Thursday, the National Council receives appeals concerning performances of Ukrainian artists who are actively touring in the Russian Federation. "In this situation, the National Council does not have any levers of influence on the broadcasting organizations, because the law does not say anything at all about this. In this case any regulator's action on the restriction will be appealed in court, and the chances of defending a position that can be understood from the ethical point of view standards, but there are no legal grounds, they are equal to zero. This situation can be solved only in the legislative field," the regulator explains. The National Council believes that "legislators [Verkhovna Rada] could consider and apply world practice on the impact on domestic performers" who carry out concert activities in a country recognized as an aggressor. "These can be penalties or criminal liability for them, and television and radio organizations could be required to limit the participation of such artists or cultural figures on air, possibly for a certain period. In this case, the national regulator will have real levers of influence on broadcasters," the National Council on television and radio broadcasting said. "This could involve penalties or criminal liability for them. Television and radio organizations could be required to limit the appearance of such artists or cultural figures, possibly for a certain period. This way, the national regulator would get real leverage on broadcasters," the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting said. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Viacheslav Kyrylenko, also discussed Ukrainian artists' performance in Russia. "As to 'our' guest artists in Russia. Indeed, the issue is mainly ethical, it cannot be banned. But if you go to Russia on a guest tour, 1) you report it, 2) you get put on a special register, 3) the words 'this artist does guest tours in an aggressor country' appear on television during performances or videos, 4) you pay extra military fees in Ukraine," he wrote on Twitter on Thursday. "This could involve penalties or criminal liability for them. Television and radio organizations could be required to limit the appearance of such artists or cultural figures, possibly for a certain period. This way, the national regulator would get real leverage on broadcasters," the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting said. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Viacheslav Kyrylenko, also discussed Ukrainian artists' performance in Russia. "As to 'our' guest artists in Russia. Indeed, the issue is mainly ethical, it cannot be banned. But if you go to Russia on a guest tour, 1) you report it, 2) you get put on a special register, 3) the words 'this artist does guest tours in an aggressor country' appear on television during performances or videos, 4) you pay extra military fees in Ukraine," he wrote on Twitter on Thursday. BASSETT Search warrants in two localities provide some more details about the officer-involved shooting in Bassett on Dec. 5. That night, deputies from the Henry County Sheriffs Office responded to a call from Bassett, where residents said a man was trying to force his way into a home on Philpott Drive. When they arrived at the home, 24-year-old Martinsville resident Johnnie D. Carter was standing outside. Carter allegedly shot at the vehicles and the officers returned fire. Carter was wounded and later died as a result of the exchange. A search warrant filed in Roanoke Circuit Court by Richard Conley Jr., a special agent with the Virginia State Police, alleged that on Dec. 5, the Henry County Sheriffs Office dispatch received a 911 call from one of the residents at 3375 Philpott Drive, Bassett. The 911 caller stated that a black male, later identified as Johnnie Dwayne Carter, was attempting to force his way into the residence and he also was firing a handgun. Special Agent William Odell of the Virginia State Police told Special Agent Conley that he interviewed one of the residents. The resident said that Carter arrived at the house and retrieved a handgun from a bookbag, firing it in the air. Carter then allegedly pointed the gun at one of the residents of the home, according to the warrant. Then deputies arrived at the scene and the suspect started firing at them. The purpose of the Roanoke search warrant was to obtain a black LG cell phone (with a cracked screen and a certain serial number), one that had been picked up by investigators at the crime scene and taken to a facility in the city. Along with the LG phone, crime scene technicians also found a black bookbag at the scene, near where the suspect had been located. Another search warrant was filed in Henry County Circuit Court, this time by Special Agent Patrick W. Meade of the Virginia State Police. It provided more details, saying there were four people inside the home on Philpott Drive at the time of the shooting. The warrant also stated that Henry County deputies arrived on scene at the same time. The suspect then turned on the police officers prior to them exiting their vehicles and immediately fired on the responding officers. Responding officers retreated to cover and returned fire and the suspect stopped shooting at the same time. Suspect was transported to Martinsville ER for medical treatment. The purpose of the Henry County search warrant was to search for firearms, cartridges, cartridge casings; hair, fibers, blood and or DNA evidence to show identity of the victim or suspect; clothing, to include footwear; any documents located at the scene to show pre-planning; any cellular device left on the scene from the victim or suspect. The warrant detailed a number of items seized from the scene. Those included a Rock River Arms 5.56mm rifle, one magazine containing 30 rounds of ammunition, one magazine containing 26 rounds plus one, three rifle cartridge casings, a Hi Point model JHP 45 auto ACP handgun with one magazine empty, eight .45-caliber cartridge casings, one black jacket, the previously mentioned bookbag, the LG cell phone and seven rounds of Winchester .45 automatic ammunition. Crime scene technicians also obtained a swab from a red stain at the scene. The Virginia State Police is handling the police investigation. Its unclear from the warrants if those weapons belonged to one person or multiple people. Henry County Commonwealths Attorney Andrew Nester has said his office has asked the Chesterfield County Commonwealths Attorneys Office to handle the matter because of the close working relationship between his office and the sheriffs office. At this point the investigation is not complete so I will not comment, said Chesterfield County Commonwealths Attorney Billy Davenport on Thursday. I expect it will conclude in the near future. Davenport did not give a specific timeframe for when that investigation might wrap up. Henry County Sheriff Lane Perry said at a news conference Dec. 5 that two officers had been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation being conducted by the Virginia State Police. He declined to name the officers and said, They have been through an extremely difficult situation as well and they have an emotionally trying time. We want to give them a period of time for healing so at this time were not releasing their names. Perry explained that its protocol in a situation like this to put the involved officers on leave, as it allows them to have time to process what happened and allows the investigation to take place. Perry also said at the news conference Dec. 5: We feel at this time the officers were in a situation that they had no other option. It was a very dangerous situation and they responded. The Bulletin asked Perry on Thursday if the officers involved were still on administrative leave and if so, was it paid or unpaid leave time. Bulletin staff also again asked for the names of the officers involved in the case. We are not releasing the names of the officers, Perry said. One of the officers has returned to work. The other is performing administrative duties within the office. The State Police is still handling the investigation. When asked about the officers, Henry County Deputy Administrator Dale Wagoner said, Personnel matters of sheriffs deputies are handled by the sheriff directly and not within my purview, and I am not familiar with the specificity of the subject matter as it relates to sheriffs personnel. The Virginia State Police has also declined to identify the officers involved, as has Nester. A spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police did not respond to a request from the Bulletin on Thursday for an update on the investigation. When asked about the autopsy results, Tracie Cooper of the Chief Medical Examiners Office in Roanoke said Thursday that theres a note not to release any information and to contact the Virginia State Police. In Defence of Marxism is committed to safeguarding your privacy. At all times we aim to respect any personal data you share with us, or that we receive from other organisations, and keep it safe. This Privacy Policy (Policy) sets out our data collection and processing practices and your options regarding the ways in which your personal information is used. This Policy contains important information about your personal rights to privacy. Please read it carefully to understand how we use your personal data. 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Andrea Ciszewski will retire on June 30 after more than 10 years as superintendent of schools for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. Ciszewski has served as superintendent during a difficult period of consolidation for the system, including the merger of its two largest high schools. "Sister Andrea Ciszewski has served for the past 12 years as our Superintendent of Catholic Schools here in the Diocese of Springfield. Before that, Sister Andrea had also served at St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr School, in Chicopee, as well as in leadership of her Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph community," Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski said in a statement announcing her retirement. "Along with faculty members, students, school board members, parents, grandparents and our diocesan Church of Springfield, I express my gratitude to Sr. Andrea for her dedicated giving of self in true Franciscan service as superintendent of Catholic Schools. I wish Sr. Andrea God's blessings as she continues to serve in other capacities here in our local Church." Appointed March 10, 2006 by now Bishop Emeritus Timothy A. McDonnell, Ciszewski had been serving as acting superintendent for eight months since the retirement, after 21 years, of the late Sister of St. Joseph Bette Gould. "During the past few months, I have had the opportunity to work with Sister Andrea, and have been impressed by her intellect and commitment to Catholic education," said McDonnell in making the appointment. "She has performed her interim duties with great compassion and concern for the students who are entrusted into our care." At the time, the diocesan school system included 22 elementary and four secondary Catholic schools, with a total 7,015 students in the four counties of Western Masschusetts. However, increasing tuition, dwindling enrollment and changing demographics, as well as aging buildings, had resulted in the closer or merger of about a half dozen diocesan schools beginning a few years prior to Ciszewski's appointment and that trend continued under McDonnell and Rozanski, his successor installed here in June 2014. In 2008, the diocese closed St. Patrick's School, in Chicopee, ending a 128-year-old tradition, and, in 2009, opened St. Michael's Academy, created from the consolidation of five of Springfield's Catholic elementary schools. Also, in 2008, Holyoke Catholic High School, located in leased space in Granby after its Holyoke location was shuttered over safety concerns, in 2003, relocated to a $11 million renovated building - the former Assumption School - in Chicopee. The move would prove prophetic as, on June 1, 2011, Cathedral High School was among the many structures damaged by the worst regional tornado outbreak in a century and this would eventually lead to its controversial merger, in 2015, under Rozanski, with Holyoke Catholic to form Pope Francis High School. The school, currently housed in the Chicopee location, is scheduled to relocated in the fall to a $55 million facility on the site of former Cathedral High School. A native of Holyoke where she attended Mater Dolorosa Elementary School and the former St. Jerome High School, Ciszewski is a graduate of Elms College, in Chicopee, with a master's degree from Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, N.Y. Prior to serving as superintendent, she served as associate superintendent and curriculum director of diocesan schools, and earlier in her career was principal of St. Stanislaus School in Chicopee. She has held leadership positions in her congregation and helped expand its ministries, and was honored by Hilbert College, in 2016, with an award named in honor of Mother Colette Hilbert, founder of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph. In an interview with The Republican shortly before the opening of St. Michael's Academy, in 2009, Ciszewski spoke with appreciation "of the understanding and continued support of parishioners who maintained Catholic school education throughout decades at great personal sacrifice through financial contributions and fund-raising and who have experienced great sadness at the closures of the schools." "Realizing that it was time to accept something different, they did so with such grace, reflecting their love for Catholic school education and their desire to see it continued," said Ciszewski who would speak of the importance of a high quality faith based education and the challenges and collaboration needed to maintain it. According to the diocesan website, there are 3,600 students in its school system that includes two high schools and a dozen elementary schools. St. Joseph Central High School in Pittsfield closed in June, leaving Berkshire County without a Catholic high school. The school opened in 1897. It had an enrollment of 67 students at the time of its closure. St. Joseph Regional High School in North Adams closed in 1974. AMHERST - A 1958 Amherst College graduate and his wife have given $3 million to the Mead Art Museum to endow the director and chief curator position and to support contemporary art acquisitions. John and Sue Wieland presented the money to the college. It will allow the Mead to diversify its collection and to reflect and engage the diverse students who study at the college, said Mead Director and Chief Curator David Little. This has been something the college has been engaging in for the last two years and is important for Little, who said this is the largest gift to help in that mission. With new acquisitions the museum will "juxtapose the contemporary with the historic," he said. "If (students) can see something of their own time they can connect with it." "We are deeply grateful to John and Sue Wieland for this generous gift to Amherst and for their commitment to ensuring that the Mead's exhibitions, educational programming and collection-building continue to serve and delight everyone in our community and beyond," Amherst College President Carolyn "Biddy" Martin said in a statement. "Endowing the Mead Directorship and providing support for acquisitions ensures that the museum will remain an essential contributor to Amherst's excellence." An exhibit that opens Feb. 8 will feature work from the Wielands' personal collection. It will showcase about 60 pieces by more than 30 artists, including sculptor Louise Bourgeois, photographers Edward Burtynsky and Cindy Sherman, Cuban-born visual artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and activist. Called "HOUSE: Selections from the Collection of John and Sue Wieland," the exhibit will remain until July 1. It reflects in its diversity what the museum is seeking to do, Little said. Wieland and Little will talk about the exhibition from 5-6 p.m. in Stirn Auditorium Feb. 8, with an opening reception with remarks from Martin from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Mead. In the past couple of years, the museum has added more than 120 works to its collection, with an emphasis on expanding its contemporary art program and working to diversify its collection. "Visits to the Mead were a formative part of my experience at Amherst, though I certainly could not have predicted at the time that I would be so fortunate as to have a collection of my own," said John Wieland in a press release. "Sue and I are thrilled to be able to support the Museum with a gift that will sustain the institution over time, and give back to the College in a way that is deeply meaningful for us personally. It is also a great pleasure to be able to share our passion for art with the Amherst community through this exhibition." Wieland in 1970 founded John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods, a company that built homes in the southwestern U.S. By Theres a particular term commonly used whenever a police officer gets in trouble, the kind of trouble that runs afoul of the law they are sworn to uphold. The term is bad apple. Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno used it just the other day when a Springfield police officer was arrested on assault and battery charges in Northampton. In every profession there are a vast majority of good and dedicated individuals, unfortunately at times there is a bad apple, Sarno said. For those unfamiliar, its based on the American folk idiom that one bad apple can spoil the bunch, (or barrel, bushel, basket or the preferred apple container of your choice.) What it means simply is that the negative actions of an individual can be so egregious that it may harm the reputation of the larger group. For an entity like a local police force, which relies on having the trust of the general public to function, one can see the case of the rouge bad apple within the departmental basket becomes problematic. Don't Edit Staff-Shot There is no question that the vast majority of police officers serve with honor and distinction, and it is never good to judge all by the actions of a few. The whole point of calling attention to bad apples is to demonstrate how far removed they are from the bunch. Here, in no particular order, are some of the areas police officers who had legal trouble in 2017. Don't Edit Don't Edit 6/6/17-Springfield-Springfield Police officer Gregg Bigda, right, appeared before Judge Mark D. Mason to testify in a hearing on a motion to suppress evidence in the 2015 gun case.His lawyer Thomas Rooke is at left. Bidga would invoke his 5th Amendment Rights against self incrimination. Gregg Bigda, Springfield police For the last two years in Springfield, any story about police misconduct has at some point referenced Springfield police officer Gregg Bigda. A one-time narcotics officer now assigned to the records unit, Bigda in 2016 was recorded on video in the Palmer police station threatening to assault and to plant drugs on a juvenile suspected of stealing a Springfield police car. The distribution of that video led to several drug cases in 2017 being dismissed by the courts because Bidga was an investigating officer. In May, called to the stand to testify in a gun case, Bigda invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Don't Edit Despite numerous calls for him to be fired, Bigda was suspended for 60 days, and then reassigned to the records bureau. He remains on the payroll. The reason for this is the police union contract has a 90-day window for filing disciplinary action against an officer accused of interdepartmental wrong-doing. Don't Edit Don't Edit The Bigda video was recorded in February 2016, but Police Commissioner John Barbieri said he did not learn of it and order an internal investigation until the following July, which is after that 90-day window had closed. Barbieri has said recently that to fire Bigda now would violate the contract. Don't Edit Don't Edit Conrad Lariviere, Springfield police Lariviere, a 3-year veteran of the Springfield Police Department, was fired in late November as a result of a controversial comment he posted on his personal Facebook account in August that seemed to express delight with a neo-nazi running down people at an anti-racism demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia. Hahahaha love this, maybe people shouldnt block roadways, the comment read. Springfield police had no social media policy at the time, and still do not. One has since been adopted for non-union employees but not for the police. There is a social media policy that is crafted for all officers and supervisors, but it has yet to be enacted since it is part of their collective bargaining agreement for their next contract. Don't Edit Commissioner Barbieri cited the harm to the departments reputation as grounds for firing Lariviere. It will take us months, if not years, to earn back the level of public trust we once had, Barbieri said. Lariviere is said to be appealing the decision. His salary and overtime in 2016 totaled $96,000, according to city records. Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit 05/31/17-Springfield-Former Springfield police officer Kevin Burnham appears in Hampden Superior Court at his trial on May 31. He was due back in court on June 5, but never appeared. He was later found dead of suicide. Dave Roback / The Republican Kevin Burnham, Springfield police Kevin Burnham, a retired and well-liked Springfield police detective retired in 2014 after 34 years on the job. Shortly afterward, improprieties in with records led to the discovery that some $400,000 in cash from drug raids was missing. He was indicted in 2015. On the afternoon of June 5, 2017, he was scheduled to appear in court to plead guilty to larceny but he failed to appear in court. He was found unresponsive at his home a short time afterward and he was be pronounced dead that the hospital. The cause of death was suicide. Don't Edit Dave Roback | droback@repub.com Speculation at the time was he committed suicide prior to admitting guilt in order to allow his wife to collect his city pension. The city and Barbara Burnham, his widow, reached an agreement in August. She agreed to give up the remaining balance on his pension, some $74,000, but was allowed to be able to pay to remain covered by the city employee's health care plan. Don't Edit Don't Edit Lt. John Provonost, Chicopee police Lt. John Pronovost was supposed to be among the members of the department marching in the annual Holyoke St. Patricks Parade last March. Instead, he apparently became belligerently drunk, and had to be placed in protective custody by Chicopee police until he sobered up. People have had better parade experiences. Don't Edit He was suspended for five days without pay for violating "multiple rules and regulations" for the Chicopee police. Video released by the city of his being booked at the station shows Pronovost charging that he had done nothing Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Springfield Police Officer Daniel J. Cintron appears as a defendant in Springfield District Court on Jan. 11, 2018. (Dave Roback / The Republican) Jack Flynn Daniel Cintron, Springfield police Daniel Cintron, 31, is suspended without pay as he awaits trial on charges related to the alleged roughing up of a teen at the Eastfield Mall. Cintron was off duty at the time, but witnesses say he was displaying his badge and telling people he was a police officer. Don't Edit Treeger Cintron was indicted by a grand jury and is awaiting trial on charges of unarmed robbery and assault and battery as a result of the Aug. 20 incident. According to the arrest report, Cintron and another man went to the mall to confront a teen who had apparently texted something about the other mans sister. The teen and some friends say they were pushed, threatened and one had his phone taken. He has denied the charges at his arraignment and awaits trial. Don't Edit Don't Edit Police Capt. Daniel Spaulding, shown here at a 2012 press conference, was placed on indefinite paid administrative leave amid an investigation into missing money from the police evidence room. ( The Republican file ) Capt. Daniel Spauding, West Springfield police Spaulding, the second-highest ranking officer in the West Springfield Police Department, was placed on indefinite paid leave in August among investigations into missing money from the evidence room. The missing money, estimated at around $18,000, was noticed to be missing by the Hampden County District Attorneys Office. The money, forfeited as part of drug investigations, was supposed to be turned over to the DAs office. According to reports, the investigating involved West Springfield police, the DAs office, and the state attorney general. Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Springfield police Lt. Charles Howard shown in an undated photo. Republican file photo Charles Howard, Springfield Police Howard, a Springfield police lieutenant, is accused of sexually harassing at least 2 female police officers. A police officer since 1992 and promoted to lieutenant in August, Howard is now been stripped of his gun and badge pending an internal review. He was placed on paid leave Dec. 28. Don't Edit Don't Edit Lt. Col. Richard McKeon at his swearing-in ceremony in 2015 as he became the head of the Massachusetts State Police. A little over 2 years later, he and his second in command would depart amid a scandal. Col. Richard McKeon and Lt. Col. Daniel Risteen, Massachusetts State Police Lt. Col. Richard McKeon, the head of the Massachusetts State Police since 2015, and Deputy Superintendent Francis Hughes, his second-in-command, each retired in November after it came to light that they ordered a trooper to alter an arrest report for the daughter of a state judge to remove embarrassing details. According to a lawsuit filed in November by Trooper Ryan Sceviour, Alli Bibaud, the daughter of Judge Timothy Bibaud, offered to exchange sex for drugs if he would show leniency during a drunken driving arrest. The lawsuit charges that when he included that information in the arrest report, the chain of command, beginning with McKeon and Risteen, was for that to be removed. Disclosure of the lawsuit and the allegations it contained created a tidal wave for the MSP, leading to the departure of its top two officers and reprimands from state legislatures and Governor Baker. Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Dave Roback, The Republican Dushaine Goffe, Springfield police Goffe, a Springfield police officer since 2008, was arrested in Northampton and charged with what is described as a violent, drunken episode on Christmas night. He is said to have grabbed a former girlfriend by the throat in a downtown bar, and then followed her to a gas station where he allegedly threw cell phone at her, and then to her residence where he is said to have vandalized her car. He entered an innocent plea at his arraignment in Hampshire District Court to charges of charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, strangulation and maliciously damaging a motor vehicle. Don't Edit Robert Rizzuto | rrizzuto@repub.com Pending a court appearance scheduled for Feb. 8, Goffe was released from custody, with one of the conditions being that he wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. Pending a change in his court case, Goffe was suspended with pay. Don't Edit Don't Edit The Nathan Bill's off-duty crew, Springfield police 12 Springfield police officers were under investigation in 2017 in relation to a reported assault at Nathan Bills Restaurant in Springfield in 2015. A 48-year-old Springfield man, Paul Cumby, said he was seriously injured beaten to a pulp is how his lawyer described it in the assault, and that his attackers were off-duty police officers. The police Internal Affairs Unit investigated and referred the matter to the Hampden District Attorney. District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced in February he would not file charges against any of the officers, citing the inability of Cumby or anyone else involved to identify any of their attackers, and the absence of any video evidence outside the restaurant. Don't Edit Four officers, identified as Daniel Billingsley, Melissa Rodrigues, Christian Cicero and Anthony Cicero, were determined to have been at the bar that night at least an hour before the assault, but proving they were involved in it was another story, Gulluni said. The four officers all invoked their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination, and minus any evidence, Gulluni said he could not see bringing the case to trial. "I don't have a good faith basis to believe I have probable cause, and it would be unethical for me to bring charges," Gulluni said. "Let me be absolutely clear to you. I am frustrated." Cumby, pictured above, suffered a fractured leg and loosened teeth after being "assaulted by several individuals" - details that did not make an initial police report on the fight, which said he only sustained "minor cuts and scrapes." Following Gulluni's announcement, the city has hired two outside attorneys to pursue disciplinary hearings against the officers. Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Chief Charles "Chip" Dodge in an undated photo Chief Charles "Chip" Dodge, Montague Dodge, the chief of this small Franklin County police department, was placed on paid leave Oct. 31 pending an investigation into his handling of prescription drugs left in a drop-off box in the station. Dodge, who acknowledges he was addicted to prescription opioids and was in treatment, came under scrutiny by the Northwestern District Attorney and the state Attorney General. That investigation looked into whether Dodge had taken drugs from the locked box, which was under his supervision. That investigation closed without a conclusion, but Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan announced it could not have Montague as a member of the regional anti-crime task force as long as Dodge is chief because task force felt it could not trust him to include him in narcotics investigations. Also the patrol officers and supervisors unions voted no confidence in Dodge after he told a newspaper that any missing drugs from the drop box in his office could have been taken by anyone in the department. Don't Edit Don't Edit Then-patrol officer Charles P. Monfett, left, was promoted to sergeant of the Holyoke, Massachusetts Police Department at a ceremony by Mayor Alex B. Morse, right, on June 13, 2013 at Holyoke Heritage State Park. Holyoke Police Chief James M. Neiswanger is in the background.(FILE PHOTO) Sgt. Charles P. Monfette, Holyoke Police Monfette was suspended for two weeks in February, 2017, apparently for repeated and recurring instances of lying and violation of department policies. The suspension was apparently not the first choice for Police Chief James Neiswanger. He wanted Monfette, fired but was overruled by Mayor Alex Morse. The mayor said he believed terminating the 8-year veteran would not stand a legal challenge and could cost the city thousands in legal fees. Monfette was returned to active duty in March. Don't Edit Don't Edit Don't Edit Chief David Hastings, Gill police Hastings, police chief for 23 years, was suspended in September after a complaint was filed against him by his 19-year-old adoptive son for violating a restraining order. The selectmen placed him on administrative leave pending a review, but Hastings opted instead to retire. Sgt. Christopher Redmond was named chief in October. Don't Edit Lawyers for Nozdrovska's daughter ask for access to all materials of criminal case Lawyers for Anastasia Nozdrovska, the daughter of the murdered lawyer Iryna Nozdrovska, have asked law enforcement agencies to be granted access to all materials of the criminal case and to ensure her and their safety, as they are under pressure. "We want to turn to law enforcement bodies so that we, first and foremost, could be able to examine all materials of the criminal case, which they intentionally conceal from us today. Secondly, we want them to allow us to participate in all investigative actions. Thirdly, when today statements by representatives of the law enforcement system are heard on all channels and when they spread information that is the secret of investigative actions, it is wrong and unfair with respect to Anastasia [Nozdrovska]," lawyer Tamila Ulianova said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday, January 11. She stated that after joining this case lawyers were subjected to psychological pressure and were constantly being watched. "We do not know who follows us. These might also be representatives of law enforcement agencies who request information from all our friends, interfere in our personal life," Ulianova said. She appealed to law enforcement agencies with the request to ensure the safety of representatives of the victim in this process. Another representative of the victim, Maryna Tkachenko, said that they had been provided with only 5-10% of the materials collected by a pre-trial investigation body. Lawyer Oleksandr Panchenko urged law enforcement agencies not to allow any leakage of information on this case to the public. "When we learn during examination the facts that have long been discussed by some political scientists and specialists who are not related to this case, it will look strange," he said. He noted that due to the current situation and the attitude of law enforcement officers to them, lawyers could not form an opinion on whether suspect Yuriy Rossoshansky was indeed the killer of Nozdrovska. As reported, lawyer Nozdrovska, who lived in the village of Demydiv in Vyshgorod district, Kyiv region, was found dead in a river on January 1, 2018. On January 8, it became known about the detention of a suspect in this crime. He is Yuriy Rossoshansky, the father of Dmytro Rossoshansky, who was sentenced in May 2017 to seven years in prison for a deadly road crash, in which, in September 2015, Nozdrovska's sister, Svitlana Sapatynska, was killed. On January 9, the Vyshgorodsky District Court of Kyiv region chose a preventive measure to Rossoshansky in the form of custody for 60 days - until March 8, 2018. Yuriy Rossoshansky works as a driver of PJSC Kyivoblenergo. He has no criminal record. HOLYOKE - A joint law enforcement raid on an Appleton Street apartment Thursday netted police heroin, cocaine, marijuana, two handguns and nearly $9,000 in cash, Holyoke Police Lt. James Albert said. Three Holyoke men were taken into custody at the scene. Rafael Perez, 30, Julio Aviles, 27 and Abner Alejandro, 38 were all charged with firearms and drug offenses. All three will be arraigned in Holyoke District Court Friday. Albert said Holyoke police detectives along with members of the Hampden County Narcotics Task Force, the FBI Gang Task Force, ATF Task Force, and Massachusetts State Police troopers executed a search warrant on an apartment at 365 Appleton Street that had been under investigation for some time. Once inside apartment 1L, searchers located heroin packaged in bags marked "Ride or Die." Albert said the total weight of the packaged drugs, somewhere between 18 and 36 grams, constituted "trafficking" in heroin, he said. A quantity of powdered cocaine, again sufficient to qualify for a trafficking charge, between 100 and 200 grams, was seized and several ounces of marijuana was also found. Albert said both handguns confiscated in the raid were reported stolen, one in Westfield the other in Georgia. All three men were charged with: use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without an FID card, trafficking in a Class A substance (heroin), trafficking in a Class B substance (cocaine) and possession of a Class D substance (marijuana) with the intent to distribute, receiving stolen property valued greater than $250 (handgun) and storing or keeping an unsecured weapon. Perez was also charged with carrying a firearm without a license and an additional charge of possession of ammunition without an FID card. Albert said several small children were in the apartment when authorities conducted the raid. A report was filed with the state Department of Children and Families. LUDLOW - A proposal to build a new Chapin Street Elementary School to house Chapin students and students from Veterans Park Elementary School will be considered by voters at a special town meeting Jan. 22. At issue is whether the town should spend around $30 million for a new building designed to last 50 years and accommodate students from both schools, or spend around $20 million to patch up two old schools that will likely need to be replaced anyway at some point. Combined, Chapin and Veterans Park are 109 years old and both need extensive renovations to bring them into compliance with 21st century standards. Considering the lifespan of a Massachusetts school building is 50 years and Ludlow Public Schools is already working with the Massachusetts School Building Authority -- the quasi-independent government authority that reimburses a percentage of public school construction projects -- Superintendent Todd H. Gazda and the Ludlow School Committee are hoping voters will choose a new school over pumping money into two aging buildings. The Chapin Street School proposal was the subject of a two-hour public meeting Wednesday night at the school at 766 Chapin St. In an effort to achieve "educational equity" for Ludlow elementary school children, who are currently being taught in inadequate, outdated buildings, school district officials say they're optimistic voters will greenlight the plan. The MSBA is expected to reimburse over 58 percent of approved costs for the estimated $60 million project. The reimbursement rate is based on Ludlow's ability to pay, officials said. Ludlow Public Schools had sent a statement of interest every year for about a decade to the MSBA, which made its first site visit to Chapin Elementary in 2015. The following year, the district was invited into a feasibility study that included the possibility of combining Chapin and Veterans Park on one campus at Chapin's current site. Part of the overall project calls for moving the district's Central Office, which is old and needs upgrading, to a new $3.2 million building on the Chapin campus. The cost of the smaller standalone building is included in the overall cost of the project. Both Chapin and Veterans are currently experiencing "significant overcrowding and programming deficiencies," according to district officials, who say a new building would address these and other issues. The proposed 105,683-square-foot building would serve students in grades 2-5 and replace the 42,000-plus-square-foot building that currently occupies a portion of the 14-acre campus near the corner of Chapin and Fuller streets. The 58-year-old Chapin building suffers from structural deficiencies and has accessibility and physical plant issues, while the 51-year-old Veterans Park also has problems that are costly to fix. Project proponents say both structures require extensive building and safety code renovations and are obsolete by today's educational and building standards. The mechanical systems are outmoded and contribute to "excessive annual operational and maintenance costs," officials said at Wednesday's presentation. If the project is approved at town meeting, the timeline calls for: Preparing bid documents from April 2018 through January 2019; awarding the project to the selected bidder by March 2019; building the school and Central Office between April 2019 and June 2021; opening the new school by September 2021; and demolishing and building athletic fields from July 2021 through July 2022. The financial breakdown of the project is as follows: New school construction, $46,004,312; fees, contingencies and other "soft costs," $9,047,109; furniture, fixtures and equipment, $850,000; technology, $850,000; and a new Central Office, $3.2 million. The total estimated cost of the project is $59,951,421. The cost of renovating the two aging elementary schools is estimated at $20 million. The breakdown is as follows: Veterans Park, $9 million; Chapin Street, $8 million; and the central office, $3 million to $4 million. There's a limited opportunity to take advantage of the 58.37 percent reimbursement rate, according to project proponents, who say Ludlow would likely have to wait a decade or longer for another chance to work with the MSBA. And during that time, they say, costs to replace the buildings will increase and more money will be wasted to keep Chapin and Veterans Park operational. In addition to Superintendent Gazda, the project presentation featured input from Evan Warner, of STV Construction Inc., and a team from Mount Vernon Group Architects, including Chris LeBlanc, Dennis Daly and Rafal Toczko. The special town meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. Jan. 22 at Ludlow High School, 500 Chapin St. Besides the Chapin Street School project, voters will also be asked to appropriate $9.8 million for a new Senior Center. Several law enforcement figures in Massachusetts are saying the state will not participate in any federal crackdown on legal weed, after the Trump administration last week rescinded Obama-era protections which allowed the industry to flourish in state after state. "We have a state law that we're intending to enforce, and the state law was voted on by the people of Massachusetts," Massachusetts Public Safety Secretary Daniel Bennett told The Boston Herald. "We have no intention of raiding a pot shop that is legal under state law." Boston Police Department spokesman Detective Lt. Michael McCarthy, meanwhile, told The Herald the state's approach to a potential crackdown on its nascent, legal marijuana industry will mirror its approach to immigration. "Similar to our position on immigration, the BPD will not actively enforce federal marijuana laws at the local level," police spokesperson Detective Lt. Michael McCarthy told the Herald. "We will continue to enforce local drug laws to keep our neighborhoods safe." Polling indicates that Americans overwhelmingly oppose a new government war on cannabis. A Quinnipiac poll of more than 1,000 voters, the results of which were published Thursday, showed 58 percent of people generally and 79 percent of people under 34 support legal recreational marijuana, while more than 90 percent support legal medical marijuana, and 70 percent oppose enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana. "The demographics say pot is here to stay, either for fun or to provide medical comfort," Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said. "And the message to Attorney General Jeff Sessions: Hands off." Comments from Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling on Monday, irked Gov. Charlie Baker. "What I would stress to him is the big public health crisis we're dealing with in the Commonwealth these days is opioid addiction and street drugs like fentanyl," Baker said, according to The Boston Globe. "A big message to the US attorney's office should be, if you have limited resources, let's focus on the thing that is killing people every day here in the Commonwealth." Baker also stated his belief that cannabis has "proven to be an effective way to deal with nausea, anxiety, pain, and a variety of other issues." HOLYOKE -- Reactions to the pending merger of the two high schools into one school with two campuses has ranged from praise as the modern way to prepare students to pride lost in changing a school name. Confidence that receiver Stephen K. Zrike can make the merger succeed and calls to give more information to parents and students also were made in interviews with School Committee members and others. "The idea is one city, one school," Zrike, the state-appointed receiver in charge of managing the Holyoke public schools, said in the Sunday Republican Jan. 7. The merger will begin in the fall with the intention that a unified high school will ensure that all students have access to all of the system's benefits, officials said. The merger has been in the works for months and features changes in instruction to theme-based academies. The redesign of "the high school experience" into academies is intended to focus on specific preparations for each student to direct them to both college and a career. The plan preserves vocational education at what has since 1985 been known as William J. Dean Technical High school at 1045 Main St., Mayor Alex B. Morse said, "just with more focus and a deeper connection to jobs that are actually available in today's economy." Dean will be known as Holyoke High School South Campus and Holyoke High School at 500 Beech St. will be Holyoke High School North Campus under the merger. "I am in strong support of this plan," said Morse, who as mayor is School Committee chairman. "A lot of time, research and thought went into these changes, and I'm proud of the fact that teachers and students were on the forefront of designing the new academies. As Dr. Zrike has stated, these changes will prepare students to acquire the skills that 21st century employers demand such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and collaboration." The change means dropping the Dean name from the vocational school, though officials said the name will be incorporated into the school. Dean was director for 44 years of Holyoke Trade School, later known as Holyoke Trade High School. "I'm kind of sad, to just be totally frank, you know, the nostalgia of having the two high schools as the whole high school experience and having the Dean name," said City Councilor Nelson R. Roman, former chairman of the joint committee of City Council and School Committee members. Some Dean graduates are not happy their school name will be disappearing, he said. He respects Zrike, he said, but families need more information about how training will be delivered to students who want a vocational education. "I'm a little sad and disappointed," Roman said. Irene Feliciano-Sims, Ward 4 School Committee member, said Zrike is doing what he feels is best for students and he has shown a willingness to seek and listen to parents' comments, which should happen now. The community does feel pride in both of its high schools, she said. "I think more meetings should happen before the process takes place and get feedback from the community. And Zrike is good about getting feedback," Feliciano-Sims said. Being state-appointed receiver means that Zrike has total authority over public school decisions such as the high school merger. The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education placed the Holyoke public schools in receivership in April 2015 because students' academic abilities as reflected in test scores barely improved despite years of warnings. That means the School Committee, an elected body, now is just an adviser, though Zrike has continually met with the committee and said he values members' participation. Mildred Lefebvre, Ward 1 School Committee member, said merging the high schools is the wrong way to try to improve students' education. "I personally am not in agreement with that. I think we're doing a disservice to the students," she said. The disservice comes in removing the Dean school colors of black, gold and white and its Golden Hawks name and mascot, in which current and former students have pride, she said. Both schools will come under the rubric of the current Holyoke High School Purple Knights, Zrike said. Lefebvre said she hopes the current senior class gets to graduate in June as part of "Dean Technical High School" -- "Because that's the path that they originally chose." Feelings expressed about the merger in the community have been mixed, with some critics and some hoping the change brings improvements, she said. But the focus should be on strengthening Dean Tech, the perception of which "is not a good one," instead of eliminating that entity, she said. "I think we really needed to change the perception," she said. Another point to consider is that the city should respect why previoius officials named the vocational school after Dean, she said. "That school was given that name for a reason," Lefebvre said. Devin M. Sheehan, School Committee vice chairman, said: "I think that the administration is going to find an alternative way to honor the Dean name and I would like to hear from Dr Zrike about the options he has to do that." Morse said the focus should be on what happens inside the school, the quality of education being provided to students, rather than the name on the outside of the building. Morse also praised Zrike's selection of Stephen Mahoney to be executive principal of Holyoke High School North and South Campus in July. Mahoney formerly was principal of the Renaissance School in Springfield and currently teaches at Harvard University. "I have full confidence in incoming Principal Steve Mahoney. I am thrilled he has chosen to come to Holyoke and use his experience and talent to benefit our city's young people," Morse said. The National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine has initiated amendments to legislation to impose penalties or criminal liability on Ukrainian artists who perform in Russia. According to the regulator's statement on Thursday, the National Council has received appeals concerning performances of Ukrainian artists who are actively touring in the Russian Federation. "In this situation, the National Council does not have any leverage on broadcasting organizations because the law does not say anything at all about this. In this case any restrictive action by the regulator will be appealed in court, and the chances of defending a position that can be understood from an ethical point of view, but without legal grounds, are zero. This situation can be resolved only on the legislative front," the regulator said. The National Council believes that "legislators [the Verkhovna Rada] could consider and apply world practice to influence Ukrainian performers" who perform in a country recognized as an aggressor. "This could involve penalties or criminal liability for them. Television and radio organizations could be required to limit the appearance of such artists or cultural figures, possibly for a certain period. This way, the national regulator would get real leverage on broadcasters," the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting said. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Viacheslav Kyrylenko, also discussed Ukrainian artists' performance in Russia. "As to 'our' guest artists in Russia. Indeed, the issue is mainly ethical, it cannot be banned. But if you go to Russia on a guest tour, 1) you report it, 2) you get put on a special register, 3) the words 'this artist does guest tours in an aggressor country' appear on television during performances or videos, 4) you pay extra military fees in Ukraine," he wrote on Twitter on Thursday. 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. HOLLY K. MICHELS [email protected] http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/montana-s-financial-picture-improving-making-second-special-session-unlikely/article_fa6dca0a-be96-5d04-b302-12e42cb43ca3.html The top two floors of the Florence Building will find a new look and future as renovations take place to make room for a national insurance company thats looking to expand into a dozen new states, and add new jobs in Missoula to oversee the growth. Like several other local companies, ALPS https://www.alpsnet.com has chosen to double down on Missoula as it considers the future. The company currently claims 68 employees in Missoula, though that will increase this year. "ALPS has and continues to grow, and weve already had a number of new hires identified in our budget for the first half of this year," said David Bell, the companys president and CEO. "As an organization, were launching what Id call a significant expansion into multiple other states. That will all be done from a centralized environment here in Missoula." *** Montana Career Opportunities Careers in Insurance ALPS http://www.matr.net/article-80814.html *** BY MARTIN KIDSTON Some six military exercises on the territory of Ukraine are scheduled for 2018. The text of the draft law on approval of the decision of the president of Ukraine to admit units of the armed forces of other states to Ukraine in 2018 to participate in multinational exercises (No. 7428), introduced by the president to the Verkhovna Rada on December 21, 2017, was made public on the parliament's website. According to the document, in Ukraine, it is planned to conduct the following multinational exercises for the training of the armed forces: the Ukrainian-American exercises Rapid Trident 2018, the Ukrainian-American exercises Sea Breeze 2018, the multinational exercises Light Avalanche 2018, the multinational exercises Clear Sky 2018, and the Ukrainian-Romanian exercises Riverian 2018. Gallatin Countys economy, widely discussed across the state, received some national attention this week. The area was named as the countrys strongest economy of its size in an annual study released by Policom, a Florida-based think tank. The area was ranked the strongest economy which the group defines as "the long-term tendency for an area to consistently grow in both size and quality" in a Micropolitan Statistical Area ahead of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania; Truckee-Grass Valley, California; Traverse City, Michigan; and Wooster, Ohio. By Lewis Kendall Chronicle Staff Writer https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/business/gallatin-county-economy-ranked-strongest-of-its-size-in-u/article_9bb7afe7-551a-54dc-bc81-c8c55e1685a1.html Montana West Economic Development - Mission: To cultivate growth through the support of new and expanding businesses in the Flathead Valley The Verkhovna Rada intends to begin work in the plenary mode next week from considering at the second reading draft law (No. 7163) on ensuring Ukraine's sovereignty over the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas. According to the draft agenda, published on the parliament's website on Friday, MPs will consider this bill first at the plenary session on Tuesday, January 16. In addition, on the same day, the parliament intends to include bills on the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court in the agenda of the session, as well as related bills on amending the law on the judicial system and the status of the court. MPs also plan to consider at the second reading bill on the privatization of state property (No. 7066) and draft law on limited and additional liability companies (N.4666), at the second reading. The Verkhovna Rada has the following plans for the next week: to reconsider at the first reading the bill, which provides for a reduction in the number of committees of the parliament. There are no personnel issues in the draft agenda. The plenary week of the Verkhovna Rada will be held on January 16-19. First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Gerashchenko is sure that Ukraine will return Crimea and all its property, including ships. "We'll not sell out Crimea for ships, we will neither surrender nor swap it. Indeed, these are our ships stolen by Putin. They are brought to an awful condition by the invaders, just like the entire Crimea. Everything touched by the 'Russian world' comes to a waste," Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook, commenting on the proposal of Russian President Vladimir Putin to return the military equipment left in Crimea to Ukraine. "We will return Crimea and all Ukrainian property there, including ships. And Donbas, too," Gerashchenko said. As reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is ready to give back to Ukraine the combat equipment the Ukrainian army and fleet abandoned when leaving the Crimean Peninsula. He said that the Ukrainian military equipment "is in poor condition." "But it's none of our business. This is the condition it actually was in. And naturally, nobody has ever serviced it all these years," Putin said. He says about dozens of warships, dozens of aircraft. "As for the ships, I think it will be better if Ukrainian servicemen just come and take them. We are ready to help transport them to Odesa," Putin said. The mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has sent a cargo vehicle with medical goods to the territory of Donbas that is not controlled by Kyiv, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has reported. "One truck from the mission of the International Committee Red Cross entered the Novotroyitske checkpoint to the uncontrolled territory, transporting goods for the residents of Donetsk region with a total weight of about 0.5 tonnes," the State Border Guard Service said on Twitter on Friday. Recent college grad and Marion local Shelby Robinson is about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime. Robinson, 22, is participating in the World Race where she will travel to 11 countries in 11 months to volunteer and minister in the name of Jesus Christ. The main goal is to allow us to work alongside ministries that are already in place and assisting them in any way we can help out, said Robinson. This weekend she will fly out of Atlanta to begin her almost year-long journey around the world. They will begin in Indonesia, and then travel to the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bosnia, Kosovo, Romania, South Africa, Lesotho and Zambia. One of my biggest excitements is experiencing different cultures and countries. I love languages and that is a big interest for me, she said. And what will she do on the trip? We could do anything from painting, to teaching English, working at a coffee shop, door-to-door ministry or working at a church. Robinson will travel with a group of 29 world racers and five squad leaders. Once in the country, they will split up into smaller groups and travel to different areas or villages. I really hope through this trip, I will learn what it is I am called to do. I know it is some form of ministry, but I dont know what specific thing it is, said Robinson. Im hoping after experiencing all of these 11 countries and being in the different ministry settings really sparks what I am supposed to do. Robinson has been training, preparing and fundraising for this trip since last spring when she was accepted in the program. She had to raise $17,400 to go, a goal that was reached this past Sunday with the help of friends and family. The pastor I grew up with came back and preached my commissioning service at my home church of New Hope Baptist Church in Old Fort. We had lunch afterward from a barbeque place in Brevard that donated all of the food, and hung out and said our goodbyes, said Robinson. Robinson is the daughter of Chad and Tammy Robinson of Marion. They will get to join her for about a week when she arrives in Romania in late August. It will be a good experience for them, said Robinson. Chad said he and his wife are excited about what God is doing in their daughters life. Although concerned about her health and safety as any parents would be, they are supportive of her mission. We are trusting that God will protect her and provide her every need as she travels through each country. We know that it is His will for her to go and have seen Him work through this entire process and throughout all her preparation, he said. Our prayer is that Gods protection is on her and her team and that hearts are prepared to hear the Gospel. Robinson said she hopes to be back in the states by late November or early December, but stories of her travels, ministry and adventures can be followed by checking out her blog at shelbyrobinson.theworldrace.org. For more information on the mission trip, visit worldrace.org. The Ukrainian government has cancelled the decisions it made in 2017 on the establishment of state-owned concerns Arsenal-Modern Space Systems and Zirka-Technologies on the basis of several enterprises operating in the space industry. A source in the government told Interfax-Ukraine that a respective decision was made at a Cabinet of Ministers meeting on Thursday, January 11. According to the source, in total, during the meeting, the government cancelled 17 regulatory acts that were approved in 2017, including decisions on the creation of new sectoral associations in the space industry. As reported, at a meeting on July 19, 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers supported the proposal of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry on the creation of state-owned concerns Arsenal-Modern Space Systems and Zirka-Technologies in the space industry. The Arsenal-Modern Space Systems concern had to include nine enterprises, in particular, Arsenal Special Device Production State Enterprise, Arsenal Plant, Hartron, Kyivprylad, Ukrkosmos, State Scientific Production Enterprise Kommunar Corporation, Instrumental Building Technology Scientific and Research Institute, and National Center of Space Facilities Control and Test. The Zirka-Technologies concern had to be created on the basis of six enterprises - Kharkiv Electric Equipment Plant, Soyuz Research and Design Institute, Dniprokosmos, Ukrainian Technology Center for Optical-Instrument Making, Sokil Instrument-Making Plant, and Kyiv Radiozavod. The key tasks of the new concerns, among other things, had to be more active involvement of aerospace enterprises in the targeted government-sustained defense programs and projects and the implementation of defense order, as well as the introduction of principles of commercialization of aerospace projects. The marine aviation of the Ukrainian Navy has held a joint drill with the United States Navy's USS Carney (DDG 64) destroyer in the Black Sea, the Navy command said in a statement on Friday. The drills were aimed at practicing interaction at NATO standards and raising compatibility levels, the command said. Ukraine's Kamov Ka-27PCh and Ka-27PR performed over ten landings on the U.S. ship in bad weather and conducted reconnaissance and surface monitoring. "We have done this kind of joint training activity before. However, every chance to do so gives us additional knowledge and helps us master interacting with foreign colleagues at modern standards," the acting Ukrainian Navy Deputy Commander for Combat Training, Capt. 2nd Rank Andriy Kurylenko, said. According to the statement, the USS Carney (DDG 64) arrived in Odesa on January 8. The friendship visit ended on January 11. aijohn784/iStock/Thinkstock(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) -- Police in North Carolina shot and killed a man outside the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Law Enforcement Center hours after the man allegedly killed the mother of his infant daughter. According to police, Jonathan Bennett, 23, drove into the parking lot outside the police department at about 11 p.m. and opened fire on a group of officers. One officer was hit by gunfire, while police returned fire on the suspect, shooting and killing him. The officer was struck in the leg and transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The shootout came about six hours after Charlotte-Mecklenburg police announced they were searching for Bennett as the suspect in the killing of the mother of Bennett's 2-month-old baby. Officials initially said the man had fled with the baby, Journei Bennett, but she was found safe and unharmed, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said. Police said the victim, whose name was not released, was found shot at a home this afternoon. She died at the scene, police said. A second child was found unharmed at the scene, police said. It appears to be a "domestic-related and that the victim and suspect were known to one another," police said. Police had announced they were searching for Jonathan Bennett, who was last seen driving a white Ford Expedition, earlier in the day. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman, within the framework of his working trip to Mariupol, Donetsk region, intends to visit Hnutove checkpoint on the contact line. "Today I will go to the checkpoint. I want to see the conditions under which people cross the contact line," Groysman said during a meeting with veterans of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol on Friday. The Ukrainian PM said that he knows about the problems with providing the necessary conditions for those who cross the contact line. MCLEAN, Va. Jan. 12, 2018 Andrew M. Cuomo New York New York Risa A. Levine New York Andrew Cuomo New York New York's Barbara Collura New York New York /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association applauds Governorfor including the proposal "Improve Access to IVF and Fertility Preservation Services" in the 2018 Women's Agenda for: Equal Rights, Equal Opportunity. RESOLVE advocates inwere instrumental in communicating the importance of access to IVF and fertility preservation services to Members of Governor Cuomo's administration."I was ecstatic and moved to tears to hear that IVF coverage and fertility preservation are at the top of the Governor's health care agenda," said, RESOLVE Board Member andresident. "Secretary DeRosa is unique in her talent to pinpoint issues critical to protecting women's health, and Governoris a leader in expanding health care and family building opportunities forfamilies. We are so grateful for their commitment to leading on these issues. I am a proud New Yorker today!"Governor Cuomo will direct the Superintendent of Financial Services to evaluate the best approach for incorporating coverage for in vitro fertilization intoexisting infertility insurance law and update it to ensure individuals have access to fertility preservation services when appropriate."It's fantastic news that the Governor has recognized the need for IVF and fertility preservation insurance coverage," said, President/CEO, RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. "As the infertility community celebrates these policy advances in, RESOLVE will continue to advocate for passage of The Fair Access to Fertility Treatment Act (FAFTA), which would updateinsurance law to include coverage of IVF, fertility preservation for cancer patients, and adds non-discrimination language to ensure that all eligible individuals can receive coverage."It is estimated that over 440,000 New Yorkers experience infertility. The full Report on the Status of New York Women and Girls: 2018 Outlook reflects the feedback, voices and opinions of women all over the state and is available here.------------------------------About RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association: Established in 1974, RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association is a non-profit organization with the only established, nationwide network mandated to promote reproductive health and to ensure equal access to all family building options for men and women experiencing infertility or other reproductive disorders. One in eight U.S. couples of childbearing age has trouble conceiving or carrying a pregnancy to term. RESOLVE addresses this public health issue by providing community to these women and men, connecting them with others who can help, empowering them to find resolution and giving voice to their demands for access to all family building options. For more information, visit http://www.RESOLVE.org.SOURCE RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association The earth orbiting Aura satellite of NASA has calculated a twenty percent less ozone depletion in 2016 compared to the depletion levels nine years before, when the chlorine and ozone measurements were first taken. The study data is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The decline in chlorine levels resulting from the international ban on chlorofluorocarbons has led to the decrease in size of the atmospheric ozone hole. Advertisement The decline in depletion of the ozone layer insists on the fact that science when combined with right policy making can solve even the greatest environmental and public health challenges. The Shrinking Ozone Hole, A Sign Of Relief For Environmentalists Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends. Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice. Tensions are escalating in the Donbas frontline zone, and the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) has observed an increase in shooting incidents, OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Friday. The situation was relatively quiet after the holiday truce took effect, but violations occurred every day, Hug said. In his words, the conflicting sides are not fully committed to their obligations, and tensions are beginning to escalate. Hug referred to the 2,000 ceasefire breaches observed by monitors between 5 p.m. on January 9 and 5 p.m. on January 10. There have been similar agreements before: the so-called Easter, school, and bread ceasefires, and all of them followed the same pattern. Gunfire abruptly stopped, but the number of shooting incidents gradually increased afterward, Hug said. All of those ceasefires had a positive effect because local residents were able to rest for a moment, but the truces did not hold, Hug said. The monitors saw as many as 401,336 ceasefire violations in Donbas last year, Hug said. A total of 320,130 occurred in 2016, he said. Last year saw 4,065 cases of the deployment of heavy weapons in violation of the Minsk Agreements, and the performance of the OSCE SMM's patrol missions was hindered 2,422 times, Hug said. The OSCE SMM cannot bring peace; the conflicting parties are the only ones capable of ending the hostilities and ensuring a lasting peace by pulling out armaments and conducting demining operations, Hug said. Ukraine and Romania have agreed to develop a joint document on the implementation of the language article of the new Ukrainian law "On Education," the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported. "The foreign ministers discussed the topical issues on the agenda of the Ukrainian-Romanian interstate relations. The parties reached an agreement to develop a joint document on the implementation of the new law of Ukraine" On Education," in particular Article 7 thereof, concerning the use of languages in the educational process," the press service of the Foreign Ministry said in its statement on Friday. As reported, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and his Romanian counterpart Teodor Viorel Melescanu held a meeting in Chernivtsi on January 11 and gave a press conference for the media. Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense, Bloc of Petro Poroshenko MP Ivan Vinnyk, has described as humiliating an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to hand over to Ukraine the military hardware that remained in occupied Crimea, and does not believe that this will be followed by some practical steps. "Putin is in no way going to improve Ukraine's combat capacity... On this basis, there is no need to expect that Putin is ready to transfer something really efficient, combat-ready, what the Ukrainian Armed Forces need today... There will be no consequences from this. This statement in relation to Ukraine, in my opinion, is humiliating. This way he tries to humiliate Ukraine," Vinnyk said live on the 112 Ukraine television channel on Friday. He also expressed confidence that this statement by Putin had been made "mainly for domestic consumers in the Russian Federation" as part of the election campaign of the head of the Russian state. The parliamentarian also expects that this proposal will not be followed by any reaction from top-ranking Ukrainian officials. "I don't think that legally the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will officially react. Deputies have reacted - they have the right to express their position. I personally do not expect any reaction from state leaders," Vinnyk said. Putin said on January 11 that Russia was ready to give back to Ukraine the combat equipment the Ukrainian army and fleet abandoned when leaving the Crimean Peninsula. However, he added, the Ukrainian military equipment "is in poor condition." "But it's none of our business. This is the condition it actually was in. And naturally, nobody has ever serviced it all these years," Putin said. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is considering a response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement about the possible return of military hardware abandoned in Crimea to Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa told the television channel 112.Ukraine on Friday. "The issue has many aspects," the TV channel's website cited Betsa as saying. As reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is ready to give back to Ukraine the combat equipment the Ukrainian army and fleet abandoned when leaving the Crimean Peninsula. He said that the Ukrainian military equipment "is in poor condition." "But it's none of our business. This is the condition it actually was in. And naturally, nobody has ever serviced it all these years," Putin said. He says about dozens of warships, dozens of aircraft. "As for the ships, I think it will be better if Ukrainian servicemen just come and take them. We are ready to help transport them to Odesa," Putin said. The plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg will discuss next week on Wednesday the issue of Russian propaganda, an official representative of the European Parliament, Marjorie Van den Broek, said at a briefing in Brussels on Friday. Each month one of the political factions has the opportunity to choose the actual topic for debates. This time the EPP [European People's Party] faction, has chosen the topic "Russia and the influence of Russian propaganda in the European Union countries, Van den Broek said. The debate is scheduled for January 17, in the afternoon, she said. Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman commenting on the statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin about the possible return of military equipment left in the occupied Crimea to Ukraine, has suggested returning Crimea to Ukraine together with the fleet. "I have a counter offer for the president of the Russian Federation I propose returning Crimea together with the fleet. We are ready to accept it in the near future," Groysman said at a briefing at the Hnutove check-point in Donetsk region on Friday. Once the Democratic pace-setter in a crowded field but now broke, Middletown Mayor Dan Drew dropped out of the governors race Friday. Drew and his running mate, freshman state Rep. Liz Linehan, of Cheshire, announced the decision in an afternoon email to their supporters, ending a year-long conquest for the progressive minds in the party. The pairs exit culminates a rocky week for the ticket, with Drew ousted from the Democratic Town Committee in his home city Tuesday and then reporting that his campaign was $8,000 in debt on its election filing Wednesday. The prospect of increasing competition from former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, also from Middletown, and fellow progressive Ned Lamont spelled doom for Drew. The mayors of Bridgeport (Joe Ganim) and Hartford (Luke Bronin) are expected to contend for the nomination, as well as former consumer protection Commissioner Jonathan Harris and former state party vice chairwoman Dita Bhargava of Greenwich. Ultimately it became very difficult to raise the required funds to qualify for public financing, the pair wrote. Other campaigns are on their way, and we look forward to supporting the Democratic team. Despite raising $269,186 since last January, Drews political operation has been burning through money and spent $88,000 on consulting fees of one firm alone, the Vinci Group, where Drews ousted mayoral chief of staff Geoff Luxenberg had once been a partner. Drew flummoxed the political world last summer when he made the decision not to carry over $178,075 from his exploratory committee to his campaign. That would have put him well on the path to raising $250,000 in $100 increments to qualify for public campaign financing. Instead, he was forced to start from scratch. The three-term mayor has declined to say why he hit the reset button, but multiple campaign veterans said it was likely because Drew needed a second round of fundraising to keep his candidacy viable. We are proud of running an issues-based campaign focused on middle class economic equality, working peoples rights, and creating more opportunity for the people of Connecticut, Drew and Linehan wrote. We believe that our best days are ahead of us and that we should all be proud to fight for a society that understands that health care is a right, that the middle class shouldn't be paying more in taxes than the wealthy, that our air and water should be clean, and that education should be wonderful for every child. Bysiewicz, who served three terms as the states top election official ending in 2010, said in an interview Thursday she will make a decision soon on a run for governor or state Senate. Her previous bids for higher office have been derailed, with the state Supreme Court ruling her ineligible for state attorney general in 2010 because she hadnt practiced law for 10 years and Bysiewicz falling to Chris Murphy in the 2012 U.S. Senate primary. Lamont is laying the foundation for a likely reprise of his 2010 bid for governor, when he was upset in the Democratic primary by Dannel P. Malloy. The cable television entrepreneur rose to national prominence in 2006 when he upset Joe Lieberman in the Democratic Senate primary. Lamont lost to Lieberman in the general election, with the incumbent resorting to an independent petition candidacy. http://twitter.com/gettinviggy; nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436 EAST HAMPTON A committee has been established to review the applications of candidates interested in becoming the towns new police chief. The Town Council this week approved the creation of a search committee and voted to approve the appointment of seven members. It is tasked with finding a full-time successor for Chief Sean D. Cox, who resigned late last month to take a private job in the defense industry. Former Groton City Police Chief Thomas Davoren has agreed to serve as director of police services/interim chief. The panel is made up of town councilors, James Pete Brown and Mark Philhower, and residents Bill McCann and Tom OBrien. Town Manager Michael Maniscalco, who will be an ex-officio member, invited Tom Ingala, pastor of the Hope Church, to join the committee. Hes a local pastor who is very active in the community, and, as such, he can provide community insights, Maniscalco explained during a conversation in his Town Hall office earlier this week. He also added Lisa Seymour, director of human resources, to the search committee, both for her background and expertise in human resources and to provide some gender balance to the selection process, he said. Maniscalco said he has between 12 and 14 applications from prospective candidates for the position. The vacancy was posted with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, the Connecticut Council of Municipalities and the International Country Managers Association. The application deadline is Jan. 19. Resumes and other information should be submitted to the Police Chief Search in care of the managers Town Hall office. Those who have questions about the process are asked to contact Seymour at 860-267-4468. The search committee will review the initial applications and then reduce the number to between eight and 10 semifinalists. The committee will conduct interviews with the semifinalists and score them based on a system we have developed, Maniscalco said. The panel will forward the finalists names to Maniscalco who, in the company of an internal committee made up of department heads, will conduct interviews. The manager will then make a decision on who will be the new chief. Having reviewed the initial batch of applicants, Maniscalco said, I think we have some very qualified candidates in the mix. Under a timeline he developed, Maniscalco said he hopes to make a conditional offer of employment to the winning candidate sometime during the week of Feb. 15. Two weeks will then be spent conducting a background investigation of the finalist and administering a pre-employment physical. Maniscalco said he hopes to have the new chief in place by April 1. While no currently serving officers have yet submitted their applications, Maniscalco said, There is nothing to prevent an in-house applicant from applying. Davoren has said he is not interested in applying for the position. Maniscalco said the salary of the new chief will be based on the applicants experience. Reporter Jeff Mill covers East Hampton, Portland and Cromwell. Contact him at jeff.mill@hearstmediact.com. EAST HAMPTON VFW Post 5095 Commander Roger Anderson has announced that Keith E. Harman United States VFW Commander-In Chief will visit the East Hampton Post on Saturday, Jan. 13. A reception will be held from 1-3 p.m. at the post home on North Maple Street in East Hampton. Refreshments will be served. Harman was elected Commander-In-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. on July 26, 2017, at the VFW National Convention in New Orleans, La. He served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam as a crew chief and door gunner on UH-1 Huey helicopters. His many decorations include the Air medal, Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze service stars, Republic of Vietnam gallantry Cross with Palm Unit Citations, Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Aircraft Crewmember Badge. He is a member of the American Legion and Alpha Troop Alumni Association. As the East Hampton VFW Post was selected as one of only three posts the Commander is visiting here in Connecticut, Commander Anderson invites all veterans to attend. Relay for Life at HK kickoff is Jan. 31 HIGGANUM/KILLINGWORTH The American Cancer Societys Fire Truck Pull at the Relay For Life of HK will take place on Saturday, June 23 at HKHS. The event is a teambuilding, fundraising, cancer-fighting event where teams of 12 people compete to pull the truck a designated distance in the fastest time. A kickoff for the 2018 Relay For Life/Fire Truck Pull will be held on Jan. 31, 6:30 p.m. at the Haddam Volunteer Firehouse Company 1, 439 Saybrook Rd, Higganum. To register visit www.relayforlife.org/hkct AT the June 23 truck pull, teams will rally together to raise money however they see fit. The minimum amount of money that a team must raise is $1,200 (or $100 per person) to participate. All money raised benefits the mission of the American Cancer Society to save lives, celebrate lives and lead the fight for a world free from cancer. The winning team will receive bragging rights and a trophy. Apply now for artists-in-residence program East Haddam I-Park artists-in-residence program is now accepting applications for its 2018 residency season. Forty-four residencies are available in eight sessions between May and December 2018. The residencies vary in length from two to four weeks, and are available to artists and designers working in a variety of disciplines, including visual arts, music, creative writing, moving image, architecture and landscape design. All residencies are fully funded, and include a private room, a private studio, and chef-prepared dinners four nights a week. Artists only need to pay for the cost of transportation to and from East Haddam, Connecticut, and a $35 application fee to help defray the cost of the selection panels. Since its founding in 2001, I-Park has sponsored more than 850 residencies, with approximately one-third of the artists coming from outside the United States. Application instructions and submission materials are available online at i-park.org. The deadline for completed applications is Jan. 22. Gallery invites photography show submissions WESTBROOK The Valentine H. Zahn Community Gallery is now accepting submissions for its Local Vision III exhibit, which will highlight the work of local photographers. To be considered, submissions must be professional, quality photography and must be received by Jan. 31. All photographers must reside in New England or New York, and work should be no larger than 24 inches by 36 inches. It should not have been shown elsewhere, and it should not have been submitted to another local venue for consideration. The person entering a submission must have captured and created the original exposure. The entrant must also have performed all digital manipulation. To submit your work, visit tinyurl.com/2018LocalVisionForm. The Valentine H. Zahn Community Gallery is located at the Middlesex Hospital Shoreline Medical Center, 250 Flat Rock Place in Westbrook. The Local Vision III exhibit will be on display March 29-May 25 during regular business hours. Portland holding kindergarten registration PORTLAND Parents/guardians whose children will be five years of age on or before January 1, 2019, should contact Valley View School now at 860-342-3131 to request kindergarten registration materials. Registration paperwork will be mailed to parents/guardians by the end of February. Kindergarten registration will be held from March 12-16. Parents will be assigned a day to register alphabetically according to their last name. At the time of registration, parents need to bring two proofs of residency, a copy of their childs birth certificate and the completed paperwork that was mailed to them in February. Further information regarding the kindergarten orientation process will be provided at registration time. Kindergarten program registration open now Regional School District #13 announces kindergarten visitations and registration. Parents of children living in Durham and Middlefield who will be five (5) years old on or before Jan. 1, 2019 must register them to attend kindergarten in September 2018, or apply for a waiver of attendance. In Regional School District #13, children may attend kindergarten in either the Contemporary Program or the Integrated Day Program. Parents need to choose the appropriate program for their child prior to kindergarten registration. School visits and information available at the schools will assist parents in making their choice. The Contemporary Program serves children in grades K-3 and is housed at Brewster School. Grade 4 students currently attend Memorial Middle School. The Integrated Day program serves students in grades K-4 at John Lyman School. The Contemporary Program and Integrated Day Program adhere to the same curriculum and utilize similar assessments. Parents may visit the schools from Jan. 8-31 to observe classes and to discuss any specific questions or concerns. Visits, which are designed for adults, should be scheduled ahead of time to allow for optimum opportunities to observe the programs. Appointments to visit can be made by calling the individual schools. You may call Lyman School at 860-349-7240 to visit the Integrated Day Program. To visit the Contemporary Program you may call Brewster School at 860-349-7227. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate CROMWELL Residents turned out more than 100 strong Wednesday to overwhelmingly approve $3.66 million in renovations and expansions that will allow the Cromwell Belden Public Library to meet the growing needs of a digital society. The town wont have to bear the full brunt of the costs greenlighted by the finance board on July 27. Because the expenditure was passed prior to March 1, the town can take advantage of a $1 million state library grant, which, combined with a $7,000 gift from the Community Foundation of Middlesex County and $41,438 in donations, will lower the towns cost to $2.61 million. It is a project thats been a decade in the making, Town Manager Anthony Salvatore said. The 85-person capacity meeting room was so overflowing with people that many gathered right outside to view the proceedings, evidence of the need for an expansion, Library Director Kara Canney said Thursday. I knew early on it was going to be OK when the room erupted into applause. There was no doubt it was going to pass, Canney said. Only about four or five people spoke out against the plan developed by the Hamden-based architectural firm Silver/Petrucelli + Associates, Salvatore said. Im happy with turnout, and equally pleased it was supported by a vast majority of people who came out, Salvatore said. The library was completed along with the Town Hall in 1985 and nothing has been done since. It is in dire need of some updates. It really validated my profession. Last night was really heartwarming, said Canney, who took over Eileen Brancifortes position in August. The project calls for 14,045 square feet of renovations which will transform the courtyard into part of the facility and a 4,395-square-foot expansion to the existing building at 39 West St. Branciforte wrote the state grant with the library commission in 2008, Canney said. When it went to referendum in 2010, the proposal lost by 87 votes, something officials attributed to the economic climate of the time. If the money was not approved by March 1, that grant would be lost, Canney said. This was our last chance. Elizabeth Jasecki, a lifelong resident who admittedly no longer frequents the library as often as she once did, was one who opposed the bond measure. To spend $3.6 million on the library is a little much, she said. I wouldnt mind some renovations for $1 million or less. What are they going to have? Gold-plated chairs or something? Jasecki said she looks up anything she needs to know on the computer or reads books online. The library infrastructure has not been updated in a long time, Canney said, pointing to the recent New Years Eve party for people who didnt want to stay up until midnight. Too many showed up for the fire code. Its an example of how many more people can be accommodated. After construction is complete, the space-cramped meeting room where the vote was taken will be doubled in size and there will be an optional divider wall, which will allow two programs to take place at once, Canney said. Mayor Enzo Faienza is eager to have use of the new facility, especially for board and commission meetings that cant be accommodated next door at Town Hall. Theres not a lot of technology now in Town Hall, audio and visual, he said, pointing to 3D printers and charging stations and the like, which will give kids options other than the opportunities already offered in the schools. He looks forward to classes for the community, especially seniors, on how to use a tablet, iPad or notebook those types of functionalities that are popular in society. Councilman James Demetriades, who supported the measure, said he recognizes concerns raised by residents. The people opposed have a very valid reason for being worried. I appreciate opposition, because its important to ask questions. People should keep asking questions. Thats the way to keep ourselves responsible. Its not a 21st-century library. We need access to databases, job searches and other pieces of technology that some people cant get access to. A digital economy requires digital access, Demetriades said. People kept telling me and it makes me cringe theres no need for libraries anymore. Thats so not true. In December, we answered more reference questions than ever, Canney said. Councilman Myron Johnson, who spoke against the proposal at the meeting, said he fully understands why many supported the renovations. Its not the best time to do something like this. Im conservative. Theres been an awful lot of spending in the last year. Its something Ive never seen before in Cromwell. This should be on the back burner. There are so many properties vacant around town. The only way to fund a project like this is directly from peoples property taxes. We should focus on a robust economic plan first, then pay for the library otherwise its reckless spending, Johnson said. Just because we have a grant available, I dont think thats a good enough reason why it should go ahead. I can understand people wanting it at least (now) they can see where their tax dollars are going. Look up and down Main Street. There are a lot of vacancies: Kmart plaza is half-empty, businesses are leaving, building lots are empty. Its a feel-good project. I understand people want to do it, but look at the ramifications down the road, Johnson said. The state is operating under an extremely tough economic climate, Johnson said. People cant afford to stay and they cant afford to go. We need to bring jobs back to Cromwell and Connecticut. Its the only way to promote what we have and we need to seek out businesses that bring people in. Canney said, however, access to state-of-the-art technology is becoming all the more essential to communities. The Belden has two new virtual reality goggles, which allow patrons to do many things, such as exploring college campuses as far away as California and taking part in museum tours. Not everyone can afford to go to the Louvre, Can ney said. We want the library to be the first place people go to because we have that technology and you dont have to be a library user to reap the benefits. Editors note: This story has been updated from the original version, which incorrectly reported the room capacity as 75 instead of 85. Lucky Labs, an international IT company, claims that on January 12, 2018 officers from the national security department of the Security Service of Ukraine conducted an illegal search in the office of partner company Soft Solutions Ltd, located at the same address, but not directly in the office of Lucky Labs. "The company Lucky Labs has again been pressured by the security services. Our office once again started being searched this morning [on January 12]. Ukrainian Security Service investigators raided our premises at 3 Krakivska Street without producing the proper legal documents and based on groundless accusations. Their actions, whose justification is quite doubtful, have completely paralyzed the work of our staff and stopped all business processes," Lucky Labs said in a statement. The IT specialists cannot reach their workstations, and lawyers have limited access to the proceedings, it said. "Considering the systematic unlawfulness of the Security Service's actions toward Lucky Labs, we call on the journalistic community not to remain silent and to inform the public about the security agencies' arbitrariness," it said. At the same time, on Monday, January 15, Lucky Labs reported on the official website that it did not make the Friday statement, while the letter with information about the searches was sent from the Gmail account, and the mail services of the company were working properly. "For a year and a half Lucky Labs has been under pressure in connection with the corporate conflict, and this is not the first media provocation of this kind," the company said. According to its report, on January 12 officers from the national security department of the Security Service of Ukraine came to the building at 3 Krakivska Street with the court decision for a search in the office of IT-Solutions LLC, which has nothing to do with Lucky Labs. At the same time, the partner company of Lucky Labs, Soft Solutions Ltd, is located at the same address. It was reported earlier that Lucky Labs had denied media reports alleging its role in a massive cyber attack and the dissemination of the Petya.A malware in July 2017. Lucky Labs has been developing software for more than ten years. Its central office is in Kyiv, and it employs more than 500 people. Conditions for citizens crossing the separation line in Donbas via checkpoints will be improved in six months, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said. "I have only one question, the question of creation of normal human conditions for persons crossing the separation line from the temporary occupied territories. [...] Priorities of creating conditions have been determined. Regional administration head Pavlo Ivanovych Zhebrivsky is taking personal control over this and, I believe, we will be able to put things right and create normal conditions for the people in six months," he said at a briefing at the Hnutove checkpoint on Friday. The Ukrainian prime minister also thanked personnel serving at the checkpoint amid difficult conditions. Possible U.S. sanctions against Ukrainian Choice leader Viktor Medvedchuk is not something to worry about, the civil organization said in a press release. "I don't think the inclusion of Viktor Medvedchuk in that sanctions list is a problem," the press service of the NGO told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news service on Friday, adding that U.S. sanctions against Medvedchuk were first announced in 2014 and that Medvedchuk "feels absolutely fine." At the same time, the "Ukrainian choice" noted that the United States imposed sanctions against Medvedchuk back in 2014. "And with these sanctions, Viktor Medvedchuk feels great, because he considers these actions of the United States as a high assessment of his activity in combating internal management, which the U.S. has introduced in Ukraine," the press service said. "Medvedchuk will continue to carry out his activities aimed at preserving the sovereignty of our state, protecting its independence... He will continue to fight for a peaceful settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine, and the return of all detained persons to their families, despite the opposition of the United States or the Ukrainian party of war," the movement added. As earlier reported, Washington in 2014 imposed sanctions against Ukrainian and Crimean politicians, including Medvedchuk, for the Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea. The relevant executive order 13660 blocking property of certain persons contributing to the situation in Ukraine was published on March 6, 2014. Viktor Medvedchuk is the leader of Ukrainian Choice, "a group through which he has been stirring conflict in Kherson, a province just north of Crimea, through advertising campaigns designed to pit supporters and foes of Russias attempt to annex Crimea against one another," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a report about the impositions of the sanctions. "A long-time proxy and close personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he acted as a liaison between Yanukovych and Putin. Medvedchuk and Andriy Kliuyev, the former Secretary of National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, were involved in the development of the scenario that led to clashes outside the Presidential Administration in Kyiv on December 1, 2013," the Department said. The Starobilsk District Court of Luhansk region, which is hearing the case of Head of the Party of Regions faction in the Verkhovna Rada of the 7th convocation Oleksandr Yefremov, has extended his term of detention by 60 days until March 12, 2018, inclusive. The decision was announced by the presiding judge at a sitting on January 12. As reported, Yefremov on July 30, 2016 was detained on suspicion of threatening Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty in an airport in Kyiv. He is also charged with supporting the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic and the illegal acquisition of property belonging to Luhanskvuhillia. The Starobilsk District Court of Luhansk region is currently hearing the case on charges of Yefremov in complicity with terrorists, encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine and high treason. Yefremov is suspected of organizing the seizure of the building of Luhansk Regional State, supporting a foreign organization to conduct disruptive activities against Ukraine and supporting and establishing a terrorist organization - the so-called "Luhansk People's Republic." [January 11, 2018] Online Grocery Recognise as the First Grocery Mobile Commerce App by Malaysia Book of Records KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In a glittering ceremony during the launch of the Chinese New Year Video -- Cooking Up Prosperity, JOCOM was recognised by the Malaysia Book of Records (MBOR) as the First Grocery Mobile Commerce App in the country. The award was presented by Tan Sri Danny Ooi, Founder of the Malaysia Book of Records and witnessed by YB Datuk Wira Dr. Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah, Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). The records took more than four-month to be evaluated and processed, and concluded with JOCOM leading the way in its product innovation and leadership -- a nod above other local and foreign grocery app providers and competitors, including more established hypermarket players. JOCOM was lauded as the first Malaysian establishment to have won an award under the category. The records presentation ceremony also witness the launching of Chinese New Year Video -- Cooking Up Prosperity. As the festive celebration is around the corner, 11street -- Malaysia's number two online marketplace -- has reinforced its partnership with JOCOM to bring prepping and shopping for Chinese New Year grocery items to another level of convenience. This partnership is off the back of 11street's grocery category emerging as one of the platform's continued focus in 2018, in which it saw more than 30% increase in its gross merchandising value (GMV) in 2017 as compared to 2016. ruce Lim, Vice President of Merchandising at 11street said: "More Malaysian consumers would start to explore shopping for groceries and other household items online. This holds true and as 2017 comes to an end, we expect this category to only flourish from hereon. "This motivates us to strengthen our collaboration with JOCOM and become the e-commerce platform that offers great variety of fresh produce and other frozen goods as food preparation for Chinese New Year heightens. With our host of offering coupled with our established technological prowess, we aim to enable consumers to use our platform as the go-to channel to fulfil all their grocery needs, especially during the festive season." Chef Quality Cooking, At Home The partnership between 11street and JOCOM goes beyond opening an online channel for grocery shopping, and that is why today witness the launch of the "Cooking Up Prosperity", a 10-episode cooking show that will be streamed online. Featuring Chef Cheah Kee Khiang, a prominent chef in Malaysia, and hosted by well-known host and TV personality, Wong Chui Ling, the show will feature simple-to-follow Chinese New Year recipes using fresh ingredients available on JOCOM's online store at 11street. Joshua Sew, Chief Executive Officer of JOCOM said: "When we first partnered with 11street last year, we wanted to expand our outreach to a wider community. More importantly, we hoped to empower Malaysians with the convenience of shopping for groceries and other household items online. As a way forward, we produced the cooking show to showcase that Chinese New Year preparation can be made simpler if they know where to get the ingredients and how to best prepare them, without the need to leave their homes." Each episode of "Cooking Up Prosperity" will be streamed every Tuesday and Thursday, beginning today, and run for 10 minutes. Among the dishes featured are Golden Prosperity (Fried Prawn with Salted Egg Floss), Tremendous Opulence (CNY Cake with Taro & Sweet Potato), and Superior Smooth Porridge Seafood Steamboat, with each dish taking less than 10 minutes to cook. The cooking show is sponsored by Clio, Desa Home, Electrolux, F&N, Khind, Kinohimitsu, Maggi, Onenot-enough, Philips, Sharp, SJK Electrical, Starbucks, Sublime and Trine Nexus. 2018 Roadmap with Nationwide Expansion Moving forward, 11street is geared towards enhancing the variety of groceries to advocate the growing trend of grocery shopping for better consumer convenience. On that note, by working with 11street, JOCOM is planning to expand its online grocery business nationwide by Q3 of 2018, including to the east coast. Currently, 11street's online grocery services is available to consumers in Klang valley, Johor and Penang. "Following the growth of online grocery shopping, we hope the numbers especially the GMV and number of orders will double in the next two years. The possibilities are limitless, in which we believe that there are still many untapped avenues to grow the grocery segment on the 11street platform," Sew concluded. In conjunction with the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration, 11street will be having promotions for more than 3,000 home appliances, grocery and household items, with up to 50% discounts and conditional free shipping. On top of lower prices, shoppers can also enjoy additional savings by visiting the promotion page to download discount coupons worth up to RM20 until 4 March 2018. For more information on the "Cooking Up Prosperity" promotion, please visit http://promotion.11street.my/2018/01/cooking-prosperity. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180111/2030437-1 SOURCE JOCOM [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The Transparency International (TI) Ukraine demands that Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy respond to the Al Jazeera publication of the text of the Kramatorsk District Court's classified judgment seizing the assets attributed to former President Viktor Yanukovych in the amount of around $1.5 billion. "TI Ukraine urges Ukrainian officials to do the following. Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko, urgently to make an official statement regarding the document published by Al Jazeera journalists and confirm or contest its authenticity, as well as explain what information precisely had to be protected so much that the court decision had to be hidden from the public for over 8 months; to announce and substantiate the stance of the Prosecutor Generals Office concerning legitimacy of the use of special seizure procedure in this case," the organization's official website said. The organization is demanding that Parubiy "to initiate the establishment of a parliamentary investigative commission to investigate the legitimacy of actions of the Prosecutor Generals Office and Military Prosecutors Office of ATO Forces." "The Prosecutor General's Office created an artificial mystery around the document. It resulted in foreign journalists publishing the court decision including all personal information of the individual who had made an agreement with the investigation," TI Ukraine said. "We believe that the role of schemes of legalizing the income of ICU management, a company whose clients include President Poroshenko, requires additional study and evaluation. Risks of possible return of the seized funds from the Ukrainian budget if the national or international court institutions were to grant the requests made by lawyers of the owners of the seized assets should be assessed as well," the statement said. On January 10, Al Jazeera published the text of the 95-page judgment issued by the Kramatorsk District Court on March 28, 2017, which was later classified as constituting a state secret. Al Jazeera said the judgment reveals the schemes used for misappropriating the state funds under Viktor Yanukovych and asked why the decision was classified. The text of the Kramatorsk District Court's judgment especially seizing $1.5 billion from people in Yanukovych's entourage is classified due to ongoing investigative activity and in order to protect the people involved in the trial, Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Yevhen Yenin said. "The reason why the court judgment was classified was not to protect certain officials or commercial entities [...] The motive for our decision was that active investigative actions are underway with respect to the overwhelming majority of the companies in question, including under international jurisdiction through international legal assistance channels," Yenin said at a press briefing on Thursday. business Vijay Mallya's extradition hearing: UK court grants bail till April 2 In a fresh update, UK court has granted bail to Vijay Mallya till April second. Watch accompanying video of CNBC-TV18's Sanjay Suri to get details on the defense's arguments. Infosys Rajesh Murthy, one of Infosys' highly-paid executives last year, has stepped down, citing personal reasons, ending his tenure of 26 years with the company. "His last date with Infosys will be January 31, 2018. The Board places on record its deep appreciation for his commitment to Infosys over the last 26 years and wishes him the very best for his future endeavours," Infosys said in a statement on its third quarter results on Friday. Murthy, who was President since October 13, 2016, was one of the top paid executives at the company last year, according to the annual report. Murthy, along with Sandeep Dadlani and Mohit Joshi, and deputy chief operating officer Ravi Kumar S, were paid remunerations of over Rs 14 crore. According to his LinkedIn profile, Murthy was "responsible for the global Energy, Utilities, Telecommunications and Services business unit, including setting the vision, creating and implementing strategy, and driving growth" at Infosys. In June last year, Dadlani also quit the company and joined the maker of Snickers chocolate- Mars- as its Chief Digital Officer. Senior level exits have been a talking point at Infosys for the past over a year, with several senior executives quitting the company for varied reasons. The Infosys senior management however, said Murthy's decision to make a move was for personal reasons and should not be read into too much. "Rajesh had indicated his desire a few months back. He was able to find something suiting his preferences at this point in time," said a chief operating officer UB Pravin Rao at a press briefing post results. When Kapil Mohan passed away on January 6th, 2018 not a lot of publications reported the news. Later, when one story was actually published, it went viral within hours. People across social media started to realise how important a man like Kapil Mohan was for the Indian alcohol drinkers fraternity. He was the man behind the success of Old Monk Rum a drink that has led to, or is present in tales and many a folklore passed through generations. People across social media are still sharing their tributes and thanking Kapil Mohan and the Mohan family in their own ways. Here we look at some facts and memories about the now deceased octagenarian spiritual, Kapil Mohan, who helped in giving us a thing to remember throughout our lives or rather helped us forget many others. A FAMILY AFFAIR | Kapil Mohan, was heading Trade Links Pvt Ltd. the marketing and distribution arm of Mohan Meakin before 1966. It was in the 70s, 1973 to be precise, when Kapil Mohan took over the reins of Mohan Meakin completely from his elder brother Colonel Ved Ratan Mohan who is credited with the creation of Old Monk Rum - as we know it. Earlier, their father Narendra Nath Mohan saw through the dynamic transition in the fortunes of the company with his hardwork and efforts. Currently, Hemant Mohan and Vinay Mohan among others from the Mohan family are seeing through the growth of the company. So, though Kapil Mohan can be attributed to the success of Old Monk, it was a work in progress that took diligence of generations. (Picture credit: Reuters) MAN BEHIND OLD MONKS SUCCESS, BUT A TEETOTALER | It may be hard to believe for many but Brigadier (retd.) Kapil Mohan was a teetotaler. Mohan, who belonged to a family whose primary business was distilleries and manufacturing alcohol, stayed away from drinking. Reportedly, he was a spiritual man who hardly ever drank. (Picture credit: Twitter/@COMMANMANOFUPA) THE MONK WHO NEEDS NO PUBLICITY | All of us have seen how liquor brands resort to surrogate advertising to sell more cases. But the Monk needed no advertising. Until 2002, Old Monk was the undisputed single brand leader in the entire branded spirits market in India without any advertisement, but how so? Its taste was its best advertisement, said Mohan and refused any advertisement as long as he was the Chairman. (Picture credit: Flickr/@cogdogblog) THE TASTE OF SUCCESS | Speaking of taste, Edward Dyer to whom we all can attribute Old Monks taste for - knew that there were only a few spots on earth from where the water for making good alcohol can be sourced from. He spotted such a place in Himachal Pradesh. The water for Old Monk, till this date, is sourced from the springs of Karol Mountain in Solan and the distinctive taste of the rum is Vanilla. (Picture credit: Twitter/@SukritNagpal) live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More At least four Indian drug makers including Aurobindo Pharma, Cadila Healthcare, Torrent Pharma and Intas are said to be eyeing the generic business put on block by French pharmaceutical group Sanofi, according to a report in Economic Times. The report mentions about the drug makers being backed by global PE firms and financial institutions to fund acquisition. Sanofi in January last year said it intends to finalize the sale of the generic drugs business by the end of 2018. The unit reported about 800 million euros in sales in 2016 and employs about 3,000 staff. The Europe generic business is dominated by sales in Romania and Czech Republic - the two Eastern European countries where Sanofi also has major manufacturing sites. French newspaper Le Figaro reported in October that investment funds including Blackstone, CVC, BC Partners, Carlyle, Cinven and Advent have evinced interest. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Rothschild have been mandated to run a formal sale process. If either Aurobindo or Intas acquire the assets, it will be the largest outbound pharma deal by an Indian company. The largest so far is Lupin's acquisition of Gavis Pharmaceuticals Llc. and Novel Laboratories Inc. for USD 880 million in 2015. Intas and Aurobindo declined to comment. Intas said it would not like to comment at the moment. Torrent Pharma and Cadila Healthcare spokespersons didnt respond to phone calls. Intas and Aurobindo Pharma have been on shopping spree in Europe for a while. Aurobindo Pharma in November hinted it's scouting for acquisitions in Eastern Europe. The Sanofi generics business sits well with that strategy. "Our acquisition strategy will be largely around two platforms. One is to penetrate markets deeper and the other to secure newer technologies and platforms," said N Govindrajan, Aurobindo Pharma's Managing Director N Govindarajan said in an earnings presentation. "We always maintain that anything that can come across in Eastern Europe will be prioritised," Govindrajan added. The closely-held Intas in October 2016 outbid Aurobindo Pharma to acquire assets of Teva Pharmaceuticals in UK and Ireland for an enterprise value of around USD 764 million or Rs 5,085 crore. Intas had sales of Rs 8,384.2 crore in FY17, of which Europe is said to have contributed around a quarter. For Aurobindo Pharma Indias third largest drug maker by revenues, Europe formulation sales contributed about Rs 3,250 crore out total sales of Rs 15,090 crore in FY17. Aurobindo Pharma also gobbled up Portuguese drug maker Generis Farmaceutica from Magnum Capital Partners in early last year for 135 million euros (Rs 969.3 crore). Aurobindo Pharmas Europe sales saw 10-fold jump in last five years on back of successful acquisition and turnaround of the money-losing Western European commercial operations of Irish drug maker Actavis Plc, which it bought for 30 million euros in 2014. Analysts are mixed about the success of Europe M&A push of Indian drug makers. The Europe acquisition provides diversification opportunity at a time when the US generics industry is facing pricing pressures, competition and heightened regulatory scrutiny, said Runjhun Jain, Senior Research Analyst at Nirmal Bang. Jain said raising capital isnt going to be problem as the balance sheets of Indian drug makers are strong and business they are aiming are cash generating. Indian companies will use their low cost domestic manufacturing arbitrage to turn around or improve profitability of acquired businesses, Jain added. But Amey Chalke of HDFC Securities isnt excited. Generics isnt a profitable business in Europe, said Amey Chalke, pharma analyst at HDFC Securites. Chalke cautioned companies against over leveraging their balance sheets. While data on Intas is not available, both Aurobindo and Torrent Pharma balance sheets carry significant debts among their peers in Indian pharma with net debt exceeding Rs 4,000 crore. Analysts are quick to warn about acquisition risks in Europe citing the example of Dr Reddys buyout of Betapharm. Dr Reddys bought Betapharm, the fourth largest German generic drug marketing firm, for 480 million (Rs.3,750 crore) in February 2006 but a dramatic shift of policy in Germany to source medicines from the lowest-cost vendor through a tender-based model has hurt the company. The opportunity in Europe is large with aging population, by 2020, generic medicines are expected to make up 70-80 percent of the medicines used in Europe as several European Union member states push copycat drugs to contain healthcare costs. The generic drugs in the European Union (EU) on a volume basis, account for 56 percent of dispensed medicines at only 22 percent of pharmaceutical expenditure, according to data from Medicines for Europe, the industry association representing generic drug manufacturers in Europe. The economic slowdown isn't helping matters as countries in Europe are increasingly pushing price caps, rebates and procurement of drugs through public tendering as policy prescriptions. According to BCC Research the market size for generic drugs in Europe is USD 35 billion in 2016, and is expected to grow at CAGR of 6.1 percent till 2021, much below the anticipated world growth rate of 8.7 percent. Infosys11 After an in-line number results from Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys too failed to spring a surprise in the December quarter. The net profit rose higher largely led by lower tax expenses but analysts are hopeful for things to start improving in the next 2-3 quarter, suggest experts. Dipesh Mehta, IT Analyst at SBICAP Securities in an interview with CNBC-TV18 who maintains a buy rating on Infosys with a target of Rs1,150, said that numbers were a tad lower than his estimates. EBIT margin was largely in line with estimates. The guidance was also largely with estimates. The numbers are broadly in line. They look soft because if BFSI related weakness which is more of a seasonal factor. We see things to start improving in next two quarters, he said. Apurva Prasad, Research Analyst, HDFC Securities maintains a neutral rating on Infosys with a target price of Rs1040, but will await for the analyst call before changing estimates, he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18. In terms of growth, Infosys growth will remain lackluster for the next 2-3 quarters. The key number to track would be digital services which would be a growth driver for Infosys and industry, he said. We have collated a list of top seven takeaways from Infosys Q3 results: Net Profit: Infosys, the country's second-largest software services provider, has reported profit growth of 37.7 percent at Rs 5,129 crore for the quarter against Rs 3,726 crore reported in the previous quarter due to lower tax expenses. The net profit was higher than CNBC-TV18 estimates of Rs3,609 crore. The operating profit rose by 1.7 percent on a sequential basis to Rs4319 crore for the quarter ended December 2017 but slipped marginally by 0.4 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. Our operating margins were stable on the back of broad-based improvement in operational efficiency parameters. Our cash generation continued to be robust during the quarter, said M.D. Ranganath, CFO at Infosys. We successfully executed the share buyback of Rs13,000 crore in line with our capital allocation policy, he said. Revenue: Dollar revenue growth at 1 percent and constant currency revenue at 0.8 percent QoQ. Dollar revenue and constant currency revenue were estimated to grow 1 percent each QoQ. Q3 revenues grew year-on-year by 8.0% in USD terms; 5.8% in constant currency terms and 3 percent in rupee terms to Rs17794 crore for the quarter ended December 2017. It is a privilege for me to be appointed as the CEO & MD of Infosys, helping our clients navigate the digital future and employees build new skills and capabilities. Our Q3 performance is strong. We had 8% year-on-year growth and 24.3% operating margin with US$ 593 million of free cash flow. said Salil Parekh, CEO & MD. We are progressing towards stability and are well positioned to serve our clients in the new areas of demand he added. Margins: EBIT margin was at 24.3 percent for the quarter, better compared to 24.1 percent expected by analysts. The outlook for FY 2018: The Companys outlook (consolidated) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, under IFRS, is as follows: Revenues are expected to grow 5.5%-6.5% in constant currency Revenues are expected to grow 2.1%-3.1% in INR terms based on the exchange rates as of December 31, 2017. Advance Pricing Agreement: Infosys has concluded an Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Under the APA, Infosys and the IRS have agreed on the methodology to allocate revenues and compute the taxable income of the Companys U.S. operations. In accordance with the APA, Infosys has reversed tax provisions of approximately US$ 225 million made in previous periods which are no longer required (both under International Financial Reporting Standards and Indian Accounting Standards). Geographical Segment: North America grew by o.7 percent both sequentially and in constant currency. Europe grew by 5.9 percent sequentially; and 4.7% in constant currency. India declined by 6.1% sequentially, and 5.9% in constant currency while the Rest of the world declined by 4.6% sequentially; and 4.0% in constant currency. Industry segment growth The FSI grew by 0.3 percent sequentially; and 0.1 percent in the constant currency. MFG & Hi-Tech grew by 0.1% sequentially; and declined by 0.1% in constant currency. RCL grew by 1.4% sequentially; and 1.2% in constant currency while ECS grew by 2.6% sequentially; and 2.5% in constant currency. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday said high level talks were on with 15 companies for attracting investment to the tune of about Rs 25,000 crore. Winding up the discussion in the state assembly on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address, he said such investment initiatives will be in place soon. As a mark of the trust reposed by large Indian companies and multi-national firms in Tamil Nadu, he listed projects that will soon be operational. He said such projects were being finalised. A Rs 5,000 crore 'Ceat' tyre manufacturing facility and an extension project of Hyundai with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore besides a French company's car assembly-cum-Research and Development unit with an investment of Rs 3000 crore were among such projects on the pipeline, he said. The Business Facilitation Bill, to replace an ordinance in this regard and later adopted in the assembly, will further accelarate the investments, he noted. Following the success of a Global Investors Meet in 2015, he said arrangements were being made to hold a similar event towards the year end. The Chief Minister said people will never accept that Tamil Nadu government was being subservient to the Centre. DMK has been targeting the ruling AIADMK, saying it was being subservient to the Centre. Palaniswami listed his government taking a stand against the Centre on issues like hydro carbon projects in Tamil Nadu and against shifting of Central government institutions from the State. He also cited opposition to criminalisation of triple talaq, and the revamp of the Indian Medical Council. On the fiscal front, he said the government was managing well the fiscal deficit and the debt-to-GSDP ratio which is the yardstick for good fiscal management. Tackling the revenue deficit, salary hike has been given for government employees, he said. For the 2017-18 budget estimates, fiscal deficit is estimated to be at 2.79 per cent well within the 3 per cent threshold, he said. However, in some states like Madhya Pradesh it was 3.49 per cent as the Centre's fiscal deficit is estimated to be at 3.20 per cent. Hence, Tamil Nadu was managing its fiscal deficit comparatively well when compared to the Centre and other states, he claimed. The first Supplementary Estimates (Statement of Expenditure) for 2017-18 for Rs 6,522.03 crore was tabled and adopted by a voice vote. On local body polls in the state, he said based on recommendations of the Delimitation Commission on local bodies, the elections will soon be held. KYIV. Jan 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) The lawyers of businessman Denys Dolynsky intend in January 2018 to file a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Ukraine to recover $1 million in damages for the loss of control over Zhytomyr confectionery factory. "My lawyers will file a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights to compensate for the losses that officials inflicted on me, taking away my share in the enterprise. This month an action will be filed to compensate for my losses, the sum exceeds $1 million. The matter concerns reimbursement for the value of my property rights, not charter capital," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. According to the businessman, the lawyers representing his interests through the European court will also demand the execution of the court ruling recognizing the property rights of Ihor Boiko and other minor owners. "We have defended the ownership of the enterprise. There are two rulings of Zhytomyr District Administrative Court, made in the spring of 2016, that have come into force. They say the integrated property complex is 97% owned by Ihor Boiko, the rest belongs to other participants in the enterprise. The decisions have entered into legal force, but the state of Ukraine does not fulfill them. Today police officers physically do not allow us to the enterprise as the owners of this company," Dolynsky noted. According to him, the businessman as an investor joined the enterprise in 2012 with about UAH 800,000, becoming an official founder. Dolynsky estimates his share in the company's capital at 1%. The company has about 20 co-founders. Representative Image. India has extended a fresh financial assistance of USD 45.27 million for upgrading Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour in northern Sri Lanka into a commercial port and strengthening the country's efforts to become a regional maritime hub. Sri Lankas Ministry of Finance and Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) signed an agreement in this regard on January 10, the Indian High Commission said. "An agreement for Indian financial assistance for USD 45.27 million (LKR 6.9 billion) for upgrading Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour was signed on January 10 in New Delhi by David Rasquinha, Managing Director, Export-Import Bank of India and RHS Samaratunga, Secretary to Treasury of Sri Lanka," the statement said. The upgradation project would make KKS Harbour a full- fledged commercial port, further strengthening Sri Lankas efforts to become a regional maritime hub, the statement said. It would also assist in reconstruction efforts in northern Sri Lanka. In terms of the MoU between India and Sri Lanka for rehabilitation of KKS Harbour, four out of the six phases of the rehabilitation have already been completed under Indias grant assistance. This includes preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR), works related to Geo-technical studies, wreck removal and disposal, dredging and hydrographic survey. The fresh assistance of USD 45.27 million would be used for the remaining two phases involving works relating to the rehabilitation of the breakwater and existing pier, construction of a new pier for commercial cargo handling, installation of port infrastructure facilities, etc. "The signing of the MoU is a reflection of the continued commitment of Government of India to assist Sri Lanka in its development journey," the statement said. The KKS port was rendered useless after the LTTE attacked it during the civil war. The port was key in connecting the Jaffna peninsula with the rest of Sri Lanka and also India. 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. A. A. 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. A. A. 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.) Amul satellite dairy in Khatraj village, Gujarat. Representative Image (REUTERS/Amit Dave) French FMCG firm Danone is shutting down its loss-making dairy segment in India, meaning all the dairy products - from their yogurts to their smoothies - will be taken off the shelves, the company said in a statement. Along with this, the ultra heat treatment procedure - the famously known 'TetraPak" packaging method will also be discontinued. The firm has also announced shutting down their manufacturing unit manufacturing these discontinued products at Rai near Delhi. In March last year, the firm was determined to make a significant mark in the dairy market by launching its greek yogurt product and expanding its dairy business extensively by 2020. However, now, the firm seems to be the victim of tough competition from existing dairy market leaders such as Amul, Nestle India, Britannia and it will concentrate on their profit-making brands such as Protinex. The firm will concentrate on - Protinex, Aptamil, Farex, Dexolac and Neocate products - which they claim make 90 percent of their business. The brand, Protinex is for adults and the other mentioned brands are the nutrition supplements for babies and infants. The statement, quoting a Danone India spokesperson said, "In order to maximize growth opportunities, we are continuously analyzing our portfolio and sharpening our focus to accelerate investments on the best performing categories and products." Days after a cyber security firm warned of a malware breaching into mobile applications, ICICI Bank said there is no "significant" threat from it to its customers. "Whatever we have seen, the malware seems to be not very significant," bank's chief technology and digital officer B Madhivanan told reporters over a conference call. Quickheal, a Pune-based cyber security firm, had warned lenders of the presence of a malware in the mobile banking apps running on the popular operating system, Android. "Anyone who wants to sell their anti-malware kind of products, they have the right to continuously test and bring it in," Madhivanan said, retorting to the warning from the anti-virus maker last week. According to media reports, Quickheal had spotted a malware that imitates over 200 apps, including some offered by some of domestic banks. The malware is distributed through a fake flash player app and can ultimately trick the user into sharing his/her login details and password for any of the 232 applications, if they are present on the device. The cyber security firm asked users not to download any apps from third-party stores or links provided in SMSes/emails to keep their credentials safe, according to media reports. "There is always somebody or the other who is trying to attack, and that's how this entire world of cyber criminals work. But given the multilevel securities that we have put in place, we believe we are extremely capable of defending it within our entire financial structure," Madhivanan said. He asserted that in its ten-year history, the bank's mobile banking, which was the first such application to be launched by any bank, has not "had even one single incident of a technical breach" which has harmed customers. The incidents which have been faced are due to "social re-engineering", rather than "technical" faults, he claimed. "Our bigger worry has never been on the technical security part. It's always been on social engineering fraud, where customers are giving away some of this data where they are cheated by someone masquerading as an Aadhaar person or a telecom person," he said. To check and avoid any mishaps, the bank has a strong security architecture which consists of a chief security officer, two network operation centres and a security operation centre, he said. The bank has 8 million customers using its mobile app, which is growing fast, he said, adding mobile transactions now account for half of its overall digital transactions and will soon be overtaking Internet banking. "Growth of mobile transactions is much faster than the incremental transactions through the Internet. We expect mobile transactions to overtake it and become the new standard when it comes to banking transaction," he said. In FY17, it handled Rs 2.4 trillion worth of transactions through mobile banking, which hit Rs 3.1 trillion by October 2017, he said. Oil prices have risen above $70 per barrel for the first time since 2014 as investors bet supply cuts led by OPEC will dominate the market this year. But some traders are sounding a warning - the world's biggest crude consuming region, Asia, is showing signs of an impending downward correction. Prices for Brent crude oil futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, have risen by more than 50 percent since mid-2017 and hit $70 per barrel this week for the first since December 2014. Average Asian physical crude oil prices also moved over $70 per barrel in January. "A healthy (price) correction could be on the cards," said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia/Pacific at futures brokerage Oanda in Singapore. One reason, traders say, is that the supply of oil products remains ample. In the last three years, refiners enjoyed high profits because of relatively cheap crude oil, which is used to make fuels like diesel or gasoline. As a result, Asian refiners processed an unprecedented 23 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in late 2017. China, by far Asia's biggest oil consumer, is now producing so much fuel that its refiners have turned to exports to find buyers. And their purchases of crude could fall. Chinese diesel exports have surged by almost 3,000 percent since early 2015, to a record of more than 2 million tonnes last December, according to customs data. Its gasoline exports are up by 365 percent since early 2015, to more than 1 million tonnes in December. Its total December refined oil products reached a record 6.17 million tonnes, according to customs data announced on Friday. "This drop in margins could reduce Asian refiners' demand for incremental crude in the near term and weigh on global (crude) prices," said Sukrit Vijayakar, director of energy consultancy Trifecta. Singapore refining margins, which act as Asia's benchmark, have slumped by 90 percent from their 2017 high, to below $6 per barrel this week - the lowest seasonal level in five years. BMI Research said in a note this week: "In Q1, the balance of risk to Brent (prices) lies to the downside." WHAT FUELED THE RALLY The crude market's focus has so far been on signs of tightening supplies as the Middle East dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia lead production cuts aimed at propping up prices. With global oil consumption also strong amid healthy global economic growth, investor sentiment has been positive. Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said this week that "bullish news tends to get more attention than potentially bearish signals." Yet, another of the bearish signals is rising U.S. oil production, which is threatening to derail OPEC's and Russia's efforts to tighten supplies. Despite a recent drop due to extreme cold, U.S. crude oil output is widely expected to break through 10 million bpd soon, largely thanks to shale production, which would take it to similar levels as top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, who hit peak output of over 11 million bpd and about 10.7 million bpd respectively in recent years. "Oil prices have been undeniably bullish this week despite the lingering concerns over the current bull rally running out of steam . . . It must be kept in mind that rising production from U.S. shale has the ability to expose oil to downside risks," said Lukman Otunuga, Analyst at futures brokerage FXTM. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects U.S. output to surpass 11 million bpd by 2019. Soaring U.S. supplies mean U.S. WTI crude prices are over $5.5 per barrel cheaper than Brent, off which most international crude supplies are priced. Taking advantage of their competitive prices, U.S. crude oil exports are rising, including to faraway Asia. Feeling the pinch from mounting competition and the pressure from refiners, OPEC's No.2 and No.3 producers, Iran and Iraq, cut their crude oil prices this week to remain competitive with customers struggling from lower profits. Vodafone Idea (Representative Image) The National Company Law Tribunal has approved the proposed merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone -- a move that brings both the companies closer to culminating the deal. "We wish to inform you that the Hon'ble National Company Law Tribunal, bench at Ahmedabad, vide its order dated January 11, 2018 has sanctioned the composite scheme of amalgamation and arrangement among Vodafone Mobile Services Limited and Vodafone India Limited and Idea Cellular Limited...," Idea Cellular said in a regulatory note today. Both the groups can go ahead for the final approval for merger from the Department of Telecom after Vodafone's appeal for the scheme also gets NCLT nod. As per latest data published by sector regulator Trai, Idea and Vodafone jointly have over 40 crore mobile subscribers and together account for largest share in the Indian telecom segment. Vodafone is expected to hold around 47.5 per cent stake in the merged entity and rest will be owned by Idea and promoter Aditya Birla Group. The proposed merger of Vodafone India and Idea will create an entity with a revenue of around Rs 77,500-80,000 crore besides eliminating duplication of spectrum and infrastructure capex, as per India Ratings and Research. Further, the spectrum of Vodafone India in seven circles and that of Idea in two, whose permits are expiring in 2021- 22, is together valued at around Rs 12,000 crore as per last auction price. These permits are not in common circles, and hence there could be potential spectrum capex synergies between the two companies, as per the rating agency. January 12, 2018 / 09:27 PM IST 21:25 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. 21:23 Punished auditors involved in Satyam case; no powers to act against CA firms: data-scayt-lang="en_US">ICAI Within days of SEBI passing order against the Price Waterhouse network entities in the Satyam scam, chartered accountants' apex body ICAI today said it had awarded maximum punishment to individual auditors involved but has no powers to initiate disciplinary action against CA firms. On Wednesday, SEBI imposed a two-year ban on Price Waterhouse network entities from issuing audit certificates to any listed company in India with respect to the multi-crore scam at the IT major. The institute has cancelled the membership of six chartered accountants with respect to the accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services. 21:09 YES Bank announces Rs 7.5-cr grant for NGOs, social enterprises YES Foundation, the social development arm of YES Bank, today launched a programme to inculcate the spirit of responsible youth citizenship and drive social impact through the medium of films. The fifth edition of 'YES! i am the CHANGE' (YIAC) aims at providing youth, NGOs/ social enterprises with a platform to use films as a storytelling medium to drive social impact, Yes Bank said in a statement. 20:59 IT Dept has conducted raids at 14 premises of the Oriential group in Bhopal, Jabalpur and Indore. They have seized nearly Rs 31 Lakh cash, while the search is underway, reports ANI. 20:56 BoI to be out of RBI watch list soon as recovery picks up: MD Bank of India (BoI) has put in place an aggressive bad loan recovery strategy and hopes to be out of the RBIs watch list soon, the state-run lenders Managing Director Dinabandhu Mohapatra said. Following inspection of books in March 2017, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) downgraded some of BoIs accounts to NPA and placed the bank under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework. Downgrading of accounts impacted the profitability as well as non-performing asset (NPA) position of the bank retrospectively. SEBI ING Vysya Markets regulator SEBI today imposed a penalty of Rs 4 lakh on a former official of ING Vysya Bank for disclosure lapses. The order has come following an inspection conducted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) of trading in the shares of ING Vysya Bank for the period from August 2011 to May 2013. Upon inspection of the trading details of Gargi Dash, the then head of retail finance of the bank, SEBI observed that she had sold shares of value exceeding Rs 5 lakh each on three occasions November 2, 2012, January 31, 2013 and March 28, 2013. 20:51 Will be there as long as Im needed, not a day longer: Nandan Nilekani Infosys non-executive Chairman Nandan Nilekani today expressed satisfaction at the progress made in bringing stability to the company, saying he will stay only as long as required. Nilekani was brought on-board in August last year, after the then CEO Vishal Sikka and ex-Chairman R Seshasayee had resigned following a bitter boardroom tussle. Nilekani, who is one of the co-founders, was mandated with steering the company back on track after protracted row between the founders and the past management over allegations of corporate governance lapses. 20:44 Significant decline in under-five mortality rate in 2016: Report India has registered significant decline in mortality rate of children under five years of age, according to the recently-released 2016 sample registration system (SRS) bulletin. Under-five mortality rate (U5MR) in India showed an impressive decline of 9 percent, from 43 per 1,000 in 2015 to 39 per 1,000 in 2016, it said. According to a Health Ministry statement, for the first time, the number of under-five deaths in the country have come down to below 1 million with nearly 1,20,000 fewer under-five deaths in 2016 as compared to 2015. 20:40 US retail sales rise; core sales revised sharply higher US retail sales increased in December as households bought a range of goods and figures for the prior month were revised higher, suggesting the economy exited 2017 with strong momentum. The Commerce Department said on Friday that retail sales rose 0.4 percent last month. Data for November was revised to show sales gaining 0.9 percent instead of the previously reported 0.8 percent increase. Retail sales in December rose 5.4 percent from a year ago. They advanced 4.2 percent in 2017 compared to 3.2 percent in 2016. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales increasing 0.4 percent in December. 20:35 Chancellor Angela Merkel's deal with social democrats opens way to new German government Chancellor Angela Merkel struck a deal with Social Democrat (SPD) rivals on Friday to open government coalition talks, easing months of uncertainty that has undermined Germany's global role and raised questions about her political future. But the deal to revive a "grand coalition" that has governed since 2013 must be approved by an SPD congress planned for January 21. Some members fear further association with Merkel's chancellorship could erode the influence of the party which suffered the worst result in September's election since the modern Federal Republic was founded in 1949. 20:30 Kamala Mills fire update: Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil today said he will move the Bombay High Court seeking CBI probe into the Kamala Mills compound fire, which claimed 14 lives. Addressing a press conference here, he said a PIL in this regard will be filed next week. Vikhe Patil also alleged that the Bhima-Koregaon violence was a state-sponsored riot and demanded that the judicial probe into the violence should be monitored by the high court. 20:27 Airtel offers 1-year Amazon Prime membership with Infinity plan Indias largest telecom operator Airtel today teamed up with Amazon India to offer one year of Amazon Prime membership with its Infinity postpaid plan. Airtel Postpaid customers both new and existing who have an Infinity plan of Rs 499 or more will be able to avail one year Amazon Prime membership of Rs 999 value and unlimited access to Amazon Prime Video as part of their plan benefits, a statement said. This would not come at any extra cost. 20:14 OPEC need not rush into changing oil pact: UAE Minister Suhail al-Mazroui OPEC need not respond to a rise in oil prices by rushing to change a global supply-cutting pact, United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazroui said on Friday. This years rapid rise in oil prices, which hit USD 70 this week, is backed by strong demand growth and a fall in oversupply on the back of the OPEC and non-OPEC pact, not only by political tensions, Mazroui said. We dont look at the price in a day and say we are in a point where we need to do changes. We need to give the market time, Mazroui, who holds the OPEC presidency, added. 20:06 India hopes UK-EU divorce wont be very acrimonious: Suresh Prabhu India is friends with both the UK and the European Union and is hopeful that the divorce between them after Brexit wont be very acrimonious, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said here today. Highlighting that India has revived the stalled talks on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), the Commerce and Industry minister stressed that New Delhi was keen to work on closer trade ties with both the UK and the 28- member economic bloc. The decision the EU and Britain have taken as a result of the referendum is between them. We are friends with both and hope for a very good outcome and good relations, Prabhu told reporters. 20:01 US president Donald Trump cancels working visit to UK over bad new US embassy President Donald Trump today cancelled a working visit to the UK planned for next month to officially launch a new US embassy, blaming a bad deal struck by the previous Obama-administration to relocate the base from central London to an off location. The US president launched his attack on Twitter against the embassys move from Grosvenor Square in the posh Mayfair area of the city to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, in a USD 1.2 billion project. 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!. 19:58 Forest clearance issues continue to dog strategic projects: Rajnath Singh Forest and environmental clearance issues continue to dog strategic projects and the central government will expedite the process of giving nod to them, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today. Inaugurating the 43rd annual day function of the Military Engineer Services (MES) builders association of India here, Singh also said there is no shortage of funds for development of infrastructure along the border areas. The government will expedite forest and environmental clearance issues which still continue to dog such strategic projects, Singh was quoted as saying in an official release. 19:53 Govt invites applications for SEBIs whole time member The government today invited applications to fill up the position of a whole time member at markets regulator SEBI. Currently, SEBI has two whole-time members Madhabi Puri Buch and G Mahalingam while Sanjeev Kaushik was appointed a whole-time member last month. However, he is yet to join the markets regulator. Kaushik has handled the capital markets in the Department of Economic Affairs, where he was responsible for the policy matters related to current account management, foreign institutional investments, external commercial borrowings and foreign exchange management. He has also worked closely with the SEBI and Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 19:46 "Points raised by the Honourable judges need to be looked into carefully, even Justice Loya's death needs to be investigated properly," Rahul Gandhi said, reports ANI. He added that all citizens who love the idea of justice are looking at this issue, which needs to be addressed. 19:33 Congress President Rahul Gandhi is expected to address the media shortly regarding the letter sent to CJI Dipak Misra by the four Supreme Court judges. 19:16 26/11 terror attack survivor Moshe Holtzberg to visit Chabad House in Mumbai next week Eleven-year-old Moshe Holtzberg will visit the Chabad House in Mumbai next week, where his parents were killed in the 26/11 terror attacks, and attend a ceremony there with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's envoy to India Daniel Carmon said today. (PTI) 19:07 Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu meets Modi amid reports of strain in ties; seeks central aid Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, amid reports of strain in ties with the Centre, and sought the latter's help for fulfilling promises made during the bifurcation of the state. Naidu said Andhra Pradesh continued to depend heavily on agriculture and lagged behind other south Indian states in the services sector. (PTI) 18:44 India can't allow its neighbours to drift away to China: General Bipin Rawat India cannot allow its neighbours to drift away from it to counter an assertive China, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said today, affirming that time has come for the country to shift focus from western to the northern frontier. Rawat said countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have to be kept on board as part of a broader strategy to deal with China, and India must make "wholehearted" efforts to continue extending support to them. (PTI) 18:26 BCCI invites expressions of interest for IPL partner rights The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has invited `expressions of interest' for the Indian Premier League (IPL) partner rights. The types of rights include IPL Official Partner Rights, IPL Strategic Time Out Partner Rights and IPL Umpire Partner Rights. The rights are available for a minimum three-year term. (PTI) 17:59 December CPI At 5.2% | CPI Combined Index Down 0.29% (MoM), CPI Combined Food Price Index Down 1.27% (MoM) 17:59 December CPI At 5.2% | Pulses Inflation At -23.47% Vs -23.53% (MoM) Clothing & Footwear Inflation At 4.8% Vs 4.96% (MoM) 17:44 JUST IN: December CPI inflation at 5.2% 17:39 JUST IN: November IIP growth at 8.4 % vs 2.2% MoM 17:18 TRAI cuts international inter-connect charges to 30 paise/minute from 53 paise/minute. Moneycontrol was the first to report that Trai may slash international termination charges to 25-30 paise per minute. 17:10 BJP, Trinamool workers clash twice, President's rule demanded in West Bengal Several people were injured after clashes broke out between BJP and Trinamool Congress activists outside the former's headquarters here and at another place in the city this morning, the police said. The attack outside the BJP headquarters prompted the party's West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh to demand President's Rule in the state, alleging that law and order had gone for a toss. (PTI) 16:54 India advertisement spend to grow by 12.5% in 2018: Report The advertising spend in the country is expected to grow by 12.5 percent in 2018 from 9.6 percent last year, according to the Dentsu Aegis ad spend report. 16:42 Infosys' Rajesh Murthy quits | Senior level exits have been the talking point at the company Senior level exits have been a talking point at Infosys for the past over a year, with several senior executives quitting the company for varied reasons. The Infosys senior management however, said Murthy's decision to make a move was for personal reasons and should not be read into too much. "Rajesh had indicated his desire a few months back. He was able to find something suiting his preferences at this point in time," said a chief operating officer UB Pravin Rao at a press briefing post results. 16:41 Infosys' Rajesh Murthy quits, ending his tenure of 26 years with the company Murthy, along with Sandeep Dadlani and Mohit Joshi, and deputy chief operating officer Ravi Kumar S, were paid remunerations of over Rs 14 crore. According to his LinkedIn profile, Murthy was "responsible for the global Energy, Utilities, Telecommunications and Services business unit, including setting the vision, creating and implementing strategy, and driving growth" at Infosys. In June last year, Dadlani also quit the company and joined the maker of Snickers chocolate- Mars- as its Chief Digital Officer. 16:40 Infosys President Rajesh Murthy quits citing personal reasons "His last date with Infosys will be January 31, 2018. The Board places on record its deep appreciation for his commitment to Infosys over the last 26 years and wishes him the very best for his future endeavours," Infosys said in a statement on its third quarter results on Friday. Murthy, who was President since October 13, 2016, was one of the top paid executives at the company last year, according to the annual report. 16:25 Infosys President Rajesh Murthy quits, Parekh to be CEO for 5 years Infosys has decided to retain Pravin Rao as Whole-time Director till 2022, even as it said the newly-appointed CEO Salil Parekhs term at the top will be for five years. Meanwhile, Infosys President Rajesh Murthy who was one of Infosys' most highly paid executives last year, has resigned. He exits from the position on January 31. The company acknowledged the attrition reduced but is still high. 16:21 Infosys Q3 profit jumps 38% on tax reversal; maintains FY18 revenue, EBIT margin guidance Country's second largest software services provider Infosys has reported a whopping 37.7 percent growth in Q3 profit, with retaining full year revenue guidance. The profit for the quarter, which was largely driven by tax reversal, stood at Rs 5,129 crore against Rs 3,726 crore in previous quarter, the company said in its filing. Read the full report here. 16:12 Tata Steel's saleable output at 9.24 million tonne in April-December Tata Steel today said its actual saleable steel output in the country during April-December of the ongoing fiscal increased by 12.4 percent to 9.24 million tonne (MT). The company's saleable steel production in the year-ago period stood at 8.22 MT (actual), Tata Steel said in a statement. (PTI) 15:51 NCLT NRE The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has ordered liquidation of Gujarat NRE Coke after the companys debt resolution plans failed. The Kolkata bench of the NCLT, the designated court for bankruptcy cases, on Thursday passed the order, which was filed with the stock exchanges on Friday. NCLT-appointed liquidator will first try to dispose off the company as a "going concern" in a bid to save jobs of the 1,178 employees, according to the order. If the plan does not succeed within three months, then other modes of asset sales will be explored, the NCLT said. Rising income, expanding product lines and affordable repayment options have fuelled Indias appetite for luxury cars, pushing the market 21 spots in just 10 years in world ranking. India saw sales of close to 40,000 luxury cars last calendar year, marking a staggering 10-fold jump in just 10 years, reports Moneycontrol News Swaraj Baggonkar. ETF AUM Despite receiving the highest subscription for a new fund offer in the history of the Indian mutual fund industry, the Bharat 22 ETF has seen its assets under management (AUM) drop by over Rs 3,000 crore in just one month. With a bunch of the funds total assets coming from rich, short-term investors, it came as no surprise when some of them redeemed their holdings one month into the investment. Of course, as was with the total assets managed, the level by which the funds asset base dropped in a month is also a first for the MF industry. Some of the smaller fund houses in the country dont even manage assets worth Rs 3,000 crore. According to data compiled by ICICI Prudential AMC, which managed the Bharat 22 ETF, the schemes total AUM as on December 31 stood at Rs 6,243 crore, roughly 33% lower than the Rs 9,319 crore at the end of November. The GST Council, in its meeting scheduled for January 18, is likely to focus on rationalisation of Goods & Services Tax (GST) rates on a handful of items, reports Business Standard. The the fitment committee of the Council has finalised rate reduction on a few items and the matter would be taken up for discussion by the GST Council in its last meeting before the Union Budget. An official said the upcoming meet will focus on giving impetus to agriculture and clean energy. The Council may possibly cut the GST rate on irrigation equipment to 12% from the current 18%. GST rates on bio-diesel and electrical vehicles may also be reduced to 18% from the current 28%. Irda A day after the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) set aside the order of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) on the takeover of policyholder business of Sahara Life and asked for a review and a fresh order, a senior Irda official said it was not mandated to submit the administrators report to the appellant, report Moneycontrol News M Saraswathy. SAT, in its judgement on Thursday, said that the administrators report and its outcome have potentially and adversely affected Sahara Life. It also added that Irda should have supplied a copy of the report to Sahara Life before passing the July 28, 2017 order transferring its businesses to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. 14:54 Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the world's third most popular leader, according to a survey done by Gallup International. Topping the list of popularity is French President Emmanuel Macron followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping also made it to the top 5 ranks after Modi. At 11th position, Donald Trump ranked just below Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said India will not allow its territory to be invaded by anyone, asserting that China may be a powerful country but India is not a weak nation either, reports PTI. The time had come for India to shift focus to its northern border, he said, and added that the country was capable of handling China's assertiveness along it. Amid aggressive Chinese efforts to increase its influence in the region, the Army chief said India cannot allow its neighbours to drift away to China. "China is a powerful country but we are not a weak nation," Rawat said. To a question about Chinese incursions into India, he said, "We will not allow our territory to be invaded by anyone." SPD German Chancellor Angela Merkels conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) agreed on Friday on a blueprint for formal coalition negotiations, sources told Reuters, bolstering prospects for an end to months of political uncertainty. The agreement between party and parliamentary leaders paves the way for detailed negotiations in coming weeks, lifting the uncertainty that has weakened Germanys role in international affairs and raised questions about how long Merkel will stay in her job. 14:05 Mallya The UK judge presiding over the extradition trial of Vijay Mallya has granted bail to the embattled liquor baron till April 2 as she heard arguments from the defence against the admissibility of evidence presented by the Indian government, reports PTI. 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 left India in March, 2016. 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. Mallya's hearing on Thursday 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) is expected to respond at the next hearing itself after the defence concludes its arguments. That hearing date is yet to be determined but expected within the next three weeks. Nitish Convoy of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been attacked and pelted with stones during a 'samiksha yatra' in Buxar's Nandan. The CM was rescued safely but a few of his security personnel sustained injuries. A panel the size of a laptop computer fell off one of the Japanese prime ministers jumbo jets, the defence force said on Friday, a potentially embarrassing mishap amid concern over the dangers posed by parts falling off US military aircraft based in Japan, reports Reuters. Officials noticed the panel was missing from the Boeing 747, one of two jetliners used by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for foreign trips, after it flew from Tokyo to its base on the northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday, a spokesman for the Japan Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) said. A surprise New Years Day tweet by President Donald Trump in which he appeared to decree an end to US aid for Pakistan, sent US officials scrambling to suspend security assistance without even knowing how much aid they were freezing, four US officials said. The decision to freeze up to about $2 billion in security aid, according to a later estimate by US officials, to a nuclear-armed ally is the latest example of how, nearly a year into Trumps presidency, US officials sometimes have to scurry to turn his tweets into policy. At the time of Trumps tweet, a US assessment of Pakistani compliance with those demands was still under way. A cohesive US policy - including preparations for possible Pakistani reaction - was not expected to be completed until March or April, three US officials interviewed said. None of the elements of a coherent policy was in place, or even close at hand, when the president, in effect, made a policy announcement, said one US official. Despite a mad scramble to backfill a tweet, we still dont have ... an effective policy in place. Four sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India said on Friday that the administration of the countrys highest court was not in order and warned that democracy would not survive in the country unless the institution was preserved. The press conference, the first of its kind to be ever held by sitting Supreme Court judges in India, blew the lid on a growing rift between senior justices and the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. The Chief Justice of India has left us with no option but to go public about what is going on within the Collegium, Justice Jasti Chelameswar said. FZS-FI India Yamaha Motor (IYM) launched an all-new version of its 149 cc motorcycle FZS-FI priced at Rs 86,042 (ex-showroom Delhi). The new FZS-FI is equipped with improved braking system and enhances performance efficiency, the company said in a statement. Powered by 149cc, air cooled 4-stroke engine, the model has 220mm hydraulic single rear disc brake and 282mm front brake, thus improving stability and control, it added. Loya's The Supreme Court termed as a "serious matter" the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, and sought response from Maharashtra government on pleas seeking an independent probe into it, reports PTI. The top court said, "This matter requires bi-party hearing rather than exparte". US President Donald Trump cancelled a visit to London scheduled for early this year, saying he was disappointed with the Obama administration having sold the US embassy in the British capital, reports Reuters. "(The) 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 $1.2 billion," Trump said in a tweet late on Thursday. Hungry mobs ransacked a food collection centre, and a supermarket in Venezuelas western Andean state of Merida on Thursday and reportedly even slaughtered cattle grazing in a field as unrest over food shortages spread through the country, reports Reuters. An opposition lawmaker from Merida, Carlos Paparoni, said four people had died and 10 were injured in the chaos over the last two days, but he did not specify the circumstances. Four years of recession and the worlds highest inflation have plunged millions of Venezuelans into poverty, and President Nicolas Maduros authoritarian socialist regime faces mounting unrest. Looters plundered a truck carrying corn, a food collection centre, and a state-run supermarket, according to Paparoni, and a vet who witnessed the mayhem. A video on social media also showed around a dozen men running into a lush pasture, chasing a cow, and then apparently beating it to death. Breaking: In an unprecedented move, four sitting Supreme Court judges to address the media at 12:15pm. IATA says India's domestic air passenger traffic grew by 16.4% in November last year, topping the growth chart worldwide, global aviation body, the International Air Transport Association said. The IATA, comprising major air carriers, said India continued to witness double-digit growth for the 39th consecutive month. The available seat kilometeres (ASKs) for India was 10.4%, second only to China where capacity grew by 12.9%. 11:25 TCS 2bn India's largest IT firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said it has bagged an over $2-billion deal from Transamerica to transform the latter's US insurance and annuity business lines, reports PTI. The partnership enables Transamerica to rapidly enhance its digital capabilities, simplify the service of more than 10 million policies into a single integrated modern platform, TCS said in a statement. The multi-year agreement is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2018, it added. Chinas Bitmain Technologies is eyeing bitcoin mining sites in Quebec, a company spokesman told Reuters, as expectations of a potential Chinese crackdown on cryptocurrency mining make the energy-rich Canadian province an attractive alternative. China has grown into one of the worlds biggest sources of cryptocurrency mining but there are signs Beijing is increasing scrutiny of the sectors players and may ask local authorities to regulate their power use. Bitmain Technologies, operator of some of the largest mining farms in the country, is among several companies looking to expand overseas. Spokesman Nishant Sharma said in an e-mail on Friday that the company was looking at sites in Quebec and is in talks with regional power authorities in the province. It is also planning to expand in Switzerland. Facebook on Thursday began to change the way it filters posts and videos on its centerpiece News Feed, the start of what Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said would be a series of changes in the design of the worlds largest social network, reports Reuters. Zuckerberg, in a sweeping post on Facebook, said the company would change the filter for the News Feed to prioritize what friends and family share, while reducing the amount of non-advertising content from publishers and brands. Standard & Poors cut Brazils credit rating further below investment grade on Thursday as doubts grew about a presidential election in October and a push to trim its costly pension system, seen as vital to closing a huge fiscal deficit, reports Reuters. It lowered its long-term rating for Brazil sovereign debt to BB- from BB previously, with a stable outlook, citing less timely and effective policymaking. The rating agency also cited a risk of greater policy uncertainty after this years elections. US President Donald Trump will extend sanctions relief granted to Iran under its 2015 nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers, leaving the accord intact for now, sources told Reuters. However, Trump, who has vowed to scrap the pact, was expected to give the US Congress and European allies a deadline for improving it, sources said. Without improvements, Trump would renew his threat to withdraw from the agreement. Speaking for the first time about her coronation 65 years ago, Britains Queen Elizabeth has revealed how uncomfortable riding in her golden carriage to the ceremony was and how wearing the Imperial State Crown risked breaking your neck, reports Reuters. Elizabeth, Britains longest-reigning monarch, was crowned queen on June 2, 1953 at Londons Westminster Abbey, in a ancient, grand service whose origins date back 1,000 years. In a very rare, personal account for a BBC documentary to be aired on Sunday, she speaks candidly about the occasion and some of the Crown Jewels which play a symbolic role in the ceremony. Horrible, she said of the ride in the four-tonne carriage from Buckingham Palace to the abbey where English monarchs have been crowned since 1066. Its only sprung on leather, not very comfortable. Giving her personal recollection, the queen also reveals how she had struggled with her coronation dress, which was embroidered in silk with pearls, and gold and silver thread. I remember one moment when I was going against the pile of the carpet and I couldnt move at all, she said. US producer prices fell for the first time in nearly 18 months in December amid declining costs for services, reports Reuters. The Labour Department said on Thursday its producer price index for final demand slipped 0.1% last month. That was the first drop in the PPI since August 2016 and followed two straight monthly increases of 0.4%. In the 12 months through December, the PPI rose 2.6% after accelerating 3.1% in November. The PPI increased 2.6% in 2017 after advancing 1.7% in 2016. Assange 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, reports Reuters. 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. 10:02 Sensex Markets continued their record-setting trend for the second straight session with the BSE Sensex soaring around 135 points to an all-time high of 34,638.42 even as TCS posted disappointing December quarter earnings. The broader NSE Nifty traded at an all-time high of 10,690.25, gaining 39.05 points, or 0.36%. The 30-share index advanced 134.93 points, or 0.39%, to trade at an all-time high of 34,638.42, surpassing its previous high of 34,565.63, recorded on January 10. All sectoral indices led by metal, consumer durables, oil & gas and capital goods were in the positive zone, rising up to 0.71%. Stocks of country's largest IT firm Tata Consultancy Services fell 1.2% after the company on Thursday reported a 3.6% fall in net profit for the December quarter. Infosys was trading higher by 0.22% ahead of its Q3 earnings to be announced after trading hours today. The big gainers that lifted the key indices to new highs were ICICI Bank, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, L&T, Axis Bank, Wipro, SBI, Tata Steel, NTPC and HDFC Bank, gaining up to 1%. tunnelling North Korea has stepped up tunnelling at its main nuclear test site, a US think tank said, even as tensions cool on the peninsula following the resumption of long-stalled inter-Korean dialogue, reports AFP. Satellite images showed increased activity at the Punggye-ri site, with mining carts and personnel frequently visible, and excavation waste piles growing, the respected 38North website said Thursday. "These activities underscore North Korea's continued efforts to maintain the Punggye-ri site's potential for future nuclear testing," it said. The last five of Pyongyang's six nuclear tests have been carried out under Mount Mantap at Punggye-ri in the country's north-west, all of them at the North Tunnel. The latest pictures indicated the North Tunnel was "dormant" with water draining from its entrance, but that "tunnel excavation has been stepped up at the West Portal". Elsewhere at the site there was unusual activity with some 100-120 personnel lined up in formation in the courtyard, their purpose unknown. The images were taken in December, shortly before North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un gave a New Year speech warning US President Donald Trump of a "nuclear button" on his desk, while also offering to hold talks with Seoul. 09:39 India today successfully launched weather observation satellite Cartosat 2 Series and 29 other spacecraft onboard its dependable Polar rocket from Sriharikota. It was also its 100th satellite launch. The successful orbiting of the satellites by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV C-40 comes four months after the Indian space Research Organisations mission to launch backup navigation spacecraft IRNSS-1H onboard PSLV-39 ended in a rare failure. A jubilant ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar announced that the Cartosat 2 Series satellite, the seventh in the series, a nano satellite and 28 commercial payloads were successfully injected into the orbit one by one by the PSLV C-40, in the space of about 17.33 minutes since lift-off. A micro satellite of India would be orbited after about 90 minutes following the re-ignition of the fourth stage, Kumar said. International customer satellites are three micro and 25 nano-satellites from six countries -- Canada, Finland, France, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. 09:32 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 today. Kejriwal will address the rally at Sindkhed Raja in Buldhana district, and pay tributes on her birth anniversary, party sources said. Kejriwal had tweeted in Marathi on Thursday 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 about 32% 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, 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. President Donald Trump on Thursday questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as shithole countries, sources told Reuters. Trumps remarks, made in the White House, came as Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham briefed the president on a newly drafted immigration bill being touted by a bipartisan group of senators, sources said. Taj Mansingh favourite Though the battle for Taj Mansingh, one of the crown jewels of Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) may have got longer with the NDMC shifting dates to complete the auction - the Tata company is firmly ahead in the race, reports Moneycontrol News Prince Mathews Thomas. 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. 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. 3yr Oil prices eased on Friday after hitting their highest levels since December 2014 overnight. Despite the dip, analysts told Reuters that market fundamentals going into 2018 were strong due to ongoing production cuts led by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and Russia that coincide with healthy demand growth. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $63.58 a barrel at 06:42 am - 22 cents, or 0.3%, below their last settlement. WTI the day before hit its strongest since late 2014 at $64.77 a barrel. Brent crude futures were at $69.18 a barrel, 8 cents, or 0.1%, below their last close. Brent also marked a December 2014 high overnight at $70.05 a barrel. Jayant Sinha 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. Jayant Sinha, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation told Moneycontrol in an exclusive interview. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday allowed foreign direct investment of up to 49% 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%. The foreign investor will need the approval of the government. FDI of up to 49% is already allowed in private Indian airline companies under the automatic route. For instance, if the government were to disinvest 60% of Air India, 60% would be with the private sector, 40% would remain with the government. Now, we have said that no more than 49% could be in foreign hands. So, 49% of the 60% could be with the foreign player, then 11% could stay with an Indian player and 40% could stay with the government. So, the 51% (criteria) would be met, Sinha said. 07:57 ISRO 100th The India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch its 100th satellite along with 30 others in a single mission from the space port of Sriharikota. On its 42nd mission, ISROs 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. 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. 07:48 TCS 531cr BFSI India's largest software exporter TCS said its net profit slipped 3.6% YoY to Rs 6,531 crore in three months to December due to margin compression and softness in the banking and financial services sector, which is its largest revenue segment. The Tata Group company had reported a net profit of Rs 6,778 crore in the December 2016 quarter under the Ind-AS accounting. In July-September 2017, its net profit stood at Rs 6,446 crore. Revenue from the banking sector, which contributes a third of TCS' overall turnover that grew at a paltry 3.9% to Rs 30,9014 crore, declined by 1.5% from the September quarter, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Rajesh Gopinathan said. In a huge relief to the people of Tamil Nadu, the eight-day old strike by transport employees was 'temporarily' called off by unions on Thursday ahead of the Pongal festival, which falls on January 14, reports PTI. The decision also came in the wake of the Madras High Court appointing an arbitrator to settle the dispute between the government and the employees over wage revision. 07:21 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 a court in London for his extradition trial but the hearing was inconclusive as the defence is yet to complete its arguments, reports PTI. 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. Thursday'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 Thursday'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 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 a court in London for his extradition trial but the hearing was inconclusive as the defence is yet to complete its arguments, reports PTI. 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. Thursday'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". Mallya Mallya's Mallya Due to prior diary commitments, no date has been set for the next hearing on the matter andhas 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 Thursday's hearing,barrister, Clare Montgomery, argued that evidence that was claimed as a "blueprint of dishonesty" by the CPS was in fact a privileged conversation betweenand his lawyer about "legal advice in clear contemplation of litigation" and hence should be inadmissible Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com told CNBC-TV18, "Voltas is a buy with a stoploss of Rs 638, target of Rs 660. Dish TV is a sell with a stoploss of Rs 80, target of Rs 72. IDFC Bank is a sell with a stoploss of Rs 70, target of Rs 62." He further added, "Den Networks has been in some kind of an uptrend. See everything that hasnt moved now is moving up merit or no merit. So, that way this hadnt moved for a while. I think we could see maybe Rs 150-160 on Den Networks, so that way it is just getting off its base. Let us see how far it goes." live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Dredging Corporation of India shares gained nearly 4 percent intraday Friday after bagging order of Rs 88.51 crore from Cochin Port. Cochin Port invited global tenders for Maintenance Dredging for the year 2017-18 during August 2017 which is one of the major maintenance Dredging projects in India. DCI participated in the bidding process and stood as the lowest bidder with Rs 88.51 crore, thereby successfully retaining the work in its order book for next year, the company said in its filing. The dredging at Cochin Port is to be carried out throughout the year by deploying two dredgers. Dredging Corporation has been carrying out the maintenance dredging works at Cochin Port continuously since 2011-12. DCI is the only PSU in the dredging field in India and is securing all major contracts through open competitive bidding process. At 15:03 hrs Dredging Corporation India was quoting at Rs 829.00, up Rs 3.20, or 0.39 percent. Prakash Gaba of prakashgaba.com told CNBC-TV18, "GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals is a low volume stock, no doubt about it but the basic structure when I look at it is still positive. We saw some correction and the correction has got over and the up move has started and it has given a buy signal on a higher timeframe." "I think it is up maybe it will go to Rs 7,500-8,000 who knows where it goes. But certainly it is not looking weak it is a hold," he added. At 14:53 hrs GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals was quoting at Rs 2,468.75, down Rs 9.15, or 0.37 percent. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Investors in Tata Teleservices were upbeat about a debt repayment development, which pushed the stock higher by 5 percent intraday on Friday. According to a report in The Economic Times, Tata Group is said to have paid Rs 17,000 crore of Tata Teles debt. The report, quoting sources, further added that this brings down the debt level of the company to Rs 6,000 crore now. The publication has further cited a source, which outlines another tranche of payment by the end of the month. "The payment is a clear indicator that Tatas are serious about consolidating the remaining telecom and media businesses," one of the sources told the newspaper. The company was in the news recently after its debt was assigned a credit watch by Care Ratings in December 2017. Its proposed Commercial Paper worth Rs 6,500 crore has been assigned 'Credit Watch with Developing Implications' by Care Ratings, on the back of Tata Group' plans to transfer its consumer mobile business to Bharti Airtel. "The ratings on the CP (Commercial Paper) issue of TTML are placed on 'Credit Watch with Developing Implications' on account of the announcement by TTSL (Tata Teleservices Limited) and TTML to combine their consumer telecom business with Bharti Airtel," the company said in a regulatory filing on the ratings. The rating underlined the "financial flexibility" enjoyed by the company for being part of the Tata group "characterised by demonstrated continued support from Tata Sons". At 15:16 hrs Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) was quoting at Rs 7.27, up Rs 0.34, or 4.91 percent, on the BSE. It touched an intraday high of Rs 7.27 and an intraday low of Rs 7.01. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)_Chief Executive Officer Gopinathan TCS_Tata_Consultancy_Services_TCS1 live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Tata Consultancy Services shares fell as much as 1.6 percent in morning Friday despite bagging of USD 2 billion order in US. It was in addition to 0.7 percent loss in previous session following nearly 4 percent rally on Wednesday. The further correction was largely because of profit booking as third quarter numbers came in line following which analysts retained their ratings. At 09:42 hours IST, the stock price was quoting at Rs 2,760.20, down Rs 28.20, or 1.01 percent on the BSE. In a seasonally weak quarter, the IT major has reported sequential profit growth of 1.3 percent in Q3FY18 while dollar revenue grew by 1 percent to USD 4,787 million compared to September quarter, driven by strong deal wins and digital demand. Constant currency revenue growth for the quarter came in at 1.3 percent, which was lower than 1.7 percent growth in previous quarter and 2 percent in year-ago. It has registered strongest sequential volume growth of 1.6 percent for December quarter in three years. Revenue growth was driven by manufacturing, retail & consumer business, CMT and others; but impacted by lower banking, financial services and insurance business. We wrapped up 2017 with a strong performance in the December quarter, marked by the signing of industry-defining deals, robust client metrics and broad-based demand across industrial verticals, Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO, and MD at TCS said in the press release. Meanwhile, TCS has bagged the largest ever deal today as it has entered into an agreement with Transamerica (a leading provider of life insurance, retirement and investment solutions) to enable transformation of administration of its US insurance and annuity business lines. "The multi-year agreement is worth more than USD 2 billion in revenues, and is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2018," TCS said. Brokerages' take on earnings Edelweiss: Rating - Hold | Target - Rs 2,844 Tata Consultancy Services Q3FY18 revenue, at USD 4,787 million (up 1 percent QoQ) and EBIT margin at 25.2 percent were broadly in line with Streets estimate. Key highlights: 1) BFSI declined by 1.5 percent QoQ on softness in North America; 2) Retail turned-around with growth of 6.4 percent QoQ; 3) digital revenues grew 13.9 percent QoQ/39.6 percent YoY, representing 22.1 percent of total revenues; and 4) traditional retailers are leveraging technologies to enhance value proposition to customers, implying an optimistic outlook. The research house believes with digital at 22.1 percent (growth of 33.9 percent YoY YTD), both US and Europe showing strong traction and current margins (25.2 percent) below the aspired 26-28 percent range indicate that things can only improve from here. Hence, it raised target multiple to 18x from 16x earlier, and roll forward to FY20. Deutsche Bank: Rating - Buy | Target - Rs 3,000 As December quarter results were in-line, which means the recovery is on track, Deutsche Bank said while maintaining Buy call on the stock with a target price of Rs 3,000 per share. Ex-BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), company has reported a strong revenue growth of 2.4 percent QoQ while the robust growth in digital revenue and turnaround seen in retail & CPG are key positives, the research house said. However, the decline in Asia Pacific revenue and muted revenue growth in Americas are key negatives, it added. Management expects BFSI to improve in 2018. Kotak Securities: Rating - Reduce | Target - Rs 2,700 Kotak Securities has maintained its Reduce rating on the stock, but upped target price to Rs 2,700 due to rollover and marginal change in multiple. Numbers were in-line on growth & profitability. FY19 setup looks promising and current valuations bake in cyclical uptick, it said. The research house made a few changes to EPS resulting in 1 percent cut. Credit Suisse: Rating - Neutral | Target - Rs 2,350 Credit Suisse also said Q3 numbers were in-line, with retail segment bouncing back but not financial services. It feels the management sounds comfortable with the outlook barring financial services but the growth momentum continues to be soft in the US. TCS reported 10 basis points expansion in margin at 25.2 percent for Q3. Margin may fall short of targeted range of 26-28 percent on currency woes in FY18, Credit Suisse feels. UBS: Rating - Buy | Target - Rs 3,000 While maintaining Buy rating on the stock with a target price at Rs 3,000 per share, UBS said numbers were in-line, with retail segment picking up but banking declining. It expects muted reaction to results and concerned about decline in banking segment. Sharp decline in IT services spending may result in downward revisions to earnings estimates, it feels. Management expects retail to return to double digit growth and is confident of achieving 26-28 percent constant currency margins. JP Morgan: Rating - Neutral | Target - Rs 2,700 While retaining neutral rating with a target price at Rs 2,700 per share, JPMorgan said Q3 results were in-line with estimates and weakness in BFSI dragged revenue growth. Current valuation appears punchy, factoring in hopes of a demand improvement. HDFC Securities: Rating - Neutral | Target - Rs 2,705 After TCS posted in-line quarter, HDFC Securities believes that growth will not accelerate meaningfully based on (1) BFSI challenges in North America (linked to large US BFS accounts), (2) Pricing pressure in traditional business, and (3) Volatility in regional market segment. Also, elevated operating risk arising out of investments in large deals and shift in geo-mix will keep margins below the 26-28 percent aspirational band. EPS estimates are changed slightly (1.3/1.7 percent for FY19/20E) and stock is fairly valued at 19.1/17.5x FY19/20. Emirates Airlines aircrafts are seen at Dubai International Airport, United Arab Emirates May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Ashraf Mohammad - S1BETDFCASAA A cow strayed near the runway at Ahmedabad airport early on Thursday forcing at least two international flights to abort landing and divert to Mumbai. Some other flights were delayed because of the incident. An Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi to Ahmedabad and a cargo plane were diverted to Mumbai when their pilots spotted a cow near the runway at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, sources said. Ahmedabad Airport Director Manoj Gangal confirmed the incident, while the Airports Authority of India has sought a probe into it. A senior official of the Airports Authority of India said the animal entered the "operational area" of the airport and there was danger that it could stray towards the runway. It was a "freak incident" that took place at 3:00 am when a gate was opened for two vehicles and the cow followed them, he said, adding the CISF personnel manning the gate should have been more vigilant. Airport sources said CISF personnel and other staff used scare-guns and sticks to drive the cow out of the operational area. It took about one-and-a-half hours to get the cow out. By that time, two flights had to be diverted to Mumbai and five arrivals, and a few departures were delayed, they said. "Our first concern was safety, and everything is safe at the airport. I shall be able to comment further only after getting the inquiry report," Gangal said. An AAI spokesperson said, "The AAI chairman has sought a detailed report from the Airport Director (APD), Ahmedabad Airport, on the incident. He has also been asked to ascertain involvement of any human negligence in the incident." "The APD has been directed by the chairman to take stringent steps to avoid any such occurrences in future," he said. According to official data, in 2017, there were more than 1,000 incidents of bird strikes as well as animals colliding with planes at various airports in the country. The figures indicate a 50 percent increase in such cases since 2014, which witnessed 719 bird or animal hits. There were 81 instances of animals straying into the paths of planes last year. Such incidents have doubled in the last three years. In 2014, around 40 such incidents were reported. In an unprecedented move, four senior judges of the Supreme Court took to the media on Friday and expressed their concerns about the administration of the apex court. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurien Joseph also raised concerns over the assignment of the case of Justice Loya's death. The judges also made public a letter they had written to Chief Justice Dipak Misra months ago to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this Court which has adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivery system and the independence of the High Courts. The event, which was the first of its kind, has resulted in the legal fraternity hitting out at either of the two parties. Many advocates and former judges expressed their opinions on the four SC judges' move. Prashant Bhushan -- lawyer and politician: Subramanian Swamy -- economist and politician: KTS Tulsi, Supreme Court advocate: Salman Khurshid, senior advocate: Justice (Retired) PB Sawant, former Supreme Court judge: Indira Jaising, Supreme Court advocate: Justice (Retired) RS Sodhi, former Delhi HC judge: Detailed below are what some prominent members of the legal fraternity had to say about the event while speaking to ANI:"It is certainly a very serious development which has cast a huge shadow on the Chief Justice. Somebody had to confront the situation, where CJ is blatantly misusing his powers, hence the unprecedented step.We can't criticize them, they are men of great integrity and have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. PM must ensure that the four judges and CJI, in fact whole SC come to one opinion and proceed further.It's quite shocking. There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking.Deeply sad & pained, also feel a sense of agony that highest court of land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media.Judges had to come before media & take this unprecedented step. This means that there is a serious dispute, either with CJI or some internal dispute.I think it's a historic Press Conference. It was very well done. I think we, the people of India, have a right to know what is going on within the judiciary and I welcome this. Issues don't matter. It is their complaint on administrative matter. They are only four, there are 23 others. Four get together and show the Chief Justice in a poor light. It is immature and childish behavior. Ujjwal Nikam, senior public prosecutor: Justice (Retired) AK Ganguly: Justice (Retired) Mukul Mudgal: I think all 4 judges should be impeached, they have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say, we have parliament, courts, police functioning.This is a black day for Judiciary. Today's press conference would cause a bad precedent. From now on every common man could look at all judicial order with suspicion. Every judgment will be questioned."Feel very disturbed over the issue, this should not have happened, but it has and there might be strong reasons for them. Consequence would be it would create apprehensions in minds of people.""There must be some serious reason that they were left with no other option but to hold a Press Conference. But what connection Loya has with this? I know nothing about this and I don't want to make comments about any political matter." India Economy India and ASEAN nations today agreed to jointly work to mitigate the challenges of climate change, enhance livelihood opportunities through agro- forestry, exchange farm machineries and develop heterotic rice hybrids. They also called for joint efforts towards managing food security and price volatility besides implementing more capacity building programmes in 2018 on empowerment of ASEAN and Indian women through cooperatives. A joint declaration in this regard was made at the fourth ASEAN-India ministerial meeting held here, which was co- chaired by India's Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and his Thailand counterpart Grisada Boonrach. Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei are the members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "While we may take comfort and satisfaction from the road we have covered so far, the journey ahead offers limitless opportunities," Singh said. He stressed on the need to use the current opportunities to further build upon collaborations in areas of food safety and security, agri-technology, food processing, value chains, agri-marketing and capacity building and take them to newer heights. Singh also mentioned that a comprehensive ASEAN-India work plan for strengthening cooperation in food, agriculture and forestry is already in operation for the 2016-2020 period. Expressing satisfaction over progress made so far in agri-cooperation, India and ASEAN in their joint declaration agreed to prioritise the joint projects in three key areas. They include: agroforestry interventions for livelihood opportunities, demonstration and exchange of farm implement and machinery and thirdly focus on genetic improvement of parental lines and development of heterotic rice hybrids. As part of the medium-term plan of action, they also underscored the importance of addressing the climate change challenge and its negative impact on food security. "We look forward to cooperation on exchanging expertise as to promote enhanced resilience on natural systems and improve the adaptive capacities of people to cope with environmental hazards," the declaration said. They also agreed on third exchange visit in order to provide opportunities for ASEAN and Indian farmers and fishermen to learn and develop more efficient farming practices and management skills through information sharing. India and ASEAN expressed satisfaction with the progress made in execution of the plan of action decided for the 2011- 2015 period and said full implementation would "help further deepen and enhance the cooperation in food, agriculture and forestry". This would also contribute in achieving post 2015 sustainable development goals and related targets set by the UN body to achieve zero hunger. The also agreed to hold the next ASEAN-India ministerial meeting on agriculture and forestry in Brunei, Darussalam. India Economy The Maldives 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. In one of the recent example of a ransomware attack, traders in Old Delhi were attacked by unknown hackers who demanded ransom in Bitcoin. The news came out after three of the hacked traders came forward to reveal about the attack. The hackers, who are believed to be from either from Nigeria or Pakistan encrypted files on the computers of the businessmen consisting key documents, a report in Hindustan Times stated. The hackers then, according to the police blackmailed the victims by demanding ransom for the release of critical documents. They were then provided links to buy bitcoins through which they had to make payments. 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), Mohan Goyal, one of the victims was quoted saying in the report. As per reports, the hacked traders found the message that said there was a security problem in the system displayed on their computers. The traders were then given case numbers and email addresses for communication. They were then initially offered decryption of five of their files for free by the hackers, who later demanded the payment of ransom for the remaining files. While ransomware attacks are now not uncommon across the globe it is still very rare that a place like old Delhi is targeted. It is also unique as the ransom was asked in form of Bitcoin. While one of the IP address used by attackers was reportedly traced back to a system in Germany, the fingers are pointed towards hackers from Nigeria and Pakistan. Experts say that getting money in bitcoin works for them as it is difficult to trace the money. Until now, three complaints have been registered by the police. It is believed that the number of victims could be far higher. The Delhi crime branch which has registered the FIR has sent the hard disks of the complainants for forensic tests. Answer: Johnson & Johnson. In a relief to patients who received faulty hip implants from pharma giant Johnson and Johnson (J&J) seven years ago, a health ministry panel has recommended a compensation. The panel led by Arun Kumar Agarwal, former dean of Maulana Azad Medical College, suggested a base amount of Rs 20 lakh each for all affected patients, reported Mint. The committee further recommended to form another central panel of experts and regional expert committees to study claims of disability and suffering caused due to the device. The central committee will determine the final amount of compensation, depending upon the base amount and lost wages. The hip replacement device called DePuy ASR was reportedly sold in India by DePuy International, a subsidiary of J&J. In 2010, the device was recalled over reports of metal poisoning and high failures. The device had a design flaw, toxic chromium and cobalt that leached into the body, causing danger to lives. As India has no specific legal provisions to pay compensation in such cases, the government set up the committee in February 2016 to carry a detailed investigation in the case. In its report, the committee recommended that the firm be made liable to pay adequate compensation proportionate with the lost wages, severity of the pain, the resultant disability and sufferings (both mental and physical) of each of the patients who had received implant, as per Mint. The patients had also go through corrective surgery and many of them had to follow strict bed rest. Thus, the committee also recommended free medical management to all the patients who had to undergo another surgery, in its report. It will also include follow-up for all affected patients for their health check-ups, as per the recommendation of the report. Meanwhile, J&J refused to give reaction over the report. When contacted by the Mint, the company said that it had no information about the recommended report. In an unprecedented move, four sitting judges of the Supreme Court on Friday took to the media saying that the administration of the apex court has not been in order. Publicly questioning Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurien Joseph said that "with no pleasure we are compelled take the decision to call a press conference. The administration of the SC is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in last few months." Justice Chelameswar, the second senior-most judge after CJI Misra, said: "We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation. Our efforts have failed in convincing the Chief Justice to take steps to protect the institution." The judges had also sent a letter to the CJI regarding various issues at the apex court. Heres the full-text of the letter the judges sent to CJI Dipak Misra: Dear Chief Justice, It is with great anguish and concern that we thought it proper to address this letter to you so as to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this Court which has adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivery system and the independence of the High Courts besides and the independence of the administrative functioning of the office of the Honourable the Chief Justice of India. From the date of establishment of the three chartered High Courts of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, certain traditions and conventions in the judicial administration have been well established. The traditions were embraced by this Court which came into existence almost a century after the above mentioned chartered High Courts. These traditions have their roots in the anglo-saxon jurisprudence and practice. One of the well-settled principles is that the Chief Justice is the master of the roster with a privilege to determine the roster, necessity in multi numbered courts for an orderly transaction of business and appropriate arrangements with respect to matters with which members/bench of this court (as the case may be) is required to deal with which case or class of cases is to be made. The convention of recognising the privilege of the Chief Justice to form a roster and assign cases to different members/benches of the court is a convention devised for a disciplined and efficient transaction of business of the court but not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual of the Chief justice over his colleagues. It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the Chief Justice is only the first amongst the equals nothing more or nothing less. In the matter of the determination of the roster there are well-settled and time honoured conventions guiding the Chief justice, be the conventions dealing with the strength of the bench which is required to deal with a particular case or the composition thereof. A necessary corollary to the above-mentioned principle is the members of any multi-numbered judicial body including this Court would not arrogate to themselves the authority to deal with and pronounce upon matters which ought to be heard by appropriate benches, both composition wise and strength wise with due regard to the roster fixed. Any departure from the above two rules would not lead to unpleasant and undesirable consequences of creating doubt in the body politic about the integrity of the institution. Not to talk about the chaos that would result from such departure. We are sorry to say that off late the twin rules mentioned above have not been strictly adhered to. There have been instances where case having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justice of this court selectively to the benches of their preference without any rationale basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs. We are not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this institution to some extent. In the above context, we deem it proper to address you presently with regard to the Order dated 27th October, 2017 in R.P. Luthra vs. Union of India to the effect that there should be no further delay in finalizing the Memorandum of Procedure in the larger public interest. When the Memorandum of Procedure was the subject matter of a decision of a Constitution Bench of this Court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association and Anr. Vs. Union of India [(2016) 5 SCC 1] it is difficult to understand as to how any other Bench could have dealt with the matter The above apart, subsequent to the decision of the Constitution Benc, detailed discussions were held by the Collegium of five judges (including yourself) and the Memorandum of Procedure we finalized and sent by the then Honourable the Chief Justice of India to the Government of India in March 2017. The Government of India has not responded to the communication and in view of this silence, it must be taken that the Memorandum of Procedure as finalized by the Collegium has been accepted by the Government of India on the basis of the order of the Court in Supreme Court Advocates-on Record Association (Supra). There was, therefore, no occasion for the Bench to make any observation with regard to the finalization of the Memorandum of Procedure or that that issue cannot linger on for an indefinite period. On 4th July, 2017, a Bench of seven Judges of this Court decided In Re. Honourable Shre Justice C.S. Kannan [(2017) 1 SCC 1]. In that decision (referred to in R.P.Luthra), two of us observed that there is a need to revisit the process of appointment of judges and to set up a mechanism for corrective measures other than impeachment. No observation was made by any of the seven learned judges with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure. Any issue with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure should be discussed in the Chief Justices Conference and by the Full Court. Such a matter of grave importance, if at all required to be taken on the judicial side, should be dealt with by none other than a Constitution Bench. The above development must be viewed with serious concern. The Honble Chief Justice of India is duty bound to rectify the situation and take appropriate remedial measures after a full discussion with the other members of the Collegium and at a later stage, if required, with other Honble Judges of this Court. Once the issue arising from the order dated 27th October, 2017 in R. P. Luthra vs Union of India, mentioned above, is adequately addressed by you and if it becomes so necessary, we will apprise you specifically of the other judicial orders passed by this judicial orders passed by this Court which would require to be similarly dealt with. With kind regards,[J Chelameswar][Ranjan Gogoi][Madan B. Lokur][Kurian Joseph] India Pakistan India has planned to intensify its pressure on Pakistan to take strong steps against terror financing during the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary organized in Paris, next month, reported The Economic Times quoting people familiar with the development. FATF is an inter-governmental body established with an objective to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. In the Buenos Aires plenary in November 2017, FATF had reportedly demanded compliance from Pakistan on the issue of terror funding after India raised the issue of the neighboring country's blatant support to terrorists and terrorist groups. Though China had tried to be a roadblock and to shield Pakistan on the issue, the support of several nations including the US and Russia, India could succeed to convince FATF. The global body then asked Pakistan to report in February (this year) on actions taken by Islamabad against terror outfits, as per the report. "Their (Russia's and America's) support has ensured that (the) FATF, at its plenary meeting on November 2, 2017, called upon Pakistan to report on the action being taken to curb terror financing, especially in respect of the proscribed entities and individuals," the ministry of external affairs (MEA) wrote to a parliamentary panel recently. Following this, the FATF will discuss Islamabad's attempts to counter terrorist financing, said the ET report. The Supreme Courts collegium has unanimously recommended senior advocate Indu Malhotra as a judge, the seventh woman judge in the apex courts history. This is the first time that a woman has been elevated to the top court directly from the Bar. She will be the second woman judge in the apex court along with Justice R Banumathi, who was elevated in 2014. The first-ever female judge in the SC was appointed in 1989 with Justice M. Fathima Beevi's elevation in the court. Malhotra was enrolled with the Bar Council in Delhi in 1983 and qualified as an Advocate-on-record in the Supreme Court in 1988. She presided as Standing Counsel for the state of Haryana in the Supreme Court for 5 years. During her tenure, she has represented statutory bodies like SEBI, Delhi Development Authority and Indian Council for Agricultural Research, in front of the Supreme Court. She was designated as a senior advocate for the Supreme Court in 2007, the second woman to achieve this after a period of 30 years. Malhotra specialises in the law of arbitration and has been present in various domestic and international commercial arbitrations. Recently, a third edition of a commentary The Law and Practice of Arbitration and Conciliation, 2014 was written by her, which was released in April 2014 by the Chief Justice of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent a message to the Jharkhand government saying that the state has the potential to emerge as the skill hub of the nation. The prime minister in his message yesterday has also expressed happiness at the 'Skill Summit, 2018 Momentum Jharkhand', which was organised by the Jharkhand government today, the National Youth Day. "It is a pleasure to know that the Skill Summit, 2018 Momentum Jharkhand is being organised on National Youth Day, January 12, 2018, to showcase the potential of the state in the skill development sector. "Jharkhand is witnessing a rapid transformation in all sectors of development and I congratulate Team Jharkhand for their increased focus in bringing skill development at the centre of their development strategy," the message said. "The state has all the potential to emerge as the Skill Hub of the Nation and events like 'Skill Summit' will help to bring all the stakeholders on the single platform to formulate effective synergy in this regard," it said. A total of 27,842 youths got appointment letters during the skill summit today. In the first-of-its-kind event, four senior judges of the Supreme Court of India today held a press conference, saying the administration of the apex court 'was not in order' and questioned certain decisions taken by Chief Justice of India Deepak Misra. In a strongly-worded press statement, the judges (Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph) underlined the importance of holding the judiciary to the highest standard and said 'democracy would not survive' in the country if steps were not taken. The judges added that they had complained to the CJI, including in a recent letter, about "less than desirable" things that had happened in recent months and that they were compelled to "take it to the nation". Here are the charges laid by the judges at the press conference and the letter that was accessed by the media: - One of the key contentions by the judges revolved around assignment of cases to various judges on the bench. "There have been instances where case having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justice of this court selectively to the benches "of their preference" without any rational basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs." While the judges did not make a mention of this in the letter, at the press conference, Justice Ranjan Gogoi confirmed that this was in reference to assignment of the case involving the controversial death of CBI Judge BM Loya, who was hearing the matter of the Sohrabuddin case. - Another point made by the judges was the delay in the formation of the revised Memorandum of Procedure. The Memorandum of Procedure is a set of rules that guide the selection of judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts. The Supreme Court proposed it to be revised after it struck down the controversial NJAC Act, which gave the government a say in the selection. But the revised MoP has yet to be issued, and when a lawyer, RP Luthra, challenged appointments made to the judiciary in its absence, a two-judge bench issued an order, which was subsequently recalled by another three-judge bench, comprising the CJI. "When the Memorandum of Procedure was the subject matter of a decision of a Constitution Bench of this Court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association and Anr. Vs. Union of India [(2016) 5 SCC 1] it is difficult to understand as to how any other Bench could have dealt with the matter," the judges wrote in their letter. - In the letter, the judges also talked about case against High Court Judge Justice Kannan, who was reprimanded for his outbursts against the Supreme Court. "In that decision, two of us observed that there is a need to revisit the process of appointment of judges and to set up a mechanism for corrective measures other than impeachment. No observation was made by any of the seven learned judges with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure." - They further added that "any issue with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure should be discussed in the Chief Justices' Conference and by the full court. Such a matter of grave importance, if at all required to be taken on the judicial side, should be dealt with by none other than a Constitution Bench." India Economy Mohamed Asim, Foreign Minister and Special Envoy of the President of Maldives, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and reiterated his government's commitment to close bilateral relations under its "India first" policy. The two discussed the ties between India and Maldives as close neighbours bound by shared history, culture and maritime interests in the Indian Ocean. "Envoy Asim reiterated the commitment of Maldives to maintain close relations with India under Maldives' 'India First' policy," according to an official statement. The prime minister affirmed that India would always be a reliable and close neighbour of Maldives supporting it in its progress and security. Asim also reiterated President Abdulla Yameen's invitation to Modi to visit Maldives. The prime minister conveyed his gratitude for the invitation and agreed to a visit at a suitable time, the statement said. PM Narendra Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi were among the leaders who today paid tributes to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary, which is also celebrated as National Youth Day. "I bow to Swami Vivekananda on his Jayanti. Today, on National Youth Day I salute the indomitable energy and enthusiasm of our youngsters, who are the builders of New India," Modi said on Twitter. Gandhi invoked Vivekananda to say that it was duty of all to encourage everyone in their struggle to live up to their own highest idea and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to truth. "My tributes to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary. #NationalYouthDay," he said on the micro-blogging site. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said he bowed before the "youth force" of the country as he tweeted a picture of Vivekananda. Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also invoked Vivekananda's message of "arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached" as he paid respect to the spiritual leader. "I bow before India's great saint, symbol of harmony and source of inspiration for the youth on his birth anniversary," Surjewala tweeted. Swami Vivekananda was born on this day in 1863 in Kolkata. He passed away on July 4, 1902 at the age of 39. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention for immediate establishment of the National Institute of New Energy and Innovation (NINEI) in the state. Patnaik's letter to the prime minister comes after the ministry, on November 10, 2017, issued an order to close down the regional office at Bhubaneswar with immediate effect. "I request you kindly intervene in the matter and issue instructions to commence construction of the National Institute of New Energy and Innovation at the earliest. May I also request you to kindly direct the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy to reopen the regional office at Bhubaneswar," Patnaik wrote to the prime minister. "Closure of the regional office may hamper the progress of establishment of the National Institute of New Energy and Innovation at Bhubaneswar," Patnaik said in the letter. Referring to his earlier letters to the prime minister regarding establishment of the Institute on February 5, 2016, on August 23, 2016 and on May 16, 2017, Patnaik said the state government has already allocated 73.68 acre land for the institute near IIT, Bhubaneswar. In addition, one acre land has been identified in Bhubaneswar for the institute's city office, Patnaik pointed out. "I would like to bring to your kind notice that the construction of the institute near IIT, Bhubaneswar has not yet been taken up despite grant of advance possession of the required land," Patnaik wrote. 18:07 The Congress party is expected to hold a press conference regarding the Supreme Court judges' letter to CJI. 16:50 It's the loss of prestige of the entire institution. If you lose public's trust what remains? Judiciary must remain pillar of democracy. It's responsibility of Law Minister to see how it functions: Hansraj Bhardwaj, former Union Law Minister on allegations made by the 4 SC judges 16:45 Retired HC judge Mukul Mudgal told News18 that one must wait for CJI Dipak Misras version. We must hear him also, he said. The ideal situation is that the CJI must speak with these judges and resolve this issue, he said. 15:51 25 of the 31 Supreme Court judges have met the four dissenting judges, according to CNN News18. 15:41 Judges should not make it an issue of egos but principle: Former judge AK Ganguly Former Supreme Court Judge AK Ganguly has said that the CJI cannot afford to be rigid on issues like this after all this is not a matter of clash of egos but a matter of principle, according to CNN News18. "I heard that the justices said that they tried and approached the CJI but did not succeed. Well, the CJI must try and resolve this internally as he must first earn the confidence of his peers, that is how he will become the Chief and not my merely by seniority," Ganguly said. 15:20 Excerpts from the Supreme Court judges' letter to CJI - There should be no further delay in finalising the Memorandum of Public Procedure in the larger public interest. When the MoP was a subject matter of a Constitution bench, it is difficult to understand as to how any other bench could have dealt with the matter. - The Hon'ble Chief Justice of India is duty bound to rectify the situation and take appropriate remedial measures after a full discussion with the other members of the Collegium and at a later stage, if required, with other Hon'ble Judges of this court. 15:08 Supreme Court Bar Association will be holding a meeting on Saturday and will take stock of the situation, according to CNN News18. The SC Bar Association President Vikrant Yadav said, "We will have a meeting tomorrow and then make an official statement". 14:48 A press conference or special hearing by CJI Dipak Misra as was being reported earlier, is unlikely. There has been no response from CJI Dipak Misra to the four judges press conference today. CJI has called for regular matter for hearing, according to CNN News18. 14:42 Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra has met Attorney General KK Venugopal over the allegations made by the four Supreme Court judges, according to media reports. 14:37 Senior leader of the Janata Dal (United) Sharad Yadav has said tweeted, "Very serious & critical that four sitting Judges of d Supreme Court of India for d first time in d history of India came out before d media to air their grievances. Judiciary is one of d most important pillars of democracy & not only this but other pillars are also in danger." 14:02 Excerpts from the letter written by the 4 SC judges to CJI: - It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the Chief Justice is only the first among equals nothing more or nothing less. - The convention of recognising the privilege of the chief justice to form the roster and assign cases to different benches of this court is a convention devised for efficient functioning of the court but it is not a recognition of any superior authority. 13:52 The four Supreme Court judges have pointed out that the two norms which are to be followed by the CJI setting the roster and not assuming the authority to deal with the cases are not being followed. 13:45 Excerpt from the letter written to CJI Misra: There have been instances with cases for reaching consequences for the nation and institution has been assigned by the Chief Justice of this court selectively to the benches of their preferences without any rational basis for such assignments. This must be guarded against at all costs. 13:41 Supreme Court judges hold unprecedented press conference questioning apex court administration In an unprecedented move, four sitting judges of the Supreme Court today held a press conference questioning the administration of the apex court, including raising concerns over the death of Justice BM Loya. Read the full story here. 13:28 BREAKING | Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra is expected to address the media along with Attorney General at 2 pm today, according to media reports. 13:25 We are avoiding the details only to avoid embarrassing the institution: Supreme Court judges "We are not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this institution to some extent," states the letter by the four Supreme Court judges letter to CJI Dipak Misra. 13:23 All four should be impeached: Retired HC judge RS Sodhi Retired Delhi HC judge Justice RS Sodhi has hit out at the four Supreme Court judges for speaking out against Chief Justice Misra, according to Firstpost. I think all four should be impeached. Four judges cannot come together and speak against the CJI like this. Why should the CJI cow down to them?, he said. 13:03 Chief Justice of India has requested a meeting with the Attorney General of India, according to CNN News18. 12:52 8 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM JUSTICE CHELAMESWAR'S MEDIA ADDRESS: 1. This is an extraordinary in the history of the nation. It is an extraordinary event in the history of the Constitution 2. Hallmark of good democracy is an independent judiciary, without it democracy wont survive 3. The administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things less than desirable has happened in the past few months 4. We are left with no choice but talk to the nation directly 5. Things less than desirable has happened in the Supreme Court. We tried to collectively persuade the CJI so that he takes remedial measures but our efforts have failed. Four of us are convinced that for the survival of democracy, an impartial judge and judiciary is needed 6. We met the CJI today morning also, but we failed to convince the CJI 7. We have seen a lot of wise men but we don't want wise men to tell us later after 20 years that the four of us have sold our souls. We construe this as a responsibility to the nation and we have done it 8. We are no one to impeach (when asked if CJI Dipak Misra should be impeached) 12:50 It is an extremely painful moment for all four of us and there is no pleasure in holding this press conference: Justice Chelameswar. 12:47 Parasaran said that the Executive is likely to align with the Chief Justice in such a situation. "Normally, someone should have reacted in such a situation. But we will wait for the reaction," he said. 12:43 "There are rumours all these days with regards to disposal of matters, posting of matters before benches, favouritism, bowing to political pressure. Now that it is out in the open, there is something rotten in the system," Mohan Parasaran, Former solicitor general, told CNBC TV18. 12:40 When asked whether Chief Justice Dipak Misra should be impeached, Justice Chelameswar said that let the nation decide. We are no one to impeach the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 12:39 Justice Chelameswar: The situation in Supreme Court is not in order and many things have happened in recent past. 12:36 "It is not about protest. On the symbolism, it is historic, phenomenal and well done. But they have not gone far enough," said Senior Supreme Court Advocate Indira Jaising. 12:34 "I am not shocked. This has been going on for the past couple of months," said Kamini Jaiswal, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court. "We have done everything within our means. Things have gone above our head. Supreme court is crumbling." 12:29 "We made a request to the CJI for a rectification in certain matter, but were turned down. We will give a copy of the letter to the press. We are not running politics here and we are nobody to impeach the Chief Justice of India," says Justice Chelameswar. 12:28 Justice Chelameswar distributed copies of a letter pertaining to the matter and said it answers all the questions one might have. 12:27 Justice Gogoi: There is nothing that we want other than to discharge our responsibility to the nation. 12:25 Justice Gogoi: Assignment of Justice Loya's death case has left 4 of us aggrieved 12:23 Justice Gogoi confirms that the issue at hand is about the assignment of Justice Loya's death case. 12:21 We don't want a wise man say 20 years later that these four judges sold their souls and did not protect the institution, which is why we have decided to place this issue in front of the nation, Justice Chelameswar said. 12:19 We tried persuading the Chief Justice that certain things in the Supreme Court were not in order, says Justice Chelameswar. 12:17 Justice J Chelameswar starts addressing reporters at the presser. 12:14 The tussle between these four judges and the Chief Justice Dipak Misra of the Supreme Court has been in the public forum for quite some time now. 12:10 In an unprecedented move, four sitting judges of the Supreme Court will address the media at 12:15 pm on the issue of collegium, the forum headed by the Chief Justice of India to recommend appointments and transfer of judges. The judges who are scheduled to address the media include Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon spacecraft launches from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. The unmanned Falcon rocket blasted off with a just-in-time-for-Christmas delivery for the International Space Station. The first-stage booster took flight again after a six-month turnaround. On board was a Dragon supply ship, also a second-time flier. It's NASA's first use of a reused Falcon and only the second of a previously flown capsule. (PTI) The mystery surrounding the failed launch of a secret military satellite by SpaceX shows no sign of ebbing down. And in the most recent development, a popular customer of SpaceX has come out blaming launch contractor, Northrop Grumman for the failure of the classified mission. According to a report in Bloomberg, Matt Desch, chief executive officer of satellite operator Iridium Communications Inc. came forward in support of SpaceX headed by Elon Musk claiming that the company was being made a scapegoat. The attack, particularly targeted Northrop Grumman, the builders of the satellite who have remained low and did not give any explanation about the incident while SpaceX is taking all the heat. This is a typical industry smear job on the upstart trying to disrupt the launch industrySpaceX didnt have a failure, Northrop Grumman did. Notice that no one in the media is interested in that story. SpaceX will pay the price as the one some will try to bring low, Desch had tweeted as per the report. The entire episode regarding the nature of the failed launch began after the Satellite, code-named Zuma failed to reach the space. While the initial launch on Sunday using SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket went seemingly smooth, it emerged by next day that the mission had failed. Soon speculations started to emerge about the payload carried out by the satellite. Rumours have arisen that the mission was carrying a spy satellite of Pentagon and that it even had the capability to repair other satellites. The reluctance on the part of authorities, especially those from Pentagon to give further information and secrecy surrounding the entire episode has further deepened the mystery. The mission's failure and the reluctance of government authorities to explain about the reason for the failure though has hurt SpaceX, who has taken the space industry by storm. Many, who are trying to explain the failure are targeting their guns at the company and their ambitious space projects. Pete Lau, founder and CEO of China's mobile company OnePlus, attends the launch of OnePlus 5 in Mumbai, India June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui - RTS186JV After a spectacular run with its current flagship model -- the OnePlus 5T -- phone manufacturer OnePlus has confirmed that it will come out with its next flagship phone late in the second quarter of this year. The development was confirmed by Pete Lau, co-founder and CEO of OnePlus, in an interview to CNET on the side-lines of the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 (CES 2018), which is currently underway at Las Vegas. The announcement comes at a time when OnePlus current flagship OnePlus 5T is selling like hot cakes. The company has a reputation of delivering affordable flagship-killer smartphones and one can assume the upcoming phone will be based along the same lines. Also present at the venue was OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, who translated Lau's comments for CNET (Lau spoke in Mandarin). The CEO also pointed out that the OnePlus 5T is now the company's fastest and best-selling product. Although Lau refused to divulge any further information, he confirmed that the device would run on the latest processor from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 845. "Of course, there's no other choice," Lau said. However, it would be safe to speculate that the upcoming device would follow chronological order and would be named OnePlus 6. Lau said the company may not follow tradition and may not launch a second phone in 2018. Apart from the upcoming launch, Lau also said OnePlus will start talking to US-based telecom carriers this year in order to strike a distribution deal. Though OnePlus is gaining momentum in the US, the company is yet to replicate its global success in the country due to the lack of a deal with any major carrier. "If the right opportunity and right timing come along, we'll be very happy to experiment," Lau said. An agreement with a major carrier is one of the necessities for phone manufacturers in the US as analysts estimate that approximately 85-90 percent of customers in the country buy their smartphones from them. OnePlus has traditionally focused a lot on selling its devices through various online websites, including its own. However, off late it has started striking partnerships with telecom companies in Europe and is looking forward to inking such a deal in the United States as well. Representative image China's imports from North Korea plunged in December to their lowest level in dollar terms since at least the start of 2014, with trade curbed by U.N. sanctions aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes. Imports from North Korea slumped 81.6 percent year-on-year to $54.34 million, Huang Songping, Chinese customs spokesman, said in a briefing in Beijing on Friday. That's the smallest monthly value since at least January 2014. Chinese customs will formally release data for trade with North Korea in the second half of the month, along with a breakdown by product. The United Nations began imposing sanctions on North Korea in 2006, but tougher measures were invoked in 2017 as tensions flared anew over the country's nuclear and missile programmes. The penalties that came into force on Sept. 5 last year banned countries from buying coal, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood from North Korea. In November, China imported no iron ore, coal or lead from North Korea, the second full month of the U.N. trade sanctions. "In terms of how big of an impact it (falling trade) had on North Korea, there was definitely impact because some of their products could only go to China while others could only be imported from China," said Chen Fengying, an economics expert at state-backed China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. "You have to understand it was the most tense period for bilateral ties, and foreign relations determine trade relations." China, the main source of North Korea's fuel, did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil to its neighbour in November. China's exports to North Korea in December declined 23.4 percent from a year earlier to $260 million, Huang told reporters. Compared with a month earlier, exports fell 9.7 percent. In November, China stopped exporting oil products to North Korea, after the U.N. Security Council that month imposed new caps on trade with North Korea, including limiting oil product shipments. For 2017, China's imports from North Korea dropped 33 percent to $1.72 billion, the lowest value in at least four years. However, exports to the country rose 8.3 percent to $3.34 billion. The value was the highest since 2014. Non-commodities that China exports to North Korea included electronics, plastic products and garments. US President Donald Trump has accused an FBI agent who criticised him while serving on special counsel Robert Mueller's team of committing "treason" against the US, according to a media report. FBI agent Peter Strzok was removed last summer from Mueller's investigation team after it was found that he had texted anti-Trump messages with another FBI agent. Strzok was once a key figure in the 2016 FBI investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's handling of classified material. He was removed from the special counsel investigation into Russia's election meddling after it was discovered he exchanged anti-Trump text messages during the investigation with fellow FBI agent Lisa Page, with whom he was reportedly having an affair. In one of those text exchanges, Strzok says that there is "no way" Trump gets elected but that if he does there needs to be an "insurance policy" in place because "we cant take that risk." Strzok was reassigned from the special counsel over the summer and relocated to the FBI's human resources department. Page, who referred to Trump as an "idiot" in the texts, also left the special counsel's team. Trump hit out at Strzok, calling him a traitor. "A man is tweeting to his lover that if [Hillary Clinton] loses, we'll essentially do the insurance policy. We'll go to phase two and we'll get this guy out of office," Trump said. "This is the FBI we are talking about that is treason," Trump was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal. "That is a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act," Trump added, confusing text messages and tweets. Responding to a question, Trump reiterated that there was no collusion between him and the Russians and it is a Democratic party "hoax". "I won a race that should never be won by a Republican because it is so stacked in the Democrats' favour...I won an election that should never be won, because the Electoral College is far harder to win than the popular vote. The popular vote, for me, would have been much easier," he said. He also accused Democratic lawmakers for leaking information. Trump claimed that no one has been as open as his administration. He was responding to a question on Russian investigation. "We gave them everything. We didn't go to court and say, "You can't have this document, you can't haveand what we gave them showedI never got a phone call from Russia. I didn't have a tweet. I didn't have an email. I didn't have a meeting," he said and alleged that the Democrats have made up a crime that does not exist. Former FBI Director James Comey, whom he fired, said he has proven to be a liar and a leaker. "Proven. He tries to act like a choir boy. What he did with Hillary Clinton is outrageous. He saved her life, because all of those chargesI call it Comey one, two, and three, all of those charges and Comey won, she was guilty of. She should have been taken out of the campaign and been on trial," he said. "He didnt do that. He saved her life. But heres the way you look at Comey...Everybody hated Comey. The Democrats wanted him fired. Everybody wanted him out, said the US President. 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.... Community Life as seen on social media Letter to editor: Gas pump politics and the election State officials announce $2.85M for new police station in Upper Moreland Thanks to Nigel the Nutcracker from The Warehouse, we are granting wishes across the country! Retired educator and Morgan Hills bookseller extraordinaire Ellyn Gaich was one of 300 independent booksellers nationwide to win James Pattersons coveted Holiday Bonus, according to the owners of BookSmart, where Gaich works. The honor was announced by international best-selling author and philanthropist of the arts James Patterson, who teamed up with the American Booksellers Association to award the prestigious honors, which came with holiday bonuses for the designated top booksellers. BookSmart co-owner Brad Jones said the Patterson Holiday Bonus is given to only those booksellers who go above and beyond the call of duty. BookSmart nominated Gaich for the award because of her longtime service to the reading community. Pattersons prestigious honor came with a cash holiday bonus. Gaich didnt disclose the amount of the bonus, but she told BookSmart co-owner Brad Jones it was more than a couple tanks of gas, and less than a trip to Maui. In total, Patterson and the ABA awarded the Holiday Bonus recipients nationwide a total of $350,000 in bonus money. Gaich, 62, has worked part-time at BookSmart, located at 1295 E. Dunne Ave., for about seven years. She is retired from Morgan Hill Unified School District, where she worked at Nordstrom Elementary Schools library. I like being around books. Its a comfort to me, Gaich said. The retail side was more of a learning curve. Its a little bit different, but fun. Gaich, a longtime Morgan Hill resident, has been a customer of BookSmarts for much longer than she has worked there. She used to stop into the store at its former downtown location while walking through the neighborhood with her two children, who are now adults. Its such an institution in the community, Gaich said of BookSmart. Every town needs a bookstore. She also likes how BookSmart is more than just a bookstore. She enjoys the variety of people and activities she gets to encounter at the store, which hosts art lessons, poetry readings, drama performances and other artistic programs. The front of the store doubles as a cafe, which is often a hive of family gatherings, business meetings and friendly socializing. Gaich and her co-workers, along with BookSmart owners Jones and his wife Cinda Meister, share a team approach to selling books. Everybody here reads, Gaich said. Currently, among Gaichs favorite books for sale at BookSmart are those in the Merle, the Freethinking Dog series, as well as science-fiction novel Ready Player One. We have several really top notch booksellers who always try very hard to find just the right book for each and every client and Ellyn is one of the best! Jones said. Patterson is a prolific novelist who has donated more than $1.5 million to holiday bonuses and grants for independent booksellers and bookstore employees since 2014. Over the past decade, he has given away more than $1 million books to students, and visited hundreds of schools in an effort to promote youth literacy. 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. Stock markets across the globe rose significantly last year with emerging markets up 30% plus, the S&P 500 managing a return of 20% and even the FTSE 100 gaining 7.6%. But a buoyant market can leave some stocks trading at significantly more than their fair value estimate. There are four UK stocks under Morningstar equity analysts coverage which are currently considered to be significantly overvalued. These stocks carry a one-star rating, meaning they are trading at a premium to their fair value. Global mining giant Anglo American's portfolio spans many commodities and continents. Like fellow large diversified miners, Anglo has significant exposure to copper, coal, and iron ore, but it is unique in its significant platinum output, which accounts for roughly 40% of the annual global supply. Anglo also owns 85% of De Beers, in most years the world's largest supplier and marketer of rough gem diamonds. Direct Line Insurance (DLG) Direct Line Insurance Group was incorporated in 1988 as the first personal lines insurer to serve the UK market through direct only, using the telephone. It is now one of the largest UK mainstream personal lines insurers selling motor, home, and rescue insurance. It also has a small commercial business unit serving small to medium-size enterprises. Intertek Group (ITRK) FTSE 100 firm Intertek is one of the largest and oldest companies in the testing, inspection, and certification industry. The companys primary activities involve testing products and materials, inspecting sites/industrial equipment, and certifying products and systems to ensure global/company standards. Intertek is one of only four TIC companies that operate globally across numerous industries. The firm listed in 2002, following a divestment by Charterhouse. It employs more than 41,000 people worldwide. Rio Tinto (RIO) Rio Tinto searches for and extracts a variety of minerals worldwide, with the heaviest concentrations in North America and Australia. Iron ore is the dominant commodity, with meaningful contributions from aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy products, gold, and industrial minerals. The 1995 merger of RTZ and CRA, via a dual-listed structure, created the present-day company. The two operate as a single business entity. Shareholders in each company have equivalent economic and voting rights. It was difficult for equity investors not to make money in 2017. Very few equity indices around the world ended up in the red. Of the developed markets, the UK was the worst performing and many are currently cautious on the outlook for the region. Even in a world of synchronised growth, the improvement of Europes economies stands out, BMO Global Asset Managements multi-asset team said this week. However, they added, there is one notable outlier the UK. The team goes as far to claim that the UK would be flirting with recession had it not been for Europes recent pick up. Brexit negotiations continue to prove difficult and then theres the prospect of a challenging period of re-adjustment to life outside the single market. While the weak pound boosted the performance of the FTSE 100 after the referendum, its done little to enhance the UKs trading position. It has, however, reduced real incomes and squeezed consumption while corporate investment is held back by uncertainty, they continue. As a result, BMO GAMs multi-asset portfolios are underweight UK equities despite being positive in the near-term for risk assets in general. Instead, like many, they are overweight Japanese, European and emerging market equities. We expect earnings to grow during 2018, they explained. As a result, we are reasonably upbeat on the prospects for equities. A broadening economic and earnings recovery, coupled with some rise in bond yields, are likely to mean that volatility and dispersion finally begin to rise. Japan The team likes Japan for reasons weve explored before. Prime Minister Shinzo Abes successful calling of a snap election in October strengthened his majority, allowing him to continue pursuing his ambitious economic reforms. Added to that, the improvement in corporate governance and increased focus on shareholder-friendly management provides scope for better returns going forward. We favour higher-quality, growth companies, they say. Europe Politics is a potential area of concern for some, with problems in Catalonia, Italian elections and coalition negotiations in Germany on the horizon. However, there were similar remarks this time last year and Europe sailed through 2017. We do not foresee these political issues derailing Europes cyclical upturn. Instead, they see scope for domestic demand expansion and note that European equities are trading at attractive valuations. Emerging Markets Emerging market equities were the best-performing assets in 2017. That was largely due to the marked outperformance of Chinese technology stocks like Tencent (00700) and Alibaba (BABA). The team are underweight Asia-Pacific equities, though. Instead, they favour dominant companies in less-developed areas of the globe. They note that, while sentiment is likely to be impacted by the path of US rates, the US dollar and commodity prices, theres been a positive growth in earnings per share so far this year. 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. Villagers in northwest China's Shaanxi Province held a funeral on Thursday for Mszusaki Hideko, an 89-year-old Japanese war orphan who spent most of her life in China. Mszusaki Hideko. [File Photo: VCG] 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. Mszusaki Hideko(center) at the age of 13. [File Photo: VCG] 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 tell 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. For U.S. shale drillers who have seen prices climb almost 50 percent in six months, it's been largely a rig-less recovery, a conundrum for traders seeking to forecast the future. Normally, you'd expect the rigs to return to the field in significant numbers as producers flush with added cash looked to boost output. But the weekly Baker Hughes tally has stayed remarkably still. The reason: explorers are doing more with less, forcing traders to use a bigger toolbox of stats, metrics and gauges to track U.S. production that's expected to top 10 million barrels a day as the year progresses. That includes everything from producer spending surveys to oilfield hiring reports, and even demand for the tiny grains of sand that prop open oil-bearing cracks. "A well that comes online in U.S. onshore today is dramatically different than one that came on five or 10 years ago," Leo Mariani, an analyst who covers explorers and producers at NatAlliance Securities, said in a phone interview. "It's just a different animal." For the market, that means the country that's become the world's swing producer and a thorn in OPEC's side is becoming a whole lot harder to read. The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. - from the Gulf of Mexico to the Permian Basin in Texas to the Bakken shale in North Dakota - is less than half the count in the middle of 2014, when the crude market crash began. And yet, America is set to rival Saudi Arabia and Russia, with production expected to top 10 million barrels as early as next month and to reach 11 million toward the end of next year. How? The combination of faster and faster horizontal drilling and more intense fracking has allowed production to explode even as the number of rigs drop. Up until about four years ago, it was safe enough to use the rig count to track activity because the industry was more reliant on single vertical wells. "You've got different levers to pull to get increasingly efficient," James Wicklund, an analyst at Credit Suisse in Dallas, said in a phone interview. "There is not one clear acknowledged reporting source for the metrics that we use. It makes it a little bit murkier." Brad Handler and other analysts at Jefferies cobbled together a chart of nine other metrics besides the rig count in a note to investors this month. For example, the number of frack stages in a well are expected to increase 14 percent this year to an average of 28.5, more than double what explorers were able to do in 2014. And the total amount of sand crammed into wells this year is expected to grow 20 percent to more than 100 million tons. Chesapeake Energy Corp. heralded in the arrival of the monster frack a little more than a year ago, declaring what it called "propageddon" on one gas well in Louisiana with more than 25,000 tons of sand pumped into it. After switching from the old standby rig count to closely watching the well count a few years back, the latest shift about a year and a half ago is to track how long the wells are drilled sideways under ground and how many frack stages are in each of those wells, Wicklund said. At 7,500 feet, the average lateral length of a well is 50 percent longer compared to three years ago. And a rig can drill 25 wells a year, compared to 15 just two years ago, he said. But those are stats mainly gathered from third-party data providers such as Drillinginfo Inc. and IHS Markit Inc. On the free side, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports monthly the backlog of wells that have been drilled but not completed. As of November, the latest month available, that's 7,354 drilled but uncompleted wells, or DUCs. And the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that service providers are back to hiring again, with jobs up 21 percent since oilfield employment hit rock bottom in October 2016. But Mariani said it's also important to know the specific workforce constraints to get a better picture. "You started to re-hire aggressively, but we've seen multiple reports of just not having enough truck drivers, guys not able to get enough frack crews and the quality of those frack crews that are coming in there," Mariani said. "That stuff makes it difficult, adds another wrinkle to any kind of prediction people want to make for the next couple of years in terms of rate of oil growth." Los Angeles (People's Daily) In an effort to address increasing travel demand from residents in Southern California, the Ontario International Airport (ONT), located in San Bernadino County, has shown stable growth since it began independent operations in November 2016. Inbound and outbound passenger travel has increased each month along with cargo transport. Last November, ONT received over 410,000, up by almost 10 percent from the same month in 2016. Almost within a year of operations, ONT received roughly 4 million inbound travelers, about 7 percent more from the same period in 2016. In November, regular and mail cargo traffic exceeded 61,000 tons, an increase of 20 percent from November 2016. Total cargo weight for ONT exceeded 580,000 tons for 2017, up 15.5 percent from the previous year. Airport confidence index showed consecutive monthly gains, said ONT CEO Bruce E. Atlas, encouraging numbers for the community hubs transition into a world-class gateway. Reflecting on passenger response Atlas said, We are optimistic about the airport service, and are willing to use airport travel to make Ontario Airport a hub and destination for passengers and cargo in Southern California. Airport Authority Chairman Alan Wapner said ONT attaches great importance to Asian and European routes, with a particular emphasis on the Chinese market. The location of the airport, the home to Asian Americans, is very convenient for San Gabriel Valley and North Orange County residents. Last October, ONT opened its first charter route to and from Nanchang, China, marking the first direct China-US flight in the airports history. Many Chinese community leaders in Southern California have high hopes on the airports development. San Bernardino County Economic Adviser and Mayor of Walnut, Mary Su, said ONTs prosperity brings value not only to the Inland cities but also to her city. California's economy ranks among the best in the world, with about 1 million international tourist arrivals annually. Los Angeles is a popular choice due to the many famous scenic spots and great weather. Landing at the Ontario airport, explained Su, makes it more convenient for tourists to visit the Inland areas. In 2028, the Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles at venues throughout the hinterland. Su emphasized, Excellent operations and development of the Ontario Airport will also help boost the 2028 Olympic Games. Formerly part of the Los Angeles International (LAX) airport, due to building and limited space issues, ONT officials were inspired to transfer operation rights to local management beginning November 2016. Unused land surrounding ONT provided expansion opportunities. Among the counties in Southern California, San Bernardino County has four airports, several major warehouse companies, and potential for land development. While the number of residents continues to increase, Su said, The development of the Ontario Airport also plays a significant role in boosting the value of properties in Walnut and surrounding cities. In nearby West Covina, city councilmember Tony Wu hopes to see more direct flights to and from China. Adding convenient flights would result in revenue for city development. Wu is currently working on a proposal that will see direct flights to ONT from Northeastern China cities like Harbin, Shenyang, and Dalian. He believes direct flights from China will bring more tourists and promote city tourism projects. West Covina has plans to build a full-scale amusement park, a billion dollar investment that will include five-star hotels, catering to China's high-end travelers. Wu believed ONTs future development would see positive results for Inland cities and the greater Los Angeles area Established in 1891, Ontario, with a population of roughly 160,000, sits 35 miles east of Downtown Los Angeles. Since acquiring independent operation rights, ONT officials have focussed on the Chinese demographic. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 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 New York (People's Daily) During Thursday's General Assembly meeting at UN Headquarters, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented "Making Migration Work for All," a report focused on maximizing migrant contributions, calling for increased efforts to ensure migrant rights are respected. Guterres hailed migration as a global phenomenon and added, It powers economic growth, reduces inequalities, connects diverse societies and helps us ride the demographic waves of population growth and decline. Globally, migrants contribute to international development through work and remit back to their home countries. Last year, migrants remitted nearly $600 billion, three times the total amount of all development aid. The most effective way to reduce stigmas and abuse directed at migrants would be to erect better pathways of assistance. The UN Chief called for an increased focus on the positive aspects of migration, and to use facts, not prejudice, in addressing this challenge. Guterres also reiterated the important role of all stakeholders including municipalities, legislatures, civil society, the private sector, regional organizations, the media, academia, and migrants themselves. Jean-Yves Le Drian (FR), Sigmar Gabriel (GR), Boris Johnson (UK) and Federica Mogherini (EU) in Brussels, January 2011, 2018. Photo: Reuters London (People's Daily) - Following a meeting with foreign ministers from Iran, Germany, and France, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urged the US not to abandon the Iran nuclear deal, stressing its essential importance for international security. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) from 2015 was signed by China, France, Russia, UK, Germany, and the US. US President Donald Trump said he may withdraw from the deal, as he referred to the JCPOA was an embarrassment. Trump has until Friday to decide whether he wants to extend sanction relief for Iran, Johnson described the Iran nuclear accord as a "considerable diplomatic accomplishment, and that no better alternative had been proposed, according to UK newspaper the Independent, UK. We greatly value the nuclear deal with Iran, we think it is a considerable diplomatic accomplishment. Its a way of stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, said Johnson. Johnson also stressed how important it was for the global community to get behind it, and added, Iran should be able to show, as my colleagues have said, that it is a good neighbor. GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here. Screenshot of an online statement released by the China Naitonal Tourism Administration on Thursday. Chinese Internet authorities have ordered US hotel giant Marriott International to close down its Chinese website and mobile app for one week after sending an online customer questionnaire that lists Chinas Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Tibet as separate countries. The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) stressed in a statement on Thursday that China attaches great importance to the Marriott incident and ordered the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration to promptly investigate and deal with relevant departments. An official from the Shanghai Municipal Cyberspace Administration pointed out that Marriotts behavior has severely violated Chinas laws and harmed Chinese peoples feelings. (file photo) The Shanghai Municipal Cyberspace Administration has asked Marriott to suspend its Chinese website and app for one week starting 18:00 pm Thursday to conduct a thorough check on all its contents posted online, take down all illegal contents and inform the public its self-investigation results. The Internet authority will further deal with the incident based on Marriotts rectifications. Marriotts Asia-Pacific region manager said that the company has realized the seriousness of its mistake and will implement the rectification as required, and address the public's concern in a timely manner. CNTA reiterated that the tourism accommodation enterprise is related to the overall image of China's tourism industry. The enterprise should immediately conduct a comprehensive investigation of the information on their websites and apps, strictly abide by Chinas laws and regulations, and put an end to similar incidents. Shanghais Huangpu district market supervision bureau has launched an investigation into Marriott on Wednesday, reports said. Photo: Screenshot of Marriott's Chinese website For the third year in a row, the Florida House passed a contentious bill cracking down on municipalities that don't comply with federal immigration authorities. Florida House passed sanctuary city ban Friday, 71-35 Democrats tried to tie the bill to President Trump's comments Bill faces a rocky reception in the Senate The House voted Friday 71-35 for the bill following a debate where Democrats lashed out at President Donald Trump and comments he made this week. During a private meeting Trump used vulgar language about why the U.S. should be accepting more immigrants from Haiti and African nations than from countries like Norway. Republicans said that they didn't agree with Trump's comments, but were voting for the bill to make sure local governments follow federal immigration laws. A handful of Florida counties have been criticized for being non-cooperative. The measure (HB 9) would strictly ban "sanctuary city" policies and penalize local officials for upholding them. The bill's sponsor, State Rep. Larry Metz, R-Groveland, conceded on Thursday that the state would likely be sued if the measure were to become law. State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, pointed out that a dozen courts have declared similar laws unconstitutional. The bill faces a rocky reception in the Florida Senate, where it has been shot down in the past. Republicans in the House hope the absence of recently-resigned Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, a critic of many conservative priorities, will give Senate supporters more momentum. Three projects on rice are winners of the State Natural Science Award for 2017, a testimony to the nations growing research capabilities in fundamental science, Xinhua reported on Jan 10. They include Yuan Longpings hybrid rice innovation team, bioengineer Li Jiayangs team, which discovered the molecular mechanism that decides the quality and yield of rice, and frigid rice breeding by Pan Guojun with the Rice Research Institute of Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences in northeastern China. China is committed to feeding 20 percent of the worlds total population with less than 8 percent of the global arable land. Therefore, food security always guides the countrys agricultural development. Last year was a big year for Yuan Longping and his team. The maximum yield of sea rice on saline-alkaline soil developed by the team has reached 620.95 kilograms per mu (0.07 hectares), a historic high. In October 2017, super hybrid rice, known as Xiangliangyou 900, achieved an average yield of 1,149.02 kilograms of rice per mu of farmland, setting a new world record. Last year, Yuans team launched 31 super hybrid rice test fields in 13 provinces and cities. Now, China is planting 240 million mu of hybrid rice per year, 57 percent of the total coverage of rice fields. The annual yield of hybrid rice is increasing by 2.5 million tons per year, which could feed 70 million people per year. Li Jiayangs discovery has allowed scientists to create an ideal rice crop that is nutritious and tasty and produces a high yield. The new discovery has spurred a new agricultural revolution. The new discovery has made China one of the world leaders in agricultural biology research. Just like assembling a computer, scientists could combine related genes to create better rice, Li explained. Frigid rice breeding has long been dominated by Japan, and Pans team, which created high-quality frigid rice with higher yields, has greatly promoted development in this area. The report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China stated clearly that Chinas food security must be ensured, so that the people always have control over their own food supply. By constantly innovating technologies, these Chinese scientists are making real efforts to protect food security. MERIDEN Hancocks Pharmacy is considering applying once again for a medical marijuana license after the State Department of Consumer Protection announced last week at least three new licenses would be awarded this year to serve a gorwing population in the area. The number of patients in the state with medical marijuana cards has more than doubled since the last round of licenses were awarded in 2016. I want to do it for the hospice patients, the people that need it, the people in pain, said pharmacy owner Greg Hancock. DCP announced Jan. 3 that it would be opening a new round of license applications with the hopes of adding at least three medical marijuana facilities. There are currently nine dispensaries in the state two in Milford and locations in Bristol, Hartford, Branford, Waterbury, Bethel, South Windsor, and Uncaseville. The last three licenses were awarded in 2016, but the number of card holding patients in the state has increased from just over 8,000 to about 22,000 since then. Theres a need everywhere, so were accepting applications from anywhere in the state, said DCP Director of Communications Lora Rae Anderson. Applicants will be judged on a variety of factors including geographical location, security standards, compassionate care plans, and financial records. A $1,000 application fee is is required. Applications are due in April and licenses will likely be announced in the late summer or fall, Andreson said. Were going to make sure that licenses are awarded to the best applicants so we can continue to run a strong health care program in the state, Anderson said. We just want to make sure, bottom line, that were opening quality dispensaries to serve our patients better. The closest dispensary in the area is The Healing Corner, located in Bristol. For local patients with serious conditions, that may not be close enough, according to Hancocks New Haven Pharmacy Manager Jacqui Murphy. One reason why were interested in applying again in the Meriden area is, specifically, Meriden doesnt have a facility close by, Murphy said. Nobody really services the Meriden-Wallingford population. Murphy, who previously served as the president for the Connecticut Pharmacist Association when initial medical marijuana licenses were being awarded, described the application process as intensive and expensive. Previous applications required floor plans, financial records, and a plan for training staff on the drug, which can be administered in a variety of forms Hancocks unsuccessfully applied for licensing in 2013 and 2015, having eyed potential dispensary locations on Gravel Street and the former Ion Bank on East Main Street. While the local demand for a dispensary is evident, Hancock said he is concerned by recent developments on the federal level, where all uses pf marijuana are still illegal, under the Trump Administration. Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the rescission of an Obama Administration policy that federal government would not interfere in states that had legalized or decriminalized marijuana. Were going to fill out the application, but were looking at what the feds are doing, Hancock said. I just think its another added offer, but the changes that are going on federally, looking at what they want to do with legalizing medical marijuana, is taking a little bit of a sharp turn, so we are going to be looking a little more at that. At the Planning Commissions meeting Wednesday, City Planner Bob Seale proposed adding language to the citys zoning regulations regarding medical marijuana dispensaries. Currently, the citys regulations do not have any rules regarding medical marijuana. Planning Commission Chairman Enrico Buccilli said on the local level, zoning could be considered similar to any other pharmacy. It makes sense to use the same environment that would be applicable for a pharmacy for the sale of medical marijuana, Buccilli said. It seems to be pretty highly regulated, so I dont have any major concerns simply because there are so many reuglations on it. If it would be a business, Im always willing to grow businesses in Meriden. ltauss@record-journal.com 203-317-2231 Twitter: @LeighTaussRJ NORTH HAVEN Police are searching for a 55-year-old man accused of striking a woman with a pipe in 2016. Sterling Hubbard is wanted for charges of second-degree assault, threatening, breach of peace and violation of a protective order, according to North Haven police. Authorities say he is about 5 feet 7 inches tall and has brown eyes. Police are seeking the publics assistance in locating Hubbard. Police said in 2016, Hubbard struck a woman in the face with a 12-inch pipe in the parking lot of Bank of America on Washington Avenue. His last known address is 19 University Place, New Haven and he was last known to operate a black 2000 GMC Yukon with Pennsylvania license plates. Anyone with information is asked to contact North Haven police. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 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 Alipay says it will respect more ways to pay after Jack Ma seen using bank card Alibabas third-party online payment service platform, Alipay, released an emergency statement on its Weibo account on Thursday, saying that everyone, including its staff, can pay how they want and their choice should be respected. The announcement came after Alibabas Chairman Jack Ma was seen paying for his bill with a bank card instead of Alipay at a bar in southwest Chinas Chongqing, Jan. 10. Doesnt Alipay want to help build a cashless society? Weibo users joked. However, Alipay said it has never wanted to put an end to cash, adding that new forms of payment dont make older ones obsolete. Jack Ma reportedly showed up at a little-known bar Wednesday evening. However, he was soon recognized and left after about an hour. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate San Francisco acting Mayor London Breed wants to rename Portsmouth Square one of the oldest and most significant historical sites in the city after former Mayor Ed Lee, who died of a heart attack last month. Speaking before a group of Chinatown residents gathered to hear an update on renovation plans for Portsmouth Square, Breed said she was moved to propose renaming the space after hearing from community members who wanted to memorialize Lee and his deep ties to the neighborhood. I hope youre as excited as I am do be doing something like that, Breed said, to a light smattering of applause. Its fitting that we do this in his honor. But with the sprint to the June 5 mayoral election under way, Breeds gesture toward the citys Chinese community was seen by some as a crafty and somewhat conspicuous political move. Norman Fong, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center and a longtime friend of Lees, however, said he expected the neighborhood to get behind the proposed name change, which would have to be approved by the citys Recreation and Park Commission. For us, as a neighborhood, I think its appropriate. I think the community will feel honored, Fong said. He loved and cared for this community for 40 years. Mark Buell, president of the park commission, said his board has fielded numerous requests from the public to rename various Rec and Park-owned facilities after Lee. Buell said the commission would take Breeds proposal under consideration and act as we deem appropriate. Its a matter of seeing what resonates with people. Mayoral candidate Angela Alioto said that while she strongly supported commemorating Lee, she said the move by Breed one of her rivals in the mayors race was an attempt to appeal to the citys Chinese community, a key voting bloc. Of course the reason shes doing this right now is because shes a candidate, Alioto said. I believe that its an attempt to bond with Chinese voters. But as acting mayor, she can do that. Supervisor Jane Kim, also a candidate for mayor, disagreed that the proposal was a camouflaged political play. Honoring Lee, the citys first Asian American mayor, in Chinatown is incredibly important, and she will strongly support the proposal to rename Portsmouth Square after him. This is bigger than the mayors race, Kim said. Portsmouth Square is the living room of Chinatown. I feel it would mean so much to the residents there, and I imagine there will be strong support for it. Breed shrugged off the notion that the proposal was orchestrated to score points in Chinatown, stressing that the idea to do so came from Chinatown itself. A campaign is a campaign, she said. I feel like this is my responsibility as mayor. I want the city to know that their mayor is here for them. Mark Leno, the other major candidate for mayor, declined to comment. The square, also referred to as the Heart of Chinatown, was named after the U.S. Navy ship Portsmouth, which played a key role at the outbreak of the Mexican-American War. According to Charles Fracchia, the founder and president emeritus of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, the ships captain, John Montgomery for whom Montgomery Street is named and about 70 sailors and Marines marched in July 1846 on the Mexican customs house located on the site of the square to seize the town then known as Yerba Buena. The square became the center of growth for the town that in 1847 was renamed San Francisco, Fracchia said. The first public school in California was built there, and it is where Samuel Brannan told a crowd that gold had been discovered to the northeast in 1848. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON - American Airlines is handing out $1,000 bonuses to its employees. So are Wal-Mart, AT&T, Bank of America and Nationwide Insurance. The same for Comcast, JetBlue Airways and US Bancorp. Such announcements, coming from dozens of companies, have followed the passage of the Republican tax plan that President Donald Trump signed into law last month. The plan slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The companies say the bonuses they've announced are a way to share some of their bounty with their workers. The bonuses are one-time payouts, not the permanent pay raises that Trump and congressional Republicans have said will eventually result from the corporate tax cuts. Over time, bonuses are far less valuable to employees than wage increases. So far, most companies haven't said whether any permanent pay increases are in the works. Economists caution that the corporate income tax cut's effect on average pay, if any, might not become apparent for several years. "As a worker, it's great to get a one-off bonus, but that doesn't guarantee anything for the next year," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont. "You'd rather have the raise, because next year you're working off the higher base." Eventually, Stanley thinks the lower corporate tax rates will lead to worker pay raises. He expects companies over the next several years to use some of their windfalls to invest in equipment that would make workers more productive and lead to higher wages. Other economists remain skeptical that workers stand to receive sharp wage increases. They note that the corporate tax cut will overwhelmingly benefit shareholders and company owners. That sentiment is one reason stock market indexes are setting new highs almost daily. "The bulk of the corporate tax cuts should accrue to people who hold stock in companies," said Ethan Harris, chief economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "Workers benefit much more from a cut in taxes on ordinary income. In other words, better to get a direct cut than a spillover from cuts to others." Beyond the worker bonuses that have been announced, typically for $1,000, about a dozen banks have said they will raise their minimum wages. A handful of mostly small companies, including Washington Federal Bank, have announced pay increases for most of their workforces. And a few, including Visa and Aflac, have said they will raise their contributions to their employees' retirement plans. This past week, Houston-based Waste Management announced bonuses. It said it would hand out $2,000 for up to 34,000 employees. In addition, U.S. workers will begin receiving more take-home pay, likely by next month, as lower tax rates for individuals under the Republican plan kick in. The Communications Workers of America, a labor union, asked CEOs of large corporations to give workers the $4,000 average income gain that White House officials said would flow eventually from lower corporate taxes. AT&T, the first company to announce bonuses, said it chose the $1,000 bonus instead. American Airlines, which also employs the communication union's members, similarly decided to bestow a $1,000 bonus. The union said it appreciated the gesture but asserted in a statement that the bonus "falls short of the permanent wage increase that working families were promised." The White House has touted the announced bonuses as evidence that the corporate tax cut is benefiting workers, rather than just shareholders, and has dubbed the payouts a "Trump bonus." "Businesses across America have already started to raise wages, and more than 100 companies have already given bonuses and other benefits to hundreds of thousands of workers as a result of these massive tax cuts," Trump said Monday in Nashville. The conservative group Americans for Tax Reform, which backed the tax cut, has compiled a list of more than 100 companies that have announced some kind of financial benefit for employees resulting from the tax cut. Only a few have announced any broad-based pay increases. One that has is Nephron Pharmaceuticals, based in West Columbia, S.C. Nephron said it would give a 5 percent raise to most of its 640 employees. Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor, said there are practical reasons why most companies would prefer bonuses over pay raises. "It's a way for employers to benefit workers without being on the hook for a long-term pay increases," Chamberlain said. In some cases, the companies are sharing only a sliver of their tax-cut windfalls. Bank of America's bonuses will cost it roughly $145 million - only about 4 percent of the $3.5 billion that Goldman Sachs estimates Bank of America will receive from the tax cut. Likewise, KBW, an investment firm, estimates that Wells Fargo's commitments to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour and to boost its charitable contributions will equal about 5 percent of the additional profits the tax cut will provide Wells. Most economists do expect paychecks to start rising faster for most workers this year but for a different reason: The unemployment rate is projected to fall further and could reach a five-decade low of 3.5 percent. A rate that low would likely force many companies to sharply raise pay to keep and attract the workers they need. Economists like Stanley, who expects the corporate tax cut to lift wages over time, think it will happen indirectly as companies channel their tax savings into machinery, computers and software, making workers productive and leading to higher pay. "These things aren't going to happen right away, but they will gradually follow through in the next several years," Stanley said. Silicon Valley has birthed many highly valued and hugely hyped startups in recent years, including Uber, Airbnb and Pinterest. Few of those companies have made it out onto the stock market successfully. Now Dropbox, the online file storage company that is part of Silicon Valleys closely watched pack of unicorns, plans to try its luck. The company has filed documents to go public, people briefed on the matter said Thursday. If Dropbox last valued by private-market investors at about $10 billion follows through on an initial public offering, it will become one of the highest-profile technology companies of late to seek a stock market listing. The company is on track to join Spotify, the online streaming giant, on the public markets, with Uber, Lyft and Airbnb expected to follow suit in the next few years. Dropboxs filing has implications for other Silicon Valley unicorns, which are companies that were privately valued at more than $1 billion. Last year, several much buzzed-about tech companies, including Snapchats parent company and Blue Apron, the meal kit delivery service, went public and then promptly disappointed investors, raising questions about the durability of these businesses. And Wall Street investors must also be convinced that Dropbox can continue to attract customers, even as tech giants like Google and Microsoft have freely offered their own online data storage services. Venky Ganesan, a venture capitalist at Menlo Ventures, said a Dropbox IPO would be seen as a harbinger for startups. Will unicorns realize they have to grow up and grow out of their Peter Pan mentality? he asked, adding that a public offering for Dropbox would also help set the scene for whether other unicorns reignite and grow, or do they fade away? Dropbox filed confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which companies that are generating less than $1 billion a year in revenue can do, affording it time to make its preparations away from the glare of potential investors. It has hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to help underwrite the initial offering, said the people briefed on the matter, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Dropbox plans to hire more banks as advisers, they said. The company is aiming to begin trading on a stock market in the spring, one of these people added, cautioning that the timing of an IPO is fluid and may change. The timing will partly depend on the receptiveness of investors who may have been burned by market debuts that later soured. Overall, 2017 proved to be relatively robust for initial offerings, with 160 companies raising $35.6 billion in the United States, up significantly from 2016, according to Renaissance Capital, a research firm. But bankers and analysts said many of the biggest potential market debutantes would likely sit on the sidelines for another year, having already raised enormous sums in the private markets. Representatives for Dropbox, Goldman and JPMorgan declined to comment on the filing, which was reported earlier by Bloomberg News. Founded over a decade ago by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi when they were students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dropbox was one of the first companies to popularize file storage via the web. The service, which is based in San Francisco, has grown enormously. It claimed some 500 million users in the spring of 2016, the companys last publicly disclosed figure. Houston, the companys chief executive, said last January that Dropbox was on a pace to collect $1 billion in sales on an annualized basis and had positive free cash flow. (It was also profitable if one stripped out interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.) What Drew and the team have accomplished is something that we are proud of in the tech community and should be proud of as a country, said Ben Horowitz, a venture capitalist at Andreessen Horowitz, which has not invested in Dropbox. But Dropboxs road has also been bumpy. Dropboxs fast growth was accompanied by free spending and efforts to diversify into other businesses, like a stand-alone photo app, that proved unsuccessful. Mutual fund investors at times marked down the value of their stakes in the company. Since then, Houston and his management team have focused on containing costs while building out features like collaboration services and shared document creation. One big question that hangs over a potential IPO is what sort of valuation Dropbox would command as a public company. Its closest point of comparison is Box, another Silicon Valley online data storage provider, but one that focuses more on big corporate clients like General Electric and Procter & Gamble. (Dropbox has taken aim at smaller companies, but has argued in the past that it spends less to acquire new customers.) Box trades at about six times its sales for the last 12 months, according to data from Standard & Poors Global Market Intelligence, giving it a market capitalization of about $3 billion. It reported having 57 million users as of the quarter that ended Oct. 31, though it has lost money every year since going public three years ago. Dropbox is likely to argue that its bigger user base and greater reliance on word-of-mouth to gain consumers should mean that it is valued higher than Box. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate FXs widely celebrated O.J. Simpson American Crime Story focused on the theatrics and hijinks of the celebrity athletes televised murder trial and the colorful characters involved. Dont expect any such amusement from Crime Storys second season, which details the murder of fashion icon Gianni Versace in the summer of 1997 and the events leading up to him being gunned down. While viewing the first four episodes, I didnt smile once. What I did feel was stunned, sad, chilled, mortified and thoroughly sickened, as if someone had delivered a hard punch to my gut. The drama is breathtakingly beautiful at times, inviting us into the opulent, glamorous and often decadent world of Versace (Emmy-nominated Edgar Ramirez, Carlos), his handsome longtime partner Antonio DAmico (Ricky Martin) and his fiercely devoted sister Donatella (Oscar-winner Penelope Cruz), a realm made even more dreamy by pastel-washed Miami. But thats only the backdrop. This new nine-part American Crime Story is primarily a no-holds-barred depiction of the horrific crimes of sociopath Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss, Glee), his calculated killing of Versace, the gruesome slayings that preceded it and the effect on the various victims friends and families. The Assassination of Gianni Versace debuts at 9 p.m. Wednesday on FX. Every season of this show will have a different tonality, co-executive producer Ryan Murphy told TV critics at a recent FX press session in Pasadena, California. The first season was very much a courtroom pot boiler. The second season that youve seen is a manhunt thriller. I loved that this was not glamorizing the Cunanan story, and we never want to do that on this show, Murphy added. I really loved how we laid into everybody who was affected, not just the people who were killed, but also the relatives, the siblings. I think what (Cunanan) did was very, very destructive, and the reasons why he did it the homophobia of the day, which still persists is something really topical. What both series have in common is theyre topical and reflective of the day. With O.J. we looked at sexism and racism, and we are doing the same with this season, Murphy said. As for the dramas honesty, the Versace family recently decried it as fiction. However, journalist and author Maureen Orth, whose book Vulgar Favors served as the basis for the drama, stands by its authenticity. I would say my sourcing in the book is 95 percent or more on the record, and I talked to over 400 people, and so, so many things that you might think were made up arent made up, Orth said. As indicated before, its not an easily digested story: Each of the murders is terrifying, as is Cunanans manipulation and shaming of his victims. However, its portrayed with such realism and emotional commitment by its magnetic and meticulous cast that you are hooked instantly and will want to see it through to its conclusion. The stars met with us to share their feelings about the characters they play and how being part of such a sad, brutal and disturbing series affected their lives. Murphy said Ramirez was the only central cast member who didnt instantly say yes when approached. The actor eventually was convinced, however, and said he came away surprised by what he learned about Versace the man: How family oriented he was and how strong those family ties were and how important they were in his life. And how rather subtle and intimate and private he was in comparison to the public perception of the House of Versace. He was rather a quiet person that would go kind of shy, you know, extroverted, but shy at the same time, Ramirez said. And he would go to bed rather early and wake up rather early and had more the demeanor and the life of a craftsman than like a larger-than-life celebrity. So thats something that even to me was very surprising. Martin, known best as the Latin pop star who gave us hits such as Livin La Vida Loca, said he had a conversation with his character, DAmico, to assure him that his relationship with Versace would be treated with utmost respect. I told him, I will make sure that people fall in love with your relationship with Gianni. That is what Im here for. I really want them to see the beauty and the connection that you guys had. He also got the biggest laugh during the FX press session. I peed a little bit, he said when he learned Donatella would be played by Penelope Cruz. As for Criss, people whove seen him in lighter roles, such as the singing-dancing Blaine in Glee, no doubt will be astonished by the intensity of the actors performance here, particularly when the sadistic side of Cunanan comes out. However, Criss made sure he also found something likable about Cunanan, such as his charm, to turn in a fleshed-out portrayal. To preserve his sanity through filming, he said, the role didnt come home with me. I know a lot of people who jump into these kinds of things, and it really consumes their whole lives. And maybe thats just the kind of person I am, but my alibi of how that, sort of, works is I think what saved me is that Andrew compartmentalized so many things in his life: emotions, people, experiences. He could disassociate, and likewise, I could sort of disassociate. Jeanne Jakle's column appears Thursdays and Sundays in mySA. Read more of her columns here. | jjakle@express-news.net | @JakleJ Alison Malmon was wrapping up the end of her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000 when she got the news: Her older brother Brian, a student at Columbia University, killed himself. He'd struggled for years with mental illness, Malmon said, but concealed his symptoms. Determined to help, Malmon formed a group at Penn a year-and-a-half later to empower students to talk openly about mental health. Her group, Active Minds, blossomed into a national organization that today has more than 450 campus chapters. Leaders with the organization spend their time planning programming and talking with college students about the now well-documented pressure today's young people face. "What you hear often is just a need to be perfect," said Malmon, now the group's executive director, "and a need to present oneself as perfect." A new study out of the U.K. shows just that - today's college students want to be perfect, and more so than their parents did. But the reasons behind that, the researchers say, are deeply ingrained in today's culture. Two British researchers studied more than 40,000 students from the United States, Canada and Great Britain in what they believe is the first study examining perfectionism across multiple generations. They found that what they called "socially prescribed perfectionism" increased by a third between 1989 (when Gen Xers attended college) and 2016 (with a mix of millennials and Gen Zers), and that culture could be driving up rates of mental-health disorders. Lead researcher Thomas Curran said that while so many of today's young people try to curate a perfect life on Instagram, social media's grip isn't the only reason for perfectionist tendencies. Instead, he said, it may be driven by competition percolating more into modern society, meaning young people can't avoid being sorted and ranked in education and employment. That comes from new norms like greater numbers of college students, standardized testing and parenting that increasingly emphasizes success in education. "We now have forms of competition where it never used to be," said Curran, of the University of Bath. "Forcing (college students) to compare, compete and keep up with social comparisons in turn is forcing them to develop perfectionist tendencies." Curran and co-author Andrew P. Hill, an associate professor at York St. John University, analyzed college students between 1989 and 2016 who completed the "Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale," a survey that puts a figure on perfectionism. The survey asks respondents to agree or disagree on a scale with statements like: "When I am working on something, I cannot relax until it is perfect" or "Anything that I do that is less than excellent will be seen as poor work by those around me." The study, published Dec. 28 in the journal Psychological Bulletin, concluded that three categories of perfectionism, which they define as "a combination of excessively high personal standards and overly critical self-evaluations," increased since 1989: Self-oriented perfectionism - a self-imposed desire to be perfect - increased by 10 percent. Other-oriented perfectionism, or the practice of holding others to irrationally high standards, increased by 16 percent. Socially prescribed perfectionism, or the perception that there are unrealistically high expectations from others, increased by 33 percent. It's the latter dimension that gives researchers the most concern. Curran and Hill describe socially prescribed perfectionism as "the most debilitating" and said it's a better predictor of depression and suicide than the other two. So where's that socially prescribed perfectionism come from? Curran said it would be "easy" to attribute the rise to social media, and while he admitted those platforms "put the problem on steroids," he said there are other factors, like an increase in meritocracy among millennials. The researchers say today's hypercompetitive society tells young people: Have the highest grade-point average, get into the best school, obtain the highest-paying job, and the perfect life can be yours. For example, in 1976, half of high school seniors expected to get a college degree of some kind. By 2008, more than 80 percent expected the same, but actual degree attainment didn't keep pace. The researchers say this suggests expectations are increasingly unrealistic. They also said changes in parenting style over the past two decades might have had an impact. Curran and Hill wrote that as parents feel increased pressure to raise successful children, they in turn pass their "achievement anxieties" onto their kids through "excessive involvement in their child's routines, activities or emotions." Those in the mental-health community, like Malmon, say they're concerned about the impact the culture of perfectionism has on mental health on campuses. She's comforted, she said, by students working to destigmatize the issue. "Mental health has truly become this generation's social justice issue," she said. "It's our job to equip them with the tools, to let people know that it's not their fault, and that seeking help is a sign of strength and not weakness." First Hualong One reactor unit gets its dome The worlds first Hualong One nuclear reactor has been completed in south Chinas Fujian province after the installation of its dome-shaped containment structure, chinanews.com reported on Thursday. The 70.48-meter pilot nuclear reactor, codenamed No. 5 Reactor Unit, in the nuclear power plant in Fuqing, Fujian, uses Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design. It took 17 hours to finish the containment structure, which consists of a main body and a dome. Sealing the dome marked important progress, a person in charge of the construction said. Fuqing has plans to build six pressurized water reactor units with megawatt capacity. Units 1-4, using second-generation technology, have been finished and started commercial operations. Construction on Units 5-6, which use the self-developed third-generation Hualong One design, started in 2015. China has the largest proportion of nuclear power units under construction, and the country is expected to be the worlds second most number of nuclear units in 2020, according to its national plan. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The 13-year-old student who was stabbed outside his middle school Wednesday afternoon is expected to make a full recovery, authorities said. The student was rushed to a Houston hospital that evening after being stabbed in the stomach, allegedly by a 13-year-old classmate. The suspect initially fled from the scene but later was detained and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A judge ordered Thursday that the teen accused in the stabbing be held in the Montgomery County Juvenile Detention Facility until further notice. He will be back before a judge in a few weeks, according to Montgomery County Attorney J D Lambright. Now Playing: Texas News & Crime Video: Houston Chronicle PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Student stabbed behind middle school The assault happened around 4 p.m. Wednesday behind New Caney ISD's White Oak Middle School near FM 1314 and U.S. 59. The victim ran about a half-mile home while "bleeding profusely," his mother told 911, before anyone knew what happened. As the suspect fled the scene toward the Family Dollar, Jordan Jackson, 20, spotted him as she was walking her dog. "Looking at the kid, you wouldn't think he had just stabbed someone," Jackson said. "He was blank. No remorse, he wasn't nervous or anything; he just went on about his day." Jackson said the stabbing was the latest instance of bad things happening with young kids around the school. "There's a group of bad kids that live in the neighborhood behind mine who have been getting into trouble since elementary," she said. "They're in junior high now and you see them walking down the roads back there smoking, trying to sell and act grown. "It was just a matter of time before something like this happened," she said. New Caney ISD spokesperson Dr. Scott Powers said parents of students at the school were notified Wednesday night of the stabbing and again through a letter sent home Thursday afternoon. "Student safety is a top priority of New Caney ISD," Powers said. "We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure the safety of our students and staff." It was a debate that many journalists likely never expected to face: How to properly quote the president of the United States saying the words "shithole countries." Deciding what to do with his remarks - and whether to censor them in news reports - was tough enough for the press in the U.S. It was, after all, a vulgar phrase not usually fit for a newspaper or television. But imagine trying to make sense of it in a different language. Every culture has its profanities, to be sure, but they do not always translate well. That dilemma played out in newsrooms around the world on Thursday after The Washington Post reported that Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as "shithole countries" while discussing immigrant protections with lawmakers. The main daily newspapers in El Salvador, one of the countries maligned by the president, went with the translation "agujeros de mierda," which essentially means "holes of sh - t." "Why do we have all these people from countries (who are a) hole of sh - t coming here?" read Trump's translated remarks, from the Spanish news agency EFE. "It's a bit literal," one Spanish-speaking reader tweeted. Alex Segura, Washington correspondent for EFE, tweeted about the debate with his editors over how to translate "the pearl of the day from Trump." Other options they considered for the phrase? "Sh - tty countries," "unclean countries," and "pigsties," he said. Another journalist, in Mexico, tweeted that he had debated at length with a least five editors over how to translate Trump's comment into Spanish. "#LaEraTrump," he said. Indeed, the Trump era has created a headache for translators and interpreters again and again. On the one hand, the president's simple vocabulary makes his words easy to follow. But when they're combined into sentences and paragraphs, they are a jumble, jumping from topic to topic. When a video was released capturing Donald Trump making lewd comments about women, news outlets across the world struggled with how to translate "Grab them by the p--." In China, where there's no obvious word for p--, some news outlets published more sanitized versions using references to "private places" or "nether parts." Others opted for simply including the censored English word, "use p-- to grab them." These cleaned-up versions fail to give foreign news consumers the full picture, which can prove problematic. Understanding the president's remarks is, after all, essential to readers worldwide - his words could lead to life-altering policies and decisions for people all over. The two words from which "shithole" are formed are not that difficult to translate individually, according to linguist Juliane House, the former president of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies. Most languages have some equivalent for the first part of the combination - or at least some profane variation of a word for excrement. "It's a bodily function," said House, who is a professor at the University of Hamburg. Hole, by itself, is also easy enough. But what happens when you put those two words together? Is it an adjective or a noun? And how does one use it in a sentence to describe certain countries? Even then, House said, "that doesn't really mean that this gets through." Editors from various news organizations need to approve the wording for publication. In many cultures, discussing excrement and using profanity - even when quoting the most powerful man in the world - may be a serious taboo. Depending on the political or moral leanings of a news organization, editors may choose to clean up the expletive. "Translation is never neutral, so ideology comes in, and probably pressure from above," House said. Some foreign news outlets took an easier approach - to disregard the "hole." Most French media went with the phrase "pays de merde," which essentially means "sh - tty countries." This meaning was quite clear, said Berengere Viennot, a professional French translator who has often been tasked to translate Trump's remarks. But previous words from Trump have left more room for ambiguity, such as the time he told France's first lady Brigitte Macron "you're in such good shape." "Things have evolved: one year ago, maybe journalists would have developed or justified their choice of French swearwords for translating the American president; now it seems taken for granted that he uses a vocabulary that does not fit with the function" of the presidency, Viennot wrote in an email to The Post. "Vulgar is the new normal." In Finnish, one translation of the phrase was "perslapimaat," which literally means "a - hole countries." In Swahili, Trump's phrase would likely be translated into "Bongo land," a term used to describe poor or uncivilized places, Jan Blommaert, a Belgian linguistic anthropologist, told The Post. It's a phrase considered disparaging by many. The phrase "Bongo Bongo Land" was actually banned for its members by the UK Independence Party in 2013 after a member of European Parliament used it to describe countries receiving government aid. Some of the oddest translations of Trump's latest crudity showed up in Asian news outlets. Taiwan's Central News Agency went with niao bu sheng dan de guo jia, meaning "countries where birds don't lay eggs," as Quartz pointed out. Japan's Sankei used "Benjo no yo ni kitanai kuni," meaning "countries that are dirty like toilets." As Anna Fifield, Tokyo bureau chief for The Washington Post, noted, South Korean media had to spell out the word in English. In Germany, a common translation was "drecksloch," which conveys a garbage dump. "We used that a lot back when he called the White House a dump (simpler times!), but it doesn't work for countries," one German interpreter argued on Twitter. Reached by a reporter early Friday morning, House, the linguist in Hamburg, said she hadn't read Trump's original words in English yet - only the translation in a German daily. "Is it dirthole?" she asked. Close, but not quite. A company that once had financial ties to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was one of two firms selected Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education to help the agency collect overdue student loans. The deal could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The decision to award contracts to Windham Professionals and Performant Financial Corp. - the company in which DeVos invested before becoming secretary - arrives a month after a federal judge ordered the department to complete its selection of a loan collector to put an end to a messy court battle. Windham and Performant beat out nearly 40 other bidders for contracts valued at up to $400 million, but their win may be short-lived if the losing companies fight the decision. "The selection of only two [companies] opens the door to protests from the unsuccessful bidders," wrote Michael Tarkan, senior research analyst at Compass Point, in a research note on Performant. "Based on prior contract awards, we would not be surprised to see protests, lawsuits and appeals which could all delay the start date for the new contract." Historically, the department has used as many as 17 companies to recoup past-due student loans. Earlier attempts to whittle down the number of firmshave been met with resistance. Companies that lost out on a 2016 debt collection contract have been embroiled in a lawsuit that has prevented the federal government from assigning new accounts. The department selected seven companies to manage the portfolio two years ago, sparking protests at the Government Accountability Office, which faulted the agency for mismanaging some of the bids. A few firms filed complaints with the federal claims court, leading authorities to put a hold on all new assignments. The Education Department had estimated that the order cost taxpayers $640,000 in collections in one month. The newly awarded contracts are supposed to resolve the litigation, but the selection of at least one of the companies could raise eyebrows. Performant is linked to LMF WF Portfolio, a limited liability corporation that once counted DeVos as an investor. LMF is one of several firms involved in providing Performant with a $147 million loan in 2012, according to regulatory filings. DeVos was required to divest from LMF within 90 days of her confirmation as secretary, but at the time of her appointment, Democrats said they were uneasy about the influence she could still wield over companies with which she has had a relationship. Education Department spokesman Nathan Bailey said Thursday that DeVos had "no knowledge, let alone involvement" in the new debt collection contract. Richard Zubek, who heads investor relations at Performant, said in an email that the company "has never had any direct or indirect contact with Secretary DeVos or anyone related to Mrs. DeVos." Performant was among the companies that protested to the GAO aboutthe Education Department's 2016 contract decision. In its response to the protests, the GAO outlined the Education Department's evaluation of the dozens of companies that submitted bids at the time. Windham's management was rated satisfactory and its past performance deemed "exceptional," earning the company a spot among the seven firms selected then. Performant's management was rated "marginal," while its past performance as a contractor was deemed "satisfactory." In awarding the contract Thursday, the Education Department said in court filings that Performant and Windham's proposals were "the most advantageous to the government." Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, R, remains broadly popular at the start of his fourth year in office and holds commanding leads over the three top Democrats vying to challenge him in November, according to a statewide poll released Wednesday. The survey by Gonzales Media and Research Services shows Hogan's approval rating at about 71 percent among likely voters in 2018, a year that many analysts expect to be a wave election year for Democrats across the country because of controversies surrounding President Trump. The approval rating is among the highest of Hogan's tenure, after polls last year showed him slipping into the low- to mid-60s. Hogan has double-digit leads in the Gonzales Poll in direct matchups with the top three Democratic candidates for governor: Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker III, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and former NAACP president Ben Jealous. They are among seven Democrats competing in the June 26 primary. In a theoretical matchup against Baker, 47 percent of respondents said they would vote for Hogan, compared with 37 percent for Baker and 16 percent who were undecided. The governor led Kamenetz 48 percent to 34 percent, with 18 percent undecided. He led Jealous 49 percent to 36 percent, with 15 percent undecided. Roughly 90 percent of Republicans backed the governor against all three prospective challengers, as did about 25 percent of Democrats and well over 50 percent of independents. In 2014, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll, 23 percent of Democrats said they voted for Hogan when he defeated Democrat Anthony Brown. Hogan's popularity is high across the political spectrum, with 86 percent of Republicans, 61 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of independents - a critical part of the electorate for GOP candidates seeking statewide office - approving of his performance. Democrats are hoping that with Trump in the White House, even a popular Republican could be vulnerable in a state where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans more than 2-to-1. Maryland's last Republican governor, Robert Ehrlich Jr., held a 56 percent approval rating in a June 2006 Washington Post poll but lost that year's election to Martin O'Malley, D, in what ended up being a down year for the GOP. The Gonzales poll suggests Hogan cannot bank on support from voters who expressed only modest approval of his performance. Against Baker, the governor garnered 11 percent support among respondents who "somewhat approve" of the job he has done, compared with 62 percent support from those who "strongly approve." At least 1 in 6 voters who approve strongly or somewhat of Hogan's performance said they do not yet have a preference in the gubernatorial race. The poll, conducted between Dec. 27 and Jan. 5 among 823 likely voters in November's election, had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. A single-plank bridge made of bamboo has paved the best way to school for 67 students in Chenggu County, northwestern Chinas Shaanxi province, local media Huashang reported on Jan. 10. Nansha River is what the students, ranging from 3 to 12, must cross on their way to school, which is located on the opposite side. A bigger bridge 3 kilometers upstream also leads to school, but the students have to make a 6-kilometer detour to reach it. According to local residents, it only takes 15 minutes for the students to get to school via the bamboo bridge, while it takes up to an hour on the other path. As a result, no one chooses to detour. Wang Tianfu, the grandfather of a student, told Huashang that the single-plank bridge was built by local villagers after raising 4,500 RMB ($695). It is 115 meters in length and half a meter in width. The bridge is always shaky since it is made of bamboo. A villager surnamed Huang said that the bridge is usually built before the beginning of each semester and removed in April every year out of consideration of possible floods. Wang introduced that the tradition has been kept for over 50 years. At first, the bridge was made of stones, but it became too hard to maintain, because most of the students parents are working outside of the village, leaving only the seniors to care for the children. WASHINGTON - Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., announced Friday that she is running for the Senate, jumping into a contest that could feature one of the year's most divisive and consequential Republican primaries and test President Donald Trump's loyalties. McSally, who has long been expected to run and is the preferred candidate of Senate GOP officials, launched her campaign with a slick 83-second video she posted online. In it, she underscores her background as the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat and appears to nod to the conservative base with references to sharia law, religious liberties and Trump. McSally joins a Republican field vying for the nomination for retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake's seat that also includes former sheriff Joe Arpaio, a controversial immigration hard-liner; and Kelli Ward, a hard-right former state senator. The Arizona race is seen by Republican and Democratic operatives as a key battleground in the competition for the Senate majority. It is one of Senate Democrats' few pickup opportunities this year as they try to seize back the majority. Republicans hold a 51-49 advantage in the chamber. "I'm a fighter pilot and I talk like one," McSally says in her announcement video. "That's why I told Washington Republicans to grow a pair of ovaries and get the job done." She highlights her fight as a member of the Air Force against a policy in Saudi Arabia requiring female personnel to dress in traditional Muslim attire. The video also features a clip of Trump praising McSally. "I absolutely refused to bow down to sharia law," she says. "After eight years of fighting, I won my battle for the religious freedom of American servicewomen." Arpaio, who announced his campaign earlier this week, was convicted of criminal contempt for ignoring a judge's order to stop detaining immigrants because he suspected that they lacked legal status. Trump pardoned Arpaio last August, setting off a firestorm of controversy. "Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration," Trump said in a statement at the time. Arpaio is also been a leading figure in the "birther" conspiracy movement about former president Barack Obama, to which Trump once also belonged. Arpaio told CNN on Wednesday that he still thinks Obama's birth certificate is fake, despite clear evidence it is not. The primary could pull Trump in competing directions. On the one hand, Arpaio's ties to him could prompt him to consider backing his candidacy. On the other, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other GOP officials who have Trump's ear have indicated they believe McSally is the best candidate for the general election. McConnell called her a "great" candidate in December. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday on which candidate Trump prefers in the primary. Democrats have recruited Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., for the race, a capable fundraiser whom party officials see as a formidable candidate for the seat. The primary is not until August 28. Some Republicans privately worry that a potentially divisive, lengthy campaign could leave the eventual GOP nominee politically bruised and make it more difficult for that person to reach out to centrist voters in the general election. A St. Louis prosecutor on Thursday said she would investigate published allegations that Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens threatened to blackmail a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair by saying he would distribute a nude photo of her if she revealed the relationship. "The serious allegations against" Greitens "are very troubling," said St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner in a statement. "After further consideration, I have decided to launch a formal investigation into the alleged actions of Governor Greitens." "It is essential for residents of the City of St. Louis and our state to have confidence in their leaders," she said. "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." The alleged actions, which have been denied by Greitens' lawyer, stem from a report by KMOV in St. Louis which featured a surreptitious recording purportedly of the woman with whom Greitens acknowledges having an affair in 2015. She describes Greitens inviting her to his home and taking pictures of her naked and then threatening to use them against her if she ever mentioned their relationship. Greitens, R, responding to media reports, acknowledged Wednesday night that he was unfaithful to his wife "a few years ago" before being elected. But his lawyer denied the blackmail allegation. The lawyer, James Bennett, responded to the prosecutor's statement Thursday, saying the "governor is very confident he will be cleared in any investigation," according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. This is a three-year-old personal matter that presents no matters of public or legal interest. The facts will prove that fully." The woman, who has not been named publicly, was Greitens's hair stylist, according to media reports confirmed by The Washington Post with a source familiar with the situation. A joint statement posted Wednesday night by Greitens and his wife, Sheena, said in part that "a few years ago . . . 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." Greitens, 43, is a relatively new star in the Republican Party who boasts an extraordinary resume: Former Navy SEAL and Lt. Commander, attended Duke University on scholarship; Rhodes scholar at Oxford; PhD, author and White House Fellow during the administration of President George W. Bush. He is the author of "Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life" and, according to a profile in St. Louis Magazine, has had presidential aspirations since he was a young man. His wife, Sheena Chestnut Greitens, is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for East Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. A Democrat-turned-Republican, Greitens was elected governor in November 2016 after a campaign that emphasized his status as a family man. Greitens and his wife have two children. "I'm Eric Greitens," he said during the campaign. "I'm a Navy SEAL, native Missourian and most importantly, a proud husband and father." The governor had just delivered his state-of-the-state address Wednesday when KMOV in St. Louis broke the story about his affair with his former hairdresser in 2015. The extramarital relationship itself, however, may have been the least explosive part of the story. More unusual was what she purportedly said in a recording made surreptitiously by the woman's jealous ex-husband, which the station played. In it, she can be heard telling how Greitens invited her to his home in 2015. Once she arrived, he told her he would show her how to do pullups, taped her hands to exercise rings and blindfolded her, all with her consent. Then, to her shock, she alleged, he snapped photographs of her naked and threatened to distribute the pictures if she revealed the relationship. On what was supposed to be a banner evening for Greitens, he then was forced to issue the statement with his wife confirming the affair. His wife also issued her own statement: 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. Neither the governor or his wife said anything about the reported photo shoot or the alleged blackmail threat. That came in a separate statement by the couple's attorney, Bennett, who denied the blackmail claim. "There was no 'blackmail,' " lawyer Bennett said in a written statement, "and that claim is false . . . The outrageous claims of improper contact regarding these almost three-year-ago events are a lie." The whole story, which had been the stuff of wild rumors for weeks, originated with the spurned ex-husband, who told KMOV that the relationship between Greitens and the man's then-wife had led to the breakup of their marriage. Afterward, the ex-husband went on social media calling Greitens a "homewrecker," according to KMOV. He then tried to go public with his story and with the recording, speaking with both of Missouri's major newspapers. The St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Kansas City Star reported that they too had possession of a transcript of the surreptitious recording and had interviewed the ex-husband. Both papers said they had decided against writing a story because the woman declined to be interviewed. Once the governor released a public statement the papers pushed ahead with their stories. KMOV decided otherwise. Although it said it had no "on-the-record-comment" from the woman, it went with the story Wednesday night under the headline "Blackmail alleged as Governor Greitens admits to extramarital affair" and took credit for prompting Greitens's statement. "I am not after anything," the ex-husband, who was also unnamed, told KMOV. "I am not a part of politics. I am not a part of anything. I just want to move on with my life." He claimed to have been contacted by law enforcement authorities as well as members of the media. Bennett, Greitens's lawyer, said in his statement that there was nothing about the relationship that "has generated or should generate law enforcement interest." Greitens has received mixed reviews in as governor. While campaigning on a platform of cleaning up government, he admitted to the Missouri Ethics Commission that he had violated campaign finance law, according to the Kansas City Star. He was fined $1,000. He and his senior staff have also come under fire for using an app that deletes text messages after they've been read, raising concerns about trying to subvert Missouri open records law. Comments posted on Greitens's Facebook page reflected a mixed reaction to the Wednesday's revelations. "This was March of 2015," wrote one woman, "most likely when your wife was pregnant or had a new baby. There are transcripts. What is so fraudulent is that Eric Greitens ran as a 'family man.' " "There are many in Missouri who stand behind you as governor," wrote another, "and support your family . . . Lead on and God Bless!" Here is the full statement, as posted on Facebook, by Greitens and his wife and the couple's lawyer: "I wanted to share with you some statements that are important in light of news you may have seen tonight. A statement from James F. Bennett, our attorney: "The Governor has now seen the TV report that ran tonight. The station declined to provide the tape or transcript in advance of running their story, which contained multiple false allegations. The claim that this nearly three-year old story has generated or should generate law enforcement interest is completely false. There was no 'blackmail,' and that claim is false. 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 a lie." Joint statement from Sheena and I: "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 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." The Pentagon's senior enlisted service member has issued a blunt warning to Islamic State fighters, saying in new social-media posts that they could either surrender or face death in a number of forms, including being beaten to death with steel entrenching tools. Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell, the senior enlisted adviser in the Pentagon, issued the warnings on Facebook and Twitter. Senior U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have warned Islamic State fighters for months that they must lay down their weapons or face annihilation, but Troxell's message was unusually forceful. "ISIS needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them," Troxell wrote 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 added that the U.S.-led military coalition will provide militants who surrender with safety in a detainee cell, food, a cot and legal 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," Troxell wrote. "Regardless, they cannot win, so they need to choose how it's going to be." The posts were published Tuesday night along with a photograph of an entrenching tool - a collapsible shovel used by U.S. troops. It isn't the first time that Troxell has issued a warning along those lines. He used the same talking points during a United Services Organization (USO) holiday tour last month in which he and his boss, Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited deployed U.S. troops in numerous locations. Video recorded by a Stars and Stripes reporter on Dec. 24 in Afghanistan shows Troxell delivering a speech to cheering troops as Dunford and Florent Groberg, a Medal of Honor recipient looked on. Troxell, speaking from a stage, said that ISIS will be "annihilated, period!" before he launched into specifics. "That may be through advising, assisting and enabling the host-nation partners," he said. "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!" The crowd of service members assembled roared in response. Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for Dunford and the Joint Staff, said that Troxell's comments emphasized the sincerity of the U.S.-led coalition's resolve to defeat the Islamic State over the last four years. Ryder noted the count atrocities that the militants have committed against men, women and children. "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. The posts include the new hashtag #ISIS_SurrenderOrDie. As Dunford's senior enlisted adviser, Troxell is assigned to serve as a voice for enlisted service members at the Pentagon. He frequently gives U.S. troops fiery pep talks and thanks them for their work, as many sergeants major do. Troxell, who has deployed in combat five times, traveled to Syria twice last year. In October, he visited Raqqa, the Islamic State's former de facto capital that U.S.-backed forces seized. In comments published by the Pentagon afterward, he said commanders of the U.S.-backed forces were warning the militants to surrender. "There is no negotiating with these guys," Troxell said. "They are either going to surrender or they are going to get killed." --- Video Embed Code Video: As the territorial caliphate of the Islamic State nears its end, the Post's Liz Sly reflects on its rise and ongoing fall and discusses what could come next in the Middle East.(William Neff/The Washington Post) Embed code: Indiana hopes to make Medicaid enrollees pay a fee if they smoke cigarettes. Arizona wants to put a five-year limit on how long its poor residents can be enrolled in the program. And Kentucky wants families earning as little as $5,100 to pay Medicaid premiums - and to kick patients out of the program if their payments get 60 days behind. These proposals are part of a host of changes that mostly conservative states have unsuccessfully sought for years to overhaul Medicaid, a federal insurance program for the poor and disabled. Now, the Trump administration is giving at least some of these initiatives the green light. On Thursday, health officials issued new guidance to state Medicaid directors, saying the administration would allow states to impose work requirements on certain Medicaid recipients - a first in the program's 53-year history. Doing so will help Medicaid recipients who are not disabled find employment, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, argued in announcing the changes. Ten states have already filed requests for waivers to add work requirements to their Medicaid policies, and the Trump administration approved a proposal Friday from Kentucky to overhaul its Medicaid program, including by imposing new work requirement and premiums. The states' proposals vary widely, from small tweaks to changes that would dramatically reduce their program's size and scope. And many plans go far beyond the new work requirements, pitching provisions that include raising premium payments for Medicaid enrollees, new fees for emergency room visits and requirements for drug testing and treatment. States administer Medicaid, but it is a federal program. And for states to make the changes they're suggesting, they need approval from the Trump administration. Health-care experts say many of these proposals are likely to be adopted. The Trump administration has already told one state, Iowa, that it can sharply limit how providers are paid for treating Medicaid patients, and new premium payments for the poor are also expected to be accepted. Other policy proposals appear outside of what the administration opened the door to on Thursday, at least for now. At least three states have proposed capping the number of years participants can be on Medicaid over the course of their lives. President Donald Trump's team has the authority to approve these policies, but officials said Thursday's order on work requirements does not mean they will also begin changing other policies they have traditionally rejected. "Yesterday's guidance is ONLY about community engagement/work requirements and not about any other topic that might be found in a state's" application, Johnathan Monroe, a spokesman at CMS, wrote in an email. The Trump administration's moves signal an attempt to align state Medicaid programs with long-held conservative policy objectives, as congressional Republicans appear to be pulling back from transforming the federal health plan through legislation after failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act. "This is the untold story of the next chapter in the Trump administration's assault on health policy," said Ari Ne'eman, who served on the National Council on Disability under President Obama. "It's a series of technocratic-sounding changes that amounts to the slow bleeding of the health-care systems for low-income Americans, but it requires no act of Congress, and, because it's so wonkish, never gets adequate coverage." For years, conservative states' proposals to restrict Medicaid were thwarted by the Obama administration, which rejected petitions to create work requirements and impose other limits. Obama expanded the number of Americans on Medicaid by millions via the Affordable Care Act, which encouraged states to expand eligibility for the program. The health-care law funded much of the expansion, but conservatives argue the law dramatically strained states' budgets. They also said tighter restrictions would help the poor instead find employment. "There are people that are not going into the workplace and we have a time when the economy is very strong - this is a good time to do it," said Robert Doar, who focuses on poverty at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, about new work requirements on Medicaid. Perhaps the most dramatic changes being sought are in Arizona, Utah and Kansas, which are seeking to create unprecedented "lifetime caps" on Medicaid. Currently, poor Americans in every state can remain on Medicaid as long as they qualify. All three states have sought to create new policies with unprecedented limitations on the number of years participants could stay on Medicaid - up to five years in Arizona and Utah, and to three years in Kansas. (There would be exemptions for pregnant women, the disabled, victims of domestic abuse, and several other categories.) It's unclear if the Trump administration will permit lifetime caps. The Obama administration rejected similar requests, and Trump officials have given no indication they plan to approve them. Critics slammed the proposals. "We'd see a dramatic increase in the number of uninsured," said Daniel Derksen, professor of public health at the University of Arizona, about how that provision would impact his state. "You'd also see the rate of closure for rural and critical access hospitals go up - those are the vulnerable parts of the health community that could only absorb a certain amount." Several states have also proposed creating new requirements that Medicaid participants help pay for their insurance. For instance, the waiver Maine filed with the federal government would create new premium payments, ranging between $10 to $40 per month for Medicaid enrollees. Maine's largest health center, Penobscot Community Health Care, has estimated that thousands of its Medicaid enrollees would be unable to meet the obligation and lose insurance, said Sarah Dubay, a spokesperson for the health center. Although some cost-sharing already exists for Medicaid, states have proposals to strip participants of their insurance for failing to pay. Wisconsin families who failed to meet those premiums could be ineligible for insurance for up to six months. Arkansas wants anyone who does not meet new work requirements for three months to be locked out of coverage the following year. Kentucky and Indiana want to prevent those who miss Medicaid renewal deadlines from being re-enrolled for six months unless they complete a special training course. The Obama administration did approve limited plans in Montana and Indiana that stripped insurance for Medicaid enrollees who failed to pay, but some of the proposals go farther: They would impose fees on for people at a lower income thresholds and increase the severity of penalties for missing payments. "I think the next wave of changes we'll see is making premiums enforceable for the very poorest people," said Mary Beth Musumeci, associate director of the program on Medicaid and the uninsured at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "We're talking about payments for homeless people with no income at all - it's very difficult for them to meet." Other new Medicaid fees would emerge in many different states. Wisconsin is considering new monthly premiums of $8 for those under the federal poverty line. For a family of two, the federal poverty line is about $16,000 annually. Maine wants to create a new asset test for a new eligibility requirement. Utah would create a $25 fee for Medicaid patients who go to the emergency room for "nonemergency visits." Arizona wants to stop paying for Medicaid trips to the hospital that are not emergencies. Indiana proposes a mandatory contribution to a savings account for tobacco users on Medicaid that is the only proposal of its kind, according to Musumeci. These new policies are intended to discourage high-risk public health behavior that come at taxpayers' expense, but critics say they'll simply wind up taking health insurance away from the poor. "The Trump administration is poised to give states unprecedented room to nickel and dime low-income Medicaid beneficiaries who are struggling the most to stay afloat," said Rebecca Vallas, a poverty policy expert at the Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank. CAP found that upward of 640,000 Medicaid enrollees would be at risk of losing their insurance if all 10 states with pending waiver requests have them granted. There are other changes sought by states that were already approved by the agency for Iowa. In particular, the Trump administration gave Iowa permission to limit "retroactive eligibility" for Medicaid, which ensures providers can be reimbursed by the program even if the patient was not enrolled when treated. That policy shift is expected to reduce the Medicaid benefits of roughly 40,000 Iowans, according to the Iowa Des Moines Register. Arkansas, Indiana, and New Hampshire also received permission to limit retroactive eligibility, but only for their states' Medicaid expansion populations. (Iowa's waiver also impacted traditional Medicaid enrollees.) Similar changes to the one in Iowa are likely, as Verma told the Medicaid directors this fall, "If we approve an idea in one state, and another state wants to do the same thing, we will expedite those approvals." Beyond that, some states, including Wisconsin, are proposing new drug tests that critics say would likely force thousands more off Medicaid. It's unclear if these will be granted. Disability advocates worry it's just the beginning, noting that it only makes sense for states to turn their attention to these waivers now, after the dust from the Obamacare repeal bills has settled. "If you're a state, putting in one of these waivers is one of the most complicated things you can do. You don't do it when the entire health care system is up in the air," Ne'eman said. "Now, however, the Trump administration is clearly messaging that they want conservative states to be sending in these so-called policy reforms - and moving on them as fast as possible." In a press call on Thursday, Verma defended moving people off Medicaid as a key desired outcome. "This policy is about helping people achieve the American Dream," Verma told reporters. "We see people moving off Medicaid as a good outcome." WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's comments about African countries and Haiti drew condemnation from around the world Friday, putting the White House and Republicans on the defensive while casting doubt on hopes of resolving disputes in the coming weeks over immigration legislation. In a tweet Friday, Trump seemed to deny using the term "shithole" to refer to some countries during a private White House meeting Thursday, but acknowledged he used "tough" language during the negotiations. Among Republicans, there were differing responses to the comments, but few of them outright condemned his remarks. The lone Democrat present for the Oval Office encounter said that Trump's denial was false and the president "said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist." "I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday," Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters. In a sign that the outcry over Trump's remarks are unlikely to abate quickly, senior House Democrats said that they planned next week to introduce a resolution censuring the president for his comments. A day after the White House did not deny that Trump used the vulgarity, first reported by The Washington Post, Trump dove into the controversy and blasted out his own version of the meeting early Friday morning on Twitter. "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!" Trump wrote, referring to negotiations over the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that allowed children brought to the country illegally, known as "dreamers," to avoid deportation. But Trump's attempt at a denial did little to quell the international outrage at his reported comments that the United States should seek immigrants from countries such as Norway instead of African and Latin American nations. "There is no other word one can use but 'racist,' " United Nations human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said at a briefing in Geneva. "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes,' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome." Ebba Kalondo, the spokeswoman for the African Union, said the comments were alarming. "Considering the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the U.S. during the Atlantic slave trade, this flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice," she said. The controversy began Thursday when the president grew frustrated with lawmakers during an Oval Office meeting as they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan deal over the "dreamers," according to several 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 countries mentioned by the lawmakers. Trump then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. A White House official said Trump also suggested that he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt that they help the United States economically. 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." In November, the Trump administration rescinded deportation protection granted to nearly 60,000 Haitians after the 2010 earthquake and told them to return home by July 2019. This week the administration announced that similar protections for roughly 200,000 El Salvadorans will end in Sept. 2019 - unless Congress enacts legislation providing them permanent legal status. In another tweet Friday, Trump focused on remarks attributed to him about Haiti, saying: "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said "take them out." Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" Reaction to Trump's remarks across the political spectrum and around the globe mirrored what has happened in the past - hastily-arranged meetings among diplomats, outrage and sharp criticism from Democrats, and measured comments by Republicans. At an appearance in Milwaukee, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called Trump's words "very unfortunate, unhelpful," pointing to his own Irish ancestors' migration to America. "It is a beautiful story of America, and that is a great story and that is the story we have today and that is a story we had yesterday and that is what makes this country so exceptional and unique in the first place," he said. "So I see this as a thing to celebrate, and I think it's a big part of our strength." Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who has been negotiating the immigration policy deal with Durbin and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in an interview with The Post that he was not at the meeting, but heard about Trump's comments "before it went public. And what I've heard reported is consistent about what I heard about the meeting." Flake said that Thursday's comments reflect what Trump has reportedly said in the past about Haiti and Nigeria. "I'm not surprised at the sentiment expressed - it's consistent with what he's said - but that he would do that knowing the fury it would cause." In a statement Friday afternoon, Graham, who as at the meeting, did not specifically address what Trump said. "Following comments by the President, I said my piece directly to him yesterday," he said. "The President and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel. I've always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals." On Friday, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told a South Carolina newspaper that Graham told him that the reported comments are "basically accurate." "If that comment is accurate, the comment is incredibly disappointing," Scott told the Post & Courier newspaper. In a joint statement, Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., - two of Trump's biggest allies on Capitol Hill who attended Thursday's meeting - said, "We do not recall the president saying these comments specifically but what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest." Trump, the senators said, "brought everyone to the table this week and listened to both sides. But regrettably, it seems that not everyone is committed to negotiating in good faith." Cotton and Perdue are co-sponsors of legislation that would enact severe restrictions on legal immigration - a bill Trump has said he supports, but that senior GOP leaders have said could not pass Congress. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who also attended the meeting, did not address the comments in a statement issued by his office Friday. "There are almost 800,000 young DACA beneficiaries who are facing imminent deportation in March if we don't reach a deal," he said. "I'm not going to be diverted from all possible efforts to continue to negotiate to reach a deal. So statements at the eleventh hour are not going to distract me." An immigration hard-liner in Congress, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, tweeted support for Trump's remarks Friday: "If those countries aren't as you described, Democrats should be happy to deport criminal aliens back to them. &End #AnchorBabies, too." In the wake of news reports about his comments, Trump initially was not particularly upset by the outcry and spent a portion of Thursday night calling friends and confidants to assess the potential fallout - part of his routine attempts to take the temperature of longtime contacts, according to a White House official familiar with the situation, granted anonymity to speak frankly about the president's response. While Trump does not generally enjoy widespread negative media coverage of his more controversial statements, the official added he is cognizant that the situation will likely be perceived differently in Washington and on television news compared to with his political base across the country. Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 Democratic rival, weighed in, tweeting that Friday's eighth anniversary of a major earthquake in Haiti "is a day to remember the tragedy, honor the resilient people of Haiti, & affirm America's commitment to helping our neighbors. Instead, we're subjected to Trump's ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesn't look like him." Left unanswered is how much damage Trump's comments have done to the ability of Congress to soon reach a deal on DACA. Durbin said in a written statement on Friday that he and others in his bipartisan group will continue pressing for an agreement. It "continues to build support for the only deal in town," he said. Graham voiced a similar sentiment in his statement. "I believe it is vitally important to come to a bipartisan solution to the immigration and border challenges we face today," he said. "I am committed to working with Republicans and Democrats to find common ground so we can move forward." - - - The Washington Post's Ashley Parker, Mike DeBonis and Erica Werner contributed to this report. Rarest Baishan fir gets first young plant in lab A prestigious university in east Chinas Zhejiang province has bred the worlds first Baishan fir in lab, the most endangered conifer in the world, Chinanews.com reported Thursday. Baishan fir, often referred to as the pandas of plants, is an exceptionally rare coniferous tree endemic to coastal Zhejiang province, leaving only three individual specimens in the wild. A research team from Zhejiang University chose artificial cultivation to protect the living Cretaceous Period fossil. They pricked out an immature embryo from a Baishan fir seed, and got a young plant through axenic cultivation in a lab. Before the success, other researchers tried to cultivate a fir with lateral buds, but no evidence shows that it works. The artificially bred plant means much to Baishan fir. It not only helps the rarest and most endangered species survive extinction, but also provides the possibility of increasing genetic diversity. A national patent was applied for the breakthrough technology. Photo: Baishan fir/ Provided by Qingyuan MOFCOM and the Cambodia Trade Promotion Department (TPD) signed 34 trade agreements worth $525.9 million on Jan. 8 in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. China has become the largest trading partner of 16 Asian countries and has strengthened economic and trade integration with neighboring countries, Chinanews.com reported Thursday, citing the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). Data from the MOFCOM shows that trade between China and 25 other Asian countries reached $1.17 trillion in the first 11 months of 2017, making up a third of regional trade. Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Malaysia are among Chinas top ten trading partners. A total of $10.77 billion worth of investment from 25 Asian countries went to China, accounting for 9% of the overall foreign capital inflow, while China invested a similar amount in Asian countries ($10.67 billion). Singapore, South Korea, and Japan invested in China more than other Asian countries. Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Laos became Chinas main overseas engineering contract markets. China signed engineering contracts worth $83.84 billion with Asian countries, and turned over $44.79 billion in 2017. Neighboring countries remain Chinas most direct route to the international business environment, said Chen Fengying, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), adding that strengthening economic and trade integration with neighboring countries will be conducive to creating a sound environment for Chinas development. Also, neighbors will benefit from the big countrys development. A recent analysis showed that 91 percent of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients are employed, in school or serving in the military. Julian Castro on Oct. 29, 2017, in a conference call reported in a PJ Media web post Calling out Republicans, Julian Castro of Texas said research shows that nearly every young immigrant at risk of losing federal protection from deportation is employed, in school or serving in the military. According to an October 2017 web post, the former Housing and Urban Development secretary was generally urging the Republican-led Congress to change federal law by offering a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children or those who overstayed their visas. The post on the conservative blog PJ Media says that in a conference call organized by an advocacy group, Castro specified that a recent analysis showed that 91 percent of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, sometimes called Dreamers, are employed, in school or serving in the military. Critics, conversely, sometimes characterize the program as an illegal amnesty that harms the working class. Castro, the former San Antonio mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential prospect, directed his call for DACA action at U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio, as well as John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate majority whip, who, Castro said, should make sure Congress passes a DREAM Act soon. So, was Castro, who joined the faculty of the University of Texas Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs in 2017, right about DACA recipients nearly all being in school, employed or in the military? Castro, asked the basis of his claim, told Josh Baugh of the San Antonio Express-News by text that he drew his data points from an August 2017 web post by the left-leaning Center for American Progress about a national DACA survey. That survey, we found, asked if DACA recipients had jobs or were in school. It didnt ask if respondents were in the military. The centers post summarizing the results said Tom Wong, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, led the August 2017 survey of 3,063 DACA recipients. All told, the post says, the survey reached DACA recipients in 46 states including Texas, where 17 percent of respondents said they were living, according to the centers separate post of the surveys 22 questions and tallied results. Asked if they were currently employed, 91.4 percent answered affirmatively, according to the results, with 55.9 percent of those respondents saying they hadnt been employed before DACA. Another question asked if the respondent was currently in school; 44.9 percent responded affirmatively with 55 percent saying not, according to the results. Wong told us by email that an additional sort of the in school and currently employed responses showed 97 percent of all respondents reporting being employed or enrolled in school with 71.5 percent of those saying that they were in school reportedly pursuing a bachelors degree or higher. The center said in its post that the results drew on the largest sampling of DACA recipients to date. Some perspective: the 3,000-plus respondents would have amounted to about 4/10ths of 1 percent of some 690,000 active DACA recipients reported at about that time by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Wong conducted the survey in collaboration with the center and advocacy groups United We Dream and the National Immigration Law Center. At the surveys release, that teaming drew criticism on the right-leaning Breitbart blog, where writer Neil Munro underscored an acknowledgment in the surveys methodology section that it is not possible to construct a valid margin of error for the results because there is no phone book of undocumented immigrants. Munro counted this as an admission that the data was unreliable. In the same vein, we wondered how Wongs team confirmed that respondents were signed up for DACA; best we could tell, beneficiaries are not revealed by the government. By phone, Wong reaffirmed the methodology described in the centers post about the survey including that the partnering entities recruited the recipients surveyed online. Specifically, Wong said, the partners sent a web link to the survey to individuals on their respective email lists, also employing Facebook ads to ensure that self-identified DACA recipients from all over the country could participate. Recognizing that non-DACA recipients could potentially click through the survey, the researchers reported taking steps to eliminate bias and other factors that might skew the results. In the write-up posted by the center, Wong and his co-authors said that to prevent people from submitting multiple responses, they used a survey platform that prevented an IP address from submitting multiple responses. Wong said he used another tactic to stop people from gaming the study: Near the beginning of the survey, each respondent was asked to say at which age she or he came to the U.S. Close to the end, the survey requested the year the respondent came to the U.S. If the age provided toward the surveys start matched the year offered later, the results stayed in. If off by more than a year, Wong said, he threw out the response. In the end, he said, the responses of 3,063 people were tallied with approximately 6,000 respondents surveys getting set aside for one reason or another. We asked Wong to provide more detail perhaps enabling us to confirm the percentages in the results. Wong told us by email that he hadnt talked to the studys outreach partners about what data can and cant be released. Wong also said he plans to write a book analyzing the first four years of his survey results, at which point the data he analyzes for the book will be made publicly available. I know talk isnt worth much, but I analyzed all of the data myself and stand by the results, Wong wrote. We separately asked Ernesto Castaneda, an American University expert on migration research, if he considers the Wong-led results to be valid. Castanedas answer: Yes. Wong and his colleagues carried out a valid study on a hard-to-reach population, Castaneda said by email. With more than three thousand respondents, this is an exceptionally large sample size. Castaneda further said that researchers cannot always calculate margins of error for unknown populations like homeless and undocumented people, adding that the authors took a number of steps to avoid duplicates or dubious data. Castaneda told us, too, that the studys results appeared to be consistent with ethnographic research on DACA recipients and survey and interview research through 2016 by Roberto Gonzales, a Harvard University expert on immigration and social inequality, suggesting that DACA recipients made gains after getting that designation. We also asked Jessica Vaughan of the conservative-leaning Center for Immigration Studies to evaluate the survey cited by Castro. By phone, Vaughan told us that she would not be surprised that DACA recipients participate in the labor force at high rates because for many, employment was likely a motivating factor to apply for DACA. Vaughan speculated, though, that the survey overstated the employment and education rates of DACA recipients simply by being administered online and, she suggested, drawing from people with regular online access as well as individuals with the time and inclination to fill out such a survey. Its reasonable, she said, to suppose that the same people would be more likely employed and well-educated. Our ruling Castro said a recent analysis showed that 91 percent of DACA recipients are employed, in school or serving in the military. Some 97 percent of respondents to an August 2017 online survey reported being employed or in school. However, the researchers asked no questions about military service. We rate this claim Mostly True: the statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AUSTIN - The city of Arlington has denied a permit for a planned Martin Luther King Jr. parade that drew controversy when Gov. Greg Abbott was given a featured role as honorary grand marshal. City officials said the permit was denied because event organizers didnt have the funding to cover costs associated with having a parade, including security. There are certain things you have to do in order to meet the criteria set out in the special events ordinance, said city spokesman Jay Warren. They did not meet the criteria in order to receive their permit. Some minority rights advocates had objected to the choice of Abbott as honorary grand marshal of the Toyota North Texas Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, saying his record didnt warrant the honor. They said measures championed by the Republican governor-- such as an anti-sanctuary cities law that critics fear will lead to profiling - have hurt minorities. Abbott spokespeople didnt respond to emails or telephone calls asking for comment on the denial of the permit, and about whether the governor would attend another MLK event on Monday, a holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. In Arlington, special-event organizers must meet requirements such as providing for insurance, a traffic study, adequate parking and public safety components, Warren said. There is a cost for some of that activity, Warren said. They did not have sufficient funds. He said organizers needed to provide $34,000 to cover the costs, and that they had been given multiple deadline extensions. Organizers appealed the denial of the permit on Friday, but were denied. A parade spokeswoman didnt answer her telephone after the appeal was filed or when it was denied, and it wasnt possible to leave a message. She didnt immediately respond to a text. The parade was to be a joint project of several North Texas counties. Warren said that there still will be a celebration of King in Arlington that has long been a tradition. There is still a lot of activity honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. that will be happening, he said. pfikac@express-news.net | Twitter: @pfikac Peggy Fikac is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | pfikac@express-news.net | @pfikac This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Nearly a year after he was arrested, a West Texas man charged in the killing of Zuzu Verk was transferred to a jail roughly an hour from San Antonio to stand trial. Robert Fabian was arrested and booked in Brewster County but a change of venue was granted and he will be tried on Caldwell County. Fabian was taken into custody on Feb. 4, 2017, months after his girlfriend, Verk, went missing in Alpine where she studied at Sul Russ State University. Fabian was allegedly the last person to see Verk, on Oct. 11, 2016. Three days later, police searched Fabian's apartment and found his bed had no sheets or pillow cases and found a plastic painter's drop cloth purchased on Oct. 12, 2016, authorities said. RELATED: Second suspect in the death of Zuzu Verk indicted on evidence tampering charge, police say Verk remained missing until Feb. 3, 2017 when her remains were discovered in a shallow grave near Alpine, officials said. Fabian was charged with murder and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in concealing a human corpse. A person who answered the phone Friday at the Brewster County Sheriff's Office, where Fabian had been held, said Fabian was transferred to the Caldwell County Jail on Dec. 28, 2017. CBS7 reported a judge granted a change of venue from Brewster to Caldwell County in December. RELATED: Victim who was held captive in Stone Oak home shares photos, details of attack The Caldwell County Jail and Caldwell County District Attorney's Office referred questions to other agencies. The Texas Attorney General's Office could not comment on the case, but did say the order for transfer came from a Brewster County district court, according to Kayleigh Lovvorn, media specialist. Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. | Read more of her stories here. | kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5 A man who was reportedly employed at a youth center with the Diocese of Corpus Christi was arrested Thursday on a warrant for sexual assault of a child. Corpus Christi police announced the arrest of Eulalio Martinez, 28, on its website. His bond was set at $100,000. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A man was killed Friday morning in a rollover crash on the Northeast Side. Bexar County deputies said the driver, who has not been identified, lost control of his black Mercedes-Benz vehicle around 1:30 a.m. in the 2600 block of Green Leaf Way. RELATED: SAPD: Masked robber made man get on ground, then shot him in the back Now Playing: Bexar County deputies said the driver, who has not been identified, lost control of his black Mercedes-Benz vehicle around 1:30 a.m., Jan. 12, 2018. Video: San Antonio Express-News He rolled through a fence and was severely injured during the crash. Paramedics rushed him to San Antonio Military Medical Center for treatment, but he died at the hospital. 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 Police are searching for an armed robber who stole a man's wallet and phone, then made him get down on the ground and shot him in the back Friday morning on the far East Side. The robber, described as a 6-foot tall man dressed in all black and wearing a mask, stole the 37-year-old victim's possessions around 1 a.m. in the 5900 block of Cinnabar Cove, police said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ISLAMABAD - When armed men tried to kidnap and threatened to kill him, Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui feared he would become another statistic in a growing list of activists and bloggers who have disappeared in Pakistan after criticizing the country's powerful military or advocating peace with hostile neighbor India. Siddiqui, the Pakistan bureau chief for the World is One News, a New Delhi-based 24-hour television news channel, said he suspected the attack Wednesday was payback for his critical reporting on Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence agencies. Siddiqui was heading to the airport to catch a flight to London when his taxi was stopped. He was ordered out of the vehicle, beaten and threatened. He escaped, fleeing into oncoming traffic and flagging down a passing car. Behind him he said he heard the gunmen shout: "Shoot him! Shoot him!" "They wanted to make me a missing person," Siddiqui said from a local police station. "This has been coming. It's all about what I write." The gunmen took his computers, several hard drives, his telephone and his passport, said Siddiqui, who is also a reporter for the France 24 television network and has had past run-ins with Pakistani intelligence. In May, he received threatening calls from the counter-terrorism wing of the Federal Investigation Agency, ordering him to come in for questioning. Siddiqui, who did not comply, filed a complaint with the courts and said he was told by the FIA that he was being investigated because of his critical stories about the military. On Wednesday, Siddiqui's World is One News website, was inaccessible in Pakistan. Visitors to the site were told: "The site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited for viewership from within Pakistan." The Committee to Protect Journalists Asia program coordinator Steven Butler said the attempted abduction on Wednesday "sends a chilling signal to the entire press community." The CPJ "is very concerned about the recent pattern of disappearances," Butler said in an email interview. "While most of the recent disappearances have been mainly social activists, or even students, these abductions amount to severe intimidation for anyone who exercises free speech." The spokesman for Pakistan's main intelligence service, the ISI, did not respond to a written request for comment about the attack on Siddiqui. The government says it is investigating the allegations and has set up a commission to investigate complaints of "enforced disappearance." In its year-end report, obtained by the Associated Press, the commission said there are 1,532 people who remain missing, suspected of being taken by Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Among them is peace activist Raza Khan, who was taken from his home in the eastern city of Lahore in December by armed men, who also ransacked his apartment, seizing his computer, his files and his telephone. He hasn't been heard from since. Early in 2017, six bloggers and social activists, all of whom had criticized the military on social media, disappeared. Five were freed and the sixth is still missing. Those who were freed all said they had been held by the country's powerful intelligence agencies and were tortured. They have all fled the country. ADS ADS The cosy feel and warm atmosphere of a modern chalet Stemming from often lengthy and meticulous research, the immediately recognisable Chopard boutiques radiate the same refinement the world over thanks to a warm and cosy environment. It is with this mind that the Chopard teams designed the new St Moritz boutique. It invites clients of the Maison in the snug world of a mountain chalet where the warmth of oak wood mingles with natural stones of Vals in the Grisons region and with the unique coating of St Moritz region adorned with superb sgrafittis, remarkable geometrical shapes obtained through an ancient grooving technique only mastered by some specialists of the region. To promote a sense of privacy and make visitors feel at ease in strolling around the point of sales, well-defined adaptable areas have been designed to accommodate the finest High Jewellery, watchmaking and accessories. This exclusive setting will be imbued with Maison Chopards characteristic warmth, to the accompaniment of the best whiskies selected by the Bacchus Cellar along with the greatest vintages from the Chateau Monestier la Tour, which has belonged to the Scheufele family since 2012. warm and cosy environment at St. Moritz new boutique Chopard Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele describes the approach in these terms: By skilfully combining artisan-style techniques, modern technology and a love of art, we wish to offer our customers an authentic experience where they discover the finest creations from our Maison. Im delighted with the work we have accomplished. Cooperation between our in-house teams and our family has been extremely productive and we are thrilled with the result said Caroline Scheufele. And add As you know, Chopard is a family business and we really wanted to incorporate this aspect into the welcome we offer our customers. Therein lie both our strength and our difference. This new concept also reflects our social and environmental commitments, since we have chosen materials from nearby regions in order to keep our ecological footprint to an absolute minimum. Respectful of Chopards Swiss roots, the Scheufele family has chosen to continue its investments in the Maisons native land. In january 2018, Chopard has no less than 160 boutiques around the globe, located in the worlds greatest capitals and on the most prestigious shopping miles. In order to meet growing customer demand, Chopard has recently opened boutiques in new countries with a penchant for watchmaking and jewellery such as Sydney and Melbourn in Australia and Jakarta in Indonesia. In order to discover the new boutique and the latest Happy Hearts, Ice Cube and Mille Miglia collections, along with creations from the Haute Horlogerie and High Jewellery workshops, you can come to the very heart of the resorts finest shopping street of St. Moritz : Via Da Vout 2. In the late 1980s, the deep velvet voice of announcer Ruben Gomez Rico flowed from former San Antonio Spanish radio station Radio Exitos, KXET 1250 AM. He was good at his craft, his son Israel Rico said. Ricos weeknight show, Guirratas de America, showcased romantic Mexican and Latin American oldies trios, ballads and rancheras. People would call in for requests. Sometimes he would play records from his collection because a lot of stuff was out of circulation, his son said. Rico played hits from legends such as Trios Los Panchos, Los Tres Delfinos and Los Dandys. He filled station breaks with poetry about love and heartbreak. Rico died Dec. 20 from a long illness. He was 83. He spent most of his early childhood in San Pedro De Las Colonias, Coahuila, Mexico. His family returned to his hometown of Piedras Negras in 1945 in search of better economic opportunities. We graduated from the same academy, (La Academia Commercial Juvented), said former supervisor Fausto Daniel. In those days when you applied for a broadcaster license in Mexico City, all you had to do was pass the exam, added the former program director at KXET. Ricos radio career started at XEMJ 920 AM in Piedras Negras. They had live shows in the studio back then, Daniel said, remembering his and Ricos time at the radio station. He used to read poems even then. More Information Ruben Gomez Rico Born: Jan. 21, 1934, Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico Died: Dec. 20, 2017, San Antonio Preceded by: Wife Maria de Jesus Rivas Rico; parents David Cisneros Rico and Sara Gomez Rico; two brothers; and three sisters Survived by: Wife Ana Maria Rico; sons Ruben Rico Jr., David Rico and Israel Rico; daughter Rosio Maribel Mondragon; stepdaughters Esther A. Cedillo and Amalia M. Saucedo; stepson Marco A. Cedillo; 10 grandchildren; seven step-grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren Services: Date of private funeral service is pending. See More Collapse The two parted ways shortly after and did not meet again until 1985 in San Antonio at Radio Exitos. In the interim, Rico married Maria de Jesus Rivas from Eagle Pass in 1957. They had four children. Making the United States his home, Rico moved his family to Chicago where he worked at an automotive manufacturing factory, Chicago Rawhide, until the late 1970s. Later, the family moved to San Antonio, where Rico joined KUKA 1250 AM as a radio announcer. A few years later when the station shut down, Rico started hosting a radio program at Radio Houston 13. While there, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. She was in remission for nearly a decade, but died in 1990. By then the family had moved back to San Antonio. Rico worked as a radio personality at Spanish radio stations Radio Jalapeno, KEDA 1540 AM; KXET 1250 AM; and then Radio Festival, KSAH 720 AM. His last announcing job was at Radio Recuero, KBUC 760. Rico married Ana Maria Rico in 1991. After retiring in that same year, he told his son, I have slain all the dragons I needed to slay. iwilgen@express-news.net 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. Search Keywords: Short link: Find the newest releases to watch from National Geographic on Disney+, including acclaimed documentary series and films Fire of Love, The Rescue, Limitless with Chris Hemsworth and We Feed People. Wearing the Islamic veil has become increasingly challenging for many women in Western societies, where a piece of fabric can be used to exacerbate already rising Islamophobia Many veiled women living in the West may have found great comfort in the heartening call of President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen for all women to wear headscarves in solidarity with Muslims and fight what he described as rampant Islamophobia. For the left-wing former Austrian Green Party leader, the veil is a matter of freedom of expression, which is a fundamental right. It is every womans right to always dress how she wants. That is my opinion on the matter, he told an audience of school pupils last May. But not everybody in the West thinks the same way, especially in the light of the rise of right-wing groups. Many observers say that right-wing politicians in Western societies have been using the Muslim veil as a rallying point, claiming that they are protecting secularism and Western identity from the threat of the Islamisation of Europe, for example. They may use the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, as a trigger to rally racist or anti-Muslim sentiments across Europe and America. Many women may be judged, sometimes even misjudged, for what they choose to wear. Whenever I open the drawer where I keep my scarves, I look at them and say to myself, what a loss, what a loss that I ever took off my hijab. Thus said 33-year-old Ibtisam Al-Zahir with tears in her eyes, as she expressed her regrets at taking off the Islamic headscarf (hijab) or veil in order to be sure to get a job in Spain where she lives. An emotionally charged interview with Al-Zahir was part of a documentary filmed by the UK website guardian.com following a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in March 2017 that allows employers to ban religious symbols in the workplace. The decision is part of a ruling on the issue of women wearing Islamic headscarves at work in the EU, allowing employers to ban religious clothing. Although the ECJ insists that the ruling does not constitute direct discrimination against Muslims, many Muslims and non-Muslims think otherwise. There is almost a consensus among Western Muslims that the decision was part of a wave of Islamophobia that has been sweeping Europe and the West in general. I hope that I can wear them again, Al-Zahir said as she passed her fingers over a set of colourful scarves neatly folded in her bedroom drawer. Al-Zahir may not be the only one feeling pressured by the ECJ decision. As the guardian.com documentary shows, many Muslim women now face a stark choice: lose their hijab or their job. At least for Al-Zahir, losing the hijab was forced upon her after having spent three years looking for a job. As a divorced and single mother of two kids, she desperately needed a job in order to survive, rent a house and feed her kids. I applied to work in a restaurant, Al-Zahir said. It was a cleaning job nothing to do with a hijab. In the end, I said, ok I will take it off, just give me work. But not all veiled women living in Europe were equally unlucky. Ayan Baudouin from London told the documentary that she had never had any issues getting a job in the UK, but that she was quite fortunate because not everybodys experience is like that. Weve had mixed reactions here: some women like myself will never give up the hijab for the sake of Allah, and we are determined to fight for it, 44-year-old Dalia, an Egyptian-British woman, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Some have been deterred and have got scared, so theyve either changed the way they wear their hijab through hats or Spanish-style hijabs and some have taken it off. But only a minority have taken off the veil altogether, as more often than not those wearing classic abayas and khimars [robes] tend to downgrade their veil by wearing normal clothes or adapting them, she said. Dalia does not work at the moment, but says she has definitely heard of jobs being harder to attain for a hijabi, and yes some have had verbal and physical abuse. Dalia said she personally had suffered from abuse in the form of dirty looks mainly by white men in the street. Usually they get a piece of my mind if the persist, she added. Baudouin similarly lamented how many people in Europe may still tend to stereotype a veiled woman as illiterate, uneducated and probably not able to speak their language. Many Muslims living in the West seem to have had this feeling of disrespect if recent research by the US-based Gallup research firm is anything to go by. Specifically, 52 per cent of Americans and 48 per cent of Canadians say the West does not respect Muslim societies, Gallup said. Smaller percentages of Italian, French, German and British respondents agree. THE VEIL AND ISLAMOPHOBIA According to the Gallup studies, researchers and policy groups define Islamophobia in differing detail, but the terms essence is essentially the same, no matter the source: an exaggerated fear, hatred and hostility towards Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination and the marginalisation and exclusion of Muslims from social, political and civic life. Although Islamophobia is manifested in different ways, many observers suggest it is becoming more aggressively directed towards veiled Muslim women because the veil acts as a visible sign of Muslim identity. Recent research reports on Islamophobia in the West suggest increasing levels of hostility directed towards Muslim women who seem to be bearing the brunt of attacks against Muslims, with many suggesting that the veil has been used or abused by right-wing politicians and the architects of what they call the industry of Islamophobia in the West. Those talking to the Weekly referred to the many recent hostile attacks on veiled women in the UK and the US as cases in point. In one case a veiled woman was pushed into the path of an oncoming underground train apparently for no other reason than her wearing the veil. For Muslim women, Britains streets are more hostile than ever was the headline of a story in the UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph last week. In 2017, we continued to worry a lot about what women wear, it wrote. The incident where a veiled Muslim woman seemingly miraculously survived being hit by a London Underground train went viral on social media, showing how she slammed into the train and rebounded onto the platform. The man who pushed her was held on charges of attempted murder, but many insist the attack is only one of many other manifestations of how veiled women have been at the heart of Islamophobic attacks. US author Nathan Lean, author of The Islamophobia Industry, told the Weekly that the veil is simply a visible symbol around which anti-Muslim agitators unite. In Leans view, the veil is not provoking Islamophobia itself, but rather offers people who already hold negative views of Islam an object at which to direct their ire and angst. The Islamophobia industry uses whatever objects and symbols it can to suggest that Muslims are frightening, Lean elaborated via e-mail. It may seem that the veil is the symbol most often referenced today, but there have been instances of prejudice directed at mosques, minarets, and other Islamic cultural signifiers in the West as well. Erik Bleich, a professor of political science at Middlebury College in the US, similarly noted that the hijab is one factor among many that Islamophobes use to identify and stigmatise Muslims. The hijab has always been a controversial issue in both the West and in some Muslim-majority countries, he said. It is largely seen by Muslims as a religious obligation and as such many women choose to don it as an act of piety. Many in the West, however, also tend to see the veil as a political symbol, a manifestation of a different identity, and, perhaps, a refusal to integrate. Politicians designing anti-hijab laws in the West may claim they are doing so in order to emancipate women from the shackles of veil and help them better integrate. The veil is viewed differently in Europe compared to the United States, Bleich elaborated. In many European countries, it has become a symbol for religious fundamentalism and a refusal (or at least a reluctance) to integrate. This is even more true when it comes to niqabs or burqas, he said, referring to the full-face veil. In the United States, according to Bleich, although the veil is of less prominent concern because Americans are generally more open to the public expression of religion, it still functions as a marker of Muslimness, which is increasingly seen in the United States as a threatening identity to many. Lean said that in some cases veiled Muslim women must feel hurt by the way in which a pious symbol of their religious identity has become politicised and subjected to such unnecessary prejudice. Some of those who welcomed the ECJ ruling said the headscarf was a political statement of oppression. I find that deeply offensive, 33-year-old Fayza Hassan, a European Muslim, wrote on the UK newspaper the Guardians blog. To me, its an act of worship, a choice I made, that it has no impact on anyone other than myself. I dont expect others to understand my reasoning, but I find it strange that people who have very little understanding of my faith feel they have a right to tell me how to interpret it or what to do. ANTI-VEIL SENTIMENT IN EUROPE It has been particularly in France where an estimated eight per cent of the population is Muslim that the veil has provoked intense public debate. France has passed two laws on the veil, one in 2004 banning the wearing of the veil in public elementary and secondary schools, and another in 2011 banning the wearing of full-face veils in public places, even though these are worn by only a tiny portion of the population. Many countries followed suite, including Holland, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Austria, where prohibitions on religious symbols and full or partial bans on full-face veils were implemented. The recent ECJ ruling allowing employers in the EU to oblige veiled women to take off their veils at work has been met with wide public acceptance in many European countries, including France where 83 per cent of French people were in favour of the law, according to the UK Independent newspaper. In an article entitled French Muslims Say Veil Bans Gives Cover to Bias, the New York Times said that in France the head coverings of observant Muslim women, from colourful silk scarves to black chadors, have become one of the most potent flash points in the nations tense relations with its vibrant and growing Muslim population, adding that mainstream politicians continue to push for new measures to deny veiled women access to jobs, educational institutions and community life. They often say they are doing so for the benefit of public order or in the name of laicite, the French term for the separation of church and state, the report went on. But critics say these efforts, rather than promoting a sense of secular inclusion, have encouraged rampant discrimination against Muslims in general and veiled women in particular. Lean argues that the ECJ decision also enforces conformity to so-called Western values. But Western values include religious freedom and individual civil liberties, which would mean that religious expressions of this sort should be encouraged, not discouraged, Lean told the Weekly. Critics of the law also wonder why politicians in France focus on the hijab when other issues related to womens rights do not get the same level of public attention. According to a report published in the UK Independent newspaper entitled Why is the Right of Muslim Women to Wear the Veil still so Controversial in France, in France, one woman dies every three days because of domestic violence, a woman is raped every eight minutes, the difference in pay between men and women is still 27 per cent, and some political parties would rather pay a fine than abide by the rule of gender parity in elections. Why then waste all this energy on the hijab, a piece of fabric, a personal choice, that doesnt harm or affect anyone, the report queried. For Bleich, banning the wearing of the veil by women is a risky step because it may increase integration in some instances, but it will increase feelings of isolation in others. Many veiled women living in Europe say that the focus on the hijab and the widening trend of enshrining anti-hijab sentiments into law on the part of politicians has not only affected them economically by denying them jobs, but has also made them targets of abuse by the public, ranging from looks of disdain, to being spat at, to incidents of hijab-pulling and even hate crimes. The 2009 murder of veiled Egyptian pharmacist Marwa Al-Sherbini, who lost her life for no other reason than her religion in Dresden, Germany, at the hands of a Russian-German racist, will always be remembered as one of the most tragic hate crimes directed against veiled women in Europe. But these crimes seem to have increased since then. Following the terrorist atrocity in Paris on 13 November 2015, media outlets reported that the number of hate crimes against perceived Muslims had skyrocketed, particularly in France and Britain, said a report by the United Nations University (UNU), the academic and research arm of the United Nations. According to these media articles, the majority of victims were visible Muslim women, particularly those wearing the veil. Tell Mama, an NGO which documents incidents of Islamophobia across the UK by collecting data independently and in collaboration with 15 police forces, also recorded a 326 per cent increase in anti-Muslim incidents on the streets of Britain in 2015. The organisation received direct reports of verbal and online harassment and abuse from more than 1,100 Muslims in the same year and collected details of a further 1,400 incidents recorded by the police. Tell Mama said the greatest impact of anti-Muslim hatred was being felt by women, making up 61 per cent of all incidents recorded by the organisation. 75 per cent of all female victims had been easily identifiable as Muslims by wearing the hijab or the niqab, it said. THE VEIL IN THE US Although there is no anti-hijab legislation in the US and freedom is deeply enshrined in the US constitution, Abdel-Sattar Ghazali, editor of the Journal America online magazine, says that anti-hijab sentiments are also on the rise in the US. No doubt the veil/hijab is provoking animosity against Muslim women, Ghazali, who is also the author of Islam & Muslims in the Post-9/11 America (2014) and Islam & Muslims in the 21st Century (2017), said. This animosity sometimes becomes violent. During Ramadan last June, veiled 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen of northern Virginia in the US was assaulted and killed as she walked home after prayers at a mosque near Washington. Police have charged 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres with her murder, but once again the murder shocked the local Muslim community which was still getting over the Chapel Hill hate crime in 2015 that claimed the lives of 23-year-old American-Syrian Muslim Deah Shaddy and his veiled bride 21-year-old Yusor Mohamed Abu Salha, together with Yusors veiled sister 19-year-old Razan. The three were shot dead in a dispute over parking, but their family has insisted that the murder was a hate crime motivated by the religious identity of the victims. The veil is rarely used by American Muslim women, but simply using the headscarf makes them the target of hate attacks, Ghazali noted. Ghazali further referred to another tragic incident occurring last May when two men were murdered while trying to stop a white supremacist from abusing two young Muslim women, one of them wearing a headscarf, in Portland, Oregon, as a case in point. He also referred to a series of chilling incidents of scarf-snatching across the US in public places and in schools. According to the Pew Research Centre, a US public-opinion survey organisation, rates of physical attacks on Muslims reached post-9/11 levels in 2015 in the US, which it said were spurred at least in part by the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, who called for a ban on Muslim immigrants and tapped into a current of Islamophobia running throughout the country. A 2016 report by the newspaper USA Today revealed how over one week three women in one location in the US had been targeted because they were wearing the veil. To protect themselves, some women are uncovering their hair, the report said. Others are buying pepper spray, applying for concealed carry permits, or taking self-defense classes. WHY ON THE RISE According to the second annual European Islamophobia Report for 2016, a survey across the continent, Muslims are seen as the enemy within. Thus, physical attacks and political restrictions can often be carried out and even defended in an atmosphere of wide distrust and enmity in Europe. Analysts mention the rise of terror attacks carried out by the Islamic State (IS) group in Europe and the US and the recent influx of immigrants from war-torn countries like Syria into Europe following the Arab Spring as reasons behind the rise of anti-Muslim sentiments. Others blame the rise of the right-wing groups in Europe and US President Donald Trumps anti-Muslim rhetoric for boosting anti-Muslim sentiments. Some observers stand in the middle, suggesting that extremism is generally on the rise and is turning bloody. It can be blamed on both some Muslims and some non-Muslims who are turning to the right, and in both cases ignorance serves as the greatest enemy. Whereas non-Muslims may have misconceptions about Islam, some Muslims, mainly jihadists, also misinterpret Islamic teachings in their own way. Religious scholars insist that militant jihad, for instance, has strict conditions in Islam and should take place only on the battlefield or in the case of a country that has been militarily invaded. But jihadists, they say, have violated that strict condition when they have expanded the battlefield to include the streets of Europe and the US. The terrorist attacks committed by the Islamic State (IS) group across Europe, particularly in France, Germany and Turkey, have provided an excuse for right-wing politicians to exacerbate their anti-Muslim rhetoric. The Western media, for its part, has tended to focus on terror attacks in order to portray Muslims as the enemy, ignoring the fact that these terror attacks are carried out by small groups and are rejected by mainstream Muslims. The Western media also often only mentions Islam in the context of negative news. Islamophobia is on the rise because of a variety of factors, but chief among them today is the degree to which politicians in the United States and Europe have intentionally represented Islam and Muslims as an enemy other in the service of advancing their political agendas, Lean said. According to Bleich, Islamophobia rises in times of uncertainty, feelings that core national identities are being challenged, and in the light of political leaders taking advantage of these situations. Politicians like Donald Trump, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, and Marine Le Pen in France (among many others) are tapping into a sense that the world is changing in ways that make some individuals and voters in Europe and North America vulnerable, Bleich elaborated. Organising Islamophobia is a way for those leaders to gain power, and for their followers to feel more powerful, too. Ghazali quotes US journalist Reed Richardson as saying that fuelled by the presidents nativist agenda and a new alliance with the alt-right, the professional anti-Muslim industry has never been stronger or more dangerous in the US. Ghazali agrees with Richardson that like the US military-industrial complex, which wields influence and makes money under the banner of national security, there is now also an anti-Islam industrial complex at work in the US. The Islamophobia industry likewise exhibits interwoven subsidiaries, joint ventures and lobbying groups, which enrich themselves while ostensibly promoting ideals like freedom of expression, womens rights and national security, Ghazali told the Weekly. One recent report by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) has highlighted how big money is channelled to the industry of Islamophobia in the West, which revolves around a fear-mongering demonisation of Arabs and Muslims intended to legitimise both US and Israeli bellicose machinations in a region with highly coveted resources. But the problem of Islamophobia is not a Muslim problem only, Lean said. It is not the responsibility of Muslims to solve it. It requires everyones efforts, and all people who value equality and peace should stand up and reject such bigotry anywhere and everywhere it is present. Muslims can also do their bit to fight bigotry. Muslim communities and individuals can respond effectively by making their case that veiling is an act of piety, not an act of rejection of European values, Bleich suggested. They can certainly organise politically and pursue legal cases where needed. The more Muslims can show they are committed to other values that Europeans (and North Americans) recognise as common values, the less veiling can be used as a symbol that Muslims have diametrically opposed values. Building bridges with other faith communities and with non-faith based organisations will help as well, he said. *This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt's membership to the African Union - suspended after the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi last year - has been unfrozen by council The African Union's Peace and Security Council has unanimously agreed to unfreeze Egypt's membership to the AU, state news agency MENA reported on Tuesday. The decision comes after almost a year of Egypt being suspended from the 54-nation bloc just days after the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi, citing a need to restore "constitutional order". It is the AU's policy to suspend any member state that undergoes an "unconstitutional" change of government. However, in April a few weeks before the presidential election which brought Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to power AU head Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that Egypt would return to the union after the implementation of its transitional roadmap. Egypt has so far finalised two out of three milestones of its post-Morsi roadmap, ratifying a new constitution in January and electing a new president in May. The last step is the election of a parliament, the procedures for which must commence before 17 July, according to 2014's amended national charter. On Sunday, El-Sisi was invited to attend an extraordinary African Summit taking place in Ouagadougou on 6-7 September. Search Keywords: Short link: By Online Desk The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the proposed merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone -- a move that brings both the companies closer to culminating the deal. On 20 March last year, Vodafone India, the Indian subsidiary of the UK-based Vodafone Group plc, the world's second-largest mobile phone company, announced its merger with the Aditya Birla Group-owned Idea Cellular, India's third-largest telecom operator. Together, they are expected to create an entity worth over USD 23 billion, which will become Indias largest telecom company with a 35 per cent market share (in terms of customers) and over 400 million customers. The deal is very important not just for the two telecom majors who are recording losses and customer base reduction, but also the sector itself, which has been facing a huge disruption since the launch of Reliance Jios free or low-priced data and voice call offers. The scheme put pressure on other key players to provide the same or an equivalent. The tax hike on the sector from 15 to 18 per cent due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) only makes matters worse. Here is all you need to know about the deal: The deal gives Vodafone an implied enterprise value of Rs 82,800 crore and Idea Rs 72,200 crore. The merged entity will counter the telecom leader Bharti Airtel which has a 23.59 per cent market share in terms of subscribers. As per the deal, Vodafone will hold a 45.1 per cent stake in the merged entity, the Aditya Birla Group will hold 26 per cent after paying Rs 3,874 crore cash for a 4.9 per cent stake and the remaining 28.9 per cent will be held by the public. Vodafone's 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers Ltd (provides infrastructure services to telecom operators) will not be included in the merger. The merger deal, which was expected to be sealed by March 2019 (with the name of the joint entity to be announced later), is now likely to close as early as March-April 2018, according to American Bank Meryl Lynch, as quoted in an Economic Times report dated December 13, 2017. Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei will be involved in integrating the process and will be the network gear suppliers to both firms. For the merger, the two companies first approached the approval of Competition Commission of India. On July 24 last year, the CCI gave its approval to the merger. On October 13, shareholders of Idea Cellular gave their approval. Over 99 per cent of Idea shareholders voted in favour of the merger at the shareholders' meeting on October 12, 2017. Following the shareholders' approval, the companies sought approval from the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT). Both the groups can now go ahead for the final approval for merger from the Department of Telecom after Vodafone's appeal for the scheme also gets NCLT nod. In that case, the merger of the two giants can get sealed sooner than anticipated, putting an end to worries over the delay in getting all approvals, given the state of flux the telecom sector is in right now. Vodafone India had reported a USD 4.5-billion operating loss in fiscal 2017 due to intense competition after Reliance Jio launched its 4G services in September. Revenues from India fell 4.9 per cent. Ideas consolidated loss went up from Rs 328 crore for the three months ended March 31, 2017, to Rs 1,107 crore for the September 2017 quarter. A Bloomberg Quint report dated December 11 said that Vodafone and Idea Cellular had a combined revenue market share of 44 per cent at the time of the merger announcement, but in December 2017, it had fallen to 37.8 per cent, according to data from TRAI. Jio was blamed once again. Experts are hopeful for the consolidation of the Indian telecom sector with the number of big players reducing to 3-4 --- Vodafone-Idea, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and BSNL, which means lesser competition and more revenue. According to analysts at Deutsche Bank Markets Research, as quoted in a Business Standard report, the benefits of sectoral consolidation may far outweigh the competitive impact of Jios entry. While service quality is bound to get better for the customers once the merged entity emerges, experts don't have a consensus on whether prices will come down or increase in the long run. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the proposed merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone -- a move that brings both the companies closer to culminating the deal. On 20 March last year, Vodafone India, the Indian subsidiary of the UK-based Vodafone Group plc, the world's second-largest mobile phone company, announced its merger with the Aditya Birla Group-owned Idea Cellular, India's third-largest telecom operator. Together, they are expected to create an entity worth over USD 23 billion, which will become Indias largest telecom company with a 35 per cent market share (in terms of customers) and over 400 million customers. The deal is very important not just for the two telecom majors who are recording losses and customer base reduction, but also the sector itself, which has been facing a huge disruption since the launch of Reliance Jios free or low-priced data and voice call offers. The scheme put pressure on other key players to provide the same or an equivalent. The tax hike on the sector from 15 to 18 per cent due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) only makes matters worse. Here is all you need to know about the deal: The deal gives Vodafone an implied enterprise value of Rs 82,800 crore and Idea Rs 72,200 crore. The merged entity will counter the telecom leader Bharti Airtel which has a 23.59 per cent market share in terms of subscribers. As per the deal, Vodafone will hold a 45.1 per cent stake in the merged entity, the Aditya Birla Group will hold 26 per cent after paying Rs 3,874 crore cash for a 4.9 per cent stake and the remaining 28.9 per cent will be held by the public. Vodafone's 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers Ltd (provides infrastructure services to telecom operators) will not be included in the merger. The merger deal, which was expected to be sealed by March 2019 (with the name of the joint entity to be announced later), is now likely to close as early as March-April 2018, according to American Bank Meryl Lynch, as quoted in an Economic Times report dated December 13, 2017. Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei will be involved in integrating the process and will be the network gear suppliers to both firms. For the merger, the two companies first approached the approval of Competition Commission of India. On July 24 last year, the CCI gave its approval to the merger. On October 13, shareholders of Idea Cellular gave their approval. Over 99 per cent of Idea shareholders voted in favour of the merger at the shareholders' meeting on October 12, 2017. Following the shareholders' approval, the companies sought approval from the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT). Both the groups can now go ahead for the final approval for merger from the Department of Telecom after Vodafone's appeal for the scheme also gets NCLT nod. In that case, the merger of the two giants can get sealed sooner than anticipated, putting an end to worries over the delay in getting all approvals, given the state of flux the telecom sector is in right now. Vodafone India had reported a USD 4.5-billion operating loss in fiscal 2017 due to intense competition after Reliance Jio launched its 4G services in September. Revenues from India fell 4.9 per cent. Ideas consolidated loss went up from Rs 328 crore for the three months ended March 31, 2017, to Rs 1,107 crore for the September 2017 quarter. A Bloomberg Quint report dated December 11 said that Vodafone and Idea Cellular had a combined revenue market share of 44 per cent at the time of the merger announcement, but in December 2017, it had fallen to 37.8 per cent, according to data from TRAI. Jio was blamed once again. Experts are hopeful for the consolidation of the Indian telecom sector with the number of big players reducing to 3-4 --- Vodafone-Idea, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and BSNL, which means lesser competition and more revenue. According to analysts at Deutsche Bank Markets Research, as quoted in a Business Standard report, the benefits of sectoral consolidation may far outweigh the competitive impact of Jios entry. While service quality is bound to get better for the customers once the merged entity emerges, experts don't have a consensus on whether prices will come down or increase in the long run. By PTI NEW DELHI: The National Company Law Tribunal has approved the proposed merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone -- a move that brings both the companies closer to culminating the deal. READ HERE | 7 points to know about the Vodafone India-Idea Cellular merger "We wish to inform you that the Hon'ble National Company Law Tribunal, bench at Ahmedabad, vide its order dated January 11, 2018 has sanctioned the composite scheme of amalgamation and arrangement among Vodafone Mobile Services Limited and Vodafone India Limited and Idea Cellular Limited...," Idea Cellular said in a regulatory note today. Both the groups can go ahead for the final approval for merger from the Department of Telecom after Vodafone's appeal for the scheme also gets NCLT nod. As per latest data published by sector regulator Trai, Idea and Vodafone jointly have over 40 crore mobile subscribers and together account for largest share in the Indian telecom segment. Vodafone is expected to hold around 47.5 per cent stake in the merged entity and rest will be owned by Idea and promoter Aditya Birla Group. The proposed merger of Vodafone India and Idea will create an entity with a revenue of around Rs 77,500-80,000 crore besides eliminating duplication of spectrum and infrastructure capex, as per India Ratings and Research. Further, the spectrum of Vodafone India in seven circles and that of Idea in two, whose permits are expiring in 2021- 22, is together valued at around Rs 12,000 crore as per last auction price. These permits are not in common circles, and hence there could be potential spectrum capex synergies between the two companies, as per the rating agency. NEW DELHI: The National Company Law Tribunal has approved the proposed merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone -- a move that brings both the companies closer to culminating the deal. READ HERE | 7 points to know about the Vodafone India-Idea Cellular merger "We wish to inform you that the Hon'ble National Company Law Tribunal, bench at Ahmedabad, vide its order dated January 11, 2018 has sanctioned the composite scheme of amalgamation and arrangement among Vodafone Mobile Services Limited and Vodafone India Limited and Idea Cellular Limited...," Idea Cellular said in a regulatory note today. Both the groups can go ahead for the final approval for merger from the Department of Telecom after Vodafone's appeal for the scheme also gets NCLT nod. As per latest data published by sector regulator Trai, Idea and Vodafone jointly have over 40 crore mobile subscribers and together account for largest share in the Indian telecom segment. Vodafone is expected to hold around 47.5 per cent stake in the merged entity and rest will be owned by Idea and promoter Aditya Birla Group. The proposed merger of Vodafone India and Idea will create an entity with a revenue of around Rs 77,500-80,000 crore besides eliminating duplication of spectrum and infrastructure capex, as per India Ratings and Research. Further, the spectrum of Vodafone India in seven circles and that of Idea in two, whose permits are expiring in 2021- 22, is together valued at around Rs 12,000 crore as per last auction price. These permits are not in common circles, and hence there could be potential spectrum capex synergies between the two companies, as per the rating agency. The new health insurance system will offer improved medical care across the board Last month parliament passed a long awaited new health insurance law. The 67-article law seeks to make quality health care accessible to all by improving the services offered by public hospitals The laws provisions will be rolled out in three phases, ending in 2032. The first phase, beginning this year, will cover the governorates of Port Said, Suez, Ismailia, North Sinai, South Sinai and Alexandria. The second phase includes Fayoum, Beni Sweif, Assiut, Minya, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, the New Valley and the Red Sea. The final phase will include the heavily populated governorates of Cairo, Giza, Qalioubeya, Beheira, Gharbeya, Menoufeya, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Sharqeya, Daqahleya as well as Damietta and Marsa Matrouh. Employees currently covered by Social Insurance Law 79/1975 will pay between one and four per cent of their salaries with additional fees 2.5 per cent for a non-working wife, one per cent for the first two children and 1.5 per cent for any additional children levied for dependents. Widows and pensioners will pay two per cent of their monthly pension. Oncologist Dina Abdel-Azim says the new system will provide immediate medical care for patients at the point of delivery. The new system is essentially a social solidarity scheme. The family is the main unit of medical coverage rather than the individual as was the case in previous systems. The quality of services provided to patients is very high, and includes unofficial workers such as street vendors and housemaids. The government will fully cover the subscriptions of those who cannot afford insurance payments. Ahmed Emadeddin Radi, minister of health and population, says the Ministry of Social Solidarity, will cover the health insurance payments of anyone eligible for unemployment allowances. The same ministry is also committed to collect the contributions of health insurance due from different parties. Deputy Minister of Health and Population for Insurance Affairs Ali Hegazi says the new system will cost the government a minimum of LE120 billion a year compared with LE8 billion for the current health system. The new system will be funded through new taxes, including on cigarettes, and increased fees for birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates, income generated by a LE20 toll on vehicles travelling between governorates and payments levied on car owners renewing their licences. The latter will be charged at LE50 for cars with engine capacity of less than 1,600 CC, LE150 for cars with a capacity of less than 2,000 CC and LE300 for cars with a capacity exceeding 2,000 CC. LE1,000 will be levied on each bed when issuing licences of new hospitals and medical centres. Three new bodies will be established to oversee the system, says Radi. The Comprehensive Health Insurance Authority will be responsible for the management and financing of the insurance system while the Healthcare Organisation will regulate the provision of health and therapeutic services at all levels. The Public Authority for Accreditation and Health Control (PAAHC), which will be allocated an independent budget and be under the direct supervision of the prime minister, will monitor the quality of all health services offered in Egypt. The new programme will end the high cost of medical services provided by the private sector, announced Hegazi. Private hospitals will have to adhere to prices set by the government, says Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed, or else become liable for stiff penalties as stipulated in the new law. Patients will be required to submit their national IDs to receive medical care, though Megahed says the PAAHC may provide services to foreign residents. Pharmacist Tarek Mustafa believes the new law will allow all citizens to access quality medical care. The new law allows the patient to choose between private and public facilities, he says, adding that the regulatory system will guarantee the quality of services offered to patients. Some members of Doctors Syndicate, however, have voiced concerns about the new system. Doctors Syndicate member Ihab Taher argues that under the new law private hospitals are better placed to meet the standards demanded by the monitoring authority. We need to know for it is not clearly mentioned in the law what will happen to hospitals that do not meet the regulators benchmarks, he said. Doctors Syndicate board member Hani Mehanna complains that the new legislation contains no clear guidelines for improving the salaries of doctors and other medical staff. *This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: By AFP NAIROBI: Africans reacted angrily Friday after Donald Trump reportedly referred to their nations as "shithole countries", with many lashing the US president for racism and ignorance. Social media users across the continent posted images of modern skylines and beautiful nature from their countries with the ironic hashtag "shithole." Others heaped scorn on a president who last year caused widespread sniggering when he twice referred to Namibia as "Nambia". "I'm a proud son of the shining continent called Africa. My heritage is deeply rooted in my Kenyan roots. Africa is NO #shithole Mr. Trump," tweeted record-holding Kenyan runner Bernard Lagat, who became a US citizen in 2004. He was referring to comments reportedly made by Trump during a meeting Thursday with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why the United States should accept citizens from "shithole countries", including Haiti, El Salvador and the entire African continent. Trump then suggested the United States should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday, according to the reports. Trump, on Friday, implied that he did not use the controversial words -- "this was not the language used," he said in a tweet. 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 The United Nations slammed Trump's reported remarks as "shocking and shameful" and "racist". "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome," Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva. Many reminded the US of its historic role in the continent's woes. "President Trump, One day, I'll take you to a 'shithole' country called Ghana," wrote Ghanaian Edmond Prime Sarpong on Facebook. "First stop would be Osu Castle, Elmina Castle, and the over 40 Forts that detained about 30 million slaves, beaten and shipped out like sardine cans and then I will tell you the history of Africa and why people like you made that a 'shithole' continent." Im a proud son of the shining continent called Africa. My heritage is deeply rooted in my Kenyan roots. Africa is NO #shithole, mr. trump. pic.twitter.com/9j9rMWyki7 Bernard Lagat (@Lagat1500) January 12, 2018 - 'Nothing new' - Botswanan Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi wrote on Twitter that the remarks had struck a "nasty blow" to diplomatic relations with the US. Prominent Kenyan commentator Patrick Gathara, told AFP that this was nothing new from a "racist and ignorant" administration, nor from the West at large. "What is even more insulting is the hypocrisy of everyone condemning Trump, and he should be condemned, without examining their own offensive language and conduct," he said. "This is no different from what Hollywood and Western media have been saying about Africa for decades. We have consistently been portrayed as shitty people from shitty countries," he said. Some acknowledged problems in their countries, but blamed this on their poor leaders as well as western nations such as the US. "Please don't confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent... Our motherland is the most blessed continent that has been raped by imperialists in collaboration with our shitty misleaders for generations," wrote Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi on Twitter. In South Africa, the ruling party declared "ours is not a shithole country" and described Trump as "extremely offensive". President @realDonaldTrump has called Africa a shithole. How America elected a narcissist, racist, white supremacist to be their president defies logic. Africa sends love and light to America. #ShitholeTrump pic.twitter.com/AuZDUy1pwf Boniface Mwangi (@bonifacemwangi) January 12, 2018 "It is not as if the United States doesn't have difficulties. There are millions of unemployed people in the US, millions of people who don't have health care services or access to education and we would not deign to make comments as derogatory as that," said Jessie Duarte, the deputy secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC). - 'It's our shithole' - Nigerians however did not hold back, with many on Twitter saying their country was a "shithole", but that it was "our shithole" to criticise. "I don't wish to be denied a visa to the US, although with the rate of mass shootings, I don't see why anyone would want to travel there in the first place. That being said, objectively, Nigeria is a shithole country," wrote user Bruce Bateman. Even war-torn South Sudan weighed in, with President Salva Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny slamming the comments as "outrageous". However one Juba resident Jenny Jore, told AFP that Trump's remarks were "on point". "It is thanks to our African leaders that we are insulted that way," she said. Trump's latest comments also provided ample fodder for talkshow hosts. South African comedian Trevor Noah, star of "The Daily Show", described himself as an offended citizen of "South Shithole" and also called Trump out for racism, especially for saying he preferred immigrants from Norway. "He didn't just name a white country, he named the whitest - so white they wear moon-screen," he said. NAIROBI: Africans reacted angrily Friday after Donald Trump reportedly referred to their nations as "shithole countries", with many lashing the US president for racism and ignorance. Social media users across the continent posted images of modern skylines and beautiful nature from their countries with the ironic hashtag "shithole." Others heaped scorn on a president who last year caused widespread sniggering when he twice referred to Namibia as "Nambia". "I'm a proud son of the shining continent called Africa. My heritage is deeply rooted in my Kenyan roots. Africa is NO #shithole Mr. Trump," tweeted record-holding Kenyan runner Bernard Lagat, who became a US citizen in 2004. He was referring to comments reportedly made by Trump during a meeting Thursday with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why the United States should accept citizens from "shithole countries", including Haiti, El Salvador and the entire African continent. Trump then suggested the United States should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday, according to the reports. Trump, on Friday, implied that he did not use the controversial words -- "this was not the language used," he said in a tweet. 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 The United Nations slammed Trump's reported remarks as "shocking and shameful" and "racist". "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome," Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva. Many reminded the US of its historic role in the continent's woes. "President Trump, One day, I'll take you to a 'shithole' country called Ghana," wrote Ghanaian Edmond Prime Sarpong on Facebook. "First stop would be Osu Castle, Elmina Castle, and the over 40 Forts that detained about 30 million slaves, beaten and shipped out like sardine cans and then I will tell you the history of Africa and why people like you made that a 'shithole' continent." Im a proud son of the shining continent called Africa. My heritage is deeply rooted in my Kenyan roots. Africa is NO #shithole, mr. trump. pic.twitter.com/9j9rMWyki7 Bernard Lagat (@Lagat1500) January 12, 2018 - 'Nothing new' - Botswanan Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi wrote on Twitter that the remarks had struck a "nasty blow" to diplomatic relations with the US. Prominent Kenyan commentator Patrick Gathara, told AFP that this was nothing new from a "racist and ignorant" administration, nor from the West at large. "What is even more insulting is the hypocrisy of everyone condemning Trump, and he should be condemned, without examining their own offensive language and conduct," he said. "This is no different from what Hollywood and Western media have been saying about Africa for decades. We have consistently been portrayed as shitty people from shitty countries," he said. Some acknowledged problems in their countries, but blamed this on their poor leaders as well as western nations such as the US. "Please don't confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent... Our motherland is the most blessed continent that has been raped by imperialists in collaboration with our shitty misleaders for generations," wrote Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi on Twitter. In South Africa, the ruling party declared "ours is not a shithole country" and described Trump as "extremely offensive". President @realDonaldTrump has called Africa a shithole. How America elected a narcissist, racist, white supremacist to be their president defies logic. Africa sends love and light to America. #ShitholeTrump pic.twitter.com/AuZDUy1pwf Boniface Mwangi (@bonifacemwangi) January 12, 2018 "It is not as if the United States doesn't have difficulties. There are millions of unemployed people in the US, millions of people who don't have health care services or access to education and we would not deign to make comments as derogatory as that," said Jessie Duarte, the deputy secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC). - 'It's our shithole' - Nigerians however did not hold back, with many on Twitter saying their country was a "shithole", but that it was "our shithole" to criticise. "I don't wish to be denied a visa to the US, although with the rate of mass shootings, I don't see why anyone would want to travel there in the first place. That being said, objectively, Nigeria is a shithole country," wrote user Bruce Bateman. Even war-torn South Sudan weighed in, with President Salva Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny slamming the comments as "outrageous". However one Juba resident Jenny Jore, told AFP that Trump's remarks were "on point". "It is thanks to our African leaders that we are insulted that way," she said. Trump's latest comments also provided ample fodder for talkshow hosts. South African comedian Trevor Noah, star of "The Daily Show", described himself as an offended citizen of "South Shithole" and also called Trump out for racism, especially for saying he preferred immigrants from Norway. "He didn't just name a white country, he named the whitest - so white they wear moon-screen," he said. By IANS ISLAMABAD: Pakistan police on Friday continued its hunt for a serial killer who they say raped and murdered a seven-year-old girl in the Kasur city of Punjab province. The girl, who was being looked after by her uncle while her parents were away on a pilgrimage, had gone missing on Thursday last week, adding to a list of at least 11 similar cases in the last one year, Efe news agency reported. "The rapist or the murderer is a serial killer. In the previous incidents, the forensic evidence also determines it and the modus operandi of carrying out such acts also determines it," spokesperson of Punjab province - where Kasur is located - Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan told reporters. He said the authorities now have a suspect after interrogating 96 people, and have formed a special team to nab the perpetrator as soon as possible. Preliminary examination of the minor's body -- that was recovered from a garbage dump on Tuesday -- had revealed rape before she was killed, and led to violent protests in Kasur during which two people died and several acts of vandalism took place. In August 2015, at least 19 minors were recorded on video and photographed by a network of 17 people in Ganda Singh Wala, which falls in Kasur area. While the police and other intelligence agencies are investigating the case, your information may also prove helpful. Rs. 10 million will be awarded on reporting about the murderer of Zainab. Call @ 049-9250137, 0345-6313334, 0300-4830909 #JusticeForZainab pic.twitter.com/1b3PQaeaqz Govt Of The Punjab (@GovtOfPunjab) January 12, 2018 In April 2016, an anti-terrorism court had sentenced 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. ISLAMABAD: Pakistan police on Friday continued its hunt for a serial killer who they say raped and murdered a seven-year-old girl in the Kasur city of Punjab province. The girl, who was being looked after by her uncle while her parents were away on a pilgrimage, had gone missing on Thursday last week, adding to a list of at least 11 similar cases in the last one year, Efe news agency reported. "The rapist or the murderer is a serial killer. In the previous incidents, the forensic evidence also determines it and the modus operandi of carrying out such acts also determines it," spokesperson of Punjab province - where Kasur is located - Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan told reporters. He said the authorities now have a suspect after interrogating 96 people, and have formed a special team to nab the perpetrator as soon as possible. Preliminary examination of the minor's body -- that was recovered from a garbage dump on Tuesday -- had revealed rape before she was killed, and led to violent protests in Kasur during which two people died and several acts of vandalism took place. In August 2015, at least 19 minors were recorded on video and photographed by a network of 17 people in Ganda Singh Wala, which falls in Kasur area. While the police and other intelligence agencies are investigating the case, your information may also prove helpful. Rs. 10 million will be awarded on reporting about the murderer of Zainab. Call @ 049-9250137, 0345-6313334, 0300-4830909 #JusticeForZainab pic.twitter.com/1b3PQaeaqz Govt Of The Punjab (@GovtOfPunjab) January 12, 2018 In April 2016, an anti-terrorism court had sentenced 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. The Islamic State (IS) affiliate Sinai Province last week posted a video of the execution of one of its Gazan members. In the video group members flank Moussa Abu Zamat as a young man named Mohamed Saad Al-Seidi recites why Abu Zamat had been sentenced to death. Abu Zamat was charged with delivering weapons to Hamas which is described in the video as an apostate group. Abu Zamat was killed by a gunshot to his head fired by ex-Hamas member Mohamed Al-Degni. The family of the latter denounced him when they were informed their son had killed one of the Hamas mujahideen. IS operations in Sinai are mutating. IS and its affiliates are targeting more civilians a shift most dramatically signalled by the attack on Al-Rawda Mosque in Arish, which left more than 300 worshippers dead after Friday prayers on 24 November. They have also targeted Arish airport with a Kornet anti-tank guided missile. It appears foreign elements are gaining more control within the ranks of the terrorist organisation. Group leaders increasingly have Palestinian, Iraqi and Saudi names. Following the collapse of its Syrian and Iraqi strongholds the group is seeking to re-establish a regional presence, and is looking to do so in Sinai. A Gazan observer who spoke on condition of anonymity told Al-Ahram Weekly that returning terrorists find it easier to take refuge in Sinai than in the Gaza Strip where Hamas is in control and fights them using all possible means. Sinai Province is exploiting the animosity between Hamas and its former members to send a number of messages, including that Sinai is a better refuge than Gaza in the hope of increasing the number of recruits, and to pursue an array of goals, undermining the recent breakthrough in talks held between Cairo and Hamas among them. Not long ago extremists from Gaza would have headed to Turkey, Syria or Iraq. Now they head to Sinai. Despite tightened security measures and ongoing efforts to demolish tunnels it is proving difficult to maintain a lockdown. IS was always convinced it could not establish itself in Gaza, and Hamas strong grip on the Strip was probably the reason IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi did not attempt to create a stronghold there. The agreement between Fatah and Hamas may weaken the ability to confront terrorist groups there, said the Gazan source. It would be better for Hamas security authorities to remain at the helm of fighting these terrorists, he argued. Hamas arrested three IS militants who were sneaking across the border last week, but it is providing no information on the ongoing investigation. There have been similar arrests in the past. Brigadier General Khaled Okasha, a security expert and a member of the National Council to Combat Terrorism, says terrorist groups are currently witnessing a degree of splintering which has resulted in a spate of agreements and disagreements on terrorist attacks. The Rawda Mosque attack is a case in point. In this instance the tribal factor was disregarded. These terrorists, who witnessed IS developments abroad, managed to travel to Sinai from Syria and Iraq. Their expertise cannot go unnoticed. Al-Seidi, their mufti, joined the organisation abroad and has condemned to death many members who attempted to escape from the peninsula, be they foreigners or from Sinai, Okasha told the Weekly. Most recently the group claimed responsibility for the attack on Mar Mina Church in Helwan on 29 December 2017 in which a policeman and six people died, the 9 August 2017 attack on a police vehicle in Sebeika village, Arish, in which four policemen died and the bombing in Haram district which claimed the lives of six security personnel last year. *This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy and windy. High 27F. 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. Columnist Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich). Former Egyptian military chief of staff Sami Anan is willing to run for Egypts upcoming presidential elections, the Arabism Egypt Party, which he founded, announced on Thursday. The ballot is scheduled for March 26-28, officials announced on Monday. Would-be candidates will be able to submit their applications to the National Electionsl Authority from 20 to 29 January. Anan is the second presidential hopeful to announce his intention to stand, after leftist lawyer, labour activist, and former presidential candidate Khaled Ali said at a press conference on Thursday that he intended to be on the ballot. President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi received nearly 97 percent of the vote in the 2014 presidential election, a two-man contest with leftist Hamdeen Sabahi. El-Sisi, whose first term ends in June, has not yet declared his intention to run, but over 500 MPs, including House speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, have signed endorsements calling for him to run. To qualify, presidential candidates must secure either the support of 20 MPs, or 25,000 voters spread from at least 15 different governorates. Sami Hafez Anan, 69, was military chief of staff from 2005 until his retirement was announced by former president Mohamed Morsi on 12 August 2012. The Arabism Egypt Party, founded by Anan in 2014, failed to secure any seats in the 2015 parliamentary elections. Search Keywords: Short link: New Delhi: Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha laid out a timeline for the strategic disinvestment of state-run carrier, Air India. 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, said Sinha in a conversation with Moneycontrol. The minister also elaborated that 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 crore. On whether the government has reached a conclusion as to how much of the debt will be absorbed by them, Sinha explained, those are decisions that will be made by the audited mechanism under the advice from the transaction adviser which is EY (a consultancy firm). Officials in the ministry of civil aviation have confirmed that the government is not looking to fully privatise the mass carrier. The Centre shall likely hold 26 percent of Air India. NITI Aayog on the other hand had recommended a 100 percent stake sale. A final call, however, would be taken by the group of ministers looking into the process. The official elaborated that the government was contemplating keeping a minority stake, but insisted that it would like to give full independence to the new owner in running the airline. The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister on Wednesday had approved foreign direct investment of 49 percent in Air India. This meant that foreign players could not hold more than 49% of the total stakes in the national carrier. Explaining the process, Sinha said, 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. 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. Jammu: Reaching out to youth of Jammu and Kashmir, the Mehbooba Mufti government on Thursday 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 to frame a uniform Employment Code for the state, containing all the 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 under mediclaim 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. New Delhi: Markets responded adversely after four Supreme Court judges held a press conference for the first time in the history of Independent India. The Bombay Stock Exchange stood at 34606 points at noon on Friday and fell to 34550.2 points at 12:15 pm, at the time the press conference of the Supreme Court judges began and further fell to 34423.8 at 12:35 pm, exactly five minutes after the press conference ended, plummeting by 183 points in a span of half an hour. The market crashed to its lowest to 34349.99 points at 12:45 pm, taking a hit by 256 points as compared to the figures at noon before the presser. In an unprecedented move, four sitting judges of the Supreme Court addressed the media on the controversy over allocation of cases, saying the administration of the top court is not in order and that efforts to convince Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had failed. Sounding caution over the survival of democracy, Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior-most judge in the apex court, said it was for the nation to decide if the CJI should be impeached. Apart from J Chelameswar, other sitting judges present included Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph. Mumbai: The Reserve Bank has proposed delegating to clients the decisions regarding the quality and tenor on hedging of commodity prices and freight risk. In its draft directions on the subject, the RBI has also proposed introducing the facility for hedging of indirect price risk for selected metals. Hedging refers to activity undertaken to reduce an identifiable and measurable risk. "Eligible entities having exposure to commodity price risk for any eligible commodity may hedge such exposure in overseas markets using any of the permitted instruments," the draft said. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has invited comments on the draft directions from banks, market participants and other interested parties by January 31. It further said that structured derivatives may be permitted to eligible entities who are listed on recognised domestic stock exchanges and fully owned subsidiaries thereof or entities whose net worth is higher than Rs 200 crore, subject to certain conditions. "All payments/receipts related to hedging of exposure to commodity price risk and freight risk shall be routed through a special account with the bank for this purpose," it said. The draft directions have also proposed that the bank should keep on its records full details of all hedge transactions and related remittances made by the entity for this purpose. Last year, a two-judge bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court awarded bail to three law students from the elite Jindal Global Law School who had been convicted by a lower court for gang-raping a fellow student. Throughout the court order, the woman was termed promiscuous, she was castigated for drinking beer, smoking, taking drugs, and keeping condoms in her room. In short, she was asking for it. When the horrific gang-rape took place in Delhi in 2012, many of the politicians decided to go on a rampage of victim shaming. Of course, it has to be because she was out late at night with a man. Tauba tauba! Of course it has to be because she had a cellphone. How can women have phones, ya? Of course it has to do with the fact that she dindt say Bhaiya! Main abala hoo'. And hey, was she covered properly? Even though it's 2018, you are still to be blamed if you are raped. Besides, of course, the fact that the assaulter may have had chowmein in his last meal. And while the victims are blamed for their skirt length, every year the data on crimes against women show the same results. Most of these rapists are known to the victims. The data released by Delhi police on Thursday showed that in 39% of the cases, family members, or family friends, were found to be involved; 19% of the accused were neighbours; and 21% were known to the survivor in some way. In only 3.37% of the cases were strangers involved the lowest number in the last five years. In 4% of cases, employers or co-workers were responsible. The data go on to prove why sexual assault, more often than not, becomes an under reported crime. Its not just the broken justice system or the stigma attached to it, but when the perpetrator is known to the victim there are that many additional barriersa combination of factors likefamiliarity and social-power structure. The 2015 NCRB data, released in 2017, show that in 95 percent of all rape cases, the offender knew the victim. So, clearly it has nothing to do with the skirt length or like Kiron Kher said, sharing an auto with three other men. Yes, the problem lies at our home and in our workplaces. The apparent safe spaces are not safe. The police data showed that the number of rape cases came down in 2017 to 2,049 from 2,064 in 2016. Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik attributed the decline to proactive initiatives, awareness campaigns and self-defence training campaigns for women. RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat once famously said, Women should refrain from venturing out with men other than their relatives. Its time for a data check, Mr Bhagwat. Clearly women are not safe even with their relatives. The Subcommittee on Political Matters, Human Rights and Democracy of the Association Agreement between Egypt and the European Union held its fifth session in Cairo on 10-11 January 2018, according to a joint press release on Friday. The meeting was jointly chaired by Ambassador Raouf Saad, chairman of the National Bureau for the Implementation of the Association Agreement at Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by Colin Scicluna, acting managing director of the Middle East and North Africa section of the European External Action Service, which serves as the foreign ministry of the EU. The meeting took place as Egypt and the EU are launching a new level of dialogue and cooperation on an array of projects within the framework of the mutually-signed Partnership Priorities 2017-2020, according to the release. Representatives from the EU and Egypt discussed the Middle East peace process, the situations in Syria, Libya and the wider Arab region, peace and security in Africa, Nile water resources and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Both sides presented ways to further promote dialogue and cooperation, including in multilateral fora, towards attaining peace and stability in the Mediterranean and beyond. The parties also addressed cooperation in the areas of human rights, democracy, the rule of law and fighting corruption, acknowledging both positive steps and remaining challenges faced by both sides in achieving concrete progress in line with constitutional and international obligations. Both sides recognized that some differences of view on certain issues are a natural part of constructive dialogue among partners, but emphasized the necessity of strengthening dialogue and cooperation on all matters of mutual interest. Search Keywords: Short link: New Delhi: A 22-year-old NRI, who works for Google on contract basis, has been arrested by Delhi Police for allegedly molesting a 52-year-old US national in his room at the high-end Taj Palace hotel. Police said the incident took place around 10pm on January 8 when the accused, identified as Anmol Singh Kharbanda, struck up a conversation with the woman at the luxury hotels bar. Both then went up to Kharbandas room for a smoke when he allegedly tried to touch her inappropriately. The woman stormed out of the room and left for Jaipur the next day, said BK Singh, additional CP for New Delhi district, adding that she filed a complaint upon returning to the national capital on Thursday. Kharbanda has been sent to judicial custody and further investigation is on, police said. New Delhi: Indrani Mukerjea used her influence to misdiagnose her daughter Sheena Bora and trick her into consuming sedatives for about a month in order to separate Sheena from her stepson Rahul Mukerjea. She also forced her biological son Mikhail to get admitted to a mental hospital. These are some of the startling revelations made in a new book on the sensational murder that surfaced in 2015. The book The Sheena Bora Case, written by the journalist Manish Pachouly, claims that Indrani Mukerjea put her daughter on potentially harmful medication meant for mental ailments like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder for about a month, which eventually wrecked Sheena Boras health so severely that she stopped responding to calls and messages, and was ultimately tied to a wheelchair. Indrani, meanwhile, was going all out to keep Sheena away from Rahul. She even called Sheenas ex-boyfriend Kaustabh Saikia from Bengaluru and asked him to take her along with him. Kaustabh at this time was trying to re-establish his relations with Sheena, but she had not agreed. But Sheena was not left with much of a choice. As she was ill, she could not respond to Rahuls calls or messages and he had no idea what was happening at the other end. Her condition, too, had deteriorated so much that she had to be taken to Bengaluru on a wheelchair, writes Pachouly. Indrani also got Mikhail admitted to a mental hospital in Byculla saying he had a drug problem. The Sheena Bora murder case has been, since it broke three years ago, one of the most sensational murder cases in India. The book, published by Roli Books, describes in detail the rise and the eventual fall of Indrani, her relationships with her partners, including arrested media mogul Peter Mukerjea, and her dislike towards her two biological children Sheena and Mikhail. The book also details the troubled childhood that Sheena had and details the relationship that she had with her step-brother Rahul, who has been one of the key witnesses in the case. Indrani is currently in jail facing trial for the alleged murder of her daughter Sheena Bora. The murder came to light in August 2015 after driver Shyamvar Rai, arrested in another case, spilled the beans and Mumbai police arrested Indrani, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna, and Rai. Peter Mukerjea was also arrested later. News18 highlights some of the claims made in this book. Sheenas Schizophrenia Medication According to the new book, in March 2009, a year after Sheena and Rahul had started living together, Indrani forcefully sent her daughter to Guwahati and later to Delhi. During her stay in the capital, Sheena fell ill and was admitted to a hospital. Indrani visited her at the hospital, met her daughters doctor, and got her medication changed. The medicines that Sheena consumed from after this meeting were sedatives that she did not need. Indrani, meanwhile, called up Sheenas ex-boyfriend in Bengaluru, Kaustabh Saikia and asked her to take Sheena away. Indrani even got Sheenas mobile disconnected and withdrew all the money in Sheenas account about Rs 15,000. Things, however, turned ugly in Bengaluru, and Sheena faced physical abuse at the hands of Kaustabh, after which she got in touch with Rahul through a common friend. Rahul rushed to Bengaluru where he met Sheena, which is when he also got to know about the medication Sheena had been tricked into having Oleanz. When they visited a doctor (on Rahuls mother Shabnams advice), the doctor informed them that Oleanz was meant for ailments like depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Soon, after much deliberation, the couple escaped to Dehradun to join Rahuls mother and Sheena eventually started recovering. She shifted to Mumbai and got a job. Mikhail and the Mental Hospital Pachouly talks in detail about how in 2005, Mikhail, who had just completed his Class 10 boards, was called to Mumbai from his hometown Guwahati by Indrani and was to join a school in Bengaluru. Mikhail, however, found it hard to adjust to the environment there, including facing trouble in speaking English. He completed his Class 11 in Bengaluru, but kept requesting his mother to take him back. Following repeated requests, Indrani called Mikhail to Mumbai for a few days and sent an air ticket as always, the book states. As he reached Mumbai, he was put up at a hotel as Indrani wanted to keep the siblings away from each other, the book claims. During his stay at the hotel, Mikhail met Sanjeev Khanna, Indranis ex-husband and co-accused in Sheenas murder. Khanna and Mikhail went out to a pub, where Mikhail was offered tequila shots. The next day, when Mikhail regained consciousness, he found himself locked in a room, hands tied, hair cut short and wearing dark clothes. As he ran out of the room, he realized he was in a hospital. A few doctors met him in the facility, one of whom identified himself as Dr Yusuf Matcheswalla. The hospital was identified as Masina in Byculla and Mikhail was told that he had been admitted by Indrani for his drug problem. Mikhail was forced to spend two months at the facility. As Mikhail needed financial support for his education and lifestyle, this incident, however traumatic, did not lead to the severing of ties with his mother. Mikhail finished school in 2007 from National Institute of Open Schooling in Delhi and went on to get a degree in hotel management. The Nagpur Man With a Bentley Further, the book also claims that Indrani told her stepson Rahul Mukerjea that Sheena had eloped with a man based in Nagpur who owns a Bentley. The book states that just days after Sheena was reported missing in 2012, Indrani told Rahul that her daughter had met a guy who owned a Bentley and that Sheena had moved to Nagpur to be with him and his family. With his fiancee missing, Rahul started recording all conversations he had with his father Peter Mukerjea and step mother Indrani. The book publishes in detail all the conversations that Rahul recorded, one which highlighted Indranis lies about a Nagpur-based man, who was only a creature of Indranis imagination, devised to separate Rahul from Sheena. Further, the book also brings forth Rahuls attempts at uncovering Indranis lies as he talks about Sheena mentioning Nagpur as a trip that her mother was planning. Sheena told me when I met her that Indrani had asked her to go to Nagpur with her, just the two of them, right to have a look at properties. And Sheena said, I dont really want to go with Indrani, because Ill feel awkward, and Ill actually rather go with you, Rahul told his father Peter over the phone. Countering Indrani on her Bentley claims, Rahul tells his father that with just a handful of Bentley owner in the country, it would be easy to find an owner in Nagpur, if at all he existed, to which Peter agreed. Indrani then says that Nagpur was clearly just hogwash since there were two different versions of Nagpur being related to Sheena. Lucknow: Shia Waqf Board Chairman Waseem Rizvi has been sued for Rs 20 crore over his remarks against madrasas in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The defamation notice has been served by Jamiat Ulama-E-Hind, one of the leading Islamic foundations in the country. The organization has sought an unconditional apology for the remarks, which were also criticized by Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. In his letter to the PM and CM, Rizvi demanded the shutting down of madrassas in the country, alleging that they encouraged Muslim students to become terrorists. Rizvi even advised that all madrassa boards be dissolved and replaced by schools affiliated to the CBSE or ICSE, which can offer Islamic education as optional subject. Hitting out at Rizvi, Naqvi had on Thursday said that madrassas contribute to the growth of the country. 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 to madrasa teachers. There are some mad people giving absurd statements about madrasas. The media should not give any hype to such people, he had told News18. Chennai: In an unusual move, the the Madurai district administration on Thursday made Aadhaar registration mandatory for Jallikattu participants. But, soon thereafter, facing protests, the administration decided to withdraw the earlier order. In the process, it did generate a lot of heat and dust. The bull taming sport is scheduled to take place in three places from 14 Jan to 16 January 2018. Over 3000 bulls and 1000 bull tamers will participate in the Jallikattu event that will be conducted in Madurai district. While preparations are underway for the traditional event, the local people were shocked by the 'mandatory Aadhaar' announcement by the district administration. People questioned the need of Aadhaar registration for participating in Jallikattu event. They said there was no need of Aadhaar registration during the previous year. Sources from the Madurai district administration said as scores of people registered for the Jallikattu event they could not accommodate all participants and hence made Aadhaar registration mandatory. By evening, Collector of Madurai district recalled the announcement. The Collector said Aadhaar registration is not mandatory for people who want to participate in Jallikattu event . Last year, there were massive protests forcing the Tamil Nadu government to pass an ordinance on Jallikattu. This time, the Animal welfare board of India urged the state government to comply with the new rules and regulations while conducting Jallikattu. The board also added that its aim is not to hurt cultural sentiments but to prevent cruelty to animals. This year, a group of people wanted to conduct Jallikattu League in Chennai, but that hit a roadblock as the state government did not give an approval. Sources in the government said the venue chosen by the organisers did not comply with the SC guidelines on Jallikattu and also did not like the concept of ranking bulls and players. New Delhi: The months following the death of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in July 2016 were marked with upheaval in the Kashmir valley, particularly in the districts of South Kashmir. As a result, the Indian Army had focused most of its anti-insurgency operations in the year 2017 in South Kashmir. But in the New Year, the action will shift North, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Bipin Rawat said on Friday. After Burhan Wani's death, the situation worsened in South Kashmir. In 2017, our focus was on South Kashmir, which is a heavily urbanised area. We have to ensure that there are no human rights violations, which is why Indian Army's Human Rights record is so good. We sometimes take on casualties because we don't want any violation of human rights. This is because of our rules of engagement. First, we give a chance to the terrorists to surrender. Their parents are also engaged in the surrender efforts. 39 terrorists have been taken in alive, the Army Chief said. The Army Chief also expressed concern over what he described as radicalisation through a misinformation campaign in the Kashmir valley. A lot of radicalisation is happening in Jammu and Kashmir on social media. In schools, some teachers are teaching something that should perhaps not be taught. In schools, you see two maps. One of India, one of J&K. Why should there be two maps? Most misguided youth come from schools where they are being radicalised. Some control also has to be exercised on Madrasas and Masjids that spread misinformation, he said. Washington: Leading immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir, an Indian-descent from Trinidad and Tobago, was arrested on Friday during a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ordered immediate deportation, irking local community in New York. A large number of his supporters, including several Indian-Americans, gathered outside the Jacob Javits Federal Building where he was detained. "Ravi is an acclaimed community leader, a loving father, and a steadfast immigrant rights activist. His detention is entirely unwarranted and reflects the Trump administration's predatory behavior in New York City and across the country. Ravi must be released immediately," said Congressman Joe Crowley, a top Democratic leader. Ragbir, executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC, was detailed by ICE authorities during a routine check-in. Soon, hundreds gathered outside the federal immigration building in downtown New York City to show solidarity with Ragbir. Ragbir arrived in the US from Trinidad and Tobago in 1991 on a visitor's visa. He became a lawful permanent resident in 1994. According to New York Immigration Coalition, Ragbir has lived with the threat of deportation for nearly a decade, as the result of a 16-year old conviction for wire fraud. He was placed into removal proceedings in 2006 and spent 22 months in immigration detention before being released in February 2008. During immigration detention and since his release, Ragbir has worked tirelessly to end the use of immigration detention, stop deportations, and secure relief for countless individuals. Previously, ICE officials had granted Ragbir prosecutorial discretion, including a stay of removal that was in effect until next week. Known as a fixture in the immigrant rights movement, Ragbir was awarded the 2017 Immigrant Excellence Award by the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, given to those who show "deep commitment to the enhancement of their community." ICE justified its decision and said he will remain in custody pending removal to Trinidad. "Over the last 12 years, Mr.Ragbir's immigration case has undergone extensive judicial review at multiple levels of the nation's judicial system, including both immigration courts and federal appeals courts," said Rachael Yong Yow, ICE public affairs officer. In each review, the courts have uniformly held that Ragbir does not have a legal basis to remain in the US, ICE said. In an exercise of discretion, the agency had previously allowed him to remain free from custody with periodic check-ins, while his case was under court review, Rachael said. "He has since exhausted his petitions and appeals through the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the US District Court. He will remain in custody pending removal to Trinidad," she said. "In addition to Mr. Ragbir's immigration violations, he has a previous federal conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, rendering him an aggravated felon. He was sentenced to 30 months incarceration, and ordered restitution in the amount of $350,001," said ICE spokesperson. Chennai: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its 100th satellite from the port of Sriharikota on Friday morning, the space agencys last lift-off under the chairmanship of AS Kiran Kumar. On its 42nd mission, ISRO trusted workhorse 'PSLV-C40' carried the weather observation 'Cartosat-2' series satellite and 30 co-passengers (together weighing about 613 kg) at 9.28 am. The 30 other satellites comprise one micro and nano satellite each from India as well as three micro and 25 nano satellites 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 kg. The 28 international customer satellites were launched as part of the commercial arrangements between ISRO and its commercial arm 'Antrix Corporation Ltd'. Scientists would bring down the height by restarting twice the fourth stage of the PSLV-C40 for launch of Microsat satellite, which will be placed in a 359 km 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. My heartiest congratulations to @isro and its scientists on the successful launch of PSLV today. This success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country's rapid strides in space technology to our citizens, farmers, fishermen etc. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018 The launch of the 100th satellite by @isro signifies both its glorious achievements, and also the bright future of India's space programme. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018 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. Fridays launch also marks the first 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. (With PTI Inputs) Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's convoy was attacked with stones during a 'samiksha yatra' in Nandar. The CM escaped unhurt but the security person received injuries. Kumar is on a state-wide 'Vikas Samiksha Yatra' since December 12 to take a first-hand account and review the progress made in various districts on development schemes launched by his government over the years. In December 2017, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav attacked Nitish Kumar over his 'Vikas Samiksha Yatra', saying it was a "scam" wherein crores of rupees from the public exchequer was being splurged on an image-building exercise. Lalu claimed that for every district covered under the yatra, Rs 10 crore was spent from the public exchequer. New Delhi: Attorney General K K Venugopal today said the unprecedented move by the four senior Supreme Court judges in holding a press conference "could have been avoided" and the judges would now have to act in "statesmanship" to ensure complete harmony. Venugopal, who had a meeting with Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra after the press conference, spoke to PTI on much persuasion and expressed hope that all judges, including the CJI, would rise to the occasion and "wholly neutralise" the "divisiveness". "What has happened today could have been avoided. The judges will now have to act in statesmanship and ensure that the divisiveness is wholly neutralised and total harmony and mutual understanding will prevail in future," he said. "This is what all of us at the bar want and I am sure that the judges, including the CJI, will rise to the occasion," he said, but declined to come out with details of his deliberations with the CJI and others. "I had promised to the judges that I would not speak to the media," Venugopal said. Sources said judges, other than the four senior-most ones, also held a meeting during the recess and were concerned about the unprecedented development. Repeated attempts to reach out to the CJI and his office to get his comments on the development did not fructify. New Delhi: If all goes according to plan, two universities in Jammu one state and one central will soon get chairs in the names of RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay and Arya Samaj founder Dayanand Saraswati respectively. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had earlier formed a committee to identify universities that can have chairs in the name of the two Hindu leaders. The committee has sent its recommendations to UGC chairperson DP Singh for final approval after scrutinizing the various available proposals. The three-member committee met on January 10 and January 11 to finalize its recommendations. According to sources in UGC, the committee has recommended four universities for the Deendayal Upadhyay chair and three for Dayanand Saraswati. The University of Jammu is common for the chairs of both these leaders. While Upadhyay was one of the first leaders of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Saraswati was a Hindu religious leader who founded the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reforms movement. A UGC official added, Our universities have chairs named after eminent personalities, thinkers, freedom fighters and leaders. But we do not have one on Deendayal Upadhyay and Dayanand Saraswati. Today, we need to create awareness about their philosophy, their life and times and critique them. The university with a chair in their names would hold workshop, seminars, presentations and symposiums on them. It is important to create awareness about these leaders. The committee has also proposed the names of other universities from Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Maharashtra. Delhi University had also applied for the same but was not approved by the committee. A chair facilitates research and study on the person on whose name it is established. The university may get funds from different organisations and individuals in the name of the chair and the research work it would conduct. The committee considered the quality of proposals, evidence of interest of research in the subject, institutional reputation, grading, courses and departments to consider the proposals of the universities. Turkish authorities have reinstated 1,823 civil servants after finding they had no links to the group blamed for the 2016 failed coup, state-run news agency Anadolu reported Friday. The public sector employees were sacked after being accused of downloading an encrypted messaging app known as Bylock, which the authorities say was used by the movement of US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen who is blamed for the attempted putsch. But late last year, the authorities said that the app had been downloaded by thousands of people without their knowledge. Search Keywords: Short link: New Delhi: The government had suspected a crisis was brewing within the Supreme Court, but no one expected it to snowball into a full blown judicial crisis that saw the top four senior-most judges doing a press conference against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Friday. Top government sources told News18 that the government is likely to distance itself from the crisis, in the hope that the judges will be able to sort it among themselves. This is an internal matter of the judiciary, it is best they solve it themselves, a top source said, adding that Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has received a copy of the dissenting note circulated by Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph. Earlier in the day, in an unprecedented move, the four judges had addressed the media on the controversy over allocation of cases, saying the administration of the top court is not in order and that efforts to convince Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had failed. The administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things less than desirable happened in last few months, Justice Chelameswer had said, adding, Things less than desirable has happened in the Supreme Court. We tried to collectively persuade the CJI so that he takes remedial measures but our efforts have failed. Four of us are convinced that for the survival of democracy, an impartial judge and judiciary is needed. We have seen a lot of wise men but we don't want wise men to tell us later after 20 years that the four of us have sold our souls. We construe this as a responsibility to the nation and we have done it, he said, flanked by his three brother judges. New Delhi: It is not everyday that sitting judges of the Supreme Court hold a press conference to highlight the issues concerning the judiciary. Lashing out at the Chief Justice of India for an incorrect interpretation of the 'Master of the Roster theory' and stating that this media interaction was needed for them to discharge their debt towards the nation, the four senior-most judges have opened a Pandoras box of unanswered questions. News18 attempts to decode the tussle. Who all addressed the media at the SC lawns on Friday? In a judicial first, a media interaction was organised by the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court of India. They were Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph. What did the Judges speak at the conference? Justice Chelameswar who spoke on behalf of the judges said that they were compelled to call a press conference after noticing that the administration of the Apex court was not in order. They said that collective measures were taken to persuade the CJI to take remedial measures, but they "failed." The judges stated that for the survival of the democracy, an independent and impartial probe is needed. The judges had met the CJI on Friday morning to discuss the issue but weren't able to convince him on certain aspects of bench formation. The judges made it clear that they were not doing politics but had to take this step so that 20 years down the line wise men do not say that the four judges had sold their souls. The justices said that current situation was hampering the integrity of judiciary as an institution. What was the basic content of the letter? The judges had made it clear that the reason why this historic press conference was held would be contained in a letter written by the four judges to the Chief Justice of India. The letter has attacked the theory of "CJI being the master of the roster" cited by the CJI while deciding benches. The letter states that the "convention of recognising the privilege of the Chief Justice to form the roster and assign cases to different benches of this court is a convention devised for the efficient functioning of the court but it is not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual, over his colleagues." Later, the four judges have also stated that "there have been instances with cases with far reaching consequences for the nation and institution has been assigned by the Chief Justice of this court selectively to the benches of their preferences without any rational basis for such assignments. This must be guarded against at all costs." This has brought into the limelight the fact that judges are not pleased with the manner of benches being formed in the SC. Every case in the SC is heard by a bench of judges decided by the CJI so that the problem of "bench hunting" by the applicant does not arise and there is smooth functioning of the court. Why is the 'master of the roster' theory being criticized? In November 2017, after a dramatic exchange of arguments and war of words in the court room, the CJI led constitution bench had declared that the CJI is the master of the roster and established his dominance therein. The 5 judge constitutional bench declared that it is the prerogative of the Chief Justice of India to decide what case has to be heard by which judge. This order by the CJI-led-bench annulled an order passed by a two-judge bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar merely a day ago to constitute a bench of five senior most judges of the SC to hear a corruption case on November 13, 2017. However, the CJI ruled that no one can ask him to form any bench. In which corruption case did this theory arise? Was it felt that CJI should not be a part of the bench? This was the medical college scam case. The FIR in the corruption case, investigated by the CBI, alleged that a conspiracy was hatched by certain persons, including a former Odisha HC judge and a hawala leader to bribe SC judges hearing the case of a debarred private medical college. CJI Mishra was leading the bench which had heard and decided the case of the medical college in question. In its order, the constitution bench recorded that the CJI is indeed the first among equals on the judicial side, but on the administrative side, he is the master of the roster. Now, this case arose from two separate petitions filed by Supreme Court advocate Kamini Jaiswal and NGO Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms. Both petitions had sought an SIT probe into the corruption case. Both pleas said Chief Justice Misra should not be part of any proceedings, both administrative and judicial, in the case. Justice Chelameswar's Bench, which heard Ms. Jaiswal's petition, found the allegations in the FIR disturbing and ordered a five-judge Constitution Bench to convene on November 13, but soon CJI Mishra constituted a separate bench and ruled the master of the roster doctrine. This case was later dismissed by the CJI led bench and a cost of 25 lakhs was imposed on the petitioners. Which are the recent cases where the CJI had formed benches which did not go down well with other judges? Apart from the Medical college scam case, the other case where the composition of a bench was the bone of contention among the judges was the hearing of a plea seeking an independent probe into the death of Justice Loya. Maharashtra-based journalist BR Lone filed an independent plea seeking a fair probe into the mysterious death of Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin encounter case in which various police officers and BJP President Amit Shah were named as parties. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud on 11 January, took note of the submission seeking an urgent hearing on the plea for a probe into Loya's death. The CJI then formed a bench headed by Justice Arun Kumar Mishra to hear the case. However, there were murmurs that Justice Mishra should not be hearing the case. But still, the bench as decided, heard the case today and termed it a "serious matter." The top court said, "This matter requires bi-party hearing rather than exparte". A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar asked Maharashtra Government counsel Nishant R Katneshwarkar to file the reply by January 15. Is there dissent among the Collegium members? The Collegium system is one where the Chief Justice of India and a forum of four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court recommend appointments and transfers of judges. However, it has no place in the Indian Constitution. The system was evolved through Supreme Court judgments in the three judge's case (October 28, 1998). Now cracks started appearing in the Collegium when in August last year, Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior-most SC judge who was part of both collegiums for selection of SC judges and HC judges had a war of words with Justice Khehar and reminded him of SC rulings about composition of the collegium when the CJI threatened to bypass him and extend the collegium. In a letter to the CJI, Justice Chelameswar has spoken of how collegiums were selecting judges on personal requests of participants, and how successive CJIs had "treated members of the collegium as supplicants". Later, when CJI Mishra took over the mantles from Khehar, in October 2017, CJI Mishra put up an agenda for the collegium's consideration stating that from now on all decisions of the Collegium along with the decisions would be made available online with reasons for elevation or non-elevation, so that transparency is maintained. However, a few of the judges who addressed the media today, had echoed their dissent then. Justice Lokur, Gogoi and Joseph had then said that it could not be a tool to indirectly harm the reputation of those who failed to meet the fluid suitability criteria. "Making public the decision to reject their names could be seen as an adverse personal remark on these judicial officers and advocates," said the justices then. What is the Memorandum of Procedure? In today's letter written by the four judges to the CJI, it has been stated that "there should be no further delay in finalising the memorandum of public procedure in the larger public interest. When the MOP was a subject matter of a constitution bench, it is difficult to understand as to how any other bench could have dealt with the matter." This basically throws open the question on what is the MoP being referred to here is? Now, Supreme Court judges are selected by the SC collegium a body of Indias five top judges headed by the CJI. The collegium sends its recommendations to the law ministry, which obtains a background check on the selected candidate from the Intelligence Bureau and a final nod from the Prime Ministers Office, after which the appointment is notified. In 2014, Parliament had passed the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, which sought to end the two-decade-old practice of judges appointing judges through collegiums, but the SC struck it down as unconstitutional on October 16, 2015. Later that year, the same bench, headed by Justice JS Khehar, ruled in favour of formulating a new MoP for greater transparency in appointment of judges. It asked the government to finalise the procedure in consultation with the CJI. However, the deadlock has never been over which had severely affected the appointment of judges. The judicial crunch could turn more severe with seven more SC judges, including Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, retiring this year. The earliest retirement that of Justice Amitava Roy will be on March 1. Why is the MoP still stuck? Union Minister of State for Law and Justice P.P. Chaudhary recently apprised the Parliament of the tussle between the Law Ministry and the government over the MoP. The government highlighted the need for transparency, a separate secretariat, eligibility criteria and mechanism to deal with complaints. However, Collegium sent its finalised proposal on the draft on March 13, 2017, and dismissed the idea of a government veto on names recommended by the Collegium on grounds of national security. Who will be the next CJI and when? CJI Dipak Mishra would be in office till October 2, 2018. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who was one of the dissenting judges to hold the press conference on Friday, would be in office till November 17, 2019, followed by Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde who would be in office until April 23, 2021. Former High Court judges and legal luminaries have expressed concern and disappointment after four sitting judges of the Supreme Court held an unprecedented press conference over allocation of cases in the top judiciary. At the press meet, Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior-most judge in the top court, said the administration of the top court is not in order" and that efforts to convince Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had failed". Chelameswar sounded caution over the survival of democracy" and replying to a question on whether the CJI should be impeached said it was for the nation to decide". Apart from J Chelameswar, other sitting judges present included Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph, who rank third, fourth and fifth in the order of seniority, respectively. Soon after the press conference, CJI Dipak Misra met Attorney General KK Venugopal, while sources said the government is not likely to intervene anytime soon. As it happened. Read all the Latest News , Breaking News , watch Top Videos and Live TV here. Its been ages that you are planning a trip with your childhood sweethearts or college gang of girls or the colleagues that became soul sisters along the way. However, due to one reason or the other, that trip just doesnt come to fructify. If you are seriously thinking about giving yourself this much-needed and much-anticipated girl-time, then heres a step by step plan to ensure you are actually packing bags by the extended weekend that comes with Republic Day 26th January 2018. 1. Create a WhatsApp Group and Name it 26-27-28 Well we are not talking about anyones mistaken vital stats here, but your travel dates i.e. 26th January, 27th January and 28th January 2018. Include only those friends who you know wont dampen spirits of others or play spoil sport. 2. Get Things Rolling Start the discussion with the travel destination that you wish to explore around your city outskirts to make the most of your time during this republic weekend. 3. Decide Drill down to the travel destination and the travel experience you wish to explore. It could be sightseeing or a wildlife safari, day or two at the beach or amidst some forest hill resort. Get everyones nod and come down to a common destination. 4. Book a Hotel And before someone just tries to pull out, ask everyone to pool in money and book your stay. If you are not a lavish spender, then it could be your Airbnb or OYO Rooms, Indias version of Airbnb, to enjoy your time together in an apartment. Or to make this girls time memorable invest in a luxury stay that youll cherish forever. Remember, money you can earn anytime later. 5. Pack Your Bags Once you decide and book your hotel, ensure you start packing your girly bags well in advance and live this travel time with your gang of girls to the fullest. Also, sort out whos bringing what? Trust Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to always amaze and leave you stunned with her impeccable choice in outfits; and her recent outing in Dubai was no different. The former Miss World, who has long been the ambassador of Swiss watchmaking company Longines, recently attended an event organised by the brand in the beautiful city of Dubai, and left onlookers and fashion police more than impressed with her chic, feminine yet classy sartorial choices. Styled by celebrity stylist Aastha Sharma, the actress, who showed up in a cobalt blue, one-shoulder Mark Bumgarner gown featuring a long bow detail on the back, looked absolutely stunning as she posed for the shutterbugs at the event. The diva had her hair neatly done in a side parting with soft waves towards the end and opted for minimal makeup with a dash of blue eyeshadow that accentuated the look. Nude makeup and no accessories went perfectly well with the ensemble. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan surely lived up to her title of former beauty queen in this outfit. Take a look. A post shared by MARK BUMGARNER (@markbumgarner) on Jan 11, 2018 at 6:41am PST Credit: @ Aastha Sharma Credit: @ Aasif Ahmed 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. Bhopal: It seems a change of title and other alternations have failed to change the fortunes of noted filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmaavat which now awaits release on Jan 25 as, after Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh too has declined to allow the screening of the movie-perhaps one of the most controversial in the Bollywood. Speaking to the media, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday made it clear that the movie Padmaavat wont release in MP. On being asked by the media about the screening of Padmaavat, the CM hinted after attending the Surya Namaskar event said that the ban earlier placed on the movie would continue. Jo kaha hai wahi hoga (whatever I said earlier would continue to remain in force), said the Chief Minister. Following Chouhan's suit, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani has also denied the release of the film in his state. In a statement the newly elected CM said, "Gujarat will nor release Padmaavat", causing a major setback to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus. Earlier in November 2017, following vehement cries of dissent from the Rajput community led by Karni Sena, CM Chouhan had disallowed screening of Padmaavati even before the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) took any the final call on the certification of the movie saying the movie tampers with the history. Despite hectic efforts from the movie makers to allay fears of tampering of history in the movie, Karni Sena members pressed for an absolute ban on the film in MP as elsewhere. After lengthy deliberations with the CBFC, the makers of the movie have altered the title to Padmaavat. Meanwhile, due to face assembly elections later this year, the ruling BJP perhaps is no mood to irk influential Rajputs in Madhya Pradesh which is against any screening of the movie which according to them depicts Rajput queen Padmavati in poor light and degrades her dignity. MP government already has announced an award in the honour of queen Padmavati which would be given away in the field of women empowerment. Besides, the state government plans to establish a monument in the memory of the braveheart queen. Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Shobita Dhulipala, Akshay Oberoi, Kunal Roy Kapur, Deepak Dobriyal, Vijay Raaz, Shenaz Treasurywala, Neel Bhoopalam, Amyra Dastur, TriNyari Singh Director: Akshat Verma There are moments of such inspired lunacy in writer-director Akshat Vermas Kaalakaandi that youll find yourself laughing till your sides hurt. One of those involves a wannabe cowboy accidentally shooting himself in the crotch while imitating Feroz Khans moves on screen. Another involves an awkward but hilarious moment of honesty when one of the films protagonists, tripping on a psychotropic drug, tells a transgender person that hes curious to know what shes packing below the waist. I want to see your Australia, your southern hemisphere, your Cape of Good Hope, he says. A similar sort of outrageous humor powered Delhi Belly, which Verma scripted. But Kaalakaandi is especially thin on plot and purpose. Unfolding over a course of a single night in Mumbai, the film follows three separate narrative threads. In one, Saif Ali Khans character is informed by his doctor that hes dying, and only has a few months to live. Having stayed off alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs all his life, he decides to throw caution to the wind and drops acid in the midst of running errands for his younger brothers wedding. In the second track, a young woman (Shobita Dhulipala), all packed and ready to fly out to Boston in a few hours, heads out to a friends birthday party with her boyfriend (Kunal Roy Kapur), only to be trapped at the nightclub when the police orders a drug raid. And in the third track, a pair of small-time crooks (Deepak Dobriyal and Vijay Raaz, both terrific) returning from a job with bags of cash for their gangster boss, hatch a dangerous plan that could make them rich overnight. Things start out promisingly enough, but only the track starring Saif Ali Khan has real meat to it. Its also the funniest of the three, and features a winning supporting character in Sheela, a transgender prostitute (Nyari Singh), whom Saif befriends. The pair outwits an overweight constable and set off an unlikely friendship that is as genuine as it is funny. This track also features Akshay Oberoi as Saifs younger brother, whose visit to an ex for one last booty call doesnt go according to plan. Some of the other supporting characters include Shenaz Treasurywalas ditzy party girl and Neel Bhoopalams legendary gangster-with-one-glass-testicle. Both are good in these roles, but their characters deserved more screen time. As you may have guessed, the three disconnected narratives do meet eventually, but the link feels tenuous and forced. Despite its relatively crisp running time of under two hours, the film runs out of ideas post intermission and seems to go around in circles. Theres a big sangeet celebration that sticks out like a sore thumb, and too much existential bak bak that nearly put me to sleep. Of the cast, Saif Ali Khan gets the best-written role, and hes in top form, unfettered and clearly having a good time. He embraces the madcap requirements of the role, throwing himself into it completely. Its a shame the film cant keep up with him. Im going with two out of five for Kaalakaandi. The humor is hysterical but never consistent. And sadly theres not a lot more to it. Rating: 2 / 5 What's your reaction to Kaalakaandi? Write your review of Kaalakaandi US President Donald Trump grudgingly agreed not to reimpose nuclear sanctions on Iran on Friday, but officials warned that it would be the last time he issues such a waiver. Instead, a senior White House official said, Trump wants Washington's European allies to use the 60 day period before sanctions relief again comes up for renewal to agree tougher measures. At the same time as the renewed waiver was announced, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on 14 Iranian figures and companies, including the head of the country's judiciary, Sadegh Amoli Larijani. Search Keywords: Short link: My immediate reaction is that I feel somewhat shocked and disappointed at the turn of events. The judiciary has come to a very sad pass and all is not well in the highest court of the land or at least it appears so from the issues raised by these four senior-most judges, who I rate as the most honest and upright judges in the Supreme Court today. They felt frustrated at what is going on in the Supreme Court, which according to them impinges on the independence of the judiciary. Now, one may say that going public or going to the media was not the right thing to do because it has never happened in the judiciary. We were always told that a judge is supposed to be a hermit. But times have also changed and even a hermit has to see what is happening around him. These judges are seeing actions taking place that are impacting the independence of the judiciary itself. What we need to focus on are the issues that they are raising. Those issues need to be looked into. If those issues were expressed to the Chief Justice of India, who has been my colleague in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, and he has not responded or done anything to rectify the situation then the blame must surely lie at his door. It seems he has lost the confidence of his Collegium. I dont know how he will function tomorrow without the support of the other four judges in the Collegium. Two of the judges who came out today are headed to the post of CJI soon. Instead of waiting it out, they have chosen to go public and bring out the rot that has set in the judiciary. So, the current CJI must pay heed to what they have to say. He must sit down with all the judges of the Supreme Court. Already, a lot of damage has been done to the Supreme Court. People will lose confidence in the judiciary if he fails to do so. People will wonder whether they will get a fair deal or not if they approach the Supreme Court. People feel that there is an executive interference that is running through the judiciary. I know, it is a reality that these are the times when people are pliable and for a few favors they may be compromised, but this shouldnt overtake or compromise the institution as a whole. You cant afford an erosion of the judiciary itself. The latest move by these four honourable judges is a double-edged sword. It can either lead to the betterment of and save the judiciary or it can lead to domination of the executive and lead to a washing away of the roots of the judiciary. The latter, I feel, will be the end of the rule of law in this country as we know it. I dont know which of these two scenarios will come to pass but I can only pray and expect that this expression of concern will be taken seriously and met without executive interference. Let the Chief Justice resolve this issue so that a message goes out to the people of this country that they are safe in the hands of the Supreme Court. If I was the Chief Justice, I would call a full court meeting tomorrow. Take, for example, the selective assignment of judges to certain cases. This is a very serious issue and one of national importance. If the allegation is that cases are hushed up and assignments are made according to likes and dislikes, then it must be rectified. If I am the Chief Justice and I am sincere, honest and do not have any vested interest, I will tell all the judges that assignments will be done by me and my two senior colleagues. Of course, the CJI is the master of the roster, but he is not there to fix the roster arbitrarily according to his likes or dislikes. My advice to the CJI is to call a meeting tomorrow and ward off all these apprehensions. Chief Justice Dipak Misra, you must now repair the damage. (Justice Bashir Ahmed Khan is a former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court) As told to Uday Singh Rana It is very unfortunate that the internal dispute of the judiciary was brought out in this manner publicly. What the four judges have done today by holding the press conference to bring out their dispute in public is that theyve denigrated the institution of judiciary. There are reasons for people to be aggrieved with the system but unlike other wings the executive and the legislature the judiciary doesnt discuss its disputes in public. It is bound to protect its own integrity. By this I dont mean to imply that Im supporting the Chief Justice of India. The four judges have got good reasons to challenge the monopoly of the CJI. But they should have challenged him in the confines of the four walls of the judiciary. Going to the press is the last resort. And if the four judges have taken this last resort it also says that there is something seriously wrong with the judiciary. But I wish these issues were settled internally. The required changes within the system should have been brought about internally. There have been disputes within the members of collegiums earlier as well, and there have been serious disputes between CJI and other members of the Supreme Court. But none of these cases were brought about publicly. The judiciary survives on public confidence. People believe that the judiciary is behaving judiciously. But public belief in our system will definitely be damaged by todays press conference. Todays press conference will give the other two wings of the country legislature and the executive enough ammo now to attack the judiciary. I am very saddened that the institution that has survived unblemished for the last 70 years, since it was founded after the countrys independence, has run into such times. (As told to Suhas Munshi. Santosh Hegde is a former Supreme Court judge. Views are personal.) Bhopal: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has given a call to RSS workers to 'embrace' weaker sections of society including tribal communities and Dalits. Bhagwat made the comments at the inauguration of the RSS' Madhya Bharat Prant convention at Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. The statement of the RSS chief assumes significance as Madhya Pradesh is slated for elections later this year. He also shared the dais with Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan. He asked people from affluent sections of society to visit households of the poor on Makar Sankranti and offer them til-gud, offering normally exchanged on the festival in North India. Bhagwat, especially after anti-Dalit violence at Bhima-Koregaon in Maharashtra recently, has been pressing for bridging the divide between the upper caste communities and the marginalised sections of society. Addressing the gathering on Thursday, Bhagwat claimed that India might be home to people from various caste, creed and ethnicity but we should work for unity and integrity. We are one, a belief part of our culture but mere messages and preaching wont do, this should be translated into action, he said. Stressing further on his SC/ST outreach initiatives, Bhagwat urged volunteers to greet everyone on Makar Sankranti including vegetable vendors, servants, barbers and so on. He urged them to do the same on Rakshabandhan and Diwali. If the same is done till next year, the Ekatm ideology of Adi Shankaracharya would materialise, he said. Following Bhagwats statement, Chouhan from the dais announced that he will visit poor families on Makar Sankranti. Bhagwat, apart from meeting BJP officebearers and affiliate bodies of the RSS, also plans to meet commoners on Friday. As the BJP eyeing fourth successive win in Madhya Pradesh faces assembly polls later this year, Bhagwat has been camping Madhya Pradesh apparently aiming to devise ways to rein in discontent from various sections of the society. Bhagwat is presently camping in Vidisha, around 60km from Bhopal, as part of two-day RSS convention of Madhya Bharat Prant. Prior to this, he was engaged in number of activities at Ujjain, including the inauguration of Bharat Mata statue. Kolkata: The BJP Yuva Morcha supporters, part of a 8-day bike rally, were allegedly attacked by Trinamool Congress supporters as the two-wheelers were making their way from the BJP party office on Central Avenue to Swami Vivekananda's house in Hedua on Friday. The incident occurred around 11:15 am leaving 14 BJP supporters injured. No arrests have been made so far. The TMC, however, has denied the allegations. TMC leader Partha Chatterjee said, The Government will comply with the decision of the High Court, but it is the duty of the organisers to keep the peace. Their only job is to be a success with the media. On Wednesday, a single judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court allowed the BJP's Yuva Morcha to take out an 8-day two-wheeler rally in the state. The bike rally, which was earlier not granted Police permission, won the fight in the Calcutta High Court. The State Government had appealed to the division bench on Thursday challenging the earlier single bench order to allow the week-long BJP bike rally. The rally started from the Digha sea coast in East Midnapore district of Bengal on Thursday and will travel to Cooch Behar in North Bengal on 18 January covering several districts en route. The rally, termed as Pratirodh Sankalp Abhigyan, is aimed to spread the message on atrocities in Bengal in recent times. The stopover in Kolkata on Friday coincided with the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda with the BJP bike rally setting out to Swami Vivekanandas ancestral house. Meanwhile, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee and his supporters also made their way to pay homage to Swami Vivekananda at the same venue in the afternoon. BJP alleges their workers were attacked on Friday morning at Binani Bhavan in Girish Park where the Yuva Morcha bikers had put up the previous night. The bikers were setting out to the BJP party office when they were allegedly attacked by TMC supporters. The second round of attacks took place barely a kilometer away from the BJP party office. High Court observer Ravi Shankar Dutta, who was delegated to track the developments of the bike rally, was also attacked. While upholding Wednesdays single bench order, the division bench also mandated that two special officers should monitor the rally and keep the court informed. Duttas car was smashed with rods and bricks say his driver and other passengers travelling with him. They kept pleading that he did not belong to any political party, but their pleas went unheard. An injured Dutta made his way to the Calcutta High Court to report the matter. BJP Leader Dilip Ghosh vowed to fight back with protests in the hours to come. The protests started with a sit-in demonstration in the afternoon at Gandhi statue before Dilip Ghosh and other BJP leaders proceeded to meet the Governor KN Tripathi and apprise him of the situation. When the court observer was attacked, what security do we have? We will protest in front of several police stations tomorrow to reflect Police inaction in controlling the violence. We are truncating the bike rally at the moment as Police are not able to control the rally. The BJP is not taking things lying down. The fight between the BJP and TMC is set to intensify even as the Calcutta High Court division bench including Acting Chief Justice has said that the bike rally can resume its journey after two days. The rally restarts on January 15. Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday said BJP stalwart Eknath Khadse, who has been in sulk since he was made to step down in a land grab case in 2016, would not remain with the party for long and that he has already begun cosying up to the NCP. Speaking to reporters in Jalgaon in north Maharashtra, Raut said Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray would take the final call in case Khadse wished to join the Sena. "Nowadays, Khadse seems to have become closer to (NCP leader) Ajit Pawar and the latter too is responding to Khadse. This indicates Khadse will not remain with the BJP for long," Raut said. Though Khadse was responsible for breaking the 25-year-old alliance between the BJP and the Sena, I have a soft corner for him, the Sena leader said. Meanwhile, Leader of opposition in legislative council Dhananjay Munde of NCP alleged that the BJP came to power with the support of OBCs but is now doing "injustice" with them. Speaking in Jalna, Munde said the BJP didn't do justice with former minister Eknath Khadse and late Gopinath Munde. "The NCP is the only party who gave the rightful share to OBC community," he said. Recalling that NCP chief Sharad Pawar was the "first leader to implement the recommendations of Mandal Commission," Munde said NCP leaders Sunil Tatkare, Jaydutt Kshirsagar, Ganesh Naik, Chhagan Bhujbal were OBC faces "who got an opportunity to serve people due to Pawar". Though the BJP government instituted an OBC ministry, it has not appointed a minister from the OBC community. The BJP is merely doing a lip service, he alleged. Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may not have made much headway in actualising her goal for a pan-India anti-BJP Federal Front. But her efforts in reaching out to young turks in the countrys political circle have set off fresh speculation. Pleased with the Gujarat election results where the BJP slipped to the double-digit mark of 99 from its earlier strength of 115, Banerjee was quick to call up Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) Hardik Patel and congratulate him. I called him for his remarkable job at this young age, Banerjee had said. Terming the results as a moral defeat for the BJP in Gujarat, the Trinamool Congress chief also personally congratulated Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, who won as an Independent candidate, and OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who won on a Congress ticket. Speaking to News18 over phone, Mevani said, It was a pleasure to receive a call from Mamata di. She congratulated me. Asked whether he has any plans to visit Kolkata, he said, As of now, no. Her geniality with other anti-BJP leaders like AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has led many to believe that Mamata could be carefully surging ahead in projecting herself as the most credible anti-BJP face in the country, especially after Sonia Gandhi passed the baton of Congress leadership to son Rahul Gandhi. With Rahul at the helm of the Congress, Trinamool Congress leaders say that Mamata is not too keen yield the opposition space to him. She (Mamata) wanted to take the lead as an opposition leader ever since there was a change in the Congress leadership, a senior Trinamool leader said. The clear shift in Trinamools stand was evident after party MP Derek OBrien, in a carefully scripted statement, said, Most of the young leaders are getting in touch with Trinamool Congress supremo for her guidance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In Parliament, too, both Congress and Trinamool were heard raising different issues. That Banerjee is willing to take her chances even with bickering BJP allies was evident when she reached out to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray during her visit to Mumbai. Uddhav, accompanied by his son Aditya, met Banerjee at a South Mumbai hotel and spent about an hour discussing politics and administrative cooperation. There are, however, some in Banerjee's party who think that like the Federal Front, her efforts to woo youngsters may not cut ice since most young MPs either belong to the BJP or its allies. These lawmakers include like Poonam Mahajan, Abhishek Singh, Rajesh Chudasama, Savitri Thakur, Raksha Khadse, Anju Bala and Priyanka Singh Rawat from the BJP, Chirag Paswan from the Lok Janshakti Party and NCPs Heena Gavit. Another young leader, Dushyant Chautala of the INLD, is believed to be unwilling to support Mamata because of her unclear stand on the Congress. INLD spokesperson Dalbir Dhankar said his party wont support those close to the Congress. We will not support any party which is close to the Congress. We left the BJP and the Congress because we wanted to form an anti-BJP, anti-Congress front. We support Mamatas strong anti-BJP stand, but she needs to come clear on the Congress. While it is clear that the countrys anti-BJP brigade would focus on young turks for building a strong anti-saffron mood in run-up to the 2019 elections, it is still a matter of speculation on whether Mamata and Rahul would move in opposite directions to achieve that goal. Lucknow: Family members of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mukhtar Ansari on Thursday alleged the politician is a victim of political conspiracy after he was taken back to the Banda jail only two days after he was admitted to Lucknow's SGPGI hospital following a heart attack. The gangster-turned-politician suffered a heart attack inside the jail premises on Tuesday. Following Mukhtar's hospitalisation, his wife Afsa was also admitted to hospital after she also complained of uneasiness. His son Abbas Ansari, MLA from Ghosi, alleged that doctors were acting under pressure from the government and discharged his father in just two days after his admission. Speaking News18, Abbas said, "My father has undergone angiography, his artery was cut and it as a very painful procedure overall. In such a condition doctors do not let the patient event for at least 60 hours. I requested to the director of PGI (Lucknow) but he said, without taking any names, that it is a matter of my job." "A lot of state ministers and central ministers had called the director and asked to move my father back to jail as soon as possible," he added. "My father is so weak that he cannot even walk or stand, I have changed his clothes myself, but the government is not concerned about his health, even on humanitarian grounds. Also, my father, who just underwent angiography, was forced to leave for Banda in an ambulance without any doctor or a compounder. Who will be responsible if anything goes wrong?" he asked. While on his way back to Banda, Abbas said, "No one was allowed to accompany my father in the ambulance due to security reasons. What kind of threat will a father have from his son? He is a heart patient and he needed more rest but the government was adamant on sending him back." "I had requested CM Yogi Adityanath to make arrangements for my father's security; also my uncle Afzal will be seeking time to meet Adityanath soon. However, the double standard of BJP government is now exposed but they keep harping on 'sabka saath sabka vikas'. This government is depriving an MLA of his basic rights by not letting him undergo proper medical treatment. Right now I am concerned about my father's deteriorating health condition though we are consulting our lawyers for future course of action. If something goes wrong, BJP government will be fully responsible for it," he added. As per the Chief Medical Superintendent, PGI, Mukhtar's angiography report and ECG were normal and he was kept under observation on Wednesday. During the two-day stay at PGI, he was reported normal by the team of doctors who were attending him. Wondering why all Navy officials need to stay in posh South Mumbai, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said "not an inch" of land would be given to Navy to build flats or quarters in the area. Gadkari's public displeasure comes in the backdrop of the Navy declining permission for building a floating jetty at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai. The minister is known to speak his mind. And controversies often follow suit. Here, we have put together instances from the past when the Minister's comments caused an uproar on the social media: 1) Nitin Gadkari on comparing Swami Vivekananda's IQ level to that of Dawood Ibrahim In 2012, Gadkari hurt the sentiments of many when he compared the IQ level of Swami Vivekananda to that of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. While addressing a press conference over equal rights for men and women, Gadkari had said, "As per psychology, if we compare the IQ level of Swami Vivekananda with that of Dawood Ibrahim, then it could have been almost the same. But Vivekananda used it in nation building, brotherhood and spiritualism, while Dawood used that in excelling in the crime world." 2) A govt of "Ram Bhakts", says Gadkari The senior BJP leader in 2015 in Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad, while talking about the "Ram-Janki Marg", connecting Ayodhya with Janakpur in Nepal, said the government at the Centre is of "Ram bhakts" and for those who shout slogans of "Jai Shri Ram." "This is a government of 'Ram bhakts', government of those who shout 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans. Hence I promise you that Ram Van Gaman Marg will also be upgraded to a national highway and the work will commence in four months." 3) Gadkari on punishing the individuals who seek bribe Early last year, Gadkari sparked yet another controversy when he said the indiviuals who don't do their work properly or seek bribe should be hit. "I'm the government. I'm telling you, hit them if they don't do their work properly. Media will twist my statements, but please understand the context. If you indulge in bribery and corruption, the people will not spare you. That's because we demand transparency, and a corruption-free system, he had reportedly said. 5) Gadkari on helping Asha Parekh get the Padma Bhushan Giving a filmy twist to actress Asha Parekh's prestigious Padma Bhushan award, the leader claimed that the star had approached him seeking a recommendation for the award. In April 2017, Gadkari had reportedly said that Parekh chased him for the award due to her massive contribution to the Indian film industry. Addressing the leader's comments, Parekh replied saying she was "hurt. "It was not the right thing for him to do. But I took it with a pinch of salt. It didnt matter to me... Controversies are a part of the film industry, she said. 6) Niting Gadkari opposing the release of 'Padmaavat' Adding spark to the much-in-trouble movie 'Padmaavat,' Gadkari, adding fuel to the fire had in November 2017 said the freedom of speech is not absolute and that "the filmmakers must not distort the history." 7) Gadkari and the bribe-for-votes remark. The election season of 2014 saw another row involving the former BJP president. During a campaign in the Maharashtra Assembly polls in 2014, while making a speech Gadkari said, " "Now, I am watching your faces and I have some skill of predicting the future by way of face reading. You have an opportunity of "Laxmi darshan" in next 10 days. Special people to get foreign made, ordinary people to get the local brand." Soon after, the Election Commission had issued a show cause notice to the leader demanding a reply over the same. In an exclusive interview to CNN-News18s Akshata Kumbar, Karnatakas Large & Medium Industries & Infrastructure Development Minister RV Deshpande said Congress party needs a healthy blend of old and new. Much like a pickle only gets better with time, explained the minister highlighting the importance of old leaders in the party, Congress needs experienced hands. The minister also said that PM Narendra Modi is not likely to campaign in the same manner in Karnataka as he did in Himachal and Gujarat. For Deshpande, the party election manifesto is like Geeta, Bible, and Quran. Here is the edited transcript of the interview. Ahead of Karnataka Assembly Election, how is Congress preparing for the big fight? Congress has already begun its work at the grassroots level. I think it is happening for the first time in the party that booth committees have been formed, panchayat ward committees have been formed, where our volunteers go door-to-door and check whether the government programmes are reaching the people or not and take feedback. So, grassroot level work has started for the first time in the party. I think this is going to help us in fighting these elections. We have seen Congress is very active on social media. Whether its attacking the rival party or spreading messages and agenda of the party. How is social media responding to the party? Social media has become a weapon for all parties. Congress party is making the best use of social media, be it at the national level or state. We are using it in a democratic way. The chief minister has been touring the northern parts of Karnataka now and will move on to southern part of the state. The state party president also started his tour with his team and he is also doing a good job. I should give compliments to the General Secretary Shri Venugopal, and the other four secretaries who have been nominated. They have done a really great job and are all good taskmasters. They are getting the work executed and that is very important. Social media is handled by actress turned politician Ramya, do you think she has been able to effect a change in the perspective of youth towards Congress? Ramya has played an important role. The way youth is responding to Rahul ji and the party, I compliment her for that. We find support from youth in a big way now. After Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, BJP seems unstoppable at the moment. What is your strategy for countering them in Karnataka? In Himachal, yes, in a way they have won the elections. But when you come to Gujarat, they did not win the election. They, in fact, lost the election. They were dreaming 140-146 seats and they could barely manage to get to 100. It is the home state of the Prime Minister but they have lost miserably. I think Congress or Rahul Gandhi have not lost, we have won. Modi and his party leaders will campaign and they have already started. I dont think the Prime Minister will be touring Karnataka the way he did in Himachal and Gujarat. We have plans to counter BJP in a democratic way and the team we have, I dont think any other political party in the state has, forget about the state. The Congress has experienced leaders from all sections of the society. I don't think any other party has this sort of calibre or seniority. Congress lost its ground in many states, do you think Rahuls leadership will be able to revive the Grand old party? I know Rahul very well, he has the commitment and is willing to take on challenges. He has a lot of affection for the poor, the farmers, and he is determined to do something. At the same time, he has become the national president of the Congress so his responsibility has also gone up. He has a good team but again, he has to now select whatever faces he wants, and I am told that it is going to a mix of old and new. Youth has to be encouraged. Youth should campaign, but you cannot forget the senior people. They are very experienced people. Youve heard about pickles? Pickles become tastier when they are stored for some time. Likewise, there has to be a mix of old and new in the party. I am sure Rahul Gandhi will definitely go by that. BJP is going all out in the Karnataka Assembly elections. They have star campaigners like Yogi Adityanath, Amit Shah, Arun Jaitley and Modi himself. Do you think Congress lacks in star campaigners compared with BJP? BJP will not leave any stone unturned to come to power in Karnataka. They will do everything they can, but today what they are doing is they are trying to polarise. They are trying to fetch communal feelings and that is not good. Dont think that these tricks by BJP will succeed. Talking about star campaigners, we also have many names, like, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Sachin Pilot. And Mani Shankar Aiyar? Will he campaign this time? I dont know, he may come but I dont know. This depends on the high command. Our CM, no matter what anyone says, is the most popular leader in Karnataka. I think he (Siddaramaiah) along with Rahul ji and some other leaders of the state government should be able to manage the affairs extremely well. Will Sonia Gandhi campaign? She might have stepped down from the party presidents post, but she will definitely campaign. We will request her to campaign, she is very popular in Karnataka. If you come to power, what will be your priority areas of work? The manifesto has been prepared, so this manifesto will be our Geeta, Bible, and Quran. I am proud to say that 99% of the promises and commitments made in the 2013 manifesto were kept and more than 155 have been implemented. As far as implementation of the decisions and manifesto is concerned, I think the Siddaramaiah government has done a really good job. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister recently took a dig at the Karnataka CM when he said farmers committing suicide in Karnataka was the highest in your regime and he also mentioned honest officers being transferred. What do you have to say about farmers suicide in the state? First of all, saying farmers suicide has been highest in this regime is wrong. It is unfortunate that some farmers have committed suicide. This government has taken a lot of initiatives to see no more farmers commit suicides. Siddharamiah government is the only government in the country, which started giving loans of up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers without interest. Between Rs 310 lakh a 3 percent interest was charged and just recently Gujarat adopted it. Dont know if they implemented it, but in the rally, the CM and the PM were there, they were mentioning the scheme which we introduced four years back. The Karnataka CM also made statements like he will make Lingayat a religion and he was demanding a state flag. The opposition has alleged that Congress is indulging in vote bank and promoting separatism what do you have to say to that? As far as Lingayat issue is concerned, it is not the CMs move. There have been some differences among our Lingayat leaders, and some feel that Lingayat in itself is a religion. But ultimately the state government has no powers. It is only a recommendation, and CM has not intervened into the matter nor has he instigated anybody to do that. He only said that if consensus arrives he will look into it. I dont think CM has any motive to bring division among communities. As far as state flag is concerned, the Constitution does not bar it. I dont think there is anything wrong in that. A national flag is a national flag, we all are proud of it, we salute it. Recently the Supreme Court modified its order on National Anthem by not making it mandatory to sing the anthem in movie halls. What do you have to say on that? We should sing and respect the national anthem, but is it necessary that it should be sung in cinema theatres? No. Singing the anthem in theatres will water down its importance. In that sense, what the Supreme Court has done is the right decision. Today Bengaluru is being considered as the Silicon Valley of India. You played a key role in bringing out one of the best Industrial policies in the country. We recently did a story decoding BDAs master plan for Bengaluru, where they will add 1 crore more people to the city by 2031. This obviously requires a huge capital investment but well see a decrease in the forest area as well. It also means they need to create extra space for households, water demands will go up and the list is endless. What are the government and BDAs plan regarding that? Prosperity to a nation or to a state can only come with investments. Younger generation want jobs. Also, the state requires revenue. We are getting the investment not because I am the minister. It is Karnatakas strength and successive governments had a foresight. Karnataka is a visionary state, we have brought the first industrial policy, first IT policy, first start-up policy, first automobile policy, first infrastructure policy. Bangalore is not just the city of Karnataka but has got the attention of the world. The only problem is that the vehicle population has increased, it has not kept pace with the issue of traffic. But what Siddaramaiah government has done, I dont think anyone has been able to do that. The amount of money that has been released for drains, roads, developments, it is something unimaginable and it has never been done before. The only problem is, the government has not taken the publicity for that. My friend said Bangalore roads are very nice. But people are complaining about potholes. People were complaining about potholes two months back. You ask today, no one will complain about potholes. But the quality of roads has to improve. I think the Bangalore city corporation should take up this matter on priority. Why do roads go bad? We have to find an answer to do that. We are coming up with a convention centre near the International airport, we have called for a business park which the cabinet has already approved and we have called for tenders. The first phase of metro work has been completed, and the second phase has started. Government is not doing a formality. Sometimes tenders with higher premiums are approved only to see that public at large in Bangalore gets peace of mind. New Delhi: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Friday described the concerns expressed by four Supreme Court judges over the institution's functioning as "extremely important", and also sought investigation into the death of judge BH Loya by the "highest level" of the apex court. Making a brief statement at a press conference, Gandhi also said, Justice J Chelameswar's remark that democracy will not survive in the country unless the Supreme Court was preserved, was "extremely important" and that it needed to be "looked into carefully". Special CBI judge BH Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Seikh encounter case, had died allegedly under mysterious circumstances in 2014. The apex court had on Friday agreed to hear two separate pleas seeking independent probe into the death. BJP chief Amit Shah, an accused in the case, was discharged. One of the four senior-most judges, who held an unprecedented press conference, had said that the matter involving Judge Loya's death was one of the issues underpinning their differences with Chief Justice Dipak Misra. "They have also made a point about Judge Loya's case. I think that is also something which needs to be investigated properly and looked at from the highest levels of the Supreme Court... All citizens who love the idea of justice, who believe in the Supreme Court, are looking at this issue and it's important that its addressed," Gandhi said. The Congress also issued a statement where it said the issues raised by the four judges were "extremely disturbing" and have "far-reaching consequences for values we hold sacred". After Gandhis press conference, the BJP accused him of trying to get political mileage. "Today we had a press conference which was addressed by four respected judges of Supreme Court. All those issues in the press conference pertained to interior issues of judiciary. It pertained to administrative issues of the highest court in the country. It was an internal affair of the judiciary," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said. Slamming the Congress, Patra said that Indian democracy "has shown the mirror" to the party, and termed its attempt "to fish (for) an opportunity where none existed politically" wrong. "None of us should politicise issues of judiciary and this is an advice to Congress party. The people of this country are watching Congress party exposing itself," he added (With agency inputs) Chancellor Angela Merkel said her conservatives reached a breakthrough deal Friday with Germany's second biggest party, the Social Democrats, to build a new coalition government to give Europe a "fresh start". After more than 24 hours of talks and months of political paralysis, red-eyed party chiefs and their negotiating teams reached an in-principle agreement that could lead to a new government for the biggest EU economy in coming months. In the all-night negotiations in Berlin, the three sides -- Merkel's Christian Democrats, Horst Seehofer of her Bavarian allies the CSU, and the Social Democrats (SPD) of Martin Schulz -- hammered out a 28-page paper as the basis for the formal coalition talks ahead. The hope was to form a new government "before Easter", which falls on April 1, said the CSU's Seehofer. In their joint blueprint, the parties agreed on key policy outlines -- to join EU partner France in a push to "strengthen and reform" the eurozone, to limit the influx of asylum seekers to Germany to around 200,000 a year, and to refrain from tax hikes given the healthy state of state coffers. Merkel voiced relief that the trio of parties had passed a milestone, telling a press conference that "the world is not waiting for us -- we need a fresh start in Europe. A fresh start for Europe is also a fresh start for Germany." European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the German deal was "significant" and "positive" for the EU's future, while Paris also greeted it. Despite the agreement, potential pitfalls remain, including upcoming votes by sceptical SPD delegates and members that could yet derail plans for another left-right "grand coalition" -- the constellation that has ruled Germany for the past four years and remains in charge as a caretaker government. Germany has been in political limbo since a September 24 election in which Merkel failed to win a clear majority -- in part due to the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) which took millions of votes from all major parties. Merkel initially turned to two smaller parties, the Free Democrats and Greens, to form a new coalition government for her fourth term. But when those talks collapsed in November, she had to once more woo a reluctant SPD for a new power pact. Merkel, Seehofer and Schulz went into the talks Thursday warning of major obstacles ahead but also knowing that their political lives were on the line, given their poor election showings. "It would be the end for all three if this coalition does not come about," said Karl-Rudolf Korte of Duisburg-Essen University. The coalition blueprint starts with Europe, pledging to, "in close partnership with France, sustainably strengthen and reform the eurozone so that the euro can better withstand global crises". The plan supports the creation of a European Monetary Fund that could lend to countries in economic crisis, but only pledges to study other Macron ideas, including a common eurozone budget and finance minister. The deal cleared a first hurdle when the SPD's 45-member board approved it. But it could still be torpedoed when 600 party delegates need to approve it at a congress on January 21, or in a final vote by more than 400,000 rank and file members. Scepticism is high after the SPD scored a humiliating 20.5-percent result in the September ballot, its worst of the post-war era. That initially led Schulz to vow to head into opposition to rebuild the party's fighting spirit and voter appeal. The SPD's youth wing chief Kevin Kuehnert said he would embark on a national tour to press his case against a new grand coalition, known as "GroKo" in German political shorthand. The deal "smells strongly of a continuation of the governing style we know from the last grand coalition, which didn't do much good for society or for the SPD," he said. Opinion polls suggest most Germans are less than enthusiastic about a GroKo, with a Focus magazine survey giving it just 30 percent support. Political observers also judge that Merkel, damaged by the poor election outcome and subsequent stalemate, is now in the twilight phase of her reign. "Angela Merkel is past her zenith," Oskar Niedermayer of Berlin's Free University told business daily Handelsblatt. "In the interest of her party's electoral strength, she should not stay in office for the entire legislative term." Search Keywords: Short link: New Delhi: Nepal has launched a new cyber connectivity network with China, a field which till now was dominated by Indian telecommunication companies. Officials told Reuters on Friday that Nepal has joined hands with China to offer internet services to its citizens. Nepal Telecom and China Telecom Global launched their services after they wrapped up the laying of optical fiber cables between Kerung in China and Rasuwagadi in Nepal, about 50 km north of Kathmandu, the companies said. "This will give us an alternative to India for cyber connectivity and ensure uninterrupted connections," Pratibha Vaidya, a Nepal Telecom spokeswoman, told Reuters. "Consumers can now look forward to a reliable service." More than 60 percent of Nepal's 28 million people had access to the internet last year, up from just 19 percent in 2012. China and India have been working to increase their influence in Nepal, a natural buffer between the two countries, by ramping up their investments in roads and hydro-power projects in the impoverished country. In 2016, Beijing agreed to allow Nepal to use its ports to trade goods with third countries, ending the latter's sole dependence on India for overland trade. Nepal last year joined the Belt and Road Initiative, which is China's effort to develop a modern "Silk Road" connecting Asia with Europe, Middle East and Africa by road, railway, sea and air. As part of the initiative, Nepali officials say they are in talks with Beijing over the extension of the Chinese railway network into Nepal from Tibet. (With inputs from Reuters) Islamabad: Pakistan's army chief told a top US general the nation "felt betrayed" at criticism that it was not doing enough to fight terrorism, the military said on Friday, after US President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of "lies and deceit". US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel told General Qamar Javed Bajwa during a telephone call this week that the United States was not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan, the Pakistani army said in a statement. Tension between the United States and Pakistan has grown over US complaints that the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network that target American troops in Afghanistan are allowed to take shelter on Pakistani soil. Trump's administration last week announced the suspension of about $2 billion in security aid to nuclear-armed Pakistan - officially a US ally - over accusations Islamabad is playing a double game in Afghanistan. Islamabad denies this and accuses the United States of disrespecting its vast sacrifices - casualties have numbered in the tens of thousands - in fighting terrorism. The US aid suspension was announced days after Trump tweeted on Jan. 1 that the United States had foolishly given Pakistan $33 billion in aid over 15 years and was rewarded with "nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools". It is not clear what prompted Trump's tweet, which infuriated Pakistani officials and caught the rest of the U.S. administration off guard. The Pakistani statement on Friday did not directly refer to Trump's tweet. "(Bajwa) said that entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed over U.S. recent statements despite decades of cooperation," the army said, referring to the phone call between Bajwa and Votel. The Pakistani assertion that Votel said no unilateral action inside Pakistan was being considered may have referred to the possibility of cross-border U.S. drone strikes and other military missions targeting Taliban and other militant figures outside the border area. In 2016, a US drone killed the then-leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, prompting protests from Islamabad of a violation of sovereignty. And in 2011, a secret American raid in the military garrison city of Abbottabad killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on American cities that prompted the US-led invasion to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan. Since Trump took office, there have been several drone strikes in Pakistan's border region but they have not so far gone deeper into Pakistani territory, though Islamabad believes that is on a menu of punitive actions the U.S. administration is considering. However, the U.S. military is also concerned that the Pakistani army, which effectively runs foreign policy, might close the air and land corridors on which U.S.-led troops and Afghan forces in landlocked Afghanistan depend for supplies. So far, Pakistan has not done so. New Delhi: Days after Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said that the United States and Pakistan have no alliance, the countrys Foreign Office clarified that the two countries continue to communicate on various issues. At a briefing on Thursday, spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said that the two sides are still talking with each other to discuss various issues of mutual interest at different levels. He did not give out more details about the nature of this communication. Faisal also clarified on Khwaja Asifs comments that the two nations were not allies. The foreign minister was expressing his frustration at the unwarranted US accusations against Pakistan and the unilateral decision to suspend the security assistance, despite Pakistans extraordinary sacrifices and contribution in the war against terrorism, The Dawn quoted Faisal as saying. He further said that despite provocative statements made by the US, Pakistan had only made measured ones keeping in mind the impact the relations have on the regions stability. The US has suspended $2 billion military assistance to Pakistan after President Donald Trump tweeted that Pakistan had given nothing other than lies and deceit. But soon after that, defence secretary James Mattis said that the US Central Command was talking to Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa. The US on Wednesday voiced its hopes that Pakistan would demonstrate its willingness to aggressively confront terror groups that operate on its soil, amid reports that Islamabad has suspended intelligence cooperation with America after the Trump administration froze military aid to it. Pakistan's decision to suspend military and intelligence cooperation with America came after President Donald Trumps accusations against Islamabad, the Pakistani media quoted Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan as saying on Thursday. Speaking at a seminar titled 'Contours of Security Environment of Pakistan', Khan said the US was using Pakistan as a "scapegoat" for its failures in war-torn Afghanistan. "Pakistan does not want to put a price on its sacrifices but wants them to be recognised," he was quoted as saying by The Dawn. Oslo: Many Norwegians rejected on Friday a suggestion by US President Donald Trump that they would be more welcome to move to the United States than immigrants from "shithole countries" such as Haiti or African nations. The Nordic country, one of the richest in the world by GDP per capita, was last year named the happiest nation on the planet and is known for a cradle-to-grave welfare state funded in part by large reserves of oil and natural gas. Trump mentioned Norway in derogatory comments about other countries of migration as US senators briefed him on Thursday on a newly drafted bipartisan immigration bill, according to two sources who asked not to be identified. One of the sources who was briefed on the conversation quoted him as saying: "Why do we want all these people from Africa here? They're shithole countries ... We should have more people from Norway." In one of several Twitter posts on Friday, Trump defended his stance on a bipartisan Senate immigration deal, but denied using the vulgar language ascribed to him. "The language used by me at the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," he said. [L1N1P70IR] He also later denied using derogatory language about Haitians. "On behalf of Norway: Thanks, but no thanks," tweeted Torbjoern Saetre, a politician representing Norway's Conservative Party in a municipality near Oslo. Others condemned the US president's comments as inappropriate or racist. "We are not coming. Cheers from Norway," one woman wrote. While hundreds of thousands of Norwegians emigrated to the US in the 19th century, just 502 out of a population of 5.3 million people moved there in 2016, down 59 from the previous year, according to Statistics Norway. "Will there be more now?" the statistics agency asked in a tweet. Government officials, seeking to deflect attention, turned down a chance to comment. "We respectfully decline the opportunity," one government official said when contacted by Reuters. The reference to Norway may have been prompted by Prime Minister Erna Solberg who visited the White House on Wednesday when the president praised Norway for running a trade deficit with the United States and for buying US military equipment. Christian Christensen, an American professor of journalism at Stockholm University in neighbouring Sweden, tweeted: "Of course people from #Norway would love to move to a country where people are far more likely to be shot, live in poverty, get no healthcare because they're poor, get no paid parental leave or subsidized daycare and see fewer women in political power. #Shithole" Before the "shithole" controversy, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt tweeted that, judging by Solberg's visit, "keys to success with Trump is personal charm, a solid trade deficit with the US and buying tons of US military hardware." Solberg, whose office also declined to comment on Trump's remarks, is expected to announce soon an expansion of her cabinet to include Norway's Liberal Party, a centrist group that favours strong environmental policies and more immigration. "The first point of order in the new government declaration: Norway will still not be a shithole country," tweeted Kjetil Alstadheim, the political editor of financial daily Dagens Naeringsliv. Washington: US President Donald Trump cancelled a visit to London scheduled for early this year, saying he was disappointed with the "Obama administration having sold" the US embassy in the British capital. "(The) reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars," Trump said in a tweet late on Thursday. However, the embassy website showed that the decision to move the location was taken months before Barack Obama took office in January 2009. The US Embassy & Consulates in the UK said in October 2008 the embassy would be relocated for security reasons. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!," Trump said on Twitter. Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 The Daily Mail earlier reported the cancellation of Trump's UK visit in which he was expected to inaugurate the new embassy. The United States is leaving behind an imposing 1960 stone and concrete embassy in London's upmarket Grosvenor Square an area known as 'Little America' during World War Two, when the square also housed the military headquarters of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The new embassy on the South Bank is a veritable fortress set back at least 100 feet (30 meters) from surrounding buildings mostly newly-erected high-rise residential blocks - and incorporating living quarters for the US Marines permanently stationed inside. The $1 billion construction, overlooking the River Thames, was wholly funded by the sale of other properties in London. Geneva: The United Nations human rights office on Friday rejected as "racist" and inciting xenophobia the reported remarks by US President Donald Trump describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from "shithole" countries. Trump on Thursday questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as "shithole countries," according to two sources familiar with the comments made in the White House. "These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word one can use but 'racist'," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing when asked about the comments. "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes', whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome," he added. The issue was more than "vulgar language", Colville said. "It's about opening the door to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy lives of many people." Trump had also failed to clearly condemn the "anti-Semitic and racist actions of white supremacists in Charlottesville" at a rally in Virginia last August, Colville said. The programme that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status. In November, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua. It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalize their presence in the United States. Nicaraguans were given until January 2019. "The future of the Dreamers should not be used as a bargaining chip to negotiate the most severe and restrictive immigration and security measures possible. These are human beings, not commodities," Colville said. "Dreamers" is term used for undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children. William Spindler, a UN refugee agency spokesman, declined to comment directly on Trump's purported remarks: "But what I can say is that UNHCR's position is always that people forced to flee war or persecution, and needing asylum, should be given protection by whichever country they are in, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity or place or country of origin," Spindler said. Chinese state television cited officials at the scene in reporting Friday that authorities still have not found any survivors or put out the blaze on the Sanchi. One body has been recovered. (Image: AP) French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that he was "satisfied and happy" that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives had reached a deal with the Social Democrats towards forming a coalition. "I am happy and satisfied that Mrs Merkel can advance towards a coalition government that will be useful and which is awaited by Europe and France," Macron said during a press conference with visiting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Search Keywords: Short link: A Heritage High School junior was shot and killed Thursday night into Friday. As of Friday afternoon, there was no word on any suspects charged in his death. Officers went to the 1800 block of Taylor Street at 11:58 p.m. Thursday on reports of shots fired, Lynchburg police said early Friday in a news release. They found 18-year-old Jordan Keyes suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Tina Parker, Keyes' mother, said Friday she was at home on Taylor Street Thursday night when she heard six or so gunshots from outside, where her son was. She said she rushed outside to find him suffering from numerous gunshot wounds all over his body. Police said Keyes was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital, where he died from those injuries. Parker, 37, said loved ones have been calling and visiting to show their support all day, but she hasn't gotten any sleep. He was a sweet guy, she said of her son. He was respectful. She said she and her family were waiting for his body to come back from an autopsy investigation Friday. Parker and Tyasia Keyes, his sister, said Jordan loved to cook. "He wanted to be a chef, and he wanted to be on Chopped, too," Keyes said, referring to a TV cooking show. She recalled how her brother would cook up batches of food for his friends when they'd come over, and Parker said he'd make her meals whenever she was sick. "I just want them to catch the killer," Parker said. Lynchburg City Schools spokesperson Cindy Babb said Friday that school counselors, social workers, and psychologists are in place to provide support to the students and staff following an event such as this. Police ask anyone with information regarding this crime be it witnessing individuals leaving the area, arguing outside, or anything you believe to be pertinent to this case to contact Detective D.S. Dempsey at (434) 455-6161 or call Crime Stoppers at 1-888-798-5900. Visit the Central Virginia Crime Stoppers website at www.cvcrimestoppers.org to enter a web tip, or text CVCS plus your message to 274637. Mohamed Shams performs widely on the international scene and made his debut at New York's Carnegie Hall in 2015 Renowned Egyptian pianist Mohamed Shams will give two performances in Cairo, the first on 20 January with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra (CSO), and a second on 22 January in a solo recital at Zamalek Cinema. Along with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, which is conducted by Ahmed El-Saedi, the pianist will perform Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15. The CSO will also perform Mozart's Overture to The Magic Flute (K. 622) and Bethoven's Symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. In his solo recital at Zamalek Cinema, Shams will perform several compositions, including Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 "Appassionata" and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 514. Currently based in the United States, Shams is hailed as a deeply impressive pianist of tremendous flair and intellectual strength and a spectacular pianist by international critics. The Egyptian pianist graduated from the Cairo Conservatory with distinction in 2004. Even prior to graduating he had earned distinction by winning first prize at the Brevard Music Festival competition (USA) in 2001 and 2002, which led to an invitation to play with its orchestra, the Transylvania Symphony, in 2003. He also received a Fulbright grant to study for one year in Washington DC with renowned piano soloist and music educator Marilyn Neeley. In 2008, Shams received a full scholarship to study in the masters program at the Manhattan School of Music. Another scholarship, this one in 2011, sent him to the Master of Music program at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in Glasgow. At the Royal Conservatoire, he won the Jock Holden Memorial Mozart Prize, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Competition, the Bamber/Galloway Competition and the Tony and Tania Webster Prize for Russian Music. He was the recipient of the Governors Prize and the David Knox Memorial Prize for outstanding achievement at RCS. He was also awarded the Silver Medal by the Worshipful Company of Musicians in London and second prize at the Beethoven Competition in London. Shams has further won first prize in Mieczyslaw Munz competition, and was awarded the Harold Bauer Award for recognition of outstanding accomplishment, cooperation and promise. As a soloist, Shams has appeared with orchestras in his home country and abroad. He has performed with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, among others. In 2015, he made his debut at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City. Programme: Saturday 20 January at 8pm Cairo Opera House, main hall, Zamalek, Cairo Monday 22 January at 7.30pm Zamalek Cinema, 13 Shagaret El Dor Street, Zamalek, Cairo For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: Four years ago, Gov. Terry McAuliffe entered office with a narrow election plurality, a matchless Rolodex of political and business contacts around the world, and a disco-ball personality that lit up every room he entered, much to the annoyance of the Republicans who ruled the Virginia General Assembly. McAuliffe leaves office almost four weeks shy of his 61st birthday with the same boundless energy and a salesmans flashy record for deals closed, but also something many of his detractors grudgingly acknowledge a legacy of weighty accomplishments, from reviving the Port of Virginia and repairing costly transportation potholes inherited from Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell to leading the states sputtering, defense-heavy economy to new, technology-driven businesses with high-paying jobs. McAuliffe was thwarted in his four-year effort to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. And while he takes pride in restoring the rights of a record 173,000 felons who had done their time, he had to overcome a state Supreme Court ruling that his blanket rights restoration order was unconstitutional. I think he comes out looking good at the end, said Mark J. Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. On Wednesday, the day he spoke to the General Assembly for the final time, the departing governor touted a 5.9 percent growth in state revenues through December, a $270 million deal to extend tolled express lanes on Interstate 95 by 10 miles without costing any taxpayer money, and a $45.2 million investment in a major manufacturing business expansion in Prince George County. The truth of the matter is he was a Democrat who was reasonable on fiscal issues, said Senate Finance Co-Chairman Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R-Augusta, an ally on Medicaid and other health care issues, but to the right of the progressive-minded governor on social issues that resulted in most of the 120 legislative vetoes McAuliffe issued with no small amount of public glee. McAuliffes admirers will say his greatest asset is his high-voltage personality. I think hes probably got the most dynamic personality of anybody in elected office in this country, gushed Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax. Hes a doer hes interested in results. Hes been a truly inspirational leader, House Minority Leader David J. Toscano said after the governors final speech to legislators on Wednesday. Brash style But that personality also may have been his biggest liability in dealing with Republican leaders turned off by his brash style inflected with the accent of his native Syracuse, N.Y. and what they consider an annoying habit of taking credit for their work while showing little appetite for the painstaking details of governing. My relationship with Governor McAuliffe was strained theres no way to get around it, said Speaker of the House Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, elected on Wednesday to succeed longtime Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, who made little effort to conceal his disdain for the Democratic governors freewheeling style and progressive agenda. Cox, also 60, quickly made clear his eagerness to work with Gov.-elect Ralph Northam, who will take the oath of office on Saturday and bring a much more low-key style honed by a political career spent in the Senate, as a senator from the Eastern Shore and then as lieutenant governor. Governor-elect Northam and I just match up better personality-wise, Cox said in an interview. Hes more of a product of the legislature. I do think it will be a very workable relationship. So how did McAuliffe learn to work with a hostile General Assembly to leave a legacy much more substantial than many expected? Economic focus I think they finally realized, This guys serious about economic development, the governor said in an interview. Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg, who chairs the Senate Finance subcommittee on economic development and natural resources, said he told McAuliffe the day before his inauguration four years ago, Governor, as long as you stay focused on economic development and workforce training, we can get along fine. At a meeting of the Virginia Board of Workforce Development last week, Ruff told McAuliffe, Governor, we worked together well on those two issues. The turning point came in his first year at the nadir of McAuliffes quixotic first attempt to expand Virginias Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act in the face of implacable opposition led by Howell and Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City. Bill Howell told me during the transition, You will never get it while Im speaker, the governor recalled. That doesnt mean you dont keep fighting for it. The 2014 battle extended beyond the 60-day assembly session and into a special session that threatened passage of a biennial budget. But the emergence of a deep revenue shortfall unforeseen by McDonnell and Republican legislative leaders, and uncorrected by the new governor set the stage for ending the Medicaid showdown and forcing political adversaries to work together to protect the budget and Virginias precious triple-A bond rating. When the bottom fell out of revenues, that changed the dynamic considerably, said House Appropriations Chairman Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, who, in his first year leading the powerful money committee, evolved from being one of McAuliffes most skilled adversaries to becoming his most important legislative ally on many of the reforms the governor claims as his legacy. Jones and McAuliffe clashed early over Medicaid expansion, including the gubernatorial gamesmanship that attempted to tie the proposal to approval of a $2.1 billion bond plan that included replacing a General Assembly Building that legislative leaders regarded as a public health and safety hazard. But the end of the battle loomed after Hanger, one of a trio of moderate Republican senators backing a plan to expand private insurance coverage of uninsured Virginians, traveled to Suffolk to tell Jones he would not allow the fight to stand in the way of the budget. Consequently, McAuliffe agreed to take the proposal out of the budget but vowed to find a way to expand the Medicaid program without assembly approval, a gambit that Republicans in both chambers blocked after persuading a pivotal Democrat, Sen. Phil Puckett, D-Russell, to retire in order to remove a potential barrier to his daughter winning a full term as a judge. We came close, except for Phil Puckett, the governor said. Ultimately, the legislature would pass two budgets to deal with the shortfall one to avoid a constitutional requirement that would have foreclosed access to the state rainy day fund and another in a special session after the size of the projected shortfall ballooned to an estimated $2.4 billion over the biennium. Willing partner As a result, McAuliffe gradually developed a working relationship with Jones, who called the governor a willing partner on initiatives that mattered most to governance in the remainder of his term transportation and economic development reforms, and a budget that was structurally balanced instead of propped up with one-time funds. I think we developed a trust with one another, the Appropriations chairman said. We were able to sit down and discuss some very sensitive issues. McAuliffe also credits the initial budget shortfall another would emerge in 2016, resulting in the cancellation of raises for state employees, teachers and other public employees with improving his relationship with Republican legislative leaders. I think because of the budget issues, they were forced to work with me on economic development, he said. The governor also had the advantage of a strong relationship with Virginias corporate business leaders, including Dominion Energy CEO Thomas F. Farrell II, who said, Governor McAuliffe has done an extraordinary job of helping the states economy diversify. Farrell specifically praised McAuliffes management overhaul at the Port of Virginia, reversing years of financial losses for an enterprise with an estimated statewide value of more than $41 billion. The McDonnell administration had entertained offers to sell the port, which Jones strenuously opposed, but McAuliffe dismissed the idea as the dumbest thing I ever heard. The port I think is one of our greatest success stories, the governor said. So does Farrell, who praised the states massive investment to expand the port and improve its operations. The investments in the port are going to be beneficial to our state for decades, he said. Environmentalists concerns McAuliffes alliance with Farrell came with a steep political price among environmentalists in the Democratic base who strongly denounce the governors unflagging support of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $5 billion initiative that would cut through many of the states most sensitive and fragile landscapes from West Virginia to North Carolina. In my opinion, Terry has been a real disappointment on the environment, said Glen Besa, the longtime former leader of the Sierra Club of Virginia, in an email. He is not very knowledgeable of environmental issues because he just doesnt care. Besa credited McAuliffe for proposing a carbon trading plan to reduce greenhouse gases, but said the governors support for the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines seriously undermines that initiative. He also faults the governor for his close relationship with Farrell and deference to Dominion on the environment, while failing to be accessible to environmental interests that have different ideas to help with the state economy. Terry always puts business interests over the environment, Besa said. But Farrell said McAuliffes personal involvement has been critical to boosting the energy giants investment in solar, wind and other renewable energy technologies, including construction of 200 megawatts of solar power that is pivotal to a deal with Facebook to build a data center in eastern Henrico County. Hes been very engaged with the business community, Farrell said. He comes from the business community. Diversifying the economy is very important to our state. We have to have the infrastructure available to do it. GO Virginia McAuliffe supported the creation of a business-led economic development initiative called GO Virginia, although he has been even more enthusiastic about a state effort to encourage collaboration by higher education institutions on advanced research that could lead to new commercial technologies and high-paying jobs. Todd Stottlemyer, CEO of the Inova Center for Personalized Health and a member of the GO Virginia board, said the two initiatives brought the Democratic governor and Republican legislative leaders together. I think they found some common ground, said Stottlemyer, a co-chair of Northams transition team. But McAuliffes legacy ultimately will rest on his salesmanship on 35 trade missions around the world and more than $20 billion in promised investment. Hes been a great promoter, salesman and evangelist for all things Virginia, Stottlemyer said. GOP leaders skeptical Republican leaders remain skeptical of his legacy, which they say often relies on efforts that were more theirs than his, from the establishment of two health care centers for veterans to state employee raises in the last legislative session after the governor had recommended a one-time bonus in the second year of the budget. I think he takes a lot of credit for things that would have happened anyway, Ruff said. Norment declined to comment, but Cox said he doesnt regard McAuliffes term as successful because of what he says has been the governors lack of attention to detail and his administrations unresponsiveness to legislative requests for information. That doesnt mean he didnt have some successes, Cox said. I just didnt like the tone. Setbacks McAuliffes biggest political losses aside from failure to expand Medicaid were on his appointment of a judge to the Supreme Court of Virginia without deference to what Republican leaders said was their legislative prerogative, and a blanket attempt to restore voting and other civil rights to felons who had completed their terms. In mid-2015, the governor named Fairfax County Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush to the Supreme Court of Virginia while the assembly was not in session, but the next year Republicans replaced her with Court of Appeals Judge Stephen R. McCullough. He previously had worked in the attorney generals office under Ken Cuccinelli, whom McAuliffe defeated narrowly in 2013. About six weeks later, McAuliffe signed a sweeping executive order to restore voting rights to 206,000 felons who had served their terms. He called it his greatest day as governor, but Republican legislative leaders sued him for taking an action that a majority on the Supreme Court, including McCullough, struck down three months later. Undaunted, McAuliffe proceeded to exercise his power to pardon felons individually more than 173,000. Everyone I could get done, I got done, he said. Were in the same place. One of the people whose rights he restored was LaVaughn Williams, a 55-year-old resident of Richmond, who voted for the first time in November at the Powhatan Recreation Center on Fulton Hill. She had bounced in and out of the state criminal justice system since she was 18. Williams has been out of the system for four years. She works part time delivering papers for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and is working on both a degree and certification at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College to become an automotive technician, and eventually a small-business owner. By him doing that, he gave me a sense of I am not forgotten, she said. He empowered a lot of people who were in my position. Charlottesville McAuliffe, in his final address to the General Assembly, said the worst day of his term came last Aug. 12, when a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville turned violent. Activist Heather Heyer died after a car was driven into a crowd of counterprotesters. A white nationalist who attended the rally is charged with murder in the car attack. Two Virginia State Police helicopter pilots, including a former member of the governors security detail, died in a crash after monitoring the events from the sky. The outgoing governor hasnt given up on expanding Medicaid, which he proposed again last month in his final two-year budget. I truly believe its going to happen, he said. Former Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, who had proposed the health insurance plan narrowly defeated in 2014, said, Even though he lost on that, I think in the long term it will be proven he set it up so that Northam could win. If that happens, McAuliffe will take much of the credit, and he probably deserves it, said Larry Sabato, president of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, who said Northams administration is going to be McAuliffes second term. Sabato said McAuliffe now has a record to run on if he seeks the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. The departing governor would not foreclose the possibility as he prepares to barnstorm across the nation this year in support of redistricting reform and Democratic gubernatorial candidates in states now led by Republicans. I dont rule anything out, McAuliffe said with a grin. Its not in my personality. Gov.-elect Ralph Northam has picked a Northern Virginia business leader with an extensive resume to be secretary of commerce and trade, but hes leaving another Cabinet slot vacant by splitting the duties of technology secretary in other parts of the executive branch. Esther C. Lee, 43, vice chair of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, is Northams choice for a key position to fulfill his campaign promises to make the states economy and workforce training to fill jobs for new and expanding businesses the top priority of an administration that will begin with his inauguration on Saturday. With Lees appointment, Northam says women will hold eight of the 15 Cabinet-level posts in his administration. Lee served as senior policy adviser to the U.S. secretary of commerce under President Barack Obama, but she also brings an extensive business background in technology, media and finance, as well as degrees from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The New Virginia Economy is thriving, but it will take vision to ensure that its working well for everyone, Northam said in an announcement on Tuesday at the Inova Center for Personalized Health, whose CEO, Todd Stottlemyer, had been considered a top candidate for the job. Northam also named Richmond business attorney Brian Ball as special adviser for economic development, signaling the administrations focus on restoring Virginias high ranking as a place for business investment. Ball, 65, is a veteran lawyer and lobbyist at the Williams Mullen law firm whose practice has included helping new and expanding businesses with tax incentives and workforce development. He also is a member of Northams transition team. Im confident the team Im announcing today brings the right balance of private and public sector experience to grow and diversify our economy, attract and keep the best businesses here, and to make investments in critical areas like workforce development that will ensure Virginias economic growth for the long term, the governor-elect said. However, Northam does not intend to fill the Cabinet vacancy created by the impending departure of Secretary of Technology Karen R. Jackson. Instead, he proposes to eliminate the post, created 20 years ago under the administration of Gov. Jim Gilmore, and divide its duties between two other executive branch secretariats. The governor-elect proposed on Tuesday to move the Virginia Information Technologies Agency under his proposed secretary of administration, Keyanna Conner, and a deputy secretary to be named. A deputy secretary role will implement data sharing among agencies to improve performance and to open up more government data for more public use, innovation and state technology needs, he said. Northam also proposed to add a deputy secretary for technology and innovation under Lee in the commerce and trade secretariat. The new role would include oversight of the Center for Innovative Technology, as well as high-profile state initiatives to nourish new business opportunities in high-tech sectors such as cybersecurity and unmanned systems. The Richmond Technology Council welcomed the proposed technology restructuring. While Virginias secretaries of technology have served with great distinction, the reality is that technology no longer exists in a silo, council President Robby Demeria said in a statement on Tuesday. Technology is integral to all facets of Virginia government, and this reform will help improve our use of data and technology into the commonwealths delivery of government services. Additionally, restructuring technology and innovation programs within the secretary of commerce and trade will better align our economic development efforts to grow our economy and create good paying jobs, Demeria said in a statement Tuesday. The new commerce and trade deputy also would promote entrepreneurship across the state, which fits well with Lees background in the Obama administration, in which she created and led the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She began her career as a business and technology journalist at CNN, but rose to senior roles at Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations firm, and CIT Group, a Fortune 500 financial services firm, as well as AOL/Time Warner. In addition to her business background, Lee is co-founder of the Council for Korean Americans, participated in the term member program at the Council on Foreign Relations and was an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar. Ball, currently vice president and general counsel at Williams Mullen, is a business attorney who specializes in mergers and acquisitions, securities law and corporate governance. He is an exceptional attorney who really understands how businesses and business transactions work, Williams Mullen President and CEO Woody Fowler said in a statement on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Attorney General Mark Herring announced that Toby J. Heytens would serve as solicitor general effective Feb. 21. Heytens is the David H. Ibbeken 71 Research Professor of Law and co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law. He replaces Acting Solicitor General Trevor S. Cox. The Deputy Chief of Mission of the Slovakia Ambassador to Egypt visited Giza Plateau Deputy Chief of Mission of the Slovakia Ambassador to Egypt Ivana Majerova has visited the cemeteries of the builders of the pyramids in the Giza plateau accompanied by world-renowned archaeologist and discoverer of the cemeteries Zahi Hawass. He confirmed to her that his discovery proved that builders of the pyramids are the Ancient Egyptians whose names are engraved on the cemeteries. Majerova told Al-Ahram Weekly how overjoyed she was after visiting the Ancient Egyptian cemeteries and that she is infatuated by ancient Egyptian history. She added that she would definitely return to the Pyramids plateau with a group of 200 Slovakian tourists. *This story previously was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to meet Angolan President Joao Lourenco in Luanda today. The President is currently paying courtesy calls on Sadc regional leaders after taking over from Cde Robert Mugabe who resigned on November 21 last year. President Mnangagwa visited South Africa last month and met President Jacob Zuma. Presidential spokesperson Mr George Charamba yesterday said: The President is paying courtesy calls on regional Heads of State and Government. We started with South Africa and we are going to Angola tomorrow (today) to do the same. We will go to Namibia on Monday then Zambia and Botswana, among other countries. That is the format. If you have been appointed a President, you must pay courtesy calls on elders in the region. President Lourenco, a former Defence Minister, also took over as Angolan President in September last year. The second Angolan President since independence succeeded Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who led the oil-rich country for 38 years. Zimbabwe and Angola have bilateral relations in various areas. There has also been constant exchange of notes between the countries revolutionary parties, Zanu-PF and Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). The countries defence forces have also been beefing up their relations through various exchange programmes. Angola has vast oil reserves and has now overtaken Nigeria as the largest oil producer in Africa. During his maiden foreign assignment in South Africa, President Mnangagwa took the opportunity to meet businesspeople based there and appealed to them to return home and exploit investment opportunities presented by the new dispensation. He said Zimbabwe was now open for investment in all sectors and his administration was doing everything possible to create a conducive environment for investors by amending various pieces of legislation. He outlined several business opportunities presented by the new dispensation, giving an example of the $400 million National Railways of Zimbabwe deal which Government awarded to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora. President Mnangagwa called for dialogue and regular engagement between Government, the Diaspora and private sector, saying concerted efforts were needed to turnaround the countrys economy. Herald President Emmerson Mnangagwa who has returned home from Angola says during his one day official visit to Angola explained to his counterpart Cde Joao Lourenco the circumstances that led to his assumption of the leadership of Zanu PF and the government of Zimbabwe. President Mnangagwa started his story beginning from Zanu PF interface rallies held countrywide and how the change of guard took place and in line with the supreme law of the land. Cde Mnangagwa was in Angola on his second leg of his mission to pay courtesy calls on regional leaders after assuming the leadership of Zimbabwe in November last year. He has explained to both the SADC troika chairperson President Joao Lourenco and the Zimbabwean diaspora the circumstances that led to his assumption of the party and government leadership beginning from the interface rallies and how the change of guard took place and according to the supreme law of the land. Speaking in Angolan Luanda capital where he was on his second leg of his mission to pay courtesy on regional leaders after assuming the leadership of Zimbabwe in November last year. President Mnangagwa assured Angolan President and Zimbabweans working in that country that his government will take of former President Cde Robert Mugabe and restore his legacy which was threatened by criminals who were surrounding him. In another development President Mnangagwa has agreed with his Angolan counterpart to further strengthen and deepen economic relations between Angola and Zimbabwe through economic ties and trade. Pres Mnangagwa also said a Chinese company has expressed interest in reviving Zisco and urged the business people and diasporans in Angola to take advantage of SADC Concession, COMESA and other agreements offered by trading blocks to intensify trade and economic exchanges for the benefit of the two countries. Some of the diasporans expressed willingness to support and work with the new dispensation and appealed to government to avail ballot papers in Luanda for them to take part in this years harmonised elections. The two Presidents have agreed that the Angolan national air carrier should resume flights to Harare and Victoria Falls in order to increase tourist arrivals in both countries. Zimbabwe and Angola are expected to hold a joint commission soon to chat the way forward in deepening economic relations between the two SADC brothers. Meanwhile, Cde Mnangagwa has returned home and was welcomed at the Robert Mugabe International Airport by the two vice presidents Rtd General Constantino Guveya Chiwenga and Cde Kembo Mohadi, service chiefs and several senior government officials. South African police have arrested two men who were driving a stolen vehicle heading for an illegal crossing point along the Limpopo River as they intensify the crackdown on a cross border vehicle theft syndicate. The pair of Haajibu Ken Issah (30) and Adam Alli (24) were arrested on Sunday afternoon along the N1 Highway between Musina and Makhado towns in South Africa. The suspects were nabbed by the South African polices Serious Organised Crime Unit (the Hawks), Crime Intelligence and the SAPS Vehicle Identification Unit. Hawks spokesperson for Limpopo Province Captain Matimba Maluleke said the two suspects were believed to be part of a wider vehicle theft syndicate. They appeared briefly at the Makhado Magistrate Court on Monday, where their case was postponed to January 15 2018, pending further investigations, said Capt Maluleke. Issah and Alli were caught allegedly driving a stolen vehicle on the N1 Road between Makhado and Musina, while en-route to Beitbridge. Capt Maluleke said preliminary investigations revealed that the vehicle, a Toyota Fortuner, had been reported stolen at Wayville in Kwazulu Natal in December last year. He said the car had been affixed with false registration plates and licence disc. The smuggling of cars between Zimbabwe and South Africa has become quite rampant, with the South African police recovering more than 20 vehicles stolen in the past six months. The stolen vehicles are usually destined for a ready market in Tanzania and Malawi, while others find their way to the local market. This State's Road Signs Were Too Much for the Feds America's allies should be getting those shipments of Super Mushrooms and Master Swords any day now. The Washington Post reports President Trump on Wednesday boasted about the sale of F-52 fighter jets to Norway. In November we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets, Trump said during a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. We have a total of 52 and theyve delivered a number of them already a little ahead of schedule. The problem: While the F-35 is realand a bit of a boondoggle for the Pentagonthe F-52 only exists in the video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The fictional jet appears during the "Throttle" mission, which takes place in "New Baghdad" and somehow involves Kevin Spacey, Kotaku reports. You can watch the F-52 in action here. The Post posits that Trump, who was reading from a statement, likely saw the number of jets delivered52and mistakenly added an "F" designation to it. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to say if Trump is a Call of Duty fan, and Lockheed Martin, which makes the F-35, wouldn't say if an F-52 is in the works. The plane-maker did say Norway has approved money for 40 F-35s and has gotten 10 of them so far. Forbes notes the main feature of the near-future Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is combat exosuits. No word on if Norway is getting any of those. (Read more Donald Trump stories.) What do we want Haitians here for? the Los Angeles Times quotes President Trump as saying during a meeting Thursday, as per two sources briefed on the meeting. Why do we want all these people from Africa here? Why do we want all these people from shithole countries?" Two sources provided the Washington Post with a similar quote. Trump reportedly made the comment while meeting with senators about a bipartisan deal on immigration. It was suggested by Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin that protections for immigrants from Africa, Haiti, and El Salvador could be restored in exchange for $1.5 billion for the border wall and eliminating the visa lottery system. Trump rejected that idea, saying the US should focus on getting immigrants from places like Norway. The White House didn't deny Trump made the reported remarks, instead issuing a statement that he would "always fight for the American people." CNN reporter Kaitlain Collins tweets that White House staff aren't concerned about the "shithole" comment, as they believe Trump's base will approve of it. Meanwhile, Democrats are condemning the remarks. "This is racism, plain and simple, and we need to call it that," Democratic Rep. Tim Walz tweets. "My Republican colleagues need to call it that too." The Times reports the incident shows how hard it will be to secure a deal for Dreamers. Aides say Trump seemed interested in a deal earlier Thursday but had lost that interest by the time of the meeting. And a legislative aide to the president said afterward that a deal is far off. (Read more Donald Trump stories.) On Wednesday morning in a Russian town just south of the Arctic Circle, a tank rumbled through the snowy streets before crashing into a convenience store, the Independent reports. Reuters notes that witnesses at the scene "did not seem particularly disturbed by the incident." It all started when a man in his late-20s, who witnesses would later say seemed drunk, stole an armored personnel carrier from a military driving school, the Guardian reports. The man drove the tank through a forest and into the town of Apatity. Unable to turn around in a narrow street and having crushed a car parked nearby, the man rammed the tank into the front of a convenience store. He then climbed out of the vehicle's hatch, looked at the destruction, and clambered into the store, where he apparently stole a bottle of wine. The Independent notes "the shop was not licensed to sell alcohol that early in the morning." The man was arrested without incident. Basically some guy stole an armored vehicle... and went into a shop to top up his stocks in the morning, Reuters quotes a man on social media as narrating while filming the situation. (Read more tanks stories.) The latest Takata airbag fallout takes the form of Ford issuing a recall on 2006 Rangers, and if you own one, Ford wants you to stop driving it immediately. The recall affects some 2,900 pickups in North America, reports the CBC, and comes in the wake of two fatal accidents involving airbag inflators built on the same day. The inflators can burst, sending shrapnel into drivers' bodies. "Ford is saddened by these tragic losses and offers its sincere condolences to the drivers' families," the automaker said in a statement, urging owners to bring their vehicles in "so dealers can make repairs immediately." The Rangers in the recall were all manufactured at the Twin Cities plant in Minnesota. Ford's recall website is here. (Read more Ford Ranger stories.) Most parents would celebrate a school that specifically bars students from using marijuana on its premises. Not an Illinois couple. JS and MS, as theyre identified in court documents, are suing the state after a Schaumburg school district barred their 11-year-old daughter from using a medical cannabis patch and cannabis oil drops to regulate seizures resulting from chemotherapy treatment for leukemia, reports USA Today. Though medical marijuana was legalized in the state in 2014, consumption or possession on public school property remains outlawed. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the couple argue the statute not only makes it hard for their daughter to attend schoolputting them at risk of violating a state law requiring that kids attendbut also violates her right to due process, reports the Chicago Tribune. School superintendent Andrew DuRoss says he reached out to the Illinois State Board of Education after the family requested that school officials administer the girl's medication as needed. The request wasn't unusualschool officials administer drugs to others, DuRoss notesbut the board made clear that possessing or using medical marijuana on school premises would violate state law. District officials "share the same concerns and care about [the student] and her family in this situation but we cannot legally grant the request," DuRoss says. The family's lawyer has asked a judge to allow the use of medical marijuana in this case, until the state law can be revisited. (A 15-year-old with cerebral palsy helped change a similar law in Colorado, per USA Today.) A hearing is scheduled for 11am CST Friday, per CBS Chicago. (Read more medical marijuana stories.) Twentieth Century Fox has canned a movie about Patty Hearst's 1974 kidnapping after she accused it of "romanticizing my rape and torture." In a Thursday statement, Hearst said the film based on Jeffrey Toobin's 2016 biography of her, including details of her kidnapping and indoctrination into the anti-government terrorist group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army, was "attempting to rewrite history," per the Washington Post. It "directly flies in the face of the present #MeToo movement where so much progress is being made in regard to listening, and providing a voice, to those who have suffered abuse," added Hearst, granddaughter of the late media mogul William Randolph Hearst. She called Toobin's book "a one-sided dialogue" that "cites one of my kidnappers as its main source" and "calls my abduction a 'rollicking adventure,'" per Deadline. In reality, it's a story of "a child having been destroyed both inside and out," said Hearst. Now 63, she was just 19 when she was kidnapped by the SLA on Feb. 4, 1974. She was arrested for bank robbery alongside group members a year and a half later but argued she'd been indoctrinated under threat of violence. She spent 22 months in prison before her seven-year sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. Hearst, who was later pardoned, said Thursday that the Fox project would "make me a victim again," reports People. Later Thursday, Fox said it was canceling the planned film, though it did not give a reason, reports Variety. A six-part CNN documentary on the case produced by Toobin will apparently air as planned on Feb. 11. Toobin will also co-host a weekly companion podcast with CNN's Brian Stelter beginning Jan. 26. (Read more movies stories.) Former President Obama and David Letterman have both been reclusive since leaving their respective jobs, but a casually dressed ex-president and hirsute ex-talk show host re-entered the public eye together in the debut of Letterman's new Netflix show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. Letterman compared his post-work life to Obama's, per the Daily Beast, noting he spent his time "at Bed, Bath, and Beyond picking out hangers" while Obama was "hang gliding and climbing volcanoes and wrestling sharks on somebody's private island." "Something's wrong here," Letterman quipped. Obama said he liked "puttering around the house" now and noted Michelle would have left him if he'd stayed in the White House longer. He also said he was "basically useless" moving daughter Malia into her college dorm, so emotional that it took him a half-hour to set up a desk lamp, per CNN. There wasn't much talk of the current president, though the conversation did broach the political. When Letterman asked which hypothetical was worse for the US, the "diminishment of [the] press" by the president or "somebody screwing around with the actual voting process," Obama pointed to a lack of shared basic facts as "one of the biggest challenges." "If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet than if you listen to NPR," he said, noting social media makes things even worse. Letterman offered some emotional words at the end of the hourlong interview, telling Obama, "Irrespective of the man or woman who holds the office, you have to respect the office of president. Without a question of a doubt, you are the first president I truly and fully respect." Upcoming guests on Letterman's show include George Clooney, Howard Stern, and Malala Yousafzai. (Read more David Letterman stories.) President Trump addressed the "shithole" controversy Friday morning by appearing to deny using the word. "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," he tweeted. Unnamed sources told various news outlets that Trump used the word during an immigration meeting with lawmakers to describe El Salvador, Haiti, and African nations. In a subsequent tweet, he elaborated, though he didn't specifically address the controversial word. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country," he wrote. "Never said 'take them out.' Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" Trump directed most of his focus toward what he called an "outlandish proposal" in the meeting to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. In three earlier tweets, Trump said the DACA proposal "was a big step backwards." He complained that it would force the US "to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly" and again called for a merit-based immigration system. "I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs." On Thursday, neither the White House nor GOP lawmakers present at the meeting denied that he had used the term, notes the AP. The White House has not immediately clarified whether Trump is explicitly denying use the phrase "shithole countries," notes the Washington Post. (Read more President Trump stories.) On Thursday, the White House rejected a bipartisan deal to protect Dreamersquickly overshadowed by the racist statement allegedly made by President Trump. On Friday, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos announced a $33 million donation to provide 1,000 scholarships to DACA youth, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, it's the largest donation ever made to TheDream.US. The donation from the Amazon CEO and his wife will provide each undocumented immigrant high-school graduate with $33,000 in college aid over four years. In announcing the donation, Bezos talked about his father, who was unable to speak English when he arrived in the US from Cuba as a 16-year-old. "My dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways, Bezos said. TheDream.US was founded by a former Post publisher in 2014Bezos' parents were early donorsand has given more than $19 million in financial aid to immigrants. Reuters reports 2,850 students are enrolled in colleges with the nonprofit's help. Candy Marshall, president of TheDream.US, says the Bezos' donation is a shot in the arm for Dreamer students at a time when some are questioning whether they should be in the United States at all." Bezos is currently the world's richest person, with a worth of about $107 billion as of this week, according to Forbes. Earlier this year, he had asked for ideas for charitable giving that would help "people in the here and now." (Read more Jeff Bezos stories.) Republican congresswoman Martha McSally called on the national GOP to "grow a pair of ovaries" as she launched her Senate bid Friday, joining the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake by embracing President Trump and his outsider playbook in one of the nation's premier contests. Like few others, the Arizona election is expected to showcase the feud between the Republican Party's establishment and its fiery anti-immigration wing in particularall in a border state that features one of the nation's largest Hispanic populations, per the AP. McSally, 51, enters a Republican primary field that features a nationally celebrated immigration hardliner, 85-year-old former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The primary also includes former state Sen. Kelli Ward, an outspoken Trump advocate who was an early favorite of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. McSally, a two-term congresswoman already backed by many GOP leaders in Arizona and Washington, announced her candidacy in a fiery video that touched on border security and Sharia law and featured Trump himself. "Like our president, I'm tired of PC politicians and their BS excuses," McSally said. "I'm a fighter pilot and I talk like one." "That's why I told Washington Republicans to grow a pair of ovaries and get the job done," she said. "Now, I am running for the Senate to fight the fights that must be wonon national security, economic security, and border security." Later in the day, McSally, a retired Air Force colonel and the first female fighter pilot to fly a combat mission, plans to fly herself across Arizona to announce her candidacy before voters in Tucson, Phoenix, and Prescott. (Read more Martha McSally stories.) Sorry! This content is not available in your region New Delhi: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Friday said that the threat of CBRN (Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) weapons are becoming a reality. He said that the threat is particularly from the non-state actors. The Chief emphasized that the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) should work in a directionA to develop technologies to counter such CBRN threats. The Army Chief stressed on the need modern weapons and technology. He said that we have to look at what we require to fight the future wars. We have to get systems that are best suited for our requirements. DRDO is a premier research and development body under the ministry ofA defenceA (MOD). It has developed state-of-the-art military equipment including battle tank Arjuna. With many terrorist organizations using chemical warfare as a strategy, the Army Chief wants DRDO to work in the direction to counter such threats. Speaking on the recent cases of reported intrusion along the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh, the Army supremo said that China is exerting pressure. We are dealing with it. Yes we should try that it is not escalated. We will not allow our territory to intruded. Troops are earmarked, should a situation arise our troops are ready to cater. General Rawat, who had previously also highlighted on the need for technologically advanced weapons and equipment, said that threat from CBRN weapons is fast becoming a concern.A #WATCH Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat addresses the media in Delhi https://t.co/tUz8dpC3Jc a ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Buxer: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumars convoy was attacked at Nandar village in Buxar district during his Vikas Samiksha Yatra on Friday. Attackers hurled stones at the chief minister and his cavalcade. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was rescued safely. Two security personnel part of the CM convoy have suffered serious injuries. They were rushed to the local hospital, said a police officer. The villagers wanted Nitish Kumar to visit Dalit Basti. However, the CM didn't visit the Basti. Angry villagers including women in large numbers hurled stones and bricks at the CM cavalcade. The Bihar CM is on a state-wide tour since December 12 to take a stock of state government's development schemes over the years. Earlier this month, a group of youngsters had waved black flags at the chief minister during a public meeting in Saharsa district. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala son Vikas Barla, who was arrested in connection with high-profile stalking case of a girl in Chandigarh, was released from jail on Friday. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had granted Vikas Barla bail on Thursday. Vikas Barla, 23, and his friend Ashish were arrested arrested for allegedly harassing daughter of an IAS officer in August. The Chandigarh Police had arrested the duo under non-bailable sections. Vikas, an LLB student, and his friend Ashish were booked under section 354 D (stalking) of IPC and 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act (driving by a drunken person or by a person under the influence of drugs). For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Four of the top justices of the Supreme Court of India - Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph on Friday wrote a letter to CJI Dipak Misra asking him to take remedial measures to maintain the overall functioning of the justice delivery system of the apex court. In the letter, the four judges also expressed serious concerns on certain orders passed by the apex court. Below is the full text of Supreme Court judges letter to CJI Dipak Misra Dear Chief Justice, It is with great anguish and concern that we have thought it proper to address this letter to you so as to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this court which has adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivery system and the independence of the High Courts besides impacting the administrative functioning of the office of the Honourable Chief Justice of India. From the date of establishment of three chartered High Courts of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, certain traditions and conventions in the judicial administration have been well established. The traditions were embraced by this court which came into existence almost a century after the above mentioned chartered High Courts. These traditions have their roots in the anglo-saxion jurisprudence and practice. Once of the well settled principles is that the Chief Justice is the master of the roster with a privilege to determine the roster, necessity in multi-numbered courts for an orderly transaction of business and appropriate arrangements with respect to matter with which member/Bench of this court (as the case may be) is required to deal with which case or class of cases is to be made. The convention of recognising the privilege of the Chief Justice to form the roster and assign cases to different members/benches of the court is a convention devised for a disciplined and efficient transaction of business of the court but no a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual of the Chief Justice over his colleagues. It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the Chief Justice is only the first amongst the equals nothing more or nothing less. In the matter of the determination of the roster there are well settled and time-honoured conventions guiding the Chief Justice, be the conventions dealing with the strength of the Bench which is required to deal with a particular case or the composition thereof. Also Read | Let people decide CJI Dipak Misras impeachment, say top SC judges in extraordinary press briefing A necessary corollary to the above-mentioned principle is the member of any multi-numbered judicial body including this court would not arrogate to themselves the authority to deal with and pronounce upon matter which ought to be heard by appropriate benches, both composition wise and strength wise with due regard to the roster fixed. Any departure from the above two rules would not only lead to unpleasant and undesirable consequences of creating doubt in the body politic about the integrity of the institution. Not to talk about the chaos that would result from such departure. We are sorry to say that off late the twin rules mentioned above have not been strictly adhered to. There have been instances where case has far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justice of this court selectively to the benches of their presence with any rationable basis for such assignment. This must be quarded against at all costs. We are not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this institution of some extent. In the above context, we deem it proper to address you presently with regard the order dated 27th October, 2017, in R B Luthra vs. Union of India to the effect that there should be no further delay in finalising the Memorandum of Procedure in the larger public interest. When the Memorandum of Procedure was a subject matter of a decision of a Constitution Bench of this court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association and Anr. vs Union of India, [(2016) 5 SCC 1] it is difficult to understand as to how any other bench could have dealt with the matter. The above apart, subsequent to the decision of the Constitution Bench, detailed discussions were held by collegium of five judges (including yourself) and the Memorandum of Procedure was finalised and sent by then Honourable Chief Justice of India to the Government of India in March 2017. The Government of India has not responded to the communication and in view of this silence, it must be taken that the Memorandum of Procedure as finalised by the collegium has been accepted by the Government of India on the basis of the order of this court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (Supra). There was, therefore, no occasion for the bench to make any observation with regard to the finalisation of the Memorandum of Procedure or that issue cannot linger on for an indefinite period. #FLASH Judges J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph release 7 page letter, that they wrote to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. pic.twitter.com/2dQ5fzTDF8 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 On 4th July, 2017, a bench of seven judges of this court decided In Re Honourable Shri Justice C S Karnan [(2017) 1 SCC 1]. In that decision (referred to in R P Luthra) two of us observed that there is a need to revisit the process of appointment of judges and to set up a mechanism for corrective measures other than impeachment. No observation was made by any of the seven learned judges with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure. Any issue with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure should be discussed in the Chief Justices conference and by the Full Court. Such a matter of great importance, if at all required to be taken on the judicial side, should be dealt with by none other than a Constitution Bench. Also Read | Supreme Court: Unfortunate and dangerous for democracy, says Former LS speaker Somnath Chatterjee The above development must be viewed with serious concern. The Honourable Chief Justice of India is duty bound to rectify the situation and take appropriate remedial measures after a full discussion with the other members of the collegium and at a later stage, if required, with other Honourable Judges of this court. Once the issue arising from the order dates 27th October, 2017, in R P Luthra vs Union of India, mentioned above, is adequately addressed by you and if it becomes so necessary, we will apprise you specifically of the other judicial orders passed by this court which would require to be similarly dealt with. With kind regards, J. Chelameswar Ranjan Gogoi Madam B Lokur Kurian Joseph For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, four of the five senior most Supreme Court judges on Friday addressed a press conference and attacked Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. During the press conference, senior judge Justice J Chelameswar said that all their efforts had failed and unless the Supreme Court is not preserved, democracy cannot be protected. Chelameswar, who was accompanied by Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph at the press conference, said they had met CJI Dipak Misra on Friday morning and raised issues affecting the institution. We met CJI with a specific request which unfortunately couldnt convince him that we were right therefore, we were left with no choice except to communicate it to the nation that please take care of the institution, Justice Chelameswar said. Sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months, he added. When reporters asked about the issues, the top court judges said they included allocation of cases by CJI Dipak Misra. The hard-hitting remarks against the CJI come on a day when Supreme Court took up for consideration the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge B H Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. Also Read: Supreme Court judges' row: Congress President Rahul Gandhi demands probe into death of Judge Loya Here are the live updates: # Anna Hazare: The areas of concern flagged by the four senior judges of the apex court show that there is some kind of a nexus between some people in this government and some judges. # BJPs Sambit Patra: Surprised and pained that Congress which has been rejected number of times by people in elections is trying to gain political mileage. # Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee: Unfortunate and dangerous for democracy. It'll create more problems than solve. Since the judges have spoken they've done disservice to country because if judiciary is weakened, questions arise in people's minds, it already has. # Former Maharashtra Advocate General Shrihari Aney: They wouldn't have taken the step without thinking. If it has fallen upon them to take action, it's up to us to understand what led to that. # Rahul Gandhi: Points raised by the Hon judges need to be looked into carefully, even Justice Loya's death needs to be investigated properly. Observations made by Hon Judges are extremely disturbing and have far reaching consequences. Points raised by the Hon judges need to be looked into carefully, even Justice Loya's death needs to be investigated properly. # Congress leader RS Surjewala: Observations made by Hon Judges are extremely disturbing and have far reaching consequences. # Attorney General K K Venugopal: The unprecedented move by the four senior Supreme Court judges in holding a press conference could have been avoided. The judges will now have to act in statesmanship to ensure complete harmony. # MoS Law PP Chaudhary: The judiciary is independent and reputed. They will resolve it themselves. # Former judge R S Sodhi criticised the appeal made by four judges of the Supreme Court of India, said they showed Chief Justice Dipak Misra in a poor light, reports ANI. # Former judge R S Sodhi: Issues do not matter, but it is their complaint on administration that matters. They are only four,but there are 23 others. These four got together and showed the chief justice in poor light. It is immature and childish behaviour. I think all four judges should be impeached. # Shrihari Aney, former Attorney General: They wouldn't have taken the step without thinking. If it has fallen upon them to take action, it's up to us to understand what led to that. # Kiran Rijiju, MoS Home: Defence lawyers are raising issues just to delay matter but we have requisite things in India for fair trial of Vijay Mallya or anybody. So they need not worry about conditions of trial in India or should not cast aspersion on independence of our judiciary. # Supreme Court Bar Association to meet in New Delhi on January 13 to discuss the aftermath of the press conference held by four senior judges. # Former Union law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj: Judiciary must remain pillar of democracy. Its responsibility of (the) law minister to see how it functions. # Former Union law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj: Its the loss of prestige of the entire institution. If you lose publics trust what remains?" Congress leader and senior advocate Kapil Sibal to meet party president Rahul Gandhi at 5pm. To discuss over the press conference called by the four Supreme Court judges. # Congress: Democracy is in danger. # PB Sawant, former Supreme Court judge: If Judges had to come before the media and take this unprecedented step. This means that there is a serious dispute.] # Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to law minister RS Prasad about the allegations made by the 4 Supreme Court judges: ANI quoting sources. # Justice RS Sodhi (Retd): I think all four judges should be impeached. They have no right to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. # Justice RS Sodhi (Retd): This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say. We have parliament, courts, police functioning. # There must be some serious reason that they were left with no other option but to hold a Press Conference. But what connection Loya has with this? I know nothing about this & I don't want to make comments about any political matter: Mukul Mudgal, retired HC judge # Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra met the Attorney General KK Venugopal over the allegations made by the 4 Supreme Court judges, reported ANI. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra met the Attorney General KK Venugopal over the allegations made by the 4 Supreme Court judges: Sources (file pics) pic.twitter.com/a5yp2W7pkn ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 # I think it's a historic Press Conference. It was very well done. I think we, the people of India, have a right to know what is going on within the judiciary & I welcome this: Indira Jaising, Supreme Court advocate on PC by 4 Supreme Court judges # Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Law Minister RS Prasad about the allegations made by the 4 Supreme Court judges: ANI # Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to address the media at 2 pm, Attorney General to also accompany him. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to address the media at 2 pm, Attorney General to also accompany him. pic.twitter.com/0CLVtBsyv2 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 # CJI Dipak Mishra has called Attorney General KK Venugopal to his chambers. After this PC CJI calls AG KK Venugopal to his chambers pic.twitter.com/k0rmgpC1AS News Nation (@NewsNationTV) January 12, 2018 # We can't criticize them, they are men of great integrity & have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. PM must ensure that the 4 judges & CJI, in fact, whole SC come to one opinion & proceed further: S.Swamy We can't criticize them, they are men of great integrity & have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. PM must ensure that the 4 judges & CJI, in fact whole SC come to one opinion & proceed further: S.Swamy pic.twitter.com/dYj6MJPhkO ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 # "It is certainly a very serious development which has cast a huge shadow on the Chief Justice. Somebody had to confront the situation, where CJ is blatantly misusing his powers, hence the unprecedented step": Prashant Bhushan, lawyer & politician # This is a black day for Judiciary. Today's press conference would cause a bad precedent. From now on every common man could look at all judicial order with suspicion. Every judgement will be questioned: Ujjwal Nikam, senior lawyer # Deeply sad & pained, also feel a sense of agony that highest court of land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media: Salman Khurshid, senior advocate on a press conference by 4 Supreme Court judges. # It's quite shocking. There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking: KTS Tulsi, advocate SC on 4 judges' letter to CJI # It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the Chief Justice is only first amongst the equals- nothing more or nothing less: Supreme Court Judges in letter to Chief Justice of India # It is with great anguish&concern that we thought it proper to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this Court that adversely affected functioning of justice delivery system & independence of HCs besides impacting administrative functioning of CJI's office: SC Judges to CJI # Prime Minister Narendra Modi has summoned Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. # Supreme Court Judge J.Chelameswar says, 'All 4 of us are convinced that unless this institution (Supreme Court) is preserved & it maintains its equanimity, democracy will survive in this country, or any country. #WATCH: Supreme Court Judge J.Chelameswar says, 'All 4 of us are convinced that unless this institution (Supreme Court) is preserved & it maintains its equanimity, democracy will survive in this country, or any country. pic.twitter.com/FBYSeLClH6 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 # Nobody is breaking the rank and it is discharge of debt to nation which we have done: Justice Gogoi # Four of us are convinced, the democracy will not survive. We met CJI this morning, with specific request but we could not convince him. We had no choice but to communicate to the nation to take care of the institution. We place it before people of country, Justice Gogoi said. # Judges J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph release 7-page letter, that they wrote to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. #FLASH Judges J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph release 7 page letter, that they wrote to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. pic.twitter.com/2dQ5fzTDF8 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 # All our efforts have failed and we are all convinced that unless this institution is not preserved, democracy cant be protected in the country, Justice Chelameswar said. # Let the nation decide that: Justice J.Chelameswar on if the CJI should be impeached # "Sometimes the administration of the SC is not in order and many things which have happened in the last few months," says Justice Chelameswar. Supreme Court Judges Kurian Joseph, J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur to address the media shortly #Delhi (names in order of seating) pic.twitter.com/hzONls1b4I ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A 22-year-old Indian origin, working for search engine giant Google, has been arrested for allegedly molesting a US woman in a five-star hotel in Delhi on Friday. The arrested Google techie has been identified as Anmol Singh Kharbanda. Additional Commissioner of Police B K Singh said, Kharbanda met 52-year-old woman at the hotels bar on January 8. He had offered her drinks and a smoke in his hotel room. The techie in his room groped the woman. She pushed him away and ran out of the room, said Singh. Another officer told the media, "The victim informed the police that she had locked herself in her room for the entire night out of fear and shock." She did not lodge a complaint the very next day as she had to go to Jaipur, he added. Police have registered an FIR under relevant Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections including 354 and 328. The statement was recorded before the City Magistrate under Section 164 of CrPC. The techie was arrested from his hotel room. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be visiting India on a six-day tour. Prime Minister Netanyahu will arrive in New Delhi on January 14 and depart from Mumbai on January 19. His itinerary includes the visit to Gujarat and Mumbai. This was announced by the Embassy of Israel in New Delhi. Prime Minister Netanyahu will hold meetings in New Delhi with President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. In addition, he will give an inaugural speech at the Raisina Dialogue and meet with the Indo-Israeli CEO forum in Delhi. In Gujarat, both the Prime Ministers will visit the Center of Excellence in Vadrad and inaugurate a Center of Excellence for date palms in Bhuj via video conference. They will also visit the iCreate innovation campus and center. In Mumbai, Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet Jewish community leaders and select members of the Indian business community. He will also reach out to Bollywood in an exclusive Shalom Bollywood event. Ahead of the visit, Ambassador Daniel Carmon said, The Prime Ministers 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 Modis visit to Israel last summer, and on shaping the next 25 years of relations between our countries and our peoples. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya is a serious matter. Justice BH Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and had died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, where he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. The Apex court has sought a response from Maharashtra government on pleas seeking an independent probe into it by observing, "This matter requires bi-party hearing rather than exparte." A bench of justices Arun Mishra and MM Shantanagoudar asked Nishant R Katneshwarkar, the counsel of Maharashtra Government to file their reply by January 15. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for Maharashtra-based journalist BR Lone who is one of the petitioners, said that she has instructions from Bombay lawyers association that this matter should not be heard by the top court. The bench, however, said it will look into the petitions but will also consider the objections raised. Advocate Varinder Kumar Sharma, who is appearing for Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala, another petitioner, said this is a case where a mysterious death of a judge has taken place and it needs to be investigated. The bench then asked Katneshwarkar to file the post-mortem report and other relevant documents regarding the death of judge Loya besides taking instruction from the government. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 15. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Supreme Court controversy has become a big political issue with the Congress Party openly coming out in support of four judges. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that the issues raised by the four judges were highly disturbing. He said that the death of Justice Loya should be investigated by a higher level of judiciary. Investigation of Justice Loya's death is one of the main issues raised by the Justice J Chelameswar and three other justices in a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI). Justice Loya was CBI judge in Sohrabuddin case. He died of heart attack in the case in which Amit Shah was an accused. Congress grabbed this opportunity to attack the ruling party indirectly. Also Read: Full text of top Supreme Court judges' letter to CJI Dipak Misra The party president said that all the citizens who love the idea of justice are looking at this issue that needs to be addressed. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Washington: President Donald Trump has expressed frustration over efforts of some US lawmakers to protect immigrants from Haiti and African countries, asking why America should accept citizens from "shithole" countries, triggering an international furor over the remarks. Trump, however, denied using the derogatory remarks during a meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform, but admitted he used "tough" language in that meeting. Trump, in a series of tweets, defended his immigration stance and claimed that the remarks attributed to him were not accurate. Trump yesterday met senators and congressmen and pushed for immigrants from certain Asian countries who help America economically. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump was quoted by multiple media reports. The president was referring to African countries and Haiti, and then suggested the US should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday. His comments, which has been slammed by Democratic lawmakers, was first reported by The Washington Post. The New York Times later reported the same comment. Trump today rejected reports that he told lawmakers that the US should block immigrants from "shithole" countries. "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," Trump tweeted. 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. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme shields from deportation nearly 800,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. Trump, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt they help the US economically, The report said. "Sadly, Democrats want to stop paying our troops and government workers in order to give a sweetheart deal, not a fair deal, for DACA. Take care of our Military, and our Country, FIRST! Trump said in another tweet. Trump has been calling for merit-based immigration, of which people from countries like India could be a major beneficiary. "I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs, said the US president, criticising the proposed bipartisan deal. "I want to fund our military, not do a Dem defund because of the Democrats not being interested in life and safety, DACA has now taken a big step backwards. The Dems will threaten 'shutdown,' but what they are really doing is shutting down our military, at a time we need it most. Get smart, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Trump said. The African Union and several Democratic lawmakers slammed Trump for his comments and described them as racist. The African Union said that Trump's description of African nations as "shithole countries" was upsetting. "President Trump's comments are racist and a disgrace. They do not reflect our nation's values. Immigrants from throughout the world of all races, nationalities, and religions have built this country and are contributing today to its improvement," said House Democratic Whip Steny H Hoyer. "These comments clearly reflect the President's true feelings on immigrants and make it extremely doubtful that he will work in an honest, decent way that reflects Americas best values on legislation to protect DREAMers," Hoyer said. "As an American, I am ashamed of the president. 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," alleged Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez. "Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House," said Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen. In a statement, Shah said the President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration ? two programs that hurt American economy and allow terrorists into the 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," Shah said. "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," Shah said in response to a question. Earlier in the day, in an interview to The Wall Street Journal, Trump asserted that he will not accept any immigration deal that does not has?a provision to build a wall along the Mexico border. "We have to have a wall. We don't have a wall, we are not doing the deal," he reiterated. Trump, who has had a series of meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform over the past several days, said he has a good chance to make a deal. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Washington: The United States on Friday expressed hopes that Pakistan would do the right thing and turn over the terrorists and honour its commitment to it, according to a Trump administration official. I have a feeling, I am hopeful that Pakistan will do the right thing and turn over the terrorists and honour their commitment, Steven Goldstein, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs told reporters at a news conference in Washington. Responding to questions, Goldstein said the US has so far not heard from Pakistan on its reported decision to suspend its military and intelligence cooperation with it in retaliation of the Trump administrations decision to freeze all its security assistance. We would hope that Pakistan would come to the table and that they would turn over those terrorists that we have asked be turned over. Weve indicated very clearly that we believe that can happen, Goldstein said. The United States, he said, has only suspended the aid and the money has not been reallocated. So now it is the job of Pakistan to take seriously their commitment to us, and most importantly to the people of Pakistan who would most be hurt by this, by any terrorist activity, and come forward. So, our position hasnt changed. They have not yet come forward, Goldstein said. At a separate news conference, the Pentagon said that Pakistan has the ability to address terrorist threat inside the country. We believe that Pakistan has the ability to address this threat, Pentagon chief spokesperson Dana White told reporters at a news conference. This is an opportunity for them to take decisive action, and we look forward to working with them to encourage them to do so, White said in response to a question on recent development on US-Pak relations front. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a federal register notification formally designated Pakistan as a special watch list country for severe violations of religious freedom. Tillerson had on January 4 placed Pakistan on a special watch list for the violations. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. paraklisi Saint Martinian of White Lake, in the world Michael, was born in the year 1397 in the village of Bereznik, about twenty miles from the Cyrilov Monastery.St. Martinian of White Lake (Feast Day - January 12)At age thirteen in 1410 he left his parents and went secretly to Saint Cyril of White Lake (June 9), whom many described as a great ascetic. Seeing the holy elder, the pious boy fell at his feet and implored him: "Take me to your place, master!" Touched by the child's entreaties, the ascetic with joy and fatherly love took him to himself. At that time, near the Cyrilov Monastery lived the deacon Alexy Pavlov, who was known around the area for his art in teaching literacy. The monk called him to him and said: "Friend, fulfill for me the commandment of the love of God: teach the boy whom you see reading and writing, and keep him as the apple of your eye, in all purity." The deacon took the boy with him and diligently followed the order of Cyril, then he was returned to him. It was then that Michael was tonsured a monk as Martinian.The young Martinian began zealously to imitate his teacher, with whom he dwelt in the same cell in complete obedience, which included his daily duty of baking bread and cooking. At the monastery he studied reading and writing, and with the blessing of Saint Cyril, he occupied himself with the copying of books. In time Martinian was ordained deacon and then hieromonk. There he excelled in humility, and would inscribe the books he copied as follows: "Martinian the monk is a false monk and not true."After the death of Saint Cyril in 1427, Martinian withdrew to a deserted island on Lake Vozhe seeking more exalted ascetic feats. Several monks gradually gathered around him and he established Spassky Monastery there and guided the monks as their abbot. Saint Martinian further established for them the Church of the Transfiguration and introduced a general Rule for the monks. Yielding to the persistent requests of the brethren of Therapon Monastery, he consented to become abbot of the monastery and brought it into an improved condition. This monastery had been established in 1398 by Elder Therapon, and he reposed there in 1426.Saint Martinian gave spiritual support to Great Prince Basil in the difficulties of his time, when his first-cousin Demetrius Shemyaka illicitly sought the Moscow throne. He was always an advocate of truth and justice. Afterwards, upon the entreaty of the Great Prince, the Saint accepted the governance of the Monastery of Saint Sergius of Radonezh in 1447.In 1455, Saint Martinian returned to his beloved Therapon Monastery. In 1460 he helped build the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos. In his last years he was grievously ill and not able to walk, so the brethren carried him to church. He died at the age of 85 on Sunday 12 January 1483 and buried on the left side of the altar of the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos. His relics were uncovered and discovered to be incorrupt in the year 1514, during the burial of his pupil Archbishop Iosaph of Rostov, and this event is celebrated on October 7.When they found his relics, the coffin had been filled with water, so they took the water as a blessing, and indeed it became a source of healing when the sick would wash themselves with this water. By the time of his canonization, in the middle of the sixteenth century, nine miracles were included in his Life, and these continued until the twentieth century. Around 430 passengers were forced to stay a night aboard a local train stranded since Thursday evening due to heavy snowfall in Niigata on the Sea of Japan coast. According to rescue workers, five of them -- a man in his 40s and four women in their teens and 20s -- felt unwell and the man was taken to a hospital. The train resumed service Friday morning about 15 hours after it was stranded, with many passengers exhausted after standing all night in crowded cars. More than half of the passengers of the four-car train on the East Japan Railway Co.'s Shinetsu Line evacuated earlier in the morning with their families coming to pick them up by car. While the operator said the train's interior lights and heating system worked properly, it only had one bathroom requiring users to wait in a long queue and toilet paper ran out, according to passengers. Some said they took turns sitting on seats during their prolonged stay. Have an opinion on a recent story or event around the University of Cincinnati? Let us know what you think! If you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click the button below to email Emma Balcom, editor-in-chief. For news tips or story ideas, contact one of our editors. Send us a tip Porsche's board was ordered by a German court to answer critical shareholder questions about what management at Volkswagen and the carmaker's majority investor knew about the diesel scandal and whether any evidence was destroyed. The holding company's board must answer five questions originally asked at its 2016 annual shareholders meeting, a Stuttgart court said in two rulings issued shortly before Christmas. The judges also sharply criticized the two companies' handling of the crisis, saying that VW failed to stop employees from dumping documents that might have helped the U.S. investigation into the manufacturer's diesel-emissions test manipulation. Porsche and Volkswagen are both facing investors' lawsuits seeking billions of euros in damages that hinge on what top managers knew when about the diesel-engine rigging. They have both avoided answering these types of questions, citing ongoing investigations, including one by law firm Jones Day on behalf of Wolfsburg, Germany-based VW. "Citing the investigation by Jones Day is no valid argument to deny the information, because hiring an external law firm normally doesn't oblige the client to confidentiality," the judges wrote. "The right of shareholders to information may not be foiled by citing external investigations." Porsche SE, the investment vehicle for the Porsche and Piech families that controls 52 percent of VW's voting stock, is effectively run by the same group of people as the carmaker, with several managers holding dual roles. Porsche officials had declined to tell the shareholders when management learned about the cheating, citing confidentiality agreements with authorities and describing the matter as a topic that primarily affects VW and doesn't involve Stuttgart-based Porsche directly. While Porsche has said it will appeal the ruling on the shareholder meetings, the court didn't give it permission to appeal the judgment ordering it to answer questions. Porsche spokesman Albrecht Bamler declined to comment beyond reiterating that the investment vehicle will appeal. Porsche stock rose 2.7 percent to 76.64 euros as of 5:07 p.m. in Frankfurt. The holding company is now separate from the sports-car producer known as Porsche AG, which is owned by Volkswagen. Martin Weimann, the lawyer for a shareholder that brought the lawsuits against Porsche, said he will wait to see whether the holding company actually files an appeal before taking further steps to force it to turn over the answers. The court rejected requests to answer a further 49 queries from the shareholder. VW faces a barrage of investigations and lawsuits since U.S. authorities disclosed in September 2015 that the carmaker had rigged engines on 11 diesel models to cheat on emissions tests. The company has already paid out more than 25 billion euros ($30 billion) in fines, settlements and other costs since the scandal came to light. The German court's decisions come at a delicate time for VW, the world's largest automaker, which is being supervised by U.S. monitor Larry Thompson to ensure the effectiveness of compliance systems that were stepped up in the wake of the scandal. Any evidence showing the top brass knew about the emissions rigging or learned about it earlier than September 2015 could inflate financial risks for both companies. In addition to the diesel woes, VW faces probes by German prosecutors into potentially excessive remuneration of labor officials, and an importer of its Skoda brand in Egypt is embroiled in a lawsuit over alleged bribery. The Stuttgart court took VW's crisis management in 2015 to task, saying it failed to prevent employees from destroying evidence, which hindered U.S. authorities' investigations, according to the rulings. Porsche's boards also committed a "grave violation" by not setting up their own investigations into how VW managed the crisis, the court said. The automaker has claimed the engine rigging was done by a small group of engineers. U.S. court records show some 40 people destroyed thousands of documents when the cheating that stretched over almost a decade was about to come to light. WASHINGTON Connecticuts Democratic lawmakers universally condemned President Donald Trump for his inflammatory description of impoverished nations with immigrant populations in the U.S., but remain hopeful a deal can be reached to protect DACA Dreamers. Trump on Thursday threw a wrench into an emerging bipartisan compromise on extending legal status for youthful immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. At a White House meeting with senators of both parties, he referred to nations of Africa as well as El Salvador and Haiti as shithole countries, and wondered why the U.S. couldnt attract more immigrants from Norway. Trumps remarks are disgraceful and racist, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro. Immigrants from all over the world deserve our respect. Most are valued members of our communities, and they do not deserve to be disparaged by anyone, let alone the president. The president has made an agreement more difficult with his blatantly racist comments that appeal to the vilest and darkest instincts on immigration issue, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal. His odious and insidious racism demeans America. But as with so many other issues of policy, we may need to work around him rather than directly with him. Blumenthal, DeLauro and other Democrats are attempting to link the fate of 800,000 youthful beneficiaries of the Obama-era Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals 8,000 in Connecticut to a spending agreement that must be reached by Jan. 19 to head off a government shutdown. Trump and Republican congressional leaders have demanded that an extension of DACA, which Trump canceled in September, must be conditioned on construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Democrats say a wall is expensive and unnecessary. A possible compromise authored by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was under discussion when Trump made the remark. His comments were disgusting, but not surprising, said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. Nobody was shocked to hear the president said that. The compromise reportedly would restore legal status to DACA recipients and give them a 10-year path to citizenship. Also it would provide $2.5 billion for a combination of border wall and fence construction, as well as additional surveillance technology and border agents. The agreement also sought to address the visa lottery system, which has been used to draw in immigrants from Africa and other underdeveloped nations. This part is what set Trumps incendiary remarks in motion. While not supporting it outright, Murphy and Blumenthal had positive things to say about the Durbin-Graham compromise. Its gotten fire from the right and the left, which means its probably the right temperature, said Murphy. But there may be a Catch-22, Murphy added. Trump said at a White House meeting Tuesday that he would sign what Congress sent him and was leaving it up to lawmakers to hash out details. No compromise is likely to pass the more conservative GOP-led House without Trumps approval, though. And with his use of derisive language at the Thursday meeting, its an open question whether the compromise can be resuscitated. This would be a hard-fought compromise, Murphy said. But it cant go too much farther in Trumps direction without losing a whole bunch of Democrats. dan@hearstdc.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to several 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 countries mentioned by the lawmakers. Trump then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. The president, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt that they help the United States economically. In addition, the president singled out Haiti, telling lawmakers that immigrants from that country must be left out of any deal, these people said. Now Playing: A border wall is still a must-have. Video: Fortune "Why do we need more Haitians?" Trump said, according to people familiar with the meeting. "Take them out." Lawmakers were taken aback by the comments, according to people familiar with their reactions. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., had proposed cutting the visa lottery program by 50 percent and then prioritizing countries already in the system, a White House official said. A White House spokesman defended Trump's position on immigration without directly addressing his remarks. White House officials did not dispute the account. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement issued after The Washington Post first reported Trump's remarks. ". . . 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." Trump built his candidacy and presidency around hard stances on immigration, vowing to build a wall along the Mexican border and cut legal immigration by half, among other positions. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have increased immigration raids, including dozens this week at convenience stores across the country. Trump's comments Thursday also put further scrutiny on his long-standing tendency to make racially charged remarks - including attacks on protesting black athletes and his claim that there were fine people "on both sides" after neo-Nazis rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump falsely claimed for years that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and took out advertisements calling for the death penalty for members of the Central Park Five - four black youths and a Hispanic youth who were accused of a brutal rape in New York and later exonerated. The president's remarks were quickly met with scorn from Democrats and some Republicans and could throw another wrench into bipartisan discussions on immigration, which had shown promise in recent days, according to legislators. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said the comments "will shake the confidence that people have" in the ongoing immigration policy talks. "Democrats and Republicans in the Senate made a proposal. The answer is this racist outburst of the president. How can you take him seriously?" Gutierrez said. "They [Republicans] don't believe in immigration - it's always been about people of color and keeping them out of this country." Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said on Twitter that Trump's remarks "are further proof that his Make America Great Again Agenda is really a Make America White Again agenda." Some Republicans also raised objections. Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, whose family is from Haiti, said in a statement that Trump's remarks were "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation." "My grandmother used to say, 'Digame con quien caminas, y te dire quien eres.' 'Tell me who you walk with, and I'll tell you who you are,' " said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., who represents most of Harlem and is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. "If he's walking around with white supremacists and supporting them, this kind of talk doesn't surprise me." The New York Times also reported last year that Trump said immigrants from Haiti have AIDS. The White House denied that report. In a statement condemning Thursday's remarks by Trump, Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Paul G. Altidor, said that "the president was either misinformed or miseducated about Haiti and its people." He said the Haitian Embassy was inundated with emails from Americans apologizing for what the president said. Democrats were quick to note that Trump employs Haitians at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and that he praised Haitian Americans during a roundtable in Miami in September. "Whether you vote for me or don't vote for me, I really want to be your greatest champion, and I will be your champion," Trump said at the roundtable. Alix Desulme, a city council member in North Miami, home to thousands of Haitian Americans, said the president's latest remarks were "disgusting." "Oh, my God. Oh, my God Jesus," Desulme said. "I don't know how much worse it can get." "This is very alarming. We know he's not presidential, but this is a low," he said. "It's disheartening that someone who is the leader of the free world would use such demeaning language to talk about other folks, referring to folks of color." Trump's critics also said racially incendiary language could damage relationships with foreign allies. For many of Trump's supporters, however, the comments may not prove to be particularly damaging. Trump came under fire from conservatives this week for seeming to suggest that 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. Outlining a potential bipartisan deal, the lawmakers discussed restoring protections for countries that have been removed from the temporary protected status (TPS) program while committing $1.5 billion for a border wall and making changes to the visa lottery system. Lawmakers mentioned that members of the Congressional Black Caucus had requested that some African countries be included in a deal, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. The exchange was "salty" on all sides, this person said, with the president growing profane and animated while discussing immigrants from other countries. "It did not go well," this person said. The administration announced this week that it was removing TPS status for citizens of El Salvador. Haitians were added to the TPS program because of a strong earthquake that devastated Haiti eight years ago. Trump had seemed amenable to a deal earlier in the day during phone calls with lawmakers, aides said, but shifted his position in the meeting and did not seem interested in the bipartisan compromise. The scene played out hurriedly in the morning. Graham and Durbin thought they would be meeting with Trump alone and were surprised to find immigration hard-liners such as Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., at the meeting. White House and Capitol Hill aides say Stephen Miller, the president's top immigration official, was concerned there could be a deal proposed that was too liberal and made sure conservative lawmakers were present. After the meeting, Marc Short, Trump's director of legislative affairs, said the White House was nowhere near a bipartisan agreement on immigration. "We still think we can get there," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the daily White House news briefing. - - - The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe, Maria Sacchetti and Erica Werner contributed to this report. --- Video Embed Code Video: The Fix's Eugene Scott explains how Trump's "shithole countries" comment is the latest example of his history of demeaning statements on nonwhite immigrants.(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) Embed code: Walmart, the largest U.S. private employer, with more than 1 million workers, said Thursday it plans to raise starting wages from $9 to $11 an hour and hand out employee bonuses ranging from $200 to $1,000, becoming the latest company to give a least some of the credit for new worker benefits to the recently passed tax plan. But economists and professors cast doubt on whether tax policy changes were the driving force behind the move by the retailing giant, which for years has stood as a lightning rod for criticism over low worker pay. With the national unemployment rate at 4.1 percent, a 17-year low, there are more job openings in the retail industry now than at any time since December 2000, government data shows. With its announcement Thursday, Walmart did not mention the difficulty employers are having finding and retaining workers in the retail industry. "Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.," Walmart chief executive Douglas McMillon said. Observers said Walmart needed to raise wages now if it wanted to keep step with peers such as Target, which late last year raised its starting wage to $11 an hour, with plans to reach $15 by 2020. "I would've been astounded if they hadn't raised wages," said Thomas Kochan, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management. "What's impossible to sort out is how much of this is because of savings from the tax cuts and how much is because of pressure they're receiving from employees and labor groups." The entry of Walmart into the tax-cut debate accelerates the contentious discussion over how much the tax law, still only weeks old, is truly factoring into these corporate decisions. American Airlines and AT&T, among others, have announced $1,000 bonuses for employees, citing the tax overhaul. Wells Fargo is among a smaller group that has also pledged a $15-an-hour minimum wage after the tax plan's passage. But experts are more doubtful that there's a connection. Many expect wages to rise when corporations have more money, but that is supposed to flow from new investments measured in years, not weeks. Walmart also said Thursday it would expand its parental-leave policies for hourly workers and begin providing $5,000 in aid to workers adopting a child. (The company currently offers six to eight weeks of partially paid maternity leave for hourly workers and no paternity leave.) But it wasn't all good news. The retailer also said Thursday that it was closing 63 Sam's Club stores, affecting thousands of workers. In a tweet, the company said the closures would help "better align" its physical locations with its strategy. (Ten locations will reopen as e-commerce fulfillment centers.) Walmart said the pay increases apply to all its hourly workers in the United States, including those at its Sam's Club stores. The retail giant said the pay raises would take effect Feb. 17 and the bonuses paid sometime after this month. It also plans to give one-time cash bonuses to some part-time and full-time workers, ranging from $200, for workers who have been at Walmart for less than two years, to $1,000, for those who have been working there for 20 or more years. "Today, we are building on investments we've been making in associates, in their wages and skills development," McMillon said. News of Walmart's investment was cheered by supporters of the tax plan, which slashes the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and includes other features expected to lead to windfall profits for companies. "We want to thank them," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said of Walmart's decision. "Walmart is the latest company to make such an announcement, directly [as a] result of the tax cuts." Walmart's new $700 million plan pales in comparison with the retailer's $2.7 billion, two-year plan in 2015 to boost worker pay and benefits, which resulted in across-the-board pay raises that landed all on one day in February 2016, billed as the largest single-day, private-sector pay hike ever. That's when Walmart said it would begin paying entry-level workers $10 an hour, after a training period. Walmart said the new wage increases will add about $300 million in expenses to its budget for the next fiscal year. The one-time cash bonuses, meanwhile, will cost the company about $400 million, or about 0.08 percent of its annual revenue. For 2016, the company reported $485.87 billion in annual revenue on profits of $13.64 billion. The tax changes will save Walmart $2 billion a year, according to estimates from Making Change at Walmart, a campaign run by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. "The fact is that Walmart is not permanently investing the estimated $2 billion it will receive annually from Trump's tax giveaway to its workers - it is keeping almost all of it," said Randy Parraz, director of the Making Change at Walmart campaign. "This is nothing but another public relations stunt from Walmart to distract from the reality that they are laying off thousands of workers and the ones who remain will continue to receive low wages." Christine Owens, the National Employment Law Project's executive director, described the new benefits as a "lowball announcement by Walmart." Eleven dollars an hour equals about $19,000 a year for 34-hour weeks, which Walmart considers full time. That's below the national poverty line for a family of three. Emeraid Gems earns $11 an hour now after seven years at Walmart. Gems, who lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, said via email that more is needed from the retailer. "The one-time bonus I'll be getting won't help me long-term," Gems said. "We need $15 and full time to be able to support our families." - - - The Washington Post's Damian Paletta and Andrew Van Dam contributed to this report. (Editors note: This is the second installment in Jean Chernis three-part series about her trip to Africa.) Cape Town is an exciting and beautiful city with clean, wonderful beaches surrounded by the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The Boulders Beach area looks very similar to Bermuda with its whitewashed homes with red-tile roofs. Especially interesting here is a large colony of adorable, small penguins. We spent several hours watching their playful antics. In the downtown area of the city we visited an upscale mall where I purchased a lightweight puff jacket for the cool evenings. We also took a quick look at the just-opened, largest contemporary art museum in Africa, an ultra-modern structure developed from a converted grain silo, smack on the busy Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. The building itself is spectacular; the contents, too far-out modern for my eye with a giant, rubber flying dragon dominating the entrance. We stopped for quick drinks and a birds-eye view of the city from the lounge of a boutique hotel at the top of the museum. We had a pizza dinner poolside at the hotel, where we chatted with two ladies from London who come to South Africa regularly. Then it was time to repack the suitcases for our trip to Giraffe Manor. I had first learned about the unique, boutique hotel famous for its resident herd of endangered Rothschild giraffes from an upscale travel magazine article some years ago. As a tall, somewhat awkward teenager I had identified with the gangly giraffes, who turn into elegant creatures when they run. So I clipped the article, wistfully thinking, perhaps, some day. I never really expected such a trip would become possible. A nine-hour flight brought us to Nairobi, Kenya, where we then were driven to a manor home, modeled on a Scottish hunting lodge, situated on a lush 12-acre property. With only 10 bedroom suites, my daughter had pulled quite a few strings to obtain reservations, which are often made several years in advance. Here, even though the food and service are exceptional, the main attraction is the resident herd of giraffe that appear at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast, poking their long necks into any open windows eagerly anticipating the special pellets guests are given to feed them. There is 19-year-old Betty; naughty Kelly, 18; Daisy, who is 9; Ed, 6; and others; each with their own, distinct personality. The staff has learned to recognize the slight differences in skin markings; almost the way we recognize individual differences in peoples faces. The giraffes all return again in the evening for their supper treat. I learned that standing giraffes are referred to as a tower, running giraffes are called a line, and walking giraffes a journey. These beautiful gentle giants have a rather short life span of about 10-15 years and, because of encroaching civilization, are in danger of becoming extinct. (continued next week) NORTH HAVEN A 38-year-old man was charged with allegedly sending messages to his estranged girlfriend , threatening to kill her and her family. Vincent Terrone allegedly threatened the woman he was living with, sending her a text message that he would go out and kill both (the womans) sisters (her) mother and (her) father ..., according to photographic evidence of the text message police collected. He was charged with second-degree harassment . He had been dating the woman for several months and they lived together in Hamden and were planning to move to the apartment in North Haven where police responded to a complaint of harassment and potential burglary. When police arrived at the apartment, they found Terrone in his vehicle, where he had spent the night, the report said, since the woman with whom Terrone was living had changed the locks to the apartment. Terrone found he could access the basement and subsequently began removing things from the residence to his vehicle, according to the report. While police were on scene, the estranged girlfriend was at the the North Haven Police Department to report threats against her family. In talking with police, the woman described Terrone as a heroin user, saying his drug use had increased over the past several months, according to the report. She had asked him to immediately leave and wanted no further contact with him, the report said. A search on the judicial website revealed Terrone has several pending cases, including felony charges for risk of injury to a child, violation of a protective order and criminal violation of a restraining order. He has court appearances scheduled for March 23. The same day Terrone was arrested, he was involved in an incident where Hamden Police Sgt. Michael Cirillo allegedly assaulted Terrone while on duty for Hamden police. Police were in the houses basement with Terrone when the altercation happened where Cirillo yelled at Terrone, grabbed him by his upper torso and threw him to the ground, a report said. Cirillo continued to wrestle with Terrone and eventually placing Terrone into a head lock while he yelled at Terrone about making threats to his family. Cirillo was arrested for third-degree assault. He has a plea hearing scheduled for Jan. 18. Watch the altercation captured by the officers Axon body camera here and watch the full video of the incident here. Warning: the videos of the arrest contain aggressive, explicit language. Police subsequently learned the woman with whom Terrone was living had contacted a relative about the threatening messages and the person who received the call is related to Cirillo. After the incident, North Haven firefighters and medics from AMR responded and Terrone was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital complaining of back pain. At the hospital, police were advised Terrone was unable to receive the Summons due to sobriety issues, the report said, with police delivering the summons later that day. Terrone had told police he drank several beers that morning, according to a video of the arrest captured by an officers Axon body camera. mdignan@hearstmediact.com New Haven Six years after he shot Daryl McIver in a late-night ambush, Jermaine Harris has been sentenced to serve 80 years in prison for murder and other charges. McIver died on his 20th birthday. Harris trial two months ago was filled with testimony about a series of shootings in the summer of 2011 between members of two rival street gangs, the Bloods and the Crips. Police said McIver was a Crip and Harris was a Blood. A Superior Court jury convicted Harris, 30, of Asylum Street, of murder, first-degree robbery and carrying a pistol without a permit. The sentence was left in the hands of Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue, who presided over the trial and could have imposed a prison sentence of up to 145 years. After studying the pre-sentence investigation, Blue imposed a sentence of 60 years for murder, 20 years for first-degree robbery and five years for carrying a pistol without a permit. Blue made the sentence on the third charge concurrent with the other two consecutive sentences, for a total sentence of 80 years. During the trial, prosecutors Stacey Miranda and Karen Roberg documented five gang-related shootings that occurred between July 22 and Sept. 16 of 2011. In the first one, Jason Roman, a Blood, was shot and wounded. Police identified McIver as a suspect. According to trial testimony, McIver, Harris and Tevin Williams, who also was a Blood, were walking around New Haven July 30, 2011, when McIver bragged to Harris that he had shot Roman. Harris reportedly then said to Williams, Im going to kill him and followed through on his threat as the three men were taking a shortcut through a fence companys property on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard. The jurors watched the companys surveillance tape showing McIver being ambushed from behind at about 2:15 a.m. It was too dark to see their faces but Williams, who had signed a cooperation agreement with the state, testified the tape showed Harris firing several times at McIver. After McIver fell to the ground, Williams said, Harris took McIvers gun off his hip and shot him a few more times with that gun. Defense attorney Michael Dwyer had told the jurors in his closing argument of the trial that they should be skeptical of Williams testimony because he was hoping to receive a shorter prison sentence in exchange for his cooperation. Williams is still awaiting sentencing. During the sentencing hearing, which drew about 12 of McIvers family members and supporters to the courtroom, Blue heard victim impact statements from McIvers mother, Mary Hilton, his cousin, Nathania Blackmon, and Donna Santiago, a friend of the family. Hilton thanked Blue, the prosecutors and their associates for their hard work on the case. She referred to Harris as the demon that took my first-born son. She remembered his birthday celebration as a beautiful blessing day but said it turned into a dark, gloomy, ugly, painful, heartfelt night. So much pain in the air. My son just turned 20 years old, 20 years old, she said. Daryl was so excited, just smiles. Hilton added, His dad and I loved the fact of him being such a loving, caring big brother. My sons miss their brother and friend. She concluded, I miss my baby wholeheartedly. My son will be forever with his family. Love never dies. Blackmon told Harris in her written statement, I know I must not live daily with hatred for you and that God will have the last say on judgment day. But she said she still cant believe that someone who had claimed to be his friend thought it was necessary to take his life. Santiago, who attended the entire trial, called Harris nothing more than a menace to this society. She said, He deserves nothing but pure punishment and sleepless nights. In addition to going through years of pretrial proceedings in the case, McIvers family had endured a mistrial in January 2016 when the jurors could not unanimously agree on a verdict. Harris still faces a separate murder charge for the 2010 shooting of Edmund Jackson outside Humphreys Bar on the corner of East and Humphrey streets. Prosecutors have not said whether they will put Harris on trial in that case. Contact Randall Beach at 203-680-9345 or rbeach@nhregister.com or randall.beach@hearstmediact.com Truth! Justice! And the American way! Perhaps you recognize those words, you baby boomers out there. Thats the opening for the Superman TV series of the 1950s. Oh, that Superman was onto something. A half-century later, truth is under siege. We are saddled with a president who regularly distorts the truth while attacking the news media, mocking reporters, claiming that newspapers and CNN are full of fake news. But now, we have a timely response to President Trump and his administration and Congressional backers: a new movie, The Post, arrives this weekend at a theater near you. The Post is a historical but entertaining and inspiring account of the brave decision by Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham in 1971 to publish the Pentagon Papers. Those top-secret documents detailed how the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations had lied to the public about the Vietnam War and the chances our troops could win. The Post and New York Times were allowed to continue to publish this material after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Nixons attempt to stop the presses. Graham, Post editor Ben Bradlee and their counterparts at the Times werent the only heroes. Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst, was the man who leaked the documents to reporters at the two newspapers. Early last year, when director Steven Spielberg saw and heard what was unfolding in the new Trump White House, he seized the script for this film about uncovering government lies and he ran with it. Accelerating the usual production schedule, Spielberg called up Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks and immediately enlisted them to play the parts of Graham and Bradlee. The two actors shared Spielbergs realization that time was of the essence. Heres a Spielberg quote in the Los Angeles Times: I thought this was an idea that felt more like 2017 than 1971. I could not believe the similarities between today and what happened with the Nixon administration against their avowed enemies the New York Times and the Washington Post. I realized this was the only year to make this film. Spielberg also said: I certainly hope that our movie makes people aware of the kind of effort that goes into searching for and seeking the truth. This to me is a patriotic movie. I made this as a believer in the free press, in our First Amendment rights. I was reading the Los Angeles Times because my wife and I were there last month to visit our daughters. They werent around in the 1970s and thus dont share our memories of that triumphant outcome. But they wanted to see The Post, too, so the four of us watched it at a Los Angeles movie theater on Christmas Day. (The big cities often get prominent movies before the rest of the country.) Yes, it was inspiring, a reminder to those of us who have remained in the newspaper business, amid all its changes and cutbacks, about why we keep on. The Post is also inspiring to all Americans who value the truth and the free press. You cant help but be moved when seeing those rows of newspapers coming off the presses, loaded onto delivery trucks and thrown in stacks out to the newsstands, bringing the truth to the public. When New York Times writer Cara Buckley interviewed Streep and Hanks, she asked them about echoes of Nixon in what were hearing now from the White House about news reporting being fake news. Hanks replied we are now facing this guerrilla war that is going on against the First Amendment. This idea now that has actually been verbalized by various people high up in the current administration that there is such a thing as an alternative fact. Hanks added: Eventually, I think the truth does come out. Yes, and it all began with Ellsberg, who has prominent scenes early in the movie (he is played by Matthew Rhys of the TV series The Americans) but unfortunately is not seen much in the films dramatic second half. Ellsberg, like New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, Graham and Bradlee, knew he could have been arrested and convicted of crimes against the government and sent to prison. Indeed, Ellsberg was prosecuted under the Espionage Act and faced the possibility of a 115-year sentence. But the case ended in a mistrial because the government had illegally gathered evidence against him. In June 1981, when Ellsberg came to Yale to speak at a student conference, I covered it for the New Haven Register and spent some time talking with him in a student dining hall. Ellsberg told me that when he was a U.S. Marine in the mid-1950s and later while working for the RAND Corp., I was very much a cold warrior, a hawk. But as The Post shows, Ellsbergs trip to Vietnam in the early 70s and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamaras lies to the public about how it was going for our troops spurred Ellsberg to copy the Pentagon Papers and release them to Times and Post reporters. As we sat in that Yale dining hall, Ellsberg made a simple statement about his brave decision: It seemed the right thing to do. Ellsberg also said something that day which rings true in 2017: Im struck by the fact that people get to be president who suffer from the same inadequate, fatuous understanding of the world that I had at age 31. I encourage you to go see this movie. randall.beach@hearstmediact.com Aisha Yesufu, the co-convener of Bring Back Our Girls blasted President Muhammadu Buhari for not going to the mass burial of Benue casualties slaughtered by Fulani Herdsmen.The presence of Buhari was expected at the burial of the 75 individuals murdered by Fulani herders in Logo and Guma LGAs of the state.Yesufu depicted Buharis non-appearance as relentless and heartless to the predicament of Nigerians.This was in response to a tweet by the administration official twitter account saluting the champ of his 2017 Seasons Greetings Card.Buhari on his page stated Let me uncommonly say thanks to Michael_CXT, whose accommodation roused the last outline of my 2017 Seasons Greetings Card. He won the open rivalry sorted out to outline the Card. I compliment him, and wish him the best in his future undertaking.Aisha in answer depicted Buharis post as impolite on a day when Nigerians were grieving passing of their friends and family.She expressed herself on her Twitter page about the 75 Nigerians from Benue State killed by herders fear based oppressors were given mass internment. How unfeeling and coldhearted! Plateau Regeneration Group, says that governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State was quoted out of context on his comments over the killings in Benue State.Mr Badung Chuhwak, spokesperson for the group while briefing newsmen on Friday in Jos said that Lalong did not mean to cause more pains to Benue people.Lalong, during an interview with state house correspondents in Abuja said that he had warned Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue against implementing the Anti Open Grazing Law.The group however maintained that Lalong was only speaking about the alternatives to open grazing.According to the group, Lalong is an advocate of ranching and would support any initiative by the Federal Government to end herders/farmers clashes including cattle colonies.The group apologised to the government and people of Benue State for the misrepresentation of the governor in the media.Similarly, Lalongs media team had issued a statement to clarify the governors comments.The statement which was signed by Mr Emmanuel Nanle, Director of Press to the Governor, said that the governor would always show solidarity with his Benue State counterpart.The governor has expressed his deepest sympathy in a phone conversation with Governor Ortom.He gave assurances of the prayers of the people of Plateau for Gods comfort to the bereaved families, and for the repose of the souls of all those killed in the wake of the attack, it said. Medical Director of the Cedarcrest Hospital, Abuja, Dr. Felix Ogedegbe, has refuted reports claiming the First Lady, Aisha Buhari was admitted in the hospital for shock after receiving news of the bike accident of Buharis son, Yusuf Buhari.The hospital MD also disclosed that the Presidents son, Yusuf Buhari, who was admitted into Cedarcrest Hospital, Abuja, following injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident, is ready to be discharged.Dr. Ogedegbe also refuted claims that Yusufs friend was also involved in the accident.In a statement the hospital issued which was quoted in another statement issued by Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, it said the hospital would not have, ordinarily, respond to some of the false rumours making the rounds but decided to respond to that claiming the First Lady sustained shock on hearing about Yusufs accident.We did note some very misleading reports about this incident making the rounds in some social media outlets. Most of them would not ordinarily need to be responded to, Dr. Ogedegbe said in the a statement.He also said that, Suffice to say that there was only one person involved in this incident. No one else required treatment for this incident or its aftermath. Yusufs friend was not involved in the accident and did not sustain any injuries whatsoever.Her Excellency was not at any time treated for shock and she was not admitted into Cedarcrest at any time.Meanwhile, announcing the cheering news that Buharis son would soon be discharged, Mr. Adesina quoted Ogedegbe as saying that Yusuf Buhari underwent successful emergency surgical operations carried out by a team of neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons.The statement by the hospital further reads thus: Mr Yusuf Muhammadu Buhari, son of His Excellency President Buhari, was admitted into Cedarcrest Hospitals Abuja in the late hours of the Dec. 26, 2017, following injuries sustained as a rider of a motorcycle.Following initial stabilization, he was taken into intensive care. He underwent successful emergency surgical operations the following morning carried out by our team of neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons.Over the following week, his condition improved remarkably and he was transferred from intensive care to the ward.He has remained stable ever since and has continued to make remarkable progress. He is now ready to be discharged.His extremely speedy response to treatment so far is testimony to the world-class early care he has received here in Cedarcrest, Abuja.We are grateful to His Excellency, President Buhari and Her Excellency the First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari for the confidence in us and for allowing us to look after Yusuf.This show of confidence goes a long way to strengthen our collective belief in our resolve to offer world-class health care locally.Ogedegbe also lauded the efforts of the duo of federal and state ministers of health and also the hospital team for their dedication and hard work during the operations.He added: We are extremely grateful to our entire hospital team for their dedication and hard work during this period.We are also grateful to the Minister of Health, the Minister of State for Health, and the eminent advisory team of specialists assembled by the Honorable Minister of Health who supported us in the course of looking after Yusuf.We are grateful to all Nigerians who prayed for Yusuf, his family and his carers. His response to treatment so far is clear testimony to answered prayers.In addition, Cedarcrest Hospitals has remained open to other in-patients and out-patients and at no time were any patients denied access to the hospital. Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has issued the Department of State Services 48 hours to release the 10 Cameroonian separatists ... Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has issued the Department of State Services 48 hours to release the 10 Cameroonian separatists in its custody. Falana threatened to approach the court in demand for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights if the DSS failed to act. The senior advocate disclosed this in a letter addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris. Seven members of the Movement for the independence of Southern Cameroonians were arrested by the Department of State Services, DSS, on Friday in Abuja. Falana said, Take notice therefore that if our clients are not released from illegal custody or arraigned in court within 48 hours of the receipt of this letter, we shall not hesitate to apply to the Federal High Court to secure the enforcement of their fundamental rights to personal liberty guaranteed by Section 35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended and article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. The 10 Cameroonians-Mr. Julius Tabe, Mr. Wilfred Tassang, Dr. Nfor Nfor, Prof. Augustine Awasom, Dr. Cornelius Kwanga, Dr. Henry Kimeng, Elias Eyambe, Nalova Bih, Dr. Ojong Okongo and Dr. Fidelis Che came into Nigeria legally. Our clients are the leaders of the movement agitating for the creation of the Republic of Ambazonia in Cameroon. 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 apart from Prof. Augustine Awasom who is a United States citizen. Our clients were assembled for a meeting at Nera Hotel, Abuja on Saturday, January 6, 2018. However, before the commencement of the meeting a team of armed operatives of the State Security Service invaded the venue, abducted our clients and took them away to an undisclosed place. Former President Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to the claims by the presidency that 756 Nigerians were killed under his administration. Former President Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to the claims by the presidency that 756 Nigerians were killed under his administration. Jonathan in a statement issued by his media office on Thursday, described the statement as mischievous and false. He blasted the special adviser on media and publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina for trivalizing such heinous crime. He further condoled with victims of Benue, Kaduna, Taraba, Adamawa and Nasarawa states, over the recent spate of killings by Fulani herdsmen. The statement reads 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? Security agencies attached to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos have impounded 17 check-in luggage of the Nigerian musician, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido after his bodyguards beat up Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, security officials, Customs and others, on arrival at the airport from a foreign trip aboard Emirates Airlines on Thursday evening.Trouble started when Checkport staff at the baggage reclaim area attempted to check the tags on the check-in luggage of the musician to confirm if they corresponded with the reclaimed luggage. But, the enquiry of the personnel did not go down well with one of the aides of Davido, who refused to tender the tags and resorted to abusive words against the staff.After few minutes of exchange of words, the aide, allegedly punched the Checkpoint staff in the face while another Customs personnel close to the scene of the incident did not escape his vicious attacks.The attacks on personnel led to the reinforcement of security personnel who bundled the aid to Tango City within the terminal. Tango City is the place where unruly passengers and touts within the airport are taken to by security agencies.However, at the Tango City, rather than behave well, the aide continued his attack on two AVSEC personnel, one of them was a female lady who was writing down the report and another Customs official he attacked and cut his wrist in the process, the airport security officials said. It was at this point that the attention of Davido who was already outside the terminal awaiting the collection of his luggage from his aide was called to the terminal incident.It was gathered that when Daivo arrived the scene, he attempted to ensure the release of the aide, which was rebuffed by the security agencies and insisted on taking the detained aide to Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Panti in Lagos.As at Friday, the 17 seized pieces of luggage of Davido were still at the airport while efforts were being made to transfer the unruly aide to CID, Panti.The source close to the scene of the incident said: Davido had arrived Lagos Airport as usual with about 17 pieces of luggage in all. The rule is that whenever you arrive, you are expected to release your tags to the Checkport staff for confirmation and verification, but rather than comply with the simple rule, one of his aides insisted he wont allow them to check the tags.But, unfortunately, this aide refused to be checked and rather than obey the simple civil aviation rule, he resorted to attacking everybody. He attacked everybody around. No fewer than four officials were beaten by the aide in question with at least two of them soaked in blood.However, as at the time of filing this report, FAAN is yet to comment on the incident. Power generation in the country may have hit a fresh snag following the explosion that ruptured the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline on Thursday,... Power generation in the country may have hit a fresh snag following the explosion that ruptured the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline on Thursday, even as generation from hydropower plants dropped by 494 megawatts in six days.There was pandemonium as a heavy explosion rocked the pipeline criss-crossing the Ugbokodo community near the Warri refinery in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State.The incident, which sources said occurred around 4am, forced residents of the community to scamper for safety in the bushes when they discovered that the inferno that resulted from the explosion was advancing towards their homes.It was gathered that some residents, including children, who fled into the bushes, were still missing as of 4:30pm when one of our correspondents left the community.It was learnt that the explosion was as a result of leaks from a gas pipeline in the community, which had earlier been reported to the management of the NGC.According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, repair work commenced immediately on the facility in order to address the fresh incident.The NNPC, however, did not state what caused the fresh explosion on the pipeline.It took the combined efforts of the men of the fire services of the NGC and the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company as well as other agencies to put out the fire at about 8am.No life was lost in the incident, which created panic among residents of the area.Residents of the community who later protested the development accused the management of the NGC of negligence as the community had reported the malfunctioning pipeline to its Ekpan-Warri office without any action being taken.The protesters led by the Unuevworo of Ugbokodo community, Chief Tobore Ajisha, alleged that the explosion could have been avoided if the leaking pipeline was immediately fixed when members of the community reported the leakage to NGC officials in writing.Ajisha stated that the community also placed a call to the management of the Nigeria Gas Processing and Transporting Company when the explosion occurred but the firm allegedly refused to act quickly until the inferno gathered momentum.Efforts to speak with the NGCs spokesman in the Warri area office, Violin Antaih, were unsuccessful as calls and SMS sent across to him were not unanswered and not replied.But confirming the explosion, the Commander of the Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe, Rear Admiral Suleiman Apochi, said he had yet to get a full briefing on the development as of the time he was contacted.This is coming four days after the resumption of gas supply to six power plants Egbin (Lagos), Omotosho I and II (Ondo), and Olorunsogo I and II and Paras Energy (Ogun) after the completion of the repair work on the pipeline, which was damaged by a fire incident last week.The plants did not generate any megawatts of electricity for four straight days until Monday when the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System, which supplies gas to them, came back on stream.The nation generates most of its electricity from gas-fired power plants, while output from hydropower plants makes up about 30 per cent of the total generation.Total electricity generation, which fell slightly to 3,517.5MW as of 6am on Wednesday, January 3, 2018 (the morning after the grid collapse caused by the pipeline fire), rose to 4,102.3MW on Wednesday.Unutilised generation capacity occasioned by gas constraint dropped to 1,018.7MW as of 6am on Wednesday from 3,133.3MW last Friday, according to the latest data obtained by our correspondents on Sunday from the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.But the combined generation from Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro hydro plants, which rose by 580MW to 1,212MW on January 3 and offset most of the losses caused by the shutdown of the six power plants, dropped to 718MW on Wednesday.Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro generated 370MW, 148MW and 200MW, respectively on Wednesday, from 339MW, 445MW and 428MW on January 3, the data showed.Jebba did not generate electricity on Monday as five of its units (2G1 to 5) were said to have tripped due to loss of auxiliary supply and 2G6 out due to burnt generator winding and automatic voltage regulator.Electricity generation from Egbin, the nations biggest power station, stood at 398MW as of 6am on Wednesday, compared to 561MW on January 2.Seven out of the nations 28 power plants did not generate any megawatt as of 6am on Wednesday, compared to 14 last Friday. The plants are Sapele I, Alaoji II, Olorunsogo II, Azura-Edo, AES, ASCO, and Trans-Amadi.When contacted to find out if the fresh damage at ELPS had affected generation at Egbin, a source told one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity that the plant was still generating electricity.Egbin is on as we speak and we are still generating. If we start noticing any drop in pressure, we will let you know. We are generating close to 400MW now, he said.On January 2 this year, the downstream section of the Escravos to Lagos Pipeline System was razed by a bush fire 2 at Abakila, in Ondo State, a development that led to widespread blackout as gas supply to six power plants was stalled.The earlier fire incident had affected gas supply to customers in Ondo, Ogun and Lagos, with the subsequent shutdown of some power plants with a combined generating capacity of 1,143MW.But on Thursday, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, announced another explosion on the facility.He, however, stated that the corporations Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, had directed that repair works be executed immediately on the part of the ELP that was ruptured by the fresh explosion along Egbokodo-Omadino so as to restore supplies from Escravos.Baru further directed that gas supply from other sources like Oben, Oredo, Sapele, Ughelli and Utorogu be stepped up to augment any shortfall, as repair works had commenced on the pipeline. The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss the suit challenging the charges relating to the Malabu oil $1.1bn scam instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against his predecessor, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN).Malami, in his papers filed to oppose his predecessors suit, contended that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case and that such civil suit cannot be used to stop criminal prosecution already initiated.Malami noted in his papers that the charges which its validity Adoke was challenging were five counts involving the fraudulent transfer of billions of dollars derived from the Oil Processing Licence 245 deal.Adoke had in May 2017 filed his suit against his successor as the sole defendant, urging the court to declare as illegal his prosecution by the EFCC with respect to his involvement in the deal between Malabu Oil and Gas Limited and the Federal Government over OPL 245.Malami, through the Permanent Secretary and the Solicitor-General of the Federation of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Dayo Apata, filed in response to the suit, a notice of preliminary objection challenging the competence of the suit and the courts jurisdiction to hear it.He also filed a counter-affidavit challenging the merit of the case.Malami contended in his notice of preliminary objection that the suit was not only competent but that a civil suit such as Adokes could not be used to stop a criminal trial that had been instituted.The four grounds of Malamis preliminary objection to the suit read, The plaintiff has not disclosed any cause of action in the suit. The civil suit cannot be used to stop criminal prosecution already initiated.That the plaintiffs suit as constituted is incompetent and that this honourable court lacks jurisdiction to hear and determine the plaintiffs suit.Thomas Etah of the Federal Ministry of Justice, who deposed to the AGFs counter-affidavit, stated that Adokes suit did not disclose any dispute between the former AGF and his successor, since it was the EFCC that investigated the case and found it worthy to institute the charges.Malami described Adokes suit as an abuse of court process, as he insisted that contrary to the former AGFs claim in the suit, the charges initiated against him by the EFCC had nothing to do with the actions authorised by the President.Adoke had maintained in his originating summons that his involvement in the Malabu Oil deal as a serving minister was based on the presidential directive of former President Goodluck Jonathan.In the suit filed on his legal team led by another former AGF, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), Adoke asked the court to determine whether by virtue of sections 5(1), 147(1), 148(1) and 150(1) of the 1999 Constitution a serving minister of the country could perform the executive power of federation vested on the President as directed by the President.He urged the court to declare that his involvement in the negotiation between the Nigerian government and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, Shell, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and Agip in the matter of OPL 245 was in furtherance of the lawful directive/approval of the president in the exercise of his powers.The former AGF also asked the court to declare that any correspondence he had with J.P Morgan and any other entity and ancillary actions and processes taken in respect to the Malabu Oil deal was in obedience to the lawful directive of the President in the exercise of his executive power.He also asked the court to declare that his prosecution by the EFCC in respect of Malabu deal on the account of carrying out the presidents directive was illegal, null and void and in breach of Section 5 (1) of the Constitution.He also urged the court to declare that he could be held liable for carrying out lawful directive/approval of the president while he served as a minister.The case, which is now before Justie Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, has been scheduled to come up on February 1. The Kaduna State Government has dismissed claims by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that it disengaged more than 36,000 workers without commensurate employment for others.Alhaji Saidu Adamu, Counsellor on Information and Communication to Gov. Nasiru El-Rufai dismissed the claim in an interview with the Newsmen on Friday in Kaduna.According to him, the claims of the PDP was baseless as the state government has embarked on massive employment ever seen in the history of the state since independence.The PDP on Wednesday in a statement accused the state government of insensitivity over the sack of about 22,000 teachers, 4, 000 local government employees, 3000 state workers and traditional rulers.The government spokesman stressed that the administration was sanitising the civil service and injecting new blood as part of the reform process to make the service responsive, efficient and sustainable.Adamu said: Right from Nigerias independence, I want to believe that this is the first time Kaduna state government is making massive employment in our history.In one agency, KASTELA, the state government had employed over 2,600 personnel and we have already secured permission to employ additional 1,700 soon.We are currently doing same is various agencies, including KADIPA and KADGIS among other agencies in the state.On the 22,000 teachers sacked by the government, Adamu said the administration would replace them with 25, 000 qualified ones.The teachers sacked have no business in the classroom, he stressed, adding that the government was focused on laying solid foundation at the primary level for children of the poor to acquire sound education.By sanitizing our primary schools, children of the poor would acquire the right education that would add value to their lives and the society and become something worthwhile in the future.No any sensible government will allow the way things are going in the education sector to continue.A situation where a primary school teacher and graduate of geography cant even spell geography correctly, and you expect the government to allow such person to continue teaching, is not possible.It is high time to change the situation and we have screened those who applied for teaching job to get suitable replacement.We are also going to conduct physical and oral test to confirm that we have the right persons, we want to have functional and qualified teachers in our schools.I want to also assure that what Kaduna state governor is doing is the best that any right thinking leaders should do.We have been left behind and we contributed to what is happening to us right now, because the previous administrations did not care about the future of poor people.On those calling for the retraining of the affected teachers, the government spokesman said those who failed the competency test were beyond redemption.He recalled that government had spent over N600 million in the last two years in training and retraining them yet have failed to meet up.The governor wants to make sure that we have functional future for our children.By the time we stop thinking about tomorrow there is a problem; to be able to know where you are going you must be able to know where you are coming from.Adamu explained that other civil servants being eased out at the state and local government level were those who have attained or were close to retirement.According to him, the exercise is to also block wastage in the system.He particularly noted that the local government system has been choked up with ghost and redundant staffs being paid salaries monthly for doing nothing.It is such that at the end of every month the state government had to make provisional money from its allocation to add up to that of the LGAs to be able to pay their staff salaries.This means that the local councils cannot perform their primary functions of providing infrastructure, healthcare services and others responsibilities at the grassroots.For instance the Admin Department of Zaria Local Government Council has over 300 staff and by time we try to find out who they were we discovered that 99 per cent of them are ghost workers, yet they still collect salaries.Some of the local council workers were also discovered to be collecting salaries elsewhere, either as state or federal civil servants. It is very wrong, and government would not allow it to continue.So, our target is that by early 2019, more than 40 per cent of our civil servants will be youth, well educated, computer literate; we are going to have one of the most vibrant civil service in Nigeria.Adamu explained that all those retired would be paid their dues promptly. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, has arrested two suspected traffickers among Nigerian repatriated from Libya.The Director-General of NAPTIP, Ms Julie Okah-Donli, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, said the two suspects were currently under investigation as one of the suspected traffickers, a female, was transferred to NAPTIPs Lagos Zonal Command for questioning.She stated that the agency had set the machinery in motion to fish out those involved in the trafficking or smuggling of Nigerians and they would be prosecuted accordingly.According to her, nine pregnant women and five babies were among the 972 returnees that have been repatriated.The Director General disclosed that among the returnees, Edo has the highest of 533 returnees, Delta, 128; while Yobe has 28.Others include Ogun and Imo states, which have 25 each, Ondo, 17 and Oyo 15.Meanwhile, one of those rescued, Victoria Sampson, a mother of three from Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, said she was fed once a day in the Libyan prison after her arrest.Victoria, who is one of the eight returnees received by the Akwa Ibom State Government yesterday, while narrating her ordeal, said after the death of her husband, a woman took her to Libya on condition that she would work to offset the transport expenses incurred on her. The Nigerian Communications Commission has denied reports that a new owner of 9mobile will emerge on January 16, 2018.The Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said in a statement on Thursday that January 16 was only scheduled as the deadline for the receipt and review of bidding offers from prospective buyers.He affirmed that Barclays Africa was still in charge of the bidding process that would lead to the emergence of a new owner for the company, and was under obligation to maintain confidentiality of the acquisition.Ojobo said, Contrary to speculations that a winner will be announced on the same day (January 16, 2018), we wish to clarify that Barclays is expected to review the bids received by the deadline and to make recommendations to the 9mobile Interim Board thereafter.Barclays Africa remains in full control of the process leading to the emergence of a new owner for the company. Barclays has not authorised any publication on the matter and is obliged to maintain full confidentiality thereon.According to him, after the review, recommendations will be made to the 9mobile Interim Board.Highlighting the next steps in the acquisition process, he stated that a new owner company would emerge when the interim board had accepted the recommendation made by Barclays.The director said, The NCC and the CBN will be duly notified once the 9mobiles Interim Board accepts Barclays recommendations and a winning bid is determined in accordance with the terms of the exercise.The winner will now apply to the NCC in order to commence the processes for securing the regulatory approvals from the Board of the NCC necessary to give full effect to the transfer.We trust that the foregoing sufficiently clarifies the position of the transaction and that it lays to rest any apprehensions regarding the unfounded media publications on the sale.The commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria had in December 2017 given approval for an extension of time for bidding to January 16, 2018, based on the request by the 9mobile Interim Board.Following the inability to resolve a loan of about $1.2bn with 13 Nigerian banks, the Etisalat Group withdrew its 45 per cent stake in the company.However, through the intervention of the NCC and the CBN, the takeover of the company by the consortium of banks was prevented.Companies that have been reportedly shortlisted for the acquisition of 9mobile after submitting their expressions of interest to Barclays include Bharti Airtel, Smile Telecoms Holdings, Helios Investment Partners LLP, Teleology Holdings Limited and Globacom. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons on Thursday said the victims rescued from Libyan detention camps were from 27 states of the federation.The NAPTIP Director General, Julie Okah-Donli, who made the disclosure during a press conference in Abuja, said 972 Nigerians had been rescued in the New Year.Out of the over 5,000 Nigerians located in different detention camps in Libya, 972, in two batches of 485 and 487, have returned. Another batch is expected and more will continue to come back until the operations are completed.Among those that have returned so far, Edo State has 533 returnees, followed by Delta State with 128. Yobe State is next with 28, while Imo and Ogun states have 25 each. Ondo State has 17 and Oyo has 15 returnees. 27 states have their indigenes so far returned while nine states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, have not yet recorded any returnee. The nine states are Borno, Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba, Bauchi, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and Niger.There are also nine pregnant ladies and five babies among the returnees. Two suspected traffickers were also arrested and are under investigation. A female returnee who was also identified as a trafficker has been transferred to our Lagos Zonal Command for further investigation.Okah-Donli said the agency had deployed about 40 members of staff to assist in profiling the returnees and providing them with psycho-social assistance.It is important to state that we have set up measures to fish out those persons involved in the trafficking or smuggling of these returnees and present them to the courts for prosecution.Our shelters have been prepared to receive the returnees, while arrangements have been made to move others to shelters run by our partners. I wish to appeal to states mounting pressure to take away their indigenes to ensure that these returnees are properly rehabilitated as releasing them into the streets without rehabilitation and other assistance may spell doom for the country, the DG added. The Peoples Democratic Party has said it will use the social media to expose the corruption and the failure of the President Muhammadu Bu... The Peoples Democratic Party has said it will use the social media to expose the corruption and the failure of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.The Deputy National Chairman of the party (South), Mr. Yemisi Akinwumi, said this in Abuja on Wednesday at an interactive session of the PDP youth groups, under the leadership of the partys National Youth Leader, Mr. Sunday Udeh-Okoye.Akinwumi said, Our journey to power is what we have started today, the initiatives that our national youth leader has put together. Take charge of the Internet, control the Internet. Let three quarters of what we are going to read there be against the All Progressives Congress.Expose their faults and mistakes, which include the killing of farmers in Benue, the fuel scarcity that is affecting all of us, the APC convention that did not hold till today.Talk about the fall of the naira, unemployment and others everywhere.Akinwunmi also flayed the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), for his alleged failure to deliver on his mandate.Fashola said a serious government will fix power in six months. Almost three years now, they have not done anything. Things are getting worse every day, he added.He decried what he termed the selective prosecution of the war against corruption, alleging that what the Buhari administration had done so far was to single out PDP members for persecution.He said, When it is a matter involving their members, they set up administrative panels of inquiry. If it is the PDP, they use the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission. Their anti-corruption crusade is selective. Let us be reading all these on the Internet.They only grabbed power but they did not plan for governance at all. The campaign for 2019 would be very little if we can manage our youths very well.Even in the remotest part of the country, you must get something to read. Let us dominate the Internet and the airwaves to expose them. They dont have anything upstairs.Earlier in his address, Udeh-Okoye asked the various youth groups to join forces with him to oust the APC in 2019, adding that getting the PDP back to power was what informed his decision to vie for the office of the national youth leader of the party.This task isnt one I can do alone; I need all hands to be on deck to mobilise and sensitise every young person across the length and breadth of Nigeria on the need to oust the APC-led government of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election, he said. The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Friday said no amount of protest or industrial action would make him change his administrations position on the fate of the teachers sacked recently.He said it took the government over one and a half years before taking the decision, hence there was no going back.El-Rufai said this in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after joining six other state governors for a meeting with President Muhamamdu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja after the Jumat prayers.He said there was no truth in media reports that he ordered policemen to stop the protest organised by workers over the sacking, saying he was not even in the state as of the time the protest held.The governor said, I did not direct the police to stop the workers. I was not even in Kaduna.For me, the right to protest is guaranteed in the constitution, provided you dont go violent and you dont violate any laws.I think the concerns of the police is because of the precarious situation in the country particularly in Kaduna which made it unsuitable to have such protest.The last time they did such a thing, they attacked the State House of Assembly, a legislator for which they have filed criminal charges.So this is the concern, the concern is for possible break down of law and order and not protest or strike. They are free to do so but it will not change our position.There is nothing to step back on. It is a well thought out position. We took one and half years before we made the decision and we will not change it.El-Rufai said the state government had announced the severance package of the sacked teachers in line with the public service rule.He disclosed that the government would pay three months severance and had provided incentives for those that are retiring.He added that the government had made land available for those that are interested in farming while it will support those who want to go into trade with loans.He insisted that the affected persons are suitable as teachers but the government will support them to do other things. Leaders of the South-East and South-West, on Thursday in Enugu, asked the Federal Government to declare Fulani herdsmen as terrorists. Leaders of the South-East and South-West, on Thursday in Enugu, asked the Federal Government to declare Fulani herdsmen as terrorists.The Southern leaders, at an event tagged, Handshake Across the Niger: A Celebration of Igbo/Yoruba Friendship Beyond Brotherhood, and organised by a pan-Igbo group, Nzuko Umunna, also insisted on the restructuring of the country.The event, hosted by the leaders of Afenifere and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, was also attended by the representatives of the South-South and the Middle Belt.A minute silence was observed in honour of the victims of herdsmen attacks in Benue State and other parts of the country.Speaking at the event, the leader of the South-West delegation and representative of the chairman of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for the Federal Governments refusal to declare the herdsmen as terrorists, as was done to the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra.Adebanjo also expressed anger at Buharis opposition to restructuring, which he insisted was the only solution to the countrys problems.He described Buhari as the problem of Nigeria due to his (Buharis) refusal to heed the calls for restructuring.Adebanjo said, It is 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 para-military institutions are under his control, and he has refused to name herdsmen as terrorists yet he pounced on IPOB that seeks for justice.Buhari is the problem of Nigeria by opposing restructuring. We will achieve it if we are united. Igbo, Yoruba mutual suspicion is a thing of the past. We are not looking at the past. We are looking at the future.Buhari will not agree to restructuring because his people are the beneficiaries of a lopsided Nigeria. We are in a serious situation.If you go to election without restructuring, you are done for. We are not ganging up. Let us come together on the terms agreed by Nigerias late founding fathers like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and the Sardauna of Sokoto in the 1950s.If we dont restructure now, we are gone. Look at what is happening in Benue. You are in power for two years and you dont know these people exist. Now, you are sending committee. You keep saying, I will arrest them. The man going after them was the same man that said it was a communal clash. How is it a communal clash? Are they indigenes of Benue State? We should consolidate this unity; the South-East, South-West unity is sine qua non to a peaceful, united Nigeria, Adebanjo said.He equally took a swipe at Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo for trying to preach one Nigeria to him.He said, We had one united Nigeria before he (Osinbajo) was born. I and his father were Awolowos followers. Let us look at what we are doing. If we want to stay together, let us do restructuring.On his part, the leader of the South-East delegation and President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, noted that it was unfortunate that the Federal Government had not proscribed the herdsmen and declared them as terrorists.Also insisting on restructuring, Nwodo said, Every credible analysis shows that unless we devolve powers to the states and allow them the control of their natural resources and basic utilities of powers, environment, education and infrastructure development, Nigeria will collapse.Speaking on the need for Igbo/Yoruba brotherhood, he said, Today, we have come to say thank you to the Fajuyi family for paying the highest price of solidarity and brotherhood to the Ironsi family and by implication to Ndigbo.The late Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, in offering to go along with his boss and guest rather than leave him alone to be slaughtered, was dramatising brotherhood. We will be betraying him and his legacy if we do not continue to promote that brotherhood.A former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, while also insisting on restructuring, also condemned the activities of the herdsmen.We know who does slaughtering. Yesterday, it was Benue. Before Christmas, it was in Taraba. The other day, it was Numan, he said.Fani-Kayode, in the same vein, asked Buhari to explain what happened to IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.Fani-Kayode relayed goodwill messages from the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, and the Aare Ona Kakanfo-designate, Gani Adams, to the conference.Also, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who represented the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said southern senators were in support of restructuring.Some elderly women, believed to be sympathetic to the proscribed IPOB, tried to disrupt the speeches with calls for secession.A communique released after the conference and signed by Nwodo, for Ohanaeze, and Adebanjo, for Afenifere, said the southern leaders had resolved to work towards the peaceful restructuring of Nigeria.They equally resolved to pursue the immediate implementation of the pro-federalism recommendations of the 2014 confab.According to the communique, delegates at the conference decided to collaborate closely to create mutually beneficial opportunities, build a strong alliance to advance their ever-growing mutual interests, while striving together to meet the common responsibilities of building a united, coherent and prosperous nation a state of free peoples, freely relating to one another across the dividing lines of tribe, religion, region and politics.The communique added that the conference was not a one-off event, but only the first of a progressive and continuous re-socialisation project that will, in short order, reach out to embrace other compatriots in the South-South , Middle Belt, North-Central, North-East and the North-West geopolitical zones of the country.In the same vein, the southern leaders, according to the communique, decided to establish a standing Joint Action Committee to drive the process.The composition and mandate of the Joint Committee and its sub-committees, is to be made known in due course, according to the communique.Prominent personalities at the event included a former Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae; son of former President of Nigeria and representative of Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Chief Uwakwe Azikiwe; Prof. Banji Akintoye; a former governor of Kwara State, Chief Cornelius Adebayo; a former governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim; a former governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, and a former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko.Others were Prof. Anya O. Anya, Prof. Pat Utomi, Igwe Alfred Achebe of Onitsha, Chief Ifeanyi Uba, Yinka Odumakin, wife of former military leader Aguiyi Ironsi, Victoria, son of the late Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, Donald. Fajuyi was killed with Aguiyi-Ironsi in the 1966 counter-coup. Thousands of people in black dresses, weeping women, frightful kids and 73 polished mahogany caskets. Benue State was in pains yesterday. Thousands of people in black dresses, weeping women, frightful kids and 73 polished mahogany caskets. Benue State was in pains yesterday.It was all at the funeral of the victims of the herdsmen killings that have sparked a big outrage.The sober ceremony, to many, marked the 41-year-old states most tragic moment.The herdsmen invaded villages in Guma and Logo local government areas at night and dawn on January 1, killing people on farms and in their homes.Many bodies were not found until one week after.Thousands of people, including prominent citizens of the state, led by the paramount ruler, the Tor Tiv, His Royal Majesty Prof James Ayatse, were at the IBB Square, venue of the mass burial.The burial was preceded by an interdenominational service.Manny shed tears, women rolled on the ground as trucks bearing the caskets snaked into the arena. Vigilante members in black tee-shirts and black trousers accompanied the vehicles.Makurdis streets were deserted.Governor Samuel Ortom had declared yesterday a public holiday after the two previous days were observed as mourning period.The Catholic Bishop of Gboko Diocese, Most Rev. Williams Avenya, prayed for the repose of the souls of the dead and called for prayers for the survivors of the attacks.Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Benue State Chairman Rev Akper Leva praised Ortom for his charisma and love for Benue, having passed the Anti-Open Grazing Law, adding that the spirit of the departed ones and the God of Benue would rise up to torment the terrorists who brought tears and sorrow to the state and the people.After the admonition came the grim task of laying to rest the dead in a row of graves dug and paved with blocks. One by one the 73 caskets were lowered. Before then, the atmosphere had been charged with relatives of the dead wailing as they crowded around the row of caskets.A survivor, Akaatenger Azinga, told reporters that he was asleep in his house with his wife when the marauders came and knocked at the door. His wife went to open the door but was captured and killed.He said: I heard my wife screaming because they came in the dead of the night and when l went to rescue her, I discovered that they had killed her and the next thing, they started chasing me but l escaped narrowly to a nearby bush.Ortom led the moving speeches. He said he was ready to lay down his life to implement the Anti-Open Grazing law. He was supported by the leaders of thought.The Tor Tiv said the attack was the 47th in five years by Fulani herdsmen. He likened the killings to genocide.He said: I, therefore, call on the Federal Government to act swiftly by putting an end to these killings; this act of impunity must stop.He encouraged the governor to stand firm in his resolve to implement the anti open grazing law, no matter the threats from the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore the umbrella body of the cattle breeders.The paramount ruler called for prayers for the dead.Ortom restated his opposition to the cattle colony proposed by the Federal Government.He said the suggestion was not acceptable to Benue people.He said since the state did not even have adequate land for farmers, it would have no 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 were meant to intimidate the state government to repeal the law, the herdsmen had failed woefully.He blamed the killings on the silence of the Federal Government and others responsible for the security of lives and property.To Ortom, if the Federal Government had acted on the reports he gave it on the threats of attacks by the 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, which he accused of making inciting statements against the state.He condoled with the families of the dead and the injured as well as those who lost their property.Ortoms wife, Eunice, Deputy Governor Benson Abounu and his wife Mary as well as APC national Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun attended the ceremony.Also there were Northern Elders Forum (NEF) Chairman Dr. Paul Unongo, Gen. Lawrence Onoja, Senator George Akume, Senator Kennedy Waku, religious and traditional leaders.Former Governor Akume noted that the Federal Government had failed in its responsibility of protecting lives.He urged President Buhari to proscribe the faction of the Miyetti Allah as terrorists whose actions are treasonable.Unongo said the state would not hesitate to raise its own army if the herdsmen attacks persisted.He said a huge number of Benue indigenes fought the Nigerian civil war to keep Nigeria one.Benue people sacrificed enough blood for the unity of this country and would not allow a section of Fulani terrorists to come, kill our people in cold blood.I am begging Nigerians that my people cannot continue to be canon fodder of this country. If government cant protect us, we will mobilise and train our people into an army to defend us. We are 100 per cent in support of what Governor Ortom has done. I am the spiritual leader of Tiv Nation; enough, is enoughUnongo said the entire Beuue people were watching President Buhari and had joined in the persistent calls by Governor Ortom that the Federal Government should address the killings and arrest the leader of MAKH.Talking tough, Unongo said: If the Federal Government cannot stop or arrest those behind the killings, in two weeks, we shall raise an army of our own. We cannot allow people to colonise us again. We have all it takes to do that.A former Katsina State Military Governor, Gen. Onoja, who described the killings as genocidal conspiracy against Benue people, said it must stop.Onoja said: Some of us in 1966 fought in the Nigeria civil war, Benue has contributed to the unity of this country. Therefore If the Federal Government refuses to address the killings, we will decide to raise our army as advocated by our elders to defend ourselves, l will not mind to command that army, despite my age.He appealed to the Federal Government to replicate Operation Python Dance or Fulani dance in Benue as being done in other states. He urged Benue indigenes to support Ortom for the successful enforcement of the anti-open-grazing law.Senator Waku said: It is unfortunate that someone would oppose a law that is legally enacted and begin to kill and the Federal Government would refuse to make arrest in a quest to end the carnage. This is enough provocation; nobody has the monopoly of killing. Therefore, enough is enough.A representative of the United Nations (UN), Dr. Mathins Ejibike, who attended the funeral, condoled with the government and people. He said the situation demanded international attention.We want an enlightened approach to this matter. We should continue to pray. This kind of killings should be the last in the Benue state.Ejibike promised to look into the case of the over 50,000 displaced persons. The Greek national power generation company, Public Power Corporation (PPC) within the framework of its business strategic planning, a main aspect of which, is the further development of the Company in the Balkans, announces that is in an advanced stage for the acquisition of the EDS Group, a leading company in the electricity trading and supply sector in Macedonia. EDS, which was founded in 2012, owns subsidiaries in Serbia, Slovakia and Kosovo. EDS Group is a member of the Hungarian Power Exchange (HUPX) and has electricity trading licenses in Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary. EDS Group currently provides electricity to large industries and businesses with a customer portfolio of 320MW or the 40% of corporations with more than 50 employees. EDS is also active in the Serbian retail electricity market, where it already has a customer portfolio of 10 MW at the end of its first year of operation. The above mentioned business initiative is an important step within the framework of the development of PPCs activities in the regional electricity market of the Balkans, towards the direction of the forthcoming integration of electricity markets in Europe. PPC is one of the biggest electricity companies in Southeast Europe with total assets of more than 15 bn and annual revenues of more than 5 bn. The main activity of PPC is production, distribution and supply of electricity in Greece for 7.3 million consumers with a market share of about 85%. PPC also owns HEDNO the Distribution Network Operator in Greece, and PPC Renewables one of the pioneer companies in Europe to produce electricity from renewable energy sources. 1 week left for Top Workplaces nominations: It's easier and faster than you think 'This is New Orleans': Family mourns at scene of Algiers fatal shooting Masks displayed in the artist space at Touro Infirmary show life from the perspective of a traumatic brain injury survivor. (Touro Infirmary)(Touro Infirmary) Water from Lake Pontchartrain splashes over the seawall in Old Mandeville, pushed by strong southerly winds from Tropical Storm Cindy on Thursday, June 22, 2017. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune) 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. Walmart, the largest U.S. private employer, with more than 1 million workers, said Thursday it plans to raise starting wages from $9 to $11 an hour and hand out employee bonuses ranging from $200 to $1,000, becoming the latest company to give a least some of the credit for new worker benefits to the recently passed tax plan. But economists and professors cast doubt on whether tax policy changes were the driving force behind the move by the retailing giant, which for years has stood as a lightning rod for criticism over low worker pay. With the national unemployment rate at 4.1 percent, a 17-year low, there are more job openings in the retail industry now than at any time since December 2000, government data shows. With its announcement Thursday, Walmart did not mention the difficulty employers are having finding and retaining workers in the retail industry. "Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.," Walmart chief executive Douglas McMillon said. Iowa and Nebraska are not currently on the list of states closing stores. Observers said Walmart needed to raise wages now if it wanted to keep step with peers such as Target, which late last year raised its starting wage to $11 an hour, with plans to reach $15 by 2020. "I would've been astounded if they hadn't raised wages," said Thomas Kochan, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management. "What's impossible to sort out is how much of this is because of savings from the tax cuts and how much is because of pressure they're receiving from employees and labor groups." The entry of Walmart into the tax-cut debate accelerates the contentious discussion over how much the tax law, still only weeks old, is truly factoring into these corporate decisions. American Airlines and AT&T, among others, have announced $1,000 bonuses for employees, citing the tax overhaul. Wells Fargo is among a smaller group that has also pledged a $15-an-hour minimum wage after the tax plan's passage. But experts are more doubtful that there's a connection. Many expect wages to rise when corporations have more money, but that is supposed to flow from new investments measured in years, not weeks. Walmart also said Thursday it would expand its parental-leave policies for hourly workers and begin providing $5,000 in aid to workers adopting a child. (The company currently offers six to eight weeks of partially paid maternity leave for hourly workers and no paternity leave.) But it wasn't all good news. The retailer also said Thursday that it was closing 63 Sam's Club stores, affecting thousands of workers. In a tweet, the company said the closures would help "better align" its physical locations with its strategy. (Ten locations will reopen as e-commerce fulfillment centers.) Walmart said the pay increases apply to all its hourly workers in the United States, including those at its Sam's Club stores. The retail giant said the pay raises would take effect Feb. 17 and the bonuses paid sometime after this month. It also plans to give one-time cash bonuses to some part-time and full-time workers, ranging from $200, for workers who have been at Walmart for less than two years, to $1,000, for those who have been working there for 20 or more years. "Today, we are building on investments we've been making in associates, in their wages and skills development," McMillon said. News of Walmart's investment was cheered by supporters of the tax plan, which slashes the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent and includes other features expected to lead to windfall profits for companies. "We want to thank them," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said of Walmart's decision. "Walmart is the latest company to make such an announcement, directly [as a] result of the tax cuts." Walmart's new $700 million plan pales in comparison with the retailer's $2.7 billion, two-year plan in 2015 to boost worker pay and benefits, which resulted in across-the-board pay raises that landed all on one day in February 2016, billed as the largest single-day, private-sector pay hike ever. That's when Walmart said it would begin paying entry-level workers $10 an hour, after a training period. Walmart said the new wage increases will add about $300 million in expenses to its budget for the next fiscal year. The one-time cash bonuses, meanwhile, will cost the company about $400 million, or about 0.08 percent of its annual revenue. For 2016, the company reported $485.87 billion in annual revenue on profits of $13.64 billion. The tax changes will save Walmart $2 billion a year, according to estimates from Making Change at Walmart, a campaign run by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. "The fact is that Walmart is not permanently investing the estimated $2 billion it will receive annually from Trump's tax giveaway to its workers - it is keeping almost all of it," said Randy Parraz, director of the Making Change at Walmart campaign. "This is nothing but another public relations stunt from Walmart to distract from the reality that they are laying off thousands of workers and the ones who remain will continue to receive low wages." Christine Owens, the National Employment Law Project's executive director, described the new benefits as a "lowball announcement by Walmart." Eleven dollars an hour equals about $19,000 a year for 34-hour weeks, which Walmart considers full time. That's below the national poverty line for a family of three. Emeraid Gems earns $11 an hour now after seven years at Walmart. Gems, who lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, said via email that more is needed from the retailer. "The one-time bonus I'll be getting won't help me long-term," Gems said. "We need $15 and full time to be able to support our families." SHENANDOAH A school-based model of mental health service delivery was approved by the Shenandoah Board of Education Monday at a regular meeting. Superintendent Kerri Nelson told school board members that mental health services are becoming far more common in schools, The Valley News reported. The need for such services has risen dramatically, too. Midwest Mental Health Services, under the direction of Kindra Weston, will provide services for students at the school with parental consent, Nelson said. Board members approved a contract with Midwest Mental Health Services at the meeting. The more common approach is to contract with a provider to allow them to use your space, to have access to your students based on parent consent and authorization, Nelson said. If the parent allows for a waiver to be signed, we can work together to serve the student more effectively by having guidance counselors and parent-liaisons also work with those students. The intent is to reduce the barrier of travel and stigma of leaving for mental health appointments. Nelson said if the services were provided at the school, students in need of mental health services could access help just as easily as walking to class. Midwest Mental Health would be in charge of all appointments, billing and collection. Services would not be provided to a student unless with parental consent. Additionally, it would be under the liability of Midwest Mental Health and no medications would ever be dispensed only counseling. They are simply using our space to provide a service, Nelson said. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley heard from employees with Rasmussen Mechanical Services Friday morning during the first stop of the 2018 edition of Grassleys annual 99 county tour of Iowa. Representative government, if its going to be representative, has to have a dialogue between you and me, the Republican said as he started the full Grassley tour of Iowa for the 38th time. During the question and answer portion, employees asked about a number of topics, including the budget and entitlement spending, marijuana laws enforcement and discussions around a bill that would allow people affected by the elimination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order. Grassley said a deal on a bill regarding DACA should include a path to citizenship for people in the country who came to the U.S. illegally while children with their parents. Echoing the Republican stance on a potential bill, the senator said the legislation should include increased spending on border security including for a wall in some areas, fencing in other areas and electronic surveillance to fill the gaps. Grassley said an end to chain migration, which allows citizens to petition the government for visas for some relatives, is a necessary part of the bill as well, as is the end of diversity visas which allow for visa lotteries in countries across the world. After the event, Grassley said he doesnt want the DACA bill to be tied to funding the government. The deadline for a funding bill is Jan. 19, when the current bill expires. Grassley said hed like to see a DACA bill happen long before the program expires in March. Grassley said entitlement spending entitlements include Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is one of the reasons the federal government doesnt balance its budget. You have to reform the programs, he said. That wont happen unless we get a bipartisan agreement with a president thatll sign it. He said President Donald Trump has expressed his wish to not change entitlements. I support a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. That would bring fiscal discipline to the federal government, he said, noting many states, including Iowa, have such a requirement for their budgets. An employee asked about law enforcement agencies making marijuana arrests in states next to Colorado and other states that have legalized recreational marijuana. Marijuana is illegal at the federal level. Grassley said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has instructed the U.S. attorneys in those states to increase enforcement of federal marijuana laws, a change from an Obama-era directive to take a hands off approach to states that have legalized recreational use. Eight states including Colorado have legalized the drug through ballot initiatives, while in Vermont legislators have passed a bill to legalize marijuana After the meeting, Grassley said he agrees with Sessions efforts on the matter. Grassley toured Rasmussen Mechanical before the question-and-answer session. The company handles industrial, commercial and institutional is a full service mechanical contractor that handles HVAC systems, boilers and air compressors, according to President Bruce Rasmussen and his son, CEO Brian Rasmussen. The company was founded in 1970 by Bruces father, Erven Rasmussen. Grassley had stops scheduled in Logan, Mapleton and Sioux City on Friday as well. During a visit to Council Bluffs, Iowas senior senator lamented the language reportedly used by President Donald Trump in discussing immigrants Thursday. Centro Latino of Council Bluffs, meanwhile, said the focus ought to be on the presidents policies, not on his language, while Rep. Steve King encouraged the president to hang in there if not go further to halt the flow of immigrants into the United States. The presidents use of a vulgarity created a firestorm of controversy as Congress and the White House continue to work toward a solution regarding the fate of roughly 800,000 people who are affected by the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy in March. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who was at Rasmussen Mechanical Services in Council Bluffs as part of his annual 99-county tour of Iowa, said the vulgarity detracts from important issues. I would not say those things. It detracts from the very important issues of DACA and border security. We ought to keep our eye on the ball, Grassley said after an event Friday morning. Those arent words that I would use. You ought to consider all of humanity and treat them accordingly. Trump reportedly asked why the United States would want to accept immigrants from Haiti and other shithole countries in Africa, saying he would prefer immigrants from countries like Norway instead. Trumps comments came during an Oval Office meeting as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal, according to one participant and people briefed on the conversation, The Associated Press reported. The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used, Trump insisted in a series of Friday morning tweets. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made a big setback for DACA. Sen. Dick Durbin, the only Democrat in the room, disputed the presidents account. He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly, Durbin said, Durbin added, When the question was asked about Haitians ... he said, Haitians? Do we need more Haitians? Trump took particular issue with the characterization of his comments on Haiti. The Washington Post reported that, during the meeting, Trump said immigrants from Haiti should be left out of any new agreement approved by Congress. Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems, Trump wrote on Twitter. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Haitians, however, reacted with outrage Friday to reports of Trumps remarks, and the Haitian government issued a strongly worded statement. The Haitian government condemns in the strongest terms these abhorrent and obnoxious remarks which, if proven, reflect a totally erroneous and racist view of the Haitian community and its contribution to the United States, the statement said. Republican Sens. David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who attended the meeting, said in a statement that they do not recall the president saying these comments specifically. What Trump did do, they said, was call out the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest. The words used by the president, as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance, were not tough, they were abhorrent and repulsive, tweeted Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake. The junior senator from Iowa, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, said through her office that she was not in the room and cannot confirm what was said, However, she would not agree. Sen. Ernst has made clear that America has been, and always will be, a nation of immigrants, her office said. She has stressed the importance of finding common sense solutions with regards to DACA and will continue working with her colleagues to find a path forward. Trump received support from King, an Iowa Republican whose 4th Congressional district includes Harrison County. Hang in there Mr. President @realDonaldTrump. If those countries arent as you described, Democrats should be happy to deport criminal aliens back to them. &End #AnchorBabies, too, King tweeted Friday. A spokesman for Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, said Young said the presidents comments were wrong and we all must be mindful and respectful of how we speak on the important issues facing our nation. Youngs 3rd Congressional District includes much of southwest Iowa, including Council Bluffs. (Young) hopes the comments wont derail finding an agreement and solution on addressing the DACA and border security issue, but that we need to continue pushing forward to not just striking a deal but to ensure we find a solution to these problems so they do not occur again, spokesman Cole Staudt said. In an email, Centro Latino of Council Bluffs Executive Director Roger Garcia said the organization will continue to work for people affected by policies of the Trump administration. We are not in the business of politics, but we are in the business of service and caring for others, Garcia said. For us, it is a matter of caring for our neighbors no matter where they are from and what their circumstances are here or in their home country. But it is not in our prerogative to focus on our Presidents informal commentary but rather we do occasionally focus on his formal policies when they affect our constituents in Iowa. Beyond his controversial statements and the winding down of DACA, Trumps administration recently ended the Temporary Protected Status program for immigrants from El Salvador. Garcia said many Salvadoreans have been in Iowa for more than two decades and have established roots in Iowa. They love this state and country and now many are at risk of being deported, Garcia said. The issue is clearly complex, but considering that these individuals have become Iowans and wish to continue contributing to our economy and caring for their children, many of which are U.S. citizens, we encourage the administration to reconsider their decisions for Salvadoreans and others groups whose TPS has been terminated by the administration. On Friday, Trump did not respond to shouted questions from reporters about his comments as he signed a proclamation honoring Martin Luther King Jr. He called the civil rights icon a great American hero. Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be observed Monday. This report contains material from The Associated Press. Bert M. Bills, a Vinton jeweler, and his young wife got a very nice Christmas present in 1900. Bills had purchased a raffle ticket for a dollar and was rewarded with a luxurious mansion in Sioux City. Millionaire John Peirce was raffling off his palatial mansion at 29th and Jackson Streets in Sioux City. The economy had taken a dive the last few years, and Peirce needed to unload the beautiful home constructed from 1891 to 1893 of Sioux Falls granite with polished pillars supporting the porches and carved hardwoods inside. The mansion was valued at $75,000 and the land it sat on at $5,000. Newspapers reported Peirce had mortgaged the house and wanted to pay it off with cash to spare. So he came up with the ingenious idea to sell raffle tickets for a dollar apiece. Thousands of tickets were sold to people all over the country. When the day of the long-anticipated drawing arrived Dec. 24, 1900 all the tickets were brought from the Security National Bank in a sealed tin box to the Union depot, where a large crowd had gathered. A tinner from a local business brought a pair of tin shears and cut open the box. The tickets were dumped into a cylinder container and the winning ticket, number 35,365 was drawn. Much was made of the fact that everything was done in plain view so there was no hint of suspicious activity. However, newspapers at the time began to question the authenticity of the raffle only days after the highly publicized event. It was reported there was a serious conflict of records and the news reports cast suspicion on the affair. Bills, the Vinton winner, couldnt produce proof that he had purchased the winning ticket. He couldnt find his half of number 35,365. It was reported that all the unsold tickets had been disposed of in a lump sale to William Barbour, a New York millionaire, and that when officials examined those tickets, which had been locked up, they discovered number 35,365 in Barbours stash. It was all an unfortunate mistake. Bills hired attorneys Cato Sells and M.J. Tobin to look into the affair. On Jan. 9, they had a secret meeting with officials who had overseen the raffle. On Jan. 17, The Des Moines Register reported W.A. Barbour, a cousin of William Barber, had come to Sioux City and was on his way back to New York in possession of the deed to the house for William. William Barbour had actually held the winning ticket all along. The affair had at last settled and it was a closed case. And the paper predicted that the citizens of Sioux City would not show much enthusiasm for such an event again. In February the Sioux Valley News reported that John Peirce was going west to make a mark. It suggested that a certain fellow from Vinton had already felt the mark of Mr. Peirce. According to the Sioux City History website, siouxcitymuseum.org, ownership of the house had been transferred to Barbour on Dec. 17 seven days before the drawing, which would indicate the raffle was a sham. Peirce owed Barbour money and came up with the raffle scheme to settle his debt. Today, the Peirce Mansion is owned by the Sioux City Museum and Historical Association and is open to the public during seasonal open houses. The mansion can also be rented for special events. DENISON Doyle Larson had a jacket that hadnt been out of his closet in a long time. He had a jacket that he never wore, mainly because people dont wear sport coats much anymore, said his wife, Connie. She and Doyle joked that they should send the jacket to Kyle Clark, who is a newscaster for KUSA-TV 9News in Denver. Clark has a half-hour program called Next. Connie told The Denison Bulletin & Review that Next focuses on being informative and is lighthearted. Its more about the good things that happen in Colorado or Denver than the bad things, she said. When his grandfather passed away, Clark was given his old sport coats. When hes on the newscast he always dresses up, but when he does his half-hour show, he wears what he wants, Connie said. So he started to wear these really ugly jackets, and then hed get lots of feedback from the viewers. Clark would read the messages on his show. Some of them were youre really awful and others would say I love your jacket, Connie said. Hes a kind of a funny, cool guy, and he just says it as it is. Doyle, who was a 1981 graduate of Denison High School, passed away from a brain tumor on Dec. 4. The jacket was still in his closet. I was walking by the closet on the Friday before Christmas, Connie said. I saw the jacket and I said you know what, Im going to take it down there. She drove to the news station and left the jacket and a letter with the doorman. After Christmas, she received an email from Clark saying that he had received the jacket and he planned to wear it on his show. I think youll appreciate it, he said. Clark told her he had been talking about doing a human interest story to raise awareness for a cause and it happened that the jacket came across his desk at just the right time. On Dec. 27, Clark emailed Connie and told her he would be wearing the jacket that night. On Next that night, Clark challenged his viewers to donate to the American Brain Tumor Association. Whoever donated in that 24-hour period in Doyles name had their name put in a drawing for one of his ugly jackets, Connie said. (Clarks) wife said if he gets a new jacket, he has to take a jacket out of the closet. More than two-thirds of the donations to the ABTA that night were specifically in Doyles memory. I had no idea he was going to put it up for people to donate, Connie said. She said Clark had done a lot to help raise awareness of the ABTA, which received many thousands of dollars in Doyles name. They said that night suddenly at 8 oclock their phone lines went crazy and their donations were 60 or 70 percent larger than usual, Connie said. I think Doyle would get a real kick out of it if he were here. Connie and Doyle met in Denison when he worked at Farmland Foods and she worked at United Bank of Iowa. Doyle had a successful surgery for a brain tumor in 1996 and he was symptom-free after radiation treatment. Connie and Doyle were married in 2010. Two years later, Doyle had a successful surgery for a second brain tumor. The Larsons moved to Centennial, Colorado, in 2014 to be closer to their new grandson. In 2016, Doyle had a third brain tumor and another surgery. That surgery was not successful. The doctor came out afterward and said that he was lucky that hed made it this long and that these brain tumors grow rapidly, Connie said. He was able to take some of the brain tumor out but he wasnt able to get it all. Doyle tried some other types of medication to try to stop the tumor, but it started growing again. Doyle had the option to either try another chemo or just forget it, and he chose not to pursue anything else, Connie said. Doyle entered hospice on Oct. 1, 2017. On Nov. 6, 2017, the hospice nurse said, If you dont take him to Iowa now hes not going to be able to go. Connie said. We brought him back to Iowa so he could be with his family and friends and he lasted about a week at his mom and dads house. Hospice nurses from Crawford County Home Health, Hospice and Public Health helped them care for Doyle. When they could no longer manage a home setting, they took him to Eventide. They were so good to us, Connie said. She stayed with Doyle at Eventide until he passed away on Dec. 4. After the funeral, Connie returned to Centennial. She said the time following Doyles death has been hard, but the experience with Doyles jacket on the Kyle Clark program came at the right time. My daughter, my son-in-law, my grandson and I had the pleasure of going down to Next when they filmed the show, she said. Clark had her draw the name of the person who would get the jacket that had to be let go to make room for Doyles. Connie said she didnt find out until after she had given the jacket away that Doyles mother had given it to him. So I called her to make sure it was all right that I had given that jacket away, she said. I think she was thrilled and proud. She said Doyles parents are both proud of their son and theyre proud that people are donating in his name. It might not have been the worst snowstorm on record, but Thursdays winter reminder still created some white-knuckles for drivers and careful steps for walkers. The storm also left thousands without power for a brief period a few for a longer period early Thursday morning. Officially, 1.5 inches of snow fell on Council Bluffs by the time the storm moved out of the area around noon, according to the National Weather Service in Valley, Nebraska. The higher amounts fell to the south, said Cathy Zapotocny, NWS meteorologist. It was a narrow band and during the week it pushed southeast, she said on Thursday afternoon. It shifted as we got closer to the event. Thats not uncommon. Glenwood received 4 inches, according to her statistics. Totals at other southwest Iowa communities werent yet available by mid-afternoon, though Plattsmouth, Nebraska, received 4.9 inches, Zapotocny said. It was around 2:30 p.m. that Council Bluffs street crews were finishing up the emergency routes, with graders tackling streets in the hillier sections of the city, said Pat Miller, Public Works operations director. He said his crews were set to begin clearing residential streets in the early evening. His crews dealt with gusty winds and blowing snow that made the cleanup take longer. We had to deal with blowing snow that glazed the streets, he said. Our plows had to go back on streets several times. Theres a possibility of light snow later today and Saturday evening, Zapotocny said. Pottawattamie County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy John Reynolds said the morning had mostly been quiet traffic-wise, with the exception of some semi-trucks getting stuck on Interstate 29 around 3 a.m. That blocked traffic in both directions until it was cleared up, Reynolds said. However, no injuries were reported. Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Nathan Ludwig said throughout the state only 50 motor vehicle crashes had occurred from the onset of the storm until 3 p.m. A few injury crashes were reported, with a total of 75 calls for service. Schools closing and people choosing to stay home helped considerably, Ludwig said. Council Bluffs Fire Chief Justin James said things in the city had also remained pretty peaceful. He said many decided to stay home today, which helped keep the roads clear. Public Works Department also did good work making the streets safer, he said. Weather was to blame for power outages throughout the area on Thursday, according to a Mid-American Energy spokesman. The first outage lasted from 3:16 to 3:26 a.m., affecting 4,831 customers in Council Bluffs. This constituted a majority of the affected customers in Pottawattamie County. Some 959 customers in Missouri Valley were without power briefly. The last customers in the area to be restored were 58 in Malvern at 1 p.m. The following editorial was published in The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier on Jan. 3: While Congress tries various remedies to fix what ails Veterans Affairs hospitals, it may be time to admit this patient cant be cured in its current incarnation. In 2017, the Veterans Health Administration accounted for 38 percent of the $182.3 billion Department of Veterans Affairs budget, serving 9 million of the 22 million veterans at 144 hospitals, 1,200 outpatient sites and 300 mental health centers. Most veterans rely on private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. In 2014, the VAs required wait time of 14 days for new enrollees and 14 to 30 days for others was ignored at 42 medical centers to improve performance records. The VA inspector general reported more than 120,000 veterans waited an extended period or were denied care. An estimated 1,700 veterans were relegated to a secret list to improve performance records in Phoenix, where wait times averaged 115 days and 35 deaths occurred awaiting treatment. Congress subsequently approved legislation to address staffing shortages and remove problem personnel. Yet USA Today and other media report incompetence remains pervasive. The VA has hired medical personnel with numerous malpractice claims. When problem doctors depart, it frequently fails to flag them in the National Practitioner Data Bank. USA Today reported the Iowa City VA hired neurosurgeon John Henry Schneider despite numerous malpractice claims, including four settlements for surgical mistakes leaving patients maimed, dead or paralyzed. His license was revoked in Wyoming, but not Montana. In Iowa City, he performed four brain surgeries within four weeks on a 65-year-old veteran who died in August from an infection, and three spine surgeries on a 77-year-old veteran two to clean up an infection from the first. He resigned before being fired. A 1999 federal law prohibited the VA from hiring medical workers with revoked licenses. Yet in 2002 the VA told local hospitals they could be hired after consideration of all relevant facts surrounding if they retained a license in one state. An Oklahoma VA hospital hired a psychiatrist sanctioned for sexual misconduct who would later sleep with a patient. Among those not flagged in the national database was podiatrist Thomas Franchini, who made mistakes in 88 cases harming veterans at its Maine hospital but now practices in New York City. The VA stated the database was only for medical doctors and dentists. USA Today examined confidential VA records from 2014-15 and found 230 secret settlements (some involving whistleblowers) costing $6.7 million. Worker mistakes or misdeeds meriting dismissal accounted for 126. In 70 instances, workers were banned from VA facilities for years or life, but without specific reasons. Mario DeSanctis, the former director of the VA Medical Center in Tomah, Wis., and his lawyers received $163,000. Local police, concerned the facility dispensed dangerous doses of powerful narcotics, called it Candy Land. Radiologist Jorge Salcedo misread dozens of CT scans to detect tumors and blood clots at a Washington state VA. He got $45,000 in leave time and a clean reference. The VA purged negative records in three-quarters of the cases, providing neutral or positive references to prospective employers, according to USA Today. Other incompetence included a veteran treated in Memphis to repair broken blood vessels who was discovered to have 10-inches of plastic tube packaging embedded in his leg, which was amputated three weeks later. The VA cited Memphis for 1,000 threats to patient safety. VA Secretary David Shulkin is now requiring department review of settlements greater than $5,000, while Congress approved the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, making it easier to terminate employees for misconduct. Congress tried to alleviate pressure on an understaffed VA in 2014 with the $16 billion Veterans Choice and Accountability Act, including $10 billion for veterans to receive care outside the VA and $2.5 billion to hire 12,000 more medical personnel. But hospitals with the longest wait times didnt get a larger share of funds, and far fewer doctors and nurses were hired than envisioned. In April, the VA had 45,360 vacancies. Attrition is a problem. In 2015, the VA hired 8,528 nurses, but lost 4,966. And choice only occurs when the VA cant schedule an internal visit within 30 days or the travel distance exceeds 40 miles. A choice backlog exists because VA officials have been slow to determine when its available. Meanwhile, patient reimbursement is often delayed. Shulkin has proposed a program to allow veterans to select any private sector physician without restrictions. VA supporters claim that could gut the system, arguing outside practitioners lack experience dealing with such military medical issues as traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, polytrauma and prosthetics. The problems within the VA cry out for meaningful reform not just continually reshuffling existing cards. Veterans must be allowed greater choice in getting timely and competent medical and mental health assistance. The Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors voted to move forward on the planning phase of a potential extension of County Road G30 that would connect Crescent and Underwood. County Road G30 would extend from Railroad Highway to Old Lincoln Highway. The county would use existing roadway where possible, but the purchase of land and new construction would be required. The tentative budget for the project is $4.2 million. The Supervisors voted 5-0 to have County Engineer John Rasmussen continue to examine the issue. Were trying to get to the point where we can determine if this project is feasible or not, Rasmussen said. The vote doesnt mean the projects a done deal, but instead directs Rasmussen to answer concerns from landowners in the area and examine if the project is feasible cost- and contstruction-wise. A roughly 60-percent plan for the project is expected in four to six months. The arguments for the road include public safety, with the road providing a straight shot between Crescent and Underwood instead of the current route, which is curvy and hilly. Emergency response times would likely improve. And officials and some residents at the meeting also said the new roadway would take semi trucks off gravel and other side roads. Supervisor Justin Schultz pointed out the roadway could spur development in the corridor, providing an opportunity for additional housing subdivisions. He also discussed a potential trail connecting the towns. Arguments against the roadway came from residents who worried about increased traffic, the loss of farmland, spending tax money on the project and the potential difficulty of the project caused by topography in the area. A key constituency that would prefer the road idea be scrapped is the Council Bluffs Rifle and Pistol Club, located in the 26000 block of 208th Street northeast of Crescent. The current preferred route determined by the County Engineers Office with input from a variety of sources, including landowners, according to would run south of the club and could affect its ability to maintain operation at a location its been at since the 1970s. We understand these concerns and are happy to hear the Supervisors and county will taken them into consideration. At the same time, the potential benefits of a G30 expansion warrant further inquiry. We commend the Supervisors on a considered, pragmatic decision that doesnt sway too hastily in either direction on the issue. HOLDREGE Rural Nebraska artists who want to show and sell their paintings, sculptures, drawings or photographs are encouraged to submit samples of their work to the Nebraska Rural Living online art gallery by Feb. 1. Art submissions are juried by a professional artists who also live in rural Nebraska, and chosen artists will gain a storefront on the Nebraska Rural Living online art gallery where they can promote, display and sell their art. The online gallery launched in August 2016, and now 29 artists are promoting their art to thousands of Nebraska Rural Living readers around the world at nebraskaruralliving.com/art-gallery. Artists have also benefited from additional opportunities to share their work at public events through their selection into the gallery. The Nebraska Rural Living online artist submission form is also available in Spanish to encourage a culturally diverse group of artists to submit their work. The goal of the gallery is to give artists a platform to share and sell their art while increasing knowledge and appreciation of life in rural Nebraska. Art will be accepted throughout the year for future consideration in the gallery. Submissions will be juried each quarter with the following deadlines: Feb. 1, May 1, Aug. 1 and Nov. 1. New artists will be added each quarter if selected. To submit art for review, artists must have a Nebraska address in a rural town with a population of 10,000 or less. Artists must also have a website so that patrons can purchase their work if they are chosen for the gallery. Four types of art can be submitted: paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs. Nebraska Rural Living, founded in 2006, educates its more than 30,000 readers that rural Nebraska is vibrant and business friendly with amenities that appeal to families, retirees, entrepreneurs and tourists. For rules and criteria and to submit art to be juried for the online gallery, visit nebraskaruralliving.com/fine-art. Artists will be asked to upload five high-quality images of their work and submit an artists statement and a short biography. For more information, contact gallery coordinator Kristine Jacobson at krjacobson@nebraskaruralliving.com. Eight months after Kildare Lumber sold all but one of its locations, its last lumberyard in Paxton is up for sale. In May, Mead Lumber, headquartered in Columbus, bought Kildare Lumber locations in North Platte, McCook, Ogallala and Cozad. Mead Lumber did not acquire the Paxton location because the Ogallala store could serve customers in both towns, said Jeff Heng, chief financial officer of Mead Lumber. The Paxton store was Kildares flagship location, started by Hubert Kildare former owner Pat Pelsters grandfather in 1908. Pelster and his family knew from the time they sold the other locations that they would also sell Paxtons store, Pelster said. He chose to get out of the business as his adult children chose other careers. Pelster wasnt bitter, but he was ready to retire. The family used the Paxton location to store and sell off leftover inventory, Pelster said. Through the stores Aug. 31 closing, business stayed steady, he said. The family once feared they would have to host an auction to sell the rest of the inventory, but customer support never wavered. Pelster said the right person could operate the business and still make a favorable profit. One salesman saw the opportunity and approached Pelster, but the mans wife ultimately wouldnt move from Colorados Front Range, in the Longmont area, Pelster said. Tom Anderson, who owns Adams Lumber Co. in Madrid, also hoped to purchase Paxtons Kildare Lumber location. But Anderson, who began working at Adams Lumber about 17 years ago and bought it a little more than five years ago, could not obtain the proper financing from his bank to purchase the Paxton lumberyard, he said. The experience frustrated Anderson to the point that he ultimately put a For Sale sign in his own lumberyards window, he said. Anderson said that given his locations success and years of working in the lumberyard business, he didnt know why he couldnt obtain funding. Hes now debating whether to seek financing through another bank or walk away from the lumberyard business altogether. Pelster said the lumberyard business requires large investments for inventory. Farmers often buy their goods on credit, paying later. Pelster said that while he sometimes had to cut customers off, most knew the agricultural business enough to make their payments, interest included. Still, making profit could take time. It takes money to make money, Pelster said. Pelster also saw changes in infrastructure over time. As highways improved, it became easier to drive to other towns for goods. Stores like Menards caused an initial struggle for Kildare Lumber, Pelster said at the time of the May sale. Over time, the local store adjusted. In Madrid, Anderson said that with skills as both a locksmith and a carpenter, as well as product knowledge, he offers a competitive curve to outside chain stores. In Paxton, we had people coming until the very end, Pelster said. Thats why we would really like to see the lumberyard go there. LEXINGTON Lexingtons housing shortage should be easing with the opening of a new apartment building, and more apartments and houses are on the way. A soft opening of Prairie Heights Apartments, located at 605 W. Cedar St., is underway. The south tower, or section, of a 36-unit building is ready for occupancy with seven of the 12 apartments leased. The building has two more sections, each with its own entrance and set of stairways for ease of access and in consideration of tenant privacy and security. The design of 12 apartments per section helps cut down on foot traffic, said Mark Otto, consulting project manager who represents the developer, Scott Rief of Grand Island. Eventually there will be four apartment buildings on the site along South Adams Street to the west. I project we will put up one building a year for four years as we move through, said Otto. Additionally, 100 homes are scheduled for the area in a multiyear build-out. Most will be single-family dwellings. We are trying to build a model neighborhood with diversified pricing, Otto said. Apartments will lease for $650 to $895 per month, and houses will likely range in price from $150,000 to $200,000. Rief has invested in housing in Grand Island and turned to Lexington to do something similar because his wife is from Lexington. If you are from Nebraska, your hometown always holds a place in your heart, Otto said. Otto said a housing study before construction began showed there was a need for additional housing in Lexington and that a fair number of people live elsewhere and drive to Lexington for work. If housing is available, those commuters might choose to move to Lexington. The city of Lexington facilitated the project through the purchase of the land and infrastructure work of adding streets and utilities to ready it for development. It makes it the quintessential TIF (tax increment financing) project, Otto said, to take it from nothing to making it a real future for the city. He praised being able to work with City Manager Joe Pepplitsch and the Lexington City Council, saying their primary concern was making Lexington a better place for the long haul. Joe Pepplitsch is probably one of the top city administrators in Nebraska, said Otto, adding that Pepplitsch is forward thinking. If housing occupancy isnt saturated, it will help attract business to the area, Otto said. It also helps landlords to be more competitive in keeping up their properties, offering residents better housing options. Each apartment building in the project is being built at an approximate cost of $3 million, and the entire project will be about $40 million, said Otto. Otto said while a central-Nebraska-based construction crew travels to do framing on such projects, materials were obtained through Mead Lumber, and Fagot Refrigeration and Electric was utilized during construction. Snow removal will be arranged through a local company too. Its a long process, but it is working out, he said. Construction on the first apartment building began in May. While the original completion date was set for the end of October, the project was delayed by weather. The apartment manager is Esmeralda Castorena, who moved from Grand Island to live at Prairie Heights Apartments. Castorena is bilingual in English and Spanish. I want tenants to know we are here for them, she said, noting her desire to establish good communication and build trust while creating a family-friendly community. She said she is excited to raise her young son in Lexington. Otto said the hope is that some of those who initially rent an apartment will transition into home buyers as houses in the area are built. While some model homes will be constructed, there is also the opportunity for custom-built housing. A park is planned for the area too. We feel like its a real win for us and a real win for Lexington, Otto said of creating a new neighborhood. I feel like Lexington is in a position to become a stronger hub for the area, he said. LINCOLN Nebraskas top prosecutor warned Thursday that those who pay for sex with children in dollars also risk paying in years behind bars. Attorney General Doug Peterson said police and prosecutors in 2018 will ramp up their use of tools provided by state lawmakers in recent years to combat human trafficking. Under a law enacted last year, soliciting a minor now carries a penalty of 20 years to life in prison. From a law enforcement standpoint, the ball has been handed to us, he said. So in 2018, I think youre going to see more proactive operations. Nebraskans also may see a trafficking awareness campaign called Demand an End announced Thursday by the attorney general. The campaign includes posters to be displayed in Interstate 80 rest stops, and a professionally produced video on YouTube and other social media platforms. The video shows a series of men walking through daily activities in masquerade. In each scene, their stylized masks disappear and their faces are revealed. It concludes with a caption that reads: Youre not anonymous. Domestic minor sex trafficking customers are being unmasked. Peterson said during a press conference that he hopes the campaign will make sex customers aware of the risk so they dont commit the crime. He also said law enforcement agencies from the local level to the FBI are working on anti-trafficking operations. The Nebraska State Patrol is committed to unmask the predators who commit these heinous crimes, said Col. John Bolduc, the patrols superintendent. Each month in Nebraska, 900 people are sold for sex, often more than once, according to a report by the Human Trafficking Initiative, a project of the Womens Fund. Sex trafficking historically was a low-risk, high-profit crime. But since 2013, the Legislature has enacted a series of bills that provide legal protections to trafficking victims while dropping the hammer on those who create the supply and demand. Sen. Jim Scheer of Norfolk, speaker of the Legislature, said he nearly passed on an opportunity to sponsor an anti-trafficking bill in 2015. But he changed his mind as he looked at a photo of his infant twin granddaughters. I looked at that picture and I determined if I didnt get involved, who would get involved, he said. Sen. Patty Pansing-Brooks has sponsored several anti-trafficking bills, including the one that increased penalties last year. She said lawmakers and other elected officials, regardless of party affiliation, have stood together to say the crime of trafficking must end. The campaign was started by former Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and was shared with Nebraska at no cost, said Suzanne Gage, Petersons spokeswoman. The office has spent less than $500 on printing bumper stickers and posters. More information about the campaign is available at demandanend.org. If you suspect someone is being trafficked, reports can be made by calling 1-888-373-7888. ATCO-Gary Metal Technologies LLC plans to shutter its Gary plant and lay off scores of employees, including 68 production workers. The sheet metal factory at 2700 E. 5th Ave. made air conditioning and heating ducts, pipes and related products, such as mounting brackets and fittings. Co-owner Frank "Bobo" Zudock died in November. Owner David Strilich said the company was "shutting down," but would not answer any follow-up questions. Jeff Hamilton, business representative with Sheet Metal Workers Local 20, said ATCO-Gary Metal Technologies planned to close by Jan. 31 and all the equipment was being sold off to a company in Nebraska. A total of 68 production workers represented by the union will lose their jobs along with office workers, Hamilton said. One employee said more than 80 people, including non-union sales and office staff, were being laid off. ATCO employees were told at the beginning of the month they would lose their jobs, Hamilton said. "It's unreal," he said. "You'd like to think the economy's going well. ... The owner told us it's a mature market with a lot of push-down on pricing and a lot of large companies buying the smaller standalones." Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said the company faced headwinds in its sector. We are always concerned when a business closes due to challenges in the competitive environment," she said. "We are aware of the decision that ATCO faces and will work with local labor unions and the Chamber of Commerce to determine whether this closure can be avoided. The office of U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, has been working with the union to try to find new jobs for displaced workers. "I deeply regret to learn about the closing of ATCO-Gary Metal Technologies and the impact this has on all the employees and their families," Visclosky said. "In response to a request for assistance from the Sheet Metal Workers union, my office worked to connect them with the Center of Workforce Innovations. Should any impacted employee need any assistance during this difficult transition, I would encourage them to contact my office. This regrettable instance is a fresh reminder that we must continue to do all we can to support our manufacturing base and grow our regional economy." Sandra Britton, who has worked at the company as a production worker almost 17 years, said ATCO-Gary Metal Technologies once employed more than 100 workers but that business slowed down significantly after Zudock became ill and died. She said workers had fewer orders to fill as the company lost customers. "In 2014, 2015 and 2016, we had so much business we were working overtime," she said. "When Bobo was here, things were running smoothly." Some workers had been at the company, which used to be called Gary Steel Products before new owners bought it in 2002, for 40 years, Hamilton said. "They got handed their 40-year pins, that's how long it's been here," he said. Some laid-off workers plan to retire. The union has directed others to openings at air conditioning ductwork manufacturing companies in Indianapolis and Nebraska. "A couple workers are interested in Indianapolis, where the pay rate is similar," Hamilton said. "There's not much interest in moving to Nebraska." Many experienced manufacturing workers will be out of work and hopefully can land at local factories, he said. "The first couple days, everyone was upset," Hamilton said. "Everybody calmed down, and the reality of it is setting in. Our hearts break for them." He encouraged anyone looking to hire manufacturing workers to call the Sheet Metal Workers Local 20 in Portage at 219-764-1900. Foreign steelmakers applied for permits to import 2.4 million tons of steel in December, a 13.6 percent decrease from permit applications in December 2016, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. That included permits for 1.8 million tons of finished steel that would require no further processing in the United States, by American workers at local service centers or the steel companies at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor. That's down 14.6 percent from November. Tentatively, steel imports totaled 38.1 million tons in 2017, a 15.5 percent increase, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Imports of finished steel rose by an estimated 12.1 percent to 29.5 million tons last year. Those numbers however are tentative estimates based on actual imports to the United States through November and permit applications in December, and likely will be adjusted when the final import numbers for December come through. The estimated market share for imports was 22 percent in December and 27 percent for the year, close to the all-time high. The offshore countries that sent the most steel to the United States in 2017, excluding Canada and Mexico, were South Korea, Turkey and Japan, according to AISI. Imports from South Korea, Japan, Germany and The Netherlands all declined in December, falling by as much as 45 percent. In December, finished steel imports of tool steel rose by 52 percent, heavy structural shapes by 42 percent, tin free steel by 30 percent and mechanical tubing by 11 percent. In 2017, imports of oil country goods increased by 197 percent, line pipe by 62 percent, standard pipe by 39 percent, mechanical tubing by 30 percent, hot rolled bars by 23 percent, structural pipe and tubing by 19 percent, cold rolled sheets by 15 percent, sheets and strip all other metallic coatings by 13 percent, and sheets and strip hot dipped galvanized by 11 percent. GARY The emergency manager for the Gary Community School Corp. will be required to appoint a new school board member. That information was part of the monthly report emergency manager Peggy Hinckley presented to the Board of Trustees for the Gary schools during its meeting Thursday night. Hinckley, who was appointed by the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeals Board in August, leads a team of financial and academic experts from the MGT Consulting Group. The group was hired to balance the Gary district's budget, reduce its more than $100 million debt burden and make improvements that attract more students. As required by Senate Enrolled Act 567, Hinckley has near-total authority to implement academic and financial changes, renegotiate contracts and run Gary's schools as she sees fit, subject only to informal review by a local advisory board and DUAB oversight. Hinckley told board members she met with members of DUAB, the Indiana Department of Education and the Indiana School Board Association to get direction regarding the school board seat left vacant when Gary 6th District board member Rosie Washington, who was serving as board president, resigned effective Dec. 31. Normally, if a school board members resigns, the remaining members of the school board interview applicants, then vote on a replacement. Hinckley said she was advised that as emergency manager she is required to appoint someone to the vacancy. The position will be advertised from today to Feb. 12, interviews will be held Feb. 21 and 27, and a new board member will be appointed at the March 13 Gary school board meeting. In other business, Hinckley told board members that January marks the second consecutive month she has not had to ask the DUAB for a loan to make payroll and keep the financially strapped school district afloat. In addition, Hinckley told the board that as a result of plumbing repairs at Wirt/Emerson Visual and Performing Arts Academy, the water and sanitation bills have gone down. In July/August 2017, the school district paid $6,487 for water and $13,931 for sanitation, compared to October/November when the water bill was $921.67 and the sanitation bill was $1,700. Prior to the repairs just days before school started, representatives from Hinckley's team toured several of the schools, including Wirt/Emerson, and found the high school roof was leaking in several areas, pouring water into the classrooms. Hinckley told the board she has hired Leonard Moody as chief financial officer and Lucille Washington as chief academic officer through June 30 as required by the law. The district had been without a chief financial officer for about three years. Hinckley said she and the team are working to deliver a viable structural deficit reduction plan by Jan. 31, and has already held two public meetings to gain input. LAPORTE A Gary man was charged Thursday in one of the recent smash-and-grab burglaries at a convenience store in the area and an attempted burglary that was thwarted. Erodney Coffey, 41, is expected to be arraigned Friday in LaPorte Circuit Court on burglary and attempted burglary charges, each level 5 felonies. LaPorte County Police chief deputy Ron Heeg said investigators from Porter County and Berrien County, Michigan, have teamed up with LaPorte County detectives to investigate whether Coffey had something to do with similar burglaries in all three jurisdictions. Coffey is accused of stealing 35 cartons of cigarettes from Family Express in Pinola, near LaPorte, after breaking a window late Tuesday night. He shattered the glass at A&A Petroleum in Westville about a half hour later but left without entering the store when a very loud alarm went off, police said. A short time later, Coffey was stopped in Wanatah in a gold Pontiac G6, the model described as being involved in the Pinola burglary and at least two of the other break-ins. Initially, Coffey was held for driving with a suspended license. Heeg said evidence obtained from the car linked Coffey to the crimes at Pinola and Westville. He would not offer specifics because of the ongoing investigation. Sgt. Jamie Erow, public information officer for the Porter County Sheriffs Department, said two smash-and-grab burglaries within the past month there are believed to be connected to the spree. Cartons of cigarettes worth thousands of dollars, and in some cases alcohol and cash, were among the items taken from at least nine convenience stores as far north as New Buffalo, Bridgman and Stevensville, police said. Three occurred in the Michigan City area. CROWN POINT Twain M. Osborne will face 10 to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to dealing heroin, but he avoided trial on attempted murder charges in an East Chicago shooting. Osborne, 33, of Hammond, pleaded guilty in Lake Criminal Court to dealing heroin, a schedule I controlled substance, to a confidential informant Jan. 29, 2014, in Gary. The Class B felony is typically punishable by six to 20 years in prison, but the state and defense attorneys for Osborne agreed as part of a plea agreement he would face a sentence between 10 and 14 years in prison. The state agreed to dismiss four other drug charges, as well as a second drug case filed in February 2015, that were pending against Osborne. Osborne was scheduled to appear at trial Jan. 22 in a third criminal case, in which he was charged with three counts of attempted murder in the Sept. 1, 2014, shooting of a Portage woman. Osborne and Bobby L. Smith, 36, of East Chicago, allegedly shot an assault rifle and handgun at the woman and two other people about 4 a.m. in the 4800 block of Alexander Avenue, according to court documents. The woman was critically wounded, but her friends were unharmed, court documents state. Osborne was on parole at the time of his arrest for a voluntary manslaughter conviction from 2004. The state dismissed both men's attempted murder cases Wednesday, stating it was unable to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Osborne was represented in the criminal cases by defense attorneys Paul Stracci and Arlington Foley. He is scheduled to be sentenced for the drug offense Feb. 14 by Judge Diane Boswell. A federal judge has declared a mistrial in the police brutality suit of a Hammond man who now is being accused of attempting to tamper with a juror in his case. It involves Mitchell Alicea, 44, who is seeking damages from Hammond police officers Aubrey Thomas and Alejandro Alvarez over allegations they used excessive force to arrest him March 29, 2011, for a home burglary. The case was set for trial this week before U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen at the federal courthouse at Hohman Avenue and Russell Street in Hammond. U.S. District Court records indicate eight jurors heard evidence in the case from Monday to Wednesday when the judge sent the jury home after lunch Wednesday. David J. Beach, one of the attorneys for the police officers, filed a court document Thursday alleging one of the eight jurors walked to his car in the court's parking lot and was preparing to leave from the exit on Russell Street when Alicea "pulled up and gestured for (the juror) to roll down his window." Beach alleges the juror refused and Alicea attempted to block the juror from leaving. Beach said the juror was able to drive away and promptly returned to the courthouse and reported the incident to a deputy U.S. marshal and court officials. Beach states the juror was concerned for his safety and the safety of his family. It was unclear whether other jurors witnessed the incident. Beach said the judge said the matter has been reported to U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II's office for further investigation. Beach states that Alicea's lawyers later told the court Alicea didn't realize he was talking to a juror and the encounter "was merely a road rage incident." Attorneys for the Hammond police officers are asking Van Bokkelen to dismiss Alicea's suit. The judge states in court records he would meet with attorneys on the matter in two weeks. Gregory Kulis, one of Alicea's attorneys, said Friday he believes Beach's statements are an exaggeration of the incident. He said the judge is properly taking a couple of weeks to give the matter further consideration before making any final decision on the case. Alicea couldn't be reached Friday for comment. Beach and other attorneys for the Hammond police officers didn't return calls for comment. Acting U.S. Marshal Todd Nukes and Ryan Holmes, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney, both declined comment. Kristina Kantar, corporation counsel for the city of Hammond, said Friday she wasn't at the trial and didn't know more about the incident other than what is contained in public court documents. Court documents indicate the case arises from a break-in March 29, 2011, at a home in the 4200 block of Towel Avenue. Another resident called police, who chased Alicea from the crime scene. He ran through an alley, into a backyard and jumped into an empty, 5-foot-deep, above-ground pool. Officer Thomas claims Alicea refused repeated requests to show his hands, so he ordered his police dog to enter the pool, bite and hold Alicea so he could pat Alicea down for a weapon. Alicea claims he was trying to surrender and that Officer Alvarez punched and kicked him during the arrest. The officers deny they abused Alicea and that their actions were necessary to ensure their own safety and to stop him from escaping. Alicea filed his suit against the police officers in December 2011. He pleaded guilty in January 2012 to burglary charges. U.S. District Judge Theresa Springmann dismissed Alicea's suit in 2014, but the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago reversed Springmann's decision and ordered it before a jury. HEBRON A home invasion Thursday morning at the Gas-Lite Mobile Home Park that ultimately landed two people in the hospital and left one dead was motivated by a personal issue among people who knew each other, said Hebron Police Chief Joshua Noel. "This was very targeted," he said Friday morning. Jeffery Martin, 43, of Cedar Lake, and Kurt Falkenberg, 36, of Crown Point, broke into the mobile home around 9 a.m. and beat the 35-year-old male resident with weapons, Noel said. The two men then fled in a Toyota Camry and collided with another vehicle near the 12700 block of County Line Road, police said. Falkenberg was pronounced dead at the scene. Martin was taken to Franciscan Health Crown Point, where he was held overnight before being taken to Porter County Jail about 4 p.m. Friday, Noel said. Martin was booked on an outstanding warrant, charges involving battery with a deadly weapon, a level 5 felony, and aggravated battery, a level 3 felony. Noel hopes the Porter County prosecutor's office will agree Monday to additional charges. Falkenberg targeted the victim over a child custody dispute, Noel said. Noel said his department was preparing information to present to prosecutors for charges against the accused assailant. The department is suggesting charges including aggravated battery, residential entry and burglary. Lake County police are handing any charges stemming from the crash scene, said Lake County Sheriff's Department spokesman Emiliano Perez. The driver of other car involved in the crash a 25-year-old woman from DeMotte was reportedly in and out of consciousness at the scene and had to be extricated from the car and transported to a hospital, according to Perez. The resident of the mobile home suffered extensive injuries, Noel said. Police had not yet arrived on the scene of the home invasion by the time the accused assailants fled, he said. "There was no police pursuit or involvement in the crash," Noel said. Noel credited the Winfield police department and Lake County Sheriff's Department for their help. "They were instrumental in responding to the scene of the accident and actually capturing the suspect," he said. HAMMOND Police on Friday released new surveillance photos in an effort to identify a suspect in several thefts of large quantities of energy drinks. The man is suspected of stealing Red Bull energy drinks from several convenience stores in the city, Lt. Steve Kellogg said. In one of the cases, the man who is either white or Hispanic wore a a gray Chicago Cubs World Series cap, a blue Cubs T-shirt with "Lee" on the back, dark-colored jeans and black gym shoes. He left in an Eddie Bauer SUV, which appeared to have different types of rims on the drive's side. A white or Hispanic female was seen driving the SUV, police said. Anyone with information about the man's identity is asked to call Detective Sgt. John Suarez at 219-852-2981. LAKES OF THE FOUR SEASONS A Crown Point area man suspected of carrying out a home invasion and assault at a Hebron mobile home park early Thursday was killed in a crash along County Line Road as he fled the area. Investigators with the Lake County Police Traffic Investigation Team were called out to the crash scene in unincorporated Hebron just south of Lakes of the Four Seasons a little after 9 a.m. There, they learned a red Toyota Camry with two occupants had collided with a black Pontiac Grand Am near the 12700 block of County Line Road, Lake County Sheriff's Department spokesman Emiliano Perez said in a news release. The driver of the Camry, Kurt Falkenberg, 36, was pronounced dead at the scene. Falkenburg's passenger, a 43-year-old Cedar Lake man, fled the scene but was apprehended a short time later by officers. He was transported to the hospital under custody of Hebron Police with unknown injuries. Suspects connected to assault, home invasion Hebron Police Chief Joshua Noel said the individuals in the Camry are suspects in an earlier aggravated assault and home invasion in the Gas-Lite Mobile Home Park in Hebron that occurred at about 9 a.m. Thursday. The Porter County coroners office was notified of the crash at about 12:39 p.m. Lake County officers determined through a preliminary investigation that the Toyota Camry was speeding northbound on County Line Road while fleeing from an aggravated assault in Hebron, Perez said. At one point, the Camry went left of center and struck the Pontiac head-on, Perez said. The driver of the Pontiac a 25-year-old woman from DeMotte was reportedly in and out of consciousness at the scene and had to be extricated from the car and transported to a hospital, according to Perez. Hebron Police retrieved evidence from the assault scene at the Gas-Lite Mobile Home Park and will be handling any charges connected to the Hebron case, Perez said. The Lake County Police Traffic Investigation Team will handle the crash investigation. Both investigations are ongoing. GARY A West Side Leadership Academy staff member has been on administrative leave for the last month pending the outcome of a police investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct with a student, school officials and city attorneys have confirmed. The person accused also filed a complaint with Gary police after he was assaulted last month in connection with the allegations, Gary attorney Rodney Pol said in an email. Because charges have not been filed, The Times is not naming the suspect. The Times filed a records request Jan. 2 seeking police reports related to the sexual misconduct allegations and related assault that occurred outside West Side Academy on Dec. 11. The Gary Police Department, through city of Gary attorneys, declined to release any information contained in the reports. An attorney for the city said last week in an email the allegations are being taken very seriously, and more information will be released as the investigation progresses. Former Gary school board President Rosie Washington, who resigned at the end of 2017, confirmed to The Times last week the individual was put on administrative leave last month. She was informed of the situation prior to resigning from her position on the board Dec. 31, Washington said. Gary Schools Corp. Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt told The Times last week she doesnt know anything about the allegations, and deferred all questions to emergency manager Peggy Hinckley. Hinckley told The Times the individual remains on administrative leave while Gary police and the school investigate. CROWN POINT City public safety, special events and engineering departments are hovering into a new tech era with the aid of a municipal drone. The Crown Point Board of Works has approved a purchase, not to exceed $5,000, for a flying drone, equipment and certification for users. The airborne devices allow high vantage points for surveillance and photos, including at crime scenes. The city also will seek waivers through the Federal Aviation Administration for flying the drone at night, flying above crowds and flying out of line-of-sight, Crown Point Information Technology Director Adam Graper said. The unmanned aerial system would be used for public safety, engineering and special events, city officials said. Crown Point Police General Services Officer Nathan Way, who has experience using drone tech, would be one of the municipal employees certified to use the city's drone. "I think it's a great idea," Police Chief Pete Land said. "I think it's something we should do." The city is considering a Phantom 4 Pro drone that costs about $1,500, not including accessories. Graper said other communities are using drones, including Gary and Valparaiso police departments, to assist in a variety of investigations, including locating missing people and taking aerial photos at crime scenes. Valparaiso police Sgt. Mike Grennes has said drones are especially useful during missing persons investigations, allowing officers wider views of large areas within short windows of time. Police officials in Valparaiso said state law limits how drones can be used in investigations, including prohibitions on gathering information in private areas without a warrant. Valparaiso police IT Officer Phil Rochon previously told The Times less than 2 percent of law enforcement agencies nationwide had FAA certification to use drones. HAMMOND Thomas L. Kirsch II's family and fellow members of the legal community were witnesses Thursday to his promise. Kirsch told those who packed the U.S. District courtroom for his investiture as the 18th U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana he would fight public corruption, violent crime and the opioid drug crisis. "The blows will be hard, but not foul," he said, adding he respects the legal rights of all criminal defendants to hold government prosecutors to the highest standards of proof. President Donald Trump nominated Kirsch in July, the U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment in October and he was sworn into office in a private ceremony three months ago. Although the law doesn't require a public investiture, Kirsch chose to start his job in a very public way to "answer the call to public service ... and defend the Constitution," according to the remarks of U.S. District Chief Judge Theresa Springmann. U.S. District Court Judges Jon E. DeGuilio, Phillip P. Simon and Joseph Van Bokkelen, Seventh Circuit Appeals Court Judge Michael S. Kanne, retired Appeals Court Judge John D. Tinder, former U.S. Attorneys David Capp and Dan K. Webb, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, and a number of assistant U.S. attorneys and defense attorneys were among those gathered. Van Bokkelen and Capp hired Kirsch as an assistant U.S. attorney in 2001 on the recommendation of Tinder, who said he had come to admire Kirsch as his law clerk. Tinder said it is great to know the potential he saw in Kirsch then has now been realized and Kirsch assumes the "awesome power" of making decisions whether or not to charge people with crimes. "Tom has a pitch-in-attitude without seeking credit or accolades. He has the integrity and courage to make those decisions regardless of their popularity." Kirsch served as an assistant U.S. attorney until 2008, focusing on white collar investigations and prosecutions, including the prosecution of numerous elected and appointed public officials. Webb, who became partners with Kirsch at the Chicago law firm of Winston & Strawn LLP, said he came to rely on him to defend major white collar crime defendants in venues as wide spread as Vienna, Austria; the Ukraine and London. "Kirsch is smart. He is strategic. His work ethic is second to none. You've got a gem," Webb said. A reception was held in Kirsch's honor at Munster's Center for Visual and Performing Arts following the ceremony. MONTGOMERY Gov. Kay Ivey issued a State Public Health Emergency on Thursday afternoon, responding to the overwhelming number of people affected by the statewide outbreak of influenza and the subsequent demands placed on health-care providers. The proclamation calls for the use of appropriate state agencies to assist communities where the outbreak is widespread and authorizes health-care providers to implement their emergency operation plans to provide alternative standards of care in response to a large number of people affected by the flu. In her statement, Ivey acknowledged that, because health-care facilities are so overwhelmed, patients can no longer expect normal, traditional, customary care for their medical condition. Therefore, she has authorized the emergency care plans of medical facilities to qualify as the standard of care outlined in the states code. Standard of care is defined in section 6-5-542(2) of the Code of Alabama and reads as follows: The standard of care is that level of such reasonable care, skill, and diligence as other similarly situated health care providers in the same general line of practice, ordinarily have and exercise in like cases. A breach of the standard of care is the failure by a health care provider to comply with the standard of care, which failure proximately causes personal injury or wrongful death. This definition applies to all actions for injuries or damages or wrongful death whether in contract or tort and whether based on intentional or unintentional conduct. Iveys declaration would appear to give medical-care facilities the ability during the declared emergency to make reasonable adjustments to normal standards of care, given the large number of patients seeking treatment for flu symptoms. The proclamation states that the changes are to remain in effect until they are rescinded by the governor. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has banned all the firms in the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) network from auditing listed companies for two years. The decision was made on Wednesday after Sebi found the audit firm guilty in the nine-year-old $ 1.7 billion Satyam Computer Services Ltd scam. In its 108-page order, the market regulator claimed that the firm was complicit with the main perpetrators of the accounting fraud and did not comply with auditing standards. The story has been widely reported in international and Indian media. According to Times of India, SEBI ruled that PWC and the audit firms in its network (PwC India) cannot audit listed companies and intermediaries (such as brokers) for a period of two years. However, this will not affect audits undertaken for financial year 2017-18. Price Waterhouse, Bangalore and two senior partnersS. Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluriwho had certified Satyams audit reports in 2000-2008, must disgorge ill-gotten gains including interests. In its decision, SEBI relied on the Prevention of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) regulations and Section 11 of SEBI Act which empowers the regulator to pass directions in the interest of investors. However PWC protested the ruling and plans to appeal. We are disappointed with the findings of the Sebi investigations and the adjudication order. The SEBI order relates to a fraud that took place nearly a decade ago in which we played no part and had no knowledge of. As we have said since 2009, there has been no intentional wrong doing by PW firms in the unprecedented management perpetrated fraud at Satyam, nor have we seen any material evidence to the contrary. We believe that the order is also not in line with the directions of the Honourable Bombay High Court order of 2010 and so we are confident of getting a stay before this order becomes effective, The Times of India quoted the spokesperson of the firm in an emailed response. PW is referring to an August 2010 order of the high court, which ruled that no direction can be issued against them if there is only some omission without proof of connivance and intent to fraud. During the course of SEBIs quasi-judicial proceedings, PW argued that an auditor is not required to be a detective in the process of audit and it is sufficient to show that reasonable care and due diligence was administered by the auditor. The scam and role of PWC The fraud surfaced in January 2009 when B. Ramalinga Raju, the then chairman of Satyam Computer, admitted in a letter to the companys board and stock exchanges to have inflated revenue and profit over several years in an accounting fraud to the tune of $ 1.7bn , making it Indias biggest accounting scam. The promoters allegedly inflated revenue, fabricated invoices, falsified accounts and income tax returns, and forged fixed deposit receipts to paint a rosy picture of the companys financials. SEBI investigated the auditor's role in the accounting fraud. PWC was acting as the auditor of the company between 2000-2008. The main objectives were to prove fraud or connivance of the PWCs partners with the promoters of Satyam in fudging the companys books. According to SEBI, PWC showed a total disregard for stipulated auditing practice, indicating its complicity in the manipulation. A common investors reliance on the audit certifications of Satyam Computers at the relevant point of time was dependent on the fact that it was attested by one of the internationally reputed firms called PW. The public had no reason to believe that the audit reports were false and misleading, said G. Mahalingam, whole-time member, Sebi. SEBI added that the long period of accounts falsification and the lack of PWCs attention towards fudged accounts pointed to a systemic problem in the firm's accounting processes. As per SEBI, the auditors made material representations in the certifications without any supporting document. The acts of the auditor induced the public to trade consistently in the shares of the company, it said. PWC is a network of firms in 157 countries and it is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has a presence in Uganda and is one of the firms that are contracted to do forensic audits on suspected companies such as banks in Uganda. Is it one of the top professional services firms in the world and belongs to the category of the Big Four Auditors, the others being Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. It is one of the most sought after firm to work for in the world. This scandal will certainly dent its international reputation. PWC, along with KPMG, have worked with Bank of Uganda in connection with the ongoing case of alleged fraudulent activities at the defunct Crane Bank. According to The Times of India, In July 2010, the firm had approached the Bombay High Court and questioned the regulators jurisdiction. The court allowed the regulator to proceed with its investigations if it is able to prove that PWC had a role in the fraud. In 2011, the firm had approached the Securities and Appellate Tribunal (SAT) asking for examination of the evidence, and the case went in favour of the firm. SEBI then filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the SAT order in 2012. On 3 July 2017, the Supreme Court allowed for examination of documents and ordered SEBI to conclude its proceedings in six months. The deadline expired on 9 January 2018. In September 2017, the firm had applied to settle the proceedings via consent; the plea was not considered. 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 Grant Leslie McDonald's has hired Glover Park Group to lead its government relations and PA push in Washington. GPG, which is part of WPP, will focus on issues such as agriculture, food, nutrition and sustainability. McDonald's kicked off its beef sustainability program in 2014, forming the industry's groundbreaking "Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef" with World Wildlife Fund and suppliers JBS and Cargill. In 2016, the fast-feeder focused on coffee sourcing, committing to buying 100 percent of its coffee from sustainable sources by 2020. GPG's Grant Leslie (aide to former Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack) handles the McDonald's account with Joel Leftwich (ex-majority staff director on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry and Congressional liaison at Agriculture Dept.). Chip Griffin Media intelligence company CARMA has appointed Chip Griffin as COO. Griffin, who has been with the company since 2016, will head up its marketing, product development, and content acquisition. Before coming to CARMA, he held executive positions at Franeo, CustomScoop and DCI Group. Chip has been CEO of CARMA North America for the past couple of years, and in that role established a strong foundation for our rapidly expanding media monitoring and measurement offerings in the U.S., said Mazen Nahawi, CEO of CARMA. We are delighted that he will be bringing his extensive industry knowledge and expertise in innovation to our global operations. As Griffin assumes global responsibilities, Roxane Papagiannopoulos will take on added duties as Managing Director of Media Analysis for CARMA North America. Papagiannopoulos joined CARMA in September after it acquired RMP Media Analysis, where she served as president. Molly Williamson Nashville-based DVL Seigenthaler has promoted Molly Williamson and Laura Stephens to vice president. Both were previously directors of client services. Williamson, who has been with the agency since 2008, leads its Jack Daniels and Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl accounts. Stephens, who has been with the firm since 2013, represents clients in the consumer product, healthcare, technology, education, non-profit and finance sectors. Prior to joining the agency, she served as the public relations specialist at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. In addition, DVL Seigenthaler promoted Sarah Brawner to director of client services, working in the agencys Health Practice. Before coming to DVL, Brawner was a commnications specialist at the International Food Policy Research Institute. Cora Lee Klena AmeriHealth Caritas has named Cora Lee Klena senior vice president and chief communications officer. Prior to joining AmeriHealth Caritas, Ms. Klena was a senior vice president for Chubb, running its marketing, communications, and re-branding for the North American market. She has also served in communications leadership capacities at Swiss Re, USAA and E*TRADE. In her new position, she is responsible for the companys communications, advertising, branding and thought leadership strategies. We are excited to have Cora join the team. Her distinguished work with major national brands makes her uniquely suited to advance our organizations mission and brand during a transformational time in our industry, said Paul Tufano, CEO ofAmeriHealth Caritas. Jamie Krauss Hess Lifestyle communications shop The Narrative Group has made three executive promotions. Jamie Krauss Hess, formerly a VP at the firm, has been named senior VP; Alex Masel, most recently a marketing manager, has been upped to director; and Jillian Eldredge, who served as a senior account executive, has been named account supervisor. In addition, the firm has brought on several new clients, including Bizzie Gold, PetPlate, Fairway Market, Body By Simone and Espira. Oklahoma City Workers Caught On Tape Calling Martin Luther King Day Ni**er Day Elijah C. Watson Elijah Watson serves as Okayplayer's News & Culture Editor. When City workers in Oklahoma have resigned after a tape was released of them referring to Martin Luther King Day as Ni**er Day. WATCH: Mr. President Are You A Racist?: Reporter Confront Trump About Shithole Countries Comment During MLK Event The recording is of Warner, Oklahoma, employees Joe Swimmer and Matt McLean, and the two of them discussing if they get a day off for MLK Day. Do we get Martin Luther King Day off? Swimmer asks, to which McLean responds No ni**er day for us. Were off for ni**er day? Swimmer responds, and can be later heard saying Im not celebrating ni**er day. McLean then proceeds to say We just call it JER day. James Earl Ray, referring to the man who assassinated MLK. Thats what we always celebratenot that we dont like black people, McLean adds after laughter from other men in the room. Michael Wittmer, Swimmer and McLeans coworker who recorded the conversation, said that comments like that have been going on a long time at the water department. The employees that work with me havent been too happy with me, Wittmer said to Fox 25. They feel like they were misled, but they werent misled. They just shouldnt have been saying what they were saying. Wittmer said that after giving the tape to Tulsa World, a local publication, he went to work only to realize that his key would not open the door. I thought it was real disrespectful, Wittmer said before adding that MLK deserves to be honored no matter what color or what race you are. Reverend Roger Cutler, leader of the NAACP chapter in Muskogee, Oklahoma, also found the remarks disrespectful. It is appalling as a citizen of this state in this day and age to still have to deal with this type of racism, Cutler said. They dont hate black people, well then why would you use a term that is derogatory towards someone you claim not to hate? City of Warner officials reportedly hosted a town hall meeting following the incident, where they addressed the resignations and promised an investigation into the incident. Source: Fox 25, Tulsa World In a few short years, the parents of a newborn will know the babys full genome every last secret buried in the bawling kids genetic code. And in a few years, we will be good enough to reliably edit that genetic code, says one of Nebraskas foremost scientists. We may genetically rid that baby of Hunter syndrome. We may make her less likely to develop Alzheimers later in life. We also will have the gene editing tools to make her taller. Or stronger. Or smarter. Our technology is evolving much faster than our societys ethical norms, says Dr. Karoly Mirnics, Its time to ask a question. Are we running into a brave new world without knowing where we are running, or why we are running, or how? Mirnics runs the Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Hes a cutting-edge molecular neuro-biologist credited with identifying a gene that makes people more likely to become schizophrenic. In other words, hes no dummy. I sat down to talk to Mirnics and Dr. Omar Abdul-Rahman, another leading Nebraska genetics researcher, this week. They told me its high time we have serious dinner-table and global discussions about whats OK and what isnt as we barrel into a future where genetic tweaks can make terrible syndromes and diseases vanish. Why? Because we are also barreling toward a future where we may muck up the human race in ways most of us have barely considered. Does the public understand how important this is? Mirnics says. I think thats highly questionable at this point. Increasingly, what many of us still perceive as science fiction is in fact genetic engineering reality. Right now, we can manipulate the genes of a leukemia patient so that the patients own blood cells transform into potent cancer-fighting machines. That breakthrough will transform how we treat and cure all kinds of different cancers in the years ahead. Right now, we can inject a corrective gene into the retina of a child who is blind because of a rare inherited disease. We can do this, and then the kid can see. Those and other breakthroughs happened in 2017. Each is thrilling. Each is potentially life-changing. And each comes thanks to technological advancements that offer as many vexing questions as they do thrilling answers. Heres a question: What happens when we can manipulate genes to help those with terrible diseases or life-altering disorders but doing so might harm our children or our childrens children? A hypothetical example: Lets say we figure out how to introduce an extra piece of genetic code into an unborn baby with Down syndrome, an enzyme allowing that unborn baby to develop with a better-functioning memory. But by introducing that extra enzyme by immeasurably altering the lives of that child and many others we would also be ushering it into the broader gene pool, which could cause unknown changes to humankind for generations to come. Mirnics believes that a simple ethical (and maybe eventually legal) rule should apply to all human genetic engineering: Do nothing that can make its way into the so-called germ line, where the change could be passed from parent to offspring. Most scientists in America and the developed world agree that we shouldnt muck with the germ line, says Rahman, who is now the director of genetic medicine at the Munroe-Meyer Institute. Big government research funders like the National Institutes of Health have developed regulations that all but ban it. However, that wouldnt stop private research labs or government researchers in other parts of the world from doing genetic manipulation that might have serious consequences for the rest of us down the road. Once you start introducing genes into the population, they will start randomly mixing, says Mirnics. So what happens if we introduce Gene A here, and Gene B here, and then they result in C, and D, and E? We have no idea and we will not have much of an idea for hundreds of years. Heres another question: Is there a difference between curing whats wrong and improving whats right? We are nearing a day when it will be possible to identify and modify genes that affect things like musical ability or muscle strength, Mirnics thinks. Many parents, wanting the best for their children, will surely want to use this info in ways that may make others extremely nervous. Is this OK? And is adding musical ability different from taking away the chance that a child might eventually develop Alzheimers? Does it matter that the people who get the genetic musical ability tweak may take every last spot in every symphony? Does it matter that class divisions will help decide the genetic haves and have-nots? Rahman says he draws a clear distinction between making Alzheimers less likely and making musical genius more likely. I look at reducing risk of Alzheimers as an attempt to eliminate or ameliorate suffering, he says. Thats the focus of medicine to me, the point of medicine, to find ways to do that, as opposed to making modifications to whats an otherwise typical, healthy fetus. And what about privacy? For example, who should get to know a childs full genetic code? Her parents? Her doctor? What about if she is genetically predisposed to handle stress well. Should her employer know that? And what about if she is genetically predisposed to have heart problems? Should her insurance company know that? Currently a federal law stops health insurance companies and employers from discriminating based on genetic information. But that law, commonly known as GINA, has giant loopholes, Rahman says. Heres one: A life insurance company can deny you a policy based on genetic information. Theres a good bit of work to be done in this area, Rahman says. Just because we can do it, just because we can know it, doesnt necessarily mean we should. Before I leave my chat with Mirnics, my mind swimming with the wonders and the dangers of genetic engineering, the Yugoslavia-born doctor wants to tell me a story he heard from an Eastern European friend. Several years ago this scientist and his colleagues introduced a gene mutation into a colony of mice that made the mice incredibly smart. It was stunning, maybe even transformational. And then the mice living in the outdoor colony started disappearing, one by one, in a way that at first baffled the researchers. They eventually figured out why: The genetic mutation had made the mice super intelligent, but it had also strangely deleted their ability to sense danger. One by one, the crazy-smart mice were getting eaten by hawks. It was a free-for-all lunch buffet, Mirnics says, shaking his head at the experiment and the enormity of the future we face. Sometimes you fix one thing and break another. Council Bluffs police are asking for the publics help in identifying a man being sought in connection with a vehicle theft and shooting early Dec. 30. Police said a 53-year-old Nebraska man was shot during the robbery. The man being sought, who possibly uses the nickname KJ, is white, 5-foot-10, 200 pounds and in his late 40s to early 50s, police said. He should be considered armed and dangerous, police said. Anyone with information on the matter is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at (712) 328-STOP. Around 4:45 a.m. on Dec. 30, police were dispatched to the Horseshoe Casino parking lot in the Bluffs over a man with a gunshot wound. The man had been shot while attempting to flee on foot from the scene, police said. The thief took the mans 2006 Ford F-150 Super Crew pickup truck. The injured man was taken Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha with nonlife-threatening injuries, police said. The victims truck was recovered by Omaha police in the 2000 block of South 45th Street. It had been damaged by a fire, police said. PARIS (AP) The same Russian government-aligned hackers who penetrated the Democratic Party have spent the past few months laying the groundwork for an espionage campaign against the U.S. Senate, a cybersecurity firm said Friday. The revelation suggests the Fancy Bear hackers, whose efforts scrambled the 2016 U.S. electoral contest, is still busy trying to gather the emails of Americas political elite. Theyre still very active in making preparations at least to influence public opinion again, said Feike Hacquebord, a security researcher at Trend Micro Inc., which published the report. They are looking for information they might leak later. The Senate Sergeant at Arms office, which is responsible for the upper houses security, declined to comment. Sen. Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a warning Friday: Russia is just getting started and the hacks, forgeries, and influence campaigns are going to get more and more sophisticated. Moscow wants to undermine Americas trust in our institutions and Putin couldnt be happier with Washingtons obsession with making everything about settling partisan scores instead of preparing for 2018 and 2020. The Nebraska Republican urged the Trump administration to take urgent action to ensure that our adversaries cannot undermine the framework of our political debates. Hacquebord said he based his report on the discovery of a clutch of suspicious-looking websites dressed up to look like the U.S. Senates internal email system. He then cross-referenced digital fingerprints associated with those sites to ones used almost exclusively by Fancy Bear, which his Tokyo-based firm dubs Pawn Storm. Trend Micro previously drew international attention when it used an identical technique to uncover a set of decoy websites apparently set up to harvest emails from the French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macrons campaign in April 2017. The sites discovery was followed by publication of private emails from several Macron staffers. Hacquebord said the rogue Senate sites which were set up in June and September of 2017 matched their French counterparts. That is exactly the way they attacked the Macron campaign in France, he said. Like many cybersecurity companies, Trend Micro declines to speculate publicly on who is behind such groups, referring to Pawn Storm only as having Russia-related interests. But the U.S. intelligence community alleges that Russias military intelligence service pulls the hackers strings. And a months-long Associated Press investigation into the group, drawing on a vast database of targets supplied by the cybersecurity firm Secureworks, has determined that the group is closely attuned to the Kremlins objectives. If Fancy Bear has targeted the Senate over the past few months, it wouldnt be the first time. An AP analysis of Secureworks list shows that several staffers there were targeted between 2015 and 2016. By the end of the year, Emiliano Lerda hopes to fill an entire floor of his nonprofits new office building with lawyers who provide free legal services to low-income immigrants. In 2018, the executive director of Justice for Our Neighbors-Nebraska has high goals for the organization, which recently moved from South Omahas Grace United Methodist Church to its own office building near 42nd and Center Streets. He wants to see the nonprofit grow from 26 employees to about 40, and for the number of cases to rise well above last years total of 3,400. That growth may come organically, the organizations leadership said; local demand for services and the number of supporters both have surged since the 2016 presidential election. In a nutshell, the changes we are making are geared at positioning us to meet that need and keep our clients best interests as our true north, said Deputy Executive Director Shane Ellison. In addition to the move to a larger and more centrally located office space, the organization has also announced a new name: Immigrant Legal Center. We wanted something more descriptive of the services we provide, Lerda said. He added that the organization will continue its affiliation with the national Justice for Our Neighbors network, which has 18 sites around the country. Friday marked the launch of the public phase of the Immigrant Legal Centers $3.1 million capital campaign. The goal is to raise the remaining $800,000 for renovations on the office building, which formerly housed the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging. The 23,000-square-foot space will include a community room for local nonprofits to use and a play area for clients children. The nonprofit also hopes to lease out two floors in the building. That income, Lerda said, could help ensure financial sustainability for the growing organization: Now our challenge to ourselves is to continue to respect our organizations mission as we grow. The organization has seen annual growth since it began in 2011 with just four employees. But in recent years, as immigration policy became a core issue in the 2016 presidential campaign, calls and donations to Justice for Our Neighbors-Nebraska increased. The bump in donations started the night of the election and continued with each of President Donald Trumps immigration-related executive orders and announcements, Lerda said. From 2014 to 2017, the number of cases the Justice for Our Neighbors-Nebraska attorneys took on in a year jumped from 1,664 to more than 3,400. We need to hire more attorneys, Lerda said. He added that hes grateful for the ability to grow, but that he expects 2018 to be a very uncertain and challenging year for immigration policy changes. On Monday, Trump announced the end to the Temporary Protected Status program for the nearly 200,000 people from El Salvador who have been allowed to live and work in the United States since a series of earthquakes devastated their home country in 2001. Under Trumps administration, the Department of Homeland Security also has announced the end of the protections for immigrants from Haiti, Sudan and Nicaragua. Immigrants from Honduras, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Nepal and Yemen also legally reside in the United States under the TPS designation. Also up in the air are the protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally to the United States who are in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is set to expire in March. Trump met with lawmakers this week to begin negotiations on the program. With the uncertainty for those and other immigrants, the need for pro bono legal services for them is as great as ever, said Shane Ellison, the organizations deputy executive director. DES MOINES (AP) The head of Iowas court system warned Wednesday that Iowans are losing access to justice because more than 100 key court jobs statewide remain empty due to ongoing spending cuts from the Legislature. Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady told legislators in his State of the Judiciary address that the court system is operating with 115 essential positions unfilled. Overall, the office has 182 fewer positions than one year ago. Cady also used his annual speech to highlight what he sees as successes in the court system, but his speech pointed to growing shortcomings. He said a commitment to addressing cases in a timely period is eroding, with rural residents receiving fewer court services than urban residents. Cady added that specialty courts dealing with substance abuse cannot be expanded until the Legislature increases funding. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds highlighted the need to better address opioids in her Condition of the State speech Tuesday, though she didnt mention the courts role in that effort. Cadys office has a roughly $175 million budget that was reduced by $3 million last fiscal year. Reynolds announced mid-year budget cuts Tuesday that include $1.6 million to the judicial branch. The courts are seeking an increase of nearly $14 million for the budget year that goes into effect in July. Reynolds has recommended roughly $173 million in new spending to Iowas next budget, which was last estimated at $7.2 billion. Shes recommending about $5 million in new money for judicial. Lawmakers dealt with multiple budget shortfalls in 2017 because of lower-than-expected revenue growth and they now need to address a roughly $35 million deficit. A 2-year-old girl who was found not breathing in an apartment fire this week in Council Bluffs has died. The Fire Department announced the death of ANyia Patton on Friday night. She had been treated for her injuries at Childrens Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha. An autopsy will be performed. Her mother, Michelle Patton, 37, was in serious condition late Friday at the Nebraska Medical Center. Firefighters were dispatched to the blaze at 228 Harrison St. at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. A police officer was first to arrive and reported that not all the occupants were out. A fire crew arrived at 9:33, started attacking the fire and began a search. At 9:38, firefighters reported the blaze to be knocked down. Firefighters found the two victims in a bedroom. At the time, neither had a pulse. CPR started immediately. The fire investigation is being led by the Council Bluffs Fire Marshals Office, along with the Police Department and the Iowa State Fire Marshals Office. LINCOLN More than 30 farmers who ended up losing an estimated $2.6 million in the closing of a Pierce, Nebraska, grain elevator lost a final attempt Friday to try to recover their losses. The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the farmers could not sue the Nebraska Public Service Commission for allegedly failing to provide proper financial oversight of Pierce Grain Elevator Inc., which was ordered closed by the commission in March 2014. The court ruled that the commission, which regulates grain elevators, has sovereign immunity against such lawsuits. One of the farmers said Friday that it was disappointing that a state agency could not be held responsible. I pay taxes for the Public Service deal to do their job, said Conrad Frevert of rural Wausa. Someone screwed up along the line. ... It wasnt the farmers fault. The failure of the grain company generated nearly $10 million in claims for corn and soybeans stored at elevators in Pierce, Randolph and Foster. It was the largest grain elevator failure, financially, in state history. The PSC was able to sell stored grain and pay about $4.6 million in claims made by farmers. Grain dealers, meanwhile, recovered about 9 cents on the dollar of their losses, because the losses were covered by a $300,000 bond. The farmers also filed a $3.4 million lawsuit against the grain elevators bank, Citizens State Bank, alleging that the bank knew of the elevators financial problems but had shifted its debts onto the farmers. That lawsuit, filed in November 2014, was dismissed in June. Terms of a settlement were not disclosed. A spokeswoman for the Public Service Commission declined to comment. The court order speaks for itself, said spokeswoman Deb Collins. The farmers, in court documents, claimed that they would not have lost as much money had the PSC taken action earlier against the financially troubled elevator. According to the farmers lawsuit, nine months before the elevator was closed, the PSC had performed a compliance review indicating that the elevator was operating deeply in the red. But the PSC did not revoke the elevators license until March 2014. The farmers lawsuit was dismissed by Lancaster County District Court Judge Susan Strong. On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the dismissal, agreeing that the PSC had immunity from such lawsuits. (The law) is clear and unambiguous, wrote Supreme Court Judge Jeffrey Funke. State agencies may not be sued ... based upon the failure to suspend or revoke a license. One of the attorneys who represented the farmers, Andre Barry of Lincoln, declined to comment. 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. By Amy Wang | The Oregonian/OregonLive Here are our picks for theater, classical music and dance performances and visual arts events for Jan. 12-18. Don't Edit "USS Improvise: The Next Generation: The Musical" Improv theater meets "Star Trek" as the Funhouse Lounge Improv Company sets its sights on Captain Picard and his Enterprise crew. Whatever impulse strikes the cast, they're sure to engage. Want to bring your junior Trek fans? Funhouse promises the show is "PG-13ish." 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Jan. 12-27, Funhouse Lounge, 2432 S.E. 11th Ave. $12 general admission, $34-$70 table/booth reservations, funhouselounge.com or 503-841-6734. Don't Edit The Takacs Quartet, April 2016. (Keith Saunders) Takacs Quartet Friends of Chamber Music presents the Grammy Award-winning string quartet, now in its 43rd season, performing two programs that will feature Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bartok and Beethoven. The quartet will also give a master class to Portland State University students that is open to the public. Concerts: 7:30 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, Jan. 15-16, Lincoln Hall, 1620 S.W. Park Ave. Master class: Noon Tuesday, Jan. 16, Lincoln Hall, Room 75. Concerts $30-$55, $5 student rush and Arts For All tickets; master class free, focm.org or 503-224-9842. Don't Edit Hello Portland, Oregon! We can't wait to see you again! Posted by Carpe Diem String Quartet on Thursday, November 30, 2017 Carpe Diem String Quartet They'd sound equally virtuosic onstage with a symphony orchestra or in a field playing a hoedown. Carpe Diem, considered one of the nation's top "indie" string quartets, visits Portland with a program that melds Italy and Argentina, pairing Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" with Astor Piazzolla's "Cuatro Estaciones Portenas" (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires). 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, Winningstad Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway. $35, portland5.com or 800-273-1530. Don't Edit "Weaving Women Together" Portland Playhouse's Nikki Weaver began this work-in-progress after her mother's death. She contacted 60 women, some of them strangers, asking each to send her a piece of fabric with sentimental value; more than 35 did. The resulting stories form this piece, which Weaver says speaks not only to losing her mother but also finding her in these women. Gretchen Corbett directs this workshop production. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17-27, 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28, Hampton Opera Center, 211 S.E. Caruthers St. $15-$20, portlandplayhouse.org or 503-488-5822. Don't Edit Don't Edit J.S. Bach, "Motets" Motets don't immediately come to mind when people think of J.S. Bach, but he did write six of the polyphonic choral pieces. The Ensemble of Oregon will perform three that the group calls "fantastically exuberant in style," along with arias from two Bach cantatas and a cello sonata. 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, The Old Church, 1422 S.W. 11th Ave, Portland. $20-$25, free for students, brownpapertickets.com. Don't Edit "I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra" This dance, named after Carrie Fisher's famous quip about how she wanted her obituary to read, features Sada Naegelin and Leah Wilmoth exploring female archetypes and pop culture. Dancers Alanna Marguritte and Fern Wiley and pianist Charlie Copeland also perform. 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Jan. 12-13, Performance Works NW, 4625 S.E. 67th Ave. $10, sliding scale available, brownpapertickets.com or 503-777-1907. Don't Edit Bao Pham and Yuka Sakuma Pham, a painter in Iowa, presents "Rumination," a collection of paintings and drawings that focus on contemplation and daydreaming. Sakuma, an artist from Japan, presents "The Eve of Festival," a collection of works with the theme of anticipation. Opening reception, 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, on view, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday and Friday-Saturday, noon- 9 p.m. Thursday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 8, Nucleus Portland, 1445 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. Free, nucleusportland.com or 503-231-2702. Don't Edit Kindra Crick If this artist's surname seems familiar, it's because she's the granddaughter of Francis Crick, who won a Nobel Prize for his co-discovery of the molecular structure of DNA. Her grandmother, Odile Crick, was an artist who created the double helix so familiar today. Kindra Crick studied molecular biology and painting and brings both disciplines to bear in her art work. Her new exhibit, "Illuminated Wilderness: Memory" features a multimedia rendering of the brain along with memory-inspired prints. Artist reception, 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17, on view, noon-5 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, noon-6 p.m. Thursday-Friday, through Feb. 2, Littman Gallery, 1825 S.W. Broadway. Free, 5037254452. Don't Edit If you would like your event to be considered for coverage, email the details to fineartsbestbets@oregonian.com. Don't Edit Don't Edit An earlier version of this post gave an incorrect time for the Takacs Quartet's master class on Tuesday, Jan. 16. Don't Edit More arts coverage Fertile Ground Festival 2018: 70+ new works, 11 days, 32 venues Many shades of gray define new exhibit at Elizabeth Leach Gallery Nikola Tesla, 'unsung hero' of 20th century, is star of multimedia show Artists Repertory Theatre looks to stabilize finances by selling part of building 10 Portland art exhibits to brighten your winter 12 Portland classical music events to keep your winter in tune 7 must-see Portland theater shows this winter Here are the Portland dance events you'll want to seek out this winter Colt Gill, who served as Oregon's inaugural "education innovation officer," was named the permanent head of the Oregon Department of Education Friday. Gov. Kate Brown, who created the job of education innovation officer and put Gill in it, said in a statement that she trusts his leadership and insight to improve Oregon's low high school graduation rate and improve the quality of education the state's children receive. Brown's decision must be confirmed by the Senate for it to take effect. But such confirmation is routine. Gill has been acting in the role since Brown forced out the previous state schools chief, Salam Noor, in October about 2 1/2 years after she picked Noor for the role. Gill will be paid the same salary as state schools chief that he made in his graduation-rate-focused innovation job: $185,000, said Brown's spokeswoman Kate Kondayen. Brown aims to name a new education innovation officer by this spring, Kondayen said. Before taking the innovation role in summer 2016, Gill served many years as superintendent of the Bethel school district near Eugene. That district is a strong but not super-star performer, given its demographics. Its students are more likely to be poor and less likely to have parents who went to college than is typical in the rest of the state. As education innovation officer, Gill's job was to bring a laser focus to trying to raise the state's graduation rate, which ranks among the worst in the nation. But he hasn't had enough time or money to make a significant impact after just 19 months on the job. The graduation rate for the students who graduated a year after he took the job -- the class of 2017 -- will be announced later this month. Gill becomes Oregon's defacto state school superintendent at a time when the state's top lawmakers say the state's K-12 education system needs a dramatic remaking to do better by students. Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek kicked off the inaugural meeting of their new Joint Committee for Student Success with heartfelt pleas to its 14 members to work tirelessly to propose a better way to educate students and to deliver more money for schools. -- Betsy Hammond By Billy J. Williams Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memorandum rescinding existing Justice Department guidance on marijuana enforcement. The move gives U.S. Attorneys wide latitude to develop district-specific strategies and deploy department resources without Washington, D.C. artificially declaring some cases off limits. Before developing a strategy for Oregon, however, we need more information from the state. Here's what we know right now. Oregon has a massive marijuana overproduction problem. In 2017 alone, postal agents in Oregon seized 2,644 pounds of marijuana in outbound parcels and over $1.2 million in cash. For comparison, postal agents in Colorado seized just 984 pounds of marijuana during a four-year period beginning in 2013. Overproduction creates a powerful profit incentive, driving product from both state-licensed and unlicensed marijuana producers into black and gray markets across the country. This lucrative supply attracts cartels and other criminal networks into Oregon and in turn brings money laundering, violence, and environmental degradation. A survey of recent federal cases in Oregon illustrates alarming trends: in the last six months, federal agents and port police have seized over $1 million in cash linked to marijuana transactions passing through Portland International Airport; law enforcement partners from 16 states have reported marijuana seizures from Oregon. In the first half of 2017, in-state production of butane hash oil resulted in six separate lab explosions. And police and sheriff deputies regularly encounter vehicles with hundreds of pounds of marijuana on highways heading out of state. We also know that even recreational marijuana permitted under state law carries ill-effects on public health and safety, as Colorado's experience shows. Since 2013, marijuana-related traffic deaths have doubled in Colorado. Marijuana-related emergency and hospital admissions have increased 35 percent. And youth marijuana use is up 12 percent, 55 percent higher than the national average. We must do everything in our power to avoid similar trends here in Oregon. As U.S. Attorney, I have traveled throughout the state to meet with community leaders and citizens to discuss distinctive issues facing rural Oregonians. Many of these conversations quickly turn to marijuana. Landowners throughout central and southwestern Oregon have legitimate concerns that marijuana cultivation has had a detrimental effect on water rights, public lands and livability. Rural communities simply do not have the resources to fund the additional police and sheriff deputies needed to address these issues. While state officials have allocated a portion of marijuana tax revenues to public safety organizations including the Oregon State Police, the net effect on enforcement remains an open question. Moreover, can 20 Oregon Liquor Control Commission marijuana enforcement specialists adequately police thousands of recreational licensees? We don't know the answer to these questions, in part, because the state has yet to release a final version of its report evaluating out-of-state diversion, distribution to minors, cultivation on public land and violent crime associated with marijuana in Oregon. We need this information to move forward smartly, effectively, and transparently. In sum, I have significant concerns about the state's current regulatory framework and the resources allocated to policing marijuana in Oregon. Congress's judgment on marijuana activity is reflected in the Controlled Substances Act. Before charting a path forward for the enforcement of marijuana in Oregon, we must see how the state mitigates the public safety and health issues raised here. The time for informed action is now. In the coming days, I will send invitations to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement, public health organizations, Oregon marijuana interests and concerned citizen groups to attend a summit to address and remedy these and other concerns. This summit and the state's response will inform our federal enforcement strategy. How we move forward will depend in large measure on how the state responds to the gaps we have identified. Until then it would be an inappropriate abdication of my duties to issue any blanket proclamations on our marijuana enforcement strategy in light of federal law. National policy has changed, but our commitment to exercising good judgment in charging decisions has not. We will continue to look at cases individually and assess whether charges are appropriate considering the best needs of our community. Billy J. Williams is the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Share your opinion Submit your essay of 500 to 600 words on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonlive.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification. Defense lawyers for the FBI agent accused of lying about firing shots at the truck of Oregon standoff spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum are requesting dismissal of the case, arguing that it's based on a faulty computer animation of the shooting and not witnesses, video or ballistics. In a motion filed in federal court Friday, lawyers for FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita contend the government's computer animation is unreliable. "The government's case rests entirely on a computer animation manufactured by a daisy chain of so-called experts nearly two years after the underlying shooting incident,'' defense lawyer David Angeli wrote in his motion. "In short, it is junk science.'' Astarita was indicted in June and has pleaded not guilty to three counts of making a false statement and two counts of obstruction of justice. He is accused of hiding from Oregon investigators that he fired his rifle on Jan. 26, 2016, and lying to the FBI about his shots. Federal prosecutors hired a specialist to do a 3D depiction of two shots allegedly fired by Astarita at Finicum's truck. Toby Terpstra, senior forensic animator at the Colorado-based company Kineticorp, is among nine government experts disclosed by prosecutors in their case. The experts have relied on the syncing of audio as well as two videos, one from the cellphone of a backseat passenger taken inside Finicum's truck and one from an FBI surveillance plane overhead. They've worked to recreate the scene in 3D through photogrammetry, using coordinate measurements from photographs and videos. Astarita's defense lawyers are assembling their own team of experts to counter the government's case at a hearing in May. The agent's lawyers also Friday urged the court to at least dismiss four of the five charges against Astarita, saying the agent shouldn't face five separate allegations for "telling one alleged lie.'' He shouldn't be accused of obstruction of justice, for example, for "failing to speak'' in one follow-up February 2016 interview with Oregon state police, his lawyers said. Allowing the five separate counts would "prejudice the jury against (him) by creating the impression of more criminal activity on his part than in fact may have been present,'' the defense motion says. The shooting came as state police and FBI agents stopped key figures of the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge after they left the bird sanctuary to travel to a community meeting in John Day. Finicum drove away from the police stop and crashed his truck into a snowbank at a roadblock before getting out of his truck. Astarita's bullets didn't hit Finicum, 54, Oregon investigators said. They concluded that Astarita fired twice at the truck, hitting the roof and missing on the second shot. Seconds later, state troopers shot Finicum three times after he stepped away from his pickup and reached for his inner jacket pocket, where police later said he had a loaded 9mm handgun. Bullets struck him in the back and one pierced his heart, an autopsy found. The government's animation "purports to illustrate that Special Agent Astarita was the most likely person to have fired one or two shots that missed'' Finicum, according to the defense motion. During the course of the investigation into Finicum's death, the Tri-County Major Incident Team determined state police fired six shots, including the three that hit Finicum and three at his truck as he sped toward the roadblock. The team, after examining bullet damage to the roof of Finicum's truck and reviewing video footage taken by passenger Shawna Cox, questioned if someone had fired two additional shots, according to the motion. The team of investigators contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office in late February 2016 about the two other shots, and the federal prosecutor's office informed the FBI, the motion said. On Feb. 20, 2016, the FBI sent a shooting incident response team to Oregon to investigate if any of the gunshots in question could have been fired by any of the five FBI agents at the scene. Members of the U.S. Attorney's Office and U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General also joined the inquiry. Astarita, who was a member of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, is accused of telling two different FBI supervisors on the night of Jan. 26, 2016, that he hadn't fired any gunshots. Later that night, state police detectives interviewed the five FBI agents and none said they had discharged their weapons, the motion says. Astarita was interviewed a second time by state police on Feb. 6, 2016, this time with two other FBI agents who were also present at the shooting scene. All three agents were then represented jointly by a lawyer, and state police were told the agents wouldn't answer any questions they'd already had been asked, according to Astarita's lawyers. Astarita didn't speak at all during this February interview. Sometime between Jan. 26, 2016, and Feb. 6, 2016, Astarita was asked by another FBI supervisory agent if he had fired his rifle that night, and he said no. The motion contains redactions related to grand jury testimony, and a vague reference to Astarita's "alleged retort'' to someone, which his lawyers argue can't be construed as a lie. A trial is set for July 24. -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian Four years after their son was first placed into foster care, a Deschutes County judge has determined that Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler can parent both their boys. Thursday's decision about the couple's older son came three weeks after the same judge ordered the Redmond couple's 10-month-old son, Hunter, returned to them. Now 4-year-old Christopher is on a track to come home as well. Both boys have spent nearly their entire lives in foster care based on the state's concerns that Fabbrini and Ziegler were intellectually incapable of caring for their children. In each case, no abuse had been alleged, but Fabbrini's family raised concerns to the Oregon Department of Human Services about the couple's parenting abilities. In court, the state's arguments centered on the parents' cognitive and "executive functioning" skills. Fabbrini's IQ has tested at 72, Ziegler's at 66. The average IQ falls between 90 and 110. The couple lives in a home purchased by Ziegler's out-of-state parents. He has a driver's license, a high school diploma, and is now working nights in the mailroom of the Bend Bulletin. Fabbrini also has a high school diploma and has previously worked as a grocery clerk. Both have taken parenting, nutrition and CPR classes in attempts to prove their fitness to the state. In court, an attorney for the Department of Human Services offered instances of the parents' alleged deficiencies, including that they didn't read to the children, forgot to put sunscreen on the baby, and brought fried chicken nuggets as a toddler snack when they should have chosen a healthier food. Circuit Judge Bethany Flint determined there wasn't enough evidence to show the couple couldn't safely parent. Fabbrini's attorney, Jamie Gerlitz, said Flint found a key witness for the state not credible, and Flint called omissions in the state's timeline of events "suspicious." Last month, Flint dismissed the state's case regarding Hunter. On Thursday, she denied the state's request to terminate the couple's parental rights to Christopher. A review hearing will be held in two weeks. Until then, the parents can have unsupervised visits with Christopher while the state puts in place a plan to gradually reunite Christopher with Fabbrini and Ziegler without abruptly taking the child from his foster parents, whom he's lived with since days after his birth. "I think the system is broken. DHS has a lot of power and it's really scary that it's taken these people four years to be heard," Gerlitz said. "I'm glad the case was successful, but it shouldn't have been this hard." -- Samantha Swindler @editorswindler / 503-294-4031 sswindler@oregonian.com A Midland man with an extensive criminal record has begun serving prison terms for a series of break-ins that occurred in 2016. David Allen Kolodziej, 36, was arrested by Midland Police after break-ins occurred at various locations throughout town beginning in October 2016. Those places included Washington Woods, North Point Ministries Church and Damman Apartments. Police were able to track down the suspect using a photo of a suspicious bicycle taken Nov. 21, 2016, by workers who were renovating Washington Woods, as well as a physical description provided by a resident whose apartment had been entered. Two apartments had been entered, with one resident arriving home while the suspect was still inside, police reported at the time. Stolen were medication, jewelry and cash, according to an affidavit filed in the cases. Kolodziej pleaded no contest to two counts each of first- and second-degree home invasion, as well as one count of breaking and entering with the intent to steal. Midland County Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Beale levied between 12 and 40 years for each first-degree home invasion count, and between 10 and 30 years in prison for each second-degree home invasion count. The breaking and entering count brought a sentence of between 4 years 9 months, and 20 years in prison. Kolodziej also was ordered to pay $2,663 in restitution, and there could be more claims in the future, Midland County Prosecutor J. Dee Brooks stated in a Facebook post at the department's page. "What made these crimes especially disturbing was that fact that almost all of the victims were elderly persons who were very frightened and emotionally upset about the incidents," Brooks said. "A person should feel safe and comfortable in their home and the emotional effects of crimes like this are much more of a concern than the financial losses." Brooks explained the prosecution of cases like these will continue to be a high priority in his office. Kolodziej previously was convicted of vehicle theft in 1999, attempted second-degree home invasion in 2000, multiple counts of breaking and entering a building from 2000 to 2004, and drug possession in 2006. We can make life better in mid-Michigan by limiting the size of government and focusing it on whats most important. The Legislature took significant steps in that direction during 2017. Our state budget reined in spending but still invested record amounts in K-12 education and improving roads, both vital to improving Michigans long-term economic future. I was particularly gratified by adding Midland Public Schools for the first time to the states targeted spending program for at risk students, who comprise over one-fourth of all MPS students. On top of the annual increase received by all public schools statewide, MPS this year received an additional $500,000 specifically to assist students at risk, and that new funding should continue every year. The Legislature also took significant action to pay down debt in both public school and local government employee retirement systems. I personally sponsored one bill in the local government reform package recently signed by Gov. Rick Snyder to help protect the retirement benefits of police and firefighters, who put their lives on the line for us every day. Another bill of mine that has already become law protects victims of human trafficking, and removes an unwarranted cloud of suspicion over law enforcement personnel, by eliminating an unintended exemption from prosecution if undercover police officers engage in sex with prostitutes or trafficking victims. Michigan was the last state to remove that loophole, something that should have been done years ago. My bill protecting the right of civilians and military personnel to carry concealed firearms while at state military facilities was approved by the House. Other legislation I sponsored would establish a work requirement for able-bodied Medicaid recipients and restore full local control to our schools by repealing state Common Core educational standards. I was honored to be selected Legislator of the Year by the Associated Builders and Contractors and the Michigan Propane Gas Association. As chairman of the House Energy Policy Committee, much of my work is focused on driving down the cost of electricity and other bills. Michigan has the Midwests highest electricity rates. We could lower those rates by allowing alternative energy suppliers significantly more than the 10 percent of the market they are limited to under current state law. More competition for Consumers Energy would lower utility bills. We see that already through an Electricity Choice program for Michigan schools, which saves participating districts about $15 million a year, or $35 per student. The Energy Policy Committee recently heard testimony on a bill, which I support, that would allow all schools the freedom to save you money by choosing a supplier less expensive than Consumers. Its ridiculous that under current law some districts are allowed to save taxpayer money while others are not. The committee is also considering my bill to prohibit members of local government planning commissions from voting on issues in which they or their families have direct financial interests. The bill includes strong provisions to make sure local officials cant vote, for example, to approve wind turbine projects if they would personally profit by having signed a wind lease contract on their own private property. Efforts to advance this legislation will continue in 2018. So will my fight to lower taxes and end Michigans tenure as the state with the highest auto insurance rates in the nation. For the past year, Ive served as associate speaker of the House Pro Tem, one of four House members entrusted to hold the gavel and preside over the formal proceedings of the House floor. Lord willing, Ill also continue the perfect attendance record Ive maintained since taking office in January 2015, never missing a committee meeting, caucus, or vote on the House floor, including during five months of chemotherapy last year for cancer, thankfully still in remission. In 2018, I will continue to take seriously the privilege and duty of being on the job to represent you and your family. Please contact me at garyglenn@house.mi.gov or 517-373-1791 if I can be of help with any issue regarding our state government. Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Williams Township, represents portions of Bay and Midland counties in the Michigan House of Representatives. Bring Together Refugees and Disparate Cultures Through a Night of Fellowship and Ethnic Foods THE CHURCH Faith United Methodist Church in North Canton, Ohio THE CHALLENGE Highlight commonalities among cultures, and appreciate the differences. ONE BIG IDEA Use food and fellowship to bring together disparate cultures. When Donna Benzing joined the Welcoming the Stranger ministry at Faith United Methodist Church in North Canton, Ohio, she noticed fear in the eyes of those who attended. The group, which began in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, was well-intended, but given the number of negative refugee stories in the media, folks were hesitant to engage with other cultures. Its such a treat to meet people from all walks of life, says Benzing. I wanted the North Canton community to get the chance to interact with other faiths and cultures. Benzing and two friends from other area churchesUrsula Marrero and Karyn Talbot-Russdecided to use food to encourage cross-cultural interaction. Jesus knew that wherever we share food, something wonderful happens, says Cara Stultz Costello, pastor at Faith United. We become more pliable with one another, intrigued to learn more. In May 2017, Faith UMC launched Common Table: A Cultural Cooking Experience, a mission-oriented event that brought people together from different backgrounds for a night of fellowship, fun and ethnic foods. Immigrant cooks from Syria and Morocco shared their recipes with those who came. A $30 donation from each guest paid for the ingredients as well as an honorarium for the cooks. A tasty meal and good conversation followed. As we gather around the table, we find we have more commonalities than differences, says Benzing. The Common Table is more about opening peoples minds than changing them. A lot of people didnt know where Morocco was before the last dinner. Now theyve shared a meal with Fatima Mardi from Casablanca. Marrero notes that the shared cooking experience enriches lives. If people walk away with more understanding and [fewer] misconceptions, thats a win for them. The church plans to host the Common Table quarterly, infusing other cultures with future meals. At one event, Marrero brought a large map of the world and guests placed a pin in the spot where their ancestors originated. That visual reminded us that were all immigrants, says Benzing. And were all Gods children. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. By Lin Zhiyuan The Trump administration released its first National Security Strategy Report of his first year in office. Through this report and the various moves during the past year, Trump administrations national security strategy and military strategy are getting clearer. Highlight big power competition and recreate US strategic superiority The US National Security Strategy Report said that the US should conduct overall competition including economic competition, political and ideological competition, geopolitical competition, military competition and educational and cultural competition against China and Russia. The report calls for the combined use of political, economic and military forces to reverse the unfavorable competitive situation. It requires the allies and partners to take more international obligations and responsibilities. The report demands that the US military must be prepared to simultaneously act during all types of conflicts in multiple areas and better deal with the "mixed threat" that will not evolve into a major conflict and prepare for a full-scale war. It can be seen from this that there is no substantive difference between Trump and other US presidents in safeguarding its global leadership. Trump stressed to "make America great again" to enhance key capabilities and safeguard "the peace under the rule of the US." Promote peace by strength and actively prepare for war The Trump administration believes that "making US military powerful again" is an important prerequisite for "make America great again." In order to maintain its military superiority, the Trump administration demanded "sufficient equipment, resources and capital to be available" so that the US military can quickly and decisively defeat their enemies. The first is to increase the national defense budget and the US military spending in the fiscal year of 2018 to nearly $700 billion. Second, the US will fully realize the modernization of the armed forces and restore the capability of manufacturing new equipment. Third, the US will adopt new procurement methods to deliver suitable equipment to the armed forces. Fourth, the US will expand the size of the armed forces to meet the needs of large-scale and long-term operations. Fifth, the US will raise the combat readiness level, enhance the resilience of front-line deployment forces and the rapid reaction capability of global mobility forces. Sixth, the US will develop diversification capabilities to win both regular and irregular warfare. Strengthen nuclear forces to ensure reliable and credible deterrence Trump advocates "vigorously strengthening and expanding nuclear weapons." He emphasized that "US nuclear forces must be ahead of the world." The Nuclear Posture Review to be submitted earlier this year will propose the continued expansion of nuclear arsenals and ease conditions on the use of nuclear weapons. At present, the US Department of Defense is taking measures to realize the integrated nuclear force modernization. The first is the development of a new generation of Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. The R&D and procurement cost is set to reach $128 billion. The first submarine is scheduled to be purchased in the fiscal year of 2021 and will be commissioned in the fiscal year of 2031. A total of 12 submarines of the kind will be built. The second is the development of the next generation of land-based ballistic missiles, including the new flight system, command and control system and modern launching system. The system will be installed in 2029, in which 400 missiles will be deployed. The third is the modernization of the bomber fleet. B-2 and B-52 bombers will be upgraded and their lifespan will be extended. The development of the next-generation stealth bomber B-21 is underway and an estimated investment of $55 billion to $80 billion will be used to purchase 100 B-21 bombers. Approximately $10 billion will be used to purchase 1,100 air-launched next generation cruise missiles. Seize strategic high ground in emerging areas to ensure long-term strategic superiority The US will make space as the prioritized area of development. A new National Space Council chaired by the vice president is established to review the US long-term space goals and formulate a strategy to integrate all the space sectors to support innovation and the maintenance of the US advantage in space mission. The US will treat cyberspace as a key area to improve the capability to track the origin of cyber attacks in order to respond promptly. The US will recruit, train and retain a pool of professionals to launch cyber operations against their enemies. Innovate concepts of operations and redesigned future wars The US Army will further develop the concept of "multi-domain battle." This new concept of operations focuses on the war of 2025 to 2040 and calls for breaking the boundaries between services and fields, forging together elements of various forces, coordinating all the operational domains of land, sea, sky, electromagnetic spectrum, information environment and cognitive dimensions for integrated attacks, and defeat opponents physically and cognitively. At present, the US Army has incorporated the concept of "multi-domain battle" into the new "operational platform" and released version 1.0 of Multi-Domain Battle: Evolution of Combined Arms for the 21st Century. 2025-2040. The related taskforce is under construction and will participate in the "Pacific Rim" drill in 2018. The concept of "multi-domain battle" aims to tackle the challenge of "confrontational entry" faced by various services of the US armed forced. The concept has been vigorously promoted by the US Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and responded positively by all kinds of services. The concept of "multi-domain battle" is now moving from theory to practice. The author is a researcher from the Foreign Military Research Department of the War Research Institute of the PLA Academy of Military Science. 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. By Li Ruijing The year of 2017 has been a great turning-point in the history of the world's anti-terrorism. The so-called "capital" of the "Islamic State" was recovered and its leader and a great many number of terrorists were killed. The independent army and administrative system of "Islamic State" was disintegrated. The defeat of the "Islamic State" is a major victory for the entire world. However, there are still many new challenges for the international community. 'Return jihad' will be a major threat The birth and development of the "Islamic State" lasted for more than 10 years and its already been three years since its so-called "founding of a nation". When Baghdadi established the "Islamic State," he announced a "Five-Year Plan" to establish a cross-regional "Caliphate" that encompasses West Asia, North Africa, South Asia and Europe. The decline of "Al-Qa'eda", the destruction of the "Islamic State" and its "territory" cannot yet be interpreted as the extinction of the two in the organizational form, nor can they be interpreted as the disappearance of extreme religious ideology. However, in the "C-type unstable arc" from South-East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, the soil for the breeding of terrorism still exists. Previously, the "Islamic State" had the strength to fight directly against the government forces in that area. With the defeat of the "Islamic State," the international community may face even tougher terrorists who have become invisible, intangible, and "lone wolfs." "Return jihad" will be a major threat to the international community. According to incomplete statistics, tens of thousands of foreign "jihadists" rushed to the Middle East within just a few years. After the "Islamic State" collapsed in Syria, its members fled and the threat posed by their "return" could not be underestimated. These terrorists have intensified their extreme thinking and accepted terrorist training in Iraq and Syria. They are not only a real threat but also a troublesome for their home country. At the same time, terrorist groups will use the peripheral branches to carry out joint destruction. Since 2015, the so-called "jihadists" have successively carried out terrorist attacks in Belgium, France and other countries. During Ramadan in 2017, the number of global casualties increased by 380 percent over the same period in 2016. New variations in terrorist attacks In addition to the conventional "Return jihad", terrorists have never given up trying to find new tactics and create new terrorist attacks through technological means. First, we should prevent "cyber nukes." Most terrorist groups and extremists are hostile to modern civilization. Ironically, they have spared no effort using the Internet, a result of modern civilization, to finance terrorist attacks and communication. At present, the entire human society seems to be operated "on the software." Under such circumstances, a deadly attack on the Internet will disrupt the operation of the society. Last year, the outbreak of ransomware provided a wake-up call for the international community. If terrorists conduct large-scale attacks on the industrial Internet, such as nuclear power plants, substations and other power systems or financial systems, the consequences would be disastrous. The Ukrainian power system was attacked twice in 2015 and 2016 causing massive power outages. The National Infrastructure Commission of the US also warned that if the energy industry suffers from a "cyber nuke" attack, it will be the worst terrorist incident since the September 11 attacks. Terrorist organizations also often use new media to release audios and videos in English, Arabic, French, German and other languages to recruit and encourage attacks. In response, all countries should formulate plans to crack down cyber extremism, step up the control over information related to terrorism, and disrupt and interrupt the spread of extreme information. Second, we should prevent "super violent terror." The "super violent terror" refers to the terrorist attacks that use nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, while the number of victims exceeds 100,000. At the beginning, the international community did not think that terrorists will use these weapons because the technical threshold was high and it was subject to the psychological and ethical bottom line. However, with the diffusion and diversification of various technologies across the world, and the global movement of skilled personnel, the technical threshold has become increasingly lower. After the Tokyo subway sarin attack by Aum Shinrikyo extremists, the international community realized that the moral bottom line for terrorists can only get lower. Therefore the international community must not underestimate the possibility of "super violent terror" incidents and all countries must take corresponding measures. Addressing both the symptoms and root causes of terrorism Terrorism is the "tumor" in the human society. It has not reached its end; it cannot be completely cured in a short term. The analysis shows that it is still necessary to tackle both the symptoms and the root causes and eliminate the breeding grounds for terrorism by breaking the vicious circle of "violence against terrorism" and "more terrorism after cracking down" in recent years. A high-pressure strike should be established to undermine the decision-making chain, cut down the capital chain, track the communications chain and disrupt the logistics chain to current terrorist groups and terrorists. We must cut the spreading of terrorist information and paralyze terrorist organizations. We must set up an early warning system for terrorist attacks and effective counter-terrorism measures. Terrorism is the result of the spillover of social governance. Its profound roots are complicated economic and social conflicts, and are also direct consequences of the inaction and irresponsible behavior of some countries. A large number of young people are unemployed and disappointed in "failed countries" had to seek spiritual comfort from extreme religious beliefs. With that being said, the elimination of terrorism should start from the establishment of a new international political and economic order, the establishment of a mechanism for regional security and stability, as well as the social governance, economic development and improvement of people's livelihood in each country. We should fundamentally eradicate the breeding ground for terrorism to reduce the number of "latecomer" terrorist organizations and "second-generation" terrorists. Only with this can humankind be able to gradually eradicate terrorism. BLOOMINGTON With an eye toward attracting the best up-and-coming workers and creating environments to help them excel, State Farm has spent more than $33 million since 2015 on updating its corporate campuses along Veterans Parkway. Four recently remodeled floors at State Farm's corporate headquarters represent the insurer's vision of a contemporary workplace. Open, airy floor plans offer work spaces with tables, individual pods and seating areas with couches and chairs intended to let employees collaborate in ways that work best for them. "It's not just about creating an engaging work environment for employees that are here; it's about attracting and retaining employees as well," said David Gwarda, assistant vice president of administrative services, who gave The Pantagraph a tour of some of the revamped areas at corporate headquarters, also known as Corporate North, at 1 State Farm Plaza. "We want to be able to get the best talent into the future, so having spaces like this certainly adds to that," he said. State Farm has taken out $31 million in building permits in the past three years for Corporate North and $2.5 million worth over two years for Corporate South. Improvements, both completed and ongoing, at Corporate North include upgrading the lighting for its 1-acre atrium, upgrading the 45-year-old building's cafeteria, restrooms, wiring, heating and air conditioning systems and replacing roofs and parking lots. The company also plans renovations on 12 more floors throughout the 1.77 million-square-foot building's four wings, and similar work is underway at the 2.67 million-square-foot Corporate South building. The remodeled work environments are intended to mirror those already in place at the company's regional hubs in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix, which the company began building in 2013, said Mary Schmidt, State Farm executive vice president and chief administrative officer. "We have seen benefits of bringing our employees together in these more open environments," she said. "We've seen benefits of housing large groups of employees together in the hubs, especially leveraging a large scale of employees doing like tasks." For example, the model enabled the company to quickly gear up to handle the large volume of claims calls related to hurricanes last year in Florida and Texas. "When you've got 500 people sitting on one floor you can say, '250, you're going to take calls for Irma; 250, you're going to take calls for Harvey,'" said Schmidt. "In today's competitive landscape State Farm is making significant changes to better serve our customers and to ensure our future for another 100 years," said Schmidt. Management also was trimmed. The company has implemented a "top executive structure, and there have been about 15 retirements," said Schmidt. "That's all I'm going to say about that, but the executive structure will be flatter." State Farm also is adjusting its "real estate footprint" across the country, including pulling out of the downtown Bloomington building that once served as the company's headquarters. "Some of our buildings have unused capacity and, frankly every unused (space) has a cost," said Schmidt. "That's why you see these 11 offices that are going to be closed (in locations outside of Illinois over the next four years). "We don't need those offices," she said. "We're going to be much efficient (due) to technology and the things that we've done." Combined, there are 23,000 people employed at the hubs in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix, and that will grow to around 30,000 when the construction of the Park Center hub in Atlanta is completed in 2021 or 2022. State Farm says it will maintain its current Bloomington-Normal workforce of about 15,000. State Farm has nearly 70,000 employees across the U.S. "The concept that we're going to have in these hub locations we call a live-work-play environment," she said. For example, The CityLine complex in Dallas has 26 restaurants, a medical facility, gyms, a grocery store, nail and hair salons, apartments and condominiums "essentially everything a community needs to live, work and play," said Schmidt. But State Farm does not own the hub properties. Since last summer, State Farm has sold all three hub complexes to Transwestern Investment Group (TIG) as part of State Farm's earlier plan to sell and then lease back the spaces. TIG acquired the five-building Phoenix regional hub, totaling 2 million square feet, in December for $928 million; the 500,000-square-foot first phase of the Atlanta campus in July for $275.4 million; and the 2.2 million-square-foot Dallas campus last fall for $825 million. The Dallas and Phoenix sales set records in their regions, according to media reports. "It gives us flexibility because the lease terms for all these buildings are ... staggered," said Schmidt. "It gives us flexibility because, honestly, who knows in 50 years what the world is going to look like." The company does own its buildings in Bloomington, including the corporate campuses, the Illinois Operations Center on Ireland Grove Road, the Oakland Avenue building and the downtown building. "More State Farm employees work here in Bloomington than any other location that we have in the United States, and we don't expect that to change," said Schmidt. Investment and other income of $4.4 billion for the year an increase of $400 million over the previous year helped offset the underwriting loss to reduce the operating loss. NORMAL A passionate group of local teens will share their talent and an important message Friday at the Illinois Theatre Festival at Illinois State University. Normal Community West Community High School theater students were the only group selected from The Pantagraph area to perform in the statewide festival. The students will perform "The Laramie Project," a documentary-style play based on the true story of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered due to his sexual orientation in Laramie, Wyo, in October 1998. During a final dress rehearsal at the high school Thursday, students said they are proud of the anti-hate message the play conveys. It was not acceptable to be gay in a small town then. The play asks the question: Do we reject tragedy or do we reject homosexuality? What part of it do we accept and what part do we push away? said senior Brenna Long. (Homophobia) is still an issue happening today. Its something that should be brought to people's attention. Sometimes ignorance is worse than trying to put a stop to something. If youre not aware of it, youre unaware of the fact you can do something to help, said sophomore Jack Courtad. In the three-act play the 11-member cast frequently changes costumes and roles to take on numerous characters with help from six crew members and the director, Ryan Kerr. Each character tells a different story about Shepard, including events that led up to his death and what occurred after. The festival will draw more than 4,000 Illinois students, teachers and volunteers to the Normal campus Friday and Saturday to put on 25 high school productions and provide 150 theater workshops to students and teachers. Another local student participating in a performance is Victoria Moore at Normal Community High School. Moore will join the crew for the all-state production of "Big Fish." The performances are not open to the public. The students can attend workshops for stage makeup, improvisation, building a character and set design. Student attendees also can view other schools performances. Im excited to do workshops and see other shows, said Courtad. I really hope to gain more theater experience so I can become more professional through auditions and performing. I want to apply that to other aspects of my life, like gaining confidence. Kerr, an English and theater teacher at Normal West, said the noncompetitive atmosphere of the festival means the students will experience nothing but support and constructive advice. Im proud of them. Its a tough show to do no matter what level performer you are, but the kids looked it in the face and took it on. Theyre telling an important story and telling it with the maturity it deserves and demands," said Kerr. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Friday denied using certain "language" as fury spread over his comments about immigration during a private meeting with lawmakers. But neither he nor the White House denied the most controversial of his comments: using the word "shithole" to describe countries in Africa and saying he would prefer immigrants from countries like Norway instead. During an Oval Office meeting on Thursday, Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal, according to people briefed on the extraordinary Oval Office conversation. "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," Trump insisted in a series of Friday morning tweets. "What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA." But Sen. Dick Durbin, the only Democrat in the room, disputed the president's account. "He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly," Durbin said, Durbin added, "When the question was asked about Haitians ... he said, 'Haitians? Do we need more Haitians?'" Trump took particular issue with the characterization of his comments on Haiti. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said "take them out." Made up by Dems," Trump wrote. "I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" 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. The Washington Post said that during the meeting he said immigrants from Haiti should be left out of any new agreement approved by Congress. Trump's contemptuous blanket description of African countries startled lawmakers in the meeting and immediately revived charges that the president is racist. The White House on Thursday 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. The lawmakers had hoped Trump would back their accord, an agreement among six senators evenly split among Republicans and Democrats, ending a monthslong, 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. 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 who would be allowed to stay in the U.S. included those who had fled here after disasters hit their homes in places such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti. As for immigrants from Africa, 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. Asked about the remarks Thursday, 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 of racism by his foes and who has routinely smashed through public decorum that his modern predecessors have generally embraced. Trump has inaccurately claimed that Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, wasn't born in the United States. He has said Mexican immigrants were "bringing crime" and were "rapists." He said there were "very fine people on both sides" after violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, left one counter-protester dead. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said, "President Trump's comments are racist and a disgrace." 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 called on Trump to 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." ___ Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Andrew Taylor, Kevin Freking and Matthew Daly contributed to this report. Cheers ... to Xavier Higgins, Andrew Hursey, Jordyn Blythe and the late Lorenzo Marshall, who have been named winners of the Martin Luther King Jr. Awards from the town of Normal and city of Bloomingotn. They will be honored and the annual MLK event Jan. 20. Happy birthday ... to Ryder Gilbert, the first baby born in 2018 in McLean County. Ryder arrived at 5:24 a.m. Jan. 1 at Advocate BroMenn Medical Center. He is the son of Kate-Lynn Gilbert of Pekin. The first baby born in 2018 at OSf HealthCare St. Joseph Medical Center was Ariyah Allen, who arrived at 11:24 a.m. Her mother is Tiara Davis, Bloomington. Cheers ... to us! Home of a new H&M fashion retailer at Eastland Mall and an improved Hobby Lobby at Shoppes of College Hills, along with other new stores expected in the new year. Bloomington-Normal and greater McLean County are great places to live, work and shop; we're oh so glad national retailers are realizing that. Jeers ... to those who leave their pets out in the cold, or otherwise abuse them. In recent weeks, we've learned of a man accused of killing two dogs and dumping their bodies along a country road; a woman accused of leaving her dog outside so long that its ears and tail froze; and two people from Missouri who dragged a cat behind a car and then posted the video as a way to raise money for pizza. If you no longer can care for your animals or simply no longer want them, give them to a shelter group that can re-home them. If you don't know where to start, call a local humane society, a vet's office, or city hall. Hmm ... if Gov. Rauner wants to learn about veterans' homes by staying in one, perhaps everyone running for governor should contemplate doing something similar. Cairo and East St. Louis could benefit from the attention; so could various state prisons, mental health facilities, specialized schools, and several Chicago neighborhoods torn by gun violence. Come to think of it, most of Illinois could benefit from some up-close attention by state leaders. Cheers ... to Herbert Ueckert of Sarasota, Fla., for donating a huge collection of circus memorabilia and artifacts to Illinois State University's Circus and Allied Arts Collection. The Twin Cities have a storied history with circuses and their performers, once serving as a winter home for many traveling troupes. ISU's Gamma Phi Circus, one of two collegiate circuses in the country, is due in large part to that connection. Cheers ... to the many people in Central Illinois who have stepped up to help neighbors, strangers and others having difficulty during the recent cold spell. Whether it was sharing money to buy pipe wrap, providing ideas via Facebook, offering a battery jump in a parking lot or anything else, it's good to know we've got each others' backs. 100 years ago Jan. 10, 1918: The local coal shortage was barely relieved when local dealers received several train cars of coal. It sold as fast as it came in. Eight McLean County towns have been suffering from a coal famine. Carlock hasnt had a delivery in three weeks. Folks there are still waiting. 75 years ago Jan. 10, 1943: IWUs Hedding Hall burned down last night, lighting the campus neighborhood. Fire Chief Elmo Waters called the building a total loss $200,000 and said the fire may have started in the Little Theater of old Amie Chapel. Small water mains hurt firemens efforts. 50 years ago Jan. 10, 1968: William Mundt of 1103 Elmwood Road died at the Illinois Masonic Home in Sullivan. He was a founder of the American Legion in 1919, and served for 25 years as Illinois adjutant. He also co-founded Illinois Boys State. He retired from that post in 1950. 25 years ago Jan. 10, 1993: The past Christmas is still making retailers smile around here. One retailer reflected a cross section of the business community when he said business was "way up from last year." Many retailers expected only to break even or to make slight gains. Troye Sivan's new track "My My My!" is a "song about liberation, freedom, and love," according to the 22-year-old Aussie sensation. With its euphoric chorus ("I die every night with you/ Living for your every move") and shimmering pop production courtesy of Top 40 gatekeeper Max Martin, the giant track successfully delivers on Sivan's every intention. He co-penned the track with songwriter Leland, who's been working with Sivan since the Blue Neighbourhood era. Where his 2015 debut album was a bit more somber with tracks like "Talk Me Down" and "Suburbia," both of which Leland co-wrote, "My My My!" sees an optimistic shift in the tone of Sivan's work he's in love, and proud to scream it loud: "Oh my my my!" Related | Troye Sivan's "My My My!" is a Liberated Anthem For Love Through working with Sivan, Leland has established himself as one of contemporary pop's most exciting songwriters. In 2017, he co-wrote a number of tracks off Allie X's off-kilter album CollXtion II, including lead single "Paper Love," and worked with Selena Gomez on crafting her slow, sultry "Fetish." Leland is also a rising solo musician, and released his breakout single "Mattress," drenched in synths and painfully honest lyrics. Watch Troye Sivan's "My My My!" and learn more about Leland, below. You've been working with Troye Sivan for several years. How did you two first meet? Troye and I met 3 years ago when I was playing shows at a tiny venue in Hollywood called Three Clubs. Tyler Oakley and I had recently become close friends and Tyler kept telling me how he wanted us to meet and write together. Tyler brought Troye to one of the shows and we had to sneak him in through the back since he was only 18. I had just started working with Allie X around the same time and Troye was a big fan of "Catch." We eventually all ended up in the studio and quickly realized we had a strong connection. How has the process for co-writing changed since Troye's first album? Not much! We wrote the majority of Blue Neighbourhood in a makeshift studio in the producer's garage, and continued that process this time around. Postmates didn't exist when we were writing the first album, so that's probably one of the biggest differences! I will say we know each other better now and we know how to make each other a better writer. I feel like that only comes with collaborating openly and honestly. Talk through the experience of writing "My My My!" I had flown to Stockholm to write with Troye for the week. The day we wrote "My My My!" was a rainy and gloomy day. We met in the hotel lobby, got coffees to-go, and did the 15 minute walk to the studio. Those walks to and from the studio became such a sacred time for us. On the way to the studio, we'd talk about what's inspiring us, and on the back we'd reflect on the song we had written and usually play it on one of our iPhone speakers. We also got soup the day we wrote "My My My!" and it was delicious. Related | Troye Sivan Is Unapologetic How did you two land on the hook? Before a session, I like to wake up early and jot down whatever words or phrases come to mind. Sometimes they'll spark an idea and sometimes they won't. I had "My My My!" in a short list of phrases I was inspired by that week. We were throwing around ideas and when I suggested "My My My!" I could tell Troye really connected with it. As he's stated so well, the phrase is an acknowledgement of feeling completely and utterly liberated. I believe that's where Troye is, so that's what I wanted to help capture. Why do you think this track is important for the world, right now and especially the LGBTQ community? To see the ripple effect a song and visual like this is having on people and even a community is incredibly fulfilling. My hope is that whoever connects with this song will walk away feeling confident, sexy and liberated. In the LGBTQ community, we're raised to feel the opposite at least we were when I was a closeted gay teen, so songs like these put a face to the fantasy that a gay artist can not only make music but be heard. Related | Troye Sivan on His First Pride Parade and Superhero Dad Troye seems more confident in his sexuality than ever before. Was this the intention? I think that as Troye evolves and grows as a human, whatever he's experiencing can end up in a song. At the time of writing "My My My!" this is what he was going through, and we tried to capture it as raw and unfiltered as possible. What's your personal process when it comes to co-writing with other musicians? My main objective in a session is to adapt to where I'm needed. I'm there as a vessel to help the artist execute his or her vision, or to help pinpoint a vision if one isn't clear yet. Sometimes I'll bring in titles and sometimes I'll let the music inspire a lyric from scratch. When it comes to Troye, he is a phenomenal songwriter so any time we're able to write is fun and a true collaboration. You're also a solo artist. What's the story behind your single, "Mattress"? "Mattress" came from when I was leaving a club in West Hollywood with one of my close friends who I had a crush on. He was taking home some rando and even though I couldn't express it, I was fucking jealous of that rando and wanted my friend to take me home instead. "Mattress" was one of the fastest songs I've written since it was a story that I had lived. It was written in about 45 minutes. What's your point of view as a solo artist? How does the sound differ from your collaborations? I want my music to be intelligent while being relatable, and to have depth while being danceable. I love synthesizers that make you feel emotions and drums that create this need to move. Artists like Robyn and Tears for Fears inspire me and I want my music to reflect that. Anthemic, electro-pop is a sub-category I'd be more than happy to fall under. Writing for myself is different than working with collaborators because I make the final call when it comes to lyric/melody and I decide when the song is fully realized. It's a process I really enjoy. What can we expect from you in 2018? I just signed with Universal Music and we're currently taking "Mattress" to radio in Germany and throughout Europe over the next few months. I'll be promoting the song while releasing other music and prepping for a tour later this year. As far as a body of work, I can say that an EP is definitely on the way. Listen to "Mattress" by Leland, below. BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan said Friday China is willing to strengthen military cooperation with Myanmar to maintain the stability in border areas. Chang made the remarks while meeting the visiting Admiral Tin Aung San, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar navy. He said that China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar, and supports the country in its development path in accordance with its own conditions. Since the relations between the two countries' militaries are at their best status currently, China is willing to advance cooperation with the Myanmar side, jointly safeguard stability in border areas and promote exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries, according to Chang. Tin Aung San expressed willingness to further pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries and promote relations between the two countries to a higher level. In October Apple's CEO Tim Cook told UK's Independent that AR Glasses are still a ways off. While Patently Apple recently discovered a home grown AR Glasses patent in Europe from Apple showing that they've got their best engineers on the project, Cook made it known that the project is far from materializing. He specifically stated that "today I can tell you the technology itself doesn't exist to do that in a quality way. The display technology required, as well as putting enough stuff around your face there's huge challenges with that. The field of view, the quality of the display itself, it's not there yet." During CES 2018, Bloomberg had the opportunity to speak with some of the leaders in Silicon Valley who wholeheartedly held the same point of view, that AR glasses are a little ways away. Today, a company called Flex manufactures 75% of the world's wearables. Flex worked with Recon, an Intel Company, in creating Recon Jet, smart glasses for athletes and industry. Mike Dennison, president of Flex's consumer electronics group acknowledges that producing a viable AR device is taking longer than his partners anticipated, and much work needs to be done. Clay Bavor, who runs Google's VR and AR unit, says several technological breakthroughs will be required to miniaturize the display and optics. Brendon Kim, a Samsung Next Ventures executive, says his company is looking at AR carefully but also noted that the technology, including optics, isn't ready for prime time. Facebook's Barra says 'we're far away from an Oculus AR headset.'" Lumus, an Israeli company, develops transparent AR displays. The CEO of Lumus, Ari Grobman, told Bloomberg that "It's going to be a battle of the platforms. You have Windows, you have Apple, you have Android, and look at the Chinese giants." Bloomberg reported back in November that Apple is aiming to have their AR Glasses to market by 2019. For more on Bloomberg's current report, click here. While Apple's CEO had stated in that same U.K. Independent interview that Apple doesn't "give a rat's about being first, we want to be the best, and give people a great experience," I'm sure that he's fully aware it's important not to be last in delivering a new category device. Microsoft was the last tech giant to jump in on smartphones and no matter how much money they threw at it, they were late and they admitted that developers left them high and dry. Yet much like the iPhone, Apple is thinking holistically about the augmented reality market. While Apple was first to bring AR to the masses via the iPhone and iPad, Apple's AR patents show us that they're also looking at this market from multiple angles from glasses, to Mac displays and advanced applications like live indoor mapping that could guide a user step by step to a particular store within a large mall. Phase one of Apple's augmented reality project began with the release of ARKit that led to some really cool apps for iDevices, like the one from Wingnut noted below and there's so much more to look forward to in the coming years, including AR glasses. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. Syrian Offensive Threatens Turkish Cooperation with Russia, Iran 01/11/18 By Dorian Jones, VOA ISTANBUL - 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." see high resolution map by google 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." 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. President Akufo Addo on Thursday announced the nomination of anti-corruption crusader Martin Amidu as the countrys first Special Prosecutor pending parliamentary approval; a decision that has been welcomed by many as good news as far as the fight against corruption is concerned. The Office of the Special Prosecutor marks the fulfilment of a major campaign promise of Nana Akufo-Addo in the run-up to the 2016 elections aimed at fighting corruption. President Akufo-Addo last week signed into law the bill setting up the Special Prosecutor office after it was approved by Parliament in November 2017. Below is how various newspapers captured Martin Amidu's nomination How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment How Various Newspapers Captured SP Appointment 0 Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) welcomes President Nana Akufo-Addos nomination of Mr Martin Alamisi Amidu, as the Special Prosecutor of Ghana. We consider the appointment as a big step forward in the fight against corruption and wish to commend the President for choosing the right man for the job. Mr Amidus nomination is ample demonstration of the Presidents true commitment to the fight against corruption. We also congratulate Mr Amidu on his nomination and wish him success in both the processes leading to his confirmation and the subsequent discharge of his duties. We have no doubt about Mr Amidus suitability for the high office of Special Prosecutor. His personal integrity and high sense of patriotism are widely acknowledged; his passionate and unrelenting personal crusade against corruption over the years sets him apart as a credible and reliable person to lead the fight against corruption. The MFWA is confident that Mr Amidu will bring his immense experience in the legal and political field as well as his compelling personal character to bear on his new office. While the government proceeds with efforts to fully establish the Office of the Special Prosecutor, we urge the media to brace itself to offer its support to the process, as it has a crucial role to play in the fight against corruption. To this end, the MFWA wishes to encourage journalists to fully acquaint themselves with the legal and operational framework of the Office of the Special Prosecutor and to develop capacity in anti-corruption reporting so as to support the work of the Office. Finally, we wish to remind the government that access to information is an indispensable requirement for a successful fight against corruption. We therefore urge the President to use his good offices to push for the passage of the Right to Information (RTI) bill to give citizens the legal basis to demand accountability and transparency from duty bearers and to enhance the work of the Special Prosecutor. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A housewife, Bayonle Bamidele, has stated the reason she denied and beat up her husband, Adeyemi Bamidele, anytime he demanded sex. According to her, she did that for fear of contracting HIV. This she said on Tuesday in an Idi-Ogungun Customary Court in Agodi, Ibadan while defending herself in a divorce suit filed by her husband over her refusal to have sex with him. She said her husband was a womaniser who always brought his female friends to their matrimonial home. He said, I have warned him to stop promiscuity to avoid contracting HIV, but he didnt listen to me. So, I denied him sex for fear of contracting HIV due to his carefree sexual attitude, she said. Bayonle urged the court to grant the request of her husband, saying she was not ready to give her body to a flirt. The husband, a retiree, had approached the court for dissolution of his eight-year marriage with Bayonle on the ground that she denied him sex. He also alleged that the defendant always beat him and threaten to kill him whenever he demanded sex. He said, My lord, I marry her to give me kids and satisfy my sexual urge, but the reverse was the case. The union of eight years is yet to produce a child, worst still, she denies me sex and beat me whenever I make move to sleep with her. She is a wicked woman, am tired of living with a wife that refused to give me sex, he said. The President of the Court, Chief Mukaila Balogun, dissolved the marriage and directed the plaintiff to pay N5, 000 to the defendant to pack her belongings from the plaintiffs house. He also warned the parties to restrain from trouble, but to go their separate ways. Source: nan.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The New Patriotic Party has set up a 3-man committee to look into recent comments made by suspended General Secretary, Kwabena Agyapong. Kwabena Agyapong was suspended by the party in 2015, together with then National Chairman, Paul Afoko and Vice chairman, Sammy Crabbe. The suspensions followed a series of petitions brought forth by some NPP members who accused the officials of engaging in actions that undermined the partys political fortunes. Kwabena Agyapong, unlike, Mr. Afoko and Sammy Crabbe, did not challenge the decision in court. But recently, in separate media interviews, he has questioned the resolution by the NPPs National Executive Committee. At the partys recent extraordinary delegates congress in Kumasi, for example, he told journalists that, his suspension was unconstitutional. Two years is too long a time for the General Secretary to be on suspension. Our constitution does not provide for that, he argued. It appears the hierarchy of the governing party is not entirely enthused about his comments. 3news has learnt that the NPP National Council has tasked three top members: Peter Mac Manu, 2016 campaign manager; Nana Obiri Boahen, Deputy General Secretary; and Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Leader in Parliament, to probe his recent outbursts. Sources within the party told 3news that, his comments is a source of great worry to the party as it undermines the authority of the body which took that decision, which is NEC. Well placed sources tell 3news, additionally that, the three man team has been tasked to among others make recommendations on how the party should handle the matter and also issue an appropriate public statement on the issue. Information from multiple sources, familiar with the Monday National Council meeting of the NPP say the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako moved a motion for the outright suspension of Kwabena Agyapong. Although the motion did not get the needed backing, it is understood that President Akufo-Addo, who was present there, also expressed disquiet about Kwabena Agyapong, a trained engineers public commentary. Efforts to reach Mr Kwabena Agyapong or persons close to him for a reaction to this development proved futile. However, this is also coming at a time when well-placed sources within his camp had confirmed to 3news that he will certainly contest the General Secretary slot, should the party open nominations in the next couple of months. Source: 3news Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Center for Progressive Governance (CenProG) received the announcement of the nomination of Martin Alamisi Amidu as Special Prosecutor with utmost shock and will like to call on Parliament to reject the president's nominee because he is too bitter, vengeful and does not in any way reflect the independence of the office he will be holding in the event parliament approves his nomination. CenProG together with well-meaning Ghanaians are fully aware that Mr Amidu, ever since he was sacked from office as Attorney General for insubordination had been on a collision course with the NDC and has minced no words in expressing his disdain for the NDC with his numerous epistles. He has at times sounded and acted like a desperate and embittered person out for vengeance and these traits clearly render him unfit for an office supposed to be INDEPENDENT. The office of the Special Prosecutor had generated a lot of debate and so it was incumbent on the appointing authority to appoint someone who was unblemished and principled. Martin Alamisi Amidu does not fall under this category as apart from his record of vengefulness, he is also betrayed by the fact that he had indeed criticised the Special Prosecutor Bill only to turn around to accept an appointment under same once it has been passed into law. A principled person would have stood his grounds and rejected the appointment based on the irregularities claimed in his 25 page paper. CenProG believes the President also erred in extolling courage as one of Mr Amidu's virtues when he is noted for his pomposity and insubordination. We cannot have a Special Prosecutor who cannot work within the remit of the law that appointed him and we therefore call on Parliament to rectify this by rejecting his nomination. CenProG will be sending a petition to the Appointments Committee of Parliament on this matter once Parliament resumes sitting on 23rd January, 2018. God Bless our homeland Ghana and make it GREAT and STRONG. Signed Sawadogo Mahmoud Executive Secretary, CenProG Mallam Yahya Mohammed Executive Director, CenProG Cc: His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, Flagstaff House, Accra. The Rt Honourable Speaker of Parliament, Parliament House, Accra. The Majority Caucus, Parliament House, Accra. The Minority Caucus, Parliament House, Accra. The Appointments Committee of Parliament, Parliament House, Accra. The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, Accra. All Media Houses Source: graphic.com.gh Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, has said the opposition National Democratic Congress [NDC] should celebrate the nomination of a member of their party, Martin Amidu, as the countrys first Special Prosecutor. According to him, the NDC should be happy because President Akufo-Addo has found the kind of quality needed to fight corruption in the country within the opposition party, which he describes as a good sign. It is good for the party to rather celebrate that they have a person that they made, that they shaped. He stood against them on principle and its good that their opponent who is in power now has seen that quality and wants to put it to greater use of the country. I think that is commendable, he added. Martin Amidu, a former Attorney General, was named as the Special Prosecutor by the President on Thursday January 11, 2018. He is expected to be approved by Parliament in the coming days. Although a member of the NDC, Mr. Amidu has been an avid critic of his party, especially prior to the 2016 election, where he wrote some disparaging articles against the then government led by John Dramani Mahama, describing the administration as corrupt. This led to some friction between Mr. Amidu and some members of the NDC. But speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, Dr. Akwetey advised the NDC to take Mr. Amidus nomination in good faith because the party used to be known by its zero tolerance for corruption, an attribute that Mr. Amidu possesses. NDC stood for anti-corruption and in the past, that is what defined themthe revolution and so on. In fact, the country used to see NDC as the anti-corruption party. In the 2008 election, what made the NPP lose was corruption they said NPP is corrupt and NDC was coming to fight it because NDC was anti-corruption. In 2016 the public had a different image. So I think it does well for the NDC to reaffirm their credentials. Amidu wont pursue personal vendetta On whether Mr. Amidu will turn the heat on the NDC because of his dislike for some members of the party, Dr. Akwetey said this wont be the case since it could bring Mr. Amidus downfall. Now the aspect of people being afraid that he is coming to do a personal vendetta and targeting certain individuals and so on, I dont think so. I think he is not going to be a prosecutor and a judge, and that this is a matter that people of all competencies from every side would watch carefully. He has a lot to lose if he does not come to it with integrity, competence and fairness, but rather comes to do political vendetta. That will also be exposed. I think NDC is equally interested in cleaning up the system of corruption. NDC cannot be botched up and say everybody in NDC is corrupt, no. If you talk to them, there are those who have been fighting, Dr. Akwetey added. About Special Prosecutor office President Akufo-Addo last week signed into law the bill setting up the Special Prosecutor office after it was approved by Parliament in November 2017. The Office of the Special Prosecutor marks the fulfilment of a major campaign promise of Nana Akufo-Addo in the run-up to the 2016 elections aimed at fighting corruption. But members of the opposition NDC had complained that the office cannot be independent if the Special Prosecutor was going to be a loyalist of the NPP. The President in announcing Amidu, said he received the nomination from the Attorney General Gloria Akuffo, and has accepted the nominee, whose name will be forwarded to Parliament for approval when the House reconvenes from recess. The Attorney General is by a letter dated to me Thursday 11th January 2018 addressed to me exercised her power of nomination and submitted to me for my acceptance the name of the proposed special prosecutor. I have accepted the Attorney Generals nomination and will, in turn, submit for Parliaments approval when it reconvenes on 23rd of January 2018 for its first meeting of this New Year the name of Martin Alamisi Benz Kaiser Amidu to be the first Special Prosecutor under the law, he said. The President noted that, Mr. Amidu has the requisite integrity and independence of character to occupy such challenging office. I have done so because I am fully convinced that Mr. Martin Amidu, a prominent legal personality who held the high office of the Attorney General of the Republic in the government of the late President John Evans Attah Mills has the requisite integrity, competence, courage and independence of character to discharge effectively the responsibilities of this office. Martin Amidu in a rare smile at the Flagstaff House following his nomination as Special Prosecutor. More About Martin Amidu Martin A. B. K. Amidu was the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice from January 2011 till January 2012 under the late President John Evans Atta-Mills. Amidu, a member of the NDC, served as the Deputy Attorney-General for about the last four years of the Provisional National Defence Council military government. After civilian rule was established in the Fourth Republic in January 1993, he continued to serve in the government of Jerry Rawlings as Deputy Attorney-General. This he did for both terms lasting eight years until January 2001. In the December 2000 presidential elections, he stood as the running mate of John Atta Mills. They both however lost to President John Kufuor that year. In January 2010, following a cabinet reshuffle, President Mills replaced Cletus Avoka with Martin Amidu as the Minister for Interior. As Amidu is a Builsa, some people raised questions as to his neutrality in dealing with the Bawku conflict. He, however, went successfully through vetting by the Parliament of Ghana and has since assumed his post. Following the second major cabinet reshuffle by President Mills, Amidu became the Attorney general and Minister for Justice of Ghana. Removal from Office Martin Amidu was relieved of his post on Thursday January 19, 2012, by President John Evans Atta Mills under circumstances described by aids as his misconduct at a meeting chaired by the president at the Osu Castle on January 18, 2012. He made allegations relating to alleged financial impropriety on the part of another cabinet minister, allegations he was asked by the president to substantiate. Martin Amidu, the former Attorney General, single-handedly challenged the legality of the payments after being relieved off his post at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money as Supreme Court judges unanimously granted the Attorney-General clearance to execute the courts judgment, ordering Mr. Woyome to refund the cash to the state. Following the delays in retrieving the money, Mr. Amidu in 2016, filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking to examine Alfred Woyome, on how he would pay back the money, after the Attorney Generals office under the Mahama Administration, led by the former Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, discontinued a similar application. In February 2017 however, Mr. Amidu withdrew his suit seeking an oral examination, explaining that the change of government under the New Patriotic Party under the President, Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo and his Attorney General, Miss Gloria Akuffos assurance to retrieve all judgment debts wrongfully paid to individuals Mr. Woyome in response prayed the Supreme Court to stay proceedings on the oral examination since he had filed for a review on the case. Source: citifmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, after he received and accepted the nomination of former Attorney General under the late President John Evans Atta Mills government, Martin Alamisi Amidu, for the coveted Special Prosecutor job from the Attorney General, Gloria Akufo, yesterday, let out some kind words and what appeared to be the reason for his acceptance of the nominee. Martin Amidu, the President said, has the requisite integrity, competence, courage and independence of character to discharge effectively the responsibilities of the new office. Announcing the appointment of Mr. Martin Amidu at the Flagstaff House, President Akufo Addo described the former deputy Attorney General under the Rawlings government as a prominent legal personality who was commended even by the Supreme Court itself for his public spiritedness in ensuring the protection of public purse. He pointed out that the discharge of one of the important function of his government was the fight against corruption in public life, hence the nationwide demand for the creation of special office to fight the growing cancer. The establishment of the special prosecutor and independent non-partisan prosecutor with relevant capabilities to lead the fight and hold public officials, past and present, accountable for their stewardships of public finances, he said, is the first stage of the fulfilment of his promise to the people of Ghana. President Akufo Addo said he could also personally vouch for Mr. Amidus public spiritedness, saying that We were on opposite sides in a series of landmark constitutional cases in the period leading up to and in the early years of the 4th Republic, well known to students of constitutional law, which helped shape the evolution of the Constitution of the 4th Republic. As Deputy Attorney General, as he then was, he conducted those cases with the fairness which should be a cardinal feature of the conduct of any self-respecting lawyer. Nana Akufo-Addo also averred that in recent times, the stench of corruption in public life was such that there was a general, nationwide demand for the creation of additional, focussed instruments to fight the canker of corruption that was visibly troubling at the heart of the nation. The response of the New Patriotic Party to this demand was, inter alia, to pledge, in its manifesto for the 2016 general elections, the establishment of the Office of Special Prosecutor, an independent, non-partisan body with the relevant professional capability, to lead the fight, and hold public officials, past and present, accountable for their stewardship of public finances, he reiterated. I, thus, have the honour to submit to Parliament, when it reconvenes, the name of Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu, for its approval for appointment as Special Prosecutor. It is my hope and expectation that the praiseworthy speed and dispatch, with which Parliament acted on my nominees for ministerial appointment last year, will characterise its handling of this nomination to enable Mr. Amidu, as soon as possible, enter into office to begin the important work that awaits him. Martin Amidus appointment is expected to eliminate the fear of many who suggested that the Office of the Special Prosecutor would be compromised, and not function effectively and fairly, if any loyalist of the governing NPP was appointed to occupy the position. When fully operational, the Special Prosecutors office will be independent of the Executive, which observers believe will allow it to adequately deal with corruption-related issues which have plagued past governments. The Office will have the mandate to investigate and prosecute cases of alleged corruption under the Public Procurement Act 203 Act 63 and other corruption-related offenses implicating public officers, political office holders and their accomplices in the public sector. The Prosecutor will also be mandated to trace and recover the proceeds of corruption. Meanwhile, former President Jerry John Rawlings has in a congratulatory message to Martin Amidu stated that The President couldnt have made a better choice. Source: New Crusading Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video It accuses Samsung of "deceptive trade practices," based on documents from China Labor Watch and others alleging violations including exploitation of children, excessive working hours and use of dangerous equipment and gases. The unusual lawsuit filed Thursday in Paris court by groups Sherpa and ActionAid France names Samsung Global in Seoul and its French subsidiary. It is now up to the court to decide whether to take up the case. It's the latest labor challenge to Seoul-based Samsung, which has faced growing health complaints from workers in recent years, even as profits soar thanks to its blockbuster semiconductor business. Two French rights groups have filed a lawsuit against electronics giant Samsung, accusing it of misleading advertising because of alleged labor abuses at factories in China and South Korea. Samsung did not immediately comment. On its website, it says it maintains "a world-class environment, safety and health infrastructure and rigorous standards to safeguard our employees' well-being." The lawsuit is part of larger efforts by rights groups to use French courts to hold multinationals to account for alleged wrongdoing, and to push for an international treaty against corporate abuses. The groups argue that French consumers were among those deceived by Samsung's pledges of ethical treatment of workers, and therefore French courts can rule in the case. But they want to call attention to the problem beyond French borders. "We hope to make things evolve not only in France but on an international level,'' said Marie-Laure Guislain, legal director for Sherpa. "It's not just about Samsung," she told The Associated Press. "It's the rights of workers under question." China Labor Watch has published several reports on child labor at Samsung suppliers in China based on years of undercover investigations. The New York-based nonprofit has long investigated working conditions at suppliers to some of the world's best-known companies including Walt Disney Co. and Apple Inc. In South Korea, where Samsung is a national icon, courts recently have begun to rule in favor of workers believed sickened by chemicals used in manufacturing. Many former Samsung workers have sought compensation or financial aid from the government or from Samsung for a possible occupational disease. Samsung also is recovering from a management crisis, after its de facto leader Lee Jae-yong was sentenced to prison for bribery and other charges, and the departure of the heads of its semiconductor, mobile business and TV divisions. A trio of dog breeders in Luzerne County have been hit with 130 criminal counts each stemming from a state police raid late last year in which some dogs were found in freezing temps outside and others were inside in squalor. As part of the search warrants executed at the home in Conyngham Township, the Luzerne County SPCA rescued 19 shih tzus and German shorthairs that the breeders were allegedly selling for $850 each. Since then, the SPCA has been inundated by dog lovers seeking to adopt the dogs. Now, however, the Citizens Voice newspaper is reporting the breeders were allowed to keep 16 other dogs found on the property. Wayne Harvey, a humane officer who filed the charges for the Luzerne County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told the newspaper his agency is advising the breeders to give those 16 dogs to shelters and rescues. However, Harvey added, "We can't make them do it yet, but we are recommending it." This is despite the fact that the trio of breeders - John Jerome Dancho, 70, Michele Starkey, 55, and Amanda Dancho, 26, of Pond Hill Shorthairs - each face 130 charges in connection with the investigation to their operation, the Citizen Voice reports. The counts include multiple counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and neglect of animals - and the three face arraignment next week. What began as a viral video joke has become a dangerous fad among teens, now known as the 'Tide Pod Challenge.' The rules are as follows: Pop a laundry detergent pod in one's mouth and post video of the results. Unfortunately, USA Today reports the 'Tide Pod Challenge' is a dangerous game, indeed: Dr. Alfred Aleguas Jr., managing director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa, tells the newspaper players could find themselves in a "life-threatening." Swallowing even a small amount of the highly-concentrated detergent found in pods (which can happen if people bite it and spit contents out), can cause diarrhea and vomiting. In some cases, some of the detergent could even find its way into the lungs and cause breathing difficulties The genesis of the 'Tide Pod challenge as the latest social media fad among teens appears to be a March 2017 video, entitled College Humor's Don't Eat The Laundry Pods, USA Today reports. Since then, videos of teens putting Tide Pods in their mouth and even cooking with them have been making the rounds online, USA Today reports. "This is what started out as a joke on the internet and now it's just gone too far," Ann Marie Buerkle, acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, told CBS News. The commission this week issued a public warning about the dangerous of the 'Tide Pod Challenge.' But this is just the latest episode highlighting the ongoing danger presented by these colorful but highly concentrated and toxic laundry products, CBS notes. Up until now, it has been toddlers and elderly people with dementia who have been sickened and even killed by eating the laundry pods that can look to some like candy, CBS writes: At least 10 deaths have been linked to ingesting these pods. Two were toddlers, eight were seniors with dementia. And 62,000 children under the age of six were exposed to laundry and dishwasher detergents, between 2013 and 2014 alone. Ingredients in the pods include ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and polymers - a highly-toxic mix of detergent meant to wipe out dirt and grime. Consumer Reports no longer recommend detergent packets, citing "the unique risks" while urging the "adoption of tougher safety measures." CBS quotes Procter & Gamble, maker of Tide products, as saying: "They should not be played with... Even if meant as a joke. Safety is no laughing matter." A backpack containing 10,000 packets of heroin, all packaged and ready for sale, was found in a parking lot behind the Cecilia Snyder Middle School in Bucks County, Pa. Now, police have traced the car spotted in the school parking lot to a 26-year-old woman who they say has admitted "accidentally" placing the drug-laden schoolbag outside of her vehicle and behind the school, 6ABC in Philly is reporting. The suspect, Natasha Willis, 26, of Bensalem, Pa., faces charges of possession with intent to deliver narcotics and related offenses, stemming from the Dec. 20 discovery of the $100,000 worth of heroin at the middle school. Police traced her through a tan Toyota Corolla with New Jersey registration that was in the area where the schoolbag was recovered, 6ABC reports, adding: Police stopped her vehicle 8:50 p.m. on January 10, resulting in her identity and arrest. Police tell 6ABC Willis has since admitted to possessing and accidentally leaving the drugs at the school. At last report, she was lodged at the Bucks County Correction Facility in lieu of $750,000 bail. Students at the middle school were never endanger from the deadly drugs due to the quick action of school officials and police, authorities said. The 2018 Pa. Farm Show is winding down. But the good news is you still have time to visit the annual agricultural extravaganza at the Pennsylvania Farm Show & Expo Center in Harrisburg. The show runs until 5 p.m. Jan. 13. There's plenty to do from sipping the Pa. Dairymen's Association's famous milkshakes to visiting the butter sculpture and seeing the live animals, including calves at The Calving Corner, a new exhibit. One of the biggest events during the Farm Show's final weekend is the First Frontier Circuit Finals Rodeo in the New Holland Arena. The rodeo will be held at 7 p.m. Jan. 12 and 5 p.m. Jan. 13. Tickets start at $15 for adults. The Pa. Preferred Culinary Connection stage will continue its lineup of cooking demonstrations with chefs. On Saturday, it will host a milkshake competition at 11 a.m. and The Great Ice Cream Scoop Challenge at 1 p.m. Also, on Saturday will be a lumberjack competition at 2 p.m. in the Equine Arena. Admission to the Farm Show is free and parking is $15 per car. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- When Eric Greitens sought Missouri's highest office, 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 43-year-old was fighting allegations that he photographed a hairdresser naked while having an affair with her and threatened to publicize the image if she spoke about their relationship. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers quickly asked the attorney general to investigate, and even fellow Republicans described the matter as "shocking and concerning." Greitens acknowledged being "unfaithful" in his marriage before he was elected governor but denied taking any naked photos and threatening the woman to stay quiet. The governor and his wife released a statement late Wednesday after St. Louis television station KMOV reported that he had a sexual relationship with his former hairdresser in 2015. The bombshell report overshadowed his annual address to the Legislature and included blackmail allegations from the woman's ex-husband, who secretly recorded a conversation with his ex-wife discussing the affair. The affair was "a deeply personal mistake," the statement said. "Eric took responsibility, and we dealt with this together honestly and privately." During the 2016 campaign, Greitens cast himself as an outsider going up against a career politician, the state's Democratic attorney general. He has barely hidden his higher political ambitions and reserved the web address ericgreitensforpresident.com years ago. 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 in which 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. READ MORE: Pennsylvania paid $900,000 settlement in sex misconduct case 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 don't 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, 'You're never going to mention my name.'" The woman did not immediately return a call left by The Associated Press at the salon where she worked. A bipartisan group of state senators signed a letter asking the state attorney general to investigate the blackmail allegations. Attorney General Josh Hawley's office did not have an immediate response. GOP leaders in the Missouri Senate released a joint statement Thursday urging Greitens to be "honest and forthright." Senate Democratic leaders Gina Walsh and Kiki Curls said "violence and threats against women are never acceptable" and that the allegations must be investigated. One Democratic state senator, Jamilah Nasheed, called on the governor to resign in a series of tweets. 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 where she worked. 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. READ MORE: House Democrats pay out $514,300 to settle sexual harassment and other claims by employees since 2007 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 "isn't 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 FBI's St. Louis office said the agency could not confirm or deny that it was investigating. Bennett denied that authorities are involved. "The claim that this nearly three-year-old story has generated or should generate law enforcement interest is completely false," he said. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said Thursday that no criminal complaint has been filed against Greitens and no evidence of a crime has been presented to her office. But the city's top prosecutor encouraged anyone with evidence of a crime to come forward. Sheena Greitens is an assistant professor in the political science department at the University of Missouri and co-director of the university's 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. ___ Summer Ballentine and Jim Salter of the Associated Press wrote this story. __ Associated Press writers David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report. It was a record-breaking year for the 2018 Pennsylvania Farm Show's Sale of Champions - and unquestionably, one man who owns a trash hauling service played a big part in it. Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York County, owner of Penn Waste, was the highest bidder for animal after animal at the junior livestock auction on Tuesday, said Pennsylvania Farm Show Scholarship Foundation treasurer Michael H. Firestine. His bids combined with those from other buyers raised $376,121 - $6,700 more than the amount raised last year. "The big thing is when you have all these young adults ... spending all this time raising an animal and all the effort that goes into it, it's the thing you do," said Wagner, who is currently the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for governor. Candidates for out in force at the Pa. Farm Show Being the high bidder doesn't mean you go home with the animal. It's more of a charitable act. The animals are sent off to slaughter to end up on people's dinner table. The youngster who raised them might shed a tear or two parting ways with their animal they spent so much time tending. And the high bidder earns the satisfaction of knowing he or she made an important contribution to the future of agriculture, Firestine said. High bidders pay the difference between the market price for the livestock, which is based on a set per-pound price, and what their bid was. That difference then is divided up with the majority going back to the youngster who raised the livestock. The rest goes to support the Farm Show's scholarship foundation and if the youngster is a member of 4-H or FFA, their club or chapter gets some money. Additionally, Firestine said there's a dollar-check on the sale of beef that goes to the beef council and one for the hogs sold that goes to the pork council. Eleven-year-old Carter Allen Koons of Bedford made a point of coming up to Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York County, to thank him for buying his 250-pound pig at the 2018 Pennsylvania Farm Show Sale of Champions auction. Wagner set a Farm Show record when he paid $7,700 for a 80-pound grand champion goat raised by Heidi Barkley of Bedford County. To get an idea of what some of the other grand champion livestock sold for: Amy Pecora of Fayette County saw her grand champion hog sell for $9,000 to Hatfield Quality Meats, which processes all of the market hogs sold at the auction. New Holland Sales Stables of Lancaster County process steer, sheep and goats from the show. Chris Jordan, also of Fayette County, had his grand champion steer sell for $16,500 to Fulton Bank and Fredericksburg-based Bell & Evans Poultry. Wagner also bought McKenzie Stadtmiller of Armstrong County's grand champion lamb for $6,700. He also was the high bidder for Union County's Mason Smith's grand champion rabbit meat pen, which sold for $2,000. Firestine said rabbits go to breeders who bid on them and aren't processed into food. By the end of the hours-long auction, Wagner, who seemed to running up the bid in a friendly competition with some of the other bidders, was handed a bill that tallied up his bids. While not sharing the exact amount, when asked if he spent $70,000, Wagner replied, "you're in the kitchen." The senator, who said he has been around the agriculture most of his life, shared he has been participating in the Farm Show auction for three or four years and the one at the York Fair for the past decade. So even though he's running for governor, he said that was not the reason he was there. "It's just supporting 4-H members and their families," he said. Despite raising more than 20 arguments, most involving claims his lawyers were ineffective, convicted murder Ernest Wholaver Jr. was unable to sway the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that his conviction and sentences was unjustified. Wholaver was convicted of killing his wife and two daughters on Christmas Eve 2002 in Middletown, and sentenced to death. The supreme court dismissed more than a dozen issues that Wholaver raised. Wholaver was charged with sexually abusing his daughters Elizabeth, 15, and Victoria, 20. His wife Jean, 43, had obtained a restraining order at the time. Investigators said Wholeaver killed his family because he wanted to prevent his daughters from testifying that he had repeatedly raped them. Wholaver was convicted of the three first-degree murder charges in 2004. PennLive / The Patriot-News won a key ruling Thursday that could force the Wolf Administration into releasing significantly more information about the first wave of applications from companies seeking to open medical marijuana production facilities and dispensaries. The decision from the state Office of Open Records orders Wolf's Health Department to republish the applications received last year with far more information available, and far less blacked out. The health department and the affected applicants have 30 days to comply with the ruling from appeals officer Kyle Applegate, or appeal to Commonwealth Court. Spokeswoman April Hutcheson could not shed light on that decision Thursday, given the late circulation of the ruling. PennLive, however, was rejoicing in a win that company officials said is key to preserving public oversight of a controversial new industry. "The medical marijuana industry needs to get up and running in full sunlight - not behind a smoke screen," said Cate Barron, vice president of content for PA Media Group, the corporate parent of PennLive and The Patriot-News. "But that's what resulted when the people going after the grower and dispensary permits were allowed to censor their own applications. Wallace McKelvey's video displayed the absurd results after all the redactions." McKelvey is one of the reporters who has been tracking the start-up of the medical marijuana industry in Pennsylvania, the result of a years-long grassroots effort that saw passage of legislation in April 2016. Because of the lucrative nature of the medical marijuana industry, the health department has been under tremendous scrutiny to ensure the playing field for winning these highly coveted permits is fair. The department initially allowed grower / processor and dispensary applicants to self-redact what they considered proprietary information on a copy of the application they submitted to the department. In addition, the department made some of its own redactions. The process, however, resulted in little consistency from one applicant to the next. For some applicants, the public could not tell who will run the operations or who's funding each operation. In at least one case, the applicant redacted the name of the company itself. That lack of transparency made it virtually impossible to check for conflicts of interest or other potential issues surrounding the applicants and the people who awarded the permits. Some specifics from Applegate's ruling: The state will be required to provide the names, hometowns and points of contact for all owners, financial backers and key operators of the firms named in the appeal. As it stands, the Health department had released names with no other identifying information, making it virtually impossible for any reviewer to understand who they were. Specific home addresses will still be off-limits. The department is also required to open up wholesale redactions of sections of the applications that dealt with operations of the facilities, with the exception of specific building and security plans. One applicant, Terrapin Investment, will also be allowed to continue to exclude a portion of its application that Applegate found met the burden of constituting trade secrets. Applegate also criticized Health's overall review of the redactions. "While some applicants redacted sections of their applications in entirety, the department redacted only a few words from these same sections in cases where the applicant did not make any redaction," he noted. The net effect, Applegate's ruling held, is that the edited applications, as they stand, provide less information than exists in the regulations that the firms are supposed to operate under. Joshua Bonn, PennLive's lawyer in the open records case, said that upsets the General Assembly's intentions to have significant public oversight over the roll-out of the new industry. "The medical marijuana industry is now here in Pennsylvania. By this summer we should see products being grown and sold in this state," Bonn said. "So it's important this appeal is resolved in a timely fashion... because these overly broad redactions really hurt the public's ability to oversee this industry." "Today's ruling is a win for everyone who believes in the vital importance of government transparency," Barron agreed. An out-of-state man who pleaded guilty to committing an armed robbery at a Harrisburg business has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. U.S. Middle District Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner imposed that punishment this week on 27-year-old Silas Sneed of Chicago, Ill. Sneed pleaded guilty to committing the May 2015 robbery at Munchies Market and to trying to commit two other holdups on the same day at the Casa Corner Store and the Just Kut'N Up Barbershop. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of using a firearm during a crime of violence. Harrisburg police arrested Sneed soon after the crimes. The trial of Dominican Republic native convicted of shooting at two probation officers during a car chase in Harrisburg wasn't tainted by President Donald Trump's heated rhetoric on immigration during the 2016 election, a state appeals court has ruled. Nor was the jury improperly influenced by the crowd of uniformed law enforcement officers who packed the Dauphin County courtroom, the Superior Court panel found. Those decisions sank Franklyn Tabarez's bid to overturn his aggravated assault convictions and 4- to 8-year prison term for the bizarre August 2014 incident. Police said Tabarez, 28, chased two county probation officers through Harrisburg in his pickup truck and shot at their car repeatedly. Neither officer was hurt. Tabarez was arrested after he stopped for a red light. The chase and gunfire occurred 12 days after Homeland Security agents visited Tabarez and told him he was the subject of a federal criminal investigation. Tabarez claimed he didn't know who the probation officers were, or even if they were law enforcement, but said he thought they presented a threat to him. In the Superior Court opinion affirming Tabarez's convictions, President Judge Emeritus Kate Ford Elliott discounted Tabarez's claims of bias during his trial. Elliott found that District Attorney Fran Chardo had a legitimate reason to inform the jury that, as an immigrant, Tabarez could face deportation if convicted. That information, she concluded, was "relative to (Tabarez's) interest in the outcome of the case" and a factor for the jury to weigh in judging his credibility. Tabarez contended on appeal that Trump's lambasting of illegal aliens during the presidential campaign would have swayed the jury against him once it learned of his residency status. During his trial, "the nation was in the midst of a contentious presidential campaign in which immigration reform was the central focus and the winning candidate (Trump) vowed to build a massive wall to keep 'bad hombres' out of the United States of America," Tabarez wrote in his appeal. His claim that the presence of a uniformed cadre of police and probation officers in the courtroom biased the jury failed to sway Elliott as well. "Although the presence of multiple uniformed police officers at a jury trial may cause concern with regard to jurors' perceptions and courtroom atmosphere, the record does not indicate that the officers in this instance caused even the slightest disturbance," she wrote. Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Lee Ki-hong appeared at a press event for "Maze Runner: The Death Cure" at a hotel in Seoul on Thursday. The stars of the American film series "The Maze Runner" visited Korea to promote their latest and last installment ahead of its release next week. The series is adapted from the dystopian science fiction trilogy "The Maze Runner" written by James Dashner. The first two installments in the series gained huge popularity among teens around the world including Korea. The first installment drew 2.8 million viewers here in 2014 and the second one attracted 2.74 million viewers the following year. The third and final film in the series hits local theaters on Jan. 17. By Jacquelyn Bonomo Gov. Tom Wolf unveiled his priorities for 2018 on social media earlier this month, revealing a glaring omission: the priority of protecting Pennsylvania's water, land, air, and climate. Jacquelyn Bonomo (PennFuture photo) The Jan. 1 Facebook post states: "In 2018, I am working to prioritize the issues important to PA families: bolstering education and skills training, tackling the opioid epidemic, protecting health care access, helping seniors age with dignity, and reforming state government. I will continue to fight to change Harrisburg, and continue to focus on improving education -- and in turn, our economy -- by enhancing programs for STEM, job training, and career and technical education. It's going to be a great year." While these are important issues to tackle, the governor's blind eye to protecting our environment runs counter to the priorities and wishes of Pennsylvanians in every corner of the Commonwealth. The immediate response from citizens on social media was swift. Many pointed to the governor's support for pipelines to be built without assurances to protect local communities, water, air, and public health. Others pointed out the state's prevalence of support and financial subsidies for dirty fossil fuel projects, compared with its scant support for clean, renewable energy. One commenter put the Governor's 2018 priorities pithily, "Environment? Not one mention, nothing?" These issues are just the tip of the proverbial and melting iceberg. In southern and eastern Pennsylvania, mounting concerns around the building of Sunoco's Mariner East 2 pipeline have again reached a boiling point, as this week its construction was suspended due to safety concerns. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Dec. 29 that the "state Department of Environmental Protection again chastised Sunoco's Mariner Pipeline 2 project after the company allegedly was caught drilling illegally through a section near Harrisburg and contaminated residential water supplies for two homes." The state Department of Environmental Protection announced Jan. 3 it was temporarily suspending construction permits for the pipeline until targeted issues were addressed. State leaders and agencies must continue to hold companies accountable and make maintaining safety around pipeline buildouts a priority when construction inevitably resumes. In western Pennsylvania, more than 3,500 people from across the state have signed a PennFuture petition to stop the expansion of the petrochemical industry in their communities. The expansion of this industry will create even more harmful plastics that will eventually pollute our waters, and one that will emit a toxic mix of pollutants, such as acrolein, benzene, toluene and naphthalene, all which exacerbate asthma and cause cancer. State leaders gave Shell a sweetheart deal in the form of a $1.65 billion tax break to construct the plant, using taxpayer money to pollute the very air voters breathe. While state leaders prop up the petrochemical industry with massive subsidies that will only contribute to the devastating effects of climate change, citizens around the Commonwealth are calling for aggressive state action in response to President Donald Trump withdrawing the United States from the Paris Accord. Pennsylvania has yet to join other states in the U.S. Climate Alliance, or charter a path toward reducing carbon pollution and supporting clean, renewable energy. Elected officials must level the playing field and address climate change by offering clean energy industries the same support it generously gives to dirty fossil fuels interests that continue to pollute our communities. The list goes on as families are waiting for their elected leaders to do something - anything - about the state's growing water crisis. A 2016 report by Vox looked at lead in drinking water and found that 18 cities in Pennsylvania had higher exposure rates than in Flint, Michigan. Factoring lead into other water problems, including legacy pollution from old coal mines, industrial spills, pipeline mishaps, impacts from natural gas drilling operations, and increased pharmaceuticals in our rivers, cleaning-up and protecting our water has become a top concern for communities. And thousands of citizens have voiced their growing concern in letters, phone calls, e-mails, and legislative visits during the last three years over how poorly environmental protection is being treated by Harrisburg policymakers. Environmental protection and enforcement has been a budget punching bag, getting knocked down every year so that more than 40 percent of the DEP's budget has been slashed in the last decade, leaving the agency grossly understaffed and unable to properly inspect drinking water sources, drilling sites and more. The environment's omission from the Governor's list of 2018 priorities is perplexing, disconcerting and disappointing to environmental advocates and citizens alike. Voters are left vulnerable to health complications of all kinds when the environment is set aside by state leaders and policymakers. The time for action is now. Our state constitution secures our environmental rights "to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come; and as trustee of these resources, the commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people." Wolf and other elected leaders must uphold these rights and make environmental protection a priority in 2018 and beyond. Protecting the environment - and the people of Pennsylvania - is a New Year's resolution worth keeping. Jacquelyn Bonomo is the president and CEO of PennFuture, a Harrisburg-based environmental advocacy group. Okay, central Pennsylvania it's gut-check time. First, ask yourself how you reacted in 2013 when the black former mayor of Harrisburg said the residents of overwhelmingly white Perry County were "scumbags?" Then, ask yourself how you reacted Thursday evening or Friday morning when you learned that the white president of the United States dismissed two countries and a whole continent populated almost entirely by black and brown-skinned people as "s**tholes." If you were baying for former Mayor Linda Thompson's blood in 2013 and denouncing her as a racist, but you merely shrugged or tried to rationalize away the undeniably repugnant comments that President Donald Trump made barely 24 hours ago, then you need to have a very long, hard conversation with yourself. And one of the things you need to ask yourself is this: Why did Thompson's ham-handed remarks upset you, while Trump's were merely, in the words of one of his Fox News apologists "how the forgotten men and women of America talk at the bar?" Was it because the color of one critic's skin was a shade or two darker than your own, while the skin-tone of the other's matched the blowhard's just down the bar from you? Neither is acceptable coming from an elected leader. Let's get that out of the way right away. But in the case of Trump, who is supposed to speak for all Americans -- regardless of their race, creed, color or religion -- they are particularly egregious. That they were made days before the Martin Luther King Day holiday is especially appalling and a reminder of how far we yet have to go as a country. Thompson apologized, at least, and said the comment was taken out of context [watch video]. Not so for Trump who raced to Twitter on Friday to deny that he ever used vulgar language to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African nations during talks with Congressional leaders over immigration reform. "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," he tweeted. Trump made this claim even though his own press office never explicitly denied the president used the language he used -- or that it was swiftly contradicted by one of the meeting's attendees, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. > Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin who was in the room confirms Trump's comments. "In the course of his comments, [he] said things that were hateful, vile and racist." pic.twitter.com/bkwKHUboEt JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) January 12, 2018 And, sadly, there's no basis, at this point in his presidency, to believe that even a majority of what the 45th president of the United States has to say is even remotely true. In fact, Trump has made more than 2,000 false or misleading claims since he took office last January. And when Trump's remarks Thursday are placed in the context of the totality of his public statements about racial and ethnic minorities, it is hard to conclude anything else but that the president of the United States is a racist. Yes, we can't know what's in Trump's heart of what's in his constantly agitated bees' nest of a brain. But we can look at his public utterances. And the evidence is damning. When he declared his candidacy, Trump Until very late in his campaign, Trump clung to the racist lie that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. And he Last June, Trump reportedly remarked that "that the 15,000 Haitians who had travelled to the U.S. 'all have AIDS,' and said that the 40,000 Nigerians would never 'go back to their huts' after seeing the U.S.," the Last August, in the wake of the Charlottesville riots, he defended Nazis and This fall, in a public feud with the National Football League, Unsurprisingly, Trump's remarks reverberated across the world, earning swift condemnation from such international bodies as the African Union. Residents and immigrants from the slighted countries also leapt to their defense - in much the same way residents of Perry County took umbrage at Thompson's remarks and the citizens of Harrisburg rebutted Trump's claim that they lived in a "war zone." Taking to a medium Trump would surely understand - Twitter - Harold Isaac, a resident of Port au Prince Haiti, wrote. "Hey #ShitHolePresident ! Here is what my #shithole looks like," Then, on Friday, after issuing his vigorous denial, Trump signed a proclamation honoring Monday's Martin Luther King Day holiday, saying, without a hint of irony: "Today we celebrate Dr. King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter what the color of our skin or the place of our birth, we are all created equal by God," Mr. Trump said. Except for the shitholes. And the war zones. And maybe even the scumbags. If you gave Trump a pass, and you're still mad at Linda Thompson, ask yourself why. When it comes to fights between the press and the government over access to public records, it's easier to dismiss those disputes as only tangentially related to the concerns of actual taxpayers. But a decision Thursday by the state Office of Open Records that could force the Wolf administration to lift the unnecessary veil of secrecy surrounding the first wave of applications from companies seeking to open medical marijuana production facilities and dispensaries is a reminder of why those fights matter. The decision from the state Office of Open Records orders Wolf's Health Department to republish the applications received last year with far more information available and far less blacked out. By legalizing medical marijuana, Pennsylvania opened the door to creating a multi-billion-dollar industry that will directly impact the health of tens of thousands of Pennsylvania residents. On that basis alone, state officials should have erred on the side of maximum transparency when it came to the application process for this groundbreaking new industry. But because of the lucrative nature of the industry, the Health Department initially allowed grower/processor and dispensary applicants to self-redact what they considered proprietary information on a copy of the application they submitted to the department. In addition, the department made some of its own redactions. The end result was applications where whole pages were redacted, with even the most basic information - such as the names of the companies' officers - obscured behind pages and pages of black ink. And while we acknowledge the necessity of protecting proprietary information, the taxpayers also need to know who's funding and who's behind these lucrative new interests. In its zeal to ensure a fair application process, the state unnecessarily erred on the side of confidentiality. That was a mistake. The ruling by the Open Records Office will hopefully tilt the balance back in favor of the taxpayers. The health department and the affected applicants have 30 days to comply with the ruling from appeals officer Kyle Applegate, or appeal to Commonwealth Court. A spokeswoman for the Health Department said Friday that the agency is still reviewing the decision. We call on the Health Department to let the Open Records Office's ruling stand and not appeal it to state court. That's the best stewardship of taxpayer dollars. It also ensures that the Wolf administration lives up to its vow of making government more transparent and accountable to the people it serves. Conservative candidate Dianne Haskett foreground makes a point during debate in London, Ontario, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006. The mayor of London, Ont., plans to apologize today to the city's LGBTQ community for the refusal of a previous mayor and council to proclaim a gay Pride day in 1995. Haskett was mayor of London, Ontario, Canada, from 1994 to 2000. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley Girl group GFriend will embark on a tour of major Asian cities next month. "GFriend will set off for Taiwan on Feb. 28 to kick off their first Asian tour," their management agency said in a press release on Thursday. They will then tour Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Thailand. GFriend successfully finished their first concert in Seoul last week and they hope to take the good vibes to the Asian tour. The girls are working on preparing for their first overseas tour and are eager to provide precious memories for their fans in Asia. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland arrives for a cabinet retreat in London, Ontario on Thursday, January 11, 2018. anada's marquee proposal for this month's high-stakes round of NAFTA negotiations will involve modernizing auto-parts rules, say sources familiar with the plans, which hinge on making progress on a long-standing irritant in order to propel the troubled talks forward. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff Robins North Korea on Thursday demanded a halt to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises and the deployment of strategic American weapons in the South. The demand came just two days after the two Koreas met for the first time in two years and agreed that North Korean athletes will take part in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. It looks as though North Korea is already presenting a laundry list of demands for agreeing to take part. "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 brethren," the official Rodong Sinmun wrote. "The two Koreas cannot remove mutual distrust and confrontation, and move toward unification, under persistent military tensions." The joint exercises, which usually take place in February and March, are already being postponed till after the Olympics, but North Korea is demanding a permanent halt. The Rodong Sinmun also demanded that the U.S. and South Korea halt "nuclear war exercises," referring to American nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and B-1B strategic bombers that have been deployed near the Korean Peninsula to thwart a possible North Korean attack. Pyongyang is expected to make the same demands in the upcoming military talks. A woman sells fish on a street in Lagos, Nigeria, Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Africans were shocked on Friday to find President Donald Trump had finally taken an interest in their continent. But it wasn't what people had hoped for. Using vulgar language, Trump on Thursday questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa rather than places like Norway in rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal. On Friday he denied using that language. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) FILE- This May 16, 2015 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 administrationAos 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) North Korean Ambassador to China Ji Jae-ryong has been holed up in the embassy in Beijing since late November, refusing to appear at formal events. It seems to be a show of protest against China's embrace of sanctions against the renegade regime. Ji last appeared in public on Nov. 20, when he welcomed back Song Tao, head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Liaison Department who had been visiting Pyongyang as a special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Colombia's ELN guerrilla resume attacks as ceasefire expires By Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA/QUITO Petroleumworld 01 12 2018 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. Solar will soon be cheaper than coal, with no subsidies - Norway's Statkraft CEO By Reuters OSLO Petroleumworld 01 12 2018 Norway's state owned power firm Statkraft expects a faster shift to renewable energies as the cost of new solar and wind capacity falls below coal, even without subsidies, in the next decade, CEO Christian Rynning-Toennesen said on Thursday. * There will be a lot of new business opportunities arising from the push into renewables. We need to adapt and look for these new possibilities, Rynning-Toennesen told a conference in Oslo. * What we have seen is just the beginning, he said. * Within around seven years we expect new solar to compete with the existing OPEX (operating expenses) of coal, meaning that we are reaching a point where new solar can compete away coal on a pure cost basis without any subsidies at all. * In almost all our markets, new solar and new onshore wind are already the lowest cost technologies of any type when it comes to new electricity. * Here in Scandinavia, new onshore wind is the cheapest form of new electricity that we can bring onto the grid. * Rynning-Toennesen said that this combined with systems of additional revenues for renewable energy has brought an enormous growth and it continues both in Europe and in emerging markets. * These are also technologies that are not difficult to construct. You don't need a big skill set to set up a solar or wind park. * So the barriers are low to enter the market and the possibilities for new companies who have never been in the energy industry are there and the competition is extremely strong, said Rynning-Toennesen. Norway oil industry sees near-record oil, gas output in 2022 as investment rises By Nerijus Adomaitis STAVANGER, Norway Petroleumworld 01 12 2018 Norwegian oil and gas investments will begin to rise in 2018 after falling for the last four years, helping drive output to near-record highs in the next five years, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on Thursday. By 2022, combined output volume of oil and gas from the country's fields could approach levels last seen in 2004, the highest on record, it added. Oil and gas would each account for about half of production, the regulator said. The 2004 output was heavily weighted to oil. This is very good news, because everybody is talking about a phasing out of the Norwegian petroleum activity and, at least in the next 10 years, we don't see that, NPD Director General Bente Nyland told Reuters. For production to be maintained at high levels beyond 2025, more profitable resources must be proven, including in major discoveries, she said, adding that this would require an increase in exploration in both mature and frontier areas. Output from Norway fell between 2004 and 2013 as older fields were gradually depleted and few new resources were available. Major finds have since been made, including the Johan Sverdrup field, the largest North Sea discovery in decades which will begin to produce in 2019 and be fully developed in 2022. Norway's combined output of oil and gas is expected to hit 4.4 million barrels per day of oil equivalents in 2022, the NPD said, a rise of 10 percent from the forecast 4 million barrels per day of oil equivalents seen for 2018. Investments, excluding exploration cost, were expected to rise marginally in 2018 to 122 billion Norwegian crowns ($15.13 billion) and to about 140 billion crowns in each of the years 2019 and 2020, the NPD said. It had previously expected a turnaround in investment to begin in 2019. $1 = 8.0614 Norwegian crowns Crude oil sales from Venezuela to the U.S. fell below 600,000 bpd in 2017 By Reuters HOUSTON Petroleumworld 01 12 2018 Venezuela's crude oil sales to the United States fell for a second month in a row in December, knocking the year's average to 593,047 barrels per day (bpd), the lowest annual level since 1991, according to Thomson Reuters trade flows data. A severe production drop in the South American country has hurt its oil exports and domestic refining, and worsened an economic recession now entering into its fifth year. Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA is mired in a widespread corruption investigation that has stalled decision making. Financial sanctions on Venezuela imposed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration have particularly affected PDVSA's oil flows to and from the United States as the company and some of its customers struggle to get commercial credit for transactions. The International Energy Agency, which coordinates the energy policies of industrial nations, and several analysis firms expect Venezuela's crude output to lose another 500,000 bpd this year due to lack of investment, mounting debts, sanctions, a brain drain caused by low salaries and a new management with no experience in the oil industry. In total, the United States received 419 crude cargoes of Venezuelan crude last year versus 530 cargoes in 2016, according to the data. The largest receivers were PDVSA's refining unit Citgo Petroleum and Valero Energy Corp. Chevron Corp and Phillips 66 also imported cargoes during the year, according to the data. Refining firm PBF Energy Inc stopped receiving direct supplies of Venezuelan crude from PDVSA in October after contract disagreements. PDVSA and its joint ventures mainly sold diluted crude oil (DCO) to U.S. customers last year, a grade that mixes Venezuelan extra heavy oil with imported heavy naphtha. The 2017 volumes reflected lower exports in recent months. Since September, shipments to the United States have not surpassed 550,000 bpd, well below the average of earlier months. In 2016, Venezuela exported 718,365 bpd of crude to the United States from an oil production of 2.466 million bpd. Production in November - the latest number available - was 1.837 million bpd, according to figures published by OPEC. Puerto Rico governor Rossello orders probe of discovery of hurricane recovery materials By Nick Brown NEW YORK Petroleumworld 01 12 2018 Puerto Rico's governor has ordered an investigation of materials discovered in a warehouse belonging to the U.S. territory's electric authority that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said are critical to restoring power following September's Hurricane Maria. Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a statement on Thursday he is ordering the island's Department of Justice to investigate whether rules were violated and/or crimes were committed against the public interest in the procurement and administration of the materials. It is the latest headache for Puerto Rico over the response by its power authority, known as PREPA, to the September storm, which decimated the U.S. territory's outdated electric grid so forcefully that 40 percent of its 3.4 million residents remain without power. The Army Corps, which is in charge of grid repairs in Puerto Rico, on Saturday discovered a stock of transformers, splices and other materials in a warehouse at PREPA's Palo Seco plant. The Army Corps said the materials were not being used, leading to some delays in power resurgence. PREPA refuted that, saying the items were consistently put to use, if not specifically for hurricane recovery. Carlos Monroig, a spokesman for PREPA, on Thursday said the materials were being used for capital improvements. In a separate statement in Spanish, PREPA said the materials had been used to build transmission lines, pursuant to bond issues carried out by past administrations to acquire the materials. Army Corps spokeswoman Lynn Rose said the Corps began distributing the materials to its contractors on Saturday. The items are critical to the ongoing mission to restore power to Puerto Rico, Rose said, declining to comment on Rossello's referral to the Justice Department. Puerto Rico is struggling to recover from Maria, its worst disaster in 90 years, while at the same time navigating the largest government bankruptcy in U.S. history, with $120 billion in combined bond and pension debt. PREPA's public image is still reeling from the revelation in the weeks after the storm that it had awarded a $300 million, no-bid grid repair contract to the tiny Montana firm Whitefish Energy Holdings. That contract, later canceled by Rossello, led to a U.S. congressional investigation and the eventual resignation of ex-PREPA chief Ricardo Ramos. In bankruptcy with some $9 billion of debt, PREPA has long been plagued by a shrinking workforce and sorely outdated infrastructure. Multiple debt restructuring deals with bondholders have fallen apart at the 11th hour. Many parents search for information about what to teach their children about the birds and the bees. Sex education for young children has become essential at a time when they have easy access to porn on the Internet that could lead them down the wrong alleys. According to the Korea Youth Sexuality Culture Center, which has offered a sex education program for kids since 2007, the number of children who took the program rose from 139,941 in 2014 to 191,403 in 2017. They are taught how to defend themselves against sexual assault and what behaviors make others uncomfortable. There are even musicals that teach children about sex. One that premiered in 2008 takes them on an imaginary journey of their parents' bodies with a sperm and is still playing to packed 400-600-seater venues. Children's sex-education books are circulating among parents, and videos are also popular. The Education Ministry has produced books and videos for children that can be used even in kindergartens so they can get sex education for at least eight hours a year. In general, men are twice as likely to cheat on a spouse than women are. That frequency increases over the lifespan, peaking among the elderly. Among men 18 to 29 who have ever been married, about 1 in 10 is The White House says Vice President Pence (pictured) will travel to the Middle East later this month for meetings with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with an address to the Knesset. He also plans to visit the Western Wall. Read more As I saw firsthand on a recent trip to Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israel is heading pell-mell toward an unprecedented danger: a "one-state solution" in which the Jewish state will control an unwilling population of Palestinian Arabs that soon outnumbers Jews. Emboldened by President Trump, the Israeli right is rushing to foreclose any prospect of a two-state solution to the conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party now formally demands the annexation of Jewish settlements scattered across the West Bank, while his coalition partners call for formal annexation of at least 60 percent of the West Bank. Meantime, Palestinians would be confined to disconnected cantons of territory and cut off from Jerusalem. "If we keep controlling the whole area," former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak recently warned, "it would become inevitably either non-Jewish or nondemocratic." He predicts that if Palestinians were given full civic rights, Israel would quickly become "a binational state with an Arab majority and civil war." But deny them full rights, says Barak, and Israel would be on a "slippery slope toward apartheid." The A-word may be an inexact fit, but the point is clear: Israel would ultimately be in permanent control of an Arab majority that was denied basic rights. (Already there are approximately 4.8 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem plus 1.8 million Israeli Arab citizens compared to around 6.5 million Jews.) This is why the Israeli opposition insists the two-state option must be kept alive for the future, even though they recognize that present prospects are dismal. In a chaotic Mideast, with weak and divided Palestinian leaders, and an Israeli government that opposes two states, there is currently no chance for progress, especially when the Israeli right has the backing of the U.S. president. Yet as Vice President Pence prepares to head for Jerusalem, any future two-state possibility is being foreclosed by expanding Jewish settlements and changes in Israeli laws. What was most striking on my trip is the vehemence with which Israeli politicians on the right denied they were headed toward one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. "Two states is impossible. One state is not feasible," I was told by a Likud member of Knesset, Benny Begin, son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin. "That leaves us with the sustainable status quo of the last five years." By status quo, Begin means the current situation, where the Palestinian Authority has limited control over around 40 percent of the West Bank, within which it can administer towns, cities, and villages. "We need to create a full-grown Palestinian self-governing autonomy," Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett told me, "where Palestinians govern themselves, barring security or an influx of refugees." Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel spoke of an "Economic Peace in this area" in which Israel would "upgrade the way of life in the West Bank and increase the number of Palestinian workers" who can enter Israel. "There won't be two states from the Jordan River to the sea. There will be all one sovereign [Israeli] country like today." The problem with speaking about an upgraded "autonomy" for Palestinian areas or an economic peace is that such concepts run aground over political realities. The status quo is not static on the West Bank. Drive around the West Bank and you can view expanding Israeli settlements hopping across hilltops and new highways that divide the Palestinian area into segmented cantons but link settlements with Tel Aviv and Jerusalem within a 30- to 40-minute drive. Meanwhile, Palestinians are unable to build or expand into the 60 percent of West Bank land that Israel totally controls and that many Israeli politicians seek to officially annex. Moreover, Israeli talk of autonomy refers only to the West Bank, but leaves out Gaza, from which Israel has withdrawn all troops. Israeli politicians often refer to the Gaza Strip as a Palestinian "state." Yet Israel still controls Gaza's air space, seacoast, and borders (with one exception on the Egyptian border), and has largely blockaded the strip because the militant Hamas party controls it. "The whole issue of economic peace doesn't work because this is a political issue," says Sam Bahour, an American businessman of Palestinian and Lebanese descent who came to Ramallah when things looked more optimistic. "Israel controls every strategic [West Bank] resource," he says, "including land, water, internet frequencies, movement of goods and people, trade, borders, and energy resources." Political uncertainty (and Palestinian government corruption) makes it impossible to develop an advanced economy. Structurally, the West Bank remains totally dependent on, and integrated into, Israel. "There is no investment at all in the Palestinian territories," says noted Israeli journalist Danny Rubinstein, who just published a book on the Palestinian economy. "People won't put money in because things are unstable." He spoke of one businessman whose chain of supermarkets failed because perishables got spoiled waiting at Israeli military checkpoints, and workers couldn't arrive on time for the same reason. So any Palestinian "autonomy" remains an economic subset of Israel and provides Palestinians with no real political control over their lives. And it fails to address the festering sore of the Gaza Strip, where unemployment is around 60 percent. If the two-state solution is buried, autonomy will increasingly tie the West Bank into Israel and push Palestinians to demand equal rights in one state. "The problem," says the Institute for National Security Studies' Gilead Sher, a senior peace negotiator under Barak, "is how to convince Israelis and Palestinians that the two-state solution, even in its meager design, is best for them as individuals, communities, and nations. How to make people conscious of the tragic trajectory they are following." In 35 years of covering this conflict, I've never seen the prospects for a solution look so dim. At a particular moment a few weeks ago, dozens of recordings, seemingly safe at rest in their jewel cases and MP3 files, suddenly began to morph. Works of Ravel, Falla, Berlioz, and Tchaikovsky would never be heard the same way again, simply because of knowledge we all gained that first day of winter about the conductor of those recordings. Allegations of sexual misconduct against Charles Dutoit have mounted since an initial Associated Press story last month voiced the stories of four women. Thursday brought another AP story with allegations from six more women, including Curtis-trained pianist Jenny Q. Chai, who said she was touched and kissed by Dutoit after a Philadelphia Orchestra concert in the early 2000s, and one anonymous musician who said Dutoit raped her in 1988, when she was working with an unidentified East Coast orchestra. The conductor has denied the charge, issuing a statement saying he was "appalled and sickened" to be accused "of the heinous crime of rape. I am shaken to the core by this bewildering and baseless charge. To this, I submit my categorical and complete denial." Given the speed with which the #MeToo movement moves, something new might have rolled across your Facebook newsfeed since reading the first paragraph of this column. If you are reading it in the Sunday paper's Live Life Love section, which goes to press Friday morning, it could be many somethings. Regardless, it's safe to say the 81-year-old conductor's career has acquired an indelible asterisk, and now, the institutions that he helped to make, and that helped to make him, must grapple with how to frame his legacy. Even before the latest round of allegations, the Philadelphia Orchestra, which has more than three and a half decades worth of history with Dutoit a total of 650 performances had revoked his conductor laureate title. It has no further appearances by him on the schedule. WRTI-FM (90.1), the local classical station, had also decided to pull his recordings. Charles Dutoit, once made an honorary citizen of Philadelphia, seems at risk of becoming an artistic non-person. CBC Radio will continue to play Dutoit recordings but will not identify them as such, the Montreal Gazette reports. Now that's an artistic non-person. WRTI general manager Bill Johnson said last week he and his staff had struggled with what to do about Dutoit's vast recorded legacy. "You have this brilliant work that has been done, that up until this point we've all listened to and celebrated, and now you find these things out. And they are allegations, but in the current climate it has an impact," he says. In the end, because Dutoit's name is in the news in a negative way and because the station has decades of recorded material from which to choose, WRTI's leaders decided, at least for now, to broadcast neither Dutoit recordings nor those of James Levine, also accused of sexual misconduct. "We know our audience comes to us as a respite from a lot of the news of the day, and we have to protect that experience for them," Johnson says. Dutoit took charge of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra just before digital technology and CDs started replacing vinyl on air and in bins around the world. That advent helped establish Montreal's orchestra as a force, and Dutoit emerged as a polished and exciting personality who kept company with many of the world's great soloists and coaxed secrets from scores by giants like Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and certain French composers. For many, Dutoit's recording of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe with the Montreal Symphony is a high point of sensuousness, expressivity, and vivid colors that might never be surpassed. Given what 10 women now claim, how do institutions, and each one of us individually, engage with Dutoit the artist? The Philadelphia Orchestra, with which Dutoit held several important titles, has choices to make on how to portray his substantial history and contributions here. After the first allegations surfaced, the orchestra issued a statement saying the "seriousness of the accusations demands a thorough investigation," but it has not launched one in response to complaints from the 10 women in the AP articles. On Friday, though, an orchestra spokeswoman said the orchestra has received separate complaints from women of sexual misconduct against Dutoit, and it is investigating those complaints. She would not elaborate, citing the confidential nature of the human resources issues. Dutoit issued a statement regarding the first round of allegations, saying that "whilst informal physical contact is commonplace in the arts world as a mutual gesture of friendship, the serious accusations made involving coercion and forced physical contact have absolutely no basis in truth." A strong denial, to be sure. But the orchestra had little choice but to cut ties with Dutoit when it did, says Americus Reed, a Wharton School marketing professor and brand identity theorist (and amateur musician). "It's like this idea of Al Franken and Charlie Rose I looked up to this guy, I loved him. It hurts you, and at the same time they deserve a day in court," says Reed. "But institutions have to act very swiftly, and perhaps violating the rights of the accused, and that's the cost of doing business. If you don't act, it seems like you are condoning it." Cultural institutions in fact have a greater burden not to be seen as harboring moral transgressions, Reed says, "because they exist to bring delight into the universe, and so if that gets compromised, that is seen as a much more harmful kind of thing." We probably should get used to thinking about this topic. More sexual-misconduct accusations in classical music seem likely, as they do in almost every sector, and the Dutoit episode raises knotty questions likely to recur. Can we separate the artist from the art? And what do we really know about the backstage behavior of artists we've admired? Standing not far from these questions always is the notion that being in the arts somehow makes for a better person, that spending time with Schubert or Goethe turns out more sensitive and thoughtful humans, or that artists might be self-selecting as more introspective and moral. I can't say the musicians I've known have shown greater moral clarity or virtuous thinking than the general population. Another uncomfortable question: Is it easier to excuse bad behavior when the artist in question is especially great? Rejecting Percy Grainger because he was anti-Semitic is a low-cost gesture if you think he was a musical lightweight. Gesualdo murdered his wife and her lover, but his music is hardly popular, and the cushion of centuries blunts our need to factor in character when we listen. But I can pretty much guarantee that anyone who reads Wagner's essay "Judaism in Music" will never listen to his music the same way again. In this lengthy polemic, Wagner reduces Jews to hateful caricature: in the way they speak ("we hear this Jewish talk, our attention dwells involuntarily on its repulsive how, rather than on any meaning of its intrinsic what,"); in song (where "the peculiarity of the Jewish nature attains for us its climax of distastefulness,"); as a race skilled in making money without engaging in any "actual labor"; and, inevitably, as outsiders to true art. This is an old conundrum, though what's different about classical music now is that it has worked so hard to personify orchestras through the image of the conductor, and it's going to be especially tricky to separate podium stars from the music they produce not to mention the ensembles they lead. "What does that mean for the 100 musicians who were playing their hearts and souls out?" Johnson asks about ensembles whose sound, after all, is the one captured in recordings by Dutoit and Levine. "By exercising editorial discretion, we're also excising them from the public sphere, and is that right? It makes the decision all the more painful to make, knowing we are losing the artistic efforts of all these great artists at the same time." Striving for equanimity might be a worthy goal something along the lines of continuing to listen, but learning to listen with a new awareness of the capacity for great beauty and deep flaws to flow from the same human source. But it won't be easy. And by even having to consider such an accommodation, much of the pleasure is already draining away. Rev. Frantz Ulysse at the First Haitian Church if God of Prophecy. He says hes angry about Trumps put down of his homeland. Read more Anger flared in the Philadelphia region's Haitian community on Friday, sparked by President Trump's reported remark that their homeland and African countries were "shitholes." Amid the fury, people were moving toward action, considering a response that could range from a protest march to an email barrage on the White House. Options were being discussed as phone lines buzzed among Haitian immigrants, who tried to understand why the leader of the free world would put down their nation with so vulgar and demeaning a term. Friday already promised to be a somber and difficult day for Haitians, who number about 7,500 in Philadelphia, with more spread across suburbs from Elkins Park to Langhorne. The day marked the eighth anniversary of the 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince and killed an estimated 230,000 people. That catastrophe helped propel thousands of Haitians to the United States, which sheltered them under a humanitarian program called Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Trump ended TPS for Haiti in November, meaning 46,000 people who had been allowed to live and work in the United States must return to a nation still suffering from the effects of the earthquake and the ruin inflicted six years later by Hurricane Matthew, which left as many as 1,000 dead. Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world, according to the World Bank. "A lot of us are on fire right now," said Merytony Pierre-Jean, a local Haitian talk-show host on Radio Nouvelle Alliance. "Friends are calling me, asking what we're going to do, and how we're going to do it." The president's reported remarks were personally painful, she said, but also damaging and hurtful to the larger community. How, she wondered, do Haiti and its people regain a reputation now tarnished? "Who do we sue?" she asked. "Do we sue President Trump for saying those things? Do we sue the government for allowing this man to sit there?" Pierre-Jean said she hoped the government of Haiti would respond and it did, issuing an official statement saying the nation was "deeply shocked and outraged" and calling Trump's remark "racist." She and others see themselves as Americans, just like those who came to the U.S. from other lands in earlier eras. Acceptance of newcomers remains a key American value. Last year, amid the Trump administration's ongoing crackdown on immigration, a Pew Research Center survey found that for a large majority of Americans, the country's openness to people from around the world was "essential to who we are as a nation." Pew found that 68 percent of Americans said openness to foreigners is a defining characteristic of the nation, while 29 percent said that "if America is too open to people from all over the world, we risk losing our identity as a nation." Mayor Kenney, who often has castigated Trump over immigration issues, tweeted on Friday: "Philadelphia is a better city because of our diversity. Immigrants, including those from El Salvador, Haiti, and African countries, make our city stronger. Calling those countries by such a vulgar name reveals a great deal about the President's character. His comments were racist." The furor erupted on Thursday at a White House meeting with lawmakers, when Trump questioned a suggested deal that would include protections for people from Haiti and some African nations. He asked why he should accept immigrants from "shithole countries" rather than from places like Norway, people with direct knowledge of the comments told news organizations. A subsequent White House response included no denial. The president took to Twitter on Friday, however, to issue what sounded like one. "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country," the President tweeted. "I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians." But Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told reporters on Friday that Trump had in fact used the word to describe foreign countries, uttering the term not once but several times during the discussion. He called Trump's remarks "hate-filled, vile, and racist." In Philadelphia, the Rev. Frantz Ulysse, pastor of First Haitian Church of God of Prophecy in West Oak Lane, said he was shocked by the president's words. "I think this president is crazy," Ulysse said. "The way he acts, he better see a doctor, to see if he has dementia." The anger extended beyond the Haitian community. "It's just not a decent thing to do," said Fatu Gayflor, a Philadelphia-area singer and once a household name in her native West African nation of Liberia. "He should sit and think about how he should compose his words." Gayflor, known in her homeland as Princess Gayflor, the title of her second album, was driven by the Liberian civil war through three countries to a home in Willingboro. To her, this nation was a savior. People in troubled lands look to the U.S. as a beacon, a place of refuge and caring, she said. To hear the president denounce Africa in such cruel terms made her feel terrible, she added. "I'm hoping Americans can talk to this president and tell him, 'You are leading for the whole world, be careful of how you order your words.'" Visiting your library or recreation center to find ways to volunteer or connecting with the friends group for your local park are all great ways to way to build new relationships, support the work of longtime volunteers, and invest in our communities. Read more Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods. Each with its own personality, rich traditions, and cultures the things that bring people together and create a sense of shared values and responsibilities, a sense of community. For many millennials like us, that sense of community we get from our neighborhood is integral to our experience. Whether we've lived on the same block our whole life or came to the city for a job and chose to stay because of the affordability and lifestyle that Philadelphia offers, more and more of our generation are putting down roots in one of our neighborhoods for the long term. In some communities, we are able to create extended families on our blocks. We welcome neighbors as friends. More often than not, our parks are our backyards. Our recreation centers have the potential to become community gathering places. Our local library branches can become a window to a bigger world for our children, nieces, nephews, and mentees. These public spaces are gems and can be part of what makes living in a neighborhood so attractive; and they have only survived for so long because of the commitment of those few neighbors, many seniors, who are dedicated volunteers, advocates, and members of friends of groups or recreation advisory councils. Now, it is our turn to take up carrying that torch. If we are going to maintain the benefits afforded to us by the generations before us and make our communities stronger, safer, and more vibrant places, we need to ask ourselves what we can do to contribute. How can we give back? There is no better time than now for that question. Mayor Kenney's vision for a Philadelphia with revitalized parks, playgrounds, pools, libraries, and recreation centers that serve the whole community seniors, children, and everyone in between is coming closer to a reality. In 2016, City Council passed the Philadelphia Beverage Tax, which will fund Rebuild, a plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in these community spaces. But, even with that investment, our public spaces need more support. Even with rebuilt facilities, community volunteers often help the city make sure that sites remain clean and safe, and provide programs our communities need. Just as generations before us have done, it's important that we also do our part. As current and former members of the advisory council at our own respective recreation centers, we can speak to the value of getting involved and attest to how critical it is that we pick up the torch. Through our work we have built new relationships, worked with longtime volunteers, brought important programs and resources to our community, and discovered other opportunities to serve our neighborhood and city. As we approach Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we encourage all our fellow young adults to think about what else you can do to give back to your neighborhood. As the city prepares to make a historic investment in neighborhoods; we have a chance to help make sure that Rebuild's impact lasts for years to come. Reaching out to your local recreation advisory council to find ways to volunteer or connecting with the friends group for your local park or library are all great ways to build new relationships, support the work of longtime volunteers, and invest in our communities. Regardless of how you choose to give back, the more we are all involved in improving our neighborhoods, the more our city will benefit. Evelina Bodon is the founding president of the Towey Playground Recreation Advisory Council in Kensington. Felicia Harris is the chair of the Philadelphia Commission for Women and a former member of the Finley Playground Recreation Advisory Council in Mount Airy. >> How to volunteer on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Philadelphia M&S: Passer in Chinese market By:Pan Chenxiao | From:english.eastday.com | 2018-01-11 18:38 Marks and Spencer (also known as M&S) sold the business in Hong Kong and Macao to its franchise partner recently, which had closed its shops all in mainland China before. Not only that, but it showed the closure announcement on the official Tianmao online shop on January 9, which thanks the Chinese customers for attentions and support and will close soon following a strategic review of its international business, and now the sale has started. M&S, a veteran British department store founded in 1884 opened a shop in Shanghai in 2008 as the first step into mainland China and once had 15 stores in this city, which was placed great hopes on. And after ten years, it has now completed quit the Chinese market. Some consumers noted the closure of the department store giant is related to both the environment of the Chinese market and conservatism and a lack of innovation. 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. Norwegians are just too beautiful. Even the Norwegians who appear to have come from Shole countries look great and the bi-racial young people we saw working in museums, stores and cafes were stunning. I mean, even more beautiful than anyone on Philadelphia City Council. Read more The summer before last, my family spent two weeks investigating Norway and I can say with some certainty that we do not want more Norwegians coming to the United States. For starters, they are just too darned good-looking. The middle-aged hostesses on our Norwegian airlines were more beautiful than Scarlett Johansson. No one has any detectable body fat so they look good in whatever they wear. Even the Norwegians who appear to have come from shithole countries look great and the bi-racial young people we saw working in museums, stores and cafes were stunning. I mean, even more beautiful than anyone on Philadelphia City Council. Letting in too many gorgeous people will damage our already rocky self-esteem and we'll have to listen to more Oprahs and Dr. Dans telling us how to deal with it. Norwegians, by the way, deal with it by vacationing in Greece. Secondly, they apparently know how to run a country. Not only do they have universal health care, six-week vacations and an excellent school system, but their public transportation is superb. Their cities and towns are amazingly clean, although it's true, that, as a tourist, we didn't hang out a lot on the gritty side of the tracks. I was secretly glad to see, however, that the walls along the tracks we traveled were lined with subpar graffiti. Made me feel at home. I know, I know. It's a small country only 5.26 million beautiful people and if they let French people in, as Philadelphia used to do, or others from more southern countries, the place would probably go to heck. There are other downsides. They didn't seem to have much by way of an Americans With Disabilities Act. There's a step up from the platform to their modern train cars that don't kneel or have magic ramps. Instead, when an elderly lady couldn't manage it, random Norwegians on the track stepped in and gently picked her up by her elbows and helped her get situated in the car with her baggage. While that method warmed my inner Libertarian, I'm not sure it would work on SEPTA. Another downside was that the country is brimming with Teslas. We were told that their purchase was subsidized. There were electric charging stations all over the place. They have 233,569 Tesla Superchargers per 1,000,000,000 beating out Denmark which only has 70,926 per. Really, it doesn't speak well of a country to be assisting Elon Musk in any possible way. Still that's the kind of thing they do to keep their carbon footprint down. One other reason President Trump might reconsider his sudden Norwegian enthusiasm is that immigrants from Norway, and nearby countries like it, have come here and produced female editorial cartoonists! I'm one quarter Norwegian blood. Ann Telnaes, the most brilliant and most caustic Trump caricaturist, is of Norwegian stock (plus lived in Sweden) and Jen Sorensen, whose drawing pen is a Viking spear, descended from the Danish. Still, in an effort to help my president make America Scandinavian again, I invited my tall, svelte, handsome Norwegian cartooning colleague, Roar Hagen and his tall, svelte, beautiful wife, to move to America. His response: "I love America and Americans. But life here is, except the climate, quite good." So, Mr. President, if you really want more Norskies, all you have to do is guarantee free universal health care, decent vacations, environmentally friendly transportation and great schools that teach everyone how to speak, write, and read English better than we do. That would, indeed, improve our country. Blaze Bernstein was a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania. Officials in Orange County Calif. are invetigating his death that happened last week while Bernstein was visiting his family during winter break. Read more Blaze Bernstein was such a talented writer that the University of Pennsylvania recruited him. He remained a passionate writer while he thoughtfully selected science classes that would prepare him for a pre-med program, said his student adviser, Jamie-Lee Josselyn. Bernstein was "leaning toward" becoming a psychologist, she said Thursday, two days after Bernstein's body was found in a Southern California park close to where the 19-year-old lived with his family. He was on winter break when he went missing on the night of Jan. 2. On Wednesday, officials disclosed that he had been killed. On Thursday, friends on both coasts mourned the loss. Josselyn, associate director for recruitment for creative writing at Penn, called the death of the sophomore with a promising future "confusing." Josselyn said she recruited Bernstein when she was visiting his high school in California, and became his adviser to help him maintain his creative writing talents while his academic life focused on science. Bernstein worked at Kelly Writers House, a center at Penn for creative writers and artists, and was on the editorial board for the Penn Review, the university's literary magazine. He had a piece published in the Penn Review before he started at the university, Josselyn said, adding that had never been done before. In a piece about writing titled "Picking Marbles From Dirt" for the Penn Review, he wrote: "I can always go back and edit and tweak what I have written, but it's those first words that lick the paper that truly determine the story's ultimate fate." "That was Blaze. He was just getting things done," Josselyn said. "He had a lot of happiness and satisfaction with life and his life at Penn." Thursday afternoon, nearly 30 students, faculty, and administrators gathered at Penn's Houston Hall to honor Bernstein. "It's been a painful, heartbreaking time," university chaplain Chaz Howard said at the gathering. "We love you and we're here for you." Howard was joined by administrators from Hillel and Penn's university life offices, which offer counseling and crisis intervention services. Those who attended included friends from the writers house, and the student-run food magazine Penn Appetit, where Bernstein had been elected managing editor. "One of the best things about Penn is the strong sense of communities and the way they overlap," said Bill Alexander, director of Penn's psychological services and counseling program. "Strengthen your own communities. I'm sure that's what Blaze was trying to do." Earlier this week, the Orange County (Calif.) Sheriff's Department said Bernstein vanished after he and a friend drove to Borrego Park in the Foothill Ranch area of Lake Forest late on Jan. 2. The department also said the case was being investigated as a homicide, and that no details on cause of death would be immediately released. On Thursday, the Orange County Register, citing an affidavit it obtained, published new details about what the friend told investigators. During an interview with detectives on Jan. 4, the friend told investigators they had gone to the park to "hang out." The friend said Bernstein walked by himself into the park. After about an hour, the friend said, he tried to contact Bernstein unsuccessfully on Snapchat, then left around 1 a.m. and drove to his girlfriend's house. When Bernstein still hadn't responded around 3:40 a.m., the friend said, he returned to the park to search for him. The Register also reported that detectives noticed that the friend's hands had several small scratches and abrasions, and that he had dirt under his fingernails. The friend allegedly said the scratches were from a "fight club" he was involved in, and that he had fallen into a dirt puddle. The affidavit says the friend was nervous and "breathing heavy, talking fast and visibly shaking," according to the paper. The friend also told police that Bernstein complained about his grades in school and "seemed depressed." Josselyn, the Penn adviser, said she believes that if Bernstein had he been depressed or concerned about his grades, he would have talked to her about it. Staff writers Robert Moran and Daniel Spinelli contributed to this article. Welcome to Bensalem, on Hulmeville Road. The diverse township is considering an immigration partnership that some fear will be divisive. Read more Golnaz Fakhimi has some advice for Bensalem officials who want their police officers to help federal immigration agents arrest and detain undocumented immigrants: Be careful these kinds of partnerships can get unexpectedly pricey. Fakhimi knows. She's the immigrant-rights lawyer at the Pennsylvania ACLU, which successfully sued Lehigh County and Allentown authorities for keeping a man of Puerto Rican descent in jail even after he posted bail so U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could investigate whether he was in the country illegally. It turned out that Ernesto Galarza was born in New Jersey. His settlement for three days behind bars in 2008 totaled $145,000. "Whatever the intentions under these partnerships, in practice we've seen there are lots of problems with how they're implemented on the ground," Fakhimi said. In Bensalem, a Bucks County community of 60,354 that hugs the border of Northeast Philadelphia, township leaders say they're moving toward an agreement to have the police enforce federal immigration laws confident that it will make people safer. They say officers will be able to identify and arrest dangerous criminals without infringing on individual rights or even bothering law-abiding, undocumented immigrants. "We will stay within the law," said Mayor Joe DiGirolamo, the son of Italian immigrants. "No profiling, we would never do that. I'm OK with arresting a criminal, and if they're an illegal immigrant, then certainly you turn them over to ICE." It's unclear how quickly the township and federal government could reach an accord, formalized through a signed memorandum of agreement. If approved, Bensalem would be the first Pennsylvania police agency to partner with ICE under a program known by its legislative clause 287(g). And it would bring an often-controversial initiative to a township proud of its diversity. Bensalem is about 75 percent white, 11 percent Asian, 8 percent Latino, and 7 percent black, Census figures show. One out of every five residents is foreign-born. The township is home to a Buddhist temple and a gambling casino, to the Neshaminy Mall and the Nicholas Biddle estate, Andalusia. DiGirolamo and township Public Safety Director Fred Harran say officers would not go barging into local businesses or restaurants to check workers' statuses precisely what ICE agents did last week when they raided almost 100 7-Eleven stores across the country, including four elsewhere in Pennsylvania. The Bensalem leaders said the ICE partnership would come into play only in situations where an officer would normally make an arrest. For instance, a motorist pulled over for an expired inspection sticker would be ticketed and fined. That's the penalty for everyone. A driver stopped and arrested for drunken driving, if undocumented, would be turned over to ICE. But advocacy groups, including the Bucks County NAACP and Buxmont Inclusive and Progressive, say the alliance is not only unneeded, but certain to create fear in immigrant communities and hurt relations between police officers and residents. "The only thing that 287g adds is the ability to do racial profiling," said Adanjesus Marin, state director of Make the Road Pennsylvania, which supports Latino and working-class communities. "They're talking about opening up the township to a big liability." Many jurisdictions want no part including the sanctuary city next door. In November, Philadelphia officials won a preliminary court injunction to block the Trump administration's effort to withhold grant money from sanctuary cities. Police Commissioner Richard Ross testified that Philadelphia officers arrest people who commit crimes period. At the same time, the department depends on tips and information from law-abiding citizens, he said, and part of that trust is built on the fact that police do not routinely collect and store data on whether people might be in this country illegally. "There's no way in the world you'd want to come forward as a source of information or criminal activity if you learned you would be deported," Ross testified. ICE officials say alliances with state and local police strengthen public safety, make immigration enforcement more consistent, and serve as force-multipliers allowing a given number of personnel to dramatically increase their effectiveness. Despite its fearsome reputation, ICE has only about 20,000 employees, spread across the United States and 46 foreign countries. In comparison, 51,000 people work for the New York City Police Department. More local police agencies have signed on during the last year, as what was a dormant 287(g) program has been revived by President Trump, amid his administration's tougher stance toward immigration and immigrants. ICE now has agreements in 18 states with 60 law-enforcement agencies including sheriffs' offices, corrections departments and detention centers, and has trained and certified more than 1,822 officers. Too often, however, the partnerships deliver more trouble than benefit, adding expense and paperwork and potentially opening the locality to liability, said Tanya Golash-Boza, a sociologist at the University of California-Merced and the author of Immigration Nation. In 2014, Salt Lake County, Utah, paid $75,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a college student who was kept in jail by an ICE detainer for 46 days after he posted bail. An Oregon woman won $30,100 in a similar case in 2015. Pennsylvania taxpayers footed the bill in 2014 for an incident six years earlier. On Nov. 20, 2008, court records state, Ernesto Galarza, then 34, was working at an Allentown construction site when the contractor was arrested for allegedly selling cocaine to an undercover police detective. Galarza also was arrested and later acquitted. The detective followed what was then Allentown policy, contacting ICE when arrests were made of people suspected of being "aliens subject to deportation," court records show. That evening Galarza was moved to Lehigh County Prison and his bail set at $15,000, even as he insisted he was a U.S. citizen. ICE filed an immigration detainer that described Galarza as a suspected alien and citizen of the Dominican Republic. A surety company posted Galarza's bail, but he was not allowed to leave. Three days after his arrest, Galarza was questioned by two ICE officers. The detainer was lifted. He was released that night. "The policy of 'getting criminals off the street,'" said Fakhimi, the ACLU lawyer, "doesn't hold up." Rebecca Rhynhart ousted several assistants to her predecessor Alan Butkovitz, who she had portrayed as a political hack in the Democratic primary. Read more An insurgent politician who promised to shake things up ousted several veteran employees after taking office last week and wants more of them gone. No, we're not talking about District Attorney Larry Krasner. City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart has cleaned house, though she took a slightly different path than Krasner did when he abruptly dismissed more than 30 prosecutors. The staffers let go by Rhynhart include the son of a ward leader and a onetime deputy finance director for former City Controller Alan Butkovitz's campaign committee. Rhynhart, who had never run for office before last year's election, unseated Butkovitz in the Democratic primary after portraying the party favorite as a "political hack." Jolene Nieves Byzon, a spokeswoman for the city controller, said Rhynhart asked all at-will staff members to reapply for their jobs about a week after winning the election in November. Rhynhart decided to not retain 15 employees, and Byzon said she notified them of her decision in mid-December. Their dismissals were effective on or around Jan. 2, the day Rhynhart was inaugurated, according to Byzon. "Controller Rhynhart has a vision for Philadelphia city government government that works more efficiently and effectively, with modern strategies, and that shares data with the public," said Byzon. "From the outset, she has been clear that she wants to reorganize the office." Byzon added that "the transition team assessed every former employee who reapplied to stay on in the Controller's Office with the new direction of the office in mind." Several of the at-will workers were retained. Rhynhart was unable to remove five of the 15 targeted employees, however, according to sources in the Controller's Office. Just a few days after they were told they weren't being retained, Rhynhart received notice that the five staffers' positions had been converted to civil service and therefore they couldn't immediately be terminated. Bill Rubin, who was first deputy controller under Butkovitz, said those five positions had been civil service in years past. "It's been the department's process to move people to civil service positions to make it a more fair and unified process," Rubin said. "This is a process that started a long time ago." The Civil Service Commission, which agreed to the change, first received the request in June 2017, a month after Butkovitz lost the primary to Rhynhart. City spokesman Mike Dunn said 119 applied for the positions, but the only people who were qualified to take the civil service test were the five employees who were already working in the Controller's Office. The 10 staffers who were successfully ousted, according to sources in the Controller's Office, include Rubin; Frank Oliver Jr., son of ward leader and ex-State Rep. Frank Oliver Sr.; Emily Maher, past deputy finance director of the Friends of Alan Butkovitz; Trina Bodnik, Butkovitz's former executive assistant; and other assistants to Butkovitz. When asked to confirm that he was dismissed, Rubin said, "I don't have any comment. I don't work there anymore and I wish them well." The employees who were saved through the civil service process are members of the Fraud and Special Investigations Unit, according to Controller's Office sources. The office currently has about 130 staff members. U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Friday. He ducked questions about his vulgar comment. Read more President Trump, on his 356th day in office, once again reset the norms of vulgarity for how we talk to and think about each other and the world. A rash and reckless leader of the free world whined during a bipartisan meeting on immigration about America accepting immigrants from "shithole countries" like Haiti and some African nations. Then he waited 15 hours, while his White House staff released a statement that did not deny the remark, as "shithole" churned through an enveloping evening cable television news cycle. Fox News seized on and endorsed his complaint while other channels shook their collective talking heads and editors asked the question: "Can we use 'shithole' in a headline?" It is far too easy these days to imagine the president in bed with his cheeseburger Thursday evening, doing the math on whether titillating his base with thinly-coded racism was worth upending a bipartisan deal on immigration, derailing a "win" for a man so desperate to tout victories. Finally, on Friday morning Trump did what so many critics have previously advised he thought first and then tweeted. This time, it was a weak denial of "the language" attributed to him. That was quickly batted down by Sen. Dick Durbin who heard him speak in the meeting. It turns out, a delayed Trump tweet is not an improvement. From The Washington Post's initial scoop on "shithole," the story went in many directions Thursday and Friday but two main paths appeared. The president is right or the president is racist. The White House responded Thursday with a 120-word statement that did not address the one word everyone was suddenly talking about. In Washington, that's as good as confirmation that the president uttered the word. The Miami Herald's editorial board took the direct route, wondering what the president thinks about South Florida, where he spends many weekends at his "Winter White House," Mar-a-Lago. The San Francisco Chronical's Josh Gohlke (an Inquirer alum) recalled when America was leery of accepting German immigrants (like Trump's grandfather). And Rex Huppke of the Chicago Tribune saw Trump's comments as a mirror for us to ask ourselves a question: What do we have to say about this president? And then the evening news shows were off the races, sprinting in predictably partisan fashion. Cable news complimented or castigated the president. Over at Fox News, calling some countries "shitholes" was simple logic. Philadelphia's own Jesse Watters said on Fox that Trump's comment was "a little offensive and if he offends some people, fine." Over on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow was wondering if Democrats could leverage Trump's comments for some good. It wasn't just news networks that reacted strongly to Trump's comments. Botswana, an African nation that denounced Trump and actually asked if it "is regarded as a 'shithole' country." While we wait for the mess to continue unfolding through the weekend on Friday, Trump, at the White House, honored the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., while ducking questions about his own comments the Los Angeles Times posits something truly startling: that the president scares them the most when he says what he is really thinking. London mayor Sadiq Khan arrives for a "Service of Hope" at Westminster Abbey, two weeks after the March 22 London terror attack, in London, Wednesday, April 5, 2017. Read more LONDON Many Londoners on Friday offered their own reasons for President Trump canceling a possible trip to the British capital: He was nervous about the expected protests that could greet him. "It seems he's finally got the message," wrote London's mayor, Sadiq Khan. In a tweet sent at 5 a.m. London time, Trump said that he was canceling a visit to the British capital because he was "not a big fan" of the real estate deal that saw the United States selling its old embassy, located in one of the poshest areas in London, and moving to shiny new building in south London, an area Trump described as "off location." Trump tweeted: "Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO." In fact, it was the George W. Bush administration that decided more than a decade ago to relocate the embassy during a worldwide push for greater security at U.S. diplomatic sites. Khan, the mayor of London and frequent foe of Trump, tweeted that Trump had "finally got the message" that he wasn't welcome in the British capital. David Lammy, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour party, believed Trump was shaken by the prospect of being " met by millions of us out on the streets protesting." Ed Miliband, the former leader of the Labour Party, also agreed that Trump had "got the message." But at least one prominent British Cabinet official took no joy in the gloating. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson a former mayor of London accused the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Khan of endangering the "crucial relationship" between the United States and Britain. He even got in an extra jab at Khan, calling him a "puffed up pompous popinjay." Trump is hugely controversial figure in Britain where he recently succeeded in uniting politicians across the political aisle when he retweeted a far-right group's anti-Muslim videos. After the British Prime Minister Theresa May said he was wrong to share the videos, Trump hit back at May telling her to focus on terrorism in Britain. That sparked another a debate about Trump in Parliament not for the first time where politicians from all parties condemned the president's tweets. There is reason to believe that a visit by Trump whether an official state visit or a lower-key working visit would be met by a howl of opposition on the streets. The Trump visit was never officially announced, but he was widely expected to attend ceremonies next month to dedicate the new embassy. Shortly after Trump's in auguration, around 100,000 demonstrators hit the streets of London for the Women's March in solidarity with anti-Trump rallies worldwide. A group called "Stop Trump" promised the "biggest demonstration in British history" should Trump visit. On a Facebook event page, more than 8,000 registered to attend a rally for an event that wasn't even scheduled. The accused allegedly raped the 19-year-old model after offering a ride from a bar where they partied Thursday night. Jeff Mercier climbing towards the end of the second pitch of Rostigraben, Oeschinenwald, Kandersteg Switzerland Photo by Hugo Vincent Photography Kandersteg new mixed climbs by Chatelan, Mercier, Koller 12.01.2018 by by Planetmountain Simon Chatelan, Jeff Mercier and Ron Koller have made the first ascent of two new ice and mixed climbs at the Oeschinenwald sector above Kandersteg in Switzerland. At first glance new ice and mixed climbs at the world-famous Kandersteg seem an impossibility, but in actual fact the Swiss ice climbing haven continues to deliver the goods. At the end of December 2017 and start of January 2018 Swiss alpinists Simon Chatelan and Ron Koller and Frances Jeff Mercier established two new, spectacular and difficult climbs in the Oeschinenwald sector. During a preliminary visit at the end of 2017 Chatelan spotted a possible line to the right of Baretritt (WI5+, 70m) and, taking advantage of a rest day, he and Mercier forged their Rostigraben on December 28th 2017. "The first pitch breaches poor quality rock" Chatelan explained to planetmountain.com. "The ice is very thin and although not particularly difficult, protected by some bolts. This is followed by a transition pitch past some mixed climbing and steep ice (WI5) that leads to the base of the crux pitch. This, with its 8 meter roof and two intermediate drips, proves very physical (M10+). The climb then finishes up a large hanging drip and another 5 meters of difficult ice. The pitch is similar to Pink Panther M9+ at the mixed sector Ueschenen in Kandersteg, but even more difficult. It is fully bolt-protected." On 2 January Chatelan returned with Ron Koller to open Loch, Keile et compagnie WI4+. This route tackles a line slightly to the left of Rostigraben and Chatelan and Koller started up with only 6 bolts and a handful of rock pitons, as they wanted to protect it with trad gear as much as possible. The first 35 m pitch deals with difficulties up to M9+, the second moves more easily across WI4+ ice, while the third tackles the jutting roof to join the suspended drip (M8). The grade still needs confirming as the route hasnt been freed in a single-push yet. Link: FB Simon Chatelan, FB Jeff Mercier, FB Ron Koller, FB Hugo Vincent Photography An Oklahoma man was arrested last week after he reportedly grabbed a TASER from a Seminole Police officer and used it on two officers. The Seminole Police Department Facebook page says a lieutenant responded to a possible Home Invasion in progress on Jan. 4. There he found suspect Dakota Jones and attempted to detain him. A struggle ensued and the lieutenant deployed his TASER. A detective responded to back up the lieutenant, and during the struggle with the two officers, Jones grabbed the TASER and used it on both officers, police say. The lieutenant drew his handgun and Jones dropped the TASER, police say. Jones was arrested. His bond was set at $100,000. The Seminole Police Department says the following agencies responded to the incident: Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Seminole County Sheriff's Office, Seminole Nation Lighthorse Police Department, District Attorneys Office, and Seminole Fire Department. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Don Lemon of CNN splashed cold water on the faces of those few Americans who remain in denial and opened his show by saying, The President Of The United States is racist. Video: Lemon said, The President of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that. Today president trump talking with lawmakers in the oval office, he said, why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? You know who he did say he would welcome here? He said, the U.S. Should bring in people from more countries like Norway. Why do we need more Haitians, take them out? Those comments are friendly disgusting. Theres other language a would like to use, but we are on television. You know what, theyre not shocking. Not even really surprising, because this is who Donald Trump is. This is what he thinks. Apparently, we have to go through this repertoire every time he says something like this. The song and dance has gone way past tiresome. Democrats and every single sane American with eyes and ears will point out the obvious fact that Trump is a racist, while the Trump enablers and deniers will put on a face of concern while they quietly wait for the latest Trump induced storm to blow over. It is time to go beyond pointing out the obvious. Any Republican who express concern, but does not condemn Trumps remarks should be voted out of office. The reason why Republicans can continue to condemn Trump while winking at thier base is because there have been no consequences. Voters have to make it clear that enabling Trump is just as bad as being Trump. Don Lemon is right. Lets move beyond this song and dance and put some real consequences for those who furrow their brows, but at the end of the day still stick with Trump. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Just when we thought Donald Trumps bigoted comments from Thursdays Oval Office meeting couldnt get any worse, new reporting added fuel to the racist dumpster fire. Not only did Trump refer to Haiti, El Salvador and other places in Africa as shithole countries, but according to updated reporting from the Washington Post, the president asked those in the same meeting, Why do we need more Haitians? The Post added that Trump told lawmakers in the room that they should take them out of any possible deal on immigration. According to the report: Lawmakers were taken aback by the comments, according to people familiar with their reactions. More recently, NBC News reported that at least one person in the room spoke up and told the president that if he were to take [Haitians] out of the country, it would be obvious why he was doing so a suggestion to Trump that his racism is quite obvious. More from NBCs Peter Alexander, citing Kasie Hunt and Frank Thorp: More from todays sh*thole mtg: Trump said, Why do we need more Haitians, take them out, according to our sources. Someone else in room responded: Because if you do, it will be obvious why. h/t @kasie @frankthorp Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 12, 2018 As I wrote earlier, this is part of the pattern of racism that Trump has displayed since taking office and, before that, throughout his campaign. Sadly, it will likely be treated like all the presidents previous spewings: Trump says something overtly racist or outrageous, there is an immediate bipartisan outrage, and then all things return to normal. But there is absolutely nothing normal about this rhetoric, and now that this disgusting worldview is being used to create actual policy, its particularly dangerous. During the campaign, Trump said he would be the champion of Haitian Americans, even if they didnt vote for him. Now that hes actually in the Oval Office, he is plotting ways to remove these same people from the country. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print By Susan Cornwell and Yasmeen Abutaleb WASHINGTON (Reuters) Political danger signs are flashing, but conservatives in Washington are pushing forward with proposals to change Americas social safety net, an agenda even fellow Republican President Donald Trump recently shied away from. Fresh from a tax overhaul victory and keen to act while they retain control of Congress, Republicans are seeking tougher work and job training requirements for those helped by assistance programs such as Medicaid and food stamps. Kentucky on Friday became the first U.S. state to get approval from Washington to impose work requirements on recipients of Medicaid, a government program that provides health coverage to millions of Americans, primarily the poor, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and disabled people. The approval came a day after the Trump administration said states could move toward putting work or job training conditions on Medicaid, which has never had such conditions attached. Democrats and health advocacy groups said such changes would make healthcare less accessible to vulnerable Americans. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal group, said it plans to file a legal challenge against the administration. Changes like Kentuckys appeal to conservative Republican voters, although more broadly, Americans strong views and personal stakes in U.S. social programs have long been seen as political dynamite especially in election years. That is fraught with danger, political danger, said John Feehery, a Republican strategist who served as spokesman to former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert. After the deep tax cuts for corporations that Republicans pushed through Congress in December, critics will say the party wants to pay for it by slashing benefits to poor people. They just dont need that right now, Feehery said. In November, Republicans must defend their Senate and House majorities in nationwide midterm congressional elections, which historically produce big gains for the opposition in the first term of a new presidency. Trump said on Saturday after a meeting with Republican leaders that any welfare legislation should be bipartisan or wait until later in 2018 after other priorities such as infrastructure and immigration are addressed. Some House Republicans interpreted Trumps statement as ruling out overhauls of big programs such as Social Security and the Medicare program for the elderly, but leaving room for more modest initiatives such as stricter work requirements. RYANS AGENDA House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Republican Partys policy wonk in chief, has long advocated for some of the welfare changes that party colleagues are trying to decide how to package. What we will see is perhaps a more focused approach, to a work requirement, instead of a comprehensive entitlement reform initiative, North Carolina Republican Representative Mark Meadows said in an interview. He is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative faction. In an example of what such proposals invite, Democrats quickly attacked the administrations decision to let states proceed with Medicaid work requirements. Its really sad. The elderly, disabled, pregnant women and children will all suffer, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters. A person familiar with a meeting last weekend at Camp David, the presidents mountain retreat in Maryland, between Trump and congressional leaders said some participants were wary of making welfare reform a Republican message. Still, polling in mid-2017 by the Kaiser Family Foundation found 70 percent of respondents favored work requirements for Medicaid for non-disabled adults. At the same time, 74 percent said they had a favorable view of Medicaid as it is now. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican, said the 2018 farm bill will including tighter work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps. He gave no details. House tax committee Chairman Kevin Brady, also a Texas Republican, said his panel is exploring ways to get workers who are trapped in the welfare system off the sidelines. Representative Bradley Byrne, an Alabama Republican, said safety net programs are under review by a bipartisan group he co-chairs called the Opportunity Action Caucus. He said he hoped the group this month would propose ways for able-bodied people who are presently on one or more of our welfare programs, to go out and get the skills and training they need to get a job. (Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Jonathan Oatis and Susan Thomas) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Trump has lied more than 2,000 times less than a year into his term in office, but he wants the country to believe that a Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and all of the independently verified media accounts of his statements are not true. Trump tweeted: 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 Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 According to The Washington Post, Trump crossed the 2,000 lie threshold on January 9, 2018, during his 355th day in office. For Trump, lying comes as naturally as breathing. Of course, he called countries with majority black and Latino populations shitholes. Such a comment is completely in line with Trumps claims that Mexicans are rapists, Puerto Ricans are ungrateful, and African-Americans are lazy. The repulsive compulsive liar wants the nation to believe that it is everyone else who is not telling the truth, but Trumps shithole comment was a rare statement of truth about how he really feels about non-whites. For once, Trump and his Republican enablers must be forced to own their truth. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print (Note: Strong language in paragraphs 1,4, 15 & 18) By Terje Solsvik and Camilla Knudsen OSLO (Reuters) Many Norwegians rejected on Friday a suggestion by U.S. President Donald Trump that they would be more welcome to move to the United States than immigrants from shithole countries such as Haiti or African nations. The Nordic country, one of the richest in the world by GDP per capita, was last year named the happiest nation on the planet and is known for a cradle-to-grave welfare state funded in part by large reserves of oil and natural gas. Trump mentioned Norway in derogatory comments about other countries of migration as U.S. senators briefed him on Thursday on a newly drafted bipartisan immigration bill, according to two sources who asked not to be identified. One of the sources who was briefed on the conversation quoted him as saying: Why do we want all these people from Africa here? Theyre shithole countries We should have more people from Norway. In one of several Twitter posts on Friday, Trump defended his stance on a bipartisan Senate immigration deal, but denied using the vulgar language ascribed to him. The language used by me at the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) meeting was tough, but this was not the language used, he said. He also later denied using derogatory language about Haitians. On behalf of Norway: Thanks, but no thanks, tweeted Torbjoern Saetre, a politician representing Norways Conservative Party in a municipality near Oslo. Others condemned the U.S. presidents comments as inappropriate or racist. We are not coming. Cheers from Norway, one woman wrote. While hundreds of thousands of Norwegians emigrated to the U.S. in the 19th century, just 502 out of a population of 5.3 million people moved there in 2016, down 59 from the previous year, according to Statistics Norway. Will there be more now? the statistics agency asked in a tweet. Government officials, seeking to deflect attention, turned down a chance to comment. We respectfully decline the opportunity, one government official said when contacted by Reuters. The reference to Norway may have been prompted by Prime Minister Erna Solberg who visited the White House on Wednesday when the president praised Norway for running a trade deficit with the United States and for buying U.S. military equipment. Christian Christensen, an American professor of journalism at Stockholm University in neighboring Sweden, tweeted: Of course people from #Norway would love to move to a country where people are far more likely to be shot, live in poverty, get no healthcare because theyre poor, get no paid parental leave or subsidized daycare and see fewer women in political power. #Shithole Before the shithole controversy, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt tweeted that, judging by Solbergs visit, keys to success with Trump is personal charm, a solid trade deficit with the U.S. and buying tons of U.S. military hardware. Solberg, whose office also declined to comment on Trumps remarks, is expected to announce soon an expansion of her cabinet to include Norways Liberal Party, a centrist group that favors strong environmental policies and more immigration. The first point of order in the new government declaration: Norway will still not be a shithole country, tweeted Kjetil Alstadheim, the political editor of financial daily Dagens Naeringsliv. (Additional reporting by Henrik Stolen and Alister Doyle; Editing by Richard Balmforth) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print WASHINGTON (Reuters) U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley, a career diplomat and former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, has resigned, telling the State Department he no longer feels able to serve President Donald Trump. As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies. My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honor bound to resign. That time has come, Feeley said, according to an excerpt of his resignation letter read to Reuters. A State Department spokeswoman confirmed Feeleys departure, saying that he has informed the White House, the Department of State, and the Government of Panama of his decision to retire for personal reasons, as of March 9 of this year. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Tom Brown) We are now immersed in a s***storm over President Trumps alleged s***hole comment. The Democrats, more than ever, are convinced that voters will express their revulsion toward Trump by awarding them the House in November, and perhaps the Senate as well. Maybe so. On the other hand President Trump denies using the word s***hole. So who, exactly, says that he did? Who knows? The source is, as usual, anonymous. Presumably it was one of the Democrats who attended the meeting on immigration, but we dont even know that for sure. If no one is willing to stand up like a man (or woman) and say, I was there, I heard what was said, and Trump described Haiti as a s***hole country,' why should be believe the story? If its true, why is the source anonymous? It strikes me that something like half the stories that dominate the news arent news at all, they are more properly classified as rumor, based on things allegedly said by people who are not identified. I dont think we can even imagine what a newspaper looked like if it stopped reporting stories based on anonymous sources. Meanwhile, the story about what Trump supposedly said is shifting. Jake Tapper tweets that his source says the s***hole reference wasnt to Haiti, but to unspecified African countries. Whatever. There is not much point in fine-tuning allegations by anonymous sources. President Trump has been tweeting, too: 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 Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 The Democrats have, as usual, gone ballistic over the presidents alleged crude language. But none of them, as far as I have seen, has tried to answer his question: why do we need more poor, unskilled immigrants from Haiti, or from various African countries? Given the unremitting hate directed against President Trump by the Democratic Party press, Americans must all have turned against him, right? Seemingly not. The latest Rasmussen Poll predates the s***hole hysteria, but it shows Trump spiking up a bit, to 46% approval versus 53% disapproval, about the same numbers President Obama generally registered. A reader asks a good question: Would it make a difference if hed said hellholes? How else would liberals describe these God-forsaken places? And why are so many residents of these places anxious to emigrate to the U.S.? The same reader, a Boston native, suggests that Trump may be saying, however crudely, what most Americans believe: Boston, 1974, Louise Day Hicks: She Says What You Think.' That is indeed how a great many people view President Trump. UPDATE: Dick Durbin, a thoroughly dishonest character, now apparently stands by the s***hole comment. Thats the top headline in todays Washington Post (paper edition). Im not sure why its newsworthy, though. Naturally, a Cabinet member wants to be in the good graces of his boss, the president. Theres no job security, and not much chance of being very effective, without the presidents favor. It would be newsworthy if a Cabinet member tried to curry favor by acting lawlessly. However, nowhere in the Posts article do reporters Josh Dawsey and Matt Zapotosky point to any lawless measures taken by Attorney General Sessions to please Trump. The best Dawsey and Zapotosky can do is to note that the Justice Department has begun looking into matters that Trump has publicly complained are not being pursued. But it would be odd, and in my view irresponsible, for any department head not to look at matters the president thinks warrant attention. The Justice Department is not an independent agency. The president oversees it. His legitimate concerns are matters the DOJ should look at. This was certainly the view of Eric Holder. He saw himself as President Obamas wing-man. In 2013, responding to the question of whether he planned to stay on as Attorney General, Holder said: Im still enjoying what Im doing, theres still work to be done. Im still the Presidents wing-man, so Im there with my boy. The terms wing-man and my boy suggest a higher and potentially more problematic level of service to the presient than just looking into concerns he raises. Did the Washington Post report Holders statement? If so, I cant find the report. Dawsey and Zapotosky tell us and this is whats newsworthy in their story that Sessions efforts to win the presidents confidence are falling flat. Sessions supporters highlight the outstanding work he has done to reduce border crossings, to combat street gangs, to promote religious liberty, and to roll back obnoxious Obama-era regulations. But, as one White House official told the Post, in Trumps mind none of this washes away the sin of recusal from the Russia investigation. Of course not. Lets be honest. Trump cares far less about immigration, crime, and religious liberty than he does about the Russia investigation. He wants a wing-man, like Obama had. Will Trump therefore replace Sessions, as Reps. Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan have suggested he should? I hope not. Put aside all the fine work Sessions is doing and ask yourself what would happen if Sessions were fired. The Senate almost certainly would not confirm a loyalist e.g., Chris Christie or Scott Pruitt, two men cited by the Post as possible replacements. It would only confirm a Rod Rosenstein or Christopher Wray type, and only after receiving repeated assurances that he (or she) would not interfere with Robert Muellers work. Absent confirmation of a replacement, Rosenstein would the acting Attorney General. If Trump fired him too, the acting AG would be Rachel Brand. Neither Rosenstein nor Brand (who has a very promising career ahead of her) would play the wing-man role. Indeed, its because Rosenstein hasnt played it to Trumps satisfaction that the president is so angry abou Sessions recusal. Neither Rosenstein nor Brand would advance Trumps substantive agenda as vigorously as Sessions. Thus, Trump is probably stuck with Sessions, and thats a very good thing. The Bible on Money These teachings are to give glory to Abba, through Jesus, and in the Spirit. They teach us how to glorify the Father through our use of money and material possessions. Read these teachings one at a time. Pray before and after each one. Be sure to read the Scriptures quoted or referred to. Repent. Let the Spirit work in You. We thank you for accepting God's call to read this book. We thank Mary for her intercession and faithful help in preparing these teachings. TABLE OF CONTENTS Financial Freedom Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better Finances Mean Fatherhood Kingdom Kindergarten Stewardship The ABCs of Tithing Tithing Test Alms-Living Smile Style The Credit Card Blues Interest Savings and Saved How To Make Money (Part 1) How To Make Money (Part 2) Multiplication Tables Fund Raising and Faith Raising Parish Finances Mind Games He Ate the Whole Thing The Spiritual Gift of Poverty The Spiritual Gift of Administration Finances and Community The End FINANCIAL FREEDOM "Do not live in fear, little flock. It has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom." Luke 12:32 The Lord wants us to have financial freedom. He does not want our hearts to be troubled (Jn 14:1). "Stop worrying, then, over questions like, `what are we to eat, or what are we to drink, or what are we to wear?' The unbelievers are always running after these things. Your heavenly Father knows all that you need" (Mt 6:31-32). Financial freedom is attained not by getting so much money that we feel safe or by getting a big pension or retirement plan. "Tell those who are rich in this world's goods not to be proud, and not to rely on so uncertain a thing as wealth" (1 Tm 6:17). Finances that depend on circumstances are enslaved to circumstances and always in jeopardy. No matter how much we have, we always wonder if it's enough. True financial freedom must transcend circumstances and be based on relationship with our all-loving and all-powerful Father. He loves us more than a father ever loved a child. He even sent Jesus to die for us. "What shall we say after that? If God is for us, who can be against us? Is it possible that He Who did not spare His own Son but Who handed Him over for the sake of us all will not grant us all things besides?" (Rm 8:31-32) Our heavenly Father loves us and can do more than we can ever ask or imagine (Eph 3:20). If we have a strong relationship with Abba, we are financially free (Jn 8:36). The Spirit is sent into our hearts to cry out "Abba" (Gal 4:6). Then we have financial freedom that will not change with circumstances but change circumstances. Prayer: Father, I don't need an IRA but INRI, that is, Jesus, the only Way to You (Jn 14:6). Promise: "When you pray, say: `Father...give us each day our daily bread.'" Lk 11:2-3 Praise: John quit working overtime to give Abba some prime time. Now he's got more peace and more money. ANYTHING YOU CAN DO I CAN DO BETTER "Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God's will, what is good, pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:2 Modern people assume they are more advanced than the people of Biblical times. Our reasoning is that, since we are technologically more sophisticated, we are automatically better in everything. We call ancient people primitive and think we know more about life, relationships, sexuality, and even finances and money. If we are going to let God speak to us through the Scriptures, we'll have to take the chip off our shoulders. The Bible is above all the cultures of all time. We are to submit to God's Word rather than submit it to our rationalizations. The Bible challenges our financial system. It makes a vice out of the supposed virtue of saving for a rainy day. It "flat-out" condemns interest (see Ex 22:24ff; Ps 15:5; Prv 18:8; Ez 18:13,17: 22:12; Dt 23:20). What we call "wise", the Bible calls "foolish" (Lk 12:19-20). We are called to admit we are wrong, or we relegate our lives to be bound by cultural blind spots. Does our financial system have anything to brag about? Two world wars, an ever-widening gap between rich and poor, starvation in the midst of plenty these are the facts and symptoms of an economy not under God's word and not in God's will. Prayer: Father, may I not think I'm so smart. Promise: "This is the one whom I approve: the lowly and afflicted man who trembles at My word." Is 66:2 Praise: John started reading the Bible more than the Wall Street Journal. FINANCES MEAN FATHERHOOD "Your heavenly Father knows all that you need." Matthew 6:32 When we teach on tithing, almsgiving, interest, credit cards, and the lottery, we may think we're talking about our money but really we're talking about our relationship with our heavenly Father. Tithing tests God's promise to father us. Almsgiving helps us grow in our relationship with our heavenly Father. That is why almsgiving has been traditionally considered as the most important penitential practice, even more important than prayer and fasting (Tb 12:8, Lk 11:41). Almsgiving is a chance to be alone with Abba, provided we keep our almsgiving secret and not let our left hand know what our right is doing (Mt 6:3). If we sow bountifully with our money, we'll appear to put ourselves in financial jeopardy. Our Abba will be a good Provider and come to our rescue. And it will certainly be God because no one else knows our need. "Keep your deeds of mercy secret, and your Father Who sees in secret will repay you" (Mt 6:4). We must let ourselves be put in a position to be fathered. Let's not try to be self-sufficient and independent. Let Abba run up to embrace, kiss, and gift you. Let Him give you the robe, the ring, and the shoes, and throw a party in your honor (Lk 15:20-24). "Seek first His kingship over you, His way of holiness, and all these things will be given you besides" (Mt 6:33). Financing is only an effect of fathering. Prayer: Abba, may I accept Your adoption of me and expect Your fathering in practical details. Promise: "Stop worrying, then, over questions like, `what are we to eat, or what are we to drink, or what are we to wear?' " Mt 6:31 Praise: Terry had a bad relationship with his earthly father. He forgave his dad, was healed, and never worried again about finances. He now trusts his heavenly Father. KINGDOM KINDERGARTEN "If you can trust a man in little things, you can also trust him in greater." Luke 16:10 Jesus considers money to be a little thing. It is kindergarten in His kingdom. We must pass this elementary test to move on to greater things. When God gives us His money to manage, it may seem like a lot in our eyes. But it is really like a father giving his son a dollar, just to see what he'll do with it. As a child thinks a dollar is "big money", so an adult thinks a million dollars is "big money". However, with God, the Creator of universes, a dollar or a million dollars is chicken feed. The money we have is not so valuable but the way we use money can be important in so far as it leads to greater things. If our Father can't trust us with the use of money, how can He entrust us with peoples' lives, salvation, marriages, families, and spiritual needs? How can He trust us with ministry if we haven't been able to pass kingdom kindergarten? Maybe that's why Judas held the purse for Jesus' disciples (Jn 13:29). Possibly he never grew beyond spiritual kindergarten. Maybe that's why Jesus started discipling the rich young man by challenging the youth to be possessed no longer by possessions (Mk 10:21). Possibly that's why Zacchaeus instantly recognized that to deal with his financial dealings was the first step in following Jesus (Lk 19:8). Prayer: Father, may I pass kingdom kindergarten. Promise: "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or be attentive to the one and despise the other. You cannot give yourself to God and money." Lk 16:13 Praise: Charlie wrote a $50 check to the church. It was the first time he ever put more than $10 in the collection, although he was 35 years old and making $15,000 a year. STEWARDSHIP "The manager thought to himself, `What shall I do next?' " Luke 16:3 As stewards, we accept the fact that God owns everything, including us (see 1 Cor 6:20; 1 Chr 29:16). He tells us not to own but to manage things for Him. A good manager moves as much merchandise as quickly as possible. He should be enterprising and aggressive (Lk 16:8). A manager is a failure if not constantly emptying and re-stocking the store. It doesn't matter if we start with five talents or two talents, $5,000 or the widow's mite, just as long as we move it for God's kingdom (Mt 25:14-30). We do not have to compare ourselves to others. We are all equal in His sight no matter how many talents we have. For example, someone severely retarded can be a better steward than a multimillionaire. It's not how much we manage but how well we manage. On judgment day, one person can go before Jesus with ten talents, another with one talent. To the person with one talent, Jesus may say: "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Mt 25:21 our transl.). To the persons with ten talents, He may say: "Get out of my sight you evildoers" (Mt 7:23, our transl.). As God's stewards, we're not under pressure to produce. All we need do is be faithful. Prayer: Father, sometimes I take over ownership from You and thereby overburden myself. I repent. Forgive me. Promise: "While we live we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die we die as His servants. Both in life and in death we are the Lord's." Rm 14:8 Praise: Harry turned over his finances to God and then took them back. This happened ten times over five years. One Easter, Harry finally left it in God's hands. THE ABCs of TITHING "Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Yet you say, `How must we return?' " Malachi 3:7 Tithing is a way of returning to the Lord. It is 10% of our gross income. It is not a contribution but more like a tax or a bill. It is something owed. For example, we do not contribute to the gas and electric company; we pay our bill. Tithing is the first lesson in kingdom kindergarten. We don't work our way up to tithing. As a Christian under the lordship of Jesus, we obey God's word to pay our tithe. When we tithe, we test God (Mal 3:10). He opens the floodgates of heaven. This strengthens our faith, and then we move past tithing to almsgiving (over 10%). Abraham (Gn 14:20), Jacob (Gn 28:22), Moses (Dt 14:22, 26:12; Num 18:21-32, Lev 27:30), Amos (Am 4:4), and Nehemiah (Neh 10:38) stressed the importance of paying our tithes. Jesus Himself (Mt 23:23) stated we should not neglect paying our tithe. He emphasized going beyond tithing to living the "weightier" matters of the law. The tithe is to be brought to the priests for the temple worship. The tithe of the third year is given to the poor (Dt 14:28). In the new covenant, the temple is the Christian believer and the whole body of Christ. Therefore, some believe the whole tithe need not go to the local church but can be sent to any ministries that are building Jesus' kingdom. Some send 5% to the local church and 5% to other works of God. The Spirit will direct us. Prayer: Loving Father, may I return to You in tithing. Promise: "We will not neglect the house of our God." Neh 10:40 Praise: Rick and Rita didn't have enough left for the month's food after they tithed. Someone, unaware of their situation, gave them several boxes of free food. TITHING TEST "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me in this, says the Lord of hosts: Shall I not open for you the floodgates of heaven, to pour down blessing upon you without measure?" Malachi 3:10 Since tithing is like owing a bill, we are thieves and robbers when we don't tithe. "Dare a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! And you say, `How do we rob You?' In tithes!" (Mal 3:8) We not only rob God but deprive ourselves of having the floodgates of heaven opened for us. Furthermore, when we tithe, God prevents any sudden catastrophe that would drain us of our finances. "For your sake, I will forbid the locust to destroy your crops" (Mal 3:11). The money we refuse to tithe is eventually taken from us by circumstances beyond our control. If God doesn't get the tithe, the doctor, car mechanic, IRS, rest-home, or hospital will get it. We put our money in a bag with holes in it (Hag 1:6). By not tithing, we deprive ourselves of getting the benefit of our resources and become victims of circumstances. Some may say: "Thank God I didn't tithe; I needed the money because my car suddenly broke down. I better not tithe just in case something unforeseen occurs." This is backwards. The world will try to convince us to doubt God's word and believe in man's word. But don't fail the test. Test God in tithing. He'll pass, and the world will fail. And you'll know God's word is true. Prayer: Abba, Abba, Abba... Promise: "Consider your ways! Go up into the hill country; bring timber, and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and receive My glory, says the Lord. You expected much, but it came to little; and what you brought home, I blew away. For what cause? says the Lord of hosts. Because My house lies in ruins." Hag 1:7-9 Praise: Loretta had to go to the hospital in 10 of 12 years. She started to tithe and went 10 years without hospitalization. "When you give alms, for example, do not blow a horn before you in synagogues and streets like hypocrites looking for applause." Matthew 6:2 Many Christians have put money in the collection basket or plate for years, but they have never given a cent to the church. We never give a thing to the church until we put in more than 10% of our income. The first 10% is not a gift but the payment of our bill. The Lord calls us to break the 10% barrier. The measure with which we measure will be measured back to us, and more besides (Mk 4:24). If we sow bountifully, we will reap bountifully (2 Cor 9:6). God will provide enough for all our needs and even a surplus for good works (2 Cor 9:8). Once we know this secret, we are highly motivated to give. After Moses called for a collection, the complaint of the "finance committee" was that the people were giving too much. They told Moses to give a sermon to stop the people from giving anymore (Ex 36:5). Has your pastor ever had to give that sermon? The Macedonians begged Paul for the privilege of contributing to the collection (2 Cor 8:4). They gave beyond their means even though they were in deep poverty (2 Cor 8:2-3). Do they know something we don't know? Do they believe something we don't believe? Prayer: Father, may I break the 10% barrier and give for the first time. Promise: "You need to recall the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, Who said, 'There is more happiness in giving than receiving.'" Acts 20:35 Praise: Mary gave her house for use in a Christian ministry. SMILE STYLE "With each contribution show a cheerful countenance." Sirach 35:8 Because we trust our heavenly Father and because we know He will always outgive us sevenfold (Sir 35:10), a hundredfold (Mk 10:28-30), we give with a smile on our face. We are cheerful givers (2 Cor 9:7) with "overflowing joy" (2 Cor 8:2). We give in style to give God the glory. "Because of your praiseworthy service they are glorifying God for your obedient faith in the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them" (2 Cor 9:13). We give in style because God gives in style. "My God in turn will supply your needs fully, in a way worthy of His magnificent riches in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:19). God does more than supply our needs fully. He does it in style, in a royal way, as befits His place as Creator and Lord of all. For example, He doesn't just send a loaf of bread; He rains down manna from the sky. He even gives us Jesus, the Bread come down from heaven (Jn 6:41). So we should not be groveling and compromising for money. Our churches should not be begging, or selling their souls by gambling or pushing alcohol. Those methods are not worthy of God's "magnificent riches in Christ Jesus." We should give and receive in style, God's style. Prayer: By my faith, may I show off Your faithful love. Promise: "What I say to you is this: Make friends for yourselves through your use of this world's goods." Lk 16:9 Praise: George used to hate the collection at Mass. Now it's often a great time of prayer. THE CREDIT CARD BLUES "Owe no debt to anyone except the debt that binds us to love one another." Romans 13:8 God, in the Bible, tells us not to owe any debts. In the old covenant, Sirach counsels us to lend freely but be careful (Sir 29:1-7). Proverbs discourages loans and warns they will cause us to be enslaved (Prv 22:7). Leviticus commands the chosen people to adopt the jubilee year (Lev 25:8). In this system, no one can be in debt or lose his inheritance for longer than 50 years. In the new covenant, Jesus takes it further. He says: "Lend without expecting repayment" (Lk 6:35). Instead of giving loans, we should give gifts. The reason we don't loan it is that we don't own it. The Bible teaches that no one owns land (Ps 24:1). It all belongs to God. Also, we don't own our bodies (1 Cor 6:19) or money. So no one has the right either to give a loan or take one without God's permission; it's His money. But usually this is what we do through loans, interest, and credit cards. How many people have asked God's permission to give or take a loan. If we don't ask God's permission, we may be enslaved to the world and forced to ask its permission to function financially. The book of Revelation prophesied that it would come to a point that a person would not be allowed to buy or sell anything until he or she had sold out to the system of the beast (Rv 13:16-17). We're almost to that point now. Prayer: Father, get me out of today's economic system before it destroys me. Promise: "Love your enemy and do good; lend without expecting repayment. Then will your recompense be great. You will rightly be called sons of the Most High." Lk 6:35 Praise: John and Debbie brought daily prayer into their marriage. They agreed after two weeks of prayer to cut up their four credit cards. INTEREST "If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among My people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him." Exodus 22:24 Do not exact interest from your countryman either in money or in kind" (Lev 25:36). "You shall not demand interest from your countrymen on a loan of money or of food or of anything else (Dt 23:20). When a person can make money just by having money, then the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Ezekiel lists taking interest as one of the abominations which caused death to a person or a nation (Ez 18:13), and is an indication of having forgotten God (Ez 22:12). Nehemiah was "extremely angry" at the nobles and magistrates for obstructing the restoration of God's people by exacting interest from their kinsmen (Neh 5:7). In the Old testament, the prohibition against taking interest was for the chosen people among themselves. They were to "lend to many nations and borrow from none" (Dt 28:12). But in the new covenant, our compassion and love extends beyond our own people to all nations. Prayer: Father, may I act like Your child and not let myself be programmed by the world's economy. Promise: "He who increases his wealth by interest and overcharge gathers it for him who is kind to the poor." Prv 28:8 Praise: Terry never could save up much money because of constant car repairs. He took out his money from the bank and gave most of it to the starving. He has had only $35 of car repairs in one and a half years. SAVINGS AND SAVED "To whom will all this piled-up wealth of yours go?" Luke 12:20 If we're not paying or receiving interest, we may wonder how we can save enough to get ahead. The Lord may answer that question by saying we can throw out savings accounts along with our unbiblical notions of debts and interest. Contrary to what we may have been taught, Jesus is generally against saving money. He implies it is a form of greed (Lk 12:15ff). Jesus calls the man, who has "blessings in reserve for years to come" (Lk 12:19), a fool. We call a person who doesn't save, a fool; Jesus is just the opposite. Savings do not fit in with God's system. Since He is all-powerful, He doesn't have to save for a rainy day and neither do His children. He operates on a "daily" system. Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread (Mt 6:11). He says to let tomorrow take care of itself (Mt 6:34). For example, when the chosen people collect extra manna (just in case God didn't come through the next day), it became wormy and rotten (Ex 16:20). When we save for a rainy day, we may be making rainy days happen or more precisely not making sunny days. If we look hard enough, we may find some veiled references to savings in Proverbs. Also, God called His people to save to prepare for famines (Gn 41:35-36, Acts 11:28-29). But usually our heavenly Father does not approve of saving. Jesus is our Savings and Savior; we are to trust Him. Prayer: Holy Spirit, cry out in me "Abba". Give me the grace to trust. Promise: "Seek first His kingship over you, His way of holiness, and all these things will be given you besides. Enough, then, of worrying about tomorrow." Mt 6:33-34 Praise: Kim, 10 years old, opened her piggy bank and gave to the starving. Now she doesn't put anything in the bank; she just sends it straight to Africa. HOW TO MAKE MONEY (Part 1) "Give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over." Luke 6:38 In Jesus' kingdom, we make money not by amassing capital but by giving money away. Therefore, we are to take initiative in moving God's resources (Lk 16:8). "`Here we have put everything aside to follow You. What can we expect from it?' (Mt 19:27)...Jesus answered, `I give you My word, there is no one who has given up home, brothers or sisters, mother or father, children or property, for Me and for the gospel who will not receive in this present age a hundred times as many'" (Mk 10:29-30). Nobody returns a hundredfold but God. That is why "it is better to give alms than to store up gold" (Tb 12:8). It's better to give than to have a bank account on earth. "Do not lay up for yourselves an earthly treasure" (Mt 6:19). "Make it your practice instead to store up heavenly treasure" (Mt 6:20). We must withdraw our money from the earthly account and deposit it in the heavenly account by giving it to the poor. Jesus said to the young rich man: "There is one thing more you must do. Go and sell what you have and give to the poor, you will then have treasure in heaven" (Mk 10:21). This teaching seems foolish to many people, even Christians. They trust man's word more than they do God's word. They trust an earthly bank more than God. But who's really the fool? "Then I will say to myself: `You have blessings in reserve for years to come. Relax! Eat heartily, drink well. Enjoy yourself.' But God said to him. `You fool!' " (Lk 12:19-20) Prayer: Father, may I not be foolish enough to save my money in an earthly bank. Promise: "He who has compassion on the poor lends to the Lord." Prov 19:17 Praise: John laughed at the faith-preacher on TV. Later he cried and repented. HOW TO MAKE MONEY (Part 2) "I do believe! Help my lack of trust!" Mark 9:24 When we put God's money in an earthly bank, we only get a few percent interest. We could get 100 times as much from the heavenly account. Most people make the extremely foolish mistake of using an earthly bank because they don't believe Jesus is serious. But He means what He says. For example, Jesus did give Peter 100 times as many houses. "All who owned property or houses sold them and donated the proceeds. They used to lay them at the feet of the apostles" (Acts 4:34). Peter didn't have his name on the deed, but he had at his disposal all these houses, properties, and farms. That's better than owning them. This doesn't mean Peter was "filthy rich" because he had to keep moving the property out for God to keep moving it in. A lot of property and money passed through his hands, but he didn't own them legally. Every Christian is to live simply. "Those things I used to consider gain I have now reappraised as loss in the light of Christ" (Phil 3:7). We have been chosen out of this world (Jn 15:19). Although we still live in the midst of plenty, we don't hold on to it. For example, there are two bodies of water in the holy land: the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Both have the same source, but the Dead Sea doesn't let the water flow through. That is why it is dead. We are to be the Sea of Galilee. Prayer: Jesus my lack of faith is costing Your people money. Forgive me. Promise: "Fear is useless. What is needed is trust."Mk 5:36 Praise: Jerry needed money desperately. He searched through his house and found $2.38. He immediately gave it away. His finances began to flow after that. MULTIPLICATION TABLES "God can multiply His favors among you." 2 Corinthians 9:8 The ultimate almsgiving is giving all to Jesus. Whether it's one loaf and two fish or thousands of loaves and fish, we ask Jesus to give thanks, bless, break, and multiply our "all" (Mt 14:19;15:36). A multipliable penny is worth much more than a million dollars. That's why the widow's mite was a greater contribution than that of the wealthy (Lk 21:4). Money that makes money and multiplies is the most valuable. The Bible recounts the multiplication of the loaves and fish six times. Also, this is the only passage appearing in all four gospels. God repeatedly challenges us to give the multipliable portion because He looks at us "with love" (Mk 10:21). Like the widow of Zarephath, we are told to give up what will soon run out to begin a multiplication process that will sustain ourselves and others for years (1 Kgs 17:13-16). She only made a cupcake for Elijah but it was her "all" given in faith and therefore multipliable. Prayer: Lord, I've always been involved in addition, subtraction, and division. By faith may I let You get me into multiplication. Promise: "Neither in my youth, nor now that I am old, have I seen a just man forsaken nor his descendants begging bread." Ps 37:25 Praise: Norm debated whether to give his last dollars to the starving of Africa or buy a lottery ticket. He gave it to the starving and the money just keeps on coming. FUND-RAISING AND FAITH-RAISING "When you harken to the voice of the Lord, your God, all these blessings will come upon you and overwhelm you." Deuteronomy 28:2 Did you ever notice that most churches are constantly raising funds instead of raising faith? Churches usually trivialize or even prostitute themselves. They get into hard-core compulsive behavior, such as promoting gambling and drinking alcohol. They also try "Mickey Mouse" fund-raising such as car washes, bake sales, magazine sales, penny raffles, etc. Can you imagine Jesus raffling off a ham at the beer booth to cover the cost of the disciples' next trip to Jerusalem? Is our heavenly Father a real provider or just a myth? (see Gn 22:14) Is Jesus King of kings, and are we a royal priesthood? Or is that just religious jargon? Since we're not doing God's will, we raise these funds for a bag with holes in them (Hag 1:6). We keep raising funds, but there's never an end to it. Fund-raising gradually escalates each year while the real issue, faith, deteriorates. Eventually we serve such things as church buildings and finances rather than serving God and His people. Caught in our own trap, we lose our way and conceal rather than reveal the gospel. Prayer: Father, I repent for myself and my church. I repent of making You look like a bad father and provider. Promise: "The Lord in reply said to her: `Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many things; one thing only is required.' " Lk 10:41 Praise: Fr. Kuharic stopped festivals and bingo at his church. At first, many left the church, but within two years the church had grown to be larger than ever. PARISH FINANCES "...to present to Himself a glorious church, holy and immaculate, without stain or wrinkle or anything of that sort." Ephesians 5:27 What would happen to a church that obeyed the Bible's commandments on finances? Those who doubt God's word might expect the church to go bankrupt. But in fact the church would receive the multitude of blessings promised to the obedient (Dt 28:1ff). There would be no reason for fund-raising. There would be nothing to do but be Jesus' body and do His word. The church's emphasis would switch from maintenance of buildings to saving souls, reconciling marriages, and sanctifying homes. The church would not be such a "Mickey Mouse" operation promoting gambling and drinking, washing cars, holding bake sales, and in general, losing credibility with an already skeptical world. When we read the average church bulletin, we don't know whether to laugh or cry. If we would obey God, the faith level of the church would rise. There would be a great hunger to know God's all-powerful word. People would complain about short sermons. Ushers would have problems with people clamoring to sow bountifully at the collection. Christian community would be real, and the movement of the Spirit in our day would make the Acts of the Apostles look rather mild. Does this sound far-fetched? It's already happening in the underground of China, Africa, parts of South America, South Korea, and the Philippines. Repent! The kingdom of God is at hand (Mk 1:15). Prayer: Jesus, I'm missing out. May I not let You pass me by. Promise: "At these words the man's face fell. He went away sad, for he had many possessions." Mk 10:22 Praise: Fr. Smith banned drinking and gambling at his parish's festivals. The festival made little money, but the church did better financially. "Say `yes' when you mean `yes' and `no' when you mean `no'. Anything beyond that is from the evil one." Matthew 5:37 When we are faced with the uncompromised word of God on tithing, almsgiving, interest, and savings, we tend to play games. We may try to evade the issue by questioning the interpretation of a Bible passage. We may rationalize that an Old Testament passage has been superseded by the new covenant. But Jesus did not come to abolish even the smallest part of a letter of the old law but to fulfill it (Mt 5:17-18). We may try to get around applying God's word by pretending it's symbolic, although the text and context of the passage gives no reason to take it other than literally. If we tire of playing Bible games, we may get into word-games. Those who preach the "prosperity gospel" redefine "prosperity", "needs", and "luxuries" in terms of modern American life-style. That's a great change from the Biblical use of these words. Of course, God wants us to be prosperous (Ps 1:3; 3 Jn 2), but what He means by "prosperity" would look like poverty to the modern person. What we call "simple living" would make Herod envious. Let's not play games with the living God. Our relationship with our Abba is too precious for that. Prayer: Father, You've always been honest with me. May I not try to deceive You or me. Promise: "The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye." Ps 19:9 Praise: George, a priest, never took the Bible seriously. After a time of frustration, he turned his life over to God. Now the Bible makes sense. HE ATE THE WHOLE THING "There was also His tunic, but this tunic was woven in one piece from top to bottom and had no seam." John 19:23 These teachings concerning finances and life-style make sense only in the context of the whole Christian life. If a person is not under the lordship of Jesus and submissive to the Spirit, these commands and teachings may be misinterpreted as merely a burden to escape from. If a person hasn't tested God in tithing, then he probably hasn't experienced the opening of the floodgates of heaven (Mal 3:10). Deprived of this, a person would probably be too threatened and afraid to get out of the interest and banking system. He would hold on to his savings with clenched fists. Someone without Christian community probably would not have the teaching and direction to break free from the world's system. The Bible and this particular series of teachings is like a seamless garment that cannot be torn apart. We need to live the "full gospel", if we're going to live the gospel at all. But don't use this as an excuse not to begin or not to make progress. Begin with tithing, and then move on to live God's full revelation on financial freedom and victory. Prayer: Father, I can live the full gospel, not by my power but by the Spirit (Zec 4:6). May I not rely on my own strength but on Your grace (2 Cor 12:9). Promise: "Whoever falls into sin on one point of the law, even though he keeps the entire remainder, has become guilty on all counts." Jas 2:10 Praise: George learned in school that sometimes you didn't have to take the Bible literally. He repented of misapplying this and using it as an excuse to disobey. THE SPIRITUAL GIFT OF POVERTY "How blest are the poor in spirit: the reign of God is theirs." Matthew 5:3 "Did not God choose those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?" James 2:5 Although all Christians are called to a simple life-style, some can choose to accept the special spiritual gift of poverty. Gospel poverty is both a gift and a choice. Those poor in spirit are actually materially poor, not because they are victims of circumstances, but by choice. They choose to walk in the footsteps of the Master in a special way and put themselves in situations which make obvious our total dependence on the Father. Poverty was not understood in the old covenant (Prv 30:8). Only in Christ is it appreciated. Jesus chose to be materially poor. He had nowhere to lay His head (Lk 9:58). Some women paid His expenses (Lk 8:3). If He needed any money, He would have to ask Judas for it (Jn 12:6). He was even buried in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea (Mt 27:60). Jesus lived a life of radical dependence on His Father. We have become rich by His poverty (2 Cor 8:9). Therefore gospel poverty and prosperity are not opposites but complements. The floodgates of heaven must be opened for poverty to be chosen and not enforced by crushing circumstances. Gospel poverty is a form of prophecy, keeping us in touch with God's kingdom and calling us to forsake the deadly life-style of the world. Prayer: Father, thank You for the prophetic witness of the saints, living and dead. Inspired by them, may I make a bold act of faith in You. Promise: "For your sake He made Himself poor though He was rich, so that you might become rich by His poverty." 2 Cor 8:9 Praise: Jan, a single lay woman in America, lives a life-style that would not be out of place in the slums of Calcutta. Jesus changes many lives through her. THE SPIRITUAL GIFT OF ADMINISTRATION "The first requirement of an administrator is that he prove trustworthy." 1 Corinthians 4:2 All are called by God to be stewards, but a few are given the special spiritual gift of administration (1 Cor 12:28). This is different than a natural gift of administration. The spiritual administrator will be used by God in ways impossible for the best natural administrator. With the spiritual gift of administration, one can make decisions in which the Spirit takes account of the future, reads the hearts of people, and gives information that can not be humanly known. A spiritual administrator will motivate others to live in Christian community. Like the early church, we will be willing to share "all things in common" (Acts 2:44). Inspired by anointed spiritual leadership, we will even sell property, houses, and farms; and lay the proceeds at the feet of the apostles (Acts 4:34-37). A church with anointed administrators will be transformed. It will not waste God's time with fund-raisers. Jesus didn't have a raffle, bake sale, car wash, ice cream social, or spaghetti dinner to raise funds for His ministry. His heavenly Father knew what Jesus needed and provided it. He'll do the same for us. If God doesn't send the financial backing, possibly our plans are not His will at this time. Our church may not be committed to God's kingdom. It may be rebelling against God by failing to tithe and give alms. To raise funds would be refusing to face the real issues of sin and rebellion. Prayer: Father, forgive me for not working for You. I wasted my time by raising the funds You promised You would provide. Promise: "The love of money is the root of all evil." 1 Tm 6:10 Praise: St. Charles Church quit fund-raising and started proclaiming God's kingdom by teaching His word, interceding, and healing. They have more money than ever. FINANCES AND COMMUNITY "The community of believers were of one heart and one mind. None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather, everything was held in common." Acts 4:32 All these teachings are like a seamless garment, woven together in a personal relationship with Jesus. Christian community is one of the most integral aspects of the unity of these teachings and the Christian life. Without Christian community, it doesn't work. Community is not an option but a necessity. "Those who believed shared all things in common; they would sell their property and goods, dividing everything on the basis of each one's need" (Acts 2:44-45). They not only shared finances but meals, eucharist, and prayer (Acts 2:46). They shared life. This communal sharing of life, including finances, speaks powerfully to the world so hung-up on money (Acts 4:32-33). This is part of the unity Jesus prays for so the world will believe the Father sent Him (Jn 17:21). The witness of sharing things in common was part of the evangelism explosion in the early Church. Christian community not only increases our evangelistic power but also our financial power. In community, we can use our spiritual gifts and make use of others' gifts, such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, prophecy, discernment of spirits, encouragement, and poverty. In this context, we will not make mistakes financially but be overwhelmed by God's blessings (Dt 28:2). Prayer: Holy Spirit, may I follow Your leadings into daily, meaningful Christian community. Promise: "If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored all the members share its joy." 1 Cor 12:26 Praise: Terri went to a church for 15 years and only knew 15 people. She opened herself to the Spirit and now has a large family of brothers and sisters. THE END "There is, of course, great gain in religion provided one is content with a sufficiency." 1 Timothy 6:6 There is great gain in religion and in applying these Biblical principles on finances. But these are not just principles that work, they are expressions of our heavenly Father's love for us. This book is not primarily about money but about our relationship with Abba. Let's not focus on the blessings but on the Blesser, not so much on His miracles as on the Miracle-Worker. We are honored and privileged to be given the responsibility of returning God's money and possessions to Him. Our Father loved us so much that "He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him may not die but may have eternal life" (Jn 3:16). Let us give our lives to Him. Tithing, almsgiving, and stewardship are just a part of the total giving of ourselves to the Lord. "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Tm 6:10), but the love of God is the root of all good. In conclusion, let us pray together: Prayer: Jesus, I give my life to You. You gave Your life for me. Forgive me of my sins. I turn over my life, including my finances, to You. You are Lord. Alleluia! Promise: "Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. What profit does he show who gains the whole world and destroys himself in the process?" Lk 9:24-25 Praise: Abba chose you to read this book. "Act on this word" (Jas 1:22). Nihil obstat: Reverend Robert Hagedorn, July 9, 1995 Imprimatur: Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of Cincinnati, July 25, 1995. ATLANTIC CITY Just when you think youve seen the last of Glenn Straub, think again. The Florida-based developer, known for his outrageous claims, now wants to be named redeveloper of the South Inlet, despite never delivering on his promise to open the former Revel Casino Resort. Despite no longer owning one of the states tallest building, Straubs company, Polo North Country Club, still owns more than 60 properties in the resort. Even after the sale, Polo North is still the largest non-casino property owner on the Boardwalk, Straub said. We will move forward and be a spark for catalyzing positive economic movement in Atlantic City. Polo North owns 43 properties in the South Inlet section of the city, according to state property records, with one of the largest properties being a nearly acre-sized parcel near the Boardwalk on Rhode Island Avenue. Straub purchased the open lot, once valued at $2.8 million, for $367,430 in April 2015. On Jan. 4, Straub sold Revel to AC OCEAN WALK, a group led by Colorado-based investor Bruce Deifik, for $200 million. The property is scheduled to reopen over the summer as Ocean Resort Casino, joining Hard Rock, which will open its new property at the former Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort site. Straub bought the $2.4 billion Revel for $82 million in bankruptcy court in August 2015 and has said it cost about $1 million a month to keep the building running. The developer came into the city at a time when few were looking to invest in it, said Bryant Simon, a Temple University professor and author of Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America. For 70 years, Atlantic City has been on the verge of economic decline or explosion. You are always looking for this white knight, Simon said. While being coy about his plans, Straub said the extension of the Boardwalk to Gardners Basin has made the area more attractive. The area will see increased interest as Hard Rock, Ocean Resort and The Beach at South Inlet, a residential project on a grassy 4-acre lot bound by Atlantic, Pacific, New Jersey and Connecticut avenues, open. This used to be the end of the Boardwalk, now its in the middle, Straub said Tuesday. This is one of three areas that we want to clean up. Straub said he is going to ask the city to name him the redeveloper for the area, allowing him to use condemnation to acquire other properties. Council President Marty Small said he has not spoken to Straub about the redevelopment of the area. Optimism high in Atlantic City for 2018 ATLANTIC CITY For the first time in five years, the city will celebrate openings rather th We are not going to name anyone, Small said. If people are interested in development in the city, they are going to have to go through a process. It has nothing to do with Glenn Straub. In addition to being committed to redeveloping the South Inlet, Straub has expressed interest in purchasing Boardwalk Hall and Bader Field. We want to make Bader Field an airport again and use private planes to bring people in from Columbus, Youngstown or anywhere else where its an hourlong flight, he said. Despite failing to reopen the casino property during his two years of ownership, Straub invested when few were looking at Atlantic City, Small said. We thank Glenn for buying Revel and preventing it from becoming an eyesore, Small said. If he is still interested in Atlantic City, we are interested in him. ASBURY PARK Incoming Gov. Phil Murphy has picked a school district chief in Monmouth County to be New Jerseys next education commissioner. Murphy said Friday he wants Asbury Parks superintendent, Lamont Repollet, to lead his administrations Education Department. Repollet has previously been principal at Carteret High School. Hes a former public middle-school teacher. The New Jersey Education Association, the states education union, praised Repollet soon after the announcement at Barack Obama Elementary School in Asbury Park. Ocean City cheers on Teacher of the Year Andersen OCEAN CITY New Jersey Teacher of the Year Amy Andersen hopes her time in the national spot With this nomination, Gov.-elect Murphy has kept his promise to respect the professional expertise of New Jerseys educators. Dr. Repollets career as a teacher and administrator in New Jerseys public schools means he understands the needs of our students and the challenges faced by New Jersey educators, NJEA President Marie Blistan said. The New Jersey School Boards Association also offered congratulations. Dr. Repollets background in public education and his experience as a district superintendent should prove valuable to the new administration as it addresses critical issues such as closing the achievement gap, assessment and facilities, said Lawrence S. Feinsod, NJSBA executive director. Murphy said Repollet would take the lead in ending the states use of testing known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. Murphy, a Democrat, campaigned on ending PARCC testing last year. He takes over from Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday. Repollet will replace Education Commissioner Kimberley Harrington, who has led the office since 2016. He called the appointment an honor and said he looks forward to establishing a strong science, technology, engineering and math curriculum. Staff Writer Claire Lowe contributed to this story. LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP Students are expected to return to Pinelands Regional High School on Wednesday after months of split sessions at the nearby junior high due to a roof project gone wrong, but some parents are still wary. Until I get a final report, I dont know, said Parent Dane Apgar, of Little Egg Harbor Township. And I still have a lot of questions. I called the board president, and Im waiting for an answer. Apgar has been acting as a spokesman for the group Parents on a Mission, which organized after the split sessions started. The group has about 30 members. Acting Superintendent Cheryl Stevenson said Friday she wants to be as transparent as possible in the steps the district is taking to make sure the school is safe to occupy. Construction controversy looms as Pinelands Regional superintendent resigns LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP As the school district continues to grapple with a roofing proj Were doing everything we possibly can as thoroughly as we can to assure the community and the public, she said. Were doing our very best to try to quell some of the concern. A letter posted on the district website, dated Jan. 4, states that staff will return to the high school Tuesday, with students returning Wednesday to resume regular full-day schedules. The plans for the remainder of the high school year call for shortened lunch periods to make up for lost hours during the extended split-session schedule. The modified schedule will assure adherence to the credit-hour time needed to meet graduation requirements, the letter states. Stevenson said plans to reopen this week are on track. The only hurdle we have to clear is just the final cleanup of the building, which is being done by our crew, she said. An air test completed this past week came back clear, but she was still awaiting a written report expected to arrive this weekend. The Pinelands Regional School District is made up of about 1,580 students in grades seven through 12 from Little Egg Harbor Township, Bass River Township, Tuckerton and Eagleswood Township and consists of a junior high and high school. Students at Pinelands Regional High School, which serves grades 10, 11 and 12, started split sessions in October after a roofing screw fell on a student. Prior to that, the school was closed for several days due to asbestos contamination from the roof project and subsequent air-quality tests. Pinelands Regional School Board considers removing sex-ed magazine from junior high LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP An Ocean County school board is considering removing copies of The controversy peaked in December with the resignation of interim Superintendent Maryann Banks. Banks had been serving in the chief leadership position at the school for almost two years while the district looked for a full-time superintendent. Stevenson, the district director of curriculum, was named Banks replacement until the end of the year. The roofing project started over the summer. Some parents have questioned the methods and work schedule used by the contractor to replace the asbestos roof. Apgar, who has two sons in the district, said he isnt sure whether he will let his kids attend Tuesday. Theres a lot of concern amongst the parents that during that roofing job the ventilation system was left open, he said, adding fibers could have gone into the ductwork. The letter from Jan. 4 details the checklist required for students to be able to safely re-enter the high school. Almost all of the items have been marked as completed, including cleanup of the playground and exterior perimeter of the building; removal/abatement of floor tiles on the second floor; inspection of all floor tiles throughout the building; cleanup of the D-wing classrooms, HVAC system and hallway; flushing out the building; and air-quality tests. After the building is cleaned, there will be walkthroughs Tuesday open to the public, Stevenson said. Although the students are returning, there is still much more work to do at the high school building as part of a $53 million rehabilitation project approved by district voters last year. Stevenson said the project engineer is expected to make a presentation at the board meeting Jan. 17 about what options the district has to complete the necessary repairs. Its a laundry list of items, she said of the multiphase project. Additional work includes HVAC, high school exterior walls, window and door replacement, and additional roof work. Stevenson said she could not speak to what had transpired with the roofing project prior to her being named acting superintendent, but that going forward there will be transparency throughout the process. We have to trust what our environmental experts have told us, and theyve been very, very cooperative with us and helped us in every step of the way in making sure were doing what we have to do to make sure the building is as safe as possible, Stevenson said. A former Vineland elementary school teacher has been indicted on child-pornography charges that include videotaping boys in a theater camp restroom. Thomas Guzzi Jr., 38, of Pitman, a former fifth-grade teacher and drama club adviser at the John H. Winslow Elementary School in Vineland, was re-arrested and charged Friday with possession of more than 300 files of child porno-graphy and manufacturing child pornography by secretly filming boys in a restroom. Guzzi was first arrested last February in Operation Safeguard, a joint federal and state child-pornography sweep by the state Attorney Generals Office, ICE Homeland Security Investigations and the New Jersey State Police. He was arrested along with 15 other people. The former teacher was also an adviser and state manager for youth productions at the school and Broadway Theatre of Pitman. He captured images and videos of teenage boys urinating in restrooms at the summer theater camp in Pitman in 2015, according to information released by the Attorney Generals Office on Friday. Authorities said he stored images and videos of certain boys in separate computer folders and created photo montages of two underage boys. He also allegedly created a music video of one of those two boys with images and video footage of the boy using the restroom edited together with footage of him dancing in rehearsals for the summer musical production. Guzzi was fired from the Vineland school district and his teaching license was revoked after his February arrest. A state grand jury indicted Guzzi on 10 counts, including second-degree manufacturing, distribution and storing and maintaining child pornography, and third-degree possession of child pornography and invasion of privacy. Guzzi is being held in jail pending a detention hearing, authorities said, and will be arraigned in Gloucester County Superior Court at a later date. Second-degree charges carry a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and a fine as much as $150,000. Third-degree charges carry a three- to five-year sentence in prison and a fine of as much as $15,000. Guzzis alleged heinous conduct highlights the alarming fact that child predators often seek positions in which they are entrusted with the supervision of children, only to betray that trust by sexually exploiting vulnerable young victims, Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said in a statement. Elie Honig, director of the state Division of Criminal Justice, said Guzzis actions raise concerns there may be other victims and an investigation is ongoing. A member of the Pagan motorcycle gang, a guitar-maker and partner in James Kauffmans alleged drug ring, spent months trying to find a way to kill the doctor to keep him from talking to authorities, according to court documents. But in a number of secretly recorded conversations with a confidential informant, Ferdinand Augello, 61, describes the drug operation he had run with Kauffman and his efforts to find a hitman to kill the doctor, a court affidavit states. Between November 2017 and January, Augello began conspiring to get a mafia member to kill Kauffman, and when that failed, he thought hed found someone to kill the suspended doctor in the Atlantic County jail, the affidavit shows. Augello advised that he wanted Kauffman killed because he was concerned that Kauffman could implicate him in criminal activity, the affidavit states. Augellos concern: that Kauffman, arrested in June on weapons and obstruction charges after he pulled a gun on police and federal agents who were executing a search warrant at his medical office, might talk to authorities, court documents show. Instead, it was Augello who did much of the talking, according to the documents. Besides telling the informant about his efforts to kill the doctor, he, among other unnamed individuals, allegedly described how the ring operated, with Kauffman writing scripts for Oxycontin painkillers to Pagan members and associates whom Augello would send to Kauffmans medical practice. Those associates would pay Kauffman cash, and give cash or a portion of the pills to Augello, the affidavits stated. They also served as messengers between Kauffman and Augello. Augello was president of the Cape May chapter of the Pagan Outlaw Motorcycle Club when the drug empire was started, according to affidavits. The proceeds of the drug sales went back to the motorcycle club and Kauffman, with other money being spent on guitars, guns, cars and a home in Arizona, the documents stated. On Thursday, Kauffman, charged with the May 2012 murder of his wife, April, made his court appearance via video from a Hudson County jail. Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner said he was moved there for his own safety. For friends and family who have waited more than five years for an arrest in the shooting death of April Kauffman, the recent charges against husband Dr. James Kauffman and alleged accomplices may feel like closure. But it is really just the start of another long process, said Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner. He has said the investigation continues and more charges could come. How long could a trial take? Criminal law expert J.C. Lore, director of trial advocacy at Rutgers Law School, said a year to two years is possible. James Kauffman, now 68, was an endocrinologist who went to work at his Egg Harbor Township office early the morning of May 10, 2012, and soon called an employee to check on his wife at their Linwood home. That employee found April Kauffman, 47, dying of her wounds and called 911. But she died within minutes of being found. James Kauffman returned home, talked to police, then hired the high-powered law firm Jacobs and Barbone of Atlantic City. For five years, nothing much happened in the case, and the public was livid about it. People called and wrote to The Press, demanding answers as to why no arrest had been made. Every time an update on the April Kauffman murder appears, Im astounded at how little new information it contains, wrote Eileen Oleksiak-Hall, of Cape May, in a June 2016 letter. If justice continues to elude someone of her stature, it does not bode favorably for victims who are less well-connected. Three different prosecutors had the case, yet no action was taken. But under Tyner, who took office in March, the case accelerated. In June, Kauffman pulled a gun and tried to barricade himself in his Egg Harbor Township medical office when FBI and police tried to execute a search warrant there. Im not going to jail for this, Kauffman yelled at officers. Just what this was was unclear, which made it ripe for speculation. On Tuesday, events went into freefall. James Kauffman was charged with murder, linked to a drug ring and the Pagans, an outlaw motorcycle gang. More bizarre details emerged in the following days, including an alleged hit Pagans Cape May Chapter President Ferdinand Augello, a co-leader of the drug ring, tried to put out on James Kauffman. Law & Order One of the breaks in the case may have come from a confidential informant who recorded Augello talking about the drug ring, describing the operation and the guns, cars, real estate and guitars bought with some of the proceeds. Other defendants may have also been recorded talking, according to court documents from the Prosecutors Office. Augello also is alleged to have spoken at length about trying put a hit on James Kauffman, who he was afraid would talk after his arrest in June. Dr. James Kauffman 'one man crime-spree,' prosecutor says MAYS LANDING Authorities have moved Dr. James Kauffman to a jail outside Atlantic County o Such recordings are absolutely used as a basis for conviction all of the time, Lore said. The defense will undoubtedly try to learn the identity of the confidential informant to cross-examine him or her, and will likely succeed since the stakes are so high in a murder case, Lore said. The defense will also likely attack that persons integrity and honesty and question the authenticity of the recordings. A confidential informant is probably not the best person in the world; thats the reason they are able to get to (the defendants). They are known to be engaging in criminal activity themselves, Lore said. Sometimes the content of the recordings doesnt live up to prosecutors descriptions of them, Lore said. It may take time for attorneys to sever the cases from each other, especially if the defense is going to be vastly different for each defendant. Amid Kauffman arrests, Pagan gang activity shocks neighbors Lower Township resident Annie Kniatt always believed Francis Mulholland was a horrible neighbor. In this case, somebody is likely to be pointing the finger at someone else, he said. While deals may be offered, Kauffman, the main target of the investigation, may not have the same opportunities to strike one, Lore suggested. In a case with multiple defendants, there is a strong incentive for the prosecution to get one to flip on the others in exchange for reduced charges, Lore said. A lot of strategy goes into that. Who is the best witness? Who is least culpable? Who do you really want to send to prison longest? Always a suspect At the time of the killing, many people questioned why Mainland Regional High School wasnt locked down to protect students from a loose shooter. The school was just across the street from the quiet cul-de-sac where the Kauffmans lived. Then-Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said: Linwood residents should not feel any more threatened for their safety than before the killing, but they should always keep alert for anything suspicious. The seeming lack of concern spurred rumors police believed the killing was done by James Kauffman, and that he wouldnt be a threat to others. The first anniversary of April Kauffmans death went by with no news. In subsequent years, her daughter, Kimberly Pack, went public with her belief that James Kauffman was responsible for her moms death, and blocked him from collecting $600,000 in life insurance on her mother. On Thursday, it was James Kauffman getting a form of life insurance, as authorities moved him from the Atlantic County jail where Augello was being held to a facility in Hudson County for his protection. 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. The latest New Jersey Health and Well-Being Poll, in which the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy takes the pulse of residents on various issues, looked at how often people get opioid prescriptions and what they do with the medicines. Statewide, nearly a third of households said someone had been prescribed pain killers such as oxycodone or codeine in the past year. More than a third who had also said they planned to keep the unused portion of the opioids in case theyre needed in the future risking their misuse and theft, even by children. That so many are keeping unneeded opioids was disturbing, but what shocked center officials was that the southernmost counties in New Jersey reported an opioid prescription rate more than double that of the most populated counties in the northeast of the state. The percentage reporting prescriptions in the southeast, at 46 percent, is jaw-dropping, said Joel Cantor, lead poll investigator and a professor at Rutgers. We werent surprised and probably neither were many people in this region. South Jersey has been the epicenter of the states opioid crisis, as the Rutgers poll has confirmed. The polls findings are consistent with prescription-rate data gathered by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are based on reporting by the pharmaceutical and medical communities. The CDC says that in 2016, for every 100 residents there were 75 opioid prescriptions in Atlantic County, 92 in Cumberland County and 88 in Cape May County. Upstate urban counties had much lower rates, just 37 in Hudson, 40 in Essex and 43 in Bergen counties. From a national perspective, New Jersey does better than most states. The nationwide rate of opioid prescriptions is 67 per 100 people compared to New Jerseys 53. Five counties in Pennsylvania, for example, were among the quarter of U.S. counties that had one or more prescriptions per person last year, or rates of 100 or more. But it is alarming that doctors are prescribing opioids to people in South Jersey at double the rate or more of many in the north. Cantor said the center doesnt think the difference is because theres more legitimate pain to control in the south, but probably due to prescribing practices among providers in the south. That strikes us as a great opportunity for the state to examine those practices, get them under control and reduce a common source of opioid addiction. The numbers are likely to improve, since New Jersey last year adopted one of the nations strictest opioid prescription limits just five days worth of pain killers for initial prescriptions (with exceptions for hospice and cancer care). Thats less than the national guidelines of a seven-day supply. The New Jersey law took effect in May. How the state will ensure that doctors and pharmacies adhere to that limit is unclear. We think one good way would be to make South Jersey the pilot for monitoring, with the intent to get its prescription rates in line with those of the best-performing counties. N.J. Attorney General Christopher Porrino said he knew the state had to act right way to limit opioid prescriptions when he learned that eight of 10 drug overdose deaths began with prescription painkillers. That same urgency is needed to address the excessive prescription rates in New Jerseys southernmost counties. Tax deduction limit OK for NJ and US I was glad the Dec. 25 editorial, NJ reaction to tax reform should be fair, fiscally sound, reminded us that New Jersey limits our real estate tax deduction to the same $10,000 as the new federal tax law. And when you think about it, why should property taxes or state income taxes be a deduction on federal taxes. Paying taxes to your state of residency has nothing to do with the responsibilities of the federal government. New Jersey has determined that $10,000 is the maximum deduction allowed. Why then is there such hysteria over the new federal tax law? I suggest its all about politics and a biased national media. If more news outlets were fair, they would report the facts without their political bias. Annamarie Donley Egg Harbor Township Push for legal pot baffles I was a high school student in the 1980s. Back then, I listened to then-first lady Nancy Reagans message to kids and young people like myself to Just Say No to drugs. And Ive been drug-free ever since. Of course, I knew many people who couldnt say no, who ended up being addicts who were often in trouble with the law. But they chose to be users and had to face consequences for their decisions. I chose not be a user, which I believe was the right decision. These days, I just dont understand this call to legalize marijuana for recreational use here in New Jersey. What are we saying to our kids nowadays about drugs? Just say no, but pot is OK? How can hypocritical parents who smoke a joint when theyre alone or with other adults tell their kids to stay away from drugs and keep a straight face? What was the purpose of the war on drugs anyway? For what reason did all of those law enforcement officers sacrifice their very lives in that war? To confiscate the drugs from the cartels and put them in the hands of corporate businessmen so all of the sales could be taxed? I thought it was about keeping drugs away from our kids, who are our societys future. But I guess they dont seem to matter much nowadays. George I. Anderson Vineland Reopen Noyes Museum in original location Now that we know that Stockton University has been gifted the remaining $2.2 million in Noyes Museum assets, including its land and building, there is no good excuse for not repairing and reopening this unique and wonderful museum. Apparently Stockton is actively looking for a museum location. Now they already have it. This is the location Fred and Ethel selected and I believe the Atlantic County population would support a membership drive. Joseph A. Courter Absecon The modern PIRANHA 5 vehicles will be produced in Romania under a strategic cooperation and transfer of technology project between General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag and the Romanian company Uzina Mecanica Bucuresti (UMB). Since 2006, the Romanian Armored Forces has fielded variants of PIRANHA vehicles which have been deployed in various missions in-country and abroad, demonstrating its reliability and performance. "The Romanian Army is one of the most important PIRANHA users in Europe. We are very honored by this contract award as it reflects the high confidence and satisfaction the Romanian Army has in our vehicles," said Oliver Durr, Vice President Wheeled Vehicles and Managing Director of General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag. "With this step, we have established a sustainable collaboration with a trusted partner which has a significant industrial footprint in Romania," said Thomas Kauffmann, General Dynamics European Land Systems Vice President International Business & Services. "The transfer of technology and the local production of these vehicles present an enormous opportunity to the Romanian industry." With more than 11,000 systems fielded, the PIRANHA is one of the most successful 8x8 wheeled armored vehicles in the world. About General Dynamics European Land Systems General Dynamics European Land Systems, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) and conducts its business through five European operating sites located in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. With more than 2,000 highly skilled technical employees, the companies design, manufacture and deliver world-class land combat, systems, including wheeled, tracked and amphibious vehicles, bridge systems, armaments, and munitions, to global customers. More information is available at www.gdels.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/628047/General_Dynamics_Romania.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/81320/general_dynamics_logo.jpg Related Links http://www.gdels.com SOURCE General Dynamics European Land Systems JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandhills South Africa is set to open an office location in Johannesburg. The company distributes MarketBook South Africaa print publication and online marketplace that serves buyers and sellers of heavy machinery, agriculture equipment, and commercial trucks and trailers. Sandhills South Africa is among a number of international group companies belonging to Sandhills Publishing, the Nebraska, USA-based tech company behind Machinery Trader, TractorHouse, Truck Paper, and AuctionTime.com. The establishment of Sandhills South Africa comes amid a period of substantial growth, including the recent opening of offices in the Netherlands and New Zealand, and the acquisition of a number of brands across Europe. Sandhills is actively recruiting for positions not only in Johannesburg, but at offices worldwide. Sandhills Publishing and its subsidiaries distribute print publications and operate websites that are the go-to resources for buying and selling farm and agriculture equipment, commercial trucks and trailers, plant equipment and heavy machinery, as well as parts and attachments for these assets. Through MarketBook South Africa, Sandhills South Africa compiles and distributes print listings for equipment from dealers local to the region. The fortnightly publication is also backed by an online archive of listings (www.marketbook.co.za) from thousands of sellers, prioritizing local listings for buyers accessing the website regularly. Over the last two years, Sandhills' subsidiaries have acquired a number of brands including: Farm & Plant Buyers Guide, MOMA Agri, agri-Business.fr, A Come Agricoltura, Farm Machinery Locator, trucks-Business.fr, Truck Buy & Sell International, Truck Locator, Transporter, Commercial Vehicle Dealer, CercoCamion.com, CamionSuperMarket, tp-Business.fr, Trasporto, TODO V.I., Resale Weekly, Plant Locator, Maquinaria OP, TrattoriSuperMarket, and Cantierissimo con Carrellistica. Print publications representing these brands reach buyers at key distribution points in markets across Europe, the Pacific Rim, the Middle East, as well as North, South, and Central America. At the same time, local website domains featuring online listings help buyers source the equipment they need quickly and easily. Sandhills Publishing, Sandhills East, Sandhills Italy, Sandhills Pacific, and Sandhills South Africa also build and host custom websites, and provides a number of cloud-hosted business apps and resources to dealers and manufacturers in their core industries. These mobile-friendly added-value resources include everything from inventory management to equipment valuations and market trends powered by real-time asset and industry data. Sales reps at offices all over the world work closely with equipment sellers to implement effective sales and marketing campaigns that deliver results. "South Africa is a crucial market for our core industries," explains Sandhills Publishing's Chief Administration Officer Nancy Paasch. "An additional office in South Africa enables us to support our already-successful products with a local staff committed to serving the evolving and dynamic needs of the buyers and sellers who rely on those products to find and transact equipment." Sandhills Publishing, Sandhills East, Sandhills Italy, Sandhills Pacific, and Sandhills South Africa are actively recruiting for positions in Johannesburg, the U.S., and offices worldwide with hundreds of open positions. Openings in South Africa include both full-time sales positions and internships. For more information or to submit an application, visit www.Sandhills.jobs. About Sandhills Sandhills Publishing has served the heavy machinery industry since 1978. The company has since added publications and websites serving the trucking, agriculture, aviation, and technology industries. Its successful brands include: Machinery Trader, CraneTrader, Truck Paper, TractorHouse, AuctionTime, RentalYard, MarketBook, Controller, Executive Controller, Charter Hub, and more. Sandhills South Africa builds on the company's decades-long presence in its core industries. Sandhills South Africa was established in 2017. The company continues to expand its existing presence in the markets it serves through the ongoing international growth of new and existing products and services that meet the needs of buyers and sellers worldwide. Contact Sandhills East +44 (0) 1618718760 feedback@sandhills.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/627791/Sandhills_South_Africa_Logo.jpg Related Links http://www.Sandhills.jobs SOURCE Sandhills East ABCNews.com(BALTIMORE) -- The hospital that left a patient at a Baltimore bus stop Tuesday night now says the facility "provided appropriate medical care for the woman." In a video that quickly went viral, the unidentified woman clad in a hospital gown, socks and a dangling surgical mask appears to stumble and moan after hospital workers deposit her near an outdoor bus station in frigid weather. "We believe when the patient was in our ER, the patients healthcare needs were addressed appropriately," University of Maryland Medical Center President Dr. Mohan Suntha, said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. Suntha also said the workers failed to demonstrate "compassion" during the discharge process. We take full responsibility for this failure, Suntha said and added that the hospital did not provide basic humanity and compassion. The man who filmed the video begs to differ. "I was mad as hell" at the hospital, Imamu Baraka told ABC News. He says he confronted hospital workers after he noticed the woman's strange behavior and worried she might stagger into the street. "So you all are okay with leaving that woman out there like that?" he asks in the video, as the workers drag an empty wheelchair back inside the building. "That is not okay." "I don't know what they were thinking," he told ABC News. When Baraka called 911, an ambulance arrived only to transport the woman back to the hospital from which she had been discharged moments earlier. "She just came out of this hospital and was abandoned here on the curb. You're going to take her back? What do you think they're going to do with her if they set her out on the curb the first time?" he told ABC News. "They could have handled this a lot better." The hospital has fought back against criticism that the woman was denied care based on her inability to pay. Federal law forbids "patient dumping," requiring emergency rooms to "stabilize" patients before releasing them, regardless of their ability to pay their medical bills. Violators face fines of up to $50,000 per incident and the possible termination of their Medicare agreement. A 2016 study based on data provided by the Department of Health and Human Services' Inspector General found 192 so-called "dumping" settlements, totaling $6,357,000, over a 13 year period. "That is not what occurred" in this case, Suntha told reporters, adding that the incident was an "aberration." The hospital has pledged to hold the individuals involved accountable for the incident and promised to interview everyone who interacted with the patient including the hospital workers shown in the video. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Philadelphia Insurance employees plant saplings in Bastrop State Park, TX. Were pleased with the continued support of our business partners, customers, and employees which has helped us reach our goal to fund the planting of 240,000 trees over the past three years Fifty Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY) employees are supporting the companys efforts to plant 80,000 trees for the third consecutive year through a two-day project near Austin, TX. Today employees finished their second day of planting in Bastrop State Park as part of the PHLY 80K Trees initiative, resulting in 3,500 trees in the ground. PHLYs 80K tree planting mission began in 2015 in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation and was renewed in 2016 and 2017. The goal to fund the planting of 80,000 trees was reached each year with the help of PHLYs independent agents, brokers, and policyholders who signed up for paperless statements. The company has used the cost savings from each years new paperless enrollees to fund plantings the following year. PHLY (pronounced phil-EE) employees returned to Bastrop, TX this year, where the Arbor Day Foundation recommended planting an additional 40,000 trees. A 2011 wildfire in the Bastrop State Park destroyed close to 1,700 homes, killed two people, and inflicted an estimated $325 million of insured property damage. The Arbor Day Foundation will lead projects to plant an additional 40,000 trees in other U.S. forests this year to complete the 80,000 trees PHLY funded in 2017. Were pleased with the continued support of our business partners, customers, and employees which has helped us reach our goal to fund the planting of 240,000 trees over the past three years, shared Bob OLeary, president and chief executive officer of Philadelphia Insurance Companies. With 20,000 trees planted personally by our employees in Bastrop over the past two years, we decided to renew our commitment to the areas recovery and allow our employees to see the progress of our previous efforts. There are over one million acres across the country in desperate need of replanting due to natural disasters according to the U.S. Forest Service. PHLYs efforts to support the planting of 80,000 trees will help provide greater security to communities, including PHLYs policyholders. For more information about the initiative, please visit http://www.PHLY.com/GoPaperless. About Philadelphia Insurance Philadelphia Insurance Companies designs, markets, and underwrites commercial property/casualty and professional liability insurance products incorporating value added coverages and services for select industries. The Company is rated A++ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company and AA- for counterparty credit and financial strength by Standard & Poors. In business for over 50 years, PHLY is nationally recognized as a member of Ward's Top 50, one of the Best Places to Work in Insurance, and one of the Healthiest 100 Workplaces in America. The organization has more than 50 offices strategically located across the United States to provide superior service. For more information, please visit http://www.PHLY.com. About Arbor Day Foundation Arbor Day Foundation is a million member nonprofit conservation and education organization with the mission to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. More information is available at arborday.org. The following release was issued by RG/2 Claims Administration LLC, as Claims Administrator, on behalf of Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman, LLC Legal Notice UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA Myriam Fejzulai, et al. v. Sams West, et al., Case No. 6:14-cv-03601-BHH If you purchased certain Fresh Products from Sams Club and returned that product but did not receive the full value of the Freshness Guarantee, a class action settlement may affect your rights. You are hereby notified that a settlement has been preliminarily approved by the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina (the Court) in a class action lawsuit entitled Myriam Fejzulai, et al. v. Sams West, et al., Case No. 6:14-cv-03601-BHH (the Lawsuit). This notice is summary only. You should read the full notice for complete information. You can get a copy of the full notice as directed below. WHOS INCLUDED? The Court has decided that for settlement purposes, any Sams Club member who purchased certain Fresh Products from Sams Club and returned that product but did not receive the full value of the Freshness Guarantee during the time periods covered by the Settlement (as set forth in more detail in the full notice) is a considered a Settlement Class Member. This makes you a member of the Settlement Class. WHAT IS THIS SETTLEMENT ABOUT? The Lawsuit claims that Sams Club at times did not fully honor the Freshness Guarantee with respect to certain fresh products purchased at Sams Clubs within the United States. Sams Club denies any liability or wrongdoing with respect to the claims alleged in the Lawsuit. The parties desire to settle the case because a settlement will avoid the risk, expense and distraction of continued litigation. WHAT DOES THE SETTLEMENT PROVIDE? The settlement provides for the following relief: Sams Club will fund a Class Settlement Amount of up to $6,000,000. The Class Settlement Amount will be used to provide Settlement Class Members with the opportunity to apply for and receive a gift card redeemable towards purchases made at Walmart stores, Sams Club stores, walmart.com, or samsclub.com, to pay for administration of the settlement proceeds, to pay attorney fees and expenses and Class Counsel, and to pay for incentive awards to the Class Representatives. Class Counsel will apply for fees in an amount not to exceed 30% of the settlement and will seek reimbursement of reasonable expenses. The anticipated value of the gift card will be $10, although the actual amount of the gift card could be higher or lower depending on the number of claims submitted. To qualify for a payment from the settlement, you must submit a Claim Form. To file a Claim Form, visit the settlement website, http://www.samsclubfreshnesssettlement.com. Your claim must be submitted no later than March 26, 2018. See the full notice for more details. WHAT ARE MY LEGAL RIGHTS? 1. If you do not want a payment and do not want to be legally bound by the terms of the settlement, you must exclude yourself by sending a signed letter saying that you want to be excluded from Fejzulai v. Sams West, Inc., Case No. 6:14-cv-03601-BHH. Your request for exclusion must be mailed to the Claims Administrator, postmarked no later than March 26, 2018. If you do not exclude yourself you will remain a Settlement Class Member and will be eligible to submit a claim for money benefits. Regardless of whether you submit a Claim Form, if you do not specifically exclude yourself, you will be bound by the Proposed Settlement which contains a release of claims against Sams Club. See the full notice for more details. 2. If youre a Settlement Class Member, and have not excluded yourself from the settlement, you can object to the settlement if you dont like any part of it. To object, you must send a signed letter to the Court and the Parties saying that you object to the settlement in Fejzulai v. Sams West, Inc., Case No. 6:14-cv-03601-BHH. This objection must be received no later than March 26, 2018. See the full notice on the website for more details. WHEN IS THE FAIRNESS HEARING? The Court will hold a Fairness Hearing at 2:00 p.m. on April 9, 2018 in the United States District Court located in Charleston, South Carolina. At this hearing, the Court will consider whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate. After the hearing, the Court will decide whether to approve the settlement. For more information, including to obtain a copy of the full notice, call 1-866-742-4955, or visit the settlement website at http://www.samsclubfreshnesssettlement.com, or write to: Sams Freshness Guarantee Claims Administrator PO Box 59479 Philadelphia, PA 19102-9479 SOURCE: T. Christopher Tuck, Richardson, Patrick, Westbrook & Brickman, LLC, 1037 Chuck Dawley Blvd, Bldg. A, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464, Telephone 843-727-6515 and Tina Chiango, RG/2 Claims Administration LLC, P.O. Box 59479, Philadelphia, PA 19102-9479, Telephone 866-742-4955, Facsimile 215-979-1695, tchiango(at)rg2claims(dot)com The Angel in the Park: the story of a little girl who inspires others to help the cold and hungry. The Angel in the Park is the creation of published author, Jan Thornton Jones. Jan was born in Texas, but moved to New Martinsville, West Virginia where she went to Magnolia High School then West Virginia University. She has a bachelors degree in elementary education, a masters degree in communication studies, and a masters degree in early intervention special education. Jan owned and operated her own preschool for many years. She then taught pre-K through first grade for Wetzel County Schools until retirement. Jan has been married to the love of her life, Don, for forty years. They have two adult children, one wonderful daughter-in-law, and two precious grandchildren. Jan is a frequent pianist and vocalist at her local church. She also enjoys quilting and reading. This is the story of a young child's ability to make a difference in her community. By doing so, has Sadie actually served an angel in disguise? --Jan Thornton Jones Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Jan Thornton Joness new book is a story about helping others. For I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me waterWhen you did it to these my brothers you were doing it to me Matthew 25:35-40 One bitterly cold and snowy night, Sadie was on her way home from church. She sees a fire in the park. For the first time in her life, she realizes there are people without homes who are cold and hungry. With her mothers help, Sadie decides to leave food and a warm blanket in the park under a stone statue of an angel. As the word of her deed spreads at school, the other children and parents decide to help the homeless too. View a synopsis of The Angel in the Park on YouTube. Consumers can purchaseThe Angel in the Park at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, Kobo or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about The Angel in the Park, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Don't Wait Until The Battle Is Over: Shout Victory Now!: a collective testimony of an evangelists conversions among the incarcerated. Don't Wait Until The Battle Is Over: Shout Victory Now! is the creation of published author, Rev. Doris Green. Reverend Doris J. Green, BA, CADC, CCHP has worked as a minister, evangelist, and advocate for the incarcerated population for over thirty years. She is the founder of Men & Women in Prison Ministries/ Universal House of Refuge Center. She also served as the director of Correctional Health and Community Affairs at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago for thirteen years. A respected faith leader in Chicago, Rev. Green successfully launched the Faith Responds to AIDS (FRA) interfaith coalition in 2006, which allowed her to garner citywide support from leaders, organizations, and faith communities. In 2007, Rev. Green was appointed ambassador for world peace by the Universal Peace Foundation as well as the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace while in Benin, West Africa. With Grace Gangbo Lawani, she founded the Future of Benin project and has grown the project into a dynamic safe house for homeless orphans in Benin. Rev. Green served as the prisoners representative on the Cook County Bureau of Health Services Institutional Review Board, a commissioner for the Illinois Torture, Inquiry, and Relief Commission, and a member of the NAACPs National HIV Faith & Social Justice Advisory Board in Washington, DC. She has also been named an honorary doctor of jurisprudence by the National Conference of Black Lawyers and an African American HIV University (AAHU) fellow by the Black AIDS Institute. When I first entered prison, I judged the people I met. I had been taught to. Ministries were for innocent victims like babies and orphans, not for people who had committed crimes. Or so I thought. But as the prisoners I met shared their life experiences with me, I began to understand how much we had in common. I had lived some of the very same experiences that the people in prison had lived. I, Evangelist Doris Green, couldve been incarcerated! --Rev. Doris Green Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Rev. Doris Greens new book details the story of those whose mission was to bring God to the incarcerated. When Rev. Doris Green first started ministering to incarcerated people more than thirty years ago, nothing could have prepared her for the transformation that God was working in her life. In 1984, prison ministries were few and far between. What little support congregations did provide to their brothers and sisters behind bars was usually limited to holiday prayers. Rev. Green was, however, on a mission. With her sister and a few other dedicated women, they began visiting the isolated prisons of Illinois to meet the people society had forgotten. Together, they worked to create a liberatory prison ministry, which was born from the blood, sweat, and tears of those whose hearts could not be held captive, even by prison bars. Reverend Green thought she was there to help. What stunned her was how every persons story spoke directly to the pain, trauma, and anguish she herself had silently lived through for years. Rev. Green found Jesus in prison in the bodies and spirits of the people who were incarcerated. Shout is a collective testimony of an evangelists conversions. It is a record of the painstaking process through which incarcerated people make amends. View a synopsis of Don't Wait Until The Battle Is Over: Shout Victory Now! on YouTube. Consumers can purchaseDon't Wait Until The Battle Is Over: Shout Victory Now! at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, Kobo or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Don't Wait Until The Battle Is Over: Shout Victory Now!, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Tony Romas spirit of innovation is strong and drives our success, beginning that day in 1972 when Chef David Smith first threw Baby Back Ribs on the grill and slathered them with his own special BBQ sauce Romacorp, Inc., the parent company of Tony Romas, is letting guests take a bite out of the future with its New Classics limited-edition menu, featuring dishes based on classic favorites, infused with new, fresh and delicious flavors. Available at participating locations in the USA and around the world from January 15th April 17th, the menu includes dishes like a savory Boneless Beef Short Rib, the mystifying Not your Moms Fried Chicken, and the irresistible Sirloin Steak with Bacon Chive Butter. Tony Romas spirit of innovation is strong and drives our success, beginning that day in 1972 when Chef David Smith first threw Baby Back Ribs on the grill and slathered them with his own special BBQ sauce, said Jim Rogers, Chief Marketing Officer for Romacorp, Inc. As we redefine our brand experience and introduce a sensational new menu around the world blending classic Tony Romas menu items with bold, innovative new dishes, our New Classics limited-time menu is a first taste of whats to come from Tony Romas. Were thrilled to let fans take a bite out of our future as they taste a few of our favorite new menu items that celebrate our culinary creativity. With the New Classics menu, Tony Romas channels their inner-rib heritage to the delight of fans with the Boneless Beef Short Rib, a melt-in-your-mouth favorite, complemented with a red wine and mushroom demi-glace sauce, mashed potatoes and seared garlic green beans. Fans who love flavor fusion will be mystified with the Not Your Moms Fried Chicken, taking the classic comfort food to a new level of savory goodness with a batter infused with the flavor of waffles and maple syrup. Topped with a tangy chicken gravy and served with mashed potatoes and seared garlic green beans, the dish is fast becoming a fan favorite. Finally, steak lovers will crave the new Sirloin Steak, grilled to perfection and finished with a succulent bacon chive butter, served with creamy mashed potatoes. We wanted to bring a few of our favorite new menu items to the forefront as we give fans from all over the world the chance to experience a few of our flavorful new dishes, said Chef Bob Gallagher, Senior Vice President of Food and Beverage. We know that our guests are always craving more of our American-style cooking, and these dishes pack a lot of flavor into innovative new recipes that are sure to delight! About Romacorp, Inc. Romacorp, Inc., is the parent company of Tony Roma's restaurants, the world's largest casual dining concept specializing in ribs. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Romacorp, Inc. has nearly 150 restaurant locations in more than 30 countries and is one of the most globally recognizable names in the industry. The first Tony Roma's restaurant opened 45 years ago in North Miami, Florida. Tony Roma's is also proud to partner with the Make-A-Wish Foundation (http://www.cnfl.wish.org), one of the world's leading children's charities, in an effort to help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses across Central and Northern Florida. For more information about Romacorp, Inc. and Tony Roma's, visit http://www.tonyromas.com. Please visit http://www.tonyromasfranchise.com or call (866) 981-0586 for information about Tony Roma's franchising opportunities. For information about retail sales licensing opportunities with the Tony Romas brand, contact Bill Cross, SVP, Broad Street Licensing Group at (973) 655-0598. MaxLinear Inc., a leading provider of radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the connected home, wired and wireless infrastructure, and industrial and multimarket applications, today announced that Comtrend Corp. has selected its powerline G.hn Wave-2 networking chipset for a new Wi-Fi extender that addresses the North American service provider market. Most service providers today face the challenge of providing whole-home Wi-Fi service to broadband subscribers with increasing bandwidth demands. Consumers expect strong Wi-Fi everywhere in their homes in order to provide connectivity to a growing number of Internet-connected devices such as smart TVs, smart phones, tablets, gaming devices, voice-enabled assistants and a wide array of IoT products. Using G.hn as a wired backbone for distributed Wi-Fi extenders is becoming a popular solution in the carrier market. This video-centric market is demanding quality of service (QoS) requirements that often cannot be met by Wi-Fi mesh solutions available in the retail market. G.hn technology delivers a more stable connectivity solution than pure wireless and further reduces wireless spectrum congestion by off-loading traffic to a wired network. Additionally, it provides configurable QoS assurance, TR-069 remote management and enables safer firmware upgrading. The Comtrend PG-9182AC uses MaxLinears G.hn Wave-2 chipset (88LX5152 baseband and 88LX2720 analog front-end) and includes a high-performance, dual-band concurrent 802.11ac radio in a 2x2 MIMO configuration. The complete offering includes the PG-9182PT G.hn/Ethernet adapter that is designed to be plugged in near the users broadband router. Comtrend is one of the leading vendors providing high-performance distributed Wi-Fi solutions for the carrier market, and we value the trust they have in MaxLinear technology for their latest 802.11ac G.hn/Wi-Fi extender products, said Will Torgerson, Vice President & General Manager of the Broadband Group for MaxLinear. Previous generations of Comtrend G.hn/Wi-Fi extenders have been tremendously successful in the carrier market, and we are confident this product will continue this trend. New applications like 4K video, cloud storage, real-time gaming, video streaming and voice-activated assistants are pushing the limits of todays home networks. Our carrier customers are demanding solutions that can scale to handle these applications, while having enough headroom to support future services like cloud-based gaming and VR/AR, said Frank Chuang, Vice President of Marketing for Comtrend. By using MaxLinears G.hn platform, we ensure we meet our customer requirements today, while having the flexibility to adapt to new requirements in the future. Both the PG-9182AC and the PG-9182PT are FCC compliant, UL compliant and include a pass-through socket that ensures users do not lose access to any of their power sockets. The adapters include optional support for TR-069 remote management, configuration, and can be firmware-upgraded remotely. Comtrends PG-9182AC and PG-9182PT will be displayed at MaxLinear's CES demo suite. To view a demonstration of these products, please contact a MaxLinear sales representative or send an email to sales(at)maxlinear(dot)com. About Comtrend Founded in 1990, Comtrend is a leading designer and manufacturer of broadband communication equipment. In 2002, Comtrend distinguished itself in North America by joining the IPTV revolution for telephone service providers. At that time, video over DSL was fraught with quality issues based on the emerging standards, outside plant quality, and interoperability issues. Since that time, Comtrend and the many flavors of DSL have become stable partners to hundreds of service providers worldwide. As new technologies evolved, Comtrends broadband gateways have faithfully kept the lead. Today, whether a customer is connected via fiber, cable, satellite, or DSL, a Comtrend gateway will facilitate the fastest connections while integrating TR-069 manageability. This software technology serves as the backbone to all tiers of service providers, allowing management of tens of thousands of customer premises equipment. From 2010 to the present day, Comtrend has continually grown its product lineup, bringing broadband beyond the gateway. Residential and business users seeking easier ways to extend their networks, whether wirelessly or through a hard-wire connection, now have Comtrend traversing power and phone lines, cable, and wireless. It is apparent today that homes and offices of all sizes cross over to deploy similar technologies. For more information please visit us.comtrend.com. About MaxLinear, Inc. MaxLinear, Inc., a leading provider of radio frequency (RF), analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the connected home, wired and wireless infrastructure, and industrial and multimarket applications. MaxLinear is headquartered in Carlsbad, California. For more information, please visit http://www.maxlinear.com. MxL and the MaxLinear logo are trademarks of MaxLinear, Inc. Other trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners. Cautionary Note About Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include, among others, statements concerning our reference design win with Comtrend and statements concerning or implying the performance of MaxLinears technologies, their potential use cases, and the potential impact of these technologies or our design win with Comtrend on our business and future operating results. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on managements current, preliminary expectations. In particular, our future operating results are substantially dependent on our assumptions about market trends and conditions and our expectations with respect to recently completed acquisitions, including our ability to integrate our recently completed acquisition of Exar Corporation. Additional risks and uncertainties arising from our operations generally and our recently completed acquisitions include intense competition in our industry; our dependence on a limited number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenues; uncertainties concerning how end user markets for our products will develop; potential uncertainties arising from continued consolidation among cable television and satellite operators in our target markets and continued consolidation among competitors within the semiconductor industry generally; our ability to develop and introduce new and enhanced products on a timely basis and achieve market acceptance of those products, particularly as we seek to expand outside of our historic markets; potential decreases in average selling prices for our products; risks relating to intellectual property protection and the prevalence of intellectual property litigation in our industry; indemnification obligations of Exar arising from a recent divestiture; the impact on our financial condition of acquisition indebtedness and cash usage arising from the Exar transaction; our reliance on a limited number of third party manufacturers; and our lack of long-term supply contracts and dependence on limited sources of supply. In addition to these risks and uncertainties, investors should review the risks and uncertainties contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the information under the caption Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2017. All forward-looking statements are based on the estimates, projections and assumptions of management as of the date of this press release, and MaxLinear is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. This cutting-edge solution represents the most advanced LiDAR technology on the market, hence the perfect match for TTTechs embedded software platform - Georg Niedrist, VP Products & Projects at TTTech. TTTech, a global leader in the field of robust networking and safety controls, and Dibotics, a pioneer and leader in real-time 3D LiDAR processing, today announced their collaboration for the integration of an Augmented LiDAR solution powered by TTTechs software platform MotionWise. With MotionWise, TTTech has developed the most advanced embedded platform software ready to be integrated diverse safety microcontrollers and complex multi-core -SoCs used for automated driving. MotionWise is already part of the zFAS piloted control platform in the current Audi A8 and several models of the Volkswagen Group. Since LiDAR solutions are crucial to tackle safety related perception task for self-driving cars, TTTech identified the Dibotics Augmented LiDAR technology to ensure perfect integration of MotionWise and LiDAR solutions. This cutting-edge solution represents the most advanced LiDAR technology on the market, hence the perfect match for TTTechs embedded software platform. Dibotics is providing a real-time 3D LiDAR processing solution, including precise Localisation/Ego-Motion, 3D mapping system, point-wise classification, obstacle detection and tracking, and multi-LiDAR fusion capabilities. Together with the MotionWise software platform, the companies aim to provide faster time to market for their customers. We are happy to collaborate with such a dynamic start-up company like Dibotics and broaden our offering in the area of automated driving, said Georg Niedrist, VP Products & Projects at TTTech. Our series-proven software platform MotionWise is a perfect basis for the Dibotics Augmented LiDAR algorithms and will be of interest for many customers, said Salvador Rodriguez Lopez, Manager Advanced Projects & Technology at TTTech. TTTech is a trusted partner of major OEMS and Tiers1, with an impressive track record with its embedded software platform. Its focus on series-proven solutions its a perfect fit with our solutions, as were aiming mass production since day one. Were very excited with this collaboration., said Raul Bravo, CEO of DIBOTICS. About TTTech Computertechnik AG TTTech is a global leader in the field of robust networking and safety controls. TTTech solutions improve the safety and reliability of electronic systems in the industrial and transportation sectors, with a portfolio of products that are helping to make the Industrial Internet of Things and autonomous driving a reality. Thanks to the proven platform-based architecture, TTTech solutions enable simple system integration with shorter time-to-market and significant cost reductions for customers. TTTech solutions support highly scalable and modular open real-time architectures based on Deterministic Ethernet, including the upcoming IEEE TSN and the established SAE Time-Triggered Ethernet standard. More information about TTTech is available at http://www.tttech.com. About Dibotics Dibotics is a Paris-based company offering innovation in real-time LiDAR processing. Founded in 2015 by Raul Bravo and Olivier Garcia, two serial entrepreneurs with extensive experience of 15 years in LiDAR processing for mobile robotics applications, Dibotics has an original approach that differs from the traditional model. Its sensor-agnostic 3D SLAM technology (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and Augmented LiDAR created the first solution allowing advanced features like point-wise classification, objects detection & tracking and calibration-less Sensor Fusion to be performed only based on the sensor data itself. All of this performs without requiring any learning (deterministic) and can be embedded in a small and low-power integrated circuit (SLAM on Chip). For more information about the Augmented LiDAR solution, please visit http://www.augmentedlidar.com For sensors other than LiDAR (Radar, 3D ToF Camera, Sonar), please visit http://www.dibotics.com Press Contact Marco Lehner Marketing Communications TTTech Computertechnik AG Schoenbrunner Strasse 7 1040 Vienna, Austria Tel: +43 1 585 34 34-473 Fax: +43 1 585 34 34-90 Email: pr(at)tttech.com Grinkmeyer Leonard Financial, a financial advisory services firm in Birmingham, Alabama, is honored to announce that it has been named as one of the 2017 Top DC Advisor Teams with Assets Under Advisement over $100 million* by the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA). The list, released in December, ranks firms based on assets under advisement. Grinkmeyer Leonard Financial is one of only three firms in Alabama to be recognized. We are thrilled to be recognized for this honor, said Valerie Leonard, co-founder of Grinkmeyer Leonard Financial. We remain focused on helping Americans plan, save, and invest wisely so that they can accomplish their lifes goals and create memories with the ones they love. About Grinkmeyer Leonard Financial Grinkmeyer Leonard Financial has been providing individuals and organizations with financial guidance since 2007. Located at 1950 Stonegate Drive, Suite 275, Birmingham, Alabama, 35242, the firm prides itself on crafting unique strategies for each client. For more information, please visit http://www.grinkmeyerleonard.com. Trent Grinkmeyer, Valerie Leonard, Jamie Kertis and Caleb Bagwell are Registered Representatives and Investment Adviser Representatives with/and offer securities and advisory services through Commonwealth Financial Network, Member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Adviser. Fixed insurance products and services offered through Grinkmeyer Leonard Financial, Grinkmeyer Leonard Benefits Group, or CES Insurance Agency. Grinkmeyer Leonard Benefits Group and their leadership consulting services are separate and unrelated to Commonwealth. This communication is not intended to replace the advice of a qualified tax advisor or attorney. About the National Association of Plan Advisors Founded in 2014, NAPAs core purpose is to enhance retirement security in America. NAPA is an affiliate organization of the American Retirement Association and is the only advocacy group exclusively focused on issues to that matter to retirement plan advisors. *The 2017 NAPA Top DC Advisor Teams with AUA over $100 million list is a compilation of individual advisor firms, or teams, solely ranked by DC (Defined Contribution) assets under advisement. Firms were asked to complete an application and provide information concerning their DC business to NAPA. 325 qualified firms were considered of which 250 (77% of candidates) were recognized. This award is not indicative of the future performance of the team or its advisors. Your experience may vary. For more information, please visit http://www.napa-net.org. Elliott M43 HiReach Equipment Vehicle "This vehicle will help reduce the time it takes for installation and expand their installation capabilities, aligning with Office Sign Companys goal to take on more exterior sign work in the coming year." Office Sign Company (OSC) has recently made a purchase to further assist their installation process for large exterior sign jobs. Office Sign Company is a global, e-commerce signage company based out of downtown Fargo, North Dakota. They are manufacturers of custom office signs, name badges, conference room signs, and brushed metal door and room signs. Beyond that, they can create custom signage of various forms for customers. To further push their qualifications and diversify their services to customers, an Elliott M43 HiReach equipment vehicle was recently purchased for installation needs. With this new purchase, installations will be safer and more efficient for the OSC installation crew. In reference to Elliott Equipments name for it, this vehicle will act as an Office in the Sky due to the 30 x 54 two-man work platform that rises on a smooth, 49 hydraulic lift. This vehicle will help reduce the time it takes for installation and expand their installation capabilities, aligning with Office Sign Companys goal to take on more exterior sign work in the coming year. This new truck will assist in the installation of signage items such as dimensional letters, monument signs, large exterior banners and sign substrates, and more. The vehicle is rated as safe, proficient, and built to last. Look for Office Sign Companys Office in the Sky around Fargo! Large Logo October 2017 PrintForm has officially announced the finalization of a strategic investment from Industrial Metal Powders (IMP). Blending modern additive/3D printing processes with traditional manufacturing methods, PrintForm provides rapid prototypes and custom manufacturing solutions to multiple markets, including automotive, aerospace, medical, industrial, and consumer products. The investment from Industrial Metal Powders is exciting news to announce as we move into 2018, said Mallikarjun Huralikoppi, PrintForms President and Founder. They are leaders and veterans in their industry who also share an interest in additive manufacturing, having already set up Incredible AM, a metal 3D printing plant of their own (http://www.3dincredible.com). Apart from growing our internal teams to support our expanding customer base, we are also investing in the technology development necessary to help our customers go from quote to delivery as easily as possible. Our partnership with IMP will help us get these new solutions in front of our customers more quickly, and further expand the success we had in 2017. About Industrial Metal Powders Based in Pune, India, IMP is one of the largest manufacturers in the world for electrolytic iron powders, and has been serving their customers in the industrial, pharmaceutical, food, and chemical industries for over 42 years. For more information about Industrial Metal Powders, visit http://www.imp-india.com. Contact Information: Prakash Dhoka Tel: +91 98220 26631 Email: pkd(at)imp-india(dot)com About PrintForm PrintForm is a single source for build-to-order custom manufactured plastic and metal parts, and delivers expert level service in transitioning customers through the design to manufacturing cycle, including rapid prototypes, pre-production samples, and production parts. PrintForm custom manufacturing services include: Stereolithography (SLA), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Color Jet Printing (CJP), Polyjet, Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Cast Urethane/Vacuum Castings, CNC Machining, Sheet Metal, and Injection Molding. For more information about PrintForm, visit http://www.PrintFormTech.com, or email info(at)printformtech(dot)com. Contact Information: Brian Ford - Co-Founder, CEO Tel: +1 770 576 3361 Email: brian.ford(at)printformtech(dot)com CAL Insurance & Associates Inc. welcomes Abby Baldini as Account Manager on the Employee Benefits Team. We are excited to have such a talented professional join our employee benefits team says Joe DeLucchi, CAL President & CEO. Abby is the epitome of a CAL Account Manager, working tirelessly to exceed clients needs and expectations. Previous to CAL, Abby was the owner of a State Farm agency in the Bay Area. CAL Insurance, founded in 1927, is an independent insurance agency with deep roots in San Francisco. CAL designs and implements insurance programs for middle market businesses & affluent families. More about CAL Insurance may be found at http://www.cal-insure.com. Abbys new contact info is abaldini@cal-insure.com, 415-680-2114. Joe DeLucchi President CAL Insurance and Associates, Inc. 2311 Taraval Street San Francisco, CA 94116 http://www.cal-insure.com Financial institutions are looking for a branch transformation partner who can help them execute their strategies and stay ahead of the curve. Kiran Analytics - a leader in intelligent branch transformation - announced today that it has reached major milestones in 2017. As Kiran celebrates its expansion with innovative software products and consulting services, the continued momentum speaks to the significant value retail banks are realizing from its workforce and distribution optimization solutions driven by predictive analytics. As part of this growth, Kiran Analytics has achieved several major milestones, including: 1. Nine out of the top 12 US retail banks partner with Kiran Analytics. 2. Best-in-class workforce optimization software products and services deployed in over 25,000 branches in the US, UK, and Canada. 3. Kiran Analytics talented team of professionals and engineers grew by 26 percent. Jim DeLapa, CEO of Kiran Analytics said, We are thrilled to be the trusted partner of retail banks and credit unions in their intelligent branch transformation journeys." He added, In todays competitive environment, financial institutions are looking for a branch transformation partner who can help them execute their strategies and stay ahead of the curve. We understand that every banks transformation journey is unique. Our deep expertise in retail banking, passion for analytics-driven decision making, and ability to quickly deliver customized solutions, enables us to serve the unique needs of client banks and to be a true partner. Indicative of Kirans commitment to clients success and continued expansion in retail banking, three former retail banking executives have joined the ranks of the Kiran Analytics leadership team: Ron Munos, Vice President of Business Development: With over 25 years in retail banking, Ron brings to Kiran Analytics a proven track record in selling technology solutions designed to drive process improvement and deliver bottom-line financial performance. Pete Daugherty, Director of Client Services: Pete brings over 20 retail banking executive leadership and experience in strategy, branch network and contact center performance improvement, risk management, and regional operations management. Bob Borgstrom, Director of Client Services: Bob has spent 28 years in retail banking. He brings executive strategy and leadership skills to Kiran via previous roles leading branch banking divisions, regional operations management and sales and service delivery teams. About Kiran Analytics Kiran Analytics drives intelligent branch transformation for retail banks through the application of predictive analytics. Kirans solutions have been deployed in over 25,000 branches helping to optimize business processes, model staffing levels to meet budget and service goals, hire better people faster, and to plan and schedule resources efficiently. As a result, retail banks increase sales and customer service while reducing operational costs. Kiran Analytics is a member of Bank Administration Institute (BAI), Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), and British Bankers Association (BBA). Kiran Analytics headquarters is in San Diego, California and Kiran Analytics Ltd. is based in London. Kiran Analytics software applications are hosted in a private cloud utilizing Kirans integrated SaaS platform and infrastructure services. Together, the infrastructure, hosting platform, and applications are called the CloudCords Suite. Global Patients Choice Awards 2018 We are always delighted to acknowledge the expertise and standards of our top-performing medical facilities through our Global Patient Choice Awards. It is gratifying to present them with something tangible in recognition of their commitment from those that matter the most paul McTaggart, CEO Medical Departures, Inc., the global medical tourism company that puts patients in touch with first-class, overseas medical providers, have today announced their annual Global Patients Choice Awards for 2018. Top-rated medical specialists that have performed consistently throughout the year and have received the highest accolades possible from their patients will be presented with an award. Along with Dental Departures, their sister company, Medical Departures have a global network encompassing over 2000 hospitals, clinics and medical facilities. They have partner clinics in 33 countries worldwide, with their chief markets based in the Asian Pacific and Latin American regions. Their continued success has seen the operation expanding into Europe, with countries such as Hungary, Turkey and Poland becoming increasingly popular destinations with medical tourists throughout the world. Based on a recent report, the global medical tourism market will continue to expand and is anticipated to hit USD $160.8 billion by 2025, representing a compound annual growth rate of 14.9%. The rising costs of medical treatments in the United States and Europe are driving patients to seek more affordable alternatives. With the highly-developed tourism infrastructure that already exists throughout the Latin American region, countries such as Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico continue to attract increasing numbers of medical tourists looking for effective, low-cost medical treatments. Medial Departures partners medical facilities with a proven track-record and continues to extend its markets in new territories, as well as consolidating its presence in existing markets. Founder and CEO Paul McTaggart explains: We are always delighted to acknowledge the expertise and standards of our top-performing medical and dental facilities through our Global Patient Choice Awards. It is gratifying to present them with something tangible in recognition of their commitment from those that matter the most their patients. The Medical Departures Global Patients Choice Awards reflect the overall performance and general customer service delivered by each of their clinics throughout the year. Every patient is invited to provide an honest appraisal of their experience, providing feedback in areas such as the quality of the facilities, the standard of their treatment, and the overall performance and attitude of the personnel. To qualify for an award, a clinic must maintain a minimum average rating of 4 stars out of 5 during the course of the year. This way, smaller operations providing top-quality treatments can be just as likely to gain recognition for their efforts as the bigger, internationally-recognized medical chains. Past winners have found the award an effective tool in promoting their quality services through local media outlets, on their own websites and in their clinics. With partner clinics throughout Latin American, Medical Departures are ideally placed to put patients in touch with top-quality doctors in Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica and many other globally-recognized tourist hotspots. Mexico is popular with overseas patients due to its close proximity to the US border, Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited hospitals and affordable prices. The biggest draw for international patients is, undoubtedly, the cost. Most medical procedures are available for between 60%-70% less than in the US which, on a costly procedure such as a Breast Augmentation, equates to savings that run into thousands of dollars. To ensure that patients receive the best medical care possible, partner clinics associated with Medical Departures have been pre-screened to verify the legitimacy of doctor qualifications and professional memberships. Site visits are also carried out to assess each facility and to check that all health, safety and hygiene protocols adhere to strict international standards. Based on patient feedback, the following Latin American doctors and medical facilities have all performed to the highest standards and are in the running to receive a Global Patients Choice Awards, 2018: Dr Juan Gordillo Hernandez- a renowned plastic and cosmetic surgeon who works out of the Centro Medico Puerta de - Hierro Sur in Guadalajara, Mexico Dr Ricardo Vega Montiel - a renowned plastic surgeon based in Mexico at the Grand Hotel, Tijuana Dr Itzel Fernandez - a specialist bariatric and weight loss surgeon based in Mexico City Dr Sergio Arturo del Hoyo Galvan - a gastrointestinal surgeon based at The Advanced Gastro Surgery clinic at the San - Javier Hospital in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico View the full list of Latin America winners for Medical Departures Global Patients Choice Awards 2018 at https://www.medicaldepartures.com/global-patients-choice/2018/ About Medical Departures Medical Departures are an established medical tourism provider that specialize in delivering effective, affordable treatments to international patients looking for affordable, top quality healthcare solutions. Offering a comprehensive range of aesthetic, cosmetic and medical services that include both surgical and non-invasive procedures, their easy-to-use online portal allows patients to quickly compare prices, check out doctor profiles, view on-site photographs and read patient reviews. Other benefits available through Medical Departures include preferential rates on additional medical insurance, travel and accommodation package deals and an exclusive best price guarantee scheme. The Midland IRA Team Volunteering in 2017 Im proud of the amount of donations we were able to make in 2017, says Dave Owens, President of Midland IRA, I hope we can make an even larger impact in 2018. Midland IRA, headquartered in Fort Myers and Chicago, donates almost $19,000 to several charities during 2017. The donations helped 15 organizations last year. Midland IRA makes regular donations to the local community and other areas in need. The staff is given the opportunity to choose charities and organizations to donate to and volunteer at throughout the year. Last year the nationwide self-directed IRA administrator made donations to the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, Southwest Florida Community Foundation, Champions for Children, Chicago Police Memorial, Americares, American Red Cross Hurricane Relief, UNICEF, Phillips Family Hurricane Relief, University of Florida Charities, Senior Friendship Center, and Meals for Hope food drive. Through Midland IRAs employee donation community fund, Midland IRA donated to Wreaths Across America, Cape Coral Caring Center, and to Puerto Rico for hurricane relief. Midland Trust Company, Midland IRAs trust Custodian located in South Dakota, made a local donation of $2,500 to the Feeding South Dakota Food Bank. Midland IRA recognizes the importance of giving back to charities and makes an effort to do so on a regular basis. Im proud of the amount of donations we were able to make in 2017, says Dave Owens, President of Midland IRA, I hope we can make an even larger impact in 2018. Midland IRA will continue to make donations and will volunteer frequently in 2018. To learn more about the self-directed IRA administrator and 1031 exchange Qualified Intermediary, visit www(dot)midlandira(dot)com. About Midland IRA Midland IRA is a self-directed IRA administrator that provides tax-deferred and tax-free investment opportunities, superior customer service, and educational tools to assist investors in realizing the maximum benefits possible within IRAs. Midland IRA makes it easy to use self-directed retirement plans to invest in assets that the individual investor knows, understands, and can control. Midland IRA is also a 1031 exchange qualified intermediary. To learn more visit www(dot)MidlandIRA(dot)com. 98th street in Miami Shores is now more than a street; it is place to connect with neighbors, local businesses, host movie nights, festivals and more, said MIAMI Residential President-Elect Ines Hegedus-Garcia, a Miami Shores resident who led the Plaza 98 project The MIAMI Association of REALTORS (MIAMI) is partnering with several entities to host Party in the Plaza from 5-9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13 to celebrate Miami Shores' new pedestrian-friendly space, Plaza 98, at 9802 NE 2nd Ave. MIAMI, sponsors and volunteers recently painted 10 multi-colored, intersecting pineapples on Plaza 98's asphalt to create a new Downtown Miami Shores destination for community gatherings. All ages are welcome for Saturdays free event. MIAMI, which will host a ribbon-cutting during Saturdays event for a bench it is donating to Plaza 98, invested more than $100,000 in grant funds from the National Association of REALTORS(R) (NAR) in 2017 to improve our South Florida communities. In 2017, MIAMI was proud to host the Plaza 98 project as well as 10 other South Florida community initiatives. 98th street in Miami Shores is now more than a street; it is place to connect with neighbors, local businesses, host movie nights, festivals and more, said MIAMI Residential President-Elect Ines Hegedus-Garcia, a Miami Shores resident who led the Plaza 98 project. A group of Miami Shores residents worked with Miami organizations for months to design and create this pedestrian-friendly space. We had one goal: to make Downtown Miami Shores a more vibrant place, something residents have been wanting for years. Party in the Plaza Schedule Saturdays Party in the Plaza will have a health focus. Its a new year and a new you. Event schedule: 5 p.m. - Free yoga at sunset 5:30 p.m. - Ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Plaza 98 bench donated by MIAMI Realtors. 5-9 p.m. - Food, beverages, kids corner and music Miami Organizations Unite to Create Plaza 98 MIAMI Realtors partnered with the Village of Miami Shores, Downtown Advisory Committee, Greater Miami Shores Chamber of Commerce, Miami Shores Community Alliance, and others to transform Downtown Miami Shores. Plaza 98, located on 98 Street on the west side of NE 2nd Avenue between the Miami Theater Center and Miami Shores Auto Repair, had several community workshops where sponsors and volunteers came together to build, set up and ultimately paint the asphalt to bring the Plaza 98 vision to life. More than 30 volunteers gathered to paint the pineapples on the Plaza 98 asphalt in November. The pineapples are in honor of Miami Shores' history. Miami Shores was home to a pineapple plantation in the early 1900's. Miami Shores architect Joe Clark created the pineapple design. Plaza 98 is a temporary project. Plaza 98's goal is to have programming for the second Saturday of every month for residents to gather and discover new businesses in Miami Shores. The concept is to reactivate the downtown area. Programming, vendors and themes will change with every event. In 2017, Plaza 98 hosted a Plaza 98 launch party (Nov. 11) and a Movie Night under the Stars (Dec. 9). About the MIAMI Association of REALTORS The MIAMI Association of REALTORS was chartered by the National Association of Realtors in 1920 and is celebrating 98 years of service to Realtors, the buying and selling public, and the communities in South Florida. Comprised of six organizations, the Residential Association, the Realtors Commercial Alliance, the Broward Council, the Jupiter Tequesta Hobe Sound (JTHS-MIAMI) Council, the Young Professionals Network (YPN) Council and the award-winning International Council, it represents 46,000 real estate professionals in all aspects of real estate sales, marketing, and brokerage. It is the largest local Realtor association in the U.S., and has official partnerships with 167 international organizations worldwide. MIAMIs official website is http://www.MiamiRealtors.com ### Design Detail: The Bowling Green Residence Custom home builder PrecisionCraft Log & Timber Homes received four 2017 Best in American Living Awards (BALA) presented by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Awards were announced at the NAHB International Builders Show in Orlando, Florida on January 10, 2018. Awards presented to PrecisionCraft Log & Timber Homes include: Steamboat Timber Home, 2017 BALA Single-Family Custom Platinum Award: One-of-a-Kind Custom or Spec Home 1,501 - 2,500 sq. ft. Georgetown Lake Home, 2017 BALA Single-Family Custom Gold Award: One-of-a-Kind Custom or Spec Home 4,501 - 6,000 sq. ft. Bowling Green Residence, 2017 BALA Specialty Silver Award: Design Detail In addition, the Steamboat Timber Home was recognized as the Best in the Region, Mountain. All three homes were designed by M.T.N Design, the in-house architectural design firm of PrecisionCraft Log & Timber Homes. PrecisionCraft also fabricated and installed the log and timber materials of all three homes, and completed the full construction on the Georgetown Lake Home. The Steamboat Timber Home is a 2,415-square foot home that seamlessly fits in with the style of homes found in charming Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This home is designed to take advantage of the 360-degree views and the local weather patterns. A large wrap-around porch helps mitigate the suns rays and protects the home from snow. And, a three-sided patio on the east side of the home was advantageously designed to capture the afternoon shade creating a welcoming place to have an outdoor meal. The Georgetown Lake Home effortlessly cascades its 4,593 square feet with the landscape outside of Butte, Montana. This allows nearly every room access to outdoor space, including the living room with a fully retractable wall of glass. This highly energy efficient home uses an insulated concrete form (ICF) foundation and structural insulated panel (SIP) wall and roof system. It also features a cold roof and home automation system. High-end custom design meets traditional, rustic log home in the Bowling Green Residence. The winning design detail created by multiple large, flared Western Red Cedar character posts is awe inspiring. Their tremendous height enhances the feel of the two-story great room and blends seamlessly with the rest of the post and beam log structure. The Best in American Living Awards believe that A great home starts with great design. These awards reflect the talent and dedication of our world class designers, as we continue to exceed our clients expectations with beautiful designs that define PrecisionCraft as the leader in the log and timber industry, said President James Banner. Now in its 34th year, BALA recognizes outstanding achievement by builders and design professionals in all sectors of the residential housing industry including single-family production, custom, multifamily, affordable, remodeling, community, and interiors. BALA is built on the principle that all great homes start with great design, no matter cost or size. Buying a home is often the most significant purchase people will make in their lifetime, and BALA winners spotlight what building industry professionals need to know to set their project apart and hit the right mark with todays highly educated and discerning home buyers. Additional Information about the BALA program can be found at bestinamericanliving.com. The 2017 Winners Portfolio, featuring design trends and project photographs, is available online as well. ABOUT PrecisionCraft: PrecisionCraft Log & Timber Homes and M.T.N Design are the premier designer and producer of mountain-style homes. Producing homes for clients across the U.S., Canada, and internationally, PrecisionCraft Log & Timber Homes is part of PFB Custom Homes Group, LLC which includes additional brands Riverbend Timber Framing, TimberScape, and Point Zero Homes. Visit https://www.precisioncraft.com to learn more. Ive lived in California my entire life, but consider Iceland a second home, says Burkard. Even after countless trips, Iceland always makes me appreciate California and the unique differences between both landscapes. The Winter Waters Art Exhibit is a Collaboration Between Album Surf and World-Renowned Photographer Chris Burkard The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel presents a curated exhibition of photos and surfboards titled Winter Waters at the oceanfront resort. The exhibit captures the colorful waters of California and Iceland with photo prints by Chris Burkard alongside six Album Surf surfboards featuring integrated photos taken by Burkard. The exhibit is on display in the resorts Art Exhibit Space from January 17 through April. The exhibit is complimentary and open to the public. After exploring the exhibit, guests can make it an afternoon or evening and enjoy handcrafted cocktails on 180blu as they watch surfers ride the waves at Salt Creek while the sun sets over Catalina. 180blu is the resorts outdoor oceanfront lounge featuring panoramic views of the Pacific and the blue skies across the horizon. Perched 150-feet above Salt Creek Beach, 180blu is the perfect Southern California experience to enjoy refreshing beverages, small plates from RAYA and a little slice of heaven on earth. Chris Burkard is an accomplished explorer, photographer, creative director, speaker, and author. Traveling throughout the year to pursue the farthest expanses of Earth, Burkard works to capture stories that inspire humans to consider their relationship with nature, while promoting the preservation of wild places everywhere. Layered by outdoor, travel, adventure, surf, and lifestyle subjects, Burkard is known for images that are punctuated by untamed, powerful landscapes. Through social media, he strives to share his vision of wild places with millions of people, and to inspire them to explore for themselves. His visionary perspective has earned him opportunities to work on global, prominent campaigns with Fortune 500 clients, speak on the TED stage, design product lines, educate, and publish a growing collection of books. Chris can be found on Instagram @chrisburkard. Ive lived in California my entire life, but consider Iceland a second home, says Burkard. Even after countless trips, Iceland always makes me appreciate California and the unique differences between both landscapes. Since 2001, Album Surf has been sharing the stoke with one-of-a-kind, innovative surfboards, handmade by surfers in the United States. Beautiful boards and an authentic grassroots approach has led to a growing customer base from around the world. Album Surfs flagship showroom is in San Clemente, California. Surfboards are a unique way to enjoy Chris photographs and art lovers appreciate the uncommon medium, says Matt Parker, Album Surf Head Shaper and Board Designer. With its proximity to the ocean, The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel is a great venue to showcase this coastal-inspired collection. # # # About The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel rises above the Pacific Ocean and affords panoramic views across the horizon and the miles of sandy beach below. The resorts extraordinary bluff top setting creates a backdrop that elevates the guest experience and creates distinctive and unforgettable memories that last a lifetime. Make the oceanfront resort a part of your travel plans and #riseabove. For more information or reservations call 800-241-3333, the hotel directly at 949-240-2000, a travel professional or visit http://www.ritzcarlton.com/LagunaNiguel. NexTier Bank We fully expect to see significant growth, not only as a company, but throughout the local and national economy as a result of this historic legislation. NexTier Bank, N.A. (NexTier), today announced an investment in its workforce with a one-time bonus of $1,000 for all employees as a result of the tax reform bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Trump. This is in addition to annual bonuses paid in late 2017. Our employees are the key to our success and we are pleased to share this tax savings with our team. NexTiers employees work hard to meet the needs of our customers, build relationships, and give back to the communities we serve. Its an honor to reward them for their efforts, stated CEO, Clem Rosenberger. In addition to this one-time payout, NexTier is committed to providing educational and career advancement opportunities to employees on an ongoing basis with educational benefits such as tuition reimbursement, internal training, and a variety of industry training opportunities. NexTier will also make adjustments to the wages of hourly employees throughout the year. The tax reform bill not only allows us to invest in our employees, but to accelerate lending to small businesses, increase hiring, and enhance our charitable giving. Its a win-win, continued Rosenberger. We fully expect to see significant growth, not only as a company, but throughout the local and national economy as a result of this historic legislation. About NexTier NexTier Bank, N.A. has been serving Southwestern PA for nearly 140 years. Headquartered in Kittanning, PA, NexTier Bank is one of the regions fastest growing community banks with assets of approximately $1.2 billion and over 250 employees. NexTier provides consumer banking services, business banking services, cash management and investment services, through a network of 28 branches in Armstrong, Allegheny, Butler and most recently, Westmoreland Counties and loan production offices in Ohio, Clarion, Hermitage, and Central Pennsylvania. For more information, visit https://www.nextierbank.com/. NexTier Bank is Member FDIC. Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Insurance products offered through LPL Financial or its licensed affiliates. NexTier Bank and NexTier Wealth Management are not registered brokers/dealers and are not affiliated with LPL Financial. Castanea Volume 82, Issue 2 This study and its publication come at a critical time for the Abrams Creek Wetlands. No other limestone-based wetland in the state has as many rare plant species. Castanea Natural wetlands provide safe haven for birds, support rare native plants and contain natural ecosystems that can only exist in fens, swamps and marshes. However, wetlands are regularly threatened by road, housing and farmland development. Determining the ecological value of a wetlandand deciding whether to protect itoften requires a thorough inventory and an examination of its supported species. The authors of a study published in the current issue of Castanea inventoried the Abrams Creek Wetlands in northwestern Virginias Shenandoah Valley. The researchers examined what was currently responsible for the makeup and interactions of the Abrams Creek Wetlands natural communities and documented what could be lost if conservation did not accompany future development of the area. The Abrams Creek Wetlands is surrounded by houses and farms, yet it retains its ecological significance, attracting birders and other naturalists. With soils that remain extremely high in calcium, it gives modern researchers an indication of the original ecology of the stream-valley wetlands in the area. Half of the wetlands have been designated as a preserve, and conservation efforts have elicited promises that the other half will be separated by a 50-foot buffer from the road with housing construction scheduled to begin in 2018. The researchers found 304 species in the 24-hectare Abrams Creek Wetlands; 71 percent of which are native to Virginia. Those native species cover 7299 percent of the marshes, fens and swamps that make up the wetlands. Of those native species, 20 are listed as rare in the state. The highly calcareous soils of the Abrams Creek Wetlands, and those like it in the Ridge and Valley Province, support these native species; some of which are rare not just statewide but globally, even as they are divided and isolated by continuing human construction. This study and its publication come at a critical time for the Abrams Creek Wetlands, said senior author Woodward Bousquet. No other limestone-based wetland in the state has as many rare plant species. The researchers concluded that floristic quality, a measure of an areas ecological value, is exceptionally high in the Abrams Creek Wetlands. Their large inventory of plant species, including many that are rare, showed continued ecological significance, despite the constrictions of rural and suburban development. Now, the sites significance is documented, said senior author Bousquet. We have important reasons for the city, county, citizens and developers to collaborate in caring for it properly. Full text of the article Floristics of the Abrams Creek Wetlands, a Calcareous Fen Complex in Winchester City and Frederick County, Virginia in Castanea, Volume 82, Issue 2, 2017, is now available at http://castaneajournal.org/doi/full/10.2179/17-137. ### About Castanea Castanea is the journal of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society and publishes articles relating to all aspects of botany in the entire eastern United States and adjoining areas. The Southern Appalachiansthe nonglaciated, mountainous areas of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and southwestern New Yorkform an evolutionary center for native plant diversity for the northern temperate regions of the world. The society dates to 1935 and serves all persons interested in the botany of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The journal encourages submissions of scientific papers dealing with basic research in any field of plant biology, systematics, floristics, ecology, physiology, and biochemistry. For more information about the journal or the society, please visit: http://www.castaneajournal.org/ or [http://www.sabs.appstate.edu. Author William F. Penoyar It is a story of survival and bravery, but also a story of tragedy and the resilience of the human spirit. This historical novel follows both the tragic events that preceded Operation Iraqi Freedom and the courageous life and times of Lara. Born in Mosul, Iraq, and raised in Michigan as an all-American girl, she became entrapped in the near-fatal grasp of Uday Hussein and his henchmen. Uday Hussein was the ace of hearts in the US militarys deck of playing cards that was provided to the soldiers soon after the second war with Iraq began in 2003. Uday was known by everyone in Iraq as a murderous thug who learned his trade from his father, Saddam. His tyrannical career began with his first killing when he was in college, and his deadly ways continued remorselessly throughout his life. "...a tantalizing novel from the first page all the way to the end. The story is based on true facts that actually happened...." Lee Jacob, Advisor to Department of State in Iraq 2008-2011 "...a harrowing tale of an Iraqi-American young lady that survived an abduction by Uday Hussein.....I highly recommend it!" Sean Goad, U.S. Marine and State Department Diplomat for five years between 2004-2011 Surviving Dreamland is a thrilling story that captures the hard-boiled realities of living under a brutal authoritarian regime and the terror of being caught in a helpless situation when war looms and the bombs begin to fall. Laras triumphant survival and her tip to the US special operators succeeded in assuring the demise of two of the top three most-wanted killers during the early days of the Iraq war. Convincing in its accuracy of detail and thought provoking, Surviving Dreamland races through the frequently fatal dangers that the Iraqi people faced while living under Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime. It is a story of survival and bravery, but also a story of tragedy and the resilience of the human spirit. To learn more visit http://www.williamfpenoyarbooks.com. William F. Penoyar is available to discuss his new book "SURVIVING DREAMLAND, Escape From Terror". For all advance reviews and copies, media requests and inquiries contact Burke Allen at burke(at)allenmediastrategies.com or by calling (703)589-8960. According to statistics, by the year 2020, cloud computing is going to pass the $270 billion mark. In fact, more than 50 percent of all companies in America have plans to increase their cloud computing budget in the coming years. Additionally, up to 75 percent of businesses have reported that their service availability has improved since they moved to the cloud. With the innovation, flexibility and options offered by cloud computing, the state of business has completely changed. While this is a confusing topic for some, there is new documentary that helps to explain this technology. Now, in an effort to help people from the business world, and regular citizens better understand the impact of cloud computing, it is being featured on the series Success Files. This is a docu-style series, hosted by award-winning actor Rob Lowe, that goes in depth to discover important information about various topics. During the cloud computing series, viewers will have an opportunity to learn about the beginning of this technology, as well as what it has evolved into today. The information is perfect for people of all ages, including those new to cloud computing, as well as individuals who fully understand how it works. This series is broadcasted across public access television, including a number of PBS member stations throughout the U.S. Individuals interested in watching the new episode covering cloud computing should check their local listings to know when to tune-in. Dr. Hirshel Kahn Vitiligo usually does not cause physical harm. That said, the emotional toll can be quite severe. January 2018 Winnie Harlows striking appearance regularly turns heads. The fan-fave from Americas Next Top Model face of the Spanish fashion brand Desigual has more than one million Instagram followers. This embrace was impossible for Harlow to imagine when she was younger and left high school to escape peer torment over her unusual appearance: vividly contrasting dark and light patches of skin covering her body, the result of the skin condition vitiligo. Vitiligo usually does not cause physical harm, notes Dr. Hirshel Kahn, a dermatologist with Advanced Dermatology PC. That said, the emotional toll can be quite severe. Researchers are still working to unravel the genetic mystery of vitiligo, which causes patients to lose melanocyte skin cells. Melanocytes produce the pigment that gives skin its color, explains Dr. Kahn. Without them, our skin is white. According to the Vitiligo Research Foundation, as many as two percent of the worlds population suffers from the condition, with most experiencing what is known as nonsegmental or generalized vitiligo, where patches of skin on both sides of the body lose pigment, often in a symmetrical pattern. Vitiligo is not contagious, says Dr. Kahn. With nonsegmental vitiligo, an autoimmune response appears to be at work, with the body destroying its own melanocytes. Family history seems to be a risk factor, but many patients do not have relatives with the condition. For patients, part of the challenge of coping with vitiligo is its unpredictability: The condition typically appears without warning, with about half of patients developing symptoms by the time theyre 21, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. After its onset, start-and-stop skin whitening episodes can take place without warning. Ongoing research, Dr. Kahn points out, may provide the key to preventing the skins loss of pigment cells. To manage vitiligo he suggests the following: 5 Recommendations for Managing Vitiligo 1. See a doctor as soon as you suspect vitiligo: In almost all cases, Dr. Kahn emphasizes, vitiligo is not going to clear up. In fact, just the opposite. Once a patient sees skin color fading, they should consult a doctor. If it is vitiligo, they should be evaluated to make sure that other autoimmune diseases are not present and to ensure that their eyes are not affected. Also importantly early intervention can be crucial to empowering the patient to manage the condition and make informed choices. 2. Create an individualized treatment plan: Most current treatments focus on adding color to whitened skin. Approaches range from non-invasive cosmetics and dyes to steroidal creams, immunosuppressives (in topical or pill form), UVA light therapy, and laser therapy. There is also emerging use of surgery to introduce new melanocyte cells into affected areas of the skin. In some cases, a combination of therapies is used. Patients who want to minimize the appearance of vitiligo should partner with their doctor to create a treatment plan that will best meet their needs, observes Dr. Kahn. Treatment involves several factors: Location and extent of the pigment loss, the patients tolerance for side effects, and time constraints. 3. Choose your doctor carefully: There is exciting research being done, states Dr. Kahn, for example, potential surgical approaches to repigmentation, as well as an increased genetic understanding that may pave the way for preventing loss of melanocytes. Patients will want to have a doctor who stays current regarding breakthroughs that may benefit them. 4. Maintain realistic expectations: Most treatments take time, emphasizes Dr. Kahn, noting that steroidal creams usually take at least three months before effects are seen and light therapies require long-term sessions. Also, even successful treatments may fade. Patients should have a very clear understanding of what the treatment involves and what the outcome may be. 5. Pay attention to emotional needs: Many vitiligo patients suffer low self-esteem, social anxiety, and depression, observes Dr. Kahn. Our emotional well being is intrinsic to our overall health. Patients need doctors that are emotionally supportive and can provide referrals to adjunctive therapies. Online support groups such as Vitiligo Support International and Vitiligo Friends can provide a community, as well as a source for ongoing developments. Early intervention and forming a partnership with ones doctor, concludes Dr. Kahn, are essential steps to managing the challenge of vitiligo. Hirshel Kahn, M.D., is board certified and specializes in dermatology at Advanced Dermatology P.C. Advanced Dermatology P.C. and the Center for Laser and Cosmetic Surgery (New York & New Jersey) is one of the leading dermatology centers in the nation, offering highly experienced physicians in the fields of cosmetic and laser dermatology as well as plastic surgery and state-of-the-art medical technologies. http://www.advanceddermatologypc.com. ANDREW RAYEL - Moments Remixes 2 E.P. - artwork Squeezing with urgency past a phalanx of security guards for a chance to touch their trance music messiah, Andrew Rayels fans press forward in a tsunami of bodies. Wearing his inHarmony Music T-shirt, freshly drenched in sweat, Rayel pauses to take selfies with each fan. Blazing. Significant. Sweeping. The music of Andrew Rayel is undoubtedly powerful. As an increasingly seasoned electronic dance music producer and DJ and now, label chief Andrew Rayel has the field-tested ability to craft exciting music. The second installment of Rayels MOMENTS REMIXES E.P. (inHarmony Music) is out now. Squeezing with urgency past a phalanx of security guards for a chance to touch their trance music messiah, Andrew Rayels fans press forward in a tsunami of bodies. Wearing his inHarmony Music T-shirt, now freshly drenched in sweat after another monstrous DJ set, Rayel pauses to take selfies with each adoring fan. Such is the intensity each time Rayel performs. Its no wonder. Andrew Rayels music conjures feelings that are often very personal. In an ode to his Moments studio album, the second installment of remixes from Moments is now available. The Radion6 Remix of Let It Be Forever is a mesmerizing rendition of the original, one thats haunted by Rayels heart-wrenching melodies. The lusty production and progressive slant of the remix as the track kicks into high gear is seductive. The Radion6 Extended Remix is at once playful and mischievous. The Whiteout Remix of Moments is a whirlwind of aural delight driven by horns and gracious swells. The Whiteout Extended Remix takes those devilish horns and sculpts them into a thrilling trance music ride. The Chukiess & Whackboi Remix of Tacadum is psy-trance at its best with a buzzing-bee pace and laden vibe that causes listeners to levitate straight out of their shoes. The heavily syncopated breakdown is tweaked for maximum effect into a molten, electrifying blizzard of sound. The Chukiess & Whackboi Extended Remix augments the track with sitar strings for even more deliciously menacing drama. The De Hofnar Remix of Once In A Lifetime Love casts the original in a tropical, laid-back atmosphere, giving the song a freshly romantic, sunny twist. The De Hofnar Extended Remix feels clubbier and is more suited for darkened dancefloors, though not an ounce of warmth is lost. Tracklist for MOMENTS REMIXES 2 Andrew Rayel, Let It Be Forever (Radion6 Extended Remix) Andrew Rayel, Let It Be Forever (Radion6 Remix) Andrew Rayel, Moments (Whiteout Extended Remix) Andrew Rayel, Moments (Whiteout Remix) Andrew Rayel, Tacadum (Chukiess & Whackboi Extended Remix) Andrew Rayel, Tacadum (Chukiess & Whackboi Remix) Andrew Rayel ft Kristina Antuna, Once In A Lifetime Love (De Hofnar Extended Remix) Andrew Rayel ft Kristina Antuna, Once In A Lifetime Love (De Hofnar Remix) About Andrew Rayel Hailed by Armin van Buuren as the future of trance music, Andrew Rayel (real name: Andrei Rata) is a classically trained electronic dance music DJ and producer from Moldova often referred to as the modern-day Mozart. As a DJ, Rayel exudes an unbridled enthusiasm for the music he plays and his onstage performances are electric and filled with physical energy. Drenched in a well-earned sweat after every set, Rayel earns his position as a bandleader, stirring up his crowds passion as much with his music selection as with his bodily vigor. He has DJd the worlds biggest festivals, including: Ultra Music Festival in Miami, TomorrowLand in Belgium and TomorrowWorld in Atlanta, Stereosonic in Australia, Global Gathering in the UK and other countries, Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, Electric Zoo in New York, Transmission Festival in various countries, Ministry of Sound in the UK, Dreamstate in San Bernardino, Electronic Family in Amsterdam, Zoukout in Singapore and Together Festival in Thailand. Rayel is a regular on the lineup at various ASOT stages around the world. Nightclub residencies have him performing onstage at super-clubs, including: Marquee Nightclub & Dayclub in Las Vegas, Marquee and LAVO in New York, Ushuaia Beach Club in Ibiza, Zouk in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Escape in Amsterdam and Ministry of Sound in London. About inHarmony Music Launched in September, 2017, inHarmony Music is the record label headed by Andrew Rayel and distributed by Armada Music. As label chief and head of A&R for inHarmony Music, Rayel is the key decision-maker when it comes to signing new artists and music. Fulfilling a lifelong dream while on his never-ending career quest, Rayel is now able to do for new artists what Armin van Buuren did for Rayel years ago. The circle is complete and there will be an abundant supply of lovingly curated new music ahead. Listen to Andrew Rayels MOMENTS REMIXES 2 E.P., here: https://IHM008.lnk.to/MREP2MA For information on Andrew Rayel, David Gravell, Mark Sixma, FATUM, MaRLo, Ryan Farish, NOA | AON (Pavel Stuchlik), Maro Music (Marek Walaszek), Paul Damixie, NativeOrigin303, NKRIOT, and artists like Armin van Buuren, contact EMILY TAN Media Relations (U.S.), +1(917) 318-3758, EmilyEmilyTan(at)aol.com. Follow EMILY TAN Media Relations on Twitter @EmilyEmilyTan and LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/pub/emily-tan/4/342/70b. Our blogs enable us to converse directly with professionals, and explore key business and technology issues surrounding the management of content. Concept Searching, the global leader in semantic metadata generation, auto-classification, and taxonomy management software, has compiled the list of its most read blogs in 2017. Readership of Concept Searchings blog, Smart Content Discussions, has grown significantly over the past seven years and attracts IT and business professionals from a variety of industries. Smart Content Discussions covers all aspects of managing unstructured content through the generation of business-critical metadata, to improve any application or business process that requires its use. Other topics pertinent to IT and business are also discussed, often generating lively discussion. Many of the archived blogs are frequently accessed. Being at the forefront of technology since 2002 gives our blogs a balance of experience, best practices, and views on topical subjects in the industry, said Martin Garland, President of Concept Searching. We are not only a software developer but also a technology leader our metadata solutions are cutting-edge and address the most challenging issues facing organizations today. Our blogs enable us to converse directly with professionals, and explore key business and technology issues surrounding the management of content, he concluded. The blogs most read and commented on include the following: Search and You Will Find Maybe Today, one of our technical people said that search was a commodity. That is probably valid. But I am hoping that executive management now sees that search, even if it is a commodity, needs to find what you are looking for and only what you are looking for. Read more Would You Travel to Timbuktu Without a Map? Highly Doubtful For those of you who love to travel, ever been to Timbuktu? I havent. Timbuktu, also spelled as Tinbuktu, Timbuctoo and Timbuktoo, is a historical city that is still inhabited, in the West African nation of Mali, situated 20 kilometers north of the River Niger, on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Read more The Most Dangerous Phrase is Weve always done it this way I just read a quote, author unknown, which stated the most dangerous phrase is Weve always done it this way. As a one-time software instructor, that brings back painful memories of me wanting to strangle students and having to refrain. The author was probably an instructor too. Anyway, the bottom line is that people dont like change. Period. Read more Findability or Usability? You know, I hate the word findability. I dont know why, it just rubs me up the wrong way. I was thinking about using a different word. I like usability. There is a big difference between the two words. Did you know that if the median Fortune 1000 company were to increase the usability of its data by 10 percent, company revenue would be expected to increase by $2.02 billion? Read more Enterprise Content Management Systems Sort of Like Rabbits Rabbits get a bad rap, as they continually reproduce. Actually, they can have up to 5 litters per year, with up to 12 babies. There you have it. It struck me that this is very similar to enterprise content management (ECM) software, which appears to replicate itself throughout an organization. Read more What Exactly Are You Collaborating On? Is It Safe? The average SharePoint enterprise collaborates with 72 business partners via OneDrive and SharePoint Online, according to Skyhigh Networks. Thats quite a few. Is collaboration safe? May sound like a stupid question, but this subject seems to be overlooked in the growing world of vendors and analyst reports. Read more Migrating to a New Website? Whats the Best Day? Yes, there are recommendations for the best days to migrate to a new website. In fact, they are days that I never would have thought of. Ready? Ta-da a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Read more How Much is Your Share Value? It Just Went Down if You Had a Cyberattack If you have publicly traded stock and have had a cybersecurity breach, the price of your shares has dropped permanently. Did you know that? Read more Digital Waste or Patient Care? Across all industries, unstructured content represents 80 percent of data. The mere 20 percent is structured. Unstructured data is vital in just about any industry, and perhaps in healthcare it represents a significant untapped resource that the industry is still struggling to exploit. Capturing clinical data has been a key objective for decades, funneling the data into downstream workflows to gain more in-depth functionality across a wide range of applications from billing to population management. Read more Can Big Data and Text Analytics Be Friends? No, I Dont Think So Years ago, more years than I care to admit, data warehousing was all the rage. A precursor, if you will, to big data. Times have changed. Big data is, well, big data. So much so, a data warehousing solution could no longer choke down data and spit out an answer. Hence, scalability is key, as is performance. And, of course, the ability to handle massive amounts of data, fast. Read more About Concept Searching Concept Searching is the industry leader specializing in semantic metadata generation, auto-classification, and taxonomy management. Platform agnostic, Concept Searching also has a Microsoft Gold Application Development competency, and offers a complete suite of SharePoint and Office 365 solutions. The award-winning technologies encompass the entire portfolio of unstructured information assets in on-premises, cloud, or hybrid environments. Clients have deployed the intelligent metadata enabled solutions to improve search, records management, identification and protection of privacy data, migration, text analytics, eDiscovery, and enterprise social networking applications. Concept Searching is headquartered in the US with offices in the UK, Canada and South Africa. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) announced today that Larry Bat Cross has earned the Master Certificated Flight Instructor (MCFI) designation, with the additional Aerobatic distinction, accredited by Master Instructors LLC. The MCFI-A accreditation is one component of the high standards that must be met by APS instructors in order to qualify the as top Upset Prevention & Recovery Training (UPRT) experts in the industry. Larrys vast experience of more than 40 years in every type of aviation has successfully prepared him for his current position as an APS Advanced Instructor Pilot. After graduating from Youngstown State University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Larry began training as a U.S. Air Force pilot. He went on to become an instructor and was hand-picked to instruct at NATOs premier large force employment school in Florennes, Belgium. His final assignment in a long and distinguished career in the USAF was on the staff of the Air Combat Command Inspector General, where he was directly responsible for assessing the combat readiness of all operational tactical aircraft in the USAF. After serving in the Air Force, he continued to work as a civilian instructor and pilot for a major domestic Airline. Larry came to APS in June, 2017 and received additional training in UPRT specific instruction. Attaining the MCFI-A accreditation further rounds out his expertise in the type of all-attitude training necessary for effective UPRT instruction. apstraining.com/Cross/ The MCFI-A represents our dedication to excellence in flying and safety, says Paul BJ Ransbury, president of Aviation Performance Solutions. Our industry leadership in Upset Prevention & Recovery Training (UPRT) is built upon decades of research, experience and success in delivering effective UPRT as well as working with international organizations to help establish best practices and regulatory guidelines. Continuing this legacy and staying on the cutting edge of UPRT delivery starts with having, maintaining and continually growing aviations best UPRT flight instructors. ABOUT AVIATION PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS Aviation Performance Solutions LLC (APS), headquartered at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona, trains thousands of professional pilots and instructors in comprehensive Upset Prevention and Recovery Training skill development. APS provides integrated LOC-I solutions via industry-leading computer-based, on-aircraft (jet and piston), and full-flight simulator Upset Prevention & Recovery Training (UPRT). All training is in full compliance with the Airplane Upset Recovery Training Aid, FAA Advisory Circular 120-109A on Stall Training, ICAO Manual on Aeroplane Upset Prevention and Recovery Training, IATA Guidance Material and Best Practices for the Implementation of Upset Prevention and Recovery Training, and the FAA Advisory Circular 120-111 on Upset Prevention and Recovery Training. APS is the only Part 141 Flight School certified in the delivery of complete upset prevention & recovery, stall/spin and instrument upset recovery training courses worldwide. With additional training locations in Texas (USA), The Netherlands (Europe), and military division in Alabama (USA), APS provides global access to the highest quality Upset Prevention and Recovery Training available. ABOUT THE MASTER INSTRUCTOR DESIGNATION The Master Instructor designation is a national accreditation recognized by the FAA. Candidates must demonstrate an ongoing commitment to excellence, professional growth, and service to the aviation community, and must pass a rigorous evaluation by a peer Board of Review. The process parallels the continuing education regimen used by other professionals to enhance their knowledge base while increasing their professionalism. Designees are recognized as outstanding aviation educators for not only their excellence in teaching, but for their engagement in the continuous process of learning both their own, and their students. The designation must be renewed biennially and significantly surpasses the FAA requirements for renewal of the candidates flight instructor certificate. Learn why the Master Certified Flight Instructor program matters to APS. Dr. Robert Kotler is one of the worlds leading facial cosmetic surgeons with decades of experience performing thousands of procedures. Kotler has served as a commissioner and regional consultant to the Medical Board of California and as a Medical Consultant to the City and County of Los Angeles. His highly specialized cosmetic surgery private practice focuses specifically on rhinoplasty, face and neck lifts, neck sculptures, chin implants, and chemical peels. I was able to trust him 100% and I know that I made the absolute right decision in having him as my plastic surgeon. Now my nose is looking great! It has been extremely relieving that I am no longer insecure about my nose and that I can be confident in how I look. Kevin Lenham Alhambra, CA Dr. Kotler is wonderful. He has an eye for detail and a wonderful bedside manner. He is very experienced and it shows from his work. His staff is very professional and always so friendly. We fly from Houston to see him and he is always punctual and on time for his patients. He is the best. Jennifer Frederick Houston, TX Robert Kotler is a GENIUS. Getting my rhinoplasty done with Dr. Kotler has been the wisest decision I have ever made for myself. His staff is utterly professional & competent. My surgery took about 50 minutes... my breathing is PERFECT & I am IN love with my nose. Thank you Dr. Kotler & staff for taking great care of me! Dayana Stevenson Glendale, CA The Best of Los Angeles Award community was formed three years ago and consists of over 3,700 professional members living and working in Southern California. It celebrates the best people, places and things in Los Angeles with a slogan No Ads. No B.S. Only the Best. The mission of the community is to celebrate the best of Los Angeles, and allow its community members to connect with other members who share the highest standards of quality and integrity, said DeRose. "At my practice, my staff and I strive for only the best service. I am honored to receive this award and be recognized as 'The Best Rhinoplastic Surgeon in Los Angeles,' says Kotler. I was ecstatic and moved to tears to hear that IVF coverage and fertility preservation are at the top of the Governors health care agenda. RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association applauds Governor Andrew M. Cuomo for including the proposal Improve Access to IVF and Fertility Preservation Services in the 2018 Women's Agenda for New York: Equal Rights, Equal Opportunity. RESOLVE advocates in New York were instrumental in communicating the importance of access to IVF and fertility preservation services to Members of Governor Cuomo's administration. I was ecstatic and moved to tears to hear that IVF coverage and fertility preservation are at the top of the Governors health care agenda, said Risa A. Levine, RESOLVE Board Member and New York resident. Secretary DeRosa is unique in her talent to pinpoint issues critical to protecting womens health, and Governor Andrew Cuomo is a leader in expanding health care and family building opportunities for New York families. We are so grateful for their commitment to leading on these issues. I am a proud New Yorker today! Governor Cuomo will direct the Superintendent of Financial Services to evaluate the best approach for incorporating coverage for in vitro fertilization into New York's existing infertility insurance law and update it to ensure individuals have access to fertility preservation services when appropriate. Its fantastic news that the Governor has recognized the need for IVF and fertility preservation insurance coverage, said Barbara Collura, President/CEO, RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. As the infertility community celebrates these policy advances in New York, RESOLVE will continue to advocate for passage of The Fair Access to Fertility Treatment Act (FAFTA), which would update New York insurance law to include coverage of IVF, fertility preservation for cancer patients, and adds non-discrimination language to ensure that all eligible individuals can receive coverage. It is estimated that over 440,000 New Yorkers experience infertility. The full Report on the Status of New York Women and Girls: 2018 Outlook reflects the feedback, voices and opinions of women all over the state and is available here. ------------------------------ About RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association: Established in 1974, RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association is a non-profit organization with the only established, nationwide network mandated to promote reproductive health and to ensure equal access to all family building options for men and women experiencing infertility or other reproductive disorders. One in eight U.S. couples of childbearing age has trouble conceiving or carrying a pregnancy to term. RESOLVE addresses this public health issue by providing community to these women and men, connecting them with others who can help, empowering them to find resolution and giving voice to their demands for access to all family building options. For more information, visit http://www.RESOLVE.org. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East Thanks for signing up for our daily insight on the African economy. We bring you daily editor picks from the best Business Insider news content so you can stay updated on the latest topics and conversations on the African market, leaders, careers and lifestyle. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has spent her career being underestimated. The New York Post once called her Sen. Chuck Schumer's "hapless little poodle." Joe Lieberman, the longtime senator who retired in 2013, has described her as "adorably persistent." Michael Bloomberg, then New York City's mayor, refused to meet with her for months after she was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton's vacated US Senate seat in New York in 2009. And her former colleagues in the US House would call her "Tracy Flick," an unflattering reference to Reese Witherspoon's ruthless, overeager character in "Election." So when President Donald Trump attacked Gillibrand on Twitter in early December, calling her a "lightweight" who "would do anything" for campaign contributions, it seemed the junior senator from Trump's home state had prepared her entire political career for precisely this "sexist smear meant to silence" her, as she described it. Her response to Trump "You cannot silence me or the millions of women who have gotten off the sidelines to speak out about the unfitness and shame you have brought to the Oval Office" became her most retweeted message ever, elevating her status as a feminist hero of the anti-Trump resistance movement. And as her Democratic colleagues dutifully rushed to her defense, the media described Trump's tweet as a "political gift." Amid all that, the ever-strategic former corporate lawyer remained on brand, subtly plugging her women-focused political action committee, Off the Sidelines, and appearing on the liberal comedian Samantha Bee's show that night. Bee said she hoped the incident would become Gillibrand's "superhero origin story and ignite her 2020 campaign." Indeed, Trump's attack was the clearest indication that Gillibrand is no longer being underestimated. Woke to the moment While the senator and her aides won't confirm or deny plans for a 2020 run, all signs, including her prodigious fundraising, outreach to young people and communities of color, and deeply anti-Trump voting record, point to the lawmaker's higher ambitions. She led her caucus in pressuring Democratic Sen. Al Franken, a close friend and ally, to leave office amid mounting allegations of sexual misconduct. Critics and supporters alike say the national spotlight she has attracted for her leadership on sexual-misconduct issues is well-deserved, given the years-long fight she has waged, often with little political support, against sexual assault in the military and on college campuses. "There's a saying in show business that 'it took me 15 years to be an overnight success.' In many ways, when it comes to attention and leading the party on one of the most important issues, it's taken her seven or eight years to be an overnight success," Stu Loeser, a Democratic strategist who served as Bloomberg's press secretary in city hall, told Business Insider. The senator shocked even some of her close allies when she told a New York Times reporter in November that President Bill Clinton her longtime supporter should have resigned over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. No prominent elected Democrats backed Gillibrand up on this, but many agree it was a smart political move, winning her points with the party's antiestablishment base. Gillibrand's principled stance now differentiates her from her Democratic colleagues and has made clear that she will not be caught equivocating or apologizing even on behalf of her allies on her signature issue. "Gillibrand is trying to capitalize on the current political moment kill your idols," the FiveThirtyEight political reporter Clare Malone wrote in November. "This is smart, in my book, because frankly: (i) a lot of people hate the Clintons, (ii) it makes Gillibrand seem woke to the moment, (iii) it's a way to make her seem like a more appealing anti-establishment liberal to the younger folks." An outspoken voice for the "resistance," Gillibrand has the most anti-Trump voting record in the Senate, and a recent analysis published in The Washington Post found that she was also voting to the left of her constituents. Checking the boxes Gillibrand checks a lot of politically helpful boxes: She has support from a broad swath of the Democratic Party from Clinton-allied centrists to Bernie Sanders progressives she is relatively young at 51, she has worked across the aisle while maintaining a very anti-Trump voting record, and she is a woman at a time when the party is likely to seek a potentially history-making nominee. The senator's supporters argue that her appeal among both progressive New York City voters and conservative communities upstate could position her as a bridge over the gaping urban-rural divide. Loeser, the Democratic strategist, says Gillibrand "shows up" and "delivers" in the suburbs of Buffalo and the exurbs of New York City places where Hillary Clinton either lost or barely clinched a majority in the 2016 general election while recognizing that satisfying those constituents "doesn't come at the expense of also caring about refugees, immigrants, and people stuck in the cycle of poverty" in urban areas. "It's not an easy thing to understand and speak to the progressive side of the Democratic caucus and also internalize and understand how people think and what matters to them in areas of the country that are not strong Democratic bastions," he said. "That ability would be extraordinarily useful in putting together a majority vote in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and even Florida." Her supporters say the mother of two represents a new crop of leaders, more relatable and accessible than ever before. "She's a new generation. No pomp and circumstance, or pretense. Less baggage," Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist and former aide to the senator, told Business Insider. The fact that Gillibrand is a woman and a powerful advocate for women in politics could be an asset if the party prioritizes breaking the glass ceiling in 2020. Matt McDermott, a Democratic pollster at Whitman Insight Strategies, said Gillibrand's success might rest on that priority. "Do we feel as a party as if we need a history-making candidate, the most obvious being a woman candidate?" McDermott told Business Insider. "Is there a strong push to have a nominee of the Democratic Party that breaks conventional molds, that would be a first? And if there is that upswelling, it's hard to see how a candidate can push against that." But Gillibrand's national prominence and new reputation as an anti-Trump crusader may come at the expense of her popularity across New York. Gillibrand won reelection to the Senate in 2012 with 72% of the vote, but just 49% of New York state voters surveyed in a September Siena College poll and an October Morning Consult poll viewed her favorably compared with Schumer's 58% and 55% approval ratings in those polls. "Consultants love candidates who check a lot of boxes," Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist and former top adviser to Bloomberg, told Business Insider, questioning whether Gillibrand really had the broad appeal some credit her with. "The problem is, what appeals to someone on K Street seems to be extremely different from what appeals to voters on Main Streets in swing states." Kirsten Gillibrand, champion for one woman Some argue Gillibrand's status as a career politician and her history as Blue Dog Democrat, along with accusations of shape-shifting, will hurt her. Tusk says that Democrats have consistently ignored the country's demand for political outsiders and have lost multiple presidential elections namely in 2000, 2004, and 2016 as a result. But others point to career politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders, a 30-year veteran of Washington who is celebrated by the party's left wing as the picture of authenticity, to disprove that theory. "Bernie is a 40-year politician with 30 in DC, and he felt fresh and authentic to his supporters," Marc La Vorgna, a political consultant who followed Loeser as Bloomberg's press secretary, told Business Insider. "It's about feel and voice. The point is years in office doesn't matter. You can be fresh and exciting via authenticity." As one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, Gillibrand had an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association and was opposed to allowing unauthorized immigrants to obtain driver's licenses during her two terms representing her upstate district. But she very quickly moved left on gun control and immigration after David Paterson, then New York's governor, tapped her to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, as she took up the fight against sexual assault in the military and the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy barring openly gay service members. Like Clinton, who has long been accused of political opportunism, many predict Gillibrand would be hammered both in a Democratic primary and in a general election for her ideological evolution. "The biggest hit on her is going to be her lack of core principles," one New York-based Democratic operative told Business Insider. "In New York, the biggest hit on her has always been that she's a creation of political consultants." Ciro Scotti, a political commentator and contributing editor at The Fiscal Times, wrote in a Daily Beast column earlier this month that Gillibrand was "an especially egregious practitioner of the finger-in-the-wind politics that so many voters can no longer abide." But Gillibrand is endlessly apologetic about former positions she chalks up to ignorance. In a December podcast interview with the liberal organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson, Gillibrand said she was "embarrassed and ashamed" that she "didn't know enough" as a House member to inform her positions. "I didn't work hard enough to be a kinder person, a more empathetic person, a person who could feel the challenges that families were facing in a very real sense," she said, adding that when she was appointed to her Senate seat she worked quickly to get up to speed on the issues that affected her newly diverse constituency. Some argue that this larger narrative about Gillibrand's lack of authenticity the belief that she is "too transparently opportunistic to be a viable candidate," as Scotti put it may doom her chances. Donald Trump has cancelled his planned visit to the United Kingdom in February 2018. Trump confirmed that he had cancelled the visit in a tweet sent late on Thursday, but said it was due to his displeasure over the location of the new embassy. Reason I canceled my trip t... @ Donald J. Trump However, the decision to sell the former American embassy in London's Grosvenor Square was actually taken in 2008, prior to Obama becoming president and was reportedly driven by security concerns. Any visit by Trump to the UK seems certain to be met with huge protests, with 55% of Brits in one poll calling for his planned state visit to be cancelled. In late 2017 he embroiled himself in an unprecedented spat with British Prime Minister Theresa May, attacking her over terrorism in the UK after he retweeted videos shared by a far-right anti-Muslim extremist from Britain sparking universal condemnation from British politicians. After his election, Theresa May invited Trump to the United Kingdom for an official "state visit," but he has yet to take her up on the offer. Plans for a state vist were postponed last year following large street protests in London and across the country. Senior political figures, including opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan have all spoken out against the prospect of a formal state visit. House of Commons Speaker John Bercow has also refused plans to allow Trump to address Parliament, due to the president's "sexism and racism". Trump reportedly told Theresa May that he was not willing to arrive in the UK, while there was widespread public opposition to his visit. The February visit would have been a lower-profile "working visit" with less pomp and ceremony, but now secretary of state Rex Tillerson will visit instead, The Daily Mail reports. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday dismissed as "crumbs" the recent wave of bonuses given to workers by large corporations in the wake of the Republican tax law's passage. " Analyses have shown that companies and wealthier Americans are likely to picket the bulk of the benefits from the tax code changes. Critics of the moves have dismissed the increases as public relations stunts designed to draw favorable coverage and praise from Republicans. Pelosi, for instance, noted some of the bonuses are coming as firms continue layoffs of employees. Earlier Feli Nuna in a chat with Zionfelix revealed that she is a good rapper but many of her fans do not realize this since she has numerous Afrobeats songs. Feli admitted that the Ghanaian music industry has not had a slew of female rappers and so she stands out among the pack which includes Eno, Abrewa Nana, Tiffany and Freda Rhymes. Im the best ever to come from Ghana because my bars, style and everything is on point, Feli admitted. However in an interview with Adomonlines Dennis Adu on Adom FMs Kasahari Level last Saturday Eno Barony made it clear that Feli was not a rapper. I am the best female rapper no doubt. She (Feli Nuna) says she is the best and that is not rap, Eno said. Eno who fancies herself to be the Yaa Asantewaa of rap stressed that Feli is good at what she does. For me what I do is rap. I dont know whether she is rapping or not so I dont know Eno maintained. Eno went on further and said in her opinion Feli did not deserve the recognition as a rapper because she is not impressed by her style. UPI.com reported the Vancouver police as saying that an employee of the Goodwill store was sorting out donations received, only to chance upon the box and when examined it contained cremated body parts. A photo of the said box released by the Evidence Unit of the police department shows it bearing the name, "Michelle Miller." Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Ndaikwa Chale who sells charcoal for survival, out of which he caters for his childrens education, was holding only KSh 800 he apparently made from the sale of the charcoal. READ MORE: Police hunt for owner of box containing cremated corpse donated to Goodwill store He was hoping that with the free education policy implementation announced by the Uhuru Kenyatta led government, his daughter could also further her education with ease. However, it all turned anticlimax when he arrived at the school with his daughter, having bought al the necessary materials and utensils for her following her 319 score in the 2017 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). READ MORE: Woman catches fiance in bed with another lady two hours after proposing to her Police Inspector Sani Ado who narrated the incident to the court where the suspect was remanded into prison custody, said, Saidu was given a dane gun to test the reliability of the charm, but when he fired a shot at Yahuzas chest, he fell down and died on the spot. The victim was taken to the General Hospital, Dustinma, where he was confirmed dead by doctors. The image of the pupil was shared by Fu Heng, the headmaster of Zhuanshanbao Primary School where he studies. According to reports, a reason for the unique hair reaction was due to the fact that he walked three miles to school under freezing temperatures. Heng explained that the boy who walks approximately 4.5 kilometres to get to school lives very far away from the place of learning. He added that the temperature of the environment where it was located quickly dropped to an extreme level, allowing for a drastic change in the boy's hair. "It was the first day of their final exams. The temperatures dropped to minus nine degrees Celsius in about 30 minutes that morning," the school administrator told Chinese press. The pupil who is also regarded as a funny character among his peers did not have to make a lot of efforts making them laugh. The sight of the Manfu provided all the needed comic reaction. ALSO READ: Snow fall makes a fairy tale out of the Sahara desert According to Asia One News, the Yunnan China Youth Development Foundation launched a public donation campaign on Tuesday, January 9, 2018, in a bid to help the schoolboy as well as other people living in poor conditions in the community. The incident occurred on Thursday evening at around 8:00 PM after two armed robbers made attempts to rob a vendor. Reports gathered suggest that two suspected robbers invaded a Mobile Money joint in the area and requested that the vendor hands over all her money. However, the vendor refused and rather opted shouted for help. The robbers are reported to have fired warning shots in a bid to scare the vendor into giving in to their demands. Unfortunately, a man who was at the time conducting business with the vendor got caught up in the shootings, with the robbers eloping with his bag. The other victim is also reported to have received a bullet to his rib and laid unconscious before residents could reach out for help. Attempts to reach the police initially failed, so the two victims had to be rushed to the hospital by relatives and the onlooking public. This comes after another robbery attack was recorded at Sahara, near Dansoman in Accra, with three persons sustaining gun wounds. Residents were subsequently forced to flee, as the shootings became more intensified. Three persons reportedly lost their lives during the riots with at least seven more lying in critical condition at the hospital. It is currently unknown what may have triggered the attack, but many have linked it to the Chieftaincy disputes that have blighted the town in recent years. Meanwhile, similar clashes in Bimbilla last year led to many casualties, with women and children losing their lives in the process. Thursdays shootings is the latest in a series of clashes that have ensued in the town in recent years. The Public Relations Officer of the Regional Command ASP Joseph Benefo Darkwah who confirmed this to the Daily Guide Newspaper said the suspect has been arrested for further investigation. The suspect, Maxim Long is the Chief Operating Officer of Maxim MV II. The 33-year-old Abraham Arthur, who is a stevedore reported the incident to the Tema Fishing Harbour Police Station who arrested the suspect. On January 9, 2018, at about 3:30 pm, a colleague accused Abraham of stealing a carton of fish. READ ALSO: 2 shot in Mobile Money robbery attack at Busia Junction Abrahams colleague later reported the issue to the Chinese boss who slashed his left hand after hearing the news. Abraham was issued with a police medical report form to attend hospital for treatment and examination. The Trade Ministry has been in the firing line in recent weeks following allegations by the Minority that the Ministry charged between $25,000 and $100,000 in order to allow expat businessmen sit beside President Akufo-Addo at the recent event. Following a successful hosting of the Ghana Excellency Business Awards (GEBA), the event was hit by controversy with the Ministry being accused of illegally taking monies from expats. The Trade Ministry was later cleared by the Presidency after sector minister Alan Kyerematen was summoned by the President to explain what truly transpired. However, the Minority would not let it pass and filed a motion through its chief whip, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak-Muntaka, calling for the ministry to be investigated. A five-member committee was subsequently put together to get to the bottom of the matter. The committee started its sitting on Thursday, with Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mohammed, appearing before them as a witness. It is now the turn of the Trade Ministry to appear before Parliaments Investigative Committee to defend their case as well. The minister, who is known to be a strict disciplinarian, was unforgiving of the staff after countlessly warning them of their late-coming habit. He thus decided to take action by monitoring and sending home those who reported to work late on Wednesday. Among those who were unfortunate to have been sent home were nine permanent staff and five national service personnel. Mr. Ghartey explained that his actions are meant to instill into staff members the habit of reporting to duty on time. It was a wake up call and I will monitor their response which I believe will be positive, he said in an interview with the Finder. He added that he hopes to see an improvement in the attitude of his staff, despite admitting that they worked hard last year. According to him, reporting to work early is very vital if productivity is to be enhanced. 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. 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 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. According to him, Mr. Amidu has proven to be fearless when it comes to the fight against corruption and that that makes him suitable for the Job. In a congratulatory statement to the former Attorney-General following his nomination, Rawlings hailed Mr. Amidu has a man who has always pursued truth and justice. Mr. Amidu has proven to be a fearless anti-corruption crusader whose pursuit of truth and justice has won him national admiration, Rawlings said. He added that the role of Special Prosecutor will undoubtedly be a challenging role, and called on all Ghanaians to offer the required support and information to Mr. Amidu in order for him to be able to succeed in his new role. Rawlings also had some words of commendation for President Akufo-Addo following his nomination of Mr. Amidu as Special Prosecutor. According to him, the President couldnt have made a better choice. He added that by this appointment, Akufo-Addo has risen above partisanship and recognized a highly principled citizen. Mr. Amidu previously served as Attorney-General during Rawlings two terms as Ghana President. He also served in the same role for a year under the late President John Evans Atta-Mills between 2011 and 2012. These days people see me and ask, so is this HIV still in existence. And so I think we shouldnt rest on our oars. The commission says preventive education has not been very effective these days A document presented showed that new HIV infections in 2016 increased to 20, 418 from about 12,000 new infections recorded in 2015. Meanwhile, a total of 15,116 people in Ghana died of HIV and AIDS-related illness in 2016. READ ALSO: 2 shot in Mobile Money robbery attack at Busia Junction Out of the total AIDS-related deaths, 12,585, representing 83 percent were adults while 2,531 representing 17 percent were children under 14 years. Again, an estimate of 293,804 people are living with HIV (PLHIV) while 261,770 (89 percent) are adults and 32,034 (11 percent) of the estimates being children. Among the PLHIV, 115.244 (39 percent) are males and 178,560 (61 percent are females). According to the Director-General of GAC, their major challenge is financial constraints. She said without money they could not finance their strategic plan for 2018. She suggested that they could only achieve their objectives through the implementation of the provision of the GAC ACT 938, especially the HIV and AIDS Fund and its effective management. In announcing the name, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said Martin Amidu was nominated by the Attorney General Sophia Akuffo. The president made the announcement after an emergency cabinet meeting at the Flagstaff House on Thursday, January 11, 2018. His political affiliations with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) also leaves many with unanswered questions. But lawyer Chris Ackumey said any other competent lawyer could have best fit the position than Martin Amidu. He said the President made a terrible decision by settling on the citizen vigilante. Sahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan had been accused -- in separate cases -- of links to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen who Ankara says masterminded the failed 2016 coup attempt. Gulen denies the charges. Rights campaigners hoped the Constitutional court ruling could set a major legal precedent and help could help dozens of other journalists arrested in the crackdown. But two Istanbul criminal courts late Thursday defied the ruling and ordered that both writers should for now remain behind bars. Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag accused the Constitutional Court of exceeding its powers by acting as a top court of appeal. Turkey has its own Court of Cassation, known as the Yargitay. "With this decision the Constitutional Court has crossed over its legislative and constitutional limits," Bozdag wrote on Twitter. "This court should not act as an appeals court." He described the decision as "bad and wrong", saying it was reminiscent of the same court's ruling in February 2016 to order the release from jail of the former editor of the Cumhuriyet daily Can Dundar. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had at the time fumed over that decision, saying he had "no respect for it". The Constitutional Court, Turkey's top court, is one of the very few public institutions in Turkey not controlled by Erdogan who enjoys the support of armed forces, parliament and government. Most of its 17 members were appointed during the rule of Erdogan's predecessor Abdullah Gul or the previous president Ahmet Necdet Sezer. "Now we know why they weren't released last night," commented Emma Sinclair Webb, the Turkey director of Human Rights Watch, on Twitter after Bozdag's remarks. The Istanbul courts said that the men could not be released as Constitutional Court had not formally communicated its rationale. But the top court hit back with a rare message on Twitter, saying its full ruling could be read by anyone on the internet. OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir said he was "deeply concerned" by the Istanbul courts' decision. "Journalists must be freed immediately." Alpay, 73, is a political scientist who wrote a column for the now closed staunchly pro-Gulen Zaman newspaper. Police used tear gas against protesters in the capital Lima and in San Isidro, to the south. In Lima, as night fell, protesters were still marching -- police put turnout at 5,000, while local television estimated that 8,000 were in the streets. The 79-year-old Fujimori, who was serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses committed during his time in office from 1990 to 2000, was pardoned last month. The move came just days after his son Kenji and other Fujimorist lawmakers abstained from voting on Kuczynski's impeachment in what was seen by many as a backroom deal to save the president from corruption charges. Kuczynski -- who defeated Fujimori's daughter Keiko for the presidency in 2016 -- said he had pardoned the ex-president for humanitarian reasons, reneging on an election pledge never to do so. On Thursday, relatives of those killed under Fujimori's rule -- all dressed in black -- led the cortege for the rally in central Lima, under the watchful eye of police. Rallies were also held in Arequipa, Cusco and other cities, local media said. "Kucyzinski has to go, he has shamelessly lied to the people," said Veronika Mendoza, a former leftist candidate for president who took part in a march in Cusco. Artist Carla Coronado, who was protesting in Lima, said of the pardon: "We are sure it was a political negotiation." She added: "We are fed up with politics as usual and so much corruption in the country." "I can confirm that we had a death by suicide in one of our prisons,"Petra Kucerova, spokeswoman for the Czech Prison Service, told AFP. "I cannot give you more information as the case is under police investigation. But a prisoner has died," she added. In May 2013, Dahlgren fatally slashed a man 29 times in his study before also stabbing the man's wife and their 23-year-old son to death at their home in Brno, eastern Czech Republic. Following the frenzied assault, Dahlgren attacked the dead couple's 17-year-old son, striking him on the head with a stone as he returned home from school before stabbing him six times. He then tried to burn the bodies of his victims inside the house. Czech media said the dead woman was Dahlgren's cousin. He got life in 2016 after the Brno court judge ruled that Dahlgren suffered from emotional instability, narcissism, paranoia and increased aggression. Dahlgren claimed he had heard "a voice" telling him to attack his family. Following the incident Dahlgren flew to Vienna and on to the United States where he was detained at a Washington airport the day after the killings. In 2015, he became the first American to be extradited to the Czech Republic, an EU member of 10.6 million people. The meeting -- the first of its kind since Britain and the EU made progress in divorce talks in December -- was held "to discuss the opportunities and challenges for the financial sector posed by Brexit," a Downing Street spokesman said. "We will not be paying for market access," he told reporters ahead of the gathering. The stance follows a Bloomberg News report that EU officials are considering a proposal to require Britain to pay for financial companies to access European markets following Brexit. While on a trip to Germany on Wednesday, Hammond had told reporters that paying for access would be among the issues discussed in future EU divorce talks which are set to restart, with a focus on agreeing a transition period, at the end of this month. Finance sector chiefs have long advocated an implementation phase after Britain leaves the EU as planned on March 29, 2019, to avoid disruption as both sides adjust to a new trading relationship. Britain's exit from the single market could mean these companies lose financial "passporting" rights that allow them to offer products and services on the continent from regional headquarters in the UK. Many companies are preparing for Brexit by obtaining banking licences in other European countries and drawing up plans to move activities and jobs to financial centres in Europe. At Thursday's meeting May asked the finance titans to "emphasise the benefits for Europe as a whole of the UK's financial centre" during any conversations they have in European capitals, the Downing Street spokesman said. "The Prime Minister gave an overview of the UK's position and updated on Brexit negotiations - including the UK's aim to agree an implementation period by the end of March," he added. "The business leaders were united in emphasising the need for as much certainty as possible," the spokesman said. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday admitted that his biggest "wish list" item isn't likely to happen in 2018. Ryan has long wanted to enact reforms to entitlement programs which usually takes the form of cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. But at an event in Wisconsin on Friday, he said entitlements wouldn't be addressed by Congress this year. "I dont see us tackling it this year," Ryan said. Ryan said throughout December that he was hoping to get entitlement reform done in 2018, but there was little appetite from other Republican leaders and President Donald Trump heading into a midterm election year. The Wisconsin Republican said the GOP's slim 51-to-49 majority in the Senate prevents any significant overhaul because Democrats are not on board and could filibuster any cuts. Also, Ryan said, any bill dealing with Social Security can't go through the process of budget reconciliation, which allows a bill to pass the chamber with a simple majority. Given that reality, Ryan said Democrats have to be on board with any changes to the three major programs. "No matter what you do you're going to have to find bipartisan consensus to fix these thorny, long-term problems, and we don't have that right now," Ryan said. In addition to the tricky congressional calculus, Trump promised during the 2016 presidential election that there would be no cuts to the programs. He was hesitant to support entitlement reform measure during a press conference with Republican leaders at their Camp David policy summit. Ryan said that while the issue won't be addressed in the short-term, he stressed the need to address them in the future because they are "going bankrupt," a characterization disputed by some policy experts. Russia hinted on Thursday that Ukraine manufactured the explosives used in an attempted drone attack on its military bases in Syria, following claims linking Turkey and the US to the attack. "Preliminary research has shown that PETN was used as a base for an explosive substance used in that ammo, which is more powerful than hexogen. The specified explosive is produced in a number of countries, including at Ukraines Shostka Chemical Reagents Plant," Major General Alexander Novikov said in a Russian Ministry of Defense release. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense denied the allegations, according to Hromadske, a Ukrainian media outlet. "This is nothing more than a regular informational attack," Ukrainian Defense Minister Victoria Kushnir said. "We reject these allegations." Russia's Hmeymim air base and Tartus Naval Facility in Syria were attacked overnight with a swarm of 13 drones on January 5 and 6, but were seemingly successfully repelled. Moscow has since released a number of pictures of the drones, which were fixed-wing UAVs made of wood and tape and powered by small internal combustion engines seen on lawn mowers. Russia has continuously claimed the drones came from a local force that was backed by an outside power. But experts told Business Insider that the drones could have been constructed and operated without any outside help. "I could literally turn 10 drones on right now in a field by myself and tell them to fly to a specific coordinate," Brett Velicovich, a leading expert in drones and author of "Drone Warrior," told Business Insider in an email. "Basic swarming with drones now is so easy that any kid with an internet connection can figure out how to do it," Velicovich said. Russia plays the blame game Moscow had previously hinted that the US helped target the drones, claiming that a P-8 Poseidon spy plane had "coincidentally" flown over the Russian bases around the time of the attack. "Any suggestion the US, the Coalition or our partnered forces played a role in an attack on a Russian base is without any basis in fact and utterly irresponsible," Defense Department spokesman Eric Pahon previously told Business Insider in an email, adding over the phone that the insinuation is "absolute bonkers." Moscow on Wednesday said that the drone attack originated from the village of Muazzara, which is located in the Idlib province of Syria. "The recent drone attack on Russian bases in Syria was launched from an area near Idlib, which is controlled by Turkish-backed rebel forces," RT reported on Wednesday, adding that Moscow complained to Turkey about the incident. However, Russian President Putin said on Thursday that he had spoken to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and that he was confident that Turkey had nothing to with it, according to the Associated Press. "There were provocateurs, but they weren't the Turks," Putin said. "We know who they were and how much they paid for that provocation." "We often overestimate how much governments in capitals have control over the rebel groups they sponsor," Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior research scientist at CNA, previously told Business Insider. While Moscow appears to have now excluded Ankara from its list of perpetrators, it continues to insinuate that the rebels that launched the drones had outside help. The Russian MoD Defense Ministry spelled it out on Thursday, arguing that the complexity of the drones which they said required "calculations and flight tests" prove that whoever launched them were backed by an outside power. "First of all, it is impossible to develop such drones in an improvised manner. They were developed and operated by experts with special skills acquired in countries that produce and apply systems with UAVs," according to the MoD. "The fact that terrorists have received assembly technology and programming technology is the evidence that this threat stretches far beyond the Syrian borders." Experts agree: Russia is wrong Business Insider spoke with multiple experts who all said that the drones could have been constructed and operated from a distance of more than 30 miles by rebels without any outside help. Gorenburg, the CNA research scientist, said Russia was likely "embarrassed" by the attack and the MoD may have needed to attribute the drone strike to "a major power." Caitlin Lee, a political scientist at the RAND Corp., told Business Insider that GPS or a camera would be needed to operate a drone at such a distance. "It's not out of the realm of possibility for a non-state actor to put GPS software on a drone," Lee said. The Russian Defense Ministry even admitted that one of the drones had a camera on it. Velicovich, the author of "Drone War," said the drones could have come from ISIS, which has been increasingly active in Syria's Idlib province. "Wouldn't surprise me if this was ISIS's drone unit, which has been active for a few years now and played with similar technology under their Al Bara Bin Malik brigade," he said. Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Business Insider the same thing. "All of the technology the styrofoam, wood, lawn mower engines can probably be bought in Idlib for a couple hundred dollars," Stein said. During a bipartisan meeting on immigration Thursday, President Donald Trump criticized protections the US gives to immigrants from various underdeveloped countries, including Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries. The president's comments come days after the Trump administration announced that it would end temporary protection status (TPS) granted to nearly 262,000 Salvadorans, forcing them to leave the US or face deportation unless they're able to get a visa or permit to allow them to continue living in the country legally. The program's termination was delayed by 18 months to give those affected sufficient time to arrange plans. Since President George H.W. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990 into law, the US government has allowed immigrants from certain countries affected by armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions to reside and work legally in the US until it is safe for them to return home. In recent months, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will end TPS for four countries, including El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan, at various upcoming dates. Immigrants from six other countries currently receive TPS, but it is unclear whether the Trump administration plans to end their protections. Here's when each group's protected status will end: Sudan: November 2, 2018 In September, then acting DHS secretary Elaine Duke decided to end TPS for Sudan, citing improved conditions in the country. About 1,050 people benefit from TPS. Sudan was first added in 1999 based on security concerns amid ongoing violence in that country. Nicaragua: January 5, 2019 TPS for roughly 5,300 Nicaraguans expired on January 5, but the program won't officially end until early 2019 since the Trump administration delayedits termination by 12 months. The DHS first granted temporary residency to Nicaraguans in 1999 following the devastation wreaked throughout Central America by Hurricane Mitch. Haiti: July 22, 2019 In November, the DHS announced it would end TPS for nearly 59,000 Haitian immigrants after they were allowed to stay in the US following a massive earthquake in their home country that killed at least 100,000 people in 2010. As part of the move, DHS allowed an 18-month window for those affected to prepare to leave the country or apply for extended residency. El Salvador: September 9, 2019 Salvadorans were first granted temporary residency protections in 1990 amid El Salvador's brutal civil war. The program expired in 1994, but seven years later, President George W. Bush allowed as many as 150,000 Salvadorans to stay in the US legally following deadly earthquakes that ravaged most of El Salvador. The program was continuously extended by Presidents Bush and Barack Obama until the Trump administration announced this week that it would give Salvadorans 18 months to figure out what to do. Other countries Immigrants from six other countries are currently eligible for TPS. In the coming months, these special protections are expected to run out, at which point the Trump administration will likely determine whether to terminate or extend them. Here is how long TPS will last for the 6 eligible countries: Syria: Honduras: July 5, 2018Somalia Sept. 17, 2018Yemen September 3, 2018 South Sudan May 2, 2019 President Donald Trump said during an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that Peter Strzok, the FBI counterintelligence agent who was ousted from special counsel Robert Mueller's team last July, committed treason. "A man is tweeting to his lover that if [former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton] loses, we'll essentially do the insurance policy," Trump said. "We'll go to phase two and we'll get this guy out of office." "This is the FBI we're talking about that is treason," he continued. "That is a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act." The Washington Postreportedin December that while Strzok was working on the FBI's investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct government business, he exchanged texts expressing anti-Trump sentiment with an FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, with whom The Post said he was engaging in an extramarital affair. At the time, Page worked for Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Page and Strzok reportedly continued exchanging politically charged texts throughout the 2016 campaign season. In one text, sent in August 2016, Strzok wrote, "I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration...that there's no way [Trump] gets electedbut I'm afraid we can't take that risk. It's like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you're 40." The Journal reported in December that the "insurance policy" Strzok mentioned was in reference to his belief that the FBI needed to continue digging into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to tilt the election in his favor. Strzok was removed from Mueller's team after it emerged that he had exchanged the texts about Clinton and Trump with Page, and the inspector general is now examining the messages for any evidence of bias. Joseph Pelcher, a former FBI counterintelligence operative who was stationed in Russia and specialized in organized crime, said that while agents should be careful about openly expressing their opinions, "there is certainly nothing wrong with holding political views as long as it doesn't interfere with an investigation." LaRae Quy, who served as a covert operative at the FBI for 24 years, largely echoed that point. "It's very important for agents to appear (and be) apolitical. I know that's 'pie in the sky' since we all have political views," she said. "But the non-partisan aspect of an agent's job is important." President Donald Trump reportedly questioned in a White House meeting on Thursday why the United States should accept immigrants from "shithole countries," referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to a Washington Post report citing two sources briefed on the meeting. Other news outletsquicklyconfirmed he described the countries with the expletive. Trump then reportedly suggested the US instead accept immigrants from nations like Norway, whose prime minister he met with on Wednesday. The comment came during negotiations on immigration with a bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking to resolve the fate of a group of young immigrants whose protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is being phased out by the Trump administration. The lawmakers had suggested that a US visa lottery program that provides roughly 50,000 visas annually to citizens of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the US be partially reallocated to immigrants already living in the US whose protections under a humanitarian program the Trump administration is terminating. The White House announced earlier this week it would end Temporary Protected Status for 200,000 Salvadorans who were allowed to live and work in the US legally after two severe earthquakes hit their home country in 2001. The Trump administration has also ended TPS for 45,000 Haitians and 2,500 Nicaraguans. The program also covers immigrants from Honduras, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. A statement from Raj Shah, a deputy White House press secretary, did not deny that Trump made the comments. "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 said. 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." Previous reports have quoted Trump as assailing immigrants from Haiti and African countries. The African Union, an organization comprised of all 55 African nations, blasted President Donald Trump's comments that the continent contained "shithole countries." "The African Union Mission wishes to express its infuriation, disappointment and outrage over the unfortunate comment made by Mr. Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America, which remarks dishonor the celebrated American creed and respect for diversity and human dignity," the union said in a statement. The response came after Trump told a bipartisan meeting of senators that the immigration system should be changed to allow fewer people from "shithole countries" during a discussion about Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations. The union also demanded that Trump formally retract the statement and deliver "an apology not only to the Africans but to all people of African descent around the globe." The statement from the African Union also followed a slew of international condemnations. Some countries, such as Botswana, demanding the president apologize for his remark. The African Union said in its statement that while it condemn Trump's remark, maintaining a dialogue with the president was necessary to help him better understand their continent. "While expressing our shock, dismay and outrage, the African Union strongly believes that there is a huge misunderstanding of the African continent and its people by the current administration," the statement said. "There is a serious need for dialogue between the US administration and the African countries." A second protest exclusively for women has been organised for January 20. The parties want a change to the constitution to restrict presidents to a maximum of two, five-year terms of office, plus the introduction of a two-round voting system. Gnassingbe, who has been in power since 2005 and took over from his father who ruled the country for 38 years, has proposed the amendment. But it has been rejected because the measure is not retroactive, which would leave Gnassingbe free to contest the next two elections scheduled for 2020 and 2025. In his New Year message, Gnassingbe said dialogue was "the preferred way of resolving disagreement" and that he had "no doubt" the two sides would come together to resolve the issue. Opposition supporters in Lome, especially the young, want change, and particularly jobs, assessing that the Gnassingbe dynasty has changed little for ordinary people. Most of Togo's eight million people earn a living from subsistence farming and more than half live on less than a dollar a day. Unemployment among young people has reached 29 percent of the working population. "Nothing's right in this country. After years of study, we don't have jobs and still rely on our parents," said Yaovi Ewonvo, in the opposition stronghold of Be, in Lome. "The people who've led us for decades have failed and they need to recognise it. It's now time for them to go," said the 28-year-old Ewonvo, an IT management studies graduate. Be has been a hotspot for clashes between protesters and the security forces during almost weekly protests that have taken place across the country since late August last year. Many of the young demonstrators are supporters of the veteran opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre and his National Alliance for Change (ANC). West African leaders in November called for both sides in Togo to enter talks mediated by President Nana Akufo-Addo, from neighbouring Ghana, and Guinea's Alpha Conde. But talks have yet to start. Fabre first wants "measures for de-escalation", including the release of detained prisoners and the withdrawal of security forces from the north. Opposition supporters are sceptical about the chances of progress through dialogue, considering it to be a smokescreen by the government. A total of 16 people, including teenagers and two soldiers lynched by a crowd, have been killed since the protests began. Hooters is changing its tactics to win back customers. The iconic breastaurant is finding new ways to win over millennial customers who are less interested in breasts than their elders. CEO Terry Marks said that the brand will be picking up its delivery business in 2018 to combat the trend, the New York Post reported. "Delivery [solves] the polarizing issue the brand has had," Marks said at the ICR , referring to the chain's scantily clad servers. "Many people wouldn't step foot in our restaurants, but they want our product," he said. Hooters' delivery business has grown by more than 30% over the past year, according to the New York Post. There are now 96 Hooters locations that offer delivery or take-out. In 2016, there were just seven. Still, the chain has suffered in recent years. The number of Hooters locations in the US dropped by more than 7% from 2012 to 2016 amid stagnant sales, according to industry reports. Hooters has also been impacted by an industry-wide sales slump as millennials lose interest in fast-casual dining and shift towards ordering delivery and cooking at home. Hopefully it won't be the tweet that launched 1,000 ships or nuclear weapons. "North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,'" President Donald Trump tweeted on January 2. "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!" Many people are concerned that statement was belligerent enough to back the US into war. Shortly after Trump posted the statement, which received about 700,000 interactions, store managers across the country noticed a spike in sales of potassium iodide (or KI) pills, which are often advertised as able to block radiation from nuclear fallout. For example, Troy Jones who runs the website www.nukepills.com told NPR that he saw demand for the pills soar. "On Jan. 2, I basically got in a month's supply of potassium iodide and I sold out in 48 hours," he said. In two days, Jones said he sent out about 140,000 doses of the drug, whereas he normally would have shipped about 8,400. Some local pharmacies have seen a similar rise in sales. But the pill is far from a protect-all against a nuclear attack. In fact, radiation health experts say it's pretty much the last thing people need in a nuclear-blast survival kit especially with the type of strike North Korea might be capable of. Why potassium iodide pills are probably a waste of money North Korea is working feverishly to miniaturize the nuclear devices it has detonated and perfect an intercontinental ballistic missile to deliver them thousands of miles away. ICBM-launched warheads are likely to explode high above a city, leading to relatively little radioactive fallout. Instead, the US government says fallout is a greater concern in the event of a terrorist's nuclear detonation, which would be close to the ground. That's because fallout is formed and spread when dirt and debris get sucked up by a nuclear blast, irradiated to dangerous levels, pushed into the atmosphere, and sprinkled over great distances. One of the products in fallout is radioactive iodine. Iodine is absorbed and used by the thyroid gland in the neck, so radioactive forms can concentrate there and promote cancer. KI pills which cost anywhere from a few cents to more than a dollar per pill online can block that absorption, though not without risk of side effects. However, radioactive iodine represents a tiny percentage of the elements that the human body would be exposed to in the event of a nuclear disaster. "Most people seem to think of the potassium iodide, or KI, pills as some type of anti-radiation drug. They are not," Brooke Buddemeier, a health physicist and expert on radiation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, previously told Business Insider. "They are for preventing the uptake of radioiodine, which is one radionuclide out of thousands of radionuclides that are out there." Buddemeier estimated that radioiodine is just 0.2% of the overall exposure you may face outdoors, and said the pills are more helpful for addressing longer-term concerns about food-supply contamination. In the case of a nuclear blast, he said, "the most important thing is sheltering in place." The best thing you can do is stay put If you're lucky enough to survive the searing flash of light, crushing shockwaves, and incendiary fireball that is a nuclear explosion, your next item of concern is fallout. Sheltering inside a robust structure for at least 12 to 24 hours is a key way to survive that threat, Buddemeier said, since fallout can easily out-speed vehicles as it gets blown around by high-speed winds in the upper atmosphere. Buddemeier is a fan of the mantra "go in, stay in, tune in." "Get inside ... and get to the center of that building," he said. "If you happen to have access to below-ground areas, getting below ground is great." Soil is a great shield from radiation, Buddemeier says, so ducking into a home with a basement would be better than going into a place without. Besides cars, the poorest shelters are made of wood, plaster, and other materials that don't shield against much radiation about 20% of houses fall into this category. Better shelters, such as schools and offices, are made of bricks or concrete and have few or no windows. Prepare an emergency kit with these items instead Buddemeier recommends visiting Ready.gov to see a complete list of what to do in various emergency scenarios, including a nuclear blast, and what to include in a full emergency kit. It's smart to prepare a family plan and assemble a few smaller, basic emergency kits that you can stash at home, work, and in vehicles. "This isn't just for the nuclear holocaust event," Buddemeier said. "This is for general emergency preparedness and making sure that you and your family can be safe in an emergency." The first item to include is a radio, he said ideally a hand-cranked type with a USB charging port that can power other devices. A radio is important for receiving emergency broadcasts and instructions. It's one of the simplest ways to figure out where dangerous fallout has landed, when you can leave your shelter, and where the safest routes to exit a fallout zone are. "If you have a cellphone, that'll work too," Buddemeier said, though he prefers a radio because "sometimes the cell towers may be affected," by power outages, crushing demand, or an invisible yet powerful effect of nuclear weapons called electromagnetic pulse. (The effect can disable electronics, though a ground detonation would mostly confine EMP to the blast damage zone, where you'd have much bigger problems.) Second, Buddemeier says, you'll want water ideally 1 gallon per person per day, according to Ready.gov. In addition to drinking it, you may need it to rinse off radioactive fallout after removing your clothes, since this can drastically reduce your radiation exposure. Third, Buddemeier said, "I would probably grab a breakfast bar or two to stave off the hunger a little bit." Fourth, he says, is any essential medications or treatments you might need. If one of your kits isn't handy in the event of an explosion, Buddemeier recommends trying to grab a few of these items as long as that process doesn't delay taking shelter by more than a couple of minutes. The first minutes and hours after a blast are when radioactive fallout exposure risk is the greatest, especially outdoors. FEMA recommends each of your emergency kits have these essential items in a portable bag: If you have the space, the need, and the foresight, FEMA also recommends beefing up your basic kits with these items: You can access more information about how to prepare for a variety of emergency scenarios at FEMA. And that's more than just an impression statistics back it up. As we can see in this chart from Statista, which is based on data from FX Networks Research, the number of first-run, scripted TV series aired in the US hit a new high last year, reaching nearly 500. That number is more than double what it was as recently as 2010. The growth is largely due to all the original shows being developed for Netflix, Hulu, and the other online streaming services. As members of Congress debate the future of a program that temporarily protects from deportation nearly 800,000 immigrants who were brought to the US as children, the world's richest man has delivered a strong message. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, and MacKenzie Bezos, his wife, are donating $33 million to TheDream.us, an organization that helps these immigrants, known as Dreamers, pay for a college education. The money will fund the education of 1,000 Dreamers who have graduated from high school and are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which began under President Barack Obama and granted permission to legally work in the US. But because Dreamers still live in a legal gray zone, some forms of paying for college, like government grants and student loans, are often unavailable to them. Bezos said he donated in honor of his father, Miguel Bezos, who fled to the US from Cuba alone when he was 15. He later attended the University of Albuquerque and went on to work at Exxon as a petroleum engineer before meeting his eventual wife, Jackie Gise, the daughter of a high-level official on the Atomic Energy Commission. "My dad came to the US when he was 16 as part of Operation Pedro Pan," Jeff Bezos in a statement explaining the donation. "He landed in this country alone and unable to speak English. With a lot of grit and determination and the help of some remarkable organizations in Delaware my dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways. MacKenzie and I are honored to be able to help today's Dreamers by funding these scholarships." Jeff Bezos' parents founded the Bezos Family Foundation, a philanthropy organization focused on charitable giving to education. The Trump administration is phasing out the DACA program, but Congress has been at odds over what should happen to Dreamers set to lose their deportation protection status. Republicans have insisted that a law codifying DACA would have to include increased funding for border security and a provision to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Democrats oppose the wall, saying it would require billions of dollars of US taxpayers' money. With a net worth of $150 million, Daily Post reports that the founder and General Overseer of Living Faith Church surpassed others to be crowned as the worlds richest pastor. Apart from his net-worth, Bishop Oyedepo heads the single largest church in the world, also known as Winners Chapel. He is also highly influential, exerting a lot of control over churches in Dubai, the United Kingdom, the United States and 45 African nations including Nigeria. Combined, these things make him the richest pastor in the entire world. Forbes list of the top richest pastors in the world include: Bishop T.D. Jakes Net Worth 2018 $147 Million The second place goes to the head of the Potters House Megachurch and Potters Touch television program, Bishop T.D. Jakes. According to Forbes, most of his net worth comes from the sales of his Grammy-worthy gospel music, books, and other appearances. His influence can be felt around the world. Chris Oyakhilome Net Worth 2018 $50 Million Pastor Chris of the Believers Loveworld Incorporated, also known as Christ Embassy has the third position. In 2017, his church faced some troubles in South Africa, reportedly the country was going to arrest Oyakhilome for not being more financially transparent. This did not stop him from gathering a massive fellowship in Nigeria and other parts of the world. The fact that his three separate television channels attract at least 2.5 million views per nightly event is also a notable feat. Benny Hinn Net Worth 2018 $42 Million Despite tax investigations by the United States Senate and the Ministry Watch, Benny Hinn is the fourth richest pastor in the world whose luxury possessions include a Gulfstream G4 jet. Hinn is highly regarded by his followers in Canada and the United States, who truly believe his faith healing message. E. A.Adeboye Net Worth 2018 $39 Million Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) comes in fifth. Over time, he has become everyones beloved Daddy G.O, grooming and mentoring many popular pastors including Bishop Oyedepo. His church has also grown a lot with his goal to put a church within 5 minutes of every home in the world. Reportedly, there are at least 14,000 branches in Nigeria alone. Creflo Dollar Net Worth 2018 $27 Million Pastor Creflo is the sixth richest pastor in the world, according to Forbes. Over the years, he has faced a lot of troubling circumstances including getting arrested in 2013 for allegedly attacking his own daughter and getting an F by the Ministry Watch for financial transparency. Still, he continues to preach what has been categorized as prosperity gospel, attracting large followers, as he owns a Rolls Royce, and multiple $2.5 million dollar estates. Kenneth Copeland Net Worth 2018 $25 Million The seventh position goes to Kenneth who used to be a successful recording artist, whose 1957s Pledge of Love made it to #17 of the top 40 Billboard hits of the year. Now, he has own ministry, a program called Believers Voice of Victory, prosperity messages, private jet, and a $6.3 million estate. Billy Graham Net Worth 2018 $25 Million Graham is a well-beloved preacher who was once regarded by many as Americas Pastor. He has been around for the past two generations reportedly gathering an estimated audience of around 2.2 Billion individuals across the world. T.B. Joshua Net Worth 2018 $10 Million The ninth slot goes to Nigerias own Prophet Joshua, who has been involved in a lot of controversies pertaining to his claims to deliver people from possession, AIDS, and 3 reported deaths in the U.K. linked to his church. Still, he has managed to have over 1.5 million Facebook fans and currently wields a lot of influence over many people in different parts of the world. Joseph Prince Net Worth 2018 $5 Million Last, but not the least is the head of the largest church in Asia, who reportedly gets a salary of $550,000 per year. The adorable couple had their very first exclusive interview in Nigeria with Pulse and here are 7 cool things to take away from the 15 minutes clip. 1. How they met They both met in Durban in South Africa at some event and had the opportunity to start off a conversation where they both wanted to be in charge of the music they were playing for friends. The couple also revealed that they started off as friends before the finally fell in love and blossomed into a relationship. "We met in Durban, South Africa, we were both there working on a project we were playing music for everyone through our phones and she was in charge, I wanted to connect my phone, so when I connected my phone, she was like I have these songs... I was going to play these songs. For me that was what got it for me, we had a similar taste in music," said Iceberg Slim. 2. How they manage public scrutiny Their relationship was already going on for a while before people even paid attention. It was when they dropped some photos online that was when everyone found out about their relationship. The couple also spoke about how they don't allow public scrutiny affect their relationship because, at the end of the day, it's just two normal people dating. "It's life we don't let it get to use take away the lights, camera, you are we someone, public scrutiny or public opinion doesn't get to us or phase us" Iceberg Slim explained. 3. What they like about each other Juliet Ibrahim said she likes the fact that Iceberg slim is very intelligent and also very confident in himself. Iceberg Slim said he liked the fact that she is so real and down to earth. He also said one thing he loves about Juliet Ibrahim is her good heart. "The first thing that got my attention from her was her kind heart. When we started talking and she began to tell me about the things she has done I just knew that she was a kind person. She was real and down to earth, that was the first thing that caught my attention, she's cool and we became good friends from there and the relationship just grew. So one thing that I would say about her is her kind heart," Iceberg revealed. ALSO READ: 5 most talked about celebrity couple in 2017 4. Collaborating on a new song/ Matching tattoos Iceberg Slim says in 2018 they both will do a song together. It will be a Juliet Ibrahim song featuring Iceberg Slim. The Ghanaian actress also revealed that the matching tattoo was the very first tattoo she had. "So we discussed it before we did it. It's just something we wanted to do. It took a lot of convincing to get to go it. Its just one of those things we decided to do as a couple." "2018 we definitely have done the song she has a song featuring me. 2018 you will hear the song featuring me," Iceberg revealed. 5. Spending time together despite busy careers The couple also spoke about how they find time to spend quality time with each other despite their busy schedule. They also revealed that they share similar things in common like staying indoors and watching movies. 6. The business side of their relationship Juliet Ibrahim also revealed that there is a business side to their relationship because a lot of people see them and admire their relationship as they have become brand ambassadors already as a couple. "We still have a business side to our relationship. We just got signed to a perfume brand and then choose us as a couple. Its how you put your relationship out there, if certain brands see you setting an example for others, there so many people who see us and say they are inspired by our relationship and now we are brand ambassadors as a couple and now we are looking at more deals because at the end of the day, its business going on and us in a relationship. That's where people need to get it right," Juliet Ibrahim explained. 7. The caught in the moment kiss scene Pulse Movies has shared seven things you should know about the actress. 1. Born in Nigeria, Sope is a multilingual, dual citizen of the Unites States of America and the United Kingdom. 2. Aluko portrays Shaman in "Black Panther," a powerful primal leader who calls upon nature spirits for aid or guidance. 3. Her other movies include the 2011 "96 Minutes" and 2015 "Joy," and the 2016 "Remember When." 4. She speaks several languages, including Yoruba, French, Swahili, and Bahasa. 5. During shoot of "Black Panther," she bonded with Chadwick Boseman, who plays the titular character in the Marvel movie. "I call him my African Brother," she told Popcorn Talk during an interview. 6. Sope is a wife and mom of two young boys. She lives in Los Angeles and Miami. 7. On her first day on set, the director of "Black Panther," Ryan Coogler, made sure he got her name correct. He also made sure the cast and crew got her name right. As an African actor used to having her name mispronounced, it made her cry and feel at home. About "Black Panther" "Black Panther" follows TChalla who, after the events of "Captain America: Civil War," returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to take his place as King. However, when an old enemy reappears on the radar, TChallas mettle as King and Black Panther is tested when he is drawn into a conflict that puts the entire fate of Wakanda and the world at risk. The movie debuts February 16, 2018. A CCTV footage showed the pair out on shopping hours before she was killed. She died on Wednesday, May 3, 2017, at a hostel reserved for former inmates located in Brierley Hill, West Midlands, The Independent UK reported. The ex-convict allegedly wrapped Bills' corpse in cling-film following a distraction turned tragic. A court described it as a snuff movie fantasy. The video which documented the last activities of the deceased shortly before her death was presented to a jury on Tuesday, January 9, 2018. Megan was seen wearing boots she had borrowed from her mother and tartan trousers. Foster is wearing black trainers with white stripes, a t-shirt and perhaps green or blue trousers. At 3.35pm we can see Megan going into Mr Foster's room, she is not wearing those black boots. This is the last sighting of Megan on the footage from any of the CCTV cameras,"Crispin Aylett QC a prosecutor reportedly told a court. ALSO READ: Sports fanatic murders wife for changing football programme Carley Forrester, the half-sister of the accused, had disclosed that the latter asked her to buy cling-film and had lied when asked about why he needed one. A judge at the Tinubu Chief Magistrates Court gave an order instructing that Adebiosu, 34, be remanded at the Ikoyi prison located in Lagos, Nigeria, as a result. The accused was slammed with a two-count charge of domestic violence and assault, reports the Premium Times News. He reportedly committed the offences on Tuesday, January 9, 2018, a prosecutor Nurudeen Thomas told the court. The latter added that the incident occurred at the couple's residence situated at the undefined According to reports, the pair who have been married for a period of 11 years developed issues in their marriage after the complainant identified as Bukola got a job at a hospital. Adebiosu who is a boutique owner reportedly started having a problem with his wife's style of dressing which often led to matrimonial fights. Adebiosu beats his wife and does not provide for the family, Thomas told the court. The defendant however had a different explanation to the allegation leveled against him stating that a lack of respect from his wife was responsible for his action. He added that the nose biting incident was an accident while also refuting claims that he doesn't take care of his family. I met my wife finishing off her fourth bottle of Stout in the midst of men; I had to force her home and during the struggle I mistakenly bite her nose. I do the best I can to take of our family but my wife does not give me the respect that I deserve as her husband," he said. A further hearing on the case has been suspended until Monday, February 12, 2018. Adebiosu is expected to remain in prison until this day. Violence in marriages In Nigeria, violence in marriages which often puts women on the part of blows, or even death, has been a major theme in an African society will little regard for the female gender. One of the results is a country with an increasing pool of feminists who are calling for equal opportunities for a man and a woman. Being a nation where the power to drive things lies in the hands of men, the need to call for equality has been mainly from the camp of women. Their strong activism has unfortunately not protected the latter gender from been murdered and even assaulted by the police. An assault by operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), on a woman expecting quadruplet in Delta State, has allegedly caused the latter to lose her pregnancy. An Instagram user, Jane Mena, who is a friend of the victim revealed how the incident occurred in a long post. She explained that the expectant mother went into a coma following a violent treatment in the hands of the police. ALSO READ: Sports fanatic murders wife for changing football programme The murder suspect who is also a school teacher has been apprehended by the police according to Tuko News. It was reported that Nambi delivered a baby through caesarean section two months prior to the event. Reports also revealed that the horny teacher had consulted a neighbour identified as Hasifa Babirye, concerning her challenge. The latter had advised her to be patient with her husband who has two other wives but her counseling failed to yield a positive outcome. Nambi reportedly insisted on harming her husband, a former representative of their community if he doesn't attend to her urge. "She 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. 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," Babirye told the police. Joseph Kihamba, the chairman of the Kaliro district disclosed that the suspect who intentionally started a fight with the deceased will be facing charges of murder. Murder in marriages There have been many cases of murder in marriages and most of the instances occurred due to flimsy reasons or no reason at all. In July 2017, a 39-year-old woman, Omotayo Salawudeen reportedly hired an assassin, Dolapo Oladapo, to murder her husband, Alhaji Hakeem aged 43, but could not support her action with a tangible reason. According to reports, she covered the face of the deceased with a pillow while the hired killer stabbed him repeatedly with a knife. I hired Dolapo Oladapo to kill my husband. We were married for about 17 years; we were blessed with three children. They are aged 17, 15 and 12. My husband did not offend me; I was just mad at him. I choked him with a pillow after having sex with him and Oladapo stabbed him to death with a knife. I dont know what came over me, but I regret my action. H&M has issued a public apology and pulled the sweater from their list of product offerings. Although the mother of the Kenyan model in the hand has said she does not believe the ad was racist. Regardless, H&M is not the first major brand to court controversy of an ad that was interpreted as insensitive. Here are seven brands and their controversial ads. (1) Dove The Unilever-owned personal care brand was roasted on social media in October of 2017 after it posted an ad that was deemed as racist and unfair to women of colour. The ad was part of the brands Facebook campaign and included a series of photos that purported to show women getting clean. In one of the photos, a black woman is seen taking off a shirt representing her skin with the help of Dove and transforming into a white woman. In response, Dove tweeted that it regretted missing the mark in representing women of colour and the offence it caused. (2) Qiaobi Detergent Next stop is China. This absurd ad from the Chinese detergent brand was made in March 2016. It showed a black man being shoved into a washing machine by a Chinese woman. The man is then laundered, apparently Qiaobi detergent, into a light-skinned, young Chinese man. The tone was made worse by the tagline which says Change, it all starts with Qiaobi Detergent. Needless to say, the ad was criticized on social media. With many drawing attention to the fact that Chinese social media campaigns still rely on old, mostly insensitive methods. Qiaobi Detergents parent company, Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd apologised soon after, accepting the blame but also adding that We sincerely hope the public and the media will not over-read it (3) Nivea Early in 2017, beauty and skincare brand, Nivea posted an ad for its deodorant line with the questionable jibe, White is Purity. The ad went on to read, Keep it clean, Keep it bright. Dont let anything ruin it, #invisible. The obvious potential for social media outrage was not fully realized. ALSO READ: Nivea needs to be more culturally sensitive Not long after it came to public attention, Beiersdorf, Niveas parent company, removed the ad claiming, That image was inappropriate and not reflective of our values as a company. We deeply apologise for that. (4) Cadbury British supermodel Naomi Campbell is one of the most easily recognisable women of colour in the world, which is probably why Cadbury thought it was a good idea to make an ad comparing her to a bar of chocolate. In 2011, the chocolate brand ran the advert with a headline which said Move over Naomi, theres a new diva in town". The diva in question was a Dairy Milk Bliss candy bar. It is upsetting to be described as chocolate, not just for me but for all black women and black people, Naomi Campbell responded, I do not find any humour in this. It is insulting and hurtful Cadbury apologized for the ad. It was not our intention that this campaign should offend Naomi, her family or anybody else, the apology read. (5) Benetton If any brand is known for its controversial advertising, it has to be Benetton. Among its many sins, it ran an ad that depicted then-US President Barack Obama bending over to kiss former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. You will have to go back to 1991 to see another more insensitive ad where a poster of a newborn baby covered in blood led to protests in Italy. There's also a 1989 poster which featured a black womna breastfeeding a white baby. Despite the backlash, Benetton has not toned down the shock value in its ads. (6) PlayStation Yea. Sometimes, even Sonys Playstation does not understand when its time to stop playing games. In 2006, when Sony was advertising its all-new Playstation Portable (PSP) console in different colours, it used a poster featuring two women. A white woman with a combative expression held the face of a black woman. Sony purported to use the comparison to highlight the contrast between the two colours but the ad was deemed racist. After much outrage, the ad was pulled. Sony also issued an apology, saying, We recognise that the subject matter of one specific image may have caused concern in some countries not directly affected by the advertising. (7) Nicofresh Since they were first introduced to the market in 2004, e-cigarettes have steadily grown into a big market of their own. One of the more popular brands, Nicofresh created a controversial campaign in 2014. In the ad, a young black man is seen embracing an older white woman with the tagline, No tobacco. No Taboo. The ad was seen as racist because it purportedly depicted mixed-race relationships and those with a big age gap as unhealthy. The UKs Advertising Standards Authority banned the ad, although posters were spread around Belfast in Northern Island. Most of these soldiers were young adults, but a large percentage of them were teens as young as 16 who ran away from home to find meaning as soldiers of the British Amy. Their enemy was the Japanese Imperial Army, which had overrun large parts of Burma, now known as Myanmar in South-East Asia. Even though their contribution was immense, Nigerian and other African soldiers were not acknowledged when the Allied Commander, General William Slim thanked the 4th Division in Burma. Britain was a major player in the Second World War but it did not have the military might to match its role. The Burma War was essentially a series of battles fought in the British colony of Burma, in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II. The war was fought primarily between the British Imperial forces and China, with support from the United States, against the invading forces of Imperial Japan, Thailand, and the Indian National Army. Fighting another man's war While Britain had support from other allies, it had a void in its own forces. This gap was plugged mostly from its colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and South-East Asia. Of the 90,000 East and West African troops that fought in the war, over half were Nigerian. One of them was a 16-year-old Isaac Fadoyebo. Like many his age, he had run away from his parents and the village that was all he knew to sign up for the British war effort. Some of the soldiers were captured and forced into the army. One of such, named African Banana by the white soldiers, was a young Chadian who had come to Nigeria in search of his kidnapped sister. He was captured in Yola and forcefully conscripted into the army. The white sergeant major caught me, he says, and I was taken to Burma For others, it was a matter of raw desire. ALSO READ: Miners dicover giant Jade boulder worth 140 million pounds For many of the soldiers who fought in the war, representing Britain was the greatest honour or so they thought. I was so jealous when my friend joined the army, says one of the Burma veterans from Nigerias north who is now in his 80s, To wear the Khaki was a thing of pride and when the girls saw me, they would always call me over For others, fighting for Britain came with the assurance of a considerable stipend, a job and sustenance where they had few options. Many of the younger soldiers joined for the allure of excitement and the prospect of making something of themselves in the white mans land. What they found was completely different. "Racism still alive, they just be concealing it" It took two years of fighting in the intense jungles of Burma to drive out the Japanese. Only a fraction of the forces who actually fought in the front-lines were white. But if the African soldiers thought their majority would mean anything or imply that they would be treated differently than they were at home, they were badly mistaken. Getting to Burma was a problem in and of its own. I did not enjoy the trip, says a veteran, the first set of recruits died on the ship. The Burma jungle was a formidable opponent itself, steeped high in the same area as the Himalayas range, the monsoon weather worsened the problems of navigating a jungle that was dense, to say the least. Burma Jungle? Very thick jungle, he says of the monsoon rain-forest, We had to cut (through) it with a cutlass to make way for ourselves But even though each soldier had to carry his own weight and contribute at least equally to the war effort, the Nigerian soldiers soon found that some of the men were more equal than others. They treated us like their children but in reality, we were their slaves, one of the veterans says. Wed have to march five or six kilometres through the water, up to her neck in the water, he gestures. But they fought nonetheless, over two years until the Japanese were defeated. The efforts of the West African soldiers in Burma did not go unnoticed, but whether they were acknowledged or appreciated is another question entirely. Used, abused and abandoned The British leaders, military and civilian, saw that they did well but they were only adjudged exemplary on paper. We went to the war, we came back, what did they do for us?, asks one of the soldiers. The war was beneficial for the world, yet another veteran says, but it was not beneficial for me. ALSO READ: How a meeting in Ghana changed Nigeria forever Many of the soldiers came home to manage what was left of the stipends they had earned at war and sent home before they returned. After the war, we were promised our war bonus But they were not paid. We were under colonial rule so we could not say anything to change it, another says. They promised to send us something up till now, we didnt receive anything It is nearly impossible to discount the implications of the Burma War on the soldiers who went or on the country as a whole. Home will never forget you Although many of them have now passed away, there is a generation who was famed at the time for fighting a white mans war in the white mans land and returning unscathed. To some, it was a subtle validation of the belief that black men are much stronger than their white peers. ALSO READ: The influence has even been immortalised in Nigerian literature, in books such as Buchi Emechetas Joys of Motherhood where the main character, Nnu Ego had to make do with a small stipend while her husband fought in Burma. Few of those veterans are alive but the legacy of that fighting force lives on in folk stories and works of art like the aforementioned. Someday, the world will ask questions of the long-standing legacy of colonialism and the suffering that Britain caused for men who gave years of their lives, and in many cases, their mental stability, for a war they had no part in, only to be sold false promises. ALSO READ: How the Nigerian military comes up with code names But then again, isnt that what colonialism and all other forms of systemic oppression are? Their story may dampen the spirits of those who seek to make similar decisions in todays world; chasing a selfish cause in a foreign land for the sake of meaning and financial reward. But where this is the case, there may be some guidance in the song that led the Nigerian soldiers of Burma into battle. There is a light at the end of the tunnel The battalion is almost there God, we ask your forgiveness In a press statement issued in Lagos, Friday, Globacom made it clear that "it has not acquired 9Mobile as widely reported in the media. The company added that, "We are bound by the terms of the acquisition process as stipulated by the authorities handling it and we will not in any way sway or deviate from the rules. We repose confidence in Barclays Africa, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which are handling the process that will lead to the emergence of a new owner for the company. New name In July 2017, Etisalat International and Mubadala Development company pulled out of the Nigerian arm, following Etisalat Nigeria's debt problem with a consortium of banks. The company wanted a restructuring of its $1.2B loan and suggested the debt be repaid in Naira. The banks would have none of it. A statement by Dr Muhammad Bulama, the Commissioner for Information, on Friday in Maiduguri said the curfew was extended to Jan. 20. In other words, the prevailing curfew regime is to now to last until Friday, Jan. 20, he said. Bulama explained that the action was to avail the Armed Forces sufficient time to complete the on-going special operation against Boko Haram terrorists and consolidate on the success so far recorded. He noted that the state government deeply regretted the inconveniences and difficulties caused to the people by the action. Bulama stressed that the decision was taken to safeguard the collective security and overall well- being of the people. Government therefore urges all indigenes and residents of Borno State to see this temporary measure as part of necessary sacrifices we all have to make in the interest of peace, stability, development and progress, of not only our dear state, but Nigeria as a whole. The understanding, support and cooperation of the general public is highly solicited in the observance of the curfew, he said. Kukah was reportedly freed around 3p.m. on Thursday. The spokesman for the Nigeria Police Command in Kaduna State, ASP Mukhtar Aliyu said the traditional ruler was unhurt and has re-united with his family. He said, "On the issue of ransom paid before his release I cannot confirm that. "We are doing everything humanly possible to arrest the suspect." Kukah, who is the Chief Ikulu in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, was abducted in the evening of January 2 at his residence. ALSO READ: How kidnappers killed Missionary after singing Amazing Grace [Video] You could have touched the deja vu engulfing the square with a felt pen. As speaker after speaker mounted the rostrum, the cries rang and echoed. For the umpteenth time, Benue was being draped in sackcloth and ashes. And yet all of this could have been avoided. At least Benue Governor Samuel Ortom said as much. He had forewarned the President Buhari led federal government that the blood thirsty herdsmen, kicking against his anti-open grazing legislation, were going to fight back. And they did. On January 1, 2018, killer herdsmen invaded communities around Benue and slit the throats of dozens. Warnings Ortom said; "Let me be frank. The federal government has not done enough. When this incidence started with the threat from the president and secretary of Miyetti Allah, Kauta Hore, who addressed a press conference and issued threats that they will do everything possible to frustrate the Benue State Government from implementing the anti-open grazing law, we quickly drew the attention of the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the Department of State Services, DSS, and even the office of the National Security Adviser. "The leadership of Miyetti Allah called the law names; that it was draconian and had no place in the 21st century. We saw that as a threat to our existence and in June 2016, we reported to the then acting president (Prof. Yemi Osinbajo) and to our surprise, these people were not apprehended. We specifically demanded that the two officers of the Miyetti Allah, the secretary and the president, be arrested, but unfortunately, they were not arrested. I do not know why the Federal Government has abandoned us. If they had acted that time, we would not have gotten to where we are today. Too little, too late Days after the mass murders, Buhari invited Ortom over and made a show of deploying troops to Benue. But it was too little, too late. The stable door was being bolted long after the horse had fled. We have all failed the victims. We have all failed to provide protection to women and children and the elderly victims of this attack, said Martins Ejidike, a Human Rights Advisor of the UN, as tears drenched the IBB Square in Makurdi. Let it be known that Buhari and the rest of his presidency failed the people of Benueand other victims of herdsmen attacks across Nigeria, when they were most needed. This was disclosed by the governor's Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, on Friday, January 12, 2018, who echoed the governor's earlier stance that no amendment will be made to the law to accommodate the wishes of the cattle breeders association who have openly issued threats to have the law aborted. The governor said, "We will not modify the anti open grazing law as demanded by Miyetti Allah as condition for peace to reign. The law was popularly made by Benue people and it has come to stay." The governor had said the same thing on Thursday, January 11, during the mass burial organised by the state government for the victims of recent attacks. The bodies of 73 men, women and children were buried at the ceremony that was attended by thousands of of Benue residents who expressed anger at the attacks. Benue attacks In attacks allegedly carried out by Fulani herdsmen in Guma and Logo Local Government Area of Benue between Sunday, December 31, 2017, and Tuesday, January 2, 2018, 50 people were reportedly killed. President Buhari in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina in Abuja on Friday, charged Adams to use his new position to pursue worthy goals of security, peace and national unity. The President also commended the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi 111, on the appointment of a new Aare Ona Kakanfo, who will assist him in the arduous task of leading the illustrious Yoruba people. Buhari urged the new Kakanfo to bring quintessential courage, wisdom and astuteness to bear on his new office for a more secured life for the weak, vulnerable and voiceless in the country. According to a report by TheCable, the seven governors met with the President at the presidential villa, Abuja, on Friday, January 12, 2018. El-Rufai, who spoke to state house correspondents after the meeting, said governors want Buhari to continue running the country beyond 2019. He said: We are politicians and those of us you see here want the president to contest the 2019 election, we have no apologies for that. We believe in Mr President, we want him to continue running the country in the right direction. People can speculate about 2019, we have no apologies. Whether they are right or wrong is beside the point. Everybody is entitled to his or her own opinion but as governors, and most of us here with the exception of Yobe governor, are first-term governors. We are interested in continuity and stability and we want the president to continue with that. Like our leader, the governor of Kano said, we just happen to be here by coincidence and we went to pray and decided to felicitate with the president and we feel satisfied that anytime we see him, he is getting better and better. In a statement issued by the former president's media office on Thursday, January 11, 2018, he condemned the presidency for reporting that Fulani herdsmen killed 756 Nigerians during his tenure to explain away its own reaction to the attacks that have claimed the lives of over 100 Nigerians since January 1, 2018. While reacting to insinuations that the recent spate of killings by herdsmen in Benue and other states is because President Buhariis a Fulani man, the president's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, deflected it by noting that hundreds had died under the same circumstances under Jonathan. In the statement, Jonathan criticised the presidency for the inaccuracy of the figure released and the attempt to trivialise the current crisis. The former president also defended his handling of the killer herdsmen during his tenure and explained how he curbed their menace and prosecuted offenders who were convicted after trials. The statement read, "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 President's 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 Jonathan's 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." Benue and Taraba attacks In attacks allegedly carried out by Fulani herdsmen in Guma and Logo Local Government Area of Benue between Sunday, December 31, 2017, and Tuesday, January 2, 2018, 50 people were reportedly killed. 11 other people were killed in a fresh attack on Tombu village of Logo LGA, again by suspected Fulani herdsmen, on Saturday, January 6, 2018. The Benue State government organised a mass burial for the victims on Thursday, January 11 where 73 bodies of men, women and children were buried. The public sector employees were sacked after being accused of downloading an encrypted messaging app known as ByLock, which the authorities say was used by the movement of US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen who is blamed for the attempted putsch. But late last year, the authorities said that the app had been unknowingly downloaded by thousands of people. Gulen denies Turkey's accusations and insists his movement is a peaceful group. A total of 1,823 civil servants will return to work, including 544 personnel from the education ministry and 204 health ministry staff. The decree also said 458 personnel from the police force could return to their jobs. Following the failed overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey imposed a state of emergency which has been renewed five times and is likely to be extended again this month. Using emergency decrees, more than 140,000 public workers have been sacked or suspended including teachers, judges, police officers and academics since July 2016. Over 50,000 people have been arrested, including many with suspected links to Gulen because they had allegedly downloaded ByLock. Last month the Ankara chief prosecutor said that 11,480 people were directed to the ByLock app without realising or giving permission. But in Friday's decree, 262 people including 48 military personnel were sacked, state-run news agency Anadolu said, while two organisations were shut down. Trump sat down with senators and congressmen at the White House to discuss a proposed bipartisan deal that would limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country and restrict the green card visa lottery in exchange for shielding hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to people briefed on the meeting who spoke with The Washington Post. The New York Times later reported the same comment, citing unnamed people with direct knowledge of the meeting. The president was referring to African countries and Haiti, and then suggested the United States should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday. The comments alarmed and mystified the people attending the meeting. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin came to the White House to outline their bipartisan compromise, but found themselves in the room with several Republican immigration hardliners. Graham and Durbin are leading efforts to codify protections for so-called "dreamers," immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children. In exchange, the deal would end extended family chain migration. It also reportedly would cut the visa lottery program by half and prioritize certain countries in the system, instead of scrapping it altogether as several Republicans have suggested as part of an agreement. The president and lawmakers are in the midst of intense negotiations about how to shield nearly 800,000 "dreamers" from deportation. Last year, Trump scrapped the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protected the immigrants, and set a deadline of March 5 for Congress to legislate a fix. The White House did not deny the account of Trump's use of language, but instead suggested the president was "fighting for permanent solutions" that strengthen the nation, in part through the use of a merit-based immigration system. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement. "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." Some Democrats seized on Trump's slur to suggest he is anti-immigrant. "We always knew that President Trump doesn't like people from certain countries or people or certain colors," congressman Luis Gutierrez said. "I hope you will contribute...so that Greece, in a spirit of unity and rational speech, will successfully deal with the issue...without the mistakes of the past," Tsipras wrote to the head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos. Hopes of a solution to the issue, which dates from 1991, were revived after a new government was elected in Skopje last year determined to bury the hatchet with Athens, in return for a NATO seat. "I believe it's possible to find a solution by the end of the first semester of 2018," Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told Greece's Alpha TV over the weekend. Ahead of a new round of UN talks next week, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and his Macedonia counterpart Nikola Dimitrov met behind closed doors in Thessaloniki. Greece and the EU recognise the small landlocked country by its provisional name, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), under which it was also admitted to the UN. Skopje has long insisted that this designation was only provisional. In Greece, there is already opposition in the north of the country to any solution including the name Macedonia, and the issue may split the Greek parliament, which will be called upon to ratify any deal. Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, the government's nationalist coalition partner, is also opposed to such a solution. But Kotzias this week hinted that with over 100 nations already recognising the tiny Balkan state as Macedonia, options are limited. "The baby is 25 years old, it has already been baptised," Kotzias told Antenna TV on Monday. "We want to add...a composite name in a way that (the country) will be distinct from Greek Macedonia," he said. Both sides have declined to comment on speculation that New Macedonia will be the chosen compromise. Despite a recent cooling of tensions in the run-up to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, Shinzo Abe has insisted on "maximising pressure" on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programmes. Abe will visit Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, the first sitting Japanese leader to visit those nations. "I want to confirm our cooperation on North Korean and other urgent issues the international community faces," he told reporters before he left. Abe, who will meet the heads of the six states on his tour, also noted that representatives from more than 30 companies would accompany him to develop business ties. Japan is keen to raise its profile in the region as China bolsters its ties there. All six nations Abe is visiting are among the 16 Central and Eastern European countries that hold an annual summit meeting with China. China has been pushing its massive $1 trillion "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which seeks to build rail, maritime and road links from Asia to Europe and Africa in a revival of ancient Silk Road trading routes. The Mapuche, Chile's largest ethnic group, are locked in a sometimes bloody conflict with a government it has long accused of discrimination and abuse, and are also demanding the restitution of traditional tribal lands in private ownership. "The program of the Holy Father's visit reflects his concern for an area that has experienced major tensions, with whom he wants to share a message of peace and where he seeks to bring some words of hope," said the national coordinator for the visit, Fernando Ramos. Nearly 400,000 people are expected at Tumuco's Maquehue airbase where the pope will preside over a special "mass for the integration of the peoples" on Wednesday. The mass will feature a Mapuche prayer to honor the first inhabitants of Chile and Argentina. Conflict zone The 80-year-old pontiff's arrival in Temuco, the capital of the region of Chile inhabited by the Mapuche, comes shortly after recent commemorations of two events that underscore the conflict with the government. One is the murder a decade ago of a Mapuche activist, Matias Catrileo, at the hands of the police. The other is the January 2013 arson attack by Mapuche activists on a remote farm, in which a couple were killed as they tried to defend their property. Eleven Mapuche activists, among them a "machi" or spiritual leader, are awaiting trial in the case, after the state appealed their acquittal by a lower court. Catrileo was a member of the CAM, a radical group dedicated to the recovery of former Mapuche lands. The group have admitted firebombing landowners as part of a campaign to reclaim ancestral lands seized by the state at the end of the 19th century and sold to logging companies. After a two decade campaign, the group has managed to recover several hectares after forcibly evicting foresters. Ramon Llanquileo, one of the CAM's leaders, lives today in lands taken from a logging company. "More than waiting for something, what one expects in the end are certain gestures, that the pope comes and says: 'the struggle of the Mapuche people is just.' It is a step forward but here the transformations are being brought about through our own personal efforts," Llanquileo told AFP. According to analyst and historian Pedro Canales of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Francis is arriving "at a rather complex stage....some more radical groups" have hardened their attitude against the government. "There is no fluid relationship that allows us to think or predict that they are building a more harmonious future and that there will be dialogue, " said Canales. "I think that it's the opposite, that we are at a dead end," he said. A spotlight on Mapuche cause After the mass, Francis will meet with a small group of indigenous people in Temuco. It is unclear who will attend but organizers say radicals would not be invited. For the indigenous leaders it will be an occasion to "make visible" the Mapuche cause amid fears the incoming rightist government of Sebastian Pinera will harden the state's stance against the Mapuche. In June, leftist President Michelle Bachelet formally apologized to the Mapuche community for the "errors and horrors" committed by the Chilean state against their communities. Chile has been criticized by rights groups for inappropriately using anti-terrorist legislation against the Mapuche group. Reduced today to below 700,000 people, out of a population of 17 million Chileans, the Mapuches have higher poverty levels than the rest of the Chilean population after being reduced to living on about five percent of the land they held before the arrival of Spanish colonizers. Thus, grouped in small communities, without space to plant or raise animals, most have had to abandon traditional means of subsistence and migrate to the cities. During a meeting with lawmakers at the Oval office on Thursday, one source quoted Trump as saying;"Why do we want all these people from 'shithole countries' coming here?" According to a CNN story of what transpired; Illinois Democratic and South Carolina brought a plan to Trump that involved cutting the visa lottery in half and, at the behest of the Congressional Black Caucus, the rest would go to underrepresented countries in Africa and Temporary Protective Status nations, including One person briefed on the meeting said when Durbin got to Haiti, Trump began to ask why we want people from Haiti and more Africans in the US and added that the US should get more people from countries like Norway". White House all but confirms Trumps comments reportedly shocked lawmakers some of whom proceeded to leak it all to the media. White House spokesperson Raj Shah did not deny the "shithole" remark, CNN reports. Shah however 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." Immigrant hater It isnt the first time that Trump would be deploying racist slurs as he deals with the rest of the world. In December, The New York Times (NYT) reported that during a meeting at the Oval Office in June, Trump said immigrants from Haiti all have AIDS, Afghanistan was described as a haven of terrorists" and Nigerians living in the US were scoffed at by the US President for residing in huts back home. Forty thousand (migrants) had come from Nigeria, Mr. Trump added. Once they had seen the United States, they would never go back to their huts in Africa, the NYT piece read, quoting sources at the meeting. At the time, Trump was fuming at the number of immigrants in the US, in spite of all his travel bans. Yet Trumps posturing isnt coming as a surprise because during his campaign to become US president, he proposed an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agenda which first horrified before numbing the rest of the world. It says a lot when the so called leader of the free world becomes a real and present danger to the rest of the world, one careless remark at a time. Trump has never hid his disdain for people of colour or for people of other races. He pines to rid the US of immigrants someday. Its an agenda that keeps him up at night. The challenge As the third world begins to unpack the latest racist slur from a president who churns them out by the truckload, Trumps anti-immigrant posturing should be seen as a challenge to leaders of these countries he so abhors. Its time to fast-track development back home in order to reduce influx of persons to the developed world. To change an insular, protectionist president remains a pipe dream at best. Trump has always been a president who wants to build walls and more walls. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, they say. The final class 3400 (DM 90) trains were rendered surplus in December, when Keolis Netherlands took over operation of Zwolle - Kampen and Zwolle - Raalte - Enschede services using new Stadler Flirt EMUs. Romanian operator Ferotrans-TFI has purchased almost all of the two-car DM 90 sets from NS Financial Services. The original fleet of 53 trains was built by Talbot/Duewag in 1996-1998, but was quickly superseded by more modern lightweight rolling stock preferred by new operators when secondary lines passed to regional control. The trains have a maximum speed of 140km/h and seat 123 passengers in standard class and 12 in first. 12 Ferotrans-TFI plans to begin operating the DM 90s on the Romanian network this summer, with routes including Bucharest - Iasi. The trains will be overhauled at the Electroputere plant at Pascani before entering service, and a Supplementary Authorisation to Place in Service (SAPS) will be required for operation on the Romanian network. NCDOT wraps largest rail infrastructure improvement program Written by Kyra Senese , Managing Editor, Railway Track & Structures The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is celebrating the completion of the state's largest program of passenger and freight rail infrastructure improvements. 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 seven-year 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. The department 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. Welcome to Railway Gazette. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. You can learn more about the cookies we use here. OK Russian hacking group leader denied parole MOSCOW, January 12 (RAPSI, Nikita Shiryayev) The Lefortovsky District Court of Moscow on Friday dismissed a motion for parole filed by Vladimir Anikeyev, the leader of Russias hacking group Shaltai-Boltai, or Humpty Dumpty, RAPSI correspondent reported from the courtroom. The Moscow City Court sentenced Anikeyev to 2 years in prison in July. The man was found guilty of getting illegal access to computer information in collusion with a group of people. Two other group members, Alexander Filinov and Konstantin Teplyakov, have received 3 years in prison each. The Supreme Court of Russia has upheld their sentence. From 2013 to 2016, Anikeyev and his accomplices hacked computers, cellphones and tablet computers of Russian citizens and stole information data, according to investigation. In some cases, they put the information for sale on the Internet. Anikeyev has pleaded guilty. Russian watchdog denies request of PepsiCo to declare Lays brand commonly known MOSCOW, January 12 (RAPSI) Russias intellectual property watchdog Rospatent has refused to grant a motion of the PepsiCo, Inc. seeking to recognize Lays trademark as commonly known in Russia, the agencys documents read on Friday. The trademark was registered in the name of the applicant on February 28, 2015. In order to see the trademark recognized as commonly known, PepsiCo provided information on Lays in Russia and other countries as well as mail confirming its connection to Frito Lay Manufacturing company. The latter firm signed license contract and other documents with the applicant. Rospatent noticed that the trademark is indeed used for individuation of potato chips produced and distributed in Russia by Frito Lay Manufacturing under the license agreement. However, according to the watchdog, PepsiCo did not provide evidence of its direct involvement in manufacturing and distributing the goods in Russia. Rospatent also noted that PepsiCos statement about being the beneficiary of Frito Lay Manufacturings business activity does not mean that the applicant fully controlled said activity. In addition, the watchdog did not found evidence of the goods positioning as PepsiCo production. Prosecutors seek extradition of Russian man charged with fraud crypto currency from Greece MOSCOW, January 12 (RAPSI) Russia has sent a new request to Greece for extradition of Alexander Vinnik charged in the U.S. with a $4-billion crypto currency fraud, the spokesperson for the Prosecutor Generals Office Alexander Kurennoy has told RAPSI. Vinnik was arrested in Greece, where he went on vacation, in July 2017. The U.S. authorities claim that the Russian national, acting as an operator of BTC-e digital currency trading platform and exchange, received $4 billion and did business in violation of anti-money laundering legislation. Vinnik has pleaded not guilty and filed an appeal against a ruling ordering his extradition to the U.S. In December, the Supreme Court of Greece dismissed his appeal. Russia is also seeking extradition of Vinnik on fraud allegations. In October, Russian prosecutors request for his extradition was granted by a judicial council in Thessaloniki. A final decision in Vinniks extradition case is to be adopted by the Justice Minister of Greece. Nemtsov murder convict pleads not guilty to insulting investigator Context Nemtsov murder case convict faces trial on charges of insulting investigator MOSCOW, January 12 (RAPSI, Nikita Shiryayev) - Temirlan Eskerkhanov, sentenced to 14 years in prison for the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, has pleaded not guilty to insulting an investigator, RAPSI reports from Moscows Basmanny District Court on Friday. The defendant said in court that he is being tried unjustly. Eskerkhanov is charged with contempt of court expressed in an insult to the litigants. The case was initiated because of Eskerkhanovs words heard by jurors. One of the words insulted the investigator; however, an expert evaluation has found no insult in the convicts speech, his lawyer Anna Byurchiyeva told RAPSI earlier. In October, the sentence passed on murderers of Nemtsov took effect. The Moscow District Military Court gave the defendants prison terms varying from 11 to 20 years on July 13. The court ruled in accordance with the will of the jury panel founding all defendants guilty. Zaur Dadayev, Nemtsovs first-hand killer was sentenced to 20 years. Anzor Gubashev was sentenced to 19 years, Shadid Gubashev to 16 years, Temirlan Eskerkhanov to 14 years and Khamzat Bakhayev to 11 years. All defendants will serve their time in a high-security penal colony. The court fined defendants 100,000 rubles (about $1,700). Shadid and Anzor Gubashev, Eskerkhanov and Bakhayev were also subjected to additional restriction of freedom for two years. In late June, jurors found all the defendants guilty of involvement in the politicians murder and illegal trafficking in firearms and ammunition. According to the verdict, they did not deserve leniency. The jury panel stated that one of defendants, Dadayev, conspired with others, was stalking and collecting data on Nemtsov, prepared murder and killed the politician himself, shooting his victim at least six times from an unidentified gun. Boris Nemtsov, 55, a prominent opposition politician, who held a number of high-ranking posts in the Russian government in the 1990s and in the 2000s joined the opposition, was shot down in the center of Moscow as he walked across a bridge near the Kremlin on the night of February 28, 2015. Investigators believe that the conspirators had thoroughly prepared to commit this crime and spied on the victim. Ruslan Mukhudinov, a former officer in Chechen Interior Ministry, is believed to be a mastermind of the murder. He was placed on the international wanted list in November 2015. Beslan Shavanov, who allegedly was also implicated in the crime, reportedly killed himself when police tried to arrest him. Criminal prosecution of Shavanov was dismissed because of his death. Investigation into Mukhudinov is underway. Property details: Corner of Robertson & Fawn Road, Bare Land ideal for a cabin or a mountain retreat. 452 Robertson Road, Jim Thorpe, PA 18228 Elevation of 1642 Feet. Latitude: 40.9479 North - Longitude: 75.64195 West. 119 Miles from Manhattan, NY. 210 Miles from D.C. and 89 Miles from Philadelphia. Part of Penn Forest Streams Home Owners Association. Community amenities include: 2 pools, security services, a clubhouse, a pavilion, tennis and basketball courts, a friendly neighborhood and all Pocono area events i... Price: $ 8,750 Property Address: 452 Robertson Road State/Province: Pennsylvania Seller State of Residence: Maryland Zip/Postal Code: 18228 Zoning: Residential City: Jim Thorpe Type: Homesite, Lot Location: 182**, Jim Thorpe, Pa You will be redirected to eBay Nearby Homesite, Lot Property details: *****CASH SALE, NO PAYMENTS***** NO RESERVE You are bidding on the Full Purchase Price for this property! In addition to the winning final bid, there is a $350.00 Deed and documentation fee. IF YOU WANT TO INVEST IN REAL ESTATE THIS IS YOUR BEST OPPORTUNITY PROPERTY My lot is on Granada Street in the Del Mar development neared Cedar Creek Lake. The Property Identification Number is R41038. The legal description is Del Mar Lot 682 in Pane Springs Texas Henderson County The current assessed value ... Price: $ 495 Seller State of Residence: Illinois State/Province: Texas Zoning: Residential City: Payne Springs Property Address: Granada Street Location: , Brandon, Ms You will be redirected to eBay Nearby Granada Street , We're sorry, this article is not currently available 'While investors in Reliance have had to play a game of patience for long stretches, for Anil the challenge is to do what used to be his brother's forte -- generating cash by putting assets in the ground and making things,' says T N Ninan. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com The tale of the Brothers Ambani has had another twist. Reliance Communications, the company that younger brother Anil wrested from older sibling Mukesh during an acrimonious parting of ways in 2005-2006, has sold most of its assets to Mukesh's Reliance Industries for Rs 240 billion (Rs 24,000 crore). In a way, this marks apogee and perigee for the two careers. Mukesh, 60, can look back on a year during which he has shaken up the telecom industry with the launch of his Jio service, whereas Anil (two years younger) has been selling one business after another to raise cash. Before RCom's assets, it was the Mumbai electricity distribution business to Adani for Rs 190 billion (Rs 19,000 crore). Smaller sales earlier had been of the direct-to-home business, the radio and TV businesses, and Big Cinemas. And still there is big debt left to be paid off, so the next sale could be of RCom's real estate assets. When the father Dhirubhai was around, it used to be Anil who was all flash and smart deals, and the group's quick-talking face to the media, while Mukesh laboured at putting hard assets in the ground. Once Dhirubhai had passed on, Anil found that he had little to do in the main company. In the inevitable parting of ways, he was offered little more than the smaller companies he ran: Reliance Capital and Reliance Energy (earlier BSES). It took an almighty fight, with much washing of dirty linen in public, before Mukesh reluctantly parted with his pet new project: What was then Reliance Infocomm, and is now Reliance Communications or RCom. That made the split less uneven than it otherwise might have been, but Mukesh remained by far the bigger player, with businesses valued then at Rs 1,181 billion (Rs 118,100 crore) compared to Anil's Rs 763 billion (Rs 76,300 crore). The real imbalance was still greater, because Mukesh's slice of the cake was 90 per cent or more of the total when it came to sales and profits. Still, it was Anil who set the initial pace. Rapid customer acquisition saw the telecom business value reaching Rs 1,690 billion (Rs 169,000 crore) at one stage; today that is down to Rs 100 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) as market share has collapsed. Reliance Power did a spectacular public issue at the height of the stock market boom in early 2008: A company with virtually no revenue or cash flow was valued at Rs 1,018 billion (Rs 101,800 crore). Today, that is down to Rs 141 billion (Rs 14,100 crore). Along the way, both companies had faced a Mukesh block: RCom was prevented from leapfrogging in scale through the acquisition of MTN, a South African multinational, because Mukesh said he had a prior claim on any share sale. Mukesh also won a court case over the promise of gas supply to Anil's power projects under the family settlement. But there were other reasons too for the change in fortunes. So while Anil's businesses in their pomp were valued once at nearly Rs 4,000 billion (Rs 4 lakh crore), the figure is down more than 80 per cent, to Rs 730 billion (Rs 73,000 crore) -- compared to Mukesh's Reliance Industries today at nearly Rs 6,000 billion (Rs 6 lakh crore). In terms of personal wealth, Forbes ranks Mukesh as the wealthiest man in Asia, with $38 billion, while Anil is 45th in India, with $3.1 billion. Mukesh's new businesses -- oil and gas, retail -- have not been great successes while telecommunciations will have to prove it can earn a good return on capital. The cash cows remain the refining and petrochemical businesses. While investors in Reliance have had to play a game of patience for long stretches, for Anil the challenge is to do what used to be his brother's forte -- generating cash by putting assets in the ground and making things. Reliance Infrastructure is laying down roads, bridges and metro projects; Reliance Power is building a dozen power projects; and the defence business is into shipbuilding and aviation components. Even if he pulls off what is for him a relatively new game, Anil still has a pile of debt to clear. Meanwhile, Mukesh has abundant cash flow. The project is said to have been assigned to the secret team named 2ASDU at Renault Nissan Technology Business Centre India 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. Each such development, from concept stage to launch, could cost Rs 15-18 billion. Renault has had two successful products in India, the Duster, and Kwid. It has said it would launch a new vehicle in India every year. The company formally declined to comment on products under development. After speaking to executives at the centre, workers inside the factory and to a few vendors, Business Standard learnt that at least two new products are in the development stage for Renault. Officials who did not wish to be identified said work is happening on an electric variant of the Kwid and a sub-four-metre SUV, to be based on a modular architectural concept jointly developed by Nissan and Renault. The project is said to have been assigned to the 2ASDU unit at Renault Nissan Technology Business Centre India. The unit is also working with other research teams of Renault outside India. It is understood that Renault might showcase the Kwid's electric version at the Auto Expo next month, though actual launch will take up to two years. A company official said the product would be exported to the same markets where the Kwid is being sent now. "Globally, Renault sources battery management and its systems from Tesla. For India, it is scouting for a local partner," he said. Renault's next big launch in India is expected to be the Renault Captur Bose Edition. The French carmaker launched the Captur in November last year. Renault sold 80,315 vehicles in the domestic market during the April-December period, first nine months of this financial year, down 22 per cent from the corresponding period a year before, even as the industry expanded by eight per cent. Renault had clocked three-digit sales growth in FY17, on the back of the Kwid. Nissan is considering launch of the Nissan Note e-Power in India. The other product would come as a Datsun vehicle. Renault officials have in the past said the two partners will be investing around Rs 42 billion in India, mostly in product development. India, currently the world's fifth largest passenger vehicle market, with annual volume over three million units, is expected to emerge as the third biggest by 2020. Lower revenue collection puts upward pressure on government borrowing, ensuring that it deviates from the glided path of debt reduction Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com It is now increasingly looking unlikely that the Centre will be able to meet its targets for key macroeconomic variables for 2017-18, as detailed in the medium-term fiscal road map last year. This, in turn, will impact the governments ability to meet the 2018-19 targets as well. First, economic growth has dipped in the current financial year. It is unlikely to pick up sharply in FY19, as the economy struggles to deal with the twin shocks of demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Second, a sluggish economy, coupled with the uncertainty under the new indirect tax regime and lower dividends from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will probably ensure that the government fails to meet its revenue target this year. Failure to do so reduces the likelihood of the government sticking to its fiscal deficit target, unless expenditure is curtailed drastically. Lower revenue collection, in turn, puts upward pressure on government borrowing, ensuring that it deviates from the glided path of debt reduction. Growth slows down Over the course of the past one year or so, economic activity in India has been severely disrupted due to demonetisation and the shift to the GST regime. The Advance Estimates released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed the economy was likely to grow at 9.5 per cent (current prices) in FY18. In comparison, the government in its medium-tem outlook last year, had projected a growth rate of 11.75 per cent (current prices). From a purely statistical standpoint, this 2.25 percentage point difference implies a deterioration in key fiscal metrics. Take, for example, the fiscal deficit. If the government retains its Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 5.5 trillion, the slower GDP growth would imply a deficit of 3.29 per cent of GDP, as opposed to 3.24 per cent earlier. To put it differently, the government would have to reduce its absolute deficit by Rs 77.7 billion to keep it at 3.24 per cent of GDP. The fiscal outlook had projected GDP to grow at 12 per cent in FY19 and FY20. But given the state of the economy and a revival in investments unlikely in the near term, economists are sceptical of growth matching projections. But if growth rises to 12 per cent in FY19, a deficit of 3 per cent works out to around Rs 5.58 trillion in FY19, marginally up from Rs 5.46 trillion in FY18. But at 10 per cent growth, even this limited extra room for greater public spending disappears. However, if the government wants to boost public spending, it could keep its deficit at 3.2 per cent. At 12 per cent nominal growth, this translates to a deficit of Rs 5.95 trillion, creating space for extra government spending of Rs 500 billion. But at 10 per cent growth, the extra spending space falls to Rs 390 billion. Revenue under pressure On the revenue side, a slowing economy, lower dividends from the RBI and uncertainty under the GST has complicated the task of the government to meet its gross tax revenue target, which was budgeted at 11.3 per cent of GDP in FY18. Corporate collections have held up so far. But personal taxes have grown by 15.3 per cent (April-November), against BE of 24.9 per cent, according to the figures released by the Controller General of Accounts. For the target to be met, personal taxes would have to grow by a staggering 38.7 per cent in the remaining four months. The bigger worry is indirect taxes. The government had expected indirect taxes to grow by 7.6 per cent in FY18 to Rs 9.27 trillion. Headline indirect tax growth was 12.2 per cent in the first eight months of FY18. But dig a bit deeper and the problems surface. The headline number also includes collections on account of integrated GST (IGST), revenues from which have to be shared with the states. Adjusting for states share, ICRA estimates indirect taxes to have contracted by 1.4 per cent till November this year, implying a huge gap in collections. A back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that indirect tax collections would need to grow by 32 per cent in Q4FY18 to meet the Budget target. Sluggish growth is also likely to put the FY19 target of gross tax revenue of 11.6 per cent of GDP under pressure. Then theres also the shortfall on the non-tax revenue side, budgeted at 1.7 per cent of GDP. Rathin Roy, director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), has estimated the current non-tax revenue to be 0.53 per cent of GDP. Part of the shortfall can be made up by higher proceeds from divestment. Others have also suggested that greater dividends from the RBI and public sector undertakings would plug the gap. But, as ICRA points out, Non-tax revenues would need to expand by a considerable 84.6 per cent in the remainder of the fiscal year to meet the budgeted targets, which may be difficult to achieve without a significant pick-up in dividends from various PSUs. There remains a risk of a moderate shortfall relative to the dividends and profits that the ICRA had budgeted for FY2018. Fiscal deficit worries If revenues fall short of the target, the government will have two options - cut expenditure or deviate from the path of fiscal consolidation. Pursuing the former will imply cuts on capital expenditure, as much of revenue expenditure is sticky in nature. Capex would have to contract by 15.4 per cent in the last four months of this fiscal year, which would have negative implications for the investment cycle. But if the government holds its expenditure, and revenues remain depressed, the deficit could shoot up. Economists expect the government to breach the deficit ceiling. It now appears that the fiscal slippage is higher than our expectations, slipping by 50 bps (basis points) from the budgeted levels at about 3.7 per cent of GDP, to be essentially funded by dated securities and T-bill issuances, say economists at Kotak Institutional Equities. Worsening debt dynamics To plug this shortfall in revenues, the government has announced additional borrowing of Rs 500 billion. As a consequence, net market borrowings will rise from a budgeted Rs 4.23 trillion to Rs 4.73 trillion this year - the highest level since 2013-14. One must also point out that this additional borrowing does not factor in the Rs 800 billion meant for bank recapitalisation. While this is likely to be a below-the-line item and will not show up in the fiscal deficit, the amount will be added to debt of the government raising its debt-to-GDP ratio. In comparison, in the medium-term fiscal framework, the government had projected the debt-to-GDP ratio to decline from 46.7 per cent in FY17 (RE) to 44.7 per cent in FY18 (BE) and further to 42.8 per cent in FY19. Read all about Jaitley's final full Budget right here! US-based Blackstone leads the pack, buying up AlphaOne Mall in Ahmedabad, Elante Mall in Chandigarh and Treasure Island Mall in Indore. Private equity (PE) firms such as Blackstone, Xander-APG and others are placing bets on malls in tier-II cities due to increased demand from retailers for good quality spaces in such cities, which are scarce. US-based Blackstone has bought malls such as AlphaOne Mall in Ahmedabad, Elante Mall in Chandigarh and Treasure Island Mall in Indore. It also owns a 50 per cent stake in a Pune mall. Half of its eight malls bought are in tier-II cities. According to sources, it is exploring new opportunities in tier-II cities in the northern and sourthern part of the country. In May this year, Virtuous Retail South Asia (VRSA), a joint venture (JV) between Xander and Dutch pension fund APG, bought a two million sq ft mall in Chandigarh called the North Country Mall from Sun Apollo-Gumberg for Rs 7 billion. VRSA has malls in Surat and Chandigarh and is looking to buy new malls in both tier-I and tier-II cities, said sources. Phoenix Mills, which signed a JV with Canadian pension fund manager CPPIB, bought an under-construction mall in Indores MR 10 area for Rs 2.35 billion in April last year. Atul Ruia, joint managing director, Phoenix Mills, earlier said they were evaluating the possibility to bring the acquired mall under the newly-formed joint platform with CPPIB. CPPIB did a Rs 16-billion deal with Phoenix and the joint platform is looking to buy and build new malls. We want to maintain our leadership position and are looking to build or acquire malls in metros and tier-II cities, Ruia said in an interview with Business Standard last year. Investors are obviously betting on booming potential in these cities and the lack of good quality shopping centres. From Virtuous Retails perspective, we have always believed in the potential of these cities. "Which is why our very first centre in India was in the great city of Surat. A rich city with a proud heritage and history, 75 per cent of the population is below 30, GDP growing rapidly with increasing aspiration levels and limited organised retail, said Sid Yog, founder at Xander Group. Yog said VRSA is keen to look at other cities including Lucknow, Jaipur, and Cochin, among others. However, you must realise the efforts (and construction cost) required to build and operate a centre in any of these cities is the same and the financial returns in the short terms may be lower due to lower rents etc. "But, I do believe that leading state capitals and other tier-II cities all have potential. "The state governments must realise the value that these investments bring to their cities and be helpful rather than obstructive as long as the investor is playing strictly by the rules, Yog said. Blackstone is also equally upbeat about tier-II cities. We are present in Pune, Chandigarh and Indore currently. "These markets are doing well for us. We see potential to enhance the experience for shoppers and retailers in these markets and our efforts are being received very well. "Shoppers in these cities are savvy about the national and global brands and their propensity to spend it rising, said Nirzar Jain, senior vice-president at Nexus Malls, a subsidiary of Blackstone. He declined to comment on new cities they are looking at. Photograph: Punit Paranjpe/Reuters. 'Somewhere it gives you amazing work ethic.' 'Nobody's job is less, one should respect all.' Photograph: Kind courtesy Kajol/Instagram Kajol recently shot a special sequence for Aanand L Rai's Zero with Shah Rukh Khan. While Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma play lead roles alongside SRK, Kajol and Rani Mukerji shot for a special sequence. Rani called the experience 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai part two.' Kajol, who last worked with SRK in 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," says Kajol. "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," the actress adds. IMAGE: Kajol, with husband Ajay Devgn, daughter Nysa and son Yug. Photograph: Pradeep Bandekar Kajol may have spent 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," she says. "You have to take it seriously every day, it's the most important thing." Much of the discipline, Kajol says, comes from her actress mother Tanuja 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 ethic," Kajol says. "Nobody's job is less, one should respect all. I've made my kids broom the house so that they learn not to litter." Kajol 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 for the same. Asked if it is sad that even in the 21st century one has to preach the importance of basic hygiene, Kajol feels 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," Kajol says. "That's what I think as well. Finally India is ready to listen." Till recently there was no monument to the Maratha victory or the great Maratha General Mahadji Shinde. It was a defeat, such as never suffered by the British in India, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd). IMAGE: The Marathas under General Mahadji Shinde defeated the British in the Battle of Wadgaon. Photograph: Kind courtesy Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) The English in their conquest of India faced resistance from the Marathas, Tipu Sultan, the Sikhs, the Jats and the Gorkhas in the 19th century. These were rare successes of Asians over the European colonial power. The battles of Chillianwala (Sikhs), first Kalinga war (Gorkhas), battle of Chingalpetu (Tipu) and Bharatpur (Jats) were rare instances when the Indians had the better of the English. The Battle of Wadgaon fought on January 13/14, 1779 by the Marathas was the most comprehensive Indian victory. It was a classic battle where Maratha General Mahadji Shinde lured the English up the Khandala ghats. Once in a country suitable for cavalry operations, the Marathas horsemen harassed the English from all sides, attacked their supply base in Khopoli and followed a scorched earth policy. Captain Belasis writing about the events at Talegaon in his diary mentions that the constantly hovering Maratha horsemen with their shining swords glinting even at night gave him nightmares. On January 13/14, the demoralised English began the retreat at night from Talegaon. But alert Marathas launched a fierce attack and the English ran to the safety of Wadgaon village. Here, surrounded from all sides and starved of water and food, the English finally surrendered to Mahadji Shinde, the Maratha general. It was a defeat never suffered by the British in India. Unfortunately, the Marathas, in a spirit of chivalry, let the English off the hook and permitted them to retreat to Bombay -- to fight another day. The episode is reminiscent of Prithviraj Chauhan letting off the defeated Mohammed Ghori. The Battle of Wadgaon was an 'Indian' victory. The Maratha army that defeated the English had Narhona, a Goan, in the artillery; Muslims, Rajputs and Sikh soldiers in the Shinde cavalry. The light troops were Mahars. Towards the early 20th century, as there appeared the first stirrings of resistance in Maharashtra, the colonial rulers saw the symbolic value of Wadgaon as a rallying point for Maratha pride and Indian nationalism. Lieutenant Stewart, who commanded the advance guard of the English, was killed by the Marathas in the first week of January while on a reconnaissance mission near Karla. The British made him a 'hero' of the Battle of Wadgaon though the actual battle took place nearly a fortnight after his death. History books in Maharashtra talked of the brave 'Ishtur Fakda' (Brave Stewart) and his (non-existent) heroics. A grave in Wadgaon was identified as that of Stewart and an annual fair was begun in his honour. There is enough evidence about the 'mythical' nature of the legend of Stewart or 'Ishtur Fakda'. Even a blatantly pro-English account of the Indian Army like one by Philip Mason (A Matter of Honour: An account of the Indian Army, its officers and men, Penguin, 1976, page 127) does not find any mention of Stewart in the context of the Battle of Wadgaon. Nor does A J Fortescue mention him in his authoritative work A History of the British Army Vol III, Macmillan & Co, London 1902. On the other hand, James Douglas writing in Bombay & Western India Vol II (Marston & Co, London, 1893, page 445) says that if the Marathas would have been as ruthless as Napoleon, 'Not one man would have escaped from Wadgaon and the history of the East would have changed.' Again no mention of the 'braveheart' Stewart. The memory of the shameful English defeat was cleverly obliterated and replaced by the myth of a brave Englishman who single handedly fought against hordes of natives. It needs no repetition to say that 'colonial historiography' was a major propaganda weapon in the hands of the British to brainwash Indians and make them accept the superiority of the English race. IMAGE: A traditional victory column in honour of the victorious Marathas in Pune. Photograph: Kind courtesy Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) The older generation and even I who studied in independent India have been brought up on lies like the Battle of Plassey where the English under Robert Clive won through treachery or the myth of the 'Black Hole of Calcutta'. This happened because after Independence the discipline of history was completely taken over by the Marxists who only concentrated on economic interpretation, to the neglect of everything else. Of late, there has been even greater emphasis on subaltern history at the cost of larger forces in operation that shaped events. Truth was the casualty and the poison of slavery continues to run in our blood. Till recently there was no monument to the Maratha victory or the great Maratha General Mahadji Shinde. About seventeen years ago, a group of historians and public spirited citizens from Pune came together and erected a 'Deepmala' (the typical Maharashtrian tower found in many temples) to honour the victorious Marathas. Such has been the power of colonial brainwashing that the Dalits, even in the 21st century, would rather remember Bhima Koregaon, but not Wadgaon or a Dalit hero like Umaji Naik who rebelled against the English in the 1830s. Colonel Anil A Athale (retd), the well-known military historian, is the author of Mighty Marathas: The Last Indian Empire. 'With 2017, will one shed violence, terror, rape, rage, pollution, environmental degradation and loss of humanity?' 'That may be too much to hope for, but for a while -- away from the carousing and partying -- spare a thought for hope and concord.' 'The world is still a beautiful place, if a little flawed,' says Kishore Singh. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com The times may be bad, but can years, by themselves, be bad too? If so, then my own annus horribilis is thankfully nearing an end. Rarely have I rejoiced in the passing of a year as much as I have 2017, one of the most personally ruinous to have stamped its presence. "Next year will be fine," said my mother, who is a great believer in almanacs and astrological charts, "just let this one pass." But for someone of adamantly agnostic beliefs, there is little relief to be gained from this mumbo-jumbo, though one can only hope that a new year brings some cheer. For what will change with the passing off one calendar year to the next? Will one's spell of luck magically alter? I am not naturally despairing and tend to view the glass as half-full, never half-empty. If eye surgeries dogged me throughout the year, the silver lining is that I have my eyesight -- though, for a while, I must admit it was touch and go. I lost my father -- unexpectedly, out of the blue -- but he went as he had lived, like a soldier, without illness, hospitalisation or warning. My daughter's heartbreak? She saved herself from misogynic trouble in the future. Illegal occupation of a family property? It's brought us siblings together in a way none of us could have anticipated -- and there is legal recourse. Was it, like the curate's egg, bad only in parts? Apparently so, because some good did come of it. Unable to take our annual vacation overseas, we opted for one in the hills instead where, with no pressure to check out the sights, we could sit, relax, read, play board games (yes, really) and bond. It felt good. The dog has ruined fewer parties with his greedy snatchings or carpets with his retching up of bones. Our son seems to have found a companion that, given his newfound inability to whisper sweet nothings and other nonsense into the phone over hours, appears to have the tenacity to become permanent. I no longer pay an EMI on my car. Our friends have grown older and more precious. Their children have had babies, I have a grand-nephew now, my wife has added grand-nieces to her kitty. There are family members we have lost touch with -- some by choice, others by mischance -- and others we have reconnected with. Our friends' children are our new friends -- why is it we know more about them and their lives than those of our own children? Last year, we attended a record number of wedding parties, but unfortunately, a greater number of funerals too. The world is perennially poorer of familiar faces. What will the new year bring? Time has lost its ability to surprise, but there are still many things to do. Places to see and countries to visit, books to read and authors to meet, foods to sample and cuisines to eat, languages to learn and tongues to understand, babies to hold and children to protect, violence to stem and peace to reign. With 2017, will one shed violence, terror, rape, rage, pollution, environmental degradation and loss of humanity? That may be too much to hope for, but for a while -- away from the carousing and partying -- spare a thought for hope and concord. The world is still a beautiful place, if a little flawed. Sorrow just makes us realise how much more we must care for it and for ourselves. May 2018's annus mirabilis be a less eventful one. Arguments about politics and religion don't end in name calling and abuse when they happen face to face. In person we are more balanced because we are aware we are being observed, says Aakar Patel. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com Like our former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former US president Barack Obama is an intellectual the world respects. It doesn't matter that a few people think that the two are failed leaders, either because they lacked charisma and personal power, like Singh, or because they came from a racial minority, like Obama. They are brilliant individuals and though they speak not as often as other leaders, it is inevitably rewarding to listen to them when they speak. A few days ago Obama gave a wonderful interview to Britain's Prince Harry. In this he spoke about social media and some aspects of its affect on the modern world. Obama accepted that social media was a really powerful tool for people of common interests to convene and get to know each other and connect. Having said this, he added: 'But then it's important for them to get offline, meet in a pub, meet at a place of worship, meet in a neighbourhood and get to know each other.' And the reason he said this was 'because the truth is that on the Internet, everything is simplified and when you meet people face-to-face it turns out they're complicated. One of the dangers of the Internet is that people can have entirely different realities. They can be cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases.' I think Obama has captured something essential about the way we use the Internet. I am personally not on social media because I find it too distracting. However when I sometimes go through the comments sections of online articles I get depressed. The amount of anger and viciousness and intemperate language is enough to put off anyone. However the truth is that this level of nastiness is not observable in our everyday lives. Arguments about politics and religion do not end in name calling and abuse when they happen face to face. It is the anonymity of the Internet that somehow gives us the confidence to say strong things. In person we are more balanced because we are aware we are being observed. And, of course, the other great point that Obama makes is that on the Internet we are not exposed to the other person's point of view unless we specifically choose to seek her or him out. In real life, when we engage with someone we must also listen to them and this makes our certitude and our prejudices less assertive. There are some takeaways from this insight that Obama has given us. First, that it is important particularly for people like activists and politicians, who seek change through their work, to meet and engage with people outside the Internet. A few weeks ago Jignesh Mevani came to the place I work and spoke about his perspective and his ambitions. Asked about electoral politics, he said that it was not a short term goal but winning was something he saw happening a decade or 15 years down the line. I am not sure even he knew that only a few days later he would easily win as an independent in the most divided state of India. How did his happen, particularly in a two party state where he did not have the advantage of an election symbol and had to rely on his own credibility? I suspect it happened in large part because Mevani, who is a smart and persuasive speaker, engaged with thousands and thousands of people in person. Similarly for a human rights activist like me, it is vital that there be maximum physical engagement in the flesh with people. I am saying this specifically because in the world of activism the focus is on social media because it is the most efficient way of reaching large numbers of people. But it is also, as Obama has observed, polarised in an artificial way. If one is working on the rights of marginalised groups like Muslims or Dalits or Adivasis or Kashmiris or the people of the North East, the knee jerk response is to uphold the rights of the army and of the State over the rights of citizens. This false binary is perpetuated more easily on the Internet. It is not as easy to dismiss the concerns of another human being in person. And finally, Obama's insight tells us that we should not allow ourselves, as I do so often, to lose hope about the way things are. We will close by noticing that Obama did not mean to say that social media was all bad. 'The question has to do with how do we harness this technology in a way that allows a multiplicity of voices, allows a diversity of views, but doesn't lead to a Balkanisation of society and allows ways of finding common ground,' he said. Terrific words which we should remember in 2018, a crucial year for India. Aakar Patel is Executive Director, Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are his own. 'Four years ago, when Gadkari was BJP president, Fadnavis was president of the state BJP, I had gone on a fast unto death demanding separate statehood for Vidarbha.' 'They had come to meet me and promised that once the party comes to power at the Centre and in the state, we will get separate statehood.' 'Four years have passed, but no change is seen on the ground.' IMAGE: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Both leaders are residents of Nagpur in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region. Photograph: PTI Photo To highlight the agrarian crisis and rural distress faced by the people of Vidarbha, Ashish Deshmukh, the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Nagpur's Katol constituency, launched the Atma Bal Yatra (self-confidence procession) that will take him across the region's 62 constituencies and will culminate in Nagpur on February 13. Deshmukh's sudden rebellion adds fuel to the fire that was started by senior ministers in the Devendra Fadnavis government -- be it Girish Bapat who said the state government will change in a year; or Banarao Lonikar, who spoke about not getting enough funds for developmental projects; or Chandrakantdada Patil, who quipped that sincere workers need to found through a microscope. Nana Patole, the MP from Bhandara-Gondia resigned from the BJP and Parliament and returned to the Congress after criticising the Fadnavis government's agricultural policies. Ashish Deshmukh-- whose father Ranjit Deshmukh is a former president of the Maharashtra Congress party -- has been with the BJP since 2009. Deshmukh, below, tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore why he is upset with the BJP. What is the purpose of the Atma Bal Yatra? There is unrest in the rural areas fuelled by the agrarian crisis. Highlighting the plight of the Vidarbha farmers is at the core of my yatra. The farmers suicide rate in Maharashtra for the last two decades has actually increased. Even the educated youth in the region are facing a huge problem of unemployment. This has led to the youth as well as farmers getting into depression. In order to boost their morale and confidence, I have started the Vidarbha Atma Bal Yatra. Somehow, the (state) government machinery is insensitive to these problems. Isn't this criticism directed at your own party? You have been a BJP MLA since 2014, yet you are unable to convey the difficulties of the farmers and youth of this region to the state government? The chief minister is trying from the bottom of his heart to change the situation. But for the last three-and-a-half years, he is heading a state which is now burdened with Rs 4.5 lakh crore debt. Also add to it Rs 3 lakh crore more for the debt incurred for the Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur Metro projects, the Samruddhi Marg (the chief minister's project to connect Vidarbha with the rest of the state), or the coastal road or the trans-harbour link. He is facing a huge debt burden of Rs 7.5 lakh crore. Amid this mounting debt, the backward region of Vidarbha stands no chance of getting money for developmental work. What is the way out? Take the case of Telangana, for example. It was created only three to four years ago and started giving 24-hour free electricity to its farmers from January 1 this year. In Maharashtra, (despite) Vidarbha being the only producer of electricity, the tragedy is that the region's farmers get it only for seven to eight hours. Similarly, Telangana's budget for irrigation is Rs 26,000 crore, while that of the whole of Maharashtra was just Rs 7,000 crore. Unless the farmers of Vidarbha get 24-hour electricity and adequate water supply, they will keep getting indebted, which will result in more suicides. For the last three-and-a-half years, we have not seen a single industry coming here even after the best possible political climate in this regard. The adjoining state of Chhattisgarh, which was created 13 years ago, has seen a sea change because of industrialisation. Like Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha too has ample amount of minerals. But that state provides cheap electricity to its industries. That's the reason all industries are flocking there and not to adjoining Vidarbha. Many industries from Vidarbha have gone there. Did you bring the region's grievances to the CM's notice before deciding on your yatra? In December last year, I had written a letter to him outlining the grievances of the people of Vidarbha. But I haven't got any answer from him. On the contrary, the party (the BJP) has served a disciplinary notice on me. What are you planning to achieve through this yatra? Are you also pushing indirectly for Vidarbha's statehood? Certainly. Not just me, even the Maharashtra chief minister (Fadnavis), when he was the state (BJP) president and an MLA, had employed parliamentary measures and for as many as seven times he had brought a private members' bill for the creation of a separate state of Vidarbha. The BJP has its government at the Centre and in Maharashtra. Why is the CM not pushing for a separate Vidarbha? That is what my earnest request to him is. He is on very good terms with (Prime Minister Narendra D) Modiji and (BJP President) Amit A Shah. The party at its national executive meeting in Bhubaneshwar had resolved to give separate statehood to Vidarbha. Four years ago, when Nitin Gadkari was the party president, Fadnavis was president of the state party unit, and Vinod Tawde was the Opposition leader. I had gone on a fast unto death demanding separate statehood for Vidarbha. All the three had come to meet me on stage and promised that once the party comes to power at the Centre and in the state, we will get separate statehood. Four years have passed, but no change is seen on the ground in this matter. The people of the region are showing signs of uneasiness. Farmers of the region had voted en masse for the BJP in both the Lok Sabha and assembly elections with the hope that Modiji would implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee that sought a (minimum support price of) 50 per cent more than the cost of production for the farmers. The NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government headed by (then prime minister) Atal Bihari Vajpayee created new states of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand because of the party's philosophy that smaller states progress faster. I believe the same holds true for Vidarbha and it is high time -- as I was assured time and again by different high profile leaders of the party, including the chief minister -- appropriate steps were taken in the direction that will help creation of a Vidarbha state. We have a full-majority government at the Centre, so where is the hurdle? I hope that our honourable Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in the forthcoming Union Budget on February 1, will present a farmer-friendly budget where the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee are implemented. Now that the BJP has served you a notice for indiscipline, are you planning to quit the party? Actually, I am trying to fulfil the promises of the party to the electors and people of the region. Are you facing any pressure from the people in your constituency about the government not being able to fulfill its promises? Let me tell you that instead of additional jobs being created, the existing jobs are vanishing from the region. More than 20,000 youth have lost their jobs in the four districts adjoining my constituency. Nothing much has come out of 'Make In India' initiative and now that the Magnetic Maharashtra is happening in February, some investments will come for Mumbai, Pune, and the Konkan region. But nothing will come to Vidarbha and Marathwada. Vedanta had signed an MoU with the state government to set up an electronics factory in Nagpur. But I fail to understand where it has disappeared. While putting up investment statistics, Vidarbha is combined with Marathwada, but nobody sees that if Marathwada gets Rs 1.40 lakh crore, Vidarbha gets just Rs 10,000 crore. So this discrepancy is not visible. Evidently they are playing a gimmick to give the combined figures for investments into Vidarbha and Marathwada. Through this yatra, aren't you attacking Chief Minister Fadnavis' leadership in a veiled manner? I have been consistently maintaining that he is working day and night sincerely to see that the situation (in Vidarbha) changes. But you must understand that the separation of Vidarbha from Maharashtra is a 65-year-old demand. The States Reorganisation Commission had recommended a separate state of Vidarbha and Telangana. While a lot of new states were created in the last 65 years, the problem of Vidarbha's statehood still remains. We feel that separate statehood is the only answer for the backwardness of the region. If development has to reach every household, every farmer and every youngster, then -- like Telangana and Chhattisgarh -- we feel the recommendations of the Fazal Ali Commission should be implemented. Based on our promises, the BJP won 44 out of 62 (assembly) seats in the region. Not just that, even after delimitation of constituencies we lost just one Lok Sabha seat and four Vidhan Sabha seats, that too because there is huge migration from Vidarbha towards other developed parts of the state and country in search of employment. This also proves that the region faces a huge problem of unemployment. 'Dalits are not going to vote for the BJP in 2019.' IMAGE: Dalit leader and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani addresses the Hunkar rally in New Delhi, December 9, 2017. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo On January 9, 2018, the Yuva Hunkar rally -- which featured controversial Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani as one of the speakers -- had a turnout of around 3,000 people. Mevani tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf why Dalits are angry and disillusioned with the Narendra D Modi government. What was the Hunkar rally about? I did not call for this rally. I was only one speaker at the rally. The idea behind the rally was to raise the issue of social justice which is denied to people belonging to the lower castes. Ever since Prime Minister Narendra D Modi came to power in 2014, the exploitation of Dalits and Muslims has increased. Be it in the name of gau mata or ghar wapsi or love jihad. Be it Saharanpur or Una or Bhima Koregaon, these incidents keep happening. The prime minister says he is a follower of Dr Ambedkar, but he keeps silent in such cases and doesn't take concrete action. Before coming to power, the PM promised he would create two crore jobs every year. Forget two crore jobs, he hasn't even created one per cent of that two crore jobs This is a sorry state of affairs and therefore, we demand that social justice, which is a Constitutional obligation, be ensured. Another demand was to raise the issue of unemployment. Before coming to power, the PM promised he would create two crore jobs every year in the country. Forget two crore jobs, he hasn't even created one per cent of that two crore jobs. In 6,000 hospitals across India there is a vacancy of two lakh (200,000) doctors. Nobody is doing anything about trying to fill up the posts. Primary and upper primary schools have a vacancy of 10 lakh (1 million) teachers, but on that front too no action is being taken. There are four lakh (400,000) vacancies in the railways; in spite of all that no jobs are being created. If you have such facts then you should have taken a memorandum to Prime Minister Modi rather than speaking about it at the rally. A memorandum was submitted to the concerned authorities on these issues seven days ago. People in this country have been submitting memoranda decade after decade. At the same time, I want an explanation from him regarding the violence we all witnessed in Bhima Koregaon. What does he have to say about the denial of justice to the victims of Una? What does he have to say to Radhika Vemula? Why is Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar Azad still in jail? PM Modi claims he is an Ambedkar bhakt, so why is he not doing anything about these issues? You said you will meet PM Modi and ask him to choose between the Constitution of India and Manusmriti. What happened to that meeting? We are seeking his explanation through the media. The police did not allow us to go there (Modi's 7, Lok Kalyan Marg office/home). We, the people of the country, want to know whether PM Modi believes in the Indian Constitution or Manusmriti. Why are people being killed in the name of gau mata, ghar wapsi and love jihad? How can Modi be conveniently silent on these issues? PM Modi says he is from the lower castes and highlights this point regularly. That is what I am saying. If he is saying that he is a bhakt of Dr Ambedkar, then he must prove it. Secondly, why is an elected representative of this country not allowed to carry out a peaceful rally? These are valid questions I am raising. IMAGE: Protestors at the Hunkar rally in New Delhi. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters But the Hunkar rally was a flop; you were greeted with empty chairs. I am more than happy and satisfied with the turnout. All the 3,000 people who turned up at the rally came to face the lathi charge and get arrested. Despite the fact that the joint commissioner of Delhi police tweeting that permission was not granted for the rally, 3,000 people turned up. This is a big thing. Therefore, I am personally satisfied and happy. Last week, I asked Umar Khalid about your comments that Dalits support you and are with you. If that's true, why do the Dalits vote for the BJP? That's not true. In Gujarat, the BJP got lesser seats in the Dalit constituencies. I won from Vadgam and I started campaigning just 15 days before the election. Two BJP Dalit ministers lost. The Dalits of Gujarat are not with the BJP. The same is the case in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and other states. Dalits, in general, are not with the BJP. In UP their votes got divided between the Congress and the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party). The way the BJP and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) played communal politics in UP to woo Dalit youths that will not always be possible for them to convince Dalits. That is the reason the BJP is scared of me. News channels say I am provoking Dalits. They doctored my video and are showing wrong videos. I have said call any Constitutional expert and find out whether I said anything wrong or not. There is an accusation that you are an agent of the Congress party and are trying to create unrest in India. Some news channels say that and I don't care about it. People from the CPI (Communist Party of India) and CPI-ML (Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist) campaigned for me. Yogendra Yadav of the Swaraj Party campaigned for me. The National Bahujan Alliance -- which has 28 Bahujan political parties and groups -- campaigned for me. AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) and BSP cadres came to campaign for me. All these people came together for me and therefore, the BJP is scared of me. The speed with which I am going ahead they are not able to deal with it. Therefore, they are indulging in propaganda against me through different news channels. Why would the BJP be scared of you? The BJP's Dalit leaders have not been able to do anything for the Dalit people. Dalits know what is happening in Una, Saharanpur and Bhima Koregaon. Dalits are not getting justice and they are genuinely angry with the BJP. When Dalits join politics, they make claims about changing their community's status. Later, they merge with national parties and lose their idealism. Will you end up that way? If you become an MP or MLA, it doesn't mean the caste system has been annihilated. We will have to continue an agitation among the people within the Constitutional framework. I will be raising Dalit issues in the (Gujarat) assembly, at the same time I will be raising those issues on the ground too. If I don't do that, then I too will be co-opted in the system. IMAGE: Jignesh Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar at the Hunkar rally. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo There is an allegation that you are trying to break up India by caste politics. My agenda is annihilation of caste. My motto is 'jaati todo samaj jodo' (break caste, unite society). The Poona Pact between Dr Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi was widely criticised by the late BSP founder Kanshi Ram in his book Chamcha Age. Can't we find a solution between the so-called upper castes and Dalits in India? We, as a nation, must debate on how to annihilate the caste system. Article 17 of the Constitution says that untouchability has to be abolished. An NGO called Nav Sarjan in Gujarat challenged Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to make only one village free of untouchability. Rupani did not accept the challenge. We will be talking about notebandi, GST and unemployment. If we keep raising the right issues then there is a great chance that Modi will not become prime minister in 2019. Is untouchability being practised even today in Gujarat? Across 1,589 villages in Gujarat, 97 types of untouchability is found to be practised. These villages were randomly picked up by NGOs and study groups. The moot question is that Rupani was asked to make only one village untouchability free and he did not accept the challenge. Untouchability is practised in the state which claims it is vibrant and number one in India. The prime minister talks of sabka saath, sabka vikas. What rubbish! At the Hunkar rally, you, Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Shehla Rashid claimed you will ensure that PM Modi will not win the 2019 election. What will you do in the next 15 months that will ensure PM Modi's defeat? The way Dalits are terribly offended, with every passing day the BJP and Sangh Parivar are getting exposed. Dalits are not going to vote for the BJP in 2019. Secondly, there is an enormous economic crisis going on in India because of GST and notebandi (demonetisation). People in general are upset. Youth feel terribly cheated by the Modi government. PM Modi said he will create employment for two crore people every year and by that logic he should have created eight crore (80 million) jobs in India. The reality today is after four years, Modi has not been able to create even eight lakh (800,000) jobs in India. The BJP will talk about ghar wapsi, love jihad and gau mata. We will be talking about notebandi, GST and unemployment. If we keep raising the right issues, then there is a great chance that Modi will not become prime minister in 2019. Modi does not deserve to be the PM in 2019. Modi is a symbol of failure. He neither got Rs 15 lakh (Rs 1.5 million) into our bank accounts nor have farmers stopped committing suicide. He is a failure and unable to deliver. He is a disaster. Meanwhile, all wings of the Chinese military have stepped up drills at home and abroad focusing their training on the plateau region post Dokalam. India will not allow its territory to be invaded by anyone, Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Friday, January 12, asserting that China may be a powerful country but India is not a weak nation either. The time had come for India to shift focus to its northern border, he said, and added that the country was capable of handling China's assertiveness along it. Amid aggressive Chinese efforts to increase its influence in the region, General Rawat said India cannot allow its neighbours to drift away to China. "China is a powerful country but we are not a weak nation," Rawat told reporters in New Delhi. To a question about Chinese incursions into India, he said, "We will not allow our territory to be invaded by anyone." Referring to the US' warning to Pakistan over its handling of terrorism, General Rawat said India will have to wait and see its impact. Terrorists are a disposable commodity in Pakistan and the Indian Army's approach has been to ensure that it feels the pain, he said. Meanwhile, all wings of the Chinese military have stepped up drills at home and abroad focusing their training on the plateau region post Dokalam, Chinese media reported on Friday, reports K J M Varma, Press Trust of India's Beijing correspondent. The People's Liberation Army has been executing military training instructions issued by President Xi Jinping on January 3 by conducting drills at home and abroad involving its ground forces, navy, air force, rocket (missile) force and armed police, it said. The PLA's official media cautioned troops of imminent threats and to avoid complacency. The drills included by the Chinese navy at its Djibouti base in the Indian Ocean, which was officially stated to be a logistics base. The PLA Daily, the newspaper of the 2.3 million strong military, said China's most advanced military aircraft including the J-20 stealth fighter jet, the Y-20 transport aircraft, the H-6k bomber, and the J-16, J-11B J-10C fighter jets have all conducted training exercises since the beginning of 2018. The J-20 is conducting air combat training with other fighter planes including the J-16. The J-20 is also practising beyond-visual-range air combat, and other aircraft, including the Y-20 and the J-10C, are training at unspecified airports on a 'plateau region' in order to improve their capability in long-range military transport and air combat, the PLA Daily reported. The 'plateau region' refers to the Tibetan plateau which covered the Line of Actual Control between India and China. 'India's ground force has some advantages in quantity in the border areas, so if conflict happens, China's air force needs to seize domination of the skies and immediately create an overwhelming advantage for China,' a retired PLA officer who used to serve in the air force and asked not to be identified, was quoted as saying by the Global Times newspaper. 'So increasing military training in the plateau region is highly necessary,' he said. The drills assumed significance as potential military conflicts in plateau regions have been on the rise since the border friction with India last year, the official said. China and India were engaged in a 73-day tense standoff at Dokalam in the Sikkim sector which ended on August 28. The report highlighted a potential military conflict between India and China in the backdrop of hectic parleys between the two countries to improve relations. This included Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi holding talks with top Indian officials on the sidelines of the Russia, India and China meeting at New Delhi last month followed by the 20th round of border talks between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval during which both sides agreed to make efforts to restore peace and stability along the LAC. Modern Navy, a WeChat public account run by the PLA navy, reported on Wednesday, January 10, that the PLA marine corps stationed at China's first overseas logistic base in Djibouti conducted a series of combat training missions including 'countering reconnaissance from hostile aircraft, encountering combat in a desert, and tracking and annihilating terrorists'. Experts said the possibility of military conflict around China has increased in recent years, the PLA Daily said. 'In regions like the Korean peninsula, the China-India border area and the Taiwan Straits, the PLA needs to be prepared for all possibilities. Our overseas interests in regions like Africa and the Middle East are also under threat due to local instability,' Xu Guangyu, a retired major general and senior adviser, China Arms Control and Disarmament Association told the PLA Daily. IMAGE: An Indian soldier tries out his martial arts on a Chinese trooper during the India-China military exercises in Kunming, south-west China, October 2015. Photograph: Kind courtesy The Indian Army Raghunandan Yandamuri, a 32-year-old techie and the first death-row Indian-American prisoner's execution may not take place as scheduled on February 23 because of a 2015 moratorium on death penalty by the Pennsylvania Governor, officials said on Friday. Yandamuri was sentenced to death in November 2014 for kidnapping and killing a 61-year-old Indian woman Satyavathi Venna and her 10-month grand-daughter Saanvi in October 2012 in a botched kidnapping-for-ransom plot. "Our Governor (Tom Wolf) has said that should an inmate not be issued a stay of execution by a court, he will issue a reprieve. "I want you to know this because the likelihood of the execution taking place is slim," Sue McNaughton, Communications Director, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said. Last week, the department of correction signed an execution order that Yandamuri be executed through lethal injection on February 23. "Yes, he knows about it. In fact, the official document was read to him at his cell door on the same date the notice was signed," McNaughton said in response to a question. A native of Andhra Pradesh, Yandamuri arrived in the United States 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. Yandamuri is currently lodged in Greene State Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Prosecutors had alleged that Yandamuri, a native of India and a neighbour to the Venna family, was desperate for money to repay a litany of gambling debts and targeted his victims with the kidnapping scheme because he believed they had money. Meanwhile, McNaughton refused to discuss Yandamuri's health due to confidentiality reasons and a law that prohibits sharing such information. Now that an execution order is signed, Yandamuri can only meet his immediate family members, lawyer and his spiritual advisor. According to state officials, Yandamuri's execution could very well be delayed for long as no one knows when the moratorium on it would be lifted. 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. But if Yandamuri is executed, it could be the first of an Indian native in the US. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be reciprocating the reception he received from the Israeli PM during his visit last July, report Archis Mohan & PTI. IMAGE: Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India will be the second by an Israeli prime minister, and comes 15 years after Ariel Sharon visited New Delhi in 2003. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters 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 (Rs 435 crore) to boost cooperation with India in areas like tourism, technology, agriculture and innovation over a period of four years. Netanyahu will be visiting New Delhi, Agra, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. In Jerusalem, Netanyahu sought to move beyond Indias vote in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the United States for its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. 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, Netanyahu, addressing the Government Press Offices annual end-of-year reception for the foreign press corps, said in Jerusalem on Wednesday. In New Delhi, the ministry of external affairs stressed the importance of the visit was to commemorate 25 years of establishment of India-Israel diplomatic relations, and that this was a return visit to the historic visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel in July 2017. Netanyahus schedule >> Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara, will be travelling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal on January 16 >> On January 17, Netanyahu along with PM Modi will attend a roadshow and community reception in Gujarat >> In Mumbai on January 18, Netanyahu would be meeting with the Indian Jewish community. He will have a power breakfast with Indian business leaders, a business seminar, attend two memorial services for the victims of Mumbai terror attacks at the Taj Mahal hotel and Nariman House and finally a gala event with Bollywood actors, directors and producers. Modis was the first ever state visit by an Indian PM to Israel, where India-Israel relationship was upgraded to strategic level, with special focus on cooperation in agriculture and water. Netanyahu also highlighted the historic nature of Modis visit to Israel and strengthening of bilateral relations. I think everybody can see that. Prime Minister Modis visit was a very important milestone in that. My visit to India is the other one, he said. On the impact of Indias recent decision to cancel a half a billion dollars defence deal related to development of spike antitank guided missiles, Netanyahu said: I think you are going to see an expansion of economic and other ties regardless of this or that deal. He said the tremendous strengthening of ties on all fronts would in due course will see a reflection of that more often in the voting of India in international forums. It (the vote at the UNGA) 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 said. It just takes longer on the international front, he stressed. Deputy director general of Israels foreign ministry Gilad Cohen said the $68.6 million investment would be in addition to the India-Israel Industrial Research and Development and Technological Innovation Fund of $40 million (Rs 254 crore) over five years with equal contribution from both sides that has already been agreed between the two sides. Netanyahu will be leading a high-profile delegation to India, which will comprise 130 businesspersons from 102 Israeli companies drawn from areas like agriculture, water, cyber security, healthcare and security. It will be the second visit by an Israeli prime minister to India, and comes 15 years after Ariel Sharon visited New Delhi in 2003. Several agreements 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. It was reported from Jerusalem 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. Modi will be reciprocating the reception he received from Netanyahu during his visit to Israel in July. Netanyahu had accompanied Modi almost throughout his three-day trip in July of last year, which is an honour generally reserved for presidents of Israels close ally the United States. Modi and Netanyahu will have their official delegation level talks in New Delhi on January 15. The two will also attend the second meeting of the India-Israel CEOs forum and a business event. Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara, would be travelling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal on January 16, and return to Delhi to participate in the Raisina Dialogue. Modi is slated to accompany Netanyahu to Gujarat on January 17, where the two will attend a community reception and a road show, which would be an 8-kilometre 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, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said in Ahmedabad. 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. India and Israel had agreed to set up 28 such centres of excellence in India, of which 22 centres have been completed, Indian officials said. Israel is also assisting India with post-harvest management techniques in agriculture and launching of a national campaign for conservation of water. The India-Israel bilateral trade in 2016-17 stood at $5 billion, with exports from India accounting for $3 billion. This, however, does not include the cooperation in defence sector between the two countries. In Mumbai on January 18, Netanyahu would be meeting with the Indian Jewish community. He will have a power breakfast with Indian business leaders, a business seminar, attend two memorial services for the victims of Mumbai terror attacks at the Taj Mahal hotel and Nariman House and finally a gala event with Bollywood actors, directors and producers. A sessions court in Mumbai on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Yug Tulli, the absconding co-owner of the Mojo's Bistro pub, in the Kamala Mills fire case. Seeking pre-arrest bail for his client, Tulli's lawyer contended that the devastating fire at the Kamala Mills compound on December 29, which had claimed 14 lives, had started from the adjoining 1 Above pub. Hence the owners of Mojo's Bistro could not be blamed for the tragedy, he argued. However, the prosecution said that a report of the Mumbai Fire Brigade as well as eyewitnesses said the fire had started at Mojo's Bistro. In its preliminary probe report, the Fire Brigade had said the blaze possibly started at Mojo's Bistro due to the flying charcoal embers of a hookah. The husband of Parul Lakdawala, one of the fire victims, had filed an intervention application, opposing the anticipatory bail plea of Tulli, saying that the latter was responsible for the death of his wife and others. The police have already arrested Yug Pathak, a co-owner of Mojo's Bistro. 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 -- Kripesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Mankar. The three have now been arrested and remanded to police custody. On December 29, the fire had swept through 1 Above and the adjacent Mojo's Bistro resto pub at the Kamala Mills compound in Mumbai, resulting in the death of 14 people. A magistrate's court on Friday extended the police custody of Pathak till January 17. Seeking an extension of the police remand, the prosecution argued that Pathak must have known about Tulli's whereabouts and upon his arrest, the police would bring the two face-to-face for interrogation. The dinner was Modis way to acknowledge the work put in by BJP chief Amit Shah and his team that helped the party win successive polls since 2014 and also to galvanise them for the future, reports Archis Mohan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah and his team of national functionaries and election in-charges of states for a session over dinner to plan for the battles ahead. The big one being the Lok Sabha poll of 2019, beside the smaller battles in eight states before that. The BJP plans to galvanise its leadership and workers for voter connect campaigns, starting this week. The party is also looking at presentation of the Modi governments fifth and final Union Budget of its present term on February 1, which several in the party expect to be focused on rural areas, youth and women. In his Mann ki Baat address on radio on December 31, the PM had spoken of the estimated 20 million born in the 21st century who become eligible to vote for the first time in 2019. The party plans to launch a Millennial App for enrolling first-time voters, hoping to get them on its side. Other elements of this voter connect campaign are polling booth connects, reaching out to college and university students, and encouraging blood donations on January 23, birth anniversary of Subhas Chandra Bose. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, students wing of the BJPs ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has lost several recent university elections. The party has felt the need to bolster its outreach to youth. After the Dalit protests in Maharashtra, and earlier ones in Gujarat and Rajasthan, a big focus of the campaign will be to reach out to Dalit youth in the run-up to the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar on April 14. Assembly polls are scheduled in three northeast states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland by March. Karnataka assembly polls are scheduled for April-May. Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram go to polls by December. Thursdays session, according to sources, gave the PM an opportunity for feedback and to tell them his expectations. The meeting also reviewed the assembly wins in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, and whether more effort was needed to take the governments schemes and policies to the people. During the winter session of Parliament, the PM had asked all his party MPs to download the Narendra Modi app on their phones. The app has some restricted sections, open only to MPs, where they can interact directly with the PM. Party sources said the effort was to get party MPs to take the various schemes and projects of the government to the people. Party chief Shah has asked research teams to list the 106 schemes and projects the Modi government has launched since coming to power in May 2014. Talking points on the schemes have been prepared and are being distributed among MPs. Thursdays dinner and brainstorming was the PMs way to acknowledge the work put in by Shah and his team that helped the BJP win successive assembly polls since 2014. In 2017, with the exception of Punjab, the BJP formed governments in Manipur, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, and retained Goa and Gujarat. Image: Thursday's dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also gave leaders the chance to give their feedback and voice their expectations. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters Donald Trump has scrapped plans to visit Britain next month. The US President was expected to make his first trip to the United Kingdom since entering office, but US government officials have been told he has gone cold on the idea. According to reports, concerned about the welcome he would receive in the UK, Trump is understood to be sending US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instead. Trump had been due to come to London to open the new 750 million embassy, but was said to have abandoned the idea as he feels unhappy about the scale of the visit and the arrangements made. The US 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. Trump has previously expressed concern about the likelihood of mass protests. Last year he told May he did not want to go ahead with a visit until the British public supported it. The British Prime Minister and the US 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. Trump hit back on Twitter, saying: Dont 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! Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. LITCHFIELD Attorney Christopher Sochacki, who joined Cramer & Anderson in June 2015 as an associate, has been named partner at the largest regional law firm in western Connecticut. It was an incredible surprise when I found out, said Sochacki. His civil litigation practice focuses on personal injury, product liability, construction defects and medical malpractice, along with professional malpractice, workers compensation claims, employers liability and discrimination, and real estate errors and omissions. It is a privilege and honor to practice with Chris Sochacki and to be one of his law partners, said partner John Tower. Chris is a highly-experienced courtroom veteran, and is also a volunteer paramedic and EMT, and active community member. He brings a unique perspective to complex personal injury cases, using his medical expertise, personal empathy, and legal experience to represent our clients in a thorough and effective manner. Many judges and juries trust his judgment, just as I do. Attorney Sochacki has been outstanding as an Associate for Cramer & Anderson, added Senior Partner Ken Taylor. He brings in significant Litigation and Personal Injury cases, among other valuable work, and summons his experience as an insurance defense litigator to produce notable outcomes that often exceed what other Partners thought was possible. As a young attorney and one of the anchors in the firms Litchfield office, Sochacki was named partner to both reward his performance and inspire him to greater heights. Attorney Sochackis elevation to partner took effect Jan. 1. The decision to join Cramer & Anderson after 17 years as an insurance defense litigator with a national firm was about helping people for Sochacki, who felt he needed to make more of a difference for individuals. Sochacki has been making that difference in dramatic ways, developing a reputation within the firm as an attorney able to secure impressive outcomes in difficult cases. In a personal injury case other attorneys found problematic, Sochacki recently secured a settlement of $250,000. He also settled a 2017 Personal Injury case involving soft tissue damage from a low-impact rear end collision for an amount the mediator said exceeded settlements in nine of 10 comparable cases. In a sensitive 2016 case involving a child who was subjected to a traumatic situation, Sochacki obtained a settlement totaling more than three times what some Partners had estimated was possiblewithout filing a lawsuit. Its good to know we have someone whos not afraid to also take tough cases, partner Barry Moller said of Sochacki. A certified EMT and Paramedic, Attorney Sochacki is a member of New Hartford Volunteer Ambulance in the town where he lives with his wife, Julie, and their two sons. He also provides emergency management consulting around the state, and addresses EMS providers regarding legal issues, largely on a pro bono basis. Sochacki works in the firms Litchfield office. He may be reached by email at csochacki@cramer-anderson.com and by phone at 860-567-8718. In addition to the Litchfield office, Cramer & Anderson has offices in New Milford, Danbury, Kent, Washington Depot, and a new office in Ridgefield, serving Fairfield County. For more information, see the website at crameranderson.com or call the New Milford office at 860-355-2631. Kyler Baughman seemed to be the face of fitness. The 21-year-old aspiring personal trainer filled his Facebook page with photos of himself riding motorbikes and lifting weights. He once posted an image of a kettlebell with a skeleton, reading: "CrossFit, hard to kill." So when he came down with the flu last month, his mother said, he possibly assumed he simply needed some rest. "I think he thought, 'I just got the flu; I'll be all right,' " his mother, Beverly Baughman, told NBC affiliate WPXI. But days after Christmas, Kyler Baughman was worse - coughing and running a fever, his family told the news station. They said he went to a nearby hospital in western Pennsylvania and, from there, was flown to UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh. Soon after, on Dec. 28, Kyler died of "organ failure due to septic shock caused by influenza," his mother told WPXI. Kyler Baughman, from Latrobe, had gone home for the holidays with "a snotty nose," his mother recalled in an interview earlier this week with WPXI. "We saw him the 23rd for our family Christmas get-together and we noticed he wasn't feeling well," Beverly Baughman told the news station. The day after Christmas, Kyler Baughman went back to work - he earned a living moving furniture at a local furniture store and unloading goods at Walmart, according to his social media accounts. But he could not make it though the day. Olivia Marcanio, who was identified by WPXI as his fiancee, declined to comment to The Washington Post, but told the news station that Kyler Baughman, "just laid down and went about his day, and that was the day he was coughing and said his chest hurt." Now - not even two weeks after his death - his mother said, "It doesn't seem real." Each year, as many as 650,000 people die from respiratory complications related to influenza - an increase from the previous decade, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. "These figures indicate the high burden of influenza and its substantial social and economic cost to the world," Peter Salama, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said in a news release last month. "They highlight the importance of influenza prevention for seasonal epidemics, as well as preparedness for pandemics." However, according to the CDC, "most people who get influenza will recover in several days to less than two weeks." Complications range from sinus and other infections to pneumonia and organ failure. The CDC reported that 6 percent of deaths in the United States during the week of Nov. 5 resulted from complications from pneumonia and influenza. According to Kyler's obituary, he enjoyed "motocross, reading, and going to the gym." And that's one reason his family is sending this message to others: Listen to your body. "Try and know your body. Don't let things go," Kyler Baughman's father, Todd Baughman, told WPXI through tears. "Whenever you have a fever for multiple days, don't let it go, get it taken care of." 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 Czechs are voting in a presidential election to decide whether to give a second mandate to incumbent Milos Zeman, a frequent critic of European Union policies and a supporter of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Opinion polls show Zeman winning the most votes in the first round of voting Friday and Saturday but too few to avoid a Jan. 26-27 runoff with one of his eight challengers. Among them, Jiri Drahos is the most likely candidate to advance. A 68-year-old chemistry professor and former chief of the academy of science, Drahos is pledging to improve ties with the EU and return "dignity" to the presidential post -- a campaign jab against Zeman who has polarized the political landscape. Zeman used his first five-year term to carve out a stronger mandate for the largely ceremonial post through what he calls a "creative interpretation" of the constitution. Critics say his pro-Russian and anti-migrant rhetoric, scorn for media and support of anti-establishment forces including the far-right party Freedom and Direct Democracy, which advocates leaving the EU, have overturned the role of the presidency, a job that has traditionally been that of a non-partisan voice of the nation. While he has won support among many Czechs by criticizing intellectual elites, they say he's sown doubt over whether the country of 10.6 million people should remain in the world's largest trading bloc. "Zeman's camp is very mobilized, but so are his opponents, because he's divided society so much," said Pavel Saradin, a political scientist at Palacky University in Olomouc. "Czech society is doing extremely well economically at the moment. But, like elsewhere in Europe, people are dissatisfied, and Zeman is feeding the fire by creating an imaginary enemy; he's attacking educated people, NGOs and immigrants." While the Czech Republic is the EU's richest post-communist member by economic output per capita -- it also has the bloc's lowest unemployment and one of its fastest growth rates -- Zeman has tapped into anti-migrant rhetoric resembling that of anti-establishment forces that scored gains in European elections last year. He has appointed billionaire Andrej Babis, with whom he shares dislike for the EU's refugee policies, as prime minister, even though the tycoon's single-party government doesn't have a majority in parliament. The president has pledged to grant Babis a second chance to form a cabinet if he fails to win parliamentary approval on the first try. Babis said Thursday he'd vote for Zeman in the election. While opposition parties have decried the allegiance, opinion polls show Zeman's office to be the most trusted constitutional institution, ahead of the government and parliament, whose popularity has suffered amid bickering among coalition parties and several cabinet collapses. Among other powers, the president has the right to name central bank board members and is the commander-in-chief of the NATO member's military. While the president may influence efforts to break a government stalemate as the cabinet is likely to lose the first confidence vote next week, Czech financial assets have been largely immune to political uncertainty. The koruna, which was the best performer among the world's major currencies in 2017, has gained a further 0.2 percent to the euro since start of this year. Zeman won the country's first direct presidential election in 2013 with a roughly 10-point runoff victory. Since then, he's been one of most prominent voices in Europe to call for abolition of sanctions against Russia over the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. He has also lashed out against the EU's efforts to integrate refugees from the Middle East and Africa, once saying that Muslim migrants will impose Sharia Law, chop off thieves' hands and stone adulterous women in Europe. In 2015, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said that "repeated Islamophobic" statements by Zeman were contributing to "an increasingly xenophobic public discourse" in the Czech Republic. Indianapolis, IN -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/12/2018 --Air Conditioning service is not something to scoff at. Given the nature of work, it might take some time to resolve the issues that are likely to hamper the functionality of the system. Instead of just calling the first technician, it would always worth investing a few extra minutes into getting the right provider for the needs. 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North Korean residents are terrified that leader Kim Jong Uns recent call to eliminate remaining non-socialist elements in society will mean a return to the bloody executions and fearful politics of the past when nonconformists were weeded out and brutally neutralized, sources inside the country said. When Kim addressed the nation on the first day of the new year, as he has done annually since 2013, he said that eliminating non-socialist elements in society would be a key task for 2018 in the repressive nation. Under the campaign, high-level party executives and ordinary North Koreans alike are subject to screenings to determine if they have engaged in non-socialist activities, such as gambling, fraud, prostitution, usury, visiting fortunetellers, following Western culture, and watching or distributing foreign visual media. The directive comes as Kim, who has been in power for six years, tightens his control over the repressive country as it feels the squeeze of new tough sanctions imposed by the United Nations as punishment for recent missile launches, and experiences heightened tensions with the United States. Kims father, Kim Jong Il, who ruled North Korea from 1994 to 2011, directed previous rounds of grisly purges of non-socialist elements to fortify his grip on power. Though Kim also discussed the countrys nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, the possibility of holding conditional talks with South Korea on sending a delegation to the upcoming Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and the unprecedented level of sanctions North Korea suffered in 2017, his call to action about weeding out non-socialist elements reverberated with many citizens. Kim gave more details about this key task for the new year on Dec. 23, when he told a group of chairpersons of the ruling Korean Workers Party at a three-day conference that he had ordered rank-and-file organizations to lead a revolutionary offensive to uproot non-socialist practices, according to the official news agency KCNA. He said the offensive should be launched in the party cells, the bases educating the party members and other working people and training them into revolutionaries, and the lowest revolutionary posts defending Korean-style socialism, KCNA said in its English edition. In that speech, Kim stressed the role of party cells in building a powerful socialist country and said that destructive non-socialist practices have occurred because party organizations and officials had failed in their efforts to provide constant socialist education to people and to intensify the nations ideological struggle. When our socialist culture and art prevails over the corrupt bourgeois reactionary culture, it is possible for people not to harbor illusions about the enemies culture but to prevent ideological and cultural poisoning by the imperialists, he was quoted as saying. Kim also said that even though the country may face manifold difficulties and hardships in the days ahead, members of the Party Central Committee feel reassured about the hundreds of thousands of cell chairpersons who will carry out the regimes policies. What we have done is just the beginning and the Party Central Committee plans to conduct more new projects for the people, he said, though he did not provide details. Getting away with it North Koreans now fear that high-level executives in key government agencies who engage in non-socialist activities will get away with their misdeeds, while powerless ordinary people who get caught will bear the brunt of harsh punishments, including death, the sources said. To accomplish tasks from the New Years message, each regional party unit, judicial authorities, and organizations have announced their New Years plan, said a source from North Hamgyong province, who requested anonymity. The big part of the first project of the annual plan is focusing on rooting out non-socialist elements, so the social atmosphere appears uneasy, he told RFAs Korean Service on Tuesday. The North Hamgyong Party Committee will temporarily organize an agency under its auspices to root out non-socialist elements, the source said. The dominant Korean Workers Party, judicial authorities, and administrative officials are organizing members for their joint non-socialist elements team, he said. Residents are resentful of the high-level executives who will be on the team because they are the main culprits of non-socialist activities, the source said. It is because high-level executives have always been at the center of non-socialist phenomena. Residents have expressed anger over the results of the screenings, the source said, adding that the children of executives working for the party or the State Security Department who are summoned for screenings manage to get off on sick bail or another phony excuse. A powerless college student who has been accused of distributing improper visual images, for example, was executed by a firing squad, he said, illustrating the brutal punishments that authorities sometimes mete out for ordinary citizens who are thought to have engaged in forbidden activities. Authorities also often accuse people who are unemployed or who do not sell any goods at markets of being non-socialist elements of society, and they suffocate them by withholding electricity, water, or food, he said. Non-socialist elements will fade away on their own if there are reasonable [food] distributions by the country as a reward for labor, the source said. A second source from North Hamgyong confirmed that ordinary North Koreans are living in fear after hearing Kim Jong Un's New Years Day speech. Ordinary residents who barely make enough to get by from day to day do not have time to think about non-socialist elements, he said. When the screenings begin, however, the executives make false charges against powerless poor people to prove their own effectiveness when it comes to wiping out non-socialist elements, which is something that residents fear, the source said. Reported by Jieun Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. As work progresses on a high-speed railway linking Laos with China, Beijing is pouring billions of dollars in aid and investment into its poorer neighbor to fund other projects, pulling it closer into Chinas orbit, sources say. Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has urged government ministries and other departments to efficiently spend a 5.2 billion yuan (U.S. $800 million) package of foreign development assistance recently given by China for unspecified projects, the official KPL news service said in a report last week. Speaking to RFAs Lao Service on condition of anonymity, a Laos-China Cooperation Department official of the Planning and Investment Ministry confirmed the amount of the aid under discussion, adding, But this figure is still a secret, since we are still planning the projects. Meanwhile, Lao Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Khamphao Ernthavanh and Chinese ambassador to Laos Wang Wentian signed an agreement on Jan. 3 providing U.S. $3.4 million in aid for projects planned along the Mekong River, including improvements on Lao ports. Chinese money is funding other major projects in Laos, Lao state media say, with U.S. $90 million in funds pledged during a visit in November 2017 by Chinese president Xi Jinping for construction of a hospital in Vientiane, and U.S. $615 million promised toward improvements in the countrys health sector over the next three years. China is now also Laoss top investor, with Chinese companies putting up to U.S. $7 billion toward the development of Special Economic Zones, dams, mines, and rubber plantations, with a new SEZ worth a further U.S. $9 billion now planned for the countrys southern Champassak province, official sources say. Writing in the Dec. 20, 2017 issue of World Politics Review, researcher Michael Hart outlined in an article titled Chinas Influence Steadily Grows in Laos the benefits to Laos of closer ties with China, with China now also able to count on Lao support in ASEAN for Chinas claims in the South China Sea. [Laos was] left with no real alternative but to accept large-scale Chinese investment in infrastructure, even if it meant accepting the economic and political influence that comes with it, Hart wrote. The risk of rebuffing Beijing was too great, as sustained growth and faster development are vital to ensure the legitimacy of the ruling party. Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono expressed serious concern to his Myanmar counterpart Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday over the plight of Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence by the military in northern Rakhine state. During a meeting in the capital Naypyidaw, Kono urged Aung San Suu Kyi to ensure the safe and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees who fled to neighboring Bangladesh during a military crackdown and to allow humanitarian and media access to the region, Japans Kyodo news agency said. Myanmars military launched a brutal campaign against the Rohingya in three townships in northern Rakhine after a Muslim militant group carried out deadly attacked on police outposts in August 2017. The violence has driven about 655,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh where some have accused soldiers of committing random killings, rape, and arson in their villages. We have discussed with the Japanese foreign minister the development of Rakhine state, the repatriation of Muslim refugees, and possible areas of cooperation with the Japanese government to help stabilize the situation in Rakhine state, Aung San Suu Kyi, who also serves as Myanmars de facto leader in her other capacity as state counselor, said during a joint news conference with Kono in the capital Naypyidaw. Kono also asked Aung San Suu Kyi to implement the recommendations issued last year by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, a group led by former U.N chief Kofi Annan. The commission called for reviews of the countrys Citizenship Law, under which the Rohingya are ineligible for citizenship, and an end to restrictions on the Muslim minority group to prevent further violence in the ethnically and religiously divided region. Kono also met with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of Myanmars armed forces, and will visit Rakhine state, the online journal The Irrawaddy said. Millions pledged for Rohingya Separately, Japan announced an emergency grant aid of 330 million yen (U.S. $3 million) to assist Rohingya refugees who voluntarily return to Myanmar when repatriations begin. Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement on Nov. 23, 2017, to repatriate Rohingya refugees who wish to return to Myanmar and who can prove prior residency in the country. We have decided to provide the aid in response to the agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to represent an international message of support so that the repatriation can be carried out promptly, said Foreign Ministry official Shinobu Yamaguchi in a statement. Myanmar has said that it will begin accepting the Rohingya refugees on Jan. 22, but the process could be delayed because Bangladesh has yet to send the completed repatriation forms to Myanmar. During his meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, Kono also said Japan, a major donor of development aid to Myanmar, will grant the country roughly U.S. $20 million more to improve humanitarian conditions and development in Rakhine state, the Associated Press reported. To achieve development in Rakhine state, it is critically important to solve the root causes of the problems facing all the people in Rakhine state, he was quoted by The Irrawaddy as saying. Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks at a news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono in Naypyidaw, Jan. 12, 2018. Credit: Reuters Military probe encouraging Also during the news conference on Friday, Aung San Suu Kyi said she was encouraged by the Myanmar militarys investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya at a village in Rakhines Maungdaw township and its plan to take action against those who committed the crime. The armed forces issued a rare admission on Wednesday that some of its troops had killed what it said were Muslim terrorists in September and buried their bodies in a mass grave in Inn Din village in Maungdaw township. Maungdaw, along with neighboring Buithdaung and Rathedaung townships, was the epicenter of recent violence against the Rohingya. There were killings in Inn Din village, and it is a step forward that the Tatmadaw [Myanmar military] has investigated and said that those responsible will be held accountable, said Aung San Suu Kyi. At last, a country has to assume responsibility for its own rule of law. A military investigation team began a probe of the killings after the remains of the bodies were unearthed on Dec. 19. It found that both security forces and ethnic Rakhine villagers were involved in the murders of the Rohingya men who the army says were affiliated with Muslim militants who carried out previous attacks in the state. A statement issued by the military earlier this week said action would be taken against the villagers and soldiers who confessed to the murders as well as against officers to whom the soldiers reported. Protest in Ramree In a related development, about 500 protesters in Rakhines Ramree township demanded on Friday that officials conduct thorough screenings of Muslim residents under Myanmars Citizenship Law, so that the Rohingya are not classified as Kaman Muslims and granted citizenship. The law does not recognize the Rohingya as one of Myanmars 135 official ethnic groups, thereby denying them citizenship as well as access to basic services such as education and health care. By contrast, the government formally recognizes the Kaman who are classified as one of the seven ethnic groups comprising the Rakhine national race. They are considered indigenous and are widely acknowledged as citizens who have national identity cards. A citizenship process for Muslims who live in the Kyauknimaw village tract has been under way since last week, protesters said. Protesters said they have doubts about the process because some Rohingya are listed under the Kaman Muslim ethnic category, and they have demanded that officials check them carefully. We are protesting to demand that officials check the citizenship process for Muslims in the Kyauknimaw village tract and not grant citizenship to [Rohingya] Muslims who are under the [Kaman] category, protest leader Phyu Lone told RFAs Myanmar Service. We dont want Kofi Annans recommendation that citizenship be granted to Bengalis who are not one of Myanmars official ethnic groups, he said, using a derogatory term for the Rohingya who are viewed as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Earlier this week, Zaw Htay, director-general of State Counselors Aung San Suu Kyis office, said the government has been working on a citizenship process for undocumented people in Rakhine state, and that everybody must be checked to determine whether they are eligible for citizenship. To become citizens, the Rohingya must obtain national verification cards before they will be granted a status according to the law, such as guest citizens or people who can apply for citizenship, he said. Phyu Lone went on to say that authorities have issued family lists, detailing members of all households, to Rohingya residents, erroneously listing them as ethnic Kaman. If the Rohingya who live in the village tract are granted citizenship, all of them will become Kamans, he said. Last April, the Rakhine state government agreed to close down three internally displaced persons camps housing Kaman Muslims, ethnic Rakhine people, and Rohingya Muslims in the towns of Ramree, Kyaukphyu, and Sittwe, per the Annan commissions recommendations. The groups had been living in the camps since 2012 when they were displaced by communal violence in the state. Reported by Win Ko Ko Latt and Min Thein Aung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Newly sworn-in Myanmar Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's de facto leader, shakes hands with members of the outgoing cabinet after the handover ceremony at the presidential palace in Naypyidaw, March 30, 2016. Two government ministers from Myanmars Bago region -- U Kyaw Min San, the regions minister for resources, environmental conservation and forestry, and Municipal and Social Affairs Minister U Maung Maung Lwin -- resigned on Wednesday, bringing to four the number ministers who have quit in 2018. They joined Irrawaddy Region Chief Minister Mahn Johnny and the regional minister for agriculture, livestock, resources and environmental conservation, U Ba Hein, in leaving Aung San Suu Kyis nearly two-year-old National League for Democracy (NLD) government. Thinn Thiri of RFAs Myanmar Service spoke to Monywa Aung Shin, NLD party spokesperson about the ongoing government shake-up. RFA: There have been several resignations from the government these days. Will there be any more changes? Monywa Aung Shin: In my personal opinion, there will be more changes in the government in the future. RFA: Why? Monywa Aung Shin: We made six decisions in the Central Committee meeting, and one of them is to reform the Central Executive Committees. I feel it means there will be changes. There are some rumors of more chief ministers resignations as well. The changes during these days are because of weak accountability, corruption and social affairs and it is normal. RFA: When will the government team become stable? Monywa Aung Shin: I think within three or four months. RFA: Would there be some delay in some sectors because of this instability in government? Monywa Aung Shin: That would be normal. Every government will get delay when it is in an unstable situation. But, the government will not only watch. The government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will work their hardest on what they should be doing. RFA: There will be a by-election in 2018 and general elections in 2020. What is the NLD doing to prepare for these elections? Monywa Aung Shin: I dont see much preparation for the 2018 by-election, but the NLD is focusing on the 2010 general election and will be running campaigns. Translated by Khet Mar. UPDATED at 5:10 P.M. EST on 2018-1-12 Authorities in northwest Chinas Xinjiang region have arrested a prominent Uyghur intellectual for exhibiting nationalistic tendencies, according to a source in exile, amid an intensifying crackdown on notable members of the ethnic group. Halmurat Ghopur, president of the Xinjiang Food and Drug Administrations Department of Inspection and Supervision in the regional capital Urumqi, was taken into custody in November last year and is being held in an unknown location amid an investigation into his alleged acts against the state, according to Zumret Tursun, a Norway-based Uyghur activist. Tursun recently told RFAs Uyghur Service that one of her students was present when authorities arrested Ghopur, who is also the former president of Xinjiang Medical University Hospital in Urumqi. He said Halmurat Ghopur was taken away from his office, along with his computer, she said, withholding the students name to protect him from possible retribution. One of Halmurat Ghopurs students who is studying abroad had been in contact with him via a messaging app, and [Ghopur] had kept some of their correspondence on his phone without deleting it. According to Tursun, when state security police came to arrest Ghopur, he demanded to know why he was being taken away and an officer told him he had exhibited nationalistic tendencies, before reading some of the conversations on the messaging app WeChat that they had monitored. They said, for this reason we are taking away your computer, and you must come with us and cooperate, Tursun said, citing her student. He hasnt had a hearing yet, but it is obvious that he will be tried in court, she added. Since April last year, ethnic Uyghurs accused of harboring extremist and politically incorrect views have been jailed or detained in political re-education camps throughout Xinjiang, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule. Last week, RFA learned that authorities had sentenced the four wealthiest Uyghurs in Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) city to lengthy jail terms for acts of religious extremism that included undertaking unapproved, private hajj pilgrimages to the Islamic holy site of Mecca and connections to imams who were not sanctioned by the state. Differences with colleague Despite a successful career in medicine that included official acknowledgement for developing a treatment for respiratory illnesses which combined Western and traditional Uyghur medicine, observers suggested that differences Ghopur had with Xinjiang Medical University secretary Li Bing may have led authorities to target him. According to an article entitled We Must Be Vigilant Against Hidden Two-Faced Officials, published by China University of Political Science and Law professor Wu Danhong last summer, Li had actively fought the three evils of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism in Xinjiang, but Ghopur was critical of his approach. In one case, the article noted, Liwho is ethnic Han Chinesehad suggested that students be prohibited from wearing Islamic clothing on the university campus, but Ghopur argued that the clothing is part of Uyghur traditional religious and cultural dress. Li was found guilty of accepting a 3 million yuan (U.S. $465,000) bribe and sentenced by Xinjiangs Intermediate Court in March last year to more than 10 years in jail for corruption, and Wu alleged in his article that Ghopur had framed him. According to the article, Ghopur was a two-faced official who had failed to follow Communist Party guidelines by recruiting students who were not fit to fill their positions at the university hospital, in a bid to fulfil his murky intentions. Two-faced is a term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of disloyalty that can include promotion of extremist sentiment, providing support to separatist groups, or publishing information that harms the unity of the country or distorts the history of Xinjiang. On break A Han Chinese staff member at the Xinjiang Food and Drug Administrations Department of Inspection and Supervision who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, said he was not aware of Ghopurs arrest and that the department president was on break. He directed further questions to the administrations Department of Organization. A Han official at Xinjiang Medical University, who also asked to remain unnamed, told RFA he had not heard that Ghopur was arrested and that it was incorrect to say so. Ghopur is being investigated for breaking party rules, he added. When asked if Ghopur had been accused of failing to comply with the central governments policy of ethnic unity, the official said he was unable to comment because he is not involved in the investigation. According to the official, differences between Ghopur and Li were not responsible for the formers current investigation. It is possible that that being a high-level official and communist party member, Halmurat might have broken party discipline and that is why he is under investigation, he said. Regardless of his connections with the government, if he broke the rules he will be held responsible and will be punished accordingly. Other sources told RFA that it is strictly prohibited to discuss Ghopurs case, even though the public is already largely aware that he was taken into custody by police. China regularly conducts strike hard campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material. While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009. Reported by Kurban Niyaz for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Correction: An earlier version of the story erroneously stated that Li Bing was found guilty of accepting a 300,000 yuan (U.S. $46,400) bribe. A former political prisoner arrested in December by police in southeastern Vietnams Dong Nai province was taken into custody without a warrant and with no word given to his family as to when he may be released, the mans son said. Doan Van Dien was arrested at his home in Dong Nais Xuan Loc district on Dec. 17, 2017 for allegedly distributing anti-State materials online, but no documents authorizing the arrest were presented by police, Diens son Doan Huy Chuong told RFAs Vietnamese Service on Jan. 12. We saw my father at the Public Security Ministrys police station PA92, and they told us at first that they were going to hold him for investigation, but its been over 20 days now and he still hasnt been released, he said. They took him away without showing any order, notice, or summons, Chuong said, adding, The only reason they provided was that my father was distributing some materials online. Diens family will now hire a lawyer to work directly with Dong Nai provincial police to learn more about the reasons for his arrest, Chuong said. Reached by RFA for comment, an officer at police station PA92 denied knowledge of the arrest, saying, We are not holding anybody named Doan Van Dien. Jailed before Born in 1954 in south-central Vietnams Quang Nam province, Dien had served a four-and-a-half year prison term after being convicted on Dec. 10, 2007 by the Peoples Court of Dong Nai for abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State. His son Chuong and two others were also sentenced in the case, with Chuong handed an 18-month term for allegedly spreading propaganda against the State under Article 88 of Vietnams Penal Code. The four were accused of collecting complaints of government land-rights violations and passing them on to RFA and other news organizations, as well as distributing anti-government leaflets at a meeting in Hanoi before an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November 2006. According to a report at the time by the English-language Vietnam News, the defendants had slandered the Vietnamese state and distorted facts by telling Radio Free Asia that Vietnam represses workers and arrests protesters. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Emily Peyman. Written in English by Richard Finney. A Richmond police officer who shot and wounded a murder suspect last month during an exchange of gunfire has been charged with eluding a Fluvanna County sheriffs deputy last week after authorities said the officer drove away at a high speed when the deputy tried to initiate a traffic stop. Richmond officer Travis Scott Dooley on Sunday was charged with reckless driving by speed and failure to stop for law enforcement in connection with an early Sunday morning incident on South Boston Road, Fluvanna Capt. Sheriff David Wells said in a release. Wells said a Fluvanna deputy was operating radar on South Boston Road when a vehicle passed by at 12:46 a.m. at a high speed. The deputy activated the emergency lights on his marked patrol car as he prepared to initiate a traffic stop, Wells said. The speeding vehicle failed to stop and continued to travel away from the deputy at a high rate of speed, Wells said. A brief pursuit ensued but the deputy lost sight of the suspects vehicle. The vehicle was eventually located parked behind a business on South Boston Road with Dooley in the drivers seat, Wells said. Dooley was arrested, placed in handcuffs and taken to the sheriffs office to appear before a county magistrate for a probable-cause hearing. The magistrate found probable cause to issue against Dooley a misdemeanor warrant for speeding in excess of 80 mph and a felony warrant for failing to stop for police, Wells said. After the warrants were served, the magistrate conducted a bond hearing on the charges and released Dooley on his own recognizance. Dooley lives on Burke Court in Palmyra, the county seat of Fluvanna. Dooleys vehicle was towed from the scene. An unknown pill that authorities believed Dooley had possessed was located in the vehicle. The pill was sent to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science for testing, Wells said. Wells said they notified Richmond police about the incident. The Fluvanna County Sheriffs Office strives to treat all persons equally, regardless of race, gender, social stature or employment status, Wells said. Last month, Dooley was fired upon by a man armed with an assault-style rifle in Highland Park after officers pursued the suspects vehicle following a shooting in the Gilpin Court housing complex. Dooley returned fire, striking the suspect, who survived. Authorities later linked the suspect, James E. Williams Jr., of Richmond, to a series of shootings on Dec. 14, including the slaying of Basheed I. Boatwright, 36, who was fatally shot outside a residence about 3:10 a.m. that day in the 7400 block of Eureka Drive in Chesterfield County. Williams was charged by Chesterfield police with murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Richmond police said they planned additional charges at a later date. At that time, Richmond police placed Dooley on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a standard use-of-force investigation. Whats happening today? Lawmakers might make quick work of legislative business Friday amid preparations for Saturdays inauguration of Ralph Northam as Virginias 73rd governor. Committee assignments handed out in the House Speaker of the House Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, on Thursday rolled out committee assignments for the new-look House of Delegates. Republicans hold narrower majorities on committees, such as a 12-10 edge on Appropriations and a 10-8 edge on Courts of Justice. The new roster features several new committee chairmen, succeeding delegates who retired, were defeated, or moved up in the GOP ranks. Del. David Yancey, R-Newport News, succeeds the defeated Del. Ron Villanueva, R-Virginia Beach, as chairman of the Transportation Committee. Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, succeeds the retired Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax, as chairman of Courts of Justice. Del. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, is the new chairman of the General Laws Committee, succeeding Del. C. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, who has moved into Coxs former role as House majority leader. Del. Roxann Robinson, R-Chesterfield, is the new head of the Science and Technology Committee, succeeding Del. Rich Anderson, R-Prince William, who lost to Democrat Hala Ayala on Nov. 7. Democrats push for support for expanding Medicaid in Va. Emboldened by sweeping election victories in November, about 30 Democratic legislators held a news conference Thursday in which they called health care a right and called on Republicans to finally join them in expanding Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act. We think we have an opportunity this year, said House Democratic Leader David Toscano of Charlottesville. Its pretty clear that the public has spoken that they want to see us do something. Added Democratic Caucus Chair Charniele Herring of Alexandria: I know my friends across the aisle are hearing from their constituents. Senate panel advances bills targeting teacher shortage The Senate Health and Education Committee on Thursday approved two bills out of committee aimed at addressing Virginias teacher shortage. Senate bills 76 and 103 were unanimously approved during the committees first meeting of the session. The former requires the state education board to extend the four-year undergraduate teacher programs in the states teacher licensure standards, a move pushed forward last month by outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Bill 103 would allow spouses of military members with an out-of state teacher license to more easily obtain a Virginia teaching license. The state had more than 1,000 unfilled teaching positions two months into the school year in 2016, and the number of teacher vacancies has risen 40 percent in the last decade, McAuliffe said in his December executive action. McAuliffe official to take job with Dominion Energy Felix Sarfo-Kantanka, the deputy secretary of administration in the McAuliffe administration, will join Dominion Energy in late January as external affairs manager for the greater Charlottesville area. I am very excited and blessed for this new opportunity and look forward to serving customers and strengthening our communities, Sarfo-Kantanka said in a statement. Dominion spokesman David Botkins said Sarfo-Kantanka will focus on local government affairs and will not be a lobbyist. Recent snow may have been fun for these dogs, but it did little for drought conditions. While snow and bitter cold have dominated our discussion of weather so far this winter, a moderate drought has been quietly creeping into central Virginia over the past several weeks. Fridays predicted rain will be helpful for the low streams, lakes and rivers, but it will take more than one soaking storm to stave off groundwater shortages and agricultural impacts during the next growing season. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows moderate drought conditions across Virginias Piedmont region, and that zone currently extends as far west as Roanoke and the Shenandoah Valley and east into parts of the Northern Neck. The rest of the state is classified as abnormally dry, or one step away from showing drought impacts. A recent report from Virginias interagency Drought Monitoring Task Force noted that drinking ponds for livestock are nearing critically low levels, according to some producers in the western part of the state. The western Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley have been the driest regions lately, with less than 25 percent of their usual rain and snow over the past 60 days. As of late last week, mandatory water-use restrictions remained in place for customers of the Louisa County Water Authority, with voluntary restrictions advised in Strasburg and Front Royal. No part of Virginia has any sort of short-term surplus, but the Tidewater region has been a bit wetter (and snowier) compared to other regions. From the start of our climatological winter season, Dec. 1, through Jan. 11, Richmond International Airport has measured only 1.34 inches of precipitation. Thats less than one-third of the typical amount of 4.33 inches during the same period. The last time Richmond had less rainfall over the same period on the calendar was during the winter of 1985-86. Some of this winters precipitation total came from rain, and some of it was the liquid equivalent of snow. The early January snow was relatively dry, so the 3 inches of icy fluff came out to a water equivalent of just 0.2 inches, for a 15-to-1 snow-to-liquid ratio. On average, most of our snowstorms are a bit wetter, with a ratio of 11 to 12 inches of snow per 1 inch of liquid water. It would take 3 inches of rain to dig us out of our winter-to-date deficit, so if all of our needed moisture were to come in the form of snow, wed be talking about nearly 3 feet. Theres nothing like that anytime soon, but we do have reasonable hope for 1 inch of rain to fall Friday and that night. Low pressure tracking northeast across the Appalachian Mountains will bring waves of showers across the state, and the mild air ahead of a cold front could fuel a rumble of thunder here or there. It wont rain constantly for the entire day, but all of central Virginia should get some intervals of moderate rain in the morning and afternoon, followed by a downpour in the evening. The Richmond area can expect totals of 0.5 inch to 1 inch, but there will be some pockets that end up with higher and lower amounts depending on the track of small downpours. It could be our heaviest rain since the 1.84-inch soaking on Oct. 29. Western Virginia may fare better, with 2 to 3 inches of rain possible for the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Drier and much colder weather returns Saturday, with little to no hope of widespread or heavy precipitation in Virginia next week. There may be a quick dash of light snow in some parts of the state as a clipper system swoops from the Midwest to the Northeast on Tuesday or Wednesday, but otherwise it will just be stubbornly cold. Next weeks chill wont be quite as severe as what we dealt with last week, but the highs and lows will trend 5 to 15 degrees below average from Sunday to Friday. That means highs mostly in the 30s and lows in the teens and 20s. The middle week of January marks the midpoint of our cold season, but its too early to know whether the drought will get better or worse by the time spring arrives. CHRISTIANSBURG Gary Ray Bishops troubled holiday season ended soon after sundown on New Years Eve, when he walked into the Christiansburg Long John Silvers with a silver toy pistol, a prosecutor said this week. Bishop waved the toy gun and said to the woman behind the cash register, Give me all your money, Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Jennifer Wolz said during a Montgomery County General District Court hearing called to decide whether to release Bishop on bond. Instead of giving Bishop money, the cashier turned and fled into the back of the restaurant, Wolz said. The would-be robber turned and walked out, then drove away as Long John Silvers workers took down a description of his vehicle. Officers soon had Bishop in custody and he confessed, telling officers hed tossed the toy gun out the window as he fled, Wolz said. It was found near the road where Bishop said hed thrown it. Had it been a real gun, it would have been a much more serious situation However, the employees at Long John Silvers did not know it wasnt a real gun, Wolz told Judge Gino Williams. Bishop, who had spent his 36 years in and around Riner, faces two counts of attempted robbery and one of using a firearm to commit a felony, first offense. Defense attorney Fred Kellerman of Christiansburg asked Williams to let Bishop await his trial at home, saying the hold-up was an aberration seemingly fueled by a mental health issue or substance abuse. Bishop took the witness stand to say that he hoped to go back to a job at Hubbell Lighting, and to start a rehabilitation program and mental health treatment. He testified that he did not drink alcohol but had taken Xanax for years, with a prescription, to deal with anxiety. Wolz said that Bishop told investigators that it was a growing anxiety about finances that drove the attempted robbery. He told officers that hed been furloughed from his job for two weeks over the holidays, was worried about his debts and was feeling pressure from bill collectors, Wolz said. Bishop told officers that he didnt know what to do about his problems, then started thinking about committing a robbery, and eventually just did it, Wolz said. Williams set a $20,000 secured bond for Bishop, and ordered that he remain at his parents home, where he lives, between 7:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. He is due in court again on March 6. The Fincastle Town Council approved its proposed boundary adjustment in a unanimous vote Thursday evening. The adjustment, first proposed last summer, would increase the town limits from 151 acres to 1,318 acres and increase the population from 340 residents to 570. Fincastle is currently the smallest town in Southwest Virginia and serves as the county seat of Botetourt County. With the town councils approval, the decision now moves to the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors, who will hold their own public hearing and vote, likely at their Jan. 23 meeting. The boundary would expand to include the majority of Fincastles water and sewer customers and also encompass some of the economic growth happening just outside the towns current limits. With the adjustment, Fincastle could use its own zoning and planning tools for new developments, Town Manager David Tickner said Thursday. Council members also said taxes and water services would not be affected for any households incorporated into the new town limits. RICHMOND One of the most senior Republicans in the Virginia House of Delegates delivered an emotional floor speech Friday, mourning the end of the tradition of legislators referring to each other as gentleman and gentlewoman while urging the body to move forward into a brave new world together. The speech by Del. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, was the most direct Republican response yet to changes ushered in this year with the arrival of a huge class of freshman Democrats that includes Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, the first transgender person elected to the Virginia legislature. Roems historic victory prompted Republican leaders in the nearly 400-year-old body to drop the traditional honorifics lawmakers have long used to address one another in favor of the gender-neutral delegate. Near the end of a speech filled with references to conservative pundit William F. Buckley and literary giants C.S. Lewis, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, Ware said he would bow to the decision of our constituted authority and looked across the aisle to Del. Kenneth Plum, the longest-serving Democrat in the House. And so, to Delegate Ken Plum of the 36th District, no matter how I must address you presently in the chamber, and though we will continue to vote differently on a lot of issues, you will remain for me, the gentleman from Fairfax, Ware said. And the same is true for everyone in every seat in this body. For each of you has been elected to represent the constituents of your district on the terms by which you campaign for their votes. Ware, a 65-year-old former history and government teacher who has served in the House since 1998, then extended a special welcome to the Houses 19 new members, 16 of whom are Democrats. May we differ, but never demean, Ware said. May we listen, as well as clamor. And may many of us emerge in mid-March as Aristotle would have us do in a kind of friendship that transcends solely partisan obligations and opens us to the cooperation required for us to serve our commonwealth. It was clear Democrats were moved by the sentiment. Del. Delores McQuinn, D-Richmond, got up from her seat to give Ware a hug as the House continued with a light Friday agenda. Del. Dawn Adams, D-Richmond, the first openly lesbian member of the House, approached Ware afterward to tell him the speech moved her to tears. Roem, a former journalist, went up to Ware after adjournment, shook his hand and said his speech reminded her of former state Sen. Charles Colgan, a Democrat, and former Del. Harry Parrish, a Republican, two Prince William legislators with reputations as consummate Virginia gentlemen. I said that while Im in Richmond Ill be the delegate from the 13th District, Roem said as she described the conversation later in an interview. And I will conduct myself as the gentlewoman from Prince William. At other points in his speech, Ware bemoaned the influence that science and pharmaceuticals have had on traditional norms, and asked rhetorically what conservatives can do in a world of constant change. My answer is, the conservative can bear witness to truths that have been tested by time and transmitted by tradition, Ware said. For example, no matter how high the federal debt becomes, one and one still equals two, and no people can thrive who spend beyond their means. The day may come when voters break entirely with such truths, but still one can bear witness. Ware, who also acknowledged nearly a quarter of the Republican caucus had been swept away at the polls by the sovereign voice of the people, declined to elaborate on what inspired the speech, saying he would let his remarks stand on their own. Heading into a weekend that will be dominated by the festivities celebrating the inauguration of Gov.-elect Ralph Northam, Democrats said the speech gave them new hope that bipartisan vibes of the sessions first few days could endure. I thought it was extremely classy and dignified, said Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond. And I think it set the right tone for what will hopefully be a productive session in 2018. RICHMOND Spurred by the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines, Democrats from the Roanoke and New River valleys introduced a slew of pipeline-related bills this week, but the legislation is unlikely to stop the projects. Sen. John Edwards and Del. Sam Rasoul, both of Roanoke, and Del. Chris Hurst of Blacksburg introduced a package that increases landowners rights, adds pipeline safety measures and increases oversight of natural gas projects. We are tired of being bullied, we are tired of being pushed around, Rasoul said Thursday at a news conference in Richmond. HB 1187 and SB 324 prohibit natural gas companies from surveying for a project unless the State Corporation Commission has deemed a public use certification for the pipeline. The bill also requires surveyors to notify landowners of the date and time the pipeline representatives will enter the private property. Hursts bill also sets the stage for landowners to seek damages of $500 a day should surveyors break the new regulations. HB 1188 requires an independent test of water quality before pipeline operations begin and allows the State Water Control Board to annually require testing of the nearby groundwater. The bill also prohibits pipeline leaks, requires daily checks of pipeline operations and sets up financial penalties for gas leaks. HB 1141 requires the board to obtain 401 water quality certification, prevent land-disturbing activity and review water body crossings and plans for erosion, sediment and stormwater control. During the boards certification review process for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, critics said it delegated too much authority to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. HB 1294 requires a natural gas company to post a performance bond with the state to be used should a pipeline project damage water quality. Environmental groups such as the Virginia League of Conservation Voters lauded the Democrats bills, but the legislation is likely to face numerous hurdles when it heads to committee. Dominion Energy, the driver of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, is one of the states most politically powerful corporations. In 2016, former Del. Joseph Yost introduced a bill that would have prevented pipeline surveyors from entering private property without written consent from landowners. The measure died in committee. Last year, Del. Greg Habeeb, R-Salem, found success in introducing legislation that would give the Virginia Department of Transportation some involvement with interstate pipeline projects. Despite remarks from Hurst that pipelines are a bipartisan issue, Republicans from Southwest Virginia were notably absent from the news conference. Now that the bills are filed, the Democrats aim to work across the aisle for the bills, Rasoul said. Meanwhile, the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline is well on its way to obtaining all the required regulatory approvals . The company plans to begin tree-cutting and other preliminary construction as soon as Feb. 1, it has said in court filings, and hopes to complete work by the end of the year. Before construction can begin, however, Mountain Valley must have an erosion and sediment control plan approved by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. That process is still underway, a DEQ spokeswoman said. About a half-dozen legal challenges, including a request for a court-ordered delay of construction, are also pending. Mountain Valley is due in federal court in Roanoke on Friday for an eminent domain hearing where it will attempt to obtain forced easements on nearly 300 pieces of property in the pipelines path, despite objections from landowners. Staff writer Laurence Hammack contributed to this report. The bluebird didnt realize what she was getting herself into when she chose her new home, about 75 yards from a natural gas compressor. It was only as the days and weeks wore on that the low whine of machinery started to take a toll. It was harder to hear the sounds of approaching predators, or even the normal noises of the surrounding world, so she had to maintain constant vigilance. Her stress hormone levels became skewed; her health deteriorated. She couldnt resettle elsewhere, because she had a nest full of hatchlings to tend. Yet her chicks suffered too, growing up small and scantily feathered if they survived at all. Scientists couldnt ask the bluebird what she was feeling. But when they sampled the birds blood, as part of a study of 240 nesting sites surrounding natural gas treatment facilities in northern New Mexico, they found she showed the same physiological symptoms as a human suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Noise is causing birds to be in a situation where theyre chronically stressed ... and that has really huge health consequences for birds and their offspring, said Rob Guralnick, associate curator of biodiversity informatics at the Florida Museum of Natural History. It would be a stretch to say noise hurts birds mental health the animals have not been evaluated by an avian psychologist. But in a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Guralnick and his colleagues say there is a clear connection between noise pollution, abnormal levels of stress hormones, and lower survival rates. This is the first time that link has been established in a population of wild animals, they argue, and it should make us all think hard about what our ruckus is doing to the Earth. Habitat degradation is always conceived of as clear cutting, or, you know, changing the environment in a physical way. But this is an acoustic degradation of the environment, Guralnick said. We think it is a real conservation concern. The research was conducted at the Bureau of Land Managements Rattlesnake Canyon Habitat Management Area, a sun-drenched expanse of sage-brush-covered mesas and steep canyons forested with juniper and pinyon pine. The site is uninhabited, but its dotted with natural gas wells and compression stations that emit a constant, low-frequency hum in roughly the same range as many birds songs. That makes it the perfect place to study the effects of human-produced noise, far from humans themselves. Clint Francis, an ecologist at California Polytechnic State University, has been studying this ecosystem for more than a decade. In previous studies, he has reported that noise can restructure entire communities prompting birds to alter the pitch of their songs, shifting demographics toward more noise-tolerant species, even changing the distribution of plants based on what birds remain. He also found that some species fared better when they nested near noise sources, because the clamor drove away predators that would otherwise eat vulnerable eggs and chicks. But we were still concerned there might be hidden costs when you measure other aspects of reproductive success, Francis said. Thats why we wanted to look at stress hormones. Blood tests revealed that levels of corticosterone in birds closest to the gas compressors were far, far lower than normal. This initially came as a surprise to the researchers, because corticosterone is the bird equivalent of cortisol the hormone that prompts your body to release a flood of adrenaline, bump up your blood pressure, and jolt your brain with sugar. But then they took their results to Christopher Lowry, a stress physiologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. To him, the results werent surprising at all its what you would expect in a creature exposed to prolonged, persistent strain. Humans suffering from PTSD or chronic fatigue syndrome, and lab mice that have been put through traumatic experiences, respond by muting their hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis the cascade of chemical responses that is triggered by stress. You can imagine being in a state of constant arousal and hypervigiliance, Lowry explained. If there was not some way to desensitize these systems, that would result in a state of chronic fatigue. No organism is capable of essentially running on turbo all the time. So after a period of time the physiology adapts perhaps to conserve resources. Its an adaptation to an untenable situation, Lowry said, but not a particularly good one; this tamping down of the HPA axis is tied to an overall deterioration of health. A human is likely to experience cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal issues, extreme fatigue. Meanwhile, the western bluebird a common, hardy species that is generally considered to be noise-tolerant, was smaller, its feathers bedraggled. The body is just starting to break down, Lowry said. To Lowry, the fact that humans respond to stress in the same manner as animals as distantly related as birds suggests that this response is ancient and deeply ingrained. And it raises questions about how humans handle exposure to unrelenting noise. The mother bluebird that nested near a compressor and was unable to leave when the sound became unbearable may not be so different from a low-income human family forced to rent an apartment near a flight path or loud industrial site. Theres evidence that being able to have a full auditory experience is essential for optimal health in both species, Lowry said. Why is hearing so important to health? Francis believes it has to do with our ability to sense the dangers around us. Animals are constantly surveying their environment and making decisions based on risk. And one thing noise does is it degrades this really important sensory channel, he said. It very well may be that noise exposure really cuts an animals ability to use sound or rely on passively listening for dangers, and that sets up conditions where risk assessment is really uncertain and leads to psychological conditions like anxiety. It will be hard to figure out exactly whether this is happening, Francis said, because there are so many interconnected factors at work in this setting. For one, the birds might be stressed by noise, but so are the animals that could eat them; the data suggests there is a Goldilocks distance from compressors where birds are better off because the sound scares of predators. It gets really tricky, Francis said. Were going to need to come up with some really creative experiments to sort this out. A bill that would prohibit state dollars from funding maximum pain experiments on dogs and cats sailed through its first committee Thursday. The Senates Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources unanimously passed Senate Bill 28, after numerous activists spoke in favor of it and few raised substantial objections. The bill, introduced by Sens. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin, and Glen Sturtevant, R-Richmond, would prevent state taxpayer dollars from funding experiments on dogs and cats that the U.S. Department of Agriculture classifies as Category E, in which the animals are subjected to potentially painful or stressful procedures without providing any relief, such as anesthesia. This is just throwing down a marker, basically, that says we arent going to use taxpayer money for what I would consider a deeply unethical and immoral practice, Stanley told the committee Thursday. Stanley and Sturtevant specifically referenced Category E experiments that were conducted at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond. The Washington-based watchdog group White Coat Waste Project has been campaigning against those experiments, which were done to study cardiac health in humans. Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham, questioned whether the bill could hinder researchers from making medical discoveries that might save human lives, but Stanley and Sturtevant argued that the bill does not stop the experiments from happening, it just prevents state money from funding them. Supporters of the bill include the Humane Society of the United States, the Richmond SPCA, the Richmond Animal Advocacy Alliance and the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association. The committee also passed another of Stanleys bills, Senate Bill 32, which would create an animal cruelty conviction list. Stanley said the list would be used by animal adoption agencies and by law enforcement. We believe that quite frankly those persons that commit the most heinous crimes against animals are 10 times more likely to commit an act of violence against a human being, so law enforcement finds it to be a very important tool, Stanley said. CHATHAM The mayor of Chatham was hospitalized and his wife found dead following a fire that erupted in the basement of their home Thursday afternoon. Mayor Roy Byrd is being treated at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville for smoke inhalation, a public safety official said. His wife, Lois Byrd, was found dead in the basement shortly after firefighters arrived on the scene. Her death was a shock to the small town of 1,200 people. Weve been best friends for years, fellow council member C.B. Cundiff said. My wife had talked to Lois this morning on the phone. Shes taking it very hard. Cundiff identified the victim as Lois Byrd, the mayors wife. However, authorities had not confirmed an identity as of Thursday evening. Roy Byrd was elected to the Chatham Town Council in 2012 and was serving his second term. The scene at the house was tense and emotional as family members arrived one by one at the house at 249 Davis Road. As friends and family arrived they stood in a group by the end of a driveway, some of them embracing each other. Family members declined to talk to reporters. The call to 911 dispatchers for help came from an adult male inside the residence to dispatchers at 2:07 p.m. asking for a fire truck to come to the residence, Pittsylvania County Public Safety Coordinator Chris Slemp said. The dispatcher kept the man on the line and realized there was a structure fire. Volunteer fire departments from Chatham, Blairs, Gretna and Cool Branch as well as Regional One EMS responded to the fire. Slemp said the fire is believed to have started in the basement. The smoke formed a haze around the yard and mixed with a fog that was passing through. The scene was just as emotional for rescuers. An impromptu prayer circle came together when Blairs Volunteer Fire and Rescue Chief Dean Fowler gathered firefighters for a debriefing just outside the crime scene tape that cut through the yard. Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor, who joined the debriefing midway through, led the prayer as nearly two-dozen firefighters bowed their heads and took off their hats. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by Pittsylvania County Fire Marshall Steve Bowman and Pittsylvania County Sheriffs Office. Its just a tragic thing, Cundiff said. We lost a good person today. Virginia Cooperative Extensions Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H will offer a one-day program for Giles County youth, ages 7-13, to help them gain skills in the kitchen and lead healthier lives. This one day school break camp will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 23, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Pearisburg (401 Hale St.). Kids in the Kitchen is based on the program Healthy Weights for Healthy Kids and helps youth realize that an individual can be healthy at any size through maintaining positive attitudes and behaviors related to food, drink, physical activity and body image. VCE health and nutrition programs use the USDAs food guidance program called MyPlate: fill half of your plate with fruits and vegetables, a quarter with grains and a quarter with protein. Kids in the Kitchen participants will prepare a healthy morning snack and their own lunches, using MyPlate as a reference. The kids will also prepare a fun and easy dessert with low-fat milk or water to drink. Eating balanced and healthy meals will be encouraged throughout the Kids in the Kitchen program. Lessons will include direct instruction in the kitchen, plus hands-on activities and games to help participants discover the benefits of healthy eating and physical activity. Topics to be covered will include eating according to MyPlate, selecting healthy snacks and drinks, using kitchen equipment and utensils, food safety, table setting and learning about lifestyle habits that promote health. The cost for Kids in the Kitchen is $5 per child to cover food expenses for the day. Space is limited to 20 children, so please pre-register by Jan. 18 by contacting Christy Mutter at 921-3455 or cmutter@vt.edu. Submitted by Sarah Burkett Emily Moore, a senior at Blacksburg High School, has won a local Voice of Democracy essay contest from the Radford VFW Post #776. Established in 1947, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Voice of Democracy Scholarship Program is open to students in grades 9-12 enrolled in a public, private or parochial high school or home-study program, according to the website usascholarships.com. Students who take part in the VoD program record their own original 3- to 5-minute audio-essays that express democratic and patriotic ideas and principals. Winners at the VFW Post-level go on to district, state and national competition. The program application process was completed in October. In addition to being selected the winner by the local post, Emily was also the first-place winner in District 6, which encompasses 14 posts. Radford VFW Commander Gary Harris wrote in an email that Emily submitted her essay to Radford because Blacksburg does not have a post. This Saturday she will be in Portsmouth, where the VFW will be having their winter council meeting, Harris wrote. There she will represent the district in the state finals. At stake for program participants is a share of $154,000 in national scholarship awards, notes usascholarships.com. The national first-place winner receives a $30,000 scholarship and first-place winners from each VFW Department (state) also win a minimum scholarship of $1,000 and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in March. The Roanoke Times The Roanoke Times The Roanoke Times For more than 70 years, John Deere has invested in the future of agriculture by partnering with the National FFA organization. John Deere dealers across the country are offering more than $150,000 in new local scholarships that will be awarded to support FFA members in their efforts to earn post-secondary education. Meade Tractor in Bristol, Tennessee, has announced its participation in this program for many counties in our footprint. In the New River Valley, scholarships will be offered for students in Floyd, Franklin, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties. The company will donate $10,000 so they can each have a $2,000 scholarship. Those interested can learn more about FFA scholarships and how to apply at https://www.ffa.org/participate/scholarships. The deadline to apply online is Feb. 1. Submitted by Michael Warren JORDAN, Chester I. January 10, 2018 Dr. Chester I. Jordan, 80, of Lumberton, N.C., died Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at Duke University Health System. Chet was born in Floral Park, N.Y., October 13, l937, and grew up in Queen's Village, N.Y. He attended Emory and Henry College and was graduated in 1961. Chet married Marla Johnson from Fincastle, Va. in 1962. He taught at Lord Botetourt High School, Marion Senior High School, and was chairman of the English Department at Martinsville, High School. He received a master's degree from the University of Wyoming and a PhD from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He taught theatre and speech at James Madison University, Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, and UNC Pembroke, Pembroke, N.C. In addition to his wife Marla, he is survived by his daughters. Jennifer Beckman of Charlottesville and Dr. Suzanne Jordan of New York, N.Y.; a grandson, Benjamin Beckman and a granddaughter, Emily Beckman; a sister, Paula Thompson of Murietta, Calif.; and a niece, Julie Thompson of San Francisco, Calif. Graveside service will be 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 13, 2018 at Godwin Cemetery, Fincastle with Ben Peyton officiating. Chet's family will receive friends 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (tonight) Friday, January 12, 2018 at Rader Funeral Home, 630 Roanoke Road, Daleville. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.rader-funeralhome.com. Rader Funeral Home, 540-992-1212. A FRACAS at a Rotherham town centre pub means it will be closed until tomorrow. Police were called to the County, formerly the County Borough, on Corporation Street at around 9.30pm yesterday to tackle a disturbance involving a number of people. Officers issued a 24-hour closure notice and one man was arrested for public order offences. A meeting was held today between South Yorkshire Police, Rotherham Borough Council and venue managers to discuss the conditions of the licence. Insp Jenny Lax said: This was a one-off incident of disorder and although a large number of people were involved, no one was seriously injured. Following todays meeting, the designated premises supervisor has voluntarily decided to close the venue tonight and reopen tomorrow (Saturday) at 10am. MORE than 120 homes in Rotherham have been empty for five years or more, research by the Liberal Democrats found. The partys figures, obtained from councils through freedom of information laws, showed over 200,000 vacant properties across the UK. Some 11,000 of these have been empty for longer than a decade. Only 19 of the 247 councils which responded across England and Wales had made use of empty dwelling management orders - allowing authorities to take over vacant homes - in the past five years. RMBC was not one of these. Colin Taylor, spokesman for Rotherham Lib Dems, said: At a time when the homelessness crisis is worsening and more and more people are sleeping out in the cold on our streets, it is a scandal that so many homes locally are sitting empty. These homes could be turned into affordable places to live for those that need it across all of Rotherham. The Government needs to urgently review the current system which is clearly not working and Rotherham needs to bring these empty homes back into use. A council spokeswoman said the authoritys pro-active approach had seen a year-on-year reduction in the number of empty homes. She added: In October 2017, 2,497 stood empty, representing 2.13 per cent of the total number of households in Rotherham, of which 320 were classed as long-term empty. By comparison, in October 2013, there were 2,842 empty properties, 2.49 per cent of Rotherhams total households at that time, and 309 long term empties. The council is aware there is still much to do and continues to work hard to ensure it meets the needs of its local communities to provide good quality, affordable homes across the borough. SA Competition Tribunal Okays Implats buyout of RBPlat The Competition Tribunal has approved the proposed buyout of Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) by Impala Platinum (Implats), subject to a package of competition and public interest conditions. The move follows an announcement by Northam... Lucara extends diamond sales agreement with HB Lucara Diamond has extended its diamond sales agreement with HB Trading to sell +10.8 carat rough diamonds produced from its wholly owned Karowe mine until December 31, 2032. The diamond company first partnered with HB in 2020 to sell Karowe's... Senators assess the course of Norilsk renovation Norilsk benefited from its renovation program. This was noted by members of the Federation Council who visited the polar capital of the Krasnoyarsk Territory on a working trip. Vice Speakers of the Federation Council Galina Karelova and Nikolai Zhuravlev... Fancy color diamond prices up 1% in Q3 2022, yellow showed highest increase The Fancy Color Research Foundation's (FCRF) results of the Fancy Color Diamond Index (FCDI) for the third quarter of 2022 demonstrate that after an increase of 0.8% in Q2 2022, the average price of all colors and sizes of fancy... China will on Friday release December figures for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. Imports are expected to gain 14.8 percent on year after rising 17.7 percent in November. Exports are called higher by 10.0 percent, slowing from 12.3 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $37.44 billion, down from $40.21 billion a month earlier. Japan will see November numbers for current account, plus December data for bank lending and the eco watchers survey. The current account is expected to show a surplus of 1.836 trillion yen, down from 2.176 trillion yen in October. Bank lending in November - both overall and excluding trusts - was up an annual 2.7 percent. The eco watchers survey for current conditions is expected to show a score of 55.1, unchanged from November. The outlook survey is called at 53.5, down from 53.8 a month earlier. Australia will release November numbers for credit card purchases and balances; in October, they were worth A$27.5 billion and A$51.2 billion, respectively. Singapore will provide November figures for retail sales; in October, sales were up 1.5 percent on month and down 0.1 percent on year. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Economic News What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more. (Agencia CMA Latam) - The Brazilian federal government is still deciding if it will appeal to the country's Supreme Court in an attempt to move forward with the appointment of Cristiane Brasil as Minister of Labor. A Brazilian justice barred Brasil's nomination amid news that she was convicted of violating local labor laws. She is the daughter of Roberto Jefferson, the national president of the PTB party accused of corruption in 2013 after revealing that lawmakers received bribes to support bills during former president Lula administration. A federal court has already rejected an appeal from the Brazilian government and another from the lawyers of Brasil to proceed with the nomination. So far, her party and the government have not signaled that they may consider another candidate for the Labor Ministry. by Agencia CMA Latam For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com Economic News What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more. Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), a fund led by bitcoin entrepreneur Barry Silbert, announced Thursday a 91-for-1 stock split of the Trust's issued and outstanding shares. In a statement, Grayscale Investments, LLC, the sponsor of the fund and a unit of Digital Currency Group, Inc. that builds and supports bitcoin and blockchain companies, said that under the split, shareholders of record on January 22 will receive 90 additional shares of the Trust for each share held. The stock split will be effected on January 26 to shareholders of record as of the close of on January 22. Following the stock split, the Trust's shares will continue to be quoted on the OTCQX under the symbol "GBTC." As of now, the trust has 1.92 million shares and immediately after effectiveness of the stock split on January 26, the Trust would have 174.41 million shares outstanding. Bitcoin Investment Trust allows retail traders to make bets on bitcoin. It is run by Silbert, a former Wall Street investment banker and a big supporter of cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, major brokerage services have blocked the bitcoin fund recently. As per reports, Wells Fargo & Co., which runs the WellsTrade online brokerage service, joined Merrill Lynch in prohibiting its brokers from selling Bitcoin Investment Trust Fund. Merrill Lynch, the brokerage arm of Bank of America, earlier had blocked financial advisers and clients from trading in bitcoin-related investments, including Bitcoin Investment Trust. Reuters reported that that as of December 8, Merrill Lynch stopped signing off on new orders for the Bitcoin Investment Trust, citing suitability and eligibility standards of the product. WealthManagement.com recently reported that Wells Fargo is not allowing its advisors trade the bitcoin fund or bitcoin futures. As per the report, Wells Fargo Advisors or Wells Fargo Securities do not have any current plans to create a trading desk for cryptocurrencies. Wall Street majors and regulators around the world are taking a cautious approach towards cryptocurrency, which is highly volatile and unregulated. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Willbros Group, Inc. (WG) announced Friday that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell certain U.S. mainline pipeline assets to WB Pipeline, LLC, an affiliate of Meridien Energy, LLC. Assets included in the sale consists primarily of cross-country pipeline construction equipment. After the deal, WB Pipeline, LLC will operate under the name Willbros Pipeline. Willbros revealed that some senior management, including the Oil & Gas segment President Harry New, will be joining WB Pipeline, LLC immediately; while others may join WB Pipeline, LLC once existing pipeline projects have been completed. Funding for the deal will occur in stages throughout the first quarter of 2018. Willbros said it will continue to serve the U.S. oil & gas industry through its Facilities, Pipeline Integrity and Lineal businesses. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News President Donald Trump has denied reports that he used foul language while referring to immigrants in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers. "Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here?" Trump reportedly said in a meeting with senators and congressmen about immigration reform on Thursday. The president was apparently referring to impoverished African, Central American, and Caribbean countries like Eritrea, Haiti, and El Salvador. The Washington Post quoted Trump as telling lawmakers, "Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out." The meeting was convened to discuss a proposed bipartisan deal that would limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country and restrict the green card visa lottery in exchange for providing protections for young illegal immigrants brought to the country. The White House didn't deny that Trump used the slur, saying in a statement, "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people." But on Friday morning Trump gave a detailed explanation of his controversial remarks on Twitter. Trump said what was reported was not the language he used, although he acknowledged it was "tough." He also claimed that he never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than "Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country." Trump also denied saying, "take them out," claiming it was made up by Democrats. The president maintained he has a wonderful relationship with Haitians. He argued that such incidents point to the need to record future meetings, adding, "Unfortunately, no trust!" Regarding the bipartisan DACA deal presented at the meeting, Trump said it was a big step backwards. "Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly," Trump tweeted. Trump said he wants a merit-based system of immigration and people who will help take the country to the next level. "I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs. I want to fund our military, not do a Dem defund," he tweeted. However, Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., refuted Trump's claims, telling reporters the president "repeatedly" used derogatory language when referring to the immigrants. "To no surprise, the president started tweeting this morning denying that he used those words," Durbin said. "It is not true. He said these hate-filled things. And he said them repeatedly." Durbin, who attended the meeting, claimed "sh*tholes" was the exact word used by the president, "not just once, but repeatedly." For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Political News A group of U.S. Senators representing coastal states have informed the Trump administration that they don't want oil and gas drilling off their coasts, and are demanding the same exemption given to Florida recently. Florida was granted a special exemption by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. The US Government Tuesday had agreed to give special consideration to ecologically sensitive Florida coast within a week of unveiling a five year plan that would open most of the country's offshore waters to oil and gas drilling. In a letter sent to Secretary Zinke on Thursday, 22 senators strongly opposed the Trump Administration's offshore drilling plan, saying it is harmful to the environment and public , and could devastate coastal economies. "Just like Florida, our states are unique with vibrant coastal economies. Providing all of our states with the same exemption from dangerous offshore oil and gas drilling would ensure that vital industries from tourism to recreation to fishing are not needlessly placed in harm's way," the letter said. The states, which have opposed new leases off their coasts, are Florida, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Connecticut, California, Oregon, and Washington. The exemption given to Florida is seen as a clear indication of the political importance that President Donald Trump attaches to Florida, where he narrowly won the state's 29 electoral votes in the presidential election. Governor Rick Scott, a popular leader in Florida, is touted as the GOP candidate for Senate election later this year. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Political News Oprah Winfrey is purportedly not "actively considering" a run for president in 2020, but that has not stopped pollsters from analyzing a potential matchup between the media mogul and President Donald Trump. Results of a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll released Friday showed Winfrey with a double-digit lead over Trump among registered voters. Fifty percent of voters said they would vote for Winfrey if the 2020 election were held today, while 39 percent said they would vote for Trump. The poll showed a significant partisan divide, with 91 percent of Democrats supporting Winfrey and 85 percent of Republicans backing Trump. Winfrey leads 46 percent to 37 percent among Independents. Winfrey benefits from strong support among African American and Latino voters, while white voters are split 45 percent to 44 percent slightly in favor of Trump. However, the survey also found that 54 percent of voters do not want Winfrey to run for president compared to 35 percent that would like to see her run. Winfrey's powerful speech at the Golden Globes last Sunday was seen by many as a move toward a presidential campaign. Gayle King, Winfrey's best friend, said earlier this week that the former talk show host is "intrigued" by the idea of running for president but is not "actively considering" a run. The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey of 1,092 registered voters was conducted January 8th through 10th and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.0 percentage points. (Photo: Alan Light) For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said he responded directly to President Donald Trump's comments at a meeting on immigration but stopped short of confirming that the president referred to certain nations as "sh*thole countries." In a statement on Friday, Graham noted he attended a White House meeting with Trump along with Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to discuss their bipartisan proposal on border security and immigration. "Following comments by the President, I said my piece directly to him yesterday," Graham said. "The President and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel." "The American ideal is embraced by people all over the globe. It was best said a long time ago, E Pluribus Unum - Out of Many, One," he added. "Diversity has always been our strength, not our weakness. In reforming immigration we cannot lose these American Ideals." The statement from Graham comes on the heels of reports that Trump asked lawmakers at the meeting why the U.S. was allowing immigrants from "sh*thole countries" The president was apparently referring to impoverished African, Central American, and Caribbean countries like Eritrea, Haiti, and El Salvador. Trump has denied the reports, although Durbin told reporters the president "repeatedly" used derogatory language when referring to the immigrants. Durbin claimed "sh*tholes" was the exact word used by Trump. Durbin noted that Graham "spoke up" when Trump made the remark and praised his colleague's "political courage" for confronting the president. Meanwhile, Republican Senators David Perdue, R-Ga., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., have said they "do not recall" the president making those comments specifically. "But what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest," Perdue and Cotton said in a statement. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Political News In an unprecedented and "extraordinary" event in the history of Indian judiciary, four senior sitting judges of the Supreme Court on Friday met the media to allege that the administration of the country's top court was not in order. "It is an extraordinary event in the history of judiciary and more particularly in this nation, even for this institution (Supreme Court). It is with no pleasure that we have been compelled to do this. "Administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. Many things less than desirable have happened in the last few months. We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation. We tried to collectively persuade the Chief Justice that certain things are not in order and remedial measures are necessary. "Unfortunately our efforts have failed in convincing the Chief Justice of India to take steps to protect this institution," Justice J. Chelameswar-- the No.2 in the apex court hierarchy -- said at a hurriedly called press conference at his residence. Flanked by Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurien Joseph and Madan B. Lokur, he said the four of them were convinced that "for the survival of democracy an impartial judge and justices are needed". "All of us are convinced that unless this institution is protected and maintain its requirements, democracy will not survive in the country or any country. For survival of a democracy, it is said... the hallmark of a democracy is independent and impartial judges." Without disclosing what they were upset about, Justice Chelameswar said a lot of things had been written in the media and it was not a political controversy. "Since all our efforts failed... Even this morning, on a particular issue, we, four of us, went and met the Chief Justice with a specific request. Unfortunately we could not convince him. Therefore, we were left with no choice but to communicate with the nation to please take care of the institution and the nation. "We have heard a lot of wise men talking about... But I don't want some wise men to tell us later after 20 years that we four judges sold our souls instead of taking care of the institution and the nation. We have placed this in front of the people. This is what we wanted to convey." Replying to queries on what actually the issue was, Justice Chelameswar said: "About a couple of months back, four of us senior judges wrote a signed letter to the Chief Justice. We wanted a particular thing to be done in a particular manner. It was done but its raised many questions." Justice Gogoi said they were "discharging debt to the nation that has got us here". Indian, Pakistan troops clash on LoC Indian and Pakistani troops on Friday traded heavy gun and mortar fire on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district. Defence Ministry sources said the Pakistan Army violated the 2003 ceasefire in Kamalkote area in Uri sector. "They used automatics, small arms and mortars to target Indian positions. Our troops retaliated strongly and effectively," an official said. "There is no report of any casualty or damage so far on our side." The winding LoC divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. #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... Divisions at the top in the Supreme Court burst out in the open on Friday when four senior sitting judges took an unprecedented step of publicly accusing Chief Justice Dipak Misra of not strictly adhering to rules in assigning cases to appropriate benches which they said can create "doubt" about the integrity of the apex court. Speaking to the media at the residence of Justice J. Chelameswar, the judges said the Supreme Court administration was "not in order" and released an undated letter they wrote to Justice Misra in which they conceded that the Chief Justice was the master of roster but this was "not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual of the Chief Justice over his colleagues". "It (press conference) is an extraordinary event in the history of judiciary and more particularly in this nation, even for this institution (Supreme Court). It is with no pleasure that we have been compelled to do this. Administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. Many things less than desirable have happened in the last few months. We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation. We tried to collectively persuade the Chief Justice that certain things are not in order and remedial measures are necessary. "Unfortunately our efforts have failed in convincing the Chief Justice of India to take steps to protect this institution," Justice Chelameswar said at the hurriedly called press conference. The four judges -- Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Madan B. Lokur besides Justice Chelameswar -- did not refer to any particular matter the Chief Justice had decided in assigning benches. Asked specifically if they were upset over reference of the matter seeking a probe into the suspicious death of Special CBI Judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya, Justice Gogoi said: "Yes." But in the seven-page letter they said they were not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution because "such departures have already damaged the images of this institution to some extent". The clash among the judges in the highest court also comes in the wake of a controversial order in November in which Justice Misra declared that the Chief Justice "is the master of the roster" having exclusive power to decide which case will go to which judge. The CJI had given the order a day after a two-judge bench headed by Justice Chelameswar had passed an order that a five-judge bench of senior most judges in the apex court should be set up to consider an independent probe into a corruption case in which bribes were allegedly taken in the name of settling cases pending before Supreme Court judges. Holding that the Chief Justice was only the first among equals, the four judges contended that in a matter of determination of roster there were well-settled and time-honoured conventions guiding the Chief Justice, be it the convention dealing with the strength of the bench required to deal with a particular case or the composition thereof. "A necessary corollary to the above mentioned principle is the members of any multi-numbered judicial body, including this court, would not arrogate to themselves the authority to deal with and pronounce upon matters which ought to be heard by appropriate benches, both composition-wise and strength-wise with due regard to the roster fixed," they wrote in the letter. They said any departure from the two rules would not only lead to "unpleasant and undesirable consequences of creating doubt in the body politic about the integrity of the institution. Not to talk about the chaos that would result from such departure. "We are sorry to say that, of late, the twin rules mentioned above have not been strictly adhered to. There have been instances where case having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justices of this court selectively to the benches 'of their preference' without any rationale basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all cost." The four judges also touched upon another controversial issue, the Memorandum of Procedure on appointment of judges over which the Supreme Court had locked horns with the government. They referred to the October 27 order in R.P. Luthra vs Union of India case to the affect that there should be no further delay in finalising the Memorandum of Procedure in the larger public interest. "When the Memorandum of Procedure was the subject matter of a decision of a Constitution Bench of this court in Supreme Court, Advocates on Record Association and (Another) vs Union of India (2016), it is difficult to understand as to how any other bench could have dealt with the matter," they told the Chief Justice. Subsequent to this, detailed discussions were held by the collegium of five judges, including CJI, and the MoP was finalised and sent by the then CJI to the government in March 2017. The government, the letter said, has not responded to the communication and "in view of this silence it must be taken that the MoP has been accepted by the government of India on the basis of the order of this court. "There was, therefore, no occasion for the bench to make any observation with regard to the finalisation of the MoP or that that issue cannot linger on for an indefinite period." The judges said on July 4 last year, two members of a bench of seven judges that decided the case of Justice C.S. Karnan observed that there was a need to revisit the process of appointment of judges and to set up a mechanism for corrective measures other than impeachment. No observation was made by any of the seven judges with regard to the MoP. "Any issue with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure should be discussed in the Chief Justices' Conference and by the Full Court. Such a matter of grave importance, if at all required to be taken on the judicial side, should be dealt with by none other than a Constitution Bench. Justice Chelameswar told the media that they were "convinced that unless this institution is protected and maintain its requirements, democracy will not survive in the country or any country. "For survival of a democracy, it is said... the hallmark of a democracy is independent and impartial judges." "Since all our efforts failed... Even this morning, on a particular issue, we, four of us, went and met the Chief Justice with a specific request. Unfortunately we could not convince him. Therefore, we were left with no choice but to communicate with the nation to please take care of the institution and the nation." Justice Gogoi said they were "discharging debt to the nation that has got us here". Three women disciples from an ashram in Bihar's Nawada district have accused six men from the institution of raping them at gun-point over several days, police said on Friday. The three women of the Sant Kutir Ashram were raped inside the compound by nearly half a dozen "sewadars" between December 12 and 17, 2017, a district police officer said. The victims were also warned by their attackers not to inform the police. However, the victims lodged a police complaint on January 4, he added. All the accused named in the FIR were from Uttar Pradesh's Basti district and were absconding, the officer said. Nawada Superintendent of Police Vikas Barman said police teams have been formed, who are conducting raids to nab the accused. The victims told the police that on December 12, when they were busy cooking food in their room in the ashram, sewadars, including Kalpanath Choudhary, Girijashankar Choudhary, Tapasyanand, Sheet Choudhary forcibly entered into their room. The attackers then abused and caught them and raped them at gun point. They then threatened to kill them and fled from the room, the police said. All three victims have recorded their statement under section 164 in Nawada civil court on Thursday. Their medical examination was conducted at the Sadar Hospital, the police officer said. One of the victims informed the police that this was not the first incident of its kind at the ashram. A few months ago, one of accused had allegedly raped a woman and forced her at gun point to keep silent. When others protested, the accused opened fire, in which one person was injured. The incident did not come to the police's notice. The victims said that some 50 women and two dozen men were staying in the ashram and the three of them were living there for the last six years. __ SHOW_MID_AD__ Emosi Matau continuously faces the challenge of having no water and electricity. The 40-year-old from Malie is pleading with the government to help address the issues. Mr. Matau says he is in desperate need for help because he is unemployed and he relies heavily on his plantation to earn a living. He also spoke about the cost of living and how expensive life is these days. Everything nowadays revolves around money, no money no food for your family, so in other words, if you dont work to earn money, then your family would most likely suffer. I am keen to see the Samoa Water Authority set up our water pipelines that will reach our home, but I dont have any money to see this become a reality, Mr. Matau told the Village Voice team yesterday. He believes people can go on for days living without electricity, but water is the main source of life for mankind. There is a big difference between want and need. When you want something, it is just a desire which you could certainly live without, need is a must to have because without it, then you will not only struggle, but at the same time you would die. Water is something we do not want, it is what we need in order to survive and make it to the next day, he added. Despite his two children working, he said their earnings were still not enough to pay for their bills and put food on the table. School will be starting very soon which means there is going to be more money that will be spent on the children in terms of their fees and uniforms. I dont know where to find the money from, Mr. Matau said. I dont think that the money I earn from selling my crops will be enough to cater to my childrens needs. Both my wife and I do not work. Mr. Matau added life would have been much easier if the costs of living were lower. The Police are investigating the death of a 15-year-old boy allegedly killed in connection to a drug deal that turned sour. This was confirmed by the Police Superintendent and Media Spokesperson, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo in response to questions from the Samoa Observer. The investigation, he said, was launched when the boy went missing earlier this week. This led the Police to a marijuana farm, which has been confiscated at the street value of more than $100,000. The incident is alleged to have occurred in the village of Satapuala. A woman and her estranged partner are fighting for their lives at the Motootua Hospital following a horrific stabbing in front of the National Bank of Samoas building in Apia this morning. Eyewitnesses say the man had an argument with his wife before he started stabbing her multiple times in public. The victim is an employee for one of the government ministries housed at the ACC Building, one eye witness said. He was waiting for the victim to come to work because it was around 8oclock in the morning that the incident occurred. The eyewitness said the accused stabbed her multiple times. When members of the public rushed to her rescue, he ran away. He ran towards the Mulivai Bridge because a taxi driver was chasing after him. He jumped into the sea and he went inside a pipe that is under there. However, when he decided to come back out the knife that he used on his partner was on his chest. The police arrived at the scene and the ambulance was called. They were both taken to the hospital and they underwent operation that was like an ago. The Police are investigating. The head of a 15-year-old boy was savagely bashed in a murder allegedly connected to drug dealing at Satapuala. The death has become the subject of a Police investigation which saw armed Police officers in the area yesterday. Nearby, the community is coming to terms with the gruesome discovery. It was not possible to get a comment from the family of the boy, whom the Police have identified as Uili Uili of Satapuala. According to the Police Superintendent and Media Spokesperson, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo, the boys family reported the matter to the Police on Wednesday because he did not return home the previous day. This set off an investigation by the Police, which led them to a marijuana farm. The boy was found nearby. The Police have since seized the marijuana farm, estimated to have a street value of more than $100,000. According to two men from Satapuala, the boy was last seen on Tuesday. On Thursday evening, more than 20 Police vehicles with more than 30 Police officers came to our village and went directly to the area called the Poloka, the eyewitness said. The Police did not find the body of the missing kid on Wednesday. He was found (yesterday) with severe injuries to his head and his body was decomposed. It appeared that his head was smashed by a heavy object. They arrested two men that evening and confiscated a whole lot of marijuana plants. This morning (yesterday) another police motorcade came; more than 30 Police officers I saw were geared up and armed with shotguns, the Satapuala man added. Auapaau did not wish to comment on the account given by the men from Satapuala, but confirmed that 200 marijuana plants were confiscated, some of which were six feet tall. Some of the marijuana has already been dried and stored in buckets, he said. Its possible that this may be the largest marijuana farm the Police have confiscated. Also taken in as evidence from the raid were live ammunitions and a pistol. Asked when the body was discovered, Auapaau said the execution of the warrant yesterday led to where the deceased was found. I cannot further comment on the matter as investigation is ongoing. However the Ministry of Police wishes to convey its deepest condolences to the mourning family. We also want to commend and thank the Satapuala Village Council for their assistance in the matter. Auapaau said five suspects had been arrested so far. The following is a media release issued by the Police last night: On Wednesday 19th January 2017 police received a request for assistance regarding a 15 year old male, Uili Uili of Satapuala who was reported missing by his family since Tuesday 9th January 2018. The concerned family indicated to police that he is suspected to have been a victim of a drug related incident. Faleolo outpost responded to the request and as a result police confirmed the existence of marijuana plantations and possible high powered weapons. The information received during the preliminary investigation lead to the execution of a Search Warrant at Satapuala on Thursday evening. As a result of the police search, close to 200 plants and loose marijuanas were seized. The concerning amount is estimated to earn approximately at a street value of over $100,000 tala. Police also seized an illegal weapon and ammunitions associated with the cultivation of marijuana plants. However they were not able to locate the missing teenager. Earlier this morning police reconvened its search and were able to locate the body of the victim. More marijuana plants and possibly high power military ammunitions were seized. A number of booby traps installed in the area were also removed by police. A total of 5 suspects are now under police custodies with a few more to be charged in relation to the cultivation of marijuana and possibly for the homicide case. Further additional charges are expected as the investigation unfolds. Samoa Police Service offers its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased. "We wish to thank the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration, Office of the Attorney General and Police Minister for supporting SPS in the execution of our duties. Furthermore, we wish to thank the Pulenuu and village council of Satapuala for their assistance in both search operations. We ask members of the public to contact the police if you have any further information in relation to this homicide case. Faafetai lava Samoa! A young woman and her estranged husband are fighting for their lives at the Motootua Hospital following a bizarre incident in front of the National Bank of Samoa yesterday where the man stabbed his wife before attempting to self harm. An eyewitness said the man came out of nowhere and started stabbing her multiple times, in view of members of the public. The victim is an employee for one of the government ministries housed at the A.C.C. Building, one eyewitness told the Weekend Observer. He was waiting for the victim to come to work because it was around 8oclock in the morning that the incident occurred. When members of the public rushed to her rescue, he ran away. He ran towards the Mulivai Bridge because a taxi driver was chasing after him. He jumped into the sea and he went inside a pipe that is under there. However, when he decided to come back out the knife that he used on his partner was on his chest. The Police arrived at the scene and the ambulance was called. They were both taken to the hospital and they underwent operation that was like a while ago. Contacted for a comment, Police Spokesperson, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo said they are investigating. All I can say is that its a domestic violence case, but you will have to wait until I get back to the office, then I will be able to answer all your questions in regards to the incident, he said. A hospital official, who is not authorised to speak to the media, told the Weekend Observer the man and woman are both in critical condition. The victim and the accused were in a relationship, said the source. However, we were told that its one of those on and off relationships, so the victim is no longer with him and she is staying with her family. As for the accused, we havent received any information on him because he was taken to the operating room when he was brought in. The official said the victim is from Tufuiopa. According to an eyewitness the incident occurred quite early. I just walked out of the National Bank after delivering their newspaper when the incident happened, he said. The victim was walking when out of nowhere the accused jumped in front of her and started stabbing her. He stabbed her eight times to the chest, on her side and her back. She then fell on the ground and the accused ran away. The eye witness said there was a lot of blood. It was a very sad scene because she just laid there in a pile of blood, the security tried to chase him (accused). The eye witness said this was a very sad and scary scene to start of 2018. I hope shes okay because she was unconscious and as for the accused, I hope he goes to jail for a long time. He looks young, after he stabbed her, he ran away while the victim was lying in a pile of blood. The security then chased him and he went through N.P.F. and Mc. Donalds and then he just disappeared. As one of the four pillars of democracy Press Freedom was the real star of an evening where the Samoa Observer and the International Press Institute teamed up to premiere Steven Spielbergs film, The Post, at Apollo Cinemas on Thursday. The movie centers around the character of the late Katharine Graham, the Publisher of the Washington Post during the 1970s who oversaw its most famous period of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Her leadership at the Washington Post and her courageous decision during a turbulent time for Freedom of the Press earned her the I.P.I Press Freedom Hero award in 2000 along with Samoa Observers Editor in Chief, Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa. Before the movie began, moviegoers watched a special address from Executive Director of I.P.I, Barbara Trionfi. At I.P.I we believe that the only free, independent quality journalism will be able to protect the public interest and to fulfill its public function, she said With this in mind I salute the Samoa Observer, a long time member of I.P.I world community and a strong supporter of I.P.I core mission. Its founder and editor in chief, Savea Sano Malifa has never stopped fighting for the right of the press to expose corruption and wrong doing and so strengthens the democratic pillars of society. In the movie based on real events in the life Washington Posts Katharine Graham, the tough decisions and challenges that come with defending one of the pillars of democracy and keeping the doors of a business open were laid out for all to see. Those watching were given an insight on what happens in both a newsroom and a boardroom of a newspaper and one moviegoer could not help but draw comparisons between on screen characters and real life figures from Samoas daily newspaper. The movie received good reviews by the evenings special guests. Among them was the Minister of Finance, Sili Epa Tuioti. We all learn from these things, he said. I mean its entertaining but its also very informative. Its important to make decisions that are good for the general good of the country. We dont necessarily make such decisions but its also important to expect the media to report responsibly. It also makes me appreciate more the need for some of the conversations between leaders whether you are leaders of the government, leaders of the community or business and the media. We have a collective responsibility to inform our people. Commenting on the ongoing robust and sometimes volatile relationship between the government and the media, Sili said, I think its important that we have separate roles and separate responsibilities. Sometimes we tend to over defend and overprotect but we need to make sure that people understand what we are doing. We need to be more transparent and not be afraid to explain the decisions that we make, why we make them and for what reason. I think we are a small enough community to be able to work together. I mean there will always be areas where we take different views but that should not detract us from our collective effort to ensure that we continue to move forward in a responsible, transparent and accountable manner. Theres always reasons why decisions are made and unless its in the interest of national security, I think we need to be a lot more open and to communicate our people would love to understand the background of how we make those decisions. Sometimes people dont understand but we need to appreciate that people will have different views whatever the situation you know, it will never be a one hundred percent consensus. Looking at Samoa today, Sili said weve made progress. We should always be doing better, we learn every day, he said. We all need to improve our commitment to communication. Its a challenge for all of us to be a lot more trusting and to be transparent and accountable. The Chinese Ambassador, Wang Xuefeng and his wife Tong Xin also enjoyed the movie. We learned some inside story of this very important event in the history of the Press and we are also very impressed by the performance of the two main actors, Madame Xin said. The Mayor of Apia, Tuiletufuga Siaosi and his wife Julian Siaosi also weighed in, feeling inspired after the movie and the role of Press freedom in Samoa especially in light of the reinstatement of the Criminal Libel Act. I dont know why the bloody government is trying to stop you guys from doing your job, Tuiletufuga said. I mean this is the voice of the people and I dont know why they were doing that. I think that everybody and all the newspapers should just come out and say what they want to say. Mrs. Siaosi enjoyed the film and encouraged others to watch it. Overall they spoke their mind on this issue, well done and well-acted I enjoyed the movie very much, she said. The public should see the movie to know what the papers go through. I hope that the freedom of the press will continue on in Samoa. We should always back it and especially support our local paper. Taking time out to really take in and enjoy whats right in front of you was the aim for Lote Hoffmans Samoan getaway. The New Zealand born beauty, who resides in Mount Isaac, Australia, has been to Samoa before, but she felt this trip would be more about relaxation. Being half Samoan, I really feel a connection to Samoa and I came here when I heard my aunts husband was performing a concert at the Taumeasina Island Resort, which turned out awesome, she said. I was really impressed with the high caliber of the set up which was really great and it just felt like you were at a well-planned outdoor concert like youd find overseas. Working as a Business Analyst in the Mines is a full on job with its stresses and Lote was looking for some much needed relaxation, treating herself to staying at various resorts in Upolu and Savaii. Im an Accountant by trade and Im working in the Mines as a Business Analyst. Living in Mount Isaac by myself its so isolating and there are not that many Samoan people there, so reconnecting with my family and having a relaxing holiday is the idea behind my travels. Lote has been resort hopping and treating herself to accommodations in some of the best hotels in Samoa, loving the different, but same high standard facilities they offered. I stayed at the Taumeasina Island Resort when I first got here and it was great. Ive been here before, but last time, I only came here for dinner, so I thought to myself that this time round I would stay there. I just love that they have the ocean right there because I kayaked every day. Aggie Greys Hotel is beautiful and the room service has been really good. Deciding to get out of the city life for a spell, Lote headed to Savaii for a two-day trip staying at the Amoa Resort. Ive been there before, but I just found it so beautiful. I kind of wanted just a couple of days of really relaxing and kicking back because I find that when Im in Upolu, Ive got so many things to do and places to be, everythings happening its like a faster life here, but in Savaii they dont have all of that there so you have no choice but to relax and enjoy that time. Following a recommendation she read on Trip Advisor, Lote decided that she wanted to see Savaii in more depth and reached out to one of Savaiis most prolific tour guides, Tuapou Warren Jopling, who was featured on Samoa Observers list of People of the Year. It was awesome. I really enjoyed going around Savaii with Warren, he is so knowledgeable and he knows so much about whats underneath Savaii and all the places youve heard about. He showed me diagrams and maps to really give me an in depth tour of Savaii. Fulfilling a fantasy to visit the birth places of Samoan goddesses, one of the highlights of her Savaii tour was visiting the Tafua crater. Ever since I read the Telesa series, I have always wanted to visit the places that the book mentioned and Warren actually took me up to the Tafua crater and apparently, no other tour guide in Savaii does that. You couldnt even see a path up there, but Warren knew exactly where to go and when we got up there, the view was absolutely stunning. He told me so many interesting things, especially around the water reservoirs in Savaii and I got a lesson in why some villages need to drill out further inland to prevent the high levels of water salinity, hes honestly an awesome tour guide. Lote returns to Australia this weekend, but before she goes, she looks forward to attending a family reunion of sorts and an 80th birthday, where she will perform a Cook Island/Tahitian inspired dance which she has been practicing all week. The staff of the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration, including Judges and lawyers, gathered at Mulinuu to commit 2018 to the Lord yesterday. Those in attendance included the Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu, Cabinet Ministers and heads of government organizations. Reverend Komisi Samuelu conducted the service. He reminded all the staff and Judges that honesty and hard work go a long way. This is the beginning of a new year and therefore we must have new attitudes and new mindsets on how to conduct our work, he said. Commit our work to God and He will guide us through our journey. Let God be the center of all that we do this year and commit our work to him. When you have tough days, remember to ask God for help and the strength to carry on. This year is a year of blessing for all of us. For Chief Justice Patu, he used the opportunity to acknowledge the government, especially Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi for funding the video links that are inside Supreme Courts 1 and 2. This initiative is of great help because then we now see a witness who is involved in a case through these video links, especially those who are residing in New Zealand, he said. We will be able to see the witness giving evidence or testifying while the trial is on at the same time. He also urged the government to install video links inside the Land and Titles Court. As we all know almost everyone, including witnesses who are involved in Lands and Titles Court cases reside overseas. So having video links will be able to help the Lands and Titles Court conduct their cases rather than adjourn it because the witness or people involved in the cases are not on island. So I want to thank the Government for this great initiative. The work of the Court resumes on Monday. 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 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. Advertisement 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 whose 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 President 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 Q: Will San Diegos recreational marijuana business growth be affected by the Justice Departments new anti-pot prosecution policy? Phil Blair, Manpower NO: I think this stance is to placate the conservative voters in states that would never be progressive enough to legalize recreational marijuana. The administration is going to be so tied up with much more pressing and controversial issues that this one will fall by the wayside, unnoticed. Advertisement Kelly Cunningham, San Diego Institute for Economic Research YES: Banks tend to resist dealing with businesses targeted by federal law enforcement. Since marijuana remains illegal under federal law, access to banking services is severely restricted and marijuana business remains mainly conducted by cash. Complex regulations and heavy taxes also increase costs of production and compliance, as it does for any product. The solution is not to ignore or undermine federal laws, but repeal or adjust them. Otherwise enforcement comes by political whim and ambiguity. David Ely, San Diego State University YES: Rescinding the Obama-era policy that eased enforcement of federal marijuana laws creates an environment of uncertainty for the industry. It is yet unclear how the Justice Department and individual U.S. attorneys will respond, and thus, whether the number of prosecutions will increase. But at least in the short term, the increased risk could discourage entry and expansion in the industry. And, financial institutions will become even more cautious about serving marijuana businesses. Gina Champion-Cain, American National Investments NO: The early adopting entrepreneurs attracted to the marijuana business are very risk tolerant and will not be fazed by the Justice Departments new anti-states rights position. Nor will consumers be affected or even vaguely aware of the new federal guidance. Thus there will be no negative impact on the industrys growth. Federal banking policy barring the industry from standard banking services remains the greatest growth impediment. Alan Gin, University of San Diego NO: While the Department of Justice says it is going to crack down, they are going to be opposed by the state of California. That will set up a legal showdown based on federalism and states rights. Regardless of how that goes, it will take years to resolve itself in the legal system. Sales will continue until the case is resolved. By that time, the industry will be so ingrained that it might not be possible to roll back. James Hamilton, UC San Diego NO: This is a losing hand for the White House and surely they can figure that out. A significant part of Republican support comes from libertarians and conservatives who dont want the government telling them what to do, and from people who are serious about the Constitution, who will ask why this is a federal responsibility. It would also play terribly with the broader public. I expect words but no action from the White House. Gary London, London Group of Realty Advisors NO: I see the (Attorney General Jeff) Sessions move as a political shot in the dark. It will get little or no support locally, state or federal. The more important question is, just how big a deal is recreational pot economically? If it is a windfall, then it is a good new source of taxable revenue, which might remedy other fiscal shortfalls. If, after the initial long lines, the demand stabilizes and the market is tepid, legal pot might at least have the impact of cutting down on associated crime, also an important economic plus. We will see. Norm Miller, University of San Diego He is not participating this week. Jamie Moraga, IntelliSolutions YES: Theres now more uncertainty and confusion with the ability of federal authorities to crack down on states that have legalized marijuana. Some of this reversal could be mitigated by U.S. attorneys in the states with legalized marijuana, where they may elect to not change their approach on prosecution and only focus on what poses the highest safety threat. Because enforcement due to this Justice Department decision remains to be seen, the risk will be much higher for recreational marijuana business owners. That said, many will likely roll the dice and move forward. Austin Neudecker, Rev YES: Expect little immediate impact on recreational/medicinal sales because of various protections in place by the California legislature thus far. The continued challenge seems to be banks and investors being timid about backing new production, distribution and technology in this exploding space. California is poised to reap huge financial benefits from legalization, yet it is unfortunate that this will inject undue uncertainty into a fledgling market. Bob Rauch, R.A. Rauch & Associates NO: Federal prosecutors will likely focus solely on black and gray markets. While there will be some uncertainty based on Attorney General Sessions recent position, there is no reason to expect a crackdown on legal recreational or medical marijuana sales in California. Sessions was most likely setting up an opportunity for states to be serious about illegal marijuana sales by drug cartels. There will be no impact on recreational marijuana business growth. Lynn Reaser, Point Loma Nazarene University YES: Uncertainty about possible actions by the local U.S. attorney is likely to have some dampening impact on the industrys growth potential. There are also fears that national legislation could be implemented imposing new restrictions. Many existing growers, retailers, and other industry participants will continue, but new entrants may encounter increased difficulty attracting capital. With traditional banking off limits, financing will remain a problem for all, and many insurers are now refusing to offer coverage. John Sarkisian, SKLZ NO: I dont expect the Justice Department taking action to stop the sale of recreational or medical cannabis. Thirty states have legalized the sale of cannabis in some form. Given this acceptance throughout much of the nation it is hard to imagine the federal government taking a hard stand against the sale of marijuana. Chris Van Gorder, Scripps Health YES: The use, sale and possession of all forms of cannabis in the U.S. is illegal under federal law, despite the fact that California and a few other states have made it legal. Should the U.S. Justice Department decide to enforce the federal law in California, it will impact the marijuana business here in San Diego. I suspect this will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court as a federal versus states rights issue. Have an idea for an EconoMeter question? Email me at roger.showley@sduniontribune.com Business roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley San Diego County veterans are receiving fewer prescriptions of addictive painkillers than five years ago as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs tries to reduce reliance on the opioid drugs blamed for the nations current overdose epidemic. The big picture: The VA on Thursday released the prescription rate of opioid-based drugs at all of its pharmacies. The federal agency becomes the only hospital system in the country to post this information, according to VA Secretary David Shulkin. The local picture: At the San Diego VA medical care system, 10 percent of prescriptions were for opioids in 2017. Thats down from 18 percent in 2012. Advertisement The best and the worst: San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Cleveland, Ohio, had the lowest rates in the VA 3 percent. El Paso, Texas, achieved the biggest drop, going from 19 percent to 7 percent in five years. The Roseburg, Oregon, VA had the highest prescription rate in 2017 of all VA hospitals: 20 percent. Why it matters: In the United States, death rates linked to drug overdoses increased by 102 percent from 1999 to 2010 in the general population, with opioid abuse being a prime contributor to this spike. Voices: Many veterans enrolled in the VA health care system suffer from high rates of chronic pain and the prescribing of opioids may be necessary medically...It is important that we are transparent on how we prescribe opioids, so veterans and the public can see what we are doing in our facilities and the progress we have made over time. VA Secretary David Shulkin. Our providers here for the most part will not start people on opiates for chronic shoulder pain or knee pain, whereas 10 years ago, patients may have been started on that medication. Dr. James Michelsen, chairman of the San Diego VAs opiate pain council. The drugs: Examples of opioid drugs are hydrocodone, oxycodone, codeine and morphine. These are narcotic prescription painkillers that can produce physical dependence in patients and, in some cases, result in addiction. Background: In 2012, the VA launched its opioid safety initiative to promote safe prescribing practices following a spike in use. From 2004 to 2012, VA opioid prescriptions given on an outpatient basis had increased by nearly 77 percent. Part of the safety initiative was the creation of interdisciplinary opiate pain councils, like the one in San Diego. Also, VA doctors are now internally graded on their performance on opiate safety. Whats next: VA doctors are trying to ease longtime opiate patients off narcotics by offering them alternatives such as physical therapy to deal with pain. The question is what to do with those patients who have been on opiates for 10 or 15 years, said Michelsen of the San Diego VA. Weve found in some patients when weve (reduced opioids) too quickly, they can develop other symptoms. Methodology: The VAs rates were calculated by dividing the number of veterans who received any opioid prescription by the total number who received a prescription from that VA pharmacy. RELATED Overprescribed: Veterans and the painkiller problem Business jen.steele@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @jensteeley There is, perhaps, no better family-friendly venue than the San Diego Zoo, an expansive, fun-meets-educational site that invites and rewards, real-world curiosity for people of all ages. And yet the most arresting visual is something completely unnatural: Young children, strapped into strollers with devices, their eyes affixed to screens instead of the animals around them. This is our new normal, where the best a city has to offer cannot, in the eyes of a child, compete with the never-ending stimulation offered by an electronic device. And we that is, everyone who reaches for a device the minute it beckons or simply to kill time are to blame. Were turning our children into digital addicts by default, said Brian Solis, a parent of two and a principal analyst with technology research firm Altimeter Group. It is because, perhaps, we believe that our children couldnt possibly entertain themselves through analog formats. Advertisement To his point, Solis recounted an all too familiar scene that played out just days prior. He was sitting at a hotel bar when a mother of two young kids arrived, sat down next to him and instantly whipped out two iPads and two pairs of headphones. She immediately put her children on iPad babysitting, he said. Its almost as if, as a matter of function, this is going to be how we have dinner. Not in my house. I am a step-mother to a nearly 7-year-old boy who would, if allowed, never stray too far from a device. There are, of course, plenty of restrictions. Still, I worry that were turning our kids into digital monsters, or behavior-modified beings who are taught from birth to experience life through the lens of a smartphone or tablet. To quote Teddi Mellencamp, a cast member on Bravos The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, to try and take the tablet away is like getting them off of crack. Digital addicts Maybe its not fair to liken devices to drugs but, then again, maybe it is. The effects appear just as dangerous. New research demonstrates a link between high daily usage and depression in teens. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and the author of iGen, has partnered with Apple investors who want the tech giant to develop software that lets parents moderate kids phone time. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune ) Three hours and beyond (per day) is where issues show up, said Jean Twenge, a San Diego State professor of psychology and the author of iGen. Her research has found that the more time teens spend with screens, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression. High school students who spend five or more hours or day on devices are 71 percent more likely to report a risk factor for suicide than those who spend less than one hour per day. Screens are, of course, directly affecting how teens interact with one another online, but theyre also indirectly impacting sleep and face-to-face get-togethers. The more time teens spend on devices, the more likely they are to not get enough sleep and the less likely they are to meet up with friends in person, Twenge said. Sleep deprivation is a known risk factor for mental health issues and face-to-face interaction is key for mental health. This is why Twenge, a parent of three, recently partnered with two activist Apple investors to pressure the technology behemoth to make parent-friendly software for its iPhones and iPads. Doing the right thing means having (Apple) integrate something into the operating system that makes it easier for parents to put limits on amount of time kids are using devices, she said. Twenge is not, however, advocating for a device-free existence or trying to downplay the responsibility of parents. She wants tech companies to help, instead of hinder, parents ability to play a more active role in their kids digital decisions. Still, its hard to know exactly what that looks like. Todays digital battleground: Schools Like Twenge, Dmitry Shapiro, a San Diego entrepreneur and former Googler, is keenly aware of the tug-of-war taking place between technology advancements that help children learn, and the saturation of digital devices and material available to kids. It plays out in his home and work on a daily basis. Shapiro, the creator of an augmented reality app called Metaverse that is being embraced by primary and secondary school teachers, acknowledges that his 2 year-old is not only addicted to her iPad but a master at navigating YouTube. His 4 year-old son is even more of an expert. You, as a parent, have to make some difficult some decisions, he said. Devices, Shapiro said, can be handy pacifiers, but they tend to overstimulate, leading to behavioral issues both at home and at school. At the same time, kids are growing up in a world where this skill is super important. As a result, Shapiro and his wife limit their kids screen time to Friday nights and weekends, which is an interesting decision for a startup founder who advocates for the use of his smartphone app in classrooms. Dmitry Shapiro, center, is the creator of Metaverse, a kind of parallel universe that employs augmented reality in the same fashion as Pokemon Go. (Nancee E. Lewis / The San Diego Union-Tribune ) I spend most of my day talking to teachers, and their livelihood depends on how to get through to students. Theyre on the front lines of this, he said. Ive never talked to one who has said, Ive got some way other than technology to solve this problem. Schools, indeed, are a critical battleground. We send our kids off each day to learn something of significance, but forget that we often sabotage their success before they even get there. If kindergartners dont get enough sleep, you will get hyperactivity, which makes it hard for them to concentrate, said Letty Peck. Peck is family, my aunt to be specific, but shes also a retired primary school teacher who holds a masters in child-centered psychology and was named San Diego County Teacher of the Year in 1994. Because theyre tired, they just cant focus. And they get into trouble because they cant focus. Theyre not doing what they need to do possibly distracting another child, and now you have two people who are going to get into trouble. Shes not against devices and even encourages educators to embrace technology in the classroom. You cant turn this off. Its where were headed, she said. But teachers also have to incorporate the physicality of children without devices; to get them outside sweating. And parents must move away from coddling kids with devices at home, Peck said. I hear parents say, We have to pick our battles. If youre choosing your battles at 5 years of age, you kind of screwed up during the first four years. What are you going to do when theyre 13? The kids arent alright One could make the case that our new device-centric reality is being sensationalized in the same way that parents a generation ago feared excessive TV time. In fact, when I solicited input on Facebook, I got such a defense from Adam McLane, a San Diegan who runs the youth ministry organization Youth Cartel and who I occasionally use as a source for stories on kids and tech. The gist of McLanes complaint is twofold: The media is trying to scare parents; the kids are alright. To the former, sure, there are plenty of articles regurgitating alarming stats expressly in the name of page views. But theres also real journalism on the topic that should not be brushed aside. Take, for instance, The Atlantic piece on phone addiction, spotlighting the very-real tactics that the worlds most influential technology companies Apple, Google, Facebook employ to ensure that people get sucked into their products. The article introduces us to Tristan Harris who spent three years as Googles Design Ethicist trying to prevent peoples minds from being hijacked. Through his essays and a popular TED Talk, Harris, who now runs the nonprofit initiative Time Well Spent, spotlights the dark art of behavior design, or the work of exploiting human vulnerabilities with the intent of enslaving us to our devices and social networks. Take the bottomless-bowl principle. Give a person a bottomless bowl, and not only will she eat 73 percent more calories than contained in a normal-sized bowl, but she will underestimate how many calories she ate by 140 calories, Harris writes. Tech companies exploit the same principle, he said. News feeds are purposely designed to auto-refill with reasons to keep you scrolling, and purposely eliminate any reason for you to pause, reconsider or leave. If adults behaviors are so easy manipulate, what chance do kids and teens stand? None. Consider Snapstreaks, the Snapchat feature that highlights the number of days in a row that two people have communicated with each other. If youre a teenager and you have a 150 days in a row, you dont want that to go away, Harris said. Think of the little blocks of time that that schedules in kids minds. It gets worse. When kids go on vacation, he said, they give their passwords to as many as five friends just to keep their Snapstreaks alive. Now to McLanes latter point, whether our kids are, in fact, just fine. How can we know for sure? Lets go back to the Snapchat example. You might say teens are just using Snapchat the way older generations gossiped on the telephone. Not so, says Harris. In the 1970s ... there werent 100 engineers on the other side of the screen who knew exactly how your psychology worked and orchestrated you into a double bind with each other. A digital dystopia Even if you dismiss the invisible engineers and write off the available science, it doesnt take a genius to look around and see that something is fundamentally broken about the world we inhabit today. At any given time or place adults, teens, kids, even babies can be found with their heads down and eyes locked on a digital screen, oblivious to the goings on around them. Its as if we are living in our own episode of Netflixs dystopian series Black Mirror, one in which unsettling device-related behaviors are so normalized we cant see them for what they are. Theres a beauty in the sophistication of someone who knows how to understand a new medium, said Altimeters Solis. And norms in society then make it accepted or standard. Or, as Shapiro put it, God help us all. Business jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin A conference on Faith and the Art of Work, titled Theology on Tap, is slated for Jan. 27 at the Village Church in Rancho Santa Fe. The communitywide event with panel discussion, networking and beer tasting focuses on how faith can be lived out in the workplace. A panel of business leaders will discuss how they apply their faith in their work. The panel includes Roger Martin, senior vice president and chief IP strategist at Qualcomm; Professor Maria Zack, department chairwoman and special assistant to the president at Point Loma Nazarene University; and Roy Inzunza Jr., corporate chaplain at Hoehn Motors, among others. Advertisement The event is part of the churchs Faith and Work Initiative, which the congregation launched last year, inspired by area business leaders. The Faith and Work Initiative focuses on living to the glory of God in all you do, said the Rev. Neal Presa, associate pastor of the Village Church, who coordinates the program. As part of the program, the congregation started a 12-part series of online video interviews featuring prominent San Diegans who share stories of how they live out their faith at work. Business owners, corporate executives and a movie producer are among the participants. Among the business leaders profiled are Bill and Susan Hoehn, owners of Hoehn Motors who have hired a chaplain for their employees; Susan Huguenor, retired San Diego Superior Court judge; Dane Smith, producer of such films as The Dropbox (2015) and Emmanuel (2018); and Dr. Hugh Greenway, CEO emeritus, Scripps Clinic. The video series presents a new interview each month at villagechurch.org/profiles-of-faith. As part of the initiative, the church also sponsors events to mentor high school and college students so they gain a sense of their spiritual vocation. Theology on Tap is from 4 to 7 p.m. Jan. 27 at the church, 6225 Paseo Delicias. Tickets cost $25, including beer and appetizers. Registration is required; limited slots are open for child care (ages 2-11). Participants must be at least 21 years old. Register at villagechurch.org/theology-on-tap or (858) 756-2441. For the next month at the Escondido Arts Partnership Municipal Gallery, about 50 finely crafted pieces of wood furniture will be on display, but it will be President Jimmy Carters right hand that will likely be what is most talked about. Wood IX, A Furniture Show, opens Friday and runs through Feb. 3 at the gallery at the corner of Grand Avenue and Juniper Street. The furniture, made by some of the best craftsman throughout Southern California, will be for sale with some pieces going for well over $10,000. Advertisement One item not for sale, however, will be a small sculpture titled Teamwork which features bronze castings of Carters right hand and San Diego artist Russ Filbecks left hand. It is one of three such sculptures, one of which was recently sold for $140,000 as part of a fundraiser for the Carter Center in Atlanta, which raises money to fight diseases around the world. Filbeck has known Carter, who has been a life-long woodworker, for many years and has been making items to be auctioned off by the center for decades. Together, he and Carter made a dining set that sold at the Carter Centers auction in 2016 for $600,000. I felt we ought to commemorate that somehow, and thats when I thought of the bronze hands holding the drawknife that we used to make the chairs while sitting on a shaving horse, Filbeck said. This represents that process. Carter owns a second sculpture featuring Filbecks right hand and Carters left. A third sculpture featuring only the former presidents hands was the one sold recently at auction. It will eventually be on display at the Carter Center. TheTeamwork name of the sculptures not only represent Carter and Filbecks collaboration on the dining set, but also the group of people it took to create the sculptures. That team includes Filbecks friend Dick Erickson, who went to Georgia with Filbeck to create the plaster molds of Carters hands, and Fallbrook artist Brandon Roy of the California Sculpture Academy where the bronze castings were made. A lot of man hours and attention to detail go into getting something like this to come out just right, Roy said. Its a beautiful piece of sculpture and were really thankful to be part of that process. This is the ninth year the show has been held and is sponsored by Escondidos Murphys Fine Woodworking owners Brian and Nancy Murphy. It will feature the works of 33 craftsman. At last years opening night we had 450 people here, Murphy said. But the thing thats so important to me is that 3,200 people walked through these doors just to see the show over 25 days. That puts feet on the ground here in town that affects all the business, said Murphy, a past chairman of the Escondido Chamber of Commerce. He said he is excited about the President Carter sculpture because it should be a draw that will get even more people to visit the show. The gallery will be open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 1 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the week and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. For more information about the free show go to escondidoarts.org/wood-viii/ on the web. jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones In a North Island ceremony that featured a flyover by the Navys Blue Angels aerial acrobats, a tarmac filled with the nations latest and most fearsome aircraft and an auditorium brimming with the most powerful champions of naval air power, the Navy installed a new air boss on Thursday. Vice Adm. DeWolfe H. Bullet Miller III relieved his fellow three-star Michael Shoe Shoemaker as the commander of both the U.S. Pacific Fleets air wings and all Naval Air Forces worldwide. Widely admired for his strong leadership during an era of slumping military budgets, an aging strike fighter fleet, a shortage of carriers and increased competition for Navy pilots by commercial airlines, Shoemaker retires to his Coronado home after 35 years of military service, the past three years as the Navys top pilot. Advertisement His former training squadron instructor, Miller, takes the helm of the twin North Island-based command just as $1.5 billion in extra Pentagon funding begins to flow into Navy coffers to hike readiness after nearly five years of tight budgets following 2013s so-called sequestration deal between Capitol Hill and the White House. After the ceremony, Miller, 58, said in an interview that his tenure as air boss will be marked by a new generation of high-tech weapons, from the $121 million F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter parked behind him to the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine planes and the MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone and the MQ-25 Stingray robot refueler. Not that they fundamentally change the way we do business, but those platforms, were going to have to learn as we evolve the tactics, techniques and procedures that have made us so successful as we go into the future, he said. Only four LTV A-7 Corsair II pilots remain on active duty in the Navy, and three of them sat on the stage of the North Island hangar bay: Shoemaker, Miller and Adm. Scott H. Notso Swift, the Pacific Fleet commander who also has announced his upcoming retirement. Although Swift pinned a Distinguished Service Medal on Shoemaker for his superior leadership, the man presiding over the ceremony was the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. William F. Bill Moran the second most powerful Navy leader and by his own admission its most zealous advocate of maritime air power. A career Lockheed P-3 Orion pilot, Moran in his address decried 11 straight years of continuing resolutions in Congress that have left military budgeters grasping for steady funding but he praised Shoemaker for guiding the Navys air forces through the fiscal turmoil. He assured the gathered brass that Miller and Shoemaker were both unselfish military leaders who treat all sailors as their wingmen. They dont find it useful or interesting to ask, Whats in it for me? They always find it interesting and useful to ask, Whats in it for us? Whats in it for the team? And Id argue theres no more important time for this kind of leadership than right now, Moran said. Before rising to become air boss in early 2015, Shoemaker, the son of an Army colonel, tallied more than 4,400 flight hours and 1,066 carrier landings in both the Corsair and the F/A-18C Hornet and commanded the Virginia-based Gunslingers of Strike Fighter Squadron 105 and the Gladiators of Strike Fighter Squadron 106, plus Carrier Air Wing 17 and Carrier Strike Groups 9 and 3. Miller was promoted to vice admiral moments before the change of command ceremony. A member of the Naval Academy class of 1981, the Pennsylvania native actually graduated from Annapolis a year before Shoemaker. He commanded the amphibious warship Nashville, the aircraft carrier George W. Bush and Carrier Strike Group 2, which supported combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. His three-year tour as air boss will be his first stint in San Diego. He recently directed the Navys Air Warfare section at the Pentagon. Im honored that I was selected as air boss and Ill certainly give it my all, Miller said. Military Videos On Now D-Day paratrooper from Coronado jumps again in France at age 96 On Now Remembering war's fallen, one name at a time On Now In Ramona, an airplane and an aviator provide living lessons on World War II 1:43 On Now Video: Navy's newest vessel sails into San Diego and a new future in surface warfare On Now Video: U.S. Navy files homicide charges over warship collisions On Now Stopping Marine hazing On Now Video: U.S. Navy Air Crew Grounded After Creating Vulgar Sky Drawing On Now Navy says Asia Pacific ship collisions were avoidable On Now Hundreds of recruits get sick at Marine boot camp On Now Cutler Dawson Talks Navy Federal cprine@sduniontribune.com The Navy has released its draft study of the environmental impact of swapping out the aging C-2A Greyhound plane and wants the public to talk about it. Commanders will hold two public meetings in Norfolk and Coronado on Navy plans to scrap the Grumman Greyhound in favor of the tilt-rotor Bell Boeing CMV-22B Osprey at its West and East Coast Fleet Logistics Centers. An open house is slated for 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Jan. 23 at the Coronado Community Center, 1845 Strand Way. Advertisement No formal presentations will occur but Navy officials will answer questions about the proposed transition and provide information materials. Commissioned more than a half-century ago to transport personnel, mail and supplies to aircraft carriers at sea, the fixed-wing C-2A Greyhound was revamped in both 1973 and 2010 but has reached the end of its service life, officials say. A workhorse of the Marine Corps, the Osprey can take off and land vertically like a helicopter and boasts the long-range and high cruising speeds of a turboprop plane. Fielded in 2007, it was designed to replace the Marines Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight choppers. The Navy wants to trade the 27 remaining Greyhounds in existing fleet logistics support squadrons with 38 Ospreys and establish a training squadron and facilities for pilots, aircrews and mechanics. The Navys draft analysis concluded that there will be minor impacts on the community and the environment. Copies of the draft report can be found at the Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Ave.; San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Boulevard; Point Loma/Hervey Branch Library, 3701 Voltaire Street and the Imperial Beach Branch Library, 810 Imperial Beach Boulevard. The Navy encourages citizens to share their comments about the proposed plan online or by letters to Navy V-22 EA Project Manager (Code EV21JB), Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic Division, 6506 Hampton Boulevard, Norfolk, Virginia 23508. Military Videos On Now D-Day paratrooper from Coronado jumps again in France at age 96 On Now Remembering war's fallen, one name at a time On Now In Ramona, an airplane and an aviator provide living lessons on World War II 1:43 On Now Video: Navy's newest vessel sails into San Diego and a new future in surface warfare On Now Video: U.S. Navy files homicide charges over warship collisions On Now Stopping Marine hazing On Now Video: U.S. Navy Air Crew Grounded After Creating Vulgar Sky Drawing On Now Navy says Asia Pacific ship collisions were avoidable On Now Hundreds of recruits get sick at Marine boot camp On Now Cutler Dawson Talks Navy Federal cprine@sduniontribune.com 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. Advertisement 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 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. Advertisement 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 For the first time since March, San Diego Countys hepatitis A outbreak has not produced any new confirmed or probable cases, deaths or hospitalizations. The latest counts, published by the county Health and Human Services Agency Tuesday, didnt budge from totals released on Jan. 3: 577 cases, 396 hospitalizations and 20 deaths. Dr. Eric McDonald, chief of the countys Epidemiology and Immunization Services Branch, confirmed in an email Thursday afternoon that its the first time since San Diegos hepatitis A outbreak was detected in March that the region has gone a week without outbreak tallies growing. Advertisement He added that the county has not been notified of a single outbreak-connected case of hepatitis A with onset of symptoms more recent than Dec. 28. There are currently three suspected cases, but two are thought to be travel-related. For weeks now, more than half of the cases referred to the county for investigation have not turned out to be connected to the outbreak or not hepatitis at all. Thats two full weeks without a new case notification. Its quite a milestone given that there were many weeks this summer where dozens of newly reported cases flooded in and additional deaths popped up with regularity as the county and city struggled to get ahead of the nations largest such hepatitis A health emergency in at least 20 years. McDonald cautioned that going two weeks without a new outbreak case is a nice start, but reminded the public that the incubation period for hepatitis A ranges from 15 to 50 days with an average of 28 days. So, more time is necessary, from an epidemiological point of view, to say that the outbreak is well and truly extinguished. Due to the long incubation period, there could still be some out there who are infected but just havent started showing symptoms yet. This does give you a good feeling, but youve really gotta go 50, 100 days before you can really say were out of the woods, McDonald said. He pointed to a growing outbreak in Utah which generated a public notice this week after a convenience store worker tested positive for hepatitis A after coming into contact with about 2,000 customers as an example of how quickly infectious disease can go from apparent lethargy to full-blown contagion. All it takes is one infected person in a role where they have wide contact with the public and you can see it flare back up again, McDonald said. Such was the case in Southeast Michigan this fall when another very large hepatitis A outbreak, previously spreading largely among illicit drug users, appeared among gay men. That resurgence caused the Michigan outbreak to surpass San Diegos in size. It now sits at 658 cases and 22 deaths, according to the latest update from the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services. For months, San Diegos public health workers have been urging people who serve the public, especially restaurant workers, to get vaccinated and thousands have rolled up their sleeves. The situation in Michigan and the knowledge that it only takes one person for an outbreak to move into another group of people tempered county supervisor Dianne Jacobs enthusiasm Thursday. Seeing those numbers stall, after months of work trying to stem the hepatitis A tide is gratifying, she said, but with contagious disease it always seems like the other shoe could still drop. Seeing that number remain the same, it underscores that the efforts that the county and the city and many others have taken, especially around vaccination, have been effective, Jacob said. Toward the end of this month, as we told everyone last month, we will consider winding down our aggressive efforts. But we dont want to move out of the hep A issue too soon. We dont want a resurgence like what theyre seen in Michigan. There will be more to learn, she added, after the outbreak is truly over. Then it will be time to put together an after-action report. There has been a little finger pointing, and that doesnt solve anything, Jacob said. I do think we need to huddle up, partly with the City of San Diego and partly with others, and take a look a the whole hep A situation from beginning to end. We should ask ourselves what went right and what went wrong? What can we learn from this? The outbreak, generating the large numbers that it did, brought international attention to San Diegos homeless crisis which many advocates such as Michael McConnell have been trying to get fixed for years. McConnell said that he has noticed less hepatitis conversation on the streets recently. From my interactions, there is not really a lot of talk about anymore, but that has been the case for about a month, I think, McConnell said. As to the outbreaks new-case rate slowing? Well, thats all well and good, but, he said, his sense of urgency was always about the bigger issue of people living and dying on the streets. Communicable disease of all kinds remains an issue for people who dont have roofs over their heads. Tomorrow is no different. You tell me that the hep A crisis has subsided, quite honestly, it does not reduce my sense of urgency for tomorrow. There are still tons of people on the streets, McConnell said. Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1850 Twitter: @paulsisson Programs that service homeless people in San Diego County will receive about $20 million in federal funding, almost $2 million more than it received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last year. HUD gives priority to programs proven to be effective at getting people into permanent housing or on the path to housing, which was reflected in programs funded throughout San Diego County. Housing programs by the the Alpha Project, PATH Connections Housing, Father Joes, Interfaith Community Services and the San Diego Housing Commission were among projects that will receive millions of dollars from HUD. Advertisement Gordon Walker, CEO of the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless, said the county did well this year in HUD funding. Were competing with the entire county, he said. And HUDs budget is not growing. We dont have any reason to think we can do better. What we have to do is learn to manage with consistency. Walker said programs to serve the homeless must try to raise more money on their own rather than being dependent on the federal government. Greg Anglea, CEO of Interfaith Community Services in San Diego, noted that San Diego County could use some more money from HUD. We dont receive as much funding as I believe we should, Anglea said, adding that San Diego County has the fourth highest homeless population in the nation but often is around 20th in HUD funding. HUD officials have begun examining the funding formula, and a change someday could bring more money to San Diego. While preliminary reports of the federal budget showed a cut to HUD funding, Thursdays announcement of $2 billion for 7,000 homeless programs nationwide was a record. Last years funding was $1.95 billion. HUD Secretary Ben Carsons comments at the start of the news conference announcing the funding revealed the agency is following the same housing-first strategy as the last administration. Its the most compassionate way of doing things, but its also the most efficient, he said. The housing-first strategy involves finding housing for a homeless person as a first step toward breaking the cycle of homelessness. Local applications for HUD funding are submitted to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, where a committee evaluates and scores them on a point system that matches HUD criteria. Sometimes the conversations are not simple, Walker said. They (programs) have to be committed to housing-first, and now were looking at applications involved in the Coordinated Entry System, he said about a new countywide system that tracks all homeless people and priorities them for housing. The more closely you follow those rules and regulations, the more points you get and the more competitive you are. The scoring system can leave some projects as near-misses. Anglea said Interfaith Community Services had requested $600,000 for a program called Path to Permanence, which would have helped families and adults overcoming drug and alcohol addition. It received $218,000. The funding we received was so much less than we requested, we had to pick one of the populations to focus on and we will have to fund-raise, he said, adding that the program now focuses only on families. Interfaith also received $529,00 for Home Now, $250,000 for its rental assistance program and $96,000 for Raymonds Refuge, Father Joes received $1.7 million for its 2015 Bonus Project, $781,000 for its Village that provides rapid rehousing for families and $50,000 for Boulevard Apartments. San Diego Housing Commission received $3.4 million for grants for various permanent housing programs, $688,000 for Transitional Age Youth Rapid Re-Housing, $452,000 for its The Association for Community Housing Solutions (TACHS) Prizm housing for mentally ill people, $160,000 for its TACHS Unity Project for the chronically homeless and mentally ill people, $232,000 for its Rapid Re-Housing program and $232,000 for its YMCA Rapid Re-Housing program. The Alpha Project received $1.2 million for three rapid-rehousing projects, $517,000 for Alpha Square. PATH (People Assisting the Homeless) Connections Housing received $777,000 The complete list will be posted at https://www.hudexchange.info/grantees/allocations-awards. The housing-first priority HUD follows in its funding decisions has not been without controversy. The Vista program Solutions for Change has turned down federal money because it would not be allowed to drug-test tenants under housing first. The nonprofit was not on the list receiving HUD funding this year. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, and 23 other congressional members last year began pushing HUDs new leadership for a policy change to restore funding to programs that dont follow housing-first. Homeless Playlist On Now San Diego hepatitis outbreak continues to grow: 481 cases On Now Homeless entrenched in booming tent city along Santa Ana River On Now San Diego mayor agreed to homeless hub, then delayed, advocates say On Now Homeless outreach in San Diego On Now Video: Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #8 On Now In poverty himself, 'Water Man Dave,' is the fearless saint of San Diego's homeless 5:41 On Now Video: Homeless living in cars find safe havens 2:21 On Now Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #7 On Now Pitching a tent plan for San Diego's homeless On Now Homeless efforts get $80M boost for various services gary.warth@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @GaryWarthUT 760-529-4939 On the day before Orr Yakobis final quarter at UC San Diego, he was arrested by border officials after his roommate took a wrong turn and drove into Mexico. Yakobi, 22, is originally from Israel and came to the U.S. on a visa with his family when he was about 5, according to his attorney. When his visa expired, he became an unauthorized immigrant. He joined the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program in 2013, his attorney said, which gave him a renewable two-year permit protecting him from deportation and authorizing him to work. DACA does not authorize recipients to reenter the U.S. if they leave. Advertisement Ryan Hakim, 20, the roommate who was with Yakobi during his arrest, said he knew that Yakobi couldnt leave the U.S., but he never knew why. Before the incident, it seemed irrelevant to their friendship, he said. The two roommates were shopping on Sunday at Las Americas Premium Outlets, a bustling shopping center off of the last exit in the U.S. for interstates 5 and 805. They wanted to spend a little time together before school made their lives busier. Yakobi bought cologne, and Hakim bought sweatpants. When they were done shopping, they got into Hakims Volkswagon Jetta to go home. They werent familiar with the area, Hakim said, so when he turned left onto Interstate 805 from Camino de la Plaza, neither thought that they were heading for Mexico. Once we entered the freeway, we didnt have a safe opportunity to avoid crossing the border, nor did we have time to react or come up with a solution to prevent crossing the border, Hakim said. Entering Mexico was a complete and honest mistake. It took them about 45 seconds to leave the country, he said. Yakobi was scared, Hakim recalled. He knew that he didnt have documents to reenter the U.S. I was freaking out as the driver, and he was freaking out for his own safety, Hakim said. As soon as they were in Mexico, Hakim turned to come back to the U.S. When he pulled up to a Customs and Border Protection officer, they tried to explain what happened, showing her receipts with time stamps to prove theyd just been shopping at Las Americas. It didnt matter, Hakim said. She sent them to secondary inspection. After officers questioned Yakobi inside the port of entry, they took him away in handcuffs. CBP officers determined that Mr. Yakobi is currently inadmissible to the U.S.; he was turned over to agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said CBP spokeswoman Jacqueline Wasiluk. Yakobi was placed in a temporary holding cell before transferring to Otay Mesa Detention Center. A spokeswoman from Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that he is still being held there while he waits for a hearing with an immigration judge. His lawyer Jacob Sapochnick is working to get him released while his court case is pending so that he can finish his degree. All I can think about is Orr. Im having a hard time focusing in my classes, Hakim said. It was all innocent. There was no intention of leaving. It makes it more frustrating that this guy was not trying to leave the country. Hes an American. He lives in this country. Hakim said Yakobi taught him how to approach the world with positivity and self-confidence. Hes one of the most impactful people I have ever met in my life, Hakim said. Hakim rallied Yakobis friends, the Jewish community and the university community to help. A petition he posted online calling for Yakobis release gathered 761 signatures in the hours after it went up. Yakobi is majoring in computer science and was already freelancing as a programmer. He was part of a prize-winning start-up team at the university last year. He also worked as a DJ in the Los Angeles area, a business he started in high school with a friend. UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla sent a letter to ICE on Yakobis behalf calling for his release. He is a valued and active member of our UC San Diego community, and we would very much like to have him return to our campus so he can fulfill his ultimate goal of obtaining his degree, Khosla wrote. Politicians including Rep. Scott Peters, Assemblyman Todd Gloria, Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Brad Sherman are also trying to help, according to Yakobis attorney. Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter 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. Advertisement 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. Expanding San Diegos campaign against homelessness, recruiting police officers from across the nation to fill a rash of vacancies and clearing neighborhoods of trash and graffiti are among Mayor Kevin Faulconers priorities for 2018. Faulconer used his annual State of the City address on Thursday to lay out those goals and several others, including expansion of the waterfront convention center and spurring housing construction with incentives and loosened regulations. The mayor focused most of his 34-minute speech at downtowns Balboa Theatre on homelessness. He unveiled some new initiatives and declared efforts launched during last years hepatitis A crisis as successes the city can build on. Advertisement The new initiatives include establishing the citys first housing navigation center, a permanent indoor facility at 14th Street and Imperial Avenue that Faulconer said will become a model for the region when it opens later this year. It will be the starting point for each persons journey to permanent housing, he said. Trained professionals will pair individuals with an organization that has the right tools to help. The city will also open a storage facility this spring at 20th and Commercial streets. Homeless people will be able to securely place belongings there so they can visit treatment clinics, attend school or work or interview for a job. Another benefit of the storage facility, Faulconer said, will be helping to clear the citys public spaces of shopping carts, tents and debris. Faulconer will also expand the outreach ambassador program launched during last years hepatitis crisis, a preventable and deadly outbreak attributed in part to unsanitary conditions in the citys homeless population. Fifteen people will walk the streets to build relationships with homeless individuals and connect them to services. And the mayor will expand his Housing Our Heroes program, which has used landlord incentives to provide apartments for 1,000 homeless military veterans during the last two years. Faulconer said the size of the program will triple to 3,000 participants and eligibility requirements will be loosened so non-veterans can participate. This is how we get San Diegos homeless people into permanent housing now, he said. Faulconer said the new facilities and expanded programs are part of an altered, more pragmatic approach the city is taking to homelessness. For decades, local leaders myself included have taken the same approach to homelessness, he said. We pursued universal consensus while homelessness continued to rise. We tried to please everyone at the risk of helping no one. Those days are over. The mayor said its no longer acceptable to allow people to refuse shelter and services. Americas Finest City will no longer tolerate the use of a sidewalk, a riverbed or a tarp as a home, he said. Do not confuse our resolve with a lack of compassion. For those without a home trying to lift themselves out of extreme poverty, our city is ready to help. Theres a place for you, and its not on the streets. The mayor also called on regional leaders from outside the city to adopt a similar approach by providing money for temporary bridge shelters similar to the three San Diego has opened since October. He noted that 40 percent of the countys homeless population is located outside the city of San Diego. Michael McConnell, one of the regions leading advocates for the homeless, said he was unimpressed by the mayors proposals, but pleased Faulconer devoted so much of his speech to the topic. Weve seen in the past that putting up jumbo tents at a cost of approximately $1,700 a person per month, and cramming hundreds of people literally right next to each other, is never a recipe for success with homeless services, McConnell said. But its good to see him making it his No. 1 priority. It seems like he realizes hes going down if he doesnt do something about homelessness. Faulconers speech also focused on a rash of 200 police officer vacancies that he says is leading to heavy workloads and stress and that could turn into a public safety crisis if the city doesnt act quickly. The first step to solving the problem was pay raises of at least 25 percent the city set in motion for all officers last month, Faulconer said. Although the ink on the deal is barely dry, applications are already up, the mayor said. Retirements have slowed. And some officers who had left our department have already returned. The next step will be an aggressive, national recruitment campaign to encourage men and women from throughout the U.S. to join the San Diego Police Department, Faulconer said. We will show Americas best and brightest that there is no place better to serve than San Diego, he said. And when were done, for the first time in over a decade, we will have a fully staffed police force. Another focus of the speech was a commitment to continue efforts to clean up the city that accelerated during the hepatitis crisis. This aggressive, sustained approach is the new normal going forward, the mayor said. We cant allow litter in our communities. We cant allow garbage on our sidewalks. And we cant allow trash to line the San Diego River and our canyons. The mayor said crews have already removed more than 700 tons of garbage in six months, and they are not going to stop. We are going to clean up our communities, Faulconer said. We are going to scrub graffiti from our streets and sidewalks. And I wont rest until we restore the San Diego River to its natural beauty. The mayor also hailed an initiative launched this week by a coalition of labor and business groups to raise hotel taxes to expand the waterfront convention center, accelerate road repairs and fund additional homelessness programs. This initiative will be the most important decision before voters in November, and I will work tirelessly with the coalition to get it passed, he said. The convention center expansion is the single most effective way to strengthen our economy. It will create jobs, spur development, ensure future prosperity for our region and help meet the growing needs of great conventions like Comic-Con. Faulconer also focused on spurring construction of more housing, especially units affordable to middle-income and lower-income residents. He hailed a package of reforms he unveiled last year for streamlining approvals and encouraging developers to pursue more projects in the city. He said the citys looser granny flat rules have nearly quadrupled submitted proposals. This year, the mayor said he plans to soften the citys outdated parking mandates for projects near transit centers, a change that will shrink development costs and help reduce local greenhouse gas emissions. He also plans to loosen regulations to allow more live/work spaces across the city and to expand an effort launched last year to encourage developers to build projects aimed at middle-income residents. This represents a sea change in how San Diego deals with housing, he said. The mayor also summarized some of his recent accomplishments, including ongoing efforts to bolster low-income neighborhoods with new parks, fire stations and libraries. Councilman Mark Kersey, a fellow Republican, praised Faulconers speech afterward. I thought his message was spot on, Kersey said. Obviously, homelessness is the biggest crisis we are facing right now. And the steps he outlined are exactly right. Councilwoman Barbara Bry, a Democrat, praised the mayor for focusing much of his speech on the basics of infrastructure and neighborhood services. She questioned the mayors proposed housing navigation center, suggesting it might duplicate work done by other social service providers that the city helps fund. I want to make sure every homeless person has somewhere they can go to get the appropriate services, but I want to make sure were doing it in a way that is cost-effective, she said. david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick Issas out. Whos in? That question turned jaundiced political junkies into jubilant kids Wednesday morning in the wake of nine-term Rep. Darrell Issas announcement that he was bailing on the 49th Congressional District. The Issa-man, expected to cometh for the 10th time, goeth, reportedly open to running for Rep. Duncan Hunters 50th Congressional District seat if Hunter is forced out by criminal charges. Advertisement I know. You cant make this stuff up. This is Christmas, New Years and Peter Pan, all rolled up into one, gushed a North County lobbyist. What had been shaping up as a well-framed race in the 49th, one in which four credible Democratic candidates would cage-fight for the right to go mano a mano against Issa, is suddenly covered in fairy dust and flown to Neverland. Names of battle-tested GOP replacements flew from cell to cell Wednesday: Board of Equalization member Diane Harkey, Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, state Sen. Pat Bates. The merits of these and other players were assessed over digital hot stoves. Harkey, a five-tool OC pol, has a husband-based financial scandal in the background. Chavez may be too moderate for the base. DeMaio, an openly gay conservative, could ride his gas-tax repeal initiative. Bates? Well, shes 78. Would she want the grind? Amid the speculation about the GOP bench, the most intriguing aspect of the Issa meltdown was the possibility that Democrats, reveling in the humiliation of Obamas tormentor, could blow up their chances in November. You remember Sophies choice, the forced sacrifice of one child to save another? Well, the Democrats are going to have to ditch at least one, and perhaps two or three, of their four candidates if theyre to foreclose a nightmare scenario. Lets assume the four Dems -- Doug Applegate, who came close to defeating Issa in 2016; Mike Levin, well-connected attorney from San Clemente; Paul Kerr, wealthy Rancho Santa Fe businessman endorsed by Rep. Scott Peters; Sara Jacobs of Encinitas, public-service prodigy of a powerhouse family -- all stay in the race until June. Throw in a vanity candidate or two drawn to the Issa-less contest. (Theyll steal a few percentage points.) Now lets say two Republicans with strong election batting averages enter the primary race. Remember, the 49th still has a nearly 7-point GOP registration advantage over Democrats. Granted, its a district trending purple, especially in presidential years. But in a midterm primary, Republicans will claim roughly half the vote. The Dem contenders, therefore, would be divvying up half the pie four ways. Unless theres a runaway overachiever, the top vote-getter would be in the teens. The two Republican candidates, however, could both be in the 20s, meaning that in an open primary the Democrats could be shut out from the general election. Now its possible that the GOP could big-foot the primary with one anointed candidate, opening a lane for a Democrat. That seemed to be the bellicose thinking of National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Stivers: While Democrats fight with each other, Republicans will focus on fighting Democrats. ... We look forward to facing whoever limps out of the Democrats battle royale -- black and blue and broke. But the Machiavellian move would be to bless the candidacy of, lets say, Chavez, a Hispanic retired Marine colonel who appeals to McCain-style Republicans, and a true-red female conservative like Harkey, who can animate the Trumpian base. If that were the state of play, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which tries to call the shots from Washington, would have no choice but to persuade (read: coerce) at least one -- or better, two or three -- candidate(s) to come to the aid of their party and take a powder. Issas farewell could be a classic case of the gods punishing mortals by answering the progressive prayer of hounding Issa out of his Vista office. Unless they do some painful political wet work, a specialty of Republicans, Democrats could be left high and dry come November. A new San Diego Police Department policy could allow DNA analysis of more than 550 untested rape kits, more than a quarter of the nearly 2,000 untested kits in the departments crime lab. While police officials remain skeptical about the value of analyzing all untested kits, they softened their stance this week against analyzing kits from victims who decline to participate in a criminal investigation after initially being cooperative. Analyzing rape kits in such cases may have enough potential to boost public safety that the $1,500 cost of testing such kits is warranted, Jennifer Shen, manager of the Police Departments crime lab, told the City Council on Tuesday. Advertisement Shen, however, said that would likely vary by case, so the department will create a working group this summer to evaluate each of the 558 untested kits that fall into this category to determine whether DNA analysis makes sense. The department will continue to resist calls from District Attorney Summer Stephan, City Attorney Mara Elliott and some victims rights groups to analyze all untested kits. Shen emphasized that the department considers sexual assaults high-priority crimes, but reiterated prior public statements that comprehensive testing is expensive, only rarely helps solve crimes and could be illegal in some cases. She said the push to have all rape kits analyzed is well-intentioned, but based on confusion regarding a highly complicated subject. Shen said the citys crime lab quickly tests all rape kits taken from victims of sexual assaults in which a stranger is the suspect, which is between 15 and 20 percent of sexual assault cases. The other 80 to 85 percent of cases are called acquaintance cases, in which sexual contact definitely took place and the identity of the suspect is known. Such cases typically come down to whether sex was consensual, something that expensive DNA analysis of a rape kit wont help determine. Some argue that it would still be worthwhile to test such kits so that DNA from the suspect could be uploaded to state and federal databases, possibly helping solve crimes elsewhere if the suspect has committed other assaults. But police say they cant upload DNA to those databases unless theres evidence a crime was committed and they are reasonably certain the DNA profile in the rape kit belongs to the perpetrator of the crime. Thats why the department doesnt test rape kits in cases in which investigators determine a victims allegations are unfounded or when a victim recants an accusation casting doubt on whether a crime was committed. Such concerns have prompted the department not to test kits when a victim becomes uncooperative after filing a crime report and providing a rape kit hair, saliva, blood and possibly semen taken during an invasive procedure that can take several hours. Shen said this week that whether testing makes sense in such cases deserves a fuller discussion and that the department is willing to consider testing kits in some of those cases if the working group decides it makes sense. Members of the group will include a sex crimes investigator, a crime lab technician, a representative from the District Attorneys Office, a representative from the City Attorneys Office and a victims rights advocate. In addition to deciding how many of the 558 kits to test, the group will also be asked to develop a comprehensive policy for testing rape kits in future cases of this nature. Shen said they will also be asked to create a separate policy for whether to contact victims when the department decides to move forward with testing the kit they submitted, even if a case is many years old. Do we call a victim up 25 years later, when the victim signed paperwork saying they dont want us to go forward, to tell them we are going to go forward? Shen asked. Do we just go forward without telling the victims were going forward? Shen said the department has made many other changes in how it handles rape kits in recent years. Since 2015, staff has added a label to every untested kit with the specific reason why it was untested. This was in response to a 2014 state audit recommending such a change. And she said the department recently completed a seven-year effort to research, evaluate and upload to the citys database all untested kits and the cases they belong to. Since 1991, the department has tested 57 percent of total rape kits 2,569 out of 4,532. Councilman Chris Ward, who has previously called on the department to test all of its rape kits, said on Tuesday that he respected the goal of efficiently using money taxpayer dollars when it comes to testing. He also praised department officials for dividing the kits into categories to help determine whether they should be tested. I appreciate that we are thinking methodically how to work through that backlog, he said. Councilman David Alvarez was more critical. There should be no excuses, he said. If a victim goes through the invasive process of being tested, the least we can do is review evidence collected. Other cities have this commitment to justice, and we should as well. Councilman Scott Sherman said he found the departments reason for not testing some kits convincing, especially the idea that it could violate someones civil rights to upload their DNA to a database when there is no evidence of a crime. I dont want to start testing things because we emotionally think its a good idea, but it also puts us in legal jeopardy, Sherman said. Councilwoman Georgette Gomez thanked Shen and Police Chief Zimmerman for clearing up some misconceptions about why so many kits go untested. She said its important to make victims aware of the reasons, expressing concerns that many may become reluctant to come forward after seeing media coverage focused on untested kits but not why they go untested. Zimmerman agreed, noting that she sends department officials to community forums to explain their policies and invites reporters to department headquarters for tutorials on the subject. It is a very complicated, emotional issue without a doubt, Zimmerman said. Theres so much misinformation. david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick Now in the final year of his final term, longtime county Supervisor Ron Roberts is showing no let-up in awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash awards to nonprofit organizations across his district. This week, Roberts sought and received approval from his board colleagues for more than $630,000 in payments under the countys Neighborhood Reinvestment Program, which assigns each county supervisor $2 million a year to distribute under certain rules. The program requires recipients to be other government agencies or registered nonprofit organizations, and has been praised as a way to get funds to groups that otherwise would go without. It has also been criticized as a slush fund because the elected officials often receive praise and political support from program recipients. Advertisement In total, Roberts recommended 21 separate awards worth $630,710. The smallest amount awarded was $5,000, which was approved for the American Academy of Pediatrics to purchase books and also for I Love a Clean San Diego to help pay for clean-up equipment such as work gloves, hand sanitizer and sunscreen. The largest grant was $241,000 to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, where Roberts serves on the board of directors. The task force, which holds an annual homeless count across the region and provides other data to policymakers, will use the money to assist in funding Phase Two of the Strategic Community Action Plan to reduce homelessness and for a new expanded website. Before voting on the largest award, Roberts said the County Counsels Office advised him to disclose his service on the charity board. Ultimately, this is going to give us the roadmap for a successful program, he said after the disclosure. Other county funds were directed to the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, which received $38,641 for office renovations; Info Line 211 which received $32,529 for new workstations; Bayside Community Center, which received $25,000 for a construction project on Linda Vista Road and the San Diego Museum of Art which received $25,000 for bathroom renovations. Roberts completes his sixth four-year term on the Board of Supervisors in December. Because of term limits imposed during his decades of public service, he was not allowed to seek another four years. Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald Police on Wednesday asked the public to help them identify and find an assailant who severely beat a sleeping homeless man with a skateboard in North Park in September. The victim was struck several times in the head during the attack, at roughly 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 16. Five days later, the 55-year-old victim, Arthur Angulo, was removed from life support and died. Police said the assailant got into the passenger side of a white car after the attack and fled the scene, an alley off El Cajon Boulevard near Idaho Street. Advertisement On Wednesday, Crime Stoppers released a photo of the white two-door car, which authorities said was possibly a Honda Accord. The suspect has been described as white, about 6 feet tall, in his late teens to early 20s, wearing a dark shirt and gray shorts and carrying a skateboard. Tipsters can call the San Diego Police Departments homicide unit at (619) 531-2293. Anonymous tips can be left with Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477, or visit sdcrimestoppers.org. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT Authorities on Friday released the name of a man shot and killed during a fight near a Spring Valley grocery store last week. Aurice J. Turk, 25 and a Spring Valley resident, died from a gunshot wound, Sheriffs homicide Lt. Rich Williams said. Shortly before 9 p.m. on Jan. 4, someone called 911 to report that multiple men were fighting, and a gunshot was heard near the Albertsons on Campo Road north of state Route 94, Williams said. Advertisement Deputies arrived and found the victim. He was rushed to a hospital, but died. Homicide detectives are looking to speak with the people who fled from the fight scene, as well as anyone with information about what happened. Witnesses or those with information were asked to call the sheriffs homicide unit at (858) 974-2321, or after hours, at (858) 565-5200. Anonymous tips can be made by calling San Diego County Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477 or online at sdcrimestoppers.org. Tipsters who share information that leads to an arrest could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT Police detained three people found in a stolen SUV in the Morena area on Thursday, after the vehicle eluded authorities twice earlier. The encounters trace back to Wednesday evening, when police spotted a stolen 2002 white Toyota RAV4 on Interstate 805 at Interstate 8, police Officer Tony Martinez said. San Diego police gave chase, but lost sight of the vehicle. Advertisement The following morning, just after 9:45 a.m., an officer spotted the SUV on Market Street near Interstate 15 but it took off and the officer lost it within a short distance, Martinez said. Roughly 15 minutes later, another officer spotted the SUV parked in the area of Linda Vista Road and Napa Street. Police were able to lay down a spike strip and detain the trio inside the vehicle, Martinez said. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT A lost chapter in a San Diego familys Jewish history has been restored, thanks to the dedication of a German Gentile. She is remarkable, said San Diegos Harvey Berger of Brunhilde Sturmer, who will be honored by the German Parliament on Jan. 22. For decades, Sturmer has researched the vanished Jewish community of her hometown in western Germany, Niederzissen. Her efforts led her to Bergers father, Richard Berger, a Holocaust survivor who had moved to San Diego. Advertisement In the early 70s, my parents received this letter from her, Harvey Berger said. This woman, who is not even Jewish, has spent 40 years researching the Jewish families that made up half of this town. Sturmers historical odyssey began when she reconstructed her own family tree and its roots in Niederzissen. She realized that in her own little town in Germany, half the town was missing, said Vanessa Berger, Harveys daughter. There were no Jews left in the town. Sturmer contacted the few Jewish survivors from Niederzissen, who were scattered around the globe. The Bergers and others shared information, photographs and other artifacts including a shofar once blown by Richard Berger. To preserve these items, Sturmer built a climate-controlled room in her home. Later, she spearheaded a campaign to turn the towns former synagogue into a museum honoring the Jewish community. By the time this center was dedicated in 2012, Richard Berger had died. But on Sturmers invitation, 22 members of the extended Berger family attended the ceremony, coming from Mexico, South Africa, the Netherlands and Israel. It was an emotional reunion. I just bawled like a little kid, Harvey Berger said. Harvey Berger nominated Sturmer for the Obermayer German Jewish History Award, which is annually given by the German government to Righteous Gentiles who work to preserve that nations Jewish heritage. When informed that she would receive this honor, Sturmer asked Berger to speak on her behalf. Vanessa Berger, who now lives in San Francisco, is writing a novel about Sturmer, noting that her work is helping bring together the children and grandchildren of Holocaust victims and perpetrators. There arent many stories about the next generation, about attempts to make things right, she said. Brunhilda brought our family back together. State legislation that would have expanded rent control in California failed Thursday after a lengthy and heated debate that brought landlord and tenant groups from across the state to the Capitol. At issue was a bill that would have repealed a nearly quarter-century-old law that prohibits cities and counties from implementing most new rent control policies. The measure died after four members of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, including Democrats Ed Chau of Arcadia and Jim Wood of Healdsburg, declined to support it. Chau and Wood said they were concerned that a large growth in rent control could slow already lagging housing production in the state. Advertisement Im concerned that the bill does nothing to increase the supply of housing and may in fact have the opposite effect of discouraging new construction during a time when we need it the most, Wood said. Hundreds of tenants and landlords waited in a line that wound around the fourth floor of the Capitol to participate in two hours of public testimony on the bill. At one point, when committee Chairman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) asked who supported and opposed the bill, those outside banged on the committee rooms walls, causing a low rumble inside. Tenant advocates chanted housing is a human right in the hallways while landlords pleaded to committee members about the effects of expanding rent control on their livelihoods. Its still very wild out here pic.twitter.com/KFwGMEaX50 Liam Dillon (@dillonliam) January 11, 2018 Landlord groups are the ones in the yellow shirts. We have a lot of public testimony still pic.twitter.com/ASgDzKbt9U Liam Dillon (@dillonliam) January 11, 2018 Rents and housing costs have soared in California, especially in recent years, as new home building has failed to keep pace with population growth. The problem hits low-income residents hardest. More than 1.5 million Californians pay more than half their incomes on rent, fueling concerns about displacement and gentrification across the state. The affordability problem goes beyond affecting Californias poorest residents. Chanee Franklin, an attorney and renter in Oakland, told the committee that after 10 years of living in a single-family home with her family, her landlord abruptly raised her rent by $1,500 a 50% increase. Franklin said she doesnt begrudge her landlord making money, but believes all renters deserve some security. At a minimum, were entitled to stability, Franklin said. Thats a human right. California cities and counties arent allowed to implement rent control on apartments built after Feb. 1, 1995. For many cities, the prohibition goes back even further. In the city of Los Angeles, for instance, rent control is allowed on buildings built before October 1978. These restrictions come from a state law known as Costa-Hawkins. The legislation at issue Thursday would have repealed Costa-Hawkins, allowing local governments to develop new rent control policies. Currently, 15 cities across the state have some form of rent control. Opponents to the legislation, chiefly the California Apartment Assn., argued that rent control restrictions would stifle developers willingness to build new properties, exacerbating the states problems. I get it that rent control will help people in their homes at this moment, but it wont stop there, said Debra Carlton, the associations senior vice president of public affairs. Thats the most unfortunate part of this debate. A glimpse at tenant groups expressing support for pro-rent control arguments in todays hearing pic.twitter.com/rBa3YIwBdf Liam Dillon (@dillonliam) January 11, 2018 Thursdays hearing was a long time coming. Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) introduced the bill last February, but no committee hearing was scheduled last year. Tenant organizations in the Bay Area occupied Chius San Francisco office last month and posted a mock eviction notice to his door to press him to hold one. Chiu, a supporter of the proposed legislation, said the state needs to revisit Costa-Hawkins as housing problems have become more acute. My city, like many cities and areas around the state, are in a crisis, and our renters need relief, Chiu said. After the vote, tenant groups held protests in the committee room. Tenant groups occupying legislative room after rent control bill dies pic.twitter.com/7cn61W5sbS Liam Dillon (@dillonliam) January 11, 2018 Thursdays decision does not end the rent control debate. Advocates also are collecting signatures for a possible November 2018 ballot measure that would repeal Costa-Hawkins. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit and veteran of high-dollar local and state initiative campaigns, is one of the groups behind the effort. liam.dillon@latimes.com @dillonliam ALSO Three California housing issues to watch in 2018 Rent control in California could expand dramatically under a possible 2018 initiative With housing costs skyrocketing, rent control is on the docket again in Sacramento Updates on California politics Dont put GOP Rep. Darrell Issa on the retirement list just yet. Issa has been discussing possibly running for another House seat in a neighboring district, The Hill newspaper reported Thursday. The rumblings in California political circles about a district switcharoo have been rampant since the Vista Republican issued a statement Wednesday that he would not seek reelection in Californias 49th District. Advertisement The pointed wording prompted multiple sources to question if it meant Issa would consider running in the nearby 50th District, where his mother has a home in Bonsall. Good lord you guys are persistent! Cant even take a day off from speculating what might be next for Darrell? Issas spokesman Calvin Moore said by text. He did not respond to follow-up text messages. Issas longtime political consultant, Dave Gilliard, disputed The Hills story saying, I dont believe hes making those calls, no... I dont think hes given any thought to any other district at this point. Of course, the 50th District already has a member of Congress: Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine). But with Hunter facing potential legal trouble, its not impossible to think he would opt against seeking reelection this fall. Hunter has been dogged by federal and congressional ethics investigations, including Wednesdays report in The San Diego Union-Tribune that a grand jury is convening to review evidence about possible misspending of his campaign funds. Hunter told The Hill on Thursday that he has no plans to retire and had not heard about the Issa rumor. If I was to blow up in the air, then he would be running for it, Hunter told The Hill. If I was to blow up, then he would run for the seat. If I blow up, yes. Why wouldnt he run for my seat if I was to blow up in the air? In 2016, Issa narrowly won reelection in his northern San Diego County and southern Orange County district, where voter demographics have slowly changed since he was elected in 2000. He faced an onslaught of well-funded opponents and was considered the most vulnerable incumbent in the country. Hunters district is more solidly Republican. President Donald Trump has re-nominated San Diego hotelier Doug Manchester for U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, moving forward the nomination, which did not receive required committee approval by the end of the last Senate session. Trump nominated Manchester to become ambassador to the Bahamas in May. Manchester was an early backer of the president, and he and his wife each gave $454,800 in support of Trumps election. The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations sent Manchesters nomination back to the president on Jan. 3 under a rule that returns to the White House for re-submission all nominations that were awaiting committee approval at the end of each session, according to information available Monday the Library of Congress website. Advertisement The Senate received Trumps re-nomination of Manchester on Monday and referred it to the the committee, according to information more recently posted on the website. Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 morgan.cook@sduniontribune.com A Northern California environmental group whose president is running for governor is requesting that federal prosecutors take over a criminal investigation into the state Public Utilities Commission. Berkeley-based Environmental Progress sent a four-page letter this week to Alex Tse, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. More than 18 months have passed since Californias attorney general assured a reporter that the investigation had not stalled, Environmental Progress president Michael Shellenberger wrote. It is now abundantly clear that it has. Advertisement Neither the state Attorney Generals Office nor the San Francisco office of the U.S. Department of Justice responded to requests for comment. According to Shellenberger, Attorney General Xavier Becerra has a conflict of interest in the case because he was appointed to the job by Gov. Jerry Brown. Mr. Becerra has never stood for election, but instead owes his position to a possible person of interest in DOJs investigation, has not recused himself due to conflict-of-interest and has, as best we can tell, stopped investigating, the letter said. The Governors Office rejected any notion that Brown was a person of interest in any such investigation. What a load of codswallop, spokesman Evan Westrup said by email. State and federal investigators opened investigations into the California Public Utilities Commission in 2014, after emails surfaced showing potentially improper backchannel communications among regulators and utility executives. The 2012 failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant became a key part of the case after agents found notes of a secret meeting regarding shutdown costs during a search of former commission president Michael Peeveys home. Since Becerra took over for predecessor Kamala Harris, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, he has refused to comment on the status of the investigation or even confirm that it is still open. Shellenberger announced last month that he is a candidate for California governor, citing wholesale reform of the state utilities commission as a top priority. Background Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald Its grown worse on his watch, but never before has a San Diego mayor taken so much ownership of the citys intractable homeless problem as Kevin Faulconer did Thursday night in his fourth annual State of the City address. In his 2015 address, he said homeless just three times. In 2016, he said variations of the word 16 times. Last year, it was 25 times. This year? Thirty-six. One measure of his success will clearly be how often he uses the word in his next State of the City address and whether hes proclaiming progress or acknowledging some steps he had taken dont work, as Faulconer said Thursday night. Advertisement With three years left in office, the mayor has now established unequivocally that his legacy depends on a rise or fall in the citys homeless population. This speech detailed several new ways to improve its lot, including his announcement that a program he launched in his address two years ago to move 1,000 homeless veterans off the street would be expanded to help 3,000 people find permanent housing. Faulconer fell short of his goal of sheltering 1,000 vets within a year, but to his credit, kept at it, giving more veterans vouchers and getting more landlords to take part. Its a lesson that some efforts take time. But others shouldnt. In a welcome development given the severity of the situation, Faulconer said hes done waiting for naysayers to accept plans or letting perfect be the enemy of good. Case in point: After refusing for far too long to sanction a city homeless encampment or expand a safe parking program for people living in their vehicles, the mayor and city officials moved ahead on both this past year despite more grumbling. So whats next? A storage center designed so 700 to 1,000 homeless residents can keep their belongings safe will open this year at 20th and Commercial streets. And a housing navigation center will follow at 14th Street and Imperial Avenue as a place for the downtrodden to access a variety of essential services. Another measure Faulconer touted Thursday was city crews removal of 700 tons of garbage in six months, 50 tons from the San Diego River and more from city canyons. I wont rest until we restore the San Diego River to its natural beauty, was certainly meant as an applause line for Faulconer. Left unsaid was that the effort is largely driven by a county government directive in response to the hepatitis A emergency to sanitize all contaminated areas where homeless reside within the citys jurisdiction including, but not limited to, riverbeds and ravines. Yet progress is progress, and nowhere is that more important to see than in Faulconers steady commitment to boosting housing affordability. The city is already seeing gains with his streamlined proposals; making granny flat permitting far easier has led to a 375 percent spike in applications. Perhaps Faulconers systemic approach will succeed where others didnt. Perhaps his call for help for more homeless services, more bridge shelters, more leadership from politicians outside city limits where nearly 40 percent of the countys homeless population reside will even be heeded. Its hard to imagine a day when homelessness is mentioned only a few times in a State of the City address. But it surely has Faulconers full attention. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion The Trump administrations announcement that as of 2019, it would allow drilling for oil and gas in 47 leased sites off the U.S. coast including six sites off California produced howls of outrage. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington issued a joint statement denouncing it. The governors of Virginia, New Jersey, South Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts and Florida also objected. But Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke singled out only Florida, which Trump won in 2016, for an exemption after meeting Republican Gov. Rick Scott at the Tallahassee airport. Florida is obviously unique, declared Zinke, saying other states have working coasts that are very much different than a recreation-centric coast thats in Florida. This claim, of course, is ridiculous. While California has a more diversified economy, it, too, is dependent on coastal tourism in areas adjacent to many beautiful and even famous beaches. There is, however, one big difference between Florida and California: The Trump administration wants Scott to run for the Florida Senate seat now held by Democrat Bill Nelson. Showing Floridians that Scott has a friend in the White House could help him. Advertisement Yet another explanation has been posed by some: Zinke and President Donald Trump are jerking around deep-blue California, where the president has faced the most hostility. Of Scott, Zinke said in his announcement that he is a straightforward leader that can be trusted. That, obviously, should have no bearing on any states long-term waiver. Zinke plans to talk to every governor, regardless of political party, but his actions speak louder than his words and both should worry Californians. Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Upon hearing Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, say Wednesday that he would not seek re-election, one group that called for him to resign and organized to have a retirement party for him celebrated the surprise announcement as nothing less than a victory. In a tweet, the group Indivisible San Diego credited a solid year of the largest weekly congressional office protests in the nation that preceded Issas announcement. In his announcement, Issa did not cite protests or pressure from groups as a factor in his decision not to run for re-election. In fact, there was swirling speculation, reported by The Hill, that he might actually be interested in running for office in the neighboring San Diego district represented by embattled Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine. Still, Issas stunning announcement, which made national headlines given the growing number of Republicans retiring from Congress, appeared to raise Indivisible San Diegos profile. It even caught the attention of MSNBC show host Rachel Maddow who, in a tweet, said group members are now teaching other activists about what they did. So, who is Indivisible San Diego? And do they really deserve credit for Issas announcement to not seek re-election in Californias 49th district? Lets take a look. Who is Indivisible San Diego? The group bills itself as a movement that seeks to promote a progressive and inclusive agenda and one that is to prevent President Trump from destroying the democratic ideal called America. The San Diego group is one of 6,000 local groups that are part of a national coalition, according to Indivisibles website. Indivisible San Diego and other groups made up of local volunteers protested outside Issas office on a wide range of issues, from health care to immigration to the Russia investigation. Who are some key figures involved with the group? At the national level, the group is led by its co-executive directors, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin. In San Diego County, Pamela Hughes of Point Loma is identified as the area groups organizer. The group also propped up Democrats it deemed worthy of taking office or to move up in Congress. Democratic candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar was endorsed by the group to unseat Hunter in the 50th Congressional District. The group has also endorsed another California Democrat running for office, including Katie Hill in the Santa Clarita Valley. Did the group really protest at Issas office every week? Protests outside Issas office were largely organized by local volunteers from his district, though not everyone was affiliated with Indivisible San Diego. The group, however, shared photos of the protests on social media throughout the year. On several occasions, the protests attracted media attention including the time Issa was famously seen standing on the roof of his Vista office. On another occasion in October, protesters stood outside his office with a 20-foot inflatable chicken, a scene that drew the attention of San Diego County sheriffs deputies. Every Tuesday, protesters gathered outside his office though the number of people have fluctuated from 800 in May to about 300 in September, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. What are others saying about the group? The group gained traction on social media with hashtags like #Resistance and #FlipCA49, a reference to 49th Congressional District held by Issa. It also attracted praise from those on the left for its persistent protests. But the group, which emerged on the heels of President Donald Trumps election in November 2016, has been widely believed to be borrowing tactics once used by the so-called tea party, a conservative movement that protested then-President Barack Obama. Indivisible and its tactics have spurred discussion online, prompting praise and criticism from those on the left and the right. On its site, the group makes it no mystery as to where it had seen a model for success for how local activism can affect real change in Congress. If the tea party was able to take on a historically popular President Obama with a Democratic supermajority to slow and sometimes defeat his federal agenda, we can surely take on Donald Trump and the members of Congress who would do his bidding, according to the group. Do you support the group? Do you agree that it borrows tactics from the tea party? Is Indivisible San Diego truly to credit for Rep. Issas retirement? Chime in with your thoughts on this emerging political movement. Have some thoughts to share? Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet. Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @RunGomez Read The Conversation on Flipboard. Last week, Dominion Energy announced an agreement to merge with SCANA Corporation. We believe this is a fair deal and would be positive for the customers of SCANA and, most importantly, the people of South Carolina. I want to make it very clear that this merger is different than other corporate mergers, because the focus is on both immediate and longer-term customer benefits versus a focus on shareholders. This merger would provide significant advantages to SCANAs customers and the communities it serves. Dominion Energy would provide immediate financial relief for electric customers now paying for the uncompleted new nuclear units. Both a $1,000 immediate cash payment and lower rates are planned. For communities, it means holding on to a community partner that would have more resources to meet new and changing energy needs. And for SCANA shareholders, including thousands of retirees and working families, it is a good deal, too. We plan to keep SCE&Gs headquarters in South Carolina. We also plan to increase community involvement and charitable investment by $1 million a year for at least five years in the communities that are served by SCANAs subsidiaries. South Carolinas economy is strong and just right for business, but to continue to prosper, the state needs economic development opportunities, and it needs a resilient utility in place to provide safe and reliable service to customers and businesses. We have established a special website for SCANA customers and communities at BrighterEnergyFuture.com. We commit to being open and transparent in our communications and will provide you with as much information as we can. For those of you who are not familiar with our company, Dominion Energy, we are one of the nations largest producers and transporters of energy. Our company is built on a proud legacy of public service, innovation and community involvement. Our employees invest in the communities where we live and work through volunteerism and by practicing responsible environmental stewardship wherever we operate. At Dominion Energy, we focus on four core values safety, ethics, excellence and One Dominion Energy that drive us in the same direction. We believe our commitment to customers and communities aligns well with SCANAs mission and values, and this strategic combination demonstrates Dominion Energys commitment to South Carolina and the Southeast. Together, our energy future is bright, reliable and strong. Dan Weekley is the vice president and general manager of Southern pipeline operations at Dominion Energy. Press Release January 12, 2018 Diokno slamming door on teachers' pay raise is insensitive, heartless -- Partido Liberal senators The statement of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno that a salary increase for public school teachers was not a priority at this time was insensitive, if not heartless, Partido Liberal senators said Thursday. "It's not certainly the way to treat our public school teachers, who have been seeking government's help for higher salaries and additional benefits so that they can live decently," said Partido Liberal president Sen. Francis Pangilinan. Pangilinan noted that the recent doubling of the salaries of military and uniform personnel. He said this can be seen as a positive sign to start the ball rolling for a similar initiative in adjusting the pay of teachers and teaching personnel, who deserve no less. "Beyond their traditional mission in the classrooms, teachers are mentors and influencers of the youth and of the community. Their critical role in nation-building could not be overlooked," said Pangilinan, whose mother is a retired teacher. Sen. Bam Aquino said that while teachers may not bear arms or engage in dangerous missions, they give the same dedication and hard work to educate the students. "They have legitimate demands and are not shielded from the impact of higher prices of goods and services, especially with the TRAIN law in place," Aquino said. "Gaya ng sundalo at pulis, gumagamit din sila ng gasolina, bumibili ng pagkain at iba pang gastusin na nagtaas na dahil sa TRAIN law," said Aquino, principal sponsor of the Expanded Tertiary Education Act. For his part, Sen. Frank Drilon pointed out that the Department of Budget and Management was able to find funds for the salary hike of military and uniformed personnel, then there is no reason for its Secretary to whine about the cost of increasing the pay of public school teachers. "Instead of slamming the doors on the plea of the teachers, Secretary Diokno should use his wise judgment and skills to find the funds and put money where it is most needed. Investments on the country's human resources, especially our teachers, can never go wrong," said the Senate Minority Leader. Dispatch from Crame No. 220 Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio's decision not to attend the impeachment hearing against CJ Sereno at the House of Representatives 1/12/18 Justice Antonio Carpio is the breath of fresh air in the judiciary today. The most to have a gripe as the most senior Justice to be bypassed for the Chief Justice position, he now exemplifies dignity and circumspection among the justices for refusing to be dragged into the highly politicized impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Sereno. In so doing, Justice Carpio has managed to preserve whatever integrity and honor is left in the High Court. He now symbolizes both the independence and forthrightness of a Court under siege from the House and Malacanang. In a time where self-preservation and self-interest dominate the political scene of kowtowing to Malacanang, there are men and women who refuse to be so beguiled by power and protection, but instead stand up for and defend their institutions from the assault of tyranny. They will all be remembered when this is all over, the few and brave souls who dared to stand up against the impunity of the House and the regime it serves. Press Release January 12, 2018 GORDON WANTS HIGHER FINES FOR IRRESPONSIBLE MINING FIRMS To ensure responsible mining and protect the environment, Senator Richard J. Gordon has proposed to amend Presidential Decree 1586 or the Environmental Impact Statement System Law by imposing higher fines on erring mining companies. Gordon filed Senate Bill No. 1633 also known as An Act Amending Section 9 of Presidential Decree 1586 by Increasing the Penalties Thereof and for Other Purposes. The bill proposes a fine ranging from P500,000 to P2-million for every violation of the terms and conditions in the issuance of the Environmental Compliance Certificate, the standards, and rules and regulation issued by the National Environmental Protection Council pursuant to the said presidential decree, depending on the effect and damage caused by the violation. "We have to raise the penalty for mining violations. The fines provided for in Presidential Decree 1586 have to be updated because the maximum penalty of P50,000 (and in some instances, a paltry P25,000) is not realistic anymore. This is why I am also proposing that the violator be made to shoulder the full cost of the rehabilitation, reparation or restoration of the damage caused by their violation," he said. The proposed legislation was filed in line with one of the recommendations made by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in the committee report it submitted after conducting an inquiry into the reported destructive mining operations or illegal excavations in Zambales. Gordon, chair of the Committee on Accountability of Public Officers & Investigations (Blue Ribbon), pointed out that while the government deplores the contribution of indiscriminate and untrammeled mining activities to environmental degradation, mining operations bring jobs and money into the local economy, spur the creation of farm-to-market roads, create infrastructure, and provide electricity, all contributing to economic progress. "What we need is responsible mining. Responsible mining is finding ways to extract and process mineral resources with the least environmental disruption and damage...Mining need not be stopped but it must be adequately regulated," the senator said in the committee report. "We do not have to burn the whole house to catch a rat. If a commercial plane crashes because the airline did not follow maintenance standards, do we ban the entire aviation industry from flying the skies? If buses and jeepneys figure in road mishaps because of lack of discipline among drivers or lack of proper maintenance of the vehicles, do we prevent the entire land transportation industry from plying the streets? No, because these industries are crucial to our everyday lives. We stop the violators, impose stricter regulations and ensure full compliance," he stressed. Press Release January 12, 2018 Legarda: Pay Hike for Soldiers, Police, Funded Under 2018 Budget Senator Loren Legarda today said that the increase in base pay of military and uniformed personnel in the government is funded under the 2018 national budget. Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance and co-sponsor of the Joint Resolution Authorizing the Increase in the Base Pay of Military and Uniformed Personnel in the Government, said that under the 2018 General Appropriations Act (GAA), Php62.8 Billion was allocated under the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) for the increase in the base pay of military and uniformed personnel. "This is good news for our soldiers, policemen and other uniformed personnel in government because they will now receive the long overdue salary increase that they deserve," said Legarda, a reserve officer in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The base pay schedule of military and uniformed personnel was last increased eight years ago. "We cannot overemphasize the value of the arduous mission our soldiers and policemen have to undertake in order to maintain peace and order by protecting the people and the State from lawless violence, invasion, rebellion, terrorist acts and other activities that might affect public safety and bring harm to the independence of our nation. It is about time that their base pay is increased to better compensate for the hazards they face in the course of performing their duties," she added. The modified base pay schedule applies to all military personnel under the Department of National Defense (DND) and uniformed personnel under the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA). Heavy fog rolled into parts of the Bay Area Friday morning, limiting visibility for drivers on the morning commute but it should burn off by late morning and give way to sunny skies for the long weekend. We have patchy fog throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and when it turns patchy, its hit or miss, said Charles Bell of the National Weather Service in Monterey. Some communities are getting it and some are not, like Oakland is down to two miles of visibility whereas further south near SFO, theres eight miles. One afternoon, at a restaurant in rural Texas, Roger Hodge asked his waitress whether there were any local spots he had to see. She knew just the one an abandoned insane asylum in the town of Wichita Falls. When Hodge asked whether he needed to worry about trespassing, her reply was festive: We dont care about that in Texas! The identity of Texas, and Texans, rests at the center of Hodges appealing and unusual new book, Texas Blood. Hodge, a nonfiction veteran and now an editor at the Intercept, is no interloper. He grew up in west Texas and reminds his waitress that in their shared home state, trespassing is a good way to get shot. Hodges ancestors first moved to Texas in 1854, and while he left the state for college and never entirely came back, he still visits frequently, bringing his children from New York so they can see their grandparents, experience the harsh and striking landscape, and learn to shoot (deer, not trespassers). During one of those visits, Hodge has an epiphany: Standing in a place where seven generations of my family have gazed over the same hills and valleys, I realized that my knowledge of the lives of my forebears and their contemporaries, their motivations and their passions, was pathetically thin. By writing and reporting Texas Blood, Hodge aims to fix that. His book aspires to the tradition of Joan Didion on California and Ian Frazier on the Great Plains, and it mostly succeeds. Texas comes with a thick overgrowth of symbol and myth: rodeos, oil rigs, the Alamo. Hodge sets it all aside. Hes not interested in chipper rise of Texas histories, nor in odes to the Texan character two genres favored by writers who, in Hodges nice and knifing phrase, play the role of professional Texan. Hodges desire to counter this tradition does wonders for the scope of his book, which toggles between his family and the states forgotten history: Spanish missionaries, French pirates, borderlands outlaws and a huge variety of Indian tribes not just Apaches and Comanches but the Jumano, the Bobole and more. Still, it can make the individual chapters a bit slow. A book like this always benefits from some connective tissue. (Think of Fraziers friendly voice or Didions cutting details.) Hodge writes carefully and elegantly, but sometimes his book bogs down under a mix of meandering prose and maximalist detail; in a few stretches there are so many asides they stop feeling like asides. Some readers will see this as a welcome (and deliberate) break from much of todays nonfiction, where long-form headlines and trade-book subtitles promise easy payoffs (How A Became B; What C Says About D). But other readers will reject it, or at the very least will be tempted to approach it like one of those grand old guidebooks the Federal Writers Project made for the (then 48) states, rich but browsable. Even the browsers will find that as Texas Blood moves along, it gets better at balancing its narrative. Sometimes the momentum comes from Hodges quest for family history. He goes to Missouri in search of the farm where his ancestors may have lived, pre-Texas, and its one of the many times he deftly undercuts the sentimentality that can overpower a book like this. I lingered in the field for a time, he writes, and tried to feel the weight of nearly two centuries of history on that land. All I could imagine was the weight of 182 years worth of cow s. Sometimes the momentum comes from travel writing. Hodge excels at describing Deep Red America, not just flyover country but far-from-the-interstate country. He captures a town like Presidio, Texas, honestly but not condescendingly. Its a place with a few rundown chains, some abandoned buildings, and very little concern for disguising or decorating its appearances. Desert towns, Hodge writes, wear everything out in the open. Texas Blood also includes some political journalism, in a dispatch from the border, and some literary criticism, in a dive into the legacy of Cormac McCarthy. But the book always loops back to Texas. Hodge spent years on this project, digging into archives, interrogating relatives, and putting thousands and thousands of miles on rentals. After finishing the book, youll wonder whether the states Enterprise locations have posted a copy of his author photo under the decree: Do not rent. All that effort has produced a book that will be beloved by Texans and fascinating to anyone else who wants to understand why the strange geographical category of state still matters in our ostensibly globalized age. In fact, I finished the book thinking not of Texas but everywhere else. Its hard to see a revival of the Federal Writers Project. (Just imagine Ted Cruzs grandstanding response.) And that means the cataloging of our territories and states will have to come from obsessives like Hodge. How wonderful it would be to have not only a Texas Blood but a California Blood, then a Pennsylvania Blood, then a Puerto Rico Blood, slowly shading in the vast and mysterious American map. Craig Fehrman is writing a book about presidents and their books. Email: books@sfchronicle.com Texas Blood Seven Generations Among the Outlaws, Ranchers, Indians, Missionaries, Soldiers, and Smugglers of the Borderlands By Roger D. Hodge (Knopf; 353 pages; $28.95) Ted S. Warren/Associated Press Its another last for Virgin America the Federal Aviation Administrations approval of a single operating license with Alaska Airlines Thursday officially signals the end of Virgin flights. The license allows Alaska Airlines and Virgin America to operate as a single airline in the eyes of aviation regulators, pilots and air traffic controllers. Virgins Redwood call sign, what controllers use to address airlines, will retire and those flights will take on the Alaska name. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate We first came upon Kohei Nawas PixCell-Maral Deer, a full-size reindeer covered with shimmering glass orbs. The Japanese artist, whose first solo show at the Pace Gallery opens on Thursday, Jan. 18, stood beamingly by it as art lovers at Fog Design and Art crowded around the work, a showstopper. A news release said this wondrous object is a taxidermied maral deer, encased by the artist in different-sized cells ... created through the use of glass beads. Inside, said the artist in halting English, is a stuffed animal. But on the outside, the glass spheres look wet, mysterious and although you know theyre heavy, ethereal. (Asking price: $500,000.) This was just inside the entrance to the Fog fair, the gala opening of which was marked Wednesday, Jan. 10, with an intricately planned pyramid of fundraising levels for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Just before glimpsing the figures, wed stopped for a bit at 21POP, the fairs traditional homage to the makers, artists and craftspeople, always curated by Stanlee Gatti. This years Home Plate featured handmade plates, with a line of markers describing the works that were arrayed side by side on a long table, as though the display itself was an additional work of art. This gathering of the art tribe features the familiarity of old pals, the unfamiliarity of new art, plenty of food and drink (thanks to McCalls), and hobnobbing. Although it is a fundraiser for SFMOMA, Fine Arts Museum Director Max Hollein (who lives on the same street as SFMOMA Director Neal Benezra) seemed to be having a lot of fun. Its great to see the institutions supporting each other. This fair is all grown up, said SFMOMA senior curator Gary Garrels. Its fantastic. We were at this point surrounded by a swirl of art lovers, a tide in which the biggest donors, invited to attend at an early hour, encounter the most modest donors, arriving later. This fair has totally come into its own, continued Garrels. The quality is really high, the mix of galleries is unique, and the crowd couldnt be better. What makes a good crowd? Long-timers and lots of new people, he said. Theres a great synergy, between the people who discovered us 40 years ago and people just coming into it. In a city increasingly divided by age and wealth, its a rare happening. P.S. Braving the drizzle outside, pickets from the Sign, Display and Allied Crafts Union Local 510 complained that the display and freight-handling was done by a nonunion shop, and handed out flyers demanding fair wages and fringe benefits for workers. This is a nod to them. The Innovators Luncheon at Fog on Thursday, Jan. 11, paid homage to Alice Waters, who was honored for her passion for sustainable agriculture, for her insistence on quality ingredients, for the zest with which she shares her message with students in public school, and most of all, for changing the ways Americans eat. Food activist, writer, humanitarian is how Susan Swig introduced her. Interviewed by designer Christina Kim, a friend with whom shed often collaborated at one point, the conversation turned to tablecloths in Switzerland Waters was, as she always is, reverent about the mission. This was her first award pertaining to art and design, and its so important that art lift up those ideas that we have. It needs to be present in every event, she said. Luxurious greens, as though planted, had been placed down the center of every table, and alongside each place setting was a small yellow box from Fendi, which sponsored the lunch (prepared by A16) and opening gala. The way that things look is incredibly valuable, said the honoree. We at the Edible Schoolyard use the phrase, Beauty is the language of care. At our table, Mark Buell said hed recently helped arrange the sale of Bolinas Star Route Farms the oldest continually certified organic row crop farm in California to the University of San Francisco, his alma mater. The university will create a full curriculum around sustained agriculture. All farm staff were kept on, raises were given, and new housing for them is on the way. Produce grown there will go to Chez Panisse, with excess to food company Bon Appetit. Waters mission is part of a tree with many branches. Lets bring a sense of quality to the table, she said. I hate to use the word seduce, but thats what were doing, to try to bring them over. Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @leahgarchik Public Eavesdropping If I leave you alone, you will just eat quinoa. Man to woman, overheard at Berkeley Bowl West by Tom Adams It was a debate that many journalists likely never expected to face: How to properly quote the president of the United States saying the words "shithole countries." Deciding what to do with his remarks - and whether to censor them in news reports - was tough enough for the press in the U.S. It was, after all, a vulgar phrase not usually fit for a newspaper or television. But imagine trying to make sense of it in a different language. Every culture has its profanities, to be sure, but they do not always translate well. That dilemma played out in newsrooms around the world on Thursday after The Washington Post reported that Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as "shithole countries" while discussing immigrant protections with lawmakers. The main daily newspapers in El Salvador, one of the countries maligned by the president, went with the translation "agujeros de mierda," which essentially means "holes of sh - t." "Why do we have all these people from countries (who are a) hole of sh - t coming here?" read Trump's translated remarks, from the Spanish news agency EFE. "It's a bit literal," one Spanish-speaking reader tweeted. Alex Segura, Washington correspondent for EFE, tweeted about the debate with his editors over how to translate "the pearl of the day from Trump." Other options they considered for the phrase? "Sh - tty countries," "unclean countries," and "pigsties," he said. Another journalist, in Mexico, tweeted that he had debated at length with a least five editors over how to translate Trump's comment into Spanish. "#LaEraTrump," he said. Indeed, the Trump era has created a headache for translators and interpreters again and again. On the one hand, the president's simple vocabulary makes his words easy to follow. But when they're combined into sentences and paragraphs, they are a jumble, jumping from topic to topic. When a video was released capturing Donald Trump making lewd comments about women, news outlets across the world struggled with how to translate "Grab them by the p--." In China, where there's no obvious word for p--, some news outlets published more sanitized versions using references to "private places" or "nether parts." Others opted for simply including the censored English word, "use p-- to grab them." These cleaned-up versions fail to give foreign news consumers the full picture, which can prove problematic. Understanding the president's remarks is, after all, essential to readers worldwide - his words could lead to life-altering policies and decisions for people all over. The two words from which "shithole" are formed are not that difficult to translate individually, according to linguist Juliane House, the former president of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies. Most languages have some equivalent for the first part of the combination - or at least some profane variation of a word for excrement. "It's a bodily function," said House, who is a professor at the University of Hamburg. Hole, by itself, is also easy enough. But what happens when you put those two words together? Is it an adjective or a noun? And how does one use it in a sentence to describe certain countries? Even then, House said, "that doesn't really mean that this gets through." Editors from various news organizations need to approve the wording for publication. In many cultures, discussing excrement and using profanity - even when quoting the most powerful man in the world - may be a serious taboo. Depending on the political or moral leanings of a news organization, editors may choose to clean up the expletive. "Translation is never neutral, so ideology comes in, and probably pressure from above," House said. Some foreign news outlets took an easier approach - to disregard the "hole." Most French media went with the phrase "pays de merde," which essentially means "sh - tty countries." This meaning was quite clear, said Berengere Viennot, a professional French translator who has often been tasked to translate Trump's remarks. But previous words from Trump have left more room for ambiguity, such as the time he told France's first lady Brigitte Macron "you're in such good shape." 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. "Things have evolved: one year ago, maybe journalists would have developed or justified their choice of French swearwords for translating the American president; now it seems taken for granted that he uses a vocabulary that does not fit with the function" of the presidency, Viennot wrote in an email to The Post. "Vulgar is the new normal." In Finnish, one translation of the phrase was "perslapimaat," which literally means "a - hole countries." In Swahili, Trump's phrase would likely be translated into "Bongo land," a term used to describe poor or uncivilized places, Jan Blommaert, a Belgian linguistic anthropologist, told The Post. It's a phrase considered disparaging by many. The phrase "Bongo Bongo Land" was actually banned for its members by the UK Independence Party in 2013 after a member of European Parliament used it to describe countries receiving government aid. Some of the oddest translations of Trump's latest crudity showed up in Asian news outlets. Taiwan's Central News Agency went with niao bu sheng dan de guo jia, meaning "countries where birds don't lay eggs," as Quartz pointed out. Japan's Sankei used "Benjo no yo ni kitanai kuni," meaning "countries that are dirty like toilets." As Anna Fifield, Tokyo bureau chief for The Washington Post, noted, South Korean media had to spell out the word in English. In Germany, a common translation was "drecksloch," which conveys a garbage dump. "We used that a lot back when he called the White House a dump (simpler times!), but it doesn't work for countries," one German interpreter argued on Twitter. Reached by a reporter early Friday morning, House, the linguist in Hamburg, said she hadn't read Trump's original words in English yet - only the translation in a German daily. "Is it dirthole?" she asked. Close, but not quite. President Trumps reported question about holes Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? invites other hole-related queries, including: What sort of wormhole transported us to the universe in which he is president? Trumps scholarly inquiry came in response to lawmakers who suggested protecting immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and Africa as part of a bipartisan immigration deal that, judging by the Washington Posts report, is not imminent. He also reportedly wondered why we dont have more immigration from countries like Norway by which he presumably didnt mean really cold ones providing striking if totally unnecessary confirmation of his racism, vulgarity and ignorance. Americans of other generations wondered why the country should welcome legions of German immigrants like Trumps paternal grandfather, Friedrich. Herr Trumps son Fred, the presidents father, was concerned enough to fake Swedish ancestry for decades. Whether for Scandinavians, Salvadorans or anyone else, we will be lucky if this country retains its allure after Trump has crawled back into his hole. Josh Gohlke, editorial writer Recently, and innocently, a good friend of mine invited me to go see Annie Leibovitz, the well-known American portrait photographer who is to Baby Boomers as Coke is to Santa Claus, speak at the Nourse Theater. She was in San Francisco to promote her new book, Portraits 2005-2016 (with odd dates in the title because, like so many Baby Boomers, she didnt save enough for retirement). When Leibovitz does retire, she, along with the concept of the household name she has so dutifully cultivated, will go away, too. We went to hear her speak about the stories behind her photos and these famous people after all, HER NAME was on the ticket. But what ended up happening at the event exemplifies why these days the rest of the country hates San Francisco, and why having our friends and neighbors here call or knock on the doors of voters out of state could actually discourage people from voting Democratic. Every single time Leibovitz put up a photo, there was a deafening reaction from the audience. At base, in our section this terrible purring surrounded us. For example, when she posted this picture of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian (amazing photo!) thunderous laughing, then literal purring, broke out so loud its all you could hear of Leibovitzs explanation. She then put up a photo of the Obamas. The response was obvious adulation: HOOT! HOOT! But what was happening in the White House that day? War? Had they had lunch yet? Then she showed a photo of Harvey (BOOOO!) Weinstein. BOOO! BOOO! The photo was taken with two people who I presumed were his mother and brother, but we couldnt hear anything about it. The public outcry was far too important. The problem with all this was: We werent there to hear every San Franciscans obvious reaction to Leibovitzs photos. We wanted to hear the stories behind the photos to get some insight into what happened at the shoot and why she picked them for her book. San Franciscans deprived us of that opportunity. The truth is, everyone already knows that San Francisco is supposed to hate Donald Trump. Everyone already knows were supposed to love Barack Obama and, as for the purring do you need to purr or tell everyone how you feel on just about every last thing? Let me be the last to tell you: You dont. It does not make other people agree with you; it makes people hate you, often even if they agree with you. It turns them off. Ive lived in San Francisco for more than a decade, but as someone raised in Ohio, I promise that this sort of putting words in other peoples mouths would never happen there. Its not because Ohioans are stupid its because its presumed that not everyone in the audience agrees. In Ohio, of all places (and like most other places), theres an assumption that theres not a single opinion in the room or one reaction to the world. Despite all their problems, people in Ohio let ideas breathe. They allow nuance. And yes, its also a place that often picks the president. Its quite possible that so many people moved here to San Francisco to get away from that culture, to be able to freely express themselves, but since when has that meant expressing one single emotion on everything? The cardinal of Guinea and a senior aide to Pope Francis, Robert Sarah, released his own book last spring titled, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise. Now Im not Catholic, but I wonder if Cardinal Sarah attended anything in San Francisco this past year? He writes: Without silence, God disappears in the noise. And this noise becomes all the more obsessive because God is absent, writes the cardinal. Unless the world rediscovers silence, it is lost. The earth then rushes into nothingness. I still love living in San Francisco, but this aggressive overreacting and overemoting is tired, rude, lazy and, quite frankly when exported damaging to the cause, whatever the cause might be. I know this wont ever happen here, but HEY, San Francisco and this goes for the whole Bay Area (and most of Hollywood) try a little live and let live for a while and see if you can learn something new about why you hate or love something so much. Or at least stop being rude during Annie Leibovitzs talk (and while everyones at this, whatever happened to waiting to be called upon before speaking at a Q&A?). Daniel P. Beckmann, Ph.D., a former Obama campaign digital strategist, is the managing director of IB5k.com, which works to strengthen through digital technology the citizen voice in the halls of Congress. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at SFChronicle.com/letters. As a journalist overseeing our opinion pages for the past 22 years, I have made a point of not developing friendships or declaring enemies with the politicians I cover. There is always going to be another day, another issue, another development, another opportunity to assert my independence by concluding that a candidate or elected official is right or wrong. A politician who has screamed profanities in my ear thinking of you, former Gov. Gray Davis! just might get our endorsement in the next election because it is my judgment, and that of my editorial board colleagues, that his credentials and policies are better suited to the job. A politician who has a portfolio of laudatory clippings is not immune from forthright scrutiny. But that doesnt mean I cant admire politicians on a personal level. So let me say it. I appreciate many qualities in the four leading candidates for San Francisco mayor in the June 5 election to serve the remainder of the late Mayor Ed Lees term: London Breed, Mark Leno, Jane Kim and Angela Alioto. Dont look here for clues here about how The Chronicles endorsement might go. At this early point, I have no idea what our recommendation might be, and other voices are influential in the process. The course of the campaign, our editorial board interviews and a debate at the City Club of San Francisco (details on that coming soon) all will loom large in the decision. Yet having watched and interacted with these candidates over the years, I am confident that this will be a lively and substantive campaign. London Breed was very much an outsider, and decidedly unpolished and a little bit naive, when she joined the candidates for District Five (Fillmore, Hayes Valley, Western Addition) before our editorial board in fall 2012. She was blunt in her approach and not always steeped in policy details. But Breed possessed qualities that were very appealing. She had a keen sense of the pulse of the district. She was fearless (proved all the more so with her profanity-laced dissociation with former mayor and city power broker Willie Brown at another venue). My colleagues and I concluded that City Hall could use the perspective of a bright young woman raised by her grandmother in the projects. She got our endorsement. We were right. Breed has been a quick study on policy and the interpersonal dynamics of politics. Her colleagues on the Board of Supervisors agreed, electing her president in January 2015 and re-electing her by unanimous vote a year later. She has handled her abrupt elevation to acting mayor with grace and sensitivity after the stunning news of Lees death on Dec. 12. Ive known Mark Leno since he was appointed to a vacant supervisors seat in 1998. Ive watched him advance to the Assembly in 2002 and to the state Senate in 2008. Ive seen him in tough Democratic primaries, yet Ive never known him to lose his dignity or composure, or commitment to issue-oriented campaigns. Ive seen him take on seemingly impossible causes as a matter of principle, never more so than when he was convinced that an ostensibly tough-on-pornography bill was so draconian that it could make an inadvertent download a crime. Ive also seen his relentlessness on important issues, such as marriage equality, a higher minimum wage and a requirement that police obtain warrants before searching electronic devices. Ive disagreed with Leno a number of times most often with his reverence for regulation or his ingenuity at finding new things to tax but he has never wavered in his accessibility or collegiality. He is one of the most gracious people Ive encountered in politics. Jane Kim is one of the more serious-minded people in California politics. She was elected to the Board of Supervisors from District Six (South of Market, Tenderloin, Treasure Island) in 2010, and I always have respected her commitment to progressive causes and her willingness to engage people who might be inclined to disagree with her. I was favorably impressed with her thoughtfully forceful analyses of the changing San Francisco on a Commonwealth Club panel I moderated in October 2014. She ran a spirited campaign against a fellow supervisor, Scott Wiener, narrowly losing in the 2016 race for state Senate. Unlike some of the progressive upstarts in San Francisco, Kim has shown that she recognizes that the way to win an argument is by persuasion instead of polemic rhetoric and hyperbolic vitriol. Angela Alioto is the old-school San Francisco representative in the race. The daughter of the revered Mayor Joe Alioto (1968-76) was in her last year on the Board of Supervisors when I came to the editorial board in 1996. She ran for mayor in 2003, and our endorsement of Gavin Newsom led to a testy exchange of words between us. But Alioto, as I, bears no grudges. We had a succession of substantive and mutually supportive discussions after Newsom made her his point person on homelessness. She almost instantly struck an impressively productive relationship with Philip Mangano, homeless czar for President George W. Bushs administration. Alioto was as determined and dedicated as anyone who served under Newsom. Her commitment to the issue, and her love for the city, were ever apparent. Her straight-ahead style guarantees that this campaign will be anything but boring. The quality of these four leading candidates illustrates the depth of talent in San Francisco politics. Several prominent potential contenders looked at the race and decided to pass: state Sen. Scott Wiener, Assemblyman David Chiu, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu and Supervisor Aaron Peskin. And, still, San Francisco voters are left with four good choices. Im an optimist. I believe that Breed, Leno, Kim and Alioto are the type of public servants who will demand that their campaigns avoid the level of dispiriting, name-calling, disingenuous tactics that too often corrode San Francisco politics. I trust that they will urge their supporters especially those with dollars for independent expenditures to keep this sprint to June 5 on the high road. A civil, substantive campaign to succeed Ed Lee would be a fitting tribute to his memory. John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicles editorial page editor. Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnDiazChron Final four Angela Alioto showed her ability to work across party lines as the citys homeless czar. Jane Kim promotes her progressive agenda in a substantive, civil manner. London Breed has proved a quick study, emerging as president of the Board of Supervisors. Mark Leno is unfailingly gracious, even with those who vigorously disagree with him. There is no perfect solution to filling the vacancy in City Hall until San Francisco voters choose a successor to the late Mayor Ed Lee. At the moment, London Breed, president of the Board of Supervisors, is serving as acting mayor. But the 11-member board has the option of replacing her with an interim, or caretaker, mayor until the election. The movement to do so has picked up steam since Breed announced that she would be on the ballot in June to fill out the remaining 18 months of Lees term. Here is the case for allowing Breed to stay in the mayors office: The arguments to replace her are not without merit. There are concerns about separation of powers and conflicting loyalties, since she would simultaneously serve as mayor of the city and supervisor of a district that includes the Fillmore, Haight and Western Addition. There is also a legitimate question about whether her duties would be stretched too thin as a mayor, board president and candidate. And her opponents worry that her presence in the mayors office, and the stature and attention it bestows, would give her an unfair advantage at the ballot box. Those apprehensions cannot be dismissed outright, but they should be considered in context. Breed is acting mayor not by accident, but because she was placed in the line of succession by her colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, which selected her as their leader. Among the separation of powers concerns: Both the mayor and president of the board make appointments to city commissions, giving undue influence to one person. One reasonable remedy would be for the board to appoint Breed as interim mayor, which would require her to step down from her supervisors seat and she then would be allowed to appoint her successor, so the ideological balance of the board could remain intact. Without question, Breed will have her hands full adjusting to her expanded role as mayor, but she will have a considerable legion of appointed aides and career bureaucrats to keep the government rolling. The incumbency advantage should be the least of the citys worries. Sitting in the mayors office can be a blessing and a curse for political standing: Yes, mayors have abundant opportunities for ribbon cuttings and framing the agenda, but they also tend to get blamed for everything that irks the citizenry, from car break-ins to homeless encampments to the pangs of development. Also, it must be noted that one of her main opponents, former state Sen. Mark Leno, has raised about $400,000 in anticipation of a 2019 election and no one expects him to voluntarily relinquish the edge that gives him in a suddenly compressed race. The problems with the alternatives to keeping Breed on the job as mayor are more troubling. It would be wrong to allow progressives who want to steer city policy to the left to seize the moment to install one of their own in City Halls Room 200. Voters will decide for themselves in fewer than six short months, and after a robust debate among four experienced politicians, whether they want to change course. A caretaker with government experience but no political aspirations has an appealing ring, but it would be far preferable to have a mayor with accountability to the voters. If Breed keeps her word an early test of her leadership she will exercise her authority as board president to schedule a special meeting Tuesday for the supervisors to consider their options. The supervisors should keep London Breed on the job until San Francisco voters can deliver their verdict on the course of the city and which candidate would be best to achieve it. This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters. Evan Vucci/Associated Press The Trump administration wants Medicaid beneficiaries to prove they are working or participating in community engagement activities, which like most such barriers is designed to jettison people from the program. However, because the administration is legally bound to justify the change as furthering the goals of the low-income medical insurance program, Medicaids top bureaucrat, Seema Verma, has argued that the requirement will improve health, based on evidence that richer people tend to be healthier. That is, in a classic piece of Trumpian illogic, the administration is proposing to make Americans healthier by taking away their health coverage. Theres a line between improving our lives through technology and tech crowding out our ability to live independently. In the case of many new apps, that line has been crossed. Apps allow us to outsource our responsibilities, errands and duties. This is especially true of younger Americans members of the Millennial and Generation Z age cohorts who have seen their micro-responsibilities disappear. The cumulative result is a diminished ability to act independently. Whats more, beyond threatening young peoples ability to handle basic tasks and maintain their mental health, these apps reduce the need to engage with other community members. Meaningful relationships and exchanges are the mortar of our democracy and, as apps take the place of daily interactions, that foundation is in peril. Apps have freed us to kick responsibilities down the road. Though the tasks tech has solved seem trivial learning to drive, running errands, editing your own term paper for school those who rely heavily on these tools have shown a noticeable decline in self-sufficiency. For example, since 1983, theres been a 22-point drop in the percentage of 16-year-olds with a drivers license falling from 46.2 to 24.5 percent in 2014. A drivers license is not necessary to become independent, but possessing one certainly adds to the likelihood that you will take on more tasks and responsibilities as you drop off siblings and pick up groceries, for example. Its hard not to see a connection between the rise of more ride-hailing options and the decline in teens earning their wheels. The convenience of Uber and Lyft makes dragging yourself to the Department of Motor Vehicles for a series of endless lines and intricate tests look even more unappealing. On the whole, ride-hailing crowds out chances for teens to learn the rules of the road, deal with car-maintenance issues that inevitably arise, and, when they do, figure out how to use public transit. Why deal with the hassles of independence when #theylldriveforyou? To add to the evasion of interaction and escape from responsibility, teens stuck driving themselves around may not actually have to pick up anything. Curbside, an app founded in 2013, uses location information from your phone to let a store know precisely when you are outside their door so that they can quickly shuttle your order to you through the car window no lines, no wait, no chance for conversation. Its important to note that this app carries immense potential for differently abled individuals for whom parking and navigating a store may prove difficult. However, for the Lyft-riding teen responsible for bringing home some bread for dinner, it is just another task that someone else can do for them. #neverleaveyourbubble When our figurative Lyft-riding, Curbside-receiving teen gets home and starts his or her homework, theyll find plenty of ways to delegate the responsibility-building tasks of the past. Case in point, teens no longer need to parse through their homework for grammatical errors. As you have likely seen from its ads, Grammarly can take care of the peskiness tied to learning how to write correctly for you. Again, knowing the difference between an em- and en-dash is not critical to maturation, but it allows young Americans to shift the burden of being meticulous and patient elsewhere. You can imagine the interaction between a Grammarly-dependent student with a heavily red-lined paper and their professor quickly going sour If you would have just let me use Grammarly, it would have been perfect! #crutch The drive to be error-free thats accentuated by apps is fueling a mental health crisis among students. Students that use mental health services most commonly cite anxiety, depression and academic stress as the impetus for their visit, according to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health. The percentage of students using these services has spiked in recent years. Ashley Stauffer, a project manager at the center, reports an increase in threat-to-self characteristics exhibited by students over the past five years. This jump may help explain why suicide is the second-leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 15 and 34, an unsurprising fact given that about 50 percent of students felt hopeless during the past school year. #crisis Theres a cure for hopelessness, and its not an app. The knowledge that you are capable, knowledgeable and flawed, but able to counteract those weaknesses, is the cure. A healthy dose of human interaction the basis for building your support system combined with the confidence gained by tackling a difficult task or arduous errand all by yourself can also pare back any sign of hopelessness. #solution I am one of those young Americans who have felt hopeless, blamed someone or something else for a task I ought to have tackled, and overly relied on an app rather than a friend. I know that the hardest days occur when I am the most isolated and most dependent on others. Leaving my bubble and engaging with my community thats when Im thriving, and thats when our democracy thrives as well. The value of human interaction has historically been recognized by conservative and liberal thinkers alike. Adam Smith, highly regarded by conservative thinkers, made clear that regular interactions with those around us lead to the dissemination of ideas, refinement of our morals and betterment of our neighborhood. You can find support on the left as well. Jane Jacobs, a fierce advocate for communities built to facilitate interaction and a liberal thinker, staunchly defends efforts that foster community through interaction. #bipartisan So heres a challenge to the tech community: Create products that take us into our community. Thankfully, there are some great examples of apps prompting people to connect with others: WhereBy.us is making it cool (and easy) to share news with and learn from your neighbors, the DoSomething app presents users with a plethora of volunteer opportunities in their backyard, and Forward is making sure that one persons trash doesnt actually end up in the landfill by directing your donation to a local person in need. Apps like these incentivize interaction, foster community engagement and give young people opportunities to develop skills and relationships that are truly worth up-voting. #progress Kevin Frazier is a transplant to San Francisco from Oregon, where he served as the president of the College Democrats of Oregon from 2013 to 2015. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Southern California Republican and gubernatorial hopeful Travis Allen said he supports President Trumps proposed border wall during a stop Thursday in San Francisco, a place where hed find wide disagreement. Unfazed by the Bay Areas well-known distaste for the presidents immigration agenda, the blunt, 44-year-old assemblyman insisted theres a quiet supermajority beyond San Franciscos political elite that backs strong measures to keep undocumented immigrants out of the country. Dont let anybody tell you if you build a 10-foot wall theyre going to come with an 11-foot ladder, he said during his hour-long appearance at the Public Policy Institute of California. In this years crowded governors race, which includes at least two other Republicans, albeit all long shots, Allen is perhaps the candidate to most align himself with Trump. From Allens criticism of the media to such controversial statements as calling for the arrest of those under 18 who solicit sex, often also known as victims of child sex trafficking, his outspokenness is not far off from the presidents. His campaign slogan is also familiar: Its time we take back California. And policywise, Allen has supported Trumps tax plan, pushed for strong law enforcement and, recently, backed the administrations efforts to drill for oil off the California coast. People say, Travis, where do you disagree with President Trump? he said. I got to tell you I dont. Answering questions from Public Policy Institute President Mark Baldassare, Allen portrayed himself as a common-sense Californian just wanting what everyone in the state wants: less-congested freeways, a more affordable housing market and better schools. The resident of Huntington Beach (Orange County), who worked as a financial planner before entering politics in 2012, said hes seen too many of his friends and family leave the state because of their increasing dissatisfaction. His solution is standard Republican fare. He said he wants to cut regulation so that more homes can be developed, wider roads can be built and parents can have greater choice when it comes to their childs education, including vouchers for private schools. Sacramento has been taking California in the wrong direction four decades now, he said, referring to the states longtime Democratic rule. One of Allens notable recent political moves is his pursuit of a ballot measure to repeal Gov. Jerry Browns gas tax, which he said is only wasting money. Acknowledging that Republicans dont have the ability to make significant changes because of their lack of numbers in the state Legislature, he said his party needs to win the governorship. That wont be easy, however. Allen, like the other Republican candidates, hasnt gained much traction with voters, polls shows. The Berkeley IGS Poll from December shows him tied at 9 percent with fellow Republican John Cox. Former Rep. Doug Ose, a Republican from the Sacramento area who entered the race last week, was not included in the poll. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lead the poll at 26 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Add to that, if their party doesnt unite behind a single candidate, its unlikely that any Republican will survive Junes top-two primary and make it to the November election. Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Editors note: The Chronicle ordinarily refrains from publishing vulgar language unless it is judged to be an essential part of the story. In this story, the term President Trump used in his discussion of immigrant communities meets that standard. WASHINGTON President Trump inflamed already precarious negotiations over protecting young immigrants Thursday by denouncing immigrants from shithole countries such as Haiti and African nations during a White House meeting with lawmakers. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Trump asked in frustration during discussions over a bipartisan proposal that included visas for immigrants from these countries, according to people briefed on the White House meeting. He suggested that the United States should admit more people from countries like Norway, a largely white country whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. The president made the comments as Republicans in Congress appeared to be gaining leverage on negotiations over immigration policy, solidifying around a strategy to demand major restrictions on legal immigration, a long-sought conservative goal, in exchange for permanent protection for roughly 700,000 young immigrants. His remarks suddenly threw a potent racial cast over a policy debate about allowing immigrants to sponsor their extended families and the diversity visa lottery that admits 50,000 immigrants a year from countries that do not have family networks already established in the United States. Many are from African, Caribbean and other nations of color. The president made clear he wanted the lottery ended, using racially explosive language. What do we want people from Haiti here for? he asked, according to those who were briefed. Why do we want all these people from Africa here? Why do we want all these people from shithole countries? In a written statement put out hours later, a White House press secretary neither denied nor directly addressed Trumps remarks. Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people, said Raj Shah, principal deputy White House press secretary, in the statement. 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, Shah said. Republicans were mostly silent on Trumps comments, while Democrats were dismissive. 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, a California Democrat who has been pushing for protecting Dreamers and whose mother came from India and father from Jamaica. They should be welcomed and celebrated, not demeaned and insulted. In a tweet, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said, Sad comment from @realDonaldTrump. All the more reason to focus on getting an agreement on DACA as soon as possible. With time running out on the temporary program that has granted them legal status, the Dreamers who arrived in the country as children and grew up as Americans are caught not only in a classic immigration battle that has stymied immigration overhauls under the last two administrations, but one that Trump has now racially inflamed. A third of the young immigrants live in California, and enrolled in the Obama administrations Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA that started in 2012. Trump canceled the program last fall and gave Congress six months to devise a legislative fix. That deadline is March 5. Both parties in Congress had been aiming at next Friday to pass a DACA measure as part of a must-pass spending bill, but that date at this point seems ambitious. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which has pushed for restrictions on legal immigration, said Trumps comments wont make much difference because Democrats would never agree to reductions in legal immigration. Whether the president spoke in his trademark vulgar style or whether he used mellifluous tones, it wouldnt make any difference honestly in this case, Krikorian said. Democrats widely insisted Thursday on a clean immigration bill dealing only with the Dreamers and some border-strengthening. Republicans said any bill would have to meet four parameters outlined at a televised bipartisan meeting at the White House on Tuesday that included the visa lottery and visas for extended family members, which Republicans call chain migration because each category of relatives is able in turn to sponsor more relatives. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, is one of the lead players in the negotiations among the two chambers of Congress and the White House. The plan that caused Trump to erupt was floated by a bipartisan group of six senators who have been working for months on a DACA bill and announced that they had reached an agreement Thursday. White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short said it would not satisfy the White House. The Senates second-ranking Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, said the proposal still lacked broad support. My job is to count votes, and we need more than six votes, Cornyn said, reiterating that any fix for the Dreamers must include the four pillars. The bipartisan Senate group proposed providing legal status not only for DACA enrollees, but also those who were eligible but failed to sign up for the program. It would provide less than $3 billion for a border barrier, surveillance and other border priorities, a sum far short of the $18 billion the White House wants to build a wall on the southern border. The plan would allow the parents of Dreamers to gain temporary protected status as well, but not citizenship. And it would shift some of the 50,000 diversity visas to Haitians who recently lost their temporary protected status after the administration canceled that program. Even before Trumps comments, members of the Congressional Black Caucus were drawing a line in the sand over any changes to the diversity visa lottery, which is used heavily by African and Caribbean immigrants. Youre going to cut off the part that brings people of dark skin, brown skin, but you're going to leave the ones for the white complexion? said Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich., who said the caucus was applying pressure on Democratic leaders to hold firm on the visa lottery. What are we doing here? When you step back and look at that, why did you identify that as one to eliminate? This is not a population that has been identified as terrorist and all these stereotypes that you place on people. They work, they are people who are highly educated, they speak multiple languages, so what is your objective? Its offensive to me. Lawrence said she would not vote for a bill that provided protections for Dreamers if it included elimination of the visa lottery. Trump has made racially tinged comments in the past, accusing Haitians of all having AIDS, and referring to Africans living in huts, among many others. At a news conference Thursday, Pelosi criticized the composition of the chief negotiators on the Dreamer issue, a group that includes McCarthy, calling them the five white guys. What are they going to do, open a hamburger stand? she said. About 15,000 DACA immigrants have already lost their legal status as they have been unable to renew their DACA applications. A federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday imposed a nationwide injunction that will keep the program alive until review by a higher court. The administration has promised a swift appeal. Fearing a negative ruling either way, both parties agree that Congress should pass legislation to provide the Dreamers permanent legal status. Carolyn Lochhead is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: clochhead@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carolynlochhead Editors note: The Chronicle ordinarily refrains from publishing vulgar language unless it is judged to be an essential part of the story. In this story, the term President Trump used in his discussion of immigrant communities meets that standard. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Thursday, on the 263rd birthday of Alexander Hamilton, the Oval Office descended into a deep brown sinkhole of anti-immigrant rhetoric. But in San Francisco at the Old Mint, the California Historical Society celebrated foreign-born Hamilton, the first U.S. treasury secretary, by honoring another great American, George P. Shultz. Shultz, perhaps, best known as a Marine, former secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan, and Hoover Institution fellow, is the husband of Protocol Chief Charlotte Shultz. But he also shared Hamiltons job, serving as our nations 62nd Treasury secretary. And during his tenure, Shultz was instrumental in saving the Old Mint from destruction. As one of the few buildings to survive the 1906 earthquake, the Old Mint became a kind of refuge where people came in that terrible time, noted Shultz, a razor-sharp nonagenarian intellect who turned 97 in December. So here you can say the Treasury stands for being prepared and serving people. Affectionately dubbed the Granite Lady, the Greek Revival-style Old Mint on Fifth Street opened in 1874 as a repository for the countrys gold reserves. By 1934, the Old Mint housed one-third of the nations gold supply. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and later earned California Historical Landmark status. In 2016, the late Mayor Ed Lee approved a $1 million Office of Economic and Workforce Development grant to restore the Old Mint. The historical society is lead project partner with the goal of transforming the Old Mint into its headquarters and a public cultural facility. Led by gala chairwoman Linda Elliot and California Historical Society Executive Director Anthea Hartig, this black-tie fete featured a McCalls cocktail reception and seated dinner held in a heated tent on the Old Mints open-air courtyard. Two hundred and fifty guests explored a new permanent exhibition highlighting the Old Mints history as a foundry, fortress and public bank. The Hamilton theme weaved throughout the evening with singing of the Broadway shows songs by members of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Co. Gala proceeds will fund the historical societys programming and youth history education programs. So Meg Honey, an Advanced Placement U.S. history teacher at Northgate High School, donned her A. Ham lid and rapped her praise, noting the passion for history those programs inspire in her students. Actor Mayor London Breed opened the program that included tributes from longtime Shultz colleagues and friends, including a state proclamation from Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, and letters from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gov. Jerry Brown and Stephen D. Bechtel Jr. Two great Americans honored this evening, Alexander Hamilton and my dear friend George Shultz, have both lived up to our noblest aspirations and contributed to incredible feats, from the founding of a free new nation to helping win the Cold War without a shot, read Rices letter. The U.S. Mint in San Francisco stands as testament to Georges foresight, as well as his understanding of historys role in society. Shultz spoke on his ideas about fixing Social Security, health care and reducing our nations debt, concepts he continues to pen in the 50 books hes published. And he shared an imagined conversation he had with Hamilton about his Treasury troubles during the Revolutionary War when the nation and colonies-turned-states incurred massive debts. Yet Hamilton redeemed those debts. I asked Alexander, Why the states? He explained those states incurred debt on behalf of the nation. And if were going to be a halfway decent country, the Treasury must stand up for them, Shultz recounted. So the full faith and credit of the United States was established by Alexander Hamilton. He restored our country. And, incidentally, Hamilton was an immigrant. At nights end as the crowd erupted in a standing ovation, the Granite Ladys mighty walls echoed with a refrain: Shultz for president! The historical societys exhibition Alexander Hamilton: Treasures from the New York Historical Society is on display through March 18 at its 678 Mission St. gallery. Catherine Bigelow is The San Francisco Chronicles society correspondent. Email: missbigelow@sfgate.com Instagram: @missbigelow The Me, Too and Times up movements against sexual harassment and gender inequality are not the first time women in Hollywood have stood up for political and social causes. Just ask Jane Fonda, one of the movie industrys original agitators who has been participating in direct-action, grass-roots canvassing since the 1970s with the Indochina Peace Campaign. All the good stuff thats happened in this country happened because people were on the ground talking to people, said Fonda. Talking, but mostly listening, to people. The two-time Academy Award-winning actress, producer and author was in San Francisco on Thursday, Jan. 11, to advocate for the One Fair Wage ballot measure in Michigan, which aims to raise the minimum wage in the state to $12 per hour and end the $3.38 separate minimum wage for tipped workers. That morning, she spoke on behalf of the measure at the private San Francisco club the Battery with Restaurant Opportunities Centers United co-founder Saru Jayaraman, one of several female activists who attended the Golden Globes this year and wore black in a show of solidarity with Times Up. I was supposed to take her to the Golden Globes but I had surgery to remove cancer from my lip, said Fonda, indicating a bandage. Jayaraman ended up attending the ceremony with Amy Poehler. Fonda has long been known for her advocacy of causes including womens rights and the antiwar movement starting famously with her involvement in the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1970s. Fondas positions even found their way into her films, including the 1980 comedy Nine to Five, where Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton famously addressed sexual harassment in the workplace. At her appearance with Jayaraman at the Battery (streamed on the Battery Facebook page), the subject of sexual harassment was front and center. Susan Ehmer/The Chronicle Fonda said raising the minimum wage for tipped workers was important to her for reasons that point back to the Me, Too movement and Times Ups initiatives: the vulnerability of tipped workers, especially women. One of the things that interested me about it was that these are the people who are so vulnerable to sex harassment and sex abuse, said Fonda. Theyre dependent on the tips to feed themselves and their families. There are seven states California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, Nevada and Alaska where there isnt a two-tier wage system. In those seven states, sexual harassment dropped 50 percent, said Fonda. What it shows is that when women are on a parity financially with men, they dont have to put up with it. Thats why the Times Up movement that we just launched at the Golden Globes with the women in Hollywood Ive been working with is not just the issue of sexual harassment; one of our demands is 50/50 by 2020. This issue of financial power and decision-making power is critical. Fonda was one of the 400 signers of the letter supporting and introducing Times Up. Both Fonda and Tomlin have already made canvassing trips to the state (Tomlin is a native of Detroit) with Jayaraman to collect the 300,000 signatures needed to get the initiative on the ballot. The women also hosted a fundraiser together later that night. Fonda, who turned 80 in December, said she had been considering retirement in the years leading up to the birthday but then Trump got elected and it was back to the barricades. The partnership with Jayaraman, whos also the director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley, came about, Fonda said, because you always want to find out whos the best and Saru is one of them. VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images Jayaraman pointed out that even though the restaurant industry is the fastest growing in the United States, its among the lowest paying, and the tipped-worker wage disparity most strongly affects women. Its a legalized pay inequity in this industry that allows you to pay women about a fifth of what you pay men, Jayaraman said. In every other industry, thats illegal. In our industry, its the law. Harassment in the restaurant industry, Jayaraman said, was also perpetuated through management that encouraged women to dress sexy in tighter and more revealing shirts as a way of encouraging tips. Thanks to the Timess Up and Me Too movements, all the things weve been saying about the intense sexual harassment in this industry and the fact that, look, this isnt just millions of women in this industry who put up with this every day of their lives: 1-in-2 American women has worked in this industry in their lifetime, Jayaraman said. This is the first job for most young women in American high school, college or grad school. This is how they learn whats acceptable and tolerable in the workplace. Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com The owners of a cannabis dispensary that was denied permission to open in San Franciscos Sunset District took the city to court Thursday, three months after the Board of Supervisors voted down the stores permit application. In a filing Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court, lawyers for PNB Noriega LLC better known as the Apothecarium claimed the board had overturned legally correct land use decisions to favor politically connected groups, when it went against the City Planning Commissions vote to approve the dispensary at 2505 Noriega Street. The proposed dispensary is owned by former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and her husband, Floyd Huen. Ultimately, they seek to force the supervisors to reverse their decision and allow the Apothecarium to open. The supervisors squelched the clubs permit after a tumultuous hearing on Oct. 3, at which dozens of older Chinese residents joined Sacramentos right-wing Pacific Justice Institute to appeal the Planning Commissions decision and block the dispensary from opening. Opponents of the dispensary compared marijuana use to the opioid epidemic and said the Apothecarium would lure children from the quiet west side neighborhood into a life of addiction. Although several supervisors dismissed those claims and then chastened the Pacific Justice Institute for meddling in San Francisco politics, in the end, they sided with the group. Supervisors Malia Cohen and Jeff Sheehy were the only dissenting votes. A month later, the supervisors voted the other way when faced with a separate appeal for a similar dispensary in the same district. It drew opposition from the same group of anti-cannabis protesters, who repeated the arguments they had used to kill the Apothecarium proposal. They said the pot club would bring in transients and send pungent smells wafting into nearby businesses, including an urgent care facility expected to open next door. The supervisors rejected those arguments and called Barbary Coast Collective a shining example of how a dispensary could blend in with a community going against the findings theyd made to quash the Apothecarium, the court filing said. Barbary Coast was approved by a 10-1 vote and became the first pot club given permission to open in the Sunset, where it has no competition. Supervisor Katy Tang, who represents the Sunset, was the lone no vote. The club is co-owned by David Ho, a rising Chinatown power broker allied with several supervisors. Ho worked as a consultant for an independent expenditure committee that backed Supervisor Ahsha Safais race in 2016. He also ran an independent expenditure campaign, on behalf of the hotel workers union, to support Jane Kims unsuccessful 2016 bid for state Senate. The Apothecariums filing cited news reports stating that roughly half of at least $153,000 donated to supervisors by owners, employees, lobbyists and firms connected to the cannabis industry came from Barbary Coast. It did not specify a time frame or provide any evidence of those donations. An independent review by The Chronicle showed that the 11 supervisors took more than $27,000 from owners and employees of Barbary Coast between January 2012 and this year, with the biggest share going to Supervisor Mark Farrell who took $10,000 for his Democratic County Central Committee campaign chest and acting Mayor London Breed, who received $8,000. By contrast, the supervisors drew $3,750 from the Apothecariums executive director Ryan Hudson, lobbyist Michael Colbruno and land use attorney Brett Gladstone during the same time period. This is a classic example of the Board of Supervisors talking out of both sides of its mouth, said Eliot Dobris, a spokesman for the Apothecarium. Why are the decisions different? The answer is follow the money. Ho disagreed, saying Thursday that the Apothecarium owners were bitter because they had failed to endear themselves to Sunset residents. He laughed over his own appearance in the court papers. Theyre helping me with publicity, he said. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan An 82-year-old woman died Friday morning after a car hit her on a San Leandro street, authorities said. The woman, identified by the coroner as Youjian Liang, was standing at a bus stop on East 14th Street near Fairmont Drive when she stepped off the curb and was hit by a passing car, according to a statement from the San Leandro Police Department. Officers responded to the scene shortly before 7 a.m. to find Liang with significant injuries. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Liang wasnt at an intersection or traffic light, San Leandro Police Lt. Isaac Benabou said. Officers speculated that she might have stepped into the street to look for the bus. The incident happened before sunrise, so darkness and fog could have caused both Liang and the driver not to see each other, Benabou said. Police said the driver of the vehicle, who was not identified, stayed at the scene and is cooperating with the investigation. Drugs or alcohol did not appear to play a role. Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno Three people were arrested Friday for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme at car dealerships in Marin County, the U.S. Attorneys Office announced. Amir Bakhtiari, 50, a resident of Newport Beach and formerly of Marin County, served as the ringleader of the fraud scheme, prosecutors said. In total, Bakhtiari allegedly made $6.3 million in fraudulent transfers from 2010 to 2016. A three-alarm fire Friday morning at a south San Jose apartment complex displaced 13 people, including five children, a fire department official said. Neighbors called in after midnight to report an apartment fire on the 100 block of Rancho Drive near Monterey Highway, San Jose Fire Captain Daniel Vega said. Derek Dammann / Getty Image There was a short delay due to a language barrier with the dispatcher, Vega said, and firefighters were dispatched at 12:32 a.m. One caller reportedly said the entire second-floor was ablaze. Dozens of firefighters arrived to find the second floor engulfed in flames, Vega said. The fire was elevated to a three-alarm, prompting nearly 85 firefighters in total to respond to the scene. Red Cross provided shelter to the eight adults and five children displaced, Vega said. The fire was under control at 2:19 a.m., while the cause remains under investigation. Chronicle staff writer Jenna Lyons contributed to this report. Josh Koehn is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: josh.koehn@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Josh_Koehn Mark Tamayo wasn't expecting to have a feathery co-host for his 4 p.m. weather newscast Thursday afternoon. It was a "typical afternoon" show segment, where the backdrop would be linked off to one of the station's live cameras around the bay. Tamayo says he's never quite sure which camera producers will stream from, but that day the view displayed a look at the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands. And that's when a black bird's beak took over the show. "I see the bird looking so curious and looking directly at the camera like it belonged there, and I guess it did," Tamayo recalls. "Obviously the bird had no idea it was on live news but it looked very confident and poised." RELATED: A small bird managed to take over a Delta flight Tamayo, not visibly stirred, stopped and stepped back. "Oh my gosh, look at this." The anchor, Heather Holmes, was amused, and quipped, "He's totally checking out the camera, Mark." Tamayo tells SFGATE that since he began on KTVU in 2002, a bird has only appeared on a live stream like this once before, last year. "That gave me a little experience," Tamayo says. "On that one I really had no idea how to respond." This time around, Tamayo was much less startled. He says he wanted to enjoy the moment and let the bird be the star of the show. "I thought, gosh, do I click off this graphic really quick and speed up?" he says. "I let the bird have the whole scene. I couldn't click off it, so I actually said I may need more time." Tamayo didn't seem to mind the bird choosing to stop near the camera he can relate. Noting that that particular live view is his favorite because of its beautiful vista of San Francisco, he says, "I can't blame (the bird) for taking that spot." Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira. Uber confirmed Thursday that it had technology to shield company data when law enforcement raided its offices outside the U.S. Uber spokeswoman Melanie Ensign said this tool no longer in use could lock computers and smartphones and change passwords remotely from the ride-hailing companys headquarters in San Francisco. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Uber used the tool, known as Ripley, from spring 2015 until late 2016 in several cities, including Paris, Hong Kong, Brussels, Amsterdam and Montreal. Bloomberg said some Uber employees felt the system hindered legitimate investigations, while some people believed its use was justified when police didnt come with warrants or specific-enough data requests. The use of this tool raises questions for Uber because the company has in the past used a phony version of its app to thwart authorities. The Greyball software identified regulators who were trying to hail a ride in an attempt to collect evidence of local law-breaking. Those rides would be canceled or never arrive. It has also been reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether Uber illegally used software to track drivers of rival Lyft. Airlines Alaska, Virgin now fly as one Its another last for Virgin America the Federal Aviation Administration approved a single operating license with Alaska Airlines Thursday, officially signaling the end of Virgin flights, at least from a regulatory standpoint. The license allows the two to operate as a single airline in the eyes of aviation regulators, pilots and air traffic controllers. Virgins Redwood call sign, what controllers use to address airlines, will retire and those flights will take on the Alaska name. Travelers can still expect to see Virgin Americas colorfully lit planes until April 25, when the two airlines will roll out a single reservation system. Alaska said that the change in operating license will not affect travelers. Until the full merger in April, the two airlines will maintain separate apps and websites, and passengers can book flights with either airline. The Virgin America sale was finalized in December 2016, and Alaska said it expects to finish merging operations and retire the Virgin America brand entirely sometime in 2019. Trucks Ford Ranger urgent recall 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 trucks 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 Thursday. 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. Its critical that this message reaches all affected owners, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. It is extremely important that all high-risk air bags are tracked down and replaced immediately. Taxes New guidelines for withholding Taking the first concrete step toward the Republican tax plans promise of fatter paychecks for millions, the Trump administration on Thursday issued new guidelines for how much employers should withhold as taxes from workers pay. The IRS published the new income-tax withholding tables to conform to the sweeping $1.5 trillion tax overhaul, the first major rewrite of the tax code in three decades, which took effect Jan 1. The new law provides steep tax cuts for corporations and wealthy Americans while offering more modest reductions for most low- and middle-income people. Businesses must adopt the changes by Feb. 15. That means employees could start seeing the changes reflected in their paychecks next month, the IRS said. President Trump and the Republican architects of the tax plan have deflected criticism of the unpopular legislation, insisting at every turn that Americans will come to love the new law when they see their heftier paychecks with less money withheld in anticipation of lower income taxes. Trump and the Republicans are counting on the tax-cut law, the first significant legislative achievement of his presidency, to ensure the GOP retains its majorities in Congress in this years elections. Nonpartisan tax experts project that the law will bring lower taxes for the great majority of Americans, but not all. Chronicle News Services Facebook has introduced sweeping changes to the kinds of posts, videos and photos that its more than 2 billion members will see most often, saying Thursday that it would prioritize what their friends and family share and comment on while de-emphasizing content from publishers and brands. The shift is the most significant overhaul in years to Facebooks News Feed, the cascading screen of content that people see when they log in to the social network. Over the next few weeks, users will begin seeing fewer viral videos and news articles shared by media companies. Instead, Facebook will highlight posts that friends have interacted with for example, a photo of your dog, or a status update that many of them have commented on or liked. The changes are intended to maximize the amount of content with meaningful interaction that people consume on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, the companys chief executive, said in an interview. Facebook, he said, had closely studied what kinds of posts had stressed or harmed users. The social network wants to reduce what Zuckerberg called passive content videos and articles that ask little more of the viewer than to sit back and watch or read so that users time on the site is well spent. We want to make sure that our products are not just fun but are good for people, Zuckerberg said. We need to refocus the system. The changes raise questions of whether people may end up seeing more content that reinforces their own ideologies if they end up frequently interacting with posts and videos that reflect the similar views of their friends or family. And bogus news may still spread if a relative or friend posts a link with an inaccurate news article that is widely commented on, that post will be prominently displayed. The goal of the overhaul, ultimately, is for something less quantifiable that may be difficult to achieve: Facebook wants people to feel positive, rather than negative, after visiting. When people are engaging with people theyre close to, its more meaningful, more fulfilling, said David Ginsberg, director of research at Facebook. Its good for your well-being. Facebook has been under fire for months over what it shows people and whether its site has negatively influenced millions of its users. The company has been dogged by questions about how its algorithms may have prioritized misleading news and misinformation in News Feeds, influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election as well as political discourse in many countries. Last year, Facebook disclosed that Russian agents had used the social network to spread divisive and inflammatory posts and ads to polarize the U.S. electorate. Those issues have landed Facebook in front of lawmakers, who grilled the company about its influence last year. Next week, Facebook representatives are set to appear at another hearing on Capitol Hill, along with those from Twitter and YouTube, about the online spread of extremist propaganda. The repercussions from Facebooks News Feed changes will almost certainly be far-reaching. Publishers, nonprofits, small business and many other groups rely on the social network to reach people, so de-emphasizing their posts will most likely hurt them. Adam Mosseri, vice president of product management at Facebook, who is responsible for running the News Feed, acknowledged that there will be anxiety from partners and publishers who often complain about the constant changes in what will be shown across the network. The change may also work against Facebooks immediate business interests. The company has long pushed users to spend more time on the social network. With different, less viral types of content surfacing more often, people could end up spending their time elsewhere. Zuckerberg said that was in fact Facebooks expectation, but that if people end up feeling better about using the social network, the business will ultimately benefit. Last week, Zuckerberg posted on Facebook about his goals for 2018, including making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent and adding that this will be a serious year of self-improvement and Im looking forward to learning from working to fix our issues together. On Thursday, he said many of the discussions about Facebooks responsibilities had prompted the company to get a better handle on some of the negative things that could happen in the system. Just because a tool can be used for good and bad, that doesnt make the tool bad it just means you need to understand what the negative is so that you can mitigate it, he said. Facebook and other researchers have particularly homed in on passive content. In surveys of Facebook users, people said they felt the site had shifted too far away from friends and family-related content, especially amid a swell of outside posts from brands, publishers and media companies. This big wave of public content has really made us reflect: What are we really here to do? Zuckerberg said. If what were here to do is help people build relationships, then we need to adjust. Mike Isaac is a New York Times writer. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LAS VEGAS Todays vision of a smart home has more to do with whats technologically possible than what people really need. Thus the endless parade of Internet-connected wine openers, water bottles, meat thermometers and refrigerators, and a dearth of automation that would clean and fold our laundry, pick up things around the house or assist aging people as their physical strength wanes. Not that some tinkerers arent trying to come up with life-changing tools, often while trying to persuade consumers to share their routines and shopping habits to make all this work and potentially opening the doors to hacking or surveillance in their homes. The annual CES gadget show, running this week in Las Vegas, is a showcase of the latest innovations from big corporations and tiny startups. Some of these inventions could soon be useful to consumers. Others look outlandishly impractical or maybe its too soon to tell. The Internet of what? Want to book an Uber ride from your fridge? Samsung has you covered with one of its latest refrigerator models unveiled in Vegas. Of if youre looking for a water bottle that helps celebrate when youve met your hydration goals, the Internet-connected Hidrate Spark 2.0 has arrived. You can command a Whirlpool microwave to switch settings with your voice, but per regulations, you still have to walk over to push the button to start it (and of course put food in and out). A meat thermometer made by Apption Labs will send a notification to your phone app when your steak is fully barbecued. Its unlikely that anyone but the most extreme wine connoisseur will need to track wine-preserving argon gas levels in a half-finished bottle of Pinot Noir. But a maker of bottle-opening gadgetry, Coravin, lets you do just that. The device needles wine out of a bottle without pulling the cork. Whats new is connectivity and an app, so youre alerted when the gadget needs cleaning or a new battery. All this reflects a cottage industry striving to imbue every last household appliance or wearable item with connectivity. But do we really need it? Never mind the naysayers: What one person considers a silly idea is another persons breakthrough, and many innovations displayed at CES could find long-term commercial success among niche audiences even if they arent widely adopted, said technology analyst Tom Coughlin, president of Coughlin Associates. Some stuff is before its time. Some stuff is partially thought through, Coughlin said. But you never know, he said, because sometimes people dont know what they need until they see it. At CES, Coughlin said, you see the hopes and dreams, the fantasies, both mad and sublime and clever things that people can think of doing. The Dutch lesson: In the Netherlands, startup entrepreneurs often look mockingly back to a late-1990s video that asked random people in Amsterdam if they ever wanted a mobile phone, said Stefan Witkamp, co-founder of smart home startup Athom B.V. Now its unthinkable not to have your smartphone, said Witkamp, whose companys Homey product links various connected devices to a single system. Similar skepticism now affects smart devices, he said. People think, why do I need to control my music through my smartphone? Why do I need to manage and monitor my home remotely or automatically? But it could very well be that in five years, well be thinking: Why would we ever not want to? But wheres my robot? The reality is that its a lot easier to connect an appliance to the Internet than it is to build Rosie, the robotic maid that TV cartoon show The Jetsons launched into the worlds imagination a half-century ago. Sure, robotic vacuums are already cleaning carpets and kitchen floors around the world, but the level of artificial intelligence and physical precision it takes to do housework like a human is still a far-off dream for robot makers. Instead, many of the robots coming on the consumer market are either toys or designed to be a more personality-driven version of a talking speaker. But its not for lack of trying. Dueling laundry-folders: It took us 13 years to reach this point, said Shin Sakane, founder and CEO of Tokyos Seven Dreamers Laboratories. His Laundroid clothes-folder and the rival FoldiMate also on display at CES are feats of engineering that also underscore the limits of current technology. Sakanes bureau-sized machine is powered by hidden robotic arms and computer vision that can distinguish between different types of clothing. Its a soft material, Sakane said, clutching a white towel. It could be a T-shirt. Its hard to distinguish. Priced at $16,000, the machine can take 30 items per cycle, though its still not terribly efficient. It takes 10 or more minutes to fold a shirt making each cycle a six-hour project. FoldiMate claims to be faster, but the company came to the show for the second-year running without a functioning prototype. As founder and CEO Gal Rosov demonstrated putting shirts and towels into a top rack where they were sucked into the machine, a bottom drawer opened with pre-folded items inside. To repeat the display, he opened a middle panel where crumpled items hadnt been folded at all. Rosov said the machine on display was just a concept model and the company hopes to start early shipping at the end of 2019. Matt OBrien and Ryan Nakashima are Associated Press writers. Jacom Stephens/Getty Images Two people were arrested after a high-speed chase through Sonoma County ended when their vehicle crashed into a fence early Thursday morning, police said. A Sonoma County sheriffs deputy tried to stop a blue Acura that had run through a stop sign on the airport off ramp from northbound Highway 101 at 2 a.m., police said. When the deputy turned on his red lights, the Acura turned south on Fulton Road and reached a speed of 100 mph. Ron Chapple/Getty Image A drunk driver who crashed into a light pole after trying to evade police in a high speed chase was arrested early Thursday morning, officers said. A Sonoma County sheriffs deputy attempted to stop a car that ran through a stop sign at Sunset and McMinn avenues in Santa Rosa, police said. The car initially stopped, but sped away as a deputy approached. Santa Rosa police arrested an armed-robbery suspect Thursday night after he barricaded himself in a house and held off officers for several hours, officials said. The departments SWAT team arrested Aurelio Adelma, 31, of Santa Rosa, as he was trying to flee through a side yard, officers said. He was booked into Sonoma County Jail on charges of attempted armed robbery. THEMBA HADEBE/AP A Mendocino County man was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to illegally importing a leopard skull and skin from a hunting trip, officials said. According to the indictment, Adam Lawrence, 38, of Willits, traveled to South Africa in August 2011 where he killed a leopard while hunting. Lawrence, who allegedly did not have the required permits to kill a leopard in the country or to bring it back to the United States, then is believed to have smuggled the skin and skull into Mozambique in May 2012. "You can't run this country without consensus," former Vice President Joe Biden told a packed house Tuesday at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center, his latest stop on a book tour promoting his new memoir. Another Biden-approved consensus? Ice cream is appropriate for all climates, even chilly San Francisco evenings. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate San Francisco's Hotel Nikko offers guests a unique perk a precious pup to play with. Buster Presutti Posey is a 2-year-old Maltese-Yorkie with a 9-to-5 day job. Guests can summon the furry visitor by dialing the hotel operator to set up a meet-and-greet. It's like puppy room service, but free of charge. An important caveat: While Buster can visit guest rooms, he's never left there and always supervised. A hotel spokesperson says it's recommended guests meet the pup in the lobby or the hotel's dog run. When not greeting guests, Buster, named for the San Francisco Giants slugger, travels to local hospitals to spread cheer among patients. He's also highly active on social media. Says his Instagram bio: "I want to cuddle with you." Now Playing: Behind-the-scenes of a photoshoot with Buster Posey, the 'Canine Operating Officer' at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. Video: San Francisco Chronicle Hotel Nikko is known for its pet-friendly policies. Dogs under 60 pounds are welcome to stay with their owners in the hotel (for an additional fee of $50 a night). Upon check-in, the furry guests receive a dog bed, bowl and treats. The hotel underwent a $60 million renovation in March, a makeover that included refreshed guest rooms and public spaces, including an outdoor dog-run within the guest health club center. Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate An upcoming Marvel feature film called "Venom," about a shapeshifting antihero, will film scenes in San Francisco this month. The movie, directed by Ruben Fleischer, stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock (and Venom), Michelle Williams as Anne Weying (and She-Venom), and Riz Ahmed as Dr. Carlton Drake. Jenny Slate is also rumored to be in talks to join the cast. According to Collider, "Venom" was initially planned as a spin-off to the current "Spider-Man" timeline, but it's now being positioned as a standalone film. As SF Weekly reported, a building near the Tenderloin-area bar Edinburgh Castle received a notice earlier this month announcing filming to take place Jan. 24. Additional filming will take place, during both day and night, between Jan. 16-26 in Russian Hill, North Beach, Chinatown, the Embarcadero, and the Financial District. Notices have already been posted near film locations in North Beach and Russian Hill, the San Francisco Film Commission confirms. A casting website calling for San Francisco-based extras around that time for the film lists the project as "Antidote" the same project name "Venom" was given while it was shooting in Atlanta. Marvel, it should be noted, usually utilizes pseudonyms for their projects; the filming notices for "Ant-Man & the Wasp" listed the project as "Cherry Blue" with the production company written in as "Pym Productions." "Venom's" filming in San Francisco is not unexpected. Canon dictates that Hardy's character Brock was born in San Francisco. After becoming a journalist, he becomes host to a Symbiote a self-aware alien that binds itself to humans. This Symbiote, it should be noted, was previously attached to Spider-Man, and may grant Brock even more special abilities. According to "Lethal Protector," a limited Venom comic series that director Fleischer recently stated is an inspiration for the film story, Brock returns to San Francisco after he and Spider-Man "agree to leave each other alone." Marvel, however, hasn't formally released the details of the plot at this point. The movie is scheduled to be released Oct. 15. Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira. WASHINGTON President Trump publicly contradicted a major policy position of his own administration for the second time in a week on Thursday, during a period when his stability and grasp of details have come under renewed fire. In the latest incident, Trump sent a tweet that rattled the national security community and lawmakers from his own party, nearly derailing a vote in the House to renew the National Security Agencys broad authority to collect surveillance of foreigners, without warrants, including those communicating with U.S. citizens. Though it passed the House, 256-164, the extension still faces uncertainty in the Senate, where Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, has threatened a filibuster. JACKSON, Miss. Edgar Ray Killen, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted in the 1964 Mississippi Burning slayings of three civil rights workers, has died in prison at the age of 92, the states corrections department said Friday. Killen was serving a 60-year prison sentence for manslaughter when he died Thursday night inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary. An autopsy was pending, but no foul play was suspected, the corrections statement said. 1 Education inequality: Too often, low-income, black and Latino students end up in schools with crumbling walls, old textbooks and unqualified teachers, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The commission said inequities are caused by the fact that schools are most funded with state and local tax dollars. More than 92 percent of funding comes from nonfederal sources, according to the Education Department. The resulting imbalance renders the education available to millions of American public school students profoundly unequal, the commission said. For instance, the authors said, 33 percent of high schools with high black and Latino enrollment offer calculus, compared with 56 percent of high schools with low black and Latino student populations. Nationwide, 48 percent of schools offer the rigorous math course. 2 No release challenged: Eleven prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay detention are challenging an apparent policy of no releases under President Trump. A legal challenge filed in federal court in Washington argues the policy amounts to perpetual detention that violates the Constitution and acts of Congress establishing the rights of the men held at the U.S. base in Cuba. The filing notes that President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama together released nearly 750 men by making case-by-case determinations on individual detainees. Trump has not formally released a Guantanamo policy but has allowed no releases. The legal challenge filed Thursday comes on the 16th anniversary of the opening of the prison that now holds 41 men. NEW YORK Nikki Haley keeps delivering for Donald Trump. Whether leading efforts to isolate North Korea or hailing cuts to the United Nations budget, Haleys ability to channel Trumps blunt style is prompting fellow U.N. envoys and foreign policy specialists to wonder whether the 45-year-old former South Carolina governor is laying the groundwork to succeed her boss in the Oval Office. U.N. ambassadors from other nations take Haleys obvious domestic political ambitions in stride, said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations. Most foreign representatives are willing to shrug off her hard-line positions on Israel and U.N. costs as necessary political posturing. The theater of the U.N. podium and the Security Council chambers have long favored officials who can present their cases with flair and a sense of drama: think Colin Powells ultimately flawed arguments against Iraqs alleged weapons of mass destruction or, decades earlier, Fidel Castros tirades against colonialism and capitalism before the General Assembly. Speculation about Haleys future shifted into gear after the American ambassadors speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month, just before the global body condemned on a 128-9 vote President Trumps decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv. Haley held a defiant thank-you reception for the small group of nations who voted with the U.S., abstained or managed to be no-shows for the vote. Never mind that much of the world viewed the vote as a rejection of Trumps America First foreign policy. That wasnt her audience. Haleys remarks in which she said the U.S. had been singled out for attack after exercising our right as a sovereign nation seemed more targeted to Trump and Republican voters than foreign diplomats, according to a Security Council diplomat from a U.S.-allied nation who asked not to be identified. Even when events dont go her way an emergency Security Council meeting she called last week on street protests in Iran turned into a pointed defense of the nuclear accord Trump opposes Haley is unfazed. Those dont bother me, she said of criticism from Security Council members. We were there for the Iranian people. They were heard. Thats what matters. Haley speaks her mind, said Katon Dawson, an ally of Haley who ran the South Carolina Republican party from 2002 to 2009. Shes got good political instincts. In a statement, Haleys office said she tunes out all the political speculation and stays focused on her work at the U.N., passing the toughest sanctions ever on North Korea, highlighting Iranian violations of missile bans and human rights, and standing up for Americas interests and those of our allies. A move from the U.N. to the White House isnt without precedent: George H.W. Bush served as President Richard Nixons ambassador to the UN in the early 1970s before getting to the White House in 1981 as Ronald Reagans vice president and, in 1989, as president. Kambiz Foroohar and Toluse Olorunnipa are Bloomberg News writers. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Sacramento is itching for a Hollywood makeover. More Midwestern than coastal cosmopolitan, Sacramento often receives little positive recognition despite being the capital city of America's most populous state. But fresh excitement for the city has cropped up thanks to the success of the Sacramento-based "Lady Bird." The movie follows a teenager navigating her last days of high school and recently won two Golden Globe awards. With national attention now raining down on Sacramento, city officials are working to woo more film crews to the area. Now Playing: If you've seen the movie "Lady Bird," written and directed by Sacramento-native Greta Gerwig, you know the iconic blue house that played the role of Lady Bird's dream home. That home is real, occupied by a family and located in the Fabulous 40s neighborhood in East Sacramento. Video: KCRA "It's the opportunity to leverage the attention and bring more filmmaking to Sacramento," Visit Sacramento CEO Mike Testa said. "We are getting a lot of attention from that one film." The state's capital is no stranger to the screen scenes from "American Beauty" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" were filmed there, along with parts of TV series such as "Big Love" but it lacks a reputation for being a moviemaking hub. But this may be changing. Testa said Sacramento has a unique filming advantage over more iconic American cities in that it can be a stand-in for any middle-American location. "San Francisco is hard to be anything but San Francisco," he said. "There's a diverse landscape here that fits into a lot of different movies." And it's cheap too. The Sacramento Film Commission only charges $100 for a monthly film permit compared to the $300 daily permits for big-budget filming in San Francisco. The commission also works with police on road closures to aid filmmakers. But more importantly, hotels and restaurants are less expensive than those of San Francisco or Los Angeles, which can help tip the scales for producers trying to stay within budget, said Film Commissioner Lucy Steffens. "Films are often dictated by budget," she said. To attract more film crews to the area, Steffens said she has been visiting production companies in Santa Monica and trade shows to meet with producers and directors. "We have been very active in the L.A. area," she said. "We try to go where the meeting centers are." Testa said "Lady Bird" had a major economic impact on Sacramento, generating approximately $50,000 of business each day of filming based on money spent on restaurants, hotels, rental cars, commercial retail and other factors, a phenomenon he would like to repeat. Due to hit theaters in March, the Clint Eastwood movie "15:17 To Paris" is partially set in Sacramento. The movie follows the three American servicemen who foiled a 2015 terrorist attack on a train from Amsterdam to Paris. Two of the three servicemen grew up in the Sacramento area, and Testa said he's optimistic "15:17 To Paris" will continue to heap more cinematic attention to the city. MONTECITO, Santa Barbara County Most residents of mudslide-ravaged Montecito were under orders to clear out Friday as the search for victims dragged on and crews labored to clean up the muck and repair power, water and gas lines. Even those who didnt lose their homes in the disaster that left at least 18 people dead were told to leave for up to two weeks so they wouldnt interfere with the rescue and recovery operation in the Southern California town of 9,000. It was another frustrating turn for those living in Montecito, a town that has been under siege and subject to repeated evacuation orders in recent weeks, first because of a monster wildfire last month, then because of downpours and mudslides. Cia Monroe said her family of four was lucky their home wasnt ruined and they were all healthy and safe, though her daughter lost one of her best friends. But Monroe said it was stressful after evacuating three times during the wildfire to be packing up a fourth time and looking at spending up to $3,000 a week for a hotel. Financially thats a burden, she said. A fleet of large trucks and heavy equipment rolled into town Thursday, and the forces on the ground swelled to more than 1,200 workers. Five people remained missing Friday. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said residents who had stayed behind or tried to check on damage in neighborhoods where homes were leveled and car-size boulders and trees blocked roads and littered properties were hindering the recovery effort. Brown expanded what was known as the exclusion zone to incorporate most of the town. That meant that even those who had stayed behind would have to leave and those who entered the zone would be subject to arrest. While the town is best known as a getaway for the rich and famous the median home price among current listings is more than $4 million there are also working families living in modest houses and apartments. With most utilities out of commission or about to be cut off, staying behind was not really an option for many. Sarah Ettmans home was undamaged, and her section of town still had gas and electricity, even though nearby Romero Creek was choked with cars, trees and rocks. Because she couldnt re-enter the area if she left, Ettman arranged to have groceries delivered to her at a police checkpoint. But with gas and power expected to be shut off Saturday, she said she would heed the order to leave. I mean youre losing all your basic health and sanitation services, she said. When those go down, you have to leave. Krysta Fauria and Brian Melley are Associated Press writers. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A San Francisco police officer facing two felony sex-assault charges pleaded not guilty in court Friday. Justin McCall, 30, was arraigned in San Francisco Superior Court on charges of sexual penetration of an unconscious person, as well as sexual penetration by a foreign object of a drugged person. McCalls attorney, Mike Hinckley, told Judge Bruce Chan that his client denies any and all allegations. McCall, wearing a dark blue suit in court, also signed a restraining order requiring that he stay away from the alleged victim. He is free on $200,000 bail and did not respond to questions while leaving court. A four-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department, McCall was arrested Monday after an investigation by the departments Internal Affairs Criminal Division. Investigators learned of the alleged Sept. 6 sex assault and placed McCall in a nonpublic contact position. Hes since been suspended without pay. Police released few details of the alleged crimes. According to charging documents, McCall was off duty when he digitally penetrated the victim. He committed the assault when the victim was prevented from resisting by an intoxicating and anesthetic substances and a controlled substance, according to the court papers filed by the district attorneys office. Certainly, if these allegations are in fact true, the standard of conduct that were discussing here falls well below that which we would expect of a San Francisco police officer, said Max Szabo, a spokesman for the district attorneys office. Before his arrest, McCall was known for doing community outreach out of the Tenderloin Station, where he was assigned. Last Valentines Day, McCall reportedly used his own money and time to deliver 100 gift bags of candy, flowers, stuffed animals and cards to a San Francisco womens shelter and homeless women on city streets. The department publicized the event on its Facebook page. Valentines Day is about showing people you care about them, McCall was quoted as saying. Its about sharing love. He is due back in court Feb. 8. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky Snow wasn't in the forecast Thursday for the Tahoe Basin and so a light flurry that dusted the southern edge came as a surprise to many. Kirkwood Ski Resort reported receiving an inch of snow, a small, but much welcomed amount amid a season marked by weak storms and a below-average snowpack. The resort posted a video of the snow shower that peaked at about 11:20 a.m. on Facebook and many rejoiced in the comments. "My birthday wish come true!" wrote one. Over at the National Weather Service office in Reno, meteorologist Chris Johnston confirms the forecast didn't call for snow and explains the unexpected event was the result of a weather phenomenon known as "vorticity advection." "Vorticity is low-pressure at the surface that creates an upward movement [in the atmopshere]," Johnston says. "And as the air moves upward it cools and that increased lift in the atmosphere creates clouds, and if there's enough moisture in the clouds it can can create snow crystals." Johnston says the snow was confined to a small area that reached from Kirkwood to the edge of the South Lake Tahoe area. "It went right over Kirkwood's head," he says. It looks pretty neat in that video." ALSO, Photos from Tahoe resorts with fresh snowfall this week A series of weaker storms have brought some snow to the Sierra over the past nine days. Kirkwood reports 21 inches, Northstar 15 and Heavenly 12. In the last seven days, Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows has recorded 10 inches. The findings from the last snow survey conducted by the California Department of Water Resources found that the northern Sierra snowpack was 21 percent of average. Last year, the region saw a snowpack that was well above average as multiple strong storms fueled by moisture-rich atmospheric rivers. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has reached a $990,000 settlement with Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. over 11 years of alleged air quality violations and regulatory non-compliance at a facility in Hercules. The violations took place between 2003 and 2014, according to the air district. They included failure to check specific emissions, failure to conduct specific and required tests, and operation of equipment without required abatement resulting in excess emissions. 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. Organizers of a campaign to recall a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge submitted signatures today to the county Registrar of Voters to try to put the decision in front of voters. Judge Aaron Persky became controversial after handing down a light sentence to former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, who was convicted of sexual assault but received a sentence of six months in county jail. The Committee to Recall Judge Aaron Persky walked in 11 boxes full of more than 94,000 signatures to the Registrar of Voters office in San Jose this morning in an effort to put the recall measure on the June 5 ballot this year. If the measure goes on the ballot to recall Persky, whose term currently is set to last until 2022, it would be accompanied by a contest to decide who will replace him if he is recalled. Volunteers worked for four months to get signatures for the petition and the number far exceeds the 58,634 valid signatures proponents are required to turn in for a local measure, according to committee chairwoman Michele Dauber. According to the committee, a majority of the signatures came from the city of Campbell. The Registrar of Voters has 30 days to count the signatures and once the random sample they choose is verified, the petition will be sent to the Board of Supervisors to be placed on the ballot. The Registrar of Voters said in a statement that even with extra staff working six to seven days a week, the verification period could last into mid-February. "It's a labor-intensive process and one that we will hire additional staff to complete in an accurate and timely manner," Registrar Shannon Bushey said in the statement. "We will have a staff working overtime and weekends to ensure the integrity of this process." While Persky got the most media coverage for the Turner case, Dauber said the committee believes that Persky had "a pattern of bias in favor of athletes and other privileged offenders" in his rulings. Dauber cited the 2015 domestic violence sentencing of 21-year-old Ikaika Gunderson and the child pornography sentencing of 48-year-old Robert James Chain as examples of his "biased and terrible judgment." "Persky has demonstrated that he does not understand violence against women and he does not take it seriously," she said. If Persky is recalled, Dauber and the committee are backing candidate Cindy Hendrickson, a Santa Clara County assistant district attorney who was a civil litigator before spending more than 20 years as a prosecutor, according to her campaign website. The committee as a whole is seeking a new judge who will hear out low-income and marginalized women who are often not brought justice when their perpetrators are more privileged than they, and they believe Hendrickson can be that judge. "Cindy is simply better qualified and has a more impressive background than Judge Persky," Dauber said. "Brock Turner or no Brock Turner, she's the better candidate and I'm confident the voters are going to have a superior choice in June." The committee believes that they are a helping hand in the effort to stop the normalization and enabling of violence and sexual harassment against women, according to Dauber. "This is not just about Hollywood," she said. "This is about the many women who found themselves sitting in Persky's courtroom and were not fortunate enough to be from the kind of privileged background that Brock Turner is." If Persky is recalled from the bench, this would be only the third successful judicial recall in California history. Dauber said judicial recall was added to the Constitution in 1911. Just two years later, Judge Charles Weller was recalled for his decisions on sexual assault cases. "We are really following that precedent," Dauber said. The second judicial recall in California was in 1932 when three judges were recalled on the same ballot in Los Angeles: John Fleming, Dailey Stafford and Walter Guerin. Their recall was also related to sex cases where citizens considered their rulings too lenient. While awaiting the addition of the measure to the ballot, the committee is going to continue to be out at fairs, farmers markets and more. Following the controversy over the Turner case, Persky was transferred to civil court at his own request. A San Francisco man died after being stabbed with a knife Thursday night in the city's Mission District, police said today. The stabbing was reported at 8:11 p.m. in the 2800 block of 25th Street near Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Mark Camacho, 59, died after he was taken to a hospital following the stabbing, according to police and the San Francisco medical examiner's office. Police said there were two suspects involved. No arrest has been made. Firefighters are at the scene of a three-alarm structure fire that broke out this morning at an apartment complex in San Jose. The San Jose Fire Department responded at 12:29 a.m. to 95 Rancho Drive on a report of a structure fire and located the two-story, eight-unit apartment complex on fire. Firefighters were able to knock down the fire by about 1:35 a.m., and crews remain at the scene for overhaul operations, according to San Jose fire Capt. Mike Van Elgort. There were no reported injuries due to the blaze. The entire building had to be evacuated, and sixteen people were displaced due to the fire. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation. Rain is expected to return to the Bay Area this coming Tuesday, followed by more rain Thursday and Friday, according to the National Weather Service. By Thursday night, one to two inches of rain is in the forecast for most of the North Bay, with about a half-inch to one inch of rain falling in the rest of the Bay Area, the weather service said. Smaller amounts can be expected further to the south, according to the weather service. The San Jose Police Department has identified the two officers involved in the shooting death of a man Tuesday who reportedly charged at the officers while armed with weapons. Officers Adam Hutson and Timpthy Faye were the two officers that shot at the suspect, according to the San Jose Police Department. Hutson has 14 years police experience, and Faye has 15 years, according to a press release sent out by the department Thursday. Police have not released the identity of the man who was shot and killed. On Tuesday at 5:02 p.m., officers responded to a suspicious vehicle call at Metcalf Energy Center at 1 Blanchard Road in South San Jose. A power plant employee called police and described a suspicious man in a black Mercedes-Benz. The employee said the person had pulled something out of the trunk but they could not confirm exactly what that object was, police said. The caller described him as an Asian man in his 20s, standing about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing about 145 pounds. He was wearing a black jacket, a white shirt and black pants. Investigators believe that after the call was made, the man gained access to the property by jumping over the fence. The employee called police back and reported the man had a backpack, a pipe and possibly an axe with him. When officers arrived, they found the black Mercedes unoccupied and located a large sword laying in the driver's seat. Officers ran the man's license plate, and learned of a prior incident involving the vehicle owner and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office that led officers to believe the man could be "armed and dangerous." Police said the same suspect had possibly led authorities on a pursuit in Santa Cruz County after he brandished a weapon around security guards and also possessed a sword. The officers located the man who matched the employee's description in a matter of minutes after arriving and saw he was wielding a 6-foot pipe and an axe. They gave the suspect verbal commands to surrender or drop the weapons, but he refused to comply and walked away from the officers, police said. Officers followed the suspect at "a safe distance" and continued to give the man verbal commands to drop his weapons, but he continued to act defiantly and yelled "shoot me" and "kill me" multiple times. The suspect then turned around and advanced toward the officers still armed with both weapons. He continued to yell demands to shoot, Garcia said. Officers ordered the man to drop his weapons and surrender at least 23 times during the incident, police said. The man got 5 to 6 feet away from one officer, at which time the officer shot at the man. The suspect continued toward a second officer with his pipe and axe, which is when the second officer shot at him too, police said. The suspect was hit at least once and was later pronounced dead at the scene. During a search of the suspect, investigators located an additional axe, six throwing knives and pepper spray. His name will not be released until the Santa Clara County medical examiner's office identifies him and notifies his next of kin. The two officers involved were wearing body cameras and they were activated. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office now has custody of the footage. The officers have been put on routine paid administrative leave during the investigation. Police said the suspect had a history of numerous prior offenses, including for narcotics, weapon violations and resisting arrest. He was submitted for a 72-hour psychiatric hold this past September. He was not on probation or parole but had three active warrants in Santa Clara County for traffic-related offenses, resisting arrest and various drug offenses. Police do not believe the man had any ties to the power plant itself and do not know why he entered the premises. They plan on doing an extensive search into his history for clarity. The district attorney's office and San Jose police will be doing a joint investigation into the case. An ex-convict was sentenced today to 45-years-to-life in state prison for what a prosecutor said was the cold-blooded and heinous fatal shooting of a popular ice cream vendor in East Oakland in 2015. Joevan Lopez, 25, was convicted of first-degree murder in November for the shooting death of Jasvir Singh, 45, in the 9300 block of Peach Street at about 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2015. Lopez also was convicted of discharging a firearm and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, as he was previously convicted of a felony charge of being an accessory to a crime after the fact on May 1, 2012, and of being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm on Dec. 3, 2013. Prosecutor Jimmie Wilson said in his closing argument in the case that Lopez and a second suspect, 43-year-old Marty Lopez, who's not related, didn't hide their faces when they both shot Singh because they didn't think anyone in the neighborhood would come forward to identify them as the perpetrators. Wilson alleged that Joevan Lopez and Marty Lopez planned to rob Singh and that they shot him because they didn't want to leave any witnesses. The prosecutor said Singh, who was pronounced dead at the scene, had never done anything to harm the two men. "By all accounts he was loved in that neighborhood and people there cared about him," the prosecutor said. Six witnesses who had prior contact with Joevan Lopez identified him as one of the shooters in the case, according to Wilson. Joevan Lopez was arrested and charged in November 2015, about a month after Singh was killed. As prosecutors prepared Lopez's case for trial last fall, they developed new information that connected Marty Lopez to the fatal shooting. Charges were filed against Marty Lopez on Oct. 23 and he will be prosecuted separately at a later date. Wilson said six witnesses testified that Joevan Lopez, who wears glasses and has long dreadlocks, was one of the shooters who killed Singh. But Lopez's defense attorney Darryl Billups told jurors that there was reasonable doubt in the case because when police showed Lopez's photograph to the witnesses, they initially said they didn't recognize him. Billups said, "This is a whodunit" and "The real question is who is the shooter." Many family members of Singh, who was born in India, attended Lopez's sentencing today but they didn't speak at the hearing and declined to talk to reporters afterward. An Amazon delivery driver was robbed when trying to deliver a package in South San Francisco Thursday, police said. The delivery driver was parked on the 600 block of Grand Avenue preparing to deliver a package around 1:30 p.m. when a man came up behind him, according to police. The man pushed the delivery driver to the ground, opened the door of the victim's vehicle and grabbed several packages with Amazon labels on them, police said. The suspect ran down the alley between two homes toward Third Lane, according to police. He is described as 30 to 40 years old, wearing a black shirt and a small black backpack. Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact South San Francisco police at (650) 877-8900, use the anonymous tip line at (650) 952-2244 or email tips@ssf.net. An off-duty officer with the San Francisco Police Department suffered life-threatening injuries in a motorcycle crash Thursday morning on a highway in Oakland. The crash happened at 5:39 a.m. on northbound Interstate Highway 880 at Seventh Street, according to police. The officer was transported to a hospital and is currently listed in stable condition. No one else was injured in the crash and no arrests have been made. Police said there were no unusual circumstances involved in the crash. Further details were not immediately available. A 30-year-old man died at work in Fremont Wednesday evening when he was pinned between a tractor trailer and a loading dock while helping the driver back into place, according to police. Emergency crews responded to a business in the 5900 block of Stewart Avenue just before 8 p.m. on report of a collision between a tractor trailer and a pedestrian. Investigators say the man was standing behind the tractor trailer, guiding the driver towards the loading dock when he was pinned in place. The driver backed all the way in and unhooked the trailer from the tractor. He found the victim, unresponsive, 15 minutes later. The driver moved the trailer, but the victim was pronounced deceased at the scene. He's been identified by the Alameda County coroner's bureau as Fremont resident Travis Michael St. Amant. Drugs and alcohol were not factors in the incident, according to police. A Pacifica man was sentenced to 30 years in state prison Thursday morning for allegedly drugging 15 dates and then sexually assault them with unidentified accomplices over an eight year period, according to San Mateo County prosecutors. Joseph Paul Courtney, 33, pleaded no contest 14 felony sexual assaults including sodomy by force or threat while acting in concert, sodomy by use of drugs and sodomy of an unconscious person. Six of those felonies were deemed violent. Courtney is HIV-positive, according to prosecutors, and admitted to knowing about his HIV status at the time these crimes were committed. At least one of the victims has subsequently tested positive for HIV, although the court did not seek to prove that Courtney was the person who transmitted the virus. Courtney will have to serve at least 80 percent of his sentence, or 24 years, and will not be eligible for early parole. Prosecutors said the victims met with Courtney for the purpose of consensual sex, but he dosed them with GHB and other drugs. After they were unconscious, Courtney allegedly brought in other men who participated in the assaults. Some of the assaults were filmed, and on at least one occasion Courtney showed that footage to the victim pictured in the video, prosecutors said. Steven Chase, Courtney's defense attorney, argued that the sex in question was consensual. "This was a bunch of men engaging in very dangerous behavior," Chase said. Everyone involved knew they were going to use drugs - but the victims later claimed they were drugged to a point of unconsciousness. "I think that's unlikely, but once one person reported it and it made the news a bunch of other people came forward," Chase said. Chase also said that many people came forward to voice support for his client. "It's a tragic case," Chase said. "It's tragic because a lot of the men claim to have had rather severe psychological repercussions over this." "I have no way of knowing if that's true or not true, but my heart goes out to them," Chase said. Sex workers in San Francisco will be able to come forward and report a violent crime without fear of arrest or prosecution for minor drug offenses or prostitution under policies recently adopted by city police and prosecutors, city officials announced Thursday. The policies adopted by police and the district attorney's office, thought to be the first of their kind in the U.S., are intended to protect the safety of sex workers and encourage them to report violent crimes and cooperate with law enforcement. The policies, developed in cooperation with sex worker advocacy organizations including St. James Infirmary and BAYSWAN, are "a major step towards addressing violence against women wary of contacting law enforcement because of their criminalized status," said Minouche Kandel, director of women's policy at the city's Department on the Status of Women. Research shows that most sex workers and people being exploited in the sex industry don't go to police when they are attacked or victimized out of fear of being arrested, city officials said. "Our hope for this policy is to reduce the harm experienced by sex workers, in particular, women of color and transgender women engaged in the sex trades, who have no protections when reporting violence, or experience mistreatment at the hands of law enforcement," said Johanna Breyer, executive director of St. James Infirmary. The Police Department policy, put out in a bulletin in December, advises officers not to arrest people for sex work or minor drug charges when they come forward as a victim or a witness to report sexual assault, human trafficking, stalking, robbery, assault, kidnapping, threats, blackmail, extortion, burglary or other violent crimes. Sex workers reporting violent crimes will also be referred to community and victim resources. Officers investigating a misdemeanor drug violation in which a violator reports being a victim or witness to a violent crime are required to collect and document evidence so that prosecutors can consider seeking a warrant. "We understand that many times sex workers are themselves victims of predators and human traffickers," police Chief William Scott said. "Our policy is written in the spirit of encouraging sex workers to feel safe coming forward to law enforcement, with the knowledge that they will be treated with respect and their concerns will be taken seriously and investigated." Similarly, the district attorney's office policy states that prosecutors will not charge victims or witnesses of violent crimes for sex work or misdemeanor drug related crimes, or use information gathered from them against them in future case, as long as they have been truthful. In addition, the district attorney's office policy states that prosecutors will not use immigration status against victims or witnesses of violent crimes in any way, or report them to immigration authorities except in cases where they are helping them apply for immigration relief. "If we fail to prioritize this population's health and safety they will not come forward and work with law enforcement as witnesses and victims of violence," District Attorney George Gascn said. "Ultimately, unreported crimes and criminals pose a threat to everyone's public safety." The new policies follow on the heels of the announcement by Supervisor Hillary Ronen of a pilot program funding a mobile outreach van to work with sex workers operating in the Mission District. The van, which will be operated by St. James Infirmary between midnight and 5 a.m., will offer access to health care and services and gather information on the needs of a group that tends to remain in the shadows. Ronen said the pilot program was inspired by complaints from residents about violence and late night arguments associated with sex workers operating in the area of Capp and Shotwell streets, including incidents in which the women were violently attacked. Del Monte Beach in Monterey is closed until further notice that the water is safe again because of sewage spilling into the nearby storm drain system, Monterey County Health Department officials said Thursday. Monterey fire officials reported Thursday morning to the Environmental Health Bureau that the sewage spilled into drains on Casa Verde Way at Del Monte Avenue, health department officials said. The spill is estimated to be as much as 1,500 gallons. Samples that indicate that the water is safe again for contact will be the green light for the beach to open back up again because contact with the contaminated water could cause gastroenteritis and/or other water-borne illnesses, according to the health department. For more information on Monterey Peninsula beaches, people can call a toll-free hotline at (800) 347-6363 or visit http://www.mtyhd.org/beaches. Former Marin County coroner's investigator Darrell Harris pleaded guilty in Marin County Superior Court Thursday to committing a lewd act with a minor. Harris, 47, pleaded guilty to one felony charge at his scheduled preliminary hearing Thursday morning. He was charged with five counts of sexual misconduct with the female when she was a minor and an adult between May 2008 and March 2017. Harris faces five years of probation and up to a year in the Marin County jail. He faces a three-year prison term if he violates his probation, Marin County District Attorney Ed Berberian said. Harris also must register as a convicted sex offender. The four remaining counts in the complaint will be dismissed at sentencing on March 28. Harris' attorney Douglas Horngrad said the disposition of the case was best for all the parties involved. The resolution of the case is in the best interest of the victim, Berberian said. "This plea was appropriate and it reflects the sexual misconduct component of the case. We're comfortable with the disposition," Berberian said. San Rafael police asked the Santa Rosa Police Department to investigate the case because Harris' work caused him to interact with many different Marin County law enforcement officers, Santa Rosa police Sgt. Sgt. Terry Anderson said. Santa Rosa police arrested Harris in Humboldt County, and he was booked into Marin County Jail on May 8, 2017. Harris was employed with the Marin County coroner's office since 2003 and was promoted to chief deputy coroner in 2015. A 72-year-old inmate died Thursday morning after being found unresponsive in his cell at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. The man, who had been in custody since Monday on suspicion of 10 counts of sexual intercourse with a minor, received emergency first aid and CPR as soon as he was found unresponsive. However, he could not be resuscitated, sheriff's officials said. He was pronounced deceased at 8:36 a.m., according to the sheriff's office. The man's identity is not being released until his family is notified of his death, sheriff's officials said. FAIRFIELD (BCN) Police are investigating a shooting that took place in a driveway between two Fairfield businesses on West Texas Street this afternoon. The shooting happened around 2:20 p.m. in the 1400 block of West Texas Street. A male victim who was shot in the lower torso was taken to a hospital by a friend and the injury is considered life threatening, police Sgt. Matt Bloesch said. Witnesses said the shooter, a young male wearing a dark sweatshirt, fled south through a nearby trailer park. The suspect has not been identified or located, Bloesch said. Anyone with information is asked to call Fairfield police at (707) 428-7300, Solano Crime Stoppers at (707) 644-7867 or text TIP FAIRFIELD PD followed by a message to 888777. OAKLAND (BCN) A 22-year-old Oakland man was charged with murder today for the recent stabbing death of a 58-year-old man who police said the 22-year-old had previously threatened to kill last year. Robert Bell, 22, was arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court today for the death of Horlents Ortiz of Oakland and is scheduled to return to court on Friday to be assigned an attorney and possibly enter a plea. Oakland police believe that Bell fatally stabbed Ortiz somewhere in Oakland on Jan. 3 and said Ortiz's body was found in the trunk of his own car in the 8800 block of Pippin Street in East Oakland at about 11 p.m. on Monday. Officer Hector Jimenez wrote in a probably cause statement that after Ortiz's body was found investigators located a report from last year that Bell had threatened to stab Ortiz to death. Jimenez said that after police contacted Bell at his home in the 1700 block of 104th Avenue in East Oakland, not far from the location where Ortiz's body was found, he voluntarily came to police headquarters and "admitted to killing the victim and stuffing him in the trunk." Bell is being held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. 272-6280 Oakland police (510) 238-7230 An off-duty officer with the San Francisco Police Department suffered life-threatening injuries in a motorcycle crash this morning on a highway in Oakland. The crash happened at 5:39 a.m. on northbound Interstate Highway 880 at Seventh Street, according to police. ANTIOCH (BCN) Police on Tuesday arrested two men who allegedly stole thousands of dollars worth of tools from a home in Antioch. Around 9 a.m., the victim reported to police that a burglary had occurred a few hours earlier at their home on Valley Way. The burglars stole about $5,000 worth of tools, police said. Officers investigated and identified 19-year-old Chayce Honey and 39-year-old Daniel Honey as the suspects, police said. Officers located the suspects at their home. Officers then conducted a probation search and allegedly found the victim's stolen property, police said. Both suspects were arrested on suspicion of burglary and possessing stolen property. They were booked into Contra Costa County Jail, police said. SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) Sex workers in San Francisco will be able to come forward and report a violent crime without fear of arrest or prosecution for minor drug offenses or prostitution under policies recently adopted by city police and prosecutors, city officials announced today. The policies adopted by police and the district attorney's office, thought to be the first of their kind in the U.S., are intended to protect the safety of sex workers and encourage them to report violent crimes and cooperate with law enforcement. The policies, developed in cooperation with sex worker advocacy organizations including St. James Infirmary and BAYSWAN, are "a major step towards addressing violence against women wary of contacting law enforcement because of their criminalized status," said Minouche Kandel, director of women's policy at the city's Department on the Status of Women. Research shows that most sex workers and people being exploited in the sex industry don't go to police when they are attacked or victimized out of fear of being arrested, city officials said. "Our hope for this policy is to reduce the harm experienced by sex workers, in particular, women of color and transgender women engaged in the sex trades, who have no protections when reporting violence, or experience mistreatment at the hands of law enforcement," said Johanna Breyer, executive director of St. James Infirmary. The Police Department policy, put out in a bulletin in December, advises officers not to arrest people for sex work or minor drug charges when they come forward as a victim or a witness to report sexual assault, human trafficking, stalking, robbery, assault, kidnapping, threats, blackmail, extortion, burglary or other violent crimes. Sex workers reporting violent crimes will also be referred to community and victim resources. Officers investigating a misdemeanor drug violation in which a violator reports being a victim or witness to a violent crime are required to collect and document evidence so that prosecutors can consider seeking a warrant. "We understand that many times sex workers are themselves victims of predators and human traffickers," police Chief William Scott said. "Our policy is written in the spirit of encouraging sex workers to feel safe coming forward to law enforcement, with the knowledge that they will be treated with respect and their concerns will be taken seriously and investigated." Similarly, the district attorney's office policy states that prosecutors will not charge victims or witnesses of violent crimes for sex work or misdemeanor drug related crimes, or use information gathered from them against them in future case, as long as they have been truthful. In addition, the district attorney's office policy states that prosecutors will not use immigration status against victims or witnesses of violent crimes in any way, or report them to immigration authorities except in cases where they are helping them apply for immigration relief. "If we fail to prioritize this population's health and safety they will not come forward and work with law enforcement as witnesses and victims of violence," District Attorney George Gascn said. "Ultimately, unreported crimes and criminals pose a threat to everyone's public safety." The new policies follow on the heels of the announcement by Supervisor Hillary Ronen of a pilot program funding a mobile outreach van to work with sex workers operating in the Mission District. The van, which will be operated by St. James Infirmary between midnight and 5 a.m., will offer access to health care and services and gather information on the needs of a group that tends to remain in the shadows. Ronen said the pilot program was inspired by complaints from residents about violence and late night arguments associated with sex workers operating in the area of Capp and Shotwell streets, including incidents in which the women were violently attacked. SANTA CRUZ (BCN) Santa Cruz police are searching for a bank robbery suspect who got away before police arrived on the scene Wednesday afternoon. The robbery happened at about 4:45 p.m. at the U.S. Bank located at 110 Morrissey Blvd. After gathering statements from victims and witnesses and reviewing security video, police determined the suspect pulled out a firearm and demanded money from tellers. The suspect ordered bank tellers to open the drawers and he successfully got away with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. The suspect was last seen running out of the bank and into the parking lot. Police received a lead that the suspect may be in the area of High Street, but they couldn't locate him. The suspect is described as a man who was wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, sunglasses, a mask and gloves. Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call the police department's investigation unit at (831) 420-5820. PETALUMA (BCN) Petaluma police are seeking the public's help in identifying and locating a suspect who stole credit cards from victims at recent weddings. According to police, on Jan. 2 they received a report of a stolen wallet. The victim reported that on Dec. 30 she was at a wedding at Saint Vincent de Paul Church on Liberty Street in Petaluma and had left her purse in a back room during the ceremony. After the wedding, she returned to the room and retrieved her purse and later discovered that someone had stolen her wallet. While notifying her credit card companies of the theft, she learned that the suspect had used her credit cards at various locations in Petaluma and Santa Rosa, police said. Similar thefts were reported around 4 p.m. Saturday. Police said that bridesmaids in a wedding at Calvary Chapel on South McDowell Boulevard in Petaluma had left personal belongings, including purses, in the "bride's room" of the church. The bridesmaids later returned to the room and discovered that someone had stolen their wallets from their purses. One of the bridesmaids immediately contacted her credit card company and learned the suspect had used her credit card at various businesses in Petaluma, police said. On Wednesday, police released video surveillance footage of the suspect using one of the victim's credit cards at a Target store in Petaluma. Police are asking anyone with information about the suspect to call Officer Flores at (707) 781-1227 or Community Service Officer Caiati at (707) 781-1209. BERKELEY (BCN) Luis Mora, a University of California, Berkeley student detained by immigration officials for overstaying his visa, will miss the first few days of the Spring semester despite help from elected officials, his lawyer said today. Mora, a 20-year-old pre-law student, was detained Dec. 30 at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint roughly 25 miles from Mexico in the Jamul area of unincorporated San Diego County. He was in Southern California over the holiday visiting with his partner, according to Attorney Prerna Lal with the East Bay Community Law Center. He was transferred into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week. The agency is holding him at Otay Mesa - a private prison facility recently accused of violating human traffic laws in a class-action lawsuit covered by the Los Angeles Times. Mora has a bond hearing, which could lead to his release, scheduled for Jan. 17, but school starts Jan. 16. Lal says she's working with his professors to let them know that he'll be absent. She's also been working with local and federal lawmakers to secure Mora's release. "I am deeply concerned by the arrest and detention of Luis Mora," U.S. Representative Barbara Lee said on social media. "We are seeking Luis' immediate release." Sen. Dianne Feinstein has also said her office is in contact with Lal to see how they can help with Mora's case. Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin fully supports the effort to have Mora released, and has urged ICE officials to exercise prosecutorial discretion and release him, according to a statement he issued today. "Luis is a dedicated student and community member and represents the best of what immigrants have to offer our country," Arreguin said. "He should be given a chance to finish his education, not wrenched from the country that has been his home since he was 11..." Lal said that Mora was being treated poorly in custody, but that's improved significantly since Arreguin, Feinstein and Lee got involved. "The guards at Otay Mesa know who he is now," Lal said. "If his case wasn't in the media, that would not be happening." "They started being nice to him, because they were calling him all sorts of names," Lal said. "They treat people like animals basically." Mora was born in Colombia, but his family comes from Ecuador. He arrived in the U.S. legally with his mother when she was seeking medical treatment for cancer. She took odd jobs to support her son but left the country after he started college, according to Lal. Mora has no immediate family left in the U.S. Another person has died in Santa Clara County due to the flu, bringing the total number of flu-related deaths countywide to five since the flu season began back in October, the county's Public Health Department said Wednesday. The decedent, who was under 65 years old, had not been vaccinated, according to health department officials. The department said this year, there has already been a sharp increase in patients who have been diagnosed with the flu. During the first week of December, only five patients countywide were diagnosed with the flu. However, between Jan. 1 and Jan. 7, 40 people in the county have been diagnosed with the flu. The department advises everyone six months and older to get vaccinated every year, especially pregnant women, children younger than 5, adults older than 65 and those with chronic medical conditions. "The influenza vaccination is the best way to protect your family from complications of influenza," Santa Clara County Assistant Health Officer Dr. George Han said in a statement. "It's not too late to get vaccinated. Even if the vaccine does not prevent you from getting the flu, it will make it less likely for you to be seriously ill and require hospitalization." Symptoms of the flu, a contagious illness caused by influenza viruses, are similar to those of the common cold but are often more severe, public health officials said. More information can be found online at www.sccphd.org/flu. At least 21 people were arrested and ordered to appear in immigration court during a nationwide U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation that targeted 7-Eleven franchises Wednesday morning, which included locations in four Bay Area counties. Wednesday's action follows up on a 2013 investigation in which nine 7-Eleven franchise owners and managers were arrested on suspicion of wire fraud, identity theft and harboring undocumented immigrants working for them, according to a statement from ICE. ICE says their personnel served notices of inspection, otherwise known as I-9 audits, and interviewed employees and managers. These actions were widely described as "raids," but ICE spokesman James Schwab says the agency does not use that term. "The agents placed notifications at the locations, so basically they just walked in, interviewed or talked to the person and then left," Schwab said. "If the person was here unlawfully they would administratively arrest that person," he said. "But this wasn't like a SWAT operation." Bay Area locations inspected during the operation took place in the cities of Napa, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Petaluma, Suisun City and Santa Clara. ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan, who recently told Fox News that officials in sanctuary city jurisdictions like San Francisco should face criminal charges for violating federal law, said in a statement that Wednesday's action was intended to send a message to employers. "Businesses that hire illegal workers are a pull factor for illegal immigration and we are working hard to remove this magnet," Homan said. "ICE will continue its efforts to protect jobs for American workers by eliminating unfair competitive advantages for companies that exploit illegal immigration," Homan said. Homan has stated that in response to the Sanctuary State law that went into effect Jan. 1, he plans to "significantly increase" the enforcement presence ICE has in California with more special agents and more deportations - a move he claims is privately supported by local police. Wednesday's operation was conducted in 17 different states, and ICE did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding how many franchise locations were targeted in the Bay Area or how many local residents were arrested, if any. San Jose police said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon that a man was killed in an officer-involved shooting Tuesday evening when he charged at officers with weapons after resisting no less than 23 commands to stand down. San Jose police Chief Eddie Garcia said officers responded at 5:02 p.m. to a call from an employee about a suspicious vehicle at the Metcalf Energy Center at 1 Blanchard Road in South San Jose. The power plant employee described a suspicious man in a black Mercedes-Benz. The employee said that the person had pulled something out of the trunk but they could not confirm exactly what that object was, Garcia said. The employee described him as an Asian man in his 20s, standing about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing about 145 pounds. He was wearing a black jacket, a white shirt and black pants. Garcia said investigators believe that after the call was made, the man gained access to the property by jumping over the fence. The employee called police back to report that the man had a backpack, a pipe and possibly an ax with him. Garcia did not immediately release how close the suspect got to employees. When officers arrived, they found the black Mercedes unoccupied and located a large sword laying in the driver's seat. When police ran the man's license plate, it identified the vehicle as armed and dangerous because of a prior incident with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office. Garcia said the same suspect had possibly led authorities on a pursuit in Santa Cruz County after he brandished a weapon around security guards and also possessed a sword. Garcia said he did not know whether the sword from the Santa Cruz County case was the same one San Jose officers found Tuesday night. The officers located the man who matched the employee's description in a matter of minutes after arrival and saw that he was wielding a 6-foot pipe and an ax. They gave the suspect verbal commands to surrender or drop the weapons, but he refused to comply and walked away from the officers, Garcia said. The chief said officers followed the suspect at "a safe distance" and continued to give the man verbal commands to drop his weapons, but he continued to act defiantly and yelled "shoot me" and "kill me" multiple times. The suspect then turned around and advanced toward the officers still armed with both weapons. He continued to yell demands to shoot, Garcia said. He got 5 to 6 feet away from one officer, at which time the officer shot at the man. The suspect continued toward a second officer with his pipe and ax, which is when the second officer shot at him too, Garcia said. The suspect was hit at least once and was pronounced dead at the scene. His name will not be released until the Santa Clara County medical examiner's office identifies him and notifies his next of kin. A search of the suspect's possessions found that he was also carrying an additional ax, six throwing knives and pepper spray, according to Garcia. The two officers involved were wearing body cameras and they were activated, Garcia said. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office now has custody of the footage. The officers have been put on routine paid administrative leave during the investigation, according to Garcia. The suspect had a history of numerous prior offenses, including for narcotics, weapon violations and resisting arrest. He was submitted for a 72-hour psychiatric hold this past September. He was not on probation or parole but had three active warrants against him in Santa Clara County for traffic-related offenses, resisting arrest and various drug offenses, Garcia said. Police do not believe the man had any ties to the power plant itself and do not know why he entered the premises. They plan on doing an extensive search into his history for clarity. The district attorney's office and San Jose police will be doing a joint investigation into the case. The Napa County Sheriff's Office has identified the driver who died when a mudslide swept his vehicle down an embankment and into a tree off state Highway 121 Tuesday evening as Hernan Reyes-Aguires, 22, of Fairfield. Reyes-Aguires was on his way home from visiting family in Napa when a boulder weighing several tons struck the driver's side of his vehicle and knocked it around 100 feet down an embankment, sheriff's Capt. Steve Blower said. The slide occurred on Monticello Road/state Highway 121 between Wild Horse Valley Road and Wooden Valley Road, Blower said. Reyes-Aguires was pronounced dead at the scene and he remained in the vehicle overnight because the slide area was too unstable to free him or raise the vehicle up the embankment, Blower said. A tow truck responded around mid-morning Wednesday, and the road was closed until around 1 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. Three people were struck by trains in the East Bay Wednesday morning and at least one of them has died, according to an Amtrak spokeswoman. Capitol Corridor train No. 535, running from Sacramento to Oakland, struck a person on the tracks at 11:30 a.m., Amtrak spokeswoman Beth Toll said in an email. The scene is north of Iron Triangle Court, according to Richmond police. Details about the victim were not immediately available. There were 56 passengers and crew on board at the time of the strike and none of them were injured, according to Toll. An earlier strike in Richmond was reported when train No. 937 fatally hit a person where the tracks cross 22nd Street, near the intersection of Broadway and Carlson Boulevard, around 4 a.m. Police responded and found the body before turning the investigation over to Union Pacific. There were no passengers onboard at the time, according to Amtrak. A third person was struck by Capitol Corridor train No. 522 in Emeryville around 6:40 a.m. in the 5800 block of Horton Street, near the Emeryville Amtrak station. There were 11 people on board, including passengers and crew, according to Amtrak. A body found in a warehouse in Hayward last summer has been identified as that of a missing San Francisco Uber driver who was last seen by his family in May. The body, found by warehouse workers on June 24, 2017, could not immediately be identified due to its condition and has now been confirmed to be that of Piseth Chhay through DNA analysis. San Francisco police are investigating Chhay's death as a homicide and have identified Bob Tang, also known as Bob Tov, as a suspect. Tang and Chhay are family acquaintances, and Tang is thought to be the last person who saw Chhay, who was last seen alive on May 14. Tang himself was last seen on May 22 by his wife, when he left to respond to an alarm call at a home in Antioch, and was reported missing on May 24. His car was later found at San Francisco International Airport and police now believe he has fled the United States for Cambodia. Investigators are working with other law enforcement agencies to locate him and bring him back to the country. Tang was described last year as an Asian male, around 5 feet 4 inches and 130 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. He was 48 years old at the time of his disappearance. Anyone with information on this case or on Tang's whereabouts is asked to call police at (415) 575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411, starting the text message with "SFPD." Tips can be made anonymously. A motorcyclist died Wednesday afternoon when his motorcycle struck an SUV in Vallejo Wednesday afternoon, according to police. The collision occurred around 4:05 p.m. at Columbus and North Ascot parkways. After a preliminary investigation, officers determined that the motorcycle was speeding, heading east on Columbus Parkway. The motorcyclist failed to stop at a red light at the intersection and struck a 2014 Dodge Durango that was making a legal left turn from Columbus Parkway to southbound Ascot Parkway, police said. The male motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity has not been released. The driver of the Durango was not injured. Officers learned that the motorcycle was reported stolen from Benicia. The collision remains under investigation and anyone with information is asked to contact Officer Waylon Boyce from the police department's Traffic Division at (707) 648-4013 and refer to case number 18-371. The incident marks the second fatal vehicle collision this year in Vallejo, according to police. San Jose police announced a new online portal system Wednesday, which 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 their police reports from 2015 to 2017 to Police Strategies, LLC before launching the website. They are continuing to submit reports but there is a little bit of a lag, meaning that cases from Oct. 2017 to Dec. 2017 will probably show up in February of this year, 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 these features at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. Tibaldi said that 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 this system will promote transparency in how crime is handled in the community and will continue the conversation about it. He said that residents deserved better than one annual report each year, and now they have it. Garcia said that though the department is practicing some of the best practices in the nation for use of force at this time, it doesn't mean that the force will settle there. 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. San Jose police Tuesday arrested a second suspect in connection with the fatal shooting of a man outside a liquor store last year. Police Tuesday arrested 24-year-old Eduardo Rodriguez of San Jose at 3:45 p.m. at The Woods apartment complex at 4300 The Woods Drive. He was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of homicide, police said. On Sept. 29 at 6:25 p.m., officers responded to a report of a person shot outside Jackson Liquors in the 100 block of South Jackson Avenue. Officers arrived and found a man suffering from a gunshot wound, police said. The victim was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead. He was identified as 26-year-old Jesus Ayala of San Jose. Police investigated and determined that the homicide was gang-related. The investigation led officers to arrest 20-year-old Ivan Hernandez of San Jose on Dec. 28. He was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of homicide, police said. The case remains under investigation and police are asking anyone with information to contact Detective Sgt. Jesus Mendoza or Detective Todd Jennings at (408) 277-5283. Today will be mostly cloudy with highs in the upper 50s. South winds will be between 5 and 10 mph, becoming southwest winds in the afternoon. Tonight will be partly cloudy with lows in the upper 40s. Northwest winds will be between 5 and 10 mph. Friday will be partly cloudy with highs around 60. North winds will be between 5 and 10 mph. STANFORD (BCN) Stanford University School of Medicine confirmed that 45-year-old Juergen Willmann, one of their professors of radiology, passed away in a crash near Palo Alto on Monday. Willmann, for reasons yet to be determined, lost control of his vehicle when he was heading east on Page Mill Road in the left lane. He struck a tree in the median between Coyote Hill and Deer Creek roads just outside Palo Alto city limits, according to California Highway Patrol spokesman Art Montiel. Montiel said that Willmann was unrestrained when his car drifted out of the lane and crashed just before 12:25 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Willmann was responsible for several academic breakthroughs at Stanford, including but not limited to targeted contrast microbubbles that helped detect early tumors and deliver targeted drugs in the body with the help of ultrasound imaging. Willmann was well known for generously sharing his expertise with his students, creating an environment that felt much like a family. Chair of the radiology department Sanjiv Sam Gambhir described Willmann as a larger-than-life kind of person. His investigation into cancer detection and imaging technologies earned him the 2017 Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research. The university emphasized that while Willmann was an award-winning doctor, he was also a family man and a passionate musician. He played four instruments in addition to being an accomplished pianist and seriously considered becoming a professional musician before deciding to attend medical school. Willmann was born in Germany and earned his medical degree there. He traveled back and forth between California and Zurich to train in diagnostic radiology at University of California San Francisco and complete his residency at the University of Zurich. His wife Amelie Lutz also completed her residency there; they met in med school. In 2011 after they had completed a fellowship at Stanford, Willmann and Lutz decided to make a permanent move to the United States and take jobs at the university. Willmann's wife is currently an assistant professor of radiology as he was just before he was promoted to full professor. "He was as spectacular a person as he was a scientist, he just radiated the magnetism," fellow Stanford professor of radiology Brooke Jeffrey said. "He was never arrogant, never showed hubris, and was always interested in how you and your family were doing." Willmann is survived by his wife and their two children, Alexander and Juliana, as well as his parents, Elisabeth and Karl Willmann and sister Sabine Willmann. Funeral arrangements are pending at this time. SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (BCN) An airplane arriving at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday almost landed on the wrong runway where another plane was waiting to depart, according to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. At 11:45 a.m., Aeromexico Flight 668 was cleared to land on runway 28R and its crew correctly read back that clearance, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said. When the plane was about a mile from the airport, air traffic controllers noticed the aircraft was lined up for Runway 28L, where a Virgin America jet was waiting to depart, Gregor said. Air traffic controllers instructed the Aeromexico flight's crew to go around again, Gregor said. Further details were not immediately available. FAA officials are currently investigating the incident, Gregor said. A similar incident occurred July 7, when Air Canada Flight AC759 from Toronto had been cleared to land on Runway 28R but lined up to land on Taxiway C, which had four other passenger aircraft waiting to take off. The pilot eventually noticed the problem and circled around, passing within just 59 feet of the runway, fueling speculation that a mass casualty event could have occurred in the event of a collision between Flight AC759 and the planes waiting to take off. In that incident, the plane disappeared from SFO's Airport Surface Detection Equipment/Airport Surface Surveillance Capability display -- similar to radar -- for nearly 12 seconds, possibly because it was off course. Audio on the cockpit's voice recorder was inexplicably overwritten and therefore unavailable, but investigators said the pilot and first officer on that flight had thousands of hours of experience flying that model of aircraft. Then on Oct. 22, Air Canada Flight AC781 from Montreal landed despite attempts from air traffic controllers to get the pilot to circle around the airport due to uncertainty over whether the runway would be clear by the time they touched down. After landing, the flight crew indicated they'd had a radio problem. A Pacifica man was sentenced to 30 years in state prison this morning for allegedly drugging 15 dates and then sexually assault them with unidentified accomplices over an eight year period, according to San Mateo County prosecutors. Joseph Paul Courtney, 33, pleaded no contest 14 felony sexual assaults including sodomy by force or threat while acting in concert, sodomy by use of drugs and sodomy of an unconscious person. Six of those felonies were deemed violent. Courtney is HIV-positive, according to prosecutors, and admitted to knowing about his HIV status at the time these crimes were committed. At least one of the victims has subsequently tested positive for HIV, although the court did not seek to prove that Courtney was the person who transmitted the virus. Courtney will have to serve at least 80 percent of his sentence, or 24 years, and will not be eligible for early parole. Prosecutors said the victims met with Courtney for the purpose of consensual sex, but he dosed them with GHB and other drugs. After they were unconscious, Courtney allegedly brought in other men who participated in the assaults. Some of the assaults were filmed, and on at least one occasion Courtney showed that footage to the victim pictured in the video, prosecutors said. Steven Chase, Courtney's defense attorney, argued that the sex in question was consensual. "This was a bunch of men engaging in very dangerous behavior," Chase said. Everyone involved knew they were going to use drugs - but the victims later claimed they were drugged to a point of unconsciousness. "I think that's unlikely, but once one person reported it and it made the news a bunch of other people came forward," Chase said. Chase also said that many people came forward to voice support for his client. "It's a tragic case," Chase said. "It's tragic because a lot of the men claim to have had rather severe psychological repercussions over this." "I have no way of knowing if that's true or not true, but my heart goes out to them," Chase said. 363-4752 Attorney Steven Chase for Courtney (650) 589-6990 SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) A woman suffered injuries not considered life-threatening Wednesday night in San Francisco's Richmond neighborhood, police said today. The stabbing was reported at 8 p.m. and may have occurred in Golden Gate Park near the Great Highway. Police said the suspect and the victim were in an argument when the suspect pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim on the arm. Police have not made an arrest in the stabbing. Apart from hosting and possible maintenance costs, there are not exactly downsides to having your own website. Even if its just a personal blog it can always become more useful down the line, if you utilize it in the right manner. In other words, more While many head to San Francisco to visit its top-notch restaurants and cocktail lounges, others who live in the city are eager to get out of town on weekends to enjoy nature. The beauty of living in this area is that you don't have to travel to all the way to the mountains of Tahoe or Yosemite to "tree bathe" and get a little workout. Here are nine hikes within an hour's drive of San Francisco that you'll often hear locals praising. Some of them are strenuous, so make sure you are up for the journey before you head out. ALSO: Our Top Hiking Boots for Bay Area Trails 1.) The Dipsea Trail The Dipsea Trail officially starts in Mill Valley and starts with a boatload of stairs through dense forests and neighborhoods. It then crosses Panoramic Highway to dip down near Muir Woods and skips through forests and grassy meadows to Stinson Beach. This 7.4-mile trail is awesome to hike year-round and one major added bonus is beer and food in downtown Stinson Beach. If you don't want to hike all the way back to Mill Valley, hop on a shuttle to get you most of the way back to your car. 2) Mt. Diablo If you really want an intense workout, try your luck on a hike up Mt. Diablo in the East Bay, which is the highest peak in the Bay area at 3,848 feet. There are tons of different hikes to choose from, but most have elevation gains worthy of an athlete. Try Mitchell Canyon, a 7-mile hike with a 1,700-foot elevation gain, or stick to the Mitchell Canyon nature trail which stretches just 4-miles with 500 feet of gain. ALSO: Top Backpacks for Day Hikes 3) Angel Island Angel Island sure looks pretty sitting there across from San Francisco, but it's also a beautiful state park you can hike around on. So, catch a ferry and head on over to do a hike in this state park. There are a few hikes to choose from here, like the Perimeter Trail, which is a 5.5 mile loop around the island with stunning bay, bridge and city views. Or you can hike up Mt. Livermore, which has a gain of 800 feet but a spectacular view to reward you up top. Now Playing: Will you take your kids to San Francisco's Stow Lake for a boat ride? Or Santa Cruz for an Overhead Tram ride? Or Muir Woods for a Hike? Here are some locations that all California Kids must see before growing up. Where will you take your kids next? Video: San Francisco Chronicle 4) Mori Point The windswept bluffs of Mori Point near Pacifica are on the southern-most reaches of the Golden Gate National Recreation area. This isn't so much a strenuous hike but a view destination, with wildflowers and the beautiful expanse of the Pacific Ocean. There are many trails to choose from, and it's a perfect place for dog lovers because you can bring your pooch to hike here. 5) Wildcat Canyon Regional Park The Wildcat Canyon Regional Park is 2,427 acres and right up the hill from El Cerrito in the East Bay. There are 25 miles of trails to hike on here, most of them fire roads. Cross the border into Tilden Park to Inspiration Point for a stunning view of the East Bay and San Francisco beyond. Hikes in Wildcat Canyon are mostly through hilly grasslands, where you'll most likely see a wild animal or two, and herds of cattle. 6) The Marin Headlands Plenty of hikes for all skills levels meander through the Marin Headlands, which is just a short hop from the Golden Gate bridge. Try parking at the Spencer Avenue exit off Highway 101 and hike up the hill into the headlands, then take the SCA trail for a view of the Golden Gate bridge. For a longer hike, you can go several miles to Rodeo Beach, then wander through the grassy hills until you're tired of looking at stunning ocean vistas. 7) Castle Rock State Park This is a very popular park near San Jose, where people come to get a workout hiking or rock climbing. Some just come to soak up the nature and views. There are many hikes to choose from here, including the easy Castle Rock loop that goes for one mile, to the strenuous Gap to Gap loop, which marches 16.4 miles roundtrip from Saratoga Gap to Waterman Gap with 1,860 of elevation gain. There's something for everyone at Castle Rock. 8) Sunol Regional Wilderness This wilderness area is located east of Fremont and south of Pleasanton, and is a beautiful park that spans 6,869 acres. It was home to the are'as first residents - Native Americans - and offers hiking and backpacking alike. There all levels of hiking trails here and the popular Little Yosemite Valley area, which is a creek lined with huge boulders. Trails in this wilderness area wind through woodlands, down canyons and over grassy hills. 9) Tennessee Valley to Muir Beach This 9.7-mile out-and-back hike in Marin County is worth checking out. You'll have views of the rocky coastline on one side, and rolling green hills on the other. Start by parking at the Tennessee Valley trailhead, and follow the signs to the Coastal Trail. Once you reach Muir Beach, where you can stop for lunch at the Pelican Inn before starting your journey back to your car. This hike truly is a gem of the Bay area. If youre familiar with the phenomenon called vocal fry a mode of speaking commonly attributed to members of a generation younger than oneself and characterized by a gravitas-affecting growl the timbre adopted by Louie Anderson in Dear Dad goes a degree further. Call it vocal curdle. Some of the best moments in the solo show, which the comedian and actor adapted from his 1991 memoir and which opened Thursday, Jan. 11, at ACTs Strand Theater, are assiduously distilled noises, noises that instantly summon the whole essence of one of his myriad family members (he was one of 11 kids, in a Minnesota public housing project). Frequently and apropos of nothing, his mother lets loose a passive-aggressive sigh that seems to simultaneously say, Woe is me, Well, Ill make do and Why doesnt anyone ask me whats wrong? His grandmother prefers to vocalize with only a spitting-qua-flatulence sound, and in case there was any doubt that shes directing it at Andersons father, she also points at her son-in-law while she does it. Still the best utterances come from Andersons father himself, whose voice is like sludge gurgling down a drain. Such is the communicative power of this characters argot of grunts and mutterings that words are often superfluous. He simply barks, or disgorges some other glottal sound, and you lean in a little to listen harder, but youre convinced youve heard an entire sentence. And when he does speak English, its terrifying. Taunting a young Anderson with the epithet lard-ass, he uses the raspy singsong of a troll under a bridge; hes a nightmare lying in wait. Yet if Andersons characterizations are rich, at once comic and poignant, mining the universal from the specific, the show as a whole needs a stronger narrative drive, a clearer raison detre. In his curtain speech, ACT associate artistic director Andy Donald emphasized that Dear Dad, part of ACTs @TheStrand series, was still a work in progress, with some material getting performed for the first time on opening night. In its current form, directed by Abraham Geisness, the piece has the feel of a random assortment of character sketches that occasionally tries to be another kind of show altogether. Once or twice, its a faux self-help seminar, complete with a PowerPoint slide with a list of enjoinments like Dont speak unless you can cause conflict. And all of a sudden toward the end of the show, Anderson vaults in perspective from outward observer to soul searcher, attempting to fashion a bildungsroman about his own formation as a comic, but the effort never rises above afterthought. And for all his finely wrought descriptions of his family, Andersons humor periodically takes shortcuts, with some tired jokes about the differences between dogs and cats, an easy aside or two about Trump. Once, he offers nothing more on why he shares an anecdote about an early gig than, Anyway, so that was a really good job. But as a portrait of another time, when parents could be gleefully cruel to their children without fear of Child Protective Services, when a father would sooner tell a stranger of his pride in his son than he would the son himself, when driving blackout drunk was less crime than irksome quirk, Dear Dad is vivid and Anderson a wry and, somehow, loving conjurer. Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicles theater critic. Email: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LilyJaniak Dear Dad: Written by Louie Anderson. Directed by Abraham Geisness. Through Jan. 14. 90 minutes. $25-$55. ACTs Strand Theater, 1127 Market St., S.F. (415) 749-2228. www.act-sf.org To see Louie Anderson on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmBxxldAXs4 To see Anderson on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1984, in his first national television appearance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDyWKzRj1wg To see Anderson talk to Conan OBrien about playing Zach Galifianakis mom on Baskets: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge9kMAD7hMQ This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Editor's note: SFGATE and The Chronicle ordinarily refrain from publishing vulgar language unless it is judged to be an essential part of the story. In this story, the term President Trump used in his discussion of immigrant communities meets that standard. California Lieutenant Governor and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom called on President Donald Trump to resign in the wake of the president's controversial "shithole countries" comment. "You're a joke and a racist, President Donald J. Trump," Newsom wrote on Facebook. The former mayor of San Francisco concluded with one word: "Resign." Both of California's Democratic senators also condemned Trump's comments. Sen. Dianne Feinstein called the remarks "disgusting," and stated that "they diminish America's standing in the world and should be denounced by every member of Congress." Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted: "To our brothers, sisters, and friends in immigrant communities at home and across the world, know that we stand with you. Immigrants don't just belong in America, immigrants have helped build America." Now Playing: A border wall is still a must-have. Video: Fortune On Thursday, Trump questioned why the United States would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa. A White House spokesperson did not deny the remarks. His 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. 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 "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 United States who fled here after disasters hit their homes in places including El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti. Trump specifically questioned why the United States would want to admit more people from Haiti. As for Africa, he asked why more people from "shithole countries" should be allowed here, the sources said. The president suggested that instead, the United States should allow more entrants from countries like Norway. Trump met this week with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Here's the full quote: "The younger generation now tells me how tough things are. Give me a break. No, no, I have no empathy for it. Give me a break. Because here's the deal guys, we decided we were gonna change the world. And we did. We did. We finished the civil rights movement in the first stage. The women's movement came to be. So my message is, get involved. There's no place to hide. You can go and you can make all the money in the world, but you can't build a wall high enough to keep the pollution out. You can't live whereyou can't not be diminished when your sister can't marry the man or woman, or the woman she loves. You can'twhen you have a good friend being profiled, you can't escape this stuff. And so, there's an old expression my philosophy professor would always use from Plato, 'The penalty people face for not being involved in politics is being governed by people worse than themselves.' It's wide open. Go out and change it." The interviewer and his guest havent been seen around these parts in recent times, but, still, they need no introduction. In fact, just minutes into the new Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman, it will feel like old and arguably better times. The audience members in the Alabama theater where the interview was taped dont know who Lettermans guest is. But they leap to their feet and erupt into wild cheers as soon as the announcer utters the phrase Forty-fourth and before he can add president of the United States, Barack Obama. The first of Lettermans six monthly interview shows is available for streaming on Friday, Jan. 12. In a relaxed, wide-ranging hour-long chat, Obama, making his first talk show appearance since leaving office, and Letterman, whose last Late Night With David Letterman show aired in May 2015, make a combined case for civility that has been missing from television and perhaps our culture for far too long. Now Playing: Sunday night's ceremony to present Letterman with the Mark Twain award for American humor Video: Time Much of the conversation focuses on family, on what the former president felt when he took his elder daughter to college. He describes the feeling of having kids, of never wanting to let them out of your sight, of wanting to protect them, but having to accept that they will learn to protect themselves the more you teach them. When he took Malia to Harvard, everyone had a task, except Dad. Sasha helped put her sisters clothes away, Michelle scrubbed down the bathroom, and Barack tried to hold back the tears welling up inside. Malia gave him the task of assembling the four parts of a desk lamp just to keep him busy. It turns out assembling lamps is not one of Obamas talents. Although Obama wrote a book titled Dreams From My Father, he says that the most important lesson he learned from his father, who was all but absent from his life, was to be present in the lives of his own children. Much of his character was shaped by his mother, by her simple Midwestern values. He was so focused on his absent father while growing up that it wasnt until later in life that he fully realized how much his own life and values were shaped by his mother. A significant portion of the hour is given over to someone who is not onstage, and it isnt the current occupant of the White House. Its Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement who was beaten and suffered a fractured skull when police attacked marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on Bloody Sunday, 1965. We cut away from the interview to view a recent video of Letterman walking the bridge with Lewis. As they stroll across the now-peaceful landmark, Letterman asks Lewis to recall what went through his head when he was attacked. I thought I was going to die, Lewis responds. What was on the other side of the bridge for the marchers, Letterman asks. The vote, Lewis answers. And: Barack Obama. The march, and the long and continuing civil rights movement made it possible for the country to elect an African American president 43 years later. Those people carried me across that bridge, Obama adds. They carried America across that bridge. The conversation includes references to the divisiveness of the present day, with Obama talking about how social media was key to communicating his positions on the issues in 2008 and 2012. What he didnt realize, he says, what few realized, was how people in power, special interests and foreign powers could use social media to manipulate public opinion. The audience doesnt need to hear Trump or Russian meddling to get the point. We dont share a common baseline of facts, Obama says to diagnose the root of divisiveness in the country today. He relates something the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said while debating an opponent: You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. If you are watching Fox News, you are living on a different planet than you are if you listen to NPR, Obama adds. The audience laughs at the mention of Fox, as if its meant as a humorous dig, but Obama goes on to argue the importance of accurate news reporting as an antidote to the current reality that too many Americans live in a bubble of their own biases. Obamas appearance will make some viewers feel nostalgic, and others indifferent, or less. But regardless of your take on the 44th president, it sure is good to have David Letterman back. And certainly because its Letterman asking the questions, we should feel nostalgic for a time when candid, insightful and civil interviews played a larger role in television news and the national conversation. David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Six-episode monthly interview show. First guest, Barack Obama, available for streaming on Friday, Jan. 12, on Netflix. Future guests include Tina Fey, Jay-Z, Howard Stern, George Clooney and Malala Yousafzai. 1 Hezbollah probe: The Justice Department is forming a team of prosecutors to investigate drug trafficking and money laundering linked to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant movement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday. The move follows reports that Obama administration officials thwarted drug prosecutions related to Hezbollah for fear of jeopardizing a nuclear deal with Iran. President Trump and congressional Republicans have pressured Sessions to take a fresh look at Obama-era dealings, in an effort that Democrats contend is aimed at steering attention away from investigations into Trump campaign ties to Russian election meddling. 2 Popes Chile visit: Pope Francis will meet with two victims of Chiles military dictatorship during his upcoming trip, and isnt ruling out a private encounter with victims of clerical sex abuse, the Vatican said Thursday. The Jan. 15-21 trip to Chile and Peru will be Francis 22nd foreign trip and sixth to his home continent of South America. The encounter with two victims of the 1973-1990 Pinochet regime will take place in the northern city of Iquique. 1 China #MeToo movement: A university has sacked a prestigious scholar following accusations of sexual misconduct against him by multiple women, the result of a campaign heralded by his chief accuser as the start of a Chinese chapter of the #MeToo movement. Beihang University in Beijing said on its official microblog this week that an investigation found that Chen Xiaowus behavior had violated professional ethics and created an odious influence on society. It said Chen has been relieved of his duties, including as professor and deputy head of graduate students. Chen could not immediately be contacted Friday, although he was quoted by the official newspaper Beijing Youth Daily earlier this month as saying that he had done nothing that was illegal or violated school discipline. 2 Shipwreck survivors: Venezuelan officials said Friday they have accounted for 16 survivors from the deadly shipwreck of a small motorboat carrying migrants that broke apart on the rocks of a Caribbean island. The death toll rose to five after the body of a man washed ashore on the Dutch Island of Curacao, police said. The boat carrying roughly 30 people left Tuesday night on the short but treacherous route taken by Venezuelans fleeing their countrys economic collapse in search of jobs and money to send back home. President Trump said late Thursday that he had canceled a trip to London because of the cost and off location of the new U.S. Embassy in the city, where he had been expected to face protests. Nearly a year ago, Trump accepted an invitation to visit from Queen Elizabeth II, which was extended by Prime Minister Theresa May while she was in Washington shortly after Trumps inauguration. That announcement set off a year of debate in Britain, where Trump is unpopular, and the timing of the visit was continually pushed back. British newspapers cited concerns about protests during a visit as officials tried to gauge how much pomp should greet Trump. Last month, the U.S. ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, said that while no trip had been formally announced, he hoped Trump would visit in early 2018 and dedicate the new embassy. On Thursday night, the president took to his favorite medium, Twitter, and announced that he had canceled his trip because he was unhappy with the new building. Trumps British critics responded with jeers, saying the president was afraid of the reception he would get in Britain. Ed Miliband, the former Labor Party leader, responded to Trumps announcement on Twitter, saying: Nope. Its because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said the presidents tweet made clear that it had been a mistake for May to move so quickly to extend the invitation to Trump last year. It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our citys values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance, he tweeted. The old U.S. Embassy, in a historic square in the exclusive Mayfair neighborhood, was deemed to be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The new one is in a former rail yard on the South Bank of the Thames. Trump blamed the Obama administration for the move, accusing it of selling the old embassy for peanuts in a bad deal. But the move was actually initiated during the administration of President George W. Bush. This has been a long and careful process, Robert Tuttle, then the ambassador to Britain, said in October 2008. The Trump presidency has complicated the normally close ties between the United States and Britain, which has often been called the special relationship since Winston Churchill used the phrase in a 1946 speech. Trump has used terrorist attacks in London to support his travel ban on visitors from predominantly Muslim countries. He criticized Khan for his response to a bombing in June, misconstruing a call for calm as lack of concern about terrorist threats. And his tweets about a bombing in London in September suggested that the police had been monitoring attackers but done nothing. His re-tweets of a far-right groups anti-Muslim videos in November stirred criticism from across the political spectrum in Britain. May had been placed in an awkward situation, as Trumps unpopularity in Britain prompted calls that she stand up to the president or even call off his visit. At the same time, her government is in the midst of complicated negotiations to withdraw from the European Union and under pressure to prevent relations with the White House from deteriorating further. Austin Ramzy is a New York Times writer. Australian adventure tourism operator Experience Co shares fell 9.4 percent after suspending its Queenstown operations after the Wednesday skydiving incident left a US man missing and presumed drowned. The Wollongong-based company has suspended Queenstown operations and today confirmed the incident on Wednesday after a tandem pair landed in Lake Wakatipu at Jack's Point, it said in a statement to the ASX. The shares fell 8 Australian cents to 77 Australian cents after coming off a halt on Wednesday. The recovery operation for the missing US man is continuing while the rescued tandem master is recovering well. Experience Co, formerly known as Skydive the Beach Group, is cooperating fully with investigating authorities including police, the Transport Accident Investigation Commission and Civil Aviation Authority, chief executive Anthony Ritter said. "The company voluntarily suspended local operations immediately after the incident," Ritter said. "A decision on when jumping will recommence will be made in due course after consultation with the staff, crew, regulators and the wider Queenstown community." Experience Co bought Queenstown's NZONE Skydive in 2015 for $17 million to tap into New Zealand's booming tourism sector. NZONE, set up in 1990, employs 65 staff and has taken more than 300,000 passengers tandem skydiving. The Australian company expanded its New Zealand footprint with the $10.4 million purchase of Skydive Wanaka in 2016. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: My Food Bag confirms dividend and releases HY results Fonterra announces divestment of Chile business Meridian Energy monthly operating report for October 2022 NZ Automotive to announce interim results for HY 2023 November 18th Morning Report CHI - 2023 Guidance Update TRA - Weblink for Turners Half Year FY23 Results Presentation General Capital (GEN:NZ) Concludes Goodwill Discussions General Capital (GEN:NZ) Announces Discussions on Goodwill KMD - Trading Update STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A St. George man was busted with drugs and a stolen gun after authorities searched his apartment last week, police said. Joshua Williams, 32, had a .40 caliber handgun with 13 bullets in the magazine and more than two ounces of marijuana when cops executed the search warrant at his Richmond Terrace apartment Friday morning, according to the criminal complaint. The stolen firearm and the drugs were found in his bedroom, police said. At the time of the search, three children under the age of 10 were in the residence, said the complaint. Williams is charged with possession of weapons and marijuana, and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, police said. He was arraigned last week and a bail of $10,000 cash or a $25,000 bond was set, according to online state court records. Williams is due back in court on Jan. 18. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island man was among six New Yorkers who concocted a complex fraud scheme involving the processing of credit-card payments and transactions by consumers in western Pennsylvania, said authorities. Azad Khizgilov, 43, has been indicted in federal court in Pittsburgh on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud, said Scott W. Brady, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, in a statement. Also charged were Brooklyn residents Tamara Feldman, 29; Svetlana Kapralova, 30; Philip Krasnikov, 31, and Roman Shaulov, 50, along with Manhattan resident Devan Abrams, 37, said authorities. Officials said the defendants used credit card products and services to pay for certain "precluded activities," including the online sales of pharmaceutical drugs and of the sale of products violating trademark laws, online gambling and various other illegal or high-risk activities. Credit card companies don't permit such purchases, but the defendants subverted those organizations' internal controls to make it seem as though they were buying permitted goods, said authorities. They set up shell corporations and web sites falsely claiming they sold products other than the precluded ones, and applied for merchant accounts from the credit card companies, said authorities. Once the merchant accounts were established, the defendants used them to process consumers' payments. To hide their tracks, they sent credit-card statements to customers with the names of the shell corporations and phone numbers, said officials. They also created a telephone bank to receive consumers' calls about billing questions, authorities said. Khizgilov was arrested on Dec. 20, and is scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 24, online court records show. If convicted, the defendants potentially face up to 30 years behind bars, a fine of up to $1 million, or both. Khizgilov is free on bond pending his arraignment in Pittsburgh federal court. Defense lawyer Joseph Tacopina said his client denies the charges. "Mr. Khizgilov was fully aware of the prosecution's investigation long before it filed an indictment in this case," said Tacopina. "He maintained his innocence during that investigation, and he continues to do so now. In fact, the one and only charge in the indictment makes clear that the prosecution's beliefs during the investigation were flat-out wrong. Mr. Khizgilov now looks forward to his day in court, so he may show that the single remaining accusation against him is false." STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Local elected officials have penned a letter to Cardinal Timothy Dolan regarding St. John Villa Academy, worried that the Arrochar property will be turned over to developers after its doors shut at the end of the school year. Borough President James Oddo, Minority Leader Steven Matteo, Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis and Sen. Diane Savio all signed the plea to Dolan. Although the Catholic school is affiliated with the Archdiocese of New York, it is a private school run by the order of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist. Nonetheless, the local representatives have reached out to Dolan for his "sway" over the religious order. The letter references the fate of the nearby site that was once Mt. Manresa. That property was turned over to developers by the Society of Jesus "against the wishes, desires and pleas of the Staten Island community," the letter states. "At this time, while we are pleased with the support of Borough President Oddo, our priority continues to be our students and teachers," Sr. Theresea Ann D'Onofrio '75 was quoted in the email. Oddo has stated that he hopes to see some positive results out of the tragedy of the school's closure, adding that Borough Hall seeks to open three new schools -- a young women's leadership school, a harbor school and a Bridge Prep charter school for children with dyslexia -- but a roadblock has been the lack of space on the Island. "Before considering selling the property, the Sisters will engage in a comprehensive study," D'Onofrio said in the email. Meanwhile, a petition to landmark the academy has garnered more than 10,000 signatures. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The NYPD asked for tips via social media to find Patrick Alford, a Staten Island boy who went missing eight years ago in Brooklyn. Jan. 22 marks the eighth anniversary of the then seven-year-old boy's disappearance, according to a post on the NYPD Missing Persons Squad Twitter feed. The New Brighton boy was taking out the trash with his foster mother, Librada Moran, when he vanished from a hallway of their Spring Creek development building at 130 Vandalia Ave. on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 at about 9 p.m. The foster mother was the last person known to see Patrick. The boy was placed at the foster home when his mother, Jennifer Rodriguez, lost custody of Patrick and his two sisters on Dec. 26, 2009, after she was arrested on theft charges. One week after Patrick's disappearance, a Family Court judge jailed Rodriguez believing she was involved in the case. Rodriguez was released several days later after the city Administration for Children's Services determined she didn't have any connection with the disappearance. Nine months after Patrick went missing, Rodriguez sued the city, Moran, the foster care agency and others in Brooklyn federal court, accusing them of negligence. People with information are encouraged to contact NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477 (TIPS) or for Spanish, 1-888-577-4782 (PISTA). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A person was injured after a car accident in Eltingville Thursday night. A spokesman for the FDNY said the injured person was transported to Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze after the incident near the intersection of Hylan Boulevard and Richmond Avenue around 6:45 p.m. The spokesman could not provide a condition for the person who was injured. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- With about three-quarters of Empire Outlets' construction complete, principals of the project have released new drone footage of the building process. When it is complete, Empire Outlets will feature more than 100 designer retailers, a boutique hotel with a rooftop venue and a 1,250-space parking garage. While the site was originally scheduled to open on Black Friday 2017, the date has been pushed back to the fall of 2018. CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS Today, the steel structures that will be the future home of Nordstrom Rack, H&M, Gap Outlet, Dennis Basso, a 40,000-square-foot food and beverage deck, and more have been erected on the site. A large chunk of the 350,000 square feet of retail space, and 20,000 square feet of event space, has taken shape over the last year. Workers throughout the seven-acre site are busy framing the exterior of the buildings, laying brick paver walkways, creating event spaces and installing escalators. Eventually, the exterior structures will be handed over to the retailers, who will build out the interior of the stores and restaurants. MORE THAN 70 PERCENT LEASED New York City's first outlet center is also more than 70 percent leased, according to the project's principals. "We will be turning over spaces as soon as February," said Joseph Ferrara, principal of BFC Partners, the project's developer, on a recent tour of the site. FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - The state Office of Court Administration knows that we have a drug crisis here on Staten Island, right? Well, you have to wonder after OCA, which oversees the New York state court system, abruptly shuttered the Narcotics Part of state Supreme Court in St. George, just 15 months after the part was created at District Attorney Michael McMahon's urging to help battle our drug epidemic. And let's get right to the punchline that you should be able to see coming from a mile away: Staten Island is now the only borough that doesn't have a Narcotics Part, or Part N, as it's called. We don't want to bang the "forgotten borough" drum too much, but sometimes you simply can't help it. And talk about timing: OCA's announcement comes after McMahon's office announced that 86 Staten Islanders died of drug overdoses in 2017. Which is an improvement over the 116 who died in 2016, but is still far too many. And another 286 were saved through the use of overdose-reversing Naloxone. The bottom line? The drug crisis continues to gouge its way across Staten Island, leaving devastation in its wake. People are being saved, yes, but that means people are still using. That means there are still drug dealers out there, peddling their poison, be it heroin, fentanyl, painkillers, whatever. And there are still bigger distributers above them who are part of the deadly importing chain. All of whom need to be held accountable. Which means brought to justice. Which means hauled into court and, hopefully, thrown into prison. The goal of the Part N was to speed up case dispositions and get dealers off the street, while at the same time diverting addicts into treatment. According to McMahon, more than 340 felony filings were handled in the part since its inception. There were approximately 150 dispositions. More than 3,600 court appearances. All for a part-time court. McMahon called the decision to close Part N "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. He said, "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 spokesman Lucian Chalfen said the move is designed to re-allocate the court's resources more efficiently. Part N typically operated Monday through Wednesday, and mainly in the morning. The decision is rash. And the definition of bad optics at the very least. Why does Staten Island always get the short end of the stick? Our borough has been at the epicenter of the drug crisis. Just because we don't have the population of the other boroughs doesn't mean our needs aren't great. If the other boroughs get a Narcotics Part, then we should have one too. It's that simple, particularly given our drug history. Chalfen said OCA is "well aware" of our opioid issue, and insisted that the move is about the efficiency of the operation. He said nothing was being taken away, that resources were just being re-allocated. 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. Under the re-jiggering, Justice Charles Troia, who presided over Part N, will return to the Civil Term of state Supreme Court full-time. Justice Alexander Jeong, a Staten Island resident, will be added to the Criminal Term bench in our state Supreme Court, joining Justices Stephen J. Rooney, William E. Garnett, Mario F. Mattei and Wayne Ozzi. We think our drug crisis deserves single-minded attention and focus. A Part N could provide that, and sends the message that we are treating this as our top priority. Now is not the time to take that flag down. We hope that spreading the cases among the other judges in Supreme Court's Criminal Term is indeed a recipe for greater efficiency. We need al the help we can get in our battle against drugs. Staten Island is always touchy about its court resources. We just last month lost Justice Philip Minardo and Judge Philip Straniere to mandatory retirement. Another of our judges, Justice Judith McMahon, is currently sitting in Manhattan. If nothing else, OCA should have given Part N more time before passing a final judgment. And if, as some defense attorneys contend, Part N didn't do enough to foster treatment, and didn't differentiate between defendants selling small amounts to feed their habits and big suppliers and dealers, that's something worth looking at. The last thing that should have happened is for Part N part to be so quickly eliminated. We urge OCA to reconsider this decision. By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent. Agree Hypocrisy. [F]ormer Concordia student Mike Spry exposes the undergraduate creative writing department at Concordia University and the Canadian literary scene, also known as "CanLit," as places where nepotism, abuse,and overinflated egos reign, and where women routinely endure a poisonous structure that enables and allows the men in power to abuse their entitlement; often manifesting itself as sexual predation. Spry goes on to explain how the exclusive and insular CanLit scene, often functioning primarily as a conduit between university departments and small government-grant-operated publishing presses, protects "its own monsters from public indictment." [...] "English departments and publishers are guilty of sustaining this environment. Publishers could end this cycle of abuse by simply refusing to endow those who abuse the agency and legitimacy that they provide. The departments could fire professors, withhold tenure, censure faculties, punish deans. At the very least they could prohibit fifty-year-old profs from trying to date twenty-year-old students. They all know about profs/writers harassing, abusing, and inappropriately dating students. They all know about drunken nights of misbehavior. They all know of the prevalent lechery of writers. "Even if a student comes forward, nothing is done. English and creative writing departments across Canada and the US knowingly cultivate environments that are criminally unsafe for young women and aspiring writers." Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal. Please purchase an Enhanced Subscription to continue reading. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Presumptive testing suggested the substance was Dibutylone, a "designer drug" that causes psychedelic effects simliar to MDMA, court documents say. In the garage, they had allegedly found three clipseal bags containing a light brown rocky substance weighing a total of 1.31 kilograms. Peter Poulakis, right, leaves court with his lawyer after he was granted bail. Credit:Alexandra Back Peter Edward Poulakis, 28, was arrested late last year after police raided his Wright house. A Canberra cafe owner accused of trafficking designer drugs told a court on Friday he would fight the charges. The 1.31 kilograms amounts to about 130 times the trafficable amount of 10 grams, police suggest. Police had been intercepting the cafe owner's phone calls for more than a month. In one phone call, he allegedly said he said he wanted to buy a slug gun to shoot birds. He allegedly ordered the gun and had someone else, who was a registered firearms holder in NSW, pick the firearm up from the store for him. When they searched his home on December 4, police allegedly found a black Crosman brand CO2 powered airgun on a bench in the garage. The Raiders club begins its appeal on Monday against a $120,000 fine imposed by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission for breaches of poker machine laws. After an almost year-long investigation into a complaint by problem gambler Laurie Brown, the commission took disciplinary action against the Raiders late last year, alleging the club had not not recorded the signs that a patron had a gambling problem. Problem gambler Laurie Brown with her husband John Formby last year. Prof Brown's complaint against the Raiders was upheld by ACT gambling authorities but the club is now appealing. Credit:Karleen Minney Clubs are required by law to keep a record of anyone showing signs of problem gambling - signs such as being unable to stop gambling, or making multiple ATM withdrawals. Prof Brown lost $226,050 over 18 months at the Raiders club in Belconnen, until the alert was finally raised by her bank at the beginning of 2017. She says no-one intervened, despite an obvious gambling problem, which included withdrawing thousands of dollars through staff-supervised cash-out machines on some nights. Telstra has launched a new technology in Australia that enables millions of devices to send small volumes of data at low power, allowing businesses to become connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). The technology, called narrowband, can be used to connect any number of devices to the internet, from irrigation systems for commercial farming all the way to home pool filters. Telstra has announced the launch of narrowband. Telstra already has Cat M1 technology spanning 3 million square kilometres, which it introduced in 2017. This is also an IoT technology but is more suited to personal health monitors, and monitoring vehicle performance, with much faster speeds. Narrowband was expected to be popular in the transport and logistics, mining, manufacturing and agricultural industries due to the volume of the data that could be handled, Telstra chief operations officer Robyn Denholm said. China continues to gobble up the world's commodities, setting new records for consumption of everything from crude oil to soybeans. In a year of flux marked by industrial capacity cuts, environmental curbs and financial deleveraging, demand for raw materials has continued to grow in the world's biggest consumer, helping drive a second annual gain in global commodity returns. As President Xi Jinping consolidates power behind an economy that may have posted its first full-year acceleration since 2010, there are few signs of the Chinese commodity juggernaut slowing as it rolls into 2018. Credit:AP As President Xi Jinping consolidates power behind an economy that may have posted its first full-year acceleration since 2010, there are few signs of the Chinese commodity juggernaut slowing as it rolls into 2018. "China's economic expansion has been beating expectations since the second half of last year, boosting demand for all kinds of commodities," Guo Chaohui, an analyst with Beijing-based China International Capital. The prospect of serious political competition is coming to NSW, and it is to be hoped that competition will encourage our major parties to better focus on what matters to the state, and to resist, so far as it is possible, the sugared thrills of political point-scoring. The avoidable breakdown of Sydney's rail system this week has been a blow to the credibility of Gladys Berejiklian's government in an area in which it has done well to win some trust. The recent breakdown of Sydney's rail system has been a blow to the credibility of Gladys Berejiklian's government. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer Prior to the introduction of a new timetable, trains had largely been running on time. Customer service on the rail system had demonstrably improved. But bigger tests loom in the year ahead the closure of the entire Epping to Chatswood line, for one and for an electorate leery of the priorities of the Berejiklian government, the prospect of an alternative administration might become increasingly attractive. There comes a moment when you're standing in the eye of the Twitterstorm and the virtue-signalling starts to get to you. And that's when you need Catherine Deneuve at your side. There's nothing like the grande dame of French films joining four of your friends to write and sign, with 95 other Frenchwomen, an open letter supporting our inalienable right to galanterie, to the complexities of a grown-up sex life, and to not seeing all men as guilty until proven so. When one of the four initial authors, my friend the French-Iranian writer and director Abnousse Shalmani, asked me if I wanted to sign this text, I jumped at the chance. The letter, published in Le Monde, expressed many of the misgivings I'd started to have watching the scorched earth devastation that was following the #MeToo Weinstein scandal. It had felt liberating at first: now everyone was a ferret-faced little political commissar. Anne-Elisabeth Moutet is critical of the #metoo movement. I had applauded Ronan Farrow's superb New Yorker magazine report on the 13 women whose lives and careers had been blighted by Weinstein. I was unsurprised when investigations revealed that other Hollywood moguls had updated the casting couch tradition. In his inimitable style, Donald "grab-them-by-the-p---y" Trump had given voice to the crass fantasies of a thousand men in positions of power. At the time of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest in New York, I was among the first Frenchwomen to write denouncing French politicians' usual assumptions that any comely female journalist was for personal consumption. Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a 1964 black comedy produced and co-written by Stanley Kubrick and starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott. It suggests a mad American general could launch a nuclear attack against the Soviet Union without the president's authorisation to defend the purity of "our bodily fluids" from communist subversion. Fifty years on from Strangelove's release it's not an irrelevant question to ask whether America has in place fail-safe mechanisms to prevent just such a nuclear accident; nor is it out of order to note the beginning of a debate in the shadows about Australia going nuclear. What this has to do with Dr Strangelove might seem a stretch, but when discussion turns to the nuclear option it is best not to lose sight of the surreal. Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury describes the Trump administration in gossipy detail. Credit:SUSAN WALSH In Australia, as with other US allies, analysts are watching on anxiously. There are three issues that most concern Canberra, according to Professor Simon Jackman, the head of Sydney University's United States Studies Centre: the still-looming threat of a trade feud with China, the war of words with North Korea, and the twists and turns that may yet come out of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. So far Mueller's team is not leaking. But Jackman says what emerges from that inquiry through the course of this year could still "literally start to shake the future course of the presidency, up to and including how long Trump remains president". Donald Trump addresses a rally, December, 2016. Author Michael Wolff alleges the Trump team were completely unprepared for victory in the 2016 election. Credit:AP Jackman, who previously held a long tenure at Stanford University, believes the high turnover inside the White House in Trump's first year was predictable, given the sheer inexperience of the Trump team, and its unpreparedness for winning (something that emerges strongly from the Wolff book.) "Don't forget that the last person to become president of the United States [ without previously having held elected office] was Dwight Eisenhower, and his previous job was commander of all allied forces in Europe in World War Two," Jackman points out. "Eisenhower knew what organisation and discipline and a chain of command looked like. Trump comes from a very different background. Not having any idea of how Washington works, irrespective of his personal characteristics the lack of attention to detail, lack of intellectual curiosity, his work ethic that lack of experience was a huge handicap and sets the stage for so much of what we have observed in the last 12 months." Jared Kushner arrives at the presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017. Credit:Bloomberg Trump has been trading on high tempo chaos as a media strategy for decades. Simon Jackman, director of US Studies Centre. But the last year has also shown that "American institutions are pretty resilient" Jackman adds. "The courts are rebuffing Trump frequently," as they've done on his several attempts to implement tough travel bans on visitors from Muslim majority countries . Meanwhile the world is also nervously waiting to see if Trump's belligerent impulses towards North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un ( or "rocket-man", as Trump dubs him) can be reined in long enough for tougher sanctions to bite. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that US officials were " quietly debating" whether a limited military strike against North Korea was possible without inviting massive retaliation a prospect that horrifies most of the rest of the world. President Donald Trump with first lady Melania Trump and Major General Bradley Becker review troops in Washington. Credit:AP Australia's former Ambassador to Washington, Kim Beazley, told Fairfax recently that Trump "really is prepared to go to war" and that Mattis and Tillerson were doing all they can to play for time. This week's talks between North and South Korea are a breathing space, but no one's sure for how long. There is apprehension too around Trump's desire to walk away from the Obama-era nuclear containment deal with Iran, something, again, that American allies do not want to see. "Wars are like fish traps," says Professor Michael Wesley, an eminent foreign policy analyst at the Australian National University. "They are very easy to get into but hard to get out of. When you have the military size and capability of the United States, you only tend to think about the start of the war rather than the end." Wesley predicts the remainder of the Trump presidency is "going to be a very tense period and the likelihood of a significant war happening with the US involved is a pretty serious one ... war against North Korea or Iran would be bigger than Iraq." He does however draw consolation from the fact that the bluster has been worse than reality during the first 12 months of Trump. " Will the adults keep Trump on the straight and narrow? We will have to wait and see on a case-by-case basis" Wesley says. "It appears that on some issues he does listen, and on others he does not, but it's very hard to pick exactly which ones he listens on ... I'm hoping it is when significant [numbers of] lives are at stake." Wesley judges the first year to have "not been as bad as people were thinking it might be, particularly on the China front. There is enormous variation between what he says he will do on China and what he has actually done." But Jackman says the tom-toms in Washington are beating a message that Trump could finally move to take trade action against China in the next month or two a scenario that will worry the Turnbull government. The Brookings Institution's Thomas Wright says many analysts remain stumped by the gulf between the formal National Security Strategy document launched by Trump on December 18, and the speech which the President gave launching it. Trump's speech was "inward looking and isolationist' and "ignored geopolitics entirely", paying only lip service to the threat from Moscow, Wright wrote recently. "The main lesson of the launch of the National Security Strategy is that US foreign policy is still in crisis and will remain so for the duration of the Trump presidency." The possibility of collusion being discovered between the Kremlin and Trump's campaign continues to hang like an evil-smelling miasma over the presidency. Trump's denials are fierce and frequent: it's all in the fevered collective mind of the mainstream "fake news" media, he insists. But the Russia question has been a major factor in the body count during first year of his administration, starting early with General Mike Flynn. Flynn was Trump's first pick as national security adviser but was forced to resign in mid-February, just 24 days into the job, following revelations about his phone contacts with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak. The following month then FBI director James Comey confirmed the agency was investigating possible interference by Moscow in the presidential election, including "the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government". Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to "recuse" himself from the investigation because of his own meetings with Ambassador Kislyak. By April, Steve Bannon had been removed from the National Security Council (an appointment which had outraged the intelligence community and State Department professionals) and by May 9, Trump had fired Comey too. Comey bluntly told the Senate Intelligence Committee in June that "I know I was fired because of something about the way I was conducting the Russian investigation." And If Trump thought firing Comey would take the pressure off, he reckoned without the deputy Attorney-General, Rod Rosenstein, who in late May appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel to take over the Russia campaign probe. In July came the news that Don jnr, Kushner and Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort had met with the Russian lawyer trying to peddle dirt on Clinton. By late July, Whitehouse spokesman Sean Spicer was out the door, while his flamboyant successor, Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci, lasted 10 whole days before he was given the boot by incoming chief of staff John Kelly, who had replaced an embattled Reince Priebus. By August, Bannon had gone, elbowed out by Kelly (reflecting Trump's resentment at Bannon's growing profile as the president's puppet master). Despite his departure from the White House staff, Trump and Bannon are said to have remained on good terms until this week's cataclysm. By October, Paul Manafort had been indicted as a result of Mueller's investigation, and in December, Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI . The players in the Russian drama make their dizzying entrances and exits, and so far there is no sign of the saga coming to an end. Will Bannon rise again? When Trump delivered his inauguration speech a year ago on January 20, 2017, it was a dark, Bannon-inspired vision, invoking images of " American carnage" at home, and a weakened USA abroad. Michael Wesley says "in a lot of ways Bannon did craft a lot of the lines that got Trump to the White house, and there may be a stage where Trump comes to rely on him again". But Simon Jackman doubts there will be a Bannon renaissance. "The more I read of the Wolff book, the picture of Bannon is of a guy who came from obscurity, had a brief moment of fame and now seems headed back to obscurity." After a 12-hour trip from Sydney to Bourke, a European backpacker got off a bus and tried to greet her new boss with a handshake. But farmer Leslie White hugged her instead. It was just before Christmas 2013, when the 18-year-old woman signed up to work on White's remote farm in far north-western NSW and began living in his homestead. White, then 77, would hug her occasionally and the woman wrote in her diary about living alone with a man, describing her parents' fears for her. After sitting down to lunch at White's homestead in late December, she asked the farmer what he was thinking about and he replied: "You don't want to know it, I love you." It was then that White hugged her, before sexually and indecently assaulting her. With the battered hull covered in a sea of barnacles, an old fishing boat washing up near a Norfolk Island pier on Thursday raised the eyebrows of islanders. Even the local police were questioning whether the upturned 6.5-metre aluminium dinghy may have braved the elements for years, or even a decade. The upturned boat being hauled from Cascade Bay. Credit:Norfolk Island Police And after a day of theories from excited locals, police were able to use an engine number to trace the boat, along with its engine, to solve the growing mystery. The vessel had overturned in Botany Bay in July there were no reported injuries during the incident before beginning its long and tortured journey north. A group of women doing Tai Chi in a park at sunrise are believed to have discovered a man with fatal stab wounds outside a Sydney train station on Saturday morning. The stabbing victim, believed to be aged in his 50s, staggered at least 20 metres before collapsing at the Forest Road entrance to Hurstville train station in Sydney's south just after 6am. Police and paramedics rushed to the scene but could not save the man, who suffered "major trauma" and severe lacerations to his body, police said. A short time after the man's body was found, a man was arrested at a nearby house, and he is being questioned over the man's death. More design competitions and review panels of designers and architects will be used to lift the standards of new buildings and the way they interact with public space, says the NSW Government Architect. The issue of a growing number of drab-looking apartment blocks failing to lift the attractiveness or amenity of public streets has prompted some architects and designers to push for government regulations to shape how buildings affect public areas. Smaller councils lacked staff expertise and confidence to insist on decent street design. Credit:Daniel Munoz But at the same time, many are leery of the risk of one-size-fits-all policies to improve streetscapes and urban areas that are inevitably idiosyncratic to their local area. The Government Architect, Peter Poulet, said over the next year his office would release new design guides for the public realm, for cities and towns, for buildings and open space. An elderly former NSW dentist who hypnotised and sexually assaulted young patients in the 1980s has been jailed for at least eight years. A Sydney jury last year found Werner Otto Schwarz guilty of 17 sex offences against four boys aged under 16 years. His youngest victim was just nine. Werner Otto Schwarz, 82, has been jailed for a string of child sex abuse charges. In the District Court on Friday, Judge Helen Syme sentenced the 82-year-old to a maximum of 16 years in prison with a non-parole period of eight years for the "horrific and systemic" abuse. Schwarz, a dentist who also became known as a skilled hypnotist in the rural town where he worked, had taken advantage of the trust and respect he had in the community, she said. Adani has hit back at protesters who locked onto a live conveyor belt at the Abbot Point coal terminal in north Queensland, describing their actions as "foolish, negligent and violent". Management of the terminal also said the activists were "extremely fortunate to not have been seriously injured or killed" and only survived because staff spotted them during an inspection. The protesters 'locked' onto a live conveyor belt at the Abbot Point Port. The protest began about 10.30pm on Thursday when five activists "locked" themselves onto the terminal, which can process up to 130,000 tonnes of coal per day, according to the activist group Front Line Action on Coal. After seven hours the protesters were arrested and escorted from the terminal. The RSPCA may be powerless to act against whoever screwed a dead koala to a post at a Queensland scenic lookout, in an incident that sparked international outrage. The organisation on Thursday carried out an autopsy on the body, which was discovered attached to a gazebo on the Sunshine Coast hinterland the day before. The koala was dead before it was screwed to the pole, the RSPCA confirmed. Credit:Koala Rescue Queensland. Spokesman Michael Beatty said it appeared the koala, which showed signs of head trauma, had been killed when it was hit by a car. All of the indications point to that it would have been dead when it was pinned up there, he said, assuaging the worst fears of animal rescuers. Tech giant Apple has stopped the Andrews government publicly releasing plans for its controversial $100 million "flagship" store in Federation Square. In a week of confusion about the public handling of controversial project, the government twice promised to release concept plans to The Age detailing Apple's demolition and construction plans for the store but then reneged. Apple has blocked the release of plans for its proposed Federation Square store. On Friday the government confirmed Apple had blocked public release details of the scheme that triggered a storm of protest when announced by Tourism Minister John Eren days before Christmas.. Patrick Molan, spokesman for Minister for Trade and Investment Philip Dalidakis, said: "Apple is refusing the release the plans and I don't think that will be changing any time soon unfortunately." A former Catholic priest will stand trial on charges he sexually assaulted six children across Victoria more than 30 years ago. Peter Maurice Waters, 72, was this week committed to stand trial after a four-day hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court that was closed to the public while the alleged victims gave evidence. Former priest Peter Waters attends court this week. Credit:David Crosling He has pleaded not guilty to 20 charges of sexual offending against children, including multiple counts of indecent assault, one of carnal knowledge of a girl aged between 10 and 16 and one of committing an act of gross indecency in the presence of a child. Mr Waters appeared before the County Court on Friday, where defence counsel David Hallowes, SC, said his client "denies all the allegations". Swan Street, Richmond is one of Melbourne's most booming retail strips. Credit:Josh Robenstone But while the sun is shining on Swan Street, its a different story some 800 metres away on Bridge Road. The strip has the highest vacancy rate in Melbourne at 21.4 per cent, with shops remaining largely unfilled since Direct Factory Outlets and, later, the internet, decimated discount retail. "In its heyday, it was absolute bedlam," says Herschel Landes, president of the Bridge Road Traders Association. "The streets were absolutely jam packed and people came from all around. "Were in the post retail period now and so the question is how to go about activating your space." There are hopes apartment developments will bring a longer-term fix, but Mr Landes and other local business owners level the blame at Yarra City Council and landlords for letting the shopping precinct atrophy. Bridge Road's retail precinct is still struggling but a change is slowly coming. Credit:Wayne Taylor "The guy next door, he's had three tenants that have all failed," says Malcolm Green, whose family business Tofu Shop International has been a stalwart of Bridge Road since 1982. "They didn't have a fair rent. There's so much indiscrepancy in rentals and what landlords expect based past experience. "Enthusiastic people come in here like the florist two doors down and they really want to be in the street." Swan Street in the early 2000s. Mr Landes said he had lobbied the council for years to encourage pop-up shops, night markets and activations to utilise the street's historic and unused businesses. "I'm looking for a time when we've got nice wider foothpaths and trees and community spaces." Leanne Quinn of the Swan Street Business Association said the precinct had been rejuvenated by young, foward-thinking Melburnians. "There's a lot of entrepreneurial people coming in and seeing an idea or vision for existing shops and turning it into something quite unique. I think that is what Swan Street is all about. "Some rents have gone up quite substantially, but that's sort of compensated by the massive business that's come into the area. "I think Bridge Road concentrated on clothing outlets and relied on that for far too long." But change is slowly coming to Bridge Road, too. Saint Domenico Pizza Bar on Bridge Road is a local favourite. Credit:Kristoffer Paulsen A Yarra City Council report shows fashion business declined 39 per cent between 2014 and 2017 but medical grew 100 per cent and health and beauty businesses 38 per cent. Barbershops, cafes and pizza bars have slowly opened at the bottom of Richmond Hill and are plying a solid trade. But things over the hill are still grim. In January last year, 43 per cent of businesses lay vacant. It appears food and other essential services are vital to the mix. The Knight Frank report found Melbourne's emerging retail strips such as Swan Street and High Street in Northcote relied less on clothing, footwear and soft good retailing than food services. City of Yarra mayor Daniel Nguyen said he believed a new Richmond High School, Coles supermarket and apartment development would transform the area in coming years. "Some people talk about Bridge Road with doom and gloom. I refute that. There are definitely challenges in the Richmond Hill end where fashion outlets were, but if you walk down towards the river on a Saturday, you struggle to get a seat at a cafe." A Perth winery owner has been jailed for six years for raping a young Japanese employee after he had plied her with alcohol. Chidlow's Well owner and building company operator Peter Raymond Costa, 58, raped the 24-year-old woman when she was drunk in his house while his wife was away in March 2015. Chidlow's Well winery is in the Perth Hills. Credit:Facebook Judge Michael Gething noted in the WA District Court on Friday that Costa had challenged "every conceivable issue", including routine forensic medical evidence, before he was convicted by a jury in August. The judge said Costa had impulsively taken advantage of a vulnerable, young overseas worker with limited English late at night on an isolated rural property. Beijing: China's trade with Australia grew strongly last year, with the latest data showing a 23 per cent increase, reaching 923.4 billion Chinese yuan ($180 billion), driven by China buying more Australian resources. The China customs agency report for 2017 shows 37 per cent growth in Chinese imports from Australia, worth 642.8 billion Chinese yuan. Port workers wait for a container ship as it docks at a port in Qingdao. Credit:AP The annual trade figures, telling a story of buoyant growth in the economic relationship, was released on Friday as headlines in two major newspapers, People's Daily and China Daily, told of a worsening diplomatic spat. People's Daily criticised Australia's "diplomatic shortcomings", after comments by Minister for International Development Concetta Fierravanti-Wells that China was building "white elephants" and "roads to nowhere" with its Pacific aid program. Washington: The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to renew the National Security Agency's warrantless internet surveillance program, overcoming objections from privacy advocates and politicians from both sides of Congress. The legislation, which passed 256-164 and split party lines, is the culmination of a years-long debate in Congress on the proper scope of US intelligence collection - one fuelled by the 2013 disclosures of classified surveillance secrets by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Senior Democrats in the House had urged cancellation of the vote after US President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the merits of the program, but Republicans forged ahead. Trump initially said the surveillance program, first created in secret after the September 11, 2001 attacks, had been used against him but later said it was needed. Germany will cap the number of refugees it accepts and restrict their family reunification rights as part of a coalition deal that promises to end the democratic deadlock that followed last Septembers elections. The would-be coalition also aims to generate 65 per cent of Germanys energy from renewables by 2030 and will draw up a timetable to phase out coal power completely. The deal - which would give Angela Merkel her fourth term as chancellor - emerged after five days of talks that ended with an exhausting 24-hour session fuelled by currywurst, a steamed and fried sausage usually served with curry ketchup. The proposed new restrictions on refugees reflect discontent over the countrys generous attitude to asylum seekers, which has led to a surge in support for the far-right anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). London: Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has blamed Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan for US President Donald Trump's decision to abandon a visit to London, as he vowed not to let the Labour leader and London mayor put the "crucial relationship at risk." Trump-critics and Brexit opponents seized on the President's announcement via a tweet, to say the breakdown showed there was no guarantee the US and UK would strike a quick trade deal after Brexit, as supporters of the 'leave' campaign have insisted. Mr Trump announced on Twitter that his London trip, originally planned for 2017, was cancelled, citing the move of the the US embassy from its prestigious Mayfair location to the regenerated Battersea area south of the river Thames, which he wrongly attributed to the Obama administration, as his reason. The decision to move from Grosvenor Square was made when George W. Bush was in the White House and was announced by the then Ambassador Robert Tuttle, a Bush appointee. Washington: Donald Trump's presidential campaign began - within the first five minutes - with his accusing immigrants from Mexico of being criminals. Not all of them, mind you; some of them, he assumed, were good people. Some. A few. This ended up being a prominent theme in his presidency, painting immigrants as criminals with a broad brush, such as when he travelled to Long Island to position the violence perpetrated by the MS-13 gang as an unavoidable result of immigrants entering the country illegally. A few months into his campaign, Trump shared an image on Twitter that suggested that the vast majority of killings of white people in the United States were committed by black people. This isn't at all true. Most white people are killed by white people. But Trump never apologised or corrected the tweet, instead quietly deleting it. The same theme cropped up repeatedly afterward, including his constant tying together of black Americans, inner cities and violent crime. A month after that tweet, Trump declared that the United States should disallow entry to anyone who is Muslim. No other caveats or subcategories were identified, just "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," full stop. Once in office, this became his ban on immigration from Muslim-majority nations, a ban that multiple courts understood as nothing more sophisticated than what he'd proposed in December 2015. Nearly every time a Muslim is accused of terrorism, Trump seizes on it as a way to link Muslims to terrorism. Last month, he kicked up an international incident when he retweeted misleading anti-Muslim videos from a racist British activist. (When a white supremacist was charged with terrorism last year, the administration was all but silent.) London: US President Donald Trump has cancelled a visit to London scheduled for early this year, saying he was disappointed with the "Obama administration having sold" the US embassy in the British capital. "[The] 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 1.2 billion dollars," Trump said in a tweet. The Guardian had earlier reported Trump had shelved plans for the visit because of security concerns " amid fears of mass protests". It said Secretary of state Rex Tillerson could instead be sent to cut the ribbon. British Prime Minister Theresa May has been under pressure to cancel an invitation issued to Trump last year after outrage from the British public and lawmakers. In October, the state visit invitation was reported downgraded to a "working visit". PORT ST. MAARTEN:--- Representatives from Port St. Maarten will leave the island on Friday to attend the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Platinum Associate Membership Advisory Council Cruise Summit (PAMAC) that will take place from January 13-18 onboard Royal Caribbean International Independence of the Seas cruise ship. Port St. Maarten will be represented by Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Directors Fernando William, Alexander Gumbs, Business Development Officer, and Lela Simmonds, from the Cruise Business Unit. Gumbs will be participating in the destinations presentations related to recovery interventions at the Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise & Cargo Facility along with the cruise passenger island experience to date. More than 100 attendees, including FCCA Platinum Members-key cruise tourism stakeholders-and over 30 high-ranking executives from the FCCAs 19 Member Lines, will be attending the FCCA PAMAC Cruise Summit. Port St. Maartens delegation looks forward to discussing long-term economic stability in a post-Irma/Maria era and the destination being able to deliver every year a premium product for cruise passengers and crew. The hurricanes has caused us to push the reset button in terms of certain tour offerings, alternating tour routes and beach experiences amongst others. Our delegation will share the great strides the destination has made thus far to facilitate the demands of the cruise executives and end consumers: the passengers and crew members, Port St. Maarten Management said on Thursday. Port Management is well aware of regional competition and will continue to rebuild which can only be achieved by being innovative and reinventing the cruise sector in collaboration with all stakeholders. Primary points of discussion will be getting feedback from the last cruise ship calls to the destination; destination improvements/renewal; and itinerary planning and forecasting for the 2018-2019 cruise season. The five-day event will feature a series of meetings, workshops and networking events connecting with senior cruise industry leaders to discuss industry trends and standards and develop relationships and mutual benefits for the cruise lines and members' companies and destinations. The platinum members will also be touring a number of places during their cruise calls to Costa Maya, and Cozumel, Mexico. The PAMAC event is one of many that the FCCA coordinates for its Platinum Members and Member Lines to stay at the forefront of information about both the industry and destinations while finding ways to maximize the benefits for all. Port St. Maarten in January 2017 received the Distinguished Strategic Partner Marketing Award 2016 from the FCCA and Cruise Line Executives at a similar summit. The FCCA is a not-for-profit trade organization composed of 19 Member Lines operating over 100 vessels in Floridian, Caribbean and Latin American waters. Created in 1972, the FCCAs mandate is to provide a forum for discussion on tourism development, ports, safety, security, and other cruise industry issue and to develop bilateral relationships with destinations private and public sectors. By fostering an understanding of the cruise industry and its operating practices, the FCCA works with governments, ports and private sector representatives to maximize cruise passenger, crew, and cruise line spending, as well as enhance the destination experience and increase the amount of cruise passengers returning as stay-over visitors. Port St. Maarten Press Release HARBOUR VIEW:--- On January 12, 2018, His Excellency the Governor of Sint Maarten, drs. E.B. Holiday, received the updated final report from formateur S. Wescot-Williams. The formateur has accepted the commission to form an interim new government supported by a majority in Parliament comprised of the UP-fraction, the DP-fraction, and Member of Parliament C.E. Brownbill. The new government consists of Ministers who are committed to the promotion of the wellbeing of Sint Maarten, who will amongst others give priority to concluding the development of a recovery plan, to the agreement with the Netherlands on the financing of the recovery plan, to revisiting the budget for 2018, to developing a plan to strengthen security, to executing the agreement with the Netherlands on border control, to implementing the law on the integrity chamber in accordance with the protocol with the Netherlands, to the execution of the elections and to initiate electoral reform. Candidates for the various portfolios have been vetted based on the pertinent regulations regulating the pre-screening of candidates before nomination (National Decree Appointment procedure candidate Ministers and candidate Minister Plenipotentiary, May 22, 2013, No. LB-13/0442). The formateur has nominated the following persons for appointment: Mrs. Leona Marlin-Romeo, Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs; Mr. Cornelius De Weever, Minister of Justice; Mr. Michael Ferrier, Minister of Finance; Ms. Jorien Wuite, Minister of Education, Culture, Youth, and Sports; Mr. Miklos Gitterson, Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment, and Infrastructure; Mr. Emil Lee, Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour; and Mr. Hassani Ellis, deputy Minister Plenipotentiary. Mr. Cornelius De Weever will be responsible for the portfolio of the Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication pending the appointment of a new Minister. The Governor has scheduled the appointment and swearing in of the Ministers on Monday, January 15th, 10.00 hours, at the Governors Office. After the ceremony, the Governor and the newly appointed Ministers will have the constituting meeting at the Government Administration Building. Cabinet of the Governor of Sint Maarten PHILIPSBURG:--- National Institute of Arts announces the reopening of their Interdisciplinary arts program for the year 2018. We would like all our clients to know that NIA is open for classes and we are ready to receive them with open arms. Says Ms. Reyes Co-Director of the National Institute of Arts. It has been a challenge post-Irma, and we know there are many who are still without roofs, I myself, adds Ms. Reyes and other NIA teachers still have no electricity at home, while NIA is functioning without telephones or internet. Back for January 2018, is the popular NIA gymnastic program which was temporarily suspended, as the facilities at Asha Steven Hillside Christian school sustained some damages. Although not fully repaired, the building has been made ready to receive classes which allows NIAs gymnastic program to resume full steam ahead. Also back for 2018, is the continuation of NIA Hurricane Relief ART HEALS program which provided free arts classes to the community after hurricane Irma. ART HEALS phase 1, was made possible due generous donations from Prins Bernard Cultuur Fonds, Arts Save Lives foundation and foundations teachers, Ina Roy, Maude and Chloe Arnold. Further funds were raised through a GoFundMe page organized by Wyneshia Hicks and other Alumnis from State University of New York at Brockport. Donations were also received from an initiative organized by Percy Kruythoff of Amsterdamse Hooge School voor de Kunsten 5 0clock program and other donors A total of $32,000.00 was raised to cover NIA teachers salary enabling NIA to offer free classes to the community from September to December. ART HEALS phase 2 resumes in January 2018 with an expanded schedule to accommodate the high demand resulting from the 400 participants that benefited from ART HEALS phase 1. Excluding gymnastic, a donation fee 50 guilders per month will give you access to unlimited classes in the Art Heals program. For information regarding prices and scheduling please go to our National Institute of Arts Facebook page or send us email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. NIA Press Release ST. JOHNS, Antigua:--- LIAT, The Caribbean Airline, announces the appointment of Mr. Rojer Inglis as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Inglis replaces Mrs. Julie Reifer-Jones who assumed the office of Chief Executive Officer in 2017. Prior to joining LIAT (1974) Ltd, Mr. Inglis was the Chief Financial Officer of National Health Insurance Plan, Turks and Caicos and has held positions at W.A.S.A. St. Lucia and Cable & Wireless Barbados Ltd. Mr. Inglis is a Chartered Certified Accountant with membership of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). He brings a wealth of experience having worked for over 30 years in senior financial and leadership positions. Mr. Inglis is looking forward to his role in helping the company as it works towards financial stability and sustainability. We are looking forward to working with Mr. Inglis at LIAT as he brings a wealth and variety of financial experience to the company especially at this time when the airline industry is undergoing rapid changes, stated Chief Executive Officer, Julie Reifer-Jones. The Management of LIAT would like to express their sincere gratitude to Mrs. Andrea James who acted in the position of Chief Financial Officer for the period of vacancy. Mrs. James, through her leadership of the Finance Department, was able to help us navigate some very turbulent times while the search for a Chief Financial Officer took place. noted the CEO. Mr. Inglis appointment took effect from January 8th, 2018. LIAT Press Release Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 12, 2018 A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder has caught a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy snacking on gas and then "burping" - not once, but twice. CU Boulder Assistant Profess ... more Tempe AZ (SPX) Jan 11, 2018 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 habi ... more Gottingen, Germany (SPX) Jan 12, 2018 Why does the Sun sometimes accelerate preferentially helium-3 and iron into space? Researchers have for the first time observed helical solar flares as a source. In April and July 2014, the Su ... more Pasadena CA (SPX) Jan 12, 2018 In its search for exoplanets - planets outside of our solar system - NASA's Kepler telescope trails behind Earth, measuring the brightness of stars that may potentially host planets. The instrument ... more Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 12, 2018 An intensive survey deep into the universe by NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has yielded the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack: the farthest galaxy yet seen in an image that has been stret ... more Baltimore MD (SPX) Jan 12, 2018 In an unprecedented deep survey for small, faint objects in the Orion Nebula, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (http://www.nasa.gov/hubble) have uncovered the largest known population ... more Baltimore MD (SPX) Jan 12, 2018 We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. Our latest cover story explains how "Fire and Fury" came to be and whether, and the extent to which, it approaches the truth. Most importantly, however, it delves into the consequences for an America and a world that have been confronted with a nuclear-armed fool who is likely to remain in office for some time to come, who is neither mentally nor psychologically suited for the job - apparently also not physically, either, given how late he starts the working day and how early he ends it. That, unfortunately, is precisely the point: Humanity as a whole is being set back just because of one single person. The achievements of decades - the fight against a climate disaster, against the nuclear threat, for equality between men and women, between blacks and whites and so on and so on. Where is the world supposed to start again if it manages to survive Donald Trump? Concentrating on the services of farm sales, farm and estate management, landlord and tenant negotiations and farm finance, the new YoungsRPS office is located in Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. Headed by YoungsRPS director Tom Oates, this will extend the firms coverage to the west and to the north to the benefit of existing clients, in addition to drawing in new business. Joining Tom Oates will be new recruit, Mike Halliday who takes up the position of farm consultant. A graduate in agriculture from Aberdeen University, Mike is the third generation of his family to farm in the Thornhill area of Dumfrieshire. For the past three years he has been working as a Farm Consultant with the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), while also retaining hands on involvement in the family farm located just outside of Thornhill. Scottish heritage is strong throughout the YoungsRPS Scottish office team. Youngs previously had an office in Forfar which was the base for one of the current directors Graeme Bruce, while Tom Oates, who comes from a borders farming family, has spent extensive time practising throughout Scotland. This is however the first Scottish office for the amalgamated company of YoungsRPS. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate While the timeline is uncertain, futuristic technologies are coming and the changes are only getting faster, according to Geoffrey Kasselman, an executive managing director at Newmark Knight Frank, who recently headlined an industry groups gathering. Kasselman summarized broad ways the world will be altered by technological advances including in artificial intelligence, computers, drones and even contact lenses that could act as screens for computers, smartphones and TVs all in one. In his presentation titled,The Exponential Future of Everything, Kasselman described several large waves of transformative disruption carrying drastic changes, from how we learn to how we travel and find jobs. Nothing is immune from the forces at work, Kasselman told the crowd of real estate industry professionals at the Real Estate Finance Association of Connecticut luncheon in Stamford. Doing nothing is not an option. While he touched on how some technologies will specifically affect the commercial real estate industry, Kasselman emphasized that many business leaders and intellectuals across industries are already realizing many of these changes. Among some of the more immediate large-scale disruptions, Kasselman highlighted are automation, big data and blockchain, which he called the single most disruptive force lately. In the second wave of transformations, potentially arriving within the next five to 15 years, Kasselman included the ability to learn 24/7 with the help of artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, more 3-D printing and widespread, low-cost solar energy. Our transition away from a petroleum-based economy is well underway, he said. Transportation is destined to increasingly rise above buildings into the air, he said, advising property owners to find out the regulations regarding air rights for their buildings as they might be able to make money with them. Kasselmans forecasts for the future also include the theory of singularity, describing how for the relatively low cost of $1,000 computers will exist that are more than a billion times as intelligent as all humans combined. No job is completely safe from computers, he said, adding it would benefit employees now to begin positioning themselves for the future job market by specializing. In his parting words, Kasselman left his audience with a warning about one of the United States biggest shortcomings moving forward: cyber security. Thats our weakest link, he said. Contact the writer at mbennett@greenwichtime.com; Twitter @Macaela_ NORTH ADAMS, Mass. (AP) A transgender rights advocate who started a pageant for transgender women in New England was found stabbed and beaten to death in her home, and her husband was charged with her slaying. Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien is the first known transgender person to be killed this year, LGBT organization GLAAD said . She was found dead in her North Adams home on Friday evening. Her husband, Mark Steele-Knudslien, pleaded not guilty to murder on Monday, days after police say he admitted hitting her with a hammer and stabbing her after an argument. STAMFORD A New York man has been accused of slashing a mans face during an attempted robbery at the downtown train station. Eric Carrero, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., has been charged with armed robbery, second-degree assault, second-degree robbery, threatening and breach of peace. At the arraignment early Friday afternoon, Judge Gary White said the incident was extremely violent and ordered Carrero held in lieu of a $100,000 court appearance bond. The 22-year-old victim said he had just gotten off a train from New Haven about 11 p.m. Thursday when he walked to the lower level of the Stamford station to get a soda. He said Carrero approached him and asked for a dollar, police said. When the New Haven man refused, Carrero began mumbling and said, Im gonna slash your throat, according to a report from MTA police. The two began to argue and Carrero spit at the man, who began spitting back, police said. Carrero then pulled out a gray metal box cutter and slashed the New Haven mans face, the report said. Carrero told MTA police the New Haven man was following him and making threats, the report said. A video showed Carrero with something in his hand, and slashing at the mans face during the fight, the report said. The New Haven man declined medical attention. Carrero has 10 convictions in New York on charges that include robbery, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. He also was charged with failure to appear at the New Haven courthouse. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com Nebraska higher education leaders cringed this week over new budget cuts proposed by Gov. Pete Ricketts. State tax money continues to slump, cries for property tax cuts are ongoing, and most state agencies would endure across-the-board trims under Ricketts plan. A cut of this magnitude would make it difficult for us to remain affordable for our 53,000 students and meet the workforce and economic needs of the state, University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds said through a written statement. Public higher education in Nebraska has three prongs the NU system, the state college system and the community colleges. The NU system receives about $560 million in general fund money from the state, the three state colleges a total of about $51 million and the six community colleges a total of close to $100 million. Under Ricketts proposal, all three would take a 2 percent midyear cut this year. In 2018-19, NU and the state colleges would take a 4 percent reduction from the original amount set last spring and the community colleges a 3 percent cut. Higher education took a midyear cut last year as well. NUs was about 2.3 percent and the two other systems about 4 percent. Stan Carpenter, head of the state college system, said through a written statement, in part: Our colleges are essential to workforce development and Nebraskas rural economy, and continued reductions will weaken the foundation that has been put in place. The state colleges are in Wayne, Peru and Chadron. Ricketts spokesman Luke Robson said: Just like Nebraska households, state government must live within its means. The Governors budget recommendations leave generous funding for higher education in Nebraska. Higher education is treated fairly in the Governors budget proposal. " The Nebraska Legislatures Appropriations Committee will make its own recommendations to the full Legislature. This years session concludes in mid-April. A new state revenue forecast will be made at the end of February. Greg Adams, who speaks for most of the two-year colleges, said he understands that the state has a financial challenge. Just like we did last year, well do all that we can, but you reach a point where its pretty difficult to keep tuition down, keep property taxes down ... and handle the cuts, Adams said. Mike Baumgartner, head of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, said he hopes state revenues pick up. The ramifications for access and affordability are pretty clear, and we would hope the state could find some way to mitigate this, Baumgartner said of the current situation. The states support has been the main pillar underlying the relatively affordable tuition that Nebraska students have enjoyed. Baumgartner paused. I wish I had something more positive to say, he said, but I dont. It is minus-one degrees in Chicago. A light snow is falling and weve stepped into a Garrett Popcorn Shop with our Macys Department Store bags in hand to get warm as we walk toward the Art Institute of Chicago. The shop is adjacent to the Oriental Theatre where the musical Wicked is running. We are all in Chicago for Christmas and New Years so we are running around to see all the sights. We caught the smell of cooking caramel as we were walking by so we had to go inside to buy a small bag of caramel-pecan popcorn. We stopped off first today at Topolobampo, a Rick Bayless restaurant on Clark Street just a short distance from the Chicago River. Carol made reservations for lunch using Open Table. Open Table is a reservation service thats been around for 18 years. Last year 21 million people used the program to book a table in virtually any country in the world. Before you do so, it would help to know at least the name of a restaurant. Just so you know there are 10,324 restaurants in Chicago, alone. Topolobampo recommends making reservations eight-to-ten weeks ahead of time. For lunch we were able to find a table for four just a few days out. Other restaurants we looked at for evening meals in Chicago had no seating available three weeks out. The reservationist at the Girl and the Goat did call back and say there was a full menu in the lounge and seating was first-come, first-serve. A wait-list for cancellations was also an option. Many restaurants use the lounge as overflow now. The great thing about eating at a great restaurant during lunch is you get food from the same chef but its generally less expensive, the portions are smaller, and the options are ala carte. The Topolobampo evening menu is a tasting menu, meaning you choose a meal from three options and five to seven courses are brought out to the table over a two- to three-hour time span. I want to talk about Macys and the Art Institute, because, really, Macys is an enormous multi-story department store, and the Art Institute is a huge museum, the best in the country some say, but Im going to stay here with Topolobampo for a while. Heres why: The restaurant is unpretentious, with wonderful wait staff, and delicious, complex food. I chose a three-course meal with a soup, carne asada with mole, and a brownie sundae. Seems pretty normal, right? The Sopa Azteca came out with a thick corn tortilla garnished with shiso and other micro-greens giving it an extra peppery taste. I broke it with a spoon and the server poured a passilla (a chile) broth over the ingredients. The chicken and cheese combined with the passilla broth and tortilla made on the premises was delicious. Bayless mole sauce came with my woodgrilled flank steak. His signature Oaxacan black mole sauce takes three days to cook and twenty-nine ingredients. One of the first steps in creating the mole is burning a tortilla and the chile seeds just removed from the chiles to a charcoal black; so if you do decide you want to try to make the recipe at home, do so with fans running and windows open. Carol had the carne asada as well. She said the dish just made you want to lick the plate clean. Ben was eating a Tinga Poplano Chicken Tostadas and muttering to himself as to how good they were. He offered them to us as well. Sam was eating a short rib quesadilla and forgoing the spicy dipping sauce. I dipped a tortilla in his huevona sauce and could feel the heat from it before I bit down on the tortilla. It wasnt too spicy but I found out later it was made with the habanero pepper. I took one bite of my brownie sundae, with meringue, two types of ice cream, and a Mexican brownie before Sam and Ben took it over. Full disclosure: Sam did trade his sopa de frutas with me as the fruit was infused with tequila and the ponche also had tequila in its base. Ponche Navidad is a holiday tradition in Mexico. Bayless uses tamarind, tejocotes (hawthorn apples), jamaica (hibiscus), sugar cane, dried fruits, and tequila. We finished our coffees and paid the bill before we layered up for the fifteen-minute walk to Macys and the Art Institute. I checked my phone and was surprised to see that two hours had passed. In the table next to us two older men had been seated and talking for about 30 minutes. From their conversations with the waiters, they seemed to be regulars at the restaurant. Wearing classic houndstooth blazers with silk handkerchiefs in their breast pockets, they were just getting around to ordering their lunch after obligatory margaritas and guacamole. They seemed to be settling in for the afternoon. I guess Ive settled in with you this past year. This is my 51st column of 2017. Weve been traveling always looking forward to the next place, the next adventure. I hope to share more adventures with you in 2018. Thank you for reading and I hope your New Year is a good one. 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The mayor of London plans to apologize today to the citys LGBTQ community for the refusal of a previous mayor and council to proclaim a gay Pride day in 1995.Then-mayor Dianne Haskett refused a request from the gay community to declare a gay Pride weekend in July 1995, prompting complaints of discrimination.Haskett said she was exercising her discretion as mayor when it comes to civic proclamations, but the Ontario Human Rights Commission later ruled the actions by Haskett and council had been discriminatory.City council agreed to pay the Homophile Association of London a $10,000 penalty assessed against the city and Haskett.In an email sent out last week, Mayor Matt Browns office said he will apologize to the LGBTQ community at 11 a.m. today on the steps in front of city hall.Brown said in tweet that its time. A decade-plus effort by a sand and gravel company to mine a 537-acre quarry near Eureka is back in St. Louis County court, but its long zoning fight could have repercussions across the region. Already, St. Charles County has changed its procedures for deciding certain land use questions, adding a new quasi-judicial hearing in between the zoning board review and the County Council decision. It will be used for the first time to help decide whether to allow a controversial trash transfer station near the Family Arena. Were probably the first one whos changed our ordinances in response to that (Winter Brothers) decision, said Jennifer George, assistant director of administration in the St. Charles County executives office. The County Council felt this process was important enough to make changes right away. Winter Brothers Material Company, which has owned the Meramec River site since the mid-70s, has been working to win approval to mine it since 2001. Its latest bid strongly opposed by residents of a nearby subdivision was rejected by the St. Louis County Council more than two years ago. After that, Winter Brothers promised a lawsuit challenging the countys decision, which it filed in December 2015. After the St. Louis County Circuit Court judge sided with the county, the company appealed. The April decision by the Eastern District Missouri Court of Appeals caught the eye of municipal and county officials around the region. It sent the Winter Brothers case back to circuit court, ruling that the lower court should have allowed discovery and witnesses rather than just reviewing the administrative record made during St. Louis County hearings on the controversial zoning. Thats because, the court decided, the St. Louis County zoning and other hearings didnt follow certain state administrative rules, which allow for witness cross-examination and other judicial-like proceedings. As a result, Winter Brothers refiled its case against St. Louis County in June, seeking once more to win the right to mine the Eureka-area quarry. This time, its deposing county officials and using discovery to gather evidence. It would certainly expedite things if there were a better procedure at the local level, said Winter Brothers attorney Gregory Hoffmann. The (appellate) opinion is pretty instructive about whats supposed to be done, and there was a lot of uncertainty about it previously. St. Charles County soon after changed its procedures for issuing special use permits and established a special hearing in between the zoning and County Council level. Its first use will be in the coming weeks, when a special hearing is held to take evidence and establish a record in a controversial case over a trash transfer station near the Family Arena. The St. Charles County Planning and Zoning Commission voted strongly in November against the proposal from Metro Fill Development LLC to put one on the site. Holding the hearing should mean that if the developer sues to challenge the countys final decision, the court will only have to review the administrative record rather than the drawn-out process of discovery, depositions and witness examination. The special hearings can be waived if both the county and the applicant for the permit agree to skip the step. The public can attend the special hearing but wont be able to make comments, George, the St. Charles County official, said . A date hasnt yet been set for the trash transfer hearing. St. Louis County hasnt made similar changes to its procedures yet, said Glenn Powers, the countys director of operations who was planning director when the Winter Brothers quarry was rejected by the St. Louis County Council. But we will be looking at it, he said. Many area municipalities are updating their zoning and development codes, said Dan Welsh, an attorney who often represents developers on zoning matters. He expects some to use the process as an opportunity to change procedures on conditional use permits because of the Winter Brothers decision. From a local governments standpoint, it makes sense, he said, so I dont have to retry everything and spend a bunch of taxpayer dollars on it. Personally, he said, he would probably prefer an experienced judge in a trial court over an administrative hearing officer. I just trust the court system a little bit better, Welsh said. Meanwhile, the Winter Brothers case drags on in court. The company argues St. Louis Countys denial of a permit to mine the land constitutes an illegal taking of its property by essentially forcing it to leave the land in a natural state. St. Louis County declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Dive into hometown history With a weekly newsletter looking back at local history. Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy ST. LOUIS A long-sought measure giving the citys Civilian Oversight Board subpoena power is set to be introduced Friday at the Board of Aldermen, with supporters hopeful that it can make it across the finish line this year. Another bill creating a unit in the St. Louis circuit attorneys office to investigate police officers use of force also will be read for the first time at this weeks meeting. Since the acquittal of former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley for the 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, protesters have called for independent investigations of police shootings and a stronger civilian oversight body two recommendations from the Ferguson Commission report. Aldermen had attempted to institute an oversight board in 2006, but the bill, which included subpoena power, was vetoed by former Mayor Francis Slay. The events in Ferguson later opened the door for the creation of the Civilian Oversight Board in 2015, but subpoena power didnt have the support to make it into the final bill. Now, once again, public outcry may prompt change, said Aldermanic President Lewis Reed. I see a readiness for people now to step outside of what I would call their normal comfort zone and support efforts that probably in a normal state they would be a little more hesitant to support, Reed previously told the Post-Dispatch. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson has also pledged support for giving subpoena power to the civilian board. Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner proposed in October launching a team in her office to investigate police shootings, whose purpose would be to provide unbiased investigations that promote confidence in the criminal justice system when so many people especially people of color feel the system is rigged against them. The bill before the board would task Gardner with investigating criminal conduct surrounding an officers use of force resulting in death or grave bodily injury. The budget for the unit would equal 1 percent of the annual police budget. Sponsoring Alderman Brandon Bosley, 3rd Ward, said accountability is tricky when members of the departments Force Investigation Unit are investigating their fellow officers. As for the Civilian Oversight Board, right now, its power and effectiveness is limited, Bosley said. The bill would allow the board to issue subpoenas to compel the appearance of witnesses or the production of evidence as it investigates allegations of police misconduct. Theres no point in having that board to be able to oversee the police if they dont have the power to do that job, he said. Both measures, as of Thursday, are sponsored by Aldermen Bosley, Pamela Boyd, Sam Moore, Marlene Davis, Frank Williamson, Jeffrey Boyd, Terry Kennedy, Lisa Middlebrook, John Collins-Muhammad, Tammika Hubbard and Reed. Bosley stressed that neither proposal is anti-police, but rather, an effort to help restore trust in the citys officers. These are people we need to protect just like they protect us. But theres an imbalance in power right now, he said. This is about the relationship between the police and the community for years to come. 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. First National Bank is issuing a request for proposals for its upcoming Community Development grant cycle, focused on programs related to stable housing, neighborhood revitalization and strong local economies, announced Alec Gorynski, Vice President, Community Development and Corporate Philanthropy. Programs must be implemented for the benefit of low- or moderate income individuals, families and/or communities within the First National Bank footprint, and must align with one of the following three goal areas: Stable Housing: Increasing access to safe, affordable and quality housing through construction, site development, housing rehabilitation, homeownership education and foreclosure prevention programs and services. Neighborhood Revitalization: Stimulating revitalization that attracts or retains individuals and/or businesses to blighted, underserved and distressed communities. Strong Local Economies: Growing local economies through small business and entrepreneurial development and job creation by supporting training, technical assistance, education and microfinance. First National Bank will operate two grant cycles in 2018, dedicated to specific focus areas. The first 2018 grant cycle opened on Jan. 10 and First National Bank will accept applications from eligible nonprofit community organizations for stable housing, neighborhood revitalization and strong local economies until Feb. 12. For more information and to apply, visit: www.fnbfremont.com/community and click on Request Support. The second 2018 grant cycle will open on June 4 for educated workforce programs, which are dedicated to strengthening individual core competencies that will improve personal economic self-sufficiency, including adult basic education and vocational and employability training. JEFFERSON CITY The woman at the center of possible blackmail allegations aimed at Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens asked the media and the public for privacy Friday. Through her attorneys at the St. Charles-based Knight & Simpson law firm, she asked reporters to leave her alone. This story has taken an emotional toll on our client, and she is extremely distraught that the information has been made public, a statement from the law firm said. It is very disappointing that her ex-husband betrayed her confidence by secretly, and without her knowledge, recording a private and deeply personal conversation and then subsequently released the recording to the media without her consent. She wants to remain a private citizen and does not want to be a part of this story, the statement read. We are asking the media and the public to continue respecting her privacy. On Wednesday, hours after delivering his second State of the State address, Greitens admitted to a past extramarital affair in a statement first delivered to KMOV (Channel 4). The governor has subsequently denied any violence or blackmail against the woman with whom he had an affair a defense spawned by allegations in an account and an audio recording released by her ex-husband. The Post-Dispatch has not identified the woman, who has declined repeated interview requests. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has launched a criminal investigation into Greitens. In an audio recording the womans ex-husband said he surreptitiously made in 2015, the woman said Greitens took a compromising photo of her and said he would release it if she told anyone of their affair. A spokeswoman for the prosecutors office declined to discuss the investigation Friday. The womans statement did not note whether she was prepared to cooperate with the investigation, and an attempt to reach her attorney was not successful late Friday afternoon. The statement issued by her attorneys did not refute or endorse the allegations made in the audio recording. In response to the womans statement, an attorney for the ex-husband said his client was committed to protecting the interests of his family. Our client simply seeks to finally get this epic real life drug store novel in his rear view mirror, attorney Albert Watkins said. The womans plea for privacy came as Greitens was contacting state lawmakers to apologize for the scandal, which has stalled action in the Legislature and upended Missouris political world. Five Republican lawmakers told the Post-Dispatch that they received calls from the governor since the news of the affair broke Wednesday. The phone calls underscore the lengths to which Greitens, a Republican, is going to preserve his political career. In the past, Greitens has derided members of the Legislature, at one point comparing them to third-graders and calling them into Jefferson City for two special sessions last summer, which he called summer school. Now, he is seeking their support as well as trying to shore up support among his donors. Greitens spent much of the day Friday in the capital city, including time at the offices of A New Missouri Inc., a dark-money nonprofit established by his campaign aides to promote his agenda. It was unclear why he was at an office that has used money from unnamed donors to attack senators and finance pro-business proposals. Greitens did not stop to answer questions from the Post-Dispatch as he left the office by an alley exit. He was later seen entering the Capitol. A separate request for an interview with the chief executive was unsuccessful. Lawmakers react Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, said Greitens called him Thursday. He said the governor took ownership of the affair but blamed political adversaries for the allegations of blackmail. He basically said that he did have an affair. He was sorry about that. He said other allegations about blackmail and the photograph are false, Koenig said. On the points he said he did not do, he did blame Democrats. Koenig said he was deeply troubled by the allegations of blackmail. If those allegations turn out to be true, I asked that he resign, Koenig said. If they are not true, we need to find a way to move forward. I told him that he has damaged his ability to work with us. Hes damaged that trust. Another GOP lawmaker said Greitens was noticeably angry in a phone call when speaking of the allegations, which he has denied. I could tell when he spoke of the allegations, there was anger there, said Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring. His passion rose when he talked about fighting back on the allegations of criminal activity. Another GOP lawmaker recounted a call from the governor and his wife, Sheena Greitens, on Thursday. The lawmaker spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said he wanted to apologize, the lawmaker said. He started to lash at the liberal media and Democrats, and I cut him off, and I said, This is a legitimate news story. And I said, With all due respect, your infidelity is very disappointing. And Im disappointed and the caucus is disappointed and I think it needs to be reported on. The lawmaker said the scandal reflected poorly on every public servant. The lawmaker added that the Legislature was mostly made up of serious people who seek to do good. Most of my colleagues who are there are very serious public servants, the lawmaker said, adding it has slowed this years legislative agenda. It sets us back. We dont know how long. We dont know about his ability to govern, and people are upset. Theyre disappointed. If you mention the name of someone who has had to leave because of a scandal, the lawmaker said, everyone in the room makes a disgusting noise and says that person better never show his face in the Capitol again. They dont like what how it reflects on the body. If Eric Greitens were a House member, hed be gone already, the lawmaker said. Public appearances On Friday, pressure also began to build publicly from Missouris congressional delegation. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told the E.J. and Ellen Show on KMBZ in Kansas City that the story was unfortunate for the governor, his family, for the state in terms of any distraction that this creates. Pressed on the blackmail allegations, Blunt said that the governor says he didnt do that. Blunt said he agreed with Attorney General Josh Hawley that it should be investigated by local prosecutors. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, called the report deeply disturbing. I am hopeful that a full and immediate investigation can be completed without further damage to the families impacted, Wagner said. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said: Like a lot of Missourians, Im still struggling to process the news of the past 24 hours. These allegations are shocking, and Im concerned about the children who are touched by this. As part of an effort to promote a series of tax cuts, Greitens is expected to launch a statewide tour that will hit seven communities over four days. It is the boldest state tax reform in America, Greitens said in his State of the State speech Wednesday, just hours before he admitted having had the affair. He and his aides have declined to offer any specifics of his plan, and they have not confirmed the governors schedule. Initially potential stops appeared to include Springfield, Kansas City, Macon and Joplin. The events had been listed online, but on Friday night those listings disappeared. Chuck Raasch of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. A WAVE of neighbourhood plans in Stratford District are set to be formally adopted or progress towards referendum next week. Both the Wilmcote and Pathlow and the Wootton Wawen Neighbourhood Plans are set to be adopted by the Cabinet on Monday following referendums in November. On 9 November 89.75 per cent of voters in Wootton Wawen voted to adopt the village plan, while in Wilmcote and Pathlow on 30 November 93.85 per cent of voters endorsed its plan. There is also progress in Snitterfield, with the villages neighbourhood plan expected to be given the go ahead to proceed to referendum on Monday. Elsewhere the Harbury Neighbourhood Plan has moved on a stage after the district council allowed a draft version of its plan to proceed to the formal consultation phase this week. When formally adopted neighbourhood plans play an important role in planning decisions concerning their respective areas, with the planning committee required to consider them when examining any new planning application. Stratford Post Office customers were greeted by a closure notice on the entrance door for two days before it reopened on Tuesday morning. Photo: Mark Williamson. THREE people have been arrested as police continue their investigation into a burglary at Stratford-upon-Avon Post Office. An undisclosed amount of cash was taken from the branch on Henley Street, sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. It remained closed until Tuesday morning. Police said today, Friday, A 23-year-old man and a 22-year-old man from Birmingham, and a 25-year-old woman from Stratford had been arrested on suspicion of burglary. All three have now been released under investigation while enquiries continue. A spokesman added: "Anyone with information can call police on 101, quoting incident number 89 of 7th January. "Alternatively, information can be provided anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or via www.crimestoppers-uk.org" Geekologie has shut down. Thank you to everybody. Now go be happy. The student loan debt plan is on hold, again, and no one knows when (or if) it's coming. What could this mean for you? Host Teri Barr is talking with Cecilia Clark, a Student Loans Expert with Nerd Wallet, to learn why this newest hold on the program, could take awhile, the 3 things you need to know about and prepare for right now, including making your loan payments again in the New Year. The latest from Cecilia at NerdWallet: More episodes on debt: Support the show: https://omny.fm/shows/pennywise See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. HIAWATHA A wintry storm may have prevented Gov. Kim Reynolds from bringing her Opportunity Unleashed tour to the Cedar Rapids area Thursday, but ice and snow didnt stop Iowa Democrats. Were here to make sure people are hearing the reality on the ground, Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price told a couple of dozen people at Karma Coffee Cafe in Hiawatha. Reynolds Condition of the State speech Tuesday, he said, lacked a sense of whats really happening in Iowa. Price and local Democrats raised warning flags on the governors plans for K-12 education, Medicaid managed care and a host of issues. When I see whats happening, it makes me angry, said Cindy Garlock, who taught in Cedar Rapids public schools for 33 years. Reynolds is continuing to starve public education by proposing only a 1.5 percent, or $54 million, increase in state aid to Iowas schools, she said. Thats 43 percent of her proposed $7.444 billion budget. Even though teachers are carrying heavier workloads and support staff have been cut, Iowa has the highest graduation rate in the nation and ranks among the top state for ACT scores. But how long can we ask them to do more with less? she said. In seven of the past eight years, Garlock said, the increase in state aid sometimes called allowable growth has been the smallest increase in history. In 10 years, state aid to schools has increased 49 percent, from $2.15 billion to $3.19 billion, which is 44 percent of the state general fund budget. Jeffrey Garcia who attends Coe College, a private school, also expressed concern about public school funding. Reynolds talked about what the state can do to improve the business climate, he said, but at the end of the day, politicians should be doing things for the benefit of people, not business. Brad Colton, who worked 38 years as a teacher and principal, warned the group about the danger of Senate File 45 https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=87 & ba=sf45 that would end public employee enrollment in IPERS, the state retirement plan. Future employees would be part of a defined contribution plan. The bills prospects are uncertain as House Republicans have indicated they have no interest in the bill. Michael Culver, a correctional officer the whipping boy for Republicans said a $300,000 cut Reynolds proposed for the Anamosa State Penitentiary where he works is unsustainable. He thinks it is part of Republicans plan to privatize prisons. Although 93 percent of eligible Iowans are registered to vote and 72 percent of them voted in 2016, Coe student Sean Caldwell said the state voter ID law that begins to go into effect this year, will prevent many Iowans the disabled, the elderly and people of color from voting. Democrats are not trying to score political points with their Iowans Deserve Better tour, Price said. Were talking about real lives, about people suffering, he said. As they visit the same communities as Reynolds, Price said the party wants to make sure Iowans hear the problems and make sure they know were fighting for them. We want to make sure they know what were for and what Republicans are for, and the difference between what theyre doing and what were doing, Price said. DES MOINES | Delivering her first Condition of the State speech Tuesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds was upbeat as she declared the condition of Iowa st MASON CITY | Disparaging remarks attributed to President Trump on limiting immigration from some countries have hit close to home to two North Iowa families who are upset by his comments. Trump is said to have referred to those countries as "s---hole countries" during a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House. Scott Bell, longtime musician from Mason City, has close family ties to Africa. "My beautiful family comes from several parts of the world and many have ties to Africa and African countries," he said. "We have two daughter-in-laws that come from s---hole countries. He said one of his granddaughters was born and raised for a few years in Africa. "She knows her birth country as a place where she finds love, family, a grandma whom she loves and many happy memories. Yesterday, she heard her president vilely refer to her home as a s---hole country, Bell said, "and it is upsetting to her." "How do you explain the use of such language by the president?" he asked. Bell has another son and daughter-in-law living in another part of Africa. "They are incensed. They dont understand. I dont understand. We have also two young grandsons growing up in an environment of these vile, ignorant comments. I just dont know what to say to them," he said. "In our family, we know Africa as a beautiful place full of nice people; just like people here. Trump's comments aren't just rude. They aren't just 'Oh, there goes Trump again.' We literally have some of my family in tears over his comments. They don't understand. They are hurt." Another frustration for Bell: "Through it all, there are still people of influence who could do something or at the very least, say something about it, but they will not. Enough is enough." Mark Young of Mason City, a former attorney who is now a school principal in Belmond, assisted families with adopting children from Africa and Haiti in his law practice. He said those children are probably of high school age by now. Explaining President Trump's remarks "would be a tough conversation to have with them," he said. In his own family, his daughter and son-in-law are in the process of adopting a child from East Africa. Referring to Trump's comments, Young said, "If we're going to be a welcoming nation, I don't know how this helps." BELMOND | A local care center is celebrating its four centenarians. The centenarians, people who live to be or beyond the age of 100, live at the Rehabilitation Center of Belmond. They are Elsie Reese, 103; Hartley Friesleben, 101; Carl Kuhlers, 101 and Lorraine Hertema, 100. The four recently shared information about their lives. What memories or events changed your life? Reese: "My father passed away when I was 8-years-old. My siblings and I worked hard along with Mother, as she did not remarry." Reese, who married in 1937, taught school for four years and had two children, a boy and a girl. Friesleben: "I was always a farmer. When I was young, I milked cows by hand, planted and picked corn by hand. We had horses to plow." Friesleben, who married and had a family, said his first car was a Model T. Kuhlers: "Seventy-two years of a marriage and the death of my wife. My three kids one daughter and two sons." Hertema: "Teaching school was one of my pleasures, (as was) working with children." What inventions or historical events have you witnessed? Reese: Telephone, electricity, wringer washing machine to an automatic washer and the automobile. Friesleben: "I've seen it all, many new inventions to make farm life easier electricity, better farm equipment, better cars and trucks to drive." Kuhlers: "When I was a kid, a covered wagon with grocery items would travel through the country, stopping at farms. If you didn't have money to pay you could trade with chickens or eggs. Now we have big grocery stores and transportation to travel to them." He also noted he started farming with a team of horses before buying a tractor and other equipment. Hertema: "When I was a young teacher, a rode a bicycle or walked. When I married, we had a car. My husband and I traveled by airplane to Norway and Sweden." What do you believe to be the key to living as long as you have? Reese: "I know this nursing home has helped me a lot." Friesleben: "Hard work, staying strong physically." Kuhlers: "I don't know. I often wonder, through I never smoked or drank." Hertema: "I have no idea. I just lived my life; never had problems with my health." An inspection of houses on storm affected areas of the Kaiaua coast finds 12 homes are severely damaged and uninhabitable, 72 are moderately damaged and partially habitable and another 157 received minor damage. Storm affected areas include Kaiaua, Waharau, Whakatiwai, and Pukorokoro/Miranda. A king tide during last Fridays severe onshore winds, raised sea levels causing flooding along the coast. Three of the 18 farms assessed by Civil Defence teams in conjunction with Rural Support Trust are considered to have severe pasture and crop damage. The remaining farms have varying amounts of pasture and crop damage. There is also property damage located in a small area of Waikato District, bordering Hauraki District which are being assessed by Waikato District Council. Weve had an overwhelming response from people wanting to donate money to help those affected by the flooding. Well publicise details of how people can donate to this fund as soon as we can, says Hauraki district Council Civil Defence recovery manager Peter Thom. The Council and the Rural Support Trust will be following up on a number of enquiries and offering help where they can. The Council is also in the process of setting up a Disaster Relief Fund for the Kaiaua Coast area. Skip bins will continue to be available along the coast for residents doing clean-up work until the end of the weekend. After this people should contact their private insurers about covering the cost of rubbish removal. Dust sweepers have recently been clearing dust from East Coast Road. Unfortunately, its not possible to dampen the roads before doing this work as it doesnt sweep up well when wet, and once it dries it sets a bit like concrete, says communication officer Paula Trubshaw. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this and appreciate peoples patience while we get this work done. As dust will collect in gutters and on roofs during this work, we advise people to disconnect rainwater tanks and spouting before the next rainfall to avoid dust entering their water supplies. The Kaiaua Boat Ramp Freedom camping area is closed until further notice to prevent overloading of infrastructure in the area. Rays Rest camping area is not officially closed, but the council is advising people to avoid the area as the sand that has been deposited there is deep and soft in places and vehicles have needed to be towed out. Contractors will also be doing quite a bit of work in the area over the coming weeks. Ministry of Health guidance Swimming in the area is safe Eating shellfish gathered in the area is not recommended at this time Most home-grown vegetables and fruit affected by flood water can be washed and eaten 7 days after the event. Leafy vegetables such as lettuce should be discarded. Other information Rural Support Trust For rural support, information, and advice on what happens to land affected by seawater contact the Rural Support Trust or go to the Rural Support Trust website. Insurance The Insurance Council is advising those affected to contact their insurer as soon as possible. When its safe to do so, take pictures of any flooding or weather-related damage this will help your insurer with their assessment when you make a claim, says Insurance Council Chief Executive, Tim Grafton. If property youve already photographed receives further damage, take more photos. This is especially important if you need to move damaged or contaminated goods from your house for health and safety reasons. The Earthquake commission says people may be eligible to lodge a claim with EQC as well as their private insurer. If you have flood damage to the land around your home, including the access way and retaining walls that support the land (not walls that are landscape features only) then contact EQC. EQC does not cover flood damage to houses or their contents. To get EQC cover, home owners need a home or contents insurance policy that includes fire protection with a private insurance company when the natural disaster damage occurred. While it may speed up the process if you make a claim quickly, you have three months from the date of the damage to lodge your claim. EQC recommends lodging a claim with them at the same time as you lodge a claim with the private insurer You can get more information or make an EQC claim online on the EQC website or call EQC on 0800 326 243. Feeling stressed? An "event" like last weeks storm can be traumatic and its normal to feel stressed. Sometimes it takes weeks for emotional and mental stress to start bubbling to the surface. Remember you are not alone. Talk to friends and family. If you feel like you need help at any stage, contact your GP in the first instance. Here is some information that may be helpful. An ex-Eastern Bay of Plenty owned vessel could pose an environmental threat to Rarotonga after becoming stranded on a reef on Friday night. Zambucca, which was formerly Whakatane-owned for charter fishing in the Eastern Bay, is currently at the centre of environmental concerns in the Cook Islands. The 20-metre-long vessel was initially brought in from Australia and owned by an Eastern Bay fisherman for 18 years before being sold to Ocean Fresh Limited in Rarotonga last year. In a post on Facebook, Ministry of Marine Resources Cook Islands says physical damage and fuel leakages are the main concern. Fortunately, the majority of fuel on board the Ocean Fresh vessel has been safely removed and thus far, no leaks have been observed. The location of the vessel is in an area next to the Aroko Raui where MMR recently conducted fish, invertebrate and coral surveys. As efforts continue to remove the vessel from the reef, the Ministrys primary concern is the protection of the reef and health of the environment. The Ministry will continue to observe and monitor the salvage activities, including the use of heavy machinery in the lagoon, and conduct a re-survey of the area after the salvage efforts are concluded. These kinds of activities can be dangerous for those involved and we support efforts to salvage the vessel safely and efficiently. Entries for the Trustpower Photographic Competition close at midnight, leaving today for last minute entries for the amazing prizes up for grabs. The 20 winning entries will be displayed on large display boards on The Strand in an outdoor exhibition that last year brought thousands of people into the city centre to see the display, which this year opens on January 27. We were overwhelmed with the success of the inaugural event - it exceeded all expectations with over 1740 entries and the quality and quantity of entries was astounding, says Downtown Tauranga Project Manager Sally Cooke. It provides a unique opportunity to showcase both our creative talent and our region and it makes for a fantastic city centre exhibition. This years prize pool is as impressive as the first, with $10,000 in prizes up for grabs. Once again we have some amazing prizes and profiling up for grabs for the winners, says Sally, including the supreme prize of the trip to London, Paris, New York or Rome worth up to $3000 thanks to the generosity of House of Travel Tauranga and Downtown Tauranga. The Trustpower Photographic Exhibition was such a privilege to run last year because we did it in partnership with Trustpower, Downtown Tauranga, Media Works, UNO. Magazine and The Weekend Sun. It was a true partnership approach from planning to the staging. We all owned it and proactively contributed to the success of it. That made it incredibly rewarding to be a part of. We were just delighted this year when Trustpower, as lead sponsors, confirmed they would be involved again. Entries are under four new categories: Our people, Celebration, Nature & Landscapes and Digital Manipulation. A judging panel will select the winning photos that will be displayed in a large outdoor photographic exhibition on The Strand from January 26 to March 25 next year. Judges will be looking for entries from people of all ages, from amateur to professional and hope to see diversity in the photos. Prizes will be awarded for first and second in the four categories, plus judges will award prizes for a Young Photographers section (18 and under). Once the exhibition opens, there will also be a Peoples Choice section, where the public will be asked to vote for their favourite photo. A Royal Navy vessel is due to arrive in Gibraltar today, Friday 12 January for a short logistical stop. HMS Sutherland, which is affectionately known as 'The Fighting Clan', is a Type 23 anti-submarine warfare frigate. She left the UK earlier this week and will be away for seven months, conducting operations and exercises with a wide range of allies and partners. The ship was the 13th of the 16 Type 23 frigates to be built, and she was launched in 1996 at the Yarrow shipyard (now BAE) on the Clyde. HMS Sutherland's home port is now Devonport, in Plymouth. When she leaves Gibraltar, she will travel on deployment to Australia, the Far East and the Gulf region. Her captain is Commander Andrew Canale. Guardia Civil officers in Alhaurin el Grande have arrested a 75-year-old British man who was wanted by the UK authorities under an international arrest warrant. The man, who was apparently living a normal life in a country house near the town, is required to serve a prison sentence of five years and nine months having been convicted of a drug trafficking offence in the UK. The arrest was made in collaboration with the UK's National Crime Agency. The fugitive was put into the custody of a Madrid court. MASON CITY | A Mason City man is accused of attempting to strangle a woman he knew with his hands and with his legs" Wednesday at Gracious Estates, according to court documents. Jose Sanchez Mendez, 30, was charged with domestic abuse assault, impeding flow of air/blood. Sanchez Mendez allegedly attempted to strangle a known woman by applying pressure to her throat and neck with his hands and with his legs" about 6:20 p.m., according to charging documents. The incident occurred at the mobile home park, 777 S. Eisenhower Ave., Mason City. A no-contact order was issued. He is being held without bond due to an immigration hold, jail records indicate. Sanchez Mendez is scheduled to appear in Cerro Gordo County District Court Jan. 19. Courtney Fiorini A three-year-old boy died on Sunday after being run over in the Azalea shopping centre car park in San Pedro. Four young British men aged between 20 and 24, on holiday in Marbella, were in the car that ran over the boy as it reversed out of a parking space. The emergency services were called at 2.10pm but paramedics attending the toddler could do nothing to save his life and he was proclaimed dead at the scene. 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 test used to confirm the driver's consumption of cocaine can only detect drug use 24 to 48 hours prior to the test so there is currently no evidence to suggest 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 either. The driver was therefore released after questioning but as part of ongoing investigations into a possible case of negligent manslaughter, the results of the test have been sent to a laboratory to determine the precise time of consumption to see if it could have impeded his ability to drive. 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. At the same time, 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 other car began leaving the space. This accident has delivered a tough blow to the local Jewish community to which the victim's family belongs. No matter where you go in the world, the weather is always a popular topic of conversation: the heat, the cold, the rain, the wind.... come up in brief exchanges between neighbours. These conversations are normally a matter of courtesy rather than based on reality, but the recent cold weather in Malaga has given residents and visitors a new slant on the subject: everyone has been complaining that their homes are cold. One question in particular always seems to be asked: how, in a place like Malaga and the Costa del Sol, which has such a lovely climate, can the houses be so cold and uncomfortable? There are answers to this, of course, and one undeniable fact is that the weather is colder in winter and Malaga is no exception. In this province the coldest months are usually December and January, when the average temperature is about 12 or 13 degrees Celsius. It often feels colder than it actually is because of the relative humidity, which is higher on the coast than inland and gives that impression of 'bone-chilling cold' which is more acute in coastal towns. Construction regulations The second explanation comes from the president of the College of Architects of Malaga, Francisco Sarabia, who begins by agreeing as a user as well as a professional, that houses in a large part of the province are not sufficiently prepared to cope when the temperature drops. The regulations for insulating buildings in areas with a warm climate are much less strict than in places where the winters are more severe, says Sarabia. He is referring to the Technical Building Code, to explain why a house in Burgos, for example, is not built in the same way as one in Malaga. This legislation was modified in 2006, and it means that now the minimum requirements for insulating a building are decided by climatic areas, whereas before the regulations were changed they were generic for the whole of Spain, he explains. In other words, it is not surprising that properties which were built over a decade ago do not comply with the conditions which are obligatory in new buildings today. Nowadays, we have to incorporate insulation into the outside walls of properties built in Malaga. We always have to take the local climate into account, explains Francisco Sarabia. In other words, the regulations with which the professionals have to comply when designing a house have to be adjusted to maximums of consumption - in summer and winter - so households do not need to use a great deal of energy in order to obtain a comfortable temperature. 'Cool houses' This also explains, for example, why on the Costa del Sol the requirements focus mainly on the heat, rather than the cold. In other words, buildings in southern Spain are obliged to bear in mind the criteria of keeping houses cool in the summer rather than warm in the winter. Also, homes on the Costa del Sol do not use central heating to the same extent as in other areas of Spain and even Andalucia (such as Granada and Jaen) because central heating is a complex and expensive installation and it would not be used much, says Sarabia. On the other hand, and still following the criteria of geographical location, homes in Malaga do have to comply with other requirements, as he explains: Here, homes are built to lose as little cold or heat energy as possible; properties tend to be designed with windows to the south so the sun comes in during the winter and also incorporate cantilevers to protect from the heat in the summer. North-facing walls tend to have few windows because a lot of energy is lost through them, he says. Most people rule out the idea of central heating because it is so expensive and is not often needed in a climate such as that on the Costa del Sol, but many homes in this area do have air conditioning/heating units instead. These, together with other electrical appliances such as fan heaters, braziers or oil-filled radiators, are the most commonly used methods of combating low temperatures in homes. The gas option For several years now, especially since the liberalisation of the market in 2008, people in Spain have had the option of incorporating gas heating into their homes. This is considered the cleanest, least polluting and most comfortable source of energy. Its installation requires a gas boiler connected to a system of pipes through which hot water circulates and then provides heat via the radiators. This option, however, is only available if the gas distribution network reaches the area in which people live, and it is not particularly widespread. Information from Gas Natural Andalucia, the distribution branch of Gas Natural Fenosa, in Malaga province the network only extends to 14 municipalities (and is most used in Malaga city, Marbella and Rincon de la Victoria), covers 1,270 kilometres and provides a service to more than 280,000 people. With regard to the demand for this method of heating the home, the same sources say that requests for the installation of domestic gas heating have increased by 20 per cent compared with this time last year. A surprise to foreigners It is a fact, then, that many homes in Malaga are cold and it isn't only the locals who are complaining: foreign residents, especially, say they are surprised and so do people who come from other parts of Spain where the weather is harsher but homes are better adapted to the climate. One such case is Svetlana Bagdasarova, a Russian woman who moved to Estepona with her four children six years ago. She thought she was escaping from the cold in Moscow, but paradoxically found that the Costa del Sol in winter was not what she expected. At this time of year the house is freezing. The problem is that it is very big and it costs me more than 1,000 euros a month to try to heat it. It's awful! she says. Ines Vidal found herself in a similar situation when she moved to Malaga over 20 years ago. She comes from Leon - a province which is often very cold - and was accustomed to the comfort of heating in her home. She remembers as if it were only yesterday that one of the first things she noticed when she arrived here was the temperature of her home: It was colder inside the house than outside in the street. I bought a heater and used to huddle over it. When I walked into another room my glasses used to mist over because of the change in temperature, she says. The last illegal immigrants held in Archidona's unopened prison complex left on Wednesday. The remaining 67 Algerians there were taken to the government's official immigrant centres, meaning the interior ministry fulfilled its promise to only use the Archidona building in inland Malaga province until the start of January. Last November over 500 illegal immigrants who had arrived in Spain from Algeria were taken to the new, unused Archidona prison building as the government's other, official detention centres were full. The move sparked a wave of protests over the supposedly inappropriate use of the prison for migrants that came to a head recently with the suicide of one of the immigrants and increasing violence among those held inside. Although the government has always maintained that the conditions were the same as its normal centres, news also emerged this week that three held inside had tried to self harm and sources said that the recent incidents made officials keen to speed up the plan to empty out the building. Opposition parties and campaign groups welcomed the last departures as experts visited the building to assess the repairs necessary after its temporary use. Large towns along the coast are gaining in terms of population and those inland are progressively losing theirs. That is a simple way of summing up the way the registered population in the 103 municipalities in Malaga province has evolved in the past decade, a period during which we moved from the boom in construction to the economic crisis and then a moderate recovery in the most recent years. There are some exceptions, but the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), compiled on 1 January 2017, show that since 2007 the population has only increased in 37 places in the province. In Malaga as a whole, there has been an increase of 113,092 people on the municipal population registers during the past ten years, giving a total of 1,630,615. Most of these were in towns on the coast or in the metropolitan area of Malaga city. Benalmadena tops the list, having obtained 16,642 new inhabitants and increased from 52,217 to 68,859 in ten years. Benalmadena, Marbella, Mijas and Velez have gained the most inhabitants Marbella, which has the second highest population in the province after Malaga city, with 141,172 inhabitants, has gained 14,750. Third is Mijas, where the population has increased from 64,288 to 77,151. Fourth is Velez-Malaga, which has gained 10,274 inhabitants, reaching a total of 79,878, making it the municipality with the third highest number of inhabitants in the province. Fuengirola, after gaining 9,508, has progressed from 65,421 to 74,929 and occupies fifth place on the list. Rincon de la Victoria, with 9,424 more inhabitants, comes sixth. Its population register showed 35,714 inhabitants in 2007 and it now has 45,138. The population has also increased in the Malaga metropolitan area, such as in Alhaurin de la Torre, which gained 7,269 inhabitants, rising from 31,884 to 39,153, and Cartama, which has gone up from 18,865 to 25,317. Estepona's population register now shows an extra 6,535 inhabitants, bringing the total to 66,863. Among the places where the population has risen considerably is Benahavis: in ten years its population increased from 3,253 to 7,348, mainly due to an influx of foreign residents. On the contrary, among those which have lost the most inhabitants in the past decade are the inland towns of Antequera and Ronda. Antequera has lost 3,443 inhabitants in ten years as the village of Villanueva de la Concepcion split away, dropping from 44,547 to 41,104, and in Ronda the population has dropped from 36,122 to 34,268, a difference of 1,854. The situation of Antequera is particularly surprising because it has seen improved communications and is economically stable due to its strategic location. In the case of Ronda, the figure is not as bad as it seems: its outlying districts of Montecorto and Serrato have both become independent recently and now have their own population registers. However, lack of a motorway are still hindering Ronda's growth in population. The drop in the other inland municipalities is not as great in absolute terms, but is a matter of concern, especially in the case of small villages with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. In fact, 29 (almost one third) have a population of less than 1,000. The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) has asked the government to take urgent measures to tackle this demographic challenge, and Quique Navarro, a lecturer in geography at Malaga university, says rural depopulation has serious consequences. Malaga province's situation is not as bad as elsewhere but urgent plans are needed to develop tourism, farming and artisan crafts, he says. National Police stepped up the search on Thursday for a British mother-of-two who went missing from her Marbella home more than a week ago. Rebecca Muldoon, originally from Southend, Essex, vanished from her home on 2 January. The 35-year-old, who had been living with her partner and two children on the Costa del Sol for the past year, failed to appear in court to confirm her reports of domestic abuse she had suffered at the hands of her partner. Following her allegations her partner was arrested and he was still in police custody when Rebecca went missing. On Thursday around 50 people from the local police, fire and Proteccion Civil services were involved in the search, coordinated from a temporary command station in the Camino del Pilar area. The authorities were first alerted when a neighbour contacted police claiming that Rebecca's children, aged eight and eleven, had been left alone in the family home. Rebecca's relatives in the UK immediately flew to Malaga to take care of them. A friend of Rebecca's has appealed for information on her whereabouts in a social media campaign, saying: Rebecca has been missing for a week. She has no money, passport or clothes and her phone is switched off. The woman's sister had also reported her disappearance to British police who are now collaborating with their Spanish counterparts in the investigation. National Police have appealed for any member of the public with information to contact them on 091. The board of NH hotels has unanimously turned down a merger offer with the rival Barcelo group. In a statement it said that the amount Barcelo proposed in no way reflected the true value of the company. In November Barcelo made an offer to NH to merge the two Spanish hotel giants which valued NH at 2.48 billion euros. The NH board also said that Barcelo's offer hadn't taken into account the value of its property portfolio in urban areas across Spain and the efficiency of its operation. It went on to state its confidence in its current strategic plan, solid growth and debt reduction. Barcelo replied to the rejection saying it was disappointed that NH had not agreed to create a leading European hotel chain and that it would forget about the subject. At the time of the offer in November analysts had said it was possibly a good strategic option for both companies, as NH is focused on urban hotels and the business market and Barcelo more on the leisure market and resort hotels. MASON CITY | A Mason City man is back in custody after allegedly assaulting the Nora Springs police chief at a hospital just eight days after being sentenced to probation in another case involving assault. Daniel Ray Tyree, 37, is charged with assault on persons in certain occupations. Court documents say Tyree put Nora Springs Police Chief Jesse Dugan in a "choke-hold" at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa about 12:38 p.m. Wednesday, "with the intent to injure or asphyxiate him. The defendant did so by putting his forearms around Chief Dugan's throat and positioning himself behind Chief Dugan, the criminal complaint said. Chief Dugan was in his department's full uniform that is clearly marked police. Mason City Police Capt. Mike McKelvey said someone was able to intervene and assist Dugan, who did not sustain serious injuries or require hospitalization. Court documents didn't say why Dugan brought Tyree to the hospital. Dugan didn't immediately respond to a phone message from the Globe Gazette seeking additional details Thursday. On Jan. 10, Tyree also allegedly admitted to a Mason City police officer that he used methamphetamine and marijuana within the last one to two days, court documents state. Tyree is currently on probation in a previous case, where he was charged with felony first-degree burglary for breaking into a man's house and jabbing him with a bed rail in September 2016. Court documents say the man sustained two bleeding scratches. Tyree pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree burglary in October 2017. Judge Rustin Davenport on Jan. 2 sentenced Tyree to a suspended prison sentence not to exceed 10 years, a suspended fine of $1,000 and four years of probation. Tyree is being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail on a $1,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in Cerro Gordo County District Court Jan. 19. Five Chilhowie residents are vying for a seat on the town council left vacant by the death of Don Hicks in September. A special election will be held on Tuesday. Only registered voters within the town limits of Chilhowie are eligible to vote. The candidates are Emily B. Dungan, Lieu Via Gary, Alan E. Keesee, Lewis W. Shortt Jr. and Julie W. Sturgill. They were each asked how they hope to help the town by serving on the council. Emily B. Dungan, married with two daughters, is a mathematics teacher at Chilhowie High School, where she also advises the Student Cooperative Association. I would begin by identifying the issues that are facing the town of Chilhowie, Dungan said. First, of course, is money. We are a small town with a small tax base and other sources of income. We need to critically look at where our money is allocated in order to provide the appropriate level of services to citizens and appropriately maintain our infrastructure. I would certainly use the knowledge from my degree in economics from the University of Virginia and other experiences with budgeting to help the town council make sound decisions through the budgeting processes. Another issue facing the town is growth - whether it is in attracting businesses, adding additional youth programs or addressing environmental concerns. To this I hope to help by bringing a fresh and perhaps younger perspective to the council. This community is deeply steeped in tradition; however, there also needs to be forward thinking that I feel I can provide. Ultimately, I hope to help simply through dedicated and genuine service. I grew up here and made the conscious decision to move my family back here and wish this community to be the best it possibly can be for our future generations. Lieu Via Gary is the wife of Pastor J. David Gary. They have two sons and six grandchildren. Gary works part-time at Berry Home Center in Chilhowie. Prior to moving home to Chilhowie, she held numerous business management positions in retail and service-oriented companies. I believe I can bring two things to the town council, Gary said. First, I hope to bring a greater sense of clarity to the people of Chilhowie of the issues we currently face. Second, I hope and believe I bring a fresh look and new ideas which will help in the solutions of the issues. I am a team player and believe together we can accomplish much more for our people of Chilhowie, our community. Alan E. Keesee and his wife, Ida Marie Keesee, have two children and two grandchildren. Keesee has worked at General Dynamics in Marion for over 28 years. I would like to help current businesses stay in business and bring in new small business to town, said Keesee. One of my biggest concerns is security for our schools. Theres room for improvement there. Lewis W. Shortt Jr., and his wife, Julia, have two children and four grandchildren. He has been an auto mechanic for over 45 years and owns and operates Lews Auto Sales and Service in Chilhowie. He also has rental property. A former council member who served for 12 years, Shortt said, Im not going to make a bunch of promises that cant be kept and when I vote I will vote for whats best for the people and the town. I will work on getting more business in town. Julie W. Sturgill and her husband, Randy, have two grown children. She has taught at Chilhowie Elementary School for 12 years. I dont feel like there is enough in town for kids and things for young people when they graduate to come back or to stay, Sturgill said, especially noting the need for recreational opportunities. We need activities to attract young families with children like Friday night in the park with a movie and a softball league in the summer. We need to expand the farmers market. These markets are doing well in other areas. I dont mind to work, to get out there and find the money for these things. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is the largest annual art competition in America, and the participating Central New York awards program has been honoring the creative work of junior/senior high school students for over 70 years. The program encompasses 13 Central New York regions and is sponsored by M&T Bank. This year, hundreds of student artists, representing over 90 area schools, submitted 5,560 pieces of art. Over a three-day period some 50 judges, comprised of professional artists, educators and photographers, awarded a record 1,885 works in 19 categories. Winners were announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday evening, Jan. 11 at Onondaga Community College, the host site for the CNY program. An exhibit of 1,800 winning works is open through March 2 at OCC's Whitney Applied Technology Center. The 2018 first-place winners (Gold Key), second-place (Silver Key) and honorable mentions, as well as special award honorees, will be showcased. (See the Silver Key and honorable mentions here: ) Highest-rated pieces move on to national competition, and the Everson Museum of Art will host a selection of works March 10 through April 8. In 2017 the CNY region produced a record 34 national award winners. The Drawing and Illustration Gold Key winners is featured above. You can see galleries of of the other Gold Key awards at the links below. >> Painting >> Digital >> Ceramics >> Design, Comics Art, Jewelry, Animation >> Portfolio, Printmaking >> Photography >> Mixed Media and Sculpture Special Awards Clayscapes Pottery Award - Best work in Ceramics & Glass, Creative Design -- Hannah Stevens, Carthage High School. Independent Potters' Association of CNY Award - Best work in Ceramics & Glass, Functional Design -- Casey St. Andrews, East Syracuse Minoa High School. John D. Barrow Art Gallery Award for Best Portraiture in the Drawing or Painting categories -- Emi Hughes, West Canada Valley High School. Tracy L. Haylor Craftsmanship Award -- Arthur Harmath, Red Creek High School. Ron Hellmann Photography Award for Best Photo -- Ashlyn Haynes, Paul V Moore High School. Delavan Center Award for Best Painting -- Quihong Yu, Manlius Pebble Hill. Syracuse Cultural Workers - Peace & Justice Award -- Quihong Yu, Manlius Pebble Hill. Director's Award for Best Drawing -- Sydney Ashby, Fayetteville-Manlius High School. American Visions Awards, recognizing the "Best of Show" from all Gold Key artwork: Felicity Boncella, Herkimer High School. Emi Hughes, West Canada Valley High School. Keely O'Connor, Carthage High School. Michael Sanders, East Syracuse Minoa High School. Lisa Zhou, Fayetteville-Manlius High School. Light Work Award for Best Photography Portfolio -- Zejia Chen, Manlius Pebble Hill. Onondaga Community College Award for Best Fine Arts Portfolio -- Keely O'Connor, Carthage High School. Syracuse, N.Y. -- DeWitt-based Aspen Dental Management Inc. has abandoned plans to move to larger headquarters in the Syracuse area and instead will open an office in Chicago to support its growing business across the country. The company has twice signed leases to move its headquarters and 600 jobs from DeWitt to downtown Syracuse. Both times, the company pulled out. Kathy Dwyer, a spokeswoman for Aspen, said the company plans to open a support center in Chicago by the end of the year. She described it as a "satellite office" and said Aspen's headquarters will remain in DeWitt. "For the past couple of years, we've been exploring options for additional space to house our growing team," Dwyer said in a statement to syracuse.com. "Due to our coast-to-coast reach, it was important for ADMI to establish a Midwest satellite location to better support doctors and patients across the country. After evaluating multiple metro areas, we've determined that it makes good business sense to establish a presence in Chicago in addition to our Syracuse headquarters." Aspen Dental Management Inc. will keep employs more than 600 people at its headquarters on Sanders Creek Parkway in DeWitt. (Google Street View screenshot) She said Chicago's central location is easy for the doctors "whose practices we support and other business partners to travel to." "It also opens new doors as we recruit employees to join our already talented team of more than 9,000," she said. Aspen Dental Management provides administrative and business support services to independent, Aspen Dental-branded dental practices throughout the country. It employs more than 600 people at its headquarters on Sanders Creek Parkway in DeWitt. Over the past 20 years, the number of Aspen Dental-branded practices has swelled to more than 660 locations in 36 states. The company opens a new office every five to six days. Aspen's decision leaves the developers of the City Center project at the former Sibley's department store on South Salina Street in downtown Syracuse still searching for a commercial anchor. The former Sibley's department store building at 400 S. Salina St. in Syracuse has been vacant since Excellus BlueCross BlueShield pulled out in 2013. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com) Aspen signed a lease in 2016 to move to City Center at 400 S. Salina St. It pulled out of the deal in December of that year. Aspen signed another lease to become the project's commercial anchor tenant in September of 2017 but pulled out a month later, said Gary Thurston, chairman and CEO of City Center's general contractor, Hayner Hoyt Corp. Both times, the company invoked a provision in the leases that gave the property's owner, 400 S. Salina Street LLC, a limited time to obtain financing for the building's redevelopment, he said. The owner was unable to meet the financing deadlines in each case, he said. Thurston said he obtained an option to become a part owner of the project after developer Robert Doucette pulled out a year ago following Aspen's first departure. He said he has not exercised that option but is working with the owner to find an anchor tenant for the project. "There's some interest," he said. "Some pretty substantial companies have expressed interest." Cornerstone Real Estate Opportunities, a commercial real estate firm based in nearby Armory Square, has been selected as the project's exclusive leasing agent. Thurston released a new rendering of the building that has slight differences from previous renderings. The corner of the building at West Jefferson and South Clinton streets is now somewhat squared off instead of concave. And Aspen's initials, ADMI, are gone from the building. A portion of the building's first floor will be the new home of the Redhouse Arts Center, a provider of theater, arts education and community outreach programs. Redhouse's first show in the new facility is scheduled for later this month and a grand opening is scheduled for this spring. Redhouse owns its space in the building and is a principal in 400 S. Salina St. LLC. Office and retail space is planned for the remaining portion of the 236,247-square-foot building. Thurston said it will take about a year to build the office and retail space once an anchor tenant is found. Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(SANTA BARABRA, Calif.) -- Rescue crews, some working with cadaver-sniffing dogs, scrambled Thursday to find dozens missing in Southern California communities hit hard by torrential rains and mudslides that have killed at least 17 people and destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes, officials said. Multiple agencies using boats and helicopters, including the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy, fanned out across Santa Barbara County hoping to find people alive. Firefighters, who battled blazes that swept through the area in December, went from flattened home to flattened home looking for survivors. Rescue crews were focusing on Montecito, an unincorporated area near the city of Santa Barbara, which was devastated by flooding and mudslides that wiped out dozens of homes and dislodged boulders the size of cars and sent them crashing into homes. Parts of Highway 101 in the area remained closed, swamped by debris flows that slid down fire-scarred mountains in the area. Montecito was placed under a new evacuation order at 6 p.m. local time Thursday. Almost the entire community -- about 10,000 people -- is now under mandatory evacuation orders, which could last "one to two weeks," according to the Santa Barbara County fire chief. At least 65 homes in Santa Barbara County were destroyed in the storm and another 446 were damaged, while eight commercial buildings were flattened, according to the latest count by Santa Barbara County Fire Department. Anne Marie Cullen was one of the rescue workers combing through homes with a cadaver-sniffing dog, looking for people vanished in the mudslides. "So obviously, she's looking for human remains," Cullen told ABC News, referring to her canine partner. "Which could be an entire body or it could be part of a body. So she's doing a meticulous search where she sniffs little nooks and crannies and sometimes it could be a person and the scent can trickle its way up." Cullen said the work has been exhausting and, at times, emotional. "It overwhelms everybody ... but in search and rescue you distance yourself," Cullen said. "You have to put a shield up and do your job and just remember ... that's not to say that it doesn't upset us but when we're out here we just do our job." Deputy Dan Page, chief of a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department rescue team, said the search effort was dangerous for rescuers, who had to trudge through debris and knee-deep water littered with nails, broken glass and splintered wood. "We've gotten multiple reports of rescuers falling through manholes that were covered with mud, swimming pools that were covered up with mud," Anthony Buzzerio, a Los Angeles County fire battalion chief, told ABC station KABC. "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." The rate of rainfall in Southern California Tuesday was 18 times more than required to produce debris flow, according to an analysis by ABC News meteorologists. Montecito alone saw heavy rainfall in a short amount of time. Because hundreds of thousands of acres were charred in the fires, the influx of water has nowhere to go. Aerial footage over Montecito showed a contrast of widespread damage next to homes completely untouched by the disaster. The roofs of some homes in canyon runoff areas were encased in mud, which has now dried. The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management said Montecito would be without potable water, electricity and sanitation "for an extended period of time." Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. CLEAR LAKE | The family of Ritchie Valens will be hosting a luncheon during the Winter Dance Party in February. Sisters Connie Valens and Irma Norton and brother Bob Morales are expended to attend the event, which is 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at the Best Western Holiday Lodge, 2023 Seventh Ave. N., Clear Lake. "La Bamba" showing pays tribute to Ritchie Valens CLEAR LAKE | With a special screening Saturday afternoon, the Lake Theater paid special trib Our family is looking forward to spending quality time with fans, and sharing stories and memories during this time set apart to remember and honor Ritchie, Connie Valens said in a statement. Valens said the luncheon, which will include a special guest emcee and visuals, will allow attendees to visit with her and her siblings, enjoy a meal at noon and dance to the music of Richie Lee with special guest Tony Halsrud from the Fabulous 50s Band. MASON CITY | Lincoln Intermediate will host its fourth annual VEX Robotics Tournament later this month. The competition begins at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 20 in the school's gym. It is free to the public. Teams build and program a robot to participate in this year's challenge, "In the Zone." Teams from Mason City and Clear Lake will compete, as well as ones from Solon, Mount Vernon, Council Bluffs and Valley, Nebraska. Students will meet with judges to share their engineering process, how their robot works and how well they worked together as a team. They will also compete for points in different robot skills, as well as form alliances to compete against each other to become tournament champions. Teams will also compete for the excellence award, judges award, design award and robot skills award, as well as the Sportsmanship Award for helping others during the competition. Different awards will qualify teams to move on to state/regional competition, and possibly the CREATE U.S. Open. This page no longer exists or may have been moved.If you believe this is a mistake please email Auxiliary engine damage primarily down to human error - The Swedish Club An investigation by The Swedish Club into auxiliary engine damage has revealed that the majority takes place immediately after maintenance work. A key finding was that 55% of casualties occur within only 10% of the time between overhaul (TBO), corresponding to the first 1,000 hours or so of operation after overhaul. In most cases the damage occurs only a few hours after start up. This report was created in response to the Clubs members concerns over damage to auxiliary engines a significant segment of machinery claims, both in number and in cost. Peter Stalberg, The Swedish Clubs technical adviser, explained: Auxiliary engines run at high revolutions and have a common lubrication system for both cylinder and crank case lubrication. They are not under the same strict regime from the classification society as the main engine, and maintenance is often carried out by the vessel crew. We see incorrect maintenance and wrongful repair in all too many cases, and poor lubrication management is also a major contributing factor to auxiliary engine break downs. With an average repair cost of more than $345,000, we cannot emphasise enough the principle that prevention is better than cure, he said. Number of piracy incidents drop Around 180 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships were reported to the International Chamber of Commerces (ICC) International Maritime Bureau (IMB) last year, according to its report. This is the lowest annual number of incidents since 1995, when 188 reports were received. In 2017, 136 vessels were boarded, while there were 22 attempted attacks, 16 vessels fired upon and six vessels hijacked. In 15 separate incidents, 91 seafarers were taken hostage and 75 were kidnapped from their vessels in 13 other incidents. Three crew members were killed last year and six injured. In the previous year, 191 incidents were reported, with 150 vessels boarded and 151 crew members taken hostage. The report also underlined several highlights from the past year. For example, in the Guff of Guinea (GoG), there were 36 reported incidents but no vessels were hijacked and 10 incidents of kidnapping, involving 65 crew members in or around Nigerian waters. Globally, 16 vessels reported being fired uponincluding seven in the GoG. 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, IMB director. Nine incidents were recorded off Somalia last year, up from two in 2016. Following an attack on a containership, six Somali pirates were detained by EU NAVFOR, 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 warned. Elsewhere, Indonesia recorded 43 incidents last year, down from 49 in 2016. The IMB report said that Indonesian Marine Police patrols continued to be effective in the countrys 10 designated safe anchorages. In the Philippines, however, the number of reported incidents more than doubled, from 10 in 2016 to 22 in 2017. According to the report, the majority of these incidents were low-level attacks on anchored vessels, mainly at the ports of Manila and Batangas. Vessels underway off the Southern Philippines were boarded and crew kidnapped in the first quarter of 2017. However, alerts broadcast by the IMBs Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC), on behalf of the Philippine authorities, have since helped to avoid further successful attacks. OLoughlin heads up Standard Clubs New York office The Standard Club has announced personnel changes at its New York office. Leanne OLoughlin has been appointed president/regional director of Charles Taylor P&I Management (Americas), succeeding LeRoy Lambert, who has assumed the role of General Counsel. She brings a wealth of experience to this role, having joined The Standard Clubs London office in 2010, before transferring to New York in 2013. She began her legal career as a commercial and civil solicitor and is now legally qualified in England & Wales, Ireland and New York. Lambert joined The Standard Club in 2009 after 25 years in private practice, latterly as a partner with Blank Rome. He has vast experience in all areas of maritime law, including US Jones Act and charterparty and bill of lading disputes. He is the first General Counsel to be appointed to the New York office, and will enhance the clubs in-house capabilities, particularly with regard to the management of complex US claims and dispute resolution, the club said. Lambert commented, This is a great move for all concerned and demonstrates the clubs long-term commitment to the Americas. I look forward very much to refocusing my time and energy on claims and supporting Leanne and the New York team in my new role. Commenting on the appointments, Eddy Morland, head of the Clubs UK & Americas division, said: The US and Canada are key areas for The Standard Club and these appointments demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the region and will enable the team to offer a more specific in house legal and dispute resolution service. Shipmanagement and blockchain to be discussed Is the shipmanagement industry ready for the new wave of blockchain and crypto-currency technology that is taking the world by storm? That is the question being posed by the international ship managers body InterManager, which will focus on this issue at its interactive Ship Management Forum next month. The conference, taking place in London on 5th February, will open with its first session - Money Matters - with a key presentation on crypto-currencies and blockchain for shipping. Aleksander Nowak, CIO of BlockEx, will cover topics including: is shipping a quick adapter and blockchain for shipping, and provide an insight into how the industry will adapt to this new paradigm shift in technology. Other topics due to be discussed during the conference are welfare of seafarers and money and seafarers and shore personnel. The InterManager annual conference, sponsored by Brightwell Payments, Seagull, ShipMoney and ShipServ, has been developed to allow full audience participation using online tools to enable delegates to interact with the speakers throughout the debate and take part in live polls. During the event, InterManager, the third party and in-house shipmanagers trade association, will also be updating delegates on a number of its own projects, including 'Best Seafarers DNA' and 'Safe Manning V Sustainable Manning'. InterManager secretary general, Capt Kuba Szymanski, said: This is going to be a fantastic conference for shipmanagers with an excellent line-up of speakers. Delegates will be very interested to hear about how crypto-currency and blockchain technology is going to affect the industry in the next few years to come. Are we, as ship managers, ready for it and what can the industry expect from it, are the questions we will be debating. The conference will also be heavily discussing our people, the men and women out at sea. We will be looking to our audience to help us debate the important questions surrounding crew welfare. Are we managing them correctly? Are we paying them enough? What can we do to make their important jobs better and to sustain a viable future for our seafarers? The conference is free to members and is being held at the Lloyds Register building. All attendees must register their interest with Capt Szymanski by emailing kuba.szymanski@intermanager.org. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. It is the speech they hope to one day deliver. So several of the Democratic candidates for governor offered their perspectives on the condition of the state address given Tuesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds. It was Reynolds first condition of the state address; she rose from lieutenant governor this past summer when former Gov. Terry Branstad became U.S. ambassador to China. Reynolds struck out on her own, not once mentioning Branstad. Before diving too deep into policy, she addressed sexual harassment in the workplace, a topic on the Iowa Legislatures radar after the state settled for $1.75 million with a former legislative staffer who accused co-workers of sexual harassment. During her roughly 44-minute address, Reynolds said her hope is that a water quality bill is the first she signs as governor; that she has charged her lieutenant governor, Adam Gregg, with leading an initiative exploring ways to revitalize rural Iowa; that her tax proposal will include lower individual rates, benefits middle-class families, and does not include business tax reform; and that she acknowledges mistakes were made in the rollout of Iowas private Medicaid management system, but that she still believes that is the best approach. Reynolds also discussed mental health care, public education funding and workforce training. But the Democrats running for governor weren't buying Reynolds' message that the condition of the state is strong. Nate Boulton and Cathy Glasson spoke at public events in the Capitol immediately after the governors address. As a state senator, Boulton was in the Iowa House chamber for Reynolds speech. Minutes later, he responded outside the chamber. Boulton noted that Reynolds highlighted Republicans changes to state collective bargaining and workers compensation laws in 2017, efforts that Boulton was a leader in speaking out against this past year. You heard an emphasis on gutting workers compensation and taking away rights of public employees to bargain over their health insurance and better wages as points of pride for this administration, Boulton said later in a statement. Boulton also criticized Reynolds over public school funding levels, the state budget shortfall, the lack of a water quality funding proposal and private Medicaid management. We need a strong vision forward for this state, not just for the next 20 months, but for the next 20 years, Boulton said. Glasson, a nurse and labor leader, spoke at a rally just outside the governors formal office in the Capitol. Organized by advocacy groups and attended by roughly a couple dozen people, the rally focused on a call for Iowas minimum wage to be raised to $15 per hour. I believe the job of the governor is to raise wages and raise the standard of living for all Iowans, Glasson said, adding that she thinks that can be accomplished with a $15 minimum wage and strong unions. We have to do it fast, because working people and working families cannot wait any longer. Glasson also called for a repeal of the collective bargaining changes, saying that would be a start but not enough. Fred Hubbell issued a statement that focused on the condition of the state budget. Because of state revenues that grew but at a pace slower than expected, lawmakers and the governor last year were forced to plug a budget hole of more than $100 million. This budget year, there is another shortfall of more than $30 million. In the wake of budget shortfalls, Hubbell, a Des Moines businessman, called Reynolds desire for tax cuts misguided. As someone who has balanced many budgets throughout my career, Gov. Reynolds fiscally irresponsible actions are alarming and risks turning our state into Kansas, Hubbell said in a statement, referring to Kansas tax cuts that helped create havoc with its budget. The fact the governor is pushing tax cuts despite the massive debt she just created, shows she puts politics and her re-election campaign before everyday Iowans. This state cant afford to lower taxes before fully paying off our debt. Andy McGuire said Reynolds address was filled with lots of promises and political rhetoric, and also criticized Reynolds for touting the myriad conservative policies implemented during the 2017 session. McGuire, a physician and former state party chairwoman, also criticized Reynolds for not reaching out to Iowas minorities in her speech. It is also clear that this administration is clearly out-of-touch with Iowas minority communities, and (Reynolds) showed zero commitment to making Iowa a more inclusive state, McGuire said in a statement. Gov. Reynolds made no mention of efforts to curb the bullying of LGBTQ+ students in our classrooms or efforts to combat or curtail the recent, racially motivated incidents in our state. In the governors defense, and in a preview of how Reynolds will defend her record on the campaign trail this year, a spokesman for her campaign called the Democrats statements decades-old, worn-out criticisms and cited independent studies that have rated Iowa No. 1 in the country for middle-class families and as the third-best managed state. Samsung is prepping for the release of what's possibly the most radical smartphone in years: a foldable one. Many companies flirted with the idea of such a phone, but most of them never seriously explored it., yet the South Korean electronics company somehow found a way to make it work. Foldable Samsung Galaxy Phone Facing Struggles However, it's not without some snags. Reports say the phone isn't due until this December at the earliest and 2018 at the latest but who's to say there won't be further delays? After all, while foldable screens have been proven to work, an entire phone flexible enough to shapeshift at its user's will is probably pretty difficult to pull off. At CES, Samsung's mobile chief, DJ Koh, explained that the company isn't happy with the phone's direction so far and that there are various things left to fix. He failed to mention exactly whether the problem was with hardware or software or simply getting the device to work. "It is difficult to talk about the date of the launch now. We want to unveil the products properly but now seems a bit early," Koh told The Korea Herald this week. Last year, Koh said Samsung was targeting a 2018 launch for its foldable phone, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. "We want to have a good reaction from customers once the phone is out in the market. But there are still durability issues that we need to address," said Koh, adding that he is set on developing foldable devices because he believes it would have significant impact on the industry. Production To Start In November? Samsung could start production of the said phones by November, reports The Investor, citing industry sources who also said that Samsung has finalized its specifications and production plans for the foldable device. This is despite Koh saying outright that durability issues remain, but perhaps the specs are indeed finalized, and Samsung now has to figure how to make a foldable phone sturdy enough so it doesn't break easily. Suppose the sources are correct, the phone should ship by December this year or be delayed not later than early next year. The phone is likely to sport a 7.3-inch OLED display that folds inside, and Samsung is making sure it doesn't get damaged from repeated folding mechanisms. Interest for this enigmatic foldable device has been rising in recent years, with heavy speculation and even concept product renders of a so-called Galaxy X phone frequently making the rounds. Are you excited for a foldable Galaxy phone? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below! 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A second Apple Store was evacuated in as many days after an iPhone battery exploded and filled the floor with smoke, raising questions on whether iPhone owners should start to panic. The incident, which happened in an Apple Store in Spain, follows a similar event in an Apple Store in Switzerland, where an overheating iPhone battery emitted smoke. Apple Store In Spain Evacuated After iPhone Explodes According to the Spanish news outlet Las Provincias, three firefighters and several police officers responded to an incident at the Apple Store in Calle Colon, in Valencia, Spain. The incident involved another faulty iPhone battery. According to sources, the upper floor of the Apple Store was filled with smoke. Fortunately, the firefighters did not have to intervene as the store's employees quickly opened the windows for ventilation and threw dirt on the burned battery to control the situation. The employees and customers were able to evacuate the Apple Store without any sustained injuries from the incident. What happened at the Spanish Apple Store is similar to an incident in an Apple Store in Switzerland, where an overheating iPhone battery emitted smoke and forced the evacuation of customers and employees. However, in Switzerland, the worker removing the battery from the iPhone 6S Plus suffered minor burns, while six other people received medical care for inhaling smoke. The incident was simply a battery overheating and creating smoke though, while in Spain, the battery apparently exploded. Should You Still Replace Your iPhone Battery? The two incidents in the Apple Stores in Switzerland and Spain are seemingly related to Apple's $29 iPhone battery replacement program. Apple took $50 off of the regular $79 price as an apology to the company's controversial throttling of older iPhones with degraded batteries. iPhone owners, however, should not panic and think that all battery replacements will lead to explosions. If they are eligible to receive a $29 battery replacement, customers should avail the offer for a considerable improvement in battery life and performance. The two incidents in the Apple Stores, despite happening in quick succession, should still be treated as isolated cases. Apple stands to lose $10 billion in iPhone sales due to the program, as one of the top reasons for upgrading to a newer iPhone model is to improve battery performance. Making matters worse for Apple are the siege of legal actions filed against the company over the matter, including a lawsuit that seeks nearly $1 trillion in damages. Even governments have started investigating Apple over the iPhone throttling issue, starting with a French prosecutor. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Two young boys in Ohio have died from the flu as one of the most severe flu seasons in recent memory rages on across the United States. The tragic incidents should serve as a reminder for parents to have their children administered with flu shots, as they are the most vulnerable to the disease. Two Ohio Boys Die From Flu According to Ohio health officials, two boys have died in the state due to the flu. The two victims are a one-year-old baby from Lucas County and a four-year-old child from Montgomery County. The deaths of the two boys are the first reported flu fatalities in children in Ohio since the flu season started in October. According to the state's Department of Health, 1,750 new patients were hospitalized last week compared to 925 new hospitalizations in the previous week and only 285 reported cases in the first week of 2017. "The virus that's out there is a particularly bad actor with kids," said Ohio's Department of Health medical director Clint Koenig. "We continue to recommend the flu shot, because we are seeing numbers continue to rise." Babies, Children Hit By Flu The Hardest Experts have warned that babies and children are particularly vulnerable to the flu. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children below five years old have an increased risk of developing serious complications related to the flu. Babies below two years old, meanwhile, face an even higher risk. The flu season is particularly bad in California, leading to medicine shortage, crowded emergency rooms, and alarming death rates. "People think the flu is not serious. The flu can be a deadly illness, and every year thousands of people die from it," said Franklin County Public Health medical director Miller Sullivan. "The flu is not to be taken for granted." Doctors and health officials continue to recommend parents to have flu shots administered to their children. Even if the flu season is already in full swing, it is never too late to receive flu shots. Researchers from the CDC confirmed earlier this year that flu vaccination is capable of saving the lives of children. The effectiveness of flu shots is not perfect, but for children who get the flu even when vaccinated, the effects are milder. In addition to getting flu shots for the children, additional guidelines that families can follow to keep everyone safe from the flu include frequent hand washing, limiting or avoiding contact with people suffering from the flu, avoiding to touch the face as this spreads germs and disinfecting objects and surfaces that may be contaminated. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Samsung first opened its beta version of Android 8.0 Oreo to Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus owners back in November 2017. This gave the owners the opportunity to participate in providing feedback on performance, stability, and usability to improve the software. The company confirmed that the Galaxy S8 Android 8.0 Oreo beta version is ending on Jan. 15, 2018. In addidtion, the official Android 8.0 Oreo version showed up on Reddit and seems to be working for most Galaxy S8/S8 Plus owners. However, if users choose to download the software update from Reddit, they have to be sure to backup their Android phone. If a user downloaded and installed the leaked version from Reddit and it doesn't work, Reddit user Spongar141 offers some advice to other Galaxy S8/ S8 Plus owners on how to get it to work. "Change the file name to update.zip, I noticed the file name from my links and the one in the op were different. Could make no difference. Also, disable any lock screen passwords and head to developer mode and select 'Revoke USB debugging authorization' as suggested by theKiroh. And that should be good to try." Other users reported that this seemed to fix the issue. How To Download Samsung's Official Android 8.0 Oreo Software Update To check if the update is ready for the device, users should head over to the Settings app, then Software update and Download updates manually. Users need to be enrolled in the Beta program for Samsung to be eligible to upgrade OTA. Android 8.0 Oreo Features For The Galaxy S8 Or S8 Plus Android 8.0 Oreo comes with a ton of new features users have to look forward to, including improved battery life, a new emoji set, and more control over notifications. Samsung also revamped its keyboard, by adding new edge lighting effects, and a full color-picker for folders, so users can be more organized. For risk takers, they can download the leaked version of Android 8.0 Oreo on the Galaxy S8 and check out all of the new features. Otherwise, they might want to wait until the official version of Android 8.0 Oreo launches on Jan. 15. What features are you most excited to use on you phone? Let us know in the comment section below. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A newly discovered security flaw in WhatsApp exposes the user's group chats to hackers. Unfortunately, there are no current fixes available to address this issue. The messaging app reportedly uses end-to-end encryption, which supposedly prevents any third-party users to eavesdrop on the conversation. Yet, it does not seem to be the case as a flaw in its security can allow anyone to join the conversation. Once they're in, the hackers can only monitor future communication, which keeps past messages safely tucked away from prying eyes. Vulnerabilities Exposed Last week, reports made headlines as a researcher from Google's Project Zero team exposed an accidental security flaw on various CPUs. The Meltdown and Spectre threat prompted manufacturers and vendors to release updates to mitigate possible future attacks. Now, a group of German cryptographers from Ruhr University shared its findings during the Real World Crypto security conference, which was held in Switzerland. Privacy Argument The team pointed out that WhatsApp promises its users a secure service wherein only a chat group administrator has the access to add and remove chat members. However, the exploit proves that anyone in control of the app's servers can actually monitor and spy on anyone. This discovery supposedly undercuts the developers' claims that their service uses end-to-end encryption that blocks any means of surveillance. "The confidentiality of the group is broken as soon as the uninvited member can obtain all the new messages and read them," says Paul Rosler, a member of the Ruhr University researchers. "If I hear there's end-to-end encryption for both groups and two-party communications, the means adding of new members should be protected against. And if not, the value of encryption is very little." Limitations Security experts note that WhatsApp threat might seem like an alarming flaw. However, in order to execute any kind of administrator command, the user must have access to its servers. The aforementioned requirement is very strict and limited to accredited staff or governments with a legal demand for access. High-level hackers might have a shot at it yet it is highly unlikely, according to company insiders. Furthermore, Alex Stamos, the chief security officer for Facebook, posted his opinion on Twitter regarding the supposed threat. He reasoned that users have several options to verify group chat members. Stamos confirms that participants can always check the current roster to see if unwanted guests are listening in. In sum, the clear notifications and multiple ways of checking who is in your group prevents silent eavesdropping. The content of messages sent in WhatsApp groups remain protected by end-to-end encryption. Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) January 10, 2018 Currently, it appears that no action will be taken to change any of the protocols for WhatsApp. Unless something else comes up that allows hackers to view all of the group's chat history. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. According to health officials, the hepatitis A outbreak that may have infected thousands of people in Utah originated from San Diego, where a large epidemic made ravages. In the Utah outbreak, Hepatitis A-infected workers may have exposed many customers in a 7-Eleven convenience store and two restaurants in the Salt Lake City area. The restaurants and the convenience store were tied to a Utah hepatitis A outbreak that started out in August 2017, initially spreading among drug users and homeless people in Salt Lake City. Utah Hepatitis A Outbreak Spread From San Diego According to a new report from ABC News, Nicholas Rupp, a spokesman for the Salt Lake County Health Department, said that tests have linked the Utah hepatitis A outbreak to another outbreak in San Diego, California. The San Diego epidemic has killed 20 people and hundreds more got sick, marking the worst U.S. epidemic of this kind in the last two decades. Officials in California stated that the San Diego hepatitis A outbreak has slowed down, but it's still active. Having spread to Utah, the hepatitis A outbreak has infected more people with 152 cases confirmed so far, but no deaths have been reported at this point. Since the outbreak first hit homeless people and drug users, Utah officials speculate that it might have spread as individuals shifted between homeless centers in San Diego and Utah. Further outbreaks in Colorado and Arizona have also been linked to the San Diego epidemic. As far as Utah is concerned, the health department issued a statement on Jan. 7, announcing that up to 2,000 people who went to the 7-Eleven convenience store at 2666 West 7800 in West Jordan between Dec. 26 and Jan. 3 may have been exposed to the virus. The officials added that at higher risk were those who used the restroom of the convenience store or consumed various items such as food and beverages for sale. Hepatitis A Highlights And Recommended Precautions Hepatitis A is a liver disease that's highly contagious, spreading easily through contaminated water or food, as well as through sexual contact. The homeless are particularly vulnerable to this severe disease because they usually can't easily access proper sanitation. Utah residents or visitors who went to the affected 7-Eleven branch store during the aforementioned period are advised to contact the Health Department in Salt Lake County so they can get a vaccine against the virus. Staff will determine people's risk of exposure and offer options to get the hepatitis A shot. Those who only consumed packaged food and bottled beverages from the convenience store are at no risk and don't have to contact the health department. At the same time, the outbreak serves as a warning that establishments that sell food should consider giving employees a vaccine to protect them against hepatitis A. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The latest Android 8.1 Oreo update brought some lock screen issues for Google Pixel and Nexus users, but Google is looking into the matter. While Android 8.1 Oreo brought some neat tweaks and improvements, the lock screen issues are marring the experience and users are growing increasingly frustrated. No official fix is available at this point, but the company should address the problem soon enough. Nexus And Pixel Lock Screen Issues After Update According to multiple Nexus and Pixel users who took to Reddit and Google's official support forums, the smartphones are now facing troubles with the lock screen. Users report that they either have to swipe up several times before the phone registers the gesture and takes them to the unlock screen, or they have to try multiple times to swipe notifications away from the lock screen. Others, meanwhile, report having trouble swiping down on the notification bar to see their notifications. Google started rolling out the Android 8.1 Oreo update to Nexus and Pixel devices in early December, and user reports complaining of such swipe issues have been piling up ever since. Google Investigating Android 8.1 Oreo Bug Orrin, a community manager, has now finally acknowledged the issue and said that Google is investigating the matter. The company will contact affected users to collect more information and bug reports so it can get to the bottom of this and deliver a fix. That said, no information is currently available as to how long it would take Google to fix this matter, or what caused it in the first place. The lock screen bug seems to be affecting only Nexus and Pixel smartphones running the Android 8.1 Oreo build. Until Google issues an official fix, users have been trying to come up with a workaround to deal with this problem. One Reddit user, for instance, reports that they managed to get rid of this lock screen problem by restarting their smartphone in recovery mode. For other users, however, this workaround doesn't seem to do the trick. The good news is that Google is aware of this bug and is working on it, so it shouldn't take too long before it releases an update to patch things up. Have you been experiencing similar issues with your Pixel or Nexus smartphone following the Android 8.1 Oreo update? If so, did you find any workaround that gets rid of the issue? Drop by our comments section below and share your experience. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. OnePlus, which has carved out a niche in the smartphone market by launching devices with top-of-the-line specifications but with affordable price tags, may soon break into the mainstream. The OnePlus 5T was one of the best smartphones of 2017, and it appears that the Chinese smartphone manufacturer will bank on that success to expand its reach across the world. OnePlus May Soon Be Sold Through US Carriers In an interview with CNET, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said that the smartphone manufacturer will start talks with U.S. carriers within the year. "If the right opportunity and right timing come along, we'll be very happy to experiment," Lau said. A partnership with a carrier will provide OnePlus with a distribution partner that may make its smartphones more popular in the United States. OnePlus has made its name among Android enthusiasts despite its products being only available through its website. If OnePlus smartphones will be distributed through a carrier, the brand has the potential for massive sales because of its bang-for-the-buck products. OnePlus will face challenges in forging a partnership with a U.S. carrier, though. The company will need to prepare its production line to keep up with what would surely be an increase in demand, and gauge the possibility of a price hike, as it is cheaper to sell directly to customers. Lastly, OnePlus smartphones sold through carriers may come with preinstalled apps from the carrier, which goes against the philosophy of OnePlus to roll out devices with the most lightweight versions of Android. Huawei recently tried to do the same thing, but the planned AT&T partnership did not push through. Huawei CEO Richard Yu even went off script at CES 2018 to slam U.S. carriers for refusing to distribute the company's smartphones. Lau did not provide a specific time frame on when a partnership between OnePlus and a U.S. carrier could be formed. It remains to be seen whether an agreement could be struck before the launch of the next OnePlus smartphone. OnePlus 6 Launch In Q2 The next OnePlus smartphone, widely expected to be named the OnePlus 6, will likely launch late in the second quarter, according to Lau. This time frame follows the company's regular schedule for device releases and in line with the arrival of the OnePlus 5 last year. Lau did not provide a specific date, but the executive did confirm one thing about the upcoming smartphone: The OnePlus 6 will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, the latest and most powerful processor from the chipmaker so far. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Halite salt crystals from the Monahan and Zag meteorites that landed on Earth some 20 years ago both contained organic matter like liquid water, hydrocarbons, and amino acids. Scientists believe that this discovery leads to the conclusion that the origin of life is possible elsewhere. The traces of water in both meteorites are direct evidence of the chemical makeup of a water-rich world in the outer solar system. "Our coordinated organic analysis of the salt crystals suggest that the organic matter originated from a water-rich, or previously water-rich parent body -- an ocean world in the early solar system, possibly Ceres," said planetary scientist Queenie Chan, study author and postdoctoral research associate at The Open University in the UK. The Origin Of Life As We Know It The elements found in the crystals are significant organic ingredients that can lead to the origins of life. The scientists likened the discovery to a fly in amber. While the discovery does not conclude that life existed outside of Earth, the presence of organic matter in the salt crystals raises the possibility of trapping prehistoric life and biomolecules in the meteorites. "This is really the first time we have found abundant organic matter also associated with liquid water that is really crucial to the origin of life and the origin of complex organic compounds in space," added Chan. Extensive analysis of the salt crystals also revealed the probable origins of the meteorites, including the dwarf planet Ceres and asteroid Hebe as major objects in the asteroid belt. Similarities of the crystals found in the meteorites are also structural clues the two might have collided with each other and mixed fragments and materials. Monahans And Zag Meteorites It took scientists almost two decades to comprehensively analyze samples from the pair of meteorites that were believed to have existed some 4.5 billion years ago. Monahans meteorite landed in Texas in March 1998 while the Zag meteorite on a mountain in the vicinity of Zag, Morocco in August of the same year. Samples from the space rocks were preserved at the NASA Johnson Space Center. The in-depth analysis of the millimeter-sized salt crystals from the meteorites took time to complete because scientists needed a highly-sensitive instrument to study the crystals of amino acids at nanoscopic scales. The required technology was not yet available at the time when the meteors were discovered. Back then, only liquid water was found in the two meteorites. Experiments on the salt crystals were conducted in the cleanest laboratories of the NASA Johnson Space Center to avoid the contamination from foreign elements such as dust in the air. The Science Advances published the abstract of the study. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Researchers just described 18 new species of the cannibalistic Madagascan pelican spiders. Get to know the unique-looking spiders and find out why they are practically living fossils. Eighteen Newly Described Spider Species In Madagascar lives a class of spider so unique that it is named after another incredible animal the pelican. In a newly published paper, Smithsonian researcher Hannah M. Wood and University of Copenhagen's Nikolaj Scharff describe 26 pelican spider species, 18 of which have not been previously described. The data from the new study were gathered both from hundreds of preserved museum specimen as well as from living specimen in the field. For a long time, such spiders were unknown and unstudied due to the remoteness of their habitat in Madagascar, but the new paper highlights the incredible creatures. Spider Eater Perhaps one of the most striking characteristics of the pelican spider is what gives its name in the first place. The creature has an extended carapace and long mouth structures which protrude from its head, making it look like the creature has a long beak like its bird namesake. Interestingly, unlike many of its spider relatives, pelican spiders do not make webs to catch their prey, which happens to be other spiders. These nocturnal hunters instead follow the trails of silk which lead them to their prey and quickly impale their victim with their long "beaks." They then use the same long beaks to hold their prey away from their bodies to avoid any counterattacks until the prey succumbs to death. 'Living Fossils' From Pangaean Times Even more striking than the pelican spiders' appearance and choice of meals is its age. They were first found preserved in a 50-million-year-old Baltic amber in 1854 but were found alive in Madagascar in more modern times. Since then, pelican spider fossils have also been found in 95-million-year-old and 165-million-year-old amber, This suggests the possibility of the spiders having been around at the time when Pangaea was breaking up, causing the dispersion of the species to Australia and South Africa. What's more, because the fossilized remains were found and the species was presumed extinct before the living specimen were found, pelican spiders are considered a "Lazarus" taxon, which pertains to creatures that reappeared after they were already considered extinct. Only In Madagascar In the case of the newly described pelican spider species, they can only be found in the island of Madagascar. Unfortunately, the island and its creatures are currently threatened by major deforestation, which could significantly affect its unique biodiversity. Although they may not be the most adorable of creatures, insects are a very important part of the Earth's ecosystem. This is true even for the feared spiders, and amazingly, there are still so much to be learned about them and so many species that are still undiscovered. The pelican spiders' case just goes to show that the Earth still has secrets for people to discover. The paper is published in ZooKeys. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Iowa's Legislature opened Jan. 8. Today, our editorial board offers, in no specific order, 10 priorities for action by lawmakers during this year's session. In our view, the Legislature should: Strengthen bullying law After three sessions of discussion and near-passage in 2015 of a bill to strengthen state anti-bullying law, the Legislature in 2016 and again in 2017 virtually ignored the issue. Our hope for this year is the same as what we hoped for last year: Passage of a stronger anti-bullying law, similar to a 2015 proposal passed in overwhelming fashion by the Senate but denied a floor vote in the House, and state money for the Governor's Office for Bullying Prevention. Extend school infrastructure sales tax We support an extension of the one-cent sales tax for school infrastructure, but only for school infrastructure as was the original intent. We do not support diverting money from an extended school infrastructure tax for other purposes. For purposes of planning and bonding for future infrastructure projects, school districts need an end to uncertainty about the tax's future. Renew Targeted Jobs Program In 2013, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad signed a five-year extension of the Targeted Jobs Withholding Tax Credit Program aimed at helping border communities attract private investment that might otherwise go to a neighboring state. The program allows qualifying businesses to apply for state-withholding tax credits if they plan to relocate or expand in Iowa, provided they are creating or retaining jobs. The program will expire this year. Address need for long-term water quality plan In 2017, water quality initiatives were discussed, but pushed off to the next year for the second consecutive year. The Legislature should jump-start this important discussion this year. We suggest revisiting a plan proposed within the House in 2016 to direct money for water quality from the state's Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund, which is funded by gambling revenue, and the state sales tax Iowans pay on their water bill. Improve safety on roads Raising texting while driving from a secondary to a primary offense last year was a positive step by the Legislature toward safer roads in our state. This year, we encourage Iowa lawmakers to go one step further and ban use of a hand-held cellphone while driving. Tackle tax reform Members of our editorial board, in principle, believe in lower taxes for everyone who pays them - individuals, families, businesses - because we believe Americans should keep more of the money they earn. For that reason, we support discussion of ways to reform state tax code as a means by which to lower the burden of taxes on Iowans. Start consolidation conversation We encourage formation of a legislative study committee to begin what we understand will be contentious, difficult dialogue about county government consolidation in this state. Our question: Does Iowa need 99 counties? Fix gun law Lawmakers should revisit the gun law they passed in 2017 in order to give local government bodies the legal right under state law to adopt a ban on weapons in local public buildings, such as the Woodbury County Courthouse. While they're at it, they should remove the provision allowing firearms in the Iowa Capitol. Decide school funding early The Legislature should make a decision on K-12 education state aid early in the session so local school districts will have the information they need to craft budgets within a proper time frame. Room exists for still more improvement by lawmakers in this process. State law, in fact, requires the Legislature to set state funding for K-12 public schools two years in advance and within 30 days of receiving the governor's budget. Address opioid abuse A new report by the University of Iowa shares troubling numbers about the extent to which this state faces a problem of opioid abuse. A class of drugs, opioids include legal pain relievers available by prescription and the illegal drug heroin. According to the UI report, which was compiled through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to UI's Injury Prevention Research Center, shows: Prescription opioid overdose deaths have quadrupled in Iowa since 1999. Heroin deaths have increased more than ninefold in the past 15 years, three times higher than the national average. The U of I report is a good place to start a discussion within the Legislature of how state government should respond to this national crisis here in Iowa. The fossilized remains of an herbivorous dinosaur were found in ancient rocks in Australia. The fast-running dinosaur is actually just the size of a turkey. Flood Runner Australia is home to many unique creatures, and as it turns out, it has been so for millions of years. A newly published research paper describes the discovery of the partial skeleton of a turkey-sized dinosaur lodged within 113-million-year-old rocks. The fossilized remains were actually found protruding from a rock near Cape Otway back in 2005. Though the fossils found were incomplete, comprised of an almost complete tail and a hind leg, upon extensive examination, they found that the creature was likely a turkey-sized, fast-running close relative of the already known bipedal ornithopod species that also roamed the area. As such, they named the dinosaur the Diluvicursor pickeringi, which means "Pickering's Flood-Running dinosaur" in honor of David Pickering, a notable figure in Australian paleontology who sadly passed away on the day before Christmas in 2016. Diluvicursor Species The discovery sheds light onto the diversity of ornithopods, which used to roam between Australia and Antarctica. Specifically, researchers believe that this is the first discovery that shows at least one other distinction in the body type of the ornithopods. "One was lightly built with an extraordinarily long tail, while the other, Diluvicursor, was more solidly built, with a far shorter tail," said Dr. Matthew C. Herne, lead author of the study. Upon examining the creature's hind leg, researchers found that the creature likely had powerful leg muscles. Coupling that with the muscular tail of the D. pickeringi suggests that the creature was very likely a powerful runner. Dinosaur In A Jam Apart from learning about the creature itself, researchers also gained insight regarding the environment it was moving in especially given that the fossilized remains appeared to have been entangled in a log-jam as it was likely buried along with tree stumps, branches, and logs at the bottom of a powerful river. What this suggests is that the path that the ancient river went through was that of a forested terrain. Amazingly, the logs also preserved at the site represent the conifer trees that are still standing in Australian forests today. As it stands, there are still many fossil finds waiting to be discovered at the Eric the Red West site, so researchers are excited to see what else they can discover about the flora and fauna of the ancient site. The paper describing D. pickering is published in the journal PeerJ. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Park City, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OCEARCH, who has produced critical scientific data related to the tracking of keystone marine species, is returning to the Lowcountry - the South Carolina coast - plus the coastal waters of north Florida and Georgia after tagging two white and two tiger sharks in the area last year. Were returning to the Lowcountry because our sharks led us here, Chris Fischer, OCEARCH founding chairman and Expedition Leader, said. Previous data collected shows that OCEARCHs mature Lowcountry white sharks and most of OCEARCHs mature Cape Cod white sharks have differing paths. The team is returning to gather data that will help researchers understand the habitat use of the Lowcountry White Shark vs. the Cape Cod White Shark. Two of our mature animals, Lydia and Hilton, tagged in the Southeast spent significant time in Canadian Atlantic waters, while most of our Cape Cod sharks have not, with some exceptions, said Dr. Bob Hueter, Director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory and OCEARCHs Chief Science Advisor. Because of the overwintering importance of the Southeast for the entire Northwest Atlantic population, and because our mature animals tagged there went to Canada, it's important we follow up on previous expeditions and try to get more tags out in the Southeast, especially on mature animals. OCEARCH tagged Hilton, its first mature male who is currently pinging off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, in the area last year. In total, the research group has caught, satellite-tagged, and tracked 33 great white sharks in the Atlantic since 2012, including five mature white sharks; however, scientists need a larger sample size. More movement data, especially on mature animals, remains the key to a comprehensive understanding of the species habitat use, Dr. Bryan Franks, expedition lead scientist and Assistant Professor of Marine Science at Jacksonville University, said. More data that will allow researchers to better understand seasonal ranges and identify critical areas for the white shark along the eastern seaboard. The team of shark researchers and fishermen will begin their research on January 18 off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, before heading to Hilton Head, South Carolina, as part of Expedition Lowcountry II. OCEARCH will host 11 researchers, from 11 various institutions, aboard its M/V OCEARCH research vessel as part of its mission to enable data collection by providing collaborating researchers and institutions unprecedented access to mature marine animals. There are also 11 other researchers from 10 institutions who will receive the biological samples from each animal tagged, allowing them to analyze the results from the blood, mucus, muscle, parasite, genetic, and other samples collected. Researchers will use these samples to conduct several studies, including understanding the sharks reproductive condition. The expedition will include scientists from Jacksonville University, Mote Marine Laboratory, Adventure Aquarium, Georgia Aquarium, Georgia Southern University, University of South Carolina-Beaufort, Wildlife Conservation Societys New York Aquarium, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of Massachusetts, University of North Florida, Auburn University, College of Charleston, University of Florida, Cape Canaveral Scientific, South Eastern Zoological Alliance for Reproductive Conservation, VithajSafari, Long Island Shark Collaboration, Georgia Institute of Technology, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Windsor University, and Shedd Aquarium. All sharks will be fitted with at least one satellite transmitter tag and an acoustic tag. As the sharks fins break the surface, the satellite tag will transmit their locations. You can follow the sharks tagged during Expedition Lowcountry II by accessing the near-real time, free online Global Shark Tracker or by downloading the Global Shark Tracker App available for Apple and Android platforms. Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dab5cabc-27b6-432d-9b48-9746254521fc Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1a4e01c0-6e21-47d9-960b-87fd4ca863a1 Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cfd6befe-3952-488b-b6ad-6afa354c6a34 Many high-end dramas are now getting an HDR grade, but post producing in HDR takes another level of technical and creative know-how, finds Jon Creamer The Farm Riviera The Farm worked on both SDR and HDR versions of the Sky Atlantic drama. Aidan Farrell graded the series What was the desired look for the show? Rather than manipulating the colours to create a stylised look, Aidan wanted the grade to reflect a very natural and European Cinematic feel. The end result is a very natural grade, both in the SDR and HDR versions. The locations really came to life in HDR, and coupled with the great cinematography, there are several exterior shots that really do stand out in HDR. How was the workflow different to a single SDR delivery? The difference in workflows between traditional HD/rec. 709 pipelines comes mainly down to two points data and colour management. Designing efficient workflows to encompass both storage considerations and deliveries in multiple colourspaces is a relatively new occurrence in the broadcast domain, and requires a similar approach to feature film DI workflows there is much more of an overlap between the two worlds (broadcast and cinema) with UHD and HDR. What do you need to think about when delivering in HDR? HDR delivery alongside SDR takes a little more planning, with the main question regarding which version of the grade is more important, as this has implications for colour management throughout the post production process. This is the main delta between traditional broadcast colour pipelines (where a single rec. 709 delivery was the only requirement), and is more in line with those relating to feature and cinematic delivery where you may see final masters in three or more different colour spaces. What was the creative upside of working in HDR? The key creative upside of HDR is one of storytelling, as the technology enables more immersive and engaging visuals. Not only is the potential there for bigger and brighter, but the wide colour gamut also gives a great deal more creative expression throughout the picture, allowing more nuance and detail to be explored. What are the top tips for delivering in HDR? Its important to engage with all suppliers (both creative and technical) as early on as possible to discuss HDR, it has effects throughout the production pipeline. A key decision with Riviera was that the HDR grade be designed from the outset to be an enhancement and complement to the SDR the aim being a more immersive experience for the audience, without the technology becoming a distraction from the story. Molinare Oasis Colourist Asa Shoul on the HDR grade Amazons drama pilot Oasis What did you have to think about when delivering in HDR? Apart from the technical requirements we had to consider creative intent and where extra highlight detail was wanted or might become distracting. What was your workflow for this? Thats a secret. But Filmlight have put workflow tools into Baselight that make HDR grading as easy as possible. What were the difficulties you encountered? We composited skies in Baselight and had to finesse these in HDR as its unforgiving with edges of keys. We also saw lamps, lights offset and through windows that were not visible in SDR. What was the creative upside of HDR? It is more immersive and almost gives a three dimensional feel to the project. Are there any particular scenes that really lent themselves to HDR? The sunrise and sunset scenes in Oasis are absolutely stunning in the HDR version. What advice would you give other people that are working in HDR today? Dont go crazy! Theres a fine line between a bright skin tone looking pleasing or electronic. Also there is a need to watch out for reflected light starting to look emitted. You cant simply accept that a window or light next to your actor now has lots more detail and brightness, as it may now distract from their performance. Also dont assume an HDR pass wont require windowing and additional time as we have to correct these issues. Encore Marvels The Defenders Encores Tony DAmore balanced distinct looks in HDR and SDR for Marvels The Defenders The various Marvel series were some of the first shows Netflix posted in HDR, with colour grading by Encore senior colourist Tony DAmore. He was brought in again to grade Marvels The Defenders and worked alongside series DP Matthew J. Lloyd. DAmore delivered a grade for The Defenders that informed both Dolby Vision and SDR outputs. Unlike HDR 10, which requires separate HDR and SDR passes, the Dolby Vision master can stream data for SDR and transmit content in the appropriate brightness for a viewers display. The drawback is that one pass must stand up to both HDR and SDR displays. Since dailies were conducted in SDR, much of the look was set in the colour suite, where DAmore worked in the P3 colour space using DaVinci Resolve. DAmore would execute an initial pass using a colour script provided by production that outlined preset character tones: red for Daredevil, cyan for Iron Fist, yellow for Luke Cage and blue for Jessica Jones. He also made sure the colour palettes were appropriately married into the scene. Managing each characters look separately was easy, says DAmore. But the shots where they share the screen proved challenging, particularly fight sequences, which required an insane amount of tracking and shapes to ensure that each characters colour story integrated well within the scene. And we had to make sure the grade worked in both HDR and SDR. Sometimes the colours would really pop in HDR, cyan in particular looks great, but when you switch back to SDR, its very muted in comparison, so wed often turn off the HDR display and evaluate with fresh eyes. Dolby Vision has a wide colour gamut and highlight latitude, so we used it to bring out high resolution detail, and avoid blasting viewers with brightness. The format shines in the darker scenes; its shocking what youre able to see. Goldcrest Bounty Hunters Goldcrest provided post including the SDR and HDR grades for Sky Ones Bounty Hunters What did you have to think about when delivering in HDR? Delivering in HDR 10 limits you to 1000 nits so the challenge is to find the right balance between using the additional headroom and not deviating too far from the SDR hero grade. What was different about working in HDR compared to SDR? HDR affords you a much broader dynamic range. The trick is to exploit this whilst remaining true to the intention of the original SDR grade. What was your workflow for this? We used the same workflow as we would for any HDR feature we have done previously. We always grade from the source data. We never do the HDR grade from the SDR rendered master. This gives us the maximum latitude to adjust the grade for each type of delivery. For the HDR, we use the live SDR project and replace our display LUT to a Rec2020/PQ bespoke version. The live SDR grade, including secondary online effects etc. is used as the starting point and the colourist builds the HDR pass on the top of it. Because everything remains live, the colourist can unpick anything he would have done on the SDR grade to get the most out of the HDR grade. What was the creative upside of HDR? The extra dynamic range afforded by HDR allows for a particularly strong image; far more vivid than SDR. HDR is particularly impressive when grading landscapes. The ability to significantly increase brightness in the sky whilst retaining detail gives the image extra dimensionality and a feeling closer to reality. Are there any particular scenes in the project that really lent themselves to HDR? Bounty Hunters has three different locations, each with its own grade theme to separate them: New York green, UK neutral , Mexico extra contrast with a yellow bias. HDR was particularly effective in all the Mexico scenes as I could push the contrast further without losing detail in the highlights. The result had the desired sweaty, scorched feel. What advice would you give others? Care should be taken when choosing how much of the 1000 nits range is too be used. Pushing the highlights too far can result in an image so bright so as to be painful to watch, particularly when cut next to a dark scene. Technicolor The Trip to Spain Technicolor delivered SDR and HDR versions of the series for Sky Atlantic along with an SDR feature length theatrical version for the US When did you know you had to deliver an HDR version? We discussed delivery of an HDR version before production began so we had time to prepare a workflow. Dan Coles did the SDR grade first, and we spent time discussing the Baselight setup so we could best translate his grade in to an HDR world. Alex Gascoigne did the HDR version. What was your workflow for this? With any show with an HDR deliverable, there is always discussion as to which version to do first. As there was a feature-length SDR theatrical delivery for the US as well as the series for the UK, it made sense to do the SDR pass first. The drama was captured primarily on ALEXA Mini, with a DJI drone camera system used for aerial shots. Grading in Baselight on a Sony BVM-X300 display, we used an ACES workflow which allowed us to seamlessly switch between the SDR 100-nit and HDR 1000-nit grades. What was different about working in HDR compared to SDR? Working in HDR gives access to a greater range of contrast and colour. Highlights can be significantly brighter, allowing more contrast in cloudy skies, for example. This opens up many creative possibilities but care has to be taken to avoid pushing the images too far from the original intent. Decisions have to be made as to how far to push the HDR grade relative to the SDR version. The Trip series is shot in a naturalistic style so pushing the look too far could detract from the performances. Having very bright highlights behind an actors head, for example, can direct the audiences attention away from the subject. What were the difficulties you encountered? Increases in contrast and saturation have a tendency to highlight elements unnoticed in the SDR grade. For example, in one of the interior restaurant locations, green spill from the trees outside was reflected by the large white shutters either side of the windows. In SDR this was quite a subtle effect, but in the HDR version we had to suppress the green significantly to avoid it being distracting. What was the creative upside of HDR? The production made great use of drones to capture gorgeous sweeping Spanish vistas and we took the opportunity to really celebrate the range of warm earthy tones and blue skies. Share this story Robotic weeders: to a farm near you? Washington DC (SPX) Jan 11, 2018 The future of weeding is here, and it comes in the form of a robot. The growing popularity of robotic weeders for specialty crops has grown partly out of necessity, says Steven Fennimore, an extension specialist at the University of California, Davis. Specialty crops are vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, and onions. They are not mass-produced like corn, soybeans, and wheat. The need for robotic weeders stems from two issues. One is a lack of herbicides available for use in specialty cro ... read more Dublin, Jan. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Interactive Baby Monitors Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2018-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global baby monitors market is likely to cross 20 million units in terms of shipment during 2017-2023. The increase in per capita income and the number of dual-income households constitute the basis of increasing spending on baby monitors. The report provides a holistic view of the global market, companies involved in the market, and factors driving its growth. It also provides information on some of the latest trends that have started to surface and are likely to become strong market driving forces over the next five years. This report also provides the Porter's Five Forces analysis along with a description of each force and its impact on the market. Further, the report also provides complete value chain analysis of the global market. Interactive Baby Monitors Market Key Vendor Analysis Currently, the competitive scenario in the market is intensifying. The competition will be based solely in terms of features such as quality, quantity, technology, services, and price. The market competition is expected to intensify further with an increase in product/service extensions, technological innovations, and M&A. Major Vendors are: Dorel Flir Lorex Mattel Motorola Philips Samsung Summer Infant Other Prominent vendors mentioned in the report are BabyPing, Dropcam (Nestlab), Foscam, Graco, VTech, WiFi Baby, and Withings. Emerging Vendors in the market are SEP Solutions, Philips, iBaby Labs, Motorola, Stem Innovation, Belkin International, Chinavision The prominent vendors in the baby movement monitors market are Angelcare, Bluespark, Hisense, Mayborn Group, Snuza, Exmovere, iBaby Guard, infanttech, Jablotron, MonDevices, Owlet Baby Care, Respisense, Rest Devices, Safetosleep, and Tomy International. Interactive Baby Monitors Market Dynamics Growing awareness of SUID leading to increased sales. A rise in the number of newborns is a key demographic factor influencing the sale potential of baby monitors. Also, growing awareness about SUID (Sudden Unexpected Infant Death) is another major reason for the increase in the sale of monitoring devices. Introduction of smart technology-driven products and increased popularity of movement/motion-detection devices and popularity of IoT and smart home devices are some of the latest trends that are emerging and are expected to catalyze the market growth during the forecast period. Interactive Baby Monitors Market Segmental Analysis Audio only segment to lead in terms of shipment and audio and video segment to lead in terms of revenue. In terms of unit shipment, the audio only segment is going to lead the market. It will be followed by the audio and video segment. Although, the movement monitors segment witnessed the lowest market share in 2016, it is expected to witness a high traction during the forecast period. In terms of revenue, the audio and video segment is expected to have the maximum share and will be followed by the movement monitors segment. Likewise, the cordless segment, which was leading the market in 2016 both in terms of revenue and shipment, is expected to decline. Interactive Baby Monitors Market Geographical Analysis North America to take over the leading position from Europe both in terms of revenue and APAC to take over in terms of shipment. In 2016, Europe held the leading position both in terms of revenue and shipment. It was followed by North America in terms of revenue. However, with growing popularity of smart baby monitors and high demand in the US, the market in North America is expected to grow tremendously surpassing the European baby monitors market in terms of revenue. Also, APAC is the fastest growing market for interactive baby monitors in the world and expected to lead the market in terms of unit shipment in 2023. Key Topics Covered: 1 Research Methodology 2 Research objectives 3 Research Process 4 Report Coverage 4.1 Market Definition 4.2 Base Year 4.3 Scope of Study 4.3.1 Market Segmentation by Product Format Type 4.3.2 Market Segmentation by Distribution Channels 4.3.3 Market Segmentation by Transmission Type 4.3.4 Market Segmentation by Mode of Connectivity Type 4.3.5 Market Segmentation by Geography 5 Report Assumptions & Caveats 5.1 Key Caveats 5.1.1 Inclusions 5.1.2 Exclusions 5.2 Currency Conversion rate 5.3 Market Derivation 6 Market at a Glance 7 Introduction 7.1 Overview 7.2 MacroEconomic Factors Driving Market 7.2.1 Per Capita GDP in Developing Markets 7.2.2 Dual-income Households in Developed Markets 8 Market Dynamics 8.1 Market Growth Enablers 8.1.1 Growing Awareness and Fear of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Syndrome 8.1.2 Increasing Influence of Internet in Shaping End-users' Purchasing Behavior 8.1.3 Growing Number of Newborns 8.1.4 YOY Impact of Market Growth Enablers 8.1.5 YOY Impact of Market Growth Enablers on Geographies 8.2 Market Growth Restraint 8.2.1 Safety Related Concerns 8.2.2 Change in End-users' Sociography 8.2.3 Low Penetration in Emerging Economies 8.2.4 YOY Impact of Market Growth Restraint 8.2.5 YOY Impact of Market Growth Restraint on Regions 8.3 Market Opportunities & Trends 8.3.1 Introduction of Smart Technology in Baby Care 8.3.2 Popularity of IoT and Smart Devices 8.3.3 High Demand for Movement Monitors 8.3.4 YOY Impact of Market Opportunities & Trends 8.3.5 YOY Impact of Market Opportunities & Trends on Regions 8.3.6 Sensitivity Analysis of Key Market Trends and Opportunities 9 Value Chain Analysis 9.1 Overview 9.1.1 Raw Materials 9.1.2 Manufacturers 9.1.3 Distributors/Dealers 9.1.4 Retailers 9.1.5 End-user 10 Global Interactive Baby Monitor Market 10.1 Market Overview 10.1.1 Historical Data 2015-2016 10.1.2 Market Size & Forecast 10.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 11 Interactive Baby Monitor Market By Product Format 11.1 Market Overview 11.2 Global Audio Only Interactive Baby Monitor Market 11.2.1 Market Size & Forecast 11.3 Global Audio and video Interactive Baby Monitor Market 11.3.1 Market Size & Forecast 11.4 Global Interactive Baby Movement Monitor Market 11.4.1 Market Size & Forecast 11.4.2 Under-the-mattress Movement Monitor 11.4.3 Diaper Attachment Movement Monitor 11.4.4 Smart Wearable Movement Monitors 12 Interactive baby monitor Market by Mode of Connectivity 12.1 Market Size & Forecast 13 Interactive Baby Monitor Market By Transmission Signal 13.1 Market Size & Forecast 14 Market Segmentation by Distribution Channels 14.1 Distribution Channels of Interactive baby monitor Market 14.1.1 Manufacture, Production, and Distribution 14.1.2 Distribution through Retail Stores 14.1.3 Distribution through Online Websites 15 Geographical segmentation 15.1 MARKET OVERVIEW 16 Europe: Interactive Baby Monitor Market 16.1 Market Overview 16.1.1 Historical Data 2015-2016 16.1.2 Market Size & Forecast 2017-2023 16.2 Market by Product Format 16.3 Key Countries 16.4 Leading Trend, Driver, and Restraint 17 North America: Interactive Baby Monitor Market 17.1 Market Overview 17.1.1 Historic Data 2015-2016 17.1.2 Market Size & Forecast 2017-2023 17.2 Market by Product Format 17.3 Key Countries 17.4 Leading Trend, Driver, and Restraint 18 APAC: Interactive Baby Monitor Market 18.1 Market Overview 18.1.1 Historic Data 2015-2016 18.1.2 Market Size & Forecast 2017-2023 18.2 Market by Product Format 18.3 Key Countries 18.4 Leading Trend, Driver, and Restraint 19 Latin America: Interactive Baby Monitor Market 19.1 Market Overview 19.1.1 Historic Data: 2015-2016 19.1.2 Market Size & Forecast 2017-2023 19.2 Market by Product Format 19.3 Key countries 19.4 Leading Trend, Driver, and Restraint 20 MEA: Interactive Baby Monitor Market 20.1 Market Overview 20.1.1 Historic Data 2015-2016 20.1.2 Market Size & Forecast 2017-2023 20.2 Market by Product Format 20.3 Key Countries 20.4 Leading Trend, Driver, and Restraint 21 Competitive Landscape 21.1 Market Overview 21.2 Market Structure and Mapping of Competition 21.2.1 Herfindahl-Hirschman Index 21.3 Market VENDOR Analysis 21.3.1 Overview 21.3.2 Product Differentiation and Format Analysis 22 Key Company Profiles 22.1 Dorel Industries 22.2 Flir Lorex 22.3 Mattel 22.4 Motorola Mobility 22.5 Philips AVENT 22.6 Samsung Electronics 22.7 Summer Infant 23 Other Prominent Companies 23.1 BabyPing 23.2 Dropcam (Nest Labs) 23.3 Foscam 23.4 Graco 23.5 VTech 23.6 WiFi Baby 23.7 Withings 23.8 Others Emerging Smart Baby Monitor Brands 23.9 Angelcare 23.1 Blue Spark Technologies 23.11 Hisense 23.12 Mayborn Group 23.13 Snuza International 23.14 Exmovere 23.15 iBaby Guard International 23.16 Infanttech 23.17 Jablotron 23.18 MonDevices 23.19 Owlet Baby Care 23.2 Respisense 23.21 Rest Devices 23.22 Safetosleep 23.23 Tomy International 24 Report Summary 24.1 Key Takeaways 24.2 Strategic Recommendation 24.3 Qualitative Summary: Global Interactive Baby Monitor Market 24.4 Quantitative Summary: Global Interactive baby monitor Market 25 Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/6fqzhm/global?w=12 VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nicola Mining Inc. (TSX-V:NIM) has received the required permitting to commence reverse circular drilling (RC Drilling) on the approximate 80 90 million tonnes of waste piles surrounding the historic Craigmont Mine. The Company is also pleased to announce that the 2017 Embayment Zone Exploration Program has expanded the Embayment Skarn Zone to 400 metres in strike length (east to west). On December 27, 2017 the Company announced that it had completed a non-brokered private placement of in the form of flow-through financing (FT Financing) at $0.20. The FT Financing, which was significantly oversubscribed, sold an aggregate of 10,262,500 shares with gross proceeds of $2,052,500. The 18,689,630 warrants that were exercisable at $0.15 all expired at the end of December 2017. Use of funds from the FT Financing is described in the December 27, 2017 news release. On December 21, 2017 the Company announced that the first four holes all successfully intersected skarn alteration, including previously untested segments of the Embayment Zone. Post news release the Company completed a fifth hole, which has intersected the skarn alteration and has now expanded the skarn zone to over 400 metres in length. The Company is currently drilling the sixth hole and will assay all the holes and release results upon receipt. During the assaying of the first six holes the Company will focus commencing an RC Drilling program on the waste piles. The 2018 RC drill program will follow up the successful results announced on September 26, 2017 with the average grade for the top 9 metres in the first 29 holes was 0.24%. Considering that 50% of the cost of producing copper is associated with mining activity the grade equivalent of the piled material is approximately 0.48%. The purpose of the RC Program is to test the in-situ Copper grade of the approximate 80-million tonnes of waste piles associated with the historic Craigmont Mine, which had a cut-off grade of 0.7% Cu. Nicola Mining Inc. is a junior mining company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, and is in the process of recommencing mill feed processing operations at its 100% owned state-of-the-art mill and tailings facility, located near Merritt, British Columbia. It has already signed four mill profit share agreements with high grade gold producers. The fully-permitted mill is able to process both gold and silver mill feed via gravity and floatation processes. The Company also owns 100% of Treasure Mountain, its high-grade silver property, and a gravel pit, which is located adjacent to its milling operations. On behalf of the Board of Directors Peter Espig Peter Espig CEO & Director For additional information Contact: Peter Espig Phone: (778) 385-1213 Email: info@nicolamining.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. VERMILION, Ohio (AP) An Ohio police department receiving angry emails and Facebook messages about the controversial arrest of a teacher is asking the senders to stop for one key reason: It actually happened in a similarly named community in Louisiana. Police in Vermilion, Ohio, have received sometimes profane messages this week reacting to the Monday arrest in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. The Ohio department pointed out that detail on its Facebook page with a plea: "Please stop sending us your hate mail." The Ohio agency's chief, Christopher Hartung, told reporters he has messaged some individual commenters to explain that they're targeting the wrong place, and some have been apologetic. The commenters were reacting to the video-recorded arrest of teacher Deyshia Hargrave after she questioned the superintendent's salary at the parish school board meeting. +24 Vermilion Parish teacher who confronted school board described as 'heroine in the fight to be heard' In the space of less than 72 hours, Deyshia Hargrave went from being an anonymous Vermilion Parish language-arts teacher to an internet sensat Video: Vermilion Parish teacher Deyshia Hargrave speaks at Abbeville rally 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 Expanding Interstate 10 from the Mississippi River bridge to the I-10/12 split will take at least five years to complete, Louisiana's transportation chief said Friday. Also, the plan envisions a new lane in each direction, both the on and off-ramps at Perkins Road being closed permanently, and an eastbound ramp being added at Dalrymple Drive, officials said. The $350 million project is the biggest part of Gov. John Bel Edwards $600 million transportation plan, which he spelled out Friday and that relies on federal bonds as the key funding source. The work also includes up to $110 million to connect I-10 at Loyola Drive with the soon-to-be-expanded Louisiana Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, part of a $963 million project that Mayor Mitch Landrieu called historic. "As they say in New Orleans, if you can't find a way you make one," Landrieu said of the innovative financing planned for the projects. Shawn Wilson, secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development, said the I-10 widening will take "several years" because he wants to keep at least two lanes open to traffic, slowing construction progress. The state hopes to start work on the I-10 expansion in Baton Rouge and other plans in 2019. +13 In rarity, Louisiana state officials launch major I-10 widening project Gov. John Bel Edwards and a host of other politicians Thursday celebrated the launch of a rare, high-profile highway project: widening Interst Wilson said five years to do the widening is a minimum and said it might be seven. Aside from the expansion of the interstate, work is needed repairing surface damage on the roughly 60-year-old roadway, DOTD officials said. The corridor is one of the most heavily congested and complained about in the Baton Rouge area. About 180,000 cars and trucks cross the bridge daily. The announcement, which took place at The Water Campus on River Road, featured the Mississippi River bridge in the background, including stalled mid-day traffic. East Baton Rouge Parish Sharon Weston Broome called I-10 widening momentous. "The improvement is desperately needed for our region and parish," Broome said. The parish, using credits from previous transactions with the state, will put up $12 million to help with construction costs. The five-parish Capital Region Planning Commission is chipping in $24 million. The on-ramp at Dalrymple Drive would not cross city and university lakes, officials said. What they envision is an eastbound offshoot near the current, westbound on-ramp onto I-10. Residents in the area have long said an eastbound on-ramp to I-10 would damage the flavor of the area, which is near LSU. However, a new on-ramp would ease traffic on heavily-used Morning Glory, which connects with Stanford Avenue and Acadian Thruway. The plan is also expected to spark concerns from residents and business owners in the Perkins Road overpass area, which have vehemently opposed similar proposals in the past. Barbara Freiberg, the District 12 Metro Councilwoman who represents the area, said DOTD leaders "will be sensitive to the concerns to the neighbors who will be affected by the construction." "But is is important for the city," Freiberg said of the widening work. Wilson said the state owns 85 percent of the needed right-of-way on that part of I-10. Others said that, despite concerns from business owners around the Perkins Road overpass, the work can be done with minimal impact on restaurants and bars. The key to the outline is the state's plan to use federal bonds to essentially get an advance on federal dollars, then repay the money from yearly federal allocations over 12 years. They are called Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle Bonds, or GARVEE bonds. Wilson said 25 states have used the method to build $20 billion in transportation upgrades. He said he is confident of federal approval for the financing method, and hopes to have a memorandum of understanding with U. S. officials in the next few months. Edwards alluded to the unusual financing when he noted that a bid to boost the state gasoline tax 17 cents per gallon $510 million per year died in the Legislature last year. "That is regrettable," he said. "But that can't stop us from doing the best we can do." Some highway advocates said the gas tax hike failed in part because of reluctance by the GOP-controlled Legislature to let Democrat Edwards take credit for always popular road and bridge improvements. Edwards faces re-election in 2019. The governor's push is aimed at getting around the state's inability to raise more road and bridge money. The formerly $13 billion backlog is now $13.9 billion, Edwards said. Aside from federal scrutiny, the proposal faces reviews by the Joint Legislative Transportation Committee and the State Bond Commission. Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, and House Transportation Committee Chairman Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville, were among local officials who heaped praise on the governor's proposal. Jefferson Parish President Mike Yenni noted that the I-10 work in Kenner will allow both westbound and eastbound motorists easy access to the airport off the interstate. "That is huge for our region," Yenni said. Adam Knapp, president of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, said the importance of the announcement was highlighted by the turnout, including bank and hospital presidents, LSU President F. King Alexander and others. The two other projects on the $600 million plan are: A new connector from I-20 directly into Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City. Up to 10 percent funding for toll bridges, which is aimed at plans to replace the Belle Chasse tunnel. The state hopes to make that a private/public partnership, with private firms paying most of the $122 million in exchange for toll revenue. CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Revelstoke Equity Inc. (the Corporation) (TSXV:REQ.H) announces the resignation of Ian Hogg as a director of the Corporation. The board of directors would like to thank Mr. Hogg for his contribution to the Corporation and wish him the best in his future endeavors. For further information, please contact: Revelstoke Equity Inc. Craig Leon, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Secretary and Director Telephone: (416) 368-2773 Email: cleon@rangercap.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. Not for dissemination to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States of America. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities laws. The Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and other environmentalists have sued the Army Corps of Engineers for granting a permit to allow the construction of the controversial Bayou Bridge pipeline. +6 Bayou Bridge pipeline receives Corps, DEQ permits, closing in on construction start The Bayou Bridge pipeline, a controversial crude oil line proposed through the heart of the Atchafalaya Basin, cleared key permitting threshol "The pipeline project proposes to connect the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, which transports volatile and explosive Bakken crude oil from North Dakota, to refineries in St. James Parish and export terminals, forming the southern leg of the Bakken Pipeline. Energy Transfer Partners owns both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the proposed Bayou Bridge Pipeline," attorneys with the group Earthjustice wrote in a statement, adding that Bayou Bridge represents "a toxic mix of incompetence and greed." Opponents contend that regulators have not considered the potential threats to the environment posed by the proposed pipeline. Lawyer Jan Hasselman said that Corps was so short-sighted in their review of Bayou Bridge that the court should find their approval illegal. The Basinkeeper is joined by the Waterkeeper Alliance, Gulf Restoration Network and Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association. Crawfishermen have argued that Bayou Bridge will cause such harm to the environment as to destroy wild crawfish habitats and endanger their way of life. Authorities in the energy sector have disputed those claims. The lawsuit filed Thursday means Bayou Bridge is now facing legal challenges in federal and state courts. Attorneys with Tulane's Environmental Law Clinic representing St. James residents have asked the 23rd Judicial District to rescind a permit granted by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources as well. That matter is still under review. +2 Bayou Bridge pipeline winds up in court as environmentalists, state square off A state judge is weighing arguments about whether to overturn a necessary permit for Bayou Bridge, the proposed crude oil pipeline that would Not only is the Atchafalaya Basin the most important ecosystem for neotropical migratory birds in the western hemisphere, but it is also critically important to protect much of south Louisiana and the Mississippi valley from major river floods. By allowing unsustainable development in the Basin, we are endangering hundreds of cities and communities and millions of people in southern Louisiana, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper Executive Director Dean Wilson, said in a statement.' Corps officials declined to comment, saying the agency has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation. Gov. John Bel Edwards plans to announce a $600 million transportation plan Friday, including widening Interstate 10 from the Mississippi River bridge to the I-10/12 split. The outline, which will be spelled out at a press conference, relies largely on federal bonds to finance the work, which would be repaid by the state over 12 years, according to Shawn Wilson, secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development. New DOTD chief: Finding I-10 solutions top priority Finding solutions for daily traffic tie-ups on Interstate 10 near the I-10 Mississippi River bridge will be one of the top priorities when Gov "This innovative funding mechanism is needed in Louisiana at this time," Edwards said in a statement. "These projects are of the utmost importance for economic development and for convenience to the traveling public," he said. "The longer we wait, the more they cost and the more we lose." The effort also includes replacement of the I-10 interchange in Kenner at Loyola Drive to serve the refurbished Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. New access for Barksdale U.S. Air Force Base in Bossier City and, if needed, dollars for the new Belle Chasse tunnel are also in the package. "This will create a better quality of life for citizens, a better experience for visitors and a stronger economy for Louisiana by re-developing our current infrastructure to meet the needs of business and the traveling public," Wilson said in a statement. Wilson said Friday that, while a federal review is involved for the plan to happen, he is confident of state approval. He also said 25 other states have used similar routes for road and bridge building totaling $25 billion. The I-10 work in Baton Rouge has been discussed for years. It would cost at least $350 million. In the past, heavy opposition from business owners in the Perkins Road Overpass area has helped kill efforts to widen the interstate. The latest plan is likely to rekindle that criticism. Adam Knapp, president of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, praised the I-10 widening proposal. "With this announcement, Louisiana makes it clear that it is committed to meeting the infrastructure needs of our growing economy," Knapp said in a statement. Among those set to be on hand for Edwards 11:30 a.m. press conference are House Transportation Committee Chairman Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville; Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Page Cortez, R-Lafayette; New Orleans Mayor Mitch Lsndrieu; East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome; Jefferson Parish President Michael Yenni; Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn and Knapp. The announcement comes at a time when state highway and bridge building has largely been frozen because of a money shortage. A bid to raise the gas tax by 17 cents per gallon, and raise $510 million per year, died in the Legislature last year. No major hike in state aid for roads and bridges is expected before 2021 because of legislative rules and political concerns. The state has a $13 billion backlog of road and bridge plans. Baton Rouge motorists are among the top complainers about road conditions. The stretch between the bridge and the I-10/12 split is considered one of the most congested in the Baton Rouge area. The financing would be done with the use of GARVEE bonds. GARVEE stands for Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle Bonds. The plan allows the state to repay the debt with federal highway aid Louisiana gets yearly. Other support would come local governments, including East Baton Rouge Parish and the City of New Orleans. "We hear complaints of our crumbling infrastructure and growing congestion all the time," Edwards said. "With no reliable funding, it's tools like this that will help us accelerate much-needed reconstruction and improvements to our system," he added. All of the projects are set to win environmental approval this year, with work beginning in 2019. "Make no mistake, this does not solve our transportation funding problems," Wilson said. "It simply addresses the iceberg of infrastructure needs," he said. All four projects have been on the state's to-do list for decades. In this photo from President Donald Trump's Twitter account, George Papadopoulos, third from left, sits at a table with then-candidate Trump and others at what is labeled at a national security meeting in Washington that was posted on March 31, 2016. Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide belittled by the White House as a low-level volunteer was thrust on Oct. 30, 2017, to the center of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, providing evidence in the first criminal case that connects Trumps team and intermediaries for Russia seeking to interfere in the campaign. (Donald Trump's Twitter account via AP) ORG XMIT: WX116 Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond is the latest to respond to comments made by President Donald Trump Thursday afternoon during an Oval Office meeting in which he questioned why the U.S. should allow more immigrants from "shithole" countries. "(Donald Trump's) 'shithole' comments are further proof that his Make America Great Again agenda is really a Make America White Again agenda," the congressman said through a statement released by the Congressional Black Caucus', of which Richmond is the caucus chairman, Twitter account. Richmond later expounded on his stance in a formal statement, saying Trump's comments are another "confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views." "All of the reservations we have had about negotiating with him on immigration are well-founded," Richmond said. "President Trump is clearly more concerned with ending the future flow of immigrants from Africa and the African diaspora than providing relief to Dreamers who came here through no fault of their own. "Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that we can negotiate in good faith with a person who holds such vile and reprehensible beliefs ... Now that his true motivations are clear, the Congressional Black Caucus calls on all Members of Congress, including those negotiating on the immigration deal, to reject any and all efforts to end the Diversity Visa Program." Trump's comments were made during discussion of revamping rules affecting entrants from Africa and Haiti, according to three people briefed on the conversation, as two lawmakers described details to him of a bipartisan compromise among six senators that would extend protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants and strengthen border protections. Trump specifically questioned why the U.S. would want to admit more people from Haiti and Africa, asking why more people from "shithole countries should be allowed into the U.S., the sources said. Trump questions why U.S. should allow immigrants from 's---hole countries' WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump questioned Thursday why the U.S. should permit more immigrants from "shithole countries" after senato 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. Asked about the remarks, 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. Now that his true motivations are clear, the Congressional Black Caucus calls on all Members of Congress, including those negotiating on the immigration deal, to reject any and all efforts to end the Diversity Visa Program. On Christmas morning, Celia Spera felt so bad that she opened presents while lying down. In playful exchanges on Twitter, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey have raised the stakes in the Saints' Sunday face-off against Minnesota in a friendly wager. If the Saints lose, Landrieu must send king cakes up north. If the Vikings lose, the Saints will receive some Minnesota-harvested wild rice. Our Views: The NFL snubbed Saints, N.O. for Minnesota Super Bowl ... it's payback time Remember the last time New Orleans and Minneapolis squared off for a shot at the Super Bowl? Landrieu has enlisted the help of Manny Randazzo of Randazzo's King Cakes on 3515 N. Hullen St. to craft the New Orleans delicacies -- if, of course, the Saints fall to the 13-3 Vikings. Frey was doubtful that Saints will win, thanking the Big Easy in advance for its generosity. And generous Landrieu is: king cake trumps wild rice any day. Can't see video below? Click here. VANCOUVER, B.C., Jan. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glance Technologies Inc. (CSE:GET:CN) / (CSE:GET.WT) / (OTCQB:GLNNF) / (FKT:GJT) announces that its partially owned subsidiary Cannapay Financial Inc.(Cannapay) has appointed internationally recognized fintech influencer Spiros Margaris to its Board of Directors. Spiros was ranked #1 global FinTech influencer by Onalytica and #2 InsurTech global influencer by Onalytica. Spiros regularly appears on the top 100 influencer list for FinTech, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain and InsurTech. "Working very successfully with the fantastic management of Glance Technologies Inc. (CSE:GET.CN), I could not resist the request to become a director of Cannapay, which uses Glances cutting edge mobile payment processing platform and its proven anti-fraud technology, says Margaris. As a director of Cannapay, I will have the great opportunity to contribute to the growth of the legal marijuana market industry and in the process be part of history in the making, says Margaris. As a director, Spiros will support the Cannapay management team in its global growth strategy. About Cannapay Financial Inc. Cannapay is a partially owned subsidiary of Glance Technologies. Glance owns 12,000,000 shares in Cannapay. Cannapay has licensed the right to use and the right to sublicense the Glance Pay mobile payment technology for use in the cannabis industry. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Juve Wellness Inc., is a wellness company which is using the Glance Pay mobile payment technology to develop a robust, personalized modern wellness platform. Juve has also developed several lines of Cannabis inspired wellness products which will be available for sale to consumers with the Juve brand and are also available as a white labelled product offering to businesses. Juve is building an international distribution network for the sale of its own and other products. About Glance Technologies Inc. Glance Technologies owns and operates Glance Pay, a streamlined payment system that revolutionizes how smartphone users choose where to shop, order goods and services, make payments, access digital receipts, redeem digital deals, earn great rewards & interact with merchants. Glance offers targeted in-app marketing, geo targeted digital coupons, customer feedback, in-merchant messaging and custom rewards programs. The Glance Pay mobile payment system consists of proprietary technology, which includes user apps available for free downloads in IOS (Apple) and Android formats, merchant manager apps, a large scale technology hosting environment with sophisticated anti-fraud technology and lightning fast payment processing. Glance Pay has entered into significant licensing agreements with Active Pay Distribution Inc., Cannapay Financial Inc. and Euro Asia Pay Holdings Inc. It also owns an end to end blockchain solution for a rewards based cryptocurrency which is currently being integrated into the Glance Pay app. For more information about Glance, please go to www.glance.tech. For more information, contact: Christina Rao Vice President, Investor Relations (604) 723-7480 investors@glancepay.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward- looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward- looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "potentially" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Glance cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by Glance is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Glance's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. A severe thunderstorm warning caught many Canberrans off guard on Friday afternoon, after the capital had a sweltering 35-degree day. The Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse said Canberra reached its peak of 35 at 4.46pm, but by 6.30pm temperatures dropped to 22.2 degrees due to the damaging winds. Cameron and Sarah-Jane Aitken from Ainslie cooled down from Friday's 35 degree heat with their children Tomas (9) and Ainsley (7) and their dog Stella at Point Hut. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong At 5.45 pm, the bureau said severe thunderstorms were detected on the weather radar near the Brindabella National Park, the Brindabella Ranges and Brindabella. It said the thunderstorms affected Belconnen, Civic, Queanbeyan, Tuggeranong, Hall, Gungahlin, Canberra Airport, South Canberra, Weston Creek and Woden Valley. Follow the set route, drop and pick up the car, carry innocuous items to avoid suspicion, and don't speed, it could attract attention. These are the instructions Anthony Scott Hagan gave a drug courier before sending him on a run to Melbourne carrying 28kgs - worth about $15 million - of methylamphetamine. Acting Commander Paul Shakeshaft and Detective sergeant Shane Scott address the media, while armed police guard the drugs. Credit:Jay Cronan The courier had been promised $5000 in return for the interstate smuggling operation. Hagan had previously told the courier of tricks to transport drugs, such as painting PVC pipe black to make it look like an attachment to a car's firewall or using a magnet to secure a container on top of a vehicle's tail shaft South Australian ice-cream company Golden North has recalled nine products after a customer reported finding small pieces of metal in an ice-cream. Golden North said it alerted authorities immediately after being informed. Golden North 2-litre Honey is one of the affected brands. Golden North marketing director Trevor Pomery told Fairfax Media that the ice-cream was a Golden North 2-litre Vanilla, bought in South Australia. The company told customers it was committed to "maintaining the highest possible standards of product quality". There are two recent stories about Travis Kalanick, the former chief executive and current board member of Uber Technologies, that caught my eye. The first, which appeared last Friday, reported that Kalanick planned to sell $1.4 billion worth of Uber stock- 29 per cent of his holdings-to Softbank Group Corp. as part of the Japanese tech investor's move to acquire 15 per cent of the company. Former Uber chief Travis Kalanick still has many fans within the company. Credit:AP The second was Thursday's explosive expose by Bloomberg Businessweek about a secret tool called Ripley that was used in 2015 and 2016 and allowed Uber executives in San Francisco to shut down the computers in any foreign Uber office. Ripley's purpose, said the article, was to "thwart police raids." It was used "at least two dozen times." The Businessweek article never actually mentioned Kalanick by name; rather, it suggested that the tactic was the work of Joe Sullivan and Salle Yoo, the former heads of the company's security and legal departments respectively. Both left Uber last fall, months after Kalanick himself had resigned as CEO. But can there really be any doubt that Kalanick fostered the warped culture that would encourage executives to come up with such a tool? Foreign Minister Julie Bishop must be ruing her junior colleague International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells' decision to put the boot into elements of China's Pacific aid program earlier this week. In addition to starting a fresh bushfire the Turnbull government doesn't need after ending 2017 on a high, it has further strained relations between this country and our most significant trading partner. These were already fraught as a result of the fallout from the Dastyari affair last November and December and Australia's strong support for Donald Trump's position on North Korea. The arguably ill-considered comments, which accused the Chinese of "building roads to nowhere", have also exposed Australia to allegations of hypocrisy, mendacity and deviousness. DIRTY DANCING (100 minutes) M Emile Ardolino's quasi-musical coming-of-age story was a mainstream hit in 1987, but with its small-scale plot and highly culturally specific setting a Catskills resort in the early 1960s it's practically art cinema by the standards of today. Eleanor Bergstein's dialogue is sharp and Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze make the central romance an unapologetically physical one. Digitally projected. Barkly Square Open Air Cinema (McDougall Street, Brunswick), Saturday 20 Jan, 8.30pm. Dogs In Space with Michael Hutchence and Saskia Post. SWINGING SAFARI (96 minutes) M Still the bad boy of Australian cinema, Stephan Elliott returns to the all-out dementia of Welcome to Woop Woop with this wilfully tasteless recreation of his 1970s suburban adolescence, which puts the case against heterosexuality with a vigour recalling the heyday of John Waters. The stand-out from the ensemble cast is Kylie Minogue, who supplies some fleeting moments of understatement. General. One of Sydney's newest schools, The Ponds High, is full just three years after it was built and before it even has years 11 and 12, prompting concerns that the NSW Department of Education has underestimated swelling enrolments in public high schools. The north-west school was designed for 1200 students when it opened to its first cohort of 180 year 7 students in 2015. But enrolments have been soaring and when school returns at the end of the month, The Ponds High will get 320 year 7 students. P&C president Roland de Pree (right) and Blacktown City Councillor Chris Quilkey with parents and students at The Ponds High School. Credit:Wolter Peeters Enrolment figures show that the school grew from 180 students in 2015, to 453 in 2016 and 815 last year. The oldest students will go in to year 10 this year, with two more year 7 cohorts to start before it has its full complement of students. The school's P&C president, Roland de Pree, said the school needed an urgent infrastructure plan to deal with a looming overcrowding crisis. About 3000 criminals have been deported in the past two years in what Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says is the kind of tough approach that the Victorian state government needs to show to youth violence. A series of recent high-profile crimes involving youths of African appearance, including assaults, brawls, armed robberies and home invasions in suburban Melbourne, has sparked criticism from the federal government of the Victorian government's policies. Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton MP speaks at the launch of the AFR Magazine Power issue. Credit:Fairfax media Victoria Police has played down suggestions of a crisis, however Mr Dutton has criticised the state government for not addressing the issue. He has repeatedly attacked Labor's appointments to the judiciary. "I'm not suggesting the judiciary be cleaned out, I'm saying have a look at some of the appointments (Premier) Daniel Andrews has made," he told radio station 3AW. Is it time for Melbourne's CBD to get rid of the vehicle-cum-weapon? It's a question that Melbourne City Council's transport portfolio chair Nicolas Frances Gilley is asking now, weeks after Saeed Noori allegedly drove a car through the Flinders and Elizabeth streets corner, killing a man and injuring 17 people. One person died after a car ran into pedestrians on the corner of Flinders and Elizabeth streets last month. Credit:Paul Jeffers Having occurred less than one year after the alleged Bourke Street attack, which killed six, Cr Frances Gilley, who has previously called for more CBD roads to be converted to parks, is now considering ways to reduce the risk of car-based attacks in the CBD. In a briefing to Cr Frances Gilley last November, transport consultant, Will Fooks, advised that Melbourne should consider mirroring London's Traffic and Environmental Zone, dubbed the "ring of steel". Metro Trains and Yarra Trams have failed to meet tough new targets set by the Andrews Government in their first month operating under renewed $7 billion, seven-year contracts. Public Transport Victoria chief executive Jeroen Weimar has conceded that both transport operators must significantly improve their performance in order to meet beefed-up punctuality and reliability targets under the new contracts, which came into effect on November 30. Metro Trains and Yarra Trams fail to meet tough new standards Credit:Darrian Traynor "After the first full month of the new contracts, both operators still need to lift their game," Mr Weimar said. Metro Trains could be penalised up to $1.25 million each month and Yarra Trams up to $500,000. 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." Washington: US President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that he used "tough" language during a meeting on efforts toward a bipartisan immigration deal, but appeared to deny using the term "shithole" to refer to some countries. "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!" Trump wrote on Twitter. However, moments after the tweet, Democract senator Dick Durbin, who was in the bipartisan meeting, confirmed that the president had used the word when the conversation turned to immigration from African nations. He said Trump began "calling the nations they come from shitholes - the exact word used by the president, not just once, repeatedly. That was the nature of this conversation." Taipei: Thai police have arrested a Japanese crime boss who had been on the run for 15 years after his elaborate tattoos went viral on Facebook. Shigeharu Shirai, 72, a leading figure in one of Japan's notorious "yakuza" mafia gangs, was wanted by the Japanese authorities for his alleged role in a gangland murder in 2003. Japanese gang member Shigeharu Shirai displays his tattoos at a police station in Thailand. Credit:AP He is accused of shooting dead the boss of a rival faction, which resulted in the imprisonment of seven members of his gang for between 12 and 17 years. He had fled to Thailand, married a local woman and melted into a seemingly obscure retirement before someone unwittingly posted photographs of him playing a streetside checkers game with his distinctive gangland tattoos on display. Last month's arctic freeze that swept across the country made for dangerous conditions for green sea turtles -- and a group from Texas A&M-Galveston stepped in to help. Along the Gulf of Mexico, as temperatures plummeted, green sea turtles began to shop up in the sand of coastlines along the Gulf of Mexico. Between Texas and Florida, about 2,000 turtles were collected by wildlife rescue organizations. These turtles were nearly immobile and suffering from severe hypothermia, and did not have the strength to swim out to warmer waters. In Texas, the Padre Island National Seashore, which is an extension of the U.S. National Park Service, worked to scoop up the turtles trapped on land or in the shallows and rushing them to a laboratory belonging to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to receive veterinary care and warmth. Because of the enormity of the task, the National Park Service contacted professor Christopher Marshall of A&M-Galveston's marine biology program, who gathered six students and took them to NOAA's laboratory to help process the nearly 200 turtles. "These are pretty decent-sized animals," Marshall said. "And when you have so many of them, you need to bring in a whole team." For three days, Marshall and his students would measure and tag the animals and help sort and triage those who could be saved. Veterinary professionals then took command of each reptile. The turtles had trouble moving and were lethargic, Marshall explained. If a turtle had swum in water colder than 50 degrees for too long, their muscles would be rendered immobile and they would lose the ability to travel or even breathe. "It just got so cold so quickly," he said. "Green sea turtles swim in shallow water, but they will swim out to deeper, warmer water when it's cold. But, this all just happened so fast." The 2,000 turtles saved along the coastline was likely only a fraction of the green sea turtle population, Marshall said, but the species is considered threatened in this region. After several days of warming up and receiving care, many of the 200 Texas turtles were rehabilitated and returned to the sea. "The silver lining of all of this is that my group gained a huge learning experience," he said. The six students who accompanied Marshall to the NOAA laboratory were members of his group The Upper Texas Coast Sea Turtle Patrol. Normally, the club works to collect sea turtles who are laying their eggs on the Galveston beaches and transport the eggs to a safe incubator site on Padre Island. Marshall suspects that a few of his students will probably continue to work with turtles after graduation, while others might go on to perform research on marine biology or join an institution such as NOAA. Regardless, he feels this opportunity to help rescue suffering animals was rewarding and unique to the budding scientists. "Getting this kind of hands-on experience really boosts the students' confidence," Marshall said. "It provides them a great opportunity to work with marine life." A Robertson County business owner turned himself in to authorities Thursday morning after being indicted the previous day on a charge connected to the beating of a man Dec. 29, according to Robertson County District Attorney Coty Siegert. According to a copy of the indictment attained by The Eagle, a Robertson County grand jury indicted Jason Charles Clay on Wednesday on allegations he hit a man repeatedly in the head and face with his hand and kicked him during a fight on Dec. 29. Clay, the owner of The Franklin Drive Thru Safari in Robertson County, is charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. A grand jury indictment is not an indication of guilt and does not mean a person has been convicted of a crime; it means enough evidence exists to warrant a trial. Siegert said the victim is out of the hospital, but "he's got some serious medical issues." Clay's bail has been set at $10,000 by Judge Robert Miller Stem, according to Siegert. As Bryan-College Station residents continue to deal with widespread influenza, healthcare providers are grappling with the illness as well and doing their best to continue serving the community's increased need while also giving staff time to recover. Although local health officials said the number of flu cases is high -- but manageable -- at the moment, they will be watching closely as Texas A&M and Blinn College students return to the area, as they are likely to bring with them a new wave of the virus. Sara Mendez, health education and promotion director for the Brazos County Health Department, said Thursday while they are hopeful for a continued decline, the next few weeks may show another spike in the number of cases. For those who do get sick with the virus, Mendez said the health department is encouraging them to stay home and do their best to recover without spreading it to anyone else. "If you're sick, stay home and isolate yourself," said Mendez, adding that preventing the unnecessary spread of the virus is a high priority. Health department data showed nearly 1,500 flu cases were reported in December, with 644 cases being reported the week ending Dec. 23. While still high, the number of reported cases has been going down, with 276 flu cases reported last week and 464 reported the week before. At two of the area's local hospitals -- the Baylor Scott and White medical center in College Station and CHI St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan -- officials said while the strain is being felt, they are proud of how their respective staffs are stepping up to do their part. Jason Jennings, CEO at Baylor Scott and White, said his staff is drilled throughout the year on dealing with tough situations featuring high volumes of patients just like this and credits a strong team environment for keeping them motivated. He said another factor he believes has served the hospital well is the members of the nursing staff who are cross-trained for multiple departments and leaders who are ready to get hands-on as soon as the need arises. "Baylor Scott and White believes in a team environment where, from me as the CEO to nursing staff to our admin team, we put our scrubs on and whatever we're confident and capable of doing, we help out to take care of our community that is sick," Jennings said. Beverly Welch, vice president and chief nursing executive at CHI St. Joseph, said the cyclical nature of demand brought on by patient need throughout the year -- and particularly in flu season -- is something the hospital works to be prepared for each year, beginning plans as early as September for the increase in demand. "One of the things St. Joseph does is we plan ahead and do seasonal staffing," Welch said. "We plan for the increase in the number of patients and the acuity of the patients for starting in December and going all the way through March." CHI St. Joseph Chief Operating Officer Ricardo Diaz said the hospital's advanced planning is one of the ways that have helped it to maintain a good record of caring for patients even in peak times such as this. Diaz said thanks to the hard work and dedication of staff members, he believes the current situation is another example of the hospital's ability to help meet the needs of the community. Surry Flores, branch director of Traditions Health Care and Hospice, said her organization is seeing some of the same issues as the hospitals as well, with a high number of patients suffering from the virus that has also hit their staff. She said for caregivers who go directly into the homes of sick patients, it is particularly difficult for the clinicians to remain healthy -- especially when she said they are working extra to make up for co-workers who are out sick. "Just trying to keep [the virus] from getting spread is one of the biggest things we're focused, it's just not very easy," Flores said. "... Many times, it's a matter of the other staff members stepping up. We have a team that is very dedicated to the care of our patients and if one can't go, then another one will." Flores said this flu season is the worst she has seen in her two years as branch manager, with more of the healthcare provider's largely elderly patient base making trips to the hospital for care than usual during this time of year. "In the last two weeks we've seen a lot of our patients going to the hospital, especially for a lot of emergency room visits," Flores said. "We try to increase our visits to try to keep them out of the hospital, but we typically can't prescribe anything for them in the home... We're trying to do the best we can to coordinate with those other facilities to ensure that we're continuing the care that they're getting at the hospital." Where she said the in-home clinicians typically see six to eight patients per day during normal times, this flu season has brought with it an increase to a nine to 10 patient per day average. Jennings, Welch and Flores all said they have stepped up their efforts to keep their caregivers safe in light of the increased flu numbers, providing additional facemasks, gowns and gloves to help give them a better chance at staying healthy while treating patients. As for patients visiting the hospital for other reasons, such as elective surgeries, Jennings, Welch and Diaz all said they should feel confident in the environment at both facilities. Jennings said officials at Baylor Scott and White would alert patients to any concerns they may have ahead of the procedure, and Welch said she would be more concerned with the patients coming down with the virus at home or work before coming in to the hospital. Looking forward, with the return of more students to the area next week, Mendez said health officials fully expect to see the number of flu patients rise. "With all the students coming back and coming from all areas of the state, we do expect to see an increase in our numbers over the next couple of weeks," Mendez said. Baylor Scott and White and CHI St. Joseph officials both encouraged those exhibiting flulike symptoms to visit their primary care provider or an urgent care clinic before turning to the hospital emergency rooms for care. A man accused of trying to escape by crawling through the ceiling of a local hospital after police say he set a motel room on fire and a man who reportedly robbed a gas station at gunpoint last January were among the 24 people indicted Thursday by a Brazos County grand jury. A grand jury indictment is not an indication of guilt and does not mean those indicted have been convicted of their alleged crimes; it means enough evidence exists for the case to move towards a trial. Bryan police arrested Andrew Vincent Guedea, 37, on Oct. 27 at CHI St. Joseph Hospital after he had been treated for smoke inhalation following a fire in his motel room at the Relax Inn. According to police, authorities were called to the hospital because Guedea had been acting strange and was refusing treatment. After arriving and not finding Guedea, according to a police report, officers realized he had climbed into a ceiling shaft when they looked up and saw the ceiling sinking under Guedea's weight. Police said they could hear him breaking through fire walls before he dropped into a space in the walls near the emergency room and kicked open a space in the wall. After seeing authorities, according to the report, Guedea crawled back into the wall and kicked through another wall in a different area of the hospital. Guedea was indicted Thursday for state jail felony-level criminal mischief, punishable by up to two years in jail, and arson with intent to damage a habitat, a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison. He is being held in the Brazos County Jail on a total bail amount of $116,500 for an array of charges spanning from May to October 2017. Police arrested 29-year-old Clint Michael Hobbs in November in connection with a January 2017 aggravated robbery. According to Bryan police, a caller phoned 911 to report an armed robbery at a gas station off Texas 21. Two employees said a man wearing a red bandanna and black hat entered the store and pulled out a handgun around 5 a.m., demanding money and cigarettes. According to a police report, the man -- Hobbs, police said -- left the store before returning to take beer. On his way out of the store for the second time, Hobbs reportedly recognized from his time in jail a male customer who had exited the restroom. A police report alleges that Hobbs told the customer he was taking him to Austin and exited the store with him before releasing him in the parking lot. Hobbs was indicted on two counts of aggravated robbery, both of which are first-degree felonies punishable by up to life in prison. Jail records indicate authorities booked him into the Brazos County Jail on Nov. 11, where he has been held since on a $50,000 bond. July 11, 1936 - January 6, 2018 Memorial services for Vernell Ruth (Luedke) Kuehn of Caldwell will be 11:00 am Saturday at St. John's Lutheran Church in Deanville. She died Saturday, January 6, 2018 in a Caldwell assisted living facility. Vernell was born in Deanville, TX, on July 11, 1936, to John (J.B.) and Ella Blinka Luedke. She attended grade school in Deanville and graduated from Caldwell High School in 1954. She worked for a few years as a nurse's aide at Giddings Memorial Hospital. During that time she met Henry J. Kuehn. They married on September 7, 1957 and moved to College Station, where Vernell attended McKensie Business College for a year, earning a secretarial degree. This led her to a law firm in Houston where she became a legal secretary. Vernell was preceded in death by her husband, Henry; her daughter, Carol Kuehn Luhrs; her partner, Joseph Erdos, with whom she shared a house after Henry died; her parents J.B. and Ella Luedke; her oldest brother, Leonard John; her older sister, Ellen Luedke Bailey and brother-in-law, Ben Hardy Bailey; six nephews and two nieces. Survivors include two brothers, Alton (Alice) Luedke and Delmas (Roberta) Luedke; other nieces, nephews, cousins, and many friends. Memorials may be directed to St. John Lutheran Church in Deanville. If Andrew White sounds familiar, hes the son of the late former Texas Gov. Mark White. And in December, Andrew announced he is running for dads old job. Andrew White, 45, a Houston businessman, has never run for office before. But it was after his dad, 77, died in August, that he first considered running. People told him at his dads funeral about his work 30 years ago raising teacher salaries, no-pass, no-play, a seatbelt law, and other efforts that made a difference in peoples lives. Andrew wanted to re-kindle that type of positive, can-do government. Announcing Dec. 7 in Houston, Andrew also lamented the long drought for Texas Democrats statewide. My fellow Democrats, I know youre tired of losing, White told more than 100 people. I am, too. If winning in November is important to you, then Im your candidate. The late Ann Richards was the last Democrat elected governor, in 1990. But she was unseated in 1994 by Republican George W. Bush. The White name was a ballot mainstay from 1950 through 1990. John C. White was elected Agriculture Commissioner in 1950, and repeatedly re-elected until becoming President Jimmy Carters Deputy Secretary of Agriculture in 1977. Then, Mark White no relation was on the ballot in 1978 for attorney general, and for governor in 1982, 1986, and 1990 winning the first two, and losing the last two. Still, Mark White was the next-to-last Democratic governor. He unseated Republican Gov. Bill Clements in 1982. But Clements returned the favor in 1986. White tried a comeback in 1990, but finished third in the Democratic primary, to Richards and then-Attorney Gen. Jim Mattox. The White name took a ballot breather until 2010, when former Houston Mayor Bill White (again, no relation) won the Democratic nomination for governor. He lost to then-incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry by 12.6 percent. At Andrew Whites announcement, introducers included longtime Houston State Rep. Garnet Coleman an African-American sponsor of dozens of legislative measures concerning health care, education, and other issues important to people. Coleman, considered a progressive, said Andrew White was the kind of moderate Democrat who actually could beat Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in November. We dont want people to believe that the Democratic Party is against the white males and were not, Coleman told a reporter. White got some flak from outspoken pro-choice advocates. Although he personally is against abortion, he said that does not make him anti-choice, and he knows the law allows women to choose to have an abortion. We must all work to keep it safe and make it rare, White said, indicating I would veto all of the recent legislative bills trying to make abortions harder to obtain. These bills do the opposite of protecting life, and have led to higher rates of maternal morality and unplanned pregnancy, White said. Incumbent Abbott, with well more than $40 million in campaign cash, faces just two opponents in the GOP primary: Barbara Krueger and SECEDE Kilgore. White faces nine vying for the Democratic nomination: Jeffrey Payne, Adrian Ocegueda, Cedric Davis Sr., Demetria Smith, Grady Yarbrough, James Jolly Clark, Joe Mumbach, Lupe Valdez, and Tom Wakely. If youre from the Dallas area, Lupe Valdezs name may sound familiar. She just retired as Dallas County Sheriff after 10 years to run for governor, and some consider her the favorite. And if Grady Yarbroughs name sounds familiar, it should. There have been a string of Yarboroughs, and Yarbroughs, on Texas ballots over the years including populist 13-year U.S. Sen. Ralph W. Yarborough. With asterisks for races he won, he ran for: Attorney general 1938. Governor 1952, 1954, 1956. U.S. Senate 1957*, 1958*, 1964*, 1970, 1972. Labor lawyer Don Yarborough got in Democratic runoffs for governor in 1962, 1964 and 1968, but lost them all. Another Don Yarbrough won a Texas Supreme Court seat in 1976, but resigned in 1977 while facing impeachment. For Grady Yarbrough, now in his 80s, this is his sixth statewide race in 32 years for five different offices, in both major political parties. In 1986 and 1990, Yarbrough got into runoffs for the Republican nomination for land commissioner. He lost both of those. In 1994, Grady Yarbrough ran for the Democratic nomination for state treasurer, but lost. Then in 2012, he ran for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, but lost in a runoff to former U.S. Rep. Paul Sadler. Finally in 2016, Grady Yarbrough won the Democratic nomination for a vacant Railroad Commission seat. He lost the general election to Republican former state Rep. Wayne Christian in November. So, folks, stay tuned for the White/Valdez/Yarbrough/Etc. faceoff in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, and Abbott against Kilgore and Krueger. That election is March 6, and early voting starts Feb. 20. Dave McNeely is dean of the Texas Capitol press corps. Email him at davemcneely111@gmail.com. SAN DIEGO In 2007, I was at brunch with friends when politics came up. And suddenly, I found myself trying to explain why I thought a political newcomer from Illinois would vanquish a crowded field of more experienced candidates and become the Democratic presidential nominee. I struggled. There was nothing on Barack Obamas resume to suggest that he could win the nomination, let alone the presidency. I just had a feeling that the self-described skinny kid with a funny name was poised to turn the political system upside down. There was something about Obama some inexplicable X-factor that you didnt see in more seasoned politicians such as John Edwards, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton. Heres what I didnt understand at the time: Getting elected president isnt about resumes. It isnt about experience or IQ tests or knowing the issues inside and out. Its about excitement. Obama generated it; the others didnt. He got 20,000 people at rallies; some of his opponents were lucky to get 200. Now were presented with the tantalizing idea that Oprah Winfrey might run for president in 2020. Within 48 hours of Winfrey declaring to a cheering crowd at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles that a new day is on the horizon, smarty-pants anchors and pundits in New York and Washington were pooh-poohing the idea that the broadcast mogul would run for president or be up to the job if she were elected. According to this elite bunch, not just any media savvy tycoon with loads of charisma and instant name recognition can walk in off the street, run for president and win the whole enchilada. Who knew? Besides, getting elected to office is hard work, say a bunch of people most of whom have never put their names on the line and run for anything. One exception is MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican member of Congress who used to support Donald Trump and now attacks him with regularity. Scarborough, who now says hes an independent, went off at length on his show, Morning Joe about how, despite her popularity with a large chunk of America, Winfrey might not be up to the job of running for president. In fact, he seemed to say that people should stick to one calling. This from a lawyer who became a congressman who became a cable host who also plays in a rock band. Maybe Winfrey isnt as smart and talented as Scarborough. Americans are asked to believe that many of the same people who were wrong about Trump are now right about Winfrey. But experts are not what they used to be. Whether these commentators are on the right or the left, their crystal balls are out of whack. In this unprecedented political environment, no one can predict with any certainty whats going to happen next in the arena. We also are expected to ignore the rhetorical backflips that both political parties are doing to square what they said about one billionaire yesterday with what theyre saying about another billionaire today. In 2016, Democrats essentially said about the idea of a Trump candidacy: This is crazy. You cant have a political novice, who has never run for office, who doesnt know about politics or public policy and comes from within a bubble of like-minded people. The presidency is not an entry-level job. In 2020, if Winfrey runs for president, were likely to hear the same sort of things from Republicans. Eye-rolling could become the new national pastime. Of course, Obama wasnt the first presidential hopeful to have the X-factor of ginning up excitement. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all had it. And its no coincidence that all went on to be elected, then re-elected. The two-term club is pretty exclusive, and, to become a member, you have to capture the imagination of the American people. Trump does that. While I dont agree with most of his agenda, and I think hes been bad for our political system, there is no denying the electricity he generates. Ask Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. Getting elected president is hard work, but it isnt rocket science. If your candidacy excites people to their core, you have a huge advantage. If it doesnt, well, dont give up your day job. Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump also have another thing in common: being underestimated. Dont make that mistake with Oprah. Ruben Navarrettes email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, Navarrette Nation, is available through every podcast app. Arguments were presented to the Virginia Supreme Court on Wednesday regarding a Franklin County man who hung a noose in his yard to intimidate his neighbors. On June 17, 2015, Jack Eugene Turner used a rope to hang a dark-colored dummy in his yard after having a falling-out with his neighbors, who are African American. After officials took down his display, Turner then hung a Confederate flag from his porch and another from a window that faced his neighbors house. He was found guilty in Franklin County Circuit Court later that year of displaying a noose in public with the intent of intimidation. He was sentenced to six months in jail. Turner is the first person in the state to be convicted under a 2009 Virginia law that states that any person who, with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons, displays a noose on a highway or other public place in a manner having direct tendency to place another person in reasonable fear or apprehension of death or bodily injury is guilty of a Class 6 felony. The law also states that any person who, with intent of intimidating any person or group of persons, displays a noose on the private property of another without permission is guilty of a Class 6 felony. The felony can hold up to five years in prison and a $2,500 fine. Arguments were made by Turners attorney, Holland Perdue, of Rocky Mount and assistant attorney general Christopher Schandevel, the states representative. I think we got all the points we wanted to make made, said Holland Perdue. I was happy to get all of our points out there. Perdue said he did not know when the Supreme Court will make a decision whether or not to further the case. Well wait for the results and go from there, he said. Schandevel declined to comment. Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media NORWALK Police brass and community policing officers chatted with members of the public at Starbucks Friday morning at the departments first Coffee with a Cop event of the new year. People are at first interested in knowing why were here, Lt. Terry Blake, a Norwalk Police Department spokesman, said. We explain the benefits of being here to speak with the community. They tell us about their experiences and ask questions about the Norwalk Police Department and talk to us about issues in their neighborhoods. The majority of people thank us for our service. Contributed image NORWALK Join the Norwalk Historical Society at the museum on Sunday, Jan. 28 for a fun afternoon making valentines for veterans. Drop in any time between 1 and 4 p.m. to make cards for the brave men and women who fought to keep our country safe. The event is free and supplies as well as light snacks will be provided. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Cards made at the event will be sent to Congressman Jim Himes office and then distributed to various veterans organizations and hospitals in Connecticut. Register at www.norwalkhistoricalsociety.org or call 203-846-0525. NEW CANAAN New Canaans streets contain classic colonials juxtaposed with mid-century modern houses; a successful pairing of two disparate styles. The Harvard Five - John M. Johansen, Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, Philip Johnson (of the Glass House fame), and Eliot Noyes, are credited with the introduction about 100 mid-century modern masterpieces to the towns architectural landscape, and their influence continues even today. The white brick contemporary house at 153 Proprietors Crossing was originally built in 1971. The current owner, a professional interior designer, gutted the house in 2003 and re-imagined it. The rebuild project created a 12-room mid-century modern-inspired house with walls of glass that provide incredible light and dramatic property views. It also created a great living and entertaining space inside and out including a custom Wagner in-ground, over-sized swimming pool with automatic cover and an outdoor kitchen with a wine refrigerator, food refrigerator, shelving, stove, oven, and sink. The owner kept the original footprint of the house because it comprised a great layout, but essentially built an entirely new house with new plumbing, electrical system, sheetrock, and lighting. All the cabinetry throughout was custom-made specifically for this house and was imported from Italy, the owner said. The house is set on a four-acre level and sloping property at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the towns west side. The setting offers privacy and yet it is only one mile from Scotts Corner in neighboring Pound Ridge, New York and its stores and restaurants, and it is only eight minutes from the center of New Canaan, which includes the Metro North train station. So private is this setting that even in winter when trees are bare of leaves neighboring homes are not visible. A circular driveway leads up to the 6,000-square-foot house, which sits on a hill. A wide bluestone apron serves as a welcome mat of the covered front entrance, where French doors open to reveal a spacious sunken living room with a floor-to-ceiling wood-burning fieldstone fireplace, cathedral ceiling, and a wall of windows. In the formal dining room there are sliding doors to the sizeable wood deck. More Information ABOUT THIS HOUSE STYLE: Contemporary ADDRESS: 153 Proprietors Crossing PRICE: $1,895,000 ROOMS: 12 FEATURES: 4-acre level and sloping lot, partially fenced property, custom Wagner in-ground Gunite swimming pool, outdoor kitchen, exercise room, balconies/decks, thermal windows, located on a cul-de-sac, three fireplaces, custom cabinetry throughout, skylights, circular driveway, gardens, specimen plantings, easy drive to Scott's Corner in neighboring Pound Ridge, only eight minutes from New Canaan center and Metro North train, full finished walk-out lower level, attached three-car garage, well water, zoned heating, five bedrooms, three full and one half baths SCHOOLS: West Elementary, Saxe Middle, New Canaan High School ASSESSMENT: $1,163,820 MILL RATE: 16.669 mills TAXES: $18,982 See More Collapse As with the rest of this house natural light is the hallmark of the spacious modern kitchen. Its features include the custom Poliform Italian cabinets, a two-tiered center island with a breakfast bar and five-burner Wolf range top, Wolf wall ovens, and a skylight. In the eat-in portion of this gourmet kitchen there are sliding doors to the long deck. Off the kitchen there is the family room which, like the living room, has a wood-burning fieldstone fireplace. At the opposite end of this main floor the master bedroom suite features sliding doors to a private balcony with circular stairs to the lower deck and yard. The master bath features a water closet with a privacy frosted glass door, an eye-catching double vanity with a decorative mosaic tile backsplash, a sizable shower, and a large dressing room and walk-in closet. A separate childrens wing contains three more bedrooms and a shared hall bath with two side-by-side pedestal sinks, combination tub/shower, and an electric blue mosaic tile floor. On the full, finished lower level there is a long corridor with wall-to-wall carpeting that provides access to several rooms and the three-car attached garage. Flanking the entrance into the great room there are ledges that are covered in blue and black mosaic tiles. The room itself has a fireplace and sliding doors to the lower level wood deck. The fifth bedroom is also on this level and it has a private bath making it a perfect guest or au pair suite. There is a large exercise room with a sliding door to the yard. The good-size laundry room has counter space and a sink. Ample storage is available on this level and elsewhere. For more information or to make an appointment to see the house contact Hannelore Kaplan of Hannelore & Company/William Raveis Real Estate at 914-450-3880 or Hannelore.Kaplan@raveis.com. A mobile food pantry in Grand Island will be Saturday in the garage at the city Utilities Department building at 315 N. Jefferson St. The food giveaway is sponsored monthly by the Food Bank for the Heartland and Trinity United Methodist Churchs Loaves and Fishes ministry. The mobile pantry will begin at 9:30 a.m. and numbers will be handed out starting at 8:15. Clients should not arrive on site before 8 a.m. A mobile pantry is a traveling food pantry that delivers food free of charge directly to individuals and families who need assistance for a one-day food distribution. The goal is to provide food where there is a high need but limited resources. Items to be distributed at the mobile pantry in Hall County include spaghetti, tomato sauce, canned pork and beans, cereal, pancake mix and other shelf-stable products along with perishable items, including a variety of fresh produce and bakery items. Approximately 25,000 to 30,000 pounds of food, the equivalent of 20,800 to 25,000 meals, will be distributed to individuals and families living in Hall County and surrounding communities who are food insecure. Those who come to the mobile pantry are encouraged to bring boxes or bags to assist in carrying the food they receive. No identification is required to receive food. This is one of the largest monthly mobile pantries hosted in the Food Banks 93-county service area. In December, this mobile pantry served 402 families, said Susan Ogborn, president and CEO of Food Bank for the Heartland. We appreciate the City of Grand Island collaborating with us to establish a permanent location for this mobile pantry and the support of the dedicated volunteers from Trinity United Methodist Church. Results of a study supported by the Conagra Brands Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Nielsen Company show approximately 10.5 percent, or 6,380 people, in Hall County are at-risk for hunger. That includes 3,140 children. The Food Bank is continuing to work with the city of Grand Island to establish a permanent location for the monthly mobile pantry. The next food giveaway in Hall County will be on Feb. 10 (the location has yet to be determined. Conference to focus on childrens ministries Rock Solid Childrens Ministries at G.I. Free Church and Timberlake Ranch Camps are hosting a conference to encourage and challenge those who serve in childrens ministries. The conference, Loving HIS Little Ones, is scheduled for Friday evening through Saturday, Feb. 2 and 3. The public is invited to attend. Speaker Josh Denhart will lead attendees to pause to consider their role in ministry in relation to Gods role, focus on important components in their teaching, learn hands-on and practical ways to use science in ministry, discover influences that were found in young adults who stayed connected to Christ after leaving home and explore diverse outreach strategies. They will also spend time in worship and fellowship. The cost for the conference is $35, or $25 per person for groups of 10 or more from the same organization. Registration deadline is Jan. 22. For more information or to register, check online at gifree.org. Hastings College sets MLK Day celebrations HASTINGS Hastings College has scheduled several activities as part of its Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration on Monday, Jan. 15. The scheduled includes a worship service in French Memorial Chapel at 1 p.m.; a community prayer walk leaving the chapel at 2 p.m.; Beginning at 4 p.m., members of the college forensics team will present pieces relevant to the work of Dr. King in the college student union. Members of the campus community can also share their stories, hopes and inspirations. Refreshments will be available. Then 6 p.m., students will honor the spirit of Dr. King by helping to pack meals for Hastings Public School elementary students who may have limited access to food. The meals will be packed in the student union lobby. All events free and open to the public. The Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska cookie season is about to begin. Cookie sales start Feb. 2, teaching girls essential entrepreneurial skills and giving them valuable leadership experiences. After last years 100th anniversary of cookie sales, troops across Nebraska will kick off this season with the return of Girl Scout Smores. The Smores were the most popular new flavor in the history of the program. By purchasing cookies, fans of the treats help support the next generation of entrepreneurs, and also invest back in their communities. All across Nebraska, Girl Scouts are doing amazing things made possible by the sale of every package of Girl Scout Cookies, said Fran Marshall, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska. The Girl Scout Cookie Program allows each Girl Scout to discover her interests, take the lead in her community and change the world. One hundred percent of the revenue from cookie sales stays in Nebraska. Girls and their troops use their cookie proceeds for community service projects, leadership development, camping and outdoor experiences, and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. In 2018, for the second year, Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska is giving away a new car, thanks to a generous partnership with Baxter Toyota La Vista. Cookie customers and the public can ask Girl Scouts for a secret code and enter it online for a chance to win. The contest runs from Feb. 2 to March 9. The 2018 Girl Scout cookie lineup features Smores, Thin Mints, Caramel deLites, Peanut Butter Patties, Shortbread, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Thanks-a-Lot, Lemonades (all still $4 per package) and gluten-free Trios ($5 per package). Cookies will be sold through March 4. To find Girl Scout cookies, connect with a local troop or order online at GirlScoutsNebraska.org or call the Cookie Hotline at (877) 637-4684. 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 too 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 introduced 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. Glen Parks is an assistant attorney general in the office of the Nebraska Attorney General. He is the coordinator of the Nebraska Human Trafficking Task Force. The United States is rightly proud of its role and place in the world. 70 years ago, we were major providers of assistance for much of Europe as it began its remarkable recovery from World War II. For decades, we have been guarantors of security for a variety of nations. We have been innovators in business and technology, benefiting countries rich and poor. Yet in one area we have struggled to keep pace with our peers among wealthy democracies: mortality rates, especially those for children. This week the journal Health Affairs published a report that American babies are 76 percent more likely to die before they turn a year old than babies in other rich countries. It further stated that American children who survive infancy are 57 percent more likely to die before adulthood. The report cited a number of causes for these statistics. They include persistently high poverty rates, poor educational outcomes and a relatively weak social safety net. Both the statistics and the causes are discouraging for those who try to reverse these trends. The U.S. has spent billions of dollars and conducts hundreds of projects in efforts to reduce poverty. Food assistance, shelter assistance and other high-dollar initiatives have become staples in anti-poverty programs. Yet after decades of efforts, the results point to failure. Also discouraging are the educational shortcomings that are present with many people today. Our nation offers free educations through high school, and schools such as Grand Islands spend great sums in trying to prepare students for productive lives. Yet millions of young people emerge from this experience unqualified to fill available occupations that offer good wages. In fact, many employers complain that some job applicants are unqualified to do much of anything. As for the weak social safety net, that should not be surprising. Teenage pregnancies, unwed or single mothers, and hookups have become the norm in the United States, rather than the exception. Attendance at churches, where there can be great social support, has declined. The fact is that far too many people in our nation are making bad choices, and the consequences are both expensive and incapacitating for those who make them. Sadly, we dont seem to know what to do about these conditions. Until we find some effective answers, however, we should not expect them to get better. While concerns have been raised about the legitimacy of an organization- branded license plate, these are mainly unfounded. The Department of Motor Vehicles specifically created a process in which 501(c)(3) organizations are allowed to create a license plate that the public can purchase to display their support. Planned Parenthood is one of these organizations and has gone through the legal channels to create the My Body, My Choice plates. This backlash seems to come more from those who oppose reproductive and abortion rights. The opposition raises concerns for the Planned Parenthood plates, but has not previously been concerned with the Henry Doorly Zoo specialty license plates, which also required 250 applications and a $70 yearly fee. This plate clearly states Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium on it, yet there has been little to no upset over it. These were also nowhere to be found when an anti-choice group attempted to push their own specialty plate, advertising their organization, through, but failed to come up with the applications and money required. The group then chose to battle through three filibusters in the Nebraskan Legislature in order to force a Choose Life state-sponsored plate to be offered to the public. I suspect theyre more upset about the failure of their own specialty plates than the advertisement on the My Body, My Choice ones. Regardless, there are 263 drivers committed to standing for reproductive rights in Nebraska, and that number is growing all the time. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The Madison County Sheriffs Office is asking the public's help in identifying a suspect in a string of bank robberies that have plagued the region. Since the end of November, banks have been robbed in Alton, Godfrey, East Alton, Wood River and Edwardsville. According to the Sheriffs Department, the suspect(s) in each of the robberies is of the same general build and description. The suspect is described as a black male in his mid 20s to 30s. He has a small to thin build, 54 to 58, with goatee style facial hair. The suspect(s) has been linked to several vehicles in the robberies. For the bank robbery in Alton, the suspect vehicle was described as a dark 20052010 Chrysler 300 with a mesh grill and aftermarket chrome wheels. For the bank robbery in East Alton. the suspect vehicle was described as a dirty-brown Chrysler 300 with dark tinted windows with possible Missouri registration. For the bank robbery in Wood River, the suspect vehicle was described as a red 1999-2005 Volkswagen Jetta that had dark tinted windows with possible temporary registration from Illinois. The vehicle had a unique red-in-color front grill. The most recent robbery, at the 1st Mid America Credit Union in Edwardsville, the suspect was wearing a blue sling with his right hand wrapped in a bandage or cast. No vehicle has yet been identified in the First Mid America Credit Union robbery, which took place Wednesday. Anyone with any information related to the robberies are asked to contact the Madison County Sheriffs Office at (618) 692-4433 or at the anonymous tip line at (618) 296-3000. Citizens can also call CrimeStoppers at (866) 371-4577. If your tip called into CrimeStoppers leads to the felony arrest of the subject(s) responsible for the crime callers may receive a reward of up to $1,000. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Hand washing is the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection. And with flu outbreaks at a high right now, proper hand washing is of utmost importance. While recent studies and reports indicate the lack of or improper hand washing contributes significantly to disease transmission, children are especially at risk of contracting hand-transmitted diseases or passing along germs. The University of Illinois Extension developed the Clean Hands, Healthy Bodies hand-washing program in 1998 to help teach children the importance of properly washing their hands. This program, through a collaboration with the Madison County Health Department and Illinois American Water, sends trained volunteers into Madison County schools to teach students how to properly wash their hands, when to do it and why it is important. The University of Illinois Extension is currently seeking volunteers who would like to assist with their Clean Hands, Healthy Bodies hand-washing program. Patty Stanton, with the University of Illinois Extensions Madison-Monroe-St. Clair Extension Unit, explained that as a member of their Clean Hands, Healthy Bodies hand-washing team, volunteers would visit classrooms in Madison County and deliver a 25- to 30-minute hands-on program about the importance of washing our hands. Through the use of a black light and glo-germ potion, the students are able to see how well or poorly they wash their hands because the glo-germ potion remains on their hands unless they wash them thoroughly for 20 seconds. The students learn that the proper 20 seconds required to clean their hands is equivalent to singing the song Happy Birthday a couple of times. So you hear the kids all in the bathroom singing Happy Birthday, Stanton noted. Sine the program began in 1998, almost 70,000 students have participated in it. The extension office receives numerous requests throughout Madison County every year for this program and therefore is looking for more volunteers. The extension office provides a mandatory two-hour training session which teaches the volunteers how to reach the kids with this fun program. During the training, volunteers will fill out a form that allows a mandatory background check through the Illinois State Police and the Department of Children and Family Services. Following training and background screening volunteers can designate schools, school districts or areas within Madison County where theyd like to volunteer. The extension office is in need of volunteers in all areas of Madison County. Volunteers can do as little or as much time as they want, Stanton added. She pointed out that a lot of retired teachers who enjoy being in the classroom will volunteer as well as nurses, but that anyone can volunteer male or female. The next volunteer training session has been scheduled for Jan. 19; however, Stanton said that she would be scheduling additional training dates as needed for new volunteers. Anyone interested in joining the Clean Hands, Healthy Bodies team or wanting more information about this volunteer program can contact Patty Stanton at (618) 344-4230. In addition, anyone interested in bringing this program to their childs school can call Stanton for additional information. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dio Herdiawan Tobing (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 14:54 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e5378 3 Opinion Jokowi,#Jokowi,Jokowi-administration,refugees,RefugeeCrisis,#RefugeeCrisis,#refugees,human-rights,asylum-seekers,asylum,#AsylumSeekers Free On Dec. 31, the Refugee Decree of President Joko Jokowi Widodo marked its one-year implementation after being signed last year. The Presidential Decree No. 125/2016 on the Treatment of Refugees from Overseas is Indonesias first and foremost refugee regulation since a mandate to create one 15 years earlier under the 1999 law on foreign relations. But after a year of implementation, what has changed? Actually, with regard to international relations, the decree did not change Indonesias policy response towards refugees. Since 1975, when Indonesia faced the Indochina refugee crisis, Indonesia has already shown its commitment to comply in good faith towards the international principle of non-refoulement, or not returning refugees or asylum seekers to their place of origin where they would be likely persecuted. From 1975 to 1991, Indonesia dedicated Galang Island in the Riau archipelago to host more than 100,000 asylum seekers and refugees from Vietnam following the war. In the Island, refugees were housed in camps under the auspices of the United Nations refugee agency. This commitment is rare and has been always highly appreciated by the international community, for Indonesia did not behave as a persistent objector to refuse obligation to host refugees despite not being a state party to the 1951 Refugee Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its protocols. A state party would have to grant asylum to asylum seekers. However, there are at least three major changes in domestic politics which have been influenced by the 2016 decree. First, although the decree follows a traditional definition of a refugee as a foreigner who resides within the territory of the Republic of Indonesia due to a well-founded fear of persecution, a definition widely accepted by the international community, it unifies our government agencies perception towards refugees and asylum-seekers in Indonesia. Before the decree, each government agency dealing with refugee cases tended to use their own instinct and reasoning. For example, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Directorate General of Immigration did not differentiate between refugees, stateless, or asylum seekers. For them, anyone who entered Indonesias border without a permit was illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry pays more attention to international obligations derived from treaties, customs, and practice of states. Therefore, the Ministry has always been more careful in showing their approach to refugees. With the definition of refugee established in the presidential decree, each government agency then had to refer to it in their conduct towards refugees. Second, by focusing on rescue, evacuation, monitoring, registration, and accommodation of refugees, the decree has created a standardized practice of non-arbitrary refoulement. Repatriation will only be exercised if there is an express request from the refugee concerned. Before the above decree, policy response of government agencies was unclear. The incident of pushing boat people back to the sea in Aceh in June 2016 was one of the few incoherent responses to refugees in the absence of a regulation within Indonesias current decentralized system. With the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs taking the lead in coordinating implementation and dissemination of the above decree among local administration levels, throughout 2017 we no longer heard of push back measures or arbitrary return of refugees. Furthermore, the decree makes clear the division of labor on who does what and when regarding refugee operations. The regulation tasks at least five agencies to deal with refugee issues; the Foreign Ministry, the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the police and the military part from the above Coordinating Ministry. Each of these agencies have their own tasks relating to refugees. For instance, the Foreign Ministry is responsible in sending diplomatic notes to the state of origin of refugees and local administrations are to prepare local refugee shelters. These operations are mainly coordinated by the above coordinating ministrys Deputy of Public Order and Security. Its desk on handling refugees is currently focusing on the establishment of 13 refugee shelters in 13 provinces. Therefore we do not have a new policy on refugees despite calls for Indonesia to become party to the 1951 Refugee Convention. However, the 2016 presidential decree significantly prepared an adequate refugee protection system of the state and again reaffirms Indonesias commitment to the principle of non-refoulement under international law. *** The writer is a research associate at the ASEAN Studies Center, Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, and is pursuing a post-graduate studies in law at the Leiden University, the Netherlands. His thesis is on Indonesias involvement in refugee protection under international law. --------------- We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to academia@jakpost.com. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 08:05 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d5bbe 4 Editorial #Editorial,foreign-aid,Foreign-Affairs-Ministry,Retno-Marsudi,Indonesian-foreign-policy,international-relations,#ForeignMinistry,#ForeignAid Free This year marks the start of a new era for Indonesia with the launch of a new agency through which the republic will parcel out official development assistance, often referred to as foreign aid. Its about time, too. Although the country continues to receive foreign aid, and at one time even counted among the largest recipients of funding from Japan and the World Bank, times have changed, or at least they are changing, with Indonesia now starting to give aid where and when possible. We certainly have the capacity. For some years to come, Indonesia will still be a net recipient of foreign aid, but it is not hard to envision the day when it becomes a net aid donor. Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, who announced the plan in her annual foreign policy statement on Tuesday, said the agency, which is to be called Indonesia Aid, would coordinate with all existing technical cooperation programs already in place for several developing countries in Africa, Asia and the West Pacific, that were currently handled by different government ministries. The new agency will be allotted Rp 1 trillion (US$70 million) to start with, a modest sum but a good beginning to mark Indonesias foray into the group of aid donor countries. Indonesia is becoming less and less dependent on foreign aid, relying instead more on international trade and foreign direct investment. Thanks in no small measure to the generosity of donor countries in the past, Indonesia has built its own economic capacity and lifted itself up to join the ranks of middle income countries. Now is the time to pay back. Indonesia is now a member of the G20, a grouping of the 20 wealthiest nations, and our leaders have had the privilege of working with leaders from 19 other nations to set global economic and trade policies at their annual summits. Our economy is ranked the 16th largest in the world, and all predictions say that, at the current trajectory, we will be in the top 10 by 2025, and top five by 2040. With Indonesias continued economic rise, and higher international profile, obviously comes greater global responsibility. With its sheer size as the worlds fourth largest country in terms of population, and the largest economy in Southeast Asia Indonesia is emerging as one of Asias middle powers, with plenty of clout and influence in global affairs. The ability to give aid to other countries would be one important form of soft power at our disposal as an aspiring middle power. This too is consistent with the constitutional mandate for Indonesia to take part in promoting international order based on independence, peace and social justice. This also calls for a change of mindset at home, as the country has switched from being a member of a beggars club to a rich country club. There is the question of transparency and accountability regarding how the government dispenses taxpayers money to foreign countries. The president, or whoever is entrusted to lead the new agency, must explain how giving foreign aid is in our national interests. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ary Hermawan (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 08:14 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d5fa8 1 Opinion #commentary,basuki-tjahaja-purnama,ahok,#ahok,Indonesian-politics,media,social-media,#SocialMedia,#Media,#politics Free In hindsight, it may appear that Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama has become the Kim Kardashian of Indonesian politics. Nearly a year after his upset defeat in the capitals gubernatorial election and his controversial blasphemy conviction, the former Jakarta governor has never been completely out of the spotlight. So it was no surprise that when news broke that Ahok had filed for divorce from his wife, Veronica Tan, the Indonesian Twittersphere went crazy. This newspaper is obviously no place for gossiping about Ahoks private life, but the continual limelight given to him may provide a glimpse into what lies ahead for arguably one of the most popular politicians in the country today, and why his potential comeback could change Indonesian politics in years to come. Many would have argued that Ahoks political career was over when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Jakarta to demand his incarceration for blasphemy. That is a fair assessment, given all the doom and gloom foreign analysts repeated like a mantra about Indonesias dramatic turn to conservatism. But I argue that Ahok remains one of the few people to watch in Indonesia. There are at least three reasons why. First, his long political career has shown that Ahok is no quitter; second, his conviction, while it was undeniably damaging politically, remains widely disputed; third and most importantly, the man who became the most talked-about political figure on Twitter last year could benefit from a generational shift among Indonesian voters. Ahok has built a stellar political career since his election in 2005 as Bangka Belitung regent. His popularity peaked when he was sworn in as Jakarta governor in 2014 to replace Joko Jokowi Widodo, offering a new type of leadership that has made political establishments look irrelevant at best and incompetent at worst in the eyes of voters. True, he lost the gubernatorial election, but his defeat came after a series of rallies filled with hateful sectarian rhetoric and even death threats. The man, regardless of his flaws, did not back down, despite all the intimidation he faced. The Chinese-Christian politician will struggle to fight the penista agama (blasphemer) stigma, but many are aware that he was a victim of an ancient draconian law. His conviction was challenged not only by human rights activists, but also a number of Muslim scholars who believed he had done nothing wrong. Ahok accepted his conviction and dropped any legal attempts to have it overturned. This does not mean that he has admitted guilt, and if anything, it could send the right message to Muslim voters that he wanted to put the issue to rest. That said, Ahok still has a chance to make a political comeback. And given the possible change in behavior as a result of a generational shift among Indonesian voters, Ahok could outdo many of his rivals. According to an August 2017 survey by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), millennials are looking for new faces in politics. Jokowi, Prabowo Subianto and Ridwan Kamil are now still the most popular presidential candidates among voters aged between 17 and 29, the survey showed. Ahok ranks seventh after Tri Rismaharini, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Gatot Nurmantyo. Of the top seven, only Ahok and Ridwan were born after 1965, have an army of online supporters and are widely seen as political outsiders. At this point, Ridwan seems poised to grab most of the millennial votes, but pitting Ahok and Ridwan against each other is unfair at the present time, when Ridwan is running for governor in West Java while Ahok is incarcerated. The CSIS survey would yield different results if it were carried out after Ahok had completed his sentence and launched a political campaign. Assuming that he is granted Christmas and Independence Day remissions and is considered eligible for conditional release, Ahok could be free by this August. Ahok has a chance to surpass Ridwans electability, as the former has built a political base that is ready to take on the political establishment. Ridwans supporters are not as militant and organized as Ahokers, the most prominent of whom have been consolidating and setting up a political party to contest the 2019 legislative election. The party in question, the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), is openly and aggressively trying to grab the millennial vote. The party, naturally, is filled with novice politicians with little to no experience and lacks a symbolic figure to rally support. It is wishful thinking to believe that the political rookies in the PSI would be able to shake up patron-client politics in 2019, but Ahok could change the equation for them if the maverick politician decided to mount it as his political vehicle. Still, millennials are notoriously unpredictable and hard to please. There is no guarantee they could be more progressive and less sectarian, but the fact is that the old voters who voted for the old parties and their old politicians will be gone soon, and the generational shift is moving voters to favoring newer parties. The old parties are aware of the changing voting behavior, but not all of them are making an effort to adapt. It stands to reason that by 2024, Ahok and his supporters could be more prepared than others in attracting millennials, who will by then be the dominant voters. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stevie Emilia (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 09:08 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d7a61 1 Art & Culture ari-bayuaji,Indonesian-artists,local-artists,exhibition,contemporary-art Free Artist Ari Bayuajis latest solo exhibition, A Cabinet of Curiosities, is deeply inspired by his homeland of Indonesia, while also blending in cultural references from other countries to produce works with great symbolic meaning. Ari got the idea for the exhibitions title from the cabinet of curiosities popular in 16th century Europe to keep small collections of extraordinary objects from the new world. I want my artwork to spark viewers curiosity. I dont just want to show new contemporary artwork that is constructed from unusual materials. I think its also a great opportunity to introduce Indonesian art and culture in a very contemporary way, he says. Born in Indonesia, Ari made Montreal his second home, setting up a studio there following his fine arts study at Concordia University in 2005. While he has a studio in Canada and another in Bali, his artistic journey also takes him to different parts of the world where he takes up artist residencies and participates in exhibitions. His latest exhibition, which runs until Jan. 24, was jointly organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Montreal Art Council, making him the first Indonesian artist to hold a solo exhibition at the major institution in Canada. Ari says that throughout the exhibition, he has received many questions about the materials he used and on Indonesian cultures. There are so many things that people in Canada do not know about Indonesia. Scholar Stones #1 by Ari Bayuaji (Ari Bayuaji/File) He constructed the 25 pieces on display from different materials, many of which were rare and old objects used in Indonesian households, such as volcanic stone mortars from Bali, ceramic incense holders used by the Chinese-Indonesian community in several areas of Java, wooden tools from Kalimantan, in addition to metal jewelry from Sumatra and Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB). My Indonesian roots have a very big impact on my artistic vision and also in my creative process. I have been combining the material I brought from Indonesia with other ready-made objects that I found or bought in Montreal, he explained. It is still very important to me to use my Indonesian cultural background in my creative process because it is the foundation of my art knowledge and I want to use it as one of my strengths. One of the main objects on display that hold personal meaning for the artist is titled My Grandmothers Cabinet. Ari said the artwork meant so much to him as he used his late grandmothers art deco glass cabinet as its main material. My grandmother used the cabinet as her cabinet of curiosity. She kept her most beautiful collection of ceramic, porcelain and glass in the cabinet just for the family and guests to look at and admire, he says. The imitation of the Buddha head as a book holder that Indonesian-born artist Ari Bayuaji created is a symbol of how meaningless the original pieces are if not placed in their rightful place. (Ari Bayuaji/File) For the exhibition, he placed more than 15 small sculptures inside the cabinet instead. Those sculptures were constructed with parts of different ready-made objects that were put together to create new exotic objects inspired by old medicine containers and holy water from different Indonesian islands. The artist was also inspired by the Scholar Stones, an important Chinese art form, for his works, Scholar Stones #1 and #2; while for A Place to Pray, he constructed the sculpture with pieces of old objects, such as a Balinese offering plate, stone mortars from Sumatra and broken concrete from Montreals sidewalks. A Place to Pray by Ari Bayuaji (Ari Bayuaji/File) Another important piece is a book holder inspired by the stone heads of Buddha at Borobudur temple, some of which have been included in the collections of various museums. The imitation of the Buddha head as a book holder that I created is a symbol of how meaningless the original pieces are if not placed in their rightful place, he says. A first: Pieces by Indonesian-born artist Ari Bayuaji are on display at an exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Art and Montreal Art Council in Canada. (Ari Bayuaji/File) The exhibition is being held following his selection for the Impressions artist residency program early last year, with the museum and the council deeming him a visual artist committed to challenging the Western categorization of fine and decorative arts versus everyday objects by creating works that fall between these two categories, thus giving viewers the opportunity to question their assumptions. The program granted him access to explore and find inspiration from the museums extensive collections of some 42,000 works, 4,500 of which are on display in its five pavilions, under the supervision of the museums Asian arts curator, Laura Vigo. It also opened up the museums library, archives and even its storage for his research. Ari said the residency had helped him develop his artistic vocabulary and the forms of expression he employed. It also allowed him to look at the Western categories of fine and decorative arts and produce works that were situated between design and ready-made highlighting pieces that once served as household tools and would have never previously been accepted as art objects, in the hope of encouraging a new discussion on how to categorize art and design in the process. During the residency, he also noticed limited objects from Indonesia at the museum, with those around either of poor quality or lacking background information. Following his exploration, he created artwork using old objects from different islands in Indonesia. He modified, deconstructed and combined the old objects with new ones to construct his pieces for the latest exhibition. Artist in a residency is not just about making art to me. The most important thing is how much I can learn about the culture and how I can build a good relationship with people in the new places, the artist says. Ari has presented his works at different exhibitions, including Censor at the Redbase Foundation in Yogyakarta in 2016; Hide and Seek at Galerie Helder in The Hague and No Place Like Home in Knsthal Rotterdam, the Netherlands, last year. He also took up different artist residencies, including a three-month program in Sainte-Alvere, France, last year. This year is another busy one for the artist. He is scheduled to join a group exhibition at Woodbury University Gallery in California, the United States from Jan. 26 to end of February. He will also take up a month-long artist residency at the United World College of Southeast Asia in Singapore next month. I believe that art is the imitation of the real things in life. When I create artwork I always try to inject some emotions in it. It is like the way theater imitates violence in a beautiful play to touch the audiences heart. I want my work to remind a person of something that touches their heart. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Jerusalem, Undefined Fri, January 12, 2018 15:31 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e7e4f 2 Art & Culture Albert-Einstein,exhibition,#exhibition,letter,archive Free 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." Read also: How do you get one? 5 things to know about the Nobel Prizes 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. 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. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Brussels Fri, January 12, 2018 15:08 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e5f40 2 Science & Tech EU,European-Union,supercomputer,technology,China Free The EU unveiled plans Thursday to raise one billion euros to build superfast computers that catch up with China and others to boost Europe's economy, make medical advances and fight hacking. China overtook the United States in numbers and performance for supercomputers in a ranking last November, followed by non-EU Switzerland and Japan in third and fourth place. "It is a tough race and today the EU is lagging behind: we do not have any supercomputers in the world's top ten," said Andrus Ansip, the European Commisssion vice president for the digital single market. The European Commission, the EU executive, said it would contribute around 486 million euros ($580 million) for a "High Performance Computing (EuroHPC) infrastructure", that would then be matched by EU nations. Read also: In new leap for AI: Computer chips that can smell "We want to give European researchers and companies world-leading supercomputer capacity by 2020," Ansip said in a statement. Brussels says it will help develop artificial intelligence and applications to improve health, security and engineering, plus help forecast hurricane routes and simulate earthquakes. European scientists and industry risk yielding secrets or sensitive information as they increasingly process data outside the EU to perform tasks in the absence of the best supercomputers, the commission said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Richard Sargent (Agence France-Presse) Bangkok Fri, January 12, 2018 17:34 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0ec102 2 Lifestyle Japan,tattoo,yakuza,viral,Thailand Free 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 streetside 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. Read also: Kim Jong-Hyun indicated depression through tattoo 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 could be extradited to face prosecution in Japan as early as Friday. Around 70,000 Japanese live in Thailand and Japan is the country's biggest investor, largely in the automobile and electronics sectors. In 2017, Japanese spent more than $4 billion in Thailand, nearly half of all foreign direct investment. Topics : Japan tattoo yakuza viral Thailand Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Julia Pavesi (Agence France-Presse) Vervins, France Fri, January 12, 2018 14:30 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e5172 2 Art & Culture newspaper,Linotype,France Free Jenny Braconnier sits at a hulking grey machine, amid the fumes of molten lead, swiftly typing out the news from northeast France on a strange-looking keyboard that produces lines of metal type. Beside her is a smartphone, one of the few nods to modernity in the deliberately retro newsroom of Le Democrate de l'Aisne. Braconnier, 21, and four young colleagues have mastered a 1970s Linotype machine for the weekly newspaper which covers an area near Belgium that proudly sticks with a technology most papers abandoned decades ago. The four-page broadsheet, which bills itself "100 percent lead, zero percent web", covers the local farming scene along with more timely concerns like trends in New Year's greeting cards or the tally of anti-fraud operations carried out in the area last year. "It's a place where we do whatever it takes," said Braconnier, who started three years ago at what she readily admits is "an unusual job". Each strike of the Linotype's keyboard sends a "matrix", part of a mould for forming each character of type, into a cartridge that sets a single line of text. Once it's ready, the molten lead -- in fact an alloy of lead, tin and antimony -- is poured into the moulds, which are then set for printing. It's an exacting process, and not easy to pick up. "There are no more schools, no more courses. I learned it all in a couple months" before two fellow typesetters retired, Braconnier said. And it isn't not easy to keep a Linotype up and running -- in September the rotary press from 1927 broke down, forcing the paper to resort to digital printing for three months. "The clutch gave up, and so did the drive belt," said Kevin Germain, 26, who originally trained as a car mechanic. The newspaper had to find a foundry to make replacement parts out of steel. Read also: Digitizing newspapers at Surakartas National Press Monument 'Young people can adapt' The "Democrate de l'Aisne" was founded in 1906 and it is the last european weekly paper printed with lead, exactly in the same manner as in the beginning of 20 century. (AFP/Francois Nascimbeni) The Aisne Democrat was founded in 1906 by Pascal Ceccaldi, a recently arrived Corsican who was elected to parliament representing the town of Vervins. At one point the paper was publishing 20,000 copies a day, employing 20 typesetters who could put out up to six pages. These days circulation stands at some 1,500 copies a week that sell for 60 euro cents ($0.70) each, with the young team backed by former employees as well as the paper's director, Jacques Piraux, 76. "I've got my succession plans in place," says Piraux, who is also president of the Friends of the Democrat, the association which took over the paper in 1987 as it was facing insolvency. He is convinced that "young people can adapt" and keep up the hot-metal-type tradition, which has earned the paper subscribers from as far away as Sydney and Hong Kong. His most recent recruit is Nicolas Laplace, 29, who recently was fishing around for matrices to slot into the cartridges -- in reverse order, as required for the printing process. "It wasn't easy at the beginning," he acknowledged. "It's part of what sets us apart," said Eleonore Dufrenois, a reporter and assistant director. "The other part is the layout itself, the columns, made with the lead -- it's the last in Europe," she said. The Democrat even won a special mention at the "Future of the Press" trade show outside Paris last November. "People buy us because we're different in both content and form," Dufrenois said. "We're unusual". Read also: Legendary New York daily has been sold for $1 Safeguarding the future But maintaining its financial balance is a constant battle, even with a solid base of some 1,100 subscribers who pay 26 euros a year. The paper accepts no advertising beyond legal notices -- its main source of revenue -- and refuses the subsidies offered by the French government to newspapers, as a gauge of its independence. Annual revenue stands at around 150,000 euros, and the paper is thinking of setting up a foundation or a museum dedicated to the history of the press. There are no plans, however, to expand onto the internet: the Aisne Democrat appears destined to continue emerging from a workshop heavy with the smell of lead and the clacking of metal on metal. But as it pushes ahead after 112 years, the paper is in the market for a new Linotype. Topics : newspaper Linotype France Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rizal Harahap (The Jakarta Post) Pekanbaru Fri, January 12, 2018 13:23 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e2b0c 1 National #saracen,saracen,hate-speech,#hate-speech,hoax,#Hoax,court-ruling,#court-ruling Free The Pekanbaru District Court in Riau has sentenced M. Abdullah Harsono, a member and administrator of Saracen an online syndicate believed to have been involved in creating and spreading hoax news for money, to 32 months in prison. On Thursday afternoon, the panel of judges found Abdullah guilty of "intentionally spreading information to incite hate" on social media and violating the Electronic Information and Transactions Law. The bench said Abdullah had committed his crimes between April and Aug. 2015 from his residence in Pekanbaru. For instance, he led a hate speech campaign against President Joko Jokowi Widodo through an account in the name of Harsono Abdullah. Abdullah had also used the name Muhammad Ali Firdaus to spread hate speech on Facebook to spearhead an anti-Chinese campaign. "Therefore, the panel sentences the defendant to two years and eight months in prison," presiding judge Martin Ginting said. Thursdays sentence fell short of the four years prosecutors had sought. Abdullah was arrested on Aug. 30 last year at his residence in Pekanbaru, a month after police arrested Jasriadi, Saracens alleged leader. (ipa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram/Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 15:30 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e7440 1 National #RegionalElections,regional-elections,pilkada,political-dynasty Free Dynastic politics may haunt the 2018 regional elections with a considerable number of candidates related to incumbent or former regional heads committed to running as registration closed on Wednesday. For instance, in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), incumbent Governor Zainul Majdis elder sister, Sitti Rohmi Djalilah, is running for the deputy governor post accompanying governor candidate Zulkieflimansyah. Campaign team member Muhammad Nasip Ikroman, however, insisted that Sitti was nominated through a democratic process. This is not dynastic politics. Dynastic politics uses all kinds of means, including forcing the nomination of an incapable candidate. Sitti is capable of running, regardless of the fact she is related to the incumbent governor, Ikroman said on Friday. Daughter of incumbent West Kalimantan Governor Cornelis, Karolin Margret Natasa, who is running for her fathers post this election, also dismissed the notion of playing the political dynasty card. She said her candidacy, supported by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), was the result of the partys regeneration process. My candidacy was not decided out of nowhere. It was the result of party regeneration, she said on Thursday, as quoted by kompas.com. Constitutional law expert Feri Amsari said that dynastic politics had a detrimental effect on democracy, especially in developing countries like Indonesia where citizens were less knowledgeable about democratic processes. Certain groups and certain families take advantage of this lack of awareness to block others from the [election] process, he told The Jakarta Post. This results in leadership that puts family interests above the public good." (nmn/kmt/ipa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 14:12 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e390a 1 National #obstruction-of-justice,obstruction-of-justice,#e-ID,e-ID,setya-novanto,#SetyaNovanto,#KPK,KPK Free Fredrich Yunadi, a lawyer who is now a suspect in a case of obstruction of justice, failed to appear for Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) questioning on Friday. Fredrich is accused of helping his client, Setya Novanto an embattled politician and graft suspect, to avoid law enforcement. Fredrich cannot come here today, his lawyer, Sapriyanto Refa, told the media at the KPK headquarters on Friday, as quoted by kompas.com. Fredrich, according to Sapriyanto, had requested that the KPK reschedule on the grounds that he wanted to first complete an ethics investigation by the Indonesian Advocates Association (Peradi). Therefore, Sapriyanto came to the KPK on Friday to seek confirmation on whether or not it had granted a request for postponement they filed on Thursday. The obstruction of justice case centers on an incident at private hospital Medika Permata Hijau in Jakarta where Setya was admitted for medical treatment following a car accident in November. KPK suspected the treatment was fabricated so that Setya could avoid its investigation into his role in the electronic identity (e-ID) graft scandal. The antigraft body has also named another suspect in the obstruction of justice case -- Bimanesh Sutarjo -- a medical doctor at Medika. KPK has also issued Bimanesh with a summons for questioning on Friday. (hol/ipa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 16:31 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e9c19 1 Business Freeport-Indonesia,exports,decline Free Gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) exported a total of 921,137 tons of copper concentrates in the period from February to December 2017, or 82.7 percent of the yearly quota set by the government. The government granted PTFI, a subsidiary of American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan, a one-year permit in February 2017 to export 1.11 million tons of copper concentrates. As of December 2017, PTFIs realized exports stood at only 921,137 tons, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's mineral and coal director general Bambang Gatot Ariyono said on Thursday. The export quota was given in return for PTFIs commitment to build a new copper smelter in Gresik, East Java, by 2022. The government will monitor the facilitys development progress at least once every six months before giving another export permit for the company. PTFI has previously calculated that it will need around US$2.2 billion for the new smelter. The facility will have an annual input capacity of 2 million tons of copper concentrate and output capacity of 460,000 tons of copper cathode and 5,800 tons of anode slime, among other products. PTFI has yet to submit a proposal to us to get a recommendation for another export permit. But, of course, we will have to evaluate the development progress of companys new smelter first, Bambang said. Meanwhile, another gold and copper miner, PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara, exported around 560,000 tons of copper concentrates in the February-December period last year, or 82.9 percent of its yearly quota of 675,000 tons (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 21:19 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0f14c6 4 Business LRT,Greater-Jakarta,land-acquisition,BPN Free The government has yet completed acquiring land in several locations in Jakarta and its neighboring cities for the Greater Jakarta light rapid transit project, which has secured Rp 29.9 trillion (US$2.24 billion) in investments. Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry land procurement director general Arie Yuriwin said in Jakarta on Friday that his office was trying to resolve land disputes in several areas where construction for the project is expected to take place, such as 6,000 square meters of land at Indonesia in Miniature Park (TMII) and Cawang, East Jakarta. Land is needed for transit oriented development (TOD) that includes the construction of several apartments, including those for middle-lower class families. For the land acquisition in Jakarta, we look to complete it in March, said Arie as reported by kontan.co.id. He said in East Bekasi, West Java, the acquisition of a 10-hectare plot of land for an LRT depot was expected to be completed in April. Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Mardiasmo said the ministry had disbursed funds for 36 percent of the land acquisition process for both LRT stations and depots. He said Rp 1.6 trillion would soon be disbursed to acquire 142,000 square meters of land if the National Land Agency (BPN) were to make a deal with land owners. Now, we are waiting for BPN to complete the land acquisition, he added. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 18:45 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0efe73 1 City jakarta,luxury-car,tax Free Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said he had received reports from the tax agency on delinquent luxury car taxpayers. We will announce [the names] later, said Anies in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, on Friday. Anies said he was considering various methods to get car owners to pay their taxes. According to the administration, there were about 1,700 luxury car tax evaders in the city as of August last year, with average outstanding taxes of about Rp 100 million (US$7,000). Previously, the Jakarta Tax and Levy Board visited the homes of delinquent taxpayers and placed stickers on their cars to indicate that taxes had yet to be paid for the vehicles. Anies said the move proved to be effective in getting car owners to pay up. We did it in November and December last year, said Anies. (gis) The tax and levy board visits included stops at the homes of actor Raffi Ahmad, comedian Tukul Arwana, and lawyer Hotma Sitompul. (gis) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 11:09 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0db9c0 1 Business rice,imports,price-hikes Free Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita has said the government will import 500,000 tons of medium-grade rice from Thailand and Vietnam to calm the commodity's price, which has been increasing since late 2017 as a result of a supply shortage. The rice will arrive in late January and will be of a different variety from the local IR 64 variety. It could be Japonica or jasmine, and we will import it through PPI, Enggartiasto told a media briefing on Thursday evening, referring to the state-owned Indonesian Trading Company. [Private firms] can sell it with partners, but [sales] must be through the PPI, so the government can monitor the rice supply and distribution, he added. If necessary, the rice would also be sold at traditional markets and at modern stores. The government has set a ceiling price for medium-quality rice according to region: Rp 9,450 (70 US cents) per kilogram in Java, Lampung, South Sumatra, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi; Rp 9,950 per kg in the rest of Sumatra, Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara; and Rp 10,250 per kg in Maluku and Papua. The government said that declining supplies of medium-quality rice had caused the commodity's price to rise since December. Bank Indonesias price tracking website hargapangan.id shows a gradual increase in the rice price by 4 percent to Rp 11,900 per kg in the from Nov. 8 to Jan. 11 period. The price for the Medium I grade of rice, which is consumed by low- and middle-income households, increased even more, by 4.4 percent to Rp 12,050 per kg. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 15:13 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e6479 1 Business Indonesia-EU-CEPA,surakarta,February Free The fourth round of the Indonesia-European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (I-EU CEPA) is scheduled to be held in Surakarta in February, according to an EU Commission statement. This round will deal with, among others, Indonesias regulatory side that was not up for discussion in the previous rounds. The EU, meanwhile, has presented 17 text proposals. Exchange of tariff offers will take place, in which the EU will keep commonalities with Vietnam and other ASEAN members. Rough topics like Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) -- measures to protect humans, animals and plants from diseases, pests or contaminants -- public procurement and state enterprises will continue to be tapped, the statement said. Indonesia and the EU have announced a CEPA conclusion target in 2019 that is expected to be implemented in 2021, but the latter focused on the quality of the agreement rather than timing. The EU will focus on substance rather than timing; negotiations are moving forward at a sustained pace, said Helena Konig, the commission director for Asia and Latin America, during a civil society dialogue in Brussels on Dec. 15. I-EU CEPA is expected to accelerate trade growth between the country and the 28-member bloc. Total trade between the EU and Indonesia only expanded by 3.1 percent on average annually within the 2007-2016 period and reached $25.1 billion last year, according to Trademap. The figure is comparably smaller than the EU and Vietnam total trade of between $24 billion and $41 billion in the past five years. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 13:01 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e1a20 1 Business Fundacion-Metropoli,10-destination-brands,bappenas,bambang-brodjonegoro Free The Indonesian government and Spanish urban spatial planning consultants Fundacion Metropoli have signed an agreement on Thursday to develop 10 new areas in Indonesia that are being promoted to become new tourist destinations. The agreement was signed by National Development Planning Agency head Bambang Brodjonegoro and the founder and honorary president of Fundacion Metropoli, Alfonso Vegara, in Jakarta. We are now developing 10 regions to become the new Bali. The President [Joko Jokowi Widodo] has stressed the importance of comprehensive mapping in developing the regions to become world class [destinations], said Bambang in a statement on Friday. He added that the project would start on Bintan Island. It is time to follow up planning with detailed implementation while the government is considering the financial scheme by seeking investors to develop the areas or using the alternative scheme, said Bambang, who is also the national development planning minister. The five areas of cooperation are knowledge co-creation in urban solutions; sustainable cities and communities policy networking; a joint fellowship program; Indonesia future regional and cities lab alliance and a pilot project (incubation) of sustainable cities and region concept. The Fundacion Metropoli, which had awards bestowed upon it by the United Nations, European Union and European Spatial Planning Council, would consider the local social-economic conditions when developing certain regions to become tourist destinations, Bambang added. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 14:23 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0e43b3 1 Business mercedes,subsidiary,sales,projection Free Daimler Commercial Vehicles Indonesia (DCVI), a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz Indonesia (MBI), expects to double the sales of its Axor heavy-duty trucks in Indonesia this year. DCVI president director Markus Villinger said the company was upbeat about the sales growth, of which it aims to sell 1,000 to 1,500 units this year. We have had a great sales performance amid the rising demand from the construction sector, of which we sold 500 units last year, said Villinger at a media gathering held in Jakarta on Thursday. He added that the company planned to increase its use of local materials in manufacturing its products, however, it would depend on the capability of its local suppliers to meet their quality standards. In the Axors production, locally sourced raw materials make up 20 to 30 percent of its total components, in the form of tires. DCVI started the production of the heavy-duty truck Axor 2528 C with an investment worth around US$20 million to $30 million at its plant in Wanaherang, Bogor in West Java. The plant currently has an annual production capacity of 5,000 units. (fny/bbn) Topics : mercedes subsidiary sales projection Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 19:38 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0f10f1 1 Business Freeport-Indonesia,shares,divestment,Papuan-administrations Free The central government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Papua provincial administration and the Mimika regency administration on Friday, granting the local government a 10 percent stake in the coming divestment of gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI). The government was represented by the Finance Ministry, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and state-owned aluminum firm PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum). Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that under the MoU, both the Papua administration and Mimika regency would jointly own a 10 percent stake out of the 51 percent of divested PTFI shares. Negotiations between the government and PTFI are still taking place. The portion of the stake was to accommodate the rights of the indigenous people, which are affected by PTFIs [operation], she told reporters on Friday. Discussions over the transaction mechanism between Inalum and the local administrations were underway, she said, adding that the transactions would use neither state budget nor regional budget funds. Inalum president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the signing of the MoU had settled the issue of the allotment of shares among central and local governments in the coming divestment of PTFI, a local subsidiary of United States-based mining giant PT Freeport-McMoRan. The government previously extended the temporary permit of PTFI to June 30, allowing the latter to resume its operation while negotiations take place. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dave Clark (Agence France-Presse) Washington Fri, January 12, 2018 09:08 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d88c9 2 World #trump,trump,Iran,#Iran Free US President Donald Trump met his national security team Thursday to decide whether to put the 2015 Iran nuclear deal at risk by re-imposing American sanctions. European leaders queued to beg Trump to renew the sanctions relief that Washington agreed to in the accord, which Trump has denounced as one of the worst of all time. US officials expect Trump to grudgingly sign the sanction waivers once again before they start to expire this weekend -- even if he also imposes 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 landmark agreement. America's allies see the accord between six world powers and Tehran as the best way of preventing Iran's quest for nuclear arms and a victory for multilateral diplomacy. But Trump argues 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 as Trump's meeting started. "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. Sanders did not say when an announcement would be made. State Department officials initially suggested it could come as early as Thursday, but later said it would not happen before Friday. "The secretary has been at the White House almost every day. He was there yesterday for many, many hours," Assistant Secretary of State for Steve Goldstein told reporters. "The decision meeting is this afternoon," he said. Trump has already declared that he think the Iran nuclear deal is no longer in the United States' national interest. By thus "decertifying" the arrangement, he opened a window for the US 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 or not 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. 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 Brussels, 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". UN inspectors have certified Iran's compliance with the deal nine times, most recently in November. "It is important now that all parties respect this joint commitment and that our American allies respect it as well," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves 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 [is] 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." One of the criticisms levelled at the nuclear deal is that it does nothing to address Iran's continuing ballistic missile program and meddling 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. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Malaysia Sat, January 13 2018 Four Indonesians may be named suspects in the alleged murder of a cosmetics trader on Jan. 5, Indonesian diplomats said on Thursday. Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Rusdi Kirana said four Indonesians allegedly attacked M. Nor Syazrin Rasdi, 29, at his cosmetics stall. Nor died at the scene. Twenty Indonesians have been interrogated in the case so far and four of them may be named suspects, Rusdi told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Friday. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Rome Fri, January 12, 2018 07:36 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0d5704 2 News Spain,travel,tourism,destination Free 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. Read also: Things to do in southern Spain: Explore heritage sites, tour olive oil farms 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. Topics : Spain travel tourism destination Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 17:49 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0eeaa8 4 News Batik-Air,new-route,Papua,surabaya,Surabaya-Airport,manokwari,Sorong Free Batik Air is set to open a new route for flights between Surabaya and West Papua on Jan. 19. Flights heading toward West Papua will depart from Juanda International Airport and land at Domine Eduard Osok Airport in Sorong, where a separate flight heads to Rendani Airport in Manokwari as part of the new route, as reported by Kompas Travel. With this new flight route, we hope to respond to our loyal Batik Air passengers and serve them for holidays [and] business or family visits with a premium class flight that offers more comfort, said Ramaditya Handoko of Lion Air Group's corporate communications division in a press release. Read also: Batik Air to connect Jakarta with Labuan Bajo The Batik Air flight from Surabaya to West Papua will fly once a day, departing from Surabaya at 5:00 a.m. WIB and arriving in Sorong at 11:00 a.m. WIT. The flight from Sorong to Manokwari takes off at 11:00 a.m. and arrives at 11:55 a.m. WIT. The flight to Surabaya takes off from Manokwari at 12:40 p.m. and lands in Sorong at 01:35 p.m. In Sorong, the flight takes off at 2:15 p.m. WIT and arrives in Surabaya at 03:30 p.m. WIB. For the route, Batik Air will operate an Airbus A320-200 CEO with 12 business class seats and 144 economy class seats, in addition to its Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-900 airplanes. In 2018, the airline aims to add eight more Airbus A320-200 CEO for its domestic and international routes. (asw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Won Ho-jung (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network) Fri, January 12, 2018 18:37 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0efa30 2 News Incheon,Airport,South-Korea Free Koreas main gateway airport held a grand opening ceremony Friday for its second passenger terminal, set to open to the public on Thursday, three weeks ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. President Moon Jae-in and Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mee, along with Incheon Airports honorary spokesmodels, figure skater Kim Yu-na and actor Song Joong-ki, attended the event. An airport is a symbol of a nations power and its level of international exchanges, President Moon said in a speech at the ceremony. With the opening of the second terminal, Incheon Airport now has the ability to service 72 million passengers annually. It has grown to become the worlds fifth-most sought international gateway airport and has completed preparations for its second leap forward. Moon also promised continued support for expanding the airport moving forward. Incheon Airport must become a hub not only in East Asia, but for the world, he said. The Korean government will proactively support the airport so that it will be able to service 100 million passengers annually by 2023. The new terminal will house four airlines affiliated with the SkyTeam air alliance -- Korean Air, Delta, KLM and Air France. Read also: New art-tainment attraction opens in Incheon The opening of the second passenger terminal on Jan. 18 will be another turning point, as Incheon Airport strives to become the best, said Chung Il-young, CEO of Incheon International Airport Corp. We will stabilize operations as soon as the airport opens to perfectly fulfill our role as Koreas central airport, and will support the success of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The second terminal will open in time to serve athletes and Olympics officials who will begin entering Korea starting on Jan. 30 to prepare for the Winter Games. Those heading to PyeongChang can either take a transfer plane to Yangyang Airport or a KTX train from Incheon Airport. The second terminal has a variety of information and communication technology solutions to allow better flow of traffic, including self-check-in and bag drop kiosks, robots that provide information about facilities and 360-degree body scanners. Starting Saturday, the airport corporation will run a shuttle bus between the two terminals every five minutes to transport passengers who may have gone to the wrong terminal. Construction of the 4.9 trillion-won ($4.6 billion) second passenger terminal at Incheon Airport began in June 2009. Topics : This article appeared on The Korea Herald newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Fri, January 12, 2018 16:37 1771 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c0ea854 1 News Airlines,#airlines,flight-attendants,Janet,government,Area-51 Free How would you feel about an airline that the United States government doesn't admit exists? If youre based in Las Vegas and are eligible to get top-secret clearance with the US government, heres a job opportunity you might want to look into. The classified airline is called Jane, and it operates commuter flights to guarded government facilities in the US. The vacancy was recently listed on the website for AECOM, which is no longer available, that operates a small fleet of aircraft from a discreet terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. There isnt much public knowledge on Janet. In fact, the US government does not admit that it exists. Some speculate that Janet is an abbreviation for Just Another Non-Existent Terminal. Read also: Watch AirAsia flight attendant nail Britney Spears Toxic video In addition to operating a fleet of Boing 737-600s, the airline also likely operates a smaller fleet of commuter-sized turboprops, according to USA Today. It is unknown where exactly these aircraft fly to. On occasion, they have been seen flying workers to and from an airstrip inside Area 51, as well as to military bases and confidential locations throughout western US. The prerequisites for the job are outlined clearly in the posting. For one, applicants must be level-headed and clear thinking while handling unusual incidents and situations (severe weather conditions, including turbulence, delays due to weather or mechanicals, hijackings or bomb threats). Active top-secret clearance is also highly desired. (afr/kes) The restoration of the historic Jarmulowsky Bank Building at 9 Orchard St. has been going on for years, and plans to open a new luxury hotel there have been shrouded in secrecy. So any tidbit concerning the project is of interest to us. Today we noticed a press release which offers a few clues about the financing of the hotel, sure to be one of the Lower East Sides new hot spots. It was put out by NES Financial, a firm that offers services to administer complex financial transactions. The property owner, DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, is utilizing the EB-5 Program, which offers legal residency to people from other countries if they invest at least $500,000 in projects that create jobs. The press release says, the EB5 United (the program sponsor) and DLJ Real Estate Capital have partnered with Advantage America New York Regional Center to facilitate a $73.5 million EB-5 investment in Nine Orchard Street, toward a nearly $200 million total capital raise. According to an EB-5 flyer, 9 Orchard has been accepting EB-5 investments since September of last year. It says the total project costs are a whopping $190 million. More than $100 million is coming directly from DLJ equity. The flyer talks up the Lower East Side as one of New Yorks hippest neighborhoods with more art galleries per capita than any other neighborhood in NYC. It also notes that average apartment rents on the Lower East Side have increased 46% between 2012 and 2016. The property at 54 Canal St./9 Orchard St. was purchased in 2011 by DLJ for $33 million. The city landmark has been undergoing a painstaking restoration, including the recreation of a 50-foot-high domed spire on the top of the building. The owners were set to go before Community Board 3 last year in their quest for multiple liquor licenses at 9 Orchard, but those appearances were cancelled. The EB-5 program is controversial for a couple of reasons. When it was introduced by the federal government in 1990, EB-5 was meant to generate jobs in areas with high unemployment. In recent years, real estate developers have used the program to fund a large number of luxury projects in posh neighborhoods. Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior advisor, has used EB-5 to finance some of his real estate ventures. Some of these dealings have reportedly come under scrutiny by federal investigators. Three Lewis and Clark County officials and a local district judge filed for re-election Thursday, the first day to register as a candidate in this year's elections. Sheriff Leo Dutton is running as a Democrat for re-election as sheriff/coroner, which is a new position. The county commission voted in December to consolidate the two elected positions, which has been done in dozens of other Montana counties. In addition to overseeing the county's law enforcement, the sheriff/coroner will handle cause-of-death investigations and provide death certificates. Leo Gallagher is running as a Democrat for re-election as county attorney/public administrator. The county attorney is the state's prosecutor, the county's legal adviser, and the public administrator for estates of those who have died without anyone to administer their property. The person in this position also represents the state in child neglect cases and professionals seeking to commit mentally-ill persons to facilities, and assists survivors of domestic violence or sexual crimes. The county attorney does not prosecute misdemeanors or provide legal help to private citizens. Michael Swingley is running for re-election as justice of the peace, which is a nonpartisan position. The justice of the peace is in charge of the Lewis and Clark County Justice Court. It is the judicial branch of county government responsible for all misdemeanor offenses including traffic, criminal and animal control violations, and where all felony cases are initially filed. It is also the small claims court for Lewis and Clark County. The District 1 county commissioner, county treasurer/clerk and recorder, and county superintendent of schools positions are also up for election this year. County commissioners make decisions on county funding, legislative action, land-use and other choices that impact the county as a whole. Andy Hunthausen is the commissioner currently elected to this position in District 1. The treasurer/clerk and recorder oversees accounting, clerking and recording information for the county, elections, property taxes and motor vehicle taxes and county financial books. Paulette DeHart is the current treasurer/clerk and recorder. The county superintendent of schools is in charge of financial, administrative, legal, record keeping and transportation-supervisory services for all the schools in the county. The superintendent also makes sure all laws applicable to education are followed and acts as a liaison between state and government agencies. Katrina Chaney is the current superintendent of Lewis and Clark County schools. The First Judicial District Court Judge positions currently held by Mike Menahan in Department 1 and Michael McMahon in Department 2 are also up for election this year. McMahon, who was elected in 2016 to complete the term of a former judge who retired, filed for re-election Thursday. Both positions are nonpartisan. Candidates have until March 12 to file. The primary is June 5 and the general election is Nov. 6. Michael Richards, Edge Hill University Periods are something women and girls have been having for thousands of years its the reason you and I are even here. And yet around the world, theres still an element of shame associated with a womans monthly cycle. Menstruation is associated with smells, mess, blood, gore, impurity and disgust. Which is probably why many women say they feel uncomfortable talking about their periods. This leads to women suffering in silence when it comes to that time of the month hiding away from what some deem a dirty secret . This is in part why a recent report has called for boys, as well as girls, to learn about periods and the menstrual cycle at school Plan International UK , the charity behind the report, suggests there is a need to talk more about the issue as many girls feel embarrassed with the menstrual cycle tarnished with stigma and taboo. Their findings also reveal that one in seven of the girls and women interviewed said they did not know what was happening when they first started their period clearly demonstrating a need for more to be done to teach young women about whats to come. Bad education Previous research has also shown that teacher attitudes and classroom resources may prolong the negative stereotypes associated with menstruation. And for many girls, this lack of support in the classroom can lead to feelings of shame around the whole subject . Some girls are even missing school because they cannot afford sanitary products This clearly then goes way beyond playground embarrassment or bullying it is a far wider political and health inequalities issue. While the idea of tackling this head on and talking to boys in schools sounds good in practice, from my experience as an educational sexual health worker in central Manchester it is difficult to discuss sensitive issues such as menstruation with boys and young men. The overriding responses tend to be that girls get moody or smell funny during periods, and in general, they want to evade talking about the subject because it is a girls problem. Shutterstock But I have noticed that boys tend to have these attitudes more when they are in mixed groups, rather than single sex groups. In front of the girls, they tend to be more disrespectful and unsympathetic about the issues associated with periods for girls and primarily see any association with the vagina as sexual. When they are alone, however, with no girls present, Ive noticed how boys have more understanding about periods than they let on in front of the girls even being sympathetic about the difficulties women face. But even though many of these boys have the knowledge to understand what menstruation means, and many are even sympathetic towards girls, in my experience, it is difficult to challenge the taboos associated with menstruation with boys and young men. Not just for girls For this to change, schools needs to be more open about the importance of menstruation and they need to be more sympathetic towards the stigma girls face. For a start, schools should provide resources and information that girls can access. This will help them understand rather than feel scared and fearful what is happening to their bodies during puberty. This is one step towards taking the taboo out of menstruation, because to achieve gender equality on this issue, girls need to feel able to talk about their periods and challenge the discrimination that is associated with menstruation and developing girls bodies. And boys can play a big role in this if they also get the right support and resources Stressful courses are always a sure fire way to ruin your time at university. Although a little stress is inevitable, you can definitely enjoy university and your courses. Here are 5 tips to help you fall in love (or back in love) with your university classes: 1. Take classes you actually enjoy Obviously, there are going to be prerequisites you need to take care of, and after that some possible trial and error while finding your passion and career; however, university is the perfect time to delve into what you love to do. If you arent taking a class you enjoy, at least you know you dont enjoy it. The next time you choose modules, try something different! 2. Engage with the material Whether it be an art class or a science class find a way to be interested in what youre learning. Ask questions and involve yourself with the content. In order to engage with the material, it helps to personalize it and find a part of the subject that interests you. 3. Find good coping strategies for stress Stress is inevitable, especially at university, but the key to enjoying university is coping strategies. Whether that be exercise, a bubble bath, venting to a friend, or other forms of self-care, it is important to find a way to release stress and anxieties. 4. Make the class enjoyable If worse comes to worse, make the class enjoyable. Maybe that means finding good friends in the class to make it through, or it could be something outside of the class such as rewards for accomplishing certain goals in the class. Ensuring you have something to look forward to in a class always helps it seem more enjoyable. 5. Find meaning in the what your learning and personalise When you can connect a subject to yourself or something that feels real and relatable, the class suddenly seems a lot more useful and worth your time. Maybe you are in a biology class and just dont see how learning about cells is going to help anything in the world. However, when you look at it and realize that these cells literally make you what you are, the subject becomes more interesting and sparks more questions. Its a new year, and a new opportunity to travel to new lands and experience new cultures. However, as travellers, we must always remember to make a conscious effort to be courteous and show awareness of the misfortunes that happen upon our incredible planet. In light of recent environmental and political issues, editors at Fodor created the Fodors No List 2018, outlining the destinations to steer clear of this year. 1. Places with too many tourists Hot spots such as Venice, Amsterdam and Thailand have recently had to instate strict tourist bans and limitations due to tourist overcrowding and damage to natural ecosystems. Think of the residents, and say no to these destinations in 2018. 2. The Galapagos The Galapagos Islands are a global treasure, home to some of the most extensive and unusual ranges of flora and fauna. They are also extremely vulnerable to outside factors, meaning the Ecuadorian government has instated extremely strict laws to protect its wildlife from interference from tourists. Think carefully when considering the Galapagos islands as your next travel destination - it is after all, our duty as voyagers of the world to do what we can to protect it. 3. The Taj Mahal Im going to take a wild guess and assume the Taj Mahal is on your bucket list. It is undeniably beautiful; a worldly treasure. This year, however, its not going to be looking quite its usual self. The dome will be undergoing a thorough clean, covering it in a mud paste to counteract the surfaces yellowing over time. Officials are saying the work wont begin until March this year so maybe put off ticking this one off the list until 2019 at the very earliest. 4. Phang Nga Park, Thailand Paradise. Everybody wants it, and hundreds of thousands of us have found it in Thailand. So much so, that the once pristine natural environment has been completely overwhelmed by tourism. Government officials have found their once beautiful beaches filled with solid and liquid waste and coastal rubbish. Fodors suggests taking the road less littered and enjoy a tropical vacay away from the fray. 5. Myanmar Myanmar is a true spectacle; a rich cultural and environmental landscape dotted with sacred gold and diamond-encrusted temples. But since August, the violent campaign against ethnic Rohingya community has seen thousands fleeing their homes to neighbouring Bangladesh. The cruel persecution of the Rohingya people has been labelled by the UN as a textbook case of ethnic cleansing. 6. Mt. Everest We all know someone who claims bragging rights after climbing to base camp or beyond. Although Mt. Everest is a stunning path for testing your mental and physical capabilities, it comes with a hefty price tag (between $25-45,000) and an even higher risk of danger. The mountain claimed six lives in 2017, with the possibility of ever-changing climates and melting ice making Everest more perilous than ever. 7. Missouri Missouri is a state filled with ultimate BBQ joints and jazz clubs. However, it is also the place where a state rep argued that homosexuals werent human beings, and discrimination of people of colour, women, the disabled, foreigners and people of faith is rife. Fodors suggests avoiding the state, after an NAACP travel advisory puts it on a no-go list. 8. Honduras Honduras is one of the only places in the world to see rare marine wildlife up close and personal. However, it also has one of the highest murder rates in the world, particularly among members of the LGBTQ community. Both locals and travellers have noted their fears of the local law enforcement. 9. The Great Wall & Beijing The Great Wall is under threat from mining, erosion, graffiti, construction, but most notably, tourists. If youre planning to travel to China, Beijing is looking the better option. That is, once plans to reduce the citys alarming levels of toxic smog have come into place. Democratic candidates in the primary for Montanas U.S. House seat worked to make themselves stand apart in a crowded field during a forum Thursday night in Helena. Five Democrats have announced they are running in hopes of unseating U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, a Republican who won the seat in a special election last May. Candidates include Billings attorney John Heenan, Missoula nonprofit director Grant Kier, former nonprofit director and past Billings lawmaker Lynda Moss, Bozeman attorney Jared Pettinato and former land alliance director and past Bozeman lawmaker Kathleen Williams. Heenan, Kier, Moss and Williams also officially filed for the seat Thursday. Filing is open until March 12, though the five who attended Thursday's packed event at the Helena library are the only ones who have publicly announced they are seeking the seat. The issue that separates the candidates most may be how to address health insurance and access to health care. Over the last year in Washington, D.C., a Republican-dominated Congress has failed to deliver on its long-stated promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but did take action to make the law less stable, including the end of cost-sharing reduction payments and the requirement that people carry health insurance coverage. Heenan advocated for Medicare for all, or a government-run universal health care program. This is a broken system we have right now, Heenan said.(I want to see) extending Medicare, which is a great program, to everybody. Kier said he wants to make sure Medicaid expansion is preserved at the federal level, adding that its been key to preserving critical access hospitals in rural Montana. He also called for transparency in heath care and prescription drug pricing. Williams said she wants to see the individual health insurance market stabilized and cost-sharing reduction payments reinstated. She also said Medicare should be allowed to bargain for drug prices and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which has languished without full Congressional approval for months, to be fully funded. After those measures are taken, Williams says shed like to explore allowing people age 55 and over to buy into Medicare. Moss said one possible fix is lowering the age to qualify for Medicare, which she said is especially important as the population of Montana ages. Pettinato told the audience that while the United States may move to a single-payer system, he wants to make sure the country doesnt move backward in the meantime. We have to move forward somehow and we might get to single-payer, but we definitely dont want to go backward to the bad old days. Several of the questions, which came from members of the Helena community, focused on the rights of women and people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. Kier said that as a white, heterosexual man, I am one of the most powerful and privileged human beings to ever walk this earth. I have an enormous responsibility to give back to every other person that doesnt have that power and privilege. He also said he would work tirelessly to make sure the promise of this country is kept. Feeling comfortable with who you are, feeling safe in your body, knowing you have the opportunity to love be loved by whoever is right for you is fundamental to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, Kier said. Williams said that shes not only been talking about equal rights for women and LGBTQ issues, but has lived them and worked on them during her time as a state lawmaker when she worked to defeat a bill that would have limited the ability for cities to pass non-discrimination ordinances, as a handful of Montana cities have. All American deserve the right to live independently and with respect and to be able to pursue a rewarding and safe life, Williams said. My record on these issues cannot be clearer. I dont only talk about these (issues) but Ive lived them. Moss said that she supported the non-discrimination ordinance in Billings, which failed, and has been involved in womens rights issues. Hopefully, as we move forward in the election this year, well begin to see some equity, some diversity and some inclusion, she said, adding that as a congresswoman she would use her office to make sure she can nominate and advocate for individuals within the business community and our corporate structure and our government structure in Montana so we do have equality and diversity at all levels. Pettinato said he used to be in a band with a guitar player who is lesbian and he observed a lot of fear when he hung out with her. He also said that as a lawyer he has been furious when hes seen the current administration in Washington advocate for policies that violate the rights of parts of the population and the Constitution. Were just different people doing the same things, he said. I dont want anyone in the U.S. to feel fear of discrimination and to feel that oppression. Heenan said everyone deserves the same rights and that hes grown frustrated watching the politics of hatred. People who are LGBTQ "dont want more, they just want the same rights that every American gets, he said. It makes me sick to watch politics dividing us as Americans that our president engages in, that the Republican party engages in. When asked about Native American issues and ways to increase economic success for Montanas tribes and on reservations around the state, the candidates generally agreed that it was best to listen to the needs of each community to learn what would work best there. 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In his statement he said hes not ruling out a future run for public office. The fact is, we have strong elected leaders in Detroit, he said. I have faith that the voters in the 13th Congressional District will elect a leader that is committed to giving our citizens the tools they need to succeed. That they will elect someone committed to fighting for equal economic opportunity for all. Someone committed to true social justice, perhaps one of the two aforementioned public officials whom weve worked with at the Mathis Community Center. Mathis served as a judge in Detroit from 1995 until his show debuted in 1999. At the time he became a judge he was the youngest in Michigan to serve in such a role. Conyers endorsed his son, John Conyers III to succeed him, but the younger Conyers hasnt officially announced his candidacy yet. The two declared candidates are state Sen. Ian Conyers, the great nephew of the former congressman and state Sen. Coleman Young II who ran for Detroit mayor last year and lost in a landslide. Young is term-limited this year, while Ian Conyers is in his first term in office. Both state senators have parts of Downriver in their district. The U.S. House seat also includes a few areas of Downriver. A white supremacist who has recruited members for a new Ku Klux Klan in Great Falls has signed up to run for a Montana House seat as a Democrat. John Abarr is running for House District 21 in Great Falls. Montana Democrats disavowed Abarr, who has previously run as a Republican, on Thursday. Montana Democratic spokesman Roy Loewenstein said Thursday that "John Abarr is a failed former-Republican House candidate with a revolting history of promoting white supremacy. His views have no place in Montana, and we condemn him and his campaign without exception." On his campaign website, Abarr issued an apology to the "citizens of Montana for promoting bigotry and hate against minorities." He also called his Montana KKK group a "hoax" and blamed Lee Enterprises, which owns several daily papers in the state, for covering his activities. Abarr also said he now supports LGTBQ rights and no longer views minorities as a threat to white people, though another tab of his website explaining his campaign platform does not square with that. On his website, Abarr said one of his key platforms is "pride and dignity for whites." He said he wants to have European Americans declared a protected class. He also said there is "widespread discrimination and hatred targeted at European Americans." Abarr on the website explains that he's running as a Democrat because he wants the party to go back to its "original roots." He also said he wants to unite right-wing Democrats with right-wing Republicans. He also said he wants the Democratic party to be "not obsessed with who uses what bathroom." On Thursday, Abarr said he no longer associates himself with the KKK, but still said whites are discriminated against. I have two kids that went through the school system here in town and they were taught anti-white propaganda in all their history classes. They taught the minority kids that white people were responsible for all their ills. When those kinds grow up some of them are going to attack white people because of what they learned in schools. Abarr has been covered by Montana media in the past for his KKK ties and past failed political runs. BOZEMAN A southwestern Montana man is charged with breaking into a residence and killing his estranged wife. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports 47-year-old Joseph Paul DeWise of Bozeman was arrested Thursday and appeared in Justice Court Friday on a deliberate homicide charge. He's accused in the death of 35-year-old Lauren Walder DeWise in Belgrade on Sunday. He did not enter a plea. Another woman, 32-year-old Ashley Van Hemert, was critically injured in the shooting. Belgrade police said they are still investigating. Van Hemert was one of Lauren DeWise's roommates. Investigators say another roommate who reported the shooting told them Lauren DeWise had recently moved in and had asked Joseph DeWise for a divorce. Gallatin County prosecutors argued for $1 million bail while defense attorney Valerie Cairns argued $50,000 bail was more reasonable and that her client is presumed innocent. Justice of the Peace Bryan Adams set his bail at $800,000. Court records say Lauren DeWise's friends and co-workers told investigators that she reported her husband had been physically abusing her and had threatened to kill her if she left him. Investigators say Joseph DeWise has repeatedly denied any involvement in the shooting. An 82-year-old woman from Whitefish whose Toyota crossed over the center line and collided with a dump truck Thursday afternoon in the Flathead Valley became Montanas second highway fatality of 2018. According to the Montana Highway Patrol, the victim was alone and eastbound on snow-covered and icy Montana Highway 40 between Whitefish and Columbia Falls when she crossed into the westbound lane for unknown reasons. The collision occurred at 4 p.m. near the intersection of Dillon Road and 2 1/2 miles east of U.S. 93. The unidentified woman was pronounced dead on the scene. She was wearing a seat belt. The driver of the dump truck, who was uninjured, was unable to avoid the oncoming Toyota. Both vehicles went off the road on the westbound shoulder, according to MHP. Two other vehicles crashed while trying to avoid the wreckage. Some occupants were reportedly hospitalized with unknown injuries. The states first highway death was the result of a single-car crash in Helena on Saturday. Lewis and Clark County officials said Ashley Binion, 32, of Helena may have suffered a seizure while driving eastbound on Helena Avenue. Her vehicle went off the roadway and hit a tree near the Hustad Center. Emergency responders had to extricate Binion from her vehicle. She was transported to St. Peters Health where she died early Sunday of blunt force trauma. 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. Thursday, Jan. 11, marks the beginning of a two month-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 overregulation 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. 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Patnaik's close aides say that to understand him, one has to understand his empathy By Pratul Sharma/Photos Sanjay Ahlawat Indian cotton traders have cancelled contracts to export some 400,000 bales of the fibre after a rally in domestic prices and the rising rupee made overseas sales unattractive, said the president of the Cotton Association of India. The switch, triggering penalty payments by traders, has left cotton buyers in leading markets like Bangladesh, Vietnam and China seeking to make up shortfalls by tapping suppliers in the United States, Australia and Brazil, said association head Atul Ganatra. The cancellations and higher local prices could cut Indias exports to 5 million bales, each of 170 kg, in the 2017-18 marketing year started on Oct 1 nearly a quarter below an initial estimate, Ganatra said. Prices surged more than 15 per cent in the past six weeks after pest infestations squeezed supplies in the worlds biggest producer of the fibre. Some exports contracts for Bangladesh, Vietnam and China could not be fulfilled due to the sudden rise in local prices, Ganatra said. He didnt identify the traders who cancelled export deals in moves confirmed by six dealers contacted by Reuters. After hurricanes raised doubts about the supplies from top exporter US late last year, Indian traders signed a flurry of contracts. Indian traders have so far shipped 1.5 million bales of the 2.5 million bales contracted since Oct 1, when the current year began, dealers said. Last year India exported 5.8 million bales of cotton. The countrys traders are offering cotton to Asian buyers at around 87 cents per pound, including cost insurance and freight, nearly 4 per cent more than rival supplies from the US, the dealers said. But India has struggled to keep supplies steady after infestations of pests like pink boll worms cut output, lifting domestic prices to 87 cents per lb. Also, the Indian rupee recently rallied to its highest level in 30 months, further slashing exporters margins and making it difficult for most merchants to stick to their export commitments, said Vinay Kotak, a director at Kotak Commodities, a Mumbai-based brokerage. Depleting supplies from India have also led to a shortage in the global market, lifting international prices to their highest level in 3.5 years and helping the United States, Brazil and some other key suppliers increase their market share, especially in Asia. The mills have to go somewhere else to import cotton, said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton. They will come to the US, West Africa, and later to Australia and Brazil. Those are the main origin points. The US has committed to sell 678,720 bales of cotton to Bangladesh so far this season, more than double the quantity sold a year earlier, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Bangladesh had emerged as a big buyer of Indian cotton thanks to competitive prices and lower freight costs, sourcing nearly half of its annual import requirement of 7 million bales from India. But now we are in trouble, as many of our contracts with India got stuck over a sudden jump in prices, said Muhammad Ayub, finance director at the Bangladesh Cotton Association. REUTERS The proposed merger of India's second largest telecom operator Vodafone and rival Idea Cellular, which is the third largest, has crossed another hurdle, with the National Company Law Tribunal giving its green signal for the deal. NCLT bench at Ahmedabad, vide its order dated January 11, 2018, has sanctioned the composite scheme of amalgamation and arrangement among Vodafone Mobile Services Limited and Vodafone India Limited and Idea Cellular and their respective shareholders, the Kumar Mangalam Birla-owned Idea said on Friday. In March 2017, Idea and the Indian unit of UK-based Vodafone agreed to merge. The Competition Commission of India as well as the shareholders and creditors of the two companies have already approved the merger of the two companies. The Department of Telecom still has to approve the deal. On January 4, 2018, Vodafone, in a filing on the London Stock Exchange, had said that it expects the merger to be completed in the first half of the calendar 2018. According to latest TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) numbers, there were over 1.16 billion wireless subscribers in India as of November-end. Vodafone and Idea combined had close to 400 million subscribers, which will make the merged entity the largest telecom operator in the country, ahead of current market leader Bharti Airtel, which had 287 million subscribers. The boards of Tata Teleservices and Bharti Airtel have already separately cleared the terms for the merger of Tata's consumer mobility business with that of Airtel. Earlier this month, Idea Cellular unveiled plans to raise Rs 6,750 crore via preferential share allotment to promoter group companies to augment its long-term capital resources. With the promoter group increasing its stake in Idea, Aditya Birla Group will buy a minimum of 2.5 per cent stake of the merged entitiy from Vodafone to ultimately own at least 26 per cent of it. Over time, the two entities are expected to have an equal shareholding in the merged company. Idea shares closed 1.4 per cent higher at Rs 108.60 on the BSE on Friday. Gujarat became the third state after Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to ban Padmavat, even after all mandated changes were made in the film. Rajputs have been protesting against what they term as "distortion of historical facts". Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said on Friday that, as per his earlier orders, the movie won't be released in Gujarat. The announcement came hours after Karni Sena issued threats against its release. The Sanjay Leela Bhansali film stars Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranvir Singh. Karni Sena president Lokendra Singh asked the Rajput community to have "janata curfew in all cinema halls. Meanwhile, on Friday, Gujarat witnessed protests against the movie in various districts. So, the Chinese haven't backed off from Doklam fully. As much was confirmed by none less than the Army chief, Gen. Bipin Rawat. According to the chief, Chinese troops have maintained their presence in Doklam, but their numbers have thinned. This is contrary to what was officially claimed in end-August by the foreign office on the eve of the prime minister's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit. The Army chief also clarified that the Army had left the briefing then to the foreign office because the issue involved a third country, Bhutan, and so the ministry of external affairs was the appropriate agency to brief the media. THE WEEK had then reported that the Chinese had not withdrawn, and that they had only scaled down their presence. This has now been confirmed by the army chief. Giving a detailed picture of the issue at his annual Army press conference, Gen. Rawat said road construction by the Chinese had been on in Doklam since 2000, on the northern side of Tosa nullah which he called northern Doklam. But by last June, the Chinese soldiers had come close to Tosa nulla, and India apprehended that the Chinese would soon be targeting the area occupied by a Royal Bhutanese Army post. That was when India intervened on Bhutan's request. The Chinese had come with a large manpower and equipment. We felt they will try to claim the whole Doklam... It was also posing a threat to us as it was changing the status quo," he said. Following diplomatic negotiations, both sides have thinned down their presence. But they have left their large equipment there such as tents, cots. However, in other sectors across the border, both India and China increased their troop levels and intensified patrolling. This means that there are more occasions for both to cross each other's path, and that is why incidents are increasing. But there are mechanisms at commanding officers' level to talk out these issues. We are also capable of handling their assertiveness on the border, said the Army chief. North Doklam had, all along, been under the PLA's control, and they are remaining there, he clarified. We are also back at our old position on the watershed. Four sitting judges of the Supreme Court, who held a press conference on Friday to raise concerns regarding the functioning of the apex court, had, in a letter to Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Misra a couple of months back, taken up matters pertaining to allocation of cases to the various benches and noted that cases were being assigned selectively to the benches of their preference. There have been instances where case having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justices of this court selectively to the benches 'of their preference' without any rationale basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs, the letter signed by justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph said. The judges said in the letter that they wanted to highlight certain judicial orders passed by the Supreme Court which had adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivery system and the independence of the High Courts besides impacting the administrative functioning of the office of the Chief Justice of India. It was noted in the letter that the CJI is the master of roster, with a privilege to determine the roster. In the matter of the determination of the roster there are well settled and time-honoured conventions guiding the chief justice, be the conventions dealing with the strength of the bench which is required to deal with a particular case or the composition thereof. Also, the judges could not arrogate to themselves the authority to deal with and pronounce upon matters which ought to be heard by appropriate benches. We are sorry to say that off late the twin rules mentioned above have not been strictly adhered to, the letter stated. The judges also said that such departures have already damaged the image of the institution of judiciary to some extent. As an example, they cited the case R.P. Luthra vs Union of India, in which the court said there should be no further delay in finalising the memorandum of procedure in the larger public interest. They said when the MoP was the subject matter of a decision of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, it is difficult to understand as to how any other bench could have dealt with the matter. The four judges said their efforts to elicit action from the CJI on the above issues have failed, and their meeting with Misra this morning to discuss the same issues also yielded no result, forcing them to speak before the media. DETROIT 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. 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." The political ramifications of the unprecedented press conference of four sitting Supreme Court judges have begun to play out, with Congress President Rahul highlighting what is believed to be the immediate provocation for the judges' protestallocation of the case pertaining to the death of Judge B.H. Loya. The judges mentioned threat to democracy. That should be looked into carefully. They also made a point about Judge Loya's case. That should be investigated properly at the highest levels of the Supreme Court, Rahul said in his brief statement to reporters at the Congress headquarters this evening. Judge Loya's case appears to have been the tipping point for the four top court judges, members of the collegium, to go public with their grievances with the manner in which Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Misra was undertaking administration of court business. The petition with regard to investigation of the circumstances in which Judge Loya, who was hearing the case related to the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter, was assigned to a bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and M.M. Shantanagoudar. The bench heard the matter on Friday amidst protestations that the apex court need not hear the petition demanding investigation into the death of Judge Loya since the Bombay High Court was already seized of the matter. The four judges who came out against the working of the SC are learnt to have been upset over the manner in which politically sensitive cases are being allocated to benches, the latest being the case of Judge Loya. At the Congress' special briefing with regard to the judges' press conference, Randeep Surjewala, head of the AICC Communications department, said the issues raised by them are extremely disturbing and have far reaching consequences for safeguarding democracy and preserving the independence of the judiciary. In an attack on the Narendra Modi government, Surjewala said one of the issues raised by the judges was on the long silence of the government to the Memorandum of Procedure that was finalised by the Supreme Court. He also said that the assignment of cases selectively to the benches was also an issue, including the case of Judge Loya. The Congress party earnestly appeals that the full court of the Supreme Court should take up the issues raised by the four Honourable Judges and find solutions that are consistent with the traditions and conventions of the judiciary, he said. The BJP and the government have so far maintained silence on the issues raised by the four judges. The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Maharashtra government to submit the postmortem report of late Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge B.H. Loya, asserting the "matter very serious". The apex court said it has posted the next hearing on the issue for January 15. Earlier on Thursday, a bench comprising, Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, "sought an urgent hearing on the plea" for a probe into Justice Loya's death on December 1, 2014. According to reports, Maharashtra-based journalist B.R. Lone had filed an independent plea seeking a fair probe into the mysterious death of Justice Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin encounter case - in which various police officers and the Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah were named as parties. In an unprecedented move, four sitting judges of the Supreme Court, who are members of the collegium, on Friday came on camera to raise questions about the administration of the apex court by Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Misra. The four judgesthe second seniormost judge Justice J. Chelameswar, the next in line to become Chief Justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Josephspoke to the media at the residence of Chelameswar, raising issues with regard to the functioning of the office of the chief justice amongst others, the development amounting to an open protest against Misra. Chelameswar, who largely addressed the press conference on behalf of the four judges, described it as an extraordinary event in the history of the institution of judiciary. The administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. And many things that are less than desirable have happened in the last few months, he said. He said that the efforts of the seniormost members of the court to get an adequate response out of the CJI to these issues have failed. The four judges had a couple of months ago written a letter to Misra detailing the issues. The four judges had met the CJI this morning as well to discuss the issues, the immediate provocation learnt to be the manner in which the case pertaining to Justice Loya's death was allocated. Unfortunately, we could not convince him. Therefore, we are left with no choice but to communicate to the nation, Chelameswar said. #WATCH Live: Justice J. Chelameswar & 3 other judges of the Supreme Court addresses a Press Conference in Delhi https://t.co/EslTfBVc5G ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 I don't want some wise men to tell us later after 20 years that we four judges sold our souls instead of taking care of the institution and the nation. We have placed this in front of the people, he said. Gogoi said that they had by coming out in the open about the issues discharged their debt to the nation. Asked if the press conference amounted to the four judges breaking ranks in the Supreme Court, Gogoi said, It is a sign of responsibility to the nation. Nothing more. The US is working "very closely" with international partners to secure India's Nuclear Suppliers Group membership, its envoy Kenneth Juster said today 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. Juster said the environment and energy were a pillar ripe for enhanced strategic cooperation. The US-India Strategic Energy Partnership will convene early this year at the ministerial level, he added. "The US is uniquely positioned to offer India a comprehensive energy partnership. This includes all forms of energycoal, crude oil, natural gas, nuclear power and technology related to clean fossil fuel, smart grids, energy storage and renewable resources," he said. US nuclear gaint Westinghouse Co is also building six nuclear power reactors in Andhra Pradesh. Pakistan police on January 12 continued its hunt for a serial killer who they say raped and murdered a seven-year-old girl in the Kasur city of Punjab province. The girl, who was being looked after by her uncle while her parents were away on a pilgrimage, had gone missing on January 4, adding to a list of at least 11 similar cases in the last one year, the media reported. Read more: Riots erupt in Kasur, Pakistan after 7-year-old's rape, murder "The rapist or the murderer is a serial killer. In the previous incidents, the forensic evidence also determines it and the modus operandi of carrying out such acts also determines it," spokesperson of Punjab province where Kasur is located Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan told reporters. He said the authorities now have a suspect after interrogating 96 people, and have formed a special team to nab the perpetrator as soon as possible. Preliminary examination of the minor's body that was recovered from a garbage dump on January 9 had revealed rape before she was killed, and led to violent protests in Kasur during which two people died and several acts of vandalism took place. In August 2015, at least 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 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. Japan protested to China on January 12 after a foreign submarine in waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea was confirmed to be Chinese, calling it a unilateral action and a serious escalation that raised bilateral tensions. The submarine was first detected on January 11 in waters contiguous to Japans territory around the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, but was finally identified on January 12, the Defence Ministry said, a day after Japan lodged a protest with China over the presence of a frigate in the same area. Neither entered what Japan considers its territorial waters. Japan and China have long been at loggerheads over the tiny, uninhabited islands. They are controlled by Japan but claimed also by China. The presence of the submarine in Japans contiguous waters, along with that of the frigate, has unilaterally raised tensions. We are deeply concerned, Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters. Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinzuke Sugiyama telephoned Chinas ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, to lodge a strong protest and demand measures be taken to prevent a repeat, the ministry said in a statement. China routinely rejects Japanese criticism of such patrols, saying its ships have every right to operate in what China calls its territorial waters. A Security Council mission is to visit Afghanistan in a show of support to the war-torn nation, Council President Kairov Umarov has said. Kazakhstan will organise and lead the Council mission to Afghanistan, which would be the first in seven years, Umarov told reporters on January 11. "We think it is important for the Security Council members to get an update on the ground (in Afghanistan)," he added. A date and other details of the visit have not been finalised although his country has been working on it since he took over the presidency, said Umarov, who is also the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan. All the 15 members of the Council participate in the missions, which give them a first hand look at the situation in a country or region. Afghanistan, which is a neighbour of Kazakhstan, is receiving attention at the Council under his presidency. Next week Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov is to preside over a high-level Council meeting on January 19. Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and ministers of other countries are also expected at the meeting, Umarov had said earlier. Asked on January 11 about a meeting that the members of the Council had on January 9 with US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, Umarov said that the official presented Washington's strategy for Afghanistan. It was very much in line with what Kazakhstan wanted and there was general support for the strategy among other members of the Council also, he said. The approach to Afghanistan is more comprehensive, he said. There is a need for an integrated approach to solving the problems in Afghanistan, he said. "We have changed the paradigm to development going hand in had with security. Other countries should also participate in finding a solution, he said. An important need for Afghanistan is connectivity to the other countries in the region, Umarov said. They should be able to perceive Afghanistan as not a threat but an attractive partner, he added. The Council has undertaken four missions to Afghanistan since 2001 and the last one was in June 2010. IANS The suspension of US military aid worth $225 million was known to Pakistan since August. In recent weeks, media leaks made sure that the hard news would have a soft landing in Islamabad. But what took Islamabad by surprise is the vitriolic undiplomatic tweet by President Donald Trump on New Year Day. Epithets such as lies & deceits are seldom used in inter-state relationships by a head of state, and Trump conjured up a demeaning metaphor leaping out of the Charles Dickens novel where little Oliver Twist in the parish workhouse kept asking for some more. Indeed, $225 million is not the issue today (when Pakistan has a budget close to $2 billion for arms purchase), but what happens next. How the Trump administration would tighten the screws on Pakistan in a concerted attempt to force it to change its policies towards Afghanistan is the immediate issue. A second issue is whether Pakistan will fall in line under US pressure. All indications are that back channels are at work. The military aid is kept in an escrow account. Pakistans ambassador to the US, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, a highly experienced diplomat, was camping in Islamabad for consultations when Trump tweeted. The statement issued in Islamabad on January 2, following the meeting of Pakistans National Security Council (NSC), has given a measured response. The salience of the NSC meeting must be understood from three different angles. One, there will be no hasty reaction from Pakistan to Trumps outburst. The NSC statement didnt even mention Trump, but instead assumed a tone of injured pride: Recent statements and articulation by the American leadership were completely incomprehensible as they contradicted facts manifestly, struck with great insensitivity at the trust between two nations built over generations, and negated the decades of sacrifices made by the Pakistani nation. Two, the NSC took note of the close interaction with the US leadership following the initial pronouncement of President Trumps policy on South Asia, which it considered useful in creating a better understanding of each others perspectives on the best way forward to achieve durable peace and stability in Afghanistan. In particular, the NSC recalled the robust and forward-looking discussions with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defence Secretary James Mattis. Pakistan seeks constructive engagement. Three, the NSC underscored Pakistans continuing support for the US-led international effort in Afghanistan. Specifically, it reminded the American side that it is continuously facilitating vital lines of communications for smooth counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan by the international coalition. On the whole, it is a non-confrontational approach that leaves future options open. Trump has a history of rhetorical outbursts, but some have also transmuted as policies. The probability cannot be excluded that in this case a ratcheting up of pressure on Pakistan is on the cards. But, the context must be kept in view. Among all the wars (and the hybrid wars) that the US is currently fighting, it is the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan that can seriously wound Trump as he begins gearing up to make his re-election bid early next year. In immediate terms, Congressional elections are coming up in November, which will be a crucial dry run for Trumps campaign, apart from threatening to tilt the balance on Capitol Hill against the Republican Party. Despite media hype by Trumps generals, the war in Afghanistan is not going well and may get even more complicated. The appearance of the Islamic State; great volatility in Afghan politics; and, the dysfunctional government in Kabulthings are bad enough. The geopolitical realities are increasingly adverse. The US relations with Russia and Iran are deteriorating, while on the other hand Chinas assertive peacemaking role (with the strong underpinning of the Belt and Road Initiative) pulls the gravitas away from American hands. Not a single regional state neighbouring Afghanistan feels that a military solution to the war is any longer viable. Ideally, the US would love to reach a deal with the Taliban if only the latter could be somehow made to agree to the permanent American bases, but that is not a realistic expectation. Pentagon would love to win this war, but then the US will have to deploy at least 2,00,000 troopscurrent level is 11,000for which there are no takers in Washington or in other NATO capitals. Pentagon is, therefore, fighting the Taliban through dominance of the Afghan air space, which is hopeless against an insurgent force that enjoys a measure of local support. Suffice to say, by the language of chess, this is turning out to be check-and-checkmate. The crunch time has come. Analysts agree that the bloodiest year of Americas longest war in history is about to begin. The top priority for Washington is that Pakistan reins in the Taliban so that the next fighting season doesnt pose political nightmares for Trump. The White House puts a gloss on it by claiming strategic patience has run out. There could be economic sanctions against Pakistan. But sanctions gain traction only over time, if at all, and Pakistan has lived through US sanctions. If the US resorts to military pressure, make no mistake, Pakistan will react strongly. It is highly problematic for the US to substitute Pakistani transit routes with the Northern Distribution Network (via Central Asia), which requires Moscows acquiescence. On a broader canvas, the USs Middle Eastern policies as a whole may get degraded, since Pakistan is a nuclear power and an Islamic power. A showdown with Pakistan through 2018 means that Trump not only might as well say goodbye to his pledge to contain Iran, but also unwittingly creates new strategic depth for Iran on its eastern borders. Most certainly, Israel will not like that scenario. Of course, any unilateral move by the Trump White House to precipitate a showdown with Pakistan can also put additional stress on the fractures that have already surfaced in the trans-Atlantic alliance (over Iran nuclear deal, Jerusalem and refugees). Over and above, Pakistan will not capitulate, because it does have legitimate interests in Afghanistan. The bottom line, therefore, is what the present tipping point may ultimately morph into. There has always been a lurking suspicion as to how far Trump personally invested himself in the new Afghan strategy. He has gone along with the Afghan surge largely at the bidding of his generals who promised to show results if only they could have a free hand to wage the war. Trump made it clear even while announcing the new Afghan strategy in August that he wasnt giving a blank cheque to anyone. If Trump doesnt get the promised outcome, he may at some point begin passing pink slips around the national security establishment. India should not see the US-Pakistani tensions in zero sum terms. These are early days. Trumps consistency is highly debatable and 2018 is also shaping up as a defining moment in US politics as the inquiry into his alleged Russia collusion comes up with its report. If Trump wins, the winner takes it all. And the authentic Trumpean preference will be to exit unwinnable wars in Greater Middle East. TRENTON, N.J. When it comes to the North American competition to attract Amazon's second headquarters, New Jersey has put its cards on the table: Officials have promised up to $7 billion in state and local tax credits. New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday signed bipartisan legislation authorizing $5 billion in tax credits to lure Amazon to Newark, the city Christie's administration designated as the state's selection for the would-be headquarters. The city itself is promising another $2 billion in tax breaks. But while New Jersey has been transparent about the promised incentives, Newark has not answered a request from The Associated Press seeking its formal application and any studies associated with its bid. More than 15 states and cities, including Chicago, Cleveland and Las Vegas, refused requests to release the offers they made to the technology giant. Among the reasons included that it was a "trade secret" or "confidential." New Jersey's public promises to the online retailer, which has said it would bring up to 50,000 jobs to its new locale, contrasts with many other states' offers, which have remained private. A records request with New Jersey turned up an analysis from the state Economic Development Authority that showed about a projected $9 billion benefit to the state from the project. Camden County, another contender, posted its bid online. New Jersey's effort has been mostly in the open, going back to Christie's letter outlining the tax credits while trying to get the candidates in last year's gubernatorial contest to agree to them. Democratic Gov.-elect Phil Murphy, who takes office next week, says he supports Amazon coming to New Jersey but did not explicitly back the tax credit legislation. Others on the right and left have attacked the tax credits. Republican Assemblyman Jay Webber sharply criticized the legislation authorizing the credits in a floor speech, calling them a delayed Christmas present for Amazon. Webber called the credits the "height of crony capitalism." He instead called for lowering costs to business across the board to attract more businesses. And on the left, the progressive think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective attacked the tax credits as a corporate giveaway and instead said spending on higher education and affordable housing would be a better use of resources. "Quite simply," said NJPP vice president Jon Whiten, "it is not a good deal." Jeff Fairburn deserves some credit for stoicism. Amid a torrent of criticisms, high level departures from the board and barely suppressed anger from shareholders, he has shown determination to hang on to a bonus package that keeps on giving. But the lottery-winning Persimmon boss, Britain's 131million man, should by now have seen the writing on the wall. Instead of being viewed as a hero for quietly building the houses Britain needs, he is on his way to becoming a national pariah, bringing disgrace to the company he heads and the whole industry. Bonus builder: Instead of being viewed as a hero for quietly building the houses Britain needs, Jeff Fairburn - Britain's 131m man is on his way to becoming a national pariah Indeed, in spite of all his fighting talk about demand and supply and building for Britain, his claims for Persimmon do not wholly stand up to scrutiny. Even with enormous subsidy that housebuilders have had from Help To Buy in the past year, York-based Persimmon still failed to overhaul the record numbers of houses it built in 2006, before the financial crisis, when there was no such scheme. So what happens now? Slowly but surely big battalion investors have recognised that Fairburn's greedy payout is not just a problem for Persimmon but for their own reputations as guardians of governance. Axa wisely voted against the deal in the first instance. Others that backed it at the time appear to have reservations and are putting pressure on the board with a view to finding a route out of the mess. The legal niceties are complex, but it is in the interests of no one that the bonus package for Fairburn and other Persimmon top brass turns the company into a corporate pariah. At its core, Persimmon is there for all stakeholders, and Fairburn cannot hold the housebuilder hostage. Black Hawk up There is something delightfully nostalgic about the Melrose bid for GKN. The late Lord Hanson, who helped nurture the skills of Melrose chairman Christopher Miller, would think the boy has done good. Using old fashioned analytical tools he and his team spotted a mispriced stock needing some care and attention, offered a 24 per cent premium (involving a lot paper) and the shares have shot up. Never mind that the 7billion price tag for the engineer takes it way beyond any deal Melrose has done before. In Mike Turner, former chief executive of BAE and also chairman of Babcock, Melrose is challenging engineering royalty. This is similar to the way that Hanson took on chemical royalty when it sought to buy ICI in the 1990s. The GKN response looks to be appropriate. It has gifted the FTSE 100 its eighth woman chief executive in the shape of Anne Stevens, veteran of Ford and former director at Lockheed Martin. She has spent months doing an audit of GKN plants in search of efficiency savings and cash generation. The other response is to do the splits. A quick look at GKN turnover shows that with 37 per cent of it from aerospace and 45 per cent from car parts there is a natural separation. Such a move is understood to have support from Vulcan Value Partners one of the largest shareholders. But it will not be easy, given the UK pension deficit estimated at 1.1billion and tax complications. GKN is one of Britain's best-performing engineers and exporters over a long period. It has been knocked back by accounting trouble at its Alabama plant in the US, which makes parts for the Black Hawk helicopter, that will wipe as much as 130million of profit largely as a result of failing to thoroughly account for inventories. It joins a select list of British companies, including aerospace group Cobham, Centrica and of course BP, that have found that doing business in the US is not always a bed of roses. As much as one admires the way that Melrose delivers for investors, GKN has earned the chance to recharge batteries and get its mojo back. Super iShares BlackRock owes a huge thank you to the late Patti Dunn (founder of Barclays Global Investors), Bob Diamond and former Barclays chief executive John Varley. In the panic to keep Barclays out of the hands of the Government in 2009, Barclays sold BGI, inventor of the iShare pioneer of exchange traded funds (ETFs) to BlackRock for just 8.2billion. In the final quarter of 2017, Blackrock inflows were 76.3billion, fuelled by ETFs as the Dow soared. Wow. A predatory turnaround group has targeted one of Britain's leading engineering firms, prompting calls for ministers to intervene. GKN, which dates back to the 18th century, has rejected an unsolicited 7billion approach from Melrose, slamming it as opportunistic and cheap. It prompted the engineer to reveal plans to split its aerospace and cars divisions, as well as appointing interim chief Anne Stevens as full-time boss, which saw her become the FTSE 100's eighth female chief executive. But Melrose is expected to push ahead with its interest despite opposition from the GKN board ahead of a deadline for a formal bid on February 9. Wanted: GKN makes parts for fighter jets, including the F-35 (pictured), as well as Audi and BMW cars, Airbus planes, the Boeing 737 and Black Hawk helicopters GKN employs 9,000 in the UK and makes parts for fighter jets, including the F-35, as well as Audi and BMW cars, Airbus planes, the Boeing 737 and Black Hawk helicopters. Sir Vince Cable, the Lib Dem leader and ex-business secretary, said its takeover was a serious threat to UK industry. He has written to Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, urging him to use whatever powers has to intervene. Cable said: 'GKN is a massively important company it's a leading British Tier 1 supplier to the car industry and it operates on long-term horizons. 'GKN stands for long-term investment in advanced manufacturing, whereas Melrose are in the business of short-term financial engineering. It's utterly and completely unsuitable for this industry.' Tony Burke, the Unite union's assistant general secretary for manufacturing, said: 'If the bid isn't stopped it could lead to one of the UK's oldest engineering firms being asset stripped, with sites and divisions across the country being sold. Unite will be working with all interested parties in halting this destructive predatory bid.' GKN started life as the Dowlais Iron Co in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, in 1795. It supplied cannonballs to the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. The company is worth 5.7billion on the stock market but investors have become increasingly unhappy about missed profit and cash flow targets, with some calling for it to split apart its aero and car divisions. Shares slumped around 10 per cent in October after it said profit would be only slightly above the 678million it made in 2016, below expectations of around 735million. Incoming chief executive Kevin Cummings stepped down at the same time, with the company warning that the US aerospace division he headed would have to write-off up to 130million after a review of accounts. Stevens, 69, who is credited with helping turn around car maker Ford's businesses in the US and Mexico, confirmed that GKN is planning to separate its automotive and aerospace divisions. Melrose, which has a stock market value of around 4.2billion, believes management have been underperforming at GKN and can do better. The proposed share-and-cash offer made on January 8 valued GKN at 405p ($5.48) per share, a 24 per cent premium to the closing price the day before. Melrose specialises in buying engineering firms, revamping them and selling them on at a profit. It bought German utility maker Elster in August 2012 for about 1.8billion before selling it to US firm Honeywell for 3.3billion. The firm also bought Loughborough-based manufacturer FKI in July 2008 before splitting it up and selling it in parts. Cable added: 'In extremis the Government could acquire a minority stake in GKN to deter a hostile takeover. That is an extreme step and I would hope it would not come to that.' A Melrose spokesman said: 'We believe there would be significant operational and commercial benefits arising from Melrose's ownership of GKN businesses, reversing a history of GKN not delivering on margin targets.' The Department of Business said that it was monitoring the situation, but added: 'This is a commercial matter for the parties involved.' Online fashion retailer Boohoo dipped after the brother of one of its founders sold around 14.8m worth of shares. Jalal Kamani, 57, brother of Mahmud Kamani, 53, sold 7.7m shares at around 191.2p each, according to filings. The businessman is a member of the Kamani retail dynasty, which has spawned some of Britain's fastest-growing fashion websites such as Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing. He served as Boohoo's trading director until October 2015, when he resigned. According to Boohoo's annual report, Jalal Kamani had held a 6.8 per cent stake, accounting for around 76.5m shares. Yesterday Boohoo announced that his stake had fallen to 5.98 per cent, representing 68.8m shares. Fashion disaster: Online fashion retailer Boohoo dipped 4.6% after Jalal Kamani brother of founder Mahmud Kamani sold around 14.8m worth of shares While it is not clear whether Kamani sold down his stake in stages or all at once, the shortfall of 7.7m represents up to around 14.8million worth of shares, according to Thursday's closing price of 191.2p. The sale comes after Boohoo co-founder Carol Kane, 51, sold 10million worth of shares in September and Mahmud Kamani and his siblings Rabia Kamani and Nurez Kamani sold 80.5million worth of shares in June. On Thursday, Boohoo reported a 100 per cent increase in sales to 228million in the four months to the end of December and said it expects sales growth of 90 per cent for the full-year. But yesterday its shares fell 4.6 per cent, or 8.75p, to 182.7p following news of the sell-off. The FTSE 100 ended the week on yet another record high, finishing up 0.2 per cent, or 15.7 points higher, at 7778.64, while the FTSE 250 finished up 0.6 per cent, or 121.4 points, at 20859.35 points. STOCK WATCH - LIGHTHOUSE Shares in financial advisory firm Lighthouse jumped after it said sales and profits for 2017 will exceed its targets. Lighthouse, which will release its full results next month, claims to be the financial adviser of choice for 'Middle Britain' its customers include teachers, care workers, engineers and midwives. It also partners with a number of worker groups and unions, including Unite. Shares soared 13.7 per cent, or 2.7p, to 22.5p. Signs that Bovis Homes had recovered from last year's faulty homes scandal sent shares higher. The housebuilder jumped 1.4 per cent, or 16p, to 1165p after posting a bullish trading update and pencilling in a hefty rise in profit this year. It said that strong customer demand, attractive mortgage rates and initiatives such as the Help To Buy scheme have helped drive sales. Bovis completed 3,645 homes in 2017 a slowdown from 3,977 in 2016. It said the average selling price for its new-build homes increased by 7 per cent to 272,000 from 254,900 a year before, while the average selling price for its private homes increased to 334,000. Bovis added that it had seen a 'significant' improvement in customer satisfaction. Last year Bovis was rocked by a profit warning and a barrage of complaints from customers over shoddy workmanship. It was forced to set aside 10.5million to deal with the scandal, which saw the abrupt departure of former boss David Ritchie after 18 years at the company including eight as chief executive. He was replaced by Greg Fitzgerald, 54, the former chief executive of Galliford Try, who was brought out of retirement in April to lead the builder to a turnaround. Since his appointment, shares in Bovis have surged more than 25 per cent. Bovis's revival comes after rivals were hit by concerns over the British housing market. Shares in Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey slumped after the pair issued trading updates earlier this week, amid anxiety over falling house prices, weak wage growth and the impact of Brexit on the economy. Persimmon finished up 0.2 per cent, or 4p, at 2647p while Taylor Wimpey jumped 0.7 per cent, or 1.35p, to 197.85p. Also up was packaging company Mondi, which jumped 1.1 per cent, or 21.5p, to 1923.5p after Investec gave it a 'buy' rating. But Sirius Minerals fell 2.5 per cent, or 0.6p, to 23.3p after it said its D-Walling a key step in the building of its 2.1billion potash mine in Whitby, North Yorkshire was two months behind schedule. DECATUR Macon County sheriff's deputies could have their own take-home vehicles as early as May, thanks to a $3.1 million, 15-year program largely paid for by Sheriff Howard Buffetts private foundation. The foundation will also buy rifles for the deputies, who have been using their personal rifles on the job. The Macon County Board approved both measures Thursday. The idea stemmed from conversations with deputies about ways to improve office morale and efficiency, Buffett said. Having a take-home vehicle allows them to "clock in" in and immediately respond to incidents, rather than driving to and from work in their personal vehicles. I think all around its a pretty positive thing, he said. The county will pay about $1 million over the life of the 15-year program, while the foundation will cover up to $2.1 million. Three existing Chevrolet Tahoes and four Chevrolet Impalas, at an approximate value of $34,150, will be traded in to offset the cost of new vehicles. New vehicles will be rolled out as existing ones near 100,000 miles, including some in the next few months. Each will be equipped with a patrol rifle, an earpiece in case of an emergency and in-car cameras. Officers will be responsible for the equipment of the vehicle, in addition to general care such as oil changes and car washes. Such programs are not unique to law enforcement in Illinois and across the country; also in Central Illinois, the Springfield Police Department provides take-home vehicles for its officers. Sheriffs office administrative Lt. Jonathan Butts said Macon County had a similar program in the 1980s, but it was eliminated due to costs. The office has about 16 patrol deputies on staff who would qualify for the program. Butts said that number includes several deputies who already have take-home vehicles because they are contracted to patrol in Forsyth, Blue Mound and other neighboring municipalities. Butts said the new program requirements are similar to the existing contracts, which require the deputies to take care of the vehicle. Butts and Buffett said another hope is that the marked vehicles will increase visibility of the sheriff's office in the community. Maintenance costs are also expected to be lowered under the program. Whereas now one vehicle could be operated by five or six officers in a span of a few days, Buffett said having a dedicated officer to a vehicle would alleviate the stress of moving equipment each shift and give deputies more responsibility to care for their vehicles. This also means the sheriff's office will no longer approach the county board every year with a proposal to buy new vehicles. It creates sustainability for a long time, Butts said. Which is something that will help the future sheriff, the county board and the taxpayers not have to worry about asking for more money to purchase vehicles. Butts, a Democrat, is running for sheriff in the November election. The other two candidates are also top administrators for the sheriff's office: Lt. Tony Brown, a Democrat, and Lt. Jim Root, a Republican. The Buffett Foundation will also purchase six patrol rifles and accessories at a total cost of $14,430. Deputies could use rifles when responding to shooting incidents, including at a school, or when suspects have barricaded themselves at a scene. They are not intended to replace the shotguns that are now in every patrol vehicle and used primarily to kill injured deer. This is an effort to get more consistent so if there is an emergency, the rifles are available, Buffett said. Buffett, who has volunteered for the office since 2012, was named to the job in September by retiring Sheriff Thomas Schneider, but his financial support of local law enforcement dates back years. In 2017 alone, donations have included: In May, $350,000 for new training firearms, vehicles and other items; In October, nearly $100,000 for bulletproof vests, beds for the Macon County Jail, more hours for a records clerk and a new Chevrolet Impala for civil process purposes; Also in October, in-kind donations totaling $236,000 for consultants to assess the jail; In November, $180,000 for a new Macon County prosecutor who will focus solely on opioid cases. MOWEAQUA Four Central A&M High School students are participating in a virtual Advanced Placement class this semester. It's a state pilot program with 10 school districts that education officials will study to see if the program could make the college-level courses available to rural high school s that traditionally have had few or none in the past. "Rural kids need opportunities, they need to be on an even playing field," said Bobbi Mattingly, Regional Office of Education superintendent for Clark, Coles, Cumberland, Douglas, Edgar, Moultrie and Shelby counties. The program was formally unveiled Thursday at Central A&M by Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti, who heads the governor's Rural Affairs Advisory Council. Sanguinetti said that council has allocated funds to cover half the $225 per-pupil cost of the virtual class for 75 students statewide. The other half is covered by participating districts. "We were told (in the rural affairs council) that rural districts are underserved, and this is doing something about it," Sanguinetti said. AP classes are designed to prepare students for an exam on that class' subject in May administered by the College Board, the national testing organization that also oversees the SAT and ACT tests. The tests typically are made up of more advanced subject matter than what's offered in typical high school curricula, and many universities offer college credit for them. But they're far more common in urban school districts, where bigger schools and available funding make more class choices possible . The Decatur School District was the only district in the metro area where at least 30 percent of high school seniors had taken an AP class by the time they graduated, according to College Board data from 2015. The May exams are scored on a scale of 1 to 5 scores 3 and above are accepted by Illinois undergraduate programs by law as college credit. The pilot project through the governor's office will not cover the $94 cost to take the exam. "There's a lot of research offering AP classes virtually, and one of the major pieces missing from much of the research is, how effective is it versus face-to face teaching," Mattingly said. The virtual class is through Illinois Virtual School, an internet-based education program run by the Illinois State Board of Education. Some 6,000 high school students in Illinois are currently taking at least one virtual class through IVS, according to Jennifer Kolar-Burden, the program's coordinator of curriculum. Given the astronomical rise of college tuition, Sanguinetti said students in rural districts are missing out on an opportunity to have completed college credits out of high school that can count to their degree if they successfully complete a class. Central A&M's principal, Dr. Charles Brown, said he offered the opportunity to 10 students in each grade who were "serious students," and selected four randomly: Seniors Laura Beckett, Riley Black, Kaley Nidiffer, and Junior Alaina Morse. "These are four of our best," Brown said. Online-based classes in higher education have exploded in the past decade, but they are less common at the high school level of the four Central A&M AP students, only Nidiffer had taken a class online before, which was Spanish. "It was definitely more difficult I think, having it online (versus in person)," she said. "You had to do multiple lessons every day to keep up with it, but it was pretty fun and everything they had exercises to help out." DECATUR After an earlier mistrial, Gavarius T. Carney was convicted Thursday by a Macon County jury of shooting another man and now faces the prospect of up to 60 years behind bars. The 25-year-old Decatur man was found guilty after a three-day trial of being an armed habitual criminal and aggravated battery with a firearm, both Class X felonies. Prosecutors said Carney unleashed a spray of bullets against a rival he wanted to scare away from a love interest during an incident May 28 in the 3000 block North Portage Place. Prosecutors said Carney fired seven or eight shots, after methodically clearing a bullet jam, before shooting the male victim in the left thigh. He suffered a serious wound but recovered to testify against Carney. Before the trial, Carney had been offered a deal that would have seen him get 15 years in prison if he pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated discharge of a firearm. Carney rejected the offer and was warned by Judge Jeffrey Geisler that both Class X felonies carried maximum 30-year prison sentences. The judge said he had the discretion to order the sentences to be served consecutively, adding up to 60 years behind bars. The jury, which took four hours to reach its verdict, was told Carney qualified for the armed habitual criminal charge because he had previous convictions for residential burglary and burglary. His first trial was abandoned Dec. 4 before an earlier jury got to hear a word, after defense attorney Thomas Wheeler told prosecutors he had an alibi witness. That turned out to be Carneys current girlfriend who said she had picked him up from the restaurant where he worked the night of the shooting and he had been with her. She had apparently not come forward previously. Wheeler also said police hadnt investigated the shooting properly and their case was full of holes. He said even the victim had failed, at first, to identify Carney as the shooter. But Macon County Assistant States Attorney David Perry argued any initial reluctance on the victims part to name Carney might have been motivated by fear of being shot again. The prosecutor told the jury he praised the victim for having the courage to face his assailant in court: You might imagine how difficult it is to face down the person who shot you, who tried repeatedly to shoot you, Perry added. Carney is due to be sentenced March 5. PHILIP K. DICK'S ELECTRIC DREAMS Amazon New Series! This 10-episode anthology series, with each episode based on a short story by sci-fi master Philip K. Dick (The Man in the High Castle), boasts Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander) and Bryan Cranston among its executive producers. Cranston also stars in an episode, and the series features other notable onscreen talent such as Steve Buscemi, Greg Kinnear, Maura Tierney, Janelle Monae, Mireille Enos, Anna Paquin, Terrence Howard and Vera Farmiga. LIP SYNC BATTLE SHORTIES Nickelodeon, 7:30 p.m. New Series! Nick Cannon and his sidekick JoJo Siwa host this pint-sized music showdown. In each episode, real-life kids perform epic lip-syncs to pop songs while they're backed by the show's dance crew, who have mastered all styles of dance from breakdancing to ballet to ballroom. Every episode features a special celebrity appearance including Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez, Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, Echosmith's Sydney Sierota and more. MACGYVER: "CO2 SENSOR + TREE BRANCH" CBS, 8 p.m. Guest Star Alert! When Mac (Lucas Till) participates in a challenge for government operatives to create robotic combat machines, he must help his biggest competitor, Allie (guest star Ashley Tisdale) who happens to be his former fling when her vehicle is hacked. CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND: "NATHANIEL GETS THE MESSAGE!" The CW, 8 p.m. Tonight's episode features a milestone: the 100th song of the series! HELL'S KITCHEN: "FIVE IS THE NEW BLACK" FOX, 8 p.m. Chef Gordon Ramsay reveals to the remaining All-Stars that they will be competing for the coveted black jacket by facing a series of three difficult challenges, including one where they must make a dish of their choice using ingredients picked out by Ramsay himself. BLINDSPOT NBC, 8 p.m. New Episodes! The December winter finale ended with a massive cliffhanger, but series creator Martin Gero soothes, "Don't worry, we take a lot of time to explain what is going on right away when we return." And he offers a bit of a tease, saying, "The dynamic between some of the team members certainly changes ... and a new, very dangerous foe comes into focus." TAKEN NBC, 9 p.m. Season Premiere! Person of Interest's Greg Plageman takes over as showrunner, ushering in a more Bryan Mills-centric tale and cleaning house on Season 1's overabundance of secondary characters. Adam Goldberg signs on as a wry but dangerous hacker named Kilroy, joined by The Flash's Jessica Camacho as former soldier and master negotiator Santana both tapped by Christina Hart (Jennifer Beals) to help free Mills (Clive Standen) from his Mexican captors. "The forming of this new team is really an effort to be pre-emptive and preventative," says Beals. "This direction gives an opportunity for Christina and Bryan to work together instead of being at odds. She completely trusts him to let him off the leash." BLUE BLOODS: "THE BRAVE" CBS, 10 p.m. When Anthony (Steve Schirripa) is shot while interviewing a witness for an upcoming murder trial, Erin (Bridget Moynahan) enlists Danny (Donnie Wahlberg), Anthony's archenemy, to find out who is responsible. Brought to you by the publishers of TV Guide. TV Guide 2018 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate COHOES A city judge who issued a warrant last month for the arrest of a frequent critic of Mayor Shawn Morse has recused herself from the case, saying she was unaware the woman who filed the harassment complaint is related to the mayor. Judge Andra Ackerman sent a letter this week to Judge Thomas A. Breslin, who supervises judges in the Third Judicial District, saying she is removing herself from the non-criminal harassment case "to avoid any possible appearance of impropriety." "If the media reports are accurate, the alleged victim with respect to the underlining alleged violation of harassment is related to the Mayor Shawn Morse," Ackerman wrote. "I have no personal knowledge if this is correct, however, since I am an appointee of the mayor and the public appearance is that she is related to him, I feel that it is proper for me to step aside." Morse is a cousin of Barbara J. Borden, 47, who filed a complaint with Cohoes police last month accusing Jeffrey S. Bagley, 52, of sending her harassing messages on Facebook. In public statements Thursday, Morse claimed Bagley was arrested for making repeated phone calls and threatening text messages to Borden. But police confirmed there was no record of any phone calls or mobile texts, and they said the messages between Borden and Bagley were exchanged only through Facebook. Ackerman said she signed a warrant on Dec. 18 authorizing Bagley's arrest on a charge of harassment, a violation. Three Cohoes police officers went to Bagley's residence on Jan. 5 and arrested him. He was taken to the city police station in handcuffs and released after being issued an appearance ticket. The complaint filed by police 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. "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. Ackerman, in her letter to Breslin, said the complaint filed by Borden justified her issuance of an arrest warrant. "I was satisfied that the conduct alleged and signed by the complainant, if true, satisfied the criteria to justify the warrant sought by the Cohoes Police Department," Ackerman wrote. "The complainant, whom I do not know, has a different last name than the mayor and there were no references in the complaint or any court paperwork that there existed a familial relationship between the complainant and the mayor." Bagley is friends with Morse's wife, Brenda, and has called for the mayor to resign in the wake of allegations that he choked her during a domestic violence incident on Nov. 10 at the couple's residence. The Times Union subsequently reported that at least two other women had allegedly been physically abused by Morse in the past; he denies it. In a radio interview Thursday on WGDJ-AM, Morse claimed that Bagley has "19 arrests for harassment, 10 of them are misdemeanors." "This guy has a history of doing this to people," Morse said. Arrest records indicate Bagley was arrested twice for harassment, once in 1997 for a violation and a second time in 1998 for misdemeanor aggravated harassment. The 1997 charge was dismissed and the 1998 charge was reduced to contempt and Bagley sentenced to probation, according to a person briefed on his criminal history. Morse referred comment to the Cohoes police when contacted by the Times Union earlier this week. Borden hung up the telephone when contacted by the Times Union this week. The appearance ticket issued to Bagley 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. The State Police and other law enforcement agencies are continuing to investigate the domestic abuse allegations made by Brenda Morse. Shawn Morse denied grabbing or "hitting" his wife. Bagley has been outspoken on Facebook posts about his opinion that Morse should resign because of the abuse allegations. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ALBANY State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli cautioned again this week that the financial interests of the state pension fund must be weighed when considering divestment from fossil fuels. DiNapoli's comments follow Gov. Andrew Cuomo's suggestion in his State of the State last week that he and DiNapoli work together to divest the $192.4 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund from fossil fuels. Cuomo wants the fund to cease making new investments in entities with "significant fossil fuel-related activities" and will create an advisory panel to develop a "de-carbonization roadmap" to support clean energy investments. "I understand what's behind the divestment movement, and I'm very sympathetic to it," DiNapoli told reporters following an event at the Times Union's Hearst Media Center in Colonie on Tuesday. "We believe climate change is real, climate risk is an issue that the pension fund should deal with. We have been dealing with it. But just divesting I don't think is going to put any of these companies out of business." The comptroller asserted that he isn't allowing himself to be pushed into divesting, either. "I'm an independently elected official," he said during the event. "I have a particular independence when it comes to managing the pension fund, and that will not be compromised." DiNapoli outlined a few complexities to divestment, including the time it would take. For comparison, when the fund divested from companies doing business with Sudan and Iran, DiNapoli said it took two years to fully pull out about $90 million. In terms of fossil fuel investments, the pension fund currently has $1 billion invested in Exxon Mobil alone. Also, DiNapoli noted, the fund invests in part in index funds, which can include fossil fuel-related investments along with investments in other companies/industries. By the same token, DiNapoli created a $2 billion index to shift investments to lower emitters. If New York were to move toward divestment from fossil fuels, it wouldn't be alone. Notably, the California State Legislature passed a law in 2015 to require the public employees and teacher's retirement funds to divest from coal. As of August, the state Public Employees' Retirement System reported that it was almost entirely withdrawn from coal investments, which were valued between $100 million and $200 million when the law passed, according to Reuters. That state's public employee pension fund is valued at $355.5 billion, the largest in the nation. On a far smaller scale, Washington, D.C., sold off its $6.4 million in direct fossil fuel holdings in recent years. Those holdings represented less than 1 percent of the fund's total value, according to Inside Climate News. New York City pension officials announced Wednesday that they will sell off fossil fuel investments. But while even a former chairman of Shell, Mark-Stuart, has said fossil fuel divestment and reinvestment in clean energy makes sense, some question if total divestment is a prudent strategy. DiNapoli has held that being an investor gives the state a voice in the fossil-fuel company board room, as it did when the fund and Church of England pressured Exxon to accept a shareholder resolution requesting that the company analyze how implementing the Paris Agreement will affect its business. Divestment in general can be risky business. The investment management firm Wilshire Associates found in a 2016 analysis that the California public employees pension fund missed $7.8 billion in potential earnings because of various divestment activities dating back decades, the Sacramento Bee reported. Still, there are those who say divestment from fossil fuels not only checks the social responsibility box, it also has become a matter of fiduciary responsibility. Arabella Advisors, an investment advisory firm focused on helping clients impact social issues, concluded in a 2016 analysis that bankruptcies filed recently by large coal companies and drops in profitability of top oil and gas companies "reflect an increasing vulnerability in fossil fuel business models that divestment can potentially exacerbate." "The incompatibility of the prevailing fossil fuel business model with globally agreed-upon carbon limits, and the increasingly poor market performance of many former fossil leaders, such as ExxonMobil, will only hasten the financial exit from fossil fuels and the move to invest in clean energy," the analysis states. mhamilton@timesunion.com 518-454-5449 @matt_hamilton10 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A flood watch remains in effect for all of east central New York and western New England into Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy rainfall, snow melt and potential ice jams may cause flooding on rivers and streams. Expect some flooding in urban and poor drainage areas, especially where drains are clogged by debris, forecasters said. Friday will remain unseasonably warm with periods of rain that will be heavy at times. A strong cold front will carry much colder air into the Capital Region, changing the rain to freezing rain and sleet and, eventually, snow through Saturday afternoon. The National Weather Service in Albany says some ice could cling to surfaces but not much is expected to fall before the precipitation turns to snow Saturday morning. In the immediate Capital Region, a half inch to 2 inches of snow could fall, meteorologist Joe Cebulko of the National Weather Service said. Cebulko said meteorologists are keeping their eyes on possible flooding in Herkimer County and elsewhere but so far there is not concern about major flooding of the Mohawk River in Schenectady County or other spots in the Albany area. Bitterly cold conditions will return, forecasters said. Friday: Rain. Patchy fog. High near 57. South wind 11 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Friday night: Rain before 2am, then rain and sleet between 2am and 4am, then freezing rain after 4am. Patchy fog before 2am. Low around 24. Southwest wind 9 to 14 mph becoming north after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New ice accumulation of less than a 0.1 of an inch possible. Little or no sleet accumulation expected. Saturday: Snow, freezing rain, and sleet, becoming all snow after 9am. Temperature falling to around 18 by 5pm. Northwest wind 14 to 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. New snow and sleet accumulation of less than one inch possible. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 0. Wind chill values as low as -13. Northwest wind 9 to 11 mph. Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 16. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around -1. M.L.King Day: Partly sunny, with a high near 20. ALBANY The state isnt finished with Jeffrey Monsour. While the longtime critic of the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities late last year won a federal lawsuit affirming his right to criticize the agency he works for, lawyers for the state are seeking to overturn that jury verdict. And while Monsour in October was cleared of abuse and neglect charges lodged against him in his job as an aide for developmentally disabled people, hes facing a new charge. Theyve got me under investigation again, Monsour said. A federal jury in November upheld Monsours ability to speak out about the problems he has seen in numerous OPWDD-run facilities. He also was awarded a token $1 for emotional stress. But in December, lawyers for the agency filed a motion asking the judge to overturn the jurys decision, arguing that jurors made the wrong decision. There exists such a complete absence of evidence supporting the verdict that the jurys findings could only have been the result of sheer surmise and conjecture, reads the memo from Assistant Attorney General Helena Lynch to U.S. Northern District Court Judge Brenda Sannes in Syracuse. More for you Employee wins federal suit against OPWDD Documents accompanying the request known as a Rule 50 motion recap some of Monsours unproven allegations that he had been denied promotions due to his speaking out about poor quality of care and problems such as falsified fire drills. The case hinged largely on the argument that aside from his work as an aide Monsour had the right as a private citizen to call attention to treatment of the disabled, and that his expressions were covered by federal laws protecting the disabled and their rights. Filing a Rule 50 motion isn't unusual, noted Ray Brescia, a professor at Albany Law School. In an email, Monsours lawyer Robert Sadowski agreed with Brescia that Rule 50 is a very hard standard to meet, and overturning jury decisions are rare. OPWDD spokeswoman Denise Decarlo said the agency couldnt comment on ongoing litigation. Just three months after he was cleared of similar charges, Monsour now faces another allegation that he abused or neglected someone under his care. In October, he was exonerated of allegations that he psychologically abused a disabled person when he pointed out that the persons dog was being inappropriately fondled by another resident of a group home. In both cases, the charges are being investigated by the states Justice Center for Protection of People with Special Needs. During the recent trial, Monsour alleged that in the earlier case, a resident was bribed with offers of candy to prompt him to file a complaint. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU Washington In bluntly vulgar language, President Donald Trump questioned Thursday why the United States 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 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. 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 who fled to the United States after disasters hit their homes in places including El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti would be allowed to stay. Trump specifically questioned why the United States would want to admit more people from Haiti. As for Africa, he asked why more people from "shithole countries" should be allowed into the United States, 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. Asked about the remarks, 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 utterances were remarkable even by the standards of a president who has been accused of harboring racist attitudes and who has routinely smashed through conventions of public decorum. 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." 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. 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. 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 into the country. 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. Federal agencies will run out of money if lawmakers don't pass legislation extending their financing by Jan. 19. Some Democrats are threatening to withhold their votes unless an immigration accord is reached. ALBANY Steven Spielberg's acclaimed drama "The Post," which opens nationwide Friday, recounts the story of how the Washington Post's publisher Katharine Graham (played by Meryl Streep) and editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) made the decision to publish the Pentagon Papers despite considerable legal peril. The film's arrival seemed like an apt occasion to reach into the video archives of the Times Union for an interview with Graham and Bradlee conducted in 1996 on the occasion of the retirement of Times Union editor Harry Rosenfeld, who served as the Post's metro editor during the Watergate scandal. DECATUR Police intercepted a rental car traveling on Interstate 72 near Decatur on Tuesday afternoon and said it held three suitcases packed with 50 pounds of cannabis with a street value of more than $550,000. The vehicles driver, Travis N. Marley Jr., 28, was arrested on a preliminary charge of manufacture/delivery of more than 5,000 grams of cannabis, a Class X felony. Preliminary charges are subject to review by the states attorney's office. Writing in a sworn statement detailing the arrest, Decatur police detective Chad Larner said Marley told police he was traveling from the Chicago area to St. Louis. Marley maintained he had no knowledge of the suitcases being present inside of the vehicle, Larner said. The detective said Marleys vehicle had initially been pulled over for several traffic violations, and the detectives K-9 partner, Leeroy Jenkins, conducted a free air sniff and alerted to the presence of drugs. Marley remained in the Macon County Jail on Wednesday night in lieu of posting $300,000 bond. He is due to be arraigned Jan. 17. Now Playing: Buying food in bulk is a time and money saver when you're trying to create well-balanced meals. Video: Cooking Light If you are the sort of person in Seattle who insists on cutting down an actual tree and putting it in your house for Christmas celebrations, you are also likely privy to the fact that throughout January you can dispose of that tree by leaving it on the curb next to your food and yard waste bin and get it picked up for free. Though California has a similar rule, you can't beat getting a full refund on your tree. Just ask the Santa Clarita woman who brought her Christmas tree back to Costco "because it was dead" on January 4. Horace Greeley, founder and editor of The New York Tribune, said, "Go west, young man, and grow with the country." In the movie "The Graduate," Dustin Hoffman is advised to go into "plastics." Nowadays, young men and women are being advised to go into the "trades": There's work for people who can weld, read a grade level, work a lathe or follow site drawings. There's a severe shortage of skilled labor, from carpenters to steel fitters. And it's beginning to be a brake on the economy. Some are heeding the call. One young man who grew up in San Francisco, call him Jeremy, whose parents are college-educated (his mother is an Ivy League college graduate), has decided he'll forgo college although his parents can well afford it and become a welder. Bravo! But the road to a happy life through the trades hasn't been cleared of the debris left by our passion for college degrees. The aspiring young welder and hundreds of thousands of others who'll be tempted to give up the pleasures of four years in college for the rigors of as many or more years in an apprenticeship will likely find themselves marked for life as "second rate." Jeremy can find work aplenty in today's job market and good wages, too. But he'll be binding himself to a world where many will look down on him; where the values of his upbringing are scarce in the workplace, with its dictatorial foremen and rough-and-ready society; where he'll have a sense, ever present, of being low on the social and work totem pole; and where he'll encounter many closed doors if he wants to leave welding for some other kind of work. Jeremy or an equivalent young woman, call her Jane, could leave welding as their interest declined or simply because, with the passage of years, he or she couldn't handle the physical demands of the trade. But what to do? With a wealth of experience, how about teaching? No way with no degree. Supposing Jane, at age 25, decides that she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life in a world of arcs and acetylene, burns and fumes. She's young enough to learn to fly and become a pilot. But she'll never fly for an airline: They require pilots to have a college degree of some sort. Management in a hotel chain? Not as such. They like degrees for anything above housekeeper or waiter. Jeremy and Jane will come up against the "mortar board ceiling," as I've called it. I know many who've bumped up against it. A useless degree from a mediocre college is still better than great life experience when it comes to career. When I arrived in the United States from Britain, I hit my head on the mortar board ceiling many times. Although I had worked for ITN and the BBC in England, I couldn't get an interview with a U.S. television network on the grounds I didn't have a college degree. The human resources departments were adamant. Insanely, The New York Times told me that I'd never be a writer on the paper, but they had an opening for an editor. I went, almost literally, around the block to The Herald Tribune and signed on there as a rewrite man on the foreign desk. They didn't ask and I didn't tell. Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter. It's important that people going into artisan work, for all of its camaraderie and job fulfillment satisfaction, know that it's still fair weather work. Little or no sick leave, no lifetime guarantees and pension, unless it is a union job. You clock in and clock out: the devil take the hindmost. Time was when the trades offered a future: A meat cutter could open a butcher shop and become self-employed, a baker a bakery, etc. That line of entrepreneurship is essentially foreclosed in today's winner-take-all world of big companies. But mostly, Jeremy and Jane need to know that the future for the non-college worker is still inferior. Society still looks down on the horny-handed sons and daughters of toil and there's no change in sight. Meanwhile, we'll have too many graduates and too few people who can build and repair. Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of "White House Chronicle" on PBS. DECATUR The Decatur School District has adopted a new sanitizing method that cleans classrooms and other areas in record time, which district officials say is crucial as flu season continues. Shortly before winter break, the district's building and grounds department purchased six "Mist" fogging devices to use at the schools. Developed by GenEon Technologies, the device sprays a nontoxic solution into the air that cleans, sanitizes and disinfects surfaces and hard to reach areas. "You step into the doorway of the room, fog it, step out, and you're done," said Steve Kline, director of buildings and grounds. Kline said he first learned of the Mist fogger while attending a seminar with representatives of R.D. McMillen Enterprises, and purchased the devices from the company shortly thereafter. In addition to being nontoxic, Kline said the solution sprayed by the foggers is also odorless and environmentally friendly. On its website, GenEon says its solutions are created from from minerals, water and electricity using a technology called electrochemical ion activation. Sodium ions are positively charged and chloride ions are negatively charged to create a sanitizer and cleaning compound in one solution. District spokeswoman Maria Robertson said the Mist foggers have been used in 10 Decatur public elementary schools so far. As for flu cases, she said there haven't been any "alarming" numbers reported at Decatur public schools, but officials are keeping watch. Robertson did not have specific numbers available. District custodians first started using the Mist devices with the solution while Decatur public schools were closed for winter break, Kline said. Before classes dismissed for the break, a few cases of the flu were reported among some of the district's students and faculty, he said. Since flu season has shown signs of peaking early in Illinois, Kline said the district's usual winter break sanitizing efforts were helped by the Mist foggers' efficiency and ease-of-use. "This is something we wanted to get on top of and address within the schools," Kline said, regarding the flu season. "We've started with the grade schools and are working our way up." Kline said the buildings and grounds crew started using the foggers in the elementary schools first because the younger students are more prone to touch and grab surfaces and items that could be contaminated. Gradually, custodians will spread the devices among the district's junior high and high schools and will start using them there, too, he said. While the Mist foggers have helped clean the schools at a faster pace, Kline said they're not a replacement for manual cleaning practices. Custodians will still clean areas like they normally would, he said, but the foggers make it easier to apply a sanitizing solution as opposed to doing it by hand. "They'll still dust, wipe down and clean the floors," Kline said. "However, when you're going to use the disinfectant, it usually requires spraying and wiping multiple surfaces. "Being able to use this fogger and spray the room is a significant time-saver." [January 12, 2018] DigitalTown Provides Update on Austin.city Launch AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DigitalTown, Inc. (OTC:DGTW), the operator of Austin.city, and the leading provider of People-centric Solutions for Smart Cities, provided an update on the launch of Austin.city, Austins innovative Smart City Cooperative, and on the issuance of CityShares for shared ownership of Austin.city. Austin.City Portal is Live The Smart Search engine for Austin is live. Unlike conventional search engines, Austin.city is designed to help you search local. Find a person or place, book a table, reserve a room, make a retail purchase, or find a service provider, all with one login. Austin.city is also blending the conventional economy with the sharing economy so that you have one place to search all of the best local alternatives. Authentic reviews and ratings along with personal relevance determine which search results appear first. There are no paid search ads. Making Austin Smart. Making Austin Personal. The goal of Austin.city is to make life better for residents and visitors. For people on the go, there is an Austin.city mobile application for iOS and Android that make it easier to know things like where to go, what to do, where to eat, and who to meet. Residents of Austin are encouraged to get to know Austin.city as a trusted Smart Agent for helping you get the most out of your day. And when you travel to other cities that are DigitalTowns, you will be better equipped than ever to see the world through local eyes, but through the lens of personal preference. 151,910 CityShares issued in the first week During the first week of the claim period, a total of 38,300 free CityShares were claimed. In addition, 113,610 CityShares were purchased at the discounted price of $0.16 per share. Residents of Austin may claim their CityShares through February 11, 2018 or until all of the CityShares have been claimed. To claim a CityShare, residents should visit Austin.city and click on CityShare. Rob Monster, CEO of DigitalTown cmmented on the announcement, explaining, In conversations with Austinites, we learned that there are a lot of people in Austin who had this idea before we did. We feel particularly fortunate to have an operating presence in Austin and to have the opportunity to partner with the people of Austin. The people of Austin will be showing the world a sustainable way to grow communities in the Digital Age. We look forward to an exciting time of cooperation and co-creation as Austin shows the world its remarkable innovative capacity. Your Forever Digital Address As a registered user of Austin.city, each resident of Austin is able to secure a permanent digital address. Users have the option of selecting a branded Austin.city address such as the name of a person, business or brand. There is also the option of securing this digital brand forever as a digital web address that will never expire. You can refer people to it so that no matter how many times your phone number, physical address or social media handles change, people can have an authoritative place to find you online or offline. Homeless persons and persons in transition are also eligible to secure a permanent Austin.city address, through which they will be able to receive payments, messages, as well as find work opportunities in the community. Tools for Smart City Innovation Austin.city includes an open API that gives approved developers secure access to the DigitalTown SmartWallet services which include User Management, Verified Identities, User Profiles, Preferences, as well as a Blockchain-based Payment Wallet. These components work together to make it easy for developers to focus on what is about their solutions, while ensuring compatibility with the Austin Smart City platform as well as the larger Global Smart City Network powered by DigitalTown. Help make a Smarter Austin - Introducing Smart City Innovation Fellowships Co-creation is at the heart of every most people-centric Smart City initiatives. In the coming months, DigitalTown will be partnering with the community in Austin to help identify and solve issues that affect the city and its residents. Developers with a passion for making Austin better can propose development ideas to be supported through an Innovation Fellowship. In cases where there is no other private or public sponsor, participating developers will be compensated with CityShares to be released to the developer either upon completion of the project, or over an agreed period of time as defined in Blockchain Smart Contracts. About DigitalTown Austin.city is a service of DigitalTown. DigitalTown, Inc. (OTC:DGTW) powers Smart Cities to succeed in the Digital Age. The company provides turn-key hosted solutions to power "Digital Towns", which improve Quality of Life for residents and visitors through locally owned solutions for economic development, civic engagement and digital inclusion for cities around the world. For more information about the company, please visit www.digitaltown.com. Safe Harbor Language: Any statements contained herein related to future events are forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act 1995. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. DigitalTown, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update any such statements to reflect actual events. Media Contacts: Rob Monster, Chief Executive Officer (425) 295-4564; [email protected] Frank Robles, VP Operations 512-900-2428; [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 11, 2018] Pipeline H2O Announces 2018 Class HAMILTON, Ohio, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pipeline H2O, the award-winning water technology commercialization program managed by The Hamilton Mill is pleased to announce the 2018 Pipeline H2O Class of companies. Click here for the Pipeline H2O 2018 Class Supported by a coalition of regional cities, utilities, universities, and startup organizations throughout the Greater Cincinnati region, Pipeline H2O's goal is to identify and accelerate companies working on water technologies that address the world's water challenges. Some of the challenges include infrastructure improvements, water reuse, wastewater treatment, monitoring and consumer innovations. The call for applications for the 2018 class was initiated in September 2017 and ran through November 2017. 80 applications were received from across 6 continents representing 20 different countries. A listing of applications by continent is as follows: Africa - 8 - 8 Asia - 8 - 8 Australia - 2 - 2 Europe - 9 - 9 North America - 52 - 52 South America - 1 Pipeline H2O's application review process included multiple rounds of evaluations to select the class of 7 companies. The evaluations were conducted by a diverse committee comprised of a cross-section of water experts (Greater Cincinnati Water Works, The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, City of amilton Water, Confluence, Butler County Groundwater Consortium, U.S. EPA, University of Cincinnati) and entrepreneurial leaders (Hamilton Mill, Cintrifuse, Queen City Angels). "We are thrilled with the quality and quantity of the applicants for this year's Pipeline H2O class. The high quality of the applications made it very difficult to select the members," said Rahul Bawa, Chairman of Pipeline H2O and The Hamilton Mill. "The Greater Cincinnati region has some of the best water resources and municipal water in the nation and we are looking forward to making a substantial impact for each of these companies to find customers and generate revenue." The Pipeline H2O program will run from February through May 2018 and will introduce the selected startups to various value-add resources throughout the region. Pipeline H2O 2018 will culminate with a Demo Day on May 24, 2018, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Additionally, Antony Seppi, Pipeline H2O's Program Director added, "We can't wait to begin working with these startups and introducing them to the value-add resources throughout the Greater Cincinnati region. These assets include water-tech expertise and a great entrepreneurial ecosystem within #StartupCincy. If you have a water challenge or want to get involved with Pipeline H20 give us a call." The 2018 class of Pipeline H2O includes the following companies (in alphabetical order): Cerahelix - ceramic pico filtration products used for high purity filtration. Drop Water - an innovative way to make and distribute bottled water that was designed from the ground up to be as efficient and sustainable as possible. Folia Water - creating a new $1B+ category: fast moving consumer goods water filters for the 3 billion people who make $2 - $10/day. GeoInteractive - deep tech company automating the job of critical sewer inspections. Micronic Technologies - MicroEVAP uniquely separates contaminants from water using mechanical evaporation, vapor compression, and condensation with increased throughput at reduced complexity and cost. Water Warriors - first no-expansion-needed solution for water treatment plants fighting the losing battle of removing nitrogen and phosphorus from water. WINT-WI - water IoT metering & data analytics solution for Commercial Real Estate and Utilities. Related Images image1.png image2.png View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pipeline-h2o-announces-2018-class-300581738.html SOURCE The Hamilton Mill [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 11, 2018] TUV Rheinland extends A2LA Accreditation and FCC Approvals in Asia-Pacific's most important markets Addition of labs in Guangzhou and Shanghai in China, along with Bangalore in India will help customers meet the wireless, EMI and EMC testing and certification requirements for products aimed at the North American market BENGALURU, India, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TUV Rheinland has extended its global independent inspection, testing and certification (TIC) credentials in two of the Asia-Pacific region's most important markets -- India and China -- with the addition of a string of American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) and the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approvals. TUV Rheinland India has become the first TIC laboratory in India to receive A2LA accreditation and be listed by the FCC to perform EMI, EMC and Wireless testing and certification locally according to North American market standards. TUV Rheinland's EMC laboratories in Guangzhou and Shanghai have also received A2LA accreditation and FCC approval. The laboratories cover a wide range of products. For example, the Guangzhou lab tests everything from information technology equipment (ITE) to industrial, scientific and medical equipment (ISM), household appliances, electric tools, lighting, sound and television broadcast receivers and RF equipment. "Our Guangzhou laboratory is accredited in accordance with the recognized International Standard ISO/IEC 17025:2005-08 General Requirements for the competenc of testing and calibration laboratories. This key accreditation demonstrates the technical competence for a defined scope and the operation of a laboratory quality management system which is essential to gain entry to international markets and retain customer and consumer confidence," said Holger Kunz, Executive Vice President Products at TUV Rheinland. This development follows the introduction of the FCC's DA-17-274A1 document in March (2017), which details the expansion of A2LA's scope of FCC recognition to include the accreditation of testing laboratories located in non-Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) countries, including India, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines, and Thailand. "Mutual Recognition Agreements are government-to-government trade facilitation measures aimed at creating a global approach to conformity assessment. Without the necessary MRA in place with the US, it is simply not possible for labs in many countries to perform Declaration of Conformity (DoC) and Certification testing in Wireless, EMI and EMC to demonstrate conformance with FCC regulations," explained Kalyan Varma, Vice President, Products, TUV Rheinland. "With this milestone A2LA achievement, along with other necessary accreditations like NABL-17025:2005-08 in place, TUV Rheinland's laboratories in India and Greater China can help customers conduct all the short- and long-range wireless, EMI and EMC testing and certification services required for products aimed at the North American market," he said. The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) is a non-profit, non-governmental, public service, membership society. It is the only independent, non-profit, internationally-recognized accreditation body in North America to offer a full range of comprehensive laboratory and laboratory-related accreditation services and training. About TUV Rheinland TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded 145 years ago. The group employs 19,700 people around the globe. Annual revenue is more than EUR1.9 billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all industrial sectors and areas of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, and oversees projects, processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, the company operates a global network of approved labs and testing and education centres. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. www.tuv.com SOURCE TUV Rheinland Singapore Pte Ltd [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 11, 2018] China-based Tuya Smart launches the fully upgraded global IoT platform LAS VEGAS, Jan. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 10, 2018, Tuya Smart, a China-based provider of IoT platform, announced their fully upgraded IoT platform at CES 2018, the annual tech extravaganza that kicked off in Las Vegas on January 9. The efficient and low-cost global system enables manufacturers to rapidly upgrade their products by providing them with AI services, including hardware access, cloud services and app software development. Tuya IoT Platform provides companies with Intelligent solutions, help manufacturers connect with several mainstream digital assistants ( such as Alexa?Google Home)?Besides,Tuya has Abundant supply chain resources to help manufacturers build upstream and downstream industrial ecosystem. Many products powered by Tuya platform have entered the international market. In addition, Tuya Smart has recently rolled out its international website www.tuya.com. Tuya Smart, a Chinese technology startup that was founded just three years ago, is showcasing hundreds of smart products across six broad categories within its 1,950 square-foot (180 sq. meters) booth at the exhibition, including lighting, electrical engineering, electrical household appliances, smart kitchen appliances, environmental health and security cameras. The company's exhibits also include several futuristic tech products, among them mesh lamp arrays and AI cameras in addition to its smart home experience zone, all of which have caught the eye of visitors. Today, corporate "intelligentiztion" has become an inevitable trend and opens the door to new revenue streams for manufacturers. However, traditional manufacturers face many challenges when it comes to upgrading and intelligentizing products: A long development cycle that typically lasts six months to one year and R&D costs that can reach several hundreds of thousands of dollars. The substantially higher level of complexity in the development process and product incompatibility: manufacturers have a lot of difficulty in being able to guarantee product compatibility as they need to work with several suppliers to intelligentize their products. Difficulties in expanding into international markets: manufacturers can miss the opportunity to expand outside of their domestic market if their suppliers fail to provide cloud services with worldwide reach. Tuya Smart neatly solves these challenges for traditional manufacturers with its newly released, fully upgraded IoT platform. The launch of the English-language version of the system has demonstrated the company's competence in empowering global manufacturers with AI. Citing an example, with the Tuya Smart platform, manufacturers of lighting products, including sockets, switches and lamps, can complete the transformation of their traditional products into smart ones within just one day and put the smart products into mass production within 15 days. The combination of internet-connected modules, cloud services and apps allows for simple and efficient development of smart products. Tuya Smart has supplied AI services covering a wide spectrum of home appliances to over 10,000 customers in nearly 200 countries and regions worldwide, assisting them in upgrading nearly 11,000 products in the aggregate and creating such popular smart items as the Ar4 smart AI monitor, the DoorCam wireless security camera, the Blink video doorbell and the Lancey electric heater. Notably, Tuya Smart has established relationships with leading smart speaker brands from around the world, including Amazon Echo, Google Home, Tmall Genie and Rokid. "Tuya Smart, with its IoT platform, has already empowered many firms with AI functionalities and plans to provide AI services to manufacturers in the USA and around the world, allowing them to intelligentize their products in a barrier-free manner," said Tuya Smart CEO Jerry Wong. "In addition to helping enterprises upgrade products with smart technologies, the company also plans to fully empower manufacturers by providing them with AI services that expand the breadth of their marketing channels, supply energy-saving solutions and reduce supply chain costs as well as furnish aftersales and personalized services, with the goal of fulfilling its vision of a worldwide transformation of consumer electronics and the internet of everything." Tuya smart, [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/china-based-tuya-smart-launches-the-fully-upgraded-global-iot-platform-300581831.html SOURCE Tuya Smart [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] Systech Europe Announces Rapid Expansion of Customer Base and Pharmaceutical Serialisation Partners Ready to Meet the FMD Regulation BRUSSELS, Jan. 12, 2018 /CNW/ -- Systech International, the global technology leader in serialisation, track and trace, and brand protection grew its European presence in 2017 by 50% with new accounts in France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Finland. The company also added new Authorized Solution Partners to its global network offering integrated turnkey solutions with Systech UniSeries, the industry standard for serialising products to meet the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD), as well as the Company's expanding track and trace and anti-counterfeiting technologies. Systech deployed the world's first serialisation and aggregation project in Europe over a decade ago and has now implemented serialisation for 19 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. With 30 years of industry experience, Systech utilizes award-winning configurable software technology, including vision, serialisation workflow, and number management to ensure delivery of quick and cost-effective serialisation solutions to large and small pharmaceutical companies, including multinationals, regional manufacturers, and CMO/CPO's. Alstair Taylor, Director of European Sales for Systech says, "We're helping customers meet the February 2019 regulation deadline and maintain compliance in a way that's efficient and minimally disruptive. We deliver software and services with packaging equipment (OEM) agnostic solutions, allowing us to work with any partner and any packaging line, whether new or retrofitted." Servicepoint Oy, one of Systech's sales and integration partners, is implementing Systech's serialisation solution in Finland for Santen Pharmaceutical, the leading Northern European ophthalmic drug manufacturer. The implementation includes Systech serialisation software integrated with packaging machinery by Inno4Life, also a Systech partner. Matti Rosengren, Vice President, Manufacturing EMEA from Santen says, "Servicepoint is delivering a rapid deployment, pre-configured Systech serialisation module by this summer, well within our budget and timeline, and we are benefitting from a streamlined site integration and validation process." "Servicepoint is one of few European suppliers able to provide a complete, integrated, serialisation solution to pharmaceutical packaging lines, including consulting, design, build, installation, testing, and maintenance," says Pekka Hoffren, CEO, Servicepoint. About Systech International: Systech provides expedited regulatory compliance and has more than 4,000 software implementations in 35 countries. Global Authorized Solution Partners stand ready to assist companies in meeting their country's regulatory deadline and countries of export. Systech and its partner network ensure tight integration of a serialisation solution, facilitated data communication, and decreased overall project risk. Contact: Systech International Stacey Owens-Perrotta T +1 609 235 3639 [email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/systech-europe-announces-rapid-expansion-of-customer-base-and-pharmaceutical-serialisation-partners-ready-to-meet-the-fmd-regulation-300581780.html SOURCE Systech International [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] China (Fuzhou) Pilot Free Trade Zone and eBay join hands to set up a pilot cross-border e-commerce industrial park FUZHOU, China, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S.-based on-line auction giant eBay is taking new steps into the Chinese market by setting up a filiale in China (Fuzhou) Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone on January 11. The eBay Fujian company is eBay's first cooperation platform with the Chinese government and is eBay's second branch company in China following Shanghai. eBay on the same day also announced that it has teamed up with Linca Industrial (Fujian) Group Co., Ltd. to build a cross-border e-commerce industrial park in Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province. The park will be the first industrial park with a full industry chain of cross-border e-commerce in China. It is the outcome of a proposal signed by Fuzhou City government, the Department of Commerce of Fujian Province and eBay in April 2017. The planning area of the first stage of the park is about 30,000 square meters, comprising a logistics center, maker incubators, a talent training center as well as a payment service support center, among other services. "Fujian sellers have always been active on eBay and offering a rich variety of products with quality services. The landing of the industrial park showed our firm faith in the huge potential of cross-border e-commerce in Fujian. We hope we can work together with local government to bring more companies and products from Fujian on eBay, and further on help them reach more consumers across the glbe," said John Lin, chief executive officer of eBay Greater China. "We hope to stimulate the potential and vitality of Fujian, which has always been a major province of export trade, and nurture a demonstrative policy environment and ecosystem for cross-border e-commerce industry in China, " said Liang Yong, deputy director of the Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone. An eBay cross-border e-commerce institute was also established on the same day. Jointly organized by the Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone, eBay and Fujian Business University, the institute features two majors - e-commerce and international trade, along with other optional courses. Qualified graduates will be granted a certificate from eBay and offered opportunities to work at excellent e-commerce companies in Fujian. The institute is estimated to educate 2,000 to 3,000 e-commerce professionals for Fujian every year. From March 13 - 15, 2018, the eBay-Fujian Cross-Border E-commerce Summit will be held at the Fuzhou Strait International Conference and Exhibition Center. The summit, boasting an area of 22,000 square meters and 1,000 booths in seven sections, will become an important opportunity for cross-border sellers to attract millions of possible clients in the Chinese market and enhance the influence of Chinese brands. E-commerce has become a major growth engine in China. According to a report jointly released by Alibaba and Accenture, China will become the world's largest market for buying and selling products online by 2020, with the total value of commodity sold by e-retailers to overseas consumers estimated to reach 994 billion U.S. dollars. The partnership between eBay and Fujian will no doubt be a win-win choice. Established in 1995 in California, eBay is one of the largest, most dynamic e-commerce platforms in the world. The company has been the top choice for many Chinese companies to explore overseas markets. Fujian is the second largest cross-border e-commerce exporting province in China and registered an annual growth of over 35 percent in cross-border e-commerce exports over the past three years. The capital city of Fuzhou is home to many manufacturers and e-commerce sellers. In the future, Fuzhou plans to partner with global e-commerce titans including eBay and Amazon and wish to further strengthen its role in cross-border e-commerce. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/china-fuzhou-pilot-free-trade-zone-and-ebay-join-hands-to-set-up-a-pilot-cross-border-e-commerce-industrial-park-300581881.html SOURCE China (Fuzhou) Pilot Free Trade Zone [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] Transamerica Awards Tata Consultancy Services a Multi-Year, $2+ Billion Contract for Third Party Administration (TPA) MUMBAI, January 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TCS Partners with Transamerica to Digitally Transform its Life and Annuities Business Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), (BSE: 532540) (NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Transamerica, a leading provider of life insurance, retirement and investment solutions, to enable the transformation of administration of its U.S. insurance and annuity business lines. The partnership enables Transamerica to rapidly enhance its digital capabilities, simplify the service of more than 10 million policies into a single integrated modern platform, and drive greater sustainable growth opportunities through superior customer experiences. The multi-year agreement is worth more than $2 billion in revenues, the largest contract signed by TCS to date. "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 their significant, ongoing investments in technology and their 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 the most meaningful ways to them by utilizing our digital engagement platforms and developing new solutions that help people save, protect, invest and retire." The partnership will enable the transformation of the administration of Transamerica's life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance, and workplace voluntary benefits products. It will also support the company's overall transition to a simplified, cloud-enabled platform for agile new product development, enhanced services, acquisitions, and strategic innovation investments. This agreement is expected to lead to annual run-rate savings of approximately $70 million initially - growing to $100 million over time - for Transamerica. The majority is expected to benefit underlying earnings. "TCS is helping to guide many of today's leading companies through their business 4.0 journeys, in building their digital spines, becoming more agile, creating superior customer experiences, and driving exponential growth," said Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services. "We have invested heavily in our insurance digital platform, TCS BaNCS, and our extensive U.S. capabilities, and are proud to partner with Transamerica in its ongoing transformation and welcome the transitioning employees to promising new careers at TCS." TCS BaNCS has become a highly respected and successful digital platform in the European market for more than a decade, with more than 17 million policies under administration. It is a complete, open architecture solution with an integraed business rules engine, encompassing policy administration, data management, integrated imaging, and workflow administration. TCS has adapted the platform for the U.S. market to meet its operational and regulatory needs, both for today and in the future. "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 with Transamerica 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," 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. We look forward to a great relationship with Transamerica." TCS will make job offers to all of the applicable Transamerica employees currently supporting the life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance, and workplace voluntary benefits business lines, ensuring a consistently excellent experience for Transamerica customers and protecting approximately 2,200 American jobs. Employees transitioning to TCS will be given the opportunity to remain in the same U.S. cities where they are currently based. TCS will also expand its existing relationship with Transamerica under this transaction, and locate in Transamerica's current offices in various U.S. cities. TCS plans to make a significant investment in the region, most notably by establishing its new North American insurance hub for business operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Beyond offering roles to 2,200 Transamerica employees across U.S cities, TCS plans to hire locally in Iowa, set up relationships with educational institutions, and help employees with professional development to gain digital skills and fluency. As one of America's 50 most community minded organizations, TCS will also work with state and local leaders, and community organizations to bring its flagship education programs, such as goIT and Ignite My Future In School to students, educators, schools, and communities across Iowa. 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 Ltd (TCS) Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that partners with many of the world's largest businesses in their transformation journeys. TCS offers a consulting-led, Cognitive powered, integrated portfolio of IT, Business & Technology Services, and engineering. This is delivered through its unique Location Independent Agile delivery model, recognized as a benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India's largest multinational business group, TCS has over 390,000 of the world's best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $ 17.6 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 us at www.tcs.com. To stay up-to-date on TCS news in North America, follow @TCS_NA. For TCS global news, follow @TCS_News. TCS media contacts: Email: [email protected] Asia Pacific: Phone: +65-90295944 Australia and New Email: [email protected] Zealand Phone: +61-488-403-013 Email: [email protected] Benelux Phone: +31-615-903387 Email : [email protected] Central Europe Phone: +49-172-6615789 Email: [email protected] Europe: Phone: +31-611-531246 Email: [email protected] |[email protected] India: Phone: +91-22-6778 9960 | +91-22-6778-9081 Email: [email protected] Japan Phone: +81-80-2115-0989 Email: [email protected] Latin America Phone: +569-6170-9013 Email: [email protected] Nordics Phone : +46723989188 Email: [email protected] UK: Phone: +44-7764-835-773 Email: [email protected] USA / Canada: Phone: +1-646-313-4594 . [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] SPRINGFIELD As the sexual misconduct wave hit Hollywood, the media and other industries last fall, an open letter circulated through the Illinois Capitol demanding an end to a culture of disrespectful treatment of women. Lawmakers have been trying to decide the best way to respond, but finding consensus has been more difficult than anticipated. The governor eventually signed legislation requiring sexual harassment training for lawmakers and others working in the Statehouse, but the debate revealed problems in reviewing such complaints. A look at the issue in Illinois: The proposal The letter garnered hundreds of signatures from lawmakers, lobbyists and others with political affiliations in the capital, including top names among progressives in the Legislature, including Democratic Sen. Heather Steans and Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, both of Chicago, and Democratic Reps. Robyn Gabel of Evanston and Emanuel "Chris" Welch of Hillside. The letter was publicly released days before Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, introduced legislation to add sexual harassment to a list of ethics violations for legislators and their staff members. The proposal also required them and lobbyists to undergo annual training. The legislation was widely supported but quickly faced criticism because it called for complaints to be investigated by the legislative inspector general a position that had been vacant for more than two years. The hearing The impact of that vacancy became clear on Oct. 31, when a legislative committee considered Madigan's plan. An advocate for crime victims' rights testified that while working on legislation in 2016, Sen. Ira Silverstein of Chicago, the Democrats' caucus chairman, had paid her unwanted compliments, sent her inappropriate messages over social media and placed late-night calls to her. The advocate, Denise Rotheimer, wanted to know why, after filing a complaint with the Legislative Ethics Commission a year earlier, nothing had happened. Silverstein resigned as caucus chairman the day after Rotheimer's testimony, forfeiting a $21,000 annual stipend. He is the only lawmaker known in recent years to have suffered any repercussions for alleged harassment. A senator since 1999, he now faces four opponents in the March 20 Democratic primary. The scramble Democrats who control the Legislature said they repeatedly tried to fill the part-time inspector general's post. Unflattering publicity followed, including the revelation by a state senator and ethics commission member that 27 complaints not necessarily all harassment-related had been filed but not acted upon during the vacancy. The commission temporarily appointed former federal prosecutor Julie Porter on Nov. 4. She quickly pledged to address the complaints, telling The Associated Press: "I wouldn't have accepted this appointment if I thought there was nothing I could do to get the state and the citizens out of this current situation." She reported in December that she had reviewed the 27 complaints and was ready to investigate several of them. Meanwhile, Rotheimer filed a fresh complaint against the commission itself for failing to fill the inspector's position. When lawmakers returned to Springfield in November, emergency sexual harassment-awareness sessions were arranged. Floor debate in the House and Senate were even interrupted so legislators could attend the sessions. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the legislation on Nov. 16, and the new law requires annual training. A 50-state review by The Associated Press found that about a third of state legislative chambers across the country do not require lawmakers to participate in sexual harassment training. [January 12, 2018] Law Firm Makes Case for Process Automation using FlowForma BPM DUBLIN, January 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FlowForma, the leading provider of BPM tools for Microsoft Office 365, today announced that McKinley Irvin, is using the no code FlowForma BPM tool as an efficient alternative to paperwork and email requests across their payment approval system and employee onboarding processes. (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/627606/Neil_Young_CEO_FlowForma.jpg ) (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523210/FlowForma_Logo.jpg ) One of the largest divorce and family law firms in the Northwest U.S, McKinley Irvin are highly regarded for their knowledge and deep understanding of the field of family law. As the organization continued to grow, they sought a solution to replace a slow, paper-intensive process. In addition, an email approvals process made tracking proposals very difficult, resulting in employees being diverted from focusing on their clients. "It's all about freeing up the 'brain time' of our paralegals and attorneys, letting them focus on the complex nature of law, rather than day-to-day tasks that can be so time-consuming," said Dustin Ray, Business Process Analyst, McKinley Irvin. The company already had Microsoft SharePoint, the document-sharing platform, as part of an Office 365 deployment, but was barely using it. With previous experience of InfoPath, Microsoft's legacy electronic forms application, Ray felt that a modern alternative that was compatible with SharePoint would be a good fit for the firm. He came across FlowForma BPM and was immediately impressed. By starting to automate the large amounts of document generation that take place in a legal practice, FlowForma BPM is providing McKinley Irvin with new efficiencies. The payment flow accesses SharePoint lists in a seamless approval process that saves around one-and-a-half hours per request. The onboarding process saves several hoursaround each new hire, as all the fields are taken care of automatically in different templates. "By enabling our people to focus on the legal questions at hand, not on typing documents, we're seeing cost savings and efficiencies," commented Dustin Ray, Business Process Analyst, McKinley Irvin. "Having a one-stop shop that we can go to for a heads-up on a process, where we can see instantly if any action needs to be taken, has been indispensable," he added. "Once again we are thrilled to see another organization reap the rewards available to them by using our powerful BPM tool. In a short space of time McKinley Irvin have significantly cut down the time taken to complete everyday tasks, and are already planning to bring more processes online with FlowForma BPM. The new-found transparency and efficiencies they are now benefiting from, are being felt throughout the whole organization. Ultimately giving the paralegals and attorneys the freedom to concentrate on what matters most, their clients!" said Neil Young, Chief Executive Officer, FlowForma. Supporting Resources: To learn more about how McKinley Irvin are using FlowForma BPM, read our case study : http://www.flowforma.com/mckinley-irvin-case-study To find out how the FlowForma Cloud BPM tool works visit: http://www.flowforma.com/how-it-works To download a free trial of FlowForma BPM visit: https://www.flowforma.com/start-your-flowforma-trial About FlowForma FlowForma, the leading provider of Business Process Management (BPM) tools for Microsoft Office 365 has been revolutionizing the traditional BPM space with an innovative approach to developing BPM products that empower users to get work done, smarter and faster, on the familiar SharePoint platform, without any coding. An award-winning Microsoft Office 365 Add-In, its FlowForma BPM tool enables business users and Heads of Departments to quickly implement processes such as HR on-boarding, new product development and clinical trials as well as many others, increasing organizational efficiency and productivity. Recognised by Microsoft and trusted by over 110,000 users, this Microsoft Gold Partner is headquartered in Dublin with offices in London and Boston. For further information or a 30 day free trial, visit www.flowforma.com McKinley Irvin McKinley Irvin is the largest family law firm in the Northeast of the U.S, providing exceptional legal counsel and support to families throughout the Pacific Northwest for more than two decades. With offices in Seattle, Everett, Bellevue, Tacoma, Puyallup, Vancouver, and Portland, McKinley Irvin is a leader in all facets of family law including divorce, child custody and support, alternative dispute resolution, LGBT law, and military family law. Clients benefit from McKinley Irvin's diverse team of dedicated legal professionals, working together to achieve successful results while always focusing on client well-being. Its divorce and family law lawyers are highly respected for their mastery of the field of family law and deep understanding of the legal nuances that sometimes can make or break a case. They are industry leaders and among the best in the country. Many have been peer reviewed, spoken on family law topics around the world, and recognized by industry ratings services including 'The Best Lawyers in America', 'Super Lawyers' and 'Rising Stars'. SOURCE FlowForma [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] UMC Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Micron United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC; TWSE:2303) ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that the company has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Micron Semiconductor (Xi'an) Co., Ltd. and Micron Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The lawsuit covers three areas that allegedly infringe upon UMC's patent rights in China, including specific memory applications that relate to DDR4, SSD and memory used in graphics cards. In the complaint, UMC has requested the court to order the defendant(s) to stop manufacturing, processing, importing, selling and intending to sell the allegedly infringing products, destroy all inventory and related molds and tools and demand that Micron compensate the company for a total amount of RMB 270 million in damages. UMC has devoted a great deal of resources and manpower to researching and developing semiconductor manufacturing technology. Its achievements can be applied to logic chips or memory chips (DRAM), and the company has applied for patents in various countries while continuing to monitor these patents as market conditions evolve. After conducting an in-depth review, UMC found that Micron's products sold in mainland China did indeed infringe upon the patent rights of the company, and thus patent ifringement litigation has been pursued in order to obtain fair judgment. About UMC UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced IC production for applications spanning every major sector of the electronics industry. UMC's robust foundry solutions enable chip designers to leverage the company's sophisticated technology and manufacturing, which include high volume production 28nm gate-last High-K/Metal Gate technology, ultra-low power platform processes specifically engineered for Internet of Things (IoT) applications and the automotive industry's highest-rated AEC-Q100 Grade-0 manufacturing capabilities for production of ICs found in cars. UMC's 11 wafer fabs are strategically located throughout Asia and are able to produce over 500,000 wafers per month. The company employs nearly 19,000 people worldwide, with offices in Taiwan, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com. Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about future outsourcing, wafer capacity, technologies, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its registration statements and reports on Forms F-1, F-3, F-6 and 20-F and 6-K, in each case as amended. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180112005155/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] Extreme Tech Challenge Unveils Top 3 Finalists at CES 2018 LAS VEGAS, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- XTC 2018 Semi-Finals - Bellini Ballroom, Venetian Las Vegas - Preeminent force in the entrepreneurial world and the adventure of a lifetime for emergent startups, Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) made its fourth annual stop at CES 2018 to announce the Top 3 Finalists moving to the last stage of the competition. Accelerating past countless enterprises for the opportunity to present their concepts on stage, XTC 2018's Top 3 cover a wide range of progressive, global markets including Sustainability, Data & Analytics, Blockchain, IoT and Healthcare. Having crossed land, sea, and air, in addition to ten other worthy competitors, the XTC 2018 Top 3 Finalists are healthcare platform and baby monitoring system Owlet Baby Care (Leith, Utah), blockchain-based peer-to-peer energy trading platform Power Ledger (Perth, Australia) and smart action, AI-powered camera system Revl (San Francisco, CA) -- Congratulations to XTC 2018's Top 3! Hard work has paid off for this dynamic trio, with each competitor expressing excitement as they look ahead to the final round: "We're so grateful to be part of such an amazing event that's celebrating companies who are using technology to solve the world's biggest problems! We're excited about making the top 3 and the awareness that will bring to parents." - Kurt Workman, Owlet Baby Care Co-founder "We are delighted to make it to the XTC this finals. Thank you to the Power Ledger team and community for making this possible. We are very excited to pitch to Sir Richard Branson on Necker and the opportunity to fast track our mission of the democratisation of power!" - Dr Jemma Green, Founder of Power Ledger "We are so stoked to make it to the the finals and have the opportunity to present Revl to such incredible judges! Looking forward to kiting with Sir Richard and showing him the latest version of Revl!" - Eric Sanchez, Co-Founder, Revl Chosen for their ingenuity and impactful pitches, the fate of the Semi-Finalists rested in the capable hands of Lars Rasmussen (CTO, Weav Music, Co- creator Google Maps), Young Sohn (President & Chief Strategy Officer Samsung Electronics & Chairman of the Board HARMAN) Koichi Narasaki (Chief Digital Officer, Sompo Holdings) and Scott Robinson (Founder, Plug and Play) and this year's FinTech Vertical Judge, led for the fourth year by Gary Shapiro (President and CEO of Consumer Technology Association). Finalists of XTC 2018 now look ahead to the last stop of this year's challenge, taking place on Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island, where they will pitch one final time to the tech industry's biggest luminaries, spearheaded by Sir Richard Branson in hopes of winning the ultimate prize of global visibility and invaluable resources, and, of course, the title of XTC 2018 Champion. In light of the recent natural disasters that have devastated the British Virgin Islands, Necker Island included, the XTC 2018 Finals have been rescheduled to take place this Fall 2018, formally announced in an official statement from XTC Co-Founder, Bill Tai: "Today we announce the official date change of XTC 2018 Finals to this Fall 2018 on Necker Island, BVI. The Extreme Tech Challenge was born on Necker Island four years ago and returns to its birthplace for the finals year after year. 2017 proved to be a challenging year for the island community and after several months, the British Virgin Islands are still recovering from the devastating effects of hurricanes Irma and Maria. Rather than leave or change the location for the XTC Finals during its most vulnerable time, we have made the decision to stick with Necker Island as the community works to rebuild in conjunction with ACTAI Global and XTC. We are so grateful to have the continued support of Sir Richard Branson as we move towards another amazing challenge. Join us in our continued support of the BVI community." Extreme Tech Challenge would like to recognize the Top 10 Semi-Finalists who participated at this year's CES Showcase -- Congratulations and thank you for sharing your innovations with the world! ABRA (Mountain View, CA), AirSwap (Brooklyn, NY), Chooose.today (Oslo, Norway), Neurotrack (Redwood, CA), Owlet Baby Care (Lehi, UT), Power Ledger (Perth, Australia), Rayton Solar (Los Angeles, CA), Revl (San Francisco, CA), SafeMotos (Kigali, Rwanda), Tissue Analytics (Philadelphia, PA) and 2018 Wildcard, Piaggio Fast Forward (Boston, MA). Also acknowledged on stage during the CES 2018 Showcase were the winners of the Vertical Categories, hosted by the 2018 Sponsors IBM (Cloud), Sompo Holdings (Healthcare IT, BioTech),Ally & Plug and Play (FinTech), OWC (Sustainability), Zoom (Productivity), Jungle Creations (Social Media), Cisco (IoT), Qualcomm (VR), and Meltwater (Data & Analytics). Full details on 2018 Vertical Sponsors found here. Congratulations to the 2018 Vertical Prize Winners: REVL (Social Media), Chipsafer (IoT), BioWatch (Data & Analytics), Vizru (FinTech), BluAtomVR (VR/AR), Sky Tree (Sustainability), ReviveMed (BioTech), Tissue Analytics (IBM Cloud Credit), Kafoodle (Healthcare IT), BioCellection (Productivity), CES Accessibility Prize Winners: Blind Touch / Project Ray, Lili Smart, SignAll, SofiHub, and Unaliwear. Although the finals for this year will be delayed, XTC will continue to move forward with applications for its next iteration - Applications open April 2018. Since its inception, XTC has gained international notoriety for elevating innovative startups into a new frontier of technology. Who will be crowned the next champion of XTC? STAY CONNECTED: XTC Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram About Extreme Tech Challenge Extreme Tech Challenge is a competition that empowers entrepreneurs and their companies by providing visibility, resources, and it gives competitors the ability to grow exponentially in scale and knowledge at a low to no incremental cost. XTC strives to inspire and provide growth to up and coming entrepreneurs and businesses by surrounding them with mentors to help guide them as they build on product success with business success. XTC pulls this all together into an experience that money cannot buy with showcase events at the world's largest technology trade show, CES, and also at Sir Richard Branson's own Necker Island. Hurricane Irma Relief: XTC alongside Richard Branson and The Virgin Group continue to do everything possible to support and assist the local BVI community that they call home. Please explore the various donation options & spread awareness to Richard Branson's efforts with Virgin and their support of the BVI relief fund . By covering all of Virgin Unite's Hurricane relief overheads, Richard Branson and the Virgin Group have made it possible for 100% of the donations received directly to the local BVI communities. Media Contact: The Confluence [email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/extreme-tech-challenge-unveils-top-3-finalists-at-ces-2018-300581836.html SOURCE Extreme Tech Challenge [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] Pareteum Empowers its Global Cloud Customer to Launch Gaming with Mobile In-App Billing Services NEW YORK, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM), ("Pareteum" or the "Company") the rapidly growing Cloud Communications Platform company, announced today that it has completed deployment of its Global Cloud Services for mobile management and settlement services to its UK-based customer, announced on August 3, 2017. This Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider delivers global payment solutions to over 500 service operators globally. Applications, including online gaming and social media, are now easily monetized using Pareteum's services. Enabled by Pareteum's Global Cloud solution, (which provides the platform) in connection to the TEAX developer exchange (which connects them to the global community), this UK company is now able to allow any smartphone across the globe to direct bill for application purchases through a simple text. This opens the entire globe to application store purchases with direct billing to mobile service plans. Vic Bozzo, CEO of Pareteum commented, "App Store owners and App developers need a way to direct bill for their services and this solution is particularly applicable for Mobile Virtual Network Operators who want their customer purchases to be direct billed to their phone and allow the Operators to share in some of the 'Over The Top' Revenue. By choosing our platform they are able to bring that capability to the market and expand their reach around the globe dramatically. We receive revenue when these customers create those transactions." Hal Turner, Executive Chairman and Principal Executive Officer of Pareteum stated, "This service activation from our 36-Month Contractual Revenue Backlog demonstrates our leadership in the burgeoning global digital online economy. Our well-developed partnerships with carriers throughout the world enable us to leverage the power of the developers' community worldwide to bring a revenue share model that well benefits the developers, the mobile carriers, and Pareteum. This is how we return proportionl value to the telecommunications market with our software services. Our UK customer is expanding the reach of its APP's, and, their associated developers' community, through Pareteum's global connectivity. For Pareteum this means capturing new business in exciting new geographic areas, as well as providing our ever-expanding network services for global connectivity. Even more exciting is that In-App purchases are starting to be settled using Blockchain, AI for credit scoring, and ultimately the ability to be agnostic to the network, currency or geo-location." About Pareteum Corporation The mission of Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM) is to connect "every person and everything". Organizations use Pareteum to energize their growth and profitability through cloud communication services and complete turnkey solutions featuring relevant content, applications, and connectivity worldwide. By harnessing the value of communications, Pareteum serves retail, enterprise and IoT customers. Pareteum currently has offices in New York, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Barcelona, Bahrain and the Netherlands. For more information please visit: www.pareteum.com. Forward Looking Statements: Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to Pareteum's plans and objectives, projections, expectations and intentions. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Pareteum's industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Because such statements involve risks and uncertainties, the actual results and performance of Pareteum may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by law, Pareteum also disclaims any obligation to update its view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward-looking statements made here. Additional information concerning certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in Pareteum's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available from the SEC or may be obtained upon request from Pareteum Corporation. Contractual Revenue Backlog Definition: Contractual revenue backlog is measured on a forward looking 36 month snapshot view monthly, and, is generated by each of the Company's Managed Services, Global Mobility Cloud, and Application Exchange & Developer's Platform customers. The Pareteum multi-year Software-as-a-Service agreements include service establishment and implementation fees, guaranteed minimum monthly recurring fees, as well as contractually scheduled subscribers, in some cases including subscriber usage, during the term of the agreement, and, their resulting monthly recurring revenue. Pareteum Investor Relations Contacts: Ted O'Donnell Chief Financial Officer (212) 984-1096 [email protected] Hayden IR (917) 658-7878 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pareteum-empowers-its-global-cloud-customer-to-launch-gaming-with-mobile-in-app-billing-services-300581833.html SOURCE Pareteum Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] Leaders in Academia and Media Complete Extensive Agenda for Premiere EdTech Conference BOSTON, Jan. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LearnLaunch and co-host MIT Office of Open Learning, are proud to announce that Manoush Zomorodi, author of Bored and Brilliant and Host and Managing Editor of "Note to Self" from WNYC Studios, will join the keynote lineup for the the premiere edtech conference in New England - the 6th Annual Across Boundaries Conference. Manoush Zomorodi, a podcast host, author, and relentless examiner of the modern human condition, will join the other notable keynotes such as: Gloria Cordes Larson, President at Bentley University; Tony Miller, former Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer for U.S. Department of Education; Sanjay Sarma, Professor of Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Vice President for Open Learning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Devin Vodicka, Chief Impact Officer, AltSchool and former Superintendent of Vista Unified School District; and Tom Rooney, Superintendent, Lindsay Unified School District. During this two-day conference, over 150 speakers in 50 sessions will address Accelerating Learning for All, covering topics of interest from early education to lifelong learning. Over 1,200 edtech stakeholders - including educators, strategic industry companies, entrepreneurs, students and investors - will explore and focus on cutting-edge innovations that are transforming learning, and the way educational institutions do business. They will be supported by our sponsors: Curriculum Associates, Barr Foundation, Parthenon EY, EF, Pearson, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Boston University, Bisk Ventures, Cengage, Russell Reynolds, Rethink Education, Tyton Partners, Vital Source, and Navitas Ventures. New this year, the conference will host an international cafe, which will feature 35 international edtech companies from around the world, who are supported by the Consulate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Government of Israel Economic Mission to North America, and the Consulate General of Canada. They will join 35 additional innovative companies in the Startup Village, sponsored by Navitas Ventures. For more information and to register for the 2018 LearnLaunch Across Boundaries Conference, please visit www.learnlaunch.org/2018conference. LearnLaunch Institute Catalyzes a community that drives innovation to transform learning and increase achievement. Our education innovation ecosystem mobilizes educators, entrepreneurs, learners, investors, and industry affiliates. As a nonprofit, the Institute offers learning opportunities and connections to individuals, support services to schools, and a district network. We believe in expanding access to learning that is engaging, personalized, and effective. Edtech is a critical component of achieving this vision at scale. For more information, visit www.learnlaunch.org, follow us @LearnLaunch or #LearnLaunch2018. PR Contact Jim McManus 617-413-9232 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] Ipsen Appoints Richard Paulson Executive Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer of Ipsen North America Regulatory News: Ipsen (Euronext: IPN; ADR: IPSEY) today announced the appointment of Richard Paulson as Executive Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer of Ipsen North America, responsible for all commercial operations throughout the region. Mr Paulson will assume oversight of all areas supporting the North American business effective from February 5th. The role reports directly to David Meek, CEO of Ipsen, and Mr Paulson will be a member of the Ipsen Executive Leadership Team. He joins Ipsen from Amgen where he most recently served as Vice-President and General Manager of the Oncology Business Unit. David Meek, Ipsen's CEO, commented, "We are extremely delighted to welcome Richard to Ipsen, to drive the continued growth of our North American business and further our development as a leading biopharma company focused on innovation and specialty care. Richard brings a wealth of great leadership experience, vision, and a track record of exceptional execution in leading and growing businesses, both in the US and internationally. He will bring great passion and energy to our work with patients." During a 10-year career at Amgen, Richard Paulson held a number of positions in the company, including General Manager, Central and Eastern Europe, and subsequently General Manager Germany, before assuming leadership positions in Amgen's Oncology Business Unit. Prior to joining Amgen, he held international positions in general management, marketing and market access with Pfizer. He also served in a number of sales and marketing roles with increasing seniority for GlaxoWellcome in Canada. He holds an MBA from the University of Toronto. Richard Paulson added: "I am honored to join Ipsen at this time of rapid transformation and growth, as the company progresses in its evolution as a leading global biopharma company. Throughout my career, in markets around the world, I have been passionate about building and leading diverse, high-performing teams, and driving innovation for patients. I am extremely excited to join this dynamic company, with its clear mission and commitment to developing patient-focused solutions that put the patients' needs first." With the former President North America Cynthia Schwalm leaving Ipsen to pursue other interests, Ipsen would like to thank Cynthia for her many contributions to the growth of Ipsen's North American business, and wishes her well in her future endeavors. About Ipsen Ipsen is a global specialty-driven biopharmaceutical group focused on innovation and specialty care. The group develops and commercializes innovative medicines in three key therapeutic areas - Oncology, Neurosciences and Rare Diseases. Its commitment to oncology is exemplified through its growing portfolio of key therapies for prostate cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, renal cell carcinoma and pancreatic cancer. Ipsen also has a well-established Consumer Healthcare business. With total sales close to 1.6 billion in 2016, Ipsen sells more than 20 drugs in over 115 countries, with a direct commercial presence in more than 30 countries. Ipsen's R&D is focused on its innovative and differentiated technological platforms located in the heart of the leading biotechnological and life sciences hubs (Paris-Saclay, France; Oxford, UK; Cambridge, US). The Group has about 5,100 employees worldwide. Ipsen is listed in Paris (Euronext: IPN) and in the United States through a Sponsored Level I American Depositary Receipt program (ADR: IPSEY). For more information on Ipsen, visit www.ipsen.com. Ipsen Forward Looking Statement The forward-looking statements, objectives and targets contained herein are based on the Group's management strategy, current views and assumptions. Such statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those anticipated herein. All of the above risks could affect the Group's future ability to achieve its financial targets, which were set assuming reasonable macroeconomic conditions based on the information available today. Use of the words "believes," "anticipates" and "expects" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, including the Group's expectations regarding future events, including regulatory filings and determinations. Moreover, the targets described in this document were prepared without taking into account external growth assumptions and potential future acquisitions, which may alter these parameters. These objectives are based on data and assumptions regarded as reasonable by the Group. These targets depend on conditions or facts likely to happen in the future, and not exclusively on historical data. Actual results may depart significantly from these targets given the occurrence of certain risks and uncertainties, notably the fact that a promising product in early development phase or clinical trial may end up never being launched on the market or reaching its commercial targets, notably for regulatory or competition reasons. The Group must face or might face competition from generic products that might translate into a loss of market share. Furthermore, the Research and Development process involves several stages each of which involves the substantial risk that the Group may fail to achieve its objectives and be forced to abandon its efforts with regards to a product in which it has invested significant sums. Therefore, the Group cannot be certain that favourable results obtained during pre-clinical trials will be confirmed subsequently during clinical trials, or that the results of clinical trials will be sufficient to demonstrate the safe and effective nature of the product concerned. There can be no guarantees a product will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that the product will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Other risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the Group's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the Group's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions. The Group also depends on third parties to develop and market some of its products which could potentially generate substantial royalties; these partners could behave in such ways which could cause damage to the Group's activities and financial results. The Group cannot be certain that its partners will fulfil their obligations. It might be unable to obtain any benefit from those agreements. A default by any of the Group's partners could generate lower revenues than expected. Such situations could have a negative impact on the Group's business, financial position or performance. The Group expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements, targets or estimates contained in this press release to reflect any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which any such statements are based, unless so required by applicable law. The Group's business is subject to the risk factors outlined in its registration documents filed with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers. The risks and uncertainties set out are not exhaustive and the reader is advised to refer to the Group's 2016 Registration Document available on its website (www.ipsen.com). View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180112005187/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] Pharmaceutical Industry Inventory Management Study - A Case Study on Maintaining Accurate Inventory Levels, Quantzig Quantzig, a global analytics solutions provider, has announced the completion of their latest inventory management study on the pharmaceutical industry. A renowned client in the pharmaceutical industry wanted to leverage the use of relevant technologies to gain better visibility into the supply chain system. The client wanted to keep track of their inventory and balance the risks related to inventory surpluses and shortages. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180112005240/en/ Quantzig's Inventory Management Assists a Prominent Client in the Pharmaceutical Industry to Maintain Accurate Inventory Levels (Graphic: Business Wire) According to the inventory management experts at Quantzig, "The optimistic influence of rugs on global health, economic productivity, and prosperity is convincing manufacturers to invest highly in R&D to further transform the treatment process." The pharmaceutical industry is accountable for the development, marketing, and production of medications to meet the growing needs of the target customers. With the rising concerns relating to healthcare treatments, the pharmaceutical industry has seen a promising growth of one trillion US dollars in 2014. The industry is anticipated to witness substantial growth, owing to an aging population, unhealthy eating habits, and changing lifestyles. Request a free demo to see how Quantzig's solutions can help you. The solution presented by Quantzig helped the client to efficiently keep track of their stocks manually and regulate points and quantities. The client was able to segment the products based on customer demands fluctuating from high-value, moderate-value, and low-value. Also, the client was able to cut-down the cost of inventory while increasing supply chain effectiveness in a timely manner. This inventory management solution provided benefits that helped the client to: Analyze the customer behavior Gain insights into the buying patterns To read more, request a free proposal This inventory management solution provided predictive insights on: Establishing a better relationship and collaboration with the suppliers Analyzing trends in sales and supply chains To learn more, request a free proposal View the complete inventory management study here: https://www.quantzig.com/content/pharmaceutical-industry-inventory About Quantzig Quantzig is a global analytics and advisory firm with offices in the US, UK, Canada, China, and India. For more than 14 years, we have assisted our clients across the globe with end-to-end data modeling capabilities to leverage analytics for prudent decision making. Today, our firm consists of 120+ clients, including 45 Fortune 500 companies. For more information on all of Quantzig's services and the solutions they have provided to Fortune 500 clients across all industries, please contact us. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180112005240/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] General Dynamics Awarded $1 Billion Contract to Deliver PIRANHA 5 Wheeled Armored Vehicles to Romanian Army MADRID, Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, General Dynamics European Land Systems signed a contract to deliver up to 227 PIRANHA 5 wheeled armored vehicles in six different configurations to the Romanian Armed Forces. The contract has a total value exceeding $1 billion. It is part of the Romanian Army's plan to modernize its legacy wheeled armored vehicle fleet. Prime Minister Mihai Tudose and Deputy Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu attended the signing ceremony held at the National Defense Ministry headquarters. The modern PIRANHA 5 vehicles will be produced in Romania under a strategic cooperation and transfer of technology project betwee General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag and the Romanian company Uzina Mecanica Bucure?ti (UMB). Since 2006, the Romanian Armored Forces has fielded variants of PIRANHA vehicles which have been deployed in various missions in-country and abroad, demonstrating its reliability and performance. "The Romanian Army is one of the most important PIRANHA users in Europe. We are very honored by this contract award as it reflects the high confidence and satisfaction the Romanian Army has in our vehicles," said Oliver Durr, Vice President Wheeled Vehicles and Managing Director of General Dynamics European Land Systems - Mowag. "With this step, we have established a sustainable collaboration with a trusted partner which has a significant industrial footprint in Romania," said Thomas Kauffmann, General Dynamics European Land Systems Vice President International Business & Services. "The transfer of technology and the local production of these vehicles present an enormous opportunity to the Romanian industry." With more than 11,000 systems fielded, the PIRANHA is one of the most successful 8x8 wheeled armored vehicles in the world. About General Dynamics European Land Systems General Dynamics European Land Systems, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) and conducts its business through five European operating sites located in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. With more than 2,000 highly skilled technical employees, the companies design, manufacture and deliver world-class land combat, systems, including wheeled, tracked and amphibious vehicles, bridge systems, armaments, and munitions, to global customers. More information is available at www.gdels.com. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/general-dynamics-awarded-1-billion-contract-to-deliver-piranha-5-wheeled-armored-vehicles-to-romanian-army-300581991.html SOURCE General Dynamics European Land Systems [January 12, 2018] Tiens Group Chairman Li Jinyuan Attended the Fifth China Small and Medium Enterprise Global Development Forum HANGZHOU, China, Jan. 12, 2018 /CNW/ -- On January 10, 2018, the Fifth China SME Global Development Forum and the Fifth China Brand Innovation and Development Forum were held at the Hangzhou Intercontinental Hotel. Tiens Group Chairman Li Jinyuan, as the Senior Vice President of the Global Alliance of SMEs of China Region, attended the event and discussed with other international leaders and experts about new SME development opportunities around the world in 2018 to help SMEs collect international resources, expand into global markets, and discover opportunities for cooperation to jointly develop and create new platforms. Also in attendance was Mr. Hou Yan, Assistant to President of Tiens Group and Ms. Huang Jiazhen, Senior Director of Tiens Group Branding and Global Public Relations Department. The event was organized by the Global Alliance of SMEs, the United States-China International Cooperation and Exchange Association, and the China Brand Innovation and Development Project. With the "New Era" as its theme, the conference comprehensively analyzed the economic development in 2017 and actively explored the trends of the Chinese and international markets in 2018 to quickly gain a grasp of global business opportunities. As an outstanding corporate representative of the going global strategy for Chinese national brands, entrepreneurs in attendance highly praised the international strategy of Tiens Group. The Global Alliance of SMEs, the organizer of the conference, said that Chairman Li led Tiens Group into the international market with the brand image of China. The globalization strategy and outstanding achievements of Tiens Group are highly recognized both at home and abroad. The Global Alliance of SMEs appointed Chairman Li Jinyuan as Senior Vice President of the China Region o help guide and assist Chinese enterprises in going global and shape the Chinese brand image. During the forum, Chairman Li Jinyuan was invited to take part in a dialogue between the former British Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese entrepreneurs. Wang Zhenghua, chairman of Chunqiu Group, Li Guangdou, CCTV brand consultant and famous brand marketing strategy expert, and Chen Jun, Chairman of Guo-Chuang Limited together with David Cameron had an in-depth exchange of ideas on globalization and how governments can help businesses develop. Chairman Li Jinyuan said that the events of the forum has greatly enhanced the friendship between China, Britain, France, South Korea, and other countries and has set up a very good platform for cooperation and exchange among enterprises. During the dinner after the forum, Chairman Li Jinyuan and attending guests exchanged in-depth views on the global strategy of Tiens Group's health business and the strategy of their third startup. Chairman Li Jinyuan said that as a transnational conglomerate integrating industry capital, commercial capital, and financial capital in multiple fields such as biotechnology, health management, hotel tourism, education and training, e-commerce, international trade, and financial investment, Tiens Group is guided by the strategic principles of business diversification, network integration, and business synergy. With a global vision based on the Belt and Road strategy, Tiens Group will promote the launch of multiple business models around the world to share innovative models of economic and customer experience-based marketing. We will continue to promote consumption to create wealth, create greater wealth for family businesses, integrate social resources, and combine e-commerce with retail shops, achieving value appreciation and forming a global alliance. He expressed that a "healthy China" has already become China's national strategy. Tiens Group, as a leader in the health industry, conforms to government policies and general trends, pushing ahead with the development of the health industry by optimizing and integrating Tiens Group's global network resources. Currently, Tiens Group has established branches in 110 countries and regions, re-dividing the global market into 21 regions and is also entering new markets in 37 countries and regions, such as Australia, France, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates. Tiens Group has formed strategic alliances with top international enterprises and has set the bar on internationalization for Chinese enterprises. Image Attachment Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=304749 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tiens-group-chairman-li-jinyuan-attended-the-fifth-china-small-and-medium-enterprise-global-development-forum-300582006.html SOURCE Tiens Group [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 12, 2018] Adacus Acquires Canned Banners SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Adacus, a Thunder Industries company, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Canned Banners for an undisclosed sum. Adacus will take over servicing Canned Banners' customers, which include data-driven leaders such as Marin Software, ExactDrive, and Intice. "We're pleased to bring Canned Banners under our wing and are excited to usher Canned Banners' customers to the next generation of creative optimization," said Ken Archer, CEO at Adacus. "This is a clear case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Canned Banners perfected one of ad tech's most extensible and reliable platforms for personalizing display ad creative. It makes perfect sense to augment the performance benefits of personalized creative with Adacus' programmtic approach to creative testing and optimization," said Myles Younger, CEO of Canned Banners. Adacus' platform will give customers access to flexible conversion tracking, automated A/B testing and detailed reporting dashboards. Adacus, an advanced AI and machine learning company with a predictive creative targeting and analytics platform, was acquired by Thunder Industries earlier this year. Canned Banners, founded in 2008 in San Francisco, originally launched with a self-serve display ad builder and debuted its Dynamic Ads platform in 2012. About Adacus For advertisers and their agencies, Adacus is the leading creative targeting and analytics platform built upon machine learning and AI. The Adacus platform reveals and automates opportunities to drive campaign performance through creative decisioning and optimization. Adacus surfaces deep creative analytics that include breakdowns of performance relative to first and third party data, best-in-class demographic data, and interest signals built on machine learning. It's AI-powered analytics reveal hidden insights, providing marketers with the strongest optimization opportunities to improve their campaign ROI. Adacus is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. You can learn more at www.adacus.com. Contact: Cassady Nordeen [email protected] METROPOLIS A three-vehicle crash in Massac County killed three people and seriously injured four others Thursday, the Illinois State Police said. According to a police news release, at 6:23 a.m., Rachel E. Killian, 23, of Marion, was driving her red 2011 Kia Soul north on U.S. 45 when she left the right side of the road. Overcorrecting, she swerved into the left lane, causing the crash. After leaving her lane, Killian then struck head-on the black 2014 Chrysler 300 Karla R. Reichert, 57, of Karnak, was driving south, police said. Reichert was then struck by Cathy J. Ulen, 62, of Ullin, who was driving behind her in a gray 2015 Chevrolet Traverse. According to police, Killian and her 1-year-old passenger were pronounced dead on the scene by the Massac County Coroner. A 3-year-old passenger in Killians vehicle later died because of injuries from the crash. Reichert was taken to an out-of-state hospital with severe injuries, and three passengers in Killians vehicle were taken to Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, with serious injuries. According to the report, a 9-month-old passenger in Killians vehicle was restrained in a childs seat, while the other passengers, including the driver, were not. All lanes of U.S. 45 were closed for about 3 hours for the crash investigation and cleanup. The report said the investigation into the crash is ongoing. [January 12, 2018] ChemTrace to Exhibit at SEMICON Korea 2018 QUAKERTOWN, Pa., Jan. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ChemTrace, a Quantum Global Technologies' company, will exhibit at SEMICON Korea 2018 at the COEX, Seoul from January 31 February 2, 2018 (booth C244). "In 2018, we celebrate 25 years of performing semiconductor process related microcontamination analysis of chamber parts, wafers, cleanroom materials and environment, ultra-pure water, high-purity and complex chemicals", states Surjany Russell, Director of Sales. ChemTrace is a globally recognized leader of microcontamination analysis and testing for the semiconductor industry. Since its inception in 1993, it has acquired a global reach with copy exact laboratories that are ISO17025:2005 accredited. Along with our sister company, QuantumClean, our service offerings can bring improvement to your operation by solving critical process chamber manufacturing challenges. We welcome your visit to the ChemTrace booth at SEMICON Korea 2018. About Quantum Global Technologies, LLC ChemTrace and QuantumClean are divisions of Quantum Global Technologies, LLC headquartered in suburban Philaelphia, Pennsylvania USA. For 25 years, ChemTrace has provided independent and analytical verification of process tool chamber part cleaning effectiveness. ChemTrace offers unsurpassed micro-contamination analysis of tool parts, wafers and depositions, chemicals, cleanroom materials, DI water and airborne molecular contamination. With more than 100 employees in 6 labs located in 3 countries. chemtrace.com QuantumClean is the global leader in ultra-high purity sub-10nm outsourced process tool chamber parts cleaning and coating services, tool part life extension and process tool part optimization solutions to the semiconductor wafer fabrication, OEM and OPM industries. 1,700 employees operating 20 Advanced Technology Cleaning Centers in 8 countries. QuantumClean provides unsurpassed cleaning capability and convenience worldwide. quantumclean.com Media Contacts ChemTrace: Robin Puri, +1-503-251-0979, [email protected] QuantumClean: Meg Cox, +1-215-892-9300, [email protected] QuantumClean, ChemTrace, Advanced Technology Cleaning Centers, ATCC, Process Improvement through Consistently Cleaner Parts, Single Part Chemical Clean and SPCC are all registered trademarks of Quantum Global Technologies, LLC. ACS, Atomically Clean Surfaces, Alternative TWAS, Analytical & Engineering Services, C-Coat, Cleancoat, Cleaning, Coating & Testing Center of Excellence, Environmentally Clean Process, ECP, Final Surface Finish, FSF, QGT, M-Coat, PartSmart, PT3, QualClean, Selective Deposition Removal, SDR, Service Request form, SRF, Solution Based Chemistry, TechBriefs, The Perfect Order, The Perfect Qual, The Perfect Process Transfer, Tight-Coat, V-Clean, VeriClean, Waterless Acid, Y-Coat, Z-Coat, Smart, Lean, Clean and Green, Center of Excellence and Validated Ultra-High Purity. Maximum Productivity are all trademarks of Quantum Global Technologies, LLC. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chemtrace-to-exhibit-at-semicon-korea-2018-300582128.html SOURCE ChemTrace [January 12, 2018] SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Notifies Investors of an Investigation Involving Possible Securities Fraud Violations by the Board of Directors of Aflac Incorporated Levi & Korsinsky announces it has commenced an investigation of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws. On January 11, 2018, post-market, The Intercept published an article entitled "Behind the Duck: Former Aflac Employees Allege Fraud and Abuse in Nearly Every Aspect (News - Alert) of Company." Citing "interviews with multiple current and former employees, as well as three previously unreported lawsuits," the article reported that "Aflac has exploited workers, manipulated its accounting, and deceived shareholders and customers." Among the allegations, the article suggests Aflac employees were pressured "to meet sales goals selling policies without customer authorization or consent" and to engage in illegal bundling policies. In addition, the article suggests that whistleblowers faced retaliation and hat the Company engaged in earnings statement manipulation "moving sales earned in certain weeks into different quarters to hit numbers." On this news, Aflac's share price has fallen sharply during intra-day trading on January 12, 2018. To obtain additional information, go to: http://www.zlkdocs.com/AFL-Info-Request-Form-6366 or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities and shareholder lawsuits. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180112005672/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Mayor Pro Tem's wife bounced from construction firm PR job after vote against Edgemoor It was either political payback or a prudent business decision. On the morning of Dec. 15, Laura Ray Wagner got a phone call from Bill Clarkson, Jr., head of Clarkson Construction and a partner with Edgemoor, the developer struggling to win the contract for construction of the new single terminal at KCI. Credit where it's due . . . A great bit of bookkeeping on the many conflicts involved in the sausage-making of the new airport that will. . . Before they went full advertorial,You decide: MORE THAN ANYTHING, THE HEINOUS LACK OF EMPATHY GUV GREITENS DEMONSTRATES THROUGHOUT HIS ADULTERY CRISIS DEMONSTRATES THAT HE MIGHT BE UNFIT FOR PUBLIC SERVICE AS AN ELECTED OFFICIAL!!! A Navy SEAL and Rhodes Scholar with a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and a doctorate in refugee studies, he founded a nonprofit serving fellow vets. Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mike Mullen called him one of the most remarkable young men I have ever encountered. Whatever the circumstances, it's now a fact that Eric Greitens cuckolded another man and the marriage which he defiled ended in divorce. In his public explanations so far, Guv Greitens discounts his actions despite the fact that questions over this controversy confronted him as Governor. Team Greitens touts the forgiveness of his wife but neglects to even acknowledge the damage that he inflicted on another marriage where at least one party is obviously still aggrieved. Real talk: The Guv has worked hard and been blessed with a good life and still he used his privilege to take part in the willful destruction of a marriage of a people much further down the economic food chain - A hair dresser and some pudgy guy in a bad suit who looks like he works at a discount shoe store. There is an important debate to be had over allegations of blackmail i.e. REVENGE PORN THREATS but a listen to the tape of the adulterous confession to which Guv Greitens now partially admits demonstrates the real emotional damage our current Guv inflicted on a couple who unwittingly had the misfortune to cross his path. And again, the Governor continues to myopically look inward only at his own career, at his own family and still FAILS to realize the damage his actions have caused others or the harm he could do the voters of Missouri by remaining in office amid a sordid hot mess. SHOULD THE ADULTEROUS GOVERNOR GREITENS RESIGN??? Hoopz From The Kansas City Star: Revenge porn is the real issue in the Greitens scandal, not his affair New York Daily News: Republican Missouri governor vows to not resign amid shocking claims he slapped, blackmailed mistress Now in the Winter of our discontent and because of exceptionally saucy news related to the alleged and confirmed behavior of Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, the nation must come to terms withand how alt. right trolling undermines the core principals of real Conservative ideals. At the very least, the story of one "cuck" threatens to dethrone a rising star of the Republican Party who has seemingly modeled his political career after President Trump.To wit . . .An explanation . . .Here's a passage which defined the perception of Eric Greitens before he decided to run for office . . .Impressive.And then . . .Nevertheless, the question falls to the TKC blog community . . .Check the links we'll look for the best quotes to post in the morning . . .You decide . . . Man who caused fiery crash that killed a JoCo. deputy is sentenced to more than 12 years in prison OLATHE, Kan. -- The man who crashed into and killed a Johnson County deputy was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison Friday. Court documents say Adrian Espinosa-Flores' blood alcohol content was twice the legal limit when he allegedly slammed into Master Deputy Brandon Collins' patrol car the morning of Sept. Real world outcome . . . "He also told investigators that he has no legal status in the United States, and had illegally entered the country. Immigration Customs Enforcement has placed a detainer on him, and he faces possible deportation following the outcome of his manslaughter case."Read more: "Mike Shanin interviews Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker about efforts to reduce homicide and issues relating to the Jackson County jail. Gwen Grant, Jon Stephens, Danedri Herbert and Steve Rose discuss allegations of corruption in regards to shift trading in the KCK fire department, efforts to improve racial equity in KC, Kansas education funding and the Eric Greitens scandal." Sancho is Mexican Spanish slang for the other man in a relationship in other words, the man that a husband or boyfriend knows his mujer is cheating with when said husband or boyfriend isn't around. AS SANCHO GREITENS HIDES BEHIND HIS WIFE . . . SHOULD MISSOURI VOTERS OFFER THE SAME PARDON AS A LOVING SPOUSE OR HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE SHAME HE BROUGHT TO THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE?!?! AS PROMISED!!! HERE ARE THE TOP COMMENTS ON THE CONTROVERSY FROM OUR TKC BLOG COMMUNITY!!! Commenter examines "sketchy" nasty deets "The whole photo thing seems sketchy. He's a savvy guy, if nothing else. A picture of a blindfolded naked woman, in his basement? First, with the blindfold it would be impossible to prove it was her let alone blackmail her. Unless she has something really unique, like a third leg or a fetus growing on the side of her head, a blindfolded naked person isn't much use for blackmailing purposes. Is it? And about his basement? Would a smart person really take a picture of someone in a location that could be tied to him? According to the transcript they had sex later that day for the second time. And several more times after that over a period of months. You'd think she might be leery of returning to someone who, on the first go, let her know that he intended to destroy her life if she ever went public. I'm all for women having the courage to come forward if they've been victimized, but I think the cause is cheapened when one who has elected to repeat the same behavior, again and again and again, later wants to be labeled the victim." TKC Commenter On The Record . . . "Greitens the a$$hole bully, all those commendations don't mean sh*t when you still treat people like sh*t." Hashtag Against The Guv . . . "He's made zero friends in local politics. None. Whatever happened to the Navy Seal Code of Honor and Ethics? Right, Eric. #TimesUp." TKC Commenter Takes On Politics As Usual "First of all, if Greitens has made zero friends in local Kansas City politics, that gives him bonus points in my book. Secondly, I didn't like the fact that Clinton was a undiscovered sexual predator and I don't particularly like the fact that Greitens was bonking his hairdresser. And by the way, why the f*ck is any real man going to a hairdresser instead of a barber? That stinks all by itself. "This might be a good time to note for supporters of both parties that anybody who tries to make a career out of elected politics is probably a f*cking weasel already. So either vote or stay home, but whichever loser you're voting for is probably and untrustworthy a$$h*le." Daily Mail: Disgraced Missouri Governor Eric Greitens denies slapping his married mistress in a hospital while his wife was giving birth after the woman told him she had sex with her husband Post Dispatch: Greitens faces criminal investigation over allegations stemming from his affair The voters of the Show-Me State struggle to cope with an emotionally devastating political bait & switch as a sordid tale of adultery now dominates the local discourse.Missouri voters thought they were voting for an honorable hard charging, tax cutting maverick with family values and a distinguished legacy of public service. Sadly, like any spouse coping with adultery - The reality is that the Guv is only human and just as flawed as his constituents.More importantly, the news struggles to offer the public the vocabulary to cope with this crisis.The Mexicans have a great word to define theactions of the Guv which have tarnished his tenure . . .And so the question now confronts the electorate over the weekend . . .A glimpse at the perspective from readers . . .Check the links . . .You decide . . . PHOTOS: A taste of what you'll find at KC Restaurant Week - Kansas City Business Journal Kansas City Restaurant Week's media preview showcased a sampling of what's in store - from brisket meatballs to bourbon pecan pie. The 10-day event kicks off Friday with nearly 150 area restaurants participating, such as 801 Chophouse, Blue Bird Bistro, Porto Do Sul, and Boru Ramen Bar. The kick-off is tonight and it got me thinking . . . I've never actually met anyone who participated in KC Restaurant Week as anything more than a server OR a media person promoting it . . . Here are a few promo pix worth a peek for a local tradition that might just be a delusion for local foodies. You decide: There was a very warm climate in Greece at that time with a very strong watery element, while it most likely resembled a jungle A team of scientists from the universities of Torino and Frieburg, headed by Greek paleontologist Giorgos Georgalis announced that crocodiles, cobras and giant Komodo-dragon-sized lizards called varanids once walked the banks of the Axios River and lived on the Greek island of Evia between nine and 18 million years ago, according to recent findings from the study of the fossil record, ANA reports. The experts examined a number of fossilised crocodile teeth found in Aliveri in Evia by a team from Utrecht University and Georgalis, who published a paper on the fossils in "Historical Biology", stressed that these are some of the oldest crocodile fossils ever found in Greece while The same area yielded fossils of chameleons that are unique in Greece, as well as snakes, lizards, turtles and frogs. Georgios Georgalis is a researcher who studies fossil finds of reptiles particularly from the Aegean region (Greece and the western part of Turkey). He has a rather diverse topic since he does comparative analysis of recent and extinct specimens which belong to three large reptile groups: lizards, snakes and turtles. Before his stay at the Hungarian Natural History Museum within the Synthesys program, he also visited the Herpetological Collections of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and the Natural History Museum in Vienna to examine skeletons of extant snakes. He has managed to discover a new species of turtle, which was named Nostimochelone lampra. This species was a so- called side-necked (Pleurodira) turtle. The peculiarity of the finding is that the side-necked turtles group is only inhabiting the Southern hemisphere today, and became extinct from the European continent a long time ago, however, the fossil of Nostimochelone lampra was found in an 18 million year old sediment in western Greece. "There was a very warm climate in the area at that time, you see, with a very strong watery element, while it most likely resembled a jungle," Georgalis said to ANA. On the contrary, the area around the Axios River, resembled a savannah and was inhabited by cobras and giant lizards similar to the present-day Komodo dragon about nine million years ago. Their fossils were discovered a few years back in Nea Mesimvria and were stored at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) geology department but were only recently identified. The findings were presented in a paper published by the "Swiss Journal of Geosciences" by Georgalis, Jean-Claude Rage from Paris University, Louis de Bonis (Poitier University) and Giorgos Kougos at AUTH. "We identified approximately 10 fossils and recognised a small snake, a large lizard, a cobra and a varanid that then made up the reptile fauna of the region," Georgalis told the ANA. He noted that these were the first fossils of lizards and snakes identified around the Axios River area, where scientists had so far identified mainly mammalian fossils, such as the ape Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, lions, hyenas and antilope. Georgalis clarified that fossil reptiles in Greece have not been thoroughly studied, even though they are found in many places in the country and their study would help enhance understanding of the evolution of snakes and lizards in Europe, as well as the paleogeography and paleoclimate of the region. He states that his most intresting discovery was a fossil of the 4 million year old giant viper, (Laophiscrotaloides) which was excavated near the city of Thessaloniki. This enormous creature was probably the biggest viper of all time. It had been discovered previously and for the first time by the world famous palaeontologist Richard Owen in the 19thcentury. His material unfortunately got lost and there was not any trace of this mysterious giant viper for a long time. The rediscovery of the new finding from the same locality proves that the giant viper really existed. The new vertebra provides valuable information about the taxonomic status and size of this bizarre, enigmatic snake. 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: Jakob Suckale License: CC-BY-SA Political stability and social cohesion in Greece are very important for the recovery of the crisis stricken economy as well as the strengthening of the tourist industry ATHENS Greeces ruling Radical Left SYRIZA suggested the Greek Church has unwittingly allied itself with the ultra-extremist Golden Dawn in rejecting the use of the word Macedonia for any new composite name for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. After the Holy Synod said it would oppose the use of Macedonias name, unnamed government officials tried to tie the Church to Golden Dawn, all of whose 16 lawmakers and dozens of members are on charges of running a criminal gang, including using neo-Nazi methodology and attack its perceived enemies. After the Church said it would not back down, unnamed government officials told the newspaper Kathimerini, Has the Churchs leadership decided to align with the neo-Nazi entity of Golden Dawn? They also accused the government of going beyond the bounds of its authority by involving itself in state and serious foreign policy matters and warned the Church, Desnt want the state to get involved it its own holy matters. That was in apparent reference to Tsipras before being elected said he would seek separation of Church and State although he has backed down, including letting the Church set the curricula for religion classes in schools and barring any other religion except for Greek Orthodoxy. Adding to the fray, the Greek Church joined opponents of the government allowing FYROM to keep using the word Macedonia the name of an abutting Greek province in any new composite name agreed by the two countries. SYRIZA, which, unlike previous governments which blocked FYROMs hopes to get into NATO or the European Union, is anti-nationalist, reportedly is closing on in a deal that would let a new name keep Macedonia, with a geographical qualifier such as Upper or Northern, or even New Macedonia. Thats anathema to Greek nationalists, including the ultra-right extremists Golden Dawn already so furious theyve denounced Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his coalition partner, the pro-austerity, marginal, previously jingoistic Independent Greeks (ANEL) as traitors and turncoats. The unidentified sources also said the Church should have asked for a briefing before making any decision and informed the Prime Minister before saying anything or making any decisions, saying the Church should inform us what name it wants the government to negotiate for, although the government hasnt revealed any names either. Archbishop Ieronymos said that the Church has a right to take a stance in a matter he said isnt just political and national but ecclesiastical. The Holy Synod noted that FYROM has a self-declared Church of Macedonia. The Holy Synod said the Church has fought since antiquity for the Greekness of Macedonia with the the blood of its clergy and its words and called on the government to heed its concerns, which are the concerns of Ecumenical Hellenism. But Ieronymos said the Church will not take part in any prospective protests with reports government opponents in Thessaloniki, a city that FYROM covets, are ready to take to the streets to denounce giving away the name Macedonia, as a previous government did 25 years ago in agreeing to the name FYROM until a permanent name could be decided. The major rival New Democracys Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Koumoutsakos demanded the government withdraw its allegations about the Church being linked to Golden Dawn, attributing it to Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. Mr Kotzias committed an enormous blunder and must remedy it immediately, Koumoutsakos said, Kathimerini reported. We listen closely to and respect the Church of Greeces opinions on the FYROM name talks, as it has good reason to be particularly sensitive to the issue and to be interested in its intense ecclesiastical dimension,he added. In such cases, the responsibility of negotiations, as always, lies exclusively with the governments, which are acquainted every facet of such complex foreign policy issues. It is completely unconscionable and insulting, however, for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to equate national sensitivities and patriotism to the extreme nationalism of Golden Dawn, he said. With Greeces coalition split over whether to let the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) keep the word Macedonia in a new composite name, Tsipras office put down reports its been decided. I refuse to engage in speculation over the name talks, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos told a press briefing about reports in Albanian media Greece and FYROM, after 25 years of feuding, had reached an agreement with earlier reports indicating it would be New Macedonia, which could spur nationalist protests in Greece. A window of opportunity has presented itself, Tzanakopoulos said, repeating himself after FYROM Prime Minister Zoran Zaev earlier hinted both sides had reached a deal even as United Nations Special Envoy Matthew Nimetz was rekindling talks after a three-year break between the countries. We are not interested in rife speculation regarding the name talks, but to proceed with negotiations in a serious manner so that we can find a solution within the next few months to a problem that has been dogging us for 25 years, he added about reports that FYROM would be allowed to take the name Republic of New Macedonia. Tsipras coalition partner, the pro-austerity, marginal, jingoistic Independent Greeks (ANEL) is led by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who had adamantly rejected allowing FYROM to keep the word Macedonia. But since then, one ANEL lawmaker has said he was pulling back and would relent in the national interest while another said he wont and hes not talking, adding to the confusion over what the governments stance is and as the major rival New Democracy said there should be a unified position. Read more here. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Source: thenationalherald.com Sergo Khanvelyan is a farmer and veterinarian from Odzoun, a large village in Armenia. On the eve of our visit, one of his sows, Masha, gave birth to nine piglets. Sergo says its a good start to the farming year. Sergo Khanvelyan "Usually, I'm there when the sows give birth. This time I went to check in the morning and saw that Masha already had her piglets, even without a light being lit in the barn, says Sergo delightfully. In Odzoun, Sergo is described as a person who survives by his own hard work. He breeds eight sows to get piglets. He says he doesnt spend money on piglets, since he feeds only sows. "Once these nine piglets reach forty days and get used to the feed, they will be sold. If Masha keeps all nine and doesnt harm them, Ill earn 25,000 drams each. That's already some money. Masha will give birth once again this year. Breeding pigs suits me. You dont need to take them to mountains or fields, or in and out of the barn, "says the farmer. Pigs, Cows and Sheep Sergo currently has five sheep, four cows and six calves. He buys young calves and raises them until they can provide 100 kg of meat in a year. Then he sells them. "In the spring, I sell piglets and lambs. Calves also bring income to our family," Sergo says. Sergo started his business with two cows. Now he has several. He says he could easily increase that number to one hundred, but he would need more labor. Now, its only him and his son Arthur, also a vet by profession, in charge of the household. They cant find any suitable worker in Odzoun. Sergo says that the income received from the cattle is invested in sowing the field. He cultivates five hectares of land, sowing wheat, corn, potatoes. He changes the potato variety every two or three years, to have a bigger harvest, fertilizes the soil with manure and water, and uses nitrates only a little bit to make the plant grow higher without making it poisonous. My potatoes dont rot "My potatoes dont rot. Over-fertilization of potatoes makes them rot, and its also cancerous for humans. When people eat potatoes fertilized by nitrates too much, the level of nitrogen slowly increases in the body. It's dangerous for human life, say the veterinarian. Sergo believes that use of nitrates should be regulated by the government. Since there are no agriculturists overseeing the process now, people use as much nitrates as they please. Sergo says the villagers are ignorant regarding soil cultivation. They dont realize the dangers of over fertilization, he argues. Sergo says consumers lacking adequate environmental knowledge are quick to purchase large potatoes, believing they are better. Who needs the big potatoes found in the capitals supermarkets? he asks, adding that he farms according to the principle that his own children shouldnt get sick after eating the food he grows. "We were seven children in our family - two sisters and five brothers. My brothers left Odzun, moving to Russia or Yerevan. I was the youngest. Life became more difficult, but since I had to take care of my parents here, I didnt want to leave the village. I took care of my parents, so my conscience is clear. I worked like my father, I created everything on my own and took care of my family, says Sergo. He is content with his work. He says that a person who likes to work can always find a way to take care of the family. Sergo is against migrant labor and emigration. "You know why? People live only one life. That life is short, like a dream. If they go to other countries and come back, families get ruined, "he says. Sergo notes that more and more people close their doors and leave the country. He says he would like people to stay and build the country instead. He says that many young people are too lazy to raise animals, but that its not possible to sustain the country by trade only. The country must produce, he says. He lists his products - chickens, eggs, cheese, meat, wheat, flour, and potatoes. "I dont take my products to the market. The buyers find us," Sergo says. Working as an unpaid vet His wife Angin says that her husband works all day long as a vet, but he doesnt get a salary. There are 2,175 cows, 700 pigs, 5,000 birds and many sheep in Odzoun. There are only two vets taking care of those animals and birds, but they arent paid. "We are paid only for vaccinating. We receive medicines for four infectious diseases from the state. When I go to treat an animal with my own medicine, the villagers sometimes pay me for the visit. But there are villagers who cannot afford even paying for the medicine. We get by," Sergo says. Artur, Sergo's son, says he will never go to Russia, leaving his parents alone. Sergo and Angin already have four grandkids. Sergo smiles - "Its time to build a nice new house. It is no news that on December 24, 2017, international independent experts declined the invitation of Armenias Minister of Nature Protection Artsvik Minasyan to participate in the trilateral meeting with Lydian Internationals consultants to discuss the problems of gold mine project in Amsular. Despite this, weve learned that Ministry of Nature Protection and Lydian are having a closed discussion today morning. In their reply, the international independent experts had also mentioned the reasons for rejection and promised to present in a few days their final evaluation of this project in a short and concise manner. Armenian Environmental Front (AEF) civil initiative has received via email the final evaluation (in English) and its summary from chemical/environmental engineer Harout Bronozian. We present you the summary. Amulsar Gold Project: Overview of Concerns with the Amulsar Gold Project, Potential Consequences, and Recommendations. Final Submission. 10 January 2018 For the attention of Lydian International, Lydian Armenia, the Armenian Government and ALL others concerned. Greetings, The Bronozian Consultants have conducted a series of reviews of the Amulsar Gold Project in Armenia over the past eight months. The overall purpose of our work has been to provide a critical, detailed, and independent technical evaluation of the project aimed at identifying the potential operational and long- term consequences of the mine. We attach our final review: a summary of the potential consequences of the project and technical recommendations for Lydian to enable them to better develop their environmental strategy. The submission contains a prioritized list of concerns and recommendations; a more thorough list of all concerns, potential consequences, and recommendations from our reviews; a limited list of similar mines around the world and their environmental consequences; the documents we reviewed; and the reports and memoranda we have produced. Our overall conclusion remains that the high risk of acid drainage and contaminant leaching, the poor geochemical evaluation, the inadequate water quality predictions and mitigation measures and Lydians inexperience combine to make this an environmentally high-risk project during mining and for a lengthy period after operations cease. We are also concerned about public statements made by Lydian that the deposit is completely oxide, which erroneously implies that acid rock drainage (ARD) will not develop during or after mining. These statements do not reflect the reality of the situation on Amulsar Mountain if the mine is developed as planned. Accurate statements regarding the acid-forming components in this deposit from Lydian must be mandatory. Lydian has responded to our reviews and have stated consistently that they remain confident in the global best practice mitigation measures developed for the Amulsar project. Public statements and reports by Lydian make it clear, however, that they have severely underestimated the potential adverse impacts of the mine, especially to water quality, which has been our primary focus and is commonly the most critical and long-term environmental concern for large-scale metal mines. Additionally, while Lydians consultants appear to have experience in certain aspects of mine operation and closure, we have seen no evidence that their principal consultant in the area of acid mine drainage, GRE, is experienced in the evaluation and understanding of ARD, geochemical characterization and interpretation of testing results, mitigation measures specifically aimed at ARD, and the effective treatment of ARD. We have extensive experience in these areas and provide a perspective that is independent of the mine proponent. The project is located in an area that supplies clean water for drinking and agricultural uses across Armenia. There is a high risk, given the current mine and mitigation planning, that acid drainage and contaminant leaching will pollute groundwater; springs; the Arpa, Darb, and Vorotan rivers; and the Kechut Reservoir (Amulsar topography and surface waters are shown here). We hope that the Ministry of Nature Protection will review this final submission and re-evaluate Lydians proposed environmental plan in light of the likely long-term negative environmental impacts of this project. Moreover, contrary to allegations made by Lydian on January 8, 2018, we did not agree to attend a meeting in Yerevan with the Ministry of Nature Protection (MNP) and Lydian in January, 2018. We carefully considered the invitation sent by the MNP (attached) and declined the meeting, the reasons for which were well articulated in our letter of December 24, 2017 (attached in English and Armenian). We are ready to assist the MNP and the Armenian Government directly and to meet with them regarding the Amulsar Gold Project. We present our independent opinions but their implementation and responsibility for this project lies with Lydian and the Armenian Government. Sincerely, Harry Bronozian Chemical / Environmental Engineer, MS 2947 Honolulu Avenue, Unit B Glendale, California 91214 Tel. (818) 248-3529; (800) 219-8405 Fax. (818) 248-6343 e-mail: [email protected] Contact Information: Andrea Gerson, PhD Roger Smart, PhD Blue Minerals Consultancy Wattle Grove, Tasmania 7109, Australia [email protected] [email protected] www.bluemineralsconsultancy.com.au/ Tel: 0422112516 (Dr Gerson), or Tel: 0400835603 (Dr Smart) Ann Maest, PhD Buka Environmental Boulder, CO, USA [email protected] Tel: 303.324.6948 Andre Sobolewski, PhD Clear Coast Consulting, Inc. Gibsons, BC, Canada [email protected] www.clear-coast.com Tel: 604-240-8845 Bengaluru: Infosys on Friday said its profit rose 38.3% to Rs 5,129 crore in the three months ended December 31, 2017 (quarter 3) as compared to analysts average estimate of Rs 3,710 crore. Revenue from operations rose 3% to Rs 17,790 crore from a year earlier, with revenue from the financial services segment dipping 0.4% at Rs 4,600 crore, the company said. The profit was helped by tax benefits from the firms deal with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The company had signed an Advance Pricing Agreement with the US IRS this week, resulting in an effective tax rate of about 100 basis points lower going forward. Agencies New Delhi, January 12 TCS today said it has bagged a deal worth more than $2 billion from the US insurance group Transamerica, marking its largest contract to date. The contract, which entails transforming Transamericas US insurance and annuity business lines, comes close on the heels of a mega deal TCS had clinched from television rating measurement firm Nielsen. The partnership enables Transamerica to rapidly enhance its digital capabilities, simplify the service of more than 10 million policies into a single integrated modern platform, it added. The announcement comes a day after TCS reported 3.6% fall in its net profit to Rs 6,531 crore in the December 2017 quarter. TCS said it will make job offers to all of the applicable Transamerica employees currently supporting the life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance, and workplace voluntary benefits business lines. This, it said, will ensure a consistently excellent experience for Transamerica customers and protecting approximately 2,200 American jobs. PTI Ishrat S Banwait Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 12 A car tyre burst led to a horrific accident near Jagraon in Ludhiana on Thursday, killing three of a family and leaving behind a girl aged four months and a half. The parents of both Sudershan Kumar and his wife Seema are inconsolable and did not eat anything for the whole day. Sudershans younger brother Anand is trying to put up a brave face and readies to shoulder the familys responsibility. He says that each decision of the family was taken through Sudershan and that they have lost their pillar. Just like his mother, Anands sister is inconsolable too. A doctor by profession, she lives with her family in Abohar. Sudershan Kumar (32), an advocate, also helped his father run a plywood shop in Burail village. His wife Seema (28) was a homemaker and their two-and-a-half-years-old son Dhruv was to start his schooling in a few months. The victims were on their way to Faridkot to attend the bhog ceremony of Seemas uncle. However, their i20 cars tyre burst on the Jagraon-Moga road and the car overturned, jumped the divider before being crushed by a speeding truck. The mishap left Sudershan, Seema and Dhruv dead. Their 26-year-old maid Kajal is in the PGIMER in a critical condition. However, Dhwani, who was in Kajals lap had a miraculous escape and did not suffer even a scratch. The girl lost her family before she could even recognise them. Currently with her relatives, it is expected that Dhwani will be taken care of by her grandparents. The family was already going through a tough time as Sudershans father was diagnosed with cancer last year. Jagdish Rai Punchhi and his wife were inconsolable as they lost their son, daughter-in-law and grandson, all in one go. Punchhi is undergoing cancer treatment and is expected to recover as well. However, the couple refused to eat anything for one day but was forced to do so by other members of the family today. Bar assn cancels Lohri celebrations The Chandigarh District Bar Association (DBA) cancelled the Lohri celebrations scheduled to be held on the district court premises on Friday. DBA president Ravinder Bassi, who was present at the cremation ground, along with a large number of advocates, informed that it was done to pay homage to Sudershan. Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 12 Three snatching incidents have been reported from the city. Miscreants snatched a purse from a visually impaired woman teacher while she was getting down from a rickshaw along with her husband, who is also visually impaired, outside their house in Sector 32. Police sources said the victim, Vanita Saini, a teacher at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, returned home along with her husband around 2.40 pm when two motorcycle-borne miscreants came from the rear and snatched her purse. The purse contained Rs 400, a mobile phone, important documents and other valuables. The incident was caught on a CCTV camera installed at a house opposite the victims house. Both miscreants were wearing helmets and black jackets. The police have collected the CCTV footage and registered a case at the Sector 34 police station. The second snatching incident was reported from Sector 47 around 3.15 pm, where two miscreants riding a motorcycle snatched a gold chain from a woman. Sources said the victim, 65-year-old Usha Jain, a resident of Sector 47, reported that the miscreants snatched her gold chain near her house. The accused approached her on the pretext of asking for an address. The third snatching incident was reported from Sector 38 around 6.30 pm. Sources said two miscreants riding a motorcycle sped away after snatching a gold earring from the victim, Anita, a resident of Sector 38. The incident took place near Stepping Stones Senior Secondary School, Sector 38. Act caught on CCTV The victim, Vanita Saini, a teacher at GMSSS-35, returned home along with her husband around 2.40 pm when two motorcycle-borne miscreants came from the rear and snatched her purse. The incident was caught on a CCTV camera installed at a house opposite the victims house. Washington, January 12 There is a slim chance of the first death-row Indian-American prisoner being executed on the scheduled date of February 23 because of a 2015 moratorium on death penalty by Pennsylvania Governor, officials said on Friday. Raghunandan Yandamuri, 32, in 2014 was given death penalty for kidnapping and killing a 61-year-old elderly Indian woman and her 10-month-old grand-daughter. It was seen as part of a botched kidnapping-for-ransom plot. Our Governor has said that should an inmate not be issued a stay of execution by a court, he will issue a reprieve. I want you to know this because the likelihood of the execution taking place is slim, Sue McNaughton, Communications Director, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, told PTI. Last week, the Department of Correction signed an execution order that Yandamuri be executed through lethal injection on February 23. Yes, he knows about it. In fact, the official document was read to him at his cell door on the same date the notice was signed, McNaughton said in response to a question. 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. Yandamuri is currently lodged in Greene State Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. However, McNaughton refused to discuss Yandamuris health due to confidentiality reasons and a law that prohibits sharing such information. Now that an execution is signed, Yandamuri can only meet his immediate family members, lawyer and his spiritual adviser. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) According to State officials, Yandamuris execution could very well be delayed for long as no one knows when the moratorium on it would be lifted. 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. But when it happens, this could be the first execution of an Indian native in the US. PTI NEARLY 34 years after the 1984 riots, the Supreme Courts order to reinvestigate 186 cases of violence against Sikhs following the assassination of Indira Gandhi comes with a renewed hope of justice. Over the years, powerful instigators and perpetrators of the riots getting clean chits fed the angst of the victims, who had not only lost their loved ones, but also their businesses and homes. They suffered as many of the accused continued to flourish notably Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and HKL Bhagat. The victims have, despite being down and under and hitting the wall time and again, steadfastly braved the rounds of courts and they did not give up their quest. The political parties efforts to appease the wounded community by setting up commissions to look into the cases in which over 3,000 Sikhs were slaughtered, purportedly in complicity with the administration of the day, have failed. Too few convictions, and grossly under-proportional sentences, showed such commissions to be mere vote-garnering exercises. The new SIT, entrusted with prising open the old cases, holds promise. It has been set up by the Supreme Court and the judge named for the exercise, Justice SN Dhingra, has a track record of bold judgments and scathing strictures while dealing with such cases. He will be on familiar territory. During the 1990s, as Sessions Judge in the Karkardooma Court in Delhi, he incarcerated senior Congress minister Bhagat in an anti-Sikh riot instance. Then, he castigated the Delhi Police for their chaotic manner of prosecution of hundreds of cases spread all over Delhi. As a result, 100 cases were clubbed together and the trial streamlined. Again, it was Dhingra who convicted and sentenced Kishori Lal, dubbed the butcher of Trilokpuri, and the other accused of a grisly massacre of 1984. This SIT has two months to present its status report to the SC. There is hope, but also the ever-present fear of politicians using the reopening of the cases for political shenanigans. Justice has been inordinately delayed; it must be delivered so that the victims families get a sense of closure. Tribune News Service Ambala, January 12 Ambala firm Vaiseshika Electron Devices gave technical and engineering expertise in the successful launch of ISROs 100th satellite PSLVC40, which was launched today. The firm had installed and commissioned a 5 tonne capacity Digital Proving Ring with technical certification of American Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories at the Static Test Bed Facility at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The Digital Proving Ring tests and checks the accuracy of load cells used in testing thrust capacity of rocket motor of a PSLV rocket before its launch. Another Digital Proving Ring of 100 tonne capacity will be installed within this year. Such testing ensures that the motor of the rocket has been correctly designed for a successful launch. Any error or inadequacy in the thrust capacity can lead to a crash. Dr Anil Jain, President, Vaiseshika Electron Devices, told The Tribune, The Digital Proving Ring was commissioned nearly three months ago. The firm has been designing, manufacturing, producing, installing and commissioning various temperature sensors, thermocouples, microstructure examination system and measurement software, sensor calibration standards and load cell calibration standards to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, since 2010 in various satellite projects. Vaiseshika has earlier installed calibration standards for MARS Orbiter Mission also. It was a proud moment for us as we have contributed in such a prestigious project. It is always a great feeling to do something for the country, he said. Bijendra Ahlawat Tribune News Service Palwal, January 12 Naresh Kumar, accused of clubbing six persons to death in the wee hours on January 2, is on extended police remand till January 15. The police failed to get evidence during the initial two-day remand that ended yesterday. The special investigation team of the district police, led by a DSP, had been investigating the matter since formal arrest of the accused. They had failed to come out with any concrete evidence to nail the accused so far. This was perhaps the reason the police sought additional four-day remand of the accused when he was produced in court yesterday on completion of two-day custody, said sources in the department. Police officials had been grilling the accused for several hours daily. He had been taken to all crime spots and his residence in Sector 2 here. A police team visited the office of the accused in Bhiwani on Wednesday to collect evidence regarding his behaviour and alleged assault on a colleague a couple of months back. Naresh appeared to be playing smart, providing confusing statements regarding the crime scenes. He was yet to admit having killed the victims, said the sources. The forensic report on the iron rod that was reportedly used to club the victims to death was yet to be revealed. Naresh Kumar (45) had been working as SDO in the Agriculture Department and was posted in Bhiwani at present. The police had been maintaining silence regarding developments in the case. Both SP Sulochana Gajraj and DSP Abhimanyu Lohan could not be contacted for their version in connection with the probe. Lohan was heading the special investigation team probing the case. We have been instructed to maintain distance and not reveal anything to the media till the probe is over, said an official on the condition of anonymity. No headway Tribune News Service Dharamsala, January 12 Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today announced grant of Rs 3 lakh for Suraj, a Nepalese labour and an accused in Gudiya rape case, who died in police custody, on the floor of the house. The Chief Minister made this announcement while replying to a motion of thanks on Governors address. The CM said that grant has been announced as the family of Suraj was very poor and they had suffered due to the death of the sole bread earner of the family. Responding to Congress allegation that his government was being run through remote control by the RSS, the Chief Minister said he was fit and had steering wheels as well as breaks in his control. Replying to the attack of the Opposition on the government and the CM, Jai Ram asked the treasury benches to have patience. Our government was just 15 days old and would address all the issues related to the state he said. Responding to allegations of Congress leaders regarding very short Governors address, the CM said, Had it been long it would have touched what the previous Congress government had done to the state. However, since it was the first session we wanted to make a fresh start and avoid contentious issues. To the Congress allegation that the present government was cribbing about financial crises, the CM said that it was important for the people of state to know what the previous government had done with finances of the state. He said that on March 31, 2008 the financial burden on the state was Rs 21,241 crore. On March 31, 2012, it increased to Rs 28,650 crores. It means that the previous BJP government from 2007-2012 raised loan of Rs 7,621 crores. However, now the financial burden on the state was Rs 46,500 crores. It means in the last five years the previous Congress government raised loan of about Rs 18,000 crores. This despite the fact that union government, through 14 finance commissions, had increased financial allotment to state to Rs 72,000 crores, he said. On certain statements from members of the Opposition that he was not a projected CM, Jai Ram Thakur said that the BJP president during a rally organized in his constituency had announced him as a deputy CM. He said that even in Congress the projected CLP leader was someone else and some other person was occupying the chair. He said many people were having objection to him being called a youth. To this Virbhadra Singh got up from his said that he was also young. The Chief Minister said that he would try come up to the expectations of the people of state who have given heavy mandate in favour of the BJP. The previous Congress government just laid foundation stones with an eye on votes. However, the people cannot be fooled now as the times have changed. Every government has to perform at the ground level to get votes now, he said. He also said that the unemployment allowance was given to just 19,000 youth in the state by the previous government with an eye on election. The government would strive to provide employment to youth as unemployment allowance was of no used to them, the CM said. The said that the government has decided to open gaushalas for clusters of villages to tackle the problem of stray cattle. Jai Ram Thakur also alleged that Rs 75 lakh worth of CMs relief fund was spent by previous government during the period of election code of conduct without the permission of the Election Commission. The previous government left just Rs 2 lakh in CM relief fund. The CM also indicated that some schools and colleges opened by previous government in the last six months of its stint in power might be rationalised. On financial mess Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service Dharamsala, January 12 Congress MLA from Dalhousie Asha Kumari, while speaking on the motion of thanks on the address of Governor, pointed to glaring mistakes in the document. She said that it was stated in the document that Jai Ram Thakur, aged 53, was the youngest CM of the state whereas the fact was that Himachal always had the tradition of having young CMs. The BJP government even forgot to mention the names of its own CMs who were younger to Jai Ram Thakur when they were sworn to the post. Shanta first became the CM at the age of 42 in 1977. Prem Kumar Dhumal was also 53 year old when he was first sworn in as CM in 1998. Virbhadra Singh also became the CM for the first time at the age of 49, she said. She said that in the English translation of Governors address it has been stated that adventure tourism would be promoted in religious places. It seems that mind was not applied while drafting the Governors address. Reacting to the opposition allegations that nothing was left in the CM relief fund by the previous government, Asha Kumari said the said fund was generated by each CM with his individual efforts. It was the right of the outgoing CM to exhaust it and the new CM should generate his own funds. She said the BJP at the national level was roll back, go back and follow what the Congress government did. It had opposed the FDI in retail sector, MNREGA and Aadhaar while in opposition, but was now pushing for all the schemes. Asha Kumari also requested Minister for Transport Govind Singh Thakur to do something to bring buses under Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) back on road. Ram Lal Thakur, Congress MLA from Naina Devi, said the Congress was responsible for most of the development in the state. It was the Congress that created Himachal in 1971. At that time the Congress government gave almost 100 per cent grant in aid to state. He said after winning the elections, the CM visited various parts of the state and was welcomed by party cadre and officers. The expenditure on those functions was also wastage of public funds, he said. Intervening in the debate, the Chief Minister said. I am going around the state on official tours and party workers and government workers had every right to come for welcome. I am CM of the entire state and even of the government officials. The rising price of copper on international markets in 2017 was a boon for exporting countries like Armenia. By the end of the year, the price for one ton had exceeded US $7,000. The graph below charts the price of copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) Many analysts point to increasing copper demand from China as a prime factor in the copper price rise. According to Armenias State Revenue Committee, the country exported 444,000 tons of copper ore between January and November 2017 worth US $527 million. Compare these numbers to the same period in 2016, when Armenia exported 397 tons of copper ore worth $357 million. Arteev Sharma Tribune News Service Jammu, January 12 The J&K Government today said 51 persons were killed and over 9,000 injured, including 6,221 due to pellets, during the eight-month-long unrest in the Kashmir valley after the killing of Hizb militant Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016. As many as 782 persons had suffered eye injuries. Eight persons suffered permanent eye damage. At least 368 persons got bullet injuries during the clashes between protesters and security forces. In a written reply to National Conference MLA Shamim Firdouss query in the Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who holds the charge of the Home Department, said 51 persons were killed in the Kashmir division from July 8, 2016, to February 27, 2017, during the unrest. She said 9,042 persons were injured in firing of bullets, pellets, PAVA shells, etc, during the period. Of these, 6,221 were injured due to pellets, 368 due to bullets and four due to PAVA shells. As many as 2,449 persons suffered other injuries, Mehbooba said. At least 782 persons suffered eye injuries. Of these, 510 were hospitalised, she said, adding that 5,197 cases of pellet injuries were treated at district hospitals and the rest were referred to super speciality hospitals. The highest number of 16 deaths took place in Anantnag district followed by 13 in Kulgam district, seven in Pulwama and five in Kupwara, she said. 726 held under PSA Delhi, January 12 Social media and government schools in Jammu and Kashmir are spreading disinformation resulting in radicalisation of youth, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat claimed today while calling for some control over mosques and madrasas in the state. He said a major revamp of the education system was needed in the state to deal with the problem. General Rawat said the issue of exercising some control over mosques and madrasas to check the flow of disinformation was being looked into. Addressing a press conference on the eve of Army Day, General Rawat said each classroom in government schools in Jammu and Kashmir had a separate map of the state besides that of India. This sowed the seeds of thought of some kind of separate identity among the children, he said. The damage is also being done to us through the social media. A disinformation campaign is being carried out in Jammu and Kashmir which is radicalising the youth through the social media and through the schools, he said. The other issue is the madrasas and mosques what is being taught to the students or incorrectly told to them is through these institutions only. I think some control has to be exercised there, General Rawat said. He, however, did not elaborate on what kind of control he was suggesting over such institutions. General Rawat also suggested that some stone throwers in Kashmir were youth from government schools. He said students from the schools, like Delhi Public School, were not found involved in activities such as stone-throwing. The Army Chief added that was the reason for the Army-run Goodwill Schools being accorded higher status. He said opening more public schools was the way forward. PTI Separate maps in classrooms General Bipin Rawat said each classroom in the government schools in Jammu and Kashmir had a separate map of the state besides that of India. This sowed the seeds of thought of some kind of separate identity among the children, he said. Dinesh Manhotra Tribune News Service Jammu, January 12 Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said J&K should be developed as a model state for the SAARC countries. She also advocated introducing single currency in all SAARC countries on the lines of the European Union (EU). Pitching for restarting the stalled dialogue process with Pakistan, she said both countries had no option but to normalise relations as peace was imperative for the development of both. Speaking during the motion of thanks on the Governors Address in the Legislative Council on Friday, the CM reiterated her resolve to make J&K a bridge between two countries to restore lasting peace in the region. She recounted how peace initiatives announced, from time to time, had brought much relief to the people living in the border areas besides paving way for pursuing the dialogue process between the two countries. Maintaining that peace was imperative for development, Mehbooba sought the support of lawmakers to take the reconciliation and peace process to its logical conclusion. Neither the government alone nor can an individual solve this vexed problem. We have to work jointly to restore lasting peace in the state, she said. She was of the opinion that killing of 200 militants was not going to change the scenario as more militants will cross over to this side as infiltration from across was continuing. We have killed 200 militants and many local youth have joined the mainstream after an appeal by their parents. But there are reports of many local youths having joined the militant rank and file, which is a very disturbing trend, she said. Unfortunately a fresh cycle of youngsters joining militancy has begun in Kashmir. Its a total exercise in futility. It will not yield anything positive, she asserted. The number of militants killed is immaterial. The problem will be solved when J&K will become a bridge between India and the rest of Asia, including Pakistan. How long can we kill militants? This has to be stopped, she added. Mehbooba, however, reiterated that J&K had already decided its destiny in 1947 and the decision of joining J&K with secular India was ratified by the Constituent Assembly also. The tallest leader of Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, had again endorsed J&Ks accession to India in 1975, she recalled referring to the Indira-Sheikh accord of 1975. Pushes for talks with Pak Dinesh Manhotra Tribune News Service Jammu, January 12 The National Conference today raked up Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution in the Legislative Assembly to corner the ruling PDP for entering into an alliance with the BJP. Veteran NC leader Mohammad Shafi Uri, who is a former Finance Minister of the state, initiated the debate on the Budget. As Uris debate was more political, PDP minister Imran Raza Ansari intervened for taking up political issues during the Budget debate but he was snubbed by the former. You are a first-timer in the House. Read rules and procedures of the Assembly and you will find that the sphere of the Budget debate is vast, Uri said. By extending the goods and services tax to J&K, the propagators of the self-rule have meekly surrendered before Delhi or Nagpur, the NC leaded said in an obvious reference towards the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) having its headquarter at Nagpur. Quoting recent remarks of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat who had said the abrogation of Article 370 was the only solution to the Kashmir problem, Uri asked thePDP leadership to clear its stand on the issue. You are supporting dialogue for restoring peace in the region but your coalition partner (BJP) is of the view that the operation all-out and the NIA are the only options, said Uri. If these are the only alternatives what is the need of appointing an Interlocutor? he asked the PDP leadership while repeating former CM Omar Abdullahs statement that Centres special representative Dineshwar Sharma was acting like a super chief minister. Allow scribes to use mobile phones in House: Omar Former CM Omar Abdullah supported the use of mobile phones by journalists in the House. Journalists are using phones for live streaming and other online media. You cannot be so harsh. If they dont work, members will start complaining that their proceedings are not being covered, Omar told Deputy Speaker Nazir Gurezi. Omars response came after Gurezi asked marshals to snatch a mobile phone from a journalist for using it in the House. I have only banned use of phones by reporters for voice calls, Gurezi clarified. TNS Memory bank Smiriti Kalra As children, early in the morning we used to collect wood for the bonfire and make popcorns. There are so many memories I cherish. I am shooting on Lohri, but its my brothers first Lohri after getting married and so we will celebrate it in a very grand way. Fun time: Himmanshoo Malhotraa I am planning to go to Ludhiana and celebrate there along with my Punjabi cousins. There is no comparison of the way Lohri is celebrated in Punjab. I have beautiful childhood memories of the festival; relishing all the delicacies and having loads of fun. Family ties: Gunjan Utreja I am visiting Chandigarh on Lohri and all my cousins as well as friends are getting together to be a part of the celebrations. Lohri is all about dancing and bonfire all night long. There is no better way to celebrate Lohri than with your close friends and family. My mom will be cooking wonderful Punjabi food and my sister will bake some mouth-watering desserts. Being together: Jasmin Bhasin On Lohri, my family members and relatives gather around the bonfire. We all sing traditional songs and have our food together. This is how I have grown up celebrating Lohri with my family. I grew up in a joint family, so we are like 20 to 25 family members celebrating Lohri together. I have special memories of the festival. The Critics` Choice awards turned out to be a memorable night for women of Hollywood. Most of the winners at the star-studded event were shows and movies that were women-centric. Hosted by Olivia Munn, the ceremony, which celebrated film and TV, took place at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. Shows like Big Little Lies won four awards, while The Handmaids Tale took home three trophies. Last years blockbuster movie and the first female led superhero movie Wonder Woman won the Best Action Movie and the star of the movie, Gal Gadot, went on to win the prestigious #SeeHer award, which honours actresses for challenging female stereotypes on screen and off. I want to share this award with all the women and men who stand for whats right, standing for those who cant stand or speak for themselves. I promise that my commitment to all of you is that I will never be silenced. And we will continue to band together to make strides uniting for equality, shared Gadot. Critical acclaim The HBO hit-TV series Big Little Lies, which focuses on a trio of wealthy young women in Monterey, California, and how their lives get shattered when a murder takes place in their idyllic town, unravelling a can of worms, was named the Best Limited Series. Two of the driving forces of the show Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern won the acting awards for the critically acclaimed series. Nicole Kidman, who won the trophy for Best Actress in a Limited Series at the event, paid tribute to her co-stars and explained, Every actor in this room knows you are only as good as the other actors you work with. Guillermo Del Toros cold war fantasy The Shape of Water was victorious in four categories, including Best Picture and Best Director win for Del Toro. While accepting the Best Picture award, he could not help but mention the contribution of women that made the movie possible, including Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer. Even in the comedy category, the shows that told stories about women were a force to reckon with. Fight on Rachel Brosnahan won best actress in a comedy for her performance in hit-series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. While accepting her award, Brosnahan noted that even though women arent wearing black like most did at the Golden Globe Awards earlier in the week, she said the fight to eradicate sexual harassment continues. But the biggest admiration came from Del Toro, who closed the show by shouting that he has always believed in the equality of women. Let me tell you one thing, if you dont do that, you dont know what youre missing, he noted. As expected, #MeToo movement and #TimesUp movement at Critics` Choice awards was big at the event and host Olivia Munn took a different approach to address the matter by raising a sarcastic toast to the good men of Hollywood. ANI List of winners: New Delhi, January 12 In a first-of-its-kind move, four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court on Friday called a press conference and said the situation in the top court was not in order and many less than desirable things had taken place. Unless this institution is preserved, democracy will not survive in this country, the four judges said. Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior judge after the Chief Justice of India, said, Sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months. Chelameswar, who was accompanied by Justices Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph at the press conference, said they had met CJI Dipak Misra on Friday morning and raised issues affecting the institution. Soon after the press conference by the four judges, the CJI called Attorney General KK Venugopal for a meeting, court sources said. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) At the presser held at his house, Justice J Chelameswar said, Unless this institution is preserved, democracy will not survive in this country and added it was extremely painful to hold press conference in such a manner. He said the four judges had written a letter to CJI Dipak Misra some time back, raising important issues. But all of them failed to persuade the CJI that certain things are not in order and therefore you should take remedial measures. Unfortunately our efforts failed. And all four of us are convinced that democracy is at stake and many things have happened in recent past, he said. Asked what these issues were, he said they included the allocation of cases by the CJI. The remarks assume significance as the Supreme Court on Friday took up for consideration the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. Justice Chelameswar said, We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation. Our efforts have failed in convincing the CJI to take steps to protect the institution. This is an extraordinary event in the history of any nation, more particularly this nation and an extraordinary event in the institution of judiciary...It is with no pleasure that we are compelled to call this press conference. But sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months. All the judges rubbished questions on whether they have broken ranks, with Justice Gogoi saying nobody is breaking the rank and it is a discharge of debt to the nation, which we have done. Justice Gogoi would be succeeding the incumbent CJI in October this year. Asked whether they wanted the Chief Justice to be impeached, Justice Chelameswar said, Dont try to put words in our mouth. The four judges, in their seven-page letter to the CJI, said, It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the chief justice is only first among the equals--nothing more or nothing less. The letter reads, It is with great anguish and concern that we have thought it proper to address this letter to you so as to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this court which has adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivering system and the independence of the high courts besides impacting the administrative functioning of the office of the Chief Justice of India. PTI The following is the unedited text of the letter released by the judges: Dear Chief Justice, It is with great anguish and concern that we have thought it proper to address this letter to you so as to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this Court which has adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivery system and the independence of the High Courts besides impacting the administrative functioning of the Office of the Honble the Chief Justice of India. From the date of establishment of the three chartered High Courts of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, certain traditions and conventions in the judicial administration have been well established. The traditions were embraced by this Court which came into existence almost a century after the above mentioned chartered High Courts. These traditions have their roots in the anglo saxon jurisprudence and practice. Once of the well settled principles is that the Chief Justice is the master of the roster with a privilege to determine the roster, necessity in multi numbered courts for an orderly transaction of business and appropriate arrangements with respect to matters with which member/bench of this Court (as the case may be) is required to deal with which case or class of cases is to be made. The convention of recognizing the privilege of the Chief Justice to form the roster and assign cases to different members/benches of the Court is a convention devised for a disciplined and efficient transaction of business of the Court but not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual of the Chief Justice over his colleagues. It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the Chief Justice is only the first amongst the equals nothing more or nothing less. In the matter of the determination of the roster there are well-settled and time honoured conventions guiding the Chief Justice, be the conventions dealing with the strength of the bench which is required to deal with a particular case or the composition thereof. Read: CJI, under attack from colleagues, delivered key verdicts Issue of Judge BH Loyas death is serious, says Supreme Court Can't criticise judges, they are men of great integrity: Swamy Press conference by SC judges could have been avoided: AG Judges presser: Democracy in danger, says Cong; CPI(M) calls for thorough probe Supreme Court judges who rebelled against the systembrief profiles SC judges comments expose unholy nexus: Hazare CJI selectively assigned political cases: Prashant Bhushan Mamata voices anguish over SC developments A necessary corollary to the above mentioned principle is the members of any multi numbered judicial body including this Court would not arrogate to themselves the authority to deal with and pronounce upon matters which ought to be heard by appropriate benches, both composition wise and strength wise with due regard to the roster fixed. Any departure from the above two rules would not only lead to unpleasant and undesirable consequences of creating doubt in the body politic about the integrity of the institution. Not to talk about the chaos that would result from such departure. We are sorry to say that off late the twin rules mentioned above have not been strictly adhered to. There have been instances where case having far-reaching consequences for the Nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justices of this Court selectively to the benches of their preference without any rationale basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs. We are not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this institution to some extent. In the above context, we deem it proper to address you presently with regard to the Order dated 27 October, 2017 in R.P. Luthra vs. Union of India to the effect that there should be no further delay in finalizing the Memorandum of Procedure in the larger public interest. When the Memorandum of Procedure was the subject matter of a decision of a Constitution Bench of this Court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association and Anr. vs. Union of India [(2016) 5 SCC 1] it is difficult to understand as to how any other Bench could have dealt with the matter. The above apart, subsequent to the decision of the Constitution Bench, detailed discussions were held by the Collegium of five judges (including yourself) and the Memorandum of Procedure was finalized and sent by the then Honble the Chief Justice of India to the Government of India in March 2017. The Government of India has not responded to the communication and in view of this silence, it must be taken that the Memorandum of Procedure as finalized by the Collegium has been accepted by the Government of India on the basis of the order of this Court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (Supra). There was, therefore, no occasion for the Bench to make any observation with regard to the finalization of the Memorandum of Procedure or that that issue cannot linger on for an indefinite period. On 4' July, 2017, a Bench of seven Judges of this Court decided In Re, Hon'ble Shri Justice C.S. Karnan [(2017) 1 SCC 1]. In that decision (referred to in R.P. Luthra), two of us observed that there is a need to revisit the process of appointment of judges and to set up a mechanism for corrective measures other than impeachment. No observation was made by any of the seven learned judges with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure. Any issue with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure should be discussed in the Chief Justices' Conference and by the Full Court. Such a matter of grave importance, if at all required to be taken on the judicial side, should be dealt with by none other than a Constitution Bench. The above development must be viewed with serious concern. The Hon'ble Chief Justice of India is duty bound to rectify the situation and take appropriate remedial measures after a full discussion with the other members of the Collegium and at a later stage, if required, with other Hon'ble Judges of this Court. Once the issue arising from the order dated 27th October, 2017 in R.P. Luthra vs. Union of India, mentioned above, is adequately addressed by you and if it becomes so necessary we will apprise you specifically of the other judicial orders passed by this Court which would require to be similarly dealt with. With kind regards, ,J [U. CHELAMESWAR] ,J [RANJAN GOGOI] ,J [MADAN B. LOKUR] ,J [KURIAN JOSEPH] ,J New Delhi, January 12 The four senior most Supreme Court judges on Friday virtually revolted against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, who has been a part of several key and sensitive verdicts, including that of confirming the death sentence of Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon during a midnight hearing. Before being elevated as the 45th CJI, attempts were made to stall his elevation, but Justice Misra took oath as the head of the judiciary on August 28 last year. Misra, who has a 13 month-long tenure till October 2, has been having a tough time in dealing with his colleagues and often reports have surfaced that there have been serious disagreements between him and other senior judges of the five-member collegium and Justice J Chelameswar has often made his displeasure public. Not only from within, but activist lawyers have also been critical of his functioning which was manifested in a medical college matter when the CJI and advocate Prashant Bhushan had a heated exchange of words in a packed courtroom. CJI Misra had to hurriedly constitute a five-judge Bench of his choice after a two-judge Bench headed by Justice Chelameswar had ordered setting up of a five-judge Bench of senior most judges to hear the petitions by an NGO and a lawyer levelling serious allegations of bribes being taken in the names of judges to get favourable order in a medical college case. The CJI-headed Bench had overturned Justice Chelameswars order and asserted that Chief Justice of India is the master of the roster. The vexatious Ayodhya land title dispute in the Babri Masjid case, which is being heard by a Bench headed by CJI Misra, has also witnessed war of words between Justice Misra and senior lawyers like Kapil Sibal and Rajeev Dhavan. Besides these controversies, Justice Misra, one of the most eloquent judges in the apex court, has been part of several key verdicts, including the December 16 gang-rape and murder case in which four men were sent to gallows. He headed the Bench which, in an unprecedented pre-dawn hearing in 2015 when the doors of the apex court were opened at 1 am, rejected last-ditch efforts by Memon to get his execution stayed. He is also hearing several crucial issues such as SEBI- Sahara payment row, BCCI reforms, 1984 anti-Sikh riots, and matters related to real estate majors. Justice Misra, who was elevated to the apex court Bench on October 10, 2011, from the Delhi High Court, where he was the Chief Justice, has already presided over several key cases and verdicts. He headed the apex court Bench which upheld the constitutional validity of 156-year-old penal laws on defamation, holding that the reputation of one cannot be allowed to be crucified at the altar of the others right of free speech. Justice Misra had also mandated the playing of the national anthem before the screening of films in cinema halls. The order was recently modified and the top court made it optional for cinema halls to play the national anthem before screening of a film. Another significant judgment by Justice Misra was one directing states and union territories to upload FIRs on websites within 24 hours of their registration to enable the accused and others to file appropriate pleas in the courts for redress. Justice Misra, who was enrolled as an advocate in 1977, has practised in constitutional, civil, criminal, revenue, service and sales tax matters in the Orissa High Court and Tribunals before being elevated to the High Court Bench. He was appointed Additional Judge of the Orissa High Court in January 1996, after which he was transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court in March 1997. In 2009, Justice Misra became the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court and assumed charge as the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court in May 2010. He was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on October 10, 2011. PTI Washington, January 11 The US Federal Bureau of Investigations has 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. #BREAKING: #FBI releases age-progressed photos of hijackers from September 5, 1986 attack of Pan Am Flight 73. https://t.co/YoBbGcUyiw pic.twitter.com/39lPgFYfm1 FBI Washington Field (@FBIWFO) January 11, 2018 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 US$ 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 Organisation (ANO), previously on the U S State Department's list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organisations. 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. PTI Data recently released by Armenias General Department of Civil Aviation indicate that Gyumris Shirak Airport is making a comeback. 105,664 passengers passed through Shirak Airport in 2017, mostly flying to Moscow and other Russian cities. 2016 was a year of ups and downs for the airport in the countrys second largest city. Previous years had seen a drastic drop in flights and passenger volume. There were no flights at all during August and September of 2016. Things started to turn around at the end of 2016 when the Russian airlines Pobeda launched regular roundtrip flights to Gyumri from Moscow. The Armenian government also took steps to facilitate air travel from Gyumri, including abolishing the dreaded AMD 10,000 exit fee in December 2014 and cutting in half the air navigation service fee paid by Armaeronavigation CJSC in January 2017. More good news was to come in 2017 when Taron-Avia launched operations at Shirak Airport. The following charts plot the fortunes of Shirak Airport over the past 4-5 years. Smita Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 12 Just ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus first official visit to India, the countrys envoy on Friday downplayed Indias recent vote at the UN. Contrary to abstention expectations, India had chosen to vote in favour of a resolution asking United States to withdraw its decision of shifting its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Ambassador Daniel Carmon today said the issue would not mar relations or the visit. It is being talked about in diplomatic channels between our countries. We always want all international community to vote with us. Of course we are not happy when some do not, said Carmon. Carmon, however, reminded that both India and Israel request each other for favours at the UN, citing the International Court of Justice (ICJ) elections as example. When India came to Israel on Justice Dalveer Bhandari issue, Israel was among five countries that adopted him as their own candidate. So the Israeli candidate was an Indian judge. The UN is a vibrant dynamic theatre where many things are happening. Jerusalem vote can not influence relations with India, stressed the envoy. Since the visit of Ariel Sharon in 2003, it is the first visit of an Israeli PM to India. Along with a 130-member strong business delegation, Netanyahu will be accompanied by a 11-year-old boy, Moshe Holtzberg face of the Mumbai attacks in 2008 who as a toddler lost both his parents in the terror strikes. Moshe will participate in a ceremony at one of the sites of the attack the Chabad House. His (Moshe) coming here and being invited to join the prime minister shows one more thing that unifies both countries and people. 26/11 was terrible attack against India, against Mumbai, and also against Jews and Israelis .We know it unites us not just as victims of terrorism but deciding to unite our forces and efforts to fight against terrorism that is the plague of this era, said Carmon. On reports of India spiking Israeli Spike anti-tank guided weapons deal and if it would be revived, Carmon hoped that if there is a problem it would be solved. Spike project is an example of Israel engaging in Make in India because Spike can be implemented through a partnership between Israeli and Indian companies, he added. Asked if Indo-Israel ties could be impacted if Netanyahu government, which is currently being probed for serious corruption charges in Israel, is derailed, the ambassador dismissed it calling it an all-weather relationship. Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 12 Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday aligned himself politically with four rebel Supreme Court judges who raised questions about the allocation of work by Chief Justice of India Deepak Mishra and said the concerns need to be probed at the highest levels in the apex court. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) This is unprecedented. Four SC judges have raised significant questions. These are questions need to be seriously addressed. The SC judges have raised Judge Loyas death case. This must be probed at the highest levels in the Supreme Court. People trust the legal system. And this trust must be kept, Gandhi said in a brief statement at AICC headquarters. Congress demanded an investigation into judge Loyas death by most senior judges of the Supreme Court and by an independent SIT under them. In the matter of assignment of cases established traditions must be followed and selective assignment of cases stopped, Congress officially stated after debating through the day whether to align politically with the issue. As Gandhi spoke, top legal luminaries of Congress and former ministers P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Manish Tewari sat in the audience in the party office hall. Congress however stopped short of accusing the judiciary of favouring the central government, with a senior leader saying: Its an evolving situation. New Delhi, January 12 The Congress on Friday said democracy was in danger, while the CPI(M) called for a thorough probe, after four top Supreme Court judges came out in the open to claim the situation in the apex court was not in order. We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court. #DemocracyInDanger, the Congress official Twitter handle said. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said a thorough investigation was required to understand how the independence and integrity of the judiciary was getting affected, after the judges said many less than desirable things had taken place in the apex court. He said it was necessary for the three wings of democracy to ensure that whatever issues had been raised were corrected. This merits a thorough, proper investigation and understanding of how independence and integrity of judiciary is being interfered or is being affected, which is impermissible in a secular democratic republic, Yechury said. It is necessary for all three wings of our democracythe Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciaryto ensure that whatever has been raised is corrected, he added. Speaking to PTI, former Union law minister and Congress leader Ashwani Kumar said it was a sad day in the history of India that judges were compelled to bring in public domain the happenings in the top court. He also called for a collective resolve to address the issues flagged by the judges instead of finding fault with what they have said. The expressed and implicit anguish in the exceptional and extraordinary step take by the judges has a message in itself. A time has come for the nation to debate the larger issues that squarely arise from the communication released by the judges to the press. ...I hope that the honourable CJI and all those concerned will take urgent remedial measures, the Congress leader said. Four senior judges of the Supreme Court today virtually revolted against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, listing a string of problems that they said were afflicting the countrys highest court, and warned those could destroy Indian democracy. PTI Mahrajganj (UP), January 12 A Nepali national was arrested on the charge of drug peddling and 25 gm of smack worth Rs 50 lakh in the international market was seized from him at the Indo-Nepal Border here, police said on Friday. Incharge of Sonauli Police Station Awdesh Narayan Tiwari told reporters that the man was arrested on Thursday from Pharenda Tiwari village and smack was seized from him. He was identified as Raju Tiwari from Nepal's Rupandehi district, he said, adding that the man was being interrogated. The police suspect that he had come to India to supply the drug and added that a hunt is on to nab his accomplice who managed to escape. The man was booked under the NDPS Act. PTI. Islamabad, January 12 Pakistan on Friday summoned Indias acting deputy high commissioner over the alleged unprovoked firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC) in which an elderly woman was killed. The Foreign Office claimed that a 65-year-old woman was killed at Peer Khana village on Thursday after Indian troops violated the ceasefire in Kot Kotera sector. Director General (South Asia and Saarc) Mohammad Faisal summoned the acting Indian deputy high commissioner and condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by Indian forces on January 11, the statement said. He said, Despite calls for restraint, India continues to indulge in ceasefire violations. This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when the Indian forces committed more than 1,900 ceasefire violations, Faisal claimed. He said the ceasefire violations by India were a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation. PTI New Delhi, January 12 Attorney-General KK Venugopal said on Friday the press conference of four of the Supreme Courts most senior judges "could have been avoided". Venugopal, who held a meeting with Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra after the press conference, spoke to PTI after much persuasion and voiced hope that all judges, including the CJI, would rise to the occasion and "wholly neutralise" the "divisiveness". What has happened today could have been avoided. The judges will now have to act in statesmanship and ensure that the divisiveness is wholly neutralised and total harmony and mutual understanding will prevail in future," he said. "This is what all of us at the bar want and I am sure that the judges, including the CJI, will rise to the occasion," he said, but refused to talk about his discussions with the CJI and others. "I had promised to the judges that I would not speak to the media," Venugopal said. Sources said SC judges other than the four also held a meeting during the courts recess and were concerned about the development. Repeated attempts to reach the CJI and his office to get his comments on the development did not fructify. PTI Mumbai, January 12 An RTI activist, who also runs a civil services examination guidance centre, was arrested on Friday in connection with the killing of former Shiv Sena corporator Ashok Sawant, the police said. Anil Waghmare, the alleged mastermind, was arrested from the city in connection with the murder of Sawant, Vinay Rathod, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-XII), said. The 43-year-old, who runs a civil services examination guidance centre in suburban Kandivli, is the fourth accused to be arrested in the case in which a minor has also been detained. Waghmare had a personal enmity with Sawant on various issues and allegedly planned his murder, he added. According to another police official, the 62-year old former corporator had stopped Waghmares sources of earning. Waghmare had filed some RTI applications about construction activities in the suburbs. Waghmare had requested for allotment of a classroom of a local BMC school to run his classes, but his plea was turned down allegedly due to Sawants influence, the official said. Angered over Sawants behaviour towards him, Waghmare hatched a conspiracy with other accused persons to kill the politician-cum-businessman, he said. Waghmare was the one who kept on eye on Sawants movements on the fateful day and also harboured the accused who later took part in the crime, the official said. According to the police, the vehicle used in the crime has been seized. The two-term corporator from Samata Nagar in Kandivli, was attacked with cleavers at around 11 pm on January 7 while he was returning home after meeting a friend. Sawant, who had entered the cable television business a few years ago, was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival, police have said. PTI New Delhi, January 12 Heres a profile of the four senior Supreme Court judges who held a press conference on Friday to say not all was well in the countrys highest court. Justice Jasti Chelameswar Justice Chelameswar was elevated to the Supreme Court on October 10, 2011, and is currently number 2 in the judges' hierarchy. He was chief justice of Gauhati High Court between May 2007and March 2010, and was later transferred to Kerala High Court as chief justice. He is one of the few judges who have favoured the idea of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), which seeks to replace the existing Collegium system for appointing judges. Some of his significant judgements include the invalidation of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, and holding as part of the three-judge Bench that no Indian can be denied government subsidies and other services for want of an Aadhaar number. Justice Chelameswar is scheduled to retire in June this year. Justice Ranjan Gogoi Elevated to the Supreme Court as a Judge on April 23, 2012, Justice Ranjan Gogoi is the next in line to be Chief Justice of India (CJI). He was briefly in the news for recusing himself from hearing the plea filed by a lawyers' group against the proposed elevation of Justice JS Khehar as CJI in December 2016. But he can also be credited with bringing forth the banality of most of the cases that land up at the apex court's door, which ideally shouldn't have. Gogoi would reportedly u lawyers: "Does this case fall in the 93 per cent or in the 7 per cent?" Flummoxed, a bunch of lawyers decided to find out the secret behind this seemingly strange query. On research, they found that of the 884 judgments between January 1 and December 31, 2014, just 64 cases (or 7 per cent) pertained to any meaningful constitutional issues. The finding brought forth what is bogging down the already overworked higher judiciarya pile of insubstantial cases. Gogoi served as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court before moving to the Supreme Court. Justice Madan B Lokur Appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court on June 4, 2012, Justice Madan B. Lokur has vast experience in civil, criminal, constitutional, revenue and service laws. He practised in the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court before qualifying as as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court in 1981. He has served as Additional Solicitor General of India between July 1998 and February 1999 the year he was appointed an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court and appointed its Permanent Judge five months later. He functioned as Acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court from February 2010 to May 2010 and as Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court from June 2010 to November 2011. He was Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court from November 2011 to June 2012. He took great interest in judicial reforms, computerisation of courts, judicial education, legal aid and services, juvenile justice and ADR. He was appointed as One-Man Committee to suggest improvements in the working of the homes and organisations under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection and Children) Act, 2000 and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2007. He is due to retire in December-end this year. Justice Kurian Joseph Elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India on March 8, 2013, Justice Kurian Joseph is a proponent of judiciary playing a pro-active role to meet people's expectations and aspirations. He was part of the bench comprising Justice R.M. Lodha, Justice Lokur and himself thatwhile hearing the coal block allocation casevowed to free the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from any political and bureaucratic interference. He was also member of the Supreme Court Bench that overruled the admissibility of electronic evidence in 2014. The judgement, which he wrote, observed that "electronic records are more susceptible to tampering, alteration, transposition, excision, and without proper safeguards, the whole trial based on proof of electronic records can lead to a travesty of justice", and that the position taken by the court in its 2005 Parliament attack case verdict was legally incorrect. On August 22 last year, Justice Joseph gave a verdict against the practice of triple talaq or instant divorce practised by some sects of Muslims, and held that the practice of triple talaq is not integral to the religion or personal laws of that community. He previously served twice as Acting Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court and was appointed as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court in February 2010. He is due to retire on November 30 this year. IANS Justice Jasti Chelameswar He was elevated to the Supreme Court on October 10, 2011, and is currently number 2 in the judges hierarchy. He was the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court between May 2007 and March 2010 when he was transferred to Kerala High Court as the Chief Justice. He is one of the few judges who have favoured the idea of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) that seeks to nullify the Collegium system for appointment of judges. He is scheduled to retire in June this year. Justice Ranjan Gogoi Elevated to the Supreme Court as a Judge on April 23, 2012, Justice Ranjan Gogoi is the next in line to become the Chief Justice of India. He was briefly in the news for recusing himself from hearing the plea filed by a lawyers group against the proposed elevation of Justice JS Khehar as the CJI in 2016. Gogoi reportedly used to ask lawyers: Does this case fall in the 93 per cent or in the seven per cent? Flummoxed, a bunch of lawyers decided to find out the secret behind this seemingly strange query. They researched all apex court judgments between January 1 and December 31, 2014, and found that of the 884 judgments, just 64 cases (or 7 per cent), pertained to any meaningful constitutional issues. He also served as the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court. Justice Madan B Lokur Appointed as Judge of the SC on June 4, 2012, he has vast experience in civil, criminal, constitutional cases. In 1999, he was appointed an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court and its Permanent Judge five months later. He functioned as Acting Chief Justice of Delhi HC, Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court and Andhra Pradesh High Court. He is due to retire in December-end this year. Justice Kurian Joseph Elevated as a Judge of the SC on March 8, 2013, he is a proponent of judiciary playing a pro-active role to meet peoples expectations. He was part of the Bench comprising Justice RM Lodha, Justice Lokur and himself that while hearing the coal block allocation case vowed to free the CBI from any political interference. On August 22 last year, Justice Joseph gave a verdict against the practice of triple talaq or instant divorce practised by some sects of Muslims, and held that the practice of triple talaq was not integral to the religion or personal laws of that community. He will retire on November 30 this year. IANSry is to Tribune News Service new Delhi, January 12 Addressing a major grouse of the state AAP unit, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said here today that the partys Delhi-based leadership wont decide how AAP is seen in Punjab. The party needs to streamline its organisational set-up in Punjab with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the AAPs state affairs incharge said. Talking to The Tribune, Sisodia said he was meeting MLAs from Punjab on a one-on-one basis to know about the issues they wanted to be raised. He added that the party was yet to finalise its assessment of the reasons that led to its loss in the Assembly polls last year. The Congress and the Akali Dal clearly contested a friendly match, he said, adding that he would visit Punjab later this month. Sisodia, who visited the Dyal Singh Library and The Tribune editorial office here this evening, lauded the newspaper for the Aadhaar data leak expose. I salute The Tribune and its correspondent for doing a wonderful job. They brought to light the inadequacies of the security system, he added. On the controversy over the Delhi Lieutenant Governor disallowing some works of the Arvind Kejriwal government, Sisodia said, The LG is not aware of what is happening on the ground. I am person who is uncompromisingly black and unapologetically gay. Deal with it. I am person who is uncompromisingly black and unapologetically gay. Deal with it. Alvin McEwen [image: 655687 origin 1]Published by XXL Mag Beyonce and Jay-Z are reportedly dropping another collab project as the third act of her Renaissance album. Ne... On November 18, writer and director Elegance Bratton's "The Inspection," starring Jeremy Pope, Raul Castillo, and Aaron Dominguez, with Gabrielle Union and... Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Following a legendary run, Nancy Pelosi agrees to pass the torch. Hunter Walker @ Talking Points Memo: Pelosis Departure ... Michaela Jae Rodriguez honors Trans Awareness Week year-round simply by being her trailblazing self. [image: Portugal v Nigeria - International Friendly Football Match] FIFA World Cup 2022 is taking place in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal. | Photo ... On Tuesday Donald Trump delivered a speech announcing his entry into the 2024 presidential race. The speech itself was typically riddled with lies, self-ex... Hakeem. This is Hakeem Jeffries, and hes been there since 2012, and everybody says, this is probably the next minority leader. Could be a Speaker somed... Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 12 Even as the Supreme Court has set up a new SIT for investigating 186 cases of the 1984 riots, Cabinet Minister Rana Gurjit Singh said the Congress was not responsible for the riots. If our party was in power at that time in Delhi, we cannot treat it as being responsible for the riots, he said. Though the Congress had earlier been demanding fixing of accountability for the missing foodgrain stock of Rs 30,000 crore, Punjab minister Rana Gurjit Singh said his government had already started treating it as a loan. Rana, who was here for a music album release function, said, We have had to repay instalments of Rs 3,200 crore for this debt. The previous government left us this as a debt liability. Asked if his government would now enquire as to who all were the beneficiaries of the pilferage as was promised ahead of the polls, he replied, I cannot comment on that as the department is with the CM. But wherever there will be a scam, we will surely rake it up. Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 12 Former Technical Education Minister Anil Joshi said here today that former Punjab Technical University (PTU) Vice Chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora had paid the price for breaking the back of the education mafia, which had been operating on a large scale in distance education till 2012. The BJP leader demanded a CBI inquiry into the misdeeds of the mafia. Joshi said corrupt officials had conspired against Arora after the change of guard in the state. He added that the University Grants Commission (UGC) had taken a serious note of many gross violations. With the involvement of the Dean, Distance Education, and the Examination Branch, PTU issued a large number of fake degrees during 2010-12 through distance education by opening more than 2,500 learning centres across India. The racket was operated through a network of regional centres, Joshi said. Arora in judicial custody Jalandhar: The court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Kapurthala, today sent Rajneesh Arora to 14-day judicial remand. Arrested from his residence in Amritsar on Monday, Arora was in the remand of the Vigilance Bureau for his alleged involvement in financial irregularities, questionable appointments and administrative lapses. He was booked under Sections 409 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 13(1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The case was based on the findings of an inquiry report by former IAS officer SS Dhillon. As his remand got over today, the Vigilance Bureau did not seek any extension. Since the entire inquiry is based on documents, most of which we had already procured, we did not require his further remand, said Jalandhar Vigilance Bureau SSP Diljinder S Dhillon. Arora will be in judicial custody till January 25. The Vigilance officials who quizzed him during interrogation said Arora did not confess to having extended favours to his ex-classmate and consultant Parveen Kumar by paying him Rs 25-crore fee. We showed him documents to prove the violations. As we tried to grill him on his relations with RSS and BJP leaders, he kept claiming that he had not extended favours to his RSS peers in appointments, but we have incriminating records, said an officer. Jupinderjit Singh Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 12 Differences have come to the fore between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its alliance partner Lok Insaf Party (LIP) over the division of seats in the forthcoming elections to the 95-member Ludhiana Municipal Corporation. After a 13-member screening committee of members from both parties failed to divide seats, a five-member committee of top leaders of both parties was formed today. The leaders will visit Ludhiana to find out an amicable solution. The elections are likely to be held next month. Party sources said AAP wanted a bigger share of seats, but LIP insisted that it had more hold on Ludhiana as both its MLAs, Balwinder Singh Bains and Simarjit Singh Bains, had won from the urban seats. They argued that the alliance fought on six seats, out of which LIP contested on four. While LIP returned two MLAs to the Assembly, AAP could not win any seat. Under the same arrangement, LIP has demanded 64 seats However, AAP sources said the party leaders wanted more than 50 per cent seats. Leaders of both parties claimed that there was no tension over the matter. Simarjit Singh said as they had two MLAs from Ludhiana, they had a better chance to win seats. He added that his party was open to allot seats to AAP candidates in his constituency if they had better chances of win. AAP state deputy convener Aman Arora, too, said there was no conflict and the candidates would be chosen from both parties on the basis of their ability to win. Meanwhile, the state unit today welcomed the appointment of Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia as Punjab affairs incharge of the party. Ravi Sinha Consumer confidence is the lowest in the Indian real estate market in the past 10 years, ever since the market showed the first signs of nervousness. The worst part is that there is no hope of a market revival sometime soon as the homebuyers have already taken a conscious decision to stay away from the housing market for some more time. The recent job market uncertainty and the developers failure to seize legislative opportunities to come clean and trustworthy has only worsened the consumer outlook with what was once the sunrise industry and the best investment instrument for the majority of Indians. The low consumer confidence has been linked as much to peoples lack of confidence in their own ability to pay as to the employment uncertainties. Collectively, the buyers risk aversion in todays economy as well as the developers unfair business practices have eclipsed real estate like never before. Data collected from 20 top cities in the country reveals that seven out of 10 prospective homebuyers wont commit for the lifes costliest purchase anytime soon. Nearly half of homebuyers(nearly 48 per cent) are uncertain about the job survival; 27 per cent think the ROI (Return on Investment) is not attractive; and 25 per cent are fed up with the uncertain delivery timelines of the projects. Real estate figures at third level (only 20 per cent finding it to be the best investment) after 26 per cent voting for gold and other similar products with more liquidity options. It is about financial prudence and is definitely not an emotional urge to have a house of ones own. With double-digit returns, financial products make more sense to me. Over and above that I have the liquidity and I can monitor its performance on a weekly basis to stay put or exit. Real estate is by and large a locked-in investment today and in case of financial emergency it is often not easy to exit, maintains Shivprakash Reddy, a bank employee, in Hyderabad. Waiting for correction Beyond low consumer sentiment, there is another reason why the homebuyers would not commit in the housing market anytime soon. A majority of homebuyers fancy chances of property market correction, if not an outright crash. It is like who will blink first in the property market now. I know not many developers are in a position to hold on to the prices with the amount of inventory that they are sitting over. Hence, wait-and-watch is the best bet to get a better offer in year or two, says Sumedha Shah, an architect, in Ahmedabad. The buyer psychology, however, slightly varies between first-time homebuyers and the second/repeat buyers. While only 18 per cent second buyers have confidence in the market at this point of time, consumer confidence index stands 38% with first-time homebuyers. Missing policy boost The recent policy changes have so far not given a boost to consumer confidence. When I find the builders openly advertising the project with Super Built-up Area and not the Carpet Area then how would I trust that the RERA has fixed accountability? It seems either the law has no teeth or the projects are too many for the regulator to streamline the system. In some cases RERA actions that we read in the media reports are result of buyers fighting it hard with the builder. I am not sure how many of the buyers have the resources and time for all this, says Raman Prakash, a school teacher in Greater Noida West. The disillusioned buyers also maintain that despite the slowdown, the developers are not learning lessons and thus the ball is in the court of developers if the consumer confidence has to be improved sometime soon. The writer is CEO, Track2Realty Is it wise to invest? Over the past couple of years property seems to have lost its appeal in comparison with other competing products, with only two out of ten investors finding it the best place to park money. More than half as many as 54 per cent are interested in financial products like mutual funds and stocks for better ROI as well as the liquidity. Pessimism rules The consumer confidence score is the lowest in Kolkata at 12 out of 100. Consumer confidence score has been 28 at national level. However Bangalore surpassed the national average with a score of 34. Dhaka, January 12 Three militants were killed on Friday in a raid by Bangladesh's anti-crime elite force on a militant hideout near Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's office here. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Director General Benazir Ahmed confirmed the death of the three militants, Xinhua news agency reported. "Bodies of three militants were seen on the fifth floor of the building where they were hiding," he told journalists. He said security forces surrounded the house suspecting it to be militant hideout. Two RAB personnel were injured as the militants fired bullets and hurled a grenade. The militants also exploded several bombs as the law enforcers asked them to surrender. At least three persons, including the owner of the house, were detained. It was not known whether the Prime Minister was in her office during the raid on the hideout, which is located less than a half kilometer away. RAB spokesman Mufti Mahmud Khan said a bomb disposal unit of the RAB was working at the spot where some IEDs (improvised explosive devices) had been found. In the wake of the deadly July 2016 cafe attack, Bangladesh has conducted a series of large-scale operations against the militants. Neo-JMB, an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, was blamed for an attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery which killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners. IANS. Lahore, January 12 The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief and UN-designated global terrorist Hafiz Saeed has lashed out at the Pakistan government for not ushering Islamic rule in the country. They have started this work by finishing the message of Prophet Muhammad. Let us unite and pledge that we would not let it happen, Saeed has said at an event. Already at loggerheads with the United States (US), especially over its decision to suspend military aid to Pakistan, the 26/11 mastermind criticised both the US and Israel for the political chaos in the country. This is Israels agenda, which America is executing effectively. After losing in Afghanistan, it wants to wage a new war here in Pakistan. The unity that I am seeing today here is good but we need bigger and better unity and start a revolution. We have to stand up and do something better for Islam and Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed added. The JuD chief is also looking to contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan and has, thereby, formed a party by the name of Milli Muslim League (MML). Earlier this week, Saeed invited all Islamic states to launch 'Jihad' against the United States and Israel. Meanwhile, Pakistan recently prohibited Saeed's JuD and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) from collecting donations. Saeed has recently been released from house arrest after a Pakistani court cited lack of evidence against him in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case. India has, time and again, protested against Pakistan for harbouring Saeed, who is wanted for plotting the Mumbai attacks. ANI Islamabad, January 12 Pakistans army chief told a top US general the nation felt betrayed at criticism that it was not doing enough to fight terrorism, the military said on Friday, after US President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of lies and deceit. US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel told General Qamar Javed Bajwa during a telephone call this week that the United States was not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan, the Pakistani army said in a statement. Tension between the United States and Pakistan has grown over US complaints that the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network that target American troops in Afghanistan are allowed to take shelter on Pakistani soil. Trumps administration last week announced the suspension of about $2 billion in security aid to nuclear-armed Pakistan officially a US ally over accusations Islamabad is playing a double game in Afghanistan. Islamabad denies this and accuses the United States of disrespecting its vast sacrifices - casualties have numbered in the tens of thousands - in fighting terrorism. The US aid suspension was announced days after Trump tweeted on Jan. 1 that the United States had foolishly given Pakistan $33 billion in aid over 15 years and was rewarded with nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. It is not clear what prompted Trumps tweet, which infuriated Pakistani officials and caught the rest of the US administration off guard. The Pakistani statement on Friday did not directly refer to Trumps tweet. (Bajwa) said that entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed over US recent statements despite decades of cooperation, the army said, referring to the phone call between Bajwa and Votel. The Pakistani assertion that Votel said no unilateral action inside Pakistan was being considered may have referred to the possibility of cross-border US drone strikes and other military missions targeting Taliban and other militant figures outside the border area. In 2016, a US drone killed the then-leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, prompting protests from Islamabad of a violation of sovereignty. And in 2011, a secret American raid in the military garrison city of Abbottabad killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001, attacks on American cities that prompted the US-led invasion to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan. Since Trump took office, there have been several drone strikes in Pakistans border region but they have not so far gone deeper into Pakistani territory, though Islamabad believes that is on a menu of punitive actions the US administration is considering. However, the US military is also concerned that the Pakistani army, which effectively runs foreign policy, might close the air and land corridors on which US-led troops and Afghan forces in landlocked Afghanistan depend for supplies. So far, Pakistan has not done so. Reuters Lahore, January 12 The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ordered the police chief of Pakistans Punjab province to arrest within 36 hours the culprit behind the brutal rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl that shook the country. The LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, hearing a petition filed by an advocate to arrest the culprit, expressed surprise that despite reports of earlier incidents of similar nature from Kasur district of Punjab province, none of the cases were brought to the court. Police said they have taken 20 suspects into custody and sent their blood samples for DNA testing. A total 220 suspects have been interrogated so far in the brutal murder of the child. However 20 of them have been taken into custody and their blood samples sent for DNA testing, senior police officer Zulfiqar Hameed told reporters today. The official said the forensic profiling will help determine whether the perpetrators behind the girls murder are same as those wanted in 10 other such cases in Kasur. Hameed said police have got some vital clue in the case and will soon arrest the culprit. The LHC chief justice ordered the police to submit details of all the cases of child sexual abuse that had taken place in the area, adding that he would also demand a report on the cases from the sessions judge, the DawnNews reported. The chief justice warned that the court would not tolerate any delay in the case, at which the IGP assured him that the culprit would be caught. The hearing was adjourned until January 15. On January 10, protests had erupted in Kasur after the childs body was found in a garbage heap. Autopsy reports revealed that the girl was rapes, tortured and was then strangled to death. The horrific incident triggered public outrage throughout the country with people demanding justice for the child. The girls murder was the 12th such incident reported in Kasur district in a year. Kasur had made headlines in 2015 as well when it was revealed that a gang of paedophiles was busted for running a child sex ring in the city. Normalcy returned to the city today after the father of the girl appealed to the people to end protest. Meanwhile, the Punjab government has changed the head of the investigation team after the girls father expressed dissatisfaction over the pace of investigation. Amid the nationwide outrage over the incident, a gatekeeper at a school in Karachis Ibrahim Hyderi area was today taken into custody for allegedly sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl, the daily reported. Police said the gatekeeper had allegedly attempted to assault the child yesterday, after which she went home and told her parents. PTI Washington, January 12 Donald Trump has his first medical exam as US President on Friday after a week in which his mental fitness for the job has come under intense scrutiny. A new best-selling book portrays Trump, 71, as unfocused and childlike. The White House has faced a barrage of questions over his contradictory messages on key policies and an incident last month where he slurred some words while giving a speech. Trump, who has been openly exasperated with the coverage, told reporters on Thursday he expected his exam would go well. It better go well, otherwise the stock market will not be happy, Trump said with a smile. The White House will determine what data will be released from the exam, which will take place at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Maryland. Trump is not compelled to release any information. There is no set template for the presidential exam. Past presidents are not known to have been tested for mental acuity while in office, including Ronald Reagan, who five years after leaving the White House was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease. Trumps examination will not include a psychiatric exam, a White House spokesman said. Reuters Once youve mastered the basics of analyzing data, go beyond canned reports to unlock the doors to greater efficiency and profitability. P&S Transportation has always been data-driven, but the tools available today make it much easier for people throughout the organization to gain valuable insights from data without being IT experts, says Mauricio Paredes, vice president of business technology for the Birmingham, Alabama-based 1,300-truck flatbed carrier. Generating reports from data can help provide business-critical information to fleets of all types and sizes, but such reports can be frustrating to compile and tedious to set up. Creating layouts with trends and graphical information can also be time-consuming. And static reports only give one dimension of data. Peredes says the canned reports offered by most transportation management software only go so far. Thats why its important to move beyond traditional data analysis into whats called business intelligence, or BI. If you want to see a particular number by a different dimension, a different qualifier, BI tools allow you take a number and slice it by other dimensions, Paredes says. So we were able to take tractor revenue number and slice it by dispatcher, for example, so it made it much easier to follow peoples hunches about why a number was the way it was. P&S uses McLeod Softwares products, including McLeod IQ, which gives customers the ability to access and analyze data from its LoadMaster, PowerBroker and other software using Microsoft Excel or other popular reporting tools. Canned reports, they give you a snapshot in time of whats happening, says Jonathan May, director of business intelligence at McLeod Software. But we wanted to be able to provide trends, do analysis; you can make forecasts looking at previous historical trends. Those kind of things. As the company describes it, McLeod IQ uses the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack to create a multidimensional cube that aggregates all of the customers important metric data in a way that is easier than ever to understand, report, and analyze. McLeod IQ also provides access to the companys data warehouse for users to pull in other data sources that may not be part of their McLeod system, such as the information from their mobile communications and maintenance systems. Todays analytics tools give employees data to help them make better decisions and dig into the data to get a better feel for what makes the key numbers change. Think cubic Enter data cubes. A data cube is a multi-dimensional array of values, used to represent data along some measure of interest. Paredes explains that this allows you to rotate the numbers in different ways and see what it means for your operation. For example, he says, you might run a report from your TMS on revenue by tractor. What if we want to follow that number all the way to the dispatcher involved? he asks. In a traditional TMS, he says, you would have to take this report and try to manipulate it a lot of ways. Tools like Power BI and McLeod IQ allow you to look at the same number with all these different dimensions as a way of further looking at what affects that revenue. When you do that, he says, you might discover that a truck that was producing lower-than-usual revenue had a different dispatcher or a different driver than usual. Having different ways of looking at the data might indicate a problem with operations or with the driver or with the equipment itself, he says. Having that flexibility would allow you to follow the trail of the data to the root cause of why the data changed. Youre always looking for your data to help you in figuring out whats going on in the real world. Another example is maintenance. A traditional report would give you downtime per tractor. What if you could now split that downtime by what type of issues were keeping that tractor down and what models were having that downtime? Now you might find that Brand X is more likely to have downtime around this particular maintenance issue, so then you can act, Paredes says. The tools themselves dont tell you what to do, but the data is not telling you where to act. Now you can be more preventive around that particular issue. Challenge assumptions Data can also help you learn whether the things you assume are true, actually are. Daren Lauda, general manager of Teletrac Navman North America, cites a recent example from a customer. Based on the number of warnings coming from the in-cab technology, he says, the fleet thought a particular driver was the worst in the fleet. But a closer look at the data showed that nearly all of those warnings were coming on a very specific curve within a half-mile of the fleets facility. When they actually looked at the data, they realized it wasnt that much of a problem at all. Looking at a broader example, when Minnesota-based Kottke Trucking decided a couple of years ago to get more insight into its operation with TCGs Activity-Based Costing and Profitability Management Tools, it was eye-opening, says General Manager Kyle Kottke. My assumptions about what was winning and losing werent as accurate as I had assumed they would be. Particular lanes I assumed would prove to be merited as a cornerstone of our business got altered and changed when it became evident they were not as profitable as once thought. Costing software like TCG works with existing TMS programs to allow fleets to drill down into data and analyze profitability, reorganize freight lanes, focus on operations, and give customers justification for rate changes. Tom Poduch, director of logistics design for Transervice, says analyzing data relative to truck speed led the team down some interesting paths. The New-York-based company owns, operates, and manages more than 24,000 pieces of equipment from 126 locations in its full-service leasing and dedicated contract carriage business. It has used onboard computers and the data they can provide for a long time. The conventional wisdom, Poduch explains, was that driving at faster speeds would waste fuel. But when they crunched the numbers, they discovered that drivers could safely travel a little faster on cruise control without sacrificing fuel efficiency. And beyond that, they started using that data to evaluate whether they actually had the best truck specs for their operation. How much engine load are we physically using? Do we really need a 450-hp motor, or could you accomplish the same thing with 395 hp and different gearing, maybe better aerodynamics? Poduch says. One of the things P&S Transportation relies on data for is talking to drivers about improving their performance. If drivers dont trust your data, they say, you wont have much credibility when you talk to them about their driving habits. Find hidden opportunities While you may want to start with the simple things, the low-hanging fruit that can move the needle (to mix a few hackneyed business phrases), there are gold mines hiding in the data once you start digging. For instance, McLeods May says many fleets have traditionally looked at revenue per mile, but is that really whats driving your business? That answers nothing about the expense side of things. You dont know if youre getting the best rates, the best customers, things like that. Theres so much more than revenue per mile. Pete Allen, chief client officer for MiX Telematics, says in his experience, one area fleets should look at is asset utilization. A fleet may not actually realize that 5% of its 100 trucks arent really being used. Maybe they could remove that 5% and get a pretty significant cost reduction. A couple of new measures that have started to gain popularity in the last few years are velocity-distance and velocity-revenue, May says. Velocity-distance is the average mph from when a truck picks up a load to when it delivers it. If you have a load where the average was 20 mph, he says, you might decide that it would make more sense to take a different order that averages 50 or 60 mph, because its more efficient utilization of your equipment. Velocity-revenue is the revenue per hour from when the load is picked up to when its delivered how much money is that truck making per hour on that load? Youve got to start thinking about, not only, is it profitable from dollars and sense, but from [the aspect of], this lane might take twice as long to deliver, so Im losing capacity or the ability to take other loads. Another metric May says has been helpful is something McLeod calls momentum. This tracks each status change of an order in the system, from when its placed to when its delivered to when its billed, etc., and how long each step takes. One of our customers, Barton Logistics, said, Ive got a problem but Im not sure where it exists. Once we started mapping these out for him, [we found out] it was sitting in billing for over five days before anyone did anything with it. So youre missing out on cash flow at that point. Chris Henry, program manager for the Truckload Carriers Associations InGauge program, says gross margin is a metric commonly used in other industries but not yet popular in trucking. Thats changing, he says, and its a metric that InGauge has been focusing on with its data benchmarking program. In broad terms, gross margin is the difference between revenue and cost of goods sold, divided by revenue, and expressed as a percentage. It doesnt include indirect fixed costs like office expenses, rent, or administrative costs. Gross margin can help businesses determine how much of the revenue generated by the company results in profits rather than going toward covering costs. The higher a companys gross margin, the more efficiently the company operates. But what exactly goes into the cost of goods sold can vary, and trucking operations dont fit neatly into models designed for retail or manufacturing businesses. I think the problem is standardization, Henry says. If you go to 10 different trucking companies theyre going to have 10 different definitions of what are variable costs [a key component of COGS] and what arent. By putting our foot down as a group and saying these are what we consider variable costs, you have the standardization and have a way to compare yourself. What business intelligence really offers you is better insights into what your transactional reporting does for you, says Mauricio Paredes at Alabama-based P&S Transportation. Look outside your company Analyzing your own companys internal data can only take you so far. In addition to the benchmarking we covered in Part 1 (see December 2017 issue, page 54), theres other outside data you can take advantage of, explains Tim Leonard, executive vice president, operations and technology for TMW Systems. I think you do need enterprise business intelligence data to truly see where I compare, he says. Its not that difficult any more. Five years ago, very difficult. I think its just a learning lesson that there is a lot of data thats free out there that you can get and do some of this work yourself. For instance, he says, TMW is working with fellow Trimble company PeopleNet to analyze what drivers say on social media. Drivers arent always going to say things inside the company, he says, but they may say them on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn. By using auto APIs on Twitter, for instance, and similar tools on other social media platforms, We can watch 100,000 to 200,000 related drivers through social media, he says. We dont capture their names, but try to capture trends around the words hate or dislike or love working for this company. We can do better driver profiling. They also track phrases relating to job satisfaction, such as home time, better pay, more responsibility. One area that surprised us a little was recognition for doing a good job. Getting more recognition, theyre proud to be a driver, the company is proud of their drivers. Other examples of outside data include weather, traffic, and safety scores. Keep at it Whether youre just dipping your toe into data analytics or looking to move to the next level of business intelligence and big data, perhaps you can look for inspiration to the Nike slogan, Just Do It. If you havent looked into what BI can do for you, look into it, Paredes says. The tools now have gotten much simpler to use. The cost of entry is much lower, so your return on investment is much shorter. Theres so much information out there now that can help. You dont need to be an expert or hire an expert; you can just start playing with the data yourself. And as TCAs Henry adds, The longer you progress, the more resources you put into it, the more you should get out of it. Coolgreens, a healthy lifestyle eatery based in Oklahoma City, is moving into the Tulsa market. The quick-service restaurant features build-your-own salads, wraps, bowls, flatbreads and more and has seven locations in the Oklahoma City area. The first Tulsa location is planned for the 41st Street and Hudson Avenue area with an opening in late summer or early fall. Tulsa is much like Oklahoma City in that there arent a lot of healthy options available out there, and we saw the same opportunity that we have seen, said Clay Carson, vice president of franchise development at Coolgreens. This is a good market for us to be in. The people are active, and dare I say maybe even a bit more active than Oklahoma City. When Coolgreens announced earlier this year that it was looking to expand into the Tulsa market, Chris and Susan Gates were intrigued. The couple were looking for an investment opportunity and were drawn to the Oklahoma City restaurants philosophy and approach to making eating healthy a lifestyle. Weve been looking at franchise opportunities to try and build that additional income and recurring revenue into our personal lives, he said. We wanted to find the right one and have been pretty picky. The pair grew up in the Enid area and graduated from Drummond High School before attending Oklahoma State University. After college, they moved around the country living in Alaska, Texas and Colorado before settling back in Oklahoma. Chris Gates worked first in the oil and gas industry before moving into high-tech sales. Once they were back in Oklahoma, Susan Gates opened the Pecan Porch in Catoosa. After running the restaurant for several years, she sold it and took a job with the University of Tulsa. The couple have signed on to open at least three Coolgreens stores in the Tulsa area. Other areas being considered include 101st Street and Memorial Drive and 91st Street and Yale Avenue. Susan Gates said that she feels a momentum in the Tulsa area where people are starting to look more at the food they eat and where it comes from. People are focusing on healthier, cleaner eating, she said. If you look at the Coolgreens menu, they provide gluten free, vegetarian, vegan as well as meat and dairy. Some people think thats a fad, but I think the younger generations see that as the way they want to eat. Tulsa Public Schools five-year experiment with McLain 7th Grade Academy could be coming to an end. The district is strongly considering shuttering the school and moving its students to McLain Junior and Senior High School. Tulsa Public Schools is seriously considering the possibility of reconfiguring McLains grade levels to include both 7th and 8th graders in a designated junior high school space on the McLain campus, TPS Chief of Schools Errick Greene wrote in a letter to parents. The announcement comes on the heels of plummeting enrollment. In 2016, the 7th Grade Academy had 181 students, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Educations enrollment database. In 2017, the number of students shrank to 92, the most recent database shows. Any reconfiguration would have to go to the Tulsa school board for approval. Deputy Superintendent Paula Shannon said a formal recommendation to the board could come in the next four to six weeks. Greene, in his letter, and Shannon, in an interview with the Tulsa World, said the move was about equity of access for course offerings. The change could also allow students to benefit from mentoring and tutoring from City Year Tulsa corps members (and) afford access to our innovative Teach to One math curriculum that has proven successful with our current McLain eighth-grade students, Greene wrote. Shannon said students at McLain have a limited selection of electives, and interviews with eighth-graders at McLain Junior and Senior High have led to students saying they are experiencing a real school. McLain 7th Grade Academy opened in the 2013-14 school year after overcrowding at McLain Junior and Senior High in 2012-13 led to class sizes of 50 students. More than 150 more students than expected showed up that year, forcing the district to scramble and bring in teachers from other sites. When the school board voted on repurposing the then-closed Alcott Elementary for the McLain 7th Grade Academy, the initial cost estimate for renovating the building was $1.34 million. When, and if, the district were to shutter the seventh-grade center, there would be some cost-savings, Shannon said. TPS didnt have a figure readily available. 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. Tulsa police released a composite sketch based only on DNA Thursday, saying the sketch could look like the man who killed an 18-year-old college student in 2004. Police partnered with Parabon NanoLabs in generating a composite sketch using DNA recovered from the location where Brittany Phillips was strangled. Phillips body was found in her apartment at 9407 E. 65th St. on Sept. 30, 2004. The residence showed signs of a break-in, and evidence suggests a sexual assault occurred, investigators said. Phillips was last known to be alive on Sept. 27, 2004, after returning from a class at Tulsa Community College. Her mother, Margaret Zingman, has covered her SUV in a vinyl wrap that provides information on how to report tips about her daughters death. Zingman continues her efforts to assist police in identifying her daughters killer. The case was instrumental in Oklahomas changing its laws to allow DNA to be collected upon a persons arrest, police said in a release. TPD researched innovative ways to move this case forward and believes DNA collected at the crime scene will provide a face to the killer, homicide Sgt. Dave Walker said in the release. Parabons Phenotype Report revealed that the DNA belongs to a white male with a fair complexion. He might have green or blue eyes and either brown or blond hair. The composite estimates his age as 25 in 2004. Anyone with information on Phillips death is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 918-596-2677, the Homicide Tip Line at 918-798-8477 or email homicide@cityoftulsa.org. A woman carries her baby as she disembarks the boat that rescued her while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy, in December 2015. UNHCR/Francesco Malavolta UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency is renewing its appeal to countries for help in saving human lives by offering more resettlement places and other safe alternatives to protection for refugees, including through family reunification. This week alone, some 160 people were reported dead or missing in three separate incidents in the Mediterranean. On Monday (8 January), the survivors of an incident that may have claimed more than 60 lives were picked up by the Italian coastguard and disembarked in Catania. In addition to eight corpses recovered by the rescuers, 56 people, including 15 women and 6 children, are feared to have drowned. On the same day, in a separate incident, a dinghy carrying 54 people capsized off Morocco. The Moroccan coastguard reported that two men had drowned. On Tuesday (9 January), UNHCR and our partner, the International Medical Corps, assisted with the disembarkation in Tripoli of 279 refugees and migrants by the Libyan coastguard. The survivors reported that between 60 and 100 people were still missing at sea. No bodies have been found so far. In September 2017, UNHCR appealed urgently for 40,000 resettlement places for refugees in 15 priority countries of asylum and transit along the Central Mediterranean route. In all, 277,000 refugees are estimated to be in need of resettlement in these countries. Against these projected needs, UNHCR has to date received approximately 13,000 offers of resettlement places in 2018 and 2019. Most of these are part of regular established global resettlement programmes and only a few represent additional places. Since November 2017, UNHCR has evacuated hundreds of vulnerable refugees, the vast majority children and women, from Libya to Niger. For unaccompanied children, a solution in the best interest of each child will be identified, while adults go through UNHCR regular processing with a view to identifying solutions for them, including resettlement. UNHCR has been advocating for a comprehensive approach to address movements of migrants and refugees who embark on perilous journeys across the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean. These efforts should include building or strengthening protection capacity and livelihood support in countries of first asylum, providing more regular and safe ways for refugees to find safety through legal pathways such as resettlement and family reunification, and addressing the root causes and drivers of refugee displacement. For more information on this topic, please contact: Jean-Pierre Rondossi gestures across the Ubangi River towards the other bank, pointing to where his home and his heart lie. A 10-minute canoe ride away are the charred ruins of the village of Wapale, in the war-torn Central African Republic (CAR), which he and his family fled in fear in May last year as fighting between rival armed groups drew near. Its residents fled across the choppy waters in their dugout canoes to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as soon as they heard gunfire in the neighbouring village. They knew theirs would be the next to be attacked. "I found my wife in panic. We fled straight away. Wapale now lies empty, its houses burned down, its cattle stolen, and its fields of coffee, manioc and peanuts looted and vandalized. Jean-Pierre, his mother, his wife and four children live in the makeshift village of Kpakpo in the DRC, which shelters 800 people who fled riverside villages in the CAR. One day I was coming back from school, and I found my wife in panic. We fled straight away, the 40-year-old former teacher says. This is why I am still wearing the same shoes and trousers I wore in class that day. This is all I could bring with me. Like many of the men, he survives by fishing on the river, but life is tough without access to their fields, a stones throw away on the other side. The women work as day labourers for 30 US cents a day on land owned by local people. More than 60,000 CAR refugees have arrived in the DRC since May 2017. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has helped many of them, and their host communities, by drilling wells, providing medical supplies and helping to expand local schools. It is also preparing the transfer of some of the most vulnerable to a refugee camp. 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: Centres interference in judiciary dangerous for democracy: Mamata Kolkata, Jan 12 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today expressed her anguish on the recent developments about the Supreme Court. Reacting to the comments by four senior Honble Judges of the Supreme Court about the affairs of the Court, the Chief Minister said it made her sad as a citizen. She maintained that judiciary and media are the pillars of democracy and that interference by the Centre in the workings of judiciary is dangerous for democracy. Dhaka, Jan 12 (UNI) A team of officers attached to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh's anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit raided a 'militant outfit' and killed a suspected militant in Tejgaon Industrial area of Dhaka on Friday morning. Sounds of gunshots were heard from the six-storey building in Tejkunipara area. The law enforcers cordoned off building early morning, said Maj Roysul Azam, deputy director of RAB's legal and media wing. Sensing presence of the RAB members, the 'militants' fired bullets and hurled grenade at the law enforcers, he said. Later, the members of the elite force entered the hideout after breaking its door, Mr Mufti Mahmud Khan, RAB's legal and media wing director, said, adding that "more than one militant died in the operation". UNI MAZ SV 0850 UN envoy for Somalia calls for calm following clashes United Nations, Jan 12 (UNI) The top United Nations envoy for Somalia has called for calm and dialogue amid reports of clashes between security forces from Somaliland and neighbouring Puntland. Our position is to try and reduce tensions [and] to increase dialogue very quickly between both sides, so that if there are misunderstandings, these are clarified, said the UN Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Somalia, Michael Keating, on Thursday while in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland. If there are genuine differences, then they have to be subject to immediate discussion, he added. But resorting to military solutions and to violence is not the way to resolve these problems. January 12 2018 The University of Aberdeen has lodged plans to build a Reiach & Hall designed Science Teaching Hub to unify lab-based education within the campus following a public consultation Offering 4,000sq/m of net floorspace the building will be centred on a central break out and engagement space with open circulation throughout. Externally the property will be faced in large stone panels to reflect the modular nature of the build the hub will also employ anodized aluminium and curtain wall glazing.Horner + Maclennan have been tasked with overseeing landscaping which will include a paved frontage, lighting and cast stone street furniture.Explaining their facade treatments, the architects observed: The building is planned on 3.3m laboratory bench planning grid using a 6.6m structural grid to provide clear spans for maximum flexibility. This is expressed in elevationwith consideration for floor levels and site context scale, and areas of solid and void, providing a syntax for an architectural language.It is expected that work will get underway by mid-2019 for completion by the first quarter of 2021. (Jan. 9, 2018) -- The UTSA University Center (UC) is adopting a new name that more accurately reflects its role on the UTSA Main Campus. Moving forward, the complex will now be the UTSA Student Union. A focal point of campus life at UTSA, the UTSA Student Union (University Center) opened its doors in 1986 and has been a place for Roadrunners to study, relax, network, eat and get involved in campus life. Over the past 30 years, the center has grown alongside increasing enrollment at UTSA to include three buildings designed to serve the needs of students. Every day, thousands of UTSA students come to the Student Union to continue their student development outside of the classroom experience. The term student or college union is recognized internationally as a gathering place designed for students and resonates broadly with UTSA students and guests. The name change is student-directed and was initiated last fall by the University Center Advisory Council. The Council approved a resolution, which was then reviewed and voted in favor by the UTSA Student Government Association. There is a lot of excitement about the new name change, said Herb Ganey, director of the UTSA Student Union. This change will better serve students and allow UTSA to thrive as a place that creates an atmosphere that supports student success. The name change is effective immediately, but students and staff can expect to see the change fully implemented over the next several months in campus signage, maps, and print and web publications. Madison School Board member Nicki Vander Meulen, pictured in this file photo from October 2017, said The Teacher Protection Act would destroy the work MMSD and schools across the state have accomplished to keep kids in school. Members of the University of Illinois Black Chorus perform a spiritual hymn during the annual celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol last year. There are events throughout the coming weekend to honor King's work. A soldier with a pack Reindeer, on slippery ice, near the tiny village of Nautsi, in northern Lapland, Finland, on October 26, 1941. Flamethrower in action in the woods near the village of Niinisalo, on July 1, 1942. Pilots in flight above Jamijarvi, on July 17, 1942. Propeller-driven snowmobile near Haapasaari, Finland. The swastika was used as the official national marking of the Finnish Air Force and Tank Corps between 1918 and 1945. Looking out toward approaching aircraft with binoculars and listening with a huge acoustic locator. Finnish tank crew, July 8, 1941. Evacuation of civilians, on July 1, 1941. Hitler's visit to Finland. Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, made a brief visit to Finland in June of 1942. Anti-aircraft fire over Suomenlinna, Helsinki. The Soviet bombing of Helsinki, on November 30, 1939. On this day, the Soviet Union invaded Finland with 21 divisions, totaling some 450,000 troops. A wounded man is carried away after bombardment of a civilian area. The bombing of Helsinki. The main building of Helsinki University, on Senate Square, burns during the night. A street scene after enemy bomb attacks. Finnish anti-aircraft crew in action in Helsinki. Icicles hang inside a bombed-out building in Viipuri, Finland (now Vyborg, Russia). A Finnish armored train. An experiment in troop transportation in cold weather. At the Hameenlinna war dog school. Street fighting in Medvezhyegorsk, Russia. The town was occupied by Finland for three years. Some of an estimated 400 Russian soldiers killed in a battle, on February 1, 1940. A downed Russian plane. Destroyed by bombing, tram lines are repaired in February of 1944. Two girls, in ruins near Martin's Church in Turku, Finland. Russian prisoners of war. A barge lifts a wrecked locomotive. The hospital's bomb shelter in Mikkeli. Aftermath of a bombing attack. Soldiers carry a wounded man on a path. Vyborg Cathedral, after the bombing. Stuka dive-bombers fly over, Immola, July 2, 1944. Finnish motorcycle and tank. A parked bicycle, camouflaged. Ontrosenvaara, August 17, 1941. In 2013, the Finnish Defence Forces put an archive of 160,000 WWII-era photographs online. The images record the war years from 1939 to 1945, spanning three conflicts the Finns recognize as the Winter War (against an invading Soviet Union), the Continuation War (striking against the Soviets alongside the Germans) and the Lapland War (against the Germans for control of Lapland). Below are some of amazing images from the collection.(via The Atlantic Defendants Dinh La Thang and Trinh Xuan Thanh The sentences proposed for all defendants are as follows: 1. Dinh La Thang (former chairman of PetroVietnams Board of Directors): 14-15 years of imprisonment. 2. Trinh Xuan Thanh (former chairman of the Board of Directors and general director of PetroVietnam Construction JSC - PVC): 13-14 years of imprisonment for intentionally violating state regulations on economic management and causing serious consequences and life imprisonment for asset embezzlement. Altogether, the Procuracy proposed sentence of life imprisonment to him. 3. Phung Dinh Thuc (former general director of PetroVietnam): 12-13 years of imprisonment. 4. Nguyen Quoc Khanh (former deputy general director of PetroVietnam): 10-11 years of imprisonment. 5. Nguyen Xuan Son (former deputy general director of PetroVietnam): 10-11 years of imprisonment. 6. Vu Duc Thuan (former general director of PVC): 8-9 years of imprisonment for intentionally violating state regulations and 18-19 years for asset embezzlement. He was proposed sentence of a total of 26-28 years of imprisonment. 7. Ninh Van Quynh (former chief accountant and head of Finance and Accounting Division of PetroVietnam): 10-11 years of imprisonment. 8. Le Dinh Mau (former deputy head of Finance and Accounting division of PetroVietnam): 7-8 years of imprisonment. 9. Vu Hong Chuong (former head of the Project Management Unit of Thai Binh 2 thermal power project): 2-3 years of imprisonment, suspended for 4-5 years of probation. 10. Tran Van Nguyen (former chief accountant of the Project Management Unit of Thai Binh 2 thermal power project): 2-3 years of imprisonment, suspended for 4-5 years of probation. 11. Nguyen Ngoc Quy (former vice chairman of the PVC Board of Management): 8-9 years of imprisonment. 12. Nguyen Manh Tien (former deputy general director of PVC): 7-8 years of imprisonment. 13. Pham Tien Dat (former chief accountant of PVC): 6-7 years of imprisonment. 14. Truong Quoc Dung (former deputy general director of PVC): 17-18 months of imprisonment. Defendants charged with asset embezzlement: 15. Nguyen Anh Minh (former deputy general director of PVC): 18-19 years of imprisonment. 16. Bui Manh Hien (former chief of Office of PVC): 13-14 years of imprisonment. 17. Luong Van Hoa (former director of Project Management Unit of Vung Ang-Quang Trach under PVC): 13-14 years of imprisonment. 18. Nguyen Thanh Quynh (former director technical-technology of Mien Trung Corporation under Danang JSC): 8-9 years of imprisonment. 19. Le Thi Anh Hoa (former director of Quynh Hoa One Member Co., Ltd.): 30-36 months of imprisonment, suspended for 5 years of probation. 20. Nguyen Duc Hung (former head of Finance-Accounting division under the Project Management Unit of Vung Ang-Quang Trach project): 30- 36 months of imprisonment, suspended for 5 years of probation. 21. Le Xuan Khanh (former head of Economic-Planning Division under the Project Management Unit of Vung Ang-Quang Trach project): 30-36 months of imprisonment, suspended for 5 years of probation. 22. Nguyen Ly Hai (former head of Technical Office under the Project Management Unit of Vung Ang-Quang Trach project): 30-36 months of imprisonment, suspended for 5 years of probation. The representative of the Procuracy said that this is a very serious case. All the defendants are leaders of important companies, a position they were appointed to manage state capital and deploy major projects important to the entire country. However, due to group and individual interests, they have committed serious violations. Defendant Dinh La Thang was found to have directed his staff to sign contracts in contravention of regulations. Thereby, Trinh Xuan Thanh could take money and spend it for the wrong purposes. Defendant Trinh Xuan Thanh, along with Vu Duc Thuan, signed EPC Contract No.33 and received the advance amounts of over $6.6 million and VND1.312 trillion ($58 million). Thanh misused VND1.115 trillion ($49.1 million) instead of the implementation of the Thai Binh 2 thermal power project, causing economic damages of over VND119 billion ($5.25 million). Trinh Xuan Thanh directed Vu Duc Thuan, Nguyen Anh Minh, and Luong Van Hoa to create fake records to withdraw over VND13 billion ($573,000) from the Vung Ang-Quang Trach project. Trinh Xuan Thanh embezzled VND4 billion ($176,000) of this amount. At the court, almost all defendants pleaded their guilty. However, defedant Dinh La Thang confirmed only his responsibilities as a leader of the corporation, not seriously aware of his illegal acts. The defendants acts of asset embezzlement were penalised in line with the amended 2015 Criminal Code, which took effect on January 1, 2018. PVC embezzlement trial starts today This morning, the Hanoi Peoples Court opened the first instance hearing of Dinh La Thang, Trinh Xuan Thanh, and 20 other related defendants charged with intentionally violating state regulations on economic management and causing serious consequences and asset embezzlement. Trial of Dinh La Thang and 21 others to start on January 8 On January 8, 2018, the Hanoi Peoples Court will open the first instance hearing of the trial of Dinh La Thang and 21 other defendants in relation to serious economic crimes at PetroVietnam Construction Corporation (PVC), according to newswire Vnexpress. Dinh La Thang arrested and facing legal proceedings Dinh La Thang - a member of the Party Central Committee and deputy chairman of the committee's Economic Commission, was arrested on December 8, 2017 by the Investigation Police Department in relation to two serious economic crimes during his chairmanship of the Member Council of Vietnam's oil and gas group PetroVietnam. Local banks are restructuring themselves, with stocks eyed by both investment funds and foreign banks Photo: Le Toan Reclaiming the crown In recent months, stocks of Vietnamese banks have earned significant attention thanks to their renewed appeal with foreign investors. Most recently, Ho Chi Minh Development Bank HDBank raised $300 million from international investors, after selling shares to existing investors through the book-building method. The $300 million HDBank deal was the second-largest ever in the Vietnamese banking sector, just below Vietcombanks $460 million deal in 2007. The number of registered purchases tripled the amount of shares on offer, similar to the heavily-subscribed deal of VPBank last May. Following the share sale, HDBank made its debut on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange last Friday, hitting the price ceiling on the first trading day. Late last year, the Holland-based PYN Elite Fund spent $40 million on 4.99 per cent of TPBanks shares, making its first foray into the domestic banking sector. Last October, Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF), managed by VinaCapital Group, acquired nearly 5 per cent stake at Orient Commercial Bank (OCB) in a deal valued at $11 million. This is the first banking investment made by VOF since 2012, signalling the funds growing optimism about the sector. In a recent note to investors, Vu Huu Dien, fund manager at Dragon Capital, maintained a positive view on Vietnams banks, as they benefit from recent restructurings that are reducing non-performing loans and repairing their balance sheets. Banking is currently the biggest sector in the portfolio of Vietnam Enterprise Investment Limited, the flagship fund of Dragon Capital. Analysts pointed out that Vietnamese lenders can now push their cleanup of bad debts thanks to a recovering economy, growing consumer confidence, and especially Resolution 42, which paves the way for banks to sell collaterals at market prices. Dennis Hussey, CEO of ANZ Vietnam and head of the Greater Mekong Region, expressed his optimism that the upcoming Basel II will force Vietnamese lenders to improve risk management, raise capital, and manage non-performing loans. All of these improvements will bode well for the financial sector in general. Banks versus investment funds Despite warming sentiments from investment funds, it seems like foreign banks are thinking otherwise. Recently, a number of foreign banks have withdrawn their stake in Vietnamese lenders after years of partnership. The latest case is BNP Paribas who divested its entire 18.68 per cent stake from OCB last week, ending a 10-year alliance between the two lenders. Previously, HSBC Vietnam also withdrew from Techcombank, while Standard Chartered exited Asian Commercial Bank. These divestments have sparked concerns that these overseas institutions are trying to exit Vietnam. There is also speculation that international banks have a lower risk appetite than investment funds, prompting them to get rid of their stake in debt-ridden Vietnamese lenders while funds are flocking in. However, these rumours have been put to rest by industry insiders. Aymar de Liedekerke Beaufort, Ho Chi Minh City-based country head for Vietnam at BNP Paribas, confirmed to VIR that the OCB stake a minority stake without strategic involvement was not in line with their overall business development plan in Vietnam anymore. This is the reason we decided to dispose of our remaining holdings [at OCB], said de Liedekerke Beaufort. He stressed that BNP Paribas remains committed to the Vietnamese market with two branches and significant stake in the Vietcombank Cardiff Life Insurance Company. Similarly, ANZs Hussey repeated that the bank has huge plans for Vietnam, following the sale of its retail banking arm to Shinhan Bank. The bank only sold its retail business due to strategic changes on the corporate level and not because it wants to exit Vietnam, said Hussey. Lien Le, head of institutional research at Maybank Kim Eng Securities, told VIR that these withdrawals are due to either changes in the global banks strategies or in their domestic partners. Those divestments do not necessarily mean they have a lower risk appetite than investment funds, Le said. The analyst further pointed out that increased appetite by foreign funds towards domestic banks is likely to increase in 2018, as more banks such as TPBank and Techcombank gear up for listing or plan to raise capital to comply with Basel II. Banking is also the second-largest sector in Vietnams stock market, taking up 20 per cent of the VN-Index. With all of these new listings, investment funds who allocate their capital based on sectors will have more bank stock options to choose from, said Le. 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 on 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". "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 Feb 15, 2017. SICK INFANTS The plant has been at a standstill since Dec 8 and said on 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. ACV's violations are being investigated Violations on land management According to the conclusion of the Government Inspectorate, during 2012-2015, ACV used the wrong capital source to invest in the construction of the new $13.1-million E6 runway project at Danang International Airport. Thereby, ACV has to pay additional corporate income tax of VND62.674 billion ($2.76 million). Additionally, ACV made mistakes in evaluating state-owned assets at the moment of equitisation. The Government Inspectorate has also detected that ACV and some airport branches leased 2.931 hectares of land and contributed capital for the wrong purposes. ACV had not completed the procedures to rent out 1.924 ha of land to the state before the equitisation as prescribed, leaving no basis for the payment of land rent. While the 7.63 ha of defence land for the expansion of Tan Son Nhat International Airport was cleared, the procedures conducted by the Ministry of Transport (MoT) and the Ministry of National Defence (MoD) to allocate the land to ACV were not in accordance with regulations. The incorrect calculation of the compensation of the cost of works on the land resulted in a total loss of VND61.605 billion ($2.71 million). MoT, MoD, ACV, and consultancy company ADCC are responsible for this loss. The inspection of ACVs business activities claims that the company recorded an increased value of assets without any invoices and documents to allow for the VND70.413 billion ($3.1 million) depreciation of fixed assets. From 2007 to December 2014, ACV did not pay land rent and needs to pay the state a total VND309.019 billion ($13.6 million). ACV did not carry out the bidding in accordance with the regulations but has been appointing contractors to lease most of the land to provide airport services since 2010 (only in 2014 and 2015 ACV has signed 803 contracts worth VND701.185 billion, equivalent to $30.82 million). Losses of VND3.652 trillion The conclusions of the Government Inspectorate also outlined some of ACVs violations in equitisation and the divestment of VND903 billion ($40 million). This company needs to pay corporate income tax of over VND692 billion ($30.5 million). There were also many violations in the way ACV set the rent it submitted to MoT, causing a loss of VND297 billion ($13.1 million) at a project of Danang International Airport. The equitisation process at ACV has been too slow, leading to the financial damages and difficulties of selecting strategic investors. Thus, the company could not reach the goals of the divestment. Regarding the management of investment and construction activities, the Government Inspectorate set out: While carrying out some investment projects, the investor (ACV), consultancy contractor (ADCC), and construction contractor (ACC) did not make and approve a blueprint or provide essential evaluations. Adding more work items was not in accordance with regulations and procedures. Applying the wrong price of material transportation caused a loss of VND3.561 billion ($157,000). The company also approved projects before the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam could approve projects under groups A and B. The total investment capital of the approved plans was VND73.641 billion ($3.25 million). The Government Inspectorate also outlined a series of violations related to the state management of aviation and construction, such as the operating time of landing or take-off, the price of aviation services, and the fees charged by Vietnam Airlines. As a result, the Government Inspectorate recommended the relevant agencies to request the company to explain or investigate the total loss of VND3.652.5 trillion ($161 million) and the handling of the 7,225ha area. Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh has agreed with this conclusion. ACV prepares for colossal divestment The state will divest about 20 per cent of its stake more than 435 million shares in Vietnams largest state-owned airport operator in the third quarter of next year. GrabBike drivers protest the company's 3.6 per cent raise of the commission The strike was conducted ten days after Grab Vietnam applied the new ratio of 23.6 per cent. Numerous drivers either switched off or deleted the ride-hailing app, according to newswire Vnexpress. Huy, a GrabBike driver, stated that he switched off the ride-hailing app two days ago. However, his resistance is still light compared to other drivers, who were hijacking the service by making false bookings to make life difficult for both passengers and those drivers who did not join the picket line. Two days ago, GrabBike drivers gathered in front of the company to ask its Board of Directors to issue a satisfactory explanation. Since early last year, the revenue share of the company has seen continuous changes, putting drivers at a financial disadvantage. Nguyen Trung Thanh, managing director of GrabBike Vietnam, affirmed that the further deduction of 3.6 per cent in drivers' commission is to pay for drivers' personal income tax, pursuant to local authorities new directions on personal income tax effective since January 1, 2018. According to him, drivers having an annual income upwards of VND100 million ($4,406) or monthly income upwards of VND8.3 million ($365.73) are subject to personal income tax. Nguyen Nam Binh, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation, told Vnexpress that only a few GrabBike drivers in Ho Chi Minh City have annual incomes of VND100 million ($4,406), while other drivers are not subject to the tax. Besides, there must be a compromise between Grab Vietnam and GrabBike drivers on the way Grab Vietnam pays the personal income tax on behalf of its drivers. A representative of Grab Vietnam also explained that the company only introduced the share raise as a temporary measure. In case GrabBike drivers income is less than VND8.3 million ($365.73), Grab Vietnam will pay back this share to drivers the next month. However, GrabBike drivers are not satisfied by the companys answer. Binh, a GrabBike driver in District 9, Ho Chi Minh City, said that in the first days of operation in Vietnam, the company committed to collect 10 per cent of the revenue as commission. However, within a short time, it increased the commission to 15-20 per cent, and now to 23.6 per cent. The added ratio is only 3.6 per cent, but it means anything from hundreds of thousands to one million dong. In general, I try my best to earn VND400,00 ($17.62) per day. In case the 23.6 per cent commission is applied, my revenue will decrease to roughly VND300,000 ($13.22) per day. I am considering another job with more stable revenue, said Binh. Ealier in August 2017, GrabBike drivers slammed the brakes in Hanoi to strike against the increase of the commission to 20 per cent from the previous 15 per cent. Shin Dong Min, CEO of Shinhan Bank In April 2017, Shinhan Bank announced the acquisition of ANZs retail banking arm in Vietnam. Could you share further details on the acquisition process? During the eight-month process, we placed our greatest efforts in the preparation of personnel, network and operation procedures, while awaiting the approval of the State Bank of Vietnam. On December 18, Shinhan Bank officially took over the human resources of ANZs retail banking services, eight branches and transaction offices, as well as over 125,000 individual customers, many of whom are high-income individuals with premium shopping habits. What potential impacts might the acquisition have on existing ANZ customers? Certainly, customers might be worried, however, with our strong capital funds, advanced banking technology, and Korean-standard services, we made a commitment to both individual customers from ANZ and current Shinhan customers to maximize their financial benefits. In order to strengthen the safety and security of the transition, Shinhan Bank and ANZ Vietnam made the transfer process as convenient as possible. Basically, customers from ANZ can retain their personal information at ANZ, such as account number as well as credit and debit cards and Internet Banking-related information. What we required our customers to do was to simply sign the consent form, agreeing to transfer their information to Shinhan Bank, all of which would be updated automatically into our system. They can use all the information and cards as usual, without doing any paperwork at Shinhan branches or transaction offices. However, customers transferred from ANZ gain access to a wider range of products and services offered at favourable charges, rapid transaction processing, and a Korean-standard security system. After the acquisition of ANZ, what is your development strategy in the retail banking segment? Over the last half decade, one of our banks major development strategies was to widen the retail banking segment and focus on improving service quality to offer better services to individual customers. We hope the acquisition will support us in balancing the product profiles of personal and corporate customers, putting the bank on a higher rank in the credit card market in Vietnam. Specifically, we planned to leverage the strengths of ANZ's existing customers and products, offer exclusive and multiple-benefit products as well as digitalise the majority of our products. Additionally, we partnered up with online payment platform providers to enhance the customer experience with electronic wallets (e-wallets), online transaction platforms, and payment applications on smart-phones. Thanks to the acquisition, ANZ Vietnam's former customers gained access to Shinhan Bank's wider variety of products and services What do you think of the Vietnamese retail banking industry in 2017? How does Ho Chi Minh City measure against the rest of the country in this area? In 2017, the banking industry saw outstanding growth alongside the steady recovery of the economy, following a remarkable influx of investment streaming into the field of banking technology. The very reason behind our choosing Vietnam as an investment destination was the fresh and dynamic features of the overall market, which offered us plenty of opportunities to satisfy customer demand. For instance, in 2017, we launched three high-tech application services, including Digital Branch Service, card payment services via mobile phone applications, and the biometric verification service for mobile banking, all of which are pioneering services in the banking industry of Vietnam. From the standpoint of a foreign entrepreneur in the Vietnamese banking industry, Ho Chi Minh City cannot be ignored with its young and eager-to-learn population with a critical preference for cutting-edge technological applications. Thanks to the rising popularity of Internet and mobile devices, the advancement of several banking divisions, such as digital banking, mobile banking, online payment, and retail banking, saw little to no hindrances. Nonetheless, the payment demand in Ho Chi Minh City was not as high as in neighbouring cities. For example, the insignificant number of banking service subscribers could potentially benefit the personal finance market of the city in the long run. What changes will come to the Vietnamese retail banking segment in the next five years? Having a young population with a preference for technology applications, Vietnam has great potential for digital retail banking services. In my view, in the short run, online distribution channels are bound to grow immensely due to their flexibility and convenience. Besides, thanks to the governments promotion of non-cash payments, Vietnam-based banks put forth digital banking services as one of the main services specifically catering to young clients. Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less. Tax authorities do not know how to proceed to enforce Aibnb's tax obligations in Vietnam A new trend Airbnb has been available in Vietnam since 2015, connecting people seeking accommodation with those looking to rent via a technology platform, taking a fee after transactions. The number of rooms for rent increased from the initial 1,000 to 10,000 by the end of last year, primarily in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, according to the latest research from Grant Thornton Vietnam. Meanwhile, thousands of apartments and villas in Halong, Sapa, and Danang are for rent on the platform, with prices 30 per cent cheaper than comparable hotels. Hanoi has been ranked sixth among the 10 destinations with the highest increase in bookings in 2017, according to Airbnb. Airbnb joined Uber and Grab as the most recognisable new sharing business models that have changed the way people around the world access and use services. It not only has a large-scale business network with reasonable fees, it also creates a connection between hosts and customers. Notably, hosts are willing to help and take care of customers in case they have a health problem. Beside, comment threads between hosts and customers are published on the Airbnb website and only the company has the right to delete these comments. It makes it easy for customers to select the best accommodation and help the host avoid bad customers. Regarding the fees, customers will have to pay between 10-15 per cent of the booking price to Airbnb and the host 3 per cent. For example, the listed price at accomodations for rent is $50 per night, however, customers who book accomodation via Airbnb will have to pay between $60-75. Payments can only be made via credit card. Difficult to ask Airbnb to pay tax Despite Airbnbs operating in Vietnam since 2015, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation and the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism have yet to extend supervision over Airbnbs operations. Even a number of tourism companies were unaware of Airbnb's services in Vietnam, despite its fast growth. Le Thi Thu Huong, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation, told VIR that since May 2017, the department had been trying to bring the companys operations under management and requesting the company to pay tax, with no effect. Huong stated that in Ho Chi Minh City alone, there are 2,074 hosts looking to rent out space via Airbnb, which is a large number, thus tax collected from Airbnb would contribute a part to the citys budget. According to lawyer Nguyen Huu Phuoc, founder of Phuoc & Partners Law Company, Airbnb has yet to register its business in Vietnam, however, Circular No.103/2014/TT-BTC dated August 6, 2014, shows that foreign business organisations, regardless of having permanent establishments in Vietnam or not, as well as foreign business individuals, regardless of their place of residence, (foreign contractors and foreign sub-contractors) who do business in Vietnam or earn income in Vietnam from contracts, agreements or commitments with a Vietnamese entity, are subject to tax. Thus, regarding the law, there is ample legal basis to identify tax obligations for Airbnb. However, Phuoc added that in reality, it is still difficult to manage and ask Airbnb to pay tax because the payments are only made via credit card without any bills. Electric pulse fishing involves dragging electrically charged lines just above the seafloor that shock marine life up from low-lying positions into trawling nets. (Photo: AFP/Stephen Coates) "We refuse to work with seafood coming from a fishing method that condemns our future and that of the ocean," said the text written by Christopher Coutanceau, whose restaurant on the Atlantic coast in La Rochelle, western France, has earned two Michelin stars. The practice involves dragging electrically charged lines just above the seafloor that shock marine life up from low-lying positions into trawling nets. EU rules allow member states to equip up to five percent of their fleets with electrodes, and the method has been adopted in particular by Dutch vessels fishing for sole. On Tuesday, the EU is to vote on the practice, which critics say harms too many fish that are left on the seabed, as well as those that are harvested. "Electric trawlers produce catches of poor quality, fish which underwent stress and are often marked by post-electrocution bruises," according to the text released by Bloom, a French NGO. "It is impossible to work with such low-quality products." The signatories included French chefs Helene Darroze, Yannick Alleno and Olivier Roellinger, who has longed worked to improve sustainability in the fishing industry. Spanish chefs Elena Arzak and Quique Dacosta, Italy's Antonino Cannavacciuolo and Alfonso et Ernesto Iaccarino, and Thomas Buehner and Heinz Winkler of Germany also signed the text. On Wednesday, several members of the European parliament asked for a delay to next week's vote on electric pulse fishing, in order to allow time for an "informed debate". For Jerry Percy of the Low-Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), which claims to represent about 80 percent of Britain's independent fishermen, a main problem is the lack of solid data on the long-term consequences of the practice on fishing stocks. The method is outlawed in many parts of the world, including China, but proponents say it is more environmentally friendly and results in lower fuel usage for boats. Bloom had already filed in October a case against the Netherlands with the European Commission, accusing the country of illegally authorising its trawlers to use the technique. 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. (Photo: AFP/Andreas Solaro) 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 per cent since 2000 and now represents 3.4 per cent 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. The yellow card issued by the EU is keeping the EVFTA from being ratified Ambassador Bruno Angelet, head of the Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam, told VIR, Vietnam is taking it very seriously to curb unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by its fishermen, and we are working intensively with the Vietnamese government about this. I have seen good progress in Vietnam dealing with IUU fishing. The prime minister has given strong instructions that IUU fishing must be stopped by May 28, 2018. We are also seeing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and coastal localities take strong action against IUU fishing. They are trying to solve this issue within six months, and you should not be too worried about the yellow card. After six months, or in late April 2018, EU experts will come to Vietnam to examine the situation. If it improves, Vietnam will be granted a green card, he added. I believe that within one year, IUU fishing by Vietnamese fishermen will be completely curbed, Angelet said. In the draft EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), expected to be inked this May and adopted by EU member states later this year, there is a chapter on sustainable development which requires Vietnam and EU member states to commit to fighting IUU fishing. Angelet said he hopes that by the time the pact is adopted, IUU fishing by Vietnamese fishermen will have been solved. In October 2017, Vietnam was warned with a six-month yellow card by a European Commission (EC) decision, because the countrys fishermen continue to conduct IUU fishing, which the EC considers a key obstruction for the ratification of the EVFTA by the EU The decision highlights shortcomings on Vietnams part in fighting illegal fishing, such as the lack of an effective sanctioning system to deter IUU fishing activities. The yellow card is considered a warning and offers the possibility for Vietnam to take measures to rectify the situation within a reasonable timeframe, the decision reads. As the worlds biggest fish importer, the EU does not wish to be complicit and accept such products into its market. The so-called IUU Regulation, which entered into force in 2010, is the key instrument in the fight against illegal fishing, ensuring that only those fishery products that have been certified as legal can access the EU market, the decision goes on to say. Currently, the EU is Vietnams largest export market for fishery products. In 2017 the association spent $1.5 billion importing Vietnams fishery products, up 17.7 per cent against 2016. However, under the impact of the EUs decision, all of Vietnams sea-based exports to the EU have been subject to examination. In late April 2018, the EU will re-consider Vietnams efforts to curb IUU fishing. If Vietnam fails to do so successfully, it will likely get a red card, meaning it will be banned from exporting all aquatic products to the EU. In April 2015, Thailand got a yellow card from the EU for its failure to satisfy the EUs requirements against IUU fishing. Thailand has not corrected its course in the time since, which has kept the EU from ratifying the EU-Thailand FTA. Ministry takes action in response to EUs warning of IUU fishing The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has approved a plan to implement urgent solutions in response to the European Unions (EUs) warning about illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. VN vows to combat IUU fishing After Viet Nam received a yellow card from the European Commission because of its failure to meet standards against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, stakeholders are preparing a national action plan to prevent, minimise and eliminate illegal, IUU fishing by 2025. Viet Nam assures EU on illegal, unregulated fishing The VASEP (Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers) Marine Product Committee and Vietnamese seafood processors and exporters on September 25 promised to implement the EUs demands on fighting IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing and the national action plan to combat IUU fishing. The state's Division of Motor Vehicles office on Odana Road, along with an office near Hilldale, will close and move to a new west side location unless the U.S. DOT overturns the state's action in response to a complaint by the city of Madison. In the spring and summer of 1997, before everyone used Google to find whatever they wanted, before everyone used Facebook to creep on old crushes, before cell phones were in everyones pocket, recording every bit of life around them before cell phones were cameras that could make phone calls the nation was gripped by a cross-country manhunt. The suspect: a serial killer who had struck in Minnesota, Chicago and New Jersey. The motive: unclear; the victims had no apparent connection. The method: bludgeoning, shooting, stabbing brutal deaths that kept investigators of the FBI and local authorities guessing until clues linked the killings to Andrew Cunanan, a college dropout with no discernible job except cruising gay bars, occasionally selling drugs, and striking up relationships with rich, older men and spending their money. In May 1997, Cunanan was added to the FBIs Ten Most Wanted list certainly a level of notoriety, but not quite the accomplishment for which Cunanan would ultimately be best known. That would happen a few months later, when he shot fashion designer Gianni Versace dead on the front steps of his Miami Beach mansion. The manhunt ended eight days later, when Cunanans body was found on a houseboat not far north of Versaces home, killed by a self-inflicted gunshot to the temple. FXs much-lauded limited series American Crime Story takes on The Assassination of Gianni Versace for its long-awaited Season 2, starting Wednesday. Similar to its first outing, The People v. O.J. Simpson, its a story for which we know the ending but there is much to be revealed in the retelling. A focus on the similarities between the successful Versace and the wayward Cunanan, for example, asks the question of how two souls who might have similar experiences both grew up modestly, but not well-off; both may have felt like outsiders, being gay in environs where that wasnt embraced; both came from Italian backgrounds (though Versaces was quite a bit more prominent; Cunanans father was a Filipino immigrant, and his mother of Italian descent) how does one rise to the heights of fashion, fame and celebrity, and the other cultivate it only through his crimes? Versaces Miami Beach house still stands, across from the oceanfront park on Collins Avenue in the citys South Beach area, and show creator/executive producer/all-around hit-making machine Ryan Murphy filmed much of the series in the opulent mansion, lending a sense of realism if not macabre to the production. One definitely gets the sense of the excitement and joie de vivre Versace found living in an environment where people had no inhibitions or reservations about living how they wanted. The designer, whose creative and famous heights were reached in the 90s, when his body-hugging, skin-baring designs traveled runways and red carpets, counted Princess Diana, Madonna and Elizabeth Hurley as clients, and J. Los infamous, barely there 2000 Grammy dress carried the Versace name. The show, based on the book Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History, by Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth, stars Edgar Ramirez plays Versace; Ricky Martin plays his lover, Antonio DAmico; Penelope Cruz is Donatella Versace, Giannis sister; and Darren Criss plays Cunanan, the intelligent, witty, pathologically lying killer. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday on FX. Do we need another hero? Signs point to yes. Chalk one up for DC, because theyre adding another of their superhero ranks to the CW. Hes an ordinary hero to the community, running a school that serves as a safe space for those who would be bullied by the gangs in town. But Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) is hearing the call of his previous life, the one when he harnessed the power of electricity and protected his city from villains as the vigilante crime fighter Black Lightning. Coincidentally, thats the name of his new show premiering Tuesday. Black Lightning premieres at 8 p.m., following a new episode of his DC partner-in-crime-fighting, The Flash, at 7 p.m., on Ch. 15.2. What else is new? Season 2 of NBCs Taken premieres at 8 p.m. Friday on Ch. 15. Saturday Night Live returns live Saturday night, hosted by newly minted Golden Globe winner Sam Rockwell, of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; his musical guest is Halsey. SNL airs at 10:30 p.m. on Ch. 15. And its finally for real for Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church when Divorced returns for a second season Sunday, followed by the subtly hilarious show about trying to make it as a comedian, Crashing, which also starts its second season; the shows air at 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., respectively, on HBO. Noone thought that the crisis pitting Honduras against the United States could unleash a military coup dEtat. Washington seemed to have renounced these methods although the Bush administration had again recently bribed a group of soldiers to topple the constitutionally elected president of Venezuela (12 April 2002) [1] and had sent its own special forces to kidnap the constitutional president of Haiti (29 February 2004) [2]. But the communications officers at the White House had finally used the broad smile of the sparkling Barack Obama to convince international public opinion that the United States had changed and that it had laid to rest its imperial ambition. The five states of the former federal republic of Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) offer a specific strategic interest since they form the passage between two continents and two oceans. Although, none of these states have any particular resources, each may be used to control the area. Thus during the Sadinistas revolution in Nicaragua, Washington used Honduras as a support base for a counter-revolution. Under the direction of John Negroponte, the US embassy in Tegucigalpa has become the headquarters for the Nicaraguan contras and their death squads. In this perspective, the anti-imperialist revolution of Honduras, after the return to power of the Sadinistas in Nicaragua, presented less of a problem en soi than a danger of contamination. Thus how does the evolution in the Honduran situation represent such a danger that Washington decides to have recourse to its methods of old to risk destroying all its efforts for communication? Maduros Presidency and the 2005 Elections As in all other parts of Central America, Honduras is prey to maras (gangs). The most famous of these is the Mara Salvatrucha. What we have here are gangs of kids that, because they are drug addicts, are manipulated and organized according to mystic criminal rites [3]. The gang members commit all types of violence, occasionally reaching unheard of levels of brutality and in some cases real massacres. In 2001, the nationalist candidate Ricardo Rodolfo Maduro Joest had been elected to fight crime after his 25 year old son had been kidnapped, tortured and assassinated. The funeral rites of the young man had been transformed into a national demonstration. On becoming president, Ricardo Maduro had ordered spectacular anti-gang operations. He had strengthened the arsenal of the policemen and had made the military come out of their barracks to lend them a strong hand. Supported by Christian democracy, he had a law adopted that punished the mere membership of a mara by a mandatory minimum of 5 years in prison. Although the law had been copied from Guatemala and Salvador, it was later held to be invalid by the Honduran Constitutional Court. This is because it inculpated individuals by association for crimes that they had not committed. The application of these measures produced an astronomical rise in the prison population. This in turn sparked off bloody mutinies in the prisons. For sure, as that law did not address the social causes of this phenomenon, already extensive, these initiatives did not cap the crime figures. In 2005, the nationalist candidate following Maduro, Pepe Lobo, was of the view that the maras could only be eradicated through a war. In a sort of one upmanship, he therefore proposed re-introducing the death penalty through a referendum that would also contemplate making a collective declaration against the gangs. However a study led in the neighbouring Salvador had demonstrated that 51.9% of these criminals are between 11 and 15 years. This would mean that Honduras would have to kill a number of its own children. Opposing him was the liberal candidate, Manuel Zelaya. He proposed a more reasonable approach, not only founded on repression but included genuine attempts at educating and integrating these children. The assessment of President Ricardo Maduro was also discussed at the economic level. Maduro was the former governor of the Central Bank and a brilliant businessman (holder of the Xerox business contract and Director of the Investment Funds La Paz). He negotiated with the IMF and the Paris Club for the Honduran debt to be reduced. But he agreed in return to increase taxes and cut back on the number of officials, a policy that weighed in on the middle classes alone. He also made his country sign up to the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), without facing any particular political opposition, despite the disastrous consequences for small farmers. President Maduros excellent relations with his US homologue, George W. Bush, were cemented by sending 370 men to Iraq where they served with the Spanish in the area placed under Polish administration. However, as a consequence of Zapateros decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq, Maduro was politically forced to withdraw this contingency. And finally, Ricardo Maduros mandate ended in a grotesque atmosphere by a scandalous divorce. The left liberal Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales proposed a seductive alternative: To make budgetary cuts, he intended to cut back on the states life style rather than shutting down public services. To increase state revenues, he proposed encouraging employment in the sectors that were labour intensive. To fight against juvenile criminality, Zelaya announced his intention to provide all schools with computers and to make public education free for everyone. In 2005, during a ballot of only one round, the Honduran electorate chose him to be their president with 49.9% of the votes cast, and gave him 48.4 % of the seats in Congress (unicameral parliament). His main competitor, the nationalist, right wing Porfirio Lobo Sosa, only received 46.2% of the votes and 42.9% of the seats in Congress. The results were so tight that they had to be validated which was finally done after two weeks of uncertainty. The following three small parties then found themselves playing the role of judges in the Congress: The Democratic Union; The Christian Democratic; and finally Innovation and unite. Presidential Elections (27 November 2009) Legislative Elections (27 November 2009) Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales 49.90 % of the votes Partido Liberal 62 seats Porfirio Lobo Sosa 46.2 % of the votes cast Partido Nacional 55 seats Juan Angel Almendares Bonilla 1.5 % of the votes cast Unificacion Democratica 5 seats Juan Ramon Martinez 1.4 % of the votes cast Democracia cristiana 4 seats Carlos Sosa Coello 1.0 % of the votes cast Innovacion y Unidad 2 seats The Presidency of Manuel Zelaya There was no indication that the rancher Manuel Zelaya could enter into an open conflict with Washington. It seems all the less likely since the relative majority that he had did not encourage a political rupture. In the first place, Zelaya continued the decentralization that he had begun when he had taken on ministerial functions in the past. What had to be done was to draw the centres of decision-making closer to the people to strengthen popular powers and transparency. This reform caused a cleavage between the corrupt political class in the capital and the new distinguished locals. It also shed light on the military control of part of the economy. [4] In particular, in June 2006, Manuel Zelaya announced his intention to direct commercial traffic to the air base of Soto Cano [5], home to a US contingent. Confronted by the Pentagons hostile reaction, the Hondurian Minister of Defense tried to retreat, arguing that the equipment cost was too significant. However, President Zelaya kept to his decision. Officially, Soto Cano was nothing more than a small base with 190 soldiers and 730 civil personnel. Its runway is the only one in Central America capable of accommodating the enormous carriers of the troops. Fort Bravo is the only antenna of South Com outside the USA [6]. Especially, Soto Cano is a base for listening linked to two secret units Cerro La Mole and Swan Island. This provision is indispensable to military intelligence in the region. Curiously, no treaty has ever been signed between the two countries to specify the status of these installations. While the president is enjoying a surge in popularity, he has been ambushed by a press campaign accusing him of the following: not keeping to his promises, being incapable of improving the level of life and containing crime. In actual fact, he was not able to protect his country from the global hike in oil prices, and a vast number of sensational reports created the impression of an explosion of maras. Manuel Zelaya responded to this by requiring the private audio-visual media to replay several hours of interviews of the members of its government. Washington clearly expressed its annoyance by cutting back on its aid programmes to the people; yet it kept its security programmes going. In actual fact, the US grants significant resources to Honduras so that it implements on Honduran territory elements of its plans to fight organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. For example, Washington funds high tech equipment used at the Cortes Harbour to ensure that all containers that transit there heading for the United States are scanned. On the one hand, Washington has powerful means to put pressure on Tegucigalpa. While 7 million Hondurans live in Honduras, almost another million live in the United States, notably following the devastation caused by cyclone Mitch in 1998. 78 000 of them have a temporary status, several times renewed, and can be deported to the border just on the basis of an administrative decision. The president continued his action against corruption, forcing several high officials to resign. In return, several among them began to plot. We discovered that the former director of the public telephone company had wiretapped the president. In the context of the sub-prime crisis breaking out in the United States and a global hike in the prices of staple food products, President Zelaya logically turned towards the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA), an inter-governmental organization initiated by Venezuela. This guarantees the food and energy security of its members and furthermore, coordinates programmes for public health. This decision was greeted with strong popular support but also triggered concern among the middle classes which had already been hit by the global economic crisis. On 25 August 2008, Manuel Zelaya paid homage to the Heroic Guerilla Ernesto Che Guevara and, before a crowd of 100 000 persons at Tegucigalpa, signed his country up to become a member of Alba. He did this in the presence of the Bolivian President, Evo Morales, the Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, the Venezuelan Hugo Chavez, and the Vice President of Cuba Carlos Laje. The President of the Dominican Republic, President Leonel Fernandez, was also represented. Honduras had just tipped over to the side of the rebel nations. The Military Coup detat US officials admitted to the New York Times that they entered into contact with the putschists in recent days. However they declare that they did so with the purpose of dissuading them to stage a coup [7]. According to these witnesses, these contacts should have stopped this Sunday (which is then the day the coup began). Now, the small Honduran army is completely equipped, trained and led by the United States. Of course it obeys its leader, the President of the Republic, then its Chief of Staff. But in practice, it is largely controlled by SouthCom following Soto Cano and Miami [8]. To be precise, the Pentagon has hurriedly installed the new command of SouthCom, General Douglas M. Fraser, last Monday, to follow the coup. In any event, the operation was conceived a long time ago. Like the attack on the Moldavian official buildings, the cleaning of the valley of Swat, the extermination of the Tamil Tigers or the green revolution in Iran, the coup in Honduras had been planned by the Bush Administration, then executed by the Obama Administration, despite defects in legality. The tension intensified when President Zelaya called a referendum scheduled for Sunday 28 June to determine if the electorate were in favour of electing a Constituent Assembly. Immediately, an international press campaign had been initiated to present this initiative as a manoeuvre with the express purpose of opening Manuel Zelaya to the possibility of a second mandate. This is actually completely untrue, since the election of the constituent assembly would only have taken place the day of the following presidential election and that the constitution would only have been amended much later. Therefore, the president could not have been able to be a candidate for his own succession. But this is clear: after falsely accusing Hugo Chavez of wanting to be president for the rest of his life, he then had to accuse his ally Manuel Zelaya of also marching towards a dictatorship. On 9 June, the Honduran Congress adopted a constitutional law prohibiting a referendum less than 180 days of the presidential election. The Supreme Court declared the referendum illegal (but not contrary to the constitution) although the law bringing in the amendment was itself a violation of the constitution. However, relying on this decision, the Military Chief of Staffs, General Romeo Vasquez, blocked the organization of the referendum. The President then went himself to a military base to retrieve the material that could be used in the referendum and to revoke the military chief of staff for insubordination. Like ever other coup-maker in Latin America, General Romeo Vasquez has been trained by the USA at the School of the Americas, whose reputation was sullied. On Sunday 28 June 2009, at around 5.30 a.m. (local time), the electricity and telephone lines (fixed and Hertzian) were cut. Commandos of hooded soldiers [9] attacked the residence of President Zelaya and forced him to follow them. They put him in an airplane and packed him off to Costa Rica in his pyjamas. At least eight ministers, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and different personalities, including the Mayor of San Pedro Sula (the second city in Honduras) were arrested. When the power cut was over and electricity was re-established, the audio-visual media announced that a cease fire had been decreed, the Dominican (dominicales) religious offices had been annulled and the referendum. In the afternoon, having been authorized to move about, the MPs met in the Congress for an extraordinary session. The President of the Congress, Roberto Micheletti, read out a letter, dated Friday 26 June, from President Manuel Zelaya purportedly giving his resignation. This letter bearing the date 27 June took noone by surprise. Observing that the office of president was now vacant, Congress appointed its president as the president of the Republic. For its part, the Constitutional Court specified in an Orwellian communique that the army had defended the Constitution and prevented President Zelaya from directing a referendum coup. The Court sustained that blocking the referendum ordered by the President of the Republic, the Joint Chief of Staff had acted legally, if it had acted on an order issued by a judge. So that noone is unaware of the real stage of this operation, the soldiers have arrested the ambassadors or the charges daffaire of the ALBA member states. The technique used for the coup brings to mind that in 2004, against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide: the kidnapping in the early hours of the morning and the appearance of a letter of resignation. The way in which the Atlantic press agencies have related with a pack of lies the contentious election to give an appearance of legality to the coup detat show the premeditation of the operation by Washington. The treatment of the coup itself, in hiding the central challenge at the base of Soto Cano and the connections between Honduran soldiers and US soldiers, shows a willingness to clear the Obama administration. Pili Rodriguez Appointed as Governing Member of European Citizens Action Service A meeting of Citizens Advice International (CAI) members was held in Manchester recently, and was chaired by the Chair of Citizens Advice International and Manager of the Gibraltar Citizens Advice, Pilar Rodriguez. CAI is a non-governmental international body representing interests of free advice-giving organisations around the world. Its mission is to promote the provision of free, independent, impartial and confidential advice and information to people about their rights. The meeting was attended by representatives from Citizens Advice UK, Czech Republic, Romania, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Wales, Spain, Dublin and Gibraltar. Pili Rodriguez has since been appointed as a Governing Member of European Citizens Action Service (ECAS) Brussels. The CAI Meeting coincided with the annual conference The Future of Advice which brought together a wealth of experience, ideas and expertise and was attended by one thousand delegates working in Citizens Advice throughout the UK. Attending this conference from the Gibraltar CAB were senior staff members, Ivan Cruz and Joanna McGrail. CAI has helped to set up advice organisations emulated on the Citizens Advice model in various countries. These include West Balkans, Turkey, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia. The CAI body has also been active in Africa, giving practical guides to legal advice and information services to centres in Malawi, Ethiopa and Nigeria. Pili Rodriguez said; CAI gives organisations the opportunity to give people a voice by taking their anxieties, worries and concerns to a higher level. Working together we can meet challenges and opportunities with energy and focus. Keeping peoples interests at the heart of every advice and decision made we can continue to make differences to the community that we serve here in Gibraltar. Photo: Netflix David Lettermans woolly, post-CBS beard might be the guiding aesthetic for his new Netflix talk show. My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman (quite the grammatical train wreck, that title) does away with the band, the Top 10 list, the neatly delineated segments with various guests, and nearly everything else we once associated with him on Late Show. Thats not to say theres no method at all here, just that this is a more relaxed format than weve seen Letterman anchor in the past. Lettermans inaugural guest, former President Barack Obama, sits with him for over 40 minutes without commercial interruption, before a live audience, and talks about life after the presidency, his relationship with his mother, father, wife, and kids, the challenges of global poverty, changing technology and growing income inequality, and most movingly, the struggles of the civil-rights movement, without which he would never have become a political force himself. Its in this section that My Next Guest veers away from what you mightve expected, segueing to a handsomely photographed sequence of Letterman and John Lewis, U.S. representative for Georgias 5th congressional district, walking over Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, the site of two legendary marches in 1965, one of which found Lewis enduring a beating by police. Its fun to imagine Netflix subscribers clicking on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction because theyre looking to kill an hour and want to see what ol Dave is up to these days, and coming away with a miniature history lesson about one of the most important events in 20th-century U.S. history. That the episode takes its sweet time before returning in earnest to Lettermans conversation with Obama suggests all manner of potentially fruitful avenues for future installments. Freed not only of commercial interruption but of the need to adhere to any particular structure, the show could go wherever Lettermans mind decides to wander. Other than the avoidance of anything related to Donald Trump, theres nothing about this Obama interview that could really qualify as news not that Letterman gives any indication of caring about generating headlines. A quarter of the discussion is a bit fluffy, and much of the rest covers ground that has been well-trod elsewhere. But the obvious comfort level between them does lend their discussion an air of intimacy thats rare in sitdowns between people who are as prominent in their respective fields as these two. The title itself feels like a bit of humblebrag, but at this point its an earned indulgence, especially when your first subject is a two-term president. Letterman was never known for his interrogatory skills anyway the occasional delightful curveball notwithstanding and nothing he does here is going to reverse that impression. But his willingness to ramp things down into borderline small talk is fascinating because there isnt much tradition for that kind of thing in the modern American talk show, which is still driven mainly by questions generated during backstage pre-interviews and consequently tends to feel canned, even when guest and host are having a good time. The looser and more structurally inventive things get here, the more fascinating the results could be. The President's comments from the Oval Office are sickening, hateful and divisive. He should take responsibility for them. We are a nation of immigrants because we have always been a land of opportunity. That is the promise of America and we all need to make sure we keep it. Photo: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis via Getty Images Last month, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision rolled out a pilot program that made it much harder for prisoners to get access to books. The program restricted all packages coming into the three prisons participating in the pilot to items purchased from a list of six department-approved vendors. Books sent for free by volunteer organizations, such as Books Through Bars, a 21-year-old program that has sent close to 100,000 books to inmates in 40 states since 1996, would be banned, along with care packages from family members. On Friday, after a flurry of critical articles questioning why the DOCCS would want to restrict access to reading, Governor Cuomo directed the department 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. I am directing the Dept. of Corrections to rescind its flawed pilot program that restricted shipment of books & care packages to inmates. Concerns from families need to be addressed, while we redouble efforts to fight prison contraband. Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 12, 2018 In an emailed statement, DOCCS spokesperson Thomas Mailey added that concerns have been raised by families of inmates regarding the availability and price of products under this program, concerns we do not take lightly. The pilot program, he wrote, would be suspended until these concerns are addressed. Caroline Hsu, a staff attorney with Legal Aids Prisoners Rights Project, said she was encouraged by the news. On Thursday, Hsu had told Vulture that Legal Aid was assessing whether to go to court over the pilot program. I hope, after review, the prison system will see that a vendors-only system can only be cruel and demoralizing and abandon this initiative, she wrote in an email. In an emailed statement, Books Through Bars wrote, We hope that this situation has brought attention to the plight of the tens of thousands of incarcerated New Yorkers who live every day without access to meaningful literature, fresh food, warm clothing, and their families. We remain vigilant to call out and oppose any forthcoming directive that does not recognize the indigent circumstances or the real needs of the over 50,000 people who are incarcerated across New York. James Franco. Photo: George Pimentel/WireImage On Sunday, James Franco won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy as a flurry of tweets were posted detailing claims of sexual misconduct against the actor. Earlier today, the Los Angeles Times published a story in which five women leveled accusations of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior at him, and this evening, Franco won the Critics Choice Award for Best Actor in a Comedy. In the days since the Globes, the New York Times canceled an event where Franco was meant to promote The Disaster Artist, but he has continued to make other scheduled public appearances, going on The Late Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers to say that he supports women coming forward with their grievances while saying the claims against him are not accurate. Franco was not, however, present at the Critics Choice Awards tonight, and actor Walton Goggins accepted the honor on his behalf. Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Once Robert Kneppers arc on season four of iZombie ends, he wont return to the show. At the Television Critics Association press tour, CW president Mark Pedowitz told /Film that the actor who has been accused of sexual misconduct by five women wont appear in season five. Robert only had a one-year deal anyway, Pedowitz said. In December, four women told The Hollywood Reporter that Knepper cornered them or was sexually aggressive. Each of them came forward after a stylist said he sexually assaulted her. Knepper denied the accounts, saying, We have come to a time where hard-earned careers are being lost on the basis of accusations. I need to reiterate that these accusations against me are false. Pedowitz says Knepper wasnt dismissed because of sexual-assault allegations, but because his arc simply ended. When the past allegations came up, we were about two-thirds of the way on the shooting schedule, he told /Film. The studio did an investigation. They did one investigation. The studio did a second investigation. Again, the investigation related to the set and his behavior on the set. They found no wrongdoing on the set. I supported the decision to continue going forward. Robert finishes up shooting I think by next week. 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? The X-Files. Photo: FOX With the departure of Gillian Anderson from The X-Files, the filing cabinet may finally be locked for good on Foxs iconic paranormal-investigation series. But Anderson and co-star David Duchovny say that fans should still celebrate because the ten new episodes are even more X-Files-y than last years revival season. That short stack of episodes kind of felt like we were learning how to walk again, and this season of ten feels like the pace is up and we are running, Anderson said Wednesday at a press conference during the Television Critics Association, noting that while last years revival didnt provide the proper moment of closure, the current season feels like the right time to say good-bye to Dana Scully. Duchovny agreed that the new season felt truer to the spirit of the original series, which ran for nine seasons on Fox from 1993 to 2002, spawned two feature films, and returned to broadcast television last year. The show is really different in the hands of these different [writers and directors], he said. If you only have six, then its a little schizophrenic. If you have ten, then you can find a groove between all these different guys. Series creator Chris Carter was unable to make the panel his home was one of many threatened by the devastating mudslides in Californias Montecito area but longtime writer/producer Glen Morgan indicated that season 11 will definitely answer a few of the lingering questions about its Byzantine mythology. But not all of them, he added, Because thats the way this show is. Playing a key role is one especially enigmatic piece of the puzzle: Scullys son William, who was given up for adoption in the shows original run. Duchovny said that introducing William, now a teenager, offered a unique challenge: In a show like this, which doesnt often deal with family dynamics or soap-opera elements, its certainly a very interesting character to just show up as an adult, almost. Duchovny hinted that new episodes will get as experimental as some of the original runs most memorable stand-alone offerings. He specifically mentioned the seventh episode, which was directed by Glen Morgan. It probably has 15 or 20 lines of dialogue in the whole episode, Duchovny said, later adding, Its really one of our more special episodes that weve done in a long time. The panel also revealed that the sixth episode will offer a highly anticipated look into the backstory of Mulder and Scullys longtime ally Walter Skinner, played by Mitch Pileggi. There really is a lot that is revealed, and I was very gratified that we were able to do this, said Pileggi. You actually see a scene play out that Skinner had referenced in an earlier season I think when Mulder was trying to resign, and [Skinner] was refusing his resignation, and he related one of his experiences in Vietnam. It was horrific to him. It affected him terribly. But you actually get to see that played out, which is really cool for me. Having completed her work on the series the final two episodes are still in various stages of production in Vancouver Anderson was asked if she felt satisfied with her final appearance as Scully. That is a good question, she said after careful consideration. Im not quite sure how to answer that question. But she reaffirmed her commitment to closing the door on The X-Files. This is it for me. Im really serious. I have so much respect for these guys, and I have respect for Scully, and I have respect for David, and its really sad. But Im finished, and thats the end of that. Duchovny was less definitive about the future of the franchise, or his place in it. Ive tried to say good-bye to Fox Mulder many times, and I failed, he said. Im good either way. Im good with this being the end. Im good with it not being the end. Mark Wahlberg. Photo: Amanda Edwards/WireImage News broke a few days ago that Michelle Williams was reportedly paid less than $1,000 (an accumulation of a modest per diem fee) for her work on the reshoots of All the Money in the World, while her co-star Mark Wahlberg was allegedly paid $1.5 million. The plot thickened yesterday when it was announced that SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, had opened an investigation into that gargantuan pay disparity. Now, insider sources are telling USA Today that Wahlberg leveraged a co-star approval clause in his contract to get that $1.5 million fee, saying he refused to sign off on the replacement casting of Christopher Plummer until his additional payday was in place. Neither Wahlbergs camp nor his agency, William Morris Endeavor which also represents Williams provided comment on the new reporting. The new USA Today story also contradicts previous reporting on a situation where the truth is muddy. Its been alternately written that neither Williams nor Wahlberg had reshoot clauses in their contracts, and also that Williamss contract contained that clause while Wahlbergs didnt which would free Wahlberg up to negotiate for more money, while Williams wouldnt have such leeway. Now, however, sources tells USA Today that both actors had preexisting language in their contracts concerning reshoots, with one person explaining to the paper, What he said was, I will not approve Christopher Plummer unless you pay me. And thats how he (expletive) them. Its also rumored that director Ridley Scott is upset by the news about Wahlbergs big payday, since he and Williams both completed the film for very little additional compensation. Both actors had to work over the Thanksgiving holiday to finish the film with Plummer, and Williams told USA Today at the time, 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. Wisconsins troubled youth prison that Gov. Scott Walker wants to convert to an adult facility has a new superintendent, its fourth leader in just over two years. The state Department of Corrections announced Thursday that 24-year agency veteran Jason Benzel was hired to run the Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake prisons for boys and girls in Irma, about 30 miles north of Wausau. He will begin Jan. 22. The post had been vacant since the previous superintendent, Wendy Peterson, resigned in August to take a lower-paying job as education director. Benzel will be paid $101,000 a year, the same as Peterson when she was superintendent. The prison is the subject of multiple lawsuits alleging inmate abuse, and a federal investigation has been ongoing for three years. Walker announced this month that he wants to move juveniles out of it in 2019, but he would be open to moving faster. Walkers plan calls for creating smaller, regional juvenile prisons. Democrats have been critical of Walker moving so slowly to enact changes, saying hes only proposing something now as a political move in advance of the November election. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said Thursday he wants long-term solutions for Lincoln Hills, but hes in no rush to move juveniles out of it because judges could send them to county facilities instead. I would like to do it in a way that allows us to get the right answer as quickly as we can, but I dont want to rush to judgment until weve had time to really study it and understand all the possibilities, he said. Benzel began his career as a guard and has held a number of positions within the adult prison system, most recently deputy warden at the Prairie du Chien adult prison. Hes also worked as a juvenile review and release specialist. I have full confidence in Jason in his new role and look forward to working closely with him as we continue to make further enhancements and begin work to transition towards a regional juvenile correctional model, Corrections Secretary Jon Litscher said in a statement. Heres how members of Wisconsins congressional delegation voted on major issues in the week ending Jan. 13. Note: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, voted. By custom, the speaker does not vote except in rare circumstances. HOUSE Extension of Warrantless Surveillance Program: The House on Jan. 11 approved, 256-164, a six-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is a key government tool for detecting and preventing foreign-based terrorist attacks on the United States, but also a target of criticism that it imperils the privacy rights of innocent Americans. A yes vote was to pass S 139. Voting yes: Paul Ryan, R-1, Glenn Grothman, R-6, Mike Gallagher, R-8 Voting no: Mark Pocan, D-2, Gwen Moore, D-4, James Sensenbrenner, R-5, Sean Duffy, R-7 Not voting: Ron Kind, D-3 Privacy Rights in Surveillance Law: Voting 183-233, the House on Jan. 11 defeated an amendment that sought to better protect the Fourth Amendment privacy rights of innocent Americans whose voice and digital communications with foreigners are inadvertently swept up in collections of data under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. A yes vote was to adopt the amendment to S 139 (above). Voting yes: Pocan, Moore, Sensenbrenner Voting no: Ryan, Grothman, Duffy, Gallagher Not voting: Kind Limits on FBI Searches: Voting 189-227, the House on Jan. 11 refused to expand the types of FBI searches of commercial telecom databases that require specific search warrants under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The underlying bill (S 139, above) requires the FBI to obtain FISA-court warrants based on probable cause for searches targeting Americans in investigations linked to national security and foreign intelligence. This measure sought to require such warrants for all FBI searches of FISA databases. A yes vote was to adopt the motion. Voting yes: Pocan, Moore Voting no: Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Gallagher Not voting: Kind Labor Rights on Tribal Lands: The House on Jan. 10 voted, 239-173, to remove Indian reservations from the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. The bill would repeal collective-bargaining rights and other federally guaranteed workplace protections now available to 600,000 or more employees of tribal casinos, at least three-fourths of whom are not tribal members. A yes vote was to send S 140 to the Senate. Voting yes: Moore, Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Gallagher Voting no: Pocan Not voting: Kind SENATE Extension of Warrantless Surveillance Program: The Senate on Jan. 11 voted, 68 for and 27 against, to start legislative action on a House-passed measure (S 139, above) that would extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) through 2023, with debate and a final vote on the bill expected within days. Voting yes: Ron Johnson, R Voting no: Tammy Baldwin, D KEY VOTES AHEAD The House will debate banking deregulation and abortion in the week of Jan. 15, while the Senate will take up an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Both chambers will vote on stopgap funding to avert a partial government shutdown at weeks end. 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. Casie Gotro withdrew as attorney for Twin Peaks defendant Jacob Carrizal on Thursday, but she pledged to continue providing information to a state defense lawyers grievance committee about what she calls prosecutorial misconduct by the McLennan County District Attorneys Office. Judge Matt Johnson of Wacos 54th State District Court approved Gotros motion to withdraw as Carrizals lawyer, about a month after Carrizals trial ended in mistrial. Jurors deadlocked and could not reach unanimous verdicts in any of the three counts against him. Court officials have scheduled a new trial for April 2 for Carrizal, 36, Dallas chapter president of the Bandidos motorcycle group, which clashed with a large group of Cossacks at Twin Peaks in May 2015, leaving nine dead and 20 injured. Gotro said after the brief hearing that there is no conflict between her and Carrizal. She said she handled the case for free, was only paid $8,000 for a portion of her expenses and fees from a Bandidos defense fund and just cannot afford a retrial. It took a long time for me to start getting paid, but I believed in him and felt like he needed some help, Gotro said. I took a pretty good financial hickey, and I cant afford to do that again. I know people want there to be some bad blood between Jake and I. There isnt. It is just simple finances. Johnson asked if the court would need to appoint an attorney to represent Carrizal. Gotro said Carrizal has been talking to attorneys and thinks he will be able to hire one. Johnson set a status hearing in Carrizals case for Feb. 2 and said he hopes to discuss the April 2 trial setting with his new attorney at that time. It is possible the retrial could be postponed if the new attorney cannot be ready by then. Gotro, of Houston, told the court she will work with Carrizals new attorney and do all she can to help him or her prepare for trial. Carrizal remains charged with directing the activities of a criminal street gang and two counts of engaging in organized criminal activity with the underlying offenses of murder and aggravated assault. That lawyer is going to have a hell of a lot easier time getting ready than I did because we have the evidence that has been hidden, Gotro said after the hearing. Gotro and the DAs office have butted heads since she signed on to the case in March over defense access to evidence in the case. Carrizals trial was interrupted on at least three occasions after Gotro uncovered evidence that should have been turned over to the defense that was not disclosed. During one of the revelations, an angry Gotro stormed out of the courtroom during a break, calling back over her shoulder that the DAs office failure to disclose certain evidence was criminal. Gotro has submitted materials to the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association grievance committee, which investigates claims of prosecutorial misconduct, and said she will continue to do so as transcripts from Carrizals trial become available. When you file these grievances, it is like an indictment. You have to have every available fact to support what you are saying, Gotro said. So they have recordings, transcripts, motions to quash subpoenas filed, in my opinion, in bad faith, that will all be evidence to support claims of misconduct by every lawyer for the state of Texas who touched this case. McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna did not return phone messages Thursday. First Assistant DA Michael Jarrett said he could not comment because the case remains pending. The systematic abuses in this case dont just affect one person, Gotro said. There were 177 people that were arrested. How many more are going to be prosecuted? This is a statewide issue, and the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association is willing, ready and able to pursue that on behalf of all of us. During a break in Carrizals trial, Gotro secretly recorded her conversation with an assistant state attorney general, who represents the Department of Public Safety. He said on that tape that Reyna encouraged a Texas Ranger to withhold evidence in the Twin Peaks case and that Reyna is deluded and cannot be trusted. A week after Twin Peaks defendant George Bergman rejected a plea offer for misdemeanor deferred probation and demanded his day in court, his attorney and the McLennan County District Attorneys Office agreed to postpone the trial. In a joint motion filed late Thursday afternoon, prosecutor Michael Jarrett and Dallas attorney Clint Broden asked 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson to postpone Bergmans trial at least 180 days. The judge granted the motion. The motion states only that the postponement is not sought for purposes of delay but so that justice is done. However, Johnson said the attorneys told him they were jointly seeking the delay so they could wait for prosecutors in San Antonio to disclose evidence gathered in the federal prosecution of Bandidos leaders there. There is a February trial date in that case. Broden said Thursday evening he agreed not to comment on the joint motion for continuance. Jarrett also declined comment, saying he cannot comment on pending matters. The continuance forced the 11th-hour cancellation of a large jury panel that had been summoned to court at 1 p.m. Friday to fill out background questionnaires for use in Bergmans case. Jury selection in Bergmans case had been set for Jan. 23. His trial has now been postponed until July 23. It is unusual for Broden to seek a delay for either of his clients, Bergman, a former Desgraciados member from Wills Point, or Matthew Clendennen, a former Scimitar from Hewitt. Broden has been one of the most outspoken of all the Twin Peaks attorneys in clamoring for speedy trials for his clients, arguing shortly after they were indicted that he did not need to wait for discovery from the state because there was no evidence against either of his clients. Just last week, he argued that the charges against Bergman should be dismissed because his right to a speedy trial had been violated. I certainly think there has been presumptive delay in this case, Broden said at the time. It is going on about 32 months now. Mr. Bergman asked for a trial at the earliest opportunity, and the state chose to take a case involving a man who was not asking for a speedy trial over Mr. Bergman. A year is a presumptive delay, and now we are at 32 months. I think this is a very egregious violation of speedy trial acts under the federal and state constitutions. After the hearing last week, Bergman said he did not accept the plea bargain because he did nothing wrong. After riding to Waco in a caravan of about 20 Bandidos and their support members led by Carrizal, he was walking toward Don Carlos Mexican Restaurant to go to the bathroom when the first shots rang out, he said. He said he ducked for cover and stayed there until the firing stopped. How can I say I am guilty for something when that is what I did? Bergman said. Broden said last week the state has no evidence against Bergman other than he was present at Twin Peaks and was wearing a motorcycle jacket. It is a very simple case, Broden said. Really, I think you could impanel 12 monkeys on this case and they would acquit Mr. Bergman. Waco attorney Barry Johnson, who will face McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna in the March 6 Republican primary, said he thinks the trial continuance obviously was arranged because Reyna did not want to lose a Twin Peaks case before the primary election. There is no question they delayed that trial until after the primary, Johnson said. They dont want a loss or another mistrial before the primary. I think there is no question about that. Those trials need to be tried. They have been postponed too long already. I think there is no question the way this thing (Twin Peaks) has been mishandled that they didnt want to get a case with a defendant who wanted to go to trial prior to the primary. They didnt want to get into that. Thats why they wanted to plead it down to a misdemeanor. They dont want to face the music. Reyna did not return phone messages Thursday. Axtell residents served by Moore Water System welcomed the arrival of 2018 by scrambling to find water for drinking and bathing. The problem is likely to continue into next week as a company from California travels to the community east of Waco to patch a damaged well. Issues with service provided by the decades-old water company have customers using Facebook to share updates, including news that Stuart Parsons, owner of Parsons Roofing and BSR Cable Park, has agreed to loan the water company $30,000 to cover the cost of repairs. Some residents said the water outage has meant taking showers at the homes of friends and family members, or doing without, and relying on bottled water provided by the water company, students in the Axtell Independent School District, Dr Pepper and relatives. Several residents said they have grown weary of brown or foul-tasting water even when the supply is adequate, while others complain they never see their meters being read and have not received water bills in months, even years, and worry about the viability of Moore Water System. Ive been out of water since Jan. 1, and this is not the first time, said Sharon Kerr, 49, who lives in Axtells Beaver Lake subdivision. Its an ongoing situation that seems to be getting worse. A real estate agent and in good health, Kerr said she probably is better able to cope with the inconvenience than others, but she expressed concern for the many older residents and those who raise livestock. If I want to take a shower, I can jump in my car and go flying up to the Flying J, where I pay $12, or I can visit people I know in Groesbeck, Kerr said. But what about those without that flexibility? Nancy Cunningham, 30, who lives in the 600 block of Beaver Lake Road, said she has scant water pressure, and the brownish liquid that flows into her residence smells like sewer. Now she has no water at all. I have two children, one 4 years old and another 10 months old with major health problems, she said. I dont want to have to worry about the kids taking baths, and I dont want them getting sick. Cunningham said she did not want to appear overly critical of Larry Moore, the owner of Moore Water System. But Ive never seen the meter checked, and Ive gone three years without receiving a bill, Cunningham said. I literally walked to the mans house to get my bill, and he told me his billing system was down. Ive heard one excuse after the other, and Im beyond frustrated. Moore, who was handing out bottled water Thursday to people who stopped by his place of business, said he shares in the aggravation. My wife and I are on the same water system, so I am well aware of how people feel, but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, he said. I think people will notice improvement in the quality and taste of the water once these repairs are completed. Moore said Jurgensen Pump, of Valley Mills, using a camera, discovered a crack in the well shaft 1,700 feet underground. The flaw was allowing soil and silt to make their way into the well water, making it appear brackish, and fouling its taste, Moore said. Jurgensen was not equipped to repair the hole, so it called in reinforcements, he said. Thats a three-day trip for the crews and trucks from the West Coast, but so few companies have expertise in this kind of patching, Moore said. He said he did not recall the name of the subcontractor in California, and representatives of Jurgensen could not be reached for comment Thursday. Once the crack is patched, crews will clean the well and install a new pump and motor to serve it, Moore said. They also will clean and chlorinate water tanks and lines and perform state-mandated testing. Resident Anna DeLaCruz, 74, said by phone Thursday that Moore placed a notice on her door stating service should resume by Jan. 20. So were facing another week without water, DeLaCruz said. She said she uses a wheelchair to get around and underwent chemotherapy after a cancer diagnosis but now is in remission. She has experienced water outages five or six times over the years but gets by with help from a daughter and son-in-law who live in Axtell and a daughter in Hewitt who brings me 15 gallons of water every three or four days, DeLaCruz said. My dishes are piled up in the sink, and my pots are dirty, she said. But I get Meals on Wheels, and I can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Stuart Parsons confirmed Thursday he was approached by Moore about assisting with financing the well repairs and has agreed to lend him $30,000. Parsons said he had become aware of the problem from an Axtell resident employed at BSR Cable Park. I know Larry, go to church with Larry, and these other people in Axtell are my neighbors, Parsons said. The picture being painted by some on social media is that he is the devil, that he is not trying, but the man I know is not that man at all. For him to be a friend and for him to approach me asking for money, you know it was his last resort. Moore, meanwhile, acknowledged that some customers may not have received bills in the past six to 18 months because of computer problems that the installation of a new system may alleviate. He said most customers pay $35 to $45 a month for water, and those rates have not increased in several years. Asked if he has the financial wherewithal to properly maintain and operate the water system, Moore said, Everyone would like to have more money. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality released a statement Thursday saying Moore notified the TCEQ of a water outage Jan. 2 and that a notice to boil water was issued at that time. The TCEQ regional staff has been in continuous contact with Moore and has started an investigation in response to five complaints made since the outage, TCEQ spokesman Brian McGovern said. Axtell ISD Superintendent JR Proctor said the district continues to sponsor water drives and to line up community members to provide places for families, including students, to wash clothes and take showers. Even though the 85 families dont all have students in school, were the largest organization in our community, and I take it as our responsibility to help in the time of need, Proctor said by phone. A U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrested two McLennan County men on unrelated sexual assault of a child charges after investigations by local police, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said. Albert Paul Rios, 32, of Waco, was arrested Wednesday after a girl under the age of 10 told a family member Rios had been sexually assaulting her for several years in an East Waco home. Swanton said Crimes Against Children investigators started investigating the case in early January. Investigators determined Rios, a known acquaintance of the girl, sexually assaulted her multiple times over several years, Swanton said. Rios came to speak with police for an interview Wednesday and was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Fore. He was arrested on a first-degree felony charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child and remained in McLennan County Jail on Thursday with bond listed at $300,000. In an unrelated investigation, police received a report of sexual abuse after a teenage girl went to a doctor in March and indicated during the exam that she had sex with her boyfriend, later identified as Jose Rojas, 20, of Bellmead, Swanton said. Swanton said Rojas was 19 when he had sex with the girl, who was underage at the time, making her unable to give legal consent. "He also came to interview (Wednesday) and was picked up by the U.S. Marshals Task Force," Swanton said. Rojas was arrested on a second-degree felony charge of sexual assault of a child and remained in McLennan County Jail on Thursday with bond listed at $50,000. A few weeks ago, I attended a dinner here in Washington with a group of political scientists from the West Coast. One of the professors, sitting across from me, asked me about my politics. I consider myself a centrist, I told her. Ah, she said. That means youre a conservative. She turned away and started speaking with someone else. Conversation over. I wasnt offended. But I was struck by her unwillingness to explore my actual political views. Our exchange if you can call it that struck me as symptomatic of the fundamental problems facing American democracy. We are right to be worried about President Donald Trump. His contempt for long-established norms of political behavior and the unwillingness of his own party to constrain him pose a serious challenge to our system. Yet we shouldnt forget that Trump is also a symptom of a much deeper malaise affecting American democracy. As experts have been pointing out, a variety of political and social forces have, over the past three decades, converged to devastating effect. The list is long: the rise of tribalism and deepening political polarization; congressional deadlock and the decay of legislative civility; echo chambers created by social media, talk radio and cable TV; the capture of the political system by moneyed interests; voter suppression. So we should welcome this weeks news from North Carolina, where a panel of three federal judges has just overturned a gerrymandering law installed by the states Republican-dominated legislature. For years, North Carolina has been a showcase for a remarkable power grab by Republicans; their redrawing of districts to favor themselves is just one in a long series of similarly dubious maneuvers. Though the states electorate is divided relatively equally between both major parties, Republican politicians have blatantly skewed the rules to keep themselves in power. One recent international study concluded that North Carolina can no longer be considered a democracy. (Critics have attacked the study for putting the state in the same company as Cuba and Sierra Leone. But its hard to dispute that the states recent record has been dismal.) Yet Republicans arent the only ones guilty of this sort of maneuvering. If the U.S. Supreme Court decides, as some experts expect, that it will hear several current gerrymandering cases as a group, Republican-controlled North Carolina and Wisconsin will probably be joined by Democrat-dominated Maryland, which boasts some of the most bizarrely drawn electoral districts in the country. Happily, there are solutions for gerrymandering. But other problems, which reflect deep social transformations, are far more daunting. How, for example, do we counter the problem of self-sorting? The mobility of modern American society means that citizens are increasingly choosing where they want to live and work according to the proximity of people with similar backgrounds and political views. When that trend is compounded by the selective consumption of media that reinforce our existing beliefs, you have a perfect recipe for polarization. Our political parties, which once functioned as big tents, have reflected this by becoming more and more homogeneous. Not that long ago the Democratic Party still contained a sizable chunk of conservatives, and a certain number of moderate liberals counted themselves as Republicans. This helped both sides find common ground. But as the parties have become more ideologically focused, the room for compromise has shrunk with the side effect that a growing number of Americans feel excluded from the system. (Its odd how often discussions of the problems facing American democracy gloss over the issue of rampant voter apathy.) And what about the immense political power of companies such as Facebook and Google, which control much of the information their customers consume, yet have almost no political accountability to anyone other than their own shareholders? Were only just beginning to talk about that one. So even as we worry about the damage done by the president, we shouldnt forget that there are longer-term issues that also need our attention. Efforts to help Americans find a way back to shared values and political compromise may be a part of that. Reforming electoral systems and looking for ways to reduce the deep rifts in our culture would also help. But its not going to be easy. And its a struggle that will continue long after Trump has left office. As we celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., we also note that this year marks 50 years since his assassination. While this length of time might not seem long, in some respects the passing of Dr. King was a lifetime ago. Arguably, the United States has changed markedly since the heady days of the civil rights movement. Most obviously, perhaps, the culture of Jim Crow segregation, while remaining a traumatic memory for African-American elders, is for many others merely something that occupies a fleeting place in the wider national consciousness. In other respects, however, the United States today is perhaps not much different from how it was in the 1960s. Its not hard to detect a profound schism in the ways in which a racially divided United States both regards and reflects the legacy of Kings civil rights movement. Broadly, white America is more likely to think about how far it has come, how much progress it has made, toward racial equity. Black America, on the other hand, is more likely to think about how relatively little real progress has been made, and about the ways in which challenges such as allegations of police brutality continue to dominate. But behind this schism lie tensions that are seldom part of the national conversation. In short, many white Americans view the agenda of racial progress in terms of concessions they have had to make. Consequently, a more just and equitable society is not regarded as a benchmark of progress but is instead indicative of ground conceded, or compromises that have had to be made, toward a supposedly more tolerant society. Black Americans, though, are unlikely to see themselves as the beneficiaries or recipients of whatever concessions the wider society thinks it has made, or thinks it has had to make. So what might King make of U.S. foreign policy and todays racial state of affairs? King opposed the war in Vietnam, which continued for the greater part of a decade after his murder. Its not hard to imagine him joining forces with those within the United States and around the world who stand in opposition to current hostilities. Similarly, we can imagine King urging restraint or advocating caution, resisting the widespread euphoria that heralded the arrival of President Barack Obama as the dawning of a new era in U.S. race relations and progress. And its not hard for us to imagine King speaking from his pulpit against the escalation of setbacks the nation has endured recently. After all, the civil rights movement was itself an encapsulation or a manifestation of the sentiment that Black Lives Matter. But perhaps most importantly, I imagine King would look at America today and be a staunch advocate of the rights of all poor people. Over the course of the 20th century, the notion that poverty was a state of being firmly and exclusively located within the African-American demographic gained ever-greater traction. This has had the catastrophic effect of consigning to the margins of political discourse many issues relating to combating poverty in our country. The truth: Many white Americans live in poverty, but white poverty is by and large unrecognized and unattended to by the nations lawmakers, who perpetuate the presumed link between race and poverty. One of the ways in which King was such a revolutionary was that he offered the dominant power structure nothing for its comfort. He would surely have continued to campaign for nonracial economic progress in which the riches of a wealthy nation were more equitably distributed, thereby creating a more genuine culture of equal opportunity. With what amounts to widespread economic segregation having replaced racial segregation, our country needs champions of the poor, such as King was, now as much as at any time in our history. To be sure, other energetic and passionate advocates of a more just economic system have come and gone in the years since that fateful day in April 1968. But few can disagree that Kings assassination robbed the world of one of historys most important advocates of humanitys cause. MEAD The Village of Mead is close to hearing water quality results from Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The village should hear from DHHS within the next two weeks, said Olsson Associates Project Manager Craig Reinsch. The village needs the green light from DHHS before moving forward with its water project. Two test wells were drilled on property at the west end of Second Street. The property was purchased by the village almost two years ago. Once results are in, the village will work toward design with Olsson, bidding and purchasing the equipment needed for two wells, a water tower and a water treatment center. The village will receive more than $3.3 million through the United States Department of Agricultures Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program. That amount plus $165,000 from the village will go toward the project. In August, the village board approved an estimated annual payment of $226,666, without a 25 percent loan forgiveness applied, over a 20 year loan period. The board also approved a gradual raise in water rates to help pay for the project, said Village Chairman Shawn Havelka. The hope is to have the project complete and a new water tower painted by 2020. Its an overdue project, Havelka said. The water tower in the village now is over 100 years old. The project is the result of rising arsenic levels in Meads water supply that have increased to the maximum amount the Environmental Protection Agency would allow. Mud Lake in far northwest Dane County should be fish-free within several weeks, with the small lake getting treated chemically to rid the waters of carp. The Dane County Land and Water Resources Department said the treatment will start Monday on the 51-acre lake near the Dane County-Columbia County line in the town of Roxbury. The treatment will kill all fish in the lake, but most of the fish are carp, so with water devoid of fish, the lake will be restocked in spring with bluegills and bass. "Carp have negatively impacted the aquatic plant community, which has resulted in poor water quality conditions, including blue-green algae blooms," said Nathan Nye, fisheries biologist with the Department of Natural Resources. The project was supposed to take place in 2017, but officials worried the chemical used, rotenone, would also get into Fish Lake, which is across Fish Lake Road from Mud Lake and is connected via culverts under the road. Mud Lake will be posted with informational placards about the treatment, and Fish Lake will be also posted in the "transitional" area close to Mud Lake, with the placards staying up for 14 days. Rotenone is a botanical pesticide that has been used for years to rid water of trash fish like carp. The chemical will be injected under the ice and will take three days to complete. The DNR said recreational access to the 51-acre Mud Lake will be prohibited while rotenone is being applied, and fish should not be consumed from Mud Lake once it's treated. CHICAGO When Winston Churchills party lost an election in 1945, evicting him from the job of prime minister of Britain, his wife ventured that the defeat might be a blessing in disguise. He replied, Well, at the moment, its certainly very well-disguised. For those who favor legalizing recreational and medical use of marijuana, plenty of bad news is in Attorney General Jeff Sessions decision to reverse the Justice Departments previous hands-off policy toward state experimentation. He ordered federal prosecutors to enforce the laws enacted by Congress. That directive poses a threat to cannabis growers, dispensaries, investors and users who had been operating under a permissive regime. This is going to create chaos in the dozens of states whose voters have chosen to regulate medical and adult use (of) marijuana rather than leaving it in the hands of criminals, said Neill Franklin, executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, which favors legalization. The Drug Enforcement Administration could raid dispensaries that states have allowed, as it did under President George W. Bush and even under Barack Obama. But the crackdown could amount to the last gasp of marijuana prohibition. The best way to get rid of laws that are generally unpopular and destructive is to enforce them stringently. By threatening an assault on a sector that has established itself across the country, Sessions has picked a fight he is bound to lose. His policy puts him at odds with the 29 states (and the District of Columbia) that allow medical use of the drug. Together, they comprise nearly 60 percent of the U.S. population. His order is especially hostile to the eight states that have legalized recreational pot. They include Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts and California, which account for 20 percent of Americans. It also creates conflict with many people in his own party. Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado said the shift contradicted the assurance Sessions had given him, and he threatened to block all Justice Department nominations in response. Fellow GOP Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky objected. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California accused Sessions of a profound misreading of the Constitution, which allows states, not the heavy-handed federal government, to determine such issues. Sessions is a prisoner of his immutable belief that using drugs will destroy your life. But the more than 100 million Americans who have consumed cannabis, and particularly the 35 million who enjoy it on a regular basis, know better. The attorney general seems intent on proving that you dont have to be stoned to be detached from reality. He is also inviting a backlash. Just hours after his announcement, the Vermont House of Representatives approved a bill to allow recreational use of cannabis, which the Senate had passed last year, and Republican Gov. Phil Scott supports the idea. The New Hampshire House just voted to legalize possession of small amounts of pot, though Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is opposed. Illinois, which allows medical marijuana, could benefit. State Sen. Heather Steans, who had already introduced a bill to legalize recreational use, says, What the attorney general did may be pushing states further. Rohrabacher thinks Sessions move will encourage Congress to foil him. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she will introduce a bill to let states make their own choices on cannabis. She may find little opposition. Politico reported that it could not find a single member of Congress who had issued a statement in support of Sessions actions. His mistake was to disturb a status quo that allowed members of Congress to accommodate public support for legalization without having to vote for it. Deference to state liberalization could be couched in terms of keeping the federal government from interfering with matters beyond its responsibilities an approach that largely satisfied both Democrats and Republicans. Sessions is forcing many members to choose between supporting prohibition of cannabis and siding with their own states and constituents. Given that two-thirds of Americans want to allow recreational weed, its not a shrewd strategy. His position is more likely to boost support for legalization than to diminish it. Thats partly because he works for a president who is notably unpopular and partly because he himself has an approval rating of 24 percent. Legalization supporters could not ask for a more useful adversary. They may lament Sessions ill-informed and punitive decision now. Someday, they may remember it as a blessing in disguise. We are gathering information for the 2022 general election. On desktop, click "election information" on the right side of this pag... 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. The Uunguu Rangers in the state's far north Kimberley have found evidence of a tiny endangered rock-wallaby long thought to have disappeared from the region's mainland. The furry grey nabarlek is roughly the length of a school ruler with a light brown brush-tipped tail and a black stripe running from the forehead to nose and under its eyes. The nocturnal marsupials live in rugged, rocky country where they feed on grass and herbs. This is the only known photo of a nabarlek, captured on Augustus island off the Kimberley coast in July 2013. Credit:University of New England/World Wildlife Fund Australia Wunambal Gaambera Country traditional owners collected scats that Australian Museum scientists identified as being from the nabarlek - Australia's second smallest rock-wallaby. This is the first confirmed nabarlek record in mainland WA since the mid-1970s. Washington: US President Donald Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers in the Oval Office on Thursday when they suggested restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, two people briefed on the meeting have said. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump is reported to have said, referring to African countries and Haiti. He then suggested that the US should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose Prime Minister he met yesterday. The comments left lawmakers taken aback, people familiar with their reactions said. Geneva: The United Nations human rights office on Friday rejected as "racist" and inciting xenophobia the reported remarks by US President Donald Trump describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from "shithole" countries. Trump on Thursday questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as "shithole countries," according to two sources familiar with the comments made in the White House. Credit:Evan Vucci "These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word one can use but 'racist'," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing when asked about the comments. WASHINGTON DC - Attaching their anti-Trump agenda to the upcoming national holiday commemorating the life and accomplishments of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., congressional liberals plan to hijack the civil rights-era tactic of "teach-ins" to further demonize recently-passed tax reform and to promote amnesty for illegal aliens. "This is a stunning development. In the name of black America and our nation's historic civil rights legacy, liberals want us to believe that having more money in our pockets and greater job opportunities is somehow a negative," said Project 21 Co-Chairman , a former congressional leadership aide and constitutional law professor. "But they are willing to threaten a government shutdown to protect their new favorite class illegals. Blacks get teach-ins, illegals get citizenship." "I don't understand the point of using or, in this case, misusing our memorial day for Reverend King to protest a tax cut allowing Americans to keep more of the money they've earned," added Project 21 member Derryck Green, Ph.D., a political commentator whose doctorate is in divinity and ministry. "These teach-ins are really the liberals' attempt to advise American taxpayers that their money doesn't belong to them, and that it really belongs to a bigger and more intrusive government." On January 13, in conjunction with observances of Martin Luther King Day, and at the urging of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), congressional liberals will hold teach-ins mentioning the civil rights movement and using it to attack the Trump Administration's tax reform and economic revitalization efforts, as well as to promote the Dream Act. "The real lesson here is that progressives are so out of touch with the needs and values of black America that they forget that the most important civil right is self-determination. This is the right to come and go as you please without needing permission or handouts from the government," Cooper noted. "Trying to use Martin Luther King's legacy as a tool to scare black America won't work. And being much more interested in fighting for illegal immigrants than actual black citizens is just insulting. Sorry, this bait and switch gambit won't fly." Already, some workers are receiving bonuses and raises due to the enactment of the Trump Administration's tax reform, the group says. Likewise, black unemployment reached a historic lowduring the month of December. Protesting this productive Trump agenda shows a lack of support for average Americans, Project 21 members argue. To protest using Dr. King as a rallying point is particularly disturbing. "Why were there no teach-ins during the Obama presidency when household income and wealth were reduced by policies enacted to allegedly catalyze an economic 'recovery' which ended up being the worst since World War II? Why were there no teach-ins to protest the ugly reality that this so-called 'recovery' left upwards of 47 million people on food stamps? Or that Obamacare robbed them of their doctors despite a promise that it wouldn't?" asked Green. "The economy is surging these days. The unemployment rate is at 4.1 percent overall, and black unemployment is the lowest it has been in at least 45 years. The stock market is above 25,000, and the gross domestic product has been at three percent for two consecutive quarters with predictions it might grow even more. Why do the liberals want to protest a strong economy and the government giving Americans their money back? And why do so in Reverend King's name? It's appalling." A one-day Workshop on Data Analytics took place at WCO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on 9 January 2017. This event, the first of its kind, was organized to explore and discuss the potential use of data analytics in Customs. The aim of the Workshop was to discuss ways in which Customs could take greater advantage of the use of data analytics in Customs as an extremely powerful tool for improving the way Customs administrations work, at both the operational and strategic levels. There is evidence that the massive amount of data generated by Customs is currently underused. Enhancing Customs ability to perform increasingly sophisticated analytics using the available data will become even more crucial in all future policy-making processes. The Workshop participants included representatives from academia and international organizations, as well as practitioners from Customs administrations. The discussions and presentations focused on Customs and trade data, as well as data analysis methods that could be used to help Customs gain a better understanding of themselves and the work they do, thus shaping the way towards more efficient and effective Customs administrations. The WCO Secretary General, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, shared his views on the need for Customs to develop data analytics skills and encouraged to make greater use of data analytics as a key tool for more robust analyses when meeting with participants. It was agreed, at the end of the Workshop, that the available data provided by some Customs administrations would be used to produce research papers, as well as being collated and summarized for inclusion in a book for the Customs community. That news prompted an agitated response from Cook County GOP chairman Sean Morrison posted on the Cook County GOP website. In that announcement, Morrison condemned Chicago Republican Party chairman Chris Cleveland as holding the straw poll with the expressed intent to "usurp the statutory authority" of the Cook County Republican Party and Morrison himself by "illegitimately claiming the authority to appoint individuals to the position of Ward Committeeman." CHICAGO - Thursday Illinois Review reported that the Chicago GOP held a straw poll among the group's committeemen, and Republican challenger Jeanne Ives won over incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner with a 17 to 3 vote. "...[T]he committee passed a resolution allowing me to appoint 'acting' committeemen, because we have 18 vacancies -- 18 wards without a Republican committeeman," Cleveland said. "Sean Morrison refuses to appoint anyone in these wards. It's been a year and a half. We can't recruit and place election judges in these wards. It leaves the Democrats with zero opposition in some of the worst precincts in the city." Cleveland said the Chicago GOP has repeatedly sent Morrison lists of good people, but he ignores them. Finally, the committee got so upset that they asked Cleveland to appoint someone, anyone, in these wards to get things going. "So I did," Cleveland said. "If he had done his job, it wouldn't have been necessary. And we wrote the bylaws so that he can override my choice of an 'acting' committeeman at any time simply by appointing a full committeeman." Morrison said the Chicago Republican Party was a private club that holds no statutory authority within the Cook County GOP. "Thus, Mr. Cleveland has no authority to make any appointments to the position of Ward Committeeman and to indicate otherwise is pure deception," Morrison said. Cleveland responded, declaring the Chicago Republican Party is not club, despite Morrison and his deputy chairman Aaron Del Mar's insistence otherwise. "It's a municipal Republican Party with the same legal status as the county party," Cleveland said. "It would benefit them both to read Illinois election code, 10 ILCS 5/7-8 (h) Municipal Central Committee. Morrison pointed directly at the dispute as a battle between challenger Jeanne Ives and incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner campaigns. Cleveland is Ives' campaign chairman and Morrison accepted a $25,000 donation through the IL GOP that ties directly to Rauner's $4.5 million donation to the party over the past couple of months. I recognize that Mr. Cleveland plays a very prominent role as Campaign Chair for the Jeanne Ives campaign for governor and he has a right to support the candidate of his choice. But, that does not mean that he can manipulate the use and influence of his role as Chairman of the Chicago Republican Club to mislead individuals into the belief that he can appoint them to the position of Ward Committeeman. His sole intent was to manufacture some sort of perceived endorsement for his candidate Jeanne Ives, said Chairman Morrison. Then the rhetoric notched up. "Mr. Clevelands actions are nothing more than a blatant exploitation of his club and its By-Laws and are eerily reminiscent of the actions taken by former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz when she helped rig the DNC support and primary election in favor of Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders," Morrison went on to say. "Mr. Clevelands unilateral actions are an attempt to de-legitimize the vote and influence of every single Republican Committeeman in Cook County." That's simply not the case, Cleveland said. "The vote happened to be the same meeting as our straw poll, but none of the votes of the acting committeemen were tallied in the result we reported," Cleveland said. "The vote was 17 to 3, with 2 abstentions. 22 committeemen, all of who were either elected or appointed by Sean Morrison himself." And why did committeeman of only 20 of Chicago's 50 Wards participate in the straw poll? "Because we're down 18 wards, leaving 32 committeemen, and 10 of them were either out of town or otherwise unavailable. It's pathetic that Morrison has left us this understrength," Cleveland said. "Sean Morrison is either a nitwit or a Democratic plant who needs to resign for the good of the party. Get out of the way so someone else can do the job," he said. CHICAGO - Friday, Democrat gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker called for Illinois to legalize recreational marijuana and become the first state in the Midwest to do so. Legalizing marijuana would benefit Illinois with increased revenue and consumer safety, he said. Our state should legalize marijuana, said JB Pritzker. This is not a moment for a governor who stands with Trump. In the name of criminal justice reform, consumer safety, and increased state revenue, Illinois needs a governor who is ready to legalize marijuana in Illinois. The candidate said no more studies were needed to show its time for Illinois to safely move forward with legalizing marijuana. He outlined how he would modernize drug laws and move Illinois towards a criminal justice system that gives all Illinoisans a chance to reach their full potential. JB also discussed the importance of regulating and taxing marijuana to generate much needed revenue for this state. "There is an abundance of evidence that shows we can legalize marijuana in Illinois in a safe way. There is an abundance of evidence that shows the real benefits this would have on our state. Most importantly, it is a step forward in reforming our broken criminal justice system. Criminalizing marijuana hasnt made our communities safer. What its done is disproportionately impact black and brown communities. The criminalization of cannabis never has been and never will be enforced fairly, and its time to bring that to an end, Pritzker said. 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. Illinois dropped from the fifth-largest state to the sixth according to recently released Internal Revenue Service data. Weve been edged out by Pennsylvania. And this isnt some demographic blip. Illinois has been hemorrhaging people for years. In fact, since 2013, the state has lost 88,000 people. So that begs the question of: 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 essentially 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. Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist. He works as a freelance reporter in the Springfield area and produces the podcast Suspect Convictions. He can be reached at ScottReeder1965@gmail.com. By WestKyStar & River Discovery Center Staff Jan. 11, 2018 | 04:22 PM | PADUCAH, KY Renzulli says, My goal has been to create interesting images, contrasting the sharp lines of the marine architecture with the tones and texture of the natural environment, making liberal use of an 'artistic license'. The visual delights of the river and the varying style of the boats are many, but I have fallen in love with the gritty and tenacious character of the boats, large and small, as they move their massive cargo across the water. I cannot help thinking of Frank Sinatra singing about the ant moving a rubber tree plant. William Renzulli is a self-taught artist who left his 9-year practice of internal medicine in 1981 to pursue a career in art. For 20 years, he divided his time between art and medicine, and since 2002 has devoted all of his time to art. Working with watercolor, Renzullis early work focused on architecture and the built environment, depicting townscapes and urban landscapes. In recent years his primary medium has been pastels, clay mono-typing, acrylics and a variety of mixed mediums. The landscapes became more rural, but the architectural elements persisted. Renzullis paintings have been exhibited in numerous solo and juried shows. He has been commissioned to create both commemorative prints and original work for a number of institutions, schools, and corporations. He has had numerous paintings accepted into the Pastel Society of Americas annual juried show and has won awards in two of those years. In 2002, he was awarded signature membership in the Pastel Society of America. Julie Harris, Executive Director of the River Discovery Center says, We are excited to host Bills river portfolio as our rivers, which are so important to Paducah, offer such wonderful subject matter, both the natural environment as well are our river industry. The exhibit will open to the public on Friday, January 19th and will run through March 1 at the Center, 117 S.Water St. in Paducahs downtown. Admission to the exhibit is free. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday 9:30 am-5 pm. For more information, call the Center 270-575-9958. William F. Renzullis collection of river paintings will be on exhibit at the River Discovery Center beginning Friday, January 19th.The idea of a series of paintings focusing on the river and the riverboats is several years old. Two years ago, Renzulli overcame his inhibitions regarding his lack of knowledge about the subject and simply began painting, working from photos taken with his smart phone along Paducahs riverfront. He chose to work primarily in watercolor because of the fine details in the boats, but also had some fun with acrylics and pastels. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 11, 2018 | 12:00 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY Three Graves County residents were arrested Wednesday on credit card fraud charges.According to the Graves County Sheriff's Office, Mary Walker told deputies that someone used her debit card information without her knowledge to obtain more than $2,800 of services and goods. Deputies learned that a room had been rented recently at the Super 8 Motel in Mayfield, using her debit card information. According to police, the motel room had been rented to 42-year-old Brandy Arnett, of Mayfield, who was arrested earlier this week on drug charges. Arnett was charged with fraudulent use of a credit card device. The investigation revealed that 25-year-old Nikki Blake of Dukedom had been using the card and had provided the information to Arnett to obtain the room. Blake also admitted that she had used the card to purchase items totaling over $1,000. Blake was arrested and charged with fraudulent use of a credit card device. She was already in the Graves County Jail on another charge. According to deputies, Walker's grandson, 29-year-old Andrew Jones, of Mayfield, had obtained her debit card information and passed it on to others for them to use. He also reportedly used the information to obtain items for himself. Jones was also arrested and taken to the Graves County Jail on a charge of fraudulent use of a credit card device. North Korea test-fires missile with range to strike all of U.S. "I support Jeanne Ives, a West Point graduate," McSweeney said in a statement. "Jeanne is a courageous conservative who will fight for lower taxes and real reform." BARRINGTON - State Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington) says Governor Bruce Rauner is a "failed governor" that admits he's not in charge. For that reason and others, McSweeney stepped forward endorsing Rauner's GOP primary challenger State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton). McSweeney said Rauner, who was dubbed by National Review as the "Worst Republican Governor in America," is a failed governor that admits he's not in charge. Under Governor Rauner, Illinois has become a sanctuary state, there has been a 32% increase in the income tax rate, state spending has exploded and taxpayers are now required to pay for abortions without limitations. "It's time we elect a real conservative that will take charge," McSweeney said. McSweeney also raised concerns about how the Governor handled the budget crisis. He pointed to comments made last week in the News Gazette in which retiring State Rep. Chad Hays (R-Catlin) pointed to the Governor's actions surrounding vetoing the budget that demanded a 32% income tax hike. Things just didn't add up, Hayes said in the interview. "Why would he veto the bill so quickly? (The House passed the tax and spending plan on July 2, Rauner vetoed it on July 4, and the House overrode the vetoes on July 6)," Hayes said. "He had 45 days. Because he didn't want the Legislature leaving town without overriding a veto. He needed a budget too. When he got a budget and he didn't have to touch it and he was able to blast it (in campaign rhetoric) until the next election, he fell out of the political lucky tree and hit every branch on the way down." McSweeney agreed with Hayes. "Governor Rauner showed his true colors by opposing the recently passed federal tax cut bill. It makes sense that Rauner opposes cutting federal taxes because he spent his first few years as Governor begging the General Assembly to raise the income tax by 32 percent under the guises of the 'Grand Bargain' and the "Capitol Compromise,'" McSweeney told Illinois Review. "Governor Rauner calls himself a Republican, but has such animus for President Trump that he won't even say the President's name and won't tell the people of Illinois who he voted for in the Presidential election in 2016. Sadly, Bruce Rauner hasn't shaken up Springfield. Instead,he's become a key leader of the Springfield insider club that supports higher taxes and more spending. "Unlike Bruce Rauner, Jeanne Ives will be in charge," he said. Thus far, only House Republican colleague Tom Morrison has donated to Ives' campaign coffers, showing his support for her candidacy. 215 years ago today, in fact, one year into the Jefferson administration, this very issue was in the headlines, as Federalist Party leader Alexander Hamilton assailed the President in a published op-ed, known as The Examination, Number VIII, for Jeffersons political flip-flop on the matter. It is now common for one side of the debate to say were a nation of immigrants, giving rise to the assumption that we always believed in open borders in the past, so this current concern about a wave of cultural invaders is something new but in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. As we debate the ongoing question of immigration not just who and how many to allow in, but also when, if ever, to allow them to vote it might be helpful to remember the thoughts of our Founders on the issue. The People of the Founding Era Our Founding Fathers were indeed a mixture of people. We had politicians whose families had been in the Colonies for generations, like the Washingtons, Jeffersons, and Adamses. Many were scions of families that had been in their respective colonies for a century or more; many Founders traced their roots back 150 years to the Mayflower and other early settlements. Similarly, some of the Founders were politicians who were themselves relatively new arrivals from abroad, like Thomas Paine from England, James Wilson from Scotland, and Alexander Hamilton from the Caribbean. These statesmen all participated in the Revolutionary Era, in support of what was then known as The Glorious Cause of Independence, with fervent devotion to the principles of liberty. They built our nation to be a combination of the freedom philosophy of the Enlightenment and the incarnation of the ethics of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition their very ambitious goal was indeed to make our new country the culmination of Western Civilization, a City on a Hill. They knew that this would be a challenge, not only to design but to maintain. Virtually 100% of the Founders were united in their belief that government should be severely limited, only big enough to protect the peoples liberty. There were disagreements on how best to get there, but no disagreement about the goal. Hence the split between federalists (the supporters of the Constitution) and anti-federalists (the Constitutions opponents) during the ratification debate a divide that soon materialized into two separate parties, first known simply as the Federalists (the ancestors of todays Republicans) and the Jeffersonians (the ancestors of todays Democrats). On immigration, then as now, one of the divides was between those whose immigrant roots were recent and those whose roots were distant. People who were recently arrived might better remember how incredibly different things are in other countries how different the thinking, how different the culture, how different the peoples expectations from government and the governments expectations from the people. People whose ancestors fled England, Holland, France or Ireland a century ago might have forgotten their grandparents stories (if ever theyd heard them at all) about how hard life was in the country their ancestors left. As we forget our roots, perhaps, we forget that our ancestors had to learn a new worldview when they arrived on these shores. That, at least, is the heart of todays debate. Not every immigrant is a fully-minted Hamilton, Paine or Wilson, the day they arrive. In the late Phyllis Schlaflys last major project her scrupulously-researched study on the voting patterns of immigrant groups she demonstrated that immigrants tend to be so pre-disposed to the governmental philosophy of their homelands that it takes a century before their descendants begin to vote majority-Republican. The statist impulse is that difficult to shake. Yes, even in people who fled that foreign country for America. Its not really much different from our intrastate and interstate migrations today those of people who flee the city for the safer and more honest suburbs, or who flee Illinois and California for better-managed Texas and Florida, arrive in their new homes and tend to vote for the very policies that wrecked the places they left behind. And this pattern is all the more embedded in people who arrive from another country. Thomas Jeffersons Notes on Virginia In 1781, during the War of Independence, Thomas Jefferson received a set of questions about Virginia from a foreign acquaintance, and the questions so intrigued him that he wrote much more extensive answers than expected; enough in fact to fill a book. Heres a selection of comments that Thomas Jefferson wrote about the risks to a republic of a substantial influx of new immigrants, in 1781, as quoted by Mr. Hamilton: Here I will beg leave to propose a doubt. The present desire of America, is to produce rapid population, by as great importations of foreigners as possible. But is this founded in good policy? Are there no inconveniences to be thrown into the scale, against the advantage expected from a multiplication of numbers, by the importation of foreigners? It is for the happiness of those united in society, to harmonize as much as possible, in matters which they must of necessity transact together. Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent. Every species of government has its specific principles: Ours, perhaps, are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English Constitution, with others, derived from natural right and reason. To these, nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of absolute monarchies. Yet from such, we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty. Their principles with their language, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us in the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass. I may appeal to experience, during the present contest, for a verification of these conjectures: but if they be not certain in event, are they not possible, are they not probable? Is it not safer to wait with patience for the attainment of any degree of population desired or expected? May not our government be more homogeneous, more peaceable, more durable? Suppose 20 millions of republican Americans, thrown all of a sudden into France, what would be the condition of that kingdom? If it would be more turbulent, less happy, less strong, we may believe that the addition of half a million of foreigners, to our present numbers, would produce a similar effect here. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1781 (my apologies for the lengthy paragraph without a break; thats how Mr. Jefferson wrote.) Now, this is clearly a logical, accurate presentation of the nature of immigrants, entering a republic from the monarchies of Europe. Today, we can take this argument and expand it, since Mr Jefferson was at least talking about people arriving from European Christian nations in Western civilization, with similarities at least in history, language, and culture. But even so, their different backgrounds would clearly cause them to think differently, especially on election day, than an American would, having been raised in the principles of liberty. Consider people newly arrived from muslim North African villages or pantheist West Africa hamlets, the desperate poverty of so many Central American and Caribbean origins. It is no insult to the people to honestly recognize that they arrive with different experiences, habits and behaviors, and are therefore guaranteed to judge political issues differently on election day. Jeffersons Message and Hamilton's Response On December 7, 1801, in lieu of a State of the Union Address as we would expect today, President Jefferson transmitted a Message a written speech, for circulation and publication. Alexander Hamilton, as practical leader of the opposition in those days, analyzed that address in a series of op-eds that, together, form what is now known as The Examination. As was usual for those days, Mr. Hamilton wrote under a pseudonym, in this case, Lucius Crassus, and took apart what he held to be Mr. Jeffersons errors in separate articles. His articles numbers VII and VIII directly took on the issue of immigration. In the Presidents Message, Jefferson called for a change to our naturalization process, to more easily admit foreigners and grant them citizenship. He even attacked waiting periods of ten or fourteen years as being unkind, and proposed shorter waits or even no waits at all. In his analysis, Hamilton reminded the public of the old Jefferson, and pointed out the wisdom in the former position and called him out for this policy reversal. Consider this extract this is actually the entirety of The Examination, Number VIII (my apologies, but I find it very difficult to cut the work of Secretary Hamilton): Resuming the subject of our last paper we proceed to trace still farther, the consequences that must result from a too unqualified admission of foreigners, to an equal participation in our civil, and political rights. The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common National sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign bias, and prejudice; and on that love of country which will almost invariably be found to be closely connected with birth, education and family. The opinion advanced in the Notes on Virginia is undoubtedly correct, that foreigners will generally be apt to bring with them attachments to the persons they have left behind; to the country of their nativity, and to its particular customs and manners. They will also entertain opinions on government congenial with those under which they have lived, or if they should be led hither from a preference to ours, how extremely unlikely is it that they will bring with them that temperate love of liberty, so essential to real republicanism? There may as to particular individuals, and at particular times, be occasional exceptions to these remarks, yet such is the general rule. The influx of foreigners must, therefore, tend to produce a heterogeneous compound; to change and corrupt the national spirit; to complicate and confound public opinion; to introduce foreign propensities. In the composition of society, the harmony of the ingredients is all important, and whatever tends to a discordant intermixture must have an injurious tendency. The United States have already felt the evils of incorporating a large number of foreigners into their national mass; it has served very much to divide the community and to distract our councils, by promoting in different classes different predilections in favor of particular foreign nations, and antipathies against others. It has been often likely to compromise the interests of our own country in favor of another. In times of great public danger there is always a numerous body of men, of whom there may be just grounds of distrust; the suspicion alone weakens the strength of the nation, but their force may be actually employed in assisting an invader. In the infancy of the country, with a boundless waste to people, it was politic to give a facility to naturalization; but our situation is now changed. It appears from the last census, that we have increased about one third in ten years; after allowing for what we have gained from abroad, it will be quite apparent that the natural progress of our own population is sufficiently rapid for strength, security and settlement. By what has been said, it is not meant to contend for a total prohibition of the right of citizenship to strangers, nor even for the very long residence which is now a prerequisite to naturalization, and which of itself, goes far towards a denial of that privilege. The present law was merely a temporary measure adopted under peculiar circumstances and perhaps demands revision. But there is a wide difference between closing the door altogether and throwing it entirely open; between a postponement of fourteen years and an immediate admission to all the rights of citizenship. Some reasonable term ought to be allowed to enable aliens to get rid of foreign and acquire American attachments; to learn the principles and imbibe the spirit of our government; and to admit of at least a probability of their feeling a real interest in our affairs. A residence of at least five years ought to be required. If the rights of Naturalization may be communicated by parts, and it is not perceived why they may not, those peculiar to the conducting of business and the acquisition of property, might with propriety be at once conferred, upon receiving proof, by certain prescribed solemnities, of their intention to become citizens; postponing all political privileges to the ultimate term. To admit foreigners indiscriminately to the rights of citizens, the moment they put foot in our country, as recommended in the Message, would be nothing less, than to admit the Grecian Horse into the Citadel of our Liberty and Sovereignty. Alexander Hamilton, as Lucius Crassus, January 12, 1802 There you have it. It was 215 years ago today that Alexander Hamilton, founder of the Federalist Party, the forerunner to the Republican Party and the conservative movement of today, enunciated the very issues that resonate in our current debates. When Jefferson became a politician, he forgot the very philosophy that he had so eloquently espoused just twenty years earlier; he advocated easing the entry of new arrivals, not just into our economy, but into our voting booths as well. It took the immigrant from Nevis, Alexander Hamilton, to remind America of the risks in such and error. It took the man who had grown up in the Caribbean to remind the public that new arrivals in a voting booth cannot be counted on to safeguard liberties hard-won by others, that they may not even fully understand. Our Challenge Today Those of us who call for border enforcement, punishment of border-jumping, and a resistance to the dilution of our body politic are not guilty of the bigotry, racism, or other offenses of which we are charged by the Left. We just recognize reality: that for the republic to succeed and prosper for all its inhabitants, it must be populated by people who understand and appreciate the culture, economy, and philosophy of that republic. People raised in socialist countries, in kingdoms, in lands ruled by clans, tribes, military dictators, kings, mafia kingpins or warlords, simply do not arrive with the underpinnings of the freedom philosophy. But can they ever be assimilated? Certainly, if the circumstances are right for it If they arrive with an attitude close to our own, perhaps they can assimilate quickly; Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense after having only been on our soil for a single year! But if they arrive with attitudes a world away from our own accustomed to dependency on government, accustomed to having ones job assigned by government, accustomed to disobeying the law because life is all about what you can get away with, so accustomed to poverty that miserable free welfare-state life is a welcome step up, so theyre satisfied with it and never work harder to improve their lot then the work of assimilation will indeed be a challenging endeavor, taking years of effort and the support of our society. And this is our problem; our society has not really encouraged rapid assimilation in recent decades. We speak a hundred languages in our schools and our government documents; we have ethnic neighborhoods in which immigrants choose to remain, to avoid mixing with others; we have foreign language radio and television stations to minimize the need to ever learn English. Tom Paine understood America after being year a single year; today, millions of immigrant families who have been here for generations still dont understand America at all. What have we learned from our Founding Fathers? That they knew the problem, even then that they knew that one day, drawing from nations that lacked the five-hundred-year history of the fight for liberty that Englishmen had been through, our electorate would gradually lose an understanding of its critical role in protecting our liberties on election day. For no matter what the open borders advocates tell you that this is for the children, or for the poor, or for the entrepreneurial, or for the families the fact is, they support open borders in order to get more Democrat voters. If immigrants voted Republican, Democrat politicians and talking heads would be building the wall themselves, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As our Founders knew, a government does not exist to provide favors or charity to the starving masses of foreign lands. A government exists to protect the liberties of its own citizens. And anything that contributes to weakening those liberties is not only a crime against our citizens today, it is treason against the millions of courageous patriots who risked everything their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to win us the opportunity to enjoy this nation, this City on a Hill, as Americans today. Copyright 2018 John F. Di Leo John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international trade compliance trainer, writer, and actor. A descendent of late 19th century and early 20th century Irish, Austrian, German and Italian immigrants, he is honored to enjoy the legacy of the Founding Fathers who were here long before. Permission is hereby granted to forward freely, provided it is uncut and the IR URL and byline are included. A new calendar year brings with it the start of new state legislative sessions. With these renewed sessions comes the push for state legislators to pass resolutions that would agree to what is designated in Article V of our Constitution; namely, that if two thirds of the States apply for it, Congress shall call a convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution. Delegates, however, would have the right, as recognized in the 2nd paragraph of our Declaration of Independence, to throw off the Constitution we have and write a new Constitution. The call for an Article V Constitution has only been successful one time in the past. Our original Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was perceived to have defects, so on February 21, 1787, the Continental Congress called a convention to be held in Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. But instead of proposing amendments, the Delegates wrote a new Constitution with an easier way of ratification, which created a new government. Why now the push for an Article V Convention? To fully understand why there are those who are pushing for an Article V Convention, it is first necessary to comprehend basic facts about our nation. Our Constitution delegates only a handful of powers to the federal government. 100 years ago, the Americans started electing Progressives to state and federal office. Rewarded and encouraged by the enthusiastic approval of the American people, the progressives instituted the socialist regulatory welfare governments (state and federal) we now have. Although unconstitutional, the American people didnt object, for they were being taken care of by the governments and their children were also receiving free public school educations. Because of this situation, for the past 100 years federal and state governments and the American people have ignored our Constitution. In keeping with this nation's collapsing socialist system, the "Convention of States" Project (COS) is being pushed. But beware, do not play into the enemies' hands by calling it a "convention of states"! This creates a false impression. It's an Article V Convention because states don't get to control the convention. See Judi Calers article on Newspeak for a further explanation. Its unfortunate that resonating with many Americans is the COS's faulty main premise that our nation's problems stem from the federal government's violation of our Constitution and that they can be fixed by amending the Constitution through a convention called by Congress pursuant to Article V of our Constitution. Two-thirds (34) of the states are needed for an Article V Convention to be called by Congress. See here a list of state applications for an Article V Convention So far 12 States have passed resolutions for the misnamed "Convention of States." Dark money funds Article V through obscure (c)(3) organization The "Convention of States" could rightly be called the biggest political scams of our time, fueled by dark money laundered through (c)(3) organizations. As these (c)(3) organizations ramp up their push for Con ConCon legislation in 2018, they will seek to avoid hearings that could expose the dark money behind their scheme. The hiding of deep money sources used to promote ConCon to state legislatures is being funneled through the use of obscure (c)(3) organizations, such as were used by Mark Meckler and Michael Farris in 2015 (The lead advocate for "Convention of States" legislation is Michael Farris, who has been actively promoting ConCon to state legislatures.). The obscure (c)(3) organization that funded Meckler and Farris in 2015 was the John Hancock Committee for the States, which claims on its form that it is doing business as the "Citizens for Self-Governance", but it is really part of the Koch network. This is reason why the Koch dark network money is so difficult to trace. Two of the Kochs' biggest issues are amnesty for certain illegal aliens to obtain cheap labor for their companies and expanding legalized marijuana. Such was the libertarian goal of David Koch back when he ran as the libertarian candidate for vice president. The Koch brothers are working with billionaires on the Left, such as George Soros, on both issues. Accordingly, their secret agenda for a constitutional convention for limiting federal power means: less border control and fewer limits on illegal drugs. I would think that most Americans would say "no thanks" to an Article V Convention should the truth be known. Facts for the America People that an Article V Convention called by Congress wouldn't be a "runaway" one; however, the enemies of our Constitution knew from day one that they could get rid of our Constitution at an Art. V convention! Our present Constitution was ratified by the 9 th State on June 21, 1788. In Federalist No. 85 (mid-August 1788), Hamilton addressed the arguments of the anti-federalists who were agitating for another convention in order to get rid of our new Constitution. State on June 21, 1788. In Federalist No. 85 (mid-August 1788), Hamilton addressed the arguments of the anti-federalists who were agitating for another convention in order to get rid of our new Constitution. that none of the delegates to the convention of 1787 said the purpose of amendments was to rein in the federal government when it usurps power. The purpose was to fix defects in the Constitution. But is it even possible to fix federal usurpations of non-delegated powers with amendments, as amendments cant take away powers the Constitution didnt delegate in the first place. Accordingly, any amendments the hand-picked attendees would approve to an Article V Convention would legalize powers already usurped or delegate sweeping new powers to the federal government over those of States and individual rights . that delegates would have the right, as recognized in the 2nd paragraph of our Declaration of Independence, to throw off the Constitution we have and write a new Constitution which creates a new government. This has happened before! that there are already New Constitutions a lready prepared or being drafted: e.g., the Constitution for the Newstates of America i s ratified by a national referendum (Art. XII, 1) . Globalists [e.g., the Council on Foreign Relations] who want to move us into the North American Union (NAU) need a new Constitution to transform us from a sovereign nation to a member state in the NAU (North American Union). lready prepared or being drafted: e.g., the s ratified by a national referendum (Art. XII, 1) Globalists [e.g., the Council on Foreign Relations] who want to move us into the North American Union (NAU) need a new Constitution to transform us from a sovereign nation to a member state in the NAU (North American Union). that according to an article by Christian Gomez that appeared in the December issue of The New American, leftists are also looking to rewrite the Constitution in order to overturn the Supreme Courts decision in the Citizens United case and to radically revise the wording of the Second Amendment. that The Nation , a decades-old magazine known for its far left-wing editorial policy, has already begun running articles bearing titles such as The U.S. Constitution Is Over Two Centuries Old and Showing Its Age. Words of Common Sense Ever since I first heard Mark Levin calling for a Constitutional Convention, I was extremely skeptical of the idea. I have nothing against a balanced budget, as is the object of some, but the notion that a Convention could pull off something that is far beyond the capacity of the U.S. Congress should be apparent to anyone who has observed the way Congressional members are unable able to work together. Wouldn't those whod congregate at such a gathering have to represent all 50 states? Passage of anything, including the minutes of the meeting, would most likely require that 2/3's of the states, meaning 34 would need to agree, should be enough to convince any reasonable person of the futility of the enterprise. Also keep in mind that unless Democrats played a representative role in the convention, how could anything that didn't favor Democrats carry weight? FOUNTAIN CITY -- A 2nd Ward councilwoman appeared to be on her way to becoming Fountain Citys new mayor. Bobbi Farrand was the only candidate to file election papers for the April 3 election. Kevin Hutter, in his first term as mayor, did not file for re-election. Wisconsin mayors serve two-year terms. Two people are running for city council in the citys 1st Ward and no one filed for a 2nd Ward seat. Cheryl Braatz is running against incumbent 1st Ward alderperson Judith Ganger for a three-year term. The Second Ward seat is the one currently held by Farrand. The voter ballot for that seat will be blank on April 3. Voters in the 2nd Ward will have the option of casting write-in votes. The term runs three years. The start of a new year is a time for reflection, projection, and introspectionlooking back, looking ahead, looking within. An American missionary in India made such an analysis of our nation over a century ago. His insightful evaluation has been all but buried and obliterated by an avalanche of new-age information, demographic changes, and a secularized, digitized disconnect with our past. His three main points are worth sharing. Our Pilgrim and Puritan fathers laid a foundation on which their sons framed a government that has become the wonder and envy of statesmen around the world. The free government of a free people is no longer an experiment. Planted in weakness, it has grown to power. Americas wealth has nearly quadrupled over the last thirty years. America was on the verge of becoming a world power in 1898, and Rev. Samuel Perrine raised the question of what our nation should do with such wealth and power, foreseeing that it would continue to increase. Is Americas power and wealth for herself? Never! This great nation is ordained for more than mere money-getting, and our duty is not to make conquests, seek new power, nor greater military and naval power. No man can live merely for himself, nor can a nation. By virtue of the call of God, the duty of the American people is to give the world a life more abundant, both for here and the hereafter. Righteousness has exalted this nation, and the duty of a great and influential people is to help humanity. As a missionary, Rev. Perrine saw America becoming a schoolmaster to the nations of the earth, a nation-building role only in the sense of righteous empire. Helping others was really helping ourselves since it avoids letting our spiritual life be smothered by material prosperity. But who should receive American help even if we lead mostly by example? Rev. Perrine saw a uniquely ordained role for us because of who we are. The American people have come into possession of the most valuable institutions man can have. What America reaps was sown for her at the stake and in the dungeon; she has endured cold and want, gone through the fires and tempest of war, been cursed with slavery and freed the slaves, and received from foreign shores every conceivable wreck of man and built him into the republic. Through the toil and sacrifices of generations of pure-souled men and women who toiled not simply for themselves have these priceless blessings come. Cynics might howl in laughter at what they would see as the naive idealism of Rev. Perrine in a world where corruption reigned and raw power was the only currency that counted. His goals included a strong educational system to solve vexing problems, make the world better, and carry salvation to the world. He believed in an America that was great because she was good, a country of pure-souled people who prayed and paid homage to hard work, honesty, creativity, and deferred consumption. I would not say that we have lost the America I grew up in. But we have misplaced her. Informing younger generations of the toil and sacrifices of Americas founders, fighters, farmers, pioneers, inventors, factory workers, tradesmen, merchants, medical personnel, and schoolteachers, male and female and many of whom were their ancestors, would be a good start. Columbus may have discovered America; our job is to rediscover her, appreciate her past, correct her faults, and share our riches, both material and spiritual, with the world as Rev. Perrine envisioned.James F. Burns is a native of Cincinnati, a descendant of Dan Hosbrook, and a retired professor at the University of Florida. A Sauk County official responsible for managing new and innovative justice programs has decided to resign after less than a year on the job, saying he feels undervalued. Criminal Justice Programs Manager Christopher Polzer submitted his resignation letter Jan. 3. His last day on the job will be Tuesday. In the letter, Polzer thanked Sauk County Administrative Coordinator Alene Kleczek Bolin for her guidance and support. He also explained his decision to leave. While I expected many challenges when I accepted this position, I do not believe my expertise and experience are valued, nor utilized, to their capability or potential, Polzer wrote. Thus, I have decided to pursue other opportunities at this time. In an email announcing Polzers resignation, Kleczek Bolin said she expects a smooth transition as the county looks for a replacement. Polzer did not respond to requests for comment. He worked for 25 years as a drug treatment specialist at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oxford before leaving that post in December 2016. He began working for Sauk County in May 2017. The Madison native has a masters degree in adult counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. He also has been an instructor and lecturer for the college. In an email, Kleczek Bolin said she spoke with Polzer about his decision to resign. She said he conveyed that the concerns in his letter relate to his expectations for the job not matching its actual requirements. He has assured me that this is not a reflection on the county, or its employees, Kleczek Bolin said. Polzers predecessor, Janelle Krueger, resigned in February 2016 to accept a job with Hope House of South Central Wisconsin. At the time of her departure, she cited a negative county work environment and conflicts with Sauk County Board Chair Marty Krueger, of Reedsburg. Sauk County District Attorney Kevin Calkins, who chairs the countys Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, said Thursday he had not yet seen Polzers resignation letter and did not have any comment on it. The Sauk County Board formed the justice council in 2014 to find evidence-based strategies that would prevent recidivism by addressing the root causes of crime. The approach follows a gradual nationwide shift to prioritize treatment over punishment for nonviolent offenders. The council has spearheaded several new programs, including a drug court that provides intensive treatment as an alternative to incarceration for defendants whose criminal behavior is driven by addiction. The county held a ceremony to honor the first three drug court graduates in September. The Wisconsin Historical Society is taking over control of operations at Circus World this month. The Baraboo museums five year-round staff members became state employees Jan. 1, as the agency assumed responsibility for management of the site. The changes came in wake of Gov. Scott Walkers proposed funding for Circus World in the 2017-19 state budget. The measure will provide Circus World with more than $1 million over the next two years, while transferring control of operations from the privately funded Circus World Museum Foundation to the Historical Society. The Historical Society and the Museum Foundation have worked together in the past to keep Circus World operating. Under the old agreement, the Historical Society owned the land, buildings and collections housed at Circus World, while the Museum Foundation oversaw operations at the site. The Museum Foundation no longer manages the site under the new agreement, but serves as an advisory board and private fundraising entity for the museum. Museum Foundation leaders say the organization will continue to play a strong advisory and philanthropic role to draw enthusiasm and support of community members and circus fans across the country. The infusion of state funding, along with the enhanced relationship between Circus World and the state Historical Society, will provide a period of growth and sustainability for the museum, said Baraboo Mayor Mike Palm, who chaired the Museum Foundations Transition Committee. This will ensure that future generations continue to experience and enjoy Wisconsins rich circus history. The budget agreement will provide Circus World with $500,000 in state aid starting in 2018, and $700,000 for the 2019 fiscal year. The money will finance employee salaries and other operations. The budget estimates Circus World will generate $925,000 in annual revenue, and the Museum Foundation will raise an additional $250,000 for the museum independently each year, creating a total operating budget of about $1.7 million in 2018 and $1.9 million in 2019. Circus World is now part of the network of 12 museums and historic sites managed by the Historical Society. The transition occurs as the Baraboo museum prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Circus World in 1959. Circus Worlds summer performance season will begin May 18. We will be rockin around the clock to recall the decade Circus World first opened, with an all-new, 1950s-inspired Doo-Wop Big Top Show, said Circus World Executive Director Scott ODonnell. Beaver Dams movers and shakers have all but disappeared in the century and decades following their deaths and those of their families, but two of them stare down at visitors to the Dodge County Historical Society Museum at 105 Park Ave. There, inside the former Williams Free Library, stand two three-quarter height portraits of Henry B. and Martha Sherman, painted by accomplished artist John Antrobus in 1887. (Another painting, depicting Spring Brook Farm, is on loan to The Rogers once a hotel and now apartments). Nearby is a sleigh, gleaming as if it was just removed from a showroom. All three items were donated to the museum in 2015, after the State Historical Society alerted the local museum that they were seeking a home. The Wisconsin Historical Society has hundreds of portraits that will never see the light of day, and they certainly have no room for a sleigh, said DCHS curator Kurt Sampson. They contacted us and we contacted the family. We told them we would be happy to have the items here, and after a little convincing they were happy to donate them to us. Some months later a large truck pulled up in front of the museum and Sampson was asked to unload it. The sleigh was in a huge crate, and both portraits (measuring five feet by eight feet and four feet by five feet) were in another large box, Sampson said. I called some of our board members and John Neumann at the parks department and we got together a bunch of guys to unload the truck. We managed to wrestle the sleigh crate onto the front lawn and Patrick Lutz pulled a crowbar and a hammer out of his sock and we pried off the top. The museums front doors had been replaced years earlier to allow the citys first automobile to be moved inside. The sleigh also fit, along with the crate that held the portraits. Henry B. Sherman, who was originally from Massachusetts, married Martha H. Ladd of Haverhill, New Hampshire, in 1854. The Sherman family, including Henrys parents and brothers, came to Wisconsin some time later, and they all made their marks as prominent businessmen, county and state legislators and members of local fraternal organizations. The sleighs voyage to the museum began more than a century ago, starting at Shermans beautiful home at Spring Brook Farm (northeast of Beaver Dam on Highway B). In publications of the day, the farm was described as being one of the most beautiful in the state, and Sherman was well known for his prize-winning short-horn cattle, sheep and Berkshire hogs. He is believed to be the first person to bring the Percheron horse to the state of Wisconsin. Henry B. Sherman was one of the most successful hotel managers in the country, working in establishments in Wisconsin, Indiana and Minnesota. He established himself as an astute businessman, very enterprising and honest reads a document on display near the sleigh. He attended every agricultural fair held in Milwaukee for many years, exhibiting sometimes as many as 14 carloads of thoroughbred stock. Locally, Sherman managed the hotel in Minnesota Junction, serving great food to railroad travelers. He also managed a similar venture in Prairie du Chien, presumably traveling by rail to oversee that enterprise from his home in Burnett. The sleigh was his pride and joy, so much so that he also had a painting done of himself riding in it behind two coal-black Percheron stallions, Henry and Prince. That painting is still in family hands and may one day join the other family treasures in Beaver Dam. The sleigh was given to Martha Shermans nephew, William J. Chapman of South Wayne, Wisconsin, after Henry died at age 64 in 1894. His son, Jay William Chapman, used the sleigh in the 1920s to pick up his betrothed from the country school where she taught, and to take her back to her family home in South Wayne for the weekends. William Chapman died in 1933 after the sleigh overturned and he was immobilized in the snow, catching pneumonia. The donor, Betty Lou (Chapman) Teuscher, saw the sleigh in the rafters of the familys lumber and coal shed when she was growing up, and hoped one day she could take it out for a ride. In the 1980s she purchased it at an estate sale at the family farm, where the sleigh was later stored. After extensive restoration the sleigh was shipped to her home at The Woodlands, Texas. There it was brought out for Christmas in the atrium of her church. Years later she had it sent to the Dodge County Historical Society, where it and the portraits are on permanent display. (Shipping costs were estimated at $5,000 and the portraits alone were valued at more than $38,000). Guests are invited to see the items and to learn more about the family that helped Beaver Dam grow and flourish. The items are some of our most important treasures, and tell a fascinating story from the citys past, Sampson said. From auditions to performances all within a week, Beaver Dam Area Community Theatre is offering a unique opportunity for the younger set of thespians. BDACT, along with Compass Creative Dramatics, is hosting a weeklong theater camp for students in first through eighth grade, beginning Monday. The children will audition Monday, rehearse each night for three hours, and present Peas and Harmony Saturday, Jan. 20, at 2 and 7 p.m. at Beaver Dam Area Community Theatre, 219 N. Spring St., Beaver Dam. Peas and Harmony is a quirky retelling of Hans Christian Andersens The Princess and the Pea, in which showing respect might just pave the road to happily ever after. The cast will include swashbuckling jesters, dancing peas, a pompous royal entourage, and a zany collection of other delightful kingdom characters. Everyones at odds when the time comes for the comic-book-loving prince to find the right girl amongst a gaggle of silly princesses. BDACT coordinator Mark Lefeber said Compass Creative Dramatics provides two professional actors/educators from Chicago to perform directorial duties throughout the week. Andrew Clancey and Cassandra Quinn will work alongside the kids on stage and help them throughout the show, he said. They will produce a 45-minute musical with sets, costumes and props. Compass Creative Dramatics encourages students to have fun and explore the dramatic arts. During the theater camp, kids will be part of a collaborative artistic process that promotes teamwork while still inspiring them to take ownership of and pride in their individual ideas and capabilities. Students are grouped by age for activities, allowing age-appropriate lesson planning. They are integrated during rehearsals, to learn how to collaborate with students of all ages. Compass Creative Dramatics assists children to expand their horizons by stretching their creativity muscles. The programming cultivates imagination and critical thinking, providing a safe environment in which kids can take healthy risks and explore their strengths and weaknesses. Throughout the week, students learn about themselves and discover how to turn their limitations into assets. Lefeber said the camp is a great way to supplement previous theater experience, or to introduce students to theater for the first time. The experience will be exciting and challenging, he said. It provides another local acting opportunity for those who have participated in BDACTs summer Tell-A-Tale productions and for those who want to give drama a try. Registration is $30 per child. There are 75 spots available, which will be filled as registrations are received (45 spots are already reserved). To sign up, call 885-6891 or email info@bdact.org. If spots are still available, registration may take place at auditions Monday beginning at 4:30 p.m. Tickets for Peas and Harmony will be available at the door Jan. 20, for $7 each. Nicholas Paul Beck, 30, Alto, passed away Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, from a drug overdose. A memorial gathering will be held Wednesday, Jan. 17, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Koepsell-Murray Funeral Home in Beaver Dam. A memorial service and a time to share memories will follow at 7 p.m. at the funeral home. Nicholas was born the son of Rob and Lynn (Belisle) Beck on Feb. 26, 1987, in Fond du Lac. He was a 2005 graduate of Waupun High School. Nicholas was a hard worker and enjoyed working for his fathers business, where he started to learn the trade of welding. He loved the outdoors; whether he was hunting, four-wheeling or fishing, especially for catfish. Nick was very social and loved being with his friends. He could light up anyones day and had a giving heart that was always willing to help others. He is survived by his parents, Rob and Lynn Beck of Waupun; his sister, Nicole Beck of Texas; paternal grandma, Helen Beck; maternal grandparents, John and Nancy Belisle; 17 aunts and uncles; many cousins, other relatives and friends. Nicholas was preceded in death by his paternal grandma, Irene Beck; and paternal grandpa, Rolland O. Beck. In lieu of flowers and monetary gifts, please speak up and take action if you see someone struggling with substance abuse. Koepsell-Murray Funeral Home in Beaver Dam is serving the family. To make an online condolence or for more information, visit KoepsellFH.com. Joseph Helle was expecting a different sort of reception when he returned home from Army tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and showed up to vote in his small Ohio town near Lake Erie, the Associated Press reported Dec. 31. His name was missing from the voting rolls in 2011, even though Helle had registered to vote before leaving home at 18 and hadnt changed his address during his military service. Helle, now the mayor of Oak Harbor, Ohio, is among thousands of state residents with tales of being removed from Ohios rolls because they didnt vote in some elections. The Supreme Court is to hear arguments today in the disputed practice. Im not one of these people that flaunts their military service, by any means, but to be told I couldnt do one of the fundamental rights I went off and served this country for was just appalling, said Helle, 31, recounting his reaction after being dropped from voter registration rolls. Helle said he had no idea his name had been dropped and said he mailed in absentee ballots in some years and not others. His local elections board said it has no record that Helle voted while he was away. But even if he hadnt voted, Helle said opting not to cast a ballot should be a voters choice and shouldnt be penalized. Thats part of the free-speech argument to me, he said. Choosing not to vote is as important as choosing to vote. Its one way to say, I do not believe in whats going on here, or in either candidate, for instance. We encourage people to vote in every election, to be participants in our republic. But the right to vote is to be exercised at the discretion of the citizen. There is no language in the Constitution about losing the right to the franchise through non-participation, but there are four amendments which state that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged. Also, federal voting law specifically prohibits states from using voter inactivity to trigger purges. Its shocking and shameful that Ohio would disenfranchise a combat veteran for non-participation while he was serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. But its not any less wrong to attempt to purge a civilian from the voter rolls for non-participation. Maybe you forgot that there was an election last November or last April. Maybe you didnt feel that any of the candidates were representing your interests. Maybe you were disgusted with the whole process and chose to not participate as a form of protest, as Helle characterized. Your motivation for non-participation is none of the governments business. Any governments. Again, we encourage everyone to vote in every election in which they are eligible. We dont encourage the practice of non-participation. Decisions are made by those who show up. But the right to vote is not use it or lose it. The decision to vote rests entirely in the hands of the law-abiding citizen, and no American governmental body should think itself empowered to take that decision away for non-participation. 1968 The Wisconsin Association of School Boards awarded a first place honor to the Columbus-Journal Republican for an educational article entitled School Merger Has Exciting Possibilities which appeared in the local paper on Jan. 19, 1967. Lowell Larson is the publisher of the paper and the article was written by Editor Robert Stanley. 1978 Bellack Clothing Company changed ownership on Jan. 4, 1978. The store was purchased by John Holtan of Stoughton. The store was previously owned by Sally and Jerry DeNure. The partnership has been in existence since 1974 when Jerry DeNure purchased his share of the business from John Feuling. Feuling and the DeNures owned the store since 1951. 1988 The Columbus United Methodist Church will sponsor a series of Sunday morning classes on the topic of People of Other Lands with Alton and Bernetta Mather talking about their recent three-week visit to China. AFS exchange student Taina Virtanlemi will talk about her home country of Finland, and Aline Poser of Tahiti and Josie Poser of Truk will talk about their homelands. Sales of new and existing homes in the Columbus area were strong in 1987. The past year was the third best for home sales in Wisconsin. Jennifer Starritt and Betty Long, local realtors, have reported strong sales, but down slightly from the peak year of 1986. 1998 Before and after school child care has been provided for working families in the Columbus area since 1988 by the Columbus Clubhouse. The program has been housed at the Columbus Middle School but is not affiliated with the Columbus School system. Mary Baker, Director of the Columbus Clubhouse, has been working with the program since its inception. The program was founded by the Kiwanis Club and the United Methodist Women. The Columbus City Council voted to establish a moratorium on issuing permits allowing the construction of telecommunications towers within the city limits. The city of Columbus held its third and final public information meeting regarding the large street renovation project planned for this spring and summer. Seventeen residents attended the meeting, held Jan. 8 at the Columbus Senior Center. City Engineer Jason Lietha presented an overview of the project, along with updates, and City Administrator Patrick Vander Sanden was available to take questions from residents. The work will consist mostly of street and utility improvements along South Water and East School streets. Perhaps the biggest concern about the project is how much residents will have to pay for special assessments. The city council discussed assessments at its Jan. 4 meeting and will likely approve costs at its Jan. 16 session. I believe they will move forward with the special assessments, Lietha said. It looks like they will be modeling assessments for this project based off the 2016 street renovation project. After the council approves assessments, Lietha will compile preliminary numbers and file a report. After the report is released, a public hearing will be held to discuss the project. I expect we will know preliminary costs in about a month from now, Lietha said. The city plans to release construction bids for the work in late January/early February. Lietha said design work is about 90 percent complete and renovation should begin by late April, depending on the weather. If crews stay on schedule, work should be completed by the end of July. Lietha also reminded residents of the lead lateral replacement program. The city can use funds from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to replace aging lead pipes at no cost to the homeowner. Residents interested in the program should contact the Columbus Water & Light Department at 920-623-5912. Lietha answered a few questions about the project. For example, gas lines will not be replaced and he doesnt expect streets to be widened during the work. Residents along the construction route believe those streets havent been renovated in several decades. Not only will the streets be renovated, but Lietha said the area should have a much better drainage system as well. With very little discussion, the Portage Common Council on Thursday rescinded a bartenders license that Police Chief Ken Manthey said he had mistakenly authorized, for the relative of a friend of his who has a record of drug-related charges. The same matter was discussed, at times heatedly, at the Jan. 4 meeting of the citys Legislative and Regulatory Committee, when members mulled whether there should be a way for city officials to recuse themselves from operators license decisions involving people they know, to avoid the appearance of preferential treatment. At Thursdays council meeting, the matter was resolved with two unanimous votes among the six council members present at the session first to reconsider the councils previous approval of the operators license, and then to reject it based on the arrests and convictions the applicant had listed on his application. Council member Rita Maass, who is chairwoman of the Legislative and Regulatory Committee, said at the Jan. 4 committee meeting that she never would have voted to approve the license if she had seen the application. Typically, a license for someone to serve alcohol in the city requires sign-off from the city clerk, treasurer and police chief, or their designees, before the application goes to the Common Council for final approval. Applicants are asked if they have been convicted of any felony, if they have been arrested or convicted of violating other laws relating to use or abuse of alcohol or other drugs in the last five years, and if any charges are pending. The applicant listed a Minnesota felony conviction of eluding a police officer, a Minnesota drunken driving charge and a Wisconsin charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, but no pending charges. Manthey told the committee the applicant is a close relative of a friend of his, and he made a mistake in signing off on the application. When he realized the mistake after the council had approved the operators license Dec. 14 Manthey said he called the applicant and told him not to pick up the license. Maass said she asked that the application be included on the Legislative and Regulatory Committee agenda so the committee could consider whether the city needs a policy or procedure requiring officials to step aside from considering operators license applications from family or friends. City Administrator Shawn Murphy told the committee the city gets between 250 and 275 such applications annually, most of them in May and June, around the time when liquor licenses are up for renewal. Review of most applications takes 20 to 30 minutes, Manthey said, though some reviews take much longer because of complexities including run-ins with the law that the applicant did not list, but which are discovered in a background check. Manthey said he has inquired with the Columbia County Sheriffs Office, and police departments in nearby cities, as to whether they can handle those background checks for the police department occasionally. In all cases, he was told the other departments are too busy, he said. And, Murphy said, under the citys ordinances, Manthey had no conflict of interest in reviewing the application in question. The ordinances say a conflict exists if the applicant is a family member or someone with a monetary relationship, but does not specify the relatives of friends. Maass suggested that, if theres a possibility of conflict of interest, perhaps another high-ranking officer within the Portage Police Department could assume the duty of scrutinizing an application a duty that usually falls to Manthey, but which is sometimes assumed by any of the departments three lieutenants. She also noted this particular application did not go to the Legislative and Regulatory Commission before it went to the Common Council. Typically, applications go to the committee only if city staff has recommended denial. The minutes from the Dec. 14 Common Council meeting show the applicant was one of nine applicants for operators licenses, and one applicant for a taxi cab operators license, whom the council considered as a group. The motion for approval of all the applications carried on a 6-1 vote, with Maass voting no. If it were anyone else, the way this application was filled out, it would have been denied, Maass said at the Jan. 4 committee meeting. Murphy replied that he thought this was an isolated incident, and Manthey corrected the mistake as soon as he became aware of it. This shouldnt impinge on the integrity of the police department, Murphy said. Committee member Jeff Monfort said he saw no evidence of a pattern of conflict of interest in the existing policies and process for reviewing operators license applications. At Thursdays Common Council meeting, nothing was said about the discussion at the Legislative and Regulatory Committee meeting, nor was the council invited to weigh in on the operators license process. President signs legislation granting federal recognition to six Virginia tribes Recognition: A photo from the 2011 excavation around the Brafferton shows Pamunkey tribal members Jeff Brown and Ashley Atkins Spivey (front) with relics dating to the time of the Indian School at William & Mary. Photo by Stephen Salpukas Native roots: American Indian musicians marked the 2013 rededication of the Brafferton, a building that once was the venue for William & Marys Indian School. Organizers of the new native studies minor hope the program will strengthen the universitys connections to native peoples. Photo by Skip Rowland Photo - of - Hide Caption UPDATE: U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (VA-01) announced on Jan. 29 that President Donald Trump has signed into law H.R. 984, the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017. This legislation grants federal recognition to six Virginia Indian tribes. Rep. Wittman introduced the bill on Feb. 7, 2017. The bill passed the House by voice vote on May 17, 2017 and the Senate by unanimous consent on January 11, 2018. Today we celebrate a decade of hard work. Our first contact' tribes of the Commonwealth of Virginia will finally receive the recognition they deserve, Wittman said in a release. This is an issue of respect; federal recognition acknowledges and protects the historical and cultural identities of these tribes. Not only will it affirm the government-to-government relationship between the United States and the Virginia tribes, but it will create opportunities to enhance and protect the well-being of tribal members. This law grants federal recognition to the Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock, the Monacan and the Nansemond tribes. Federal recognition grants Virginias tribes legal standing and status in relationships with the U.S. government. This status enables the tribes to pursue repatriation of historical and cultural artifacts, comment on federal agency actions that could affect their future, and gain access to a number of federal programs. ******** Six Indian tribes of eastern Virginia are one signature away from full federal recognition, after the U.S. Senate approved H.R. 984. The bipartisan legislation would extend federal recognition to the Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock, the Monacan, and the Nansemond tribes. The tribes have previously received recognition from the Commonwealth of Virginia, but gaps in historical record hindered their federal recognition. A seventh tribe, the Pamunkey, received federal recognition in 2016. The bill, which was introduced by Virginia Congressman Rob Wittman last February, passed the House by voice vote in May. It passed the Senate without amendment on Thursday and now heads to President Donald Trumps desk for signing into law. William & Marys 325-year story is interwoven with the history of Native Americans, in particular the story of the young boys who attended our Indian School and the families they left behind to do so, said President Taylor Reveley. It is good to see the six tribes well on their way to joining the Pamunkey in federal recognition. We congratulate them. As part of the historical narrative supporting federal tribal recognition, H.R. 984 cites the establishment of Brafferton College, a grammar school for Native Americans, at William & Mary in 1711. It notes that Chickahominy and Nansemond children were some of the first Indians to attend Brafferton College. Decades in the making, federal recognition will acknowledge and protect historical and cultural identities of these tribes for the benefit of all Americans, Wittman said in a statement. It will also affirm the government-to-government relationship between the United States and the Virginia tribes, and help create opportunities to enhance and protect the well-being of tribal members. Federally-recognized status would enable the tribes to pursue repatriation of historical and cultural artifacts, comment on federal agency actions and gain access to a number of programs that serve the countrys more than 560 federally recognized tribes, Wittman said. Opponents of the bill expressed concern that federal recognition would pave the way for casinos, despite language in the bill that prohibits gaming activities of any kind. The bill also maintains existing tribal hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering and water rights and will not expand, reduce, or affect the current policy. Many members of the William & Mary community expressed surprise and delight at the passage of H.R. 984. The feeling was strongest among those who have had direct involvement with the groups. A number of us at William & Mary have worked closely with these groups, said archaeologist Martin Gallivan. But the Chickahominy, Monacan, Rappahannock, Nansemond, Eastern Chickahominy and Upper Mattaponi deserve all the credit for persevering with recognition, long past the point when others would probably have given up. William & Marys connection to the Native peoples of the region that they called Tsenacommacah goes back to the time of the institutions 1693 charter and the interest of scholars and scientists goes back even further, of course. Reminders of William & Marys connection with the original inhabitants of the region dot todays campus. Lake Matoaka bears the given name of Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan. The Brafferton, prime real estate on the Historic Campus and the location of the offices of the universitys provost and president, originally housed William & Marys Indian School. The building is, of course, the very Brafferton College mentioned in Wittmans bill. Pre-renovation archaeology at the Brafferton involved two members of the Pamunkey tribe. Jeff Brown, now deceased, was also involved in many other excavations, as was Ashley Atkins Spivey, who received her Ph.D. from the William & Mary Department of Anthropology in 2017 and now serves as tribal liaison for the department's native studies minor and the American Indian Resource Center at William & Mary. The excavations uncovered artifacts connected with students at the Indian school. A 2016 exhibition at William & Marys Muscarelle Museum of Art, Building the Brafferton: The Founding, Funding and Legacy of Americas Indian School, brought together documents, historical paintings, engravings and other artifacts including personal items related to students of the school, including Thomas Step of the Nottoway tribe and Henry Bawbee of the Wyandot tribe at Fort Pitt. The Building the Brafferton exhibit was curated by Buck Woodard Ph.D. 13 and Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, research assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology. Moretti-Langholtz also serves as director of the American Indian Resource Center. Founded in 1998, the American Indian Resource Center works to foster communication and collaboration among scholars and members of the Native communities. A major function of the center has been to facilitate involvement of members of descendant communities in decisions that concern archaeological examinations connected with their ancestors. It was a place to support faculty, tribal outreach, civic engagement. But I found that I was getting calls from Indian communities who remembered that they had a history with William & Mary, Moretti-Langholtz said. They would call to ask about the Brafferton: Did Indians still come back to the school? Interactions through the American Indian Resource Center led Moretti-Langholtz and Kathleen Bragdon, professor of anthropology, to start planning a minor program devoted to the studies of indigenous peoples. The native studies minor began enrolling students last year and organizers of the program believe it will be yet another way to strengthen the universitys connections with native peoples. In addition to institutional involvement, the ancestors of the seven tribes have been the focus of a large amount of study by William & Mary researchers. Gallivans 2016 book The Powhatan Landscape: An Archaeological History of the Algonquian Chesapeake outlines insight from historical and archaeological records on the region controlled by paramount chief Powhatan from his capital city of Werowocomoco on the north side of the York River. Gallivan led the archaeological investigation of Werowocomoco after its rediscovery in 2002. Werowocomoco and its inhabitants figure prominently in the history and mythology of early America. Jamestown colonist John Smith was taken to Werowocomoco after being captured by Powhatans brother Opchanacanough. Its the location of the events related in the well-known legend of how Pocahontas intervened in the execution of Smith, saving his life. Gallivan deals with the Pocahontas-Smith story in The Powhatan Landscape. His hypothesis is that something happened, but that its likely that Smith misinterpreted a Powhatan conjuration ceremony, aimed at determining the intentions of the new English colonists. I dont know of any other examples in the Algonquin world of something like the Pocahontas-John Smith story, Gallivan said. So its difficult to place this event in a cultural or historical context. Werowocomoco, lost for centuries, has received an increasing amount of attention and protection over the past decade. The high point was a ceremonial signing of a conservation easement in 2013 on the site. Representatives of all seven tribes were on hand as was Wittman and then-Governor Bob McDonnell. The tribal representatives stressed the point that American history did not begin with the Jamestown colony, many of them speaking along the lines of Chickahominy Chief Stephen R. Adkins. The archaeological discoveries and attendant interpretation of the Werowocomoco Research Group, led by Dr. Martin Gallivan, ripped to shreds the Anglo-centric term pre-history as it relates to the history of this land and its indigenous people prior to the arrival of the invaders in 1607, Adkins told a crowd of several hundred. Today we honor the polity, social order, economic enterprise, religious customs, agricultural prowess, engineering feats and craftsmanship of our ancestors. The Werowocomoco site holds the potential for a great deal more archaeology and the conservation easement protects the site from development. The protection was extended further in 2016, when the U.S. National Park Service brought the site under its umbrella for development as part of the John Smith Water Trail. Archaeology can help to form understanding of the people who lived in places with thin records in written history, particularly pre-contact cities such as Werowocomoco and Kiskiack, another Powhatan town across the York River. Additionally, archaeology can help to confirm or to challenge received history and cultural narratives. Audrey Horning 89 is Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at William & Mary. Her book Ireland in the Virginian Sea: Colonialism in the British Atlantic, published by the Omohundro Institute, is a comparison of the Jamestown colonial experience with that of the Ulster Plantation. Horning has said that she believes that the most important revelation to come out of the Jamestown Rediscovery excavations is the imprint of Native Virginia. She points that most of the ceramics recovered from the early James Fort period were native-made. Eighty percent thats a lot, she said. Thats not the occasional pot coming in. Thats evidence of daily contact, and it shows a certain willingness on the part of the English to engage in ways that history hasnt always allowed for. W&Ms Bradford to become Virginias deputy secretary of education Fran Bradford at work Bradford talks education with outgoing Governor Terry McAuliffe and Graham Bryant '13 during one of W&M's annual Road to Richmond excursions, in which students play the role of lobbyists in Virginias General Assembly Building for the day. Bradford is leaving the university to become Deputy Secretary of Education in Governor-elect Ralph Northam's administration. Photo by Stephen Salpukas Photo - of - Hide Caption Fran Bradford is passionate in her views of what higher education in Virginia should look like.It would make sure people have access to education at whatever level is supportive of their goals and make sure that folks in Virginia have jobs when theyre done, she said. Im a big believer in higher education having a role in creating citizens who contribute as well.Bradford, for the past 14 years William & Marys respected and beloved associate vice president for government relations, will take that vision far beyond the borders of the university beginning Monday.Following Ralph Northams election in November as governor of Virginia, Bradford received a call from his transition team. After much deliberation, she accepted the governor-elects offer to become deputy secretary of education, focusing on higher education.The decision was not easy.Bradford loved being responsible for the university's federal and state government relations and being W&Ms contact with Virginias executive branch, legislative branch and state agencies, as well as congressional member offices.There also were the relationships she made at the university. She cherished them all, especially her rapport with President Taylor Reveley and Henry Broaddus, vice president of strategic initiatives.The feeling was mutual.Reveley recently described Bradford as one of William & Marys preeminent champions for more than 14 years.She was extraordinarily effective in describing our realities and presenting our views to elected officials and their staff in Richmond and Washington, he said.Broaddus added, Nobody is a better intermediary between the equally idiosyncratic worlds of higher education and state government than Fran is, and nobody cares more about the two working together for the public good.Broaddus said Bradford was unique in that she made herself an integrated campus figure, speaking to classes, working with student interns and learning the interests and concerns of faculty. Its part of the reason he believes she was an ideal choice for the post.Her intimate understanding of William & Mary and her extensive experience as a member of our community equips this administration on day one with a higher-education insider of the highest order, he said.Bradford will work under newly appointed Secretary of Education Atif Qarni and alongside incumbent Deputy Secretary Holly Coy, whose focus will remain K-12.I look forward to seeing what new heights Virginias education system is able to reach in the next four years with [this] team, Northam said in announcing the appointments late last month.She is one of two people with W&M connections that Northam picked to join his administration. Matt Strickler a 2007 graduate of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at William & Mary and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science was appointed secretary of natural resources.Bradford served as deputy secretary of education during the final three months of now-Senator Mark Warners governorship in 2006. It influenced her decision in a positive manner.I had a great experience there, she said. It gave me at least enough of a taste so I knew that I didnt want to run away from this amazing opportunity.Bradford has a kind twinkle-in-the-eye demeanor that Broaddus said camouflages killer political instincts.Sometimes what Fran has done behind the scenes to avert bad outcomes has been as important to William & Mary and to all of public higher education in Virginia as what she has accomplished in support of more favorable outcomes, he said.On Jan. 19, the university community is invited to a farewell event from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Great Hall of the Sir Christopher Wren Building to, Reveley said, celebrate Fran in her new role as deputy secretary and know that the Commonwealth will benefit from her knowledge of higher education and her tireless commitment to its excellence.The president said that William & Mary will miss Bradford personally and professionally.Again, the feeling is mutual.William & Mary is a really amazing place in large part because of the students, the people and the faculty, said Bradford, who called her greatest achievement at the university just getting to learn about the institution itself and hopefully contributing to some of the good things that happened at William & Mary over the past 15 years. China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page UK parliament briefed on Euratom exit strategy 12 January 2018 Share The UK government aims to maintain as many of the benefits the country has enjoyed from its membership of the European Atomic Energy Community since joining the EU and Euratom in 1973 through a "close and effective association" in the future, Greg Clark, secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy told Parliament yesterday. The UK will exit Euratom at the same time as withdrawing from the EU, on 29 March 2019. In a written statement to the House of Commons and the House of Lords, Clark said: "Our plans are designed to be robust so as to be prepared for a number of different scenarios including the unlikely outcome that there is no future agreement at all. Our number one priority is continuity for the nuclear sector. "Since the 1950s, when the UK launched the world's first nuclear power station, this country has been a leading civil nuclear country on the international stage, with deep nuclear research and nuclear decommissioning expertise, and with nuclear power playing a vital part in our electricity generation mix. It is vitally important that our departure from the EU does not jeopardise this success, and it is in the interests of both the EU and the UK that our relationship should continue to be as close as possible." It is essential, he said, that projects and investment are not adversely affected by the UK's withdrawal from the EU, and can "continue to operate with certainty". To achieve this outcome, the government's strategy is twofold, he said. Firstly, through negotiations with the European Commission it will seek a close association with Euratom and to include Euratom in any implementation period negotiated as part of the UK's wider exit discussions. Secondly, and at the same time, to put in place all the necessary measures to ensure that the UK could operate as an independent and responsible nuclear state "from day one". This strategy is based on four principles, he said. These are: to aim for continuity with current relevant Euratom arrangements; to ensure that the UK maintains its leading role in European nuclear research; to ensure the nuclear industry in the UK has the necessary skilled workforce covering decommissioning, ongoing operation of existing facilities and new build projects; and to ensure that on 29 March 2019 the UK has the necessary measures in place to ensure that the nuclear industry can continue to operate. The government has made good progress on "separation issues" in the last few months as part of the first phase of negotiations with the EU, Clark said. Talks have covered a set of legal and technical issues related to nuclear material and waste, and safeguards obligations and equipment. The next phase of discussions will focus on the UK's future relationship with Euratom. Clark stated three specific objectives in respect of the future relationship. Firstly, a close association with the Euratom Research and Training Programme, including the Joint European Torus and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor projects. Secondly, continuity of open trade arrangements for nuclear goods and products to ensure the nuclear industry is able to continue to trade across EU borders without disruption. Thirdly, maintaining close and effective cooperation with Euratom on nuclear safety. The UK is establishing a legislative and regulatory framework for a domestic safeguards regime via the Nuclear Safeguards Bill, which will provide legal powers for the secretary of state to establish a domestic regime which the Office for Nuclear Regulation will regulate; negotiating bilateral safeguards agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency; and putting in place bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreements with third countries. "As set out by the Prime Minister, the UK Government is proposing a time-limited implementation period where we continue to have access to one another's markets on current terms and take part in existing security measures," Clark said. This implementation period, which would cover Euratom too, will be subject to forthcoming negotiations, he added. Clark said he will report back to Parliament every three months about overall progress on Euratom. Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the UK's Nuclear Industry Association (NIA), said the secretary of state's statement on Euratom was a "useful and welcome step". The UK industry and research facilities have been "consistently clear" with the government about the importance of these issues since the national referendum on EU membership in June 2016, he said. "Given the complex nature of multilateral agreements that will need to be negotiated, the recognition of the necessity of transitional arrangements and the desire for a close future association with Euratom is welcome. "Even with a suitable transition, there remains much work for the government to do to prevent the significant disruption that industry is concerned about. "There is much still to do in equipping the UK's regulator to take on Euratom's safeguarding activities; agreeing a voluntary offer with the International Atomic Energy Agency; negotiating and ratifying new bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreements with the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and others; agreeing new trading arrangements with the Euratom community and concluding a new funding agreement for the UK to continue its world-leading work in Euratom's fusion R&D activities. It is vital government continues to prioritise these issues in the period ahead if there is to be a successful outcome." Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics A rapper who was looking for fame became famous for the wrong reasons. 30-year-old Michael Persaud of Johnston, Rhode Island, who is known by the stage name Montana Millz, was jailed on drug charges. The aspiring rapper who has songs called Armed And Dangerous, Feds Watching, and Sell Drugsz, was arrested twice for doing just that. Prosecutors in Providence were seeking a sentence of 6 years in prison after an undercover officer bought small amounts of fentanyl and heroin from Persaud on several occasions during their 4-month investigation. However, instead of the 6 years, a judge ordered Persaud to serve 3 years in prison, a sentence which his attorney Matthew Smith called fair and just. Persaud is not out of trouble yet. He is still awaiting sentencing for another case in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, where a jury convicted him of drug charges. Coal mining fatalities in the US nearly doubled in 2017 from a record low of eight in 2016 to 15 last year. An additional 13 miners were killed in metal and non-metal mines throughout the country in 2017. According to preliminary figures from the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), West Virginia led the nation in coal mining fatalities with eight last year, followed by Kentucky with two, and one each in Alabama, Colorado, Montana, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming. The nations underground mines continue to be the most dangerous. Of the 15 fatalities, nine were at underground mines, three occurred at surface mines, and three were at coal preparation plants. The deadly operations ranged from underground mines employing more than 400 to surface operations and preparation plants employing as few as five miners. The surge in coal mining fatalities takes place amidst a modest revival of US coal production last year after a five-year plunge which led to hundreds of mine closures and mass layoffs. The coal industry has sought to exploit the crisis to carry out a general restructuring of the industry and shift the burden of the long-term decline of US coal production onto the backs of the coal miners and the working class as a whole. Through the bankruptcy courts, scores of energy companies have shredded contracts, attacked living standards and working conditions, escaped environmental clean-up obligations, and cleared their ledgers of long-term legacy liabilities such as pensions and healthcare commitments won by miners through decades of struggles. The sharp downturn in the US coal industry is driven fundamentally by the global economic forces, such as the decline in exports to emerging economies experiencing slowing growth, particularly China. On the home front, coal is waging a losing struggle with cheap and abundant natural gas for share in the domestic energy market. According to MSHA data, US coal production plunged from just under 1.1 billion tons in 2011 to 736 million tons in 2016 a drop of 32 percent in five years. However, in its recent Weekly Coal Production Report for the week ending on December 30, the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) noted that US year-to-date coal production totaled 770.9[million tons], 6.1% higher than the comparable year-to-date coal production in 2016. The EIA also noted that coal production in West Virginia, where the majority of the fatalities occurred, has increased by 16 percent in 2017, including a 25 percent increase in the states southern coalfields. While the Trump administration has sought to roll back regulations on the coal industry and posture as an ally of coal miners, the modest revival in coal production last year was largely the result of a slight rise in natural gas prices and increased demand for metallurgical coal from China. However, most analyst do not expect this trend to arrest the long-term forecasted decline of the US coal industry. The decline in coal mining fatalities to the lowest on record in 2016 was the direct byproduct of the collapse in coal production and employment. According to MSHA, the number of operating coal mines declined by one-third, from 1,996 in 2012 to 1,325 in 2016. Meanwhile, coal employment plunged by 40,000, from 89,700 to 49,700 over the same period, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS records an uptick in coal employment of 2,000 with the slight production increase in 2017. Thus, the nearly doubling of coal mine fatalities in 2017 which has accompanied the modest production and employment gains of the year not only reveals the illusory character of the safety record hailed at the time by the outgoing Obama administration. It also underscores the sharp deterioration of working conditions and the deepening of exploitation in the US coal industry. Those miners still employed in the shrinking industry are increasingly forced to relocate in search of work and are pressured into ignoring deteriorating safety conditions. A review of last years 15 coal fatalities bears this out. Of the 14 fatalities for which detailed information is available, 9 happened to experienced coal miners with less than one year at the mine they were killed. Two additional experienced miners were killed with less than two years at the mine they were employed. For example, Franklin L. Vannoy, a 54-year-old contract truck driver with more than ten years of experience was killed in February at Coronado Coals Elk Lick tipple in Logan County, West Virginia after his truck overturned on him while he was dumping a load of frozen coal. The accident occurred on Vannoys third day working at the facility. Similarly, 28-year-old Andrew Oxenrider was killed in July by the bulldozer he was operating at the New St. Nicholas Breaker Preparation Plant in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Oxenrider had more than seven years of mining experience, but had worked only a week and five days at the plant. In its final report on the accident, MSHA concluded the bulldozer was not maintained in safe operating condition and had a defective parking brake spring and linkage assembly. In an indication of the working conditions at the operation, it is not known why Oxenrider had exited the bulldozer because there were no witnesses to the accident. He had arrived for work at 6:00 a.m. and was the only miner working at the time of the accident. He was found dead at approximately 9:30 a.m. when a foreman arrived on site. According to MSHA, The Non-Fatal Days Lost (NFDL) injury incidence rate for the facility in 2016 was 12.64, compared to a national NFDL rate of 3.24. In fact, the conditions existing at the New St. Nicholas Breaker plant are not unique. With last years uptick in coal production, operators are pressuring coal miners for increased productivity and many mines are operating with what amounts to skeleton crews. Of the 14 accidents for which there is detailed information, ten of them occurred at operations in which less than one-third of the workforce was working at the time of the accident. Joseph W. Partin, a 33-year-old auger operator with eight years experience was killed in a rock fall at a Kentucky surface mine in March. He was working with just one other miner at the operation and had been at the mine for only 14 weeks. The third fatality of 2017 occurred at the Bishop Preparation Plant in McDowell County, West Virginia when 43-year-old Jason Kenneth Matthews plunged more than 18 feet from a plate press he was repairing onto a moving conveyor belt which sent him down another 10-foot drop into a coal refuse transfer chute. Matthews, who was working alone when the accident occurred, had more than 13 years of mining experience, but had been at the operation only 16 weeks. Matthews death had particular political significance since the operation is owned by West Virginias billionaire governor, Jim Justice. According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Justices senior vice president for safety and health, Patrick Graham, sought to contest citations issued from the West Virginia Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training for the companys failure to provide adequate fall protection. In doing so, Graham revived the well-worn corporate tactic of blaming the victim. What he failed to do was to use fall protection, Graham said at a West Virginia Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety meeting in April. Matthews should have had his, and he was trained to do that. The real question is what goes through a persons mind, in human behavior, when hes working by himself and nobodys watching, Graham complained. Its like a coal miner mentality, you know. I can do this and maybe I dont need to do a particular safety precaution. When we can cure that kind of problem, it wouldnt happen here. He had been wearing his harness before. He had been trained to wear it. Its not like the employees werent trained. However, while MSHA later found in its investigation that Matthews was not wearing or using any type of fall protection at the time of the accident, it concluded that his company-provided safety harness was likely found on the floor next to his ladder because There was no safe means of access on the top of the plate press, and no means of tying off while on top of the plate press was provided. Last years fatalities demonstrate that the United Mine Workers of America, which has been hollowed out as an organization after decades of class collaboration with the coal companies, and the other operators unions common at surface mines, offer no additional level of safety protection. Of the 14 fatalities with detailed records available, a full half were union members. It is also worth noting that the recorded fatalities do not include the hundreds of retired coal miners who died last year of occupational diseases such as black lung and silicosis from their years in the mines. As numerous studies continue to document the dramatic rise in the number and severity of cases of black lung, the Trump administration announced in December that it will be reviewing the revised coal dust standards implemented by the Obama administration in 2014 in its drive to reduce regulations on American industry. MSHA, now under the leadership of former coal executive David Zatezalo, will review the coal dust standards to see if they could be improved or made more effective or less burdensome. The author also recommends: First US coal mine fatality of 2017 [31 January 2017] West Virginia coal miner killed at pit run by environmental fund [22 May 2017] Two US coal miners killed in June [01 July 2017] David King (1943-2016) devoted his extraordinary artistic gifts to salvaging the historical truth of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and its aftermath from beneath the vast and now wrecked edifice of Stalinist crimes and lies. His works include Red Star Over Russia: A Visual History of the Soviet Union, Trotsky: A Documentary and John Heartfield: Laughter is a Devastating Weapon. Mehring Books (UK) has produced a new pamphlet to memorialise his work and vital contribution. It contains the obituary by WSWS chairman, David North, David King 1943-2016: Revolutionary socialist, artist and defender of historical truth. North notes of Kings vast historical collection that, In the examination of an artefact, David moved from its appearance to the discovery of its historical essencethe relationship of the fragmentary part to the whole. This process of discovery determined the form of artistic recreation. Accompanying this is the review by Paul Mitchell, The falsification of David Kings work. Also originally published on the World Socialist Web Site, it concerns the Tate Moderns 2017-18 exhibition of Kings Red Star, which attempted to eviscerate this dedicated and principled artists life work and orientation. Priced 2 plus p&p. The pamphlet can be purchased here: socialequality.org.uk/literature/ The Trump administration on Thursday announced it would allow states to impose work requirements for Medicaid, the social insurance program for the poor, disabled and elderly jointly administered by the federal government and the states. Ten states have requested waivers to require work in exchange for benefits, with some exceptions. The reactionary move will for the first time impose work requirements for a government program that for more than 50 years has provided health insurance on the basis of need. Medicaid currently covers one in five Americans, or about 74 million low-income and disabled people, including many with complex and costly health care needs. The administrations not-so-transparent aim of imposing work requirements is to shrink and gut the program. Advocates for the poor warn that the change will result in forcing current recipients off the Medicaid rolls, if they cant meet the work requirements or because they cant jump through the bureaucratic hoops to meet them. The ultimate goal is to transform funding to the states into block grants and privatize the program. Officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) claim that the work requirements will help people rise out of poverty. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, CMS administrator Seema Verma said, This policy is about helping people achieve the American dream. Acknowledging that the move would result in dumping recipients from the program, Verma said, People moving off Medicaid is a good outcome because we hope that means they dont need the program anymore. However, booting people from Medicaidbecause they cant find work, cant document it, or cant justify to the authorities that they are unable to workin no way guarantees they dont need the program. They may simply become jobless and uninsured. The work requirements are mainly aimed at so-called able-bodied adults. Many of these individuals have qualified for Medicaid under the expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that raised the threshold for eligibility to those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line, or roughly $16,600 for an individual and $34,000 for a family of four. President Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress failed numerous times last year to repeal and/or replace the ACA, commonly referred to as Obamacare. They have tried to work around this failure by taking steps that do not require congressional authorization, such as the current Medicaid waivers to individual states, or by inserting provisions into legislation not specifically related to health care. The recently passed tax overhaul, for example, eliminated the ACAs individual mandate, requiring those without insurance from their employer or a government program to obtain it. While the provision is itself regressive, funneling money into the pockets of the private insurance companies, the result will be more people losing their insurance and premiums skyrocketing for those who maintain it. Ten states so far have submitted proposals for the work requirement waivers: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin. Many experts expect Kentucky to be the first state to gain approval. The Trump administration and CMS claim that pregnant women, the disabled and the medically frail would be exempt from the work requirements. However, the guidance released by CMS Thursday merely urges states to exempt these populations. States are also urged to account for high unemployment in some areas that may make it harder to find a job, and to accommodate people in drug treatment for opioid addiction. Similarly, states are advised to consider a range of activities to fulfill the work requirements, such as actual employment, job training, volunteering or caregiving. But states will be given a loose rein on what satisfies the work requirement. CMS also suggests requiring 20 to 30 hours of work a week, similar to reactionary work requirements that have already been imposed for federal food stamps and cash welfare programs. While the government is making these suggestions, states are also banned from using federal Medicaid dollars to design job training programs or to help fund addiction treatment programs. This means that cash-strapped states are likely to impose the work requirements while providing little assistance to Medicaid recipients to find a job, and no funding for treatment for those suffering from addiction. The reality is that the majority of able-bodied adults on Medicaid are working, many of them at multiple jobs. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) analysis, nearly 8 in 10, or 78 percent, of able bodied nonelderly adult Medicaid recipients live in working families, and 60 percent live in families where they are themselves working, either full- or part-time. Not surprisingly, adults with more education and who are in better health are more likely to work. Among this population, 51 percent who work are working full-time for the full year (at least 50 weeks), but their wages are so low that their annual incomes are still low enough to qualify for Medicaid. The top six industries with the largest number of workers covered by Medicaid include restaurant and food services, construction, elementary and secondary schools, grocery stores and hospitals. These workers are not slackers who refuse to work, but work in industries with poverty wages and no insurance coverage (or lack affordable coverage). Among adult non-elderly Medicaid enrollees who do not work, most report major impediments to their ability to find a job, according to KFF. According to their analysis, more than one third of those not working cited an illness or disability as the main reason for not working. Many of these individuals have significant physical and/or mental health disabilities but have not been able to qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) under the Social Security government retirement program, whose criteria are stringent. KFF reports that nearly 9 in 10 (88 percent) of non-SSI Medicaid adults who report not working have a functional limitation and more than two thirds (67 percent) have two or more chronic conditions, such as asthma or arthritis. In those states that receive a waiver for the work requirements, those currently working will be required to provide documentation that they are working, and those who are not will be required to prove that they should be exempted. This undoubtedly will result in a reduction in the Medicaid rolls and leave many low-paid workers and sick and disabled individuals without health coverage. But CMSs Verma would have us believe that this new policy will actually improve peoples health. In a press call on Thursday, she said that it is a good thing if people leave Medicaid and find coverage through employers. People moving off of Medicaid is a good outcome because we hope that that means they dont need the program anymore, she said. But there is little guarantee that those who leave Medicaid will find coverage through employers. The more likely scenario is that those who have jobs and cannot document it will be left in poverty-wage jobs with no insurance, and those sick and disabled who cannot document their disability will remain sick, jobless and uninsured. Brian Neale, the director of the federal Medicaid office, defended the Medicaid work requirements, saying that Productive work and community engagement may improve health outcomes, and that researchers have found strong evidence that unemployment is generally harmful to health, while employment tends to improve general mental health. This cynical claim is based on the bogus assumption that imposing work requirements will magically result in the creation of jobs with health care benefits. But as these CMS bureaucrats are well aware, as a result of these policies, increasing numbers of workers and sick people will be stripped of their health benefits and be plunged deeper into poverty. Research teams have confirmed reports of two attacks, Meltdown and Spectre, that exploit significant flaws in the design of the Central Processing Unit (CPU) contained in all modern computer systems. Speculation following a January 2 report in the Register prompted researchers to go public January 3, ahead of the original January 9 scheduled date coordinated with Intel, AMD and other chip manufacturers as part of the responsible disclosure process which allows time for fixes to be made available before an exploit is publicly exposed. The flaws were discovered and reported to the chip manufacturers last year by Googles Project Zero teams Jann Horn and others when they demonstrated attacks that could take advantage of speculative execution, a technique used by most modern CPUs to optimize performance by essentially guessing what executions a given process will require. Meltdown and Spectre are distinct exploits, but both use side channels to obtain information (including secrets) from an accessed memory location. Side channel attacks are any attack based on information gained from the physical implementation of a computer system, rather than weaknesses in the implementation itself, e.g., software bugs. Both Meltdown and Spectre exploit side effects of the design of computer systems, specifically the CPU. Meltdown In the white paper on Meltdown, the researchers point out that memory ensures that the memory assigned to one users applications cannot be accessed by another. Memory isolation also prevents user applications from reading or writing kernel memory, which is the space reserved for the operating system. This isolation is a cornerstone of our computing environments and allows running multiple applications on personal devices or executing processes of multiple users on a single machine in the cloud, the researchers wrote. The authors explain that a Meltdown attack allows overcoming memory isolation completely by providing a simple way for any user process to read the entire kernel memory of the machine it executes on, including all physical memory mapped in the kernel region. Meltdown is not an exploit of a software vulnerability and therefore works on all major operating systems. Meltdown exploits a so-called side-channel, or unintentional flow of information, available on most modern processors. The authors specifically cite modern Intel microarchitectures since 2010, but say it could potentially exploit other CPUs of other vendors. Meltdown exploits the out-of-order execution feature of modern processors. Out-of-order execution is used to overcome latencies, or lags, of busy executions. For example, if a task requires information to be fetched from memory to provide information to other tasks in the execution, the processor will look ahead and schedule subsequent operations to idle execution units. An execution unit is a part of the CPU that performs the operations and calculations as instructed by the computer program. The research team developed a sample application as a proof of concept that was able to successfully access secrets stored in memory when executed against Intel chips. For ARM and AMD CPUs, the team did not manage to successfully leak kernel memory, but the authors caution, The reasons for this can be manifold. First of all, our implementation might simply be too slow and a more optimized version might succeed. Spectre While Meltdown has only been verified against Intel chips, Spectre is known to affect Intel, Apple, ARM, and AMD processors and works by tricking processors into executing instructions they should not have been able to, granting access to sensitive information in other applications memory space. In todays world of cloud computing this has massive implications as it potentially allows access to other customer data within the cloud provider from compromised systems. A number of methods exist to achieve the isolation of one application or service from others. These include virtualization, where multiple virtual machines run on the same physical environment, and more recently containerization, where an application and all its dependencies are run inside a container. A fundamental security assumption underpinning these methods is that the CPU will faithfully execute software, including its safety checks. The authors note that Speculative execution unfortunately violates this assumption in ways that allow adversaries to violate the secrecy (but not integrity) of memory and register contents. As a result, Spectre impacts a broad range of computer systems, whether they are running on dedicated hardware or inside containers or virtual environments. This has massive implications at it impacts public clouds services such as Amazon and Google, where companies can rent virtual machines rather than building their own data centers. Like out-of-order execution, speculative execution is designed to optimize the CPU for speed. By speculating or guessing what tasks may be needed to complete a job the processor can perform work before it is actually needed. If it turns out the guess was wrong and the work was not needed after all, most changes made by the work are reverted and the results are ignored. Spectre attacks trick the processor into executing instructions sequences that should not have executed during correct program execution. These are known as transient instructions, as their effects on the given state of the CPU will eventually be reverted. By carefully choosing which transient instructions are speculatively executed, we are able to leak information from within the victims memory address space, the researchers note. Intel, by far the biggest chip manufacture with over 80 percent of market share against 15 percent for AMD and 2 percent for all other chip makers, has come under particular scrutiny following reports of the security flaws. CEO Brian Krzanich sold $24 million worth of stock in November, months after the company was informed of vulnerabilities in its chips, but before it was publicly disclosed. Google informed Intel of the vulnerabilities in June 2017. A Business Insider report of January 3 cited a statement from an Intel representative that Krzanichs sale had nothing to do with the newly disclosed chip vulnerability and was done as part of a standard stock-sale plan. The article notes: To avoid charges of trading on insider knowledge, executives often put in place plans that automatically sell a portion of their stock holdings or exercise some of their options on a predetermined schedule, typically referred to as Rule 10b5-1(c) trading plans. According to an SEC filing, the holdings that Krzanich sold in November245,743 shares of stock he owned outright and 644,135 shares he got from exercising his optionswere divested under just such a trading plan. But Krzanich put that plan in place only on October 30, according to the filing. The representative said his decision to set up that plan was unrelated to information about the security vulnerability. Still, the timeline raises questions. The latest generation of Intels Core ix processors, Coffee Lake, was made available to desktop computers on October 5, despite Intel being fully aware of the inherent flaws. While there are software fixes that can be applied at the operating system level to mediate the impact of the security flaws, it is estimated that these could slow devices by anywhere from 5 to 30 percent, dependent on workload. Three separate class-action lawsuits have been filed by plaintiffs in California, Oregon and Indiana seeking compensation. All three cite the security vulnerability and Intels delay in public disclosure and the alleged computer slowdown that will be caused by the fixes needed to address the security concerns. Intel disputed this claim in an earlier statement that flippantly declared, Contrary to some reports, any performance impacts are workload-dependent, and, for the average computer user, should not be significant and will be mitigated over time. Linus Torvalds, the inventor of the open source Linux operating system in 1991 and still in charge of Linux kernel development, posted a sharply worded email to the Linux list on January 3 stating: I think somebody inside of Intel needs to really take a long hard look at their CPUs, and actually admit that they have issues instead of writing PR blurbs that say that everything works as designed. Torvalds added, Or is Intel basically saying we are committed to selling you shit forever and ever, and never fixing anything? Intel and other chip manufacturers, as well as software vendors such as Apple and Microsoft, have emphasized that there is no evidence that the flaws have been exploited by hackers. However, unlike previous software exploits, the nature of these attacks is that they do not leave any fingerprints such as log file entries. The reality is that it is impossible to know if these exploits have been used to date or not. Due to the critical role played by computer technologyand the vast amounts of information processed, stored and transmitted through computer systemsexploits such as Meltdown and Spectre, as well numerous data breaches reported by companies like Ebay and Equifax, pose a massive threat to millions of people across the planet. Decisions that affect the security and privacy of the worlds population cannot be left in the hands of a few massive corporations motivated only by profits and share values. The entire information systems infrastructurefrom chip manufacturing to cloud hosting providers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoftmust be taken under social ownership and reorganized to satisfy the needs of society and not the private wealth accumulation of corporate billionaires. Diego Rivera and his Experience in the USSR, presented in Mexico City at the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo House Studio Museum (Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo) and the Diego Rivera Mural Museum (Museo Mural Diego Rivera) until April 8. Diego Rivera (1886-1957), the Mexican painter and muralist, was one of the most significant artistic figures of the 20th century. The artist was inspired by great events, especially the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, in the production of his most important works. The current exhibition in Mexico City, Diego Rivera and His Experience in the USSR ( Diego Rivera y la experiencia en la URSS, at the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo House Studio Museum and the Diego Rivera Mural Museum), focuses on the artists two visits to the Soviet Union, the first in 1927-28 and the second in 1955-56. The exhibition contains materials from 28 collections around the world, including watercolors, paintings, sketches and letters. It also showcases photographs and posters that Rivera acquired in the USSR and kept until his death. Rivera had a long and complicated history with the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, most of which, unfortunately, is not examined in the current show. Absent this context, the viewer would fail to understand the changes that Riveraand the USSR itselfunderwent in the almost three decades between his two visits. However, despite its limitations, the exhibition, particularly materials from his first visit, sheds light on the experiences that inspired Rivera to go beyond the confines of Mexican nationalism and, during his healthiest period as an artist, take up the creation of revolutionary art. In 1927, Rivera was invited to the USSR to participate in the commemorations of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. He was part of a delegation of workers and peasants representing Mexico. Upon arrival, he was certified as a member of the Communist Party and named a delegate of the Mexican Peasant League. His relationship to the Mexican Communist Party (PCM), however, was already strained. Prior to his first visit, Rivera had resigned (1925) and been readmitted (1926) to the Mexican Stalinist party. The 10th anniversary of the Revolution was celebrated amid the Stalinist bureaucracys continued and ferocious efforts to silence Leon Trotsky and what was at the time the United Opposition (including the forces led by Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev). Oppositionists participated in celebrations of the anniversary of the Revolution with their own banners. Their slogans included: Strike Against the Kulak, the NEPman, and the Bureaucrat! Stalinist-organized thugs violently attacked Opposition contingents in Leningrad and Moscow. Trotskys anticipation of reprisals proved correct. He and many Oppositionists were expelled from the Communist Party in December 1927, and in January 1928, Trotsky was banished to Alma Ata in Soviet Central Asia. The 10th anniversary also took place one year after the British General strike of 1926 and on the heels of the bloody defeat of the Chinese Revolution, both betrayed by Stalinisms rejection of the very internationalist program and outlook that had guided the October Revolution 10 years earlier. These monumental events seriously weakened the Soviet and international working class and strengthened the grip of the national-opportunist Stalinist bureaucracy. However, the 10th anniversary of the revolution also underscored the considerable achievements of the first workers state, particularly under the terribly difficult conditions of the imperialist-organized civil war and the continued isolation of the Soviet Union. Rivera witnessed the anniversary festivities firsthand, producing sketches of the serpentine masses of men and women marching through the Red Square. He was deeply touched by this powerful manifestation of the force of the working class. I will never forget the first time that I saw the march and organized movement of the people in Moscow, writes Rivera. Snow was falling in an early morning. The marching mass was black, compact, rhythmically united, it had the elastic movement of a viper, but it was more threatening than any snake I could imagine. Rivera interacted with a wide range of Soviet artistic figures during his stay. He met the filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein and was a guest in the home of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who Rivera had previously met in Mexico. Eisenstein belonged to the October artistic group, which, although it pledged itself to proletarian culture, was one of the last gasps of the Soviet avant garde. Sympathetic to the groups mission, Rivera joined the collective. Rivera spoke at several artists groups and was named an instructor in the Moscow Academy of Fine Arts. The Krasnaya Niva ( Red Field) magazine commissioned Rivera to paint a picture for the cover of their Paris Commune anniversary number. Rivera had hopes of encouraging a muralist movement in the Soviet Union similar to the one which he, along with David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco, had pioneered in Mexico to portray the cultural and political life of peasants and workers. In November 1927, Rivera was commissioned by Anatoly Lunacharsky, the Soviet Peoples Commissar of Education, to paint a fresco in the Red Army Club in Moscow. Rivera was given several photographs showing innovative architectural projects, factories, metalworking plants, petroleum fields, technological advances, schools, theater, and general life and Russian culture. Several of these photographs, along with sketches of the proposed mural, are on display at the exhibit. In early May 1928, Lunacharsky informed Rivera that he should leave the country to avoid being arrested for anti-Stalin activities. Although it is unclear what immediately prompted his quasi-expulsion, it is likely that Riveras relationship with artists who previously had a positive relationship with the Left Opposition put him in the crosshairs of the bureaucracy. His Red Army mural was never completed, and he would not return to the Soviet Union until two years before his death. Riveras first visit to the Soviet Union had a consequential impact on his future work. According to the exhibit, while he had previously incorporated workers as the principal element in his prior murals, it wasnt until his return to Mexico when this element began to have a different narrative, always placed in front of machines, factories or next to characters from the Soviet Army. The time he spent with the October group also had a lasting effect on Riveras compositions. The collage configurations that the group used in their propaganda posters is present in many of Riveras murals after his trip, according to the exhibitions catalog. One year after his visit, Rivera was once again expelled from the Communist Party after speaking out against Stalinism. An anticommunist witch-hunt in Mexico the same year led Rivera and Frida Kahlo, his wife and fellow socialist, to spend much of the early 1930s in the United States. He painted some of his most well-known murals during this period. Rivera completed his breathtaking Detroit Industry frescos at the Detroit Institute of the Arts in 1933. His Man, Controller of the Universe was reproduced in Mexico Citys Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1934 after the original in Rockefeller Center in New York City was destroyed for its portrayal of Lenin. These works brought to life the trials and struggles of the working class and depicted socialistsprincipally Lenin and Trotskyproviding leadership to the masses. In 1936, Rivera became an open supporter of the movement for a Fourth International and helped persuade Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas to grant Trotsky asylum in Mexico. During this period, Rivera was consciously expressing the need to link artistic endeavors with the advancement of international socialism, making him one of the greatest interpreters of the October Revolution at the time. In 1938, Rivera collaborated with Trotsky and French writer Andre Breton on A Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art: True art, which is not content to play variations on ready-made models but rather insists on expressing the inner needs of man and of mankind in its timetrue art is unable not to be revolutionary, not to aspire to a complete and radical reconstruction of society. This it must do, were it only to deliver intellectual creation from the chains which bind it, and to allow all mankind to raise itself to those heights which only isolated geniuses have achieved in the past. Also in 1938 (Art and Politics in Our Epoch), Trotsky paid tribute to Riveras specific contribution to art and society: In the field of painting, the October revolution has found her greatest interpreter not in the USSR but in faraway Mexico. Nurtured in the artistic cultures of all peoples, all epochs, Diego Rivera has remained Mexican in the most profound fibres of his genius. But that which inspired him in these magnificent frescoes, which lifted him up above the artistic tradition, above contemporary art, in a certain sense, above himself, is the mighty blast of the proletarian revolution. Without October, his power of creative penetration into the epic of work, oppression and insurrection, would never have attained such breadth and profundity. Riveras artistic effort is indelible, but he was not to prove immune to the immense pressures and traumas of the mid-20th century. Trotskys assassination in 1940, combined with the betrayals of Stalinism, the rise and crimes of fascism and the horrors of the Second World War, disoriented an increasingly skeptical and pessimistic layer of artists and intellectuals who chose to believe that Stalinism presented the continuity of the October Revolution. Rivera, losing confidence in the working class and the ability of the Fourth International to construct a revolutionary leadership, fell into the trap of confusion and demoralization. He made numerous attempts to rejoin the PCM and was finally readmitted in 1954. Rivera visited the Soviet Union for a second time in 1955-56 to seek cancer treatment at Moscows Botkin Hospital. Cobalt therapythe type of treatment that Rivera receivedwas more advanced in the Soviet Union and not yet available in Mexico. Like Rivera, the Soviet Union had undergone profound changes over the course of 30 years. The Mexico City exhibition lacks any discussion of the Stalinist betrayal of the Russian Revolution or the mass murder of revolutionary workers and youth. Many of the artists that Rivera had met during his first visit had since perished, through the purges or suicide, or been silenced by the bureaucracy. The shows brief discussion of Socialist Realism fails to explain why this anti-socialist and anti-realistic dogma arose, let alone its alternatives or consequences. Riveras political disorientation is perhaps best illustrated by his continued friendship with Siqueiros, who had led the first assassination attempt on Trotskys life in May 1940. Siqueiros visited Rivera while he was at the hospital, and several photographs of Rivera, Siqueiros, and Emma Hurtado, Riveras fourth and last wife, can be seen in the exhibition. By this time, Rivera was not especially honest with himself or others. In his comments at the time, it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to separate out what was genuine appreciation for the advances made by Soviet society and what was an effort to curry favor with the post-Stalin regime and international apparatus. I am living in a new society, made up of people that are truly human beings, writes Rivera. What finesse, what firmness, what clarity of thought, what delicacy in feeling, and what simple and constant friendliness and kindness! The exhibition displays many sketches of the doctors, nurses, and fellow patients that Rivera met during his four-month treatment in Moscow. In the outings he was allowed during his recovery, Rivera painted many passersby, particularly families and young children playing in the snow. He witnessed the October Revolution anniversary celebrations for a second time from the Moscow National Hotel. During his second visit, he paid tribute to the participants of former revolutions by painting Veteran of 1905 and Veteran of 1917. A 20-year-old who had fought in 1905 would have been 70 years old, while a corresponding participant of the October Revolution would now be 58. The Veteran of 1917 is treated with honesty and, one senses, a great deal of respect and admiration. Looking into the eyes of the Veteran of 1917, one comes out with a clear feeling: the Russian working class is not to be trifled with. With a few exceptions, however, there is a noticeable decline in the quality of the art Rivera produced during his second visit. The depictions of the powerful working class and the Red Army were replaced mostly by individual portraits. He no longer paints the great socialist leaders that he once defended to the point of having his murals censored or destroyed. Riveras break with revolutionary socialism and capitulation to its betrayers dealt a heavy blow to his ability to synthesize the objective truth about the world around him. Following Riveras treatment, Rivera and Hurtado conducted a tour through eastern Europe. They visited the Auschwitz concentration camp and Hitlers bunker in Germany, among other sites. The pair then returned to Mexico in April 1956. Rivera passed away on November 24, 1957, leaving behind several works he was unable to finish before his death. In Botkin Hospital, Rivera produced fascinating sketches for a new mural for the Faculty of Chemical Sciences at Mexicos National Autonomous University (UNAM). The sketch contains hand-written instructions by Rivera on the themes and materials to be used in the new mural. Rivera maintained a belief in the planned economys ability to produce scientific achievements until his death. He closely followed the launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth satellite, in October 1957. Diego Rivera interpreted the Sputnik launch as proof that communism was capable of leading humanity to a new global order, and, using technology, to a better place in the cosmos, according to the museum catalog. Diego Rivera and his Experiences in the USSR brings forward a large amount of previously little-known material and is worth a visit, despite its limitations. One hopes that the artists and youth that attend will be inspired to learn more about the Russian Revolution and, following Riveras example, turn toward the working class to produce new revolutionary art to awaken the consciousness and feeling of the masses. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Friday morning, the FAMU community was in full attendance for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. convocation in the heart of campus. Students, faculty, staff, alumni celebrated the life and legacy of King with a special address from civil rights activist, Benjamin Crump. He told attendees to reflect on King's famous "Letter From Birmingham City Jail" and celebrate transformation in our community. Crump, a notable attorney and advocate for civil rights and social justices, and welcomed the campus community to empower themselves to bring light to the power of injustices. He says Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. represents what he wants to achieve today, inside and outside of the courtroom. Students were cheering from his powerful words and waiting in line to talk to him after the convocation. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran said Wednesday that he has personally confronted former state legislators who sexually harassed others, but he wont name names. One of the fiercest critics of lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct, Corcoran said none of those legislators are in office in now and that the incidents occurred before he became speaker. I did report, I did talk to the legislators involved and it was resolved, Corcoran said, adding later that to the extent that there was a violation, that violation needed to be addressed, and it was addressed. And the behavior was curbed. The bad behavior, Corcoran said, occurred throughout his political career, including when he worked as chief of staff in 2007 for then-House Speaker Marco Rubio, now a U.S. Senator. Corcoran boasted in a December television interview that the House imposed tough new sexual harassment rules for its members in 2016 in response to what he called grossly inappropriate and illegal behavior from male pigs. Those rules included mandatory training for House members. Corcoran said this week he did not report any of these incidents to authorities. Corcoran said he could not give an exact number of how many legislators he witnessed engaging in misconduct, but added that there were probably less than 10. A Republican considering a bid for governor, Corcoran has been the most outspoken Republican in the Florida Capitol denouncing sexual misconduct, especially in the Florida Senate. 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. CHARLESTON -- Peoples Bank & Trust has honored the Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce as its Volunteer of the Quarter. The Charleston Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1919 and officially incorporated in 1920. The name was changed to Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce in 1971. Cindy White has worked at the Chamber office since 1996, and has served as president and CEO for nearly 20 years. The current Chamber staff includes two full-time employees and an active board of directors made up of 18 representatives from the business community. The Chamber works to promote businesses and events; celebrate member accomplishments; and stay updated on government affairs, economic development and ways to enrich the Charleston area. They have just completed their 2018 Membership Directory & Buyers Guide. In 2017, the Chamber began the year with an annual dinner in January at which it recognized the Chamber Diplomat of the Year, the Small Business of the Year and the Outstanding Citizen of the Year. Other events 2017 included What Women Want, the Legislative Update Lunch, two Community Update Breakfasts co-hosted with the Mattoon Chamber and the inaugural Tour de Charleston Bike Race In 2018, the Chamber has a full yearly schedule of Business After Hours events that offer members networking opportunities. They will also sponsor Business Before Hours events, arrange Member Spotlight tours, and collaborate with the Mattoon Chamber to host Joint Business After Hours. Annually, the Chamber offers Lessons over Lunch, workshops and seminars for members, and promote the BUY Local program and Small Business Saturday campaign. The Chamber staff and board attend many community events, open houses, ribbon cuttings, and groundbreaking events each year. The Chamber provides benefits and services to a diverse membership of over 250 members. All of their employees are also considered Chamber members, so thousands of individuals in the Charleston area have a connection to the Chamber. The Chamber strives to communicate with its members and the community. White writes a column for the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Events and updates are promoted with a monthly newsletter, press releases, radio spots, television ads, Constant Contact, and social media. Members are emailed Wednesday Updates. The Chamber has a website at www.charlestonchamber.com and is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linked-In. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - As opioid-related deaths in Florida continue to skyrocket, Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers have deemed the public-health crisis a top priority during the 60-day legislative session that began this week. Scott wants to spend $53 million to address the issue, with much of the money going to substance-abuse treatment. Legislative Democrats came forth with some ideas of their own, ranging from putting warning signs on prescriptions to charging additional court fees in drug-related cases. Other ideas presented by Democratic lawmakers include reinstating the state office of drug control and increasing access to better substance abuse treatments for low-income Floridians who are on Medicaid. 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. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - As opioid-related deaths in Florida continue to skyrocket, Governor Rick Scott and lawmakers have deemed the public-health crisis a top priority during the 60-day legislative session that began this week. Scott wants to spend $53 million to address the issue, with much of the money going to substance-abuse treatment. Legislation is also moving that would restrict doctors to prescribing between three and seven days worth of opioids for patients with acute pain and would force physicians to consult a statewide database before prescribing potentially addictive pain medications. During a news conference at the state capitol Thursday, legislative Democrats came forth with some ideas of their own, ranging from putting warning signs on prescriptions to charging additional court fees in drug-related cases. State Representative Matt Willhite wants funding set aside to teach college students about the dangers of opioid drugs. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a problem on our streets in the state of Florida, and its not potholes," said Willhite, D- Wellington. "Its opioids, its heroin, its overdoses and unfortunately, its deaths. Other ideas presented by Democratic lawmakers include reinstating the state office of drug control and increasing access to better substance abuse treatments for low-income Floridians who are on Medicaid. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A man was arrested in Tallahassee after two people accused him of sexually and physically abusing them when they were children. David DeDemoninicis, 60, of Hernando, Florida, was booked into the Leon County Detention Center on Thursday on a charge of sexual battery of a physically helpless victim 12 years of age or older. No bond amount was indicated. One victim said that DeDemoninicis, between 1980 and 1991, sexually abused them multiple times. A second victim says he sexually battered them once, according to a probable cause affidavit. That victim said DeDemoninicis also regularly physically abused them and deprived them of food. Court documents say the abuse occurred in Tallahassee, Orlando, Casselberry, and in Nashville, Tennessee. On June 15, 2017, after one of the victims telephoned the LCSO to report the abuse, they told investigators the abuse occurred when no other adult was in the house. DeDemoninicis threatened to kill the family if anyone else learned what happened, the victims said. 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. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Human trafficking is modern day slavery. It's a problem both globally and locally. On National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, many are talking about what they're doing to end the practice. "I was trafficked as a 15-year-old teen by a boyfriend which is all too common of an experience," said Christa Hicks, a licensed mental health counselor and executive director at The Porch Light. A victim of human trafficking herself, Christa Hicks managed to escape, finding solace from her trauma in drug addiction which lead her back into being a victim for a second time in her 20s. "After being retrafficked a second time, it just fully led to trauma and the cycle just continued," said Hicks. "At 29 years old, I fell in love with God from a jail cell and went away to a long term program. I came home after a year and started my education process." Hicks and others working with The Porch Light, a safe home to help restore the lives sex trafficked girls, know that there is always one more person that needs help. "It's that one more that really weighs on me. It's that one child, one more child that's waiting for our care, that is waiting for a rescue, but waiting for help," said Jerry Haag, the president and CEO of The Porch Light, Florida Baptist Children's Homes, and Orphan's Heart. "Between those two pieces, the one that drives me on is that one more that's on the outside waiting to be rescued." Trafficking is a problem that continues to plague not only the community but also the country. Rallies and marches like the ones on Thursday are signs of encouragement for those fighting to end modern day slavery. "This is a new season and days like today are just the start of what's to come," said Hicks. "We are collaborating like never before." Collaboration, all in an effort to save those still caught in the trafficking system. Human trafficking is nothing new. In fact, WTXL's Insiders has done a number of stories regarding human trafficking, how victims are taken, efforts to help them recover after escaping, and Florida's effort in fighting this crime. You can find that story here. Insiders: TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Thursday night, a candlelight vigil is held in the heart of Florida A&M University's campus, remembering students, Aniya Brown and Alfred Motlow the third, who died in a car crash almost a week ago. Instead of coming back to start the semester as usual, students at F.A.M.U. are gathering to mourn the untimely death of 2 promising, young students. Aniya Brown and Alfred Motlow the third were studying engineering.On January 5th, the couple was traveling home from visiting Motlow's family in Tennessee for winter break, when a car struck them at high speed in Shelby County, Tennessee. the F.A.M.U. community gathered to remember Brown and Motlow, as friends told stories, trying to cope with the sudden loss of a friend. Aniya's best friend, Taylor CoffeY, says "Aniya was very lively, very snappy, everything was to a T. Just yeah, really shined wherever she went. She had a really big smile and everyone recognized it and knew it." Everyone who knew Aniya says her vibrant smile would light up a room. She was 19 years old and studying pre-industrial engineering. Motlow was an Omega Psi Phi fraternity brother. His friends say he was passionate about his friends and education. He was a 20-year-old, majoring in pre-civil engineering, and a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. President of the Society of Automotive Engineers Club, Rachael Rosko, says "He was super interest in business and sales. We were excited to get him started on that. He seemed like a very promising individual, he had so much potential going for him. " The mood is sorrowful as students cry and hug each other, lighting their candles for a moment of silence. Students say the vigil is the strength the F.A.M.U. community needs right now. Updated : 2018-01-12 (chinadaily.com.cn) The delegation of the Association of Cultural Encounter Centers (ACCR) in France visited the Erhu Culture Park in Meicun of Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu province on Jan 10. [Photo/WeChat account: xinwu_wx] The delegation of the Association of Cultural Encounter Centers (ACCR) in France visited the Erhu Culture Park in Meicun of Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu province on Jan 10. With a history of 42 years, the ACCR today comprises of 22 members in France and 22 in Europe and further afield (Canada, Brazil, Australia). The "Smart Wuxi" Creative Industrial Park became one of the first members of ACCR on Oct 28, 2015. The ACCR network aims to promote a contemporary view of heritage and creativity which is in harmony with modern society and contributes to the development of innovation, sustainability and inclusiveness within its territories. Accompanied by the secretary and the Asian advisor of ACCR, the delegation was led by Yves Dauge, president of ACCR and the former Senate of France. The staff showed main components and the sound generator principles of erhu, which attracted interests from the delegation members. [Photo/WeChat account: xinwu_wx] The delegation members were briefed on the historical origin and development of traditional Chinese musical instrument erhu. The staff also showed main components and the sound generator principles of erhu, attracting interests from the delegation members. The beautiful classic pieces of traditional Chinese music performed by Chen Shasha, Meicun's young erhu musician, transcended language barriers and touched each listener's heart. The delegation members spoke highly of the professional erhu performances and invited Chen to perform in France in 2019 for a cultural exchange. After the moving performance, Yves Dauge was charmed by erhu music and couldn't wait to try his hand at playing erhu. The delegation members were surprised to be presented with erhu CDs performed by famous Chinese erhu musicians Min Huifen and Ren Jiandong. Throughout caregiving modifications in daily schedules and routines seemingly develop without us noticing too much. Caregivers to family members with dementia related illnesses can attest to this. As the diseases progresses, behavioral changes and difficult behaviors can manifest The Alzheimer Society UKs webpage on Antipsychotic drugs says 90 percent of people with dementia experience behavioral and psychological symptoms, such as restlessness and shouting, at some point. Skills for handling these situations are necessary but sometimes elude us. The first thing that must be done is to determine if a behavior is harmful. Some actions are harmless like wearing a nightgown inside-out or putting ketchup on ice cream. They may seem odd to us or even make us uncomfortable but these are not necessarily behaviors of concern. Ask yourself: is this harming the person or anyone else? If it is, its a concern. If not, let it go. People with dementia may have difficulty finding the right words or are unable to communicate what they need as well as they have in the past. Loved ones are apt to repeat stories or ask the same questions throughout the day. Sometimes loved ones may seem restless or fidgety. These changes may appear, at first, to be minor and progress over time. However, this can lead to frustration or a feeling of helplessness for the person they are happening to. As a result, these emotions can sometimes trigger more harmful situations including: wandering, screaming, hitting, apathy, hallucinations, anxiety or sleeplessness. Some tips for the caregiver that can usually help with challenging circumstances are: Keep calm. Listen and be reassuring through verbal and non verbal cues Avoid arguing with your loved one. Do not insist that the person is wrong Try to understand and meet the persons emotional needs The Family Caregiver Resource Center has teamed up with the Alzheimers Association for a caregiver educational event. On Jan. 23 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the LifeSpan Center Questions and Answers: Understanding and Responding to Dementia Related Behaviors will be provided for family caregivers. No matter your age or stage in the caregiving role, you are welcome to attend. This event is free and open to the public. A complimentary brunch will be provided courtesy of the Odd Fellow Rebekah Harmony Center. Please contact the LifeSpan Center at 217-639-5150 as registration is required. Topics to be covered will include: Decoding behavioral messages Identify common behavior triggers and Learn strategies to help intervene with some of the most common behavioral challenges of dementia related disease The Family Caregiver Resource Center is sponsored by the Coles County Council on Aging and partially funded by the Federal Older Americans Act, the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging, Illinois Department on Aging and client contributions. If you need transportation assistance to this event, please contact Dial-A-Ride Public Transportation by calling 217-639-5169 or 1-800-500-5505 at least 2 days prior to the event. The Coles County Council on Aging offices are located at the LifeSpan Center, 11021 E. County Road 800N, Charleston. The telephone number is 217-639-5150 for the Coles County Council on Aging and LifeSpan Center. The numbers for the programs are as follows: Coles County Telecare -- 217-639-5166; Family Care Giver Resource Center -- 217-639-5168 and Dial A Ride -- 217-639-5169 or 1-800-500-5505. See you at your LifeSpan Center. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 20:50:38|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (R) meets with Mark Sedwill, national security advisor to the British prime minister, in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 11, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China and Britain should deepen their pragmatic cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative to enrich the content of the "golden era" in bilateral relations, State Councilor Yang Jiechi said Thursday. During a meeting here with Mark Sedwill, national security advisor to the British prime minister, Yang said the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Britain had stable development last year. Strengthening cooperation between China and Britain not only serves the interests of both countries, but benefits regional and global peace and development, Yang said. He called on both countries to implement the consensus reached by the two countries' leaders, maintain close high-level exchanges and consolidate political mutual trust. For his part, Sedwill said both Britain and China were at a critical period of national development, adding that Britain stands ready to deepen cooperation with China. File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump gestures to media before boarding Marine One departing for Andrews Air Force Base en route to West Palm Beach, Florida, at White House in Washington D.C.,the United States, Feb. 3, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) 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. Source: Xinhuanet| 2018-01-12 09:31:27|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close 2018 China Characteristic Town Exposition will be held from Jan. 13 to Jan. 15 in Changsha, capital city of central China's Hunan Province. This is a terrific opportunity to know about China's characteristic towns. Besides the river town of Wuzhen, in which World Internet Conference is held, here are other fantastic Chinese towns worth your visit. Antao tourist town Tourists visit Antao tourist town in Chongqing, southwest China, Dec. 30, 2017. Antao tourist town featuring pottery making culture was open on Saturday at Rongchang pottery cultural and creative industrial park. (Xinhua/Tang Yi) A boy tours at Antao tourist town in Chongqing, southwest China, Dec. 30, 2017. Antao tourist town featuring pottery making culture was open on Saturday at Rongchang pottery cultural and creative industrial park. (Xinhua/Tang Yi) Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 00:57:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close 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 02:57:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill to extend by six years a key spying program 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 favor, too. The U.S. government has been highly criticized for secretly collecting phone and online data on U.S. and foreign citizens, following the 2013 leaks by the intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. In 2015, U.S. Congress voted to end a controversial surveillance program under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the U.S. National Security Agency's secret phone metadata collection on Americans. Under Section 702, the U.S. 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 U.S. persons. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 03:42:48|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close PARIS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- French Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire on Thursday pledged to carry out 2,500 additional checks next week, following the scandal that French retailers continued to sell baby food tainted with salmonella in spite of a nationwide recall. Speaking at a press conference, Le Maire said that 2,500 checks had already been carried out this week in stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, hospitals and nurseries. "The urgency is the effective withdrawal of distribution channels of all the suspected products," said the minister. The problematic products were produced by France-based Lactalis, one of the world's largest producers of dairy products. The company issued a recall in December of all products made in one of its factories in northwestern France, after discovering salmonella bacteria at the site. However, since Tuesday, several major French retailers, including Carrefour, E. Leclerc, Auchan, Casino, Intermarche and Systeme U, have admitted having sold Lactalis products that were supposed to be removed from shelves. "This case is serious. It has led to unacceptable behaviour that needs to be punished," said La Maire. He added that there had been no indication so far that tainted products were exported to other countries. French Minister of Agriculture Stephane Travert said the retailers were responsible for a "major malfunction in the recalling procedure." At a press conference in Rome, French president Emmanuel Macron called the scandal "unacceptable," stressing that France is capable of ensuring food safety. In December, at least 35 infants in France fell ill after being fed Lactailis products. French officials searched the factory on Dec. 2 and found that one of the assembly lines was contaminated with salmonella. Salmonella symptoms include diarrhoea, fever, vomiting and abdominal pain, and are extremely dangerous for infants. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 05:28:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BERLIN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A hard Brexit might endanger 14,000 of the 42,500 jobs in German car industry, a report published by the consulting firm Deloitte showed on Thursday. German automobile industry could expect a loss of up to 3.8 billion euros (4.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the Brexit year, because of the close interdependence of the suppliers with carmakers in Germany, Britain and other European Union countries, said the report named "hard Brexit and supply chain". Every fifth car parts used in Britain originates from Germany. German manufacturers supply the British automobile industry directly, and are indirectly involved in the production of German and other European cars exported to Britain. The jobs at risk are all at suppliers to carmakers, should Britain's negotiations with the EU about their future relationship collapse without a deal, according to German news agency dpa. A no-deal Brexit would lead to the introduction of tariffs and a possible crash in the value of the British pound, making British companies less able to purchase imports, dpa analyzed. The sales slumps affect the supply chain indirectly and lower revenue and employment for German suppliers. "In the Brexit year 2019, a hard Brexit would cause sales of German suppliers to shrink by 23 percent from 16.4 to 12.6 billion euros, which represents a decline of around 5 percent of German suppliers' current total turnover," Deloitte chief economist Alexander Boersch said. (1 euro=1.20 U.S.dollars) MATTOON (JG-TC) -- Police officers arrested two Coles County residents on Wednesday for allegedly perpetrating a check-writing scheme. A Mattoon Police Department press release reported that Charles R. Buck, 48, of Mattoon and Amy S. Cavanah, 37, of Charleston were each arrested on prohibited deposits charges late Wednesday morning at the police station. The charges allege that the two were involved in a check-writing scheme. Cavanah would allegedly write checks from her personal checking account to Buck, knowing that she did not have the funds to cover the checks. Buck would allegedly deposit these checks into his account and then immediately withdraw the funds, knowing that Cavanah did not have the funds in her account to cover his deposit. Both were taken to the jail. In other matters, Susan E. Sayers, 54, of Mattoon was arrested on a charge of criminal trespass to a residence at 11:28 a.m. Wednesday in the 2200 block of Prairie Avenue. The charge alleges that Sayers was found to be present at a residence that she had previously been banned from by the resident. Sayers was taken to the jail. File Photo: A notice of electronic surveillance is posted near a 95-by-50-foot American flag unfurled on the side of an apartment complex, a replica of the "The Great Flag" that was spun, woven, dyed, constructed and displayed on the same building by Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in 1914, in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., June 14, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS) WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill to extend by six years a key spying program 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 favor, too. The U.S. government has been highly criticized for secretly collecting phone and online data on U.S. and foreign citizens, following the 2013 leaks by the intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. In 2015, U.S. Congress voted to end a controversial surveillance program under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the U.S. National Security Agency's secret phone metadata collection on Americans. Under Section 702, the U.S. 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 U.S. persons. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reads a statement at the UN headquarters in New York, on Dec. 6, 2017. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday he was "against any unilateral measures that would jeopardize the prospect of peace for Israelis and Palestinians." He made the remarks immediately after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he formally recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) 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. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 08:48:52|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close TOKYO, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks opened lower Friday as the yen's firm tone continued to weigh on exporters. As of 9:15 a.m., the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average slipped 32.03 points, or 0.14 percent, from Thursday to 23,678.40. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 6.84 points, or 0.36 percent, at 1,881.25. Mining and food issues comprised issues that declined the most in the opening minutes after the morning bell. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 08:53:53|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SYDNEY, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- An autopsy is being carried out on a koala that was found nailed to a wooden gazebo post north of Brisbane, capital of Australia's Queensland state, local media reported Friday. The koala was most likely hit by a car but tests have not yet determined whether it was alive or dead when it was found screwed onto the post through its paws earlier in the week, SBS News reported. It would be difficult to trace whoever is responsible for the "sickening" act against the iconic Australian animal without any surveillance cameras in the area, koala rescuer Murray Chambers was quoted as saying. "There must be something wrong upstairs," he said. A picture of the koala has been posted on the Facebook page of the Koala Rescue Queensland non-profit bear welfare group, appealing for any information about the incident, ABC News reported. The post was shared more than 1,000 times and "sparked outrage on social media". Animal welfare group RSPCA is carrying out the autopsy on the animal and police may investigate the case when test results are out. Stronger penalties for animal cruelty were needed against such a behavior, Chambers' colleague Ray Chambers was quoted as saying. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 08:58:55|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The South African government said Thursday that it was encouraged by the resumption of high-level talks between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). South Africa welcomed the first high-level bilateral meeting in almost two years between the two countries, said the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). "South Africa is encouraged by the resumption of direct, inter-Korean dialogue as the best way forward to ensure lasting peace and prosperity to all on the Korean Peninsula, for the entire world's benefit," DIRCO spokesperson Clayson Monyela said. South Africa wishes to pledge its full support for this joint initiative as it unfolds and progresses, said Monyela. South Korea and the DPRK on Tuesday kicked off a senior-level dialogue on inter-Korean relations at the truce village of Panmunjom, with an initial focus on the DPRK's participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.0 The two sides agreed to cooperate to make the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics a success, take measures to ease tension on the peninsula and continue the process of rapprochement. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 09:32:25|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close Security members patrol in Tunis, capital of Tunisia, on Jan. 11, 2018. At least 600 individuals have been arrested during the clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers since Monday night in Tunisia. (Xinhua/Adele Ezzine) Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 09:39:03|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The United States is planning to reimpose sanctions on Iran, said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday, ahead of President Donald Trump's decision on whether to extend sanctions relief on Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal. "I am expecting new sanctions on Iran. We continue to look at them. We've rolled them out," Mnuchin told reporters at a White House briefing Thursday afternoon. Mnuchin's remarks came as the world is waiting for Trump to decide if he will reimpose sanctions on Iran, a move that may endanger the landmark Iran nuclear deal. Trump's decision was expected to be made at a "decision meeting" on Thursday, said U.S. State Department spokesperson Stephen Goldstein. "I'm not sure when the announcement will be, whether it will be tonight, or whether it will be tomorrow. But we do expect a decision to be made later today," Goldstein told reporters during a Thursday afternoon briefing. In a telephone conversation with Trump on Thursday, French President Emmanuel 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," said the Elysee Palace. In July 2015, after a decade of strenuous negotiations, Iran and six major countries, namely, China, Russia, Britain, France, the United States and Germany, struck a final agreement on Iran's controversial nuclear program, in which the West promises to relieve sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt in Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. However, as one of the most significant diplomatic legacies of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, the hard-won nuclear deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has been running the gauntlet of Trump on his campaign trail and since he became president. In October, Trump announced that he had decided to decertify Iran's compliance with the pact. His move triggered a 60-day window for Congress to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran. Reimposing sanctions would mean violating the Iran nuclear deal on the U.S. side. The Congress did not come up with any resolution, thus passing the ball back to Trump, who should decide on Friday if he would like to waive energy sanctions on Iran. Despite the Iran nuclear deal, the United States has kept on slapping separate sanctions on Iran, accusing the country of having a ballistic missiles program as well as human rights abuses. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 09:49:05|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close NEW YORK, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- An immigrant from Bangladesh, who is accused of attempting to bomb New York City subway system, on Thursday pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges. Akayed Ullah, 27, entered the plea a day after he was indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York on six-count charges, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and bomb a public transportation system. Ullah detonated a homemade explosive device on Dec. 11, 2017 in an underground walkway connecting two subway lines beneath the Port Authority bus terminal, injuring five people. He is expected back in court on April 13 for a status conference. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 10:14:10|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close HAVANA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The alleged acoustic attacks on U.S. personnel in Cuba have been a "pretext" used by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to roll back thawing ties with Havana, a Cuban expert said. Jesus Arboleya, an international relations professor at the University of Havana, told Xinhua recently this saga which started more than a year ago has a clear intention to derail the bilateral rapprochement started by former U.S. President Barack Obama. The incidents were first reported in November 2016 that over 20 U.S. diplomats and their family members in the Caribbean nation suffered symptoms such as hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, headaches and fatigue. "I've always considered that it was a big lie and they (Americans) knew from the beginning that it wasn't true. Dozens of scientists have confirmed that selective acoustic or sonic attacks never took place and now the U.S. public is knowing the truth," Arboleya said. On Tuesday, a U.S. Senate hearing on the alleged "acoustic attacks" led by senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez summoned three State Department officials who said Washington hasn't been able to identify the cause of the incidents or its perpetrators after months of investigation. Though the alleged "acoustic attacks" have been scientifically proven as a fake story, argued Arboleya, "Washington needs to keep talking about the issue and maintaining its initial position in order to justify the serious setback in bilateral ties." Josefina Vidal, general director of the United States division of Cuba's Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference Tuesday that the issue has been "politicized" in order to justify Washington's rollback of thawing ties between the former Cold War foes. "The State Department has no evidence that allows them to claim there have been attacks against its diplomats in Havana or that Cuba could be responsible or have knowledge of third-party actions against foreign envoys," Vidal added. The Senate hearing came after the Federal Bureau of Investigations published a report earlier this week saying it found no evidence of "acoustic attacks" against U.S. personnel on the island country. "Trump is trying to please Cuban American lawmakers that in turn can return him favors over domestic issues in the Senate and the House of Representatives," Arboleya explained. "The alleged attacks are just an excuse to return to a policy of confrontation and Cold War rhetoric with Cuba," he added. However, the Cuban academic said he believes that at some point, Trump's Cuban policy will have to change, whether during his term or after he leaves office. "Trump will face pressure even from his closest allies in Latin America for rolling back relations with Cuba. That could be as soon as the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Peru this year," he said. The U.S. government hasn't formally accused Cuba of carrying out attacks, but Trump said he believed Havana was responsible for them. In the fallout, the Trump administration sharply reduced the U.S. embassy staff in Havana, and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats who worked at the embassy in Washington last October. The U.S. State Department also issued a travel warning last year, telling Americans not to visit the country because some of the alleged attacks occurred in hotels. On Wednesday, the Canadian government said it had no idea who or what is behind the mysterious ailments that also affected some of its diplomats in Cuba. At a briefing in the capital city of Ottawa, a Canadian official said eight of their citizens stationed in Havana, out of 27 tested, required medical care after reporting symptoms ranging from dizziness and headaches to nosebleeds. However, Canada insisted it won't withdraw its diplomatic personnel from Cuba or close its embassy. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 10:56:04|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close A Chinese exhibitor talks with a visitor at a Chinese textile booth at Heimtextil, the world's largest international trade fair for home and contract textiles, in Frankfurt, Germany, on Jan. 11, 2018. A total of 2,975 exhibitors from 64 countries and regions attended the trade fair this year, 545 of which are from China. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan) ARTICLE IN BRIEF Researchers found prion seeding activity and infectivity in postmortem skin samples from patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The findings suggest that some component of the skin could potentially seed, spread, and contaminate non-central nervous system surgical environments. But they said the chance of prion diseases being spread through casual contact is very low. Low levels of the infectious form of the prion protein were detected in skin samples from patients who died with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), according to a study published in the November 22 edition of Science Translational Medicine. The findings suggest that some component of the skin could potentially seed, spread, and contaminate non-central nervous system surgical environments. And the skin biopsies may offer another method for diagnosing the fatal neurodegenerative condition, the study authors said. The study authors say that the samples contain all layers of skin, including blood vessels and nerve endings, and there is little epidemiological evidence that prions are transmissible through the skin itself. CJD is caused by the accumulation of a misfolded form of a bodily protein into an infectious, self-seeding form called prion protein scrapie associated (PrPSc). Sensitive assays can now detect prion disease in the cerebrospinal fluid, but a brain autopsy or biopsy remains the most accepted way of making a definitive diagnosis. The major implication of the finding is that skin prion-seeding activity could be a molecular marker for a postmortem (and potentially premortem) test for sCJD, said the senior study author Wen-Quan Zou, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology and neurology and director of the CJD Skin Project at Case Western University. Currently, lumbar punctures are ordered to diagnose sCJD in suspected cases. Skin biopsy offers an alternative easier-to-access material, said Dr. Zou. In addition, in cultures that discourage brain autopsy, skin testing could be used to confirm a diagnosis at death, he said. STUDY DESIGN, FINDINGS For the current study, Dr. Zou sent autopsied or biopsied skins from 38 patients to Christina D. Orru, PhD, a microbiologist at the National Institutes of Health's Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana: 21 had died from sCJD, two died from variant CJD (vCJD) associated with consumption of tainted meat from cows with mad cow disease, and 15 had died without any evidence of CJD. Skin samples were taken from the torso, limbs, top of the head, or next to the ear. DR. WEN-QUAN ZOU said the major implication of the finding is that skin prion-seeding activity could be a molecular marker for a postmortem (and potentially premortem) test for sCJD. The scientists analyzed the samples for evidence of PrPSc with the traditional Western blotting and real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC). RT-QuIC is a sensitive assay developed by scientists to detect and amplify prion-seeding activity; it uses recombinant prion protein to which potentially infectious tissue homogenate is added. The research team also took skin tissue samples from two deceased sCJD patients and injected them into the brains of humanized transgenic mice. Western blotting detected PrPSc in one of five sCJD patients examined. The RT-QuIC detected prion seeding activity in at least one skin sample from all 23 CJD patients and did not find any activity in the non-CJD controls. The area near the ear had the highest and most consistent prion-seeding activity, in 94 percent of sCJD cases, the researchers reported. The seeding activity is weaker in the skin about a thousand times lower than what we find in brain tissues from sCJD patients, Dr. Zou said. It was surprising, said Byron Caughey, PhD, a biochemist at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories. The only data in the literature were from one patient with vCJD. As we develop more sensitive assays we can pick up smaller and smaller amounts of prion seeding activity. Dr. Orru added that they could quantify the seeding, even after they diluted the sample several times. We don't know the level of risk. But the chance of it being transmitted through skin should be very low. The scientists also wanted to see if skin samples from sCJD patients could infect animals. They intracerebrally inoculated 12 mice from two transgenic lines with skin homogenates from two sCJD patients. More than a year later, they observed that all the animals had some clinical signs, pathological evidence of disease, and detectable PrPSc. This was proof that the skin homogenates, which contain all layers of skin, blood vessels and nerve endings, could seed and infect their new host. The scientists said that they have no clue yet where the prion seeds accumulate within the skin. Dr. Orru said that it is probably seeding and spreading through the nerve endings, but they are exploring that in ongoing studies. We should emphasize that in no way does our study imply that prion transmission can occur via casual contact, the scientists wrote in the paper. The bioassays that we have performed involved inoculation of relatively large amounts of skin extracts directly into the brains of humanized transgenic mice, which is not likely to be recapitulated in humans in any sort of routine event. Dr. Caughey added: Our data show that there are prions in the skin but they are at a very low level, and there is no evidence that these levels represent a transmission risk under practical clinical circumstances. We also don't know what part of the skin contains this prion seeding activity. The researchers are now looking to see whether they can detect this abnormal activity from skin samples in living people. They have analyzed samples but the study data are still blinded. It's unlikely that we will ever find it on the skin surface, Dr. Orru said. The research team will also be conducting studies in animals using contaminated medical instruments, mimicking general surgery that exposes the skin to the contaminated instruments. They are also designing studies with skin grafts to see whether specific parts of human skin from sCJD patients could trigger seeding in healthy animals. And they are now extending their studies to see whether skin can be validated as a useful biomarker for sCJD. EXPERT COMMENTARY Commenting on the study, Kurt Giles, PhD, associate professor of neurology at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco, said the findings were interesting and the research is quite convincing that there is infectivity in the skin samples studied. It does not mean that sCJD is transmissible through skin contact, though, Dr. Giles said. It is not clear what part of the skin sample contained misfolded prion protein. Not every sample was positive. We still need to understand how this happens. Certainly, it would be simpler to get a skin sample. Dr. Giles said the take-home message is that there is a potential new source of material to use in diagnosis of sCJD. Graham S Jackson, PhD, a biochemist at the MRC Prion Unit at University College London and the UCL Institute of Prion Diseases in London, agreed that it is not clear where the seeding and prions reside. They didn't define which cell types they were derived from, he explained. You can't exclude the fact that the prions may have come from blood or nerve endings. He said several techniques are available for the diagnosis of sCJD, including detection using CSF samples and imaging of the brain by magnetic resonance imaging. His laboratory and others are looking for a pre-clinical diagnostic biomarker in blood. There are cases where epidemiology has spoken loudly, said Sonia Vallabh, a PhD student at the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, referring to people who developed CJD decades after receiving growth hormone in childhood and/or people exposed to infectious prions through tainted meat. But exposure through skin? That does not reach the level of direct epidemiological evidence, the scientist said. Our ability to detect the presence of prions experimentally is getting much more sensitive, but we need to be cautious about how it speaks to the risk in the real world. They may be picking up sub-clinical amounts of prion material. It's important to balance understanding the risks with making sure that people don't become unnecessarily alarmed. THE BACK STORY: FINDING INFECTIVITY IN SKIN CELLS OF CJD The current findings evolved from a body of work and experiments done collaboratively between Case Western Reserve University and the Rocky Mountain Laboratories. In 2013, Dr. Zou and his colleagues were making patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and discovered misfolded prion protein in skin-derived fibroblasts from patients with sCJD and some asymptomatic PrP mutation carriers. Shortly after the 2013 observation, Dr. Zou asked the scientists at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories to run the fibroblast samples through real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC), which allows scientists to quantify seeding activity. Byron Caughey, PhD, a biochemist at the lab, took CSF from animals and patients and added it to a 96-well assay plate. Any PrPSc seeds in the CSF were amplified by many orders of magnitude to levels that were detectable by a fluorescent dye.The RT-QuIC is almost 100 percent specific and 95 percent sensitive, and is now routinely ordered when there is a suspicion of CJD. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 10:59:17|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close MEXICO CITY, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Ministers from Canada, Mexico and the United States will hold a special meeting to tackle some of the toughest issues in negotiations to update the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a top private-sector adviser to the Mexican government said Thursday. "There will be a ministerial meeting to review the toughest matters, to which we hope to be able to find solutions," Juan Pablo Castanon, president of the Business Coordinating Council, told reporters. The meeting will take place as part of the upcoming sixth round of negotiations, to be hosted by Montreal, Canada on Jan. 23-28, and could move up the round of talks to Jan. 21, said Castanon. Mexico, Canada and the United States have been renegotiating NAFTA since August, at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has alleged that the 23-year-old agreement has harmed his country and has threatened to withdraw from it. Among the issues the three NAFTA partners have been unable to agree on are proposed changes to the chapter on dispute settlement, the inclusion of a so-called "sunset clause" that would subject the deal to review every five years, and the automotive sector trade deficit. "It's time to broach the toughest issues in Montreal," said Castanon. "These issues must be tackled now, with solutions that compensate and take into account the interests of the three parties," he added. The parties are hoping to wrap up the talks in the first quarter of 2018. "Practically half of the topics are ready to be concluded politically, and the other half have made interesting, significant and sufficient progress," said Castanon. Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo, who heads his country's negotiating team, told reporters earlier this week that 10 of the 30 chapters that required updating are ready to be closed at the Montreal gathering. "In our opinion as business owners, if it's possible to conclude (the talks) in February or March, that would be very good news for Mexicans and for the markets," said Castanon. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 11:19:21|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's trade surplus with the Unites States widened in 2017 while total foreign trade volume maintained rapid growth, customs data showed Friday. Trade surplus with the United States soared 13 percent year on year to 1.87 trillion yuan (about 288 billion U.S. dollars), according to Huang Songping, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs. China's imports and exports to the United States expanded 15.2 percent in 2017 to 3.95 trillion yuan, accounting for 14.2 percent of the total trade volume. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 11:59:26|Editor: Mengjie Video Player Close by Xinhua writer Liu Chen WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump is set to decide Friday whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran, a move that may put the landmark Iran nuclear deal in peril. As a diplomatic breakthrough reached between six major countries and Iran in 2015 after a decade of talks, the deal has been proven effective in deterring Iran's nuclear development, bolstering stability in the Middle East and upholding the international non-proliferation regime, especially at such a delicate time. Although the treaty might not be perfect, it remains worthy of preserving. The accord has provided "clear and tangible" benefits on limiting Iran's nuclear program, according to a recently released report by U.S. think tanks. Under the deal, Iran would need roughly a year, instead of less than two months, to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, giving the international community enough time to detect any major clandestine nuclear effort, said the report, which is co-authored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Center for a New American Security. In nine reports since the pact was inked, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the international non-proliferation watchdog, has confirmed that Tehran has been in full compliance with the deal, rebutting the accusation from Washington of the Islamic Republic's "multiple violations of the agreement." In fact, the United States is the only party that has threatened to scrap the deal, a stance that has been confronted by other participants. Shortly before Trump was expected to announce his decisions, diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and the European Union again called on Trump to uphold the pact. French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized the importance of abiding by the deal "in order to guarantee better stability in the Middle East," according to a readout of his telephone conversation with Trump on Thursday. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said those who oppose the nuclear agreement should come up with a better solution, "because we haven't seen it so far." He gave the remarks alongside his German and French counterparts as well as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini after meeting Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Brussels on Thursday. On the same occasion, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the European signatories of the Iran deal "want to protect (the deal) against every possible decision that might undermine it." Meanwhile, China and Russia, the other two parties in the pact, have also repeatedly urged parties to preserve the deal, which is "a beneficial practice of solving a critical issue through political and diplomatic means." While the Iran accord may be imperfect in that it includes a "sunset clause" that allows Iran to restart its uranium enrichment program after 2025, so long as Iran complies with it, it remains the best mechanism available. Preventing the deal from falling apart is especially meaningful at a time when nuclear tensions are still high on the Korean Peninsular despite the recent ice-breaking dialogue between the two Koreas. "Ending the Iran deal is an invitation to war," Ilan Goldenberg and Mara Karlin, two former Pentagon officials who have worked in Iran, warned in an article published in The Atlantic magazine in October. Given that Iran has said it would no longer abide by the pact if the United States renews its sanctions, Trump's decision to nullify the arms control deal would very likely lead to Tehran never returning to the negotiating table and freeing itself of its nuclear obligations set by the deal. In fact, America's own strategic interests will be best served by keeping the pact intact. Scrapping the deal now would remove important existing constraints on Iran's nuclear program, and would leave the United States in a far weaker position to negotiate meaningful future limits on the program, said the U.S. think tank report. A unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal would be another blow to America's diplomatic credibility, which has already been damaged after its multiple "retreats" from the international organizations and commitments last year. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 11:59:26|Editor: Mengjie Video Player Close KABUL, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Twenty journalists and media workers were killed in violence in Afghanistan in 2017, the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC), an independent media safety group protecting the reporters' rights, said on Friday. Last year was the deadliest year for journalists and media in the history of Afghanistan, with 67 percent increase of incidents against them compared to 2016, AJSC said in a statement on its website. According to the statement, the AJSC recorded a total of 169 incidents of violence and intimidation, including killing, injury, beating, detention, threats and verbal assault of journalists and media workers. The statement said that "20 journalists were killed, all by the Taliban and the Afghanistan branch of Islamic State (IS) group." "The remarkable rise in the level of violence against journalists and media workers in Afghanistan is a matter of great concern for us and for the media community at large," Najib Sharifi, head of AJSC, was quoted in the statement as saying. The media support committee called on all warring groups including the Taliban and IS to refrain from attacking journalists and media workers. At least 13 journalists were reportedly killed in 2016 in the war-torn country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 12:24:29|Editor: Mengjie Video Player Close SYDNEY, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A man who tried to protect his pet dog from a brown snake died soon after being bitten by the highly venomous reptile in Australia's New South Wales state, local media reported on Friday. The snake bit the 24-year-old victim on the finger in the backyard of his home in northwestern Tamworth on Wednesday night, the ABC News channel reported. "He went to investigate his small dog barking and found the dog to have a small brown snake in his mouth," police sergeant Josh McKenzie was quoted as saying. The snake bit the victim after he tried to separate his dog from it, said McKenzie. A relative took the man to a hospital in the city but he died within an hour. The native Australian brown snake is one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. About 300 people are bitten by snakes in the country each year and 35 people died from the bites between 2000 and 2016, the news channel reported. Most snakes were scared of people and the reptiles would generally bite only if they were being threatened, Dan Rumsey from Sydney's Australian Reptile Park was quoted as saying. The snake venom travels through victims' lymphatic system and they need to put pressure on the wound, he said. "Most people are bitten on the hands or ankles," Rumsey said. "As ridiculous as it sounds, you need to stay calm. That will slow down the circulation, getting to hospital as quick as you possibly can." Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 12:34:31|Editor: Mengjie Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A professor at Beihang University, a well-known Chinese university, has been removed from his faculty post after a former female student accused him of sexual harassment on social media. The university announced on its Sina Weibo account late Thursday that Chen Xiaowu was stripped of his post as executive vice president with the university's Graduate School. His teaching certificate was also canceled. The university said that the decision was made after an investigation conducted by the school found that "Chen did sexually harass female students." In early January, a former doctoral student of Chen, Luo Qianqian, posted a Weibo article accusing him of sexually harassing her and several other students. She wrote in her article that Chen tried to force himself on her after luring her to his sister's house more than 10 years ago. She eventually left unharmed after crying. Luo reached out to other victims and formed a WeChat group with them to share their experiences and collect evidence before submitting the evidence to the university. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 12:44:33|Editor: Liu Video Player Close Ri Son-gwon (R), 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 in the truce village of Panmunjom, Jan. 9, 2018. South Korea and the DPRK on Tuesday kicked off a senior-level, inter-governmental dialogue in the truce village of Panmunjom. (Xinhua/Newsis) BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The resumed direct communication and dialogue between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and South Korea have been widely applauded and supported by world leaders though they think more efforts are still needed. The DPRK and South Korea 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 about two years. POSITIVE ATMOSPHERE Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation on Thursday with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in to talk about the Korean Peninsula issue and bilateral relations. Xi said China supports the two sides in promoting inter-Korean dialogue and exchanges to gradually advance the settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue. China has always supported the improvement of relations between South Korea and the DPRK, as well as their reconciliation and cooperation, Xi told Moon. In the new year, China is willing to work with South Korea to boost strategic communication, promote practical cooperation, properly address sensitive issues, strive for greater achievements in bilateral relations, and jointly promote regional peace and stability, Xi said. On the same day, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the United States and the DPRK were directly concerned parties on the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue, stressing that China hoped the two countries would move in same direction and "take a meaningful step" on dialogue and contact. The remarks came after a telephone conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Moon on Wednesday, in which Trump said he would be open to talks at an appropriate time and under the right situation if the DPRK wanted them. INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION In another development, French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday held talks with Trump via telephone, in which they discussed issues related to Iran and the DPRK. Macron hailed the recent inter-Korean talks as "a positive signal," adding that "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 rotating president of the UN Security Council Kairat Umarov said one day after the inter-Korean high-level talks that "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." However, he stressed that despite the positive development, the Security Council would not budge on sanctions against the DPRK for its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs. CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute, a Washington-based non-profit policy research institution, believes that "it's unrealistic to expect them (Pyongyang and Seoul) to achieve too much given the events of the last few years. If they can help to reduce tensions and spur on a successful Olympics, they will have been successful." On direct talks between Trump and DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un, U.S. experts agreed that the prospect seems slim in the near future. "President Trump has alternated between expressing a willingness to talk with Kim Jong Un to suggesting that talks are a waste of time," Stangarone said, adding: "A presidential conversation with Kim Jong Un is not something to be undertaken lightly." "Going forward, it is critical that U.S. policymakers and strategists recognize that the two Koreas' future is theirs to write," U.S. famed expert on the DPRK affairs John Delury wrote in an article. Delury argued that instead of issuing condescending warnings to Seoul, Washington would do well to support Moon's initiative, stay in close coordination with him, and even hope to gain insights from direct engagement with the DPRK counterparts. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 12:49:34|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close MINSK, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday he would reconcile border-related differences with Russia in 2018, Belarusian State-owned Telegragh Agency reported. In January 2017, Belarus introduced a five-day visa-free policy for citizens of 80 countries, including 39 European countries and the United States. After that, Belarus and Russia started to have differences regarding their shared border. Lukashenko said at a conference in Minsk that the liberalization of Belarus visa regulations for foreigners has caused concerns by Russia. He added that the Belarus-Russia border is often called "the strangest border in Europe" on the Internet and elsewhere. The president said that the law enforcement bodies of Belarus and Russia maintain constructive and systematic cooperation. Border controls along the Belarus-Russia border were lifted after the two countries signed the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation in 1995. Russia actually started introducing restrictions of citizens of third countries entering Russia from Belarus in early 2016. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 13:14:38|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- India on Friday successfully launched 31 satellites on a single mission from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota, officials said. The satellies, including the country's 100th satellite Cartosat (earth observation sastellite), were launched by state-owned Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) aboard its trusted workhorse Polar Launch Satellite Vehicle (PSLV) at 9.28 a.m. local time (0358 GMT). The lift-off has been successful, ISRO officials told the media. The Cartosat is essentially a remote sensing satellite, equipped with panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras and has a shelf life of five years. Apart from Cartosat, other satellites comprise one micro and nano satellite each from India as well as three micro and 25 nanosatellites from six countries -- Canada, Finland, France, South Korea, Britain and the United States. The launch of the satellites was earlier slated for January 10. In February last year, India created history by launching 104 satellites on a single mission, overtaking the previous record of 37 satellites set by Russia in 2014. All but three of the satellites were from foreign countries, most of them from the United States. India has over the past two decades earned a reputation of offering a reliable low cost alternative to existing international players in launching satellites into space. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 13:24:39|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed the outcome of the inter-Korean dialogue held earlier this week, South Korea's foreign ministry said Friday. Kang and Tillerson held a telephone conversation earlier in the day, talking about the recently-held high-level talks between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and ways to strengthen cooperation between South Korea and the United States. Senior-level delegations from South Korea and the DPRK met Tuesday in the truce village of Panmunjom, agreeing to hold a separate inter-Korean dialogue on military affairs. Pyongyang also agreed to send its high-ranking delegation and athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, which are set to run from February to March in South Korea's eastern county of PyeongChang. During the phone talks, the South Korean foreign minister explained to the U.S. secretary of state about the outcome of the inter-Korean dialogue. Kang stressed the position of South Korea that her country will push simultaneously for improved inter-Korean ties and the peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in his first New Year's press conference Wednesday that improved inter-Korean relations cannot be separated from the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, noting that the two issues should be pursued simultaneously to create a virtuous cycle between them. On Wednesday night, Moon held a telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump, sharing a possibility that the inter-Korean talks can naturally lead to a dialogue between the United States and the DPRK for the denuclearized Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, top nuclear envoys of South Korea and the United States held a meeting in Washington for two days from Wednesday to share the outcome and the inter-Korean talks, according to the foreign ministry. Lee Do-hoon, special representative for the Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, met with his U.S. counterpart Joseph Yun. Lee and Yun talked about how to turn the momentum of the resumed inter-Korean dialogue into a momentum for the peaceful resolution of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 13:34:42|Editor: Liu Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on July 12, 2017 shows the container pier of Zhoushan Port in Ningbo City, east China's Zhejiang Province. In the first half of 2017, Zhoushan Port handled 515 million tonnes cargoes, up 11.3 percent year-on-year, and 12.39 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) containers, up 14.6 percent year-on-year. (Xinhua/Hu Jinqu) BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade volume rose 14.2 percent year on year to 27.79 trillion yuan (4.28 trillion U.S. dollars), ending the previous continuous drop of the previous two years, official data showed Friday. China's exports increased 10.8 percent to reach 15.33 trillion yuan while imports surged 18.7 percent to 12.46 trillion yuan in 2017, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said. The trade surplus continued to narrow last year, shrinking 14.2 percent to 2.87 trillion yuan, compared with a 9.1-percent reduction registered in 2016 that saw 3.35 trillion yuan in trade surplus. GAC spokesperson Huang Songping attributed the double-digit trade volume growth to the global economic recovery, steady domestic economic expansion, rising commodity prices, emerging markets along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative and a low comparison base. China's general trade has increased both in volume and proportion, expanding to 15.66 trillion yuan last year and accounting for 56.4 percent of total foreign trade. The European Union, the United States and ASEAN are the top three trading partners of China, with exports to the United States rising 15.2 percent year on year. Chinese private enterprises played a bigger role in trade last year, edging up 0.4 percentage points in its share of total trade compared with that in 2016. The country's less developed regions, including central and western China and the rust belt, all outpaced the national average trade growth last year. Trade growth faces pressure for the first quarter of this year as surveys showed falling confidence and new orders in December, according to the customs authority. It will be difficult to keep double-digit trade growth this year given the many global uncertainties and a high comparison base, Huang said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 13:39:44|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close 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. 12 (Xinhua) -- The first overseas trip in 2018 by a Chinese leader has sent a signal of China's attaching importance to its neighborhood diplomacy, experts said. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Thursday concluded a 24-hour trip to Cambodia where he attended the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting and paid an official visit to the kingdom. "It is the first overseas trip in the new year by a Chinese leader and has its significance," Hu Zhengyue, vice president of China Public Diplomacy Association and former Chinese assistant minister of foreign affairs, told Xinhua. Hu said the significance can be interpreted from four perspectives -- China's relations with Cambodia, countries on Indo-China Peninsula, China-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) cooperation, and China's neighborhood diplomacy. IMPORTANT CHINA-CAMBODIA TIES "Bilateral relationship has developed well in general in the past six decades and the visit will inject new impetus into its long-term development," said Hu Zhengyue. 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, Li said during his meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen. 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. The two countries also signed 19 bilateral cooperative documents regarding the areas of politics, economy, trade, public health, forestry, agriculture and culture. "On occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-Cambodia ties, it is expected that the China-Cambodia comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership will continue to move forward to bring tangible benefits to the two countries and contribute to peace and development in the region and world," former Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Hu Qianwen said. INNOVATIVE LMC MECHANISM Drinking from the same Lancang-Mekong river, the six riparian countries share common interest in development and people's livelihood. 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. Initiated by China in 2014, the LMC is a sub-regional cooperation mechanism connecting six developing countries along the river. It focuses on five priority areas of cooperation: connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources management, as well as agriculture and poverty reduction. "The Lancang-Mekong cooperation is a very important platform and its sustainable development will ensure stability and prosperity on Indo-China Peninsula, which has strategic significance for regional countries," Hu Zhengyue said. With progress and results delivered daily, a remarkable LMC speed featuring efficiency and pragmatism had been created, said Wang Yuzhu, director and research fellow of the Center for APEC and East Asian Cooperation from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, adding that the LMC model will become a new platform for regional integration of developing countries. STRONGER CHINA-ASEAN COOPERATION On China-ASEAN cooperation, the sound development of the LMC is conducive to ASEAN because an important but thorny issue in the bloc's integration process is to narrow the development gap between its members, Hu said. "China's participation in the LMC will help ASEAN's efforts in this aspect (narrowing the disparity between its member countries) and help deepen China-ASEAN cooperation," he said. Most of the LMC's 45 Early Harvest Projects have been completed and recorded substantive progress, which also contributes to the cooperation between China and ASEAN. "The visit has demonstrated the importance China attaches to its relations with neighboring countries, especially with ASEAN," said Guo Yanjun, director of the Institute of Asian Studies of China Foreign Affairs University. "A prosperous ASEAN that enjoys development and integration is also conducive to promoting our major-country diplomacy." GOOD NEIGHBORS AND WIN-WIN COOPERATION According to Hu Zhengyue, China's neighborhood diplomacy that features amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness is the country's "top priority." China benefits from regional stability and its neighbors also benefit from China's development. For the long-term win-win cooperation in the region, a LMC culture featuring equality, sincerity, mutual assistance and kinship should be a common pursuit, said Liu Chang, a research fellow from China Institute of International Studies. People-to-people and cultural exchanges will be the "soul" to cultivate the LMC culture, thus stimulating a strong vitality and benefiting the six peoples in the future, said the expert. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 13:44:47|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close by Nguon Sovan, Mao Pengfei PHNOM PENH, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese investors and tourists have greatly contributed to socio-economic development and poverty reduction in Cambodia, Cambodian business community leaders said. China is both the largest sources of foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourists to Cambodia. According to a report by the Council for the Development of Cambodia, the fixed asset investment from China accounted for 20.2 percent of the total investment in Cambodia from 1994 to 2017. In 2017, Cambodia attracted the fixed asset investment of 1.43 billion U.S. dollars from China, or 27 percent of the total investment in the country last year. For tourism, Chinese tourists to the kingdom surpassed the 1-million mark last year, bringing around 700 million U.S. dollars into the Cambodian economy, according to Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon. As for Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's recent visit to Cambodia, Lim Heng, vice president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, said excellent relations and cooperation between the two countries were the main factor encouraging more Chinese investors and tourists to Cambodia. "Both Chinese investors and tourists have provided huge benefits to Cambodia in socio-economic development and poverty reduction," he told Xinhua, adding that they have created hundreds of thousands of direct jobs for Cambodian people. Lim Heng, who is also the president of agro-industrial development firm An Mady Group, said Chinese investors have invested in various sectors in Cambodia, including garment and footwear, energy, infrastructure, telecoms, banking and finance, agriculture, agro-industry, and real estate and construction. He said the visit by Premier Li to Cambodia would further strengthen political and economic ties and cooperation between the two countries. Kim Heang, president of the Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association, which has 97 real estate companies as its members, said more Chinese people have come to Cambodia because the peoples of the two countries are like "brothers," and many Cambodians have descended from China. "The most important factor is that the relationship between the governments of the two countries is very close so that Chinese investors feel very warm when they invest in Cambodia," he told Xinhua. Kim Heang, who is also the chief executive officer of Khmer Real Estate, said a lot of Chinese investors have invested in real estate and construction here in recent years, especially in the capital of Phnom Penh and coastal Preah Sihanouk province. "Chinese investors have brought Cambodia new capital, new technologies, and employment opportunities," he said. Khek Norinda, director of communication and public relations department of the Cambodia Airports, said:" Infrastructure development is pivotal to supporting Cambodia's growth path." According to Norinda, currently, 11 Chinese airlines and 5 Cambodian carriers have been operating nearly 200 weekly flights between Cambodia and China. He said the increasing numbers of airlines and flights between the two countries truly reflected the growing attractiveness of Cambodia as a destination to visitors and in particular to Chinese travelers - both leisure and business ones. Chhay Sivlin, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, which represents about 250 tour and travel companies, said Chinese investors and tourists have greatly contributed to the development of tourism in the kingdom. "A lot of tourism-related businesses such as hotels, resorts, travel and tour companies, and restaurants have been invested by Chinese businesspeople," she told Xinhua. Sivlin, who is also the president and chief executive officer of CSL Travel & Tours, said that her company has partnered with five Chinese companies to provide travel and tour packages to tourists between the two countries. Besides the largest investor and source of tourists, China is also a leading trade partner of Cambodia. According to Cambodian government figures, the total trade volume between the two countries was valued at 5.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of 2017, surpassing the total volume in 2016. Sivlin attributed the growth of the bilateral trade to the increasing popularity of Chinese products, such as construction materials and electronic products in the Cambodian markets. "Chinese products are gaining popularity in Cambodia because of their good quality and competitive prices," she said, giving an example of Huawei smartphones. "Huawei smartphones are good in quality with many useful functions, and their battery life also lasts for much longer than that of iPhone," said Sivlin, who is also a Huawei smartphone user. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 13:44:47|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SYDNEY, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Australian ice cream maker Golden North is recalling at least nine of its products sold nationwide following consumer complaints about metal fragments in an item, health authorities said on Friday. The recall was precautionary and there had been no reports of harm or injury, the state health authorities quoted food and controlled drugs director Fay Jenkins as saying. "Metal fragments can be potentially dangerous and cause injury if ingested," Jenkins said. The company is investigating the incident and working with regulators to address any issues, she said. The affected products have been on shelves of major supermarket chains such as Coles, Woolworths and IGA across the country, Golden North said on its website. The company said it "contacted authorities as soon as an issue was detected and is working quickly with retailers to immediately remove the products." Customers were also advised to return products to where they were bought for a full refund. In April 2016, the company highlighted its rollout of exports to China amid expectations of peak Chinese demand during winter in the southern hemisphere. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 13:44:47|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's trade surplus with the United States widened in 2017 while total foreign trade volume maintained rapid growth, customs data showed Friday. Trade surplus with the United States soared 13 percent year on year to 1.87 trillion yuan (about 288 billion U.S. dollars), according to Huang Songping, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs. China's trade volume with the United States expanded 15.2 percent in 2017 to 3.95 trillion yuan, accounting for 14.2 percent of the total. Exports to the United States climbed 14.5 percent while imports from the country jumped 17.3 percent. In 2017, the United States was China's second largest trade partner and China hopes to deepen economic and trade cooperation with the country to achieve mutual benefits, Huang said. Huang also noted that global protectionism is still on the rise with a high frequency of trade remedy investigations into Chinese products, which has become one of the uncertainties facing international trade in 2018. At a press conference Thursday, the Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng said that the trade imbalance between China and the United States 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. In response to a U.S. Section 301 investigation into Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer launched late last year, Gao said that the trade investigation is based on its own laws and regulations and will compromise the international trade framework. China will take necessary measures to protect Chinese enterprises' interests if the United States sticks to unilateral protectionist trade practices, he said. Customs data also showed that China's total trade surplus shrank 14.2 percent in 2017 to 2.87 trillion yuan, compared with a 9.1-percent reduction registered in 2016. China's exports increased 10.8 percent to reach 15.33 trillion yuan while imports surged 18.7 percent to 12.46 trillion yuan in 2017. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 13:59:49|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating rose this week after the country's high-level talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) raised hope for a thaw in inter-Korean ties. According to the Gallup Korea survey released Friday, support for Moon gained 1 percentage point over the week to 73 percent this week. It was based on a poll of 1,006 voters conducted from Tuesday to Thursday. It had 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level. Stronger support for Moon came after South Korea and the DPRK held the first high-level talks in about two years Tuesday and agreed to hold a separate dialogue to ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The DPRK agreed to send its high-ranking delegation and athletes to the South Korea-hosted Winter Olympics set to run from February to March. Moon's ruling Democratic Party kept its top post with 46 percent in support scores, followed by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party with 11 percent and the minor conservative Righteous Party with 6 percent. The minor progressive Justice Party won 5 percent of support, and the centrist People's Party gained 4 percent. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 13:59:49|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close TAIYUAN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Spending 27 years alone, teaching students in a small, remote school would be a tough task for any ordinary person, let alone for a fingerless man, but Chen Haiping, 51, has made it. A teacher at a village school in north China's Shanxi Province, Chen was selected as a role model in a campaign launched by e-commerce giant Alibaba last week, and the story of his selflessness held up as an example to all. Born without fingers and toes, Chen met the principal of Liujiashan Village School by chance in 1990 and became a substitute teacher as teachers in rural areas were in desperately short supply at that time. "I was 23 years old then. Nobody recruited me after I had graduated from a junior high school. The job provided me a monthly wage of 50 yuan (around 8 U.S. dollars). I was very satisfied," Chen said. To be a good teacher, he has overcome many obstacles. He had to get rid of his accent and make his Mandarin more standard to teach the Chinese phonetic alphabet pinyin. He got up early and attended a bigger school 10 km away to learn from teachers there and returned to his school before class started. But the biggest challenge was to write on the chalkboard. Without fingers, he had to hold the chalk between his palms to write. "It was a painful process. I got blisters on palms, and the chalk dropped to the ground all the time," Chen recalled. Located on a hillside in Liulin County, his school is very different today to how it was over 20 years ago. The two-storey building that was once alive with 100 or more chattering students now sees a total attendance of only seven -- Chen, who is the teacher, cook and cleaner, and his six students, three of them pre-schoolers. Chen teaches them all in the same classroom. The situation of Chen's school is not unusual. As migrant parents take their children with them to cities, fewer students attend village schools. A government report said that over 60 percent of children aged between six and 15 live with their migrant worker parents by the end of 2013. In the early 2000s, some rural schools closed or merged to improve conditions. Most village kids were sent to schools in towns or cities. A very few were left in "ghost schools" like Chen's because the journey to a bigger school is too long or arduously expensive. "The quality of education in 'ghost schools' is not as good as in bigger ones, but they are still important. Without them, some students would drop out," Chen said. Feng Qiangqiang, 11, is the oldest student in the school. His stepfather, a coal miner, is never home, and his mother is chronically ill. "The family is unable to send him to a better school," Chen said. This is part of the reason why he refuses to leave. Local educational authority once transferred him to another school, but he soon returned. Chen was surprised to be chosen as a role model and delighted to be awarded 5,000 yuan, more than twice of his monthly salary. But the joy was short-lived. He worries he may be the last guardian of his school as the tough conditions scare good teachers off. "I will keep teaching even if there is only one student left," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 14:29:55|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Troops of India and Pakistan Friday exchanged heavy fire and targeted each other's positions on Line of Control (LoC), dividing Kashmir, officials said. The two sides exchanged fire on LoC in Kamalkote sector of frontier Uri town, about 117 km northwest of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. "Pakistani army today resorted to unprovoked firing along LoC in Kamalkote sector in Uri targeting Indian positions," an Indian army official said. "The firing is going on intermittently." Reports said the firing started during night and was going on until last reports poured in. Indian army officials said their side was effectively retaliating to the firing from Pakistan. Officials said, so far no reports of damage or casualty were received from Indian or Pakistani side. Last year, a total of 820 incidents of cease-fire violations were reported in Kashmir. The skirmishes led to killings of troops as well as civilians on both sides. Both New Delhi and Islamabad accuse each other of resorting to unprovoked firings and violating cease-fire agreements. And both sides maintain that their troops gave befitting reply. The troops of India and Pakistan intermittently exchange fire on 720-km LoC and 198-km International Border (IB) in Kashmir, despite an agreement in 2003 to observe a cease-fire. LoC is a de facto border that divides Kashmir into India and Pakistan-controlled parts. Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 14:40:00|Editor: Zhou Xin Video Player Close BUENOS AIRES, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Argentina's Racing Club has placed a 20 million-euro price tag on highly rated striker Lautaro Martinez amid interest from a raft of European clubs. The 20-year-old signed a new and improved contract in which he committed to the club until June 2020 with a release clause that cannot be activated before June. "He is the best young player in Argentina and is worth at least 20 million euros," Racing president Victor Blanco said. "There are half a dozen clubs that want him and he'll have the chance to choose which league he wants to play in when the moment arrives." Last year Martinez's agent, Rolando Zarate, said Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid had expressed interest in signing the forward. Martinez, an Argentina under-20 international, has scored four goals in six league matches for Racing so far this season. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 15:10:05|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The western U.S. city of San Francisco will get an extra 9 million U.S. dollars from the federal government to fight homelessness, local media reported Thursday. With the 9 million dollars, which is part of two-billion-dollar grants announced by the government Thursday, the city will obtain a total of 41.5 million dollars in homelessness grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, second only to Los Angeles in southern California that receives 109.4 million dollars. San Francisco, a major tourist city on the west coast, spends about 300 million dollars on homelessness every year. The extra grant will help the San Francisco government expand programs to provide housing for the homeless sleeping on the streets. The federal government awards the grants every January for local agencies to address homelessness, which has risen sharply along the west coast in recent years, where rents have been rising fast. Alameda County to the east of San Francisco will get 35 million dollars, the second biggest amount in the San Francisco Bay Area, while Santa Clara County, southwest of San Francisco, will receive 22 million dollars. San Francisco had a homeless population of about 7,500 in 2017, according to a Homeless Point-in-Time count survey, or a "homeless census" conducted by the city last year. A Texas man who sold methamphetamine six times to a confidential informant working with police in Lincoln has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Roberto Ochoa Cantu, 44, of Alamo, Texas, pleaded guilty to distribution of methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute. U.S. District Judge John Gerrard also ordered Cantu to serve five years on supervised release. But, as a citizen of Mexico, Cantu likely will be deported following the prison term. He was held responsible for the distribution of at least 150 grams of pure meth. In a press release, Robert C. Stuart, Nebraska's acting U.S. attorney, said Cantu was arrested on April 24 after a yearlong investigation into methamphetamine coming from south Texas to Lincoln that included six sales between November 2016 and February 2017. Investigators said Cantu instructed the informant to pay for the meth by depositing cash into bank accounts in Lincoln. Stuart said the proceeds later were withdrawn by conspirators in Texas. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 15:15:07|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close NEW DELHI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Four sitting senior judges of India's apex court Friday said the manner in which the top court is being conducted was not in order and less desirable. The four judges held a press conference in New Delhi. "It is an extraordinary event in the history of any nation. There is no pleasure in this, we were compelled to do this, the administration of the Supreme Court is not in order," Justice Chelameswar said to the press. "We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation. Our efforts have failed in convincing the Chief Justice to take steps to protect the institution." The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal under the constitution of India, consisting of the chief justice and other 25 sanctioned judges. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 15:15:08|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close SYDNEY, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Train drivers in Australia's New South Wales state voted on Friday to go on strike if their demands for a pay rise are not met, at the end of a week hit by commuter chaos including major delays and widespread trip cancellations in state capital Sydney, local media reported. Members of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union in the state voted to take industrial action if they do not get satisfactory wage increases, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. "An incredible result, well done Sydney and NSW Trains!" the union posted on its Facebook page. "By standing together and returning a YES vote, we have shown management that we are strong and united in our demand for a good agreement." Union delegates are set to meet in the next few days to decide what form of industrial action to take. Earlier in the week, the state's Transport and Infrastructure Minister Andrew Constance thanked customers for their extreme patience after the train disruptions, which were blamed on staffing issues and inclement weather. "Understandably our customers were tested and we apologize for the major inconvenience caused," he said in a statement. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 15:15:09|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close OTTAWA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Canada has "thrown a grenade" at the United States as it filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against its southern neighbor's use of trade sanctions, which might wreck their current North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations, said an international trade law expert. "The odds are increasing that the United States might withdraw from NAFTA, which I've been of the view that it would be unlikely to do," said Mark Warner, who runs MAAW Law, an international business and regulatory law firm in Toronto and New York City, in a recent interview. The WTO revealed Wednesday that Canada had filed a complaint last month accusing the United States of unfairly imposing countervailing and anti-dumping duties, not only on Canadian softwood lumber, but also on goods from many other countries. In a statement, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer pushed back against Canada's case against the United States, warning that Canada's "request for consultations at the WTO is a broad and ill-advised attack on the U.S. trade remedies system." It also might result in a flood of imports from other countries -- if the complaint successfully have American tariffs removed -- and cost Canada billions of dollars in exports to the United States, Lighthizer said. Warner believes that the Canadian government may be playing to a domestic audience in demonstrating that it is not only being "very assertive" in addressing trade disputes, but that it is also trying to "embarrass the Americans" before the world by citing almost 180 trade breaches over two decades against other countries listed on 24 pages of Canada's 32-page complaint before the WTO. However, Canada's strategy is "particularly unwise," Warner told Xinhua. He said that during the current NAFTA negotiations, which enter the sixth round in Canada later this month, the United States has made it clear that it wants to remove a dispute-resolution mechanism for anti-dumping and countervailing cases under Chapter 19 of the 24-year-old trilateral trade pact. "If Canada loses Chapter 19, it would have to go to the WTO," said Warner. However, he explained that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration "dislikes" the WTO's dispute-settlement body and believes that countries rely on it "inappropriately to achieve results they can't achieve through negotiations." Yet while "the rest of the world is trying to keep the United States engaged in that dispute-settlement system," Canada's generic complaint against the United States is "counterproductive," said Warner. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 16:05:25|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close LONDON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Suspicion about China's development in the modern world is probably related to a sense of the declining fortunes of the West, a British professor said Thursday. Dr. Jonathan Sullivan, associate professor and director of China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham, said that "the balance of power is changing," which is unsettling for the West since it has been used to setting rules and having its own way. Sullivan told Xinhua in an interview on a number of issues relating to China and its relationship with the West. When dealing with Western countries, China emphasizes "win-win cooperation." Sullivan says these motives are highly suspected by the West. The West regards China's behavior like building infrastructure in Africa or establishing Confucius Institutes as a move to build strategic influence and leverage. He believed that this is unfortunate, and probably related to the sense of the West's own declining fortunes. "The unsettling feeling, that China's development is a big threat to the West's interests, is multiplied by the clash of values that many westerners perceive between the openness of democratic political systems and China's 'repressive regime'," said Sullivan. He added that this belief sometimes is based on their ignorance and prejudice. "The perceived lack of freedoms in China is magnified, so that every rights lawyer or jailed protester takes on a monumental significance, seemingly confirming biases that westerners have long been primed to believe about China," said Sullivan. He further explained that in these circumstances it is very difficult for China's positive development experience to make headway against these entrenched beliefs. "The fact that western systems have also produced devastating inequalities, institutionalized racism, and frequent destabilizing interventions in other countries is conveniently forgotten," Sullivan noted. In a word, he said that most westerners do not believe in China's win-win rhetoric. Instead they believe China is pursuing its own interests, "which are incompatible and iniquitous to their own." What's more, to build a common destiny for humankind, China stresses that it will adhere to peaceful development, while countries in the west believe in "strong-power hegemony." Sullivan told Xinhua he thought the two sides can bridge their differences. "I think the bridging can take place in future, but not now because of the flux and uncertainties in the West," he said, adding that the obstacles include not only the chaotic Trump administration but also the rise of the far right and socio-political instability. Sullivan says Trump is a major danger because of his volatility. "While on the other hand, he is easily manipulated," he said. "But more generally, western societies have not come to terms with the recalibration of the world order, one in which China will play a much more prominent role," Sullivan added. He believed that it will take time for entrenched views about the "natural world order" to go along with the new reality. Sullivan said the success of the Belt and Road Initiative, the potential leadership role China plays in climate action and China's contribution of global public goods will help to establish China's credentials. "But the things China does that play into western ideas will continue to be magnified, such as the South China Sea or Taiwan issue, which China regards as pursuing its own national security," he added. Sullivan concluded that though these are difficult obstacles, ultimately there are enough issues of common interest, particularly around global issues like climate change, economic development and terrorism, that will bind countries together in a more constructive way. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 16:30:32|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close PYONGYANG, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un has praised the country's scientists for achieving great success in improving the country's economic development and raising the living standard of its citizens, official media said Friday. During an inspection of the State Academy of Sciences here, Kim said that "the fruits of our scientists' brains are very great," calling the academy "a treasure house of self-reliance and self-development," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said without specifying the date of the event. DPRK media usually report Kim's activities one day after they take place. "Though they are hard pressed for everything under the difficult conditions, our scientists do a great work in the struggle for developing our national economy and improving the people's standard of living," KCNA quoted Kim as saying. Kim this time did not mention the nuclear and missile programs as he previously did when inspecting scientific institutions. The DPRK concentrated all its scientific research efforts on nuclear and missile programs over the past decade to empower itself with a nuclear deterrence force, which Pyongyang says is purely in self-defense against threats from the United States. Kim announced the success of the country's nuclear and missile program in his New Year's speech, saying the "nuclear button is on my desk," capable of striking the U.S. mainland. The United Nations Security Council has imposed a raft of economic sanctions on the DPRK to curb its nuclear and missile programs. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 16:35:34|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close CANBERRA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of mourners on Friday attended a memorial service for Amy "Dolly" Everett at a Northern Territory school following her death by suicide which her parents said was a result of cyber bullying. Attendees from across rural Australia wore blue, Dolly's favorite color, to the funeral in solidarity with her family. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday night issued a statement on social media, saying his heart was breaking for the Everett family. "Dolly's passing highlights the devastating impact that bullying can have on its victims," Turnbull said. "Every step must be taken to reduce the incidence of bullying, whether offline or on, and eliminate it wherever we can." A photo of Dolly as a child in an Akubra hat when she was the face of the iconic brand has gone viral since her parents, Tick and Kate Everett, released it as part of a social media campaign to raise awareness of the impact of cyber bullying. Speaking to media after Friday's service, Tick and Kate, as well as Dolly's sister Meg, said they would remember Dolly as "a kind, gentle and loving little girl who loved her animals and cared so deeply for other people less fortunate then her." "She was loved by so many and made friends with everyone she came across," Tick said. "Dolly saw the good in this world and the good in everybody she met." They have said that they hope to establish a trust called "Dolly's Dream" which would raise awareness of anxiety, depression and youth suicide. "We don't want another family to go through what we are going through and our vision is to establish a trust called Dolly's Dream," the family said. "It won't bring our Dolly back, but it may just prevent the loss of another young life. "Please just talk to your children and anybody else and remember, speak even if your voice shakes. Stop bullying and be kind and do it for Dolly." Earlier on Friday, Northern Territory police confirmed they were investigating the circumstances surrounding Dolly's death. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 16:45:38|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's imports of natural gas surged in 2017 as the government encourages use of cleaner energy. Imports of natural gas rose 26.9 percent year on year to 68.6 million tonnes in 2017, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed. In December alone, China imported 7.9 million tonnes of natural gas with total value of 19.8 billion yuan (about 3 billion U.S. dollars). The increase is the result of rising domestic demand, in part driven by environmental protection, according to Huang Songping of the GAC. China is replacing coal-fired boilers with natural gas or electric boilers for winter heating in the north. Over 4.7 million households in 28 cities have completed the conversion, 3.94 million of them switched in 2017. The demand for natural gas has prompted state oil companies to look overseas for new gas sources. Sinopec will take the lead in exploration of liquified natural gas (LNG) in Alaska, according to a deal signed during U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to China last year. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 17:02:57|Editor: Jiaxin Video Player Close College students take a "direct bus" to return to their hometown in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 12, 2018. "Direct bus", which offers college students ride to railway station, bus station and airport, or carries them to cities of Shandong, is a measure carried out here for the convenience of college students on their winter vacation. (Xinhua/Yu Fangping) Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 17:05:43|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TOKYO, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday rejected South Korea's calls for a sincere apology to the "comfort women" who were forcibly conscripted to work in wartime military brothels, despite evident flaws in a bilateral deal. Abe's remarks, the first from the Japanese leader since South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for the apology during a recent New Year's press conference, came despite Seoul not requesting a bilateral deal on the issue be renegotiated. "We can by no means accept South Korea's unilateral request for additional measures. The Japan-South Korea deal was a promise between countries. It is an international and universal principle to keep it," Abe told reporters prior to departing for an Eastern European tour. Moon had stated that while it is "undeniable" that the deal is an official bilateral agreement, the "erroneous knot" with Japan over the "comfort women" issue must be untied by Tokyo apologizing to the victims. Under a landmark bilateral deal struck in December 2015 under the government of Moon's predecessor Park Geun-hye, both countries agreed that the "comfort women" issue, that had significantly strained diplomatic ties between both countries, would be "finally and irreversibly" resolved. However, Moon said in December that the wartime sexual slavery issue cannot be resolved by the 2015 deal with Japan as a secret agreement was found between the two countries after reviewing the procedure of the deal. Moon said at the time that a grave fault was found in procedures and content of the 2015 negotiations between the two governments that proved to be a costly blunder. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 17:15:45|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close WUHAN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Seven people were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 18 months to two years, over a fatal colliery accident more than one year ago, a court in central China's Hubei Province said Friday. A coal and gas outburst occurred in Xinjia Coal Mine in Badong County on Dec. 5, 2016, leaving 11 dead. According to Badong people's court, local safety bureau expressed concern over the mine's safety procedures before the accident, but the mine continued to operate. The court found that the mine operators exposed miners to unsafe working conditions. This year's flu season is busy, and it's being made even worse in some areas by a nationwide shortage of IV fluids. Nearly every state in the country is experiencing widespread flu outbreaks, and Nebraska is no exception. There have been more than twice as many positive influenza laboratory tests in Nebraska this flu season compared to last year, and Nebraska ranked fifth among states with the highest levels of flu activity in the most-recent weekly Walgreens Flu Index. As of Dec. 30, there had been more than 2,000 lab-confirmed cases of the flu statewide. More up-to-date data from Lancaster County showed 237 positive tests here as of Wednesday. This year's most-active flu strain has been causing serious illnesses in some people, especially the very young and the very old. Tim Timmons, supervisor for the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department's communicable disease program, said more than one-third of the confirmed cases in the county are in people 65 and older and more than half are in people 50 and older. As of Dec. 30, there had been 306 flu-related hospitalizations statewide and eight flu-related deaths, with two of those occurring in Lancaster County. The average age of those people was 86. Those numbers will be updated Friday. Bryan Health spokesman Edgar Bumanis said the hospital's two Lincoln campuses had 91 admissions of people with "influenza-like" illnesses last week, which is more than double the average of 35 per week that it typically sees when the flu season is in its early stages. As of Wednesday, the hospital system had 18 in-patients at its two campuses with lab-confirmed cases of the flu. "It seems higher than what we've had in recent years," he said. CHI St. Elizabeth spokesman Evan Sheaff said the health system has seen an increase in flu patients across its several Nebraska hospital locations, and Lincoln is no exception. At St. Elizabeth, "we have seen a significant increase in viral respiratory illnesses this includes influenza," Sheaff said in an email. However, he said, volumes have not been unusual or larger than expected. Statewide, about 6 percent of all emergency room visits the last week of December were for influenza-like illnesses. The numbers are higher in Lincoln and are increasing. As of Dec. 30, nearly 11 percent of local hospital admissions were for people with flu symptoms. As of Jan. 6, that jumped to 14 percent. The increase in flu cases comes at a time when fluids used to deliver medicine and treat dehydrated patients are in short supply. Supplies of saline and nutrient solutions were already tight before hurricanes pounded Puerto Rico last year and cut power to manufacturing plants that make much of the U.S. supply of fluid-filled bags used to deliver sterile solutions to patients. Hospital officials, pharmacists and other staff have been devising alternatives and workarounds, training doctors and nurses on new procedures and options, and hitting the phones to try to secure fluids from secondary suppliers. "If we can't support patients coming in emergency rooms who have the flu, more people are going to die," predicts Deborah Pasko, director of medication safety and quality at the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, a professional group. "I see it as a crisis." Both Bryan and St. Elizabeth said they have been hit by the shortages but have been able to work around them so that patient care has not been affected. Scott Persson, Bryan's pharmacy manager, called the shortages "very real and ongoing concerns." But he said the organization's two hospitals have been able to meet their patients' medication and fluid needs. "This is being done via adapting numerous methods of delivering therapy in order to conserve available resources, as well as engaging several vendors to maintain the most-stable supply line possible," Persson said in a statement. Sheaff, the St. Elizabeth spokesman, said CHI hospitals across the country have been able to shift around supplies of IV solutions to hospitals with the most-critical needs. St. Elizabeth and other CHI hospitals also have made changes to preserve fluids, such as administering some antibiotics through a syringe rather than an IV bag. Because of those measures, "A patient will not have a different experience at St. Elizabeth, or any of our other facilities, due to this shortage." Timmons said it's likely to be several weeks before flu cases start to decline. "At this point the trend is up," he said. "We don't know when it will peak." In the meantime, he recommended people who have not gotten a flu shot to do so. Also, he said those with flu-like symptoms should stay home from work or school. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 17:20:46|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TEHRAN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China is making every effort to rescue the missing sailors after two vessels collided off China's east coast last Saturday, said Chinese Ambassador to Iran Pang Sen Thursday night. Pang made the remarks during his meeting with Iran's Minister of Labor, Cooperatives and Social Welfare Ali Rabiei. Thirty-two crew members, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, have gone missing after a Panama-registered oil tanker and a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter collided off China's east coast on Saturday evening, in waters about 160 sea miles east of the Yangtze River's estuary. Pang said China is trying its best to rescue the missing sailors, with the unity command and coordination under Ministry of Transport Maritime Search and Rescue Center. "There is poor sea condition in the incident area, the oil tanker is still in blaze. Nevertheless, Chinese people have risked their lives several times to get close to the tanker to put out the fire," said Pang. The Chinese envoy revealed that there were about 20 vessels for rescue, including two from South Korea and Japan respectively, and a UAV for searching and supervising. A foreigner's body has been found. Embassies of Bangladesh and Iran are on their way to identify his personal information, Pang added. The ambassador pointed out that rescuing the missing crew has alway been China's priority out of international humanitarian spirit and the traditional friendship between China and Iran. "Ministry of Transport Maritime Search and Rescue Center is in charge of rescue command and coordination. It will release updated authoritative information in time. I hope people will follow up information from Chinese authorities rather than rumors, which could cause trouble to our rescue operation and hurt China-Iran relations," Pang stressed. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 17:35:50|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ANKARA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Friday issued a travel advisory for citizens travelling to the U.S., urging them to consider increasing terror acts and arbitrary arrests of Turkish citizens. "The U.S. has seen an apparent increase in terror attacks and violent incidents recently," the warning published on the ministry's website said. The warning also pointed out the risk of "arbitrary arrests" of Turkish citizens, saying judicial decisions could be made by pre-established, unfounded claims and slander of the networks of U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of masterminding the 2016 coup attempt. Turkey's travel warning came after the U.S. State Department issued a similar warning to its citizens on Thursday, urging them to reconsider travel to Turkey "due to terrorism and arbitrary detentions" under an ongoing state of emergency. Ties between the two NATO allies have been strained since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, amid the U.S.'s refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen. As for Syria issue, Turkey has strongly opposed U.S. military support for the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). In late December, the U.S. and Turkey lifted all visa restrictions against each other, ending a months-long visa dispute that began when two local employees of the U.S. consulate were detained on suspicion of links to the coup. (FILES) This file photo taken on September 21, 2017 shows U.S. President Donald Trump reaching to shake Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's hand before a meeting at the Palace Hotel during the 72nd United Nations General Assembly in New York City. (AFP PHOTO) ANKARA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Friday issued a travel advisory for citizens travelling to the U.S., urging them to consider increasing terror acts and arbitrary arrests of Turkish citizens. "The U.S. has seen an apparent increase in terror attacks and violent incidents recently," the warning published on the ministry's website said. The warning also pointed out the risk of "arbitrary arrests" of Turkish citizens, saying judicial decisions could be made by pre-established, unfounded claims and slander of the networks of U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of masterminding the 2016 coup attempt. Turkey's travel warning came after the U.S. State Department issued a similar warning to its citizens on Thursday, urging them to reconsider travel to Turkey "due to terrorism and arbitrary detentions" under an ongoing state of emergency. Ties between the two NATO allies have been strained since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, amid the U.S.'s refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen. As for Syria issue, Turkey has strongly opposed U.S. military support for the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara views as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 18:06:00|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close TOKYO, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday rejected South Korea's calls for a sincere apology to the "comfort women" who were forcibly conscripted to work in wartime military brothels, despite evident flaws in a bilateral deal. Abe's remarks, the first from the Japanese leader since South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for the apology during a recent New Year's press conference, came despite Seoul not requesting a bilateral deal on the issue be renegotiated. "We can by no means accept South Korea's unilateral request for additional measures. The Japan-South Korea deal was a promise between countries. It is an international and universal principle to keep it," Abe told reporters prior to departing for an East European tour. Moon had stated that while it is "undeniable" that the deal is an official bilateral agreement, the "erroneous knot" with Japan over the "comfort women" issue must be untied by Tokyo apologizing to the victims. Under a landmark bilateral deal struck in December 2015 under the government of Moon's predecessor Park Geun-hye, both countries agreed that the "comfort women" issue, that had led to diplomatic ties between both countries becoming significantly strained, would be "finally and irreversibly" resolved. However, Moon said in December that the wartime sexual slavery issue cannot be resolved by the 2015 deal with Japan, as a secret agreement was found between the two countries after reviewing the procedure of the deal. Moon said at the time that a grave fault was found in procedures and contents of the 2015 negotiations between the two governments that proved to be a costly blunder. He said that although it was a political agreement, it excluded the victims and ordinary South Koreans. Moon noted that the 2015 deal was against the international community's universal principle of resolving historical issues and that people were deeply disappointed at the existence of undisclosed agreements. Moon and his administration had previously inferred that they are revisiting the process under which the accord was made under the previous government, noting that the pact does not reflect the will of the majority of South Korean people. The South Korean side also believes that prior to the deal being made with Japan, those who served as "comfort women" were not sufficiently consulted and their feelings not fully taken into account at the time. Seoul, while maintaining it will not seek to renegotiate the deal, said it will plan to match the 1 billion yen (8.98 million U.S. dollars) paid by the Japanese government under the deal, with South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha saying that it will decide how to use Japan's contribution. The so-called "comfort women" issue involved soldiers from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II, forcibly coercing and even kidnapping girls, some of them underage, and women, and forcing them to work as sex slaves, servicing Japanese soldiers at military brothels during the war. Many of the women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese aggressors came from the Korean Peninsula as well as other parts of Asia, including China. "A sincere apology from Japan to the surviving 'comfort women' and for those who have already passed, would go a long way towards restoring the women's honor and dignity and restoring political and social ties between both countries," a representative of a Japan-based think tank said of the matter here recently. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang said Seoul expects Tokyo to do more to settle the matter, but would not seek to renegotiate the deal. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, however, said recently that Tokyo is "not thinking of moving even a millimeter on the deal." Abe on Friday after making the remarks left Japan for a six-day tour that will see him visit three Baltic states and three East European nations, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 18:16:02|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close URUMQI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China is to have a new radio telescope to "listen" to the universe. Proposed by the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, the world's largest fully steerable single-dish radio telescope will be built in Qitai County in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The telescope will be 110 meters in diameter, over 100 meters tall and weigh around 6,000 tonnes. Scheduled to go into service in 2023, it will cover three-fourths of the sky. "The antenna, the world's largest, will be able to trace the origins of any signals received," said Song Huagang of the Chinese Academy of Science Xinjiang observatory. The telescope will operate at 150 MHz to 115 GHz and assist research on gravitational waves, black holes and dark matter. The Xinjiang observatory is currently equipped with a 25-meter radio telescope. The new telescope will be roughly 20 times bigger. The new site in Shihezi is a sparsely populated foothill of Tianshan Mountains in northeast Xinjiang. The mountain ranges surrounding the site will shield the telescope from electromagnetic noise. Besides the planned telescope, China is already planning or working on impressive astronomical telescopes. In 2016, the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, went into service in southwest China's Guizhou Province. China's largest optical telescope, at 12 meters, is expected to be built in Tibet Autonomous Region. The project is included in China's large-scale sci-tech infrastructure plan for 2016 to 2020. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 18:26:03|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close HARARE, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa left Harare for Luanda, Angola, Friday to meet counterpart and chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) organ on politics, defense and security Joao Lourenco ahead of the African Union (AU) summit to be held later this month. The one day visit will be Mnangagwa's second to a foreign country since assuming office in November last year and follows the one he made in December to South African President Jacob Zuma, who is the current SADC chairperson. A statement issued by the Angolan government said the two leaders would discuss the political situation in Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa was also expected to brief Lourenco on preparations for general elections to be held most likely during the second half of the year. The visit to Angola is part of a series of meetings President Mnangagwa is expected to hold with his regional counterparts in the next few weeks. He is due to travel to Namibia on Monday. Commentators said Mnangagwa had to gain regional acceptance before venturing into continental affairs with the AU summit scheduled for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Jan. 28 - 29. Political analyst Jacob Rukweza said Mnangagwa was going on a diplomatic campaign to gain acceptance from the region following the nature of his ascension to power. "What is clear is that President Mnangagwa has launched a diplomatic offensive in the region where he is meeting heads of state with a view to fostering acceptance and cordial relations with fellow heads of state and government following his rise to power with the assistance of the military. "Mnangagwa is eager to be accepted by his peers in SADC and the AU as this will go a long way in giving currency to his legitimacy as a head of state. It is in this regard that he is paying courtesy calls to regional heads of state beginning with his all weather friends from former liberation movements in South Africa, Angola and then Zambia," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 18:26:03|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) is helping to draw up a standard framework for cross-border e-commerce to regulate the sector. The GAC is pushing for the formulation of international rules on cross-border e-commerce of the World Customs Organization (WCO), according to GAC official Zhao Ruxia. The GAC and the WCO will hold the first cross-border e-commerce conference of world customs in Beijing from Feb. 9 to Feb. 10 to discuss new opportunities in the industry. China's cross-border e-commerce is a bright spot in the foreign trade sector. Around 220 countries and regions were covered by China's cross-border e-commerce network in 2016, with a turnover of 5.85 trillion yuan (900 billion U.S. dollars), up by 28.2 percent year on year. In September last year, China set up more cross-border e-commerce zones. The first zone was set up in Hangzhou in 2015 with the addition of another 12 cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing since 2016. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 18:26:03|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close NANJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Three koalas will arrive soon in Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo in east China's Jiangsu Province, the second zoo on the Chinese mainland to host koalas. The three koalas, two males and one female, are aged between two and three. Koalas typically live for 10 - 12 years. According to Zhang Jianrong, deputy head of the zoo, Hongshan has to undergo strict assessments involving habitat design, eucalyptus leaf supply and keeper training before being allowed to import the koalas. Each koala consumes 10 kg - 15 kg of fresh eucalyptus leaves each day. The zoo has set up eucalyptus plantations in Nanjing and Guangzhou, according to Zhang. Keepers have been trained in many skills ranging from how to cut and store eucalyptus leaves to how to hold the koalas. The koalas will arrive in Nanjing in late January and will undergo one month of quarantine before meeting the public. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 18:31:04|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close Idris Haron (2nd L), Chief Minister of Malacca, Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian (2nd R), and Wang Hongwei (1st L), CEO of Bank of China Malaysia, cut the ribbon at the official opening ceremony of Bank of China Malacca branch in Malacca, Malaysia, Jan. 12, 2018. Bank of China held an official opening ceremony for its branch in Malaysia's historic city of Malacca on Friday, which is expected to further boost economic and financial ties between Malaysia and China. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei) MALACCA, Malaysia, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Bank of China held an official opening ceremony for its branch in Malaysia's historic city of Malacca on Friday, which is expected to further boost economic and financial ties between Malaysia and China. In his speech, Idris Haron, Chief Minister of Malacca, welcomed the opening-up of the branch by the Bank of China. He praised the Bank of China's role in fostering growth of economy and investment in Malaysia, as well as the implementation of projects under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. With Bank of China's excellent record, Idirs believes its Malacca branch will serve as "catalyst for bilateral economic development and growth." Proposed in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Malaysia is one of the first countries that has supported the initiative. Wang Hongwei, Chief Executive Officer of Bank of China Malaysia, said a branch by Bank of China has been long anticipated by many in Malacca. The historic ties exist since the great Chinese navigator Zheng He visited Malacca five times in his seven voyages more than 600 years ago. For his part, Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian said financial integration is one of the important topic in the Belt and Road Initiative, and it will serve as the "lubricant" and "accelerator" for cross-border collaboration. The opening of the Malacca branch shows that Bank of China identifies Malaysia as a potential place for long-term development, and the new branch will attract more investment from China, and spur Malcca's growth, Bai said. Since the re-commencement of business in Malaysia in 2011, Bank of China has been playing a pivotal role in business development and the facilitation of bilateral trade between Malaysia and China. The Malacca Branch is Bank of China's eighth Branch in Malaysia. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 18:36:05|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close GENERAL SANTOS CITY, the Philippines, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Officials from China and the Philippines formally broke ground Friday on the construction of a Chinese-financed 150-bed drug rehabilitation center in southern Philippines' Sarangani province. The facility, called Dangerous Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, is located in Sarangani as the first Chinese grant aid construction in the Philippines. "The completion of this project will provide two modern and scientific drug rehabilitation centers that will provide the Philippines with a comfortable treatment environment for the patients," a Chinese embassy statement said. A similar drug treatment facility will also be built in Agusan del Sur province, also in the southern Philippines, in the coming months. The embassy said the center, which has a floor area of 6,750 sqm, can accommodate approximately 150 beds. Roger Tong An, the undersecretary of the Department of Health, and Chinese embassy's Economic and Commercial Counsellor Jin Yuan attended the groundbreaking ceremony. An lauded the project and thanked China for its help in the government's relentless fight against illicit drugs. "Truly, our undertakings do not only build facilities but also build networks and synergies... whatever good things we build end up building us," he said. He added, "Let us continue to weave collaborative strategies as we introduce meaningful transformation and significant change for our people... Let us all bear the torch of change and be a beacon of hope for the society especially to those who have fallen victim to the lure of illicit drugs." Jin Yuan, the economic and commercial counselor of the Chinese embassy in the Philippines, for his part, said the Chinese government will continue to cooperate with a good neighbor like the Philippines. "I believe with our joint efforts, we will share a very bright future together," he said. The drug rehabilitation center project, undertaken by China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), is expected to be completed within 21 months. According to Yao Shanfa, the CSCEC project director, the construction company will hire Philippine local workers and use Philippine local equipment in building the facility to ensure that residents around the province will benefit from the construction of the project. In October 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visited Beijing and reached an agreement with China on the building of drug rehabilitation centers in the Philippines. Later in 2017, the Chinese and Philippine governments announced that China will help to build two drug rehabilitation centers in Sarangani and Agusan del Sur, both provinces in southern Philippines. The Philippine government under Duterte launched the anti-drug campaign when he assumed the presidency on June 30, 2016. Martin Andanar, the secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, told a forum in May 2017 that there are estimated 4.7 million drug users in the Philippines. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 18:51:09|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close SUVA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has criticized an Australian government minister's false accusation of China's aid program in the Pacific region, saying that the accusation is "insulting" to the Pacific Island leaders, and has the capacity to "destroy" Australia's relationship with the region. "The comments by the development minister have certainly surprised me, indeed, they are quite insulting to the leaders of Pacific Island neighbors," Tuilaepa told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's national broadcaster, on Friday. Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Concetta Fierravanti-Wells this week accused China of providing loans to Pacific nations on unfavorable terms and constructing "useless buildings" and "roads to nowhere" in the region. The comments seemed to question the integrity, wisdom and intelligence of the leaders of the Pacific Islands, the prime minister said, adding that the comments undermined Australia's diplomatic efforts in the region. "These kinds of comments can destroy the excellent relationships existing between Australia and the Pacific Island neighbors, particularly Samoa," he said. Disagreeing with Fierravanti-Wells' claim that Chinese money was being misspent, the prime minister said that the money has proved crucial in his country's efforts to tackle the impact of climate change, which is widely considered to be the biggest threat facing mankind. Tuilaepa praised China for being better placed to provide the assistance to Samoa than Australia which has long regarded the Pacific Island states as its own backyard. "I do not really know that Australia is able to finance the kind of assistance provided by China," he said. "The kind of assistance provided by China are those kinds which are not within the aid budgets of Australia." He also denied that there was a strategic element to China's aid in the region, saying that China had not asked his country to give its access to ports or airports. In a related development, Tuilaepa has also rubbished claims that his government is borrowing a lot of money from China. "It's wrong, it's totally wrong. Look for a report issued by the Central Bank that is where the accurate information is found," he told Samoa Observer on Thursday. "It is stupid to look at the totality of the loan, the assumption the loans are to be paid next week. That is ridiculous," he said. "We are always paying attention to our loans and the World Bank oversees the ability to maintain our loans within reasonable levels of our developments." China is always standing firmly together with developing countries including the Pacific Island states, committed to offering true assistance and sincere support to them without any political conditions, and devoting themselves, with all the other countries, to promote the construction of a new type of international relations of equality, mutual-respect and win-win cooperation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 19:21:17|Editor: Jiaxin Video Player Close MANILA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government has launched an inter-agency fact-finding group that will look into the monument honoring the Philippine "comfort women" during World War Two, said Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday. Cayetano called the probe in the wake of Japan's opposition to the erection of a seven-feet bronze sculpture that depicts a blindfold, grieving woman in Maria Clara traditional Filipiniana gown that stands along a public promenade in Manila's busy Roxas Blvd. Japan wants the Philippines to take down the monument which was unveiled in December. Cayetano said the fact-finding process on how the statue came about is ongoing. He did not want to disclose the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) position on the issue, but he hinted that the construction of the statue "will really affect certain feelings and relationships." "I don't think it will be good," Cayetano said, but noted that the DFA's position is "always based on Filipino interest." Although such interests would sometimes "diverge" in the interest of maintaining good relations with another country, he said the government also "have to deal with the feelings of our people with regard to certain issues." "That's the context of the DFA's comments. There are no final findings yet from the inter-agency group and I think they are still in the stage of fact-finding who put it up, why did they put it up, where do they put it up, who got the permits," Cayetano said. He said the DFA was not consulted when the statue was conceptualized and erected. Aside from the DFA, the other members of the government fact-dining group are from the Department of Public Works and Highways, the city government of Manila and the National Historical Commission. Activists sympathetic to the plight of the former sex slaves urged Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to ignore Japan's request to remove the statue. In a meeting with Duterte last Tuesday, Cayetano said Seiko Noda, Japanese Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, expressed concerns and regrets over the monument. A National Historical Commission official said the Philippine memorial symbolizes Filipino women who suffered abuses during the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945. According to the Lila Pilipina (League of Filipino Women), an organization of wartime sex slaves, there are 174 "comfort women" in the Philippines who have gone public since the early 1990s. Only a few of them remain alive. Many of the survivors, in their 80s, can no longer go out to speak because of frail health. Like the other Asian "comfort women," the Filipino war-time sex slaves also demand an official apology from the Japanese government. Cayetano said he is not aware of any diplomatic protest filed by Japan, but said Manila is in touch with Japanese representatives in Manila and with its government in Tokyo. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 19:46:23|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close by Eric J. Lyman ROME, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Most Italian residents will see a dramatic drop off in the number of marketing calls they receive, though some say the new rules governing telemarketing may be too strict and could end up leaving thousands jobless. Italy has seen a big rise in the number of marketing-related telephone calls in recent years, sparking a rash of consumer complaints. In order to stem the rise of calls, Italy instituted an opt-out system in which consumers could ask to appear on a list of people marketers could not contact. But the list -- called "Registro della Opposizioni" in Italian -- has been seen as ineffective. The rules were praised on several fronts, with Maurizio Pellegrini, director of the Registro della Opposizioni from the Ugo Bordoni Institute telling Xinhua the new rules would be welcomed by most consumers. "Up until now, most people didn't understand why they were being called, and how to have their names removed from the lists marketers used," Pellegrini said. Massimiliano Dona from Italy's National Consumers' Union, used stronger language, saying in a press release Italy would "finally have a break from harassing phone calls." But not everyone agreed with that point of view. Luca Bolognini, president of the Italian Institute for Privacy, said in an interview that the new rules, which will enter into force as soon as they are published in the Official State Gazette, went too far. "In cases where a person is, for example, a big fan of Ferrari cars and has indicated in the past that he wants to be kept up to date on news from Ferrari, Ferrari will no longer be able to contact him unless he again indicates a desire to be informed, after the rules enter into force," Bolognini said. "Every call list, no matter how it is collected, will be voided by these new rules." In specific terms, the rules require all consumers willing to be contacted to specifically indicate that, and marketers are required to inform any consumer they call how they obtained that consumer's contact details if asked. Telemarketers will also be prohibited from hiding the telephone numbers they call from. Both telemarketing firms and the companies they are working for could face sanctions if they use unapproved call lists that predate the new rules. Previously, any telephone number listed in public directories could be called for marketing purposes unless the owner of that telephone number specifically asked to be added to the "Registro della Opposizioni." But that process was confusing to many and was often criticized as ineffective since marketers often used outdated databases that did not reflect consumers who opted out. According to Pellegrini, the outgoing allowed telemarketers to pull numbers from a pool that included 13 million of Italy's 20 million fixed-line numbers, though only about 50,000 of the country's nearly 100 million mobile phone numbers, since few mobile phone numbers appeared in public directories. Once the rules enter into force, marketers will have to rebuild their lists from scratch. "The change will make it harder for companies to inform potential clients of new services, which is a big blow for the telemarketing sector in Italy," said Bolognini, from the Italian Institute for Privacy. "That will have an impact on tens of thousands of jobs at a time when Italy is trying to reduce its unemployment rate," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 19:51:24|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's new yuan-denominated lending in December hit 584.4 billion yuan (about 90 billion U.S. dollars), 460 billion yuan less than the same period one year ago, central bank data showed Friday. The rise in December was much lower than the expected 1 trillion yuan, and the lowest since April 2016. The M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, reached 167.68 trillion yuan at the end of December, up 8.2 percent from a year earlier or 3.1 percentage points down from a year ago, the People's Bank of China said in an online statement. The narrower measure of money supply (M1), which covers cash in circulation plus demand deposits, rose 11.8 percent year on year to 54.38trillion yuan at the end of December. The growth rate was 9.6 percentage points down from one year ago. M0, the amount of cash in circulation, was up 3.4 percent year on year to 7.1 trillion yuan. For the whole year, the net cash injection totaled 234 billion yuan. In 2017, new yuan-denominated lending totaled 13.53 trillion yuan, which was 878 billion yuan more than the previous year. Businesses borrowed more. Loans to non-financial enterprises and organizations stood at 6.71 trillion yuan in 2017, up from 6.1 trillion yuan in 2016. Last year, new yuan deposits stood at 13.51 trillion yuan, 1.36 trillion yuan less than the previous year. The foreign exchange reserves hit 3.14 trillion U.S. dollars in December. Total social financing (TSF), a broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy, dropped to 1.14 trillion yuan in December, nearly 500 billion yuan less than the same period in the previous year. Despite the drop, the TSF for the whole of 2017 increased 1.6 trillion yuan year on year to 19.4 trillion yuan. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 19:56:26|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TIRANA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Albania's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party (DP), requested Speaker of Parliament Gramoz Ruci to resign on Thursday, claiming that he violated the Constitution by electing a temporary prosecutor general. Head of the DP parliamentary group Edmond Spaho said in a press release that in the last plenary session in 2017, Prime Minister Edi Rama, with the approval of Ruci, allowed the election of Arta Marku as new interim prosecutor general against the law. Marku, 41, was elected as interim prosecutor general with 69 votes from the ruling Socialist Party. The DP considered the voting of Marku as a constitutional coup, noting that the election of a temporary prosecutor general was done with a simple majority at a time when Albania's Constitution requires three-fifths of votes in parliament. The DP also said that the job of naming a new attorney general should fall to the prosecutor's office high council instead of the premier and should be installed once some 800 judges and prosecutors are vetted. Spaho said Marku's election offered political and illegal protection to Rama and his friends. "Under these conditions, the opposition cannot allow the permanent violation of the Constitution and the delegitimization of the institutions," he said. The Albanian opposition has announced a new wave of protests on Jan. 27 against Marku's election. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 19:56:26|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close HELSINKI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A heavy truck carrying sulphur acid capsized near the town of Pori in western Finland on Friday, local media reported. Several hundred liters of the acid leaked out, fire inspector Tero Jarvela told media. The driver was only lightly injured. The rescue operations were expected to take several hours as the first equipment was to arrive to salvage the remaining cargo. As the acid is dangerous to people, national Highway Two was closed in both directions. No evacuation of people was reported. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 20:06:27|Editor: pengying Video Player Close People take part in a protest in Tunis, capital of Tunisia, on Jan. 12, 2018. A total of 778 people have been arrested in Tunisia after three nights of clashes between protesters and security forces over price hikes, said the Interior Ministry on Friday. (Xinhua/Adele Ezzine) TUNIS, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A total of 778 people have been arrested in Tunisia after three nights of clashes between protesters and security forces over price hikes, said the Interior Ministry on Friday. They have been arrested over charges of looting, ransacking, blocking roads and vandalism, according to Colonel Khalifa Chibani, spokesman of the Interior Ministry. Meanwhile, the ministry said the situation in Tunisia has been gradually calming. The clashes have caused damage in 11 provinces to municipal depots, police stations, private businesses, commercial spaces and banks. Protests were held over rising prices of fuels, mobile phone fees, cosmetics and internet tariffs, and the new finance law which increases certain taxes. According to Chibani, 96 security guards were injured and 87 vehicles were damaged during the three nights of confrontation. Among the individuals arrested, 16 were religious extremists, 11 of whom were taken into custody for direct involvement in and incitement to violence. A report by the Tunisian National Directorate of National Security revealed that 31 percent of participants in looting and vandalism are between 15 and 20 years old, while 55 percent are between the ages of 21 and 30. People protest against the government's decision to raise the prices of fuel and other products for daily use in Tunis, capital of Tunisia, on Jan. 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Adele Ezzine) TUNIS, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A total of 778 people have been arrested in Tunisia after three nights of clashes between protesters and security forces over price hikes, said the Interior Ministry on Friday. They have been arrested over charges of looting, ransacking, blocking roads and vandalism, according to Colonel Khalifa Chibani, spokesman of the Interior Ministry. Meanwhile, the ministry said the situation in Tunisia has been gradually calming. The clashes have caused damage in 11 provinces to municipal depots, police stations, private businesses, commercial spaces and banks. Protests were held over rising prices of fuels, mobile phone fees, cosmetics and internet tariffs, and the new finance law which increases certain taxes. According to Chibani, 96 security guards were injured and 87 vehicles were damaged during the three nights of confrontation. Among the individuals arrested, 16 were religious extremists, 11 of whom were taken into custody for direct involvement in and incitement to violence. A report by the Tunisian National Directorate of National Security revealed that 31 percent of participants in looting and vandalism are between 15 and 20 years old, while 55 percent are between the ages of 21 and 30. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 20:26:31|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close FUZHOU, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Li Jia, former Party chief of Zhuhai City in southern China's Guangdong Province, has been sentenced by a court Friday to 13 years for taking bribes. The court also fined Li 2 million yuan (310,000 U.S. dollars), and his illicit gains will be turned over to the state treasury, according to the verdict announced by the Intermediate People's Court of Zhangzhou City in Fujian Province, eastern China. Li, also a former Standing Committee member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guangdong Provincial Committee, took advantage of his positions to help others with business operations and gain promotions. He accepted money and valuables worth nearly 20.59 million yuan personally or through others between 2011 and 2016, the court said. Li had also served as the Party chief and mayor of Meizhou City in Guangdong Province. Li confessed his crimes and returned his illegal gains willingly, all grounds for leniency, according to the verdict. The discipline inspection agency of the CPC announced last March that Li had been expelled from the Party and dismissed from public office following a corruption investigation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 20:26:33|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China has assisted 12 Iranian rescue workers to arrive at Shanghai and arranged them to participate in search work, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday. Two vessels collided off China's east coast Saturday evening and 32 sailors, 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, are still missing. The Chinese rescuers have approached the stricken tanker many times, risking their lives to fight the fire at close range, spokesperson Lu Kang told a regular news briefing. China has coordinated with rescue teams from Japan and the Republic of Korea, Lu said. "China and Iran are in smooth and effective communication on search and rescue," the spokesperson said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 20:26:34|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close Rescuers spray foam to extinguish flames on the stricken oil tanker SANCHI off the coast of east China's Shanghai, Jan. 12, 2018. Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration said there is still a large fire on the Panama-registered oil tanker SANCHI. It is likely to explode and sink, the administration said at a press conference on Friday. (Xinhua) SHANGHAI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Firefighters and marine salvation workers struggled on Friday to extinguish flames on a stricken oil tanker off the coast of Shanghai. Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration said there is still a large fire on the Panama-registered oil tanker SANCHI. It is likely to explode and sink, the administration said at a press conference on Friday. SANCHI, carrying 136,000 tonnes of light crude oil from Iran, has been burning since it collided with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, about 160 nautical miles east of the Yangtze River estuary in Shanghai on Jan. 6. Thirty-two crew members of the tanker, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, are missing. Xie Qunwei, deputy director of the bureau, said Chinese rescuers have braved grave danger to approach the tanker. A severe fire broke out on the 274-meter tanker on Jan. 10 and Jan. 11, he said. "The oil tanker has been burning and it is already tilted to the right. By Friday noon, it had drifted over 141 nautical miles to the southeast and it is drifting south," said Xie. More than 15 vessels are engaged in rescue work. One of the vessels has been reloaded with 100 tonnes of extinguishing materials and will arrive at the area on Saturday morning. "It is highly likely that the tanker will explode and sink. There is intense toxic air from burning, and bad weather conditions have complicated rescue," he said. China's Maritime Safety Administration has launched an investigation into the incident. The Hong Kong bulk freighter was berthed Wednesday at a pier in Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province, authorities said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 20:31:37|Editor: Jiaxin Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A total of 104 suspects in telecom and online fraud cases have been returned to China from Laos, the Ministry of Public Security said Friday. The suspects have been linked to more than 300 criminal cases, involving a total of over 30 million yuan (about 4.65 million U.S. dollars). Chinese police sent a team to Laos in 2017 to work with local police. By the end of 2017, they destroyed six dens, arrested 104 suspects and confiscated equipment including bank cards and computers. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 20:56:42|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TEHRAN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged the United States to remain committed to the 2015 international nuclear agreement, Tasnim news agency reported on Friday. Zarif also hailed his recent talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow and a meeting he had with the European Union's diplomatic chief and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany on Thursday. "What was clear at the meetings ... was that the international consensus was based on (the fact that) any move leading to the destruction of the JCPOA (nuclear deal) or a change in it would be unacceptable and would be confronted by the international community," he was quoted as saying. In the talks, Iran emphasized that all parties, including the United States, should remain committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and implement the deal completely so that Iran does the same, he added. In July 2015, after a decade of strenuous negotiations, Iran and six major countries, namely, China, Russia, Britain, France, the United States and Germany, struck a final agreement on Iran's controversial nuclear program, in which the West promised to relieve sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt in Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. However, as one of the most significant diplomatic legacies of U.S. President Donald Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, the hard-won nuclear deal has been running the gauntlet of Trump on his campaign trail and since he became president. In October, Trump announced that he had decided to decertify Iran's compliance with the pact. The United States was planning to reimpose sanctions on Iran, said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday, ahead of Trump's decision on whether to extend sanctions relief on Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 20:56:43|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close by Nguon Sovan, Mao Pengfei PHNOM PENH, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese investors and tourists have greatly contributed to socio-economic development and poverty reduction in Cambodia, Cambodian business community leaders said. China is both the largest sources of foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourists to Cambodia. According to a report by the Council for the Development of Cambodia, the fixed asset investment from China accounted for 20.2 percent of the total investment in Cambodia from 1994 to 2017. In 2017, Cambodia attracted the fixed asset investment of 1.43 billion U.S. dollars from China, or 27 percent of the total investment in the country last year. For tourism, Chinese tourists to the kingdom surpassed the 1-million mark last year, bringing around 700 million U.S. dollars into the Cambodian economy, according to Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon. As for Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's recent visit to Cambodia, Lim Heng, vice president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, said excellent relations and cooperation between the two countries were the main factor encouraging more Chinese investors and tourists to Cambodia. "Both Chinese investors and tourists have provided huge benefits to Cambodia in socio-economic development and poverty reduction," he told Xinhua, adding that they have created hundreds of thousands of direct jobs for Cambodian people. Lim Heng, who is also the president of agro-industrial development firm An Mady Group, said Chinese investors have invested in various sectors in Cambodia, including garment and footwear, energy, infrastructure, telecoms, banking and finance, agriculture, agro-industry, and real estate and construction. He said the visit by Premier Li to Cambodia would further strengthen political and economic ties and cooperation between the two countries. Kim Heang, president of the Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association, which has 97 real estate companies as its members, said more Chinese people have come to Cambodia because the peoples of the two countries are like "brothers," and many Cambodians have descended from China. "The most important factor is that the relationship between the governments of the two countries is very close so that Chinese investors feel very warm when they invest in Cambodia," he told Xinhua. Kim Heang, who is also the chief executive officer of Khmer Real Estate, said a lot of Chinese investors have invested in real estate and construction here in recent years, especially in the capital of Phnom Penh and coastal Preah Sihanouk province. "Chinese investors have brought Cambodia new capital, new technologies, and employment opportunities," he said. Khek Norinda, director of communication and public relations department of the Cambodia Airports, said:" Infrastructure development is pivotal to supporting Cambodia's growth path." According to Norinda, currently, 11 Chinese airlines and 5 Cambodian carriers have been operating nearly 200 weekly flights between Cambodia and China. He said the increasing numbers of airlines and flights between the two countries truly reflected the growing attractiveness of Cambodia as a destination to visitors and in particular to Chinese travelers - both leisure and business ones. Chhay Sivlin, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, which represents about 250 tour and travel companies, said Chinese investors and tourists have greatly contributed to the development of tourism in the kingdom. "A lot of tourism-related businesses such as hotels, resorts, travel and tour companies, and restaurants have been invested by Chinese businesspeople," she told Xinhua. Sivlin, who is also the president and chief executive officer of CSL Travel & Tours, said that her company has partnered with five Chinese companies to provide travel and tour packages to tourists between the two countries. Besides the largest investor and source of tourists, China is also a leading trade partner of Cambodia. According to Cambodian government figures, the total trade volume between the two countries was valued at 5.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of 2017, surpassing the total volume in 2016. Sivlin attributed the growth of the bilateral trade to the increasing popularity of Chinese products, such as construction materials and electronic products in the Cambodian markets. "Chinese products are gaining popularity in Cambodia because of their good quality and competitive prices," she said, giving an example of Huawei smartphones. "Huawei smartphones are good in quality with many useful functions, and their battery life also lasts for much longer than that of iPhone," said Sivlin, who is also a Huawei smartphone user. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 21:06:46|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close TEHRAN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen opened fire on a crowd in Iran's western city of Kermanshah on Friday, killing at least four women, Tasnim news agency reported. In the shooting incident that occurred at 9:53 on Friday morning, the gunmen aboard a car shot the four women to death and escaped away. Judicial authorities in the Kermanshah Province refuted the possibility of a terrorist attack. The victims were a mother and her three daughters, Mohammad Hossein Sadeqi, a judicial official in Kermanshah, said. The gunmen have been identified and their arrest is high on the agenda of the security forces, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 21:06:46|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close KUNMING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- When Zhang Weiguo learned that he was admitted as a Burmese major at Yunnan Minzu University in 2009, he was deeply worried that he might not find a job after graduation. Zhang, from southwest China's Yunnan Province, was offered a national scholarship to study in Myanmar for roughly a year in 2012. The experience changed him. "At first I didn't feel much about my major and thought it was just a minority language used by a small population. During my year in Myanmar, I made quite a lot of friends, and got to know the country and its people better," Zhang said. Even more surprising to him were the multiple job offers he received from a government department, a state-owned bank and a university when he graduated in 2013. After some thought, he chose to become one of the first Burmese teachers at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Almost all of Zhang's 28 classmates were able to find jobs related to their major. Zhang said thanks to promotion of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC), demand for Southeast Asian languages talent has surged in recent years. According to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Second LMC Leaders' Meeting held in Cambodia this week, China is now the largest trading partner of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, and the second-largest trading partner of Laos. "Building mutual trust and understanding is the key to LMC, which requires more people who know not only the other country's language, but their national conditions, culture and way of thinking as well," said Zhao Shulan, a research fellow with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences. Zhao said systematic language training is indispensable and the most efficient way to achieve the goal. 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. More people are running businesses and building careers in other countries in the region. Yunnan, which borders Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, has established an intercollegiate committee to promote the teaching and learning of Southeast Asian languages in the province. A dozen language majors have since been set up, covering as many as 15 different languages used in Southeast Asia. "Studying the Thai language has brought me opportunities to explore the country's politics, economics and culture, and a promising career as well," said Chen Xiaoyun, a faculty member in the Thai studies program at Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences. To further cultural and educational exchanges between China and Southeast Asia, Premier Li said 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. Zhang has applied for a master's degree in Southeast Asian studies at the university where he teaches Burmese, the same program his students are enrolled in. "I will get my master's degree this year together with my students, and I would like to continue doctoral studies in the area," Zhang said. A worker is seen among newly manufactured cars awaiting export at port in Yokohama, Japan, November 15, 2017. (REUTERS PHOTO) YEREVAN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Armenian government will ban the import of right-hand drive cars from April 1 this year, the country's ministry of transport said on Thursday. According to the authorities, there are about 36,000 right-hand drive cars currently operated in Armenia, about 13,000 of which were imported last year. The influx of such cars mostly from Japan has been attributed to their affordable prices and relatively good shapes. The Armenian government fears that if the trend continues at the current pace, the country would be forced to shift to left-hand traffic that would entail a series of huge issues. Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko greet each other ahead of an informal meeting of the CIS leaders outside Moscow, Russia, Dec. 26, 2017. (Sputnik Photo) MINSK, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday he would reconcile border-related differences with Russia in 2018, Belarusian State-owned Telegragh Agency reported. In January 2017, Belarus introduced a five-day visa-free policy for citizens of 80 countries, including 39 European countries and the United States. After that, Belarus and Russia started to have differences regarding their shared border. Lukashenko said at a conference in Minsk that the liberalization of Belarus visa regulations for foreigners has caused concerns by Russia. He added that the Belarus-Russia border is often called "the strangest border in Europe" on the Internet and elsewhere. The president said that the law enforcement bodies of Belarus and Russia maintain constructive and systematic cooperation. Border controls along the Belarus-Russia border were lifted after the two countries signed the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation in 1995. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 21:31:55|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan said Friday China is willing to strengthen military cooperation with Myanmar to maintain the stability in border areas. Chang made the remarks while meeting the visiting Admiral Tin Aung San, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar navy. He said that China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar, and supports the country in its development path in accordance with its own conditions. Since the relations between the two countries' militaries are at their best status currently, China is willing to advance cooperation with the Myanmar side, jointly safeguard stability in border areas and promote exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries, according to Chang. Tin Aung San expressed willingness to further pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries and promote relations between the two countries to a higher level. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 21:36:57|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close Photo taken on Jan. 12, 2017 shows the handover of telecom and online fraud suspects at Wattay International Airport, Vientiane, Laos. A total of 104 telecom and online fraud suspects were handed over to China on Friday in Laos' capital city Vientiane. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun) BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A total of 104 suspects in telecom and online fraud cases have been returned to China from Laos, the Ministry of Public Security said Friday. The suspects have been linked to more than 300 criminal cases, involving a total of over 30 million yuan (about 4.65 million U.S. dollars). Chinese police sent a team to Laos in 2017 to work with local police. By the end of 2017, they destroyed six dens, arrested 104 suspects and confiscated equipment including bank cards and computers. The suspects were found to have been masquerading as law enforcement officials to extort money from people in the provinces of Henan and Shaanxi through telephone calls, the ministry said. The ministry said that such behavior severely damaged the image of police, prosecutors and court officials and infringed on people's property rights. December appeared to be a better month for the state of Nebraska's tax collection, according to a state Revenue Department report. But state Tax Commissioner Tony Fulton "extended a note of caution" about just how the tax numbers can be interpreted. While gross individual income taxes were up 18 percent, compared to the October forecast, and 16 percent after refunds were accounted for, gross sales taxes were 0.3 percent below forecast. After refunds, sales taxes were 6 percent above the forecast. Looking at actual numbers, Revenue Department figures show sales tax collections were up slightly more than $8 million this December over the same month a year ago. For the fiscal year, net general fund receipts were 1.6 percent above forecast. Tax collections have been fairly consistently below projections for the past two years, with a few exceptions. Gov. Pete Ricketts struck the same cautionary tone as Fulton about the December report. This may have been influenced by federal tax reform, and we will be watching closely to see if it is indicative of future growth," Ricketts said in a written statement. "My team will be closely monitoring future tax receipts as we approach final tax reporting for the 2017 tax year. President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Dec. 22, and national media reports indicated widespread efforts by many Americans to prepay taxes, so filers could take advantage of the state and local tax deduction that was eliminated as a part of tax reform, he explained. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 21:42:00|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A number of service platforms and projects were launched Friday in Beijing's tech hub Zhongguancun to help Chinese companies find aspiring young talent from outside the mainland. These platforms offer vocational training and internship opportunities to college students and graduates from places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States who increasingly see the Chinese mainland as an ideal place to launch their careers. "For Taiwan's youth, Chinese mainland, with its huge market and career opportunities, offers a greater testing ground for their new concepts and ideas," said Chen Chang-feng, chairman of a Taiwan-based organization engaged in youth exchanges across the Taiwan Strait. Over the past five years, Chen's organization has helped more than 400 Taiwan students land internships on the mainland and many of them were later employed by big-name companies. On Friday, his organization joined with Kr Space, a Beijing-based incubator, to launch an innovation hub and a startup accelerator, to open up more opportunities for the island's youth in mainland's tech and innovation industries. Taiwan's job market has been quite bleak since the 2008 financial crisis, prompting many of the island's youth to turn to the mainland as their first career choice, Chen said. "After coming to mainland, many of Taiwan's young professionals were excited to find that what they do can often influence millions of people. This gave them an sense of achievement that they can never achieve on the island," he said. In recent years, Chinese mainland has taken various measures to create favorable environment for youth from Taiwan to find jobs or start businesses in the mainland, in an effort to increase cooperation and communication across the Strait. In east China's Jiangsu Province alone, about 50 platforms have been set up towards this goal, benefiting nearly 1,000 Taiwan youth. However, the search for talent goes way beyond the island. On Friday, Kr Space and Amige, a company offering vocational services for overseas Chinese, also set up an education base to facilitate Chinese students returning from the United States to find a job. The project aims to brush up job-seeking skills of the students and prepare them with knowledge of the domestic job market to ensure a smoother career path. "In recent years, Chinese graduates of American universities have had a clear vision that China presents the best opportunities for their future careers," Xu Ke, co-founder and CEO of Amige. Citing a report on employment of overseas Chinese, Xu said about 80 percent of Chinese studying in the United States returned to China to pursue their careers over the past few years and the number is still on the rise. "The new generation of overseas Chinese talent tends to follow their passion in choosing career paths," Xu said. "In this sense, China's thriving innovation industry has great appeal for them." (Ye Yuanhao also contributed to the story) Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 21:47:03|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close JUBA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A truce signed by South Sudan's warring factions is failing to hold because of weak monitoring mechanisms and lack of political will from the signatories to enforce it, experts have said. The cease-fire agreement signed between the South Sudanese government and several rebel groups in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Dec. 21 last year was brokered by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African regional bloc. The truce which came into effect on Dec. 24 had asked the warring parties to stop military operations and keep forces in their bases while calling for release of political detainees. But the pact was immediately broken the same day it began, with the rival groups trading blame games against each other. Experts have argued that the cease-fire violations occurred due to inadequate monitoring of the several armed actors involved in the agreement. "The cessation of hostilities agreement has weak mechanism in place to monitor it. Until they put strong mechanism to enforce it, you keep repeating the same thing. So the international community has to change how they monitor the cease- fire," Lual Deng, a policy analyst with Juba-based think tank, Ebony Centre for Strategic Studies told Xinhua in an interview. Deng said that in order for the current violations to end, IGAD must strengthen the powers of the Ceasefire Transitional Security Arrangement Mechanism (CTSAM) to monitor the truce and violators must be held accountable for their actions instead of blaming both sides. "You have to single out and also have the courage to say that on such a date, you carried out this act and why? It should be applied to all-whether government or the opposition," Deng said. Jacob Chol, lecturer of Political Science at the University of Juba, said the cease-fire violations continue unabated because the parties that signed the treaty don't control their armies. "This cessation of hostilities agreement is not going to work until there is leadership from all parties because the leaders that signed it did not follow up to ensure that their military commanders are basically reigned on so that the guns can be silenced," Chol said. "What should happen is that CTSAM should be strengthened up and they should be all over the country and even in county levels to monitor what is happening there," he added. Chol said groups like IGAD, the African Union (AU) and the TROIKA countries (United States, Norway and Britain) must put pressure on the warring factions to adhere to the terms of the agreement instead of just issuing condemnation statements. "They should not rely on media reports to implement the agreement. The party that violated the cessation of hostilities should be singled out, held responsible, be condemned and also face serious consequences," Chol said. South Sudan has been embroiled in four years of conflict that has taken a devastating toll on the people, and 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. The UN estimates that about 4 million people have been displaced internally and externally. IGAD and the international community are betting on the High-Level Revitalization Forum convened in Addis Ababa late last year as the latest push to end the conflict in the world's youngest nation. Zacharia Diing Akol, Senior policy analyst with Juba- based think tank, the Sudd Institute, said the cease-fire alone will not end the South Sudan conflict unless regional powers unite and speak in one voice towards peace efforts in the East African country. "The responsibility to end the conflict in South Sudan is shared by a lot of actors. The parties to the conflict, the other political actors and generally the citizens of South Sudan, have a role in ending the conflict," Diing said. Diing added that ending the conflict also requires home-grown solutions driven by South Sudanese people and their leaders' willingness to address the current political stalemate. "In the absence of a political settlement, there would be skirmishes here and there as long as there is no consensus yet. I think it will be a mistake for somebody to think that there is cessation of hostilities agreement signed that will automatically stop the guns from going on. It is going to be a process," he added. Patients rest at a cholera treatment center established at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka, capital of Zambian, on Jan. 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Peng Lijun) LUSAKA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Calm has returned to some parts of Lusaka, the Zambian capital, following riots by some residents who protested moves by authorities to stop them from trading in undesignated places following a cholera outbreak, the police said on Friday. Police fought running battles with residents of Kanyama, one of the slums in the city after police sealed a place they had turned into a trading place. Police spokesperson Esther Mwaata-Katongo said the situation in most areas where there were disturbances has been contained. She said some people have been picked up although she could not give the number, saying a comprehensive statement was expected to be issued. "Police is on top of things," she said. Some residents told local media that it was unfair for the authorities to stop them from conducting their businesses as it was the only source of income. Authorities closed markets in the city and stopped trading on the streets following an outbreak of cholera which has claimed the lives of 65 people in the city. Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo urged the residents to be calm as the government was doing everything possible to find alternative places where they will be conducting their businesses. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 21:52:04|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close ISTANBUL, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The jailed co-chair of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) appeared before a court in Istanbul on Friday for the first time since his detention in November 2016. Selahattin Demirtas is facing up to four years in prison for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech he made after his visit to Russia in December 2015, according to a statement issued by the HDP press office. Addressing the court, Demirtas said, "A deputy's right of defence starts in parliament, not in the courtroom, and this right has been taken from us." Hundreds of supporters gathered in front of the courthouse to show solidarity with Demirtas. Up to now, Demirtas is also facing over 30 lawsuits from terror-related charges. Demirtas announced last week that he was stepping down as HDP co-chair and would not run in the upcoming elections. In August 2016, a Turkish prosecutor demanded five years in jail for Demirtas after he spoke in favor of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in a rally in Istanbul, where slogans were chanted in support of PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK has been fighting against the Turkish government for over 30 years and is blacklisted as a terror group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 21:52:04|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close Photo taken on Jan. 12, 2017 shows the handover of telecom and online fraud suspects at Wattay International Airport, Vientiane, Laos. A total of 104 telecom and online fraud suspects were handed over to China on Friday in Laos' capital city Vientiane. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun) VIENTIANE, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Lao police on Friday transferred 104 telecommunications fraud suspects to the Chinese side following a handover ceremony held at Wattay International Airport in Lao capital Vientiane. In the second half of 2017, according to information from the public, together with investigation, Chinese police found that a group of crime suspects were conducting fraud activities in Laos with a huge amount of money involved. Many people were deceived. Chinese and Lao police have paid great attention to this case and carried out investigation. In December, police from the two countries cracked down on six telecommunications fraud spots in Lao capital Vientiane and Luang Prabang province, arresting 104 suspects. In the past years, China and Laos have achieved fruitful results in cooperation of law enforcement and security. In 2017, the two countries cooperated to investigate a total of 18 cases. Lao police arrested and handed over 11 economic and criminal cases suspects to China, apart from arresting 104 suspects on telecommunications fraud. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 21:57:06|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) kicked off their year for local cooperation here Friday. The decision to hold the 2018 China-CEEC Local Cooperation Year was made during the sixth meeting of the heads of government of China and 16 CEE countries, held in Budapest, Hungary last year. Over 50 provinces and regions have joined the association of provincial governors since the 16+1 cooperation was inaugurated in 2012, and two 16+1 mayor forums for capital cities have been held since then, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Friday also marked the conclusion of the 2017 China-CEEC Media Cooperation year, which saw over 50 media cooperation projects, including journalist training and movie festivals, according to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:02:08|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Islamic State (IS) militants Friday killed three family members in their house in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, a local security source told Xinhua. The attack took place before noon when IS militants broke into the family house at al-Sa'diyah village in the west of the once IS stronghold in Hawijah area, the source said on condition of anonymity. The attackers slaughtered a woman and two of her sons with knives, and critically wounded a man, before they fled the scene to orchards on the bank of the nearby river of Zab, the source said. During the past few months, dozens of IS militants fled their former bases in Salahudin province and Hawijah area in the west of Kirkuk after the Iraqi forces cleared these areas during major anti-IS offensives. However, remnants of IS militants resorted to hideouts near the rivers of Tigris and Zab, as well as Himreen mountainous areas to continue their almost daily attacks against civilians and Iraqi forces in nearby towns and villages. On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group. Nevertheless, small groups and individuals of IS militants are still capable of carrying out attacks from time to time. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:02:09|Editor: Jiaxin Video Player Close LONDON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A 27-year-old female British national has been arrested at Heathrow Airport after arriving on a flight from Ethiopia on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, Scotland Yard said. She was arrested on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorist Act 2006, according to the police. Metropolitan Police said the suspect was detained under PACE and taken to a south London police station, where she currently remains in police custody. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:02:10|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close DUBAI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Qatar's complaint about the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) violation of its airspace is "incorrect," said the UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash Friday. The Abu Dhabi-based official described on Twitter the Qatar's claim as "confusing," adding the UAE's authorities are working to respond to it officially with evidence. Qatar's state news agency QNA said earlier that the country had filed a complaint to the United Nations, blaming a UAE's military aircraft for "violating" its airspace last December. The UAE and its fellow Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt, have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar in June 2017, accusing Doha of supporting "extremism and terrorism." They also blamed Qatar, a major natural gas supplier, of aligning with non-Arab Gulf state Iran against Arab interests. The Arab quartet also imposed transport and trade sanctions by air, land and sea. Qatar has denied the charges and upgraded trade with Iran and Turkey since then to mitigate the impact of the sanctions. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:07:12|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close German Chancellor and leader of German Christian Democratic Union (CDU)Angela Merkel(C), leader of German Christian Social Union (CSU) Horst Seehofer (L) and leader of German Social Democratic Party (SPD) Martin Schulz attend a joint press conference after coalition talks at the headquarters of SPD, in Berlin,Germany, on Jan. 12, 2018. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) on Friday achieved a breakthrough in their exploratory talks aimed at forming a new coalition government, local media reported. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi) BERLIN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservatives Union and the Social Democrats morning on Friday achieved a breakthrough in government formation talks, agreeing on transferring more money to the European Union. The move may end political uncertainty in German after the Sept. 24 federal elections. No government has been formed since then, marking a record amount of time for Germany to go without a government since WWII. After overnight talks on Thursday night, the three parties, Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its sister party the Christian Social Union and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) agreed on a 28-page blueprint, Focus Online reported. Merkel said at a press conference on Friday that the paper was "not superficial". "It's about investing in the future, especially in children and families. In addition, more should be invested in apartments, in traffic and in the energy transition," she added. A total of 15,000 new jobs for police officers are needed, said Merkel, adding the world is not waiting for Germany. Therefore, Europe needs a new departure, and she was optimistic that things were moving ahead. SPD's Martin Schulz said the paper reflects the desire for renewal, in families, education and the digital challenge, adding social cohesion must be strengthened. "The three parties are ready to make Europe strong again," said Schulz. CSU chief Horst Seehofer said he was "highly satisfied" with the outcomes. Talks focused mainly on differences over tax and migration. The immigration of refugees should not exceed 180,000 to 220,000 people per year, no tax increases are planned, and the family reunion for refugees should be possible in the future "only for humanitarian reasons" and limited to 1,000 cases per month. The three parties also agreed on the strengthening of the European Union, especially more money flowing from Germany to Brussels. The paper vows close partnership with France, saying that "we want to sustainably strengthen and reform the euro zone so that the euro can better withstand global crises," the parties said. They stressed the crucial role Franco-German cooperation will play in European integration, saying a renewal of the EU can only succeed if Germany and France "work together with all their strength." Negotiating groups of the Union and the SPD have unanimously agreed on the outcomes of the exploratory talks, according to the German Press Agency. The three parties will enter into formal and detailed government coalition talks after each party agrees on the outcomes of the exploratory talks. The SPD has scheduled a special national conference on Jan. 21 in Bonn, where party members will vote whether to join the formal grand coalition talks. However, the SPD is still facing strong opposition of a renewed grand coalition, especially from its grassroots and youth members, who are worried about the further marginalization of the party in its cooperation with the Union. Many observers and party members hope the breakthrough in the talks will help avoid a minority government led by Merkel or snap federal elections. The latest negotiations come more than three months after national elections saw large losses for the CDU, CSU, and SPD that together had been governing as a "grand coalition" since 2013. But the new grand coalition will place far-right populist Deutschland fuer Alternative (AfD) as the largest opposition party in the Bundestag, the federal parliament. The latest week-long exploratory talks took place after the failure of a previous round of tri-party discussions end of November. The SPD changed its mind about becoming an opposition party in the midst of social and political pressure. 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. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:07:13|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close KIEV, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A baby boy born in southern Ukraine, weighing 7.09 kg, is believed to be the heaviest newborn in the country, local media reported Friday. The healthy boy was born on Jan. 3 in the city of Zaporizhzhya by cesarean section to a 40-year-old woman. The mother has seven daughters and all of them weighed more than 5 kg at birth. Newborn babies in Ukraine generally weigh between 2.8 kg and 4 kg. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world's biggest healthy newborn was a 10.2-kg boy born in Italy in 1955. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:17:15|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Friday denied press report about South African President Jacob's Zuma's demands and conditions for stepping down. This was mere speculation, newly elected ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule told reporters in East London, Eastern Cape Province, where the ANC will celebrate its 106th anniversary on Saturday. Magashule was responding to a Friday report by the Mail & Guardian newspaper that Zuma has provided key members of the ANC with a list of requirements if he were to step down as president of South Africa. The report said Zuma is adamant that after he steps down, Dlamini-Zuma, ex-wife of Zuma and now an ANC MP, takes over as the country's interim president until the 2019 general elections. Zuma also wants key members within his cabinet to stay in power and become part of the next government, to be led by newly elected ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa, according to the report. This is rumor and will not be entertained by the ANC, Magashule said. The latest developments came as pressure was mounting on Zuma to resign. When asked whether the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) would discuss the possible recall of Zuma at its next meeting next week, Magashule said the agenda for the next meeting was yet to be formulated by his office in conjunction with other ANC officials. It had been widely expected that the NEC would discuss the removal of Zuma at its first meeting on Wednesday. But according to Magashule, the issue was not discussed. Magashule also confirmed that Zuma will attend the ANC's 106th anniversary celebration on Saturday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:27:18|Editor: Jiaxin Video Player Close MANILA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao said on Friday that ADB and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) are exploring to co-finance several development projects this year. "We have been cooperating well," Nakao told Xinhua at the ADB headquarters in Manila. Nakao said he met with AIIB officials and had "serious discussions about how to do things better in each bank and how we can support the development of (member) countries." Already, he said ADB and AIIB had four co-financing projects in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Georgia. Nakao said it's good with the AIIB around because "we can now cooperate in these projects for co-financing." Nakao said ADB officials will make a trip to Beijing to meet with its AIIB counterparts. No date has been set yet for the meeting, he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:37:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BERLIN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The German Social Democrats (SPD) and the Conservative Union have pledged to strengthen European integration through close cooperation with France, according to a policy paper published after the exploratory talks for government coalition reached breakthrough on Friday. In the 28-page document reached by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Union Party and the SPD led by Martin Schulz, the two parties say they support specific budgetary resources for economic stabilization and social convergence and support for structural reforms in the euro area, which may be the starting point for a future investment budget for the euro area. "We want to develop the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) into a parliamentary-controlled European Monetary Fund, which should be anchored in Union law," the document stipulates. "We are also ready for higher contributions from Germany to the EU budget," says the paper, adding that Germany is to be actively involved in the debate on the future of the European Union (EU) and strengthening European integration. The paper came out on Friday morning after the week-long exploratory talks between the SPD, the Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister Christian Social Union. Formal and detailed coalition talks will be held after the paper is officially approved by all the parties. The two parties say as the global balance of power has changed radically in recent years, only together does the EU have a chance to assert itself in this world and to assert its common interests. The two parties also stress Europe's role in peace and global responsibility in the document, clearly rejecting protectionism, isolationism and nationalism and calling for more international cooperation. The common European foreign and security policy must be strengthened in the sense of a peace power Europe, says the document, calling for strengthened cooperation in security and defense policy (PESCO) and bringing it to life. The document also stipulates that the EU must play a leading international role in climate protection and advocate an ambitious implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The policy paper is the first response to French President Emmanuel Macron's ambition for profound changes of EU in post-Brexit area, saying that "The renewal of the EU will only succeed if Germany and France work together with all their strength. That is why we want to further strengthen and renew German-French cooperation." "...in close partnership with France, we want to sustainably strengthen and reform the Eurozone so that the euro can better withstand global crises," the paper reads. Since the Sept. 24 federal elections Germany has not yet formed a new government so that Merkel's caretaker government could not make major policy changes on any issues. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:37:22|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close U.S. President Donald Trump (Xinhua photo) WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has denied calling countries in Africa and elsewhere "shithole countries", saying he used tough language but not the pejorative expression attributed to him. "The language used by me at the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," he tweeted. The U.S. leader has been under fire at home and abroad after some reports said he referred to Haiti and African nations as "shithole countries" during a meeting on an immigration deal with a group of bipartisan lawmakers at the White House on Thursday. The comments reportedly came as the Republican and Democratic senators were briefing the president on changes to the U.S. visa lottery system and considerations about immigration from Africa. Trump first asked why the United States would want people from nations such as Haiti, and then reportedly asked why America would want immigrants from "all these shithole countries." He also said that the United States should have more people coming in from countries like Norway. He had met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House a day earlier. The White House released a statement that did not deny the remarks. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said in the statement. "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 read. The first wave of sharp criticism came from both Republican and Democrat lawmakers. House Republican Mia Love from Utah, who is the daughter of Haitian immigrants, released a statement demanding an apology from Trump. The president's remark is "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." "The president must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned." Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican lawmaker from Florida, tweeted that Trump's comment, if confirmed, "ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians have made to our #SoFla community and nation." "Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House," she said. "As an American, I am ashamed of the president," said Democrat Representative Luis Gutierrez. "His comments are disappointing, unbelievable, but not surprising," Gutierrez added, citing repeated disputes over Trump's comments on race since the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Haiti's Ambassador to the U.S. Paul G. Altidor has formally requested that the Trump administration explain the comments, saying the remarks, made one day before the eighth anniversary of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 200,000 people, is based on "cliches and stereotypes rather than actual fact." The ambassador said he doesn't believe Trump's remark reflects the views of the American public and that he has been "bombarded by emails from the American public apologizing" for their president's "regrettable" comment. The African Union said it was "alarmed" by Trump's statement. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice," African Union spokesperson Ebba Kalondo said. The U.S. president's remark was "particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity," she said. The Geneva-based Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday described Trump's comment as "shocking", "shameful" and "racist". "These are shocking and shameful," OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville said. "I'm sorry, but there's no other word one can use but 'racist'. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes', whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome." Such remarks from the U.S. president could "potentially damage and disrupt the lives of many people," Colville said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 22:57:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, Friday approved the first reading of a bill specifying possible restrictions on media acting as "foreign agents" in Russia. According to the bill, a media outlet, after being listed as a foreign agent, has one month to set up a Russian subsidiary to distribute its products and inform clients that the materials come from a foreign agent. It also stipulates that if the authorities find irregularities in the activities of foreign agent media, they may send a warning demanding corrections. If this is not done, the authorities will order communications operators to block access to such media. To become a law, the bill has to be passed by the Duma in two more readings, then be endorsed by the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, and signed by President Vladimir Putin before being published officially. In November, Putin approved a law giving the government the power to label foreign-funded media outlets in Russia as "foreign agents". The law was enacted after Russia's state-owned English news channel RT America was forced to register as a foreign agent in the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. U.S. authorities have accused Russian media of influencing public opinion during the 2016 presidential election by spreading fake news. Moscow has called the forced registration an obstacle to Russian media activities in the United States and a violation of the freedom of speech. In December, Russia's Ministry of Justice blacklisted U.S. government-funded Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and seven of their subsidiaries as foreign agents. These news outlets were stripped of the right to enter the Russian parliament. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice ordered U.S.-based Russian media outlet RIA Global LLC to register as a foreign agent. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing Friday that Moscow considered the move as a "demonstration of outright discrimination against our media outlets and an attack on freedom of speech." Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 23:02:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CHANGSHA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Hunan Province recently released an action plan to improve the environment of Dongting Lake, the second-largest freshwater lake in China. Dongting Lake, known as "the kidney of the Yangtze River," is one of the most important wetlands in China and the world. But water in the lake has been polluted and resources have been illegally exploited in recent years. The province publicized the three-year plan (2018-2020) to tackle pollution by agriculture, households, industry and ships, regulate sand excavation, and restore wetlands. The water quality of the lake is expected to reach grade III by 2020, meaning it can be drinked after treatment. "The plan is very exciting. I believe that Dongting Lake will become clean and clear again," said Gao Dali, deputy head of the east Dongting Lake nature reserve. File Photo: Iranians take part in a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's speech at the United Nations general assembly, in Tehran on Sept. 22, 2017. (Xinhua/AFP) by Xinhua writer Liu Chen WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump is set to decide Friday whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran, a move that may put the landmark Iran nuclear deal in peril. As a diplomatic breakthrough reached between six major countries and Iran in 2015 after a decade of talks, the deal has been proven effective in deterring Iran's nuclear development, bolstering stability in the Middle East and upholding the international non-proliferation regime, especially at such a delicate time. Although the treaty might not be perfect, it remains worthy of preserving. The accord has provided "clear and tangible" benefits on limiting Iran's nuclear program, according to a recently released report by U.S. think tanks. Under the deal, Iran would need roughly a year, instead of less than two months, to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, giving the international community enough time to detect any major clandestine nuclear effort, said the report, which is co-authored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Center for a New American Security. In nine reports since the pact was inked, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the international non-proliferation watchdog, has confirmed that Tehran has been in full compliance with the deal, rebutting the accusation from Washington of the Islamic Republic's "multiple violations of the agreement." In fact, the United States is the only party that has threatened to scrap the deal, a stance that has been confronted by other participants. Shortly before Trump was expected to announce his decisions, diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and the European Union again called on Trump to uphold the pact. French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized the importance of abiding by the deal "in order to guarantee better stability in the Middle East," according to a readout of his telephone conversation with Trump on Thursday. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said those who oppose the nuclear agreement should come up with a better solution, "because we haven't seen it so far." He gave the remarks alongside his German and French counterparts as well as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini after meeting Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Brussels on Thursday. On the same occasion, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the European signatories of the Iran deal "want to protect (the deal) against every possible decision that might undermine it." Meanwhile, China and Russia, the other two parties in the pact, have also repeatedly urged parties to preserve the deal, which is "a beneficial practice of solving a critical issue through political and diplomatic means." While the Iran accord may be imperfect in that it includes a "sunset clause" that allows Iran to restart its uranium enrichment program after 2025, so long as Iran complies with it, it remains the best mechanism available. Preventing the deal from falling apart is especially meaningful at a time when nuclear tensions are still high on the Korean Peninsular despite the recent ice-breaking dialogue between the two Koreas. "Ending the Iran deal is an invitation to war," Ilan Goldenberg and Mara Karlin, two former Pentagon officials who have worked in Iran, warned in an article published in The Atlantic magazine in October. Given that Iran has said it would no longer abide by the pact if the United States renews its sanctions, Trump's decision to nullify the arms control deal would very likely lead to Tehran never returning to the negotiating table and freeing itself of its nuclear obligations set by the deal. In fact, America's own strategic interests will be best served by keeping the pact intact. Scrapping the deal now would remove important existing constraints on Iran's nuclear program, and would leave the United States in a far weaker position to negotiate meaningful future limits on the program, said the U.S. think tank report. A unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal would be another blow to America's diplomatic credibility, which has already been damaged after its multiple "retreats" from the international organizations and commitments last year. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 23:12:30|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SHANGHAI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai will send 1.1 million tourists to Tibet in the next three years as part of an action plan to aid the development of the remote southwestern region. The plan was signed by the Shanghai and Tibet tourism authorities on Friday. Shanghai has been supporting Tibet's Xigaze prefecture to improve tourism facilities over the past years, according to Xu Weiwan, head of the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration. The cooperation will be further deepened this year, Xu added. The Shanghai-Tibet partnership is part of a nationwide plan launched by the National Tourism Administration last December, which plans to send more than 20 million tourists to Tibet from 2018 to 2020. The Yangtze River Delta cities including Shanghai have been a major source of tourists for Tibet, said Wang Songping, head of the Tibet Tourism Development Committee. According to data from China's major telecom operators, over 5 million tourists from the Yangtze River Delta region visited Tibet every year on average, and the figure is projected to reach 7 million in 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 23:17:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said here Friday that Singapore will try to beef up the region's resilience against common threats such as terrorism, cybercrime and climate change during its chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Lee made the remarks during the opening of the Experience ASEAN festival, which was staged by Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to usher in the country's chairmanship of ASEAN. He added that Singapore will also make efforts to help member economies innovate and use technology. Tracing the grouping's history since 1967, Lee said the current 10-member ASEAN has brought peace, economic growth and prosperity to the people in the region. The festival, which will last until Jan. 14, featured stalls offering regional cuisine, amusement rides and performances. The embassies and high commissions of ASEAN member nations presented stalls to showcase their delicacies. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 23:22:34|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close by Hu Tao, Li Mengxin BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's vast market and surging demand in the aerospace sector is inspiring more European companies to strengthen their presence in the country. They are flocking to China with tailored products and services,embracing new orders, new service contracts and ramping up production in localized facilities. BROAD MARKET IN SPACE Eutelsat Communications, one of the world's leading satellite operators, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China Unicom during the French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to China from January 8 to 10. "China Unicom is our ideal partner for promoting satellite communications in the Belt and Road regions. The MOU aims at addressing the fast-growing market in the Asia-Pacific region," said Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of Eutelsat. Both sides will jointly leverage resources to enhance inflight connectivity services from the west coast of North America to Asia, and down to Australia. They will also consider further developing satellite communication services across the globe. Meanwhile, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and Dassault Aviation signed a cooperation framework agreement, targeting efficiency and integration improvements in China's manufacturing industry. The two companies have set up joint ventures and will provide information, as well as digital and consulting services with customer-oriented research, design, simulation, manufacturing and management. WIN-WIN COOPERATION In the aviation sector, the world's leading aero-engine manufacturer CFM International concluded agreements and MOUs for new engine orders and long-term support agreements covering nearly 500 CFM engines. The total value of the agreements is 9.1 billion U.S. dollars at list price. CFM International signed a purchase agreement with Spring Airlines, China's low-cost airline, with a contract price of 2.9 billion dollars. It signed an agreement with Xiamen Airlines, which entails the purchase of 150 aero-engines and the overhaul of 20 aero-engines, with a total value of 2.05 billion dollars. It also signed a memorandum of understanding worth of 4.2 billion dollars with China's Hainan Airlines for purchasing of new and spare engines and long-term support. "Our relationship with Chinese aviation industry goes back more than 30 years, not only as a customer base but a very important supplier base," said Philippe Petitcolin, CEO with CFM parent company Safran. "The new agreements strengthen our commitment to China and solidifies our relationships with our customers there, providing a strong foundation for even more cooperation in the future." Airbus on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC) on further development of industrial cooperation in Tianjin. Both sides agreed to further enhance their industrial cooperation by strengthening technical innovation, engineering capabilities and supply chain expansion. "China has the ambition to develop its aviation in both the civil aviation and the manufacturing sector. To us, it is win-win cooperation," said Francois Mery, chief operating officer of Airbus Commercial Aircraft China. On the same day, Airbus and its Chinese partners also signed a framework agreement on ramping up its A320 production rate at its Final Assembly Line in Tianjin to six aircraft per month. "China is more and more important to Airbus. Airbus not only sell aircraft here, but also targets a vertical integration in cooperation with China," Mery said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-12 23:37:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NANCHANG, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A court in east China's Jiangxi Province on Friday sentenced a man to death for killing a 17-year-old girl and raping her body eight years ago. Zou Wen, 32, was found to have strangled a senior high school student surnamed Hu to death with shoelaces in the stairwell of a building in Xinjian District of Nanchang, the provincial capital, at 10 p.m. on March 26, 2009. He then took the body to a deserted pig farm and raped it before fleeing by motorcycle, according to the city's intermediate people's court. After eight years of efforts, police finally identified Zou as the suspect in February 2017 and arrested him the next month. Zou confessed in court but did not mention whether he would file an appeal. File photo taken on Jan. 11, 2018 shows U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting on prison reform in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. (Xinhua/AFP) WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has denied calling countries in Africa and elsewhere "shithole countries", saying he used tough language but not the pejorative expression attributed to him. "The language used by me at the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," he tweeted. The U.S. leader has been under fire at home and abroad after some reports said he referred to Haiti and African nations as "shithole countries" during a meeting on an immigration deal with a group of bipartisan lawmakers at the White House on Thursday. The comments reportedly came as the Republican and Democratic senators were briefing the president on changes to the U.S. visa lottery system and considerations about immigration from Africa. Trump first asked why the United States would want people from nations such as Haiti, and then reportedly asked why America would want immigrants from "all these shithole countries." He also said that the United States should have more people coming in from countries like Norway. He had met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House a day earlier. The White House released a statement that did not deny the remarks. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said in the statement. "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 read. The first wave of sharp criticism came from both Republican and Democrat lawmakers. House Republican Mia Love from Utah, who is the daughter of Haitian immigrants, released a statement demanding an apology from Trump. The president's remark is "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." "The president must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned." Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican lawmaker from Florida, tweeted that Trump's comment, if confirmed, "ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians have made to our #SoFla community and nation." "Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House," she said. "As an American, I am ashamed of the president," said Democrat Representative Luis Gutierrez. "His comments are disappointing, unbelievable, but not surprising," Gutierrez added, citing repeated disputes over Trump's comments on race since the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Haiti's Ambassador to the U.S. Paul G. Altidor has formally requested that the Trump administration explain the comments, saying the remarks, made one day before the eighth anniversary of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 200,000 people, is based on "cliches and stereotypes rather than actual fact." The ambassador said he doesn't believe Trump's remark reflects the views of the American public and that he has been "bombarded by emails from the American public apologizing" for their president's "regrettable" comment. The African Union said it was "alarmed" by Trump's statement. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice," African Union spokesperson Ebba Kalondo said. The U.S. president's remark was "particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity," she said. The Geneva-based Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday described Trump's comment as "shocking", "shameful" and "racist". "These are shocking and shameful," OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville said. "I'm sorry, but there's no other word one can use but 'racist'. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes', whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome." Such remarks from the U.S. president could "potentially damage and disrupt the lives of many people," Colville said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 00:02:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ZAGREB, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese consortium led by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has won the bid for the construction of the first phase of Peljesac bridge and its access roads, a major infrastructure project in Croatian history, local road operator Harvatske Ceste (Croatian Roads) announced on Friday. "Of the three bids submitted for the award of a public procurement contract, the bidding community was selected -- China Road and Bridge Corporation, CCCC Highway Consultants, CCCC Second Highway Engineering and CCCC Second Harbor Engineering with a bid price of 2.08 billion kuna (around 340 million U.S. dollars) without VAT and the construction period of 36 months," Croatian Roads said. The project of the over-2,000-meter-long cable-stayed bridge, whose estimated value is over 400 million euros (485 million U.S. dollars) and will be partially sponsored by European Union fund, was opened for bidding in September 2017. It had also attracted Austria's Strabag, whose offer was 2.62 billion kuna excluding VAT, and a joint offer of 2.55 billion kuna excluding VAT by the Italian company Astaldi and Turkey's IC Ictas (1 kuna equals 0.16 US dollars). Crossing the Mali Ston Bay over the Adriatic Sea, the Peljesac bridge connects the southernmost Dubrovnik-Neretva County to the rest of the mainland, giving Croatia a continuous land link that bypasses the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia has been brooding over the idea of a Peljesac bridge for almost two decades. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 00:07:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Libyan Foreign Ministry on Friday demanded Greece to provide the latest investigation information about a Libyan ship carrying explosives materials that the Greek Coast Guards seized while sailing from Turkey to Libya. "The Foreign Ministry is following with interest the news about the ship seized in Greece carrying containers of materials used in manufacture of explosives after leaving Turkish ports to Libya, specifically to the city of Misurata," the ministry said in a statement. "The ministry is alarmed by the news, if correct," the statement said, noting that the ministry had contacted the foreign ministries of Turkey and Greece "to verify this issue." "The ministry calls on Greek authorities to provide it with all new developments of their investigations," it said. The ministry condemned "any attempts seeking to harm Libya in any way." Greek Coast Guards announced on Wednesday that they seized a ship flying the flag of Tanzania and carrying materials used to make explosives while sailing to Libya. The ship's cargo policy indicates that the cargo was loaded at the Turkish ports of Mersin and Iskenderun and was headed to Djibouti and Oman. However, Greek Coast Guards said preliminary investigation showed that the ship's captain had received orders from the ship's owner to sail to the Libyan city of Misurata to unload the entire cargo. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 00:07:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GABORONE, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Botswana's government on Friday condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's reported disparaging remarks about developing countries. In a statement issued by the Ministry of International Affairs and Cooperation, the Botswana government expressed its displeasure at the alleged utterances made by Trump, when he referred to African countries and others as "shithole countries" during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House on Thursday. Botswana calls on the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union and all other progressive nations across the world to strongly condemn the remarks made by President Trump. The Botswana government has inquired from the U.S. government through the U.S. Ambassador to Botswana, to clarify if Botswana is regarded as a "shithole" country given that there are Botswana nationals residing in the U.S., and also that some of Batswana may wish to visit the United States. "The Government of Botswana is wondering why President Trump, must use this descriptor and derogatory word, when talking about countries with whom the U.S. has had cordial and mutually beneficial bilateral relations for so many years," said the statement. CAPE TOWN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Friday rebuked U.S. President Donald Trump's "shithole" remarks about developing countries. Trump was "extremely offensive" when he used the term "shithole countries" to describe developing countries, ANC Deputy General Secretary Jessie Duarte told reporters in East London, Eastern Cape Province, where the ANC is to hold its 106th anniversary celebration on Saturday. The U.S. leader has been under fire at home and abroad after he reportedly referred to Haiti and African nations as "shithole countries" during a meeting on an immigration deal with a group of bipartisan lawmakers at the White House on Thursday. But Trump later denied calling countries in Africa and elsewhere "shithole countries," saying he used tough language but not the pejorative expression attributed to him. Trump's denial, however, failed to alleviate outrage among developing countries. Developing countries do have difficulties, but they are not "shithole countries," Duarte said, while calling Trump's remarks as "unfortunate." "Ours is not a shithole country, neither is Haiti or any other country in distress," said Duarte. The United States itself has its own problems such as unemployment among millions of people, inequality and non-access to healthcare for many poor people, Duarte said. The ANC, Duarte said, will not deign to make comments as derogatory as Trump's to describe the United States. The ANC is not in a position to stop any president from any country from saying anything they wish, she said. South Africans went on the social media to vent their outrage over Trump's remarks. Opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane tweeted that Trump's "abhorrent" remarks confirm his patronizing view of Africa and promote a racist agenda. "Africa/U.S. relations will take strain from this, with a leader who has failed to reconcile humanity," Maimane said. "The most disturbing thing about Trump's 'shithole' remarks is the way in which his White House encourages assimilation. If that's not a mark of white supremacy, I don't know what is," reads another tweet. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 00:12:52|Editor: pengying Video Player Close Protesters demonstrate against a new austerity bill in Athens, Greece, on Jan. 12, 2018. Greek labor unions staged a first round of strikes and protests on Friday over the new austerity bill debated in parliament which, among other measures, tightens conditions for calling strikes. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) ATHENS, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Greek labor unions staged a first round of strikes and protests on Friday over a new austerity bill debated in parliament which, among other measures, tightens conditions for calling strikes. Thousands of protesters marched in central Athens, chanting anti-austerity slogans, as state hospital doctors joined seamen, construction and subway workers, along with others members of labor unions in a 24-hour nationwide warning strike, the first major mobilization of 2018. A second round of industrial action has been scheduled for Monday when MPs are scheduled to vote on the bill containing the latest set of prior actions required by Greece's lenders to conclude the third review of the third bailout program begun in 2010. On Friday, ships remained moored at ports, as the Panhellenic Seamen's Union participated in the strike, and commuters faced traffic jams due to transport employees' mobilization. On Monday, civil service unions, the umbrella union representing private sector employees, as well as air traffic controllers, have also announced a three-hour stoppage at noon local time and more demonstrations are organized throughout the day. "No more austerity, life with dignity, hands off the right to strike," read banners raised by protesters on Friday. A group of activists tried to hang a banner in front of the parliament building and briefly clashed with riot police who responded by using tear gas to push them back. Labor unions warn of escalation of industrial actions regardless of Monday's vote inside the assembly. Among the two thorniest provisions in the new bill is the detailed framework for the start of online auctions for foreclosed properties and the change in rules for unions declaring strikes. Both policies have been firmly requested by Greece's creditors according to cabinet ministers. Under the draft bill, unions must have the absolute majority of at least 50 percent of active members who pay dues before declaring a strike in the future. Currently the percentage is one third of union members. Critics of the bill claim that the change aims to effectively weaken the last weapon workers have to protest for their rights. "This draft law which essentially abolishes the right to strike, as well as the auctions, even of primary houses, and all other unacceptable measures which are against workers and are included in this bill, will not be implemented de facto," Dimitris Koutsoumbas, general secretary of Greece's Communist Party, said during Friday's protest. Proponents of the measure argue that the frequency of strikes in Greece, in particular during the years of the debt crisis, obstructs the operation of an already ailing economy which struggles to stand on her feet and recover. According to police data, more than 12,000 protests have been staged in Athens since the start of the crisis. Dozens of general strikes have been called by the largest unions. As bills are approved despite strikes, some Greeks question the effectiveness of walk outs and demonstrations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 00:17:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa Friday told a United States military commander that "entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed over U.S. recent statements despite decades of cooperation," the military said. General Bajwa made the comments in a phone conversation with U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander General Joseph L. Votel. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted 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." Trump further wrote that "They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" Bajwa said that "entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed over U.S. recent statements despite decades of cooperation," and unanimous Pakistan's national response reflected the same sentiment. The army chief made it clear that Pakistan shall continue its counter terrorism efforts even without U.S. financial support in accordance with the country's national interest and shall remain committed to bringing the efforts to logical conclusion along with other stake holders. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 00:17:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close LJUBLJANA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A foreign citizen has been arrested at Slovenia's Ljubljana airport on suspicion of having brought five migrants with false passports on a flight from Turkey, local media reported Friday. The local Kranj Police Department said the suspect arrived at the airport on a plane from Turkey at the beginning of the week with five other foreigners who carried false documents, the Slovenian Press Agency said. The suspected attempt at illegal migration was discovered at border controls, the police said, and the suspect, who had a permit to reside in the EU, was brought before an investigating judge on Wednesday and was remanded in custody. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 00:17:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SOFIA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker here on Friday said Western Balkans has a clear vision to join the EU, but the region is still not ready to join the bloc. At a joint press conference with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Juncker welcomed that Bulgaria's six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) gave the topic of the Western Balkans the attention it deserves. However, according to Juncker, admission of new members to the EU would not be possible before the end of the mandate on Jan. 1, 2020, because preparations have not advanced enough to make it happen. The mandate of the next European Commission would be to work on public opinion in EU member states towards this direction, Juncker said. It is extremely important for the Western Balkans to have a clear European perspective, and it should be reconfirmed, Juncker said. "The topic of the Western Balkans is very clear," Borissov said in turn. He said the focus of the region was the building of infrastructure in the Balkans like railways, highways, harbors, and water treatment plants. "I think that this does not pose a risk to the EU, and will allow for greater competitiveness, more investment, more tourism, more convergence of cultures and understanding of peoples across the EU," Borissov said. The Western Balkans includes countries such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Borissov said that providing European perspective and connectivity to the region is one of the priorities of Bulgaria's EU presidency. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 00:48:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The African Union Commission and the United Nations on Friday strongly condemned the recent violations of a cease-fire agreement in South Sudan. According to a joint statement, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "strongly condemn the recent violations of the 21 December 2017 Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities, Protection of Civilians and Humanitarian Access in South Sudan." "They call on all South Sudanese fighting parties to immediately cease all hostilities, desist from undertaking any further military operations, and uphold their commitments to the 21 December 2017 Agreement," the statement said. It added that "they further call on the parties to uphold their primary responsibility to protect civilians, adhere to international human rights and humanitarian law and ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access." Mahamat and Guterres "underscore the determination of the international and regional community to ensure that the parties abide by their obligations and responsibilities," it said. "They express their full support for the second phase of the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) under the leadership of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). They call on the parties to participate in the Forum in good faith and with a view towards reaching a compromise and bringing South Sudan back to the path of sustainable peace," the statement said. They "reaffirm their belief that there can only be a political solution to the conflict in South Sudan, and the parties must demonstrate the political will to negotiate a permanent ceasefire and update the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS) in order to end the appalling suffering inflicted on the South Sudanese population," the statement concluded. The cease-fire agreement signed between the South Sudanese government and several rebel groups on Dec. 21 was brokered by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African regional bloc. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 01:03:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BUDAPEST, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto on Friday demanded an apology from Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose over reported threatening remarks about the autonomy efforts by some ethnic Hungarian groups in Romania. According to media reports, Tudose's remarks were in response to a resolution signed by some autonomy-seeking ethnic Hungarian groups, namely Szeklers, who live in the Romanian region of Transylvania. In an extraordinary press conference, Szijjarto called Tudose's remarks "completely unacceptable." The Romanian ambassador in Budapest, when summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Friday, tried to give grammatical explanation, Szijjarto said. Szijjarto added that Hungary's aim was to continue to have a balanced, calm, mutually respectful relationship with Romania. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 01:13:13|Editor: pengying Video Player Close NAIROBI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday handed over 24 containers of medical supplies worth over 10 million U.S. dollars to support a South Sudan government health initiative. "China is unconditionally helping us to implement our government policy of providing universal health care to all citizens of South Sudan," said Riek Gai Kok, South Sudan's Minister for Health, in Juba. "They have introduced to us the concept of 'barefoot doctor' system as one of the ways to deliver service to the people," said the minister. The minister hailed Chinese government for standing in solidarity with people of South Sudan despite years of conflict. Kok explained that China responded to the Boma Health Initiative because the ruling party and China shared a determined vision of improving the welfare of South Sudanese people. The health initiative aims to extend quality health services to the communities where all can access worthy medical services at the grassroots level and has similarities with the traditional Chinese barefoot doctors system that was initiated with basic component of disease prevention and awareness creation at the community levels. Jemma Nunu Kumba, the Minister for Wildlife and Tourism, said the implementation of the program will resonate with her party's vision, mission and objective of providing healthcare to all. "Primary healthcare is a big challenge and we laud China for helping translate our party policy into government program," said the minister. She said the Boma Health Initiative is a government plan to extend good health services to the communities where all can access quality medical service at the grassroots level. "The Boma Health Initiative, which is similar to Chinese 'Barefoot doctors systems' during 19th century, was initiated with basic component of disease prevention and awareness creation at the community's levels," said Kumba. Chinese Ambassador He Xiangdong said medical personnel cannot be successful in their work if they are not fully equipped with medical supplies, equipment and the necessary tools. "For that very reason, we have brought this assistance in order for doctors in South Sudan to have their own armaments to fight diseases amongst the citizens," He said. The Chinese envoy said China will always support the South Sudanese government in areas of health, humanitarian and education as the country works towards achieving sustainable peace. The items included surgical gear such as microscopes, incubators, bicycles, delivery beds, and communications devices like cell phones. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 01:33:18|Editor: pengying Video Player Close Residents of Lusaka's Kanyama township protest near the burning rubbish in Lusaka, Zambia, on Jan. 12, 2018. At least 55 people were arrested in the capital after riots sparked by the decision by authorities to stop them from trading at undesignated area following a cholera outbreak, a senior government official said on Friday. (Xinhua/Chanda Mwenya) LUSAKA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least 55 people were arrested in the capital after riots sparked by the decision by authorities to stop them from trading at undesignated area following a cholera outbreak, a senior government official said on Friday. Rioters, mostly from street vendors from Kanyama township as well as two other slums, fought running battles with the police who had sealed off the place which they had turned into a trading place after being chased from the streets and other undesignated trading places as part of efforts to contain cholera. Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo said one police officer was injured during the riots while a police post had its windows shattered and a private vehicle parked at the station was also damaged. A tipper truck parked at a local school was also burnt during the protest, he added. He said it was unacceptable that some people decided to break the law aimed at ensuring public health on prevention of epidemics like cholera which the country has been fighting. "My government shall not allow lawlessness to take root in our country. Accordingly, all the public health and security measures put in place to combat the current cholera epidemic shall remain in full force and anyone found in breach of these laws and regulations shall be brought to book without fear or favor," he told reporters during a press briefing. Authorities closed markets in the city and stopped trading on the streets following an outbreak of cholera which has claimed 65 people in the city. A massive cleanup coordinated by the military has been taking place in central business district. Meanwhile Minister of Local Government Vincent Mwale said the government will commence a gradual re-opening of some trading places in the city which have adhered to guidelines that have been put in place. He said during the same press briefing that the authorities have come up with a set of guidelines which the markets should meet before reopening in the wake of the cholera outbreaks. Among the guidelines include adequate sanitation, clean water supply, solid waste management system and a valid medical certificate. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 02:13:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close PRAGUE, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Three people died and another 45 passengers were injured in a car-bus collision accident near Horomerice, a small town near the capital city of Prague, in Czech Republic on Friday afternoon, police said. The accident involving a public bus and a Skoda Superb car happened around 16:00 on No. 240 road Friday. Police spokeswoman Monika Schindlova said the driver of the car and two bus passengers were killed in the incident. According to Jana Postova, spokeswoman for the Prague rescue service, five of the injured, including two children, are in very serious condition, ten have moderate injuries and 30 have suffered minor injuries. The cause of the accident is being investigated. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 02:38:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Three Islamic State (IS) militants were shot dead Friday after they killed a civilian in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, a local police source told Xinhua. The IS militants killed a civilian in the evening at a village in Hawijah area located in southwestern Kirkuk, the source said on condition of anonymity. An Army force and paramilitary tribal fighters of a local Hashd Shaabi unit chased the three attackers and shot them dead after surrounding them in orchards on the bank of the nearby river of Zab, the source said. Earlier in the day, another security source told Xinhua that IS militants slaughtered a woman and her two sons with knives, and critically wounded a man, before they fled to orchards of Zab river. During the past few months, dozens of IS militants fled their former bases in Salahudin province and Hawijah area in the west of Kirkuk after Iraqi forces cleared these areas during major anti-IS offensives. IS remnants, however, resorted to hideouts near the rivers of Tigris and Zab, as well as Himreen mountainous areas to continue their attacks against civilians and Iraqi forces in nearby towns and villages. On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from the IS after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group. But residual IS militants are still capable of carrying out attacks from time to time. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 03:08:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak on Friday warned that "multilateralism is under threat." Speaking to a General Assembly meeting on his priorities for 2018, Lajcak said that "we don't have to look very far to see that multilateralism is under threat." He called for collective action to reverse the trend. "We all have a responsibility to push back, against this trend. I am committed to doing my part. And I hope all of you, sitting here today, will join me. And I hope that we can toast to our success in September!" Under U.S. President Donald Trump, the United States has withdrawn from many global commitments, including the Paris climate agreement and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the Global Compact on Migration. The U.S. exit has triggered concerns across the world. Lajcak, however, did not mention any countries while issuing the warning in his statement. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 03:38:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump will extend sanctions relief on Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal, while warning that it will be the last waiver, senior Trump administration officials said on Friday. Trump is seeking for an overhaul of the landmark deal with the European countries in the next 120 days, or he will pull the United States out of the multilateral pact, the officials told reporters at a background briefing. As Trump agreed to the sanctions relief, U.S. Department of Treasury said on Friday that it has imposed sanctions on 14 individuals and entities over Iran's alleged human rights abuses and ballistic missile program. Trump, who has more than once threatened to scrap the Iran nuclear deal inked by the six world powers and Iran in 2015, decertified to Congress Iran's compliance with the pact last October. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 03:38:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close HOUSTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The latest U.S. manufacturing and trade statistics, released on Friday, showed that the business inventories for November 2017 hit 1,895.4 billion U.S. dollars. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's data, manufacturers' and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, was estimated at an end-of-month level of 1,895.4 billion U.S. dollars, up 0.4 percent from October 2017 and were up 3.2 percent from November 2016. The combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers' shipments for November 2017, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at 1,420.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 1.2 percent from October 2017 and was up 7.9 percent from November 2016. The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of November 2017 was 1.33. The November 2016 ratio was 1.40. RACINE With the recent announcement by Gov. Scott Walker to overhaul the juvenile corrections system including closing the troubled Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools complex in Irma officials have been working to determine how the new system would operate. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said he met with some of the governors officials on Tuesday to iron out more details. Although details about how the new facilities will operate have not been revealed yet, Vos said this could be an opportunity for counties to get involved to reduce cost and create healthy competition as to which facility has the best practices that could reduce recidivism. Perhaps theres a way we can form a partnership where counties, who pay 100 percent of the costs anyway, could be the ones that operate the facility, Vos said during a visit to The Journal Times Editorial Board on Wednesday, accompanied by state Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine. Maybe the state gives them a grant to build the facility but they operate it because theyre responsible for it. Vos said the counties with the facilities could look for different ways to increase services, reduce cost and have better outcomes. I just think thats a better model, in my opinion, than just saying five facilities do the exact same thing and hope for the best, Vos said. Vos complimented the way Racine County runs its Alternatives to Corrections through Education (ACE) program. The program, based on the fourth floor of the countys secure detention facility on Taylor Avenue, includes four hours of school each day and programming until 8 p.m., six days a week. Youth in ACE are required to participate in group programs where they learn about things like anger management, leadership and criminal thinking. Participants also take part in individual therapy as well as therapy with a caregiver or parent. The cost to the county to house a child in state corrections is $397 a day. In contrast, the ACE program costs the county $185 per day, per child. For Racine County youths who spend time in the state corrections facility, 99 percent re-offend within 12 months of discharge. For those who complete the ACE program, that rate drops to 25 percent. Families involved in healing Wanggaard said the counties could have the manpower and resources to make a positive impact, especially since the facilities would likely be closer in proximity for the families of those detained. If you keep it local youre going to have better outcomes because you dont have transportation issues for the families, Wanggaard said. (The families) can be part of this healing process. But overall, Wanggaard said the goal is to get those juveniles to be productive members of society. Im not looking to rehabilitate anybody, this is not what we should be doing, Wanggaard said. Im looking to reform them. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 03:48:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KATOWICE, Poland, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- "I love China and I will be happy to go back there," said Pawel Wowra, a student of the University of Silesia in Katowice, southwestern Poland, on Friday. Wowra was one of the first to benefit from the student exchange agreements between the universities of Poland and China. The establishment of the Chinese Language and Culture Center at the University of Silesia on Friday will help more students passionate about China enrich their knowledge. The center aims to promote Chinese culture in the Silesian region and increase the knowledge about China among the Poles. At the opening ceremony, Waldemar Bojarun, deputy mayor of Katowice, said that the government of Katowice was pleased to see more Poles getting to know Chinese language and culture, and it fully supports the establishment of the Chinese Language and Culture Center at the University of Silesia. Cai Lian, cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Poland, said that there was plenty of space for the development of the cooperation between the two countries in future, which would require more high-quality personnel. She said that the establishment of the Chinese Language and Culture Center could play an important role in promoting Chinese culture, cultivating well-qualified students and contributing to more exchanges between the two countries. Agnieszka Tambor, director of the center, said that the University of Silesia had friendly relationships with a lot of colleges and universities in China. Tambor added that apart from academic exchanges, the university also focused on promoting Chinese culture among local people, for example, by showing Chinese movies and organizing exhibitions in Katowice. "It was this long-term and steady exchange that led to the founding of the Chinese Language and Culture Center," she added. Currently, the center has a total of over 200 Polish students. Chinese teacher Xu Yujin said although the Chinese language was only an elective course, it attracted a large number of students. She plans to increase the number of history and culture courses as the Polish students are greatly interested in them. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 03:53:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations has asked the Saudi-led coalition to keep the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah and Saleef open for humanitarian shipments. UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, has welcomed the opening of Hudaydah and Saleef to commercial and humanitarian cargo. He called on the Saudi-led coalition to continue allowing vessels into the Red Sea ports, and for the Houthi rebels to desist from threatening this vital access route, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Friday. McGoldrick also lauded the coalition's approval to move four cranes to Hudaydah Port to enhance its capacity and allow for faster off-loading of vessels, said the spokesman. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 13 vessels have delivered food and much-needed fuel through Hudaydah and Saleef since Dec. 20, 2017, when the Saudi-led coalition announced that it would keep the two ports open for a period of one month for both humanitarian and commercial cargo. More deliveries are in the pipeline, according to OCHA. A total of 22 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance. Over 70 percent of them live in proximity to the Hudaydah and Saleef ports. The Saudi-led coalition, which is fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen, sealed off land, sea and air access to Yemen in November 2017 after Houthi rebels launched a missile at the Saudi capital of Riyadh. The missile was intercepted. The blockade was partially lifted later, but shipment of humanitarian supplies kept being affected. Yemen has been in civil war since 2015, pitting Houthi forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. In December 2017, conflict erupted between Houthi rebels and Saleh supporters, leading to the killing of Saleh. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 04:08:58|Editor: pengying Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army has retaken all the towns lost a day earlier to the Turkey-backed rebels and other militant groups in the northwestern province of Idlib, a monitor group said Friday. Through the counter-offensive by the army in the southern countryside of Idlib, the army has expanded its control to 120 towns since its military campaign in Idlib and the countryside of Hama on Dec. 25, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On Thursday, Turkey-backed rebel groups, as well as the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), unleashed a major offensive to foil the advance of the Syrian army. Opposition activists said the government forces' offensive in Idlib united the rebel factions, adding that the progress of the army could undermine the entire armed insurgency in Syria as Idlib is the major rebel bastion in Syria, following the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) late last year. The rebels, backed by Turkey's Turkistan Party, used Turkish armored vehicles and tanks and brought in most of their forces from the northern countryside of the northwestern province of Latakia and the Jisr al-Shughour area in the northern countryside of Idlib, military officers were cited by state news agency SANA as saying. The Turkistan Party fought against the army alongside the Nour Addien al-Zinki and the LLC, said SANA, adding that the Turkish government has been facilitating the entry of the Nour Addien al-Zinki fighters through the Turkish border. The tactics used by the army forces, however, led to eliminating the attacking forces of the Turkistan Party and Nour Addien al-Zinki as the rebels were besieged from several directions after losing dozens of fighters and commanders in the battle. Meanwhile, the London-based monitor, which says it relies on a network of activists on the ground, said the Syrian army has lost 70 fighters during the battles in Idlib since Dec. 25. Before the rebels' counter-offensive, the Syrian army was fighting to fully capture the strategic Abu al-Duhur air base in southeastern Idlib, as capturing the air base would deal a huge blow to the militants in Idlib and would enable the army to lay a siege to dozens of towns in the nearby southern countryside of Aleppo Province. Idlib has emerged as the main destination of rebel groups, which have evacuated several positions across Syria after surrendering to the Syrian army. The area has become a home to several rebel groups from different affiliations, some of which are supported by Turkey, while others, such as the LLC, are designated as terrorist groups. Parts of Idlib were supposedly part of the de-escalation zones' deal reached between Russia and Turkey, but the Syrian government has expressed rejection to the presence of Turkish forces on the Syrian soil given the "destructive role" played by Turkey during Syria's seven-year conflict. The Syrian government has repeatedly accused Turkey of backing the al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria, including the LLC. Turkey sees Idlib as a place of interest in Syria and the rebels in that area are fighting under Ankara's support. Turkey is also bracing to unleash an offensive on the Kurdish-controlled region of Afreen in northern Syria, according to a recent report by the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV. The Syrian government has said it will not tolerate the Turkish presence in Syria, demanding the withdrawal of all Turkish forces from the country. An opposition fighter fires a gun from a village near al-Tamanah during ongoing battles with government forces in Syria's Idlib province on January 11, 2018. (AFP photo) DAMASCUS, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army has retaken all the towns lost a day earlier to the Turkey-backed rebels and other militant groups in the northwestern province of Idlib, a monitor group said Friday. Through the counter-offensive by the army in the southern countryside of Idlib, the army has expanded its control to 120 towns since its military campaign in Idlib and the countryside of Hama on Dec. 25, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On Thursday, Turkey-backed rebel groups, as well as the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), unleashed a major offensive to foil the advance of the Syrian army. Opposition activists said the government forces' offensive in Idlib united the rebel factions, adding that the progress of the army could undermine the entire armed insurgency in Syria as Idlib is the major rebel bastion in Syria, following the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) late last year. The rebels, backed by Turkey's Turkistan Party, used Turkish armored vehicles and tanks and brought in most of their forces from the northern countryside of the northwestern province of Latakia and the Jisr al-Shughour area in the northern countryside of Idlib, military officers were cited by state news agency SANA as saying. The Turkistan Party fought against the army alongside the Nour Addien al-Zinki and the LLC, said SANA, adding that the Turkish government has been facilitating the entry of the Nour Addien al-Zinki fighters through the Turkish border. The tactics used by the army forces, however, led to eliminating the attacking forces of the Turkistan Party and Nour Addien al-Zinki as the rebels were besieged from several directions after losing dozens of fighters and commanders in the battle. Meanwhile, the London-based monitor, which says it relies on a network of activists on the ground, said the Syrian army has lost 70 fighters during the battles in Idlib since Dec. 25. Before the rebels' counter-offensive, the Syrian army was fighting to fully capture the strategic Abu al-Duhur air base in southeastern Idlib, as capturing the air base would deal a huge blow to the militants in Idlib and would enable the army to lay a siege to dozens of towns in the nearby southern countryside of Aleppo Province. Idlib has emerged as the main destination of rebel groups, which have evacuated several positions across Syria after surrendering to the Syrian army. The area has become a home to several rebel groups from different affiliations, some of which are supported by Turkey, while others, such as the LLC, are designated as terrorist groups. Parts of Idlib were supposedly part of the de-escalation zones' deal reached between Russia and Turkey, but the Syrian government has expressed rejection to the presence of Turkish forces on the Syrian soil given the "destructive role" played by Turkey during Syria's seven-year conflict. The Syrian government has repeatedly accused Turkey of backing the al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria, including the LLC. Turkey sees Idlib as a place of interest in Syria and the rebels in that area are fighting under Ankara's support. Turkey is also bracing to unleash an offensive on the Kurdish-controlled region of Afreen in northern Syria, according to a recent report by the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV. The Syrian government has said it will not tolerate the Turkish presence in Syria, demanding the withdrawal of all Turkish forces from the country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 04:39:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BRASILIA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) on Friday instructed investment fund managers not to invest in bitcoin or other crypto currencies. The CVM issued guidelines saying the jury was still out on the validity of the virtual currency, leading it to ban investments. "The legal and economic nature of this type of investment has been debated in Brazil and other countries, and no conclusions have been reached," particularly by the markets and regulatory agencies, Daniel Maeda, head of corporate and investor relations at the CVM, said. With that in mind, the CVM "informs investment fund managers that crypto currencies cannot be classified as financial assets... that's why the direct acquisition of these virtual monies by regulated investment funds is not allowed," Maeda said. The guidelines also "warn of the risks associated with internet transactions, such as security and particularities of ownership." Brazil joins other countries in taking a cautious approach to the rise in crypto currency transactions. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 06:09:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close by Alessandra Cardone ROME, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Italy's economic recovery would not face major risks in 2018, although the country was likely to be dominated by political uncertainties, notably by elections in March, according to a report unveiled on Friday. In a multi-authored paper titled "The World in 2018", Bologna-based think-tank Nomisma noted three political subjects appeared as key runners in the Italian campaign ahead of the vote. The contenders were a center-right coalition, more or less cohesive; a center-left front dominated by the Democratic Party -- which ruled the cabinets in the last five years, and was now losing ground -- and anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which has always taken pride in refusing electoral alliances. The country's agenda for the current and the next few years would, of course, "depend on the nature of the government that will emerge," the report noted. "The division of the electorate into three major components will make it impossible to form a homogeneous government," said Piero Ignazi, comparative politics professor with Bologna University, and author of the Italian chapter. Out of necessity, one of these components should be pushed to forge a coalition in order to form a cabinet, but the expert forecasts political instability might prevail. "To date, this solution seems impractical, because supporters of each party consider such alliances to be out of the question," Ignazi said. Yet, the progress achieved in latest years -- and especially the current, moderate growth after the country's worst post-war recession -- would not be in jeopardy. "We are experiencing a quite unusual phase, in which many countries suffer from uncertainty and political void, even unexpected ones such as Germany," Andrea Goldstein, Nomisma managing director, told Xinhua. "Nonetheless, economy seems to be going well despite this vacuum, and it may be the same for Italy," he added. The report did warn that whatever the outcome of Italy's next elections, some priorities would remain -- "from the weakness of the recovery and job creation to rising inequalities... to the demand for efficiency and good governance." All of these issues would not require a stable or strong government, but simply a "serious" one, according to the authors. "Considering that the chances of a clear outcome of the vote are pretty low, an uncertain result (and, consequently, a possible coalition government) may be better for Italy than a victory of forces seen as 'unreliable' by international markets," Goldstein explained. A crucial factor nurturing the faith of international investors in Italy is its capability and political will to pay its public debt, which amounts to some 2.29 trillion euros (about 132 percent of gross domestic product), and is the euro-zone's second largest after Greece. "For example, those forces putting Italy's euro-zone membership in doubt, or leaving this issue unclear in the campaign, would be seen as irresponsible by international markets," Goldstein pointed out. His remark here seemed to point at the two parties that have openly opposed the euro so far: right-wing Northern League -- part of the center-left coalition, and populist Five Star Movement (M5S), which appears the most popular force in opinion polls. As recently as last week, however, the M5S has mitigated its stance, and its leader Luigi Di Maio has declared it was "no longer time for Italy to leave the euro." Italy's Central Bank projected the country to grow 1.6 percent in 2017, 1.4 percent in 2018, and 1.3 percent in 2019-2020, while the European Union (EU) Commission forecast 1.5 percent, 1.3 percent, and 1.0 percent respectively. Overall, such projections did not need to be revised downward, despite the chances of instability to come, according to Goldstein. He explained all major economies were currently posting relatively high growth rates, and the positive conjuncture could not but help Italy as well. "The only real question is whether political uncertainty might turn into financial uncertainty," he warned. "If an inability or unwillingness to repay the debt emerges in Italy, then the economic results the country has achieved so far might be at risk." (1 euro = 1.21 U.S. dollars) Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 06:14:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GAZA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of Hamas movement and Islamic Jihad said on Friday that they won't attend the two-day meetings of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Central Council scheduled for next week. Qatar-based Musa Abu Maezooq, a member of Hamas politburo, wrote on his Twitter account that his Islamic group decides not to join the meetings that will be held in Ramallah on Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, a senior Islamic Jihad official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that his movement had officially informed the council of its intention not to join the meetings. The two Islamic groups are in fact not part of the Palestinian (National) Authority or the PLO, as they have been violently opposing the peace process and the Oslo peace accords signed between Israel and the PLO in 1993. The Islamic Jihad official said his group and Hamas agreed that their participation in the meetings won't bring any benefits to the two groups and that the results of the council meetings will be less than expectations. The upcoming PLO central council will discuss the consequences of U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Palestinian sources said the council will also discuss the internal Palestinian reconciliation between Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party, as well as Palestinian strategies toward U.S. and Israel policies over Jerusalem. Earlier in the day, the Palestinian health ministry said in a press statement that 65 Palestinians were killed and injured by Israeli soldiers' gunfire during recent clashes between Palestinian protestors and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 06:19:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close HARARE, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday briefed Angolan President Joao Lourenco on the recent political developments in Zimbabwe, assuring him that the welfare and safety of former President Robert Mugabe are guaranteed and that general elections due this year will be held on schedule. According to the report of the state-run media New Ziana, Mnangagwa met Lourenco in Luanda, Angola. In an interview after the meeting, Mnangagwa said he explained to his counterpart the recent events in Zimbabwe. "It was an excellent meeting, I came to Luanda to brief my senior, President Lourenco about the transition that has taken place in Zimbabwe," Mnangagwa said. Lourenco is also the current chairperson of the Southern African Development Community's Organ for Politics, Defence and Security. Mnangagwa said that the elections would be held as scheduled, effectively quashing claims that the new administration was seeking a postponement. On the welfare of former President Mugabe, Mnangagwa said the new government was determined to preserve his rich legacy. "We had this transition peacefully and the former President Mugabe is very safe, we will look after him, we will care for him. He is our founding father of the nation, he is our revolutionary icon and we are determined to preserve his legacy. "Those criminals who (had) surrounded him, the transition has been able to remove them from positions of influence." Mnangagwa said. Mnangagwa and Lourenco also discussed several bilateral issues, particularly economic and trade relations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 06:34:30|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday expressed his concerns about the risks from cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Mnuchin said in an interview at the Economic Club of Washington that his primary concern with cryptocurrencies is their potential use for money laundering or illicit finance. "We want to make sure that bad people cannot use these currencies to do bad things," said Mnuchin. He also said that the United States will work with G20 members to ensure the cryptocurrency accounts don't "become the Swiss numbered bank account." The finance minister also expressed his concern that consumers could get hurt from the speculative investment of bitcoin. According to the finance minister, the interagency Financial Stability Oversight Council has formed a working group to monitor cryptocurrencies. In regard to whether the Federal Reserve and the Treasury consider issuance of digital dollar, "the Fed and we don't think there's any need for that at this point," said Mnuchin. In her latest press conference in December, Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen also dismissed the idea of introducing a digital currency, saying that there were limited benefits from introducing it due to limited demand and substantial concerns. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-13 06:54:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close HELSINKI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A satellite weighing 70 kg was launched on an Indian rocket on Friday, and the Finnish developer said it is the first microsatellite equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that is able to take pictures day and night through cloud layers. The light weight of the ICEYE-X1 satellite benefits the cost of launches. For example, the Sentinel radar satellite of the European Space Agency weighs over two tonnes, the Finnish company ICEYE compared. Data from the satellite will be used for commercial monitoring purposes such as keeping track on ice changing conditions. It can also track oil spills. Rafal Modrewski, CEO of ICEYE said in a press release that the company is committed to enabling better decision making for everyone. The company is not the first to offer visual data from a microsatellite, but claims to be the fastest. Pictures from anywhere in the world could be obtained in three hours. The next satellite in the ICEYE series will take off from the United States in summer. By 2020, there will be 20 Finnish ICEYE satellites in operation. Two previous satellites produced in Finland were nanosatellites and primarily scientific, and began operations earlier this year. Also on Friday, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto signed into law the Finnish Space Act. It creates a legal framework for the Finnish space industries. Space operations based in Finland will require a licence. Figuring out personal impacts of the recently passed national tax reform act has a lot of people crunching numbers on their calculators these days, but it will probably take months even years before things sort out. But corporations are signaling their enthusiasm for the cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent down to 21 percent and in a move that is welcome for workers across the country. Many of them are sharing that good fortune by sending out bonuses in many cases of about $1,000. American Airlines is in the $1,000 club, as are AT&T, Bank of America, Nationwide Insurance, Comcast, JetBlue Airways and U.S. Bancorp, according to news stories this week. Critics and there will always be critics say the one-time bonuses are not the same as boosting base wages which is more beneficial to workers over the long haul and which President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans said will eventually happen with the tax plan. But there is some evidence that wage increases are also in the works. Walmart, the nations largest private employer, this week said it is boosting the minimum wage for its U.S. employees to $11 and also is handing out bonuses of up to $1,000 based on work longevity. Walmart credited the corporate tax cut for giving it the opportunity to become more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement: Today we are building on investments weve been making in associates (employees), in their wages and skills development. Its our people who make the difference and we appreciate how they work hard to make every day easier for busy families. Walmart also said it is boosting paid maternity leave for full-time hourly workers to 10 weeks at full pay, up from its previous leave policy of six to eight weeks at half pay and also adding paid leave benefits for new fathers and non-birthing mothers. News reports this week said about a dozen banks have said they will raise their minimum wages and VISA and AFLAC plan on boosting contributions to their employees retirement plans. The wealth-sharing has been called the Trump bonus by some and the president is not shy about claiming credit. Speaking in Nashville early this week, President Trump said, Businesses across America have already given bonuses and other benefits to hundreds of thousands of workers as a result of these massive tax cuts. Thats a good start and we can only hope that those results are sustained over the long run and workers continue to share in the benefits. Salmon are brought up from a fish trap during the height of the September run of chinook up the Lower Columbia River. This fish trap was operated by the Wild Fish Conservancy, which has received grant funding to test it as a more selective way to harvest salmon. The salmon are being brought up by two Wild Fish Conservancy biologists whose backs are shown here. Justin Eastman, at left and Adrian Tuohy at right. Another slide evaluation? It cant hurt and may help 12500 N.E. Tenth Place Bellevue, WA 98005 JPFO.org 800-869-1884 info@jpfo.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan 12 2018 Contact Floyd Neeland MEMORIAL TO MASS MURDER ENCOURAGES COPYCATS "GIFFORDS" HEADLINES A BAD IDEA Media pours on praise, might pause if they give it more thought While reporters are extolling a plan to raise money and build a memorial commemorating the day a mass-murdering psychopath went on a Tucson killing spree, at least one civil-rights group is questioning the controversial scheme. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, http://www.jpfo.org, challenges the notion that an anti-gun-rights advocate wounded in the attack should be erecting memorials to the event. "Anniversaries of death and tragedy are solemn, private affairs, but this is being turned into an agenda-driven public carnival--a campaign assaulting rights of everyone who didn't do anything," says an official statement from the 29-year-old civil-rights organization. Gabby Giffords has unfortunately gone from a highly respected member of Congress to a poster child for so-called "gun control," part of a dark-money-funded effort to disarm the public, under a rubric of safety. Severely wounded and only partially recovered, she has the appearance of a puppet manipulated by handlers, which includes Michael Bloomberg, the New York billionaire pouring cash into astroturf anti-rights projects like hers, enabling their activities. Recognizing a lack of membership support, her group recently changed its name from Americans for Responsible Solutions, which it never really offered, to "Giffords," confusing most observers. "Commemorating scenes where mass murders took place incentivizes copycat killers, a problem police nationwide are battling," notes JPFO. JPFO's "Don't Inspire Evil" campaign, along with the left-leaning "No Notoriety" group, discourages such dangerous, reckless, unethical activity. Spree killers consistently name prior murderers as inspiration for their foul deeds. Honoring such events is a practice that must end, JPFO says. ##### Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, http://www.jpfo.org is America's most aggressive civil-rights organization, dedicated to destroying the notion of "gun control" as any kind of credible public-policy position. So-called "gun control" does not control guns and doesn't control criminal behavior. What it does do is disarm the innocent, leaving them helpless in the face of criminals, tyrannical governments and genocide. History repeatedly proves this fact. Founded in 1989 by Aaron Zelman as a response to the Holocaust, JPFO speaks with the moral authority and tenacious commitment of survivors of persecution, and knows that surrendering your personal and family safety to government protection courts disaster. "You don't have to be Jewish to fight by our side, you just have to love liberty." Back to Top York Senior Center Join the guys at the York Senior Center and shoot a game or two of pool Monday through Friday mornings from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 3:30 p.m. The York Senior Center will hold exercise classes Mondays and Wednesdays from 10:30 11 a.m. Classes are free for ages 55 and older. Resistance bands and light weights are used. Cards are played at the York Senior Center Monday through Friday at 1 p.m. Dominoes and Bridge are played on Mondays, Pitch on Tuesdays and Fridays, Pinochle on Wednesdays and Thursdays and Canasta on Thursdays. Individuals and card groups are welcome all the time! A Taco Salad Lunch will be held at the York Senior Center at noon on Monday, Jan. 15. Please RSVP by Friday, Jan. 12. A free will donation will be accepted. The York Senior Center will hold Works In Progress on Tuesday, Jan. 16 from 9:30 11 a.m. Crafters are invited to bring their unfinished crochet, needlework, knitting and craft projects to the Senior Center and visit while working with others. The York Senior Center J.O.Y. Club will spread some cheer and smiles on Wednesday, Jan. 17 from 11:05 11:35 a.m. The York Senior Center will hold its Monthly Fundraiser Lunch on Thursday, Jan. 18. Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, dessert and drinks will be served from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. A free will offering will be taken. All are welcome and take out is available. The York Senior Center will hold a Square Dance on Saturday, Jan. 20 starting at 7:30 p.m. The York Senior Center will hold Works In Progress on Tuesday, Jan. 23 from 9:30 11 a.m. Crafters are invited to bring their unfinished crochet, needlework, knitting and craft projects to the Senior Center and visit while working with others. The York Senior Center will hold their Potluck Lunch at noon on Tuesday, Jan. 23. Everyone is invited to bring a main/side dish or dessert for all to enjoy. Lets Bake! On Thursday, Jan. 25 from 1:30 until 4 p.m. the York Senior Center will be making some easy treats for all to enjoy. Keep your kitchen clean and come join us and get back to enjoying some baking time. The York Senior Center will hold Works In Progress on Tuesday, Jan. 30 from 9:30 11 a.m. Crafters are invited to bring their unfinished crochet, needlework, knitting and craft projects to the Senior Center and visit while working with others. Wednesday, Jan. 31 is Melted Snowman Day at the York Senior Center. Stop in and enjoy some special winter treats. Stromsburg Senior Center The Stromsburg Senior Center will hold exercise classes every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 9 a.m. each day at the Viking Center. The Stromsburg Senior Center will have cards every Friday at 1:30 p.m. The Stromsburg Senior Center will hold at potluck lunch at noon on Monday, Jan. 15. The Stromsburg Senior Center will host a Blood Pressure Clinic from 9:30 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16. Stromsburg Senior Center members will play pool at Shelby on Monday, Jan. 29. Geneva Public Library Teen Activities Group (TAG) will meet Monday, Jan. 15 from 7 - 9 p.m. at the Geneva Public Library. this open group of teens will be discussing This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp. Its not too late to grab a copy of the book if youd like one. If you can, please bring a smartphone or tablet for games after the book discussion. Childrens Storytime will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 9:30 a.m. at the Geneva Public Library. Toddlers, preschoolers and their parents are invited. Childrens Storytime will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 9:30 a.m. at the Geneva Public Library. Toddlers, preschoolers and their parents are invited. LEGO Night will be held at the Geneva Public Library on Thursday, Jan. 25. Stop in anytime between 6 and 8 p.m. and build whatever your imagination desires. Nebraska Czechs of York YORK -- The Nebraska Czechs of York will meet at Hunters Lounge in Waco on Saturday, Jan. 13. Appetizers will be served at 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 p.m. Dues will be collected. Jenny Magner, Fulbright Scholar recipient, will give a presentation on her stay in the Czech Republic. Gresham Fire Department GRESHAM -- The monthly firemens meeting will be held Monday, Jan. 15, at 7:30 p.m., at the fire station. York Area Chamber of Commerce YORK -- The annual York Area Chamber of Commerce banquet is set for Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018 and will be at Yorks Holthus Convention Center. Social hour begins at 5:30 p.m. with dinner being served at 6:30 p.m.. Tickets are on sale now for just $20. Please contact our office at 402-362-5531 for tickets. GFWC/NFWC Fairmont Womans Club FAIRMONT -- On Tuesday, Jan. 16, the GFWC/NFWC Fairmont Womans Club will meet at the senior center at 1:30 p.m., for the regular meeting. Thought for the Day will be presented by Carol Bettger. The program will be about the March of Dimes. Those who attend are asked to bring $1 for each pair of shoes they own. There will also be a presentation by foreign exchange students. York County Development Corporation YORK -- On Thursday, Jan. 18, the York County Development Corporation will have its traveling office at the Benedict Community Center from 9-11 a.m. If someone has a business project they would like to discuss they can stop in during that time. Benedict Volunteer Fire Department BENEDICT -- The Benedict Volunteer Fire Department will have its annual beef and pork barbecue on Saturday, Jan. 20, at the community center. Serving will be from 5-8 p.m. Drive-through service will be available. Use the alley north of the community center and enter from the east off Lovena Avenue. Fillmore County American Legion and Auxiliary SHICKLEY -- The Fillmore County American Legion and Auxiliary joint meeting will be held on Jan. 21, 2018 at the Shickley Community Center in Shickley hosted by Post and Unit #164. Registration will be held at 2:30 p.m. and the meeting at 3 p.m. followed by lunch. Representatives from Exeter, Fairmont, Geneva, Ohiowa, Milligan and Shickley Posts and Units are invited to attend. Waco CBO WACO -- The next CBO meeting will be Jan. 22, at 7 p.m., at the community building. The CBO will hold officer elections at the January meeting. If anyone is interested in joining, or would like to be an officer, the following positions are available secretary and treasurer. York County GOP YORK -- Kilgore Memorial Library will host a York County GOP Meet & Greet on Tuesday, Jan. 23 from 5:30 7 p.m. Candidates from various races will be present. Find more details on the York County GOP Facebook page. Benedict Mens Club BENEDICT -- The Benedict Mens Club will have a pitch tournament on Saturday, Jan. 27, at the community center. Six-point pitch will be played by two-player teams. Sign-up will start at 7 p.m., and card playing will start at 7:30 p.m. Gresham Community Club GRESHAM -- The Gresham Community Club will meet Monday, Jan. 29, at the community center. The annual member meeting will start at 7 p.m., and the directors meeting will follow. Waco Cemetery Board WACO -- The next Waco Cemetery Board meeting will be Thursday, Feb. 1, at 7 p.m., at the Waco village office. Utica American Legion Auxiliary UTICA -- The Utica American Legion Auxiliary will hold its annual soup dinner on Sunday, Feb. 4, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., at the Utica Senior Center. They will serve chili, chicken noodle soup and homemade pies. Freewill offerings will be accepted. Friends of the Library YORK -- The Friends of the Library will again host York Uncorked on Saturday, Feb. 10 from 5:30 8 p.m. at Kilgore Memorial Library. There will be fine wines, liquors and craft brews for tasting along with delicious chocolate treats and other savory delights. Advance tickets may be purchased for $20 at Kirks Korner, Kilgore Memorial Library and at the Chamber of Commerce office. Tickets will be $25 at the door. Must be 21 or older to attend. 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. Happy shootin' my friends! Buying Guides: Firearms Firearm Accessories Ammunition Gun Safes Scopes & Optics Hunting Air Rifles Best AR-15 Best AR 15 Scope Best Hunting Rifle Best Gun Safe Best AK 47 Best AR 10 Best Glock Triggers Best Glock Best Home Defense Shotgun As a homeowner, you probably already know that you should be working to maintain your home. But, chances are, you Read More Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-09 22:54:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GUANGZHOU, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese nuclear power operator signed an agreement Tuesday with a French energy organization to deepen cooperation on nuclear power technology. The deal, between China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) and the French Alternative Energy and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), focuses on areas such as nuclear reactor technology, advanced fuels and materials, and nuclear fuel cycles. Under the agreement, CGN and CEA will deepen cooperation in the upstream and downstream nuclear power industry chain, including reactor life management and the concept design of the fourth-generation nuclear energy technology. He Yu, chairman of CGN, said the new agreement will enhance bilateral exchanges in nuclear power technology and open new space for Sino-French nuclear power cooperation. Founded in 1994, CGN is the largest nuclear power operator in China, with 39,000 employees worldwide. It focuses on the development of clean energies such as nuclear power, nuclear fuel, wind power and solar power. The CEA is a key organization in research, development and innovation in France. Its main areas include defense and security, nuclear and renewable energy, and physical and life sciences. Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-11 16:24:30|Editor: Lifang Video Player Close 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. WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said late Thursday he no longer plans to attend the opening of a new US embassy in London. He announced the decision in a midnight tweet amid reports in Britain that a Trump visit would be met with protests. The president wrote that he was nixing the trip -- initially scheduled for next month -- because he is displeased with the location of the new embassy and its price tag. "Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars," Trump wrote. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" Trump has also been offered a full-blown state visit to Britain but no date has been set, amid jitters over protests. As recently as January 7, Prime Minister Theresa May reiterated that a state visit is still planned, saying "Trump is coming to the UK." MEXICO CITY: Mexico has made clear it will never pay for President Donald Trump`s planned southern border wall, the country`s economy minister said on Thursday, after the US leader again insisted he would make Mexico pay for the barrier. "The President of Mexico (Enrique Pena Nieto) has been very clear: Mexico will never pay for this wall," Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo wrote on Twitter after a day of meetings in Washington. Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Thursday that Mexico could pay for the wall, which he hopes will stem illegal immigration, "indirectly" through changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump has said he will withdraw from NAFTA if the accord cannot be renegotiated in favor of the United States. Guajardo was in Washington for talks this week with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer over the modernization of NAFTA, according to a statement by Mexico`s Economy Ministry. Guajardo wrote on Twitter that the border wall had not been discussed at any time during his meetings with U.S. officials, nor in the negotiations over how to rework NAFTA. New York: US President Donald Trump has signalled that he has developed a "good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, despite tensions between them. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un," Trump said in an interview about the first year of his presidency with The Wall Street Journal newspaper. "I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised," said the US President. Trump, however, declined to confirm whether or not he had spoken with Kim, Efe news reported. "I don`t want to comment on it. I`m not saying I have or haven`t. I just don`t want to comment," he replied, when asked by WSJ if he had contacts with the North Korean leader. Trump has been of late more open, on more than one occasion, to having a dialogue with North Korea. On January 10, the White House cited Trump`s willingness to hold talks "at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances" with Pyongyang. The US has had no official contacts with North Korea for years. Over the past few month Trump had hostile exchanges Kim, who has repeatedly been mocked by Trump as a "rocket man" over his weapons programs. According to the US President, "all these harsh comments were part of a strategy". "You`ll see that a lot with me," Trump said of his belligerent remarks towards the North Korean leader, but added "then all of a sudden somebody`s my best friend. "I could give you 20 examples. You could give me 30. I`m a very flexible person." On January 9, South and North Korea held a "historic" meeting after a gap of two years. The delegations agreed to ensure "the safety and success" of the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics in the South. North Korea has expressed its interests in attending the Winter Olympics, in February which marks an important moment of possible rapprochement between the two Koreas after a year of tensions triggered by Pyongyang`s continuous weapons tests and the US President`s aggressive remarks towards the regime. When Asked if Kim intended to "drive a wedge" between Seoul and Washington by opening the talks with South Korea, the US President did not rule it out. "If I were them, I would try," he said, but added "The difference is I`m President, other people aren`t. And I know more about wedges than any human being that`s lived." WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Thursday questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as "shithole countries," according to two sources familiar with the comments. Trump`s comments, made in the White House, came as Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham briefed the president on a newly drafted immigration bill being touted by a bipartisan group of senators, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified. Other government officials were present during the conversation, the sources said. The lawmakers were describing how certain immigration programs operate, including one to give safe haven in the United States to people from countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife. One of the sources who was briefed on the conversation said that Trump said, "Why do we want all these people from Africa here? They`re shithole countries ... We should have more people from Norway." The second source familiar with the conversation, said Trump also questioned the need for Haitians in the United States. Many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers slammed Trump for his remarks. Republican U.S. Representative Mia Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, said the comments were "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation`s values" and called on Trump to apologise to the American people and to the countries he denigrated. Another Republican Representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Cuba and whose south Florida district includes many Haitian immigrants, said: "Language like that shouldn`t be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn`t be heard in the White House." Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a frequent Trump critic, said the president`s comment "smacks of blatant racism, the most odious and insidious racism masquerading poorly as immigration policy." The programme that was being discussed at the White House meeting is called Temporary Protection Status. Trump has moved to end the status for immigrants from El Salvador, which could result in 200,000 Salvadorans legally in the United States being deported, and other countries. The bipartisan Senate plan would attempt to maintain TPS in return for ending or changing a "diversity" lottery programme that has been aimed at allowing up to 50,000 people a year from countries with few emigres to the United States. Asked about Trump`s quips, White House spokesman Raj Shah said: "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people." "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 said. Another source familiar with the meeting said Trump was questioning why the United States should take in unskilled labourers from the countries under discussion and should instead welcome immigrants from nations that can offer skilled workers. The source said Trump did not intend any slur. PATNA: The convoy of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was attacked and pelted with stones during a 'Samiksha Yatra' in Buxar's Nandan on Friday. The attackers threw stones but the chief minister was rescued safely. However, two of the security personnel in his convoy were injured. A report said that people of Nandan village wanted the Chief Minister to visit the Dalit Basti which led to a disagreement followed by stone pelting. CM Nitish was safely evacuated from the area. Nitish Kumar is on a state-wide tour since December 12 to take a stock of state government's development schemes over the years. Earlier this month, Kumar had restrained policemen from going after a group of youngsters who waved black flags at his public meeting in Saharsa district. The incident took place at Sulindabad village in Kehra block of Saharsa, where the chief minister said a crackdown would lead to undue publicity for the youngsters who were 'barely four or five in number' and remarked wryly 'what is wrong with the black colour. It is a fine shade.' "Dissent lends beauty to democracy," the JDU chief had said in Saharsa. Further details are awaited in connection with Friday's incident. Mumbai: After Rajasthan Chief Minister decided to ban Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmaavat starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, in the state, her Gujarat counterpart Vijay Rupani announced on Friday that the controversial film will not hit theatres in his state, ANI report suggests. The Central Board of Film Certification has certified Padmaavat for screening and the film is slated to release on January 25. Over 70 activists of the Rajasthan- based Karni Sena were detained here today while protesting outside the CBFC office against the clearance given to Bhansali's film which was earlier titled Padmavati. Over 30 Karni Sena supporters were detained from Haji Ali during another protest, a police official said. "Over 70 supporters of the Karni Sena were detained from Cumballa Hill area in south Mumbai, while protesting outside the CBFC office without police permission," Zone II Deputy Commissioner of Police Dnyaneshwar Chavan said. The Rajput Karni Sena on January 10, 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. The film was previously scheduled to release on Dec 1. But the outfit protested against the film's release in Rajasthan and other parts of the country over the portrayal of queen Padmini in it. The group alleged the movie "distorted" history even though historians are divide on whether the queen actually existed. The filmmakers, too, have denied the allegations. "The film should be canned and thrown into the flames of Jauhar. We have heard that it is releasing on January 25 and if so happens we will take to streets and appeal our youths to hold public curfew at cinema halls," Kalvi told reporters. He claimed that a three-member panel that was shown the movie has opined that it should not be released, adding that the film is likely to be shown to another six persons. "All this should end now and the film should not be allowed to be released to hurt the sentiments of people who are agitating against it," Kalvi said. He claimed that six states have announced a ban on the movie. "I will hold discussions with Delhi government in this regard." On December 28, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) decided to give the film a U/A certification along with some modifications and suggested that its title be changed to Padmaavat to befit the source material, Malik Muhammad Jayasi's epic of the same name. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: Seven years after entering the dairy business in India, Nutrition and dairy major Danone is going exit its dairy portfolio. The company said that it is focusing on best performing product categories and analysing portfolio to maximise growth opportunities. Danone has decided to rationalise its product portfolio in India to allow for accelerated investments and a sharper focus on growing its nutrition portfolio, a company statement said. "In order to maximise growth opportunities, we are continuously analysing our portfolio and sharpening our focus to accelerate investments on the best performing categories and products. For this reason, we will discontinue some of the SKUs sold in India," a Danone India spokesperson said. Danone's dairy portfolio in India included a range of fresh products from dahi, mishti dahi and flavoured yoghurts. Its UHT portfolio comprised UHT Milk, buttermilk, lassi, cold coffee and smoothies. The French dairy company will, however, invest and grow in India through brands such as Protinex, Aptamil, Farex, Dexolac, and Neocate, it said. The company, last year launched its global flagship infant nutrition brand 'Aptamil' in India. It started the the nutrition business in 2012 with the acquisition of nutrition portfolio from Wockhardt Group. Ever since the company started business in India in 2010, it has invested over Rs 1,800 crore in the country, which includes acquisition of the nutrition portfolio from Wockhardt and upgradation of Lalru facility in Punjab. London: Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering allegedly amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore, 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 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. 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. New Delhi: Idea Cellular on Friday said that National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved its merger deal with telecom major Vodafone. In October, Idea shareholders voted in favour of the merger. In the next step, both the companies need a final approval from the Department of Telecom. Last year, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular had agreed to merge their operations to create the country's largest telecom operator worth of more than USD 23 billion with a 35 percent market share. The combined entity of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which are currently India's number 2 and 3, respectively, would dislodge Bharti Airtel to counter the fierce price war in the world's second-largest telecom market. The deal gives Vodafone India an implied enterprise value of Rs 82,800 crore and Idea Rs 72,200 crore. Post the transaction, the British firm will own 45.1 per centstake in the merged entity, while the Aditya Birla group, Ideas parent, will have 26 percent after paying Rs 3,874 crore cash for a 4.9 per cent stake. The remaining 28.9 percent will be held by other shareholders. With PTI Inputs NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police arrested a 22-year-old Non-resident Indian (NRI) for allegedly molesting a 52-year-old US national outside a five-star hotel in Lutyens' Delhi. The accused has been identified as Anmol Singh Kharbanda and is working as a software engineer for Google. He has been sent to judicial custody. According to Additional Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) BK Singh, the woman had checked into the hotel on January 6 where she befriended the accused. On January 8, at around 10 pm, the two had drinks at Taj Palace Hotel's bar. The victim, in her complaint, alleged that he offered her laced drinks and tried to grope her. "Kharbanda took her to his room for a smoke when he allegedly groped and tried to touch her inappropriately," Additional Commissioner of Police BK Singh said. Kharbanda, who works for Google on a contract basis, was reportedly under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident, Singh said. After the incident, the woman checked out of the hotel and shifted to one in Gurgaon. On the next day, the woman left for Jaipur after a fight with him. She reported the incident and complained to the police on Thursday after returning to Delhi. Following the complaint by the victim, Kharbanda was arrested from the hotel after being interrogated. Both Kharbanda and the victim were staying in Taj Palace hotel for the last few days, the police said. Utah County Sheriff's Office(SALT LAKE CITY) -- Utah authorities are defending the actions of four sheriff's deputies and a police officer who fired 75 shots at an armed murder suspect fleeing in a stolen pickup truck last month. The suspect, Arturo Ray Gallemore-Jimenez, 37, was shot three times in the Dec. 20, 2017, incident but survived the barrage of gunfire that included 27 shots fired by a SWAT officer armed with an automatic assault weapon, according to the Utah County Sheriff's Office. Authorities said a bystander parked on the side of the freeway was shot in the shoulder by an errant bullet fired by law enforcement, and that another shot shattered the window of a family's pickup truck driving on the interstate, just missing a 4-year-old. The high-stakes confrontation erupted when Gallemore-Jimenez allegedly shot at deputies with a .38 caliber revolver after he was pulled over on Interstate 15, about 60 miles north of Salt Lake City, Sgt. Spencer Cannon told ABC News. Cannon said it was vital that officers prevented the suspect from leaving the freeway and driving into highly populated areas. "Had he gotten off the freeway into one of these areas it would have been a nightmare," Cannon said. The incident started about sundown when the sheriff's office received a report that a man fired shots at a truck stop parking lot in Nephi, Utah, Cannon said. He said witnesses told deputies that the suspect shot out a window of his truck because he had locked his keys inside, then drove north on I-15. The deputy went searching for the suspect's truck and soon spotted it near a town called Spanish Fork and initiated a stop, Cannon said. After waiting for backup to arrive, the driver, later identified as Gallemore-Jimenez, was ordered to show his hands by sticking them out the driver's side window. Dash-cam video the sheriff's office released this week shows Gallemore-Jimenez reaching back into the cab of his truck and emerging with a snub-nosed revolver, firing three shots. Cannon said four deputies and a Spanish Fork Police Department officer opened fire as Gallemore-Jimenez drove away. Despite the rear tires of his truck being blown out, Gallemore-Jimenez continued down the busy freeway at about 30 mph with officers pursuing him and blocking off exits so he wouldn't exit the freeway. Cannon said the low-speed chase went on for nine miles. At some point, a sheriff's office SWAT officer involved in the initial firefight sped past the suspect to block an off-ramp leading to a university, Cannon said. When the suspect swerved to exit there, the SWAT officer unleashed a barrage of shots from an AR-style automatic assault weapon. Cannon said all 27 shots hit the truck and caused the driver to crash. Officers swarmed the truck, arrested the wounded suspect and seized the revolver and a shotgun from the cab of the bullet-riddled truck, Cannon said. Officers also found methamphetamine and marijuana in the truck, Cannon added. But the drama didn't stop there. While being treated in the hospital, Gallemore-Jemenez confessed to shooting a man a day earlier in Colorado, Cannon said. "He was rambling, talking a thousand miles a minute. It seemed pretty clear that he was under the influence of something," Cannon said. "He told us he had sot someone in the back near Denver. We followed up on that." Investigators learned that Gallemore-Jemenez was suspected of shooting a man in Aurora, Colorado, during a dispute over the truck he was driving, which had been reported stolen. Cannon said he eventually tracked down the suspect's father and learned through a phone conversation that Gallemore-Jimenez was heading to a drug rehab facility in Las Vegas when the shootout occurred. "His father said he has had substance abuse problems for years," said Cannon, adding that Gallemore-Jimenez had a lengthy criminal history that included arrests in seven different states for crimes ranging from burglary to drug possession. Gallemore-Jimenez's attorney, Eric Jacobson, a public defender in Utah County, did not return calls from ABC News seeking comment. Ryan McBride, a deputy Utah County attorney, told ABC News that Gallemore-Jimenez was charged with three counts of attempted aggravated murder, failure to respond to an officer, possession of firearms, possession of drugs, auto theft and driving with a suspended license. Gallemore-Jemenez has since been released from a hospital and is being held on $1 million cash bail at the Salt Lake City Jail. The sheriff's deputies and police officer involved in the shooting were all initially placed on paid administrative leave while Utah County prosecutors investigated the episode, Cannon said. Three of the deputies have returned to work, Cannon said. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. New Delhi: 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. "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 percent 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 yesterday announced its decision to boycott the compulsory attendance for students and said it was "unproductive" and "meaningless" form of bureaucratic work for teachers. New Delhi: A 29-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 on Thursday 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. NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that the observations made by the four Supreme Court judges are extremely disturbing and have far-reaching consequences. Demanding an investigation into the entire matter at the highest level, Gandhi said, All citizens who love the idea of justice are looking at this issue, needs to be addressed. The Congress president was briefing the media at his residence on Friday evening. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, P Chidambaram and several other senior party members were also present at the event. Immediately after, Congress' official Twitter handle tweeted: AICC Press Release: INC Statement on the 4 SC Judges Press Conference on the functioning of the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/txekcEupkL Congress (@INCIndia) January 12, 2018 In an unprecedented press conference on Friday morning, four Supreme Court judges - Justice Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph - claimed that things are not in order at the top court and launched a sharp attack on Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra for ignoring the concerns voiced by them. Administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. Many things less than desirable have happened in the last few months. We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation, Justice Chelameswar said. Reacting to the statement of the four SC judges, Congress said in a tweet said that democracy was in danger. New Delhi: Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Friday warned against the possible use of CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) weapons and said that the need is to have technologies to counter such threats. General Rawat, who had previously also highlighted on the need for technologically advanced weapons and equipment, said that threat from CBRN weapons is fast becoming a concern. "The threat of the use of CBRN (Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) weapons is becoming a reality, particularly from the non-state actors," he said. "I am sure that DRDO's long-term perspective plan in conjunction and integrated perspective plan of the services must have encompassed the development of mitigation of technologies against such CBRN threats." Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is the government organisation responsible for military research and development. DRDO is expected to play a big role in the time to come, especially with India looking to reduce its dependence on imported arms and ammunition. Urging that forces should make use of 'Made in India' equipment, General Rawat had also said that modernisation of the forces was required in view of changing and challenging dynamics of military operations. A suspicious China and a volatile Pakistan remain major concerns for Indian security establishments. In the past, questions have been raised about safety of nuclear establishments in Pakistan with the United States even asking the country outline the measures in place to prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into hands of terrorists. India, meanwhile, continues to remain vigilant. NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented press meeting on Friday, four top judges of the Supreme Court rebelled against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on the issue of judiciary's freedom. "Democracy cannot survive in this or in any country," said the judges while accusing the CJI of assigning cases selectively to benches of preference. The four rebel judges Justice Chelameswar, Justice Madan Lokur, Justice Kurien Joseph and Justice Ranjan alleged that cases with large implications were heard by the bench headed by CJI single-handedly. When questioned about impeachment, the judges claimed that it's a decision that the nation must take. But can the CJI be impeached? According to the Constitution of India, the Chief Justice of India can be in office 65 years of age. The Article 124 (4) empowers Parliament to initiate the process of removal of any Supreme Court judge on the grounds misbehaviour or incapacity. The constitution says: A Judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. Article 124(4), Constitution of India, Source New Delhi: Congress party on Friday expressed grave concerns over the credibility of the Indian judiciary after four senior Supreme Court judges held a press conference and openly complained against the functioning of the apex court. Read: Complete letter of 4 top SC judges who revolted against CJI The four rebel Supreme Court judges - Justice Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph - criticised Chief Justice Dipak Misra, saying that events in the Supreme Court had left them with no choice but to address their concerns before the nation. Reacting to the four judges' ''unprecedented'' and "extraordinary" press conference the first in the history of Indian judiciary ever - the Congress said in a tweet that the development implies that democracy was in danger. We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court. #DemocracyInDanger, the Congress said in a tweet on its official Twitter handle. We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court. #DemocracyInDanger Congress (@INCIndia) January 12, 2018 This came even as senior lawyers and Congress leaders Kapil Sibal and Manish Tewari arrived at the residence of party president Rahul Gandhi to brief him about the fast-paced developments. Delhi: Congress leaders and senior advocates Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari and P Chidambaram also arrive at Rahul Gandhi's residence. #SupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/6CS3BqJfNJ ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 In an unprecedented press conference earlier this morning, the four judges said that things are not in order at the Supreme Court. Addressing the media, the senior-most judges launched a sharp attack on Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra for ignoring the concerns voiced by them. Administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. Many things less than desirable have happened in the last few months. We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation, Justice Chelameswar said. Justice J Chelameshwar said that the four judges were compelled to act in this way because Chief Justice Mishra could not be persuaded to mend the ways of the court. "We met CJI this morning. We collectively tried to persuade CJI that certain things aren't in order, so take some remedial measures, but unfortunately, our efforts failed," said Justice Chelameswar. "The four of us gave a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) some months ago," the justices revealed. In a letter released subsequently, they highlighted that rules are often not followed when cases are being allocated and that departure from rules will hurt the integrity of the top court. They also accused that cases with far-reaching consequences are being assigned selectively. Asked if they want the CJI to be impeached, the judges said that they are not implying it and that it is for the nation to decide. Justice J Chelameswar, however, added that democracy comes under threat if judiciary loses its freedom. Moments after their press conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi summoned Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss the matter at hand. Their allegations evoked sharp reactions from a divided legal fraternity of the country with some supporting their cause and others chiding them for immature and childish behaviour. (With Agency inputs) NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India on Friday is likely to announce the polling schedule for assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The polling is expected to be held in February and reports suggest that voting in all the three northeastern states will be conducted in a single-phase. The five-year term of the 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 People`s Front-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland rules in Nagaland. The Democratic Alliance is supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Earlier, 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 next assembly polls. Tripura The final electoral rolls of Tripura have been published with names of 25, 69,216 voters, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti said. For the first time, the third gender option was included in the final rolls and 11 people have registered their names under the category, Taranikanti said. Of the remaining 25, 69,205 voters, 13, 03,420 are males and 12, 65,785 females. The final rolls were published on January 5 after looking into all claims and objections filed from different quarters of Tripura, where assembly elections are due in the first half of this year, the CEO said. During the course of electoral rolls revision, the names of 98,064 voters were deleted and 47,800 first-timers between 18 and 19 years were added, he said. Meghalya Women have outnumbered men, making up for 50.4 per cent of the registered voters in the final electoral rolls of Meghalaya. The voters' list, published on January 9, has names of 18, 30, 104 voters, of which 9, 23,848 are women, chief electoral officer (CEO) F R Kharkongor said. The final list was released after looking into the claims and objections filed from different quarters of Meghalaya, where assembly elections are due in the first half of this year, he said. Meghalaya, with a population of 3.2 million people, has a literacy rate of 74.4 %, according to the official records of the state government. The tenure of the current assembly expires on March 6 and the Election Commission is making last-minute preparations before announcing the poll date, the CEO said. During the course of electoral rolls revision, the names of 3, 27,595 voters, including 42,843 first-timers in age group of 18 to 19 years, were added to the list. A total of 8,276 names were deleted from the roll and 6,645 applications were rejected, Kharkongor said. Unlike Tripura, no one in Meghalaya registered for the third gender option in the final rolls. Nagaland The assembly election in Nagaland will be held on schedule, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today amidst a demand by the state's civil society groups for deferring the polls to facilitate a solution to the vexed Naga insurgency issue. This was conveyed by the home minister to Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang when the latter met him here yesterday. "HM 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," the office of the home minister tweeted. During the meeting, the chief minister also gave some suggestions to the home minister for a solution to the vexed Naga issue. "HM told him that the negotiations of various Naga groups with the interlocutor will continue," another tweet said. Nagaland Health and Family Welfare Minister Imkong Imchen on Tuesday said he supported the demand of various Naga groups to defer the upcoming assembly elections in order to facilitate a solution to the seven-decade-old Naga insurgency. Various civil society groups have placed the demand -- signing of a final peace accord with the insurgent group NSCN-IM before the assembly elections. On Tuesday, the Naga Hoho, an apex Naga tribal body, has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's help in postponing the forthcoming Nagaland assembly elections, saying that the vexed insurgency problem should be resolved first. The expectations for a lasting peace have soared in Nagaland, which had been hit by insurgency for decades, after the Centre and the NSCN-IM signed a framework agreement in 2015. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) has been engaged with peace talks with the interlocutor of the central government since 1997, when it announced a ceasefire agreement after a bloody insurgency movement which started in Nagaland soon after the country's Independence. (Wi th PTI inputs) New Delhi: On a day which saw four sitting judges of Supreme Court taking on Chief Justice of India, Trinamool chief and West Bengal Chief Minister attempted to politicise the matter by accusing the Narendra Modi government of interfering with the judiciary. In an unprecedented press meet, the four judges - Justices J Chelameswar, Kurian Joseph, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokurheld - said rules are often broken for selective allocation of cases. Not one of them made any reference - direct or indirect - to the central government. That, however, did not stop Mamata from taking the opportunity to launch an attack. "The interference of government into the judicial functioning of the country is a real danger to our democracy," she said. Mamata was not the only one to seize the opportunity. The Congress Party too said the charges from the four judges reveal a threat to Indian democracy. We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court. #DemocracyInDanger, the Congress said in a tweet on its official Twitter handle. The BJP government in New Delhi though distanced itself from the entire incident - calling it an internal matter of the judiciary. Prime Minister Modi did however summon Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad immediately after the press conference of the four judges. Mumbai: Additional security personnel were deployed outside the office of Central Board of Film Certification on Friday after Karni Sena threatened to stage a protest against clearance given to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's directorial venture Padmaavat (earlier, Padmavati). A number of protestors who had begun gathering at the spot were also detained. Karni Sena President Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi had, on Thursday, threatened to gherao the CBFC office. Thousands are expected to join the protests throught the course of the day. #Padmaavat row: Massive security cover for CBFC after Karni Sena threatens protesthttps://t.co/d9EJyxo6pE pic.twitter.com/0x6PRhJU6o Zee News (@ZeeNews) 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." Mumbai: Karni Sena workers detained by Police while they were protesting outside Central Board Of Film Certification office against the film #Padmavat, say, 'changing the name of the film doesn't suffice' pic.twitter.com/XgbeTXzKXv January 12, 2018 The Karni Sena has also demanded the resignation of Prasoon Joshi, the chairman of CBFC. "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. CBFC had given the Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor starrer a U/A certificate and suggested numerous changes including changing the title. The Central Board of Film Certification had an examining committee meeting on December 28. It was decided at the meeting that the movie will be given a U/A certification as long as the makers incorporate suggestions and modifications suggested. Some of the key modifications suggested include those pertaining to disclaimers, pertinently adding one regarding not glorifying the practice of Sati. It has also suggested relevant modifications in the song Ghoomar to befit the character portrayed. Karni Sena members though are not satisfied with the changes suggested. New Delhi: The ruling BJP on Friday launched a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi-led Congress and accused it of playing politics over what it called ''an internal matter'' of the judiciary after four top court judges openly complained about the way things were being conducted by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra. Addressing a press briefing, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said, ''Rahul Gandhi is playing politics over the Supreme Court issue while it's an internal matter of the apex court.'' Read: Complete letter of 4 top SC judges who revolted against CJI ''In the country, judiciary plays an independent role and the Attorney-General has given his statement. No politics should be played. We are surprised and pained that Congress, which has been rejected number of times by people in elections is trying to gain political mileage and it has exposed itself,'' Patra added. The reactions from the ruling side came minutes after the Congress described the comments made by four Supreme Court judges as "extremely disturbing" and appealed to the Supreme Court to find solutions to preserve the independence of the judiciary. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi even demanded that its senior-most judges should supervise a probe by SIT into the mysterious death of Special CBI Judge BH Loya. The Congress also issued a statement after Gandhi met senior party leaders, including P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Manish Tewari who are also leading lawyers, and discussed the situation arising out of the press conference by four senior-most judges - Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Madan B. Lokur - who were critical of Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Gandhi and his party demanded that the PIL concerning the death of Judge BH Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin fake shootout case, should be entrusted to the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court who should ensure a thorough and impartial investigation of the case by an independent SIT. Gandhi, who made a brief statement to the media, said it was "a sensitive and important matter" and that "the points raised by the judges are extremely important". "The points that have been raised by the four judges are extremely important. They have mentioned that there is a threat to democracy. I think it needs to be looked into carefully. They have also made a point about Judge Loya's case. I think that is also something that needs to be investigated properly. It needs to be looked at from the highest levels of the Supreme Court," he said. He said the press conference by judges "never happened before". Read: Top SC judges take on Chief Justice of India, say democracy won't survive without free judiciary "It's unprecedented. I think all citizens who love the idea of justice, who believe in the Supreme Court are looking at this issue," Gandhi said. Earlier, Attorney General KK Venugopal said that the four senior-most judges could have avoided addressing a press conference on their differences with the Chief Justice but expressed confidence that the entire issue would be resolved very soon. ''Today's press conference could have been avoided, but the Supreme Court judges are all statesman with vast experience and knowledge, and I am sure by tomorrow, the entire issue would be resolved,''Attorney General (AG) K K Venugopal had told ANI. Venugopal, however, admitted that the accusations made by the four sitting apex court judges openly before the electronic media will seriously affect public confidence in the court. The reactions from the Attorney General came shortly after the four apex court judges held a press conference this morning and said that things are not in order at the Supreme Court. Addressing the media, the senior-most judges launched a sharp attack on Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra for ignoring the concerns voiced by them. Administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. Many things less than desirable have happened in the last few months. We owe a responsibility to the institution and the nation, Justice Chelameswar said. Justice J Chelameshwar said that the four judges were compelled to act in this way because Chief Justice Mishra could not be persuaded to mend the ways of the court. "We met CJI this morning. We collectively tried to persuade CJI that certain things aren't in order, so take some remedial measures, but unfortunately, our efforts failed," said Justice Chelameswar. "The four of us gave a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) some months ago," the justices revealed. Read: Why 4 SC judges have revolted against CJI In a letter released subsequently, they highlighted that rules are often not followed when cases are being allocated and that departure from rules will hurt the integrity of the top court. They also accused that cases with far-reaching consequences are being assigned selectively. Asked if they want the CJI to be impeached, the judges said that they are not implying it and that it is for the nation to decide. Justice J Chelameswar, however, added that democracy comes under threat if judiciary loses its freedom. Moments after their press conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi summoned Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss the matter at hand. Their allegations evoked sharp reactions from a divided legal fraternity of the country with some supporting their cause and others chiding them for immature and childish behaviour. (With Agency inputs) 6 convicted of leaking MBBS question paper The Special Court on Thursday convicted six people of leaking question papers during an MBBS entrance examination conducted by the Ministry of Education three years ago. New Delhi: In an unprecedented press conference here on Friday, four top Supreme Court judges trained guns on Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and said that free judiciary in the country may be under threat. Stating that certain concerns were raised with the CJI and remedial measures were suggested, the four judges - Justices J Chelameswar, Kurian Joseph, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur - said that the CJI did not listen to them. In a letter released subsequently, they highlighted that rules are often not followed when cases are being allocated and that departure from rules will hurt the integrity of the top court. They also accuse that cases with far-reaching consequences are being assigned selectively. Asked if they want the CJI to be impeached, the judges said that they are not implying it and that it is for the nation to decide. Justice J Chelameswar however added that democracy comes under threat if judiciary loses its freedom. Moments after their press conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi summoned Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss the matter at hand. New Delhi: Four top Supreme Court judges on Friday held an unprecedented press meeting here and took on Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on the issue of judiciary's freedom in the country. Minutes after the meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi summoned Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss the issue at hand. Addressing the press, Justice J Chelameswar said he and Justices Kurian Joseph, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur had given a signed letter to the CJI regarding freedom of judiciary but failed to convince him of their concerns. "We have tried to convince Chief Justice that certain things are not in order and remedial measures are needed. Unfortunately, our efforts failed," said Justice Chelameswar. "Democracy cannot survive in this or in any country if these remedial measures are not put in place." (Also read: Why four top SC judges have revolted against CJI) In a letter released subsequently, the judges have accused that cases are being assigned selectively and that certain cases are allocated to benches of preference. Justice Chelameswar said he and his fellow judges felt they owe the nation an explanation and felt compelled to update citizens on the situation. "Couple of months back, four of us gave a signed letter to the CJI and wanted a particular thing to be done in a particular manner. The thing was done, but in a way, that it raises doubt on the integrity of the institution," said Justice Chelameswar. Asked if they want the CJI to be impeached, the judges said that they are not implying it and that it is for the nation to decide. Law Minister Prasad is expected to address the media on the matter later in the day. New Delhi: Its own space agency may be miles behind that of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) but that has not stopped a rather jittery Pakistan from warning India against ISRO's historic launch of its 100th satellite - along with 30 others. The launch of PSLV-C40 carrying the 710 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites took place on Friday from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. While it was a historic moment for India - especially after the unsuccessful launch of the IRNSS-1H satellite in August of last year. Pakistan though was characteristically unimpressed. Even before lift off had taken place, Pakistan foreign ministry issued a terse warning stating that India should abstain from using its satellites for military purposes. "All space technologies, including earth observation satellites, are inherently dual use and can be employed for both civilian and military purposes and therefore it is essential that such pursuits are not directed towards a build-up of destabilizing military capabilities, which can negatively impact the regional strategic stability," read a statement. Interestingly, Pakistan had established its Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) in 1961 - eight years before India established ISRO. In the following decades though, ISRO has emerged not only established its superiority over its counterpart in Pakistan but is now increasingly being compared to United States' NASA. ISRO is helping not just India but several other countries in putting communication, navigation and other sattelites into orbit. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday heaped praise on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is locked in a bitter war of words with his Karnataka counterpart S Siddaramaiah on social networking site Twitter. Praising the saint-politician, PM Modi said that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has successfully challenged many "acche khiladi" (legendary players) in the ''Twitter-Twitter ka khel" (game on Twitter). ''Yogi Ji bhi kam khiladi nahin hain. Kayi rajyon mein bahut logon ke saath hamare Yogi Ji twitter-twitter ka khel khel rhe hain. Aur twitter ke khel mein bhi acche acche khiladiyon ko unhone parast karke rakh diya hai,'' PM Narendra Modi said. Yogi Ji bhi kam khiladi nahin hain. Kayi rajyon mein bahut logon ke saath hamare Yogi Ji twitter-twitter ka khel khel rhe hain. Aur twitter ke khel mein bhi acche acche khiladiyon ko unhone parast karke rakh diya hai: PM Narendra Modi pic.twitter.com/5kp4Y2nCJt ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 The remarks from the Prime Minister's comment came in the backdrop of a bitter war of words between the two chief ministers on Twitter. On Monday, Siddaramaiah had mounted an offensive against Adityanath for daring him to ban cow-slaughter and asked, "I have reared cows, grazed them and even cleaned the dung. Has Yogi Adityanath done all these?" The Karnataka CM was responding to his Uttar Pradesh's counterpart's remark where he had asked the former to prove his Hindu credentials by banning the slaughter of cows in the state. On Sunday, the Karnataka chief minister, in a tweet, had suggested that Adityanath, who was in Bengaluru to attend the Nav Karnataka Parivartan Rally, visit one of the Indira canteens in the city to address the "issue of starvation" in his state. Adityanath, not amused by the jibe, reminded Siddaramaiah about the suicide of farmers in Karnataka. Two have also attacked each other over celebrating the Tipu Sultan birth anniversary. (With Agency inputs) Mumbai: The largest software exporter TCS has welcomed the clarity on H-1B visaholders, but said pending bills in the US legislature continue to be an "immediate concern" to grapple with. The company for which the US is the largest market, said there is a difference between the way it is reported and what is the reality on the ground. "Immediate concern of H-1B is that there are a few more bills that are being talked about, but none of that has played out as of now," TCS human resources head Ajoy Mukherjee told reporters. The company will continue with its policy of planning in advance and continue with its steps like stepping up local hiring across, he added. There is a lot of planning, starting with application for the visas, that goes in during operations and it will have to be followed, he said. On the recent relief for techies, wherein the US stated no change in H-1B visa extension policy, Mukherjee welcomed the move for the clarity it brings in. The US authorities on Tuesday had said the Trump administration was not considering any proposal that would force H-1B visaholders to leave the country. The announcement by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) came days after reports emerged that the Trump administration was considering tightening H-1B visa rules that could lead to deportation of some 7,50,000 Indians. The reports had also said the US was planning ending extensions for H-1B holders. The Trump administration "is not considering a regulatory change that would force H-1B visaholders to leave the US by changing interpretation of Section 104 C of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21) statute that states that the USCIS may grant the extensions," an official said. This provides for H-1B extensions beyond the six-year cap that is previling now. "Even if it were, such a change would not likely result in these H-1B visaholders having to leave the US because employers could request extensions in one-year increments under section 106(a)-(b) of AC21 instead," Jonathan Withington, chief of media relations at the USCIS, said in the statement. New Delhi: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) will file a chargesheet against all accused in connection with the alleged cross-border funding of terror groups active in the Kashmir Valley next week. According to IANS, the NIA said this as a court extended till January 18 the judicial custody of seven Kashmiri separatists and a businessman. During the in-camera proceedings in the case, the NIA reportedly informed Additional Sessions Judge Tarun Sherawat that the final report in the case will be filed next week. "The investigation of the case is at concluding stage and the evidence on record is being summed up," NIA said. During the hearing, the agency also pleaded to the court to extend the judicial custody of the eight accused for another seven days, which was granted by the court, via video conferencing. The eight have been charged with allegedly receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir. On July 24, 2017, the NIA arrested seven of them - Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah - on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India. Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat. Businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, accused of acting as a conduit for channelling funds for separatists and terror activities in the Kashmir Valley, was arrested on August 17 last year. He was allegedly collecting funds from Pakistan and banned terrorist organisations and transferring the same to Hurriyat leaders. Watali is known to be friends with Pakistani leaders as well as separatists, besides leading politicians in Kashmir, the NIA said. (With IANS inputs) New Delhi: Two Maoists have been killed in a shootout with the CRPF during a search operation launched by the paramilitary force in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, an official said on Friday. The shootout took place around 11.23 p.m. on Thursday between the Maoists and a joint team of the 22 Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Jharkhand Police. The Maoists opened fire on the security team when it was searching the thick forested area of Donai Khurd, CRPF Deputy Inspector General M. Dinakaran told IANS. The CRPF team recovered two dead bodies and seized one AK-47, one Insas rifle and 200 live cartridges from the spot after the operation. Search operations were still on, Dinakaran said. Similar operations were also carried out in the forests of Pidmel, Pollampalli, Sukma in Chattisgarh. Around 12.30 a.m. on Friday in another shootout a CRPF constable suffered bullet injury during the searches in Sukma, the officer said. The officer said the constable was evacuated by a chopper and admitted to a hospital in Raipur. His condition was reportedly stable. Bengaluru: With the poll battle flaring up in Karnataka, few members of the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP filed a complaint against state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao. BJP Karnataka spokesperson S Sureshkumar and state president PN Sadashiva filed a complaint against the two Congress leaders for 'making inflammatory and derogatory statement on BJP amounting to Defamatory and Criminal Acts under IPC'. Siddaramaiah had on January 10 alleged that the BJP, RSS and Bajrang Dal had terrorists within their organisations. "They themselves are like terrorists in a way. The BJP, RSS and Bajrang Dal also have terrorists within," he had said. Responding to Siddaramaiah's statement, BJP leader Sambit Patra said, The statement of Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has reiterated Congress's policy of appeasement and its hatred towards Hindus. With the Karnataka Assembly elections just around the corner, the war of words between the two parties has heated up on social media. On Friday, the Congress put out a video, mocking Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Adityanath entered the Karnataka poll battleground with a massive rally in Bengaluru, where he accused Siddaramaiah of "endorsing beef eaters" despite being a Hindu and intermixing religion with politics. KOLKATA: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called off their bike rally in West Bengal alleging they were attacked by Trinamool Congress workers in several areas across Kolkata. The event was organised to mark the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on the National Youth Day today. As per a report, clashes between the BJP and the TMC was first reported from Pathuriaghata Street in North Kolkata. The BJP has alleged that many of its party workers have been left injured in the attack. The Trinamool, on the other hand, reportedly claimed that the BJP workers passed lewd comments to women on the street. It further alleged that BJP workers also attacked passers-by and vadalised vehicles parked roadside. Tension soon spread to Central Avenue and on Red Road. Workers of both parties allegedly clashed and even pelted stones at each other. The police force was rushed to the spot to control the situation. Notably, the Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal government had earlier rejected the state police administration on Monday. However, on Wednesday, the Calcutta High Court rejected the Bengal government's objections to the event and allowed permission for a motorbike rally by BJP's youth wing in the state. The court had also observed that the state should not discriminate in granting permission The court directed that the rally would move in an orderly fashion and the organisers would inform the administration at least half an hour before reaching any place to ensure proper traffic management and abide by all just directions of the authorities. On Thursday, the court had appointed two special officers to ensure law and order is maintained during the bike rally. The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) motorbike rally named 'Pratirodh Sankalpa Abhiyan' to mark Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary was scheduled to be held from January 12-18 and would travel from Contai in East Midnapore district to Coochbehar in the north. After the court's ruling, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had warned that the BJP would be responsible for any untoward incident that may take place during the Gangasagar Mela. "If there is any trouble at Gangasagar, the annual Hindu pilgrimage in Bengal, you will be responsible, you who are doing all kinds of conspiracies," Banerjee said without naming the BJP. "Thirty lakh people have come for the event, but they want to indulge in mischief and conspiracies against Bengal." BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan attended 'Surya Namaskar' and 'Pranayam' sessions held here to mark the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on Friday. The state-level Surya Namaskar program at Lal Parade ground in the city at 9:00 am today, was also attended by Chief Minister's cabinet colleagues Vijay Shah, Deepak Joshi and Alok Sharma. Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan attends 'Surya Namaskar' programme in Lal Parade ground held to mark the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda #NationalYouthDay pic.twitter.com/gx4WiSAIG7 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 On Thursday, the Madhya Pradesh government had issued a release directing all educational institutions in the state to hold the 'Surya Namaskar' and 'Pranayam' sessions to mark the birth anniversary of Vivekananda. However, the release issued to educational institutions made it clear that participation in the Surya Namaskar or sun salutations would not be mandatory. "Surya Namaskar and Pranayam will be performed in all academic institutions from 9:00 am tomorrow," the government press release said on Thursday. Students from all schools in Bhopal would participate in the program, the release said. The clarification of 'voluntary participation' from the state government comes following several controversies linked with such events in the past. "Surya-Namaskar will be held in all schools, colleges, academic institutions, gram panchayats and residential schools of the state from 9:00 am to 10.30 am on January 12," a Public Relations department officials said. "On the occasion, inspirational academic and cultural programmes focusing on the life of Swami Vivekananda will be organised. Participants have been asked to gather at 9:00 am. A committee under the chairmanship of district collector has been constituted to conduct this programme in their respective districts," he added. "Students from class VI to XII and college students would perform these 'asans', while pupils from class I to V will only witness it." He said the arrangement of the direct broadcast of this programme through radio has also been made. 6,000ha of forest encroached upon Around 6,000 hectares of forest cover in Kanchanpur have been encroached upon and being converted into private properties. MUMBAI: A section of a staircase collapsed in a building in Mumbais Vidya Vihar on Friday night. Two people have been rescued so far. Rescue operations are currently underway. No details of casualties or injuries have emerged so far. PATNA: Bihar government on Friday formed a team to investigate the attack on state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's convoy. Patna Zonal Inspector General Nayyar Hasnain Khan and Patna Divisional Commssioner Anand Kishore are members of the investigating team. Earlier today, Kumar's convoy was pelted with stones during a 'Samiksha Yatra' in Buxar's Nandan village. While the chief minister escaped unhurt, two security personnel in the convoy were injured. According to an official release, Kumar said a public meeting in Dumraon block of Buxar district that the incident would be thoroughly probed. According to reports, attackers hurled stones at the cavalcade but that did not hamper its movement. The convoy continued moving towards its destination where the chief minister launched 168 schemes involving an expenditure of Rs 272 crore before addressing a public meeting. Nitish Kumar is on a state-wide tour since December 12 to take a stock of state government's development schemes over the years. Earlier this month, Kumar had restrained policemen from going after a group of youngsters who waved black flags at his public meeting in Saharsa district. With agency inputs Mumbai: Kangana Ranaut, who hails from the beautiful state of Himachal has built a heavenly abode in her hometown Manali, reports suggest. The curly-haired beautys bungalow, which has been built in the gorgeous town, overlooks the majestic hills. Her new home finds a cosy space in the lap of nature and reportedly costs a whopping Rs 30 crores. According to a report in After Hrs, Kangana bought the land for about Rs 10 crores soon after her film Queen turned out to be a super success. The three time National Award winning actress roped in architect Shabnam Gupta to design her new home. The bungalows architecture has a vintage European design and has as many as eight bedrooms with a step-out balcony. Its an eight-bedroom house with all the windows opening to a view of the mountains. Each room has a step-out balcony. There is a rooftop glass conservatory, so that there is ample sunlight during the winters. Kangana has been making regular visits to her hometown to check on the progress of the place. She just got back from Manali two days ago in time for the shoot of a reality show, a source said. Pic courtesy: @KanganaFanClub Ranaut spent over Rs 20 crores to design the property which also has a dining room, a fireplace, a gymnasium and a separate yoga room. Heres congratulating Kangana for building her new home. On the work front, Kangana will be seen in Krishs Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, a film based on Rani Lakshmibai. The powerhouse of talents essays the lead role in the film which also stars Sonu Sood, Atul Kulkarni, Ankita Lokhande and Nihar Pandya. Jaipur: Film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Friday filed a plea before the Rajasthan High Court seeking quashing of an FIR lodged against him at Didwana in Merta in March last year in connection with his yet-to-be-released controversial film 'Padmavat'. According to ANI, reacting to his plea, the court said that it would like to watch 's controversial film before taking a decision to allow its release in the state. The court then posted the matter for hearing on January 23. Earlier in the day, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had said that despite clearance from Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), film 'Padmavat' will not be released in the state. Gujarat is the second state after Rajasthan to have banned the screening of the controversial Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial. Other states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, which had indicated that the film will not be allowed to be released in November, are yet to announce their final decisions. The flick, based on the legend of Rani Padmini, a 13th century Hindu Rajput queen, mentioned in Padmavat, an Avadhi poem written by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi in 1540, has been facing protests from various groups, particularly the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, for allegedly tampering with historical facts. The CBFC has suggested five modifications in 'Padmavati', which included changing the film's title to 'Padmavat', in December last year. (With ANI inputs) New Delhi: Exoplanets those discovered as well as those yet to be revealed have been in the radar of scientists and astronomers ever since their existence came to light. In-depth research has revealed spectacular information, especially related to life in and beyond our solar system. Now, a study has delivered more insights saying that exoplanets orbiting the same star tend to have similar sizes and a regular orbital spacing. This pattern, revealed by observations of planetary systems discovered by the Kepler Telescope, could suggest that most planetary systems have a different formation history than the solar system, researchers said. They used the W M Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaii to obtain high-resolution spectra of 1,305 stars hosting 2,025 transiting planets originally discovered by Kepler. From these spectra, the researchers measured precise sizes of the stars and their planets. Published in The Astronomical Journal, the study led by astrophysicist Lauren Weiss from the University of Montreal in Canada focused on 909 planets belonging to 355 multi-planet systems. These planets are mostly located between 1,000 and 4,000 light-years away from Earth. Using a statistical analysis, the team found two surprising patterns that exoplanets tend to be the same sizes as their neighbours. If one planet is small, the next planet around that same star is very likely to be small as well, and if one planet is big, the next is likely to be big. They also found that planets orbiting the same star tend to have a regular orbital spacing. "The planets in a system tend to be the same size and regularly spaced, like peas in a pod. These patterns would not occur if the planet sizes or spacings were drawn at random," said Weiss. The similar sizes and orbital spacing of planets have implications for how most planetary systems form, researchers said. In classic planet formation theory, planets form in the protoplanetary disk that surrounds a newly formed star. The planets might form in compact configurations with similar sizes and a regular orbital spacing, in a manner similar to the newly observed pattern in exoplanetary systems. However, in our solar system, the inner planets have surprisingly large spacing and diverse sizes. Abundant evidence in the solar system suggests that Jupiter and Saturn disrupted our systems early structure, resulting in the four widely-spaced terrestrial planets we have today, researchers said. The finding that planets in most systems are still similarly sized and regularly spaced suggests that perhaps they have been mostly undisturbed since their formation, they said. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully marked a century by launching its 100th satellite today along with 30 others. This was ISRO's maiden launch of 2018, while also being the first launch after the unsuccessful launch of the IRNSS-1H satellite in August 2017, when the PSLV rocket's heat shield separation failed to take place. During the last PSLV launch we had problems, today what has happened proves that the problem was properly addressed and rectified. Happy to give this new year gift to the country: AS Kiran, ISRO pic.twitter.com/qoyMh95cNP ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 In its forty-second flight, the PSLV-C40 is carrying the 710 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 613 kg at lift-off. The launch took place from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The co-passenger satellites comprise one Microsatellite and one Nanosatellite from India as well as 3 Microsatellites and 25 Nanosatellites from six countries, namely, Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and USA. The total weight of all the 31 satellites carried onboard PSLV-C40 is about 1323 kg. Satellite Cartosat-2 series launch: All nano satellites separated pic.twitter.com/DEq9CUPZF6 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 The 28 International customer satellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DOS), the commercial arm of ISRO and the International customers. Check out the latest updates below: 30 satellites have been placed into the orbit successfully. New ISRO Chairman Sivan K expresses happiness over the success of the mission. Thanks everyone for having confidence in ISRO after the PSLV failure last year. AS Kiran Kumar announces the launch of ISRO's second heavy rocket - GSLV Mark-II - scheduled for next month. Former ISRO chief AS Kiran Kumar addresses the team. 'We are extremely happy to provide a new year gift to the country with this successful launch', he says. Separation of all nano satellites confirmed. 30 satellites begin to separate. Cartosat-2 series has successfully separated. The fourth-stage engine has been shut off. Third-stage has been declared separated. The fourth-stage engine is now ignited. This is the stage that will determine the placement of the 30 satellites. Performance normal. PSLV touches altitude of 340 km. The third-stage engine now ignited. Performance is normal. Second-stage performance has been declared normal at an altitude of 191 km. PSLV heat shield successfully separated. The first stage has been declared separated. Performance norma; PSLV touches altitude of 100 km. And it's lift-off! PSLV-C40 takes off for orbit. ISRO launches its 100th satellite along with 30 others. The PSLV stands poised for take-off. One-minute to launch. Three-minute countdown commences. 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, the creation of land use maps and change detection to bring out geographical Land Information Systems and Geographical Information System applications. It is the third satellite in the Cartosat-2 series and is similar to the earlier Cartosat-2, 2A, and 2B. It carries panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras operating in Time Delay Integration mode and is capable of delivering high-resolution data. The Cartosat-2 series satellite launch is a follow-on mission with the primary objective of providing high-resolution scene-specific spot imageries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a post on Twitter, lauded the Indian space agency on the success of the Cartosat-2 mission. My heartiest congratulations to @isro and its scientists on the successful launch of PSLV today. This success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country's rapid strides in space technology to our citizens, farmers, fishermen etc. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018 The launch of the 100th satellite by @isro signifies both its glorious achievements, and also the bright future of India's space programme. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018 Benefits of India's success are available to our partners! Out of the 31 Satellites, 28 belonging to 6 other countries are carried by today's launch. January 12, 2018 The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, also took to the microblogging site to congratulate ISRO. One of Indias most iconic and influential spiritual personalities Swami Vivekananda born as Narendranath Dutta, was a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, an ardent devotee of Goddess Kali. Representing India at the Parliament of the World's Religions on September 11, 1893 at the Art Institute of Chicago, Swami Vivekananda, began his speech by addressing the audience as Sisters and brothers of America! The audience present at the venue was pleasantly shocked as well as impressed. His words echoed compassion and universal brotherhood. He played a pivotal role in spreading Indian ethos and taking indigenous philosophy abroad. On his birth anniversary, heres taking a look at some of Swami Vivekanandas quotes: Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached. You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself. You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. Dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. In a day, when you don't come across any problems - you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path. Each work has to pass through these stagesridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood. Anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject as poison. All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that, do not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. You can do any thing and everything, without even the guidance of any one. Stand up and express the divinity within you. We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far. Chennai: The Apollo Hospital, where former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa was treated for nearly 75 days before her death on December 5, 2016, on Friday submitted documents pertaining to her treatment to an inquiry commission set up by the state government to investigate the matter. According to ANI, the top management of the Apollo Hospital handed over the treatment record of Jayalalithaa, packed in two suitcases, to the one-member commission. Earlier Justice A Arumugasamy, who is conducting the inquiry, had asked Dr Prathap Reddy, Chairman, and Ms Preetha Reddy, executive vice-chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, to provide all related documents and information regarding Jayalalithaa's treatment within 10 days. The commission had also ordered jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala's advocate Raja Senthurapandian to appear before it on January 22. On January 6, Sasikala had sought the copies of testimonies given by various witnesses against her in connection with Jayalalithaa's death. Sasikala, who has been jailed in a multi-crore disproportionate assets case, had filed an affidavit through her lawyer Raja Senthurapandian in this regard. Earlier on December 22, the commission had summoned Sasikala and Apollo Hospital founder-Chairman Pratap Reddy in this matter. Jayalalithaa, popularly known as 'Amma', was taken to Chennai's Apollo hospital on September 22, 2016, and treated in the hospital for 75 days before she breathed her last on December 5. Following her death, allegations of foul play began to do the rounds and state forest minister Dindigul Sreenivasan later claimed that all cabinet ministers had lied to the people about hospitalisation and death of the former chief minister Jayalalithaa. Subsequently, a one-man commission was constituted and a probe under a retired Madras High Court judge, Justice Arumugasamy, was initiated on October 30. The commission, whose constitution was challenged in the Supreme Court through a plea, which the apex court later rejected, is likely to submit its findings in the first quarter of this year. (With ANI inputs) New Delhi: Vodafone on Friday announced a partnership with global cybersecurity firm Trend Micro to launch "Vodafone Super Shield" end-point security suite to safeguard businesses. "Vodafone Super Shield" protects critical business data from a multitude of threats including malware attacks, ransomware, spyware, phishing websites and data thefts. It lets customers manage their users and licenses online, grant and revoke access, and generate reports and dashboards. 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, the company said. The suite is available on Vodafone CloudStore for Rs 99 per user per month or Rs 999 per user for 12 months. It is equipped with enterprise-grade features including USB port blocking, URL filtering and full-disk encryption on Windows. "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," Anil Philip, Senior Vice President, Vodafone Business Services, said in a statement. Backed by Trend Micro`s Cloud-based "Global Smart Protection Network", the suite proactively identifies and blocks new and existing threats before they impact the devices. "Our end-point security offering will help secure Enterprises and SMB customers that are looking for flexible security deployment options," added Nilesh Jain, Country Manager India and SAARC, Trend Micro. "Vodafone Super Shield" is available across platforms and devices including Windows PCs, MacBooks, Windows Servers as well as Android and iOS mobile platforms. Mumbai: Arshi Khan, who came across as one of the most entertaining contestants of Bigg Boss 11, entered the house again for a brief period to execute a task. She was eliminated a couple of weeks back and was very disheartened to leave the show. But now she wants her friend Vikas Gupta to win the contest. Arshi shared a great relationship with Shilpa Shinde too but soon her friendship with her went kaput. She used to address her as Maa and had even bonded well with her initially. But things turned sour eventually and everything went awry. However, she still respects Shilpa . She proved it by condemning Hina Khans offensive remark about Shilpa. According to a report in India.com, Arshi while talking about the video that went viral, said, I was shocked when I saw some media reports which quoted Hina Khan as saying that Shilpa Shinde looks and speaks like a call girl. I strongly condemn the statement made by Hina Khan and feel that Hina has committed a huge blunder which she will regret all her life. Shilpa Shinde is like my mother and even my parents insisted that if I called her maa, I must live up to it. I always considered Shilpa Shinde as my good friend and later on gave her the position and respect of Maa, adding that, The first time I was evicted, I was too shocked to react because I was not expecting to be evicted, but when the second time I went into the house, I touched Shilpas feet before I left and she too gave me her blessings, Arshi added. For the unversed, in a video that surfaced online, one could hear Hina saying, Maine bola naa woh baat his aise karti hai jaise (I told you that she talks like a ) the words call girl were muted. Bigg Boss 11 is nearing its closure. The grand finale will be telecast on January 14. Celebrity contestants Vikas Gupta, Shilpa Shinde, Hina Khan and commoner Puneesh Sharma are competing for the coveted trophy and cash prize. It will be interesting to see who ends up winning the show this season. Car ban in Capitals core areas from Tuesday Having made Thamel a vehicle-free zone, the city authorities are imposing restrictions on use of four-wheel vehicles in key parts of Kathmandu starting on January 16. Shrishti informs Karan about how her sister Preeta was humiliated by his family. Karan, who has been put behind the bars, now feels helpless and sad for Preeta. Sarla and Beeji are worried as they wonder what must have happened at the Luthra house. Preeta returns home completely dejected and disappointed with the outcome. Sarla is extremely miffed with Preeta for putting Karan in trouble. She scolds her and holds her responsible for Karans arrest. She tells her that Karan was selected for the tour of South Africa but now that he has been falsely implicated of possessing drugs, his career will be destroyed. Sarla is hurt because Preeta couldnt prove her friendship for Karan and that she has failed as a friend. Preeta apologises to Sarla but the latter is in no mood to excuse her. Sarla wants to now focus on how to get Karan out of this mess and prove his innocence. Sherlyn returns home and is happy to be surprised by Prithvi who drops rose petals on her. He also presents a bouquet of flowers to celebrate their win over Preeta. The two thank each other for being so supportive in times of need. Prithvi tells Sherlyn that he bribed the security staff to get hold of the CCTV footage. As the two discuss the chain of events, the door bell rings. Sherlyn opens the door and is shocked to see Rishabh and Rakhi. Sherlyn wonders how to inform Rishab about them and just when she worries, Rishabh opens the bedroom door. He finds Rakhi and Rishabh waiting outside and instantly shuts the door. Rakhi apologises to Sherlyn for the humiliation she had to face at their house. Sherlyn tells Rakhi that sometimes misunderstandings happen and its normal. She taunts Rishabh by telling that outsiders create problems in the family. She also tells that she is upset because Rishabh trusted Preeta but didnt show faith towards her. Rakhi tells Rishabh to say sorry to Sherlyn. This makes Sherlyn feel victorious. Just when Sherlyn goes inside to get water for Rishabh and Rakhi, the door bell rings. Rakhi tells Rishabh to open the door. On seeing a champagne bottle being delivered, Rishabh wonders why Sherlyn has ordered to drink. Meanwhile, Karan holds himself responsible for all what has happened to Preeta. He knows Sherlyn has played a very dirty trick to get him behind the bars and also blame Preeta. Just when he keeps talking to himself, the jail inmates make him realise that he is in love. And when he denies being in love with her, Preeta appears in front of him and he thinks he is dreaming. The jail inmates tell him that Preeta has arrived in real. She tells him to eat Besan ka laddoo but he refuses to eat saying he is happy to see her. He tells her that he knows how she has been humiliated and held her responsible for his arrest. Watch Kundali Bhagya 11 January 2018 Full Episode here: GREATER NOIDA: A seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 50-year-old constable of Uttar Pradesh Police in Surajpur area of Greater Noida on Wednesday evening. The constable was arrested and sent to jail on Thursday. According to the police, the accused has been identified as Subhash Singh, a constable of UP Police, posted at the sales tax department in Gautam Budh Nagar, who lured the girl on the pretext of giving her candies while she was playing near her house. Singh then took her to his room and assaulted her. "The incident took place around 3 pm on Wednesday. The girl was found unconscious on the floor of the room by the neighbours who had gone there to check after hearing her loud cries for help. Singh had fled the spot when the locals reached his room," said Suniti, Superintendent of Police (Rural), Noida. Police said Singh returned to his flat at around 4 am on Thursday morning when two women spotted him and they tried to apprehend him. "He attacked the locals but later was overpowered by a mob and thrashed for two hours. Later, the police were informed and he was arrested," Suniti added. Police have registered a First Information Report against Singh on the basis of a complaint filed by the victim's mother, under sections 342(Punishment for wrongful confinement, 376 (rape) of Indian PenalCode and Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. "The child was sent to the district hospital for medical examination. Doctors have confirmed rape and we have sent Singh to jail," said a senior police officer. After the incident, the locals have raised questions on the police administration. " If a police personnel is committing such crime, how will common people feel safe in this country. There is an imminent need to instill some morality among the policemen who are supposed to protect us," said Vishal Kataria, a resident of Surajpur area. Singh (45), a native of Kaithi village in UP's Balua, lived in a one-room flat in Surajpur, near the victim's house. The victim studies in a nearby school in Surajpur and her mother works at a bakery. The minor's father had died long back. GORAKHPUR: The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday conducted a surprise visit at night shelters for homeless near Gorakhpur railway station. This is not the first time Adityanath has made such as a surprise visit. On January 3, Adityanath conducted a surprise visit at a similar night shelter near Balrampur hospital in Lucknow. As the state reeled under as the state reeled under cold weather conditions, the chief minister introduced several relief measures for the homeless and poor in December 2017. Adityanath asked district magistrates to create proper arrangements for poor and destitute in every district. The arrangements include night shelters, lighting up bonfires and distributing free blankets, etc. He said that officials should also monitor relief measures in a sustained manner, warning them to avoid callousness. Washington: US President Donald Trump is likely to meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos later this month, the White House said. The two leaders also spoke over phone ahead of their Davos meeting. "The two leaders discussed President Macron's recent visit to China and committed to continue to apply pressure on North Korea until it returns to the path of denuclearization," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. During the call, Trump underscored that Iran must stop its "destabilizing activity" in the region.? "The two leaders agreed to meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, schedules permitting," Sanders said. WASHINGTON: China has not done enough on the issue of North Korea for the US, President Donald Trump has said but appreciated the "great chemistry" he shares with Chinese President Xi Jinping. North Korea last year increased the pace of its missile programme. Since February, Pyongyang has fired off 23 missiles. On November 29, the North Korean leader said that his country had achieved full nuclear statehood after what he said was the successful test of a new missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States. Fears of a catastrophic conflict between the US and North Korea spiked as the leaders of the two nations taunted each other, with President Donald Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Rocket Man'. Trump has called on China to do more to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. "Not helpful enough, but they have been very helpful. Let's put it this way, they have done more for me than they ever have for any American president. They still haven?t done enough," Trump was quoted as saying in The Wall Street Journal. "But they have done more for me than they have, by far, for any?I have a very good relationship with Xi. I like him. He likes me. We have a great chemistry together. He has done far more for us than they ever have for any American president. With that being said, it?s not enough. They have to do more," Trump insisted. As a result of Chinese help so far, Trump said he has not been tough on China as he would like to be. "We have been much tougher on China, but not nearly as tough as I would be, but they are helping us a lot with North Korea, he said in response to a question. "And you see in North Korea what's happening with North Korea all of a sudden. China?s been helping us a lot, so you can veer a little bit differently, but for the most part everything I have said I have done," he said in response to a question on his electoral promise of being tough on China. North Korea, he said, is a big problem. "It is a big problem, and they should not have left me with that problem. That should have been a problem that was solved by Obama, or Bush, or Clinton or anybody, because the longer it went, the worse, the more difficult the problem got," he said. Trump also said that he probably has a "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but did not confirm or deny if he had spoken to the leader in Pyongyang. "I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. I have relationships with people, I think you people are surprised," Trump said. "Just to be clear, you haven't spoken to the North Korean leader, I mean when you say a relationship with Korea," he was immediately asked. "I don't want to comment on it?I don?t want to comment, I?m not saying I have or I haven?t. But I just don?t?," Trump responded. The US president denied that delaying military exercises on the Korean Peninsula for the Olympics sends the wrong message to the North Koreans, that he is in some way bending to them. ISLAMABAD: A day after suspending intelligence and military cooperation with the White House, Pakistan has claimed that it received a telephone call from the United States assuring that the 'turbulence' is 'temporary'. Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa reportedly received the call from the Commander US Central Command (Centcom), General Joseph L. Votel and another a US Senator to discuss Pak-US security cooperation. Taking to Twitter, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor official spokesperson of Pakistani Army, said: Comd USCENTCOM & a US Senator telephoned COAS to discuss security coop post POTUS tweet. Entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed on trivialising our decade old cooperation. We wont ask for restoration of financial assistance but honourable recognition of our contributions, COAS. pic.twitter.com/oHEQGGvyIf Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) January 12, 2018 General Joseph L Votel said, claimed COAS, the current turbulence between US and Pakistan is "a temporary phase" and that US values Pakistans role in the so-called 'War on Terror'. Yesterday, Pakistan's top civil-military leadership briefed international envoys on counter-terrorism efforts taken by the country in the last 16 years. He said that the White House must end it's threatening and intimidating attitude towards the country. 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, tweeted Government of Pakistan. The statement came days after Trump administration blocked the $255 million military aid to Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan on Wednesday played the victim card, claiming that India is 'distracting' it from counter-terrorism efforts. Briefing international diplomats on the country's effort to tackle terror outfits on home soil, Pakistan's top civil-military leadership harped on how Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is contributing towards internal instability. Washington: The United States on Friday expressed hoped that Pakistan would do the right thing and "turn over" the terrorists and honour its commitment to it, according to a Trump administration official. "I have a feeling, I am hopeful that Pakistan will do the right thing and turn over the terrorists and honour their commitment," Steven Goldstein, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs told reporters at a news conference here. Responding to questions, Goldstein said the US has so far not heard from Pakistan on its reported decision to suspend its military and intelligence cooperation with it in retaliation of the Trump administration's decision to freeze all its security assistance. "We would hope that Pakistan would come to the table and that they would turn over those terrorists that we have asked be turned over. We've indicated very clearly that we believe that can happen," Goldstein said. The United States, he said, has only suspended the aid; and the money has not been reallocated. "So now it is the job of Pakistan to take seriously their commitment to us, and most importantly to the people of Pakistan who would most be hurt by this, by any terrorist activity, and come forward. So, our position hasn't changed. They have not yet come forward," Goldstein said. At a separate news conference, the Pentagon said that Pakistan has the ability to address terrorist threat inside the country. "We believe that Pakistan has the ability to address this threat," Pentagon chief spokesperson Dana White told reporters at a news conference. "This is an opportunity for them to take decisive action, and we look forward to working with them to encourage them to do so," White said in response to a question on recent development on US-Pak relations front. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a federal register notification formally designated Pakistan as a "special watch list" country for severe violations of religious freedom. Tillerson had on January 4 placed Pakistan on a special watch list for the violations. Channelling Buddha for records sake A total of 50,000 people are scheduled to recite the messages of Gautam Buddha en masse in Kathmandu next month to set a new Guinness World Records. Silk Way West Airlines, a growing cargo operator based in Azerbaijan, and Alaska Airlines on Thursday signed contracts with Boeing for two freighters apiece but that is where the similarities ended. Silk Way West said it will take two 777-8s, the largest plane available from Boeing (NYSE: BA) and one so modern it isnt [] China provides post-flood recovery help China, in partnership with the UNDP Nepal, will be providing $4 million to support recovery efforts in Nepals Tarai region affected by one of the worst floods in recent history. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Vardges Petrosyans Years Lived and Not Lived is at the top of Yerevan Bestseller project an ARMENPRESS exclusive brining the top ten weekly bestselling books. Edgar Harutyunyans Unfound Chamomiles comes next. The book is about human relationship, love, friendship and betrayal. Mark Arens Where Wild Roses Bloom is ranked 3rd in this weeks top bestselling book in the city. The story describes the inner world of an Armenophobic Turkish former serviceman, when he, already an old man, suddenly hears a lullaby song that reminds him of his mother and later finds out that the song is in Armenian: realizing his parents were Armenians. He spends his remaining life searching the graves of his parents, without knowing that it was a misunderstanding. Dandelion Wine, 1957 novel by Ray Bradbury returned to the list and is ranked 4th. The novel is taking place in the summer of 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois, based upon Bradbury's childhood home of Waukegan, Illinois. It was translated from English by Zaven Boyadjyan. Three Comrades by German author Erich Maria Remarque is a novel first published in 1936. It is written in first person by the main character Robert Lohkamp, whose somewhat disillusioned outlook on life is due to his horrifying experiences in the trenches of the First World War's French-German front. He shares these experiences with Otto Koster and Gottfried Lenz, his two comrades with whom he runs an auto-repair shop in late 1920s Berlin. Remarque wrote the novel in exile. The book is ranked 5th in the list. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is ranked 6th. It is a 2006 Holocaust novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. Unlike the months of planning Boyne devoted to his other books, he said that he wrote the entire first draft of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in two and a half days, barely sleeping until he got to the end. The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. After Annes death in a concentration camp, the diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne's father, Otto Frank, the family's only known survivor, just after the war was over. The diary has since been published in more than 60 languages. The Diary of Anne Frank is ranked 7th in this weeks Yerevan Bestseller. Blind Punctuation by Aram Avetis this week is ranked 8th. The editor of the book is Arkmenik Nikoghosyan. Swiss author Hansjorg Schertenleibs Night Swimmer is about the first love, secrets, emotions and hatred. It is ranked 9th. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Swedish writer Jonas Jonasson concludes this weeks bestselling list. Allan Karlsson is about to celebrate his hundredth birthday, and a party is planned at his retirement home. Allan is alert despite his age, but is not interested in attending the party. Instead he climbs out the window and disappears. Bookinist, Hay Girk, Edit Print and Zangak book stores were surveyed for the project. YEREVAN BESTSELLER presented by Angela Hambardzumyan YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Garo Paylan, the ethnic Armenian MP of Turkeys Parliament, has testified in Ankara regarding the statement, according to which murder attempts are being plotted against people who have settled in Europe from Turkey, including Armenians and Alevis, Demokrathaber reports. On December 20, 2017, Paylan made a statement in the Turkish parliament saying that several reporters and scholars who have settled abroad, who have been labeled as traitors by Turkeys media, government and president Erdogan, will be the target of assassination attempts by a Turkish structure. He said that a specific hit list exists, which he presented to Turkeys law enforcement agencies. After making this statement, Paylan was summoned by Ankaras prosecution to testify. On January 11, Paylan and his lawyer testified. Hrant Dinks reality exists in Turkey. He was my friend. He was targeted in that time. I wanted him to leave the country, however he didnt, and was killed. And now several others, including Can Dundar [opposition journalist], have been targeted by politicians and the media. We have information that murder attempts are being plotted against them in Germany. There are no specific documents or information in this matter. I made the statement based on verbal information, he said in his testimony. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on January 12 signed a number of laws adopted by the Parliament, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. The laws concern making changes and amendments in the laws on Family Code, Administrative Offenses, Civil Procedure Code, Criminal Code, Rights of Children, Tax Service, Customs Service, Public and individual notification via internet, Trademarks, State registration of rights to property, Budget system, State control on food safety, Social assistance and etc. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. The UN will seek $3.5 billion from donors to meet the needs of more than 13 million people in all parts of Syria in 2018, Mark Lowcock, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said during his visit in Damascus, Armenpress reports citing the UN website. He said the UNs humanitarian response plan for 2018 will be finalized soon. We will seek $3.5 billion from donors to meet the needs of more than 13 million people in all parts of Syria, he said. While in Syria, Mr. Lowcock, said he has had open discussions with the Government about the crisis and what more needs to be done to reduce humanitarian suffering, and has also met local authorities, the diplomatic community and humanitarian organizations. He said he is hoping soon to see a number of positive developments that enable the UN to sustain and improve the aid effort this year. He is expected to present a report on his visit results at the session of the UN Security Council scheduled on January 30. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Official Ankara voiced its complaint over the recent US travel warning which urges US citizens to reconsider travel to Turkey due to terrorism and arbitrary detentions, Hurriyet reports. The Turkish foreign ministry issued US travel warning for its citizens. The statement says that cases of terror attacks and violence have increased in US. Under such circumstances it would be useful for our citizens to reconsider travel to US and to take all necessary measures in case of travelling, the statement of the Turkish foreign ministry says. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Russia will continue supporting the efforts of Italy, which is chairing OSCE in 2018, in the settlement process of the NK conflict, Russias permanent representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said. We fully share Italys approach in the OSCE efforts in terms of settling regional conflicts, he said, mentioning that this first of all relates to the crisis in eastern Ukraine. Lukashevich stressed that efforts shouldnt be eased in the settlement processes of other conflicts as well. We will support Italys OSCE chairmanship efforts in the settlement of the Transnistira and Nagorno Karabakh conflicts. We highly appreciate OSCEs role in assisting dialogue between Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the sidelines of the international Geneva discussions on security in Transcaucasia, he said. Italy is supporting the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement issue, foreign minister Angelino Alfano, the new OSCE chairperson in office said in the OSCE Permanent Council, presenting the priorities and program of his chairmanship. We support the work of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in the Nagorno Karabakh issue, for finding a final agreed solution for this conflict, he said. Alfano stressed that their attitude for protracted conflicts will remain the same and that during Italys term in the OSCE they will always focus of these issues. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. The consultation convened by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan with the members of the Council of the Parliament has been completed at the Presidential Palace, reports Armenpress. After the meeting the lawmakers refused to provide details on what issues have been discussed at the consultation. However, ARF faction head Armen Rustamyan said they have discussed issues relating to the transition to a parliamentary system, but didnt provide other details. Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs Armen Ashotyan also refused to give a comment. The Presidential press office will inform, he said. Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on state-legal affairs and human rights Hrayr Tovmasyan said a lot of interesting issues have been discussed during the consultation. Yelk faction head Nikol Pashinyan, who is also a member of the Council, didnt participate in the consultation. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. A number of flights to/from Armenia have been postponed. The Zvartnots International Airport told Armenpress that the planes cannot land due to dense fog. The last plane landed in the Zvartnots airport at 5:21, the airport said. Due to bad weather conditions and dense fog the last fight from Armenia has been carried out at 13:20 to Moscow and Voronezh. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan welcomed US President Donald Trumps decision to cancel the visit to the UK where he was going to attend the opening ceremony of new US Embassy, Bloomberg reports. His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests, the Mayor said. Earlier Donald Trump said on Twitter he is cancelling his February trip to the UK. Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!, he tweeted. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Permanent Representative to the OSCE Arman Kirakosyan delivered speech at the session of the OSCE Permanent Council on January 11, the foreign ministry told Armenpress. OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Italy Angelino Alfano delivered remarks during the session. Presenting the priorities of the OSCE Italian chairmanship, Angelino Alfano specifically highlighted the need to settle the prolonged conflicts in the OSCE region and reaffirmed the readiness of the Italian chairmanship to assist the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process through supporting the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. In his remarks Armenias Permanent Representative to the OSCE Arman Kirakosyan stated that the conflicts in the OSCE region are not similar, and their settlement principles and formats are also different. In this regard, an importance was attached to the position of the Italian chairmanship to assist the activity of separate formats of the conflict settlement. Ambassador Kirakosyan said Armenia supports the efforts of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to settle the NK conflict based on the three principles non-use of force or threat of force, territorial integrity and peoples right to self-determination. He specifically emphasized the necessity to take measures to reduce the tension in the line of contact, as well as strengthen the capacities of the office of the personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and install investigative mechanism, withdraw snipers from the line of contact. As for Armenias readiness to continue the cooperation with the OSCE after the closure of its office in Yerevan, Arman Kirakosyan attached importance to the implementation of the OSCEs Armenia cooperation programme and the support of the Italian chairmanship on this path. Dahal and Singh discuss NA poll General Secretary of CPN (Masal) Mohan Bikram Singh has urged CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to consolidate the position of the left alliance for ensuring political stability and prosperity in the country. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. The level of archaeology is high in Armenia, Doctor Makoto Arimura of Japans Tokai University told a press conference in Armenpress. He is working in Armenia with the Armenian specialists. I have worked in many countries. I have been in Central Asian countries, I can state that Armenia is the best in the region. During the Soviet era Armenias archaeology was the highest. I met with several archaeologists in some post-Soviet states, but here their number is more. And I also want to state that here there are a lot of archaeologists who are distinguished by their qualities. Cooperation with them is very important for me, he said. Pavel Avetisyan, director of the Archaeology and Ethnography Institute, said the international archaeological expeditions bring the culture of their work to Armenia. I can state for sure that that the bar in archaeology of our country is quite high, he said. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. 97 million 695 thousand dollar worth of products have been imported to Armenia in January-November 2017 as humanitarian aid. According to the national statistical service, the figure is 2,2 times greater than the previous years aid volumes. 81 million 206 thousand dollar comprised chemical and industrial branch products, 3 million 798,9 thousand dollars comprised vehicles, equipment and mechanisms and 3 million 686 thousand dollars comprised textiles. Switzerland provided the most aid in terms of volume in the reporting period, followed by USA and China. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. The Archaeology and Ethnography Institute of Armenia will organize a summer school in 2018 with the University of Los Angeles, director Pavel Avetisyan told a press conference. Students of various US universities, together with Armenian students, will participate in the Masis Hill works during the summer school, he said. We are speaking about making Armenia a scientific center in the region, he added. The Institute will continue the excavations of monuments near the North-South Road this year. French and Israeli archaeologists will arrive to Armenia to jointly study the monuments which were discovered in Armenia, known as Desert Kites. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. The Russian military has wiped out a subversive militant group, which shelled the Hmeymim airbase in Syria with mortars on December 31, ARMENPRESS reports, citing TASS, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Friday. According to the ministry, a special operation was held to spot and eliminate it. A group of Russian Special Operation Forces established the militants' location close to the western border of the Idlib province "When the terrorists arrived at the facility where they were to board a minibus, the whole subversive group was eliminated by the Krasnopol high-precision munition," the ministry said. The Russian Defense Ministry added that all manpower and materiel of Russias multilevel military intelligence system in Syria had been involved in the operation. Earlier reports said that a subversive militant group had shelled Hmeymim airbase on December 31, 2017, killing two Russian military servicemen. Russias Krasnopol precision artillery munition has wiped out terrorists drone assembly and storage depot in the Syrian province of Idlib, according to the Defense Ministry. "The Russian military reconnaissance has uncovered a terrorist fixed-wing drone assembly and storage place in the province of Idlib. The depot has been destroyed by the Krasnopol precision artillery munition," the Defense Ministry said. The Russian Defense Ministry earlier reported that on January 6 militants in Syria had massively used UAVs for the first time when attacking Russias Hmeymim airbase and the naval supply base in Tartus. The attack was successfully repelled. Seven vehicles were shot down, and six were taken under control with the help of electronic warfare means. The Defense Ministry said the solutions used by the militants had been obtained from a technologically advanced country. It warned of the risk of more such attacks in any other country around the world The ministry also said the drones that tried to attack Hmeymim and Tartus had been launched from the area of Muazzar, in the southwestern part of the de-escalation zone Idlib, held by the armed groups of the so-called moderate opposition. YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. The trial of oppositionist journalist, human rights activist Afgan Mukhtarli took place on January 12 at Bakus regional court, ARMENPTRSS reports Turan news agency informs. Mukhtarli was convicted to 6-year imprisonment. Afgan Mukhtarli claims unguilty and says his arrest is ordered by Azerbaijans ruling elite. Afghan Mukhtarli is a known critic of the Azerbaijani authorities policies. Since 2015, he was forced to settle in Tbilisi. He disappeared two days ago, and later appeared in Baku and was jailed. He said that he was kidnapped from downtown Tbilisi by unknown people wearing civilian clothing, who were speaking Georgian. He was forced into a car and taken out of Georgia, heavily battered, blindfolded and taken to another vehicle. He was then forced to a third vehicle, already on the Azerbaijani border, where he heard the kidnappers talk in Azerbaijani. The kidnappers framed him by putting a large amount of cash in his pocket, and now he is charged with smuggling and illegal border crossing. His attorney has already met him, and said that his client has bruised on his face. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling on Azerbaijan to release journalist Afghan Mukhtarli and stop persecutions against him. Armenpress reports the MEPs also sharply criticized the bad situation of media in Azerbaijan. The MEPS emphasized that the leadership of Azerbaijan should stop the criminal persecutions and imprisonment of journalists and human rights advocates and immediately set free all the political prisoners. IN addition, the European Parliament has called on the Georgian authorities to carry out a detailed investigation on the case of Mukhtarlis abduction and clarify the involvement of Georgian agents in the incident. LOS ANGELESBone Master Male Enhancement is nominated for an AVN Award in the category of Best Enhancement Manufacturer. We are very pleased with this finalist nomination and being up for an AVN Award! The brand exposure and success was a combination of having the right product, the right results, and the right marketing. We could not have done this without the star power of our official spokesperson and model, Joanna Angel/Burning Angel and all the models that helped us with our grassroots marketing campaign which was done quietly and old school. Huge Ape Media was also instrumental for their role in initial branding and content development. We're please at the results; online, in print, and the viral successes of being exposed to mainstream media was simply, awesome. Having been featured on ESPN Radio, MMA Shows and Podcasts has really helped get us out there - thank you to all that have been involved, said Jimmy James. Bone Master can now be found in stores nationwide and is a favorite among truckers. The AVN Awards take place Jan. 27 in The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. The new curriculum will no longer allow students to apply earned Advanced Placement (AP) credit to fulfill general education requirements. This decision is intended to battle oppression and "inequity," as some incoming students lacked the opportunity to take AP courses while in high school. Therefore, the university deems it "inequitable" that certain students-those who excelled in AP courses-should be able to "get ahead" while others have to progress more slowly through their general education. All freshmen will be required to take a first-year seminar, which explores a specific topic in depth and "encourage self-directed inquiry." The reasoning behind the suggestion seems odd: that minority students currently enroll disproportionately less in first-year seminars-which university officials view as another affront to social justice (although nothing prohibits said students from enrolling in the seminars). The seminars themselves often focus on topics that either are of questionable value or heavily ideological. For example, the current list of first-year seminars include courses such as "Gender, Travel, and Tourism," "Globalization of Hip-Hop," "Canine Cultures," and "Beyonce: Performance and Popular Culture." Students will also be required to take a new "Information, Ideas, and Inquiry" course to be taught by multiple faculty members. This course, which is still in the process of being designed, may prove to be valuable. Its goal is to teach students how to interpret evidence and form logical arguments using information and methods from multiple disciplines. Of course, the course will only be effective if presented in a fair and balanced manner A mental health course. Students will be required to attend at least four on-campus activities such as a public lecture or artistic performance. Additional requirements include a junior/senior communications course. It is imperative that universities take the time to deeply reflect on their purpose (or rather, purposes). There is no better time for UNC-Chapel Hill to do so than now, as it crafts a new general education curriculum.In 2016, the dean of College of Arts and Sciences, Kevin Guskiewicz, decided that it was time to update the university's general education curriculum. To justify the laborious task of redesigning the entire curriculum, university officials explained that many students find the current curriculum cumbersome and difficult to navigate. Since then, over 18 task forces have been evaluating how to simplify the current model and adapt it to fit the demands of this highly technological and globally connected world.But it will be no mean task to create a program that is acceptable to all factions, especially since some of the proposed changes represent a dramatic shift in its educational philosophy, from a knowledge-based curriculum toward one that is skills-based. Whereas there used to be an emphasis on foundational content, the committee charged with the revision instead emphasizes processes.For most of its history, UNC-Chapel Hill's general education curriculum required that each student be exposed to a common body of knowledge that encompassed core subjects such as American history, logic, and literature from the Western canon. According to UNC-Chapel Hill's undergraduate bulletin of 1969 , students' general education included the following straight-forward, knowledge-specific, requirements: two semesters of English composition and rhetoric, one English Literature course (with substantial readings from Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton), two semesters of Modern Civilization, one additional social science, along with three natural sciences, two mathematics (could substitute with Greek, Latin, or philosophy), and elective requirements.But following the 1960s , UNC-Chapel Hill slowly moved away from its specific knowledge-based curriculum. The current curriculum still mandates that students study courses in certain disciplines, but it gives them free reign in deciding which classes to take to fulfill specific requirements. For example, they can satisfy their "Historical Analysis" requirement by selecting from among hundreds of course options. Consequently, the history requirement can equally be fulfilled by taking either "First-year Seminar: Japanese Tea Culture" or "American Constitutional History Since 1876"-depending on students' preferences. Surely, these two courses are not equally essential for a student's education.And now UNC-Chapel Hill's newest general education proposal represents an even more radical departure from the belief that there is a core of essential knowledge needed by all educated citizens. Rather than outlining specific subject requirements, the most recent proposal decrees that students pursue certain abstract "modes of thought and action" or "focus capacities," that can be applied in a broad context of real-life experiences. Those "capacities," nine in total and thought to be necessary to all students, include Diversity, Power, and Inclusion and Engagement With The Human Past and Aesthetics and Interpretive Analysis.It is still unclear what specific courses fall under the vague capacities descriptions. Indeed, the lack of specific content requirements, such as literature and pre-modern history, has left many faculty discontented and confused as to how the changes will affect them on a personal and departmental level. One faculty member asked members of the coordinating committee what was meant by the description "Engagement with the Human Past." "What counts as past?" she asked. As an archeology professor, she was concerned that, unless required, students would opt to take contemporary topics, and would steer away from subjects that fall within the pre-modern era.In response to faculty objections, the committee wrote:[emphasis added] So far, the committee's only explanation for shying away from "specific content" is that there are "too many" valuable disciplines in the university to expect students to be exposed to them all. But that understanding disregards the notion (and importance) of foundational knowledge and its role in forming responsible citizens.Indeed, instilling civic virtue in students can perhaps most effectively be accomplished by means of a close study of the great ideas and discoveries upon which this country is built. Some may think that it is authoritarian or hegemonic to try to inculcate a shared cultural identity. But is it really wrong for countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to instruct their students according to the values and history that make up their nations? Such countries aren't expected to prioritize the incorporation of other cultures into their core curricula, because it's naturally understood that they value - and are united by - their common cultural identity. Likewise, American universities should seek to ensure that its treasury of knowledge is passed on to each succeeding generation.Should, then, the traditional idea of a university as the cultivator of cultural knowledge give way to the pressing demands of a skills-focused quasi-vocational training?Addressing and grappling with this question could prove to be the most positive consequence of revisiting the general education curriculum. The degree of meaningful conversation on this topic, however, may be stymied due to the heavily ideological imbalance of faculty who have authority in the matter.Indeed, the conversation so far has been very left-leaning. Recent voter records indicate that only 3 out of 75 participating faculty and staff involved in the initial general education proposal are registered Republicans. This is part of a larger problem at UNC-Chapel Hill and in higher education more generally: in Spring 2016, there were 17 entire departments that did not have a single registered Republican faculty member.Not surprisingly, the proposal's wording reflects the political leanings of participating faculty. And those leanings are often extreme, with much of the curriculum in the humanities and social sciences dedicated to the deconstruction of what are considered to be the texts' underlying oppressive themes and structures.For instance, a student learning goal for one of the courses, "Information, Ideas, and Inquiry" (III), says that "students will be able to identify biases and threats to validity in others' interpretations of information and data." This reflects the prevailing belief in some academic circles that all interpretations are equally valid-an obvious fallacy. The proposal also says that faculty may center this course around broad themes, many of which are popular on the left, such as "inequality."Other proposed changes include:Even though the structure of the program will change, it will still likely retain many of the flaws of the previous one. For instance, Andrew Perrin, head of the curriculum revision's coordinating committee, told the Martin Center that he imagined that some of the courses that currently fall under the "U.S. Diversity" and "Global Issues" general education requirements would most likely fulfill the newly envisioned "Diversity, Power, and Inclusion" capacity requirement. If that is the case, then classes such as "The Lived Experience of Inequality and Public Policy" and "Gender and Sexuality in Middle Eastern Literature" could fulfill one of the nine "capacity" requirements.Nevertheless, the proposed curriculum has some potentially advantageous features. For one, the new curriculum is more straightforward and easier for students to navigate-much simpler than the smorgasbord maze-like model that is presently in place. And, the "III" course is explicitly intended to help students with their powers of reasoning at the start of their college careers. Finally, the committees have discussed the possibility of ensuring that a "diversity of ideas, approaches, viewpoints, and frameworks" are included in each general education course.None of the proposed changes are set in stone, however: The overseeing committees have made it clear that the revision process will most likely undergo continued modifications and will remain a work in progress. That said, university officials have the responsibility to gain the input from faculty and citizens from a wide variety of viewpoints-and rectify the Left's current monopoly on the curriculum. If not, then the general education curriculum risks going further astray from one of the university's core purposes: that of imparting foundational knowledge to each succeeding generation. It's time for politicians to stop thinking they need to bribe companies to come here Every few days, I see another story. They're always the same.They start with some headline about how a company has chosen North Carolina over another state. Occasionally it's another country. Sometimes it's a city. They read like this:[Insert Company Name Here] chooses [North Carolina/City Name] over [other state/country] for latest expansion.It's not just the headlines that are the same. The substance of the story never changes much, either. First, there's a long list of all the great things the company will bring - jobs, higher salaries, the general salvation of a particular economic sector. Then there's glowing praise for North Carolina workers, for the talent that's drawn the company to the state, for all the great advantages that North Carolina offers to a business looking to locate. The picture it paints is beautiful.But then comes the kicker, the reason I'm always filled with dread when I see these headlines. Because, almost inevitably, the story ends with a list of the grants and tax breaks and incentive payments the company has received from the state and local governments as part of the deal to locate here.We're not talking about small change. In just the Q3 of 2017, the state gave away more than $1 million in OneNC Grants . That program has given away nearly $88 million since it started in 1993, and every one of those state dollars requires a local match, so the actual amount is much higher. In 2016, the state awarded almost $70 million in Job Development Investment Grants . Overall, in the past 10 years the state has awarded more than $1.5 billion in various economic development grants Of course, the stories always say the company is really here for the talent, the quality of life, the business environment, the proximity to mountains and beaches, or whatever. The very same politicians handing out taxpayer money will talk at length about what a wonderful place North Carolina is to do business, how attractive its talent pool is, how we can compete with anyone in the world.I'll admit that working in politics and public policy for 15 years has made me cynical. But these articles always strike me as a bit disingenuous. If politicians really believe so strongly in North Carolina, then why do they feel like they have to sweeten the deal by handing out huge sums of taxpayer money? You only do that if you don't really believe your product is attractive enough on its own.Of course, there's a reason for this. It's hard work to actually make a place so much more attractive than the cities and states around it people will come here without any cash. (It gets harder, incidentally, every time we hand out more tax breaks and incentives, making companies expect we'll continue to do so.) It requires things like lowering tax rates, and not just a tiny fraction. Lower tax rates meaningfully, and you won't have to give massive incentive payments. Instead, companies will realize that their bottom lines benefit from those lower rates and they'll want to take advantage of them.And the beauty is that, rather than having to play this game and try to lure people, you can create an environment where companies come to you.It's why I'm constantly seeing advertisements for Ford and Toyota and BMW, complete with cash back and special financing, essentially buyer "incentives." Because I could easily buy Chevy or Honda or Mercedes instead. Those car dealers have to lure me in.But you never see a commercial for Ferrari. You just want one. And if you decide to buy it, you go to them. They don't have to stoop to advertising. The product sells itself. When you do go to buy that car, there will be no cash back. In fact, if you buy it new, you'll sign a contract agreeing not to resell the vehicle for a couple of years as a condition of the privilege of being allowed to buy the car. And you'll sign happily, because the product is just that good.It's why Gordon Ramsay restaurants don't pop up on Groupon, and why Louis Vuitton doesn't have sales or outlets. They're luxury brands. They don't need to offer incentives to make you want them.North Carolina has the makings of a luxury brand. We have excellent universities producing top talent that would be an asset to any company. We have smart, creative, hard-working people, and a low cost of living, high quality of life. The weather is mild, we have sea ports and international airports, we're a short flight from Europe, and we're well-connected to the Eastern U.S.Not only that, but we're consistently ranked among the best states in which to do business . Forbes ranked us No. 1 in 2017. We could be even better. Lower tax rates for all businesses, lighten the regulatory burden, and provide good infrastructure. Stop offering incentives that send the implicit message that North Carolina isn't good enough on its own merits, that it needs to offer sweeteners. Instead, make North Carolina hands down the best place in the country to do business, and let companies come to us. North Carolina really can be that good. It's time for politicians to stop selling us short. Acupuncturist board may face same fate as dental board, which lost its immunity from lawsuits before the U.S. Supreme Court A pair of North Carolina occupational licensing boards warring over who may lawfully use acupuncture needles for treatment and therapy could thrust the state into another constitutional embarrassment, state Sen. Andy Wells said Tuesday.The N.C. Acupuncture Licensing Board and the N.C. Board of Physical Therapy Examiners have taken turns suing each other in a situation that resembles an antitrust case the N.C. Board of Dental Examiners lost in February 2015 at the U.S. Supreme Court. Occupational licensing boards are state entities.Wells, a Catawba County Republican, said the Acupuncture Board might be at risk of illegally restraining trade - the basis for the Federal Trade Commission's legal victory against the Dental Board. He also said the Acupuncture Board's legal fees have put the board deeply in debt.Wells said during a meeting of the Joint Legislative Administrative Procedure Oversight Committee.Occupational licensing costs practitioners statewide between $20 million and $30 million a year, he said. Virginia and South Carolina collect much less in the licensing fees, while lawsuits have driven up North Carolina's costs even more.The committee received Acupuncture Board financial statements for 2016 and 2017, and Wells said it appears the board accumulated $336,000 in legal fees during those years. The board collects only $112,000 a year from licensing fees, its only funding source.Wells told Mike Tadych, Acupuncture Board attorney. Meanwhile, the board is $152,000 in the hole.Tadych said the Acupuncture Board hires not only his firm but also outside lawyers to represent the board in lawsuits. The attorneys are allowing the board to make deferred payments. Supporters of both occupational licensing boards have solicited donations to offset their legal costs, Tadych said.Wells told Carolina Journal after the meeting.Wells said the Dental Board case made North CarolinaThe FTC has told the state another issue has attracted its attention, Wells said - without citing the acupuncture controversy - and he worries the state could lose another high-profile ruling.The Dental Board got in trouble when it sent cease-and-desist letters to people performing teeth whitening services without a dental license. The FTC sued, saying the board violated federal antitrust law by abusing government power to protect an existing industry.The Acupuncture Board also sent cease-and-desist letters, and was sued by a group of physical therapists and ballerinas who said they needed dry needling to maintain peak performance. They filed a federal antitrust claim, which is on hold pending resolution of a state court case filed by the Acupuncture Board against the Physical Therapy Board. That case could be heard in February in Wake County Superior Court.In a 6-3 majority opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, even though the Dental Board was a public agency, it could be sued because it wasn't under direct supervision of the state.Wells told CJ after the meeting.Although the state flirted with the idea of creating an Occupational Licensing Commission to ensure direct state supervision of licensing boards, Wells told CJ problems persist.he said.Wells said he was concerned the boards chose the courts for resolution rather than asking the General Assembly to intervene. He took issue with the Acupuncture Board and Physical Therapist Board raising outside funds from donors as another erosion of direct state government supervision.Acupuncture Board chairwoman Mary Majebe and Physical Therapy Board attorney Jordan John Silverstein debated whether physical therapists using "dry needling" techniques to relieve neuromuscular pain were practicing acupuncture, which requires greater clinical training and coursework.The two sides also disputed whether evidence showed physical therapy patients treated with dry needling techniques suffered injuries.Questioned by Sen. Dan Barrett, R-Davie, Tadych said he could not provide any data about possible injuries. In part, he said, physical therapists filing medical reports code dry needling as manual therapy, making it impossible to isolate injuries that might have involved a needle. Dhankuta shut again to demand state headquarters People advocating for Dhankuta as the capital of Province 1 enforced a banda in the district on Thursday, causing hardship for general public. Joint judicial reform committee meetings may be only other action taken during special session Rep. Ted Davis, R-New Hanover, leads House floor debate Wednesday on House Bill 189. (CJ photo by Dan Way) House Republicans beat back several attempts Wednesday by Democrats to expand the regulatory scope of a bill dealing with the GenX contaminant dumped into the lower Cape Fear River region, as the measure passed 116-0.But a more formidable challenge to House Bill 189 , Short-Term Response to Emerging Contaminants, is in the Senate. And it's coming from GOP counterparts, who are unlikely to consider the bill up during the current special session.House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, hailed passage of H.B. 189 in a written statement.Moore said.Moore said.Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, downplayed the impact of the legislation.Berger said in a news release.Berger said.Berger wants to push the matter into the short session later this year. He said funding exists to remove and study health impacts from chemical manufacturer Chemours' discharge of GenX into water supplies. The legislature should wait until receiving the first data in the spring before taking more significant action, Berger said.Gov. Roy Cooper's office, which was unable to push the General Assembly to boost education spending in the special session, also criticized the bill.Cooper spokesman Ford Porter said.The GenX bill was the most substantial action taken Wednesday. Moore said not to expect any other votes for at least the next two weeks. The Senate convened briefly twice, then adjourned until Friday, when no votes are scheduled.The GenX factor has roiled state politics for months after the compound was found in the Cape Fear River, groundwater wells, and soil around the Chemours plant. The manufacturer had state permits to discharge the compound, but was ordered to cease releasing it into the river.Rep. Ted Davis, R-New Hanover, said as he led floor debate on H.B. 189. He said the House Select Committee on North Carolina River Quality had extensive meetings with DEQ staff, and they molded a compromise differing in key aspects from the environmental agency's initial approach.DEQ Secretary Michael Regan testified in support of the measure during an Appropriations Committee meeting before the floor vote. He said the bill protects public health without harming the state's economic competitiveness.The bill also would fund the purchase of a $537,000 mass spectrometer machine which could find and identify chemicals, and pay for five employees to work with the equipment. The bill calls for collaboration among state agencies, data sharing with other states, establishing health goals, and studying civil liability of utilities that distribute contaminated drinking water.Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover, unsuccessfully tried to alter the bill. Her amendment would have repealed so-called Hardison amendments that prohibit state agencies and local governments from passing environmental regulations more stringent than federal rules.she asked the Republican majority.Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, said there is no reason to repeal the Hardison amendment in this case because it has a clause allowing the state to take whatever action necessary for a serious or unforeseen environmental threat.The only significant legislative action the rest of the week is a 1 p.m. Thursday meeting of the Joint Select Committee on Judicial Reform and Redistricting. The meeting could draw more than 100 protesters, surpassing a group that lined Jones Street outside the legislative complex Wednesday.Berger said he has no idea how long the committee will meet. It is considering a House judicial redistricting bill and a Senate initiative to consider changes in how judges are selected.Berger said he hopes the committee will agree on a recommendation - whether it is to seek reforms or retain the present system - before the special session concludes.Until then, Berger said, the General Assembly probably will hold "skeletal" sessions without voting on other legislation. Contact: Attila Nemecz Attila Nemecz Attila.Nemecz@beaufortccc.edu These classes are available through Beaufort County Community College's Continuing Education Division. To register or for more information, call 252-940-6375 or email continuingeducation@beaufortccc.edu. Ask to join the mailing list for the latest updates.This class provides training for a current nurse aide to become a qualified medication aide. Core course concept is safe medication administration via the oral, topical and instillation routes to residents of long-term nursing facilities. For listing on the North Carolina Medication Aide Registry, student must successfully complete the state competency exam.Participants must be a current NA I license with no substantiated findings. The course costs $70, plus a $14.14 textbook. The state exam costs $55. Funding assistance may be available through NCWorks. Interested persons must apply to the NC Works office in their home county. This course runs from 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. on Saturdays, from January 13-27.This course prepares students through classroom instruction to enter the pharmacy field as a pharmacy technician I. Core course concept is basic training in pharmacy and pharmacology. Upon satisfactory completion of the course, students can sit for the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board Exam.Students must have a Career Readiness Certificate of a bronze or higher. Copy of certificate is due at time of registration along with an official high school transcript. The class costs $194.25, plus a $197 textbook. The state exam fee is an additional $129.Funding assistance may be available through NC Works. Interested persons must apply to the NC Works office in their home county. The class runs from 6:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m., on Tuesdays and Thursdays, January 30 through May 15.For students with little or no medical experience, this course will introduce them to emergency prehospital care. Students will provide emergency care at the EMT level after this course, and they can sit for the state credentialing exam. The schedule includes online components, along with weeknight and Saturday sessions.This class costs $209.25. Funding assistance may be available for qualifying individuals through NCWorks. It will run from 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m., Mondays and Wednesdays, from January 17-May 9.This course prepares students to register for a Paramedic course, or offers credentialed providers with continuing education. Upon completion, students should be able to demonstrate a basic understanding of the fundamentals and the principles of anatomy and physiology.The $185 class is entirely online, running from January 22-April 29.BCCC's first culinary class in 2018 will be a Farm-to-table New Year's celebration - Beaufort County style. William Cherry is growing the collards for this meal, and he will cure the backbone from Acre Station Meat Farm. This class has the greens for cash and rice and beans for luck. Students can help us kick off a great new year in the Frances Roberson Culinary Lab.On the menu: collards with gently corned backbone and cornmeal dumplings, fresh relish and hot pepper vinegar, roasted local sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas and rice, and Banana Pudding. This $40 class takes place from 6:00-9:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 18.BCCC is inaugurating a series of luncheon cooking classes this semester. On a cold winter's day, this class will prepare a warming Russian menu with Natasha Pawlick, who grew up in the Ural Mountains of Russia. She is locally famous for her delicious food. This class will make and serve the following: Russian tomato and cheese appetizer, salmon and potato soup, fresh mushroom soup with sour cream, homemade sourdough and pumpernickel croutons, fresh cabbage salad and Russian apple pie. The $35 class runs from 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on Friday, January 26. 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. Federal justices could decide how much leeway, if any, judicial branch has over partisan map-drawing "I think this case is pretty significant in that it lays out a potential legal justification for courts inserting themselves into partisan gerrymandering. In the past the courts have been very wary of going into political questions of this nature." "I think the courts have looked at this as a political thicket, and the concern among conservatives is that if we start inserting ourselves into these political questions, do we run the risk of becoming too political in our decision making? From the liberal side - they would say Congress isn't dealing with this." Court intervention in congressional redistricting has some lawmakers wondering whether judges are gaveling their way into legislative territory.On Jan. 9, a panel of three federal judges blocked North Carolina from using its current map during congressional elections. The map, GOP redistricting leaders admitted, was designed to give Republicans an advantage in 10 out of the state's 13 U.S. House districts. The consolidated lawsuits, Common Cause v. Rucho and League of Women Voters v. Rucho, may have national implications. Wisconsin and Maryland have similar cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to decide whether, or how much, judges can get involved in partisan map-drawing.N.C. lawmakers frequently butt heads with courts over redistricting. Democrats in the 1990s garnered criticism for drawing maps on the basis of race. In the 1993 case, Shaw v. Reno, the Supreme Court ruled a gerrymander designed to increase the voting power of racial minorities may violate the Equal Protection Clause.In 2016, judges scrapped the congressional map used in 2012 and 2014. Those districts were racially gerrymandered, they said.The discussion has since shifted to partisan lines.North Carolina's filing period for congressional candidates opens Feb. 12 and lasts through Feb. 28.The decision could have been timed better, said Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, who heads the N.C. House redistricting efforts.Lewis told Carolina Journal.The legislature filed an appeal with the federal justices Thursday (read the filing here ), asking for the panel's order to be put on hold until the Supreme Court decides on the Wisconsin and Maryland lawsuits. The filing also noted that the candidate filing period would begin before the three-judge panel issued a new ruling.Judge James Wynn, an Obama appointee serving on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has repeatedly shown disdain for the Republican-led General Assembly, Lewis said. Wynn serves on the separate judicial panels handling the legislative and congressional redistricting lawsuits.In July 2017, Wynn led the panel presiding over Covington v. North Carolina, a lawsuit over racial gerrymandering in legislative districts.The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the three-judge panel's ruling in the case that 28 districts must be thrown out as examples of illegal racial gerrymandering. But the Supreme Court also chided the panel for demanding special 2017 legislative elections without offering adequate justification.Lewis said.In February 2016, Lewis publicly proposed thatBut on Jan. 11, Lewis dismissed contentions of excessive gerrymandering. Any reasonable person could look at the legislative maps and see 87 of 100 counties were kept whole, with only 12 precincts split, he said.In a 191-page opinion, the panel in the congressional redistricting case directed North Carolina lawmakers to submit new maps by Jan. 24. They also appointed a "special master" to draw a second map at the same time.U.S. District Court Judge William Osteen, who largely agreed with the opinion, rejected the decision to hire a special master before lawmakers have a chance to redraw the maps. Osteen said the move was premature.Special masters are outside experts who advise courts. In redistricting cases, special masters can draw alternative maps for the courts. Those maps typically are used only if legislators fail to redraw contested maps according to court standards.Expecting the majority party to draw districts to its advantage is an old tactic, but it has never been treated as a legal issue, said Andy Taylor, a political science professor at N.C. State University. Legislators have reason to argue that courts are overreaching. Historically, courts have intervened only in cases of racial disparity. Judges largely held back from partisan squabbles, he added.In 1964, the Supreme Court ruled that political districts must hold roughly the same number of voters. The "one-to-one rule" was then viewed as meddlesome - an attempt to legislate from the bench.The Wisconsin lawsuit was filed by a political advocacy group seeking to expand the one-to-one rule to cover partisan gerrymanders North Carolina may be included in the case, and the Supreme Court's decision will certainly affect how the legislature draws future maps, said Michael Bitzer, a professor of political science at Catawba College States are running crazy with partisan redistricting, and the polarized political environment may require an intervention, Bitzer said.Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, appointed by President Reagan in 1988, will be the deciding vote, Bitzer said.Kennedy has signaled he opposes partisan gerrymanders and could see the Wisconsin and Maryland cases as an opportunity to address the problem.In the 2004 case Vieth v. Jubelirer, Kennedy wrote that the goal of redistricting wasSince that statement was never defined,Kennedy said.To U.S. Rep. David Price, D-4th District, there's no question Republicans are withholding fair and effective representation.Price said. Within the fractious realm of higher education policy, one of the few ideas to gain bipartisan support is the expansion of technical training for young workers, largely through apprenticeships. Both the political left and right favor apprenticeships as a way to educate and train America's youth for future success while also meeting the demands of the economy.However, despite the many advantages offered by apprenticeships, there has been no great rush by young people into such programs. Instead, for many young people, a college degree remains their primary goal upon graduating from high school, even though it is costly and no longer guarantees a middle-class income. Among the reasons are a lack of awareness and a degree of social stigma sometimes attached to those who don't pursue an academic degree. College-educated parents are particularly suspicious of the long-term benefits of apprenticeships: though they may support apprenticeships in principle, they tend to like it when other people's children become apprentices, rather than their own.Still, for many young people, apprenticeships should be especially attractive because they offer an immediate paycheck for work and also teach skills in both hands-on and classroom settings. The average apprenticeship period tends to be about four years, according to Department of Labor statistics, and workers usually become full employees upon program completion.In contrast, the traditional college route not only requires considerable payment for tuition and fees, but postpones full-time income for at least four years. Furthermore, graduates must find employment on their own after they finish school and may be deeply in debt from student loans.Part of an academic degree's popularity comes from teachers and parents preferring that students obtain a college degree after high school graduation.said Dudley Light, the regional director in Texas for the Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship, in a Martin Center interview. Even students with poor academic skills can succumb to the social pressure; after listening to their teachers, parents, guidance counselors, and peers throughout junior high and high school pushing college, not pursuing a college degree can feel like failure.With so much attention focused on four-year college degrees, high school students aren't aware of all their options after graduation, and the apprenticeship system is left to be spread via word of mouth.said Brenda Dant, the executive director of the Indiana Association of Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling Contractors, in a Martin Center interview. The IAPHCC, a trade group, tries to correct that ignorance by sending members into schools to speak with students. In talking about their work, representatives tie "apprenticeship" to words that hold resonance with students, words like "internship" or "mentorship." The hope is that local outreach will find workers to replace retiring baby boomers and expand the apprenticeship system.The United States already has an extensive apprenticeship system in place, even though it pales in comparison with the systems of its European counterparts. The Atlantic noted that Still, apprenticeship is becoming more common in the U.S. Nationally, 21,000 registered programs have more than 505,000 apprentices as of 2016, a figure that has climbed 29 percent since 2011, according to the Department of Labor. Programs are operated either on the federal level or by individual states. (The Department of Labor can only track registered apprenticeships; some number of unregistered apprenticeships exist, but estimates vary widely .) And employers and apprentices seem happy with the system-a 2009 report from the Urban Institute found that nine out of every 10 employers would "strongly recommend" registered apprenticeships and 65 percent of employers had completion rates above 70 percent in their programs. That's better than the 59 percent six-year graduation rate for college students. Employers have some concerns about the bureaucracy and time required for registering new programs, but it seems the bigger issue is how many apprenticeship positions go unfilled.said Brent Parton, deputy director of the center on education and skills at the New America Foundation, in a Martin Center interview.Expanding apprenticeship programs will be difficult when it attracts few young people relative to college, and few young people are even aware of it. Scaling the program will be difficult without more funding to educate employers on the benefits of apprenticeships and how to establish their own programs; however, the federal government has been responsive to this problem. Both the Obama and Trump administrations have appropriated money for apprenticeships: Obama sent about $250 million toward apprenticeship program expansion and Trump is calling for a further $200 million investment (though the details of that plan have not been fully explained).Today, many apprenticeship programs partner with local community colleges and technical schools to train apprentices. The Urban Institute study found that 58 percent of employers used community colleges and public technical colleges for classroom training. Apprentices don't just spend four years on construction sites under the sun; they are also learning in college-style classes without taking out federal student loans.Light said. Over 300 colleges have partnered with employers in the Registered Apprenticeship-College Consortium, a national organization that translates apprenticeship work into college credentials, which can help workers earn associate's or bachelor's degrees.These partnerships may change which industries use apprenticeships, too. The construction, military, and manufacturing sectors dominate, but public administration, health care, and information technology use apprentices. Additionally, finance and insurance, real estate, and accommodation and food services are starting to use apprenticeship programs and many boosters see expansion in these sectors as key. A recent study from Harvard Business School found that creating apprenticeships for graphic designers, insurance claims adjusters, and medical transcriptionists, among others, could mean 3.3 million new apprenticeships. That would triple the number of occupations that use apprenticeships and quadruple the number of apprentices.Still, there are other reasons why there has not been a more rapid expansion of the apprenticeship concept. One of them is economic reality. The modern economy, where workers have more mobility and an easier time of finding another job, makes employers wary of investing in worker training.Economic cycles cause other problems. Apprenticeship tends to expand with a boom and contract with a bust. Because apprenticeships train workers more narrowly than a college degree, this specialized knowledge is less flexible and can make transitioning into another job difficult. When another economic recession hits, or technological change makes some jobs obsolete, current and former apprentices could feel the pain of economic transition the most.Another dynamic is that apprentices tend to be older than the traditional college student; their average age is 28 years old . At that point, apprentices have passed beyond concerns about the social stigma of enrolling in a program.With more apprentices ignoring the possible stigma, that could result in workers finding jobs that match their skills and a reduction in student debt-for students and for the taxpayers who subsidize the loans. However, it's important to treat apprenticeships as one option of many for education and economic training with its own costs and benefits-much like a college degree. Donald Trump today boasted of the United States' sale of 'F52' aircraft to Norway. They don't exist, other than elements in the popular video game 'Call of Duty.' In a joint press conference Wednesday with Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway, Trump said the US was selling Norway a fighter aircraft that is literally a thing of fiction. The President of the United States said Norway had already begin receiving deliveries of the first American-made "F-52s." "In November, we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets," he blurted. The F-52 is a fictional aircraft featured prominently in the successful Call of Duty video game series. This fan website details the craft's capabilities, which are admittedly most impressive. "Trump 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," according to reports. "We have a total of 52 and they've delivered a number of them already, a little ahead of schedule," Mr Trump said on Wednesday, adding "it's 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. Below, a view of the cockpit from COD gameplay. [Source] The F-52's capabilities look really impressive pic.twitter.com/WI2DzIaQwt Alexander Clarkson (@APHClarkson) January 10, 2018 Trump just blurted out the US had sold F-52's to Norway. F-52s. An aircraft so secret, even the military hasn't heard of it. I, however, was able to secure this highly classified image. Don't share. Classified. #F52 pic.twitter.com/6VpFcMm03h The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) January 10, 2018 On January 11, the House passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act bill which renews a controversial NSA surveillance program that allows the spy agency to intercept the communications of Americans without a warrant. With the 256-164 vote, the House of Representatives extends NSA spying powers for the next six years. Senate leaders say they'll send the bill to President Trump's desk next week to reauthorize the government's power to conduct foreign surveillance inside U.S. borders, even after confusing tweets from Trump himself that questioned support for the program Thursday morning. 'House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,' Trump tweeted, referencing a headline from Fox News. '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?' Here's the EFF's response, from David Ruiz. In a related vote, the House also failed to adopt meaningful reforms on how the government sweeps up large swaths of data that predictably include Americans' communications. Because of these votes, broad NSA surveillance of the Internet will likely continue, and the government will still have access to Americans' emails, chat logs, and browsing history without a warrant. Because of these votes, this surveillance will continue to operate in a dark corner, routinely violating the Fourth Amendment and other core constitutional protections. This is a disappointment to EFF and all our supporters who, for weeks, have spoken to defend privacy. And this is a disappointment for the dozens of Congress members who have tried to rein NSA surveillance in, asking that the intelligence community merely follow the Constitution. Today's House vote concerned S. 139, a bill to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a powerful surveillance authority the NSA relies on to sweep up countless Americans' electronic communications. EFF vehemently opposed S. 139 for its failure to enact true reform of Section 702. As passed by the House today, the bill: Endorses nearly all warrantless searches of databases containing Americans' communications collected under Section 702. Provides a narrow and seemingly useless warrant requirement that applies only for searches in some later-stage criminal investigations, a circumstance which the FBI itself has said almost never happens. Allows for the restarting of "about" collection, an invasive type of surveillance that the NSA ended last year after being criticized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for privacy violations. Sunsets in six years, delaying Congress' best opportunity to debate the limits NSA surveillance. You can read more about the bill here from EFF's perspective. From the Washington Post's coverage: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been living in the Ecuadoran embassy to the United Kingdom in London for more than 5 years, believing that if he were taken into custody by the UK police, he would face extradition to the USA where he would be tried for publishing details of war crimes committed by the US military. Assange has feuded sporadically with his Ecuadoran hosts over the past few years, and both parties have repeatedly expressed their desire that Assange could leave the embassy. The UN has recognized that the UK government has subjected Assange to unlawful detention by not allowing him to go free. Assange fled to the Ecuadoran embassy to avoid an order to go to Sweden to be questioned in connection with sexual assault allegations. Both he and the government of Ecuador repeatedly offered to make him available for questioning in the embassy, but the Swedish prosecutors refused this offer and eventually ran out the statute of limitations for the crimes that Assange was accused of. After granting citizenship to Assange, Ecuador asked the UK to extend diplomatic immunity to him. The UK refused, stranding Assange with an extra passport but no path to freedom. Britain's Foreign Office said Thursday it had rejected Ecuador's request to grant diplomatic status to Assange, who was born in Australia. "The granting of Ecuadorean nationality does not in any way change Julian Assange's legal status in the U.K.," a government spokesman said. "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." Ecuador grants nationality to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange [CBS] (Image: Snapperjack, CC-BY-SA) We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. There are so many products out there right now to try and keep you from losing your keys. Tile, Air Tags, you name it. There are also a ton of products READ THE REST Dr KC continues his fast Dr Govinda KC on Thursday said he would continue his fast-unto-death until his demands are addressed. The Rusty Spotted Cat of Sri Lanka weighs two pounds when it is an adult. It's also incredibly cute and has a high pitched meow. Paris Hilton has probably already paid a poacher to get her one. News / National by Simbarashe Sithole A 27-year old Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officer stationed at Sadza station in Chivhu was humiliated by his wife who took away his mobile phone, assaulted him, tore police dockets and finally threw police riot gear in a pit latrine on Tuesday.Allegations are that Norman Kurima (27) had a misunderstanding with his wife Vester Warikandwa (24) over a string of love messages sent to him by another woman via WhatsApp.Warikandwa reportedly took the mobile phone from her husband and spent the whole day with it while the husband went to work.Kurima subsequently came back home around 21:30hours and demanded his mobile phone from Warikandwa, resulting in a scuffle.It is further alleged that the cop tried to sneak out but he was manhandled and assaulted with open hands before being bitten on the right fore figure, left arm and shoulder.In rage Warikandwa tore criminal dockets that were in their bedroom before taking Kurima's uniform which she reportedly threw in a pit latrine.After being buttered by his wife Kurima filed a police report under rrb number 3289977 at Sadza police station and investigations are currently in progress.Meanwhile, many men in Zimbabwe are being abused under Domestic Violence Act chapter 5;16, but most of their cases go unreported since some police officers have a negative attitude in attending such cases.Many officers laugh at victims saying men should be reported not the other way round. News / National by Staff reporter President Mnangagwa is set to meet the country's traditional leaders in Gweru tomorrow, as part of a programme to get the views of different communities and interest groups. He will also brief them on his administration's vision and expectations. This will be President Mnangagwa's first meeting with traditional leaders after being sworn in as President in November last year.The Deputy President of the Chief's Council, Senator Chief Ngungumbane, said they had been holding preparatory meetings in Gweru. "I can confirm that the preparations for the meeting between President Mnangagwa and the traditional leaders are at an advanced stage," he said. "The team in charge of preparations is already in Gweru, where it is holding meetings."Chief Ngungumbane said the team had even toured the venue, Zanu-PF Convention Centre, popularly known as The Winery, along Mvuma Road. "We have been to The Winery, which is the venue of the meeting, and other sites," he said."We are busy with logistics, but we can safely say we are ready to meet the President." Chiefs in the Midlands province said they were excited about the prospect of meeting President Mnangagwa. Chief Gwasela of Zhombe said he was optimistic that President Mnangagwa was going to address some of their challenges as a matter of urgency."This meeting is coming at the right time for us and we are optimistic that our challenges such as lack of vehicles, electricity will be addressed by the President," he said. Chief Chireya from Gokwe North said he was optimistic that the President was going to address the issue of land invasions.Further, Chief Mazvihwa from Zvishavane said he was positive that President Mnangagwa would push pro-development projects ahead of the 2018 harmonised elections so that the ruling party resoundingly won the elections. In a statement recently, Presidential spokesperson Mr George Charamba said the meeting would enable the President to brief chiefs on his vision and acquaint himself with different players and interests in the country."As part of the ongoing programme to connect and acquaint himself with the thinking of different echelons, interests and players of our nation, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is scheduled to hold a day-long indaba with the country's 282 chiefs in Gweru on January 13, 2018," Mr Charamba said."The President is expected to take advantage of the meeting to get views and expectations of different communities on Government's performance and services, while also briefing our traditional leaders on the vision, programmes and expectations of his new administration and these relate to rural areas where the majority of Zimbabweans live." News / National by Staff reporter Ailing opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai reportedly asked President Emmerson Mnangagwa to postpone general elections by three years ostensibly because lack of electoral reforms was likely to undermine the credibility of the 2018 general poll result.Tsvangirai, 65, reportedly tabled the proposal to postpone elections to Mnangagwa, 75, when the new president and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga made an impromptu but welcome gesture to check on the social democrat, who has dominated Zimbabwe opposition politics since the formation of MDC in 1999.Mnangagwa's spokesperson George Charamba, said his boss was awaiting formal submissions from the opposition on the "legal issues" the MDC leader wanted addressed in relation to his proposal to delay the 2018 elections.Meanwhile, divisions in MDC-T have resulted in Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's family electing to issue statements regarded his health through acting President Engineer Elias Mudzuri, and not through his spokesperson, Mr Luke Tamborinyoka. Mr Tsvangirai has been in and out of the country for treatment for colon cancer.The opposition leader on Monday threw his party into turmoil after he hinted that he could retire from active politics. Mr Tsvangirai's statement revived factional fights from lieutenants angling to succeed him, with his deputies Dr Thokozani Khupe and Mr Nelson Chamisa leading rival camps.Divisions in the party became apparent after Mr Tamborinyoka and party publicist Mr Obert Gutu attacked each other on social media as they issued conflicting statements regarding Mr Tsvangirai. News / National by Stephen Jakes Zimbabwe People's Revolution Army Veterans Association secretary general Petros Sibanda has rapped the opposition leaders who are defending the Zanu PF officials accused of corruption of having double standards."Lawyers are revealing something strange about themselves. I wouldn't be wrong to say they lack stable principles, depth and patriotism. Compaign against corruption was their greatest asset as an opposition party. To me it's like they support corruption as long as it gives them money. Their campaign against corruption was just a gimmick to get them into power and then shift goal posts," he said."I know one may argue that lawyers have got the right to do so but the question is, is it something palatable to an ordinary political supporter who is not conversant with the tunes of law and yet is adamantly drowned in the anti corruption campaign propounded by their powers that be? Is this not betrayal of trust to the supporters. This is purely corruption in its nudity. It means they can do anything for money. This is a sign that more negative things are in store. Corruption is the dirtiest thing that has sucked our country to the bone marrow and thus we are where we are because of corruption."He said the bottom line here is lack of principles on the lawyers' part...since there's legal room for one to recuse him or herself from representing the corruption culprits."It maybe a question of individuals views on fundamentals, values and principles. However to me they play in the same league but of different teams. They went to college together, indulged in politics to make money more than contribute to the development of human society....and they will always defend each other without shame," he said. News / National by Staff reporter The President, Emmerson Mnangagwa has left Harare for Luanda, Angola on an official visit.He is being accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Retired Lieutenant General Sibusiso Moyo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Mr Partson Mbiriri and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Mr Ringson Chitsike.President Mnangagwa is expected to brief the Angolan leader, Mr Joao Lourenco, on the situation prevailing in the country and events leading to his ascendancy into the highest office in the land.Angola is the current chair of the SADC troika.Zimbabwe and Angola are close co-operating partners in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) activities that include military co-operation, the United Nations verification missions one and two where the new Commander Defence Forces of Zimbabwe General Phillip Valerio Sibanda once served as commander.Mnangagwa was seen off by the two vice presidents, Retired General Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, several government ministers and service chiefs.Meanwhile, Vice President Mohadi is the Acting President. News / National by Stephen Jakes The MDC acting President, Engineer Elias Mudzuri, toured banks and the now moribund industries in the once-thriving Southerton industrial area in Harare.Party's presidential spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka said the tour exposed that the country remains mired in serious economic challenges with a few months before the next election, despite the new administration's promise that it was making the economy its main priority and was tackling the problems facing the people."Acting president Mudzuri, accompanied by deputy national chairman Morgan Komichi and youth assembly secretary-general Lovemore Chinoputsa, toured four banks in the Southerton area, where some Zimbabweans in bank queues expressed concern that there was no respite to the cash crunch in the country, despite assurances from the new administration that it was addressing the economic crisis in the country. Other bank clients complained that some banks had reduced the withdrawal limit to only $50 per week, with the amount being dispensed in coins that were difficult to move around with," said Tamborinyoka."The acting MDC leader also toured some industries such as Bak Logistics complex that have now been reduced to empty shells because there is no longer any productivity taking place in the country. He also spoke to some vendors selling their wares in the Southerton area, who complained that the liquidity crunch and the state of the economy had seriously affected their business.""Industrialists, vendors and some Zimbabweans in the bank queues told the acting MDC leader that they are placing their hope in the next election. They said they were banking on the record of President Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC in the inclusive government, where the party and its leader had shown they could deliver positive change in the lives of the people."He said Engineer Mudzuri urged the people to register to vote in the next election as it was only their vote that could bring positive change in their lives.He said Mudzuri said he said he had been directed by president Tsvangirai to make the tour and see how the people were managing in the hostile economic environment."President Tsvangirai is currently on his routine break from work on medical grounds following his public disclosure in 2016 that he was suffering from cancer of the colon. Last week, he announced that Engineer Mudzuri is acting President until his return," he said. News / Press Release by Thembani Dube, 1893 MHRRM Co-Secretary for Information and Publicity The 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement's (1893 MHRRM's) supreme organ, the International Board, hereby announces that its 1893 MHRRM's UK Chapter will be holding another Matebele "Gukurahundi" Genocide Demonstration against the Zimbabwean government on the 10thFebruary 2018 as part of its year rolling programme.The Demonstration will once more take place outside Zimbabwe's UK embassy, the Zimbabwe House located at number 429 Strand, London, WC2R 0JR. The demonstration will take place from 1pm to 5pm on this day. The nearest train station is Charing Cross, London.The Genocide protest demonstration will once more be blessed by several speakers from Matebeleland organizations, high profile personalities and by representatives from various suppressed and subjugated Nations of the world.In 1983, the then Government of Robert Gabriel Mugabe unleashed a North Korean trained crack unit called the 5th Brigade of Zimbabwe in Matebeleland. This unit caused a lot of untold suffering in its genocidal forays in our territory and turned Matebeleland into its ethnic killing fields and into its ethnic "rivers of blood". The result was the death of between 50 000 to 100 00 law-abiding and God-fearing Matebele people. Thousands endured torture and rape of unimaginable proportions. The survivors remain traumatised, enslaved and held hostage in Zimbabwe by the same tyrannical rulers who committed and continue to commit heinous crimes against them.At the time of the genocide, the military-imposed President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa made statements that fuelled the genocide, such as,"Blessed are they who will follow the path of the Government laws, for their days on earth will be increased. But woe unto those who will choose the path of collaboration with dissidents for we will certainly shorten their stay on earth.'- MINISTER OF STATE SECURITY EMMERSON MNANGAGWA, 4 APRIL 1983To this day, this ethnic cleansing and Genocide continues unabated under different forms and guises including cultural and linguistic genocide as well as the brazen confiscation of Matebele Land. The Matebele rights and that of others are violated with impunity. Any form of protest or assembly invites beatings and arrests from the security services.The disruption of the SAPES policy dialogue on Matebele Genocide in Harare on Thursday by the regime's supporters, genocide denialists, minimalists and minorists, where iconic liberation stalwart Dumiso Dabengwa, Human Rights Lawyer, Sipho Malunga, the son of the late iconic Zapu leader, Sydney Donald Malunga and Eleanor Sisulu, the daughter of South Africa's ANC late iconic Liberation hero, Walter Sisulu were panelists must be condemned by all Human Rights Defenders.Of great interest as well is the heckling of Eleanor Sisulu. It must be noted that the precursor to the Matebele Genocide saw the killing of ANC's uMkhonto weSizwe comrades in their bases in Zimbabwe as well as the targeted killing of ex-ZIPRA combatants in the army and those who had been demobilised. It is therefore not surprising that Zanu PF has targeted Eleanor Sisulu as well in this heckling game and denial of space for the discussion of the Matebele Genocide.A week ago we saw the abduction and torture of the Mthwakazi 8 Youths from the Mthwakazi Republic Party. After that we saw the police armed to teeth preventing King Mzilikazi II's right to hold another meeting at Nyamayendlovu area.Therefore during this continued unfolding dangerous militarization of a government in Zimbabwe, we observe with alarm and dismay a growing army of cantankerous Genocide Denialists, Minimalists and Minorists of all shapes and sizes in social media as well as vigorous and frivolous attempts by some governments and some media outlets to sanitise this genocidal regime. As this is done, the regime is currently responding to the Matebele who seek to demonstrate and assembly peacefully with the only language it knows best, the language of daylight abductions and torture and brute force while wooing the international community with a promise of a "a new era", an "era" which is another error of judgement on the part of some governments that are seeking to hug and sanitize this genocidal government.But the truth of the matter is that the Matebele Genocide must boomerang on its crafters and implementers. Our voice must help fuel this Genocide boomerang on its perpetrators, implementers and its supporters including its Denialists, Minimalists and Minorists of all shapes and sizes. We therefore make an appeal to the Matebeles, friends of the Matebele and anyone who is horrified by this genocide to come and join us on the 10th February 2018, 1pm to 5pm outside the UK Zimbabwean embassy once more to send a strong message to the world that tyranny must not be rewarded. The time to fold our hands and stand aloof on issues that concern us has gone. Matebele patriotism is being re-awakened. Be part of that re-awakening process. Do not be left behind. IsiNdebele esihle sithi, "umntwana ongakhaliyo ufela embelekweni".But we must all know that every generation has its own unique battles, mandates and struggles. This issue is our unique generational mandate, unique generational battle and unique generational struggle to deal with once and for all. Therefore, let us attend in huge numbers and change the dynamics at play. The sands must shift. The geo-political geography must change. We have a patriotic duty to serve Matebeleland and its interests. Matebeleland cannot serve us until we serve it. The cause is great and inspirational.We also make a special request for those who will attend to bring in candles that will lit on the day as well as various banners that speak to the Matebele Genocide in terms of messages written on them.Those who know little about the Matebele "Gukurahundi" Genocide are advised to click the following links below to learn more about the it.After this Demo, the Movement will be setting its eyes on organising the first Diaspora Matebele Genocide Conference in April/May 2018 in the UK. Announcements will be made nearer the time.We thank you and God Bless Matebeleland!The following are the contact telephone numbers for any queries regarding the 1893 MHRRM and the above Demo.Tel: 07889422695/07763305905Released by the 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement's Information and Publicity Department Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. 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. . ..Israelnationalnews.com..11 January '18..How a society treats strangers in need can be very revealing.Lets start with the remarkable experience of Yossi Rosen, a volunteer for United Hatzalah, one of Israels two major emergency medical services. At 4:00 on Sundaymorning, when the rest of us were comfortably curled up in bed and not planning to get up any time soon, Rosen jumped out of his bed when he heard a Hatzalah radio alert about a child with a head wound, at the Deir Balut Junction checkpoint.Rosen, it should be noted, is an evil racist colonialist warmongering settler. Thats because he resides in Peduel, a Jewish community located beyond the 1949 armistice line, in an area that has been part of the historic Jewish homeland for approximately 3,000 years. But this is no time for a history lesson! My point is only that in defiance of stereotypes, this settler didnt ask whether the wounded child was Arab or Jewish. He raced to the scene to help.Of course, as a resident of Peduel, Rosen knows that the residents of the nearby Arab village of Deir Balut are not always as neighborly as one would prefer. He knew terrorists could be in the vicinity of the injured child. So, as per his United Hatzalah training, he asked the dispatcher whether Israeli soldiers were on their way to provide backup to the medical responders. To his surprise, the dispatcher replied that it was the soldiers on the scene who had called for medical help.A word about the Deir Balut checkpoint, to which Rosen was heading. Israel maintains 27 permanent staffed checkpoints in Judea-Samaria, a region of more than 2,000 square miles. Twenty-six of the 27 are situated at the border between Israel and the Palestinian Authority territories. Foreign citizens who want to enter Israel (such as Arabs from the PA areas) are briefly checked to make sure they arent carrying bombs, guns, or knives. Just like every American citizen is checked at every airport before entering some other country.Incidentally, according to the extreme-left group BTselem, the Israeli Army also operates 16 temporarily manned checkpoints, which areget thisgenerally open for Palestinians to cross without being checked. Israeli security forces are present only sometimes.Well, it was tightly lucky for the parents in this case that Israeli soldiers were present when they showed up with their injured child last week. The parents were Muslim Arabs from Deir Balut. Its interesting that instead of bringing their injured five year-old son to a Palestinian Authority hospital, they brought him to an Israeli checkpoint. I wonder what it is about corrupt Arab dictatorships that they all seem to have such poor medical care.It turned out the boys condition was not life-threatening; he had suffered a seizure and fallen out of bed. The medic, Yossi Rosen, examined and treated him. He also soothed the frightened boy by giving him some candies that he happened to have in his pocket from a bar mitzva in his synagogue the day before. Imagine the scene: 4:00 in the morning, at an Israeli army checkpoint, a settler medic answering questions from curious Muslim parents about why Jews throw candy at a bar mitzvah boy.Unfortunately, not everyone responds so kindly when a stranger in need shows up. On Wednesday, two Czech women tourists driving to the Dead Sea accidentally made a wrong turn and found themselves in the Palestinian Arab village of Taqua, near Bethlehem. Not a big deal, right? After all, confused tourists make wrong turns all the time.But if you enter a Palestinian Arab village, and you dont look like a Palestinian Arab, apparently it is a very big deal. The locals in Taqua did not take kindly to The Other. They tried to stone the women to death.When the attackers in Taqua began throwing rocks at the two women, they knew that they might kill them. After all, stoning has been a popular method of execution in the Middle East for thousands of years. And at least 15 Israelis have been murdered by Arab rock-throwers in recent years.The two women were not brandishing weapons. They were not establishing a settlement. They were not persecuting Palestinian Arabs. Their only crime was that they did not look like Palestinian Arabs. They were strangers. And that was sufficient for the mob to attack.The Czech women got lucky. Some Israeli traffic policemen in the vicinity had noticed them heading down the wrong road, became concerned, followed them, and rescued them from their would-be murderers.You wont read about either of these incidents in the New York Times. Neither J Street nor Jewish Voice for Peace will be issuing any press releases about them. Admitting that settlers are human would disrupt The Narrative. Acknowledging the violent bloodlust of Palestinian Arab rock-throwers would disrupt it, too.I am capitalizing The Narrative because we have reached the point where the manner in which Israels critics describe events is so predictable and rigid that it has become an easily-recognizable phenomenon. The Jewish Left and much of the news media have an obsessive agenda: to create a Palestinian Arab state alongside Israels major cities and airports, no matter what the cost (to Israel), no matter what the risk (to the lives of Israelis).The experiences of the medic from Peduel and the tourists from the Czech Republic represent a mortal threat to The Narrative. Las Cumbres Tabaco 2.0 is about to begin. This week company owner Emma Viktorsson announced Las Cumbres Tabaco will release the long-awaited Freyja 12. Back in August of 2016, the Freyja 12 along with the Freyja Nocturna and Senorial Connecticut were announced and put into a very limited release just prior to the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations August 8, 2016 deadline where new products would require pre-market approval. Fast forward to October 2016 and some changes came to Las Cumbres Tabaco. Viktorssons husband Jose Blanco announced he would be turning the company over to her and would be joining E.P. Carrillo as a Senior Vice President. Viktorsson would relocate her base of operations to Macedonia. She then hit a snag where she was not allowed to travel until she was able to get her residency finalized. Viktorsson felt in order to do justice to the Freyja 12 rollout, she needed to be able to travel to customers and support the release. Thus Freyja 12 was put on hold until the residency paperwork was in order. During this time the Freyja 12 cigars have been in aging. All papers and situations are now in order, I have my residency and am free as a bird to travel and do what I love! US and International, and of course Tabacalera Palma DR home of #freyjacigars and #Senorial #cigars get ready to finally meet again! commented Viktorsson on her social media pages. As for Freyja 12, it is a cigar that was meant to commemorate 12 years in the tobacco business for Viktorsson. The cigar is available in one size a 7 x 52 vitola called the Brisingamen Churchill. Brisingamen is named for the necklace the goddess Freyja would wear. Freyja 12 features a Habano Ecuador wrapper, a Dominican Corojo binder, and a combination of Dominican Corojo, Criollo, and Piloto Cubana. The blend is produced at Jochy Blancos Tabacalera Palma factory. Pricing is set at $12.00 per cigar and the cigars are packaged in 12-count boxes. Photo Credits: Las Cumbres Tabaco Federalism here we come Wading into uncharted waters, we might see new ways of ensuring good governance Old Man Grant live music interview, Baljit Nagra (author) live Interview, Robert Bockstael (actor) & Arthur Milner (author) "Getting To Room Temperature" Not Too Long From Now Old Man Grant - Live performance at CKCU - Live performance at CKCU The Work Song Old Man Grant - Live performance at CKCU - Live performance at CKCU Can't Call It Love Old Man Grant - Live performance at CKCU - Live performance at CKCU If You Sills & Smith - The Glorious Ache - The Glorious Ache Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram New York, January 12, 2018A district court in Azerbaijan today convicted veteran investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli on charges of illegally crossing the border, resisting police arrest, and contraband, and sentenced him to six years in prison, media reported. Mukhtarli, who lived in self-imposed exile in Tbilisi, Georgia, went missing on May 29, 2017, and surfaced the following day in detention in his native Azerbaijan, regional and local media reported at the time. The journalist pleaded not guilty on all counts, and his lawyers called the charges politically motivated. Mukhtarlis wife, Leyla Mustafayeva, told CPJ that the journalist will appeal the verdict. Azerbaijani authorities must learn to tolerate investigative journalism and stop throwing critics in jail, said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova. We call on Baku authorities not to contest Afgan Mukhtarlis appeal and to release him now, unconditionally. Before his detention, Mukhtarli was investigating the assets of Azerbaijans first family in Georgia, according to a Facebook post by his colleague, independent investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova. Azerbaijan held 10 journalists behind bars when CPJ conducted its annual prison census on December 1, 2017. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram New York, January 12, 2018Kuwaiti authorities should allow independent journalist Abdullah al-Saleh to return to Kuwait without fear of imprisonment or reprisal for his work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A Kuwaiti national security court on December 25, 2017, found al-Saleh, a YouTube reporter and former columnist for the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jareeda, guilty in absentia of abusing Saudi Arabia, and sentenced him to five years imprisonment with hard labor, several news outlets reported. Kuwaiti courts also found al-Saleh guilty of insulting the United Arab Emirates, and, in a separate trial, of insulting Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE collectively, according to the same news reports and the journalist who spoke with CPJ via Snapchat. Al-Saleh has not been sentenced in these two cases. Al-Saleh regularly posts three-minute reports on news from the region and satirical analyses to his YouTube channel, Tahyati wa Ashawqi, on sensitive topics including Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salmans personal wealth, the diplomatic blockade against Qatar, and Saudi Arabias recent decision to allow movie theaters to reopen in the kingdom. His channel has more than 22,000 subscribers. Its bad enough that so many countries in the region casually hand down prison sentences for criticizing domestic politics. Kuwaiti authorities are attempting to imprison a journalist for his views on other countries in the region, CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said from Washington, D.C. Kuwaiti authorities should allow al-Saleh to return home and work freely. CPJ requested comment from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior via the ministrys website, but did not immediately receive a response. CPJ also requested comment via email from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Kuwait and the Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington, D.C. but did not receive an immediate reply. Al-Saleh told CPJ that Saudi Arabias case against him began as a lawsuit filed in August 2017 by the Saudi ambassador to Kuwait before Kuwaits state security court took it up. In the wake of an escalating diplomatic standoff between Qatar and Saudi Arabia along with several countries in the region, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates both announced that statements deemed supportive of Qatar would be punishable by prison time. Neither Saudi Arabia nor Kuwait announced similar measures at the time, and Kuwait has since attempted to mediate the crisis. On December 23, 2017, al-Saleh fled to the U.K. from Qatar. Al-Saleh initially arrived in Qatar in July 2017 to attend a freedom of expression conference at the invitation of Qatars National Human Rights Committee. He then stayed in the country to work as an independent journalist. Al-Saleh told CPJ that he worked as a columnist for the independent daily al-Jareeda, which was founded and is published by CPJ 1992 International Press Freedom awardee Muhammad al-Saqr, until May 2017 but decided to move to social media after Saudi Arabia and several other states began a diplomatic and economic blockade of Qatar. He said that social media platforms offered more freedom of expression than Kuwaiti news outlets, especially concerning the diplomatic row with Qatar. Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Thursday said Congress had the authority to re-impose the death penalty if there were compelling reasons involving heinous crimes. Panelo made this comment as the Senate announced its resumption of hearings on the revival of the death penalty within this month. He said that while Section 19 of Article III of the 1987 Constitution prohibited the imposition of the death penalty, the same provision authorized the Congress to pass a law which re-imposed death penalty "for compelling reason involving heinous crimes." "In other words, the Congress has the authority to re-impose the death penalty, provided that, it finds compelling reasons involving heinous crimes therefore," Panelo said in a press statement. Contrary to critics' claims, Panelo explained that re-imposition of the penalty was not inconsistent with the Philippines' treaty obligations including under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). "The said instrument allows the imposition of the death penalty and only limits its application to the most serious crimes," he said. He also explained that treaties could not be in conflict with the country's Constitution which "has higher authority over any legal instrument whether it be passed or ratified by the Congress." Panelo said while the 2nd optional protocol of the ICCPR mandated the abolition of death penalty, the ICCPR still could not, however, prevail over Congress' authority to re-impose capital punishment. "Treaties ratified and incorporated and made part of the law of the land are only given equal standing with, and are not superior to our laws," Panelo said. "Hence, like any other law, a treaty may be repealed by a later act of Congress if it deems that such is warranted under the present circumstances or is violative of our Constitution," he added. Filipino senators give death penalty proposal thumbs down Bill to bring back executions will likely be killed and not even pass committee stage, they say A proposal to restore capital punishment in the Philippines is as good as dead, according to legislators in the country's Senate. The majority of senators, who are supposed to look at a bill to reinstate the death penalty, have expressed doubt over whether the bill would pass. "Based on our informal consultations, we don't have the required numbers to pass the death penalty bill in the Senate," admitted Senator Panfilo Lacson, one of the authors of the proposed law. The legislator said it would be a waste of time to tackle a bill that will only be defeated when the time to vote comes. He advised Senator Manny Pacquiao, chairman of a Senate subcommittee tasked with scrutinize the measure, not to rush a vote on the death penalty, saying the proposal will likely be defeated. Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the proposed law is not even on the legislative agenda of the administration party. The Senate body under Pacquiao is set to discuss the issue this month, but Drilon expressed doubt whether the bill could go to a vote even at the committee level. The re-imposition of capital punishment was a campaign promise of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who vowed to fight the proliferation of illegal drugs and heinous crimes. In March last year, the House of Representatives passed a measure allowing capital punishment for drug-related offenses. Allies of Duterte in the Lower Chamber of Congress railroaded the passage of the proposal amid a howl of protests from opposition congressmen, nuns, and activists. Under the Philippine system, a proposed bill has to pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate before it can be signed into law by the president. The proposed law passed by the House lists 7 drug-related crimes as punishable by death, excluding possession for personal use. Rape and murder are not included among capital crimes. Catholic Church leaders have been vocal in their opposition to the proposed measure, saying that capital punishment is "an additional burdensome law" that will not deter crime. In an interview on Jan. 12, Rodolfo Diamante, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, said church leaders "will not give up in engaging our lawmakers in working for justice that heals and respect the dignity of the human person." "We hope and pray that the members of the Senate will vote in accordance with their conscience," he said. The Philippines abolished capital punishment in 1986. It was restored in 1993 and was suspended again in 2006. Most senators oppose death penalty-Lacson Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Thursday admitted that holding public hearings on the reimposition of the death penalty would be a "waste of time" since majority of his colleagues are against the revival of capital punishment. Sen. Emmanuel Pacquiao, who has been assigned to head a panel under the Committee on Justice, will conduct next week a public hearing on 8 pending measures reviving the death penalty since its chairman, Sen. Richard Gordon, is opposed to the reimposition of capital punishment. "Based on our informal discussion at the session hall and at the lounge, it is really difficult to get the required number to pass the death penalty bill at the Senate," Lacson said in a media forum. "It will be a waste of time," he added. Lacson suggested that the Senate should tackle bills that have the chance to be approved instead. "If I were Sen. Pacquiao, I will first assess how many votes I will get. Do I have 12 votes to pass the Senate's death penalty version?" he said. Senate President Aquilino Pimentel 3rd instructed Pacquiao to conduct the hearing after Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez criticized the upper house for its failure to approve the death penalty bill which the lower house already passed. But Lacson said the Senate should instead focus on the passage of the proposed national identification (ID) system and the amendments to the Dangerours Drugs Act. The 8 pending measures on death penalty revival are Senate Bills 4, 42, 185, 186, 187, 889, 985, and 1294 filed separately by Senators Vicente Sotto 3rd, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Pacquiao, and Lacson. Legal Restoring the death penalty law is within the bounds of the Constitution, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo maintained on Thursday. Panelo cited Article 3, Section 19, of the Constitution which states that "excessive fines shall not be imposed, nor cruel, degrading or inhuman punishment inflicted" and "neither shall death penalty be imposed, unless, for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, the Congress hereafter provides for it." "The Constitution says it can be done. Besides, a treaty can never be superior to the Constitution," Panelo said. Panelo was referring to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which was signed by the Philippines. "The same treaty cannot prevail over the authority of Congress under the [Philippine] Constitution to reimpose the death penalty if it determines that there are compelling reasons to penalize or prevent the commission of grievous, odious and hateful offenses that equate to heinous crimes," he said. Article 6 of the said covenant reads provides: "in countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime and not contrary to the provisions of the present Covenant and to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This penalty can only be carried out pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court." The Philippines abolished capital punishment in 2006. | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde : Philippine News Agency, January 11, 2018: ucanews.com, January 11, 2017Manila Times, January 11, 2018 Fire breaks out at Gyanmala Bhajan Ghar of Swoyambhu A fire broke out at the Gyanmala Bhajan Ghar of Swoyambhunath Temple in the Capital on Friday. No human casualty has been reported yet. Take me to Lopez Ibor Clinic: thats where I live, says Lucia, the most unbalanced of all the main characters in Spanish director Pedro Almodovars acclaimed and much-loved 1988 film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The medical center, which bears the name of the most important psychiatrist in Spain during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, is the residence for the character played by Julieta Serrano who has starred in other Almodovar films including Dark Habits and Matador. And the clinic also features in a new guidebook to Madrid through the filming locations used by the most famous modern Spanish movie director. Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar. Nico El Madrid de Almodovar (Almodovars Madrid) is a guide to the metropolis through the prism of the restaurants, museums, shops and oddities of the Spanish capital that appear in the films of a director who has become synonymous with the city and with the Movida the Madrid countercultural movement during the transition to democracy after the death of Franco. The author of this guidebook is Madrid native Sacha Azcona, who has worked in the publishing industry for 15 years. One afternoon he was watching the 2004 film Bad Education when one of the scenes caught his eye. I looked online and I realized that lots of people were interested in where many of the scenes in Almodovars movies had been shot. After discovering the Tyris movie theater in Valencia (now closed), Azcona went in search of other Almodovar locations, and particularly those of his native Madrid. I watched all of his films to identify streets, stores and buildings, he explains from the terrace of The Principal hotel, just off Madrids iconic Gran Via thoroughfare. This is the view from the attic apartment of Pepa, played by Spanish actress Carmen Maura in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Almodovar cheated and put the Telefonica building in there, a wink to his previous job, explains Azcona, alluding to the days when the director from Spains CastillaLa Mancha region used to work as an administrative assistant with Spains state-owned telephone company. Azcona put together a list of location sites and then thought the guidebook experience would be more satisfying if he also described the surrounding neighborhoods. I take advantage of the route to recommend places in each area. Almodovar films in four or five main areas of downtown Madrid. And many places appear over and over again, he explains. This is why he has focused on the central districts of Chueca, Malasana, Conde Duque, Salamanca and Centro, although some out-of-the-way locations like Almudena cemetery and the working-class district of Vallecas also get a nod. Sacha Azcona on the terrace of The Principal hotel which features in 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.' CARLOS ROSILLO I even lived in one of these locations myself, Azcona says mysteriously. It was in the convent from (the 1983 film) Dark Habits, he reveals, speaking about the religious building in Chuecas Pelayo street. But despite his zeal to enter into the world of Almodovar, El Deseo the production company behind his films, which is jointly owned by the director and his brother Agustin decided not to get involved. I showed the book to Agustin Almodovar and he said he liked it very much, but they decided not to be a part of it, explained Azcona. Azconas book is printed to order by Amazon. When the company is notified of a sale, it runs off a copy and delivers it within 24 hours. This way of doing things means the book is a living thing. If we want to make changes to the original, say because there is a new Almodovar film out, we can do this. The book is very comfortable to use, both in the digital version and in the paper format. And if you download the latest version you can use your mobile to find the movie locations, Azcona explains. English version by George Mills. Helena Maleno in her home in Tangiers, Morocco. FADEL SENNA Helena Maleno, a Spanish human rights activist who lives in Morocco, was hoarse and recovering from a four-day fever when she met the press on Wednesday. She had appeared before a Tangiers judge to answer questions regarding her activities, and is due to return in court for a full hearing on January 31. Maleno, 47, has been living in Tangiers for the last 16 years and is a member of the migrant support association Caminando Fronteras. A Moroccan judge has questioned her over a case file sent to him by the Spanish police, who are accusing Maleno of encouraging illegal immigration and human trafficking. We cannot set a precedent of persecuting those who do humanitarian work Human rights activist Helena Maleno The basis for the accusation is that Maleno receives phone calls from dozens of immigrants telling her that their relatives are adrift out at sea, and asking her for help. She then alerts Spains maritime rescue service, which operates in the Strait of Gibraltar. Asked by the judge about her views on illegal immigration, Maleno replied: I think that the biggest victims are the migrants themselves. I want it [immigration] to take place legally, through safe channels. The judge told her on two occasions that the Moroccan police have found no evidence against her, but that he was being forced to take statements from her because of the Spanish polices report, said legal sources familiar with the case. Maleno reportedly told the judge that this case has already been shelved by Spains high court, the Audiencia Nacional, and she produced documentary evidence to support this claim. But the judge said he needs official confirmation from Spanish authorities, and has summoned her to appear in court again on January 31 so she can produce further evidence. I trust fully in the Moroccan justice system, Maleno had told EL PAIS before walking into the courtroom. It has given me time to prepare my defense. What I dont understand is why the Spanish police sent Morocco a case file accusing me of human trafficking when a Spanish prosecutor has already said that this case is closed. We cannot set a precedent of persecuting those who do humanitarian work, she added. The judge also asked Maleno why so many migrants call her on the phone. African migrants rescued by Spanish services. EFE My number is at their disposal, she replied. I dont personally know many of those who call me: they pass on my number to other migrants, and they call me in emergency cases. And why dont you call the Red Cross or the Civil Guard? The Red Cross does not have a maritime rescue service, and I call the Civil Guard when there is a migrant boat near the Canary Islands, because rescue work in that area falls to the Civil Guard. Maleno has often stated that she calls Spanish maritime rescue services when she receives information about migrants lives being in danger in waters of the Strait. She added that she does not make those calls to ensure that the migrants make it into Spain, but to prevent them from drowning out at sea. I dont know what Spanish authorities are waiting for before issuing an official notification about the case being closed, added Malena. I am ashamed that my countrys police sent this case to Morocco yet has failed to notify that the Audiencia Nacional shelved the case in April. Everything I am going through, the impact this is having on my life, is because of the Central Unit Against Immigration Networks and Documentary Forgery (UCRIF), said Maleno, who has two children aged 20 and 11. I told the judge that defending the right to life is not a crime. On Tuesday, there was a public act of support for Maleno outside the cathedral in Tangiers. Around 100 sub-Saharan migrants showed up, along with representatives from Caritas, Oxfam and the legal foundation Fundacion de la Abogacia Espanola. I told the judge that defending the right to life is not a crime Helena Maleno Carles McCragh, vice president of the foundation, noted that Maleno has already received human rights awards from legal groups for her work. What Maleno has done from Morocco is to offer invaluable and necessary support to the migrants, he said, insisting that her actions have not encouraged migrants to make the dangerous journey. We cannot blame Helena Maleno for South-North migration. I really dont believe that any migrant comes to Tangiers because Maleno is here. English version by Susana Urra. International tourist numbers soared in 2017. Atlas Spains tourism sector is on a roll, and it looks like the good times will extend to 2018. Last year, industry activity grew 4.4% on the back of historic highs, both in terms of international visitors and tourist spending. This year, the business lobby Alliance for Excellence in Tourism (Exceltur) is expecting a further rise of 3.3%. Alternative destinations such as Turkey have been experiencing a recovery This industry leader has also estimated the impact of the Catalan crisis on tourism to be in the range of 319 million. If the crisis were to persist, the growth forecast for 2018 would shrink to 2.8% Even though the secessionist bid shaved three tenths of a percentage point from tourism activity in 2017, it was still a record year for Spain: over 82 million international visitors, an 8.9% leap from 2016, and a 1.5% increase in average spending per tourist, according to tourism ministry estimates released this week. This makes Spain the worlds second-most popular tourist destination, behind France and ahead of the United States. A packed beach in Benidorm. EFE The tourism industrys share of GDP has increased to 11.5%, representing 134 billion. And industry growth resulted in 77,501 new jobs in 2017, said Exceltur. Political instability in the last quarter of the year, following the illegal independence referendum of October 1, has negatively affected international tourism, particularly in geographically close markets like France, where visitor numbers were down 19.7% year on year in the OctoberNovember period. German visitor numbers fell 14% and the UKs retreated 8%. Asian markets sent fewer visitors as well. However, tourists from the Americas grew notably in number, particularly those from Argentina (a 74% rise) and the United States (18.2%). Slower growth in 2018 Exceltur said that 2018 will be another excellent year and predicted 3.3% growth for the tourism sector, higher that the forecast for the Spanish economy as a whole but lower than in the last two years and that is without factoring in the potential effects of a protracted crisis in Catalonia. The lower growth figure can be partially explained by a gradual recovery of alternative destinations that compete directly with Spain, such as Turkey, where terrorist attacks have driven tourism down. The challenge for the tourism industry now is to ensure sustainable growth with a view to the future, said Jose Luis Zoreda, executive vice-president of Exceltur, at a news conference. Despite the optimistic forecast, Exceltur is warning about a drop in revenues in early 2018: 10% for hotels, 6.8% for car rental companies, and 3.5% for transportation firms. The business association said there will be staff adjustments to make up for these losses. English version by Susana Urra. The Spanish Supreme Court. ULY MARTIN In a blow to former Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont, key figures in the independence movement who are currently in pre-trial custody over charges including rebellion and sedition have said in court they will not support attempts to resume a push for unilateral independence for the region. Forn admitted he had participated in the October 1 referendum knowing it was illegal Former regional interior chief Joaquim Forn and the leader of the pro-independence civic group National Catalan Assembly (ANC), Jordi Sanchez, both members of Puigdemonts Junts per Catalunya ticket, on Thursday told Spains Supreme Court they would give up their seats in the new regional parliament if it continued with the secession push that culminated in the chamber passing a unilateral declaration of independence in late October, in defiance of Spains Constitutional Court. Madrid responded to that declaration by using emergency constitutional powers to sack the regional government and call a snap election on December 21. Pro-independence parties then went on to win a combined majority of seats. Those parties are now negotiating the possible shape of a new government while Puigdemont is pushing to be sworn in remotely as regional premier despite the fact he is in Brussels and faces arrest in Spain over his own role in the independence push. But Puigdemont now finds himself increasingly isolated after Sanchez, Forn and Jordi Cuixart, the head of another pro-independence civic association, Omnium, told the Supreme Court they were stepping back from the precipice. All three are in pre-trial custody over their role in the events of September 20 and September 21, when protestors outside the Catalan governments department of economic affairs vandalized Civil Guard patrol cars and hindered the work of officers searching for material destined for the illegal October 1 independence referendum . Demonstrators outside the regional economy department in Barcelona on September 21, 2017 Quique Garcia (EFE) Forn and Sanchez said they still planned to take possession of their seats in the parliament but only if their party takes a less hardline approach to independence, while Forn also said he would not take on any ministerial role in a new cabinet. According to sources in court, Forn drew lines between his desire for independence in Catalonia, the steps taken by the former government to achieve this aim, and the actions of the Catalan police force the Mossos dEsquadra, a force for which he was, as Catalan interior minister, ultimately responsible. The ousted minister said he had never given orders or instructions to the force intended to help facilitate the October 1 referendum. He also attempted to distance himself from the actions of the Mossos by saying he had not been directly involved in operative decisions. Critically, Forn admitted he had participated in the October 1 referendum knowing it was illegal. For his part, ANC leader Jordi Sanchez said he did not believe independence for Catalonia could be achieved via the unilateral route. He also admitted the October referendum results were not legally binding and that from February 2015 there had been a road map with ANC, Omnium, the CDC (the predecessor of PdeCAT) and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) for independence in Catalonia. Sanchez said that while there had been acts of vandalism during the independence push, there had been no violence But Sanchez said that while there had been acts of vandalism during the independence push, there had been no violence a key point given that the crime of rebellion, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in Spain entails a violent and public uprising against the Constitution. Symbolic value Meanwhile, Omnium leader Jordi Cuixart told the court that the only valid referendum on independence could be one called by the Spanish central government, and said the October 1 vote had symbolic value only. According to court sources, Cuixart also said that less happened than could have [been the case] on September 20 and 21. These are the dates highlighted by the Supreme Court Justice Pablo Llarena as the days on which the greatest explosions of violence occurred in the run-up to the independence referendum. They have also been cited as one of the reasons why Forn, Sanchez, Cuixart and ERC leader Oriol Junqueras are likely to reoffend and should not, therefore, be released from pre-trial custody. Jordi Cuixart (l), leader of Omnium, and Jordi Sanchez of ANC as they arrive at the High Court in Madrid. JAVIER BARBANCHO (Reuters) These four independence leaders are now the only remaining suspects being held in pre-trial detention as part of a wide-ranging Supreme Court investigation into the Catalan independence push. English version by George Mills. Thomas Shannon during his visit to Madrid. CARLOS ROSILLO In these times of turmoil for US foreign policy, which is constantly being shaken by President Donald Trumps provocative remarks, a handful of career diplomats are trying to keep the worlds biggest power on course. Thomas Shannon (Minneapolis, 1958) has served as a high-ranking foreign affairs official under George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Donald Trump. Highly knowledgeable about the subtleties of Latin American policy, he has arrived in Madrid in the middle of a storm over Trumps latest inflammatory comments: according to a Democratic senator, the president recently referred to Haiti as a shithole country. Trump himself has denied this claim on Twitter. After meeting with Spanish government representatives, Shannon met with a group of reporters at the US Embassy in Madrid. Question. Did you discuss the threat of Russian online interference with the Spanish government? Answer. We shared our experience about Russian activities in European elections and their attempts at taking advantage of their online ability to influence opinion, and above all, to sow confusion during democratic processes. Q. This is a crucial election year in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. Is Russian meddling in those countries also a matter of concern to you? We are coordinating our diplomatic actions to create a network of sanctions against the government of Venezuela A. Weve already seen it in the US. It is important to speak in public about this problem and to prepare countries and populations for this type of interference, because what weve learned from Europe, especially in Germany and France, is that when election officials, the media and the people understand whats going on, the impact of this interference is very small. Q. Do you foresee any reprisals over the US governments decision to force Russian news organizations to register as foreign agents? Q. The Russians have responded in kind by doing the same to some American media organizations in Russia. The difference is that the requirement to register as an agent for these Russian organizations does not affect their ability to do their work. By contrast, Russia has banned certain US news organizations from accessing several state agencies. Q. There was a lot of satisfaction within the Spanish government over Prime Minister Mariano Rajoys visit to Washington in September. Are there any plans for Trump to visit Madrid? Q. Visits are generally reciprocal. We would be anticipating something like that. Q. Do you feel comfortable working with a president who makes inflammatory remarks such as shithole countries? The president has made it clear that he wants to review our immigration practices in order to understand their goal and ensure that they are well understood by the American people A. The president has just tweeted that he did not use that expression. But as a career official, I have sworn to protect and respect the US Constitution and the democratic institutions and processes enshrined by our Constitution, and part of the commitment among elected officials and career diplomats and other members of the American government is that we have pledged to respect the will of the American people as expressed through elections and our institutions. I respect the decision of the American people and I respect the president. Q. Dont you feel that terms like those have a negative effect on Americas image and policy, especially immigration policy? A. If he did not say those words, then I cannot answer that question. With regard to immigration, up to a certain extent there is going to be an image of toughness, because the president has made it clear that he wants to review our immigration practices in order to understand their goal and ensure that they are well understood by the American people. In this sense, I think that the president is involved in a necessary debate with Congress about the immigration process from within the US. Q. And what are the current US priorities in foreign policy? A. President Trumps election into office signals much more than a change of administration; it is part of a process of very meaningful political change in the US. For our foreign policy, this means that the American people are asking their leaders, their Armed Forces and their diplomats for an explanation about our role in the world, and why we act the way we do, what were trying to win and trying to do. And to a certain extent, the president is trying to build a nation that will answer those questions by the American people. Q. Regarding Venezuela, have you made any progress in your meetings with the Spanish government? A. We are coordinating our diplomatic actions to create a network of sanctions against the government of Venezuela, and particularly against individuals or members of the government who have participated in violence against the people of Venezuela or against the democratic process, to facilitate the possibilities of dialogue between the government and the opposition. But we are also very interested in Spains work to apply sanctions within the European Union. Spain has played a leading role in this process and I think that this is a very, very important role. Q. There is currently another round of contacts in Santo Domingo between the Venezuelan government and the opposition. Do you believe this dialogue is going anywhere, and what other options are there besides sanctions? A. Dialogue is a very complicated and difficult thing at this time, above all due to the behavior of the Venezuelan government. We are very grateful for the work of the facilitators, especially [former Spanish prime minister] Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. But there is still a lot of work to do. From our point of view, sanctions are part of the strength to convince the government that the way out of the crisis gripping Venezuela today depends on a successful negotiation. Q. On the subject of climate change, there is enormous concern in Europe over Trumps measures. In the past you have clearly manifested support for measures against climate change. Is the US as committed as it was a year ago on this matter? A. What weve recorded to date is out intention to exit the Paris Agreement, above all because, as the president has clearly explained, we dont want to limit our economic activity in a multilateral agreement, but this does not directly affect our commitment to climate change. English version by Susana Urra. 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 Shahroudi 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. Shahroudi, 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 Hanover. 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 Hanover is located, is also considering whether to pursue a criminal complaint filed against Shahroudi in that jurisdiction. About 200 demonstrators showed up outside the Hanover 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. Shahroudi has not publicly commented on the accusations against him. German Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said on January 8 that Shahroudi 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 Shahroudi, 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 Shahroudi. "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." Shahroudi 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. Shahroudi 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, Shahroudi 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 cant 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 A German government official and an Iranian opposition group say a top Iranian cleric under investigation in Germany for alleged crimes against humanity has left the country, Reuters reports. The news agency quoted an unidentified German government official as saying in the afternoon of January 11 that Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi was aboard an Iran-bound plane. Javad Dabiran, a spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said that the exiled opposition group saw Shahrudi leave the hospital in the northern city of Hannover where he was receiving treatment. Dabiran said the cleric later departed from Hamburg airport on an Iran Air flight. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office said authorities "will continue to examine on a legal basis whether Shahroudi was guilty of crimes against humanity" during the period he was overseeing an estimated 2,000 executions as the head of Iran's Judiciary, regardless of whether he leaves or stays in the Germany. Two complaints were filed this week in Germany against Shahroudi, who has been mentioned as a possible future Iranian supreme leader. One complaint was made by former Green Party lawmaker Volker Beck and the other was by an exiled opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The opposition group urged Germany on January 10 to immediately issue an arrest warrant for Shahroudi to prevent him from leaving the northern city of Hannover, where he is receiving medical treatment. The group said it learned that the Iranian government has reserved seven flight tickets for Shahroudi and his entourage to return to Tehran on January 11. A coalition of Iranian human rights groups on January 10 said it provided the German government with evidence that Shahroudi "was responsible for the Islamic Revolutionary Courts that sent numerous human rights activists, defense lawyers, journalists, bloggers, political dissidents, and religious minorities, to Irans notorious prisons where they were subject to torture, rape, and murder." The coalition quoted Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, as saying "Shahroudi is directly responsible for the appointment of judges and prosecutors that have been responsible for persecutions and systematic violations of fundamental human rights. He must be held accountable." 'Death Judge' Shahroudi has been the target of protests and sharp criticism during his stay at a neurological treatment center in 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 Shahroudi in that jurisdiction. About 200 demonstrators gathered outside the Hannover hospital where he was staying on January 6 to protest the executions 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. Shahroudi has not publicly commented on the accusations against him. German Foreign Ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said on January 8 that Shahroudi 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 Shahroudi is considered to be a government office-holder, he could be granted diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Strict Disciple Shahroudi is currently a member of Iran's so-called Assembly of Experts -- a council of 88 clerics empowered to designate and dismiss Iran's Supreme Leader. He also currently heads Iran's Expediency Council, which moderates disputes between Iran's parliament and a constitutional watchdog known as the Guardians Council. "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 Shahroudi. "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." Shahroudi 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 those of adolescents, while overseeing the torture of prisoners and arrests of political and human rights activists. Shahroudi was a student of Iran's first supreme leader, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, and is viewed as a strict disciple of Khamenei. Saba Farzan, the German-Iranian executive director of the Berlin-based 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 cant deprive their own citizens of their inalienable rights and then receive luxurious treatment medical as well as political," Farzan said. With reporting by Reuters, The Jerusalem Post, and Bild While as many as 3,700 are reportedly behind bars after widespread anti-establishment protests in Iran, Iranian MPs have promised to visit Tehrans notorious Evin prison where at least two detainees were officially declared dead in apparent suicides. We are set to visit Evin next Saturday, announced Tehran MP and the head of the parliamentary Security Committee, Mostafa Kavakebian, on January 10. So-called reformist MPs and allied of President Hassan Rouhani constitute the largest faction in the Iranian parliament. The protests initially broke out against poor economic conditions, corruption, skyrocketing prices, and unemployment in Irans second-most populous city, Mashhad, on December 28. The protests quickly turned into widespread unrest targeting the ruling system across the country. People in more that 100 large cities and towns across Iran poured into the streets, chanting slogans against tyranny, dictatorship, and extraterritorial military intervention and calling for an end to the regime. There are reports that an unspecified number of the detainees were freed, which Tehrans prosecutor-general has confirmed. However, the number of protesters still behind bars remains unknown. Activists and residents Radio Farda has contacted in Iran say only a handful have been released. Official claims that the death of two prisoners, one in Tehrans Evin and another in Arak in central Iran, were suicides has raised concerns over the fate of those still held at detention centers. Mohammadreza Aref, who leads the Omid (Hope) reformist faction in parliament, said on January 10 that Tehran Provinces MPs had requested to visit Evin. Kavakebian, who is also a member of the influential commission for national security, promised to put together a report on the visit. Previous visits by MPs to prisons, however, were never fruitful enough to satisfy human rights organizations and activists. Almost five years ago, four MPs visited Evin and praised its management and facilities. "From now on, I will call it Hotel Evin rather than Evin Prison," Safar Naeimi Raz, a conservative MP, declared after a six-hour tour of the Tehran complex. "Evin's food is better than what is served at my own home. Another conservative MP at the time, Mohammadreza Mohseni-Thani, said prisoners "had no complaints regarding security, health, nutrition, or the facilities at the prison." The comments triggered a barrage of criticism and open letters written by prisoners and former detainees, accusing the legislators of telling outright lies. Based on numerous past instances of harsh prisoner treatment in the Islamic Republic, human rights activists fear that now thousands of detainees are being denied their basic rights and even mistreated. Sattar Zareie, a respected teacher in Esfahans Khomeni Shahr was arrested in the street, a day after protests in the city on January 4, beaten and dragged away. His close friend told Radio Farda that Mr. Zaqreie had a heart operation two weeks earlier and when the family took his medications to the detention center, officials refused to accept them. The family asked the prosecutors intervention and finally the prison took the medications but in the meantime Zareies health deteriorated and it is assumed he is in prison hospital. Prison officials have refused to give any information to the family. Moreover, the director-general of Iranian prisons, Asghar Jahangir, told reporters on December 30, Our budget is not enough to run the prisons properly. Prisons in the Islamic Republic have two times more inmates than their capacity. We are incapable of properly feeding our prisoners three times a day. The medical and health conditions at prisons have also been a source of concern for human rights activists. On September 1, 2017, Radio Farda reported, A prominent Iranian journalist and member of the semi-opposition political alliance of nationalist-religious, Alireza Rajaei, lost his right eye and part of the right side of his face after being deprived of having access to medical treatment behind bars. Rajaei, while doing his term in prison, suffered from sinus cancer but was not allowed medical treatment. Former prison-mates have said on social media that on multiple occasions the prison infirmary rejected sending Rajaei to the hospital and attributed his pain to toothache. Flood, fire victims to get loans at subsidised rates Flood and fire victims will also be able to get subsidised loans like earthquake survivors to rebuild their homes. Widespread protests against rising prices, poverty, unemployment, discrimination and inequality are the outcome of mismanagement by state officials and the three branches of the government, Iran's Teachers Trade Unions Coordination Council, TTUCC has announced. Iranians poured into the streets in recent days to protest poor economic conditions, systematic discrimination and corruption, as well as poverty and social inequality, the union says. In its official statement published on social media app Telegram, TTUCC has also noted, Untenable management at different levels, improper and illogical planning, as well as widespread abuse of official positions and national structures are the reasons behind peoples recent uprising. There is no just and fundamental inspections on management, the Council has lamented, adding, Most of the managerial positions are monopolized by particular persons that have led to peoples deep dissatisfaction. Referring to recent comments by state officials on the necessity of holding peaceful demonstrations, the Council says, We have repeatedly requested license for holding rallies to air our demands, without any success. Even union statements on the dire situation of the working class have always fallen on deaf ears, TTUCC has complained. Condemning double standards, the Council has demanded, Why teachers protests were met by suspensions, arrests or sacking? Earlier, in a similar statement, Irans Independent Trade Unions had said on January 5, For years, we said our wages did not allow us to make ends meet, but our voice was never heard. Even our meager wages, one fifth of what is branded as the poverty line, were not fully paid for months. Accusing the Islamic Republics current and past administrations of nepotism and discrimination, the statement says, Bank loans allocated for so-called job creation were used by certain people for non-productive businesses and profiteering. Wrong policies skyrocketed unemployment. Poverty has intensified. Homelessness, child labor has turned into a way of life and scavenging has grown as a means of survival. Moreover, according to the statement, Legitimate protests by workers and teachers were met by dismissals, lashings and prison. None of the independent unions are officially recognized as legal in the Islamic Republic, while many activists affiliated with them, including the the treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, Reza Shahabi, have been sentenced to prison terms. The European Union and Tehran are expected to show support for Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers at a foreign ministers' meeting on January 11 while the White House is deciding whether to continue backing the agreement. At a meeting hosted in Brussels by European foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on January 11, European powers that helped to negotiate the accord were expected to reassure Iran that they remain committed to it. Reuters quoted a European diplomatic source as saying "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." The meeting comes one day before a U.S. deadline requiring President Donald Trump to once again decide whether the U.S. will continue backing the deal. The agreement requires Iran to curb nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Many of Trump's top aides have reportedly been urging him to extend U.S. sanctions relief, but Trump remained reluctant on January 10. Trump and key advisers reportedly will meet on January 11 to finalize the decision, which will be revealed on January 12. Reports said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster were pressing Trump to sign the waiver granting Tehran relief. Trump on January 12 is facing another quarterly deadline for certifying whether Iran is in compliance with the deal. 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 that it would 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. 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 would defend the agreement as a "key contribution to regional stability and nuclear nonproliferation. To counter Trumps 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, AFP, and Reuters 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 Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Jani Babayeva Trend: Over 20 Swiss companies actively operate in Azerbaijan, and almost all of them have representative offices in the country, Philipp Stalder, ambassador of Switzerland in Azerbaijan, said at a press briefing in Baku Jan. 12. Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Switzerland amounted to $200 million in 2017, the ambassador said, adding that this is lower than in previous years, but the existing level of bilateral relations will undoubtedly contribute to increase of the trade. Speaking about the official visits of the presidents, as well as the ministers of the two countries, the diplomat noted that the meetings between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Switzerland have already become traditional. The envoy expressed hope that the meetings will continue to promote fruitful cooperation between the two countries. Last year, the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Switzerland was celebrated, and an office for cooperation between the two countries was also opened in Baku, he said, adding that through the office the sides are going to implement new projects and further strengthen cooperation. Speaking about the areas of cooperation between the two countries, the ambassador also mentioned education, noting that a great number of Azerbaijani students graduate from Swiss universities every year. The sides are also going to organize a number of cultural events in 2018, thus introducing the Swiss with Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijanis with Switzerland, the ambassador said. He noted that filming of a Swiss movie will be partly held in Ganja city, and a photo exhibition is also planned to be held there. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 Trend: Russia will support the Italian OSCE Chairmanships efforts in the process of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. This was stated by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in response to Chairperson-in-Office, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano at the OSCE special permanent council meeting in Vienna on Jan.11. Instead of equitable cooperation, we see double standards and hear statements about the exceptionalism of individual nations and countries. All of that does not help us resolve todays problems, but instead gives rise to more problems and conflicts, and makes us all weaker in the face of common threats, such as terrorism, illegal migration, drug and human trafficking, and organised crime, he said. Lukashevich further stressed that Moscow fully shares Italian Chairmanships commitment to maintain the OSCEs efforts to resolve regional conflicts. 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.12 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Bulgarias Prime Minister Boyko Borissov will visit Azerbaijan on Jan.15-16, Trend learned from Bulgarian Council of Ministers. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov will be on an official visit to Baku on January 15-16 on invitation by Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev. The program of the visit to Azerbaijan is still being clarified, according to the information received from the Council of Ministers. Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria stood at $35.453 million in January-November 2017, according to the data of Azerbaijans State Customs Committee. Over $35.3 million of this amount accounted for import of Bulgarian products. Azerbaijan and Bulgaria have great potential for developing energy cooperation. Azerbaijani gas can be delivered to Bulgaria via the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB). IGB will allow Bulgaria receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will deliver the Shah Deniz gas to the European markets. Initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas. The projects cost is estimated at around 240 million euros. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 Trend: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on measures to improve the management in the transport, communications and high technologies sectors. The decree stipulates creation of the State Maritime Agency on the basis of the State Maritime Administration and the State Civil Aviation Agency on the basis of the State Civil Aviation Administration of Azerbaijan. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: The EU hopes to sign a Common Aviation Area Agreement with Azerbaijan this year, Kestutis Jankauskas, head of the EU delegation to Azerbaijan, told reporters in Baku Jan. 12. Negotiations on the aviation agreement are almost complete, he said. He voiced hope that the agreement will be signed in January-February this year. Discussions on the Common Aviation Area Agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU will be held Jan. 27-30 during the visit of Director General of the European Commission's department for mobility and transport (DG MOVE) Henrik Hololei to Azerbaijan. Creation of a common aviation area is an initiative of the European Commission and aims to open and integrate aviation markets. This will lead to new opportunities for consumers and operators, and, most importantly, to high standards in terms of flight safety as well as air traffic management. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.12 By Nigar Guliyeva Trend: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has hailed Turkeys National Energy Efficiency Action Plan which sets the country on course to implement a reduction of 14 per cent of primary energy consumption by 2023. The Turkish government has committed to invest almost $ 11 billion in energy efficiency measures set out by the plan. This is a major step towards making a rapidly expanding economy also much more energy efficient, said EBRD Managing Director for Turkey, Arvid Tuerkner. "The plan builds on the realisation that a sustainable, efficient and prudent generation and consumption of energy is crucial for both economic growth and a sound environment. The action plan addresses the need to balance both aspects with detailed measures and where possible and feasible the EBRD stands ready to support this crucial effort," he added. The National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) will help tackle the challenge. Developed with the help of the EBRD and funded by the European Union, the NEEAP closely follows and mirrors the activities and policies of the European Union in the area of energy and energy efficiency. Turkey is also investing heavily in developing its potential in renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar, hydro and geothermal energy generation. The country is seeking to develop 30 percent of its total installed capacity from renewable sources by 2023. The objective is to add 34 GW of hydropower, 20 GW of wind energy, 5 GW of solar energy, 1.5 GW of geothermal and 1 GW of biomass. Turkey also aims to have 10 per cent of its transport sector needs met by renewable energy. The EBRD has been supporting this foray into green energy as an investor as well as through its work with the government. The Bank also assisted the development of the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP), which was financed by the government of Spain. The EBRDs investment in green energy in Turkey includes large scale stand-alone projects. The Bank also finances mid-sized and small-scale renewable energy generation in the private sector through dedicated credit lines to Turkish banks, MidSEFF (Turkey Mid-size Sustainable Energy Financing Facility) and TurSEFF (Turkey Sustainable Energy Financing Facility), respectively. To date, the Banks financing under these three frameworks in the amount of 1.8 billion has reached over 1,000 companies and 1,500 households. Green projects account for half of the Banks portfolio in Turkey. To date, the Bank has invested 10 billion in various sectors of the countrys economy, with almost all investments in the private sector. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 8 By Fatih Karimov Trend: Iran exported 1891 passenger cars during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (started March 20, 2017), according to the date released by Iran's Customs administration. Iraq, Lebanon and Armenia were among the main destinations of Irans car exports. Tehran also exported cars to Italy, Germany, China, France, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Tunis, Czech Republic, the UAE, Guinea and Azerbaijan were other car importers from Iran. Meanwhile the Islamic Republics car imports in the 9-month period reached 57,000 units, according to the report. Iranian automakers exported 10,000 cars (worth over $10 million) the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2017), which was 59 percent less compared to the 24,500 cars in the preceding year. The huge fall in Irans car exports occurs despite the fact that the countrys car industry has experienced output increase in recent months, following lifting of international sanctions. According to the latest report of the countrys Industry, Mine and Trade Ministry, Irans passenger car (including sedans and SUVs) output registered a rise by 17 percent during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Dec. 22) to stand at 1.034 million units. Irans car export registered a record high in fiscal year to March 2011 and stood at 81,596, however the figure sharply fell in next year (fiscal year to March 2012) and accounted to 38,258 due to intensified international sanctions which targeted the countrys auto manufacturing industry. The export even decreased to 10,000 in the fiscal year to March 2014, but revived again following the removal of the international sanctions against Irans car industry. Iranian automakers exported 27,000 cars in the fiscal year to March 2015, but they failed to revive the exports to the pre-sanction period. Government declares victims of Chhintang killing martyrs The government has decided to give the status of martyr to 16 people killed in the Khoku Chhintang massacre in Dhankuta district dating back to November 13, 1979. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Azad Hasanli Trend: Creation of a mechanism of insurance market modernization is being discussed in Azerbaijan, the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA) said Jan. 12. This issue was in focus at a meeting in FIMSA, chaired by Executive Director Ibrahim Alishov. The meetings participants also discussed maintaining the stability of macroeconomic situation and financial sector, obligations to consumers of financial services, improvement of the banking sector, development of the securities market and the integration of banks into capital markets. FIMSAs tasks as part of the Strategic Road Map on Development of Financial Services and other issues were also discussed during the meeting. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Anvar Mammadov Trend: The depositors of Azerbaijans DemirBank OJSC, the license of which was revoked in December 2017, will be able to obtain compensations in 26 branches of Kapital Bank OJSC, the Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF) said in a message Jan. 12. Compensations will be paid from Feb. 1, 2018, ADIF said earlier. The volume of compensated deposits in DemirBank totals 63.5 million manats, while the volume of uncompensated deposits amounts to 28.3 million manats. According to the initial assessment conducted in the bank, DemirBank had 55,213 depositors in total. Meanwhile, the volume of deposits of most depositors (52,732 people) does not exceed 1,000 manats. DemirBanks license was revoked Dec. 23, 2017. The Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA) of Azerbaijan said the license was revoked due to a discrepancy between the total capital of the bank and the minimum capital requirement set for banks, and the adequacy ratio of the aggregate capital is lower than 3 percent stipulated by the legislation. The bank also lacked the capacity to fulfill its obligations to creditors. (1.7001 AZN = $1 on Jan. 12) Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Anvar Mammadov Trend: Promo ads of Azerbaijani products on Russian TV has gained more than 50 million views, Azerbaijans Deputy Economy Minister Sahil Babayev said. He made the remarks at the first meeting of the Exporters Club in 2018 that was dedicated to the presentation of logo of the Made in Azerbaijan brand. We started advertising the Azerbaijani products on the federal TV channel Russia 24 since October 2017, said Babayev. The commercials were prepared by a film crew that visited fruit gardens and processing plants in different regions of Azerbaijan last summer. Moreover, as part of measures to promote the Made in Azerbaijan brand, a promo ad was placed in the aircraft of Buta Airways, and the list of food and beverages presented on board was expanded, said Babayev. We also plan to place 10 stands at the filling stations of SOCAR Georgia Petroleum. Stands have already been prepared and will be placed at the filling stations until the end of January, said the deputy minister. In October 2016, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree approving the procedure for determining and regulating the payment mechanism for a part of the expenses paid by the state budget for organizing export missions to foreign countries, studying foreign markets and marketing activities, promoting the Made in Azerbaijan brand on foreign markets, the receipt of certificates and patents by local companies in foreign countries in connection with exports, as well as research programs and export development projects. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Anvar Mammadov Trend: Exports of Azerbaijans industrial products increased by 21 percent in 2017, Azerbaijans Deputy Economy Minister Sahil Babayev said at the first meeting of the Exporters Club in 2018 that was dedicated to the presentation of logo of the Made in Azerbaijan brand. Babayev said that exports of agricultural products rose by 28 percent in 2017. Meanwhile, the number of Azerbaijans economic entities participating in the trade turnover increased, as well as the range of exported goods expanded, according to the deputy minister. The number of Azerbaijans economic entities, participating in trade turnover exceeded 14,000, which means a growth of 7 percent as compared to 2016, he added. At the same time, the number of exported trading names increased by 10 percent and reached 3,100 in 2017. Babayev noted that Azerbaijans exports rose by 19 percent, non-oil exports by 24 percent in 2017. Details added (first version posted on 13:03) Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Anvar Mammadov - Trend: The logo of the Made in Azerbaijan brand was presented in Baku on Jan. 12. The logo was created by Trade Mark Leo Burnett Azerbaijan company. The logo reflects Azerbaijans rich nature, values, culture, craft and modernity, Abbas Fatullayev, director general of the company, said. "When we were creating the logo, we learned from the experience of such countries as Australia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Costa Rica and other countries," he said. In general, we came to the conclusion that logos can be divided into several types, namely, those designed for internal or external market, as well as those based on a beautiful design or on active advertising of the country. As for the Made in Azerbaijan logo, it is based not only on a beautiful design, but also aimed at advertising the country's main values. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Ali Mustafayev - Trend: North Kazakhstan region continues to encourage its villagers to become a part of the local agriculture business, by joining to agriculture cooperatives. The people of the regions Kellerovka village work within the Kellerovka progress agricultural production cooperative for two years and have already launched production of several production lines of agricultural products for the markets in the region and out of it, said the statement of the North Kazakhstan region's local authorities. Nearly 50 families, living in the village took 70 million tenge of loans, by mortgaging their houses and currently they produce tons of beef and milk each year, selling them to local markets. The government of the country regularly supports the agrarians, facilitating credit and taxation conditions. However, the agrarians still consider that the law on taxation must be amended, in order to develop the agriculture sector. Exchange rate for 12.01.2018: $1 - 330 tenge Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkey will create a new ministry of automotive industry, the countrys media reported. The ministry will be created as part of the program on creation of domestic car models. The ministry will control production of domestic cars and development of the Turkish automotive industry. Officials of Turkey have not confirmed this information so far. On Nov. 2 last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the names of companies that will take part in manufacturing of domestic cars. He noted that those companies are Anadolu Grubu, BMC, Kiraca Holding, Turkcell and Zorlu Holding. Erdogan said that starting from 2021, Turkey will start exporting domestically made cars to neighboring countries. The president added that it is also planned to create a special commission which will supervise the domestic production of cars. Turkey ranks sixth in Europe in car production. Models of Ford, FIAT, Renault, Toyota, Honda, Opel, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and MAN are currently assembled in Turkey. Moreover, Turkey manufactures local brands of buses, such as BMC, Temsa and Otokar. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Ali Mustafayev - Trend: In January-November 2017, prices on exported Kazakh products increased by 16.3 percent, in turn, prices on imported products increased by 6 percent, the Statistics Committee of the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan said in a message. Over the mentioned period, the price on exported cotton increased by 7.3 percent. Prices on exported wheat and wool decreased by 4.9 percent and 4.8 percent accordingly. Price on imported coffee increased by 17.5 percent, tea - by 10.8 percent, dairy products - by 10.3 percent, pasta - by 7 percent and poultry - by 5.1 percent, the message said. The price for imported vegetables fell by 25 percent, fruits and nuts - by 2.4 percent. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Huseyn Valiyev Trend: AzeriCard, Azerbaijans processing center, jointly with Muganbank OJSC has started issuing cards of the UnionPay International payment system, AzeriCard told Trend Jan. 12. Muganbank will offer four types of cards (UnionPay Classic, UnionPay Gold, UnionPay Platinum and UnionPay Diamond). It is expected that several more banks will start issuing cards of the payment system in the future, AzeriCard said. UnionPay International is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focused on the growth and support of UnionPays global business. In partnership with more than 1,700 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 162 countries and regions with issuance in 42 countries and regions. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Anvar Mammadov Trend: In 2017, 38 percent (6,690.8 million manats) of Azerbaijans state budget expenditures were of social purposes, which is 7.3 percent or 453.7 million manats more than in 2016, the Finance Ministry said Jan. 12. These funds were allocated to the wage fund, for the payment of scholarships and social allowances, medicines and food expenses, according to the ministry. Some 62.1 percent (10,921.1 million manats) of state budget expenditures accounted for current costs, 29.3 percent (5,153.5 million manats) - capital expenditures, 8.6 percent (1,513.7 million manats) - expenditures related to the servicing of public debt and other liabilities. In total, expenditures of Azerbaijans state budget last year amounted to 17,588.3 million manats (the forecast was executed by 98 percent). The state budget revenues last year amounted to 16,446.9 million manats (the forecast was executed by 98.1 percent). The state budget revenues from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes amounted to 6,972 million manats, which is by 8.8 percent less than the forecast figure. Of this, 74.5 percent (5,192.7 million manats) accounted for revenues from Azerbaijans non-oil sector. The state budget revenues from the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan amounted to 2,608.8 million manats, which is 15.9 percent more than the forecast figure. In addition, in 2017, 366.1 million manats entered the state budget from chargeable services of the organizations funded from the state budget, 250 million manats at the expense of deductions from the profits of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and 150 million manats accounted for other revenues. The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) transferred 6.1 billion manats to the countrys budget, which is by 19.9 percent less than in 2016. The deficit of the state budget amounted to 1,141.4 million manats, which is 33.6 million manats lower than the approved upper limit. The deficit was financed through the sale of government bonds (384.6 million manats), funds from privatization (106.5 million manats) and the balance on the single treasury account of the state budget as of Jan. 1, 2017 (650.3 million manats). The expenditures of the consolidated budget amounted to 24,982.6 million manats, incomes - 23,951.6 million manats. The deficit of the consolidated budget amounted to 1,031 million manats or 1.5 percent of the countrys GDP. (1.7001 manats = 1$ on Jan. 12) Govt puts its plan to transfer funds to banks on hold There is bad news for banks and financial institutions waiting for the government to shore up their weak loan disbursement capacity, as a committee formed to recommend ways to channel surplus funds from state coffers to the banking system has identified the need to make certain legal changes before making the transfers. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.12 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, has accounted for the major part of foreign investments in Albanias energy sphere in the third quarter of 2017, according to the report released by the Bank of Albania. More than 90 percent of foreign investments in Albania were made in three main sectors such as energy, finance and extractive industry during the reporting period, the data shows. Energy sphere dominated the quarterly inflow of foreign investments, mainly as a result of the investments in Albania for construction of TAP, said the report from the Bank of Albania. Energy investments accounted for 193 million euros or around 65 percent of the investment flow in Albania in the third quarter of 2017, according to the report. 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. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.12 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR plans to make investments in rehabilitation of old and amortized pipelines in Georgia in 2018, head of SOCAR Energy Georgia Mahir Mammadov told Trend. He pointed out that in December 2017, SOCAR Georgia Gas successfully completed the fulfillment of its investment commitments to Georgian government for construction of new gas distribution networks. Nevertheless, in 2018, we plan to make some investments in rehabilitation of old, amortized pipelines and construction of commercially attractive distribution networks, added Mammadov. SOCAR manages its gas distribution networks in various regions of Georgia through SOCAR Georgia Gas company. SOCAR exports gas to Georgia from Azerbaijani fields which are developed by the company without participation of foreign firms. Moreover, Georgia annually receives Azerbaijani gas produced at Shah Deniz field with participation of SOCAR and foreign companies. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.31 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: In total, 2.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas was exported from Azerbaijan to Georgia as of 2017, head of SOCAR Energy Georgia Mahir Mammadov told Trend. He noted that Georgia receives gas from Azerbaijan via South Caucasus pipeline and Baku-Gazimammad-Gazakh pipeline. Taking about Georgias 2018 natural gas balance, where gas supplies from Russia to Georgia are not envisaged, Mammadov said that those volumes will be substituted by imports of natural gas from Azerbaijan. Georgian Gas Transportation Company and Russias Gazprom have changed the terms of payments for the transit of Russian gas through Georgias territory. In accordance with these changes, Gazprom will pay for transportation of its gas through Georgia not with gas, as it was up until now, but by paying for transit services. Thus, Georgias 2018 natural gas balance doesnt envisage Russian gas supplies. These volumes will be substituted by imports of natural gas from Azerbaijan. The actual gas consumption may fluctuate depending on the weather conditions and the operating mode of the power generating stations, he added. According to Georgias gas balance for 2018, in general, the countrys natural gas demand will stand at more than 2.689 billion cubic meters. Meanwhile, Georgia plans to obtain 2.679 billion cubic meters (99.65 percent) of gas from Azerbaijan, including 1.866 billion cubic meters from the state oil company SOCAR and 813 million cubic meters, produced as part of development of the Shah Deniz field. The remaining part (9.41 million cubic meters) will be provided thanks to local production. Supplies of gas from Russia to Georgia are not envisaged in 2018. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Subscribers of Trend News Agency can read this and other exclusive materials before they are published in open access. More information on Trends news products can be found here. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 Trend: Russias NordStar airlines will launch flights from Norilsk to Baku via Samara from March 5, 2018, TASS reported Jan. 12 with reference to NordStars press-service. "The flights will be carried out twice a week by Boeing 737-800 aircraft," the company said. Presently, NordStars planes fly to Baku via Ufa. NordStar airlines are one of the biggest Russian air carriers with a passenger turnover of more than one million passengers per year. Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Sapar Isakov gave a start to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the great writer Chyngyz Aitmatov, Kabar reports. The official ceremony of celebrating the 90th anniversary of Aitmatov began in the writers native village Sheker of Talas region. Kyrgyz Minister of Culture, Information and Tourism Sultan Jumagulov told journalists that throughout the year of 2018 events related to the writer will take place across Kyrgyzstan. Celebrating the anniversary of Aitmatov will be held at the national and international levels. "In total 80 million soms are envisaged for the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the great writer. Additional funding from sponsors is envisaged as well. In general, there will be such events as Aitmatov's readings, scientific conferences, setting up his monument, the streets that will bear his name, staging of plays by Aitmatov," the Minister said. Jumagulov stressed that the International Organization of Turkic Culture (IOTC) also declared 2018 as the Year of Chyngyz Aitmatov. "This means that a lot of money will be spent to tell the world about Aitmatov. The events mentioned above will also take place in the countries that are part of the IOTC," he added. The head of the Ministry of Culture said that 20 hectares of land were allocated in the village of Sheker of Talas region for the construction of the center Chyngyz Ordo. "But it will take more than one year, as it requires hefty bills. This center will be the same as Manas Ordo," he added. Curently Sapar Isakov is on a working trip to Talas region. The head of government will also visit a number of facilities in the region. The Committee for Tourism Development under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan has opened today the first Travel information centre. This initiative was undertaken as part of the announcing of 2018 as the Year of Tourism and Folk Crafts Development. As the NIAT Khovar correspondent reports, this center is equipped with modern information equipment, including plasma TVs, tablets and laptops, with travel information materials and souvenirs for tourists. The Deputy Head of Department for Tourism Development at the Committee for Tourism Development under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan Faridun Mirzoev noted that the aim of establishing the modern Travel information center is to promote and introduce national history and culture, provide reliable information to foreign tourists and visitors, as well as provide consulting and information services for tourists and create favorable conditions for the tourism development. The Centers tablets are connected with Internet and integrates all the necessary information on travel possibilities of the country, history, culture and national traditions, tourist companies, health resorts, and provides timely information to the guests. US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would waive nuclear sanctions against Iran for the last time to give Washington and its European allies a chance to fix the terrible flaws of the 2015 nuclear deal, Reuters reports. A senior administration official said Trump wants the deal strengthened with a follow-on agreement in 120 days or the United States will unilaterally withdraw from the international pact. Trump had privately chafed at having to once again waive sanctions on a country he sees as a rising threat in the Middle East. This is a last chance, Trump said in a statement. In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately. While Trump approved the sanctions waiver, the Treasury Department decided to impose new, targeted sanctions against 14 Iranian entities and people. Trump had lengthy discussions on Thursday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and others about the deal, which was reached during the presidency of Democrat Barack Obama. Trump will now work with European partners on a follow-on agreement that enshrines certain triggers that the Iranian regime cannot exceed related to ballistic missiles, said a senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the decision. One official said Trump would be open to remaining in a modified deal if it was made permanent. I hereby call on key European countries to join with the United States in fixing significant flaws in the deal, countering Iranian aggression, and supporting the Iranian people, Trump said in the statement. If other nations fail to act during this time, I will terminate our deal with Iran. Trump also wants the U.S. Congress to modify a law that reviews U.S. participation in the nuclear deal to include trigger points that if violated would lead to the United States reimposing its sanctions, the official said. This would not entail negotiations with Iran, the official said, but rather would be the result of talks between the United States and its European allies. Work already has begun on this front, the official said. Trump has argued behind the scenes that the nuclear deal makes the United States look weak, a senior U.S. official said. The argument for staying in, the official said, was to allow time to toughen the terms of the agreements. A decision to withhold a waiver would have effectively ended the deal that limits Irans nuclear program. The 2015 agreement between the United States and Iran also was signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union, and these countries would have been unlikely to join the United States in reimposing sanctions. One hundred Georgian soldiers from the 4th mechanized brigade have left for Afghanistan for the NATO Resolute Support Mission today, Agenda reports. The soldiers will replace Georgian servicemen of the 3rd infantry brigade and will protect international peace over the course of the next six months. The soldiers will be stationed at the Mazar-i-Sharif military base, in the fourth largest city of the war-torn country. Before the departure the servicemen underwent two-month training in Georgia and six-month exercises in Germany. Georgias Minister of Defence Levan Izoria addressed the soldiers and their families before they left and thanked them for their role in protecting international peace and security. Georgia is the largest non-NATO contributor to the Resolute Support mission with 885 troops. The Energy Community Secretariat is contributing to the widening of the gas market, attract investments and provide for the increased security of gas supply in Georgia, Agenda reports. For this reason, the Energy Community Secretariat launched a technical assistance project in Georgias capital city of Tbilisi this week under the EU4Energy Governance Project. A draft natural gas distribution network code will cover and elaborate the terms and conditions for operation, management and functioning of natural gas distribution networks in Georgia, and in particular rules on fair and non-discriminatory third-party access and connection to natural gas distribution systems, read the press release by Energy Community, an international organisation established between the European Union (EU) and a number of third countries to extend the EU internal energy market to Southeast Europe and beyond. The Network Code will be developed between January and March 2018 in cooperation with the main beneficiary the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission (GNERC). The code is part of the gas market reforms currently being carried out by Georgia pursuant to its commitments under the Energy Community Treaty. The EU4Energy Initiative covers all EU support to improve energy supply, security and connectivity, as well as to promote energy efficiency and the use of renewables in the Eastern Partner countries of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It does this by financing projects and programmes that help to reform energy markets and to reduce national energy dependence and consumption. Over the longer term, this makes the energy supply more reliable, transparent and affordable, thus reducing energy poverty and energy bills for both citizens and the private sector. Hillary Clinton accused President Trump of holding "ignorant, racist views" on Friday, after media reports surfaced that the president decried immigration from "shithole countries" like Haiti, El Salvador and African nations, The Hill reports. In a tweet, Clinton denounced Trump's remarks, which were made in a private meeting with lawmakers on Thursday, saying that Friday should be a day of remembrance for the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Instead, she said, the country has been subjected to Trump's ire. Hillary Clinton accused President Trump of holding "ignorant, racist views" on Friday, after media reports surfaced that the president decried immigration from "shithole countries" like Haiti, El Salvador and African nations. In a tweet, Clinton denounced Trump's remarks, which were made in a private meeting with lawmakers on Thursday, saying that Friday should be a day of remembrance for the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Instead, she said, the country has been subjected to Trump's ire. The tweet from Clinton, who fought bitterly with Trump in the 2016 presidential race, came a day after reports surfaced that Trump demanded to know why the U.S. admits so many immigrants from "shithole countries," like Haiti, El Salvador and several in Africa. The remarks, which where confirmed by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), came in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform. Trump allegedly questioned why the U.S. doesn't admit more immigrants from countries like Norway, whose prime minister visited the White House this week. Trump denied in a pair of tweets on Friday that he made the comment, but referred to Haiti as a "very poor and troubled country." The U.S. granted temporary protected status (TPS) to Haitians after the earthquake. The Trump administration moved in November to end that program for residents of the island nation. Maize output to hit all-time high of 2.55 million tonnes Nepals maize output is expected to hit an all-time high of 2.55 million tonnes this fiscal year with growers embracing commercial farming techniques to fulfill swelling demand from the feed industry, according to a preliminary summer crop production report issued by the Ministry of Agricultural Development. The government is likely to approve 7,500 additional permits for Palestinians to work in Israel, a top general said on Thursday, The Jerusalem Post reports. Some 100,000-110,000 Palestinians currently work in Israel, including 30,000-40,000 laborers without permits, while 30,000 work in West Bank settlements. There will probably be an approval of a government [measure] next week, which... would increase the number of work permits by 7,500, according to Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, who heads the branch of the Defense Ministry that is responsible for liaising with Palestinians. A security official said the permits would only be granted to Palestinians in the West Bank. According to the World Bank, unemployment in the West Bank in 2016 stood at around 18%. Palestinian Authority Labor Minister Mamoun Abu Shahala said that while he has not been officially informed of the probable Israeli decision to increase work permits, he would welcome such a move. The situation is difficult and unemployment is high, he said in a phone call. We would welcome any decision to raise the number of work permits. The Trump administration is expected to announce new sanctions against Iran soon, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said during a White House briefing on Thursday, Sputnik reported. "I am expecting new sanctions on Iran, we continue to look at them," Mnuchin told reporters. Earlier, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield said in testimony before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Washington plans to use aggressive sanctions to diminish the influence of Iran in Syria. Also, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein said during a press briefing that US President Donald Trump will make an announcement on whether he will recertify the Iran nuclear agreement either on Thursday or Friday morning. "The President will make a decision based on all the information he has," Goldstein said on Thursday. "I would expect an announcement either later today or tomorrow morning." In October 2017, Trump refused to certify Iran's compliance with the JCPOA, agreement which stipulates a gradual lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran in exchange for Tehran maintaining peaceful nature of its nuclear program, but stopped short of pulling the United States out of the pact, prompting condemnation from other members of the P5+1 that had brokered deal. A pro-government member of Venezuelas controversial legislative superbody was shot and killed in the west of the country by two assailants riding a motorcycle, authorities said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Lawyer Tomas Lucena, 31, was in his pickup truck with relatives on Wednesday afternoon when he was shot several times. He died in a hospital in Trujillo state, the public prosecutors office said in a statement. A relative unknown in Venezuelan politics, Lucena was a member of the 545-strong Constituent Assembly created last year by socialist President Nicolas Maduro in a move widely condemned by Western powers and fellow Latin American nations. Speaking during an hours-long televised broadcast, Maduro alleged that Lucena, a father of three young children, had been targeted for political reasons. (He was) killed by right-wing hit men, Maduro said. Violence here, violence there... directed by the embassy of the United States, he added, without offering any evidence. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Critics say Maduro routinely uses Washington as a scapegoat for the OPEC members political and economic meltdown. Venezuela has one of the worlds highest murder rates, while a fourth straight year of recession has deprived millions of three square meals a day. Mexico has made clear it will never pay for President Donald Trumps planned southern border wall, the countrys economy minister said on Thursday, after the U.S. leader again insisted he would make Mexico pay for the barrier, Reuters reported. The President of Mexico (Enrique Pena Nieto) has been very clear: Mexico will never pay for this wall, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo wrote on Twitter after a day of meetings in Washington. Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Thursday that Mexico could pay for the wall, which he hopes will stem illegal immigration, indirectly through changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump has said he will withdraw from NAFTA if the accord cannot be renegotiated in favor of the United States. Guajardo was in Washington for talks this week with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer over the modernization of NAFTA, according to a statement by Mexicos Economy Ministry. Guajardo wrote on Twitter that the border wall had not been discussed at any time during his meetings with U.S. officials, nor in the negotiations over how to rework NAFTA. Emmanuel Macrons finance minister said on Friday there would be no new taxes during the presidents five-year mandate, which runs until 2022, Reuters reports. Bruno Le Maire said a sizeable housing tax Macron is steadily reducing will be totally scrapped once a way has been found to ensure local authorities are compensated for the expected revenue loss of around 20 billion euros. There will be no new taxes during the mandate, Le Maire told BFM news television channel. Macron, a 40-year-old former investment banker who took office in May, has promised to shrink Frances public sector deficit for the first time in years, bringing it down to the euro zones agreed target of below 3 percent of GDP. To achieve that, public spending will likely have to fall since Le Maire is promising no tax increases. However, stronger economic growth will also help, since it swells government revenues from existing taxes and increases the overall size of the pie - reducing the size of the deficit relative to GDP. Le Maire, who abandoned Frances conservative Les Republicans party to join Macrons government, was categorical in his pledge to keep a lid on taxes. Were not going to scrap one tax only to invent another in its place, he said. You cannot put money in French peoples pockets and take it back with the other hand. There will be no creating of new taxes. Frances central bank is predicting that GDP, which grew by around 1.8 percent last year, the strongest since 2011, will continue to expand at a roughly similar rate over the coming three years. Chancellor Angela Merkel struck a deal with Social Democrat (SPD) rivals on Friday to open government coalition talks, easing months of uncertainty that has undermined Germanys global role and raised questions about her political future, Reuters reports. But the deal to revive a grand coalition that has governed since 2013 must be approved by SPD party members at a congress planned for January 21. Some fear further association with Merkels chancellorship could erode the influence of the SPD which suffered the worst result in Septembers election since the modern Federal Republic was founded in 1949. We have felt since the elections that the world will not wait for us, and in particular regarding Europe we are convinced we need a new call for Europe, Merkel, who has played a central role in tackling crises over the euro and refugees, told journalists after talks that had run through the night. A 28-page blueprint pledged close co-operation with France to strengthen the euro zone. It also contained a promise, apparently targeting Saudi Arabia, a major buyer of German arms, not to export arms to countries involved in the war in Yemen. Weakened by an election setback in September, Merkel turned to the left-leaning SPD to renew their grand coalition after the collapse in November of talks on a three-way coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats (FDP). Germany is unfamiliar with the long negotiations that mark coalition building in many neighboring countries. The dominance of the SPD and the conservatives long ensured smooth government transition. But elections last September saw the rise of the right-wing Alternative for Germany which upset the arithmetic. Merkel was eager to avoid any repeat elections or attempt at a minority government. There will be difficult tasks to come, Merkel said. The coalition negotiations probably wont be easier than the exploratory talks. Horst Seehofer, head of the Bavarian sister party of Merkels Christian Democrats, said a government could be in place by Easter - March or April. As Europes largest economy and pre-eminent power broker, Germany is crucial to the regions fortunes. Berlins partners are eagerly awaiting a new government to help drive forward Brexit talks, euro zone reform and EU diplomatic initiatives. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking in Sofia, described the deal as a huge benefit for Europe. On the domestic front the blueprint, open to revision, foresaw tax relief for citizens of 10 billion euros over the three years to 2021 as well as extra spending on home-building, education and research. The blueprint showed the two parties aimed to gradually abolish the solidarity tax introduced after reunification in 1990 to support poorer eastern states. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: The Constitutional Court of Turkey exceeds its powers, said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag. He was commenting on the acquittal of journalists Sahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan by the court, the Turkish media outlets reported Jan. 12. Bozdag said that the Constitutional Court is not entitled to exercise the powers of the Court of Appeal. Earlier, the Constitutional Court of Turkey made a decision on the release of Sahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan, who were arrested on charges of propagating the ideas of Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish authorities accused of involvement in an attempted military coup in the country. Sahin Alpay was arrested on July 31, 2016 and Mehmet Altan was arrested in September 2018. 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. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkeys Foreign Ministry warned about the undesirability of Turkish citizens travel to the US for security reasons. The ministry said in a message Jan. 12 that the decision was made as a response to similar steps by the US State Department. Increase of violence, as well as the cases of arbitrary detention of Turkish citizens is observed in the United States. In this regard, we consider it useful to warn Turkish citizens about the desirability of reviewing their plans on traveling to the US, noted ministry. Earlier, the US State Department recommended Americans to avoid traveling to Turkey due to the threat of terrorist attacks and groundless detentions, referring it to a group of countries with increased danger along with Pakistan, Guatemala and Sudan. In response, the US Charge DAffaires in Turkey Philippe Cosnett was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, and Ankaras outrage was expressed in connection with the warning of the US authorities. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkish police arrested Tarik Ahmet, agriculture minister of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, in Kayseri Province. Along with Tarik Ahmet, nine more members of the IS were arrested, the province police said in a message Jan. 12. In December 2017, one of the executioners of the IS, a 28-year-old terrorist nicknamed Mahmud, was arrested in Turkeys Hatay Province on the border with Syria. Syria has been suffering from an armed conflict since March 2011, which, according to the UN, has so far claimed more than 500,000 lives. Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops. The "Islamic State" (IS), the YPG (Kurdish People's Protection Units) and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) are the most active terrorist groups in Syria. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 12 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkey neutralized 7,016 terrorists in 2017, according to a message of the Turkish Armed Forces issued Jan. 12. According to the message, 3,239 members of the "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist group were neutralized among them. Turkey, as before, will continue to actively fight against terrorist organizations, says the message. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu NRA starts shifting risky settlement from Sindhupalchok The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has started relocation of the settlements from the disaster-prone areas in Sindhupalchok which was among the 14 districts worst hit by the twin earthquakes in 2015. Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yldrm condemned the Bashar Assad regime's attacks on Syria's Idlib on Friday, saying intensified attacks will only cause a new migration wave and result in tragedy, Daily Sabah reports. Speaking to reporters in Ankara after the Friday prayers, Yldrm called on Russia and Iran to warn the Assad regime over the attacks, which would only damage the peace process in Syria. "Turkey along with Russia and Iran successfully took an initiative to ensure lasting peace in Syria. We are discussing the matter with the countries we work with and are trying to prevent dire consequences that could arise from it," the prime minister said, adding that interruption to the Syrian peace process will not be of any use. The Assad regime launched a full-scale offensive against the opposition in northern Idlib province, violating a cease-fire agreement brokered Turkey, Russia and Iran. Following the regime's assaults, tens of thousands of people fled the province. Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity. Turkey an opposition backer repeatedly called on Russia and Iran to pressure the regime to stop the offensive, summoning both countries' ambassadors. Touching upon the topic of the latest spat between Ankara and Washington that involved mutual travel warnings, Yldrm said the dispute will not positively affect bilateral ties. Stressing that "terror knows to borders," he added that Ankara and Istanbul were as safe as Washington and New York. KYODO NEWS - Jan 12, 2018 - 13:41 | Feature, All The number of foreign tourists to Japan reached a record high 28,690,000 in 2017, up 19.3 percent from the previous year and rising for the sixth straight year, the transport minister said Friday. Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Keiichi Ishii attributed the growth to an increase in low-cost carrier flights from South Korea and other Asian countries and cruise ship services between China and Japan as well as relaxed visa requirements for Chinese and Russian travelers. "In 2017, there was a sharp increase in tourists from Asia, and we need to make more efforts to attract tourists from a wide range of countries and regions," Ishii told a press conference. The government will release a regional breakdown and other details next week. The government targets 40 million foreign visitors by 2020, when Japan hosts the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. It plans to use revenue from the 1,000 yen departure tax it will impose on every traveler leaving Japan from January 2019, to promote tourism. KYODO NEWS - Jan 12, 2018 - 19:40 | World, All The Japanese government said Friday it has confirmed that a submarine spotted near Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea the day before was a Chinese naval vessel. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said the submarine surfaced Thursday flying a Chinese flag on its mast. "This unilaterally heightens tensions," Onodera told reporters. (Photo courtesy of Defense Ministry) Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama lodged a protest with Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua over the submarine's entry into the contiguous zone, telling Cheng the action "is a serious escalation of the situation," according to the Foreign Ministry. Thursday marked the first known time that a submerged foreign submarine entered the contiguous zone, an area just outside Japanese waters around the Japan-controlled, China-claimed islands. A Chinese frigate was also observed Thursday entering the zone, prompting Japan to protest that action. China claimed the approach was justified by its "full historical and legal basis for its sovereignty" over the islands, which it calls Diaoyu. KYODO NEWS - Jan 11, 2018 - 13:00 | All, World The conservation group WWF urged Japan on Thursday to ban in principle all ivory trade within the country by 2020, saying its domestic market undermines international efforts to abolish illegal trade in ivory. While the United States, China and other countries have taken steps toward closing their domestic markets to protect endangered African elephants, Japan insists on maintaining its own, arguing its domestic trading is unrelated to poaching. After receiving a written request from the WWF, the Japanese Environment Ministry indicated its intent to strengthen measures to stop the smuggling of ivory by working together with police and customs but it did not make clear its response to the request for the closure of the domestic market, according to the WWF. (WWF Japan) The WWF said more than 2.4 tons of ivory was unlawfully exported from Japan to China and elsewhere between 2011 and 2016. While Japan amended its conservation law last year to tighten control over the market by requiring ivory dealers to register with the government, the WWF said such a measure does not resolve the pressing issues involving ivory. Fearing the illegal export of ivory could increase as the number of tourists to Japan is expected to rise ahead of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020, the WWF also requested the Japanese government to ban online ivory trade as well. (WWF Japan) In 2016, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, adopted a resolution calling on all signatories to close their domestic ivory markets in the face of the mass slaughter of elephants. Japan, a party to CITES, has since imposed stricter rules but left its ivory market open, arguing that ivory products being traded in the country were imported before international regulations came into force and related businesses are properly controlled. The study was a cooperative effort between the team headed by assistant professor Dr Jurgen Knobloch from the Medical Clinic III for Pneumology, Sleep and Respiratory Medicine at the Bergmannsheil University Hospital in Bochum, Germany, and Prof Dr Andrea Koch, member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), previously in Bochum, now at the Medical Clinic V for Pneumology at the LMU University Hospital in Munich, as well as a team from the company RespiVert Ltd, a subsidiary of Janssen Biotech Inc., and Prof Dr Erich Stoelben from the Lung Clinic in Koln-Merheim. According to the authors of the study, the new substances may potentially constitute a breakthrough in the treatment of COPD. New drug candidates reduce inflammation COPD patients suffer from chronic inflammation of the respiratory tract. Certain enzymes, so-called protein kinases, regulate the inflammation process. They are indirectly over-activated due to smoking, due to pro-inflammatory factors characteristic of COPD, and due to respiratory infections. This results in the production of even more pro-inflammatory factors, which, in turns, promotes disease progression. According to the researchers, Narrow Spectrum Kinase Inhibitors, i.e. NSKI, that inhibit protein kinases constitute a promising therapy approach. Two NSKIs - namely RV1088 und RV568, which were identified and provided by RespiVert for the studies - were tested by the team in cell cultures; the researchers compared their efficacy with a conventional corticosteroid and various Single Protein Kinase Inhibitors, which are likewise considered potential drug candidates. The NSKIs were more effective in decelerating the production of inflammatory agents than any of the reference substances. Effect of other substances not sufficient A number of small molecule inhibitors of specific single kinases have previously been successfully tested in preclinical trials and advanced to clinical studies. These substances selectively inhibit individual protein kinases or a family of protein kinases. "However, it is emerging that the effect would not be sufficient in clinical applications," explains Jurgen Knobloch, head of laboratory at the Pneumology Clinic at Bergmannsheil. "In case of such a specific inhibition, activation of other protein kinases may act to induce similar inflammation." Therefore, the team tested new drug candidates that target not only one protein kinase or a family of protein kinases, but a specific spectrum of several protein kinase families. In the research lab at the Bergmannsheil Pneumology Clinic, researchers then tested the substances in primary cultures of airway smooth muscle cells taken from COPD patients. Potentially transferable to clinical applications "Our study has demonstrated that NSKIs are promising candidates for the development of urgently required anti-inflammatory COPD therapies," says Jurgen Knobloch. Consequently, he and his colleagues believe that the findings gained in the preclinical model offer an immense potential for a transfer to applications in patient care. According to expert estimates, COPD currently affects 11.7 percent of the global population. In most cases, the disease starts as chronic bronchitis, and it is mainly caused by smoking tobacco. Current therapies can retard the progression of COPD and provide symptom relief, but they cannot stop it. With the exception of one drug that is used for the treatment of very severe COPD in a subset of the COPD population, there are currently no other approved non-steroidal therapies that target inflammation, which is central for the progression of COPD. Currently available inhaled corticosteroids help alleviate the symptoms of other chronic inflammatory pulmonary diseases and provide some benefit in the prevention of acute exacerbations, but they are currently only recommended for use in combination with bronchodilators and in patients that experience frequent exacerbations. Clinical Studies in progress The substances identified in this study are currently being developed further by a pharmaceutical company in a clinical programme, as part of a translational effort to bring these compounds forward for patients. ### Original publication Jurgen Knobloch, David Jungck, Catherine Charron, Erich Stoelben, Kazuhiro Ito, Andrea Koch: Superior anti-inflammatory effects of Narrow spectrum kinase inhibitors in airway smooth muscle cells from subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, in: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2017, DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2017.09.026 http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(17)31623-8/abstract Press Contact Assistant Professor Dr Jurgen Knobloch Head of Laboratory Medizinische Klinik III fur Pneumologie, Allergologie, Schlaf- und Beatmungsmedizin Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitatsklinikum Bergmannsheil Phone: +49 234 302 3404 Email: juergen.knobloch@bergmannsheil.de Professor Dr Andrea Koch Head of the research group Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases and of CPC-Studienambulanz, Helmholtz-Zentrum Munich Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL) Munich Med. Klinik & Poliklinik V Klinikum der LMU Munchen Phone: +49 89 4400 75310 Email: andrea.koch@med.uni-muenchen.de Robin Jopp Head of the Corporate Communications Strategic Unit Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitatsklinikum Bergmannsheil gGmbH Burkle-de-la-Camp-Platz 1 44789 Bochum Phone: +49 234 302 6125 Email: robin.jopp@bergmannsheil.de About Bergmannsheil Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitatsklinikum Bergmannsheil is one of the largest urgent care clinics for maximum treatment in the Ruhr area. Founded in 1890 as the world's first Accident and Emergency clinic to provide treatment after mining accidents, Bergmannsheil today houses 23 highly specialised clinics and specialist departments with 707 beds in total under one roof. More than 2,300 members of staff ensure professional care of approximately 89,000 patients per annum. Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitatsklinikum Bergmannsheil is part of the BG Kliniken healthcare group. The group incorporates nine urgent care clinics under the occupational insurance scheme, two clinics for occupational hazards, and two Accident and Emergency centres. With 12,500 members of staff and in excess 550,000 patients, the group is one of the largest clinic associations in Germany. Moreover, Bergmannsheil is part of the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum's university clinic (UK RUB). Further information: http://www.bergmannsheil.de Oceans are not the only bodies of water that acidify due to man-made climate change; freshwater systems are likewise affected - and this, in turn, could have an impact on the organisms living in them. This is the conclusion drawn by biologists at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum following an analysis of long-term data from a number of freswhater reservoirs across Germany and controlled lab experiments with freshwater organisms. The results are published by the team headed by Dr Linda Weiss, Leonie Potter and Prof Dr Ralph Tollrian from the Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity in Bochum in the journal Current Biology on 22h of January 2018, which is already available online. "The acidification of the oceans is often referred to as the evil twin of climate change," says Weiss. "The negative impact of rising carbon dioxide levels on marine ecosystems has been proved in numerous studies to date, whereas hardly any research has been conducted in freshwater systems. Our study has demonstrated that the acidification of lakes is a real problem." CO2 levels in four river dams analysed over a period of 35 years The team from Bochum analysed data collected at four river dams in Germany that supply drinking water and are monitored once a month. The water management association "Ruhrverband" supplied measurement data from 1981 to 2015. Data gathered before 1999 were available only in hard copy and were digitalised by Leonie Potter and three student volunteers over a period of several days. The analysis showed that the CO2 levels in reservoirs had been continuously increasing and the pH value had been reduced by 0.01 on average per annum. In order to assess the ecological consequences of this change, the Bochum-based biologists investigated in what way the changed environmental conditions affect a key species in freshwater ecosystems. They worked with daphnia, also called water fleas, which are the food source for many other organisms. Reaction to predators analysed Daphnia form a number of different defence mechanisms in the presence of predators; they might, for example, change their shape or grow small thorns around their neck. The daphnia's respective reaction is predator specific. The water fleas identify their predators by smelling their chemical signals, so to speak, and form appropriate defence mechanisms. This tactic ensures long-term survival of the population. The researchers studied two daphnia species in three separate culture media that differed in terms of CO2 levels in water. To some of the daphnia samples, they added chemical signals that the water fleas typically use to detect the presence of predators: namely substances released by Chaoborus larvae and a water bug of the Notonecta species. Subsequently, they recorded in what way the daphnia reacted to the chemical signals under different CO2 conditions. Increased CO2 levels inhibit defence mechanisms The results were the same for both species, Daphnia pulex and Daphnia longicephala: the higher the CO2 concentration in the culture medium, the weaker the formation of the daphnia's defence mechanisms. This is presumably because the increased CO2 levels interfere with the water fleas' sense of smell; in water with higher CO2 concentrations, their ability to detect the chemical signals of predators and, consequently, of their presence was impaired. "Many freshwater organisms rely on their sense of smell," explains Linda Weiss. "If that sense is compromised in other species too due to rising CO2 levels, this development might have far-reaching consequences for the entire ecosystem. Follow-up studies must now be carried out, in order to determine if the acidification of freshwater systems is a global phenomenon and in what way other species react to rising CO2 levels." ### Funding Linda Weiss was financed by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, co-author Leonie Potter by the German Federal Environmental Foundation. Original publication Linda Weiss, Leonie Potter, Annika Steiger, Sebastian Kruppert, Uwe Frost, Ralph Tollrian: Rising pCO2 in freshwater ecosystems has the potential to negatively affect predator induced defenses in Daphnia, in: Current Biology, 2018, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.12.022, http://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdfExtended/S0960-9822(17)31655-X Press contact Dr Linda Weiss Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology Ruhr-Universitat Bochum Germany Phone: +49 234 32 25072 Email: linda.weiss@rub.de Description "Retro Picture Show presents Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA & INFERNO - both screening on 35mm. Dario Argentos SUSPIRIA (1977) [Newly Discovered Uncut Italian Print] Considered by many to be one of the most terrifying and stylized horror films of our time, SUSPIRIA is a sure-bet to keep you glued to the edge of your seat with all the lights on. Jessica Harper stars as Susy Banyon, an American student who has enrolled in a German dance academy. In the very night she arrives, two of the students are brutally murdered in a scene likened to the shower murder in PSYCHO. It soon becomes apparent that this is only the beginning of what is perhaps the most terrifying nightmare ever created on film. (Italy, 98 mins, Dir. Dario Argento, 35mm) 35mm print courtesy of The Chicago Cinema Society Dario Argentos INFERNO (1980) A young woman stumbles upon a mysterious diary that reveals the secrets of "The Three Mothers" and unleashes a nightmare world of demonic evil. As the unstoppable horror spreads from Rome to New York City, this unholy trinity must be stopped before the world is submerged in the blood of the innocent. Written and directed by Dario Argento, Inferno is considered to be the sequel to Suspiria. This surreal shocker stars Irene Miracle, Daria Nicolodi and Leigh McCloskey and features a pulse-pounding original scare by Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. (Italy, 106 mins, Dir. Dario Argento, 35mm)" Twelve-year-old scientist Gitanjali Rao has been inventing since she was in kindergarten. Rao says that she has more than eight inventions, but it was Tethys a 3D printed device that harnesses carbon nanotubes and a mobile app to test water for lead contamination in as little as 10 seconds that won her the title of America's Top Young Scientist, and $25,000.Rao says she was inspired to begin work on Tethys when she learned about communities in Michigan dealing with the devastating effects of lead-contaminated water. "I was originally inspired by the Flint water crisis," she tells CNBC Make It . After talking about the issue with her family, Rao put herself in the shoes of those who were affected by contaminated water. "I was thinking about how they felt when they actually found out that there was lead in their water that would be a really scary thought." She considered the seriously troubling side effect of lead exposure, including rashes, headaches, nausea, seizures, and even death, and set out to use her inventing experience to try help."It started with like a way to remove lead from water, and then I realized that that's a step too far and I need to take it back and think about the detection before the prevention," says Rao.After researching water quality detection techniques, the precocious pre-teen found that she would need some hard-to-find supplies, including carbon nanotubes, chloride and lead acetate. Fortunately, Rao's parents lent a helping hand."My parents mostly helped me with like transportation to get lead, to get carbon nanotubes," she says. "They were just overall really supportive of the choice that I made to solve this big problem. My parents like me to think outside the box, in that they want me to be aware of the world's situations that are going on." She submitted a video application to the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and was selected as one of the 10 finalists. After months of perfecting her theoretical concept and her physical prototype, Rao traveled with her parents to the 3M headquarters in Minnesota and gave a five-minute speech in front a panel of judges, followed by a five-minute question and answer session. Brian Barnhart, a school superintendent and one of the judges, told ABC , "It's not hyperbole to say she really blew us out of the water." Rao was named America's Top Young Scientist and handed a check for $25,000. Science is not Rao's only passion. "I actually love business," she says. "I like inventing, I like researching but I also like marketing." She's developing a business model that she hopes will make Tethys financially accessible for all families."I would like to make it commercially available, after performing last-minute tests, so that it is in everybody's hands, because I think it's important to test our water," she says. "Currently, the device costs $20, but when it's manufactured in bulk, it will cost significantly less."Now that Rao has some prize money in her pocket, she plans to invest in her business, her community and her education. "With most of it, I plan to continue evolving my device, like manufacturing chemically doped carbon nanotubes and again performing more false/positive tests," says Rao. "And with the rest of it, I plan to give back to the organizations that I volunteer for, such as Children's Kindness Network, and I would also love to put some of it into college funds." "When I grew up I want to be an epidemiologist or a geneticist," she says. In the meantime, Rao finds joy and pride in being an inventor and is keeping busy in seventh grade."I think that being an inventor-slash-scientist is pretty much like a superhero," she says. "What do superheroes do? They save the world. They save lives. And what do scientists do? They could potentially save the world, they could potentially save lives. So we are pretty much superheroes." Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook ! Don't miss:5 tricks for paying for college in 20183 ways Bill Gates is spending billions to change the worldHow to answer 4 of the most common interview questions Twelve-year-old scientist Gitanjali Rao has been inventing since she was in kindergarten. Rao says that she has more than eight inventions, but it was Tethys a 3D printed device that harnesses carbon nanotubes and a mobile app to test water for lead contamination in as little as 10 seconds that won her the title of America's Top Young Scientist, and $25,000. Rao says she was inspired to begin work on Tethys when she learned about communities in Michigan dealing with the devastating effects of lead-contaminated water. "I was originally inspired by the Flint water crisis," she tells CNBC Make It . After talking about the issue with her family, Rao put herself in the shoes of those who were affected by contaminated water. "I was thinking about how they felt when they actually found out that there was lead in their water that would be a really scary thought." She considered the seriously troubling side effect of lead exposure, including rashes, headaches, nausea, seizures, and even death, and set out to use her inventing experience to try help. "It started with like a way to remove lead from water, and then I realized that that's a step too far and I need to take it back and think about the detection before the prevention," says Rao. After researching water quality detection techniques, the precocious pre-teen found that she would need some hard-to-find supplies, including carbon nanotubes, chloride and lead acetate. Fortunately, Rao's parents lent a helping hand. "My parents mostly helped me with like transportation to get lead, to get carbon nanotubes," she says. "They were just overall really supportive of the choice that I made to solve this big problem. My parents like me to think outside the box, in that they want me to be aware of the world's situations that are going on." She submitted a video application to the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and was selected as one of the 10 finalists. After months of perfecting her theoretical concept and her physical prototype, Rao traveled with her parents to the 3M headquarters in Minnesota and gave a five-minute speech in front a panel of judges, followed by a five-minute question and answer session. Brian Barnhart, a school superintendent and one of the judges, told ABC , "It's not hyperbole to say she really blew us out of the water." Rao was named America's Top Young Scientist and handed a check for $25,000. Science is not Rao's only passion. "I actually love business," she says. "I like inventing, I like researching but I also like marketing." She's developing a business model that she hopes will make Tethys financially accessible for all families. "I would like to make it commercially available, after performing last-minute tests, so that it is in everybody's hands, because I think it's important to test our water," she says. "Currently, the device costs $20, but when it's manufactured in bulk, it will cost significantly less." Now that Rao has some prize money in her pocket, she plans to invest in her business, her community and her education. "With most of it, I plan to continue evolving my device, like manufacturing chemically doped carbon nanotubes and again performing more false/positive tests," says Rao. "And with the rest of it, I plan to give back to the organizations that I volunteer for, such as Children's Kindness Network, and I would also love to put some of it into college funds." "When I grew up I want to be an epidemiologist or a geneticist," she says. In the meantime, Rao finds joy and pride in being an inventor and is keeping busy in seventh grade. "I think that being an inventor-slash-scientist is pretty much like a superhero," she says. "What do superheroes do? They save the world. They save lives. And what do scientists do? They could potentially save the world, they could potentially save lives. So we are pretty much superheroes." Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook ! Don't miss: 5 tricks for paying for college in 2018 3 ways Bill Gates is spending billions to change the world How to answer 4 of the most common interview questions More From CNBC Power to the people Despite huge potential, Nepal fails to meet demands for electricity and turns to India for bail-out - By Tiziano Frateschi According to the GuruFocus All-In-One Screener, the following stocks have high dividend yields but performed poorly over the past 12 months. American Capital Senior Floating Ltd."s (ACSF) dividend yield is 10.78% with a payout ratio of 1.07. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock price has declined 14%. The stock is trading with a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 9.9 and a price-sales (P/S) ratio of 6.2. The closed-end investment management company has a market cap of $108 million. The company"s profitability and growth rating is 7 of 10. The return on equity (ROE) of 8.11% and the return on assets (ROA) of 4.34% are outperforming the industry and are ranked higher than 64% of competitors. Its financial strength is rated 5 of 10. The cash-debt ratio of 0.03 is underperforming 100% of competitors, and the equity-asset ratio of 0.55 is below the industry median of 0.85. Garrison Capital Inc." s (GARS) dividend yield is 13.77% with a payout ratio of 3.39. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock price has declined 16%. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 24.7 and a P/S ratio of 3.6. The closed-end investment management company has a market cap of $130.64 million. The company"s profitability and growth rating is 8 of 10. The ROE of 2.77% and ROA of 1.32% are underperforming the industry and are ranked lower than 77% of competitors. Its financial strength is rated 4 of 10. The cash-debt ratio of 0.07 is underperforming 92% of competitors. The equity-asset ratio of 0.48 is below the industry median of 0.85. 1st Constitution Bancorp"s (FCCY) dividend yield is 1.14% with a payout ratio of 0.15. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock price has fallen 8%. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 18.1 and a P/S ratio of 3.3. The commercial bank has a market cap of $147.34 million. The company"s profitability and growth rating is 5 of 10. The ROE of 7.85% and ROA of 0.80% are underperforming the industry and are ranked lower than 56% of competitors. Its financial strength is rated 4 of 10. With a cash-debt ratio of 0.19, it is underperforming 90% of competitors.The equity-asset ratio is 0.10. Story continues With 4.58% of outstanding shares, Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) is the company"s largest guru shareholder. Liberty Tax Inc."s (TAX) dividend yield is 5.47% with a payout ratio of 0.7. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock price has fallen 15%. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 13 and a P/S ratio of 1. 1271948744.png The tax preparation service has a market cap of $150.74 million. The company"s profitability and growth rating is 7 of 10. The ROE of 11.55% and ROA of 5.82% are outperforming the industry and are ranked higher than 69% of competitors. Its financial strength is rated 6 of 10. The cash-debt ratio of 0.14 is underperforming 82% of competitors. The equity-asset ratio of 0.57 is above the industry median of 0.46. The company"s largest guru shareholder is Chuck Royce (Trades, Portfolio) with 6.02% of outstanding shares. Owens Realty Mortgage Inc."s (ORM) dividend yield is 2.29% with a payout ratio of 0.31%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock price has declined 26%. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 13.1 and a P/S ratio of 10.1. 1962096250.png The real estate finance company has a market cap of $152.64 million. The company"s profitability and growth rating is 6 of 10. The ROE of 5.43% and ROA of 4.58% are outperforming the industry and are ranked higher than 77% of competitors. Its financial strength is rated 6 of 10. The cash-debt ratio of 0.82 is underperforming 71% of competitors and the equity-asset ratio of 0.87 is above the industry median of 0.53. With 1.23% of outstanding shares, Simons is the company"s largest shareholder among the gurus. First Financial Northwest Inc."s (FFNW) dividend yield is 1.73% with a payout ratio of 0.31. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock price has declined 18%. The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 18.6 and a P/S ratio of 4.2. 57395738.png The bank holding company has a market cap of $169.83 million. The company"s profitability and growth rating is 6 of 10. While the ROE of 6.35% is underperforming the sector, the ROA of 0.84% is outperforming 54% of competitors. Its financial strength is rated 4 of 10. The cash-debt ratio of 0.12 is underperforming 94% of competitors. The equity-asset ratio of 0.12 is above the industry median of 0.10. Disclosure: I do not own any stocks mentioned in this article. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. After all, who wouldnt want to find stocks that are either flying under the radar and are compelling buys, or offer up tantalizing discounts when compared to fair value? One way to find these companies is by looking at several key metrics and financial ratios, many of which are crucial in the value stock selection process. Lets put Air France-KLM SA AFLYY stock into this equation and find out if it is a good choice for value-oriented investors right now, or if investors subscribing to this methodology should look elsewhere for top picks: PE Ratio A key metric that value investors always look at is the Price to Earnings Ratio, or PE for short. This shows us how much investors are willing to pay for each dollar of earnings in a given stock, and is easily one of the most popular financial ratios in the world. The best use of the PE ratio is to compare the stocks current PE ratio with: a) where this ratio has been in the past; b) how it compares to the average for the industry/sector; and c) how it compares to the market as a whole. On this front, Air France-KLM SA has a trailing twelve months PE ratio of 13.8, as you can see in the chart below: This level actually compares pretty favorably with the market at large, as the PE for the S&P 500 compares in at about 21.9. If we focus on the stocks long-term PE trend, the current level puts Air France-KLM SAs current PE ratio way above its midpoint (which is 5.9) over the past two years. Further, the stocks PE also compares favorably with the sectors trailing twelve months PE ratio, which stands at 19.9. At the very least, this indicates that the stock is relatively undervalued right now, compared to its peers. We should also point out that Air France-KLM SA has a forward PE ratio (price relative to this years earnings) of just 6.2, so it is fair to say that a slightly more value-oriented path may be ahead for Air France-KLM SAs stock in the near term too. P/S Ratio Another key metric to note is the Price/Sales ratio. This approach compares a given stocks price to its total sales, where a lower reading is generally considered better. Some people like this metric more than other value-focused ones because it looks at sales, something that is far harder to manipulate with accounting tricks than earnings. Right now, Air France-KLM SA has a P/S ratio of about 0.2. This is significantly lower than the S&P 500 average, which comes in at 3.5 right now. Also, as we can see in the chart below, this is very close to the highs for this stock in particular over the past couple of years. Story continues If anything, Air France-KLM SA is towards the higher end of its range in the time period from a P/S metric, which suggests that the companys stock price has already appreciated to some degree, relative to its sales. Broad Value Outlook In aggregate, Air France-KLM SA currently has a Value Style Score of A, putting it into the top 20% of all stocks we cover from this look. This makes AFLYY a solid choice for value investors, and some of its other key metrics make this pretty clear too. For example, the PEG ratio for Air France-KLM SA is just 0.3, a level that is noticeably lower than the industry average of 1.7. The PEG ratio is a modified PE ratio that takes into account the stocks earnings growth rate. Additionally, its P/CF ratio (another great indicator of value) comes in at 2.2, which is slightly better than the industry average of 5.9. Clearly, AFLYY is a solid choice on the value front from multiple angles. What About the Stock Overall? Though Air France-KLM SA might be a good choice for value investors, there are plenty of other factors to consider before investing in this name. In particular, it is worth noting that the company has a Growth grade of C and a Momentum score of B. This gives AFLYY a VGM scoreor its overarching fundamental gradeof A. (You can read more about the Zacks Style Scores here >> ) Meanwhile, the companys recent earnings estimates have been encouraging. The full-year 2017 has seen two estimates go higher in the past sixty days, compared to none lower, while the full-year 2018 estimate has seen a similar trend in the same time period. This has had a favorable impact on the consensus estimate, as the full-year 2017 consensus estimate has climbed nearly 14.2% in the past two months, while the full-year 2018 estimate has risen about 1.1%. You can see the consensus estimate trend and recent price action for the stock in the chart below: Air France-KLM SA Price and Consensus Air France-KLM SA Price and Consensus | Air France-KLM SA Quote This favorable trend is why the stock has just a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and why we are looking for better performance from the company in the near term. Bottom Line Air France-KLM SA is an inspired choice for value investors, as it is hard to beat its incredible lineup of statistics on this front. Boasting a good industry rank (top 28% out of more than 250 industries) and a strong Zacks Rank, the company deserves attention right now. However, over the past one year, the sector has clearly underperformed the broader market, as you can see below: Despite positive estimate revision activity, investors should wait for industry trend to turn around first. When it does, this stock could be a compelling value pick. Wall Streets Next Amazon Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. Its a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius. Click for details >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Air France-KLM SA (AFLYY) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, donated $33 million to fund scholarships for 1,000 undocumented immigrant high school graduates to go to college. The money will go to TheDream.US, a nonprofit that has been helping send such kids, known as the dreamers, go to college. The group is already funding scholarships for almost 3,000 kids currently in college, with backing from the foundations of other techies, including Bill and Melinda Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, and Pierre and Pam Omidyar. Bezos said his father immigrated to the United States at age 16 from Cuba. He landed in this country alone and unable to speak English, Bezos said in a statement. With a lot of grit and determinationand the help of some remarkable organizations in Delawaremy dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways. MacKenzie and I are honored to be able to help todays Dreamers by funding these scholarships. Dreamers, who were typically brought into the country as young children, are not eligible for federal grants and loans or state aid in 44 states. The group has become a political cause, after President Trump last year rescinded a 2012 order by President Obama allowing immigrants who entered as minors to avoid deportation and obtain work permits. Trump and lawmakers in Congress are discussing a deal to revive the arrangement as part of a broader immigration reform. Get Data Sheet, Fortunes technology newsletter. Unlike former Microsoft msft head Bill Gates, Bezos has not yet decided how to give away the bulk of his vast fortune. Bezos passed Gates to become the richest person in the world last year. Last June, Bezos tweeted that he was looking for suggestions for his charitable giving. Im thinking I want much of my philanthropic activity to be helping people in the here and nowshort termat the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact, the Amazon amzn CEO wrote. Ameren Corporation AEE subsidiary Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois (ATXI) recently received approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission (MoPSC) to proceed with the construction of the Mark Twain Transmission Project. The approval followed ATXIs receipt of the certificate of convenience and necessity (CCN) from the MoPSC. Details of the Project The transmission project is a 100-mile, 345,000-volt transmission line and substation, which will run from Palmyra to Kirksville in Missouri and north to the Iowa border. Per Ameren management, once completed, this project will accomplish a critical link in the region's energy infrastructure. The project is also expected to deliver greater energy reliability, economic growth and better access to clean energy sources to the residents of Missouri. The route will run through the Adair, Knox, Lewis, Marion and Schuyler counties of Missouri and will include the construction of the Zachary Substation adjacent to the Adair Substation in Adair. The route will co-locate on Northeast Missouri Electric Power Cooperatives 161,000-volt line between Palmyra and Kirksville and Ameren Missouri's 161,000-volt line from Kirksville to the Iowa border. Construction of the project, worth $250 million, is expected to begin in April 2018 with a targeted in-service date of December 2019. The company plans to work with Northeast Power, landowners, county commissioners and various local and state agencies on the project. About the Mark Twain Project The Mark Twain project is a MISO-approved transmission line to be built in Northeast Missouri. In the third quarter of 2017, ATXI finalized an alternative project route and reached agreements with a cooperative electric company in Northeast Missouri and Ameren Missouri to locate nearly the entire Mark Twain project on existing transmission line corridors. It also received consent for road crossings from five affected counties in Northeast Missouri. In September 2017, ATXI filed for the certificate of CCN with the MoPSC and anticipated a decision from the MoPSC in the first half of 2018. The recent approval was in line with the companys expectation. Our View Ameren follows a systematic investment strategy, primarily for growth projects and infrastructure upgrades. This strategy has helped the company provide reliable services and maintain a dependable and safe transmission system which will help meet rising demand. The companys current long-term capital-expenditure plan worth $11.2 billion comprises up to $0.6 billion of investment in ATXI. These investments will support its overall system reliability, environmental compliance and electric and natural gas utility infrastructure improvements. Missouri, being the national transportation hub for rail, river, road, and air shipments in the United States, has energy consumption per capita at the national median. Naturally, energy demand is high in the state that offers solid opportunities to companies like Ameren. Toward this end, the Mark Twain project approval will help the company deliver more reliable electricity in various regions of the state as well as cost-effective energy savings beyond new efficiency standards. This in turn will attract more customers, subsequently allowing Ameren to expand its revenue margin. Price Movement Amerens stock has moved up about 8.1% in a year, compared with the broader industrys gain of 2.6%. The modernized approach and focus on increasing customer reliability might have led to the outperformance. Story continues Zacks Rank & Key Picks Ameren carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). A few better-ranked stocks from the same space are Pampa Energia S.A. PAM, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Atlantic Power Corporation AT and DTE Energy Company DTE, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Pampa Energia posted an average positive earnings surprise of 585.71% over the last four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings moved up 62 cents over the past 60 days. Atlantic Power posted an average positive earnings surprise of 29.21% in the past four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for loss narrowed by 10 cents for 2018 over the last 90 days. DTE Energy has an average positive earnings surprise of 3.81% for the last four quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings has risen by 5 cents in the last 90 days. Zacks Editor-in-Chief Goes "All In" on This Stock Full disclosure, Kevin Matras now has more of his own money in one particular stock than in any other. He believes in its short-term profit potential and also in its prospects to more than double by 2019. Today he reveals and explains his surprising move in a new Special Report. Download it free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Ameren Corporation (AEE) : Free Stock Analysis Report DTE Energy Company (DTE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Pampa Energia S.A. (PAM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Atlantic Power Corporation (AT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. - By Alberto Abaterusso B2Gold Corp. (BTG) is a miner to watch in 2018. The company is forecasting an average consolidated gold production of 930,000 ounces for 2018. Compared to 2017, this represents a 47.5% transformational growth, which is supported by the entry of the Fekola mine in Mali. Thanks to the Malian asset, the 2017 gold production exceeded the guidance limit that was established by the company during the year. The expectation was that the asset would produce between 580,000 ounces and 625,000 ounces of gold.In 2017, B2Gold Corp. produced 630,565 ounces of gold, a 14.6% increase from 2016. The chart below illustrates B2Gold Corp.'s annual gold production over the last five years. B2Gold Corp. runs five mines. Fekola mine generated 17.7% of the company's total production of gold, Masbate (the Philippines) 32.1%, Otjikoto (Namibia) 30.4%, La Libertad (Nicaragua) 13% and El Limon (Nicaragua) 6.8%. In addition, the company also released revenue figures for 2017 and informed the market about its expectations on costs for 2017 and 2018. Consolidated revenue came in at $739.5 million in 2017, an 8.2% increase from 2016. The chart below offers readers a picture of B2Gold Corp.'s yearly revenues over the last five fiscal years. Cash-operating costs and all-in sustaining costs for full fiscal 2017 are expected not to exceed $610 per ounce and $940 per ounce of metal sold. For fiscal 2018, B2Gold Corp. estimates cash-operating costs of $505 to $550 per ounce and all-in sustaining costs of $780 to $830 per ounce of metal sold. The company plans to invest about $52.4 million in exploration activities with a special focus on those in Nicaragua and West Africa. B2Gold Corp is trading at $2.94 per share on the New York Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of $2.824 billion. The price-book (P/B) ratio is 1.85 versus an industry median of 2.01 and the EV-to-EBITDA ratio is 15.47 versus an industry median of 10.14. B2Gold Corp has an EBITDA margin of 33.5% while the industry has a margin of 22.8%. Story continues For the 52 weeks through Jan. 11, the stock gained 7.30% and outperformed the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) by nearly 4%: Source: Yahoo Finance B2Gold Corp has a 52-week range of $2.15 to 3.55. The stock is currently above the 50, 100 and 200-SMA lines: With a RSI (14) of almost 54, it looks like the stock has yet reached neither overbought nor oversold levels. The recommendation rating is 1.5 out of 5. Only one analyst has produced its target price on B2Gold Corp to date, which is $3.50. This means that this analyst foresees a 19% appreciation of the stock before Jan 2019. Among B2Gold Corp's top institutional holders, FMR, LLC stands out with 14.47% of shares outstanding and Van Eck Associates Corporation with 11.18% as of Sept. 29. The company is reporting 979.17 million shares outstanding. (Disclosure:I have no positions in B2Gold Corp.) This article first appeared on GuruFocus. 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. Related Articles BlackRock chief Larry Fink told CNBC on Friday that most people saving for retirement should have the bulk of their portfolios in stocks rather than bonds. Investors even as old as 50 should mostly be in the stock market, he said. That advice runs counter to conventional asset allocation wisdom that long-term investors should have a portion of their portfolios in bonds. Even with stocks at around record highs, people who buy into the market now will do better in equities than bonds over time, Fink said. BlackRock is still "quiet bullish" on equities at these levels, he added. Those comments about stocks versus bonds echo what billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC earlier this week. The Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) chairman and CEO reiterated what he's said for years: Don't buy bonds, stock are the way to go. Despite that advice, investors did indeed pour into bonds in the latest quarter, Fink said. He believes that's happening because people are not good at market timing and therefore seek the safety of bonds. Fink, BlackRock's chairman and CEO, also said the Republican tax overhaul law is largely going to help Americans , and should add about 1 percent annually to economic growth, at least in the first few years. Meanwhile, the U.S. corporate tax cut is a problem for Mexico because the rate is now lower in America, Fink said. Companies that had domiciled in Mexico for tax reasons are going to make their new tax homes in the U.S., he predicts. He appeared Friday on "Squawk Box" shortly after BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue. Total assets under management stand at nearly $6.3 trillion, slightly ahead of estimates. Disclaimer More From CNBC If you are a shareholder in Cenovus Energy Incs (TSX:CVE), or are thinking about investing in the company, knowing how it contributes to the risk and reward profile of your portfolio is important. Every stock in the market is exposed to market risk, which arises from macroeconomic factors such as economic growth and geo-political tussles just to name a few. This is measured by its beta. Not all stocks are expose to the same level of market risk, and the market as a whole represents a beta value of one. A stock with a beta greater than one is considered more sensitive to market-wide shocks compared to a stock that trades below the value of one. View our latest analysis for Cenovus Energy An interpretation of CVEs beta Cenovus Energys five-year beta of 1.5 means that the companys value will swing up by more than the market during prosperous times, but also drop down by more in times of downturns. This level of volatility indicates bigger risk for investors who passively invest in the stock market index. According to this value of beta, CVE can help magnify your portfolio return, especially if it is predominantly made up of low-beta stocks. If the market is going up, a higher exposure to the upside from a high-beta stock can push up your portfolio return. How does CVEs size and industry impact its risk? CVE has a market capitalization of CAD CA$15.89B, putting it in the category of established companies, which are found to experience less relative risk compared to small-sized companies. Conversely, the company operates in the oil and gas industry, which has been found to have high sensitivity to market-wide shocks. Therefore, investors can expect a low beta associated with the size of CVE, but a higher beta given the nature of the industry it operates in. This is an interesting conclusion, since its size suggests CVE should be less volatile than it actually is. A potential driver of this variance can be a fundamental factor, which we will take a look at next. Story continues TSX:CVE Income Statement Jan 11th 18 Can CVEs asset-composition point to a higher beta? An asset-heavy company tends to have a higher beta because the risk associated with running fixed assets during a downturn is highly expensive. I examine CVEs ratio of fixed assets to total assets to see whether the company is highly exposed to the risk of this type of constraint. Given a fixed to total assets ratio of over 30%, CVE seems to be a company which invests a big chunk of its capital on assets that cannot be scaled down on short-notice. As a result, this aspect of CVE indicates a higher beta than a similar size company with a lower portion of fixed assets on their balance sheet. This is consistent with is current beta value which also indicates high volatility. What this means for you: Are you a shareholder? You may reap the gains of CVEs returns in times of an economic boom. Though the business does have higher fixed cost than what is considered safe, during times of growth, consumer demand may be high enough to not warrant immediate concerns. However, during a downturn, a more defensive stock can cushion the impact of this risk. For more company-specific research on CVE, check out our our free analysis plaform here. Are you a potential investor? Before you buy CVE, you should factor how your portfolio currently moves with the wider market, and where we are in the economic cycle. This stock could be an outperformer during times of growth, and it may be worth taking a deeper dive into the fundamentals to crystalize your thoughts on CVE. You can examine these factors in our free fundamental research report for CVE here. To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements. The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. RJPN bats for Dahal as country's next PM Rastriya Janata Party Nepal has said CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal should lead the next government. US hotel group Marriott has angered a Taiwan frnachise hotel for caving to pressure from the Beijing government (AFP Photo/-) (AFP/File) Shanghai (AFP) - Authorities in China have shut down Marriott's local website for a week and scolded Delta, Zara and a US medical firm Friday for listing Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong as separate countries. Alongside Marriott, the Spanish clothing giant Zara, Delta Air Lines and Medtronic -- a medical device company -- were all called out by Chinese authorities for "illegal" classification of regions that Beijing claims under its authority. Shanghai's cyberspace authority late Thursday ordered Marriott to close its Chinese website and app for a week and completely clear out illegal and irregular information, according to a government statement. The same authority said in a statement Friday that the websites for Zara and Medtronic had included Taiwan and "Republic of China (Taiwan)", respectively, in their country lists. The companies were urged to "immediately alter their illegal content and publish apologies." Separately, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) noted in an online statement that Tibet and Taiwan were listed as countries on Delta's official website. The airline has been instructed to "immediately rectify the situation" and "publicly apologise", CAAC said. Marriott's Chinese website now shows a message with an apology. "We never support any separatist organisation that damages China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," it says. "We apologise profoundly for any behaviour that will cause misunderstanding about the above stance." - 'Respect sovereignty' - In a customer questionnaire in Mandarin, Marriott 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. It triggered an uproar on Chinese social media as Tibet is an "autonomous region" firmly under Chinese control since the 1950s. Hong Kong and Macau are former British and Portuguese colonies, respectively, that are now "special administrative regions" of China. Story continues Taiwan has been self-ruled since splitting from the mainland after a 1949 civil war, but Beijing continues to claim sovereignty over the island. Shanghai authorities are probing whether the gaffe in the Marriott questionnaire violated national cyber-security and advertising laws. "We welcome foreign companies to invest and operate in China, but in the meantime they should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, respect our laws and regulations, as well as the feelings of the Chinese people," foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a regular press briefing. "I think this is the basic principle for foreign countries to conduct operations and investment in other countries." While Marriott apologised, public anger further escalated after the official Twitter account of Marriott Rewards liked a tweet from "Friends of Tibet", an India-based group that supports Tibetan independence and congratulated the hotel chain for listing Tibet as a country. Marriott president and chief executive Arne Sorenson soon issued a lengthy apology letter, which described the like as "careless". "Marriott International respects and supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China. Unfortunately, twice this week, we had incidents that suggested the opposite," said Sorenson. "Upon completion of a full investigation into how both incidents happened, we will be taking the necessary disciplinary action with respect to the individuals involved, which could include termination." FILE PHOTO: Delta planes line up at their gates while on the tarmac of Salt Lake City International Airport in Utah September 28, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines apologized on Friday and said it recognized the seriousness of the issue after it was criticized by the Chinese aviation regulator for listing Taiwan and Tibet as countries on its website. The Civil Aviation Administration of China earlier in the day posted a statement on its website demanding the U.S. carrier to issue an "immediate and public" apology and to investigate how the issue occurred. "Delta recognizes the seriousness of this issue and we took immediate steps to resolve it," the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "It was an inadvertent error with no business or political intention, and we apologize deeply for the mistake. As one of our most important markets, we are fully committed to China and to our Chinese customers." (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) 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 (Exchange: BTC=) and ethereum (Exchange: ETH=) . "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 (NASDAQ: CME) and Cboe Global Markets (NASDAQ: CBOE) 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 . Disclaimer 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 (Exchange: BTC=) and ethereum (Exchange: ETH=) . "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 (NASDAQ: CME) and Cboe Global Markets (NASDAQ: CBOE) 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 . Disclaimer More From CNBC FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its office building in Seoul, South Korea South Korea, October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo PARIS (Reuters) - Two French rights groups said on Thursday they had filed a complaint against South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd over alleged deceptive marketing practices. The two non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Sherpa and ActionAid-Peuples solidaires, said Samsung Electronics had violated the fundamental rights of its employees in factories located in China and South Korea, contradicting commitments it had made, which it had used as a marketing tool. The complaint was filed with the Paris prosecutor against both the group and its French subsidiary Samsung Electronics France (SEF). A spokeswoman for SEF did not respond to a call and written request seeking comment. Samsung Electronics says on its website it abides by local laws and rules and that it applies a strict code of conduct. The world's biggest maker of semiconductors, televisions and smartphones says that it "will respect the basic human rights of all employees" and it "will not employ underage persons". It also says it will respect local laws to safeguard the health of employees. The complaint follows the adoption of a so-called "corporate duty vigilance law" in France last year, under which multinational companies that sell their products in France must respect human rights and the environment wherever they operate. "We're asking the judiciary authority to sanction this unacceptable gap between these ethical commitments and the reality as observed in the factories by local NGOs," Sherpa said in a statement. After reviewing the complaint, the Paris prosecutor will decide whether to open a preliminary investigation or close the case. Sherpa became renowned in France after a legal action against cement group LafargeHolcim for having allegedly paid armed groups including Islamic State militants to keep operating in Syria from 2011-2015. (Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Emmanuel Jarry, editing by David Evans) the dark knight joker Warner Bros. A trader just rolled over a massive volatility bet that could pay out $262.5 million if all goes according to plan. The wager is on a large increase in the CBOE Volatility Index, which serves as the stock market's fear gauge, and has been suppressed for most of the past year. 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. image008 Pravit Chintawongvanich / Macro Risk Advisors 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 and investors continue to pile into the short-volatility trade, which has evolved into one of the market's most crowded positions. Let's unpack the 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. Bullish call spreads are used when a moderate rise in the underlying asset is expected. Traders buy call options at a specific strike price while selling the same number of calls of the same asset and expiration date at a higher strike. In a perfect scenario, in which the VIX hits but doesn't exceed 25 before the February expiration, the trader would see a $262.5 million payout. It is possible for the VIX to spike too much. If it increased beyond 35, the investor would start to lose money since the person used a call spread, even though the direction of the trade was correct. For context, VIX February futures are trading at 11.53, while the spot traded at 9.72 as of 11:58 a.m. on Thursday. All data is from Bloomberg and was reviewed by a person familiar with the trade. Story continues 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. At this point, there's no telling if the VIX Elephant will eventually throw in the towel, especially if they're using this massive trade as a hedge. If the fear gauge doesn't make the person money this time around, odds are they'll just roll over once again. Stay tuned. NOW WATCH: PAUL KRUGMAN: Bitcoin is a more obvious bubble than housing was See Also: SEE ALSO: A stock trade that crushed the market last year could come crashing back to earth [caption id="attachment_4771" align="alignnone" width="558"] U.S. Capitol. Credit: Mike Scarcella/ NLJ [/caption] In the run-up to the most sweeping tax overhaul in a generation, big banks turned to a veteran tax partner in New York: James Duncan. Duncan, a tax partner in Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, was hired in November by Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. to advise on the tax bill Congress passed in December.Duncan's role was revealed in federal lobbying disclosures made public this week.Duncans long been a lobbying advocate for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade group whose membership includes the four banks. The association first hired him in late 2008 for dealings with the Treasury Department, according to lobbying disclosures.Cleary Gottlieb's lobbying for the securities association dates to 1999. Since that year, the trade group has paid Cleary Gottlieb nearly $2.5 million for lobbying work, the lobbying disclosures show.Duncan joined Cleary Gottlieb in 1979 and became a partner in 1988. A proficient French speaker, he was based in the London office from 1992 to 2007. He was on the team that advised SAB on its acquisition of Miller Brewing Co. Duncan reportedly billed at $1,020 an hour, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal in 2011. He did not immediately return a call seeking comment.Other Cleary Gottlieb lobbying clients have included the Institute of International Bankers, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico. In the tax fight, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs also turned to Capitol Tax Partners and Bank of America had Smith-Free Group on its side.Heres a snapshot of some of what Duncan's said recently about tax reform.The need was there.In a 2015 alert memorandum concerning the Obama administration's tax proposals, Duncan said the U.S. tax rules for multinational businesses were in need of a comprehensive overhaul.There is a risk of being left behind (and of competitive disadvantages for U.S. businesses) if other countries reform their rules and the United States doesnt," Duncan wrote. "But even in the presence of a broad consensus that change is necessary, the process of getting from here to there will likely be torturous.Dont get carried away with grand predictions.During a Cleary Gottlieb webinar on Dec. 20, Duncan began his remarks with a word of caution: One phenomenon that I would like to avoid is we have to remember that taxes are not the center of the universe, he said.Businesses are structured the way they are for a variety of corporate finance, commercial and regulatory reasons. Taxes influence things at the margins, but the fact that the system has changed doesnt necessarily tell you anything about how people respond to it, he said.Make America, or at least Ohio, great again? Not so fast.Duncan said trillions of dollars in U.S. company assets are parked overseas. Under the new tax system, will they soon be repatriated? Maybe in some cases, but dont expect a flood of money coming over the border, he said.Its a mistake to think that, the instant after tax reform, all or a sizable portion of that money will be brought back and used to build factories in Akron [,Ohio,] and Youngstown [,Ohio,] and make Ohio great again, Duncan said on the webinar last month. Businesses will do what they do. Some companies with lots of excess liquidity outside the United States will bring it home. Some companies will redeploy it to do other things. Some companies will repay their indebtedness.Its not over yet.Congress took on tax reform with a single, massive billand no one is under the impression that its perfect. Indeed, its widely understood that legislative tweaks and guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department will be necessary. With that comes uncertainty.With respect to the prospect of changes, some issues are subject to interpretation by the Treasury Department. And I think the Treasury, generally, is expected to be a force for good in trying to make the rules work and come out with guidance about areas where the rules arent clear," Duncan said during the December panel discussion. "Some problems will need to be fixed by legislation, and the question that nobody knows the answer to is how quickly will Congress get around to doing it, Duncan said during the December panel discussion. Will they be able to function effect to fix clear problems? How quickly will they proceed?"So how should companies respond?You have to think not only about the bill in the form its in today but how it will be interpreted, how it is likely to be fixed, what you do in the near term versus what you do in the longer term, Duncan said in December.Read more:Inside Track: Will New Tax Law Wipe Out GC Bonuses?Brew a Pot of Coffee, This Big Law Tax Attorney Is Burning the Midnight OilCuomo's Plan to Sue Feds Over Tax Bill Faces Big HurdlesTrump Tax Plan Offers Overdue Relief for All Taxpayers Mercedes-Benz has unveiled its new Mercedes-Benz User Experience multimedia system at CES, an artificial intelligence-enabled infotainment system that blends a newly designed touchscreen with augmented-reality navigation, voice activation and a new three-word address navigation system. Dubbed MBUX, it will enter production this spring with the A-Class compact car. On Wednesday, parent company Daimler AG said it's expanding its involvement with navigation startup what3words by acquiring a roughly 10 percent stake in the company. The London-based startup has divided the entire world into 57 trillion yes, trillion squares of 3 meters by 3 meters and allocated a unique three-word address to each one. Its software allows users to enter, via text or voice command, a destination using three words, such as "down.salad.hunter" or "silk.mural.goodness," both of which were borrowed from the company's website. It might sound strange to us Yanks, who enjoy a pretty comprehensive, functioning numerical address system. But the company says its solution makes it easier for non-technical people to discover and understand an address than via postal codes, which aren't always developed in rural areas or rapidly-developing parts of the world, or via GPS coordinates. It also helps you track down places without addresses, such as parks or places where you're waiting for a cab er, we mean Lyft. Its system is now available in 14 languages. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } The MBUX system features three-dimensional digital displays, a touchscreen that resembles an elongated iPhone turned horizontally, voice control and over-the-air updates. According to Business Insider, the system will give users the option of viewing menus in two or three dimensions, and it'll present the option of using a graphic representation of the car to change settings in addition to offering text menus. The voice recognition system, activated by either a button on the steering wheel or by invoking the key phrase "Hey Mercedes," has been designed to pick up conversational speech patterns and even slang, so that drivers can talk to their vehicles like they might talk to their friends. So for example, Mercedes says the question "Will the sun be shining tomorrow in Miami?" will be interpreted by the system as "Do I need sunglasses tomorrow in Miami?" It's also packed with AI to learn from the user's habits and use them to make predictions, such as playing a music playlist or which places you're likely to visit. Story continues Navigation features are also enriched with new augmented reality features. Video images of the surroundings from a front camera are augmented with helpful information like arrows or house numbers superimposed on the touchscreen to help drivers find addresses. Mercedes says its new A-Class has more interior space than its predecessor and represents a more youthful brand image to reflect the younger average age of European drivers buying the vehicle. The company is reportedly bringing an A-Class sedan stateside this year with a base price under $30,000. We've reached out to Daimler for confirmation and to see whether U.S. models would feature MBUX, and will update this if we hear back. Related Video: Mercedes' new 3D infotainment has AI, will take you to three-word destinations originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Jan 2018 13:30:00 EST. South Asian Handicraft festival kicks off Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) Nepal is set to kick off the South Asian Festival on Handicrafts in Kathmandu from Friday. By Amanda Becker INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - More than 200 workers clocked in for their final shifts on Thursday at Carrier Corp. in Indianapolis in the latest round of layoffs at a plant President Donald Trump toured in December 2016 to trumpet a deal to save jobs and prevent its closure. Under pressure from the newly-elected Trump, Carrier and its parent company United Technologies Corp, dropped its plan in late 2016 to close the plant and move 1,400 factory jobs to Mexico. In return, the company received $7 million in state tax breaks to stay in Indiana. Trump praised the deal, under which he said 1,100 jobs would be saved, as a model of how he would push American companies to keep jobs in the country. Trump did save hundreds of positions at Carrier, but manufacturing workers who now face unemployment say they feel let down by a deal that started out as a presidential campaign rallying cry but turned out to be less than it appeared. Carrier said this week that 1,100 workers will remain at the factory, upholding its deal with Trump. They include 730 manufacturing jobs and about 300 engineering and administrative positions that were never slated to move. But Carrier also laid off 338 manufacturing workers in July and another 215 this week. Those jobs are going to the company's plant in Monterrey, Mexico, where workers make about $3 an hour, according to Indiana union officials. "Yes he (Trump) saved jobs, yes he did. But he didn't save mine, he didn't save manufacturing jobs. He saved office personnel, okay?" said Renee Elliott, 45, who supported Trump in the 2016 election and was among those being laid off on Thursday. Elliott began working at Carrier in 2013 as a seasonal employee making $13 per hour. She currently makes $18 per hour, taking advantage of overtime shifts, and sometimes works seven days a week. DISAPPOINTED BY DEAL She does not know what she will do next and said she is disappointed that Trump did not make a better deal for factory-floor workers. Story continues During his visit, Trump strode through the furnace factory, with TV cameras rolling, and shook hands with workers, telling them the deal with the company was "very exciting." "Companies are not going to leave the United States any more without consequences. Not going to happen," Trump said. Elliott said Trump's visit raised hopes among the entire workforce but it became clear later that some workers would lose their jobs anyway. "It was like royalty coming here, we knew the world was watching," Elliott said. "He's walking through and we're in awe, like 'Savior!'. That's the way we're looking at it. He led us to believe that we were all going to be saved." The White House said Trump's intervention in the case of Carrier was successful. "The President was proud that he was able to help save the jobs of 1,100 Americans from being shipped to Mexico by overseeing a deal between United Technologies and the state of Indiana," White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement on Thursday. The U.S. economy is growing steadily, unemployment is low at 4.1 percent and wages have started to rise. About 2.1 million new jobs were created in 2017 and 2.24 million in 2016 as one of the longest economic recoveries on record has pulled people back into the labor force. Trump had repeatedly criticized Carrier during the presidential campaign as he pledged to rip up bad trade deals and save American jobs. And he put pressure on the company to change course after his election victory in November 2016. Carrier workers now question why their factory, which will continue making furnaces after fan coil operations move to Monterrey, was singled out by Trump when hundreds of steelworkers in Indiana are in a similar predicament. United Technologies Electronic Controls, another United Technologies facility two hours away in Huntington, Indiana, is closing in 2018, also sending its operations to Monterrey. About 400 workers were laid off in 2017 and another 230 will be this year, a company spokeswoman said. Rexnord Corp., just down the road from Carrier, closed in November, laying off 300 workers represented by the same local steelworkers union as the Carrier employees. Trump wrote on Twitter shortly after touring Carrier that Rexnord, which also relocated operations to Mexico, was "rather viciously firing" its workers. "This is happening all over our country. No more!" Trump wrote. "Don't get me wrong, me and the people here that work for Carrier are very grateful for it but when he was running during the election he stated that these things wouldn't happen anymore," said Robert James, president of the local United Steelworkers union. "How do you save 730 jobs at Carrier and not give a damn about the 700 jobs in Huntington? Both owned by the same company. Why would you leave them out of the equation?" James asked. Indiana's unemployment rate was 3.7 percent in November 2017, lower than the national rate of 4.1 percent. But the U.S. steel industry, in particular, has struggled over the past decade. Chuck Jones, the former president of the local United Steelworkers union, said that while some laid-off Rexnord and Carrier workers have been able to find comparable union jobs, others are in warehouse jobs paying about half the $25 per hour they used to make. (Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Alistair Bell) Sams Club, the membership-only warehouse stores owned by Walmart, confirmed on Thursday that it is closing locations across the country. After a thorough review of our existing portfolio, weve decided to close a series of clubs and better align our locations with our strategy, Sams Clubs said on Twitter. Closing clubs is never easy and were committed to working with impacted members and associates through this transition. On Thursday morning, multiple local news outlets reported the abrupt shuttering of local stores including in Texas, Georgia, Washington, New York, Indiana, New Jersey, Alaska, Ohio, and Louisiana. Walmart confirmed to Business Insider that 63 U.S. stores will be closed in total. Some employees in Houston told local news station KHOU 11 News that they didnt know about a closure until they showed up for work that day. A Sams Club spokeswoman Anne Hatfield spoke to WBRZ 2 in Baton Rouge about the closure of the Cortana store, calling the decision very complex. Its supply and demand, Hatfield told the local news station. The news came as Walmart announced it was raising wages for employees from $9 to $11 per hour, expanded maternity and parental-leave benefits, and offered employees a one-time cash bonus of up to $1,000. The changes will kick in February and are expected to impact 1 million U.S. employees. 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, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. However, some guiding themes are clear and consistent with how weve been investinglower prices for customers, better wages and training for associates and investments in the future of our company, including in technology. Fortune contacted Sams Club for more information and will update as needed. [caption id="attachment_5652" align="alignnone" width="2127"] Sophie Gelbert, Group General Counsel of Air France.[/caption] SINCE JANUARY 2014, SOPHIE GELBERT HAS SERVED AS GENERAL counsel and secretary of the board for Air France, one of the largest airlines in Europe. As a result of a 2004 merger with the Dutch airline KLM, Air France became part of the Air France Group. The group operates the leading long-haul network on departures from Europe. In 2016, its network carried 93.4 million passengers, Gelbert notes. Air Frances headquarters are at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris. LEGAL TEAM: Gelbert says she manages a team of 38 employees, including 22 lawyers, in different domains of expertise: transport, distribution, consumers and intellectual property, corporate, contracts and international projects, cargo and maintenance. Most of the team works in the Air France headquarters, but lawyers dedicated to maintenance or IT activities work near Orly Airport. In order to ensure a consistent position to the Air France-KLM Group, the whole team works closely with its KLM counterpart on all joint files in all domains, as well as on elaborating good practices and recommendations, Gelbert says. OUTSIDE COUNSEL: Gelbert notes that Air France uses external law firms or advisers on some issues if the team does not have that particular expertise or as a complement to the teams expertise. The firms used range from large to small in size. DAILY DUTIES: Gelbert says her daily duties are divided between the different components of her job. For example, as secretary of the board she monitors the board activities and assists its chairman. I am personally in charge of the companys most significant, sensitive files or litigation, she says. But foremost, she is involved in all that is implied in being a team manager, such as maintaining and promoting skills and abilities in a complex and sometime difficult environment. She must have a clear vision of the companys goals and policy as well as an understanding of its economic, technical environment to be able to generate solutions. ROUTE TO THE TOP: After receiving her law degree from Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne University in 1984, Gelbert worked for Coface, a credit insurer operating globally, in the aeronautical and naval sectors. From 1991 to 2010, she worked for Thomson-CSF/Thales, first as an in-house lawyer and then, beginning in 1995, as general counsel in charge of antitrust and regulatory matters worldwide. She joined Air France in March 2010 as deputy general counsel. PERSONAL: Now in her late 50s, Gelbert is married and has two sons, ages 19 and 17. Whenever possible, we dash to Brittany to relax on the sea shore, walk, she says, noting that she also loves to cook, read, watch a good movie and travel all around the world. LAST BOOK READ: All the Light We Cannot See, a novel by Anthony Doerr. WHAT KEEPS HER UP AT NIGHT: Gelbert lists her main concerns as anticipating and integrating risks, protecting the companys reputation, finding innovative solutions and dealing with the unexpected. PRIORITIES: Gelbert says her main priority is to ensure that the companys development is in all aspects legal and respectful of law. But also as partners in the business, she wants members of the legal team to be as helpful, precise and innovative as possible in finding solutions. Her role and duty, according to Gelbert, are to protect the company in its strategy, as well as all in its activities and reputation. She also wants to develop a vision of compliance that facilitates top-level strategies and decision-making and makes everybody understand that compliance is more than an additional constraint, but a key tool for competitiveness. Gelbert says that what she likes best about her job and what keeps her going daily is to ensure that her teams legal expertise is a trustworthy ally for the company in its minor or major achievements and in its projects of large or smaller scale. We are part of Air France DNA and most proud of it, she says. Bitcoin is on the slide and the rest of the cryptomarkets are following. The threat of government and regulatory oversight has gripped the market and things could deteriorate rapidly if there is a coordinated effort in the coming days. Following news hitting the cryptocurrency markets on Thursday morning of the South Korean government looking to ban cryptocurrency trading and shut down the exchanges, the cryptomarket went into sell-off mode. The market response was somewhat surprising when considering the implications, South Korean cryptocurrency holders needing to sell their coins in a worse-case scenario or at best, deal with the uncertainty of a possible clamp down on being able to trade on exchanges beyond South Koreas borders a major issue. Bitcoin slumped to a low of $12,000 in the early part of the day on Thursday, which was not far off Thursdays $13,057.48 close. Theres likely to be some debate over the governments handling of the situation, with the government distancing itself from the Ministry of Justice that had released the statement on introducing legislation to bring to an end cryptocurrency trading. Interestingly, there had been reports of a petition being signed calling for the resignation of the head of the Ministry of Justice in response to its statement. Whether the Ministry of Strategy and Finance flinched at the prospect of voter backlash will never be known, but one thing comes to light from the events of yesterday and this morning. While governments and central banks will have some influence on the availability and performance of cryptocurrencies, voters will certainly make their voice heard. South Koreans have been known to hit the streets in protest and a backlash over such a ban would have certainly been an embarrassing one for the government, particularly when considering the size of the cryptomarkets today. Through early part of the day today, the recovery has not been as spectacular for Bitcoin as for some of the other cryptocurrencies on offer. The less than impressive gains this morning will likely be down to two key reasons: Bitcoin trading volumes are less concentrated than other cryptocurrencies, with the threat of a South Korean ban on trading and the shutting down of exchanges in South Korea having less of an impact on Bitcoin demand and therefore price. Investors will have gone elsewhere in the early part of today in search of the more sensitive cryptocurrencies, which would have been a simple task. The cryptocurrencies that tanked the most on the South Korean news would have also most likely seen the biggest upside in the event of a U-turn, which would have also eased appetite for Bitcoin and the Bitcoin clan. Story continues Bitcoin has gained just 3.32% to $13,683.1 at the time of writing and, as has been the case since mid-December, the Futures market may well be to blame, with the January Cboe Bitcoin futures contract rising by just $360 to $13,680 at the time of writing. It will be interesting to see how Bitcoin moves through the weekend, once the futures markets are closed, with Bitcoin currently sitting well below the start of the week $16,300 high. Get Into Cryptocurrency Trading Today So, looking through the cryptomarket this morning, there have been some impressive returns for investors dipping their toes back into the market. At the top end of the market cap table, Ripple has rallied 6.86% to 2.066 at the time of writing, recovering from a Thursday $1.514 low. Going down the table, Stellars Lumen has been far more impressive, surging 21.6% through the early part of the day, with NXT and Binances BNB also impressing, with gains of 13.6% and 10.51% respectively. While there have been some impressive gains, particularly amongst the more recently launched coins, a little more damage has been done to the cryptomarket and its image, with the fact that governments and central banks are able to have such an influence on the broader market being of particular concern. Time will tell whether Bitcoin investors will regain the confidence to drive Bitcoin back towards $20,000, with the recent trends certainly suggesting that forecasts of $40,000 by the end of the year may have been a little too optimistic. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: A small toy figure is seen on representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency in this illustration picture, December 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration By Cynthia Kim and Dahee Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's government said on Thursday it plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, sending bitcoin prices plummeting and throwing the virtual coin market into turmoil as the nation's police and tax authorities raided local exchanges on alleged tax evasion. The clampdown in South Korea, a crucial source of global demand for cryptocurrency, came as policymakers around the world struggled to regulate an asset whose value has skyrocketed over the last year. Justice minister Park Sang-ki said the government was preparing a bill to ban trading of the virtual currency on domestic exchanges. "There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and the justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges," Park told a news conference, according to the ministry's press office. After the market's sharp reaction to the announcement, the nation's Presidential office hours later said a ban on the country's virtual coin exchanges had not yet been finalised while it was one of the measures being considered. A press official at the justice ministry 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. 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. The government's tough stance triggered a selloff of the cryptocurrency on both local and offshore exchanges. The local price of bitcoin plunged as much as 21 percent in midday trade to 18.3 million won ($17,064.53) after the minister's comments. It still trades at around a 30 percent premium compared to other countries. Bitcoin was down more than 10 percent on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp at $13,199, after earlier dropping as low as $13,120, its weakest since Jan. 2. Story continues South Korea's cryptocurrency-related shares were also hammered. Vidente and Omnitel, which are stakeholders of Bithumb, skidded by the daily trading limit of 30 percent each. Once enforced, South Korea's ban "will make trading difficult here, but not impossible," said Mun Chong-hyun, chief analyst at EST Security. "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," Mun said. 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 cryptocurency in South Korea, drawing college students to housewives and sparking worries of a gambling addiction. "Some officials are pushing for stronger and stronger regulations because they only see more (investors) jumping in, not out," Park said. By Thursday afternoon, the Justice Ministry's announcement had prompted more than 55,000 South Koreans to join a petition asking the presidential Blue House to halt the crackdown on the virtual currency, making the Blue House website intermittently unavailable due to heavy traffic, the website showed. REGULATORY CONUNDRUM There are more than a dozen cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, according to Korea Blockchain Industry Association. The proliferation of the virtual currency and the accompanying trading frenzy have raised eyebrows among regulators globally, though many central banks have refrained from supervising cryptocurrencies themselves. The news of South Korea's proposed ban came as authorities tightened their grip on some cryptocurrency exchanges. The nation's largest cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinone and Bithumb were raided by police and tax agencies this week for alleged tax evasion. The raids follow moves by the finance ministry to identify ways to tax the market that has become as big as the nation's small-cap Kosdaq index in terms of daily trading volume. Some investors appeared to have taken preemptive action. "I have already cashed most of mine (virtual coins) as I was aware that something was coming up in a couple of days," said Eoh Kyung-hoon, a 23-year old investor. Bitcoin sank on Monday after website CoinMarketCap removed prices from South Korean exchanges, because coins were trading at a premium of about 30 percent in Asia's fourth-largest economy. That created confusion and triggered a broad selloff among investors. An official at Coinone told Reuters that a few officials from the National Tax Service raided the company's office this week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Coinone was cooperating with the investigation. 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," an official at Bithumb said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. The nation's tax office and police declined to confirm whether they raided the local exchanges. 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. ($1 = 1,069.9600 won) (Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong) Here are four stocks with buy rank and strong income characteristics for investors to consider today, January 10th: AEGON N.V. (AEG): This provider of life insurance and asset management services has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings climbing 31% over the last 60 days. Aegon NV Price and Consensus Aegon NV Price and Consensus Aegon NV price-consensus-chart | Aegon NV Quote This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 3.85%, compared with the industry average of 1.75%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 3.53%. Aegon NV Dividend Yield (TTM) Aegon NV Dividend Yield (TTM) Aegon NV dividend-yield-ttm | Aegon NV Quote Banco Santander-Chile (BSAC): This commercial and retail banking products and services provider has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings rising 1.7% over the last 60 days. Banco Santander Chile Price and Consensus Banco Santander Chile Price and Consensus Banco Santander Chile price-consensus-chart | Banco Santander Chile Quote This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 2.60%, compared with the industry average of 2.22%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 3.76%. Banco Santander Chile Dividend Yield (TTM) Banco Santander Chile Dividend Yield (TTM) Banco Santander Chile dividend-yield-ttm | Banco Santander Chile Quote Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (APAM): This publicly owned investment manager has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings increasing 1.3% over the last 60 days. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. Price and Consensus Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. Price and Consensus Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. price-consensus-chart | Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. Quote This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 6.20%, compared with the industry average of 2.30%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 5.52%. Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. Dividend Yield (TTM) Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. Dividend Yield (TTM) Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. dividend-yield-ttm | Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. Quote Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V. (BSMX): This financial and related services provider has witnessed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings rising 1.4% over the last 60 days. Story continues Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. B. de C.V. Price and Consensus Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. B. de C.V. Price and Consensus Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. B. de C.V. price-consensus-chart | Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. B. de C.V. Quote This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company has a dividend yield of 4.43%, compared with the industry average of 2.22%. Its five-year average dividend yield is 4.27%. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. B. de C.V. Dividend Yield (TTM) Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. B. de C.V. Dividend Yield (TTM) Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. B. de C.V. dividend-yield-ttm | Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. B. de C.V. Quote See the full list of top ranked stocks here. Find more top income stocks with some of our great premium screens. Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside? Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana. Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. See the pot trades we're targeting>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. B. de C.V. (BSMX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Banco Santander Chile (BSAC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (APAM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Aegon NV (AEG) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research MONTGOMERY, Ala. Toyota and Mazda confirmed Wednesday they will build a $1.6 billion joint venture 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 were joining Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey in Montgomery at an event to confirm the decision, the companies said. The plant, which will produce 300,000 vehicles a year, is set to open on a 2,500-acre site in 2021 about 14 miles from Toyota's engine plant in Huntsville. Toyota plans to build Corolla cars at the plant, while Mazda will build crossover SUVs. Alabama is providing tax incentives, the total of which was not immediately known. A person briefed on the matter said it was expected to be close to $1 billion over several years. 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 AG's Mercedes-Benz to put an auto plant in Tuscaloosa, sparking the birth of auto production in the state. 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 and Hyundai. A Kia 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. Story continues Trump tweeted in March 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. U.S. auto industry sales have been declining, and there is some concern that the new plant could exacerbate overcapacity and pressure vehicle prices. U.S. new vehicle sales fell 2 percent in 2017, after hitting an all-time record high in 2016. Sales are expected to fall further in 2018. 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 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. 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, along with German and other Asian automakers, has built a second auto industry in the United States whose size and employment rivals operations of the Detroit Three automakers, but with newer plants and fewer unionized workers. 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 been home to the majority of new auto production by German and Asian automakers. These states generally enjoy good transportation infrastructure, business-friendly regulators and generally anti-union politicians. Reporting by David Shepardson Related Video: Toyota, Mazda get an Alabama welcome for $1.6 billion plant originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Jan 2018 15:40:00 EST. 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. "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." 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.WATCH: Mnuchin says NAFTA will be renegotiated or US will pull out 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. "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." 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. WATCH: Mnuchin says NAFTA will be renegotiated or US will pull out More From CNBC 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." 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. Story continues 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. "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 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Shia militant group Hezbollah, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization, are the predominant targets. "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. "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 anti-government protests 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' The Trump administration has described Iran as living up to the "letter" but not the "spirit of the deal." Robert Litwak, director of international security studies at the Wilson Center and a National Security Council member during the Clinton administration, explained what this meant. "The letter is the deal, while the spirit refers to everything outside the deal, such as Iran's support for Hezbollah and role in Syria," Litwak told CNBC. "Jettisoning the nuclear deal because of Iran's objectionable behavior in other areas will only make addressing those challenges more difficult."Critically, he said, repercussions of a U.S. walkout could reverberate far beyond Iran itself and further complicate other geopolitical challenges. "Abrogating the nuclear deal with Iran would set a bad precedent, particularly as the United States seeks to resume nuclear diplomacy with North Korea." More From CNBC Prakash Chandra Timilsena is deputy photo editor for The Kathmandu Post, covering politics, business and social issues. Before joining the Post in 2012, he spent more than seven years working as a photojournalist for various national daily and weekly newspapers. ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey on Friday reinstated more than 1,800 civil servants purged after a 2016 failed coup, determining they had no links to the network of a cleric accused of masterminding the putsch, state-run Anadolu news agency said. Prosecutors last year said they would review legal cases against more than 11,000 people accused of using the ByLock messaging app, finding that some suspects had unintentionally used it after being linked to it from another app. Turkey outlawed ByLock in the aftermath of the attempted putsch, saying followers of the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen used it to communicate on the night of July 15, 2016, when rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and warplanes to attack parliament, killing more than 240 people. Gulen has denied the charges and condemned the coup. In a decree in its Official Gazette, the government confirmed it was reinstating 1,823 people to their state jobs, although it did not give reasons why they had been purged or reinstated. Anadolu said the decision was made after authorities found "no membership, contact or link" to Gulen's network. Since the coup attempt, more than 50,000 people, including civil servants and security personnel, have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 suspended or dismissed from their jobs. Rights groups and Turkey's Western allies say President Tayyip Erdogan is using the purges as a pretext to muzzle dissent, but the government says the measures are necessary due to the security threats it faces. Last year, Turkish authorities began freeing some suspects across the country, and the Ankara chief prosecutor had said he would ask for the release of 1,000 suspects. Separately, 214 other state officers and 48 military personnel were dismissed from their posts and two media outlets were shut down in the same decree. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by David Dolan, William Maclean) System called Ripley was reportedly used at least two dozen times in 2015 and 2016, including once to prevent tax investigators from collecting evidence Uber first developed the system after a police raid in its Brussels office. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP Uber developed a secret system called Ripley that would lock down staff computers in the event of a police raid, preventing officials from accessing company data. The ride-sharing company used Ripley at least two dozen times in 2015 and 2016 in countries including Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg. In one case Ripley was deployed to prevent Canadian tax investigators, who believed Uber had violated tax laws, from collecting evidence even though they had a warrant. As soon as they burst into the Montreal office, Uber staff paged the headquarters in San Francisco who remotely logged everyone in that office off their devices. Uber first developed the system, initially called the unexpected visitor protocol, after a police raid in its Brussels office, where Belgian law enforcement officers accessed the companys financial documents, payments system and worker data. A court order subsequently forced Uber to shut down its service for operating without proper licenses. It was nicknamed Ripley after a line spoken by the protagonist in the Alien movies, who decides that the only way to destroy all the murderous extraterrestrials is to destroy their entire habitat. I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. Its the only way to be sure, she says. The line has been reappropriated by information security teams to describe an extreme response to a detected threat. Uber downplayed the tool and said it was common practice to have such software to remotely change passwords or lock devices in the event they were lost or stolen. Like every company with offices around the world, we have security procedures in place to protect corporate and customer data, said an Uber spokeswoman. When it comes to government investigations, its our policy to cooperate with all valid searches and requests for data. Story continues After the Montreal raid, a judge in the subsequent tax lawsuit wrote that Ubers actions showed all the characteristics of an attempt to obstruct justice and that the company was trying to hide evidence of its illegal activities. Uber granted access to the relevant files once issued with a second, more specific search warrant. (January 1, 2017) #DeleteUber goes viral Ubers decision to lift surge pricing during a New York taxi drivers work stoppage in protest of the Trump travel ban prompts a viral #DeleteUber campaign. (February 1, 2017) Susan Fowler speaks out Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler publishes a blog post with allegations of widespread sexual harassment and gender discrimination. (March 1, 2017) Greyball deception revealed The New York Times exposes Ubers use of Greyball, a tool to systematically deceive authorities in cities where Uber was violating local laws. (May 1, 2017) Drivers underpaid by millions Uber admits it has for years been underpaying New York City drivers by tens of millions of dollars. (June 1, 2017) Toxic culture reaches breaking point, Kalanick resigns Uber fires 20 employees following the conclusion of an investigation into sexual harassment and workplace culture. Uber is sued by an Indian passenger who was raped by an Uber driver after reports reveal that a top executive had obtained the womans medical records, allegedly in order to cast doubt upon her account. CEO Travis Kalanick resigns. (August 1, 2017) Unsafe cars leased in Singapore The Wall Street Journal reports that Uber had rented fire-prone cars to drivers in Singapore, despite knowing that the vehicles had been recalled over serious safety concerns. (September 1, 2017) Uber loses London license Uber loses its license to operate in London due to a lack of corporate responsibility. The company is appealing the decision. (November 1, 2017) Massive hack cover-up revealed Uber admits concealing a 2016 breach that exposed the data of 57 million Uber customers and drivers, failing to disclose the hack to regulators or affected individuals. The company paid a $100,000 ransom to the hackers to destroy the information and keep the breach quiet. Albert Gidari, director of privacy at Stanford Law Schools Center for Internet & Society, added that companies often protect networks and computers against dawn raids where the scope of authority is in question and the data to be seized is in another jurisdiction. If a company centralises its business data in country X and the authorities in country Y raid the local office and try to access that data through computers at employee desktops, thats a cross-border search, he said. It also generally may permit access to areas and data not covered by any warrant. Ryan Kalember from cybersecurity firm Proofpoint added that although it is standard practice to be able to remotely lock all systems or wipe data from devices, its less typical to develop a specific tool and to give it such an evocative name. Thats the only strange thing here to me, he said. Even so, Uber has a history of developing tools to evade regulators, some of which are facing criminal investigations in the United States. Federal investigators are looking into a tool called Greyball, which was used to ensure drivers wouldnt pick up law enforcement officials in cities where its service violated regulations and another code-named Hell which was designed to track the drivers at rival Lyft. The Trump administration was ecstatic with Walmart on Thursday, and for good reason. The retail juggernaut announced it would raise its minimum starting wage to $11 per hour, hand out between $200 and $1,000 in bonuses to current employees and expand its parental leave benefits. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in a press release made it crystal clear why he had made the decision: Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S. The administration held Walmarts announcement up as proof that the money the newly signed tax law hands over to corporations was already trickling down into the pockets of American workers. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders celebrated the company decision, while President Donald Trumps daughter Ivanka tweeted, Thanks to the passage of historic tax cuts, American workers and their families are winning! Trump himself shared a video on Twitter of Fox Business discussing the news and declared, Great news, as a result of our TAX CUTS & JOBS ACT! Great news, as a result of our TAX CUTS & JOBS ACT! pic.twitter.com/SLvhLxP3Jl Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 The media largely credited Republicans as well. Trumps Tax Bill Prompts Walmart To Raise Starting Wage, Give $1,000 Bonuses To Some Employees, Newsweek declared in its headline. CNBC started off their story by stating, Walmarts workers will soon reap the benefits of the recent tax law changes. Ever since Congress overhauled the U.S. tax code last month, a number of companies have announced bonuses and raises, pointing to the dropping corporate tax rate as the main reason why. The verdict is starting to come in, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said earlier this month. Many folks are pleasantly surprised, that this is the first time Congress and Washington D.C. has done something to make their life better. Story continues But citing a brand new tax law as the predominant reason for Walmarts decision downplays the basic economic forces the company has been grappling with for years. In 2015, back when Barack Obama was still president and tax law was little more than a Paul Ryan fantasy, Walmart similarly announced that it had decided to raise its baseline wage to $9 per hour almost immediately, and to $10 per hour the year after that. At the time, McMillon, Walmarts CEO, had no qualms about suggesting the broader economy was a main reason for the change. Its great to see the job market getting better, and the market works, so were adjusting to that market, he told CNBC. In 2016, CNN cited the increasingly competitive labor market and a low unemployment rate which makes finding and retaining workers more difficult as the primary reasons Walmart was increasing wages and benefits. Those trends have not only continued through 2018, but intensified. Advocates and tax policy experts alike said on Thursday that it was shocking that the countrys largest employer hadnt raised wages earlier. Investors Business Daily reported as much last October. Shortly before that, Target, one of Walmarts largest competitors, made the decision to increase its minimum wage to $11 per hour and to $15 per hour by 2020, causing Wall Street analysts and Walmart investors to worry Walmart would try to keep up. Around the same time, the article said, Autozones CEO had said that wage pressure resulting from close to 4 percent unemployment was growing significantly more than I have experienced in my nearly 23 years of AutoZone. In addition, 18 states were poised to raise their minimum wages on New Years Day. As a result, several states including California, Massachusetts and Washington now boast minimum wages at or above Walmarts $11 mark for large companies. And by this time next year, at least four more states will join them with an additional half-dozen or so scooting above (and in some cases significantly above) Walmarts previously set $10-per-hour floor as well, according to National Conference of State Legislatures website. Add all of that together, and tax policy experts and worker advocates couldnt help but note that Walmarts Thursday announcement tying the decision to the tax law rang more than a little disingenuous a savvy and well-timed public relations move more than anything else. Walmart didnt respond to a request for comment for this article. I have to think that some part of that is political, said Ann C. Hodges, a professor at the University of Richmond who specializes in labor and employment law. You want the tax cut to have political support this one and future ones. Telling people they are going to get more money in their pockets as a result is exactly how you gin it up, she said. Perhaps, like McMillon implied, the tax law helped accelerate the implementation of otherwise inevitable wage increases. But Gregg Polsky, a tax professor at the University of Georgia, argued that even in a scenario in which the tax law did allow businesses to make major new investments, not nearly enough time has passed yet to translate that into higher wages. I think of this very much as correlation with the tax bill and not causation, said Anastasia Christman, a research director at the National Employment Law Project. The labor market may have been pushing Walmart to raise wages to get and retain quality employees, Christman said. But, she continued, If you can instead make yourself look like you are bringing this theory of trickle-down economics to fruition, why not put out a press release? Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Good morning. Walmart announced yesterday it will raise starting wages for hourly workers to $11 beginning next month, and will give some of its workers one-time bonuses of as much as $1,000. More than a million employees could benefit. CEO Doug McMillon said the move was a response to the tax cut. That wont placate labor unions advocating a $15 minimum, and it comes at a time when labor markets are tightening anyway. Moreover, the announcement was accompanied by news that Sams Club is closing 63 stores and that Walmart is expanding cashier-free checkout. Nevertheless, the move is further evidence that the companywhich used to be as ruthless about holding down wages as it is about negotiating supplier pricesis rethinking the way it treats associates. Walmart previously raised the starting wage in 2015 and 2016 to $9 and $10, respectively. I talked with CEO Doug McMillon about this change when I interviewed him at the Economic Club of New York in November. You can watch that interview here. But I came away convinced that McMillon, in partnership with Walmart chairman Greg Penner, has adopted a significantly different approach to worker pay than his predecessors. Ultimately, of course, the real test of tax cuts will be whether they convince companies to invest and create jobs in the U.S. I was chastised yesterday by one readerinitials H.B.for praising a column by Robert Pozen, former chairman of MFS Investment, and Bob Steel, former Treasury undersecretary, that called on public company CEOs to invest their tax windfalls in plants, people, research and technology, rather than in dividends and share buybacks. H. B.s response: Management teams often destroy value by investing low cost capital in low or negative return investments. If a company can invest the capital at a high rate of return, great. If they cant, they should either invest in market share through lower pricing, invest in upgrading their labor productivity with higher wages, or return the capital to investors through buybacks/dividends. Story continues H.B.s argument would make sense in a world where capital markets operate efficiently. But if you believe, as I do, that todays markets put an excess premium on the short-term returns that buybacks and dividends can generate, then some leaning against the wind is welcome. More news below. Alan Murray @alansmurray alan.murray@fortune.com Top News Warrantless NSA surveillance takes another step forward. The U.S. House of Representatives voted 256 to 164 to extend the program for another six years with minimal changes. Congress enacted the law in 2008. The bill to extend it must still pass the Senate, but few senators appear to want major changes to the spying law. New York Times Facebook makes major changes to its News Feed. Professional publishers out, personal connections inmostly, anyway. The adjustment to the content filter on the social networks News Feed component is part of a larger effort to return to prioritizing users interactions with each other, rather than with news and other unpaid content created by companies. Reuters Fiat Chrysler moves some production from Mexico to Michigan. The automaker will invest $1 billion to move Ram heavy duty trucks, which are a profitable business, from Saltillo, Mexico to Warren, Mich. The move gives FCA a hedge against disruption from a possible U.S. pullout of NAFTA. Wall Street Journal Donald Trump really steps in it. The U.S. president reportedly asked legislators why the country should allow immigrants from shithole countries in Africa as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal to strengthen border protections and extend protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants. Trumps extraordinary and crass remarks sparked broad criticism. Associated Press Around the Water Cooler President Oprah? Shes a strong force, Bill Gross says I like what she said and how she said it, the Janus Henderson fund manager said of Winfreys speech at this years Golden Globes. He responded to an on-air question about his support for a hypothetical Oprah Winfrey presidential campaign. Bloomberg Should South Korea ban cryptocurrencies? The country reportedly wants to crack down on digital currencies by banning the trading of them on exchanges. In tandem the price of Bitcoin fell almost 14%, more sharply on Korean exchanges. Wall Street Journal Would you drive a car without a steering wheel or pedals? General Motors thinks so. The automaker has petitioned the federal government for permission to deploy self-driving Chevrolet Bolts that lack a steering wheel, pedals, and other manual controls ahead of the planned launch of a robo ride-sharing service in 2019. Fortune Dropbox is the next big tech IPO. The file-sharing software company, valued at $10 billion, has confidentially filed to go public this year. It would be the biggest tech IPO since social darling Snap, which has lost much of its luster since going public. Reuters This edition of CEO Daily was edited by Andrew Nusca. Find previous editions here, and sign up for other Fortune newsletters here. For Immediate Release Chicago, IL January 11, 2018 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Intel INTC, Microsoft MSFT, Alibaba BABA, Amazon AMZN and Advanced Micro Devices AMD. Here are highlights from Wednesdays Analyst Blog: Tech Stock Roundup: Intel, Microsoft and More Intels chip flaws, Microsofts Avere purchase and the U.S. blocking MoneyGrams sale to Alibabas Ant Financial were the top stories from last week. Here are the details- Intel Chip Flaw Media reports from last week shed light on a number of security issues with chips that put most smartphones, laptops, PCs, servers and other computing devices at risk. The two bugs/flaws could allow programs to steal data including passwords stored in a password manager or browser, personal photos, emails, instant messages and even business-critical documents. The first one, called Meltdown, affects only Intel processors and Intel is already providing software and firmware updates for 90% of devices that could slow down your machine somewhat, but would be mostly imperceptible for most users, according to the company. For tasks that aggregate data (like databases) or jobs that involve moving repeatedly between the storage and the processor, the patch can slow down the process by up to 30%. In addition to Intel, cloud vendors such as Amazon have already issued patches for this one. The second one, called Spectre, is much harder to fix and affects Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and ARM-powered devices, so practically every single machine. There appears to be some dispute about whether AMD chips are susceptible to the vulnerabilities or not. Of the three ways a system could be attacked, AMD says its CPU microarchitecture leaves it fully immune to the first, yields "a near zero risk" to another and while being vulnerable to the third method, software/OS updates that have "negligible performance impact" should fix the issue. A Google blog post stated the vulnerabilities "affect many CPUs, including those from AMD, ARM and Intel." Story continues Investors are, however, punishing Intel shares while boosting AMD, so they probably expect AMD to pick up some of the data center share its been targeting for so long. NVIDIA shares also rose possibly for similar reasons, although Intels CPUs dont do exactly the same job as its GPUs. Microsoft Buys Avere Avere Systems, the network file systems (NFS) and server message block (SMB) file storage provider for Windows and Linux clients running in the cloud, hybrid and on-premises environments with customers like Sony Pictures Imageworks, the Library of Congress, John Hopkins University and Teradyne, has been acquired by Microsoft. Averes file system and caching technologies speed access to compute and storage resources in hybrid environments, which could therefore help the number two provider of cloud services in its battle with market leader Amazon AWS and number three, Google Cloud. Microsoft has said that Avere technology will help it run "the largest, most complex high-performance workloads" in Azure. The purchase price isnt known yet, but the company has raised $97 million from Menlo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tenaya Capital, Western Digital Technologies and Google over the years. In fact, one advantage that Microsoft is likely looking for is Googles removal from the scene so it is unable to influence the company or integrate it into its cloud. Instead, Avere CEO and President Ron Bianchini has said that Averes technology will be tightly integrated into Azure. Alibabas Ant Financial Cant Buy Moneygram The U.S. governments Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has blocked money transfer company Moneygrams sale to Alibabas sister company Ant Financial. The rationale for the deal is obvious: Moneygram has approximately 350,000 remittance locations in more than 200 countries that would have helped Ants Alipay make inroads into several international markets including the U.S. But the U.S. government has taken a hard stand on trade relations with China and in this case, cited uncertainty about the security of private information of U.S. citizens to block the deal. Moneygram and Ant Financial have therefore agreed to work collaboratively in remittance and digital payments based on separate commercial agreements in key international markets such as China, India, the Philippines, other Asian markets, as well as the U.S. Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research 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. 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 Tiger census to be held in community forests as well Chitwan National Park authority is set to conduct tiger census in the community forests that adjoin the park in Chitwan, Nawalparasi and Parsa districts. BW Offshore is today hosting a presentation focusing on the company's Gabon/Dussafu license field development activities, particularly giving details of progress in bringing on-stream the Tortue Field. The presentation is attached. The presentation also contains new preliminary reserve estimates for Tortue from independent reserves auditors Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc. (NSAI) from December 2017. NSAI has calculated the following estimates of total gross economically recoverable oil reserves, derived from the assumed production from four oil wells in the Tortue field: *Proved (1P) reserves of 15.9 million bbls *Proved + Probable (2P) reserves of 23.5 million bbls *Proved + Probable + Possible (3P) reserves of 31.4 million bbls The NSAI reserves review does not include the other 3 discovered fields in the license, known as Ruche, Moubenga and Walt Whitman. Also, the independent reserves review does not address prospective resources within the EEA. The event is being held today, 8 January 2018, at 13:00 CET at The Thief, Landgangen 1 in Oslo, Norway and is hosted by CEO Carl K. Arnet and Lin Espey, Managing Director of BW Energy. The presentation will be broadcast via webcast, and will also be available for replay. Please visit www.bwoffshore.com for access details. For further information, please contact: Knut R. Sthre, CFO, +47 911 17 876 IR@bwoffshore.com or www.bwoffshore.com About BW Offshore: BW Offshore is a leading global provider of floating production services to the oil and gas industry. BW Offshore has a fleet of 15 owned FPSOs and one FSO, operating in all major oil & gas regions, world-wide. BW Offshore has a track record of project execution and production operations extending over more than 30 years. In this time BW Offshore has executed 38 FPSO and FSO projects. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Further information is available at www.bwoffshore.com. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. (TSX:PEY) ("Peyto or the Company") is pleased to announce the achievement of its year-end 2017 production target of 115,000 boe/d. Together with its industry leading cost structure and robust hedging program, the company expects to report another profitable and successful year in 2017. In addition, Peyto announces today a revised capital plan for 2018 in light of the recent 40% decline in near-term natural gas prices. The plan is designed to prudently defer investment on a portion of Peytos inventory in order to ensure maximum returns can be achieved from these opportunities, while at the same time strengthening the Companys financial position for the future. This plan involves the following five elements: Development plans deferred and capital budget reduced to $200-$250 million. The preliminary 2018 capital budget announced Nov 8, 2017, ranging from $300-$450 million, has been reduced to $200 to $250 million. As always, investment will be directed toward the highest return opportunities within Peytos vast inventory of drilling locations, now with particular focus on the most liquids rich portions of the Companys Deep Basin assets. For example, Peytos lands in the Greater Sundance Area contain approximately 2.4 TCFe of net Cardium resource with only 14% recovered to date and over 500 internally identified drilling locations. The Cardium in this area yields between 40 to 60 bbl/MMcf of natural gas liquids (greater than 50% C5+) and Peyto plans to exploit this undeveloped resource with newly designed horizontal wells with higher density fracture treatments. As Peyto enjoys the benefit of very little land expiring in 2018, it has the freedom to develop much of its lands as market conditions dictate. The preliminary 2018 capital budget announced Nov 8, 2017, ranging from $300-$450 million, has been reduced to $200 to $250 million. As always, investment will be directed toward the highest return opportunities within Peytos vast inventory of drilling locations, now with particular focus on the most liquids rich portions of the Companys Deep Basin assets. For example, Peytos lands in the Greater Sundance Area contain approximately 2.4 TCFe of net Cardium resource with only 14% recovered to date and over 500 internally identified drilling locations. The Cardium in this area yields between 40 to 60 bbl/MMcf of natural gas liquids (greater than 50% C5+) and Peyto plans to exploit this undeveloped resource with newly designed horizontal wells with higher density fracture treatments. As Peyto enjoys the benefit of very little land expiring in 2018, it has the freedom to develop much of its lands as market conditions dictate. Monthly dividend reduced to $0.06/share . Starting with the January dividend, for shareholders of record on January 31, 2018 to be paid on February 15, 2018, the monthly dividend will be reduced from the current $0.11/share to $0.06/share. This new dividend level will align better with projected earnings for 2018 and lower near term natural gas prices. In conjunction with the reduced capital program, the reduced monthly dividend will free up cash for debt reduction, share repurchases, and potential new business opportunities that may arise. . Starting with the January dividend, for shareholders of record on January 31, 2018 to be paid on February 15, 2018, the monthly dividend will be reduced from the current $0.11/share to $0.06/share. This new dividend level will align better with projected earnings for 2018 and lower near term natural gas prices. In conjunction with the reduced capital program, the reduced monthly dividend will free up cash for debt reduction, share repurchases, and potential new business opportunities that may arise. Share buyback program . Peyto intends to apply to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) to implement a normal course issuer bid (NCIB). Subject to TSX approval, the NCIB is expected to commence on January 22, 2018 and will terminate on the earlier of 1) January 21, 2019; or 2) the date on which the maximum number of Common Shares that can be acquire pursuant to the NCIB are purchased. . Peyto intends to apply to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) to implement a normal course issuer bid (NCIB). Subject to TSX approval, the NCIB is expected to commence on January 22, 2018 and will terminate on the earlier of 1) January 21, 2019; or 2) the date on which the maximum number of Common Shares that can be acquire pursuant to the NCIB are purchased. Term debt issuance. As announced on January 2, 2018, Peyto has continued to protect its balance sheet from rising interest rates with the closing of another private placement of senior unsecured notes. On that date, Peyto issued CND$100 million of senior unsecured notes which bear a coupon rate of 3.95% and mature on January 2, 2028. The issuance of senior notes expands Peytos aggregate borrowing capacity to $1.92 billion, split into a $1.3 billion, 4 year revolver with a stated term date of October 2021 and $620 million of senior unsecured notes. Peyto now has approximately $600 million in available borrowing capacity. As announced on January 2, 2018, Peyto has continued to protect its balance sheet from rising interest rates with the closing of another private placement of senior unsecured notes. On that date, Peyto issued CND$100 million of senior unsecured notes which bear a coupon rate of 3.95% and mature on January 2, 2028. The issuance of senior notes expands Peytos aggregate borrowing capacity to $1.92 billion, split into a $1.3 billion, 4 year revolver with a stated term date of October 2021 and $620 million of senior unsecured notes. Peyto now has approximately $600 million in available borrowing capacity. Strong near-term hedge book and medium-term market diversification strategy. Peytos hedging strategy in the past has used fixed price financial swaps to smooth out the volatility in natural gas prices. For 2018, this program has secured a fixed price of $2.68/Mcf for approximately 75% of 2018 forecast natural gas production, which combined with liquid revenues ensures close to 90% of projected revenues will not be subject to natural gas price volatility. These revenues, when combined with the remaining unhedged natural gas revenue, is expected to deliver sufficient funds from operations to more than cover both the capital program and dividend payment while also generating significant free cash flow that can be used for debt repayment or share buybacks. As well, the Board of Directors has approved a market diversification strategy to diversify a portion of Peytos future natural gas sales away from the AECO hub. Operational Update Peyto exited 2017 hitting its year end production target of 115,000 boe/d. Of this production, approximately 11,000 boe/d was natural gas liquids and 42% was from wells drilled and connected in 2017. A total of 143 gross (138.5 net) wells were drilled in the year, with 91 in the Greater Sundance area, 47 in the Brazeau area and 5 in the newly established Whitehorse area. The Notikewin formation contributed the largest proportion of new production at 49% while the Wilrich formation contributed 36% of the volumes. Production in the Brazeau area exited the year at 29,000 boe/d up from 19,000 boe/d at the start of the year, while production from the Greater Sundance area remained level at approximately 80,000 boe/d. Revised 2018 Budget Both AECO and Henry Hub natural gas prices have softened since Peyto released its preliminary 2018 budget back in November 2017. At that time, the future strip for Henry Hub and AECO prices for calendar 2018 was US$3.09/MMBTU and CND$2.02/GJ respectively. Today, these same benchmark prices are USD$2.87/MMBTU and CND$1.35/GJ. Although Peyto can still generate positive returns on its well economics at these prices, the returns are significantly improved merely by delaying investments until higher natural gas prices on the future strip, or lower development costs, can be realized. In response to these lower natural gas prices, Peyto is planning to defer its drilling activity and is reducing its 2018 capital budget until natural gas prices rebound. The revised capital budget for 2018 is now expected to range between $200 and $250 million. Activity will include drilling, completing and connecting approximately 50 to 60 net wells, installing a new 20 MMCF/d gas plant in the Whitehorse area, and adding new drilling inventory through new land purchases. Much of this activity will be scheduled in the latter half of the year to ensure new, flush production is coming on-stream into next winters higher natural gas prices. This reduced program is expected to add approximately 25,000 boe/d of new production by year end to the existing production base which is anticipated to decline at approximately 35% throughout the year. Average production for the year 2018 is expected to be 2% lower than 2017. The current 2018 future AECO strip price for Alberta natural gas is $1.35/GJ, which when combined with a Canadian Light Sweet oil price of approximately $75/bbl, yields an unhedged revenue stream of approximately $2.30/Mcfe, using Peytos current blend of gas and NGLs. As mentioned, Peyto has secured a fixed price for approximately 75% of the expected 2018 natural gas production at an average price of $2.34/GJ ($2.68/Mcf). When these prices are adjusted for Peytos historic NGL and heat content premiums and are combined with the Companys industry leading cash costs of approximately $0.75-$0.80/Mcfe, they are expected to yield cash netbacks of approximately $2.21/Mcfe ($13.30/boe). Using these commodity and cost assumptions Peyto would generate funds from operations well in excess of the required combination of capital program and dividend payment. These excess funds will be used to reduce indebtedness and/or purchase commons shares under the NCIB. Share Buyback Peyto intends to apply to the TSX to implement a NCIB. The Company believes that implementing a NCIB is a prudent step in this volatile energy market environment, when at times, the prevailing market price does not reflect the underlying value of Peytos Common Shares. The timely repurchase of Common Shares for cancellation represents confidence in the long term prospects and sustainability of the Corporation's business model. The Corporation's conservative balance sheet affords Peyto the ability to buy back shares when warranted. Any reduction in share count adds per share value to shareholders and the NCIB adds another tool to management's disciplined capital allocation strategy. Pursuant to the NCIB, Peyto may purchase up to 12,158,897 of the outstanding Common Shares, which represents approximately 10% of the "public float" (as such term is defined by the policies of the TSX). As at January 8, 2018, Peyto had 164,874,175 Common Shares issued and outstanding and the public float was 121,588,969 Common Shares. Pursuant to the rules of the TSX, the total number of Common Shares that Peyto is permitted to purchase is subject to a daily purchase limit of 246,866 Common Shares, which represents 25% of the average daily trading volume of 987,467 Common Shares on the TSX for the six-month period ended December 31, 2017; provided, however, that Peyto may make one block purchase per calendar week which exceeds the daily purchase restriction. The actual number of Common Shares purchased pursuant to the NCIB and the timing of such purchases will be determined by Peyto and is dependent on future market conditions. Subject to approval by the TSX, the NCIB is expected to commence on January 22, 2018 and will terminate on January 21, 2019, or such earlier time as the NCIB is completed or is terminated at the option of Peyto. Purchases under the NCIB will be effected through the facilities of the TSX and/or Canadian alternative trading systems at the prevailing market price at the time of such transaction. All Common Shares purchased under the NCIB will be cancelled. Marketing Strategy The Board of Directors has approved a new natural gas marketing diversification strategy. Over time, the Company plans to have 40% of its natural gas sales linked to AECO based pricing, 40% linked to NYMEX pricing and 20% sold directly to intra-Alberta industrial markets. As before, Peyto will continue to hedge future prices to smooth out the volatility in both natural gas markets. At present, Peyto has 100% of expected 2018 natural gas production exposed to the AECO market with approximately 75% pre-sold (hedged) at an average price of $2.34/GJ or $2.68/Mcf, and 20% of 2019 natural gas production pre-sold at an average price of $2.06/GJ or $2.36/Mcf. Management changes Scott Robinson, Peytos current Chief Operating Officer (COO) has decided to transition towards retirement. Scott will continue with Peyto in a part time role as Executive Vice President, New Ventures and the Company looks forward to his continuing involvement in this new role. Peyto is also pleased to announce the appointment of Jean-Paul (JP) Lachance, Peytos current VP Exploitation, to the position of Executive Vice President of Engineering and COO. Jean-Paul has been with Peyto for 7 years and has played a key role in the profitable exploitation and development of the Companys Deep Basin assets since joining Peyto in 2011. Outlook Peyto has spent the past 20 years profitably building a solid foundation of resources and infrastructure that will endure for many years to come. Occasionally over that time, the Company has paused during its ascent to review its business plan and adjust to the changes in prevailing economic and market conditions. This is one of those times when resource development, particularly in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, is outpacing both market access and market demand, which has consequently upset the normal equilibrium in supply and demand for natural gas. What is true today, as in the past, is that this is a temporary situation that industry must solve with reduced investment and lower supply combined with increased demand from market expansion. Although the Company does not have to slow down and could, through its superior supply and production cost advantage, continue with a high level of reinvestment, it has decided to decelerate development in anticipation of higher natural gas prices, better costs and greater returns that lie ahead with the re-establishment of a supply/demand equilibrium. As with all industry participants, Peytos marketing efforts have only established price protection for existing production built from previous capital investments. The returns for all new investments must be measured against the current unhedged strip pricing. Peyto will remain nimble to changing market dynamics and will have the financial and operational flexibility to ramp up activity quickly. Management is actively working to enhance Peytos position for that time by redeploying many of its technical staff from development operations to expanding the Companys inventory of drilling opportunities. The Company anticipates this work will yield to an exciting new chapter in Peytos longstanding history in the Canadian energy industry. In the meantime, shareholders can be confident that a continued focus on financial flexibility, and an industry leading cash cost structure, which delivers one of the highest cash margins in the industry, will continue to be Peytos greatest insulation from the volatility in natural gas prices. The long life, and ultimately low decline nature of Peytos Deep Basin production creates a solid foundation of value from which future value creation can and will occur. Darren Gee President and CEO January 11, 2018 Certain information set forth in this document, including management's assessment of Peytos future plans and operations, capital expenditures and capital efficiencies, contains forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond these parties' control, including the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, currency fluctuations, imprecision of reserve estimates, environmental risks, competition from other industry participants, the lack of availability of qualified personnel or management, stock market volatility and ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. Peyto's actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits Peyto will derive there from. In addition, Peyto is providing future oriented financial information set out in this press release for the purposes of providing clarity with respect to Peytos strategic direction and readers are cautioned that this information may not be appropriate for any other purpose. Other than is required pursuant to applicable securities law, Peyto does not undertake to update forward looking statements at any particular time. To provide a single unit of production for analytical purposes, natural gas production and reserves volumes are converted mathematically to equivalent barrels of oil (BOE). Peyto uses the industry-accepted standard conversion of six thousand cubic feet of natural gas to one barrel of oil (6 Mcf = 1 bbl). The 6:1 BOE ratio is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip. It does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead and is not based on current prices. While the BOE ratio is useful for comparative measures and observing trends, it does not accurately reflect individual product values and might be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. As well, given that the value ratio, based on the current price of crude oil to natural gas, is significantly different from the 6:1 energy equivalency ratio, using a 6:1 conversion ratio may be misleading as an indication of value. Darren Gee dgee@peyto.com 403-237-8911 Trilateral cooperation Rather than looking for equidistance, Nepal should try and achieve more proximity with both its neighbours New York, Jan 11 (JEN): 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 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 Zeid. Photo: UNICEF/Amer Al Shami New York, Jan 12 (JEN): The top United Nations envoy for Somalia has called for calm and dialogue amid reports of clashes between security forces from Somaliland and neighbouring Puntland. Our position is to try and reduce tensions [and] to increase dialogue very quickly between both sides, so that if there are misunderstandings, these are clarified, said the UN Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Somalia, Michael Keating, while in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland. If there are genuine differences, then they have to be subject to immediate discussion, he added. But resorting to military solutions and to violence is not the way to resolve these problems. The UN envoy was speaking at a joint press encounter yesterday with Somalilands Foreign Minister, Saad Ali Shire, after having met with Somalilands President Muse Bihi Abdi their first meeting since the latter was elected late last year. Earlier this week, there were reports of clashes between security forces in the Sool region, part of a disputed area claimed by both Somaliland and Puntland, located on the north-eastern tip of the Horn of Africa. In their meeting, Keating and Bihi Abdi discussed the new governments priorities, as well as the latest security issues. I was very impressed by and grateful to the President for his commitment, borne from his many decades of personal experience, of the importance of finding peaceful solutions to problems, he said, and that a priority must be to try and prevent violence of any kind, whether in Somaliland, or, indeed, between Somaliland and others. While in Hargeisa, the UN envoy also met with several cabinet ministers to discuss various topics, including education, health, security, the impact of drought and employment, and how the United Nations can best provide support in addressing humanitarian and development challenges in these areas. Similar meetings were subsequently held with civil society representatives. Part of the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) which Keating also heads and which has an office in Hargeisa is to support Somaliland efforts towards a politically stable and democratic system that adheres to the principles of good governance. The Special Representative also visited the Laas Geel rock shelters, located an hour north-east of Hargesia, and the location of Neolithic paintings dating back several thousands of years. One of the reasons I wanted to come here is because its good to be reminded that [while] the image of this part of the world is about conflict and so much despair and suffering, and yet its also one of the cradles of civilization, Keating said. So while its a resource for the world, its also very important for Somalis to know that they are living in a land with great history and traditions and that is changing and is dynamic, he added. French researchers came across the site during an archaeological survey of the area in 2002, and it is considered to be one of the oldest rock art sites in Africa and the most important ancient site in Somaliland. The paintings depict wild animals, decorated cattle and herders. According to local authorities, up to 200 hundred visitors, from the region and abroad, make the trek to the site each month, despite access difficulties and concerns over security. That would suggest that the potential is indeed enormous, and not just limited to rock caves, said Keating. Theres the natural environment, the coast and the beaches are incredible, the potential for tourism is enormous. There have been concerns over recent years that the sites paintings are under threat of serious deterioration from their exposure to the elements as well as local animals. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sent a team to review the site in 2016. It has made recommendations on how to best safeguard it, and is working with local authorities on putting those measures in place. UN Photo/Tobin Jones New York, Jan 12 (JEN): After seven years of bloody conflict, the Syrian war has wreaked a colossal toll on the country and its people, the United Nations relief chief said on Thursday from the capital, Damascus, where he outlined ways to sustain and improve humanitarian assistance and protection for everyone affected by the crisis this year. I have this week seen first hand the colossal toll that the brutal and sustained hostilities have taken, said Mark Lowcock, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a statement to the media on the third day of his visit to Syria. Describing the dire situation, he said estimates suggest that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, countless more are missing or detained, and five million have fled to other countries. Gross domestic product (GDP) is less than half what it was before the war, and replacing destroyed infrastructure and housing will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Almost 70 per cent of people now live in extreme poverty, said Lowcock. Against this background, he paid tribute to the thousands of aid workers that have worked to implement assistance programmes, explaining: Most of them are Syrians and many are volunteers, working for the organizations of the UN, the Red Cross, [non-gorvnermental organizations] and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. While in Syria, Lowcock, who is also the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said he has had open discussions with the Government about the crisis and what more needs to be done to reduce humanitarian suffering, and has also met local authorities, the diplomatic community and humanitarian organizations. He said he is hoping soon to see a number of positive developments that enable the UN to sustain and improve the aid effort this year. Such developments would include finalization of the UNs humanitarian response plan for 2018, which seeks $3.5 billion from donors to meet the needs of more than 13 million people in all parts of Syria, as well as agreement to medical evacuation for hundreds of critically ill people trapped in besieged Eastern Ghouta. The UNs humanitarian response plan for Syria, which targets some 13 million people and is one of the worlds largest sustained emergency aid efforts, totalled $1.7 billion in 2017. Also, agreement to three or four UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoys each week across front lines would provide assistance to up to 2.5 million people in besieged and hard to reach areas. Further, the aid effort could be improved through agreement on UN-supported convoys from Damascus to Rukban in south-eastern Syria, and more effective arrangements to enable the UN to support the work of Syrian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and to enable international NGOs to play a stronger role in relieving the suffering. Lowcock said he also discussed with the Government and others a number of other issues, including the review of the cross-border aid programmes from neighbouring countries into Syria which was commissioned last month by the Security Council. My mandate is to ensure humanitarian assistance and protection for everyone who needs it, in accordance with the long-established principles of independence, impartiality and neutrality which have been endorsed by all the Member States of the UN, he said. Photo: OCHA/Ghalia Seifo Two Indian arrested for producing fake Nepali currency A team of Far-Western Regional Investigation Bureau of Police on Thursday arrested two Indian nationals while they were producing fake Nepali currency at the no-man's land at Belauri Municipality-6. With the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran as its main constituent group, the NCRI is able to draw upon a far-reaching intelligence network inside Iran, which was notably used in the first public disclosures of essential information about the Iranian nuclear program. Meanwhile, the credibility of Tehrans declaration of an end to protests is arguably diminished by the fact that similar declarations had already been made days earlier, when demonstrations were proceeding in full force. At the time of the regimes earlier statements, the IRGC also sought to downplay the size of the protests, claiming that only 15,000 people had participated across the country. By Thursday, however, officials expanded this number to 42,000, according to NBC News. But this is almost certainly a very low estimate as well, considering that the protests started in Irans second most populous city of Mashhad and then expanded to include upwards of 80 localities. The regimes narrative about the size of the protests is also arguably undermined by the latest information about the crackdown carried out by the IRGC and Iranian security forces. The regime itself has admitted to 3,700 arrests, despite having previously acknowledged only a few hundred. The NCRI reports that even the higher figure is less than half of the number of arrests that can be confirmed through independent analysis. To back up this claim, the resistance group pointed to the local arrest figures for a number of Iranian towns and cities. In several of these, well over 100 arrests have been acknowledged, while dozens of people have been arrested in comparatively small towns. Extrapolating from these figures to the nationwide scale of the protests, it is easy to conclude that the regimes estimates remain understated. This perspective is perhaps further justified by the impulse among some hardline Iranian authorities to offer explanations for the protests which downplay their popular roots. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has famously blamed the United States and other foreign enemies for orchestrating and directing the demonstrations. He also paired this with virtually unprecedented attribution of domestic activities to the PMOI, a resistance organization that the regime has tended to disregard as insignificant and lacking in popular appeal. As Irans own Tasnim News Agency reported on Thursday, Guardian Council Secretary Ahmad Jannati expanded upon Khameneis narrative by suggesting that committed opponents of the clerical regime had initiated the protest, after which thousands of other participants were deceived into participation. He did not elaborate other than by saying people had been won over by organizers slogans without realizing that they were protesting against the government itself. Khamenei also referenced certain slogans in his speech about the protests on January 9, attributing them directly to the PMOI and implying they were the product of months of planning. But even as these two clerical leaders were refining a narrative that blamed the US and the PMOI without admitting of popular sympathy for either, Newsy was reporting that Iranian leaders simply could not agree about the causes of the demonstrations. This was made clear by President Hassan Rouhanis admission last week that citizens had social and political demands for the government, in addition to the economic demands that most other authorities had exclusively focused on before he made his remarks. There is little dispute about the economic roots of the protests, although opinions vary somewhat about their importance to the overall movement, which came to include slogans such as death to Rouhani and death to the dictator, in reference to Khamenei. Inequality.org emphasized Irans entrenched wealth disparities in an article about the protests on Thursday. Specifically, it called attention to the fact that while the fortunes of powerful Iranian institutions improved in the wake of sanctions relief under the 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers, the peoples perceptions of the economic health of the nation actually declined. The same article notes that the budget for the forthcoming Iranian year, which was announced shortly before the outbreak of unrest, was a major spark for the demonstrations. Of particular issue was that budgets increase in funding for the military and the IRGC, a significant portion of which can be expected to be earmarked for foreign interventions by the IRGCs Quds Force. That foreign special operations force presently remains heavily involved in the Syrian Civil War as well as supporting proxy forces in Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere. Global Voices also called attention to this budget in the context of the protests, noting that the amount of funding for the Quds Force was not actually disclosed. The piece declares that for reasons that include but are not limited to the wasteful expenditure of government funds, Tehrans foreign policy is a particular target of the publics anger. Meanwhile, the interconnectedness of this issue and the poor economic indicators for ordinary people leads Global Voices to conclude that addressing the economic roots of the protests will likely require the regime to compromise on its foreign policy goals. But critics of the regime, including the NCRI, believe that it is fundamentally incapable of such compromise. And this underscores another familiar observation about the protests: that they are likely to resurge even if regime authorities are correct about the recent bout of unrest being at an end. NBC quoted Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution as saying the demonstrations constitute one of the most serious crises Iran has faced in the past 25 years and a sign that Iranians are willing to take profound risks to challenge the regime directly in a way we have not seen in years. These sorts of observations have led many commentators to draw conclusions similar to that of the Global Voices article, regarding the need for the regime to compromise with protesters or else risk overthrow. It is perhaps in response to this perspective that so many Iranian officials have demonstrated an impulse to moderate their public response to the recent unrest. In addition to making a concerted effort to downplay the number of arrests and other indicators of a widespread crackdown, these officials have also made unusual statements about the right of the people to voice their grievances, provided that they do not disrupt public order or call for regime change. An article called attention to the officials cautious tone in an analysis of the protests on Wednesday, but it concluded that this is not indicative of a more compassionate approach to public dissent. Rather, the government has become smarter in managing such crises, the article explained. Meanwhile, it has become no more capable of managing the business of government or addressing the peoples grievances, which it finds to be manifold. The article suggests that the recent unrest was a spontaneous expression of outrage about issues that often differed from one locality to another. The regimes early emphasis on the economic roots of the protests cannot explain everything, according to this line of thinking, which also underscores the comprehensive changes that the government would have to undertake in order to prevent the outbreak of more of the same. As many observers are clearly waiting for the resurgence of protests that may or may not have been effectively suppressed for the time being, another question lingers alongside questions about the exact motives and demands of the movement. That is the question of what sort of action the international community should take in the period between mass demonstrations. In the first place, the National Council of Resistance of Iran has unsurprisingly called upon the Security Council and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the European Union and the member states, and the US government, as well as all human rights organizations to condemn Tehran for recent human rights abuses against protesters and to take steps that might prevent more of the same. On the broader topic of how to respond to the protest movement as a whole, many Western commentators have advised silence, suggesting that too much support from the US and its allies would only legitimize Khameneis claims that those foreign powers had been behind the uprisings in the first place. But Shadi Hamid disputed this in an article in The Atlantic by noting that Middle Eastern adversaries of the US will blame domestic unrest on the West no matter what American leaders do. The White House has already released statements expressing concern about human rights abuses and general support for the Iranian peoples cause, in keeping with President Donald Trumps hardline stance on Iran policy. But Hamid insisted that this must be a broader policy and that recent protesters, along with prospective future protesters, need to know that the members of the international community, including Americas European allies, are paying close attention and not merely playing a delicate both sides-ism in the interest of an imaginary rapprochement with the Iranian regime. While it has been reported that the protests have subsided, they are increasing through other means. Basij security forces, Revolutionary Guard Corps, and intelligence services attempted to quell dissent. Internet services were blocked, and social media was banned. It is not difficult for the regime to suppress uprisings, as it did this time as well as eight years ago. Still, the regime is burdened by popular, international, and economic pressures. The Guardianship of Islamic Jurist (Wilayat al-Faqih), suffers from some serious difficulties. During the 40 years that the regime has been in power, little has been done to meet the new generations needs. The regime also faces internal conflicts, including rifts between clerics that have surfaced and threatened its unity. The people of the country has shown themselves to be opposed to involvement in dangerous and costly regional wars. The United States under President Trump has decided to monitor Tehrans institutions with the intention of targeting them. The US has also begun to pressure the Iranian regime technologically, commercially, and politically. All these factors are dangerous to the theological state, that wages regional wars and spreads terrorism. The recent demonstrations indicate that this is unacceptable to the people. The regime has become unpopular even in the rural areas that once supported it. This is important, as it is said that the people of Tehran, and the middle class (who revolted in 2009) do not decide the fate of Iran, but the regimes support base is in the areas outside the capital. The regime that was founded by Khomeini is deteriorating because regional and international powers are isolating it, and because internally, the people are now opposing and uniting against the regime. The state of Wilayat al-Faqih is concerned with its image internally and externally, so over-expanding its military operations may be expected, as the regime seeks victories abroad to mend its internal strife. Fixing the current economy requirers financial resources that the Iranian regime is not believe to have, and so spending even more money on its military activities abroad will only worsen the situation. Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist and leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, writes in his article for Arab News, Some onlookers were shocked by the much bolder slogans of this uprising than the one in 2009. Indeed, the outrage over economic hardships and wealth disparities escalated into calls for the expulsion of President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as for the dismantling of the system of clerical rule. The regime blames the unrest on everything except its own incompetence and disregard for the interests of the Iranian public, says Dr. Rafizadeh, who adds, Khamenei identified the leading Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), as a main contributor, doing his best to conceal its popular appeal by describing it as part of a triangle of enemies that had planned, financed and carried out the latest uprising. He also identified Americans and Zionists as the masterminds behind protesters call for regime change. Dr. Rafizadeh criticizes Khameneis claims that Arab adversaries put up cash, while the opposition acted as foot soldiers, and cites the lack of evidence of such a conspiracy. He says that Khamenei was attempting to underplay the significance of domestic support for regime change but this effort did not diminish the admission that the MEK provided many of the activists for a protest movement that spread across nearly the entire country. Since its establishment in 1979, the Iranian regime has resorted to blaming foreign enemies for its domestic problems and the populations dissatisfaction with it, Dr. Rafizadeh writes. This is a tactic that Iranian authorities use to suppress domestic opposition blaming foreign powers allows the regime to avoid taking responsibility. The secretary of Irans clerical Guardian Council, Ahmad Jannati, said that the uprising resulted from a relatively small faction of committed opponents, who deceived a much larger population of demonstrators to endorse the cause. However, tens of thousands of people took to the streets and joined chants of death to the dictator. Dr. Majid Rafizadeh writes, People do not express support for regime change in their home country on a whim. He concludes that if the opposition was a leading voice in the uprising, it must be a leading voice for the Iranian people in general. Therefore, however inadvertently, Khamenei admitted that there is a substantial threat to the regimes future. Independent analysts have underscored this threat, and say a violent crackdown on the uprising will only engender more protests. This is especially certain, if no serious measures are undertaken to address the peoples economic, political, and social demands. The regime acknowledged that some 3,700 people have been arrested. The judiciary warned that death sentences may await those deemed responsible. But, these actions will most likely not uproot the oppositions deep integration into Iranian society. The world should thus expect to see another surge of protests, and with the opposition still in place as a major organizational force, it stands to reason that the demands will continue to escalate, writes Dr. Majid Rafizadeh. This is Whats Trending Today YouTube says it has punished an American blogger over a video that appeared to show the body of a suicide victim. The blogger, Logan Paul, took the video in the Aokigahara forest, near Japans Mount Fuji. The area is known as a place where a number of people have taken their lives in recent years. In the video, Paul and his friends see a mans hanging body from a tree. They react with shock, but also make jokes. Suicide rates in Japan are among the highest in the world. About 21,000 people there commit suicide each year, according to Japanese government estimates. YouTube said in a statement that it has removed Logan Pauls channels from Google Preferred, which presents top YouTube videos. The company offers those videos to advertisers. YouTube also said it will not include Paul in the new season of a web-based series called Foursome. And it said his new videos are no longer being published. Pauls YouTube channel has more than 15 million subscribers. He has more than 4 million followers on Twitter. The video filmed in the Japanese forest received over 6 million views before Paul took it down. YouTube bars violent content that is shown in a shocking or disrespectful way, the company says. It issued a strike against Pauls channel for violating its community rules after the video was published. Paul announced earlier this month he was taking a break from making YouTube videos to reflect. He has also published several apology videos and posts on social media. But Paul continues to face strong criticism for the apparent suicide victim video as well as other video blogs he published during his visit to Japan. I'm Bryan Lynn. The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story commit - v. to do (something that is illegal or harmful) channel - n. a television or radio station reflect - v. to think carefully about something The American Kennel Club, or AKC, has increased its membership. New to the AKC pack are an energetic dog whose main interests is ducks and a friendly dog that would rather chase rabbits. The American Kennel Club announced Wednesday that it is recognizing the Nederlandse kooikerhondje and the grand basset griffon Vendeen. They are the first breeds added to the roster in two years. The newly added breeds are permitted to compete in many dog shows this year. But they are not yet able to take part in the biggest show; they will have to wait until 2019 to enter the Westminster Kennel Club show, held in New York City. The Nederlandse kooikerhondje have been around for hundreds of years in Holland. They are called Kooikers for short. The pretty brown-and-white dogs can be seen in some Dutch Old Master paintings. D. Ann Knoop-Siderius breeds kooikers. They're actually like a toddler that never grows up,'' she said. She describes the dogs as happy, sometimes naughty and very playful. Kooikers were trained to help hunters move ducks into water traps called koois. The practice fell from popularity in the 1800s and the dogs almost disappeared. There are now about 7,000 left worldwide. The first recorded American litter was born in 1999. It is still a rare breed in the country, with about 500 in the U.S. Kooikers will compete in the sporting dog group. The grand basset griffon Vendeen goes by GBGV'' for short. The basset breed has deep roots in Europe. A smaller cousin, the petit basset griffon Vendeen, and the long-eared basset hound have been recognized by the AKC for many years. GBGVs have long, rough fur. They are native to France. They weigh around 18 to 20 kilograms and stand fairly low to the ground. They are members of the hound group. GBGVs are known for their speed, lasting energy and good-natured personalities. Megan Esherick is a dog trainer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She also owns a 9-year-old GBGV named Juno. She says the breed is pretty laid-back. They're happy to get up and do things if you ask them to, but they're not particularly busy, in terms of pacing back and forth or throwing a ball in your lap,'' she said. Juno has competed in agility, obedience and other events. Experts say GBGVs enjoy children and family life but are not easy to train. The breed might not be the best choice for a first-time dog owner. The AKC is the nation's oldest purebred dog registry. It recognizes 192 breeds, from silky Afghan hounds to the xoloitzcuintlis, also called the Mexican hairless dog. The AKC does not consider recognition of a breed unless there are at least 300 of the dogs spread across at least 20 states. Some animal-rights supporters say working to increase interest in purebreds is wrong. They say it leads to cruel breeding operations. Activists also argue that too many dogs are in public shelters already and need owners. The AKC says responsible breeding permits people to choose pets with somewhat predictable characteristics. The club also notes that mixed-breed dogs compete in many events it supports, such as agility and obedience competitions. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Caty Weaver. The Associated Press reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story pack - n. a group of usually wild animals that hunt together toddler - n. a young child who is just learning to walk naughty - adj. behaving badly used especially to describe a child who does not behave properly or obey a parent, teacher, etc. litter - n. a group of young animals that are born at a single time personality - n. the set of emotional qualities, ways of behaving, etc., that makes a person different from other people laid-back - adj. relaxed and calm particularly - adv. more than usually pace - v. to walk back and forth across the same space again and again especially because you are nervous agility - n. ability to move quickly and easily registry - n. a place where official records are kept characteristic - n. typical of a person, thing, or group Observers say French President Emmanuel Macron communicated two important messages during his recent visit to China. One was about the huge possibilities cooperation between China and Europe could bring and Macrons support of that effort. The other was a warning not to underestimate European concern about Chinas possibly unfair trade practices. These include Chinese restrictions on investment in many businesses and industries. Matheiu Duchatel is deputy director of the Asia and China Program at the European Council of Foreign Relations. He said that Macrons visit will influence actions not only in France, but in other countries also. He wants to present himself as a leader of the European Union (EU), Duchatel said. But at the same time, I think he wants to send a signal that Europe and the EU are in better shape than many think in China, he noted. Duchatel said that Europe, the United States and Australia are all expressing growing concern about Chinas trade practices. Many (people) are coming to terms with the reality that China is no longer the factory of the world, he added. But it is clearly a country that has very strong ambitions in terms of economic leadership for the world and it is not a market economy. Macron presented Chinese leader Xi Jinping with a gift of an 8-year old horse named Vesuvius. He promised to visit China at least once every year while he serves as Frances president. He also said that he is ready to work to get the Europe-China relationship into the 21st Century. The two sides signed major trade deals during the visit. Chinas president said the two countries will deepen their strategic cooperation. During his first stop in Xian, Macron expressed French support for Chinas huge trade and commerce project, the Belt and Road initiative. Xian was once the starting point of the Silk Road, the name for roads and transportation links used by traders many centuries ago. In a speech, Macron noted that the ancient Silk Roads were never only Chinese. By definition these roads can only be shared, he told a meeting of business people, students and professors. If they are roads, they cannot be one-way. On Tuesday, Macron met with Alibaba founder Jack Ma and officials of other Chinese and French companies. In a speech, the president talked about the possibilities cooperation could bring. But he warned about the threat of protectionism if changes were not made. Im Caty Weaver. Bill Ide and Joyce Huang reported this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted their report for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story ambition n. a desire to get things done; a goal or aim commerce n. the change of products or services initiative n. a plan that is designed to solve a problem advantage n. a gain or desirable quality screening mechanism n. a method or model for testing globalization n. the combining of national economics through trade, investment and technology We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. President Donald Trump has denied that he used a vulgar, insulting term in describing African nations and Haiti during a White House meeting. American news media reported on Thursday that Trump used the term at talks on a U.S. immigration policy known as DACA. DACA is short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It is meant for individuals who moved to the United States illegally before the age of 16. Under the policy, those immigrants are guaranteed protection and are not at risk of expulsion from the country. Media reports said Trump used the offensive term when Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham reported to him about a newly-written immigration bill. The vulgar term means extremely dirty and poor. The president added that the U.S. government should accept more people from countries like Norway. Trump had met with the Norwegian prime minister on Wednesday. Asked about the comments, 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. In a tweet Friday morning, Trump suggested that he did not use the insulting term. He wrote, 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! Trump later added, Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Senator Durbin, a member of the Democratic Party, was at the White House meeting on Thursday. The senator spoke with reporters on Friday in Chicago, Illinois. When asked what Trump had said in the meeting, Durbin said, "I cannot believe that in the history of the White House and of that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday. You've seen the comments in the press. I have not read one of them that's inaccurate." Reactions from Africa The African Union (AU) told the Associated Press it was frankly alarmed by Trumps reported comment. A spokesman for the AU said, This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity. The government in Botswana called Trumps reported comment reprehensible and racist. South Africas ruling African National Congress said the term is extremely offensive. Not all African governments offered an opinion. Unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say, a spokesman for South Sudan told the Associated Press. United Nations official Rupert Colville added These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word one can use but racist. Reactions in the U.S. U.S. Congressman Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, said President Trumps comments are racist and a disgrace. But Democrats were not the only ones to object. Like Trump, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida is a member of the Republican Party. She said "It's incomprehensible that these words came out of the mouth of the president of the United States of America, a country that was founded on being free from discrimination and treating people fairly and having people come here, the land of the free." Another Republican, Representative Mia Love of Utah, is a child of Haitian immigrants. She said This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. And she called on Trump to apologize to the American people. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, also a Republican, said he wanted more details of the presidents comments. "Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin," Hatch added. I'm Pete Musto. And I'm Caty Weaver. Hai Do adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on AP, Reuters and VOA news reports. George Grow was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story vulgar - adj. lewdly or profanely indecent defer - v. to choose to do something at a later time tough - adj. difficult setback - n. a problem that make progress difficult or success less likely derogatory - adj. expressing low opinion of someone or something unfortunately - adv. used to say something bad has happened inaccurate - adj. not correct or exact alarm - v. to worry or frighten opportunity - n. a situation in which something can be done reprehensible - adj. very bad, deserving very strong criticism incomprehensible - adj. impossible to understand Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated provides connected commerce solutions to financial institutions and retailers in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Latin America. It operates through Eurasia Banking, Americas Banking, and Retail segments. The company offers cash recyclers and dispensers, intelligent deposit terminals, teller automation tools, and kiosk technologies, as well as physical security solutions; and front-end applications for consumer connection points and back-end platforms that manage channel transactions, operations and integration, and facilitate omnichannel transactions, endpoint monitoring, remote asset management, customer marketing, merchandise management, and analytics. It also provides banking product-related services comprising proactive monitoring and rapid resolution of incidents through remote service capabilities or an on-site visit; first- and second-line maintenance, preventive maintenance, and on-demand services; managed and outsourcing services, such as business processes, solution management, upgrades, and transaction processing; and cash management services. In addition, the company offers DN Vynamic software suite to simplify and enhance the consumer experience; mobile point of sale and self-checkout terminals; printers, scales, and mobile scanners; and banknote and coin processing systems. Additionally, it provides retail customer's product-related services, such as on-demand and professional services; maintenance and availability services; implementation services; managed mobility services; monitoring and advanced analytics; and store life-cycle management services. The company was formerly known as Diebold, Incorporated and changed its name to Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated in December 2016. Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated was founded in 1859 and is headquartered in Hudson, Ohio. Alibaba Group Holding Limited is an eCommerce and Internet technology giant headquartered in the People's Republic of China. Its core platform, Alibaba.com, is the worlds 3rd largest eCommerce platform by sales. The company, through its vast network of subsidiary companies, provides the infrastructure and marketing to help merchants of all sizes develop their brands and to connect with customers in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company also aids other businesses with a vast array of digital and logistical solutions with a reach that spans the globe. Alibaba was co-founded by Jack Ma in 1999 when it became clear the Internet and digitization were the future of commerce. Mr. Ma is a billionaire investor, businessman, and philanthropist who believes in an open and free-market economy. The company went public in September 2014 with an IPO on the NYSE. The IPO set a record with its valuation of $25 billion and the company is now worth more than $225 billion and ranked among the 10 most valuable companies by market cap. Alibaba is also ranked 5th largest globally in regards to its work in AI, and it owns the world's largest B2B, B2C, and C2C eCommerce portals. In 2022, Alibabas Singles Day event brought in $139 billion to set a new one-day record. The principal purpose of Alibaba Group Holding Limited is to open the Chinese market and connect it to the world. The company operates through seven segments including China Commerce, International Commerce, Local Consumer Services, Cainiao, Cloud, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Innovation Initiatives and Others. The companys eCommerce platforms include Taobao Marketplace, Tmall, Alimama, 1688.com, Alibaba.com, Aliexpress, Lazada, Trendyol, and Daraz. Taobao Marketplace is a social-media eCommerce platform while Alimama is a monetization platform for entrepreneurs. 1688.com and Alibaba.com are wholesale marketplaces where individuals and businesses can connect with bulk items and the remainder are eCommerce retail platforms and search engines targeting specific markets. In addition, the company also operated a retail chain called Freshippo and Tmall Global which is an import platform for eCommerce. Other digital services provided by Alibaba include Taoxianda, which is a digital integration service for FMCG goods and grocery retailers, and Cainiao Network which is a logistical services platform complemented by Ele.me, a delivery and services platform. Alibaba also supports the infrastructure of the Internet with a range of products and services that include computing, storage, network, security, database, big data, and IoT connectivity. This segment includes a suite of cloud-based services such as Alibaba Pictures and content platforms that provide streaming media. Ronald Reagan The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive. Albert Einstein If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. Winston Churchill It isnt so much that liberals are ignorant. Its just that they know so many things that arent so. With integrity nothing else counts; Without integrity nothing else counts. Winston Churchill Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself. Harvey S. Firestone It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office. H. L. Menken Referenda insure all have a voice in land use decisions. U.S. Supreme Court Listen carefully to first criticism of your work. Note just what it is about your work the critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping. Jean Cocteau Cambodia and China yesterday signed nearly 20 agreements worth several billion dollars to develop the impoverished Southeast Asian countrys 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 yesterday to Cambodia, Chinas close ally. Among the major agreements was building a new expressway more than 200 kilometers long linking the capital, Phnom Penh, with the resort city of Sihanoukville, and a new Phnom Penh international Airport. Cambodian Public Work and Transport Minister Sun Chanthol told The Associated Press after the signing that China will invest some USD2 billion for the highway. He said the project is set to start this year and will take at least 44 months to complete. China is Cambodias key ally and economic partner. It has provided millions of dollars in aid and investment over the past decade, granted Cambodia a tariff-free status on hundreds of trade items and written off its debt. In return, Cambodia supports China in international forums, including Beijings ongoing dispute with Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea. AP Chinas plan for a modern Silk Road of railways, ports and other facilities linking Asia with Europe hit a USD14 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 canceled, 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. 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 due to financing difficulties, the newspaper Myanmar Times reported. 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, said Zhang. The U.S. and Japanese governments express interest in building contracts or other potential Belt and Road opportunities for their companies. But they also are trying to develop alternative initiatives. In November, the U.S. governments Overseas Private Investment Corp. signed an agreement with Japanese partners to offer infrastructure investment alternatives in the Indo-Pacific region, according to a White House statement. The following month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan can cooperate greatly with China. 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. 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. It said the two sides had held only preliminary talks about the project. A Pakistani Cabinet official who spoke on condition he not be identified further said the Chinese side asked for clarification of the ownership status of the dam site because Gilgit-Baltistan has yet to be formally made part of a Pakistani province. The water authority didnt respond to requests to clarify its chairmans comments. 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. 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. Joe McDonald, Munir Ahmed & Sylivester Domasa, AP, Beijing, AP China has protested an Australian ministers 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 that China was lending to Pacific nations on unfavorable terms to construct useless buildings and roads to nowhere. Youve 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 dont want to build something for the heck of building it. We just dont want to build a road that doesnt go anywhere, she added. Chinas 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. A study on obesity rates in children, co-produced by a Macau-based scholar, recently found that the age group 9 to 10 years old is a critical period in understanding the obesity epidemic afflicting much of the developed world. A partnership of five scholars from universities based out of South Africa, Portugal, mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, the study sampled more than 10,000 students for six years, tracking the differences in the obesity rate each year. Of this figure, approximately 900 students were tested from Macau between 2008 and 2013. At the beginning of the study, when the participants were aged 6, the proportion of Macau students considered obese stood at 6.9 percent, while a further 10.8 percent were considered overweight. Only a half-decade later, those proportions had jumped to 13.1 percent and 12.9 percent respectively. This indicates that obesity rates are prone to suddenly increase at some point during ages 6 and 11. There is evidence that rapid weight gain during the first years of life is associated with being overweight later in life. Therefore, overweight tendencies need to be detected at an appropriate age, and suitable strategies need to be implemented for weight management to achieve optimal long-term health, argued the reports authors. According to one of them, University of Macau assistant professor Walter King, all over the world, students are gradually increasing in weight [disproportionate to what is considered normal], but ages 9 to 10 appears to be a critical period. The same group of students were monitored [throughout the survey] for six years, tracking the differences in the obesity rate [each year], he explained yesterday in an interview with the Times. The point was not to determine that the obesity rate has risen we know that this is happening. We know that there is a sudden increase at a particular age group and we wanted to find out what that age group was. The study used Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight proportions, to determine whether the child participants could be classified as underweight, standard weight, overweight or obese. BMI, which is principally used for adults, can produce distortive effects when applied to children if their age and gender are not taken into account. However, the authors advance that overweight or obesity is easily observed when there is an increase in weight without an increase of height. According to the study, BMI was calculated as the primary variable [] and was designated as the weight in kilograms divided by the height in meters squared (kg/m2). King accepted that further studies were needed to arrive at a more confident conclusion. It is important to note that this is just a small sample size of 900, but more data is coming from a recent study of around 15,000 students from various cities around the world [] such as Seoul and Hong Kong, the UM scholar noted. He said that if the data from the latest study corroborates the findings published in the report, then we can say its a universal phenomenon for this age group. Asked what might be the cause behind the sudden increase in obesity rates at this age, King preferred not to speculate, adding we have no other information [than that published in the article]. However, he advised that we need to do more to adopt intervention projects, like those that the DSEJ [Education and Youth Affairs Bureau] is currently implementing, to promote physical exercise in schools. Chinese tech giant Huawei won a patent infringement lawsuit against South Korea smartphone rival Samsung yesterday, according to information released by a Chinese court. The court ruled in the Chinese companys favor over two patents involving fourth generation phone technology, according to a notice released through the courts WeChat account and video of the trial. The judge ordered Samsung Electronics to immediately stop selling or manufacturing products using the technology and to pay a small court fee. The ruling did not cite specific phone models. 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 lawsuits against each other in the United States and China in recent years. Huawei Technologies Ltd.s headquarters is in Shenzhen, in southern China across the border from Hong Kong. The company is the dominant player in Chinas smartphone market, though globally it trails Samsung and Apple. The court said it ruled in Huaweis favor after finding that 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 courts decision and determine appropriate responses. Huaweis legal victory comes days after it was dealt a setback in its efforts to expand sales in the U.S. when, according to media reports, a planned deal to sell handsets phones through AT&T fell through. AP A series of eight earthquakes hit the Iran- Iraq border area and rattled Baghdad yesterday, apparent aftershocks of a temblor that struck the mountainous region in November and killed over 530 people. Four people suffered minor injuries in Iran, state television reported. The U.S. Geological Survey said seven of the quakes struck near the Iraqi city of Mandali, 120 kilometers northeast of the Iraqi capital. Mandali is right on the border between the two nations. The eighth hit near Mehran in western Iran, about 90 kilometers southeast of Mandali along the sparsely populated Zagros Mountains that divide Iran and Iraq. All the earthquakes struck within an hour of each other, beginning at 0659 GMT. Six had a preliminary magnitude of at least 5, while two registered at magnitude 4. Scientists consider earthquakes of magnitude 5 as moderate. Iranian authorities offered similar figures for the earthquakes on state television. All the information could change as scientists examine the data. Iranian state television said online that people rushed into the streets as the temblors hit. In Baghdad, people felt a quake shake the Iraqi capital, followed by what felt like aftershocks. All the earthquakes struck at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the USGS. Earthquakes at magnitude 5 can cause considerable damage. The temblors also all were very shallow, which causes more ground shaking and potential damage, particularly in places without strict building codes. In November, a major 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the same region, killing over 530 people and injuring thousands in Iran alone. In Iraq, nine people were killed and 550 were injured, all in the countrys northern Kurdish region, according to the United Nations. Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, said the earthquakes all appeared to be aftershocks from the November temblor. That area is home to many shallow faults, he said. Its ongoing activity there, Baldwin told The Associated Press. If there was a stressed fault thats ready to move, they happen like that until the stresses are relieved, so its not too unusual. The November earthquake hit hardest in the Kurdish town of Sarpol-e- Zahab in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah, which is only 80 kilometers from where most of yesterdays earthquakes struck. AP Lawmakers Vong Hing Fai and Kou Hoi In reacted to Sulu Sous court request to void his suspension from the Legislative Assembly (AL) by presenting a proposal that would exempt political decisions from appeal. The resolution project titled Political Nature of Deliberations of the Legislative Assembly Plenary was admitted yesterday by AL president Ho Iat Seng. It will be voted next week. In their proposal, Vong and Kou recall that the AL plenary vote that resulted in the suspension of lawmaker Sulu Sou occurred on December 4. The following day, the suspension notice was published by the Official Gazette, generating some doubts, according to the proponents. Arguing that the decisions of the AL plenary regarding the suspension or the loss of a mandate have a political nature, the lawmakers claim that those acts are free of the interference of any other institution or individual, to avoid that the normal operation of the political structure defined by the Basic Law is undermined. With only two articles, the proposal states that the deliberations of the Legislative Assembly that lead to the suspension or loss of a lawmakers mandate are acts of a political nature that are excluded from administrative, fiscal or customs appeal. Article number two establishes that the measure would have retroactive effects dating back to December 1999, when the MSAR was created. Contacted by the Times, lawyer Leonel Alves who was a lawmaker for 33 years said that the proposal is illogical, if the Basic Law, which is based on the principle of rule of law, is taken into consideration. According to Alves, there isnt any public power [institution] that can smash the power of a citizen and any act that harms individual rights is subject to appeal. If the citizens right to defend himself is obstructed or the principle of listening to all parties involved is pulled into question the acts are subject to appeal. If there is a basic violation of basic principles of the rule of law, it is appealable, Alves explained. The veteran lawyer also questioned the definition of a political act, saying that a wide range of decisions, such as the approval of a budget by the AL, can be considered political. Sergio de Almeida Correia says that acts with a political nature should be exempted from litigation because of the principle of separation of powers. But the lawyer contends that what is at stake in this case are the several steps that lead to the December 4 vote and not the vote itself. The procedural acts that are taken through a process and that lead to a decision can and should be subject to litigation and constitutional assessment, to see if they abide by the law, he told the Times yesterday. Sergio de Almeida Correia argues that it is important to verify if the procedural acts on which the political act depends are legal. That, and only that, is what is at stake, he says, adding that when procedural acts hinder fundamental rights, the courts should exert control. The Times also questioned Correia about the article 2 of the proposal. Could it produce effects starting in December 1999? It cant and that would be an even bigger aberration than the presentation of this project, which has the intention of violating in a crass way the principle of separation of powers, taking from the courts competences that are granted to them by the Basic Law. The lawmakers who presented the project intend to appropriate jurisdiction of the courts and decide by anticipation a question that has left their sphere, the lawyer said. Now it is up to the courts to decide. The simple fact that this resolution project was presented reveals the incompetence behind how the suspension process was conducted [] and reveals the fear that some have regarding what the courts may decide. A never-before-published series of photographs, taken by Macau-based Portuguese photojournalist Goncalo Lobo Pinheiro, is being exhibited at The Brick Lane Gallery in London until January 14. Under the gallerys Photography Now initiative, the collection comprises photographs taken by Pinheiro in the area of Lake Tonle in Cambodia, the largest lake in Asia. The series I am presenting has never been published until today, Pinheiro told the Times in an interview this week. It is about 15 photos [ and] it was chosen among two or three series that I showed for consideration. The Tonle Sap series, consisting of photographs shot in black and white, chronicles the daily activities of villagers living around Cambodias Lake Tonle. It depicts traditional professions in the area, such as fishing and rowing, as well as the waterside homes and shacks of these communities. But for the year ahead, travel photojournalist Pinheiro is betting on a deeper dissemination of [his] Myanmar work instead. There are many photos that have not yet been made public and I want badly to exhibit this work. I am finishing with a gallery in Lisbon, another in Macau and, perhaps, in London again to expose the photos of Myanmar, he said. At the same time, I would like to edit a book with this material. In the Photography Now exhibit Pinheiro is joined by a host of other photographers, including Andres Benguerel, Alexandra Mekhanik, Nadir Bucan, Prashant Meswani, Suzanne Middlemass, Titilayo Soyombo, Tuba Elmas and LNDA Photography. Pinheiro, who has been based in Macau since 2008, was awarded an Honorable Mention in Architecture Historic by the International Photography Awards (IPA) for his entry, Stay Tuned in October. The entry is a picture of two people using their devices in front of the iconic Ruins of St. Pauls. On his collaboration with The Brick Lane Gallery, the photojournalist said exhibiting in London is already very significant [and humbling]. It makes me tremble. DB Authorities in northern Chinas coal country this week demolished a well-known Christian mega-church, underscoring long- standing tensions between religious groups and the officially atheistic Communist Party. Witnesses and overseas activists say paramilitary Peoples Armed Police forces used excavators and dynamite this week to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church in the city of Linfen in Shanxi province. ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian advocacy group, said local authorities planted explosives in an underground worship hall to demolish the building, which was built with nearly USD3 million in contributions from local worshippers in one of Chinas poorest regions. The church, with a congregation of more than 50,000, has long clashed with the government. Hundreds of police and hired thugs smashed the church and seized Bibles in an earlier crackdown in 2009 that ended with church leaders receiving long prison sentences. At the time, church leaders were charged with illegally occupying farmland and disturbing traffic order by getting together, according to state media. There are an estimated 60 million Christians in China, many of whom worship in independent congregations like the Golden Lampstand. Millions of Christians, Buddhists and Muslims also worship in state-sanctioned assemblies. But the surging popularity of non-state-approved churches has raised the ire of local authorities, wary of any threats to the partys rigid political and social control. Freedom of religion is technically guaranteed under Chinas constitution, so local authorities are often seen as using technicalities to attack unregistered churches. Charges of land or building violations and disturbing the peace are among the most common. The state-run Global Times newspaper, citing an unidentified local official, reported Wednesday the official reason for the demolition was that it did not hold the necessary permits. Religious groups must register with local religious affairs authorities under Chinese law, the report said. The church was illegally constructed nearly a decade ago in violation of building codes, it said. Pictures distributed by ChinaAid showed the churchs steeple and cross toppled in a large pile of rubble. A local pastor at a nearby church, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he saw large numbers of paramilitary police on Tuesday blanketing the area around the church, which was being taken apart by heavy machinery. He later heard, but did not witness, a loud explosion, the pastor said. The Golden Lampstand Church was built by husband and wife evangelists Wang Xiaoguang and Yang Rongli as a permanent home for their followers. The couple had been preaching around Linfen since 1992, establishing congregations in improvised spaces such as factory dormitories and greenhouses. While authorities did not block the churchs construction, they later cracked down. The couple and other church leaders were sentenced to prison on charges including illegally occupying agricultural land and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic. Gerry Shih, Beijing, AP Chinas foreign exchange regulator yesterday challenged a report it might slow or stop purchases of U.S. Treasury debt due to trade tensions with Washington as fake news. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, one of the biggest holders of Treasuries, said it is a responsible investor for both the reserves and participating markets. Bloomberg, citing unidentified sources, reported Chinese authorities were considering slowing or halting purchases of Treasuries and said they might cite trade tensions as a reason. That prompted a sell-off of U.S. government debt in global markets. The news may quote the wrong information source, or it may be fake news, SAFE said on its website. Beijing keeps a big share of its USD3.1 trillion in foreign currency reserves in Treasury debt, which is considered safe and easy to trade. The level rises and falls each month as Chinese currency regulators buy and sell dollars to maintain the exchange of Beijings tightly controlled yuan. China owned at least $1.2 trillion of Treasury debt as of October, according to U.S. government data. Beijing is believed to hold additional assets through intermediaries in Switzerland other financial centers. AP Thai police said they have arrested a 74-year-old fugitive Japanese gang member who was recognized when photos of his full-body tattoos were circulated online. A police statement said Shigeharu Shirai was arrested this week in a province north of Bangkok where he has been hiding for over 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 over 10,000 times and some users identified the former gang member. Police Gen. 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, police said. 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 organizations were designated as organized crime groups in 2017, with membership totaling 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. Kaweewit Kaewjinda, Bangkok, AP Ethiopia has always held me in thrall. It is a cradle of prehistoric humankind. It embraced Christianity long before the missionaries arrived. Its people carved subterranean churches out of solid rock and built mysterious towers of stone. The countrys mythology included serving as keepers of the Ark of the Covenant (the legendary chest containing the Ten Commandments) and the biblical story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. And in the modern era it was the only African nation to repel a European colonial invasion (by Italy in 1896). I was born and raised in Africa but had never visited Ethiopia. The chance came last fall when my wife Eva and I were in Israel, a mere 4 1/2 -hours by air from Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Airlines flew us, arranged all-inclusive tours, and for six days, by plane or car, we toured the north of the country from the source of the Blue Nile to the stone obelisks of the vanished empire of Axum. After our first night in Addis Ababa, the huge and crowded capital, we flew to Bahir Dar, a pleasant town on the shore of Lake Tana, and were driven south to see the Blue Nile, a tributary of the Nile River. It had rained overnight, and the trip was a slow and slithery affair on an unpaved road. Then we hiked for about a mile through bright green fields, across a wobbly wooden footbridge, and through patches of shoe-swallowing mud. We encountered women herding cattle and a man working his small plot with a plow harnessed to a bull. Then the sun shone and we were looking at a wall of white water thundering over a cliff: the Blue Nile at its first great cataract on a journey to Khartoum in neighboring Sudan to merge into the White Nile and continue north to the Mediterranean. Back in Bahir Dar, we traveled by boat across Lake Tana, one of the largest lakes in Africa. Its islands are dotted with monasteries and churches, one of them a circular chapel with a richly thatched roof. The ecclesiastical art on the inner walls was exuberantly colorful, but my own favorite touch was a boulder suspended from a tree branch which, when struck, sounded like a gong, summoning the faithful to prayer. Next morning, after waking to a sunrise that streaked Lake Tana in gold, we set out on a three-hour drive north to Gondar, a past capital of Ethiopia whose highlight is a royal compound of 17th and 18th century palaces and castles. Gondar was also once home to Ethiopias Jewish minority until they emigrated en masse to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s. We did, however, bump into a high-spirited party of Ethiopian-Israeli teenagers on a visit to the place their families had come from. Next stop, the mysterious kingdom of Axum (or Aksum) in northern Ethiopia. Its a junction of early Christian, Muslim and Jewish civilization in the Horn of Africa. Although the Axumite empire lasted hundreds of years, little is known about it. But it was clearly advanced for its time, judging by its most visible highlight, the obelisks. These so-called stelae, some roughly 10 stories high with intricately carved stone, are thought to have demarcated royal burial places. The largest weighed 520 tons and still lies where it collapsed. Others survive upright. Another flight took us to Lalibela and its 12th-century churches my other reason for wanting to visit Ethiopia. They are magical, baffling, awesome. Defying all conventional rules of architecture, they were carved out of soft volcanic rock, and are seen by looking down into the light-filled crevices that surround them. The churches are decorated with religious art and other ornamentation. Attesting to the religious mix that makes Ethiopia so interesting, we spotted a Christian cross inside a Jewish Star of David. Ethiopia endeared itself to us in many ways: its impossibly complicated calendar; the complete absence of smokers (we were told the Church discourages the habit but Ethiopia has also begun banning smoking in public places); the Ethiopian currency, called birr (rhymes with grrr); our driver fighting through traffic not by leaning on his horn but by tapping it gently, almost apologetically; the exquisite little sauce dish we bought, only to see it melt back into mud under our all-vanquishing detergent. We came across multitudes of people walking on roadsides in rural areas, often too poor to afford public transport. On the dusty unpaved road from Lalibela, at an elevation of 2,440 meters, we saw crowds of children marching home from school. Our guide mentioned Haile Gebrselassie, the great Olympic long-distance runner, who walked and ran 19 km a day to and from school (not at all uncommon, so great is the hunger for education). And traipsing uphill came a family in weathered robes and sashes, belongings lashed to a donkey, straight out of the Old Testament. Finally, to get a sense of proportion after all the antiquity we had encountered, we stopped at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa to see Lucy, whose bones were discovered in northern Ethiopia in 1974. At 3.2 million years, shes the most famous human ancestor. Marcus Eliason, AP, Addis Ababa Steve Vickers, CEO of Steve Vickers Associates, has said that casinos in Macau remain vulnerable to terrorist attacks despite the citys recent efforts to improve readiness. He also noted that efforts have been made to increase the difficulty of securing firearms and explosives. Speaking at the morning event of the British Business Association of Macau (BBAM), Vickers told the press that Macau remains an easy target for terrorists because important statistics are publicly and easily accessible. Macau is easy to target. Its quite transparent here. The numbers are largely published. On the other hand, Macau is so large in [the] gaming [sector] [] its an obvious target, he said. The CEO spoke about how triad activities in the region are prevalent and noted that it needs to be recognized as a problem in the SAR, particularly in the gaming sector. According to him, there are gaps in the SARs legislation that have sustained triad actions. It remains unlawful to enforce a gambling debt in mainland China. The only people that can actually do that effectively are probably the triad, Vickers explained. They have institutionalized themselves into a more professional organization but theyre still with us. The war against triads is still relentless, the CEO of the corporate intelligence, security and consulting company added. The expert then noted that action needs to be taken regularly to curb triad members from practicing illegal activities. We dont [want to] forget what has happened here 10 to 15 years ago. It wasnt that long ago, said Vickers, who was probably referring to Wan Kuok-koi popularly known as Broken Tooth Macaus notorious former gang leader. Steve Vickers Associates specializes in risk mitigation and in this capacity they have suggested that the region should get accustomed to terrorism training occurring overseas, citing the significant number of people who have returned from Syria or moved from the west of China. Although the move will not necessarily be a direct threat to Macau, Vickers stressed that the MSAR remains a bright target as it is an open city. Vickers called on companies to take measures to mitigate reputation and regulatory risks. In the current era, data protection will not hinder a data breach and subsequently the expert suggested a 360 degree look at the different factors, including people risks, administrative risks, data risks, and legal risks. But I think its evolving. There is a lot more training, there are a lot more smart people. I think its getting better but the risks like the Paradise Papers leak and others show how vulnerable organizations are, he explained. Data protection itself wouldnt save us, the expert added. Meanwhile, citing the regions political stability and the recovery of gaming revenues, Vickers noted that the VIP sector remains under pressure due to Beijings anti-corruption campaign. At the same time, continuous pressure on capital flow is affecting the upper and VIP market. Although some measures have been enforced to fight money laundering in Macau, the risk solutions company noted that the harsh reality remains. I think the problem is not just Macau itself; the problem is Macaus geo-political position and the wall of cash that is in our border [region], he added. However, the mainland crackdown on capital outflows at the time it kicked in coupled with the actions against underground banks and junkets, worked well for the region. According to Vickers, it has helped curb a large number of unhelpful junket operators with strong triad connections. At least to squeeze them out of the market. In the big picture that has been helpful. Just last month, the European Union released a blacklist of 17 countries and territories, including Macau that it says are tax havens as it seeks to strengthen its fight against opaque practices that facilitate avoidance for multinationals and individuals. The expert said the move was not a surprise as elements of the Union have an anti- offshore center focus that to a certain extent is led by the Germans. Truthfully, we still do have a problem in Macau with certain elements: triad elements associated with junkets. This is an issue. But I was surprised that they focused on Macau exports to the extent that they did, he reiterated. Comparing Macau to other offshore jurisdictions, the expert noted that no other jurisdiction is in the same bracket as that of Macaus acquisitions. The difference between Macau and everybody else is the scale of activity here is untouched by anybody else, he shared. He also said that he believes that Macaus efforts to foster diversification are well-conceived and important. A report issued by the company stated that relative political stability and a recovering economy promise a positive 2018 in the MSAR, despite risks deriving from the approaching negotiations of casino concessions which will take place ahead of 2020 and 2022 and also predicts the continuing triad involvement in the regions gaming sector. CHINA-CAMBODIA Cambodia and China yesterday signed nearly 20 agreements worth several billion dollars to develop the impoverished Southeast Asian countrys infrastructure, agriculture and health care. THAILAND Police said they have arrested a 74-year-old fugitive Japanese gang member who was recognized when photos of his full-body tattoos were circulated online. PHILIPPINES A womens group asked the Philippine president yesterday 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. IRAN-IRAQ A series of eight earthquakes hit the Iran-Iraq border area and rattled Baghdad yesterday, apparent aftershocks of a temblor that struck the mountainous region in November and killed over 530 people. TUNISIA Police arrested 328 people and fired tear gas as protesters hurled rocks and burned tires during further nationwide demonstrations over price rises. ANGOLA President Joao Lourenco dismissed the son of his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos as chairman of the countrys USD5 billion sovereign wealth fund, further loosening the grip of the Dos Santos family on key areas of state. POLANDs lawmakers have approved a controversial electoral law that critics say will give the ruling party influence over the voting procedure and will allow more room for vote rigging. BRITAIN Anti-EU British politician Nigel Farage said yesterday that he might support a second referendum on Britains European Union membership to kill off any prospect of staying in the bloc. BRAZIL Scientists say a virus is the main cause for the death of close to 200 gray dolphins in little more than 40 days on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. US-MEXICO 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. All the states are hotspots of drug cartel activity. A group of employees from casinos on Wynn properties visited the Office of the Chief Executive (CE) to deliver a letter to the government calling for strict supervision and strict law enforcement of tobacco control inside casinos. Lawmakers Ella Lei and Leong Sun Iok accompanied the group during the visit. Ella Lei told the media that approximately 100 Wynn employees visited the Macao Federation of Trade Union (FAOM), last October, to complain about the fact that Wynn Macau frequently allows customers to smoke inside its premises. Choi Kam Fu, director general of the Macau Gaming Enterprises Staff Association, said that they visited the government and CE house regarding long-term infractions which have not yet been solved. The company spoils some customers by allowing them to smoke in the mass area. In particular, concerning the high-limits area, [and] whether it is defined as a smoking prohibited area or not, the company and the government have not given the employees a clear answer, said Choi. Some workers who reminded customers [about smoking behaviors], not only did not receive support of the company but were punished by the company. Choi said that the Wynn employee advocate group hopes that the government will urge casinos to cooperate with the government regarding tobacco-control. The company has the responsibility and obligation to assist workers in persuading or banning illegally smoking customers, [and] not spoiling them [the customers] as it does now, nor telling them [customers] to hide their smoking tools when it [the company] knows that tobacco control officers are arriving. This situation must change, declared Choi. In Chois opinion, casino employees should write down the time and location of a smoking customer, and then forward the information to the tobacco control authority, which should then check the casinos CCTV surveillance in order to prosecute said customer. Choi believes that the above suggestion can become an important auxiliary tobacco control measure. Some of the other employees also speak about the situation regarding smoking inside Wynn casino. These Wynn employees mainly spoke about the fact that some areas inside Wynn casinos are not clearly marked smoking-prohibited areas. These employees hope that their company can thus establish a clear division regarding smoking-ban areas. A female employee, surnamed Tam, said that even birds will die if they go in the areas where she works, not to mention humans. She also said that her company completely ignores its workers. Another female worker, surnamed Chen, who works in Wynns VIP casino room, said it is not only some customers who smoke inside, some junket promoters also smoke inside the VIP room. A third Wynn employee, surnamed Ip, noted that customers smoke despite the non-smoking signs attached on every table in the area where he is working. Some customers display a one million HKD chip and [ask] are you going to fine [me]? This is a challenge for the Macau governments laws [legal system], said Ip. (HealthDay)Time is running out for millions of American kids covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Stopgap funding for the federal program for these kids will expire Jan. 19. Soon thereafter, states will begin to cut kids' coverage as the money runs dry, experts say. Nearly 1.7 million children on CHIP in 20 states could lose coverage by the end of February, according to a new analysis from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. "They're projecting that a number of states could lack sufficient funds to keep their programs going," said Genevieve Kenney, co-director of the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center. "They're seeing this happening in February and March, so notices closing up programs to new applicants could start going out in just a couple of weeks." In fact, 10 states are expected to exhaust all their CHIP funds before the end of February, the Georgetown analysis concludes. The states are Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Ohio and Washington, along with the District of Columbia. CHIP covers 8.9 million children in working families across the United States, Kenney said. "It was really designed to fill a niche that existed for families whose income was above the Medicaid eligibility threshold but still didn't have access to affordable private health insurance coverage for their children," Kenney explained. "The program targets not our poorest families, but our low-income and moderate-income working families." Through CHIP, these kids gain "access to a usual and ongoing source of care," explained Dr. Michael Munger, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. "That ongoing care is what really provides for great overall health." CHIP kids get regular well-baby and well-child visits, scheduled vaccinations, and even dental care. The program is particularly important for kids who suffer chronic illnesses such as asthma or autism, Munger said. "The program has always shared bipartisan support," Munger said. "The fact that we're getting down to the 11th hour, we're facing a deadline of January 19 where states really will run out of money, I'm quite surprised we've gotten to this point." CHIP has been a major public policy success, Kenney argued in an editorial published Jan. 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the two decades since it passed into law, uninsured rates among U.S. children have declined by 63 percent, and the gap in uninsured rates between higher- and lower-income children fell to 3.6 percentage points in 2016 from 15.4 percentage points in 1997, Kenney wrote. CHIP has been reauthorized multiple times, most recently in 2015, but the program fell between the cracks last year for a Republican-led Congress more focused on tax reform and repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Kenney wrote. Funding for CHIP officially expired last September. At first, the states scraped by using whatever leftover money they had to extend the program. But in December, Congress approved a $2.85 billion "patch" to keep the program going. Congress would have to find $800 million to fund the program for another five years, through 2022, according to a new estimate released last week by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). This relatively small price tagearlier estimates placed the five-year funding amount at $8.2 billionis an unintended consequence of the Republican Congress' tax reform package, which eliminated the ACA's individual mandate that every American must be insured. Premiums are expected to increase dramatically for plans offered through the health insurance marketplaces, thanks to the end of the individual mandate. Because of this, it will actually cost the government more to subsidize the coverage of any children who fall off of CHIP and wind up enrolled in an ACA marketplace plan, the CBO reasons. It's cheaper to keep the kids in a fully funded CHIP. Munger said there seems to be some movement toward passing funding for CHIP, either as part of a larger budget deal or on its own, but that nothing solid has yet coalesced. "It seems everyone you reach out to talks about the importance of it, but we're not seeing anything happen yet," Munger said. More information: Genevieve Kenney, Ph.D., co-director, Urban Institute's Health Policy Center; Michael Munger, M.D., family physician, Overland Park, Kan., and president, American Academy of Family Physicians; Jan. 10, 2018, New England Journal of Medicine, online Genevieve Kenney, Ph.D., co-director, Urban Institute's Health Policy Center; Michael Munger, M.D., family physician, Overland Park, Kan., and president, American Academy of Family Physicians; Jan. 10, 2018,, online There's more about the Georgetown University analysis here. Journal information: New England Journal of Medicine Copyright 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Credit: Cancer Research UK The genome editing technology CRISPR is causing plenty of excitement in cancer research. CRISPR allows scientists to precisely tweak genes faster than ever before, and at a fraction of the cost of older techniques. These tweaks can be used to answer questions in the lab, but there's also excitement, and trepidation, over the potential use of the tech to treat diseases. This excitement has been coupled with hype around the potential return of dinosaurs, or a slippery slope towards designer babies. But more realistically, CRISPR is progressing early lab research that will help answer questions previously out of reach. One giant leap Excitement has led to speculation about CRISPR being used to edit diseases out of people. In theory this means editing either a fully formed human, or editing an embryo, egg or sperm cells. The first is particularly difficult CRISPR is fine for manipulating cells in a Petri dish in the lab, but falls short as a method to alter each of the trillions of cells that make up the human body. The second approach, which homes in on fewer, more specialised cells, is more plausible and therefore of greater potential impact. In this case, changes could be made to a single cell that then repeatedly divides, meaning the changes should be passed on to every resulting cell. But there are ethical questions around editing cells integral to early development and some people are strongly opposed. The truth, however, is that this sort of approach would likely only be possible for a subset of cancers. That's because cancers are more often tied to the accumulation of lots of DNA errors (mutations) inside cells, rather than a single, correctable fault. And for every cancer-causing mutation there are plenty of harmless others. Pinning down which is which and dealing with the culprits isn't always feasible. Only a fraction of cancers are tied to inherited gene faults. And these so-called 'germline mutations' increase the chance of cancer developing, rather than making it a certainty. "The precision of CRISPR technology means that if a patient does have a germline mutation that predisposes them to cancer, there is the possibility that in the future the technology could target and correct that fault," says Dr. Irene Chong, a clinician scientist at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and a consultant clinical oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. While she's doubtful that this approach is anywhere near being tested, she sees the potential to one day treat and help patients who have a strong family history of cancer. "That would be the ultimate hope prevention rather than cure," says Chong. This same challenge is being faced by scientists working on other genetic diseases only a minority can be pinned down to a single genetic cause. But the early murmurs of progress are beginning to be heard. Scientists have edited embryos in the lab to remove a gene that causes some heart disease, and to make them resistant to HIV infection. And in the UK, scientists are editing human embryos to understand early development, rather than directly cure disease. In all of these cases the embryos were destroyed before they were 14 days old, and were never intended to be implanted into a woman. That would be a huge ethical and technical leap that's illegal in the UK and many countries, and so it's unlikely to happen here anytime soon. Before those steps could even be considered, a massive amount of work needs to be done to prove that the changes made to embryos would be both safe, effective. But most of all, it would need to be proven that the approach was better than those already available to tackle certain inherited conditions. So what can CRISPR do for cancer? Lots of small steps for people in lab coats Our genes are made from DNA. This, with the help of another molecule called RNA, is the blueprint for making proteins. Proteins are the workers of the cell, carrying out a huge range of important jobs. "So far, we target proteins with drugs or medicines, and RNA with small molecular scissors called siRNAs," says Professor Olaf Heidenreich, a Cancer Research UK-funded expert in childhood leukaemia at Newcastle University. "CRISPR lets us directly target DNA to change its sequence and information." This is important because cancer progresses as DNA faults accumulate in different genes. These faults change how proteins work, helping cells become hardier, grow out of control or invade other tissues. "Working out which are the key genes in each of these processes, and how their mutation drives cancer, is critical for understanding cancer and developing better drugs," says Professor Simak Ali, a breast cancer expert at our Imperial College London centre. CRISPR is such a powerful technique because it lets scientists do this by precisely manipulating individual genes they can delete them from cancer cells in the lab and ask basic questions about what those genes do. "Deleting and replacing genes in human cancer cells in the lab used to be extremely laborious and there was very little success," says Ali. But CRISPR makes it possible to do quickly and simply, bringing results much sooner. Scientists can now replace the normal form of a gene with faulty, cancer-causing versions. They can then assess the impact of these faults, see how the mutant molecules work, and design treatments against them. Combining new technology for a bigger boost The best way to study cancer is in patients, but this isn't always possible with early stage technology. So scientists hunt for increasingly ingenious ways to make sure that their lab work is as close as possible to the real thing. Organoids are groups of cells grown as 3-D structures, designed to be more representative of conditions in the body than cells grown like a flat piece of turf in a dish. Scientists in the Netherlands have used CRISPR to targeted two genes that fix mistakes in DNA, and that are often missing in cancer cells. By deleting them from bowel organoids the researchers are trying to mimic what happens in bowel cancer and watch how it progresses something that's impossible in patients. "With the help of CRISPR/Cas9 in organoids, we can perfectly mimic this mutation accumulation seen in patients," Dr. Jarno Drost, joint lead researcher on the study from The Hubrecht Institute, told Drug Target Review. So by combining two cutting edge techniques it's possible to get a much clearer picture of what goes wrong in cancer. And while we know many of the genes that play an important role in how a cancer cell grows, divides or spreads, CRISPR is finding others. "This can identify genes that allow cancer cells to become resistant to cancer drugs, and also help us decide which drugs to give to which patients," says Ali. Heidenreich's work involves using CRISPR to find out which genes childhood leukaemias need to become resistant to treatments. "Adding another medicine targeting those indispensable genes may lead to a very powerful combination, which efficiently eliminate cancer cells without causing so many side effects," he says. Double trouble In sniffing out new genes to target, researchers have uncovered pairs of genes that have intertwined roles within cells. If a cancer cell carries a particular faulty gene, the cell may rely on another to keep growing. Kicking away this cellular crutch with a drug can therefore kill the cancer cell. This idea, called synthetic lethality, is already being used to treat some patients. The ovarian cancer drug olaparib (Lynparza) works against cancer cells that carry a faulty BRCA gene and are therefore reliant on another molecule called PARP, which olaparib switches off. It's not the easiest idea to test in the lab, so it's likely there are other genetic alliances out there that could be targeted with drugs. CRISPR's speed means that thousands of potential combinations can now be rapidly tried out, with the best ones being tested further. By switching off different pairs of 73 genes across two types of lab-grown cancer cell and one type of healthy cell, US researchers found 152 partnerships that might be suitable targets for treatments. But most of these pairs were important in only one of the three cell lines suggesting that, as expected, different genes will need to be targeted in different cancers. CRISPR 2.0 CRISPR itself is an improved version of genome editing techniques that have been around for a few years. And more souped-up versions have been quick to arrive. CRISPR sometimes edits genes that it isn't supposed to, so it's hoped that newer versions will increase accuracy. And its molecular components are too big to work in viruses used in gene therapy, for example, so smaller machinery needs to be developed. By making adjustments to the molecules that form the CRISPR machinery, scientists can get their version to work better or do a slightly different job. But it's not all plain sailing one study reporting a better alternative had to be retracted after publication in a scientific journal because the findings couldn't be repeated. It's a reminder of the caution and double-checking that's required of science before talk of treating diseases can happen. So, as ever, research is steadily progressing bit by bit, rather than in astronomical bounds. CRISPR isn't the final word or a miracle cure, but it lets us explore new areas that weren't accessible even a few years ago. Science continuously pushes boundaries and some of these areas need open discussion. CRISPR's power means better treatments could follow sooner than ever before, but with this comes renewed responsibility. Credit: William Brawley New scientific research on the spread of flu across Australia has revealed that all major cities appear to experience outbreaks of flu around the same time each year, published today in PLOS Pathogens. The research has also shown that commuting to work is less important than long distance domestic travel in looking at the overall spread of flu throughout Australia. The researchers used influenza surveillance data collected between 2007-2016 from more than 2500 postcodes to map the spread of the flu virus across Australia. The results reveal remarkable synchrony in flu outbreaks right across the country and that outbreaks are particularly synchronous in 'big flu' years, when the virus is somewhat novel and there is little immunity in the population. "We have shown that influenza enters Australia multiple times from the global population this highlights the highly globalised world in which we live. It spreads almost instantaneously throughout Australia likely driven by both highly domestically connected cities. During the 2009 swine flu pandemic for example, we found that all postcodes experienced outbreaks at the same time," said Dr. Jemma Geoghegan from the Department of Biological Sciences. Short-range commuter transmission has not played a major role in epidemic spread due to the apparent lack of radial virus dispersal observed in Australia, but rather domestic travel accounts for this dispersal. "The Sydney-Melbourne flight route is the third busiest flight route in the world, as well as having multiple entries from other countries from around the world. In the event of a novel virus, we really need coordinated surveillance right across Australia, especially in the major centres," said Dr. Jemma Geoghegan from the Department of Biological Sciences. This study is the first study of the spread of influenza virus across Australia, which provides a unique perspective of the spread of flu across a continent spanning tropical and temperate climates. The data used by the researchers is laboratory confirmed, meaning that they have been confirmed to be the virus that causes the flu many other studies use only 'influenza-like' illness data, which is estimated to be flu virus only 30 per cent of the time. "That outbreaks of flu to reach all major cities around the same time highlights the importance of a highly coordinated public health response right across Australia, especially in the event of the emergence of a novel virus," concluded Dr. Geoghegan. In light of the speed with which novel viruses spread, the most populous cities experience synchronised epidemics, and these observations may be used to inform prospective pandemic planning efforts both in Australia and in other highly urbanised localities. More information: Jemma L. Geoghegan et al. Continental synchronicity of human influenza virus epidemics despite climactic variation, PLOS Pathogens (2018). Journal information: PLoS Pathogens Jemma L. Geoghegan et al. Continental synchronicity of human influenza virus epidemics despite climactic variation,(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006780 Gene changes caused by a given infection are marked as slices of the pie. Shared genomic changes between patients with influenza alone (red), human rhinovirus alone (green) or both viruses simultaneously (blue) are shown as ribbons connecting the slices of the pie. Credit: Sarah Henrickson, MD, PhD, CHOP & Perelman School of Medicine Acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) are the leading global cause of death in early childhood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lower respiratory tract infections, including bronchiolitis and viral and bacterial pneumonia, take a toll on children's health, too, causing the majority of pediatric hospital admissions for infectious diseases. By analyzing immune cells of children who came to the emergency department with flu symptoms, researchers found that the suite of genes these early-response cells expressed was shaped by factors such as age and previous exposures to viruses, according to a study by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Better understanding how early infections influence long-term immune response has implications for the diagnosis and treatment of young patients who suffer from acute respiratory tract infections. "The notion that an individual's capacity to combat the flu depends on what they have been exposed to in the past, especially early in life, has been gaining momentum," said senior author E. John Wherry, PhD, a professor of Microbiology and director of the Institute for Immunology at Penn. Wherry and Sarah E. Henrickson, MD, PhD, an instructor in the Allergy-Immunology division at CHOP, published their findings in Cell Reports this week. "This study started during the 2009 H1N1 flu epidemic to find out how host responses change with different viral infections," said lead author Henrickson, who began this work as a CHOP clinical fellow and postdoctoral fellow in Wherry's lab. Previous studies elsewhere had investigated influenza responses broadly, but she wanted to focus on changes in CD8 T cells, key anti-viral cells in pediatric patients with influenza, and ultimately connect those changes to clinical outcomes, such as severity of infection, future asthma, fever, and return visits to a physician. "Children generally have a less complex infectious history and less co-occurring conditions than adult patients," she said. "As a result we can more easily assess the immune response to an acute infection and test how immune history shapes responses to the new infection." Sounding the Alarm CD8 T cells prepare the body for fighting foreign viruses by altering their own gene expression after sensing the alarm signals raised by cells in the lungs in response to acute respiratory tract pathogens. In this study, the CD8 T cell gene expression in acutely ill pediatric patients with influenza-like illness was distinct from patients with other viral pathogens, such as rhinovirus. In general, the "genomic circuitry" of a cell - clusters of genes akin to electrical circuits that affect each other's expression - varies according to the type of pathogen. Using blood samples from 29 children who came to the CHOP emergency department with flu symptoms, the team found that different viruses elicit different immune responses - specifically, different patterns of genomic circuitry in CD8 T cells. Although these differences included the expected upregulation of interferon-stimulated genes and tamping down of cell adhesion proteins and signaling molecules, the pro-survival gene BCL2 was prominent in children presenting with an acute influenza infection. The team found that differences in severity of ARTI, asthma, sex, and age also influence the immune response in an individual child. For example, younger children's CD8 T cell gene circuitry was different from older children's, which correlated to whether the younger child was exposed to the flu virus or not at an earlier age. Younger children with antibodies to a flu virus (evidence of previous exposure) had a gene expression pattern similar to the older children's patterns. While this initial study is too small to correlate patterns such as the presence of older-child gene expression to clinical outcomes, the team plans to address this question in the future. From the immune information they gathered, the team developed an Influenza Pediatric Signature (IPS) consisting of a small set of genes that consistently increased or decreased in expression in CD8 T cells from patients with an acute influenza infection. The IPS is able to distinguish acute influenza from ARTIs caused by other pathogens. "Although this IPS is unlikely to replace clinical virological diagnosis anytime soon, the strength of the IPS score may reflect the severity of disease and provide helpful information post infection," Wherry said. "It may help focus investigations on the key pathways in this population in the future." For example, the IPS helped identify an age-based difference in genome circuits related to the STAT1/2 pathway, which aids T cells to sense the inflammatory alarm raised by infected lung tissue and turn on interferon-stimulated genes to fight the virus. The IPS showed that the STAT1/2 circuit operates in young children with previous exposure to influenza (or the vaccine) similar to older children. This data suggests that therapies targeting the STAT1/2 pathway may be fruitful or that monitoring these signatures could be used to determine whether a vaccine works. The team hopes to investigate the importance of this altered circuitry in relation to clinical outcomes in larger studies going forward. The researchers' hope is that by combining the basic science of immune cell gene expression to actual cases seen in a high-volume pediatric ED will identify key pathways involved in host-pathogen interactions and help improve treatments for kids with severe flu symptoms. SIRT1 and Claudin-1 levels in kidney biopsies from patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN) and normal kidneys. The results show that SIRT1 levels in PTs and glomerular regions is lower, and Claudin-1 levels in the glomerular region is higher in patients with heavy protein urea compared to those with moderate protein urea. Credit: Keio University About one-third of diabetes patients suffer from renal failure. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms linking diabetes to renal damage (diabetic nephropathy) would benefit patients as it would help in developing new therapeutic targets and strategies. Sirtuin 1 (Sirt1) is a protein that is involved in cellular stress responses and has been implicated in diabetic nephropathy. However, the exact role of renal Sirt1 on the pathogenesis of renal damage in diabetes has not been fully elucidated. Researchers in Japan have previously shown that Sirt1 overexpression can alleviate acute kidney injury in a Sirt1-overexpressing mouse model. The same group has now established the mechanism that links, at least in part, Sirt1 with the pathogenesis of renal damage in diabetes. Shu Wakino and colleagues from Keio University, Shizuoka Red Cross Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used Sirt1-overexpressing mice, Sirt1 knockout mice and diabetic mouse models to investigate the role of Sirt1 in protecting from diabetes-induced renal damage. Reduction of Sirt1 expression resulted in an increase in Claudin-1 levels and subsequently, albuminuria, which is an early marker of renal damage. The mechanism by which Sirt1 affects the levels of Claudin-1 was found to be through directly epigenetically regulating the expression of the Cldn1 gene. Furthermore, nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) was found to mediate the interplay between PTs and podocytes, which are important components of the kidney filtration apparatus, and hence would directly affect albuminuria. Using human renal biopsy samples, the group found that SIRT1 and Claudin-1 levels are also involved in diabetes-related albuminuria in humans. Taken together the results demonstrate that "Sirt1 in PTs protects against albuminuria in diabetes by maintaining NMN concentrations around glomeruli, thus influencing podocyte function," the authors conclude. Furthermore, since observations in patient samples reflect some of the mouse model results the authors state that "the results of this study could contribute to new therapeutic strategies to prevent diabetes-induced albuminuria." Credit: Keio University Credit: Keio University More information: Kazuhiro Hasegawa et al. Renal tubular Sirt1 attenuates diabetic albuminuria by epigenetically suppressing Claudin-1 overexpression in podocytes, Nature Medicine (2013). Journal information: Nature Medicine Kazuhiro Hasegawa et al. Renal tubular Sirt1 attenuates diabetic albuminuria by epigenetically suppressing Claudin-1 overexpression in podocytes,(2013). DOI: 10.1038/nm.3363 Provided by Keio University Regenerative medicine is a broad term used to describe approaches to repair or replace damaged or diseased human cells or tissues. This can be achieved through a variety of approaches, including the use of stem cells and stimulating the body's own repair mechanisms. Due to its wide implications in science, technology and ethics, regenerative medicine has attracted the attention of a multitude of 'stakeholders' from scientists and physicians to those involved in ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI). In a recent review, Douglas Sipp from the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan, and his colleagues from the University of British Columbia, McGill University, the University of Miami, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the University of Alberta, the University of Montreal, the University of Ottawa and the University of Regina, give an overview of past initiatives relating to social, ethical and legal aspects of regenerative medicine and offer their view on future priorities. Even countries that have shown leadership and have established policies, such as Canada, are now facing a shift in the landscape of regenerative medicine due to fast scientific advances such as those relating to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and targeted genome editing using novel techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9. A key aspect for the advancement of the field is collaboration between scientists and and those within the ELSI community. Training of both sides to collaborate is being explored in Canada, which is looking to launch a training series to familiarise social scientists with the laboratory workflow and laboratory-based scientist with the problems facing those who deal with ethical and social aspects of the field. The authors also suggest adding experts from these different disciplines to grant applications. Credit: Keio University Fast scientific advancements in the field have left many laws and policies as being outdated. Hence, the authors call for leaders in the international regenerative medicine community, such as the International Society for Stem Cell Research, to look at existing policies and consider reforming them to keep-up with the rapid technological advances that are taking place. In the age of social media, the perception of regenerative medicine and the questions it raises are easily communicated to the public, but in some cases, can also be distorted. Therefore, the authors suggest "the ELSI community can and should play a role both by studying the impact of these new modes of popular media and engaging directly with the broader public and patient communities through participation in virtual communities and networks." Credit: Keio University More information: Judy Illes et al. A blueprint for the next generation of ELSI research, training, and outreach in regenerative medicine, npj Regenerative Medicine (2017). Judy Illes et al. A blueprint for the next generation of ELSI research, training, and outreach in regenerative medicine,(2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41536-017-0026-z Provided by Keio University Patients' unfavourable views of hospital care in England are strongly linked to insufficient numbers of nurses on duty, rather than uncaring staff, indicates observational research published in the online journal BMJ Open. Increasing the registered nurse headcount may boost satisfaction with the quality of care, conclude the researchers, who base their findings on national survey data from patients and nurses. The 2010 NHS Survey of Inpatients gathered information from over 66,000 patients who had been discharged from 161 acute and specialist NHS Trusts. Respondents were asked to rate their care, the confidence they had in their doctors and nurses, and to give their views on whether there were enough nurses to provide the care they needed. The 2010 nurses' survey (RN4CAST-England study) gathered information from nearly 3000 registered nurses working on general medical and surgical wards from a representative sample of 31 (46 hospitals) of the 161 trusts. The nurses were asked about their workload during the day and various aspects of their working environment, such as resources, support, interpersonal relationships, leadership. The data for the same 31 trusts from both surveys were then merged to estimate whether, and to what extent, the level of 'missed' nursing care in the different trusts affected how patients rated their care and their confidence in the clinical staff caring for them. The level of trust and confidence patients expressed for nurses was of a similar magnitude to that they expressed for doctors. But while three out of four respondents said they had confidence and trust in the clinicians treating them, only 60 percent felt there were always enough nurses to care for them. And one in 10 said that there were never or rarely enough nurses on duty. Nurse numbers were strongly linked to how favourably patients viewed their hospital care. This was rated as excellent by over half (57%) of those who felt there were always or nearly always enough nurses on duty, but by only around one in four of those who felt this was 'sometimes' the case, and by only 14 percent of those who never or rarely felt this. The nurse survey showed that workloads ranged from 5.6 to 11.6 patients each across the 46 hospitals. After taking account of various influential factors, the researchers calculate that the likelihood of patients always saying there were enough nurses to take care of them were about 40 percent lower in hospitals where the average nurse took care of 10 patients than in hospitals where they took care of six. The nurses felt that they didn't always have time to provide the necessary care. Some 7 percent felt this about pain management, but over (52%) half felt they didn't have enough time to talk to patients and relatives about how to manage care after discharge. And around two thirds (65%) felt they didn't have enough time to comfort/talk to patients. The lower the patient:nurse ratio, the lower were the number of needed but 'missed' episodes of care. Lower workloads were also associated with better working environments which, in turn, were associated with fewer missed episodes of care. And the greater the number of episodes of missed care, the less likely were patients to rate their hospital care favourably. "The narrative that quality deficits in hospitals are due to 'uncaring' nurses is not supported by the evidence," write the researchers. "On the contrary, our findings suggest that reducing missed nursing care by ensuring adequate numbers of [registered nurses] at the hospital bedside, and improved hospital clinical care environments are promising strategies for enhancing patient satisfaction with care." More information: Linda H Aiken et al. Patient satisfaction with hospital care and nurses in England: an observational study, BMJ Open (2018). Journal information: BMJ Open Linda H Aiken et al. Patient satisfaction with hospital care and nurses in England: an observational study,(2018). DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019189 In healthy myelinated neurons, potassium channels are usually buried underneath the myelin sheath. When there is loss of myelin, these channels become exposed and leak intracellular potassium. This leaves them unable to propagate electrical impulses. Credit: Mayo Clinic The loss or damage of myelin, a cellular sheath that surrounds and insulates nerves, is the hallmark of the immune-mediated neurological disorder multiple sclerosis (MS). When segments of this protective membrane are damaged, nerve impulses can be disrupted. Symptoms range from tingling and numbness to weakness, pain and paralysis. There is currently no reliable way to directly image demyelination. Physicians rely on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but despite high resolution images, MRI is not quantitative and cannot distinguish between demyelination and inflammation, which often coexist in people with MS. In the January 12, 2017 online issue of the journal Scientific Reports, a multi-institutional team based primarily at the University of Chicago Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, describe early tests of a novel minimally-invasive way to assess myelin damage using positron emission tomography (PET). These PET scans use a radioactive molecule designed to target voltage-gated potassium channels, a protein found on demyelinated axons. The PET images, based on the detection of this molecule, provide quantitative information about underlying biochemical processes. "In healthy myelinated neurons, potassium channels are usually buried underneath the myelin sheath," explained study author Brian Popko, PhD, the Jack Miller Professor of Neurological Disorders and director of the center for peripheral neuropathy at the University of Chicago. "When there is loss of myelin, these channels become exposed. They migrate throughout the demyelinated segment and their levels increase." These exposed neurons leak intracellular potassium. This leaves them unable to propagate electrical impulses, which causes some of the neurological symptoms seen in MS. "So we developed a PET tracer that can target potassium channels," Popko said. The team started with an existing MS drug, 4-aminopyridine (a.k.a. dalfampridine), which can bind to exposed potassium channels. This can partially restore nerve conduction and alleviate neurological symptoms in MS patients. Using mouse models of MS, including some developed in the Popko lab, the researchers showed that the drug accumulated in the demyelinated, or uncovered, areas of the central nervous system. This approach has the potential to track responses to remyelinating therapies, an unmet need. It could also help determine how much disruption of the myelin sheath contributes to other central nervous system disorders.". Credit: University of Chicago Medical Center Then, with help from colleague Pancho Bezanilla, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago, the team examined several fluorine-containing derivatives of 4-aminopyridine for binding to K+ channels. They found that 3-fluoro-4-aminopyridine (3F4AP) has the desired properties, so they labeled the molecule with fluorine-18, which is easily detected by PET. "We were able to show, in rats, that the tracer accumulated to a higher degree in demyelinated areas than in control areas," Popko said. "All existing PET tracers used for imaging demyelination bind to myelin and, consequently, demyelinated lesions show as decreases in signal, which can be problematic for imaging small lesions," said Pedro Brugarolas, PhD, first author of the paper and currently a faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. "3F4AP is the first tracer whose signal increases with demyelination, potentially solving some of the problems of its predecessors." Finally, in collaboration with scientists at the NIH, the researchers conducted a study in healthy monkeys. They confirmed that radiolabeled 3F4AP enters the brain of primates and localizes to areas where there is little myelin. "We think that this PET approach can provide complementary information to MRI which can help us follow MS lesions over time," Popko said. "It has the potential to track responses to remyelinating therapies, an unmet need. This approach should also help determine how much disruption of the myelin sheath contributes to other central nervous system disorders." That list includes leukodystrophies, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and "even maladies not traditionally associated with demyelination," Popko suggested, "such as brain ischemia, psychiatric disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's." "A tracer to monitor changes in something as ubiquitous as potassium channels could have applications for other diseases where these channels are involved," Brugarolas added, More than 2.3 million people worldwide suffer from multiple sclerosis, according to 2013 data from the MS International Federation. None of the 15 current FDA-approved drugs for MS are able to cure the disease; they modify or suppress the immune system, reducing the number and severity of flare-ups and less often, slowing the visible marks of brain damage. More information: Pedro Brugarolas et al, Development of a PET radioligand for potassium channels to image CNS demyelination, Scientific Reports (2018). Journal information: Scientific Reports Pedro Brugarolas et al, Development of a PET radioligand for potassium channels to image CNS demyelination,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-18747-3 Researchers at the National Research Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod (UNN) have developed a software and hardware system to remotely assess deviations in heart activity and identify cardiovascular diseases at an early stage. The CyberHeart intelligent supercomputer technology is designed to serve both patients and cardiologists. The CyberHeart software and hardware system is intended for creating an automated telemedicine network. The scientists' task is to create a system for remote cardiac monitoring, a round-the-clock service that could assess the state of the patient's cardiovascular system. The plans are to develop a line of home appliances for taking cardiograms, automatically transmitting them across any distance via mobile communication networks and receiving a medical conclusion. To operate such devices, no special medical skills will be required. The system consists of several sets of equipment and devices. For medical institutions, for call centers that receive signals, and for ordinary people. The devices can be included in the family medicine chest just like a blood pressure monitor. With the help of such devices, users can check the heart condition and transmit the cardiogram data to the hospital. The device is quite small and fits into the palm of an adult person. To take the readings, it is attached to the person's chest. Miniature mobile cardiographs exist in different configurations: for medical institutions and for private use. They can diagnose heart rhythm disturbances and provide feedback from the doctor. The device can be equipped with a display for providing the user with an instant diagnosis. "We take an electrocardiogram, automatically decode it and transmit the data to a smartphone. It allows you to identify some emergency states of the cardiovascular system. For example, in case something is suddenly wrong with the heart, a red light signals the trouble," explains Dr. Grigory Osipov, Head of Department of Control Theory and System Dynamics at the UNN Institute of Information Technology, Mathematics and Mechanics, who is heading the project. The device has three indicators: green, yellow and red. The green one means there is no reason to worry, the yellow indicates suspected disorders and recommends to visit the doctor, while the red one signals that urgent medical aid is required. "A cell phone can send a signal to our supercomputer that will process the data and give a more extensive diagnosis. This system is designed for public at large. When you are in an area not covered by a mobile phone network, your smartphone will still be able to detect an emergency situation. And if you need an in-depth diagnosis, you can later send the signal from your cell phone to the supercomputer," the developers say. The device can work either independently or in connection with a smartphone, it can also transfer the data to a supercomputer. The whole procedurereceiving the data and transmitting it to medical professionalstakes about 10 seconds. The data are transmitted not only to smartphones, but also to supercomputers that can be installed in a hospital or at a specialized call center operating around the clock. "Doctors at the remote cardiac monitoring center will be able to analyze cardiograms in real time and, if necessary, call an ambulance, contact local cardiovascular medical centers and so on. The CyberHeart system also includes cardiographic equipment of some famous brands like Schiller. We have our own information system, which is integrated with the all-Russian unified medical information system E-GIS," says one of the system's developers Alexander Nikolsky, who is a cardiovascular surgeon at the city hospital No.5. According to the researchers, the accuracy of their portable electrocardiograph amounts to 95 percent, while one of the best cardiographs made in Switzerland gives only 80 percent of correct diagnoses. Currently, two systems with electrocardiographs and supercomputers are operating in a large hospital and at the cardiac center of Nizhny Novgorod, and a special cardiology lab has been set up at Lobachevsky University. The CyberHeart includes methods for reconstructing and modeling heart activity. It provides for an in-depth analysis of the cardiogram, which is based not only on the data of the cardiogram itself, but also on the results of echocardiography, MRI and CT of the heart. Thus, heterogeneous medical data can be additionally loaded into the system for analysis. Once the entire system is certified (which is expected by the end of 2018), it will be possible to launch mass production. Provided by Lobachevsky University Three-dimensional structure of one of the more than 100 immunoglobulin domains in titin. A disulfide bond is highlighted in red between two cysteines brought into proximity by the protein folding. When the immunoglobulin domain is subject to mechanical force, as during muscle stretching or in the diastolic phase of heart contraction, the domain opens up but is prevented from completely unfolding by the presence of the disulfide bond. Credit: CNIC Scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) and Columbia University in New York have discovered an important mechanism in the regulation of a protein that plays an essential role in the function of skeletal muscle and the heart. The study, published today in Nature Communications and coordinated by CNIC researcher Jorge Alegre-Cebollada, describes a new mechanism in the regulation of the elasticity of the giant protein titin. Titin, explained Alegre-Cebollada, is a key protein in the functioning of striated muscles throughout the body, particularly in the heart: "the proof of this is that mutations in the titin gene are a common cause of diseases affecting the muscles of the body and the heart." Titin is the largest protein in the human body and as such has a multitude of functions. According to Jorge Alegre-Cebollada, "in simple terms we can think of titin as a 'molecular spring' that allows muscle cells to contract in synchrony." However, it is not a simple spring, and the many mechanisms that determine titin elasticity include the unfolding of specific regions in its structure called immunoglobulin domains. In all, titin elasticity is determined by the concerted action of more than 100 immunoglobulin domains within the protein. Using bioinformatic and structural biology approaches, the research team found that the immunoglobulin domains have a high cysteine content. This amino acid confers special properties. Jorge Alegre-Cebollada explained that "when 2 cyteines in a protein come close to one another, they can form a chemical link between different parts of the polypeptide chain called a disulfide bond." The researchers observed that many of the immunoglobulin domains in titin form disulfide links and that the cysteines participating in them can change dynamically, a process called isomerization. "The most interesting finding was that the formation and isomerization of disulfide bonds causes major changes in the elastic properties of titin." The formation of disulfide bonds is an example of a broader class of biochemical transformations known as reduction-oxidation (redox). It has long been known that many disease processes affecting the heart, including myocardial infarction, involve sudden and drastic changes in the redox state of the heart muscle. Dr. Alegre-Cebollada's group is currently investigating how our cells modify the titin redox state as a mechanism to modulate skeletal and heart muscle activity and how different diseases can interfere with the mechanical action of the protein, resulting in loss of functionality. Alegre-Cebollada concludes, "Our mechanical findings were made possible by reconstituting contractile systems in vitro. While we have learned a lot through this approach, the challenge now is to understand how these basic principles operate in a living organism. This is the focus of our current research, using a multidisciplinary approach that combines advanced techniques in physiology, biology, and biochemistry." The study is the result of a collaboration between Dr. Alegre-Cebollada and Professor Julio Fernandez at Columbia University. Professor Fernandez is a pioneer in the development of single-molecule biophysical techniques for investigating the mechanical properties of proteins, and his collaboration with Dr. Alegre-Cebollada has made it possible to describe the biochemical regulation of protein mechanics. More information: David Giganti et al, Disulfide isomerization reactions in titin immunoglobulin domains enable a mode of protein elasticity, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications David Giganti et al, Disulfide isomerization reactions in titin immunoglobulin domains enable a mode of protein elasticity,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02528-7 Provided by Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study that seeks to better ascertain HIV mortality rates in Zambia could provide a model for improved national and regional surveillance approaches, and ultimately, more effective HIV treatment strategies. Survival represents the most important indicator of successful HIV treatment, according to the researchers. According to UNAIDS, AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 50 percent since 2005largely due to the successes of national HIV programs with support from PEPFAR and the Global Fund. Yet, because routine monitoring and evaluation fails to systematically capture most deaths, it can be challenging to accurately assess the impact of HIV services and to identify where improvement is most needed, the researchers say. The Better Information for Health in Zambia ("BetterInfo") study begins to examine HIV survival rates in Zambia. Published January 12 in PLOS Medicine, the work was conducted by a team of researchers co-led by Charles Holmes, MD, MPH, faculty co-director of Georgetown University Medical Center's Center for Global Health and Quality, and visiting associate professor at Georgetown's School of Medicine. Holmes led the work along with Izukanji Sikazwe, MBChB, MPH, chief executive officer of the Centre for Infectious Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) and Elvin Geng, MD, MPH, of the University of California, San Francisco. Holmes, who previously led CIDRZ, also serves as associate professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The research was conducted in Zambia through a partnership with CIDRZ and the Zambian Ministry of Health, in close collaboration with numerous local and global academic centers and researchers. The research group set out to provide a more accurate representation of site- and regional-level mortality among people on HIV therapy in Zambia by characterizing the extent of under-reporting of mortality and the variability in data collection and use, and to assess the broader impact this might have on treatment programs and outcomes. The group applied a multistage sampling-based approachwhich they say is a novel methodology in this contextto obtain regionally representative mortality estimates in four Zambian provinces (Lusaka, Southern, Eastern, and Western). The estimates were also sufficiently precise to quantify variation in death rates among clinic sites. They looked at a sample population of more than 160,000 patients who had visited government-operated HIV treatment sites in these provinces to determine: the magnitude of deaths of those who were taking antiretroviral therapy (ART); when deaths occurred; which groups are at highest risk of death; and whether these factors differ by region, facility, or other variables. They also traced patients who were lost to follow-up to ascertain their status, and then used this information to create a corrected regional survival estimate as well as corrected site-specific mortality estimates. The BetterInfo study concluded that mortality is substantially underreported in routine provincial program databy as much as three- to nine-foldamong HIV-infected individuals starting ART, leading to a change in the ranking of provinces by mortality rates. At the site-level, "corrected" mortality rates were found to be up to 23-fold higher among those on ART. The study also found unexpectedly high variability from site to site in reported mortality rates, ranging from less than 1 death per 100 person-years to up to 13.4 deaths per 100 person years over a two-year period. "Even as we strive to reduce new HIV infections and end the HIV pandemic as a public health threat, we must not lose sight of premature deaths occurring amongst people living with HIV who are on treatment," Holmes says. "HIV treatment is not a 'set it and forget it' propositiondeaths often occur outside of the health system and are therefore 'silent' events that are unknown to those providing or managing care. "We believe our scalable approach, which builds on and extends earlier sampling methods, provides actionable data to clinic, provincial and national decision-makers to ensure the HIV program in Zambia is able to become more patient-centered and impactful," he says. Based on the findings, certain prevailing assumptions that underlie HIV programs may need to be reexamined. For example, the researchers say it has been assumed that most patients on treatment for longer periods of time will be more stable than those just starting treatment. However, the study data suggest that time on therapy alone may not be a reliable marker of stability, a finding that will have implications for delivery strategies recommending less health system interaction for patients considered clinically stable. In addition, approximately 50 percent of deaths among those newly starting ART occurred relatively shortly after a recent clinic visit, suggesting even greater need for attention to diagnostic services and clinical vigilance for potential co-existing illnesses. Overall, the authors seek to encourage national- and global-level policy makers to investigate and address the root causes of underestimated and highly variable mortality rates so they can refocus their quality improvement efforts and strengthen HIV programs. "These data from the BetterInfo study have provided new targets for quality improvement efforts, and we look forward to further evidence as it emerges that will enable us to support the strongest possible national HIV program in Zambia," says CIDRZ's Sikazwe. "We recommend that others consider the application of similar large-scale surveillance methodologies in order to better understand their program outcomes, and we are excited to facilitate broader adoption through the forthcoming release of a "BetterInfo" toolkit and other materials." Holmes adds, "We believe our study also highlights the critical need for investments in vital status registries and data systems to enable better visibility into patient outcomes. These investments are critical not just for the HIV response, but for broader efforts to combat chronic conditions such non-communicable diseases and achieve universal health coverage." More information: "Estimated mortality on HIV treatment among active patients and patients lost to follow-up in 4 provinces of Zambia: Findings from a multistage sampling-based survey.", PLOS Medicine (2018). Journal information: PLoS Medicine "Estimated mortality on HIV treatment among active patients and patients lost to follow-up in 4 provinces of Zambia: Findings from a multistage sampling-based survey.",(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002489 "Don't ask, don't tell" is how many veterans have approached health care conversations about marijuana use with the doctors they see from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Worried that owning up to using the drug could jeopardize their VA benefitseven if they're participating in a medical marijuana program approved by their stateveterans have often kept mum. That may be changing under a new directive from the Veterans Health Administration urging vets and their physicians to open up on the subject. The new guidance directs VA clinical staff and pharmacists to discuss with veterans how their use of medical marijuana could interact with other medications or aspects of their care, including treatment for pain management or post-traumatic stress disorder. The directive leaves in place a key prohibition: VA providers are still not permitted to refer veterans to state-approved medical marijuana programs, since the drug is illegal under federal law, with no accepted medical use. That disconnect makes veterans wary, said Michael Krawitz, a disabled Air Force veteran in Ironto, Va., who takes oxycodone and marijuana to treat extensive injuries he suffered in a non-combat-related motorcycle accident while stationed in Guam in 1984. "Vets are happy that there's a policy, but they're unnerved by that prohibition," he said. Krawitz, 55, is the executive director of Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access, an advocacy group. He has always been open with his VA doctors about his medical marijuana use and hasn't suffered any negative consequences. But Krawitz said he has worked with veterans who have been kicked out of their VA pain management program after a positive drug test and told they couldn't continue until they stopped using cannabis. Such actions are usually misunderstandings that can be corrected, he said, but he suggests that the Veterans Health Administration should provide clear guidance to its staff about the new directive so veterans aren't harmed if they admit to using marijuana. Although the new guidance encourages communication about veterans' use of marijuana, the agency's position on the drug hasn't changed, said Curtis Cashour, a VA spokesman. Cashour referred to a quote from Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin at a White House briefing last May, who said he thought that among "some of the states that have put in appropriate controls (on the use of medical marijuana), there may be some evidence that this is beginning to be helpful. And we're interested in looking at that and learning from that." But until federal law changes, the VA is not "able to prescribe medical marijuana." Cashour declined to provide further information about the new directive. Under federal law, marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Heroin and LSD are other Schedule 1 drugs. Doctors aren't permitted to prescribe marijuana. Instead, in states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana, doctors may refer patients to state-approved programs that allow marijuana use in certain circumstances. (Doctors can, however, prescribe three drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration that are made of or similar to a synthetic form of THC, a chemical in marijuana.) Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have laws that allow people to use marijuana legally for medical purposes. Patients who have a disease or condition that's approved for treatment with marijuana under the law are generally registered with the state and receive marijuana through state-regulated dispensaries or other facilities. Moves by states to legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use have created a confusing landscape for patients to navigate. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced recently he would rescind an Obama-era policy that discouraged federal prosecution for marijuana use in states where it is legal. That action has further clouded the issue. Some consider caution a good thing. The accelerating trend of states approving marijuana for medical and recreational purposes may be getting ahead of the science to support it, they say. A report released last January by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine examined more than 10,000 scientific abstracts about the health effects of marijuana and its chemical compounds on conditions ranging from epilepsy to glaucoma. The experts found conclusive evidence for a relatively limited number of conditions, including relief of chronic pain, nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis. "I believe that there are chemicals in marijuana that have medicinal properties," said Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society. "I would love to know what those are, what their medicinal properties are and what the dose should be." But, he said, studies are extremely challenging to do because of restrictions in the United States on conducting research on Schedule 1 drugs. No matter where the research stands, getting a complete medication or drug history should be standard procedure at any medical appointment, say medical providers. In that respect, the guidance from the VA is a positive development. "It's absolutely critical that you know what your patients are taking, if only to be better able to assess what is going on," said Dr. J. Michael Bostwick, a psychiatrist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who has written on medical marijuana use. 2018 Kaiser Health News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Showmax CEO John Kotsaftis has left the company to join Fox Networks. Kotsaftis has been appointed as executive vice president of Fox+ at Fox Networks Group Asia (FNG). As part of his new appointment, Kotsaftis has relocated to Singapore where he will head up the development of subscription VOD services for FNG Asia. Kotsaftis previously served as CEO of DStv Online and DStv Digital Media, and was overseeing Showmaxs operations outside of South Africa before he left for Fox Networks. Kotsaftis served in multiple positions within Naspers for 14 years and was responsible for the development of PVR products, online streaming services, and more. Fox+ is a subscription VOD product which is available in South Africa as part of Cell Cs Black streaming service. YEREVAN. The UK is among countries who warmly welcome the signature of a new deal between the European Union and Armenia. In an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am UK Ambassador to Armenia Mrs. Judith Farnworth spoke about the advantages of the deal as well as prospects for development of Armenia-UK relations after Brexit. The EU-Armenia signed a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement. The UK expressed its full support to the Eastern Partnership. How will the signing of this agreement affect the development of relations between the UK and Armenia? How do you see the development of relations between our countries after Brexit? The UK warmly welcomes the signature of CEPA between the EU and Armenia, which will open up opportunities for cooperation across a wide range of areas. Most importantly, it will provide support to Armenias democratic and economic reform programme, which the National Assembly endorsed last summer. We see CEPA as having the potential to bring significant benefits to Armenian citizens. Whilst the UK is leaving the European Union, we will retain the same shared values and a strong interest in supporting Armenias development as a prosperous, democratic and resilient country. I am confident that bilateral relations between Armenia and the UK will go from strength to strength after Brexit. There is already some concrete evidence of this. Firstly, in the recent decision to include Armenia as a beneficiary of in the UK Governments Good Governance Fund from April 2018, unlocking significantly more money to support governance and economic reforms in Armenia. And the Prime Ministers appointment of Mark Pritchard, MP, as her Trade and Investment Envoy to Armenia last autumn is a clear indication of our intention to thicken and diversify trade relations between our two countries. So I am very optimistic about the future of bilateral relations. UK is one of the parties to fund Support to the implementation of the judicial reform in Armenia project which supposes providing support to post-constitution reform process in Armenia. How will the UK monitor the implementation of the project? Is there any mechanism to monitor the implementation of the reforms? Following on from your previous question, this is a great example of UK-EU cooperation in support of Armenian democratic reforms as we are jointly funding this Council of Europe-led project. A functioning justice system and effective rule of law are essential to the democracy, resilience and prosperity of any country. UK support is focused on development of mediation and arbitration, two important alternative dispute resolution mechanisms which are already well-established and widely-used in the UK to resolve matters ranging from commercial to family disputes. They are usually cheaper, quicker and less adversarial than pursuing a matter through the courts. This project will support the establishment of nationwide mediation and arbitration bodies with clear remits and ethical guidelines, which we hope will become better understood and more widely used in Armenia not least because this would reduce the burden on the court system. We are also supporting enhancement of the institutional capacities of the Chamber of Advocates to enable them better to explain and uphold the rights of their clients thus reducing scope for intimidation, interference and harassment and ultimately, miscarriages of justice. All of these measures can contribute to greater access to justice and public confidence in the justice system of Armenia. As regards the monitoring of the project, all projects which we support must have clear indicators of success specific outputs and outcomes, which can be used to measure their effectiveness and impact. These are monitored continuously throughout the project to ensure it is on track and delivering agreed results. Once the project is over, its impact will be measured through external assessments carried out, for example, by Council of Europe peer review and EU monitoring. The Government of Armenia, which commissioned the project in the first place, will also be making its own assessment. And last but not least, Armenian citizens should be able to judge whether the project has delivered tangible benefits for them in accessing justice. UK Prime Minister Theresa May appointed MP Mark Pritchard, as a British Trade Envoy to Georgia and Armenia. During his visit to Yerevan Mr. Pritchard said there is huge potential for the development of economic ties with Armenia. What are the main areas UK wants to develop except for mining industry? First of all, Id point out that British companies are already active in the Armenian market not just in mining and exploration but also in sectors such as banking and finance, pharmaceutical, chemical and construction materials, automotive industry, design and construction, retail and education. The Embassy continues to build on the success of last years trade mission of local ICT companies to the UK, which has already produced concrete results. For example, the British cyber security firm VST Enterprises is about to launch its operations in Armenia. The UK has considerable expertise in consultancy on infrastructure, transport and tourism development and I am pleased that UK companies are already engaging with or planning to engage in the Armenian market in these sectors. But as Mr Pritchard has said, there is significant untapped potential. Of course it is up to individual businesses to decide for themselves, but we see significant untapped opportunities for cooperation in the areas of ICT, education, green energy, service provision, finance and banking. We are working closely with the Development Foundation of Armenia and Mark Pritchard to ensure that British businesses are aware of the opportunities in Armenia and can navigate the market successfully. Direct flights between the countries are essential for the development of economic ties. Is launch of Yerevan London direct flight on the agenda? Direct flights arent necessarily essential, but they certainly facilitate commercial and people-to-people contacts. Id be delighted to see direct flights between Armenia and the UK and it is something that Armenian ministers have often raised in my discussions with them. As I have explained to them, unfortunately this isnt something that the UK Government can deliver we cant tell private airlines what to do. All airlines make decisions based on their own business interests and consumer demand. If they see that it is lucrative to fly to Yerevan or Gyumri which means that the costs of landing and refueling are attractive; there are no bureaucratic, technical or policy barriers; and there is strong passenger demand - they will come. The signing of EU-Armenia Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement and Armenias liberalization of its civil aviation under the open skies policy, may create new opportunities and incentives for European carriers, including those from the UK. If Armenia successfully develops a high-profile tourism strategy as it is planning, this is bound to increase demand for flights into Armenia. We can and do - flag up those opportunities, but ultimately, British air carriers will always make decisions based on their commercial interests. A Glendale, California, resident Armenian man pleaded no contest in court to a stabbing that resulted in a fatal car crash in Burbank, California, in 2016, according to Glendale News Press. Haroution Stepanyan, 25, was sentenced to four years in prison after conceding to a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury in the commission of a felony. The charge stems from a December 9, 2016, road rage incident where Stepanyan got into an argument with the driver of a minivan. The driver was stabbed during the argument, and he attempted to leave the area in a minivan. The vehicle traveled for less than a mile before crashing into 52-year-old Rodolfo Tan, who was standing at a bus stop. Tan was extracted from underneath the minivan and transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Stepanyan was originally charged with the murder of Tan in addition to the stabbing. However, a judge dismissed the murder charge last July. Philippine President, Canadian PM have sock battle at APEC summit World's 3rd richest man is considering opening family office in Dubai or New York 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 The United States encourages Italys Chairmanship of OSCE to support the Minsk Group efforts on Karabakh, U.S. representative at OSCE said. The remark of Charge dAffaires, a.i. Harry R. Kamian came in response to the statement by OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Angelino Alfano. On the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we encourage you to provide full and unwavering support to your personal representative and his mission in support of the Minsk Groups efforts to find a peaceful and lasting solution. We should take into account recent hopeful signs from the 2017 Geneva summit meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kamian said. 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. The conflicts on the territory of the OSCE are not identical, and therefore the principles and formats of their settlements differ, Armenia's permanent representative to OSCE Arman Kirakosyan said in Vienna. Kirakosyan also noted that Armenia supports the OSCE Minsk Group's efforts to resolve the conflict on the basis of three principles: the non-use of force or the threat of force, the principle of territorial integrity and the right of peoples to self-determination. In particular, the need to take measures to reduce tension at the line of contact was emphasized. It was noted that it is necessary to strengthen the office of the personal representative of the Chairperson-in-Office, to establish investigative mechanisms, and to remove snipers from the line of contact. 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. YEREVAN. Armenia is entering a critical political phase, President Serzh Sargsyan said during a meeting in parliament. The National Assembly should elect the fourth president of the Republic of Armenia, the President said, expressing hopethat all the deputies will take responsibility for the elections. It is desirable that the president of the republic be elected following a broad parliamentary agreement, he said. He recalled that until March 9, the National Assembly should also elect the members of the Supreme Court, which he described as a crucial body for the future of our country. The National Assembly should also appoint members of a new autonomous body - the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. There is no need to explain how important the fight against this evil is for the future of our country and the economy. And, of course, after April 9, the National Assembly should appoint the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia. I mentioned some of the landmarks of our roadmap on the transition to a new system of government. Today, perhaps, it is worth focusing on the events that will take place until mid-March or early April. I expect that you will be active during this discussion, he told the lawmakers. The European Union and Turkey will see no progress in their relations as long as Turkey holds journalists in prison, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday, RIA Novosti reported. Turkey is moving away from its European ambitions of the past and we are going to have to see what kind of progress Turkey makes in the coming months. But there will not be any kind of progress while there are journalists in Turkish jails, Juncker told a joint news conference in Bulgaria. Authorities in Turkey have jailed more than 50,000 people and shut down some 130 media outlets in the post-coup crackdown. Around 160 journalists have been imprisoned, according to the Turkish Journalists Association, and rights groups say Turkey is now the worlds largest jailer of journalists. Vandals in Santiago attacked four churches before dawn on Friday, throwing homemade bombs that caused minor damage and leaving notes threatening Pope Francis just three days ahead of the pontiffs visit to Chile next week, Reuters reported quoting police. The vandals, who are yet to be identified, set fire to at least two of the churches in the nations capital city and tossed pamphlets in the street as they fled. One of the pamphlets read: Pope Francis, the next bomb will be in your robe, authorities said. A fourth church was attacked with what appeared to be an explosive device, but no damage was sustained. No one was hurt in any of the attacks, authorities said. Francis, who hails from Argentina and is the first Latin American pope, will arrive in Chile on Monday. A Mass he has planned to hold on Tuesday in a Santiago park is expected to attract more than 500,000 people. Estonia has ratified the Comprehensive and Enhanced Agreement between Armenia and the EU, press secretary of the MFA Armenia Tigran Balayan noted. We received an official writ from Tallinn according to which Estonia has completed all the procedures necessary for the Comprehensive and Enhanced Agreement between Armenia and the EU to enter into force, Balayan said. By this Estonia became the first EU member state to give consent to the new agreement between Armenia and the EU. The Comprehensive and Enhanced Agreement between Armenia and the EU was signed on November 24, 2017. The document was signed by the Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian and EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini. Inner Mongolia Latest Region in China Caught Faking Finances Communist authorities in Inner Mongolia recently admitted that they had exaggerated industrial revenue by 26 percent, or 53 billion yuan ($8.1 billion), according to state media on Jan. 3. The numbers were fabricated using the following method: at the beginning of the year, the finance department sets a target for revenue that is too high. By years end, it is difficult to reach the target, but the department reports it anyway, while asking corporations to give funds to the government. With bad loans and fabricated numbers for revenue and expenses, it will appear as if the department reached the goal. The Chinese regime encourages such dishonest behavior though, as officials are often rewarded promotion by demonstrating their regions economic productivity. A common saying in China is, Officials produce figures, figures produce officials. This is not the first time Inner Mongolia was caught for flubbing numbers. Last June, the Partys anti-corruption agency singled out the region for such misdeeds. Many officials in Inner Mongolia are associated with former Politburo Standing Committee member Liu Yunshan, an official with strong ties to the Partys opposition faction loyal to former Party leader Jiang Zemin. His faction is in a power struggle with the current leader Xi Jinping and his allies. Since Xi took power in 2012, he has ousted many members of the Jiang faction through a sweeping anti-corruption campaign. It is unclear whether the revelations about fake numbers are related to the Party infighting. Another region known for faking numbers is Liaoning, a neighboring province to the north. Last January, the Liaoning governor admitted that cities and counties within the province had exaggerated data from 2011 to 2014, representing a fake increase of 20 percent. During this period, the Liaoning party secretary was Wang Min, an official who owed his political promotion to Jiang. Last August, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes totaling 146 million yuan (about $22.4 million). In 2016, Liaoning also overstated its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) figures, which had actually fallen 23.3 percent. The state revealed that Liaoning faked numbers by trumping up the amount of land it could collect taxes fromas well as the money it could collect from allowing the use of state-owned assets. As recently as last month, the Partys audit office announced that in the third quarter of 2017, 10 cities and counties within Yunnan, Hunan, Jilin, and Chongqing had fake numbers, adding an additional 1.5 billion yuan (about $230 million) to their revenue, according to Chinese newspaper Beijing News. Given the troubled economic state of the northeastern region, and many other provinces in the country, it is perhaps unsurprising that they are desperate to look better than reality. According to estimates by American-based Chinese economist Dr. Cheng Xiaonong, out of Chinas 31 provinces and directly governed municipalities, 25 are in debt, surviving by relying on funds from central authorities. Only major financial centers like Shanghai and Beijing, as well as the coastal provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Fujian are in the black, with a total surplus of three trillion yuan ($453 billion). Li Jing contributed to this report. Activist fund Jana Partners and a giant California public pension fund launched a new kind of activist campaign over the weekend, joining forces to urge Apple Inc. (AAPL) - Get Free Report to take action to curb smartphone addiction among children. The campaign, which sets up a special impact fund for the campaign, represented an unusual shift for the activist investment firm headed by Barry Rosenstein, who typically targets corporations with efforts seeking to improve their share price through operational changes or M&A. Jana and its partner, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, issued a letter Saturday full of statistics and data about child overuse of iPhones and their impact on sleep, depression, and risk of suicide. The effort should be lauded. But is there a bigger picture beyond protecting children? Yes. The investment will almost certainly help Rosenstein as he seeks capital allocations from public pension funds for his traditional activist fund and its more aggressive, less friendly agitations. For example, the campaign is likely to help Jana maintain a strong relationship with CalSTRS, its partner in the Apple effort. Apple is a holding in TheStreet Jim Cramer's Action Alerts Plus. Also, it could help Jana Partners gain support for its campaigns in the form of the votes of big institutional investors, whether they have the fund's back in behind-the-scenes negotiations or public boardroom battles. More of What's Trending on TheStreet: The campaign fits squarely within the category of environmental, social and governance activism, or ESG, an investing category that sizeable public pension funds such as CalSTRS as well as the primary index funds, including Vanguard Group, State Street, and BlackRock, are concentrating on heavily. Shane Goodwin, chief of the Columbia Law School shareholder activism research project, suggests that the new Apple campaign indicates that Jana Partners is motivated in part by seeking to get on the good side of index funds, who are often the largest investors at corporations targeted by activists. "These index funds are very focused on ESG for the 2018 proxy season," Goodwin said. "You [activist] need the top three index funds if you are going to win your campaign. Is Barry [Rosenstein] trying to rebrand himself as constructivist in the boardroom?" Gary Lutin, the founder of the Shareholder Forum, suggests that the Jana-CalSTRS partnership and Apple effort is a very constructive development because it demonstrates that a professionally managed activist hedge fund is focusing on something that supports the foundations of fair business practices. "It is good positioning both for Jana Partners' specialized purpose fund, and it is good for their public image, anything they are doing," Lutin said. The effort has already developed a lot of buzz, with news articles and TV interviews on the subject, in large part because Rosenstein and Jana Partners were included in the effort. Will other activists and pension funds join forces with similar social campaigns in the future? Expect it, experts say. For more coverage like this, sign up for the Activist Daily. Andrew Freedman, a partner at Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP in New York, argues that the partnership goes a long way towards building goodwill between Jana and the ESG-focused institutional investor community at the same time that it also generates good PR and visibility for Jana. "It could also spearhead a trend among the top tier activist investors to seek to wield their influence more holistically on other fronts and issues at public companies," Freedman said. Columbia's Goodwin agreed that the kind of collaboration exhibited by Jana Partners and CalSTRS would be followed by other funds, though he said he didn't know if other investors will employ similarly formal arrangements. "You are going to see many others do this," Goodwin said. "Some of the well-known activist funds have been privately doing things in the philanthropic arena in part to get a halo effect around their name." Even so, don't expect Rosenstein to launch a director-election proxy contest if Apple doesn't respond to the Jana Partners-CalSTRS demands. In fact, observers argue that one of the reasons Rosenstein targeted Apple for the campaign is because there is a great likelihood that the iPad and iPhone maker will respond in some way he can say was a win for his campaign. Columbia's Goodwin argued that Apple seeks to be a good corporate citizen, so the smartphone maker makes for an easy target. "It's an easy win," Goodwin said. "Going after some other corporations would require a bigger fight." Next on the agenda? A pension fund-hedge fund partnership targeting Coca Cola's impact on childhood obesity? Only time will tell. Oh boy Reply Thread Link She knows ha market tbh gonnagivethegayseverythingtheywant.gif Reply Parent Thread Link The title over her face is so awk Reply Parent Thread Link Who designed this? We can't even see her face. Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO. They covered her face. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link lmao @ a "super trade" event featuring lindsay Reply Parent Thread Link MLK WEEKEND SPECIAL EVENT. Wow. Reply Parent Thread Link Lindsay owes the US government $100,710.55 in back taxes Reply Thread Link Lindsay WISHES Reply Parent Thread Link I think Erika is sf pretty. Reply Parent Thread Link Cant she just be arrested for tax evasion (or whatever the technical crime is) while shes in the country? Reply Thread Link You know my gay messy ass is gonna be all over this. Id almost say this should get the lgbt/rights tag. Edited at 2018-01-12 12:07 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link I'm finally budgeting to pay off my debt this year and I feel so much better knowing hers Reply Thread Link good for you! i'm on the same route this year i will be debt free!! Edited at 2018-01-12 01:15 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link Yasss bb we can do it!! Reply Parent Thread Link I really need to do this but I'm so fucking scared to put those numbers together and figure out the complete amount of my debt! Gah! Reply Parent Thread Link For the first time I will willingly watch the Wendy show. Reply Thread Link I HOPE SHE BRINGS HA ACCENT Reply Thread Link Yes! I need to analyse it some more Reply Parent Thread Link Hate to say I will be tuning in for this shit show. Reply Thread Link You know Wendy's messy ass is probably going to ask her about yachting. Reply Thread Link And iiiiiiiii cant wait! Reply Thread Link Her life is really sad. Reply Thread Link Is that a full on face lift or just a shet ton of fillers? Reply Thread Link She looks like a reject from one of the Real Housewives franchise. Orange County, I think. Reply Parent Thread Link Definitely fillers. Besides, Lindsay is too broke for a proper face lift, anyway. Reply Parent Thread Link She used to have a weird, rabid group of diehard devotees here.... now theyre extinct like the dodo, may they Rest In Peace Reply Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link Lmfao Reply Parent Thread Link Wasn't there one that had her as their username? Reply Parent Thread Link I don't have an appropriate icon for these alien posts. Reply Thread Link I can make you some to choose from this weekend if you have space Reply Parent Thread Link I do have the space. I was actually thinking of having some alien glasses put on Elijah. I gotta keep up with my theme! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I feel like I should've included the review from DeplorableDavid who thought the movie was GREAT, my post is not fair and balanced tbh!!!! Reply Thread Link yes Reply Parent Thread Link Omg gurlllllll Reply Parent Thread Link lmao whhhat? Reply Parent Thread Link Oh dear. Reply Parent Thread Link every time i trim my bangs a few longer hairs get cut in the process and i live in fear of one day looking like this Reply Parent Thread Link lmaooo Reply Parent Thread Link LOL is this new? But I'm actually digging the "background actress playing an alien on a flop Syfy show" hair, to be honest. Reply Parent Thread Link me at 6 when my mom cut my bangs Reply Parent Thread Link Me at 6 when I tried cutting my own bangs, lbr. Reply Parent Thread Link Me at 10 when I let a girl at summer camp cut my bangs. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link yikes Reply Parent Thread Link lmao it's so bad I can't Reply Parent Thread Link it looks like she's wearing a wig... Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Intergalactic !!! Reply Parent Thread Link Her hair stylist must really hate her. Reply Parent Thread Link Bendito Reply Parent Thread Link lmao y'all I need to go to bed Reply Parent Thread Link My bfs boner for her just went limp Reply Parent Thread Link Oh... oh my. Reply Parent Thread Link This is only phase one of the transformation... Reply Parent Thread Link Sims realness Reply Parent Thread Link she could be joining a friary Reply Parent Thread Link I was so pissed when they took Roswell off of Netflix Reply Thread Link I bought it before it was ever ON Netflix. Now I can put in the disc of my favorite episode whenever I want. Reply Parent Thread Link Yesss. I own the first 2 seasons on dvd. Fuck the 3rd season, tbh. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link ughhh i'm SO jealous Reply Parent Thread Link Here for this post and the OP. Reply Thread Link Lmao I love this, what movie is this from? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link YAAAAAAASSSS I knew you'd come thru with this! Reply Parent Thread Link If the aliens have big diqs my bussy is ready Reply Thread Link you volunteer as tribute for the probing sis? Reply Parent Thread Link As long as I'm lubed up henny Reply Parent Thread Expand Link what if... aliens are just giant walking dicks Reply Parent Thread Link I'm not sure about the D but their long fingers would probably work quite well. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link the spice girls are my fave otherworldly alienatic enigmatic group. zenon is jealous Reply Parent Thread Link mte, it was truly a British Alien Invasion They also snatched Proto Zoa's bleached spikes with this b-side proving their outer space origins! Reply Parent Thread Link She got almost like a scenester haircut in that gif lol Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i steal aliens Reply Thread Link Steal me one pls A little green one. Reply Parent Thread Link bb there's only grey ones left. i'm sorry :( you arrived too late Reply Parent Thread Expand Link mmmm. intrude me Reply Parent Thread Link And imagine the spinoffs! --Backdoor Alien Intrusion --Barely Legal Alien Intrusion --MILF Alien Intrusion --Alien Intrusion Full Throttle Reply Parent Thread Link I've seen that building IRL, I knew it was either verizon/attn but it's def strange looking and eerie. Reply Parent Thread Link thats the building from mr.robot !! Reply Parent Thread Link That bldg used to scare me too Reply Parent Thread Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOJugaGK0eU Here's a short doc about that building (narrated by Rami Malek): Reply Parent Thread Expand Link what if aliens are the demons Reply Thread Link Edited at 2018-01-12 04:03 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link OT but I didnt know he started out as a kid rapper! LOL Reply Parent Thread Expand Link hjalmartazar Then that means you andare the same creature! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i definitely have. what else could explain my horrible personality? they took my good one Reply Parent Thread Link ugh same Reply Parent Thread Link Or the one you have now IS your good personality... Reply Parent Thread Link There's been a real push for the aliens were foretold in the Bible idea lately. Articles written about what 'ET' means for your religion, some event with Papa Kent from Smallville being held on the topic etc Reply Thread Link I wonder why the sudden push? I'll just blame trump Reply Parent Thread Link these people need to stop watching ancient aliens Reply Parent Thread Link But the Greek guy with the hair is so much fun! . . . but seriously, I'm no scientist, and I'm able to tell that the "science" on that show is half-assed. No, not even half-assed. Quarter-assed. Reply Parent Thread Link my dad is scared of aliens. he gets so upset if i try to talk about them lmaooo Reply Thread Link Thinking about them used to give me anxiety but now im borderline obsessed lol Reply Parent Thread Link what have they ever done to him Reply Parent Thread Link not even joking, it's because he was having a dream once that aliens were invading and was awoken mid-dream by a loud exploding sound and a flash it turns out a turkey had gotten electrocuted in the power lines outside his apartment but it scared the shit out of him and he still blames the aliens Reply Parent Thread Expand Link finding myself torn between seeing I, TONYA or ALIEN INTRUSION, the latter apparently a christian documentary debunking(?) aliens that has a one-day engagement in theaters ghoul-pun (@afrmalantonio) January 11, 2018 what did he do?! [ Spoiler (click to open) ] update: i saw the christian alien doc and aliens are really demons. tbh, i didn't see that coming. ghoul-pun (@afrmalantonio) January 12, 2018 what did he do?! Reply Thread Link He still chose for the better. I, Tonya is not good and this is definitely the movie I'm going to rage about for the awards season. Reply Parent Thread Link um what else are they going to ask her about? Reply Thread Link mte how deluded of her Reply Parent Thread Link Obviously her landscaping business and parenting skills! Reply Parent Thread Link Rampart Reply Parent Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link stay on topic pls Reply Parent Thread Link HA Reply Parent Thread Link ha boxing career! Reply Parent Thread Link lol, good riddance. Reply Thread Link um what Reply Thread Link i enjoy the fact that the iphone is charged at 100% rather than like 4%. honestly, it feels wrong that Tonya was showcased on the press tour and award shows. Reply Thread Link yeah its kinda like, we're being nice with you for now for promo but will drop you immediately after. its just giving her more airtime to try to convince people she had nothing to do with the Nancy stuff. Reply Parent Thread Link YOUR ICON!!!! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The WiFi connection and 4G was also at max. Reply Parent Thread Link lmfaoo michael went in Reply Thread Link this is one of the most disgusting oscar campaigns i have ever seen. Reply Thread Link I had no opinion on Margot Robbie and I never thought that anything could make me side eye Queen Allison but damn their promotion of this movie has been a misfire. Reply Parent Thread Link super disappointed in Janney especially for that shitty speech. honestly, I loved the movie but this entire "let us allow Tonya to cry on live tv next to celebs wearing Times Up pins about how her victim story is finally being told when she at one point was on board to MURDER her rival" is tacky and gross. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link srsly, i'm in disbelief these hollywood people continue to prove they're all posturing, no principles Reply Parent Thread Link I really cant imagine being a victim and seeing this. I feel for Nancy. Reply Parent Thread Link ummm that belongs to three billboards Reply Parent Thread Expand Link No its that scene from Cruel Intentions where everybody walks away from SMG at the end Reply Parent Thread Expand Link lmao Reply Parent Thread Link I agree with this! Reply Parent Thread Link lmao what the fuck? "about the past" you mean... everything your fucking movie is about? aka tHE PAST. messy bitch "He mentions that he's had "fun" creating a new positive image for Harding during the press tour/awards campaigning for I, Tonya. Too bad that postive image has yet to show itself " ommgggggg lmao Edited at 2018-01-12 04:11 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link Lmao at his second part! Reply Parent Thread Link why you gotta leave out the part in parenthesis tho!?!?? Reply Parent Thread Link Lmfao RIGHT Also am I misreading his statement or is he outright admitting to having tried painting her as someone she's not? Reply Parent Thread Link lmaoooo Reply Parent Thread Link Who would they pay this "fine" to? Tonya? Reply Thread Link making social media post to tell people the image you helped create is false? ice cold! Reply Thread Link and really unprofessional Reply Parent Thread Link I was really weirded out by how she thanked him by name in this interview (at 2:55), he seems quite narcissistic and there's something creepily co-dependent about how on/off their working relationship has been over the years. Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah this is so weird, he literally started it with a joke about "Goodbye Tonya" like lol what professional does this... Reply Parent Thread Expand Link what lmao What else are they going to ask her about? Reply Thread Link they made a movie about your past based on a book about your past...but you dont wanna be asked about your past? okay Reply Thread Link AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA She and her husband work at a landscaping company tho? She'll be fine. Reply Thread Link its what she deserves Reply Thread Link wow fuck her. idek who her boyfriend is at this point. Reply Thread Link modsun Reply Parent Thread Link he's disgusting, just like her Reply Parent Thread Link Very insensitive. I often catch myself feeling irrational rage when stuck in traffic jams but I have to remind myself that it could be caused by an accident and someones life could be at stake so I should keep my minor inconvienences in check. Reply Thread Link I only get mad when I have to pee. That's the worst. Reply Parent Thread Link same. it's annoying, but at least i get to go home. Reply Parent Thread Link One time my car was on fire, and a man pulled up over to the side of the road to yell at a cop because someone cut him in line during the traffic. He was screaming for like thirty minutes. Reply Parent Thread Link Our motorways have a lot of bridges going on so when I see roads being shut unexpectedly I tend to immediately feat the worst. Reply Parent Thread Link Then I remember that people drive like assholes and chuckle quietly to myself Reply Parent Thread Link wow, can't relate, lmao maybe b/c i live in LA, my rage is endless Reply Parent Thread Link mte and I've only lived here for six months and don't even get me started on cars running out of gas in the MIDDLE of the 101 at 9am Reply Parent Thread Link this is how I feel when there's delays on the subway due to a sick passenger. everyone huffs and puffs and I just hope the person who is sick is okay. Reply Parent Thread Link maybe she didn't know? Reply Thread Link she didn't, she posted an apology afterwards Reply Parent Thread Link mte Reply Parent Thread Link hdu you have to be woke all the time, no time to sleep! Reply Parent Thread Link Mte... She doesn't strike me as the type that would just post something like that, if she knew what happened. Reply Parent Thread Link I dont get people who are annoyed by traffic jam so much that they get angry. Whats the point? Reply Parent Thread Link I highly doubt Bella Thorne knew there was a mudslide. Reality doesn't seem to be her strong point. Reply Thread Link & i'm sure the family of the dead miss them too sis Reply Thread Link mte Reply Parent Thread Link lmao literally. like you really want to do that rob lowe? ok Reply Parent Thread Link I hope someone brought that up in reply to him Reply Parent Thread Link everyone did. It was pretty great. Reply Parent Thread Link LOL RIGHT hes the human smegma Reply Parent Thread Link omg i didn't know that... the hypocrisy... Reply Parent Thread Link yeah i unfollowed him after this Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I'm not going to pretend that I don't get ridiculously mad when I'm stuck in traffic but I wouldn't tweet about it...someone could have been seriously injured or even killed as is the case here. Edited at 2018-01-12 07:06 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link She's dumb, and she was the weak link in what should go down in history as a cult teen classic: "The Duff." Reply Thread Link The duff was amazing. Reply Parent Thread Link she's the new emma roberts in that she plays the same character all the time Reply Parent Thread Link I remember that movie, and liking that movie, but I don't recall her in it. I guess she was super memorable then! Reply Parent Thread Link She was the 'future reality star' who was up her own hole. Reply Parent Thread Link I love The Duff! Such an underrated movie, I was surprised there wasn't more buzz for that one. With everything said and done, she picks some pretty good projects (I'm not counting the disaster that is Blended). Reply Parent Thread Link lol I love that movie Reply Parent Thread Link What she said was incredibly insensitive but calling her human smegma? Really? Reply Thread Link I always assume major traffic is an accident of some kind, especially if I was stuck for a long time. RIP to the lives lost. Reply Thread Link When you make Rob Lowe look good you know you've truly fucked up. Reply Thread Link Human smegma dressed in Hot Topic sale rack clothing, oooo really? After we just had that post about her abuse where people were saying we shouldn't be so mean to her? Bold move, OP. Reply Thread Link I expect no less from OP tbh. Reply Parent Thread Link I mean, she does dress like a Hot Topic sales rack... Reply Parent Thread Link Right? That was my first thought. The sympathy for her was short-lived, given some of the comments in this post. Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah guess the sympathy for her didn't last long... Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah, like, she clearly wasn't in a good place before we knew what happened to her, so even if someone missed that, they've gotta be able to deduce that she's, for lack of a better word, a traumatized kid. Reply Parent Thread Link i found that rlly distasteful tbh lol. i'm rlly not big on the use of smegma as an insult that seems to be making a comeback around here (i mean when it's deserved it's deserved) but i think it's way too visceral and gross an insult for this girl. that's my critique. Reply Parent Thread Link why is this old man concerned with bella thorne Reply Thread Link Ngl when I saw their pictures side by side and hadn't read anything yet I thought "oh god no, are they dating???" Reply Parent Thread Link SAME Reply Parent Thread Link wow this is very heroic of rob lowe Reply Thread Link Construction Company Owner Faces Felony Charges for Workplace Fatality The owner of a Seattle construction company has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in relation to a 2016 fatal trench collapse. The owner of a Seattle construction company has been charged with second-degree manslaughter after a 2016 fatal trench collapse. This is the first time a Washington employer has faced felony charges for a workplace fatality. The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office filed second-degree manslaughter charges against Phillip Numrich, the owner of Alki Construction, in connection with the 2016 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. 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. "There are times when a monetary penalty isn't enough," L&I Director Joel Sacks said. "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." Because excavation and trenching are very hazardous, there are numerous safety requirements that must be followed, including that sites 4 feet deep or more have protective systems in place to prevent cave-ins. Employers must also make sure there are ladders, ramps, or other ways available to safety 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 L&I. NY Launches State Police Drone Program State officials believe with drones, it will be easier and faster to reconstruct serious motor vehicle crashes, resulting in shorter road closures and reducing the impact on motorists. Investigators also will use the drones to document and photograph crime scenes. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Jan. 10 announced the launch of a new State Police Unmanned Aerial System program, saying it will be used to support law enforcement missions that include disaster response and traffic safety. The first four State Police drones will be put into service this month in Troop A, which serves eight counties in western New York; Troop D, which serves seven counties in the central New York region; Troop F, which serves five southern counties west of the Hudson River; and Troop G, which serves ten counties in the Capital Region. By April 2018, there will be 14 more drones deployed throughout the state. "This state-of-the-art technology will improve emergency response, improve operational and cost efficiencies, and increase trooper safety," Cuomo said. "We will continue to implement innovative technologies to improve our ability to protect New Yorkers across this great state." State officials believe with drones, it will be easier and faster to reconstruct serious motor vehicle crashes, resulting in shorter road closures and reducing the impact on motorists. Investigators also will use the drones to document and photograph crime scenes. State Police members who will operate them will be FAA certified and will undergo 32 hours of hands-on training with the systems. "The aerial drone systems we are deploying bring substantial benefits to our troopers in the field and are representative of our ongoing efforts to provide the tools they need to deliver outstanding service to the public. I want to thank Governor Cuomo and the Trooper Foundation for their continued support of the State Police," State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II said. The New York State Trooper Foundation is donating 16 of the drone systems to the State Police. RAWAI, PHUKET The Vijitt Resorts staff volunteer joined Keep Phuket Clean by Our Hands and Hearts campaign on 10 January 2018, at Rawai Beach, held by Rawai Municipality. This is a long-tern development project to make people more concerned about cleanliness and encourage them to start practicing cleanliness themselves, as well as make Phuket as a beautiful tourist destination by cleaning public area regularly. The thriving #MeToo movement together with "Time's Up," a legal defense fund designed to help women combat sexual discrimination and harassment, underscore the struggle of women to succeed in male-dominated workplaces including Hollywood. Now, there are new numbers to back up what women, advocates and supporters have claimed for decades. Women remain widely underrepresented in the film industry. According to the 20th annual Celluloid Ceiling report released by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, only one percent of 2017's top grossing films employed 10 or more women in key behind-the-scenes roles, while 70 percent of films employed 10 or more men. Martha Lauzen, executive director of SDSU's center, has been researching the topic for 20 years. "The film industry has utterly failed to address the continuing under-employment of women behind the scenes. This negligence has produced a toxic culture that supported the recent sexual harassment scandals and truncates the careers of so many women," said Lauzen. Overall, women comprised only 18 percent of directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2017. This is virtually the same percentage of women working in these roles 20 years ago (17 percent in 1998), according to Lauzen's research. By specific role, women accounted for 11 percent of writers, 19 percent of executive producers, 25 percent of producers, 16 percent of editors, and four percent of cinematographers. Additionally, women made up 11 percent of directors in 2017, an increase of four percentage points from seven percent in 2016 but even with 2000 levels. Lauzen noted that context is essential in interpreting these findings. "2016 was a poor year for women's employment as directors. Because fewer women directed films in 2016, it would not be surprising to see the percentage rebound in 2017 as a part of the normal fluctuation in these numbers," said Lauzen. Silver Lining on the Silver Screen This year's study also considers the employment of women on the top 100 and 500 domestic grossing films. The analysis of the top 500 films reveals that features with at least one female director employed higher percentages of women writers, editors, cinematographers, and composers than films with exclusively male directors. For example, on films with female directors, women comprised 68 percent of writers. On films with exclusively male directors, women accounted for eight percent of writers. About the Celluloid Ceiling Report The Celluloid Ceiling Report has tracked women's employment on top grossing films since 1998. It is the most comprehensive, continuous study available of women's behind-the-scenes employment in film. This year's study monitored 5,342 films. In its 20-year existence, the study has tracked a total of more than 60,000 movies. The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University is home to the most current and wide-ranging studies of women working on screen and as part of film and television crews. Kenai River salmon are threatened by climate change, but management decisions made with stakeholders and scientists working together could keep their populations healthy. Credit: Phil Coleman, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service As a U.S. state, Alaska is unique not only for its massive size but also for its reserves of natural resources and its land management. Over 60 percent of the state is federally owned, and the majority of the remainder is either state land, university land or owned by Alaska Native corporations. Alaskan residents rely on sustenance species like salmon, caribou, and moose, but their needs can be at odds with companies mining natural resources and conservationists. The state's future will depend on collaboration between these various stakeholders, and scientists can help bridge the gap between these groups, according to researchers at Southern Oregon University. E. Jamie Trammell, a geographer and a landscape ecologist at Southern Oregon University, has worked as a part of three "co-productive" projects in Alaska that combined community, management, and scientific involvement. He presented his work on these projects last month at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in New Orleans. "Conservation is not just about science. It's about collaboration," Trammell said. "It just makes sense to develop science that goes directly into management." Trammell's research typically focuses on mapping and predicting ecosystem changes in Alaska. But through his work he has learned that stakeholders and managers of the systems he studies are vital to its management and conservation. "It's really easy to do modeling and scientific development in isolation of management," Trammell said. But to create usable scientific results for managers, sustenance harvesters, companies, and other stakeholders, everybody has to have a voice, he said. The first project Trammell discussed was a pair of two-day workshops for monitoring anthropogenic and climate change in boreal forests, held respectively in February and October of 2016 in Alaska and the Yukon. The workshops brought together more than twenty different state and federal agencies from the United States and Canada, including NOAA, the National Parks Service, the Canadian Forest Service, and many others. Thawing permafrost along a riverbank in Noatak National Preserve, Alaska, caused a 300-meter slump after an exceptionally warm summer in 2004. Credit: NPS Climate Change response Researchers attending the workshops created a standardized method to determine environmental change throughout boreal forests. For example, all agencies determined one method of measuring tree growth that would be consistent between groups across the vast interior areas of Alaska and Canada, allowing all of the participants to benefit from one another's collected information. While the workshop created lasting relationships and will provide valuable data, Trammell wanted to improve. Another of Trammell's projects looked for uncertainties in the future of Alaskan Kenai River salmon. Salmon populations have collapsed across most of the United States, but the Kenai River still produces the largest king salmon in the world. But salmon caught there now are much smaller than previous records, and climate change, land use and economic competition threaten the whole salmon population. To help the fishery, stakeholders including local land managers, federal and state officials, and scientists came together in the Kenai River watershed for two meetings in October 2015 and May 2016. Input from community and managers heavily influenced researcher's models of the river system, Trammell said. "They feel heard, and it changes the models," he said. "So there are two benefits to involving everyone." The third project Trammell examined was by far the most intensive, working to document the biological and physical status of the central Yukon region of Alaska as a baseline measurement to which future changes can be compared. Trammell believes that the project succeeded due to ample funding to pay participants, biweekly meetings in Alaska over two years, and an open-ended set of goals. The group intended to collect scientific information that could benefit management decisions. But rather than researchers determining the information that should be collected, the managing agencies had a hand in the questions asked and were therefore better prepared to manage the natural resources for which they were responsible. For example, while researchers had studied Alaskan permafrost and made general observations, their results weren't useful to managers who needed maps of actual territory. Agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are multi-use organizations, and their decisions must balance scientific output, conservation and public land use like mining. Scientists now had the information needed to model the concerns of decision makers on accessible and useable maps, and decision makers had the information they needed to limit the most destructive activities on the most vulnerable areas in permafrost landscapesfor example, placer mining, which blasts river banks with water to reveal gold while accelerating thawing in nearby areas. Permafrost traps rainwater and melted ice in the summer and provides vital habitat for tundra plants and animals, so its destruction was of particular importance. But the Yukon project was a substantial financial and time commitment from everyone involved. Trammell worries most scientists asked to participate in a project of similar magnitude could be intimidated by the scale, time commitment and cost. "This whole process of co-production is really quite challenging, but very necessary," said Karen Murphy, coordinator for the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative, who was not involved with these studies. This story is republished courtesy of AGU Blogs (http://blogs.agu.org), a community of Earth and space science blogs, hosted by the American Geophysical Union. Read the original story here. 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 cloud micro- and macro-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." More information: Yuan Wang et al, Aerosol microphysical and radiative effects on continental cloud ensembles, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2018). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-017-7091-5 HAWK-I and Hubble Explore a Cluster with the Mass of two Quadrillion Suns An international team of scientists led by researchers from the Argelander Institute for Astronomy has mapped the mass distribution in a distant galaxy cluster (RCS2J2327). This cosmic colossus is located in the constellation Pisces at a distance of approximately 6.4 billion light years. According to current research results it consists of about 85 percent invisible dark matter. In the center of the image many orange colored galaxies can be seen, which are members of the cluster. In addition, several long arcs are visible. These images of background galaxies have been strongly distorted by gravitational lensing. This effect is similar to that of an optical lens and describes the deflection of light rays in the gravitational field of massive foreground objects. Researchers mapped the resulting image distortion in different parts of the cluster, which allowed them to reconstruct the distribution of the invisible dark matter. The color image combines observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). This combination enabled the precise weak gravitational lensing analysis and mass estimation of the colossus. "For similarly distant objects this is the so far most precise measurement of the weak gravitational lensing effect achieved using ground-based observations", explains Dr. Tim Schrabback from the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the University of Bonn. Previously, similar constraints could only be achieved with the Hubble Space Telescope, which provided important cross-checks for this study. According to the results of the study, the mass of this cosmic colossus amounts to about two quadrillion times the mass of the Sun. "This can still be explained within our current standard model of cosmology", reports Schrabback. It is an important result: If the galaxy cluster was heavier than the standard model allows, the scientists would have to search for alternative explanations. Galaxy Cluster RCS2 J2327 More information: Precise weak lensing constraints from deep high-resolution Ks images: VLT/HAWK-I analysis of the super-massive galaxy cluster RCS2 J232727.7020437 at z = 0.70. arxiv.org/pdf/1711.00475.pdf Imagine trying to get close to your dinner only for it to be swept aside by your approach; this is the scenario faced by aquatic creatures every day as they try to snap up a tasty morsel. "It is impossible to eat something underwater without creating a hydrodynamic disturbance," says Maria Wilson from the University of Southern Denmark, describing how a predator's approach is heralded by a bow wave that arrives before the final slurp as a hungry hunter sucks up its prey. Explaining that the surge of water produces low-pitched (low-frequency) vibrations, Wilson and her colleagues, Jens Haga and Hans Erik Karlsen from the University of Oslo, Norway, wondered whether cuttlefish - the preferred delicacy of many large aquatic predators - might keep an ear out for the approaching attack, and, if so, in which direction they would swim to evade the predator. The team publishes their discovery that cuttlefish can hear approaching bow waves and swim in the same direction as the water to evade capture in Journal of Experimental Biology. Wilson explains that cuttlefish ears - statocysts - which are buried in their heads, are fine tuned to low-pitched sounds and could allow the animals to sense the vibrations that herald an attack in dim and cloudy conditions. So, she and Karlsen decided to test the cuttlefish's reactions to low-frequency vibrations in a tank. However, with their sensitive vision and sensors that detect water flow over the skin, cuttlefish are easily startled, so the team used a specialised tank designed by Karlsen to make sure that the animals were not side-tracked by other distractions. In addition, Wilson made sure that the environment remained calm, in case the animals released ink into the water. "When that happened, we had to remove the cuttlefish and clean everything," says Wilson, who even took a shot of ink in the face on one occasion: "Almost as if it did it on purpose," she laughs. Having settled individual cuttlefish in the tank, Wilson, Karlsen and Haga simulated a predator's approach, and the sucking attack, with vibrations generated by shakers on the side of the tank in light and dark conditions. Filming the cuttlefish's responses as the vibrations washed over the animals, the team could see that the cuttlefish were aware of the disturbance as they changed the patterns on their skin. And when the cuttlefish encountered the vibrations simulating a predator's approach, they turned to flee in the same direction that the bow wave was travelling, regardless of whether the lights were on or off. However, when the cuttlefish were startled by a pressure wave simulating the final suck as the predator struck, the cuttlefish again moved in the same direction as the flowing water, '[which] would move the cuttlefish directly into the mouth of the predator!" says Wilson. Although she was initially surprised by the counterintuitive behaviour, Wilson suspects that in real life the animals may have already taken evasive action before they sensed the impending slurp. The team also tried to distract the hungry cuttlefish with a movie of tasty shrimp. "They only had to see the video once and when the screen went black, they would ... just wait for the show to start again," recalls Wilson. In fact, the cuttlefish were so engaged by the prospect of food that the team had to turn up the shakers, producing the simulated attack to get the animal's attention. So, cuttlefish depend on their ears to evade an approaching attack and Wilson is concerned that the fog of low-pitched noise produced by shipping may mask bow wave warning signals, leaving cuttlefish vulnerable to predators that they currently outwit. Credit: Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) A resource-efficient technology for the production of fuel aerosols has been developed at Tomsk Polytechnic University. The development can be used to quickly ignite the boilers of thermal power plants and boiler houses, in the combustion chambers of diesel generators, as well as in internal combustion engines of cars. TPU technology will contribute to the cost-effective use of fuels and the reduction of the level of pollution of the environment. On the Day of Power Engineer celebrated on 22 December in Russia, scientists from the Heat Mass Transfer Simulation Laboratory of the TPU School of Energy & Power Engineering told about their development. According to the scientists, one of the main problems of power engineering is the search for the conditions for efficient ignition of fuel, which is an important stage of the vast majority of heat and power processes. "Before stoking up a boiler furnace with fuel, it must be heated up to high temperatures. Usually, for this purpose, pre-combustion fuels such as heating oil, diesel fuel and so on are burned," explains the supervisor of the research team Pavel Strizhak. The proposed technology helps to reduce efforts and save resources in the process of fuel ignition. The scientists obtain aerosols utilizing technological and waste waters containing 3-10 percent organic impurities (gasoline, kerosene, oil, turbine, transformer, compressor oil, etc.). These impurities do not interfere and they even contribute to grinding and better burning of fuel. "We propose to grind injected fuel directly in the combustion chamber. It is achieved through the effects of explosive boiling and dispersal of droplets," continues Pavel Strizhak. The dispersion process is a fine grinding of liquids or solids to obtain finely dispersed suspensions, emulsions, and powders. TPU scientists obtain water emulsions (a mixture of substances in which one component consists of the smallest particles insoluble in the other) and suspensions (a mixture of substances in which a solid is distributed in the form of the smallest particles in a liquid substance in a suspended state). "The implementation of the effects is possible when adding a small amount of water (1-3 percent) to the fuel composition. Moreover, the breakup of droplets occurs at relatively low temperatures 150-300 C," explains Pavel Strizhak. Practically, emulsions and suspensions are injected into the combustion chamber. When heated, explosive vaporization occurs due to a pressure drop at the boundary of heterogeneous fuel components: two liquids in the emulsion, and liquids and particles in suspensions. In both cases, the original drop is pulverized into a number of even smaller ones. "As a result, we get easily flammable aerosols," summarized Pavel Strizhak. "As our experiments show, the evaporation surface area can be increased by more than 15 times. It means that aerosol will heat up, evaporate and ignite 3-4 times faster than in fuel delivery systems widely used today. That is, it is possible substantially reduce the cost and speed up the ignition process." Such aerosols can be utilized not only in production facilities but also in the internal combustion engines of cars. "Due to the rapid ignition, the combustion chamber will heat up faster, therefore, less full will be spent. Besides, the addition of water to the fuel contributes to the reduction of the environmental pollution," notes the scientist. Big automobile corporations are very interested in this technology. For example, our colleagues in France, Germany, and Italy are conducting such experiments with diesel fuel commissioned by BMV." According to him, totally, three scientific groups are working on this technology in the world: they are German scientists, a collaboration of Spanish, British and French scientists, and the scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University. "Overseas scientists are working on one kind of fuel. For instance, in Germany emulsion based on diesel fuel and water are used. We can work with sewage and liquid waste, and this expands the range of opportunities and practical applications of our work," adds Pavel Strizhak. Currently, TPU scientists are creating an experimental database which will contain the main parameters of the processing of heating, evaporation, dispersion, and ignition of fuel droplets of various compositions under a wide range of external and internal conditions. In the future, based on this database the scientists will create predictive mathematical models that will accelerate the commercial application of the TPU development. More information: M.V. Piskunov et al. Using Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence to explain the mechanism of heterogeneous water droplet boiling and explosive breakup, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2017.10.018 Artist's illustration of a concept for NASA's GeoCarb mission, which will map concentrations of key carbon gases above the Americas from geostationary orbit. Credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin/University of Oklahoma A new NASA Earth science mission in the early stages of design may achieve a transformational advance in our understanding of the global carbon cycle by mapping concentrations of key carbon gases from a new vantage point: geostationary orbit. Satellites in geostationary orbit travel at the same speed as Earth's rotation, allowing them to remain over the same place on Earth's surface at all times. The Geostationary Carbon Observatory (GeoCarb), targeted for launch in the early 2020s, will build on the success of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission by placing a similar instrument on a commercial SES-Government Solutions communications satellite flying in geostationary orbit. Its longitude will allow "wall-to-wall" observations over the Americas between 55 degrees North and South latitudefrom the southern tip of Hudson Bay to the southern tip of South America. Perched 22,236 miles (35,800 kilometers) above the Americas, GeoCarb will collect 10 million daily observations of the concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide and solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) at a spatial resolution of about 3 to 6 miles (5 to 10 kilometers). The abundance and distribution of carbon-bearing gases in the atmosphere are determined by both the exchange of carbon between Earth's land areas, oceans and the atmosphere, and their transport by prevailing winds. These exchanges are best understood by making frequent, densely spaced observations. While satellites in sun-synchronous, polar low-Earth orbits like OCO-2 provide global coverage, they have long revisit times, large gaps in coverage, and always look at the landscape at the same time of day. Because weather affects ecosystems on timescales of days to weeks, polar orbiting satellites may miss these changes and how they interconnect with the activities of living organismsinformation that is crucial to developing better models of Earth system processes. "GeoCarb will complement measurements by OCO-2 and other low-Earth orbiting satellites by filling in data gaps in both time and space," said Principal Investigator Berrien Moore of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. "It will be more of a regional mapping mission than a global sampling mission." Moore said that just as geostationary weather satellites can sit and stare at storms and map them, GeoCarb will let us see how different weather patterns influence carbon dioxide and methane concentrations. "That's the power a geostationary orbit brings," he said. "Data from OCO-2 have already shown that large-scale weather patterns such as El Nino and La Nina affect the large-scale pattern of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, and that's extremely important." GeoCarb will address a number of unanswered questions in carbon cycle science, with a focus on the Americas. For example, to what extent does the Amazonia basin remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in forests, and are methane emission estimates over the continental United States underestimated? GeoCarb will also be the first U.S. satellite to measure methane near Earth's surface, information that will be useful for the energy industry. Methane leakage from natural gas production costs U.S. industry $5 billion to $10 billion a year. Like OCO-2, GeoCarb's oxygen spectral band, which is needed to convert abundances of carbon gases to concentrations, will also measure SIF. This faint glow, emitted by the chlorophyll molecules in the leaves of plants, is an indicator that photosynthesisthe process by which plants convert sunlight into chemical energy and capture carbon from the atmosphereis occurring. GeoCarb will make daily, near wall-to-wall measurements of SIF under all weather conditions, allowing scientists and others to track the effects of drought on photosynthesis in forests, crops and grasslands. GeoCarb stands on the foundation set by OCO-2, which was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Like OCO-2, GeoCarb uses a grating spectrometer, but adds a fourth spectral band to measure carbon monoxide and methane. It will use the same detector technology, algorithms and calibration techniques as OCO-2. "We would never be able to do GeoCarb without OCO-2," said Moore. "In designing our instrument we said, let's do OCO, but in geostationary orbit. We're building on JPL's work in designing and building OCO-2 and processing its data. In fact, many members of our science team are also working on the OCO-2 mission." The GeoCarb instrument views reflected light from Earth through a narrow slit. When the slit is projected onto Earth's surface, it sees an area measuring about 1,740 miles (2,800 kilometers) from north to south and about 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) from east to west. In comparison, OCO-2's swath is about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) wide. GeoCarb stares at that area for about 4-1/2 seconds, then the slit is moved half a slit width1.9 miles, or 3 kilometersto the west, allowing for double sampling. With this technique, GeoCarb can scan the entire continental United States in about 2-1/4 hours, and from Brazil to South America's West Coast in about 2-3/4 hours. It is not designed to observe the oceans, as reflectivity over the oceans is too low to provide useful data. GeoCarb's exact orbital slot will be assigned by SES-Government Solutions. A slot farther to the west will favor U.S. observations over South America, and vice versa for a slot farther to the east. In the future, Moore says two to three more GeoCarb-like instruments placed in geostationary orbit at different longitudes could provide near-global coverage of Earth's terrestrial landscape outside of the poles. Moore says GeoCarb and TEMPO, another NASA atmospheric chemistry/air quality mission currently in development, are serving as pathfinders for geostationary, commercially-hosted NASA Earth-observing missions. "If we can work out the legal and practical day-to-day issues, I can see these missions changing the face of Earth science from space. You don't have to pay for a separate spacecraft or launcher. You're essentially buying condo space on a spacecraft and paying for data downlink. The future here is very exciting." India's largest IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday announced bagging its biggest new deal valued over $2 billion from a US-based insurance company, a day after reporting a slide in its quarterly earnings. "The multi-year agreement is worth more than $2 billion in revenues, the largest contract signed by TCS to date," the company said in a statement announcing the contract with Transamerica. The agreement comes a day after the IT giant's disappointing slide of almost four percent in its third-quarterly earnings due to falling demand for its banking and financial services from global clients. The Indian software giant said it will make job offers to all 2,200 Transamerica employees in various roles and departments while increasing investment in the region. Recently, TCS also signed a $2.25 billion outsourcing contract with television ratings measurement company Nielsenbut that was an update to a previous contract. TCS is closely monitoring any changes that US President Donald Trump may make to H-1B visas, which allow thousands of Indian tech staff to work in America every year. Trump has said he will remform the visa system but unconfirmed reports this week suggested he may pull back from issuing changes. The firm's shares fell by nearly one percent in the closing hours of trade on Friday. 2018 AFP North-south section of the Great Pyramid showing (dust-filled area) the hypothetical project of the chamber, in connection with the lower southern shaft. The upper southern shaft does not intersects the chamber (as instead suggested by the section) because, when viewed in plan, it is displaced to the west with respect to the Great Gallery. Credit: Giulio Magli In early November 2017, Nature published the results of the Scan Pyramids project, led by Mehdi Tayoubi (Hip Institute, Paris) and Kunihiro Morishima (University of Nagoya, Japan). It found a "huge void," at least 30 meters long, within the Pyramid of Cheops. Discovering its function and content clearly is a most passionate challenge for archaeologists. Giulio Magli, director of the Department of Mathematics and Professor of Archaeoastronomy at the Politecnico di Milano, has formulated one of the first hypotheses of interpretation. "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." So what does that mean? "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.'" View of the Giza Pyramids from the east with the Great Pyramid in the foreground. Credit: Giulio Magli Within the Pyramid there are four narrow shafts directed to the stars. The pharaoh's afterlife was, 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. The south door has been explored several times without results, while the north one is still sealed. These doors are possibly representative of the "gates of the sky," and the north one could well open 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 doorsthe "iron throne" mentioned in the pyramid texts. We can get an idea of this object's nature by looking at the throne of Cheops' mother, Queen Hetepheres, which has been found in pieces and reconstructed by Harvard University. 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. It is certain that the Egyptians knew this material since many centuries before Cheops, and continued to use it for special items designed for the Pharaohsjust think of the famous Tutankhamun dagger. A way to check or discard this hypothesis would be a new exploration of the north shaft. At present, it is difficult to say with certainty that the northern channel leads into the newly discovered room, because the available images are approximate. The Scan Pyramid project used a non-invasive technique based on the measurement of muons, elementary particles that are generated in cosmic rays and are absorbed differently depending on the materials they go through. The result is similar to a radiography which must be interpreted. More information: A possible explanation of the void discovered in the pyramid of Khufu on the basis of the pyramid texts, arxiv.org/abs/1711.04617 Journal information: Nature Provided by Politecnico di milano Valerie Trouet taking a pencil-thin core from an old Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) growing on Mount Olympus in Greece. Credit: Greg King Copyright 2010 Increased fluctuations in the path of the North Atlantic jet stream since the 1960s coincide with more extreme weather events in Europe such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires and flooding, reports a University of Arizona-led team. The research is the first reconstruction of historical changes in the North Atlantic jet stream prior to the 20th century. By studying tree rings from trees in the British Isles and the northeastern Mediterranean, the team teased out those regions' late summer weather going back almost 300 yearsto 1725. "We find that the position of the North Atlantic Jet in summer has been a strong driver of climate extremes in Europe for the last 300 years," Trouet said. Having a 290-year record of the position of the jet stream let Trouet and her colleagues determine that swings between northern and southern positions of the jet became more frequent in the second half of the 20th century, she said. "Since 1960 we get more years when the jet is in an extreme position." Trouet said, adding that the increase is unprecedented. When the North Atlantic Jet is in the extreme northern position, the British Isles and western Europe have a summer heat wave while southeastern Europe has heavy rains and flooding, she said. When the jet is in the extreme southern position, the situation flips: Western Europe has heavy rains and flooding while southeastern Europe has extreme high temperatures, drought and wildfires. "Heat waves, droughts and floods affect people," Trouet said. "The heat waves and drought that are related to such jet stream extremes happen on top of already increasing temperatures and global warmingit's a double whammy." Extreme summer weather events in the American Midwest are also associated with extreme northward or southward movements of the jet stream, the authors write. "We studied the summer position of the North Atlantic jet. What we're experiencing now in North America is part of the same jet stream system," Trouet said. This winter's extreme cold and snow in the North American Northeast and extreme warmth and dryness in California and the American Southwest are related to the winter position of the North Pacific Jet, she said. The paper, "Recent enhanced high-summer North Atlantic Jet variability emerges from three-century context," by Trouet and her co-authors Flurin Babst of the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Birmensdorf and Matthew Meko of the UA is scheduled for publication in Nature Communications on Jan. 12. The U.S. National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation funded the research. "I remember quite vividly when I got the idea," Trouet said. "I was sitting in my mom's house in Belgium." While visiting her family in Belgium during the very rainy summer of 2012, Trouet looked at the newspaper weather map that showed heavy rain in northwestern Europe and extreme heat and drought in the northeastern Mediterranean. "I had seen the exact same map in my tree-ring data," she said. The tree rings showed that hot temperatures in the Mediterranean occurred the same years that it was cool in the British Islesand vice versa. The part of an annual tree ring that forms in the latter part of the growing season is called latewood. The density of the latewood in a particular tree ring reflects the August temperature that year. Other investigators had measured the annual latewood density for trees from the British Isles and the northeastern Mediterranean for rings formed from 1978 back to 1725. Because August temperatures in those two regions reflect the summer position of the North Atlantic jet stream, Trouet and her colleagues used those tree-ring readings to determine the historical position of the jet stream from 1725 to 1978. For the position of the jet stream from 1979 to 2015, the researchers relied on data from meteorological observations. "There's a debate about whether the increased variability of the jet stream is linked to man-made global warming and the faster warming of the Arctic compared to the tropics," Trouet said. "Part of the reason for the debate is that the data sets used to study this are quite short1979 to present. If you want to see if this variability is unprecedented, you need to go farther back in timeand that's where our study comes in." With the discovery of much older trees in the Balkans and in the British Isles, Trouet hopes to reconstruct the path of the North Atlantic jet stream as much as 1,000 years into the past. She is also interested in reconstructing the path of the North Pacific jet stream, which influences the climate and weather over North America. More information: V. Trouet et al, Recent enhanced high-summer North Atlantic Jet variability emerges from three-century context, Nature Communications (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02699-3 Journal information: Nature Communications Image shows organic-thin film transistors with a nanostructured gate dielectric under continuous testing on a probe station. Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech A nanostructured gate dielectric may have addressed the most significant obstacle to expanding the use of organic semiconductors for thin-film transistors. The structure, composed of a fluoropolymer layer followed by a nanolaminate made from two metal oxide materials, serves as gate dielectric and simultaneously protects the organic semiconductor - which had previously been vulnerable to damage from the ambient environment - and enables the transistors to operate with unprecedented stability. The new structure gives thin-film transistors stability comparable to those made with inorganic materials, allowing them to operate in ambient conditions - even underwater. Organic thin-film transistors can be made inexpensively at low temperature on a variety of flexible substrates using techniques such as inkjet printing, potentially opening new applications that take advantage of simple, additive fabrication processes. "We have now proven a geometry that yields lifetime performance that for the first time establish that organic circuits can be as stable as devices produced with conventional inorganic technologies," said Bernard Kippelen, the Joseph M. Pettit professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and director of Georgia Tech's Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE). "This could be the tipping point for organic thin-film transistors, addressing long-standing concerns about the stability of organic-based printable devices." The research will be reported January 12 in the journal Science Advances. The research is the culmination of 15 years of development within COPE and was supported by sponsors including the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Transistors comprise three electrodes. The source and drain electrodes pass current to create the "on" state, but only when a voltage is applied to the gate electrode, which is separated from the organic semiconductor material by a thin dielectric layer. A unique aspect of the architecture developed at Georgia Tech is that this dielectric layer uses two components, a fluoropolymer and a metal-oxide layer. Georgia Tech Senior Research Scientist Canek Fuentes-Hernandez (left) and Professor Bernard Kippelen examine a sample of organic thin-film transistors created with a new nanostructured gate dielectric that gives the devices unprecedented stability. Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech "When we first developed this architecture, this metal oxide layer was aluminum oxide, which is susceptible to damage from humidity," said Canek Fuentes-Hernandez, a senior research scientist and coauthor of the paper. "Working in collaboration with Georgia Tech Professor Samuel Graham, we developed complex nanolaminate barriers which could be produced at temperatures below 110 degrees Celsius and that when used as gate dielectric, enabled transistors to sustain being immersed in water near its boiling point." The new Georgia Tech architecture uses alternating layers of aluminum oxide and hafnium oxide - five layers of one, then five layers of the other, repeated 30 times atop the fluoropolymer - to make the dielectric. The oxide layers are produced with atomic layer deposition (ALD). The nanolaminate, which ends up being about 50 nanometers thick, is virtually immune to the effects of humidity. "While we knew this architecture yielded good barrier properties, we were blown away by how stably transistors operated with the new architecture," said Fuentes-Hernandez. "The performance of these transistors remained virtually unchanged even when we operated them for hundreds of hours and at elevated temperatures of 75 degrees Celsius. This was by far the most stable organic-based transistor we had ever fabricated." For the laboratory demonstration, the researchers used a glass substrate, but many other flexible materials - including polymers and even paper - could also be used. In the lab, the researchers used standard ALD growth techniques to produce the nanolaminate. But newer processes referred to as spatial ALD - utilizing multiple heads with nozzles delivering the precursors - could accelerate production and allow the devices to be scaled up in size. "ALD has now reached a level of maturity at which it has become a scalable industrial process, and we think this will allow a new phase in the development of organic thin-film transistors," Kippelen said. An obvious application is for the transistors that control pixels in organic light-emitting displays (OLEDs) used in such devices as the iPhone X and Samsung phones. These pixels are now controlled by transistors fabricated with conventional inorganic semiconductors, but with the additional stability provided by the new nanolaminate, they could perhaps be made with printable organic thin-film transistors instead. Internet of things (IoT) devices could also benefit from fabrication enabled by the new technology, allowing production with inkjet printers and other low-cost printing and coating processes. The nanolaminate technique could also allow development of inexpensive paper-based devices, such as smart tickets, that would use antennas, displays and memory fabricated on paper through low-cost processes. But the most dramatic applications could be in very large flexible displays that could be rolled up when not in use. Georgia Tech Senior Research Scientist Canek Fuentes-Hernandez (left) and Professor Bernard Kippelen are shown in a Georgia Tech laboratory where the new organic thin film transistors were developed. Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech "We will get better image quality, larger size and better resolution," Kippelen said. "As these screens become larger, the rigid form factor of conventional displays will be a limitation. Low processing temperature carbon-based technology will allow the screen to be rolled up, making it easy to carry around and less susceptible to damage. For their demonstration, Kippelen's team - which also includes Xiaojia Jia, Cheng-Yin Wang and Youngrak Park - used a model organic semiconductor. The material has well-known properties, but with carrier mobility values of 1.6 cm2/Vs isn't the fastest available. As a next step, they researchers would like to test their process on newer organic semiconductors that provide higher charge mobility. They also plan to continue testing the nanolaminate under different bending conditions, across longer time periods, and in other device platforms such as photodetectors. Though the carbon-based electronics are expanding their device capabilities, traditional materials like silicon have nothing to fear. "When it comes to high speeds, crystalline materials like silicon or gallium nitride will certainly have a bright and very long future," said Kippelen. "But for many future printed applications, a combination of the latest organic semiconductor with higher charge mobility and the nanostructured gate dielectric will provide a very powerful device technology." More information: Xiaojia Jia, Canek Fuentes-Hernandez, Cheng-Yin Wang, Youngrak Park, Bernard Kippelen, "Stable organic thin-film transistors," Science Advances, 2018. advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/1/eaao1705 Journal information: Science Advances Credit: University of Montreal This week, Nature published an article that could challenge the theory of stellar evolution. "I think that, over the coming months, stellar astrophysicists will have to redo their calculations," said Gilles Fontaine, a physics professor at Universite de Montreal and one of the authors of the article, titled "A large oxygen-dominated core from the seismic cartography of a pulsating white dwarf." Its lead author is Noemi Giammichele, who completed her doctorate in 2016 under the joint supervision of Fontaine and his colleague Pierre Bergeron, both of whom co-authored the article along with six other researchers. The piece reports on a study of data collected by the Kepler Space Telescope. "We were able to map the interior of a pulsating white dwarf star with precision, as if we'd sliced it into cross-sections to study its composition," said Giammichele, now a post-doctoral fellow at Universite de Toulouse, in France. The map showed the star's vibrations sometimes reach all the way to its centre. White dwarfs "are the core remnants of nearly 97% of the stars in the Universe," explained Robert Lamontagne, head of media relations at UdeM's Centre for Research in Astrophysics. "As stars slowly die, inexorably cooling down in the form of white dwarfs, they experience periods of instability in which they vibrate. These deep vibrations or starquakes are the key to seeing right into the very interior of these stellar remnants." From a distance of 1,375 light-years from Earth, white dwarf KIC08626021 emits light that is barely visible by telescopes on Earth. The Kepler, however, can focus on it over an extended period, resulting in significantly more detailed images. Because the Montreal researchers were able to access the space telescope, the authors were able to take a close look at this small star about the size of the Earth and its vibrations. Nearly 300 experts worldwide specialize in studying white dwarfs. Giammichele's initial goal was to verify a theory on this final stage of a star's life cycle. The theory proved correct, but the team's observations led to a number of surprising discoveries. A bigger core When examining the star, located at the edges of the Cygnus and Lyra constellations, the researchers discovered that its carbon and oxygen core was twice as big as the theory predicted. "This is a major discovery that will force us to re-evaluate our view of how stars die," said Fontaine. "That said, more work must be done to confirm whether this observation holds true for other stars. It may just be an anomaly." "We must try to reproduce these results with other celestial bodies before we can make any conclusions," Giammichele agreed. Although KIC08626021 was the first pulsating white dwarf identified by the Kepler telescope, approximately 60 more have since been discovered, she added. "I have enough data to spend the next 20 years analyzing them one by one." Ground-breaking method The new article is Fontaine's fourth in Nature, one of the world's top scientific magazines, and its publication closes a circle in his career. In 1978, the professor glimpsed the potential for determining the internal structure of a pulsating white dwarf through a solid understanding of the theory of stellar evolution. "But there was still a long way to go," he recalled. "First, we had no access to high-quality images because terrestrial telescopes gave us very imprecise images of these bodies. Then we had to create the analytical tools, the software, etc. And last but not least, we had to find the right person to pursue this lead." Fontaine praised his former student, who developed an innovative approach to achieve her goals. As a graduate of Polytechnique Montreal with a master's in mechanical engineering, Giammichele applied methods used for calculating the aerodynamics of airplane wings to astrophysics. "I believe this approach is what allowed us to move forward," said Fontaine, adding that five of the other co-authors studied under him as well. For her part, Giammichele is pleased that one of the five articles comprising her doctoral thesis will now reach a broader audience. "What I want to do now, in terms of my career, is keep doing research," she said. "That's what I like most: figuring out how to solve problems." More information: N. Giammichele et al. A large oxygen-dominated core from the seismic cartography of a pulsating white dwarf, Nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038/nature25136 Journal information: Nature An Orlando entrepreneur impressed a high-profile startup backer on the experienced investor's podcast recently, although the host wasn't exactly excited that she was from Orlando. Kristen Wiley, whose company Statusphere connects companies with people who have substantial social-media followings, appeared on This Week in Startups. The podcast is hosted by Jason Calacanis, an internet entrepreneur who in 2003 created the popular blogging platform Weblogs, supported by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Weblogs sold to America Online in October 2005 for more than $25 million. Calcanis admitted that Statusphere was something he would not want to lead but said Wiley's energy during her quick pitch convinced him that she would see it through whether it makes a profit or not. "We are looking for people who are high-energy and passionate about what they are doing," he said. "It's clear you love it." During the pitch, Wiley said the company is looking for $1 million in capital and that it had received more than 2,000 applications from people hoping to become influencers. Last year, Statusphere made $70,000 in revenue. The company, which is in the fast-growing industry of so-called influencer marketing, has also landed 18 paying brands, which include companies in the skin care, food, and technology industries. Still, Calacanis said her location in Orlando would hinder her company's growth. "Get the hell out of Orlando," he said. "This is life advice and it's founder advice. If you are in Florida, you get put into a bucket of scam businesses in Florida." Wiley pushed back, pointing at the cost of living differences in Central Florida compared to Silicon Valley or New York. Since she started trying to sell her company last year, Wiley said, her pitch experience has been eye-opening. "It's strange (to pitch) because they want you to have this big ego while simultaneously trying to crush your ego," she said. "It's a weird concept." - ENTREPRENEUR LAUNCHES TOUR-GUIDE APP Heading to a new city for the first time and looking for someone to walk you around town? There could soon be a locally built app for that. A Kissimmee entrepreneur has been working on a way for travelers to connect with locals at their destinations to take in the sights with people who live there. The Catt City app landed in the Apple App Store about two months ago. Founder Lizia Santos says 250 users have signed up to be hosts despite very little marketing. Santos is a first-time entrepreneur who was looking for a way to earn money as a work-at-home mother. City Catt bills itself as a way for people to work flexible hours by signing up for the service and being a tour guide at their leisure. Customers, meanwhile, input where they hope to visit and activities they might be interested in. 2018 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Permafrost thaw ponds in Canada. Credit: Steve Jurvetson In Bethel, Alaska, walls are splitting, houses are collapsing, and the main road looks like a kiddy rollercoaster. In the coastal town of Kongiganak, sinking cemeteries prevent Alaskans from burying their dead in the ground. The village of Shishmaref, located on an island five miles from the western Alaska mainland, has eroded so much that it is contemplating total relocation. These communities are being plagued by permafrost that is thawing. Permafrost is ground that remains frozen for two or more consecutive years. It is composed of rock, soil, sediments, and varying amounts of ice that bind the elements together. Some permafrost has been frozen for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Found under a layer of soil, permafrost can be from three feet to 4,900 feet thick. It stores the carbon-based remains of plants and animals that froze before they could decompose. Scientists estimate that the world's permafrost holds 1,500 billion tons of carbon, almost double the amount of carbon that is currently in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, when permafrost warms and thaws, it releases carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. As the global thermostat rises, permafrost, rather than storing carbon, could become a significant source of planet-heating emissions. Permafrost is already thawing in some places, and if the problem spreads, scientists worry it could initiate a runaway process of global warming. The Warming Arctic Permafrost covers about 24 percent of the exposed landmass of the Northern Hemisphereabout 9 million square miles. It is found at high latitudes and high altitudes, mainly in Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau, Alaska, Northern Canada, Greenland, parts of Scandinavia and Russia. The continental shelves below the Arctic Ocean, which were exposed during the last ice age, also contain permafrost. However, polar and high altitude regions are some the most climate-sensitive places on the planet. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, at a rate of temperature change that has not been observed in at least the last 2,000 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 2016, annual average surface temperatures were 3.5 degrees Celsius warmer than they were at the start of the 20th century. That year, permafrost temperatures in the Arctic were the warmest ever recorded. Thawing permafrost. Credit: NPS Climate Change Response In Alaska, permafrost temperatures have warmed as much as 2C in the last few decades. A recent study projects that with every 1C increase in temperature, 1.5 million square miles of permafrost could be lost through thawing. When Permafrost Thaws O. Roger Anderson, a biologist at the Earth Institute's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, explained why permafrost releases carbon as it thaws. The 'active layer' of soil on top of the permafrost, which may be two to 13 feet deep, thaws each summer and can sustain plant life. This layer releases carbon from the roots of plants that respire out CO2, and from microbes in the soil. Some microbes break down the organic matter into CO2. Others, called archaea, produce methane instead, when conditions are anaerobicwhen the soil is saturated with water or no oxygen is available. Methane is 20 to 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide at exacerbating global warming, but it remains in the atmosphere for less time. As permafrost thaws, the active layer deepens. The microbes become active and plant roots can penetrate further down, resulting in the production of more CO2. The amount of methane generated depends on how saturated the ground is. Scientists don't know the relative proportions of carbon dioxide and methane emissions that might result from largescale thawing permafrost, said Anderson, because this has never happened in human history. However, research on the upper layer of the tundra (treeless plains overlying the permafrost) suggests that the average carbon dioxide emissions are about 50 times higher than those of methane. "And we know that for every 10 degrees Celsius that the soil warms up, the emission of CO2 will double," said Anderson. A 2017 study estimated that if global temperatures rise 1.5C above 1861 levels, thawing permafrost could release 68 to 508 gigatons of carbon. Without factoring in human activity, this carbon alone would increase global temperatures 0.13 to1.69C by 2300. Since we may have already locked in 1.5C of warming above pre-industrial levels, this amount of additional warming could result in catastrophic impacts of climate change. Coastal erosion reveals permafrost underlying the active layer in Alaska. Credit: Brandt Meixell, USGS Although a warmer Arctic could support more plants, and plants absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, the new growth is projected to offset only about 20 percent of the permafrost's carbon release. What Protects Permafrost One thing that protects permafrost from the impacts of climate change is peat, the partly decayed vegetation that accumulates in water-saturated environments with no oxygen. Found in much of the low Arctic, peat can overlie or encompass the whole active layer or be frozen as permafrost. Ben Gaglioti, a postdoctoral research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, studied lake sediment records in northern Alaska to determine how much carbon the permafrost released in response to warming periods at the end of the last ice age. It turns out that the permafrost was much more sensitivemeaning it released more carbonduring past warming events, with gradually less response over time. In the most recent 150 years of warming, there has been relatively little response. "Our hypothesis is that the buildup of organic matter or peat in the watershed has occurred because of a relatively warm and stable climate since the ice age," said Gaglioti. "That peat, which started accumulating around 13,000 years ago, does a great job at insulating the underlying ground from thaw, so we think it's buffering the permafrost." Gaglioti's models show that the sensitivity of the underlying permafrost is highly dependent on the thickness of the peat. "The fate of the underlying permafrost rests in some ways on the stability of the peat layer," he said. An Irreversible Cycle? Wildfires can peel back the peat and make permafrost more sensitive to climate changeand they're expected to increase in tundra regions, Gaglioti said. Warmer and drier summers make vegetation more combustible. Warmer temperatures also bring about more thunderstorms and lightning strikes that can spark wildfires. Peat on the tundra. Credit: Ben Gaglioti Fires not only release CO2 as they burn; afterwards, the blackened ground absorbs more solar radiation and warms further. And once fire removes the peat and vegetation that shades the ground, the landscape can become too well-drained to regenerate the peat. Many scientists are concerned that thawing permafrost could be a tipping point that triggers an irreversible cycle: When permafrost releases its carbon as CO2 or methane, it will accelerate warming, which will then precipitate more permafrost thaw, and so on. There will be nothing humans can do to stop it. The regions where permafrost is frozen year-round are already shifting northwards; and in some areas, the tundra now freezes later in the fall, allowing more time for microbes to decompose organic matter and for plants to respire. Impacts of Thawing Permafrost When the ice in permafrost melts, the ground becomes unstable and can slump, causing rock and landslides, floods and coastal erosion. The ground has collapsed 280 feet deep in some parts of Siberia. The buckling earth can damage buildings, roads, power lines and other infrastructure. It can also harm natural ecosystems. Thermokarst lakesdepressions formed when thawing permafrost collapsed and filled with meltwaterare important for wildlife and provide water to local communities. But if the underlying permafrost continues to thaw, lakes and wetlands can drain completely, destroying these biologically important resources. As the sediments from landslides muddy streams and lakes, they affect plant life at the base of the food chain and potentially all the creatures that depend on it. Changes in the landscape can alter caribou breeding and migration patterns. And as the Arctic warms, beavers are moving northward. Their dams flood new areas, creating boggy stretches that allow for more warm water to thaw permafrost further. Tipping buildings in Alaska. Credit: Amanda Graham Thawing permafrost can release more than carbon emissions. In 2016, a young boy died and dozens were hospitalized after contracting anthrax on the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia. An anthrax-infected reindeer carcass that froze 75 years earlier became exposed when the permafrost thawed. Anthrax spores entered the soil and water, and eventually the food supply, infecting the humans. People and animals and their diseases have been frozen in the permafrost for hundreds of years, but bacteria and viruses can survive in permafrost for hundreds of thousands of yearsscientists recently revived a 30,000-year-old virus that infects amoebas. Diseases like the Spanish flu, smallpox or the plague that have been wiped out might be frozen in the permafrost. As the Arctic warms, more activity, like mining for rare earth or precious metals, could potentially put us in contact with them again. Building on permafrost is problematic, not only because the ground is unstable, but because the heat of buildings and pipes themselves can warm permafrost. Structures must be built on wood piles or based on thick gravel pads. Water and sewer pipes must be placed above ground. Some Bethel roads and airport runways are outfitted with liquid-filled pipes that transfer heat away from the permafrost, and the hospital has installed machines that keep the ground constantly refrigerated. In Inuvik, a town in northwestern Canada, researchers are experimenting with new varieties of pilings to stabilize buildings, but they haven't yet found a perfect solution. They say it's hard to know what will work best because no one in the Arctic has ever experienced the rate of permafrost change that is occurring today. Many Questions Remain While the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report acknowledged that permafrost is warming, its climate models did not account for these emissions when making climate projections. That's because ultimately, how much the planet warms from thawing permafrost will depend on how much carbon is released, how quickly, and whether it is in the form of CO2 or methane. But to get a fuller understanding of this phenomenon and to be able to make more accurate climate projections, scientists need to be able to better assess the vulnerability of permafrost to thawing and its many consequences for the Arctic and the planet. "Scientific research is so important in understanding," said Anderson. "We just can't predict from what's already known because we've never had permafrost thawing previously to this extent. It's only through more careful scientific research that we can answer these questions." Provided by Earth Institute, Columbia University This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu. Your delivery order from Pizza Hut may eventually arrive in a self-driving car. Pizza Hut and Toyota are working to make pizza delivery more efficient, Business Insider reported, and that could lead to self-driving pizza cars. Toyota revealed a self-driving car that may be used to not only deliver pizza -but possibly cook pizza -at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Toyota plans to start testing the car, named the e-Palette, as soon as 2020. Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp., told attendees of the show that self-driving cars will loosen distinctions between brick-and-mortar and online sales, the Washington Times reported. Pizza Hut U.S. president Artie Starrs said in a statement to Business Insider that the company is excited to "define the pizza-delivery experience of the future" with Toyota. "We are focused on technology-based solutions that enable our team members and drivers to deliver even better customer experiences," Starrs said. Both Pizza Hut and Toyota plan to collect data from delivery vehicles this year in an attempt to increase delivery efficiency and safety, Business Insider reported. This announcement of a possible self-driving pizza car comes just one month after Pizza Hut started a trial for beer and wine deliveries. 2018 The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Credit: Macquarie University Macquarie University researchers have led the design and construction of a new system that can be fitted to a custom-built, waterproof drone in order to sample whale microbiota the combination of natural bacterial colonies that live in an organism by flying over and collecting the exhaled vapours from their blowholes. The collaborative research project, which involved an array of experts including drone pilot and engineer Alastair Smith from Heliguy Pty. Ltd., Sydney, sea vessel experts, microbiologists and marine biologists, used the customised drone collection technique in order to monitor the health of whales in a non-invasive manner. "In conjunction with drone experts, we have developed a low-cost system which incorporates a sterile petri dish with a remotely operated and novel 'flip lid'. This can be attached to a drone along with a GoPro camera in order to sample whale blow with minimal disturbance to the whales," explained lead researcher Vanessa Pirotta from Macquarie University. "This system allowed us to collect samples safely and reliably, by minimising external contamination such as air and seawater from outside the blowhole," Pirotta added. Whereas previous collection of mucus from whales has involved taking samples from beached animals, where their health is already compromised, or from a boat which comes with its own set of risks, such as close approaches to very large animals, the researchers in this study were able to non-invasively collect mucus microbiota samples from 59 actively northward migrating humpback whales off the coast of Sydney. They then extracted bacterial DNA in the lab and sequenced the samples to identify the specific bacteria present in a sample. Interestingly, in addition to having bacteria that is usually found in mammals, the humpback whales were also found to have bacteria in their blow mucus from non-mammalian species. "We were able to see that many of the whales had types of bacteria that are found in the respiratory tracts of dolphins and oral cavities of other mammals, but we also found some bacteria that has been associated with fish," Pirotta explained. The researchers say that by understanding the microbiota that lives the blow mucus of healthy whales, they will be able to monitor changes in individuals and entire populations which could connote a change or decline in health. "Gathering baseline information of whale lung microbiota provides a snapshot of health information from an animal that is uncatchable. This means we will be better able to monitor the health of recovering whale populations over time and look for changes in their environment. We also hope to adapt this method to learn more about the health of other species such as the much smaller Southern right whale population," said Pirotta. As for the research team's future endeavours, Pirotta says that they are keen to see how drones could help them learn about other aspects of whale health and ecology. "In the marine environment, drones are revolutionising the way we study marine species. Due to their small size, the fact that they cause minimal disturbance to wildlife and offer improved safety for both operators and animals, makes them an attractive option for studying marine wildlife. In addition to collecting health information, we were also able to capture a different perspective of whale behaviour off Sydney not seen from a boat. We saw whales interacting with each other underwater and huge numbers of dolphins escorting whale pods as they travelled north. We hope to optimise our device, and develop new ways to answer questions about whales and other marine species as well," Pirotta concluded. Credit: University of Nottingham A new smart wearable device that can automatically detect lameness in sheep is being developed by veterinary researchers at the University of Nottingham and industry partners Intel and Farm Wizard. Lameness is the biggest health and welfare problem on sheep farms, costing the sector around 80m a year. More than 90% of farmers in the UK report lameness in their flocks, most of which is caused by footrot a bacterial infection. If spotted early enough in individual sheep, cases can be treated which in turn can prevent the problem spreading in the flock. As sheep are a 'prey' species they are likely to mask signs of lameness when they feel threatened, or enlivened by the presence of observing farmers and vets. It means that up to now, diagnosis has been difficult and relies on visual inspection because there are no validated commercial tools available. The new technical feasibility study and prototype tagging and monitoring system has been developed by Nottingham Vet School researcher, Associate Professor Jasmeet Kaler, with industry giant Intel and agricultural software developer Farm Wizard. Dr. Kaler said: "Our new system is a smart device a wearable technology that we hope will be a game-changing investment for sheep farmers and a first for the industry. It consists of a sensing device worn on a sheep's ear tag that gathers accelerometer and gyroscope data effectively tracking the animal's behaviour and movement, as well as its gait. The algorithms we have developed are used to create different alerts for farmers. So far they have provided high accuracy in predicting various behaviours of the sheep, including differentiating lameness. We are very excited as our first paper from this work has been accepted in the journal of Royal Society Open Science and will be be available soon. "I think what is very novel about this technology is that it utilises edge processing which means it doesn't necessarily need to send all the data to the Cloud because it does the thinking on the device. This is an advantage when it comes to battery life.. We are currently validating the results in a larger trial and we hope the technology will be available after some further work." Dr. Kaler's previous research has found that to date only around 20% of farmers are able to spot and treat lameness in sheep early. It was also found that the prevalence of lameness caused by footrot was much lower in groups of sheep where individual sheep had been treated early with parenteral and topical antibiotics. The sheep lameness smart sensor project has been funded by Innovate UK and the BBSRC and was recently presented at the Oxford Farming Conference's Innovation Hub. The first paper from this project will be available soon in the upcoming issue in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Credit: CC0 Public Domain There have been some rumblings recently about smartphone apps using your phone's microphone to collect data on your TV- and movie-watching choices. The New York Times wrote about software from a company called Alphonso that collects data to sell to advertisers. The apps in question are mostly games. They seem harmless, but if you grant permission for those apps to use your phone's microphone, they can listen to your life through the phoneeven when the app isn't being used. The Alphonso software can hear audio tones embedded in our video content to identify what we are watching. According to the article, Alphonso's spokesman says they don't record speech, but I'm guessing most of us do not want our privacy invaded by games like Real Bowling Strike 10 Pin. So what can you do to protect yourself? Pay attention to what happens when you install a new app. When you install apps from the Google Play store and iTunes App store, they will ask you if you'd like to grant permission for the app to use your phone's microphone. iOS apps will ask you during installation, while Android apps should ask the first time they launch. CHECK YOUR SETTINGS You'll want to make sure you know which apps are using your microphone. On iOS devices, you'll open Settings, then open Privacy and then open Microphone. You'll see a list of apps that you've given permission to use the microphone. On Android 6 and newer, you'll open Settings, then Apps. You'll see a list of apps, but you'll have to open each one and look for that app's Permissions line to see what permissions you've given it. You can also get to each app's permissions by pressing and holding on the app's icon and then choosing App Info from the pop-up menu. I'll admit I was a bit surprised at the list on my iPhone. I have six apps on my phone that use the microphone. The only app that surprised me was Instagram. I forgot I gave Instagram permission to use the microphone when it added the ability to record video clips with audio. If you see an app using your microphone, and you are not sure why, touch the slider to turn off the app's microphone access. If you decide to turn it on again, you can do so by going back to the same spot. 2018 The Dallas Morning News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Credit: iStock Contrary to conventional wisdom, people tend to wind down rather than whip themselves into a frenzy while browsing Facebook and Twitter, according to a prize-winning dissertation by a newly minted Ph.D. from UC Berkeley's School of Information. iSchools Inc., a consortium of more than 80 universities and other institutions on five continents, announced this week that its 2018 Doctoral Dissertation Award goes to Galen Panger, who earned his Ph.D. last year. Reached at his new post at Google, where he researches user experience, Panger explained his findings. "I think most people wouldn't associate the word 'calm' with social media," he said. "But one of the more robust findings of the dissertation is that people tend to wind down feel more relaxed, sleepy, bored when they browse social media, both Facebook and Twitter." Emotional contagion: wrong or just overblown? The issue of the role of emotion in social media, he said, is enormously important. Early in his dissertation, Panger noted that "there is no topic more central to our highest hopes or deepest fears for social media than emotion. Emotion is the outrage and hope that fuels social media social movements from the Arab Spring to Black Lives Matter, and it is the hostility that silenced women in Gamergate. "Emotion is the sadness that spreads through social media upon the death of a celebrity or in the wake of another mass shooting. Emotion is the happy life we are concerned with portraying to our friends, the moments of satisfaction we cannot wait to tell the world about, and the envy of receiving the highlights of our friends' lives while we carry on with ordinary life." He noted that his finding that people wind down while on Facebook and Twitter runs counter to a prevailing theory of "emotional contagion," which implies that if status updates are wound up, people browsing those updates will feel that way too. "So, either emotional contagion is wrong, or it's just not potent enough to overcome situational factors that may be associated with browsing social media, like reclining in bed or waiting for the train," Panger said. Online disinhibition, Exhibit A And, there is evidence that people tend to express more anger and disgust on Twitter and Facebook than they experience in daily life, Panger said. This and other evidence, he said, supports the theory that people may be less restrained in how they express themselves online, at least to some extent. "Certainly, Donald Trump seems like Exhibit A of online disinhibition, but he's pretty angry, resentful and unrestrained in life, so it's tough to blame Twitter for everything we see there," he said. Overall, Panger said, the picture is pretty nuanced, as social media users seem both more inhibited and more disinhibited, in different ways, in how they express themselves online. "One thing I hope people feel as they read the dissertation is some reassurance that social media is not a terribly warped representation of us and is not doing extreme things to our emotions," offered Panger. "The effects are subtler," he said. "It turns out, for example, that the calm and basic pleasantness of daily life, on average, is reflected in how people tweet on Twitter or post on Facebook. Imagine that!" Being mindful On the other hand, he acknowledged that his research found a "slight tilt" toward negative emotion when people browse social media. Panger found Facebook posts tend to be more positive than emotional life in general, with posts with photos of ourselves among the most positive. There is evidence in his dissertation and in other research that this spreads envy, a potential source of resentment and antisocial behavior. "One implication for the general population is to be mindful about spreading envy with your Facebook posts," advised Panger. "I think anything we can do to reduce the resentment floating around right now would be a good thing." The tsunami razed Banda Aceh's coastal districts to the ground. Nevertheless, the reconstruction was carried out in the affected area. Credit: US Navy In 2004, a tsunami devastated much of the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh. An international team of researchers has studied the long-term impact that rebuilding efforts in coastal areas have had on the community. On 26 December 2004, a massive tsunami devastated Indonesia's coastal city of Banda Aceh, levelling nearly half of the city and killing an estimated 160,000 people across the province. Countless others lost their families, homes and everything they owned. In the years that followed, aid providers rebuilt homes on the same plots that had been completely destroyed by the tsunami, in order to avoid displacing the residents. In doing so, they were acting in accordance with a humanitarian principle that comes into play after natural disasters, namely to help survivors to return to their previous places of residence whenever possible. Yet in Banda Aceh, many tsunami survivors preferred to move inland instead, leading to a price premium for properties farther from the coast and socio-economic segregation. Reconstruction in the coastal zone has unintentionally exacerbated this segregation: now many lower-income newcomers rent rebuilt houses that higher-income tsunami survivors do not wish to occupy. The unfortunate result is that lower-income residents are now disproportionately exposed to coastal hazards. An international research team has now published these findings in the journal Nature Sustainability. The principle of "build back better" "The reconstruction of Banda Aceh had a goal to 'build back better'," says Jamie McCaughey, first author of the study and a doctoral student with ETH Professor Anthony Patt. This principle was used not only with reference to the rebuilding of houses and infrastructure, but also to people's well-being. "While there were many successes, the reconstruction efforts did not always pan out as intended," concluded McCaughey and the team of researchers from the Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh. In 2014-2015, a decade after the disaster, the researchers studied the long-term outcomes of rebuilding efforts in the city and how residents there were affected. This involved analysing the socioeconomic characteristics of both rebuilt and unaffected residential areas and interviewing hundreds of people: tsunami survivors, newcomers, community leaders, and agency and government officials. The unpopular coast The researchers found that nearly all of the homes rebuilt in the tsunami-affected area were inhabited ten years later. Yet only half of the inhabitants were tsunami survivors. Over 40 percent of the people living in the new houses were newcomers: mostly lower-income renters from other regions who had not witnessed the tsunami. According to the researchers, many tsunami survivors either never returned to live in the aid houses provided on their plots, or returned and soon left. People who could afford it settled in the more inland parts of the city, while renting out their aid house to others. "And some tsunami survivors who returned and ended up staying would like to move farther from the coast but cannot afford to do so," says McCaughey. Satellite images show that the reconstruction was carried out in areas affected by the tsunami. Credit: Google Earth This is because the rising demand for properties in tsunami-safe locations further inland had triggered a price explosion. Real estate and land prices increased sharply, making homes in tsunami-safe locations unaffordable to poorer residents wanting to move there. At the same time, the rental prices dropped for the newly built homes near the coast, drawing in poorer residents. Poor and risky here - rich and safe there Ultimately, this has led to a division in the urban population - with poor residents who can no longer afford to live in tsunami-safe locations on one side, and affluent residents on the other. "Before the tsunami, people did not know about tsunami risk, so there was no socioeconomic segregation of tsunami-prone areas. But now wealthier households tend to live further inland, while poorer households tend to live near the coast," says the ETH doctoral student. According to McCaughey, one way to avoid this undesirable segregation would be to let people choose where they receive housing aid after the disaster, regardless of their purchasing power. "Enabling people to choose where they rebuild would help those who truly wish to return to the coast to do so; at the same time, this may avoid the problems that arise from rebuilding more houses than wanted in hazard-exposed areas," he says. Nine in ten interviewees said that they were not given this choice, however. But it was also reported that there were many who did willingly move back to the coastal zones. "They were thankful for the aid that allowed them to resume a normal life in their familiar surroundings." Given these diverse preferences, "we find that one size does not fit all." Who should choose where to rebuild? When rebuilding in disaster areas, aid organisations and government agencies have to decide whether to relocate people to less hazardous areas or to help them resettle in the same places where they lived and worked before. In the case of Banda Aceh, the researchers reported that a decision was made for the latter: "After the disaster, there was also a lot of pressure from donors to quickly rebuild the parts of the city that were destroyed." Another factor was that the local authorities did not have funds for land purchases. "This limited the possibilities for relocation from the outset," says McCaughey. Relocation has its disadvantages, too, however: in places destroyed by the same tsunami in Sri Lanka, the authorities created buffer zones where new construction was prohibited. The former inhabitants of these areas were relocated. The new homes and people are safe from future tsunamis, but residents now have to deal with long journeys and expensive transit costs to reach their places of work. The case of Banda Aceh, however, is not necessarily representative of all of the disaster areas rebuilt after the tsunami. "Other cases must be considered individually," says the environmental social scientist. "Our findings call into question the humanitarian consensus that it is generally best to rebuild on the sites where people lived before the disaster. Instead, it may be better to enable each household to choose where they resettle, as the Indonesian government had initially proposed for the reconstruction of Aceh. But to implement this, aid providers would need to overcome many difficult challenges." This is an important policy area to examine now: "In an era of growing coastal populations and rising sea levels, decisions made after one disaster strongly influence our vulnerability to the next." More information: Jamie W. McCaughey et al, Socio-economic consequences of post-disaster reconstruction in hazard-exposed areas, Nature Sustainability (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-017-0002-z 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. Credit: IFJ PAN "Panta rhei, everything flows." If Heraclitus of Ephesus was correct, ideas, like rivers, 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. 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 reveals not only see the paths along which scientific ideas flow, but also reconstructs the structure of scientific cooperation and detects emerging communities. Interestingly, the proposed method of analysis can be an effective tool to fight terrorists and even dishonest politicians. 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 co-authors 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 analyzing the structures of scientific cooperation, the Cracow researchers made use of an idea connected with Paul Erdos, one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. Erdos was the author and co-author of around 1500 publications that included a total of over 500 people collaborating. 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; a scientist who co-authored a publication with him was assigned 1; a scientist who co-authored a publication with an Erdos 1 collaborator was assigned Erdos 2, etc. 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. Credit: IFJ PAN "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 one 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 the 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 end 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 percent of nodes have access to 80 percent 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. 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 (annotations). Credit: IFJ PAN 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 reveals 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, modern democracies could perhaps function more effectively if, before elections, researchers produced a graph illustrating the network of the candidate's connections to other people. More information: Stanisaw Drozdz et al, Hierarchical organization of H. Eugene Stanley scientific collaboration community in weighted network representation, Journal of Informetrics (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2017.09.009 Provided by The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13769 on Jan. 27, 2017, effectively barring individuals from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days. Within a day of his decree, thousands of protesters flooded airports around the country in opposition to what was quickly deemed a "Muslim ban," and by March 6, the order had been formally revoked. According to a political scientist at the University of California, Riverside, and his colleagues, visible resistance to the order in the immediate aftermath of its signing may have produced a rare shift in public opinion that resulted in mass opposition to Trump's policy. The shift was caused by "an influx of information portraying the ban as being at odds with egalitarian principles of American identity and religious liberty," said researchers Loren Collingwood, an assistant professor of political science at UCR; Nazita Lajevardi of Michigan State University; and Kassra A. R. Oskooii of the University of Delaware. Their findings, published last week in the journal Political Behavior, suggest the bounty of information that surfaced after the order went into effectinformation that painted the ban as deeply un-American and in fact "incompatible with American values"contributed to a broad-based increase in opposition to it. The researchers compared the results of two surveys of the same 311 peopleone conducted just days before the order's announcement, and the other in the two weeks after. They found that among those respondents, more than 30 percent moved against the ban in the interim. Those who shifted most radically, meanwhile, were "high American identifiers." Such respondents were shown to consider their status as Americans who belong to one nation to be a defining element of their identities. Media coverage of anti-ban demonstrations, the researchers noted, often depicted protesters "shrouded in American flags," visually linking the concept of more inclusive immigration policies to American egalitarianism. The movement against the ban also benefited from the outspokenness of various news commentators and publications, many of whom were quick to criticize the order by characterizing it as antithetical to core American ideals. To test their results, the researchers also looked at attitudes toward two other hot-button issues linked to executive orders that were signed just days before No. 13769: the Keystone Pipeline and the U.S.-Mexico border wall. They found that although attitudes toward both did shift slightly, the differences were not statistically significant. The profound response to the ban, the researchers wrote, represents "one instance in which the priming of American identity shifted citizens' opinions toward more inclusive, rather than restrictive, immigration-related policy stances." Overall, their findings suggest that American identity can be "primed" to produce shifts in public opinion. It also demonstrates that public opinion may be more malleable than previously thought, especially as certain policy issues cycle in and out of the news. More information: Loren Collingwood et al, A Change of Heart? Why Individual-Level Public Opinion Shifted Against Trump's "Muslim Ban", Political Behavior (2018). DOI: 10.1007/s11109-017-9439-z Journal information: Political Behavior Credit: EPA, CC BY-SA Last year unleashed some catastrophic weather across the world. At the beginning of 2017, Australia experienced one of the hottest summers on record in Sydney and Brisbane, followed by a killer summer heatwave across southern Europe and wildfires triggered by heat in California. The Atlantic hurricane season was particularly active, recording three mighty category 5 hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria resulting in significant casualties. The cost of the damage across the American continent was in excess of $260 billion. At the same time, the 2017 monsoon season brought considerable rains to the Indian subcontinent, and resulted in devastating floods in parts of India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh (one of the most flood vulnerable countries in the world), causing more than 1,000 deaths. At the end of 2017, we could look back at the statistics and see that globally it was the warmest non-El Nino year on record. El-Nino is the warming part of the El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle which affects global ocean and atmospheric currents and can create powerful storms and hurricanes. In a world that is getting warmer, what does that mean and what might 2018 hold for weather across the globe? Are we destined to see more and more of these "unusual" and catastrophic weather events which result in significant devastation? What effect will climate change have on our weather and will this become the new norm? Monsoon flooding in the Himalayan foothills of India, Bangladesh and Nepal affected more than 40m people last year. Credit: EPA, CC BY-SA Looking at the facts First, we need to untangle the difference between weather and climate change, something president Trump seems to confuse. In a nutshell, the difference is time. Weather is the conditions in the atmosphere over a short period of time. Climate is how the atmosphere behaves over a longer period of time. When we talk about climate change, that generally means changes in long-term averages of daily levels of temperature and rainfall. So we may see a change in average or typical weather over a number of years, but we can still experience extremes in any one year. Recently, scientists have used robust event attribution where natural or human influences on particular events are studied to understand the role climate change may play in particular weather events. This can help support future regional contingency planning. This also helps us to understand the role climate change has played in past events such as heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, or extreme flooding and some of their large-scale drivers such as ocean and atmospheric patterns of warming and cooling, like El-Nino. Looking at the past there are many factors which control the onset, spread and eventual impact of a big weather event. But not all of these factors are climatic and many relate to things such as urbanisation, engineering interventions or land-use changes. What the future looks like According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC, an international body set up to assess the science of climate change, we can continue to expect an increase in the average global temperature. That means we will be experiencing warmer years in the future. But at the same time, we may see changes to the extremes, which could become more frequent in the case of high temperature or heavy rainfall, or less frequent in the case of extreme cold. This means that the distribution, occurrence and expected averages of our weather (for example, temperature and rain) throughout the year may change, resulting in warmer years on average with more extreme hot days, and fewer extreme cold days in the future. This pattern has a direct link to such phenomena as heatwaves, which are caused by more extreme temperatures. The links to droughts or periods of extreme low flows in rivers are more complex. Global Circulation Models (GCMs) a collection of numerical models that provide a 3-D analysis of global climate interactions such as atmosphere, oceans, ice and land predict increases in temperatures for some regions, such as southern Europe. In terms of tropical cyclones, the effects of climate change on these phenomena is an active area of research as the processes are complex. For example, the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship which can be related to the water vapour-carrying capacity of the atmosphere, may have an impact on the strength and intensity of such storms. The relationship states that for every degree rise in temperature, the water-holding capacity of the atmosphere increases by 7%, so in a warming ocean, the air above the water has a much greater capacity to hold water and thus store more rain that can feed more powerful storms. But sinking cold air from the upper atmosphere may prevent storms from rising in the first place. If this happens more frequently with climate change then we can expect fewer such storms. That means in the future there may be fewer tropical cyclones forming, but those that do will be stronger and more intense. Wet wet wet In a warming world, we can expect it to get wetter. The distribution of the rainfall throughout the year could change as we experience longer, drier spells, although when rain falls it may be in intense bursts. Recent research by Newcastle University analysed the results from finer scale GCMs climate projections and suggests we may expect more intense summer rainfall in the UK in future. New climate projections from GCMs are being prepared for the UK to help predict what the future climate may look like. Flooding from intense rainfall or river sources has many complex drivers which cause the damage in catchment areas. For example, land use changes (such as intensive farming practices or deforestation) and the degree of urbanisation both play a part in flood risk. Recent research for the UK suggests that we will see an increase in the frequency of extreme river flooding. So what can we expect for 2018? Already Australia is experiencing extreme heat, while the eastern seaboard of the US is suffering a severe cold spell, and the west coast devastating mudslides that have killed 17 people. So far 2018 seems to be picking up right where 2017 left off. Governments need to recognise and absorb that extreme weather across the globe is likely to become more common and start to adapt accordingly, rather than treat it as shocking one-off events. Otherwise we risk increasing loss of life and environmental damage in the future. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Kibo and Maui Jim Outline the Omnichannel 2.0 Vision for Brands at NRF 2018 DALLAS January 11, 2018 Kibo, the worlds leading cloud-based omnichannel commerce platform, today announced the topic of their Exhibitor Insights Session at National Retail Federation (NRF) Retails Big Show 2018, titled Omnichannel 2.0 for Brands, co-presented by Maui Jim, a leader in sunglass innovation. With all the talk of retailers rapidly deploying omnichannel fulfillment, how do branded manufacturers fit into the mix? Consumers flock to brand websites expecting the same experience as retailer websites, but are often met with disappointment when they are ready to buy. Does it seem impossible for brands to offer buy online with same day in-store pickup at a local retailer? Join this session to hear Kibo and Maui Jim lay out the vision for Omnichannel 2.0 for brands in todays retail world. Presenters for this session are Jennifer Sherman, SVP Product & Strategy for Kibo, and Jim Ferolo, VP, Digital and Marketing Technologies and Francesco Stagno dAlcontres, UX Designer for Maui Jim Sunglasses. The session will be held Monday, Jan. 15 at 9:15am EST, Expo Hall, Big Ideas Room 3, Level 1. NRF 2018: Retails Big Show held Jan. 14-16, is the worlds most important retail conference, bringing together the largest gathering of industry executives from across the globe. Attendees learn the latest retail trends and get an unparalleled view into how retail brands of all sizes are transforming themselves for the digital age. The event offers unique networking opportunities and a glimpse of the latest technologies and solutions for retailers. The event will be held at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. Are you attending NRF 2018? Stop by booth #4145 to learn more about Kibos solutions for Omnichannel 2.0. About Kibo Kibo is a leading omnichannel commerce platform for retailers and branded manufacturers with over 800 customers fulfilling orders in 75 countries. Clients achieve optimal performance and loyalty through truly connected customer experiences across customer devices and retail touchpoints. Kibos unified approach includes a leading ecommerce platform, big data 1:1 personalization, mobile POS, and distributed order management delivered via a modern, cloud-based infrastructure. The Kibo platform can scale as clients grow their business while maintaining a low cost of ownership and faster time to market than other solutions. Kibo enables you to reach higher peaks of sales and customer loyalty. No matter the challenge, Kibo powers your success. About Maui Jim Maui Jim got its start in 1980 as a small company selling sunglasses on the beach in Lahaina, Hawaii. Seeing a need in the market for technology that could combat intense glare and harmful UV while bringing the brilliant colors of the island to life, we engineered the revolutionary PolarizedPlus2 lens. Incorporated into seven new sunglass styles, our Classic Collection was introduced. We now offer over 125 styles of sunglasses, 100% of which are polarized and protect from 100% of UVA and UVB rays. Other Point of Sale News Colony Brands Case Study (Equinix Customer) Blurb: Leading e-commerce catalog merchandiser transforms its legacy IT infrastructure with an Equinix and AWS hybrid cloud solution, while optimizing connectivity, boosting performance and gaining 81% annual internal rate of return (IRR). Colony Brands is one of the largest direct, e-commerce sales companies in the general merchandise and food sectors in the U.S. Founded in 1926, the company consists of 11 affiliated U.S.-based catalog brands and 10 other subsidies/affiliates, including marketing, credit, data center, wholesale foods and aviation businesses. SC Data Center, a Colony Brands affiliate, delivers the IT infrastructure and contact center services for all of these brands, while supporting thousands of employees. The company has a steady stream of business coming from its brands for most of the year, but during the four-month holiday buying season, it sees huge spikes in its e-commerce catalog businesses. In the e-retail ecoysystem, these spikes demand scalability and greater bandwidth to allow for large numbers of holiday shoppers to make purchases at once. Not only this, but security is top of mind to ensure sensitive customer data is protected. This can be achieved by leveraging a private, direct connection to facilitate. To deliver a greater quality of service (QoS) to its internal end users, as well as gain real-time business intelligence from its growing amounts of customer data, Colony Brands migrated its on-premises data warehousing, back office and customer analytics systems to create an interconnected, hybrid IT infrastructure. An interconnected infrastructure encompasses the deployment of IT traffic exchange points integrating direct, private connections between counterparties, hosted in carrier-neutral data center campuses, with distributed, colocated IT components. Equinix and AWS allowed us to deliver a greater quality of service to our users, and an incredible return on our investment in just one year by enabling us to create a fast, scalable, secure and reliable hybrid IT infrastructure, said Steve Cretney, Vice President/CIO, SC Data Center, Inc. (an affiliate of Colony Brands). Colony Brands wanted to continue to build upon a tradition of delivering the best customer experience. To achieve that goal, it needed to better leverage its masses of customer data and gain real-time business intelligence via big data analytics. To accomplish these goals, Colony Brands needed to: Increase its direct interconnection bandwidth capacity versus using the public internet transport when connecting on-premises systems and cloud service providers Gain more efficient and secure integration with AWS to better leverage elastic, usage-based cloud services Reduce network costs and AWS cloud consumption model and optimize cloud interconnection to deliver greater QoS from its data warehousing, back office and analytics applications Obtain greater reliability in its business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities Effectively and cost-efficiently connect eight remote sites into its hybrid IT infrastructure This transformed its legacy systems for a digital edge, or closest to its users, to tether its corporate data center with an Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Chicago. By leveraging an Interconnection Oriented Architecture (IOA) strategy, deployed on Platform Equinix, the company was able to more effectively and cost-efficiently interconnect its on-premises IT infrastructure with AWS, and access dense ecosystems of network, cloud and SaaS providers. Colony Brands on-premises virtual machine (VM) hosts moved application and analytics workloads to AWS and then back to the companys backend mainframe and database systems faster and with greater reliability. Application workloads included: warehouse data management (inventory, planning and forecasting); VDI (Citrix), customer data analytics (SAS); data loss prevention, security identity access and logging systems; and call center workforce management and customer list processing systems. Direct, proximate access to data, network and cloud ecosystems enabled the optimized performance and QoS for Colony Brands internal end users when accessing all of these capabilities. Regular data backups of the VMs and databases were done in the cloud for more scalable and economic disaster recovery and business continuity. The sensitive nature of the company and customer data required the enhanced security that only private interconnection can deliver. The faster, more secure hybrid IT infrastructure enabled us to leverage the cloud for scale as if it was just another data center for us with unlimited capacity, so we could spin up data center systems without the high cost of hardware services, said Cretney. After one year in production, the company reduced its data/voice networking costs by 50% and realized an 81% internal rate of return (IRR) by transforming to a digital business model. Colony Brands recognized that it needed to transform its business from an on-premises IT model for its data warehousing management and back office systems to a more high-performance, secure, scalable and reliable hybrid IT (on-premises and cloud) infrastructure. Business results: Gained real-time, customer-based business intelligence from the growing data and analytics capacity in AWS Reduced voice/data annual costs by more than 50% and gained 81% IRR by transforming to a more efficient and cost-effective interconnected hybrid IT platform Increased voice/data throughput from 200 MB/s to 10 Gb/s Increased and optimized data warehousing, back office and analytics capabilities and QoS by accessing proximate data, networking and cloud ecosystems Value realized Colony Brands realized greater control of its data warehousing, back office and analytics systems, and cloud services by moving from an MPLS to a high-speed, redundant, interconnected, hybrid IT infrastructure. This enabled the company to: Gain greater, real-time business intelligence for its customer marketing initiatives by securely increasing its distributed data and analytics capacity in the cloud Realize a 50% network cost savings and an 81% IRR after one year by transforming to a digital business model a 50% network cost savings and Gain greater performance by re-architecting its data/voice network architectures throughput from 200 MB/s to 10 Gb/s, when interconnecting its on-premises and Equinix data centers to consume AWS services Increase its network and application optimization, security and BC/DR capabilities across regions by leveraging a more flexible, redundant, interconnection-first hybrid IT environment Deliver greater productivity for DevOps and increase QoS to end users via faster data processing at scale, compared to its traditional on-premises IT infrastructure and MPLS network IT transformation is really about creating new value by leveraging new technology, rather than spending time managing legacy systems. Equinix allowed us to unlock the value of AWS for greater agility and innovation with our data warehouse and customer analytics, accelerating our productivity like never before, said Cretney. About Colony Brands Colony Brands (formerly The Swiss Colony) started small, shipping cuts of cheese to a handful of customers in 1926. More than 90 years later, the company is one of the largest and most successful omni-channel direct marketing companies with 10 brands, multiple locations throughout the Midwest and a global sourcing operation in Shanghai, China. Started in Monroe, Wisconsin, by Ray Kubly, Colony Brands remains privately held by the Kubly Family. The company has enjoyed a successful growth path and is a significant employer in the Midwest with more than 1,200 regular employees and more than 6,000 temporary employees. Their catalog and e-commerce brands include three food brands: The Swiss Colony, The Tender Filet and The Wisconsin Cheeseman, and seven non-food brands specializing in a range of general merchandise or apparel/accessories, including Seventh Avenue, Montgomery Ward, Monroe & Main, Ginnys, Midnight Velvet, Ashro and Through the Country Door. For more information go to: http://www.colonybrands.com/ Setting-wise Bradley Skatepark was kind of a win nestled in the middle of a sedate housing estate on the outskirts of Huddersfield and looking out onto glorious Yorkshire countryside, so, as long as you kept your eyes above ground level things looked okay. Sadly though, once you made the mistake of casting your eyes towards ground level you were treated to one of the worst attempts at building a skateboard park that weve ever seen. Im guessing that the design consultation process involved in building Bradley Skatepark consisted of little more than Googling skatepark, looking at the first two returns and then ringing the local scrap yard to buy a few grands worth of scrap steel. The centre-piece consisted of a driveway with a flat bar running along the length of it the only problem there was the fact that the drive way itself was only a foot high, there were gaps between the bottoms of the driveway and the floor on both sides, (so you have to ollie to get off the driveway), and the rail was so low that you couldnt actually ollie onto it. (See the pics for a better explanation of how bad this thing is construction-wise). Aside from that magnificent obstacle (in a literal sense of that word), Bradley Skatepark also served up two flat bars, (again so low that ollieing onto them was virtually impossible) and a selection of metal benches that were either intended to function as skatepark obstacles, or as vantage-points for the huge crowds of spectators attending Bradley skatepark on a daily basis to watch Tony Hawk practice on his regular visits there. (Im opting for the latter). The first installment of David Lettermans new series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, arrived on Netflix today, and I have already seen a number of tweets suggesting it is an antidote to the latest racist news. (For the sake of posterity: On this day, January 12th, 2018, we learned that President Trump had recently called Haiti and various African nations shitholes.) In the episode, Letterman sits down with Barack Obama for a nearly hourlong conversation that includes a discussion of civil rights and racism and an exchange with congressman John Lewis about the march on Selma, with footage of Letterman and Lewis walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Advertisement As news counterprogramming, this is effective, a reminder that not so long ago our president was thoughtful and righteous on matters of race, rather than being an outright racist. But being more soothing and uplifting than the five-alarm fire that is the Trump administration is not such a high bar to clear. My Next Guest Needs No Introduction is pleasant, entertaining, occasionally moving, a little funny, and almost indistinguishable from a standard late-night interview, just stretched out. It is long, but it is not particularly deep. New network, new set, new beard: same Dave. You can take the host out of late night, but you cant take the late night out of the host. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My Next Guest Needs No Introduction opens with a bit of sparkly anecdote, gets dull when matters turn to policy or politics, prompts its guest for familiar stories (many taken from Obamas memoir, Dreams From My Father), and then ends with more anecdotes about Obamas dance moves and his eldest daughter going off to college. Obama is charming and dry, and Letterman is charming and curmudgeonly. It is a perfectly serviceable interview, with a few compelling insights into post-presidency life and some nice rejoinders from Letterman. (To hear you describe this in a way that I understand, it just makes me so glad youre still president.) But its questions are late-night questions: They are designed to elicit an expected or predicted bit, not to meander, surprise, or plumb. Advertisement Advertisement Letterman asks Obama no pointed questions about politics, and he asks very few follow-up questions about his feelings. Perhaps it was agreed beforehand that they wouldnt discuss Trumpthey never mention him by namebut Letterman doesnt even ask how Obama feels at seeing, say, the landmark health care reforms he championed so systematically attacked, defended, and attacked again. Lettermans questions about race, and his turn to John Lewis, are well-meaning but unsophisticated. He has Lewis repeat the basic history of the march on Selma and affirm the greatness of Obama before assuaging Lettermans fears about the recent rise of white supremacy with hopeful assurances that racial progress only moves forward. Letterman clearly feels strongly about racism, but he has not thought deeply enough about it to engage these men who have in any substantive conversation. Advertisement Advertisement Obama tries to show Letterman a way to do the new show differently. Early in the interview, Obama tosses a question back at Letterman: How has retirement been for him? Did he spend time with his wife and his son or brood in the dark? Letterman answers but then, in quintessentially gruff Letterman fashion, sets Obama straight, This is how this is gonna work: Im gonna ask you stuff, and youre going to answer. This is how the rest of the episode proceeds. But toward the end of the episode, Obama circles back to the moment, saying, I wanted to ask Dave a lot of questions, but he got grumpy at the beginning. This time, Obama perseveres and asks the most unpredictable question of the episode: Does Letterman feel lucky? Obama has found that successful people give themselves too much credit. This is what I have been struggling about. I have been nothing but lucky. Letterman replies with angst in his voice, going on to say that when Lewis was marching on Selma, he was on his way to the Bahamas to get drunk with his friends. Why wasnt I in Alabama? I have been nothing but lucky. He stops there, and then he wont go any further. David Simon and HBO have both issued statements addressing the accusations against The Deuce producer, director, and star James Franco. Five women, four of them former students, accused Franco of various instances of sexually manipulative behavior or abusing his power in a new piece in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, which Franco denied or characterized as not accurate through his attorney. That piece prompted the comments from The Deuces co-creator and the network that airs the show, both of whom say that there have been no complaints about Franco on the set. Advertisement Simon went on to elaborate further. Im still reading it the same as everyone else, trying to discern what is or isnt there, he said. Personally, I can only speak knowledgeably to The Deuce. Ive checked with all my fellow producers and other personnel. We have no complainant or complaint or any awareness of any incident of concern involving Mr. Franco. Nor has HBO been approached with any complaint. In our experience, he was entirely professional as an actor, director, and producer. Though Simons statement is in the past tense, there has been no announcement about whether the allegations will have any effect on Francos future on the show, which has been renewed for a second season. Franco plays twins Vincent Martino and Frankie Martino on The Deuce, which surrounds the emerging porn industry in 1970s New York City. The Trump administration announced plans last week to lift Obama-era prohibitions on offshore drilling, potentially opening up thousands of miles of coastline to companies interested in extracting oil and natural gas from the ocean floor. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, whose department oversees and regulates coastline leasing, called the five-year plan a new path for energy dominance in America, which is a strange way to refer to an investment in nonrenewable resources with a finite future. Environmental groups, Democrats, and even some Republicans swiftly decried the move for its potential to devastate marine ecosystems and the health and safety of coastal communities. Governors from New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon, and Washington all oppose offshore drilling, and all requested exclusion from the plan last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The problem with this explanation, though, is that everything he says to justify Floridas exemption applies to every other coastal state. Interestingly, Zinke decided to remove one state from the new standardone that didnt even originally ask for an exemption. But after the announcement, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, an ally of the Trump administrations, released a statement saying, I have asked to immediately meet with Secretary Zinke to discuss the concerns I have with this plan and the crucial need to remove Florida from consideration. My top priority is to ensure that Floridas natural resources are protected. On Tuesday, Zinke granted him his wish, exempting Floridas coastlines from offshore drilling. Zinke released a statement that called Scott a straightforward leader that can be trusted, and declared support for the governors position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver. Advertisement Advertisement The problem with this explanation, though, is that everything he says to justify Floridas exemption applies to every other coastal state. Florida is certainly special in uniquely Floridian ways, but warm beaches that attract tourists and generate in-state revenue are everywhere. Theres the Jersey Shore; Rehoboth Beach in Delaware; Charleston, South Carolina; the Outer Banks in North Carolina; Virginia Beach; Los Angeles and San Diego, and on and on and on. Now, state leaders are forcing Zinke into a corner with his own words. .@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 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 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 Advertisement Advertisement Even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another Trump ally, made it clear he wanted an exemption for his state as well. Advertisement Advertisement What could be going on here? Perhaps this is a case of not-in-my-backyard exceptionalism. After all, Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort, where hes absconded to 10 times since inauguration, sits on the beach in Palm Beach, Florida. Would he want to deal with an unsightly view and accompanying cacophony of an offshore drill platform? Probably not! Not to mention the fact that offshore drilling produces a pretty disgusting slew of pollutants, including muds, brine wastes, and runoff water that threaten to decimate the pristine beauty youd expect at a beachside home. If Zinke cant find a real reason Florida should be exempt and other states should not, the entire plan might be dead in the water anyway. Good riddance. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake was confident on Thursday morning. Weve pretty much got a bill, the retiring senator, one of the most moderate members of his caucus on immigration, said of his bipartisan working group to address the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Flake said the legislation would be introduced soon and that they would be going to the White House imminently to present it to the president. It was true that this bipartisan Gang of Sixcomprised of Flake, fellow Republicans Lindsey Graham and Cory Gardner, and Democrats Dick Durbin, Bob Menendez, and Michael Bennethad reached a deal in principle. It would reportedly offer a path to citizenship for both DACA recipients and the broader Dreamer population along with a few billion dollars (with some discretion) for border security, limited ability for Dreamers to sponsor family members, and a redistribution of diversity lottery visas. It sounded like a modest, straight-down-the-middle compromise on contentious issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The only problem? There was no indication Thursday that anyone else in the United States Congress or the White House was on board with it. By midafternoon, after the deal had been outlined to the president at the White House, it was clear that Donald Trump didnt particularly care for the six senators compromise. Senate leaders got the message and threw buckets of cold water on the notion that they were ready to move on any sort of deal. I think what the president told them is its fine for them to have negotiated what they think is a reasonable proposal, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn told reporters, but what they need to do is share that with others so that well have broad enough support to actually get it passed. So I think that message has been delivered. Advertisement Advertisement Cornyn was the most generous. It doesnt sound like the president agreed to that, Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said of the proposal. I asked him if the president didnt like what he saw. I think thats correct, he said. Descriptions of the presidents reaction to the bill tended to correspond to ones own immigration politics. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, for example, an immigration hawk intent on destroying the Gang of Six bill, called it, alternately, a pine needle and a joke of a proposal. Cotton was in the White House meeting, and from his telling, Trump hated it just as much as he did. Advertisement The Gang of Six proposal had inadequate funding for security measures, doesnt end chain migration, doesnt end the diversity lottery so much as reassigns those green cards to other categories, Cotton said. Trump wasnt pleased and, in Cottons words, told the Gang of Six to go back to the drawing board. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And that was just the PG-rated recap of the meeting. As the Washington Post reported Thursday afternoon, Trump asked the group, Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? He suggested that it would be preferable to accept more immigrants from countries like Norway. (Trump met Wednesday with Norways prime minister.) On Capitol Hill, underlying all of the pushback is a catty turf war, the best of absurdist bureaucratic dramas. With so many immigration working groups putting forward billsHouse conservatives also released a proposal Wednesday, and House centrists released their own proposal earlier in the weekleaders have formed their own uberworking group. It is comprised of Durbin, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn. (This group is operating under the shorthand of the No. 2s.) Crucially, the White House also has a seat at this table: chief of staff John Kelly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The group of elite deputies naturally see themselves as the working group, given their august titles, and dismiss the Gang of Six as just a subgroup of senators chitchatting about immigration. Even though one of its membersDurbinis a member of both groups, they refuse to call the Gang of Six the working group. Marc Short, the White House legislative director, told reporters, with a subtly patronizing air, that it was great how those six senators had reached an accord among themselves. The real group would be sure to consider their ideas. It does not reflect the viewpoints of all the people in the working group, Short said. By the working group, he of course meant the one in which the White House was involved. Anything else, to the White House, was merely conversation between members. Advertisement Members of the Gang of Six insisted Wednesday afternoon that their deal hadnt already been killed. Even though its been met coolly, or treated as a side exercise before the real group comes up with the bill, its still the only game in town, as Flake put it. When briefed on Cottons criticism, Graham challenged Cotton to write a bill that could win Democratic votes. They said they would begin the process of selling their bill to members. Advertisement Advertisement Thats not going to be easy. Without the presidents support, it doesnt have a prayer of going anywhere with House Republicans. And if House Republicans arent going to go along with it, Senate Republicans arent going to bother either. Though the early reports of the compromise suggest Democrats could have fared far worse, House Democrats are furious that the discussions even include topics like limiting family sponsorships and curtailing the diversity lottery. They just want protections for Dreamers. If the bill were pushed any further to the right to get the presidents support, Democrats might revolt. Immigration reform, even when its narrowed down to limited parameters, is hard. Thats why it doesnt happen. Except as a place to kill terrorists, Africa was never going to be a priority for the Trump administration. In addition to the fact that Trump made a political name for himself by questioning whether a president with Kenyan roots was a U.S. citizen, his attitude toward the continent was previously best exemplified by a speech in September to African leaders at the United Nations, where he repeatedly referred to the non-existent country of Nambia and told the audience, I have so many friends going to your countries, trying to get rich. I congratulate you. Advertisement But if there was any ambiguity left about how Trump regards 15 percent of the worlds population, thats gone after yesterdays report that Trump referred to immigrants from Africa as coming from shithole countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the AP reports, a spokesman for the African Union said the body was frankly alarmed by the comments. Botswanas government called them reprehensible and racist and summoned the U.S. ambassador to clarify whether their country is really regarded as a shithole or not. South Africas ruling African National Congress as well as its opposition parties condemned the remarks. (Trump, bringing people together.) The government Haiti, which Trump was initially reported to have also described as a shithole after reportedly remarking last year that its inhabitants all have AIDS, has also condemned the remarks and demanded an explanation. (Trump now denies saying anything derogatory about Haitians and reporting from CNNs Jake Tapper suggests that while Trump did express opposition to Haitian immigration yesterday, he did not actually include them in the same shithole category as Africa.) A spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office told reporters in Geneva, There is no other word one can use but racist. You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as shitholes, whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome. Advertisement Advertisement Its not only the countries Trump insulted that were upset. Trump reportedly contrasted shithole immigrants with those coming from nice countries like Norway, whose prime minister he had met the day before. This, coming a day after Trump had baffled Norwegians by discussing the non-existent F-52 planes he had sold them, prompted newspapers there to criticize Trump for using Norway to prove his racism. (You cant win!) Advertisement The shithole affair isnt the only noteworthy news this week regarding Trumps deteriorating relations with longstanding U.S. allies. Trump has canceled a trip to Britain to open the new U.S. embassy next month. The president said on Twitter this morning that this was because of what he described as an Obama era decision to sell the previous embassy for peanuts and build a new billion dollar facility. (That decision was made by the George W. Bush administration.) Trump has not yet visited Britain, in contrast to most recent presidents who stopped in during their first years in office, and figures on both sides of the aisle in the U.K. have interpreted the move as a response to the potential for protest. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a frequent critic (and target) of the president, said today that Trump had got the message about Londoners opposition to him. This prompted Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to lash out at puffed up pompous popinjay Khan and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn for sabotaging the special relationship: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The US is the biggest single investor in the UK - yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk. We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall. Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 12, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Prime Minister Theresa May has actually done everything possible to have a good relationship with Trump, and he has done everything possible to punish her for that, most recently by retweeting a British hate group in November and then calling her weak on terrorism after she chided him for it. Advertisement Advertisement At a time when Trump is so toxic in the U.K.he apparently cant even visit without setting off a major diplomatic incidentits interesting to recall that U.S. conservatives once criticized Obama for sabotaging the special relationship by doing such egregious things as moving a bust of Winston Churchill. Then theres Trumps handling of his decision to cut off aid to Pakistan. Trump wasnt wrong to point out that the U.S. security relationship with Pakistan leaves a lot to be desired, but still, given that roughly 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan rely on supplies brought through the country, its a relationship that has to be managed delicately. Which is why its a bit alarming to read a Reuters report that the New Years morning tweet in which Trump decreed an end of U.S. aid to the country apparently blindsided U.S. officials who had been in the midst of a policy review on aid to Pakistan that included preparations for how the country would react to suspension: Advertisement Advertisement None of the elements of a coherent policy was in place, or even close at hand, when the president, in effect, made a policy announcement, said one U.S. official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity. Despite a mad scramble to backfill a tweet, we still dont have an effective policy in place. The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Pakistan has halted intelligence sharing with the United States. Trump often likes to say that America is back and respected again under his presidency. This is demonstrably not true: And its never seemed less true than this past week. TRUMP: The other thing so the wall. The walls never meant to be 2100 miles long. We have mountains that are far better than a wall, we have violent rivers that nobody goes near, we have areas . But, you dont need a wall where you have a natural barrier thats far greater than any wall you could build, OK? Because somebody said oh, hes going to make the wall smaller. Im not going to make it smaller the wall was always going to be a wall where we needed it. And there are some areas that are far greater than any wall we could build. So, maybe some day somebody could make that clear, Sarah, will you make that clear please? I saw on television, Donald Trump is going to make the wall smaller; no, the walls identical. The other thing about the wall is weve spent a great deal of time with the Border Patrol and with the ICE agents and they know this stuff better than anybody, theyre unbelievable I had meetings with them, they need see-through. So, we need a form of fence or window. I said why you need that makes so much sense? They said because we have to see whos on the other side. If you have a wall this thick and its solid concrete from ground to 32 feet high which is a high wall, much higher than people planned. You go 32 feet up and you dont know whos over here. Youre here, youve got the wall and theres some other people here. WSJ: Yes. TRUMP: If you dont know whos there, youve got a problem. The Impeach-O-Meter is a wildly subjective and speculative daily estimate of the likelihood that Donald Trump leaves office before his term ends, whether by being impeached (and convicted) or by resigning under threat of same. Towards the end of a Thursday Washington Post report about how Donald Trump communicates his intentions to the Department of Justice via Twitter because he refuses to speak to attorney general Jeff Sessions, theres an embarrassing/emasculating quote: One department official said that, despite the presidents criticism, Sessions still really, really believes in the president and remains almost in awe of the presidents political instincts. Sessions is not nearly the only person whos made this claim: Former vice president Dan Quayle said Trump has got good political instincts when he explained in May 2016, when other establishment Republicans were still holding out, why he was endorsing the soon-to-be-nominee. #NeverTrump conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer praised Trumps remarkable political instincts after he defeated Hillary Clinton in the election. Trumps campaign was an achievement of perserverance and very strong political instincts, Bernie Sanders said shortly before inauguration. I think hes got some of the best political instincts in the world, perhaps in history, said short-lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci of his boss during one of Scaramuccis few appearances on the job last year. What I think these people are trying to sayespecially given that they include a reluctant endorser, a leftist senator, a critical columnist, and an ostensible ally who Trump has been treating badly for the better part of a yearis I still really have no idea how this guy won a presidential primary and general election, but there must be something to it. On that note, heres what the White House is saying about Trump describing Africa and Haiti as shithole[s] in a meeting with members of Congress: CNN: The President's "shithole" remark is being received much differently inside of the WH. Staffers predict the comment will resonate with his base. Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) January 11, 2018 In other contexts, political instincts might refer to someones ability to navigate a scandal, push through a risky but ultimately popular bill, or find an incumbents weakness. With Trump, it just means that he says asshole things because he recognizes that were a country of assholes. Todays meter is staying at 50 percent despite the shithole controversy because, you know, he did win the election. In a meeting with a group of lawmakers today, President Trump reportedly expressed frustration that the U.S. is taking in too many people from shithole countries in Africa and the Americas. The Washington Post reports: 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 yesterday. Advertisement According to the Post, the remark came after Sens. Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin suggested a potential bipartisan deal that would involve making cuts to the visa lottery program and funding Trumps long-sought border wall while restoring protections for people from countries that have been removed from the temporary protected status program. (As a side note, Trump has managed to say an impressive number of ridiculous things as a result of a relatively innocuous meeting with the prime minster of Norway yesterday.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration announced Monday that it would be taking away protected status from El Salvador, sparking fears that about 200,000 Salvadorans currently residing in the U.S. would have to leave, on top of the Haitians and Nicaraguans already removed from the program. Others who now benefit from the program include people from Nepal, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The Obama administration decided in 2016 to end protected status for three West African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak. Advertisement Advertisement Trump calling countries where people of color live shithole[s] in contrast to more desirable European countries of origin would be bad enough on its own, but its the second time remarks like these have been reported in the past few weeks. On Dec. 23, 2017, the New York Times reported that in a June 2017 meeting in the Oval Office, an enraged Trump had read off a list of countries whose immigrants had received U.S. visas in 2017, saying that Haitians all have AIDS and that once Nigerians had seen America, they would never go back to their huts in Africa. Coming just before Christmas, that story got less attention than it might have otherwise, and the White House denied he had made the comments, blasting the New York Times for its use of anonymous sources. This time, they didnt even bother with the denial, instead just blaming other politicians for choosing to fight for foreign countries. Advertisement FaithLeaks, a young transparency organization focused on religious communities, published its first big trophy this week: a collection of 33 letters and documents from an internal investigation into alleged sexual abuse within a congregation of Jehovahs Witnesses. Like other whistle-blower organizations, FaithLeaks provides sources the ability to anonymously submit sensitive documents, which the site then posts publicly. FaithLeaks uses SecureDrop, an encrypted open-source system that is also used by media outlets including the New York Times and ProPublica. SecureDrop uses the anonymizing Tor network to facilitate submissions that leave no trace online. Founded by two former Mormons in November, FaithLeaks believes that increased transparency within religious organizations results in fewer untruths, less corruption, and less abuse. Advertisement The documents released this week span from 1999 to 2012, and theyre devastating. They include details about accusations by three women against one church member. The first case involves allegations made by the mans adult daughter, who accused him of sexual and physical abuse that began when she was 5 years old. (Names have been redacted in all the FaithLeaks documents.) Another daughter and an unrelated woman later came forward to make abuse accusations against the same man; the second daughter said her father had begun to fondle and touch her at the age of 3, and began raping her at 8. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first document, a detailed report from the local congregation to Jehovahs Witness headquarters in Brooklyn, makes clear the church found the first accuser credible. It certainly appears that these were real events, the letter concludes. It is our opinion that these allegations have substance. But the documents that follow capture Jehovahs Witness leaders attempts to deal with the accusations internally over many years, without intervention from the worldly court of lawthat is, without going to the police. One of the documents describes an incident in which the accused man apparently violated a restraining order against one of the alleged victims; church leaders criticized her husband for calling the police at the time, accusing him of bypassing theocratic organization because of his personal feelings. Church leaders revoked some privileges from the accused man and even excommunicated him, but he was reinstated after only a year. Advertisement Advertisement The founders of FaithLeaks hope to shed light on corruption and cover-ups within other religious communities going forward. Our goal is to reduce the amount of deception and untruths and unethical behaviors that exist in some facets of religion, Ryan McKnight told Religion News Service. If someone is in possession of documents they feel deserve to be made public, were simply here to help facilitate that. McKnight and his co-founder, Ethan Dodge, say they are particularly interested in documents related to finances, congregational policies and procedures, and information on sex-abuse settlements. Advertisement McKnight first got involved in facilitating church-related whistle-blowing in 2015, when he was involved in the bombshell release of an internal memo that revealed new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints policies relating to Mormons in same-sex partnerships. Mormons in same-sex marriages would be considered apostates, the memo stated, and the church would refuse infant blessings and baptisms to the children in those families. If those children want to join the church as adults, they must first denounce their parents marriage. The release of the documents caused a major backlash within the church. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McKnight and Dodge went on to found MormonLeaks, a transparency group that has since released dozens of internal documents from the Mormon church, including pay stubs, budgets, and public-relations memos. And it soon became clear there was an appetite for a broader site. At a hacker conference last summer, Dodge spoke about MormonLeaks and said he was immediately contacted by people who wanted to set up similar systems for a wide range of religions and cults. The pair founded the Truth and Transparency Foundation in November, which serves as an umbrella organization for both FaithLeaks and MormonLeaks. Its easy to imagine FaithLeaks being used by whistle-blowers within a wide range of religious communities, but its notable that so far the greatest interest and excitement seems to be coming from former Scientologists, Jehovahs Witnesses, and Mormons. These are organizations that are famously secretive and close-knit, and which can be hard for members to publicly criticize. (Individual Protestant churches can be authoritarian and secretive, too, but there are usually dozens of local competitors, which makes it relatively easy for disgruntled congregants to simply leave.) Gizmodo reports that FaithLeaks will be releasing more documents related to sexual abuse within the Jehovahs Witness community in the coming weeks. LAS VEGASThe Amazon Echos runaway success has spawned scores of imitators and spinoffs and established the smart speaker as an important new kind of gadget. It has also accelerated the voice wars and helped to launch voice-controlled A.I. as perhaps the next big tech platform. It makes sense, then, that Amazon would position its Echo Showessentially a smart speaker with a touch screenas a sort of sequel to the original Echo. Google appears to be doing essentially the same: At CES this week, it launched four smart displays that look like direct Echo Show competitors. And theres an anonymously sourced report this week from Cheddar that Facebook is working on its own similar device, called Portal. Advertisement It seems clear that the big tech companies view smart displays as the next big thing in personal computing. Now comes the hard part: convincing people to buy one. (Gizmodos reaction to the Facebook report was literally, No one wants this.) To sell this new device category to the public, Silicon Valley is going to need to make a more compelling case than the Echo, but with a screen saver. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres where Facebook could come in. The company was mocked by tech pundits for trying to sell people on a $500 screen that does just a fraction of what you can already do on a smartphone or tablet. But I suspect the social network might bring a different approach to the smart display than what weve seen so far from Amazon and Googleone that makes it far more attractive to the average consumer. Advertisement Advertisement First of all, both Echo Show and smart display are uninspiring names. The first one sounds like a TV program, and the second sounds like, well, a TV. Both imply the existence of a visual element without pointing to any particular purpose. Indeed, both sets of devices seem to lack a clear vision as to what theyre for, beyond supplying a touch screen as a secondary interface (after voice) to Alexa and Google Assistant, respectively. It doesnt help that the two companies are locked in a petty interoperability feud, with Amazon declining to sell Googles hardware and Google blocking YouTube from the Echo Show. Thats not to say theyre useless. I got to see Googles smart displays in action at CES, and theyre handy for things like pulling up maps or recipes or playing videos on command. Its no wonder the absence of YouTube appears to have dented the Echo Shows sales: The ability to call up a YouTube video instantaneously in your kitchen or living room looks like the closest thing Googles displays have to a killer app so far. Its the video equivalent of telling Alexa to play a song, which has always been its most obvious selling point. Advertisement Advertisement Like songs, YouTube videos are things you often want to spontaneously share with the whole room, which makes them a good fit for these sorts of devices. (Its way easier than pulling out your phone.) Still, $200-plus seems rather steep for a YouTube-enabled smart speaker when the Echo Dot is going for $50 on Amazon (and even less when its on sale). Its a lot to pay just to call up YouTube videos, period. Advertisement Advertisement Portal, on the other hand, sounds like something newand far more promising. It evokes the sci-fi trope of a passage through space-time and suggests a device with a purpose: to make connections. We dont know yet exactly what Facebook has in mind, but Cheddars reporting points to a tool that is more about socializing than personal computing. The report says: Advertisement Advertisement Rather than position the device as a smart assistant akin to Amazons Echo speakers, Facebook intends to pitch Portal as a way for families and friends to stay connected through video chatting and other social features. According to people familiar with Facebooks plans, Portal will be equipped with a wide-angle lens that is capable of recognizing individual faces and associating them with their Facebook accounts. Advertisement Advertisement Some critics dismissed the concept as creepy, others as pointless. It does seem likely that an always-listening, face-recognizing Facebook device would raise serious privacy concerns. There are probably some Echo and even Google Home buyers who would draw the line at welcoming a Facebook gadget into their living room. On the other hand, all the privacy concerns raised about the social network to date have not stopped its incredible growth. Advertisement As for pointless, that will depend on how well it works. Of course you can hold a video chat on your phone or computer without buying another dedicated device for it. You can also play music, set a timer, or get the news and weather on your phone or computer, and yet the Echo was Amazons best-selling product over the holidays. The appeal of this sort of device lies in its convenience and the delight it can inspire when it works like magic. If Facebook can build something that lets you say call mom or check on the kids room while youre doing the dishes, and suddenly your mother or children appear on the screen in front of you, there are going to be a lot of people interested in that. And if Facebook cant pull that off, Apple just mighteventually. (Yes, Google and Amazons smart displays both include calling features, but neither works seamlesslyand neither has a chat product as successful as Facebooks Messenger.) The core insight that drives Facebooks success is that people care more about connecting with each other than just about anything else you can do on a computer. Forget smart displays; if voice-controlled screens like Portal have a future, they will need to do a lot more than call up recipes: Theyll have to transport us. Read more of Slates coverage of CES 2018. The Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in internet rights around the world. It originally appears each week on Global Voices Advocacy. Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Marianne Diaz, Oiwan Lam, James Losey, Karolle Rabarison, Elizabeth Rivera, Juke Carolina Rumuat, Nevin Thompson, and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report. The specter of fake news is still looming large, and the power of internet companies to control and capitalize on news distribution seems to grow greater by the day. This has democratic leaders around the world scrambling to in free speech laws and to distinguish between the motivations behind online news and informationwhether they be political power, money, or the simple free exchange of ideas. Advertisement In early December 2017, Brazils government established a council to monitor and possibly order the blocking of false news reports on social media ahead of the 2018 presidential elections. The news swiftly raised concerns about censorship among the public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In its first meeting, the council proposed to create a tool through which users could file reports about news that appeared suspicious. The council has not explained how this system would interact with social media companies, which are the only entities capable of removing content or accounts propagating fake news. Members say they are negotiating support from social media companies, but it remains unclear where this will lead. Previous attempts at such control have yielded mixed results. When Facebook introduced a report fake news feature in December 2016, many users reported fake content as part of an effort to discredit information or ideas with which they disagreed, even when those ideas were based on verified facts. Advertisement Advertisement Across the Atlantic, French President Emmanuel Macron announced new measures targeting fake news that will mandate content deletion, censorship of websites that spread false news, and the closure of accounts of infringing users, following judicial orders. In addition, a new bill before the French Congress that is intended to target sponsored content on social media platforms. If adopted it would require companies to make public the identity of sponsors and of those who controls them, and to impose limits on the amount of money paid to sponsor such content. The laws purpose is to protect democratic life, according to Macron. Advertisement In both France and Brazil, it remains unclear precisely how government actors will compel social media companies to identify and/or remove such content at this scale. Advertisement Vietnam hires thousands of workers to go after wrongful views online Colonel General Nguyen Trong Nghia, deputy chairman of the General Political Department of the Peoples Army of Vietnam, announced at a Dec. 25, 2017, meeting that the military has created a special force tasked with combating wrongful information and anti-state propaganda. The special force already has 10,000 workers. Advertisement Advertisement China censored more than 100,000 websites in 2017 for harmful content Chinas state-run Xinua news agency reported on Jan. 8 that approximately 128,000 websites were censored in China in 2017 due to harmful content, including news from unauthorized sources, material said to threaten social stability, and pornography. Most recently, Cyberspace Administration officials penalized the popular Toutiao news aggregator app, which they said had illegally distributed news content without having obtained necessary permissions from the authorities. Advertisement Advertisement Chinese courts hear challenges against censorship, surveillance A Beijing court agreed to hear a case addressing the media regulators censorship of LGBTQ content online. In June 2017, the China Netcasting Services Association sparked outrage when it issued new rules banning online content that depicts abnormal sexual relations or behaviour, including homosexuality. Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuitfiled by 30-year-old Fan Chunlin from Shanghaichallenges the media regulator to provide a legal basis for the description of homosexuality as abnormal. The court is expected to deliver a ruling within the next six months. In Jiangsu province, a court agreed to hear a challenge by a consumer rights group against Baidu, one of Chinas largest internet companies. The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee charges that Baidu products, including its mobile app and web browser, are accessing users messages, phone calls, contacts, and other data without their consent. Advertisement Indonesian drone aids censorship instead of surveillance Indonesias Ministry of Communications and Informatics has deployed a new program that is intended to enhance the process of blocking negative content on the internet by using artificial intelligence. Known as Cyber Drone 9, the program combines new technical tools (which do not actually include drones) with a team of staff who will monitor negative content identified by the software and decide whether it should be censored. Advertisement Internet and mobile phone penetration are rising everywhereexcept in Venezuela The Venezuelan news and commentary site El Estimulo published an in-depth report (in Spanish) on falling rates of internet and mobile phone connectivity in Venezuela. The article highlights International Telecommunication Union statistics showing that mobile phone penetration has dropped from 102 percent in 2012 (a number reflecting individuals with multiple mobile phones) to 87 percent in 2016, and also charts damage to subterranean internet infrastructure that the state has failed to repair. The article quotes Global Voices author Marianne Diaz: Advertisement Advertisement The increasing deterioration of infrastructure is neither coincidental nor accidental. It is the result of decisions and policies implemented by power structures. The end result is that it is making citizens suffer the consequences of infrastructural decay and the state is not upholding its obligations to guarantee access to basic services. Tunisias biometric ID bill is dead, for now The Tunisian government withdrew a proposed law on Jan. 9 that would have imposed a national biometric identification scheme for all Tunisian citizens. The withdrawal was due in part to an influx of requests and amendments proposed by the parliamentary commission of rights and freedoms, many of which were drawn from citizen input. New research Information Not Found: The Right to Be Forgotten as an Emerging Threat to Media Freedom in the Digital AgeCenter for International Media Assistance Uber used a data-concealing tool to sidestep government investigations on at least two dozen occasions from 2015 to 2016, according to a report from Bloomberg. Three anonymous sources with knowledge of the alleged ploy told reporters that a team in the rideshare companys headquarters had control over a system named Ripley, which allowed them to remotely change passwords, restrict access to data, and shut off computers and other devices in Uber offices around the world. Ripley reportedly came in handy when its foreign offices came under scrutiny from local governments. For example, Bloomberg details a case in 2015 when Quebecois authorities arrived at Ubers Montreal branch with a warrant to collect evidence of tax law violations. Sources claim that the branch managers, following their training, had paged the San Francisco headquarters with the news. Upon receiving the alert, the team in charge of Ripley remotely logged off all the computers in the branch, preventing the investigators from collecting any of the evidence enumerated in the warrant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Uber, which has come over fire for disregarding transportation safety and labor laws, has allegedly followed similar procedures during raids in locations such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Hong Kong, and Paris. However, the sources pointed out that there have been times when Uber used Ripley to hide data in foreign branches from police investigators who didnt have warrants or were conducting fishing expeditions. The company gave a statement to Bloomberg: 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. Multiple reports came out last year suggesting that Uber has used a number of tactics to hide its internal operations from authorities and the public eye. The New York Times reported in May that the Justice Department was looking into Ubers use of a tool called Greyball, which gave drivers access to a fake version of the app to, in some instances, dodge law enforcement when the company didnt have permission to operate in a city. In November, Googles self-driving car subsidiary Waymo submitted a letter in court during its intellectual property trial with Uber that had purportedly been written by a former Uber employee detailing an internal unit dedicated to stealing trade secrets. Members of the unit allegedly used untraceable computers, burner phones, and a messaging service held on anonymous servers that almost immediately erased texts. That same month, Uber admitted that it had paid hackers $100,000 to keep quiet after they stole the data of 57 million customers and drivers. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin By: Benjamin Franklin Amazon Digital Services LLC 102 pages The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is such a classic, I mean I had to read it, right? Plus it was a nice followup to Benjamins other famous work, The Way To Wealth. You will, of course, have to read this short volume for yourself, but what a life! Franklins stories of his early years in the printing business are my favorite. Most of all, I like that he took the time to document it all. Two of my favorite quotes: In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility. We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian minister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the men did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations. When they enlisted, they were promised, besides pay and provisions, a gill of rum a day, which was punctually servd out to them, half in the morning, and the other half in the evening; and I observed they were as punctual in attending to receive it; upon which I said to Mr. Beatty, It is, perhaps, below the dignity of your profession to act as steward of the rum, but if you were to deal it out and only just after prayers, you would have them all about you. He liked the thot, undertook the office, and, with the help of a few hands to measure out the liquor, executed it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more generally and more punctually attended; so that I thought this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some military laws for non-attendance on divine service. Matador Resources Company, an independent energy company, engages in the exploration, development, production, and acquisition of oil and natural gas resources in the United States. It operates through two segments, Exploration and Production; and Midstream. The company primarily holds interests in the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring plays in the Delaware Basin in Southeast New Mexico and West Texas. It also operates the Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas; and the Haynesville shale and Cotton Valley plays in Northwest Louisiana. In addition, the company conducts midstream operations in support of its exploration, development, and production operations; provides natural gas processing and oil transportation services; and offers oil, natural gas, and produced water gathering services, as well as produced water disposal services to third parties. As of December 31, 2021, its estimated total proved oil and natural gas reserves were 323.4 million barrels of oil equivalent, including 181.3 million stock tank barrels of oil and 852.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The company was formerly known as Matador Holdco, Inc. and changed its name to Matador Resources Company in August 2011. Matador Resources Company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Red Hat, Inc. provides open source software solutions to develop and offer operating system, virtualization, management, middleware, cloud, mobile, and storage technologies to various enterprises worldwide. It offers infrastructure-related solutions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, an operating system platform that runs on hardware for use in hybrid cloud environments; Red Hat Satellite, a system management offering that helps to deploy, scale, and manage in hybrid cloud environments; and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, a software solution that allows customers to utilize and manage a common hardware infrastructure to run multiple operating systems and applications. The company offers application development-related and other technology solutions, such as Red Hat JBoss Middleware, a solution for developing, deploying, and managing applications; integrating applications, data, and devices; and automating business processes in hybrid cloud environments; The company's application development-related and other technology solutions also includes Red Hat cloud offerings, a software solution that enables customers to build and manage various cloud computing environments; Red Hat Mobile, a software development platform that enables customers to develop, integrate, deploy, and manage mobile applications for enterprises; and Red Hat Storage, a software solution that enables customers to manage large, unstructured, or semi-structured data in hybrid cloud environments. It also provides consulting, support, and training services; and realtime operating system, distributed computing, directory services, and user authentication. Red Hat, Inc. has collaboration with Juniper Networks Expand to provide a unified solution for enterprises designed to manage and run applications and services. The company was formerly known as Red Hat Software, Inc. and changed its name to Red Hat, Inc. in June 1999. Red Hat, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Funding, Grants & Awards Rural Education Program Seeks Nominees for STEM Grant Nominations are now open for the America's Farmers Grow Rural Education grant program. Sponsored by Monsanto, the program asks farmers to nominate a local public school for the opportunity to win a $10,000 or $25,000 grant to support STEM education. Nominations will be open through April 2. Upon nomination, schools will be notified by Monsanto and will then have until April 15 to develop and submit a grant proposal detailing their project. An advisory council of leaders in the farming community will then choose the winning schools. Vic Worthington, a science teacher at Rochelle Middle School, previously won a $25,000 grant through the program and used a portion of the funds to build a 3D printer and then spent a year researching, designing and building a prosthetic arm for a local farmer. "Winning an America's Farmers Grow Rural Education grant gave my students a lesson that they will remember for a lifetime," said Worthington in a prepared statement. "When word spread about what our students were building, we had countless people in the community and even an engineer from Ohio pitch in to make this project a reality." "Whether students plan to enroll in college or find a job after high school, it is important for them to have a STEM foundation," said Al Mitchell, Monsanto Fund president, in a news release. "Grow Rural Education provides farmers with a way to give back, and farmers that have nominated grant-winning districts are thrilled to see how $10,000 and $25,000 grants can transform a classroom." For more information, or to nominate a school, visit americasfarmers.com. Foreigners answer a call for submissions made by Tuoi Tre News on how best to help those who suffer from depression following several heart-wrenching mental illness-related incidents led by late treatment. Take care of your loved ones In my opinion, involving the family with helping their loved ones is a basic solution for preventing depression. Once depression does happen, the impacts can be unexpected. To prevent it, we should show care and love to our family members, friends, colleagues, and coworkers by supporting them, listening to them, and giving them a hand when they are in need. People should promise themselves that they will not leave their loved ones alone. Love among family members can protect against anxiety and depression. Tanasak Phosrikun in a photo he supplied to Tuoi Tre News In Thailands daily newspapers, I see that depression has led to such tragedies as violence between husbands and wives when one is jealous of the other or during a divorce or breakup. These situations have sometimes gone so far as to end in murder or suicide. For young people with depression, drugs are likely to become a solution to their problems which, in turn, can lead to more negative impacts on society. In Thailand, the ministry of social development and human security runs a youth counseling program for young people who don't want to be counseled by their parents or teachers. The ministry of social development and human security has also created the Prachabodhi Center to help battered children and women as well as the 1323 hotline for young people to seek counseling for their problems and ease social depression. If the situation becomes too serious, psychologically ill patients are sent to a psychiatric hospital for free because it is a government service. Local governments also organize many activities to provide residents with social activities that might relieve some of their depression. Those activities create a space for youth to ease their stresses, connect with others, develop an understanding and empathy of others, and encourage sharing within the community. From what Ive seen during my 3-month stay in Hanoi, Vietnamese often talk to each other when they go out for coffee as a way to rid themselves of some of the depression theyve developed in their homes and workplaces. I think this could be developed into a social club where people within Vietnamese society could resolve some of their depression-related issues. Tanasak Phosrikun Instructor at Udon Thani Rajabhat University, Thailand Publish help center information on the internet In India, there is unfortunately not enough awareness of mental health issues. As a result, many suffer in silence and many others are stigmatized. Even family members don't always understand -- for example, children who have learning disabilities and don't do well in class are seen as being "naughty" or "distracted" by their teachers and parents. In turn, they are punished for their bad behavior instead of being treated for ADHD. Mayuri Mukherjee (L) in a photo she supplied to Tuoi Tre News Gradually though, things are changing. Earlier this year, the government passed a new law on mental health which provides for state healthcare facilities and protects the rights of people with mental health illnesses. It replaced an older law from 1987 which stigmatized and infantilized those who suffered from mental health disorders. The government has also de-criminalized suicide which is another acknowledgment of the fact that those who commit suicide or attempt to commit suicide are sick and need help -- they do not need to be punished for deviant behavior. The government in India also provides some free, or at least highly subsidized, services in certain government-run hospitals for counseling services, though the private sector also plays a major role. Many NGOs even run help lines: here's a list: https://www.thebetterindia.com/94553/suicide-helplines-india/ Mayuri Mukerrjee Indian Master student in Israel A crisis hotline There are many people with many different types of problems. Someone who is depressed because they did not get accepted by a good university is not in the same situation as someone with a terminal disease. Other people just need convincing that life is full of ups and downs, and that most bad times are only temporary. We dont always have psychologists available to talk to about our problems but many of us are lucky enough to know someone who is wise enough to help us with our issues, possibly by using some similar, though less sophisticated, methods. So, I believe psychologists are not necessary since we, until relatively recently, were able to survive without them. Ive heard that some schools in Vietnam have started to open psychological counseling rooms for their students, and I think an approach of absolute confidentiality should be taken with severe repercussions for anyone who does not follow those guidelines. Also, counseling staff must be able to prove that not only are they trained, but sensible. Teens need to feel secure and largely this will be attained if they feel that they can trust their counselors. Bill Harany in a photo he provided Tuoi Tre News In Canada, psychologically counseling is often done by church staff, NGOs, or through employee extended health benefits programs. With churches and NGOs treatment can be free of charge or made in the form of a donation. Otherwise, treatment is paid for by employers or paid privately. I used to volunteer for a crisis line in Canada. Many of the calls to crisis lines are related to substance abuse involving legal and illegal drugs. Family issues, such as forced child separation, and marital problems were also common. I suspect these are also problems in Vietnam. Because telephone rates are low in Vietnam, one line could serve the whole country.Ethnic and cultural differences might require regional hotlines. These should be monitored for use and effectiveness. Bill Harany, Canadian Oxford University Clinical Research Unit has presented ten prizes this week to the Vietnamese winners of a painting and photo contest it organized with two local partners over a month to raise awareness of antibiotic resistance in poultry farming. The ten best entries were honored on Monday in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, where the unit cooperated with the Dong Thap Center for Health Information and Education and the provincial Department of Education and Training to organize the Stop Your Poultry from Binge-Drinking Antibiotics contest. The competition was meant to tackle antibiotic resistance in both animals and humans. After a month, the contest organizers awarded the first prize to Le Thai Bao and two second prizes to Nguyen Le Duy Thanh and Pham Thi Thanh Nha. They also gave away three third prizes and four consolation prizes. In his winning painting titled For Quality Poultry Products, 12th grader Le Thai Bao depicts good framing practices to restrict or eliminate the use of antibiotics on chickens, allowing farmers to produce clean and safe food. Meanwhile, in his artwork To Produce Truly Awesome Chickens, Nguyen Le Duy Thanh, 18, describes how a farm runs like an antibiotic binge-drinking party, where chickens get drunk on antibiotics and yet the owner still markets his chicken products as clean. "To Produce Truly Awesome Chickens" by Nguyen Le Duy Thanh The other second-prize picture, Four Criteria of Good Chicken Farming by Pham Thi Thanh Nha, is about four criteria to raise healthy chickens, avoid infectious diseases, and thus prevent using antibiotics. The criteria Nha suggested famers should pay attention to are breed, food and drinks, insects, and vaccines. "Four Criteria of Good Chicken Farming" by Pham Thi Thanh Nha Taking Care of Free-Range Chickens brought a third prize to 11th grader Nguyen Thi Diem My. In her work, My painted a small household chicken farm where poultry are taken care of well. At the farm, the chickens foods are mainly sweet potatoes and rice. Sometimes farmers feed their poultry with spring onion to increase their resistance system and only use antibiotics under a veterinarians instructions when the chickens have caught infectious diseases. "Taking Care of Free-Range Chickens" by Nguyen Thi Diem Mi Meanwhile, Tran Le Huynh Thu, 18, named her third-prize winning painting Let Me Tell You, Darling as it showcases a couple discussing how to reduce antibiotics usage through such good farming practices as choosing strong chicken breeds and planning the right vaccinations. Thu believed that for any antibiotic reduction measure to work, farming couples should discuss more with each other, although sharing farming experience is uncommon among husbands and wives in rural Vietnam. "Let Me Tell You, Darling" by Tran Le Huynh Thu The final third prize winner is 12th grader Tran Duy Khanh with his painting The Problem Is Not Antibiotics. In his work, Khanh pointed out that antibiotics prove an effective treatment for poultry when they become sick, so the problem is not the medicines but the people who abuse them. "The Problem Is Not Antibiotics" by Tran Duy Khanh According to other contenders, reducing antibiotics usage in poultry production starts with a commitment to good farming practices. Only when a farmer is fully devoted to his/her chickens will he/she feel urged to apply good farming practices for the sake of preventing bacterial infections, of reducing the need to treat his flocks with antibiotics, Tran Thanh Nam, 17, said. Nam was among the 123 students from Thanh Binh 1 and Chau Thanh 1 High Schools in Dong Thap to have proposed novel ways to communicate about antibiotics abuse in Vietnam through photos, paintings and short essays. Stop Your Poultry from Binge-Drinking Antibiotics is a community-engagement activity under ViParc, a research project aiming to help farmers in the Mekong Delta raise healthy chickens with lesser amounts of antibiotics. The ViParc project is conducted against the backdrop of widespread antibiotics overuse and misuse in Vietnams farming sector, which is believed to be a major driver of antibiotic resistance. Such resistance refers to the ability of bacteria to avoid the mechanism of action of antibiotics, resulting in failure in the treatment of bacterial infections in both animals and humans. ViParc researchers recently confirmed the presence of colistin-resistant non-typhoidal Salmonella in pork purchased from a wet market in Ho Chi Minh City. It was the first time that bacteria resistant to colistin, a last-resort antibiotic, had been detected in meat in Vietnam. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Partys Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan has called on member nations of the European Union to continue investing in the development of the southern metropolis in 2018. Secretary Nhan convened a meeting with a delegation of ambassadors and representatives from European Union member nations on Thursday evening to discuss development plans and opportunities for 2018. During the gathering, Nhan briefed the guests on the citys socio-economic development, urging EU member states to support, cooperate, and invest in a variety of fields, including technology, education and training, and high-quality human resources. Regarding infrastructure development, the southern Vietnamese city is seeking financial assistance and experience on building a modern traffic model based on successful initiatives in other nations, Nhan stated. Ambassadors and representatives from European Union member nations at the meeting. Photo: Tuoi Tre He highlighted that the metropolis has been facing other problems including waste, energy, flooding caused by high tide and heavy rains, and subsidence. An investment cooperation forum between Ho Chi Minh City and partners from the EU, and an annual meeting between the citys leaders and representatives from EU member nations, will be arranged in the near future, Nhan added. Ambassador Bruno Angelet, head of the EU delegation to Vietnam, expressed a belief that 2018 is going to be a great year for the relationship between the two parties. Dutch Ambassador Nienke Trooster speaks at the gathering. Photo: Tuoi Tre Cooperation in trade, education, tourism, science, technology, and energy are also expected to be enhanced over the next twelve months. Ambassador Angelet pointed out common goals shared by Vietnam and the EU in international integration, security, national defense, and diplomacy, affirming that the bloc supports Vietnam in reaching its objectives. Both sides should outline a cooperation plan to implement the EU-Vietnam Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation (PCA), and aim for the official signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement by the end of the year, he said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have demanded the closure of sidewalk parking lots throughout the city in order to reserve public space for pedestrians. The municipal Peoples Committee has issued a document calling on administrations in the citys 24 districts to forbid parking venues from operating on local promenades within the first quarter of this year. City leaders asserted in the document that sidewalks must be prioritized for pedestrians. If footpaths need to be used for different purposes, local authorities will be expected to closely manage such activities to prevent any negative impacts on traffic and urban esthetics. At certain locations where parking on sidewalks is essential, the Peoples Committees in the relevant districts will task local youth volunteer units with operating these parking lots. Prices will be charged in accordance with current regulations VND500 (US$0.02) to VND4,000 ($0.18) for bicycles, VND2,000 (0.09) to VND6,000 ($0.26) for motorcycles, and VND20,000 ($0.88) to VND40,000 ($1.76) for automobiles. If a business is willing to operate a free-of-charge sidewalk parking lot, local administrations will review the level of necessity and functionality before issuing a decision. Businesses who win approval to operate such parking lots will only be granted licensing for a fixed amount of time. The Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee also tasked the District 1 administration with conducting a comprehensive inspection of parking facilities in its jurisdiction and imposing stern penalties on those operating without legitimate permits. In a relevant development, Doan Ngoc Hai, vice-chairman of the Peoples Committee in District 1, signed an order on Thursday to shut down unlicensed parking lots in the district. Parking areas at local administrative offices will also be closed until a suitable solution is identified. Hai became a city icon for his sidewalk-clearing efforts and campaign to take back public space from encroaching businesses last year. However, he tendered a letter of resignation earlier this week, citing his failure to bring order to the districts promenades. The municipal administration was set to meet with Hai to listen to his reasoning behind the resignation before making the final decision. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! These were the movements among the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields: US: 1.51% (-5bp) UK: 0.52% (-2bp) Germany: -0.11% (-2bp) France: 0.11% (-1bp) Italy: 1.04% (-2bp) Spain: 0.93% (+0bp) Japan: -0.10% (-1bp) Greece: 8.14% (-3bp) Portugal: 2.7% (-4bp) A barrage of weaker than expected economic releases Stateside pushed Treasuries significantly higher at the end of the week, dragging Gilts alongside them. Fridays news on the state of the US economy came against a backdrop of somewhat mixed data out of the euro area and China, together with a dour warning from the International Monetary Fund on the risks of excessive corporate lending in the latter. To take note of, and as regards Gilts, Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank mused aloud about the breath-taking 54% return - 32% alone since Brexit - delivered by 50-year Gilts year-to-date. Retail sales in the US were unchanged from the previous month, down from a 0.6% increase in June and missing expectations for a 0.4% gain, the Commerce Department revealed. Core retail sales which exclude auto sales declined 0.3% following a 0.7% increase in June, marking the worst reading since January and falling short of expectations for a 0.2% advance. On a more upbeat note, the University of Michigans gauge of consumers expectations improved from its late-July reading of 77.8 to 80.3 at the start of August. In a separate report, the Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand declined 0.4% in July compared to a 0.5% increase in June and analysts expectations for a 0.1% rise. It marked the first decline since March and the largest since September 2015. By the closing bell the yield on the benchmark two-year US Treasury note was off by two basis points at 0.7057% and the odds of a Fed rate increase in December had fallen back to 40.6%, versus 44.9% in the previous session, according to the CME Fed Watch tool, while the chances of an even larger hike by that same date were pegged at 4.3%. The EU will resist any renegotiation of fishing quotas in UK waters during any transition period after Brexit, the Guardian reported on Friday citing an unnamed EU diplomat. Current plans are for the UK to enter a two year transition period after leaving the EU in March 2019. Brussels diplomats were reportedly in agreement that the EU's common fisheries policy (CFP) should remain in force for the UK but it would lose its role in deciding the size of catches elsewhere in Europe. Environment Secretary Michael Gove said last year the UK would take back control of its waters after Brexit by exiting the CFP, which gives member states fishing rights between 12 and 200 nautical miles off the UKs coastline. We notice Gove hasnt repeated that recently. Perhaps he has been reined in, because it isnt going to happen, the diplomat was quoted as saying. Gerard van Balsfoort, the chair of the European Fisheries Alliance, the group lobbying on behalf of EU fishermen in the Brexit negotiations, said he was confident the UK would not be successful in persuading the 27 member states to change their position over the coming months. Member states negotiate annually the total amount of fish to be taken from the seas, species by species, but each countrys allocation within the total allowable catch does not change. The remaining 27 EU member states want to strike a bilateral deal before Brexit, potentially spanning the entirety of the transition period, on the total size of the catch taken out of UK seas. But EU diplomats agreed there should be no changes to predetermined quotas. The UK would also have no role in deciding the total catches in EU seas after Brexit, the report said. The EUs plan means Britain would essentially be leaving the CFP in name only, senior EU diplomats concede. The issue was discussed at a meeting of diplomats in Brussels on Wednesday and will be discussed again next week. Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishing Federation, said it would be absolutely unacceptable for the UK to be kept in the CFP framework over a two-year transition period. He said it was likely that fishing policy for 2019 would remain the same. Catch levels for the entire year will be decided in December this year while the UK is still in the bloc. Durex and Nurofen maker Reckitt Benckiser confirmed that it is advanced negotiations to buy US baby milk company Mead Johnson for around $16.7bn, a move which could bolster its health products business. The Slough-based consumer goods company, which also makes Cillit Bang and Dettol, said that it is in talks to buy each Mead Johnson share for $90 in cash giving the US company a value of about $16.7bn. Reckitt stressed that there is no certainty that any deal with be reached and that it would finance the possible acquisition from cash and debt, while retaining a strong credit rating. Both the London-listed company and Mead Johnson are currently going through due diligence and contract discussions. The takeover would strengthen its health products business and increase its presence in Asia, where Mead Johnson generates most of its revenues and has 12% share of the baby milk market. There had been many rumours that Mead Johnson would be takeover with Nestle and Danone tipped as likely suitors. French yogurt maker Danone instead bought US organic food company WhiteWave for 12.5bn last year. Steve Clayton, fund manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that Reckitt has swooped in when Mead Johnsons stock was close to a five year low and that Reckitts reputation has been built on its brand-building skills and with Mead Johnson having seen consistent downgrades to sales forecasts in recent years, there is clearly work to be done. He said: If the deal goes ahead, Reckitt looks set to pay in cash, so debts could reach as much as four times earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which is where the oxygen starts to get a bit thin. But the boost to earnings could be very significant. Reckitt needs to convince the market that they have strong plans to reinvigorate the performance of Mead Johnson, and quickly pay down the debts they are taking on. Baby milk is a category with a lot of growth potential, and Mead Johnson is heavily focused on the US and Asian markets, where we expect longer term growth to be strong. The markets initial reaction to the deal is positive, and we can see why. Reckitts track record of reinvigorating brands is a strong one, and they already have strong sales links into pharmacies and supermarkets globally. This could offer interesting synergies for sales of both Reckitt and Mead Johnson brands as the two distribution networks are intertwined. Mead Johnson may have been struggling recently, but free cash flow has been resilient. Reckitt of course is a phenomenal cash generator in its own right and together, the two businesses should be capable of quickly bringing leverage down. "Could this latest supplement keep the 2017 share price recovery on track after H2s waning of sentiment from last summers record highs, the bubble punctured by a brace of guidance cuts and a Q3 results miss? Shares making an upside test of the 200-day moving average. A break could confirm a healthy change of trend," said Michael Van Dulken, Head of Research at Accendo Markets. Shares in Reckitt Benckiser were up 3.05% to 7,038p at 0911 GMT. Many passengers travelling from Heathrow on Thursday were forced to set off with only their hand luggage after the airport suffered a baggage systems failure. Heathrow was thrown into chaos again, just a couple of weeks after the British Airways IT debacle that left thousands of passengers facing long check-in queues, cancellations and delays. The problem affected departures from Terminals 3 and 5, with passengers advised to take only essential items in their hand luggage. By mid-morning, Heathrow, which apologised for the disruption, said bag drop desks are now operating normally and it continues to monitor the situation. Any passengers who have already departed on flights without their luggage were advised to contact their airline for further updates. An important update following an issue with baggage systems at Heathrow earlier this morning. pic.twitter.com/nAMXaKV11Q Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) June 15, 2017 The failure affected Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and Emirates, but with the majority of its flights operating from Terminals 3 and 5, British Airways was hit the hardest. Carillion 's pensions trustees will hold talks with the government and pensions regulators as the construction group battles to avoid breaching its banking terms. The Cabinet Office, Pensions Regulator and Pension Protection Fund are to attend an "emergency summit", Sky News reported on Thursday. This follows the Cabinet Office's overnight confirmation that it had drawn up contingency plans for the event of any collapse of the company. On Thursday afternoon, Cabinet Office secretary Greg Clark held another meeting with senior cabinet figures including Theresa May's deputy David Lidington, business secretary Liz Truss and ministers from the Treasury and departments including transport, health, education and others to plan for the event of a collapse, the Financial Times later reported. Carillion, which is one of the main contractors on the government's HS2 rail link as well as on numerous outsourced public sector contracts in health, education, the prison service and with local authorities, had earlier in the week been reported to be nearing an agreement with banks including Barclays, HSBC and Santander over a potential refinancing deal. Some reports suggested the government would decide the company was involved in too many big projects to be allowed to fail, while lenders could be persuaded to swap some of their debt for equity, while there were also suggestions that the group could withdraw from some less profitable contracts and agree new terms on others. A government spokesperson said: The company has kept us informed of the steps it is taking to restructure the business. We remain supportive of their ongoing discussions with their stakeholders and await future updates on their progress. New short-term funding of around 300m was apparently required by the company from the end of this month, Sky reported, citing one source, with the company carrying a 580m pension deficit. Average net borrowing last year was between 875m and 925m, Carillion said in November, warning that it expected to breach its debt covenants as full-year profits were going to be materially lower than expected. The construction and outsourcing company, which reported a 1.15bn half-year loss in September, said a combination of delays to certain public private partnership disposals, a slippage in the start date of a significant project in the Middle East and lower than expected margin improvements across a small number of UK Support Services contracts were the reason for profits for calendar year falling short. Carillion's troubles are not limited to its balance sheet, with the Financial Conduct Authority last week having launched an investigation into the "timeliness and content" of Carillion's announcements in the period leading up to its major profit warning last July. Shares in Carillion lost more than 90% of their value following the warning last summer where 845m of writedowns were unveiled and the chief executive fell on his sword. With Carillion employing more than 20,000 people in Britain out of 43,000 in total and with dozens of subcontractors and other companies in its supply chain, trade unions called on the government to consider all possible options, including bringing contracts under government control. Unite, which represents over 1,000 workers at the company, said it had received assurances from Carillion after the companys share price plunge last November and was assured there was nothing to be concerned about. Despite the government having drawn up contingency plans, Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail, said: If taxpayers money is used to fund corporate mismanagement then the government should be looking to ensure that public sector contracts are brought back in-house at the earliest possible opportunity. If the government is forced to institute a rescue package they need to also ensure that the supply chain is fully protected as many of these workers lack even the protection of basic employment rights, as they are employed on a bogus self-employed basis, through agencies and via umbrella companies. The authorities are appealing against decisions in favour of Telit's Italian unit made by lower tier courts, the company said in a statement. Telit Italy intends to continue to vigorously defend its position. Telit Italy has been advised that it is likely that the matters will not be heard by the Supreme Court before 2022, it added. In December 2014, the Italian tax authorities issued three VAT assessments against Telit Italy. Telit Italy filed appeals against these VAT assessments with the first level tax court. The appeals were upheld by the tax court in December 2015 and the assessments were therefore annulled. The Italian tax authorities subsequently filed an appeal against this decision, which was again rejected in June 2017. President Donald Trump rejected a bipartisan compromise to extend protections against deportations of young immigrants on Thursday and questioned why would he allow more immigrants coming from Haiti and shithole countries in Africa. On Friday the president denied having said the derogatory comments. Trump met Republican and Democrat senators and congressmen to discuss a deal that would limit immigrants from bringing relatives to the country and restrict the visa access in exchange for protecting thousands of young immigrants from deportation. Those protected from deportation would be refugees from natural disasters in their home countries including places like El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti. The White House rejected the deal and it has left the issue in uncertainty just eight days before a deadline that threatens a government shutdown. Trump specifically questioned why he should admit more people from Haiti and Africa: "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Instead, the president suggested admitting more immigrants from countries like Norway. The president singled out Haiti, telling lawmakers that Haitians should be left out of any deal, Why do we need more Haitians? he said according to people briefed on the meeting. Take them out. According to the source of the Washington Post, his remarks startled the lawmakers in the room. The White House was not able to deny the remark but issued a statement saying that Trump welcomes immigration policies that admit people who can contribute to the US society. White House spokesman Raj Shah said, 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 migrationtwo programs that hurt our economy and allow terrorists into our country. Haiti ambassador in the US, Paul G. Altidor, condemned Thursdays remarks saying that the president was either misinformed or miseducated about Haiti and its people. He also added that the Haitian Embassy was flooded with emails from Americans apologising for what the president said. Republican representative Mia Love who is daughter of Haitian immigrants said Trumps comments were unkind, divisive, elitist and fly in the face of our nations values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation, she added, and Trump must apologise to the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned. This morning the president tweeted that he denies using those derogatory terms about Haitians, Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust! He also tweeted that the bipartisan plan was rejected because he claims it was not properly funded and the immigrants that were allowed in through Chain & Lottery made the country worse. I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for my people. On the other hand, Democrat Senator Dick Durbin contradicted Trumps tweets and said the president in the course of his comments said things which were hateful, vile and racist. He said these hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly, Durbin said. I cannot believe that in the history of the White House and the Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday, he added. Ive seen the comments in the press and Ive not read one of them thats inaccurate. The former owner of BHS, Dominic Chappell, has been found guilty of three charges of failing to provide vital documents to the pensions watchdog. Chappell, 51, was charged with neglecting or refusing to respond to three section 72 notices demanding he hand over vital documents and information relating to the purchase of the company. Guardian Plans for a 1.3bn tidal power lagoon in Swansea could still be backed by ministers despite government indecision on whether to support it, according to the author of an independent review on the project. Charles Hendry, a Conservative politician and former energy minister, enthusiastically supported the scheme a year ago as a source of clean power and UK jobs. Guardian Senior Cabinet ministers were called to a meeting on Thursday to discuss Carillion's future, in yet another sign the Government is preparing for the outsourcer's collapse after having revealed earlier this week it has drawn up contingency plans. It is thought that top figures from various departments attended the meeting, including Business Secretary Greg Clark, Transport Minister Jo Johnson and Justice Minister Rory Stewart. Telegraph New York and Hong Kong are more likely to benefit should London lose its status as financial capital of the world, not the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May and City bosses have said. Ms May and Chancellor Philip Hammond sought to reassure heavyweight finance firms including HSBC, Barclays and Goldman Sachs the industry would be protected in a Brexit trade deal, at a meeting in Downing Street today. Telegraph The American boss of Barclays has told Theresa May that the UKs tax regime is not competitive during a meeting to discuss Brexit. Jes Staley said that the government could do more to make Britain competitive as ministers prepare to begin negotiations with the European Union about how financial firms will be able to operate in a transitional period after the UK leaves the bloc. The Times New Look, the high street fashion retailer, is considering a plan to close about 10 per cent of its British stores. The South African-owned chain is working on proposals to enter a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), a process often used by struggling retailers to reduce financial obligations to creditors. Such agreements allow companies to pay off their debts over a fixed period of time but remain in business. The Times Embattled gold explorer Avocet Mining has been forced to delay the sale of its Burkina Faso assets, including the Inata goldmine, on the request of the buyer, Ghana's Balaji Group. Avocet had agreed with Balaji on 18 December to dispose of Resolute Mining, its local Burkinabe operator, and all of its assets in the West African nation, along with certain receivables, to Balaji for a total consideration of $5m. Balaji then entered into discussions with International Royalty Corporation (IRC), a creditor of Resolute, as the operator had come under threat of insolvency, leading the Ghana-based outfit to request the sale's completion be deferred until 25 January in order to reach a settlement with IRC. Balaji, according to its sparsely detailed website, was founded in 2001 with a head office in Accra, operations ranging from diamond and mineral trading to agriculture, group turnover "exceeding 300m US dollars in 2013" and offices in Dubai, Belgium, India Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Conakry, Ivory Coast and Uganda. Avocet granted Balaji's proposal after the latter paid a $500,000 deposit, which would form part of the total cash consideration payable if the sale was to occur. The sale of the Burkina Faso assets has been part of a larger restructuring by Avocet, which is in talks with its sole creditor, Manchester Securities Corp, also known as Elliott, over the restructuring of its $28.7m of overdue loans, which are secured, in part, over the shares in Resolute and other assets. As of 0840 GMT, shares had grown 2.49% to 18.50p. Social justice is always a constant, but the issues change from year to year, said Dr. Robert Robinson, director of Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA) at the University of North Georgia (UNG). To mark this year's social justice challenges, UNG's Department of Communications, Media Studies and Journalism and MSA will host the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratorical Contest. The competition will be from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25, in Hoag ABC rooms in the Hoag Student Center on UNGs Dahlonega Campus and noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24, in the Robinson Ballroom in the Student Center on the Gainesville Campus. "The purpose is to have young people think about social justice and have their own opinions and be able to relate those visions and thoughts to their peers," Robinson said. Five UNG students on each of the two host campuses have been selected to compete, including Gabriela Pacheco. She along with the others submitted a written outline answering the questions: What would Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. see as the biggest social justice issue today? How can society address? They were then interviewed by a panel of MSA staff. Pacheco, a junior majoring in political science with a pre-law concentration, picked free speech as her topic. "It's a base line for everything," she said, mentioning she presented about two to three minutes of her speech to the panel. "They thought it was different." The 10 students will compete on their respective campuses for the bragging rights of winning the Martin Luther King Jr. Oratorical Contest as well as a monetary prize. The monetary incentive is one reason Pacheco, who is president of the Politically Incorrect Club on the Gainesville Campus, decided to compete. "Plus, I say 'Why not?' to things," she said. "I don't turn down opportunities to debate topics." Pacheco explained her debate skills could put her at a disadvantage in the competition. "I'm a strong debater, but you only have one chance to present your side," the 21-year-old Cumming, Georgia woman said. "I can't go back up there and respond." So Pacheco plans to practice her speech as much as possible before the contest. She wants to do justice to the man the competition is named after. "Dr. King is the best American orator in our history," she said. "I'd compare him to the great speakers of the world." The effect the competition has on the students is what Robinson looks forward to seeing. He said he has seen students take on leadership roles and become involved in their community. "For some students who are very confident with speaking, this is a walk in the park and practice for them," he said. "For other students who deliver their first speech and are nervous, they gain courage. Then we see an influx of students who respond and become more engaged." 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Network, RCI (Michigan), RCI (WRS), RPN of NC, RUSHWINC Properties, Rebound Oklahoma, Regency Hospital Company, Regency Hospital Company of Macon, Regency Hospital Company of Meridian, Regency Hospital Company of South Atlanta, Regency Hospital Company of South Carolina, Regency Hospital of Atlanta, Regency Hospital of Columbus, Regency Hospital of Fort Worth, Regency Hospital of Fort Worth Holdings, Regency Hospital of Greenville, Regency Hospital of Jackson, Regency Hospital of Kansas City, Regency Hospital of Minneapolis, Regency Hospital of North Central Ohio, Regency Hospital of North Dallas Holdings, Regency Hospital of North Dallas II, Regency Hospital of Northwest Arkansas, Regency Hospital of Northwest Indiana, Regency Hospital of Portland, Regency Hospital of Rhode Island, Regency Hospital of Rockford, Regency Hospital of Southern Mississippi, Regency Hospital of Toledo, Regency Hospitals, Regency Management Company, Rehab Associates, Rehab Associates of Jackson Hospital, 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Read More First Republic Bank was founded by Jim Herbert with the intention of providing exceptional levels of customer service. It was his belief that customer service would set the bank apart and create a profitable investment for its shareholders. After 35 years, his vision has proven true with a 25% CAGR that continues to this day. The initial enterprise value has grown from only $8.8 million in that time, to over $19 billion making it the 14th largest bank in the US. First Republic Bank was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. First Republic Bank with its subsidiaries operates in two segments and provides personal banking, business banking, and wealth management services to individuals, families, organizations, and small businesses in the United States. The companys services are available in-person at one of the more than 80 offices or via ATM, online, mobile, and debit cards. The company offers deposit products including checking and saving accounts, money market, and CDs as well as a range of lending products. The full range of lending products includes but is not limited to residential mortgages, home equity lines of credit, commercial real estate and construction loans, and personal and business loans. The companys wealth management services include advisory services, online investment management, trusts, estate planning, and alternative investments as well as insurance and foreign exchange. The online brokerage service is available to all clients and can be accessed at any time via a web browser or mobile device. First Republic Bank operates a network of more than 80 deposit-taking branches and 12 wealth management offices. The network is located primarily in California with additional branches in major metropolitan areas and two destination locations that include Portland, Boston, Palm Beach, Greenwich, New York, and Jackson, Wyoming. First Republic Bank has proven its worth over the year by maintaining a consistently strong capital level, asset quality, and liquidity position. Its prudent management has allowed it to weather market ups and downs while commanding investment grade ratings for its bonds and preferred stock. Telling the national GOP to "grow a pair of ovaries", Rep. Martha McSally joined the U.S. Senate race in Arizona Friday. She will compete against former State Senator Kelli Ward and former Sheriff Joe Arpaio for the Republican nomination. The winner will likely face McSally's Democratic House colleague Kyrsten Sinema in November. Incumbent Senator, Republican Jeff Flake is retiring. Related: List of House Retirements | 2018 Senate Interactive Map | 2018 House Interactive Map WASHINGTON Debra Haaland, a Native American and former New Mexico Democratic Party chairwoman, has received a rare primary endorsement from the Congressional Black Caucus political action committee in the race for New Mexicos 1st Congressional District seat. Meanwhile, Antoinette Sedillo Lopez another 1st District Democratic candidate announced that she received the endorsement of People of Bernie Sanders, a powerful grassroots group that has more than 1.5 million Facebook followers, has endorsed her campaign. Rep. Gregory Meeks, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that Haalands life story mirrors that of many in the black community, and that she would make a strong addition to Congress. Shes a single mother but fought her way through law school and has always been involved in organizing people, said Meeks, a New York Democrat. Shes a big participant in the Democratic Party and understands helping folks. It seems to me she is head and shoulders above (the competition in New Mexicos crowded 1st District primary) and her voice is very much needed at this time. Meeks said the caucus rarely makes endorsements of nonblack candidates in primary races but felt compelled to do so in Haalands case. Seven Democrats are seeking the nomination. There is a clear reason to make an exception in this matter, Meeks said. The opportunity to elect the first Native American woman it is a voice we believe New Mexico needs and we know Washington, D.C. needs. People for Bernie Sanders, which helped propel the Vermont independents historic grassroots run for the presidency in 2016, said Sedillo Lopez represents the groups progressive values in announcing its endorsement of the former University of New Mexico law school professor and womens rights activist. People for Bernie is proud to endorse Antoinette Sedillo Lopez for Congress, said Jenni Sirri, the groups New Mexico spokeswoman. She fights for the issues that impact everyday Americans and will be a progressive ally as we continue the political revolution. Sedillo Lopez also on Thursday announced the endorsements of the grassroots progressive groups Justice Democrats, Blue America, and PODER PAC. Michael Coleman: mcoleman@abqjournal.com Police are asking for the publics help in solving a northwest Albuquerque slaying that happened in early 2015, according to a police spokeswoman. Spokeswoman Sonya Marquez said police are looking for any information in the death of 21-year-old Angelo Martinez, who was gunned down in a Wal-Mart parking lot, near Coors and Interstate 40, on the night of Jan. 18. Investigators have exhausted all leads, she said. Police say the shooting is believed to be gang-related and was spurred by a fight between Martinez and an unknown man. The man then went to a red Mazda truck, got a gun, and shot Martinez dead. According to police, the suspect is described as Spanish, with a thin build, who wore a black and white jacket. Marquez said surveillance video of the shooting can be viewed on the Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers Facebook page. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (505) 843-7867 About 60 people gathered in front of Sens. Tom Udalls and Martin Heinrichs offices Downtown on Thursday to continue pressuring them to vote against the upcoming federal spending bill if it doesnt include protections for immigrant youth. Similar rallies took place this week. Congress has until Jan. 19 to pass a spending bill to keep the federal government running. It can be a quick fix bill or a longer-term measure. Our senators have to stop playing with our lives. You need to stop playing with my life, said Gabriela Hernandez, the executive director for the NM Dream Team immigrant rights activist group. You (Udall and Heinrich) need to stop playing with my life. She and members of her group said Thursday that a recent trip with 200 activists to visit Udall and Heinrich in Washington, D.C., was disappointing as both politicians, who have each expressed unwavering support for immigrant youth, seemed to not be willing to block a spending bill over protections. Your words mean nothing if your actions dont match, Hernandez said at the rally. Hernandez is a recipient of the federal temporary immigration status program for youth called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an executive order signed in 2012 by President Barack Obama. It applies to about 800,000 people. President Donald Trump announced in September 2017 his plans to end DACA. A federal judge in California this week blocked that effort pending further court hearings. More permanent protections, such as the DREAM Act, have for years been sought by legislators, including most of New Mexicos delegation. This weeks court ruling temporarily blocking the presidents DACA decision does not lessen the urgency of Congress duty to act. We owe Dreamers real certainty: we must pass permanent protections for Dreamers into law, and we cannot delay any longer, Udall said in a written statement Thursday. But the likelihood of building the DREAM Act into the upcoming spending bill as Hernandez and the NM Dream Team rally-goers hope for is unclear. As Congress works toward a solution for Dreamers, we also must act quickly to avert a government shutdown that would be devastating for New Mexico, which already has a struggling economy, Udall said in a written statement. Udall staff member Jen Talhelm said both senators and their colleagues are working very hard to build the DREAM Act into an agreement. A representative from Heinrichs office said the senator is passionate about supporting Dreamers but would not say if he would vote against a spending bill if it doesnt include youth immigrant protections. No member of Congress should be able to rest until Dreamers are able to rest easy knowing they will be able to stay and contribute to the only nation they call home, Heinrich said in an emailed statement. SANTA FE A loud explosion that shook the ground and rattled windows in the Santa Fe area about 3 p.m. Wednesday came from Los Alamos National Laboratory, which confirmed it had set off explosives about that time. A LANL statement said it was unusual for its blasts to be heard off-site, but this one was heard all over Santa Fe about 25 miles away as the crow flies and as far east as Eldorado and as far south as La Cienega. Social media exploded figuratively, of course after the boom, as people around the area who heard and felt the blast wondered about its source. Does anyone know whats up with the explosions/shock-waves today? a man wrote on the Santa Fe Bulletin Board, a Facebook page where people can post announcements, get recommendations about good restaurants or ask where they can buy firewood. Ive felt two so far off Jaguar and (N.M.) 599 and confirmed with a friend on St. Michaels that he felt it too. Are any testing ranges close enough to do this? Others wrote that they, too, heard an explosion before noon and another one about 3 p.m. Speculation ran wild, with people suggesting it may have been a sonic boom or an earthquake. One poster suggested, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that it was caused by the Russians. At 4:38 p.m., LANL, about 25 miles from Santa Fe as the crow flies, responded to inquires by issuing a statement that said: The Laboratory did conduct a large high explosives experiment on Thursday, Jan. 11 at approximately 3 p.m. The Laboratory uses high explosives in a wide variety of dynamic experiments, conducting several hundred experiments per year. While the vast majority of these experiments use small amounts of explosives, some are large enough to be heard off site. Before all experiments, the Laboratory does an extensive assessment of atmospheric conditions in order to limit the possibility of off site sound intrusions. All experiments are conducted under strict regulations and with the utmost in safety, security and environmental stewardship. Santa Fe police officers heard the blast and a police spokesman said late in the day that blast may have originated at the Caja del Rio Landfill. But Danita Boettner, the landfill manager, said, I was outside when it happened and it wasnt us. A spokesman for Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque told the Journal they dont have aircraft there fast enough to create a sonic boom. Officials with the Santa Fe Fire Department and Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office said they had no idea what may have caused the explosion. The cause of the earlier blast people reported hearing closer to noon was not confirmed. President Donald Trump announced in June the United States would pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement. On Thursday, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller joined hundreds of other mayors from around the country by vowing to adopt the agreements goals anyway. The absence of federal leadership is really what is driving mayors to take a stand on their own all across our country, Keller said, addressing a small group at the Open Space Visitor Center. Im proud to be adding Albuquerques name to that list of mayors who are standing up for whats right when it comes to our environment and sustainability. Albuquerque is the third New Mexico city to join the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda; the mayors of Las Cruces and Santa Fe are already members. Keller said the citys participation will include taking inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, setting emission reduction targets and putting a plan in place to meet those goals. City Councilor Pat Davis said the city is already on the right path toward reducing emissions as a resolution is on the books requiring city buildings and facilities to depend on renewable energy for 25 percent of their power by 2025. Last year, councilors took the first step toward that goal by voting to install $25 million worth of solar panels on city buildings. Its about looking at really innovative, aggressive policies that lower our (carbon) footprint, Davis said. The Paris Climate Agreement, criticized by some for being too lax, calls for countries to reduce carbon emissions in an effort to curb global warming. Every nation in the world is party to the agreement, with the exception of the United States. As tensions rise in the high-profile murder case against Davon Lymon, a local judge issued a letter to attorneys on Tuesday expressing her concern about the disrespectful tone of recent filings. Second Judicial District Judge Briana Zamoras letter instructs attorneys to ensure that all future pleadings are accurate and respectful of the court and opposing counsel. In recent weeks, filings have flooded in as the first-degree murder case approaches its March trial date. Lymon, who was in court Thursday, is accused of gunning down Daniel Webster after the Albuquerque police officer stopped his motorcycle in October 2015. There is no need for negative comments regarding opposing counsel in any future pleadings, Zamora wrote before outlining inaccuracies included in filings by both the state and defense. Lymons hearing Thursday was reset after prosecutors with the Attorney Generals Office filed a motion asking the court to consider removing the Law Office of the Public Defender from the case over a potential conflict of interest. They say the conflict arises from the fact that an attorney in that office represented a key witness in the case as she testified against Lymon during a federal trial. The defense is now questioning the reliability of that witness, Savannah Garcia, who testified that she was with Lymon when he was stopped by Webster. Defense attorneys said in court documents that they believe another woman, Tiana Lozoya, was Lymons passenger that night. Prosecutors asked that defense attorneys turn over any waivers of conflict of interest, and if those are not available, they say the judge should consider removing the LOPD from the case. Lymons attorney Jeff Rein said in court that mechanisms are in place to address those issues, and the judge reset the hearing to allow time for him to respond in writing. That request comes days after Lymons defense attorneys filed a motion in which they allege the state withheld certain information, while affirming that all information had been disclosed. For some time it has been ominously apparent to the defense that something feels constitutionally wrong in this case, Rein said. As evidence, he points to requests for sanctions against the defense, an ambush hearing seeking a warrant for Garcia while both of Lymons attorneys were out of town, the abrasive tone of the states pleadings, among other things. Rein asks for a remedy to bring this prosecution within recognized standards of constitutional fairness or that the case be dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct. A spokesman for the Attorney Generals Office said he could not comment outside of the filed documents, but that the office is preparing the case for trial. The Albuquerque Institute for Mathematics and Science, the states top-ranked school, is making another attempt to open a location in Rio Rancho. AIMS filed paperwork with the state Public Education Commission on Tuesday seeking a charter authorizing a new site in Rio Rancho. If the PEC approves the charter request, AIMS could launch in the city by fall 2019. Its the latest salvo in a long-running battle between the high-performing charter school and Rio Ranchos school district. In 2014, AIMS received a waiver from then-Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera allowing it to open at UNM West without applying for a new charter. Typically, charter schools must be reauthorized if they expand outside their original district. Rio Rancho Public Schools sued the Public Education Department in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, arguing that the waiver did not adhere to proper procedure. Judge David K. Thomson ruled in PEDs favor in May 2017, prompting an appeal from RRPS. Currently, AIMS is legally barred from opening the Rio Rancho site until the appeal is heard, though AIMS will return to Thomsons courtroom to challenge the stay sometime this month. AIMS attorney, Marty Esquivel, is also preparing to sue RRPS over alleged open meetings violations. The districts Board of Education was required to take a public vote to file the lawsuit against the PED in 2014, Esquivel says, but he can find no record of it. RRPS has disputed Esquivels interpretations of open meetings law. AIMS director Kathy Sandoval told the Journal she is confident her school will get to Rio Rancho one way or another. The application for a new charter will provide another possible avenue, Sandoval said. We still think we did the right thing, but I have heard repeatedly from Rio Rancho that I didnt do the right thing even though we had a waiver from the secretary, which was upheld in court, Sandoval said. I said, OK, Ill go ahead and drop another charter. And now what is the excuse going to be? Beth Pendergrass, spokeswoman for RRPS, said the district has always stood by what is best for all children and believes PEDs waiver did not follow statutory procedures. We are in receipt of the Notice of Intent to Submit a Charter Application submitted by the Albuquerque Institute for Mathematics and Science and are glad to see they are taking the appropriate steps to expand in a manner consistent with state law as established by the legislature, Pendergrass said in an emailed statement. Sandoval said she thinks its unfortunate Rio Rancho families have had to miss out on AIMS high-quality education while the legal battle drags on. Now entering its 13th year of operation, the school has a waiting list of nearly 2,000 students and was recently rated the best school in New Mexico by The Washington Post. AIMS a state-chartered school housed on the UNM South Campus currently enrolls about 350 students in grades 6 to 12. New Mexico Public Education Secretary-designate Christopher Ruszkowski said AIMS has a proven track record of academic outcomes. The UNM West location was originally scheduled to launch in fall 2014 with 40 sixth-graders, adding a new grade each year until enrollment reached 350 students in grades 6 to 12. The father of the man whom police shot and killed Sunday said his son, Daniel Arreola-Saavedra, 24, broke into an empty apartment complex on Central east of Wyoming to find a place to sleep. My son broke into that unit, thats his girlfriends old unit, because it was cold, Jesse Arreola said in a phone interview. It was an empty unit. Its the first shooting police officers have been involved in since interim Chief Michael Geier took over. Geier was chosen to lead the department by the new mayoral administration in early December. Officer Simon Drobik, an APD spokesman, gave a brief account of the shooting Sunday morning in which he said that officers had been called to the apartment complex on East Central after reports of a residential burglary just after midnight. He said the officers were confronted with an individual with a weapon and at least one officer opened fire, killing the man. He did not reveal the type of weapon. Police have not released any information since then, but Thursday evening, Gilbert Gallegos, another police department spokesman, said to expect a full news conference and the release of video early next week. He did not respond to requests for comment later in the day when told about Arreolas account. Chief Geiers top priority is to protect the integrity of the investigation, while ensuring these briefings and the release of information are accurate, transparent, consistent and fair to the officers who are involved, Gallegos said. In this case, he said, police had to interview four officers and a sergeant who were involved in some capacity. He did not say if they all opened fire. He said getting lawyers to represent those officers and schedule interviews was the reason there has been no update other than the short briefing an officer gave at the scene of the shooting Sunday morning. But Arreola said he wishes he had more information about what happened when his son was killed. He said he has not spoken with police but officers have talked with Arreola-Saavedras mother. Arreola said Arreola-Saavedra had had many problems with the law in the past and struggled with drug use, but he is angry and saddened by the way his son was killed. They last saw each other for Christmas. He was my son and I loved him dearly and we were trying to rebuild our relationship, Arreola said. I never got the chance. Albuquerque police shootings in recent years have reshaped the culture within the department. The department is in the midst of a yearslong reform effort that aims to address, in part, a high rate of shootings. Days after taking office, Mayor Tim Keller apologized for previous police shootings, and Geier pledged that he would hold his officers accountable. Keller said during the campaign that in his administration police would release videos of shootings as soon as feasibly possible without interfering with an ongoing investigation. Correction: Headline on this editorial has been corrected. There is no shortage of controversy swirling around the issues of late-term abortion, the University of New Mexico Health Science Centers relationship with one of the nations few clinics that performs them and the use of aborted fetal tissue for research. Here is another item for the list: Documents obtained by the Journal last week revealed that Health Sciences had suspended its research involving fetal tissue research done under the auspices of Dr. Robin Ohls, who also has been barred from her laboratory since late October after Health Sciences officials learned she had been transferring fetal tissue to an independent research facility in Michigan. Previously, the university had said the tissue was carefully shared only within a circle of university research institutions. This is against the backdrop of an investigation by a Republican-controlled congressional committee that ended its work last January with a referral to New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas asking him to determine whether any state criminal laws had been broken in earlier collaborations between university researchers and Southwestern Womens Options in Albuquerque. Balderas found no criminal violations, and UNM and the clinic have both insisted there was no sale of fetal tissue, and that the law allowing recovery of the actual cost of obtaining it was followed carefully. All that preceded the disclosure that Dr. Ohls, a prominent pediatrics physician, had been transferring fetal tissue to an independent private research lab in Michigan. But according to an internal UNM memo obtained by the Journal, Ohls has been regularly acquiring fetal tissue from Southwestern Womens Options and transferring it to Zietchick Research Institute in Michigan since February 2017. The practice came to light when Ohls asked whether Zeitchick could reimburse the university for part of her lab assistants salary to compensate for the time spent preparing examples for transport. It is unclear if there was any other compensation by the private lab and Health Sciences officials are investigating whether Ohls violated procedures surrounding the transfer of fetal tissue. Health Sciences officials have little to say other than to confirm the suspension of research and that their investigation is ongoing. The clinic and its relationship with UNM have been the target of anti-abortion activists, who found a sympathetic ear in the now-disbanded Special Investigative Panel of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Various issues had been raised, including the relationship between UNM and the clinic, and the sufficiency of the consent forms signed by women about to undergo the procedure allowing the transfer of fetal tissue. At one point in practices since discontinued UNM medical residents did stints at the clinic and the clinics director was an unpaid volunteer member of the UNM faculty. It is an understatement to describe late-term abortions as controversial which is why so few places offer them and the importance of fetal tissue research from aborted fetuses has been a major part of the public policy defense for UNMs relationship with the abortion clinic. The arguments around the practice itself are well known and range from those who say a woman has an absolute right to control her body to those who consider this procedure to be murder. Why a noted researcher would take actions putting the fetal tissue research the university values so highly at risk without following procedures and getting approval if, in fact, she did not is a mystery. But UNM did the right thing by putting the research on hold while it investigates. If it finds violations, it needs to act appropriately, including taking steps to ensure that safeguards are in place to prevent fetal transactions not specifically and carefully allowed. 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. Andrea Senutovitch was in the car with her daughter just after she received her breast cancer diagnosis. Her daughter Alexandra, 25 at the time, began to panic on the trip back from the doctors office in Albuquerque. Senutovich told her photographer daughter to create a series of pictures based on how she was feeling at that moment. Senutovitch, also an artist, collaged her own work onto Alexandras prints. It saved both of us, the mother says now, as therapy Their Metamorphosis series, created in early 2016 not long after the cancer diagnosis, showcases women in vulnerable positions, symbolizing what Senutovitch and her daughter felt during their trying time. The series was first displayed two years ago. Today, though, the art and the illness itself takes on a different meaning. Senutovitch, currently cancer-free, says she was lucky that Medicaid came through for her treatment, but she knows that many women wont be as lucky. And with cuts to Medicaid and Medicare on the agenda for some in Washington, D.C., worries about health care access are rising. Senutovich said she has friends diagnosed with breast cancer now who are opting for more natural treatments because they cant afford standard care. (My diagnosis) was a year before I saw the system could even be taken away . I was so grateful that I didnt have that extra stress, because you really have to focus on getting better and the extra strength (that) requires, she said. Senutovitch and her daughter are showing the Metamorphosis series again starting this weekend as part of an exhibition designed to showcase ongoing assaults on women and the female experience. Feral Howl: A Feminist Response to Our Time intentionally coincides with the one-year anniversary of Donald Trumps inauguration, as well as the massive Womens March that was staged the day after Trump was sworn in. The art of about 10 female or non-binary artists showing at Freeform Art Space also dives into broader themes that the artists connect to feminism, such as government impacts on nature or Mother Earth. The pieces include an artists response to being detained by the Santa Fe Police after flashing the crowd at a post-election protest. Other topics are transgender suicide rates and the feminist experience through the lens of women of color. We just want to continue that feral howl of resistance and partly the exhibition is a way to continue that resistance through art, said lead curator Kristin Barendsen. She said Trumps election has incited anger and the show is a way to look at the historic and current assaults on women, female-identifying people and the environment. The entire exhibition was built from a project Barendsen and her art collective, The Furies, created following election night, when they destroyed a Trump pinata out of frustration. They took the pieces and made photos and video using naked women, either re-enacting hitting the pinata or in crime-scene-like positions with the wreckage of the Trump figure surrounding them as they lay on the ground and with tape that says things like One Billion Rising or Rape Free Zone. And while some have criticized the work for depicting violence, Barendsen says its message means more than just its literal images. Its about the effect of the Trump administration on women, womens resilience and taking back the power, she said. Though there have been several art shows in Santa Fe addressing feminism and politics, she said none of them have used images of Trump himself. She said thats likely because the artists didnt want to get into a partisan fight. We felt (these shows) werent edgy enough or topical enough to this year (and) this situation . We felt if we dont see that around, we should create that, she said. The show opens tonight and the artists will be participating in a live show Jan. 20, when visitors can take turns on another pinata. Barendsen also will read an essay she wrote about the aftermath of the election, artists Nikesha Breeze and Ahjo Sipowicz will be doing other kinds of on-site performances, and April Hartford and Senutovich will give artist talks about their displayed work. Other artists in the show include Sarah Hewitt, Alicia Piller, Sarah Stolar and Andrea Vargas-Mendoza. Correction: An earlier version of this story spelled Andrea Senutovitchs last name Senutovich. An earlier version also indicates a suggested donation for the exhibitions opening night. The opening night is free and the suggested donation is specifically for the Jan. 20 evening of performances If you go WHAT: The Feral Howl: A Feminist Response to Our Time WHEN: Opening night 5 p.m. today. Live performances on Jan. 20, 5 p.m. WHERE: Freeform Art Space, 3012 Cielo Court PRICE: Opening night is free. The Jan. 20 event includes a $5$10 suggested donation with proceeds going to the Esperanza Womens Shelter. Mommy, there is a fire by my window, your 5-year-old daughter says as she shakes you out of a deep sleep. It is 1 a.m. and you struggle to gain your senses. As you rise, you can see the yellowish glow of wildfire outside your home, which is located near an overgrown forest. Your husband is away, but you know what to do get in the car and go. But as you fetch your 7-year-old son, you notice that the fire has engulfed the driveway. A chill encompasses your body as you realize that you have not removed brush and trees from around your home, and with its well-oiled wood siding and decks, you are inside a tinderbox. You will have to escape on foot through the back door and into a dark forest, a path you never considered. You did not prepare and you are running for the lives of your family. Think it cant happen? Think again. It is happening in California now. Closer to home, much of New Mexicos forests are heavily overgrown, and many homes and ranches are perilously positioned among high-fuel areas. This spring is projected to be warm and very dry, with heightened fire danger ideal conditions for the imaginary case above where dry lightning sparked a fire that quickly spread into a private area before authorities could react. But it should never have come to this. Every resident, rancher and vacation home owner in a forested area especially those with children, elderly folks and animals must plan for wildfire, including evacuation. Tom Bennion, a Jemez Springs fire expert, suggests that the most important preparation is a defensible, low-fuel area around your home, so that it becomes a safe place in case you are trapped. Donald Griego, New Mexicos chief forester, calls for action. With many communities embedded in high fuel areas, he said, people must pay attention. There are common sense ways to prepare for a wildfire emergency: Visit your countys offices or website and sign up for the CodeRED mass notification warning system that provides regular emergency updates to your phone, including evacuation orders. Create a defensible area around your home, barn, shed or any other valuable structure by removing nearby combustible materials. The States Forestry Division and your local fire officials can provide free guidance (http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SFD/). Encourage your neighbors to clear their properties and lobby government officials to do the same on nearby public lands. Inform the local authorities of any special needs, such as children, pets or livestock, and plan for their evacuation. Dennis Trujillo, former Executive Director of the Valles Caldera, advises that during fire periods ranchers should keep their cattle in more of an open space environment. Ensure that fuels, such as gasoline cans, are stored in metal containers with a tight lid. Store the metal container far from valued assets. Work with local fire officials and your landowners association to plan escape routes from your home or ranch, including ones that would allow you to walk away safely. Mark and clear the routes, keeping in mind that you may have to use them on a moonless night. Practice your plan, just as you did in grammar school fire drills. Coordinate with your neighbors so that you can help each other. Place a checklist of emergency actions where you can easily find and read it in an emergency. Keep a backpack or duffle bag handy with essential materials that you will need in an escape. The pack should contain a flashlight, water and some snacks, a first aid kit, copies of critical documents, essential medicines and personal needs, a whistle, maps, clothing and critical possessions. Like the Boy Scouts and their proverbial mantra, always prepare for the unexpected. The most expected unexpected event is wildfire. Menicucci is a retired research engineer who owns property in Jemez Springs. Learn more Additional wildfire guidance can be found at: www.ready.govwww.livingwithfire.info www.nmdhsem.org http://www.readyforwildfire.org/Animal-Evacuation/ Who wants the pits? Over the past few months, three members of New Mexicos congressional delegation U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, and U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan have been fighting to keep the manufacture of the plutonium cores of nuclear weapons at Los Alamos National Laboratory. LANL is the only place the grapefruit-size pits have been made since the Rocky Flats facility in Colorado which cranked them out for the Cold War shut down in 1992. And its the only U.S. site that meets security and hazardous materials protocols for the job. But no pits have been made since 2011, when LANL completed the last of 29 for Navy submarine missiles. The most ever made at Los Alamos in a year is 11. Congress and the Department of Defense, however, want to ramp up production to 80 pits annually, part of a vast weapons modernization plan started under the Obama administration (as a trade-off for a new arms control treaty) and which has an estimated (some say under-estimated) cost of roughly $1.2 trillion. There are reports that President Trump soon will propose an even more hawkish plan. Now, after years of work in fits and starts to solve safety problems and plans to finance new underground facilities at Los Alamos, LANL might get passed over for the pit work. For some reason, the Department of Energy, or at least its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, is considering other options for pit production. The reason isnt clear because the DOE and NNSA dont say much transparency is not their strong suit. What is known for sure is that NNSA now is considering its Savannah River Site (sounds something like a resort) in South Carolina, as well LANL, for making pits. The work comes with billions of dollars in funding and apparently hundreds of jobs. Udall, Heinrich and Lujan have been raising heck about an NNSA study that says it would be cheaper and quicker to build pits at Savannah River. They sent a letter to DOE Secretary Rick Perry arguing, essentially, that the study was rigged against LANL. Meanwhile, their fellow Democrats in local government members of the Santa Fe City Council have taken a different tack. Theyve raised questions about the safety of pit production and expressed worries about the impact on local communities. The city resolution, after citing safety lapses at LANL, calls for suspension of any planned expanded plutonium pit production at LANL until all nuclear criticality safety issues are resolved, as certified by the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. (To be fair to the Democratic Congress members, they have also stood up for keeping the DNFSB strong in its oversight of national labs). Still on the books is a Santa Fe council resolution from 2005 supporting nuclear non-proliferation and recognizing as immoral the notion that human security can ever be built upon instruments of mass destruction and the will to use them. Theres also a valid contrary argument that the U.S. doesnt need any new pits, with thousands of old ones in storage. The Navy has previously resisted a new interoperable warhead that could be used by with both submarines and land-based missiles, and has been cited as one of the justifications for new pits. This week, theres another wrinkle. While the governing body of Santa Fe, downhill and about 34 miles from Los Alamos, has a somewhat troubled relationship with the weapons lab, South Carolina wants to extend some Southern hospitality to pits. The Aiken, S.C., city council, several miles north of the Savannah River Site (SRS), passed a resolution Monday supporting and encouraging pit production there. Aikens mayor estimates 800 jobs would come with the pits. SRS has its own issues. The Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, or MOX, planned for conversion of weapons-grade plutonium from dismantled warheads into fuel for nuclear reactors (part of a deal with Russia), has faced delays, litigation and ballooning costs, from an early estimate of $4 billion to possibly as much as $17 billion now. The MOX building could be repurposed for pits. Well, now, this could get interesting. If NNSA is inclined to move pit production to South Carolina, be it for safety, cost or merely political reasons, local opinion could be another point in SRSs favor. This time, our expressed nervousness about the risk of plutonium work and being part of the nuclear weapons complex really might have consequences if the feds do, in fact, listen to local input. Is it time to get real, so to speak? If Santa Feans want to want to push away plutonium work, with its radioactive hazard, but also jobs, this might be their chance. Let that debate begin in earnest. The Enchanted Forest cross-country ski and snowshoe area in northern New Mexico remains closed due to a lack of snow and the operator is seeking financial donations to help stay afloat until next year. This is unprecedented; theres just no snow and we werent prepared for this, says Ellen Miller-Goins of Red River, owner of the outdoor resort. The 600-acre cross-country ski and snowshoeing area is in the Carson National Forest near Bobcat Pass between Red River and Eagle Nest. Snowpack across New Mexico and southern Colorado is way down this year due to drought during the fall and early winter. While many ski areas can make snow to stay open for business, Miller-Goins cant and Enchanted Forest remains closed. To offset the loss of business income and help cover expenses, Miller-Goins is appealing to the public for help. Those interested in donating can go online to her fundraising campaign page on Indiegogos website at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-enchanted-forest#/. The campaign has raised almost $8,000 from more than 80 people so far; the goal is to reach $27,500. Country music star Michael Martin Murphy, who spends many of his summers in Red River, helped out with a benefit concert last weekend at the Motherlode Saloon. The event raised about $10,000. We had a good turnout and a great time, said Miller-Goins. It was a very intimate and wonderful concert. Miller-Goins says if enough snows falls in the coming months, she may be able to open, but she isnt counting on that happening. Kerry Jones, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, says the outlook for snow in the coming months is well below average. I dont think anyone had any idea it was going to be this brutal, Jones says of the lack of statewide precipitation this fall and early winter. This time last year, they had four to five feet of snow at Bobcat Pass; theres isnt really anything on the ground up there right now. The agency regularly measures snowpack at a site near Bobcat Pass. The area is so dry that Colfax County Fire Marshal Larry Osborn has imposed a fire ban in some areas of the county. Angel Fire imposed its own outdoor burning ban on Friday. The Enchanted Forest cross-country ski area was created by Miller-Goins parents in the mid-1980s and she has been running it since 2010. When theres snow on the ground, the recreation area features many miles of groomed trails, equipment rentals, lessons and heated yurts where cross-country skiers and snowshoers can spend nights in the backcountry. I love this place and other people do, too, says Miller-Goins. And New Mexico needs places like this for our tourism economy to thrive, so I hope people can help out. SANTA FE The sheriff of Los Alamos County is suing state Attorney General Hector Balderas and the records custodian for the AGs office, accusing them of unlawfully withholding public records. The AGs office, which is responsible for enforcing public records laws, says the lawsuits claims are bogus. This lawsuit is meritless, contains factual errors and is frivolous, said James Hallinan, a spokesman for the AGs office. According to the complaint by Sheriff Marco Lucero, he attended a meeting with the executive director of the New Mexico Sheriffs Association and an assistant attorney general at the AGs office in Santa Fe in August 2016. At that meeting, they were shown what was described to them as a final version of a memorandum Assistant Attorney General Peter Auh had prepared expressing an opinion or evaluation that had to do with a dispute over the sheriffs legal responsibilities, the suit states. As Lucero and Jack LeVick of the Sheriffs Association were reading the memo, Assistant Attorney General John Wheeler allegedly interrupted the meeting and snatched the memo away, and told them the memo was being sequestered and not released to the public, according to the suit. About two months after that meeting, Lucero and the sheriffs association filed a lawsuit against Los Alamos County and the County Commission over a proposed ordinance that would be placed on the ballot for the 2016 general election to eliminate the sheriffs office. That didnt stop the question from being placed on the ballot. The measure failed, with 52 percent of voters rejecting the proposal. The lawsuit filed Thursday says that last Friday, Lucero, through his attorney, A. Blair Dunn, filed a public records request for an electronic copy of the opinion from the Office of Attorney General Hector Balderas regarding the Sheriff of Los Alamos County. On Wednesday, the record custodian replied by saying there were no records responsive to their request, the lawsuit states. The 2016 lawsuit by Lucero and the sheriffs association, which according to court records is still pending, claimed the ordinance since rejected by voters was unconstitutional. The County Commission had argued that the Los Alamos Police Department was capable of handling the duties assigned to the sheriff by state statute. Luceros term as sheriff expires at the end of the calendar year. SANTA FE A truck stop on the south end of Santa Fe will bring with it traffic accidents, unpleasant sights and sounds, and violent crime, said dozens of residents who are opposed to the development at a hearing at the Santa Fe County administration building Thursday. But an attorney representing Pilot Flying J which has submitted a proposal to develop a truck stop, hotels and other businesses at the intersection of N.M. 14/Cerrillos Road and Interstate 25 said the development would provide employment and other services to residents in the area. The proposal went before Nancy Long, a local attorney serving as a hearing officer, on Thursday. Long will make a recommendation to the Planning Commission about the development plan. County spokeswoman Kristine Mihelcic told the Journal that having a hearing officer hold a hearing and make a recommendation is necessary for proposals within the Santa Fe Community College District, which includes the truck stop site. If the proposal, which has faced opposition from south side residents for months, gets past the Planning Commission, it would be considered next by the full County Commission. On Thursday, about 200 people filled the County Commission chambers and more had to wait outside and watch the hearing on screens in the hallway. Many who spoke raised concerns about the development bringing traffic accidents, noise and pollution that will chase tourists away, and about drug use and sex trafficking at truck stops. The only employment this project is giving is to prostitutes and drug dealers, said Helen Molanphy. Opponents also said a truck stop isnt right for a main entrance to Santa Fe and N.M. 14s scenic Turquoise Trail to the south. The conceptual plan submitted by Santa Fes James W. Siebert and Associates proposes the development of a 26-acre plot on the southwestern portion of the N.M. 14/I-25 intersection. Siebert said the plan is for the 10-acre truck stop to be completed by 2019, two hotels to be erected by 2026 and other retail shops to be built by 2030. The truck stop would include three restaurants, one of which will have a drive-thru. Karl Sommer, a Santa Fe attorney representing Flying J, said the project will permanently employ around 200 people. That is probably one of the largest employment centers in the community college district, he said. He added that the development will bring in extra gross receipts tax and property tax revenue for the county. State Rep. Matthew McQueen an attorney who represents the Santa Fe Gateway Alliance, a residents group that was created to oppose the truck stop said the Flying J would be detrimental to the welfare of the area because of increased noise and traffic. He also said the community college district is supposed to attract other kinds of businesses. The employment centers they were thinking about werent fast food jobs, McQueen said. If the Flyiing J were to be approved, McQueen requested that trucks not idle their engines as a way to reduce noise and air pollution; that the travel center have hours of operation that dont go too late into the night; that truckers not be allowed to stay in their vehicles overnight; that there be no alcohol sales; and that there should be between 10 and 20 semi-truck spaces instead of the proposed 75. The hearing, which started at 3 p.m., lasted about 4 hours as speaker after speaker rose to oppose the truck stop. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal Proposed settlements between Santa Fe County and pueblos in the northern part of the county to resolve a long-running dispute over roads would cost the county as much as $8 million over the next five years. Three of the pueblos Pojoaque, Nambe and Tesuque would get direct payments totaling about $3 million now as reasonable compensation for road rights of way and for any claims the pueblos might make about trespassing on tribal land. Pojoaque would receive an additional $1 million decades in the future. The county has also committed to cover the expense of building roads to settle a fight that has clouded the home and real estate ownership titles of non-Indian residents. Although the issue had reportedly been simmering for decades, San Ildefonso Pueblo set off public controversy about four years ago when it claimed roads in the El Rancho area that have been maintained by the county and are used by non-Indians to access their homes. The pueblo said trespassing fines could be levied if rights-of-way easements for the roads and access werent negotiated and paid for. In recent months, the County Commission has held closed door negotiations with pueblo leaders, along with representatives of the U.S. Department of Interior, which has an oversight role because of tribal involvement. The roads at issue are in areas within the pueblos exterior boundaries pueblo territory that passed into private hands, but which under federal law is still considered part of tribal reservations and within Indian country. The proposed settlements were announced last month, with details about how northern Santa Fe County roads would remain open to the general public and planned new road construction by the county. Some residents will have to make separate agreements to cross Pojoaque Pueblo property, officials have said. But no mention of the millions of dollars in compensation payments to the pueblos was made at that time. I understand any settlement agreement is a compromise, but I believe it is a reasonable compromise for all parties, said County Manager Katharine Miller in a statement provided to the Journal this week. This brings fair and responsible resolution to a decades-long issue. The settlements will give security to the residents and county that we are not in potential past trespass or future trespass for the next 198 years. I believe this is a notable accomplishment between all parties involved. Pueblo leaders have expressed support for the four separate settlements at public meetings. The County Commission heard comment on the settlements Wednesday night and has planned a special meeting for Jan. 18 to take action on the agreements. A county spokeswoman provided a statement that the estimated cost to the county to fully execute the agreements is $ 7 million to $8 million over the next 5 years, including the road costs. The County has always anticipated there would be a cost associated with negotiating and executing these agreements to settle the road disputes, said the statement. The alternative would have been a lengthy and costly litigation process. We are using funding sources that currently fund road construction and other capital needs, therefore we wont have a negative impact on our operating budget. It should not displace projects we have planned, it is just realigning our priorities over the next 5 years to prioritize the 34 miles of roads outlined in the settlements. The roadwork would be paid for out of the countys gross receipts taxes. According to documents posted on the countys website, Pojoaque would received the most compensation, $1.7 million now and an additional two payments of $500,000 each on the 25th and 50th anniversaries of when the pueblo and the county sign off on a deal. Nambe will receive a $1 million county payment and Tesuque gets $185,000. San Ildefonso, which set off the controversy in the first place, isnt getting a compensation payment, according to documents posted on the countys website, but the county is obligated to build new roads there within five years, the online documents indicate. In front of the County Commission on Wednesday night, a federal government representative said the settlements represented a way for neighbors in the Pojoaque Valley to heal. The roads dispute has been one of a group of issues that have divided the pueblos and non-Indians in recent years. San Ildefonso Gov. Terrence Garcia said the settlements showed what true government-to-government relations can accomplish. But a few residents who spoke werent as supportive. Representatives of the Northern New Mexico Protects citizens group said consideration of the settlements is moving too fast. There are still some really serious questions, said Heather Nordquist. Beverly Duran-Cash said the healing has not started yet and that the trust is completely out the door. The county will be responsible for maintaining the roads over the term of the agreements, which are to run for 99 years, then be renewed automatically for another 99 years. Importantly, the County Commission has refused to provide its portion of the cost of a regional water system that is part of a settlement of decades-old litigation among the pueblos and non-Indians until the roads dispute is resolved. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Republican Gov. Susana Martinez will push again this year to toughen penalties for intentional child abuse and to fix legal loopholes that she says help child predators. Her administration is also trying a new strategy to get the changes passed rolling them into one bill to make it easy for the Legislature to act quickly. The public is demanding that we do more to protect our children, Monique Jacobson, secretary of the Children, Youth and Families Department, said in an interview Thursday. Criminal defense lawyers, in turn, say that increasing penalties doesnt deter crime and that the state should focus on preventing child abuse. We dont consider them necessary changes, said Kim Chavez Cook, assistant appellate defender with the Law Offices of the Public Defender. We dont believe increased penalties are effective deterrents. A 30-day session, largely dedicated to the state budget, begins Tuesday. The administrations proposal this year will include: An expansion of Baby Briannas Law to cover all children up to 18. The current law which imposes a life sentence for intentional child abuse resulting in death applies to children ages 12 and younger. Jacobson said every child, whether 4 or 14, deserves the same protection. Chavez Cook said the law was intended to address crimes against young children who cant defend themselves. Stiffening the penalties for intentional child abuse that doesnt result in death or great bodily harm, to distinguish it from negligent child abuse in similar circumstances. Increased penalties are warranted, Jacobson said, for someone who punches a child in the face until his or her eyes swell shut, a circumstance that might be not considered great bodily harm if no bones are broken. Chavez Cook said a child abuse conviction already calls for serious penalties and that to just continue going up and up on the sentence for every crime isnt the right approach. Toughening penalties for sending an obscene photo of a body part to a child, even if the image isnt of the adults own body. Increasing penalties for the enticement of a child into a secluded area for the purpose of sexual assault or similar behavior, even if the assault itself doesnt happen. Jacobson said the public outcry over New Mexicos crime rate has added urgency to the debate and the stiffer penalties would complement other efforts to prevent child abuse. This by itself isnt the answer, she said, but we think this is part of comprehensive answer to an incredibly heartbreaking situation. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Friday offered a partial denial in public but privately defended his extraordinary remarks disparaging Haitians and African countries a day earlier. Trump said he was only expressing what many people think but wont say about immigrants from economically depressed countries, according to a person who spoke to the president as criticism of his comments ricocheted around the globe. Trump spent Thursday evening making a flurry of calls to friends and outside advisers to judge their reaction to the tempest, said the confidant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to disclose a private conversation. Trump wasnt apologetic about his inflammatory remarks and denied he was racist, instead, blaming the media for distorting his meaning, the confidant said. However, critics of the president, including some in his own Republican Party, spent Friday blasting the vulgar comments he made behind closed doors. In his meeting with a group of senators, he had questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and shithole countries in Africa as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal, according to one participant and people briefed on the remarkable Oval Office conversation. The comments revived charges that the president is racist and roiled immigration talks that were already on tenuous footing. The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used, Trump insisted in a series of Friday morning tweets, pushing back on some depictions of the meeting. But Trump and his advisers notably did not dispute the most controversial of his remarks: using the word shithole to describe African nations and saying he would prefer immigrants from countries like Norway instead. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the only Democrat in the room, said Trump had indeed said what he was reported to have said. The remarks, Durbin said, were vile, hate-filled and clearly racial in their content. He said Trump used the most vulgar term more than once. If thats not racism, I dont know how you can define it, Florida GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen told WPLG-TV in Miami. Tweeted Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona: The words used by the president, as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance, were not tough, they were abhorrent and repulsive. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called the comments beneath the dignity of the presidency and said Trumps desire to see more immigrants from countries like Norway was an effort to set this country back generations by promoting a homogenous, white society. Republican leaders were largely silent, though House Speaker Paul Ryan said the vulgar language was very unfortunate, unhelpful. Trumps insults along with his rejection of the bipartisan immigration deal that six senators had drafted also threatened to further complicate efforts to extend protections for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, many of whom were brought to this country as children and now are here illegally. Trump last year ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provided protection from deportation along with the ability to work legally in the U.S. He gave Congress until March to come up with a legislative fix. The three Democratic and three GOP senators whod struck their proposed deal had been working for months on how to balance those protections with Trumps demands for border security, an end to a visa lottery aimed at increasing immigrant diversity, and limits to immigrants ability to sponsor family members to join them in America. Its unclear now how a deal might emerge, and failure could lead to a government shutdown. The rhetoric just makes it more difficult, and thats unfortunate, said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, a senior House lawmaker. I dont think it makes it impossible, but I suspect the Democrats are sitting there going, Why would we want to compromise with him on anything?' There were also questions about which lawmakers were in position to conduct meaningful talks. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 GOP senator, and other Republicans have derided the group of six senators as having little clout. Initial bargaining has also occurred among a separate group of four leaders the second-ranking Republican and Democrat from both the House and Senate, a group to which both Cornyn and Durbin belong. At a forum Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ryan, R-Wis., said, We just have to get it done. Durbin said, We have seven days and the clock is ticking. Our bipartisan group continues to build support for the only deal in town. He said he wants to call the bill to the floor of the Senate early next week. Lawmakers have until Jan. 19 to approve a government-wide stopgap spending bill, and Republicans will need Democratic votes to push the measure through. But some Democrats have threatened to withhold support unless an immigration pact is forged. Trumps comments came as Durbin was presenting details of the compromise plan that included providing $1.6 billion for a first installment of the presidents long-sought border wall. Trump took particular issue with the idea that people whod fled to the U.S. after disasters hit their homes in places such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Haiti would be allowed to stay as part of the deal, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to publicly describe the discussion. When it came to talk of extending protections for Haitians, Durbin said Trump replied: We dont need more Haitians.' He said Put me down for wanting more Europeans to come to this country. Why dont we get more people from Norway? Durbin told reporters in Chicago. The administration announced last year that it would end a temporary residency permit program that allowed nearly 60,000 Haitians to live and work in the U.S. in the wake of a devastating 2010 earthquake. Trump insisted Friday that he never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said take them out. Made up by Dems. Trump wrote, I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings unfortunately, no trust! Trump did not respond to shouted questions about his comments as he signed a proclamation Friday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is Monday. Republican Sens. David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who both attended the Thursday meeting, said in a statement that they do not recall the president saying these comments specifically. What Trump did do, they said, was call out the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest. But Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, whom Durbin said had voiced objection to Trumps comments during the meeting, issued a statement that did not dispute the remarks. Following comments by the president, I said my piece directly to him yesterday. The president and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel, Graham said, adding: Ive always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals. ___ Associated Press writers Sara Burnett in Chicago and Jonathan Lemire, Andrew Taylor and Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. A former Peterson Air Force Base security policeman has been sentenced to prison for raping four women in Colorado Springs. The Gazette reports ex-Air Force Staff Sgt. Desmond Alvis Martin was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years to life in prison. His latest sentence will run concurrently with a 48 year-to-life sentence Martin received last year. Prosecutors say videos recorded by Martin show him raping sex workers at gunpoint. Martin pleaded guilty. He said he had attacked the women when they met him for dates, pointed a pistol at them to keep them from complaining and recorded the assaults on his cellphone. ___ Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.com LAS CRUCES Tens of thousands of bees built their hives in the rafters of a Dona Ana outbuilding nearly 100,000 of them. It was not unusual to see bees on their property, said homeowner Nancy Stone. But sweeping up nearly 300 dead bees a week was. I thought, these are honey bees so I didnt want to kill them, Stone said. So she went looking for a professional. And after months of calls, she said she was finally able to locate one. The extent of the hives and the danger they imposed was not known to Stone until she made the call to Freedom Roofing and Remodeling, the only bee removal specialist in 10 counties. They removed the bees on Monday. Stone was correct, she did have honey bees and they were dying as they searched for a source of heat through the structures skylight. But the bees in the Stone residence were Africanized honey bees, more commonly known as killer bees. A hybrid of European and African honey bees, these Africanized bees tend to be easily irritable, more aggressive and attack in swarms, said Pyong Livingston, a bee removal specialist with Freedom Roofing and Remodeling. Livingston said these Africanized bees are becoming more common in the area, accounting for about 70 percent of the bees in the Southwest region as they thrive in the warm weather. Mrs. Stone did the right thing. She saved at least 70,000 bees, Livingston said. It is difficult to tell an Africanized bee from a regular honey bee until they swarm, said Ryan Hiles, program specialist at the New Mexico State University Entomology and Nursery Department. Hiles added that Africanized bees are so aggressive that they tend to take over a regular beehive and mate with the regular honey bees. Honey bees, both regular and Africanized, also play a significant role in producing the fruits and vegetables that humans commonly take for granted, to a point where their extinction would affect the highest levels on the food chain, posing an enormously grave threat to human survival, according to a Center for Research on Globalization article. When bee specialist Livingston went to remove the bees, he said he extracted four hives that totaled about 5 feet by 1 foot in ceiling space. This wasnt the most Livingston said he has extracted, but it was up there. We extracted the bees and relocated them, but there arent too many beekeepers in the area, only one in El Paso, so we took (the bees) outside the city limits in the desert and built an area where they could survive, Livingston said. We go the extra mile to make sure they survive. Honey bees are dying off at an exceptional rate. Between April 2015 and April 2016, beekeepers in the United States lost 44 percent of their colonies, according to Bee Informed Partnership. Livingston said his company works in cooperation with Adkins Bee Removal, where he was trained to extract bees and relocate them. This, he said, is the best way to try to save as many honey bees as possible. Livingston said an exterminator who kills bees, but does not remove the hives, may only be a temporary fix because it allows for more bees to repopulate the hive. Removing the queen bees and the hives is the only way to ensure the bees do not return, he said. Africanized bees in New Mexico Africanized bees made their way to New Mexico in the early 1990s, said Carol Sutherland, an extension entomologist at NMSU. She said the bees were accidentally released from a lab in Brazil in 1957 and have since made their way north hitting every country in south and central America and Mexico. They were first discovered in the United States in the southern tip of Texas in the mid-1980s and have since been found as far north as Utah and Nevada, according to a United States Department of Agriculture map. Sutherland said that Africanized bees should always be a concern because they are quick to attack and so many attack at once. However, she added that to her knowledge no human has been killed by a swarm of bees in recent years. Call for help from a specialist when you notice a beehive forming in your house or working area, Sutherland said, cause they will come out and attack. Ali Linan can be reached at 575-541-5476, alinan@lcsun-news.com or @Ail__Linan on Twitter. 2018 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at www.lcsun-news.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. _____ JAKARTA, Indonesia Muslim hard-liners marched in Indonesias capital on Friday to protest Facebooks blocking of accounts belonging to their group. About 200 protesters organized by the Islamic Defenders Front, known by its Indonesian acronym FPI, marched after Friday prayers from a mosque to the Facebook Indonesia office, which was guarded by hundreds of police. They halted traffic along the way as they chanted Allah Akbar, or God is Great. Many carried banners saying Dont persecute Muslims and Please dont judge our status on Facebook. The group wants to impose Shariah law in the secular nation. It has a long record of vandalizing nightspots, hurling stones at Western embassies and attacking rival religious groups.FPI spokesman Slamet Maarif said they were demanding an explanation of why Facebook had blocked the groups accounts while allowing ones that denounced its leaders and Islam. We want justice and no more discrimination against Islamic accounts, he said. Facebook spokeswoman Putri Ariani said it allows people to use its social networking site to challenge ideas and raise awareness, but removes content that promotes hatred and violence against people with different views. Indonesia is the worlds most populous Muslim country, but has a secular government and a reputation as a tolerant, pluralist society that respects freedom of expression. Most Indonesians practice a moderate form of Islam, but a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years. There is no word for rainforest in the Navajo language, but Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathan Nez says it is probably time. More than 100 Navajo students will have affordable access to the housing at the University of New Mexicos Lobo Rainforest through a new partnership between the tribe and the states largest university. Navajo Nation and university leaders on Friday announced the tribe would help up to 118 students cover rent at the apartment-style residence hall at Innovate ABQ in Downtown Albuquerque. Its the first such partnership for the Navajo Nation, which aims to expand the program to other colleges and universities to prevent housing costs from derailing students educational goals. Navajo students can get scholarships for tuition, but officials say many struggle with living expenses. They report some have resorted to couch surfing or even living in cars. Karis Begaye, who spearheaded the project as legal counsel in the Navajo Nations Office of the President and Vice President, said housing-related financial hardships compel some to drop out. We can give them all the scholarships for tuition, but if they dont have a place to stay or they dont have a place to study, it makes it very difficult for our students, and some of them have to drop out of school, she said during a news conference. This is one way to address that so our students dont have to worry about anything. All they have to worry about is getting their education, getting their degree and then coming back to the Navajo Nation and helping our people. Begaye said she is already in discussions with UNM about a more long-term plan to build an entirely new Navajo residence hall. Nez called Friday a celebratory occasion and reason to translate rainforest into the tribal language. We dont have a rainforest (on the Navajo Nation), he joked. Weve got to get a Navajo term for that. Currently, 232 UNM students self-identify as Navajos, but officials believe there are likely more enrolled. The agreement with UNM runs through July 31, 2021. The tribe will pay the regular rate for each Rainforest space currently $650. The first 19 months amount to $1,457,300. Students will share some rental costs with the tribe, but the details are still being finalized. They will occupy the six-story buildings top two floors. Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye touted the Rainforest for its modern amenities each two-bedroom unit has a kitchen, washer and dryer and its ability to cultivate ideas. A centerpiece of the Innovate ABQ site at Broadway and Central, the building has street-level commercial space with tenants like Sandia National Laboratories and Air Force Research Laboratory. This environment is an incredible environment, Russell Begaye said while standing next to a sixth-floor study area. Its not just about living here, and having a warm place to stay and (having) a nice facility; its more about creating ideas, about coming up with ideas. The Rainforest, which debuted in August, struggled to meet residential occupancy goals in the fall with fewer than 100 students for its 300 spots. The regents approved $520,000 in reserves to help cover the universitys lease payment this fiscal year. The Navajo Nation agreement should help ensure the building breaks even by 2019, UNM Real Estate Director Tom Neale said. Monday is a first fee free day of the new year no entrance fees at National Park Service sites such as Bandelier National Monument, Petroglyph National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve, and the other approximately 120 NPS areas that charge entrance fees. Fee free land include those of the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Reclamation. Mid-January is usually a very quiet time at Bandelier, Superintendent Jason Lott said in a statement. The weather forecast suggests that it will be mild and sunny, so it might be a very nice time to come and take a peaceful walk in Frijoles Canyon or on one of the other park trails. Other NPS fee free days this year are April 21, the first day of National Park Week; September 22, Public Lands Day; and November 11, Veterans Day. NPS sites in the state include Pecos National Historical Park, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, El Morro National Monument, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, Carlsbad Caverns National Park and White Sands National Monument. Visit www.nps.gov/state/nm/index.htm for a list of NPS sites around New Mexico. We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com. WASHINGTON More than 150 years after the abolition of slavery and more than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, President Donald Trumps incendiary comments about immigrants have ripped open a jarring debate in the United States and around the world: Is the American president racist? To Democrats and some historians, there is little dispute given the presidents own words and actions. His political rise was powered first by his promotion of lies about Barack Obamas citizenship, then by his allegations that Mexican immigrants to the United States were rapists and murderers. During a private meeting with lawmakers Thursday, he stunningly questioned why the U.S. would admit Haitians or people from shithole countries in Africa, expressing a preference instead for immigrants from Norway, a majority white nation. President Trump said things that were hate-filled, vile and racist, said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who attended the meeting and confirmed the presidents comments. On Friday, few Republicans defended the presidents remarks, and party leaders were silent most of the day. Those who did speak out argued the comments were merely unvarnished statements on the economic blight in some regions of the world, not an expression of racial preference. Others said Trump, a 71-year-old who relishes rejecting political correctness, was voicing views held quietly by many. Ive said all along the president many times says what people are thinking, Republican Rep. Jim Renacci, a candidate for Senate in Ohio, told Fox News. Lets judge the president after what weve done. Lets not judge the president on what he says. Trump has repeatedly denied he is a racist, declaring during the 2016 campaign that he was the least racist person there is. On Friday, he offered a vague denial of his comments to lawmakers, tweeting that he said nothing derogatory about Haitians. He did not address the reports that he disparaged African nations and ignored questions about the comments from reporters. Yet theres no doubt that the episode has added new fuel to the charges of racism that have dogged Trump for years, since long before he assumed the presidency. In the 1970s, the federal government twice sued Trumps real estate company for favoring white tenants over blacks. He aggressively pushed for the death penalty for a group of black and Latino teenagers who were accused of raping a white woman in Central Park but later exonerated. Now, as president, Trumps words carry the weight of an office that has long helped guide the nations moral compass and defined the American ideal for millions around the world. Although the United States has a complicated racial history, including slavery, segregation and persistent economic disparities between whites and minorities, Trumps most recent predecessors from both parties have used their position to promote equality and have endorsed immigration policies that brought millions of people from Africa and Latin America to the U.S. What Trump is doing has popped up periodically, but in modern times, no president has been so racially insensitive and shown outright disdain for people who arent white, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian. Brinkley said Trump was the most racist president since Woodrow Wilson, who served from 1913 until 1921. Wilson supported segregation, including in the federal government, and his policies are blamed for rolling back progress for the emerging black middle class in the nations capital at the turn of the 20th century. Decades after Wilson left office, President Richard Nixon made inflammatory comments about blacks, Jews and others in private discussions, including saying, Do you know maybe one black country thats well run? Many of Nixons comments only came to light years later, following the release of tapes from his White House years. Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian and the former director of Nixons presidential library, said Trumps most recent comments were more jarring both because they were revealed in real time and because they came during the course of a discussion about the laws governing who can gain entry into the United States. This is not an example of a leak that shows the president to be a jerk, Naftali said. This shows the president is using language that implies hes thinking like a racist while making immigration policy. Notably, the White House did not deny Trumps comments and instead endorsed the spirit of what he appeared to be saying. In a statement, White House spokesman Raj Shah said 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. Two of the Republican lawmakers who participated in the meeting, Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, said they do not recall Trumps derogatory comments about Africa. Another GOP attendee, South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, suggested the reported remarks were accurate: Following comments by the president, I said my piece directly to him. Trumps political allies have been through this dance before, grappling with how to position themselves after a president whose supporters they covet stakes out controversial positions. In August, after the president said both sides were to blame in clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, many GOP officials condemned Trumps remarks but maintained their overall support for his presidency. On Friday, several black supporters and advisers to Trump vouched for his commitment to the black community after a White House event honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Paris Dennard, a senior director of strategic communications at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, said Trump understands this community. He wants to help our community. But the participants pointedly did not address Trumps vulgar comments. And other Trump backers made clear they wanted to steer clear of questions about whether the president is a racist. Thats not something I want to talk about, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. In Atlanta, at the congregation once led by King, the Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church and other faith leaders planned a news conference to condemn Trumps vile and racist remarks made on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Warnock said its hypocritical for Trump to sign a proclamation honoring King, given his comments. A giant of a man does not need a proclamation from a small man like Donald Trump, Warnock told The Associated Press. ___ Associated Press writers Ken Thomas in Washington and Jeff Martin and Bernard McGhee in Atlanta contributed to this report. ___ Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC Ashish Sahni has been appointed as the Digital Marketing Head for the Peugeot Group, also known as Groupe PSA, a French company which is also the second largest automobile manufacturer in Europe. He was formerly associated with one of Indias largest automobile manufacturers, Tata Motors at the same portfolio for Passenger Vehicle Business Unit. Sahni will be operating from their Chennai office to take charge of his role as the Director- Digital Marketing, India Operations. Sahni had joined Tata Motors in 2012 the digital Marketing head and has donned many caps within the organisation ever since. He has an extensive experience with bigger names across sectors including Jet Airways, Apollo Munich and ICICI Lombard. Interestingly, the appointment has been masde at a time when Groupe PSA has upped its ante to expand their footprints in the Indian market by associating with the CK Birla Group to manufacture and sell cars in India. Many a tears were shed as well as toasts raised all as a salute to the man who led rum brand Old Monk to its iconic success. The year began on a sad note for all rum lovers Brigadier (Retd) Kapil Mohan, former Chairman and MD of Mohan Meakin Ltd, passed away on January 6. Though he was the man who led the brand to great success, it was his late elder brother, Colonel Ved Ratan Mohan, who created Old Monk. Trust the faujis to give such a venerable twist to the good old bacchus! Launched on December 19, 1954, Old Monk was a result of Colonel Ved Ratan Mohans trip to Europe, where he was introduced to the Benedictine monks and the magic touch they gave to their spirits. For centuries, rum has been associated with pirates and sailors, gaining legendary status. In more modern times, rum has become the drink of students and men in uniform. Compared to other forms of spirits, rum, for some particular reason, has come to be associated with masculinity. The dark coloured drink has kept company to our army men at the border, even as it flowed through hostel corridors. And ruling it all is rum raja Old Monk, which has been the countrys favourite rum brand. Brigadier Kapil Mohan, who was in the Territorial Army, took over the reins at Mohan Meakin in 1973 after his brother, Colonel Ved Ratan Mohan passed away. Since then, he had led the company successfully and during his tenure Mohan Meakin diversified into different businesses, which included breakfast food, fruit products & juices, malt houses, malt extract factories, glass factories, cold storages as well as engineering works. He also led Old Monk to foreign shores, and the brand was the largest selling dark rum brand globally for decades. However, faced with the onslaught of newer brands and evolving tastes of patrons, Old Monk has been on the decline for some years now. But the brands legacy and customer loyalty will remain. People from all walks as well as various media houses took to social media to pay tribute to Brigadier Kapil Mohan. The Viral Fever also paid tribute through their witty post on Twitter as did stand up comedian Atul Khatri. Click here to read more about the tweets on Old Monk. Read more Marketing related stories: https://www.adgully.com/category/marketing This wedding season, FYI TV18 brings you its biggest wedding reality shows, Best in Bridal premiering on 13 January at 8PM. It is every brides dream to walk down the aisle looking gracious, elegant and the most beautiful they have ever looked. Best in Bridal aims to fulfil this wish of the gorgeous soon-to-be brides in Chicago. The show follows two Illinois-based bridal shops run by Dave Gaffke and Shelley Murray, with two very different approaches. Dave Gaffke runs Complete Bridal; a successful salon owned and curated by him and his all-male team. And, down the street lies Shelleys Bridal Couture, an all-female, more traditional and no nonsense boutique managed by Shelley Murray, Dave's competitor and former boss. With an explosive rivalry between the two shops, viewers will see how Dave and Shelley strive to outwit and out-sell each other in the exciting, and sometimes glamorous, world of bridal retail. The 14 episodic series, will witness how Dave and Shelley battle it out to see who has what it takes to score the most clients and sales, all with keeping the dreams and goals of each woman's special day at heart. From Daves all-male consulting team, to Shelleys traditional sales techniques, the brides will discover which diverse shopping experience best suits their bridal needs. Each episode will feature three brides, and their demanding entourage, as they try to find the perfect wedding gown for their big day. Viewers will see a myriad of dresses from budget to high-end to the latest trends as well as learn the history behind bridal design staples and the best possible fits for every shape and size. Tune into FYI TV18 to witness all the excitement of the brides of Chicago every Saturday and Sunday at 8PM 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 10, 2018 CAIRO Egypt is awaiting Ethiopian and Sudanese reaction to its proposal that the World Bank mediate negotiations on the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Egypt wants the World Bank to serve as a neutral party in the country's lengthy but fruitless negotiations with Ethiopia and Sudan over the dam's construction. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry proposed the idea during a Dec. 26 meeting with his Ethiopian counterpart in the latter country's capital, Addis Ababa. Cairo fears the upstream dam at the head of the Blue Nile will interfere with its critical water supply from the Nile River. Ethiopia wants water to satisfy its need for electricity. Sudan, which wants more water for agricultural purposes, stands to benefit from the dam and has sided with Ethiopia on most issues. The negotiations are stalled, but construction is humming right along. Ethiopia has already completed more than 60% of the $4.8 billion mega dam, despite disputes over its environmental impact and basic technical issues topics that ideally are resolved before construction begins on such projects. Frustrated with the lack of progress despite years of debate, Egypt pulled out of the tripartite negotiations in November. Now, by recommending the World Bank as a fourth impartial party, Egypt seems to be putting on the table a possible diplomatic solution to the dispute. It also would create a wider audience for Egypt's grievances and perhaps pressure Ethiopia and Sudan. Seeking the help of the World Bank falls within the scope of a diplomatic campaign initiated by Cairo," an Egyptian official in charge of the Nile water issue told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. "This would allow Egypt to expose the stalled negotiations and disclose Egyptian concerns before the international community. The participation of World Bank experts in the negotiations will add transparency and unveil any attempts by Ethiopia or Sudan to derail the GERD impact studies. Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia had hired two French consultancy firms in September 2016 to conduct a technical study on the likely hydraulic, environmental, economic and social impacts of the dam on Egypt and Sudan. The study was to be completed in 11 months. A year and a half have elapsed and the parties are still disputing the basic introductory technical report, with officials unable to agree even on which scenarios to study. Egypt remains convinced that direct negotiations with Ethiopia are the shortest way to reach guarantees easing Egyptian concerns over water storage in the dam. But this approach still needs external support for the Egyptian position, the Egyptian official added. Hoping this matter will be resolved during the expected visit of Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to Cairo this month, he said, We have yet to receive any reply from Sudan and Ethiopia on the World Bank recommendation. But the World Bank has expressed its initial willingness to act as mediator in the negotiations. The GERD agreement in the Declaration of Principles, signed by all the parties in 2015, states: The three countries commit to settling any dispute resulting from the interpretation or application of the declaration of principles through talks or negotiations based on the goodwill principle. If the parties involved do not succeed in solving the dispute through talks or negotiations, they can ask for mediation or refer the matter to their heads of state or prime ministers. Hani Raslan, an expert on Sudanese affairs at Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, told Al-Monitor, Ethiopias stalling in the GERD negotiations is contrary to the rules of international law. Involving the World Bank as an impartial international mediator will pave the way for solutions. This will protect the interests of the downstream countries." He added, Refusing the World Bank as a mediator would unveil Ethiopias policies of intransigence against Egyptian interests and its intention to disrupt negotiations to gain more time to complete the dam construction and store water. Ethiopia wants to continue imposing a de facto situation. Safwat Abdel-Dayem, the secretary-general of the Arab Water Council, told Al-Monitor, The World Bank has a wealth of experience in Nile water-related issues. Its presence as a neutral party will be in Egypt's interest because it will act as an eyewitness to Ethiopia's departure from the negotiation path set by the Declaration of Principles. Al-Monitor spoke with Ana Elisa Cascao, an independent researcher on Nile hydropolitics and editor of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Nile Basin: Implications for Transboundary Water Cooperation. Asked whether the World Bank has the experience and could be a neutral third party in the negotiations at this stage, she said, The question is not if the World Bank has the experience or credentials to be a mediator, but rather if there is a logic for third-party intervention at this stage. Because a golden rule for successful mediation is that it must be requested and carefully mandated by all parties involved. She told Al-Monitor, Any GERD-related conciliation or mediation procedures must be in line with Article 10 of the Declaration of Principles. There are clear joint procedures to be followed, but only in case of disputes and when all other means have been exhausted. Divergences in technical studies should be dealt with at the appropriate level. She said the negotiations have always been driven by three equal sovereign states, and she asserted that much progress has been achieved in past years. The three countries will successfully lead the talks to reach an agreement on filling the dam, which is the most pressing issue," she said. Ethiopia has said it could begin filling the dam this summer. Salman Mohammad Salman, a former water law adviser to the World Bank, told Al-Monitor, The World Bank is the most suitable and competent [entity] to mediate the GERD negotiations and other disputes over the Nile waters. But the World Bank cannot intervene upon the request of Egypt alone. All three parties Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia must request its intervention. He explained that the World Bank has played a key role in the Nile Basin Initiative, which was formally established in 1999. He added, The World Bank also facilitated the negotiations on the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA). But the World Bank dropped its Nile water-related efforts after disputes over water security issues [pitted] the upstream states that signed the CFA in May 2010 against the downstream countries that still reject it. Salman concluded, Egypts call on the World Bank to act as mediator will be an opportunity for the World Bank to resume its Nile water efforts after an eight-year hiatus." January 10, 2018 Speech therapist Mohammed al-Hayek is treating several children from different Arab countries, including Syrian children displaced to Turkey and Lebanon, from behind his computer screen in the besieged Gaza Strip. Hayek, 29, began his career as a speech therapist after graduating from the department of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University College of Applied Sciences in the Gaza Strip in 2009. He then joined local projects under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which examined the speech of primary school students in institutions affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. At first, my job was only to examine the children. After I proved myself, the project manager transferred me to the pediatric speech therapy department. During my work with the ICRC, I came across a large number of students with speech problems. Because speech problems emerge between the ages of 4 and 6, I then focused on private kindergartens, Hayek told Al-Monitor. Today, he works with eight schools altogether. He added, I visit each kindergarten two days a week and created a Facebook page where I give people advice and post photos of me working with children, in order to promote my work as much as possible. Hayek said he was able to treat 6-year-old Nada, the first girl to receive a cochlear implant in the Gaza Strip. After the surgery, she still had trouble pronouncing some sounds. Her treatment with Hayek at the Balsam Association lasted for four months after the implant. He noted, One day, a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon contacted me through the page and told me that her daughter had trouble pronouncing 10 different sounds. I diagnosed the girl over a video call and we began daily treatment sessions for three weeks, after which she fully recovered. Hayek added, The mother then posted on the page a thank-you note for treating her daughter and thanked me for offering my services for free. After that, many mothers from several Arab countries such as Jordan, Tunisia, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon and Iraq contacted me about their children. I also treated a 30-year-old Algerian man who had speech problems. He explained that the appearance of speech problems among so many refugee children can be attributed to trauma. Hayek diagnoses his patients by asking them to say words containing the sounds they struggle with. For instance, when a child has trouble pronouncing the 'S' sound, I give them words containing it, such as Samer, Assad and Almas and once they improve a little, I give them sentences with three words containing it, he said. Despite Hayeks success, he faced several challenges, including power outages for over 20 hours a day and a weak internet connection, which made it hard to communicate with patients over low-quality videos. Rana Shaker, 26, an Iraqi from Basra, told Al-Monitor her son had stuttered since he was 3. She took him to several speech therapists in Iraq, but they could not help him. They told her, correctly, that his stuttering would get worse with time. When Shakers son was 10 a year ago, she learned about Hayek, who managed to treat him. She said, "I stumbled upon Hayek by chance on Facebook and he treated my son for free via video calls over two months. Now his stutter has completely disappeared, thank God. Shaker, however, pointed out that the treatment sessions were often delayed because of the electricity crisis and unreliable internet service in Gaza. Darin Abdul Jawad, a 29-year-old Syrian refugee living in the province of Sanliurfa in southeastern Turkey, told Al-Monitor, I have not been able to complete my university studies in speech therapy in Syria because of the war. Since many refugee children here [in Turkey] have speech problems, I reached out to Hayek via Facebook to ask him for advice and he agreed to help. I would hold treatment sessions for Syrian children at my house and send him messages explaining the difficulties I faced. With his help, I was able to treat several children. She noted, Many Syrian children suffer from stutters likely brought on by trauma in light of the war, bombings and displacement. Other causes contribute to this kind of disorder, as is the case of Sumaya, 12, who fell when she was young." The doctor who treated Sumaya told Abdul Jawad that when the child hit her head, the left part of the brain that is responsible for speech was damaged. "I treated her for five months and she finally recovered. Abdul Jawad, who is taking online courses in speech therapy, said she had a hard time communicating with Hayek. I would send him a message in the morning and he would reply late at night because he had so much work to do and no electricity. Today, Hayek and Abdul Jawad plan to establish a joint project targeting 20 Syrian children with speech problems, but power cuts in Gaza are impeding their efforts. Both of them stressed that trauma and mental illness are among the leading causes of speech problems, particularly among children, so refugees are in special need of care. Hayek seeks to create a team of speech therapists from several Arab countries. Each member can work in his or her country to treat as many displaced children of various nationalities as possible. In a March 2017 report, UNICEF stated that 2.8 million Syrian children live in hard-to-reach areas, including 280,000 children under siege and in near total obstruction of humanitarian aid. January 12, 2018 It has been eight months since Hamas internal elections in May, when Khaled Meshaal stepped down to be replaced by Ismail Haniyeh as head of the movements political bureau. Yet Meshaal has returned to the spotlight with an official visit to Mauritania and Morocco at the end of December. Meshaals tour began in Mauritania Dec. 21 to participate in the conference of the National Rally for Reform and Development (Tewassoul) in Nouakchott. He met Dec. 23 with figures including Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, leader of the ruling party, and the Mauritanian Union for the Republic (UPR), to discuss the Jerusalem developments and the Palestinian cause. Meshaal announced during a speech at the Dec. 24 opening ceremony of the conference that while he had come to Mauritania upon the invitation of Tewassoul, an opposition party, he had been officially welcomed by the president, who approved of the visit. On Dec. 25, Meshaal met with Mauritanias President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and expressed how proud he was of the visit and of the public and official interaction in Mauritania with the Palestinian cause. Meshaal thanked Abdel Aziz for severing ties with Israel in 2010 and passed on Haniyehs regards. Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas political bureau and head of its office of Arab and Islamic relations, told Al-Monitor, Meshaals visits to Mauritania and Morocco are part of Hamas outreach in Arab and Muslim countries and the world. Hamas visited Turkey, Qatar, Iran, Malaysia, Lebanon, Sudan and South Africa, and it will continue its tour in the coming days. The visit to Mauritania and Morocco reflected Hamas official and public presence there despite the blockade the movement is under. Rishq noted, Hamas visit to Morocco and Mauritania caught the interest of the ruling parties and the opposition, which indicates that the Palestinian [cause] is strongly present in political circles. [Meshaals] meeting with all political sides went over well among media and political figures because it showed that Hamas was trying to embrace all sides that love Palestine and are working for it, despite their different political inclinations. Mohamed Mukhtar al-Shanqiti, a Mauritanian political researcher and professor of political ethics and history of religion at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, told Al-Monitor, Meshaals visit to Nouakchott carried good intentions, and his public and official welcoming showed the solidarity of both the Mauritanian president and the opposition with the Palestinian cause and Jerusalem. Perhaps Hamas realized that one of the advantages of the current Mauritanian regime is that it cut ties with Israel and took a stern stance against [US President Donald] Trumps declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel Dec. 6. Though Israel and Mauritania established full diplomatic relations in 1999, they suffered a severe setback when Israel waged its war on the Gaza Strip from December 2008 to January 2009. During that time, Nouakchott froze diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv and asked the staff of the Israeli Embassy to leave. The embassy was shut down and the Israeli flag was lowered. In March 2010, Mauritania announced it was severing diplomatic ties with Israel completely. Shanqiti added, Although establishing a Hamas office in Nouakchott is on the table, there are regional considerations at play. Progress could have been made if Mauritania were close to Qatar, which has tight relations with Hamas. But the current Gulf crisis drew Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and the UAE closer to each other and farther away from Qatar. On June 7, Mauritania joined a Saudi-led bloc and cut ties with Qatar over its alleged support for terrorist organizations and spreading chaos and division in Arab countries. Meshaal left Mauritania Dec. 26 for Morocco upon the invitation of its Justice and Development Party. During his two-day visit, he met with Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani, the ruling party leadership and its parliamentary bloc as well as the leaders of the Party of Progress and Socialism, the Authenticity and Modernity Party, Istiqlal, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces Party and the Unity and Reform Party. Meshaal thanked Moroccan King Mohammed VI and Moroccos official, partisan and public circles for supporting the Palestinian cause. The Moroccan king heads the Jerusalem Committee established in 1975 by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In 1979, Morocco established Bayt Mal al-Qods to collect donations to support Jerusalemites. One of the strongest steps against Trumps Jerusalem declaration came when Rabat summoned the US charge daffaires Dec. 6 to express its deep concern about the decision. On Dec. 12, the Moroccan parliament condemned the decision and dismissed it as illegitimate, demanding a halt to Israels provocation of Palestinians. Aziz al-Atatiri, editor-in-chief of the Moroccan al-Massae newspaper, told Al-Monitor that although Moroccan political circles do not welcome Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate, "Meshaal was warmly received by socialist, liberal and communist parties, which surprised Moroccans because these parties had accused Hamas of derailing the peaceful track of the Palestinian cause. He added, Still, the visit does not mean an office for Hamas will open in Rabat. This step might not be necessary because Hamas has tight relations and coordination with Islamist Moroccan parties, which perform the duties of such an office. Moroccan events in solidarity with Jerusalem coincided with Meshaals visit. Meshaal filled in the Moroccan parties he met on the developments of the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation. He praised Morocco's "smart" dealing with the Arab Spring, saying the king took a clever and courageous step in facilitating a democratic environment that has gone to good use. Yehya Alem, a Moroccan researcher on Islamic parties, told Al-Monitor, Meshaals visit to Morocco, upon the invitation of the Moroccan prime minister and with the blessing of the king, is a political message of multiple meanings in the context of the Palestinian cause and the Jerusalem declaration. Moroccans regard Jerusalem highly, and the Moroccan king heads the Jerusalem Committee that came out of the OIC in 1975. The Jerusalem Committee works to deter Israeli attempts to subdue Jerusalems Arab and Islamic character and implements important projects in health, education, housing and the affairs of children, youth and women. Alem added, But the visits main significance is that a symbol of the Palestinian resistance treaded the Moroccan soil with the kings blessing, which could signal Moroccos official political openness to national Palestinian powers like Hamas. The movement extracts legitimacy from defying Israel, in addition to its democratic political legitimacy in the Palestinian territories. Abdul Sattar Qassem, a professor of political science at An-Najah National University in the West Bank, told Al-Monitor, Meshaals visit to Morocco and Mauritania was a positive step despite Hamas slackening in interacting with the Arab Maghreb. The Jerusalem topic was a discussion opportunity for Hamas during the visit. Morocco is among the most sympathetic countries with Palestinians, and perhaps Meshaals meeting with the Mauritanian president and Moroccan prime minister reinforce the official status of the visit arranged with the Hamas leadership. The leadership appreciates Meshaals long experience and political relations, even though he is no longer Hamas leader. Meshaal has not withdrawn and will remain present in the decision-making circles of the movement, which benefits from his network of relations that he built over the years. January 11, 2018 From the day protests began in Iran on Dec. 28, stemming from Irans worsening economic situation, Iranian protesters have denounced the money spent by their country in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. They chanted the slogan, No Gaza or Lebanon, My Life to Iran. Iranian-backed Palestinian factions kept mum and refrained from commenting on the protests out of fear that their stances would impinge on such aid and result in its halt or reduction. Although there are no accurate figures of the aid that Iran has given to Palestinian factions, Al Jazeera indicated in July 2015 that Iran provided Hamas with an average of $250 million annually during the period of 2006-2011 in varying proportions, in addition to the military aid to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing. Al Jazeera, however, did not report on Irans aid to other Palestinian factions, such Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Irans aid to Hamas declined following Hamas position on the Syrian revolution in 2011 and worsened ties with Iran. Yet the aid provided to the al-Qassam Brigades remained unchanged. Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad Fathali said in February 2016 that Iran provides families of martyrs killed by Israeli soldiers with $7,000, and that each family whose house was destroyed by the Israeli army gets $30,000. Al-Monitor contacted a number of representatives of the Iranian-backed Palestinian factions, such as Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and the PFLP - General Command, for their opinions on the protests. They all refused to comment, considering it an internal Iranian affair in which they were not willing to meddle. Hussam al-Dajani, a professor of political science at Al-Ummah University in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The Palestinian factions silence on the protests in Iran is in line with their orientation that involves refraining from interfering in other countries internal affairs. Yet if the protests escalate, Iran may ask them to express clear stances in its favor in the face of protesters. This is because Irans aid for the factions is designed to build itself a regional empire and elevate its influence in the region. The sums spent on the factions are small compared to the influence it has over them. I believe that [Iran] will not reconsider its aid for the factions, despite the potential small cuts. Such aid will not be totally halted. Commenting on the demands that foreign aid be halted, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, an adviser to the speaker of Irans Islamic Consultative Assembly for International Affairs, defended the foreign aid and said Jan. 7 that those who made these demands do not have a correct understanding of national security. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah stated Jan. 3 that most Iranians are in favor of the foreign aid, which was also a topic of dissent during the 2009 Iranian protests. According to Nasrallah, the Iranian people are convinced of its importance, and they have the willingness to provide the resistance movements with financial aid, although there is an Iranian minority seeking to bring it to an end. After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory over opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi in Irans 2009 presidential election, Iran had witnessed popular protests that lasted for months during which protesters chanted the slogan No Gaza or Lebanon, My Life to Iran, demanding that Irans foreign aid to Hezbollah and Hamas be reduced. Speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, a member of Irans Islamic Consultative Assembly, said, Bringing to a halt Iran's aid to Palestinians and bringing it back to [Iran] will not resolve the countrys economic crises, although it is only natural that protesters connect their internal crises to the states spending abroad. This connection is endorsed by Arab and American circles to show that Irans foreign aid comes at the expense of the situation at home. This is although in order to preserve its national security, Iran is required to find foreign allies and that such allies would benefit from its financial and military aid. Such protests will not prevent Iran from continuing to pursue its current policy in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. In parallel to the protests, Gadi Eizenkot, the Israeli armys chief of general staff, indicated Jan. 2 that Iran spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on its allies. He said that such spending has recently been focused on the Palestinian arena and reached $100 million annually to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Military expert Amos Harel reported in Haaretz on Jan. 8 that the Iranian threat to Israel involves Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, where the Islamic Jihad and Hamas obtain economic aid. Hassan Abdo, a political analyst close to the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The Palestinian factions silence on Irans protests stems from their desire not to interfere in regional problems, to spare the Palestinian cause political complications. These protests may have an impact on Iranian foreign policy, and increase the countrys focus on internal issues. Yet it is out of the question that Iran abandons the regional gains achieved in the past years, especially in the Palestinian dossier. Iranian journalist Mohammed al-Ahwazi told Al-Monitor, The protests showed that Iranians are divided over the countrys foreign aid, particularly the aid provided to the Palestinian factions and Hezbollah. President Hassan Rouhani perceives that Iran could possibly benefit from the 2015 nuclear deals advantages by making concessions to the world in terms of its relations with Gaza and Hezbollah. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC], however, with the support of Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, view that Iranian-Hamas relations should be similar to Iranian-Hezbollah relations, in order to further Iranian interests. They also view that keeping the regime in place is linked to its regional strength, and to the financial and military aid it provides to its allies. He pointed out that Irans spending on the Palestinian factions is a part of its defense budget and has resulted in the Iranians hostile stance toward what they consider to be a waste of their money and exhaustion of their wealth. In my eyes, such spending will not be reduced. In the Iranian Embassy in Damascus on Jan. 4, some Palestinian factions leaders met with a high-level Iranian delegation led by Iranian charge d'affaires in Damascus Abdol-Reza Ghassemian and head of the Iranian Islamic Consultative Assembly Ahmad Salek to discuss Irans aid to the Palestinian people in the face of the Israeli occupation. Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, stated Dec. 30 that Iran is providing the resistance with intrinsic and genuine aid in order for the resistance to survive, adding that such aid will not be halted. Islamic Jihad's leader Khader Habib said Nov. 16 that Iran is a supporter at the moral, political and material levels, and he called on Arab and Islamic countries to follow in its footsteps. For his part, Ankara-based researcher on Iranian policies Ali Baker told Al-Monitor, The protests showed that Iranians oppose [the policy] of spending billions of dollars on the regimes foreign wings while they live under bad circumstances. Nevertheless, Iran will not reconsider such aid, given that the current protests do not represent an existential threat, and thus Tehran believes that there is no need for it to make concessions. Furthermore, Iran views its expansion abroad as a tool to protect itself and that any fallback at home could encourage its enemies to bring the battle to its territory. Also, its foreign spending has not resulted from the government decision, but rather the IRGC and supreme leader. The Palestinian factions ongoing silence on the Iranian protests may highlight the fact that they have concerns over the continuation of the protests and their fear that these protests will result in reduced Iranian funding. These concerns come at a time of mounting regional pressure and decreasing allies in the region. January 12, 2018 Everything stopped suddenly. We are literally out of work now, Alireza, a 24-year-old university student living in Tehran, told Al-Monitor. He is among many Iranian online entrepreneurs who have suffered major financial losses in recent days due to the authorities intensified online filtering, including bans on popular social media platforms such as Telegram and Instagram. The bans were first imposed Dec. 31, three days after protests first broke out across the country, with Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli saying that some individuals had misused social media networks to create violence and fear. Although the government has moved to lift the ban on Instagram, Telegram has remained blocked, forcing many Iranians to use circumvention apps to bypass the restriction. The government has said that its moves are aimed at protecting society. If the filtering had not been carried out, social security would have been affected, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the minister of communications and information technology, told local media Jan. 3. Both Telegram and Instagram had previously been unfiltered in Iran, becoming the most popular social media apps in the country. Telegram has 40 million users, while Instagram has 35 million users in Iran. Against this backdrop, online businesses have rapidly grown over the past few years. With more than 46 million tech-savvy internet users in Iran, the majority of whom are under 35, the country has emerged as a leading startup incubator in the region, and the government considers information and communications technology to be a good option to achieve its job creation goals. However, with the recent restrictions, many online businesses have been threatened and many e-commerce activists have already felt the hardship. We were among the first to kick-start our business on Telegram, Alireza said. We spent a lot of money and time in the past three years to attract a total of 350,000 members for our several channels. Our income is through advertising. With the current ban, we don't have any income. According to some figures, there are 600,000 Iranian channels on Telegram, more than 40% of which are said to be online businesses. However, Afshin Kolahi, the first vice president of the New Business and Knowledge Technology Commission of Iran, said that 10,000-15,000 of them are 100% web-based while others use the internet for marketing or as an alternative way of selling their products or services. Our income has slumped by as much as 95% to almost nothing. Our business has been literally ruined, Alireza said. He is not alone; there are many others who have been hit as well. Davoud Pirfarshi and his colleagues produce 40 types of handmade leather products, some of which are sold via Telegram on a daily basis. Alireza added that following the recent restrictions, We have received no orders and sold nothing, as access to the internet has been so difficult. The exact losses of the thousands of Telegram-based businesses are very hard to calculate many of them are not registered with the authorities as a way to avoid paying taxes. However, according to one estimate published by the leading economic daily Donya-e Eqtesad, these channels are estimated to generate monthly revenues of nearly $1.8 million. This is while other estimates say major internet businesses, including internet service providers, online stores and ride-hailing apps among others, have experienced over $120 million in losses. In a Twitter post on Jan. 2, the minister of communications and information technology apologized to hundreds of thousands of his countrymen active in e-commerce for the losses they have faced. But the apology appears to have done little to calm online entrepreneurs. A Twitter account with the name Iranian Telegrampreneurs has been created amid the ongoing restrictions. It mainly retweets comments by users criticizing the limitations for adversely affecting peoples lives, including women in charge of their families affairs. A pinned tweet speaks of 1 million jobs at stake because of the new restrictions. Other than the short-term impact of the filtering, experts have warned against serious consequences in case restrictions are repeated in the future or if social media networks such as Telegram are banned permanently. Such a policy will endanger job-creation activities. It will make customers of online services dissatisfied, and the discontent could have more danger than [the recent] protests, social media analyst Pooria Asteraky told Al-Monitor. Milad Monshipour, the co-founder and CEO of ride-hailing platform TAP30, believes that the revenue impact is not the most important effect of internet restrictions. The most important impact is on peoples behavior." He explained that Iranians have increasingly used the internet for different purposes, such as getting services over the past few years, making it a core part of their life. If the disruption of the internet gets long and repeated, people would start to think of it as something they cannot count on to get services. Thats something destructive to internet businesses. While Monshipour added that such significant impacts require decision-makers to think twice before blocking internet sites, experts like Asteraky argued that affected people and businesses must ask authorities for compensations. He believes that if it is not met, the request for compensation could at least result in a reconsideration before taking similar measures in future. Although the internet restrictions have eased compared to last week, it is not clear yet if the government's ban on Telegram will be temporary or become a permanent one as demanded by many conservative bodies inside the country. Some have suggested that online businesses move to alternative social media, but cyberactivists say that moving existing businesses to other platforms will lead to big losses. Secretary of Internet Businesses Crafts Union Reza Olfat-Nasab has also said that more than 100,000 licensed online sellers will lose their jobs across the country if Telegram remains blocked. The government's decision to curb the internet as a way to control the protests has put into question President Hassan Rouhanis plan for creating some 120,000 jobs in the information and communications technology sector in the current Iranian calendar year, which ends March 20. Just a week ahead of the recent protests, Rouhani repeated his promise for free access to social media networks. With increased uncertainties about the situations under which the government might suddenly chose to restrict or even shut down the internet in the future, many experts believe that this move would without a doubt make investors (both local and foreign) think twice before making any investments in the country's e-commerce industry. We launched our online business based on Rouhanis promises, Alireza said. We are a group of five young people working together; three to four other people also work with us indirectly. We created jobs for ourselves and others without any support from the government. We didn't ask for their help, but now we expect them to at the very least not to destroy our business with these decisions. January 11, 2018 On Jan. 12, Donald Trump is scheduled to decide whether to sign the first of a series of sanctions waivers as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Now more than ever, Iran considers it likely that the United States may leave the nuclear deal, thus imposing new conditions on both Iran and the rest of the world. Speaking at the annual Tehran Security Conference on Jan. 8, senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi spoke about the consequences of a US exit from the accord, saying, During the past year, Trump has tried very hard to destroy the Iran deal and might do so in the near future. The international community should be ready to deal with the consequences of such action. Araghchi added that Iran is ready for every future scenario, whether or not the JCPOA is saved. Meanwhile, during his weekly news conference on the same day, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi displayed great caution in answering questions regarding Irans possible reaction to the US possible refusal to renew the sanction waivers. We dont want to judge [things] beforehand. Under the JCPOA, the president of the United States is required to renew the waivers for US sanctions against Iran. If he refuses to do so, we are prepared for any scenario. If the United States decides to withdraw from the JCPOA, Irans reaction will make the US government regret its decision. Also on Jan. 8, another Iranian official, this time atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi, issued a warning. Speaking with International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano, Salehi warned about the consequences of a US breach of its obligations. The next day, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also reacted similarly, although cautiously, regarding the possibility that Trump would refuse to issue the waivers. While noting that Iran has all options on the table, Velayati also expressed criticism of European countries: Some of the allies of the United States insist on upholding the JCPOA, yet the United States acts differently. Basically, one side is benefiting from the JCPOA, but it is only Iran that is upholding the promises it had made. This is not acceptable. But beyond these almost categorical statements, what do Iranian officials really think about what Trump may do? One high-ranking Iranian diplomat told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity, Trump has shown the world that he is more unpredictable than we all thought he was. So far, he has shown a great deal of interest in withdrawing from the JCPOA, but the legal mechanisms of the JCPOA as well as the pressure coming from Europe, in addition to the consequences of pulling out of the agreement, have resulted in his advisers and ministers convincing him not to pull out of the agreement yet. Does this mean that the JCPOA will survive? We need to wait and see, since we cannot make a prediction. He added, As far as Iran is concerned, a series of multilayered responses are on the agenda. Iran is still hopeful that Europe will continue its efforts to save the JCPOA, but it is not putting all its eggs in Europes basket either. Irans first reaction will be to expand its [mastering of] nuclear technology. It will naturally do so without violating the terms of the agreement, but the expansion will nonetheless equip the country with more advanced nuclear technology. Iran has been looking to Europe for support ever since Trump started to threaten the nuclear deal. However, it is doing so while still wary of the prospect that the European Union might fold under US pressure, as in its earlier negotiations with Iran in 2003-2005. The latter scenario is constantly propagated by radicals inside Iran, who accuse the Hassan Rouhani administration of being naive for trusting the Europeans. Comments made by Kamal Kharazi on the sidelines of the Tehran Security Conference on Jan. 8 highlight this view. Kharazi served as foreign minister under Reformist President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) and currently heads Irans Strategic Council on Foreign Relations. He told reporters, If the United States refuses to renew the sanction waivers, it means that the United States has pulled out of the JCPOA. Then we have to see how the Europeans react to Trumps policy. If they maintain their independence and resist the US pressure, then a new situation will develop. If, on the other hand, the Europeans decide to cave under pressure and comply with the policies of the United States, then the situation will change. Iran will only comply with the JCPOA for as long as it is in our interest and [it will] not [do so] if we receive no benefits from it. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif touched on the same theme during his Jan. 10-11 trips to Russia and Belgium to hold talks with his European and Russian counterparts as well as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. Zarif, no doubt, once again raised what Iran expects from Europe in his meetings in Brussels on Jan. 11. Azizollah Hatamzadeh, an expert on Iran-US relations, told Al-Monitor, The United States is trying to force Iran to act first and leave the JCPOA. Iran should be smart and react wisely. Considering Trumps multiple tweets regarding the recent protests in Iran, it is obvious that the US president is trying to take advantage of the situation and is attempting to look for a reason, any reason, to put more pressure on Iran. Hatamzadeh also said, If the United States withdraws from the JCPOA, Iran should expand its nuclear technology while continuing its cooperation with the Europeans. As such, it appears that Tehran continues to harbor hopes that Europe can prevent Trump from completely abandoning the JCPOA. However, it does so while also considering the efforts of the Europeans to keep the deal working to be insufficient and thus wants Europe to be more active, especially when it comes to financial and banking sanctions targeting Iranian banks. Therefore, Irans response to Trumps next move will in essence have less to do with his reaction and more to do with what Europe may do next. January 11, 2018 On Jan. 8, Israeli Channel 2 news published an audio recording of Yair Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus son, speaking with Nir Maimon, the son of Israeli tycoon Kobi Maimon. The conversation took place in 2015 during a night of excess in Tel Aviv. The language used, as much of the content of the conversation, captured news headlines. Now, imagine one of the major news outlets in the United States airing a recorded conversation in which President Donald Trumps son is heard telling the son of an American gas tycoon, My father cut a great deal for your father, bro. You should be thanking me. My dad fought Congress to push this through, bro. My dad just arranged for yours to make $20 billion. True, my father shafted you with the committee that debated the US gas regulation initiative, but later he made it right. My dad arranged $20 billion for your dad, and youre whining with me about 400 shekels? How many hours would it take the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel or for the FBI to launch an investigation into suspected bribery of major proportions and to summon all those involved? Its hard to believe that US investigators would have been taken in by claims that the recording featured nothing more than meaningless chatter by a couple of frivolous youths who had imbibed one too many. On the contrary. George Papadopoulos, who served as a Trump foreign affairs adviser, recently affirmed the Talmudic saying that when wine goes in, secrets come out (Sanhedrin 38a). In an alcohol-induced confession to an Australian diplomat in a London bar, Papadopoulos confided that Moscow was in possession of incriminating information about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Attempts by Trump adviser Michael Caputo to portray Papadopoulos as a clueless errand boy with no access to significant information on Trumps campaign failed to stop the snowball that is now nearing the Oval Office. Even if Yair Netanyahus father did not exactly arrange for gas mogul Maimon to make $20 billion, an investigation is in order to find out whether Netanyahu Junior did not lift the lid off a Pandoras box of corruption. This could turn out to be bigger than all the current suspicions against Netanyahu and his associates put together the 1000 case (Netanyahu allegedly receiving benefits from businesspeople), the 2000 case (Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes plotting a deal for positive coverage), and the 3000 case (the German submarine deal). In 2015, the time of the conversation between Yair Netanyahu and Nir Maimon, their parents were knee deep in efforts to advance the controversial natural gas outline. Yair Netanyahu did not come up with the $20 billion figure out of thin air. As journalist Avi Bar-Eli wrote in The Marker financial daily after the recording was aired, the natural gas plan gave the owners of the Tamar gas field, allegedly including Kobi Maimon, one of the biggest gifts ever approved for any business entity. According to Bar-Eli, Netanyahu authorized the owners of the gas monopoly to continue charging power companies and industrial manufacturers inflated prices for gas. The prime minister rejected the demand by the Electricity Authority regulator to amend the contract, and at the same time he refused to impose any supervision on gas prices. The State Comptroller estimated the damage to the economy at 7.5 billion to 8.5 billion shekels ($2.2 billion to $2.5 billion). These, claimed Bar-Eli, were conservative estimations only. In fact, additional costs of the gas outline could double the utility bills of Israeli consumers. Its hard to fathom why Israeli enforcement authorities have ignored the stench wafting from the gas plan, a multibillion shekel deal for which Netanyahu put up a mighty fight. If the attorney general and Israel police chief continue to hold their noses, the Supreme Court may force them to let go and order an investigation. But what would happen if in the future evidence reveals that Netanyahu received something in exchange for what he offered Maimon? What would happen if Netanyahu is indicted for receiving a bribe? Not of accepting pricey cigars and pink champagne, as currently suspected in case 1000, nor of an attempt to shift an influential tabloid to his side as in case 2000, but for taking money directly into his own pocket? What then? In any case, the law in Israel does not require a prime minister indicted on criminal charges to step down. Netanyahu and his Likud yes men have already announced that he plans to conduct his legal defense and the affairs of state at the same time. Theres also nothing holding him back from running for a fourth consecutive term as prime minister. A prime minister can only be removed from office if he cannot fulfill his duties. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri holds a senior government post even though he did jail time. Why unseat a fully functioning prime minister who is only under suspicion? Twenty-two years ago, in his first stint at prime minister, Netanyahu was asked how long he would like to serve in office. Four years? Eight years? Twelve years, or till the end of time? popular talk show host Dan Shilon asked. I have an answer engraved in stone, Netanyahu answered. I was one of those who initiated and pushed through the legislation mandating direct election of the prime minister and I said he would be limited to two terms. He added, If we dont do something in the first term, perhaps we will do what needs to be done in the second term, but you dont need more than that. Do what you have to do, and go home, politically speaking. Still, Netanyahu refuses to go. He even waged all-out war against proposed legislation limiting a prime minister to two terms proposals that were based on the same arguments he himself put forth at the time. After all, kings are crowned for life. From the day he was born, Yair Netanyahu was weaned by his mother and father on the mannerisms of royalty. The rotten apple has not fallen far from the tree. From morning to night he heard his father and his associates attacking police investigators and legal authorities, with the mantra of Nothing will be found because there is nothing. He learned that his parents were immune to public criticism. He watched his mother taking leisurely jaunts around the world, holding his fathers hand with one of hers and the other gripping a judicial ruling that she had abused staff at the prime ministers official residence. He has come to realize that he can spit in the face of his fellow citizens and still be hailed as a rainmaker. The prime minister and his family could even come out of this whole disgusting affair as the downtrodden victims of fake news. They will continue to abuse the democratic system and rule Israel all the way into an abyss. January 12, 2018 The funeral procession of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, who was killed Jan. 9 in a shooting attack in the West Bank, took place in the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad. The settlement had no cemetery until the rabbi's death, but in a hasty decision made together with the rabbi's family, the settlers decided to prepare a plot and bury him in the unauthorized settlement where he lived. By doing this, the settlers of Havat Gilad established a new fact on the ground. Not only had they created the outpost, which grew from a small farm into a settlement that is now home to 40 families, their decision to act rashly and establish a cemetery in the settlement makes any future evacuation of the settlement virtually impossible. "We have decided to bury my beloved husband here, because we feel that this is our task," Shevach's widow told journalists, who visited her in her home during the shiva, or mourning, period. "We want to leave the strong tent peg that he planted here. We want to leave it here so that it will forever be impossible to uproot it. We made a big sacrifice. We want to come away from this feeling as if the government feels it owes us a home. We deserve to have the settlement authorized rather than fighting over every clod of earth." Havat Gilad was established in 2002, during the second intifada. Its founder, Itay Zar, intended it to be a response to the murder of his brother Gilad in a shooting attack by Fatah members. He claims that his father Moshe Zar purchased the land in the late 1970s. A few months after the farm was established, Israeli security forces attempted to evacuate it. Residents from neighboring settlements showed up to prevent the evacuation order from being carried out. Ninety people were injured during these events, and the settlement was eventually evacuated. But the settlers did not give up. Soon after the original evacuation, they returned to rebuild the outpost. The situation that emerged over the years made it impossible to evacuate Havat Gilad. Successive Israeli governments not only ignored the settlement's expansion, they even supported it. The first senior figure to visit the site and grant it authorization, at least in the public's eye, was former Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, who is now president of Israel. Rivlin visited the illegal outpost in 2012, met with the founder and the other residents, who joined him there, and heard from them about what they described as the difficulties they faced in settling the Land of Israel. They talked about access roads, security and basic services they needed to make their settlement fit for habitation, and he took their side. "Anywhere that Jews live on lands that were purchased at full price, it is incumbent upon the government to assist in granting authorization for their homes and providing the appropriate infrastructures," he said. Those infrastructures were provided over time. Now, with the murder of Shevach, a cemetery was established there too, advancing formal government recognition of Havat Gilad. It happened in the same way that the Jewish settlement in Hebron gained official recognition after the 1967 Six-Day War. In Shimon Dotan's documentary film "The Settlers," Sarah Nahshon, a leader of the Jewish settlement in Hebron, talks about her decision to bury her infant child in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron, despite a government ban. In the film, she goes into moving detail about how her child died of sudden infant death syndrome. She responded resolutely that she would bury him in Hebron in order to prevent the city from ever being returned to Arab rule. The funeral procession left the Kiryat Arba settlement nearby, but was soon blocked by the army. Undeterred, she took her dead child in her arms and started walking to the cemetery, followed by a group of 10 settlers (the number needed for the Kaddish prayer). When an officer tried to convince her to bury her child in Jerusalem or Kiryat Arba, she refused. While the incident was still unfolding, it went right up the chain of command, finally reaching then-Minister of Defense Shimon Peres. Although he hesitated for a few minutes, there was no way he could stop a mother who was carrying her dead infant in her arms while insisting that her baby be buried in "the sacred land of our forefathers." Apparently, Peres did not fully realize the impact that his rash decision would have. "Let her bury her child in the cemetery in Hebron," he ruled. The rest is history. No one hesitated for as much as an instant in the case of Havat Gilad. The leaders of the religious Zionist movement appeared in the illegal settlement's newly dedicated cemetery, headed by Naftali Bennett, the minister of education and chairman of HaBayit HaYehudi. Not only did Bennett refuse to say a word about how the settlers decided among themselves to create the cemetery in the settlement, he even encouraged them to continue building there and have more and more children to strengthen all the settlements. "We have to build, bear children and establish settlements. Now it's the government's turn to do its job." Then he called upon the prime minister to convene the security Cabinet and to grant the settlement official recognition in Israel. With that, Bennett planted another peg, ensuring official recognition of the illegal settlement. He was not alone either. Right after the murder, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced that he instructed his ministry to provide assistance to the victim's family and to all the residents of Havat Gilad. Furthermore, he instructed the Defense Ministry staff to look into granting the settlement official authorization. Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked (HaBayit HaYehudi), who is tasked with defending the rule of law, offered a similar reaction. "Our response," she said, "will be to grant official recognition to the settlement of Havat Gilad." It looks like no one really thought about the important questions, which any nation under the rule of law should ask. Is granting legal recognition to a settlement in the West Bank that is home to 40 families, who took the law into their own hands while putting themselves at risk, really in Israel's interest? In fact, this could be another case of Israel surrendering to the settlers, who just turned a horrific terrorist attack in which a father of six was killed into yet another means of getting their way. January 11, 2018 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip For Hanaa Hamash, art is about expressing herself and giving a voice to the suffering of Palestinian women. The exhibition Dec. 20-22 in Gaza City, titled 13 Million, symbolizing the number of Palestinians around the world, focused on the strength of Palestinian women who live in harsh conditions under occupation. Hamash, 27, told Al-Monitor, I wanted to convey two messages. First, I wanted to send a message of love to all Palestinians who find themselves dispersed in different countries around the world as a result of the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, and to emphasize that the Palestinian people are still united, despite the distances. Second, I wanted to embody the historical role of women in serving their people and their struggle against the Israeli occupation." She added that Palestinian folk songs played throughout the exhibition. The exhibition, which consisted of 50 paintings, portrayed Palestinian women in different eras. Some of the artworks show the women's traditional lifestyles in the cities that became part of the State of Israel after 1948, such as Jaffa and Haifa, with paintings of women dressed in embroidered outfits and scenes of women farming or sewing. Other works highlight their struggle during the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967, including one showing an Israeli soldier pointing his gun at the face of a Jerusalemite woman. Hamashs portraits, some in black pencil and others in oil paint, also feature Palestinian women who are known for their work in various fields prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, such as Mateel Abboud, the director of a public school in Nazareth; Basima Farah, the director of the Jerusalem School for Girls; and Karimeh Abbud, the first female photographer with her own studio in Palestine in the early 20th century. Hamash also highlights the role of women in resisting the Israeli occupation with the portrait of Nahla al-Bayed, the first Palestinian detainee in Israeli jails who was arrested in 1968 for her affiliation with the PLO. In most of her paintings, Hamash intentionally used dark, earth colors, with blacks and tones of gray, to convey a message about the bleak and harsh life of Palestinian women. Hamash explained that this exhibition followed the Dec. 6 decision of US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, adding, I have painted many drawings illustrating Palestinian women's historic life in Jerusalem, in defiance of the Trump decision." She also criticized the male-dominated society she lives in and explains that art gives women a voice. Art gives women an opportunity to be heard within society, given the fact that they are often marginalized, their opinions ignored and with little political participation, she said. Art gives us an opportunity to speak out even when no one wants to hear our voices. Maram Hameed, a student at the Department of History and Archaeology at the Islamic University in Gaza, who visited the exhibition, told Al-Monitor, I am happy to see such art here [in Gaza]. I was particularly intrigued by the portraits, especially since they introduced me to famous Palestinian figures that I had never heard of before. Art enthusiast Ali Yaacoub told Al-Monitor, This exhibition is one of the best I have seen. It highlights the lives of Palestinian women in peace and during war; it combines how beautiful they are and how important their roles are as mothers, teachers and fighters resisting the occupation. Hamash has previously participated in several art exhibitions in the Gaza Strip, such as Gaza 52 in April 2017 that focused on the suffering of women during the 52 days of the Israeli war on Gaza in 2014. Issam Hillis, the president of the Palestinian Association of Artists in Gaza, an independent association founded in 1984, told Al-Monitor, Women are now playing an active role in the Palestinian artistic movement. We have 264 female artists in our association, which is more than half of the total number of members that amounts to 483 artists. Hillis explained that Hamash has succeeded in making her mark through her artwork that combines creativity with a female viewpoint, receiving broad acclaim in the local community. He said that there are several reasons for the participation of women in art exhibitions, namely to highlight their talent, prove their role in the development of art and push the community to respect them and give them more space to prove themselves outside the confines of their homes, to which their role has long been limited. Hillis stressed that Hamash has proved herself despite the small number of art associations that support artists in a sustainable way. Mustafa Zakout, the director of the Ro'ya Center for Studies and Searches in Gaza, an independent center created in 2015, which sponsored the exhibition, said that although the research center was not focused on art, they had been willing to support the exhibition because of the limited platforms that support artists in Gaza. Hamash said she wishes that artists, especially female artists, had access to an independent platform with a government-subsidized budget to promote women's art in the Gaza Strip. January 11, 2018 In Turkey, almost all print media outlets are under the strict control of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Thats why every presidential trip abroad is hailed as a great triumph. Erodgan's recent trip to Paris was no exception. Ahmet Insel, a prominent Turkish intellectual and former dean at the Sorbonne in Paris, observed Jan. 8, "Pro-government media welcomed Tayyip Erdogan with cries of victory on his return" from Paris. Insel saw parallels between the warm welcome Erdogan received upon his return and the warm welcome former French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier received upon returning to Paris after signing the much-maligned Munich Agreement in 1938. Daladier "was expecting protests when he returned home, but was instead welcomed by a cheering crowd on the tarmac." Daladier remarked at the time, "Ah, morons! If they would have known." Perhaps Erdogan had similar thoughts when he addressed the cheering crowd, wrote Insel. French President Emmanuel Macron was blunt and undiplomatic in his statement about the Jan. 5 meeting with Erdogan. According to a BBC paraphrase of the speech, Macron said, "It was time to end the hypocrisy of pretending that there was any prospect of an advance in Turkeys membership talks with the EU. According to Marc Semo, Le Mondes Turkey expert, Macron was honest with Erdogan, who visited to test the waters on Turkeys accession bid to the EU. Macron, emphasizing that recent developments in Turkey do not allow for any progress in Turkeys long-languishing bid, proposed a partnership instead of full EU membership, Semo reported. Such reports indicate that Macron reiterated the offers of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and incumbent German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, Macron didnt even try to sweeten the deal by labeling the offer a privileged partnership. Considering the offer to be a second-class membership in Europe, Turkey has never been comfortable with this idea. However, according to Insel, the positions of Sarkozy and Macron aren't identical: Sarkozy had wanted to shut the European doors to Turkey, asserting religious, cultural and demographic differences. Macron, on the other hand, noted Turkey's recent human rights violations and emphasized that Ankara is not fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria the main prerequisite for accession negotiations. Erdogans visit to Macron "illustrated Turkeys huge loss of international credibility due to the drastic dismantlement of rule of law, Marc Pierini, the former EU ambassador to Turkey, tweeted Jan. 5. Ankaras narrative There is rule of law in Turkey' [and] 'Turkey meets all the EU criteria doesn't lead anywhere." Arab scholar Sami Moubayed's observation was no less pessimistic. The visit puts an end almost once and for all to Erdogans European ambition. Seeing the writing on the wall, he has been rapidly investing time and effort in building relations elsewhere in Sudan, Somalia, Chad and throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds, he wrote in a recent commentary. But will building bridges with Sudan, Chad and other Arab and Muslim nations be sufficient to fill the void of the European Union? Of course not. Smarting from Macrons rebuttal, Erdogan has taken the opportunity to cuddle up closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin, knowing that by doing so he irks other NATO member states, Moubayed added. However, the future of Ankara-Moscow ties also seems foggy, as recent disagreements over the Syrian Kurds indicate. The future of Turkish-US relations is no less questionable. Thus, Macrons decision to end the hypocrisy is extremely important for Turkey. Turkeys exclusion from Europe could have strategic implications when it comes to Turkish public opinion: The peoples desire to integrate with the European Union is perhaps the only beacon of hope in the country right now. Indeed, a survey conducted in November by the Economic Development Foundation, a lobbying body for Turkeys EU membership, provided stunning results in this aspect. According to the survey, 78.9% of Turkish society supports full EU membership for their country. The figure was only 61% two years ago. The survey results were a surprise even for the pollsters. To see the increase in the support for EU membership despite Turkeys moving away politically from the European Union during the year 2017, was unexpected, Economic Development Foundation Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoglu told Deutsche Welle. Yet the outcome doesn't change the political reality in Turkey. The EU is closing its doors to Turkey at the beginning of 2018, and they will remain firmly closed unless Turkey returns to democratic governance. January 11, 2018 Even as Russia plans further peace talks aimed at ending the Syrian civil war, elite Syrian army forces are tearing through Idlib province, wrenching control of towns along the way from jihadi forces or, as some believe, moderate opposition fighters The Syrian army's ultimate objective is to control Idlib city. The first phase of its operations on Dec. 26 targeted Abu Zuhur base from Ashtan. The army's elite Tiger Forces moved rapidly under Russian air support and on Jan. 9 captured 12 settlements, moving to within a few miles of the base. These aggressive moves are making Turkey so tense that it summoned the ambassadors of Iran and Russia and warned them that the Syrian army's moves violate the accord reached in Astana, Kazakhstan, which provides for de-escalation zones guaranteed by Iran, Russia and Turkey. Idlib is in one of those zones. Turkey no friend to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad believes he is attacking moderate opposition forces under the guise of combating terrorists. Iran and Russia are guarantors of the [Syrian] regime. We are the guarantor of the moderate opposition. Iran and Russia should shoulder their responsibilities and halt the regime, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a Jan. 10 interview with Turkeys semi-official Anadolu New Agency. If Russia and Iran would use their weight, the regime couldn't do what it is doing. The action against Idlib is not only air attacks; the regime is advancing inland." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily repeated Turkeys intention to launch operations against Kurds in Afrin and Manbij, which are currently behind American and Russian barriers. The time has come to totally eradicate the project of the separatist organization to create a terror corridor in Syria," he said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). "We will advance the step we took with the Euphrates Shield operation and complete that process at Afrin and Manbij. Turkeys anger over Idlib thus became public. Erdogan has been saying since Oct. 6, just before launching the Idlib operation, Russia will provide security of Idlib from the periphery and Turkey internally in the town. Ankara is calling for pressure on Damascus, but that is not the only force involved: Iranian-supported militias are helping the Syrian army at Idlib, as are the Russians with air support. The struggle at Idlib is considered by many to be the last act of the war against a jihadi group that is basically controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham under the leadership of al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham labels the Astana and Geneva peace processes as treason, so the cease-fire Russia formulated excludes Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as well as the Islamic State (IS). From the outset, Russia said the cease-fire covers only moderate" opposition groups; operations against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and IS will not cease. Turkey, on the other hand despite its approval of the Astana process decided to place Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in a different category. Ankara first tried to reshape that organization as it had earlier with Ahrar al-Sham. When that didnt work, Turkey tried to split Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. When that didnt work as well, Ankara accepted the facts of life and decided to cooperate. Ankaras plan was to keep Idlib out of the operation no matter who controlled it until a political solution was found. In October, when Turkey first deployed its troops in Idlib, in line with the de-escalation zone plan, it was actually executing its own plans. When deploying Turkish troops north of Idlib closer to Afrin, Turkey made a deal with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and coordinated its moves with the group. According to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham sources, there were three conditions to allow Turkey's army to enter the area without encountering any opposition. One was that the target would be Afrin, where the Kurds have declared autonomy.A second would be that there would be no operation against groups controlling Idlib. The third was that local groups affiliated with Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield would not enter the area. Turkeys deployment approved and escorted by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was not compatible with Iran's and Russias definition of the de-escalation zone. Turkey was indirectly providing a shield for the organizations already dominating Idlib. But cooperation with Turkey caused friction within Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. According to reports, disagreement between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham wing under Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who advocated cooperation with Turkey, and others in the militant group have caused serious, at times bloody, discord. Some sources said killings of at least 35 senior members between September and November were due to these internal frictions. Others thought Turkey was behind this liquidation campaign. Certain groups also broke off from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham when it took action against groups that decided to go to Astana in cooperation with Turkey. The Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement and Jaish al-Ahrar split from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in July because of efforts to cleanse Idlib of Ahrar al-Sham and its allies. After Hayat Tahrir al-Sham reached an agreement with Turkey, humanitarian assistance and trade with Idlib resumed through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, certainly implying that Turkey had recognized Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as the dominant force at Idlib. There was one more significant split from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham: Ansar al-Furqan established by former Hayat Tahrir al-Sham member Jordanian Sami al-Urediti issued a declaration banning cooperation with the Turkish military. A crisis was inevitable, given the divergences in interpretation of the de-escalation zones between Russia and Turkey. The operations toward Abu Zuhur continued despite Turkeys objections. The clashes have intensified in an area some 40 miles (64 kilometers) away from the Turkish line of deployment. Turkey has been determined to avoid any clash with the Syrian army until a political solution is found. But that risk is growing by the day. Some incidents after the Syrian offensive against Idlib have elements that could trigger confrontation between Russia and Turkey. On Dec. 31, Khmeimim air base, used by Russia, was hit with artillery fire. The Russian Defense Ministry said two Russian soldiers were killed. Syrias official SANA news agency, quoting Russian sources, said the Vasilyok-type artillery used in the attack had entered Syria via Turkey. On Jan. 5, the Russian Defense Ministry said, 13 drones were used to attack Russian bases at Tartus and Khmeimim. It said seven drones were destroyed and six were seized. According to Russian newspaper Zvezda, after this attack the ministry sent letters to Turkish Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar and Turkeys intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, to underline the necessity for Turkey to fulfill its obligations to assure the armed groups controlled by Turkey respect" the de-escalation arrangement. There were comments in Russian media that Turkey intentionally directed these attacks against the Russians to secure a green light to attack Afrin. Because the drones used in the attacks took off from Idlib's Muazara area, Russia said that area will no longer be immune to operations. On Jan. 8, near Darat Izza north of Idlib, a rocket struck within a few feet of a Turkish army convoy. The unknown type of rocket from an unknown source was interpreted as warning fire. It's not yet certain where the fragile relations between Russia and Turkey will go in this tense atmosphere, but it's clear Idlib is becoming a dangerous final stage in the war. It's possible that, in such a risky atmosphere, Ankara is hoping to hold on to Idlib and the triangle of al-Bab, Jarablus and Azaz that Turkey had secured in Operation Euphrates Shield, to use them as a card against Damascus in a settlement process. Such a card would have serious ramifications for the fate of the Syrian president and the future of the Kurds as they seek to build their autonomy in the north. Until he gets the concessions he seeks for these two key issues, Erdogan doesnt want the Syrian army to approach the Turkish border and face Turkish troops. January 11, 2018 This past November, three bodies were found washed ashore the Greek island of Lesbos. They were later identified as a Turkish husband and wife, Huseyin and Nur Maden, and one of their three children. The Madens were teachers in Turkey, but they were among the 150,000 civil servants dismissed from their jobs after the failed coup in July 2016. Some of those dismissed tried to flee to Greece to avoid arrest or find work. More than 12,000 Turks applied for asylum in Europe for the first time in 2017, according to Eurostat. This figure is triple what it was the year preceding the failed coup and is the highest it has been in the past decade. Since July 2016, Turkish authorities have arrested over 50,000 people, including journalists and intellectuals. Around 150,000 Turks have both had their passports revoked and lost their jobs as police officers, soldiers, teachers and public servants. For some, the solution was to leave Turkey and find work in another country, where they could have a better life and avoid prosecution. With their passports revoked by the Turkish government, Turks prefer to go to Greece as opposed to other European countries since they can arrange transport by boat via smugglers. The journey from the Turkish coast to certain Greek islands can be short, distance-wise. "Turkish refugees [in Athens] are the most educated and intellectual segment of Turkish society," said Murat, who fled Turkey for Greece after July 2016. "We can learn a new language or adapt to the culture in Europe really fast." Murat has been a member of the Gulen movement since 1994. He worked alongside his wife as a teacher in the Gulen schools in southeastern Turkey, but they were both dismissed from their jobs after the 2016 coup attempt, which the government claims was planned by the Gulen movement. Their children's school was shut down after the coup attempt, and they were denied registration at a new school in their hometown due to their parents affiliation with the Gulen movement. "We tried to start over, but we were already marginalized in the community as putschists," said Murat. "Our children were not accepted to schools, and finally, when 50 police arrived at our parent's village to detain my wife, by chance we were not there. I sold my car within a week and with that money, we came to Greece." The Gulenists are not the only ones who have had to leave Turkey following the coup attempt. There are others, like Merve, 21, and her uncle Hasan. Merve was only 19 when she was arrested after the coup attempt and put in jail for a year. "I was studying philosophy in Tunceli and was part of a left-wing student organization at my university," she said. "Now there are only two possibilities left for us Kurds in Turkey. If you dont want to be jailed, you should either join the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] fighters or flee into exile." Hasan was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party in the district of Sur in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeastern province of Diyarbakir, which has witnessed violent clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK-affiliated Civil Protection Units. The Turkish army imposed a curfew in Sur and destroyed more than 80% of the houses. I saw my friends and colleagues dying," he said. "I lost my home, job, village and everything I had. I could either die or try for a new life." Hasan and Merve took the same boat to Greece. He laughed as he mentioned that it was the first time they had traveled outside of Turkey. Life as a refugee is harsh. The Greek police detained Murat and his family upon their arrival. They stayed in police custody for a week until moving to a refugee camp. Once the refugees are caught without documents by Greek police, they have to register with local asylum services to receive a temporary ID card. Meanwhile, the refugees can decide if they want to apply for asylum in Greece or not. There is no job or future in Greece, even for Greeks," said Hasan. "Why would we stay in Greece? Hasan dreams of going to Germany. Murat said he has tried six times to travel to another European country with a fake ID, but each time has ended in failure. He applied for an asylum hearing, which will take place in March 2020. Turkish refugees in Greece have organized their own communities and living situations. Zeynep and her uncle live in the town of Lavrion with 400 other Kurdish refugees in a self-organized refugee camp. They receive no help from the Greek authorities, though they receive food from volunteers. Gulenists live together in rented apartments and often arrange meetings among fellow Gulenists. They keep in touch with Turkish refugees in other European countries to share information and stand in solidarity. Just before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans visit to Greece in December 2017, nine Turkish citizens were arrested there over their alleged links to the Turkish militant organization, DHKP-C, or the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front. That same month, Greece's independent asylum authority granted asylum to Suleyman Ozkaynakci, one of the eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece after the coup attempt. A week after he was granted asylum, Ozkaynakci was detained and his asylum suspended by the Greek authorities. That same week, the Greek Reporter noted the rise in Turkish refugees to Greece. It appears, then, that the situation of Turkish refugees depends on the state of relations between Greece and Turkey. *All refugees' names were changed upon requests of the refugees. *Christoph Kurbel contributed to this report. January 11, 2018 US Vice President Mike Pence heads to the Middle East next week in an effort to quell regional tensions over the Donald Trump administrations decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital. But Pence will also face rising turmoil between Saudi Arabia and Jordan, two longstanding American allies. Last month, Jordans King Abdullah II was forced to shoot down rumors that he had arrested two of his brothers because of their alleged communications with Riyadh. The crisis came amid rising Jordanian distress over Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans policies, including his reported support for revoking Jordans custodianship over Islamic sites in Jerusalem as part of a potential US-backed peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Abdullah has insisted that the departure of Prince Faisal bin Hussein and Prince Ali bin Hussein were part of long-scheduled retirements from Jordans army an effort to bring younger blood into the force, not the defusing of any Saudi plot. But Pences visit has raised questions about where the United States stands amid the rivalry. Im intrigued by the fact that Pence is going to be in Jordan, which I suspect is a recognition that the Jordanians were feeling a bit unloved recently and it would feel that it is a friend of the US and it should not be treated callously, said Bruce Riedel, the director of the intelligence program at the Brookings Institution and a 30-year CIA veteran. The [Trump] administration certainly understands that the Saudis have been reckless in their treatment of Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan. The more sane parts of the administration dont see it as being in our national interest to have our allies devouring each other. Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Jordan may also be animated personal enmity, spurred by King Abdullahs pride in his military service, said Riedel, who is an Al-Monitor columnist. The king has commanded Jordans special forces and he graduated from Sandhurst, Britains elite army training academy. He always felt that he was a real soldiers soldier, that hed trained with Jordans special forces, Riedel told Al-Monitor. I can imagine the image to him of this pampered Saudi prince becoming defense minister and pretending he was a general at 29, he must find that odd. If Jordan is feeling unloved, it hasnt shown up in US arms commitments to the region, which continue to surge in the Trump era. US security assistance to Jordan for fiscal year 2016 topped $921 million after the Global Train and Equip fund provided for UH-60 helicopters and other equipment, according to data obtained by the Security Assistance Monitor. And the State Department is seeking $350 million in foreign military assistance for Jordan in its fiscal year 2018 request, while Congress wants even more. But Trumps Jerusalem decision could threaten Saudi Arabias role as a longtime financial guarantor for resource-poor Jordan, which relies on international loans to stay afloat. While the Saudis have maintained some distance from Turkey-led efforts to organize the Islamic world against Trumps decision, the Jordanian king was among several Muslim heads of state who attended an Organization for Islamic Cooperation gathering in December that recognized East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. What these events portray are a more complicated environment for US allies to play in, said Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser to Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based consultancy with a focus on the Gulf. What was once seen to be a very tight relationship may be interrupted by regional politics. Karasik believes that Jordan might scale back partnered military operations in the region, such as efforts to back the Saudi-led air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Jordan now knows what its up against in the neighborhood, Karasik told Al-Monitor. Theyre probably going to pull out of Saudi operations in Yemen to send a message that were brothers, but there are limits. But the Pentagon still sees Jordan as a key partner in the counterterrorism fight in the Middle East and Africa, particularly as the Islamic State is pushed out of its safe havens in Iraq and Syria. In early December, US Defense Secretary James Mattis attended the Aqaba Conference in Jordan, where Arab and African leaders discussed strategies to undercut violent extremism. The United States also has a significant troop footprint in the country, with more than 2,300 US forces in Jordan. New satellite imagery published in the past year indicates a base on the border with Syria that could support drones, helicopters and special operations. In light of turmoil stemming from the Jerusalem decision, experts say, Pence will want to use his trip to strengthen US military ties in the region. Trump has already thrown gasoline on the stability of the kingdom with the Jerusalem issue, Riedel said. The fact that Pence is now adding Jordan to his agenda is a recognition that theres a problem and the US wants to demonstrate support for the king. Comcast has plans to offer home automation across all four of its services over the coming months as part of a program it calls Works with Xfinity. The announcement follows the companys September acquisition of Stringify, which has a wide portfolio of IoT products and digital services it provides cloud-based automation for. Stringifys technology, Comcast says, will be at the root of the new program, which will extend across its X1, xFi, Xfinity Home, and Xfinity mobile offerings bringing smart functionality and IoT product integration to more than 15 million Xfinity customers at no additional cost. Comcast also plans to expand the number of partners it has in its overall device ecosystem, in order to include wearables, automotive, voice assistants, social media, and more. The goal of the new plan, according to the company, is to democratize and simplify home automation. The key aspects of Works with Xfinity, aside from the aforementioned newly planned inclusions, range from new mesh offerings and IoT device compatibility to a new way for Xfinity customers to locate the smartphone they misplaced in their home. First, for those who may not be aware, xFi is effectively a home Wi-Fi service that comes equipped with a dashboard for easier network management, interoperability, and controls coming in the form of a mobile app, website, and theX1 voice-enabled TV remote. Comcast is expanding on that via the announcement that its recently debuted xFi Pods will begin rolling out nationwide over the next several months. The pods are the hardware realization of the companys push to bring mesh networking into the mainstream and effectively act as mesh extenders for an xFi network. They require no configuration, are sold in a three or six-pack at $119 or $199, and utilize machine learning to adapt the network to better suit the environment. The company has also rolled out new features for its Xfinity Home Security Cameras. Driven by A.I. the enhancements allow for movement identification, followed by the cameras centering on the subject thats moving and sending a snapshot to the customer via the associated app. Finally, with a new feature called Phone Finder, as its name implies, Xfinity Mobile customers will be able to locate their phone at their home via the X1 remote. This is arguably the least interesting feature included in Comcasts announcement but also provides the most insight into the kind of functionality and features the company is looking to accomplish with Works with Xfinity. No setup is required to use the Phone Finder, since the customers phone is already on Comcasts services and, subsequently, on their other home services under the Works with Xfinity program. Customers simply need to access the voice controls and say find my phone. Comcast plans to expand out from there, using the recently launched and upcoming products, as well as Stringify, to incorporate as many smart home solutions as possible with similar integrative depth and automation. Democrats in the United States Senate have gathered enough support to use the Congressional Review Act to force an official vote on the FCCs repeal of Net Neutrality rules, according to a Tweet from Senator Ed Markey. In addition to garnering the support of 30 US Senators, all Democratic, Markeys spearheaded support effort also plans to call attention to a petition bearing upward of 194,000 signatures and counting, asking Congress to reject the FCCs vote and restore Net Neutrality laws. Senator Claire McCaskill was the key 30th vote that allowed the action to pass, forcing a vote on the Senate floor at an undetermined time. Its worth noting that no Republican Senators are on the list of the first 30 to vote in support of the action, though Republican Senator Susan Collins has stated that she plans to vote against the repeal. If all of the Senates Democrats vote against the repeal along with Senator Collins, only one more Republican vote will be needed to overturn the FCCs action. Most Republican Senators have already voiced support in some form for the repeal of Title II Net Neutrality rules, but this vote will call out the few who have not said yes or no at this point, forcing them to make their opinion public. Advocates are already calling for Net Neutrality supporters to vote against any Senators that oppose negating the FCCs rule change in upcoming elections, which could mean trouble for many Senate Republicans. Senator Collins is currently alone in her support of the negation, on the Republican side. To give a brief history of what led up to this, it all started with the voting in of current President Donald Trump. He appointed a cabinet of hand-picked executives. Among them was former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai, who would become FCC Commissioner, replacing Tom Wheeler. Immediately upon taking office, Pai attacked the Title II Net Neutrality laws that Wheeler had worked with the Obama Administration to put in place. He eventually drafted up an order to abolish those rules, and pushed it through with a 3 to 2 vote in the Commission along party lines, despite massive public opposition. Congressional Democrats and other prominent figures promised to oppose the action any way possible, and this is the first step. While this vote may not go through, organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation plan to garner support and bring lawsuits against the FCC over the order. Opposition among the general public has been equally fierce; Commissioner Pai was due to appear at this years CES, but ended up cancelling, with rumors and word from Consumer Technology Association CEO Gary Shapiro pointing to threats of violence as the reason. Facebook is doing a major overhaul of its service designed to make it more focused on friends, i.e. content on people you personally know, as revealed by the companys Thursday announcement that identified a meaningful user experience as the main goal of the decision to do so on several occasions. The change will be rolled out on a global level in the coming months and come in the form of a News Feed algorithm update that will instruct the brains behind the order of items on Facebooks landing page to deprioritize relevant content served by pages, groups, and accounts you follow, i.e. everything not posted by your real-world friends. The Menlo Park, California-based social media giant is describing the move as a return to its roots, with News Feed chief Adam Mosseri claiming the core concept behind the network was to enable and strengthen relationships between individuals. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg expressed a similar sentiment earlier this week, citing various studies suggesting social media can only reflect positively on ones general wellbeing if its primarily used for interactions with people they care about. Facebook is seeking to promote posts encouraging meaningful interactions at the expense of those leading to superficial ones, which it will usually interpret as posts from anyone who isnt an individual youre personally familiar with or at least with whom you have a long history of communicating. The implications of the change are multifaceted and start with Mr. Zuckerbergs recent New Years resolution to make Facebook a better platform for everyone by addressing all important issues arising from its usage. With that statement largely referring to the companys fight against misinformation, the change is likely to help it on that front, as reducing the volume of all stories from pages ran by media outlets and other entities is almost certain to lower the amount of the so-called fake news that go viral on the platform, at least from a statistical standpoint. Deprioritizing content posted by brands may also prompt much more of them to start investing additional resources in paid post promotions and advertisement on Facebook. While Facebook went down four percent following the announcement of its News Feed overhaul, the company is still running by far the largest social media network on the planet with over two billion monthly users, according to its Q3 2017 financials, and as such can hardly be ignored or boycotted by marketers. Those who are already spending money on promoting Facebook posts may hence start doing so more aggressively and anyone who isnt will likely have to consider it in the long term. Prioritizing personal posts (i.e. those that arent article reshares) from friends may also weaken the impact of criticism about exploiting human psychology to serve advertisements that Facebook has been facing for years now. Advertisement The change isnt meant to entirely eliminate content from pages from the News Feed but put a limit on it, though the severity of it has yet to be revealed, with the firm only saying personal posts from friends will be the one dominating the content presented to users following the change instead of the other way around, as is the case now. As such, smaller media outlets and other brands that relied on Facebook to drive traffic to their websites are likely to be the first to suffer palpable consequences of the move. The algorithm change may also be an attempt to drive Facebooks engagement rates that have mostly been stagnating in recent times but are the key to unlocking the full potential of its massive user base, according to many industry watchers. The overhaul is yet another major blow to the media industry whose digital advertising revenue has been eroding over the last decade, primarily due to being eaten by Facebook and Google. Despite playing an important role in ennobling the content served on Facebook for the entirety of its existence, many online media outlets are now turning to alternative revenue sources such as paywall-backed subscriptions and are preventing users from accessing them with active ad blockers. Such efforts are likely to additionally intensify after Facebook cuts them off from traffic after already taking most of their advertising dollars. The revamped News Feed should be live on a global level come spring. Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC is currently rolling out a software package that will install the December 2017 Android security patch and a number of system enhancements to HTC U11 units in the United States. The December 2017 Android security patch includes fixes for a number of vulnerabilities, some of which are discovered in the media framework and the system component of Googles operating system. Some of the vulnerabilities are classified either as an elevation of privileges or denial of service-related security issues. The elevation of privileges refers to software flaws that allow malware to obtain permissions beyond what is initially granted to it by the user. On the other hand, denial of service-related security issues may result in crashing of specific applications or the device itself. It seems that there are no new features included in the latest U11 update, at least according to the softwares changelog. However, since the HTC U11 has not yet received the January 2018 Android security patch, its still vulnerable to the Spectre exploit. The recently discovered Spectre vulnerability permits rogue applications to access sensitive data stored in the devices system memory by exploiting the CPUs speculative execution feature. Unlike the equally high-profile Meltdown exploit, Spectre affects the processors designed by ARM, AMD, and Intel. Google has already released ARM-specific fixes to its partner manufacturers, which likely includes HTC, although it may take some time before the Taiwanese smartphone maker releases the security patch to its flagship handset offering. While the new update has a file size of 737MB, the manufacturer did not provide any details regarding the system enhancements included in it. It is also the first update that the device maker released for the HTC U11 after it was upgraded to Android 8.0 Oreo in the U.S. nearly two months ago. The software package is currently being distributed automatically, and it may take several days before all units of the smartphone receive the update. The company recommends that the software upgrade is downloaded over a Wi-Fi network, since obtaining the installation file through a mobile data connection may result in additional carrier charges. Once the update is installed, the new software build can be identified by the version number 2.42.617.1. Secure messaging app WhatsApp may not be so secure after all, as a team of German researchers uncovered some flaws that could allow third parties to compromise private group chats. WhatsApp added end-to-end encryption a couple of years ago, aiming to prevent any third-party users from accessing private conversations. With end-to-end encryption, only the sender and the recipient should have access to their chat. According to the latest findings, however, others could access WhatsApp group chats without the permission of the group chat administrator, who should normally be in charge of who gets to be part of the group. A group of cryptographers from Germanys Ruhr University Bochum detailed the flaws at the Real World Crypto security conference in Switzerland, highlighting how secure communications on WhatsApp could be compromised. On the bright side, the risk of someone exploiting the uncovered flaw is limited, as attackers would need to have access to WhatsApp servers in order to snoop on others group conversation. At the same time, once in, eavesdroppers would only be able to monitor conversations from that point on, but they would not be able to access past chats. Nevertheless, since an uninvited party would be able to gatecrash group chats uninvited, the confidentiality of the group would be compromised. The researchers further point out that end-to-end encryption should protect users against such risks in particular, ensuring that conversations are safe from prying eyes and not accessible to anyone other than the intended audience. In conclusion, the researchers findings indicate that anyone with access to WhatsApp servers could eavesdrop on anyones private conversations. This, in turn, contradicts WhatsApps claims that end-to-end encryption ensures that the service would be able to counter any type of surveillance. End-to-end encryption for both two-party communications and group chats should guarantee that third parties cannot add new members to others group chats, otherwise the encryption loses its value, the researchers add. As for who can access WhatsApp servers, the privilege is limited to WhatsApp staff and governments who legally demand access, not accounting for theoretical illegal activities. The security researchers suggest that WhatsApp could reduce the risk of high-level hackers gaining access to group chats by adding an extra authentication measure to new group invitations, using a secret key from the group chat administrator. A couple of days ago, Pisen had announced that it will announce a bunch of new products at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and that is exactly what happened. The company has announced its 4-port 20,000mAh portable chargers, wireless chargers, Quick Charge 3.0 chargers, and 2-in-1 Power Bank series at CES 2018. IN addition to that, the company also announced that its 3C-EASY mobile repair service is coming to the US, read on. Unfortunately, the company did not share any detailed info regarding its new products at the time, but the list above is somewhat self-explanatory, if Pisen does share any more info in the near future, we will make sure to let you know. This company is one of Chinas largest digital accessories manufacturers, and it is selling its products in a number of countries all around the world, including Europe, the US, Australia, a number of countries in Asia, and so on. Pisen did not say when will its 3C-EASY mobile repair service hit the US, but the company did offer its service to CES 2018 attendees in order to show them what they can expect Pisen to offer in the country. Pisens 3C-EASY service will help you out in case you need help with your smartphone, and Pisen claims that prices will be quite affordable. The company did share some images from its booth at CES 2018, which you can check out down below, and it is worth noting that Pisen will be at CES until January 12, so if youre attending, you can always visit the company, it is at booth no. 35767, South Hall 4, in Las Vegas. In addition to announcing that new products are on the way, and announcing that its 3C-EASY service is coming to the US, Pisen also shared a promo video on YouTube. That video has been embedded down below, for your convenience, and it will share more info regarding this company with all of you. Not only about the company, but its products, and its 3C-EASY service, so check it out if youre interested. That is more or less it, at least for now, Pisen will probably share more detailed information regarding its new products and service in the near future, so stay tuned. A new Google Play Services update brings with it what seems to be the first traces of Google Pay branding. This specifically relates to the beta version of Play Services and therefore device owners who are not part of the beta program are unlikely to see the latest change for now. For those who are part of the program, however, heading through to the devices settings and through to the Tap and Pay section will reveal the new Google Pay logo and wording in replace of what was previously listed as Android Pay. To access on a Pixel 2 for example head to Settings, then to Apps & Notifications, then Advanced, Default Apps, and then finally Tap & Pay. Google Pay will already likely be listed as the default payment option on this settings page (shown below) and clicking on Payment default will further expand on the branding (shown above). Of course, this does not result in any specific change to the functionality of the default payment, it is just a change of branding. For those new to Google Pay, this was introduced by Google a little earlier in the week. Like what is now being seen in the settings, Google Pay is not a new feature but instead represents the new branding which encompasses everything payment-related through Google. Therefore whether a device owner uses Android Pay to make payments in a store, or Google Wallet to send money to friends and family, over the coming weeks and months, these services (as well as other Google services that accept payments the Play Store for instance) will be updated to reflect the new Google Pay branding. Again, nothing functionally is changing here, and all services, features, and apps will continue to work exactly as they did before. It is just the branding that is changing. For those wondering, the beta version of Google Play Services needs to be at v11.9.73 for the change to be seen. Anyone not part of the beta can sign up for the beta by heading to the Google Play Store Play Services page where the join the beta option will be listed. In either case, it will likely make its way out to the non-beta version in due course along with the rest of the relevant apps that will need to be updated to complete the branding change. Samsung showed a prototype of a foldable smartphone to select clients behind the scenes of the 2018 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, The Korea Heralds Investor reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the move. The demo that took place behind closed doors of the worlds largest annual fair of its kind also saw Samsung mention an approximate production schedule for its first commercial foldable device, with the company supposedly targeting a mass manufacturing cycle starting late this year, possibly in November. That timetable goes against what a number of Samsung executives were saying over the course of 2017 but is in line with the firms latest comments on the matter which were indicative of yet another delay of the product rumored to be marketed as the Galaxy X. The smartphone Samsung showcased to some partners is said to have a 7.3-inch display that folds in half, according to one source. That description is in line with a device patent recently awarded to the company by WIPO which depicted a handset with a panel of a comparable size utilizing something close to an elongated 21:9 aspect ratio and being capable of bending across its center, albeit not in a manner that would have the two sides of the smartphone perfectly parallel with each other once folded. That patent and a number of previous rumors on the matter suggest Samsung is developing whats essentially a highly revised, cutting-edge take on the concept of a flip phone. Multiple other insiders cited by the Korean outlet claim Samsung demonstrated at least one prototype that folds inward and another that does so outward during the private CES demo. Only the former is expected to be commercialized approximately a year from now as the outfolding model supposedly suffers from durability issues, with its concept only being planned to be revisited by Samsung in the future, after at least one generation of bendable handsets becomes a commercial reality, according to the same report. Samsung may not have been the only original equipment manufacturer that privately demoed prototypes of foldable devices at CES this week but other phone makers arent believed to be as close to being able to mass-produce such offerings as early as the Seoul-based tech giant which already decided on trying to sell them to consumers, whereas many of its rivals are still pondering their commercial viability, as suggested by their previous statements on the matter. Utah teens hoping to gain the freedom that comes with having their very own drivers license now have at least one more digital tool at their disposal in order to get ready for the exam. Thats according to an announcement made by both the states Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Department of Technology Services on January 8. In fact, the exam is available on no other platform than Google Home. Specifically, Utahns who own or have access to the Google Assistant-enabled device will now be able to practice up for their exam through a practice exam through Google Home. Getting started is straightforward, with users simply needing to trigger the devices listening mechanism by saying Ok Google or Hey Google followed by the command Open Utah Driver License Practice Exam. Assistant will then ask a series of questions which will actually be asked on the real exam, waiting for a response from the user in between each. Presumably, Google will tell a user the correct answer if they get some of them wrong and will inform users when they answer correctly. Chris Caras, the current Driver License Division Director for the DPS, lauded the states decision to implement the tool. According to Caras, DPS is always on the lookout for innovate ways to educate drivers and the use of Google Homes functionality will allow the states residents to prepare for the test in more ways than ever. Meanwhile, Utahs Chief Information Officer, Mike Hussey, appeared hopeful that digital assistants like Googles Home could be put to further use in the future, saying that they provide an incredible opportunity for simplifying interactions with the states government. The sentiments make sense with consideration for the explosive growth of the IoT, smart home products, and technology in general over the past year or more. As the advances become ubiquitous, its likely that many other functions ordinarily handled at a state or local government level will be found that can be served through similar methods. In the meantime, Google Home users outside of the state of Utah who want to try out the new feature to see how it works may be out of luck. Subsequent tests of the voice command, from outside of the state, have resulted in Googles Assistant responding that it doesnt know how to help with that. So it may be that the feature is geo-locked and will only work when accessed from within the state or it may just be down temporarily for one reason or another. According a news of January 12, 2018, published by the online military magazine Azeri Defence, Turkmenistan has purchased QW-2 (Syanvey-2) MANPADS Man Portable Air Defense Systems. It is a third generation man-portable shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile (SAM) developed in China by CASIC (China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation) for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and export customers. A Chinese-made QW-2 MANPADS Man Portable Air Defense System operated by a Turkmen soldier (Picture source Azeri Defence) The QW-2 MANPADS was presented during a visit of the Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to the military border unit of Turkmenistan. According to the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) arms trade database, Turkmenistan has already purchase other air defense combat equipment from China including the FM-90 a mobile Short-range air defense missile system, HQ-9 SAM medium to long-range surface-to-air defense missile systems, and KS-1A medium-range mobile air defense missile systems. A Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) is surface-to-air missile that can be fired by an individual or a small team of people against aircraft. These weapon systems often are described as shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. The QW-2 was first showcased to the public in 1998 at the Paris Air Show and entered service with the PLA by the end of the 1990s or early 2000s. According to military experts, the design of the QW-2 seems similar to Russian-made 9K310/SA-16 Gimlet MANPADS. The QW-2 uses a fire and forget missile featuring a cooled two color infrared seeker and a single-stage solid rocket and can be operated by crew of two soldiers. The QW-2 missile can engage aerial targets at ranges from 500 meters to 6 kilometers flying at altitudes between 10 meters and 3,500 meters. The QW-2 can also be mounted on combat vehicle including a target acquisition radar and an electro-optical fire control system fitted on the carrier vehicle. Chinese-made QW-2 MANPADS Man Portable Air Defense System at Air Show China in November 2012. The Yemeni Air Force and Air Defense opposed to the Arab coalition, introduced a new locally developed surface-to-air missile, according a news released on the website of the Official Yemen Press Agency SABA, January 10, 2018. The new missile would have shotdown Tornado combat aircraft of Saudi-led coalition while it was flying over Saada province and hit another enemy F-15 plane over the capital Sanaa. Screenshot of the Yemeni Air Force video showing the moment when the missile hits the fighter aircraft (Picture source video footage YouTube) On Monday, January 8, 2017, Yemens army spokesman assistant, Colonel Aziz Rashid, has announced the development and manufacturing of a new air defense missile able to destroy modern military aircraft. Despite Saudi coalition attacks to get the Yemens Air Defense System out of service, the unit continues to be operational and now is able to destroy enemy military aircrafts. According a Yemeni statement, the Yemeni Air Force and Air Defense Unit vowed to keep developing the air defense arsenal to defend the homeland against any foreign aggression. On January 8, 2018, the Houthis released the thermal infrared video footage, via its Al Masirah television network, showing the destruction of Saudi aircraft F-15S, which shows the FLIR Systems logo in the frame which could explain that the missile is equipped with a guidance system. The complete video also shows a FLIR sensor turret on an improvised ground mount that could have record the missile shot result. The Saudi state-run news agency SPA confirmed the crash of one figter, but said it was the result of a technical fault, not enemy fire. The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing). In October 2010, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Saudi Arabia including 84 F-15SA fighter. The contract also included the upgrade of the existing Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) fleet of seventy (70) F-15S multi-role fighters to the F-15SA configuration According latest information about the air defense capability of the Yemeni Air Force and Air Defense, they are equipped with Soviet-made S75 (SA-2) short-range surface-to-air defense missile system, Chinese Man-portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) FN-6 or Russian SA-7 (Strela-2). In December 2017, US has presented evidence that officials said proved that Iran had supplied short-range ballistic missiles to Houthi rebels in Yemen. Saul Steinbergs famous New Yorker cover portraying how Manhattanites view the rest of the world came to mind when I read Robin Pogrebins NY Times article about the Metropolitan Museums tentative (to my mind, wrongheaded) proposal to discriminate against out-of-towners in charging admission fees. Especially at a time when our President is fueling his supporters xenophobia, the last thing we need is to make foreigners (let alone fellow citizens) feel less welcome at our countrys premier repository for world culture by instituting a two-tier admissions structure. This foreign extortion would give new meaning to cultural exchange. I myself took umbrage, some years ago, at Russian institutions practice of surcharging foreignersa policy that my family sometimes circumvented when our then teenage son, using his rudimentary high-school Russian, executed our ticket transactions. (Im sure he fooled nobody, but they appreciated his effort.) Just imagine how this Met sign will look with an added out-of-towners category: The amount you pay is up to youunless you live outside New York. There are two U.S. art museum I can think of (there may be others) with an admissions policy that privileges locals: The Detroit Institute of Arts now offers free admission to residents of three local counties, as payback for their 2012 passage of a millage to help support the then endangered museums operations. Unlike the Mets collections, a large portion of the DIAs collection was owned by the city, and the possibility of monetizing masterpieces to satisfy the citys creditors was on the table. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Also privileging locals is the Art Institute of Chicago (click Admission Information tab). More details on the AICs 2009 change in admission pricing, here. I fully understand the Mets imperative to find new ways to increase revenues and cut expenses. In a previous post about its perilous financial state, I predicted that we might soon see an end to the museums admirable, long-standing policy of not charging extra for admission to major special exhibitions, as many museums currently do. I also speculated that the museum might reinstitute its previous economy measure of rotating gallery closures (saving some money on guards). All were doing is exploring, Met president and acting CEO Daniel Weiss told Pogrebin. Fair enough. But the notion of an out-of-towner fee is a trial balloon that ought to be shot down. By: Vasundhara Rastogi Malaysia is the fourth largest economy in Southeast Asia known for its high labor productivity and diversified economy. Over the years, the country has transformed itself from being a primary commodities exporter into a leading exporter of electrical appliances, electronic parts, and components and natural gas. Moving up the industrial value chain, it has also established itself as an attractive regional hub for services, information and technology, and the logistics sector. The service sector assumes the largest share of gross domestic product (GDP) accounting for more than 54 percent of GDP and serves as the engine of growth to propel and sustain the countrys economy. Manufacturing, on the other hand, contributes about 23 percent to the GDP. Some of the other major economic activities in Malaysia include the mining and agriculture sectors. In 2017, the service sector is projected to grow at a faster rate approximately 6 percent, reflecting stronger expansion across most sub-sectors, particularly wholesale and retail trade, information and communication, and food, beverages, and accommodation, and increasing its share to 54.8 percent of GDP. RELATED: Pre-Investment and Market Entry Advisory from Dezan Shira & Associates Government initiatives in 2017 To help sustain economic growth and provide better conditions for businesses to thrive in the country, the Malaysian government took several policy initiatives in 2017. In March 2017, for instance, it launched the worlds first Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) outside of China that aims to capitalize on the confluence and exponential growth of the internet economy and cross-border e-commerce activities. The DFTZ is expected to double the growth rate of small and medium enterprises goods exports to reach US$38 billion and facilitate US$65 billion of goods movement via the DFTZ (exports, imports, transshipments) by 2025. More than 2,000 small and medium enterprises stand to get easier access to the global market, especially the Chinese market, through the DFTZ. The DFTZ is also expected to generate 60,000 new jobs in the country by 2025. In its 2018 budget, the government announced wide-ranging incentives to support businesses, including capital allowance for ICT equipment and software, GST relief on services provided by the local authorities, and extended application period for principal hub tax incentive among others. The principal hub tax incentive aims to increase Malaysias competitiveness as the global operations hub for multinational companies by offering tax exemptions to companies that set up their global operation centers in Malaysia. The budget also announced personal income tax cuts as well as several cash handouts that would allow more money in the hands of consumers and help Malaysia develop into a high-income economy. The government has continued to work in line with its Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) or National Transformation 2050 vision that aims to improve the qualitative growth factors of the economy such as labor force skills by preparing its citizens for future challenges such as the fourth industrial revolution (artificial intelligence, robotics, digitalization, etc.). Investments and trade prospects Malaysia holds strong FDI and trade prospects owing to its mega infrastructure plans such as the high-speed rail, East Coast Rail Link, and Chinas One Belt One Road Initiative, as well as its strong bilateral ties with major economies such as China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, India, and Japan. Multi-regional economic links such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership are further expected to boost foreign investments in the country. According to the Malaysian prime ministers 2018 budget speech, the 14 business memoranda of understanding (MoU) signed between Malaysia and China, and 31 MoUs between Malaysia and India in 2017, for instance, are expected to bring about a total of RM302.4 billion (US$75.8 billion) worth of investments into Malaysia. Outlook for 2018 2018 is expected to be a promising year for the Malaysian economy. Last year, the Malaysian economy grew vibrantly at an average real growth rate of 5.9 percent in the first three quarters led by strong domestic demand and rising strength in global trade. The momentum is expected to continue this year. Several international organizations, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have projected Malaysias economic growth to sustain within the range of 5.5 percent and 5.8 percent this year. The growth is expected to be largely driven by domestic demand, particularly in the private sector, supported by stable labor market conditions and continued income growth. Investments with sustained flows of infrastructure projects and capacity expansion in major sectors of the economy such as mining and construction, services, and manufacturing are also expected to induce economic expansion on the production side. Email Newsletters Get the best of The Aspen Daily News in your inbox. Our newsletters are free, and you can unsubscribe at any time. AMG While the nameplate of the machine is still provisional, you can be certain of the car's beastly nature. For one thing, the concept that prefigurated the vehicle came with a plug-in hybrid powertrain delivering over 800 ponies.The rumor mill talks about the Affalterbach hero maintaining its 800 hp might for the showroom, with this being achieved thanks to a mix between the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 mill found on multiple "63" models and electric propulsion, along with a lithium-ion battery pack.The resulting monster should dominate the four-door segment, one-upping competitors such as the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid - Zuffenhuasen fans will once again get the unpleasant feelings experienced when the 2018 Mercedes-E63 S demonstrated it could leave the 2018 Panamera Turbo behind (the victories involved boht a drag race and a circuit battle , so we're looking at a memorable win).Once the gas-electric model hits the market, we'll also receive internal combustion-only incarnations that will rely on the said V8 alone.In fact, the rumor mill also talks about a civilian incarnation of the Mercedes-AMG GT Four-Door, one that would once again play the hybrid card, mixing a twin-turbo straight-six with electric assistance.It's worth mentioning that such a model would end up using the same powertrain as the expected Mercedes-AMG CLS53 - the third generation of the CLS is expected to skip V8 power altogether due to cannibalization reasons. The government of Malaysia has announced that it has signed a unique agreement with a U.S. oceanic research company to resume the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, which mysteriously disappeared in March of 2014.The private company, Ocean Infinity, based in Texas, has signed a speculative no-find, no-fee contract for 90 days that has the potential to reward the research company up to $70 million on a graduated fee scale based upon search results and the amount of area covered within the allotted time. The search will focus on an area in the Southern Indian Ocean approximately the size of Vermont that experts have narrowed down as having the best chances for success. The company will use its vessel Seabed Constructor for the search. The vessel is outfittedwith a fleet of eight autonomous, non-tethered underwater vehicles fitted with high-tech cameras, sonars and sensors. It is believed that this new technology will be able to accurately map and search the area significantly more accurately, efficiently and at a much faster pace than the technology previously used in the search. We have a realistic prospect of finding it, said Ocean Infinity Chief Executive Oliver Plunkett. 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. It has been reported that while the reward fee potential of the venture is speculative, the Malaysian government has agreed to underwrite the operating costs of the search effort and that two of its naval officers will be on board the search vessel as observers, participants and consultants. The vessel is on its way to the search area and search efforts are scheduled to start by Jan. 17. Indian airline Jet Airways announced that it has fired two of its flight crew members after a much-publicized incident that occurred between the two pilots on a flight from London to Mumbai on New Years Day.Media reports in both Britain and India report that the crew, a female captain and a male captain acting as firstofficer, had an altercation during the flight which resulted in the female pilot leaving the cockpit in tears and reporting that she had been slapped by the other pilot. At one point, both the pilots reportedly left the flight deck unattended. Universal airline regulations state that one crew member may leave the cockpit under strict specified procedures for physiological needs, but at least one qualified crew member must be properly stationed at the controls of the aircraft at all times. The crew members eventually returned to their stations, and the flight, a Boeing 777 with 324 passengers and 14 cabin crew, landed safely.Jet Airways, launched as a scheduled air carrier in 1995, is a major full-service airline based in Mumbai and is ranked as Indias second largest carrier in terms of passenger market share. The airline terminated its direct flights to the United States in recent years but has code share agreements with U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. The carrier continues to offer North American service through Toronto. Estonia has become the first European Union member state to ratify a landmark agreement that was signed by the EU and Armenia in November. The Armenian Foreign Ministry told RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Friday that official Yerevan has received a relevant notification from the Baltic nations government. The Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) must be ratified by all 28 EU member states as well as the European Parliament in order to come into force. A senior Armenian lawmaker, Armen Ashotian, said earlier this week that Yerevan hopes the European side will complete the process by July 2019. Ashotian also said that the Armenian parliament will likely ratify the CEPA by the end of March. The CEPA is a less ambitious substitute for an Association Agreement which was nearly finalized by Armenia and the EU 2013. President Serzh Sarkisian precluded the signing of that agreement with his decision to make Armenia part of a Russian-led trade bloc of ex-Soviet republics. The CEPA, which is more than 350 pages long, was signed by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and the EUs foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, in Brussels on November 24. Mogherini said the agreement will broaden the scope of our relations. 12 January 2018 10:11 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 131 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on January 12. Armenians were using large-caliber machine guns. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 11:02 (UTC+04:00) By 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. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 18:14 (UTC+04:00) By Sara Israfilbayova The State Committee on Property Issues of Azerbaijan held next auction on privatization of state property, following which 21 objects were sold. Four of the privatized objects are small state enterprises, 15-non-residentila areas and 2-vehicles. Small state enterprises and vehicles were privatized in Baku, small state enterprises in other regions and cities of the country. In order to protect state property and effectively manage it in the new economic realities, President of Azerbaijan signed a decree on May 19, 2016. Under the decree, the acceleration of the state property privatization process has been defined as an important direction of the economic policy. The portal for privatization privatization.az, launched in July 2016, reflects all necessary information about the facilities, their addresses, location, and even initial cost and aims at facilitation of the process. The website is available in two languages - Azerbaijani and English. Why Azerbaijan is special section available on the website explains the reasons and advantages of investing in the country. The privatization process is designed to attract both foreign and local investors, as well as develop the business environment of Azerbaijan. Moreover, the State Committee on Property Issues held the first electronic auction on July 4. The "electronic auction" service, which is available on the website privatization.az, combines the privatization procedure of vehicles and equipment. In the future, it will be possible to privatize small state enterprises and facilities, joint-stock companies through electronic auction. Now, the corresponding work in programming is being implemented. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 11:55 (UTC+04:00) By Laman Ismayilova Revived children's ensemble "Cuclrim" in 20 years proved its legendary skills at the international festival-competition "Christmas Star". At the invitation of the festival committee, "City Life" ensemble of the Republican Center for Child and Youth Development under the Azerbaijan Ministry of Education , the ensemble visited the 17th Annual International Children's Creative Forum and festival-competition "Christmas Stars - 2018", Azertac reported. The spectacular grandiose international festival, which brought together creative teams from different countries took place on January 5-9 in Moscow. National ensemble performed in the nomination "Choreography - National Dances" and won first place. They performed to the work Gaytagi by Tofig Guliyev. The winners were awarded with diplomas and the Cup. "I am sincerely grateful to the children and choreographers of the ensemble for this victory. We will do everything to ensure that our children travel more often and take part in various festivals. We have a wonderful and talented youth," said the director of the ensemble "Cuclrim" Firuza Sultanzade. A colorful cultural program was prepared for the participants of the festival. They visited the main Christmas tree of Russia in the Kremlin, Big Christmas Ball, circus, Moscow Zoo, got acquainted with various sights of the Russian capital. The delegation also visited the Azerbaijani embassy in Russia, where a special program was prepared for children. The festival was held by the festival committee "Life of Cities", based on the Moscow Directorate of the UNESCO International Conference "Culture of Young Cities", under the patronage of the Department of Culture of Moscow and the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions. The festival aims to bring together children from different cities of Russia and foreign countries to exchange creative achievements, communicate and participate in the competition. This year more than 2500 participants were accredited at the festival. The jury included the leading soloists of the Bolshoi Theater, famous cultural figures, Russian pop stars. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 15:43 (UTC+04:00) By Laman Ismayilova Every year, Romanians celebrate the National Culture Day on January 15. The date was chosen for its significance in the history of the Romanian culture - it is the birth date of Romanias greatest poet, Mihai Eminescu (1850 1889). The National Culture Day celebrations reflect the openness of Romanian culture toward the world, its contributions to the development of new trends and currents, providing a valuable platform for strengthening the cultural ties with countries and peoples worldwide. The Embassy of Romania to Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts invite you to photo exhibition of the works of famous Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, also known as the father of the modern sculpture on January 15. The exhibition is portraying a selection of some of the most well-known works of the artist, exhibited today by some of the greatest art museums of the world, such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA), Musee National dArt Moderne in Paris, Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as the Romanian National Art Museum in Bucharest. The Rector of Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts, Prof. O. Eldarov, and the Ambassador of Romania to Azerbaijan, Dan Iancu, will deliver opening speeches. Considered one of the founders of abstract sculpture style, Constantin Brancusi was one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century. He sought inspiration in non-European cultures as a source of primitive exoticism, as did Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Andre Derain and others. Sculptor's other influences emerge from Romanian folk art traceable through Byzantine and Dionysian traditions. His famous works include "The Kiss", "Sleeping Muse I", "Endless Column", "The Sorceress", "Bird in Space" and other sculptures. Brancusi died on March 16, 1957, aged 81. He was buried in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse in Paris. This cemetery also displays statues that Brancusi carved for deceased artists. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 10:25 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Russia will support the Italian OSCE Chairmanships efforts in the process of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. This was stated by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in response to Chairperson-in-Office, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano at the OSCE special permanent council meeting in Vienna on January 11. Instead of equitable cooperation, we see double standards and hear statements about the exceptionalism of individual nations and countries. All of that does not help us resolve todays problems, but instead gives rise to more problems and conflicts, and makes us all weaker in the face of common threats, such as terrorism, illegal migration, drug and human trafficking, and organised crime, he said. Lukashevich further stressed that Moscow fully shares Italian Chairmanships commitment to maintain the OSCEs efforts to resolve regional conflicts. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 11:32 (UTC+04:00) By Trend The US has urged the 2018 Italian OSCE Chairmanship to support the Minsk Group efforts to find peaceful solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The US mission to the OSCE 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. "On the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, we encourage you to provide full and unwavering support to your personal representative and his mission in support of the Minsk Groups efforts to find a peaceful and lasting solution," the statement reads. The mission added that recent hopeful signs from the 2017 Geneva summit meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan should be taken into the account. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 16:51 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov The 2018 Italian OSCE Chairmanship has extended mandate of Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the OSCE told Trend on January 12. Since 1997, Kasprzyk has been serving as the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on the conflict dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The decision on his reappointment was made at the last meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council. In accordance with the mandate, Kasprzyk represents the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on the issues related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He contributes to the efforts of the chairperson to achieve a long-term peaceful resolution of the conflict. Kasprzyk also participates in the OSCE monitoring missions that are regularly held in the conflict zone, and takes part at the meetings of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, including their meetings with Azerbaijani and Armenian officials. Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in a conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, but they have not been enforced to this day. Meanwhile, the OSCE Minsk Group, created in 1990s to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, is still working on the issue. It is co-chaired by France, the Russian Federation, and the United States. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 10:40 (UTC+04:00) By 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. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 10:39 (UTC+04:00) By 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. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 10:50 (UTC+04:00) By 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. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 13:51 (UTC+04:00) By Aygul Salmanova During the first 11 months of 2017, export of fruit and vegetable products increased by 34.6 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2016 and amounted to $452.7 million, Deputy Minister of Economy Sahil Babayev told Azernews. He noted that fruits and vegetables were mainly exported to Russia, Italy, Germany, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Poland, Georgia and other countries. The main fruit and vegetable products exported from Azerbaijan are pure nuts, tomatoes, palm, apples, cherries, potatoes, cucumber and gherkins, onions, peaches, pomegranates, fresh grapes and so on. Regular work is being carried out to increase the export of crops, he said. Babayev also noted that the Association of Fruit and Vegetable Producers and Exporters started its activity with the support of the Ministry of Economy and the initiative of producers and exporters of fruits and vegetables operating in the country. He added that some other associations of several different fruit and vegetable producers and exporters (palm, pomegranate, hazelnut, etc.) were established. The deputy minister also noted that such institutions had contributed to the growth of organizational level of fruit and vegetable exporters, which allowed them to reduce their costs, as well as facilitate access to financial resources and export markets, which eventually led to an increase in fruit and vegetable exports. Babayev also said that promotions and other support events were being organized in the public places of the foreign countries and in the international media. He added that in order to facilitate the export of fruits and vegetables to the foreign markets and ensure that the importing country is in favorable conditions, series actions had been carried out. He also noted that negotiations were underway on the preferential trade agreement, which allowed exporting a number of agricultural (mostly fruits and vegetables) products to Turkey on favorable terms. After signing this agreement, some fruit and vegetable products would be exported to Turkey on favorable terms, he said. A wide range of fruits and vegetables are grown depending on climatic conditions in all regions of Azerbaijan. Some of these grown products are consumed in the domestic market, he said. The rest of these products grown in all regions are exported to different countries. Vegetables are mainly grown in Shamkir, Khachmaz, Lankaran, Bilasuvar, Masalli, Absheron, and fruits in Guba, Khachmaz, Goychay, Astara, Zagatala and other administrative regions. The volume of the exported fruits and vegetables in 2016 amounted to $372.8 million, and in the first half of 2017 - $452.7 million, according to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 17:07 (UTC+04:00) By Sara Israfilbayova Since the beginning of development, from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields 445.4 million tons of oil and 140.5 billion cubic meters of gas have been produced. First Vice-President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh noted that the project participants have been receiving profits from profitable oil for 19 years. As of January 1, 2018, 250.7 million tons of Azerbaijani profitable oil was sold on the world market, which is equal to 55 percent of total production from ACG, Yusifzadeh stressed. The companys Vice-President underlined that as of January 1, 2018, 466.7 million tons of oil were exported to the world market, of which 350 million tons accounted for the share of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. Azerbaijan has a large number of oil and gas fields and promising structures in the Caspian Sea. One of them is the block of oil and gas fields Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), proven oil reserves of which are estimated at 1.2 billion tons, while gas reserves-350 billion cubic meters. Another large field is the Shah Deniz gas condensate field, reserves of which are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. Within the second stage of field development, the volume of gas production can be increased to 24 billion cubic meters per year, according to forecasts. There are also such deposits as Absheron (350 billion cubic meters), Umid (200 billion cubic meters), and the promising structure of Babek (400 billion cubic meters). Azerbaijani gas is currently exported directly by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR to Iran and Georgia, and by the Shah-Deniz consortium via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline to Georgia and Turkey. The overwhelming part of oil produced in Azerbaijan falls on ACG block. Almost all oil from the block is exported by the BakuTbilisiCeyhan (BTC) pipeline. Azerbaijan's oil is exported from the country not only in raw form, but also in the form of oil products. The countrys only oil producer is SOCAR. Azerbaijans oil products are exported to such countries as Turkey, Georgia, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Lebanon, Singapore, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Malta, Libya, Romania, China, Spain, Bahamas and others. A contract for development of ACG block of oil and gas fields was signed in 1994 for 30 years. Thirteen companies from eight countries (Azerbaijan, the U.S., Great Britain, Russia, Turkey, Norway, Japan, Saudi Arabia) have participated in signing of the "Contract of the Century". The agreement will cover the development of the field until 2050 and will add significant resource development potential. The document specifies the key commercial terms for the future development of the ACG field and enables the parties to conclude negotiations and finalize fully-termed agreements in the next few months. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 13:43 (UTC+04:00) By Kamila Aliyeva The shares of electricity export of the countries participating in large-scale regional project in the power industry - CASA-1000 - were determined. The share of electricity export from Tajikistan within the framework of the CASA-1000 project will be 70 percent, while Kyrgyzstan will account for 30 percent, the press service of the Tajik Energy Ministry reported. The ministry specified that the project will provide transit of up to 5 billion kWh of electricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Pakistan. The share of Tajik power exports will be 3 billion kWh, according to the ministrys message. Taking into account the current energy capacities, Tajikistan is capable to export more than this amount in summer period, if the demand of consumers increases. With the launch of the first stage of the Rogun HPP, which is expected this year, the export opportunities will further expand, the message said. According to the reached agreements on the CASA-1000 project, the export price would be 9.35 cents per kilowatt hours. Last year, Tajikistan launched a tender for the supply and installation of power lines, as well as the expansion of the respective cells in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan within the framework of the project, CASA-1000 reported. Within the project it is planned to build a 477-kilometer 500-kW transmission line from the Datka substation (Kyrgyzstan) to Khujand. In addition, it is planned to connect Sangtudu, Kabul and Peshawar by a 750-kilometer high-voltage power line. Last year, the Minister of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan, Usmonali Usmonzoda, said that the practical implementation of the Tajik section of the CASA-1000 project is planned to be launched in 2018. According to the minister, a tender was announced for the construction of a direct and alternating current transmission line. As many as 10 companies applied for these lots. If the practical work on the construction of a Tajik electricity transmission line starts in 2018, the project can be completed within two years, Usmonzoda said. CASA-1000 is an interregional electricity transmission project in Central and South Asia to connect four countries - Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It is presupposed that the project will create opportunities for the export of electricity surplus in summer period from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan through Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have the worlds most abundant clean hydropower resources. Both countries have the surplus of electricity during the summer due to water cascading from the mountain ranges, while Afghanistan and Pakistan face chronic electricity shortages and cannot keep pace with demand for it. The project initially also included transfer of electricity to Afghanistan, however the country abandoned its share of electricity due to dearth of demand, hence Pakistan will receive 1,300 megawatts of electricity. Groundbreaking for the project took place on May 12, 2016 in Tajikistan in a ceremony attended by the Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Pakistani Prime Ministers. CASA-1000 project will cost more than $1 billion and is expected to be completed by 2020. Such international financial institution as the World Bank (WB), the European Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), as well as the UK government and others act as investors in the project. In particular, for the implementation of the Tajik section of the project, the World Bank will allocate $45 million the IDB - $70 million, and the EBRD - $110 million. Economy analysts are not very hopeful about the implementation of the project due to lack of cooperation between the countries involved. The experts note the insecurity in Afghanistan as another hurdle for the electricity transmission project. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 14:14 (UTC+04:00) By Kamila Aliyeva Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have reached agreements on visa relations and the most controversial section of the state border. One of the main disputable sections of the border was Farhad Dam, located on the territory of Tajikistan, built in the 1940s. In the near future Uzbekistan and Tajikistan will sign a new document On mutual trips of citizens, according to which citizens of the two states will be able to stay in the territory of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan during one month without obtaining a visa, Tajik media reported, citing a source in the government of Tajikistan. The parties also confirmed their intentions to open in the near future passenger trains and buses, as well as new checkpoints on the border of the two states, the source informed. Touching upon the issues of the border, the parties agreed that the territory on which the Farhad HPP is located will be recognized as the territory of Tajikistan, while the hydropower facility itself will be recognized as the property of Uzbekistan. The protection of the facility will be carried out by the Tajik side and its technical maintenance will be handled by Uzbekistan. It is expected that all interstate and intergovernmental agreements on the above issues will be signed during the state visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Dushanbe, which will take place at the beginning of this spring. The disputes between the two countries have arisen regularly for almost 25 years. Dushanbe often accused Uzbekistan of blocking railroads and roads. In turn, Tashkent opposed the construction of the Rogun HPP in Tajikistan, which, according to the authorities of Uzbekistan, is a threat to the entire agricultural sector of the region. In 2001, first, Uzbekistan, and then Tajikistan, introduced a visa regime between the two states. The relations began to restore in 2016. The legal base of bilateral Tajik-Uzbek relations includes 111 contracts and agreements signed at the interstate, intergovernmental and interdepartmental levels in the period from 1992 to the present. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 15:16 (UTC+04:00) By Kamila Aliyeva GM Uzbekistan, the former UzDaewooAuto, increased the production of passenger cars by 58.1 percent up to 135,470 units in 2017. The production of cars in Uzbekistan rose from 85,670 units in 2016 up to 135,470 in 2017, according to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan. In particular, GM Uzbekistan increased production of Nexia cars by 7.4 percent to 34,540 units, Damas cars - to 22,490 units, as well as Spark cars - by 26.1 percent to 22,360 units in 2017. Last year, the production volume of Gentra cars amounted to 19,160 (showing an increase by 2 times), Cobalt 18,010 units (4.6 times), Matiz 13,000 units (4.4 times), Captiva 4,540 units (2.1 times), Malibu - 963 units (4.6 times) and Orlando 388 units (15.5 percent more). GM Uzbekistan, formerly known as UzDaewooAuto, was created in 1996 on a parity basis by Uzbekistan and South Korean Daewoo Motors. In 2005, Uzbekistan acquired Daewoo's shares in UzDaewooAuto. In 2007, Uzavtoprom (Uzbek Association of Automotive Industry Enterprises) and the U.S.-based General Motors signed an agreement to establish the GM Uzbekistan with an authorized capital of $266.7 million. General Motors owns 25 percent shares in the GM Uzbekistan plus one share with a possibility of increasing it to 40 percent. At the moment, 75 percent of the shares belong to the UzAvtosanoat. Currently, 10 Chevrolet and Ravon car models are being produced at three production sites of the company. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 18:30 (UTC+04:00) By Kamila Aliyeva The volume of foreign trade turnover of Kazakhstan in January-October 2017 in monetary terms amounted to $69.4 billion, according to the Committee on Statistics under the Ministry of National Economy, Kazinform reported. Foreign trade turnover during eleven months of the previous year increased by 25.1 percent compared to the same period in 2016. The volume of exports in the reporting period amounted to $43.06 billion, thus registering a rise of 31.6 percent. The volume of imports in January-October 2017 amounted to $26.3 billion, thus showing a 15.8 percent increase compared to 2016. In 2016, Kazakhstan exported $36.8 billion and imported $25.1 billion, resulting in a positive trade balance of $11.6 billion. Kazakhstan is the 51st largest export economy in the world and the 48th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). The country has an export-oriented economy which is highly dependent on shipments of oil and related products (73 percent of total exports). Other exports include ferrous metals, copper, aluminum, zinc and uranium. Main imports are electronics, machinery and mechanical appliances (25 percent of total imports), mineral products (15 percent), transport equipment (12 percent) and base metals and related products (10 percent). Kazakhstan became a World Trade Organization (WTO) member on November 30, 2015. The country officially entered into a Customs Union with Russia and Belarus on July 1, 2010. Since that time, Kazakhstans trade policy has been heavily influenced by regulations promulgated by the Customs Union and its governing body the Eurasian Economic Commission. As a condition of membership in the Customs Union, Kazakhstan had to double its average import tariff and introduced annual tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on trade apoultry, beef, and pork. However, in accordance with its WTO commitments, Kazakhstan will now gradually lower 3,512 import tariff rates to an average of 6.1 percent by 2020. Starting from January 2016, Kazakhstan has applied a lower-than-Customs Union Tariff rate to food products, automobiles, airplanes, railway wagons, lumber, alcoholic beverages, pharmaceuticals, freezers, and jewelry. On May 29, 2014 Kazakhstan and its Customs Union partners signed a treaty to create a common economic space known as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The EAEU is expected to further integrate their economies, and provide for the free movement of services, capital and labor within their common territory. The government of Kazakhstan has asserted that EAEU agreements comply with WTO standards. Kazakhstans government is optimistic that further integration within the EAEU will make Kazakhstan more attractive for foreign investment by expanding market access to those countries. Kazakhstan is a signatory of the Free Trade Agreement with CIS countries. In addition, as a member of the EAEU, Kazakhstan is party to the Free Trade Agreement between the EAEU and Vietnam. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 18:49 (UTC+04:00) By Kamila Aliyeva Natural gas production in Uzbekistan increased by 0.5 percent in 2017 up to 56.417 billion cubic meters compared to 2016, according to the Uzbek State Statistics Committee. At the same time, the Central Asian country reduced oil production by 6.3 percent to 806,000 tons in 2017. Enterprises of the mining industry in Uzbekistan showed an increase in gas production by half a percentage point to the value of 2016, while crude oil production declined by 6.3 percent in the country, the press service of the committee said in a message. The national operator for extraction and processing of hydrocarbon raw materials - Uzbekneftegaz - informed earlier that by the end of the current year the volume of natural gas production in the country could increase by 17 percent to the level of 2017, reaching a value of 66 billion cubic meters. Specialists of the state company explained that this could happen due to the successful development of deposits with the direct participation of foreign companies. Over the past few years, Uzbekistan has been systematically facing an acute shortage of gasoline and some other petroleum products. 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. The total capacity of the three refineries currently reaches about 10 million tons, but due to a significant reduction in the reserves of raw materials in the country's active fields, the volumes of extraction of black gold and gas condensate are steadily declining. The loading of the production capacities of the republican refineries reaches, in total, only 60 percent. To ensure their full supply from this year, the Uzbek authorities intend to import oil from Kazakhstan and Russia - up to 1 million tons in total. 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 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. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 12 January 2018 16:43 (UTC+04:00) By Aygul Salmanova A list of foreign countries, safe for the employees of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russian, including civil servants vacation has been approved. The corresponding order was signed by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Vladimir Kolokoltsev. The list approved by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia includes: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Cuba, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It is noted that the holidays will be granted after the employees of the internal affairs agencies and civil servants of Russia have submitted reports or applications for departure from the Russian Federation. Azerbaijan now attracts more and more tourists with its mesmerizing beauty to enjoy the mild climate and historical sites. The country is developing its tourism sector by all means, to make it more affordable and comfortable for both local and foreign tourists. Tourists from neighboring Russia were always frequent guests in Azerbaijan and the recent developments made more Russians to think about Baku when planning their vacations. One of the main advantages of Azerbaijan, besides the captivating beauty of the country and hospitable population, is the fact that many people here know Russian and English. Furthermore, Russian tourists do not need visa to travel to Azerbaijan, which makes the country more attractive. According to the results of January-October 2017, about 730,000 Russian tourists visited Azerbaijan. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Here are 10 anesthesiologists that made headlines in December 2017. The American Health Council elected Melville, N.Y.-based North American Partners in Anesthesia attending anesthesiologist Dorina Leibu, MD, to its board of physicians. The International Association of HealthCare Professionals included anesthesiologist Philip Carnevale, MD, in its The Leading Physicians of the World publication. New Jersey Monthly named Melville, N.Y.-based North American Partners in Anesthesia physician Jonathan Markley, DO, as one of its "Top Doctors." Flexion Therapeutics' next CMO is anesthesiologist Scott Kelley, MD. Stephen Kyosung Kim, MD, an anesthesiologist, was charged with murder after allegedly administering a lethal dose of Demerol to a patient postoperatively. Envision Physician Services' National Education Director of Anesthesiology Adam Blomberg, MD, FASA, spoke to Becker's ASC Review about enhanced recovery after surgery protocols, opioids and the future of pain control. Anesthesiologist Douglas Keene, MD, started healthcare informatics company Recordation in an attempt to solve data capture challenges. Wayne Hendrix, MD, died by suicide after pointing a gun at a hospital worker at Milwaukee-based Froedtert Hospital Dec. 26. The International Association of HealthCare Professionals included anesthesiologist Tony Wright, MD, in its The Leading Physicians of the World publication. Anesthesiologist and pilot John H. Smith, MD, 91, died of natural causes in his Indiana home Dec. 28. A Research and Markets report analyzed the U.S. ASC market, finding centers earned $26 billion in 2016. Here's what you should know: 1. Research and Markets believes there are 6,150 ASCs nationwide. Of the ASCs, 57 percent are independent/physician owned, 22 percent are corporate/for-profit and 21 percent are hospital-owned/nonprofit. 2. Analysts believe corporate ASC companies are taking control of the market, citing a 43 percent increase from 2010 to 2015 in ASC company-owned facilities. 3. The reduced cost of performing procedures in ASCs saves patients up to $5 billion annually, analysts report. The savings the government reaps from Medicare and commercial payers having procedures performed in ASCs are at $18.7 billion and $12.4 billion respectively. The government reaps savings to the tune of $18.7 billion annually when Medicare-insured patients undergo procedures at an ASC. Similarly, the government saves $12.4 billion when commercially insured patients receive surgical treatment at an outpatient center. 4. Analysts believe by 2020, 60 percent of all eligible procedures will be performed in the outpatient space. 5. Concerning physician specialties, 25 percent of all gastroenterology cases are performed in ASCs, but cataract surgery is the most common procedure in an ASC. 6. Orthopedics, ENT and urology remain the most profitable ASC procedures. CIOX Health filed a lawsuit Monday against HHS and Acting Secretary Eric Hargan in an effort to stop the agency from enforcing parts of HIPAA it deems "unlawfully, unreasonably, arbitrarily and capriciously" limit the fees providers and their business associates can charge, according to court documents reviewed by Becker's Hospital Review. CIOX Health, a medical records management company, specifically targets regulatory changes to the privacy law implemented in 2013 and 2016. Those modifications broadened the type of patient information that must be sent, but put a cap on the fees vendors could charge for the added work. Specifically, the 2013 HIPAA update expanded the type of medical information that could be sent, even if that data wasn't in the EHR. The modification, though, failed to discuss the costs associated with the data's collection and transmission, and HHS acknowledged this update pushed beyond the regulatory language of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, according to the lawsuit. However, when the law was changed again 2016, HHS required vendors to limit the costs associated with all record requests to a reasonable or flat rate of about $6.50. CIOX alleges this flat fee is arbitrary to HIPAA's original intent and potentially hurt its business. "A $6.50 flat fee was drawn from thin air and bears no rational relationship to the actual costs associated with processing such requests," CIOX alleges in its complaint. Though the vendor claims it supports basic HIPAA rules, including patient access to their records, the lawsuit asks the court to strike the 2013 and 2016 modifications. "HHS's continued application and enforcement of these rules impose tremendous financial and regulatory burdens on healthcare providers and threatens to upend the medical records industry that services them," CIOX claims, according to the suit. CIOX told Becker's Hospital Review part of the company's motives for bringing the suit, stating, "The long-term viability of the medical-records industry is critical to the delivery of high-quality, error-free and cost-effective healthcare services to patients by ensuring that healthcare providers have timely access to individual medical records." In November 2017, CIOX was named in a False Claims Act lawsuit that accused 69 Indiana hospitals of overcharging patients for their medical records. "CIOX routinely and repeatedly engaged in a practice, policy and/or scheme to illegally and fraudulently over-bill patients for the provision of medical records," that complaint reads. CIOX claims to process "tens of millions" of medical records requests each year, and its website asserts that it serves "three out of five hospitals and more than 16,000 physician practices" throughout the 50 states. More articles on EHRs: Survey: Tech expertise ranks as No. 1 barrier to AI development among life science pros American Well connects remote care network to Netsmart EHRs US Army Regional Health Command-Pacific deploys Vocera tech at 3 facilities Hospitals and health systems teamed up with health IT companies, startups and telehealth organizations this week to develop new initiatives, technologies and innovative projects. Here are 13 of the most interesting health IT partnerships, collaborations and acquisitions reported by Becker's Hospital Review this week. 1. Allscripts entered into a definitive agreement to acquire San Francisco-based EHR provider Practice Fusion for $100 million in cash. 2. American Well entered into a partnership with Netsmart, a health IT vendor focused on behavioral health, social services and post-acute markets. 3. The U.S. Department of Defense awarded former McKesson Technologies, now Change Healthcare, a $400 million contract to supply and maintain the agency's digital imaging network 4. Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Temple (Texas) recently rolled out THA Smart Ribbon, a product developed by the Texas Hospital Association, the association announced Jan. 10. 5. Renown Institute for Health Innovation, a Nevada-based nonprofit that launched the Healthy Nevada Project, is planning to expand the project by collaborating with Helix, a personal genomics company. 6. Meditech entered into an agreement with Arcadia Healthcare Solutions to integrate information from various data sources into its EHR and analytics solutions. 7. Milwaukee-based Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin will deploy predictive analytics solutions from PeraHealth across its network in early 2018. 8. Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic entered into an agreement with DNA sequencing company Veritas Genetics to integrate whole-genome sequencing into clinical care. 9. Syapse, an oncology-focused precision medicine company, entered into a multiyear strategic collaboration with Roche. 10. Aurora, Mo.-based Mercy tapped GoHealth Urgent Care, an urgent care provider, for a new partnership that seeks to create a network of urgent care centers across the Midwest. 11. GE Healthcare and Roche partnered to develop a digital clinical decision support solution, focusing on products that accelerate and improve personalized cancer and critical care treatments. 12. U.S.-based telehealth provider American Well and Amsterdam-based Philips, a health IT company, joined forces to embed American Well's mobile telehealth services into an array of Philips solutions. 13. Allianz X, the digital investment unit of insurer and asset manager Allianz, invested $59.2 million in a strategic partnership with American Well. The partnership is focused on the development of digital solutions to increase access to healthcare and control costs. More articles on health IT: CIOX Health sues HHS over 'irrational' HIPAA enforcement Survey: Tech expertise ranks as No. 1 barrier to AI development among life science pros American Well connects remote care network to Netsmart EHRs In the last month, Becker's Hospital Review reported the following hospital and health system CIO and chief technology officer moves as well as other executive moves affecting health IT companies and federal agencies. Editor's note: The executive moves are listed in the order they were reported on. 1. Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica named Kate Sommerfeld president of social determinants of health. 2. The U.S. Department of Defense appointed Essye Miller its acting CIO, effective Dec. 8. 3. Outcome Health, which recently came under fire for misleading advertisers on the success of their ads' performances, promoted ex-Twitter executive Nandini Ramani to COO. 4. HealthlinkNY, which operates the health information exchange connecting providers in 13 New York counties, announced its President and CEO Christina Galanis is resigning, effective Dec. 31. Staci Romeo, HealthlinkNY's senior vice president, will take over as interim executive director. 5. CVS Health's CIO Stephen Gold resigned to "pursue professional opportunities outside of CVS Health." 6. Intellia Therapeutics, a genome editing company focused on developing therapeutics using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, promoted John Leonard, MD, to president and CEO, effective Jan. 1. 7. Akron (Ohio) Children's Hospital named Steven Spalding, MD, director of pediatric rheumatology and vice president of population health. 8. Boston-based Harvard Medical School installed John Halamka, MD, as its inaugural International Healthcare Innovation Professor. Dr. Halamka is senior vice president of information systems and CIO of Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. 9. Karen DeSalvo, MD, a former leader at HHS' ONC, joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin's Dell Medical School, effective in January. 10. Eric Schmidt, PhD, stepped down from his role as executive chairman of Google's parent company, Alphabet, in January. 11. The American Health Information Management Association named Diann H. Smith as president and chair of its 2018 board of directors, effective Jan. 1. 12. The Dallas-based Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation appointed Richard Daniels of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente to its board of directors, the organization confirmed Jan. 3. 13. MDLive, a telemedicine services provider, selected Rich Berner to serve as CEO. 14. Northwestern Medicine's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago selected Firas Wehbe, MD, PhD, to serve as chief research informatics officer, a newly created position. 15. The American Health Information Management Association appointed Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, CEO, effective Feb. 5. 16. Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health named Tanya Arthur senior vice president and CIO, effective Jan. 23. 17. SRS Health, an EHR and health IT solution vendor to orthopedics and other high-performance specialty practices, promoted Khal Rai to president and CEO, effective immediately, 18. Wayne Grodsky joined the executive team at Specialists on Call as chief growth officer. 19. Nearly six months after Cerner lost CEO and Chairman Neal Patterson to an ongoing battle with cancer, the company appointed Brent Shafer as Mr. Patterson's replacement, effective Feb. 1. 20. The ONC appointed Kathryn Marchesini chief privacy officer. More articles on health IT: 13 most interesting health IT partnerships this week CIOX Health sues HHS over 'irrational' HIPAA enforcement Survey: Tech expertise ranks as No. 1 barrier to AI development among life science pros Porter Health Care System in Valparaiso, Ind., named Sean Dardeau CEO, according to a report by The Times of Northwest Indiana. Here are five takeaways: 1. In addition, Mr. Dardeau will serve as market CEO of Northwest Indiana for Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, Porter Health Care System's owner. 2. As market CEO, he will work closely with the CEO of La Porte (Ind.) Hospital and Starke Hospital in Knox, Ind. 3. Mr. Dardeau comes to Porter from Mary Black Health System in Spartanburg, S.C., where he served as market CEO. 4. He holds an MBA from Averett College in Danville, Va., and served on the board of the South Carolina Hospital Association. 5. At Porter, he succeeds Steve Lunn, who resigned to take on a new job. Fallon Ambulance Service in Quincy, Mass., laid off 23 employees this week, reducing its total workforce to 733, according to The Patriot Ledger. The layoffs, which represent about 3 percent of Fallon's staff, affect administrative employees, Peter Racicot, Fallon's vice president of business development, told the publication. He attributed the move to restructuring to adapt to healthcare marketplace changes. He said a decision by the city of Weymouth, Mass., not to renew its contract with Fallon played no role, according to the report. That contract is set to expire at the end of June. More articles on leadership and management: 2 US senators urge Quorum Health not to close Ohio hospital Legislators say they are close to CHIP deal CMS releases guidance for Medicaid work requirements: 5 things to know At least 17 people have died and hundreds of homes have been damaged after torrential rains created mudslides in several Southern California communities that scrambled to escape wildfires just a few months ago, ABC News reports. Firefighters who fought deadly wildfires in the area in December are now searching flattened homes across Santa Barbara County for mudslide survivors. Montecito, Calif., was placed under mandatory evacuation orders Thursday, forcing approximately 10,000 residents out of their homes for between one and two weeks, ABC News reports. Among those killed in the mudslides was Mark Montgomery, MD, an orthopedic hand surgeon affiliated with Santa Barbara-based Cottage Health and the Santa Barbara-based private practice Associated Hand Surgeons, according to KSBY-6 News. Dr. Montgomery and his wife, daughter and son were caught in the mudslide. His wife and son survived, the report states. In a statement to KSBY-6 News, Cottage Health said, "We're very saddened by the death of Dr. Mark Montgomery, who was a member of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Medical Staff. Dr. Montgomery was a respected orthopedic surgeon who specialized in hand surgery. We extend sincere condolences to his family and all who knew him as a colleague and friend. This is an enormous loss for our community." Brown University is joining with Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings to challenge Boston-based Partners HealthCare's merger with Care New England Health System in Providence, R.I., according to The Boston Globe. In a letter issued campus-wide on Thursday, Brown President Christina Paxson, PhD, voiced disapproval of the acquisition of Care New England by Partners. "I feel strongly that letting this acquisition go forward would be wrong for Rhode Island and for Brown," she wrote in the letter. "Doing so is likely to lead to specialty healthcare shifting to Massachusetts, impeding access to healthcare for Rhode Islanders and especially for members of the state's underserved communities." Dr. Paxson said Brown plans to join with Prospect Medical Holdings in an attempt to purchase Care New England. However, CNE is not interested in the deal. "While we appreciate their interest in the future of healthcare in Rhode Island CNE will proceed in our exclusive discussion with Partners as set forth in our letter of intent and we look forward to the next steps in the process," CNE said in a statement. Partners and CNE signed a letter of intent to merge in April 2017. In December, the parties agreed to extend their talks through Jan. 31, according to The Boston Globe. More articles on healthcare industry transactions: 10 of the most interesting healthcare transactions of 2017 Tenet, Baylor Scott & White restructure joint venture: 4 things to know 5 biggest healthcare deals of all time Gary, Ind.-based Methodist Hospitals and Mishawaka, Ind.-based Franciscan Alliance ceased discussions on a potential merger, the institutions announced Thursday. The organizations had been exploring the potential union for about one year, nwi.com reports. Methodist Hospitals and Franciscan Alliance said in seperate news releases they opted to end discussions because of shifts in the healthcare industry and disagreements about "the financial, operational and clinical service line implications of the proposed partnership," according to the report. Franciscan Alliance President and CEO Kevin Leahy said the health system would be open to discussions with Methodist Hospitals at a later date should the opportunity arise. "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," Mr. Leahy said. The organizations signed a letter of intent to merge last March. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is slated to hold a public hearing Thursday regarding the closure of Springfield-based Vibra Hospital of Western Massachusetts, MassLive reports. The scheduled hearing is a mandatory part of the closure process. During the meeting, hospital officials will meet with DOH representatives to discuss the impact of the closure on employees, patients and other affected parties. The 220-bed acute care hospital revealed plans to close in November. Officials said they expect to complete the closure by March, according to the report. The closure will affect an estimated 300 employees, including 80 nurses who reportedly signed a new contract with the hospital last March, the report states. The Canandaigua (N.Y.) Police Department is investigating a recording device found in a restroom at Canandaigua-based Thompson Hospital, reports the Daily Messenger. A hospital employee found the device and immediately contacted police. The camera was reportedly concealed in a unisex bathroom intended for one person at a time. "The device was discovered by someone who uses this particular restroom on a regular basis and who noticed it right away so we are confident it had not been there for long," said Thompson Hospital officials, according to the Daily Messenger. "Upon discovering the camera, administration and security immediately searched the entire hospital to ensure no other cameras were present. In addition to notifying our associates we also notified patients in that area who may have used that restroom during the time in question." Police Chief Stephen Hedworth said they ceased the device and the investigation is ongoing. Two security guards fatally shot a patient who pushed his way out of a treatment room and refused to drop two knives at St. Louis-based Barnes-Jewish Hospital on Thursday, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The 46-year-old patient, whose name has yet to be released, was in a treatment room on the 14th floor of the hospital with his wife prior to the shooting. St. Louis Police Lt. Col. Rochelle D. Jones said the patient pushed his way out of the room and flashed two knives he had in his pockets, according to the report. Security guards were called to the scene and immediately ordered the patient to drop the weapons. He refused and both officers fired their weapons, killing the man. He was pronounced dead at the scene. "You have your staff and you also have other people who are there who are being treated, so it was very dangerous and it could have been a lot worse," Ms. Jones told the St. Louis Dispatch. St. Louis police said the man was "flourishing" the weapons, but it was not immediately clear if he was threatening the security officers, hospital workers or other patients. It was also not clear why the man pulled out the knives. Police declined to say why the patient was being treated. The security guards are being questioned as part of an ongoing investigation. The patient was shot around 10:30 a.m. at the hospital's Center of Advanced Medicine, which includes a cancer center and other medical offices. A spokeswoman for the hospital, Kara Price Shannon, is directing all questions about the incident to the police department, according to the report. Leaders at Washington, D.C.-based United Medical Center allegedly planned to close the hospital's obstetrics ward before district regulators ordered a 90-day shutdown of the ward over safety issues, according to confidential documents obtained by The Washington Post. District regulators ordered UMC to close the ward for 90 days Aug. 7, citing deficiencies in the department's screening, clinical assessment and delivery protocols. After the nursery and delivery rooms were inactive for more than four months, the board voted in December to close the center permanently. Former employees of the unit told The Washington Post they believed plans were already in place to eliminate the services prior to the shutdown because hospital managers did not provide proper staff or resources to the maternal department for months. The newly disclosed documents support their claims. The documents, which shed new light on the closure that caused uproar from maternal-health activists, show consultants running the public hospital prepared a proposal to close the maternity ward. The proposal noted the financial drain of the ward and concerns over the quality of care provided in the unit. It was submitted to the D.C. Department of Health in an email Aug. 6, a day before the shutdown was ordered. However, in previous statements to the D.C. Council after the ordered shutdown, hospital officials said they were surprised about the district regulators' decision and suggested it was possible the facility would reopen, according to The Washington Post. It is unclear how long the submitted proposal outlined in the email was pending and if the decision to close the ward in December was a result of the proposal. Hospital board members never publicly discussed their proposal of closing the ward prior to the shutdown, the report notes. "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 told The Washington Post. Baltimore-based University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus is investigating after a video posted online shows hospital security guards leaving an apparently incapacitated woman at a bus stop wearing only a hospital gown and socks, according to The Washington Post. The widely shared video, posted to Facebook by Imamu Baraka, shows hospital security guards leaving the patient, who appeared to be unable to speak, at a bus stop. Her personal belongings were in plastic bags on the street. Mr. Baraka, who said he was a psychotherapist and a student at the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus, noted it was 30 degrees when security left the woman outside. A hospital spokeswoman verified the authenticity of the video and said it was filmed Tuesday. "We share the shock and disappointment of many who have viewed the video showing the discharge of a patient from the emergency department of UMMC Midtown the night of January 9," Lisa Clough, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said in a statement to The Washington Post. "We are taking this matter very seriously, conducting a thorough review, and are evaluating the appropriate response, including the possibility of personnel action." More articles on quality and infection control: Survey: More than half of clinicians wear scrubs home Using acetaminophen in early pregnancy may raise risk of language delay among female infants VA offers higher quality end-of-life care than Medicare: 5 things to know A California girl's mother said her daughter was misdiagnosed flu and died shortly after due to infection, according to The Washington Post. Alyssa Alcaraz, 12, started experiencing flu-like symptoms Dec. 13. Her mother, Keila Lino, said she went with Alyssa to an urgent care center Dec. 14, and her daughter was diagnosed with the flu, according to the report. On Dec. 17, the day Alyssa died, she and her mother went back to the urgent care center after the 12-year-old reported breathing issues. They found out Alyssa had low oxygen levels, and the girl was immediately sent to Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, Calif., according to the report. Ms. Lino told The Washington Post it was at the medical center that she and Alyssa's father were told their daughter had meningitis. They later learned the cause of death was a strep blood infection, the publication reported, citing a death certificate. In light of her family's situation, Ms. Lino called on people diagnosed with the flu to ask physicians for further testing, according to the report. She told The Washington Post the family has no current plans to take legal action against the urgent care center or the hospital. Read the full report here. More articles on healthcare quality: Saline shortage complicates flu treatment at hospitals nationwide Sick 7-Eleven employee potentially exposes 2k customers to hep A: 3 things to know 'We hate H3N2': 3 reasons this year's flu season could get worse Exeter (N.H.) Hospital received no violations from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration after a mystery illness prompted a partial evacuation at the facility last year, according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report. EH evacuated its inpatient operating room and emergency room Aug. 11 after staff members reported symptoms of dizziness and nausea. Twelve of the 19 staff members who became ill were taken to other healthcare facilities for treatment, according to the report. Department of Labor spokesperson Ted Fitzgerald told the New Hampshire Union Leader an investigation by OSHA into the incident found no violations of workplace health or safety standards. Despite an extensive investigation, fire officials and other agencies could not identify an exact cause around the time of the incident. A hospital spokesperson told the New Hampshire Union Leader EH also investigated and will likely release a statement later this month. More articles on workforce: US physicians supported 12.6M jobs in 2015: 5 findings Healthcare adds 31k jobs in December; hospital job growth picks up 10 quotes from male nurses on the professional stigma they face (and are working to change) Five spine surgeons weigh in on the biggest areas for opportunity in spine care in the coming year. Ask Spine Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to spine surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting spine care. We invite all spine surgeon and specialist responses. Next week's question: What are key trends to expect in the biologics arena in the next five years? Please send responses to Anuja Vaidya at avaidya@beckershealthcare.com by Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 5 p.m. CST. Question: What are some of the biggest opportunities for spine surgeons in 2018? J. Brian Gill, MD. Spine Surgeon at Nebraska Spine Hospital (Omaha): There has been a push to do more procedures in an outpatient setting. Surgeons have to be more selective in their patient population. A greater emphasis is being placed on preoperative narcotic use, smoking status, obesity and general health. All of these components are extremely important. Surgeons are becoming more aware of these issues and their effect on procedures in an outpatient setting. Thus, many surgeons must address these issues preoperatively more so than they may have done in the past. Vladimir Sinkov, MD. Spine Surgeon at New Hampshire Orthopaedic Center (Nashua): MIS spine surgery techniques are becoming easier to learn and more effective. I would recommend every spine surgeon become familiar with them and offer them to their patients when appropriate. With less pain and quicker recovery after MIS surgery, more spine procedures will be moving from hospitals to ASCs. Spine surgery biologics for fusion and non-fusion procedures and robotic technology will continue to improve and evolve in 2018 as well. Brian R. Gantwerker, MD. Founder of the Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: I think as a group, we have the ability to use data from peer-reviewed studies to support the use of motion-preserving devices. Devices such as coflex as well as cervical and lumbar arthroplasty devices should be and will be covered by insurers. Quite simply, motion-preserving devices are not just equivalent, but are appearing in some circumstances to be superior to previously used devices. I think we as surgeons have the opportunity to leverage data, experience and expertise to get patients the right treatments, and not just the cheapest. Richard Kube, MD. Founder and CEO of Prairie Spine & Pain Institute (Peoria, Ill.): I believe there will be more widespread bundled payment acceptance. In particular, as the self-insured market becomes educated regarding the free market and its potential impact on medical care and huge savings for the insured, we will see this sector grow. Those folks who embrace price transparency and deliver value-based care will have a leg up in this market. It is estimated that one-in-three insured individuals obtain coverage through a self-insured employer. That is a big opportunity. Payam Farjoodi, MD. Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at Spine Health Center at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center (Fountain Valley, Calif.): Continuing to collect data showing the value and efficacy of our treatments for the different types of spine pathology. Healthcare is becoming increasingly results-driven and in order to demonstrate the importance of what we do, we need to work hard on collecting outcomes and publishing this information in a concise way. Jackie Henry, senior partner at Deloitte, with Trevor Connolly, director of business engagement at the Department for the Economy Graduates are being offered the chance to join a new 'robotics academy' at a top accountancy firm. Deloitte has launched a new Robotics Automation Academy, offering over 20 graduates the opportunity to join its Belfast office. The scheme, backed by Department for the Economy, will help "graduates gain the skills, knowledge and experience required to pursue a career" in the growing world of robotics. The 12-week training programme will be delivered by Belfast Met and those successful will "gain an industry recognised qualification and a potential offer of employment from Deloitte", the firm said. "Automation in the workplace is the first step towards what we see as the future of work and has the potential to transform how our clients deliver their products and services to customers," Jackie Henry, senior partner at Deloitte said. "In the future we are going to see humans increasingly working alongside their digital workforce counterparts. "Robotics and process automation, alongside data visualisation, are key priorities for Deloitte so I'm delighted to launch our new academy in conjunction with the Department for the Economy, which will enhance our capability and create key skills here in Belfast." Trevor Connolly, director of business engagement at the Department for the Economy, said: "Through the Assured Skills programme graduates have been able to gain employment in a variety of high quality jobs in Northern Ireland, which has had a significant positive impact upon the local economy. "Over 85% of graduates who have previously participated in our academies have secured high quality jobs, many in cutting edge technologies, demonstrating how our Assured Skills programme is not only delivering for growing businesses but also for our young people." Each graduate will be paid 150 a week while training and applications close on January 26. Major tenants are already in discussions about moving into two soon-to-be refurbished Belfast office buildings as part of a 16m investment. Damian Mitchell, property director of developer Paddy Kearney's Causeway Asset Management, said it's spending the money to revamp its Nine Lanyon Place and Chichester House buildings. "We are in discussions with some (tenants)... but they want to see you on site. The market needs to see it's real," he said. "We are in talks, but we want to take the building to a point, but engage with an end user." Work is under way on both Nine Lanyon Place, which is currently home to Allstate, and Chichester House. "We started in the main common area (at Nine Lanyon Place) and we are going to be spending 8m on it," he added. He said the first tenants could be in place by as early as the third quarter of this year. As regards Chichester House, he said that following an initial strip-out, more substantial work is due to begin later this month. Mr Mitchell added that tenants could be in as early as the start of next year, and it's already in talks with companies which could rent as much as half of the building. President Michael D Higgins (centre) and his wife Sabina present Liam Neeson with a Distinguished Service for the Irish Abroad award at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin. Laura Hutton/PA Wire Liam Neeson speaks after he was presented with a Distinguished Service for the Irish Abroad award by President Michael D Higgins (right) at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin. Laura Hutton/PA Wire President Michael D Higgins (left) presents Liam Neeson with a Distinguished Service for the Irish Abroad award at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin. Laura Hutton/PA Wire President Michael D Higgins (centre) and his wife Sabina present Liam Neeson with a Distinguished Service for the Irish Abroad award at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin. Laura Hutton/PA Wire Liam Neeson speaks after he was presented with a Distinguished Service for the Irish Abroad award by President Michael D Higgins (not pictured) at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin. Laura Hutton/PA Wire President Michael D Higgins (left) presents Liam Neeson with a Distinguished Service for the Irish Abroad award at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin. Laura Hutton/PA Wire An emotional Liam Neeson has received an award from the President of Ireland for his contribution to the country and humanity. Receiving the honour, the Northern Irish actor revealed that he was wary of giving public addresses. "My fear, and it's a genuine fear, is public speaking. "Everyone says 'oh, you're an actor, you should be good at that.' It's just not true," he said. Neeson was presented with the Presidential Distinguished Service Award by President Michael D Higgins at his official residence in Dublin - the Aras an Uachtarain - on Friday. The award highlights the outstanding work by Irish people living overseas across a range of areas, from sport to science, charity or community support. The Taken star, who appeared slightly emotional as he received the award, said he was "honoured" and "very humbled". He said he would continue to "fly the flag for Irish arts" and the charity Unicef, of which he is a goodwill ambassador. President Higgins described the Ballymena native as a "splendid Irish man abroad" and a "worthy recipient" of the award. "We started the awards in 2012 to give recognition to the contribution of Irish people living abroad who have made a distinguished contribution, not just to Ireland, but to humanity in general. "And indeed, that is the case in the case of Liam Neeson", he said. Mr Higgins added: "I think our reason for having the award is to be able to say the Irish family isn't defined by national borders or territories. "It is defined by care, compassion, a shared culture and heritage, a common sense of responsibility, a consciousness of our historic experience and also the importance of Ireland contributing dynamically to a future that would be humane and more compassionate and just. "Liam Neeson qualifies by all of this criteria". The citation for Neeson's award reads: "As an extremely gifted and internationally renowned film actor, Liam Neeson has helped to raise Ireland's profile and awareness of Ireland and Irish artists around the world, especially in the United States where he is based." The actor, who also starred in Steven Spielberg's highly acclaimed Schindler's List, is a strong supporter of the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, where he started his career, and the Irish Arts Centre in New York, where he currently lives. He has given strong support in recent years for Irish cultural projects and has provided strong personal support for a variety of initiatives to promote tourism to Ireland. He has also been supporting Unicef's Believe In Zero campaign in Ireland and the United States which highlights the plight of the eight million children who die before their fifth birthday every year. While in Dublin the star is due to attend the gala screening of his new movie The Commuter on Friday evening. The cast of Beauty Queen And Single (from left) Karen Montague, Ashleigh Coyle, Orlaith McAllister, Gemma Garrett, Rebecca Maguire and Amira Graham The second series of Beauty Queen and Single is returning to television screens next week and BBC Northern Ireland has released two teaser trailers for the upcoming show. The six-part series kicks off on Monday, January 15 following the success of its pilot programme last year. It saw former Miss Great Britain Gemma Garrett scale back her usual style to find Mr Right, and showed viewers her natural beauty. She proceeded to go on five back-to-back dates, and chose one lucky man to meet again for a second time. Fans of the series were disappointed there was only one episode to enjoy and now a new run of shows will see Gemma being joined by ex-Miss Irelands Rebecca Maguire and Karen Montague, former Miss Derry and Big Brother star Ashleigh Coyle, and ex-Miss Belfast Orlaith McAllister, who appeared in Big Brother, too. Also there will be a former Miss Earth Northern Ireland Amira Graham. The BBC's official blurb for the show describes how "six bare-faced beauty queens strip off the make-up, shake off the stilettos and go au naturel to see if beauty is just skin deep when it comes to finding the perfect partner". Ahead of the series opener, a trailer for the show has been released by BBC NI with Rebecca telling the camera: "I will arrive late, I'm not going to arrive ugly" while Gemma added: "If I was going out on a Saturday night, I would start getting ready during the week." In a second teaser video, former Big Brother contestant Ashleigh explains: "I think a lot of people would pre-judge me. It's very easy to think that I love myself and that I think the world revolves around me." We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Beauty Queen and Single airs on BBC NI on Monday, January 15 at 10.40pm. The second episode of Derry Girls aired on Thursday night - and from the reaction, the comedy about four Maiden City girls and their English friend turned the craic up to the full 90. This week the girls - and boy - got excited about the forthcoming 'eurotrotters' trip to Paris - only for the price to put a dent in their enthusiasm. They then went in search of ways of bridging the gap in paying for the trip, once they realised their parents' hadn't thought of starting a trust fund as it turns out "they may be poor". The appearance of comedian Kevin McAleer pleased many while the discussion on how many bags of chips were needed for dinner rang true for many a Northern Ireland household. The show ended with the lot of them tied to radiators and a tall tale concerning a scented candle - pure class. And it had Twitter in hysterics. Read More We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Lets face it - January is a tough month. Weve had one too many mince pies over the festive period and feel rubbish for it, the weather is colder than ever and to top it off, payday cant come quick enough. Thankfully, we might have the answer to brighten up your winter blues - DIY cocktails. You probably think that making cocktails at home isnt worth the hassle. You have to buy the right tools and then you have to invest in premium spirits, mixers and garnishes, and they never turn out as good as they do on your night out. But we caught up with some of Northern Ireland's most-loved brands to bring you fool-proof recipes, tips and tricks for at-home cocktail-making. So get the glassware out and the gang round and say no to the January blues. Aim for the element of surprise. Davy Uprichard, founder of locally-produced, Tempted Cider said: Cider isnt an obvious cocktail choice but when used in the right way, a good quality craft cider makes for a deliciously fruity and refreshing creation. Surprise your guests with our Elderflower and Prosecco creation - not only is it a crowd-pleaser, its also an affordable option as you only need one bottle of Tempted for four to six cocktails. Ingredients Tempted Elderflower Prosecco Method Set out your champagne flutes, and pour Tempted Elderflower about two-thirds of the way into each glass. Top up with your favourite, mid-tier Prosecco. Gerry White, founder of Jawbox Small Batch Gin said: Were very lucky to live in Belfast, surrounded by talented bar-folk and creative cocktail menus. Of course, we cant re-create every cocktail at home, but a few simple tricks will deliver an exciting, bar-quality experience, every time. Try incorporating the unexpected and unusual for the surprise factor. Simple changes like chilling your mixers will make a huge difference too. Our Perfect Swerve is as simple as it gets - we use ginger ale as an alternative to tonic for a new taste experience and lasting impression. Ingredients 35ml Jawbox Small Batch Gin 100ml Fever Tree Ginger Ale or any other premium ginger ale Lime to garnish Method Pour Jawbox into an ice-filled mug. Top up with refreshing, chilled ginger ale, squeeze and drop in a wedge of lime. Work with what you already have. Gerry also has advice for those more adventurous. He said: If you want to create something more complex, the majority of the tools that bar people use can be substituted for everyday household items so cocktail-making at home, doesnt have to be expensive. A shaker can be replaced with a jam jar or protein shaker, and instead of a juicer you can squeeze by hand. "To smash and bind ingredients, you can use a wooden spoon instead of a muddler and a tea strainer will work just as well as a cocktail strainer. "Our Negroni is a great one to try with the kitchen utensils you already have at home. Ingredients 35ml Jawbox Small Batch Gin 35ml Campari 35ml Sweet Vermouth Orange peel to garnish Method Add the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice until chilled. Stir with a wooden spoon. Strain through your tea strainer into a glass and garnish with orange peel. A little effort goes a long way. The joy of cocktails isnt just their taste, but their appearance too. When it comes to presentation, you can make an Instagram showstopper with just a little effort. Make your ice from bottled water to deliver a clean, shiny finish. For extra impact, add lemon juice, mint, basil, lavender, fruit, or spices such as cinnamon before freezing. Not only do the cubes look great when frozen, they also add a little kick to your flavour profile. says White. When it comes to saving money, Gerry reminds us to use ingredients wisely. He said: If youve already bought a lime, or a lemon or any other fruit to add to your cocktail, dont throw the remainder away and always hold on to the peel. From curls, to wheels, to zest, the peel is great for decoration. Dont forget to freeze any leftover fruit so you have it to hand the next time too. Dont splurge on the unnecessary. Set to shake-up the gin-scene in 2018, Braemble is developed by industry heroes, Mike Aikman and Jason Scott, along with gin-genius Craig Harper. Already a firm favourite with local cocktail hotspots, The Ivory, Love & Death and Town Square, Braemble is a lush mix of blackberries and superior London Dry Gin. The guys at Braemble said: Youll find most of your favourite cocktails follow the same formula so if youre clever about it, you dont need to buy a full bar to make a selection of impressive cocktails. The cornerstone of cocktail-making is understanding the difference between strong and weak, and sour and sweet. "When we say strong, were talking about the base component of the drink, the main spirit such as gin. When we say weak' were talking about complementary additions like liqueurs or fortified wines. 'Sour' means your citrus fruits and sweet is your sugar and syrups. Almost all of the cocktails you're likely to make will consist of both strong and sour so invest there, but you can save a lot by making your own sugar syrup from sugar and water which will keep for about three weeks in the fridge. Fresh limes and lemons are much cheaper and much tastier than bottled juices. Braemble is unique in that it can be enjoyed both as a on its own or in cocktails - a great choice for entertaining in January. For a simple, yet sublime experience, enioy 50ml Braemble on its own in a rocks glass over ice or try The Braemble. Ingredients 25ml of your favourite gin 25ml Braemble 20ml fresh lemon juice 10ml sugar syrup Method Pour gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup into a rocks glass, fill with crushed ice and stir. Top with more crushed ice and cap with Braemble. Research before you invest. Industry experts have predicted that 2018 will be the year of rum. UK sales of rum reached 991m for the nine months to the end of September in 2017, according to the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA). Red Bonny Rum, a dark rum produced in Guyana and inspired by one of Irelands most adventurous female pirates, Anne Bonny, has experienced continued growth locally over the last 12 months. Steven Pattison of Drinksology, the Belfast-based company behind the brands success, said: The rum category is definitely the category to watch this year. We are still in the middle of the huge gin revival but rum is an interesting category set to increase in popularity and accessibility in the coming year. Most of the best-loved cocktail bars both locally, and across the world now stock a wide selection of premium rums on their menus. The good news for those making cocktails at home this month and into 2018 is that rum is incredibly versatile. It can be used in a variety of drinks and will please a variety of palates. From white rum in classic favourites like mojitos and daiquiris to dark rum in tiki-style, Mai Tais and Pina Coladas that are emerging as the comeback cocktail trend of the year ahead. To experience the unique flavour profile of a dark rum, try Red Bonnys Fire in the Hole, an easy to make at home and affordable option for those new to rum or indeed new to at home mixology. Method Pour 50ml Red Bonny Dark Rum and the juice of one fresh orange into an ice-filled, old fashioned glass. Garnish with the remaining orange wedge. The Duke of Cambridge (right) and Taoiseach Enda Kenny lay wreaths at the 16th Irish Division Memorial Cross last year in Belgium When Glen Barr died last October, I attended his funeral at Ebrington Presbyterian Church, in Londonderry. As we were leaving the church, I spoke to a number of mourners, one of whom was Paddy Harte Jnr. He is the son of the man who, along with Glen, founded the Messines Project in the 1990s. Paddy Harte Snr was too frail to travel from Raphoe in Donegal; but it was important that he was represented by his family. I asked his son to pass on my appreciation for his efforts, over many years. Paddy Harte and Glen Barr had had their differences latterly, but that must not take away from their seminal work in the Nineties, when the two men broke new ground with the Messines Project. This week, Paddy Harte died and so a door closes on a part of Irish history which I have been privileged to observe, and report. I first came across Paddy Harte when I was a junior journalist in the Seventies. I interviewed him in his constituency of Donegal North East, where he served as TD for 36 years, until his retirement in 1997. Paddy represented a border constituency, during the most difficult of times, but he wasn't afraid to look across that border. As a Donegal TD, his most direct route to the Dail in Dublin was through Northern Ireland. The road took him past the scene of the Ballygawley bus bomb in 1988 which killed eight soldiers and wounded another 28. In the aftermath of the attack, I remember Paddy Harte - without any fuss or fanfare - deciding to stop at the scene, to pay his respects. There were no votes in it; and he was criticised by republicans. But, here was a man, who was consistent in seeking to understand and reconcile the different traditions on the island. Representing a border constituency, he had that understanding. It was no surprise, then, when, years later, I found myself reporting on the early efforts of Paddy and Glen Barr to set up the Messines Project. They were two men from diametrically opposed political views, but they could find common ground in the battlefield of the Somme. As they stood underneath the arch of the imposing memorial to the missing at Thiepval, Paddy and Glen pledged to remember the Irish dead of the Great War - all the Irish dead. Witnessed by people from different backgrounds, and from all over Ireland - as well as television cameras - the two men set about accelerating the change of our mindset to remembering the war dead. They decided to work with the young, Catholic and Protestant, from all over Ireland. It was a major effort. Its aim - not to repeat the mistakes of the past. It was also hugely symbolic, because these people were similar ages to those soldiers who had fought and died side by side in France and Belgium. They channelled their collective anger into a new organisation which became known as The Journey of Reconciliation Trust. With the support of the British and Irish Governments - due in no small measure to these two men - the 'Island of Ireland Peace Park' in Messines became a joint memorial to all those from the island who fought and died in The Great War. This extraordinary initiative was officially dedicated by the Queen, and President Mary McAleese, on November 11, 1998. It was another step along the road in transforming British-Irish relations. Not content with his involvement at Messines, Paddy Harte was the leading light in the publication of the 'County Donegal Book of Honour'. It was designed to reclaim the memory of those from the county, who had died during the Great War. The book awakened people from a collective amnesia. Very quickly, it was out of date - and out of stock. Donegal County Museum will be publishing the latest edition, in November, to coincide with the centenary of the end of the First World War. Paddy Harte and Glen Barr could have been affectionately dubbed 'fish and chips'. They were always together, and, in their day, were never out of the papers. Messines will be their enduring legacy. We owe it to both men to ensure that their work continues and that the disgraceful neglect of the Irish of The Great War will never be repeated. An inquest for a baby girl will not hear from all the witnesses who testified at a criminal trial that saw her father acquitted of murder, a coroner has said. The inquest examining three-month-old Caragh Walsh's death from head injuries in 2014 will mainly focus on the oral evidence of doctors who treated her, a preliminary hearing in Belfast was told. Coroner Joe McCrisken said the inquest proceedings would have access to the transcript of Christopher O'Neill's trial and could refer to other witness evidence during the course of the inquest. As well as medics, Caragh's mother Tammy Louise Walsh will also give evidence during the proceedings, but it was not confirmed during Thursday's hearing whether Mr O'Neill will take to the witness box. Mr McCrisken stressed that the inquest was a fact-finding exercise and served a different purpose to criminal proceedings. "This is an inquest and not a criminal trial," he told lawyers at Belfast Coroners' Court. In February 2017, a jury found Mr O'Neill, from Whiterock Road in Belfast, not guilty of murdering his baby daughter. He has always vehemently denied he would have done anything to hurt his child. In February 2014, Caragh was rushed from her Glasvey home in Twinbrook in west Belfast to hospital with head injuries. She died there two days later. Her inquest is due to start on April 4 and last for one week. Britain First's Northern Ireland Facebook page has been removed from the social network. The page has been promoting the right wing group in Northern Ireland in recent weeks. It has been promoted by Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen. However, on Thursday it was removed from the site. An item about British castles, and how great they were, was the final post on the page at about 4pm before it disappeared. The Belfast Telegraph was contacted by a man, who asked to remain anonymous, who said he had reported a post concerning Muslims from the start of the month which he found offensive. He said he was contacted on Thursday by the social network to say the profile had been deleted. The deletion of the page comes after the group and its leaders were suspended from Twitter. Read More Facebook and Britain First have been approached for a comment. The box was taken from Enniskillen Presbyterian Church. A cash box has been taken from a Fermanagh church. The box was taken from Enniskillen Presbyterian Church last weekend. Police said: "Any suspicious activity around East Bridge Street or Queen Elizabeth Road entrances during that time or indeed if the thief gets a conscience, please contact Enniskillen police." Yesterday's homecoming was a particularly poignant moment for Commanding Officer Neil Bellamy, after what was his last tour The commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion The Rifles has spoken of his pride at finishing his front line career on a high, taking his unit to Iraq to help stabilise the region and bringing them all home safely this week. It was a delayed homecoming for the Ulster soldiers of the unit yesterday - they arrived a day late after fog prevented their plane from landing at RAF Aldergrove on Wednesday. Despite coming within sight of the airport, they were forced to turn back to RAF Brize Norton. But yesterday afternoon the troops finally saw the welcome sight of their home base at Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn following six months in the searing Middle East heat. Yesterday's homecoming was a particularly poignant moment for Commanding Officer Neil Bellamy, after what was his last tour. Colonel Bellamy said that the tour meant 2 Rifles providing security support to the Iraqi security forces. During a six-month deployment in Iraq the unit took part in Operation Shader, the UK's contribution to the war against Islamic State in Iraq. Riflemen stood guard over the Al Asad Airbase, supporting Iraqi operations to retake towns seized by IS in 2014. "For us that meant providing security to a large coalition base in Anbar, western Iraq, and also training the Iraqi security forces," Col Bellamy said. One of the difficulties the battalion faced was dealing with the summer heat, which rose to more than 45 degrees at times. But Col Bellamy added: "The most challenging aspect for us was for a lot of the guys being away from home for the first time, and being away at Christmas. "But more importantly, understanding a changing situation from defeating Daesh (another name for Islamic State) to creating stability in a difficult part of the world." He went on to put on record his pride at bringing the unit back safely. "After I leave here I am off to Army headquarters, but as you can imagine, it has been absolutely fantastic to finish on a high, taking the battalion away on operations as well as bringing them all back safely," he said. No longer routinely committed to security operations in Northern Ireland, 2 Rifles is part of the British Army's Adaptive Force that deploys on operations worldwide at short notice. A Sixties tower and a modernist teaching block may not be among Belfast's most celebrated examples of architecture - but they could receive historical listing to ensure they are preserved for future generations. A quartet of modern buildings are being considered for listing by Belfast City Council's planning committee next week. They include the Ashby Building on Stranmillis Road, which houses the Queen's University School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Erected between 1961 and 1965, it was designed by Cruikshank and Seward and includes a tower block, a courtyard building and a two-storey lecture theatre constructed mostly from concrete in the 20th century Rationalist style. Planning committee minutes note it is "one of the best examples of a large scale, modernist, in situ concrete building in Northern Ireland and a landmark building in south Belfast", and recommend a B+ listing. Another of the four is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Annadale Avenue, which was built in 1969 and is a rare example of a "self-build" Modernist church. The minutes note it was erected by the congregation, and has a "striking Modernist appearance". It is recommended for B1 listing. The next, a Modernist detached house in the Notting Hill area of south Belfast, was built in 1980. It was designed by Northern Ireland-born interior designer Brian Lowe, whose consultancy became renowned for creating the Body Shop's original 'green box' store concept. It boasts many contemporary features including exposed in situ concrete heads (Breton brut), original black painted metal windows, and what the minutes describe as a "remarkable interior" that is part open plan and features a hallway atrium with original staircase and first floor gallery. It also has a "wealth of bespoke fitted furniture and fixtures throughout". It is recommended for B2 listing. The fourth property is the central building adjacent to Stranmillis House at Stranmillis College. It is described as a "large Modernist university teaching block" that was erected around 1968 by The Ministry of Finance under the direction of architect HH Wightman. It consists of a three-storey courtyard building with three smaller blocks and a drum building at its corners, all connected to the main block via glazed links, and is mainly constructed in concrete. The minutes say that it "represents a good example of large academic building designed in the Modernist style", with internal detailing intact. It is recommended for B1 listing. Ulster Architectural Heritage Society chief executive Nikki McVeigh welcomed the proposals "in recognition of their historical and architectural significance". "The buildings presented for listing represent good examples of 20th century architecture and the style and detailing characteristic of the 1960-70s period. "These particular listings include a variety of residential, ecclesiastical and educational buildings, giving a very good overview and insight into the architecture of the period. "They are all characterised by the quality of their largely original interiors and the excellent condition that their owners have maintained. Examples of modern architecture are perhaps too often overlooked. Therefore these listings are to be welcomed." Police have deployed drones over Cave Hill outside Belfast in a search for a missing man. Michael Cullen (33) was last in contact with his family on Tuesday at around 2pm. He is from the North Circular Road area of north Belfast. Michael 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 5ft 11in with dark hair and a beard. He was wearing a green puffa jacket, grey jumper and black trousers before he went missing. Friends have organised searches and appeals through a Facebook group called Help Find Michael Cullen. Teams took to Cave Hill yesterday to aid the search effort. Rory Girvan, organiser of the group, said they "optimistic" during a search of Cave Hill yesterday. He said Michael was "well-loved" and probably Ireland's best beatbox performer. He said his disappearance was "highly out of character". The head of the civil service has said "crunch time" for a decision on the Northern Ireland budget for the forthcoming financial year is the start of February. David Sterling said that while he would prefer a local Executive run by elected MLAs in place "someone had to make a decision". In a rare interview, given to the BBC, Mr Sterling, who has been the effective head of government in Northern Ireland, said the current situation could not continue, saying he didn't think it could have lasted as long as it has. This week marked one year since the late Martin McGuinness resigned as deputy First Minister bringing down the Stormont institutions. Talks between the parties have failed to produce a breakthrough while the Secretary of State has had to intervene in ensuring public services continue. "I never thought we would be able to survive this long without mininsters," said Mr Sterling, "Every day it is becoming more challenging because every day there are decisions that need to be made that require the direction of ministers. "Without that direction it is becoming increasing difficult obviously to continue to deliver services people deserve." Mr Sterling said the lack of an agreed budget for the incoming financial year meant departments could not plan ahead "with confidence". "The beginning of February is the crunch point," he said. "If we look at the challenges facing the health service, the sooner they have budget, the sooner they can plan services they can provide to citizens." He added: "Speaking on behalf of the whole civil service we fervently want a functioning local Executive back. We need our ministers back we are part of this place and part of this society. It is important to us we have our own people making these decisions on the allocations of resources and the delivery of public services. "If there isn't an Executive then someone will have to take the decision and put a budget in place." Hutchinson (29), of Floraville in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis and intending to supply, as well as having criminal property in the form of cash A judge has warned he is running out of patience with a persistent offender, whom a court was told needs "a road to Damascus" conversion to prevent another decade of his life being destroyed by the scourge of drugs. During a sentencing hearing for Gary Hutchinson, funds from drug dealing seized in a police search were ordered to be donated to charity. Hutchinson (29), of Floraville in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis and intending to supply, as well as having criminal property in the form of cash. He arrived at Dungannon Crown Court for sentencing, dressed in a grey sweatshirt and jeans. The court heard police stopped a vehicle being driven by Hutchinson in Enniskillen on May 26 last year. He was found to have a bag containing a small amount of cannabis. Police then conducted a search of Hutchinson's home, where a significant amount of cannabis was recovered, nearly half-a-kilo. Given the amount involved, officers concluded this was intended for supply to others. In addition, 2,202.66 and a quantity of euros were recovered. Hutchinson admitted the offences. A defence barrister conceded his client had a record of 53 convictions, but was a model remand prisoner on enhanced status. He said: "My client accepts he has a drug addiction and understands he needs to go through a 'road to Damascus' conversion." His Honour Judge Stephen Fowler QC remarked: "It is clear he has issues but he simply cannot stay away from drugs. If he is not before the courts for using drugs, it is for thieving to fund his habit. He's ruining his entire life and is frankly becoming a nuisance. He needs to sort himself out or there will be increasingly longer prison sentences. "Drugs are a scourge in his life. They have destroyed his 20s and I have no doubt will do the same to his 30s if he doesn't change his ways." Addressing Hutchinson, Judge Fowler said: "I have sentenced you in the past and I am running out of patience." He imposed a term of 12 months imprisonment - six months in custody and the rest on licence - and ordered the drugs be destroyed and the cash donated to charity. Sean Cairan McCallan admitted three charges arising from the drink-fuelled altercation, which occurred in the New Lodge on the evening of June 7, 2016 A 42-year-old father-of-six who shot at a neighbour in the communal area of a block of flats in north Belfast before pistol-whipping him has been sent to prison. Sean Cairan McCallan admitted three charges arising from the drink-fuelled altercation, which occurred in the New Lodge on the evening of June 7, 2016. Belfast Crown Court heard that while the weapon in question has never been recovered, it is believed to have been either a pellet gun or starter pistol. McCallan, from Fianna House, was handed a sentence of two years and six months for the "sinister act". Judge Geoffrey Miller QC told McCallan he will serve half the sentence in prison and half on licence after his release. The court heard that events prior to the incident were confused due to conflicting accounts, but CCTV footage showed McCallan walking out of his flat with a weapon in his hand. In the footage, McCallan points the gun and shoots at a neighbour, who turns his back on McCallan and crouches down beside a stairwell. McCallan then ratchets the weapon, which causes a round of ammunition to fall to the floor, before hitting the victim over the head with the gun. A Crown prosecutor said the injured man then left the communal area and sought out the concierge, who was a relative, while McCallan returned to his flat. Prosecutor Philip Henry said the two were among a group of people who had been drinking in McCallan's flat. An argument broke out, which spilled into the communal area, where the gun was used by McCallan against his neighhour. The injured man - who has a criminal record that includes violent offences - was treated in hospital for a number of injuries, including a cut to the back of his head and a 2cm puncture wound to his stomach. The court heard he told a doctor he had been shot with a pellet gun. When McCallan was arrested and questioned, he initially denied the offences. However, he had since pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear, possession of ammunition in suspicious circumstances, and assaulting his neighbour. Defence barrister Jonathan Browne told Judge Miller "a number of different accounts" had been given by the injured man, some of which were plainly not true, and urged the judge to view these versions of events "with a degree of caution". Pointing out that all parties had been drinking before the incident in the communal hall, Mr Browne described what happened as a "domestic ... all the parties knew each other". The barrister said McCallan had significant mobility and mental health issues, and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in the mid-2000s due to a serious assault and a bad car crash. These mobility issues, Mr Browne said, had led to McCallan becoming isolated within the community. Jailing McCallan, Judge Miller said the fact he pistol-whipped his neighbour after both firing then ratcheting the weapon showed a "callousness and determination to inflict physical harm". Judge Miller also described the incident as "a fall-out between people who knew each other, and who had spent time in each other's company when alcohol, and most likely narcotics, had been consumed". Friends and family have been searching for missing Michael. A missing Northern Ireland man has been described as Ireland's best beat-box performer. Michael "Cull" Cullen has performed his talent to audiences all over the UK in cities including London and Dublin. The 33-year-old has videos on his YouTube page of performances at the L'Oreal colour show in 2017 and the Prince's Trust Celebrate Success Awards. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Friends have organised searches and appeals through a Facebook page titled 'Help Find Michael Cullen'. Speaking during a search of Cave Hill on Thursday, the group's organiser Rory Girvan said they were "optimistic". He said Michael was "well-loved" and probably Ireland's best beatbox performer. Michael, who is from the North Circular Road area of Belfast, was reported missing by his family on Tuesday. Michael is 5ft 11in with dark hair and a beard. He was last seen wearing a dark green parka, a grey jumper and black jeans. Rory Girvan added his disappearance was "highly out of character". Police said his family were growing increasingly concerned and have appealed for anyone who has seen him to get in touch. Members of the public are urged to contact the non-emergency number of 101, quoting reference number 622 9/1/18. By the close of the next financial year (2017/18), Mr Hamilton estimates the bill for the PSNI's Legacy and Justice Department will top 13,273,000 The PSNI Chief Constable has spoken out about his frustration over the failure of politicians to deal with the past as he revealed that policing the issue will cost the PSNI more than 25 million in the next financial year. George Hamilton has urged them to reach agreement on legacy. He acknowledged that it was a "challenging issue", but emphasised that, as a society, "we have come too far and achieved too much to give up". "As Chief Constable I am frustrated and concerned by the absence of progress on dealing with the past. But this cannot compare to the raw hurt and pain that grieving families experience," Mr Hamilton said. He also explained he had warned politicians mere weeks after he was appointed to his job in 2014 that action was needed to address the legacy of the past "if policing, and indeed our peace process, is not to be dragged backward". And he warned that the "failure to make progress on dealing with the past over the last three years has come at both a financial cost and a cost to confidence in policing". "And that cost will continue to increase the longer that the ongoing delay continues", Mr Hamilton added, writing in today's Belfast Telegraph. Since the winding up of the Historical Enquiries Team in 2014 the responsibility for dealing with the backlog of thousands of Troubles cases has fallen for the most part to the PSNI. The Coroner's Office has also been dealing with historical investigations through inquests, and the Police Ombudsman likewise examines a number of cases. In a letter to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Mr Hamilton warned that the cost to the PSNI of policing the past had been increasing steadily in recent years. He supplied figures in his correspondence, which show costs rising year-on-year from 10m in 2016/17, to 7m for the current financial year up to December. By the close of the next financial year (2017/18), Mr Hamilton estimates the bill for the PSNI's Legacy and Justice Department will top 13,273,000. However, he warned that these figures do not include the costs of the "wider organisational support services". He added that an estimate of the PSNI's "overall organisational effort towards legacy" in the 2017/18 financial year "could be in the region of 25m". Mr Hamilton supplied the figures to the committee following his appearance there in October. The hefty, growing bill for policing the past includes 5.3m for Operation Kenova, the probe into the activities of Freddie Scappaticci, the IRA man believed to be the British Army informer codenamed Stakeknife, and 3.8m for the Legacy Investigation Branch. It also includes 829,000 on Operation Klina, an investigation into the actions of security service personnel in relation to an alleged shoot-to-kill operation at a hayshed at Ballynerry Road North, Lurgan, on November 24, 1982. Michael Tighe (17) was shot dead and 19-year-old Martin McCauley was seriously injured when RUC officers opened fire on the hayshed. Another 2.1m was spent by the Fingerprint Branch. Mr Hamilton has previously spoken about how the cost of policing the past is diverting much-needed resources from front line services. The 25m projected spend for 2017/18 is enough to pay the salaries of around 1,000 new police constables earning a starting salary of 22,443. Last year Mr Hamilton warned the service was facing a 20m cut in funds, and that it was "no longer possible to absorb cuts without impacting directly on police officer numbers". DUP MP Ian Paisley, who sits on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, said: "It's a shocking cost and it means that, effectively, taxpayers' money raised today is being spent on yesterday's problems. "We're never, ever going to get ahead and deal with key policing decisions today and tomorrow if we maintain this funding strategy." Mr Paisley added that the Chief Constable had "good cause" to challenge the Government and demand it find another line of funding instead of continuing to drain vital capital from front line policing. He said: "Ultimately the decision has to be taken by a British Government minister. "They can dodge this one but, sooner or later, the bullet will catch up with them and I think these figures show this is a live matter." One of the teenager's lawyers, Pearse MacDermott from McCann and McCann Solicitors, said 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 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, said 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 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". He added: "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." 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 PSNI were contacted for comment. John McCabe holds the rock that was thrown through his window before Christmas A former Sinn Fein activist in Newry has claimed party supporters are waging a violent hate campaign against him because of his repeated criticism of its activities - including its response to Barry McElduff's Kingsmill video. But John McCabe, who had a window in his home smashed just before Christmas, has vowed that he won't be silenced by the attacks. "It feels like I'm under siege, but I won't bow down to bullies," said Mr McCabe (52), who is involved in cross-community work in the city. "I am on medication and I'm not sleeping properly, waiting for the next thing to happen, but they don't scare me and I will keep on saying what I think." Mr McCabe, whose claims have been denied by Sinn Fein, has been an outspoken critic of his erstwhile colleagues on social media - no more so than in recent days after the party suspended its West Tyrone MP for three months. It came after Mr McElduff posted a video of himself with a Kingsmill loaf on his head on the 42nd anniversary of the massacre of 10 Protestant workmen outside the south Armagh village. Mr McCabe, who said he didn't believe the timing of the posting of the video was a coincidence, wrote on Facebook: "Sectarianism once again has been given the green light by the leadership of Sinn Fein in the North of Ireland." He said the party had "rewarded Barry McElduff with a three-month waged holiday for keeping the sectarian faith by mocking the murders of 10 innocent Protestants at Kingsmill back in 1976". He also posted: "RIP: The End of Sinn Fein's Respect Agenda; the Mask has Slipped." He criticised the party's former Finance Minister Mairtin O Muilleoir for retweeting his colleague's video, though he called him 'Martin Miller'. Mr McCabe said he believed the Kingsmill row had created the worst community relations in Newry and Armagh since the height of the Troubles. "All they're doing is isolating Protestants in Bessbrook and that greater area," he claimed. He said he believed most nationalists - including many Sinn Fein voters - were appalled by the Kingsmill controversy and wanted to reassure their Protestant neighbours that they shared their pain. Last month Mr McCabe - who has been campaigning for the erection of a statue to Newry-born legendary Celtic manager Willie Maley - claimed in the Belfast Telegraph that republicans may have been blocking the plans because Maley was the son of a British soldier. He said: "It wasn't long after the article appeared that my home was attacked. I can't directly link it to the story, but I'm convinced it was carried out by Sinn Fein Youth." A relative's home was also targeted. Mr McCabe said his house in Newry had been attacked at least five times before, mostly with missiles, although there had been attempts to start fires too. He also said that he once fled the house after a gang of men tried to break in. "They were obviously out to harm me and it was just by the grace of God that they didn't get me", he said. Mr McCabe was once an active member of Sinn Fein in Newry and wrote Press releases for the party. He said he had been arrested on "freelance" arms charges in the 1980s before he became aligned to the republican movement. He added: "I was never formally sworn in or anything like that. But if you ask me if I was supportive, I would have to say 'yes'." He was questioned about the murders of Army corporals David Howes and Derek Wood in west Belfast in 1988, but never charged. "I was drinking in a pub in Newry at the time, but a man in the video looked like me," he said. "I was beaten in Castlereagh and Gough Barracks." But Mr McCabe said that after relations with Sinn Fein soured he quit the party. "There was a whispering campaign and lies were spread about me on social media," he claimed. "I just had the good sense to leave. I'd met a girl and wanted out. I'm not a dissident," Mr McCabe added. He went to England to "get away from the hassle" but he was held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and later released before returning home. He said he was currently working on cross-community projects with, among others, the Church of Ireland in Newry. "And I don't think that sits too well with Sinn Fein, who talk about a shared space while I try to live it out," said Mr McCabe, who added that many nationalists agreed with his views on Sinn Fein. He went on: "A lot of people stop me in the street to say they back me, though they are too frightened to speak out. But I'm not." Sinn Fein denied having anything to do with the attacks on Mr McCabe. The party said: "No one should be subjected to hate and harassment. Sinn Fein absolutely refute any involvement in any of the incidents in question. Anyone with any information regarding these incidents should contact the PSNI immediately." A senior Sinn Fein MLA has called the Kingsmill massacre "shameful" in comments that have been described as "positive". John O'Dowd told BBC programme The View that he was "shamed" by the killings. It comes after Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff was suspended from the party for three months after he posted a video with a Kingsmill loaf on his head on the anniversary of the massacre of 10 Protestant workers. Read More Mr O'Dowd said: "Those who carried it out did not advance the cause of Irish unity in any way. "I am not surprised the Kingsmills families are so annoyed and will not accept what Sinn Fein has said [that the video was not intended to offend them] because republicans have hurt them and harmed them." Reacting UUP MLA Doug Beattie said they were "important words" and branded it a "positive moment". He tweeted: "I have only just heard John O'Dowd's comments on Kingsmill from last night. They were strong words, important words and extremely welcome words. A positive moment. "I accept them as his words not Sinn Fein's words. That needs to come as a statement from them with an acknowledgment the IRA was responsible." Meanwhile the DUP's Edwin Poots said the party will need to do "some sort of business with Sinn Fein" in order to restore Stormont. He said: "That involves, whether I like it, or whether I don't, or whether a lot of our supporters like it or don't, that will involve doing some sort of business with Sinn Fein. "And whether Sinn Fein supporters like it or not, it will involve doing some sort of business with the DUP." A study by a leading education think-tank has found that international students contribute 170m to Northern Ireland's economy each year (Chris Ison/PA) A study by a leading education think-tank has found that international students provide an annual boost of 170m to Northern Ireland's economy. The study by the Higher Education Policy Institute examined the intake of international students for the year 2015/16, and found a total of 231,065 enrolled in undergraduate and masters courses across the UK. Northern Ireland was the region least favoured by travelling students, with a total number of 2,445. London was the region with the most students, with an intake of 55,455. Scotland saw an intake of 25,380 students, while the South East received 26,775. Expand Close How international students were distributed around the UK / Credit: HEPI / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp How international students were distributed around the UK / Credit: HEPI The report examined the financial contribution of students based on tuition fees, accommodation and other living costs. Balanced against the costs overseas students are likely to place on the economy, the report found students from outside the EU can make an average net contribution of 95,000 to the UK economy over the duration of their study. The higher contribution is down to the fact overseas students typically pay higher fees. On average international students made a 31.3m net contribution for each of the UK's 650 parliamentary constituencies - which works out at an average of 310 per member of the resident population. In Northern Ireland, where there are less international students, this works out at 92 per member of the resident population. Northern Irish constituencies made up half of the bottom 20 when it came to net financial impact to different areas. Responding to the report, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute Nick Hillman said: "International students bring economic benefits to the UK that are worth ten times the costs 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. "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." Police have seized a "substantial" amount of firearms and ammunition in Ballymena as part of an investigation into organised crime. Searches were carried out in the Co Antrim town which resulted in the munitions find as well as a quantity of Class A drugs. A man (25) was later arrested in Belfast. Detective Inspector Chris Millar said: The search and arrest operation has removed a substantial number of firearms and ammunition from the streets which again demonstrates our ongoing commitment to keep people safe by removing anything which can harm our communities. I have no doubt that lives have been saved as these weapons can only inflict serious damage either through death or horrific injuries. I would appeal to the public to let police know of any organised criminality happening in their communities together we can tackle this blight on our society. Jim McVeigh protests about redundancy issues outside the Lagan House headquarters of Kingscourt Construction in 2012 From IRA bomber to Belfast City councillor, Sinn Fein's Jim McVeigh is stepping down from City Hall after seven years to concentrate on his work as a trade union activist. The 55-year-old was originally co-opted on to his council seat in 2010 to replace Pat Sheehan, now a West Belfast MLA, and became Sinn Fein's Belfast group leader. Still known by his nickname of 'Flash' McVeigh, he was jailed twice on bombing charges during the Troubles. His high rank in the IRA also saw him serve as the OC (Officer Commanding) in the Maze Prison. In 1992, he was jailed for 31 years for conspiring to murder soldiers, but was released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Reflecting on his time as a councillor, he said he felt privileged to hold the position and was particularly proud of the role his council team played in delivering investment and jobs for Belfast. He was known for his frequent heated exchanges with unionist councillors. In November, the DUP's Brian Kingston accused Mr McVeigh of trying to glorify terrorism during a debate on lowering the voting age. After references to the fact that 16-year-olds can join the Army, Mr McVeigh remarked that he too had "joined military forces at the age of 16, but it wasn't the British Army". In August, he helped pass a council motion allowing contractors to remove material from bonfire sites. Some unionists accused him of waging a cultural war against loyalism, but Mr McVeigh insisted he was only opposed to dangerous bonfires built too close to homes and those used for hate crimes like burning flags or pictures of politicians. When he leaves the council chamber next month, Mr McVeigh will focus on his work as a Sinn Fein and Trade Union activist with SIPTU (Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union). He said he wanted to advance workers' rights across Ireland and would continue to work closely with Sinn Fein chairperson Declan Kearney to develop the party's policy on workers' rights. A trial date is to be set in two weeks time for a man charged in connection with the murder of prison officer David Black. Damien McLaughlin (41), of Kilmascally Road, Dungannon, was due to stand trial last year but breached his bail and absconded from Northern Ireland. McLaughlin had previously pleaded not guilty to aiding and abetting the murder of Mr Black on November 1, 2012, two charges of possessing articles for use in terrorism, two counts of preparation for acts of terrorism and belonging to a proscribed organisation, namely the IRA. At Belfast Crown Court on Friday Mr Justice Colton asked why no trial date had yet been set in the case. Defence barrister Desmond Hutton told the the judge that McLaughlin - who didn't appear for Friday's brief proceedings - had been "abroad'' . Prosecution counsel Terence Mooney QC said that McLaughlin's extradition from the Republic of Ireland had been approved late last year. The High Court in Dublin made a ruling on December 2 to have the defendant formally extradited back to Northern Ireland. Added Mr Mooney: "He appeared at Armagh Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, December 12, 2016. He was remanded in custody to your Lordship's court today [Friday]. He has already been arraigned on the charges.'' The prosecution counsel said he had no objections to a defence application to adjourn proceedings for a fortnight to allow for further discussions between McLaughlin and his legal representatives. Mr Justice Colton said he would list the case for Friday, January 26, 2018, when a date for trial would be set. Expand Close David Black / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp David Black McLaughlin was on bail at an address in west Belfast when he went on the run. Police called at the address in December 2016 but he could not be found and milk in the fridge was four weeks out of date. His disappearance while on bail provoked a public outcry from David Black's family who said they "felt let down and hurt by the justice system''. Mr Black's widow Yvonne, daughter Kyra and son Kyle were later visited by the PSNI officer leading the manhunt for McLaughlin, Detective Chief Supt Raymond Murray. DCS Murray said he had visited the Black family "to offer sincere apologies on behalf of the PSNI for the stress and worry this situation is creating for them" and provided "reassurance of the steps police are taking to locate the whereabouts of Damien McLaughlin''. The failure by the PSNI to carry out regular bail checks on McLaughlin is currently the subject of a Police Ombudsman investigation. Following a massive cross-border manhunt, McLaughlin was eventually arrested by armed Gardai on March 2, 2017, while walking along a street in Ramelton, en route to Letterkenny. He failed to stop his extradition to Northern Ireland with his lawyers telling the High Court in Dublin that he could be "subjected to inhuman and degrading conditions'' if he was sent back to Maghaberry prison. Two unionist politicians at the centre of a new Kingsmill Twitter row have defended their right to share a controversial satirical cartoon of the massacre. The graphic image, entitled 'Sinn Fein's Red Lines', depicts the gruesome aftermath of the 1976 IRA shooting and shows 10 lines of blood running from a bullet-riddled van. Beside the van is a caricature of Gerry Adams and a speech bubble saying 'Equality!'. Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie provoked outrage when he shared the sketch by Belfast artist Brian John Spencer on Wednesday, as did the DUP's Christopher Stalford. Read More Alliance Party leader Naomi Long criticised both MLAs, calling their behaviour "inflammatory and insulting". But Mr Beattie said he had no regrets about sharing the cartoon. "What's happened here with all the outcry about my decision to share it, is that the very clear and very important message of the cartoon, and the reason I shared it, is getting lost," he said. "What it did was call Sinn Fein out on how its respect and equality agenda sits alongside the fact it has not yet, despite all the fallout of the last week, managed to condemn the butchery of those 10 innocent men at Kingsmill. "That's why I shared it - because that's a strong and vital message to get out there and debate." Mr Beattie said he had spoken to one member of the Kingsmill families, who told the Upper Bann MLA he was not offended by his post. However, he removed it when asked to do so by a friend. South Belfast MLA Mr Stalford said he was satisfied no offence had been caused by his tweet. "This was undoubtedly a hard-hitting cartoon, but its clear and only target is the hypocrisy of Sinn Fein," he said. "One picture says more than countless statements could about a party which claims to support victims yet sells T-shirts on its website that glorify the perpetrators and names play parks after individual terrorists. I said I would remove the cartoon if any of the families wished me to do so for any reason. "I will not reveal the details of a private conversation, but I am satisfied that offence has not been caused by highlighting Sinn Fein's double standards. "I will take objections from republicans more seriously when they are prepared to condemn acts of terrorism by the IRA." Donald Trump may not be heading to the UK for a visit (Evan Vucci/AP) The US embassy in London said its move to a new location has been completed within budget just hours after Donald Trump described it as a bad deal. Mr Trump has refused to travel to the UK to open the new American embassy, hitting out at its move from Grosvenor Square in the prestigious Mayfair district of central London to an off location at Nine Elms, south of the Thames. Despite the president publicly blaming predecessor Barack Obama, the US embassy said the plan to finance the project was developed in 2007, at a time when George W Bush was in the White House. Mr Trump tweeted: 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference On Friday night, a spokesman for the US embassy said: The US chancery in Grosvenor Square had aged beyond its ability to be improved to current security and life safety standards without extensive investment in infrastructure that would require appropriated dollars. In 2007, the Department developed a plan to finance a new embassy project through a property swap for existing US government property in London. This solution allowed construction of a new chancery that meets all security standards, yet used no taxpayer dollars to fund the project. The spokesman said the budget was approximately one billion dollars (730 million) and includes the site purchase, design, and construction costs. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference He added: The project has been executed within the established budget. The search for a new embassy site in London considered more than 50 sites. A multi-disciplinary team of professionals considered over 170 criteria, to include physical security requirements, and determined that the Nine Elms site was the best overall location for the US government. The new embassy in Nine Elms is one of the most secure, hi-tech, and environmentally-friendly embassies the United States has ever built. We are strongly committed in the special relationship between our two countries and we are confident the new embassy will provide the necessary platform to continue our cooperation. Mr Trumps cancellation of a visit to Britain has left the Government and City Hall at loggerheads as Boris Johnson accused London Mayor Sadiq Khan of endangering the so-called special relationship. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference There was initially confusion as Downing Street was unable to say whether the Foreign Secretary was speaking for the Government when he said Mr Khan and Jeremy Corbyn were putting the crucial relationship at risk. Mr Khan had said the US president had got the message from Londoners and would have been met by mass peaceful protests if he went ahead with plans to open the new embassy. A Number 10 source said: Boris expresses himself in his own inimitable way, but we agree that any risk to the crucial US-UK relationship is not in our countrys best interests. A Downing Street spokesman said Mrs May would tell Mr Trump he is welcome in London. Asked about the PMs views on south London after the president described the embassys new site as an off location, the spokesman said: I think Vauxhall is a vibrant and important part of London and home to many businesses. Obviously Apple are moving their headquarters there. Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa May met US President Donald Trump in September (Stefan Rousseau/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa May met US President Donald Trump in September (Stefan Rousseau/PA) The spokesman added: A state visit (invitation) has been extended and accepted and we will confirm the details in due course. No date was confirmed for any visit, the one you are referring to now. The opening of the US embassy is a matter for the US. Mr Trumps announcement followed speculation that he would formally open the embassy at a ceremony in February. The new building will open for business on January 16. Mrs May controversially extended the offer of a state visit, officially on behalf of the Queen, when she became the first world leader to meet Mr Trump in the White House following his inauguration last year. Since then, however, the president has indicated he does not want to take up the invitation if he is going to face mass demonstrations and it had been expected he could make a low-key working visit rather than a trip which involved all the trappings of a state occasion. A four-year-old girl who went missing with her schizophrenic mother during the summer has been found in Spain, a High Court judge says. Mr Justice Hayden said on Friday, at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London, that Elliana Shand was safe and well. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference The judge had made a number of public appeals for help after Elliana and her mother Jessica Richards, who is in her mid 20s, disappeared. In late December Mr Justice Hayden had made a direct appeal to expats and British tourists after saying there was evidence to suggest that Elliana and her mother were in Spain. Expand Close Sean and Eileen Doyle with granddaughter Elliana (Family handout/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sean and Eileen Doyle with granddaughter Elliana (Family handout/PA) He said both had been found in Spain by Spanish police on Thursday. The judge praised the work of British and Spanish police and Foreign Office staff. He also praised Ellianas paternal grandparents, Sean and Eileen Doyle, who are both in their fifties and live in the Wembley area of London, for the efforts they had made to trace the girl. Mr and Mrs Doyle were at Fridays hearing. After the hearing, Mrs Doyle said they were over the moon. Gemstones from the crown jewels were kept safe during the Second World War in a biscuit tin hidden at Windsor Castle, a BBC documentary will confirm. It was known the precious stones had been taken to the Berkshire fortress in the early years of the war in case they fell into Nazi hands following an invasion, but there were few facts to the story. Expand Close The Queen rides in the Gold State Coach after her coronation (BBC/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen rides in the Gold State Coach after her coronation (BBC/PA) Now a BBC One programme about the crown jewels and the Queens coronation will reveal for the first time how the historic artefacts were secreted in a deep hole following orders from King George VI. The gems, including the Black Princes Ruby from the Imperial State Crown, were placed in the biscuit tin and buried under a sally port a secret exit from the castle used in times of emergency. The Queen, who spent her war years at Windsor Castle for safety, was aware of the general story but did not know the details until told by royal commentator Alastair Bruce, who presents the documentary due to be screened on Sunday. Expand Close The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh wave from the balcony to the onlooking crowds around the gates of Buckingham Palace after the coronation (PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh wave from the balcony to the onlooking crowds around the gates of Buckingham Palace after the coronation (PA) Mr Bruce told the Times newspaper: What was so lovely was that the Queen had no knowledge of it. Telling her seemed strangely odd. The remarkable story was unearthed for the documentary by Oliver Urquhart Irvine, the librarian, and assistant keeper of the Queens Archives. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference The royal commentator told the paper how an electric set of letters from Sir Owen Morshead, the royal librarian, to Queen Mary, the mother of George VI, shed light on the mystery. Sir Owens documents describe how a hole was dug in chalk earth, which had to be covered to hide it from enemy bombers, and two chambers with steel doors created. A trap door used to access the secret area where the tin box was kept still exists today. Expand Close The Queen with her Maids of Honour and the Archbishop of Canterbury during the coronation (BBC/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Queen with her Maids of Honour and the Archbishop of Canterbury during the coronation (BBC/PA) In the documentary, the Queen also talks about the amusing trials and tribulations of being head of state from the perils of wearing a heavy crown, to her robes sticking to a thick carpet pile. The Queen speaks candidly and with humour about the experience of her own coronation and the symbolic importance of artefacts associated with the sovereign in the one-hour programme. She jokingly states you cannot look down when wearing the Imperial State Crown, which weighs 2lbs 13oz (1.28kgs), as your neck would break. Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney and Karen Bradley will meet again next week in the hope of making progress on the powersharing deadlock. Mr Coveney, who flew into London from a visit to the Middle East to meet the newly appointed Northern Ireland Secretary, said the talks had been very good and he expected they were going to work very well together. The Irish deputy prime minister said there remained significant challenges but both governments wanted to find a way to resolve the stand-off. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference He said: Everybody knows that there are time constraints in terms of the work that we need to do but also I think everybody agrees that we want devolved government again in Northern Ireland. The meeting came after a week where political relations in Northern Ireland were further strained, this time by controversies around the 1976 Kingsmill massacre in south Armagh. Mr Coveney attacked the really, really stupid and insensitive actions of Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff, who posted a social media video of him with a Kingsmill branded loaf on his head on the anniversary of an atrocity that saw republican paramilitaries shoot dead 10 Protestant workmen. Mr McElduff, who apologised and insisted the video was not a reference to the massacre, was suspended by Sinn Fein for three months. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Unionists reacted angrily, both to the post and the extent of Sinn Feins punishment, and the incident appeared to further reduce the already bleak prospects of a deal to restore powersharing. The situation was exacerbated on Wednesday when a number of unionist politicians retweeted a graphic satirical cartoon that portrayed the Mr McElduff controversy by depicting the aftermath of the Kingsmill outrage, with blood running from a bullet-riddled van. The incidents prompted the sole survivor of the Kingsmill shootings, Alan Black, to implore politicians on all sides to stop trying to poke each others eye out and instead help the victims. However, a week of political rancour and animosity appeared to end on a more optimistic note when two senior DUP and Sinn Fein members engaged in more conciliatory exchanges on BBC NIs The View on Thursday night. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference In a forthright condemnation of the Kingsmill outrage, Sinn Feins John ODowd, who lost three family members at the hands of loyalist paramilitaries the day before Kingsmill, said he was ashamed by the sectarian attack. The DUPs Edwin Poots welcomed the remarks and said his party was determined to see devolution returned. Mr Coveney said: I think the unfortunate things that have happened in relation to Kingsmill this week and the absolutely understandable upset of families because of a really, really stupid and insensitive occurrence is a reminder of just how important legacy and reconciliation is. So, thats why I hope people will get some encouragement from the tone of the interaction between Edwin Poots and John ODowd last night, which I hope is the tone we can continue in. Speaking after the meeting, Mr Coveney also told reporters that he did not believe there was any ambiguity in the agreement reached in December on the Northern Ireland border during Brexit negotiations. He said: I dont think there is any ambiguity in the context of an all-Ireland economy and the need to protect north-south cooperation in the context of the Good Friday Agreement. A surgeon burnt his initials on a patients liver after conducting a difficult transplant in a naive and foolhardy attempt to relieve tension in the operating theatre, a court has heard. Simon Bramhall, 53, resigned from his job at Birminghams Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 2014 after another surgeon found SB branded on a failed donor liver, the citys Crown Court was told. The consultant pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by beating last month after prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm relating to two patients. Opening the facts of the case against Bramhall, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said one of the two victims initialled by the world-renowned surgeon had been left feeling violated and suffering ongoing psychological harm. Mr Badenoch told the court that Bramhall used an argon beam machine to write his initials on the organs of two anaesthetised patients at the end of transplant operations in February and August 2013. Expand Close Simon Bramhall Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Simon Bramhall Acknowledging that Bramhalls actions had not caused either patients new liver to fail, Mr Badenoch said: This case is about his practice on two occasions, without the consent of the patient and for no clinical reason whatever, to burn his initials on to the surface of a newly-transplanted liver. One of the victims, referred to in court as Patient A, received a donor organ in 2013 in a life-saving operation carried out by Bramhall. But the donor liver failed around a week later for reasons unconnected to its implantation and another surgeon spotted Bramhalls initials on the organ. A photograph of the 4cm-high branding was taken on a mobile phone and Bramhall, who now works for the NHS in Herefordshire, later admitted using the argon beam coagulator to mark Patient As liver. Mr Badenoch said of the initial transplant operation: Mr Bramhall had to work exceptionally hard and use all of his skill to complete the operation. At the end of the operation he performed a liver biopsy using the argon beam coagulator, and then used it to burn his initials. A nurse who saw the initialling queried what had happened and Bramhall was said to have replied: I do this. The court heard that Bramhall later told police he had flicked his wrist and made the mark within a few seconds. He knew that the action could cause no harm to the patient. He also said that in hindsight this was naive and foolhardy a misjudged attempt to relieve the tension in theatre, Mr Badenoch said A arrogant consultant surgeon who betrayed the trust of his patients by burning his initials on to the livers of two unconscious transplant patients has been fined 10,000. Simon Bramhall, 53, used an argon beam machine to write his initials on the organs of two anaesthetised victims in February and August 2013 while working at Birminghams Queen Elizabeth Hospital. A judge at the citys Crown Court said Bramhall, who resigned from the hospital in 2014, had carried out an an abuse of power and a betrayal of trust. The consultant, who was given a formal warning by the General Medical Council (GMC) last February, admitted two counts of assault by beating last month after prosecutors accepted his not guilty pleas to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Expand Close Simon Bramhall Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Simon Bramhall Judge Paul Farrer QC also sentenced Bramhall on Friday to a 12-month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work. He said: Both of the (transplant) operations were long and difficult. I accept that on both occasions you were tired and stressed and I accept that this may have affected your judgment. This was conduct born of professional arrogance of such magnitude that it strayed into criminal behaviour. What you did was an abuse of power and a betrayal of trust that these patients had invested in you. I accept that you didnt intend or foresee anything but the most trivial of harm would be caused. Opening the facts of the case against Bramhall, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said one of the two victims initialled by the world-renowned surgeon had been left feeling violated and suffering ongoing psychological harm. Acknowledging that Bramhalls actions had not caused either patients new liver to fail, Mr Badenoch said: This case is about his practice on two occasions, without the consent of the patient and for no clinical reason whatever, to burn his initials on to the surface of a newly-transplanted liver. One of the victims, referred to in court as Patient A, received a donor organ in 2013 in a life-saving operation carried out by Bramhall. But the donor liver failed around a week later for reasons unconnected to its implantation and another surgeon spotted Bramhalls initials on the organ. A photograph of the 4cm-high branding was taken on a mobile phone and Bramhall, who now works for the NHS in Herefordshire, later admitted using the argon beam coagulator to mark Patient As liver. Mr Badenoch said of the initial transplant operation: Mr Bramhall had to work exceptionally hard and use all of his skill to complete the operation. At the end of the operation he performed a liver biopsy using the argon beam coagulator, and then used it to burn his initials. A nurse who saw the initialling queried what had happened and Bramhall was said to have replied: I do this. The court heard that Bramhall later told police he had flicked his wrist and made the mark within a few seconds. He knew that the action could cause no harm to the patient. He also said that in hindsight this was naive and foolhardy a misjudged attempt to relieve the tension in theatre, Mr Badenoch said A 27-year-old female UK national has been arrested at Heathrow Airport after arriving on a flight from Ethiopia on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, Scotland Yard said. Counter-terrorism officers arrested the woman on suspicion of plotting an attack. The woman had just arrived on a flight from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, when she was detained on Friday, Scotland Yard said. She is being held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act under section 5 of the Terrorist Act 2006. Police said they had taken the woman to a south London police station, where she remains in custody. The African Union said it was "frankly alarmed" by Donald Trump's comments (AP) Donald Trump has faced widespread condemnation over claims that he questioned why the US would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa. The UN human rights office said the president's reported use of an expletive to describe African countries could "potentially damage and disrupt the lives of many people", and the African Union continental body said it was "frankly alarmed. Haiti said it was "deeply shocked and outraged", and called the remarks "racist". Mr Trump has denied using the vulgar expression, saying: "This was not the language used," but UN spokesman Rupert Colville said: "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes'." He said the reported comments were "shocking and shameful" and added: "I'm sorry, but there's no other word one can use but racist." He said the reported remark could endanger lives by potentially fanning xenophobia: "It legitimises the targeting of people based on who they are. This isn't just a story about vulgar language, it's about opening the door to humanity's worst side." He added that the reported comments "go against the universal values the world has been striving so hard to establish since World War Two and the Holocaust". African Union spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said: "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity." African governments quickly found themselves in an awkward position. As top recipients of US aid, some hesitated to jeopardise it by criticising Mr Trump, especially as his administration has sought to slash foreign assistance. "Unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say," said South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny. But South Africa's ruling African National Congress called the comments "extremely offensive". Deputy secretary general Jesse Duarte said developing countries do have difficulties but the US has millions of people out of work or without health care, and "we would not deign to make comments as derogatory". South African opposition leader Mmusi Maimane called the comments "abhorrent", adding: "The hatred of (Barack) Obama's roots now extends to an entire continent." Botswana's government called the remarks "reprehensible and racist" and said the US ambassador had been summoned. Uganda's state minister for international relations, Henry Okello Oryem, said the comments were "unfortunate and regrettable", adding: "W e pray that the almighty god gives him wisdom to change his mind about people who are suffering and looking for safe haven in America." Ras Mubarak, a lawmaker in Ghana, called for a boycott by developing countries against the US until Mr Trump leaves office. "The sooner he is made aware that America needs the world and the world needs America, the better it is for all of us." The Haitian government said: "These insulting and reprehensible statements in no way reflect the virtues of wisdom, restraint and discernment that must be cultivated by any high political authority." It added that the comment as reported "reflects a totally erroneous and racist view of the Haitian community and its contribution to the United States". African media outlets and the continent's young, increasingly connected population were not being shy in reacting. "Well, that is the perfect definition of racism. That is all I have to say," Kenyan entrepreneur Wangui Muraguri said in Nairobi. "Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate," South African media outlet Daily Maverick wrote. Many on the world's second most populous continent reached for their smartphones, long-practised in defending the vast and varied region from easy stereotypes. While 40% of the world's poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund, the region also has billionaires, reality shows and a growing middle class. Some quickly decided to own Mr Trump's apparently vulgar language or throw it back in his face. "Good morning from the greatest most beautiful 'shithole country' in the world!!!" South African Broadcasting Corporation anchor Leanne Manas tweeted. "As someone from South Shithole, Trevor is deeply offended by the president's remarks," said a tweet from US chat programme The Daily Show, on behalf of its South African-born host Trevor Noah. In Kenya, east Africa's economic hub, political activist Boniface Mwangi pleaded: "Please don't confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent." Mr Trump's reported comments highlighted months of concerns about his lack of focus on Africa, including empty ambassadorial posts in key countries like South Africa, Egypt, Congo and Somalia. A list maintained by the Washington-based American Foreign Service Association says eight posts are vacant. Mr Trump has expressed negative opinions about the continent in the past. "Every penny of the 7 billion dollars going to Africa as per Obama will be stolen - corruption is rampant!" he tweeted in 2013. "He has not only insulted Africans, he has also insulted African-Americans," said Sylvester Odion Akhaine, associate professor of international relations at Lagos State University in Nigeria. "Internationally, such language will deepen the isolation of the United States, a country that is already losing its global prestige." As the outrage spread, the US government's own Africa Media Hub tried to put out the flames. Without directly referring to Mr Trump, it tweeted: "US remains committed to working together w/Africans to realize the promise of a more peaceful, more productive, more prosperous 21st century Africa. US deeply respects the people of #Africa & values its partnerships with them." AP President Michelle Bachelet has asked Chileans to receive Pope Francis in a "climate of respect," hours after three Roman Catholic churches were firebombed and a note left at the scene threatening the pontiff. In the overnight attacks in Santiago, the capital and largest city where the pope will arrive Monday, the churches were hit with firebombs and then sprayed with accelerant. "The next bombs will be in your cassock," read pamphlets found outside one of the churches. A bomb squad was also deployed to a fourth church, where a barrel of flammable liquid was believed to be inside. The pamphlets exhorted the cause of the Mapuche indigenous people, who are pushing for a return of ancestral lands and other rights. Francis will celebrate Mass and meet with Mapuches in the southern city of Temuco on Wednesday. After a security meeting, Ms Bachelet said the Andean nation of 17 million was prepared for the first papal visit since St John Paul II came in 1987. "I also want to invite you all to experience this visit in a climate of respect, solidarity and happiness," Ms Bachelet said. There were no immediate arrests over the firebombings, and authorities downplayed their significance with Interior Ministry official Mahmud Aleuy calling the damage "minor". Chilean police did not immediately respond to queries about whether new security measures would be taken after the attacks. Earlier this week police said 18,000 officers would be deployed during Francis' visits to Santiago, Temuco and the northern city of Iquique. Police will also have helicopters on hand and monitor events with drones. It was unclear who might have been behind Friday's attacks. A small minority of Mapuches have used violence to further their cause, and in recent years churches have been targeted. Chile also has a handful of anarchist groups that periodically attack property and clash with police during protests. The pamphlet that threatened the pope mentioned the Mapuche cause and called for the liberation of "all political prisoners in the world". Francis' visit to Chile and Peru aims to highlight immigration, the suffering of indigenous peoples and protecting the Amazon rainforest. AP Japan's foreign minister has urged Burma's civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, to guarantee the safe and voluntary return of Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in troubled Rakhine state. While Taro Kono is visiting Burma, the Japanese government announced a grant of 3 million US dollars (2.2 million) to help facilitate the repatriation of the Rohingyas. Burma and Bangladesh signed an agreement on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees on November 23, and Burma, also known as Myanmar, said it would start the process by January 23. The exact numbers and extent of the repatriation is still unclear. "We have decided to provide the aid in response to the agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to represent an international message of support so that the repatriation can be carried out promptly," said Japanese Foreign Ministry official Shinobu Yamaguchi. Mr Kono's three-day visit to Burma includes travelling to Rakhine state. Humanitarian groups and independent media are banned from travelling to the area freely. More than 650,000 Rohingyas have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape a brutal crackdown in which security forces have been accused of systematic abuses tantamount to ethnic cleansing. During a meeting on Friday, Mr Kono asked Ms Suu Kyi's government to allow humanitarian and media access to the affected area, the resettlement of returned refugees, and the implementation of recommendations made by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. Mr Kono also said Japan plans to give further aid of 20 million US dollars (14.8 million) to improve humanitarian conditions and development in Rakhine state. "We are thankful to Japan for its willingness to support the needs both for short term and long term," Ms Suu Kyi said at the joint news conference. Mr Yamaguchi stressed that Japan will monitor how the repatriation will be carried out. "The money will be paid in a timely manner based on the progress of repatriation," he added. Burma's state-run media said on Wednesday that authorities have started the land work to construct buildings to accommodate returned refugees from Bangladesh in northern Rakhine, where refugees will be temporarily placed after their citizenship is scrutinised. AP FILE - This June 20, 2005 file photo shows Edgar Ray Killen in Philadelphia, Miss. On Friday, Jan. 12, 2018. Mississippi's corrections department said the former Ku Klux Klan leader, who was convicted in the 1964 "Mississippi Burning" slayings of three civil rights workers, has died in prison at the age of 92. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File) Edgar Ray Killen, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who was convicted of the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi, has died in prison at the age of 92, the state corrections department announced. The one-time Klan leader was serving a 60-year prison sentence for manslaughter when he died on Thursday night in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. A post-mortem will take place, but no foul play was suspected, the statement said. His conviction came 41 years to the day after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, all in their 20s, were ambushed and killed by Klansmen. The three Freedom Summer workers had been investigating the burning of a black church near Philadelphia, Mississippi. The killings shocked the nation, helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and were dramatised in the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning. The part-time preacher and lumber mill operator was 80 when a Neshoba County jury convicted him of three counts of manslaughter on June 21 2005, despite his assertions that he was innocent. Killen was the only person to face state murder charges in the case. He did not say much about the 1964 killings during a 2014 interview with the Associated Press inside the penitentiary. He said he remained a segregationist who did not believe in racial equality, but contended he harboured no ill-will towards blacks. Killen said he never had talked about the events that landed him behind bars, and never would. Long a suspect in the 1964 killings, Killen had made a livelihood from farming, operating his sawmill and preaching to a small congregation at Smyrna Baptist Church in Union, south of Philadelphia, Mississippi. According to FBI files and court transcripts from a 1967 federal conspiracy trial, Killen did most of the planning in the ambush killings of the civil rights workers. According to evidence in the 2005 murder trial, Killen served as a kleagle, or organiser, of the Klan in Neshoba County and helped set up a klavern, or local Klan group, in a nearby county. Nineteen men, including Killen, were indicted on federal charges in the 1967 case. Seven were convicted of violating the victims' civil rights. None served more than six years. Killen's federal case ended with a hung jury after one juror said she could not convict a preacher. During his state trial in 2005, witnesses testified that on June 21 1964, Killen went to Meridian to round up carloads of Klansmen to ambush the three victims, telling some of the Klan members to bring plastic or rubber gloves. Witnesses said Killen then went to a Philadelphia funeral home as an alibi while the attack occurred. The three bodies were found 44 days later, buried in a red-clay dam in rural Neshoba County. In February 2010, Killen sued the FBI, claiming the government used a mafia hitman to pistol-whip and intimidate witnesses for information in the case. The federal lawsuit sought millions of dollars in damages and a declaration that his rights were violated when the FBI allegedly used a gangster known as "the Grim Reaper" during the investigation. The lawsuit was later dismissed. In the 2014 AP interview, Killen repeated his contention that he was not a criminal, but a political prisoner. Of one thing he was certain: "I could have beat that thing if I'd had the mental ability." AP Donald Trump's waiver announcement will also include harsh criticism of Iran's response to recent protests (AP) President Donald Trump has delivered an ultimatum to America's European allies to fix the "terrible flaws" in the Iran nuclear deal or he will pull the US out in a few months' time. Mr Trump made the threat as he extended waivers of key economic sanctions on Iran, keeping the accord alive at least for now. "This is a last chance," Mr Trump warned in a statement that outlined several tough new rules on Iran. "In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal." Mr Trump's declaration puts great pressure on Britain, France and Germany, the European signatories to the nuclear pact with Iran. The president wants them to help the US devise a new agreement designed to prevent Iran from escalating nuclear activity again next decade, as permitted under the 2015 arrangement reached by President Barack Obama. Iran has said it is not interested in any renegotiation. The sanctions Mr Trump had to waive on Friday dealt with Iran's central bank. These penalties largely cut Iran out of the international financial system, until they were suspended by Mr Obama under the nuclear deal. Mr Trump is also waiving other US penalties covered by the agreement, including on Iran's oil and gas sectors, which were up for renewal next week. He will next have to deal with these decisions in the spring. But Mr Trump paired Friday's concession with other, targeted sanctions on Iran for human rights abuses and ballistic missile development. The Treasury Department's action hits 14 Iranian officials and companies and businessmen from Iran, China and Malaysia, freezing any assets they have in the US and banning Americans from doing business with them. Those hit by the sanctions include: Iranian judiciary chief Sadegh Amoli Larijani; the Rajaee Shahr Prison and its director, Gholamreza Ziaei; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Electronic Warfare and Cyber Defence Organisation; Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace and National Cyberspace Centre; Malaysia-based Green Wave Telecommunication and its Iranian director Morteza Razavi; and the Iran Helicopter Support and Renewal Company and Iran Aircraft Industries. In his lengthy statement, Mr Trump said the US would work with European partners to remove the nuclear deal's so-called "sunset clauses", which allow Iran to gradually resume advanced atomic activity. He said he wanted the US legislation governing Washington's participation in the deal to specifically link Iran's ballistic missile programmes to sanctions relief. "Today, I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies' agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal," Mr Trump said. "If at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately," he added. "No-one should doubt my word." The decision had been expected since earlier this week. Officials, congressional aides and outside administration advisers had said the president would probably extend the sanctions waivers, citing progress in the US legislation. One aspect Mr Trump has particularly bristled at is having to give Iran a "thumbs up" every few months by acknowledging that it is meeting its nuclear requirements. AP ein Google-Unternehmen Google-Dienste anzubieten und zu betreiben Ausfalle zu prufen und Manahmen gegen Spam, Betrug und Missbrauch zu ergreifen Daten zu Zielgruppeninteraktionen und Websitestatistiken zu erheben. Mit den gewonnenen Informationen mochten wir verstehen, wie unsere Dienste verwendet werden, und die Qualitat dieser Dienste verbessern. neue Dienste zu entwickeln und zu verbessern Werbung auszuliefern und ihre Wirkung zu messen personalisierte Inhalte anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen personalisierte Werbung anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen Wenn Sie Alle ablehnen auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies nicht fur diese zusatzlichen Zwecke. Nicht personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung werden u. a. von Inhalten, die Sie sich gerade ansehen, und Ihrem Standort beeinflusst (welche Werbung Sie sehen, basiert auf Ihrem ungefahren Standort). Personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung konnen auch Videoempfehlungen, eine individuelle YouTube-Startseite und individuelle Werbung enthalten, die auf fruheren Aktivitaten wie auf YouTube angesehenen Videos und Suchanfragen auf YouTube beruhen. Sofern relevant, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auerdem, um Inhalte und Werbung altersgerecht zu gestalten. Wir verwenden Cookies und Daten, umWenn Sie Alle akzeptieren auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auch, umWahlen Sie Weitere Optionen aus, um sich zusatzliche Informationen anzusehen, einschlielich Details zum Verwalten Ihrer Datenschutzeinstellungen. Sie konnen auch jederzeit g.co/privacytools besuchen. Hezekiah ruled over Judah and was a good and faithful king. Hezekiah often became the target of warring nations. The king of Assyria, which was a much more powerful nation, made plans to overthrow Hezekiahs kingdom. Throughout the stressful time in leadership, Hezekiah consistently used the same battle plan. He went before the Lord in prayerandhe followed the Lords commands. Hezekiah relied on prayer to rule his life. This king knew how to pray and he prayed in a way that got results. At one point, the Assyrian king launched a huge smear campaign against Hezekiah with his own people. It scared Hezekiahs people. Hezekiah heard about the threat and went before the Lord. God assured Hezekiah everything would be okay, but the Assyrians wouldnt let up their verbal assaults. They kept taunting the kingdom of Hezekiah, throwing threats towards Hezekiah. Finally, they sent a letter by messenger to Hezekiah, which basically said, The Assyrians are tough, and they are coming for you next. It was a credible, realistic threat. In a practical sense, Hezekiah had reason to be afraid. What do you do when you are backed into a corner as a leader and youre about to face something bigger than your ability to handle? Well, Hezekiah received the letter with all the threats and began to pray. We find this account in 2 Kings 19:1419. What can we learn from listening in as Hezekiah prayed? Here are 7 Thoughts for More Effective Prayer from a Stressed Out Leader Named Hezekiah: Hezekiah got alone with God. There is corporate prayer like we do at church, and there is prayer where a few are gathered. But probably some of the most effective prayer time of your life will be the time you invest alone with God. Hezekiahs prayer was immediate. His prayer wasnt an afterthought. It was prior to making his plans. We are so geared to react as leaders that its hard for us to go first to God. He may be second or third or first when we are backed into a corner and have no choice, but we need to develop a discipline and habit to make God the first place we turn in our lives. Like Hezekiah. Hezekiahs prayer was open and honest. Hezekiah was transparent before the Lord. I love the imagery here in this prayer story of Hezekiah. He took the letter, went to the house of the Lord, and spread it out before Him. I get this visual image of Hezekiah, and this letterlaying it there on the table, and saying, Okay, God, what now? What do I do next? Whats my first move? Are you in a tough spot right now? You may just need to get you some note cardswrite down all the things you are struggling withlay them out on a table and say, Okay, God, here are my struggles. I cant do anything about them. What now? Writing your prayer requests before God is a great idea for 2 reasons. a. It helps you remember to pray for them. b. It helps you to watch as God answers. We get more answers than we realize if we only ask. Hezekiahs prayer was honoring, humble, and respectful of who God is. Hezekiah knew his place as kingand he knew Gods place in the Kingdom. Hezekiah was king of a nation and that is an important job, yet Hezekiah willingly humbled himself in prayer, because he knew his place before the King of kings. Hezekiahs prayer was bold. He said, Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD. Hezekiah had the kind of relationship with God where it wasnt a surprise when Hezekiah showed up to pray. They talked frequently; probably throughout the day. Because of that relationship, Hezekiah didnt wonder if God would be there when he came before Him. He knew he could ask God to act on his behalf. The more you grow in your relationship with God, the bolder your prayers can become, because the more your heart will begin to line up with Gods heart. Hezekiahs prayer was dependent. In verses 1718 he prays, It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. Hezekiah knew he was out of his league facing the Assyrians. From the way I see that Hezekiah responded to life, however, I dont think it mattered the size of the battle. Hezekiah was going to depend on God. Every time. In every situation. Hezekiahs prayer was certain. Because it was based on his personal faith and trust in God. In verse 19, Hezekiah prayed, Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God. Hezekiah had a faith in God that allowed him to pray with confidence. You need to understand that faith is always based on the promises of God. Some things God has promised to doand some He hasnt. God has promised to always get glory for Himself and always work things for an ultimate good. He hasnt promised to rid everyone of cancer or to heal every bad relationship. Or settle every leadership issue we face. (That doesnt mean we shouldnt pray for everything. We dont know His will, but we cant guarantee God to do that which He hasnt promised to do.) Sometimes we get upset because God doesnt do something we asked or wanted Him to do, but the fact is He had never promised to do it. Hezekiah knew God had promised to save His people. He knew God had placed him in the position of authority over them. He had confidence that God would do what He had promised to do. Hezekiah trusted God to be faithful to His word so he was willing to act in faith. What situations are you dealing with today that you know you are helpless to do on your own and you desperately desire Gods answer? Are you a stressed out leader? Get alone with God, spread your problems out before Him honestly, humbly, and boldly; then, allow His will to be done, as you wait for His response. Photo credit: Getty Images/Rawpixel Ron Edmondson pastors Immanuel Baptist Church. Find out more at: http://www.ronedmondson.com/about 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices The MoU will provide a mechanism and help to foster scientific cooperation between R&D and academic institutions of India and Canada The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Canada for cooperation in the field of Science & Technology. The MoU will provide a mechanism and help to foster scientific cooperation between R&D and academic institutions of India and Canada. It was recently concluded by the Department of Science and Technology with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. Under this MoU, the India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnership to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability (IC-IMPACTS) programme will be supported to promote India-Canada multidisciplinary research partnerships. Also, the R&D projects will be aimed at accelerating social transformation by providing solutions through application of science and technology. The participants will include researchers from scientific organizations, academia and R&D laboratories from India and Canada. This will also help to develop institutional networking and support the establishment of connections between scientific organizations, scientists and specialists of India and Canada. The MoU was concluded in pursuance to the inter-governmental Agreement for Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the India and Canada concluded in November 2005. How To Prepare Yourself For The Scan? No special preparation is needed for the anomaly scan. Just see that you are relaxed and get to the hospital at least 15 minutes before your appointment time, so that you are not stressed out due to the rushing. To take the scan, your bladder need not be full like the first trimester scan. So, you need not concentrate on that. The one thing that you should know is that unlike other scans, this one will take some time to finish, around 45 minutes or even faster if the baby is co-operative. How Is The Scan Done? The scan during the fifth month is done abdominally. The doctor or the sonographer applies gel on the belly and moves the transducer over it to get the images of the baby on the screen. In some cases, if your doctor wants to examine your cervix, a transvaginal scan is also done. What Will The Baby Look Like? A clear picture of the baby can be seen, unlike the previous scan, when the formation of the body is not complete. The bones appear white, the muscles which are soft appear greyish in colour and the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby will be in black colour. You will be able to see your baby move and even make faces. The baby also urinates every half an hour inside the womb during this time. What Detections Are Made During An Anomaly Scan? This is the scan which is done in detail to examine the baby for some abnormalities. Abnormality in this case mainly refers to any deformations in the growth of the body. Some of the conditions that are checked for are listed below. This is not a list to freak you out. Most of these conditions are not common. It is just to provide information on what the doctors check for during the anomaly scan. Open Spina Bifida This is a deformation that happens to the spinal cord. It is otherwise called open neural tube defect'. This can be found in 6 out of 10,000 births. This condition can be easily detected visually on the screen during the scan. Cleft Lip This is a condition that is very much known to all. It is a defect in the formation of the lips. The lips will be found to be split. The intensity of the split can vary from case to case. This happens in 10 out of 10,000 births. Anencephaly This is also a type of neural tube defect. This occurs as a result of the malformation of the bones of the skull due to which the brain gets damaged severely during the development stage. It happens in 6 out of 10,000 births. Diaphragmatic Hernia The damage caused to the diaphragm of the lungs is called diaphragmatic hernia. This leads to problems in breathing after birth. The probability of this condition is 4 out of 10,000 births. Gastrochisis And Exomphalos Gastrochisis and exomphalos are nothing but conditions that cause a defect in the abdominal wall. This will lead to feeding problems after the baby is born. They can be found in 5 out of 10,000 births. Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) CHD is a problem related to the heart. It can be of three types - with the structure of the heart, with the functioning, or with the rhythm of the heart. Major CHD issues can be found in every 35 births out of 10,000. Bilateral Renal Agenesis This condition is characterised by the absence of kidneys. In such cases, there will be very little or no amniotic fluid. This can happen in just 1 out of 10,000 births. Lethal Skeletal Dysplasias Lethal skeletal dysplasias are a bunch of about 350 conditions related to the bones of the arms, legs, chest, or even the skull. In most cases, abnormal bone growth can be found, which result in disproportionate growth of some parts of the body. This too happens in 1 out of 10,000 births. Edwards Syndrome And Pataus Syndrome These are conditions which lead to an unusual structuring of the chromosomes in the cells of the body. This is quite a fatal thing to happen to a baby and there is no cure. It happens in 2 or 3 out of every 10,000 births. Doctors Also Look For The Following: The wellness and state of the Umbilical cord Placenta Amniotic fluid Measurement of the body parts is also taken in order to calculate the weight of the baby. The Gender Of The Baby This is the perfect time to check out the gender of the baby. It can be clearly seen in the scan if the baby cooperates. But, in India, as per the rules, sex determination is illegal and punishable. So, this is completely out of question and you will have to keep guessing until the birth of your little one. In a large, temperature-controlled room swamped with monitors, set just off the Brisbane River, technicians are operating an information and control hub that manages a large proportion of power on Australias eastern seaboard. While it looks like an ordinary room at first glance, what the people in it are doing affects you every time you switch on a light, the TV or your air conditioning. Every one of Origin assets is monitored and controlled although not necessarily run from this room. Credit:Ryan Auger From gas turbines in South Australia and Queensland to coal and hydro generation in NSW and generators in Victoria, every one of Origin assets is monitored and controlled although not necessarily run from this room. Origins Monitoring and Support Centre (MSC) acts as one of the hearts of the National Electricity Market, able to swiftly increase demand as needed, in real time. About 2264 megawatts of power all of Origins assets bar the Eraring and Darling Downs power stations can be mobilised from this room. Do you like pina coladas? Pineapple growers in north Queensland say now is the time to consume Australian pineapples, with a huge oversupply worsened by the temporary shut-down of Golden Circle's Brisbane cannery. A Facebook post by NQ Paradise Pines this week showed a mountain of several tonnes of pineapples going to waste due to their low market value because of the glut, exacerbated by the closure of the cannery, which shuts down for weeks after Christmas. The post has been shared more than 20,000 times. 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. Disability organisations have hit out at a $646,000 project funded and endorsed by the federal government that one expert says shows "quite horrifying" examples of how to include children with disability in the classroom. More than 100 peak bodies, experts, teachers and parents have signed an unanswered open letter to federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham calling for a review of the Leading Learning 4 All website. A project that cost taxpayers almost $650,000 will be reviewed after disability organisations questioned its contents. Credit:Quentin Jones The page - described by Senator Birmingham as "fantastic" at its launch at Melrose High School last year - offers resources aimed at promoting the inclusion of children with disability in schools, including video clips filmed by teachers throughout Australia. One video highlighted by unimpressed Queensland University of Technology academic Linda Graham centres on a teacher working with two year 3/4 girls. Science-loving teenagers were taken outside their comfort zone in more ways than one when they were asked to sketch different spider species this week. Year 12 students visiting Canberra for the National Youth Science Forum were introduced to funnel web, grey wolf, jewel and huntsman spiders during a drawing workshop held by the Griffith-based NatureArt Lab. Adelaide 16-year-old Kingsley Rosman attended the National Youth Science Forum in Canberra. Credit:Leonie Keogh Adelaide 16-year-old Kingsley Rosman said the exercise helped him better observe the arachnids, as he was encouraged to take in the detail of each spider for his sketch. "To be able to work on scientific work while incorporating disciplines outside of that specific science - and even STEM topics in general - was quite interesting," Kingsley said. NatureArt Lab founding director Julia Landford said her workshops brought together art and science. Its inclusion in the forum's 2018 program formed part of the organisers' push to show students they could combine their passions with science, technology, engineering and maths subjects. "I think the students really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know spiders a little bit better," Ms Landford said. "We basically looked at stippling techniques to draw the spiders and understanding both the scientific concepts around the spiders, so looking at their classification, structure, anatomy, a little bit about their ecology and venom, then we did some drawing exercises." Four hundred year 12 students from across Australia will visit Canberra as part of the National Youth Science Forum, which continues next week. Participants visit the Australian National University, the University of Canberra and different sites around the ACT, hearing from specialists about different STEM fields. Brisbane residents have complained about hoarding and squalor in the city more than 19,000 times in the past three years. In the past financial year, the council received 6227 complaints, an increase of 364 on the previous year. Brisbane City Council has issued about 100 public health orders to Brisbane property owners in the past two years. Credit:Brisbane City Council The complaints resulted in 32 individual cases of hoarding being identified and managed by the council, with 10 cases ongoing for more than a year. The cases spanned across 24 suburbs with nine areas having multiple cases. Four people at popular south-east Queensland swimming spots have been stung by stonefish in the past eight days. An 11-year-old girl stood on a stonefish at Tallebudgera Creek on the Gold Coast on Thursday, just one week after an 12-year-old girl was stung on her wrist at the same spot. Stonefish usually lie motionless, partially buried around coral, rocky reef, rubble or aquatic plants. Credit:Surf Life Saving Queensland. The 12-year-old child was taken to hospital while the 11-year-olds foot was treated with hot water. A Surf Life Saving Queensland spokeswoman said it was believed the young girl stood on a dead stonefish. It's the record Donald Trump could do without: the lowest approval rating of any US president during their first year in office. Mr Trump's historic unpopularity has stayed with him during 12 months of consistent controversy over Russian interference in the 2016 election, his administration's contentious policies and the former reality TV star's unorthodox leadership style. The President's net approval rating the percentage of people saying they have a favourable view of him minus those who have an unfavourable view sits at -17, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. This compares to +5 for Barack Obama, +70 for George Bush and +20 for Bill Clinton at the same point in their first terms. But popularity ratings registered by three Australian prime ministers during their first 12 months in office have at various points been even lower than Mr Trump's, a Fairfax Media comparison of opinion polling shows. 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. Liam Gallagher had no problems with publicly changing his mind about talk show host James Corden. Credit:Kate Hedley Environmental scientists fly in planes! The Coalition government raises taxes and spending! Right-wingers don't want to talk about gun control after a mass shooting, but do want to talk about immigration control after terror attacks. Hypocrites! Left-wingers don't want to talk about Islam after a terror attack, but do want to talk about the Catholic Church after sexual abuse scandals. Hypocrites! The right doesn't want free speech on Anzac Day but thinks it's needed on race; the left doesn't want unrestricted free speech on race but wonders if it's time to talk frankly about Anzac Day. Hypocrites! On social media, debates can quickly gurgle down hypocrisy plugholes. Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway managed to spin the Harvey Weinstein scandal into a swing at her favourite punching bag, tweeting: "It took Hillary abt 5 minutes to blame NRA for madman's rampage, but 5 days to sorta-kinda blame Harvey Weinstein 4 his sexually [sic] assaults." But Slate magazine's chief political correspondent swung back: "Imagine the chutzpah it takes to write this tweet after helping elect, then working for, a man accused of sexual assault by a dozen women." So Kellyanne was a hypocrite for calling out hypocrisy. ("The Harvey Weinstein scandal has exposed pretty much everyone as a hypocrite," said one news.com.au headline.) This kind of rhetorical death spiral is depressingly common on the internet. The leader of the free world is great, really great at hypocrisy. His opponents gleefully dig out his old tweets that contradict his new positions, then grind their teeth as it doesn't seem to make a difference. Of course, there's no escape. A lack of hypocrisy attracts criticism, too. British Prime Minister Theresa May was recently asked if she would vote for Brexit in another referendum (she voted against it in the first, and now runs a government dedicated to making it happen). It was a fiendish trap. Either she would have to disavow her former publicly expressed opinions on Brexit hypocrite! or reveal that she did not believe that her government's biggest policy was good for the country what a hypocrite! Instead she fudged, deploying the 'I don't comment on hypotheticals' dog-ate-my-homework excuse, the last resort of prevaricating pollies. And naturally she was raked over the coals for it by the commentariat. But it was only a trap because hypocrisy is held up as such a sin. If we accepted in public life as we do, or should, in private that people's opinions can change, then being publicly persuaded that Brexit would be a good thing is an entirely reasonable (if debatable) position. And if we accepted in public life as we do, or should, in private that sometimes we have to get on with a job that we don't want to do, because it's our job, and that we can be relied on to give it our best, then fulfilling a publicly voted wish to remove Britain from the European Union while privately thinking it's not the best option is exactly how we would want our elected representatives to behave. As Scaramucci himself put it: "Let me tell you one of the things I really hate about Washington. We have this political purity test on policy. So if I'm for something and then I'm against something then, all of a sudden, I'm a hypocrite". He added that leaders such as Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan changed political views and parties. His excuse cut no ice. But I was unable to find any piece that said why it cut no ice. For the sake of political reporting, the sheer fact of hypocrisy was enough to damn him. More headlines, picked at random from a bottomless well: "Coalition's debt hypocrisy has trashed its brand" "Bill Shorten's British citizenship displays classic hypocrisy" "Integrity- it's all Greek to the hypocrites of the Right" "Hypocrisy the winner in the same-sex marriage debate" "Joss Whedon's ex-wife warns he's a hypocrite 'preaching feminist ideals'" "These Anzac Day 'controversies' reveal the huge hypocrisy of Australian conservatives" An al-Jazeera catch-all headline, which really could have been about anything: "The hypocrisy of Australian democracy". Well, yeah. But now what? Hypocrisy is the sin of pretending to virtue, from the old Greek hypokrisis, "acting on the stage". We use it as an indicator of bad character. We generally admire people with principles: we can predict and trust their actions. Even in our enemies, we consider consistency of morals a good trait. In a representative democracy, character is important. We vote someone into power and then we trust that for the next three years they'll behave as we hoped. How can we know they will? We take cues from their character. If someone pretends to have moral beliefs, but acts contrary to them, then that's a bad sign for their trustworthiness in a position of power or influence. Or is it? Hypocrisy is in all of us. Only the maddest of saints could deny it in themselves. Ideals are often in contradiction. Safety conflicts with freedom, freedom with equality, equality with opportunity, opportunity with safety. We can promise to live up to each and every ideal, then find ourselves in positions where that's impossible, or at least inadvisable. And, in fact, we all know this. We've all lived lives, we know that sometimes you do the not-best thing, even if we'd criticise that behaviour in others if we didn't know the whole story. Could it be that we don't actually care so much about hypocrisy, except when we identify it in our enemies? Philosopher Susan Wolf has written on people she called "moral saints". "I don't know whether there are any moral saints," she writes. "But if there are, I am glad that neither I nor those about whom I care most are among them." A moral saint is someone as morally worthy as can be. A moral saint would be "patient, considerate, even-tempered, hospitable, charitable in thought as well as in deed, very reluctant to make negative judgments of other people, careful not to favour some people over others". In other words, a nightmare. Devoting all their time to feeding the hungry and feeding the sick and raising money for charity. No time for reading novels, playing the oboe or practising their backhand. No time for the comparatively petty troubles of friends and family, when there are children starving in Africa. The moral saint neither tells nor appreciates mean jokes (making them a terrible movie companion, if you are partial to a comedy). They abhor gourmet cooking as a waste of resources, so don't bother going out for a meal before the movie, either. A moral saint is either blind to the pleasures that most of us take in life, or completely rejects them. They would be either miserable or weird. That doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for goodness, Wolf says. Instead, appreciate there's more to life than utter goodness: "A person may be perfectly wonderful without being perfectly moral." In the end, prosecuting hypocrisy is pointless. You have found someone whose actions contradict their words. You are on the slippery slope to outrage. If you like their words you're not going to be happy with their actions, and vice-versa. How dare they leave you with no choice but to be angry! It's their fault for putting you in this position! Whichever route we took, we have arrived precisely nowhere. To find hypocrisy is to find the "gotcha" moment, the superficial win. It's the reason that scouring the world for hypocrisy is virtually the raison d'etre of tabloid journalism. You don't need to debate the issues if you have your "gotcha" moment. You don't need to ask if someone's actions are more moral than their words, or vice-versa, if you can show they don't match up. Which is much easier. We should judge people on what they do and say. Let it all add up don't subtract one from another and deal with the remainder. I'm on the side of Liam Gallagher, who changed his mind about talk show host James Corden, getting over some spat that I can't be bothered to Google the history of, and saying that although he had previously judged Corden a "knobhead", he now rated him a "fine chap". Author Michael Wolff has hit back at claims his book about US President Donald Trump's first year in office stretches the truth, saying it gave the clearest picture of the President's administration. In an interview with ABC Radio, Wolff said his book was "all factual" and people should read it themselves to make up their own minds about it. "You should read my book and see if you believe my account," he said. Wolff's book Fire and Fury rocketed up bestseller lists, thanks in part to Trump's threat to sue over the publication of the insider story. Back in April 2017, Morgan Stanley had predicted that Reliance Jio could become profitable by 2020. About six months later, Reliance Industries announced that its telecoms arm would turn profitable at the net level "very shortly", while announcing a pre-tax profit of Rs 260 crore for the business-it's first ever operating profit and the first time earnings were disclosed-for the quarter ended September 2017. The good times have reportedly arrived. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJio) may report its first-ever quarterly profit this month when it announces its December quarter results, sources in the know told Bloomberg today. And Jio owner, Mukesh Ambani, apparently has India's telecom regulator to thank for that. Last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) not only reduced the interconnect usage charges (IUC)-also known as mobile termination rates (MTR)-from 14 paise per minute to 6 paise per minute, but also announced that it would be scrapped entirely from January 1, 2020. At the time rating agency ICRA had claimed that the move would adversely impact the larger incumbents over the medium term, while benefitting the new entrant RJio. TRAI's move was expected to translate into savings for RJio in terms of the IUC it had to pay to other operators-as per RJio's financials, its IUC charges for the second quarter of this fiscal stood at about Rs 2,000 crore, or over a third of its revenue. RJio had previously reported negative adjusted gross revenue of Rs 1,000 crore in the June quarter as its revenues then were lower compared to the IUC it had to shell out. Perhaps that is why Ambani could confidently announce that "we are ahead of our schedule in terms of the returns that we are generating" at a December 1 event. On the other hand, the likes of Bharti Airtel suffered-MTR had reportedly contributed as much as 14-15% to its India wireless revenues. "The 57% cut in MTR, effective October 1, 2017, is likely to impact Bharti Airtel's and Idea Cellular's India wireless EBITDA by around 8% and 11% (on 2QFY18 base), respectively," Kotak Institutional Equities said in a recent report. It's hard to imagine a telco achieve this crucial milestone within 15-odd months of starting out, but then RJio is known to go against the norm. After all, it had disrupted the industry with its inaugural promise of free voice calls and data on dirt-cheap prices, triggering off a price war that bled out a once sunshine sector and resulted in several players merging forces to survive. Its customer base is currently 160 million strong and growing, and it hiked tariffs in October last year, all of which is good for its bottomline. However, RJio's profitability hinges on several factors like depreciation rate, interest pay-outs due etc. Moreover, as a Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst recently said in a note, "Unfortunately a (unknown) portion of costs are still capitalized as RIL has not yet commissioned its entire telecom infrastructure," Jio's earnings numbers are hard to pin down. It was announced this week that Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN), the all-island organisation and joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland, responsible for the promotion of business angel investment, plans to sign up a record 35 new business angel investors at its national conference on Thursday 8th February in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. They will bring a combined 7 million of new business angel funds, which will be made available to help ambitious Irish start-ups seeking to scale internationally. HBANs national conference is Irelands only angel investment-focused event. It is targeting new angels who are looking to invest in high potential start-ups. The gathering will also be of interest to those looking to invest and create de-risked portfolios with likeminded investors. The conference will be of interest to existing HBAN members, individual angel investors and those interested in becoming HBAN business angels. The event will also see the largest gathering of business angel syndicates in Ireland, with representatives from nine syndicates in attendance: MedTech Syndicate, Irrus Investments, Food Syndicate, Bloom Equity, Boole Investments, WxNW Syndicate (West by North West), SEBAN (South East Business Angel Network) and a New York syndicate HBAN has partnered with and a Singapore syndicate which HBAN helped establish. Angel investing forms an important part of the start-up ecosystem in Ireland. The 13.6 million invested by HBAN angels in 2016 was a 25% increase on the amount invested the previous year. In the last 10 years, HBAN angels invested over 80 million in Irish start-ups. These investments have leveraged a further 124 million from other public and private funds, bringing the total invested to 204 million. The conference is open to non-HBAN members who want to see how the HBAN network works, connect with HBAN angels and listen to pitches from high-potential start-ups. Tickets for the conference are priced at 50 (free for members of HBAN) and are available now. At HBANs national conference, there will be panel discussions about best practice in angel investing and how to use the HBAN network to gain access to a funnel of pre-qualified investable start-ups. A number of workshops will offer practical advice to both seasoned investors and new angels. These will focus on portfolio management, exit strategies, due diligence, the role of a lead angel in investments and the value of syndicates. In addition, a number of companies who have successfully grown on the back of angel investment will be presenting on their experience to delegates. It will feature a number of internationally-renowned speakers including three keynote speakers super angel Christopher Mirabile, serial tech entrepreneur Peter Cowley and Feargall Kenny who will talk about how to become a successful investor, maximise return on investment and minimise risks. They will also look at worldwide trends in angel investment and offer tips and advice on how to manage individual investments and portfolios. Speakers will also offer advice on how to join up with likeminded investors in business angel syndicates. Speaking this week, National Director at HBAN, John Phelan said, "Angel investing is a vital element in the start-up environment, particularly for those companies that need knowledge and expertise and not just funding. We are confident that we will reach our target of 7 million and 35 new business angels to invest in the dynamic and innovative start-up scene in Ireland. Last year, we raised 6 million at our business angel roadshows in two days. We are delighted to have a record number of syndicates gathering together as there is a growing trend for co-syndicate investment." He added, "We expect to have more than 200 attendees at the conference. Its a great opportunity to showcase some of HBANs success stories and highlight the quality of deal flow that HBAN provides to the network. It also gives prospective and existing HBAN members the chance to meet other members of the networks business angel community and learn about the opportunities for angel investing in Ireland." Source: www.businessworld.ie One of Irelands largest international trade shows, Showcase, will be returning to the RDS, Dublin from Sunday, 21st to Wednesday, 24th January 2018. The fair enables 450 of Irelands top designers and manufacturers to present their very latest work to over 5,000 retail buyers from Ireland and 20 countries, including the UK, USA, Mainland Europe and the Far East. Showcase has enjoyed very strong growth over the past two years, with estimated sales orders generated at the show growing from 18.4 million to over 21.2 million at last years show, equating to an annual market value of 140.4 million. At the heart of Showcase 2018, Design Ireland will feature 80 leading contemporary Irish brands chosen by an independent jury for their creativity, innovation and craftsmanship. All the products in this dedicated area of the Main Hall have been designed and made in Ireland. Speaking this week, Chief Executive of the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland, Karen Hennessy said, "Inspiring and supporting client companies to scale and successfully compete both at home and abroad is central to our strategy in growing the international reputation and commercial potential of Irish design and craft. The interest from specialised trade buyers across the world in Showcase each year is a testament to the unique offering of Irelands vibrant design and craft sector." Source: www.businessworld.ie The tenth annual Irish Restaurant Awards were launched by The Restaurants Association of Ireland this week in Chapter One Restaurant, Dublin. The awards aim to showcase the true talent that Irelands hospitality industry has to offer by acknowledging outstanding performers in the sector. It is a five-month long process consisting of online public nominations, judging panels, mystery guest inspections and regional and national events. In 2017, the awards received 80,000+ online public nominations. This number is expected to grow even further with the continued support of new media partner, The Irish Times. This year, there are 21 categories in which the general public can nominate. These categories are made up of 16 Main award categories, including an exciting new category Best Free From, and five National award categories. Main awards categories will each have county winners with the exception of Best Restaurant Manager, Best Emerging Irish Cuisine, Best World Cuisine, Best Cafe, Best Kids Size Me and Local Food Hero. These categories will announce regional and All-Ireland winners only. National categories will have one All-Ireland Winner only. Main categories are as follows: Best Restaurant Sponsored by Tindal Wine Merchants Best Chef Best Restaurant Manager Best Hotel Restaurant Sponsored by BWG Food Service Best Casual Dining Sponsored by San Pellegrino Best Gastro Pub Sponsored by Coca Cola & Schweppes Best Newcomer Sponsored by Elavon Best Customer Service Best Wine Experience Sponsored by Classic Drinks Best Emerging Irish Cuisine Sponsored by Odaios Foods Best World Cuisine Best Cafe Sponsored by Illy Best Kids Size Me Sponsored by Dubliner Cheese Local Food Hero Sponsored by Rewarding Times Pub of the Year Sponsored by Bushmills Best Free From (NEW!) Sponsored by Peroni Gluten Free National Categories: Best Cocktail Experience Best Private Dining & Club Restaurant Best Cookery School Sponsored by Avonmore Best Seafood Experience Best Digital Marketing In the first stage of the judging process, online nominations are given a weighting of 20%, while the remaining 80% is made up from a regional judging panel assessment. Both of these results are combined and reviewed by an independent auditor (BDO) to give an overall county winner per category. These winners will be announced at a number of regional events held in March. Each county winner then goes forward to the Regional and All-Ireland stage whereby they will then each receive a mystery guest inspection. They will be assessed on their menu, customer service, and the overall dining experience from the moment the booking is made until the customer receives the bill. Speaking this week, Chief Executive of the Restaurants Association, Adrian Cummins said, "The aim of the Irish Restaurant Awards is to honour the hard-working people of the hospitality industry from cocktail makers, sommeliers and waiters to restaurant managers and local food champions. The restaurant industry is the biggest employer within the Irish tourism sector, employing over 74,000 people and these awards are a celebration and acknowledgement of the hard work put in by restaurateurs year round." Source: www.businessworld.ie As Chinese regulators zero in on companies tying themselves to blockchain, several of the companies have issued statements to clarify they are only in the initial stages of exploring the technology. Photo: IC Blockchain initiatives have no doubt gotten investors attention. Now they have regulators attention as well. After Shanghai U9 Game Co.s subsidiary announced plans to step into the blockchain space, its shares rose by the daily trading limit of 10% for two consecutive days. On Thursday, the company made public a list of question from the Shanghai Stock Exchange that pressed Shanghai U9 Game for concrete plans on developing and using blockchain technology. The exchange regulator also asked whether the company made an announcement related to something that was attracting a great deal of market attention to create hype or speculation over their shares. Shanghai U9 Game, a gaming company that also has investments in the mining and petroleum industries, halted trading of its shares on Thursday. Announcing business initiatives related to hot topics without having actual basis or conditions for carrying out the activity is a form of improper information disclosure, an exchange regulator told Caixin earlier. Eastman Kodak saw its stock surge 171% over three days after it announced on Tuesday New York time that it was going to bring blockchain technology into the business. Some U.S.-listed Chinese companies have seen a similar type of reception. ChinaNet Online Holdings Inc., which provides advertising and communications services to Chinese companies, saw its share price rise nearly sevenfold after announcing a partnership with blockchain company Wuxi Jingtum Network Technology. The partnership focuses on using blockchain technology to build a credible, fair and transparent platform for business opportunities and transaction, according to a press release. On Friday afternoon Beijing time, it was still trading at nearly a five-fold increase from before the announcement. Social network website operator Renren Inc. saw its share price increase 76% in two days on the New York Stock Exchange after it published a white paper saying it would create a blockchain platform and issue 1 billion encrypted digital coins called RRCoin. Renren has since scrapped its initial coin offering plans after speaking with Chinese regulators, who discouraged it, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. New technologies are always overvalued by the market when they first emerge, a person that researches blockchain at JD Finance told Caixin. It was the same for cloud computing and big data. Blockchain will not be able to avoid it either, he added. As Chinese regulators zero in on companies that have made recent announcements on using blockchain, several have issued statements to clarify they are only in the initial stages of exploring the technology and that it hasnt yet brought in income. Others are sticking to their claims. Jiangsu Akcome Science & Technology Co. said it began exploring blockchain technology three years ago, and that its subsidiary has already started operating related businesses. On Friday, Jiangsu Akcome surged to the 10% daily limit at the opening. Contact reporter Liu Xiao (liuxiao@caixin.com) Modified On Jan 19, 2018 05:41 PM By Jagdev The VW Group has tasked Skoda to localise its MQB A0 platform for India, which is expected to spawn a variety of cars including Skodas upcoming ECO car lineup, the new Volkswagen Polo, the new Vento (based on the new Polo), and the T-Cross-based compact SUV Brace yourself for all the latest and upcoming Skoda and Volkswagen cars based on the MQB A0 platform as the VW Group has decided to localise this modular platform for India.Localisation might also be accompanied with some re-engineering of the flexible architecture on which cars like the sixth-gen Polo, the Volkswagen Virtus a.k.a the new Vento, and the upcoming T-Cross compact SUV are based. Skodas upcoming ECO family of small cars, that will be positioned in the volume segment, are also expected to be built on the localised MQB A0 platform. Skoda India will lead the charge in localising the MQB A0 platform for the VW Group. The Czech carmaker has appointed ex-Fiat India CEO, Gurpratap Boparai, who will join as the companys managing director from April 2, 2018. Boparais appointment can be seen as a step in the right direction for Skoda India as his experience in the manufacturing sector will be crucial in localising the modular platform. Before being the CEO of Fiat India, he led the Italian carmakers powertrain division. Also Read: Volkswagen T-Cross Compact SUV To Debut in 2018 Under Boparais guidance, Skoda plans to launch the first product based on the new platform in 2020. It remains to be seen whether the first car based on the Indian version of the MQB A0 platform will be a Skoda or a Volkswagen. Related: Meet The All-New Sixth-Generation Volkswagen Polo VW Group was earlier planning to team up with Tata Motors and work on the Indian carmakers AMP platform, which is also a modular architecture, as an alternative to localising the MQB A0. But things didnt work out as expected for either of the carmakers and they didnt get into any partnership. 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 Ministry of Communications has released an official employment notification, calling out for aspirants to apply for the post of Assistant Accounts Officer under the Department of Post. Totally there are 607 vacant posts. Interested candidates can check out the complete details of the recruitment such as eligibility, salary scale and how to apply here and apply before the deadline on 15 January 2018. The selected candidates will be appointed on contract basis "The period of deputation shall not exceed three years and will be initially for a period of one year and can be extended for two more years, on yearly basis, if required, in the exigencies of public service. The pay and terms and conditions of deputation of the officer selected shall be regulated in terms of Ministry of Personnel Public Grievances and Pension," the official notification read. Ministry of Defence Recruitment 2018 For Multi-Tasking Staff: Check Salary and How to Apply India Post Recruitment 2018 for Accounts Officer Vacancy Details CRITERIA DETAILS Name of the post Assistant Accounts Officer Number of vacancies 607 Salary scale Pay Matrix Level 8 of 7th CPC (Pre-revised Pay band of Rs.9300-34800 + Grade Pay Rs.4800/-) Selection procedure Written Exam Personal Interview Official website indiapost.gov.in How to apply for India Post Recruitment 2018 for Assistant Accounts Officer? Enter your complete details in the prescribed application format and send it to the Postal department along with the necessary attested documents attached. Mailing Address Department of Posts, Postal Accounts Wing, Dak Bhavan, New Delhi 110 001. Application Format Name DOB Age Educational qualification Present post and rank Details of current post Knowledge of computer Station preference Remarks Declaration Click here to read the official advertisement Recently, India Post had advertised for the recruitment of Multi-tasking staff in Telangana Postal Circle. In order to know the complete details of this recruitment, read, India Post Recruitment 2018 For Multi Tasking Staff Post: Apply Now! Spanish and Dutch finance ministers have agreed to push for a Brexit deal that keeps Britain as close to the European Union as possible, according to a person familiar with the situation. Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos and his Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra met earlier this week and discussed their common interests in Brexit, according to the person, who declined to be identified. Both have close trade and investment ties and are concerned about the impact of tariffs. They are also worried about losing U.K. contributions to the EU budget, the person said. The pound jumped to the strongest level since the referendum in 2016, trading 1.2 percent higher at $1.3690. A spokeswoman for the Spanish Economy Ministry stressed that both ministers support chief EU negotiator Michel Barniers efforts, and said theyre not working together toward a soft Brexit deal. Earlier, a Spanish economy ministry official said that the two finance chiefs had underlined the importance of U.K. ties for both countries, and agreed to keep track of their common interests. A spokesman for Hoekstra declined to comment. The 27 remaining EU nations maintained a united front in the first phase of divorce talks, though the solidarity is already showing signs of strain as national interests diverge in the face of future trade discussions. French President Emmanuel Macron has warned countries to be disciplined and stick together to protect all their interests, in a kind of prisoners dilemma. EU countries have delegated the job of negotiations to Barnier. The U.K. wants what it calls a bespoke trade deal with the EU, which would allow it to continue trading goods as it does now and also have access to the single market for services including its crucial financial services industry. But it wants to leave the single market and not be bound by its rules. Barnier has made clear that the U.K.s intention to restrict immigration from Europe and break free from judgments of the European Court of Justice means it can only expect a trade deal modeled on the one the EU has with Canada a dramatic downgrade from its current status. Some national governments appear to be taking a more pragmatic approach, with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni saying last month that some kind of tailor-made deal would be needed. The U.K. is an important trading partner for the Netherlands, whose ports face the east coast of Britain, while Spain caters to millions of British tourists each year as well as having huge investments in U.K.-based companies. While Spain is shaping up to be a U.K. ally when it comes to the future EU trade deal, tensions are already emerging over Gibraltar a U.K. territory off the southern tip of Spain whose status after Brexit could derail talks. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. 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. Lafarge starts low-carbon fuel research project ICR Newsroom By 12 January 2018 Lafarge Canada Inc, in cooperation with the University of Calgary, Queens University and Pembina Institute, is carrying out a million-dollar study on the environmental benefits of introducing lower-carbon fuels at its Exshaw Cement plant in Alberta, Canada. Our estimates show each 20 per cent incremental replacement of natural gas at the Exshaw Cement Plant with lower carbon fuels could result in the elimination of nearly 75,000tpa of CO2. This is the equivalent of taking over 16,000 cars off the road annually. While these are preliminary estimates, this research project will assess these figures precisely and in the local context, said Rob Cumming, environmental director at Lafarge. Eight lower-carbon fuels will be put under closer scrutiny, including renovation/demolition waste, non-recyclable plastic, carpets and textiles, shingles, treated wood products, tyre-derived fuels and rubber. These fuels have been successfully used at other Lafarge cement works in Canada and around the world. Studies into the impacts to air quality and traffic expect few changes by introducing lower-carbon fuels at the cement plant. The additional research will also measure the environmental aspects of sourcing, processing and full-scale commercial operation of each alternative fuel compared with fossil fuels. Extra funding to the project is being provided by Alberta Innovates, Emissions Reduction Alberta, Ontario Centres of Excellence and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. It includes research by Millenium EMS Solutions Ltd, Geocycle and WSP Global Inc. Achieving Canadas commitments under the Paris Agreement requires all parts of the economy to cut their emissions, said Ben Israel, an analyst at the Pembina Institute. With the cement industry contributing nearly five per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, its encouraging to see Lafarge proactively seeking to reduce their emissions. Using lower carbon fuels in cement manufacturing is a great way to quickly achieve meaningful reductions. Published under First cement shipment arrives at Barranqueras port ICR Newsroom By 12 January 2018 The first shipment of 3964t of cement was unloaded at the Argentine port of Barranqueras, Chaco region. The Bolivian cement was purchased by Cemento Avellaneda and will be distributed throughout the north of Argentina. Some 50,000tpa of cement was imported into Argentina in 2016 and 2017, according to The Global Cement Report, 12th Edition. Published under As polarizing as former Sheriff Joe Arpaio is, he has made quite the name for himself across the nation. He is most well-known for his controversial approaches to immigration, policing methods, and his abhorrent jail conditions. Now he wants to be known for something else: Winning Jeff Flakes Senate soon-to-be vacant seat in Arizona. The real question is, can he? Arpaio has a sordid history with the law and that could affect his chances. Lets take a look at his obstacles, and whether or not he can be elected. The answer may surprise you. 1. Can Arpaio serve as a convicted criminal? Arpaio was charged with contempt for violating a court order to stop racially profiling people. He has also violated Arizona election law when he targeted political opponents. He was pardoned for the contempt charge last year by President Trump. But a pardon doesnt completely excuse the crime, it just makes it so that you dont have any more obligations to the restitution of that crime. Even though Arpaio is a criminal and has a criminal record, he can still run for Congress. So in that regard, he has every legal right. Only Congress can decide whether or not someone is fit to serve. Next: Will the people of Arizona support him? 2. Arpaio was elected sheriff five times in a row Despite many allegations of abuse of power, poor prison conditions, failing survivors of sexual abuse, racial profiling, and targeting political opponents, Joe Arpaio was re-elected five times in a row by the people of Maricopa County. If that doesnt speak volumes about what the people of Maricopa County value, we dont know what does. Next: That is just Maricopa County. See how that compares to the rest of the state. 3. Maricopa County has the most power in the state Maricopa County is the largest county in Arizona by population. Roughly 4.1 million people live in Maricopa County, compared to the total population of Arizona at 6.9 million. The next largest county in Arizona by population is Pinal County, with 410,000 people. Suffice it to say, the people of Maricopa County wield a good deal of force when it comes to statewide elections. Next: Who Arpaio is up against 4. Arpaios two biggest challengers: Martha McSally and Kelli Ward McSally is currently an Arizona state senator. She represents the establishment Republican party and is their preferred choice. Ward is a conservative candidate expected to announce her bid for the Senate seat in the middle of January, but she is considered a weak opponent. This bid for the Senate seat is shaping up to look a lot like the election we all watched in Alabama, one that represented the establishment Republican Party versus conservative outsiders, and eventually against the Democratic Party. Given how the election turned out in Alabama, that has a lot of Republicans worried. Next: Arpaios legacy may hold him back. 5. Arpaio has a poor relationship with minorities Its pretty clear that minorities in Arizona (and the rest of the country) are probably not big fans of Arpaio. That is because of Arpaios issues with racially profiling people in Arizona under the guise of protecting against illegal immigrants. Minorities could be a factor if they come out to vote in the election, but there has been a steady decline in minority turnout in elections over the years. But, if the election in Alabama is any indication, Democrats could be able to flip the Republican-controlled seat. Next: His support from Trump could be a distinguishing factor. 6. Trump will likely support Arpaios election bid Trump has been a long time supporter of Joe Arpaio, evidenced by the pardon the president issued in 2017. Even more than that, Arpaio has been campaigning for Trump already. Just this past August, Arpaio was at a rally in Phoenix supporting Donald Trumps presidency. Why there are rallies like these outside of election season is a whole different conversation. The president will throw a lot of support at Arpaio. Its unclear if that support will help or hurt Arpaios bid. Trump won Arizona by about four points in the presidential election, but Trump is now the most unfavorable president in history. Next: Will Joe Arpaio actually win? 7. Arizona is the hold my beer state Arizona has made some poor decisions in elections, and Arpaio is the perfect example of those poor election decisions. They also keep re-electing a former presidential candidate that thought it would be a good idea to choose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Couple that with poor minority voter turnout in general, and Arpaios chances are shockingly good. That can all change if people actually stand for morality rather than party lines, but well have to wait and see what the good people of Arizona end up deciding on. Follow The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! During a meeting with a bipartisan group of Senators, President Donald Trump expressed frustration with immigration programs, including one that gives safe haven to people affected by civil or natural disasters. According to Reuters, Trump said, Why do we want all these people from Africa here? Theyre s***hole countries We should have more people from Norway. He also questioned the need for Haitians in the United States. Both government officials and citizens from the countries in question hit back hard, and the world turned a deservedly critical eye toward the president of the United States. These comments, while not out of character for the president, stirred tensions across the world While he only specified a few countries, here are the ones he likely meant and one he definitely didnt. 1. Haiti In November, the Trump administration elected to end protected immigration status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua. According to CNN, the order gave an approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or obtain citizenship. It gave Nicaraguans until January 2019. The New York Times reported in December that Trump said Haitian immigrants all have AIDS, during a summer 2017 meeting about immigration. In the spirit of the people of Haiti we feel in the statements the president was either misinformed or mis-educated about Haiti and its people, the ambassador, Paul G. Altidor, said in a statement. Next: Residents of this country also lost their protected immigration status. 2. Nicaragua Trump also withdrew Temporary Protected Status from Nicaragua, which Hurricane Mitch devastated in October 1998. Mitch hit Nicaragua and Honduras especially hard, killing about 11,000 people in Central America. About 5,300 people stand to lose their status. It is no longer the case that Nicaragua is unable, temporarily, to handle adequately the return of nationals of Nicaragua, according to the Department of Human Services. The agency stated that conditions affected by Mitch have stabilized. Many of the homes destroyed by the storm have since been rebuilt. Next: Withdrawing TPS from this country may have staggering effects. 3. El Salvador This week, Trump moved to end the status for immigrants from El Salvador, which could result in deportation for 200,000 Salvadorans legally living in the United States. A 7.7-magnitude quake struck El Salvador in January 2001, the worst to hit the country in a decade. The devastation, along with two more damaging quakes the following month, spurred a decision to allow immigrants from El Salvador to apply for TPS. Today, the country ranks as the deadliest in the world, with an average of 15 homicides a day in September 2017. Vox reports that many immigrants fear for their lives if the government forces them to return. Next: This nation had some harsh words for Trump. 4. South Africa The deputy secretary general of the African National Congress dismissed Trumps comment during a news conference in South Africa. Ours is not a s***hole country. Neither is Haiti or any other country in distress, Jessie Duarte said, according to The Washington Post. Additionally, the Daily Maverick, a Johannesburg-based news site, had some harsh words. It suggested that Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches, at this rate. Next: This usually quiet country issued a strong statement, as well. 5. Botswana The Republic of Botswana gave a rare official response to the remarks. It called on the U.S. ambassador there to clarify whether Botswana is regarded as a s***hole country as well. It asked why President Trump must use this descriptor and derogatory word when talking about countries with whom the U.S. has had cordial and mutually beneficial bilateral relations for many years. The statement added, Botswana has accepted U.S. citizens within her borders over the years and continues to host U.S. guests and senior government officials. [Those include] a Congressional delegation that will come to Botswana at the end of this month. That is why we view the utterances by the current American President as highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist. Next: On the other side of the continent, this nation also had words for Trump. 6. Senegal The president of Senegal, Macky Sall, said he was shocked by Trumps comments. Those of African ancestry deserves the respect and consideration of all, he wrote on Twitter. According to the Associated Press, the United States often praises the West African nation as an example of stable democracy. Too bad Trump just lost their mutual respect. Next: This country fell at the mercy of Trumps big mouth before. 7. Nigeria According to The New York Times, Trump has targeted Nigerian immigrants before. He previously complained that once they came the United States, they would never go back to their huts. The White House denied the claims in the story, at the time. In September, he also told African leaders that I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. That sounds awfully colonial, Mr. President. Oyenka Nwenze, a 26-year-old broadcaster, spoke to a New York Times reporter at a supermarket inside the Silverbird shopping mall in Abuja, Nigeria. The expansive retail space includes a cinema, several restaurants, and boutiques. He called Trump racist. For someone in that position he should know better, and he doesnt even try, he isnt attempting to expand his knowledge base, Nwenze said. In Africa, we are normal human beings. Next: Trump didnt actually leave any of these countries out when he made the statement. 8. Africa, in general The African Union Commission is frankly alarmed at statements by the president of the United States when referring to migrants of African countries and others in such contemptuous terms, said Ebba Kalondo, the spokeswoman for the African Union. Considering the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the U.S. during the Atlantic slave trade, this flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice. Republican pollster Frank Luntz additionally quoted a report that said 43% of immigrants from African countries have a bachelors degree or higher. That compares with 33% of the American population overall, The Washington Post reports. We need to get over the misconception that everyone from a poor African country has been saved by staying in the U.S., said Moses Khisa. The Ugandan political scientist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh added, I could well resign tomorrow and take up a position at Makerere University [in Uganda]. Next: The president also routinely attacks this next country. 9. Mexico Trump kicked off his 2016 presidential bid by disparaging Mexican immigrants. They are not our friend, believe me, he said. Theyre bringing drugs [and] crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. In May, Trump also said that federal judge Gonzalo Curiel couldnt hear the case because hes Mexican, Newsweek reports. Were building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings rulings that people cant even believe, he said. Vicente Fox, a former president of Mexico, also took to Twitter. Your mouth is the foulest s***hole in the world, he wrote to Trump. With what authority do you proclaim whos welcome in America and whos not. Americas greatness is built on diversity. Have you forgotten your immigrant background, Donald? Next: Only one country escaped his ire. 10. Apparently everywhere but Norway Trump wants immigrants from Norway, but Norway does not want Trump. A number of users on social media re-shared a Norwegian website aiming to persuade Americans to immigrate to Norway. We are offering acute aid to descendants of emigrated Norwegians, and other Americans, considering a new start abroad, read a welcome message on the website, in light of the results of the U.S. presidential election. One Norwegian official in Brussels deadpanned that the country might consider changing its official tourism slogan from Powered by Nature to Not a S***hole, according to The Washington Post. Follow The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Adam Frisch conceding CD3 race to Lauren Boebert Frisch conceded after most county clerks reported results, showing that he's still trailing Boebert by more than 500 votes in Colorado's 3rd District. Christian persecution has been steadily increasing in China. Most recently, a chinese church was demolished by government authorities. Persecution watchdog ministry ChinaAid reported that Golden Lampstand Church in Linfen, Shanxi province, was bombed and completely demolished by authorities. The church was completely paid for by the Christians who attended it, but has been under the control of the Chinese government since last year. It is believed that top Chinese officials gave the orders to destroy the church. This is not the first time Golden Lampstand Church has faced persecution, however. Several of the churchs leaders have been arrested in the past, for nothing more than serving the church. Additionally, when the church was being built back in 2009, church members who were camping at the construction site were awakened by government officials and severely beaten. What had been built of the church thus far was also destroyed at that time. The repeated persecution of Golden Lampstand Church demonstrates that the Chinese government has no respect for religious freedom or human rights, said ChinaAid President and Founder Bob Fu. ChinaAid calls on the international community to openly condemn the bombing of this church building and urge the Chinese government to fairly compensate the Christians who paid for it and immediately cease these alarming demolitions of churches. Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons Publication date: January 12, 2018 Algerian Christians fear government officials may be coordinating intensified persecution against them following arrests, inspections, and church closures in recent months. Middle East Concern and World Watch Monitor reported that police arrested three people on Dec. 19 in a cafe in Chlef after finding they had Christian literature. A newspaper hostile to Christians called it a foiled evangelism attempt. Although released, the three Christians could face criminal charges of proselytizing. Punishment can include fines up to 1 million dinars and five years imprisonment, according to the U.S. State Department. That same week, intelligence, police, religious affairs, and fire brigade authorities showed up and inspected two Protestant churches in Bejaia, a northern province, for safety compliance. The buildings host eight congregations. In southern Algeria, a provincial governor ordered a church to cease all religious activities at their facility after a decade of use. Officials there accused church leaders of failing to comply with safety regulations and obtain government permission. They were told they cannot reconvene until three months after obtaining a permit. Other churches and Christian facilities were targeted recently. The churches are all part of the LEglise Protestante dAlgeria. Although the Algerian Constitution allows for freedom of conscience and worship, groups must be registered, and religious services can only be held in buildings set aside exclusively for that use. Acts like insulting any religion or proselytizing a Muslim remain illegal. Courtesy: WORLD News Service Photo courtesy: Thinkstock/moodboard Publication date: January 12, 2018 The Israeli parliament last week passed a law that will require a supermajority vote to cede control over any part of Jerusalem. The move is Israels latest attempt to exert full control over Jerusalem since U.S. President Donald Trump recognized it as the Israeli capital. The new law shows how far away peace between Israel and Palestine remains. The amendment to the Jerusalem Law requires approval from at least 80 of the 120 members of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, to relinquish Israels control over any part of the city. The law also allows the government to remove Palestinian territories from Jerusalem and turn them instead into separate municipalities under Israeli control. Israel claims Jerusalem as its united capital, while Palestinians want east Jerusalem to serve as the capital of their future state. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the Israeli law is tantamount to declaring war on the Palestinian people. Alan Baker, director of the contemporary affairs institute with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told me the law serves more as a political statement. Lawmakers can repeal it with a simple majority of 61 parliamentary votes. I cant see any situation where Israel, whatever political party is leading, will give up any part of Jerusalem, Baker said, so its probably more symbolic than anything else. Ramzy Baroud, editor of the Palestine Chronicle, said Israeli lawmakers are using the laws to further isolate Jerusalem and clear Palestinians from the city. They understand that the unparalleled U.S. support must be exploited to the maximum and that any delay on those bills would be a missed opportunity, Baroud wrote for Arab News. In a historic move in early December, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital. The announcement sparked protests in Palestine and several other countries. Palestinians now worry Trumps declaration emboldened Israels ruling party. In a similar move last week, the ruling Likud partys central committee passed a nonbinding, unanimous resolution that urged lawmakers to annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Abbas commented the resolution could not happen without the full support of the U.S. administration. Attempts last year to revive peace talks between Israel and Palestine showed no progress. Baker said Trumps declaration of Jerusalem as Israels capital will likely have no impact on the peace process since it still remains at a stalemate. After a Saturday meeting with ministers from Palestine, Egypt, and other Arab states, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Arab states will push for an international resolution to make east Jerusalem the Palestinian capital. We want to lessen any losses on the Palestinian side and lessen the Israeli gains, said Ahmed Aboul Gheit, head of the Arab League. Courtesy: WORLD News Service Photo courtesy: Thinkstock/MatthewBrousseau Publication date: January 12, 2018 | Image: Open Doors Editors note: The 2022 World Watch List has been released, and CT offers results and analysis in 10 languages. For decades, North Korea has clearly been the worlds worst persecutor of Christians. But now, another nation nearly matches it. Open Doors released today its 2018 World Watch List (WWL), an annual ranking of the 50 countries where it is most dangerous to follow Jesus. Approximately 215 million Christians now experience high, very high, or extreme levels of persecution; that means 1 in 12 Christians live where Christianity is illegal, forbidden, or punished, according to Open Doors researchers. Kim Jung-uns country hasnt moved from the No. 1 spot on the list for 16 years in a row. With more than 50,000 in prison or labor camps, such a ranking is little surprise for the totalitarian regime that controls every aspect of life in the country and forces worship of the Kim family, Open Doors reported. But rivaling it this year is Afghanistan, which ranked No. 2 by less than a point. North Koreas total score was 94 (on a 100-point scale), pushed above Afghanistans 93 by a 0.6 difference in their violence rating. In the other five categories measuredprivate life, family life, community life, national life, and church lifeboth countries received the worst scores possible. Never before have the top two countries been so close in incidents, Open Doors USA president and CEO David Curry stated. Both countries are extreme in intolerance and outright persecution of Christians in every area Open Doors monitors. The rising persecution in Afghanistan is a tragedy considering the efforts being made by the international community to help rebuild Afghanistan are failing to ensure freedom of religion, stated Curry. Reports of violence and human rights atrocities from North Korea are pervasive, while the situation faced by Christians in Afghanistan may be underestimated. It is hard for Westerners to imagine a second country could nearly meet the levels of persecution seen in North Korea, but Afghanistan has reached that level this year. Afghanistan has almost always been in the top 10, marked the fifth worst overall over 25 years of Open Doors research. Over the past several years, the majority-Muslim country has been inching its way up from No. 6 in 2015 (81 points) to No. 4 in 2016 (88 points) to No. 3 in 2017 (89 points). Where Is Persecution the Most Violent? Trailing a few spots behind at No. 5, Afghanistans neighbor Pakistan recorded the most violence against Christians last year. The country also scored the highest in church attacks, abductions, and forced marriages, according to Open Doors. It also recently drew the ire of President Donald Trump, who last week cut off Pakistans military aid over frustrations with alleged Pakistani assistance given to terrorists in Afghanistan. The same day, the US State Department announced the addition of Pakistan to a new special watch list of governments or entities that engage in or tolerate severe religious freedom violations, yet arent bad enough to be named a country of particular concern. Nigeria (No. 14), where Boko Haram operates, and the Central African Republic (No. 35) ranked second and third for violence. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended that the State Department add Pakistan, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic to its list of countries of particular concern. (So far, they have not been added.) Image: Open Doors Whats the Biggest Threat to the Persecuted Church? Rounding out the top 10, following North Korea and Afghanistan, are Somalia (No. 3), Sudan (No. 4), Pakistan (No. 5), Eritrea (No. 6), Libya (No. 7), Iraq (No. 8), Yemen (No. 9), and Iran (No. 10). Its not a coincidence that all of these countriesexcept North Korea and Eritreaare predominately Muslim. In fact, Islamic extremism remains the global, dominant driver of persecution, responsible for initiating oppression and conflict in 35 of the 50 countries on the list, Open Doors stated. The Islamist movement is the part of Islam which embraces a clear political agenda for bringing nations under Muslim domination and shariah law, according to Open Doors. The movement has three parts: individuals and networks that use violence to advance their political goals; those who reject any system based on non-Islamic law but who arent violent; and those who interact with society by voting or campaigning for Islamic law. The Islamist movement manifests itself in Muslim-majority countries by trying to radicalize society, and in Muslim-minority countries by radicalizing Muslim communities, Open Doors stated. One example: Every day six women are raped, sexually harassed, or forced into marriage to a Muslim under threat of death due to their Christian faith, Open Doors reported. This number is likely low, since it includes only reported incidents. It also points to the double persecutionfor both their gender and religionthat Christian women face in much of the world. The majority of the countries on the list saw an overall increase in persecution from 2016 to 2017 (30 of 50). Five of the six countries where persecution increased the most were majority-Muslim, with the notable exception of India, which moved from No. 15 in 2017 to No. 11 in 2018. Whats the Newest Threat to the Persecuted Church? Radical Hinduism and Indian nationalism are driving factors in the increasing levels of unrest and instability Christians face, Open Doors reported. In 2014, India scored only 55 points, while during the 2018 reporting period, [WWL] researchers assigned 81 points to the nationone of the fastest and most intense increases seen. Indias Hindu nationalism has been growing since the election of nationalist Narendra Modi to prime minister in 2014, and was highlighted by the election of nationalist president Ram Nath Kovind last summer. Under Modi, religious freedom violations against Christianssuch as social exclusion, abuse, and imprisonmenthave spread unchecked. In 2017, Open Doors counted more than 600 persecution incidents, though most cases actually remain unreported, so the true number is much higher, the organization said. (At the same time, Compassion Internationals 589 Indian centers serving 145,000 children were shut down without explanation.) Indias religious nationalism has swelled over its borders, spilling into neighboring Nepal and catapulting that country onto the listand halfway up it, at No. 25. In October, Hindu-majority Nepal took aim at evangelism by criminalizing religious conversion; the Pew Research Center has noted increasing social hostility there as far back as 2015. Buddhist nationalism in countries such as Sri Lanka (No. 44), Bhutan (No. 33), and Myanmar (No. 24) is less obvious but still there. Parents have to send their children to Buddhist schools, where children must learn about Buddhism and participate in its rituals, Open Doors said. And Christians often are refused permits to rent a place to hold worship services. Nearby Vietnam (No. 18) and China (No. 43) can also be hard places for Christiansnot because of religious nationalism, but because Communism sees religion as an opium for the masses that should be eliminated. In Vietnam, levels of violence dropped, but that didnt lead Open Doors to optimism. While it is good that no Christians died for their faith in Vietnam, the authorities continue to crack down on ethnic minority Christians and will start implementing a new law on religion in 2018 for all Christians. Any Good News for the Persecuted Church? In addition to Nepal, Azerbaijan joined the list this year (No. 45). They replaced the sub-Saharan African countries of Comoros and Tanzania, which ranked No. 42 and No. 33 respectively in 2017. Tanzania is the most eye-catching example of a country where the situation for Christians considerably improved, Open Doors said. The majority-Christian country was struggling against a Muslim minority that was growing more radical when President John Magufuli was elected in 2015. His administration made serious work of cracking down on radical Islamic groups, Open Doors said. Many leaders were caught and others went into hiding. The violence against Christians decreased a lot. Tanzania was the best case of improvement. Though scores in Ethiopia (No. 29) and Kenya (No. 32) both dropped due to Muslims and Christians finding common ground in politics, both nations also saw more violence. Ethiopias violence was directed against both Muslims and Christians who were protesting the government, asking for more democracy and an end to corruption. In Kenya, the radical al-Shabaab Islamist group killed more than 30 Christians, beheading many. This seems to be a new tactic to instill fear in the Christian community and get them to flee en masse, Open Doors noted. Syria is another country where fewer reports of violence against Christians were hardly cause for celebration. While it dropped from No. 6 to No. 15, and while ISIS has lost most of its territory, accurate persecution numbers are hard to get from the war-torn country. In addition, many of the countrys Christians have already fled. Anti-Christian violence has not disappeared, Open Doors said. There were still Syrian Christians being abducted, physically and sexually abused, fleeing their homes and country. Open Doorss rankings came out a week after the State Department released its list of countries of particular concernthose that have engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom. Like Open Doors, the State Department tagged mostly Middle Eastern and Asian countries: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Its list was the same as last years. CT previously reported the WWL rankings for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012, including a spotlight on where it's hardest to believe. CT also asked experts whether the United States belongs on persecution lists, and compiled the most-read stories of the persecuted church in 2015, 2016 and 2017. 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 ... 1 Is 'Evangelical' Synonymous With Hypocrite? It is no surprise that we are called "hypocrites" by those who despise our values and demonize us. Last month, Pastor Timothy Keller wrote an important article in the New Yorker asking, "Can Evangelicalism Survive Donald Trump and Roy Moore?" And Keller, himself a respected evangelical leader, pulled no punches in answering his question, writing, "'Evangelical' used to denote people who claimed the high moral ground; now, in popular usage, the word is nearly synonymous with 'hypocrite.' When I used the word to describe myself in the nineteen-seventies, it meant I was not a fundamentalist. If I use the name today, however, it means to hearers that I am." Is Pastor Keller right in his assessment? Is "evangelical" nearly synonymous with "hypocrite," in particular, because of large-scale evangelical support for President Trump? I would say yes and no. I say "yes" for several reasons. First, beginning in 1987, when two prominent televangelists were exposed for moral failures, we have had more than our share of scandals. This has tainted our witness and made people wary of us. We have no one to blame but ourselves. One bad apple can make 1,000 good apples appear suspect. Second, we have not always practiced what we preached or been consistent in what we preach, denouncing one sin while overlooking another, or condemning the sinner without offering him a helping hand. To give one case in point, we have rightly denounced same-sex "marriage" as sinful and aberrant in God's sight while paying far less attention to no-fault divorce in the church. That is certainly worthy of the "hypocritical" moniker. Third, to the extent that we have offered President Trump unqualified and uncritical approval, unable to acknowledge any weaknesses or errors on his part, we seem to violate our own ethical standards. How can this not appear hypocritical to a watching world, especially when that watching world is already suspicious of us? On the other hand, I say "no" for several reasons. First, the good being done by evangelicals far outweighs the bad, almost to the point of embarrassment. In virtually every city of America, evangelicals are on the front lines of caring for the poor, serving the needy, ministering to the hurting, and so much more. This is also the pattern worldwide. Just watch when the next major disaster hits anywhere on the planet, and see who leads the way in sacrificial service. Second, a very large percentage of evangelicals do practice what they preach, seeking to live their lives and raise their families in accordance with biblical values. In fact, this is one of the reasons why we are so hated: it is because we are different, because we are willing to go against the grain. Just look at the highly successful homeschool movement today. This is primarily the fruit of evangelical Christians, of godly parents who made quality (and sacrificial) decisions to pull their kids out of destructive educational settings, teaching them at home. This is called integrity, not hypocrisy. Third, for many years now, long before many evangelicals supported Donald Trump, we have been compared to Nazis, the KKK, and Islamic terrorists, not to mention called bigots and homophobes and more. Writing in May, 2005, John McCandlish Phillips, formerly a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter, pointed out how newspapers like the Washington Post and the Times told their readers that evangelicals and traditional Catholics were engaging in a "jihad" against America. As he wrote so articulately almost 13 years ago, "In more than 50 years of direct engagement in and observation of the major news media I have never encountered anything remotely like the fear and loathing lavished on us by opinion mongers in these world-class newspapers in the past 40 days. If I had a $5 bill for every time the word 'frightening' and its close lexicographical kin have appeared in the Times and The Post, with an accusatory finger pointed at the Christian right, I could take my stack to the stock market." Today's constant bombardment (something I have documented for some time now as well; see here, for example) has simply upped the ante of extreme, inflammatory, false accusations. It is no surprise that we are called "hypocrites" by those who despise our values and demonize us. Fourth, it is ironic that the same world that calls us hypocrites for voting for Trump would be applauding us had we voted for Hillary Clinton (or, before that, Barack Obama). But had we voted for these liberal candidates, we would have been hypocrites, since we profess to be pro-life and they are pro-abortion, and we profess to be pro-marriage while they support redefining marriage just to name two of the most major issues that divide us. As for our vote for President Trump, many of us were loud and clear. We wrestled with our vote because of his immoral past, because of his sometimes offensive behavior, and because we were not sure he was a true conservative. But given the choice between voting for a known, evil entity and voting for someone who gave us a ray of hope, it was easy to choose the latter. And in many ways, he has done more than we expected. So, while I rue our many failings as evangelicals and have called for self-examination since the 1980s (we have no excuse for these failings), I recognize that we will always be branded hypocrites and liars and charlatans by a hateful world. And this reminds me of an accusation brought against the early Christians, as recounted by Tertullian (160-225): "We are charged with being irreligious people and, what is more, irreligious in respect to the emperors since we refuse to pay religious homage to their spiritual majesties and refuse to swear by them. . . . Christians are considered to be enemies of the State, enemies of the public well-being." Yes, it's always those dangerous, untrustworthy Christians. This will always be the accusation against us as long as we march to the beat of a different drummer. Welcome to the club. More Americans Are Supporting the DOJ Investigation of Planned Parenthood A recent Rasmussen poll found that a plurality of likely voters support this investigation 46 percent said they favored the investigation while only 38 percent were opposed to it. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced that it would launch an investigation into Planned Parenthood's involvement in illegally profiting from the transfer of fetal tissue from aborted babies. A recent Rasmussen poll found that a plurality of likely voters support this investigation 46 percent said they favored the investigation while only 38 percent were opposed to it. Interestingly, many political analysts have suggested that Republicans and pro-life Americans ought to forget about their opposition to Planned Parenthood. Some claim that, while many women and young adults are pro-life, they also support Planned Parenthood. This Rasmussen poll, however, finds that these demographic groups were actually more likely to support the Department of Justice investigation of Planned Parenthood, 48 percent of women and 51 percent of young adults. While the poll also finds that 60 percent of likely voters have a favorable view of Planned Parenthood, there is evidence that the group's popularity has, in fact, eroded over recent decades. In 1989, a Gallup poll found that Planned Parenthood's approval rating was a whopping 89 percent, much higher than the 60 percent Rasmussen now reports. During the 1990s, defunding Planned Parenthood was not a priority, even for pro-life politicians. Now, however, a vast majority of Republican congressmen publicly support defunding Planned Parenthood. This upcoming DOJ investigation ought to receive plenty of media coverage, and if it reveals additional information damaging to Planned Parenthood, as is likely, it will surely decrease the group's popularity even further. Originally posted at The National Review. North Alabama United Methodists Overwhelmingly Support Discipline on Sexuality It's true that the North Alabama Annual Conference is part of the Southeastern Jurisdiction, which tends to be more theologically conservative. But the North Alabama Annual Conference is far from the most conservative in the jurisdiction. For years, liberal activist laypeople and clergy have urged the United Methodist Church (UMC) to abandon the denomination's traditional understanding of same-sex unions and homosexual behavior. But evidence from at least one large annual conference suggests that tens of thousands of rank-and-file United Methodists do not see eye-to-eye with these activists. United Methodist Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett hosted a series of discussions in all eight of the conference's districts. She met with around 1,200 clergy and laypeople representing more than 130,000 congregants in the North Alabama Annual Conference about these issues in the context of the Way Forward Commission. Surveying these individuals on behalf of their congregations demonstrated striking results, according to the annual conference's findings released on Dec.6. The results excluded a small number "unknown" and non-respondents (54 individuals, approximately 4.5 percent of the total involved in the discussion). But the vast majority of the remainder reported that their congregations favored continuing to enforce the UMC's current standards on sexual ethics and marriage. Of clergy and lay leaders who responded, an overwhelming proportion (82 percent) said their congregations supported maintaining the Discipline and not ordaining persons in homosexual relationships. Only 18 percent said their congregations disagreed with this position. Regarding the prohibition against UMC clergy officiating same-sex weddings, 80 percent of those who responded said their congregations agreed with the Discipline and only 20 percent disagreed. These meetings came about following months of prayer in the North Alabama Annual Conference regarding the upcoming Way Forward Commission and the Special Session of the General Conference in 2019, which will seek to settle some key questions about human sexuality in the UMC. These findings from the North Alabama Annual Conference were submitted to the Way Forward Commission for consideration. Other significant insights from the discussion were that many clergy and lay leaders remain highly ambiguous about the Way Forward Commission. Only 18 percent had clear "positive feelings" about the commission, and 27 percent had clear "negative feelings." Another 39 percent had "neutral feelings," while 10 percent expressed "unclear feelings." Clearly uncertainty and a lack of clarity abound in the North Alabama Annual Conference regarding the Way Forward Commission and the debate about sexuality. Among the most common concerns about this controversy included: The impact on the effectiveness of the UMC's ministry as a result of ongoing disagreements and/or potential outcomes Issues related to denominational unity Loss of people Theological concerns Many North Alabama United Methodists surveyed were "uncertain" about what the denomination's way forward should look like on a practical level. But some suggestions also emerged repeatedly during discussions. The most common responses included: An emphasis on scriptural/theological principles Continued discernment and conversation Retaining the UMC's current stance A focus on the UMC's core mission So what does this survey signify for the broader United Methodist Church? It's true that the North Alabama Annual Conference is part of the Southeastern Jurisdiction, which tends to be more theologically conservative. But the North Alabama Annual Conference is far from the most conservative in the jurisdiction. So it's likely that many other United Methodists in the Southeastern Jurisdiction feel similarly. Moreover, membership in the United Methodist Church in the United States is proportionally shifting to relatively conservative regions like the South Central Jurisdiction and Southeastern Jurisdiction. Membership in the United Methodist central conferences in Africa is growing rapidly, with these regions now claiming approximately 40 percent of the denomination's congregants, a segment of United Methodism that tends to be far more socially conservative than the Southeast Jurisdiction. Meanwhile liberal regions of the United Methodist Church, like the Western Jurisdiction and North Central Jurisdiction, are declining rapidly and experiencing financial strain. Of course, if survey results were gathered from some other United Methodist annual conference, surely they would differ from those within the North Alabama Annual Conference. Proportionally more members of congregations in the Western Jurisdiction, for example, probably hold different opinions about human sexuality. But the views revealed within the North Alabama Annual Conference likely represent a significant number of congregants throughout United Methodism. Their values will presumably resonate with an increasing number of United Methodists in the years to come. Thus, the Way Forward Commission would do well to recall that the vocal minority of activists advocating for changing the Discipline do not speak for most United Methodists, at least those in the fastest growing parts of the denomination. This survey is yet another indication of rank-and-file United Methodist laypeople and clergy being much more supportive of maintaining the UMC Discipline's biblical standards than is often reflected among denominational elites. Originally posted at Juicy Ecumenism. Two Christian Leaders Have Branded Me 'Dangerous.' Here's My Response In a remarkable interview on "Too Wretched for Radio," Todd Friel and Phil Johnson branded me "dangerous" and "sub-orthodox." In a remarkable interview on "Too Wretched for Radio," Todd Friel and Phil Johnson branded me "dangerous," called me "sub-orthodox," said I was "willfully self-deceived," stated that I've done "enough damage," and alleged that I'm "on too many radio stations," just to mention some of the charges they brought. In doing so, they joined a recent wave of hypercriticism which included social media posts by people like Pastor J. D. Hall, who referred to me as more dangerous than most murderous jihadis. (He since removed that post, as far as I know.) What do we make of such charges? And are they worthy of response? To put this in context, I get slandered, maligned, misrepresented, and attacked on a daily (or hourly) basis for standing against LGBT activism; critiquing radical Islam; presenting Jesus as Messiah to my Jewish people; challenging atheism; confronting doctrinal errors in the Body; not being a Calvinist (or a Catholic or something else); being pro-life; being pro-Israel; being pro-Holy Spirit. I actually have a "hate mail" file where I store the latest attacks, which often include death wishes (like, "I hope your heart fails," or, "You're an idiot; I hope you die slow from pancreatic cancer" misspelled, in the original, of course) and even death threats. To me, this is a crown of honor, a sign of the Lord's favor, and another indication that our message, by God's grace and to His glory, is making an impact. I rejoice, in accordance with the Lord's words in Matthew 5:10-12. And so, when I was informed that Todd and Phil had branded me "Dangerous Dr. Brown," I took this as a compliment from heaven (the exact opposite of what they intended), and their malicious words were like water to my soul. You see, I have often prayed that the Lord would make me dangerous: dangerous to the kingdom of darkness; dangerous to the devil; dangerous to dead religion; dangerous to the status quo of a sinning world. May we all be dangerous in that sense of the word! As for Todd saying I was on "too many radio shows," aside from being shocked that a brother in Christ would say such a thing was he calling for some kind of censorship? Was he suggesting that only shows that line up with his particular definition of orthodoxy should be on the air? I felt great encouragement here too. To me, it was another sign of coming ministry expansion, allowing us to reach more and more people with the Word of God. So, these zealous brothers have not hurt me in any way, and I hold no ill will towards them. Sadly, though, they have hurt themselves, they have hurt those who follow them, and they have dishonored the name of the Lord by being divisive and sowing discord. (See Proverbs 6:19, which teaches that it is hateful in God's sight to sow discord among brothers.) You might say, "But you're missing the whole point. These men are doing God's work. They are exposing error and rebuking false teachers. This is healthy and positive." I don't doubt that in some cases, they are doing God's work, and I deeply appreciate that. Constructive criticism is a lifesaver. And I don't doubt that there are plenty of problems in the charismatic movement, of which I serve as a leader. (For more on this, see below.) Unfortunately, their criticism, which can only be branded hypercriticism, does far more harm than good. It is destructive, not constructive. It tears down without building up. It strains out a gnat and swallows a camel. It uses double standards. It pronounces people guilty by association. And much more. The recent wave of hypercriticism says this: We will not evaluate you by your life work. We will not evaluate you by what you have written (in my case, more than 30 books and more than 1,000 articles) or taught (thousands of sermons and teachings and broadcasts and debates). We will not evaluate you by the fruit of your ministry (souls won; disciples made; churches planted; Bible schools launched; humanitarian works started). We will not evaluate you by your character. No, we will evaluate you by this criterion: If you will not condemn so-and-so as a false teacher, you yourself are suspect. Not only is this unbiblical, it is ugly, it is judgmental, and it is self-righteous. So, in recent days, on social media and elsewhere, I have been challenged to condemn Heidi Baker, Bill Johnson, Mike Bickle, and Carl Lentz (among others), since they are allegedly false prophets and false teachers, all of them hell bound (I kid you not). And if I don't say they are hell-bound sinners? That proves that I'm willfully self-deceived and dangerous (in the bad sense of the word). And what does that say about friends of mine, like Dr. James White, who is a cessationist and a Calvinist? He is now suspect too, since he remains my friend! (For our responses to this nonsense, see here and here.) To repeat: These hypercritics do not hurt me at all, since I live for God's favor, and His favor is more than enough. Plus, by His amazing grace, we are reaching more people today than at any other time in our ministry work, by far. (Any good that comes of this is all to His glory.) But these hypercritics do hurt many others, sowing discord, engaging in unequal weights and measures, and even rejecting wonderful biblical truths in the name of a hyper-narrow orthodoxy. In short, they have things totally upside down, majoring on the minors and throwing many health babies out with some bathwater. (In their view, there are no healthy babies in the bathwater.) For example, during the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards wrote The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1741) "in which he gives a list of signs which are not evidence that a work is not from the Holy Spirit." In other words, these things do not prove that a work is not from God. "He elaborates that if a work (1) is unusual, (2) is attended by bodily effects such as groanings, tremblings, and outcries, (3) occasions attention and talk about religion, (4) constitutes great impressions on the mind, (5) incorporates various means, such as good examples, for its success, (6) has imprudences or irregular conduct, (7) is intermingled with delusions from Satan, (8) has someone who falls into errors, or (9) earnestly promotes judgment from God's law, none of these signs indicates that a work is not from God" (B. J. Oropeza, Time to Laugh). Instead, the work was to be judged by the fruit it produced. Did it draw people to the Jesus of the Bible? Did it bring people under the authority of God's Word? Did it produce repentance from sin to holiness? Did it result in a burden of love for the lost? If it did these things, Edwards reasoned, then the work was clearly from the Lord, since the flesh can't produce this and Satan won't produce it (nor could he). The hypercritics are either ignorant of these wise words or reject them, since they are willing to condemn charismatic brothers and sisters to hell because some of them shake or fall in meetings or some of them have been guilty of secondary doctrinal aberrations. Forget the overall fruit. Forgot your otherwise orthodox teaching. You shake too much in the meetings! In the case of Heidi Baker, forget about the thousands of gospel-based churches she and her husband Rolland have planted in Mozambique; forget about their sacrificial ministry to the poorest of the poor; forget about her Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from the Kings College in London; forget about the content of her books. Just look at her shaking and acting like she's drunk! She's obviously a false teacher, going to hell, and if I won't condemn her, then I'm willfully deceived. (If you think I'm exaggerating, go here.) What's interesting is that I have no official ministry relationship with Heidi, I've ministered together with her in a conference once (in Germany, a few years back), and I had her on my radio show once. That's it. Her ministry in Germany was great, our fellowship between meetings was solid, I found her to be very serious about the Lord and quite compassionate, not to mention with high ethical standards, and I was blessed by two of her books that I read. Is it possible that she might sometimes minister in ways that would be out of my comfort zone? Could be. Is it possible that I might question whether she was always under the influence of the Spirit when ministering? Maybe so. (I'm simply answering hypothetical questions. Nothing controversial happened when we were in Germany.) But even if I differed with the way she ministered in a meeting, the last thing in my mind would be to condemn her as a non-believer. Yet that's exactly what hypercritics do (and want me to do). In fact, some of them have damned me to hell for simply affirming what the Bible says about the gifts and power of the Spirit for today. Truly, my heart goes out to these critics. They have no idea what they are missing. What's ironic is that I wrote a book in 1991 titled Whatever Happened to the Power of God: Is the Charismatic Church 'Slain in the Spirit' or Down for the Count, addressing abuses in our movement. And in April of this year, I have a new, quite different, and far more detailed book coming out titled Playing with Holy Fire: A Wake-up Call to the Charismatic-Pentecostal Church. So, yes, there are serious abuses in our movement, and we've done a poor job of self-policing, hence the need for this book. But none of this is enough for the hypercritics. Unless I affirm that Bill Johnson and Mike Bickle are hell-bound false teachers, I am sub-orthodox and highly suspect, if even saved. May the Lord have mercy on these critics. Phil Johnson once commented that Bethel Church's Jesus Culture worship was a "bigger" and "far more important issue than abortion" since the leaders of Jesus Culture were "false prophets who are ushering people into hell." (This is an exact quote.) Todd Frield once said, "Take a look at 2,000 years of church history. The only time you see any of these miracles, signs and wonders within the last 2,000 years, since the time of the apostles, were from fringe wingding groups." I guess he'd include people like Augustine among the wingdings. Augustine once held to Todd's view but had to change his position after documenting more than 70 miracles in a two-year period. In his magnum opus, The City of God, he explained that he "realized how many miracles were occurring in our own day and which were so like the miracles of old and also how wrong it would be to allow the memory of these marvels of divine power to perish from among our people," noting that these miracles attest "the faith which proclaims that Christ rose in the flesh and ascended into heaven with the flesh." And Pastor John MacArthur, whom I respect and honor, and with whom I have some deep disagreements, once said that: "The Charismatic Movement as such has made no contribution to biblical clarity, no contribution to interpretation, no contribution to sound doctrine." (It would appear that he has forgotten men like Oswald Chambers and A. W. Tozer, whose deep spirituality was directly connected to their experiences in the Spirit, along with leading charismatic biblical scholars like Gordon Fee, Craig Keener, Ben Witherington, and Peter Davids, among many others, or leading charismatic philosophers and theologians, like J. P. Moreland and Wayne Grudem, among many others.) Pastor MacArthur also alleged that, "there is essentially zero social benefit to the world from the Charismatic Movement. Where's the charismatic hospital? Social services? Poverty relief? This is a scam." (This statement boggles the mind and is refuted thousands of times a day by charismatic churches and ministries worldwide. Yet Phil Johnson affirmed it on my radio show.) Pastor MacArthur even said that the charismatic "movement itself has brought nothing that enriches true worship." (Sorry about that Hillsong, Bethel, IHOP, and an endless stream of other charismatic songwriters and worship leaders. For documentation of all these statements, with fuller responses, see my book Authentic Fire.) Yet it is aberrant statements like this which have become the test of hypercritical orthodoxy, an orthodoxy that is sadly out of step with the testimony of Scripture and the ongoing ministry of the Spirit worldwide. The real shame is that the world is dying without God and America is sinking into moral and spiritual oblivion, yet rather than us coming together as believers to make a glorious impact for Jesus, we are condemning each other and sniping at each other and warring against each other. My appeal, as always, remains the same: My brothers, if you have differences with me, then let's sit down behind closed doors and open the Word together and pray. And, if you're a respected leader in the Body and want to engage me in a constructive, non-name-calling, formal debate on the essential issues, let's do it. The more, the better! If, however, you insist on branding me "Dangerous Dr. Brown," then I will wear the insult with honor, remembering that Paul's accusers called him a plague, an agitator, and a troublemaker (see Acts 24:5). Sounds pretty dangerous to me. (I have written this response at the invitation of the Christian Post.) When Courts Bring Christians to Ruin A same-sex couple asks a local bakery to make a wedding cake. The bakers, who are Christians, decline to do so on the grounds that it would violate their religious convictions. The state of Oregon told a pair of bakers to make the cake or eat a ruinous fine. And sadly, a federal court agreed. Now stop me if you've heard this before: A same-sex couple asks a local bakery to make a wedding cake. The bakers, who are Christians, decline to do so on the grounds that it would violate their religious convictions. The couple, feeling deeply aggrieved, files a complaint. The state civil rights agency finds for the same-sex couple and, in effect, forces the bakers to choose between their faith and their livelihood. If you noticed my use of plural nouns so far, you may have guessed that I'm not talking about Jack Phillips, whose case was recently argued before the Supreme Court. No, this time I'm talking about Sweet Cakes by Melissa, and its owners, Aaron and Melissa Klein. Not only did the Oregon Labor Commissioner rule against the Kleins, he imposed a ruinous fine on them of $135,000. A fine that high is the Commissioner telling the Kleins, not only are you wrong, you're evil. You need to be put out of business. The Kleins appealed the ruling to the Oregon Court of Appeals, and last month the Court upheld the Oregon Labor Commissioner. While the outcome wasn't surprisingOregon is a very liberal state after allthere are some aspects of the opinion that are worth noting. First is what wasn't said by the court. There were no comparisons to Nazis or racists, nor were there were references to Jim Crow. That separates this ruling from that of a federal judge in Telescope Media Group v. Lindsey. That case involved two Christian videographers, Carl and Angel Larsen, who challenged parts of Minnesota's "Human Rights Act" that would require them to service same-sex weddings. They sought the right to post a notice on their website about their policy concerning same-sex weddings. The Federal District Court rejected their arguments and then said that what the Larsens were proposing to do was "conduct akin to a 'White Applicants Only' sign." Now thankfully, the Oregon Court of Appeals didn't make any such crazy comparisons. Unlike the federal court in Minnesota, it took the Kleins' claims to freedom of artistic expression seriously. But its reasoning was tortured. It acknowledged that "the Kleins imbue each wedding cake with their own aesthetic choices," but then added the strange and nebulous line that the Kleins "have made no showing that other people will necessarily experience any wedding cake that the Kleins create predominantly as 'expression' rather than as food." So for the Court, what makes something "art" is that they are "both intended to be and are experienced predominantly (whatever that means) as expression." Say what? This reasoning is nonsensical. Last May, a college student from Scotland left a pineapple on a table at a museum, and visitors treated it as if it were on display. A year earlier, a 17-year-old left a pair of glasses on the floor of a San Francisco art gallery and people stood around and took pictures of it. The Guardian called it "a work of genius." So pineapples and eyeglasses can be experienced as "art," even "works of genius," but a cake specifically designed for the context of a wedding might not be? Look, the Court pulled this "standard" out of thin air. It was a case of, to borrow a line from Lewis Carroll, "sentence first, verdict afterwards." The Court realized that making a cake for an event could definitely be speech, but they couldn't allow this speech or those who made it to prevail, so it created a reason why they shouldn't. The fact that it's impossible to imagine this standard being applied in any other context, or to any other direct speech, only underscores this fact. And as I close, please visit BreakPoint.org for a special symposium. Hear what folks like Os Guinness, Ryan Anderson, Mindy Belz and others have to say about the challenges facing the Church in 2018. Again, that's BreakPoint.org. Sweet Cakes by Melissa, Religious Freedom, Lose on Appeal: 'Art' in the Eye of the Beholder? Challenges like the Kleins faced with local and federal legislature and judiciary are likely to increase in the coming year. Read what Christians thinkers and leaders have to say about the issues facing the Church today. First published at BreakPoint. Bolivia: Christians under attack as new law threatens evangelism Christians in Bolivia are warning they could be about to see the end of religious freedom in their country, according to Evangelical Focus. A new law brackets criminal groups with religious organisations and bans people trying to 'recruit' others to take part in 'armed conflicts or religious or worship organisations'. This could mean that street preaching is banned and even inviting someone to a Christian event could count as an offence. The law would affects both Catholics and evangelicals make up about 19 per cent of the population, or two million people. Evangelical representatives are warning it could mean the end of religious freedom in the country. 'Will they denounce us if we bring a group of people to a Christian camp? Will I no longer be able to preach the Gospel on the streets?' asked pastor Miguel Machaca Monroy, President of the coalition of evangelical churches in the capital city. The National Association of Evangelicals in Bolivia also criticised the new Penal Code and a statement said: 'It is deplorable that Bolivia becomes the first Latin American country to persecute the rights of freedom of conscience and of religion, which are protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the declaration of San Jose de Costa Rica, and our Constitution. 'Christian evangelical churches in our country are institutions aiming to rehabilitate the human being, improve the moral, spiritual, ethical and social conditions of our citizens. It added: 'Now, we have been put in a situation in which practising the Gospel has been criminalised.' The new law, found in Article 88.11 of the Penal Code, reads: 'Whoever recruits, transports, deprives of freedom or hosts people with the aim of recruiting them to take part in armed conflicts or religious or worship organizations will be penalised 5 to 12 years of imprisonment.' Jehovah's Witnesses: 3 things I learned from these eager evangelists I had a religious experience this week. I'll be honest, it wasn't blinding light or a desert epiphany that stirred me, but the doorbell. Yes, I was accosted by a pair of Jehovah's witnesses. And actually, it was quite nice. They represent a religion separate from Christianity, but that doesn't mean they've got nothing to teach Christians. Here are three things I learned from our encounter. 1. These people are passionate Perhaps what JW's are most famed for is their forthright evangelism. In 2016, the group reported a global average of 8.13 million 'publishers' the name given to the group's active preachers, and it claims to be growing by 1.8 per cent every year. You can see them and their Watchtower stalls seemingly anywhere in the world. In this case, they weren't waiting on the high street but had come to my very front door, asking me if I believed in God, what I thought about the Bible, the questions and answers I had about existence. From my experience, it's the kind of eagerness that's likely to thoroughly annoy most Brits, especially strangers, who'd rather be left to themselves than quizzed on the meaning of life. 'God-botherers', 'Bible-bashers'...people who like to share their faith don't generally get a great reputation. Evangelism can come across as arrogant, aggressive, and runs the danger of seeing people as targets and numbers, not people with stories to be heard but just 'sinners' who you need to 'save' by saying the right stuff. But I was a little challenged by the gentlemen who came to my door: I too believe in 'good news' for the whole world but do little about it, in practice. I don't believe door-stepping my neighbourhood would be effective, so I'm not going to do it. But do I really just mean it would make me uncomfortable? That more than anything else, I want to be liked? Perhaps I'm backsliding: I have not the fervency and godly passion to get me out of the door, I lack the energy to want to go and save the world. You can reject the JW approach (I'll take real relationships over random-encounters) but still be challenged. In an increasingly individualist world, desperate to trouble no one, these believers are really getting out there. 2. Encounter is powerful Secondly, we actually just had a nice encounter at the doorstep, which is not all that common. My neighbours (and family) generally keep themselves to themselves. There are no street parties, alas. But though ringing doorbells to spread pamphlets is to my mind both annoying and ineffective, I was actually glad of the interruption in the day. We had something in common: belief in God, an interest in the Bible, and some crucial differences too. It should be stressed, though not always discernible, JWs are not orthodox Christians since they reject the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. They teach that Jesus was created by God, not pre-existent with God as Christians believe. The Holy Spirit, rather than being a person of the Godhead, is more like God's 'applied force'. The focus is on God himself, named as 'Jehovah', a representation of the Tetragrammaton, God's Hebrew name given in the Old Testament (usually translated as Yahweh). But even if just as human beings, we were sharing, talking about things that matter. How often do you probe the problem of suffering with your neighbour? So much of my life seems to be online now, with physical/social interactions becoming rarer through the ever-present, but ever-distancing, means of social media. Real people talking to each other, wondering 'so what do you believe?' is old fashioned, and quite refreshing for it. 3. The Bible is not the answer I have to say though, I noticed one other key difference between our faiths. The man engaging me was confident about the power of the Bible to answer all our human questions. I was told to head to www.JW.org and see my puzzles answered with references to the Bible. As that website emphasises, the Bible is God's inspired guidebook for human life. In fact, this gentleman ventured, even if God didn't exist, wouldn't we all have better lives if we followed the moral teaching of the Bible? I couldn't help thinking, 'Well, if you got past the fact that God isn't real so it's all meaningless, yeah...' As is often said, Christians don't (or shouldn't!) worship the 'Father, Son and Holy Scripture'. The Bible is God's word but it points beyond itself to God. And Jesus chastised the Jewish leaders of his day: 'You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life' (John 5:39-40). The Bible frequently doesn't make sense to me, but I do believe that Jesus, the God who became man, ultimately makes sense of life not in the sense of answering all its questions but in giving it order, meaning, hope. People need God, not a manual. I don't see Scripture as 'Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth': its more a complex library of human words, albeit through which God has spoken and continues to challenge the Church today. It shouldn't be ignored but if the God it points to isn't real, then its message is sad and untruthful, not inspiring. At least, that's my opinion. JWs would say otherwise, and it's good that we live in a society where we're free to talk about that. I respect their commitment to their cause, and I'm glad too that they bothered to knock on my door, since we're too often so far from the people with whom we disagree. Thank God for them. You can follow @JosephHartropp on Twitter Pope Francis could meet sex abuse survivors as protests loom in Chile visit Pope Francis is set to meet with victims of Chile's oppressive military dictatorship on his upcoming visit to the country. As protests over the clerical child abuse scandal continue to flare in the Chilean Catholic Church, the Vatican said the Pope hasn't ruled out meeting with clerical sex abuse survivors too. The pontiff will travel to Chile and Peru from January 15-21, in his sixth pontifical trip to his home continent of South America, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said, according to Associated Press. On January 18 Pope Francis will meet two victims of the 1973-1990 Pinochet regime in Iquique, northern Chile. Pinochet's authoritarian government was characterised by the suppression of political opposition and the severe persecution, including torture and murder, of thousands of dissidents. No details of the meeting are known except that the Pope will give a letter to the victims. Burke was asked whether the Pope would also meet with clerical abuse victims, given the notoriety of the sex abuse scandal in the Chilean Catholic Church. This week the online database www.BishopAccountability.org reported 78 clerical figures in the Chilean Church had been accused or convicted of sexually abusing children since the year 2000. The website stressed that its disclosure comprised 'a small fraction of the total scope of the problem', criticising the 'lack of external pressure [that] allows Catholic church leaders in Chile to act with impunity'. Burke said a meeting with victims wasn't planned, 'but that doesn't mean it's impossible'. He said the issue and those affected was 'clearly an important theme' in the country. Yesterday the Associated Press uncovered a confidential 2015 letter from Pope Francis that revealed Vatican concerns about Chilean bishops connected to Chile's infamous paedophile priest the Rev Fernando Karadima. It refers to the significant criticism the Pope received for the appointment of Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Karadima, to lead the diocese of Osorno. The Pope's ambassador, Monsignor Ivo Scapolo, had encouraged Barros to take a year sabbatical before assuming new pastoral responsibilities, in light of the abuse scandal surrounding Karadima. That Pope Francis went ahead with appointing Barros has been criticised by some as contradicting his famous commitment to 'zero tolerance' for clerical abusers. Barros told AP: 'I never knew anything about, nor ever imagined the serious abuses which that priest committed against the victims. 'I have never approved of nor participated in such serious dishonest acts and I have never been convicted by any tribunal of such things.' Active protests have been planned ahead of the papal visit in light of the handling of the abuse crisis. 'We believe the victims of sexual abuse have been marginalized (by the Church),' Juan Carlos Claret, a spokesman for Osorno parishioners, told Reuters. 'It's a reality that we in Osorno have been living with for almost four years and we plan to keep the issue alive.' The aim of the pontiff's trip is to advocate for indigenous peoples in the region, and promote the protection of the Amazon ecosystem, aligning with the environmental concerns stressed throughout his pontificate. Russell Moore leads Christians rebuking Donald Trump over foul-mouthed rant about immigrants Donald Trump lashed out at immigrants from 's***hole' countries in a foul mouthed rant on Thursday, according to sources at a White House meeting. The comments have produced a fierce backlash both from Democrats and his own Republican party as well as a number of Christian leaders. In a briefing on a newly drafted immigration bill backed by both Republicans and Democrats, Trump questioned why people from Africa were in the US branding them 's***hole countries'. Lawmakers including Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham were describing how certain immigration programmes operate, including one to give safe haven in the United States to people from countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife. One of the sources who was briefed on the conversation said Trump asked: 'Why do we want all these people from Africa here? They're s***hole countries ... We should have more people from Norway.' The second source familiar with the conversation, said Trump, who has vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration, also questioned the need to allow Haitians into the United States. Republican US Representative Mia Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants, said the comments were 'unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values' and called on Trump to apologise to the American people and to the countries he denigrated. Another Republican Representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Cuba and whose south Florida district includes many Haitian immigrants, said: 'Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House.' Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a frequent Trump critic, said the president's comment 'smacks of blatant racism, the most odious and insidious racism masquerading poorly as immigration policy'. However the outrage was not limited to his political counterparts. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Council of the Southern Baptist Convention, tweeted: 'The church of Jesus Christ is led by, among others, our brothers and sisters from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. They are us.' He later added, quoting from the New Testament book John 1:42-46: '"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" "Come and see."' James Martin, a Catholic priest and editor of the Jesuit America Magazine also tweeted: '"Why are we having all these people from sh#*hole countries come here?" 1) They are our brothers and sisters in need. 2) They are often fleeing war, violence or famine. 3) There are children among them. 4) It's the right thing to do. 5) That's who we are.' In an apparent response to his critics, Trump took to Twitter late on Thursday night. '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!' The programme that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status. In November, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua. It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalise their presence in the United States. Nicaraguans were given until January 2019. This week, Trump moved to end the status for immigrants from El Salvador, which could result in 200,000 Salvadorans legally in the United States being deported, beginning in September of next year. The bipartisan Senate plan would attempt to maintain TPS in return for ending or changing a 'diversity' lottery programme that has been aimed at allowing up to 50,000 people a year from countries with few emigres to the United States. Asked about Trump's comments, White House spokesman Raj Shah said: 'Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people.' '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 said. Additional reporting from Reuters. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 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. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Dr. Gary White was out on the front lines helping people whose homes were damaged during Hurricane Harvey and even opened his own home to a family who lost theirs. This behavior came as no surprise to his associates at Atascocita Dental. "That's just the type of person he is," said Stacie Trevino, appointment and financial coordinator for Atascocita Dental. "He loves to help - that's his number one thing." This is the fourth year Atascocita Dental will partner with Dentistry from the Heart, a national charity organization, to provide a day of free dental care to help those in need in the community. On Friday, March 2, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., people 18 and older without the resources to obtain dental care have the opportunity to receive their choice of either a complimentary filling, cleaning or extraction at Atascocita Dental. At least 75 patients will be served during the event. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m.; however, people are encouraged to arrive early because the free dental care is given on a first-come, first-served basis. As the office anticipates a line to form outside of people awaiting treatment, they advise people to wear weather-appropriate clothing, and bring blankets or chairs if they wish. Atascocita Dental is seeking event sponsors, as well as donations and volunteers to help during the event. Sponsors have the opportunity for recognition both online and at the event. Trevino said some people may take dental care for granted, but to many, it can be a life-changing thing. "It's about quality of life," Trevino said. "It's hard to smile if you're in pain or need cleaning. If Dr. White could do this for free every day, he would. He loves to see people smile." Atascocita Dental is at 7820 FM 1960 Road E, Suite 204. For more information, contact Danielle Wooten at danielle@atascocitadental.com, or at 281-852-5690. MONTPELIER, Vt. - The Vermont Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would allow the recreational use of marijuana, putting the state on course to become the first in the country to legalize pot by an act of the Legislature rather than through a referendum by voters. By voice vote, the Senate agreed to the 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 House approved the bill last week, and Gov. Phil Scott has indicated he will sign it. "Today the Vermont Senate moved Vermont one step closer to a rational approach to marijuana," Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, a Democrat and Progressive, said in a statement. "Tens of thousands of Vermonters will no longer feel like they're committing a crime for their private, responsible use of marijuana." Senators who voted against the bill didn't ask for a roll call. It takes effect July 1. "I think this is a very exciting criminal justice reform for Vermont. There have been terrible harms that have happened in the name of marijuana prohibition that have disproportionately affected poor people and people of color for far too long," said Laura Subin, director of the Vermont Coalition to Regulate Marijuana. Once the bill takes effect, Vermont will become the ninth state in the country, along with the District of Columbia, to approve the recreational use of marijuana and the only area where the law wasn't created by the vote of residents. Vermont does not allow referendum votes. Justin Strekal, political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws, said Vermont and the District of Columbia are the only jurisdictions without a tax and regulation structure as part of their marijuana legalization laws. The legalization laws in Maine and Massachusetts call for tax and regulation structures, but they have not yet been set up, although personal marijuana use and possession are legal in those states. The Vermont bill would allow adults 21 and older to possess of up to 1 ounce of marijuana and have two mature marijuana plants or four immature plants. Last spring, the Legislature passed a similar bill, but Scott vetoed it because the Republican thought it didn't do enough to protect children from marijuana and enhance highway safety. Lawmakers changed the proposal to address the governor's concerns, but there was not enough time left to pass it. Democratic state Sen. Richard Sears, who has been working for marijuana legalization for years, said the bill passed Wednesday was an important first step. "A lot of work has taken place, but we're still not there yet," Sears said. "I don't think we're there until we see a tax and regulated system." In the face of a series of crucial decisions for President Trump concerning certification of the Iran nuclear deal and continuing waivers from sanctions, the European Union is lobbying hard in the mullahs defense. These efforts culminated in a meeting Thursday between representatives of the EU/E3 including France, Germany, and the U.K., and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on the eve of the presidents first review deadline under the so-called Corker-Cardin legislation. EU High Representative/Vice President Frederica Mogherini released a written statement following the meeting that exposes the hollowness of the accord. The deal is working, Mogherini asserts. It is delivering on its main goal, which means keeping the Iranian nuclear programme in check and under close surveillance. Leave aside for a moment Obama administration predictions that the deal would have a moderating influence on Tehran, putting it on the path to entering the community of nations, for which no evidence exists; Mogherinis contention that the deal has kept Irans nuclear program in check and under close surveillance is demonstrably unproven, and if Iran has its druthers, unprovable. While Mogherini cites the International Atomic Energy Agencys (IAEA) nine reports that Iran is fully complying with the commitments made under the agreement, she omits what the IAEA cannot or will not verify regarding compliance. As I noted prior to President Trumps October 2017 decertification decision, the IAEA has admitted that it cant inspect the military sites where Irans illicit nuclear activities would likely be carried out, and Iran has said that it wont provide access to such sites. Mogherini continues: The European Union remains committed to support the full and effective implementation of the agreement, including to make sure that the lifting of nuclear related sanctions has a positive impact on trade and economic relations with Iran, including benefits for the Iranian people. Perhaps Mogherinis apparent dismissal of the recent protests in Iran represents a Freudian slip. According to Western media sources, the unrest centers on the economic grievances of the Iranian people (whom Mogherini claims to be championing) against a regime that has enriched itself while lavishing funds on its proxy forces abroadwith the fruits of the very sanctions relief that she and her EU counterparts are fighting so doggedly to maintain. Its a clever gambit to frame the deal as helping the Iranian people through increased trade, but the deal has two primary economic beneficiaries: the Iranian regime and the Western companies doing business with it. After all, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) itself is the dominant player in Irans economy, deeply embedded in sectors from oil and gas to shipping, aviation, finance, and telecommunications. As Ive noted previously, at the time of the deals passage the IRGC controlled an estimated 20 percent to 40 percent of the nations economy and generated income up to an estimated one-sixth of its GDP. Another regime entity enmeshed in Irans economy but no longer subject to sanctions is Setad, Ayatollah Khameinis holding company, valued at an estimated $95 billion. A 2015 Reuters report describes Setad as having stakes in nearly every sector of Irans economy . . . built . . . on the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to religious minorities, business people, and Iranians living abroad. Reuters noted that dozens of Setad-linked companies were never directly named by the U.S. Treasury and may not have been affected at all by the sanctions. Its hard to imagine that any strategically significant enterprises in Iran are not directly or indirectly linked to the mullocracy. Meanwhile, multinational corporations with operations from Europe and the U.S. to China have agreed to billions of dollars worth of deals with Iran over everything from airline and automobile sales to oil and natural gas projectswith ties between Iranian trading partners and terror organizations conveniently ignored. Within hours of the EU/E3-Iran meeting, perhaps to put an exclamation point on the economic significance of the deal, Italy and Iran announced a $6 billion investment agreement funding joint projects covering infrastructure, construction, oil and gas, electrical energy, and . . . chemical, petrochemical and metallurgical industries. As many European officials argued at the last certification deadline, the Iran deal means big money, leading, they claimedobscurely to political liberalization. Days into the protests, Mogherini released a statement reading in part: In the last days, we have been in touch with the Iranian authorities. In the spirit of frankness and respect that is at the basis of our relationship, we expect all concerned to refrain from violence and the right of expression to be guaranteed, also in light of the statements made by the Iranian Government. This mealy-mouthed statement sets up an equivalence between powerless civilian protesters and the armed might of a theocratic regime. Its as if Mogherini believes that Iranian demonstrators are arresting and silencing members of the state Basij militia, and not the other way around, Bloombergs Eli Lake wrote. And why does she speak of openness and respect? Has the European foreign policy chief not followed the ordeal of European dual national citizens, detained on trumped-up charges in Iran? The sad answer is that Mogheriniand presumably the European leaders who echoed herare either afraid of the consequences of challenging Iran from a national security perspective or afraid of pushing Tehran to ditch the deal, lest Europe lose access to Iranian markets. When it comes to the Europeans, fear begets appeasement. Iran understands this, which is why General Hossein Salami, head of the IRGC, recently declared that Iran would increase the range of its ballistic missiles if it feels that Europe has become a threat. This is blackmailbut with an all-too-willing victim. Photo: U.S. State Department Nothing scandalizes a leftist like the truth. Point out that women and men are different, that black Americans commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime, that most terrorist acts are committed by Muslims, and the Left leaps to its collective feet in openmouthed shock, like Margaret Dumont after a Groucho Marx wisecrack. This is racism! This is sexism! This is some sort of phobia! Im shocked, shocked to find facts being spoken in polite company! No one is really shocked, of course. This is simply a form of bullying. The Left has co-opted our good manners and our good will in order to silence our opposition to their bad policies. The idea is to make it seem impolite and immoral to mention the obvious. The bullying is highly effective and very dangerous. In England, in the city of Rotherham, at least 1,400 non-Muslim girls, some as young as 11, were brutally raped by Muslim immigrants over a period of years in the 2000s. Police and other officials worked to keep the facts hidden because, according to multiple reports, they were afraid of being called racist. Think about that: police officers did not want to seem racist, so they stood by and let their citys children be raped. The same thing goes on in other cities in England and throughout Europe. And in fact, some who have spoken out have had their careers curtailed by manufactured scandal. The message is clear: its just not nice to tell the truth. Its just not done. Dont do it. Here in the states, the First Amendment has so far allowed old-fashioned American loudmouths to fight the system whenever they could find ways around our monolithic corporate media. But the Empire of Lies is quick to strike back. Google/YouTube now stands charged by multiple accusers of singling out conservative voices for censorship, fact-checking, and demonetization. Hidden-camera videos released by Project Veritas this week show Twitter employees conspiring to shadow ban conservatives on their system. On campus, intelligent conservative speakers of good will like Ben Shapiro, Charles Murray, and Christina Hoff-Sommers have faced violent protests meant to shut them up. No person of importance on the right seeks to silence anyone on the left. The Left, on the other hand, is broadly committed to ostracizing, blacklisting, and even criminalizing right-wing speech. Enter President Donald Trump. He is a rude and crude person. He speaks like a Queens real estate guy on a construction site. And because he does not have good manners, he thoughtlessly breaks the rules with which the Left has sought to muzzle those who disagree with them. In this regard, I frequently compare Trump to Randle Patrick McMurphy, the loudmouthed, ill-mannered roustabout from Ken Keseys brilliant novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. McMurphy comes into an insane asylum controlled by a pleasant, smiling nightmare of a head nurse named Ratched. Nurse Ratched, while pretending to be the soul of motherly care, is actually a castrating, silencing tyrant. Her rules of good manners, supposedly fashioned for the benefit of all, are really a system of mental slavery. All of McMurphys salient character flaws suddenly become heroic in the context of her oppression. Only his belligerent ignorance of what constitutes good behavior can overturn the velvet strangulation of her rule. For Nurse Ratched, read Hillary Clinton, CNN, the New York Times, Yale University, Twitter, and Google/YouTubeall the tender ministers of polite silence and enforced dishonesty. If Donald Trumps boorishness crashes like a bull through the crystal madhouse of their leftismwell, good. Its about time. I dont know exactly what Trump said in a closed-door meeting with senators at the White House this week. Unnamed sources say that he referred to some African countries and Haiti as shitholes. Maybe so; sounds like him. In any case, when it comes to a chance to attack Trump, our journalists dont waste time with fact-gathering or source-identifying. Like Madonna, they just strike a pose. Various media knuckleheads have reacted to the alleged comment by calling Trump racist, Nazi, Evil, and a terrorist sympathizer. (Personally, my first thought on hearing about the remark was: What squirrely little tattle-tale of a weasel went running to the press with that? But never mind. Thats just me.) Lets state the obvious. Some countries are shitholes. To claim that this is racist is racist. They are not shitholes because of the color of the populace but because of bad ideas, corrupt governance, false religion, and broken culture. Further, most of the problems in these countries are generated at the top. Plenty of rank-and-file immigrants from such ruined venues ultimately make good Americanswitness those who came from 1840s potato-famine Ireland, a shithole if ever there was one! It takes caution and skill to separate the good from the bad. For these very reasons, absurd immigration procedures like chain migration, lotteries, and unvetted entries are deeply destructive. They can lead to the sort of poor choices that create a Rotherham. Trumps suggestionsto vet immigrants for pro-American ideas and skills that will help our countryare smart and reasonable and would clearly make the system better if implemented. So, when it comes to the Great Shithole Controversy of 2018, my feeling is: I do not care, not even a little. Im sorry that it takes someone like Trump to break the spell of silence the Left is forever weaving around us. I wish a man like Ronald Reagan would come along and accomplish the same thing with more wit and grace. But that was another culture. History deals the cards it deals; we just play them. Trump is what weve got. For all the bad language, for all the loose talk, I would rather hear a man speak as a man without fear of the Nurse Ratcheds in the press and the academy than have him neutered and gagged by a system of good manners that has been misused as a form of oppression. Better impoliteness than silence. Better crudeness than lies. We have seen the effect of uncontrolled immigration on Europe. It is very, very bad. The fact is: some countries are shitholes. I dont want this to become one of them. Photo by Pool/Getty Images The unexpected death of Bruce Cole last week has been a shock to all those who care about humanistic learning. Cole led the National Endowment for the Humanities during George W. Bushs presidency, reorienting the agency toward the support of non-politicized research and education in mankinds greatest accomplishments. A decorated art historian with a sly sense of humor, Cole produced widely read books on Giotto, Titian, and Renaissance art more broadly during his academic career at Indiana University and prestigious European research institutes, before entering the public realm. The Trump administrations management of the National Endowment for the Humanities struck Cole with dismay, since it continues the politically correct orientation of the previous administration. This Saturday, the Kansas state affiliate of the NEH is screening the Black Lives Matter-inspired documentary, Whose Streets? The national NEH homepage describes Whose Streets? as an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising after unarmed teenager Michael Brown is shot by police and left lying on the street. (Ferguson business owners and workers whose livelihoods were destroyed by vandalism, arson, and looting would no doubt demur from using the phrase uprising to describe the Ferguson riots. And if Brown lay in the street, that was because gunfire at the scene made it too dangerous for police detectives to investigate.) The directors of Whose Streets? call the media coverage of the Brown shooting a modern day lynching. Brown was a young boy with a bright future, the directors claim, not a thug or a criminal, as the media allegedly portrayed him. (Never mind that Brown had strong-armed a box of cigarillos from an immigrant convenience store worker in order to make blunts just before his encounter with Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, and that Brown had pummeled Wilson through the window of his car and tried to grab Wilsons gun.) The documentarys claim that the media coverage of the Ferguson uprising was antithetical to the Black Lives Matter narrative is sheer fantasy. In fact, the media relentlessly recycled the lie that Americas police are lethally biased and that the Brown shooting exemplified that bias. Taxpayer dollars should not be underwriting a piece of propaganda like Whose Streets?; that they are doing so as a humanities initiative is preposterous. The screening is part of Race Project KC, undoubtedly equally uplifting. Trump is likely to name the acting director of the NEH, under whom the Whose Streets? screening was okayed, to the permanent chair position. Jon Peedes credentials and scholarly record (he did graduate work in Southern Studies) are thin. But his brother worked for Mike Pence and is now in the administration. Peedes first public statement as acting chair spoke to the need to make inclusion manifest in a real way. Inclusion is a matter of communicating down the line to your entire team that this is the way it is, he said. Peede called on the NEH to break down barriers of race, of gender, of classand to discuss class more often. He extolled community partnerships, but said little to nothing about beauty, greatness, or grandeur. Trump has no apparent interest in culture. But surely someone in the administration does. The president has the opportunity to put serious humanists at the top of the NEH and as division heads. The latter could steer the agency for decades. At a time when university scholarship is mired in the narcissistic pursuit of identity politics, it is all the more important to have a counterweight speaking out for non-politicized knowledge and the experience of the sublime. It would honor Bruce Coles memory and put the country on a better track if the NEH were in the hands of someone who understands what is at stake in the academic assault on humanistic learning and who is determined to fight back. Photo by Sean Pavone/iStock Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom, by Thomas E. Ricks (Penguin Press, 339 pp., $28) Even before one lifts the cover of Churchill and Orwell, Thomas Rickss decision to match this pair of twentieth-century political and cultural icons seems a surprise. It is a happy decision, however, with a satisfying result. The historian and military analyst delivers an inspirational work of biography, recalling his subjects love of country, loathing of tyranny, and prescience about emerging totalitarianism. In the middle of the last century, Winston Churchill and George Orwell displayed moral courage that transcended personal and party interests. They are fundamentally linked by their willingness to face risk and rejection and to wage an implacable fight for freedom. Readers familiar with the Churchill and Orwell biographies will anticipate some of the similarities Ricks draws. Both men loved and mastered the English language, both worked as soldier-journalists early in their careers, and both spent time as young men in the further reaches of the British Empire. Both men would see their names turned into adjectives. Today, the world continues to furnish Orwellian evils, but Churchillian statesmen who might step forth to meet them are in short supply. In style, however, the two men were near opposites. Churchill was extroverted, a seeker of the limelight, openly ambitiousa pusher, in the disparaging parlance of his upper-class contemporaries. Orwell, by contrast, was a lover of solitude, and even fled London to write Nineteen Eighty-Four in the remote Hebrides. Orwell was apparently a poor speaker even in informal situations; Churchills legendary oratorical prowess proved key to Britains survival. The men were most at odds in their political philosophies. Orwell described socialism as the guiding light of his authorial vocation. Churchill assumed the role of wartime prime minister as a Tory. Their respective attitudes toward capitalism, America, and Empire, while complex, were opposed, especially in regard to Empire. Orwell loathed his stint as a policeman in colonial Burma, noting that the colonizer became a degraded figure, self-doomed to wear the mask of the sahib. By contrast, Churchill proclaimed that he did not intend to preside over the dismantling of the British Empire. But simple categories such as socialist and conservative can mislead in the case of truly independent intellects. Ricks reveals deeper parallels. Neither man fit in comfortably with his allies and peers, who repeatedly and openly denounced them. During the early days of World War II, the Labour Party supported Churchill more reliably than did his own party, whose leaders remained suspicious of the man who had crossed the floor to join the Liberals in 1904 before crossing back after the Great War. (Neither did his mothers American citizenship help his standing, especially with aristo-conservatives.) Churchill famously spent his wilderness years in the 1930s warning against German rearmament, preaching against appeasement, and urging military preparedness. He was widely ridiculed for these effortsonce again, largely by members of his own party. He was a troublemaking alarmist, a reactionary militarist, a self-serving hothead whose predictions were simply ignored, when not openly scoffed ata torrent of denunciation, as Ricks writes. The abuse of power, from both left and right, was Orwells core theme, as Ricks sees it. Yet Orwells most significant antagonists came mostly from his own political camp. His two best novels warn about leftist brands of totalitarianism. While his experiences as a Republican soldier in the Spanish Civil War confirmed for him a lifetime commitment to democratic socialism, he also saw firsthand evidence of the ruthless power structure of Soviet communism. There is a direct line from the streets of Barcelona in 1937 to the torture chambers of 1984, writes Ricks. The pro-Republican but anti-Stalinist militia that Orwell had joined in Spain caught the attention of Soviet operatives, and the unit was targeted for liquidation. Among the Communists, eliminating deviationists and exiling internal enemies eventually superseded the fight against Franco. Orwell fled for his life, and his subsequent desire to report ugly truths to readers turned left-wing publishers and intellectuals against him. Victor Gollancz, publisher of the Left Wing Book Club, told him that the unflattering material in his work would be detrimental to the cause, but Orwell refused to self-censor. Later, at least five English publishers rejected Animal Farm, worried that it would antagonize the Soviets. Yet Orwells mature work continued to criticize the Left, even as he steadfastly supported the broader goals of socialism. Churchills hour finally arrived after he ascended to the premiership in 1940. His work ethic as prime minister, his energy and commitment to the defense of Britain and of a free West remain, simply put, incredible. Action this day could be found stamped on memoranda sent to bureaucrats and military leaders. If Churchill could find the time to master the details of various departments, surely each department could shake itself into movement. Orwell experienced the war in a markedly different manner, but Ricks emphasizes his commitment to facing down the totalitarian attack on his home soil. The writer had suffered a gunshot wound to the throat before being chased from Spain; nevertheless, when war against Germany arrived, he tried to enlist in the British army. His age and health problems kept him out, so he joined the Home Guard and eventually worked at the BBC, both experiences proving unsatisfactory. His greatest blows on behalf of freedom would be struck just after the war, in his two famous novels. Animal Farm was published just two days after the Japanese surrender. Churchill and Orwell neither met nor corresponded, though they expressed admiration for one another. Churchill openly praised Nineteen Eighty-Four and read it at least twice. Orwell welcomed Churchills succession to wartime prime minister, reviewed the statesmans memoirs positively, and, perhaps most tellingly, chose the name Winston for the freedom-seeking protagonist of his most important book. Ricks has written a richly detailed and thoroughly enjoyable comparison of two inspirational men to whom the West remains indebted. Photos: BBC/Public Domain (L), Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images (R) His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge has been announced as the keynote speaker for the Charity Commissions annual public meeting later this month. The annual public meeting is part of the Commissions commitment to accountability and transparency and will take place on 23 January in London. William Shawcross will chair the meeting and attendees will also hear from the regulators chief executive, Helen Stephenson. There will be an opportunity to ask Stephenson questions. Last years keynote speaker was the Prime Minister, Theresa May. To register your interest in attending email [email protected] including your name and the organisation that you are a representative of. North Dakotas State Health Council is poised to sign off on administrative rules for medical marijuana amid uncertainty over whether the federal government might crack down on state marijuana operations. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week rescinded an Obama administration policy pledging that federal authorities wouldnt crack down on marijuana operations in states where they were legal, as long as the states maintained tight regulations. The impact of the decision isnt known, and North Dakotas Health Department will forge ahead with creating a medical marijuana program approved by voters and set into law by the 2017 Legislature, said Jason Wahl, interim director of the departments medical marijuana division. Well continue to monitor information from the federal government, and attempt to provide updates to the public, he said. People can register on the departments website to receive email updates about the developing medical marijuana program. The North Dakota Compassionate Care Act allows the use of the drug for 17 medical conditions, along with terminal illnesses. The Health Department has been working to create the program since Gov. Doug Burgum last April approved regulations crafted by lawmakers following voters approval of the drug in November 2016. Officials last November unveiled 50 pages of proposed administrative rules to cover such things as lab testing, security requirements and transportation regulations, and the department held public meetings on them late last year. The process resulted in some changes, such as lengthening the time that law enforcement agencies will have to report to the state any problem incidents, according to Wahl. The State Health Council, which advises the department, is meeting Thursday to adopt the rules. If the attorney generals office signs off, they will go to the Legislatures Administrative Rules Committee for approval in March. With a satisfactory vote there, the department anticipates having an open application period for manufacturing facilities, Wahl said. The department on Tuesday released a draft application for potential manufacturers , to give them a head start on the process. Application periods would follow for potential dispensaries, patients and caregivers. The Health Department also would choose a lab to test the marijuana. The department is still looking at usable marijuana for qualifying patients in that October, November, December timeframe, Wahl said. That would be two years after voters approved the drug and months later than initial state estimates. The timeline has been criticized by the pro-legalization group Marijuana Majority, but the group Americans for Safe Access says it isnt unusual when compared with other states that have set up programs. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. A state district judge has ruled that North Dakotas law limiting damages in medical malpractice cases is unconstitutional. The case involved a 35-year-old Fort Yates woman who suffered a disabling stroke in 2012 due to a botched surgery at CHI St. Alexius Health in Bismarck. Dr. Allen Michael Booth was found to have negligently performed a surgery on Chenille Condon. Last April, a jury awarded Condon $3.5 million, and $2 million of that amount was designated for economic losses, including medical expenses and lost earnings. She was awarded $1.5 million for non-economic damages, including suffering, physical impairment and emotional distress. South Central District Judge Cynthia Feland has denied a motion from CHI St. Alexius Health to reduce the jurys verdict under a law that puts a $500,000 limit on non-economic damages, the Bismarck Tribune reported . The hospital sought to reduce Condons non-economic damages by $1 million. Feland ruled the 1995 law violates equal protection guaranteed by the state constitution by arbitrarily reducing damages for people who suffer the most severe injuries. Feland wrote that the laws legislative record offered no explanation for how the $500,000 cap was chosen or how it would accomplish the Legislatures health care reform goals. The greater the harm caused by the negligent doctor, the greater the discount, said Tom Conlin, Condons attorney. The cap fell hardest on stay-at-home moms, the young and those who couldnt prove large economic loss. CHI St. Alexius Health said on Tuesday that its exploring legal options. Conlin said he expects the hospital to seek a new trial. They first wanted a discount off the verdict, said Conlin.Now, theyre going to attempt to have the verdict thrown out. The state was added as a defendant in the case. Its unknown whether North Dakota will appeal. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks at the headquarters of SPD for preliminary coalition talks on January 7, 2017. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party grouping and Social Democrats (SPD) toiled deep into the night on Thursday to overcome differences on tax cuts and other issues that threatened to block a new "grand coalition" government. Negotiators, who have vowed to reach a decision by Friday on whether to launch formal coalition talks, predicted many more hours of hard negotiations. Several negotiators left the talks at SPD headquarters around midnight, saying they would return later. Others played cards to pass the time. One participant told the German newspaper Bild: "The negotiations are completely stuck." German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, keen to end months of uncertainty and avoid new elections, urged the would-be coalition partners to rise above politics and keep in mind the impact of the coalition talks for Europe as a whole. Merkel had warned earlier it would be "a tough day", but said she recognised that Germans expected results. The German leader is counting on the left-leaning SPD to renew the coalition that ruled for two of her three previous terms after failing to hammer out a deal with two smaller parties. Steinmeier, who is pressing both sides to reach a deal, told foreign diplomats in Berlin the delay in forming a government was unprecedented, but the German constitution provided clear rules for the situation, and everyone was taking it seriously. "Those who bear responsibility in the institutions and parties ... know that they have this responsibility not only towards the members of their own party and their own political future. Rather, it is always also a responsibility for Europe, and for reliability, partnership and engagement in international politics," he said. Merkel, still widely respected abroad after more than 12 years in power, is scrambling to prevent a further erosion of her personal authority at home and end months of uncertainty that have started to weaken Germany's international influence. Reiner Haseloff, premier of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, told reporters late on Thursday that he remained optimistic and he did not expect the talks to fail. But another participant in the talks said the two blocs were still struggling to find common ground on the most divisive issues - taxes, pensions, migration and healthcare. One SPD negotiator told the Bild newspaper that Bavaria's CSU, sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats, was blocking an agreement on raising tax rates for the wealthiest. A conservative negotiator told Bild, "Everything is on the table." Germany's flourishing economy, whose growth hit a six-year high in 2017, and the resulting record 38.4-billion-euro ($46.2 billion) public sector surplus, offer negotiators a windfall that could fund new programmes. "What is your plan for Germany?" Bild asked Merkel on Thursday. "Fact is: the money is there for it," it added, suggesting she restructure healthcare, promote public order or outline new targets for tackling climate change. The DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce suggested she use the fiscal windfall to simplify bureaucracy, while others pushed for tax cuts. But SPD leader Martin Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament, is calling for more spending to create a United States of Europe by 2025, seen as an expensive distraction by many conservatives. "On the last day of exploratory talks we will make clear that above all this must be a new start for the European Union," he told reporters. "If we join a government it will be on the condition that it makes Europe strong." A worker stands on piles of industrial products before exporting, at a port of Lianyungang, China China reported a 7.9 percent jump in exports and 15.9 percent rise in imports both in dollar terms for 2017. In yuan terms, exports for the year rose 10.8 percent and imports increased 18.7 percent, the country's General Administration of Customs said Friday. China's overall trade surplus for 2017 was $422.5 billion, a decline from 2016. China's trade data capped a robust year despite numerous concerns over the health of its economy. The world's second-largest economy posted broadly strong data for 2017 on the back of a broad global recovery. That was despite-wide ranging concerns about the Chinese economy, including high debt levels, asset bubbles and a slowdown in industrial sectors. In December, exports rose 10.9 percent from a year ago, while imports rose 4.5 percent. expected dollar-denominated exports to rise 9.1 percent from a year ago in December, slowing from the 12.3 percent growth in November. Dollar-denominated import growth, meanwhile, was seen at 13 percent in December against a 17.7 percent growth in November, the economists forecast. Trade balance was forecast to be $37 billion in December against $40.21 in November. It will be hard for China's foreign trade growth to remain in the double digits this year, Huang Songping, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs, said on Friday at a press briefing. While solid global growth is likely to provide some support for Chinese exports in 2018, there will be headwinds, Nomura analysts wrote in a note on Friday. "Later this year, we believe real effective exchange rate appreciation and an increase in US protectionism could weigh on Chinese export growth, narrowing the trade surplus further," they added. Trade with China is politically sensitive as the world's second-largest economy runs surpluses against many of its trading partners. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly signaled tougher action on what he calls unfair practices that have lead to a massive trade deficit with China. On the European front, French President Emmanuel Macron this week also called for greater access to the Chinese markets for French companies. Reuters reported last week that China will keep its target for economic growth at "around 6.5 percent" in 2018 the same as in 2017. China's 2017 trade surplus with the U.S. was $275.81 billion, the country's customs data showed Friday, according to Reuters. By that data, last year's surplus is a record high, the wire service reported. For comparison, the previous record was a surplus of $260.8 billion in 2015. The world's second-largest economy had a surplus of $25.55 billion in December, data showed, compared to $27.87 billion in November. Trade with China is politically sensitive as the world's second-largest economy runs surpluses against many of its trading partners. President Donald Trump has repeatedly signaled tougher action on what he calls unfair practices that have lead to a massive trade deficit with China. Overall, China's trade balance for 2017 was a surplus of $422.5 billion CNBC's Huileng Tan and Reuters contributed to this report. China on Friday reported a sharp drop in trade with North Korea in 2017. The overall trade between the two countries for the year fell 10.5 percent compared to 2016, Huang Songping, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs, said on Friday at a press briefing. For the month of December, the change was even more dramatic: Overall trade for that month fell 50.6 percent from the same period in 2016. In December, China's imports from North Korea slumped 81.6 percent from a year ago to $54.34 million, marking their lowest level in four years, according to Reuters records. Chinese exports to the reclusive nation fell 23.4 percent to $260 million in the same period. Friday's trade data reflects cooling ties between Beijing and Pyongyang. As North Korea's biggest trading partner and main source of aid, China holds influence over the pariah state. But bilateral ties, which date back to the Korean War, have weakened since North Korea began testing nuclear weapons in 2006 and Beijing has since joined the international community in supporting UN sanctions. Recently, under heavy pressure from Washington, the world's second-largest economy has been increasingly clamping down on its historical ally. Beijing has banned domestic lenders from doing business with North Korean clients in addition to halting certain exports in compliance with international sanctions CNBC's Nyshka Chandran contributed to this article. An Iranian man reads a copy of the daily newspaper 'Omid Javan' bearing a picture of US President Donald Trump with a headline that reads in Persian 'Crazy Trump and logical JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)', on October 14, 2017, in front of a kiosk in the capital Tehran. President Donald Trump will extend sanctions relief granted to Iran under its 2015 nuclear deal with the United States and other world powers, according to a tweet by a Bloomberg reporter on Thursday. Trump, who has vowed to scrap the nuclear pact, faces a deadline on Friday to decide on the sanctions, and a decision to withhold a waiver would have effectively ended the deal that put limits on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for easing Western sanctions. The U.S. Congress requires the president to decide periodically whether to certify Iran's compliance with the deal and issue a waiver to allow U.S sanctions to remain suspended. A U.S. official said on Wednesday that if Trump was to waive the nuclear-linked sanctions, the administration would impose new, targeted measures against Iranian businesses and people. According to the Bloomberg reporter, the White House will announce Trump's decision mid-morning on Friday. Zocdoc CEO Oliver Kharraz fully expects machine learning to take over many clinical functions. For doctors, that means emotional intelligence is going to become increasingly important. "Doctors in the future will come from the same pool as actors," said Kharraz, in an interview on Thursday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco. Zocdoc's web-based software lets consumers book medical appointments online. Kharraz, who is also a doctor by training, said there's going to be a shift in the type of personalities attracted to medicine as machines start doing things like diagnosing medical conditions by analyzing scans. To be successful, doctors are going to need empathy and an ability to listen. He gave an example of a case study he learned from a colleague involving a patient who presented with pneumonia. A battery of tests didn't reveal the root cause of the problem. After spending time with the patient, the doctor figured out that the person was often swallowing gum but had no gag reflex, and the gum was getting trapped in the lungs. A computer would not have been able to figure that out, Kharraz said. "Machine learning is great for repetitive things that require large data-sets," he said. Kharraz is far from the only technologist to suggest that machine learning will result in sweeping changes to the medical sector. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla predicted that radiologists will be obsolete within five years. Analysts have projected that the market for artificial intelligence tools in health care will exceed $10 billion by 2024. Zocdoc, which was valued at $1.8 billion in its last venture funding round in August 2015, said last year that it's reached 6 million users. (L-R) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) applaud with their fellow House Republicans during a news conference following the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the Rayburn Room at the U.S. Capitol November 16, 2017 in Washington, DC. Getty Images Questions about Donald Trump's fitness for the presidency turn next week to a broader question about his party's fitness to run the government. It arises, once again, as the Republican-controlled Congress faces a January 19 deadline for providing the money necessary to keep federal agencies open for business. In recent years, the GOP has repeatedly struggled to meet this basic responsibility. That difficulty reflects the zeal of a staunchly conservative minority fueled by decades of Republican attacks on government. It has led, in turn, to a debilitating mismatch between what party leaders believe and what the rank-and-file "base" believes, with voluble encouragement lately from President Trump. Thus the president's campaign pledge to build "The Wall" along America's Southern border, financed by Mexico, still looms as an obstacle to a spending deal that keeps the government open. watch now House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) openly mocked Trump's pledge before the 2016 election. Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas says "it makes no sense." White House chief of staff John Kelly has conceded a wall "from sea to shining sea" probably will never happen. Yet Trump told reporters this week that any spending deal "has got to include The Wall." If conservative pressure impels him to insist on a massive concrete barrier instead of the window-dressing border security measures his aides have suggested the government will shut down. Even if he doesn't, Republicans lack the internal consensus to sustain government funding. They'll need help from Democrats as they did a few months ago to avert a crisis by raising the federal debt limit. The president's first budget sought $50 billion more for the Pentagon, financed by deep cuts in domestic spending. That approach has surface appeal for the majority of Republican voters who tell pollsters most government spending is wasted on useless projects, undeserving recipients, foreign aid, and the like. watch now Senior congressional Republicans don't believe that, however. "We don't pay attention" to Trump's requested cuts, veteran GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee told me recently, and instead have moved to increase spending on key domestic priorities, such as scientific research. Instead, Republicans want to curb spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, which consume half the federal budget. The problem: Those benefits are popular and Trump promised not to touch them. So Speaker Ryan and other top Republicans aim to convince Trump to break his campaign promises, not keep them. They've had some success; Trump's failed attempt to repeal Obamacare would have slashed Medicaid. watch now On taxes, Republican leaders persuaded Trump to abandon his vow that the wealthy would not benefit. In fact, economic forecasters say they'll benefit most, in large part through lower rates on businesses they own. As Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker said before backing the plan, lower corporate tax rates were the point to begin with. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has reverse-engineered the justification that it was designed for middle-class families. Polls show most voters don't buy it. The same gap between GOP leadership and rank-and-file hobbles the party on other economic issues. In 2016, Trump told beleaguered blue-collar whites their problems stemmed from governmental incompetence, lax immigration policies, and bad trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA not irreversible economic trends such as technological change and mobility of global capital. Republican leaders, who back continued trade expansion, don't believe that. They want Trump to abandon his threat to leave NAFTA to avoid what Robert Zoellick, President George W. Bush's former trade representative, warned would be "economic mayhem." These mismatched Republican views reflect how Trump's crude populist messages twisted the 2016 electorate into a historically unprecedented shape. Most of his votes came from Americans without college degrees, the people most vulnerable to economic and cultural changes. Republicans playing key roles in politics and business come from the ranks of college-credentialed winners just as most of Hillary Clinton's voters did. As advocates of smaller government, Republican leaders have mostly stood by while Trump erodes the executive branch administratively. The White House has failed to nominate anyone for 40 percent of top posts requiring Senate confirmation. GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona has expressed alarm over the number of U.S. diplomats who have left under pressure from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who himself is repeatedly undercut by the president. Beyond his disdain for expertise, Trump has strong personal motivation to hobble the government he heads. He fired FBI Director James Comey over what he calls the Russia "witch hunt" probing the president's 2016 campaign. He keeps it up even though special counsel Robert Mueller holds such a sterling reputation that Trump himself considered appointing Mueller to lead the FBI. His party increasingly amplifies those attacks. As much as they disagree with rank-and-file Trump supporters, GOP leaders in government fear them. Correction: This article was updated to reflect Sen. Bob Corker's home state. WATCH: Big money lines up to sell GOP tax plan in hopes it translates into political victory Chinese servicemen during a seeing-off ceremony for Russia's and China's warships heading to take part in the second stage of Naval Cooperation 2017, a joint Russian-Chinese military exercise in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, at the 33rd mooring in Vladivostok. Beijing has developed a new "landing ship" that could be used in future wars involving islands, Chinese media reported Thursday. That news follows a Reuters report last month that a Chinese official threatened the communist nation would invade Taiwan if a U.S. warship visited the self-ruling island. Also, Chinese state media recently have played up coverage of "island encirclement" exercises near the democratic island, including showing a Chinese bomber. "China is developing Type 071 ships to meet requirements of possible wars involved with islands in the future, which could help it gain advantages in solving disputes on islands as well as questions involved with Taiwan," Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, was quoted as telling the Beijing-controlled Global Times newspaper this week. The report about the new amphibious warship was republished Thursday on ChinaMilitary Online, the news website of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. "It could also deliver the navy and the army to the target island," Song added. "The expanding number of this type of ships could greatly enhance the PLA Navy's amphibious warfare capability." Reuters also reported last month that the Chinese military had conducted at least 16 rounds of exercises close to Taiwan in roughly the past year. "I think they are looking realistically to get Taiwan back in the near future," Denny Roy, an Asia Pacific security expert and senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu told CNBC Thursday. The think tank's defense expert said Beijing's strategy may be to effectively "frighten Taiwan into submitting without a fight." The Chinese military is believed to have at least four amphibious ships as well as two aircraft carriers, including the domestically-built Liaoning that launched last year. By comparison, the U.S. has 10 carriers in its fleet and around 16 of the largest class of amphibious assault ships. Late last year, Beijing announced it planned to quadruple the size of its naval fighting force. "If you're going to multiply the size of your naval infantry force by four, it follows that you're going to have a lot more amphibious ships," said Dean Cheng, a defense expert and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think tank. Cheng also told CNBC that Beijing's naval buildup could put Taiwan at risk. Beyond those increases, China is also spending more on its air force, including developing advanced fighters. The air force and navy forces could potentially be used to conduct a blockade of Taiwan. "They keep saying that, 'we have to be prepared to retake Taiwan,'" said Cheng. "But they've never really invested in the naval infantry, over-the-shore capabilities that would be required. Now we're seeing them do it as almost the last block being put in place." At the same time, there have been reports of Chinese military movements near Japan and South Korea in the past month, including five Chinese military planes moving off the coast of South Korea. Also, a Chinese submarine was reported off Japan this week, according to Japanese reports. One of the locations where the submarine was tracked was near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The so-called Type 071 landing ship the Chinese developed is believed to be just under 30,000 tons and could carry helicopters as well as troops from the People's Liberation Army. Attack helicopters also could be used to as part of an invasion scenario in Taiwan. According to Roy, Beijing is believed to have the capability today with its existing ships to send about 20,000 troops to Taiwan. Then again, experts said the amphibious ships also could be use for peaceful purposes by the Chinese, including to evacuate people during disaster response situations. Indeed, the U.S. has used amphibious ships in the past year for hurricane and flooding relief missions. It's not that many of the crown prince's goals aren't prudent or even admirable. But the matter of human rights is being pushed aside. So is due process. Another example of that happened this week with the Saudi government's outright seizure of the Binladin Group construction giant. A Reuters report says the government has taken managerial control and may also erase up to $30 billion in debt it owes the company. This is happening as leading members of the Bin Laden family, yes the extended family of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, were detained as well. One of the most stunning aspects of bin Talal's detention is how quiet his long list of influential friends have been about it. This week brought at least some mention of his plight with a statement from two former French presidents who expressed concern over Alwaleed's status. But let's face it: a few words from a couple of French ex-presidents is peanuts. So now we have bin Alwaleed possibly in an actual prison, with a government aggressively taking cash and assets, and still no significant outcry from his foreign friends. It may seem unrelated, but bin Salman has also been on an opulent buying spree. That includes record-breaking purchases of art, a yacht and a French chateau. It begs the question of whether some of this stems from his desire to be the most conspicuously wealthy leader in the country. This is similar to some of the tactics Russian President Vladimir Putin has used to consolidate his political power and personal wealth at the same time. None of this very public behavior is drawing public rebuke from the crown prince's friends in Trump administration and elsewhere. They are clearly okay with the ends justifying whatever means he's using to modernize the country and strengthen its ability to oppose Iran. The fact that the lucrative Saudi Aramco IPO is coming soon could be another reason that Alwaleed's supposed friends in the world of finance aren't making a public stink. They want to curry favor with the Saudis now to gain access. This week's moves only drives that point home. Prince Alwaleed's leverage to demand an actual trial or negotiate a better deal is dwindling by the day. The cavalry is not coming and the Saudi government has almost no fear of international reprisal. The chances are greater than ever that Alwaleed will now rot in a literal jail for as long as the new government wants. Earlier reports that he was being hung upside down and beaten at the Ritz Carlton are still unconfirmed, but no one should be surprised if that's the next step if it hasn't been taken already. Prince Alwaleed must have thought at some point that he had the option of holding out for a fair hearing before being forced to hand over billions to save his skin. He doesn't have that option now and probably never did. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman isn't betting on seeing any pushback. Neither should anyone else. Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny. For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter. BlackRock chief Larry Fink told CNBC on Friday that most people saving for retirement should have the bulk of their portfolios in stocks rather than bonds. Investors even as old as 50 should mostly be in the stock market, he said. That advice runs counter to conventional asset allocation wisdom that long-term investors should have a portion of their portfolios in bonds. Even with stocks at around record highs, people who buy into the market now will do better in equities than bonds over time, Fink said. BlackRock is still "quiet bullish" on equities at these levels, he added. Those comments about stocks versus bonds echo what billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC earlier this week. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO reiterated what he's said for years: Don't buy bonds, stock are the way to go. Despite that advice, investors did indeed pour into bonds in the latest quarter, Fink said. He believes that's happening because people are not good at market timing and therefore seek the safety of bonds. BlackRock chief Larry Fink told CNBC on Friday that the Republican tax overhaul law is largely going to help Americans, and should add about 1 percent annually to economic growth, at least in the first few years. "Overall, it's going to do wonderful things, especially for small businesses," he said on "Squawk Box." But Fink said he does not like some of the provisions. "I'm still unhappy related to a few of the components of the tax bill; the state taxes." During the tax reform debate, Fink had predicted the bill would not pass if it were to include a proposal to end the unlimited state and local tax deductions known as SALT. The end result was a SALT cap of $10,000 for a combination of state and local taxes including property taxes that filers can deduct from their federal returns. To help mitigate that change, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act almost doubles the standard income tax deduction to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for married couples. But for many residents in high-tax states, that accommodation won't be enough to keep their tax bills from increasing. Fink also said that GOP tax writers should have eliminated the carried interest loophole, arguing that it's "an unfair tax advantage." Carried interest is a rule in the tax code that lets the managers of some types of private investment funds hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, real estate and other types of vehicles pay a lower rate than most individuals. Carried interest has been U.S. law for more than 50 years as an incentive for long-term investment. Top Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn said last month after the Republican tax bill was finalized that he regretted that carried interest was not cut. "We would have cut carried interest," Cohn told Axios at the time. "We probably tried 25 times." Asked about the importance of companies possibly being incentivized to bring back some of the nearly $3 trillion held overseas, Fink said, "Bringing money back is to me is not that significant." Meanwhile, the U.S. corporate tax cut is a problem for Mexico because the rate is now lower in America, Fink said. Companies that had domiciled in Mexico for tax reasons are going to make their new tax homes in the U.S., he predicts. On the markets, Fink said BlackRock is still "quite bullish" on stocks. The BlackRock chairman and CEO also said retirement savers, even as old as 50, should mostly be in stocks rather than bonds. That advice is counter to conventional asset allocation wisdom that long-term investors should have a portion of their portfolios in bonds. Fink's comments came shortly after BlackRock reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue, and said that assets under management exceeded $6 trillion. Erich Spangenberg has always been good at spotting opportunities for arbitrage, places in the market where there is a pricing spread that a savvy buyer can exploit for profit. He started in high-yield bonds and went on during the internet boom to turn a million dollars in patent acquisitions into a portfolio of software intellectual property worth $150 million. Erich Spangenberg, founder of IPwe, made a fortune amassing tech patents during the software boom. Attacked by some as a patent troll for the $150 million he made, he now wants to bring the entire patent world into the 21st century, using AI and the blockchain. Erich Spangenberg By his own account, he didn't make his IP fortune by not being aggressive. But Spangenberg describes his latest, and what he thinks will be the biggest and longest-lasting investing idea he has ever had, as something he stumbled into as a result of a friend convincing him to buy bitcoin. "When I stumbled into it, I didn't know it was enabled by the blockchain," he recalled. "I made a lot in finance and what I recognized was how incredible inefficiencies create arbitrage opportunities. I realized blockchain was significant, and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed so. I jumped all over it." Spangenberg who over the years has been on the receiving end of "troll" criticism for his patent fortune recently pursued a more interesting path involving use of his patent knowledge to target what many of the populist-minded would judge to be an unfair stranglehold over pricing. He teamed with hedge fund manager Kyle Bass to challenge the patents of pharmaceutical companies with high drug prices while shorting their stocks. But Spangenberg says he knew when he started with Bass that the drug patent effort wouldn't hold his interest for the rest of his life. Spangenberg was also going through a divorce at the time. "I had time to think about a lot of things," he said. Including exactly where he had made his millions and just how inefficient the patent world itself had become in allowing a few specialist niches to receive most of the riches. "I started thinking about the space I had been screwing around in, the patents," Spangenberg said. "There are roughly 200 national patent offices globally, and for 99.9 percent even when we know who owns the patents it is so hard to figure out anything. There's not a whole lot of people positioned to say, 'Here is where it's screwed up.' I played in arbitrage and the troll business, and inefficiency permitted me to make a fortune. We should eliminate that and now make money another way." His new firm, IPwe, is attacking two issues critical to what is really innovation's own infrastructure: the intellectual property space. IPwe is creating a blockchain-based registry to tackle the lack of access to good information on patent transactions. And it is using machine-learning algorithms to better evaluate patent validity and worth. Specialized investments in the patent asset class exist today, but the end goal of IPwe is to turn the opaque and fragmented world of patents and patent transactions into a broad asset class that can attract much more interest from the world's top institutional investors, as an example, insurance companies looking for pools of non-traditional investments that can generate significant returns. Near $200 billion traded in patents many fear but few understand In recent years the value of patents that have been monetized through acquisitions or licensing has neared $200 billion, and yet that represents a tiny portion of all patent grants. The World Intellectual Property Organization has estimated $180 billion in annual patent value derived from 2 percent of all patents. That's an arbitrage opportunity that Spangenberg thinks will disrupt the intermediaries who today benefit the most from the opaque way the patent economy is run: primarily, patent lawyers. The end goal is to turn what has been a limited asset class, where a vast majority of profits go to a narrow group of specialists, into a major asset class receiving allocations from a broad set of investors. Mark Schankerman, a professor at the London School of Economics, who first met Spangenberg after he donated some of his patent fortune to fund work in entrepreneurship at the London school, said patent trolls and their lawyers play a role in limiting the patent economy, especially in cases where they are demanding too much for IP "the "holdups," as he called them. But patent quality is also a huge issue. "That's the other big elephant in the room. ... The vast majority of patents applied for are low quality," Schankerman said. "A lot just should have never been patented, and no one wants the damn stuff." His research on U.S. patent litigation estimates that as much as 75 percent to 80 percent of patents are junk. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, meanwhile, is able to screen out, at best, one-third of the patent applications that shouldn't get through. He said survey work on patent value, while less pessimistic than his own research, still shows as much as 40 percent of patents as being overvalued. Illusive patent quality will improve as a result of inventors, R&D and patent examiners having better tools. We will make more if there are more quality patents. We are capitalists at the end of the day just creative on how we get there. Eric Spangenberg co-founder of IPwe Even if 90 percent of patents are worthless, that leaves 10 percent to transact, already five times the current level that is in play, based on the World Intellectual Property data. He doesn't think the math will be linear, but for the sake of an example, that's $900 billion 5 x $180 billion. "Even 2x would still be significant. Our bet is that this number is closer to 20 percent," Spangenberg said. He believes the critical problem is not on the large pool of overvalued patents on the output side patent offices issue patents on what is applied for, but on the input side. "Over time the illusive patent quality will improve as a result of inventors, R&D and patent examiners having better tools. We will make more if there are more quality patents. We are capitalists at the end of the day just creative on how we get there." Artificial intelligence algorithms can identify what is left in the world of intellectual property worth patenting. "We can tell you that, and that will make patents better," Spangenberg said. IPwe is working with the computer science team at the University of Minnesota, led by Professor George Karypis, which has previously provided patent evaluation technology to clients of IP Navigation Group, a previous company founded by Spangenberg. "Erich has a grand vision," Karypis said. "He always has one. We have the system in place to cover a large chunk of IP, both in terms of scale and analysis ... on all U.S. and European patents and a good chunk of Chinese IP." Many A.I. start-ups see a patent world ripe for reevaluation The fundamental problems that algorithms can solve in the IP space relate to prior art search how to know if a patent application is already covered by existing patents and where "white space" exists in the patent system how much room is left to patent an idea based on what has already been covered by existing grants. "Existing methods of keyword searching and advanced levels of that work well enough if the prior art is obviously there," Karypis said. "If you invented something and someone else does exactly the same thing, then prior art search succeeds." It gets trickier when there is a combination of components from different patents, and when the terminology used is different or has changed in meaning over time. Karipas said the underlying technology to evaluate patents has been validated at IP Navigation Group over the last four to five years but only on a case-by-case basis for clients. The end goal is to provide a public and unbiased way to rescore IP assets and discover where there really is opportunity for innovation. "We need to be able to figure out what people think about a particular technology. Forecasting the future is not a trivial exercise," he said. "If they can screen out bad patents, the application becomes more attractive to potential licensees," Schankerman said. It also could help to make those filing for patents think twice before applying. "The value of his system is how much noise there is. I know there's lots of bad patents out there." The United States Patent and Trademark Office as a distinct bureau dates from the year 1802 when a separate official in the Department of State who became known as Superintendent of Patents was placed in charge of patents. Paul J. Richards | AFP | Getty Images IPwe is far from alone in applying machine learning to IP. "The traditional exam with a single examiner doesn't work anymore," said Pedram Sameni, president and CEO of Patexia, a crowd-based intellectual property company. "I believe in the patent system, but I believe the implementation should change substantially and it needs to embrace technology." The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office worked with artificial intelligence start-up AI Patents to implement its prior art search technology between July 2016 and December 2017. "We have provided substantial evidence that A.I. techniques can be applied effectively to identify similar ideas even if the ideas are described using distinct text," Liat Belinson, founder of AI Patents, wrote by email. But she said the project is on hold and future plans are unclear as a result of the change in USPTO leadership after the presidential election. A USPTO spokeswoman said, "The Office continues to investigate uses of emerging technology for various applications." There are also IP research firms that run investment portfolios based on algorithmic analysis of patent portfolios at publicly traded companies, including CNBC's partner on the IQ 100 Index, MCAM-International. watch now "We are not taking a position on who has the best patent analytic tools," Spangenberg said. "Our tool is free (it always will be) and we will continue to spend significant R&D dollars on improving our tools and hope to enlist the IP community to make the tool better." When I first came across IPwe and Spangenberg's own initial, broad brushstroke blog post about the "misfit trolls, geeks and wonks" getting into the blockchain, I assumed he was amassing patents in the space to repeat his software strategy and so did some patent experts whom I consulted. I was wrong. While firms that have a history of monetizing patents they didn't create are in fact major players in cryptocurrencies and the blockchain Intellectual Ventures, which has had its fair share of critics over the years, is among the top five holders of bitcoin patents, according to Patexia research Spangenberg views IPwe's own patents in this space as a secondary aim. "We have patents filed but it will be years before they are even issued and that's not how I'm planning to make money. This will be a wildly profitable business," Spangenberg said. But the profit potential is tied to a long-term bet on fundamental change in the patent economy. IPwe will make money by charging a fee in basis points for use of its technology and IP transactions that end up occurring on it. IPwe will give away its technology for free Back in the day, CNBC's Jim Cramer would always hear that the four most dangerous words in the English language were "this time it's different." And when it came to market-rattling events like the dotcom bubble burst when investors chased internet stocks to artificial highs hoping to catch the "next big thing" that idea usually proved right. "But honestly, I've now been at this business a pretty long time, and I'm beginning to wonder if the four most dangerous words about stock investing are 'this time it's the same,'" the "Mad Money" host said on Friday. After watching big-cap tech stocks like Facebook , Amazon , Netflix , and Alphabet drive the market to new heights, Cramer argued that a "this-time-it's-different" mentality could've cost investors fortunes if they had applied it to the FANG names. Investors would've kicked themselves if they were so shaken by the dotcom bubble that they avoided getting in on the Harvard-born craze that became the $521 billion Facebook, he said. "You really had to believe this time it's different if you were going to buy some shares in some online retailer where you gave them your credit card information and actually trusted that they'd send you [product] overnight," Cramer said. "But Amazon did become a $629 billion profitable company." "This time it's different" would've made you rich if you believed in a money-losing company that rented out DVDs, because that company became the $95 billion giant that is Netflix, Cramer said. "This time it's the same" would've kept you from investing in a website that provides information based on anything you type, yet another dotcom name that eventually became Alphabet, the $782 billion parent of Google. "The graybeards missed all of these stories because of their old saw," Cramer said. "It stopped them from taking what turned out to be a calculated gamble on four companies that would have made fortunes for those who believed things really would be different this time." Unless one of the candidates wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, a run-off election between the top two candidates will take place at the end of the month President Milos Zeman has become known for his plain-speaking nature and tough opposition to Muslim integration With voting in the first of a two-round election taking place on Friday and Saturday, opinion polls have shown the outspoken anti-immigration incumbent currently leads the field his combination created on January 9, 2018 of file pictures shows Czech President Milos Zeman (L, October 27, 2014 in Beijing) and former Czech Science Academy head and independant candidate for the Czech presidential election Jiri Drahos (November 3, 2017 in Prague) WANG ZHAO, MICHAL CIZEK | AFP | Getty Images Czech Republic voters will go to the polls this weekend, in a presidential election widely regarded as a referendum on the country's western alliance. With voting in the first of a two-round election taking place on Friday and Saturday, opinion polls have shown the outspoken anti-immigration incumbent currently leads the field. Who is the favorite? During his five-year tenure to date, President Milos Zeman has become known for his plain-speaking nature and tough opposition to Muslim integration. The 73-year-old is also seen as receptive to authoritarian regimes, while becoming one of Russia's most dependable allies in Europe. While he was once considered to be in favor of the European Union (EU) even flying the European flag at Prague Castle a month after his election Zeman has since become one of the EU's most vocal critics. The Czech president's views on the conflict in Ukraine as well as the continent's migrant crisis are in stark contrast to the European mainstream. Zeman's first term in office has been divisive on several fronts, from his opposition to EU-mandated immigration quotas to building security barriers around Prague Castle. In a 2015 Christmas message, Zeman described the ongoing influx of migrants in Europe as an "organized invasion." The Czech Republic is a member of a regional alliance of Central European nations called the Visegrad Group, alongside Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. In recent years, the increasingly right-wing alliance has moved away from progressive European integration and toward the policy of protecting native-born citizens. Re-election for Zeman would give one of Europe's most ardent Euroskeptic leaders a platform for another five years. What about the main challengers? Unless one of the candidates wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, a run-off election between the top two candidates will take place at the end of the month. And the two most prominent political rivals to Zeman are both strongly linked to EU and NATO membership. Jiri Drahos, a 68-year-old liberal independent, is likely to be the most serious contender. Drahos is a staunchly pro-European candidate in a country where opposition to the EU has been growing. Nonetheless, the former president of the Czech Academy of Sciences has campaigned for Prague to play a more active role in the bloc. Meanwhile, another contender for the presidency is pop music lyricist Michal Horacek. The 65-year-old, who has financed his own campaign, is seen as a pro-EU left-of-center candidate. The former co-owner of a betting agency is a distant third in the polls. Who will win? The incumbent is likely to win the first round with close to 40 percent of the votes but the "anti-Zeman vote" in the second round should ultimately help Drahos clinch the presidency, Emily Mansfield, lead Czech Republic analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), told CNBC Friday. "People either love Zeman or hate him So his best chance of winning is to get 50 percent of the vote in the first round," Mansfield added. In a Czech television poll published Monday, Drahos is seen unseating the president with 48.5 percent of the second round vote to Zeman's 44 percent. In the same poll, Zeman was expected to receive 42.5 percent of the vote in the first round, compared to Drahos' 27.5 percent. What are the president's powers? Under the Czech constitution, the president has the authority to choose the prime minister and to appoint members of the central bank. The somewhat ceremonial position also affords the power to pick judges for the country's Constitutional Court, on the basis of parliamentary approval. Aside from that, the country is largely run by the government chosen and led by the newly elected prime minister. Populist billionaire Andrej Babis, an ally of Zeman, was elected to office in October last year. President Donald Trump is really playing the role of moderator as Congress attempts to reach a deal on legislation that would shield hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation, moderate Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp told CNBC on Friday. Heitkamp said she attended a bipartisan White House meeting Tuesday about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or DACA. Then on Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators presented the president with an agreement on new legislation for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. But in a tweet storm Friday, Trump characterized the "so-called bipartisan DACA deal" as "a step backwards." Tweet @realDonaldTrump 1 "I think the president really is in the middle on this," Heitkamp told "Squawk Box," referring to the DACA issue. The North Dakota Democrat added she believed the role of "moderator" is "exactly the role" that Trump is playing. "I walked out there [Tuesday] believing that we could come to some kind agreement, and then [Thursday] it blew up again," Heitkamp said. On Thursday, reports surfaced that Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as "s---hole countries" in a meeting that day with lawmakers. Trump later declared "the language used by me at the DACA meeting [Thursday] was tough, but this was not the language used." But Heitkamp, who was not in Thursday's meeting, said she didn't believe Trump's comments "blew up" the negotiations. Trump said in September that he was ending the Obama-era program. DACA would cease March 5 unless Congress can pass the protections into law. Throwing a wrench into the debate, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the program must remain in place while litigation over Trump's decision unfolds. Reuters and CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report. President Donald Trump canceled a trip to the new U.S. embassy in London, claiming that it was because he's "not a fan" of the building. The move allows Trump to sidestep widespread protests that were planned for him. He disparaged the new U.S. embassy in Nine Elms in a late Thursday Twitter post. "I'm 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal," Trump said on Twitter. "Wanted me to cut ribbon NO!" Donald Trump's tweet: Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO! While Trump called out the Obama administration, the decision to acquire a new London embassy site on the south bank of the Thames was actually announced in 2008 under George W. Bush along with the plans to put the Grosvenor Square site in Mayfair up for sale. Africans woke up startled this morning after President Donald Trump reportedly referred to Haiti and African nations as "s---hole countries" in a meeting with lawmakers. The White House's statement did not deny that the president made those remarks. (CNBC & AP) * Trump asked why the US needs more Haitians. Mar-a-Lago may hold the answer (CNBC) * Trump signals openness to North Korea diplomacy (WSJ) Trump said he canceled a planned visit to a U.S. embassy in London because he didn't want to associate with what he called a "bad" real estate deal. Britons planned protests against Trump during his trip to the city, where he is deeply unpopular. (CNBC) Trump told The Wall Street Journal that Mexico could end up paying for his proposed border wall "indirectly" if the North American Free Trade Agreement gets tweaked. "They can pay for it indirectly through NAFTA," he told the newspaper in an interview. * US to extend sanctions relief to Iran, keeping nuclear deal in place for now (WSJ) * US Commerce Department wraps up steel probe, does not detail findings (Reuters) Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the government expects about 90 percent of workers to see an increase in their take-home pay as a result of the new tax law. Workers will not have to fill out new W-4 this year. (CNBC) Political leaders in Germany have reached a breakthrough in talks to form a new coalition government. It followed months of uncertainty after elections in September last year, which failed to produce an overall majority for any party. (CNBC) Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is reportedly expected to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in a closed session next week. Bannon has hired lawyer Bill Burck to represent him during the testimony. (NBC News) Appearing on the debut episode of David Letterman's new Netflix (NFLX) series, former President Barack Obama said Americans are living in a political "bubble" by personalizing their respective media streams. (CNBC) Dropbox has secretly filed to go public in the first half of this year, a source confirmed to CNBC. Dropbox, last valued at $10 billion, reportedly hired Goldman Sachs (GS) and J.P. Morgan (JPM) to handle the offering. Intel (INTC) said that the recently-issued patches for flaws in its chips could cause some computers to reboot more often than normal. The company also said it might need to issue updates to fix those buggy patches. (Reuters) Walmart (WMT) is shuttering 63 of its Sam's Club locations across the U.S. Some stores went dark as early as Thursday, and not all of the retailer's employees were notified in advance. (CNBC) Even as executives from Google and Facebook prepare to testify in front of the Senate on how they're combating extremist content, the internet giants are struggling to keep it off their sites. Dozens of accounts on sites owned by those two companies have been used this week to promote violent attacks and recruit people to the cause of Islamic terrorism, a CNBC investigation has found. All of the content that was brought to the attention of Google and Facebook by CNBC was removed within 24 hours of notification. Yet many of the posts and videos, which contained graphic images and threats of violence, had been online for days or weeks before we alerted them to it. Its presence on their pages underscores the enormous challenge these internet firms have in controlling content while remaining open platforms. "Terrorists are using Google and Facebook technology to run what are essentially sophisticated social media marketing campaigns," said Eric Feinberg, co-founder of the Global Intellectual Property Enforcement Center, or GIPEC, which tracks extremist content online. Extremist groups are using their tools the way brand advertisers and other online marketers do, cross-promoting videos on one account with posts on other social media services. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are sending representatives to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning to testify in front of the Senate Commerce Committee in a hearing titled "Terrorism and Social Media: #IsBigTechDoingEnough?" CNBC initially discovered some of the violent videos and posts while reporting an earlier story on Facebook users who had been locked out of their accounts by hackers. After that story was published, CNBC reported its findings to counter-terrorism officials at the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, because some of the content appeared to include coded messages about potential attacks over the Christmas holiday. The office acknowledged receipt of our e-mail and said it couldn't comment further. We then contacted GIPEC, a cyber-intelligence firm whose patented software finds social media activity produced by criminals and terrorists, and asked Feinberg if the group could locate more violent and extremist content. "There's plenty out there if you know how to look for it," said Feinberg, who previously ran an online marketing and ad-tech firm based in New York. "These companies are playing whack-a-mole" in their fight against extremism, he said. Tax reforms may help the United States score more investments from both local and foreign companies, but those benefits could be offset by the Trump administration's protectionist trade policies, a major accounting firm said Friday. Since President Donald Trump took office, the U.S. has pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and is re-negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement. "(What) everyone has to keep an eye on is the trade issue. A lot of it is also dependent on NAFTA and KORUS and all these trade deals keeping the supply chain to be able to invest that way, and that's a big issue for 2018," Mark Weinberger, global chairman and CEO of EY, told CNBC. Pulling out of those trade deals or setting more stringent requirements for the entry of foreign goods and services could reduce the incentive for companies to invest in the U.S. which is the opposite of the intended impact of tax reform. The restructuring of the U.S. tax code the largest in 30 years reduces the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Companies including Fiat Chrysler and Foxconn have announced billion-dollar investments in the U.S. to take advantage of lower taxes. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has once again taken a subtle jab at the Trump administration on social media, penning a response to the president's characterization of certain nations as "sh**hole countries." In a message on his verified Twitter account Friday afternoon, Blankfein posted a picture of the Statue of Liberty through a thick layer of fog with the caption: "View from our building today reminds me that despite all the sh*t, American values will shine through." Tweet. The Goldman chief's tweet comes a day after reports that President Donald Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as "sh--hole countries" in a meeting with lawmakers. The President has since said that he did not use the profanity in his description, though concede that "the language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough." Tweet. This isn't the first time the Goldman chief has taken to Twitter to scold the president on immigration issues. Blankfein jabbed the president in September, saying that "immigration is a complex issue but I wouldn't deport a kid who was brought here and only knows America." Tweet. A neurologist checks a patient during an exam at the St. Vincent Hospital in Leadville, Colorado. You try to break it, you own it. A new poll shows that health care is a top priority for most voters going into the 2018 midterm election cycle, and that Republicans who have repeatedly tried but failed to kill Obamacare could suffer mightily because of that. The group that commissioned the poll, the Obamacare-advocacy group Protect Our Care Campaign, said Friday that it use the findings to push Democrats and progressives to campaign heavily on the issue of health care. By a margin of 47 percent to 38 percent, voters said they would be less likely to reelect their members of Congress if they voted for GOP-sponsored bills to repeal and replace Obamacare. And a whopping 68 percent said they agreed with the statement that President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress should abandon their Obamacare repeal efforts and "start working across party lines on commonsense solutions that build on the current law." "The Republicans have done what we never could," said Protect Our Care Brad Woodhouse, who previously was a campaign strategist for President Barack Obama. "They have made the Affordable Care Act popular, and they have made it a political anvil around their necks," Woodhouse said. And "it's the equivalent of political suicide" for Republicans to persist in efforts to repeal and replace" Obamacare, as the ACA is more commonly known, he said. "I absolutely think it has the potential to impact races in a way that will be decisive." Republicans in the Senate have a majority of just one seat. In the House, Republicans hold 239 seats, compared to 193 seats held by Democrats. The poll of 1,000 people found that 54 percent chose health care as one of the two issues that that will be most important to them in deciding who to vote for in congressional elections. No other issue was even close to that percentage of respondents. The second most commonly cited issue was the economy, at 29 percent, and taxes, at 28 percent. Immigration was at 18 percent, as was education. Hart Research, which conducted the poll, found in a survey last August that health care was named by 55 percent of voters as a top issue. And in a May survey, 57 percent cited it as a top issue. Woodhouse said that the persistence of health care in the survey as a leading issue of concern, even after the more recent debate over the Republican tax bill, is striking, and underscores the risk of alienating voters on that issue. He also noted that even after the failure to repeal the entire Obamacare law, Trump has continued to take controversial actions that involve health care, including halting key reimbursement payments to insurers, winning approval of effective repeal of the requirement that nearly all Americans have insurance or pay a fine, and making it easier for states to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. The poll found that more voters, 72 percent of respondents, disapprove of how the GOP has handled the issue of health care than do disapprove of the Republicans' job in Congress overall, which stood at 61 percent of voters. Only 35 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of bills proposed by Republicans in Congress last year to repeal Obamacare, and 52 percent had an unfavorable opinion of that legislation, which all failed to pass. The poll also found that there was a 10 percentage point increase in the share of voters who view Trump as actively trying to make Obamacare fail. Fifty-two percent of voters now say that, compared to the prior findings in August's survey. By a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent, voters said problems with Obamacare are the result mainly of actions by Trump and Republicans. As local media outlets began to report on the store closures, though, disgruntled shoppers took to sites like Twitter and Facebook to learn what was going on. Many customers were seen asking for refunds on memberships, which cost $45 annually, and others were concerned about where they would pick up prescriptions. The news came on the same day the big-box retailer announced it would be boosting its starting wage for hourly employees and handing out bonuses, among other benefits, after the passage of new tax legislation. The wholesale club locations closing span from Alaska to Puerto Rico. Some of the shuttered stores will be converted into e-commerce fulfillment facilities, the company said. Walmart abruptly announced Thursday plans to close more than 60 of its Sam's Club locations, or nearly 10 percent of its store fleet, across the country. Late in the day Thursday, Sam's Club CEO John Furner wrote in a companywide email: "Transforming our business means managing our real estate portfolio we need a strong fleet of clubs that are fit for the future. 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. We've decided to right-size our fleet and better align our locations with our strategy. ... We will work to place as many associates as possible in new roles at nearby locations, and we'll provide them with support, resources, and severance pay to those eligible." Walmart said it would book a charge of 14 cents per share related to the closures, which would show up mainly in its fourth-quarter results. The company said it would share more details when it reports earnings on Feb. 20. Walmart "is taking prudent steps to prepare for the next generation of retail warfare, one in which speed will be king and delivery will be judged by hours and not days," Cowen and Co. analyst Oliver Chen wrote in a note to clients Friday morning. "We believe Sam's Club leadership will continue to execute against other initiatives ... as management noted that while results have improved over the last several quarters, the retailer can do better as Sam's Club has under-performed club peers," Chen said. Those competitors include Costco , BJ's Wholesale Club and Boxed. Moving forward, many analysts anticipate Sam's Club will focus on growing its e-commerce business, amassing a higher-quality grocery selection, marketing its private labels and finding new members. Furner has said the brand is looking to tap into households with annual income between $75,000 to $125,000. Here is a list of the stores being closed: 8801 Old Seward Hwy, Anchorage, AK 1074 N Muldoon Rd, Anchorage, AK 48 College Rd, Fairbanks, AK 3900 Grants Mill Rd, Irondale, AL 2425 E Florence Blvd, Casa Grande, AZ 5757 E State Route 69, Prescott Valley, AZ 1375 S Arizona Ave, Chandler, AZ 15255 N Northsight Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 3360 El Camino Ave, Sacramento, CA 17835 Gale Ave, City of Industry, CA 12540 Beach Blvd, Stanton, CA 12920 Foothill Blvd, Sylmar, CA 69 Pavilions Dr, Manchester, CT 2 Boston Post Rd, Orange, CT 355 FL-436, Fern Park, FL 7233 N Seacrest Blvd, Lantana, FL 5135 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 2994 Turner Hill Rd, Lithonia, GA 501 N Randall Rd, Batavia, IL 21430 S Cicero Ave, Matteson, IL 6600 44th Ave, Moline, IL 808 S Illinois Rte 59, Naperville, IL 900 S Barrington Rd, Streamwood, IL 1055 McHenry Rd, Wheeling, IL 460 S Weber Rd, Romeoville, IL 3015 W 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 10859 E Washington St, Indianapolis, IN 4024 Elkhart Rd #1, Goshen, IN 9598 Cortana Pl, Baton Rouge, LA 9750 Reisterstown Rd, Owings Mills, MD 1 Tobias Boland Way, Worcester, MA 340 E. Edgewood Boulevard, Lansing, MI 32625 Northwestern Hwy, Farmington Hills, MI 3745 Louisiana Ave S, St Louis Park, MN 2800 27th Ave S, Moorhead, MN 11 Batchelder Rd, Seabrook, NH 81 International Dr S, Budd Lake, NJ 1900 E Linden Ave, Linden, NJ 301 Nassau Park Boulevard, Princeton, NJ 2649 Erie Blvd E, Syracuse, NY 720 Fairmount Ave, Jamestown, NY 700 Elmridge Center Dr, Rochester, NY 1600 Marketplace Dr, Rochester, NY 5085 Dawn Dr, Lumberton, NC 1101 Shiloh Glenn Dr, Morrisville, NC 4825 Marburg Ave, Cincinnati, OH 9570 Fields Ertel Rd, Loveland, OH 615 Old Hickory Blvd, Nashville, TN 1805 Getwell Rd, Memphis, TN 1615 S Loop W, Houston, TX 13331 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 22296 Market Place Dr, New Caney, TX 12919 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX 741 E Little Creek Rd, Norfolk, VA 4571 S Laburnum Ave, Richmond, VA 901 S Grady Way, Renton, WA 1101 Outlet Collection Way, Auburn, WA 13550 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA 7050 Watts Rd, Madison, WI 1540 S 108th St, West Allis, WI This list does not contain three additional stores in Puerto Rico. Customers browse produce during the grand opening of the Lidl Ltd. store in Virginia Beach, Virginia. When low-priced German grocer Lidl opens a new store, it brings a food fight, and consumers are the ultimate winners. A new study shows if there's a Lidl store, competing grocers drop their prices by more than when Walmart enters a new market. The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School conducted the pricing study, looking at six cities where there is a Lidl store and six nearby cities without a Lidl store, comparing pricing on 48 frequently purchased food products at Walmart , Kroger , Aldi, Publix and Food Lion. "On average, competing retailers near Lidl stores set their prices approximately 9.3 percent lower than in markets where Lidl is not present, which is more than three times as much as was typically reported in other academic work on Walmart's entry in a new market," said Katrijn Gielens, an associate professor of marketing at UNC who led the study. Lidl commissioned the study, but UNC said it had control over its methodology and analysis. Lidl is in the midst of a U.S. expansion and plans to open as many as 100 stores by mid-2018. As of Thursday, Lidl has opened 48 U.S. stores in six states along the East Coast from New Jersey to Georgia. The grocer was expected to shake up the already competitive category with its entry. Lidl has said it sells products for as much as 50 percent lower than rival stores, as around 90 percent of its products are private label rather than national brands. Gielens' work shows grocers set the price for a half gallon of milk about 55 percent lower in Lidl markets compared with markets without a competing Lidl store. Avocados and bread-related products are 30 percent lower in markets with a Lidl store. Prices for ice cream, bananas and cheese are more than 15 percent lower at grocers competing in a city with Lidl. TheDream.Us , a nonprofit working toward college access for dreamers, announced that Bezos and his wife MacKenzie's donation will fund 1,000 scholarships. Since dreamers are not eligible for federal financial aid, donations like Bezos' are particularly valuable. When President Donald Trump announced in September that his administration would be ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program, hundreds of the world's most influential business leaders spoke up. Over 400 CEOs, founders and business leaders signed a letter urging Trump to preserve the DACA program and protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, known as "dreamers." "My dad came to the U.S. when he was 16 as part of Operation Pedro Pan," Bezos said in a statement. "He landed in this country alone and unable to speak English. With a lot of grit and determination and the help of some remarkable organizations in Delaware my dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways." To qualify for the DACA, dreamers must register with the government, pass multiple background checks and pay taxes. Over 97 percent of the 800,000 dreamers are in school or the workforce and many serve in the armed forces. President Trump has given lawmakers until March 5th to craft a new immigration plan, but Congressional Democrats and Republicans are still at an impasse. This week, Bezos and 100 other business leaders co-signed a letter to Congress calling for immediate legal relief for dreamers. "The imminent termination of the DACA program is creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country," states the letter. Here is what eight other powerful CEOs have said about the importance of defending dreamers: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos donated $33 million in college scholarships for "dreamers" childhood undocumented immigrants granted stay in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. TheDream.Us, a nonprofit working toward college access for undocumented immigrants, said the donation from Bezos and his wife MacKenzie is the largest in the organization's history and will fund 1,000 scholarships. "My dad came to the U.S. when he was 16 as part of Operation Pedro Pan," Bezos said in a statement. "He landed in this country alone and unable to speak English. With a lot of grit and determination and the help of some remarkable organizations in Delaware my dad became an outstanding citizen, and he continues to give back to the country that he feels blessed him in so many ways." Bezos' wealth recently hit record levels. The e-commerce founder is now worth more than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates ever was, in absolute terms, but Gates has donated billions through his charitable foundation. Bezos seems to be taking up a similar path, even requesting philanthropic ideas from his Twitter followers in June. In September, Bezos signed an open letter alongside nearly 400 U.S. executives urging President Donald Trump to continue to extend protections for the childhood immigrants. The president ended DACA protections in September, but has faced court challenges in the months since. The GOP tax overhaul law, which includes a cut in the rate that U.S. corporations pay, will make American businesses more competitive globally, said BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink. "One of the big problems that's going to face Mexico is the U.S. corporate tax rate is lower than Mexico," Fink told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday. The Republican tax law cuts the federal U.S. corporate rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. The corporate tax rate in Mexico is 30 percent. Companies that had domiciled in Mexico for tax reasons are going to make their new tax homes in the U.S., Fink said. "That's a tax arbitrage," taking advantage of the difference in rates. "It's going to make the U.S. more competitive for companies to come back to the United States; for companies to put factories here," he said. That's exactly what President Donald Trump wants. He's made bringing businesses back to the U.S. a top priority of his administration. On Thursday, Fiat Chrysler became the latest company to increase its commitment to the U.S., with the automaker saying it will invest $1 billion to relocate a plant from Mexico to Michigan. Fiat Chrysler, citing the tax overhaul, will also pay 60,000 of its U.S. employees, excluding senior leadership, bonuses of $2,000 each. The competitive tax advantage over Mexico comes at a time when the U.S. is renegotiating NAFTA. Trump has said he would pull out of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada if the U.S. can't get better terms. Fink said the Republican tax law, which includes an overhaul of the personal code, is largely going to help Americans, and should add about 1 percent annually to economic growth, at least in the first few years. In Friday's wide-ranging CNBC interview, Fink also said most people saving for retirement, even those as old as 50, should have the bulk of their portfolios in stocks rather than bonds. BlackRock is still "quiet bullish" on equities at these levels, he added. He appeared on the show shortly after BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue. Total assets under management stand at nearly $6.3 trillion, slightly ahead of estimates. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wants to make sure cryptocurrencies can't be used like Swiss bank accounts. "We want to make sure that bad people cannot use these currencies to do bad things," he said Friday at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Washington. He added the U.S. is working with world leaders in the G-20 on "making sure that this doesn't become the Swiss numbered bank accounts." The firms that offer owners digital wallets to store them are subject to the same rules that require banks to confirm customer identities, he said. And the U.S. has money laundering rules. "We can track those activities. The rest of the world doesn't have that." Swiss bank accounts became famous because of the country's strict privacy rules, and they had a storied history as a haven for people dodging tax authorities, but that advantage has ended in recent years. Bitcoin, as well, was once a favored payment method on the Dark Web, an underground economy where drugs and stolen identities are bought and sold. But law enforcement has gotten better at tracking bitcoin activity, and criminals have moved on to other digital currencies. Mnuchin also said he is concerned about speculation in cryptocurrencies. The price of bitcoin shot up 1,200 percent last year, and other digital tokens, such as ethereum and Ripple's XRP, have grabbed their share of attention. "I want to be sure consumers trading this understand the risks," he said on Friday. "I'm concerned consumers could get hurt." Bitcoin has become such a phenomenon that central banks have begun looking into developing their own digital currencies. Russia, for one, was reported to be looking into crypto, something Mnuchin said Friday he wasn't "at all" worried about. "I don't think that's a concern." He added that the Federal Reserve has looked into digital dollars, but "the Fed and we don't think there's any need for that at this point." New York state tax officials have already seized and auctioned off a rare Nazi encryption machine and three valuable historical documents owned by convicted fraudster Martin Shkreli, even as the jailed former pharmaceutical executive fights efforts by federal prosecutors to seize his assets. Shkreli's Enigma code machine, which was used by Germany during World War II to send secret messages, was seized last May and sold for $65,000 by the Sotheby's auction house, a spokesman for the state Department of Taxation and Finance told CNBC on Friday. The money went toward reducing at least some of the "pharma bro" Shkreli's large tax liability with the state of New York, as did the three documents he had owned, which likewise were seized in May. One of them was "a rare, unpublished manuscript in Latin signed by Isaac Newton at the beginning of his chemical research," which sold for $38,000, according to James Gazzale, the tax department spokesman. A letter that Shkreli owned which was written by English mathematician and writer Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace, signed "A.A. Lovelace, sold for $26,000. The countess was the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron. The third item, a signed letter from legendary naturalist Charles Darwin to a man named Thomas Green about the publication of Darwin's research during his travels aboard the HMS Beagle, went at auction for $5,500, Gazzale said. All told, tax officials recouped $134,500 from selling off the Shkreli items that they seized. The Enigma machine's seizure came seven months before federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, listed it as an asset they wanted him to forfeit in connection with his criminal conviction. The seizure came four months before Shrekli was convicted in the fraud case. Shkreli's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, first disclosed the Enigma machine's seizure on Thursday in a letter filed in Brooklyn federal court that opposes a forfeiture request by prosecutors. Brafman's letter did not contain either the date of the filing or the amount obtained for the machine at auction. Nor did the lawyer's letter mention the historical documents seized by tax officials. Brafman, who could not be reached for comment, wrote in his filing that despite the state's auction of the Enigma machine, the 34-year-old Shkreli still owed New York state more than $450,000 in taxes. Nordstrom family members expect to resume their efforts to take the department store private later this year, but challenges to locate the necessary financing still lie ahead, sources tell CNBC. The family group, which owns 31.2 percent of the retailer, last year linked up with private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners to help fund their efforts to take it private. Those effort stalled over financing skittishness, amid a bubbling number of bankrupt leveraged buyouts and general uncertainty over the future of retail. The family group in October announced it was putting its take-private plans on hold until after the holidays. Going private remains a desirable course for at least some of the family members. The public market has been punishing to all retailers, hindering them from making many of the moves necessary to readjust to the changing retail landscape. For Nordstrom and others, these include costly e-commerce investments and the need to realign stores. As the family members seek to cobble together financing, they may still find themselves short. Family members must grapple with how much equity they want to roll over into a potential deal, rather than reducing their exposure to retail by selling a portion of their stake. Leonard Green, likewise, has limits to the amount it is willing to put in. Meantime, it remains unclear lenders will be able to assemble the roughly $7 billion to $8 billion in debt needed get a deal done. To fill the gap, they may look for a third party to contribute roughly $1 billion in junior capital, some of the sources said. Such a party would likely be an investor like a family office or mezzanine fund, they added. Leonard Green remains in close contact with Nordstrom, but has not formally resumed its efforts yet, sources say. Nordstrom shares were recently trading up more than 3 percent on the news. Nordstrom reported its holiday results for the first time in its history this week. The holiday season, as with many retailers, was relatively strong, with same-store sales rising 1.2 percent. It reported an increase of 1 percent in comparable sales at its full-line stores, while Nordstrom Rack and Hautelook had an increase of 2.9 percent. Overall, net sales were up 2.5 percent. While solid, sources familiar with its take-private efforts don't view those sales as a clear home run, they told CNBC. The results beat Macy's , but were weaker than both Kohl's and J.C. Penney . Nordstrom has long been viewed as best-in-class among department stores, due to its strong customer service, real estate and affordable high-end price point. The sources declined to be named because the information is confidential. Nordstrom and Leonard Green did not respond to requests for comment. Meantime, a relatively strong holiday shopping season across the board has not alleviated long-term concerns about the future of the retail industry. Public and private investors alike are concerned that as department stores downsize, some of that business will go away, not shift to their competitors. At ICR's retail conference in Orlando, Florida, this week, several industry sources noted that private equity firms are still fearful of investing in retail. Many have been burned by big bets on leveraged buyouts that resulted in restructuring or bankruptcy. Others noted the conference felt relatively quiet compared with last year. various agreements, negotiations and sanctions over the course of two decades he rogue state's rapid nuclear advancement is the result of three administrations' successive failures, former foreign policy director says watch now North Korea's rapidly advancing nuclear capability is not the fault of President Donald Trump, but rather of successive U.S. administrations who've failed to reign in the rogue state, according to a former White House foreign policy director. "Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump: this is a 20-year failure of American foreign policy," James Rubin, former assistant secretary of state for public affairs under the Bill Clinton administration, told CNBC Friday. Rubin tempered his criticism, however, stressing it was important to remember that "there are limits to what you can do in a country like that if you aren't prepared to go to war." The comments come on the tail of the first government-level talks between North and South Korea in more than two years, as both countries prepare for the Winter Olympics in South Korea. North Korea has been a constant presence in international headlines, developing nuclear weapons and testing missiles at a faster rate than at any point in its history. A view of the newly developed intercontinental ballistic rocket Hwasong-15's test that was successfully launched is seen in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang November 30, 2017. KCNA | Reuters Pyongyang has fired 23 missiles during 16 tests since the start of 2017, conducting its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in July, and claims it is now capable of striking the U.S. mainland. Some observers blame Trump's bellicose words and tweets toward North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the current spike in tensions. The U.S. president has threatened to "totally destroy" the country and has mocked Kim in tweets, calling him "Little Rocket Man" and deriding attempts at diplomacy. He recently expressed support for the talks with the South, however, which took place Tuesday in the border town of Panmunjom. Tweet1 Asked whether the tough talk might be having a positive effect on spurring talks, Rubin replied: "Possibly, but I think more (than) that is that the North Koreans now have something they never had before, which is the ability, probably, to take a nuclear weapon from Pyongyang to any city in the United States. That's the new part of this, and that hasn't changed yet." Previous administrations' dealings with the North Under Bill Clinton, an agreement called the Agreed Framework was passed whereby an international coalition would replace North Korea's plutonium reactor with two light-water reactors in exchange for 500,000 tons of heavy fuel each year from the U.S. The deal was not popular in Congress, and was scrapped shortly after George W. Bush came to power. In response, the North kicked out its U.N. inspectors and relaunched its nuclear development. The Bush administration focused on multilateral negotiations, launching the Six-Party Talks in 2003 with China's help, which also included Russia, Japan and South Korea. But the talks were impeded by numerous lengthy boycotts by the North. By early 2005, North Korea declared it was in possession of nuclear weapons and would not attend future talks. Finally, Barack Obama stuck with the diplomatic route, first employing a conciliatory approach and later implementing sanctions, but similarly to no avail. Pyongyang would oversee four underground nuclear tests by the time Obama left office. On December 28, 2017, large numbers of personnel are observed at the Southern Support Area, located south of the Command Center Area. DigitalGlobe | 38 North | Getty Images "Canada plans to accept close to one million immigrants in just the next three years almost 60 percent of whom will come through employment-based channels. Compare that to only 14 percent of immigrants currently coming into the U.S. through employment-based programs." Raising and educating children is expensive. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that American households spend an average of around $260,000 raising a child to the age of 17. Add to that the public cost of educating a child through age 17, which the National Center for Education Statistics prices at more than $11,000, per pupil, per year. This means the combined public and private spending to raise the average native-born child through age 17 reaches just over $400,000. An educated, working-age immigrant, on the other hand, carries no such cost for the U.S. Recent analysis by the Committee for Economic Development indicates that adding just 100,000 working-age immigrants per year provides an infusion of human capital that would cost $47 billion to obtain through education and child rearing spending on native-born workers. Combined with ready-to-work immigrants who come to the U.S. with a bachelor's degree in hand, foreign-born workers provide a value of human capital to our economy worth $314 billion per year, equivalent to 1.9 percent of GDP. Current law does encourage some immigration based on skills and employment, but the parameters of these programs are both outdated and insufficient to meet workforce needs. H-1B admissions, for example, are dominated by computer programmers, software developers and others in computer-related occupations fields where researchers do not anticipate labor shortages due to limited retirements and large numbers of new entrants in those jobs. Meanwhile, current law makes it difficult for foreign-born nurses and home health aides fields that face significant worker shortages to come to the U.S. The Administration and Congress might look to our neighbors in Canada for ideas about growing our labor force through smart immigration increases. In Canada, the native-born labor force is declining in size. Canada plans to accept close to one million immigrants in just the next three years nearly three percent of their total population almost 60 percent of whom will come through employment-based channels. Compare that to only 14 percent of immigrants currently coming into the U.S. through employment-based programs. Canada also factors geography into their immigration policy. Knowing that different provinces have different labor shortage risks, Canadian lawmakers have allowed individual provinces to select immigration criteria to meet their specific needs. Here in the U.S., states should have the same flexibility. For example, a state like Maine with large numbers of 50-to-60-year-old residents relative to the number of young people about to enter the workforce has very different immigration needs when compared to a state like Utah, which has a relatively young population. Being mindful of geography can also address concerns around the potential for downward pressure on wages for native-born workers. If workers come into the states where they are needed most, the likelihood of negative impact on the native-born labor force is reduced. When managed strategically, immigration creates additional consumer demand, which is good news for all workers. Significantly raising the level of employment-based visa limits, and allowing each state to tailor its intake according to their workforce needs, would allow the U.S. economy to efficiently capture the employment-ready, educated workers we need for more robust economic growth. Reforming the nation's immigration system by attracting educated, working-age people who will add to the American economy is also the kind of sound policy deal on which the Administration and Congress should agree. It will improve economic growth by boosting both the quality and quantity of available workers without reducing opportunities for native-born workers: An artful deal, based on shared goals. Commentary by Steve Odland, the CEO of the Committee for Economic Development and former CEO of Office Depot and AutoZone. Read CED's new immigration report here. Follow Steve Odland on Twitter @CEDUpdate and @SteveOdland . For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion onTwitter. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday that he does not think the chamber will pass Social Security or Medicare reform this year. "I don't see us tackling it this year," he said at an event in Wisconsin. Ryan's comments follow remarks from President Donald Trump, who told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that he believes Congress will move to an infrastructure plan before going on to welfare reform. The president said overhauling social safety net programs is "going to have to be bipartisan." Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, echoed that sentiment, saying he wants a "bipartisan consensus" on entitlement reform. The comments from Ryan and Trump all but assure the Republican-held Congress will not move toward its long-held goal in the near future. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has previously said he does not think the GOP-majority Senate could pass a welfare reform bill on a partisan basis. Republicans, who hold 51 seats, would need to win nine Democratic votes to overcome a likely filibuster in the chamber. While visiting Ireland recently, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson revealed what he's most excited about for this year: his commercial spaceflight company. "I had to say Virgin Galactic and hopefully going into space," he writes in a blog post. Venturing into space has been a longtime dream of Branson's and with a recent announcement from Virgin Galactic, Branson is approaching his goal. On Thursday, the commercial spaceflight company tweeted that the company had successfully launched a spaceship flight test. TWEET TWEET 2 The flight test marks the 11th flight for VSS Unity and the 242nd for VMS Eve, according to the company's Twitter feed. This was also the first flight since an August glide test. Branson expressed his own excitement for Virgin Galactic's most recent accomplishment, noting that this will hopefully be their final glide test. TWEET Though Branson has discussed his space goals at length, the serial entrepreneur admits that he still can't believe that it's actually coming to fruition. In his blog post, Branson writes that when he first founded Virgin, he never imagined that he'd be going into space. "I still pinch myself to think of how far we've come," he writes. The tech entrepreneur has been gearing up for his eventual space travel by focusing on his fitness. Branson has previously touted the importance of exercise and generally keeps active. However, there are different demands on the body when entering space. According to NASA, muscles atrophy quickly because of the lack of gravity in space. Astronauts on the International Space Station spend two and a half hours per day working, in order to combat this issue. Branson isn't the only person preparing for space travel in the very near future. Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides told CNBC last March that more than 600 people have signed up for the $250,000 ticket aboard the spaceship. Venture firms are also seeing space travel as a viable business: Last October, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia invested $1 billion into Branson's three space companies: Virgin Galactic, The Spaceship Company and Virgin Orbit. With a second test under his belt, Branson is now closer to his 2018 goal for Virgin Galactic. In fact, it was just last October that the self-made billionaire said that he expects to be in space by April 2018. "I would be very disappointed if I haven't been into space within six months or so," he told CNBC's Squawk Box at the time. But the rapid pace of entrepreneurial success doesn't elude him. In his most recent blog post, Branson says that he enjoys seeing how quickly businesses can grow and thrive in such a short span of time. "It really reinforces how anything is possible if you surround yourself with the best team of motivated people who want to bring out the best in others and strive to do better for their customers." Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook See also: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attends a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and Republican members of Congress in the Roosevelt Room of the White House December 5, 2017 in Washington, DC. Sen. Lindsey Graham did not deny Friday that President Donald Trump called certain nations "s---hole" countries, adding that he "said [his] piece" in response to the president's "comments" at a meeting with lawmakers. The South Carolina Republican did not rebut an account from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., of a Thursday meeting on bipartisan immigration legislation that both attended. On Friday, Durbin said that Trump "repeatedly" said "hate-filled things" at the meeting and called African nations "s---hole" countries. Durbin added that Graham spoke up in response to Trump's comments and said it took courage to do so. "I appreciate Senator Durbin's statements and have enjoyed working with him and many others on this important issue," Graham said in a statement. "I believe it is vitally important to come to a bipartisan solution to the immigration and border challenges we face today. I am committed to working with Republicans and Democrats to find common ground so we can move forward." Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is expected to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in a closed session next week, NBC News reported on Friday, citing two sources. Bannon has already hired lawyer Bill Burck to represent him during the scheduled Jan. 16 testimony, NBC said, citing a source close to the former top Trump advisor. Burck's remit will be limited to just that forum and does not encompass special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing Russia probe, according to the NBC source. Bannon recently departed from his role as executive chairman of Breitbart News after remarks he had made about President Donald Trump's children appeared in a new Michael Wolff book about the Trump administration. Among other comments, which he later apologized for, Bannon had suggested a meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer had been "treasonous." The president told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that he felt "betrayed" by Bannon's comments. Read the full NBC News report for more details. Legendary energy investor T. Boone Pickens is shutting the doors on his energy hedge fund, BP Capital. Pickens cited declining health as a reason for closing the fund. "It's no secret the past year has not been good to me, from a health perspective or a financial one," Pickens said in a confidential letter obtained by CNBC. "Health-wise, I'm still recovering from a series of strokes I suffered late last year, and a major fall over the summer. If you are lucky enough to make it to 89 years of age like I have, those things tend to put life in perspective." The fund will "move toward a family office structure," he said, noting that key employees of BP Capital will be going out on their own. Pickens rose to prominence as the chief of Mesa Petroleum during a period of corporate takeovers in the 1980s. After retiring at 68, he formed the energy investment firm BP Capital, where he made his first billion dollars. Since then, he has remained a closely followed oracle of energy markets. "It has been one hell of a roller coaster ride," he said. "I've seen oil prices bounce around from $10 a barrel up to $147, down to $26 and now appear to be inching up ever so slowly." "I've thrived and profited on the volatility in the energy space. But for me, personally, trading oil is not as intriguing to me as it once was," Pickens added. But Pickens said he has no plans of "fading away." Rather, he will work on recovering his health and continue to invest in philanthropy and political causes. He also plans to continue giving commentary on the energy market. "As this chapter closes, I couldn't be more excited at what lies ahead," Pickens said in the letter. The Wall Street Journal first reported Pickens fund was closing on Friday. CNBC's Tom DiChristopher contributed to this report. President Donald Trump suggested in the Oval Office that a "pretty Korean" analyst's ethnicity should qualify her for negotiating with North Korea on behalf of the United States, NBC News reported Friday. The woman, an intelligence analyst who had visited the White House to brief Trump on an impending hostage situation in Pakistan, was asked where "your people" were from by the president after multiple attempts to learn her ethnicity, sources told NBC. After the woman answered that her parents are Korean, Trump reportedly suggested to another advisor in the room that the "pretty Korean lady" should be negotiating with North Korea. The story comes amid reports that the president referred to some developing nations as "s---hole countries" in an immigration meeting with key senators. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, NBC News said. Read the full story on NBC News. Newsflash: President Donald Trump isn't a politically correct or polite person. Okay, that's not really news. But it's top of mind right now after several sources reported that Trump, when asked about protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries, said: "Why are we having all these people from s---hole countries come here?" Friday morning Trump denied he used that exact language but admitted he used tough words. He also denied saying anything about Haitian people: An inevitable, but regrettable media freakout continues over his comments. It's regrettable for a number of reasons. First, the president is being attacked by a sanctimonious crowd that has routinely denigrated the living conditions of the countries Trump was talking about. In fact, those terrible conditions are often cited by open borders advocates as the primary reason why the U.S. should allow people from those nations into our country as refugees. President Barack Obama was one of those people using harsh, just not profane, words to describe his father's home country of Kenya while he was actually visiting there in 2015. He said the country was improving economically. But he also scolded the people and leaders of Kenya for "stupid" traditions like holding back women economically through a lack of education access and practicing female genital mutilation. He assailed the nation's "cancer of corruption" and tribal culture that was "doomed to tear (it) apart." Obama was exactly right. No, he didn't use profanities. But using words like "stupid" to describe another country's traditions isn't exactly Emily Post material. The hypocrisy doesn't stop there. The idea that our political leaders shouldn't use vulgarities is certainly something we can discuss in our homes and schools. But the mainstream news media long ago forfeited any right to be sanctimonious about that. This is the same news media that cheered then Vice President Joe Biden's "this is a big f**king deal" comment to Obama when he signed the Affordable Care Act. It's the same media that barely called out Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti when he deliberately used the F-word in a public celebration for the Stanley Cup champion L.A. Kings in 2014. So when Trump uses vulgarity, it's different. It's apparently license to definitively conclude, for the umpteenth time, that he is a racist. This is the dominant narrative right now even as the president insists he meant no insult to actual people and was just describing the universally accepted sorry state of things in their countries. Simply put, this is a stretch. It's something humorist and "Dilbert" comic strip creator Scott Adams calls the "psychic psychiatrist" illusion. That is, when we hear words from someone we don't know personally that could be innocuous but decide we know their real intent. But the biggest reason this focus on the president's alleged vulgar choice of words is regrettable is that it's clouding the real debate. Here are some of the questions we need to be asking and answering about immigration instead of once again wasting hours and hours parsing Trump's every little word: We want to be compassionate, but is family-based chain migration fair to our existing citizens and best for our economy? Would a new focus on bringing in more skilled workers from countries that produce them be a better idea? Conservatives and even some top labor advocates think so. If we all agree that the so-called "dreamers" are in a tough spot because their parents brought them here illegally as children, isn't it a very good idea to better secure our borders so that this scenario does not keep repeating itself? Are Democrats and Republicans only looking at immigration from the lens of election results? Do Democrats want immigration from impoverished countries with unskilled immigrants because they tend to vote Democrat? And do Republicans favor more skilled immigrants from places like India because there's a better chance they'll vote Republican? How about a little honesty here? There's also a time element involved here as the Jan. 19 deadline for a spending bill looms larger. If Congress can't agree on a DACA rule protection for the "dreamers," the government could be shut down. Trump balked at a bipartisan deal reached on DACA, saying it needed to provide better border security. The fact is this country deserves to have a calm and fair debate about our immigration policies. Yes, Trump's harsh words have hurt that cause. But the people deciding to make those words from a closed meeting a major story and mine them for political capital are even guiltier of causing this distraction right now. Of course, politicians on both sides have long since established that scoring political points is much more important to them than sound immigration policy, compassion for refugees or concern about vulgarity. And that's the greatest vulgarity of them all. Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny. For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter. This should have been a triumphant week for President Donald Trump. Instead he turned it into a s---hole. President Donald Trump attends a signing ceremony for the Interdict Act into law, to provide Customs and Border Protection agents with the latest screening technology on the fight against the opioid crisis, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington D.C. In an alternate reality, Trump would have luxuriated with fellow Republicans in a warm bath of positive news. Walmart just announced a higher minimum wage and bonuses, joining a parade of other companies doling out cash to workers and crediting the GOP tax plan. A new poll showed rising faith in the U.S. economy. Blackrock CEO Larry Fink told CNBC the new lower tax rate would boost the U.S. over Mexico. All this should be have been music to Trumpian ears and an opportunity to do what senior West Wing staff are regularly begging the president to do: Stay on a positive message about bigger paychecks and faster economic growth. Administration officials privately say the key to reversing Trump's dismal approval rating and the GOP's awful generic ballot numbers against Democrats is to get people to credit them for improving economic conditions. The Quinnipiac poll showed a plurality of Americans still credit the Obama administration for the state of the economy. But with a signature piece of legislation now enacted and companies beginning to respond, Republicans have a decent case to make that they should start to get the credit. Even a marginally functional chief executive could execute on this strategy. Trump can't. The president started his day on Thursday live tweeting "Fox & Friends" and in the span of a few minutes rebuked his own administration's policy on domestic surveillance and then had to reverse himself. But things really blew up later in the day when at a private meeting with lawmakers, Trump reportedly asked why the U.S. has to accept immigrants from "s---hole" countries, an apparent reference to Haiti and some African nations. He also reportedly said: "Why do we want people from Haiti here?" The comments blew up on social media and cable television, completely wiping out news about Walmart and the economy. It did not end there. Trump also gave a lengthy and bizarre interview to The Wall Street Journal in which he suggested the market might go up if he pulled out of NAFTA, rambled about a Mexican wall with windows, suggested he might have secretly met Kim Jong Un and boasted about how he is the smartest and best at pretty much everything. Perhaps sensing the interview was going off the rails, a White House staffer present for the discussion kept trying to get Trump out of the room. The president could have steered back on message on Friday, hoping the "s---hole" controversy would die out. But of course he didn't. He kept it going at least another day by tweeting a denial. "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!" He added: "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said "take them out." Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!" He did this despite the White House not denying any of the comments on Thursday and multiple news organizations confirming them. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was present for the remarks, rebuked Trump's denial on Friday: "It's not true. He said those hateful things, and he said them repeatedly." All this guarantees that news and social media feeds over the weekend will obsess and argue over whether Trump really said racist and disgusting things. And a bunch of news on the economy that might actually help the president and the GOP will get dumped down the s---hole. President Donald Trump "repeatedly" described African nations as "s---hole" countries during a meeting on immigration on Thursday, said Sen. Dick Durbin, who attended the White House event. On Friday, the Illinois Democrat told reporters that Trump's tweeted denial of using the term "is not true." The senator said the president said "hate-filled things" and "he said them repeatedly." But meeting attendees Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., said in a joint statement Friday that they "do not recall" Trump "saying these comments specifically." He did "call out ... the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest," they said. During the talks on a possible bipartisan bill to protect hundreds of thousands of young immigrants and boost border security, Trump questioned whether the U.S. needed more Haitian immigrants, Durbin said. The senator added that Trump also made "vile and vulgar comments" about African countries. The nuclear deal, hammered out in 2015 by six world powers, lifts crippling sanctions on Iran's lifeblood oil and gas industry and the broader economy. In exchange, the Iranian regime agreed to limits on its nuclear program and allowed inspectors to monitor its facilities. The waiver also marks the first time Trump has granted sanctions relief since he told Congress in October that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is no longer in the country's national security interest. Trump has called the accord the "worst deal ever," but he's declined to scrap it while Congress prepares legislation to modify the agreement and his administration marshals international support to increase pressure on Iran. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin , in a separate statement, announced new sanctions on 14 Iranian individuals and entities in connection with various human rights abuses. "This is a last chance. In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately." "Today, I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies' agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal," Trump said in a statement. Trump is essentially asking America's partners to make the deal permanent, a request that could be difficult for many to accept. Rather than continue to periodically extend sanctions relief, which is currently required to keep the deal alive, Trump will work with European partners on developing new provisions to strengthen the deal. President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he will waive sanctions against Iran for the final time, extending the life of an international nuclear accord that he disavowed three months ago. An Iranian woman and her son walk past Shahab-2 (L) and Shahab-3 missiles on display in front of a large portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a square in south Tehran. Trump risked sparking a diplomatic crisis with France, Germany and the U.K. three parties to the deal and the broader European Union if he refused to issue the waivers. Restoring sanctions against Iran, OPEC's third-largest oil producer, also threatened to roil energy markets and put a freeze on billions of foreign investment into the country. The structure of the deal has created a recurring thorn in Trump's side. The sitting president must suspend various sanctions every 120 to 180 days. Three key waivers were scheduled to expire in the coming days, with the next deadline to certify the deal to Congress also landing this week. Even with the waivers in the rearview mirror, analysts say the agreement remains on shaky ground. Risk consultancy the Eurasia Group gives the deal a 55 percent chance of surviving Trump's first term, while RBC Capital Markets says the prospects for the accord are "bleak" in 2018, given the constant threat of sanctions snapping back into place. Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, maintained his odds for the deal's survival. Some of the changes Trump is seeking would not take effect for six years, so it's possible the Iranians will wait to see if Trump gets re-elected. "The Europeans won't agree to snap back their sanctions based on US triggers, but they may be able to satisfy Trump with rhetorical support," he told CNBC in an email. "It all depends on the wording of the emerging bill if it tears up the deal now, it's over. If it's 6 years hence, it lives," he said. Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the Europeans have every incentive to cooperate on modifying the deal. "If they don't, by May of this year, President Trump will cancel America's participation in the deal and unleash powerful secondary sanctions that will deter most European companies and banks from doing business in Iran," he said in an email. "Many are already sitting on the sidelines because of these fears. Many more will stay there if American sanctions are reinstated." As a candidate, Trump threatened to scrap the deal, but several of his top advisors have implored him to preserve it. They have counseled him to instead apply pressure with new sanctions targeting Iran's ballistic missile program and elements of its security apparatus accused of aiding U.S.-designated terror groups and sowing instability throughout the Middle East. The Trump administration is seeking support from European countries to address Iranian ballistic missile tests, isolate the Revolutionary Guard and modify the Iran nuclear deal. Trump and Republicans want to prevent the expiration of key provisions of the deal scheduled to phase out in 10 to 15 years, including limits on Iran's access to nuclear material and advanced equipment. It also wants to expand international inspectors' access to Iranian military sites. On Thursday, ahead of Trump's decision, European nations jointly implored the United States to keep the deal in tact. "The accord is essential and there is no alternative," France's foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, told reporters. "We do not hide the other points of disagreement (with Iran) that exist." Trump's refusal in October to certify to Congress that Iran is complying with the deal gave lawmakers the option to restore sanctions against Iran. Instead, senators agreed to work with the Trump administration to change the terms of the accord through new legislation. U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, acknowledged last week that Congress would not be ready to present Trump with legislation before this week's waiver deadlines. There is little evidence that the Senate's legislative effort has advanced much beyond a framework Corker released in October. That plan sought to make the nuclear deal essentially permanent, a proposal that upends the accord the Obama administration negotiated. Iran has dismissed that option, saying it violates the agreement, and the proposal remains a tough sell for Democrats and European allies. Corker's plan reflects a new strategy outlined by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in October. It would create red lines that, if crossed by Iran, would automatically restore sanctions. Sen. Ben Cardin, the Democratic ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says he remains open to discussing legislation, but said Trump's actions on Friday had set back the bipartisan process, which he has been engaging in with Corker. "Instead of leading an international negotiation on the agreement himself, however, the President's statement making threats and dictating final terms of potential negotiations with Congress and Europe makes it more challenging to achieve this objective," he said in a statement. On Thursday, the Justice Department announced it was forming a team of prosecutors to counter an alleged organized crime ring operated by Hezbollah, a Shiite political and militant group in Lebanon backed by Iran. The Treasury Department has also applied new sanctions against Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a hard-line security force with financial interests through the domestic economy. CNBC's Kayla Tausche, Kevin Breuninger and Reuters contributed to this story. In a large, diverse country, campaigns span a broad array of interests and motivations. But the political foundation of Donald Trump's presidency was racial grievance. Trump has repeatedly appealed to unhappy whites with his denunciation of Mexican immigrants, his defense of white supremacist protesters, and his attacks on black athletes protesting for racial justice. Thursday's Oval Office excoriation of "s---hole countries" in Africa and the Caribbean simply followed that pattern. (Trump appeared to deny making the comment on Friday, although some senators in the room at the time pushed back against him). As a candidate and as president, Trump has sounded plenty of race-neutral themes, including the call for tax cuts that culminated in landmark legislation last month. But some political science research has shown that his blunt race-tinged messages were the reason he vaulted past an experienced lineup of rivals to win the 2016 Republican nomination and then the White House. Emily Ekins, director of polling at the libertarian Cato Institute, identified five groups of Trump voters as part of a broader Democracy Fund study of the 2016 election. Key to his emergence, she concluded, was the 20 percent segment she called "preservationists," who stood out for their "nativist and ethno-cultural conception of American identity." "American Preservationists comprise the core Trump constituency that propelled him to victory in the early Republican primaries," Ekins wrote. She characterized them as having low levels of education, income and political information, watching lots of television, and offering strong professions of Christian faith combined with infrequent church attendance. With many of them disabled and on Medicaid, they display hostility toward Wall Street, support for redistribution of wealth, and concern about their government retirement benefits. Their economic views help explain Trump's pledge not to touch Social Security and Medicare benefits. Their social views explain where they found kinship with him. "They are far more likely to have a strong sense of their own racial ident Members of the U.S. House and Senate flooded Twitter to condemn President Donald Trump's reported description of some developing nations as "s---hole countries" at a White House meeting on immigration Thursday. Trump was meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to hash out a deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The six senators in attendance announced that a deal in principle had been reached, before reports of Trump's profane comments surfaced. The Washington Post reported that Trump also asked "Why do we need more Haitians?" and suggested the U.S. should "take them out." Trump responded fiercely in a series of tweets Friday morning, appearing to deny the reports while simultaneously rejecting the DACA deal that was announced the day before. The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify the president's tweets. Politicians from both parties were quick to respond to the president's reported comments from the meeting. One of the first statements came from Republican Rep. Mia Love of Utah, who herself is Haitian-American. "The President' comments today are unkind, divisive, elitist and fly in the face of our nation's values," Love tweeted. She demanded that Trump should apologize to the U.S. and "the nations he so wantonly maligned." Mia Love tweet Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., called Trump's derisive comments "completely inappropriate." Minnesota has cultivated a reputation for its openness to immigrants and refugees during the Syrian refugee crisis in recent years. Erik Paulsen tweet Even GOP representatives from swing states, such as Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., voiced their opposition to the president's words. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen tweet Some GOP responses, however, were more circumspect. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio focused less on Trump's vulgar words than on their policy implications. Marco Rubio tweet And Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said he looked forward "to getting a more detailed explanation" regarding Trump's "s---hole" comments. Orrin Hatch tweet Democrats, on the other hand, excoriated Trump in blistering terms for his remarks a number of them accusing him of racism. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., admonished the president not to "judge people based on the color of their skin" in a CNN interview. Bernie Sanders tweet The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., said the reports "are further proof that his Make America Great Again Agenda is really a Make America White Again agenda." CBC tweet California Rep. Karen Bass said Trump is "unable to see people of color, American or otherwise, as equals." Karen Bass tweet On Friday morning, Trump sent a series of tweets addressing the proposed DACA deal and the specific off-color remarks he reportedly said. Trump tweet 1 Trump tweet 2 Trump tweet 3 Trump tweet 4 Trump tweet 5 Trump tweet 6 Walmart , the nation's largest private employer, waded into the bumpy waters of partisan politics on Thursday, announcing that it will use some of its savings under the new tax bill to provide wage increases, bonuses and expanded benefits to its hourly workers. The giant retailer, which faces stiff competition for qualified workers in a tight labor market and pressure from unions to increase wages, said it would raise its minimum starting wage to $11 an hour, from $9. It will also expand maternity and family leave benefits, and give bonuses of up to $1,000 to eligible employees. By tying its pay increases to the tax break it expects to receive, as other large companies have done in recent weeks, Walmart provided support for claims by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress that the new tax law will benefit not just the wealthy but also working-class Americans. More from The New York Times: Walmart's Minor Act of Redistribution The Numbers Behind Walmart's Pay Raise State's Push Back After Net Neutrality Repeal "This law is helping improve people's lives," Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said in a tweet on Thursday, citing Walmart's actions. Paul Ryan tweet But within hours, Walmart had undercut its triumphal message when news leaked that it was closing 63 of its Sam's Club stores. Sam's Club, a retail chain offering memberships, was soon trending on Twitter, and labor groups and Senate Democrats seized on the news to question Walmart's motives and criticize the tax bill as failing to protect low-wage workers. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which hopes to represent Walmart's nonunionized work force, called the wage increase a "public relations stunt" meant to distract from the closings. Senate Democrats, citing the closings and a $20 billion stock buyback announced last fall, said in a statement: "The real response of companies like Walmart to the Republican tax bill has been to ensure that its already high-paid executives and wealthy shareholders reap the overwhelming benefit, leaving thousands of workers standing in the cold without jobs." With more than one million hourly workers in the United States, Walmart is a bellwether for compensation in low-wage industry. By citing the new tax plan as an impetus for better wages and benefits, the retailer was bound to become a lightning rod in a fiercely ideological debate. "They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory," Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business, said in an interview. "Walmart made a smart move in increasing wages and investing in human capital. Where they screwed up was politicizing it." Since President Trump signed the tax law last month, a number of large companies including AT&T , Southwest Airlines and Wells Fargo have said they were using the savings to help their employees. On Thursday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced that it would give a $2,000 bonus to 60,000 hourly and salaried employees. "It is only proper that our employees share in the savings generated by tax reform," Sergio Marchionne, the company's chief executive, said in a statement. Walmart, which is the country's single largest corporate taxpayer, said in a statement Thursday that it was still determining how much it would save as a result of the new law. Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit research group, said it was difficult to forecast precisely how much Walmart would save. But based on the company's average annual United States earnings over the past five years, he said, savings from the cut in the corporate tax rate alone could be roughly $2.2 billion a year, or 40 percent. He said the figure could be higher or lower depending on tax breaks the company might be losing, or new advantages in the treatment of capital investments and other provisions. Walmart said the wage increases and bonuses would cost the company roughly $700 million. "Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.," Walmart's chief executive, Doug McMillon, said in a statement. Still, many economists are skeptical that the tax cut will have a meaningful impact on wages. In an economic research memo released on Thursday, Goldman Sachs wrote that "we expect no significant short-term effect of tax reform on" average hourly earnings. Goldman predicted that, to the extent that the tax bill would drive up pay, it would do so over time, partly by stimulating the economy and forcing employers to pay more as they competed for workers. Walmart started the day with a celebratory message, with its early-morning announcement about wage and benefit enhancements. Even some critics were impressed with some of Walmart's changes particularly in expanding maternity and parental leave. Full-time hourly employees will receive 10 weeks of maternity leave and six weeks of paid parental leave. Those workers previously received up to eight weeks of maternity leave at half-pay, and were not entitled to parental leave. The expanded leave benefits are particularly significant, putting shelf-stockers and cashiers on the same footing as many white-collar, college-educated workers across corporate America. Our Walmart, a labor group, said in a statement that action on wage increases and maternity leave was a "substantial step, but still falls short of what all Walmart employees need to be able to provide for our families." Target, a competitor, raised its starting wage to $11 an hour last fall. In addition to competing for workers, Walmart is trying to improve customer service in its roughly 4,700 stores around the United States, some of which have been criticized for being untidy in the past. Analysts said the higher wages could also help Walmart burnish its public image as it battled Amazon for online sales. "Amazon has been viewed as a good citizen," said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a retail consulting firm. "Walmart has been viewed as a bad citizen who is getting better." By Thursday afternoon, though, Walmart was dealing with a backlash over the closing of about 10 percent of its Sam's Club stores. The retailer said it had planned to inform its thousands of employees first and then announce it. But customers showed up at stores only to find them closed and began posting the news on social media. There were also reports that workers showed up for work and were informed that their stores were closed. Walmart said it was planning to close about 50 Sam's Club stores across the country and retrofit about a dozen others into e-commerce fulfillment centers. It was unclear how many workers will lose their jobs, because the company said it was trying to find the displaced employees jobs at other Sam's Club stores. "There is no easy way to communicate to a group of people that their facility is closing," John Furner, president and chief executive of Sam's Club, said in an interview on Thursday evening. Store closings have become a regular occurrence as the retail industry adjusts to shifts in consumer behavior and more people shop online. But because the closings were occurring on the day of the tax cut announcement, they became fodder for critics. "They should have been taking a victory lap tonight," said Mr. Galloway, the New York University professor, "and instead they are back on their heels." Noam Scheiber and Patricia Cohen contributed reporting. President Donald Trump on Friday ignored questions from the press about his use of the term "s---hole countries" to describe African nations and Haiti, as he signed a proclamation in honor of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Trump began the event by carefully reading a set of scripted remarks. "Today we celebrate Dr. King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear: That no matter what the color of our skin, or the place of our birth, we are all created equal by God," said the president. Trump's remarks were followed by a few words from Dr. Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development, and Isaac Newton Farris Jr., King's nephew. Near the end of the somber affair, Trump got up from the signing table and began to leave. That's when the questions started. "Mr. President, will you give an apology for the statement yesterday?" asked one reporter. "Mr. President, did you refer to African nations, did you use the word 's---hole'?" asked another. Then the voice of White House correspondent April Ryan rang out. "Mr. President, are you a racist?" Ryan, a veteran journalist who is black, had a notable interaction with Trump in February of last year, when the president asked Ryan during a press conference if she would set up a meeting for him with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Friday, however, Trump ignored Ryan and the rest of the press pool as he made his way around the edge of the Oval Office, shaking hands with guests. The event was Trump's only public appearance of the day, making it the only chance journalists had to ask him questions. While the televised event appeared calm, off-camera both the White House and Capitol Hill were reeling over the fallout from Trump's comments, which were confirmed by a half-dozen major news organizations. For much of the day, members of Congress, diplomats and world leaders had been demanding that Trump apologize for insulting Africa, a continent of 1.2 billion people, and Haiti, a nation with deep social and economic ties to the United States. Haiti's former prime minister, Laurent Lamothe, wrote on Twitter that the world was "witnessing a new low today." Lamothe tweet Former U.K. foreign secretary David Miliband accused Trump of betraying America's future. MILIBAND tweet But it's unlikely that any such apology is forthcoming. On the contrary, Trump used Twitter on Friday morning to deny that he had ever referred to African nations as "s---hole countries" and accuse Democrats of making it all up. The president also said Friday morning that he "never said anything derogatory about Haitians." Hydropower is the biggest source of renewable electricity in the world and is responsible for producing roughly 17 percent of the planet's electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. The scale of some hydropower projects, such as the Itaipu facility situated between Brazil and Paraguay, is vast. Since operations began in 1984, the site has generated over 2.4 billion megawatt hours of energy. "Our generating units are 700 megawatts each," Juliano Portela, an engineer at Itaipu Binacional, told CNBC's Sustainable Energy last year. "We have 20 generating units installed, which comprises a total of 14,000 megawatts." In terms of their longevity, hydropower facilities can be built to stand the test of time. As well as speaking to those working at Itaipu, "Sustainable Energy" also heard from Gilkes, a British business that specializes in the development of hydropower projects. Andy Eaton, its international hydro sales manager, said that some machines had been running for more than 100 years. Little tweaks are required now and then. "Recently, we've carried out some upgrading work of some equipment on a tea estate in Kenya, where they have five machines of ours dating back to the 1920s," he said. "We haven't really carried out too much mechanically on the turbines, it's just an upgrade on the electrical side of the equipment where over a period of time the software, etcetera, has changed." It goes without saying that water is crucial to hydropower, as it is to a huge number of other things that make the world go round. Looking at the bigger picture, it's clear that there are challenges ahead. "Future water scarcity is going to mean that we're going to have to move water further distances, move water from afar to where it's needed," Kala Vairavamoorthy, executive director of the International Water Association, told CNBC's "Sustainable Energy". "That's going to require more energy because water is heavy," he said. "If you couple that with our interest in low carbon energy, many of those technologies are going to require quite a lot of water, so this 'water-energy nexus' comes into play." Broadly speaking, the water energy nexus can refer to the relationship and interdependency between water and energy. "If you wrap all of this into the economic transformation that's taking place in developing countries, most of that economic transformation is going to require lots of water and lots of energy," Vairavamoorthy said, adding that he was hopeful that challenges could be navigated thanks to "great innovations" taking place in technology. Proceeds must be used exclusively for projects falling within these categories. Issuers are also required to report the objectives and selection criteria of the projects. Transparency is key - there should be up-to-date information on the progress of the investment. External reviewers should be brought in to verify claims. Investors in green bonds do so usually to meet their own ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investment targets. With this Sustainable & Positive Impact Finance solution, there is no fundamental difference in terms of financial risk or returns compared to traditional investments but the positive contribution generated over the long term, makes the difference which is highly notable. "Green bonds have no more and no less credit risk than comparable non-green bonds," says Stephane Marciel, head of sustainable bonds at Societe Generale CIB. "And in most cases investors tell us they do not accept less remuneration." However, there may be less volatility than traditional bonds: "Investors in green bonds take into account the green profile of the issuer, and tend to look more long term." Data on returns is still emerging, but the fundamentals suggest there is no reason to think there will be notable divergence with the main market at least in the short run. Transparency is improved. Benchmarks are created. And above all, investors can manage ESG funds, which otherwise might struggle to find adequate opportunities for their capital. Green bonds are breathing life into the entire ESG mission. There are a few details which need solving. Despite the moves to harmonization, there is still some debate on the grey areas of eligibility. Marciel acknowledges a degree of diversity in interpretation. "We have to acknowledge that there are different levels of readiness around the world, and different levels of awareness in investors. For example, what is right in Sweden might not be exactly right for China, where for instance the economy still substantially depends on coal for energy, even if we all hope it will be less and less so going forward. What is essential however are to keep up and even increase the efforts and financial flows towards sustainable investments, in particular in the energy sector to fight climate change." Mobile technology is reshaping society and the global economy in ways that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. Today faster mobile broadband is delivering services that allow consumers to download high definition video in minutes, play live multiplayer games, watch TV and make video calls on the go without buffering. The proliferation of smartphones has connected people across the world, and by mid 2017, two thirds of the world's population had a mobile subscription a total of 5 billion unique subscribers. By 2020, almost 860 million new subscribers will be added, taking the global penetration rate to 73%. However, with mobile subscriber growth slowing and competition intensifying, many telecom operators are questioning whether they've had the best of times and the future outlook may not be so promising. At this year's Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF 2017), held in London, the most influential decision makers from the ranks of operators, vendors and other participants in the mobile ecosystem gathered to explore how to achieve sustainable growth in the future. In the opening keynote presentation at MBBF 2017, Huawei Rotating CEO Ken Hu, said "What if these operators were told they could tap into 1 billion new subscribers offering sustainable mobile revenues?" These new subscribers are modern connected cows, dairy herds that wear mobile connected sensors. In China, operators are helping dairy farmers track their dairy herds by using Huawei's NB-IoT technology which provides longer battery life, cost savings and greater coverage. Through the collection of biometric information from the NB-IoT devices, farmers can monitor the cows' movement and health and let them graze further, to better manage milk production. The results are nothing short of impressive farmer profitability has increased by 50%, equal to $420 per cow, per year, and for the telecom operator every connected cow is a new subscriber, bringing $10 per cow, per year. "You could say the connected cow is a cash cow for dairy farmers and operators. And the opportunity doesn't end there. Connecting 'things' such as the world's 20 million shipping containers, 100 million new bicycles, 300 million LED streetlamps and 1.8 billion water meters, are bringing new services to industries, cities, businesses, and homes, and placing operators at the center of this new mobile world. But driving the connectivity of everything requires fresh thinking, smarter networks and a stronger ecosystem," said Mr. Hu. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Back in 2015, I wrote a post on CommLawCenter discussing the prevalence of interns in the communications industry, and the Department of Labors crackdown on businesses illegally failing to pay their interns. That crackdown began in 2010, with the DOL applying a rigid six-part test to determine whether an intern must be paid at least minimum wage for time spent working. This caused a lot of consternation in media companies, with many electing to just drop internship programs rather than risk a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. For those media companies, and the students that faced a suddenly diminished number of available internships, an announcement this past week from the Department of Labor will be welcome news. When the Department of Labor stepped up enforcement against for-profit businesses illegally using unpaid interns, it released a Fact Sheet on whether an individual could be classified as a trainee or intern exempt from the Fair Labor Standard Acts requirement that employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage and receive overtime pay. The Fact Sheet laid out the six-part test that the DOL adopted in the 1960s, noting that [i]nternships in the for-profit private sector will most often be viewed as employment unless all six of the criteria are met. The six criteria were: the internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment; the internship experience is for the benefit of the intern; the intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff; the employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded; the intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and the employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship. From the DOLs perspective, if an employer couldnt demonstrate that all six factors were met, the intern was an employee, and the employer would be liable for paying the intern wages and overtime. The reason I wrote about the crackdown in 2015, however, was because of a then-recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit which found the Department of Labors test too rigid, and instead applied a more flexible standard that assessed whether the business or the intern was the primary beneficiary of the arrangement. Specifically, the court examined whether the internship was primarily for the economic benefit of the employer or primarily for the educational benefit of the intern. As I noted at the time, that was good news for businesses in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, which are within the Second Circuits jurisdiction, and potentially for businesses elsewhere, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is influential. The logic of its ruling might well persuade courts in other circuits to follow suit. That did in fact happen, with the California-based Ninth Circuit court recently becoming the fourth circuit to adopt the Primary Beneficiary test. Recognizing this judicial tide, the Department of Labor announced on January 5, 2018 that it is also adopting the Primary Beneficiary test. It indicated it was doing so both to comply with these court rulings and to eliminate the confusion of dueling tests that depend on what part of the country a business is located. While I have had to learn a lot about employment law in handling mergers, sales, and other media transactions, I am not an employment lawyer, have not played one on TV, and did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I would therefore encourage those interested in getting the full details of the DOLs announcement to take a look at a new Employment Advisory on the subject by Pillsburys own Julia Judish and Andrew Lauria. In particular, you should note their admonition that this only changes the federal standard, and if your state has a more restrictive standard, you will need to take that into consideration. Among other things you will learn is that the DOL, in classic government fashion, replaced the rigid six-factor test with a seven-factor test. The big difference, however, is that the old test required every factor to be met, whereas the new test has seven factors for consideration (along with any other factors that might be relevant to a particular intern), with no single factor being determinative of the outcome. For example, if your internship program met five of the six old factors, but you couldnt prove that the internship yielded no immediate advantage to the business and that the intern might actually impede your operations, the new test may be more to your liking. So if you discontinued your internship program because you couldnt show all six factors favored a finding that the position was correctly categorized as an unpaid internship or, as was often the case, you just didnt want to risk having to defend yourself against a lawsuit for unpaid wages, you may want to revisit that decision. If an objective review would find that the business is the primary beneficiary of the internship, youll still need to pay wages and overtime to your interns. But if you are comfortable (after checking with counsel of course) that the primary beneficiary is the intern, then it is time to relaunch your internship program and introduce a whole new generation to the wonders of the media workplace. Maybe, just maybe, they will then become your ambassadors to a new generation that doesnt really know what to make of any media that doesnt have the word social in front of it. Microsofts documentation runs all over the place, but yesterday an announcement from Softie John Cable is widely interpreted as saying that Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, version 1709, is now ready for business use. Gregg Keizer has details. Cable says: Fall Creators Update (version 1709) is fully available for all compatible devices running Windows 10 worldwide! Full availability is the final phase of our rollout process. Enterprise customers following this same targeted approach for the Semi-Annual Channel can also fully deploy when ready. While that isnt, literally, the Current Branch for Business imprimatur that weve had in the past, as Keizer explains, its the closest were going to get. Tellingly, Microsofts official Windows 10 release information page (see screenshot) is all over the map. While Cables announcement seems to designate 1709 as a Semi-Annual Channel release (formerly Current Branch for Business), in fact Microsofts page still shows it as Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) which corresponds to the old Current Branch. Woody Leonhard/IDG Old terminology and new terminology are scattered willy-nilly on the site. Michael Niehaus explained the difference in mumbo-jumbo realignment, back in July. Whether 1709 is Current Branch, Current Branch for Business, or Entirely Revised New Semi-Annual Uncharted Territory Branch (Targeted), those of us running Win10 1703 who dont want to move to 1709 are faced with a troubling prospect: how to tell Windows Update to keep its mitts off, until were good and ready to move to 1709? The Win10 Pro (and Enterprise) 1703 Update Advanced Options choices, as shown in the screenshot, includes four settings. Woody Leonhard/IDG [ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ] Microsoft has changed its definitions twice, but at this point it appears as if: The Current Branch for Business setting has no meaning, as of yesterday. The feature update deferral setting is supposed to protect you from forced version changes for the indicated number of days. The quality update deferral setting is supposed to protect you from forced Automatic Updates by the indicated number of days. The Pause Updates setting turns off all updates for 35 days. As you may recall, Microsoft completely ignored the Current Branch for Business setting in November. Ultimately, Microsoft acknowledged the known issue and fixed it in December. Meanwhile, many who told 1703 to hold off on updating were pushed ahead to 1709 anyway. At that point, it became apparent that you had to run the feature update deferral up to 365, to avoid getting pushed. Susan Bradley, in Windows Secrets Newsletter, reported in November that the problem may have been with the user interface (as in the screenshot above) not being correctly picked up by the installer: Some small business admins had 1709 installed on systems where they thought they had pushed off the update for several months. Microsoft acknowledged that the 1703 version may receive the 1709 feature update when you are not expecting it. They promised to fix the issue in an upcoming update. I personally think the issue is selecting to defer the feature update in the GUI is not sticking. If you use the local group policy to push off the feature update that seems to be sticking. Now, Im seeing complaints that those with the feature update deferral set at 365 are getting pushed onto 1709 anyway. Is it possible that Bradleys sticking problem has returned? Im not saying that Fall Creators Update is bad. Im saying that its still too early to tell. For example, last months 1709 cumulative update, KB 4054517 was a disaster. Microsoft itself says that the December cumulative update had two known issues: Update installation may stop at 99% and may show elevated CPU or disk utilization Windows Update History reports that KB4054517 failed to install because of Error 0x80070643 And we all know about the many problems with this months Win10 cumulative updates in general, and 1709s in particular. In addition, there are well-documented problems with Asus and Lenovo Wi-Fi chipsets. Homegroups get hosed (Microsofts deprecating Homegroups in 1803 anyway), there are reported problems with delayed printing, and a bunch of nitpicking anomalies. All in all, the Fall Creators Update has been remarkably stable but many folks want to decide for themselves when the upgrade gets installed. With Current Branch for Business deferral now, apparently, rolled over, its an open question how to best keep 1709 at bay. Questions? Comments? Observations? Were all ears on the AskWoody Lounge. The headlong race to cover the Meltdown/Spectre debacle has claimed another victim. In a surprising move, Intel has raised a red flag about some of its firmware patches. What should you do? Wait. Yesterday, Intel executive VP Navin Shenoy posted on the company blog: We have received reports from a few customers of higher system reboots after applying firmware updates. Specifically, these systems are running Intel Broadwell and Haswell CPUs for both client and data center. We are working quickly with these customers to understand, diagnose and address this reboot issue. If this requires a revised firmware update from Intel, we will distribute that update through the normal channels. Shenoy went on to emphasize that Intel was working directly with its big customers but that normal Intel customers should continue to apply updates recommended by their system and operating system providers. Im trying to look up the term condescending, but never mind. Robert McMillan at The Wall Street Journal picked up on the story late last night (paywall): Intel is quietly advising some customers to hold off installing patches that address new security flaws affecting virtually all of its processors. It turns out the patches had bugs of their own. Then Reuters got in on the act: Intel has identified three issues in updates released over the past week for microcode, or firmware, the [Wall Street Journal] reported, citing a confidential document the company had shared with some customers that it had reviewed. [ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ] Intels been riding out the Meltdown/Spectre storm with some aplomb, publishing a performance hit table (see screenshot below) that says Skylake, Kaby Lake, and Coffee Lake processors (6th, 7th and 8th generation) take a 7 to 8 percent performance hit with the new Meltdown-free firmware. Woody Leonhard/IDG There's no mention in the official speedtest about the 2-year-old Broadwell chip. Where does that leave normal Windows users with 2016 or earlier processors? In a holding pattern. Again (pardon me if I sound like a broken record) there are NO Meltdown/Spectre exploits in the wild (although one highly credible researcher, Alex Ionescu, claims he has a working proof of concept for Windows which he wont release for a few more weeks). What about the Microsoft Surface? As for Microsoft Surface owners Microsoft falling into the recommended by their system and operating system providers bucket mentioned by Intel we dont know whats going to happen. Microsoft hasnt responded to Intels admission. We dont know when (or if) it will update its Surface firmware patches. All we know is that Microsoft has made no commitment to providing a Meltdown/Spectre patch for Surface Pro 2, Surface Pro (original), or Surface 3 (non-Pro) PCs. Tell me again how many billions Microsoft has made from Surface? Join us for sackcloth and ashes on the AskWoody Forum. Iain Dale is Presenter of LBC Drive, Managing Director of Biteback Publishing, a columnist and broadcaster and a former Conservative Parliamentary candidate. Its all going terribly well, isnt it? was my opener to a friend in Downing Street on the afternoon of the Cabinet reshuffle. I was going to devote this whole column to an in-depth analysis of the reshuffle, but I think enough has been said already. Paul Goodmans analysis on Wednesday said it all. If you go into a reshuffle with an absence of a plan or a narrative, dont be surprised if it blows up in your face. If youre trying to relaunch your government with a fresh image, at least have an idea of the headlines youd like to see in the next days papers. If you want it to run smoothly, it might be an idea to choreograph it in advance. Why on earth did it come as a surprise to Theresa May that Jeremy Hunt wanted to stay at Health, and had several good reasons for doing so? The accusations that the shuffle was all about window-dressing have stuck, and its no surprise as to why. This could have been the reshuffle that showed a real breakthrough for women, yet the number of women who are full cabinet members hasnt increased. OK, there are two more who attend. Big deal. This could have been the reshuffle that really signalled the Governments intent to put housing at the top of its priority list. However, rather than create a new, separate housing ministry, theyve just altered the letterhead at the DCLG and it becomes the DHCLG, with Sajid Javid having exactly the same responsibilities as before. A lot of Conservatives were rather excited on Monday morning about what was to come. By the end of the day they were left feeling rather flat. Or worse. What is it that is preventing Kwasi Kwarteng from being promoted to office? I scratch my head and cannot come up with a single reason. Hes clever, erudite, writes like a dream and is brilliant on the media, and yet he still languishes on the backbenches. A total mystery. Brandon Lewis joined me for a phone-in on LBC only 48 hours or so after he had been appointed. It was a brave decision for the new Conservative Chairman, now thrust into the limelight and of whom much is expected. He had a tricky start with calls from two Conservative activists who were distinctly unhappy at the way things are going. One made clear he wanted Theresa May out before the next election. You learn a lot about how politicians handle themselves in this kind of arena, but Lewis shone. He approached every question with good humour and had I been a listener rather than his interlocutor I think Id have found it all a good and refreshing listen. There are two types of party chairmen those like Norman Tebbit, who act as a lightning rod for their Prime Minister and take the fight to the opposition and to the media, and then there are those who are fairly anonymous and who regard their main task as saying nothing to offend anyone. Lewis is a more ebullient version of Norman Tebbit. He clearly knows the size of the task ahead of him, but the question is: can he overcome the inertia that is inherent in the upper echelons of the voluntary party and introduce real reform designed to galvanise the recruitment of a new generation of younger, motivated activists? I was disappointed that there was no place found for Jacob Rees-Mogg in the reshuffle. Sometimes politicians need to be allowed to prove themselves in office, rather than continue to cultivate a cult through the media. Rees-Mogg is hugely talented and those talents need to be exploited. Even if he wasnt to be made a minister, some sort of Vice Chairman role at CCHQ could surely have been found. Alternatively, a junior ministerial role at the Department of Work and Pensions would have been an ideal starting point for him to start the climb up the greasy pole. After all, Margaret Thatcher started her career as a junior pensions minister Please dont think badly of me for continuing to be fascinated by this series of Celebrity Big Brother. Its mainly because of Ann Widdecombe, it has to be said, as well as Rachel Johnson who is developing into the Mother of the House. Ann has even resorted to flirting with the stunningly good-looking former Apprentice contestant, Andrew Grady. I certainly cant blame her for that, but its good to see her finally entering into the spirit of the programme rather than remain in a seemingly permanent grump. Shes very good at grumping, is our Ann. This week, Ive published a book by former the Enfield North MP, Nick de Bois. Its called Confessions of a Recovering MP and details what its like to work in the Westminster hot-house, and how an MP copes with losing his seat. Its a very funny book and has had the highest rate of website pre-orders of any book Biteback has ever published. Treat yourself. Its a cracking read. Well, hold the front page. Tim Farron has finally admitted what we all knew that he didnt mean a word of it when, during the general election campaign, he was forced to say that he didnt consider gay sex a sin. Its the sort of thing that really gets politicians a bad name. As Eden Cavalry put it on Twitter Gay sex is a sin. It says so in this book where snakes talk, people come back from the dead, a guy walks on water, and a virgin has a baby. There was a lot of media fuss about the new army recruitment adverts aimed at gays and muslims this week. I wont go into that here, but I was horrified to learn that army recruitment has now been contracted out to Capita, or Crapita as it now usually known. As usual, they are making a total pigs ear of it. Im all in favour of some government functions being taken over by the private sector where it makes sense, but can anyone name a single area where Capita has got involved that has resulted in a better service and where they have given better value for money? No, thought not. I hope Gavin Williamson will look again at their contract, and take them to task for the fact that they continually lose applications from army recruits, take months to process applications and fail to get back to people when they say they will. Lewis Baston is author of Reggie: The Life of Reginald Maudling and several books about British general elections. He is a consultant on politics, elections and constituencies. The Representation of the People Act of January 1918 is, rightly, the most celebrated of the womens suffrage Acts. It broke the legal barriers to women voting in general elections (some women had voted in local elections since 1870). But the 1918 RPA is one of several steps, and was incomplete. The womens franchise was on a limited basis, thanks to divided opinion in the Speakers Conference of 1917. It was designed to maintain a male majority in the electorate, and was only from the age of 30 rather than 21 for men (and 19 for war veterans). Some women over 30 were still disqualified for lack of property; teachers living in furnished rooms, carers living with parents, and domestic servants were all left out. The 1918 RPA did not actually enable women to become MPs, which was instead the consequence of the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act, passed in November 1918 less than a month before polling day. This lesser-known Act was the one that led directly to Constance Markievicz being elected in December 1918 for the Dublin St. Patricks constituency, though she exercised her mandate in the First Dail of Ireland rather than Westminster, and then Nancy Astor taking her seat after the Plymouth Sutton by-election in November 1919. A more general Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919 opened the professions, the civil service, and jury service to women. Oddly, from 1918 to 1928 women aged 21 to 30 were eligible to serve in the House of Commons, and therefore cast votes on legislation, but not to vote to choose their MPs. This was not as bizarre at the time as it seems now, because before 1918 the qualification to vote was complicated and the legal rules for membership and voting had not previously been aligned. But it was obviously absurd given the aspiration to a fully democratic franchise. At the same time as the House debated the franchise in 1928 there was a by-election in Linlithgowshire in which the Unionist (Conservative) candidate defending the seat was the 28-year-old Margaret Kidd. Kidd was an eminent woman: the first to be called to the Faculty of Advocates (the Scottish Bar), which she accomplished at the age of 23 in 1923, and was later the first woman to give evidence before the Lords and a parliamentary select committee. Kidd lost, but the first flapper MP appeared before the first flapper voter, when Jennie Lee was elected Labour MP for North Lanarkshire in February 1929. In the historical record, there is an air of inevitability about the next reform, the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act of July 1928 which sorted out the anomalies of the 1918 Act. But the reputation of the 1928 Act is unfairly overshadowed,. Nor did it seem inevitable at the time, so we often neglect to celebrate the campaigners of the 1920s such as Margaret Haig Thomas, otherwise Lady Rhondda, who kept the pressure on for an equal franchise. She was undeterred by the advice of Emmeline Pankhurst that the time was not right. There have been plenty of occasions in British history in which a temporary solution that everyone at the time recognised was flawed has become a lasting settlement the composition and powers of the House of Lords after 1911, and the electoral system after 1917 for example. But it did not prove the case with womens votes. The door that Lady Rhondda and her colleagues were pushing against was not locked. There were 12 Private Members Bills for franchise equality in 1919-27. In the 1924 election campaign, the Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin had stated that The Unionist Party is in favour of equal political rights for men and women, but Baldwin was good at expressing views but then deciding that the time was not right. However, in February 1925, in a debate on Labour MP William Whiteleys Bill, the Home Secretary William Joynson-Hicks announced that the Prime Ministers pledge mean that at the next election no difference will take place in the age at which men and women will go to the poll. This went beyond what Cabinet had agreed, and it is possible that Joynson-Hicks might have been mellowed by a few drinks. The Cabinet subsequently (against the strenuous objections of Winston Churchill and Lord Birkenhead) decided to stand by the Home Secretarys words. The Government had argued against the Whiteley Bill in 1925 on the grounds that there should be an inter-party conference on the franchise, but Joynson-Hicks did nothing to convene such a conference and the womens movement geared up to renew the pressure. On 8 March 1927 a deputation led by Nancy Astor, Eleanor Rathbonem and Lady Rhondda met Baldwin and Joynson-Hicks, and on 13 April the Government announced that it would legislate for the simplest and most radical reform, equalising the voting age at 21 in time for the 1929 election. The Government Bill appeared in March 1928 and received widespread support. It was introduced by Joynson-Hicks (Jix) with a generosity of spirit that is most unusual in his parliamentary and governmental career. At other times as Home Secretary he was busy trying to suppress London nightclubs and clamping down on literature such as the very restrained lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness. But he did seem to be a true believer in franchise equality and made an effective, moving speech in favour when introducing the Bill. The details of the 1928 Act included provisions to bring forward electoral registration so that the newly enfranchised women could cast votes in the general election due before October 1929, but also the preservation of elements of plural voting that the opposition wished to see ended by a new franchise Bill. Opponents felt constrained from using the argument that they probably really believed in, that women were not capable of using the vote wisely and should not have it, so they had to use some pretty inventive material. Some of the arguments deployed at the time seem so preposterous that it is hard to imagine that they were seriously ventured in the House of Commons. The Conservative MP for Enfield, Reginald Applin, thought it was a bad idea because he believed it would offend Muslims throughout the Empire. Labours Ellen Wilkinson pointed out that the Raj had been ruled by a British Empress, and that women had the vote already in representative assemblies in India, so the backlash from young women getting the vote would probably be manageable. Opponents also got themselves in a complete muddle about whether women would vote as a bloc or not; either the franchise reduction was pointless because they would not, or dangerous because they would. The argument that had the most potential was that the voting age should be equalised at 25; this would redeem the promise of an equal franchise but also supposedly make the voting population more responsible. By delaying the Bill, the government had closed off this option, as it would surely have needed the cover of a Royal Commission to take the vote away from men who had the legitimate expectation of voting in 1929. To the credit of Baldwin and Joynson-Hicks, they did the job properly rather than begrudging it as a necessity. Only 10 MPs voted against on second reading. An equal franchise was only one of the demands of the 1920s womens movement. Lady Rhondda and her colleagues campaigned for material equality such as equal pay for equal work, family allowances paid to the mother, and an end to moral double standards between men and women. They had the support not only of Labour women like Ellen Wilkinson, but some Conservative men such as (the Seventh) Lord Balfour of Burleigh, who addressed Lady Rhonddas National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship and moved a resolution to secure a real equality of liberty, status and opportunity between men and women in March 1927. But contrary to some hopes (and fears), the majority female electorate that was established in 1929 did not lead to rapid further progress on the wider goals. The principle of equality had been won for the House of Commons in 1918 (though in practice the proportion of women MPs did not reach 10 per cent until 1997). The Lords remained all-male, although only by chicanery. Lady Rhondda was one of a handful of peeresses in her own right, having inherited the peerage in 1918, and had a good case to be admitted to the House of Lords. The Committee for Privileges heard her case in March 1922 and ruled that she should indeed receive a Writ of Summons. However, the Lord Chancellor (Birkenhead again) was a male chauvinist even by 1920s criteria and used procedural guile and specious argument to keep women out of his House of Lords, despite what the 1919 Act might say about non-disqualification. Lady Rhondda died in 1958, living long enough to see Royal Assent to the Macmillan governments Life Peerages Act, which forty years after equalisation of rights to sit in the House of Commons created a category of peers in which men and women were equal. It was not until 1963 that the injustice Lady Rhondda had suffered personally was undone, as peeresses in their own right were recognised as being entitled to sit in the Lords. It was only at this point that Britain was able to sign the United Nations Convention on the Political Rights of Women. There were a few pieces of formal political inequality that lasted until very recently. Women were still disadvantaged in relation to the position of head of state until the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. There was still a category of legislator not open to women, namely the 26 peers drawn from among the diocesan bishops of the Church of England, who until 2015 were all male. The Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 changed the seniority rule for bishops being appointed to the Lords so that new women bishops could be fast tracked. The first woman bishop in the Lords, Rachel Treweek, became Bishop of Gloucester in 2015 and made her maiden speech on 7 March 2016. The process of gaining formal equality of opportunity in parliamentary representation had taken just short of a century, and all these steps had taken place under Conservative or Coalition governments; Labours legislation has focused more on social than political equality, from family allowances in 1946 to equal pay law in the 1970s and the Equality Act 2010. But, as Lady Rhondda said in 1927, I wonder how many generations are going to use up their lives before we can put the whole thing behind us, and forget that there was ever any difference of status, freedom or opportunity based on the difference in sex. Further reading Angela John, Turning the Tide: the Life of Lady Rhondda (Parthian, 2013) Nan Sloane (ed.), A Great Act of Justice: The Flapper Election and After (Centre for Women and Democracy, 2009) CFE Media LLC (Content for Engineers) is a new, privately held company formed by Jim Langhenry and Steven Rourke, previous Reed Business Group Publishers. The company is located outside of Chicago and provides the engineering community with premium research and information. CFE Media is a group of eager management, editorial, sales, marketing and production people. Under CFE Media, the brands: Refocus emphasis on delivering high value content to target audience in the way they want to consume it Deliver new, innovate ways for customers to engage and interact with target audience Build a dedicated team that is aligned with customers interest and delivering the best value to the marketplace CFE Media consists of three industry-leading, recognizable brands; Consulting-Specifying Engineer, Plant Engineering, and Control Engineering. These brands are the definitive go-to sources in the plant, automation and control, as well as the building systems specification markets. They consistently deliver information that engineers rely on extensively to assist them with their jobs and business operations. Contact CFE Media: customerservice@cfemedia.com The Control Engineering Product of the Year* program highlights some of the best new control, instrumentation, and automation products as chosen by Control Engineerings print and online subscribers. Qualified subscribers are asked to select products based on technological advancement, service to the industry, and market impact. 2023 Product of the Year Program contacts For questions about the Product of the Year program: McKenzie Burns Marketing Manager mburns@cfemedia.com Mark Hoske Content Manager mhoske@cfemedia.com Past programs *CFE Media revised its product award programs for consistency, including rebranding the Engineers Choice Awards as Product of the Year, beginning with the 2023 program. Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process. Wednesday, September 12, 2018 | McCormick Place | Chicago, IL Room W196-C Join Control Engineering, Oil & Gas Engineering, Plant Engineering and Hannover Messe USA for the Global Automation and Manufacturing Summit, part of Hannover Messe USA at the 2018 IMTS Show at McCormick Place in Chicago. This one-day summit is designed to bring plant managers, control engineers, and manufacturing business leaders together to highlight plant improvement opportunities and deliver strategies that manufacturing personnel can take back to their plants and implement immediately. Sponsored by: Platinum Sponsors: SAP and Siemens Gold Sponsors: Beckhoff, Infor Global Solutions, Stratus, UL, and Universal Robots Bronze Sponsor: LAPP Luncheon and Reception Sponsor: Advantech 2018 Global Automation & Manufacturing Summit AgendaClick Here for More Information and to Register. REGISTRATION AND LUNCH: 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Lunch sponsored by: Advantech KEYNOTE: 12:15 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.: Raj Batra, Siemens In a global, competitive manufacturing environment, how can American manufacturers compete? The same way theyve lifted the U.S. economy out of the Great Recession: By being smarter, leaner (and Leaner) and using technology and data to point the way to a better manufacturing strategy. SESSION 1: 1:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.: Embrace your future: How robotics and AI are changing manufacturing Moderator: Bob Doyle, RIA Panelists: John Fryer, Stratus Dr. Kurt D. Bettenhausen, Siemens Stuart Shepherd, Universal Robots No longer a science fiction story, robots and artificial intelligence (AI) are real, valuable to manufacturing, and winding up in more plants than ever. How can you find the best way to utilize robots in your plant? How can AI be a training and plant management tool? Our human experts will discuss the practical ways these technologies will enhance manufacturingand all the ways humans are still vital to your operation. Bob Doyle, vice president of the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) and the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) in Ann Arbor, Mich. and a CFE Media Partner, will lead the panel discussion. SESSION 2: 2:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.: Maintenance and IIoT: Follow the numbers Moderator: Sal Spada, ARC Advisory Group Panelists: Shon Isenhour, Eruditio LLC Kevin Price, INFOR Patrick Crampton-Thomas, SAP The data generated by IIoT can point a maintenance professional to a problem on the plant floorif hes looking at the right numbers at the right time. More sophisticated analytics are helping maintenance teams focus on the right data at the right time, and well talk with them on how this strategy can lead to more uptime and better safety. The presentation will be led by Sal Spada, research director for discrete manufacturing for ARC Advisory Group. KEYNOTE: 3:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.: Enable an intelligent digital supply chain as part of the Industry 4.0 revolution, Hala Zeine, SAP Discover the power of an end-to-end digital supply chain, from designing, planning, manufacturing, delivery, and operations, all supported by a digital twin. Learn how to optimize your business, increase the value of your products, and grow revenue. Presenter: Hala Zeine, President of Digital Supply Chain & Manufacturing, SAP. SESSION 3: 4:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.: Cybersecurity: How far do we need to go? Moderator: Dr. Richard Soley, OMG Panelists: Daymon Thompson, Beckhoff North America Ken Modeste, UL Mark Voigtmann, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP The problem of security for (IIoT) is one of the most discussed issues as manufacturers look to deploy this technology solution. Well look at the real issues, perhaps debunk a few myths, and talk about the common-sense ways manufacturers can secure their data and their operational integrity. The presentation will be led by Dr. Richard Soley, Executive Director of the Industrial Internet Consortium, Chairman and CEO of the Object Management Group (OMG). COCKTAIL AND NETWORKING RECEPTION: 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sponsored by: Advantech After a great day of information, continue the discussion in the lobby. Cocktails, light snacks, and conversation about the days events will follow. Click Here for More Information and to Register. View the 2016 Global Automation & Manufacturing Summit sessions on-demand The 2016 Global Automation and Manufacturing Summit (GAMS), presented by CFE Media, brought together experts from all areas of the Industrial Internet of Things (lloT) to look at not just the current state of lloT but also at the potential benefits of deployment for the manufacturing industry. Sponsored by: Beckhoff, Advanced Technology Services, Inc., FORCAM, SAP and Radwell International, Inc. 2016 Global Automation & Manufacturing Summit Agenda 12:00pm 12:30pm: Lunch and networking Sponsored by: Advanced Technology Services, Inc. 12:30pm 1:15pm: Keynote: Jack Nehlig, President of Phoenix Contact USA and winner of the 2015 Plant Engineering Top Plant Award 1:30pm 2:30pm: Session 1: Cloud-Based Manufacturing: Who Will Rule the Clouds? An overview of industry attitudes toward and adoption of lloT in manufacturing. PANELISTS: Rob McGreevy, VP Operations, Schneider Electric Rich Carpenter, Product general manager, GE Automation and Controls 2:30pm 3:30pm: Session 2: Robotics: Rise of the Machines An industry overview on the adoption and use of robotics in manufacturing. PANELISTS: Jose Rivera, CEO, Control System Integrators Association Rick Vanden Boom, automation systems group manager, Applied Manufacturing Technologies Michael Lindley, vice president, business development, Concept Systems Inc. 3:45pm 5:00 pm: Session 3: How Maintenance and Big Data Can Coexist PANELISTS: Sal Spada, analyst, ARC Advisory Group Franz Gruber, CEO, FORCAM Aurelio Banda, CEO, Beckhoff Automation North America Chris LeBeau, Global IT director, ATS Access the 2016 Global Automation & Manufacturing Summit Sessions. For more information please visit: Hannover Fairs USA, Inc. Industrial Automation North America International Manufacturing Technology Show CFE Media is dedicated to the mission of education for both our subscribers and our marketing partners. One of the ways we implement educational opportunities with our partners is through in-person and online events. Join CFE Media for a day of education on marketing to engineers on Monday, April 16, 2018, in downtown Chicago. During the educational sessions, industry experts will discuss solutions and tactics for marketing to engineers effectively. The event will also feature results from TWO Marketing to Engineers studies, as well provide attendees the opportunity to ask questions of engineers during our engineering panels! Need another reason to join us? Each registrant from your company earns a chance to enter into a drawing for a chance to win a customized Marketing to Engineers Lunch and Learn. This is YOUR event! Engineers think differently. 2018 Marketing to Engineers Lineup. Speaker Information. Panelists Information. The event starts on Monday at 10:00 a.m. CT, April 16, at the Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel1 West Upper Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60601. The days sessions will bring together some of the top marketing experts in the industry! Marketing to Engineers: Monday, April 16, 2018. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.: Marketing to Engineers Seminar Lunch and beverages will be served Seminar Lunch and beverages will be served 5:30 p.m.: Cocktails and Networking Click HERE for more information and to register. CFE Media is dedicated to the mission of education for both our subscribers and our marketing partners. One of the ways we implement educational opportunities with our partners is through in-person and online events. The Marketing to Engineers seminar features industry experts presenting tips for successful integrated marketing campaigns and the latest trends relevant to the engineering community. Join CFE Media for an afternoon of education on marketing to engineers on Monday, March 23, 2015, in downtown Chicago. During the educational sessions, industry experts will discuss strategies and tactics for marketing to engineers effectively. The event starts on Monday at 12:00 p.m. CT, March 23, at the Park Hyatt Chicago800 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611. The afternoon session will bring together some of the top marketing experts in the industry! Registration fee: $135.00, early registration discounted 30% with promo code: MARKETING30 Marketing to Engineers: Monday, March 23, 2015. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.: Marketing to Engineers Seminar. Hors doeuvres and beverages will be served. Attend and hear experts discuss the following: Right Brain Marketing: Tapping Into the Engineers Brain Meeting Engineers along the Buyers Journey Results of the latest Marketing to Engineers research The Magic of Marketing Automation Digital Fitness Tips & Tools for Trimming the Digital Fat in 2015 Integrated Marketing: The Drive for Measurable Results Panel: Perspective from Suppliers and Engineers: Discussion about the latest research on best practices for how to market to engineers effectively. 5:30 p.m.: Cocktails and Networking Click HERE to register for the 2015 Marketing to Engineers seminar on Monday, March 23 at 12 p.m. In March 2014, CFE Media hosted the Marketing to Engineers event in downtown Chicago. During this afternoon session, industry experts presented tips for marketing communications, new product introductions, marketing campaigns, industrial branding, and other marketing to engineers tools. Integrating the Marketing & Engineering Points of View in Marketing Communications: Brit Buchanon & Leonard Salamida Eliminating bias and jargon from marketing communications Understanding how engineers create and understand communications Communicating with the B2B buyer Marketing New Product Introductions in Mobility & SaaS: Ideation to Marketing Execution: Rob McGreevy Market dynamics and changes Results oriented marketing for new products Barriers and opportunities Creating an Integrated Marketing Campaign for Impact and Results: Maryanne Steidinger What is an integrated marketing campaign? What are the foundational elements that must be addressed? How do you know youve succeeded? Industrial Branding: The Lost Art in the Industrial Marketplace: Rich Thompson The importance of leading with a true brand strategy vs. feature/benefit product strategy How brands are either built or destroyed by a companys actions or inaction Why people buy brands and understanding how the attachment to a brand works Create Marketing Engineers Love: Rebecca Geier Be Intentional: Why is this the RIGHT message to share RIGHT now? Be Generous: What expertise will help AND and build trust? Be Ready: How will we get found AND listen? Access the 2014 Marketing to Engineers Sessions In March 2013, CFE Media hosted the Marketing to Engineers event in downtown Chicago. During this afternoon session, industry experts presented tips for website design, content marketing strategies, and best practices for marketing to engineers. Website Design: Search Marketing Best Practices: Steve Krull Why content is (still) King Aligning navigation with user intent, and using research to influence what you think Designing with content in mind Content Marketing Strategy: Giving Away Your Secret Sauce: Joe Pulizzi The latest in content marketing research How B2B companies and those that target engineers can leverage content marketing to find and retain more customers Great content marketing examples in action Best Practices for Marketing to Engineers: Alicia DuBay The challenges of marketing to engineers What todays successful integrated marketing campaign looks like Case study: A campaign that worked well for ABB Access the 2013 Marketing to Engineers Sessions In March 2012, CFE Media hosted the Marketing to Engineers event in downtown Chicago. During this afternoon session, industry experts presented tips for successful integrated marketing campaigns and covered the latest trends in social media relevant to the engineering community. Engineers: A Day in the Life: Michael Uttech Adjusting to 24/7 work Project case study How do engineers get information today? How to Run a Successful Integrated Marketing Program: Lawrence Wegner Running a successful dynamic integrated program Knowing your audience How do you choose the right media channels to get the best ROI? Best practices in campaign strategy, implementation and measurement Social Media in the B-to-B World, Part 1: Steve Krull What is social media?: Busting social myths Putting the right social media strategy into context Implementation: Putting Strategy into Action Social Media in the B-to-B World, Part 2: Jim Cahill Why social media for automation suppliers? Understanding the correct approach to social media marketing with your engineering audience How we connect with manufacturers through social media to grow business opportunities Access the 2012 Marketing to Engineers Sessions Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process. Control Engineering is producing 10 print/digital editions this year, and we want to ensure you have easy access to as much content as ever with two Control Engineering Insider editions in 2022, January and November. By CFE Media MIT researchers believe they can help answer questions about what information-processing resources human beings use at what stages of development by building computer systems that approximate these capacities. Along the way, the researchers might also generate some insights useful for robotic vision systems. They are looking to examine fundamental cognitive abilities an intelligent agent requires to navigate the world: discerning distinct objects and inferring how they respond to physical forces. "The common theme here is really learning to perceive physics," said Josh Tenenbaum, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. "That starts with seeing the full 3-D shapes of objects, and multiple objects in a scene, along with their physical properties, like mass and friction, then reasoning about how these objects will move over time. Jiajuns four papers address this whole space. Taken together, were starting to be able to build machines that capture more and more of peoples basic understanding of the physical world." He and his student, Jiajun Wu, are co-authors on four papers that examine the topic. Three of the papers deal with inferring information about the physical structure of objects, from both visual and aural data. The fourth deals with predicting how objects will behave on the basis of that data. Two-way street Something else that unites all four papers is their unusual approach to machine learning, a technique in which computers learn to perform computational tasks by analyzing huge sets of training data. In a typical machine-learning system, the training data are labeled: Human analysts will have, say, identified the objects in a visual scene or transcribed the words of a spoken sentence. The system attempts to learn what features of the data correlate with what labels, and its judged on how well it labels previously unseen data. In Wu and Tenenbaums new papers, the system is trained to infer a physical model of the worldthe 3-D shapes of objects that are mostly hidden from view, for instance. But then it works backward, using the model to resynthesize the input data, and its performance is judged on how well the reconstructed data matches the original data. For instance, using visual images to build a 3-D model of an object in a scene requires stripping away any occluding objects; filtering out confounding visual textures, reflections, and shadows; and inferring the shape of unseen surfaces. Once Wu and Tenenbaums system has built such a model, however, it rotates it in space and adds visual textures back in until it can approximate the input data. Indeed, two of the researchers four papers address the complex problem of inferring 3-D models from visual data. On those papers, theyre joined by four other MIT researchers, including William Freeman, the Perkins Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and by colleagues at DeepMind, ShanghaiTech University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Divide and conquer The researchers system is based on the influential theories of the MIT neuroscientist David Marr, who died in 1980 at the tragically young age of 35. Marr hypothesized that in interpreting a visual scene, the brain first creates what he called a 2.5-D sketch of the objects it containeda representation of just those surfaces of the objects facing the viewer. Then, on the basis of the 2.5-D sketchnot the raw visual information about the scenethe brain infers the full, three-dimensional shapes of the objects. "Both problems are very hard, but theres a nice way to disentangle them," Wu said. "You can do them one at a time, so you dont have to deal with both of them at the same time, which is even harder." Wu and his colleagues system needs to be trained on data that include both visual images and 3-D models of the objects the images depict. Constructing accurate 3-D models of the objects depicted in real photographs would be prohibitively time consuming, so initially, the researchers train their system using synthetic data, in which the visual image is generated from the 3-D model, rather than vice versa. The process of creating the data is like that of creating a computer-animated film. Once the system has been trained on synthetic data, however, it can be fine-tuned using real data. Thats because its ultimate performance criterion is the accuracy with which it reconstructs the input data. Its still building 3-D models, but they dont need to be compared to human-constructed models for performance assessment. In evaluating their system, the researchers used a measure called intersection over union, which is common in the field. On that measure, their system outperforms its predecessors. But a given intersection-over-union score leaves a lot of room for local variation in the smoothness and shape of a 3-D model. So Wu and his colleagues also conducted a qualitative study of the models fidelity to the source images. Of the studys participants, 74% preferred the new systems reconstructions to those of its predecessors. All that fall In another of Wu and Tenenbaums papers, on which theyre joined again by Freeman and by researchers at MIT, Cambridge University, and ShanghaiTech University, they train a system to analyze audio recordings of an object being dropped, to infer properties such as the objects shape, its composition, and the height from which it fell. Again, the system is trained to produce an abstract representation of the object, which, in turn, it uses to synthesize the sound the object would make when dropped from a particular height. The systems performance is judged on the similarity between the synthesized sound and the source sound. Finally, in their fourth paper, Wu, Tenenbaum, Freeman, and colleagues at DeepMind and Oxford University describe a system that begins to model humans intuitive understanding of the physical forces acting on objects in the world. This paper picks up where the previous papers leave off: It assumes that the system has already deduced objects 3-D shapes. Those shapes are simple: balls and cubes. The researchers trained their system to perform two tasks. The first is to estimate the velocities of balls traveling on a billiard table and, on that basis, to predict how they will behave after a collision. The second is to analyze a static image of stacked cubes and determine whether they will fall and, if so, where the cubes will land. Wu developed a representational language he calls scene XML that can quantitatively characterize the relative positions of objects in a visual scene. The system first learns to describe input data in that language. It then feeds that description to something called a physics engine, which models the physical forces acting on the represented objects. Physics engines are a staple of both computer animation, where they generate the movement of clothing, falling objects, and the like, and of scientific computing, where theyre used for large-scale physical simulations. After the physics engine has predicted the motions of the balls and boxes, that information is fed to a graphics engine, whose output is, again, compared with the source images. As with the work on visual discrimination, the researchers train their system on synthetic data before refining it with real data. In tests, the researchers system again outperformed its predecessors. In some of the tests involving billiard balls, it frequently outperformed human observers as well. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) www.mit.edu Edited by Chris Vavra, production editor, Control Engineering, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com. See more Control Engineering robotics stories. Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process. Learning from cyber-related incidents in the manufacturing automation sector is one of the best ways to teach users how to remain secure. When the first attack on the Ukraine occurred in December 2015 that led to a power outage for 225,000 residents for six hours, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) sent officials to the affected power plant to learn what happened. They created a hands-on cybersecurity training based on what they learned from the attack. "We need cyber-informed engineering for the absolutely most critical systems and processes and integrated risk management for executives, said Zach Tudor, associate lab director at INL, during his keynote address at the APIs 12th Annual API Cybersecurity Conference in Houston, TX, Tuesday. "We want to use the right technology in the right spot." He was making a point where manufacturers today need a new approach for cybersecurity and one approach is to look at consequence-driven engineering (CCE). CCE provides organizations with the steps required to examine their own environments for high-impact events/risks; identify implementation of key devices and components that facilitate that risk; illuminate specific, plausible cyber-attack paths to manipulate these devices, and develop concrete mitigations, protections, and tripwires to address the high-consequence risk. The ultimate goal of CCE is to help users take the steps necessary to thwart cyber attacks from even top-tier, highly resourced bad guys that would result in a catastrophic physical effect. That is all a part of increased cyber awakenings, said Tudor, who is responsible for INLs national and homeland security mission and its nuclear nonproliferation, critical infrastructure protection and defense systems missions. "We know there is a lot to do, the adversaries are relentless, but we are too," he said.One of the new ways organizations are looking at security is implementing and using artificial intelligence, but Tudor is not totally sold on that right now."How much control do we give to artificial intelligence?" Tudor asked. Yes, it allows for a more autonomous system, but "We are looking at what the bounds of autonomy should be. Even the autonomous system needs bounds to see what it can do." Adding in the idea of autonomy, Tudor asked how does risk change when you become autonomous? On top of that, how does it all workand integratewith the issue of legacy systems? In terms of looking at new approaches to security, users today are facing more intense, sophisticated challenges that continue to grow, such as: Hacking is a commodity Evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) Digital islands wont exist Increased attack and response surfaces. One of the ideas to handle those challenges is the concept of resiliency knowing attackers may get in, but the user can handle that by being able to react and having a defense-in-depth profile. The idea is systems have to be more resilient against any and all kinds of attacks, but there is more to it than individual resiliency. There needs to be a combined effort. Looking at the audience, Tudor pointed to various people and said, "You may be resilient and you may be resilient, but we are not resilient together." Gregory Hale is the editor and founder of Industrial Safety and Security Source (ISSSource.com), a news and information Website covering safety and security issues in the manufacturing automation sector. This content originally appeared on ISSSource.com. ISSSource is a CFE Media content partner. Edited by Chris Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com. ONLINE extra See related stories from ISSSource linked below. Original content can be found at www.isssource.com. Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process. Security features should protect bank notes, documents, and branded products against counterfeiting, but they dont. Losses caused by product forgery and counterfeiting are huge and they keep growing as the German Engineering Association said damage caused in 2016 in its branch alone amounted to 7.3 billion Euros. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the ZEISS company propose to use printed 3-D microstructures instead of 2-D structures, such as holograms, to improve counterfeit protection. "Today, optical security features, such as holograms, are frequently based on two-dimensional microstructures," said Professor Martin Wegener, expert for 3-D printing of microstructures at the Institute of Nanotechnology of KIT. "By using 3-D-printed fluorescent microstructures, counterfeit protection can be increased." The security features have a side length of about 100 m and are barely visible with the eye or a conventional microscope. For their production and application, Wegener and his team developed a method that covers all processes from microstructure fabrication to the readout of information. The microstructures consist of a 3-D cross-grid scaffold and dots that fluoresce in different colors and can be arranged variably in three dimensions within this grid. To produce and print such microstructures, the researchers use a rapid and precise laser lithography device developed and commercialized by the Nanoscribe company, a spinoff of KIT. It enables highly precise manufacture of voluminous structures of a few millimeters edge length or of microstructured surfaces of several cm in dimension. The special 3-D printer produces the structures layer by layer from non-fluorescent and two fluorescent photoresists. A laser beam very precisely passes certain points of the liquid photoresist. The material is exposed and hardened at the focus point of the laser beam. The resulting filigree structure is then embedded in a transparent polymer in order to protect it against damage. "Security features produced in this way are not only of individual character, but also very complex in manufacture. This makes life difficult to forgers," said Frederik Mayer of the Institute of Nanotechnology of KIT. The new process can be extended easily and is extremely versatile. The 3-D features may be applied as an embedded foil in security tags to protect pharmaceuticals, car spare parts, or mobile accumulators against counterfeiting. They may also be integrated into the transparent windows of bank notes. For later authentication checks at the supermarket checkout or in the production hall, special readout instruments are required to detect the fluorescent 3-D structures. Gregory Hale is the editor and founder of Industrial Safety and Security Source (ISSSource.com), a news and information Website covering safety and security issues in the manufacturing automation sector. This content originally appeared on ISSSource.com. ISSSource is a CFE Media content partner. Edited by Chris Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com. ONLINE extra See related stories from ISSSource linked below. Original content can be found at www.isssource.com. Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process. CORNWALL, Ontario Members of the Cornwall Street Crime Unit with the assistance of the RCMP and CBSA executed a drug warrant at a Bedford Street address on Jan. 11, 2018. As a result of the warrant a quantity of Percocet pills were located along with crack cocaine, Fentanyl patches, marijuana, morphine pills, cash, knives and a taser. Arrested and charged accordingly are the following Cornwall residents: Sherry Ann Burson, 50, Marc Dumond, 53, Jeremy Ceasor, 24: Possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine Property obtained by crime Possession for the purpose of trafficking Percocets Unsafe Storage Possession of a prohibited weapon Possession of cocaine Possession for the purpose of trafficking morphine Ceara Veldhoven, 21 and a 16-year-old youth: Possession of Percocets Possession of a prohibited weapon Possession of marijuana Possession of Fentanyl Sherry Ann Burson, Jeremy Ceasor and Marc Dumont were held for a bail hearing, while Ceara Veldhoven and the youth were released to appear in court at a later date. THEFT UNDER $5,000 CORNWALL, Ontario Steven Coleman, 34, of Cornwall was arrested on Jan. 11, 2018 and charged with theft under $5,000. It is alleged on Dec. 21, 2017 the man removed a quantity of cash from a register at the St Lawrence College and police were contacted to investigate. On Jan. 11, 2018 while in custody on unrelated charges the man was advised of the theft under charge and he remained in custody for a bail hearing. There were 52 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. UNITED COUNTIES of SD&G, Ontario Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for Cornwall and the surrounding area on Friday, Jan. 12. Rain will change to snow by early this evening following the passage of a sharp cold front, the warning reads. There is also a chance of brief freezing rain during the change over. Snow at times heavy, along with local blowing snow, is expected to continue until midday Saturday. Total snowfall amounts of 15 to 20 cm is expected by this time. The high temperature on Friday will be plus 14, well above the previous record high of plus 6.5 established in 1988. That high will fall quickly in the evening though with a low temperature tonight of minus 9, and a high on Saturday of only minus 11. Sunday will be even colder with a high of minus 19. Two new Port of Seattle Commissioners, Peter Steinbrueck and Ryan Calkins, and re-elected Commissioner Stephanie Bowman took the oath of office on Wednesday, while selecting Courtney Gregoire to serve as Commission President for 2018, according to a port statement. I look forward to the hard work of preserving the industrial lands that support family-wage jobs throughout our region, protecting our environment, and growing our economy in ways that benefit everyone, said Commissioner Peter Steinbrueck. Our economic diversity makes King County resilient and rich in opportunities. I look forward to working with the community on growing those opportunities. Commissioner Steinbrueck was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. As a former three-term Seattle city council member from 1997 to 2007, Peter led numerous legislative efforts to advance innovative programs and policies in comprehensive planning, land use and development, parks and open space, affordable housing, climate protection and renewable energies, water conservation, municipal waste reduction, and urban mobility. I am honored to join the Port of Seattle Commission, said Commissioner Ryan Calkins. I look forward to bringing economic growth and expanding opportunities to our region while being environmentally sustainable in our actions. Commissioner Calkins works as a nonprofit professional at Ventures, a charitable organization that supports low income entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses in the Puget Sound area. Born and raised in Edmonds by a public school teacher and a small business owner, he now lives in Seattle with his wife and three children. Port of Seattle Commissioner Stephanie Bowman, who joined the Commission in 2013, was re-elected for a second term. In my first term I helped the Port take its internship and workforce training programs to more individuals and communities and helped increase our partnership with cities around King county. I am energized to continue those expansions while working with communities on their economic and community development priorities. Commissioner Bowman currently serves as the Executive Director of Washington ABC, a statewide non-profit organization promoting policies and programs to help economically-disadvantaged communities build assets through investments in education, homeownership, savings and small business development. Raised in Hilo, Hawaii, she moved to Seattle in 1991. Commissioner Gregoire will be Commission President for 2018. The Port of Seattle will continue to lead on economic and community development for our region while leading in environmental sustainability, said Commission President Courtney Gregoire. We want to insure that all of our community members benefit from the ongoing growth at our facilities throughout King County. Seattle Tacoma International Airport continues to lead the nation in airport growth, while Port of Seattle cruise terminals expect to top one-million revenue passengers for the second year in a row. Workforce training, recapitalization of the North Pacific Fishing Fleet, and further development of real estate properties will also remain priorities, while maintaining a smaller carbon footprint across the organization and region. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MILFORD Even as department stores close across the country, the Connecticut Post mall has found a new anchor tenant to replace the former J.C. Penney. Mall representatives announced that Pennsylvania-based department store Boscovs will be opening its second New England location at the mall in October, bringing with it 300 new jobs. Boscovs also has a store in Meriden. Were excited to bring the fun and excitement of a Boscovs to the Connecticut Post mall, Boscovs CEO Jim Boscov said in a news release. Were grateful to their management team for their creative approach, which made it possible for us to add another location in New England. We know that the values and exceptional service Boscovs is known for will be a great fit in the Milford market. For 104 years, Boscovs has sold an array of apparel, home furnishings, appliances and more. The family-owned business is based out of Reading, Pa., and has 46 locations in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio and Connecticut. According to a press release, Boscovs intends to remodel and expand the space, and will occupy 200,000 square feet split among two floors. Along with retail space, the department store plans to feature a candy section and an auditorium that would host live performances and community events. This is a brand that prides itself in its commitment to customer service, exceptional quality and merchandise set at a great value, Ken Sterba, general manager of the Connecticut Post mall, said in a press release. We know our community will embrace the addition of Boscovs to our already diverse mix of retailers. J.C. Penney closed in July costing 89 jobs. It has stores in Danbury and Trumbull along with five others in Connecticut. Its closure in Milford followed a national trend of closures and downsizing among big-box retailers and department store chains like Sears, Walgreens, J. Crew and more. 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. Registration is now open for a CUNA members-only webinar featuring updates from CUNA and CUNA Mutual staff on litigation threats related to website compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The free webinar is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 18, from 3 to 3:45 p.m. (ET). Credit unions are facing increased legal threats due to confusion over website compliance with the ADA, and CUNA has been working with the Department of Justice and Congress to solve the issue. CUNA will meet with Congressional counsel Friday to discuss potential legislative solutions. Speakers at the webinar are: Ryan Donovan, CUNA chief advocacy officer; Irans Cyberwar Could Infiltrate Your Mailbox Irans crackdown on protesters could affect almost anyone in contact with them, thanks to a sophisticated internal police operation that routinely targets not only academics and dissidents but also those who have interacted with them, and even people only tangentially linked. Cyber security firms and prominent researchers of Iranian digital espionage efforts say one government-backed group in particular, Infy, will likely continue to increase its attacks even after the current unrest ends. The Iranian security forces use many of the same tactics that nation-state actors and criminal groups deploy against corporate and political victims, particularly spear phishing, basically, emails from a phony source that urge the recipient to click a link that downloads information-exfiltrating malware. But unlike common crooks, Tehran and its agents are constantly refining and improving their phishing emails. The Infy group is highly adaptable and regularly attacks targets inside Iran and beyond its borders. The group, or at least some of its code, goes back to 2007, according to research by Palo Alto Networks. Thats several years before Iran stepped up its cyber warfare capabilities in response to the 2010 revelation of the Stuxnet virus attack. Infy has since become one of the primary malware agents operating out of Iran, with a particular focus on Iranian civil society, according to a 2016 paper by researchers Colin Anderson and Claudio Guarnieri. Unlike some other Iranian cyber actors who target foreign aerospace and military commercial interests, Infy focuses on individuals who may be a political threat to Irans leaders and the way they govern. Infy became one of the most frequently observed agents for attempted malware attacks against Iranian civil society beginning in late 2014, growing in use up to the February 2016 parliamentary election in Iran, write Anderson and Guarnieri. While the near majority of the victims are located in Iran, the remaining hosts are widely distributed around the world, with a higher concentration in the United States, Sweden, Germany and Iraq, locations with large Iranian diasporas or regional interests. Several compromised systems maintain a clear relationship to regional adversaries and foreign entities that Iran maintains an espionage interest in. Infy likes to send PowerPoint decks with malware embedded in the title slide. When clicked, they install software that Infy can use to log keystrokes and remove data. Interestingly, the group repeatedly used the name Amin Jalali to register the email addresses it uses in attacks. The contact information on these domains have been updated in recent months with false identities attributed to Poland and India to masque the original registrant, however, the ownership and contact email remains the same, they report. Spear phishing is nothing new. But an intelligence service backed by the resources of a nation-state can make it far more effective. Anderson and Guarnieri document a slow and steady evolution in the sophistication and effectiveness of Infy attacks, moving from blank emails containing only files with provocative titles to tailored pitches aimed at specific individuals, primarily, Western media companies that might be in contact with dissidents. The level of impersonation grew significantly between the groups early days and today. In 2016, one message claimed to be from Mohammad Taghi Karroubi, the son of reformist politician Mehdi Karroubi who ran for presidency in the 2009 elections and has been under house arrest since February 2011, they write. Most important, Infy modifies its tactics once defenders sniff them out as Palo Altos Tomer Bar and Simon Conant documented within the past six months. Defense One: You Might Also Read: Iran Turns Off The Internet: Iran Responsible For Cyber Attack On British Parliament: Phishing Is The Top Cyberattack Vector In 2017: Here's where to find deer on public hunting grounds in Pennsylvania US President Donald Trump may believe that the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive, but the fact of the matter is, it is real and planet Earth is witnessing the consequences of global climate change every day. One the one hand in the northern hemisphere, a place as hot as the Sahara Desert experienced snowfall recently and America has been hit with something scientists are calling a Bomb Cyclone, in the southern hemisphere, things have taken a turn for the hotter, and as a result, the wildlife is being affected. On January 10, biologist Daniel Schneider tweeted about the mass death of bats in Australia. He wasnt the only one. Dozens of news agencies and scientific journals have reported on this strange and horrifying phenomenon. The National Geographic magazine, on January 9, reported that Australia has been experiencing record high temperatures reaching over 46 degrees Celsius, and a direct result of that, apart from heat strokes in people and melting asphalt, was the death of more than 400 flying foxes (also known as fruit bats) at a local bat colony. Cate Ryan, one of the first volunteers on the scene at the Campbelltown Flying Fox colony, said, it was unbelievable. I saw a lot of dead bats on the ground and others were close to the ground and dying. I have never seen anything like it before. The temperatures in #Australia are breaking records (119.2F). Bats are dropping from trees dead, their brains literally fried. #ClimateChange is real and has real consequences. pic.twitter.com/0boYnVFg1z Daniel Schneider (@BiologistDan) January 10, 2018 Young bats, according to Ryan, are extremely susceptible to heat, and that any temperature above 40 degrees Celsius poses a risk for adults, while temperatures above 42 degrees can even prove fatal. They basically boil. It affects their brain their brain just fries and they become incoherent. It would be like standing in the middle of a sandpit with no shade, Ryan added. According to Scott Heinrich, the director of the Flying Fox Conservation Fund, many flying foxes drop from trees because of extreme dehydration. "They can't cool their body down at that point. In a way, they're kind of boiling in their bodies," he said. Photo: Reuters This is not the first time bats in Australia have succumbed to the extreme heat. In 2014, about 100,000 bats died as a result of extreme heat in Queensland. According to a Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals spokesperson, The heat wave was basically a catastrophe for all the bat colonies in southeast Queensland. Ag Growth International Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes grain and rice handling, storage, and conditioning equipment in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company offers storage equipment comprising grain and bolted bins, hopper bins, smooth wall bins, temporary storage equipment, unloads and sweeps, water tanks, fuel tanks; and conditioning equipment, such as mixed flow dryers, fans and heaters, aerations, airaugers, aeration floors, vents and exhausters, stirrings, and accessories. It also provides portable handling equipment, such as portable augers, conveyors, grain vacs, post pounders, seed treaters, and accessories; and permanent handling equipment, including bucket elevators, chain and belt conveyors, enclosed belt conveyors, distributors, feed handling equipment, screw feeders and conveyors, and spouts and connections. In addition, the company offers towers, catwalks, ladders, all-steel buildings, flat storage buildings; batch blenders, bulk scales, declining weight blenders, vertical blenders, micro-dosing systems, mixers, milling equipment; and controllers, hazard monitoring equipment, monitoring and automation equipment, sampling solutions. Further, it provides cleaning and destoners, rice milling and processing equipment, bin unloads, blending and control systems, Liquid and dry fertilizer blending and conveying equipment, turnkey design and build construction solutions for seed and fertilizer facilities, and farm management software. The company markets its products under the AGI, Airlanco, Batco, Brownie, CMC, Compass, Danmare, Ezee-dry, Frame, Grain Guard, Grainmaxx, Hi Roller, Hutchinson, Improtech, Junge, Keho, Mayrath, Milltec, MMS, Neco, PTM, REM, Sabe, Sentinel, Storm, Suretrack, Tramco, Twister, Westeel, Westfield, Wheatheart, and Yargus brand names. It provides its equipment for agricultural commodities. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada. BlackRock, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks. It also provides global risk management and advisory services. The firm manages separate client-focused equity, fixed income, and balanced portfolios. It also launches and manages open-end and closed-end mutual funds, offshore funds, unit trusts, and alternative investment vehicles including structured funds. The firm launches equity, fixed income, balanced, and real estate mutual funds. It also launches equity, fixed income, balanced, currency, commodity, and multi-asset exchange traded funds. The firm also launches and manages hedge funds. It invests in the public equity, fixed income, real estate, currency, commodity, and alternative markets across the globe. The firm primarily invests in growth and value stocks of small-cap, mid-cap, SMID-cap, large-cap, and multi-cap companies. It also invests in dividend-paying equity securities. The firm invests in investment grade municipal securities, government securities including securities issued or guaranteed by a government or a government agency or instrumentality, corporate bonds, and asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a focus on bottom-up and top-down approach to make its investments. The firm employs liquidity, asset allocation, balanced, real estate, and alternative strategies to make its investments. In real estate sector, it seeks to invest in Poland and Germany. The firm benchmarks the performance of its portfolios against various S&P, Russell, Barclays, MSCI, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch indices. BlackRock, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in New York City with additional offices in Boston, Massachusetts; London, United Kingdom; Gurgaon, India; Hong Kong; Greenwich, Connecticut; Princeton, New Jersey; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Sydney, Australia; Taipei, Taiwan; Singapore; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Washington, District of Columbia; Toronto, Canada; Wilmington, Delaware; and San Francisco, California. Everest Re Group, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States, Bermuda, and internationally. The company operates through Reinsurance Operations and Insurance Operations segments. The Reinsurance Operations segment writes property and casualty reinsurance; and specialty lines of business through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies in the United States, Bermuda, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The Insurance Operations segment writes property and casualty insurance directly, as well as through brokers, surplus lines brokers, and general agents in Bermuda, Canada, Europe, South America, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The company also provides treaty and facultative reinsurance products; admitted and non-admitted insurance products; and property and casualty reinsurance and insurance coverages, including marine, aviation, surety, errors and omissions liability, directors' and officers' liability, medical malpractice, mortgage reinsurance, other specialty lines, accident and health, and workers' compensation products. In addition, it offers commercial property and casualty insurance products through wholesale and retail brokers, surplus lines brokers, and program administrators. Everest Re Group, Ltd. was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. 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. Old Republic International Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the insurance underwriting and related services business primarily in the United States and Canada. The company operates through three segments: General Insurance, Title Insurance, and the Republic Financial Indemnity Group Run-off Business. The General Insurance segment offers automobile extended warranty, aviation, commercial automobile, commercial multi-peril, commercial property, general liability, home warranty, inland marine, travel accident, and workers' compensation insurance products; and financial indemnity products for specialty coverages, including errors and omissions, fidelity, guaranteed asset protection, and surety. This segment provides its insurance products to businesses, government, and other institutions in transportation, commercial construction, healthcare, education, retail and wholesale trade, forest products, energy, general manufacturing, and financial services industries. The Title Insurance segment offers lenders' and owners' title insurance policies to real estate purchasers and investors based upon searches of the public records. This segment also provides escrow closing and construction disbursement services; and real estate information products, national default management services, and various other services pertaining to real estate transfers and loan transactions. The Republic Financial Indemnity Group Run-off Business segment offers private mortgage insurance coverage that protects mortgage lenders and investors from default related losses on residential mortgage loans made primarily to homebuyers. The company was founded in 1923 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services. It serves corporate, middle market, and commercial real estate developers and investors. The Consumer Bank segment provides consumer banking products and services related to residential first mortgages, home equity lines and loans, consumer credit cards, and other consumer loans, as well as deposits. The Wealth Management segment offers credit related products, and retirement and savings solutions; and trust and investment management, asset management, and estate planning services to individuals, businesses, governmental institutions, and non-profit entities. The company also provides investment and insurance products; low-income housing tax credit corporate fund syndication services; and other specialty financing services. As of March 01, 2022, it operated through a network of 1,300 banking offices and 2,000 automated teller machines across the South, Midwest, and Texas. Regions Financial Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. 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. Norbord Inc. manufactures and sells wood-based panels for retail chains, contractor supply yards, and industrial manufacturers primarily in North America and Europe. The company offers oriented strand boards for use in sheathing, flooring, and roofing in home construction applications; particleboards that are used in flooring and other construction applications; and medium density fiberboards for use in cabinet doors, moldings, and interior wall paneling applications, as well as related value-added products for use in the construction of new homes, and renovation and repair of existing structures. It markets its products under the Durastrand pointSIX, Pinnacle, Stabledge, TruFlor pointSIX and TruFlor, Rimboard, SteadiTred, QuakeZone, Tallwall, Trubord and Windstorm, SolarBord, TruDeck, StableDec, SterlingOSB, Caberwood MDF, Conti, and Caberboard brand names. The company was formerly known as Nexfor Inc. and changed its name to Norbord Inc. in June 2004. Norbord Inc. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Mohawk Industries, Inc. designs, manufactures, sources, distributes, and markets flooring products for remodeling and new constructions of residential and commercial spaces in the United States, Europe, Russia, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Global Ceramic, Flooring North America (Flooring NA), and Flooring Rest of the World (Flooring ROW). The Global Ceramic segment provides a range of ceramic tile, porcelain tile, and natural stone products; and sources, markets, and distributes other tile related products. This segment markets and distributes its products under the American Olean, Daltile, Eliane, EmilGroup, KAI, Kerama Marazzi, Marazzi, and Ragno brands. The Flooring NA segment offers floor covering product lines in a range of colors, textures, and patterns, including carpets, carpet tiles, rugs and mats, carpet pads, hardwood, laminate, medium-density fiberboards, luxury vinyl tiles (LVT), and sheet vinyl products. This segment markets and distributes its flooring products under the Aladdin Commercial, Durkan, IVC, Karastan, Mohawk, Mohawk Group, Mohawk Home, Pergo, Portico, and Quick-Step brands. The Flooring ROW segment provides wood flooring and vinyl flooring, as well as laminates, roofing elements, sheet vinyl, LVT, insulation boards, medium-density fiberboards, chipboards, and other woods products under the Feltex, Godfrey Hirst, Hycraft, IVC Commercial, IVC Home, Leoline, Moduleo, Pergo, Quick-Step, and Unilin and Xtratherm brands; and licenses its intellectual property to flooring manufacturers. Mohawk Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Calhoun, Georgia. Ashland Inc. provides additives and specialty ingredients worldwide. It operates through Life Sciences; Personal Care & Household; Specialty Additives; and Intermediates and Solvents segments. The Life Sciences segment offers pharmaceutical solutions, including controlled release polymers, disintegrants, tablet coatings, thickeners, solubilizers, and tablet binders; nutrition solutions, such as thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and additives; and nutraceutical solutions comprising products for weight management, joint comfort, stomach and intestinal health, sports nutrition, and general wellness, as well as custom formulation, toll processing, and particle engineering solutions. The Personal Care & Household segment provides a range of nature-based, biodegradable, and performance ingredients; solutions for toothpastes, mouth washes and rinses, denture cleaning, and care for teeth; and household supplies nature-derived rheology ingredients, biodegradable surface wetting agents, performance encapsulates, and specialty polymers. The Specialty Additives segment offers rheology modifiers, foam control agents, surfactants and wetting agents, pH neutralizers, advanced ceramics used in catalytic converters, environmental filters, ingredients for the manufacturing of ceramic capacitors, plasma display panels and solar cells, ingredients for textile printing, thermoplastic metals, and alloys for welding. The Intermediates and Solvents segment produces 1,4 butanediol and related derivatives, including n-methylpyrrolidone. It offers its products to customers in a range of consumer and industrial markets, such as architectural coatings, construction, energy, food and beverage, nutraceuticals, personal care, and pharmaceutical. The company was formerly known as Ashland Global Holdings Inc. Ashland Inc. was founded in 1924 and is based in Wilmington, Delaware. Matt Cardy/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump announced the sudden cancellation of a planned trip to cut the ribbon at the new U.S. Embassy in London late Thursday, blaming the decision on the Obama administration's decision to sell the country's old embassy for "peanuts." Trump had been scheduled to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new U.S. Embassy in Britain next month. But Thursday night, just minutes before midnight, he tweeted he would not be attending, saying, "Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump to visit the country during her stop at the White House in late January. She was the first foreign leader to visit the newly inaugurated Trump. May spoke to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in September and said the visit was still planned and they were just "sorting out the logistics." A full-scale visit from Trump -- one at the invite of Queen Elizabeth -- was expected to bring protests of the U.S. president in London, but May told ABC News that was not the reason for the delay. The February trip to cut the ribbon at the embassy was expected to be scaled down. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a frequent sparring opponent for Trump, echoed that protests were the real reason Trump cancelled the visit. "It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our citys values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance," Khan said in a statement early Friday. "His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests. "Lets hope that Donald Trump also revisits the pursuit of his divisive agenda," Khan added. Trump told reporters in July at the G-20 summit he would be visiting London eventually. We'll work that out. We will be going to London. We'll be going to London, Trump told reporters. The sale of the old embassy actually began under the George W. Bush administration. They announced in an Oct. 2, 2008 release -- a month before Barack Obama's election to his first term -- that the U.S. had entered into an agreement with real estate company Ballymore to acquire the new embassy site in southwest London and that the old site "will be offered for sale almost immediately." The sale to Qatari real estate developer Qatari Diar was completed after Obama became president in November 2009, according to The Telegraph. The U.S. Embassy in London is funded entirely from proceeds of sale from other U.S. government property in London, according to the State Department. The State Department examined options for a costly renovation of the embassy in 2006, but that would have required an appropriation of taxpayer dollars and would not have met the most critical security needs. Ground on the new embassy wasn't broken until 2013. U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. Woody Johnson had tweeted just last week about the ceremony lowering the flag at the old Grosvenor Square embassy in London. Last month, Johnson, most known to Americans as the owner of the New York Jets, held a press conference and ABC News interviewed him one-on-one. He outlined what a good deal the new embassy was and said the new embassy was representative of a stronger and better U.S.-U.K. relationship. "When you look out through the window it reflects the global outlook of the U.S. in the 21st century," Johnson said. "It's a signal to the world that this relationship will get stronger and get better. ... I'm going to do that if I can. Drop the if I can. We're going to make it stronger." Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Mumbai: Over 70 activists of the Rajasthan- based Karni Sena were detained here today while protesting outside the Central Board of Film Certification's office against the clearance given to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmaavat', earlier titled 'Padmavati'. Over 30 Karni Sena supporters were detained from Haji Ali during another protest, a police official said. "Over 70 supporters of the Karni Sena were detained from Cumballa Hill area in south Mumbai, while protesting outside the CBFC office without police permission," Zone II Deputy Commissioner of Police Dnyaneshwar Chavan said. Additional security personnel were deployed outside the office after the organisation threatened to stage the protest. Opposing the CBFC's decision to release the film, a Karni Sena leader said, "Merely changing the name of the film isn't enough. The CBFC which has been running ever since the time of Britishers doesn't know how to work." The Karni Sena has also demanded the resignation of Prasoon Joshi, the chairman of CBFC. The CBFC had given the Deepika Padukone-starrer a U/A certificate and suggested many changes, including altering the title. At the CBFC examining committee meeting on December 28, it was decided that the movie would be given a U/A certification as long as the makers incorporate the suggestions and modifications suggested. Some of the key modifications suggested include those pertaining to disclaimers, pertinently adding one regarding not glorifying the practice of Sati. Patna: Mahadalits on Friday pelted stones on the convoy of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who was on a state-wide tour to review the progress of developmental work in Buxar. Sources claimed that a group wanted the Chief Minister to see the condition of their area in the Nandar village but their request was turned down which lead to a disagreement. Though the incident was downplayed by leaders of the ruling party, Opposition RJD pounced on the issue. Speaking to this newspaper RJD MLA Shakti Singh Yadav said that The ruling party must take the issue seriously as it seems that backward class is feeling neglected. The attack also shows growing public anger against the state governments failed policies and promises. Umashankar had an argument with his wife Deepti, who is a sales tax official, over having non-vegetarian food. (Representational Image/ Pixabay) Lucknow: A doctor reportedly committed suicide in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar after his wife did not allow him to eat non-vegetarian food. According to sources in the police, the doctor, identified as Umashankar, committed suicide, by hanging himself in his home. The incident occurred on Thursday night. Umashankar had an argument with his wife Deepti, who is a sales tax official, over having non-vegetarian food Thursday night. Following the argument, Umashankar committed suicide and his wife did not come to know until she got up in the morning Deepti soon informed the police about the suicide. The police have sent the body for the postmortem and began an investigation into the matter. Hyderabad: A first-year MBA student from University of Hyderabad was arrested by Gachibowli police on Thursday for allegedly sodomising another male student of the university. The suspect Mohammed Rinish, 27, hailing from Kerala, was produced before the court and sent to remand, Gachibowli police said. According to the police, the victim, 19, also a student of the University of Hyderabad hailing from Jharkhand, studies IMA (Integrated Master of Arts) Sociology course in the university. On Sunday night around 11.30 while he was in his room in the mens hostel-I on the campus, Ranish suddenly entered the room and locked the door from inside. Even before the victim could react, Ranish forced himself on the victim and sodomised him. Based on a complaint filed by the victim, police registered a case under Section 377 of IPC (unnatural offences). Gachibowli inspector M. Gangadhar said It was found that both were friends for a long time. We are collecting more information based on which the investigation will proceed. Bengaluru: The residents of East and North parts of Bengaluru will have a tough time as there will be intermittent power supply from January 12 to 31 due to maintenance work by Bescom. The areas in East division which will be affected are Indiranagar, Shivajinagar, Kammanahalli, Thanisandra, Banaswadi, Hegade Nagar, Horamavu, Hennur, RT Nagar, Ramamurthy Nagar, Kasturi Nagar, B Channasandra, Hennur, Chellikere, Kothanur, Byrathi village and surrounding areas. An official release from Bescom said that around 307 areas in the East and North parts of the city will face intermittent power disruption from 10 am to 6 pm for 20 days due to replacement work of Coyote conductor by HT LS Conductor in the first bit from Hebbal MUSS to L.R. Bande MUSS of 66/11KV. An official from Bescom said that the maintenance work will help stabilize the power supply in future. Citizens are worried as the daily chores would be affected due to the power disruption. Bhanu Narendra, a resident of Banasawadi said that intermittent power supply is worst. It is difficult to plan the day as the power keeps going out every now and then. Worse, electrical gadgets get fused due to the erratic power supply. New Delhi: Four top Supreme Court judges virtually rebelled against the Chief Justice of India on Friday, saying the apex court was beset by problems that had the potential to destroy Indian democracy. In an unprecedented move first in the history of Indian judiciary the four senior judges held a press meet to say the sometimes administration of the Supreme Court was not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months. The four Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph addressed the media at Justice Chelameswars home, an event that Chelameswar said was extraordinary in the history of any nation but that they were compelled to do it. The judges went public with their grievances against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, saying unless the judiciary was preserved, democracy cant be protected in the country. The justices did not elaborate on the issues "only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this institution to some extent". They sent a seven-page letter to the Chief Justice, (read below), saying while he was the "master of the roster", he was "only the first among equals -- nothing more or nothing less". It looks like they did not agree with the allocation of work by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. Justice Chelameswar said: We collectively tried to persuade Chief Justice of India (Dipak Misra) that certain things aren't in order so take remedial measures, but unfortunately our efforts failed. Let the nation decide that, Justice Chelameswar said when asked if the Chief Justice of India should be impeached. We met the CJI today with a specific request which unfortunately couldn't convince him that we were right therefore, we were left with no choice but to communicate it to the nation to please take care of the institution, Chelameswar said. Asked to give an example of what was not in order, Justice Chelameswar said: A couple of months ago, the four of us gave a signed letter to the CJI. We wanted a particular thing to be done in a particular manner. It was done but in such a way that it raised further questions about the integrity of institution. The same thing happened this morning. Also Read: Heres the text of letter given by 4 top judges of SC to CJI Justice Chelameswar added: All our efforts have failed and we are all convinced that unless this institution is preserved, democracy cant be protected in the country. Also Read: Watch video of 4 SC Judges addressing media in Delhi Justice Chelameswar concluded the meet by saying: There are many wise men saying many wise things in this country. We dont want wise men saying 20 years from now that Justice Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Kurian Joseph sold their souls and didnt do the right thing by our constitution. The open dissent has left the judiciary and observers stunned, leaving uncertain how this open dissension in the hallowed institution would be resolved. All judges rubbished questions on whether they have broken ranks and said that they will start doing things which they do. Justice Gogoi said, "Nobody is breaking the rank and it is discharge of debt to nation which we have done." Gogoi, who will be succeeding Misra as CJI in October this year, said, "it's a discharge of debt to the nation which we have done." After the press conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the law minister and officers to discuss the issue. Government sources said it was an internal issue of the Supreme Court, related to the administration of justice. This indicates the government is unlikely to interfere. "It is a sad day for the judicial system," said Congress leader Ashwani Kumar, also a senior advocate. Prime Minister Modi will be on a two-day visit to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting between January 22 and 23. (Photo: PTI/File) New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Switzerland for Davos summit, an international survey has ranked him among the top three leaders of the world. An annual survey by Gallup International has put Prime Minister Modi at number three among the global leaders. The respondents in the survey, which was conducted among the people across 50 countries, had rated Prime Minister Modi ahead of China's Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump amongst others. The top ranking in the survey went to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by French President Emmanuel Macron. Prime Minister Modi will be on a two-day visit to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting between January 22 and 23. Union port minister said, 'Land on the eastern seafront being jointly developed by the Mumbai Port Trust and the Maharashtra government will be utilised only for the benefit of locals.' (Photo: File) Mumbai: Questioning why all Navy officers need to stay in South Mumbai, Union ports minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday declared that not an inch of land would be given to the Navy to build flats or quarters in the countrys most expensive area. The 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 remarked while speaking at a public event in the city in the presence of Western Naval Command chief Vice-Admiral Girish Luthra. Gadkaris public display of displeasure comes in the backdrop of the Bombay High Court refusing permission for a floating jetty at Malabar Hill citing the Navys objections due to security reasons where a floating hotel and seaplane service are slated to come up. Everyone wants to build quarters and flats on prime south Mumbai land. We respect the Navy, but you should go to the Pakistan border and do patrolling. A few important and senior officials can stay in Mumbai, Gadkari said. He added, Land on the eastern seafront being jointly developed by the Mumbai Port Trust and the Maharashtra government will be utilised only for the benefit of locals." Claiming that the Navy had given a stay to the floating jetty plan at Malabar Hill, despite getting the high courts nod, Gadkari said, Stopping such developmental work has become a habit. Gadkari said, What has the Navy got to do with the Malabar Hill area, which is a private residential zone that also has the official residences of the Maharashtra governor and Chief Minister. The Navy has nothing to do in the area. CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday announced appointment of a special officer to go into the impact of a proposed port at Kovalam in Kanyakumari district that had run into opposition from a section of villagers. Palaniswami told the Assembly that the foundation laying ceremony for the commercial port proposed by the Centre at Kovalam slated for December 20 last year was halted at the last minute following opposition from local fishermen who apprehended that the project would affect their livelihood. The Chief Minister was responding to DMK member S. Austin who referred to the opposition to the port initiatives by the locals. 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, the CM said, noting that the project will be useful for the states economic growth. Appropriate action will be taken by Ammas (late chief minister Jayalalithaas) 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. CHENNAI: Tamil poet Vairamuthus controversial remark on Andal, the saint-poetess revered among the 12 Alwars (Vaishnavaite saints) and daughter of Periya Alwar, took a new turn with Tamil film director Bharathiraja rushing to the aid of Vairamuthu and BJPs national secretary H. Raja asserting that only spiritual literature paved way for the growth of Tamil and not the works of Dravidian leaders. As various Hindu leaders and members started venting their anger against Vairamuthu on the social media, BJPs Andhra Pradesh spokesperson G. Bhanuprakash Reddy filed a complaint against Kanimozhi, DMK MP and daughter of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, for alleged remarks against the Lord Venkateswara temple. Sources in the BJP here confirmed that a criminal complaint has been filed against Kanimozhi by the Tirupati police for her alleged derogatory remarks against the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara. Bhanuprakash Reddy had on Thursday evening lodged the complaint with the Tirupati Superintendent of Police claiming that the Rajya Sabha MP had made the offensive remarks during an atheist conference at Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu. It is a very well known institution. We should learn a lesson. It is wonderfully and beautifully run institution, I agree. When I visited the temple as part of the MP delegation led by M. Venkaiah Naidu (now Vice President)They say all are equal before god. This is wrong. Those who pay for special darshan get darshan fast and others have to wait for ten to twenty hours for the darshan. This is god. So we were waiting. A MP besides me remarked, you claim there is no god. So many people wait to have His darshan. God grants His devotees wishes. How can you say you dont believe in god?, To this she replied, there is a big hundial with armed men guarding it. When those who run the temple dont trust others, how can I trust. For the attention of Tamil youth, Alwars, Nayanmars, Kamban and other Hindu spiritual scholars who gave Devaram, Thiruvasagam, Naalayira Divya Prabandam, Kamba Ramayanam and Periyapuranam worked for the growth of Tamil. Not those who wrote Velaikkaari, Odiponaval and Policekaaran Magal, Raja said in a Tamil tweet. When a Twitter user pointed out about Thirukkural, Raja said, no doubt Thirukkural is 100 per cent a global moral literature. Thiruvalluvar is prime among the saints of our country. He highlighted human principles Dharma, Adharma, Kaama and Moksham under the topics Aram, Porul, Inbam and Veedu. He made the world to know about our lifestyle. Mr Rajas comments have come close on the heels of filmmaker Bharathiraja lashing out at him on Thursday night, for slamming lyricist Vairamuthu for the latters comments on Andal. Denouncing him for being rude, Bharathiraja asked Raja, can you create literature for Tamils like Vairamuthu has? Can you even write one song that wakes up tired people? Dont think of destroying such a renowned Tamilian. H. Raja, what you have spoken is the height of boorishness. Vairamuthu, who spoke on the topic Tamizhai Aandal in such a manner that even the common man can understand. You have abused the birth of such a great poet. The drills assumed significance as potential military conflicts in plateau regions have been on the rise since the border friction with India last year. (Photo: Representational) Beijing: All wings of the Chinese military have stepped up drills at home and abroad focusing their training on the plateau region post Doklam, the official media reported on Friday. The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has been executing military training instructions issued by President Xi Jinping on January 3 by conducting drills at home and abroad involving its ground forces, Navy, Air Force, rocket (missile) force and armed police, it said. The Peoples Liberation Armys official media cautioned the troops on Thursday of imminent threats and to avoid complacency. The drills included by the Chinese navy at Djibouti base in the Indian Ocean, which was officially stated to be a logistics base. The PLA Daily, official mouthpiece of the 2.3 million strong military, said Chinas most advanced military aircraft including the J-20 stealth fighter jet, the Y-20 transport aircraft, the H-6k bomber, and the J-16, J-11B J-10C fighter jets have all conducted training exercises since the beginning of 2018. The J-20 is conducting air combat training with other fighter planes including the J-16. The J-20 is also practising beyond-visual-range air combat, and other aircraft, including the Y-20 and the J-10C, are training at unspecified airports on a plateau region in order to improve their capability in long-range military transport and air combat, the PLA Daily reported. The plateau region refers to the Tibetan plateau which covered a long Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China. Indias ground force has some advantages in quantity in the border areas, so if conflict happens, Chinas air force needs to seize domination of the skies and immediately create an overwhelming advantage for China, a retired PLA officer who used to serve in the air force and asked not to be identified, was quoted as saying by the Global Times. So increasing military training in the plateau region is highly necessary, he said. The drills assumed significance as potential military conflicts in plateau regions have been on the rise since the border friction with India last year, the official said. China and India were engaged in a 73-day tense standoff at Doklam in the Sikkim sector which ended on August 28. The report highlighted a potential military conflict between India and China in the backdrop of hectic parleys between the two countries to improve relations. This included Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi holding talks with top Indian officials on the sidelines of Russia, India and China meeting at New Delhi last month followed by the 20th round of border talks there between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval during which both sides agreed to make efforts to restore peace and stability along the LAC. Modern Navy, a WeChat public account run by the PLA Navy, reported on Wednesday that the PLA Marine Corps stationed in Chinas first overseas logistic base in Djibouti conducted a series of combat training missions including countering reconnaissance from hostile aircraft, encountering combat in a desert, and tracking and annihilating terrorists. Experts said the possibility of military conflict around China has increased in recent years, the PLA Daily said. In regions like the Korean Peninsula, China-India border area and the Taiwan Straits, the PLA needs to be prepared for all possibilities. Our overseas interests in regions like Africa and the Middle East are also under threat due to local instability, Xu Guangyu, a retired major general and senior adviser of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association told the daily. A Manchester hospital has become the first in the UK to ban sugar from its restaurant to help tackle rising rates of obesity in the UK. Tameside hospital has removed all added sugar from its meals, with cheese and onion pies, apple crumble, high-sugar breakfast cereals and sugary drinks among the omissions. The move comes following concerns about obesity among NHS staff, and has been welcomed by campaigners. This is long overdue and I believe it just takes one hospital to make this move and all the others should follow, and I hope they will, said Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum. The Department of Health seems to be really slow on the uptake and are only just now thinking about banning sugary drinks from hospitals. But its sugar in food that is so important. I just think [Tamesides plan] is excellent and I wish them well. The change was implemented following a trial at Tameside hospital in which 100 staff members joined a weight loss scheme. A total of 90% said they believe the biggest food-related problem at work was snacking, and by the end of the 12-week programme the majority of staff had changed their attitude towards food. Karen James, chief executive of Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: My staff work very hard. Long hours and shift patterns often make it very difficult for people to make healthy choices, so they opt for the instant sweet fixes, which until now have been readily available. As part of these new measures, old high-carb dishes such as pie and chips have been removed and replaced with healthier options such as wild and mixed mushroom stroganoff. The hospital restaurants chef, Simon Smith, said: These dishes have proved very popular and they are low in carbohydrates and high in protein. What we are trying to promote is better, healthy eating. Last year, the NHS proposed plans to ban sugary drinks from hospital vending machines to combat rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Meanwhile, the governments sugar tax will be introduced this year. The levy will see drink manufacturers fined for total sugar content over 5g per 100ml. One of the most significant artefacts in local maritime history, the bell from the sunken liner SS Laurentic, has returned to the north west . The Laurentic bell is returning to the north west to go on display after it was purchased at auction by Derry City and Strabane District Council. The bell was desperately rung by the ships crew as the former White Star liner sank off Lough Swilly on January 23rd 1917 after it struck two German mines with the loss of 345 lives. The bell is on display at the Guildhall in Derry from today. It will then find a permanent home in the planned Maritime Museum in the city. Curator with Councils Museums and Visitor Services, Roisin Doherty said she looked forward to seeing the bell making its return. We are delighted to display the Laurentic bell once again, particularly in the Guildhall, where the survivors of the wreck were treated to a meal by the Mayor of the city in 1917. The tragic story of the sinking of the vessel is inextricably linked with the city and this is a fantastic way to ensure the legacy of the ship survives in memory. The display will be accompanied by an exhibition entitled Letters from The Laurentic, which chronicles the story of the Laurentic disaster through deeply personal correspondence, through letters, postcards and photographs of the men lost and those, fewer in number, who survived. A short documentary, Wine Dark Sea; Letters from The Laurentic, will also feature. The exhibition was commissioned by the Ulster Canada Initiative and produced by Harry Kerr, Martha McCulloch, Jim Doherty and Don McNeill. The Laurentic bell is made from bell alloy and is from the Bridge area of the ship. It was found in 1979 by local diver Ray Cossum and his son Des with Allerton Salvage. It weighs 37kg and is 2ft high by 2ft wide at the base. It is one of only two bells from the ship, the other being the bow bell, which is permanently located in the belfry of the Church of Ireland at Portsalon, after being donated by the leader of the original Royal Navy salvage expedition in 1924. In addition to being a highly important historic artefact recovered from the wreck, the bell is also significant because of a series of dents on its rim. These dents were created by a sailor on the bridge, who on the orders of the captain, beat the bell with a wrench to sound the alarm to abandon ship. The survivors of the wreck were afterwards acknowledged by the then Mayor of Londonderry, Alderman R.N. Anderson, and were beneficiaries of a large scale city-wide relief effort and treated to a meal in the Guildhall. The bell and exhibition will be on display in the Guildhall from Fri 12 Jan 24 Jan 2018. Chinas government announced plans for a major reforestation project. The country aims to grow about 6.66 million hectares of new forests this year, an area roughly the size of Ireland. The announcement was made last week by Zhang Jianlong, the head of Chinas State Forestry Administration, in an effort to shed the countrys image as a major polluter and become a global environmental leader, the Telegraph reported. China is the worlds largest emitter and remains heavily dependent on coal, but the country has been cleaning up its act in recent years due to concerns over the impacts of air pollution and climate change. The administration announced several forestry goals, which include increasing the countrys forest coverage rate to 23 percent from 21.7 percent by the end of the decade. Then from 2020 to 2035, China plans to further boost the percentage of forest coverage to 26 percent. Companies, organizations and talent that specialize in greening work are all welcome to join in the countrys massive greening campaign, Jianlong said. Cooperation between government and social capital will be put on the priority list. The new forest areas will be built in the northeast Hebei province, the Qinghai province in the Tibetan Plateau and in the Hunshandake Desert in Inner Mongolia. Zhang said that China has spent more than 538 billion yuan (about $83 billion) on planting forests over the past five years, putting the countrys total forest area to 208 million hectares. According to Reuters, the government is also promoting an ecological red line program to force provinces and regions to restrict irrational development to curb construction near rivers, forests and national parks. The NAACP is launching a major environmental justice campaign on Jan. 13 to mark the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. The Solar Equity Initiative aims to provide solar job skills training to 100 individuals, install solar panels on more than 30 homes and community centers in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, and strengthen equity in solar access policies in at least five states. The first panels will be installed on transitional housing for domestic violence survivors being served by the Los Angeles-based Jenesse Center, a nationally recognized non-profit domestic violence prevention and intervention organization. Clients served by the Jenesse Center will also get hands-on training from GRID Alternatives during the installation, which will provide the women skills to access the booming solar energy industry. The NAACP said that the Jenesse installation is expected to save the center an estimated $48,825 in lifetime financial savings and will help reduce harmful toxins and offset 90.06 tons of carbon emissionsthe equivalent to planting more than 2,000 trees or taking 17 cars off the road. Underserved communities cannot be left behind in a clean energy transition, said NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson. Clean energy is a fundamental civil right which must be available to all, within the framework of a just transition. Low-income communities, particularly communities of color, are disparately burdened by environmental pollution and the impacts of climate change. A 2011 EarthJustice report found that in Alabama (24.5 percent) and Mississippi (26.5 percent), the poverty rate near coal plants is more than twice the national average. In Tennessee the number of people living below the poverty line near coal plants is 41 percent higher than would be expected from the national average. As a press release for the new campaign noted: Multiple NAACP studies and reports chronicle the disparities in exposure to pollution from fossil fuel based energy production in low income and communities of color. Communities of color and low income communities, as well as population groups such as women, consume the least energy, but are most disproportionately impacted, suffering poor health outcomes, compromised education, loss of livelihoods and loss of life as a result of exposure to toxins and the ravages of climate change. Other partners supporting the NAACPs solar equity initiative include Solar Energy Industries Association, Sunrun, United Methodist Women and Vote Solar. This initiative is in the true spirit of the legacy of Dr. King and underscores the mission of the NAACP to advance equity and justice, said Leon Russell, chairman of the NAACP Board of Directors. By Peter Miller The historic proposal to retire and replace Californias last remaining nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, was mostly rejected Thursday in a final decision unanimously adopted by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which removed critical elements protecting the climate, plant workers and surrounding communities. The commission voted to approve this decision, setting the wheels in motion to close the plant by 2025, but without these protections. While disappointing, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) will continue to advocate forcefully to ensure that the CPUC authorizes increased investment in zero-carbon resources to replace the huge plants electricity generationincluding energy efficiency, wind and solarand avoid any increase in carbon pollution. We also will explore alternative options to ensure that the urgent needs of the plant workers and surrounding communities are addressed. Diablo Canyon is owned by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), one of the nations largest combination natural gas and electric utilities, which serves 16 million people in northern and central California. The plant, located 250 miles south of San Francisco near San Luis Obispo, accounts for about 9 percent of Californias in-state power generation, 6 percent of the states total electricity mix, and about 20 percent of the electricity for the service territory of PG&E. NRDC, Friends of the Earth and PG&Etogether with local environment groups and labor unionsin June 2016 hammered out a landmark agreement last year to close Diablo Canyon by August 2025 and replace its output with lower-cost, emissions-free energy. The agreement also recommended significant transition support to communities and workers affected by the shutdown. NRDC estimated that PG&E customers will save at least $1 billion from the implementation of the agreement compared to keeping the facilitys two reactors running. NRDC believes the Joint Proposal also is an inspiring model for other states and countries to follow when faced with the need to close aging and uneconomic nuclear plants. However, a California administrative law judge who oversaw the proceeding and prepared a draft decision recommended that the commission largely disregard our groundbreaking proposal. In doing so, he dismissed the joint efforts of the multiple and diverse stakeholders represented in the proposal, and largely ignored testimony from the proposals supporters submitted in numerous briefs and hearings over the past 14 months. The judges recommendation was adopted by the commission Thursday with some modest changes. The Decision Under Thursdays decision, PG&E can proceed with its plan to retire the two reactors near San Luis Obispo, 250 miles south of San Francisco. The CPUC said it would use a separate proceeding to determine how to replace the plants output. While noting it is the intent of the Commission to avoid any increase in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the closure of Diablo Canyon, the CPUC missed a golden opportunity to begin a transition to zero-carbon replacement in rejecting the proposed 53 percent increase in how much energy PG&E should help its customers save through energy efficiency programs, a prominent feature of the Joint Proposal. The CPUC decision also: Makes no explicit provision for replacing any part of Diablo Canyons output with zero-carbon resources; and Disallows more than half of the Joint Proposals recommended transition support to plant workers and their communities (cutting $226 million out of a seven-year total of $448 million), which is crucial to ensuring the plants safe and reliable operation. The Impact Worker retention is a major concern for plant safety, as well as for the small communities who rely on the plant for tax revenue. The Joint Proposal included $448 million over seven years for worker retention, retraining and development programs, as well as community funds to maintain critical community services in the remaining years of operation. However, the commission instead authorized less than half that for workers, jeopardizing the ability for the plant to retain its skilled, cohesive workforce and refused to authorize any transition aid for essential services in the small, remote communities where they live. Ensuring that the plants nuclear power will be replaced with lower cost, pollution-free resources is also a critical point. A precipitous shutdown could prompt a shift toward more polluting sources of power, such as natural gas, which could derail Californias climate goals. The final decision included a commitment to avoiding a spike in greenhouse-gas-free emissions, but failed to authorize even a modest initial investment in energy efficiency to start to replace the output of the huge plant. We will work to ensure the separate regulatory proceeding corrects those omissions. Whats Next? With this decision, the CPUC failed to take a promising step for California electricity customers and climate. Instead, the commission punted on critical support needed to ensure an orderly transition and avoid a spike in carbon pollution. Given the lack of action on replacement resources and the disregard for the needs of plant workers and host communities, it is possible the California Legislature will take action to address these issues. And NRDC will continue to advocate forcefully before the commission in support of increased investment in the clean energy options like energy efficiency, solar and wind, to offset the loss of generation from Diablo Canyons retirement. The following is a speech given by Naomi Klein in New York City on Jan. 10. I want to thank Mayor de Blasio for this historic announcement that New York is divesting from fossil fuels and suing five oil majors. Whats happening here is not only about changing the economics of energy, speeding the transition from dirty to clean. Its also about justice. And it represents a collective victory for the amazing climate justice movement around the world and in this city. Groups like Uprose, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance and New York Renews, some of which are here today, as well as global groups like 350.org, which helped kick off the fossil fuel divestment movement about five years ago. For a very long time, our movements have been insisting that principles of justice need to be at the center of the response to the climate crisisa crisis that plays out in the most perversely unjust ways right now. Justice means that people who did the least to create this crisis but are bearing the heaviest risks and most toxic burdens need to be first to benefit from green economic development and job creation. Justice also means that workers in polluting industries are not sacrificed or left behind. And justice means something else too, something most politicians are loath to talk about because the wealth and power of fossil fuel companies is so vast. It means that the corporate interests that did the most to get us into this messwith their pollution and with their campaigns of willful misinformationare going to have to pay their true share of the tremendous costs of climate disruption, and of delayed transition. Because right now we have it upside down and backwards. As it stands, the costs of sea level rise and ferocious and unprecedented weather events are offloaded on to the public, with taxpayers stiffed with the ballooning bills. And as governments absorb these costs, there is less money for schools, for affordable transit and housing, for health care. And, in yet another bitter irony, this hurts the people who are already impacted by climate change the most. This city saw all this in dramatic fashion during Sandy, when it was the people in public housing who were left for weeks in the cold and dark. Meanwhile, the extravagant profits from destabilizing our planets life support system, earned from ignoring and suppressing the scientific consensuswell, those are systematically privatized. Earlier this decade, ExxonMobil alone made $45 billion in profits in a single year more than any company in history. Enough to pay Rex Tillerson, then its CEO, $100,000 a day. In short, the status quo means the poor are paying again and again for the polluters to get even richer. Its a world upside down. But that starts to change today. By suing these five oil majors who knowingly deepened the climate crisis, and simultaneously beginning the process of divesting $5-billion from fossil fuel companies, New York City is taking a game changing first step in turning the world right side up. And not to overstate the case, but I actually think this could change the world. There have been lawsuits before that have tried to sue the fossil fuel giants for climate damages. The tiny Arctic community of Kivalina, population 383, which attempted to recover the costs of having to relocate. Some citizens of the low-lying Pacific Island of Vanuatupopulation 300,000that began a similar suit. A lone Peruvian farmer, suing a German coal giant for the risks to his home. A small group of Gulf Coast Mississippi homeowners, with the help of a scrappy lawyer, who tried to sue the fossil fuel companies after Hurricane Katrina. These have been valiant attempts, but in every case, the industry has relied on the relative weakness and poverty of its accusers, sometime managing to quash suits before they were filed. And that is why todays news is so historic. Because bullying isnt going to work here the way it has in the past. This lawsuit is coming from the largest city in the most powerful country on the planet, a city which also happens to be the financial capital of world. And now that New York City has thrown down in such a big wayon divestment, on polluter paysits going to embolden all kinds of other actors to step up as well. Other cities around the world. Universities. Foundations. Other states. Even entire nation states. As of today, everyone needs to up their ambition. Be bolder. Move faster. Its what our planet requires. And its what justice demands. No politician on the planet is doing enough. But there can be no doubt that the bar for what it takes to call yourself a climate leader has just been dramatically raised. A few years ago, an Ecuadorian court ordered Chevron to pay $19-billion in damages for an oil disaster known as the Rainforest Chernobyl. A spokesperson for the company responded by pledging that it would fight this until hell freezes over. And then well fight it on the ice. Well, New Yorkers know how to fight. They even know how to fight on the ice, as the New York Rangers occasionally show. I want to thank all the fighters in this room for reminding us of that. Reposted with permission from our media associate Fossil Free, a project of 350.org. Stephen Hawking warns Earth could become as hot as Venus if we do not cut greenhouse gas emissions, a significant driver of climate change. Venus is by far the hottest planet in the solar system with a searing average surface temperature of 864 degrees Fahrenheit. Venus is like Earth in so many ways, a sort of kissing cousin, the famed theoretical physicist said in the second episode of his new series, Stephen Hawkings Favorite Places. Shes almost the same size as Earth, a touch closer to the sun. She has an atmosphere. NASA explains that for up to 2 billion years of its early history, Venus may have had a shallow liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures. However, due to its position to the sun, the planets water eventually evaporated. With no water left on its surface, carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere and led to a runaway greenhouse effect that created Venus present hellish conditions. This is what happens when greenhouse gases are out of control, Hawking said, implying that our own planet could also meet the same fiery fate. He then quipped, Next time you meet a climate-change denier, tell them to take a trip to Venus; I will pay the fare. Hawking has spoken against climate deniers before and has criticized President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement. Trumps action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid, he said in July. Hawking has frequently warned of doomsday scenarios and said that humanity needs to leave Earth and colonize the moon, Mars or other planets in order for our species to survive the impending doom of climate change. He believes humans will only last another 600 years before Earth becomes a sizzling ball of fire that marks the end of humanity. Disability advocates hailed the U.S. Department of Educations finding that Texas for years put roadblocks in the path of children who potentially qualified for special educationa clear violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It shows that they are willing to stand up when a state is clearly not doing whats right, said Robbi Cooper, a leader of the parent advocacy group Decoding Dyslexia Texas and the mother of a son with dyslexia. Now lets just hope that we can get the policies right. The Jan. 11 monitoring report from the office of special education servicesthe first to be issued under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVosoutlines a series of IDEA violations by the state. In conversations with Texas parents and educators, federal officials heard conflicting reports about how children with dyslexia should be screened and served. Children who struggled in school were shifted to response-to-intervention programs that were supposed to meet their needs, but, once there, some languished for years, the monitoring report said. In other cases, the report said that districts sidestepped special education identification by providing services through Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504 allows students to receive supports to access the general education curriculum, but it does not offer the same level of student rights and school responsibilities as the IDEA. All of those problems were tied to a Texas policy, now banned, that subjected school districts to additional state scrutiny if their special education enrollment rose above 8.5 percent. The state education department called the figure just a benchmark for districts, but many school officials treated it as a cap. The 8.5 percent figure came to light in 2016 through a series of investigative pieces published in the Houston Chronicle. In the wake of those news articles, the U.S. Department of Education embarked on a listening tour through Texas, solicited comments on its website, and interviewed Texas educators, culminating in the monitoring report. To fix the problem, Texas must now find and test students who may have qualified for special education but were not evaluated; provide guidance to districts about their responsibilities under the IDEA; and create a district monitoring plan. The federal office of special education programs indicated it would work with the state, still recovering from Hurricane Harvey, on an mutually agreeable timeline. Texas Officials Promise Action State officials, who originally denied that the 8.5 percent benchmark had prevented any students from getting services, took a different tack, when the letter from the federal government was released. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, directed the Texas Education Agency to create a 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 a statement. TEA must take steps now to significantly increase the oversight provided to ensure our special education students are receiving the services they deserve. In 2017, Abbott signed a law that would bar the state education agency from placing a cap or creating a benchmark on special education enrollment. Mike Morath, the state education commissioner, said in a statement: I share Gov. Abbotts urgency to quickly address the issues identified in this federal monitoring report. More importantly, I share the governors commitment to doing whats right for special education students in our public schools. Morath noted that his department has already increased the number of staff members who provide technical assistance and training to school districts. 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, Morath said. The Houston Chronicle series said that the state created the 8.5 percent benchmark in 2004. That year, about 12 percent of the states students were enrolled in special education. Nationally, the percentage stood at about 14 percent. Over the years, the special education enrollment in the state steadily dropped. Nationally, special education enrollment dipped a bit as well, but not at the same rate as in Texas. By 2014, special education students made 8.5 percent of the states overall school enrollment, while nationally it was 13.5 percent. Violations of Federal Law The articles in the Chronicle captured stories of children whose disabilities would automatically qualify them for special education services in other states. For example, a child with Down syndrome was initially denied special education services because he could read on grade level. Another child, who was born prematurely and was legally blind, was denied services because she could hold written materials close enough to her face to read. During its listening tour and interviews with school officials, the federal special education office captured other stories of special education denials. Federal officials were told, for example, that the states Dyslexia Handbook said that children with difficulty reading must present an additional disabling condition before they could even be evaluated for special education services. This is a violation of the IDEA, which does not require a child to be suspected of multiple disabilities before a screening takes place. Texas use of response to intervention was also called out in the monitoring report. RTI is an instructional framework that focuses on addressing problems early with students who show signs of academic weakness. Among its components are screening for academic trouble spots and targeted, research-based interventions of increasing intensity, based on a students needs. The increasingly intensive interventions are generally known as tiers. Many state educators said they thought a child had to go through every tier of an RTI process before they could be screened. In fact, the Education Department told states in 2011 that RTI cant be used to delay or deny a special education evaluation. Teachers also said they werent clear about how much progress children should be making to move out of RTI. Dustin Rynders, the education director at Disability Rights Texas, discovered the special education enrollment target several years ago, when parents started complaining to his organization about the fact that they could not get services for their children. What I find most important is for the state to be reminded that you cannot ignore this population, Rynders said in an interview. The findings have elevated a conversation around students with disabilities that I dont think weve ever had in our state. MLC seeks update on prescription changes The new Health Minister will be asked for an update on plans to make more people pay for prescriptions, sight tests and dental treatment. MLC David Cretney is seeking details about the outcome of the public consultation into the National Health and Care Service General Scheme. A six-week public consultation was held last autumn, asking for views on the proposals. The plans include removing a number of prescription exempt categories, increasing the cost of prescription items and reducing the frequency of free eye tests. David Ashford, who was only appointment as Minister for Health and Social Care earlier this week, will provide the answer when Tynwald sits on Tuesday. Patients' unfavourable views of hospital care in England are strongly linked to insufficient numbers of nurses on duty, rather than uncaring staff, indicates observational research published in the online journal BMJ Open. Increasing the registered nurse headcount may boost satisfaction with the quality of care, conclude the researchers, who base their findings on national survey data from patients and nurses. The 2010 NHS Survey of Inpatients gathered information from over 66,000 patients who had been discharged from 161 acute and specialist NHS Trusts. Respondents were asked to rate their care, the confidence they had in their doctors and nurses, and to give their views on whether there were enough nurses to provide the care they needed. The 2010 nurses' survey (RN4CAST-England study) gathered information from nearly 3000 registered nurses working on general medical and surgical wards from a representative sample of 31 (46 hospitals) of the 161 trusts. The nurses were asked about their workload during the day and various aspects of their working environment, such as resources, support, interpersonal relationships, leadership. The data for the same 31 trusts from both surveys were then merged to estimate whether, and to what extent, the level of 'missed' nursing care in the different trusts affected how patients rated their care and their confidence in the clinical staff caring for them. The level of trust and confidence patients expressed for nurses was of a similar magnitude to that they expressed for doctors. But while three out of four respondents said they had confidence and trust in the clinicians treating them, only 60 percent felt there were always enough nurses to care for them. And one in 10 said that there were never or rarely enough nurses on duty. Nurse numbers were strongly linked to how favourably patients viewed their hospital care. This was rated as excellent by over half (57%) of those who felt there were always or nearly always enough nurses on duty, but by only around one in four of those who felt this was 'sometimes' the case, and by only 14 percent of those who never or rarely felt this. The nurse survey showed that workloads ranged from 5.6 to 11.6 patients each across the 46 hospitals. After taking account of various influential factors, the researchers calculate that the likelihood of patients always saying there were enough nurses to take care of them were about 40 percent lower in hospitals where the average nurse took care of 10 patients than in hospitals where they took care of six. The nurses felt that they didn't always have time to provide the necessary care. Some 7 percent felt this about pain management, but over (52%) half felt they didn't have enough time to talk to patients and relatives about how to manage care after discharge. And around two thirds (65%) felt they didn't have enough time to comfort/talk to patients. The lower the patient:nurse ratio, the lower were the number of needed but 'missed' episodes of care. Lower workloads were also associated with better working environments which, in turn, were associated with fewer missed episodes of care. And the greater the number of episodes of missed care, the less likely were patients to rate their hospital care favourably. "The narrative that quality deficits in hospitals are due to 'uncaring' nurses is not supported by the evidence," write the researchers. "On the contrary, our findings suggest that reducing missed nursing care by ensuring adequate numbers of [registered nurses] at the hospital bedside, and improved hospital clinical care environments are promising strategies for enhancing patient satisfaction with care." ### A new study suggests an association between elevated amyloid beta levels and the worsening of anxiety symptoms. The findings support the hypothesis that neuropsychiatric symptoms could represent the early manifestation of Alzheimer's disease in older adults. Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative condition that causes the decline of cognitive function and the inability to carry out daily life activities. Past studies have suggested depression and other neuropsychiatric symptoms may be predictors of AD's progression during its "preclinical" phase, during which time brain deposits of fibrillar amyloid and pathological tau accumulate in a patient's brain. This phase can occur more than a decade before a patient's onset of mild cognitive impairment. Investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital examined the association of brain amyloid beta and longitudinal measures of depression and depressive symptoms in cognitively normal, older adults. Their findings, published today by The American Journal of Psychiatry, suggest that higher levels of amyloid beta may be associated with increasing symptoms of anxiety in these individuals. These results support the theory that neuropsychiatric symptoms could be an early indicator of AD. "Rather than just looking at depression as a total score, we looked at specific symptoms such as anxiety. When compared to other symptoms of depression such as sadness or loss of interest, anxiety symptoms increased over time in those with higher amyloid beta levels in the brain," said first author Nancy Donovan, MD, a geriatric psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "This suggests that anxiety symptoms could be a manifestation of Alzheimer's disease prior to the onset of cognitive impairment. If further research substantiates anxiety as an early indicator, it would be important for not only identifying people early on with the disease, but also, treating it and potentially slowing or preventing the disease process early on." As anxiety is common in older people, rising anxiety symptoms may prove to be most useful as a risk marker in older adults with other genetic, biological or clinical indicators of high AD risk. Researchers derived data from the Harvard Aging Brain Study, an observational study of older adult volunteers aimed at defining neurobiological and clinical changes in early Alzheimer's disease. The participants included 270 community dwelling, cognitively normal men and women, between 62 and 90 years old, with no active psychiatric disorders. Individuals also underwent baseline imaging scans commonly used in studies of Alzheimer's disease, and annual assessments with the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), an assessment used to detect depression in older adults. The team calculated total GDS scores as well as scores for three clusters symptoms of depression: apathy-anhedonia, dysphoria, and anxiety. These scores were looked at over a span of five years. From their research, the team found that higher brain amyloid beta burden was associated with increasing anxiety symptoms over time in cognitively normal older adults. The results suggest that worsening anxious-depressive symptoms may be an early predictor of elevated amyloid beta levels - and, in turn AD -- and provide support for the hypothesis that emerging neuropsychiatric symptoms represent an early manifestation of preclinical Alzheimer's disease. Donovan notes further longitudinal follow-up is needed to determine whether these escalating depressive symptoms give rise to clinical depression and dementia stages of Alzheimer's disease over time. ### Paper cited: Donovan et al. "Longitudinal Association of Amyloid Beta and Anxious-Depressive Symptoms in Cognitively Normal Older Adults" The American Journal of Psychiatry DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17040442 The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging (grants R03 AG045080, R01 AG027435, K24 AG035007), the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry Dupont-Warren Fellowship and Livingston Award, the Rogers Family Foundation, the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (grant P50 AG005134), and the Harvard Aging Brain Study (grants P01 AGO36694, R01 AG037497). Dr. Donovan received salary support from Eisai and Eli Lilly; her spouse is employed by Alkermes. Dr. Marshall has received salary support from Eisai and Eli Lilly and has served as a consultant for Halloran and GliaCure. Dr. Hanseeuw has received grants from the Belgian National Science Foundation (grant SPD28094292) and the Belgian Foundation for Alzheimer Research (grant P16008) and has served on an advisory board as a paid consultant for GE Healthcare. Dr. Rentz has served as a consultant for Eli Lilly, Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, Biogen Idek, and Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals, and she has served on the scientific advisory board for Neurotrack. Dr. Johnson has served as a consultant for AbbVie, AZtherapies, Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GE Healthcare, Genentech, Genzyme, Isis Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Alzheimer's Immunotherapy, Lundbeck, Merck, Novartis, Piramal, Roche, and Siemens Medical Solutions; he is a site principal investigator or co-investigator for Biogen, Eisai, Eli Lilly/Avid, Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, Merck, and Navidea clinical trials; and he has spoken at symposia sponsored by GE Healthcare, Janssen Alzheimer's Immunotherapy, Lundbeck, and Pfizer. Dr. Sperling has served as a consultant for AbbVie, Biogen, Bracket, GE, Genentech, Lundbeck, Merck, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, and Sanofi; she has served as a co-investigator for Avid, Eli Lilly, and Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy clinical trials; she has spoken at symposia sponsored by Biogen, Eli Lilly, and Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy; and her spouse has received payments from Lundbeck, Novartis, Piramal Healthcare, and Siemens. The other authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests. Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare. BWH has more than 4.2 million annual patient visits and nearly 46,000 inpatient stays, is the largest birthing center in Massachusetts and employs nearly 16,000 people. The Brigham's medical preeminence dates back to 1832, and today that rich history in clinical care is coupled with its national leadership in patient care, quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, and its dedication to research, innovation, community engagement and educating and training the next generation of health care professionals. Through investigation and discovery conducted at its Brigham Research Institute (BRI), BWH is an international leader in basic, clinical and translational research on human diseases, more than 3,000 researchers, including physician-investigators and renowned biomedical scientists and faculty supported by nearly $666 million in funding. For the last 25 years, BWH ranked second in research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) among independent hospitals. BWH is also home to major landmark epidemiologic population studies, including the Nurses' and Physicians' Health Studies and the Women's Health Initiative as well as the TIMI Study Group, one of the premier cardiovascular clinical trials groups. For more information, resources and to follow us on social media, please visit BWH's online newsroom. CONTACT Johanna Younghans Brigham and Women's Hospital 617-525-6373 jyounghans@bwh.harvard.edu Scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) and Columbia University in New York have discovered an important mechanism in the regulation of a protein that plays an essential role in the function of skeletal muscle and the heart. The study, published today in Nature Communications and coordinated by CNIC researcher Jorge Alegre-Cebollada, describes a new mechanism in the regulation of the elasticity of the giant protein titin. Titin, explained Alegre-Cebollada, is a key protein in the functioning of striated muscles throughout the body, particularly in the heart: "the proof of this is that mutations in the titin gene are a common cause of diseases affecting the muscles of the body and the heart." Titin is the largest protein in the human body and as such has a multitude of functions. According to Jorge Alegre-Cebollada, "in simple terms we can think of titin as a 'molecular spring' that allows muscle cells to contract in synchrony." However, it is not a simple spring, and the many mechanisms that determine titin elasticity include the unfolding of specific regions in its structure called immunoglobulin domains. In all, titin elasticity is determined by the concerted action of more than 100 immunoglobulin domains within the protein. Using bioinformatic and structural biology approaches, the research team found that the immunoglobulin domains have a high cysteine content. This amino acid confers special properties. Jorge Alegre-Cebollada explained that "when 2 cyteines in a protein come close to one another, they can form a chemical link between different parts of the polypeptide chain called a disulfide bond." The researchers observed that many of the immunoglobulin domains in titin form disulfide links and that the cysteines participating in them can change dynamically, a process called isomerization. "The most interesting finding was that the formation and isomerization of disulfide bonds causes major changes in the elastic properties of titin." The formation of disulfide bonds is an example of a broader class of biochemical transformations known as reduction-oxidation (redox). It has long been known that many disease processes affecting the heart, including myocardial infarction, involve sudden and drastic changes in the redox state of the heart muscle. Dr. Alegre-Cebollada's group is currently investigating how our cells modify the titin redox state as a mechanism to modulate skeletal and heart muscle activity and how different diseases can interfere with the mechanical action of the protein, resulting in loss of functionality. Alegre-Cebollada concludes, "Our mechanical findings were made possible by reconstituting contractile systems in vitro. While we have learned a lot through this approach, the challenge now is to understand how these basic principles operate in a living organism. This is the focus of our current research, using a multidisciplinary approach that combines advanced techniques in physiology, biology, and biochemistry." The study is the result of a collaboration between Dr. Alegre-Cebollada and Professor Julio Fernandez at Columbia University. Professor Fernandez is a pioneer in the development of single-molecule biophysical techniques for investigating the mechanical properties of proteins, and his collaboration with Dr. Alegre-Cebollada has made it possible to describe the biochemical regulation of protein mechanics. ### Scientists have observed how lithium moves inside individual nanoparticles that make up batteries. The finding could help companies develop batteries that charge faster and last longer UPTON, NY - A collaboration led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has observed an unexpected phenomenon in lithium-ion batteries--the most common type of battery used to power cell phones and electric cars. As a model battery generated electric current, the scientists witnessed the concentration of lithium inside individual nanoparticles reverse at a certain point, instead of constantly increasing. This discovery, which was published on January 12 in the journal Science Advances, is a major step toward improving the battery life of consumer electronics. "If you have a cell phone, you likely need to charge its battery every day, due to the limited capacity of the battery's electrodes," said Esther Takeuchi, a SUNY distinguished professor at Stony Brook University and a chief scientist in the Energy Sciences Directorate at Brookhaven Lab. "The findings in this study could help develop batteries that charge faster and last longer." Visualizing batteries on the nanoscale Inside every lithium-ion battery are particles whose atoms are arranged in a lattice--a periodic structure with gaps between the atoms. When a lithium-ion battery supplies electricity, lithium ions flow into empty sites in the atomic lattice. "Previously, scientists assumed that the concentration of lithium would continuously increase in the lattice," said Wei Zhang, a scientist at Brookhaven's Sustainable Energy Technologies Department. "But now, we have seen that this may not be true when the battery's electrodes are made from nano-sized particles. We observed the lithium concentration within local regions of nanoparticles go up, and then down--it reversed." Electrodes are often made from nanoparticles in order to increase a battery's power density. But scientists have not been able to fully understand how these electrodes function, due to a limited ability to watch them work in action. Now, with a unique combination of experimental tools, the scientists were able to image reactions inside the electrodes in real time. Similar to how a sponge soaks up water, we can see the overall level of lithium continuously increase inside the nano-sized particles," said Feng Wang, the leader of this study and a scientist in Brookhaven's Sustainable Energy Technologies Department. "But unlike water, lithium may preferentially move out of some areas, creating inconsistent levels of lithium across the lattice." The scientists explained that uneven movement of lithium could have lasting, damaging effects because it strains the structure of the active materials in batteries and can lead to fatigue failure. "Before lithium enters the lattice, its structure is very uniform," Wang said. "But once lithium goes in, it stretches the lattice, and when lithium goes out, the lattice shrinks. So each time you charge and drain a battery, its active component will be stressed, and its quality will degrade over time. Therefore, it is important to characterize and understand how lithium concentration changes both in space and time." Combining tools of the trade In order to make these observations, the scientists combined transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments--conducted at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven Lab, and at Brookhaven's Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department--with x-ray analyses at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Brookhaven that closed in 2014 when its successor, NSLS-II, opened. "Wang's team combined TEM with x-ray techniques," said Yimei Zhu, co-author of the study and a senior physicist at Brookhaven Lab. "Both methods use a similar approach to analyze the structure of materials, but can provide complementary information. Electrons are sensitive to the local structure, while x-rays can probe a larger volume and enable much better statistics." The Brookhaven team also developed a nanoscale model battery that could mimic the function of lithium-ion batteries that would "fit" into a TEM. Computer simulations conducted at the University of Michigan further confirmed the surprising conclusions. "We initially thought that the reversal mechanism was similar to those previously proposed, which stemmed from the interactions between nearby particles," said Katsuyo Thornton, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who led the theoretical effort. "However, it turned out a concentration reversal within a single particle could not be explained by existing theories, but rather, it arises from a different mechanism. Simulations were critical in this work because, without them, we would have made an incorrect conclusion." While the study focused on lithium-ion batteries, the scientists say the observed phenomenon may also occur in other high-performance battery chemistries. "Down the road, we plan to use the world-class facilities at CFN and NSLS-II to more closely examine how battery materials work, and to find solutions for building new batteries that can charge faster and last longer," Wang said. "These facilities offer the ideal tools for imaging the structure of battery materials in real time and under real-world conditions." ### This study was supported by the DOE Office of Science and Brookhaven's Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. Two DOE Office of Science Energy Frontier Research Centers, the NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage and the Center for Mesoscale Transport Properties, supported the project, and computational resources were provided by the National Energy Research Scientific Computer Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation, National Key R&D Program of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of Michigan Advanced Research Computing. For a complete list of supporting and collaborating institutions, please see the scientific paper. Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The 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, please visit science.energy.gov. Follow @BrookhavenLab on Twitter or find us on Facebook. WASHINGTON -- A new study that seeks to better ascertain HIV mortality rates in Zambia could provide a model for improved national and regional surveillance approaches, and ultimately, more effective HIV treatment strategies. Survival represents the most important indicator of successful HIV treatment, according to the researchers. According to UNAIDS, AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 50 percent since 2005--largely due to the successes of national HIV programs with support from PEPFAR and the Global Fund. Yet, because routine monitoring and evaluation fails to systematically capture most deaths, it can be challenging to accurately assess the impact of HIV services and to identify where improvement is most needed, the researchers say. The Better Information for Health in Zambia ("BetterInfo") study begins to examine HIV survival rates in Zambia. Published January 12 in PLOS Medicine, the work was conducted by a team of researchers co-led by Charles Holmes, MD, MPH, faculty co-director of Georgetown University Medical Center's Center for Global Health and Quality, and visiting associate professor at Georgetown's School of Medicine. Holmes led the work along with Izukanji Sikazwe, MBChB, MPH, chief executive officer of the Centre for Infectious Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) and Elvin Geng, MD, MPH, of the University of California, San Francisco. Holmes, who previously led CIDRZ, also serves as associate professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The research was conducted in Zambia through a partnership with CIDRZ and the Zambian Ministry of Health, in close collaboration with numerous local and global academic centers and researchers. The research group set out to provide a more accurate representation of site- and regional-level mortality among people on HIV therapy in Zambia by characterizing the extent of under-reporting of mortality and the variability in data collection and use, and to assess the broader impact this might have on treatment programs and outcomes. The group applied a multistage sampling-based approach--which they say is a novel methodology in this context--to obtain regionally representative mortality estimates in four Zambian provinces (Lusaka, Southern, Eastern, and Western). The estimates were also sufficiently precise to quantify variation in death rates among clinic sites. They looked at a sample population of more than 160,000 patients who had visited government-operated HIV treatment sites in these provinces to determine: the magnitude of deaths of those who were taking antiretroviral therapy (ART); when deaths occurred; which groups are at highest risk of death; and whether these factors differ by region, facility, or other variables. They also traced patients who were lost to follow-up to ascertain their status, and then used this information to create a corrected regional survival estimate as well as corrected site-specific mortality estimates. The BetterInfo study concluded that mortality is substantially underreported in routine provincial program data--by as much as three- to nine-fold--among HIV-infected individuals starting ART, leading to a change in the ranking of provinces by mortality rates. At the site-level, "corrected" mortality rates were found to be up to 23-fold higher among those on ART. The study also found unexpectedly high variability from site to site in reported mortality rates, ranging from less than 1 death per 100 person-years to up to 13.4 deaths per 100 person years over a two-year period. "Even as we strive to reduce new HIV infections and end the HIV pandemic as a public health threat, we must not lose sight of premature deaths occurring amongst people living with HIV who are on treatment," Holmes says. "HIV treatment is not a 'set it and forget it' proposition--deaths often occur outside of the health system and are therefore 'silent' events that are unknown to those providing or managing care. "We believe our scalable approach, which builds on and extends earlier sampling methods, provides actionable data to clinic, provincial and national decision-makers to ensure the HIV program in Zambia is able to become more patient-centered and impactful," he says. Based on the findings, certain prevailing assumptions that underlie HIV programs may need to be reexamined. For example, the researchers say it has been assumed that most patients on treatment for longer periods of time will be more stable than those just starting treatment. However, the study data suggest that time on therapy alone may not be a reliable marker of stability, a finding that will have implications for delivery strategies recommending less health system interaction for patients considered clinically stable. In addition, approximately 50 percent of deaths among those newly starting ART occurred relatively shortly after a recent clinic visit, suggesting even greater need for attention to diagnostic services and clinical vigilance for potential co-existing illnesses. Overall, the authors seek to encourage national- and global-level policy makers to investigate and address the root causes of underestimated and highly variable mortality rates so they can refocus their quality improvement efforts and strengthen HIV programs. "These data from the BetterInfo study have provided new targets for quality improvement efforts, and we look forward to further evidence as it emerges that will enable us to support the strongest possible national HIV program in Zambia," says CIDRZ's Sikazwe. "We recommend that others consider the application of similar large-scale surveillance methodologies in order to better understand their program outcomes, and we are excited to facilitate broader adoption through the forthcoming release of a "BetterInfo" toolkit and other materials." Holmes adds, "We believe our study also highlights the critical need for investments in vital status registries and data systems to enable better visibility into patient outcomes. These investments are critical not just for the HIV response, but for broader efforts to combat chronic conditions such non-communicable diseases and achieve universal health coverage." ### Additional co-authors of the study include Kombatende Sikombe, MPH, Njekwa Mukamba, Sandra Simbeza, MSc, and Cardinal Hantuba from CIDRZ; Ingrid Eshun-Wilson, MBChB, MSc, from Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa; Nancy Czaicki, PhD, MPH, from CIDRZ and University of California, Berkeley; Laura K. Beres, MPH, from Johns Hopkins University; Carolyn Bolton Moore, MBBCh, MSc, from CIDRZ and University of Alabama at Birmingham; Peter Mwaba, MBChB, PhD, from Lusaka Apex Medical University in Lusaka, Zambia; Caroline Phiri, MD, MPH, from the Ministry of Health, Government of the Republic of Zambia; Nancy Padian, PhD, MPH, from the University of California, Berkeley; and David V. Glidden, PhD, from the University of California, San Francisco. The study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1105071). This work was also supported by the infrastructure and services of the Johns Hopkins University Center for AIDS Research (NIH/NIAID P30AI094189) (CBH), and University of California, San Francisco-Gladstone Institute of Virology & Immunology Center for AIDS Research (NIH/NIAID P30 AI027763) (EG), and (NIH/NIAID K24 AI134413) (EG). The authors report having no personal interests related to the study. "Estimated mortality on HIV treatment among active patients and patients lost to follow-up in 4 provinces of Zambia: Findings from a multistage sampling-based survey." https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002489 About Georgetown University Medical Center Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC's mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization, which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health. Connect with GUMC on Facebook, Twitter (@gumedcenter). Connect with Georgetown University School of Medicine on Facebook (Facebook.com/somgeorgetown), Twitter (gumedicine) and Instagram (@GeorgetownMedicine). CHICAGO --- 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. ### The GEDI program was launched in 2013 and was funded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) Health Care Innovation Award program (grant 1C1CMS331055-01) to help alleviate the increase in emergency room visits from geriatric patients in the aging Baby Boomer population. Northwestern's Stephanie Gravenor, Dr. Mark Courtney and Raymond King also were authors on the paper. Imagine trying to get close to your dinner only for it to be swept aside by your approach; this is the scenario faced by aquatic creatures every day as they try to snap up a tasty morsel. 'It is impossible to eat something underwater without creating a hydrodynamic disturbance', says Maria Wilson from the University of Southern Denmark, describing how a predator's approach is heralded by a bow wave that arrives before the final slurp as a hungry hunter sucks up its prey. Explaining that the surge of water produces low-pitched (low-frequency) vibrations, Wilson and her colleagues, Jens Haga and Hans Erik Karlsen from the University of Oslo, Norway, wondered whether cuttlefish - the preferred delicacy of many large aquatic predators - might keep an ear out for the approaching attack, and, if so, in which direction they would swim to evade the predator. The team publishes their discovery that cuttlefish can hear approaching bow waves and swim in the same direction as the water to evade capture in Journal of Experimental Biology at http://jeb.biologists.org. Wilson explains that cuttlefish ears - statocysts - which are buried in their heads, are fine tuned to low-pitched sounds and could allow the animals to sense the vibrations that herald an attack in dim and cloudy conditions. So, she and Karlsen decided to test the cuttlefish's reactions to low-frequency vibrations in a tank. However, with their sensitive vision and sensors that detect water flow over the skin, cuttlefish are easily startled, so the team used a specialised tank designed by Karlsen to make sure that the animals were not side-tracked by other distractions. In addition, Wilson made sure that the environment remained calm, in case the animals released ink into the water. 'When that happened, we had to remove the cuttlefish and clean everything', says Wilson, who even took a shot of ink in the face on one occasion: 'Almost as if it did it on purpose', she laughs. Having settled individual cuttlefish in the tank, Wilson, Karlsen and Haga simulated a predator's approach, and the sucking attack, with vibrations generated by shakers on the side of the tank in light and dark conditions. Filming the cuttlefish's responses as the vibrations washed over the animals, the team could see that the cuttlefish were aware of the disturbance as they changed the patterns on their skin. And when the cuttlefish encountered the vibrations simulating a predator's approach, they turned to flee in the same direction that the bow wave was travelling, regardless of whether the lights were on or off. However, when the cuttlefish were startled by a pressure wave simulating the final suck as the predator struck, the cuttlefish again moved in the same direction as the flowing water, '[which] would move the cuttlefish directly into the mouth of the predator!' says Wilson. Although she was initially surprised by the counterintuitive behaviour, Wilson suspects that in real life the animals may have already taken evasive action before they sensed the impending slurp. The team also tried to distract the hungry cuttlefish with a movie of tasty shrimp. 'They only had to see the video once and when the screen went black, they would ... just wait for the show to start again', recalls Wilson. In fact, the cuttlefish were so engaged by the prospect of food that the team had to turn up the shakers, producing the simulated attack to get the animal's attention. So, cuttlefish depend on their ears to evade an approaching attack and Wilson is concerned that the fog of low-pitched noise produced by shipping may mask bow wave warning signals, leaving cuttlefish vulnerable to predators that they currently outwit. ### IF REPORTING THIS STORY, PLEASE MENTION JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AS THE SOURCE AND, IF REPORTING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A LINK TO: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/221/1/jeb166074 REFERENCE: Wilson, M., Haga, J. A. R. and Karlsen, H. E. (2018). Behavioural responses to infrasonic particle acceleration in cuttlefish. J. Exp. Biol. 221, doi: 10.1242/jeb166074. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.166074. This article is posted on this site to give advance access to other authorised media who may wish to report on this story. Full attribution is required, and if reporting online a link to jeb.biologists.com is also required. The story posted here is COPYRIGHTED. Therefore advance permission is required before any and every reproduction of each article in full. PLEASE CONTACT permissions@biologists.com THIS ARTICLE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL THURSDAY, 11 JANUARY 2018, 18:00 HRS EST (23:00 HRS GMT) Increased fluctuations in the path of the North Atlantic jet stream since the 1960s coincide with more extreme weather events in Europe such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires and flooding, reports a University of Arizona-led team. The research is the first reconstruction of historical changes in the North Atlantic jet stream prior to the 20th century. By studying tree rings from trees in the British Isles and the northeastern Mediterranean, the team teased out those regions' late summer weather going back almost 300 years -- to 1725. "We find that the position of the North Atlantic Jet in summer has been a strong driver of climate extremes in Europe for the last 300 years," said Valerie Trouet, an associate professor of dendrochronology at the University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Having a 290-year record of the position of the jet stream let Trouet and her colleagues determine that swings between northern and southern positions of the jet became more frequent in the second half of the 20th century, she said. "Since 1960 we get more years when the jet is in an extreme position." Trouet said, adding that the increase is unprecedented. When the North Atlantic Jet is in the extreme northern position, the British Isles and western Europe have a summer heat wave while southeastern Europe has heavy rains and flooding, she said. When the jet is in the extreme southern position, the situation flips: Western Europe has heavy rains and flooding while southeastern Europe has extreme high temperatures, drought and wildfires. "Heat waves, droughts and floods affect people," Trouet said. "The heat waves and drought that are related to such jet stream extremes happen on top of already increasing temperatures and global warming -- it's a double whammy." Extreme summer weather events in the American Midwest are also associated with extreme northward or southward movements of the jet stream, the authors write. "We studied the summer position of the North Atlantic jet. What we're experiencing now in North America is part of the same jet stream system," Trouet said. This winter's extreme cold and snow in the North American Northeast and extreme warmth and dryness in California and the American Southwest are related to the winter position of the North Pacific Jet, she said. The paper, "Recent enhanced high-summer North Atlantic Jet variability emerges from three-century context," by Trouet and her co-authors Flurin Babst of the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Birmensdorf and Matthew Meko of the UA is scheduled for publication in Nature Communications on Jan. 12. The U.S. National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation funded the research. "I remember quite vividly when I got the idea," Trouet said. "I was sitting in my mom's house in Belgium." While visiting her family in Belgium during the very rainy summer of 2012, Trouet looked at the newspaper weather map that showed heavy rain in northwestern Europe and extreme heat and drought in the northeastern Mediterranean. "I had seen the exact same map in my tree-ring data," she said. The tree rings showed that hot temperatures in the Mediterranean occurred the same years that it was cool in the British Isles -- and vice versa. The part of an annual tree ring that forms in the latter part of the growing season is called latewood. The density of the latewood in a particular tree ring reflects the August temperature that year. Other investigators had measured the annual latewood density for trees from the British Isles and the northeastern Mediterranean for rings formed from 1978 back to 1725. Because August temperatures in those two regions reflect the summer position of the North Atlantic jet stream, Trouet and her colleagues used those tree-ring readings to determine the historical position of the jet stream from 1725 to 1978. For the position of the jet stream from 1979 to 2015, the researchers relied on data from meteorological observations. "There's a debate about whether the increased variability of the jet stream is linked to man-made global warming and the faster warming of the Arctic compared to the tropics," Trouet said. "Part of the reason for the debate is that the data sets used to study this are quite short -- 1979 to present. If you want to see if this variability is unprecedented, you need to go farther back in time -- and that's where our study comes in." With the discovery of much older trees in the Balkans and in the British Isles, Trouet hopes to reconstruct the path of the North Atlantic jet stream as much as 1,000 years into the past. She is also interested in reconstructing the path of the North Pacific jet stream, which influences the climate and weather over North America. ### Researcher contact: Valerie Trouet University of Arizona 520-626-8004 trouet@ltrr.arizona.edu Languages spoken: English, French, German, Dutch Flurin Babst Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL +48-579-516-164 flurin.babst@wsl.ch Languages spoken: English, French, German The loss or damage of myelin, a cellular sheath that surrounds and insulates nerves, is the hallmark of the immune-mediated neurological disorder multiple sclerosis (MS). When segments of this protective membrane are damaged, nerve impulses can be disrupted. Symptoms range from tingling and numbness to weakness, pain and paralysis. There is currently no reliable way to directly image demyelination. Physicians rely on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but despite high resolution images, MRI is not quantitative and cannot distinguish between demyelination and inflammation, which often coexist in people with MS. In the January 12, 2017 online issue of the journal Scientific Reports, a multi-institutional team based primarily at the University of Chicago Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, describe early tests of a novel minimally-invasive way to assess myelin damage using positron emission tomography (PET). These PET scans use a radioactive molecule designed to target voltage-gated potassium channels, a protein found on demyelinated axons. The PET images, based on the detection of this molecule, provide quantitative information about underlying biochemical processes. "In healthy myelinated neurons, potassium channels are usually buried underneath the myelin sheath," explained study author Brian Popko, PhD, the Jack Miller Professor of Neurological Disorders and director of the center for peripheral neuropathy at the University of Chicago. "When there is loss of myelin, these channels become exposed. They migrate throughout the demyelinated segment and their levels increase." These exposed neurons leak intracellular potassium. This leaves them unable to propagate electrical impulses, which causes some of the neurological symptoms seen in MS. "So we developed a PET tracer that can target potassium channels," Popko said. The team started with an existing MS drug, 4-aminopyridine (a.k.a. dalfampridine), which can bind to exposed potassium channels. This can partially restore nerve conduction and alleviate neurological symptoms in MS patients. Using mouse models of MS, including some developed in the Popko lab, the researchers showed that the drug accumulated in the demyelinated, or uncovered, areas of the central nervous system. Then, with help from colleague Pancho Bezanilla, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago, the team examined several fluorine-containing derivatives of 4-aminopyridine for binding to K+ channels. They found that 3-fluoro-4-aminopyridine (3F4AP) has the desired properties, so they labeled the molecule with fluorine-18, which is easily detected by PET. "We were able to show, in rats, that the tracer accumulated to a higher degree in demyelinated areas than in control areas," Popko said. "All existing PET tracers used for imaging demyelination bind to myelin and, consequently, demyelinated lesions show as decreases in signal, which can be problematic for imaging small lesions," said Pedro Brugarolas, PhD, first author of the paper and currently a faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. "3F4AP is the first tracer whose signal increases with demyelination, potentially solving some of the problems of its predecessors." Finally, in collaboration with scientists at the NIH, the researchers conducted a study in healthy monkeys. They confirmed that radiolabeled 3F4AP enters the brain of primates and localizes to areas where there is little myelin. "We think that this PET approach can provide complementary information to MRI which can help us follow MS lesions over time," Popko said. "It has the potential to track responses to remyelinating therapies, an unmet need. This approach should also help determine how much disruption of the myelin sheath contributes to other central nervous system disorders." That list includes leukodystrophies, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and "even maladies not traditionally associated with demyelination," Popko suggested, "such as brain ischemia, psychiatric disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's." "A tracer to monitor changes in something as ubiquitous as potassium channels could have applications for other diseases where these channels are involved," Brugarolas added, More than 2.3 million people worldwide suffer from multiple sclerosis, according to 2013 data from the MS International Federation. None of the 15 current FDA-approved drugs for MS are able to cure the disease; they modify or suppress the immune system, reducing the number and severity of flare-ups and less often, slowing the visible marks of brain damage. ### The study took six years and a large team. It included experts in neuroscience, animal models, chemistry, electrophysiology and PET imaging. Additional authors of the study, "Development of a PET radioligand for potassium channels to image CNS demyelination," include Jorge Sanchez-Rodriguez, Hsiu-Ming Tsai, Shih-Hsun Cheng, Jerome J. Lacroix, Richard Freifelder and Chin-Tu Chen from the University of Chicago; Falguni Basuli, Xiang Zhang, Rolf Swenson, Peter Herscovitch and Daniel S. Reich from the National Institutes of Health; Andrew V. Caprariello and Robert H. Miller from Case Western Reserve University; and Dhanabalan Murali and Onofre DeJesus from the University of Wisconsin. This research was supported by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation and the Chicago Innovation Exchange (now known as the Polsky Center). PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA & LONDON, ENGLAND (January 11, 2018) - Satisfaction with care in hospitals declines when patients believe there are not enough nurses on wards, according to a new study based on the NHS Inpatient Survey published in the BMJ Open. Only 14 per cent of patients who reported there was never or rarely enough nurses on the hospital ward rated their care as excellent, while 57 percent of patients who reported there were usually enough nurses rated their care as excellent. The study, led by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, University of Southampton, and King's College London, also showed that only 60 per cent of the 66,348 patients responding to the NHS survey reported that there were usually enough nurses available to provide their care. One in 10 patients surveyed said there were never or rarely enough professional nurses during their hospital stay, the study has shown. The internationally renowned research team say that their findings show that it is the availability of qualified registered nurses in hospitals that affects patient satisfaction most. "The often repeated narrative suggesting that quality deficits in hospitals are due to 'uncaring' nurses is not supported by evidence from the NHS's own survey," says author Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, Director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. "Patients value nurses so much that when nurses are in short supply, patients' overall ratings of their hospitals decline sharply." The study shows that missed nursing care that is common when there are too few nurses on duty contributes to patients' low ratings of their hospitals. Professor Peter Griffiths, from the University of Southampton, said: "The variation in nurse staffing levels between different NHS hospitals is huge. When there aren't enough professional nurses, things get missed, patients notice, and this affects their confidence in the quality of the hospital and the care they receive." "England has one of the lowest percentages among European countries of professional nurses at the bedside already. We know that 65 per cent of nurses in hospitals in England say that high workloads prevent them from spending enough time comforting patients while 52 per cent of nurses say they don't have enough time to teach patients and their families how to manage after hospital. But having more staff on the wards, who have limited qualifications is not enough - the NHS needs to focus on achieving safe registered nurse staffing levels as a means to achieve better outcomes including improving patients' satisfaction with their care." The study shows that patients' confidence in doctors and nurses is equally important in whether they rate the hospital care as excellent. "Shoring up nurse staffing as well as medical staffing is warranted to improve quality of care," said Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, DPhil (Oxon) RN, from the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, King's College London. ''Patient perception is an important barometer of quality of care and confidence in the NHS. The widening gap between demand and capacity is reflected in missed care, which in turn is associated with poor nurse staffing and poor hospital environments. Improving nurse staffing in NHS hospitals holds promise for improving patient satisfaction''. This large study is the latest in a series of studies and commissioned reports on uneven quality of care in NHS hospitals in England pointing to the immediate need for increasing the number of funded positions in NHS hospitals for highly qualified professional nurses. ### About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world's leading schools of nursing. For the second year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University, and has four graduate programs ranked number one by U.S. News & World Report, the most of any school in the United States. Penn Nursing is consistently among the nation's top recipients of nursing research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram & YouTube. About the University of Southampton Through world-leading research and enterprise activities, the University of Southampton connects with businesses to create real-world solutions to global issues. Through its educational offering, it works with partners around the world to offer relevant, flexible education, which trains students for jobs not even thought of. This connectivity is what sets Southampton apart from the rest; we make connections and change the world. http://www.southampton.ac.uk/ King's College London King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2016/17 QS World University Rankings) and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 29,600 students (of whom nearly 11,700 are graduate students) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 8,000 staff. King's has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), eighty-four per cent of research at King's was deemed 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' (3* and 4*).Since our foundation, King's students and staff have dedicated themselves in the service of society. King's will continue to focus on world-leading education, research and service, and will have an increasingly proactive role to play in a more interconnected, complex world. Visit our website to find out more about Vision 2029, King's strategic vision for the next 12 years to 2029, which will be the 200th anniversary of the founding of the university. For further information about King's, please visit http://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/About-Kings.aspx PHILADELPHIA - Acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) are the leading global cause of death in early childhood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lower respiratory tract infections, including bronchiolitis and viral and bacterial pneumonia, take a toll on children's health, too, causing the majority of pediatric hospital admissions for infectious diseases. By analyzing immune cells of children who came to the emergency department with flu symptoms, researchers found that the suite of genes these early-response cells expressed was shaped by factors such as age and previous exposures to viruses, according to a study by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Better understanding how early infections influence long-term immune response has implications for the diagnosis and treatment of young patients who suffer from acute respiratory tract infections. "The notion that an individual's capacity to combat the flu depends on what they have been exposed to in the past, especially early in life, has been gaining momentum," said senior author E. John Wherry, PhD, a professor of Microbiology and director of the Institute for Immunology at Penn. Wherry and Sarah E. Henrickson, MD, PhD, an instructor in the Allergy-Immunology division at CHOP, published their findings in Cell Reports this week. "This study started during the 2009 H1N1 flu epidemic to find out how host responses change with different viral infections," said lead author Henrickson, who began this work as a CHOP clinical fellow and postdoctoral fellow in Wherry's lab. Previous studies elsewhere had investigated influenza responses broadly, but she wanted to focus on changes in CD8 T cells, key anti-viral cells in pediatric patients with influenza, and ultimately connect those changes to clinical outcomes, such as severity of infection, future asthma, fever, and return visits to a physician. "Children generally have a less complex infectious history and less co-occurring conditions than adult patients," she said. "As a result we can more easily assess the immune response to an acute infection and test how immune history shapes responses to the new infection." Sounding the Alarm CD8 T cells prepare the body for fighting foreign viruses by altering their own gene expression after sensing the alarm signals raised by cells in the lungs in response to acute respiratory tract pathogens. In this study, the CD8 T cell gene expression in acutely ill pediatric patients with influenza-like illness was distinct from patients with other viral pathogens, such as rhinovirus. In general, the "genomic circuitry" of a cell - clusters of genes akin to electrical circuits that affect each other's expression - varies according to the type of pathogen. Using blood samples from 29 children who came to the CHOP emergency department with flu symptoms, the team found that different viruses elicit different immune responses - specifically, different patterns of genomic circuitry in CD8 T cells. Although these differences included the expected upregulation of interferon-stimulated genes and tamping down of cell adhesion proteins and signaling molecules, the pro-survival gene BCL2 was prominent in children presenting with an acute influenza infection. The team found that differences in severity of ARTI, asthma, sex, and age also influence the immune response in an individual child. For example, younger children's CD8 T cell gene circuitry was different from older children's, which correlated to whether the younger child was exposed to the flu virus or not at an earlier age. Younger children with antibodies to a flu virus (evidence of previous exposure) had a gene expression pattern similar to the older children's patterns. While this initial study is too small to correlate patterns such as the presence of older-child gene expression to clinical outcomes, the team plans to address this question in the future. From the immune information they gathered, the team developed an Influenza Pediatric Signature (IPS) consisting of a small set of genes that consistently increased or decreased in expression in CD8 T cells from patients with an acute influenza infection. The IPS is able to distinguish acute influenza from ARTIs caused by other pathogens. "Although this IPS is unlikely to replace clinical virological diagnosis anytime soon, the strength of the IPS score may reflect the severity of disease and provide helpful information post infection," Wherry said. "It may help focus investigations on the key pathways in this population in the future." For example, the IPS helped identify an age-based difference in genome circuits related to the STAT1/2 pathway, which aids T cells to sense the inflammatory alarm raised by infected lung tissue and turn on interferon-stimulated genes to fight the virus. The IPS showed that the STAT1/2 circuit operates in young children with previous exposure to influenza (or the vaccine) similar to older children. This data suggests that therapies targeting the STAT1/2 pathway may be fruitful or that monitoring these signatures could be used to determine whether a vaccine works. The team hopes to investigate the importance of this altered circuitry in relation to clinical outcomes in larger studies going forward. The researchers' hope is that by combining the basic science of immune cell gene expression to actual cases seen in a high-volume pediatric ED will identify key pathways involved in host-pathogen interactions and help improve treatments for kids with severe flu symptoms. ### Co-first author Sasikanth Manne, from Penn, and Kathleen E. Sullivan and Susan E. Coffin, both from CHOP, were also authors of the study. This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (AI112521; AI2010085 5T32HD043021-13; 5K12HD043245-15), the Pennsylvania Allergy Education Research Fund, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $6.7 billion enterprise. The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $392 million awarded in the 2016 fiscal year. The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine. Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2016, Penn Medicine provided $393 million to benefit our community. According to a piece of research by the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, the synergy between two neurotrophic factors would be beneficial particularly during an early phase of the disease Parkinson's disease is currently the second most widespread neurogenerative pathology. It is a motor disorder caused by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the black substance of the brain. These neurons are the nerve cells that produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in the modulation of involuntary movements. The research carried out at the UPV/EHU was developed in an experimental model that allows different stages of Parkinson's disease to be reproduced. The results showed that the changes caused by the condition were not homogeneous in the different parts of the brain affected. "The impairment is correlated with the specific anatomic distribution of the dopaminergic neurons and their terminals," pointed out the researcher Catalina Requejo. In other words, those areas of the black substance in which the dopaminergic neurons have more connections with regions that remain whole were found to be less affected. After confirming that the experimental model could be used to explore the morphological and functional changes caused by the disease, therapeutic strategies based on the release of neurotrophic factors were applied. These factors are proteins that encourage cell growth, plasticity and survival, and therefore play an essential role in controlling neuronal function. Specifically, two factors were applied: the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and the Glial Cell-derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF). These molecules were delivered encapsulated in microspheres or in nanospheres, even smaller than the former, comprising a biocompatible, biodegradable polymer: Poly Lactic-co-glycolic Acid (PLGA), which allows them to be released continuously and gradually. Furthermore, the factors were administered in a combined way to determine whether, together, they induced a synergistic effect. The results were encouraging in both the early and severe phase of the model. The combining of the VEGF and GDNF not only significantly reduced the degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons of the black substance, it also induced the formation of new cells and cellular differentiation. The researchers were also able to confirm that there had been an improvement in the areas where the nerve fibres in this region were projected. To confirm the synergistic, neurogenerative effect of the two factors, they administered a molecule that inhibits the receptors of the two neurotrophic factors they were studying. "The consequences for the dopaminergic system were even worse, which supports the beneficial synergistic effects exerted by the VEFG and the GDNF in Parkinson's," concluded the researcher. Finally, it is worth highlighting that the best results were obtained when the factors were delivered encapsulated in nanospheres during the early phase of the disease replicated in the model. All this reinforces the importance of early diagnosis and that "nanotechnology could be a very useful tool when it comes to administering neurotrophic factors," she added. ### Additional information These pieces of work published in the prestigious scientific journal Molecular Neurobiology are the result of the PhD thesis by Catalina Requejo. It was conducted by the LaNCE Group of the Department of Neurosciences in the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, and the Neuropharmacology group of the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing and the NanoBiocel group of the Faculty of Pharmacy were involved in it. Having obtained a degree in Biology from the UPV/EHU, she wrote up her PhD with international mention in Neurosciences achieving a Cum Laude distinction. Her PhD thesis, supervised by Jose Vicente Lafuente, tackled the morpho-functional analysis of the changes presented by an experimental model of Parkinson's and the effects of administering neurotrophic factors in the said model. After a three-month, pre-doctoral placement at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, she received a two-year postdoctoral scholarship at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York where she conducted a study into the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in autophagy activation for synuclein degradation. Bibliographical reference Lafuente JV, Requejo C, Carrasco A, Bengoetxea H. (2017) Nanoformulation: A Useful Therapeutic Strategy for Improving Neuroprotection and the Neurorestorative Potential in Experimental Models of Parkinson's Disease. Int Rev Neurobiol; 137:99-122. DOI: 10.1016/bs.irn.2017.09.003. Epub 2017 Oct 20. Requejo C, Ruiz-Ortega JA, Bengoetxea H, Bulnes S, Ugedo L, Lafuente JV. Deleterious effect of VEGFR2 and RET inhibition in a preclinical model of Parkinson's disease (2017b). Mol Neurobiol. DOI: 10.1007/s12035-017-0733-x. Requejo C, Ruiz-Ortega J.A., Bengoetxea H, Garcia-Blanco A, Herran E, Aristieta A, Igartua M, Pedraz J.L., Ugedo L, Hernandez R.M., Lafuente J.V. (2017a) Morphological changes in a severe model of Parkinson's disease and its suitability to test the therapeutic effects of microencapsulated neurotrophic factors. Mol Neurobiol. Dec; 54(10):7722-7735. DOI: 10.1007/s12035-016-0244-1. Epub 2016 Nov 14. Requejo C, Ruiz-Ortega, J.A., Bengoetxea, H., Garcia-Blanco, A., Herran, E., Aristieta, A., Igartua, M., Ugedo, L., Pedraz, J.L., Hernandez, R.M., Lafuente, J.V. (2015) Topographical Distribution of Morphological Changes in a Partial Model of Parkinson's Disease-Effects of Nanoencapsulated Neurotrophic Factors Administration. Mol Neurobiol, 52(2), 846-58. DOI: 10.1007/s12035-015-9234-y. Epub 2015 Jun 4. Farmers have been urged to adopt safe cattle handling techniques in a bid to reduce the risks to life and limb. In the last ten years, 388 farmers, their family members or farm workers have been killed on British farms, while thousands more have suffered serious injuries and work-related ill health. One of the UK's most well-respected trainers on farm safety, Brian Rees, said it is a "horrifying statistic". Mr Rees, who is chair of the Wales Farm Safety Partnership (WFSP), said "every fatality, every injury, every illness is one too many." The role of the WFSP, which is a collaboration between key agricultural stakeholder organisations in Wales, is to help raise awareness of the dangers of working on farms to reduce the risk of injuries and accidents to humans in particular, but also to livestock. Mr Rees explained that handling cattle always involves a risk of injury from crushing, kicking, butting or goring. He explained: There are ways in which you can reduce the risks of accidents and injuries to you, your family and employees or to individuals visiting your stock, such as vets. The risk is greater if the animals have not been handled frequently, such as those from hills or moorland, sucklers or newly calved cattle. But attempting to carry out stock tasks on any unrestrained cattle or with makeshift equipment is particularly hazardous, so it is critical that we do all we can to alert farmers to the dangers, and try to prevent them putting their life or health in serious jeopardy, said Mr Rees. 'Never underestimate' In addition to emphasising the need to plan ahead when handling large animals, Mr Rees said farmers must "never underestimate" the risk from cattle, especially the protective instincts of a newly calved cow, even with good precautions in place. He said the industry must always use proper handling facilities, kept in good working order, and use a race and a crush suitable for the animals handled. He also said farmers could consider a rigorous culling policy for temperamental animals. Lastly, Mr Rees urged farmers to avoid working alone, but if this happens, keep a phone handy. He continued: Statistics show that you are now six times more likely to be killed working on a farm than at a building site, so getting up to speed with all aspects of farm-safety is critically important for farmers of all ages. Recent livestock injuries and deaths include a Co Down farmer who was attacked by a bull last weekend. In August last year, a 70-year-old cattle handler died after being crushed by a bull at a livestock market in Lancashire and a farmer in his 60s died after being trampled to death by a bull in North Yorkshire. 91 percent of people are more appreciative of the work farmers do after attending an Open Farm event, a new survey shows. The results of the LEAF Open Farm Sunday visitor follow-up survey, released this week, highlight how important public access onto farms is to how consumers view British farmers and farming. Ninety-one percent of those surveyed said that after visiting a LEAF Open Farm Sunday event last year, they were more appreciative of the work farmers do. 89% said they felt more connected to the farmers that produce British food. Critically, for farmers, 73% said they now actively look for British produce to buy since visiting a LEAF Open Farm Sunday event. Defra Secretary Michael Gove cited LEAF Open Farm Sunday as a great public initiative during his address to the Oxford Farming Conference. He explained how campaigns such as LEAF Open Farm Sunday help reconnect urban dwellers with the earth and that they also help secure consent for investment in the countryside as well as support for British produce. 'Public access, public good' Commenting on the findings of the research and Mr Goves speech, Annabel Shackleton, LEAFs Open Farm Sunday Manager said "public access is a public good". Ms Shackleton explained: Mr Gove made it clear that public access is rightly going to be at the heart of the new direction for farming support, post Brexit and this couldnt happen at a more important time. With 84% of respondents who visited a farm for LEAF Open Farm Sunday in 2017 saying that it had changed the way they think about farming, we are urging all farmers to take part this year on the 10th June. The benefits of LEAF Open Farm Sunday are proven and extensive and for farmers it is one of the best possible ways to show the public what you do and to encourage them to support British farming by buying British produce. Great British Farm Day Registrations for this years LEAF Open Farm Sunday opened in November and 55% of farmers registered will be taking part for the first time. The 2018 theme will be The Great British Farm Day. The organisation has said that opening gates on the 10th June 2018 has a "huge positive impact", which helps people understand all that farming delivers. One farmer who took part in LEAF Open Farm Sunday for the first time in 2017 was Ali Capper, who runs Stocks Farm on the Herefordshire / Worcestershire border. She spoke about the event: There is no doubt that doing LEAF Open Farm Sunday is a fantastic way to raise your local profile. Being able to share what we are doing is really rewarding. We had lots of stimulating discussion and questions around values, prices and costs; visitors genuinely wanted to understand the farms relationship with customers. LEAF Open Farm Sunday provides the perfect platform for farmers to showcase the fantastic work they do. The remains of two dead sheep found in fields in southern Scotland have led police to say they have been attacked by "some sort of animal". The farmer found the sheep in two separate fields on Tuesday 9 January 2018. Police Scotland said the fleece and two legs were all that remained of one sheep after it was attacked. The force said the second sheep appears to have been attacked by "some sort of animal". Both are valued at around 80 each. PC Cameron Pagan said: Investigations have started after police were alerted by the farmer. At this stage it seems one the of the sheep has been attacked by some sort of animal, either before or after it died, as there is evidence of this. However, the second sheep appears to have been skinned in some way, and all that is left is the fleece and two legs. We want to hear from anyone who may have been in the Holywood area late on Monday night through to early on Tuesday morning. Anyone who may have seen or heard anything suspicious is asked to call us on the 101 number, quoting PDG00064101118. The growing importance of 'natural capital' has made some in the farming industry question how land could be valued in a way which prioritises sustainability and rewards the stewards. The importance of natural capital land, soil, ecosystems, air and clean water was highlighted in a recent presentation by Defra Secretary Michael Gove. He acknowledged that the worth of the countryside goes beyond its economic return. Farmers and landowners are now questioning how they can value land use in a way that prioritises sustainability and rewards the stewards. The topic will be discussed in an Agri-Tech East Pollinator meeting on 24 January: Counting the Cost, Value and Benefits of Natural Capital in Agriculture. Natural capital loss Speaker Professor Paul Leinster is a member of the governments Natural Capital Committee and Professor of Environmental Assessment at Cranfield University. He comments the UK is losing natural capital year on year, with soil being one obvious example. But how do you incentivise management practices that provide a public good but little immediate financial return to the farmers? He gives the example of changing land management practices to reduce the risk of downstream floods. Water is of increasing concern and water company water resource management plans will be coming out for consultation soon, Professor Leinster explained. In addition, if you were to pay land owners to accept flood waters on their land in certain circumstances then you can reduce downstream flood risks. But there needs to be a clear economic case to support this or some other way of valuing the benefit. Prof Leinster added: There is also a lot of work looking at the valuation of the benefits offered by different types of land use. For example, woodland may provide timber, act as a windbreak, trap particulate air pollution, or sequester carbon. It may also provide a space for recreation with associated health and wellbeing benefits. 'Complex' David Burton, Senior Advisor at Natural England, is also speaking at the event, and he agrees that measuring the benefits gained from nature is complex. Natural England has been working with Agrimetrics to create the Natural Capital Explorer, a Proof of Concept dashboard which can bring together datasets on a variety of environmental and socio-economic variables and makes it easy to relate this graphically to a particular farm or landscape. He comments: Being able to agree a set of linked metrics, such as measures of water quality, soil health, habitat quality and access to green space for local people, would make it clearer how to assess and invest in natural capital and create a common language for describing ecosystem services. This is a pre-requisite for creating farm, estate and parish plans that share common objectives in a particular landscape. Soil fertility is often highlighted as a particular asset that is being degraded. Increasingly farmers are encouraged to feed the soil not the plant. 'Agroecology' LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) is an organisation that promotes a focus on agroecology, which is an approach to land management that balances production, sustainability and environmental goals. Alice Midmer, the Integrated Farm Management (IFM) Manager for LEAF, is also speaking. She explains: Agroecology is an approach to agriculture that by emphasising the application of ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of agricultural systems. It attempts to reconcile environmental, sustainability and production goals. Studies have shown that creating a better balance can reduce the use of inputs, creating benefits for the bottom line in the longer term. To encourage adoption it may be necessary to develop a system of certification to gain a premium for the products, or payments made for ecosystem services where farmers gain little financial return. Progressive farmers are already adopting agroecology approaches. Poul Hovesen, Estates Director for Salle Farms, will be discussing how their yields are consistently and substantially above the national average, demonstrating how precision farming balanced with respect for the environment can also be profitable. Funding for tree planting schemes in Scotland has been trebled as woodland creation activity reaches unprecedented levels amongst farmers. Currently, around 2,500ha of woodland creation activity, about the same size as East Kilbride, is being planned for this year around the Central Scotland Green Network (CSGN) area. If all the projects come to fruition as expected, it will be the highest tree planting level in the area since 1999. The increase in tree planting activity is largely due to Forestry Commission Scotland promoting the benefits of integrating woodlands into farming and landowning businesses. The Central Scotland Green Network area stretches from Ayrshire and Inverclyde in the west, to Fife and the Lothians in the east. 'Essential element' Announcing the increased budget, Rural Affairs Secretary, Fergus Ewing said he is "especially pleased" with the high level of applications from farmers. He said: The CSGN is a key Scottish Government National Development and is regarded as an essential element for Scotlands long-term economic recovery. The aim is to restore and transform the areas landscape, making it a better place to live and do business in. I am very pleased to see woodland creation activity at such high levels it is very encouraging news and I congratulate all for the hard work in achieving this. I am especially pleased to note the high level of applications from farmers and landowners wishing to integrate more woodland into their existing businesses to improve their viability. We need to keep up this impetus. I have therefore trebled the funding available for the CSGN contribution and adjusted the grant rates so we can support more applications and up to 1,000 additional hectares per year. Environment Plant The announcement follows news of Defra Secretary Michael Gove's vision for post-Brexit agriculture, where farmers and landowners will be paid for environmentally friendly practices, such as woodland creation. The government's recently announced 25-Year Environment Plan will also provide 5.7 million to kick-start the new Northern Forest, which has been touted as a rural economy booster for northern England. A man has appeared in court charged with selling mislabelled meat which falsely advertised the produce as British. Simon Drust, a butcher and owner of The Meat Shack in Studley, Warwickshire, placed adverts in the Redditch Standard and on Facebook. It said: "Buy British-All Beef pork, Lamb and Chicken." However, the newspaper reported that the meat was not actually British. Mr Drust appeared in Warwick Magistrates Court on December 19. He faces a number of charges relating to fraud and misleading customers. The charges included the sale of non-British meat under banners stating "Best British Beef, Best British Pork, Best British Chicken and Poultry and Best British Lamb". Other charges include misleading customers about the country of origin of meat sold in the shop, the breed from which beef was derived, whether pork was free range, and whether meats and poultry were fresh or had been frozen. Mr Drust is now set to appear at Warwick Crown Court on January 22. It follows news of the UK preparing to develop its own 'gold-standard metric' for British food and farming quality. The food labelling system, announced by Defra Secretary Michael Gove, will showcase Britain's animal welfare standards coupled with a detailed country of origin label, and could be rolled out across supermarkets after Brexit. He explained future profits in food production lie in "distinctive quality produce". Fair trade and the transition from the EU's PGI status to a UK-based geographical indication scheme would be "extremely beneficial" for the Welsh agricultural industry. Politicians and agricultural leaders gave evidence on the post-Brexit future of Welsh agriculture to the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee. It is the latest evidence-gathering session for its inquiry on Brexit, agriculture, trade and the repatriation of powers. Hybu Cig Cymru (Meat Promotion Wales) Chief Executive Gwyn Howells emphasised that while farming may appear a relatively small part of the UK economy as a whole, it is of "vital importance" to Wales. Mr Howells appeared as an expert witness on the red meat sector, which earns Wales more than 120m in annual exports. Exports are seen as essential to the Welsh red meat industrys future sustainability and profitability. With a third of the nations lamb production being exported to the EU each year and the Welsh Lamb and Welsh Beef brands currently being protected by European PGI status, Mr Howells reiterated that "fair and unfettered trade after March 2019 was vital. He also emphasised the importance of clarity on future agricultural payments, and the availability of qualified vets and labour for the processing industry. 'Lead the growth' There is clear potential for red meat to lead the growth of the Welsh food and drink sector which is our countrys biggest manufacturing industry, said Gwyn Howells. PGI Welsh Lamb and PGI Welsh Beef are the nations most recognisable brands, in our vital markets in England and overseas; flagship products which are symbols of Welsh quality and provenance. However, traditional British produce, such as Stilton cheese, Gloucester Old Spot sausages and Melton Mowbray pork pies could be at risk when the country leaves the EU. Back in 2016, then-Prime Minister David Cameron warned that farmers would lose the protected status awarded by the EU for produce made in their traditional areas. For the Welsh red meat industry, losing the EU's PGI status would be a significant blow to its mark of quality and recognition. In Mr Howells testimony to the Select Committee, he outlined the steps that were being taken to ensure the continued protected status of Waless lamb and beef brands, as well as over a dozen other Welsh food products. He said: PGI status is recognised throughout the world food industry as a mark of quality, and has undoubtedly led to increased business for Welsh Beef and Welsh Lamb, both at home and abroad. Its been a cornerstone of our marketing for over a decade. A seamless transition of Geographical Indication protection under the provisions of the EU Withdrawal Bill would be extremely beneficial. 'Fair trade is all we ask' In terms of trading with emerging markets, Mr Howells said the industry saw "encouraging increases" in beef and lamb exports during 2017 to key countries such as Germany and emerging markets like Canada. He added: HCC is partnering with Welsh Government and processors to do even more to boost overseas trade, and secure good returns for farmers for the premium meat that we produce. Fair trade is all we ask, emphasised Mr. Howells. Continued unfettered access to Europe after Brexit would enable us to build on that record of success, and well be looking for further progress in opening up markets which are currently closed such as the USA and Saudi Arabia. critic's rating: 3.0/5 Trailer : Saif Ali Khan Akshat Verma was the guy who wrote Delhi Belly (2011) which was a rollicking ride of a film. In Kaalakaandi, his debut film as a director, he tries to give us the same kind of black comedy, with mixed results. The scene has shifted from Delhi to Mumbai in the present film. Akshats Mumbai, shot mostly in the night seems unrecognisable. There are no typical landmarks, no visible clues as to where in Mumbai the film was shot. This is Mumbai with its underbelly exposed. Even at night, its survival of the fittest as different characters battle out their various private hells.Akshays Kumars no-name character (we learn it only in the last frame) is a no drinking, no smoking, no cheating guy who discovers he has only months to live before dying of stomach cancer. He cant believe he has acquired cancer despite his supposed clean lifestyle and as a result tries out a pill which sends him on some crazy trips. Buoyed by the drug, he wants to try out things from his bucket list, one of them is catching a glimpse of a transgender persons privates. His ladies bathroom scene with a transvestite prostitute (Nary Singh) really pushes the envelope without being cheap. Indeed, Saifs scenes with Nary infuse warmth and wit in the film. Two vastly different people, belonging to two different worlds somehow bond and get to appreciate each others humanity. Its the most edgy as well as the most sensitively written and as sensitively played out piece of the film.The other track of the film involves Akshay Oberois character Angad, who is Saifs cousin and having second thoughts about marriage. He almost succumbs to his exs charm and narrowly escapes cheating on his fiancee. Here too, the director doesnt take any judgement calls and makes out a case that everyone is a product of his or her own choices.Kunaal Roy Kapur and Sobhita Dhulipala play a couple on the verge of separation. Shes going to America to do her PhD and a series of misadventures help them bring closer to each other than before.But the best track is that of Vijay Raaz and Deepak Dobriyal. They are small-time crooks who hatch up a crazy plan of duping their boss and running off with a couple of crores. The banter between them as well as their camaraderie keeps us hooked to their fate.Saif is in his element here as a man finally coming to terms with himself ironically during the last days of his life. His various mood swings and change of mannerisms are in sync with the fluid nature of the film. Sobhita and Kunaal too emerge as a real couple finding love thanks to a crisis. Shenaz Treasurywala as Sobhitas overly gregarious friend and Isha Talwar as the wedding photographer falling for Saifs charm leave their mark as well. Vijay Raaz and Deepak Dobriyal keep playing each other off and its tough to decide who is better between the two.Its the performances and not the screenplay that keeps our interest alive in the film. Too much is happening together at a time and there is no sense of screen-time. We dont know at what point of night the movie began and at what time it ends. Nitty gritties apart, its a better comedy than what gets served to us in the name of comedy these days... Akshay Kumar Is Not Pleased According to a piece in Open Magazine by Rajeev Masand, Akshay Kumar is not pleased that the makers of Padmavati (now Padmaavat) have scheduled their release on the same date as his film PadMan. PadMan Is A Relatively Small Film This being the first film under his wife Twinkle Khanna's production banner, and the fact that it's a relatively small' film with a social message, Akshay was hoping no big film would release that same weekend. Akshay Had Booked Republic Day For PadMan After all, Akshay had swooped in on the Republic Day window for Padman when the makers of 2.0 (the Rajinikanth starrer in which he plays the villain) pushed their VFX- heavy sci-fi to April. When Akshay Heard About The Clash He didn't put up a fight when his Baby director Neeraj Pandey decided to release his new thriller Aiyaary on the same date because that film is a similarly modest-budget project. But when Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Viacom18 began circling the Republic Day slot for their film, Akshay reportedly balked. When Akshay Asked To Postpone Padmaavat Insiders reveal that the actor reached out to Bhansali (who was one of the producers of his hit film Rowdy Rathore) and the studio, asking them to consider another date for Padmavat. Akshay Understood The Situation And... But when they appealed to his emotions, pointing to the storm they had weathered in just getting the film ready for release, Akshay reportedly called off the pressure. He has said subsequently that there's enough room for two movies that weekend, and that he has confidence in his film. When Akshay Was Asked To Comment On The Same "It is not about competition, it is a very big day, a big week, so all the films can come, both the films can release on that day. Every film has the right to release whenever they want, and I am happy for them." Those Who Are Unaware... PadMan is the story of Tamil Nadu-based social activist Arunachalam Muruganantham, who revolutionised menstrual hygiene by creating a low-cost sanitary napkins machine. On the other hand, Padmaavat is based on the story of Rani Padmini of Chittorgarh. Over 70 activists of the Rajasthan- based Karni Sena were detained today while protesting outside the Central Board of Film Certification's office against the clearance given to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Padmaavat, earlier titled Padmavati. Over 30 Karni Sena supporters were detained from Haji Ali during another protest, a police official said. "Over 70 supporters of the Karni Sena were detained from Cumballa Hill area in south Mumbai, while protesting outside the CBFC office without police permission," Zone II Deputy Commissioner of Police Dnyaneshwar Chavan said. Additional security personnel were deployed outside the office after the organisation threatened to stage the protest. Opposing the CBFC's decision to release the film, a Karni Sena leader said, "Merely changing the name of the film isn't enough. The CBFC which has been running ever since the time of Britishers doesn't know how to work." The Karni Sena has also demanded the resignation of Prasoon Joshi, the chairman of CBFC. The CBFC had given the Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Ranveer Singh-starrer a U/A certificate and suggested many changes, including altering the title. At the CBFC examining committee meeting on December 28, it was decided that the movie would be given a U/A certification as long as the makers incorporate the suggestions and modifications suggested. Some of the key modifications suggested include those pertaining to disclaimers, pertinently adding one regarding not glorifying the practice of 'Sati'. As per recent reports, the movie, which stars Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor, will hit the screens on 25th Jan along with Akshay Kumar's PadMan. PTI Also Read: HIDDEN SECRET! Akshay Kumar Is NOT HAPPY With PadMan & Padmaavat Clash; Did This To Avoid It 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 musicianSir 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". Kajol Said Something Really Sweet About Working With Shahrukh Khan In 'Zero' 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 Elizabethknighted him Sir Elton John, Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music and charitable causes. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhantoday indicated that the film "Padmavat" will not be allowed to be released in his state. The film is likely to release on January 25.Asked if the film would be banned in Madhya Pradesh, Chouhan told reporters today, "Jo Kaha tha, wo hoga (What I had said, will happen)." However, he did not clarify.Chouhan was talking to reporters after attending a state-level mass 'Surya Namaskar and Pranayam' event organised to mark the birth anniversary of spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda. The film has received a clearance from the Central Board for Film Certification after the change of title and some script modifications. While speaking to some members of the Rajput community on November 20 last year, Chouhan had made it clear that the film would not be allowed to release in the state if it contains scenes "breaching the honour" of the Rajput queen Padmavati or features"distorted facts". "We will not tolerate any distortion of historical facts. The entire country is speaking in one voice that historical facts were distorted (in the movie)," he had said. The film is mired in controversy after some Rajput groups opposed it. The period romance featuring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in lead roles was earlier scheduled to be released on December 1. Credits: PTI Plot The year is 1927. While the audience is awaiting for a grand performance by a celebrated pianist Ayush Asthana (Karan Kundrra), the man in question has locked himself in a room, got drunk and attempted suicide by slashing off his wrists. Time to tip-toe backwards to the year 1921. Freshly off the shores of Bombay, Ayush arrives in England as a caretaker of a large mansion and to master his craft at York Music School. Things are smooth sailing for the young man and three months pass by. Until one night, while going over his notations, he fiinds a door of his Victorian mansion mysteriously cranking open while a spirit skirts the air in the moon-lit lawn. Before he can get a grip of the situation, a dark ghost with mini-bulb eyesvcompletely startles him. The next morning, he discovers a black colored patch near his abdomen. Terrified by the paranormal occurrences, Ayush seeks help of a law-student-cum-ghost-whisperer Rose (Zareen Khan) who has the gift of communicating with ghosts and spirits who have unfinished businesses on Earth. Soon, love knocks their door but the evil spirit troubling Ayush is hell-bent on seeking revenge from them for a dark secret. Direction Vikram Bhatt, the man who has a knack for horror films in recent times is back with yet another hair-raising tale of a 'rooh'. Unfortunately, 1921 falls prey to the same cliched horror films trap- creaking doors, blood curdling laughter of the ghosts, candle-lit frames and a possessed loved one! Thankfully, we are sparred the exorcism scenes this time! The film's sluggish pace kills the fun and the forced twists in the plot too fail to hold your excitement for long. Performances Despite the wobbly script, Karan Kundrra has a good screen presence and delivers a steady performance except for a scene or two where you find him a little OTT! Nevertheless, his charisma and vulnerability as Ayush makes you forget the 'nay'. After her forgetable act in Aksar 2, Zareen Khan makes her appearance on-screen. Well, she isn't all pout and preen this time! But girl, you definitely need to hone up your acting skills and give us some reason to root for you. Her chemistry with Karan is as thanda as an ice. Lo and behold, the man behind the megaphone Vikram Bhatt too has a fleeting cameo and gets to mouth the dialogue of the decade- 'Why be a candlelit when you can be the sun!' Point noted, sirjee! Technical Aspects Prakash Kutty's lens beautifully captures the vintage era and its lavishness. The dim-lit indoors too add a certain drama in the mood. Sadly, the poorly-done VFX is a big let-down. 1921's a tedious watch; blame it on its run-time which stretches the narrative as a bubble-gum making you feel stuck in that era forever even when the end credits roll. Music The background score is point on throughout the film. Sun Le Zara and Kuch Iss Tarah strikes a chord and impresses. Verdict A lacklustre love story and unintentionally funny 'scares' are all that 1921 has to offer. Watch this Karan Kundrra- Zareen Khan starrer at your own risk! Recommended Video Kaalakaandi Movie Review: Saif Ali Khan, Vijay Raaz, Deepak Dobriyal starrer MUST WATCH | FilmiBeat Rating: 3.0 /5 Star Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Sobhita Dhulipala, Vijay Raaz, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Akshay Oberoi Director: Akshat Verma Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Shenaz Treasurywala, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Sobhita Dhulipala, Vijay Raaz, Deepak Dobriyal Director: Akshat Verma Producers: Rohit Khattar, Ashi Dua Sara Writer: Akshat Verma What's Yay: When Saif Ali Khan asks a transgender prostitute to show her "Australia, down south, Cape of Good Hope", basically what's under her clothes! What's Nay: The second half isn't as hilarious as the first half and gets dragged. Popcorn Refill: You'll be laughing all the way to get your popcorn as the first half is way too funny. Iconic Moment: When Saif Ali Khan and a transgender prostitute get chased by a police constable with a big tummy, who can barely run for not more than 100 metres. Plot: Saif Ali Khan, a simple man who doesn't smoke, drink, sleep around or attend parties gets the shock of his life when his doctor confirms he has last stage cancer and might survive not more than 6 months and the very next day is his brother's wedding. Sick of his boring life, Saif drops acid (LSD) for the first time and experiences some weird shit, and to top that, binge drinks the whole night, roams around with a transgender prostitute - hoping to see what's under her clothes, gets chased by a belly toting police and even dresses up like a transgender himself. On the other hand, an urban couple Kunaal Roy Kapur and Sobhita Dhulipala prepare to fly to New York for higher studies but meet their friend Shenaz Treasurywala, who is celebrating her birthday the night before with her toy boy aka 'sex slave' at a high-end club, but gets raided by the police for drugs. The other protagonists, two gangsters Vijay Raaz and Deepak Dobriyal are on the prowl to get filthy rich and plot to cheat their own boss, a Mumbai hawala big shot who controls the whole city. So will Saif ultimately get to see what's really under the transgender's clothes or will he miss the chance of his life (according to him) not to witness it?You'll have to hit the theatres to witness the hilarious roller-coaster of outrageous scenes, that is Kaalakaandi. Upside & Downside Upside Danish Sait's Performance Saad Khan's Direction Slapstick Comedy Kanglish Dialogues Downside Hasty Editing at Parts Screenplay at parts Performances Danish Sait is a known figure at a national level for his witty mocks and humorous pranks. When he decided to extend it to a non-stop duration of 2:30 hours in the form of Nograj and Manjunath, it has and indeed is, fun all the way. Vijay Chendoor is too good and his combination scenes and chemistry with Danish Sait pulls in a lot of attention towards them. It is actually the duo's combination which works more than the dialogues and humour. The rest of the star cast support the lead actor and the overall movie in sailing at its pre-determined pace. Technical Aspects Dialogues are important and is the key aspect of the movie as it holds the entire flick together. The Kanglish writing, puns and the wordplay are very new for Kannada audience, and though, it tends to go overboard at times, they seem to be negligible. Editing could have been better as the scenes seem to be jagged allowing little time for the audience to enjoy certain dialogues at their own time. Music has been rendered by a group of musicians and has been on the positive side. There are quite a few scenes which will etch an impact in the minds of audience who would carry them back for discussion. Final Verdict Humble Politician Nograj is a fine entertainer for the weekend and also the first of its kind genre for Kannada audience. Vikram As Sketch Well, it has to be said that Vikram is the life of this movie. It is a sheer pleasure to watch him pull off those mass sequences with utmost ease. The subtle variations that he has brought in while delivering the dialogues is also noteworthy. The style quotient of the actor is unmatchable and the effort that he is put in for the action sequences is quite evident. He, with his performance, assures that his fans won't be left disappointed. Tamannaah As Amuthavalli Well, Tamannaah's role isn't anything new as she gets to play a character, which is similar to many other characters that we have seen in the past. Her screen space is limited and her role hasn't been developed in a proper manner. Rest Of The Cast Baburaj plays the role of the main antagonist and he has done a good job by presenting a villain with a different style. Sriman gets to play a meaty role and he pulls it off with ease. Hareesh Peradi as Seth is impressive. Similar is the case of RK Suresh. Soori does evoke a few laughters. Script & Direction - Vijay Chandar Vijay Chandar has done a decent job in sketching out a plot, which has all elements in the right proportions for a template action entertainer, with mass elements. The writer in him has also added the suspense factor and the progression of the film is also in a proper manner. Nevertheless, he could have definitely left off some cliched sequences, especially in the romantic portions. The film-maker in him has done a decent job by packaging an entertainer. He takes his own time to set up things in the first half, which have backfired a bit. But still, the way in which he has planted those twists and mass sequences, deserves due credits. At the same time, one will be left disappointed with the placements of the songs, which affects the pace of the movie. Music & BGM S Thaman Most of the songs are good to hear, even though majority of them have been misplaced. The BGM by Thaman is one of the high points of the film. It helps the film to build the tempo, in many sequences. With 2018 here, I'm sure there are plenty of you that made some new years resolutions to make better investment decisions. If the objective is to build wealth over the long haul or provide a nest egg that throws off cash, then investing in dividend stocks should be high on your list for your portfolio. So we asked three of our investing contributors to each highlight a dividend stock they see as a great pickup this month. Here's why they picked Braksem (BAK -0.54%), Public Storage (PSA 0.86%), and Pembina Pipeline (PBA 0.04%). Less uncertainty to start 2018 Maxx Chatsko (Braskem): While most of the United States is being blasted by cold air, Brazil is smack-dab in the middle of its rainy summer season. But it offers more than dreams of climate refuge, like an investment opportunity in its leading chemical manufacturer, Braskem. The dividend yield is a bit more difficult to calculate than for most stocks because it's usually paid out once per year and the timing has been interrupted by Brazil's (and Braskem's) economic and political woes in recent years. That said, the company agreed to a $957 million global settlement for its role in the country's bribery scandal and still managed to post a 2.8% dividend yield in 2017. Historically it's been above 4%. Why buy in January? Well, Braskem is beginning 2018 with the least amount of uncertainty in years. Sure, the total amount outstanding on its global settlement payment was $501 million at the end of September 2017, but increasing margins from favorable petrochemical spreads and $2.4 billion in cash on hand significantly blunt the financial effect of the fine. Cash flow remains strong and growing, which will help to continue mopping up a messy balance sheet. Growing production volumes this year and several growth projects coming online by 2020 promise to push the stock -- trading at just 10 times future earnings -- higher. Long story short, Braskem is solid dividend stock in a high-growth industry and region that's still being punished for past offenses, but should remove itself from Wall Street's timeout corner with a strong performance in the year ahead. Not all stocks have become too expensive Matt Frankel (Public Storage): Real estate didn't do too well in 2017. Despite a nearly 20% rise in the S&P 500, the equity REIT sector increased by less than 5%. Many self-storage REITs got hit even worse, mainly on fears of oversupply hurting profits, and industry leader Public Storage was no exception. You may be familiar with Public Storage's orange-colored facilities, of which it owns and operates roughly 2,700 in the U.S. and Europe. However, you may not be familiar with how the self-storage business works, as it is a rather distinct type of real estate. Specifically, storage facilities have extremely low operating and maintenance costs, which makes them attractive as a business. Public Storage claimed in its 2015 annual report that it can break even with just 30% occupancy, and its properties are currently over 90% full. One thing that I'm highly optimistic about is Public Storage's relatively new development program. Traditionally, the company has grown primarily through acquisitions, but developing properties from the ground up could supercharge future returns. To be clear, self-storage is not without risk. To name one big risk factor, the month-to-month lease structure of self-storage properties makes it rather prone to recessions, as it's easy for tenants to vacate. However, I feel that the reward potential greatly outweighs the risk involved, especially over the long run. After falling by 7% in 2017, Public Storage now yields nearly 4% and is definitely worth a look for long-term investors. Big payout increases in the pipeline Tyler Crowe (Pembina Pipeline): 2017 was an incredible year for Pembina Pipeline. The company completed a massive suite of projects in the year and closed on a CA$9.5 billion deal to acquire another Canadian pipeline and energy infrastructure company, Veresen. Despite all of this news, the company's finances didn't quite reflect this monumental change. That is likely to change in 2018, and investors are probably going to reap the rewards. As management noted during its third-quarter earnings, most of these multibillion-dollar projects started operations in the second half of the year and had not yet ramped up to full operating capacity. As a result, there wasn't much change to the bottom line. Management estimates that adjusted EBITDA for 2018 will be in the CA$2.55 billion to CA$2.75 billion range compared with 2016's result of CA$1.2 billion. What's even more encouraging is that the company still has plenty of growth opportunities in the years to come as it expands into new opportunities including petrochemical manufacturing and export terminals. In 2018, the company plans to spend CA$1.3 billion on its infrastructure system. Pembina's management has done a commendable job maintaining financial discipline while executing on its most recent five-year growth plan. It still has one of the lowest debt ratios among the major pipeline companies -- debt to EBITDA is at 3.9 -- and has an investment-grade credit rating. If management can continue to maintain this kind of financial discipline while building out the CA$20 billion in projects in the wings, then investors are likely to reap considerable rewards over the coming years. Investors are understandably excited for the inevitable arrival of autonomous vehicles. Self-driving cars could increase personal and economic productivity, boost fuel economy, reduce traffic fatalities, and alleviate the need for urban planning to revolve around space-wasting parking lots and garages. The technology has the potential to transform transportation and society. Yet, while auto manufacturers old and new grab all the headlines related to autonomous vehicles, the technology is quietly on the cusp of revolutionizing an even older industry: mining. From the 416-ton self-driving haulers deployed by Rio Tinto (RIO 0.11%) in Australia to the semi-autonomous underground haulers used by Barrick Gold (GOLD -0.77%) in Nevada, investments made today promise to make the mining industry look and operate quite a bit differently 10 years from now compared to today. Similar to self-driving passenger vehicles and tractor trailers, autonomous mining vehicles will have profound positive and negative impacts. It's time investors start to take notice. Say hello to digital mining Rio Tinto was among the first mining companies to explore digital and autonomous mining technologies, as detailed in MIT Technology Review. Today, it operates a fleet comprising dozens of 416-ton haulers, each the size of a small home, that drive themselves around four above-ground mines in northwest Australia. They interact with robotic rock-drilling rigs and, starting in 2018, will unload their bounties to self-driving trains that deliver the ore to ports hundreds of miles away. The employees overseeing the operations are stationed 750 miles away. It's hardly alone. BHP Billiton has an autonomous fleet of iron ore mining vehicles in Australia, and even Suncor wants in on the action for its oil sands assets in Canada. Digital mining and autonomous vehicles offer several attractive features for the industry. Drone haulers can operate 24/7 (excluding maintenance), greatly increasing the productivity of operations. Remote supervision -- and even worker displacement -- puts more distance between employees and dangerous mining environments, greatly increasing safety. The combined efficiency gains promise to offer enhanced economics. Plus, many natural resource assets today are located in remote locations to begin with, which means autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles don't have to contend with jaywalking pedestrians or that guy who doesn't pull out into the intersection far enough. That's especially true for underground mining. Barrick Gold, one of the world's largest gold stocks, is going all-in on a sweeping digital strategy. The company has partnered with Cisco Systems to develop everything from underground Wi-Fi for navigation (GPS doesn't work very well hundreds of feet below) to a dedicated software hub in Elko, Nevada, called C0dem1ne, that houses its in-house software team. The digital strategy is bearing early fruit. Barrick Gold has developed its own digital management app called Forge for creating and sending job orders and monitoring progress for its underground fleet. The miner reported that its underground short interval control tech, aimed at increasing shift duration and reducing delays, resulted in an additional 360 tons per day being moved in September 2017. Meanwhile, its underground autonomous loaders, called muckers, allowed an additional 190 tons of material to be moved. That will increase going forward thanks to efficiency gains and buckets that are 50% larger than human-driven loaders. In the future, the gold mining company could license its software to peers with subterranean operations, but for now the focus is on using software tools and self-driving vehicles to widen operating margins. The ultimate goal is to lower its all-in sustaining costs (AISC) to around $700 per ounce of gold, down from $772 per ounce in the third quarter of 2017. It's not just the big boys who get to play, either. Testing and development of autonomous mining technologies is beginning to proliferate throughout the industry. Even $1.6 billion Hecla Mining (HL -0.00%) is exploring the use of autonomous and semi-autonomous underground vehicles. Somewhat ironically, the company may have avoided a rough past year had autonomous tech been mature enough to use. The share price was slammed in 2017 after its Lucky Friday mine was knocked offline by a labor dispute with union workers. It hasn't contributed an ounce of production since March of last year. Management isn't looking to displace (all of) its workers, who are still needed to operate underground haulers from above-ground operating centers but rather to increase productivity and safety. Nonetheless, the mining industry's workforce could shrink significantly once the technology is widely adopted. Investor considerations Autonomous driving technology will have profound effects, both positive and negative, on all industries it infiltrates, mining included. For instance, the ability to operate above-ground mines 24/7 and to sharply reduce downtime in underground mines when moving workers away from blasting sites would greatly increase productivity. Putting fewer workers in harm's way would boost safety, and having fewer workers underground would reduce ventilation requirements needed to cope with diesel exhaust. But employing fewer workers could devastate mining regions across the globe. Things could also get tricky in Australia, an early proving ground for the tech, where laws mandate mining operations must employ certain levels of the indigenous population. There are economic implications to consider as well. Controlling an entire mining operation with software exposes mining companies to hacking risks, which could shut down mines just as labor strikes do today. Then again, self-driving mining vehicles could lower production costs and boost profits, perhaps transforming a historically volatile industry always constrained by falling production volumes. Or they could make things worse. Let's say a mine is expected to have a useful lifetime of 10 years today. The same mine would have a lifetime of just eight years if a mining company improves productivity by 20%, but produce the same amount of ore. In other words, digital mining operations could result in oversupplied markets and depressed selling prices of the commodities involved. The technologies that combined to enable the American shale revolution provide a parallel case study for investors to consider. Then again, exponential technologies often have unpredictable results. What does it mean for investors? Autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles are quietly revolutionizing the global mining industry. In hindsight, it may be curious that it took so long for companies to incorporate digital tools into their operations, but the quickly decreasing costs of self-driving tech made it inevitable. It may not be long before all mining stocks are pressured by Wall Street to adopt a digital strategy. Forward-looking investors can position themselves for the future today. Top 10 Xiaomi smartphones to buy in India Features oi -Harish Kumar Over the past few years, Xiaomi has turned out to be a very popular smartphone brand in India. The Chinese manufacturer is known to launch feature-rich smartphones with cheap price tags. And in a highly price-sensitive market like India, it is no wonder that Xiaomi phones are people's favorite. While the company is yet to launch a new smartphone in 2017, many Xiaomi phones were launched last year. In today's article, we have curated a list of top Xiaomi smartphones that you can currently buy in India. SEE ASLO: Best smartphones with USB Type-C port to buy under Rs. 15000 From budget to high-end the list covers several devices including the Redmi 5A, Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4A, Mi Max 2, Redmi Y1, Redmi Y1 Lite and the Mi Mix 2 128GB. Top 7 Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Tips & Tricks The list also details on the specifications, features and pricing of the aforementioned smartphones. In case you feel like buying a Xiaomi smartphone, don't forget to scroll down. Xiaomi Mi A1 Key Features 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD 2.5D curved glass LTPS display, 450nit brightness, 1000:1 contrast ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass protection 2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 14nm processor with 650MHz Adreno 506 GPU 4GB RAM, 64GB storage (eMMC 5.0) expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD Android 7.1.2 (Nougat), upgradable to Android 8.0 (Oreo) Hybrid Dual SIM (micro + nano/microSD) 12MP rear camera and secondary 12MP camera with telephoto lens 5MP front-facing camera 4G VoLTE 3080mAh (typical) / 3000mAh (minimum) battery Xiaomi Redmi 5A Key Features 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS display with 1000: 1 contrast ratio, 72% (typ) / 68% (min) color gamut 1.4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform with 500MHz Adreno 308 GPU 2GB RAM with 16GB internal storage 3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) with MIUI 9 Dual SIM 13MP rear camera with PDAF, LED Flash 5MP front-facing camera, f/2.0 aperture 4G VoLTE 3000mAh (typical) / 2910mAh (minimum) SEE ALSO: List of 2017's best camera smartphones under Rs 10,000 Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Key Features 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD 2.5D curved glass display, up to 72% NTSC color gamut, 1000:1 contrast ratio 2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 14nm processor with Adreno 506 GPU 2GB / 3GB RAM with 32GB storage (eMMC 5.0) / 4GB RAM with 64GB storage (eMMC 5.0) expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD MIUI 8 based on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) Hybrid Dual SIM (micro + nano/microSD) 13MP rear camera with PDAF 5MP front-facing camera 4G VoLTE 4000mAh (minimum) / 4100mAh (typical) battery Xiaomi Redmi 4A Key Features 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS display with 1000:1 contrast ratio, 72% NTSC color gamut 1.4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 processor with 500MHz Adreno 308 GPU 2GB RAM 16GB internal storage expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD MIUI 8 based on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) Hybrid Dual SIM (micro + nano / microSD) 13MP rear camera with PDAF 5MP front-facing camera, f/2.2 aperture 4G VoLTE 3030mAh (minimum) / 3120mAh (typical) Xiaomi Mi Max 2 Key Features 6.44-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD IPS 2.5D curved glass display with 450nits brightness 2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU 4GB RAM with 64GB / 128GB storage expandable memory with microSD MIUI 8 based on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) Hybrid Dual SIM (micro+nano/microSD) 12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED Flash 5MP front-facing camera 4G VoLTE 5300mAh (typical) / 5200mAh (minimum) battery with Quick Charge 3.0 Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Key Features 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD 2.5D curved glass display, 450 nits brightness, 1000: 1 Contrast ratio, 70% NTSC color gamut, Corning Gorilla Glass protection 1.4GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 435 Mobile Platform with Adreno 505 GPU 3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage 4GB RAM with 64GB storage expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) with MIUI 8, upgradable to MIUI 9 Dual SIM 13MP rear camera with LED Flash 16MP front-facing camera 4G VoLTE 3080mAh (typical) / 3000mAh (minimum) battery Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Lite Key Features 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display, 450 nits brightness, 1000: 1 Contrast ratio, 70% NTSC color gamut, Corning Gorilla Glass protection 1.4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform with Adreno 308 GPU 2GB RAM 16GB internal storage expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) with MIUI 8, upgradable to MIUI 9 Dual SIM 13MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/2.2 aperture, PDAF 5MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture 4G VoLTE 3080mAh (typical) / 3000mAh (minimum) battery Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 128GB Key Features 5.99-inch (2160 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 display with 1500:1 contrast ratio, DCI-P3 color gamut 2.45GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 64-bit 10nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 540 GPU 6GB LPDDR4x RAM with 64GB / 128GB / 256GB (UFS 2.1) storage 8GB LPDDR4x RAM with 128GB storage (Special Edition) Android 7.1 (Nougat) with MIUI 9 Dual SIM (nano + nano) 12MP rear camera with Sony IMX386 sensor 5MP front-facing camera with facial recognition 4G LTE 3400mAh (typical) / 3300mAh (minimum) battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging Best Mobiles in India Google acknowledges Android 8.0 Oreo swipe issue with Nexus and Pixel smartphones News oi -Sandeep Android 8.0 upgrade is creating issues for Google Nexus and Pixel devices. With the devices being already affected by Meltdown and Specture flaws this needs to be fixed as soon as soon as possible It seems like technolgy companies are experiencing some kind of dooms day. The year 2018 kicked off with the news of Spectre and Meltdown affecting computing devices across the globe. The companies are spending huge amount of time and resources in developing solution for the bugs. Even Apple devices are not safe and users have to take required steps to protect their sensitive information. Google, which has already faced dozens of complains with its newly launched Pixel devices is now once again un the news. Google rolled out latest Android 8.0 Oreo for its Pixel and some Nexus devices. As per some reports, users are reporting that they have to swipe all the way up on the screen to get the Pin/password/pattern which is quite a task for users. The issue is prominent with Nexus and Pixel devices which have been upgraded to latest Android version 8.0 Oreo reports some user on Googles community Forum. The issue is being expereinced from quite some time now and Google also has acknowledged this issue by replying to the users on community Forum. Along with the lock screen issue the users are experiencing issue with sliding the notofication bar up and down Google Android Oreo 8.0 was made available to Nexus and Pixel devices back in 2017. However, users are reporting the issue lately on Google community Forum and Google's issue tracker. Top 10 Tips & Tricks for Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL Google is reportedly looking for an issue and claims to provide the solution at the earliest. The list of affected devices include the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X along with the Pixel and Pixel 2XL. Google Pixel devices especially the Pixel 2XL was in news for a dozen of issues including the volume related flaw, which reduces the sound of audio clips sent via messaging apps including Instagram, Google Allo, and Telegram. Users reported this flaw on the Google community forum and asked for a solution from Google. The flaw was prominent while sending an audio clip recorded on the Pixel 2 XL, the recipient gets the same clip but with reduced volume. Best Mobiles in India Nokia 8 surprisingly gets a very low score on DxOMark: Well below our expectation News oi -Samden Sherpa Nokia 8 is capable of producing decent still images, but in many situations, it cannot match the image quality of the cameras in current high-end phones from most competitors. HMD Global's current flagship smartphone Nokia 8 has now been put through DxOMark testing and it seems the end result is not what we had hoped for given the Zeiss branding on the back of the phone. Nokia 8 has managed to score low and is even ranked below the likes of Lava Z25, Redmi Note 3 and even iPhone 6. According to DxOMark Nokia 8 has got an overall score of 68 while the smartphone has acquired 72 points for photos and 62 points for video. Meanwhile, the handset comes with dual 13MP cameras with 1.12m-sized pixels, a f/2.0-aperture lens, and optical image stabilization. In any case, as per DxOMark testing, the firm has stated that the Nokia camera was able to produce nice images in some situations but the review note also adds that the is room for improvement in many areas especially if Nokia wants to compete with the likes of Apple, Samsung, and Huawei. The report further notes that images taken from the handset show good exposure but the device struggles to capture any usable exposure in a darkest 1 Lux test scene. The testing firm has said that the phone's dynamic range is good only when the Auto HDR mode is activated. The testing has also revealed that Nokia 8 produces images with good exposure, with usually accurate white balance but photos sometimes lacked enough saturation and there was some color shading. In low light, the smartphone had some color rendering inconsistencies, with some tones slightly changing between shots of the same scene. "In terms of texture and noise, the Nokia 8 noticeably lags behind other flagship phones. Fairly strong noise is visible in areas of plain color, even in bright light, and levels of detail are generally low, with a lot of blurring of fine detail and textures. As you would expect, detail decreases further in indoor and low-light shooting conditions. In addition, the Nokia suffers from a very noticeable loss of sharpness in the field, with strong softness often visible towards the edges of the frame. Most other artifacts are well-controlled, however," DxOMark report reads. ivoomi i1 First Impressions Talking about the lens, Nokia doesn't come with a telephoto lens, therefore loss of detail is evident when zooming in and DxoMark recommends that you avoid 2x zoom unless it is an emergency. Seems Nokia 8 can't compete with devices that do have telephoto lens setup. Bokeh, on the other hand, seems to be good enough. In terms of video, at 62 points, the Nokia 8's video score is lower than its still image performance. Well, the device loses points for autofocus and stabilization. The Nokia 8 test unit failed to autofocus in low light and the recorded videos were unusable. For stabilization, DxOMark says it's on par with the Galaxy S6 edge from 3 years ago. Moreover, the videos seem to have narrow dynamic range, highlight clipping in high contrast scenes, and unstable exposure. Levels of detail were also low. On the positive side, the videos had good target exposure and color rendering both in bright light and well-lit indoor scenes. "The performance of its camera module lags behind our (admittedly high) expectations. The Nokia 8 is capable of producing decent still images, but in many situations, it cannot match the image quality of the cameras in current high-end phones from most competitors," concludes the publication's report. Via Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications OnePlus 6 confirmed to launch with Snapdragon 845 in Q2 this year News oi -Chandrika OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has recently said that it has no option but to launch the OnePlus 6 with Snapdragon 845 processor. In December 2017, a list of smartphones that will arrive with the Snapdragon 845 Soc, had emerged online. As per the list, OnePlus 6 will also feature the processor and it will be launched in June this year. Now, in an interview with CNET, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has confirmed that the company's next generation flagship would be powered by Snapdragon 845 processor and it will be debuting late in the Q2 2018. Talking about the Snapdragon 845 for OnePlus's upcoming flagship, Lau said, "Of course, there's no other choice". While he didn't confirm on the name of the flagship, looking at the past naming pattern for the company's smartphones, it should be launched as OnePlus 6. When asked about the OnePlus 6T, Lau said that he is not 100 percent sure whether the company will release a second smartphone this year. Carl Pei, the co-founder of the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, had said in earlier interview that the company is yet to decide if it wants to launch the OnePlus 6T. However, the smartphone will get launched if there is a new feature in the market which is not present in the OnePlus 6. Pete Lau further hinted that OnePlus may launch its smartphones via local carriers in the US. With this purpose, the company would soon begin the talks with one or more US carriers. "If the right opportunity and right timing come along, we'll be very happy to experiment," he was quoted as saying. However, it remains to be seen if the OnePlus 6 will get released through US carriers. OnePlus 5T Star Wars Unboxing and First Impressions As estimated by market analysts, about 85 percent to 90 percent consumers in the US tend to buy smartphone through their carrier. Naturally, OnePlus will be able to strengthen its foothold in the US market by selling its smartphones through carriers. When OnePlus first entered the US market, it started an invitation system to sell smartphones. In that way, the company managed to avoid loss by only manufacturing units as per the number of invitations that buyers obtained. Later, the company scrapped the invitation system as OnePlus smartphones got very popular. Best Mobiles in India Smartron to launch a flagship phone powered by Snapdragon 845 News oi -Chandrika If an Indian brand like Smartron launches a smartphone with Qualcomm's latest flagship processor, it will surely compete against the likes of OnePlus and Xiaomi. Indian OEM Smartron will launch a flagship smartphone with Snapdragon 845 Soc in India in the second quarter of this year. The information comes straight form the horse's mouth as Narsi Reddy, the co-founder and managing director at Smartron has said that the company is already in talks with Qualcomm. With its flagship smartphone, the company plans to take on companies like OnePlus and Xiaomi. As reported by Teletom Talk, Reddy revealed this while speaking with bloggers at Smartron's office in Hyderabad. Both Xiaomi and OnePlus will also launch their flagship devices in the Q2 2018. It seems like, by launching its flagship around the same time, Smartron wants to prove a point. In recent times, homegrown companies have failed to compete with various Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Lenovo and even Coolpad. The main reason behind this is Chinese phones have always been a good bargain with impressive features, stylish design, and most importantly affordable pricing. Hence, if Smartron wants to make an impact in the mind of Indian customers, its upcoming flagship smartphone has be priced aggressively. Narsi Reddy, however, was careful enough to not give away any details of the device. In any case, it will be really nice to see an Indian brand offering a top-notch smartphone powered by Qualcomm's latest flagship processor. Exclusive: Smartron to launch four products in January During the interaction session, Narsi Reddy also assured that the Smartron srt.phone would be upgraded to Android Oreo soon as the company has already started testing the latest iteration of Google's mobile operating system. The t.phone P will receive the Oreo update in future as well. Smartron began its journey as a smartphone brand with the launch of t.phone in 2016. However, the company got the taste of success only after it released the srt.phone last year. The Sachin Tendulkar branded smartphone performed quite well in terms of sales. The Smartron launched its third smartphone called t.phone P only yesterday. Priced at just Rs. 7,999, it comes with pretty decent specs including a massive 5,000mAh battery. As you can see, the company has always focused in the entry or budget segment. Now, it will be interesting to see what are the strategical changes Smartron will make when it enters the high-end segment. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications US House of Representatives Passes Bill Renewing FISA Surveillance Program Sputnik News 19:50 11.01.2018(updated 21:22 11.01.2018) WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday that will renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) program. The final vote was 256 to 164. The bill still needs to be passed by the US Senate before heading to President Donald Trump for his signature. Both House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke against the measure, which drew opposition and support from both Republicans and Democrats. At issue was "Section 702" of FISA, which allows warrantless spying on non-US citizen terror suspects operating outside the United States. The 702 measure is set to expire on January 19 unless extended by Congress. During the debate, Ryan warned that the amendment, if approved, would create a firewall between intelligence on terrorist plots hatched overseas and law enforcement in the United States. "You pass the Amash Amendment and defeat this underlying bill, we go back to those days when we are flying blind on protecting our country from terrorism," Ryan stated. The bill will extend the existing surveillance programs for foreigners for six years with minor changes. At the same time, the House will consider an amendment that suggests banning the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other special services from reading US nationals' messages, which may find themselves in extensive intelligence databases "incidentally" collected across the world. The amendment was proposed by Republican Congressman Justin Amash and backed by privacy advocates from both parties, especially conservatives who fear the law was misused during the Obama administration, which picked up conversations that included officials in President Donald Trump's transition team and then identified those officials. Mass surveillance by US authorities in the United States and other countries was revealed in classified US documents published by former NSA employee turned whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, prompting criticism from governments, as well as human right advocates and activist groups across the globe. Russia granted the whistleblower a temporary asylum after he fled the United States. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ecuador Confirms Granting Naturalization to Wikileaks Founder Assange Sputnik News 19:03 11.01.2018(updated 20:32 11.01.2018) On January 10, the El Comercio news outlet published the number of an identity document, registered in the Ecuadorian Civil Registration System under Assange's name. Ecuador's Foreign Ministry has confirmed granting naturalization (the legal process by which a non-citizen in a country may acquire its citizenship) to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on December 12 upon his request issued in September. Explaining the move, Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, said that she fears that third party states may threaten Assange's life. According to her, Assange won't leave Ecuador's Embassy in London as there are no security guaranties. During a press conference broadcast online, the foreign minister stressed that Ecuador had enough powers to provide better protection to the person who had asked for it. The minister added that Ecuador had asked the United Kingdom to grant a diplomatic status to Assange, but London had refused. "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," she added. On Wednesday, the El Comercio news outlet published the number of an identity document, registered in the Ecuadorian Civil Registration System under Assange's name. The report came just a day after Espinosa said Ecuador was seeking a third party to resolve the situation around Assange, stressing that the Latin American country would continue providing support to the whistleblower. Commenting on media reports, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said that Britain had dismissed a request from the Ecuadorian government to grant Julian Assange diplomatic status. "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 has been living in the London embassy of Ecuador after being given political asylum in 2012. In 2010, Swedish authorities began an investigation into rape allegedly committed by the whistleblower, who resisted being questioned in Sweden for fear that he might be extradited to the United States over his whistleblowing organization's exposure of classified documents. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US House Approves Renewal of Anti-terror Surveillance Law By Ken Bredemeier January 11, 2018 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 ISIS's 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 community's 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." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pentagon Officials Say Coalition Aims to Defeat ISIS' Brand By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2018 The physical caliphate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is in pieces and operations against ISIS continue in the Euphrates River valley, but the ISIS "brand" remains to be defeated, Pentagon officials said here today. Remnants of the terror group continue to operate in Iraq, but improved Iraqi security forces are able to manage that threat, chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana W. White and Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. told reporters during the weekly Pentagon briefing. McKenzie is the director of the Joint Staff. And, McKenzie denied Russian claims that the United States was responsible for drone attacks on Russian airfields in Syria. "I can tell you unequivocally that the United States was not involved in any way with the drone attack on the Russian base at any time," he said. ISIS 'Broken, Fractured' "[The physical caliphate] has been broken and fractured, but the work still continues," White said. "We are going to continue our operations because we ultimately have to ensure we have conditions on the ground that ISIS can never re-emerge." McKenzie said trends against the remnants of the physical caliphate in the Middle Euphrates River valley are good. "We seem to be having success there with our allies and partners, but I wouldn't put a timeline on that," he said. "There is also an enduring global element to it -- the enfranchisement of ISIS. Even though they failed as a caliphate, there are global manifestations of their brand that we see pop-up. I think there is plenty for the global coalition to do in the year ahead, aside from the physical end of the caliphate in the Euphrates River valley. The bottom line, the officials said, is the global coalition dedicated to defeating ISIS will now dedicate more attention to combating the image of the terror group than in actual combat against ISIS members. They said ISIS' global brand is fading with the defeat of the physical caliphate and as stories about the horror of life under ISIS are disseminated. Terrorist Remnants Inside Iraq, there are still problems from the remnants of ISIS in areas where the terror group operated before Iraqi security forces defeated them, White and McKenzie said. There have been terrorist attacks against civilian targets inside Iraq, but the U.S. assessment is that local forces can handle the challenge, they said. "It could be local police, the Iraqi army, it could be [Counter Terrorism Service], I don't know the specifics of the case," McKenzie said. "In all cases, we want to proceed to the point where it is local police, indigenous police that are actually able to handle it. I wouldn't say we are there in all cases yet, but it certainly is not U.S. forces doing this. We are providing the enablers and other support to allow the Iraqis to go after these problems." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Army pushing to get Secure Wi-Fi on battlefield to gain strategic edge over enemies By Amy Walker, PEO C3T/PM Tactical Network Public Affairs January 11, 2018 FORT IRWIN, Calif. -- In support of on-going efforts to make command posts more resilient, mobile and survivable, the Army is pushing to get Secure Wi-Fi to the field to help gain an operational edge against potential peer and near-peer adversaries. Following the relocation of a command post on the battlefield, referred to as a "jump," Secure Wi-Fi enables critical network and mission command systems to come up online in minutes, versus waiting many hours for Soldiers to wire a command post for network connectivity. The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division successfully piloted this Secure Wi-Fi capability for a second time during decisive action training at the National Training Center, or NTC, on Fort Irwin, California, which concluded in November 2017. During this realistic combat training event, the unit fought against a capable adversary and used Secure Wi-Fi extensively throughout its brigade command post to speed maneuver, provide continuity of mission command and remain a step ahead of enemy forces. "The key benefit provided by Secure Wi-Fi is the velocity that it brings to [the set up of] my mission command systems," said Col. Michael Adams, commander of 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. "Near-peer adversaries are much more capable than enemies we trained against previously. In a decisive action training environment, [armed with Secure Wi-Fi], we are much faster and more mobile, and that equates to survivability." The unit successfully used Secure Wi-Fi to provide untethered network connections to enable secure wireless voice, video and data exchange on more than 60 unclassified computers and 100 classified computers and mission command systems, such as Command Post Of the Future. At any given point during this event, there were at least 60 active Secure Wi-Fi users inside the brigade main command post, known as the Tactical Operations Center, or TOC, Adams said. The only wired systems that were not allowed to be wired were those Army mission command systems that were waiting to receive Army authority to operate on Secure Wi-Fi. "The win was that once the Wi-Fi system was up, I could get everyone up at the same time across the entire staff," Adams said. "It's a colloquialism; many hands make light work, but it's also an ability to fuse the actions of the entire brigade combat team across all warfighting functions." Similar to the Wi-Fi used in most homes, the Army's National Security Agency-accredited solution provides wireless network connectivity inside the command post, with added layers of security. Secure Wi-Fi is managed by the Army's Product Manager Network Modernization, assigned to Project Manager Tactical Network. Without wireless capability, establishing a network in a typical brigade command post takes many hours and requires dozens of boxes of expensive CAT 5 network cable that weigh hundreds of pounds. Every time a command post is jumped, the cables have to be cut, laid out, configured and plugged in, and often replaced because of damage and continual wear and tear. Protective flooring has to be laid over the wiring, making it difficult to troubleshoot network issues. Secure Wi-Fi can eliminate these hurdles since its small remote access points provide quick and easy network connections throughout the entire command post within minutes. "Secure Wi-Fi also speeds our mission military decision making process," Adams said. "If I know that something is going on and I can get ahead of the enemy commander, then I can set the conditions so that he is fighting from a position of disadvantage. With Secure Wi-Fi, I gain an exponential increase in velocity, and the deeper the Wi-Fi capabilities in the formation, the more we are able to do." To outmaneuver its near-peer adversary at the NTC, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division had to jump its brigade TOC several times during the realistic field exercise. These massive relocation efforts in the harsh terrain of the Mojave Desert were sometimes conducted in the dark of night, and because of mock threats of chemical and biological warfare, Soldiers were required to wear protective gear, making it more difficult to set up and wire a large brigade command post. Secure Wi-Fi made it much easier and faster to set up the network (from hours to minutes) under these extreme conditions, and users were able to connect to the network and use their mission command systems earlier and stay connected longer prior to the next jump, Adams said. "Without Wi-Fi, users were often waiting (depending on position or rank) for wire to be run," said Maj. Michael Donegan, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division communications officer (S6). "This proves wildly inefficient, as everyone on a TOC floor has an immediate and uniquely important job to accomplish. The ability to rapidly collaborate in planning is critical in order to defeat a near-peer threat. With the introduction of Wi-Fi, you don't have to choose or prioritize which users get access first." Secure Wi-Fi decreased the brigade's TOC relocation time dramatically, with the unit able to be up on all Army mission command system services simultaneously much sooner after arriving on site. It also enabled the commander to set up the TOC in different configurations to support new locations or mission requirements without having to cut new lengths of wire, Donegan said. "The ability to have a mobile command post and exercise mission command with Secure Wi-Fi continues to be a force multiplier," Donegan said. Adams said he is looking forward to seeing Secure Wi-Fi eventually implemented at battalion-level command posts as well, to further increase his brigade's speed of maneuver. The Army has recently developed a smaller version that reduces the footprint of the server stacks by 60 percent, to support smaller echelon command posts requiring fewer users. The Army plans to demonstrate this small form factor Secure Wi-Fi capability during a risk reduction event in spring 2018 as a rapid acquisition initiative. The Army continues to use Soldier feedback from pilots, user juries and training events such as NTC rotations to continuously improve and provide the best capability possible, as part of an iterative process where lessons are always being learned and technology continuously is adapted to the way the Army needs to fight. In December 2017, the Army issued a Command Post Directed Requirement, intended to enable experimentation and rapid prototyping to better inform command post requirements. The directed requirement is closely nested with the draft Command Post Integrated Infrastructure, or CPI2, capability development document, which would create a new program of record to provide mobile command post solutions to Corps, Division, and Brigade Combat Teams. The directed requirement calls for the Army to leverage wireless technology capabilities to facilitate rapid connectivity and displacement. Secure Wi-Fi is proving to be a vital element in the Army's acquisition of new integrated expeditionary command posts solutions, said Lt. Col. Mark Henderson, the Product Manager for Network Modernization who manages Secure Wi-Fi for the Army. Henderson is a member of Project Manager Tactical Network, PEO C3T. "Lack of mobility and agility are amongst the biggest factors making today's large command posts vulnerable in near peer threat environments," Henderson said. "Secure Wi-Fi increases mobility and operational flexibility, and better enables mission command so commanders can do what they do best -- fight and win!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The U.S. Army Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical develops, acquires, fields and supports the Army's mission command network to ensure force readiness. This critical Army modernization priority delivers tactical communications so commanders and Soldiers can stay connected and informed at all times, even in the most austere and hostile environments. PEO C3T is delivering the network to regions around the globe, enabling high-speed, high-capacity voice, data and video communications to a user base that includes the Army's joint, coalition and other mission partners. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Department of Defense Press Operations News Transcript Presenter: Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White; Joint Staff Director Lieutenant General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. January 11, 2018 Department of Defense Press Briefing by Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White and Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. in the Pentagon Briefing Room DANA WHITE: Good afternoon, everyone. Happy belated new year. We missed you guys last week because of the snow, so it's good to see everyone. I wanted to let you know that we are on day 1,116 under our C.R. That's more than three years cumulatively. And as we look ahead in 2018, the C.R. will expire a week from tomorrow, January 19th. We are -- they are wasteful, they're destructive, and the longer they go the worse it is. So I'm going to keep my topper short today, so we can get more questions in. So with that, I'll open it up. Lita? Q: Hi, Dana. Lita Baldor with AP. Can you give us a little bit more information on the secretary's trip to Vancouver? What it is he's going to be doing there, what message is he going to be sending to the countries that are gathered there? And also, I noticed that he apparently was at the Canadian embassy yesterday for a meeting. Can you tell us what that was about? It wasn't on any calendars we saw, so I don't think any of us were actually aware he was going to do that. So can you tell us why? Was it a private meeting? Why wasn't it noticed and what did he do there? MS. WHITE: So on Vancouver, he's going there in support of Secretary Tillerson, to one, demonstrate that we have a comprehensive approach. This is a diplomatically-led effort, the sending states will be there. And he is there to support Secretary Tillerson. With respect to his engagement at the Canadian embassy, the secretary believes one of his pillars is alliances and partnerships. So he has several meetings with foreign dignitaries, and that was just in the normal course of his regular duties. Q: I guess, number one, on the Vancouver meeting, is he not going to give any remarks or make any remarks to the group there? Can you give us a sense of what his message will be? MS. WHITE: He -- he's showing solidarity with -- with Secretary Tillerson. He will provide some remarks, he will be there to talk to the other dignitaries there. It is to show that one, we have a comprehensive approach to North Korea. And that the secretary of state is fully in the lead, and that we are here to support our diplomats to ensure that they negotiate from a position of strength. Q: And can I just request, on -- meetings like the one he had at the Canadian embassy. If that's -- if it's possible to include things like that on the week ahead, that would be helpful. MS. WHITE: I'll take that, thanks, Lita. Joe? Q: I would like to ask you about the phone call that Chairman Dunford had last night with his Russian counterpart, General Gerasimov. If you could give us more details, what it was about and if they have discussed the latest attacks on two Russian bases inside Syria. Whether those were drone attacks? MS. WHITE: I'll let the general -- LIEUTENANT GENERAL KENNETH F. MCKENZIE JR.: Sure. The call did occur yesterday, it was a frank, cordial exchange of views. I'm not going to comment on the substance of the call, we don't do that as a matter of policy. Q: To follow up, does the Pentagon know who is behind the attacks on the Russian -- two Russian bases, Khmeimim and Tartus? MS. WHITE: Again, we're not going to comment on -- Q: I'm -- I'm not asking you if you're going to -- if -- to comment on the phone conversation. If the Pentagon is aware, who is behind the attacks on those two Russian bases inside Syria? MS. WHITE: We're not going to -- we're not going to go into that. (Inaudible)? Q: There are reports that the U.S.-led coalition has started training some elements of SDF to protect the borders with Turkey and Syria -- Iraq. Can you update us on how it's going, and how many SDF fighters are you planning to train, regarding the border security -- (inaudible) -- issues? GEN. MCKENZIE: That's an operational detail that I'm not going to go into at this time. We provide a broad variety of training opportunities to allies and partners in the region, but I'm not going to go into the details of that. It'd be premature at this time. MS. WHITE: Erik? Q: Erik Rosales, with CBN News. With so much emphasis being put on North Korea, we're taking a look, also, at Russia and -- and the buildup of missiles that they are having. They want to go from anywhere from -- from 7,000 to 8,000 within the next 10 years. Comments from the Pentagon on that? MS. WHITE: We are always looking and monitoring the situation. We've always said that our assistance -- I mean, it's about alliances and partnerships, and we're going to continue to help our NATO allies to deter any -- any aggression. General? GEN. MCKENZIE: So, just from a purely military perspective, we tend to -- we try to think globally. So we balance a number of competing threats. Certainly, Russia and the development of the Russia strategic force is something we continue to look at. But at the same time, we balance it against more pressing, immediate threats. I -- I would say we watch it closely. I think we're -- we're on a trajectory that we believe is -- is going to give us a lot of good alternatives as we confront their growing forces. Q: And with President Trump actually stating the fact that he does not want to increase the missile size but, yet, wants to modernize it. That will play a role in it as well? GEN. MCKENZIE: I -- I'd wait on the NPR for the details of that, which is going to be forthcoming very soon. But -- and -- but that we'll talk in some detail about our nuclear modernization program, going forward. And recapitalization, long-overdue, perhaps. That's going to be part of that. MS. WHITE: Tom? In the back. Q: Thank you. Can you -- can you talk a little bit about what the current, the anti-ISIS coalition is going to be doing in the -- in the coming year or so, given that the caliphate, the supposed caliphate, is basically gone now? MS. WHITE: Well, it is a -- it is a broken, and has been fractured. But the work still continues. So we're going to continue our operations because we ultimately have to ensure that we have the conditions on the ground that ISIS can never re-emerge. GEN. MCKENZIE: So, really, I would -- I would take that in two dimensions. First is the physical caliphate in the central Euphrates River Valley. And, certainly, we're coming to -- we're coming to probable closure on that. Although, I think it's difficult to forecast the way military events are going to turn. We seem to be having some success there, with our allies and partners. But I'm not going to -- I wouldn't put a timeline on that. There's also an enduring global element to it, the franchisement, if you will, of ISIS. Even though they've failed as a caliphate, there are global -- global manifestations of their brand that we see pop up. So I think there's plenty of work for the global coalition to do in the year ahead, aside from the actual physical end of the caliphate in the Euphrates River Valley. We have to be attentive to the global issue that's linked to it as well. And that's what I think you'll see a lot of attention to, here. MS. WHITE: Barbara? Q: (Off mic) question for a minute about the drones. Because, as I'm sure you're both aware, the Russians are now making not-so-veiled statements that the U.S. may be behind the drone attacks on their airplanes. So can you, at least one of you, say definitively, if it is accurate, that the U.S. had nothing to do with the drone attacks on the Russians? GEN. MCKENZIE: I can tell you unequivocally that the United States was not involved in any way with the drone attack on the Russian base at any time. Q: And, if I could just also ask you, Dana, the U.S. Air Force -- Pacific Air Force announced, I think, technically overnight that it was sending three bombers to Guam and -- as part of their rotation. And we know the Vinson is now going out on a WESTPAC cruise. But the secretary has said that -- had indicated he didn't want to see a lot of public talk about, you know, U.S. military operations during these talks with -- between South and North, that you weren't going to be -- you (inaudible) rescheduling some of your exercises. Can you help us understand what part of military operations in that region you are talking about and what you're not talking about and what the rationale is behind all that? MS. WHITE: So the secretary had talked about -- we have -- we're deconflicting those exercises. And these decisions are always between both South Korea and us. This is a -- an alliance decision. Those decisions are being made. In terms of when we're going to talk about it, you know, in general we don't want to sort of -- we don't talk about these things in advance. But they have been deconflicted, and we will work with the South Koreans, because we have to work in lockstep with them, to ensure that we're ready and that we will continue to exercise and be ready. The American people can be confident that we'll be ready to fight tonight. J.J.? Q: Yeah, it's J.J. Green, WTOP Radio. Spoke with Senator Mark Warner a little earlier in the week, actually last week. And one of the things that we were talking about was the Russia situation, the investigation into possible -- or allegations of collusion. And one of the things that he said was he was concerned about whether the U.S. has fielded the best 20th-century military anybody could field and is concerned about whether the U.S. military is prepared for the 21st-century battles of cyber and disinformation. Is there any response or thought about that comment of his? MS. WHITE: Well, I think we have -- the president has sort of demonstrated by the fact that we've elevated Cyber Command to a full command that we have an evolving threat in cyberspace. And so we are ready and we are preparing. And you will see that, both in national defense strategy as we sort of lay out where we're going. But these things require an investment, and that's why we need a budget. We've been on C.R.s, but we have to have predictable budgets to ensure that we're investing for the capabilities for the 21st century. Q: Very quick follow-up: Do you think every day that the budget is delayed is a day in which it impedes your ability to step up and to do the things specifically related to Warner's question about the 21st-century kind of warfare that we're looking at, delays your ability to get where you want to be? MS. WHITE: Yes. The longer a C.R. goes, the more damage it does. We need budget predictability. But you'll see, when we lay out the National Defense Strategy, that's our blueprint. We have a strategy, moving forward, that's going to drive our budgets. So the fact that we don't have the predictability that we need to ensure that we have -- we can make the investments necessary -- it has a ripple effect. It has a ripple effect for the industrial base, it has a ripple effect in communities. This is a $2.4 trillion enterprise, so we need the Congress to write the check. The president has already signed the National Defense Authorization Act, and it was passed by both houses overwhelmingly. So we need the $700 billion, and we are confident that the Congress will make a deal. Lucas. Q: Dana, can you explain why you chose to deploy those three B-2 Stealth Bombers to Guam, but delay joint training with the South Koreans? MS. WHITE: General, would you take that? GEN. MCKENZIE: Sure. The bomber deployment's part of an ongoing planned deployment that affects not only the Korean Peninsula, but also a broader alliance structure in the Pacific. So that's the reason -- the bomber deployment. You would be wrong to view the bomber deployment within the single lens of what it means to the Korean Peninsula. It affects allies across the Pacific. When we begin to talk deconfliction of activities more directly related to the peninsula, that's where you can see why we would have chosen to deconflict and adjust the timing of some of those activities, because of the Olympics and the Paralympics. Q: So are you sending a message to China, as well, with this deployment? Is that what you're saying, General? GEN. MCKENZIE: I think, when we move bombers across the globe, we send a signal to everyone. Q: And just to follow, can you rule out any airstrikes against North Korea during the Olympics? MS. WHITE: We don't talk about future options. Q: You can't even rule it out, like, right here, to say there will be peace during the Olympics? MS. WHITE: We -- the secretary has said that we've deconflicted our exercise, and we maintain a full arsenal of options for the president. Q: You can't rule out any kind of bombs dropping on North Korea during the Olympic games? MS. WHITE: Tara? Q: Thank you. Three different lawmakers expressed frustration with the Pentagon yesterday. Senator Shaheen has expressed her concern that the DOD is not sending a witness to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to talk post-ISIS strategy and -- wonder if there are plans to send a witness. And then two lawmakers, Representative Gallagher and House Chairman Thornberry, expressed their frustration on the Pentagon's less-transparent readiness initiatives, telling the services to talk less openly about readiness, and how they get that message, how that message is communicated. So I'm wondering, how is the Pentagon going to, you know, make its budget pitch to the House and talk to the American public about the state of the military, with the -- these directions to basically reveal less about the state of the military? MS. WHITE: So your first question -- in terms of witnesses, as -- we just welcomed John Rood as the under secretary of policy this week, so we're very excited to have him on board. We will continue to communicate with Congress as much as we can, and when we can, as often as we can. They're very important. They're our board of directors. So we -- if we have more work to do, we'll do that work. With respect to talking about budget or readiness issues, we've been very clear with the Congress, behind closed doors, about what it -- what we need. And we will continue to be very candid with them. But the American people need to be confident that we're ready to fight tonight. And we talk about that, and we talk about our capabilities. With respect to Congress, we will always be transparent with them. We will always tell them the truth about what we need, and we'll continue that dialogue for as long as we need to have it. Q: So one of the challenges is that the HASC and SASC, who are very familiar with the readiness challenges that -- have to convince the larger Congress that doesn't necessarily attend these closed sessions. So how do you communicate to the American public, in a broader sense, about the state of readiness in the military, if there's a direction to not talk about it as much? MS. WHITE: Well, let me also tell you that there's been no direction not to talk about readiness issues. The secretary has -- wants his commanders to talk about readiness. We have to ensure that we are telling our authorizing committees. But absolutely, there are many, many conversations that the deputy and the secretary have, not only with members of the authorizing committees, but also with leadership. So we're having those conversations all the time. We will continue to have them. We will have them discreetly about some issues, but we go up and testify. We -- those are our service chief's opportunities to talk to members of Congress about what we need. But we will continue to communicate that we will sometimes need to communicate in a closed-door session. Q: As opposed to no direction that last March, OSD did issue direction to the services, to not talk openly about readiness. And that has trickled down to all the services. It's trickled down to the COCOM -- (CROSSTALK) MS. WHITE: Are you talking about a specific memo? Q: I'm talking -- yes, about directions to the services. MS. WHITE: The -- there was direction given about how we talk about classified, unclassified and pre-decisional information. There was never any direction that was given about readiness in -- exactly, readiness. It was talked about, "how are we talking about that information?" Again, the secretary has said, many times, how it's very important that we not telegraph to the enemy. American people need to know we're ready to go tonight. And Congress -- and we owe to Congress exactly what we need and when we need it. And it's why we need them to pass the F.Y. '18 budget. Cory? Q: (Inaudible). Yes. I -- I kind of want to follow up because several Senators at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing this morning, on the future of Syria post-ISIS, they basically said that they extended the invitation to the Pentagon for a witness to come. And either the Pentagon was unable to, or declined, to send a witness there. Are you aware of that -- MS. WHITE: I -- Q: -- specific issue today? MS. WHITE: I -- I'm aware -- I'm aware of the criticism. And, again, we'll continue to work with the committees of authorization, as well as the other committees, as well as other members, to provide witnesses, briefings as we can. And I would just, again, emphasize that John Rood just arrived this week, who is now the undersecretary for policy. Q: Don't you think the Pentagon should be there? I mean, today, this obviously has a -- plays a key role in the future of -- MS. WHITE: I will look into the details of -- of what was the actual decision-making process. But what I can tell you is, that we're committed to communicating with Congress, whether it's the SFRC or the armed committees of jurisdiction. As you know, secretary and sec state have both testified to the SFRC. Right here. Yes, in the green. Q: (Inaudible). With the repeated continuing resolutions, do you still expect to have the Fiscal '19 budget on time, or do you see a delay with the requests? MS. WHITE: I'm very focused on hoping that the -- the Congress passes the FY '18 budget. It's paramount that we have certainty. Tony? Q: I have a -- a readiness question. To fight tonight implies a range of capabilities including space capability. Earlier this week, SpaceX launched Zuma, a classified satellite payload. Does the Pentagon consider the mission a success or a failure, both Dana and General, given its classified payload? MS. WHITE: I would have to refer you to SpaceX, who -- who -- who conducted the launch. Q: (Off mic) I'm sorry. I -- 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? MS. WHITE: Again, I would have to refer you to them. And -- that's -- that's the answer. (CROSSTALK) Q: But it's not -- (inaudible) -- satellite? Q: General? I mean, is the satellite -- (CROSSTALK) GEN. MCKENZIE: I'm -- I'm done. We're not going to be able to give you any more information, so -- Q: Why not? Q: Why -- why can't you do that? This is a -- accountability is one of your keystones, here. The -- (inaudible) -- general. Secretary Mattis said this repeatedly. I'm asking you, from an accountability standpoint, this thing went bump in the night somewhere, and nobody knows what happened to it. Can you give us a sense of whether you consider it a failure or a success as a mission? MS. WHITE: Again, I'd have to tell you to -- you'd have to -- I'd have to refer you to SpaceX, which actually launched the satellite. Q: But you're the government, you paid for it, you're the overseers, and you're asking us to go to the company who might have been partially responsible for the problem? I mean, that doesn't make any sense, ma'am, I'm sorry. MS. WHITE: I understand, and given the classified nature of all this, but again, that's -- that's -- that's the answer. Q: Will you, at some point, commit to talking about accountability measures the DOD is taking to -- not only for the last capability, but for the loss, I don't know, hundreds of millions of dollars? MS. WHITE: So, Tony, I would just -- I will -- I will take that, I will come back to you on that. Q: Fair enough. MS. WHITE: Jeffrey? Q: Thank you. Jeff Schogol, Task & Purpose. Has Secretary Mattis been briefed on this video which reportedly shows a U.S. service member firing a shotgun into an Afghan truck? MS. WHITE: The secretary is aware of the video. Q: Have you ordered any specific actions because of it? MS. WHITE: CENTCOM is looking into those allegations, it's currently under investigation. GEN. MCKENZIE: We actually have very good procedures for this, as you know. We take these allegations very seriously. I'd refer you to General Votel's statements, CENTCOM is looking at it very hard. This is not something we look at lightly and it'll receive all the serious attention that it deserves. Q: And getting back to Tara's question, she described the guidance accurately. It was telling press shops not to talk about readiness shortfalls, lest it encourage an adversary like North Korea to attack us. I'd like you to take, for the record, whether the services are allowed to talk about readiness and what they are not allowed to talk about. MS. WHITE: I can tell you that the services are allowed to talk about readiness. Q: That is -- that contradicts the guidance from March. MS. WHITE: The services are allowed to talk about readiness. Right here. Q: Thank you very much, madam. Before, my two questions. First of all, a too late Happy New Year to everybody. MS. WHITE: Happy New Year. Q: My question on India. Are U.S. relations concerned that the secretary was in India? And also of course India has now first woman on the globe as secretary of defense -- minister of defense. Where do we go as far as we enter the new year? As far as U.S.-India -- (inaudible) -- relations are concerned? MS. WHITE: Well, I was with the secretary on that trip, and it was a pleasure to meet India's new female minister of defense. There's an opportunity. India has contributed a great deal in terms of developmental aid in Afghanistan. And I -- 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. Q: And a second question, madam, as far as Pakistani-U.S. relations are concerned, this issue has been going for over 20 years, I've been asking everywhere here, at the State Department and the White House. Then it came 10 years ago, almost, Osama bin Laden was found in Pakistan, they kept denying. And now they keep denying that they have any terrorisms, and their foreign secretaries -- or foreign minister have said that yes, they have some terrorists inside the country. It will take time, but why it'll take time? Were they sleeping? How much now can you trust Pakistan that they will be with you to combat or go after terrorists? MS. WHITE: We believe that Pakistan has the ability to address this threat. And we -- and this is an opportunity for them to take decisive action, and we look forward to working with them to -- to encourage them to do so. Hans? Q: There's a report in the Daily Beast that government employees, including the United States Navy, used government servers to assess a revenge porn site. Are you guys aware of this report? Are you investigating it on your own? And can you remind us of the protocols that Navy employees have when they -- when they do use government servers? MS. WHITE: So I am aware of the reports. And the department has procedures that all employees must train on, with respect to use of websites. With respect to this specific issue, I know the Navy is working it, and I would -- I would refer to you for more -- to them for more details. Q: OK. I have a separate line to General McKenzie. You've just said that, whenever we move strategic assets -- it's referring to the B-2 -- that you're sending a message to the entire world. That conflicts a little bit with what we were told about this beforehand, that this was just a normal scheduled rotation. So is this a scheduled rotation, or is this meant to show some -- send some sort of strategic message? GEN. MCKENZIE: Yeah. Actually, I disagree with the premise of your question. I think scheduled missions show -- deliver a message. It doesn't have to be an unscheduled mission to deliver a message. So I would say that we are sending a message by executing scheduled deployments. Q: Can I ask how long the B-2s are going to be staying -- are deployed -- going to be deployed to Guam? GEN. MCKENZIE: Don't have that information off the top of my head. Q: Can you get that? I mean, is it days, weeks? (CROSSTALK) GEN. MCKENZIE: If I can share it with you, we'll get back to you on it. MS. WHITE: Jamie. Q: Just a quick follow-up on the computer pornography question. There's some legislation in Congress that would specifically make it a crime to use a government computer to access pornography. Does the Pentagon and the U.S. military -- do you currently block any sites that are judged to be pornography? MS. WHITE: I'm not familiar with the legislation. I -- and like -- and as I said, we have -- we have procedures in place. Guidance is given. Training is required, and we'll continue to look into this. Q: And, just one small housekeeping matter on this question of transparency, it would be nice to know sometimes what the secretary is up to, even if he's at an event that's not open for press coverage. So is -- so it's disconcerting when your editor looks at your Twitter feed and asks me why I don't know where the -- what the secretary's doing when he's appearing publicly. So more transparency on that level would be helpful. MS. WHITE: I'll take that. Thank you, Jamie. Right here. Q: There are reports of increasing ISIS activities in Iraq, especially around Nineveh province. Are you aware -- are you aware of any activities by ISIS -- (inaudible)? MS. WHITE: General? GEN. MCKENZIE: I wouldn't say that ISIS is completely gone from Iraq. But I believe that, largely, local security forces have the situation in hand. I'd have to look at the specifics. I'm not aware of any significant spike. I'm not telling you there are no activities, because we're a long way from being at that -- at that stage. But I don't think there's anything I'd identify as a trend. Q: So have your forces engaged in any confrontation -- (CROSSTALK) GEN. MCKENZIE: Well, our forces aren't engaging in anything. We are actually supporting the Iraqis, who are doing all the work in Iraq. So I am not aware of any specific case. There may be something fairly -- at a fairly low level going on. I'm not aware of a significant spike. STAFF: Ma'am, we have time for a few more questions. Q: Can I just follow on that? So this is -- this means that it's the local police that are able -- (CROSSTALK) GEN. MCKENZIE: Well, I want to be -- it could. It could be the local police. It could be -- it could be Iraqi army. It could be CTS. Don't know the specifics of the case. I think, as you know, in all cases, we want to proceed to a point where it is local police, indigenous police that are actually able to handle it. I wouldn't say that we're there in all cases yet. But it's certainly not U.S. forces doing this. We're actually providing -- the enablers and the other support to enable the Iraqis to go after these problems. MS. WHITE: So right here in the middle. Q: Thank you. Parker Walton with the Asahi Shimbun. On the suspended exercises with the ROK, do you have a better idea of when those will take place? Or is it still kind of tentatively after the Olympics? MS. WHITE: It -- it's still tentative after the Olympics. I don't have a specific date. GEN. MCKENZIE: You know, I actually wouldn't use the word "suspension." It -- they're deconflicted with the event. Exercises are going to occur -- just an opportunity to adjust based on a significant event in the Korean Peninsula. MS. WHITE: Ryan? Q: Can you talk a little bit more broadly about the relationship with Russia right now? Joe and Barbara raised a question about this recent incident where they accused the U.S. of being involved in this attack. Also, there was a report that they'd denied the coalition permission to strike ISIS targets near the base at Al-Tanf. And also, they've -- you said last month that they were intentionally violating the deconfliction agreement. Have the relations deteriorated in Syria with the Russians? Is that -- is it worse off than it was a month ago? Is it better off? Or is it about the same? MS. WHITE: Well, we're still deconflicting, but I'll let the general talk to that at the moment. GEN. MCKENZIE: Sure. So we -- you know, we maintain communication with the Russians on what goes on in Syria at a variety of levels. The most effective level is probably the level in theater, where they actually talk about deconfliction details. And I would tell you that, certainly, they've probably asked us not to strike targets, and we've done the same with them. So I think that process is actually alive, and is generally effective. At the highest level, you go to the conversation that occurred yesterday between the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the -- and the Russian CHOD, and I think that was also a frank and very -- and a very good discussion. So I wouldn't -- I don't -- we believe that deconfliction is an effective technique to allow us to pursue our goal of destroying ISIS or finishing ISIS in the Euphrates River Valley, and it's been effective in trying to get to that end. Q: And it's been said that Russia and its regime allies haven't been able to stop ISIS from moving freely in the areas under its control. Is that still something that you're observing, or is -- have they been better at combating ISIS in that area? GEN. MCKENZIE: We're generally satisfied with what we see in the areas that we control -- the SDF, the forces that we operate up and down the Euphrates River Valley. We obviously have a little bit less visibility into areas that are directly under Russian or regime control, and we'll just have to let time bear out whether or not they're able to actually execute on those targets. I would just come back to one other point, though. And I'd just emphasize again that we had nothing -- the United States had nothing to do with the attacks on the Russian air base, and that's just a -- that's a flat assertion, and I want to be very clear on that. Q: Do you know if the Russians (Off mic) I'm sorry for jumping in. MS. WHITE: I really want -- I would like to let Missy get -- because Missy is back with us, and I wanted to give Missy a chance to ask a question. Q: OK. I mean, Joe, do you want to ask first? Q: No, that's (Off mic). Q: I was just hoping you all could talk about the CT campaign in Yemen. We get this periodic information from CENTCOM about CT strikes, but it's hard to know what the scale of what's ahead is on that. Is this -- I'm not asking you to talk about numbers of AQAP and other militant groups, but can you sort of characterize the strength of the CT threat there? And should we be expecting a sort of indefinite future of periodic CT strikes in Yemen? GEN. MCKENZIE: So I think we'll continue to strike targets in Yemen as long as we assess that what we're striking poses a threat to the United States. And there have been significant threat strains that have emanated from Yemen that talk about attack plotting -- what we would call external attacks, as you're aware, against the United States. And, when those targets present themselves, we're going to strike them. Q: So do you -- the -- obviously, AQAP really regains -- has regained strength during the Yemeni civil war. Do you feel like that has been addressed for the most part, in terms of getting them back to what they were prior to the outbreak of the Yemeni war? Or is this something that still is -- has yet to be done? GEN. MCKENZIE: I think it's a difficult problem. We're making progress on it. MS. WHITE: All right. Well, thank you. Q: (Off mic) a budget question? MS. WHITE: A small budget question. Q: Can you explain the importance of spending over a trillion dollars on overhauling the U.S. nuclear forces? MS. WHITE: Again, we need to wait for the Nuclear Posture Review. But the secretary is committed to having a credible nuclear deterrent, so -- Q: (inaudible). MS. WHITE: Thank you all. Q: Thank you. http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1414194/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Ross Visits Agadir, Morocco Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180111-04 Release Date: 1/11/2018 8:14:00 AM By Ensign Nicholas L. McGrath, USS Ross Public Affairs AGADIR, Morocco (NNS) -- The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) arrived in Agadir, Morocco, Jan. 10, 2018, for a scheduled port visit. The visit serves to enhance U.S.-Morocco relations as the two nations work together to strengthen regional security and stability. The ship's presence in the North Atlantic is a demonstration of our continued commitment to regional security. "Our crew looks forward to this port visit and relationships we expect to build here. These types of visits allow us to gain enhanced ties with our partners and allow our crew to experience the hospitality of Agadir along with the rich history of Morocco," said Cmdr. Bryan S. Gallo, commanding officer, USS Ross (DDG 71). Quick Facts: * Strengthening partnerships during the port visit to Agadir builds enduring relationships and emphasizes our shared commitment to promoting security and stability within the region, while seeking opportunities to enhance our interoperability as UN members. * Previous engagements with Morocco include USS Vella Gulf's November 2017 participation in exercise Atlas Handshake, a three day exercise which included maritime interdiction operation and visit, board, search and seizure training. Morocco is additionally a routine participant in the multinational maritime exercise Obangame Express. Obangame Express is one of three Africa regional Express series exercises facilitated annually by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet. * Ross, forward-deployed to Rota, Spain is currently conducting a routine patrol to support U.S. national security interests in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations. * U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni forces fire ballistic missile at Saudi military facility Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 09:19PM Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement says it has fired a ballistic missile at a special forces camp and a facility for gunships in the southwestern Saudi border province of Najran. Anasarullah announced on Thursday that the projectile was a Qaher M-2 ballistic missile, without providing further details. The Saudi-led coalition fighting against Yemen has not made any immediate comments with regard to the missile launch. Yemeni forces regularly fire ballistic missiles at Saudi positions inside the Arab kingdom in retaliation for its military strikes on Yemen. On Wednesday, Yemeni forces captured a Saudi military base in Najran during a retaliatory operation, killing several of the troops stationed there. There has been no exact information about the number of Saudi casualties during Riyadh's war on Yemen, as the kingdom has sought to cover up the issue. Saudi Arabia, backed by a coalition of its allies, started the war on Yemen in March 2015, hoping that with blunt force, it would be able to restore power in a matter of weeks to a former Riyadh-friendly Yemeni regime. The Saudi regime has, however, been unable to accomplish the objectives of its military aggression some three years into the war, which has claimed around 13,600 lives. Despite the coalition's superior aggregate military power, Riyadh has been bogged down in the war against mostly tribal fighters with limited fighting equipment. Saudi Arabia, already economically challenged, has decided to pay out an extra 5,000 Saudi riyals (1,333 US dollars) monthly to the troops fighting on the front lines in the war on Yemen, where reports have painted a grim picture of the Saudi-led military personnel's morale. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Afghan president pardons 75 prisoners loyal to former warlord Hekmatyar Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 03:11PM Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has granted clemency to 75 prisoners loyal to former warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who reached a landmark peace deal with the government in Kabul in 2016. According to Shah Mir Amirpoor, the press officer at the Pul-e-Charkhi detention center east of Kabul, the inmates were released on Thursday in line with Ghani's decree. Hekmatyar, a former commander in the 1980s who waged a guerrilla war against the Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan, stands accused of leading the militancy that allegedly killed thousands of people, mostly civilians, in Kabul, during the 1992-1996 civil war. In the wake of Taliban's reign of terror in 2001, Hekmatyar was designated a "global terrorist" by the US for his alleged links to the al-Qaeda and Taliban militant groups and was hence forced to go into hiding. In September 2016, following months of negotiations between Kabul and Hekmatyar, the two sides sealed a landmark peace deal, which gave him and his followers immunity for past actions and granted them full political rights. However, Nadir Afghan, spokesman for Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami party, says more than 2,200 members of the party are still in prison in Afghanistan. The deal sparked revulsion from human rights groups that argued it was too lenient toward the warlord and many of his militants. Kabul hoped the accord with Hekmatyar would encourage other armed groups to follow suit, but they have so far resisted peace overtures. Back in February last year, upon Kabul's request, the United Nations Security Council lifted sanctions against Hekmatyar, saying "assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in Resolution 2253 (2015)" no longer applied to him. It also removed his name from its Daesh-linked group list. The peace deal with Hekmatyar's outfit, the country's second-biggest militant group after Taliban, is seen by some as a symbolic victory for Ghani, who seeks to revive peace negotiations with the much stronger Taliban, and who has so far failed to bring complete peace to the country despite election promises to that effect. Afghanistan has been plagued by insecurity since the US and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror in 2001. Many parts of the Asian state suffer from militancy despite the presence of foreign troops. During the past 16 years, the Taliban militants have been conducting terrorist attacks across the country, killing and displacing civilians. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan protests after Chinese vessel sails in vicinity of disputed isles Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 10:01AM Japan has officially protested to China over an incident in which a Chinese frigate sailed in waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea, calling on Beijing to avoid actions that could impede the betterment of bilateral relations. According to a statement released by Japan's Foreign Ministry on Thursday, Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama summoned Cheng Yonghua, Beijing's ambassador to Tokyo, to voice Japan's concerns over the issue. That came after Japanese naval authorities said they had detected a Chinese 4,000-tonne Jiangkai II-class frigate around 11:00 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) apparently on the same day in waters surrounding the Japanese-administered isles known as Senkaku in Japan and claimed as the Diaoyu by China. Sugiyama "issued a protest by expressing serious concerns and strongly requested China not to interfere with the flow of improving Japan-China relations," the statement further said, as read out by Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, in a press conference. Meanwhile, Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman Go Yamaguchi claimed that an unidentified submarine had also been spotted entering the adjacent 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," Yamaguchi added, referring to a 12-nautical-mile band of waters that extends beyond territorial waters. In reaction, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular press briefing that the Chinese naval vessels had carried out "surveillance over the activities of the Japanese side," reiterating China's claim to the isles. Beijing is locked in a territorial row with Tokyo on the uninhabited yet strategically-important island group in the East China Sea. Ties between the two sides deteriorated after Tokyo nationalized part of the resource-rich islands in 2012. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin Again Dismisses U.S. Allegations Of Russian Meddling January 11, 2018 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. Putin's 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-dismisses-us- report-meddling-election/28969218.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China Urges Japan to Avoid 'Artificial' Incidents Near Disputed Islands Sputnik News 15:16 11.01.2018(updated 15:19 11.01.2018) BEIJING (Sputnik) - Beijing has called on Japanese authorities to avoid creating "artificial" incidents around the group of disputed, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China. "The Diaoyu islands are an integral part of China. China has historic and legal rights to sovereignty over these islands. Japan's actions can in no way change this objective reality. We urge the Japanese side not to create artificial incidents around Diaoyu and make efforts jointly with China to improve bilateral relations in the spirit of a consensus reached in 2014," Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman Lu Kang said Thursday. Earlier in the day, the Japanese Kyodo news agency reported, citing the country's Defense Ministry, that a Chinese frigate and an unidentified foreign submarine had been detected outside Japanese territorial waters near the islands. "We want to strongly urge China not to do anything to interfere with improving bilateral ties," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference. In addition, director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Kenji Kanasugi met with Chinese ambassador Cheng Yonghua, protesting the incident. The Chinese side explained the move by saying that its navy was in the area to monitor and follow two vessels belonging to Japan. According to Chinese Defense Ministry statement, its missile frigate had responded to two Japanese ships entering its claimed waters. Beijing strongly opposes Japanese actions, which had hyped up China's actions and "mixed up right and wrong", the statement says. Japan and China have been engaged in a territorial dispute over the islands since the 1970s. China says that the islands have been part of its territory since ancient times, while Japan argues the islands have been in its control since 1895. In 2014, the sides issued a joint four-point consensus on improving bilateral ties. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Thailand Receives First New T-50 Trainer Jets From South Korea Sputnik News 02:05 11.01.2018 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. 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. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN agencies call for funds to reverse food ration cuts for refugees in Rwanda 11 January 2018 United Nations humanitarian agencies on Thursday called for more donor funding to reverse a 25 per cent reduction in food or cash assistance for more than 100,000 refugees in Rwanda. "We thank donors for their continued generosity and support, while urging them to further fund humanitarian assistance so that we can give refugees the assistance they depend on," said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, Rwanda Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP). Some 130,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees in Rwandan camps rely on humanitarian assistance. Full rations of nutrition support for refugees provide 2,100 calories per person per day, the minimum for a healthy life. However, funding shortages forced WFP to trim assistance to 90 per cent in November and December, and since January, WFP has reduced the ration sizes to 75 per cent. Some $11 million are needed to restore full support for the next six months. For its part, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had secured only 19 per cent of its total funding needs as of December 2017. UNHCR, WFP and others have started moving towards targeting to ensure the needs of the most vulnerable are considered, while continuing supplementary feeding and promoting self-reliance by supporting a Government pledge to 'graduate' 18,000 camp-based refugees from food and/or cash for food assistance programmes by mid-2018. "Now more than ever is the time to find innovative and long-term solutions for refugees in Rwanda," said UNHCR Representative Ahmed Baba Fall. A Government-UN joint strategy on economic inclusion of refugees enables more refugees to become self-reliant and contribute to the economic development of their host communities by creating access to formal employment opportunities for up to 60,000 refugees and providing banking services for a similar number of refugees by mid-2018. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Insider' Attack Wounds US Soldier in E. Afghanistan By Ayaz Gul January 11, 2018 NATO's 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 mission's 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 Year's 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan Protests Presence of Chinese Naval Ships Near Disputed Islands By VOA News January 11, 2018 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Partisan Finger-pointing Threatens Russia Probes on Capitol Hill By Michael Bowman January 11, 2018 Finger-pointing and acrimony surrounding probes of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election intensified Thursday, with the Trump White House and Democratic lawmakers trading accusations of undermining and manipulating investigations that require bipartisan buy-in to succeed. "There's been a lot of comments about obstruction of justice, and frankly the only people we've seen trying to influence the investigation are former [FBI] director [James] Comey and Democrats in Congress, and that would include Senator Feinstein," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a briefing. Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California caused an uproar earlier this week by releasing the transcript of private conversations between congressional investigators and a political researcher who, on behalf of Democrats, hired a former British spy in 2016 to document any ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. In the transcript, Fusion GPS co-founder Glen Simpson said Christopher Steele uncovered "alarming" evidence of collusion between the Kremlin and Trump's team and informed the FBI of his findings. Trump weighed in on Twitter, blasting "Sneaky Dianne Feinstein" for releasing the transcript "in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization" an act he called "a disgrace. The president also called the Russia probe the "greatest single Witch Hunt in American history" and urged congressional Republicans to "finally take control" of the investigation. Democrats pushed back, defending Feinstein and saying she was forced to act in the face of mounting Republican efforts to thwart and cut short multiple Russia probes on Capitol Hill. "Their [Republicans'] goal, it seems, is to discredit the investigation so that, ultimately, they can discredit any findings that are detrimental to their party or their president," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. "President Trump makes this strategy manifest clear as day almost every day on his Twitter feed." Schumer continued, "Here is the president of the United States imploring his party to take control of the investigation. You never thought you'd hear a president saying something like this. And, frankly, you never thought you'd hear such silence from the other side of the aisle [Republicans]. All of us must choose country over party." While Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating ties between Russia and Trump's inner circle on behalf of the Justice Department, House and Senate investigations were launched with the hope that Republicans and Democrats would set party interests aside and join forces in search of the truth. "It [bipartisanship] has largely been broken," said political analyst Norman Ornstein of the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute. "This has gotten more than acrimonious." Ornstein compared the Russia probes to Congress' investigation of the Watergate scandal that caused former President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974. "What we saw with Watergate was the model of a committee where the ranking Republican set the tone by saying the key here is what did the president know and when did he know it? and followed through with an investigation with integrity," he said. Ornstein added, however, that even if congressional Russia's probes falter on partisan lines, "The real test comes with whether the integrity of the Mueller investigation is protected and a bipartisan group of members [of Congress] make it clear that the president can't fire [Mueller] or close off the investigation." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Tunisian Leaders Trade Blame, Amid Ongoing Wave of Violence By Edward Yeranian January 11, 2018 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Terabyte of Death' Cyberattack Against DoD Looms, DISA Director Warns By Lisa Ferdinando DoD News, Defense Media Activity ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 11, 2018 The vast, global networks of the Defense Department are under constant attack, with the sophistication of the cyber assaults increasing, the director of Defense Information Systems Agency said here today. Army Lt. Gen. Alan R. Lynn, who is also the commander of the Joint Force Headquarters, Department of Defense Information Networks, described some of the surprises of being in his post, which he has held since 2015. Lynn spoke at a luncheon of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's Washington Chapter. "We do an excellent job of defending the [Department of Defense Information Networks], but the level of attacks that we've seen actually was really truly surprising and it still continues to surprise me just how robust the attacks have become," he said. 'Terabyte of Death' Attack: A Matter of When, Not If A few years ago, getting a 1-gigabyte or 2-gigabyte attack at the internet access point was a big deal, he said. "Now, we get 600-gig attacks on the internet access points and unique, different ways of attacking that we hadn't thought of before," he added. The Defense Department is fortified against even larger attacks, he said. "There's now, we would call it the 'terabyte of death' there is a terabyte of death that is looming outside the door," he said. "We're prepared for it, so we know it's coming." He noted, "It's just a matter of time before it hits us." Scale of DoD Networks 'Massive' Lynn, who retires next month, said the size of the DoD network is something else that surprised him. He described it as a "massive," 3.2 million-person network that he has to defend or help support in some way. "There's something happening every second of every minute globally that you can't take your eye off of," he said. The department needs agile systems for the warfighter to stay ahead of an adversary that is evolving and moving, he pointed out. There are challenges to finding solutions that scale to the DoD Information Networks, he said. A commercial solution that works for a smaller operation might not translate into something that is effective for the worldwide DoD networks, he explained. DISA, he pointed out, is a combat support agency responsible for a multitude of networks. He cited as examples the networks between the drones and the drone pilots, or the F-35 "flying mega-computer" that needs a lot of data and intelligence, or the "big pipes" that connect various entities to missile defense. He explained how commercial mobile platforms have been modified for warfighters to accommodate secret or top secret communications. "Anywhere they are globally, if they've got to make a serious decision right now and it means seconds, that's there and available to them," he said, adding that mobile platforms are becoming "more and more capable as we go." Warfighting, which now includes streaming drone video feeds, is happening on mobile devices, he said. "It's pretty cool to watch," he remarked. While acknowledging DISA does do "a lot of cool IT stuff," Lynn said all of the efforts support a singular focus. "At the end of the day, it's about lethality," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Air National Guard Supports California Mudslide Rescue Efforts By Air Force Capt. Roderick Bersamina 129th Rescue Wing MOFFETT FEDERAL AIRFIELD, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 California Air National Guardsmen from the 129th Rescue Wing are providing search and rescue support in Southern California for those affected by recent mudslides. The wing has deployed an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter with aircrews and two pararescuemen to Santa Barbara Municipal Airport for search and rescue operations. Mudslide Response Efforts The helicopter is one of eight California National Guard aircraft and a dozen high-water vehicles supporting mudslide-response efforts. The California National Guard and the 129th Rescue Wing are working closely with the Santa Barbara sheriff's office and stand ready to send additional personnel and resources as needed. "Like we've done time and time again, your local Air National Guardsmen answered the call at a moment's notice to help those in need," said Air Force Col. Taft O. Auer, 129th Rescue Wing commander. "The extraordinary women and men of the 129th Rescue Wing are always ready to execute our lifesaving mission." Past Missions Over the last few months, hundreds of these Silicon Valley-based airmen deployed to support relief efforts in Texas for Hurricane Harvey, in Florida for Hurricane Irma, in Puerto Rico for Hurricane Maria and in California for the Wine Country Wildfires and the Thomas Fire. The 129th Rescue Wing is credited with saving the lives of more than 1,100 people since 1977. From arid deserts and snow-covered mountaintops to urban and rural settings, the 129th Rescue Wing's members can reach any destination by land, air or sea. Equipped with MC-130P Combat Shadow aircraft, HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and Guardian Angel teams made up of pararescuemen and combat rescue officers and survival experts, the 129th Rescue Wing conducts combat search and rescue missions, as well as the rescue of isolated persons on board ships, lost or injured hikers and medical evacuations across the West Coast. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Moscow slams US Senate report on Russian president as 'unfounded' Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 06:52PM Russia has lambasted as "unfounded" a report released by the US Senate that accuses Moscow of carrying out disinformation campaigns to undermine democracies, including the Kremlin's alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. "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," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference in the Russian capital Moscow on Thursday. Peskov's condemnation came a day after US top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Ben Cardin, issued a lengthy report in more than 200 pages, titled "Vladimir Putin's asymmetric assault on democracy." The report, which spans Putin's 18 years in power, details the extent to which Moscow has allegedly tried to shape elections in Russia and across Europe by conducting "malign influence operations." Peskov said the allegations reflected an "obsessive idea" in Washington that could harm "not just US-Russian bilateral relations but the US itself." Putin has already said such allegations are nothing more than mere "madness" and "espionage mania," adding that they are "dreamed up" by US President Donald Trump's "delirious" opponents in an effort to discredit the American leader. Trump, for his part, has long denied any collusion between his campaign and Russian operatives during the US presidential campaigns of 2016, which resulted in his rival Hillary Clinton's loss. American intelligence agencies claimed in January last year that Russia had interfered in the presidential election to try to help then Republican candidate Trump defeat Democratic nominee Clinton. The intelligence agencies said Moscow's interference included a campaign of hacking and releasing embarrassing emails, and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her campaign. US special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed by the US Justice Department to lead the Russia probe, is investigating whether Trump election officials cooperated with those Russian efforts. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Denounces US Senate Report on Meddling as 'Unfounded' By VOA News January 11, 2018 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 committee's 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 committee's 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 document's 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Creates New Team to Probe Hezbollah Drug Trafficking, Money Laundering By Masood Farivar January 11, 2018 The U.S. Department of Justice has assembled a team of prosecutors to investigate allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. The allegations were reportedly not pursued by the previous administration because of Iranian sensitivities. The new Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team of federal prosecutors will examine all cases stemming from Project Cassandra, an Obama-era Drug Enforcement Administration task force that targeted Hezbollah's money laundering and drug trafficking in the United States, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Thursday. "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. Launched in 2008, Project Cassandra revealed that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah was involved in shipping cocaine to the U.S. and laundering money by buying used cars in America and exporting them to Africa. The scheme evolved into a billion-dollar criminal network, Politico Magazine reported last month. But, according to Politico, the Obama White House blocked the DEA's requests for further investigations and prosecutions while it was negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran. The report led Sessions to order a review of the handling of Project Cassandra. "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 when he ordered the review in December. The new team of prosecutors specializing in international narcotics trafficking, terrorism, organized crime, and money laundering will 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," said the attorney general. The initiative comes as the Trump Administration ratchets up its rhetoric against Iran, accusing it of supporting terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and fomenting instability in the Middle East. President Trump also faces a Friday deadline to decide if he will continue to suspend sanctions on Iran under the Iran nuclear agreement - a pact he has vowed to end. The president must sign a series of waivers every few months to maintain the suspension of sanctions on Iran and to keep the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal fully intact. Trump has called the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement "the worst deal ever." In October, he refused to certify that Iran was in compliance with the agreement, saying it wasn't in U.S. national security interests. The new team of investigators will be led by Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan of the criminal division and will coordinate with investigators from DEA, FBI, Homeland Security and other organizations. The U.S. State Department designated Hezbollah as a terrorist group in 1997. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China to build world's largest fully steerable radio telescope People's Daily Online (People's Daily Online) 16:55, January 11, 2018 Chinese authorities have approved a plan to build a radio telescope in Qitai, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, noting that it will be the world's 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 China's 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 China's 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 world's largest filled-aperture radio telescope. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Xi orders armed police to uphold CPC's absolute leadership People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 07:27, January 11, 2018 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China will not attend 'meaningless' Vancouver summit on North Korea Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 07:47AM China, North Korea's main international ally, will be snubbing a ministerial summit scheduled by the United States and Canada to discuss tensions with North Korea, calling the upcoming meeting "meaningless." A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that China believed that the meeting to be held in Vancouver on January 16 would set back rather than advance efforts to resolve a dispute over North Korea's weapons programs. For unknown reasons, Canada has declined to publicize the names of the countries that have been invited to the summit, which will be attended by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland. It was not clear if China has been invited. "Whether Canada has invited [China] or not is not important. We have said that in a context that all relevant parties are proactively discussing how to properly handle the peninsula issue, it is strange that some relevant parties are using Cold War approaches. So from the beginning, China believes such a meeting is meaningless and we are resolutely opposed to it," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily news briefing in Beijing in Wednesday. "It will only create divisions within the international community and harm joint efforts to appropriately resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue," he added. Russia, another North Korean neighbor and influential player, is also reportedly expected to be absent at the meeting. This is while there have been signs that Colombia, Greece, and India countries of peripheral relevance to the North Korean issue will be in attendance. The Vancouver summit is apparently meant to show "international solidarity" against the perceived threat from North Korea, discuss ways to strengthen sanctions against the country, and discuss potential diplomatic solutions to the dispute with it. Tensions ran high on the Korean Peninsula over the past year. North Korea launched several missile and nuclear tests and South Korea took an aggressive military posture along with the US against the North. But tensions began to decrease when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un used his annual New Year address to express interest in dialog with the South as well as in North Korean participation in the Winter Olympic Games, to be held in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang. South Korea quickly responded by proposing high-level talks with the North on January 9, which North Korea agreed to and which were held according to schedule. In a confused approach, the US, whose President Donald Trump has used insulting words against Kim, first attempted to downplay the inter-Korean talks but then sought to claim credit for them. Russia and China both welcomed the talks. Observers said the North Korean overtures to the South which continued in more ways than the offer of talks worked to sideline the US, which has long sought involvement in the Korean dispute. By organizing the Vancouver summit, the US may have attempted to take center stage again. But with the absence of influential players China and Russia, it will be unclear what the summit could achieve. Pyongyang defends its weapons programs as a deterrent against potential aggression by the US and its regional allies, including South Korea. The North says the regular joint war games by the US, South Korea, and Japan, are rehearsals for war, and has repeatedly urged Seoul and Tokyo to disengage from such drills. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address EU voices support for Iranian nuclear deal amid US threats Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 11:29AM European powers have reaffirmed their determination to preserve Iran's nuclear agreement against the backdrop of US efforts to undermine the landmark multinational deal. After a Thursday meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Brussels, the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and the top diplomats from Germany, France and Britain, took turns to deliver a statement in defense of the 2015 nuclear agreement. "The focus of Today's meeting was on the ongoing work to ensure full and continued implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal with Iran, by all parties," Mogherini said. "The deal is working; it is delivering on its main goal which is keeping the Iranian nuclear program in check and under close surveillance," she said, highlighting nine reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirming Iran's compliance with the deal. "At a time of acute nuclear threats, the European Union is determined to preserve the JCPOA as a key element of the international non-proliferation architecture. The European Union remains committed to support the full and effective implementation of the agreement, including to make sure that the lifting of the nuclear-related sanctions has a positive impact on trade and economic relations with Iran, including benefits for the Iranian people." Mogherini also expressed the EU's concern over Iran's conventional missile program and increasing tensions in the Middle East, but noted that such issues are outside the scope of the nuclear agreement. In a post on his Twitter account, Zarif said there was "strong consensus" in Brussels about Iran's full commitment to its side of the bargain, but further adherence was conditional to Washington's compliance with the JCPOA. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also hailed the nuclear agreement and stressed that so far no one had put forward a better alternative to the accord. "We greatly value the JCPOA, the nuclear deal with Iran, we think it is a considerable diplomatic accomplishment," he said. "Iran is in compliance with this agreement according to the International Atomic Energy Agency," Johnson stated. Additionally, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel expressed Europe's resolve to protect the deal "against every possible undermining decision." France's top diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian also noted, "The accord is essential and there is no alternative." The meeting comes as US President Donald Trump faces several deadlines to decide whether to extend sanctions relief for Iran as part of the nuclear agreement. Before flying to Brussels, Zarif met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow on Wednesday, lauding Russia's role in the conclusion and implementation of the JCPOA. Zarif said Iran, Russia and other parties to the deal needed to closely coordinate efforts to make sure that the implementation of the accord was seriously pursued. The Iranian foreign minister said the 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. The US president delivered an anti-Iran speech on October 13, in which he refused to certify that Iran was complying with the terms of the JCPOA, reached under his predecessor, Barack Obama, and warned that he might ultimately terminate the agreement. During his speech at the UN General Assembly on September 19, Trump described the JCPOA as "the worst and most one-sided transaction Washington has ever entered into," a characterization he often used during his presidential campaign. Trump must decide by mid-January whether to continue waiving US sanctions on Iran under the terms of the JCPOA. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump to extend Iran sanctions waivers, impose new bans: Officials Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 06:39AM US President Donald Trump is expected to extend sanctions relief for Iran as part of a 2015 nuclear deal while his administration works out a "fix" to the multi-nation accord, American officials have revealed. The US president, who has to make up his mind by Friday, is likely to accept recommendation from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and extend the waivers for three more months, The Associated Press reported Wednesday, citing its unnamed sources with the Trump administration. The move goes against Trump's desire to end his country's involvement in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a landmark agreement between Iran and six world powers -- the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany. The deal puts limitations on parts of Iran's peaceful nuclear program in exchange for removing all nuclear-related sanctions. According to the AP report, however, Trump is likely to introduce a new series of sanctions that would also include Iranian firms and individuals whose sanctions were scrapped under the JCPOA. Two administration officials, two congressional aides and two outside experts who consult with the Trump White House warned that the matter was a subject of heated discussions and the Republican head of state could reject his national security team's advice and announce a rather radical decision. In October, Trump extended the relief but refused to certify Iran's compliance with the JCPOA, warning that he might ultimately terminate Washington's participation in defiance of all the other signatories. He also announced sanctions on Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), which he accused of destabilizing the Middle East and threatening American interests in the region. The president argues that Iran's development of ballistic missiles for defensive purposes is in breach of a UN Security Council resolution that endorses the JCPOA. He has also complained that the JCOPA-related restrictions would expire next decade. This, he argues, underscores the need for toughening the deal, which he has repeatedly referred to as "embarrassing" and "the worst deal" made in history. This is while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly verified Iran's adherence to the terms of the JCPOA since January 2016, when the deal took effect. Desperate to resolve the dilemma, lawmakers in US Congress have been exploring face-saving measures such as removing altogether the need for a certification by him or any other US president of Iran's compliance. Tehran has denounced Washington's constant violations of the JCPOA, warning the Trump administration that it will respond to any breach accordingly. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Leaked Video Of Khamenei Raises Questions About Iran's Supreme Leadership Frud Bezhan January 11, 2018 A mid-ranking cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was unexpectedly chosen as supreme leader during an emergency closed-door session of the Assembly of Experts in 1989, just days after the death of the founder of Iran's Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. For the first time, footage of that secret session has emerged, revealing that Khamenei was only given a caretaker role as supreme leader for a one-year period. He is also shown saying he was not qualified for the position and that his selection was unconstitutional. The video leaked on January 8 has not only raised questions about Khamenei's rise to the most powerful seat in the country but also his current leadership. Khamenei has been singled out by antigovernment protesters across Iran who have chanted slogans like "Down with the dictator" and "Khamenei, time to step down," and are disillusioned with economic hardship and the lack of political and social freedoms. Shahed Alavi, the U.S.-based Iranian journalist who first shared the video of Khamenei, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that the footage was intended to bolster antiestablishment sentiment and question the authority of the supreme leader amid the protests in Iran. "The person who people have accused of poor leadership and have demanded step down, admits himself that his leadership would make people shed tears of blood," Alavi said. Alavi was referring to Khamenei's comment in the video in which he tells the assembly before his appointment that "we should shed tears of blood wailing for the Islamic society that has been forced to even propose me [as supreme leader]." Alavi did not reveal who sent him the video, although he said it was from someone in Iran. He said the footage was of "historic importance." Nojavan, a website affiliated with Khamenei, released a statement on January 9 defending the assembly's choice. It said the Assembly of Experts' decision was "lawful" and "correct" and was conducted during "a national crisis." 'Existential Significance' Naysan Rafati, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, says the timing of the leak is crucial. "Opponents of the Iranian government will likely focus on Khamenei's self-critical statements and appointment to what was intended to be a caretaker position, as evidence of inter-regime wheeling and dealing that left Iran led by man who by his own admission was unqualified," he says. Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran's first president, tells Radio Farda from France that the video will give protesters justification to criticize Khamenei. "The unemployed youth protesting on the streets will think that they are right [to question his authority]," he says. Banisadr says he believes only someone inside the clerical regime had access to the video and was the source of the leak. Banisadr, who was president from 1980-81 before fleeing to exile in France, says the video shows that "politically, the regime has lost its inner coherence" and is riddled with division. "The video has existential significance for the regime," he says. "They guarded it for nearly 40 years. Why have they leaked it? If the regime wasn't divided, how could something like this be leaked?" 'Engineered' Selection The leaked video has also raised questions about how Khamenei became supreme leader. Banisadr says Khamenei's selection was "engineered." He says former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who chaired the meeting, pushed for Khamenei to be picked because he considered Khamenei "weak" and easy to control. "The leadership process was fictitious," Banisadr says. "It was not spontaneous but engineered." According to the constitution, the supreme leader had to be a "marja," or a grand ayatollah. But Khamenei was only a mid-ranking cleric. Khamenei admitted as much in the leaked footage. Addressing the assembly, he said, "based on the constitution, I am not qualified for the job and from a religious point of view, many of you will not accept my words as those of a leader." Khamenei was also meant to be a caretaker ayatollah for one year, after which the country's leadership would be transferred to a council with members elected through a referendum. The referendum never took place. Khamenei later changed the constitution to allow him to stay on as supreme leader. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-khamenei-leaked-video- 1989-questions-leadership/28969517.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iranian Destroyer Crashes Into Jetty in Caspian Sea Sputnik News 15:04 11.01.2018 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iran's Damavand destroyer has crashed into a jetty in the Caspian Sea, sustaining minor damage, the Iranian army announced on Thursday. The accident took place on Wednesday in Iran's northern province of Gilan due to strong winds and a sea storm, the Iranian Armed Forces said in a statement. The damage is expected to be repaired shortly, according to military experts. Two people are reportedly missing as a result of the incident, while another 14 require medical assistance. Iranian home-made Davamand frigate, previously known as Velayat, has the ability to carry helicopters, anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, torpedoes, modern guns and air defence guns. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump Poised to Increase Sanctions on Iran By Peter Heinlein January 11, 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump will increase sanctions on Iran in the coming hours, while again stopping short of reimposing sanctions intended to push the Tehran regime to give up nuclear weapons research, according to multiple news agency reports. The president was meeting with his national security team on the Iran question late Thursday. By law, the administration must certify every 90 days whether Iran is complying with a 2015 agreement it signed with the international community to limit its nuclear program. The most recent certification deadline is Friday. In October, Trump said Tehran had failed to live up to the spirit of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, but he held off on reimposing severe sanctions on Iran's energy industry that had existed previously. Trump's decision is bound to be a disappointment for exile groups and human rights activists that had hoped for tougher measures from an administration that has voiced strong support for anti-government protests in many Iranian cities and a president who has harshly criticized the Iran nuclear deal. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, in answer to a VOA question at Thursday's White House press briefing, suggested that Trump's actions would get the Tehran regime's attention. 'Very clear' about need for changes "The president has been very clear that many aspects of the Iran deal need to be changed," Mnuchin said. "There are many activities outside of the Iran deal, whether it be ballistic missiles, whether it be other issues, that we will continue to sanction, that are outside the JCPOA human rights violations we couldn't be more focused." "We have as many sanctions on Iran today as we have on any other country in the process, and we will continue to look at things," Mnuchin told VOA. Hours before Trump's decision was due, he spoke by phone about the importance of the Iran nuclear deal with French President Emmanuel Macron. A French readout of the conversation said Macron said the accord should be respected by all sides, and he stressed the importance of continued dialogue with Tehran about its ballistic missile program, according to Reuters. A White House readout of the conversation said only that Trump had "underscored that Iran must stop its destabilizing activity in the region." Ray Takeyh, Iran specialist and senior fellow for Middle East studies at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, said Trump was caught between keeping in tune with allies who want to preserve the accord and heeding intelligence estimates of Iran's destabilizing role in the Middle East. "Iran's domestic repression, regional aggression and proliferation are a problem, and the challenge is trying to balance these concerns with a punitive policy," he said in a telephone interview. Takeyh, formerly a State Department adviser on Iran, told VOA the quandary facing Trump is that in the absence of European support, his ability to sanction the Tehran government is limited. "How do you unravel an arms control agreement that has the support of a number of parties that were members to it, even though that arms deal is profoundly defective?" he asked. Europeans back deal Hours earlier, European parties to the deal made clear that they stood firmly in support of the JCPOA, leaving Trump diplomatically isolated. After a meeting in Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that while there were concerns about Iran's development of ballistic missiles and other activities in the Middle East, those should be dealt with separately. Iran has maintained its nuclear program is solely peaceful in nature. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended the EU meeting but did not appear alongside the other diplomats as they spoke to reporters. On Wednesday, however, Zarif accused the United States of implementing destructive policies. CFR's Takeyh said the administration's challenge on Iran would be in following up its tough talk with effective policy. "Its rhetoric has been fine. Now it has to deliver results," he said. "If they are going to shrink Iran's imperial footprint, they have to demonstrate that it is actually happening." The JCPOA was put in place through a U.N. 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. VOA's Steve Herman contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address European Diplomats Urge Sticking With Iran Nuclear Deal By VOA News January 11, 2018 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 we're 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan Deploys New Missile Interception System on Aegis Destroyers - Reports Sputnik News 14:23 11.01.2018(updated 17:58 11.01.2018) TOKYO (Sputnik) - Japan will use a new missile interception system on its two destroyers, equipped with US Aegis missile defense systems, which will enter operational service in 2019-2020, Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Thursday, citing sources in the government. The new information exchange system, developed by the United States, will allow using radar data from a destroyer equipped with Aegis system in order to intercept missiles by another destroyer, the newspaper reported. The current information exchange system is imperfect and requires additional radar guidance at the ship, which will conduct interception. The Japanese government also considers a possibility to install this interception system on some other warships after carrying out a necessary technical upgrade, the news outlet added. Moreover, this new system can be also used at two US land-based Aegis Ashore missile defense systems, which are expected to be deployed to Japan by 2023. The decision to deploy US Aegis Ashore systems on the country's territory, aiming to protect the Japanese citizens from the threat posed by a potential missile attack by North Korea, was announced on December 19, 2017. Tokyo plans to install the missile defense units in the prefectures of Akita and Yamaguchi. The move prompted criticism of Russia, which stated that it would mean the undermining of the Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) by the US. However, Japan responded that the country has no connection with the treaty, which had been signed by Moscow and Washington. Japan is currently protected by four destroyers equipped with US Aegis missile defense systems carrying SM-3 intercept missiles as well as surface-to-air modernized Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) ballistic missile interceptors. Sea-based Aegis systems are capable of intercepting a ballistic missile at altitudes of over 310 miles. Land-based Aegis systems have similar capabilities. Japan's missile defense is planned to be strengthened by equipping the Aegis systems with a new type of SM3 Block2A missile, the range of which is almost three times higher than those of the SM3. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Statement from the Press Secretary on Libya's Successful Destruction of its Chemical Weapons Stockpile January 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Putin Charges U.S. Is Backing Navalny Bid For Russian President RFE/RL January 11, 2018 Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged that anticorruption crusader Aleksei Navalny was being supported by the United States in his election bid. Putin made the comments, without providing evidence, on January 11 during a televised meeting with top editors and executives from several Russian media outlets. Navalny, a charismatic 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 suspended prison sentence. He and his supporters say the prosecution was trumped up and politically motivated. The United States and European Union 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 who was meddling in Russian affairs. He also avoided even mentioning Navalny by name, something he has sidestepped for months now. "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. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/putin- navalny-us-backing/28969718.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Military offensive in Idlib targeting terrorist groups: Syria Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 11:38AM Syria has defended its military offensive against militants in the northwestern province of Idlib, condemning France 'great ignorance' about what is happening in the militant-held region. France's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it was "extremely concerned" by a Syrian government offensive in Idlib and demanded that commitments made at an international deal in the Kazakh capital, Astana, to reduce hostilities be respected. Syria's state media, citing a Foreign Ministry source, on Thursday criticized the French Foreign Ministry for showing "great ignorance about what was happening in rural Idlib province," saying it was targeting terrorist groups that were not party to the agreement to reduce fighting in the region. The source said that the Syrian army was fighting to "liberate" Idlib from the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, "and the other terrorist organizations that belong to it." The statement also denied that the army had targeted civilians or hospitals, as alleged by France. Idlib is part of a de-escalation zone agreement in Astana last year mediated by Turkey, which supports militant groups, Iran and Russia, Damascus' allies, between Syria's warring sides In late October, the Syrian army, supported by allied forces and Russian air power, began an offensive in Hama province. By the end of last week, they had advanced into Idlib, close to a militant-held military airport. Syrian forces are going for an airbase in southeastern Idlib province. They advanced to within 3 kilometers of the Abu al-Duhur military airport on Wednesday. The forces have taken scores of villages in recent weeks near the provincial border between Idlib and Hama. Militant groups seized Idlib, which borders Turkey, in 2015 and it has since become the only Syrian province fully under militants' control. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian forces liberate 23 towns, villages from terrorists in Idlib Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:34AM Syrian forces have regained control of 30 villages and towns from foreign-backed militants in the country's provinces of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo. Syria's official news agency SANA on Wednesday reported that 23 villages were liberated following extensive operations against the members of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorist group in Idlib's southeastern countryside. A large number of terrorists were also killed during the operations in which a large amount of their equipment and weapons were also destroyed. Syrian forces are currently engaged in demining the regions surrounding the villages. Meanwhile, Syrian troops also reached the gates of a key airbase in the province held by the terrorists since 2015. Recapturing the Abu al-Zuhour Airbase would enable the Syrian army to regain the upper hand in carrying out airstrikes against militant positions in Idlib. Government troops, backed by allied forces, also retook at least eight villages in Aleppo province and two villages in Hama province. Over the past weeks, the army has recaptured some 60 villages during operations aimed at removing the remnants of terror groups throughout the country. 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US 'Not Involved' With Drone Attacks on Russian Bases in Syria - Pentagon Sputnik News 21:46 11.01.2018(updated 21:57 11.01.2018) WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States was not involved in any way with the recent drone attacks on Russian bases in Syria, Joint Staff Director Kenneth McKenzie said during a press briefing on Thursday. "I can tell you unequivocally that the United States was not involved in any way with the drone attack on the Russian base at any time," McKenzie said. The US Defense Department said it would not comment when asked if the United States knows who was responsible for the attacks. The Defense Department also refused to comment on whether Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford discussed the drone attacks during his phone call on Wednesday with Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov. However, McKenzie noted that Dunford and Gerasimov had a very good discussion about the current situation in Syria. "[T]he conversation that occurred yesterday between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Russian [Gerasimov] and I think that was also a frank and very good discussion," Mckenzie said. According to Mckenzie, the conversation on Wednesday is the highest level of deconfliction between the United States and Russia, but there are also other levels used by the military. "The most effective level is probably the level in the theater where they actually talk about deconfliction details and I would tell you that certainly they probably asked us not to strike targets and we've done the same with them, so I think that process is actually alive and is generally effective," McKenzie said. McKenzie added that overall, he feels deconfliction is an effective way to allow the United States to go after Daesh in the Euphrates River Valley. The statements come after Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this day that he knew, who the perpetrators of the attack were, adding that he believed Turkey had nothing to do with the issue. Following the attacks, the Russian Defense Ministry published photos of the drones, saying that the design used by the militants could only be obtained from a technologically advanced country, and warned of the danger of such attacks in any country in the world. The Russian Defense Ministry said 13 drones were used in attempted attacks on two Russian military facilities in Syria on January 6. Ten of them targeted the Hmeymim air base and three were sent toward the Tartus naval base. Three drones were taken control of and landed by the Russian forces in a controlled area, three other drones detonated after the collision with the ground, and seven other drones were destroyed by Russian Pantsir-S air defense systems. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taiwan Unveils Wishlist for Boosted Defense Spending to Match Beijing Sputnik News 23:43 11.01.2018 The Taiwanese government has revealed their plans to initiate long-term increases in defense spending aimed at acquiring advanced weapons systems as a deterrent to mainland aggression. Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have continued to mount since relations broke down in 2016. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has made the national defense of Taiwan a centerpiece of her policy, recommending a hybrid approach of both domestically constructed and US-purchased weapons. Her intention is to build a defensive Taiwanese military that could inflict unacceptable losses on superior mainland forces in the case of armed conflict between the two Chinas. Two defense officials told Reuters that Taipei is in the process of formulating defense spending plans through 2025. By then, the officials claimed Taiwan's annual military spending will have increased at least 20 percent if not more. That's an increase from about $10.8 billion to $12.9 billion in annual spending. "The Tsai administration is seeking to undo years of defense spending cuts," the officials wrote, adding that Taiwan's healthy economic growth allowed it to foot the bill. "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." Civilian leaders met with military leaders to determine where the new investments will be allocated. Military leaders have pushed for better training of Taiwanese forces as well as acquisitions of new missiles, drones, electronic warfare suites, fighter aircraft and ballistic missile defense systems. The Ministry of National Defense has also added information security, upgraded Patriot missiles, new F-16A/B jet fighters and indigenously built training planes to their wishlist. They also want to improve Taiwan's arsenal of mobile missile launchers and either build or acquire new ballistic missiles. Much of these weapons would come from Taiwan's sole foreign arms supplier: the United States. Taiwan is a top buyer of US armaments, having purchased more than $60 billion worth of Washington's weapons in the last 25 years. Tsai has frequently suggested that she wants to bolster ties with Washington and purchase more American weapons, often incensing China in the process. However, she has insisted the weapons will only be for self-defense and would not be used to provoke Beijing. Hostilities between China and Taiwan flared after the 2016 election victory of Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ended several years of detente. Unlike her immediate predecessor, Tsai has been unwilling to publicly endorse the 1992 Consensus, a cross-strait agreement affirming that there is only one China. Naturally, Beijing and Taipei disagree on which of their governments is the legitimate one, as they have since communist forces founded the People's Republic in 1949. The administration of US President Donald Trump has seen a strengthening of ties between the US and Taiwan, often a sticking point in Washington-Beijing relations. Trump was the first president since Jimmy Carter to directly speak with the Taiwanese president and in September the US Congress passed the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act which authorized naval cooperation between the US and Taiwanese militaries. Beijing has also been ramping up their military spending since the mid-2000's. In March 2017, they announced that defense spending would be increased 7 percent in 2017, an increase of $11.1 billion. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address No further extraditions to US unless Washington hands over Gulen: Erdogan Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 05:11PM Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara will not extradite any suspects to the US as long as Washington refuses to hand over Pennsylvania-based opposition figure Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government accuses of having masterminded the mid-July 2016 coup attempt. "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," Erdogan told local administrators at a conference in his presidential palace in the capital Ankara on Thursday. The Turkish leader further said that Ankara had so far extradited a dozen "terrorists" to US authorities, "but they have not given us back the one we want. They made up excuses from thin air." Gulen has strongly rejected any involvement in the botched putsch against Erdogan, but Ankara has labeled his transnational religious and social movement, Gulen Hareketi, as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO). The Turkish government has so far submitted a total of seven requests to US officials concerning the extradition of the 76-year-old cleric, but all to no avail. Washington argues that it has not yet received any sufficient evidence, required by US courts, to extradite the figure. Turkey, a NATO member, and the US have been at loggerheads over a range of issues in recent months. Ankara, among others, is infuriated by the US 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 two countries also halted issuing visas for months last year over a dispute following the detention of two locally employed US consulate employees in Turkey on suspicion of having links to the coup attempt. The Turkish authorities have so far detained more than 50,000 people, including security officials, military personnel and civil servants, over alleged links to Gulen's movement and the failed coup. More than 110,000 others, including military staff, civil servants and journalists, have also been sacked or suspended from work over the same accusations. The international community and rights groups have been highly critical of the Turkish president over the massive dismissals and the crackdown. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkish court gives life sentences to more than two dozen over 2016 botched putsch Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 03:27PM A court in Turkey has sentenced more than two dozen people to life imprisonment on charges of affiliation to a movement led by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Ankara government accuses of having masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt. A judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday that a high criminal court in the capital Ankara had handed down 13 defendants aggravated life sentences, while 15 others would serve life imprisonment for attempted takeover of Turk Telekom building in Istanbul during the putsch. The source added that the convicts were also given a total of 1,519-year jail term for "deprivation of people's freedom." During the botched putsch, a faction of the Turkish military declared that it had seized control of the country and the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was no more in charge. The attempt was, however, suppressed a few hours later. Ankara has since accused Gulen of having orchestrated the coup. The opposition figure is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to topple the government via infiltrating the country's institutions, particularly the army, police and the judiciary. Additionally, the Ankara government has outlawed his movement, and has branded it as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO). Gulen has denounced the "despicable putsch" and reiterated that he had no role in it. "Accusations against me related to the coup attempt are baseless and politically-motivated slanders," he said in a statement. The 76-year-old cleric has also called on Ankara to end its "witch hunt" of his followers, a move he said is aimed at "weeding out anyone it deems disloyal to President Erdogan and his regime." Turkish officials have frequently called on their US counterparts to extradite Gulen, but their demands have not been taken heed of. Turkey, which remains in a state of emergency since the coup, has been engaged in suppressing the media and opposition groups suspected to have played a role in the failed coup. Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in Turkey on suspicion of having links to Gulen and the failed coup. More than 110,000 others, including military staff, civil servants and journalists have been sacked or suspended from work over the same accusations. The international community and rights groups have been highly critical of the Turkish president over the massive dismissals and the crackdown. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK will not hold a second EU referendum: Theresa May spokesman Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 08:57PM UK Prime Minister Theresa May will not hold a second referendum on Britain's exit from the European Union, amid growing calls for a new vote on Brexit. "We will not be having a second referendum," May's spokesman said Thursday. Earlier, leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage suggested that Britain should hold a second referendum on EU membership which he claims would silence those who are against leaving the bloc. "Maybe, just maybe, we should have a second referendum on EU membership. It would kill off the issue for a generation once and for all," Farage said on Twitter. Farage, the former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader and current Member of the European Parliament (MEP), said that pro-Europeans such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair "will never ever give up." The Liberal Democrats and other pro-EU politicians have called for a second EU referendum, arguing that Britons did not know the full repercussions of leaving the EU when they voted. Britons remain divided over leaving the EU, with some, including Blair saying the decision should be overturned. A number of lawmakers are arguing for a second public vote on the terms of the Brexit deal. Brexit could cost the UK almost 500,000 jobs and nearly 50 billion pounds ($68 billion) in investment by 2030, according to a study commissioned by the mayor of London. In a worst-case scenario, Britain would lose 482,000 jobs and 46.7 billion pounds ($62.9 billion) in investments in the next 12 years, according to research published Thursday by Cambridge Econometrics. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who campaigned against Brexit, said it was "astonishing" that May's government had failed to do any analyses. The EU has slashed UK's economic growth forecast for 2018 and said the slowdown would continue through 2019 as uncertainties over Brexit weigh on the economy. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 3 Ukrainian soldiers killed in renewed violence in east Iran Press TV Thu Jan 11, 2018 06:35PM A renewed wave of violence in the war-torn eastern territories of Ukraine has left three army soldiers dead. Military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said Thursday that the three servicemen had been killed in areas near Donetsk, the main stronghold of pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine. "Unfortunately, there are losses among our troops again," Motuzyanyk said Army sources said pro-Russia forces had launched seven rounds of attacks with grenade, machine guns and mortars of various calibers over the past 24 hours, in what they said was an "aggravation" of the situation in the conflict zone. One soldier was killed in shelling near Novoluganske village, some 50 kilometers from Donetsk, the sources said, while the two others were killed when their vehicle hit an unidentified explosive device in the conflict zone. Kiev has put the number of Ukrainian servicemen killed in 2017 at 190. Meanwhile, sources close to pro-Russia militia forces said that two civilians had been wounded in shelling by the Ukrainian army in Donetsk region. A deadly war has battered Ukraine's industrial east over the past three years although there has been a relative calm in the area in the recent past. The war broke out in Ukraine's eastern territories following the change of government in Kiev in February 2014 and was escalated after people in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted for unification with Russia in March 2014. The West brands the unification as annexation of the territory by Russia. Kiev and its Western allies also accuse Russia of interfering militarily in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, an allegation Moscow denies vehemently. More than 10,000 have been killed in the war so far. In September 2014, the government in Kiev and the pro-Russia forces signed a ceasefire agreement in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in a bid to halt the fighting in Ukraine's eastern regions. The warring sides also inked another truce deal, dubbed Minsk II, in February 2015 under the supervision of Russia, Germany, and France. Since then, however, sporadic fighting has occurred, with the parties blaming each other for initiating the violations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address New OSCE Chairman Vows To 'Intensify' Efforts To End Ukraine Conflict RFE/RL January 11, 2018 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 Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-new-osce-chairman- alfano-vows-effort-end-conflict/28969358.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Bob Luckey / Bob Luckey GREENWICH Three men were arrested Wednesday afternoon, after pushing their luck with a forged check-scam at a second bank location after successfully making a withdrawal at another bank branch, according to police. Police were called to the Chase branch on Greenwich Avenue about a man trying to make a withdrawal of $3,000 shortly before 6 p.m. The man quickly left the premises after bank staff became suspicious. These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. Nokia has outed a new mobile accessory today. We're talking about the Bluetooth Active Wireless Earphones, bearing the model number BH-501. These confusingly share their model number with the BH-501 Bluetooth behind-the-neck headset from 2007. On one hand, that just goes to show how long the Finnish brand has been in this business. On the other hand, we assume another model number could have been used this time around. Anyway, with the new Active Wireless Earphones Nokia probably wants to capitalize on the fact that more and more high-end smartphones seem to be mysteriously losing their 3.5mm audio jacks. The BH-501 features an aluminum body with a brushed metal design and a 50cm string that connects the two buds. You can have it in any color as long as it's black. It weighs 15g, and supports volume adjustment as well as call answering and rejection from the in-line remote. The earbuds are IP55 rated for water and dust resistance, meaning they're dust protected and can withstand water being projected by a nozzle from any direction. In plain words, going out with them in the rain should pose no problem. The Nokia Active Wireless Earphones are going to be priced at CNY 299 in China, which right now translates into $46. It's unclear when or if the accessory will make it to other markets. Source Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news Login Sign Up New Ad-free Subscriber Login Email Password Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password. Stay logged in Help Published on 2018/01/12 | Source Added episode 11 captures for the Korean drama "Black Knight" (2017) Advertisement Directed by Han Sang-woo Written by Kim In-yeong Network : KBS With Kim Rae-won, Shin Se-kyung, Seo Ji-hye, Chang Mi-hee, Kim Hyun-joon, Hwang Jung-min-I,... 16 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00 Synopsis In this supernatural romance drama, a businessman with a pure heart braves danger for his love, a travel agent who has never traveled abroad. It is a love story that spans over two hundred years. Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/12/06 More Published on 2018/01/12 | Source Added episode 13 captures for the Korean drama "Prison Playbook" (2017) Advertisement Directed by Sin Won-ho Written by Jeong Bo-hoon-I, Lee Woo-jeong-I Network : tvN With Park Hae-soo, Jung Kyung-ho, Sung Dong-il, Kim Sung-cheol, Jung Jae-sung, Lee Ho-cheol,... 16 episodes - Wed, Thu 21:30 Also known as "Wise Prison Life" Synopsis Set in a prison, this is a drama about the lives of the prisoners and prison staff. Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/11/22 More er a busy year in HR in 2017, employees can expect to see three key trends, according to the lead researcher of global HR think-tank Reventure, Dr Lindsay McMillan.The main themes for 2018 will be across three pillars: health and wellbeing, new technologies, and purpose and meaning at work, said Dr McMillan.In 2018, workplaces should focus on making meaningful, proven changes, rather than implementing passing fads, in order to shape healthier, happier and more productive workplaces.Reventure outlined the following key trends and recurring themes that will shape HR in Australian workplaces in 2018:According to Reventures report, Workplace Wellbeing, 25 per cent of Australian workers would sacrifice company perks for better wellbeing in their workplace.74 per cent of workers also believe that workplace wellbeing programs, which cover everything from flexible hours to fitness programs, are worth the time and money.The prevalence of artificial intelligence and automated systems to streamline processes will continue to rise. More workplaces can expect to see change management activities such as workshops and feedback exercises to help guide implementation of new technologies.More employees are looking to their job to provide a sense of purpose 44 per cent of Australian workers said a sense of meaning was important to ensuring a high level of personal wellbeing.Further, 77 per cent of millennials said that they were looking for purpose and meaning in their work.Workplace culture has dominated the agenda this year and a lot of the issues impacting employees and employers must be addressed in 2018, said Dr McMillan.Many issues highlighted in 2017 have demonstrated the need for renewal so that organisations are prioritising employee purpose and wellbeing and driving positive workplace outcomes.Moreover, 2017 saw the focus on five key areas, including:Reventure research has shown that a massive 85 per cent of Australian workers believe that the onus is on employers to create an environment that proactively addresses stress in the workplace.More workers are looking for meaning in their jobs and it is one of the most common reasons employees leave their current workplace.These expectations have seen the rise of flexible work arrangements such as working remotely, however this can often result in a 24/7 schedule with workers constantly attached to the office through their devices.Dispersed workforces will be much more common and the challenges that come with this will be more pronounced in the next five years.One of the most prominent stories this year concerned sexual harassment in the workplace.Finally, many businesses are now recognising and addressing toxic workplace cultures.This year, Reventure supported calls from the Stillbirth Foundation Australia for more organisations to review their policies to remove any doubt that parents of stillborn children will get their entitlement.This gives them the choice of how to deal with their loss, which might be taking paid parental leave, or it might be returning to work early.Over the past year, our research has found one-quarter of Australian workers believe their workplaces focus on wellbeing has increased and three-quarters think workplace wellbeing programs are worth the time and money. 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." A banned motorist caught drink-driving for the fourth time has been jailed for six months. (stock photo) A banned motorist caught drink-driving for the fourth time has been jailed for six months. Joseph Lynch (30) was also banned from driving for 10 years. The father-of-three had "no excuse" for driving his girlfriend's car while banned and over the limit, Dublin District Court was told. Judge Brian O'Shea said Lynch, who had already been banned from driving for 10 years, had reached "the end of the line". Plasterer Lynch, of Killinarden Heights, Tallaght, admitted drink- driving and having no insurance or licence last October 28. Excuse Gda Sgt Niall Murphy said Lynch was stopped at the Killinarden House car park. He had five previous convictions for uninsured driving and three for drink-driving. "It was his girlfriend's car, he got into it and drove it. He's not going to offer any excuse," said Jeremy Ring, defending. Judge O'Shea told the court: "Driving with no insurance while disqualified and while drunk, as far as I am concerned, puts this right up at the top end of the scale in gravity." A frail lady who assaulted another woman in a Dublin city centre shop has been jailed for seven months. Stock photo: PA Archive A "frail lady" who assaulted another woman in a Dublin city centre shop has been jailed for seven months. Bernadette Doyle (40) hit the 38-year-old victim on the head and shoulder in an unprovoked attack. Mother-of-one Doyle, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to assault when she appeared before Dublin District Court. Gda Sgt Niall Murphy told the court that Doyle app-roached and hit the woman in a shop on Talbot Street on January 8 last year. The attack was unprovoked and the victim suffered no injuries. Separately, Doyle admitted breach of the peace over another incident the following day, when she hurled abuse at gardai outside a shop on O'Connell Street. The court heard the defendant had 31 previous convictions for public order breaches, theft and other offences. bond Doyle had alcohol and mental health problems and had come to the attention of gardai only "quite late in life", in the last 11 years, her solicitor Clare Barry said. Judge Brian O'Shea noted that the defendant had been subject to a peace bond at the time. She was released on the basis that she kept the peace, yet she "went back out into the community and committed further offences", Judge O'Shea said. Doyle's problems were extreme and she was in ill health. Among the conditions she was suffering from was reduced liver function. "Yet she had the strength to go into a shop and assault someone," the judge said. Ms Barry said the accused was "quite a frail lady" and her alcohol problem was a factor in the offence. She was sober at present, the court heard. Judge O'Shea said Doyle had also "squandered" multiple opportunities to engage with the probation service. The judge jailed her for one month on the assault charge and a consecutive six months on the other charge. Flu levels have trebled in the past week, leaving 20,000 infected patients swamping GP surgeries and hundreds more being admitted to overcrowded hospitals. The spike - so far more severe than last winter's flu outbreak - has now seen more adults than children struck down by illness. Children were the main victims of the outbreak immediately after Christmas. The potentially deadly infection is now sweeping through adult age groups as people return to work. Pensioners are also particularly at risk, the HSE warned yesterday, and there is a high rate among babies under 12 months old. The flu could peak next week, or might already have reached its worst level, said Dr Kevin Kelleher, the HSE's head of public health. He added that it will continue to circulate at intense levels for up to six more weeks. "We have probably still got another four to six weeks of flu activity not dissimilar to what we have experienced in the last three or four weeks," he said. "We have reached a moderate level. We have not yet got to a high level, which in the last 17-18 years we have breached only four times." Flu is now widespread in all parts of the country except the midlands. Hospitalised Flu caused 367 patients to be hospitalised last week in eight hospitals across the regions used as infection watchdogs by the HSE. The real toll was much higher, since these figures do not include the seriously-ill patients who had to be isolated in another 40 hospitals. The severity of the illness has led to 28 patients being admitted to critical care so far. Dr Kelleher said officially the number of deaths from flu remains at fewer than 10, but it is likely flu has claimed more lives and confirming other deaths will take time. Last winter there were 90 confirmed deaths from flu. The outbreak has not reached the level of the so-called swine flu pandemic of seven years ago. Dr Cillian de Gascun, head of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, confirmed that the H3N2 strain - known as Australian flu - has been overtaken by a B strain. This influenza B Yamagata strain is not covered by the flu vaccine - but the jab may provide some cross-cover, he said. Public health officials are continuing to advise people to get the flu vaccine since it is the best available protection against the highly contagious virus. Dr Kelleher said the HSE has no stocks of a vaccine to provide better protection against the Yamagata strain. Meanwhile, flu-hit hospitals suffered another day of overcrowding yesterday, as 544 patients endured further gruelling delays on trolleys. Catherine Carolan, the mother of murdered Leo Carolan is comforted outside court by her other son, Alex, after Leos killer was sentenced. Photo: Collins Courts 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 also given a concurrent 15-year jail term for the attempted murder of that friend. Cleary, of no fixed abode but from the Rathfarnham area, had been attempting to rob surviving victim Ludovic Thomas, who had arrived at the deceased man's flat with 14,000 he had withdrawn from a bank. Cleary pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Leo Carolan (25) and the attempted murder of Swiss student Mr Thomas (now 26) at the flat on the South Circular Road, on October 4, 2016. Knife Detective Inspector David Harrington said that Mr Carolan, a music student at IADT, Dun Laoghaire, had described the accused, also a student at the time, as a "passing acquaintance". Mr Thomas had arranged to visit Mr Carolan on the day of the murder, and Cleary was there when he arrived. Mr Thomas had 14,000 cash he had withdrawn from a bank, and asked Mr Carolan for an envelope for the money. While Mr Carolan was getting one, Cleary decided to steal the cash. He picked up a butterfly knife and stabbed Mr Thomas around his abdomen and mouth. When Mr Carolan returned, Cleary turned his attention to him, giving Mr Thomas time to escape out on to the South Circular Road, covered in blood and holding the knife. Cleary armed himself with another knife and stabbed Mr Carolan 12 times, severing his jugular vein and piercing his heart and both lungs. Mr Thomas was rushed to hospital with multiple knife wounds. Cleary made his way to Camden Street covered in blood and got shoes and clothes, before going to Dundrum to do some shopping. He saw friends that evening, paid off his credit union loan the next morning and took the ferry to Holyhead. He returned to Dublin days later and was arrested, eventually admitting the crimes, which he said were governed by "a sudden impulse" to take the money. Mr Carolan's mother, Catherine, delivered an emotional victim impact statement. "He was an exceptional human being. He always hoped for a better world for mankind," she said. "Life was taken from him in such a brutal and traumatic manner. Leo died saving his friend's life. When I heard the news of his murder I screamed. "Fifteen months later I'm still screaming." A statement was read on behalf of Mr Thomas, who said he had developed trust issues, paranoia and depression as a result of the attack, and has nightmares of Cleary coming out of jail and murdering everyone. Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy imposed a mandatory life sentence for murder and 15 years for the attempted murder. He took the robbery into account. Many new homes being dev-eloped in Dublin are at prices out of the reach of ordinary workers, Dublin City Council (DCC) chief executive Owen Keegan has said. Homes coming on to the market, particularly in the Docklands, were aimed at high-income earners, making them too expensive for many workers. Mr Keegan said he was "disappointed" that a land bubble had returned. In an interview with the Herald, he said there was "something not right" when people were paying higher rents than mortgage repayments, and he was not happy with the number of homes being delivered. "Clearly expensive new homes is a problem," he said. "I'd be hard-pushed to identify anyone in the civic offices on a single income who could afford to buy in the Docklands. "There needs to be a more broad-based recovery. It has initially been focused on the higher end of the market." Mr Keegan said measures introduced by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to reduce the cost of building apartments, such as removing the need for car parking spaces and not imposing an upper height limit, should help boost supply. While many people appreciated the need for sustainable transport systems, the same logic did not apply to building sustainable communities, he added. Mr Keegan also said height was an issue that the council had "struggled with". "Everybody agrees there should be higher density, 'but not in my area'," he said. "If I'm in a three-storey house, I regard it as ideal. We need to have sensitivity around blocking out light and views, but the city needs greater height. Difficult "We are constantly trying to push the boat out, but elected members will often have a different view. It's difficult for them. They reflect the views of the people who elect them. "We convinced members to adopt a higher-density model in Poolbeg [where more than 3,000 homes are planned]. "People accept the logic of sustainable transport. I'm not sure they do for housing. People like living in Dublin, and they like it the way it is." Mr Keegan said the Docklands might be a missed opportunity to develop high-density homes, with most available sites built or being developed. He also said he could see a situation in the future where developers would buy existing low-density developments with a view to razing them and building high-density units. Speaking about social housing, he said that among the reasons for the slow rate of delivery was that councils stopped building homes during the recession. Between DCC, approved housing bodies and Part V homes - delivered in private developments - around 650 new homes were provided last year. "We pay a very high price for this boom and bust, but there may have been justifiable reas- ons at the time," he said. "It has taken us longer to gear up and the process has been slow. "It's disappointing to see we've gone back to the land bubble. "You have people paying rents much higher than mortgages. Something's not right." A teenager charged with the murder of a Japanese man in a stabbing in Dundalk last week was "not fit to attend" a court hearing yesterday. Mohamed Morei (18), who was remanded in custody last week after he was charged with the murder of 24-year-old Yosuke Sasaki, is being treated in the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) in Dublin, Judge Victor Blake was told. Mr Sasaki was fatally stabbed on Avenue Road shortly before 9am on January 3. The victim, from Ebina, west of Tokyo, worked at National Pen, a call centre in Dundalk, 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, also Dundalk. Gardai received a report at 9.40am that another local man had been injured in an attack with a fence pole in Seatown Place. Mr Morei was remanded in custody by Dundalk District Court on January 4 after he was charged with the murder of Mr Sasaki. Vigil Gda Insp Martin Beggy told that hearing there was an issue with the defendant's nationality, which was undetermined at present. A bail application will have to be made in the High Court because Mr Morei 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 fundraising drive in Ireland has also been launched to cover the costs of his repatriation. Mr Morei was due to face his second hearing at Cloverhill District Court yesterday. However, when the case was called, Judge Blake was informed that he was not able to attend. Defence counsel Aoife O'Halloran told the court that it was her understanding that Mr Morei "was not fit to attend". Judge Blake said he had been given a letter from a forensic psychiatrist at the CMH saying he was unfit to attend the hearing. It was the doctor's opinion that Mr Morei would also be unfit to be brought to court in two weeks' time, the judge added. He further remanded the accused in custody in his absence and adjourned the case until January 25, when the case will be listed for mention. He also asked for an updated letter from the doctor and his team. Thanksgiving is going to be expensive. Here's how to save. 70 years back, when Jhaman Das had turned his back on advisories of all his relatives to cross the Pakistan border, little did he know that this decision will cost him lives of his young grandsons, 7 decades later, a couple of days back. His grandsons Dilip Kumar and Chandra Kumar were shot dead in broad day light triggering panic in dwindling population of Pakistani Hindu in this rare town of Mithi which still has a distinction of being Hindu dominated. But such incidents, which have rather become more frequent oflate are forcing Hindus to flee away leaving their valuables in the weekly Thar Express connecting Karachi in Pakistan to Khokhrapar in Barmer district. Now Das badly rues his decision the way his other community member do. Hindus in this propserous town of Tharparkar district, just 100 kms from Barmer, are intimidated and are forced into conversions. The mastermind of Mumbai terror attack and chief of terror outfit Jamatat-ud-Dawah Hafiz Saeed is said to be behind the widescale conversions of Hindus in this town where Muslims are in minority. Families of weaker communities specially Meghwals which comprise 40% of the towns population are the most vulnerable ones. Young girls are kidnapped and forced to marry Muslims in this village and Saeeds outfit provide financial help to the perpetrators, said Rajesh Maheshwari (name changed), who had fled from Mithi leaving behind all his fortune. Few years back, Hindus would comprise over 80% of population in this town. Now the Hindus are squeezed to 60%. Majority have decided to try their luck on the other side of the border while some have resigned to their fate accepting conversion to Islam. Business is still in the control of Hindus here. Now Islamic leaders like Hafiz Saeed are targeting trading community so that money changes hands out of fear. Such attacks are just an indication of what is in store for Hindus, who have been living in fear for quite some time, said Kamta Das Sindhi (name changed), who has been running pillar to post in Jodhpur Collectorate for Indian citizenship for last 10 years. The pitiable condition of Pakistani Hindus in Mithi is an alarming bell for External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj who has given assurances sevral times to take up cases of atrocities agaisnt Hindus in Pakistan. If Swaraj doesnt intervene strongly, the Hindu dominated Mithi town will also turn into a Muslim town. The temple bell will no longer resonate with azan in the mosque which had long been a mark of this town, said Sindhi. Source : DNA Craig David recently announced his seventh studio album The Time Is Now, slated for release on January 26th and featuring appearances from JP Cooper, Bastille, AJ Tracey, Ella Mai, Kaytranada and GoldLink. The latter lent his considerable talents to Davids brand new single Live In The Moment, which finds GoldLink holding it down on what might be his most radio-friendly appearance thus far. For the beat, David reunites with Montreal producer Kaytranada, with whom he previously linked on Got It Good off Kaytras 99.9% project. The end result is a feel-good, vaguely eighties-inspired banger. GoldLink certainly picks up where Crew left off, spitting dexterous rhymes as he raps I need you like the Devil needs soul, and there it goes in the open you should let me control, and put your mind to the side and your heart in a bowl. If youre feeling this, be sure to catch Craig Davids upcoming project at the end of the month. Quotable Lyrics I need you like the Devil needs soul And there it goes in the open you should let me control And put your mind to the side and your heart in a bowl G-Eazy is currently enjoying the success of his fourth studio album The Beautiful & Damned, and this morning, the Him & I rapper hit up The Breakfast Club to chop it up with DJ Envy, Angela Yee, and Charlamagne Tha God. Off the bat, the conversation veered toward G-Eazys battles with drugs and alcohol, which also represents one of the albums dominant themes. Despite Charlamagnes warnings that Hollywood might suck him dry, G-Eazy seems content with the mentality of living day-to-day. It doesnt take long for the subject to change to H&M and their recent controversy, which led to G-Eazy severing all ties from the clothing company. When I saw that, you know, feeling how I felt, it wasnt even like, a conversation, says G-Eazy. Call my people and get me out of this, cause this is not cool. Im not putting my name on this. G-Eazy goes on to express disappointment with the way it all played out, stating Im very guarded with what I put my name on.I was excited about H&Mthat was a big opportunity to put clothes all around the world, and do something I actually liked, and was cool with, and then I saw that happen. He emphasizes that while he walked away from a big payday, you cant miss what you dont have. For more from G-Eazy, including his thoughts on Halsey, getting turned down by The Breakfast Club, and breaking into the hip-hop community, check out the full interview below. G-Eazy Netflix has released the trailer for its latest investigative documentary series called Dirty Money, which spotlights corporate deception, greed, and fraud, and its effects on the middle-to-lower classes. Examining six stories or avarice, the film is helmed by noted documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, who recently took on the Church of Scientology and its history of abuse and mendacity in the explosive HBO production Going Clear. Gibneys latest feature focuses on the widespread the legal loopholes that effectively allow precarious corporations and business executives to target the middle class, as well as the poor, in order to financially gain from their societal inferiority. Throughout these six case studies, Gibney hopes to shed light on the problems of late-capitalism, while also highlighting the flaws within a system that consistently exonerates the notoriously greedy 1 percenters. The consequences of their actions are repeatedly handed off to the innocent civilians who fill the remaining 99 percent of society living outside of this extreme wealth, and Gibney hopes to shed light on this unfortunate phenomenon. Additionally, Martin Shkreli, the convict who purchased the sole copy of Wu Tang Clans Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, is one of the subjects profiled in the series. Watch the trailer for this upcoming series below: In other Netflix news, the streaming company also revealed the full trailer for another one of their upcoming original series Altered Carbon. While fictive in concept, this upcoming episodic production is set in the distant future, where human bodies are relegated to shells for a human conscious to slip in-and-out of. This narrative bears a resemblance to the Ghost in the Shell manga franchise, while aesthetically recalling the futuristic dystopia of Blade Runner. Joey Bada$$ kicked off the new year by announcing that 2018 will see an influx of music from the Pro Era members and hes kept to that promise. Last week, Dessy Hinds released Savior and today, Aaron Rose and Nyck Caution get together for their latest single Thrilla. Aaron Rose and Nyck Caution put on for Brooklyn on their latest single, Thrilla. While Pro Eras known for adopting a classic New York hip hop sound, they stray far from it on this Latrell James produced single. The hook is drenched in auto-tune and James provides hard-hitting, bass heavy production that sounds like its show-ready. Both Caution and Rose kick off some menacing verses on the track and completely demolish the track. At this point, it looks like well be getting a lot of new music from Pro Era this year aside from Joey Bada$$. Quotable Lyrics Like the sign of a pisces, Im swimmin Still backstrokin bitches, Im drowin in women You n*ggas is nothing, I explode Like its nagasaki when Im in her throat By Ssebuliba Samuel. Kenyan airways have today launched first ever non-stop flight from Nairobi to New York. Kenya Airways becomes the first airline to offer a non-stop flight between East Africa and the United States of America. According to Sebastian Mikosz the Kenya Airways Group Managing Director this is one of companys strategy to attract corporate and high-end tourism traffic from the world to Kenya and Africa. He said that airline will operate its state of the art Boeing 787 Dreamliner with a capacity of 234 passengers. A Rhode Island rapper by the name of Montana Millz has recently been arrested for selling drugs. However, therein lies a darkly comedic bit of poetic justice here, as Millz actually had a song by the name of Sell Drugz. In light of this unfortunate development, Millz must be applauded for one thing at least he never lied to his listeners. According to The Associated Press, Millz was sentenced to three years in federal prison for the sale of heroin and fentanyl. The thirty-year-old rapper, born Michael Persaud, was apparently busted after attempting to sell drugs to an undercover officer. The feds were reportedly watching Millz for more than four months, during which an East Providence undercover officer bought twenty-two grams of fentanyl and two grams of heroin. After obtaining a search warrant, authorities seized nearly one and a half ounces of fentanyl from his home. While prosecutors were originally pushing for a six year sentence, a judge opted to give Millz three years hard time; Millz lawyer later called the sentence fair and just. Strangely enough, many of the publications reporting on this story seem so enamored with the seemingly self-fulfilling prophecy theyre overlooking one crucial question. Has anyone actually heard the song Sell Drugz? None of the reports provided a link to the music, which led me to wonder whether such a song as Sell Drugz actually existed in the first place. After doing some digging, I managed to track down the origin a mixtape on Datpiff called Food For Thought. The song is actually available on Youtube (as seen below), but the only version was uploaded one day ago. And while Montana Millz actually had more popular songs than Sell Drugz, it seems as if the chase for a hilarious headline proved too tempting to resist. Sell Drugsz 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. By Damali Mukhaye. The Uganda national examination board has registered a better performance rate in the 2017 primary leaving examination compared to 2016. Releasing the examinations at the office of the prime minister , the UNEB Executive secretary Daniel Odongo said ,out of 628,606 pupils who sat for the exams,571,252 (90.9 percent) passed the exams while 57, 354 failed compared to 87 percent in 2016. Mr Odongo said a total of 57,198 pupils passed in first division, 293,977 in second division, and 128, 573 in third division while 91,504 passed in fourth division. Kampala district was the best performing with 7,745 candidates passing in first division, followed by Wakiso, Kiira municipality, Nansana municipality, among others, as Kween district topped the list of the worst 10 districts. Meanwhile, the state minister for primary education Rosemary Sseninde attributed the poor performance in rural primary schools to teachers absenteeism which she said accounts for disparities in performance. Giving a key note address before the official release of the 2017 PLE exam results, the UNEB chairperson Prof Mary Okwakol said the board had resolved to have distribution of PLE exam papers escorted by security agencies from storage stations to sitting centers with effect from this year. She says this will go a long way in avoiding exam leakages and other forms of malpractices however calling for additional resourcing from government. Results of 2,559 candidates have been withheld due to malpractices pending investigations. Watch: Dog Clears Way for Herd of Cattle in Snow Storm, Internet Can't Contain Emotions Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The US ambassador to Panama has resigned from his post on principle, writing in a resignation letter to the State Department that he can no longer serve the Trump administration. The US State Department confirmed the departure of John D Feeley, saying he decided to retire for personal reasons, as of 9 March this year. Mr Feeley wrote in his resignation letter: As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the President and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies. My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honour-bound to resign. That time has come. The State Department learned of his plans on 27 December, Reuters reported well before the Washington Post reported Donald Trump had referred to s***hole countries in a meeting about immigration. Haiti, El Salvador and unspecified African nations were said to have been among those discussed with the President at a briefing with congressional leaders. Mr Trump has denied he used that language but admitted speaking in a tough manner during the Oval Office meeting on immigration reform and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme. 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 Feeley was one of the State Departments Latin America specialists and among its most senior officers. According to a Spanish copy of the notice of Mr Feeleys resignation, tweeted by Univision News, the Barack Obama appointee has been in public service for 35 years, in the US Marine Corps and State Department. The notice said he held an unbreakable belief in the need for close ties between American countries. Under-secretary of State Steve Goldstein said Mr Feeleys departure was not a response to the Presidents reported comments. Everyone has a line that they will not cross, he said. If the ambassador feels that he can no longer serve ... then he has made the right decision for himself and we respect that. The Trump administration has taken a tougher stance on immigration from Latin America, most notably with moves to expel hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua who benefited from temporary protection status after natural disasters. Mr Trumps alleged s***hole comments on Thursday led to outraged responses from Haiti and the African Union. The AU said it was alarmed by the nature of the Presidents remarks while Haitis government criticised these insulting and reprehensible statements. El Salvadors foreign minister said he had sent a formal letter of protest in response to the reports. On Twitter, Mr Trump twice denied having used the word s***hole. But Democratic senator Dick Durbin, who was present at the DACA meeting, claimed he had used it repeatedly. Additional reporting by agencies For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} 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 Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney and Karen Bradley will meet again next week in the hope of making progress on the powersharing deadlock. Mr Coveney, who flew into London from a visit to the Middle East to meet the newly appointed Northern Ireland Secretary, said the talks had been "very good" and he expected they were "g oing to work very well together". The Irish deputy prime minister said there remained "significant challenges" but both governments wanted to find a way to resolve the stand-off. He said: "Everybody knows that there are time constraints in terms of the work that we need to do but also I think everybody agrees that we want devolved government again in Northern Ireland." The meeting came after a week where political relations in Northern Ireland were further strained, this time by controversies around the 1976 Kingsmill massacre in south Armagh. Mr Coveney attacked the " really, really stupid and insensitive" actions of Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff, who posted a social media video of him with a Kingsmill branded loaf on his head on the anniversary of an atrocity that saw republican paramilitaries shoot dead 10 Protestant workmen. Mr McElduff, who apologised and insisted the video was not a reference to the massacre, was suspended by Sinn Fein for three months. Unionists reacted angrily, both to the post and the extent of Sinn Fein's punishment, and the incident appeared to further reduce the already bleak prospects of a deal to restore powersharing. The situation was exacerbated on Wednesday when a number of unionist politicians retweeted a graphic satirical cartoon that portrayed the Mr McElduff controversy by depicting the aftermath of the Kingsmill outrage, with blood running from a bullet-riddled van. The incidents prompted the sole survivor of the Kingsmill shootings, Alan Black, to implore politicians on all sides to stop trying to "poke each other's eye out" and instead help the victims. However, a week of political rancour and animosity appeared to end on a more optimistic note when two senior DUP and Sinn Fein members engaged in more conciliatory exchanges on BBC NI's The View on Thursday night. In a forthright condemnation of the Kingsmill outrage, Sinn Fein's John O'Dowd, who lost three family members at the hands of loyalist paramilitaries the day before Kingsmill, said he was "ashamed" by the sectarian attack. The DUP's Edwin Poots welcomed the remarks and said his party was determined to see devolution returned. Mr Coveney said: "I think the unfortunate things that have happened in relation to Kingsmill this week and the absolutely understandable upset of families because of a really, really stupid and insensitive occurrence is a reminder of just how important legacy and reconciliation is. "So, that's why I hope people will get some encouragement from the tone of the interaction between Edwin Poots and John O'Dowd last night, which I hope is the tone we can continue in." Speaking after the meeting, Mr Coveney also told reporters that he did not believe there was any ambiguity in the agreement reached in December on the Northern Ireland border during Brexit negotiations. He said : "I don't think there is any ambiguity in the context of an all-Ireland economy and the need to protect north-south cooperation in the context of the Good Friday Agreement." Meeting Mr Coveney inside the NIO offices, Mrs Bradley said: "We have a shared objective - restoring devolved government to Northern Ireland as soon as possible." She noted that she had now had discussions with all the main parties at Stormont and Mr Coveney. "I look forward to reflecting on those conversations over the weekend to decide the way forward," she added. Sinn Fein Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill said: "Sinn Fein is absolutely ready to engage in meaningful talks to resolve the issues and re-establish the powersharing institutions. "I want to lead my party into a new Executive based on genuine partnership government and I want to do that sooner rather than later." An emotional Liam Neeson has received an award from President Michael D Higgins for his contribution to the country and humanity. Receiving the honour, the Irish actor revealed that he was wary of giving public addresses. "My fear, and it's a genuine fear, is public speaking. "Everyone says 'oh, you're an actor, you should be good at that.' It's just not true," he said. Neeson was presented with the Presidential Distinguished Service Award by President Higgins at Aras an Uachtarain. The award highlights the outstanding work by Irish people living overseas across a range of areas, from sport to science, charity or community support. The Taken star, who appeared slightly emotional as he received the award, said he was "honoured" and "very humbled". He said he would continue to "fly the flag for Irish arts" and the charity Unicef, of which he is a goodwill ambassador. President Higgins described the Ballymena native as a "splendid Irish man abroad" and a "worthy recipient" of the award. "We started the awards in 2012 to give recognition to the contribution of Irish people living abroad who have made a distinguished contribution, not just to Ireland, but to humanity in general. "And indeed, that is the case in the case of Liam Neeson", he said. Mr Higgins added: "I think our reason for having the award is to be able to say the Irish family isn't defined by national borders or territories. "It is defined by care, compassion, a shared culture and heritage, a common sense of responsibility, a consciousness of our historic experience and also the importance of Ireland contributing dynamically to a future that would be humane and more compassionate and just. "Liam Neeson qualifies by all of this criteria". The citation for Neeson's award reads: "As an extremely gifted and internationally renowned film actor, Liam Neeson has helped to raise Ireland's profile and awareness of Ireland and Irish artists around the world, especially in the United States where he is based." The actor, who also starred in Steven Spielberg's highly acclaimed Schindler's List, is a strong supporter of the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, where he started his career, and the Irish Arts Centre in New York, where he currently lives. He has given strong support in recent years for Irish cultural projects and has provided strong personal support for a variety of initiatives to promote tourism to Ireland. He has also been supporting Unicef's Believe In Zero campaign in Ireland and the United States which highlights the plight of the eight million children who die before their fifth birthday every year. While in Dublin the star is due to attend the gala screening of his new movie The Commuter on Friday evening. HALLELUJAH Nigel Farage wants a second Brexit referendum. That might be the reaction if you bluntly assessed the Ukip politician's comments yesterday - but in reality it's a case of wishful thinking. Mr Farage, whose political relevance is threatened by Brexit, has taken a leaf out of the Trump book of staying in the headlines. "Maybe, just maybe," he said, "I'm reaching the point of thinking that we should have a second referendum ... on EU membership." Many pro-Europeans jumped on his comments. Labour MP Chuka Umunna said: "For perhaps the first time in his life, Farage is making a valid point." But the reality is Mr Farage was feeding his own ego. "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 round," he said. Irish politicians have long supported the idea of a second vote that might be based in reality - but caution must prevail. Fianna Fail's Brexit spokesman Stephen Donnelly said that while a second vote might seem positive, we should be wary. Mr Donnelly makes a valid point that while support for 'Remain' has grown in Northern Ireland, Scotland and London, the wider picture is unclear. Fine Gael's Neale Richmond said: "The British people should vote again and they should vote on two clear options." And therein lies the problem. What would the question be in a second referendum? If it's a straight 'Remain' or 'Leave', there's a risk a vote on principle will reinforce Brexit. If it's a referendum on the final EU deal, then a 'No' could lead to a disorderly exit and all that brings, including a hard Border. Around 10,000 finance jobs will be shifted out of Britain or created overseas in the next few years if the country is denied access to Europe's single market, according to a Reuters survey of firms employing the bulk of international finance staff. Photo: PA Britain's forthcoming exit from the EU was the main reason for a 37pc decline in new jobs available in London's financial sector last month, according to a report from recruiting firm Morgan McKinley. 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 Britain's exit from the EU made companies in the city reluctant to hire. "Brexit clobbered the City's workforce in 2017. Anyone sticking it out into 2018 is in it for the long haul," said Hakan Enver, operations director at Morgan McKinley Financial Services. Around 10,000 finance jobs will be shifted out of Britain or created overseas in the next few years if the country is denied access to Europe's single market, according to a Reuters survey of firms employing the bulk of international finance staff. British Prime Minister Theresa May met financiers from firms including Goldman Sachs yesterday to discuss the impact of Brexit on Europe's financial capital, as London's mayor said Britain could face a "lost decade" of low growth and investment. London's future as Europe's premier financial hub is one of the biggest issues in Brexit talks because the sector is Britain's biggest source of corporate tax revenue. Many banks, insurers and other financial firms are likely to be forced to move jobs if as expected Britain loses the EU 'passport' mechanism that allows them to sell their products freely within the bloc from London. The Morgan McKinley report is one of the starkest data points yet showing how hiring has slowed as firms struggle to get clarity on what access they will have to Europe's financial markets following Brexit. The report also showed a decline in people seeking employment in the financial sector, as the number of jobseekers in finance fell 30pc year-on-year in December to 4,594. Mrs May met financiers from companies including Barclays, Goldman Sachs and HSBC at Downing Street to discuss the impact of Brexit on Europe's financial capital. Barclays CEO Jes Staley told Mrs May that the UK's tax regime is uncompetitive and more could be done to make Britain more attractive as the UK government negotiates Brexit, As Mrs May plots Britain's course for Brexit, London's vast financial services industry is scrambling to prepare for losing access to the world's biggest trading bloc - the City of London's biggest challenge since at least the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Mrs May reportedly told executives from the financial services firms that they are a priority in the upcoming Brexit talks with the EU. "It was an encouraging, positive meeting," a banker briefed on the talks told Reuters. "It felt like the meeting was about telling the finance industry 'you are a priority for us'." Last year bankers complained that they were not being listened to by Mrs May's government as Britain prepared for Brexit. It comes as a report commissioned by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan found that Britain could lose almost 500,000 jobs if it failed to agree a trade deal with the European Union. It would also lose out on around 50bn worth of investment. (Reuters) The Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) has welcomed confirmation by UK environment secretary, Michael Gove, that funding for agriculture will be retained at current levels until 2022 at least. However, Northern Ireland's farm body warned that the UK's food security could be jeopardised by what he described as an imbalance of funding in favour of the environment and away from food production. Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference last week Mr Gove said current farm payments would be honoured for the next four years, with the possibility of them being extended until 2024. UFU president, Barclay Bell, said Mr Gove's comments was positive news for farmers. But Mr Gove told the Oxford conference that funding for farming beyond 2022 would be linked to the delivery of public goods. Citing his desire to deliver a green Brexit, he said more of the 2.9bn currently spent on the basic payment scheme would be targeted at rewarding farmers for opening up the countryside and other environmental initiatives. Mr Gove said actions such as the retention of wildflower meadows, planting greater numbers of trees and protecting habitats would also attract greater financial support. But Mr Bell warned that redirecting funding away from core farming activities would be counterproductive. Imports "We need a balanced approach and Mr Gove must recognise the overwhelming importance of food production and food security," the UFU leader said. "Farmers can deliver environmental goods but if funding is not there to support food security, the UK's reliance on imported food will increase. This would undermine local food production and drive down food and environmental standards," Mr Bell argued. "The funding farmers receive is not a luxury. Without it most family farms in Northern Ireland would not be viable. "By producing food and looking after the countryside, farmers deliver jobs and environmental benefits for society - and the government has given this welcome recognition," he said. Northern Ireland's farmers receive 310 million in CAP payments each year. Meanwhile, Mr Gove insisted that the British government intended to create a new "gold-standard" for food labelling to signify British quality after Brexit. "I want us, outside the EU, to develop new approaches to food labelling. Not just badging food properly as British, but also creating a new gold-standard metric for food and farming quality," he said. Teagasc and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) have signed a Joint Initiative Agreement to promote farmer safety and health for the next three years. The initiative aims to provide safety and health research, training and advisory support to farmers. The renewal of the joint initiative comes at a challenging time for farming due to expansion in the sector and an ageing farmer population. The agriculture sector, which represents 5-6pc of the workforce, often accounts for up to 50pc of work related deaths. In 2017, out of a total of 47 workplace deaths, 24 farmers died in work related accidents, with 14 being aged 65 or older. The joint initiative, in place since 2005 when the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act was enacted, was established to make farm safety and health more accessible to farmers through a simplified Farm Safety Code of Practice. During 2018 research on farm accident levels conducted by the Teagasc National Farmer Survey will be finalised. A jointly funded study on the usefulness of discussion groups in promoting farm safety is also underway. As part of the joint initiative, training on use of the Farm Safety Code of Practice will continue to be provided by Teagasc and Agricultural Consultants. Completion of the training is also a requirement for farmers to secure Department TAMS11 funding. Martin OHalloran, CEO of the HSA, in welcoming renewal of the joint initiative, stated that it has led to increased awareness but that must now lead to safer work practices. The approach to farm safety and health is generally well understood by farmers and the broader farming community, but this awareness must now be matched by real actions on the ground. Farmers face a wide variety of hazards and risks on a daily basis and must proactively manage them to ensure a safe and healthy working life." Professor Gerry Boyle, Teagasc Director stated that Teagasc will be emphasising the need for improvements in work organisation to cut farmer workloads in its advisory programmes in 2018. Working long hours and hurrying have been shown to be major contributory factors in farm accident causation. This may also be a contributory factor to the rise in accidents among older farmers in recent years, he said. The joint initiative will also have an international dimension in 2018. A European COST Action (Co-operation in Science & Technology) meeting will take place in Ireland during March. The meeting, organised by Teagasc and HSA, will share knowledge on improving farm safety culture throughout Europe. Also from April 29 - May 4 a major World Congress on Occupational Health and Safety (ICOH International Congress, 2018) will take place in Dublin, which will include presentations on Teagasc / HSA / UCD research on farm safety and health. Controversial French billionaire Xavier Niel will assume 'sole control' of telecoms operator Eir via two separate holding companies, the Irish Independent can reveal. Documents lodged with the EU Commission, as part of a takeover approval process, lay bare the new ownership structure and reveal Eir will ultimately be housed in a company called Carraun Telecom Holdings Ltd, if the deal announced in December goes through. This freshly created entity will fully own Toohil Telecom Holdings, the vehicle Eir shareholders agreed a deal with in December. The referral document lodged with the EC states that Mr Niel will acquire "indirectly, within the meaning of Article 3 (1) (b) of the EU Merger Regulation, sole control over Eircom Holdco SA and all the companies it controls." That's despite other shareholders retaining minority stakes. The document also states that Carraun - the parent of Toohil - is 64.5pc owned by Mr Niel's company NJJ Boru SAS, which is formed by Mr Niel's privately-held NJJ Tara SAS entity as well as the Paris-listed Iliad Existing Eir shareholders, Anchorage and Davidson Kempner will retain stakes of 26.6pc and 8.9pc in Carraun respectively. In a statement announcing the deal last month, Eir said a majority stake was being acquired "by a consortium led by NJJ Telecom Europe". It is not clear why Carraun's existence was not unveiled at the time of the takeover announcement. A spokesperson for Mr Niel declined to comment on the reason for the multi-layered ownership structure however it is understood tax concerns played no part in the strategy. Legal experts pointed out such layering is typically used to facilitate the issuing of debt at various levels of a corporate structure. Filings to the Companies Registration Office show the directors of the two vehicles are A&L Goodbody lawyers. The French entrepreneur's takeover of Eir, which values the company at 3.5bn, requires authorisation from the EU Commission, as well as the Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Environment Denis Naughton and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. At home, the French entrepreneur has had a successful but at times controversial career. He's a co-owner of 'Le Monde', the newspaper, but was briefly jailed after a 2004 investigation found peep shows where he was an investor had been linked to prostitution. Although he avoided a conviction, the probe found he'd failed to declare his income from the business. Meanwhile, and as anticipated, the holders of 700m of outstanding senior secured notes due in 2022, waived their right to an early repayment yesterday. The bondholders' approval - gained via a consent solicitation process - forestalls an early repayment commitment triggered under a change of control. If there is a way to bottle the sweet smell of success, it is something leading businesswoman Jo Malone could perhaps give tips on. She became famous for her eponymous Jo Malone fragrance company, which she sold to Estee Lauder in 1999. In 2011, she announced she was back, with a new business Jo Loves, which has since become an international success, with innovative products such as the "fragrance paintbrush". In common with many of the other entrepreneurs who spoke at the Pendulum Summit, which finished up yesterday, her success came through hard work and a passion for what she did. "I am now 52 years old. I left school at 15 with no qualifications," she said. "In life, nothing that makes us who we are is wasted. My dyslexia could have destroyed me, but it made me," she said in her keynote address to the summit in Dublin yesterday evening. Meanwhile, businessman James Caan - best known to Irish audiences for his time on the panel of the BBC show 'Dragons' Den' - also outlined how he worked his way up. "I had no privileged upbringing, no private education," he said. Expand Close Randi Zuckerberg (sister of Mark) speaking at the Pendulum Summit 2018 at the Convention Center. Photo: Kyran O'Brien / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Randi Zuckerberg (sister of Mark) speaking at the Pendulum Summit 2018 at the Convention Center. Photo: Kyran O'Brien The philanthropist left school with no money at 16. There were chuckles in the audience as he recalled that his first investment on the hit show was a treadmill for dogs - some of which are still in his garage. Some 7,000 delegates attended the event, which is the world's leading business and self-empowerment summit. Rugby legend Paul O'Connell told delegates at the event: "I used to plan my retirement on the bus on the way to some of the biggest match days of my career, and I knew this was wrong." However, he went on to say that "towards the end of my career I figured out a way to really enjoy the build-up to a game". Expand Close Brad Sugars speakng at the Pendulum Summit 2018 at the Convention Center. Photo: Kyran O'Brien / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Brad Sugars speakng at the Pendulum Summit 2018 at the Convention Center. Photo: Kyran O'Brien Meanwhile, American businesswoman Randi Zuckerberg, CEO of Zuckerberg Media, former director of market development and spokesperson for Facebook, said: "You can't create an idea if you are on your phone 24/7." Banks will have to facilitate other firms that have been given permission by a customer to access account information. Photo: PA A RADICAL shake-up will mean banks will no longer have a monopoly on customer account information. The overhaul of banking comes on foot of a European Union directive and takes effect from tomorrow. Banks will have to facilitate other firms that have been given permission by a customer to access account information. The Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) seeks to open up banking and generate new ways to pay. PwC Ireland Financial Services partner Sinead Ovenden said: "The new regulation will completely overhaul banking as we know it." The introduction of PSD2 is meant to create a level playing field for new entrants and traditional market players, offering more opportunities for competition and innovative payment services. Under the revised directive, banks in Europe will need to make customer data available in a secure manner, and eventually give third-parties access to their customers' accounts, Ms Ovenden said. The new system would allow a retailer to check if a customer has sufficient funds in their bank account to pay for something, if permission is given, and to process a payment, she said. PSD2 is a testament to the new unfolding world of open banking where fintech companies, merchants and even telcos and other utility providers, can change the payments landscape completely, she said. The new process will allow fintech companies to assess consumers' finances, and use this to offer financial advice. The directive's purpose is to increase pan-European competition and participation in the payments industry also from non-banks, Ms Ovenden said. It also aims to provide for a level playing field by harmonising consumer protection and the rights and obligations for payment providers and users. PwC Ireland said all Irish banks surveyed aspire towards full open banking offering third parties to build up new services using individual bank data. Banks will need to develop an open platform that allows partners to integrate their products and services into the bank's offering, while generating new products and services. The main elements of PSD2: With a customer's permission, a bank must allow an outside company authorised by regulators to take a payment directly from an account for goods and services. A bank must allow an outside firm to access transactions history from a customer's account for the purposes of aggregating information from several current and savings accounts into a single "dashboard". Tougher customer authentication of online payments will be introduced from the second half of 2019. Banks will have to spell out reasons for refusing an application for a new account, making it harder to hide behind generic concerns like money laundering. Banks are required to give refunds for unauthorised transactions. Outside payment firms must respond to complaints within 15 days. Firms authorised under PSD2 are not allowed to take deposits or grant loans like traditional banks. Most PSD2 firms that take data from a bank account will also come under a separate EU General Data Protection Regulation that comes into force in May to reinforce safeguards on personal data. Meliosa OCaoimh, managing director of Northern Trust; Carmel Jordan, COO of Mercer; Niamh McLoughlin, manager of strategic projects at Mercer; Fiona Muldoon, CEO of FBD; and Bernard Byrne, CEO of AIB, at the launch of Making The Change Count, a Study of Women in Financial Services in Ireland by the 30% Club financial services sub committee at AIB Bankcentre in Ballsbridge in Dublin yesterday. Photo: Steve Humphreys Employers and trade unions are preparing to tackle gender based pay gaps, amid growing momentum on the issue. Trade unions lobby group ICTU and business group Ibec are in talks over a possible joint approach to improving gender pay gap reporting in companies. Union chief Patricia King said the work is focused on the development of an appropriate methodology for gender pay gap reporting, which would generate "meaningful and specific data about pay gaps". Ms King told the Irish Independent that if both groups could find a common way forward, then it would give a greater push to Government efforts to address the issue. Yesterday, Fiona Muldoon, head of insurance group FBD, and Carmel Jordan, COO of Mercer, joined AIB chief executive Bernard Byrne and Brian McKiernan, head of Davy Stockbrokers, to lend their voices to a campaign to increase the numbers of women at senior management level in the financial services industry. They spoke at the launch of pressure group The 30% Club's gender diversity survey, which showed female employees are woefully under-represented in the top ranks of finance firms. Mr Byrne acknowledged men far outnumber women on his own bank's board but said "we are building towards a full gender-balanced position". Read more: Small firms urged to pitch for 50,000 Davy's Brian McKiernan, who also sits on a largely male board of directors, stressed "we need to engage more men" and said improving female representation at senior level could either be advanced by recruitment "targets and incentives" or, if need be, "targets and sticks". Mercer's Carmel Jordan said it is a "leadership skill to harness the talent of your organisation". She added that as a leader you have to get the best out of all the pool of talent that is available to you. Meanwhile, proposed new laws drawn up by the Labour Party which are currently making their way through the Oireachtas include a Bill requiring companies with more than 50 employees to reveal details of any gender pay gap among its staff. ICTU's Patricia King said discussions with Ibec are the sort of "concerted, coherent action" required to tackle the problem. "It's an opportunity to see can we get some transparency in this," Ms King said. "We said we would collaborate with Ibec and see could there be a meeting of minds between us and form some sort of approach. I don't know whether it's going to be possible but I think it's worth trying given the importance of the subject." There has been a dramatic drop in readers interacting with news sites' content via Facebook during the past year. Analysis of data from social media analytics company Newswhip revealed a huge fall in engagements on website content for many of the UK's biggest news websites towards the end of 2017. Seven out of eight UK news publishers saw year-on-year falls in both total and average engagements with content on their sites in December. Reasons offered for the decline include the 'fake news' phenomenon, changes to Facebook algorithms and a glut in the number of publishers using Facebook. Facebook regularly makes changes to its algorithm in an effort to keep users engaged on its platform. Experts said they believed the development represented a "managed decline" on Facebook's part, as opposed to any kind of accident. Penalties Penalties on 'clickbait' headlines, the promotion of video, a higher overall number of publishers and experiments with how posts are displayed could all be having an effect, according to Matt Navarra, director of social media for technology news site 'The Next Web'. Ian Murray, executive director of the UK Society of Editors, said the drop could also represent a response to the "growing pressure" the company has faced from a publishing industry feeling the pain of falling advertising revenues. He also touched upon the fake news phenomenon with governments concerned over the apparent spread of misinformation and propaganda on the platform. "The mutterings of regulation in corridors of power, again, on both sides of the Atlantic have been growing ... so is this a reason why that is happening? Perhaps that may well be," he said. Mr Murray added: "[Mark] Zuckerberg did come out and say towards the latter end of last year more or less that it did appear Facebook had problems with regard to interference by outside bodies such as the Russians. "So therefore one presumes this is getting their house in order, as it were." The top three performing news sites in the UK all saw declines in relation to Facebook interactions, according to research - the BBC saw engagements down 21.6pc in a year. Asked how the news industry would respond to the additional threat of falling traffic from the social network, Mr Murray said: "If the models publishers have created are too dependent on referrals from Facebook then they are going to have to move pretty quickly to diversify." "But I think the upside of it all is that traditional publishers have realised that it is a changing world out there and they have to be pretty adaptable," he added. After a week of tech utopia at CES, Adrian looks at the some of the gadgets to come out of it the growing influence of Alexa, giant TVs, drone cars and the coming wave of AR and VR glasses. These topics, together with artificial intelligence in our daily lives, are discussed with this weeks guest, one of Irelands most successful tech entrepreneurs. Steve Collins built gaming companies such as Havok and Kore, more recently, co-founding the fast-growing mobile firm Swrve. He now focuses his energy as an investor in future technology for Dublin-based Frontline VC. Adrian and Steve also look at whether Elon Musk is right to warn us all about the coming robot tide. ROSE of Tralee host Daithi OSe has insisted hell be one of the loneliest men in Tralee when the festival kicks off in August. The host and TV presenter said he spends so much time focusing on the logistics of the festival that he rarely gets time to enjoy it. A lot of people say you have to be down there to really experience it, unfortunately I dont get to experience it all. Im so focused on making sure all the boxes are ticked and everything is in order. Ill probably be one of the loneliest fellas down there because after youve spent the day making sure all the boxes are ticked and everything is in order, youre sat in the room watching movies, he said. The TV presenter said he was looking forward to spending some family time after the new Rose is crowned as the festival feels somewhat like an anniversary given that he met his wife Rita when she was a Rose. They come down for the last day or two and then again the hard work is done and Micheal is getting a bit older now so, hell be four in March. Expand Close Daithi and his wife, Rita. Photo: Gerry Mooney / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Daithi and his wife, Rita. Photo: Gerry Mooney "We have pictures of him every year on stage so thats nice. Last year he thought it was very sparkly. I dont know about this year, unless theres a John Deere he might not be impressed, he joked. Current Rose of Tralee, Dr Jennifer Byrne said her year so far has been absolutely phenomenal. She has already travelled to India with the Hope Foundation and had a reunion with over 100 Roses and escorts in Frankfurt to open the Christmas market. She is now looking forward to going to Chernobyl in February to volunteer with the Adi Roche Foundation and then New York for the St Patricks day parade I can honestly say it has been the most spectacular life changing decision of my life and I have so many friends and just so many opportunities that Ive never had before. Its really been incredible and I couldnt recommend it enough. I really would encourage all young people to do it because it is hard to put yourself forward and do it but i can honestly say its been extremely worthwhile and I enjoyed every second of it, she said. The trainee GP says she still gets some recognition from patients when doing her rounds but insisted she leaves the tiara at home when shes on duty. Video of the Day Infection control stop me, she joked. A good few patients recognise me and ask for selfies and things. I have a good bit of craic in the hospital as well, she added. Expand Close 2017 Rose of Tralee Jennifer Byrne meets children at a Hope creche in a slum in Kolkata / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp 2017 Rose of Tralee Jennifer Byrne meets children at a Hope creche in a slum in Kolkata Over 500 women will enter Rose of Tralee qualifying selections in Ireland while hundreds more will hope to represent Irish communities in the USA, Canada, Australia, Middle East, Europe, Hong Kong and New Zealand at the 2018 festival. This years Rose of Tralee International Festival will take place from Friday 17th to Tuesday 21st August in Tralee. A 19-year-old student was found by Gardai on a motorway in a distressed state after a late night incident with his school housemaster, a Teaching Council inquiry heard today. The foreign national, who is from another European country, was trying to hail a taxi to go to the airport to return home, the inquiry into the teachers fitness to teach heard. A school maths teacher and housemaster who allowed a 19-year-old male student to drink wine in his on-campus residence is the subject of a fitness to teach inquiry underway today. The teacher, described only as MP, was said to be under the influence of alcohol himself and alone with the pupil at the time. The student had been drinking alcohol with the teacher/housemaster in his on-campus residence. Outlining the case for the Teaching Council Remy Farrell, SC, said the teacher/housemaster and student had been drinking together. The student had come to his on-campus residence, apparently for the purpose of resolving some difficulties and for receiving support. Student A appears to have become upset and agitated to extent that he seems to have torn his own clothing and left the house and went into the grounds of the school. He made his way to the motorway and was trying to hail a taxi to the airport when the Gardai came across him. Mr Farrell said the student was intoxicated, although counsel for the teacher said that the view of a Garda dealing with the matter was that while there was a smell of alcohol from the students breath, he was not drunk. They questioned him and brought him back to the school but later that morning he travelled to the airport and returned home. A Garda said she and a colleague responded to a call at about 12.30AM in relation to a male waking on the motorway, trying to flag down cars. She said when they found him, he was in a distressed state and wasnt making much sense, just that he wanted to get to the airport. He told them who he was and where he had come from, and they brought him back to the school. On the way to the principals house a male approached the student and tried to engage him in conversation. He held his arm and said you dont need to do this, you dont need to do this. She said the student physically froze and went from being distressed to a look of sheer fear. She told the male who approached the student that this was nothing to do with you, you need to step aside and he walked off in another direction. When counsel for the teacher put it to Garda that she was embellishing her initial statement, which had not mentioned the phrase sheer fear, the Garda replied that was what had happened. She said while there was a smell of alcohol off the student, she would not class him as being drunk. In a statement from the teacher, which Mr Farrell read out, MP said there had been issues with the students application to his studies in the previous weeks. The teacher was frustrated about that and he had been trying to help him. On the evening of November 28 2016, when the student came to his residence, the teacher/housemaster was off duty and was relaxing at home and drinking wine. An issue arose over whether the student was taking the drug Ritalin, which had not been prescribed for him. According to his statement, MP said the student tore his tee short off, and in the ensuing period, he said there was physical contact but nothing inappropriate. The student got angry and the teacher said they would go to the principal together. He said he was trying to talk the student down. He said he regretted the situation reaching that stage, He told the student to get himself together and he let the house. When he returned, at about 10pm, the student was gone. He said he did not know how that the student was as intoxicated as he was later that night but said he may have stolen alcohol from the residence School principal, identified as NB, said while having a beer with a housemaster when out for a curry might be considered okay for senior pupils, a staff member would never drink on their own with a student. This is the second case to be heard by the Teaching Council under new legislation and follows a complaint by the school principal. It is being heard in public but on an anonymised basis, so no names will be revealed. The alleged incident took place on the evening of November 28 2016, and/or early in the morning on November 29. The allegations are that the teacher/housemaster: provided and/or allowed the student to consume one or more glasses of wine in an in-campus residence; left the student in the residence knowing that alcohol was available, knowing that the student had already consumed alcohol and/or was angry and or upset; was under the influence of alcohol and not fit and/or capable of discharging duties as a housemaster; failed to report or contact any senior member of staff after noticing that the student was absent from his dorm around midnight; sent text messages to the student throughout the night and early morning, including messages to retract information that he had provided to the principal and or the Gardai; continued to send text messages after the principal had required that he cease. Two days have been set aside for the hearing. Such hearings, similar to those conducted for doctors and nurses, investigate cases of under performance and serious misconduct. To reach a hearing, a complaint has to go through a Teaching Council Investigation Committee, which decides whether it merits being forwarded to a Disciplinary Committee. Complaints that are considered frivolous or vexatious will not progress to a formal hearing. In extreme cases, teachers may be "struck off" the professional register. Lesser penalties, include suspension, admonishment or an offer of support to improve performance. Experience in Scotland and Wales suggests in Ireland up to 30 teachers a year could face a disciplinary hearing. To date, the Teaching Council has received about 50 complaints under the legislation. About half of the complaints have been refused and the remainder are at different stages in the investigation and disciplinary process. A large number of that initial batch of cases are legacy complaints that were awaiting the enactment of Fitness to Teach legislation in July 2016. The default position is that Teaching Council hearings will be heard in public, but any party can request a private, partly private or public, but anonymised, hearing and it is up to the hearing panel to decide. An application for the hearing not to proceed because the alleged activities did not relate to the housemasters role as teacher was not upheld. Mary Paula Guinness, instructed by Whitney Moore solicitors, for the teacher, told the Disciplinary Committee Inquiry Panel, that to be appointed as housemaster it was not a prerequisite to be a teacher. She said the matters related entirely to his duties as housemaster and not to his role as teacher. And she said he was off duty as a housemaster at the time. Ms Guinness said there was nothing in the legislation that allowed the Teaching Council to look at the role of housemaster, which was an entirely different role to that of teacher. In a counter argument, Remy Farrell, SC for the Teaching Council, said there was a suggestion that the alleged activities occurred in the context of counselling the student in terms of educational attainment. This is conduct that relates directly to MPs role as a teacher. The evidence will establish that fairly clearly, he said. Mr Farrell said you could not disentangle the role of someone as housemaster and likened it to other supervisory activities that take place outside the classroom setting. The disciplinary panel, which is being advised by Ms Emily Egan, SC, took time to consider the application but ruled that it was satisfied that it had jurisdiction. Panel chairperson, Claire Markey, a teacher, said the application was premature but that the teacher could make a fresh applications if he deemed it appropriate at any stage. A DUBLIN youth was under the influence of a large concoction of substances when he and a gang of teens beat a man to the ground and mugged him in Dublins Temple Bar, a court has heard. The victim was attacked and robbed after he refused to hand over his wallet and phone. The 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty at the Dublin Childrens Court to the robbery at 12.10am on Sept. 24, 2016 at Fownes Street after the man was chased from the Central Bank Plaza in the city-centre. In evidence, Garda OMahoney told the court that he had been attached to a public order unit which had received a call to go to the Central Bank Plaza. The injured party informed him that he had been beaten up and robbed by a number of youths. Garda Ciaran OMahoney said the man had cuts and bruises to his arms, legs and his face, and he was bleeding. His Samsung phone and his wallet containing his Leap card and 10 had been taken. Witnesses described how a group of youths approached the man and demanded his phone and wallet and when he refused they chased him to Fownes Street. The defendant was one of group who had chased the man and beat him on to the ground and took his wallet and phone, the garda said. The teenager was identified by witnesses and following his arrest he was taken to Pearse Street Garda Station. Garda OMahoney agreed with defence solicitor Aonghus McCarthy that the boy was highly intoxicated and agitated and was clearly under the influence of a large concoction of substances. He also agreed that the youth, who cannot be named because he is a minor, now appeared drastically different in terms of his respect to the gardai compared to when the incident happened. The solicitor put it to him that the victim recovered from his injuries which were not long-lasting but the garda said the man still had mental injuries. Last time I spoke to him he was still worried about going into town, Garda OMahoney said. However, the Garda accepted that the teen has since turned his life around since he was taken in and began living with a close friends family. The court was told the teen had no prior criminal convictions and is now abstaining from drugs. Judge John OConnor said that while drug use was an explanation for what happened it was not a mitigating factor but he accepted the teen had turned his life around. He adjourned the case to allow time for a victim impact statement to be prepared and for a pre-sentence probation report on the youth to be furnished to the court. 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. He 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. Expand Close Scene of stabbing on South Circular Road, Dublin (Inset: Leo Carolan) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Scene of stabbing on South Circular Road, Dublin (Inset: Leo Carolan) 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 stropped 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 heath had gone down hill 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. A man whose wife died during surgery for an ectopic pregnancy at the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) Dublin has sued in the High Court. Malak Thawley was 34 years of age, a teacher and a US citizen who was expecting her first baby with her husband Alan when she died at the Holles Street hospital on May 8, 2016. The court was told by Mr Thawley's counsel, Liam Reidy, what happened was was a cascade of negligence and it was one negligent act after another. Exemplary damages are also being sought in the case. Mr Reidy said the doctor who carried out the surgery was an inexperienced junior surgeon and was not supervised. Counsel told how inept was the entire process was illustrated in the fact that when they decided to cool Mrs Thawleys brain with ice, two doctors were sent across the road to a pub to get ice as there was none in the hospital. The fact the Minister for Health directed a statutory inquiry in to the case gave no comfort to Mrs Thawleys widower, Mr Thawley, a data scientist, cant get over his wifes death and has severe hopelessness, he said. The situation had caused a "catastrophic disturbance" of Mr Thawley's psychiatric well being and he is not likely to recover, he said. Expand Close Malak Thawley died in the National Maternity Hospital a year ago during emergency surgery for ectopic pregnancy / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Malak Thawley died in the National Maternity Hospital a year ago during emergency surgery for ectopic pregnancy Mr Thawley (31) Brusna Cottages, Blackrock, Dublin, has sued the NMH over the death of his wife, who was originally from Dallas. It is claimed that Mrs Thawley suffered a laceration to the surface of her aorta. There was allegedly complete mismanagement of the major vascular injury and of Mrs Thawley's deteriorating condition, culminating in the loss of opportunity to save her life. It is also claimed there was a failure to have vascular clamps available on site at the hospital for emergencies and a failure to have a red phone installed in theatre for use in emergencies. Mr Thawley has also sued for nervous shock. He says his plans and dreams for their future had been annihilated. The case is before the court for assessment of damages only. On Friday, the NMH apologised for the events which lead to the death of Mrs Thawley. Eoin McCullough SC, for the hospital, extended deepest condolences to Mr Thawley and apologised for the events which led to her death. When legal proceedings were were issued in January last year, a letter admitting liability by the hospital was issued the next day along with an apology. Expand Close The National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street An internal inquiry was also set up, counsel said. Earlier, opening the case, Mr Reidy SC said the Thawleys had been profoundly happy and excited when she became pregnant. As a surprise gift her husband arranged a scan at six weeks. At the scan, they were told to got to the NMH for advice about the ectopic pregnancy. An ultra sound confirmed the ectopic pregnancy. Mr Thawley he said had Googled ectopic pregnancy and had seen it could be treated with certain medicine but, counsel said, he was told that because the foetal sac had a heartbeat the only option was a surgical intervention. The couple felt they should follow the advice. Counsel said to this day Mr Thawley regrets the decision made, but the couple were reassured it was a routine procedure which would take 30 minutes. Mrs Thawley was taken to theatre at 4pm and at 5.30pm a nurse told the husband a lot of blood was found in the abdomen. At 6.30 pm, a doctor told him she had lost ten units of blood but they were dealing with it. Counsel said Mr Thawley felt he was not being told the full picture. At 7.30pm, Dr Rhona Mahony, Master of the NMH, told him the situation was very serious and doctors were doing everything they could. Dr Mahony said there was "a chance your wife could die". About 20 minutes later, she returned with a specialist surgeon and said Malak is dead. Counsel said Mr Thawley was told a trocar had been inserted in the abdomen and it had torn the aorta. Mr Reidy said Mr Thawley remembered saying "Are you telling me it was a mistake" and the surgeon said yes it was medical misadventure. Counsel said Mr Thawley was in a state of shock and disbelief. The case resumes on Tuesday. 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, you'd 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 Butler's 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 didn't 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. A man who fractured a toddler's skull because she would not stop crying has failed in a bid to have his 13-and-a-half year jail sentence reduced. Senior judges in Belfast rejected claims that the prison term imposed on Armagh man Darren Fegan for the drink and drug fuelled attack which inflicted life-changing injuries was manifestly excessive. Fegan, 30, was said to have punched the two-year-old child while visiting her mother's Bessbrook home in October 2014 because he wanted to watch the X-Factor television show in peace. Dismissing his appeal against sentence, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said: "Where significant force is applied to a young child with intent to cause that child grievous bodily harm, the increased likelihood of significant damage to the child renders the conduct itself highly culpable." Fegan, formerly of Clonavon Avenue in Portadown, had originally been charged with attempted murder. But that was left on the books after he admitted the lesser offence of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. The Court of Appeal heard the attack happened after the child's mother had gone to obtain Ibuprofen medicine. She returned to the living room and noticed Fegan was no longer there. As she headed upstairs she heard a sudden thump, like a single thud, and her daughter stop crying. The gate to her daughter's bedroom was open, the light was on, and Fegan was standing crouched over the child's cot. At that stage the child appeared lifeless. Fegan tried to stop her leaving the house after she lifted her daughter and ran downstairs for help. According to evidence in the case his knuckles were raw, with blood between his fingers. Read More At first he claimed the young victim's mother had been drinking, "cracked up" after seeing a text to him from another woman and dropped her child on stairs. None of this was true, however, and Fegan later accepted his guilt. "He admitted that he punched the child who was in bed as she would not stop crying," Sir Declan said. "He demonstrated how he hit the victim and it is clear that he violently assaulted the child with extreme force." The toddler sustained horrific injuries, including a brain haemorrhage. She requires the use of equipment such as a wheelchair, has speech and visual impairments and is at risk of developing epilepsy, the court heard. Details of a previous attack by Fegan on a 20-month-old baby boy in 2012 were also disclosed. He punched that child to the side of the head after knocking his mother to the ground and stamping on her leg. Ruling on the challenge, Sir Declan stressed how Fegan tried to blame the young girl's mother for her injuries. "In essence this was an attempt by him to pervert the course of justice," the judge said. Describing the jail term imposed as "stiff", he concluded: "We do not consider that the sentence was manifestly excessive and the appeal is dismissed." A 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, 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 yesterday following a successful appeal and Lynch was lead away to begin serving her sentence yesterday 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. 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 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, 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. 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 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. A court heard how a murderer went on a shopping spree and paid off a credit union loan after a brutal attack on a Dublin student. Charles Cleary (24) has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering Leo Carolan (25), who was 'saving the life' of a friend. Cleary, of no fixed abode but from the Rathfarnham area, had been motivated by robbery when he killed him and left another man fighting for his life. He pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Mr Carolan at the flat on the South Circular Road on October 4, 2016, and to the attempted murder of Swiss student Ludovic Thomas (26) on the same occasion. Detective Inspector David Harrington said Mr Carolan was a student of creative music at IADT, Dun Laoghaire, who spoke fluent French. Mr Thomas was his friend, while Cleary was 'a passing acquaintance'. Det-Insp Harrington said Mr Thomas had arranged to visit Mr Carolan on October 4, and Cleary was there. Mr Thomas had 14,000 that he had withdrawn from a bank and asked Mr Carolan for an envelope. Cleary decided to steal the cash, picked up a knife and stabbed Mr Thomas around his abdomen and mouth. Mr Carolan was attacked, suffering 12 stab wounds, which severed his jugular vein and went through his heart and both lungs. The defendant took the money and went to Camden Street in a 'bloody condition'. He got shoes and clothes there before going to Dundrum to shop. He socialised with friends and paid off his credit union loan the next morning, before taking the ferry to Holyhead. He was arrested and eventually admitted his crimes, saying he was governed by 'a sudden impulse'. Justice Patrick McCarthy imposed the mandatory life sentence for the murder and 15 years for the attempted murder. Mr Carolan's mother Catherine said in an emotional victim impact statement: "He was exceptional. He always hoped for a better world for mankind." The David Drumm fraud trial jury lost seven members yesterday after the judge excused them from serving. They had been sworn in on Wednesday along with eight other jurors to serve in the trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive Mr Drumm, who is charged with conspiracy to defraud and false accounting. Mr Drumm (51), who lives in Skerries, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to both charges. Judge Karen O'Connor had told potential jurors the trial could take up to five months, which would be a considerable time commitment. 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. 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 had decided to allow them be excused. The judge spoke with other members of the jury, and in total seven were excused and the process of empanelling their replacements began. The judge told the new jury their services would not be needed until January 29 as the legal teams on both sides would be entering into legal arguments to be held in the absence of the jury. She told them this was completely normal. 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. UCD has been granted planning permission for more than 2,100 student bed spaces at its Belfield campus - despite objections from local residents, councillors and Transport Minister Shane Ross. However, An Bord Pleanala has ruled that not all of its proposed development can go ahead. While permission was granted for 2,118 bed spaces to be developed in two phases, a third phase comprising 888 bed spaces in buildings up to 10 storeys high was refused permission due to its impact on Roebuck Castle, a protected structure. UCD sought a 10-year permission for 512 student accommodation units, totalling 3,006 bedspaces, a student facilities centre and 994 car-parking spaces on a 12.95-hectare site in Dublin 4. The decision is the first to be made under a fast-track planning process for housing developments of 100 or more units which can be made directly to the planning appeals board. Among those who made submissions included Mr Ross, who welcomed provision of student accommodation, but asked that permission be refused due to the building heights and the development's impact on traffic. However, the board ruled that the bulk of the development could go ahead. A former IRA leader who claims to have detonated a landmine which seriously injured two RUC officers staunchly denies boasting about the incident in his recently-released memoir. Michael Mick Ryan, (81), who grew up in Dublins East Wall in the 1940s and '50s before moving to Dundalk, Co Louth, took part in the IRAs ill-fated border campaign between 1956 and 1962 as Director of Operations. In his memoir My Life in the IRA - The Border Campaign' written during the 1980s but released this evening at a packed book launch at Liberty Hall in Dublin Mr Ryan claims to have been involved in the detonation of a landmine in the border town of Ballsmill near Newry, Co Down in 1959. The explosion seriously injured RUC officers Const William Johnston (28) and Special Const Trevor Boyle (21) who were in the reserve police force known as the B Specials. In the book, published by Mercier Press and edited by former Irish Times journalist and author Padraig Yeates, Mr Ryan wrote of the incident: The jeep was hit all right, because I could see some parts of it fly into the air and land a few yards away. We were showered with clay and debris. The three of us immediately opened fire on the jeep. He then describes fleeing back across the border to the Republic yet being disappointed with the outcome of the explosion. The launch was attended by Sinn Fein TD Aengus O Snodaigh and journalist Vincent Browne who wrote a blurb to the book in which he said: The insight into the madness, the horror and futility of the IRA's shambolic border campaign is what makes this book well worth reading.' Mr Ryan described the book as an honest account of his involvement in the IRA as a foot soldier who identified fully with the leaders of the 1916 Rising. He sided with the Official IRA after it split with the Provisional IRA in 1969. I hope it will give people a better understanding of what happened, why it happened and accept the integrity of our motives. We were young, idealistic and committed to the armed struggle as the only possible way to achieve our aims, he said at the launch. We attempted to achieve that struggle on a military level. There was never an intention to injure civilians, he added. But Newry MLA William Irwin of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) told The Belfast Telegraph: "This was clearly attempted murder and anyone responsible for that needs to be brought before the courts. "I think it's important that those responsible for acts are held accountable. "If this particular man can boast about this in a book, then it's vital he's questioned and I would call on the PSNI to investigate these remarks." Speaking to Independent.ie, Mr Ryan said he isnt worried about any criminal charges. If I was worried about it I wouldnt have published it, he said. He wouldnt comment on the RUC officers who were injured, except to say: There were no cheers. I didnt go back and celebrate. He also strongly denied boasting about the explosion in the book or otherwise. You dont do things for cudos. You do it because theyre necessary. Thats all I can say, he said. A spokesman for the PSNI this evening said no decision has been made on whether any charges may be forthcoming. Quoting Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray, he said: As the book is yet to be published, it is not possible for us to make a comment at this time. However the PSNI will consider a response once we have had the opportunity to consider the books contents. The scene of the laneway off Convent Road in Dalkey this morning Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. The scene where a body was found in Dalkey Co.Dublin. Pic: Justin Farrelly. Michael Burke (inset) has been described as a "lovely fella" A man who tragically died in a laneway in south Dublin last night has been remembered as a "gem" and a "gentleman" by his heartbroken friends. Michael Burke (35) had been out in his home village of Dalkey on Thursday night. His body was found in a private laneway leading up to an apartment block just off Convent Road in Dalkey at around 8.30am this morning. It is understood that he received a puncture wound to the body. Mick was a gem, all of his friends are devastated to lose him, his close friend said. His family are inconsolable. Mick was a gentleman." Expand Close Michael Burke / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michael Burke The cause of his death is not yet known and a garda spokesman said they are "keeping an open mind" as the investigation continues. A technical examination is being carried out and there are up to six garda vehicles at the scene along with an ambulance. A close friend of Mr Burke - who grew up and went to school with him, stood outside the scene and described his pal as a "lovely fella" but was too shaken to say more. Another local said that Mick would "always stop to say hello". Expand Close The scene where a body was found off Convent Road in Dalkey this morning Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The scene where a body was found off Convent Road in Dalkey this morning Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. His body was brought to the City Morgue and following a preliminary post-mortem examination gardai have confirmed they are not treating his death as suspicious. Gardai are urging anyone who was in the Convent Road/ Coliemore Road area between 10pm last night and 2am this morning to contact them. They are particularly appealing for motorists with dash-camera to come forward. Anyone who may have been near the laneway or anyone with any information is asked to contact Dun Laoghaire Garda station on 01 6665000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station. The disappearance of a "well-loved" man is "highly out of character", one of his friends has said. 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 Belfast city he is described as a well-known beatbox performer who has played in London and Dublin. 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". Police said his family were growing increasingly concerned and have appealed for anyone who has seen him to get in touch and they have also deployed drones to help in their search. Michael is 5"11 tall with dark hair and beard. He was wearing a green puffa jacket, grey jumper and black trousers before he went missing. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) is investigating the death of a crewman at Dublin Port in the early hours of this morning. It is believed that the deceased man was a Ukranian national. It is understood that the incident happened while the man was disembarking a vessel. He may have fallen and struck his head off the pier and fallen into the water. Investigators from the HSA remained at the scene all day today. He was taken from the water very quickly after the accident. Gardai said that at 4.40am this morning, "A male in his 50s slipped and fell into the water while attempting to access the pier from a boat in Dublin Port. "The male was pronounced dead at the Mater Hospital at approximately 6am. This incident is not being treated as suspicious." A spokesperson for the Marine Casualty Investigation Board confirmed it was aware of the incident today. Sinn Fein's expenses from the Westminster parliament are coming under renewed scrutiny in the wake of absentee MP Barry McElduff's 'joke' about Kingsmill. The DUP, which is propping up Theresa May's minority government, has held fresh talks with the Conservative Party about the anomaly that allows Sinn Fein to claim expenses despite not taking up seats in the UK parliament. Sinn Fein's decision to only suspend Mr McElduff from party activity for three months with pay has sparked widespread outrage. He posted a video online with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head on the 42nd anniversary of the sectarian atrocity which saw 10 Protestants gunned down. On January 5, 1976, the victims were on a minibus that was stopped near the village of Kingsmill, in rural south Armagh. Read more: Pressure mounts on McDonald to acknowledge Provisional IRA carried out Kingsmill massacre They were lined up and the only Catholic among them was ordered to flee, before 10 were shot dead. No one has ever been held accountable for the murders. DUP MP Jim Shannon has now revealed that "renewed discussions with the Tories" have taken place over the monies drawn down by Sinn Fein despite its refusal to take its seats in Westminster. Records indicate that in Mr McElduff's constituency of West Tyrone alone, Sinn Fein has claimed almost 900,000 (1m) in expenses since 2010-11. Mr Shannon told the 'Belfast News Letter': "The actions of Mr McElduff have infuriated parliamentarians across the spectrum and there is a real mood of anger." TUV leader Jim Allister agreed, saying: "Sinn Fein has thumbed their nose at the victims of Kingsmill because it thinks it is untouchable. It's time it was made to pay. And there is a way that unionists can deliver just that." Meanwhile, the sole survivor of the gun attack, Alan Black, has said the events of the past few days have made the video posted by Mr McElduff "10 times worse". "What I seen that night on that road, then to see a man mocking, actually nearly celebrating their death, that was awful hard to take," he told Pat Kenny, on Newstalk radio. "It's not for me to tell Sinn Fein what to do. I talk to people when I walk up the street, working fellas, and they say I wish somebody would give me three months holiday with pay. That is the attitude people around here have. "I keep well away from politics, I am not political in any way. I just have no faith in the politics in this country. "The thing I keep having to remind myself about is these bigots, they are only a very tiny minority in this country, and I just stay clear of all bigots, and politics." The historical enquiries team has said that based on the evidence linked to the weapons found, the IRA perpetrated the outrage. Mr Black said he still can't understand how and why no one was questioned on the atrocity. "The thing that baffles me, and all this is coming out in the inquest, Gerry McKeown, who was first on the scene with his wife, was never spoken to by the police. "An off duty policeman that came along, he was never spoken to by the police, never gave a statement. A local farmer who came up with blankets was never spoken to either," he said. Mr Black said "a dirty game" was played in relation to the investigation "by dirty people". 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." British Airways, Emirates and Etihad all rank on a list of the world's safest airlines for 2018 by aviation website, AirlineRatings.com. In its annual safety ratings, the Australia-based safety and product rating website assessed 409 major airlines before delivering its results. The 20 safest airlines (in alphabetical order) Air New Zealand Alaska Airlines All Nippon Airways British Airways Cathay Pacific Airways Emirates Etihad Airways EVA Air Finnair Hawaiian Airlines Japan Airlines KLM Lufthansa Qantas Royal Jordanian Airlines Scandinavian Airline System Singapore Airlines Swiss Virgin Atlantic Virgin Australia Launched in 2013, AirlineRatings.com compiles its lists based on factors including audits from aviations governing bodies and lead associations; government audits; airlines' crash and serious incident record and the fleet age. In recent years, it listed Qantas as the world's single safest airline, but for 2018 the Australian flag carrier is ranked alongside the rest of the Top 20. "Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major operational safety advancement over the past 60 years and has not had a fatality in the jet era, said AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief, Geoffrey Thomas. But Qantas is not alone. Long established airlines such as Hawaiian and Finnair have perfect records in the jet era. The top-rated airlines are standouts in the industry and are at the forefront of safety, innovation and launching of new aircraft, he added. Another organisation to rank airlines according to safety is Germany's Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC), which will rate 100 airlines for 2018. Emirates tops its ranking, followed by Norwegian, Virgin Atlantic, KLM and easyJet. The full list is being published in segments online here. AirlineRatings.com's lowest ranked airlines for 2018 see North Korea's Air Koryo, Suriname-based Bluewing Airlines, Indonesias Trigana Air Service and four Nepalese carriers - Buddha Air, Nepal Airlines, Tara Air, and Yeti Airlines - awarded just a single star. Read more: All day long the news bulletins proclaimed a reversal in the burglary trend. The Garda Press Office proclaimed burglaries nationally fell by 23pc during November and December under the winter phase of Operation Thor, according to provisional figures. The decline is based on the comparison between November and December with the month of October, when burglaries hit the peak. The trend was the same throughout the year with an increase in break-ins. Gardai attribute the decrease to its new targeted operation. The spate of burglaries and the criminal activities of travelling gangs has been high on the news agenda over the Christmas period, with violent attacks on elderly people in their homes, particularly in rural Ireland. Any special operation to hit back at these gangs is an appropriate and worthwhile way to allocate resources. Law-abiding people across the country will be glad to hear of any successful prosecutions in this area and any reduction in burglaries. However, will anyone in fear of a break-in sleep any more easily tonight? Probably not. The overall statistics tell a wider story. The reduction in burglaries over recent months really only brings us back where we started before the 2017 spike. The number of burglaries for December was 1,424 - only a small reduction on the 2016 monthly average of 1,496. No full monthly breakdown was provided for 2016 and 2017. Besides, the credibility of Garda crime statistics is now under scrutiny. If the winter phase of Operation Thor was effective, then there is an imperative on Garda management to ensure it continues to be adequately resourced. After the return to school and work, peak flu kicks in Are we at peak flu yet? Possibly not. Flu levels trebled in a week as the country returned to work and school. Some 20,000 infected patients sought treatment in GP surgeries, while hundreds more were admitted to overcrowded hospitals. The new figures suggest this latest round is certainly more severe than last winter's outbreak, with more adults than children being struck down with the illness. Children were the main victims of the virus immediately after Christmas. But the potentially fatal infection is currently sweeping through the older age groups as they return to work. It is also particularly affecting pensioners over 65, the HSE warned. And there is also a high rate among babies under a year old. HSE head of public health Dr Kevin Kelleher says the flu may peak next week or could have already reached its worst levels in recent days. But it will continue to circulate at intense levels for another four to six weeks. Flu is now considered "widespread" in all part of the country, except for the Midlands counties. The post-Christmas return to work and school was expected to result in a higher level of infection. Based on the current trends, flu season is likely to surpass the experience of recent years. It means there'll be no excuses in future years for a failure to plan ahead. Model Ashley Graham attends Glamour's 2017 Women of The Year Awards at Kings Theatre on November 13, 2017 in Brooklyn, New York. / AFP PHOTO / ANGELA WEISSANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images Ashley Graham and Justin Ervin attend Michael Kors and Google Celebrate new MICHAEL KORS ACCESS Smartwatches at ArtBeam on September 13, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Michael Kors) Ashley Graham attends the 11th Annual Golden Heart Awards benefiting God's Love We Deliver on October 16, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Michael Kors) Ashley Graham attends the 14th Annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards at Weylin B. Seymour's on November 6, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images) Model Ashley Graham walks the runway for the Michael Kors Collection Spring 2018 Runway Show at Spring Studios on September 13, 2017, during New York Fashion Week in New York. / AFP PHOTO / ANGELA WEISSANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images Model and backstage host Ashley Graham attends the 2017 Miss Universe Pageant at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on November 26, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) Ashley Graham poses backstage for the ADDITION ELLE NYFW September 2017 Presentation on September 11, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Addition Elle) Ashley Graham has fired back at critics claiming her latest magazine shoot was digitally altered. The body positive American model, who continues to promote messages of self-acceptance and female empowerment, has posed for the likes of Levi's, Lane Bryant and Addition Elle. For her latest gig, Ashley graces the February 2018 issue of Cosmopolitan Russia, with some followers taking to social media on Thursday to accuse photo editors of Photoshopping her figure to make it appear thinner. "I'm always disappointed when I see this much retouching. Tsk tsk," one Instagram user commented, while another added: "Please, Ashley, tell them (for the next time) you don't need to be Photoshopped to be fabulous." We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Some followers felt Ashley's waist has been made to appear cinched in, while others pointed out that her left arm looked smaller than her right. However, the fashion star is having none of the criticism, taking to her official Instagram page to share an image of the cover photo, and added the caption: "Before the Photoshopping experts start commenting - no one slimmed me down. It's angles people." For the image, Ashley poses in a light blue denim skirt and denim vest from her collection for Marina Rinaldi. The 30-year-old announced in September that she was teaming with the Italian womenswear label on a capsule collection, after working with executives on an advertising campaign. Expand Close Ashley Graham attends the 14th Annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards at Weylin B. Seymour's on November 6, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ashley Graham attends the 14th Annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards at Weylin B. Seymour's on November 6, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images) Items from the line drop in store and online this month, with the range including shirts, dresses, body-hugging trousers, strapless jumpsuits and biker jackets, with metallic details signed with Ashley's signature. While the line, called Let's Denim, looks like denim, it is actually made from a softer material. A wounded riot police officer is evacuated during anti-government protests, in Tebourba, south of the Tunisian capital, Tunis. Photo: AP Tunisia's military has been deployed on the streets of several cities after three nights of protests over the government's new austerity measures. Demonstrators have clashed with security forces since Monday night after a new budget raised taxes and pushed up the cost of living. More than 600 people have been arrested and dozens of police were injured in clashes that have spread across the country. Young men have burned tyres and hurled Molotov cocktails and stones, while police have responded with tear gas. One man has been killed in disputed circumstances, with protesters say he was run over by a police vehicle, with the authorities claiming he may have died from respiratory problems. The protests reflect months of frustration in a country often described as the "only success story" of the Arab Spring. Tunisians overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the longtime dictator, in 2011 and inspired similar uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Syria. While the other revolutions have descended into violence or given way to authoritarianism, Tunisia's democracy has remained for the most part intact. A secular party leads the government, in coalition with a moderate Islamist group, but in return for a loan of $2.bn (2.4bn) from the International Monetary Fund, Tunisia has agreed to take economic measures to bring down the country's deficit. On January 1, a new budget came into force which raised petrol prices and a series of taxes on houses, cars and other items. Protesters took to the streets in smaller cities outside the capital Tunis. Several days of peaceful protests escalated earlier this week as youths clashed with security forces. The government ordered soldiers on to the streets and demonstrations are expected today as Friday is the traditional day of protest in the Middle East and North Africa. While protests were sparked by the new budget, frustrations over a lack of economic progress have been growing. Tunisia's economy has suffered as tourists avoid the country after several terrorist attacks. Thirty-eight people, including 30 Britons, were killed at a resort near the town of Sousse in 2015. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] The African Union said it was "frankly alarmed" by Donald Trump's comments (AP) Africans have criticised Donald Trump after his outburst against some of the world's poorest nations. On Thursday, the president questioned why the US would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "shithole countries" in Africa rather than places like Norway, in rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal. The African Union continental body said it was "frankly alarmed" by Mr Trump's comments. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice," AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity." African governments quickly found themselves in an awkward position. As top recipients of US aid, some hesitated to jeopardise it by criticising Mr Trump, especially as his administration has sought to slash foreign assistance. "Unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say," said South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny. But South Africa's ruling African National Congress called the comments "extremely offensive". Deputy secretary general Jesse Duarte said developing countries do have difficulties but the US has millions of people out of work or without health care, and "we would not deign to make comments as derogatory". African media outlets and the continent's young, increasingly connected population were not being shy. "Well, that is the perfect definition of racism. That is all I have to say," Kenyan entrepreneur Wangui Muraguri said in Nairobi. "Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate," South African media outlet Daily Maverick wrote. Many on the world's second most populous continent reached for their smartphones, long-practised in defending the vast and varied region from easy stereotypes. While 40% of the world's poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund, the region also has billionaires, reality shows and a growing middle class. Some quickly decided to own Mr Trump's vulgar language or throw it back in his face. "Good morning from the greatest most beautiful 'shithole country' in the world!!!" South African Broadcasting Corporation anchor Leanne Manas tweeted. "As someone from South Shithole, Trevor is deeply offended by the president's remarks," said a tweet from US chat programme The Daily Show, on behalf of its South African-born host Trevor Noah. In Kenya, east Africa's economic hub, political activist Boniface Mwangi pleaded: "Please don't confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent." Mr Trump's comments highlighted months of concerns about his lack of focus on Africa, including empty ambassadorial posts in key countries like South Africa, Egypt, Congo and Somalia. A list maintained by the Washington-based American Foreign Service Association says eight posts are vacant. Mr Trump has expressed negative opinions about the continent in the past. "Every penny of the 7 billion dollars going to Africa as per Obama will be stolen - corruption is rampant!" he tweeted in 2013. "He has not only insulted Africans, he has also insulted African-Americans," said Sylvester Odion Akhaine, associate professor of international relations at Lagos State University in Nigeria. "Internationally, such language will deepen the isolation of the United States, a country that is already losing its global prestige." AP Several women have made further claims of inappropriate sexual behaviour against James Franco in a 'Los Angeles Times' article. In the report published yesterday, two former student actresses described negative on-set experiences with the actor/film-maker while being directed by him. Sarah Tither-Kaplan said in a nude orgy scene three years ago on the not-yet-released indie drama 'Long Home', he removed plastic guards covering the actresses' groins while simulating sex. Former students spoke of an unprofessional culture at Franco's now-closed acting school Studio 4, where he taught a sex scenes class. Two women said Franco became angry shooting a strip club scene when no actresses, who were masked, would go topless. One topless scene filmed during class with Tither-Kaplan was uploaded to Vimeo, she said. Violet Paley said that during a consensual relationship, Franco once pressured her to perform oral sex in a car and that the "power dynamic was really off". On Wednesday night's 'Late Night With Seth Meyers', Franco said the tweets by Paley and Tither-Kaplan were "not accurate" but he supported the women's right to express their perspectives. "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 that these people have been under-represented getting their stories out enough that I will hold back things that I could say just because I believe in that so much," said Franco to Meyers. "If I have to take a knock because I'm not gonna, you know, try and, you know, actively refute things then I will because I believe in it that much." Paley and Tither-Kaplan earlier tweeted about their past encounters with Franco after the actor wore a pin supporting the 'Time's Up' initiative for gender equality at Sunday's Golden Globes. He won the award for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for 'The Disaster Artist'. Actress Ally Sheedy also said in a since-deleted tweet that Franco was an example of why she left the movie business. Franco on Tuesday told Stephen Colbert on 'The Late Show' that he had "no idea" why Sheedy said that. He directed her in a 2014 off-Broadway play. Several of Franco's collaborators defended him from some of the claims. Vince Jolivette, Franco's production partner at Rabbit Bandini Productions, which ran Studio 4, said the school "was always run professionally" and that he was investigating the matter. In a statement provided by Franco's publicist, Robin Baum, Cynthia Huffman, casting director of 'The Long Home' said Tither-Kaplan's description of the orgy scene was inaccurate. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Afirefighter stands on the roof of a house submerged by mud and rocks in Montecito. Photos: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Rescue workers yesterday searched for eight people missing after mudslides that ripped through a coastal southern California community, as the identities of some of the 17 who died in Tuesday's disaster began trickling out. Some 700 rescue workers in helicopters and high-wheeled military vehicles picked through waist-deep mud in the hunt for the missing in a disaster zone littered with the remnants of hundreds of damaged or destroyed homes. "The focus is still on search and rescue; that's still our primary goal," Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara county fire department said in a phone interview, adding that searchers have been working 24-hour days. The dead included an elderly woman killed when the mud washed away her house, the founder of a Roman Catholic school and a real estate executive, according to friends, family and local news media. Expand Close Residents hit by the disaster record the damage among the grimy debris and ruins in Montecito, California,, where 17 people have died and eight are believed missing after mudslides swept away their homes. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Residents hit by the disaster record the damage among the grimy debris and ruins in Montecito, California,, where 17 people have died and eight are believed missing after mudslides swept away their homes. Heavy rains on hillsides that had been denuded by last year's record wildfires triggered the deadly floods that destroyed 100 homes and injured at least 28 people, officials said. The region's natural beauty and easy access to Los Angles to the south-east has long attracted the rich and powerful, including media mogul and actress Oprah Winfrey, talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and actor Jeff Bridges. "Our home has been severely damaged, but we are safe, and so thankful for that and for the first responders who are working tirelessly to save people," Bridges wrote on Twitter. "We are heartbroken over the loss of lives in our community." Search and rescue efforts have been slow as crews have had to make their way through waist-deep mud, fallen trees, boulders and other debris. Teams have completed initial searches of the entire debris field and are about a quarter of the way through a more intensive follow-up search of the zone, Ms Anderson said. Families and friends of the people who died in the mudslides began to identify those lost. The dead included Josie Gower, who died when she was swept away in the mudslides, her daughter-in-law Sarah Gower confirmed in a Facebook post. The 69-year-old woman's body was found that night, near a highway hit by the slide. Expand Close Left, search and rescue volunteers are updated by a Ventura County firefighter as they prepare to search for missing victims / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Left, search and rescue volunteers are updated by a Ventura County firefighter as they prepare to search for missing victims "I told her to stay on the second floor, but she went downstairs and opened the door and just got swept away," her son, Hayden Gower, told NBC station KSBY. "I should have just told her to leave. You just don't even think that this is possible," he said. Another fatality was Roy Rohter (84), founder of the St Augustine Academy Roman Catholic School, who died when the slide swept him from his home in Montecito, in the mud's path, according to school officials and local news media. Also killed in Montecito was Rebecca Riskin, the 61-year-old founder of a real estate firm. A Twitter account which uses reworded Dear Deidre photobooks to mock political goings-on has been re-started in the wake of the Cabinet reshuffle. Theresa May Casebooks was initially set up when the Prime Minister called a snap election last year. Now the man behind the account, Jason Spacey, has taken the decision to pick it up again because Theresa Mays problems only seem to get worse. He used the reshuffle to relaunch the account, offering up a story of Kirstys Kitchen Reshuffle where not very much changed. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference I usually start accounts in reaction to a particular event, Spacey told Press Association. The accounts are only popular for as long as that story is in the news. I started the Casebooks after Theresa May called a snap general election with the intention of only running it for the duration of the campaign. At the time it felt like the right time to quit, but there were occasions when I thought I really should pick it up again, the disastrous conference speech. I decided to give it another go after the reshuffle. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference The pictures are lifted from Dear Deidres Photo Casebook where they would normally explain conundrums about love and relationships. It takes Spacey up to 30 minutes to write new, politically astute captions, finished with wise advice signed from Theresa May. Spacey has some experience with parody accounts. He previously ran @UKIPWeather set up when a Ukip councillor blamed gay marriage for flooding plus @50ShadesOfTory, @British_First and @LeadsomeTips. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference He added: The first tweet I did on British First was the day after (US President) Trump retweeted Jayda Fransen, and it got 57k likes. As the story drifted from the news the numbers went down. Once the followers level out its time to quit. I dont really like doing these accounts for more than a couple of weeks as the joke can wear off. I think this may have more longevity. Since the return, hes touched on the issue of a second referendum and the NHS. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Spacey, who thinks there will be a general election this year, describes himself as a bit of a lefty. Although he struggles to commit to any particular party he is adamant he will never vote Tory. Expect more casebooks popping up in your timelines from now on. Journalists queue outside the Social Democrats' party headquarters in Berlin after talks with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats on forming a new German government (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken a significant step towards ending Germany's lengthy political impasse by securing a preliminary agreement to enter formal coalition talks with a centre-left party. T he deal was welcomed by Germany's European allies, but her prospective partner faces a tough task to sell it to sceptical supporters. Exhausted negotiators from Mrs Merkel's conservative Union bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats presented their deal, which includes pledges to strengthen the European Union and keep a lid on the number of migrants entering Germany, after more than 24 hours of non-stop talks to cap a week of wrangling. "We have achieved outstanding results," said the Social Democrats' leader, Martin Schulz. But to make a new government a reality, he must persuade a party congress on January 21 to agree to formal coalition negotiations. If those talks are successful, he must steer a coalition deal through a ballot of the full party membership. If things go well, a new government could be formed by Easter, said Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union - the Bavaria-only sister party to Mrs Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. "If we succeed, these could be four very, very good years," Mr Seehofer said. "I am already speaking of these years because I believe we will succeed." The prospective partners have governed Germany together for the past four years but Mr Schulz - Mrs Merkel's defeated challenger in Germany's September 24 election - initially said after the Social Democrats crashed to a disastrous result that they would go into opposition - a decision popular with members. He reluctantly reconsidered after Mrs Merkel's coalition talks with two smaller parties collapsed in November. The conservatives also performed poorly in the election, and the three coalition parties' support dropped by a total of nearly 14 percentage points. "This election result was a signal to politicians that business as usual wouldn't work and that we must show the people in this country we understand," Mr Seehofer said. "We made that the basis of our work." His party, which has taken a hard line on migration, has sought to reinforce its law-and-order profile in the face of a challenge from the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, which entered parliament for the first time in September. Friday's agreement says the number of new asylum-seekers should not exceed a range of 180,000-220,000 annually, and there will be a 1,000-per-month limit on the number of close relatives allowed to join migrants in Germany who have a status below full asylum. That falls short of conservative demands for maintaining a block on such family reunification, but also is more limited than what the Social Democrats sought. Mr Schulz obtained a minor reform to how public health insurance is financed - far from his party's original proposal - as well as a commitment to guarantee the current level of pensions until 2025, among other things. He did not secure an increase in the top income tax rate that his party proposed. Mrs Merkel highlighted promises to hire 15,000 more police officers and 2,000 people to strengthen the justice system. She currently leads a caretaker government, limiting her ability to take major policy initiatives as French President Emmanuel Macron pushes an ambitious European reform agenda. "We have, in what feels like a long time since the election, seen that the world will not wait for us," Mrs Merkel said. ""We are convinced that we need a new awakening for Europe. So I have no worries about us finding common solutions with France." France and Bulgaria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, welcomed Friday's developments. Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European Commission, said the European part of the deal was "a significant, positive, constructive, future-looking contribution to the European policy". AP Shares in GKN have rocketed after the engineering firm revealed that it has rejected a 7 billion takeover bid from Melrose. The company said on Friday that it rebuffed an opportunistic and unsolicited proposal from the turnaround specialist as it undervalued GKN. The offer represented a price of 405p per share, comprising 80% in new Melrose shares and 20% in cash. The board of GKN has considered the proposal together with its financial advisers and has unanimously rejected it, having concluded that the proposal is entirely opportunistic and that the terms fundamentally undervalue the company and its prospects. In addition, the proposal would materially dilute the exposure of GKN shareholders to the meaningful upside opportunities that the board believes are present within the company, GKN said. Shares in GKN rocketed 24% or to 413p in morning trading following the announcement. For its part, Melrose said there would be significant operational and commercial benefits arising from a takeover, reversing a history of existing GKN management not delivering on targets. The company said it would re-energise and re-purpose GKNs operations, delivering a 300 million boost to profits. GKN also announced its intention to separate the business into core and non-core segments. But Melrose said it believes that shareholder value would be maximised by it significantly improving the businesses prior to any separation. Ian Forrest, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, said: All of this news is clearly good for GKN shareholders and represents a very bold move by Melrose. It may come back with an improved offer, they have until February 9 to make a formal bid, and there is the possibility of other bidders coming in. The takeover tilt comes at a difficult time for GKN, which in November ditched its incoming boss less than two months before he was due to take the top job as it warned over another hit in its troubled US plant. The group ousted Kevin Cummings, GKNs aerospace head, who was due to take over from incumbent chief executive Nigel Stein in January. The firm has instead appointed non-executive director Anne Stevens as interim chief executive and on Friday confirmed her as the companys permanent boss. GKN, which makes wing tips for Airbus and parts for car giants including Mercedes and Jaguar Land Rover, also revealed last year that a review of its US aerospace plants had uncovered additional write-offs of between 80 million and 130 million. It had previously expected to write off 15 million on its Alabama facility, relating to revised assumptions on programme inventory and receivables balances, which sparked a wider review across the division. Shares in GKN have rocketed after the engineering firm revealed that it has rejected a 7 billion takeover bid from Melrose. The company said on Friday that it rebuffed an opportunistic and unsolicited proposal from the turnaround specialist as it undervalued GKN. The offer represented a price of 405p per share, comprising 80% in new Melrose shares and 20% in cash. The board of GKN has considered the proposal together with its financial advisers and has unanimously rejected it, having concluded that the proposal is entirely opportunistic and that the terms fundamentally undervalue the company and its prospects. In addition, the proposal would materially dilute the exposure of GKN shareholders to the meaningful upside opportunities that the board believes are present within the company, GKN said. Shares in GKN rocketed 24% or to 413p in morning trading following the announcement. The takeover tilt comes at a difficult time for GKN, which in November ditched its incoming boss less than two months before he was due to take the top job as it warned over another hit in its troubled US plant. The group ousted Kevin Cummings, GKNs aerospace head, who was due to take over from incumbent chief executive Nigel Stein in January. The firm has instead appointed non-executive director Anne Stevens as interim chief executive and on Friday confirmed her as the companys permanent boss. GKN, which makes wing tips for Airbus and parts for car giants including Mercedes and Jaguar Land Rover, also revealed last year that a review of its US aerospace plants had uncovered additional write-offs of between 80 million and 130 million. It had previously expected to write off 15 million on its Alabama facility, relating to revised assumptions on programme inventory and receivables balances, which sparked a wider review across the division. Myanmar has admitted its troops were involved in the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims who were found in a mass grave last month in the country's northern state of Rakhine, where its military has been accused of ethnic cleansing. In a rare admission of guilt, the Defence Ministry released a statement on Facebook stating its forces had killed 10 suspected terrorists in the Inn Din village of Maung Daw on September 1. "Action will be taken against the villagers who participated in the case and the members of security forces who broke the rules of engagement under the law," the statement said. The military claimed they had rushed to Inn Din to protect frightened Buddhist villagers and had been attacked by "200 Bengalis" with sticks and swords, 10 of whom were arrested and accused of having links to terrorists. As troops were over-stretched with trying to maintain peace "the decision was made to kill them at the cemetery" rather than hand them to the police. Villagers had dug a pit and the men were ordered to enter it, where they were shot by the security forces. Myanmar's military had denied any wrongdoing in the crackdown that began in late August and sparked a mass exodus of civilians across the border to Bangladesh. Both the United Nations and US have stated that he military's action has amounted to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority in majority Buddhist Myanmar. Late last year a Doctors Without Borders report said that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month alone. The village of Inn Din previously featured in a chilling report by Amnesty International, which contains eyewitness accounts from seven villagers who described how vigilantes and the military looted and burned homes and shot people as they fled. Satellite images obtained by the group show how an area of Rohingya homes were burned to the ground, while non-Rohingya areas appear to have been left untouched. "This grisly admission is a sharp departure from the army's policy of blanket denial of any wrongdoing," said James Gomez, Amnesty's regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, following the military's announcement. "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 in August," he added. Amnesty previously accused the Burmese military of committing "crimes against humanity" after the human rights group documented its targeted campaign of violence, including the mass murder of civilians and the widespread rape of Rohingya women and girls. ( Daily Telegraph, London) FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he meets with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 10, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo US president Donald Trump has confirmed he will not travel to the UK to open the new American embassy. Writing on Twitter, Mr Trump said he thought the embassy's move from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms, south London, 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 1.2 billion dollars. "Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!" The United States announced plans to move from its current embassy building in Mayfair in 2008 and the new building will open on January 16. 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's decision not to come to the country comes despite British Prime Minister Theresa May saying that a future visit was still on the cards last week. Mrs May controversially extended the offer of a state visit when she became the first world leader to meet Mr Trump in the White House following his inauguration last year. Since then, however, the president has indicated he does not want to take up the invitation if he is going to face mass demonstrations. Last month, the White House said it would announce details "soon" of Mr Trump's proposed visit to the UK. A Downing Street spokesman said: "Our position is that an offer for a state visit has been extended and accepted." Mrs May controversially extended the offer of a state visit - officially on behalf of the Queen - when she became the first world leader to meet Mr Trump in the White House following his inauguration last year. Since then, however, the president has indicated he does not want to take up the invitation if he is going to face mass demonstrations and it had been expected he could make a low-key working visit rather than a trip which involved all the trappings of a state occasion. Last month, the White House said it would announce details "soon" of Mr Trump's proposed visit to the UK. In reply to Mr Trump's tweet, former Labour leader Ed Miliband posted: "Nope it's because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message." Mrs May and Mr Trump fell out spectacularly in November over his retweeting of anti-Muslim videos posted online by the deputy leader of the far-right Britain First group, Jayda Fransen. At the time, the PM said Mr Trump was "wrong" to retweet the videos, and the US president hit back at Mrs May on Twitter by telling her to focus on "destructive radical Islamic terrorism" in the UK, rather than on him. Mr Trump's decision to cancel his trip to London came after he yesterday expressed frustration at the United States immigration policy, asking a White House gathering of politicians why the US accepted people from shithole countries and couldnt have more people from countries like Norway. Mr Trump convened yesterdays meeting to discuss reforming immigration policy, and one of the politicians inside the Oval Office suggested that a deal could be reached if Mr Trump agreed to restore protection for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? the president responded, according to two people who spoke to The Washington Post. The paper said he was referring to African countries and Haiti. He then reportedly suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met on Wednesday. His remarks reportedly left the assembled politicians taken aback, the paper said, with Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator for South Carolina, and Richard Durbin, Democratic senator for Illinois, among those in the room. The two were reportedly surprised to be joined by immigration hardliners Bob Goodlatte, a Republican congressman for Virginia, and Tom Cotton, senator for Arkansas. The meeting was impromptu and came after phone calls on yesterday morning, Capitol Hill aides said. They had raised the issue of reducing the visa lottery, and restoring protections for countries that have been removed from the temporary protected status programme, in return for an additional $1.5bn (1.24) for a border wall. A White House spokesman declined to comment on Mr Trumps remarks. President Donald Trump has reportedly expressed frustration at the United States immigration policy, asking a White House gathering of politicians why the US accepted people from shithole countries and couldnt have more people from countries like Norway. Mr Trump convened yesterdays meeting to discuss reforming immigration policy, and one of the politicians inside the Oval Office suggested that a deal could be reached if Mr Trump agreed to restore protection for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries. Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? the president responded, according to two people who spoke to The Washington Post. The paper said he was referring to African countries and Haiti. He then reportedly suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met on Wednesday. His remarks reportedly left the assembled politicians taken aback, the paper said, with Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator for South Carolina, and Richard Durbin, Democratic senator for Illinois, among those in the room. The two were reportedly surprised to be joined by immigration hardliners Bob Goodlatte, a Republican congressman for Virginia, and Tom Cotton, senator for Arkansas. The meeting was impromptu and came after phone calls on yesterday morning, Capitol Hill aides said. They had raised the issue of reducing the visa lottery, and restoring protections for countries that have been removed from the temporary protected status programme, in return for an additional $1.5bn (1.24) for a border wall. A White House spokesman declined to comment on Mr Trumps remarks. Meanwhile, Mr Trumps expected working visit to Britain in February has been postponed, Downing Street has confirmed. British Prime Minister Theresa May was the first world leader to visit Mr Trump in the White House, and the US president accepted at the time an invitation for a state visit. But that idea was fairly swiftly pushed into the long grass, given the scale of expected protests and opposition within the UK. A petition against a state visit gained more than a million signatures last year. Mr Trump was then reported to be considering a working visit, with some publications reporting that a date had been set for the end of February. 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. But now Mr Trump has decided to postpone even the scaled-down February visit. Sources claimed that the lack of bells and whistles and royal involvement in next months planned visit may have discouraged him. Mrs May and Mr Trump fell out spectacularly in November over his retweeting of anti-Muslim videos posted online by the deputy leader of the far-right Britain First group, Jayda Fransen. At the time, Mrs May said Mr Trump was wrong to retweet the videos, and the US president hit back at her on Twitter by telling her to focus on destructive radical Islamic terrorism in the UK, rather than on him. Earlier yesterday, Mr Trump spoke to The Wall Street Journal, and claimed that he has developed a positive relationship with North Koreas leader. I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un, said Mr Trump, despite there being no formal contact between US and North Korean officials in decades. I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised. Asked if he has spoken with Mr Kim, Mr Trump replied: I dont want to comment on it. Im not saying I have or havent. I just dont want to comment. The president has called the nations leader a maniac, a bad dude, mocked him as short and fat, and referred to him repeatedly as rocket man. Mr Kim in response has warned he would tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire. Mr Trump told the paper, however, that his Twitter insults were simply part of his game plan. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] The African Union said it was "frankly alarmed" by Donald Trump's comments (AP) Facing strong condemnation at home and abroad, US President Donald Trump on Friday denied using the word sh*thole to describe Haiti and African countries, but kept up criticism of a Senate immigration plan that he said would force the United States to admit people from countries that are doing badly. Trump reportedly made the remarks at a White House meeting on immigration on Thursday. U.S. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who attended the gathering, told reporters on Friday that Trump used vile, vulgar language, including repeatedly using the word sh*thole when speaking about African countries. The Republican presidents comments were decried as racist by African and Haitian politicians, by the United Nations human rights office and by US lawmakers from both major parties. Trump, who has been accused of racism over several issues since he took office a year ago, sought to sought to walk back the comments on Friday, saying on Twitter, The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. Trump also denied saying anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. According to two sources, at Thursdays meeting Trump questioned why the United States would want to accept immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as sh*thole countries. Read More A group of Republican and Democratic senators has been working for months to craft legislation that would protect 700,000 children who were brought to the United States as illegal immigrants and later given protection from deportation under a program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Expand Close Donald Trump questioned why the US should permit immigrants from certain countries (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Donald Trump questioned why the US should permit immigrants from certain countries (AP) In a series of tweets on Friday, Trump also suggested that momentum toward a deal on maintaining such protection had stalled. The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards, he said. The tentative deal also addresses border security, including a border wall, the diversity visa lottery and so-called chain migration, a program by which U.S. green-card holders can sponsor other family members for permanent residence in the country. Among other objections, Trump said the plan did not provide proper funding for the proposed wall that he made a center-piece of his election campaign. He added the country would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly. At an event on Friday, Trump was honoring the memory of Martin Luther King Jr, the civil rights era activist who was slain in 1968. Kings memory is marked with a national holiday, which falls this year on Monday. SHOCKING AND SHAMEFUL Haiti said it was shocked by Trumps reported remarks on Thursday and summoned the top U.S. diplomat in the country for an explanation. Botswana also said it had summoned the US ambassador to that country, Earl Miller, to express its displeasure and had asked Miller whether Botswana is regarded as a sh*thole country. Trumps comments are extremely offensive to South Africa, said Jessie Duarte, a senior official with the ruling African National Congress. Ours is not a sh*thole country. Neither is Haiti or any other country in distress, she said. In Geneva, U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said These are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the United States. There is no other word one can use but racist.' The reported language was the latest in a long string of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim comments by Trump that have been condemned as racist. He also blamed both sides after a white supremacist rally in August in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned violent and a woman protesting against the rally was killed. Read More At Thursdays White House meeting, Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham briefed the president on the newly drafted, bipartisan immigration bill. The lawmakers were describing how certain immigration programs operate, including one to give safe haven in the United States to people from countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife. In questioning Why do we want all these people from Africa here? Trump said, We should have more people from Norway, according to one source briefed on the conversation. On behalf of Norway: Thanks, but no thanks, tweeted Torbjoern Saetre, a Norwegian politician, on Friday. New York, Jan 12 (IBNS): Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, on Friday announced that it has entered into an agreement with Transamerica, a leading provider of life insurance, retirement and investment solutions, to enable the transformation of administration of its U.S. insurance and annuity business lines. The partnership enables Transamerica to rapidly enhance its digital capabilities, simplify the service of more than 10 million policies into a single integrated modern platform, and drive greater sustainable growth opportunities through superior customer experiences. The multi-year agreement is worth more than $2 billion in revenues, the largest contract signed by TCS to date. Transamerica continues to put our customers at the forefront of everything we do. Im 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 their significant, ongoing investments in technology and their 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 the most meaningful ways to them by utilizing our digital engagement platforms and developing new solutions that help people save, protect, invest and retire. The partnership will enable the transformation of the administration of Transamericas life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance, and workplace voluntary benefits products. It will also support the companys overall transition to a simplified, cloud-enabled platform for agile new product development, enhanced services, acquisitions, and strategic innovation investments. This agreement is expected to lead to annual run-rate savings of approximately $70 million initially growing to $100 million over time for Transamerica. The majority is expected to benefit underlying earnings. TCS is helping to guide many of todays leading companies through their business 4.0 journeys, in building their digital spines, becoming more agile, creating superior customer experiences, and driving exponential growth, said Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services. We have invested heavily in our insurance digital platform, TCS BaNCS, and our extensive U.S. capabilities, and are proud to partner with Transamerica in its ongoing transformation and welcome the transitioning employees to promising new careers at TCS. TCS BaNCS has become a highly respected and successful digital platform in the European market for more than a decade, with more than 17 million policies under administration. It is a complete, open architecture solution with an integrated business rules engine, encompassing policy administration, data management, integrated imaging, and workflow administration. TCS has adapted the platform for the U.S. market to meet its operational and regulatory needs, both for today and in the future. 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 with Transamerica 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, 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. We look forward to a great relationship with Transamerica. TCS will make job offers to all of the applicable Transamerica employees currently supporting the life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance, and workplace voluntary benefits business lines, ensuring a consistently excellent experience for Transamerica customers and protecting approximately 2,200 American jobs. Employees transitioning to TCS will be given the opportunity to remain in the same U.S. cities where they are currently based. TCS will also expand its existing relationship with Transamerica under this transaction, and locate in Transamericas current offices in various U.S. cities. TCS plans to make a significant investment in the region, most notably by establishing its new North American insurance hub for business operations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Beyond offering roles to 2,200 Transamerica employees across U.S cities, TCS plans to hire locally in Iowa, set up relationships with educational institutions, and help employees with professional development to gain digital skills and fluency. As one of America's 50 most community minded organizations, TCS will also work with state and local leaders, and community organizations to bring its flagship education programs, such as goIT and Ignite My Future In School to students, educators, schools, and communities across Iowa. New Delhi, Jan 12 (IBNS): In order to strengthen the existing India-Sri Lanka bilateral ties, a nine-member Sri Lankan Tri- Services delegation, headed by Kapila Waidyaratne, PC, Secretary of Defence made a two-day visit to the Southern Naval Command, (SNC) Kochi from 11 Jan 18. During their stay at Kochi, the Sri Lankan delegation had discussions with Vice Admiral AR Karve, AVSM, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, SNC on matters of mutual interest to both countries, including aspects related to training conducted by Indian Navy for Sri Lankan trainees at various units of SNC. The Sri Lankan delegation also visited Water Survival Training Facility (a facility which trains the aviation crew in survival techniques in case of an aircraft crash at sea), Flight and Tactical Simulator (helicopter flight training simulator), Ship Handling Simulator and Joint Operations Centre, Kochi. Naval cooperation with Sri Lanka today covers a wide spectrum of activities, ranging from training to operations, which includes Capability Building and Capacity Augmentation, coordinated patrolling along the common maritime border, as well as port calls. The visit was undertaken on the sidelines of the 5th India Sri Lanka Annual Defence Dialogue held at New Delhi from 8-9 Jan 18. The delegation departed Kochi on 12 Jan 18 for Colombo. Keywords: India,SriLanka,TriSeries Sriharikota, Jan 12 (IBNS): A major landmark in the history of India's space journey was touched when ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its forty second flight, successfully launched the 710 kg Cartosat-2 Series Remote Sensing Satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites on Fridayfrom Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This flight is designated as PSLV-C40. The lift-off of PSLV-C40 occurred at 0929 hrs (9:29 am) IST from the First Launch Pad. After a flight lasting 16 minutes 37 seconds, the satellites achieved the polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 503 km inclined at an angle of 97.55 degree to the equator. In the succeeding seven minutes, Cartosat-2 series satellite, INS-1C and 28 customer satellites successfully separated from the PSLV in a predetermined sequence. The fourth stage of PSLV-C40 fired twice for short durations to achieve a polar orbit of 365 km height in which Indias Microsat successfully separated. After separation, the two solar arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite deployed automatically and ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bengaluru took over the control of the satellite. In the coming days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration following which it will begin to provide remote sensing data using its panchromatic (black and white) and multispectral (colour) cameras, the ISRO said in a statement. The 11 kg INS-1C and the 100 kg class Microsat, the two Indian co-passenger satellites of Cartosat-2, are also being monitored and controlled from ISTRAC, Bengaluru, the ISRO said. The 28 international customer satellites belong to Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and the USA. So far, PSLV has successfully launched 51 Indian satellites and 237 customer satellites from abroad. ISRO's achievement was welcomed by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The official Twitter page of the President said: "Launch of India's 100th satellite Cartosat-2, along with two co-passenger satellites as well as 28 satellites of six friendly countries, is a moment of pride for every Indian. Congratulations to @isro team of exceptional scientists. A milestone for our country #PresidentKovind." Modi congratulated ISRO over the landmark achievement by ISRO. "My heartiest congratulations to @isro and its scientists on the successful launch of PSLV today. This success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country's rapid strides in space technology to our citizens, farmers, fishermen etc," Modi said. "The launch of the 100th satellite by @isro signifies both its glorious achievements, and also the bright future of India's space programme," he said. "Benefits of India's success are available to our partners! Out of the 31 Satellites, 28 belonging to 6 other countries are carried by today's launch," he said. Calling the step as a landmark in India's space journey, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the successful launch of its 100th satellite. Singh tweeted: "Congratulations to team @isro on the successful launch of its 100th satellite with Cartosat 2 Series Satellite Mission. The scientists at ISRO have made the nation proud with their successes on several occasions. They have done it again by hitting a century." He said: "The ISROs achievement of launching 100 satellites is historic in many ways and a big landmark in Indias journey into the space. The scientists at ISRO have carved a special place in the astronomical space." Guwahati, Jan 12 (IBNS): A tourist group of South India got narrowly escaped after the jeep, in which the group was travelling, was attacked by an one horned rhino during safari in Assam's Kaziranga National Park on Friday. According to the reports, all members of the tourist group survived the rhino attack without any severe injuries. One of the survivors tweeted that, the rhino attacked the vehicle and lifted it in air for few seconds. A forest guard fired a shot but couldnt fire the second one as bullet got stuck. Driver failed to start the vehicle. Rhino panicked in between and left. The jeep finally started and we escaped, Sojan Jose said in his tweet. (Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath) Mumbai, Jan 12 (IBNS): Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has triggered a controversy when he questioned that why 'all Navy officers need to stay in South Mumbai' and said that 'not an inch of land' would be given to the Navy to build flats or quarters in the area, drawing criticisms from opposition party Congress. "They came to me for a plot of land but I said I will not give them even an inch of land," the Minister was quoted as saying by the media during an event here on Thursday. "Everyone wants to build quarters and flats on south Mumbai's prime land. We respect you but I feel that you should go to Pakistan border and do patrolling there," he said. Meanwhile, the Congress attacked Nitin Gadkari for his remarks and said it was 'unacceptable'. Reacting to the remarks made by the senior leader of the BJP, Congress leader Randeep S Surjewala tweeted: "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." The Congress party tweeted: "BJP is the first to use the Armed Forces for electoral gains, but when it comes to benefits, their real intent comes to the fore." New Delhi/Kolkata, Jan 12 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paid tributes to Indian Hindu monk late Swami Vivekananda on his birthday on Thursday. Modi, who offered flowers to Vivekananda's statue at the national capital, tweeted: " I bow to Swami Vivekananda on his Jayanti. Today, on National Youth Day I salute the indomitable energy and enthusiasm of our youngsters, who are the builders of New India." I bow to Swami Vivekananda on his Jayanti. Today, on National Youth Day I salute the indomitable energy and enthusiasm of our youngsters, who are the builders of New India. pic.twitter.com/1aXEqvVRgY Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018 West Bengal is observing the day as 'Vivek Chetna Utsab'. Banerjee tweeted: " Today is the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. We observe this day as 'Vivek Chetna Utsab' in #Bengal. May his life be an example for the youth of India to always work for the betterment of the country." Today is the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. We observe this day as 'Vivek Chetna Utsab' in #Bengal. May his life be an example for the youth of India to always work for the betterment of the country Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) January 11, 2018 Vivekananda, born as Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk. He was a disciple of Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was born in an aristocratic Bengali family in Kolkata (then Calcutta). Vivekananda was inclined to spirituality. He also traveled to foreign countries to disseminate Hindu philosophy. Jan 12 is celebrated as the National Youth Day. New Delhi, Jan 12 (IBNS): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a controversial political figure, has been mocked by the Congress as it called the BJP leader a "recipe" to become the star campaigner of the ruling saffron party. Congress has put a video on its Twitter handle targeting the UP CM as a subject of mockery. The video uploaded demonstrates various controversial characteristics and deeds of Adityanath as a leader which the Congress proposes to be important for becoming BJP's star campaigner. Here's a recipe for a BJP star campaigner. We don't recommend it. pic.twitter.com/j5lIAvc4Oa Congress (@INCIndia) January 11, 2018 Congress captioned the video saying: 'Here's a recipe for a BJP star campaigner. We don't recommend it.." Adityanath, a fire brand Hindutva, has been a controversial figure in Indian politics for several of his remarks. In one of his remarks years ago, Adityanth had said women turn demons if they develop masculine traits. He was also criticised for a controversial rape threat. The BJP leader has been the Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur constituency, Uttar Pradesh, between 1998 and 2017. In 2017, the BJP chose Adityanath as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister after the party swept the state election. As the UP CM too, Adityanath was marred into controversy when more than 70 children died in the state hospital last year due to an alleged medical negligence. However, Adityanath held Encephalitis as the sole reason behind the deaths. The BJP is also investing into Adityanath for campaigning in Karnataka where the party is seeking political power. Image: facebook.com/MYogiAdityanat New Delhi, Jan 12 (IBNS): In an unprecedented press meet, one of the sitting Supreme Court judges, Justice Jasti Chelameswar, on Friday said the four senior judges of the apex court sent a complaint letter to Chief Justice of India over the functioning of the judiciary but failed to convince him. However Justice Chelameswar did not reveal the details of the complaint. The letter will be handed over to the media shortly. Chelamswar said: "Democracy cannot survive without free judiciary." New Delhi, Jan 12 (IBNS): Targeting the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, over the functioning of the Supreme Court, four sitting judges of the apex court on Friday said it is the nation which will decide whether the CJI to be impeached or not. In a virtual revolt against the CJI, the judges said they had approached Justice Misra with a complaint letter but failed to convince him. One of the senior judges of the SC, Justice Jasti Chelameswar, said: "Democracy cannot survive without free judiciary." "We had no option left but to address the media. This is a historicl event." he added. Justice Chelameswar, however, clarified that they are not politicising the issue. This is the first time in Indian history where the Supreme Court's sitting judges have addressed the media. Image: Creative Commons Patna, Jan 12 (IBNS) : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's convoy was attacked on Thursday in Nandar village of Buxar district during his Vikas Samiksha Yatra," media reports said. According to reports, the attackers pelted stones on the Chief Ministers convoy. However, he escaped unhurt. Nitish Kumar was rescued safely by his security but two security men in his convoy were injured. When his cavalcade was crossing the Nandar, a Dalit village, locals began pelting stones. The people reportedly wanted the CM to visit the Dalit basti in the village, but there was disagreement over it. Nitish Kumar is currently on a statewide tour called Vikas Samiksha Yatra from December 12 to take a first-hand account and review the progress made in various districts on development schemes launched by his Government. New Delhi, Jan 12 (IBNS): Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has assured there will be no shortage of funds for Border Infrastructure. Inaugurating the 43rd Annual Day function of MES Builders Association of India, here on Friday. He said the Government will expedite Forest and Environmental clearance issues which still continue to dog such strategic projects. Rajnath Singh said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also laid emphasis and relaxations will be obtained to facilitate completion of projects in national interest. He said the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) model will be crucial to create strategic infrastructure. The Union Home Minister said the Government has embarked upon a five year ambitious project during the period 2017-2022 worth over seven lakh crore rupees to build road infrastructure. This includes more than 2,000 kms Border Roads. Pointing out that e-tendering process has led to transparency, Rajnath Singh said quality delivery of the projects will be paramount. The Union Home Minister called upon the Armed Forces and the CAPFs for better coordination on the creation of Border Infrastructure. The Union Home Minister said for the first time in Indias history, this Government has continued to roll out economic reforms even while the economic situation in the country has remained comfortable; normally the previous Governments were compelled on the path of reforms after landing in dire financial position. New Delhi, Jan 12 (IBNS): Winners of the 2015-16 nationwide Tata Building India School Essay Competition, called on the President of India Ram Nath Kovind, on Friday at Rashtrapati Bhavan here. Speaking on the occasion, the President congratulated the winners of the School Essay Competition for 2015-16. He noted that this time more than 31 lakh children from over 8000 schools and 200 cities wrote essays concerned with nation building in 12 languages. Seventy-two winners emerged from such a tough competition. They must all be proud of this achievement. It is also a matter of celebration and satisfaction that of the 72 winners, as many as 52 are girls. The President said that every child who participated in this competition is a winner. This is because children of India are the future of this great nation. Children are future leaders; they are also crucial building blocks of the nation that we seek. The President advised children to dream and set ambitious goals for themselves, and then work towards those goals with dedication, integrity and commitment. He also advised them to always remain positive and never let failure deter them. Creative Commons New Delhi, Jan 12 (IBNS): In a rare episode in the history of Supreme Court, four justices of the apex court met the media and criticised the distribution of cases to judges and even voiced concerns about judicial appointments in the country. The entire incident was an unprecedented public airing of troubles within the apex judicial body of the country as alleged by Justices Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph to media persons here. The four justices even exposed their rift with Chief Justice Dipak Misra and said several issues in his administration were serious and hence they were forced to come in front of the media. Raising concern, Justice Jasti Chelameswar told media: "The four of us are convinced that unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not be able to survive in this nation." The justices also showed a letter they had written to Dipak Mishra. In the letter, they have alleged "selective assignment of cases to preferred judges". They even alleged in the letter that "sensitive cases were being allotted to junior judges". They said repeated attempts to alert Mishra on issues they consider to be crucial drew no result. When asked whether they propose an impeachment of the CJI or not, the judges said: "It is the nation which will decide." One of the four senior judges of the SC, Justice Jasti Chelameswar, said: "Democracy cannot survive without free judiciary." "We had no option left but to address the media. This is a historicl event." he added. Justice Chelameswar, however, clarified that they are not politicising the issue. Following the press meet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss the issue. This is the first time in Indian history where the Supreme Court's sitting judges have addressed the media. The entire episode has triggered a controversy and even the opposition voiced their concern on the matter. Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the issues raised by the four justices are important and they should be looked into. Gandhi said he was making a statement on the matter as it was vert 'sensitive'. "Extremely important points were raised by the four judges," Gandhi said. "They must be looked into carefully," he said. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the development that took place today in connection the apex court left her 'anguished'. "We are deeply anguished with the developments today about the Supreme Court. What we are getting from the statement of the four senior Honble Judges of Supreme Court about the affairs of the Court makes us really sad as citizens. 1/2," she tweeted. "Judiciary and Media are the pillars of democracy. Extreme interference of Central Government with Judiciary is dangerous for democracy. 2/2," she said attacking the Centre. Guwahati, Jan 12 (IBNS): In a major move to strengthening the rank and file of Assam Police, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday distributed appointment letters to 2305 newly recruited constables under Home Department in a programme held at College of Veterinary Science Playground in Guwahati. Speaking on the occasion, Sonowal exhorted the new recruits to work with honesty and dedication to safeguard peoples life and property in the state. The Assam Police will have to work as a symbol of honesty, integrity, courage and humanity to win the confidence of the people. Ensuring safety and security of the people and their property is their main responsibility. The police force has a huge responsibility which they must execute with a sense of equality towards all, Sonowal said. Stating that the state government since the time of assuming power launched an unrelenting fight against corruption, illegal migration, insurgency and pollution, the Assam CM pointed out the recruitment of constables as an example of its commitment towards making administration transparent and corruption free. He also highly appreciated the transparent manner of recruitment carried out by the State level Police Recruitment Board. Whatever we do, it would be transparent and corruption free, Sonowal asserted. People of the state too wanted the government to rid the administration from the ills of corruption. Following the Prime Minister Narendra Modis mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, our government achieved several milestones during last one and a half years with unequivocal support from the people, the Assam CM said. Further urging the newly recruited constables to perform their duty with honesty, integrity, courage and compassion, Sonowal asked them to serve the people without discrimination. Wherever you are posted, work with honesty and integrity. Consider the entire state as your mother and work in such a manner that people feel a sense of security by your presence, the Assam CM emphasized and called for strengthening harmony and unity amongst all. Sonowal urged the Assam Police to extend all cooperation to the tourists visiting the state so that they feel fully secured and carry the message to their own land. This would greatly facilitate tourist footfall in the state. DGP Mukesh Sahay while delivering the welcome speech said that the recruitment of the new constables would greatly enhance the capabilities of Assam Police. He also mentioned that during last one and a half years, 343 sub-inspectors, 27 assistant jailors, 122 staff in other posts of the force were recruited apart from appointment of 8 office assistants and 29 grade IV staff on compassionate ground. Dispur MLA Atul Bora and Chief Secretary Vinod Kumar Pipersenia also spoke on the occasion. Chief Ministers Media Adviser Hrishikesh Goswami, Chief Ministers Legal Adviser Santanu Bharali, Additional Chief Secretary Alok Kumar, DGP (Home Guards and Civil Defence) AP Raut, Special DGP Kula Saikia, Principal Secretary (Home & Political Department) LS Changsan and host of other senior officers of Assam Police were present in the appointment letter distribution programme. (Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath) Guwahati, Jan 12 (IBNS): In a major breakthrough in Manipurs Chandel Army ambush case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested accused Naorem Premkanta Singh. The joint operation, launched by the NIA and Manipur Police (CDO, Imphal-East), has led to the arrest of the militant. Security personnel have recovered a pistol and five live rounds from his possession. The accused militant was found involved in NIA case RC-03/2015/NIA/Guwahati related to an ambush on Army personnel at Chandel Distt, Manipur on June 4, 2015, in which 18 army personnel were killed. He belongs to a banned terror organisation namely Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) and had participated in the ambush on Army personnel of 6th Dogra Battalion. The arrested militant has been absconding since the ambush took place. During the investigation, a reward of Rs 2 lakh was announced by the NIA on any information leading to his arrest. The Special NIA Court, Imphal has also issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest. The Court has also announced him a proclaimed offender. (Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath) Guwahati, Jan 12 (IBNS): In a bid to accelerate women empowerment and pushing to Prime Minister Narendra Modis Beti Bachao Beti Padhao mission, the BJP-led Assam government on Friday distributed 1000 scooties to the girl students who secured top positions in the Higher Secondary Leaving Certificate examination, 2017. During a distribution ceremonial function held at the auditorium of Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH), Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma distributed the non-gear scooties to the girl students. It may be noted that starting the scheme of giving free scooty to the girl students in recognition to their good results in the higher secondary examinations was one of the budget promises of the state government. Fulfilling the budget promise, Sonowal handed over allotment certificates along with keys to the girl students in the city in presence of Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Speaking on the occasion the Assam CM said that ever since has the new dispensation been in power, quality has become the only criterion for getting government jobs and other government incentives. He also said that his government has been striving hard to sustain the atmosphere and make quality the only tool for selecting the beneficiaries into the fold of government programmes. Sonowal said that the state government is committed to quality higher education and through education the much deserved qualitative changes will be brought about in the society. The governments decision to introduce Gunotsav in the education system was primarily done to bring in qualitative changes in education, Sonowal said. Sonowal requested the education department to include sapling plantation as an essential component of Gunotsav to complement the state governments efforts of adding life to bio-diversity in the state. He also asked the recipients of scooties to use them (scooties) as a medium or launch pad to scale high in their career. Sonowal advised the students to work hard and stay with positive people and avoid negative companies. He also said that he felt happy to have launched the scheme on a day synchronising with the National Youth Day, the birth anniversary of Swami Vevekananda. Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma while speaking on the occasion said that the idea of giving free scooties in recognition to the merits of the girl students is a small gesture of the state governments efforts towards women empowerment. He also said though this year the state government has decided to give free scooties to 1000 students, next year the number of beneficiaries would be increased to 5000. Considering the problem of many students belonging to below poverty line in getting admission in the higher secondary and degree level, the state government has decided to give free text books and waive off the admission fees for them, Sarma said. It may also be noted that those students who opted for cash instead of scooties were given Rs 35000 as a part of the programme. Principal Secretary to Higher Education Ajay Tiwari, adviser to education department Prof Mihir Kanti Choudhury, principal of Cotton University Prof Bhabesh Goswami, director higher education Babulal Sharma and host of other dignitaries, teachers and students were present on the occasion. (Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath) Abu Dhabi, Jan 12 (IBNS): Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has urged his fans across the globe to visit and experience Dubai in the latest teaser of #BeMyGuest video. Khan, 52, shared the teaser on his Twitter handle where he said: "Come experience Dubai - a place filled with memorable moments. #BeMyGuest @visitdubai." In the teaser, the actor was seen praising different places of Dubai. Praising Dubai in the teaser, Khan said: "There is a place where memories never end. There is a place where happiness is everywhere. A place where stories begin...." The video is yet to be released. Khan is often seen to be present in Dubai for shooting. One of his recent films, Happy New Year, was largely shot in Dubai. Washington, Jan 12 (IBNS): US President Donald Trump did not take too kindly on immigrants from Africa, Haiti and El Salvador at a White House meeting recently, according to a report by The Washington Post. In a fit of anger, the US President reportedly told lawmakers, "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?". Needlessly to say, his comment was not well received. Lawmakers have accused Trump of promoting White Supremacy. According to black Democratic lawmaker, Cedric Richmond, Trump's comments "are further proof that his Make America Great Again agenda is really a Make America White Again agenda". Shockingly, Trump remained unapologetic in his claim of wanting more immigrants from countries like Norway. The local daily reported that the US President further added, "Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has accused Trump of falling "deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of racism and xenophobia". However, justifying the President's claim, in a statement White House spokesman Raj Shah said, "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people." It further read, "Like other countries 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," Shah's statement read. The US President later tweeted, "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!" Washington, Jan 12 (IBNS): US President Donald Trump on Friday said he was canceling his trip to the UK next month. Trump was expected to open a new $1bn (738m) US embassy in London city of the UK, media reports said. Trump cited the reason that he was not a "big fan" of the new embassy for cancelling his trip to the European country. The embassy is set to be shifted from Mayfair to south London. Trump even blamed former President Barack Obama and his administration for the 'bad deal' over the embassy. Trump said he will not participate in the inauguration function of the embassy. "Reason I canceled 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 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!," Trump tweeted. Downing Street declined to comment on Mr Trump's cancellation of the trip, BBC reported. The dates of the visit have not been mentioned so far.; Karachi, Jan 12 (IBNS): A school guard has been arrested in Pakistan's Karachi city on Friday after a five-year-old girl told her parents that the person had attempted to rape her, media reports said. The minors parents said she told them about the incident when she returned home from school on Thursday, Geo News reported. Police said the parents reached school and beat up the arrested person. They later handed him to the police. DIG East Sultan Khawaja confirmed to Geo News that the suspect was arrested and was being interrogated regarding the alleged incident. The incident occurred at a time when Kasur area of the country witnessed protest over the rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab. The incident has been protested by people of different areas of society in Pakistan. Politicians from different parties have also condemned the incident. Islamabad, Jan 12 (IBNS): The Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the police to arrest the culprit involved in the abduction, rape and murder of minor girl Zainab in Pakistan's Kasur area in 36 hours, media reports said. The court directed Inspector General Punjab (IGP) to arrest those involved in the incident which triggered protest in Kasur for the past two days LHC Chief Justice (CJ) Syed Mansoor Ali Shah gave the order while hearing the petition filed by advocate Shaheem Pirzada. The CJ ordered the police to submit details of all the cases of child sexual abuse that had taken place in the area, adding that he would also demand a report on the cases from the sessions judge, Dawn News reported. The hearing in the case has been adjourned till Jan 15. Kasur witnessed protest after body of Zainab was found in a garbage heap on Jan 10. As per Dawn News report, autopsy reports revealed that the girl was subjected to rape, torture and was then strangled to death. Politicians from different political parties have condemned the incident. Image: Imran Khan Twitter page Toronto, Jan 12 (IBNS): The Consulate General of India, Toronto celebrated Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and Vishwa Hindi Divas (World Hindi Day) at the Consulate on Wednesday. Both the events were organized as a part of efforts by the Consulate to strengthen the bonds with the Indian diaspora and further promote interest in the Hindi language especially among children living in the Greater Toronto Area. On this occasion, several children presented Hindi Bhajans at a lively programme. About a dozen eminent Hindi writers residing in the GTA recited poems and songs. In his address, Consul General Dinesh Bhatia, acknowledged the support of the Indian community living in the city in orgranising the Vishwa Hindi Diwas. All organizations promoting Hindi were requested to work together to make it a big success. The Consul General distributed mementos to all the participants of the event. Toronto, Jan 12 (IBNS): Tim Hortons has increased the prices of the breakfast amid widespread criticisms the restaurant is facing over the reduction of employee benefits following the Ontario government's rule of minimum wage hike, media reports said. The restaurant has raised the price slightly in some branches, CBC News reported. One of the consumers, shaaaan, tweeted: " @TimHortons breakfast combo went up to 7.22 from the 7.00 it was for years..the minimum wage price hike begins." @TimHortons breakfast combo went up to 7.22 from the 7.00 it was for years..the minimum wage price hike begins shaaaan (@ylanahs) January 11, 2018 Now the burning question is whether the raise in price is a solution that the restaurant has sought to tackle Ontario's decision to hike minimum wage. However, Tim Hortons denied such claims. One of the spokespersons of Tim Hortons told CBC News: " Regular adjustments to menu prices are a normal part of the restaurant business." "Many factors are considered when determining the final price of each menu offering and prices may vary by region," the spokesperson added. Son of Tim Horton's co-founder, Ron Joyce, and his wife issued a letter in December stating the employees will not get the benefit of paid breaks and also they will have to pay half the cost of dental and health benefits from Jan 1, 2018. The reduction in the benefits by the company came after the province increased the hourly wage of employees from $11.60 to $14. The company owns two restaurants in Ontario. The consumers of Tim Hortons took to social media and started a #boycottTimHortons campaign to support the restaurant employees who are suffering the aftermath of the province's call. Onatrio premier Kathleen Wynne sharply reacted to the development days ago. Wynne's reaction was quoted by Financial Post: "When I read the reports about Ron Joyce, Jr., who is a man whose family founded Tim Hortons, the chain was sold for billions of dollars, and when I read how he was treating his employees, it just felt to me like this was a pretty clear act of bullying." "I hope that he understands this is really not a decent thing to be doing in a place as wealthy as Ontario" she added. Expressing concern for the employees, the Ontario Premier said: "I hope he recognizes that his employees need to be treated decently." Hitting out at the company, Wynne said Tim Hortons should restrain itself from taking a toll on the employees because of the pay hike by the Ontario. She said the company must walk up to her if it wants to challenge the Ontario government policy at all. She even urged Tim Hortons to reverse its decision of cutting the employees' benefits. (Reporting by Suman Das) Markets end the day in red Indian equity markets remained in red through most of the day today. Nifty 50 ended, down by 39.35 points. Sensex ended, down by 87.12 points. Top Gainers today were HCL Tech, Asia... November 18, 2022 | 18-11-2022 3:45 pm British Finance Minister confirms that UK is in recession In a budget plan on Thursday, British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt proposed a number of tax rises and tighter public spending. Hunt claimed the economy is already in a recession and is likely t... November 18, 2022 | 18-11-2022 3:08 pm Strides Pharma receives USFDA approval for Potassium Chloride Oral Solution Strides Pharma Science Limited (Strides) has announced that its step-down wholly owned subsidiary, Strides Pharma Global Pte. Limited, Singapore, has received approval for Potassium Chlori... November 18, 2022 | 18-11-2022 3:01 pm Skyroot launches India's first private sector rocket India began a new era in the space industry with the successful sub-orbital launch of the Vikram-S rocket by the private company Skyroot Aerospace from Sriharikota's Satish Dhawan Space Center ... November 18, 2022 | 18-11-2022 2:55 pm Fewer flights on popular domestic routes this December because of maintenance issues At the height of the Diwali rush on October 19, all flights on the Delhi-Mumbai corridor were fully booked. Similar circumstances may arise over the holiday season leading up to Christmas and N... November 18, 2022 | 18-11-2022 2:54 pm Saudi Arabia is actually killing it. It was in June that King Salman announced women will be allowed to drive. And now the country has followed it with another welcome first: its first car exhibition solely for women. Also read: Not Just Cars, Saudi Women Will Also Be Allowed To Ride Motorcycles And Trucks! Reuters The rest of the world may call them a little late in this chase, however, from where we see it, it looks like they are trying to mend their ways and make up for lost time. In a first, a private organization from Saudi Arabia opened its first car exhibition aimed at women. Saudis Open Car Showroom Just for Women https://t.co/yEojglUaE0 pic.twitter.com/telfv2dDUl The Voice of America (@VOANews) January 12, 2018 Also read: 16 Images Show How The Lives Of Saudi Women Are Changing With Kingdom Making Reforms AFP The show which opened in Le Mall in Jeddah gave women the option to chose their cars before they take the road. AFP This will surely felicitate the long overdue fundamental right of women in the nation. Now, with this option in place, women will be able to choose whichever vehicle they want, sans any 'mansplaining'. AFP The show was staffed only by women employees ready with information on the latest vehicles and trends. The organisers also facilitated information on finance, procurement and any sort of assistance needed in making the purchase. Ive always been interested in cars, but we didnt have the ability to drive, said Ghada al-Ali, a customer, reports Reuters. And now Im very interested in buying a car, but I would like the payments and prices to not be very high. AFP The company is now planning to open more stores in the region. It is known that women are the largest section who shop in malls, said Sharifa Mohammad, the heads the exhibitions saleswomen. This whole mall is run by women anyway. All the cashiers are women. Everyone in the restaurants are women. Also read: After Granting Driving Rights, Saudi Arabia To Allow Women Into Sports Stadiums 2018 Onward We are not sure how quick Saudi will be in bringing in all the remaining advancements, but we are utterly happy with the tenacity. 1. Kangana Ranaut & Karan Johar Bury The Hatchet, Share A Good Laugh On A TV Show Twitter They have now shot for the show, and were seen hugging each other. Have they let the bygones be bygones? We wonder! Whats more? Kangana also played How well do you know each other? game during the shoot of the episode. When asked about who she had tagged flag-bearer of nepotism on his show Koffee With Karan, she quipped: Zehar pilata hai mujhse pooch (serves poison to his guests, ask me). 2. Gal Gadot Channels Her Inner 'Wonder Woman' In Inspiring Speech At 2018 Critics' Choice Awards Gal Gadot, who has become an icon for many, was recently honoured with #SeeHer Award, which recognizes actors who challenge female stereotypes and present women with accuracy and integrity, both on screen as well as off screen, and there, she delivered one of the most inspiring speeches. 3. Shah Rukh Khan To Be Honoured With WEF's Crystal Award For His Work On Women & Childrens Rights In India Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh 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. 4. Saif Ali Khan Describes Taimurs First Walking Experience, Says It's Like Watching A Drunk Man #familygoals A post shared by Kareena Kapoor Khan (@therealkareenakapoor) on Jan 11, 2018 at 9:46am PST While talking about the toddlers first walking experience, Saif said that it was like watching a drunk man. Hes a very cute kid. Watching him walk for the first time is like watching a drunk baby. Its hysterical and so cute. So, its a wonderful part of our lives. 5. Sushant Singh Rajput Doesnt Want To Promote Fairness Cream Brands, Refuses Rs 15 Crore Offer MAZALE.IN If the latest reports are to be believed, he was offered Rs 15 crore to endorse a fairness brand, but he refused to do so. He reportedly felt that as an actor, its his duty to not indulge in sending out incorrect messages and promoting the idea that one skin tone is better than the other. Among the three people who will be awarded at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) 48th annual meeting, one of them is Bollywoods Badshah Shah Rukh Khan. He will be honoured along with Hollywood star Cate Blanchett and iconic musician Sir Elton John. Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh 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. afp 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. afp 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'. afp About Shah Rukh 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. bccl "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. Calling the "mysterious death" of CBI judge Brij Gopal Loya a "serious issue", the Supreme Court today asked the Maharashtra government to produce all the documents related to the case by Monday. Supreme Court was hearing a plea seeking an independent probe into the death of special CBI judge Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. When senior advocates Dushyant Dave and Indira Jaising pleaded the SC bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra not to hear the case on Loya's mysterious death as matter is pending in Bombay HC, the bench said that it will examine the case. bccl The plea was filed by Maharashtra-based journalist B R Lone. He submitted that a fair probe was needed into the mysterious death of Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin encounter case in which various police officers and BJP president Amit Shah were named as parties. Loya died of a cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. The issue came under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding his death and its link to the Sohrabuddin case. On Friday the four judges who spoke out against the CJI had also mentioned the issue of Justice Loya's death. The Indian government has time and again repeated that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not legal tender and using them will be considered as an act of money laundering. But this has not deterred India's biggest conglomerate from venturing into the field of cryptocurrencies. AFP According to media reports, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Group is all set to come up with its own cryptocurrency called JioCoin. Mint reported that Akash Ambani, the eldest son of Mukesh Ambani will lead a 50-member team who will work on developing the blockchain for the new virtual currency. Reliance which managed to disrupt the telecom market with the launch of Jio in 2016 aims to bolster the its ecosystem including JioMoney with the launch of the blockchain-based decentralized currency, which has been increasingly becoming accepted globally, mostly due to the success of Bitcoin. AFP Ever since Bitcoins began scaling unparalleled success recently, a number of companies like Burger King, Kodak, Telegram, and Bank of England have either launched or are set to launch their own version of bitcoins. Countries like Russia, Singapore, Venezuela South Korea and Sweden have also shown interest in government-backed electronic currencies. Smokers, beware. Delhi police have launched a crackdown on smoking in public places and have over the last four days booked 6,941 people in south Delhi for lighting up in public. Police teams are keeping a watch on markets, Metro stations and bus stops, where the maximum violations are detected. Women constituted about 30% of violators. The police drive against smoking in public is strongest between 6 pm and 9 pm when the most number of people are found to be violating norms. BCCL/Representational Image Police officers say 95% of the challans were issued against smokers and 5% against sellers vending tobacco products near educational institutions. "We have also been educating people about the hazards of smoking while challaning them. In one instance we challaned a person three times," said DCP (south-east) Chinmoy Biswal. Police officers said that more challans had been issued for drinking publicly and that people were challaned for smoking only when caught red-handed. Rules governing the sale of tobacco products are enforced strictly outside hospitals and policemen have been deployed outside schools to enforce the ban on sale of tobacco within 100 metres of the establishment. "We have been issuing challans under Sections 4 and 6 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA). Apart from challaning people, we also felt the need to sensitise them about the discomfort caused to others while they are smoking in public. BCCL/Representational Image Such drives will continue in future, until the time we see a perceptible change," said DCP (south) Romil Baaniya. Apart from the police, a team from the tobacco control cell has been deployed to a keep a check on the sale of tobacoo to minors. Police officers say issuing a direct challan under COTPA has proven effective. Earlier, challans were issued under proceedings of kalandra where an officer would issue a challan that would be payable in the presence of a magistrate. Police sources said that system had proved less effective as violators did not provide I-cards or turn up to pay the fine. The Supreme Court of India witnessed an unprecedented scene on Friday as four of the top jurists in the country addressed the media to voice their concern about the state of affairs of the judiciary. Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph spoke about the CJI, Justice Deepak Mishra, and his way of functioning. PTI "This is an extraordinary event and we are compelled take the decision to call a press conference with no pleasure," Justice J Chelameswar said. "The administration of the SC is not in order & many things which are less than desirable have happened in last few months," the senior judge said without elaborating further. "It is discharge of debt to the nation which has brought us here," Justice Ranjan Gogoi added. Justice Chelameswar who is the second most senior judge in SC who led the charge against Justice Mishra saying they had tried to persuade the CJI to take steps to rectify, but failed. We met CJI with a specific request which unfortunately couldnt convince him that we were right therefore, we were left with no choice except to communicate it to the nation that please take care of the institution, Justice Chelameswar said. BCCL Justice Chelameswar also added that they didn't want some wise men to say in the future that they had sold their souls. The four judges also published a letter they had written to the CJI, listing their concerns on three major issues. The first one being the CJI, being the master of the roster, assigning cases to the judges. They alleged that the CJI had not allocated cases to the senior judges and cases they were hearing were moved to other benches. The judges also touched upon the issue of the suspicious death of Justice Loya and their displeasure over the functioning of the collegium. When asked about the impeachment of the CJI, the four judges said it was for the natio to decide. China has increasingly been asserting itself on India's northern borders ever since the Doklam standoff. It was only expected. Now the Army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat has sent a polite reminder to the northerly neighbour. He said that India will not allow its territory to be invaded by anyone, asserting that China may be a powerful country but India is not a weak nation either. The time had come for India to shift focus to its northern border, he said, and added that the country was capable of handling China's assertiveness along it. afp/representational image Amid aggressive Chinese efforts to increase its influence in the region, the Army chief said India cannot allow its neighbours to drift away to China. "China is a powerful country but we are not a weak nation," Rawat told reporters here. To a question about Chinese incursions into India, he said, "We will not allow our territory to be invaded by anyone." reuters/representational image Referring to the US' warnings to Pakistan over its handling of terrorism, Rawat said India will have to wait and see its impact. Terrorists are a disposable commodity in Pakistan and the Indian Army approach has been to ensure that it feels the pain, he said. The Swacch Bharat Abhiyan has taken many forms across the nation - some taking up the task of cleaning the coasts of India by themselves, while some spreading awareness to build toilets in rural areas by making films or advertising. However, there is another unique way that Virendra Mittal, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Jorhat, Assam, has come up with - donating toilets! Daan Toilets / The Better India A native of Jaipur, Mittal has been in Johrat in Assam since almost two years now. He has always wanted to serve the society. 'Daan Toilet', an initiative by Mittal encourages people to donate toilets to those who do not have one and still rely on open defecation daily. This was started on October 2 2016, on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday who always advocated for a cleaner India. Swacch Johrat In a survey that was conducted in his district about five years ago, shows lack of toilets for most families. Therefore, he took the reponsibility on his own head to build laterines for each and every household, reported The Better India. It did take a while for him to convince people, but after they understood the importance of hygiene and cleanliness, they all supported the cause. Mittal started his initiative by donating a toilet to a widow in his village, and his act soon became a practise among the other officers, and other economically stable families in the area. In a place where the people had to go far off to defecate and get water, especially at night, they now have a much more convinient option of going to the toilet that is right outside their homes. The Supreme Court of India witnessed an unprecedented scene on Friday as four of the top jurists in the country addressed the media to voice their concern about the state of affairs of the judiciary. Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph spoke about the CJI, Justice Deepak Mishra, and his way of functioning. Read more Proud Moment For India As ISRO Successfully Launches Its 100th Satellite Into The Orbit The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched the PSLV-C40/Cartosat 2 Series satellite mission, the 100 launch of India's unparalleled space success story. The rocket carrying 31 satellites blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota today morning. PSLV-C40/ Cartosat-2s series will be one of the longest missions. It will last for two hours and 21 minutes as the fourth stage liquid engine will be ignited and shut off four times. Read more General Bipin Rawat Reminds China That India Is No Pushover, Won't Let Anyone Invade China has increasingly been asserting itself on India's northern borders ever since the Doklam standoff. It was only expected. Now the Army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat has sent a polite reminder to the northerly neighbour. He said that India will not allow its territory to be invaded by anyone, asserting that China may be a powerful country but India is not a weak nation either. The time had come for India to shift focus to its northern border, he said, and added that the country was capable of handling China's assertiveness along it. Read more New Passports May Not Have Printed Addresses On Them, So They Can't Be Used As Address Proof Submissions of passports as an address proof has been a norm for many years now. However, this norm may be discontinued as passports may no longer be valid proof of address. If you're wondering what the reason is? Well, passports may not have the current last page with the address of the passport holder, if the ministry of external affairs goes ahead with a proposal. The first page of the passport, for now, has the photograph as well as other details of the passport holder; the address is printed on the last page. Read more Amid Senior Judges' Revolt, SC Seeks Documents Related To Mysterious Death Of Justice Loya Calling the "mysterious death" of CBI judge Brij Gopal Loya a "serious issue", the Supreme Court today asked the Maharashtra government to produce all the documents related to the case by Monday. Supreme Court was hearing a plea seeking an independent probe into the death of special CBI judge Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. Read more Indigo Does It Again, Threatens Passengers That They'll Be Dragged Out Of Plane At Patna Airport Budget carrier IndiGo, which recently got a dressing down from a Parliamentary panel for "rude" behaviour of its staff, has now been accused of "threatening" to use force against a group of passengers who allegedly refused to vacate its aircraft at Patna airport late December. The incident, which took place on December 30 last year, comes nearly three months after the staff of the Gurgaon-based airline thrashed a passenger at the Delhi airport. Read more NY Cocoa Prices Fall to 2-week Low Barchart - 3 minutes ago December ICE NY cocoa (CCZ22 ) on Friday closed down -16 (-0.66%), and December ICE London cocoa #7 (CAZ22 ) closed down -6 (-0.30%). NY cocoa prices on Friday fell -0.66% to a 2-week low, and extended... CCH23 : 2,456s (+0.37%) CAH23 : 1,953s (+0.31%) Coffee Prices Fall on Demand Worries Barchart - 1 hour ago December arabica coffee (KCZ22 ) today is down -1.35 (-0.88%) and Jan ICE Robusta coffee (RMF23 ) is down -8 (-0.44%). Arabica coffee prices today are trading lower and are just slightly above Thursday's... KCH23 : 155.10s (-0.80%) RMF23 : 1,811s (-0.39%) ^USDBRL : 5.37014 (-0.96%) Cattle Gains Continue through Friday Barchart - 1 hour ago Live cattle futures are up another 35 to 50 cents on the session through midday. Cash trade picked up on Thursday; the USDA confirmed $148 to $156 sales on Thursday, citing $152 as the bulk of business... LEZ22 : 153.075s (+0.21%) LEG23 : 155.850s (+0.29%) LEJ23 : 159.250s (+0.22%) GFF23 : 180.775s (+0.44%) GFH23 : 183.125s (+0.34%) 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 : 84.225s (-0.88%) HEJ23 : 94.925s (-1.12%) 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 : 85.16s (-2.16%) CTH23 : 83.78s (-1.76%) CTK23 : 83.07s (-1.56%) 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 : 803-2s (-0.43%) ZWH23 : 822-0s (-0.36%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.3748 (-0.49%) KEZ22 : 934-2s (-0.40%) KEPAWS.CM : 8.9256 (-2.33%) MWZ22 : 949-4 (-0.45%) 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 : 1428-2s (+0.79%) ZSPAUS.CM : 14.0328 (+0.82%) ZSH23 : 1433-2s (+0.77%) ZSK23 : 1439-6s (+0.79%) 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 : 667-6s (unch) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.7333 (+0.38%) ZCH23 : 670-0s (+0.15%) ZCK23 : 668-0s (unch) Brokers have been urged to remind their small business clients in New South Wales of the recent stamp duty cut on insurance premiums that could save them 9%. Beginning in January, the New South Wales government removed stamp duty on commercial motor, occupational indemnity, product and public liability and commercial aviation insurance for businesses with turnovers of less than $2 million. Rhys Mills, managing director of Solution Underwriting, said that brokers need to ensure that clients seek a small business declaration to access the cuts. In order to obtain the exemption, they have to get their client to complete the small business declaration, Mills told Insurance Business. The declaration covers policies issued commencing on or after January 01, 2018. Mills said that the move allows brokers a touchpoint for both existing and new clients and can help highlight their expertise. It is a good thing for them [brokers] to be able to present to their clients and say did you know this exists? he said. Quite a lot of clients might not actually be aware of it so it gives the brokers a good opportunity to get in front of clients and demonstrate that they have knowledge of these changes - and that these changes could directly save the client some money. Stamp duty has long been a contentious issue on insurance products with the industry putting pressure on all Governments to reduce or remove insurance duties in a bid to cut underinsurance. Late last year, the Federal Government urged Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory to scrap inefficient duties. The New South Wales government also cut stamp duties on crop and livestock cover as well as LMI. Related stories: New minister urged to scrap agricultural insurance stamp duty State governments urged to drop insurance taxes The global cybersecurity migraine ramped up a notch last week when it was announced that two major security flaws have been discovered in the microprocessors inside nearly all of the worlds computers.Two techniques dubbed Meltdown and Spectre could enable hackers to expose crucial data and secrets, such as passwords and encryption keys, from any vulnerable computer, including mobile devices and servers running in so-called cloud computer networks.We now live in a time where a cyberattack, technology failure, or human error can cause everything from data theft to supply chain disruptions, hospital shutdowns, hotel room lockouts, blackouts, and even nuclear centrifuge explosions - literally the entire spectrum of known risk, said Joshua Motta, co-founder and CEO of Coalition.That a single flaw, much less two, affecting nearly all of the worlds computers could expose society, even if only theoretically, to these risk exposures on such a massive scale is concerning. Its this form of accumulation risk that troubles many market observers.Meltdown affects nearly every microprocessor made by Intel, which makes chips for more than 90% of computer servers that underpin the internet and private business operations worldwide. Its particularly threatening for cloud computing services run by companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft because it allows hackers to get into a cloud service and snatch data. It can be dealt with by software patches, but these are likely to slow affected machines dramatically.The Spectre flaw is more difficult to exploit and much trickier to fix, according to researchers. Whereas the Meltdown flaw has only affected a few manufacturers, Spectre has been issued by many processor manufacturers.But what impact will these integral cyber flaws have on the cyber insurance market?Vulnerabilities by themselves do not lead to data breaches. While they pose a threat, it is only when a criminal uses the vulnerability to launch an attack that a breach is possible. In this respect, while broader than most known vulnerabilities, it is unlikely that Meltdown or Spectre will lead to a significant increase in cybercrime, or insurable loss, Motta commented.This event demonstrates that cyber risk affects everyone, everywhere. This flaw is neither the first, nor will it be the last. While insurance cannot eliminate cyber risk, its the only tool that can eliminate the cost of cyber risk. Following ASIC action, a financial services and credit business that provides advice about life-risk insurance and superannuation products has been restrained from providing financial advice or entering into credit contracts.Melbourne-based Financial Circle was issued the interim injunctive orders by the Federal Court of Australia after ASIC accused the firm of misleading, deceptive, and unconscionable conduct.According to ASIC, Financial Circle provided loans only to those consumers who agreed to receive and implement financial advice to buy personal insurance products or switch superannuation providers. The firm then allegedly receives significant advice fees from the consumers superannuation and in commissions from the insurers.The regulator sought injunctive relief, declarations of contraventions, and financial penalties against Financial Circle for alleged breaches of the Corporations Act 2001, the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001, including breaches of the best interests duty and unlicensed conduct.The order remains in effect until the hearing and determination of the matter. It was back in June 2017 that CNA Hardy revealed its plans to join a cluster of insurers setting up a post-Brexit base in Luxembourg . Now that new European operation has a leader.That man is Stuart Middleton, who has been appointed as CEO of CNAs Luxembourg subsidiary, subject to regulatory approval. In his new position, Middleton will report to CEO Dave Brosnan and will look at ways to transform the manner in which CNA does business across Europe.According to Brosnan, Middletons depth of underwriting experience will be crucial in establishing a clear customer focused service that also leverages technology and drives efficiencies.Stuart has significant experience and a proven track record of building profitable businesses and highly effective teams, having held numerous leadership roles including chief underwriting officer (CUO), Europe at Hiscox and most recently, CUO and joint managing director of EXINs Wholesale Division, based in Barcelona, he said. We are delighted that we can leverage both his underwriting expertise as well as his strong broker relationships to build out our proposition and capabilities across the continent in this manner.Middleton will be based in Luxembourg and will soon begin recruiting a local management team. A mortgage lender in Massachusetts is starting its own insurance company, supplementing its current financial services. Financier radius financial group has created radius insurance group, a complete resource servicing all its clients insurance needs, from commercial insurance to the full complement of personal offerings, which include auto, home, property, flood and life insurance, a release said. The company outlined that radius insurance group will draw on its existing property data and established customer relationships to immediately identify clients insurance needs. Our vision is to be one of the fastest-growing insurance companies in New England in the next five years. Its a lofty goal, but we have already created a scalable platform that we believe will allow us to achieve it, said radius COO and principal Keith Polaski.Similar to our mortgage aptitude, our insurance team is ready to provide a best-in-class customer experience that will make the transaction seamless, added radius president and cofounder Sarah Valentini. Our customers have just made the most important financial decision of their life in buying a house, and the last thing they want to worry about is whether they have adequate insurance to protect their investment. This value-added service propels our customers one step closer to a smooth closing and ongoing peace of mind in their new home. The Vermont Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that would allow the recreational use of marijuana, putting the state on course to become the first in the country to legalize pot by an act of the Legislature rather than through a referendum by voters. By voice vote, the Senate agreed to the 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 House approved the bill last week, and Gov. Phil Scott has indicated he will sign it. Today the Vermont Senate moved Vermont one step closer to a rational approach to marijuana, Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, a Democrat and Progressive, said in a statement. Tens of thousands of Vermonters will no longer feel like theyre committing a crime for their private, responsible use of marijuana. Senators who voted against the bill didnt ask for a roll call. It takes effect July 1. I think this is a very exciting criminal justice reform for Vermont. There have been terrible harms that have happened in the name of marijuana prohibition that have disproportionately affected poor people and people of color for far too long, said Laura Subin, director of the Vermont Coalition to Regulate Marijuana. Once the bill takes effect, Vermont will become the ninth state in the country, along with the District of Columbia, to approve the recreational use of marijuana and the only area where the law wasnt created by the vote of residents. Vermont does not allow referendum votes. Justin Strekal, political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws, said Vermont and the District of Columbia are the only jurisdictions without a tax and regulation structure as part of their marijuana legalization laws. The legalization laws in Maine and Massachusetts call for tax and regulation structures, but they have not yet been set up, although personal marijuana use and possession are legal in those states. The Vermont bill would allow adults 21 and older to possess of up to 1 ounce of marijuana and have two mature marijuana plants or four immature plants. Last spring, the Legislature passed a similar bill, but Scott vetoed it because the Republican thought it didnt do enough to protect children from marijuana and enhance highway safety. Lawmakers changed the proposal to address the governors concerns, but there was not enough time left to pass it. Democratic state Sen. Richard Sears, who has been working for marijuana legalization for years, said the bill passed Wednesday was an important first step. A lot of work has taken place, but were still not there yet, Sears said. I dont think were there until we see a tax and regulated system. He said it would be OK if Vermont went for a year or so without a tax system. A commission formed by Scott last summer to study the issue is scheduled to release a report in December with suggestions on how the system could be set up. Not everyone was happy with the bills passage. Aubree Adams traveled to Vermont from Pueblo, Colorado, tell lawmakers she believes legalization in her state has had unintended consequences. She works with the group Moms Strong, whose mission is to educate the public about the harms of marijuana, according to its website. Im here as a living witnessto let you know the legalization of marijuana means promotion, its not a solution to prohibition, she said. Vermont has already decriminalized so its a false narrative that the lobbyists and the marijuana promoters are giving Vermont and the Legislature. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Cannabis Vermont Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd, Indias top IT services firm, said its insurance services business would soon post faster growth thanks to higher client spending but remained cautious on a turnaround in its key banking segment. Western banking, financial services and insurance sector (BFSI) clients make up TCS biggest revenue stream but their low spending on technology has led to sluggish growth in the segment. BFSI revenue dipped 0.4 percent as the company reported a 3.6 percent fall in net profit to 65.31 billion rupees ($1.03 billion) in the quarter to Dec. 31. This was TCS third straight dip in quarterly net profit. Analysts had, on average, expected TCS to post a profit of 65.18 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data. Were very optimistic about a faster and stronger turnaround in insurance, Chief Executive Rajesh Gopinathan told reporters in Mumbai, adding that banking segment recovery was a little more unpredictable. TCS is the first of Indias 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. Its income from operations rose about four percent to 309.04 billion rupees. TCS, part of salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group, said revenue growth from all segments was above 9.5 percent, barring retail and BFSI. Weakness in the BFSI segment indicates continued impact of change in sourcing strategy of a few important clients, local brokerage Kotak Securities said in a client note after results. The results come as Indian outsourcers are anticipating major challenges from visa restrictions on movement of personnel to the United States, their biggest market, under President Donald Trumps administration. Chief Financial Officer V. Ramakrishnan said the company was not immediately concerned by work visa issues in U.S. as it had been preparing internally for any changes to the visa regime. The Mumbai-headquartered company won its first 50 million plus deal for digital services. Gopinathan said TCS was winning meaningful large deals, adding that he remained positive the momentum would continue. ($1 = 63.6850 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Promit Mukherjee in Mumbai and Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; writing by Sankalp Phartiyal; editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman/Keith Weir and Jane Merriman) Topics Trends India CNA Hardy, a specialist commercial insurance provider for clients within the Lloyds and company markets, has appointed Stuart Middleton as CEO of its Luxembourg subsidiary, subject to regulatory approval. The company set up a subsidiary in Luxembourg as its post-Brexit EU headquarters in order to assure passporting rights for its European business after the UK leaves the European Union. Reporting to CEO Dave Brosnan, Middleton will be responsible for continuing to build out CNA Hardys operations and capabilities across Europe. Stuart has significant experience and a proven track record of building profitable businesses and highly effective teams, having held numerous leadership roles, including chief underwriting officer (CUO), Europe at Hiscox, and most recently, CUO and joint managing director of EXINs Wholesale Division, based in Barcelona, said Brosnan. Middleton joined CNA Hardy as head of Small Business in November 2017. We are delighted that we can leverage both his underwriting expertise as well as his strong broker relationships to build out our proposition and capabilities across the Continent in this manner, Brosnan added. Brosnan is based in Luxembourg and will immediately recruit a local management team, comprising risk, finance and compliance functions to build out the companys local footprint, CNA Hardy said. Source: CNA Hardy Related: Topics Europe Uk A stricken Iranian oil tanker continued exploding on Friday, hampering rescue efforts, Chinese state media reported, as Japans Coast Guard said the ship drifted away from the Chinese coast and into Japans exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The ship, which has been ablaze for almost a week since it collided with another vessel on Saturday night in the East China Sea, was about 286 km (178 miles) northwest of Sokkozaki on the island of Amami Oshima as of 0700 GMT on Friday, the Japan Coast Guard said in a statement. The vessel is drifting to the southwest at a speed of 2.2 km (1.4 miles) per hour, the Coast Guard said. Amami Oshima is one of the northern islands in the Ryukyu islands chain that includes Okinawa. There have been continuous explosions onboard the ship, Chinas official Xinhua news agency said late on Friday, citing the Ministry of Transport. The tanker Sanchi (IMO:9356608), owned by Irans top oil shipping operator National IranianTanker Co, was carrying almost 1 million barrels of condensate, an ultra-light, highly flammable crude oil, to South Korea. It collided with the freighter CF Crystal (IMO:9497050) that was carrying grain from the United States about 160 nautical miles (184 km) off Chinas coast near Shanghai. The Coast Guard has sent patrol boats and aircraft to monitor the situation, said a spokesman for the Japan Coast Guards 10th region based in Kagoshima. Fourteen ships are carrying out emergency response work, including one from Japan and two from South Korea, the transport ministry said in a statement released late on Friday. The Sanchi had a crew of 32 sailors at the time of the collision. The body of a mariner suspected to be from the ship was recovered on Monday and sent to Shanghai for identification. The rest of the crew, which included 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, remains missing. Twelve Iranian rescue workers had been brought to Shanghai to help and would join rescue work soon, Lu Kang, a spokesman from Chinas foreign ministry, told a regular briefing. (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; additional reporting by Muyu Xu and Christian Shepherd in Beijing; writing by Josephine Mason in Beijing; editing by Christian Schmollinger) Related: Topics Energy Oil Gas China Hub International Ltd. (Hub), the Chicago-based insurance brokerage, announced it has acquired a property and casualty insurance book of business from Montreal broker Daniel Picard. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Daniel Picards property and casualty insurance book of business will be folded into Hub Quebec. Hub said its strategy is to grow organically and through acquisitions to expand its geographic footprint and strengthen industry and product expertise. Source: Hub International Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies Property Casualty Two Senate Democrats are proposing large new fines for credit reporting agencies that lose consumers personal information in data breaches, according to a bill they introduced on Wednesday. The bill would impose potentially significant fines against companies like Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian if their cyber security fails to ward off hackers trying to obtain sensitive data. It also would establish a new Office of Cybersecurity at the Federal Trade Commission, and charge it with monitoring cyber security at those companies. Senators Mark Warner and Elizabeth Warrens bill is in response to a data breach at Equifax that put the information of 145 million Americans at risk. The bill faces an uphill climb in a Republican-led Congress, but if it became law, would allow the government to fine as much as 75 percent of a credit reporting agencys gross revenue should a hack occur. Our bill imposes massive and mandatory penalties for data breaches at companies like Equifax and provides robust compensation for affected consumers, Warren said in a statement. The bill would fine a company $100 for each consumer that had a piece of personal information compromised in a data breach, with an additional $50 for each additional piece of data put at risk for each consumer. Those fines could add up to 50 percent of a companys gross revenue. But, that penalty doubles if company fails to disclose the breach to regulators in a timely manner or has insufficient cyber security in place, and can add up to as much as 75 percent of a companys global revenue for the last fiscal year. (Reporting by Pete Schroeder; editing by Grant McCool) Topics Cyber Agencies Federal programs to protect Americans against extreme weather and other natural disasters save even more money than previously thought, according to a report funded by the same agencies that have proposed cutting many of those programs. The report, released Thursday by the National Institute of Building Sciences, found that every $1 the federal government spends on so-called mitigation projects, such as elevating homes at risk of flooding, improving stormwater management systems or strengthening buildings against earthquakes, reduces future costs by an average of $6. Thats higher than the 4-to-1 savings the institute last estimated in 2005; the increase reflects the growing effects of climate change as well as better data and measurement, according to the group. Invest properly in mitigation, youre going to get your money back regardless of what your beliefs in climate change are, Bryan Koon, chairman of the institutes Multihazard Mitigation Council, which prepared the report, said in an interview. Trumps first budget request called for cutting many of the programs designed to protect Americans from the effects of climate change. He and some of his cabinet members have questioned the science of global warming, rolling back many of the programs and regulations established by President Barack Obama to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet 2017 went on to become the most expensive year on record for natural disasters, with $306 billion in damage and 362 deaths in the U.S. led by hurricanes in the southeast and wildfires in the west. The results have drawn scrutiny to whether the government does enough to prepare for those disasters, especially as much of Puerto Rico remains without electricity. And they have focused new attention on the costs of those disasters to federal taxpayers, not least from Republicans in Congress, and how to reduce those costs. The timing couldnt be better for people to recognize the importance of mitigation, said Koon, who left his job as Floridas director of emergency management last year and now works for IEM Inc., a security consulting firm. He said the report provides plain hard facts and figures that appeal to anybody in Congress, in the executive branch. Roy Wright, the official in charge of insurance and mitigation for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said his organization had urged the building institute to revisit the 4-to-1 ratio it first calculated in 2005, to make sure this assertion were making about the power of resilience is well-founded. He said in an interview that the revised figures demonstrate that federal spending on mitigation is an even more powerful investment than people knew. Wright also noted that FEMA Administrator Brock Long, who took office after the budget request was submitted, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of spending money before a disaster. The institute was created by Congress in 1974 and six of its 21 board members are presidential appointees. Career staff at FEMA, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Economic Development Administration helped work on the report and review its findings, according to the institute. Those agencies were also the lead funders while contributions were also made by the International Code Council, the National Fire Protection Association and the American Institute of Architects. The report examined 23 years of data showing the costs and benefits of federal mitigation grants from FEMA, HUD and EDA. Those grants, which totaled $27 billion in spending, led to an estimated $158 billion in benefits, including $68 billion in avoided deaths and injuries, $58 billion in avoided property damage and $13 billion in avoided costs associated with additional living expenses and direct interruptions to businesses. Ideological Debate Henry Green, the president of the institute, said hes under no illusions about the ideological debate around climate change. But he said he hopes the reports findings helps federal officials make better decisions about when and how to spend money on the types of events that climate change is exacerbating. If youre not open to looking at new data that is validated, then you very much may not accept what is going on here, Green said in an interview. Still, he said, the cost savings from mitigation programs is not something that we dreamed up. These are fact-based numbers that are gathered through government agencies. The Trump administrations first budget request would have cut by half FEMAs pre-disaster mitigation grants to cities and states. It would have ended HUDs Community Development Block Grant program, the vehicle Congress uses to deliver large chunks of disaster-recovery money. And it would have eliminated EDA, a division of the Department of Commerce that runs disaster programs. There are indications that the administration has since softened its opposition to some of those programs. HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan said the department contributed to the research because we thought it would add to the knowledge base on the cost and benefits of mitigation. He declined to comment on whether the reports findings had changed the views of HUDs leadership about which programs to fund. But Sullivan noted that the administration asked Congress for $12 billion in additional disaster funding through the Community Development Block Grant program at the end of last year to pay for resilience programs. Asked if it was fair to conclude that administrations position on mitigation programs had evolved, FEMAs Wright responded, That seems reasonable. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics Climate Change Ford Motor Co. said on Thursday it had confirmed a second death in an older pickup truck caused by a defective airbag inflator of Takata Corp. 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 inside vehicles. 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 the 391,000-plus 2004-2006 Ranger vehicles recalled at the time, 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 on Thursday 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 Chinas Ningo Joyson Electric Corp, for $1.6 billion. A Takata spokesman said the company will make all attempts to ensure it can deliver replacement inflators as soon as possible. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urged owners to heed Fords warning. It is extremely important that all high-risk air bags are tracked down and replaced immediately, NHTSA spokeswoman Karen Aldana said. FAILED RECALL Ford said it would pay to have vehicles towed to dealerships or send mobile repair teams to owners homes and provide free loaner vehicles if needed. 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 and have injured more than 200. 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 have come to the United States to face charges. Last year, Takata pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was subject to pay 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 have not yet been repaired. Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, said in a statement on Thursday the latest death is evidence of the very definition of a failed recall pointing to the earlier Ford death in 2015. 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 airbag inflators on more than 300,000 unrepaired recalled 2001-2003 model year Honda vehicles showed a substantial risk of rupturing, and urged owners to stop driving them until getting them fixed. NHTSA said they have as high as a 50 percent chance of a rupture in a crash. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Minami Funakoshi in TOKYO; Editing by Diane Craft and Muralikumar Anantharaman) Topics USA Personal Auto Fifty Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY) employees are supporting the companys efforts to plant 80,000 trees for the third consecutive year through a two-day project near Austin, Texas. Employees have finished their second day of planting in Bastrop State Park as part of the PHLY 80K Trees initiative, resulting in 3,500 trees in the ground. PHLYs 80K tree planting mission began in 2015 in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation and was renewed in 2016 and 2017. The goal to fund the planting of 80,000 trees was reached each year with the help of PHLYs independent agents, brokers, and policyholders who signed up for paperless statements. The company has used the cost savings from each years new paperless enrollees to fund plantings the following year. PHLY employees returned to Bastrop this year, where the Arbor Day Foundation recommended planting an additional 40,000 trees. A 2011 wildfire in the Bastrop State Park destroyed close to 1,700 homes, killed two people, and inflicted an estimated $325 million of insured property damage. The Arbor Day Foundation will lead projects to plant an additional 40,000 trees in other U.S. forests this year to complete the 80,000 trees PHLY funded in 2017. Source: Philadelphia Insurance Companies Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Texas Wildfire The North Carolina Office of the State Fire Marshal, headed up by North Carolina Insurance Commissioner and State Fire Marshal Mike Causey, has established a new Fire Investigations Unit (FIU) to assist the states fire service and law enforcement agencies. As of January 1, the FIU will respond on request or assist agencies in investigating all fire deaths, any death in a multi-family dwelling due to carbon monoxide poisoning, fire loss in all state properties and examine fire losses greater than $500,000. Causey said the unit is designed to provide additional resources to state agencies, which will strengthen their ability to examine the source of fires and protect our states residents and property, he said. We cannot have an effective fire prevention and education program throughout the state without being at the front end of fire investigation, said Chief State Fire Marshal Brian Taylor. It is our duty to report to the legislature the nature of fire problems that exist in our state. This unit will be able to supply the needed data to update the states Risk Reduction Program. In 2017, the N.C. General Assembly appropriated funding for two fire investigator positions to jumpstart the unit. The FIU will be divided into two regions: Retired Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Agent Bill Marshall will head the eastern region. Catawba County Deputy Fire Marshal Jason Boggs will be assigned to the Western region. Others contributing to the unit will include two North Carolina Department of Insurance Criminal Investigators (CID) to assist with law enforcement functions. The N.C. General Assembly also sanctioned for an arson and homicide special prosecutor to assist local district attorneys to prosecute difficult cases. The Office of the State Fire Marshal is responsible for training fire and rescue personnel, rating fire departments, administering the state building code, securing property insurance for state-owned buildings and more. Source: North Carolina Office of the State Fire Marshal Topics North Carolina What Is a Back-to-Back Loan? A back-to-back loan, also known as a parallel loan, is when two companies in different countries borrow offsetting amounts from one another in each other's currency as a hedge against currency risk. While the currencies and interest rates (based on the commercial rates of each locale) remain separate, each loan will have the same maturity date. Companies could accomplish the same hedging strategy by trading in the currency markets, either cash or futures, but back-to-back loans can be more convenient. These days, currency swaps and similar instruments have largely replaced back-to-back loans. All the same, these instruments still facilitate international trade. Key Takeaways A back-to-back loan is an agreement in which two parent companies in different countries borrow offsetting amounts in their local currencies, then lend that money to the other's local subsidiary. The purpose of a back-to-back loan is to avoid borrowing money across country lines with the price fluctuations, possible restrictions, unwanted transparency, and fees associated with forex markets. By having each party borrow funds in its home currency, a back-to-back loan seeks to avoid exchange riskan adverse change in exchange rates between two currencies. Because multiple loans are originated, a back-to-back strategy has greater credit or default risk than using the forex market. How a Back-to-Back Loan Works Normally, when a company needs access to money in another currency it trades for it on the currency market. But because the value of some currencies can fluctuate widely, a company can unexpectedly wind up paying far more for a given currency than it had expected to pay. Companies with operations abroad may seek to reduce this risk with a back-to-back loan. The benefits of back-to-back loans include hedging in the exact currencies needed. Only major currencies trade in the futures markets or have enough liquidity in the cash markets to facilitate efficient trade. Back-to-back loans most commonly involve currencies that are either unstable or trade with low liquidity. High volatility in such trading creates greater need among companies in those countries to mitigate their currency risk. Back-to-Back Loan Risks In pursuing back-to-back loans, the biggest problem companies face is finding counterparties with similar funding needs. And even if they do find appropriate partners, the terms and conditions desired by both may not match. Some parties will enlist the services of a broker, but then brokerage fees have to be added to the cost of the financing. Most back-to-back loans come due within 10 years because of their inherent risks. The greatest risk in such agreements is asymmetrical liability, unless it is specifically covered in the back-to-back loan agreement. This liability arises when one party defaults on the loan leaving the other party still responsible for repayment. Default risk is thus a problem, as a failure by one party to pay back the loan in a timely manner does not release the obligations of the other party. Typically, this risk is offset by another financial agreement, or by a contingency clause covered in the original loan agreement. Back-to-back loans most commonly involve currencies that are either unstable or trade with low liquidity. Back-to-Back Loan Example One example would be an American company wishing to open a European office and a European company wishing to open an American office. The American company may lend the European company $1 million for initial leasing and other costs. This loan is calculated in U.S. dollars. Simultaneously, the European company lends the American company the equivalent of $1 million in euros at the current exchange rate to help with its leasing and other costs. Because both loans are made in the local currencies, there is no currency risk (the risk that the exchange rates between two currencies will swing widely) when the loans are paid back. Another example would be a Canadian company financing through a German bank. The company is concerned about the value of the Canadian dollar changing relative to the euro. Therefore, the company and the bank create a back-to-back loan, whereby the company deposits CA$1 million with the bank, and the bank (using the deposit as security) lends the company CA$1 million worth of euros based on the current exchange rate. The company and the bank agree to a one-year term on the loan and a 4% interest rate. When the loan term ends, the company repays the loan at the fixed rate agreed upon at the beginning of the loan term, thereby ensuring against currency risk during the term of the loan. What Is Exposure Netting? Exposure netting is a method of hedging currency risk by offsetting exposure in one currency with exposure in the same or another similar currency. Key Takeaways Netting offsets the value of multiple positions or payments due to be exchanged between two or more parties. Exposure netting is achieved within a firm where it can find offsetting position in two or more currencies or other risk factors within various segments of the firm. Netting reduces a firm's cost and eases risk management as offsetting positions do not need to be individually hedged for risk exposures. Understanding Exposure Netting Exposure netting has the objective of reducing a companys exposure to exchange rate (currency) risk. It is especially applicable in the case of a large multinational company, whose various currency exposures can be managed as a single portfolio; it is often challenging and costly to hedge each and every currency risk of a client individually when dealing with many international clients. A firms exposure netting strategy depends on a number of factors, including the currencies and amounts involved in its payments and receipts, the corporate policy with regard to hedging currency risk, and the potential correlations between the different currencies to which it has exposure. Exposure netting allows companies to manage their currency risk more holistically. If a company finds that correlation between exposure currencies is positive, the company would adopt a long-short strategy for exposure netting. The reason for doing so is that with a positive correlation between two currencies, a long-short approach would result in gains from one currency position offsetting losses from the other. Conversely, if the correlation is negative, a long-long strategy would result in an effective hedge in the event of currency movement. Exposure netting can also be done to offset counterbalancing risks of a large portfolio or financial firm among its portfolios. As an enterprise risk management (ERM) strategy, if portfolio A for a bank is long 1,000 shares of Apple (AAPL) stock and another portfolio B is short 1,000 of Apple, the positions and the exposure to Apple price can be netted out at the managerial level. Exposure netting usually refers to netting that happens within an organization among its various units, projects, or portfolios, making it a unilateral netting. Netting with another party (e.g., in the case of a currency swap), would be considered bilateral, or even multilateral netting. Exposure Netting Example Assume Widget Co., located in Canada, has imported machinery from the United States and regularly exports to Europe. The company must pay $10 million to its U.S. machinery supplier in three months, at which time it is also expecting a receipt of EUR 5 million and CHF 1 million for its exports. The spot rate is EUR 1 = USD 1.35, and CHF 1 = USD 1.10. How can Widget Co. use exposure netting to hedge itself? The companys net currency exposure is USD $2.15 million (i.e., USD $10 million - [(5 x 1.35) + (1 x 1.10)]). If Widget Co. is confident that the Canadian dollar will appreciate over the next three months, it would do nothing, since a stronger Canadian dollar would result in U.S. dollars becoming cheaper in three months. On the other hand, if the company is concerned the Canadian dollar may depreciate against the U.S. dollar, it may elect to lock in its exchange rate in three months through a forward contract or a currency option. Exposure netting is thus a more efficient way of managing currency exposure by viewing it as a portfolio, rather than hedging each currency exposure separately. What Is a Provident Fund? A provident fund is a compulsory, government-managed retirement savings scheme used in Singapore, India, and other developing countries. In some ways, these funds resemble a hybrid of the 401(k) plans and Social Security used in the U.S. They also share some traits with employer-provided pension funds. Workers give a portion of their salaries to the provident fund and employers must contribute on behalf of their employees. The money in the fund is then held and managed by the government and eventually withdrawn by retirees or, in certain countries, their surviving families. In some cases, the fund also pays out to the disabled who cannot work. Key Takeaways A provident fund is a compulsory, government-managed retirement savings scheme used in Singapore, India, and other developing countries. Both the employee and employer contribute to a fund that aims to provide financial support to the employee when they reach retirement. A provident fund is managed by the government, with set minimum and maximum contribution levels. 1:17 How do Provident Funds Work? How a Provident Fund Works The money held in private savings accounts continues to grow in many developing countries, but it's still rarely enough to provide most families with a comfortable life in retirement. The challenge of retirement has been further deepened by social change. Societies in the developing world are still catching up with the rapid rise of industrialization, the movement of citizens from rural areas to urban centers, and changing family structures. In traditional societies, for example, the elderly were provided for by their extended families. But declining birth rates, widely dispersed family members, and longer life expectancies have made it more difficult to sustain this age-old safety net. For these reasons and more, governments in many developing countries have stepped in to provide long-term financial support to retirees and other vulnerable populations. A provident fund finances such support in a way that readily scales payouts to the available balance and enlists employers and workers to help cover the cost. Contributions and Withdrawals Each national provident fund sets its own minimum and maximum contribution levels for workers and employers. Minimum contributions can vary depending on a workers age. Some funds allow individuals to contribute extra to their benefit accounts, and for employers to also do so, to further benefit their workers. Governments set the age limit at which penalty-free withdrawals are allowed to begin. Some pre-retirement withdrawals may be allowed under special circumstances, such as medical emergencies. Additionally, in South Africa, provident fund payouts can be claimed at any age if the person has been a non-resident for three years over an uninterrupted period. In many countries, those who work past the minimum retirement age may face restricted withdrawals until full retirement. If a worker dies before receiving benefits, the surviving spouse and children may be able to receive survivors' benefits. Provident funds differ from another vehicle sometimes used in the developing world, the sovereign wealth fund, which is funded through royalties obtained from the development of natural resources. Provident Fund vs. Social Security vs. 401(k) As is the case with U.S. Social Security, the money in provident funds is held by the government, not by private financial institutions. The government or a provident-fund board largely or entirely decides how contributions are invested. Some countries such as Singapore outline the interest rate individuals can expect on their premiums. For example, through a longevity insurance annuity scheme, the government will provide up to 6% interest rates. Included in this is up to 2% extra interest provided by the Singaporean government. Meanwhile, Social Security is managed by the Department of Treasury, where effective interest rates are determined by a formula originating in 1960. Broadly speaking, interest rates are similar to the average yield on Treasury securities which are four years from maturing. In 2020, the estimated effective interest rate on Old Age and Survivor Insurance was 2.6%. Where some provident funds differ from Social Security is that they are held in individual accounts instead of a group account. With such provident funds, the ownership resembles the arrangements with a U.S. 401(k). However, unlike a 401(k), where the individual determines how the money is invested, the government makes the investment decisions instead. Four loaded weapons primed, armed and ready for use were among an arsenal of 15 firearms found at an elaborate industrial unit purporting to be a legitimate business, writes Security Correspondent Cormac O'Keeffe. Two men, Jonathan Harding and James Walsh, have pleaded guilty to possession of the firearms in suspicious circumstances at the Special Criminal Court. Harding, aged 45, with an address at McNeill Court, Sallins, Co Kildare, and Walsh, aged 33, with an address at Wheatfield Avenue and Neilstown Drive in Clondalkin, west Dublin, are due to be sentenced on January 30. The non-jury court was given details yesterday of the firepower seized at a unit of Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole, south Dublin, on January 24, 2017, following a surveillance operation by the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau. The arsenal, comprising 15 firearms, included: Nine revolvers (four fully loaded); Four semi-automatic pistols; One Ingram Sub Machine Gun; One AK47 assault rifle; 10 magazines; 1,355 rounds of ammunition; Two silencers (including one for the sub machine gun). Prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane SC said the firearms offences were at the higher end of the scale. He said this was given the nature of the firearms, the sheer volume of them, the fact that four were primed, armed and ready to be utilised and that the unloaded weapons were each in sealed bags also containing relevant ammunition and that two weapons had been threaded to allow silencers to be attached. Det Insp Noel Browne of the DOCB said he received information on January 23 and set up a surveillance operation to follow the movements of Harding and another unnamed man referred to as Mr B. Driving a van, Harding met Mr B at a nearby Texaco petrol station on the morning of January 24. Mr B had arrived in a red Jaguar. DI Browne said Harding drove the van, with Mr B as a passenger, in a circuitous route to a block in the Greenogue Business Park and that they entered some units. Soon after, they re-emerged and drove away. After securing a search warrant, DI Browne and other officers entered the unit, where they found Walsh. In an upstairs loft loaded firearms were laid out on some cardboard. There were gloves and box cutters on another piece of cardboard and an arsenal of fireams and ammunition in two cardboard boxes. Det Insp Browne said that given the urgent and pressing nature of the find and his concerns for public safety he ordered the interception of the van driven by Harding. He said ballistic tests found that all the weapons were in excellent working order and that four of them were loaded and ready for imminent use. Gardai also recovered two tracking devices and a van customised with a concealed compartment where some ammunition was found. Det Insp Browne said an elaborate process had been put in place to give the pretence the unit was a wing of a legitimate UK haulage company. He said the reception had shelves with lever arch files and there was a forklift in the main floor. He said two newspapers were found with Walshs fingerprints. DNA matching Harding was found on the box cutters and DNA matching Walsh on plastic cups. DI Browne said Harding had a previous six-year sentence for drug supply, while Walsh had previous convictions for public order offences. He said neither Harding, a father of five, nor Walsh, a dad of two, were a prime mover, but that they were willing participants. Sean Guerin, defending Harding, and Michael Bowman, defending Walsh, said their clients had entered an early plea. Mr Bowman said there were difficult circumstances in his clients family life, including drug addiction, drug debt and suicide. Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding at the three-judge court, adjourned sentencing to January 30. This story originally appeared in the Irish Examiner. The Canadian writer, Naomi Klein, has long-argued that climate change is a battle between capitalism and the planet. Even if you dont accept her analysis yet some business leaders have, and more are beginning to. This week, Richard Branson gave an indication that even if he does not entirely agree with Klein, he understands her argument. Speaking in Wicklow, he argued that governments need to abolish taxes on clean energy if the world is to tackle climate change. For entrepreneurs, the battle that faces us on global catastrophe is an enormous opportunity, he said. All government has to do is tip the balance towards clean energy... with no taxes on clean energy, but taxes on dirty energy. Its worked with cigarettes... This seems an utterly simple mixing of the pressing and the possible. Branson is not the only person trying to see how climate destruction might be allayed. This week, Cork City Council made a modest contribution on the same issue, by becoming the first Irish council to stop using disposable cups. This awakening may help reduce the two million disposable coffee cups sent to landfill sites in Ireland every single day. This is a spectacular generation of waste for a relatively unimportant, and sometimes unnecessary, reason. Surely, at this stage, we should know better. Klein would ban disposable cups and Branson might sell Virgin mugs for repeated use, but do we really need to be shown what we have to do? Russian president Vladimir Putin has said North Koreas Kim Jong Un has shown himself to be a mature leader who is interested in calming down the tensions over the countrys nuclear and long-range missile programmes. 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". 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 Two men, Jonathan Harding and James Walsh, have pleaded guilty to possession of the firearms in suspicious circumstances at the Special Criminal Court. Harding, aged 45, with an address at McNeill Court, Sallins, Co Kildare, and Walsh, aged 33, with an address at Wheatfield Avenue and Neilstown Drive in Clondalkin, west Dublin, are due to be sentenced on January 30. The non-jury court was given details yesterday of the firepower seized at a unit of Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole, south Dublin, on January 24, 2017, following a surveillance operation by the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau. The arsenal, comprising 15 firearms, included: Nine revolvers (four fully loaded); Four semi-automatic pistols; One Ingram Sub Machine Gun; One AK47 assault rifle; 10 magazines; 1,355 rounds of ammunition; Two silencers (including one for the sub machine gun). Prosecuting counsel Sean Gillane SC said the firearms offences were at the higher end of the scale. He said this was given the nature of the firearms, the sheer volume of them, the fact that four were primed, armed and ready to be utilised and that the unloaded weapons were each in sealed bags also containing relevant ammunition and that two weapons had been threaded to allow silencers to be attached. Det Insp Noel Browne of the DOCB said he received information on January 23 and set up a surveillance operation to follow the movements of Harding and another unnamed man referred to as Mr B. Driving a van, Harding met Mr B at a nearby Texaco petrol station on the morning of January 24. Mr B had arrived in a red Jaguar. Some of the items among the cache seized at Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole, Co Dublin in January last year. DI Browne said Harding drove the van, with Mr B as a passenger, in a circuitous route to a block in the Greenogue Business Park and that they entered some units. Soon after, they re-emerged and drove away. After securing a search warrant, DI Browne and other officers entered the unit, where they found Walsh. In an upstairs loft loaded firearms were laid out on some cardboard. There were gloves and box cutters on another piece of cardboard and an arsenal of fireams and ammunition in two cardboard boxes. Det Insp Browne said that given the urgent and pressing nature of the find and his concerns for public safety he ordered the interception of the van driven by Harding. He said ballistic tests found that all the weapons were in excellent working order and that four of them were loaded and ready for imminent use. Gardai also recovered two tracking devices and a van customised with a concealed compartment where some ammunition was found. Det Insp Browne said an elaborate process had been put in place to give the pretence the unit was a wing of a legitimate UK haulage company. He said the reception had shelves with lever arch files and there was a forklift in the main floor. He said two newspapers were found with Walshs fingerprints. DNA matching Harding was found on the box cutters and DNA matching Walsh on plastic cups. DI Browne said Harding had a previous six-year sentence for drug supply, while Walsh had previous convictions for public order offences. He said neither Harding, a father of five, nor Walsh, a dad of two, were a prime mover, but that they were willing participants. Sean Guerin, defending Harding, and Michael Bowman, defending Walsh, said their clients had entered an early plea. Mr Bowman said there were difficult circumstances in his clients family life, including drug addiction, drug debt and suicide. Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding at the three-judge court, adjourned sentencing to January 30. He is to take up a senior position in the public transport sector in Australia. The announcement of his departure comes at a time when tensions are once again high between the company and its staff after drivers overwhelmingly rejected a Labour Court recommendation on past productivity and mentoring even though it would have involved a 1.15% pay increase for the productivity and 31 per day for training new drivers. Unions referenced the anti-worker agenda pursued by senior management and the dismissive behaviour displayed by the CEO of Irish Rail following a recent Labour Court recommendation on pay as they issued their ballot results. They have also warned of potential strikes if the company makes any attempt to bring in compulsory mentoring unions have refused to train new entrants for the last 20 months according to management. Mr Franks was appointed Irish Rail chief executive in February 2013, and the company said that over the past five years he had led the organisation through one of its most challenging financial eras. Irish Rail chairman Frank Allen said: 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. The Iarnrod Eireann board will commence the process of recruiting a new chief executive shortly, but I know David will remain fully committed to addressing the challenges the company faces in his remaining time with us. In a memo to staff, Mr Franks said: Opportunities and challenges remain which we must face together and my focus until I leave will remain on working with the entire Iarnrod Eireann team in delivering our service to our customers and preparing Iarnrod Eireann for a secure and sustainable future. Following the announcement of the chief executives departure, National Bus and Rail Union general secretary Dermot OLeary, tweeted: Legacy of confrontation & conflict; brought Thatchers failed privatisation ideology with him. Frontline workers did heavy lifting in renaissance of Irish Rail throughout the 2000s pre his arrival. This Chevy Colbalt driven by Felicia A. Baker, 35, of Angola, struck a semi on Interstate 69 in an early Wednesday morning wreck Wednesday. Four people were injured. Open Whisper Systems, the maker of the privacy-focused Signal messaging app, will be helping Microsoft to introduce a Private Conversations feature in Skype. The new feature will be powered by the Signal Protocol and is available for preview to Skype Insiders now. Apart from Microsoft, WhatsApp, Google and Facebook have integrated the open-source Signal Protocol into their messaging platforms. The content of communications on Private Conversations will be hidden in the chat list and also in notifications. The use of Private Conversations is limited to chat on a single device at a time. The conversation can be switched to any device being used at the time but the messages sent and received will be tied to the device being used at the time. The encryption will not be a default on Skype; users will have to select it every time they want to have a conversation that they wish to keep private. Signal has been rated the top messaging app for those who are privacy-conscious; back in 2016, there was evidence of this when the company was unable to provide anything more than the duration of a user's membership after it received a subpoena. The subpoena, from an assistant attorney in Virginia, demanded email addresses, history logs, browser cookie data and other information associated with two phone numbers as part of a grand jury probe. No Yes, a light case Yes, two or more light cases One serious case Two or more serious bouts Vote View Results Almost two years of preparation involving over 200 meetings, 30 subcommittees, and so on. Thats just a quick look at Joyce Rabins work as Chair of Together in Israel: Our Pride, Our Purpose. Hadassahs 100th National Convention. (Hadassah, which was founded in 1912, held its first conventi Read moreS'ville resident helps organize 100th national of Hadassah, The Womens Zionist Organization of America Reddit Email 3K Shares By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | Trump just cant help letting the cat out of the bag. And boy does his administration have a lot of cats in bags. The line of the Republican Party right wing has been that voter suppression laws are necessary for the integrity of elections. In fact, they are crafted to prevent racial minorities from voting, by making it hard and/or expensive to register. Race drives the policy, not a search for fair elections. Likewise, Trumps policies on immigration have been portrayed as a matter of law and order. But they arent about lawlessness. They are about racial hierarchy. That is, in some key areascorporate power, racial hierarchy, militarism the Trump wing of the Republican Party are Franco or Mussolini fascists in ideology. Trump could go along with the polite fiction that he is worried about criminality when he addresses immigration. But yesterday according to the Washington Post he launched a tirade at Dick Durbin asking why we have to have people here from shithole countries and why we cant have more Norwegians. Trump always used to say on the campaign trail that countries are not sending us their best citizens (as if countries are sending anyone at all intentionally). But now he is admitting that the real problem in his view is that it isnt the best countries that immigrants are coming from. Trump was badmouthing a whole range of countries including Haiti, El Salvador and some African states, but for the sake of clarity let me hone home in on El Salvador here. Since Trump is a racist, he thinks that countries get to have poor economic and security situations because of the race of the people that inhabit them. That is silly (and dangerous) as history and social science. Central Americans were among the more civilized people in the world when German tribesmen were raiding the Roman Empire. The United States has about 1.5 million Salvadorans, some of the people at issue in Trumps conversations with Durbin and other lawmakers. Most of them came to the United States because of a right wing dirty war against liberals and leftists backed in the 1980s and early 1990s by the US Republican presidency (Reagan and Bush senior) and the US military. The right wing government and military and death squads of El Salvador, with American help, murdered 70,000 civilians in the 1980s, in the course of crushing a leftist insurgency. They included Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero (who will likely end up being made a saint), four American nuns, 800 villagers (children, women, noncombatant men) in El Mozote and environs, and tens of thousands of others. US politicians such as Ronald Reagan, Elliott Abrams, and the joint chiefs of staff and the CIA station chief actively collaborated in this mass killing. The stated purpose was to roll back the Soviet Union (which I doubt was much involved). The actual purpose was to make the country safe for US corporations, which had virtually run the place. United Fruit owned 80% of the banana crop in the early 20th century along with much of the prime land. Then came the rise of the coffee oligarchy. The International Land Coalition notes, In El Salvador, the history of land ownership has been marked by coffee cultivation. After production of that crop peaked at the end of the 19th century, the Salvadoran oligarchy of the period concentrated land ownership and dispossessed campesino and indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands. During the first half of the 20th century, the alliance between the military government and the United States went hand-in-hand with landed power linked to coffee cultivation. In 1971, the Agricultural Census identified the persis-tence of an unequal distribution of productive land in the country, with 0.3% of owners owning real estate of more than 200 hectares, which represented 28.2% of the total land area, while 92.5% of owners had real estate of less than 10 hectares, representing 27.1% of the countrys total surface area. Thus, the US corporate shaping of the countrys political economy had left it with a small landlord class that owned most of the good land (a common colonial outcome) and millions of impoverished sharecroppers, and as even right of center analysts recognize this class conflict fueled much of the civil war. But it was also fueled by the sheer viciousness of the government death squads, which weakened the otherwise positive effect of the land reform instituted in the 1980s. The Reagan civil war in El Salvador provoked massive out migration, to Honduras and to the United States. Many Salvadorans got citizenship in the 1980s via the 1986 congressional amnesty. In the 1990s, very large numbers of Salvadoran refugees were deported from the United States. The war-racked economy could not absorb them, and some of them founded Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street Gang which became major criminal cartels that Trump now complains about endlessly. (They are a big problem, especially in El Salvador where they have a support base of 8% of the country, but very few of the 16,000 murders a year in the US are committed by them). In the early 2000s about 200,000 Salvadoran refugees from an earthquake were given Temporary Protected Status. They have high rates of employment and are raising 275,000 U.S.-born children. So now, having messed up their country, in part for the sake of US corporate greed and American hegemony, the US president is declaring them to be from a shithole and is set to deport all 200,000 of the adults, raising the question of what will happen to a quarter of a million American children that they are raising. The Crisis Group is deathly afraid that the Salvadoran-American children, on being sent forcibly from their country of birth to a foreign land and left without resources are jobs, will be recruited by MS 13. By the way, the current government of El Salvador, which runs a country the size of Massachusetts with a population of about 6 million, has some achievements despite the severe challenges of pervasive gang violence. Poverty has been significantly reduced in the past decade, leading to a lower gini coefficient and one of the more equal societies in Latin America. The environmentally conscious government has banned predatory metals mining, against which villagers had been protesting. But one of the countrys big assets economically has been remittances from workers abroad, into which Trump is about to take a big bite by deporting 200,000 of them from the US. And economic growth, at 2% a year, was already among the lowest in the region and is one of the reasons for the ongoing violence. The World Bank notes, Immunization rates have also increased from 76 percent in the 1990s to 93 percent in 2016. Similarly, the share of the population with access to improved water sources increased from 79 percent to 89 percent, and the share with access to improved sanitation expanded from 56 percent to over 95 percent during the same period. In education, both access (particularly at the primary level) and literacy rates have increased Crime and violence are still an enormous problem. If Trump wanted less immigration from El Salvador he could get it by directing some productive investment to that country much more efficiently than throwing people out of their homes of 20 years. One short answer to Trumps question about Norwegians (and could you get more American Nazi Party than that preference?) is that Norwegians are wealthy and have a much better run country than the US and they mostly have no particular reason to leave home. It isnt the nineteenth century any more, Donald. The US takes in about a million legal immigrants every year. In the past two decades roughly 61,000 a year have come from Europe. And Norway aint in the picture. The alternative to taking in immigrants is to shrink demographically, as Japan is doing and as Germany was doing before the recent change in immigration policy. Urban educated people dont want a house full of children usually, and so the Japanese are not replacing themselves, and nor would Americans without immigration. A big shrinkage of the population of the sort in which Japan is engaged is an unprecedented social experiment. Who will support the growing ranks of the elderly and retired? Who will build new buildings? What will happen to property prices as houses and schools empty out? Who will serve in the military? Who will invent new technology? Wouldnt the country become weak economically and militarily and perhaps prey for a younger, more dynamic neighbor? And, no, Trump, Norway is not going to save you from all that. Salvadoran Americans might, if you let them. Related video: Jimmy Kimmel: Trump ACTUALLY Called These Countries S**tholes Temperatures are about 25 degrees colder this morning with lower to middle 30s and wind chill values in the 20s to start the day. A few clouds early will give way to increasing sunshine through the morning and afternoon but gusty north winds will keep wind chill values in the 20s and 30s most of the day. Dress warmly as it will continue to remain cold even with sunshine. Afternoon highs will warm up into the upper 40s but quickly drop back into the 30s after sunset. Lows early Saturday morning will be a bit colder with upper 20s across most of Southwest Louisiana under mostly clear skies and with calmer winds, so prepare for a light freeze overnight tonight. Plenty of sunshine is ahead for the weekend but it will remain cold tomorrow with highs again on Saturday only in the 40s. While we will see below freezing temperatures, it shouldnt be cold enough to cause any frozen pipes, but youll want to make sure pets have a warm place to stay indoors and check on those without easy access to a warm place to sleep. We will continue to stay cold into Sunday with morning lows in the 20s and afternoon highs in the 40s with a slight warm-up ahead for MLK Day on Monday as highs return to the upper 50s. The warm-up is short lived though as another cold front moves through on Tuesday. This will bring a slight chance of showers and driving temperatures back down into the 20s for lows and 40s for highs Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. In the longer range, temperatures moderate by Friday back into the 60s with a trough of low pressure moving across the northern Gulf which means increasing rain chances by the end of next week. First Alert Meteorologist Ben Terry Reddit Email 31 Shares By William D. Hartung | (Tomdispatch.com ) | 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 Washingtons post-9/11 wars. But last years 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 Pentagons budget by an astonishing $85 billion. (And dont 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 thats only the beginning of the good news for the big weapons companies. Industry officials and Beltway defense analysts arent expecting the real increase in Pentagon spending to come until the 2019 budget. Its 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. Trumps 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 wont 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 Trumps proposed Pentagon spending increases wont 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 administrations 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 wont be surprised to learn that President Trump greatly exaggerated the size of his administrations 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 theres clearly much more to come. In all of this, the president may not have done major favors for Americas workers, but hes been a genuine godsend for the countrys 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, Trumps 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 theyve already purchased and may not be ready to conclude new arms agreements. The Good News for Arms Makers: More War There are, however, a number of reasons to think that the major weapons makers will do even better in the coming years than they did in the banner year of 2017. Start with Americas wars. As defense expert Micah Zenko of Chatham House explained recently at Foreign Policy, President Trump has been doubling down on many of the wars he inherited from Obama. The moves of his administration (peopled, of course, by generals from those very wars) include the increasing use of Special Operations forces, a dramatic rise in air strikes, and an increase in troop levels in conflicts ranging from Afghanistan and Yemen to Syria and Somalia. It remains to be seen whether the presidents favorite Middle Eastern ally, Saudi Arabia, will be successful in goading his administration replete with Iranophobes, including Secretary of Defense James Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo into taking military action against Tehran. Such calculations have been complicated by recent anti-government protests there, which the president and his inner circle hope will lead to regime change from within. (Trumps crowing about unrest in Iran has, however, been decidedly unhelpful to genuine advocates of democracy in that country, given the low esteem in which hes held throughout Iranian society.) Such far-flung military operations will naturally cost money. Lots of it. Minimally, tens of billions of dollars; hundreds of billions if one or more of those wars escalates in an unexpected way as happened in Afghanistan and Iraq in the Bush years. As a study by the Costs of War Project at Brown Universitys Watson Institute recently noted, our post-9/11 wars have already cost at least $5.6 trillion when one takes into account both direct budgetary commitments and long-term obligations, including lifetime care for the hundreds of thousands of American veterans who suffered severe physical and psychological damage in those conflicts. Its important to remember that such immense costs emerged from what was supposed to be a quick, triumphant war in Afghanistan and what top Bush administration officials were convinced would be a relatively inexpensive regime change operation in Iraq and the garrisoning of that country. (That invasion and occupation was then projected to cost just a cut-rate $50 billion to $200 billion.) Dont be surprised if the conflicts that Trump has inherited and is now escalating follow a similar pattern in which actual costs far outstrip initial estimates, even if not at the stratospheric levels of the Afghan and Iraq wars, which involved the commitment of hundreds of thousands of boots on the ground. All of this spending will again be good financial news for the producers of combat aircraft, munitions, armored vehicles, drones, and attack helicopters, among other goods and services needed to sustain a policy of endless war across significant parts of the planet. Beyond the hot wars that have involved U.S. troops and air strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, there are scores of other places where this countrys Special Operations forces are on the ground training local militaries and in many cases accompanying them on missions that could quickly turn deadly, as happened to four Green Berets operating in Niger in October 2017. With Special Ops personnel engaged in a staggering 149 countries last year and a pledge to step up U.S. activities yet more in Africa there are already 6,000 U.S. troops and scores of train and equip missions on that continent spending is essentially guaranteed to go up, whatever the specifics of any given conflict. There are already calls by leading members of Congress to increase the size of U.S. Special Operations forces, which, as TomDispatchs Nick Turse notes, already number nearly 70,000 personnel. Boondoggles, Inc. Rest assured, however, that so far weve only taken a dip in the shallow end of the deep, deep pool of military spending. Equally important to the bottom lines of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and their cohorts is the Trump administrations commitment to continue funding weapons systems the Pentagon doesnt need at prices we cant afford. Take the F-35 combat plane, a Rube Goldberg contraption once designed to carry out multiple missions and now capable of doing none of them well. In fact, as the Project on Government Oversight has pointed out, its an aircraft that may never be fully ready for combat. To add insult to injury, billions more will be spent to fix defects in planes that were rushed through production before they had been fully tested. The cost of this too big to fail program is currently projected at $1.5 trillion over the lifetimes of the 2,400-plus aircraft currently planned for. This means it is likely to become the most expensive weapons program in the history of Pentagon procurement. Unfortunately, the F-35 is hardly the only boondoggle that will continue to pad the coffers of defense contractors while offering little in the way of defense (no less the usual offense). A recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, for example, suggests that a projected three-decade Pentagon plan to build a new generation of nuclear-armed missiles, bombers, and submarines, initiated under President Obama and close to the heart of Donald Trump, will cost up to $1.7 trillion dollars. This stunning figure includes spending on new nuclear warheads under development at the Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration, one of many channels for military spending that are outside the Pentagons already bloated budget. And given the history of such weapons systems and the cost overruns that regularly accompany them, keep in mind that $1.7 trillion will probably prove a gross underestimate. The Government Accountability Office, for instance, has released a report suggesting that the program to build a new generation of ballistic missile submarines, now priced at $128 billion, is going to blow past that figure. In recent years, hawks in Congress have been pressing for more funding for missile defense and Donald Trump (with the help of Little Rocket Man) is their guy. David Willman of the Los Angeles Times reports that the Trump administration wants to spend more than $10 billion over the next five years beefing up a deeply flawed project for placing ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska and California. This is just one of a number of missile defense initiatives under way. In 2018, Lockheed, Boeing, and General Atomics are also scheduled to test drones that will reportedly use lasers to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles like those being developed by North Korea. Its a program that will undoubtedly garner tens of billions of dollars more in taxpayer funding in the years to come. And Congress isnt waiting until a final Pentagon budget for 2018 is wrapped up to lavish more money on missile defense contractors. A stopgap spending bill passed in late December 2017 kept most programs at current levels, but offered a special gift of nearly $5 billion extra for anti-missile initiatives. In addition, a congressionally financed study of the best place to base an East Coast missile defense system a favorite hobbyhorse of Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee that even the Pentagon has little interest in pursuing is scheduled to be released later this year. The Congressional Budget Office already suggests that the price tag for that proposed system would be at least $3.6 billion in its first five years of development. Yet deploying it, as the Union of Concerned Scientists has pointed out, would have little or no value when it comes to protecting the United States from a missile attack. If the project moves ahead, it wont be the first time Congress has launched a costly, unnecessary spending program that the Pentagon didnt even request. Cybersecurity has been another expanding focus of concern and funding in recent years, as groups ranging from the Democratic National Committee to the National Security Agency have been hit by determined hackers. The concern may be justified, but the solution throwing billions at the Pentagon and starting a new Cyber Command to press for yet more funding is misguided at best. One of the biggest bottlenecks to crafting effective cyber defenses is the lack of personnel with useful and appropriate skills, a long-term problem that short-term infusions of cash will not resolve. In any case, some of the most vulnerable places from the power grid to the banking system will have to be dealt with by private firms that should be prodded by stricter government regulations, a concept to which Donald Trump seems to be allergic. As it happens, though, creating enforceable government standards turns out to be one of the most important ways of addressing cybersecurity challenges. Despite the likely spending spree to come, dont expect the Pentagon, the arms makers, their lobbyists, or their allies in Congress, to stop crying out for more. Theres always a new weapons scheme or a new threat to hype or another ill-conceived proposal for a military solution to a complicated security problem. Trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives later, the primary lesson from the perpetual wars and profligate weapons spending of this century should be that throwing more money at the Pentagon isnt making us any safer. But translating that lesson into a change in Washingtons spending patterns would take major public pushback at a level that has yet to materialize. Genuine opposition to runaway Pentagon spending may yet emerge, if, as expected, President Trump, Paul Ryan, and the Republican Congress follow up their trillion-dollar tax giveaway with an assault on Medicare and Social Security. At that point, the devastating domestic costs of overspending on the Pentagon should become far more difficult to ignore. This year will undoubtedly be a banner year for arms companies. The only question is: Might it also mark the beginning of a future movement to roll back unconstrained weapons expenditures? William D. Hartung, a TomDispatch regular, is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy and the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Alfred McCoys In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power, as well as John Dowers The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, John Feffers dystopian novel Splinterlands, Nick Turses Next Time Theyll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardts Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World. Copyright 2018 William D. Hartung Via Tomdispatch.com Reddit Email 54 Shares Shahram Akbarzadeh | (Informed Comment) | Iran started 2018 with protest rallies and anti-riot police in many cities across the country. Public protests against the regime caught many observers by surprise, just as the 2011 Arab Spring had done. But displays of public anger in Iran are not new. Throughout 2017, Iran witnessed a string of protests focusing on economic grievances: unemployment, lack of opportunities, nepotism and corruption. President Rouhani has failed to deliver on his mandate of economic recovery, partly because of lingering sanctions by the United States and partly because of the nature of the rentier economy which relies on the sale of oil and gas and commercial exchange mark-ups without generating new value. The fact that Iranians had economic grievances was not news to anyone. What came as a bolt out of the blue was the ferocity of the protests, their spread across the country, and their sharp political tip. What initially started as a protest against the hike in poultry prices, soon turned into a protest against the system of Velayat Faqih where the unelected Supreme Leader holds ultimate power. The January 2018 protests are best seen as bread riots. The fact that most protests took place in the periphery and not the capital city indicates the magnitude of their grievances. They also highlight that the fear factor which had kept people away from open confrontation with the regime has been blunted. More and more people appeared ready to take risks to their safety. This is a combustible situation with significant challenges for the longevity of the regime. But the regime chose to wait-out the protests and refrain from the use of overwhelming force. In the past, the regime had no hesitation is unleashing the Basij para-military troops on protestors. The 2009 Green Movement was put down by Basij zealots on motorbikes in the streets of Tehran. But this time, Basij took a back seat. This restraint helped give protestors a sense of acceptable risk. At the same time, it helped avoid aggravating tensions and served the regime as it waited for the public energy to fizzle out. A few issues stood out in the January 2018 protests. These will have far-reaching implications in the future. First and foremost, the protests turned very quickly into anti-systemic riots. Reports of the unrest have noted that demonstrators chanted slogans against the regime (Down with the Dictator) and tore down pictures of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The wide spread of anti-regime sentiments was remarkable. While the 2009 Green Movement was effectively an extension of the reformist faction aimed at countering the excesses of the conservatives, the January 2018 protests did not differentiate between the reformists and conservatives and rejected the whole system of clerical rule. This suggests a qualitative shift and a significant challenge to the future of the regime. This challenge will remain real as long as the ruling regime fails to deliver on the much needed economic recovery. Second, this was a leaderless protest. The protests mushroomed all around the country, most notably in small cities and townships without any leadership. The spontaneous nature of the protests pointed to a deep sense of frustration with the economic failures of the regime, even though Rouhanis electoral mandate was to fix the economy. There was no institution (such as unions or NGOs) to sustain the protests and offer direction. The regimes antagonistic attitude to labour unions and civil society has deprived protestors from the structure and their natural home to foster ideas and sustain the movement. This meant that the protest lacked a positive vision for the future and no mechanism to sustain the energy. Third was the significance of social media. In the absence of an opposition leadership and structure, the spontaneous nature of the protests were reinforces through the extensive use of social media platforms. Iranians are amongst the most connected populations in the Middle East, communicating instantaneously on media sharing apps (such as Telegram) via their mobile phones. This meant that news of protests and slogans could spread quickly. Social media as a tool of protest was already evident in the 2009 Green Movement, and also in the 2011 Arab Spring. That is why the regime moved quickly to suspend access the internet and contain news of unrest. With social media off-line, many protestors in small cities and townships were cut off from news of protests elsewhere, while the state-run media reported on pro-regime rallies in major cities. This was a demoralising experience. The protests have died-out now, and the Iranian security agencies are engaged in the long search for the instigators. But the reason for the protests remain and its only a matter of time for another round of protests to erupt. This poses an existential threat to the Islamic regime, but does not present a better alternative for the population. In the absence of a vision for the future sustained by a cohesive leadership, it is hard to imagine how another anti-systemic riot could deliver Iran into a better future. Shahram Akbarzadeh is Professor of Middle East and Central Asian Politics at Deakin University. Twitter: @S_Akbarzadeh ________ Related video added by Informed Comment: Al Jazeera English: What caused protests to flare in Iran? ?? | The Stream VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Copper Corp. (TSX:NCU) (Nevada Copper or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has successfully executed binding agreements to raise $100 million of equity financing from institutional investors as part of its $378 million construction financing and recapitalization transactions announced on December 22, 2017 (the Project Financing). Due to strong demand from institutional investors to participate in the equity financing, Pala Investments Ltd. (Pala) has agreed to reduce its equity subscription as previously announced on December 22, 2017 to accommodate additional participation of several large institutional funds which will further enhance Nevada Coppers shareholder register. With the successful equity financing, Nevada Copper will have substantial funds to continue to advance its 100%-owned Pumpkin Hollow underground copper underground project towards first production, and undertake optimization of its adjacent, permitted, open pit copper project, with the aim of defining a large-scale, higher-margin development option with reduced capital costs. Further Details All dollar amounts in this announcement are presented in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. All capitalized terms used in this announcement have the same meanings as ascribed in Nevada Coppers announcement of December 22, 2017 unless otherwise defined herein. In connection with the Current Equity Offering, Nevada Copper has entered into a binding subscription agreement with investment funds managed by Castlelake, L.P. (Castlelake) in respect of a $35 million subscription. Nevada Copper and Castlelake will also enter into an investor rights agreement that provides Castlelake with certain rights, including the right to nominate one member of the board of directors of the Company, and the right to participate in further equity offerings of the Company, in each case subject to Castlelake maintaining certain minimum percentage share ownership thresholds. Nevada Copper has received conditional listing approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange in respect of the Current Equity Offering and anticipates closing the Current Equity Offering on or about January 19, 2018. On conversion of the Special Warrants issued under the Current Equity Offering into Common Shares, Castlelake will hold 88,200,000 Common Shares, representing approximately 19.8% of the then-outstanding Common Shares of Nevada Copper. Giulio Bonifacio, the President and CEO of Nevada Copper, has also subscribed for 1,150,000 Special Warrants. As noted above, Pala has also agreed to reduce its equity subscription from 102,800,000 Special Warrants to 98,450,896 Special Warrants to accommodate demand from institutional investors. 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. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the U.S. Securities Act) or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. About Nevada Copper Nevada Copper controls the 100%-owned Pumpkin Hollow copper project located near Yerington Nevada. The Pumpkin Hollow copper project is located entirely on private land close to infrastructure with all required power and water supplies secured. With the project entirely on private land, all required Nevada permits for construction and mine operations are in hand for both and underground and open pit operation. The Companys Pumpkin Hollow Copper Project represents an attractive, shovel-ready, fully-permitted copper project located in an ideal mine-friendly location. 147 Shares Share What are the most important things we can teach our kids? These days there are a lot of possible answers. Obviously, STEM skills (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) often lead to lucrative, stable careers; they seem to be tickets to the good life, or so were taught. Languages are helpful. You cant go wrong with basic computer programming skills. But in a world where people seem increasingly unkind, dishonest, greedy, violent and sexually immoral, we might want to reconsider an emphasis on that old standard called wisdom. Obviously, we cant make anyone wise. Still, we can at least expose our children to wisdom literature and hope it takes root. Collectively we know we need to emphasize wisdom and good behavior. Weve just become shy about being specific in our instruction; sounds too much like religion, perhaps. So we offer students platitudes without foundations: be nice, or dont tolerate intolerance. Instead of this very clear statement: Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37. (Which adds the wonderful idea that the reason not to judge is that we have reasons to be condemned ourselves.) In fact, it isnt ultimately the responsibility of schools, but of parents (and family groups, cultural and faith communities) to teach wisdom. And I fear that many parents have abdicated the authority required to teach wisdom. Knowing their own failures, they (falsely) believe its hypocrisy to teach truth to their offspring. So, they dont talk to their kids about wisdom. Worse, adults rarely read to children now. If they do, the books arent scriptures or foundational stories from our (or any) moral traditions, with their millennia of insight. They arent fairy tales, myths, and legends, with their embedded wisdom passed down for eons. Thus, kids are frequently educated in wisdom (if at all) by cartoons, movies, and television shows; by social media, performers, athletes, websites, talk-shows and pop culture icons instead of their parents, or the wisdom of the ages. Maybe we dont teach wisdom because it might have the unimaginable consequence of making some children (and adults) see that their behaviors were bad and should be better. (A wise son brings joy to his father but a foolish son brings grief to his mother. Proverbs 10:1) Wisdom literature is full of the idea that we arent (contrary to popular opinion) perfect just the way we are. It suggests that we all have a ways to go, and that we can grow in insight, humility, love, courage, sacrifice, and kindness. (The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out. Proverbs 18:15) Another benefit of the pursuit of wisdom is that properly taught, it takes our minds off of things petty and transitory, and tells us that money, power, sex, food and other tangibles arent the only things to live for. Wisdom calls us to higher pursuits, in this life and sometimes in the next. As such, it disempowers those who would manipulate us by offering us things or position. A man or woman who is busy searching for truth and righteousness is harder to bribe, blackmail or tempt. (A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1) An education in wisdom reminds us that there are times to feel guilt; to know that we have failed to live up to a higher goal and should try harder. And that our actions may be conducted in secret but almost always have public consequences. (He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. Proverbs 6:32. Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. Proverbs 21:23.) I grew up in the Judeo-Christian tradition; thats the wisdom I learned. Ive absolutely violated its precepts, but always regretted it when I did so. Among the many things, Im thankful for the fact that I heard and read words of wisdom over and over as a child, and continue to now as an adult. You, dear readers, come from many wisdom traditions. Whatever our backgrounds, the wise share common themes. Celebrate these truths and share them. Especially with the children. In the end, character is more important than material success. Furthermore, one day the kids may become politicians or entertainers. Wouldnt it be nice if they were wise too? Edwin Leap is an emergency physician who blogs at edwinleap.com and is the author of the Practice Test and Life in Emergistan. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Kilkenny City boasts seven telephone kiosks and service users will be glad to hear that the booths are here to stay. The iconic payphones are still being used in the city with an average of 48 calls per month being made across the telephones and as a result there are no current plans to remove any in Kilkenny. In order for a phone box to be removed there must be insufficient usage, which is defined as less than one minute per day for six months. Phone booths are located on the High Street and Patrick Street in Kilkenny City, among other locations. Local and national coin calls cost 50 cent per minute and coin calls to mobiles cost 1 per minute. Payment types accepted are coins, credit cards and Eircom callcards. In a statement in response to queries from the Kilkenny People, Eir said: There are seven payphones in Kilkenny, all are located within Kilkenny City. From January 2017 to November 2017 inclusive there were on average just over 48 calls per month or 1.6 calls per day. There are no current plans to remove any of these kiosks. Phone boxes are removed if there is insufficient usage (less than one minute per day for six months). Public notices are routinely posted in phone boxes that have been scheduled for removal. The company added: Eir is currently reviewing its payphone business in light of the recent Universal Service Operator (USO) mandate from the telecoms regulator. ComReg has designated Eircom with the Universal Service Obligation (USO) for payphone provision till 2018. Green Party Councillor Malcolm Noonan said it was important to have a number of public payphones in place in the city for emergency use but that the trend worldwide is that they are becoming obsolete. He said: Many municipalities and college campuses are removing even emergency phones due to maintenance costs and the same may eventually be the case here. Yet despite Ireland having one of the highest ownership rates of smartphones in the World, there are still people who dont have mobile phones and always cases where people may lose them or where young people run out of credit and need to get transport home. Tourists too may use public pay phones so it is important to keep a number of them in use. Cllr Noonan said that he would like to see an old phone kiosk reinstated on the Parade outside the Left Bank and perhaps in another prominent area. He added: We have seen how they enhance a village like Kells where they are being used to house tourist information and a defibrillator. The kiosk at the parade is unsightly and the glass is covered in transfer advertising. Perhaps we could consider replacing it with a traditional kiosk but to house a modern phone. The phones at the Book Centre were very often filthy and unusable due to vandalism. He said these should be either removed or relocated by Eir. According to reports last year, ComReg declined Eirs request for changes to the criteria of its universal service obligation (USO). Under the current parameters Eir can only remove payphones if they are the focus of anti-social behaviour or if their usage averages less than one minute a day over a six-month period. The Herald reports: With more oil reserves than anywhere else in the world, Venezuela should be drowning in riches. Instead, the country, and its 30 million inhabitants are on the brink of collapse: financially, and, for many, physically. In Caracas, the capital, men scavenge daily in the putrid Guaire River. They pour down from the barrios, raking their hands through stinking, toxic mud in the hopes of finding the tiniest bit or metal, jewellery anything of value that they could sell for food. By Kim Bo-eun While the rest of the international community welcomes the resumption of the inter-Korean dialogue and North Korea's decision to attend the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Japan has shown a skeptical stance toward the talks. Expectations are high among countries that the agreement between the two Koreas to resume talks will reduce regional tension and lead to meaningful multilateral dialogue on tackling the North Korean nuclear issue. There have been welcoming statements from the United Nations Security Council, the International Olympic Committee and the governments of the United States, China, Russia as well as some European nations. However, Japan has raised doubts over the effectiveness of the inter-Korean talks, saying the talks could negate international sanctions on North Korea. The two Koreas agreed for the North to take part in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and to resume inter-Korean military talks, Tuesday. Following the agreement, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, "We are maintaining close contact with South Korea and the U.S. including with heads of state and there is no change in our stance of maximizing sanctions against North Korea for it to alter its policies." Japan's news media were more outright in outlining the outcome of the talks. "The North has taken the lead in talks between the Koreas by creating a reconciliatory mood," the Yomiuri Shimbun said. "This is aimed at weakening the international net encircling Pyongyang led by the U.S." The Asahi Shimbun stated, "This is a plan to create a hole in the international net which encircles (North Korea), and earn time to complete its nuclear and missile weapons, by mutual yielding with President Moon Jae-in who is proactive toward talks with the North." The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said, "Pyongyang's calls were mainly reflected in the joint press statement. It gave zero response to the international community's calls for denuclearization." Japan is seen as not wanting to take chances, after Pyongyang launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) over its territory and conducted a nuclear test last year. Hardline stance on 2 Koreas Shinzo Abe's hard-line stance toward North Korea is seen to have helped his party win a majority in Japan's general election in October. The victory came amid Abe's falling approval rates due to a personal corruption scandal involving the discounted purchase of a site for a nationalist school where his wife was invited to serve as honorary principal. Pundits say Abe utilized growing public anxiety over North Korea's military threats. While Tokyo has no formal diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, ties with Seoul have become increasingly strained of late, due to controversy over an agreement reached on wartime sex slaves between the two states. In the deal struck in December 2015, the two countries agreed to put the long-disputed issue to rest, with Japan providing South Korean victims 1 billion yen in government funds. Civic groups representing sex slave victims and liberal politicians in South Korea have called for the agreement to be scrapped, stating the victims' voices were ignored. South Korea's foreign ministry said the deal was flawed and failed to reflect the opinions of victims, according to results of an investigation into the deal by a panel within the ministry. After results were unveiled in Dec. 27, the ministry announced its stance on the deal on Tuesday. "The government will create its own fund to assist victims, and decide whether to return the 1 billion yen fund after negotiating the matter with Japan," Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said. Abe on Friday told reporters in Tokyo "Japan cannot accept Korea's new proposal regarding the deal." Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono also told reporters in Tokyo that Japan would not accept any demands from South Korea to modify the agreement, following the South Korean government's announcement on Tuesday. Working through my ignorance with your help. ONALASKA Sunday was the last day open for the Tequila Mexican Restaurant in Onalaska, which is being sold to become the areas second Senor Villa Mexican Grill & Bar restaurant. But the Tequila Mexican Restaurant in La Crosse will remain open. Mario Villasenor, who with his wife Griselda Banales opened Senor Villa in September 2016 at 325 West Ave. N. in La Crosse, said Friday that he hopes to open the second Senor Villa in early spring. Well remodel everything at the Onalaska building, which will have all-new furniture and equipment and interior and exterior colors similar to the La Crosse restaurant, he said. The Senor Villa restaurant at 425 Second Ave. S., along Highway 35 in Onalaska, will be owned by Villasenor, his wife and his cousin and her husband Rosalinda Saldana and Manuel Marono. Saldana and her husband moved to Holmen from Fort Worth, Texas, two months ago and will manage the Onalaska restaurant, which will have the same menu as Senor Villa in La Crosse. Villasenor and his wife will continue to run the La Crosse restaurant. Miguel Guerrero, who with his brother Luis owns the two area Tequila restaurants, said that their restaurant at 515 West Ave. N. in La Crosse will remain open. It opened in 1999 in a former Pizza Towne building, and the Onalaska Tequila restaurant opened in 2008 in a former Hardees restaurant that was extensively remodeled. Guerrero said Villasenor approached him about buying the Onalaska restaurant. Guerrero said he decided to sell it because its a lot of work. Its so hard to maintain two locations. Selling the Onalaska restaurant will allow him and his staff to focus on the La Crosse restaurant, he said. I really appreciate all of the support that weve received over the years at the Onalaska restaurant, as well as at the Tequila restaurant in La Crosse, Guerrero said. Thats a perfect location for us, Villasenor said of the Onalaska restaurant. He said Senor Villa in La Crosse has done well and a number of customers have suggested opening a second location. Places of the past: La Crosse area restaurants you'll never eat at again Three young wolf pups stand guard howling over a wolf den, carved from the stout branches of the old-elm tree that once towered over Kaye Ericksons home outside Holmen. Her father Jesse Helgeson had planted the massive tree outside their home when she was a child after the county cut through their yard to build Hwy. M. Erickson still remembers the magnetic pull the massive elm tree had on people. It was the neighborhood shade tree where her family would chat with neighbors over a cold drink. The tree was transformed by local carver and custom furniture maker Jim Bjorge of Circle B Custom Creations after hearing Ericksons family story. While most know Erickson from her roofing business, Erickson Roofing, which she started with her former husband Leonard and is now run by her son Jason, her familys history in the gently sloping coulees between Holmen and Mindoro began long before her father planted the old shade tree. Kays family has farmed this land for six generations. Her great-grandfather Karl Helgeson left Sweden in April 1852 on a condemned sailing vessel which took he and his family to New York. From there, the two traveled up the Hudson and across the great lakes to Milwaukee. There, they purchased provisions for their overland journey which ended just shy of the Mississippi. Karl later served as an artilleryman for the U.S. Army during the Civil War, for which he was awarded a land grant for 220 tillable acres which later became his familys farm. The farm was eventually passed down to his son Joseph who passed the farm onto his son Jesse shortly after his death in 1950. The farm was always in the family, Erickson said. In 1952, at the age of 7, Erickson, alongside her father Jesse and mother Virginia moved back to the farm. Here, the only child grew up hearing stories of her familys long journey to the new world. How theyd traveled to Wisconsin from their home in Sweden, how her great-grandfather had won the farm and the war. Erickson, however, wasnt alone for long. At 11, her parents decided to foster wayward children, providing them a home and a family. During their 25-years as foster parents, the couple fostered more than 60 children. Too many of these children, Erickson was a sister, and to many others, she was a second mother. I couldnt ask for better siblings, Erickson said. Everywhere I go I have family. After traveling the country with her former husband, bouncing from Florida to Tennessee to North Dakota, she returned to the family farm to take care of her ailing father. Ericksons father had left such a lasting impression on her son, Jason, that he was determined to turn the old tree into a lasting memory of his grandfathers kindness. Jason was a real grandpas boy, Erickson said recalling how her son had followed behind her father for much of his youth. It was the largest carving Bjorge had ever undertaken, requiring nearly five weeks of work which produced more than 15 truckloads of sawdust. Bjorge said he saw it is an opportunity to honor a man who had left such a lasting impression on so many. Jason had chosen wolves, but Bjorge, added something Jason hadnt expected, a larger wolf emerging from the den guarded by his pups. He said that pack leader represented Jesse, who opened his home and his heart to so many children. A Wicklow native who lived in Portlaoise has been given a suspended sentence for having close to 1,000 images of child pornography downloaded on his laptop. Portlaoise Circuit Court heard today (Friday, January 12) that Philip Dignam (33), a native of Wicklow but with an address at Rathevan Close, Portlaoise, had images and video clips featuring boys and girls under 17 engaged in sexual activity with other children and adults, with some of the video material involving animals. Evidence was given by Garda John Masterson, along with State prosecutor, Mr Will Fennelly, that the matter arose out of an investigation by the FBI into a child pornography website known as Playpen, which could only be accessed through the dark web. The dark web is an internet facility which requires special software to be accessible. Between February and March, 2015, the FBI tacked down and seized the server hosting the website, but they continued to operate the website in order to track down users. Garda Masterson said that at the time, there were 500,000 subscribers to the site and the FBI were able to pinpoint particular users. A UPC customer at Rathevan Close was identified and on May 17, 2016, the gardai obtained a search warrant for this address. The court heard that this customer was the partner of the accused, who is not charged with any offence. When the gardai attended at the house for the purpose of the search, the accused was not present, nor was his laptop. The accused later presented himself at Portlaoise Garda Station with the laptop, where he made a voluntary caution statement. The laptop was examined and 946 images of child pornography were discovered. Garda Masterson said that these images were of boys and girls under the age of 17 engaged in sexual activity with other children and adults, as well as images of childrens genitalia. There were also 13 video clips of girls under the age of 17, some clips showing girls on their own, some involving animals, and some involving adults. The accused admitted downloading the images and said he accessed the website regularly as he had an interest in teenage pornography. The accused had no previous convictions. Defence for the accused said that images of these nature are graded under law from one to five, with grade five being the most serious. Of the images possessed by the accused, a small number were grade four, while the majority were grades one to three. Defence said that the accused gave an account that when he was 14 he was presented online with a pop-up message that brought him to a site featuring teenaged Russian girls, girls who were his own age at the time. This stayed with him and during a period of depression he engaged in the activity for which he was before the court, said defence. This activity happened over a limited space of time. Garda Masterson confirmed that the accused registered with the website in November, 2014, meaning he accessed it for around four months. Defence went on to say that the accused had said he was not attracted to children, nor interested in the very young, and he felt disgust at what he was doing. The accused did not share the images, nor did he make any financial gain. A report placed the accused at a low risk of reoffending, between a 5 and 7% chance. Defence said that Dignam was disgusted with himself after viewing the images. Defence said that the accuseds rehabilitation is ongoing and he is actively seeking therapy, having engaged with a therapist for five or six sessions. In sentencing, Judge Keenan Johnson said that it would be very beneficial for the accused if he signed up for the One in Four programme, which provides psychotherapy and advocacy services to those who have experienced sexual violence. The judge noted that there would be huge reputational damage to the accused and society tends to shun such individuals. An aggravating factor in the matter was the number of images downloaded, and the premeditation involved. In mitigation, Judge Johnson noted the accuseds plea of guilt, his fulsome cooperation with the gardai, and the fact that no price was paid for the images. The judge said that had the accused paid, he would have been contributing to the ongoing activities as featured on the website. Saying that the offences ranked at the lower to mid-range of seriousness, Judge Johnson imposed a one-year sentence. However, he said that the continued rehabilitation of the accused was more important than the immediate imposition of a custodial sentence, and agreed to suspend the sentence for five years, on condition the accused engage with probation services for two years; he enter into a peace bond of five years; and he complete the One in Four course. Heavy rainfall with flooding in places is hitting Ireland now, and spreading across the country as the day goes on. Met Eireann have just issued Status Yellow Rainfall Warnings for Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow. They forecast "25 40 mm of rain in the 24 hour period from 6 pm on Friday to 6 pm on Saturday, with flooding in places. Higher amounts likely in the Wicklow Mountains." The warning was issued today Friday 12 January at 11am, and is valid from 6pm this evening for 24 hours, to Saturday 13 January at 6pm. A second Status yellow Rainfall warning has been updated. This is also for 25 to 40 mm of rain over a 24 hour period, for Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. This warning is in effect now, from 12 noon on Friday until noon on Saturday with flooding in places. Higher amounts are possible on some mountains. Heavier rainfall is warned for Cork and Kerry, in a new update also at 11am this Friday morning. The Status Yellow Warning is for 30 50 mm rainfall in the 24 hour period from 11am today, until 11am tomorrow Saturday January 13. "Heaviest rainfall between noon and midnight today. Risk of flooding, with highest risk in south and west Cork as well as south and west Kerry," Met Eireann have said. Prior to Mountmellick's flood on November 22, Met Eireann had issued a Status yellow warning for rainfall of 30-40mm overnight in Leinster. The Road Safety Authority is warning drivers to watch out for flash flooding and the risk of aquaplaning. See their video of how to drive safely on wet roads here. Students from Kildare 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. The Onalaska School Board is looking at allowing students to complete part of their classes online. During a board meeting Monday night the school board approved a policy that would allow some students to complete course work on the web. The program will be piloted by High School social studies teacher Andrew Beckstroms students. High School Principal Jared Schaffner said its important to make a clear distinction between independent work and online instruction. It cant simply be heres independent work to go work on because that looks like what students of all ages just do all the time and it certainly isnt virtual learning, he said. Schaffner said Beckstrom has worked around this by creating interactive video lessons that require students to engage with the concepts being taught. This might be through a written or recorded prompt, or a quiz. The educator can then see how the student responded to the prompts, when they did the work and confirm the work is being completed by that student. You can see that the student is logged into his or her Google account, so, its not a case where someone else is doing it for them, Schaffner said. Curriculum Director Roger Fruit said these online courses wont cover topics that arent already taught in a traditional classroom, instead, they offer educators an additional tool. He said there are other Wisconsin schools doing this without a policy, however, he didnt recommend moving forward with these programs without it. The kind of thing that Jared (Schaffner) is describing what Andy Beckstrom is going to do second semester with econ is technically not possible unless the board adopts a policy that allows for there to be a kind of alternative activity or modification to a class, He said. Fruit said while the policy on the table doesnt cover every potential application of virtual classrooms, it does provide the district coverage for what it plans to do in the immediate future. Schaffner said possible implementation of this policy would be to split large classes into two smaller groups with alternating schedules. He suggested that one group could work remotely while another receives more individualized attention in the classroom. The Onalaska School Board unanimously approved the online course initiatives policy at Mondays meeting. The westbound motorway on-slip road at the M7s Junction 9, Naas North the Big Ball junction will close overnight tonight, Friday January 12. In a statement issued late this afternoon, Kildare County Council said the move was necessary following the cancellation of works last night due to adverse weather conditions. Those works have been rescheduled for tonight. In order to improve the westbound merge from Junction 9 (Naas North), SIAC Colas JV will be carrying out emergency works tonight, said the council. The slip road will be shut from 10pm tonight, Friday, and will reopen tomorrow morning. Motorists intending to travel from Naas North to Newbridge, Kildare town, Monasterevin and beyond, in the direction of Limerick, will instead be diverted towards Dublin. They will then be diverted onto the Johnstown flyover to double back towards Naas and on to their original destination. Signage will be in place to assist motorists. Kildare County Council regrets any inconvenience caused as a result of these necessary works, said the council in a statement. READ ALSO: M7 widening from Naas to M9 junction starts Aisling McDermott, the well-known Kildare writer and founder of popular beauty blog Beaut.ie, will be laid to rest on Monday. Ms McDermott, 46, had suffered from Multiple Sclerosis and passed away suddenly at her home last Wednesday. She and her sister Kirstie founded Beaut.ie in 2006, and the award-winning blog quickly became one of the most popular Irish websites for beauty-related reviews and news. They sold the site eight years later. Ms McDermott published three beauty books and also wrote for the Irish Times. Ms McDermott was a former past-pupil of St Wolstans in Celbridge and a graduate of Maynooth University and UCD. She previously worked as an information studies librarian at DCU. She lived with her husband Derrick in her home town of Celbridge. She is survived by her husband, parents Brian and Roisin and sisters Kirstie and Shauna, and a wide circle of family and friends. The reposal will take place at her parents home on Sunday from 4pm to 8pm, with removal to St. Patricks Church, Celbridge, on Monday morning, January 15, arriving for Requiem Mass at 11am followed by burial in Donacomper Cemetery. May she Rest in Peace. Several projects from Kildare schools were honoured at this years BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the RDS, it was revealed at the awards ceremony this evening. Evan Mather from the Patrician Secondary School in Newbridge was highly commended in the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences category, senior age group, for his project on comparing spider and artificial silks. Odhran Brady from Salesian College, Celbridge, was also highly commended, in the technology category, intermediate age group, for his project on quantifying whiplash to help reduce insurance claims costs. In the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences category (senior age group), Grainne Lawlor and Enya Nordon from Scoil Mhuire, Clane, were highly commended for their project investigating the deposition of metallic particles in e-cigarette vapour. Emilie Donaghy and Grace Carragher of St Wolstans, Celbridge, were likewise highly commended in the Social and Behavioural Sciences Category, intermediate age group, for their investigation into the use of e-cigarettes in teens. The pair also took a special award from the Health Product Regulatory Authority for the project. Eilis Pluymers and Fionn Reilly, Celbridge Community School, took both a special Electronics award, and second place in the Technology Junior Group category, for their app Careful Crossings, which warns users when they are approaching a road. The overall Young Scientist top prize this year was won by Simon Meehan, aged 15, a Transition Year student from Colaiste Choilm in Cork, for his work on the antibiotic properties of bramble plants. The 54th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition opened to the public with a bang yesterday, totally selling out of tickets as thousands of students, teachers and families from around the country descended onto the RDS for what is now officially the most in demand Exhibition to date. Picture of the Day Once again there was so much activity taking place in the RDS, but we believe this picture captures what the BTYSTE is all about. In the photo Dr. Norah Patten, Astronaut-in-Training, inspires students from across Ireland to look to the universe and see the potential and possibility that STEM offers! Also included are Tierna McGuire (Offaly), Niamh Carolan (Leitrim), Ciara Birmingham (Dublin) and Mylene Hayes (Dublin) In addition to the student projects, over 22 shows take place daily, from such acts as the Ministry of Science to this years two main events Girl in the Galaxy, Dr. Norah Pattens inspiring personal story on her experience as Irelands first astronaut candidate and Mindshare, a the real-life demonstration from world-famous hacker Kevin Mitnick. Politicians of all stripes joined the students, including Minister for Education Richard Bruton, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, Minister Katherine Zappone and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, visiting projects to encourage Exhibition participants on their journeys of innovation. There was great excitement in the hall with the arrival of An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who did an extensive tour of the Exhibition, his first as Taoiseach. Round two of judging took place yesterday with a resounding agreement coming from the Main Hall that standards are above and beyond. Great news for all the inspiring STEM enthusiast in the RDS this week. The diamonds that are studding the Hypatia stone probably formed from the shock when the space rock blasted through Earth's atmosphere. A tiny chunk of stone that looks like nothing else ever seen in the solar system might be even weirder than scientists thought. The Hypatia stone was found in southwestern Egypt in 1996. It was hardly more than a pebble, just 1.3 inches (3.5 centimeters) wide at its widest and a smidge over an ounce (30 grams) in weight. But analysis revealed that the stone (dubbed "Hypatia" for a fourth-century female mathematician and philosopher) fit into no known category of meteorite. Now, a new study suggests that at least some parts of the stone may have formed before the solar system did. If so and that is a big "if" the stone might reveal that the dust cloud that eventually congealed into our solar system was not as uniform as previously believed. [Big Bang to Civilization: 10 Amazing Origin Events] Oddball discovery When the Hypatia stone was first discovered, researchers weren't sure where it came from. Because it is studded with microdiamonds 50 nanometers to 2 micrometers in size, one possibility was that it was a strange example of a type of diamond known as a carbonado diamond. But studies in 2013 and 2015 definitively knocked out that possibility: The ratios of noble gases in the stone show that it is most certainly from out of this world. (The diamonds probably formed from the shock when the space rock blasted through Earth's atmosphere.) Some parts of the Hypatia stone may have formed before the solar system did, scientists now say. (Image credit: Mario di Martino/INAF Osservatorio Astrofysico di Torino) "This is a piece of extraterrestrial material," said Guillaume Avice, a postdoctoral scholar of geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology who participated in the 2015 study. [Greetings, Earthlings! 8 Ways Aliens Could Contact Us] But that's about all that can be definitively said about the Hypatia stone. The makeup of the rock matches no known meteorite. In fact, the rock hasn't been officially categorized as a meteorite, even though it came from space, because only about 0.14 ounces (4 grams) of the original mass of the rock can currently be accounted for. It's not that the rest is permanently lost, Avice said, but it's been chipped apart and sent around to so many labs that fragments are all over the place. The Meteoritical Society requires 20 percent of a meteorite's original mass to be present to officially declare it to be a meteorite. Mysterious minerals In the new study, researchers focused on the minerals in the Hypatia stone. They discovered that the stone itself is not uniform, but consists of a carbon-rich matrix shot through with a variety of minerals. These mineral inclusions are as weird as the rest of the rock, the research team found. They include pure metallic aluminum nuggets, an extremely rare find in the solar system; moissanite and silver iodine phosphide grains; and strange ratios of elements that fail to match the typical ratios of solar system objects. For example, unlike any other solar object ever found, these minerals include a nickel-phosphide compound with very high ratios of nickel to iron. "There is no known or imaginable mechanism that [this compound] could have been produced naturally in the solar nebula," study leader Jan Kramers, a geologist at the University of Johannesburg, told Live Science in an email. The solar nebula is the dust and gas that remained after the formation of the very early sun at the dawn of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Kramers and his colleagues think that this portion of the Hypatia stone may have formed from the pre-solar nebula, making it older than the sun itself. The rest the carbon-rich matrix may have coagulated later in the coldest outer reaches of the solar nebula, according to Kramers, because forming large bodies requires a dense dust cloud like the solar nebula to provide the material. But current theories of solar system formation hold that solar nebula dust was the same everywhere, and Hypatia doesn't fit that picture. The matrix of the stone contains no silicate minerals. The Earth and other rocky planets are full of silicates, and so are stony meteorites. If the matrix of the Hypatia stone formed from the solar nebula, that nebula couldn't have been totally uniform after all, Kramers said. However, that interpretation of the Hypatia stone's formation is still questionable, Avice said. The test that would cinch whether any part of the object is presolar in origin is an analysis of the Hypatia stone's isotopes, or variations of atoms based on the number of neutrons in their nuclei. "Presolar material has a very strange isotopic composition compared to the average values of the solar system," Avice said. Kramers also said isotopic analysis of both the matrix and the mineral inclusions in the stone is the next step researchers need to take to better understand the mysterious space pebble. Until then, Avice said, "we still don't know what this is, exactly." Original article on Live Science. La Crescents Food Share Program has a new management structure and will soon have a new home. The program has a new board and is under the umbrella of the La Crescent Area Healthy Community Partnership (HCP) as a non-profit. At Mondays city council meeting, the council unanimously approved allowing HCP, and the Food Share Program, to move into the property at 333 Main St. as soon as possible. The property was purchased by the city as a possible site for a new municipal building in the future but the council agreed that would make a good temporary home for HCP. The house is currently occupied but is expected to be vacated by June at the latest. The Food Share Program has been housed at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and has been steadily growing. In 2001, the program served a monthly average of 30 families but last year the program served a monthly average of around 75 families in 2017, according to program supporters. When the community food shelf first surfaced in the 70s it consisted of one La Crescent couple who collected and distributed food from their own home, before it was shortly thereafter relocated to a shed belonging to the citys Water Department. That arrangement lasted briefly before it proved to be too difficult of a space to operate from, and in the 80s the program moved to Prince of Peace, where it remained for more than 30 years. The changeover of the Food Share Program began when Susan Oddsen took over as the programs volunteer coordinator after Karin Wiese retired this fall. Prince of Peace Pastor Mike Woods then began reaching out to find organizations or individuals that could help support or potentially house the food shelf. Woods first contacted La Crescent-Hokah Board of Educations Community Education Director Beth Theede, as well as Sandy Graves, HCP Board Member and Program Coordinator of Neighbors in Action. Graves, who worked in the Community Education department as the Youth Program Coordinator when HCP was first formed, said the decision for HCP to get involved with the Food Share Program was an easy one. The non-profit umbrella organization has worked to bolster small community organizations since the early 2000s. It was a few of us that started doing the work just as arms from our existing jobs, Graves said of HCPs early days. We were just trying to get at where the needs in the community were, and what we could do to address them. And now weve kind of grown into this organization that supports and adopts the programs that could really benefit from having a formal structure. The initial outreach by Woods resulted in the Community Education and HCP staff collaborating to consider future space, model and status the program could pursue. To attain the non-profit status is a difficult task in itself, Theede said, which HCP is already in the process of doing. Theede said that Woods decision to reach out to the community was centered around the potential for the program to reach more people in the community, and because the Food Share Program was beginning to be known more around the community as the Prince of Peaces food shelf. They didnt have enough organizational structure, nor did they have a 501(3), said Theede, who credited Prince of Peace for preserving a community program that was basically left at their doorstep one day. The church is organized under the church, but the food shelf is not one of those components and plus, its not just the food shelf, but the La Crescent Food Share Program, and nobody really knew that. Local News, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: January 12 2018 Suffolk County Analysis Projects Federal TPS Decision Would Result in $1.4 Billion Reduction in Annual Economic Output, Loss of Nearly 13,500 Jobs on Long Island. Long Island, NY - January 12, 2017 - Executive Steve Bellone and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Nassau County Executive Laura Curran yesterday sent a letter to Members of Congress Lee Zeldin (NY-1), Peter T. King (NY-2), Thomas R. Suozzi (NY-3), and Kathleen Rice (NY-4) urging them to take immediate legislative action to extend protections for Salvadorans living on Long Island. Earlier this week, the federal Administration announced that it would end provisional residency permits of Salvadorans who have been granted Temporary Protected Status, many having lived in the United States since at least 2001. The County Executives also released an analysis by the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning that projects a dire economic impact due to this decision. A copy of the letter can be found below. January 11, 2018 Dear Members of Congress, We write to you as the Congressional representatives for Long Island to express our concern over the recent decision by the federal Administration to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for those individuals from El Salvador. The decision by the Administration to terminate TPS for over 14,700 Salvadorans on Long Island will place thousands of Long Island families, and our local economy, at risk. We respectfully ask that you take immediate action to address this urgent threat to our region. The TPS decision could ultimately result in a massive economic hit to Long Island. A recent analysis performed by the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning shows that the removal of Salvadoran TPS holders on Long Island would result in an $800 million loss in household spending to our region on an annual basis. The analysis also shows a reduction of $1.4 billion in economic output, $395 million in reduced earnings, a potential loss of nearly 13,500 jobs, and an $860 million hit in reduced Gross Domestic Product. If the broader economic impact was not bad enough, the individual blow to homeowners is even worse. There are nearly 4,000 Salvadoran TPS residents who hold mortgages in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. A conservative assumption of $150,000 per mortgage would result in $594 million in loans that could go unpaid, and result in those homes going up for auction or adding to the zombie home challenge we are already combating. Worst of all, the timing of this decision adds insult to injury. As you know, Congress recently passed a devastating tax bill that eliminates the state and local tax deductions for homeowners on Long Island. Experts agree that this will raise taxes on middle-class families while reducing home property values. Therefore, the decision to allow TPS to sunset for other homeowners will exacerbate the negative impact to the housing market and create a one-two punch that we simply cannot afford. We urge you to support and champion a legislative solution to keep thousands of Long Island families and taxpayers here. Simply put, it is time for Congress to come together and finally pass comprehensive immigration reform that fixes our broken system, secures our border, and provides a pathway to citizenship for those seeking to live the American Dream. We urge you to work with your colleagues on both sides of the aisle to advance this priority for the people of Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Sincerely, STEVEN BELLONE Suffolk County Executive LAURA CURRAN by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, January 12, 2018 David Letterman's credentials as a media hipster are no longer limited to the Brooklyn-style beard he has been sporting ever since he left CBS. Now Dave, 70, is to be reborn as an SVOD disrupter on Netflix, which happens to be Public Enemy No. 1 for the broadcasting industry where he made his career. Alright, that's pretty much all I got, he said on his final Late Show on CBS on May 20, 2015, just before a closing performance by Foo Fighters. The only thing I have left to do for the last time on a television program -- thank you and good night. This may have seemed like a definitive farewell to television, but it was not. Dave returns today (January 12) with a new talk show on Netflix. advertisement advertisement Although some of the talk will undoubtedly to be lighthearted, Letterman's new show is not positioned as a comedy show in the manner of the late-night shows he hosted on NBC and CBS for 33 years. The nine-word title of this one-hour show is My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. Six episodes are planned that will be rolled out monthly. Although the first guest needs no introduction, he is Barack Obama. In the photo above, the fun-loving ex-president is evidently enjoying a lighthearted chuckle with the bearded one over an office-building fire hose (or possibly a fire extinguisher). That Dave! Still finding the funny in the simplest things. The other guests who need no introduction will be George Clooney, Jay-Z, Tina Fey, Howard Stern and Malala Yousafzai. However, please forgive me, but I actually did need an introduction for Malala Yousafzai. She is the famed activist from Pakistan who is the youngest person to ever win a Nobel Prize. I just did not know her in the instant way in which most of us know Howard Stern or George Clooney. This is why introductions can come in handy. A brief press release from the Netflix publicity department described each episode of My Next Guest as centered around one extraordinary figure whom Dave finds fascinating. In interviews that take place both inside and outside a studio setting, this description continued, the conversations are intimate, in-depth and far-reaching, with the levity and humor Dave's fans know and love [perhaps like the fire hose gag Dave sprang on Obama]. A subsequent communique from Netflix p.r. described the Obama interview: In the interview, Obama discusses his family, life after the presidency and what he views as the pressing issues facing our country. Curiously, though, the Netflix p.r. department didn't provide any quotes from the pressing issues portion of the interview. Instead they released a portion of transcript in which Obama talked about the embarrassment of being a dad who cant dance. Alrighty then. Based on the guest list, descriptions and photo that you have seen so far in this TV Blog, please raise your hand if you are excited about this new David Letterman interview show. I see some of you are, but not all of you. That's not unlike the situation (multiplied a million-fold) when Letterman competed with Jay Leno and Leno beat him in the ratings from 1995 to 2009, and then 2010 to 2014 (with Conan O'Brien taking up a few months on "The Tonight Show" in-between Leno's two stints). I have always thought of Letterman as an acquired taste that not everyone acquired. Speaking for myself, and with all due respect to the innovations David Letterman brought to late-night TV in a stellar and admirably lengthy career, I was always more of a Leno guy anyway. by Melynda Fuller , January 12, 2018 Earlier this week, Nielsen Digital Content Ratings revealed where views are going for top digital brands, like BuzzFeed, Group Nine, Mic and Refinery29, including top video performers and those attracting the biggest millennial audiences. The data revealed that of readers who visited a favorite site monthly on average, more than half visited at least once a week. Buzzfeed and Refinery29 were both the most popular among millennials. BuzzFeed reportedly reaches 83% of all millennials each month and was strongest in video views. Refinery29 reaches over 88% of women between the ages of 21 and 24 and 62% of women between 18 and 34. Group Nine, home to NowThis, The Dodo, Seeker and Thrillist, formed less than a year ago, reports reaching 81% of Americans in their 20s. According to the report, the media companys viewers consume nearly 1 billion minutes of content across its brands. advertisement advertisement Mic and VIX also showed strong numbers were. Mic, home to modern and diverse storytelling, counts 40 million unique viewers per month, reaching over one-quarter of people between 21-34 in the United States. While VIX, a multicultural digital media brand, counts women as 62% of its audience, reaching over 40% of adult women between 18 and 49 in the U.S. Nielsen cites the websites engaging video format and ability to reach niche audiences among their strengths in attracting and keeping a wide audience. The findings were compiled in October 2017. by Ray Schultz , January 12, 2018 The Richmond Times-Dispatch has launched an email newsletter to keep Virginians informed about the 2018 General Assembly session. The Virginia Politics Insider will hit inboxes around 7 p.m. each night. Its debut this week is in time for the start of the legislative session, the paper says. Each issue will feature coverage of the days events by political columnist Jeff Schapiro and other members of the papers political team. It will include in-depth reporting on the states robust political scene, along with photos by photographer Bob Brown, the paper says. by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, January 12, 2018 Beauty creatives routinely plunder the worlds most exotic destinations for new ideas, and this year, Estee Lauder will do more than sell lipstick and nail colors inspired by locales like Bali and Capri; its teaming up with Expedia to create travel contests so fans can experience that beauty in real life. Expedia is hyping the contest as a kind of travel-as-beauty treatment idea, a way to win that oh-so-alluring vacation glow, it writes on its blog. Whether its our eyes reflecting the sparkle of a Tahitian lagoon, our lips mirroring the crimson of a Santorini sunset, or our cheeks radiating the bronze gleam of the French Riviera, our faces share the stories of the places we visit. The contest marks the first time the 74-year-old Estee Lauder company has partnered with a travel brand, and the promotion is linked to the companys annual Spring Gift-With-Purchase Program. advertisement advertisement Customers who make a qualifying purchase get an exclusive printed cosmetic bag with a curated selection of product samples. Once theyve done so, they can put on the makeup they think will look best on their dream vacation, snap a selfie and upload it on Instagram, with both the contest's unique hashtag, #Esteexexpediacontest, and one for the destination theyre dreaming of, like #flymetobali. The eight dream trip destinations, which are offered in partnership with retailers like Nordstrom, Macys and Bloomingdales, also include Palm Beach, Santorini, Tahiti, Morocco, the French Riviera and Riviera Maya. Estee Lauder, which also owns such brands as Clinique, Prescriptives, MAC, Bobbi Brown and Aveda, says sales of the flagship Estee Lauder brand accelerated in the most recent quarter, gaining in the double digits in both makeup and skincare, powered by the launch of Advanced Night Repair Eye Concentrate Matrix and increases in other Advanced Night Repair products. Where theres snow, theres no fire. Once snow covers the ground, the chance of a forest fire is low, Megan Mickelson, Monroe County forest liaison/private lands forester for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said. Once snow covers the fuel that can burn, theres not really a chance of fire unless some of the fuel is uncovered, she said. Fires not going to go through a lawn thats covered in snow, or forest canopy where a bunch of leaves are on the ground and are covered in snow. It pretty much goes to nothing. Eric Zenz, Department of Natural Resources forestry team leader for Black River Falls, agrees that the chance of a forest fire in Wisconsin during the winter is minimal but not impossible. Wisconsin has had forest fires in every month of the year. Generally, winter in Wisconsin is a time where we dont have any concern about forest fires, but if we go through a period where we have a warm-up and then snow melts and (vegetation) is uncovered, we could have a fire in winter, he said. In Wisconsin, a common cause of winter forest fires is individuals clearing hot ash from wood stoves, Zenz said. To prevent these forest fires, folks should empty the ashes into a metal container and hold the ashes until completely cold and extinguished, he said. Another cause of winter forest fires is brush piles, Zenz said. Winter is the safest time to burn them as the snow around the pile stops the fire from spreading into the woods. After burning brush piles, homeowners need to check their piles to ensure their fire is completely out, he said. Every year forest fires are started in the spring by burn piles that were started in the winter but not completely extinguished. The fire can hold over for months deep in the ground until a windy day blows hot embers into the woods starting a forest fire. Homeowners should stir the ash of their burn piles with a shovel to ensure there is no heat deep in the ground. Mixing snow in the ash will also help to ensure the burn pile is completely extinguished. A dry winter can start the fire season early, Mickelson said. (A fire could start) if theres not a lot of snow cover and not a lot of melt water to keep the ground saturated, she said. So unless its rainy, it can cause an early fire season for us. Lack of snow and lack of rain play into it. While historically Wisconsin has not had to worry about winter forest fires, the same cannot be said everywhere. Zenz said, Forest fires may be a year-round thing around the country. Mickelson concurs. Other regions still have the potential to burn, she said, such as California, which is experiencing a devastating fire season. Steps can be taken by homeowners to prevent property damage due to a forest fire, Zenz said. Homeowners can protect their property from forest fires by removing flammable vegetation away from their houses, and replace flammable landscape mulch with landscape rock, he said. These actions will prevent a forest fire from burning close to the home and will reduce the possibility of the home catching fire from the forest fire. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, January 12, 2018 Municipal broadband networks appear to offer cheaper Internet service than commercial providers, according to a new study by Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. For the study, researchers compared prices of 27 community-owned broadband networks that offered fiber service at speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream with prices of private networks in the same communities. Twenty-three of the community-owned networks offered cheaper service -- significantly less expensive, in some cases -- than the private networks, when the price was averaged over four years, according to the study. The report also says that the community-owned networks' prices were "clear and unchanging," while private carriers tended to charge low teaser rates that rose after 12 months. advertisement advertisement The researchers originally planned to compare pricing between community and commercial networks in 40 areas, but were only able to carry out the research for 23 communities. One reason was because private carriers in eight communities had language in their terms of service that discouraged the research. "The [terms of service] for AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable (now owned by Charter), were particularly strong in deterring such efforts; as a result, we did not record data from these three companies," the study states. The 23 community-owned networks with cheaper service charged consumers 2.9% to 50% less than private providers. In the other four communities, private providers charged between 6.9% and 30% less for broadband than the community-owned networks. Researchers collected the data in 2015 and 2016. The new research comes about two years after the Obama administration issued a report touting community-based broadband. Currently, about 20 states have laws that restrict towns from creating their own networks. The Federal Communications Commission attempted in 2015 to invalidate those restrictions, but an appellate court later ruled that the agency lacked the authority to do so. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, January 12, 2018 New York lawmakers are again considering a proposal to broaden the state's "right of publicity" law by allowing the heirs of deceased celebrities to sue over the commercial use of their name or images. The proposal, first introduced last year, would authorize suits against marketers, broadcasters and other media outlets that use names, photos or likenesses of people without their consent -- even if they have never lived in New York. People's heirs would also be able to sue for 40 years, provided they pay $50 to register with the New York Secretary of State. New York currently allows people to sue over the commercial use of their names or photos, but doesn't allow those kinds of suits by heirs. The Association of National Advertisers, which opposes the proposed law, on Friday warned New York legislators against the proposal. advertisement advertisement "As currently drafted, the legislation could cause serious harm to our members in the marketing and advertising community, many of whom are based in New York and the vast majority of whom transact significant amounts of business within the state," the letter states. The group adds that the proposed law "impacts the ANA membership by subjecting all national advertising campaigns to potential suit within the state, regardless of where the decedent was domiciled." The advertisers also criticize the proposal for extending the "right of publicity" from merely covering people's names and images to also covering their characteristics and likenesses. Characteristics and likeness "are vague terms that would likely end up as a question of fact for a jury," the ANA writes. Last year, the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation also weighed in against the proposal, which it called "deeply flawed." The group said in a letter to New York lawmakers that the original idea behind the right of publicity made sense, but that the right shouldn't survive an individual's death. "Using someone's face to sell soap or gum, for example, might be embarrassing for that person and she should have the right to prevent it," the group wrote. "A post-mortem right, however, means your heirs can invoke the right long after you are dead and, presumably, in no position to be embarrassed by any sordid commercial associations." Parkinsonism is a disease that occurs when a person has symptoms and brain dysfunction commonly associated with Parkinsons disease but also has other symptoms related to an additional condition or cause. Share on Pinterest Portra/Getty Images A person who has Parkinsonism will also have another disorder that causes additional neurological symptoms, ranging from dementia to the inability to look up and down. Parkinsons disease itself refers to dysfunction and cell death of the portion of the brain that produces dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter a chemical that transmits signals between brain and nerve cells. It is partially responsible for making controlled movements in the body. In this article, we take a look at the symptoms of Parkinsonism, how the disease is diagnosed, and what can be done to treat it. Fast facts on Parkinsonism: Doctors call this disease Parkinsonism plus or atypical Parkinsonism. When a person has Parkinsons disease, their movements are significantly affected. In the diseases later stages, a person will have difficulty walking and have very stiff, spastic muscles. Treatment will aim to reduce Parkinsons symptoms while also treating the accompanying disorder. Symptoms A person with Parkinsonism usually starts developing symptoms at anywhere from age 50 to 80, according to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Parkinsons disease can cause varying and progressive symptoms throughout its course. Some of the most common symptoms associated with the disease include: difficulty showing facial expressions muscle stiffness slowed, affected movements speech changes tremor, especially of one hand A person with Parkinsonism may have some, but not all, of the symptoms listed above. This is because they also have an additional disorder that affects the brains functioning. For example, people with Parkinsonism often do not have the hand tremor that affects many people with Parkinsons disease. Other symptoms associated with Parkinsonism include: dementia issues with the autonomic nervous system, such as problems with controlled movements or spasms early problems with balance rapid onset and progression of symptoms Each underlying cause of Parkinsonism, such as dementia with Lewy bodies, also has its own unique set of symptoms. Causes Parkinsonism can be caused by Parkinsons disease itself as well as another underlying condition. Other causes associated with Parkinsonism include: Corticobasal degeneration : This condition causes dementia as well as affected movements, usually on one side. A person may also be unable to make controlled muscle movements. : This condition causes dementia as well as affected movements, usually on one side. A person may also be unable to make controlled muscle movements. Dementia with Lewy bodies : This condition causes changes in overall alertness as well as visual hallucinations. This condition is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimers disease, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. : This condition causes changes in overall alertness as well as visual hallucinations. This condition is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimers disease, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Multiple system atrophy : This condition affects coordination and autonomic dysfunction, including bowel and bladder incontinence. : This condition affects coordination and autonomic dysfunction, including bowel and bladder incontinence. Progressive supranuclear palsy: This condition causes dementia, frequent backward falls, and problems moving the eyes up and down in addition to Parkinsons disease symptoms. The conditions above are the four most common causes of Parkinsonism, according to University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The number of people with these conditions is about one-fourth of the amount of people who have Parkinsons disease itself. Another, less common condition called vascular Parkinsonism also exists. This condition causes multiple, small strokes that can affect a persons balance, walking, and memory. Parkinsonism is also sometimes the result of taking certain medications. Doctors call this condition drug-induced Parkinsonism. Examples of drugs that could cause it include aripiprazole (Abilify), haloperidol (Haldol), and metoclopramide (Reglan). Ideally, if a person has drug-induced Parkinsonism, they can slowly reduce the dosages of these medicines. However, that may not always be possible, and a person should not stop taking a medication without their doctors approval. How do doctors diagnose Parkinsonism? No single test exists for doctors to diagnose Parkinsonism. A doctor will start by taking a persons health history and review their current symptoms. They will ask for a medication list to determine if any medicines could be causing the symptoms. A doctor will likely also order blood testing to check for underlying potential causes, such as thyroid or liver problems. A doctor will also order imaging scans to examine the brain and body for other causes, such as a brain tumor. Doctors can perform a test that tracks the movement of dopamine in the brain. This is known as the DaT-SPECT test. The test uses radioactive markers designed to track dopamine in the brain. This allows a doctor to watch the release of dopamine in a persons brain and identify the areas of the brain that do or do not receive it. Because Parkinsonism does not respond to typical treatments and can have a variety of symptoms, doctors can have difficulty coming to a quick diagnosis. It may take time for doctors to rule out other conditions and begin to make treatment recommendations. Treatments One of the most commonly prescribed medications to treat Parkinsons disease is levodopa. This medication is related to dopamine and can increase the amount of dopamine available in the brain. However, people with Parkinsonism not only have problems producing dopamine, but they also have damaged or destroyed cells that cannot respond to dopamine. As a result, levodopa may not work as well to reduce their symptoms. Doctors can find Parkinsonism challenging to treat because the symptoms of the condition do not always respond as well or at all to medications that boost dopamine. As a result, treatments for Parkinsonism depend upon the plus disease that a person has. For example, if a person has corticobasal degeneration and related muscle spasms, a doctor may prescribe antidepressants and botulinum toxin A (BOTOX) injections. Treatments for Parkinsonism usually aim to help reduce a persons symptoms whenever possible to help them maintain independence. Doctors often recommend physical and occupational therapy because they can help a person keep their muscles strong and improve balance. To discover more evidence-based information and resources for Parkinsons disease, visit our dedicated hub. Time and again, Shah Rukh Khan has made India proud. He isn't just Bollywood's King Khan but also a global star who's loved by everyone around the world. He is an amazing actor, performer, and producer, but what makes him extraordinary is his involvement in humanitarian work. Unlike many, he doesn't publicly talk about his initiatives. But that doesn't mean people don't notice the change he is trying to bring. For all the work that he has done towards children and women rights in India, the actor is now being honoured with World Economic Forum's (WEF) Crystal Award. For those who are unaware, Crystal Awards celebrate the achievements of artists around the globe who have shown commitment toward improving the state of the world. Along with SRK, Hollywood actress Cate Blanchett, and British musician Sir Elton John will be bestowed with this prestigious award at WEF's 48th Annual Meeting in Davos, the 24th Annual Crystal Awards. Talking about SRK, weforum said, "He is the founder of the nonprofit 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 specialized children's hospital wards and has supported childcare centres with free boarding for children undergoing cancer treatment." SRK even said, 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." He even shared the news on Twitter and wrote, 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 Isn't he truly a Badshah of hearts, making us proud always? You know that brand that rose to fame along with Baba Ramdev? The brand that is known for its 'Indian-ness' and has attracted way too many controversies? But at the same time has most of our parents going gaga over its products. Reuters Yup, this one. In an extremely hard-to-believe news, the French Luxury brand Louis Vuitton wants to invest in Patanjali. And not just any small, random amount- they are willing to put forward more than Rs 3000 crores. via GIPHY We are not shi**ing you guys. This is absolutely 100% true. L Catterton is a private equity fund co-owned by LMVH. They are ready to put that money which is half of its remaining Asia fund into Patanjali. The reason being that Patanjali has emerged as one of the fastest growing FMCG companies in India in recent years. L Catterton According to a report in the Economic Times, Ravi Thakran, managing partner of L Catterton Asia, said that they would love to work with Baba Ramdev but there's one little problem, "I know his model is not to work with multinationals and with foreign money," he added. L Catterton Asia Thakran believes that this collaboration with Patanjali Ayurved could take its products to Europe, US, Japan, China and South Korea. We always knew this for a fact that Baba Ramdev has always been very anti-MNCs and has taken pride in the 'swadeshi' label attached to his brand. However, looks like LV might just have a chance. Twitter Acharya Balkrishna, MD of Patanjali Ayurved, said that the company will not give stake to anyone but they are ready to talk to L Catterton. "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," Balkrishna said to ET. Right now, we don't know in which direction would this whole thing go but IF they do accept the funding, it'd be extremely interesting to see how it fares out. No? Samsung just made everyone's dream come true by making a television that is literally as big as a wall. Samsung befittingly calls it The Wall and it is essentially a 4K TV that is 146-inches in size. It uses a brand new display technology called MicroLED to produce video. BCCL The only way a TV of this size was possible is because it is modular. According to Samsung, "users can add or remove modules to make their TV bigger or smaller, in any configuration, removing previous limitations on screen size, with zero impact on performance of the display. MicroLED has many advantages over the traditional OLED as each micro-LED can emit its own light. This essentially means that it does not require any backlight and in turn creates deeper and crisper colours. It also manages to create deeper blacks than normal OLED panels. These MicroLEDs can achieve 2,000-nit brightness, higher than any other display out there and is ideal for 4K and HDR content. The resolution of the TV was not confirmed by Samsung but a good look at the screen shows that it supports 4K content. Samsung Samsung said, the modular screen can be used to create a wall-sized display, or simply let consumers increase their traditional screen size to suit a new room in their homes. At the moment The Wall is just a concept, however, Samsung has confirmed that it will be making this technology available to the public as early as this spring. It's easy to assume that this TV is not your run of the mill device that you'll find at a store near you, as modular TVs are set to attract very expensive home theatre installations. BCCL Apart from the fact that the modular TV will ship this year, Samsung has not detailed pricing for their new product. However, we can assume that The Wall will cost at least $100,000, simply based on how one can customise it and how hard it would be to manufacture. Were excited to announce that metalbulletin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com. A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving metals market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets. Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials. If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details. Officials say the device was known as an "unexploded ordnance," or an explosive weapon that did not explode and still posed a... With backing from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, paperwork to upgrade the Navy Cross awarded to then-Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Canley to the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Hue City in 1968 was forwarded to President Donald Trump on Friday. "After giving careful consideration to the nomination, I agree that then-Gunnery Sergeant Canley's actions merit the award of the Medal of Honor," Mattis said last month in a letter to Rep. Julia Brownley, D-California, Canley's chief sponsor in Congress. Mattis noted that Congress would first have to waive the five-year limit for recommending the Medal of Honor, but once that happened, "I will provide my endorsement to the president." In a statement Friday, Brownley said the House waived the time limit on Dec. 21 and the Senate took similar action Thursday. All that is needed now is Trump's signature to give the nation's highest award for valor to the 80-year-old Canley, of Oxnard, California, who retired as a sergeant major and is reportedly battling cancer, Brownley said. Related content: In the brutal battle to retake Hue City in 1968, Canley's "valorous actions and unwavering dedication to his fellow service members is the reason so many of the men who support his nomination are alive today to testify on his behalf. His incredible gallantry and selflessness is an inspiration to us all," Brownley said. In his account published last year -- "Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam," Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down" about the Battle of Mogadishu, cited Canley's actions in the house-to-house fighting more than 30 times. In a statement to Brownley on the MoH recommendation, Canley said, "I want to profusely thank Congresswoman Brownley for her continued work helping me with this honor." "The credit for this award really should go to all the young Marines in Vietnam who inspired me every day. Most of them didn't receive any recognition, but they were the foundation of every battle in the Vietnam War," he said. John Ligato, who served as a private first class under Canley in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, in Hue, said the Medal of Honor was long overdue. Canley served several tours in Vietnam from 1965 to 1970. "The sheer cumulative effect of Gunny Canley's actions and deeds over this continued period rank with the acts of America's greatest heroes from the Revolutionary War to this present day," Ligato said. "This man is the epitome of a Marine warrior." Others agreed. "I spent nine months in the St. Albans hospital, required numerous surgeries and am disabled, but I would have died if [Canley] had not risked his life for mine," said Pat Fraleigh, another Marine who served under him. The battle of Hue "was not the first time I saw Gunny Canley act heroically," Fraleigh said. In previous fighting at the Con Thien Marine base near the demilitarized zone, Canley "not only carried Marines to safety, but also exposed himself to enemy fire. He was always leading and attacking the enemy and always standing up and encouraging us," he said. Canley's Navy Cross cites his actions from Jan.31 to Feb. 6, 1968, during which he took command of Alpha Company when the company commander was wounded. "On 31 January, when his company came under a heavy volume of enemy fire near the city of Hue, Gunnery Sergeant Canley rushed across the fire-swept terrain and carried several wounded Marines to safety," the citation states. Canley then "assumed command and immediately reorganized his scattered Marines, moving from one group to another to advise and encourage his men. Although sustaining shrapnel wounds during this period, he nonetheless established a base of fire which subsequently allowed the company to break through the enemy strongpoint." On Feb. 4, "despite fierce enemy resistance," Canley managed to get into the top floor of a building held by the enemy. He then "dropped a large satchel charge into the position, personally accounting for numerous enemy killed, and forcing the others to vacate the building," the citation states. The battle raged on. Canley went into action again on Feb. 6 as the company took more casualties in an assault on another enemy-held building. "Gunnery Sergeant Canley lent words of encouragement to his men and exhorted them to greater efforts as they drove the enemy from its fortified emplacement," the citation reads. "Although wounded once again during this action, on two occasions he leaped a wall in full view of the enemy, picked up casualties, and carried them to covered positions. "By his dynamic leadership, courage, and selfless dedication, Gunnery Sergeant Canley contributed greatly to the accomplishment of his company's mission and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service," the citation states. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. 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. "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 it's 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 Troxell's first time warning ISIS about the U.S. military's 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 Troxell's comments emphasized the U.S.-led coalition's 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. Lucia I. Suarez Sang is a Reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow her on Twitter @luciasuarezsang HOLMEN About 15 firefighters from three agencies fought a fire Friday that destroyed a 12-unit apartment building in Holmen. Fire crews found a garage engulfed by flames after a car caught fire about 11 a.m. at 615 McHugh Road, Holmen Area Fire Chief Paul Menches said. Firefighters fought flames that spread to the attached apartment building in single-digit temperatures that froze water and equipment. Its moving on us, Menches said of the fire that billowed smoke for blocks. Residents evacuated safely with the aid of Holmen police. Everyone was accounted for, Menches said. The cause of the car fire remains under investigation. Authorities planned to demolish the remains of the building Friday afternoon. The Salvation Army and American Red Cross will assist displaced residents. As the Navy strives toward its goal of a 355-ship fleet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson has said unmanned systems may be a key to that growth. For the service's consideration: a fully unmanned ship concept by Rolls-Royce that can spend 100 days at sea without a port visit, and launch and recover unmanned helicopters from a small rear deck. Last September, Rolls-Royce rolled out the plan for a 60-meter unmanned naval vessel, shown in concept art sporting a sleek stripe and surrounded by quadcopters. At the Surface Navy Association's annual symposium near Washington, D.C., this week, the company displayed concept art for a variant designed like a Navy ship, with Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned helicopters on its helo deck. While the Navy is pursuing unmanned surface vessels, such as Textron's Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle, for missions including harbor security and minesweeping, the size of the Rolls-Royce unmanned concept puts it in a separate category. "I think when you're getting that big, it's a ship," said Davis Sanford, naval campaigns lead for Rolls-Royce. In addition to providing a launching platform for the Fire Scout, the as-yet unnamed unmanned ship could be used for asymmetric warfare, mine countermeasures, or gear transport, Sanford told Military.com. It uses electric drive, with four megawatts of power, equipped with generators and solar panels as a backup power source. Sanford said it could operate fully autonomously for 100 days at sea. The existence of a fully unmanned ship concept raises questions about whether unmanned platforms could actually count toward the Navy's planned 355-ship tally. Navy leaders have expressed avid interest in unmanned technology, but remain vague about how unmanned systems would be incorporated into the fleet on a broad scale. "There is no question that unmanned systems must also be an integral part of the future fleet," a May 2017 document outlining Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson's vision for the future fleet states. "The advantages such systems offer are even greater when they incorporate autonomy and machine learning," it continues. "And these platforms must be affordable enough to buy them in large numbers, and networked in order to expand our presence in key areas." On Thursday, the Navy's new head of acquisition, James "Hondo" Geurts, said the answer is still not clear. "I don't have the details of what's in the count or not," Geurts told reporters. "What I would say with unmanned systems is, I think it has huge potential for the Navy whether that's in the air, on the surface or under. How we talk about that in ship count, I'm not quite sure I think unmanned systems have the potential to rapidly increase capability we have on both our current capacity of ships, and as we go to 355 ships." The Rolls-Royce concept might be ready for acquisition by 2025 or 2030, Sanford said. The world will have to evolve rapidly before then; currently, there are no international regulations governing the operation of unmanned ships, which means they cannot enter international waters. There are other considerations: Sanford said the company is still determining how to make the unmanned ship tamper-proof, to prevent people coming aboard and attempting to control or tamper with the ship. But the military has already expressed interest in acquiring such technology, whether or not the Navy plans to use it to increase the fleet size. In September 2017, the Defense Department's Strategic Capabilities Office released a draft solicitation for a program called Overlord: an unmanned surface vehicle that can operate for 90 days at a time, covering at least 4,500 nautical miles at 19 knots or higher. "That's kind of the smaller side of where we are and where we're hoping to go with our design, our concept, and our technology," Sanford said. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. The Navy's futuristic destroyer Zumwalt is some two years away from being ready for battle -- but service leaders still don't know what to load in its main weapon. In late 2016, the service canceled plans to buy the long-range land attack projectile, or LRLAP, a round designed to be fired from the ship's massive 155mm Advanced Gun Systems weapon. At about $800,000 per round, the ammo was just too pricey to load up on the three ships in the limited Zumwalt large destroyer class. But it's now 2018, and the ship is expected to reach initial operational capability by fiscal 2020. And there's still no substitute round for the AGS. In a briefing at the Surface Navy Association's annual symposium, Capt. Kevin Smith, Major Program Manager for the DDG-1000 [Zumwalt] Program Office, said the Navy continues to monitor future technologies and watch industry for a solution. "The threat's always changing out here and the requirements that the U.S. Navy's looking at, as I said, this is a multi-mission ship," Smith said. "There's lots of things this ship can do but, right now, we're going to be looking hard at what is the best technology to meet the requirements for the gun." Each of the destroyers costs roughly $4 billion. The USS Zumwalt, the first in class, was commissioned in late 2016; its successor, the Michael Monsoor, is expected to be delivered to the Navy in March. The final ship, the Lyndon B. Johnson, is set for delivery by 2020. Capt. James Kirk, the first commanding officer of the Zumwalt, indicated that the designated purpose of the ship itself might be affected by its lack of a working mega-weapon. "We're going to be looking at shifting the mission set for this ship to a surface strike, land-and -sea-strike surface platform," he said. "We're predecisional on budget ... but that's what the focus is going to be, on a long-range surface strike platform, in contrast with previous focus on a littoral volume suppressive fires, in close to land." The AGS is designed to deliver a high rate of fire, as well as precision strikes. As it stands, the Zumwalt is not without weapons: It's built to carry RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles; Tactical Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles; Vertical Launch Anti-Submarine Missiles; and two MK-46 30mm chain guns. Officials have discussed the possibility of arming the AGS with a hypervelocity projectile, such as the one the Navy is currently testing out with its futuristic railgun prototype, but a decision on whether to move forward has yet to be made. "We're monitoring that technical maturation to see do we get that to get the kind of ranges and capabilities that we want, what's the right kind of bang for the buck in cost and capability for the Navy," Kirk said. "We're monitoring that, but we have not made a decision on that." -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. Woyome Not Bothered At All By The Appointment Of Amidu As Special Prosecutor 12.01.2018 LISTEN For an industry which doesnt favour young artistes, its always great to gain attention in the mainstream and Afrobeats artiste, King Promise cant be thankful enough for the favour 2017 brought him. The graduate of the Central University College, who shot to fame with his track, Oh Yeah admitted to Showbiz in an interview that he had a great year. Yes, I will say 2017 was my year of luck. Its not as if I was new in the system but the year gave me a good reason to hope for better days in the industry. I got the attention many equally talented young artistes are still struggling to get and Im so grateful to Ghanaians for the support, he said. Among his many blessings he recounted were the release of songs such as Oh Yeah, Thank God, Double Trouble featuring Sarkodie and the new Selfish which is getting a lot of airplay. My team and I were very hopeful when we dropped Selfish. It was ready at the time Oh Yeah was released but we planned to hold on for a while and its success has been inspiring, he said. King Promises talent is not being appreciated only in Ghana but outside as well. In December last year, British-born Nigerian producer and recording artiset, Maleek Berry, commended him after his performance at the Detty Rave concert at the La Pleasure Beach. King Promise acknowledges that such endorsements are morale boosters for him. Managed by renowned sound engineer, Kill Beatz who produced Selfish, the young graduate is looking forward to another promising year to churn out good songs. As the awards season begins, King Promises name is being mentioned alongside others for trophies but he says that isnt his focus now. My aim is to produce songs my fans can relate to. Although awards are important, my main focus is to produce good songs and take Ghanaian music worldwide, he said. Dancehall artiste Shatta Wale has gifted a brand new Toyota Camry to one of the loyal members of the Shatta Movement (SM) squad, Captan. The controversial musician had earlier posted on Social Media that he was going to surprise one of his militants (upcoming artistes under the Shatta Movement Records) including Joint 77, Addi Self and Captan while asking his fans to make a wild guess on what it would be. In a Facebook live feed, Shatta Wale expressed his excitement about the surprise gift to Captan who emerged winner. Surrounded by members of his SM clique, he announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, I make happy for this surprise we dey give wanna own. Captan, who was lost for words, thanked Shatta Wale for the car and said, I dont even know what to say. Im over excited, Im speechless. Shatta Wale in response said he wanted the world to know how much he loved his members because there has been too many negative vibes from the public about the Shatta Movement crew. According to him, he would have done more if he had the power. We wan show the world say we dey live in love. This be talent. This be what I go do give my artistes if I be producer for Ghana. We go fit protect and help wanna country grow without any help. He added that the car is not a big deal, he only wants to show gratitude to God for how far He has brought them as a group since it has not been an easy journey. Shatta Wale advised young upcoming artistes to practice humility and assured that Shatta Movement is ready to support talented artistes who want to make it big in the music industry. The Taking Over crooner who believes this year is going to be a good one for Shatta Movement asked Ghanaians to watch out for his militants in the music industry and expect bigger things from them. Dancehall artiste Shatta Wale claims he is the king of the music genre but his reach is only a tiny one, probably only in Ghana. According to actress Juliet Ibrahim, music by Wale hardly gets any airplay on Nigerian radio. Sarkodie, Becca and Stonebwoy are the only Ghanaian artistes whose songs have massive rotation on Nigeria radio. Ibrahim made the revelation during an interview on Hitz FM with Andy Dosty. She told Dosty, King Promise also enjoys some support from Ghanas neighbours. Many believe Wales recent beef with WizKid is his attempt to invade the Nigerian music market. In an interview on Kasapa FM, Wale said he doesnt consider Nigerian artiste, Wizkid as a super star. He added that there is nothing extraordinary about the Ojuelegba act. People dont have that mind to elevate themselves that is why nowadays people see Wizkid and say wow hes a star. I dont see Wizkid to be too much for me but Ghanaians see him like that and artistes also see him like that. I will not see Wizkid and be stunned, I rather want him to see me and be amazed because properties and investments are talking, explained Wale on Kasapa FM. Dont be wearing fake chains and tell me youre number one artiste in Africa because I dont get scared with those things. Thats why when I preach about making money in the music business, I say it and say it well for people to see that this is no joke thing. His comments led to severe backlash from Nigerians on Twitter. He later threatened to end the career of Nigerian artiste, Wizkid if the latter doesnt warn his uneducated fans. The warning comes after Wales comments about WizKid not being a Superstar infuriated Nigerians, especially on Twitter. In a message posted on Micro blogging site, Twitter on Thursday Morning, Wale asked the Come Closer act to call his fans to order or else he will end his (WizKid) career. @wizkidayo chale warn ur uneducated fans ago end ur career mek dem cry ooo..#Ayoo Reggae artiste Kenneth Wilberforce Bossman, known in the reggae music scene as Black Prophet, has disclosed that Ghanaians do not appreciate his talent and music here in Ghana. According to the reggae artiste, he doesn't understand why Ghanaians tend to adore and appreciate artistes from other parts of Africa and the world to the neglect of their own, including him. The reggae artiste, who has been off the Ghanaian scene for some years, told Hitz FM in an interview that he believes his music fetches him more income and opportunities abroad more than in Ghana. The record of the year award winner at last year's BASS Awards revealed that he prefers to live outside Ghana because music fans out there appreciate him so much that he always loves to live among them. Love goes where love is, he added. Born on 3 April 1977 in Accra , Black Prophet released his first solo album titled 'No Pain No Gain' in February 1998 with his backing band, the Thunder Strike. He released his second album titled 'Legal Stranger' in 2003, which became an instant hit on the Ghanaian music scene. In 2007, Black Prophet's song, 'Doubting Me', was named best reggae song of the year at the Ghana Music Awards The release of his second album attracted international attention which paved the way for him to visit a number of European countries like the Netherlands and Sweden , where he played at various festivals, including Oland Roots , Irie Vibes Festival and Afrika Festival Delft. He has worked and collaborated with various international reggae artistes, including Rita Marley , Pliers , Don Carlos , Yellowman , Steel Pulse , Lucky Dube , Alpha Blondy , Buju Banton and Dean Fraser , who produced a song on his latest album 'Tribulations' in December 2010. The album features a duet with reggae icon Capleton . It seems to go nowhere, so it is about time PAYOLA is ignored for the sake of establishing Radio Musiga to push forward the local and indigenous music. Payola is the collection of monies from musicians by record players, commercial radio stations, some Disc Jockeys and other music pushers within the music industry. In some instances, it is also termed as the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on commercial radio in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. So by telling the truth, this situation or condition simply means, there is no stopping for PAYOLA as long as music breathes while musicians live. Do not forget the fact that most commercial radio stations are set up or established to amass wealth economically while still pushing their individual agendas. So if this be the case, why are so many Ghanaian musicians expecting various radio stations to do favours by playing their songs? Fact is that, musicians are not in the industry to have fun. And in as much as they are having fun while entertaining others and themselves, some are also charging exorbitant monies for their music worth in concerts up and down the country and to some extent abroad. What needs to be done to curtail the power of the PAYOLA is for the Musicians Union of Ghana to establish its own radio station to push its indigenous music as well as its definitive music agendas. In so doing, they can then run affairs according to how they would want it on any other commercial radio station in the country. As and when Radio Musiga is established, its authentic patrons and audience would be listening to local music 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, thereby making it a project to behold. Although some of the musicians in Ghana are not all that happy with the way and manner Mr Bice Osie Kuffour is steering the affairs of the union, they would all be arguably happy if he can help establish a definitive radio station in honour, respect and admiration of the union and Ghana as a whole. The said station, if well established in the capital, they can roll on to the other regional capitals as well in connecting its agenda with other radio affiliates. Most at times it is often better to push ones agenda through ones establishment than doing it the other way round. Just imagine how powerful Radio Musiga would be by pushing its local music, programs and agendas. The name would be Radio Musiga and its slogan would be Playing and Loving Our Music. Until then, leave the Disc Jockeys, record players and the others alone to enjoy their PAYOLA which is arguably here to stay as long as music lives on. Kojo Antwi 12.01.2018 LISTEN Highlife musician, Frank Mensah Pozo has called on the Maestro-Kojo Antwi to contest for the President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) in the next election. He was hopeful that Kojo Antwi can do what Bice Osei Kuffour (Obour) couldnt do if elected as the next President of the Union. Frank Mensah Pozo made the appeal in an interview with DJ Murphy Lee on Bohye FM in Kumasi. According him, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley will be another good choice if Kojo Antwi does not show interest in the position. It will be fine if Kojo Antwi contest for the position of MUSIGA President. But if he wont contest for the position the Ambolley should do that, he said. He indicated that the current President of MUSIGA, Obour did what he could dobut it was not enough. Obour has done well. I will rate him 40 over 100 percent. As a human being you cannot do everything.He should have concentrated on the welfare of musicians." "Most of the aged musicians are sick.Most veteran musicians have a lot of albums but they are not reaping from their hard works. I do not think that would happen in Nigeria, Togo or Single." "I wont mention USA because it is far. We form a union or an association all because of help. If they are not benefiting from it then what is the essence of it, Pozo said. Everything was centered at Accra. We have musicians across the country so everybody should have an equal benefit and opportunity, Frank Mensah Pozo added. Photo - Freestockphotos.biz 12.01.2018 LISTEN Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25, 27, 32, 33) The twins Jacob and Esau were very different from one another. One was a mans man. Esau loved outdoor activities like tending the sheep and hunting. Jacob preferred to stay at home and learn from his mother. One day Esau came in from the field famished. He begged Jacob to give him something to eat. In return Jacob sold a bowl of soup to his older twin in exchange for the birthright. Esau traded the larger portion of their inheritance for a bowl of beans. (Genesis 25:29-34) The deception continued. When their father Isaac knew he was near death he requested that his manly son Esau kill a deer to prepare a fine meal before dividing the estate. Rebbecca, the mother of the twins, heard the request and helped Jacob pull off a grand scheme to fool Isaac into giving Jacob the larger portion of the inheritance. In the end, Jacob had to run for his life. He fled to another country to find his mothers relatives who would care for him. It was many years before he returned to his own family. When he did, he heard that his brother Esau was looking for him. The deceiver Jacob was scared. He devised a plan so that his brother could only destroy half of Jacobs wealth if he was caught. (Genesis 32) When they finally met, Esau ran to Jacob and hugged him and kissed him and showed forgiveness and mercy. He had so forgiven Jacob that he was surprised Jacob would even think that there might be hard feelings between them. (Genesis 33) Joseph (Genesis 37-50) The 11th son born to Jacob was Joseph. God revealed His plan for the life of Joseph when he was still a young boy. Joseph excitedly talked with his brothers about Gods plans. His brothers became jealous and eventually sold him into slavery while telling their father Jacob that his favorite son had been killed by a wild animal. Joseph was bought by a man who eventually recognized Josephs honesty. The man gave Joseph great freedom even though he was still a slave. Eventually Joseph was wrongly accused of a crime and ended up in prison. Josephs integrity won him favor with the jail keepers and he became a guard over other prisoners. Through time God elevated Joseph to great power within the kingdom. The brothers thought Joseph was dead. They did not suspect that the man they stood before was their own brother Joseph. When Joseph revealed himself, they were shocked to know he was alive. They even feared for years that he would seek retribution. After the family was reunited they lived together in Egypt. When their father passed away, the brothers began to fear even more that Joseph would finally show his hatred towards them (Genesis 50:15). Joseph was heartbroken when he learned they still did not trust him and that they feared what he would do to them (Genesis 50:17). This amazing story of forgiveness culminates with these words from Joseph to his brothers: But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people[ a ] should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. ( Genesis 50:19-21 ) David and Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9) Though King Saul tried to destroy David throughout the book of 1 Samuel, David responded with kindness and forgiveness to the household of Saul. After he became king, David looked for anyone who was still living from the household of Saul so that he could demonstrate his love and friendship for Jonathan, Sauls son. David showed kindness to Mephibosheth by restoring to him and his family the land owned by the former king. David paid to have the land farmed and cared for. As for Mephibosheth himself, David made a place for him at his own table so that he was accepted as part of the kings family. AN ASTUTE teacher in Kumasi, Mr. Opoku Mensah, popularly known as 'Omens', has been appointed as the Ashanti Regional Director of the National Service Secretariat (NSS). He was appointed to the high office, which comes with a lot of responsibilities, late December 2017, and he is expected to officially commence his work on January 8, 2018. A master's degree holder in Agro Forestry from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Omens, without doubt, is an intelligent person. He is widely seen and described as a team player and a visionary therefore his appointment to head the NSS in the Ashanti Region did not surprise many in the region. During a chat with DAILY GUIDE, Mr. Mensah assured to work according to the rules and regulations of the NSS, stressing that interference would not be tolerated in the NSS in the region. According to him, personnel of the NSS would be given a free hand to work to help champion the progress of the institution in the region, calling for unity and tolerance among the national service personnel. Omens, an ex-President of NUGS, University of Education, Mampong campus, also admonished graduates currently undertaking their national service duties to always approach his office with their concerns. The Ashanti Regional NSS boss, wholeheartedly, thanked the board and management of the NSS for reposing their trust in him, assuring that he would work to the expectation of all and sundry. Katherine Tienyierr Lankono, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Nadowli-Kaleo in the Upper West Region, has advocated the establishment of craft villages similar to the Aburi Craft Village in all the regions of the country. Ms Lankono made the call recently at the Aburi Craft Village in the Eastern Region. Speaking to BUSINESS GUIDE in an interview, the DCE said, I saw a post with pictures on one of my whatsapp groups, and when I took time to look at one of the pictures, I saw a an elephant figure and I was impressed with it. Work on the Aburi Craft Village, initiated by the Aburihene, Otoobuor Djan Kwasi II, began in 2006 under the then Nsawam District Assembly. Prior to that, it was known as the Antique Village established by Nana Bampoe to train unemployed youth in Aburi in wood carving for free. The project was scheduled to be executed in three phases. In 2010 116 shops were built under the first phase with EDIF, now EXIM funding through the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Recently, the Ministry of Trade and Industry renovated its two meeting halls built by the Christian Council of Ghana in 1990. The Ministry, through GEPA, has reiterated its commitment to the project. Connie DeJong Kumordzi, an art lover, believes there are many talents at the Aburi Craft Village. She indicated there are a lot of persons and agencies in US, who love crafts and said the government of Ghana stands to gain more if it develops and empowers craftsmen and women of the village. Visitors to the village would also have the opportunity to view the cascading hills and valleys in and around the village through a telescope to be installed under the third phase. Theodora Froko, Director for Handicrafts, Textiles & Garments at the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), in the company of Bruce Bullu Liman, GEPAs content administrator, recently attended a mini-exhibition organised by the Aburi Craft Village and World Peace Corps of Ohio, USA, at the Aburi Craft Village. The fair, which took place over the weekend, was used as rehearsal for the upcoming exhibition slated for April 2018 under the theme, 'Ofie Agudi. From Daniel Bampoe, Aburi Management and staff of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), in the Volta Region, have donated assorted food items and other housekeeping products to the Cured Lepers Foundation in Ho. The donation was made during a thanksgiving service in December 2017. Presenting the items to the Cured Lepers Foundation, the Regional General Manager, ECG/Volta, Ing. Joseph M. Forson, reiterated the need as humans, to always show care, love and friendship to the less privileged in society, especially during a time of merry making like Christmas. We have no doubt that this token of goodwill and care from the ECG will not solve all your problems, but it is a modest show of our love, and our way of reassuring you that despite your conditions, you have not been abandoned by society he said. Ing. Forson further pledged the Company's continuous support for the foundation. The caretaker of the cured Lepers, Nelson Attipoe, in receiving the donation, was full of gratitude for the gesture, and called on other institutions to emulate the good example of the ECG. Such gestures often bring excitement to the inmates, most of whom, even though are cured, have been abandoned by families. We hope that other individuals and institutions will be encouraged by your kind gesture and in their own small ways, contribute to making life here better for the inmates he noted. Items presented included bags of maize, rice, beans, gari, cooking oils and toiletries. The Cured Lepers Foundation Center in Ho has eighty-two (82) inmates. A former Commissioner on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, CHRAJ, Emile Francis Short, has commended the President on the appointment of Martin Amidu as the countrys first Special Prosecutor pending parliamentary approval. According to him, this is a clever and judicious decision on the side of the President in his efforts to fight corruption, saying the President should be congratulated. Well, I am very pleased with the appointment, and think we should all congratulate the president for this wise and prudent appointment. In my view, it demonstrates the president's personal commitment in his fight against corruption to pick someone like Martin Amidu, who is a fervent anti-corruption crusader he said He noted that Martin Amidu is competent for the special prosecutor role, and his appointment will be universally acclaimed by all anti-corruption crusaders. He [Martin Amidu] is independent-minded and I am sure he is someone who will not be influenced by political or party consideration. H is someone who has been proven to be very objective, he is very capable and competent as a lawyer and as a prosecutor, he said. Emile said this decision by the President is going to boost the fight against corruption in terms of effective investigation and prosecution of persons implicated in acts of corruption. He also noted that even though Martin Amidu fell out with the previous National Democratic Congress [NDC] government, and may be bitter against them, this will not disrupt his sense of judgment in prosecuting anyone from any political party. Well, my knowledge of him is such that he will be prepared to prosecute both people in previous administration as well the current administration, that is what is important. We need someone who would have the moral courage to prosecute persons implicated in corruption irrespective of their political affliations, so I see him as somebody who will be prepared to prosecute anybody that is implicated whether that person belongs to the NPP or NDC, and I think that is the kind of person some of us were hoping will be appointed to this position, Emile said. Mr. Amidu, a man who has earned the nickname 'Citizen Vigilante' for his no-nonsense stance and campaign against corruption particularly in the NDC administration, was named by President Akufo-Addo today [Thursday], after an emergency cabinet meeting at the Flagstaff House. The President in announcing the name, said he received the nomination from the Attorney General Sophia Akuffo, and has accepted the nominee, whose name will be forwarded to Parliament for approval when the House reconvenes from recess. The Attorney General is by a letter dated to me Thursday 11th January 2018, addressed to me exercised her power of nomination and submitted to me for my acceptance the name of the proposed special prosecutor. I have accepted the Attorney General's nomination and will in turn submit for Parliament's approval when it reconvenes on 23rd of January 2018 for its first meeting of this New Year the name of Martin Alamisi Benz Kaiser Amidu to be the first Special Prosecutor under the law, he said. The President also noted that Mr. Amidu, although a retired public officer, has accepted the nomination. He added that Mr. Amidu has the requisite integrity and independence of character to occupy such challenging office. I have done so because I am fully convinced that Mr. Martin Amidu, a prominent legal personality who held the high office of the Attorney General of the Republic in the government of the late President John Evans Atta Mills, has the requisite integrity, competence, courage and independence of character to discharge effectively the responsibilities of this office. Mr. Martin Amidu in a rare smile after his nomination. More About Martin Amidu Martin A. B. K. Amidu was the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice from January 2011 till January 2012 under the late President John Evans Atta-Mills. Amidu, a member of the NDC, served as the Deputy Attorney-General for about the last four years of the Provisional National Defence Council military government. After civilian rule was established in the Fourth Republic in January 1993, he continued to serve in the government of Jerry Rawlings as Deputy Attorney-General. This he did for both terms lasting eight years until January 2001. In the December 2000 presidential elections, he stood as the running mate of John Atta Mills. They both however lost to President John Kufuor that year. In January 2010, following a cabinet reshuffle, President Mills replaced Cletus Avoka with Martin Amidu as the Minister for Interior. As Amidu is a Builsa, some people raised questions as to his neutrality in dealing with the Bawku conflict. He however went successfully through vetting by the Parliament of Ghana and has since assumed his post. Following the second major cabinet reshuffle by President Mills, Amidu became the Attorney general and Minister for Justice of Ghana. Removal from Office Martin Amidu was relieved of his post on Thursday January 19, 2012, by President John Evans Atta Mills under circumstances described by aids as 'his misconduct' at a meeting chaired by the president at the Osu Castle on January 18, 2012. He made allegations relating to alleged financial impropriety on the part of another cabinet minister, allegations he was asked by the president to substantiate. Martin Amidu, the former Attorney General, single-handedly challenged the legality of the payments after being relieved off his post at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money as Supreme Court judges unanimously granted the Attorney-General clearance to execute the court's judgment, ordering Mr. Woyome to refund the cash to the state. Following the delays in retrieving the money, Mr. Amidu in 2016, filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking to examine Alfred Woyome, on how he would pay back the money, after the Attorney General's office under the Mahama Administration, led by the former Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, discontinued a similar application. In February 2017 however, Mr. Amidu withdrew his suit seeking an oral examination, explaining that the change of government under the New Patriotic Party under His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo and his Attorney General, Miss Gloria Akuffo's assurance to retrieve all judgment debts wrongfully paid to individuals Mr. Woyome in response prayed the Supreme Court to stay proceedings on the oral examination since he had filed for a review on the case. By: Farida Yusif/Citifmonline.com/Ghana The post Appointing Amidu as Special Prosecutor wise and prudent Emile Short appeared first on Ghana News . Former President Rawlings has congratulated Martin Amidu on his appointment as the country's foremost Special Prosecutor at the newly created office of the Independent Prosecutor. Applauding President Akufo-Addo, who he said couldnt have made a better choice, Flt Lt Rawlings was hopeful that Parliament would approve the appointment. His comment follows President Akufo-Addos nomination of citizen vigilante, Mr Amidu as the Special Prosecutor. Quoting the law that set up the office, Thursday, the President said he has accepted the choice of the Attorney General and will present to Parliament, the name of Mr Amidu for consideration. At a brief ceremony to make the announcement at the Flagstaff House, President Akufo-Addo commended the public spiritedness of the man widely acclaimed as an anti-corruption crusader, a bulwark in the fight against corruption. Reacting to the news former President Rawlings said the president by this appointment has risen above partisanship and recognized a highly principled citizen. Mr. Amidu has proven to be a fearless anti-corruption crusader whose pursuit of truth and justice has won him national admiration," he added. He called on all Ghanaians to offer the appointee the required support and information "in pursuit of what will undoubtedly be a challenging role. Flt Lt Rawlings also urged Ghanaians to pray for Gods guidance and strength for the former Attorney General as he works to restore the wheels of justice. 12.01.2018 LISTEN The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament has taken a dead aim at ex-president John Mahama, accusing him of sponsoring a number of events in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to make a comeback. In his first open attack of the NDC 2016 presidential candidate, Alban Bagbin said any leader worth following will be open about his ambition and not hide behind calls by his followers. In an exclusive interview with Joy News Gifty Andoh Thursday, he said the ex-presidents political balance sheet is negative because he led the NDC to its greatest defeat in the 2016 general elections. I dont understand what people mean that we are going to campaign on his [Mahama] record which includes the loss [but] when I look at both the loss and the gain the [loss outweighs the gain], he opened up to the reporter. Mr Mahama has not publicly announced his ambition to lead the NDC as has been done by his other contestants but has said he will do that when the party asks him to lead it. A pro-Mahama and former Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Mayor Kojo Bonsu has been spearheading a unity walk to unite NDC ranks ahead of the party's restructuring. The ex-president has been a constant speaker on the Unity Walk platforms, which he used to deplore some decisions of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). But Mr Bagbin has accused Mr Mahama of sponsoring the walks to whip up support ahead of the NDC presidential primaries this year. I will not be surprised if he comes out clear that he is runningyou dont let people push you to lead them, you take the decision on the basis of your capacity, he criticized the ex-president. But Spokesperson for the ex-president Joyce Bawah Mogtari has refuted the claim, saying the Unity Walk was mooted by Mr Bonsu. John Mahama is not the promoter, generator and not a co-sponsor of anything, she stressed, expressing disappointment at the Second Deputy Speaker. While describing Mr Bagbin's comments as "premature," she wondered why he will leave all the national issues to talk about the ex-president. "It will continue to beat my mind," he continued, adding Mr Mahama, presently a member of the NDC national executive supports any initiative aimed at bringing the party together. 12.01.2018 LISTEN Two persons have sustained severe gunshot wounds at Busia Junction near Odorkor in Accra, following a robbery attack on a Mobile Money operation point. According to eyewitnesses who spoke to Citi News Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie, the two suspected robbers in a saloon car, approached the Mobile money point around 8:00pm on Thursday, and asked the vendor to hand over her money. In the process, they fired a warning shot after the female vendor screamed for help. One of the injured persons, a male, who was shot in the head, was about transacting business with the vendor when he was shot and his bag taken from him. It is unclear whether he may have angered the suspects by attempting to resist their action. The other injured person, who was shot in the rib, was also lying on the floor in pain, as residents made several failed attempts to reach the police and emergency services. A victim of the robbery with a gunshot wound in his rib. According to Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie, as of the time he was leaving the scene, the two had been taken to Hospital in private vehicles by relatives and onlookers. A police car later arrived at the scene from the Odorkor Police Command. The vendor who manages Frankmens Ventures Mobile Money point, a male, is said to have gone to church that evening, and had left the business in the care of her sister. Residents expressed shock as to how the robbers could carry out the act in such a busy area in the full glare of passers-by. However, others told Citi News they had experienced this new trend of robbery at Mobile Money joints within the vicinity. 3 wounded in robbery of Mobile Money Agent at Sahara On December 29, 2017, three persons, including an 11-year-old boy, sustained gunshot wounds after a similar robbery incident at Sahara, near Dansoman in Accra on Thursday afternoon. According to residents, the robbers who stormed the shop of a mobile money vendor, shot at him when he refused to handover his sales and was running away. Some of the injured persons who were rushed to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital hospital are still receiving treatment. No security at Mobile Money Joints Robbery attacks at Mobile Money joints appear to be the new wave of crime at least in Accra, considering that thousands of agents are engaged in it, serving many Ghanaians who are either sending, receiving, or loading money into their wallets. There is virtually no security at most mobile mobile joints, despite the huge transactions taking place at some points. Finally, President Nana Akufo-Addo nominated Martin Amidu as the first Special Prosecutor for the newly created Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) in the fight against stealing of public resources (corruption). What does this mean for Ghana and the fight against stealing of public resources by Ghanaians, especially politicians and public servants? In this brief article, I will analyse the appointment and what holds in future for the office. So far, public response to Martin Amidus nomination is overwhelmingly positive, except of course, some members of the main opposition party, NDC who may have skeletons in their closets. The nomination is unprecedented in Ghanas partisan politics of NPP/NDC. It also shows the political shrewdness of Nana Akufo-Addo. Against all odds, he surprised the nation by appointing someone from the main opposition party to such a politically sensitive position, when a couple of days ago, the media was awashed with the names of Akoto Amapw as the first Special Prosecutor with Charles Addison as his deputy. The appointment is a positive one for a number of good reasons. First, from his past experience as anti-corruption crusader, Martin Amidu, alias Citizen Vigilante stands tall above others. His stature and boldness in standing up to his superiors, even if it meant losing his ministerial job is also an indication that he is capable of asserting his independence from the Executive, especially the appointing authority. Second, and as already made known by some NDC leaders such as Kofi Adams, if NDC complains of political persecution, President Akufo-Addo could tell them that Martin Amidu is one of them and not from NPP. This is a crafty political calculation or miscalculation that could also turn sour in the mouth of the president and his NPP. Third, if he is able to assert his independence and has the resources with independent minded qualified and experienced men and women who are passionate about reducing corruption, then, his office will also prosecute the presidents own appointees and party members when they are found wanting whilst in office and not wait till a new government from a different party takes over. This is where the appointment could be controversial and turn sour grapes in the mouths of President Akufo-Addo and NPP because a successful corruption prosecution and conviction of his appointees and NPP figures could spell doom for his government and party. Should that happen, some leading party figures could blame the president for his decision to appoint someone from the NDC and even agitate for his removal through impeachment. That could plunge NPP into civil war as well as risk losing the 2020 general elections. Alternatively, the Executive could sabotage him by denying him resources and access to state documents that could be used as evidence against corrupt government appointees and NPP figures. Another risk to his effectiveness or otherwise, is that his appointment could be just in name as a figure head. The real movers and shakers could his deputy and others holding leadership roles within OSP, appointed by the president who would hold strong political allegiance to NPP and could frustrate Martin Amidus efforts in prosecuting political appointees and NPP (leading) members. Its watch this space. Fifth, though Martin Amidu is out of favour with his own party, if he is able to work effectively as an independent prosecutor and succeeds in prosecuting cases involving both NDC and NPP as well as non-party thieves, should NDC come to power, they are more likely to listen to favourable public opinion and reappoint him. However, the good appointment could be a bad omen should Martin Amidu decide to be vindictive against his fellow NDC members for the way he was treated and made an outcast within the party. This is not to suggest that the OSP should not pursue former NDC appointees and officials if they stole public funds whilst in office. The office should go where the evidence leads them to and as long as there is credible evidence, it does not matter whether the thief or thieves are NDC, NPP, or a mere public servant. After the euphoria of the nomination, the question is, do Ghanaians really believe that the OSP is the answer to the increasing menace of corruption across the breath and width of the country? What would the OSP do differently that could not have been done by the existing institutions, including EOCO, CHRAJ, the police and the judiciary? How many offices and staff across the country would OSP have? Who would be these, Ghanaians or foreigners? If Ghanaians, are they angels? To be honest, I am the least enthused about the OSP. In fact, I told the president when he addressed the Cambridge Union on November 20, 2017 that, the answer to reducing corruption does not lie in the creation of new institutions but rather strengthening and resourcing existing ones to do their job effectively. I added that, there were more than enough laws, rules and regulations on Ghanaian statute books and institutions to check theft by politicians and public officers across Ghana. However, the failure, inability or the unwillingness of these institutions to enforce the existing laws, rules and regulations as well as the failure, inability or the unwillingness of the citizenry to comply with same are what fuel and sustain this cancer of state theft. Finally, I concluded that what Ghana needs to do to fight this cancer is strict enforcement of the existing laws, rules and regulations and the establishment of an independent State Prosecution Service separate from the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice but not the duplication of prosecution powers by the establishment of OSP. Moreover, and as we all know, corruption has a giver and taker. Most often, one of them (the taker) is a Ghanaian, if not both. In a society where its the norm to offer something in return for public service fully paid for by the state, unless there is attitudinal change in the behaviour of Ghanaians by saying no to giving and taking bribes and no to stealing from the state, the OSP would at best, be a nine day wonder and could suffer the same fate as CHRAJ and EOCO when appellate courts reverse some of its successes or actions. In my candid opinion, the most effective way to reduce stealing from the state is the strict enforcement of the existing laws, rules and regulations through due process with punitive sanctions for those caught, prosecuted and convicted across the country. Such an approach would coerce or compel the citizenry to also comply with the laws, rules and regulations. In a country where judges were found to have taken bribes and set criminals including murders free, yet not a single judge has been prosecuted, made to refund all the ill-gotten wealth and jailed; a country where political vigilante leader claims his members should not be arrested by the police when they commit crimes; a country where public servants openly collect bribes and steal from the state, yet, their only punishment is a transfer from Accra to Wa; a country where police officers collect bribes daily and openly and nothing happens to them, you tell me, the OSP will end all that? I am not persuaded. It would not take a group of individuals or OSP to successfully prosecute the fight against corruption. Corruption is endemic in Ghana and a national disease of epic proportion, so it would take the whole nation and its citizens to reduce it. A cultural, attitudinal and mindset change by Ghanaians everywhere and anywhere is what is required. My rough estimate is that over sixty percent of internally generated revenue is lost to individual revenue collectors through theft. These are ordinary Ghanaians in offices, across the country, at ports and police officers on roads and offices, etc. The OSP cannot be everywhere but Ghanaians are everywhere and collectively, if the will is there, they can reduce stealing of public resources to the barest minimum. That would lead to increased revenue generation to fund development and Ghana would not have to go cup in hand begging for aid. Having said the above, I will give the OSP, the benefit of the doubt and pray that it would be successful and effective in reducing theft in public places in Ghana. However, the appointment of Martin Amidu, a strong man from the main opposition NDC is a poisoned chalice because if he is successful in asserting his independence and effective in prosecuting thieves from both NDC and NPP as well as non-politicians, the hue and cry from NPP could result in his office being starved of resources, being denied access to public documents and non-cooperation from the Executive because it could bring down the government that appointed him. In fact, NPP would accuse him of being politically motivated against the party. On the other hand, if he chooses to be vindictive against NDC without good cause, he runs the risk of losing public sympathy. In other words, Martin should tread carefully and not abuse his new-found authority. I know him from our PNDC days, he is an honest man and would serve Ghana well in the fight against public stealing. But a poisoned chalice role, he is between a rock and a hard surface. He is damned if he does and damned if he doesnt. As long as he remembers that he is not there to serve neither NPP nor NDC but Ghana, he could be successful. I wish him good luck. Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK 12.01.2018 LISTEN A 45-year farmer caught with large quantity of marijuana has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in hard labor by the Juaso Circuit Court. Kofi Gbedema has been dealing in hard drugs at Dampong, a predominantly farming community, in the Asante-Akim Municipality, and was arrested by the police following a tip off. He was charged with illegal possession of narcotic drugs and pleaded guilty to the offence. Police Detective Sergenat Princeton Peasah Darkwah, told the court, presided over by Mr. Yusif Assibey, that the Municipal Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Andrew Anyani, led a team of officers to apprehend him after he had been flagged up. A search of his room in the presence of the wife and other witness uncovered two large parcels and 78 wraps of dried leaves that proved to be marijuana. He admitted ownership of the psychoactive drug and mentioned one Mark from Wenchi as his source of supply. GNA By Yussif Ibrahim, GNA House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday called President Donald Trump's comments on immigration "unhelpful," in his first public reaction to news that Trump referred to African nations as "shithole" countries. "I read those comments later last night, the first thing that came to my mind was very unfortunate, unhelpful," the Wisconsin Republican said at WisPolitics Luncheon in Milwaukee. Ryan recalled his own family history of emigrating to the US from Ireland. "So, I see this as a thing to celebrate," he said. "And I think it's a big part of our strength." Ryan specifically highlighted Haiti as a sign of that strength and highlighted friends in Janesville, Wisconsin, who are doctors and come from Africa. Asked how Trump's comments will affect immigration talks, Ryan responded, "We have to get it done." Trump on Thursday rejected a pitch from a bipartisan team of senators on a compromise immigration deal to protect DACA participants while increasing border security. "Why do we want all these people from 'shithole countries' coming here?" Trump told senators in the Oval Office in reference to African countries, according to a source briefed on the meeting, the comments from which were first reported by The Washington Post. Trump on Friday denied describing certain nations as "shithole countries" during a meeting in which he rejected a bipartisan deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. He also denied demanding that Haitians be removed from negotiations about protected status for people from certain countries. "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!" Trump tweeted. Reverend Joshua Ahiaba, Senior Pastor of the Bantama Christ Apostolic Church International (CACI), Family Chapel has appealed to government to consider engaging religious bodies in the governance of the country. He said: 'The President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led government should make practical efforts at strengthening its collaboration with religious organisations and make them key stakeholders in the country's governance.' Rev Ahiaba who made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Bantama, a suburb of Kumasi said the task of effective nation-building was quite enormous, and since government alone could not do it all by itself, there was the need to identify key partners in the body politic to lend a hand. 'One of my church's projections for this year, 2018, is to embark on human resource empowerment through job creation, to augment government efforts at curbing the rural-urban migration menace,' Rev Ahiaba disclosed. He said when the youth were well equipped and gainfully employed, they would become more productive and an integral part of national transformation. The Senior Pastor urged Ghanaians to be hardworking in the years ahead and be faithful in the discharge of their duties so that the good Lord would bless the country. The National Investment Bank (NIB) has donated GH50,000.00 cash towards the upkeep of five Music Legends - Nana Kwame Ampadu, Jackson Alfred Adofo Anto, Charles Kofi Amankwaah Mann, Jewel Ackah and A. B. Crentsil. Each received GH10,000.00 to enable them meet the demands of life, particularly after retirement and also for the acknowledgement of the key role they played in enriching and sustaining the Ghanaian music industry through their timeless highlife music. This was at the 2017 edition of the Annual MUSIGA Presidential Grand Ball held at the Banquet Hall of the State House under the patronage of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The donation, according to NIB was to show appreciation to the legends for their immense contributions not only to the country's music industry, but also in helping shape mindsets towards national development over the years. Mr Alfred George Thompson, the Deputy Managing Director who presented the cheques on behalf of NIB, said the gesture was crucial as the industry and its players have over the years worked together in a litany of ways in respect of national development. Mr Thompson also challenged musicians of today, especially the youth to focus on churning out thought-provoking music full of wisdom and inspire to shape the psyche of the Ghanaian as was done by musicians of old. The event, which saw scores of music industry captains in attendance, provided the opportunity for interaction among colleagues and the President especially. Guests were entertained with musical performances from Daddy Lumba, Becca, Wutah and Freddie Meiway. Mr. Michael Owusu Addo, a Ghanaian Hip-Hop Musician, known in the showbiz industry as Sarkodie, has urged the youth to take their destiny into their hands by being creative and innovative. That he said would make them financially-independent and sustainable. He said while growing up as a child, he had the perception that government was supposed to provide everything the citizens needed just like how parents would do for their children. However, he said, at certain stages in life, he realised that the government couldn't provide all the needs of the people and, therefore, ventured into the music industry with little support from the government. Sarkodie made the remarks at the outdooring of Former President John Agyekum Kufuor as the Patron of the Ghana Job Bank Initiative in Accra, on Tuesday. He therefore, entreated the youth to take advantage of the new mentorship Initiative, to make a headway in life. The musician pledged his support to the initiative, which was founded by Richard Ofori-Atta, an entrepreneur and Godwin Attiga, a co-founder and Cyber Security Analyst based in the USA. The mentorship programme seeks to provide entrepreneurial skills and opportunity for the beneficiaries to undertake internships in partner companies abroad. The programme, which would be launched in May this year, has two modules, including Business Incubator and Smart Youth Programme. It would offer training in software engineering, digital skills, cyber security programme and open data platform to the trainees free of charge. The beneficiaries would also experience hands-on training in the USA and United Arab Emirates intended to improve their competencies and employable skills. Sarkodie won the Best International Act: Africa Category at the 2012 BET Awards and was nominated in the same category at the 2014 BET Awards. Ms Joselyn Dumas, an Actress and Television Presenter, who was also at the residence of Former President Kufuor lent her support to the initiative. She pledged to use her social media platforms to promote the initiative, and urged the youth to create opportunities for themselves if they couldn't find one on the job market. Ms Dumas reiterated the need for the youth to be creative in any field they find themselves, instead of depending on the government for support. GNA By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA Psalmist Safo Ahenkora, the Leader of Gospel Crusader and Psalmist Safo Ministry, an evangelist group based in Kumasi, called on the youth to use the social media to improve their lives. He said the global technological advancement has brought in its wake very quick and effective ways of communicating diverse issues and the youth must use it to spread the gospel. Psalmist Safo said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi over the weekend. He said it is the mandate of Christians to spread the gospel of salvation and urged them to work hard to fulfil it. 'Use Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks to share and broadcast Jesus Christ to the world and avoid patronising and propagating non Christian activities on these networks,' he said. Psalmist Safo encouraged the youth to shine and brighten any corner they found themselves. He said his evangelising group of young men and women are engaged in activities like prison visitations, care for orphans, career guidance and counselling. He urged the youth of the country to remember their creator and serve Him diligently. The Free Senior High School Programme of the Government has been rated the most popular initiative by majority of Ghanaians despite its related challenges. A research conducted by the Department of Political Science of the University of Ghana revealed that 77 per cent of voters interviewed from 230 electoral areas of the country said the Free SHS was an excellent and novel programme. The study sought to look at the performance of the Government after a year in office. The research, which sampled the views of some 5000 respondents nationwide, applauded the Government for clamping down on illegal mining, restoring of the teachers and nurses training allowances and the National Health Insurance Scheme as well as the Planting for Food and Jobs. Dr Bossman Asare, the Head of the Department of Political Science of the University of Ghana, who presented the findings at a lecture series held by the Department, said the study showed many people had endorsed government's flagship programmes. 'We asked the electorate whether in spite of the challenges such as inadequate food and accommodation associated with the Free SHS Programme they still like it and the response was positive because they remarked that a year before, parents paid about GHa1,200.00 for fresh students but now it is free,' he said. Titled: Assessing Democratic Governance in Ghana - What the Voters Say, the research was jointly funded by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Political Science Department of University of Ghana. Touching on the details of the assessment on government establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Dr Bossman Asare explained that the study suggested both supporters of the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress applauded the Government. Although at the national level the NPP followers were supportive while the opposition party was not enthused, about 3,000 people at the grassroots, representing 54 per cent of the respondents, like the idea of the establishment the Office of the Special Prosecutor to fight corruption. He said some 64 per cent of respondents said the establishment of the office alone would deter officials of the Government from engaging in corrupt activities. GNA By Yaw Ansah, GNA 12.01.2018 LISTEN An Accra Circuit Court on Wednesday sentenced Isaac Mensah, Electrician; and Samuel Ofosu, a Driver to eight years imprisonment each for conspiracy to commit crime, unlawful entry, causing unlawful damage and stealing items valued at GHC44,250.00. The two conspired and entered a house and bedroom of the complainant, caused damage to his sliding window worth GHa15,000.00 and stole his GHa300.00, and an Apple iPhone 5s mobile phone worth GHa3,000.00. Other items stolen included an LG mobile phone worth GHa3,000.00, a G-stock wrist watch worth GHa2,450.00, three footwears worth GHa2,500.00, Samsung S7 edge worth GHa3,000.00 and a foreign Taurus LD Pistol worth GHC15,000.00. They pleaded not guilty to the charges but were found guilty after trial by the court presided over by Mr M. E. Essandoh and were sentenced to serve two years on each count to run consecutively. Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Agbemehia told the court that, the complainant Simon Kofi Ohene, is a hotelier and lives at East Legon Adjiringanor, whilst Isaac resides at Madina and Samuel at La-Nkwantanan. He said on July 27, 2017, at about 03:30 hours, the National SWAT Patrol team detailed at Oyarifa-Madina route intercepted a green Hyundai Grace commercial vehicle, driven by Samuel Saah at Adenta Aviation junction road. He said the two convicts were the only passengers on board, so the police stopped the car and ordered them to come down for a routine check. The Prosecutor said, Isaac sensing danger threw away an item concealed in a newspaper together with his orange and ash coloured school bag into the vehicle and took to his heels, but the police gave him a chase and arrested him. Mr Agbemehia said Isaac was brought back to the vehicle to retrieve the item concealed in the newspaper and it was a foreign Taurus Brazil revolver pistol. The school bag was also searched and the police retrieved a car jerk, implement adapted for unlawful entry, an amount of GHC3,000.00, three foot wears, one iPhone 5s, one LG mobile phone, a cigarette lighter and a glue patch tape. According to the Prosecutor, when Isaac was questioned as to where they got the items from, he said the two of them broke into the complainants' room at Adjiringanor and stole the items including the pistol. They further informed the police that, they used the car jerk to jack the complainant's window's burglar-proof to gain access into the room. He told the court that in their caution statement, they admitted the offences. Imam Ishmael Okotah Badoo, the Chief Imam of Okaikwei South, has appealed to the President and Parliament not to succumb to external pressures in the legalisation of gay and lesbian rights. He said this is a serious issue which needs to be condemned by all as the legalisation of such rights could lead to a curse on the country. Imam Badoo made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency following a new Human Rights Watch report titled 'No Choice but to Deny Who I Am': Violence and Discrimination against LGBT People in Ghana'. Imam Badoo said Almighty Allah through His Holy Scriptures (Quran and Bible) and even traditional norms frowns on the practice of homosexuality and God had demonstrated His displeasures on those who practiced it in the past. He said homosexuality was not accepted in Islam and the practice of it makes one a non-Muslim, adding that if a country allows such a practice to occur then the mercy of God is taken away from that state. However, Imam Badoo said, much as Islam frowns on the practice of homosexuality it does not give people the right to abuse such individuals hence the need to hand them over to law enforcers. He called on the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo to be resolute on the issue to avoid further challenges. Abdel-Mannan Abdel-Rahman, the General Secretary, Coalition of Muslim Organisations, Ghana (COMOG), also speaking with the GNA, said this was an opportunity for Ghanaians to place pressure on political authorities to defend the cultural values of the people. He said government must be categorical in representing and defending the values of the people of Ghana on the subject of homosexuality. Abdel Rahman said Ghanaians deserve the commitment of political leaders to defend their unequivocal position against homosexuality and same sex marriage. He said the position of Muslims in Ghana, as firmly rooted in the teachings of Islam, was that homosexuality was not only demonic but also an abominable act that should never be considered a legitimate alternative. Abdel-Rahman urged all political parties to demonstrate their commitment to fight against any attempt to change the laws of the country to accommodate this decadence. The General Secretary said COMOG would collaborate with like-minded individuals, groups and Civil Society Organisations to resist any attempt to legalise the practice in the country. 'If the laws of Ghana on homosexuality need change, such changes must reflect the strong resolve of Ghanaians in uprooting the practice from the Ghanaian society,' he added. Accra, Jan. 10, GNA-Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, a Deputy Minister of Education on Wednesday urged basic public schools to adopt some of the best practices in private schools that give them an edge in quality education delivery. 'I don't understand why a private school will be doing well, and a public school next door would not be performing to the desired expectation,' Dr Adutwum, who is the MP for Bosomtwe Constituency, said in Accra. The Deputy Minister, who is in Charge of Basic to Senior School Education, gave the advice when he toured some educational institutions in Accra, to acquaint himself with their academic works since re-opening a few days ago for the second term of the 2017/2018 academic year. He visited the Morning Star School and the St Thomas Aquinas Senior High School, both in Cantonments; the Labone Senior High School in Labone; Teshie Southern Cluster of Schools and the Teshie Presbyterian Senior High School, both in Teshie; Nungua Senior High School and St Augustine Basic School, both in Nungua, Accra. Dr Adutwum lauded the role of private schools in the nation's education delivery and called for a collaboration between the two so that the public schools would adopt and adapt practices that made the private schools tick. Dr Adutwum, who is also a teacher, interacted with the management, teachers, students and pupils of the schools he visited, taking some of them through exciting reading and mathematics lessons. He emphasized that a collaboration between the private and the public schools would ensure that teachers would not have to travel outside at exorbitant costs for exchange programmes. Dr Adutwum assured the public schools that the Ministry was reforming the educational system to ensure ample supply of logistics and supplies to put them on a better edge for enhanced quality delivery. He commended Mrs Abena Kwakye, the Managing Director and teachers of the Morning Star School for the quality education delivery. At the St Thomas Aquinas Senior High School, the Deputy Minister interacted with Mr Cyril Dadey, the Headmaster; the Very Reverend Benjamin Ohene, Assistant Headmaster and other teachers and students, assuring them of the necessary Government interventions to improve teaching and learning. At the Labone Senior High School, Mrs Cynthia Obuonti, the Headmistress, appealed to the Deputy Minister for a school bus, a modern dining hall and more facilities to improve sanitation in the school. At the Teshie Southern Cluster of Schools, the Deputy Minister, who carried out a reading lesson with pupils in one of the classes, was not impressed with the low attendance and low enrollment despite the location of the schools in a serene and conducive environment. He urged the pupils to be serious with their studies as they prepare for the Basic Education Certificate Examination. When the entourage got to the Teshie Presby Senior High School, the Deputy Minister was informed by the Headmaster, Mr Aaron Gyawu that the school intends converting into a boarding school, but the building meant for that purpose had been abandoned and the contract stalled. The Deputy Minister assured the school that he would look into the report. Dr Adutwum later visited the Nungua Senor High School and interacted with the Headmistress and the teachers, and later to the Saint Anglican Junior High, where the teachers called for security to be improved to prevent stealing of school properties and the school compound being turned into a brothel. Accra, Jan. 10, GNA -A recent study conducted by the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana has shown that there is a divided public opinion on the economic performance of government. Dr Bossman Asare, Head of the Political Science Department explained that the findings on the economy was a bad omen and a warning to government to put in place adequate economic measures to improve the economy. 'It is not a good forecast to the managers of government economy, this is because only 44.6 per cent said improvement has occurred in the economy over the past one year while 42.6 per cent of the respondents discounted claims of any improvement', he cautioned. Delivering the results of a study dubbed; 'Assessing Democratic Governance in Ghana what the Voters say' on Wednesday, at a lecture series, the Head of Department said voters said the economic situation was one of the important factors they were most concerned about. The study, he said, revealed that more than a quarter of the people interviewed were of the opinion that their living conditions had not changed significantly from last year. 'Government must as a matter of urgency start building on the economic foundation to improve the lives of the people, who reported that their living conditions were bad. This is a clear indication that people are expecting government to initiate programmes to help improve their livelihood. 'Most people when voting, consider the cost of living and if it is good then they will reward the incumbent but if it is not then they vote against. Closely linked to the economy is the issue of unemployment, which the study showed is a developmental concern dominating public discourse', he said. Dr Bossman disclosed that the study revealed that when the electorate were asked if government had created opportunities to reduce unemployment the response was not an overwhelming one. Mr Burkhardt Hellemann, Resident Coordinator of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, said government should consider the findings of the study as a constructive criticism and work hard to improve those sectors. 'This study is very important because it was designed to ask relevant questions about the livelihood of people, their challenges and what can be done to support them,' he said. Dr Alexander Kaakyire-Friempong, a Senior Lecture at the Political Science Department advised government to deal with the problems especially in the area of the economy because the public will judge them based on their performance in the next election. While lauding government on fighting against small-scale mining, he advised that an alternative livelihood project should be given to the people. On the planting for food-and-jobs initiative, Dr Kaakyire-Friempong urged government to educate people on the programme by linking it to the one district one factory initiative to ensure the people understand it. GNA 12.01.2018 LISTEN Thirty-eight (38) alleged illegal miners seized by the joint military/police taskforce 'Operation Vanguard' in Konongo-Odumase have been ordered to be held in remand prison by the Juaso Circuit Court. Nine other persons standing trial with them for providing security at the illegal mining sites were, however, granted bail. They all pleaded not guilty and would make their next appearance on Wednesday, January 17. Police Superintendent Julius Kpebbeson, told the court, presided over by Mr. Yussif Assibey, that they were caught right in the act of digging for gold at different locations on January 08. He added that an excavator, three compressor machines, motorbike and a chainsaw machine, were seized from them. 12.01.2018 LISTEN Introduction On the 3rd, February 2007 Sombo Environmental Advocacy Ghana-SEAG was formed at Wa in the Upper West Region of Ghana by some concerned environmental advocates. The main aim was to protect the environment and the biodiversity toward sustainability. We live from the environment because we depend on the environment for our survival. Aside that, the environment has a (intrinsic value) non-use value which forms part of the Eco-function provided by nature and hence the need to protect the environment. This is because a little glitch of the environment has a general impact on all mammals since we live from the environment. Based on our aims and research since the establishment of the organization we wish to write this paper to bring to bear the extent we have gone while reviewing some of the problems facing the people within our research areas as far as the country Ghana is concerned. As such series of Campaigns have been done against the destruction of biodiversity towards the mitigate climate change. The members includes Peres Ofori Group Leader with a masters degree in Environment and Resource Management (MPhil) from University for Development Studies, Iddrisu Hafsatu the group Organizing secretary, with a BA in Integrated Development Studies, Lordina Danso Okyere, Financial Secretary with Bed in Business Education, Boating Baafi George, Field coordinator with a BSc Degree in Real Estate all from the UDS. Rationale of the group (aims, scope, motivation): We the members of Sombo Environmental Advocacy Ghana (SEAG), a Community based Association agreed to establish an Advocacy group to promote environmental sustainability geared towards Climate Change mitigation, human rights promotion and socio-cultural and economic well-being of the deprived communities and education for girl child. Aim: The main aim of the group is to sustain food security in the three Northern Regions of Ghana through climate-smart agriculture, agroforestry, and sustainable biodiversity conservation. Specific objectives: To campaign against the extinction of forest resources (the Shea trees) in the Upper West Region (Wa) by charcoal burners and miners as well as bad farming practices to sustain food security while mitigating climate change. To reduce poverty among the farming communities in the Upper West region through climate-smart agriculture thereby sustaining alternative livelihoods of the people. To educate deprived communities on issues concerning improved agroforestry and climate-smart agriculture and how it could sustain food security in the region. To increase the supply of food in the region and hence reducing conflicts caused by crop theft which is common in the Upper West Region especially during the off season. To Promote Girl Child Education geared towards reducing gender vulnerability in terms of food poverty. Scope and Motivation SEAG has been operating within the three region in the Northern Ghana (Upper West, Upper, East and Northern).The reason for choosing those regions was that the three Northern regions are the most vulnerable regions in the country in terms of economic development and natural resource base. As such, the Upper East Region for instance in 2015 was rated the poorest region in Ghana followed by the Upper West Region. The people in the region are basically peasant farmers who depend solely on rain fed agriculture. Due to the gradual deterioration of their scarce forest and water bodies by charcoal burners and illegal miners, there has been a gradual change in rainfall pattern owing to climate change (a common tragedy). This has augmented their poverty level to the apex. Upon our visit to some communities and sensitisation programmes among others, most of the people told us that they do not have any idea about climate change and as such attributed low rainfall in their region to punishment from God and Idols due to abundance of sin by man. Upon noticing this, we were enthusiastic to providing a continuously free sensitization and education to them on issues relating to climate change, its resilience, and adaptation and mitigation strategies. As a result, SEAG wish to seek funding from any benevolent societys ad international NGO and SBOs to educate the people on the climate change mitigation measures and climate change resilient agricultural method and practices (Climate Smart Agriculture) so as to curb the menace of poverty and food insecurity. This in a long run will help reducing rural urban migration common to the people in the three northern parts of the country which has resulting in streetism, child trafficking and teenage pregnancy in the cities increasing the burden of government in providing social facilities. Review from Field Survey and Preliminary Studies The extent of forest and land cover destruction in the Northern Ghana. The entire land cover of the lands of the three northern regions of Ghana is occupied by one of the economically important trees; the Shea which covers about 73% of the land surface of the region. This trees have initially been the basic livelihood supporting resources for the people especially women and children who remain vulnerable as far as food security is concerned. The fruits are picked annually for almost two months by women and children during their fruiting season for sales to earn income, serve as food for consumption, processed into oil and as medicine when smeared on the skin. However, apart from the economic and medicinal functions of the trees, people who have them clustered on their lands receive much rainfall in a form of relief which contribute immensely to the agriculture sector in the region. But the question is are the people sustaining the existence of the Shea trees on their lands? If not then to what extent are the trees been destroyed? Our preliminary field survey on about ten communities in the municipality indicates that the Shea trees are been used unsustainably to the detriment of the future generation and at the expense of the environment. The Destruction takes the form of sand wining under the Shea trees which sweeps away the seedlings and paving way for leaching that destroys the matured ones and well as overgrazing that exposes the forest to high intensity of sunlight which reduces the fruit bearing nature of the Trees. The worst of all is the use of these trees for charcoal burning while some of them export them to china at less price at a maximum price of a matured tree for Ghana Cedis (GH5) which is approximately $1USD.Some chiefs and Queen mothers are given just a bottle of soft and hard drinks and they allow some Chinese to storm the forest and take as much as many trees that they can lumber. This is based on the fact that most forest and land covers in Africa and Ghana are public goods and as such policing is difficult making it use accessible to everybody. They lack property rights irrespective of their environmentally rivalry nature and hence their externality poses public nuisance resulting from climate variation. Rivalry in this context implies that their use by one person reduces the quantity that would be made available for others both the resent and the future generation. There is no wonder the 8.2milion hectares of forest that were furnished with trees, shrubs and plants of all kinds that was in existence in Ghana as of 1900 has reduced to 1.2milion as of 2005 in accordance with the report by the Ghana forest commission. See the below pictures on how the Shea Forest has been destroyed by Charcoal burners and miners. Figure 1 Degraded Shea Tree forest by illegal lumbering and mining In the Upper West Region of Ghana. Source: Field Survey (February, 2017) Figure 2 Shea trees cut as timber logs by illegal lumbers at Konta in the Upper West Region-Ghana Source: Field Survey (February, 2017) Figure 3 Shea trees cut and arranged for charcoal burning at Piisi a community in the Upper West Region-Ghana Source: Field Survey (February, 2017) Figure 4 young species of Shea tree cut and packed in the middle of the Shea forest at Damongo a town in the Northern Region-Ghana Source: Field Survey (February, 2017) However, this Shea tree produces thousands of fruits that provide food and income respectively through their intake and sales for a lot of people most of whom are women in the three northern regions. The fruits has been supportive enough in sustaining food security in the region as it reduces hunger of about 72% of the populace who live in the rural communities based on those who survive from the use of the fruits in accordance with the surveyed communities whiles serving as a form of livelihood for the majority. See the below pictures of the Shea fruits been sold by women in the Upper West regional capital Wa market .See the below pictures of the Shea fruits been sold by women in the Upper West regional capital (Wa market). Figure 5 Shea Fruits sold as food in Wa Market by women and Children for livelihood Source: Field Survey (March.2017) Based on the above pictures on how the Shea trees are been destroyed to extinction, it is clear to state that, the people cherish the fruits of the Shea and they need it for their survival as far as livelihood is concerned but they do not want the Shea trees on their lands. That is why this paper is trying to bring to the notice of the entire world to the inclusion of climate change advocates and ecosystem biocentrists to campaign immensely against the act of unsustainable use of the economic trees in Ghana and Africa at large to evade their extinction. Expected outputs, outcomes and how they link directly to sustaining food and climate change adaptation strategies. Participants would be abreast with the importance protecting the ecosystem and the consequences of their absence on food security. There would be a total reduction in the felling of the Shea trees (economic trees) which would result in the increase in the supply of food during their fruiting season thereby reduce theft and robbery among the community members resulting from food poverty. Farmers would be educated on how to practice agro-forestry by way of adopting pruning methods where the Shea trees would be pruned to allow sunlight in their farms instead of cutting the entire tree. The biodiversity in these areas would be protected and conserved thereby. The high rate of poverty among the present and future women in the region would be reduced through the judicious use of these economic trees. That is, by way of sustaining the sales of the wild fruits from these trees. The people would be educated on climate smart agriculture as well as climate variation adaptation strategies and mitigation measures with all year season that can reduce hunger through sustainable food supply. The degradation of the environment within the projected areas would be minimal. When the above outputs and outcomes are fully realized, the mission and visions of SEAG would be fully accomplished. Indeed, there is a saying that a hungry man is an angry man and this adage is obvious base on the fact that the reduction of the Trees through charcoal burning and illicit lumbering has caused food shortage and hence increasing seasonal hunger across the region. There is no doubt that hunger from food poverty can influence conflict and disrupt peace among community members, so if these trees are utilized judiciously to supplement food supply for seasonal food abundance, there would be peace resulting from food security in a prevalence manner. Moreover, the cutting down of trees for charcoal burning has resulted in the increment of heat waves thereby augmenting temperature and as such influencing climate change . This high climatic changes brings about low crop yield among farmers, low crop yield means low income while low income leads to poor living standard which in a long run may result in robbery and theft that has been the cause of many conflicts in different parts of Africa and in the northern part of Ghana (Lets not forget the Konkonbas and the Dagombas tribal was that was exuded on the stealing of one guinea fowl). So once the people become aware of how such act can reduce rainfall they would be willing to practice the mitigation measures by way of reducing the cutting of trees to the inclusion of unsustainable use of the forest cover thereby making climate change resilient in the region. Policy Level Impact Ghana forms part of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) policy geared towards the reduction of climate change. As such, any activity that seems to create awareness among the people on issues relating to the mitigation of climate change is useful for the purposes of formulating such policies. Since the establishment of SEAG, we have gained both local and international popularity to seeking support from Green Ghana-GG and Global Green Grant Fund-GGF respectively. Our involvements as an NGO in the campaign against the destruction of biodiversity and ecosystem particularly in the three northern region where the most valuable economic trees (Shea) are located has helped in the promotion of REDD+ policies in Ghana. It has therefore been our priority that, the cutting down of trees in the north by charcoal burners who are ignorant about climate change would be reduced thereby helping strengthen REDD+ policies geared towards climate change through biodiversity protection and conservation. Moreover, sustainable use of the biodiversity in the Northern Ghana would help increase food production and provide jobs for the people since the extraction of the Shea butter and the sails of the Shea fruits alone gives about 800,000 people jobs in Ghana and adds 3.68% to our GDP.Hence, reducing hunger which forms part of the sustainable development goal 2. Impact on Poverty Alleviation and Gender Equality Most of the people in the three northern regions of Ghana are farmers who depend solely on Agriculture for their livelihood.However,as far as agriculture is concerned in Ghana, rainfall is very imperative since the construction of dams for irrigation comes at a cost and as such only the affluent farmers can afford. Climate variation has been a major problem to most farming communities in the country. In line with this, people (Farmers) need to be educated on how to practice climate resilient agriculture (Climate Smart) so as to increase crop yield irrespective of variations in rainfall. SEAG has as such planned to educate community members if with its internal funds on issues relating to climate smart agriculture so as to increase crop yield thereby increasing income level and obviously increasing standard of living and hence reducing poverty among farmers. Relative to gender equality, SEAG projects has been tackling 80% women turn out in the North since they are vulnerable in terms of poor living standard and food security.Fortunaely, in the northern Ghana women constitute most among the farmers and hence once they are taught how to adopt climate change and increase crop yield, they would have equal economic standard as men thereby ensuring gender equality. Communicating the initiative to international institutions in low income countries. The group has a plan of conducting a radio talk show on a sister radio station of GBC at the Upper West Region (Radio Upper West) where the issues on climate change and climate smart agriculture would be discussed comprehensively by experts from across the region and the country. This radio station is linked to both local communities who are victims of climate change as well as international communities who are of interest in climate change issues. The Ghana Television-GTV and TV3 have always been following SEAG project with their regional based correspondence and we the members of SEAG have the belief that our project would be fully communicated to both Local and international institutions and Ghana as a low income country and many others through the sectorial education and sensitization. As a results the following activities as shown in table 1 would be done to sensitize and educate people at the local community level. Table 1 showing undertaking activities geared towards community sensitization Premobilization Data Gathering and field survey Community fora and Discussion on Sustainable Natural Resource use(Food Security), Biodiversity Conservation and Climate-Smart Agriculture, Climate Change and Agroforestry Radio Talk Shows on Impacts of Charcoal burning and illegal mining on the ecosystem and food security, sustainable livelihood and food poverty. Project inspection with partners This activities when perfectly done would need an amount of GH45,000 by any organization and could be increased depending on date on implementation of the programme and table 2 show a hypothetical budget for the project. Table 2 showing Budget for the educational programme Activity Cost GH Community Premobilization and Site visit(28 Farming Communities) 5,000 Community fora and Discussion on Sustainable Natural Resource use (Food Security), Biodiversity Conservation (Agroforestry) and Climate Change mitigation and adoption strategies (Climate Smart Agriculture). 22,000 Transportation and Snacks for community members who would attend the For a 2000 Radio Talk Shows on Impacts of Charcoal burning and illegal mining on the ecosystem, sustainable livelihood and Climate Change. 15,000 Administrative overheads and Bank charges/Project inspection with partners, 1000 SUM 45000 Conclusion Trees and plants form parts of human live as far as the concept of environment is concerned. This is based on the fact that we live from the environment as our basic necessities are obtained from the environment. As a results any defect that is caused to the environment becomes a tragedy to the whole world as it is referred to as tragedy of the commons in other parlance and school of thoughts. Access to environmental goods and service as provided by nature are free making their rivalvary very high to the detriment of the future generation. This has brought the situation where one may say that some plants are very useful to some people and the world at large but the majority of the people do not need them on their lands at the expense of the few who have desire to protecting the biodiversity. This situation is worse in Africa and Ghana is the most vulnerable as we have lost approximately 7milion hectares to our valuable forest to Lumbers and illegal chain saw operators as well as recently cankerous surface illegal miners locally called galamseyers. But the fact remains the same as climate change stands as a common tragedy, all must come together to fighting the over use of our land resource so as to safeguard the environment towards persistent climate variation resulting in low rainfall across the universe which intends reducing agricultural productivity that poses threat on all. It is Upon this that SEAG has taken this initiative trying to seeking for external financial support in tackling the matter so as to help ensuring the Sustainable Development Goal 2 that aims at reducing hunger. Peres Ofori Department of Real Estate and Land Management University for Development Studies-UDS Wa, Ghana E-mail: [email protected] Lordina Danso Okyere Department of Social Science and Business Education University for Development Studies-UDS Wa, Ghana E-mail: [email protected] Iddrisu Hafsa Department of Environment and Resource Studies University for Development Studies-UDS Wa, Ghana E-mail: [email protected] 12.01.2018 LISTEN The Office of Fred Amankwah-Sarfo, Aspiring National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) received with gratification the nomination of an Astute Lawyer, Former National Democratic Convention Vice Presidential Candidate and a Former Attorney General of the biggest opposition party in Ghana during the NDC government, Hon Martin Amidu as the 1st Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Ghana. The President, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo accepted the recommendation of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Ms Gloria Akuffo for the nomination to the speaker of parliament for parliamentary approval in line with the country's constitution. The announcement of Hon Amidu has been welcomed by Ghanaians concretizes Ghana's Democratic credentials as a beacon of democracy for Africa. Mr Amidu's commitment to fight corruption, impeccable credentials have earned him the widely accepted accolade as a "Citizen Vigilante" thus making him best qualified for the arduous task ahead. Corruption has been seen to be a major threat to achieving our nation's developmental objectives. The Special Prosecutor's Law has affirmed the Nana Akufo-Addo led government's commitment to fighting this canker irrespective of one's political, ethnic or religious affiliation. We are confident that Mr Amidu is duty-bound to execute this task devoid of favouritism, nepotism or political "witch-hunt:. The Office of Fred Amankwah-Sarfo believes in your competence and demonstrable commitment to uprooting corruption from our Socio-Political fibre. We call on all Ghanaians to support and collaborate with the office of the Special Prosecutor to execute its duty effectively and efficiently. May God lead, guide and protect you and your team. Thank you. SIGNED *Benjamin Akowuah Acheampong* *(Personal Aide and Spokesperson to Fred Amankwah-Sarfo)* Tel: 0240 630 802 Email: [email protected] You didnt hear that, did you? Thats why youre still diddling. Be forewarned its going to be giddy. The muck raker is all set. And where would the dystopians go? Theyd reached an advanced state of collapsing Ghanas economy and impoverishing its people. But the Eagle was in wait, preparing himself to launch a powerful blitz. Hes coming like a tornado and roaring like a lion. How they got swerved The pundits predicted. The opposition had a name in mind. They all got dummied though. It wasnt lawyer Akoto Ampaw. That would have been a wrong move. Critics could have pounced on it and masquerade in the streets of Accra chantingnepotism democracy or hypocrisy democracy. By putting his best foot forward President of the Republic of Ghana Akufo-Addo has cut the head of the poisonous snake. Now let the cobra twitch its tail. On Thursday 11 January 2018 Mr. Akufo-Addo, said hes accepted the nomination of Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu as the Special Prosecutor, subject to the approval of Parliament. I have accepted the Attorney Generals nomination, and will, in turn, submit for Parliaments approval, when it reconvenes on 23rd January, 2018, for its first meeting.the name of Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu to be the first Special Prosecutor under the law, the president said. Martin A. B. K. Amidu was the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice from January 2011 till January 2012 under the late President John Evans Atta-Mills. Amidu, a member of the NDC, served as the Deputy Attorney-General for about the last four years of the Provisional National Defence Council military government. Mr. Akufo-Addo praised the appointment of Martin Amidu as Special Prosecutor is because he is fully convinced that Mr. Martin Amidu, a prominent legal personality, who held the high office of Attorney General of the Republic in the government of the late President Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills, has the requisite integrity, competence, courage and independence of character to discharge effectively the responsibilities of this new office. His talons sharpened like a scalpel. His binocular eyes see beyond its jurisdiction and his vigilante style a staple for both the aristocrats and middle class. Obia se ye, everyone has hailed his nomination except the saboteurs and nation wreckers! Who will be prosecuted? Everyone deemed a nation wrecker. Every individual thats purported to have caused financial loss to the state will wag his/her tail. His trap will catch the mosquitoes, the elephants, the umbrellas, flying birds, the webbed ones like bats, irrespective of ones party leanings. Kofi KariKari (is pronounced Kakari) his reign 1867 to 1874, the tenth king of the Ashanti kingdom (1837-1884)foremost Ashanti kings told the Brits: You wished for war and now you have it. Anti-graft crusader Martin Alamisi Barnes Kaiser Amidu has been nominated as Ghanas first Special Prosecutor. In Russian Judicial system the office (Prosecutor General remains the most powerful component. Corruption undeniably is a socioeconomic menace that threatens the survival of nations and renders majority of people impoverished, neglected and disadvantaged. On the African continent, more especially Sub-Saharan Africa, corruption has become endemic and has succeeded in rendering the populace hungry, poor, not able to eke out a decent living, some children not attending school, poor quality education, rendering most of the people, especially the youth unemployed among others. As a result of the devastating effects of corruption on the Ghanaian citizenry, several attempts have been made by successive governments and other stakeholders to deal corruption a deadly blow. This resolve, has led to the introduction of several laws such as the Procurement Act, the Financial Administration Act, the Whistle Blowers Act meant to fight and defeat corruption. However, the effect of these legal interventions has been very negligible. The yearning for a more effective way in fighting this social canker has led to the introduction of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2018 (Act 663) which mandates the Office to investigate specific cases of corruption which involves public officers, politically-exposed persons as well as individuals in the private sector who are complicit in corrupt deals and to prosecute these offenses on the authority of the Attorney-General. Yesterday, President Nana Akufo-Addo appointed Mr. Martin Alamisi Benz Kaiser Amidu as the first prosecutor of the Office. We applaud Mr. Amidu on his appointment, and commend the President for making this very laudable decision, which will in no doubt inure to the benefit of the country. By this appointment, it is clear the President is poised in making corruption very unattractive to all, and his intention to deal with it decisively. We find the decision by the President to appoint Mr. Amidu to this very important Office as apt, well-thought through, laudable and forward-looking. This decision, apart from showing the Presidents commitment and resolve in fighting and dealing with corruption, also indicates his nationalistic nature, as well as ensuring that competent, honest, credible, selfless, patriotic, courageous, independent-minded and hardworking Ghanaians, irrespective of their political leanings are involved in building the nation. We are also persuaded that Mr. Amidu, who over the years has demonstrated to the world his incorruptible, uncompromising, selfless and meticulous nature and utmost desire to protect the public purse against unjustified and wanton dissipation, is the best fit for this position. We therefore pray parliament approves his appointment, and also encourage the citizenry, civil society organizations, religious bodies and political institutions to support him to succeed. Signed Dr. Kingsley Nyarko (Executive Director) The Yendi Divisional Police Command has arrested five persons for causing the destruction of wooden electricity poles after they lost control of bushfires they started. A number of motorbikes were also seized during the operation. The situation has cut power supply to several communities along the Mion-Yendi highway. According to the Yendi Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Kwapong Patrick, his Command has launched a vigorous operation to clamp down on the activities of bush burners. He described the intensity of bushfires especially during the harmattan season as a human security threat, hence the move to stop the practice. He cautioned chiefs and opinion leaders in the area against interference in the exercise. Motorbikes seized by the Police Chief Superintendent Kwapong Patrick advocated a stronger collaboration between his command and the Yendi and Mion district assemblies to fight the menace. Apart from the burning of wooden electricity poles and peoples homes, large acres of farmlands have been destroyed by out-of-control bushfires over the years. Several acres of rice plantations have been scorched, worsening the nations food challenges. Those engaged in this nefarious activity consider it a cultural heritage, as they hunt for rats and other animals hiding in the bush. Persons who hunt rats and other animals in the bushes start fires to draw them out By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/Citifmonline.com/Ghana The Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has called for an independent audit of the accounts used by the organisers of the Ghana Expatriates Business Awards (GEBA) ceremony, which was held in December 2017. The Minority had alleged that the Trade Ministry collected amounts ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 from the expatriates to enable them sit close to the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during the awards ceremony. The Trade Ministry which earlier rejected the claims that monies were collected, subsequently revealed that an amount of GHC2.6 million was realized after the awards. But according to Ablakwa, the inconsistent responses from the Ministry of Trade and organizers of the awards, the Millennium Excellence Foundation (MEF), warrants an independent audit of the accounts. Mr. Ablakwa, who is also the Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency in the Volta Region, made the suggestion when he appeared before the five-member Parliamentary committee tasked to investigate the alleged extortion of the expatriates. Mr. Ablakwa said although he is not insinuating that there is something wrong, he believes that an independent audit would have aided the committee in its investigations. An independent audit would have helped. I haven't said that there is something illegal about this approach. I only say that it does not boost public confidence, he added. Background The Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, first made the extortion allegation in Parliament in December 2017. 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 was raised from sponsorship through a fundraising at the event. A former National Security Adviser, Brigadier General Nunoo Mensah, has commended the nomination of Martin Amidu as the countrys first Special Prosecutor, describing it as a smart move. He said he was confident that the former Attorney General will pursue justice given his credentials. President Akufo Addo on Thursday announced the nomination of anti-corruption crusader Martin Amidu as the countrys first Special Prosecutor pending parliamentary approval, to the surprise of many. The appointment comes barely a month after the President assented to the Bill which was passed by Parliament despite a vigorous debate. The appointment of Mr. Amidu, a known member of the opposition NDC who has been very critical of the then John Mahama administration for various corruption scandals, will indeed come as a shock to many, considering that he was never mentioned when names were been bandied around in the media. Mr. Amidu was widely commended and celebrated for his fight against corruption, when he single-handedly pursued known NDC businessman Alfred Woyome to the Supreme Court, and secured a ruling for the retrieval of the Ghc51million judgement debt paid to him by the state under the NDC administration. It is a very smart move by the President to appoint Martin Amidu who is a known NDC man. If it was a man who had NPP sympathy one would have thought that he will have NPP leanings towards people who will be incriminated. But if you appoint a man like Martin Amidu who is a very strict person as far as the law is concerned, it is a very smart move on the part the President. He is one of the finest people I have worked with and I know he will pursue justice whatever the case is, Nunoo Mensah told Citi News. The Office of the Special Prosecutor is one of the major ways by which the New Patriotic Party government promised to deal with corruption within government. The Special Prosecutor is expected to take legal action against past and present government officers believed to have engaged in acts of corruption while in office. The President in announcing the name, said he received the nomination from the Attorney General Gloria Akuffo, and had accepted the nominee, whose name will be forwarded to Parliament for approval when the House reconvenes from recess. The Attorney General is by a letter dated to me Thursday 11th January 2018 addressed to me exercised her power of nomination and submitted to me for my acceptance the name of the proposed special prosecutor. I have accepted the Attorney General's nomination and will in turn submit for Parliament's approval when it reconvenes on 23rd of January 2018 for its first meeting of this New Year the name of Martin Alamisi Benz Kaiser Amidu to be the first Special Prosecutor under the law, he said. The President noted that, Mr. Amidu had the requisite integrity and independence of character to occupy such challenging office. I have done so because I am fully convinced that Mr. Martin Amidu, a prominent legal personality who held the high office of the Attorney General of the Republic in the government of the late President John Evans Attah Mills has the requisite integrity, competence, courage and independence of character to discharge effectively the responsibilities of this office. More About Martin Amidu Martin A. B. K. Amidu was the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice from January 2011 till January 2012 under the late President John Evans Atta-Mills. Amidu, a member of the NDC, served as the Deputy Attorney-General for about the last four years of the Provisional National Defence Council military government. After civilian rule was established in the Fourth Republic in January 1993, he continued to serve in the government of Jerry Rawlings as Deputy Attorney-General. This he did for both terms lasting eight years until January 2001. In the December 2000 presidential elections, he stood as the running mate of John Atta Mills. They both however lost to President John Kufuor that year. In January 2010, following a cabinet reshuffle, President Mills replaced Cletus Avoka with Martin Amidu as the Minister for Interior. As Amidu is a Builsa, some people raised questions as to his neutrality in dealing with the Bawku conflict. He however went successfully through vetting by the Parliament of Ghana and has since assumed his post. Following the second major cabinet reshuffle by President Mills, Amidu became the Attorney general and Minister for Justice of Ghana. Removal from Office Martin Amidu was relieved of his post on Thursday January 19, 2012, by President John Evans Atta Mills under circumstances described by aids as 'his misconduct' at a meeting chaired by the president at the Osu Castle on January 18, 2012. He made allegations relating to alleged financial impropriety on the part of another cabinet minister, allegations he was asked by the president to substantiate. Martin Amidu, the former Attorney General, single-handedly challenged the legality of the payments after being relieved off his post at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money as Supreme Court judges unanimously granted the Attorney-General clearance to execute the court's judgment, ordering Mr. Woyome to refund the cash to the state. Following the delays in retrieving the money, Mr. Amidu in 2016, filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking to examine Alfred Woyome, on how he would pay back the money, after the Attorney General's office under the Mahama Administration, led by the former Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, discontinued a similar application. In February 2017 however, Mr. Amidu withdrew his suit seeking an oral examination, explaining that the change of government under the New Patriotic Party under His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo and his Attorney General, Miss Gloria Akuffo's assurance to retrieve all judgment debts wrongfully paid to individuals Mr. Woyome in response prayed the Supreme Court to stay proceedings on the oral examination since he had filed for a review on the case. Railways Development Minister Joe Ghartey on Wednesday sent a clear signal to staff of his abhorrent to lateness to work when he sent home 14 staff who reported to work late. They comprise nine permanent staff and five national service personnel. The action demonstrate that workers should be disciplined in the discharge of their duties. The Minister did not take any further action against the workers and therefore, the affected workers reported to work yesterday very early. It was a wake up call and I will monitor their response which I believe will be positive, he stated. Speaking to The Finder, the minister declined to reveal his next steps to instill discipline in staff of his ministry. I have to put on record that the staff have worked very hard last year but I am just asking them to work harder, he added. According to Joe Ghartey, one of the affected staff said she reside at Dodowa which is far from Accra and this is complicated by the bad traffic situation on her route. The Minister said he suggested to worker to consider transfer to Tema which is a bit closer Dodowa. The Railways Development Minister explained that he was waiting for the response of that staff Accra based private radio station Hot 93.9fm has focused its lenses on lateness and other poor working culture in the public sector. some analyst have said the poor attitude of workers is the cause of low productivity in the country. It said that most Ghanaians pretended to work for eight hours while they only worked for three hours at their work places. The West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) scheduled for February will be delayed by a month, a Deputy Education Minister in charge of Basic and Secondary Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has disclosed. With effect from next year, candidates, he added, will be expected to sit for their examination in June. According to him, the move is to give candidates more time to prepare for the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) organised examination which is also taken by students in five Anglophone West African countries. Dr Adutwum made the disclosure to a loud applause from students at the Labone Senior High School in Accra yesterday when he embarked on a tour of some schools in the capital to welcome teachers and students back to school as they reopen for the second term of the 2017/2018 academic year. Some of the schools Dr Adutwum visited included Morning Star School, St. Thomas Aquinas and Nungua Senior High Schools and the Teshie Cluster of Schools and the Nungua St. Augustine Anglican Basic School. The tour was for the Deputy Minister to acquaint himself with preparations ahead of a full return to academic works and to ascertain their challenges and how the government could address them. Giving further details on the change of date, Dr Adutwum, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe in the Ashanti Region, said the three-year instructional hours with students had gradually reduced to a little over two years, robbing the students of the needed time to prepare. He said the Ministrys request for the exams to be written in June this year could not be met by the WAEC, because candidates from Ghana were supposed to write simultaneously with their counterparts in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia. Next year, we are asking them that we want to do May/June and not February/March. We want students to have more time to study because, over the years, the three years has turned into two years, three months, he stated. He was convinced that if the time for the examination was extended and students given that additional five months to prepare, Ghana could post better results. Some final year students at Labone who spoke with the Ghanaian Times could not hide their joy at the announcement. They were unanimous in their view that the extension of time would bring out the best in them, as they would have additional time to cover their syllabus. During the tour, it was observed that classes were overcrowded, inadequate furniture, ill-stocked libraries among others. At the Labone SHS for instance, students had to go in batches to have their meals in a heavily congested dining hall. The government, Dr Adutwum said, was investing heavily in the sector to surmount the challenges which had existed in the schools for decades. Opposition parties in Togo this weekend hold their first anti-government protest of the year, with progress on constitutional reform in an apparent stalemate after months of action. Thousands of supporters from a coalition of 14 parties are expected to turn out on Saturday, to renew calls for President Faure Gnassingbe to step down. A second protest exclusively for women has been organised for January 20. The parties want a change to the constitution to restrict presidents to a maximum of two, five-year terms of office, plus the introduction of a two-round voting system. Gnassingbe, who has been in power since 2005 and took over from his father who ruled the country for 38 years, has proposed the amendment. But it has been rejected because the measure is not retroactive, which would leave Gnassingbe free to contest the next two elections scheduled for 2020 and 2025. In his New Year message, Gnassingbe said dialogue was "the preferred way of resolving disagreement" and that he had "no doubt" the two sides would come together to resolve the issue. Opposition supporters in Lome, especially the young, want change, and particularly jobs, assessing that the Gnassingbe dynasty has changed little for ordinary people. Most of Togo's eight million people earn a living from subsistence farming and more than half live on less than a dollar a day. Unemployment among young people has reached 29 percent of the working population. "Nothing's right in this country. After years of study, we don't have jobs and still rely on our parents," said Yaovi Ewonvo, in the opposition stronghold of Be, in Lome. "The people who've led us for decades have failed and they need to recognise it. It's now time for them to go," said the 28-year-old Ewonvo, an IT management studies graduate. Be has been a hotspot for clashes between protesters and the security forces during almost weekly protests that have taken place across the country since late August last year. Many of the young demonstrators are supporters of the veteran opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre and his National Alliance for Change (ANC). West African leaders in November called for both sides in Togo to enter talks mediated by President Nana Akufo-Addo, from neighbouring Ghana, and Guinea's Alpha Conde. But talks have yet to start. Fabre first wants "measures for de-escalation", including the release of detained prisoners and the withdrawal of security forces from the north. Opposition supporters are sceptical about the chances of progress through dialogue, considering it to be a smokescreen by the government. Le Togo, oA les deux-tiers des habitants vivent de l'agriculture de subsistance et plus de la moitiA avec moins d'un dollar par jour, est en proie A une grave crise politique depuis septembre. Photo prise le 4 octobre 2017 dans le quartier de BA, A LomA. A total of 16 people, including teenagers and two soldiers lynched by a crowd, have been killed since the protests began. Public buildings and private houses have been ransacked and burned. WASHINGTON 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." Responding to the furor on Friday, Trump said on Twitter that his language was "tough," but "this was not the language used." He did not specifically deny using the word "shithole." Trump later went on to argue: "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country." Referring to a report in the Washington Post, that he said "take them out" in reference to Haitians, Trump said that never happened. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the president's tweets. Trump's comments Thursday 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. The lawmakers had hoped Trump would back their accord, an agreement among six senators evenly split among Republicans and Democrats, ending a monthslong, 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 who would be allowed to stay in the U.S. included those who had fled here after disasters hit their homes in places such as 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. Asked about the remarks, 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 of racism by his foes and who has routinely smashed through public decorum that his modern predecessors have generally embraced. Trump has inaccurately claimed that Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, wasn't born in the United States. He has said Mexican immigrants were "bringing crime" and were "rapists." He said there were "very fine people on both sides" after violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, left one counter-protester dead. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said, "President Trump's comments are racist and a disgrace." 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 called on Trump to 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." 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 "Dreamers." 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 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. The six senators have been meeting for months to find a way to revive protections for the "Dreamers." 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. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Andrew Taylor, Kevin Freking and Matthew Daly contributed to this report. A Kumasi circuit court has convicted a house help to five years in prison for stealing jewelry and other items valued at about GH82,450.00, belonging to her employer. Fati Abu pleaded not guilty to the offence but the court ruled that she was guilty after examining the evidence. Chief Inspector Comfort Baffour-Kyei told the court, presided over by Madam Patricia Amponsah, that the service of the convict was hired by the complainant, Cynthia Boadu, in December 2015. Fati was fired a little over one year into the job and was paid a deserved compensation. The prosecution said after the convict had packed out, the employer detected that her jewelry and other valuables were missing from her bedroom. A formal report was made to the police and Fati was traced to her new place where some of the missing items were found in her room and was arrested. In her caution statement, Fati admitted stealing every other item, except the jewelry. She was inconsistent in her defence earlier flatly denying stealing anything, and then shifted from that position to admit the crime and sought to justify this by saying that was to pay her employer back for her ingratitude. POLITICAL TENSION is slowly mounting in respect of the Eastern Regional chairmanship race of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) as two persons are lacing their boots to unseat the incumbent regional chairman, Kiston Ohemeng Kissi, in the upcoming party's primary. The current regional chairman former Member of Parliament (MP) for Akwatia who is seeking a re-election, is to be challenged by his regional first vice chairman, Alhaji Umar Bondinga and Paul Amaning, managing director of PMKF Ghana Company Limited. Mr. Kissi, in the previous election, secured 361 votes to beat the then incumbent current CEO of the National Health Insurance Authority, Dr Samuel Annor who polled 229 votes, while Alhaji Umar Bodinga retained his position as regional first vice-chairman with 444 votes to beat Nana Addo Boakye, who garnered 143 votes. Some of the party delegates who boldly declared on radio networks in the region, indicated that the race for the regional top position of the party would be a straight fight between Paul Amaning and Alhaji Bondinga, who are likely to unseat the incumbent chairman. Bondinga Some weeks ago, a group named 'Get Bodinga Elected' had called on the NPP delegates in the region to vote for Alhaji Umar Bodinga. Alhaji Bondinga, popularly called 'Field Marshall,' though had not personally declared his intention to contest for the regional chair position yet, posters with his images have started flying across some of the constituencies in the region. The fire band politician, according to sources, was penciled by the president as an Ambassador to Saudi Araba, but was later dropped because of his vibrancy in the NPP. Alhaji Bondinga started his political career from Akyem-Kukurantumi as ward youth organizer, to ward chairman, then became the 2nd vice chairman from 19962004 for the then Abuakwa Central Constituency. He became the Eastern Regional 2nd vice chairman from 2005 to 2009, then became the regional 1st vice chairman for two terms from 2009 up to date. Paul Amaning Mr Paul Kwabena Amaning, a native of Asuom in the Kwaebibirem District of the region who has openly declared his intention to contest race on many platforms, has stated that the region needs a new face to lead the majority of the youth to take up the challenge of helping one another to succeed. According to him, the NPP needs such experienced hands to ensure its continuous stay in power for the development of the country. The regional chairman indicated his desire to ensure that every regional, constituency and polling station executive of the party is provided adequate opportunity to serve and function in the offices they occupy. The Fulani herdsmen debacle has moved another notch. Ignoring the ominous signals being emitted thereof could result in dire consequences. Avoidable as it is, the time to act is now and with surgical precision. Conflicting reports have been adduced to what triggered the new wave of attacks with the security agents allegedly becoming targets of the armed herdsmen. The reaction of the youth and others to defend themselves when the herdsmen continue on this bloody tangent is understandable although we would rather things are not allowed to degenerate to this level. A situation where aggrieved persons arm themselves and ready to take on so-called aggressors presupposes a lost confidence in the security agencies or even a breakdown of law and order. The foregone scenario, anarchy, is not what any democratically elected government would want to be associated with. It is the responsibility of the state to provide security to citizens so they can go about their legitimate businesses without fear and panic. We therefore have confidence in the government's ability and resolve to deal with the emerging development in the Ashanti Akim North District of the Ashanti Region and elsewhere in the country where nomads continue to threaten the security of the indigenes. It is in this light that we are excited about the Ashanti Regional Minister's announcement that he and the regional Security Council would implement the 2012 court ruling on the Fulani debacle which has now become a conundrum, an albatross around the neck of the government. Although an inherited challenge, political killjoys would prefer attributing it to the government of the day; a mischief which cannot pass integrity test anyway. Anything lacking in a frontal response to the now heightened emergency in the cattle grazing parts of the country would embolden the perpetrators of the lawlessness which has snuffed life out of many residents and seen an assortment of human rights abuses committed. We do not know what the roadmap is regarding addressing the grazing challenge but can state that we have reached precipice. Best practices which should be replicated here is ordering, as the authorities of Benue State of Nigeria have done, that all cattle owners confine their livestock to ranches. It is anachronistic to allow the free range module to continue to apply when its negative fallouts are not far-fetched. We have heard about the allegations that powerful persons in society own some of the cattle which do not fall within the segment of those brought here by nomads and that is the reason the problem is being denied the attention it requires. Be it as it may, government would not allow the foregone to constitute a stumbling block to its resolve to rid the country of killer Fulanis. If security agents have become targets of nomads then citizens, unarmed, would become lame ducks for the aggressors who have their fingers on the trigger. Operation Cow Leg was recently re-launched and promised the necessary logistics to prosecute its mission. From the look of things, however, the operation needs a fine-tuning given the resolve of the nomads not to surrender and showing all traits of ready to fight whoever stops their cattle from grazing freely if even the locations are farms. Hmm, each day and its occurrences. The year 2017 went peacefully with its pluses and minuses. I have made a decision that I will no longer make fresh resolutions any new year for the rest of my life. Resolutions are like personal budgets; their attainments depend on the broader economic environments. If you decide to stop drinking mahogany bitters in the New Year and your mother dies in the first week of the year without informing you in advance, tell me whether you won't take some sips of the bitters. Or during the Christmas you hooked a beautiful daughter of Eve, and instead of dining at 'Don't Mind Your Wife' as you did throughout the year and this time you went to Western Best Atlantic Hotel, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Takoradi, just for her to tell you in January that 'her ex' has returned from Oyibo Obodo, as the Nigerian will say, I bet you, mahogany bitters will be your walking companion. That is why it is dangerous to have New Year Resolutions. A lot of gains were made in the lives of individual citizens. New policies and programmes were laid out by the government of President Akufo-Addo. Very critical election promises were delivered to the surprise of the generality of Ghanaians in particular and the world generally. For example, the implementation of the free Senior High School education programme. The surprises did not come because they are impossible to be implemented. Their worry is the state of the economy the NPP administration inherited from the outgone NDC government. The Teacher Training allowances by the Mahama administration was also restored in the year just gone by. I can tell you for a fact that when the allowances were withdrawn, many qualified applicants to the Colleges of Education who were offered admissions could not accept the offers because they did not have the monies to pay. Many such Colleges of Education had to re-open the admission to get the number of students they needed to begin the academic years. Invariably, many people who had below the required grades but could afford the fees got admission into the Colleges. The situation in the Nursing and Midwifery Institutions were not different. We downplayed the difficulties these children went through. Nana Addo's government put the smiles back on their lips. These are social programmes that are very difficult to implement particularly when a nation's finances are not too healthy. Many a government would want to shift such public expenditures onto the citizenry and save monies for other activities to improve the health of the economy. But the Akufo-Addo government believes that the best health of a nation is the social health that offers more education and opportunities for the poor and the vulnerable. These and many more interventions have attracted the attention of majority of the populace. The Food for Jobs programme, its earlier setbacks in respect of the army worm invasion which destroyed cereals, has been largely successful. Travel through the Accra Takoradi road, and the bunches of fresh plantains lined up on the sides of the road is a testimony of the success of the programme. Normally, in the agriculture calendar of the country, the first quarter of the year is considered as the lean season when foodstuffs become scarce and expensive. I can say without contradiction that there is more than enough food in the country to avert this perennial 'lean season phenomenon' of high cost of foodstuffs. So many good things have happened within the first year of the NPP government even though it is admitted that there are still more challenges that confront this country. These challenges did not spring up the day President Akufo-Addo was sworn in. They are the outcomes of eight years of visionless leadership that characterized the Mills- Mahama administration. The new government has braced itself to deal with the challenges and move the country unto the path of growth and prosperity. It will not be distracted by the myriad of unproven allegations from the party which superintended over the massive corruption this nation had ever witnessed in its history. The government of the NDC from 2009-2016 presided over open destruction of the nation's river bodies as if there was no tomorrow. Today, sanity has prevailed and efforts are being made to restore the river bodies to their natural state. These are the areas we should focus on. I have had the opportunity to humbly caution appointees of the President that our politics has become more perception-driven than the actual occurrences. That the biggest relief such appointees will offer the President is, as much as possible, avoiding scandals, perceived or real, which will needlessly distract government and the President in particular from his core functions and programmes to move this country out of the near economic abyss it was drowned in before January 7, 2017. The President, since last year, has had cause to refer some cases of allegations to the CID for investigations. Even though there were no truths in the allegations hatched on by the opposition, it was a distraction. The Ministry of Trade and Industry issue is still under investigation by Parliament as I write. Before then, the President had had cause to write to the Minister of Trade and Industry to respond to the allegations. Another distraction. Then within the Christmas season, the DVLA comes out with a policy which in my view is purely commercial and generated a major furore, in fact anxiety and anger towards the government. I am talking about the First Aid kits that the DVLA was selling to motorists at criminally exorbitant prices before they get their vehicles registered. This was in the Christmas mood and people were angry. In the long run, it was withdrawn. Why this needless behavior by the management of the DVLA? To let Ghanaians know about other commercial acts of the DVLA, let me share my experiences. Somewhere in 2016, I had gone to the Takoradi office of the DVLA to transact business in respect of my vehicle. Even though I had the required triangle, fire extinguisher and related items, I was given a bill to pay for these items from the DVLA. The usual 'too know Kwesi Biney' questioned which part of the DVLA law empowers them to trade in those items. The gentleman could not quote any portion of their law but was insistent that if I did not buy those items from them, I was not going to be issued with the documents I was applying for. I must concede that I do not have a copy of the Act of DVLA, but I am sure that the functions of the Authority do not include selling fire extinguishers or First Aid kits as conditions for registering vehicles. It is sickening that in this country when people are put in public places, they either front for their wives, friends and relations to engage in commercial activities for their benefit to the detriment of the public. The silence on this matter from officialdom beyond the suspension or withdrawal of the sale of those items is not enough. The authority is gaining unexpurgated notoriety for criminality in the performance of its functions. Do you remember the fraudulent over pricing of a procurement which was priced at GH9.3 million when the actual price was GH3.6 million. When the Boss appeared before a Parliamentary Committee, he said 'to err is human' and was left off the hook. In a civilized jurisdiction, he would have been told that 'to be jailed is divine'. But this is Ghana; all of us can do anything and go scot free. We can kill and plead 'to err is human'. The DVLA must not be allowed to be agents for any commercial entity or individual no matter how powerful that individual is to exploit the motoring public. It is criminal and must not be countenanced in any form or shape. We have struggled to take power from the NDC. We can't allow any group of people to make this government unpopular before even our second year in office. Daavi, please give me three tots of the bitters. [email protected] Two National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs), Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa yesterday appeared before the Cash for Seat Committee set up by the Speaker of Parliament to probe allegation of extortion of money from expatriate businessmen by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, who is the Minority Chief Whip and MP for Asawase, was very liberal in his submission at the committee sitting calling on members of the committee to do a very diligent work to be able to establish the truth in the allegation. However, Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu, was very emphatic that some people at the presidency connived with some officials at the ministry to extort monies from expatriate businessmen during the recent Ghana Expatriate Business Award. When Mr Mubarak Muntaka was asked by the chairman of the committee whether he had any evidence that the presidency was connected with the collection of the money, he said that he could not say so and that it was up to the committee to establish that truth. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa was also asked whether he had any evidence of the involvement of the presidency, and he replied that from all the correspondences emanating from the presidency and the Ministry of Trade and Industry before the Awards night, it was very clear that the presidency was aware of the money imposed on the expatriate businessmen, who were to sit at the presidential circle, red circle, yellow circle, green and black circles, ranging from $15,000 to $100,000. He said the Millennium Excellence Foundation, which organised the event under the auspices of the ministry, had officially communicated to the presidency about the intention to impose those charges and that presidential acknowledgement was given. He said cheques from those improper charges were asked to be sent to the Foundation, a private organisation operated from Room 308 of the ministry. How is it possible that this account, which the cheque was lodged into, was operated by the financial controller and chief director of the trade ministry? he questioned. According to the North Tongu MP, one Prince Boakye Boateng, a chief director at the ministry, confirmed the collection of money by the ministry during an interview on Starr FM an Accra-based radio station. Mr Ablakwa also said that he has hard evidence that the Chairman of Interplast Group of Companies was one of the expatriate businessmen who paid $100,000 to sit with President Akufo-Addo on the special high table during the awards night. I find it curious that government is saying it knows nothing about such a directive and it is blaming mischievous minds for piecing such information together, Ablakwa charged. He pointed to paragraph six of a letter dated December 21, 2017, emanating from the ministry, which he said presents another contradiction as, according to him, speaks about auditing of the funds realized from the event. Mr Chairman, the Deputy Minister of Trade, Carlos Ahenkorah, had told Joy FM they only served as a conduit and all monies received were sent to the Millennium Excellence Foundation, he said. At a point in his presentation, he said that civil society groups and anti-corruption agencies had found cause to worry about such cash for seat saga which he believes is an act of corruption. He mentioned CDD-Ghana and Ghana Integrity Initiative as some of the civil society groups also calling for probe into this alleged corruption scandal. He wanted to rope in a member of the committee and New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Adentan, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, in his submission as someone who would have also spoken against such corrupt act as a former official of Integrity Initiative, but the chairman of the committee quickly intervened and asked him not to move on that tangent because the MP is a member of the committee and could compromise on his independence. The infighting that has rocked the Electoral Commission (EC) is taking a new twist following the decision by one of the Deputy Chairpersons on interdiction, Georgina Opoku Amankwaah in charge of Corporate Services at the commission to resume work. The latest development is likely to spark another heated political debate over the manner in which the electoral body is being managed. DAILY GUIDE understands that lawyers for Ms. Opoku Amakwaah had asked their client to resume work in defiance of Economic and Organised Crime Office's (EOCO's) directive that she stays out of work to allow investigations into the alleged misappropriation of the commission's Staff Endowment Fund. In July last year, Ms. Opoku Amankwaah, together with two EC officials Kwaku Owusu Agyei-Larbi, Chief Accountant and Dr Joseph Asamoah, a Finance Director were asked to proceed on leave over a missing GH480,000 from the Staff Endowment Fund, after the EC boss, Mrs. Charlotte Osei, had asked EOCO to investigate the matter. Main Petition Already, Mrs Charlotte Osei, together with her two deputies Georgina Opoku Amankwaah and Alhaji Amadu Sulley, in-charge of Operations are being investigated by a five-member committee set up by the Chief Justice, following petitions filed against them on allegations of abuse of office and conflict of interest under Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution. Mrs. Charlotte Osei and Amadu Sulley are still at post and have not been asked to step aside for the investigation to commence, although Ms. Opoku Amankwaah is on suspension on the orders of the EC boss. Warning Notice The lawyers of Ms. Opoku Amankwaah, led by K. A. Asante Krobea, have reportedly written to the EOCO notifying the investigative body that the deputy commissioner was resuming work, even though the EOCO has said it was still investigating the alleged misappropriation of the Endowment Fund, based on which she was suspended. They insisted that with the setting up of the Chief Justice's committee to look into the abuse of office and conflict of interest claims against the three EC bosses, the EOCO has no basis to insist that the deputy EC chairperson should still stay at home. The letter to the EOCO, dated January 2, 2018 with the heading, 'Endowment Fund Investigation Resumption of Official Duty Our Client: Georgina Opoku Amankwaah (Ms), indicated that once the president had not suspended the deputy EC chair based on Article 146 (10) of the 1992 Constitution, it was 'proper and fair' for her to resume work. The lawyers had copied the Chief of Staff, Chief Justice, Attorney General, Senior Minister and Chairman of the Council of State. According to them, the position of a deputy commissioner of the EC is akin to that of superior court judge; and their interdiction or removal from office should follow the dictates of Article 146 of the Constitution. They claimed in the case of Ms. Opoku Amakwaah, none of the terms and reference under Article 146 of the Constitution had been evoked to warrant her interdiction; and they saw it as injustice. The lawyers advised the deputy chairperson to 'immediately' resume work and dared anybody to stop her from working. EOCO's Response EOCO has reportedly confirmed receipt of the letter, but said the case was still under investigation and advised the lawyers to let their client stay out of work until the Attorney General advises on the report that EOCO sent to her office. The EOCO reportedly sent its response on January 8, 2018, saying, Investigation is said to be complete when advice is received from the Attorney General's Department. Your client and others are not on leave because of the petition before Her Ladyship, the Chief Justice. You will do your client good service if you patiently wait for the advice from the Attorney General's Office. Let's follow due process. Finance Director Already, a source has told DAILY GUIDE that the Director of Finance, who was suspended alongside Mrs. Opoku Amankwaa, is also fighting to come back to work, but was facing impediments at the commission. This was after it had turned out from the corridors of the EOCO that the anti-graft body appeared to have found nothing incriminating against him. However, Charlotte Osei has allegedly vowed never again to work with Dr Asamoah who reportedly challenged some of the contracts awarded by her and therefore the Finance Director's fate continues to hang in the balance. Endowment Fund In July, a letter from the EOCO, which was signed by ACP K.K. Amoah (rtd.), Acting Executive Director, indicated that it had taken over the case, positing, The suspects are assisting in investigations. In the letter dated July 4, 2017, and addressed to the chairperson of the commission, EOCO said it was investigating the loss of about GH480,000 from the Endowment Fund at the Electoral Commission. The office would be grateful if you would direct the officers listed above to proceed on leave whilst investigation proceeds. Pursuant to the EOCO letter, Ms Osei wrote to Mrs Opoku-Amankwaah asking her to proceed on leave immediately and directed her to kindly forward any pending issues to the Office of the Chairperson. A most insensitive move it was by GBC and her Director-General. You would expect that achieving a doctorate degree in some sort of discipline would instil a vast knowledge of many other faculties linked to basic survival in a society of same traditions and culture, especially ours in Ghana that preaches tight family bondage and fear of GOD; the irony! Besides, how at all would a well-to-do technocrat, who knows the suffering of his people all too well embark on a heartless agenda as prosecuting defaulters of TV licence fees? Is Dr. so oblivious to the penury of the people who sweat it out from dawn to midnight to make an income, which is barely enough to feed on, let alone carry the burden of transportation, and health issues that until the Nana Addo Presidency was unaffordable? Shame! Then the President heard the agitation of the masses! In fact, I knew that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would never condone the unpopular policies that serve to bring suffering to the masses for the comfort of a few. Information that I have indicated that Mr President was so angry that he ordered the initiative be immediately revoked and shelved permanently. Yes, this is one President who listens to the people. Unlike the foul-mouthed Sammy Crabbe, who said that the President is surrounded by sycophants as to suggest that people at the presidency cloud his thinking and reasoning, the truth of the matter is that President Nana Akufo-Addo does not listen except to good counsel. If one is daring enough to go and peddle konkonsa, they will not be entertained. That is the mettle of the President that Sammy Crabbe, his tramps, and all those who do not wish the government will seek not to speak about! So, when the ripples of anger became more clamorous than could be withstood, GBC capitulated to the vibrations and cancelled the unfriendly policies of enforcing the TV licence and prosecuting defaulters. The management of GBC should take a cue from the operations of other television stations, irrespective of its mandate as a government-owned entity. It would seem that the oligarchy wants to tap into the nations coffers and the pocket of the poor, too. If the Director-General of GBC does not know how to run this SOE, then he should just tender in his resignation to pave way for the appointment of a more empathic person to run the show. The 18th-century type of broadcasting and koliko programmes must be looked into and raised to modern standards. Some of the naked ladies that are made to host silly programmes are unfashionable, and their ways quite inconsumable. They should sit up and raise the standards before they go scouting for prey to rip off! Thank you, Mr President, for keeping Ghanaians your main focus of attention. Ghanafo) dawoase!!! Government says it has beefed up surveillance in the country to forestall the outbreak and spread of Listeriosis, a type of food poisoning caused by a bacteria known as Listeria monocytogenes, which is causing havoc in South Africa. The Republic of Rwanda had earlier warned Ghana to ban the importation of some food products from South Africa to avert the outbreak of the Listeriosis disease. Listeriosis is food poisoning caused by eating food contaminated with Listeria Monocytogenes which affects meat and dairy product, fruits and vegetables. The infection according to medical practitioners, results in miscarriage among pregnant women, cause premature delivery, cause serious infection to newborns, and even leads to stillbirth. The Health Ministry in a statement signed by the sector Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said there is no cause for alarm as measures have been put in place to prevent the outbreak of Listeriosis in the country. 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 products, fruits and vegetables from South Africa to ensure that they are not contaminated. All officers at the various ports of entry have been tasked to be more vigilant and inspections have been intensified. We are therefore assuring the Ghanaian public that there is no cause for alarm and we shall continue to monitor, investigate and assess the quality of plant and animal products coming from South Africa, the statement added. GAWU calls for restriction on food imports from SA The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), had also called for the immediate ban on the importation of food products from South Africa. According to GAWU, a further delay by government could put Ghanaians at a high risk. That is what we should do immediately because until we are satisfied that products coming from South Africa are wholesome to be consumed, then the immediate thing to do is ban before we go into anything, General Secretary of GAWU Edward Kareweh said. Agric Ministry warned Already, the Republic of Rwanda through its Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, announced a ban on the 19th of December, 2017, from South Africa, to prevent a possible spread of the disease. According to a document sighted by Citi News, the Republic of Rwanda is insisting that the ban remains indefinite until South Africa brings it under controlas it urges other countries to do same until the disease is completely eliminated from the continent. 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. A research commissioned by EIB Network and conducted by Hope for Future Generations (HFFG) has revealed that majority of People with Disabilities (PWDs) in the Northern Region face serious challenges in relation to access to entrepreneurial, economic and livelihood opportunities. This according to the research, makes it difficult for them to save since their monthly expenses are much more than their income. The research which focused on the Savelugu and Yendi Districts in the region revealed that most of the participants are skilled but they need adequate funds to operate. Out of participants who receive monthly income, 60.5%, representing 23 females, have incomes that are between GH$ 100 to GH$ 500, the report disclosed. It stated that PWDs finds it difficult to get access to entrepreneurial services in these two districts, stating, the challenge, however, is that, these services are difficult to access and also do not have. From the research 57.9% of the participants indicated that it is quite difficult to access these services even though some of them (Soap making, Beads making, Tailoring and others) exist. Social and entrepreneurial services are difficult to find in these districts and even if one finds them, the funds needed to startup is a challenge, the research stated. The research, which was commissioned in line with the Starr Woman Project with special focus on the Dream Edition targeting disabled women entrepreneurs , disclosed that, Aside entrepreneurial jobs, it is difficult to search for jobs. The few participants who have tried to assess jobs always find it difficult to get because they are not treated equally. According to the research, majority of PWDs in the Northern Region would have been able to engage in business opportunities but are faced with financial challenges to start up their business. District Assembly Common Fund The research indicated that majority of PWDs in the two districts were not aware of the funds allocated to them in the District Assembly Common Fund. The district assembly has 3% component of the Common Fund to support PWDs start up or establish small-scale business in the various districts. However, the research indicated that, Both districts narrated that it is difficult to even know the amount that is available to them in terms of the fund. The research further indicated that, Most respondent also indicated that the amount that is given at the end of the day is too small to even start up a business. Respondents indicated that it range between 200-500 Ghana Cedis. Majority of the respondents (63.2%) have some form of knowledge in relation to the District Assembly Common Fund with 36.8%, representing 14 respondents who do not know of the Common Fund. However, 42.1% (16) have ever assessed the funds while 55.3% (21) have never assessed it. Out of the respondents who have assessed it, just a few have been able to get access to the cash, it was disclosed in the study. Access to Water and Sanitation The research revealed that PWDs face challenge in accessing water in the two districts in the Northern Regions. They revealed that since the PWDs are weak, they usually depend on their neighbors and family members. Toilet facilities are not accessible and most of PWDs do not have such facilities in their homes, which becomes a challenge. The physically challenged and visually impaired are not able to access these facilities because of the way they are developed. The visually impaired always have to move with assistance to different locations to access this service which is a challenge because you are likely not to find assistance at certain times of the night, the report mentioned. Source: Daniel Kaku The Saudi government has pledged to support the Ministry of Inner-City and Zongo Development (MICZD) towards making Arabic and Islamic teachings examinable subjects at the basic level. The Saudi government's support for the Arabic and Islamic teachings falls in line with the ministry's module being rolled out in collaboration with the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) to employ some Arabic teachers. The Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Ghana, Abdukarim Mohammed Alluhidan made this pledge when the Minister for Inner-City and Zongo Development; AlhajiAbubakarSaddique Boniface together with his team from the ministry led by the Chief Director, Gifty Mahama, Kwadwo Sarfo Ohene, Special Advisor to the Minister, Amina Sammo, director of projects and programmes, Dr. Joseph Damoe, Director of Research Statistics and Information Management, paid a courtesy call on him to seek assistance for the training of Arabic teachers. The ministry said it is the desire of the government to make Arabic and Islamic teachings in the country examinable to boost the learning of the language in the Zongo communities. The ambassador informed the Minister and his team that the Saudi government has already brought in five of her nationals who are teaching Arabic and Islamic Studies in some schools. According to him, this is not enough and the Saudi government is willing to assist in more diverse ways in the country. 'We will be more than willing to offer the needed assistance with the collaboration of the Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs. 'So please do well to let the embassy know the areas the ministry needs the assistance to make this module a reality,' he said. He called on Ghanaians who are seeking further studies in Saudi Abrabia to log on to the Saudi government website to apply for the needed scholarship. He was quick to remind the team to keep his office updated on the needs of the ministry for the Saudi government to find ways of assisting the baby ministry that targets the Zongo communities. Briefing the Ambassador earlier, the sector minister said because the ministry is new, the task ahead is challenging hence the Saudi embassy being the first point of call for support. He said when the president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo established the ministry many did not understand why but developments in the Zongo communities over the years were not properly coordinated. 'It is this reason the ministry was set up by the president to coordinate developments in the Zongo communities,' he added. According to the minister, the day to day definition of Zongo has changed as the community is now heterogeneous; dominated, however, by Moslems. The Zongo community is now composed of different ethnicities with Hausa being the dominant language, he stated. Ethiopian Airlines is set to launch direct thrice weekly service to Geneva, Switzerland on June 3, 2018. Hosting the highest number of international organizations in the world, including the headquarters of many of the agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross, Geneva is a global city and center for diplomacy. Touching on the launch of the service, Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam, said: Geneva hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world, making it a global hub for diplomacy. It's a perfect complement to Addis our main hub and Africa's diplomatic capital with the headquarters of the African Union and the UN-ECA (Economic Commission for Africa). Government officials and staff from regional and international organizations in Geneva and across our extensive African network will be able to enjoy seamless and convenient connectivity, enabling to carry out their mission with ease and conveniences. The thrice weekly service will be operated as per the below schedule. The route will be operated with a Boeing 787-800, one of the most technologically advanced aircraft in the carrier's fleet family, featuring up-to-date amenities with redefined travel experiences. As with all Ethiopian's flights, customers will enjoy the much acclaimed African-flavored Ethiopian hospitality. The Marine, Railway and Port Unit of the Tema Regional Police Command has arrested a 45-year-old Chinese national for allegedly slashing his Ghanaian worker at the Tema Fishing Harbour in the Greater Accra Region over a carton of fish. The culprit, Maxim Long, Chief Operating Officer of Maxim MV II, was said to have slashed 33-year-old Abraham Arthur, who is a stevedore. The injured reported the incident to the Tema Fishing Harbour Police Station who arrested the suspect. He has provisionally been charged with unlawfully causing harm. Confirming the incident to DAILY GUIDE, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Joseph Benefo Darkwah, the Public Relation Officer (PRO) of the Regional Police Command said the case was under investigation. According to reports, on January 9, 2018 at about 3:30pm, Abraham was accused of stealing a carton of fish by a colleague. The co-worker subsequently reported the matter to the Chinese boss who slashed the left hand of the Ghanaian. Abraham was issued with a police medical report form to attend hospital for treatment and examination. The police said the suspect would be arraigned before court after police investigations. From Vincent Kubi, Tema 12.01.2018 LISTEN As the New Patriotic Part(NPP) marked its first year in the governance of Ghana many scholars and political analyst have given varied verdicts of the Nana Akufo-Addo led administration. Mr. Korsi Bodja the Director of Elections of the New Patriotic Party in the Volta Region in the 2016 Elections said the plight of Ghanaians would have been worse had the National Democratic Congress (NDC) continued in power. imagine parents were still paying for their children at Senior High School (SHS) and teacher and nursing trainee allowances were not restored as promised, children would have been sold by their parents to raise cash The Free Senior High School he admitted saved many parents the burden of borrow money to pay school fees as well as buy the needed items for school. He added that the social intervention programmes by the Government is bringing a lot of relief to households and freeing them to invest monies that hitherto would have been used for fees. The NDC left a lot of debt in almost all sectors of the economy making it difficult for the government to fully implement its manifesto promises NDC couldnt even pay its own women organizers it gave the School Feeding Programs to and they have the guts to even organize press conference to demand for the arrears their own government left, it is a shame Narrating his experience in the 2016 election, Mr Bodja indicated that it took the vigilance and coordination of the NPP to win the elections. He recounted how they had to counter the many attempts of the NDC to rig the elections There were people(contractors) whose role was to bring people from neighboring Togo, give them house numbers, get them registered on our Electoral roll and keep their voter Identification (ID) cards for election day . We took steps to prevents these from occurring. He asked Ghanaians to remain hopeful and be patient with the government as it will not only deliver on its promises but also prosecute functionaries of the erstwhile administration who stole monies that were meant for the development of the people. These revelation he made in an interview with Prince Yao Amevi on the AM SHOW on TOSH FM in Ho. He also used the opportunity to officially announce his bid for the position of the Volta Regional Organizer of the party. He added that there has been many interactions with party people and it was time to legitimize and also grow deeper the relationship. Lets come together to better represent and coordinate the affairs of the party as well as ensure that there is total commitment to the promises we made to the people of Ghana That same platform was used by Mr. Billy Bless Parku who also announced his intention to contest the Regional Youth Organizer position. A key figure in the security apparatus that underpinned Ivory Coast's ousted leader was jailed for 10 years for taking part in an alleged plot to overthrow his successor. Major Jean-Noel Abehi was a right-hand man to former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was ousted in 2011 after a bloody post-electoral crisis. Abehi was given a 10-year term on Thursday for "plotting against the authority of the state," an AFP reporter at the court in Abidjan saw. According to the charge sheet, Abehi took part in meetings in Ghana of a "military platform" initiated by Gbagbo's spokesman in exile, Kone Katinan, "to prepare to overthrow the established political authority." Ggabo was forced out after months of violence that followed his refusal to step down when rival Alassane Ouattara won elections in November 2010. At least 3,000 people were killed. Gbagbo was arrested with the help of UN and French troops, and handed over to the International Criminal Court, where he faces four charges, including murder, rape and persecution. Abehi commanded an armoured squadron at the Agban paramilitary police barracks in Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan. The trial is the latest in a string of prosecutions of figures associated with the Gbagbo regime. On December 26, Hubert Oulaye, 64, Gbagbo's ex-minister for public works, was sentenced to 20 years for complicity in a 2012 attack in western Ivory Coast that killed 18 people, including seven UN peacekeepers. 12.01.2018 LISTEN For an institution to call itself a university, it should meet certain basic standards. Some of these basic standards are: The pursuance of academic programmes which are current in content and relevant to the national development agenda, Well-defined policies which deal with the assessment of students, programmes and lecturers, The possession of competent academic and administrative personnel Availability of facilities such as ICT laboratories, well-stocked library, lecture rooms, bookshop which aid the teaching and learning processes, Congenial environment with improved sanitation, safety, regular water and electricity supply, clinic and sporting grounds Every institution which wishes to qualify as a university must go through the accreditation process of the National Accreditation Board (NAB). The guidelines established by NAB to deal with its accreditation process, in a large measure, attempts to assess the applicant institution on the five criteria outlined above. The process is the same for both the public and private institutions. The system of accreditation involves cost to NAB which must survive by passing on the cost to the institutions. This places a heavy financial expenditure on the institutions. Apart from direct fees paid to NAB, the institutions must deal with the cost of paper work which creates its own enormous financial burden. The process also requires that before a new institution is accredited or an old accredited institution earns its own charter whereby it can award its own qualifications, it must be affiliated to an old existing university which almost invariably turns out to be one of the public universities. Affiliation simple means that the affiliated institution is mentored by the mother university to which it is affiliated. The mother university is expected to offer guidance to the affiliated institution, send representatives to sit in an interview panel, admission panel, assess the examination syllabi, examination questions, marking schemes, marked scripts, to ensure that everything confirms to the mother university's own standard. The rational for this is that the affiliated institution awards certificates which bear the name of the mother university until it attains its own charter. While the scheme is necessary, it comes at a great cost to the affiliated institutions. The mother institutions almost invariably charge the affiliated institutions based on students' population denominated in dollars. Some of the public institutions have perfected the scheme to such an extent that the revenue earned from the scheme provides a large percentage of their internally generated funds (IGF), which in turn is a huge cost to the affiliated institutions. The main source of revenue for the private universities is what is generated from school fees which consist of two main components; tuition fees and students user-fees. Sale of application forms form an insignificant aspect of the revenue. Some private institutions are lucky to access grants from benefactors within and outside the country. Some of the church founded universities receive grants from their mother churches, irregular as it may be. One particular university has arrangement with some foreign commercial organisations which fund its scholarship scheme for its bright but needy students. Aside the identified sources of revenue, it means, the private universities must rely on the income generating activates of the proprietors who founded the institutions to survive during the initial period of existence. In the current situation, there is no way a newly established private university can achieve breakeven point, let alone start making profits within five years. Unfortunately, this is one of the aspects among others, which is lost on many of the proprietors of private universities. They look on the university as an industry similar to owning a check-check; wayside eating place. Establishing a university requires the formulation of a strategic plan, the meeting of minds, the pooling of resources, the willingness to employ knowledgeable consultants who can offer competent advice on the structure and content of programmes, a well-functioning academic registry, and above all, constant interaction with the authorities at NAB who are always willing to offer any needed assistance. If today many heads of some private institutions are bemoaning at the numerous challenges they are faced with and thus calling for the merging of some of the private universities and the reduction of affiliated fees, it proves the point that while the government has failed to recognise the good work the private universities have done in the past and offered any meaningful help to them beyond the provision of 50-seater buses to some of them, it must also be recognised that many of the problems facing the private universities are self-inflicted. I had expected the private universities to have formed a strong vibrant association and taken advantage of the appointment of Prof. Kwesi Yankah as the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education to dialogue with him. After all, the erudite professor was once the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana and at another time the Vice-Chancellor of the Central University College (now Central University). Therefore he is a veteran of both public and private institutions and stands in better position to help resolve many of the challenges facing the private universities. E-mail: [email protected] BY Kwame Gyasi Boko Haram fighters have killed at least 20 loggers, militia members and residents told AFP on Friday, in the latest attack against civilians in northeast Nigeria. The attack happened on Monday when gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on a group of loggers collecting firewood at Kaje village, near the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. "They (Boko Haram) killed 20 people in the attack. Fifteen others are missing and presumed kidnapped by the attackers," civilian militia leader Ibrahim Liman told AFP. Details of the attack have been slow to emerge due to limited communications infrastructure after years of fighting in the remote region. Kaje resident Shuaibu Sidi corroborated Liman's account and said his brother was among the dead. Nigeria's government and military maintain that the Islamist militants, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, are on the verge of defeat. The conflict, which began in 2009, has killed more than 20,000 and forced some 2.6 million others from their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis in the region. But despite clear military gains in major towns and cities, hard-to-reach rural communities remain vulnerable to attack. On December 30, 25 loggers were shot dead at Maiwa village, which is three kilometres (nearly two miles) from Kaje, and three truck-loads of firewood was burned. Liman said: "We believe the same gunmen behind the Maiwa attack were responsible for the Kaje attack." Previous attacks The attackers were believed to have come from Boko Haram's main enclave in the Sambisa Forest area of Borno, which is accessible from the two logging sites, he added. Many of those displaced by the conflict are forced to rely on food handouts from aid agencies. Others have turned to felling trees in the semi-desert region to sell as firewood and use the proceeds to buy food. Boko Haram has increasingly targeted loggers in their armed campaign to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. They have accused them of spying for the military and the civilian militia, which assists troops with security. At least 31 loggers have not been seen since January 2 and are believed to have been abducted near the town of Gamboru, on the border with Cameroon. They had left the town to fetch firewood in a Boko Haram hotspot, 15 kilometres away, where 10 other loggers had been killed two weeks earlier. In August three loggers were decapitated near Aisa-Wulomari village, some 40 kilometres from Maiduguri, as they returned to the city. In April eight loggers were killed and their bodies burnt at Kayamla village, 10 kilometres from Maiduguri, as they collected firewood in the bush. Africans reacted angrily Friday after Donald Trump reportedly referred to their nations as "shithole countries", with many lashing the US president for racism and ignorance. Social media users across the continent posted images of modern skylines and beautiful nature from their countries with the ironic hashtag "shithole." Others heaped scorn on a president who last year caused widespread sniggering when he twice referred to Namibia as "Nambia". "I'm a proud son of the shining continent called Africa. My heritage is deeply rooted in my Kenyan roots. Africa is NO #shithole Mr. Trump," tweeted record-holding Kenyan runner Bernard Lagat, who became a US citizen in 2004. He was referring to comments reportedly made by Trump during a meeting Thursday with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why the United States should accept citizens from "shithole countries", including Haiti, El Salvador and the entire African continent. Trump then suggested the United States should welcome immigrants from places like Norway, whose prime minister met with Trump on Wednesday, according to the reports. Trump, on Friday, implied that he did not use the controversial words -- "this was not the language used," he said in a tweet. The United Nations slammed Trump's reported remarks as "shocking and shameful" and "racist". "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome," Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva. Many reminded the US of its historic role in the continent's woes. "President Trump, One day, I'll take you to a 'shithole' country called Ghana," wrote Ghanaian Edmond Prime Sarpong on Facebook. "First stop would be Osu Castle, Elmina Castle, and the over 40 Forts that detained about 30 million slaves, beaten and shipped out like sardine cans and then I will tell you the history of Africa and why people like you made that a 'shithole' continent." 'Nothing new' Botswanan Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi wrote on Twitter that the remarks had struck a "nasty blow" to diplomatic relations with the US. Prominent Kenyan commentator Patrick Gathara, told AFP that this was nothing new from a "racist and ignorant" administration, nor from the West at large. "What is even more insulting is the hypocrisy of everyone condemning Trump, and he should be condemned, without examining their own offensive language and conduct," he said. "This is no different from what Hollywood and Western media have been saying about Africa for decades. We have consistently been portrayed as shitty people from shitty countries," he said. Some acknowledged problems in their countries, but blamed this on their poor leaders as well as western nations such as the US. "Please don't confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent... Our motherland is the most blessed continent that has been raped by imperialists in collaboration with our shitty misleaders for generations," wrote Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi on Twitter. In South Africa, the ruling party declared "ours is not a shithole country" and described Trump as "extremely offensive". "It is not as if the United States doesn't have difficulties. There are millions of unemployed people in the US, millions of people who don't have health care services or access to education and we would not deign to make comments as derogatory as that," said Jessie Duarte, the deputy secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC). 'It's our shithole' Nigerians however did not hold back, with many on Twitter saying their country was a "shithole", but that it was "our shithole" to criticise. "I don't wish to be denied a visa to the US, although with the rate of mass shootings, I don't see why anyone would want to travel there in the first place. That being said, objectively, Nigeria is a shithole country," wrote user Bruce Bateman. Even war-torn South Sudan weighed in, with President Salva Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny slamming the comments as "outrageous". However one Juba resident Jenny Jore, told AFP that Trump's remarks were "on point". "It is thanks to our African leaders that we are insulted that way," she said. Trump's latest comments also provided ample fodder for talkshow hosts. South African comedian Trevor Noah, star of "The Daily Show", described himself as an offended citizen of "South Shithole" and also called Trump out for racism, especially for saying he preferred immigrants from Norway. "He didn't just name a white country, he named the whitest -- so white they wear moon-screen," he said. burs-fb/tmc/ri I have read of an alleged "Shithole" comment by President Donald Trump during a close door meeting in the Oval Office during a debate on the Visa Lottery. This was definitely the work of the fake news no wonder CNN is the main media championing its wide spread. In fact, there has been a twist to it. But in all, even if he had categorically made that statement without even the twist the fake media has given it, let me ask a simple question, of which I certainly need a sincere answer; are you totally proud of Africa, haven't most of our leaders made it a "shithole" over the years, if it isn't a shithole then why is everyone trying to run away from it? In fact, I'm a "shitholian" but I'm certainly not proud of it and certainly want a change of the "shithole" made status quo of Africa over the years, and none can execute it unless we, Africans first accept that fact, and then work around to correct it. But in all, eventhough Africa is currently a "shithole", I will definitely not take the spotlight from African leaders such President of Ghana, H.E Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo and a few others who are trying everything possible to make Africa a "goldhole". Thumbs up, H.E Nana Akufo-Addo for your bold step to correct the wrongs of the continent. Hhhmm, may God be praised always Nana Kwadwo Akwaa Cc: Pepgoldghana President Trump has blatantly lambasted Africans for being lazy people who loves sex instead of working, beggars, an unserious people over the past years and worse of all describing its continent and countries within it as a shithole. I think the media cant blame him that much even though his comments are denigrating and offensive. I blame African leaders for not playing their part in eradicating or reducing the influx of their citizens from their respective countries to the USA for greener pastures and livelihood. If there were lay down structures and procedures to ensure the African employee is treated and paid fairly regarding work done and hours worked, I dont think a rational human being comfortable in his homeland will travel anywhere else for comfort. We live on a continent where Corruption has entangled African leaders and government institutions. When someone travels from Africa to the USA, he is noted to be rich in no time, what makes the USA comfortable than any country in Africa? Why cant African leaders learn from the USA their policies and principles towards standard of living and work comfort. Personally, I feel our leaders are the reason for the suffering of the continent. The African leader will come to power with the notion of create, loot and share, steal from the nation and save such amount in banks outside his country, buy houses and facilities notably in Dubai etc. The selfishness of our leaders is the reason why Africa still suffers regardless of all its resources. The day all leaders in Africa decides to put resources and endowments to efficient use through efficient allocation, the world will respect us and accord Africa respect as given China, Malaysia etc. What happened to the dream of a self-reliant Africa or its not achievable?. Do we lack technocrats to plan and engineer our success as a continent? Are blacks cursed to poverty? From the bible passage after the flood, Noah and his family lived in peace, had additionally families as his sons Ham, Shem and Japheth married and gave birth. After the flood, Noah began to farm the land by planting a vineyard. The result of his toil was the fruit of the vine, wine. While the first mention of wine is not without its negative connotations, we should not conclude that, due to its abuse here, the Bible consistently or without exception condemns its use (cf. Deuteronomy 14:24-26 ; I Timothy 5:23 ) It would seem that Ham and his two brothers were alerted to Noahs condition so that all three of them were standing outside the tent: And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside ( Genesis 9:22 ). While Shem and Japheth refused to go inside, Ham had no reservations about entering the tent. Whatever the failing of Noah, he was inside his own tent, in privacy (9:21). That is the way Shem and Japheth wanted it. Ham entered in, violating the principle of privacy, yet not to assist his father but to be amused at his expense. As a result of Hams behavior, Canaan, the first child of Ham was cursed. Now many historians believe that, the descendants of Ham through Canaan, settled on a continent and that is Africa. It is then believed the curse of Canaan is what affects Africas progress. Africa with all its endowment and resources after colonial rule still beg for arms from its colonial masters. Why? God lives to glorify his people Writer: Emmanuel De-Graft Quarshie Degraftxclusive.blogspot.com Accra Central-Connect with Ghana [email protected] The Brong Ahafo Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Luke Mensah has revealed that only six (6) out of the seventy-six (76) public Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the region have submitted their returns to the head office of GES on funds released to them on the Free SHS policy. Speaking in an interview with Nana KAS on Suncity 97.1 FMs Morning Drive in Sunyani, Mr. Luke Mensah was shocked about the development. According to him, all the head teachers in the region claim they have duly submitted their returns. We have 76 public schools in the Brong Ahafo Region but the recent list says 70 out of them have not submitted their returns. Meaning only 6 of the schools submitted it, he said. As at the 20th of December we met all the heads with some officials from Accraand they told us that they have submitted their returns. To the best of my knowledge, all of them have submitted it, Luke Mensah added. He therefore appealed to all the head teachers in the region to resubmit it. A beautician, Chantel Nunekpeku, who, reportedly out of jealousy, doctored and distributed images depicting her boyfriends former girlfriend naked, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison by an Accra Circuit Court. This was after she changed her plea from not guilty to guilty. Soon after Chantel changed her plea, the court presided over by Mrs Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku handed down the sentence. Chantel's boyfriend, Kayode Kalode, a music producer who maintained his not-guilty plea, will reappear on January 25. The two are accused of photoshopping the complainants pictures onto someone elses nude body. They were charged with offences relating to obscenity and domestic violence as well as emotional and psychological trauma. Prosecuting, ASP Agnes Boafo said Destina Tata, the complainant resides at Awoshie in Accra whilst Chantel and Kolade who are in an amorous relationship, reside at Sowutuom, a suburb of Accra. The prosecution told the court that the complainant was an ex-girlfriend of Kalode. According to the Prosecution, on January 23, last year, Chantel took the pictures of the complainant which she downloaded from social media and photoshopped them onto the image of a nude woman, creating the impression that the pictures were those of the complainant. Prosecution said the pictures were then posted on Instagram with the complainants name attached. The photo was said to have gone viral on the platform. The act, according to the prosecution caused the complainant emotional and psychological trauma thereby undermining her integrity, privacy, dignity and her worth as a human being. According to the prosecution, the complainant reported the case to the Police and Chantel and Kalode were subsequently arrested. During her interrogation, Chantel admitted posting photoshopped nude pictures of the complainant on social media, stating that she did it out of jealousy. Kaloade has been granted bail in the sum of GH 10,000.00 with two sureties. The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) welcomes President Nana Akufo-Addos nomination of Mr Martin Alamisi Amidu, as the Special Prosecutor of Ghana. We consider the appointment as a big step forward in the fight against corruption and wish to commend the President for choosing the right man for the job. Mr Amidus nomination is ample demonstration of the Presidents true commitment to the fight against corruption. We also congratulate Mr Amidu on his nomination and wish him success in both the processes leading to his confirmation and the subsequent discharge of his duties. We have no doubt about Mr Amidus suitability for the high office of Special Prosecutor. His personal integrity and high sense of patriotism are widely acknowledged; his passionate and unrelenting personal crusade against corruption over the years sets him apart as a credible and reliable person to lead the fight against corruption. The MFWA is confident that Mr Amidu will bring his immense experience in the legal and political field as well as his compelling personal character to bear on his new office. While the government proceeds with efforts to fully establish the Office of the Special Prosecutor, we urge the media to brace itself to offer its support to the process, as it has a crucial role to play in the fight against corruption. To this end, the MFWA wishes to encourage journalists to fully acquaint themselves with the legal and operational framework of the Office of the Special Prosecutor and to develop capacity in anti-corruption reporting so as to support the work of the Office. Finally, we wish to remind the government that access to information is an indispensable requirement for a successful fight against corruption. We therefore urge the President to use his good offices to push for the passage of the Right to Information (RTI) bill to give citizens the legal basis to demand accountability and transparency from duty bearers and to enhance the work of the Special Prosecutor. Africans reacted angrily Friday after Donald Trump reportedly referred to their nations as "shithole countries", with many lashing the US president for racism and ignorance. The 55-nation African Union condemned the remarks while the southern African state of Botswana hauled in the US ambassador to complain. The comment "truly flies in the face of accepted behaviour and practice," said Ebba Kalondo, spokeswoman for AU chief Moussa Faki. "This is even more hurtful given the historical reality of just how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, and also terribly surprising as the United States remains a massively positive example as just how migration can give birth to a nation," Kalondo said. The comments were "clearly" racist, Kalondo said, but stressed the US was "much stronger than the sum total of one man." Trump made the remarks on Thursday in a meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported. On Friday, Trump tweeted an implicit denial, saying "this was not the language used". The United Nations slammed Trump's reported remarks as "shocking and shameful" and "racist". "You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes' whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome," Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva. Botswana summoned the US ambassador to the country to "clarify if Botswana is regarded as a 'shithole' country", according to a foreign ministry statement which called Trump's comments "irresponsible, reprehensible and racist". This is not the first time Trump has rubbed Africans up the wrong way -- he was widely derided last year after he twice referred to Namibia as "Nambia". On social media, users across the continent on Friday posted images of modern skylines and beautiful nature from their countries with the ironic hashtag "shithole." Many Africans reminded the US of its historic role in the continent's woes. "President Trump, One day, I'll take you to a 'shithole' country called Ghana," wrote Ghanaian Edmond Prime Sarpong on Facebook. "First stop would be Osu Castle, Elmina Castle, and the over 40 Forts that detained about 30 million slaves, beaten and shipped out like sardine cans and then I will tell you the history of Africa and why people like you made that a 'shithole' continent." 'Nothing new' Prominent Kenyan commentator Patrick Gathara, told AFP that Trump's words were nothing new from a "racist and ignorant" administration, nor from the West at large. "This is no different from what Hollywood and Western media have been saying about Africa for decades. We have consistently been portrayed as shitty people from shitty countries." Some acknowledged problems in their countries, but blamed this on their poor leaders as well as western nations such as the US. "Please don't confuse the #shithole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent... Our motherland is the most blessed continent that has been raped by imperialists in collaboration with our shitty misleaders for generations," wrote Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi on Twitter. In South Africa, the ruling party declared "ours is not a shithole country" and described Trump as "extremely offensive". "It is not as if the United States doesn't have difficulties. There are millions of unemployed people in the US, millions of people who don't have health care services or access to education and we would not deign to make comments as derogatory as that," said Jessie Duarte, the deputy secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC). 'It's our shithole' Nigerians however did not hold back, with many on Twitter saying their country was a "shithole", but that it was "our shithole" to criticise. Even war-torn South Sudan weighed in, with President Salva Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny slamming the comments as "outrageous". However Juba businesswoman Jenny Jore, 31, told AFP that Trump's remarks were "on point". "It is thanks to our African leaders that we are insulted that way," she said. Trump's latest comments also provided ample fodder for talkshow hosts. South African comedian Trevor Noah, star of "The Daily Show", described himself as an offended citizen of "South Shithole" and also called Trump out for racism, especially for saying he preferred immigrants from Norway. "He didn't just name a white country, he named the whitest -- so white they wear moon-screen," he said. burs-fb/ri 12.01.2018 LISTEN The Gaming Commission of Ghana, which is currently headquartered at Cantonments in Accra, is sitting on a time bomb, thanks largely to the autocratic and non-compromising activities of the close to 78-year old Board Chairman, Mr. Alex Baafour-Gyimah. Mr. Baafour-Gyimah, who is the brother-in-law of President Akufo Addo, has single-handedly maneuvered to bring back a deputy director of the Gaming Commission, Ms. Michelle Smart-Abbey, who was caught stealing dollars from a Chinese Lady Gaming Operator. It is alleged that Michelle Smart-Abbey, who had gone to the offices of the Chinese lady accompanied by a police officer to investigate illegal gaming activities, dipped her hand into the handbag of the Chinese Lady when she briefly went outside her office and stole some dollars and hid it under her breast. But for the eagle eyes of the police officer who accompanied Smart-Abbey, she would have gotten away with it. Even when she was confronted after the theft she vehemently denied it until she was threatened of arrest before she finally caved in and removed the pile of dollars she has hidden under her breast. The police officer who did not take kindly to the insults hurled at him and the Chinese lady by Michelle Smart-Abbey before she confessed to the theft took her to the Police Headquarters for her cautious police statement. In the statement, Smart-Abbey confessed to the theft. This embarrassing activity by Smart-Abbey led the Management of the Commission to suspend her indefinitely pending investigations into the case. It must however be put on record that during her suspension Smart-Abbey who is Senior Management Official of the Commission was each month paid her full salary plus benefits. But not long after the suspension of the alleged thief, Baafour-Gyimah who was the first Commissioner of the Gaming Commission and had a rocky relationship with employees which daily spilled into the media gallery until his exit in May 2009, went about pleading for the recall of Michelle Smart-Abbey, sometimes using sheer threats and insults to bulldoze his way through. He threatens everybody and does not fail to tell everybody that his party New Patriotic Party is in power. It is important to note that Baafour-Gyimah during his pleadings to have the alleged thief reinstated, also did not fail to drop the bombshell that he has the right to do anything at the Commission because his 71 year old wife, Mrs. Rhodaline Baafour-Gyimah, who sits on the Board of Ghana Oil Company, is the cousin of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. Some board members are really disgusted at the behavior of Baafour-Gyimah, who they claim have no respect for other members on the Board. They claim Baafour-Gyimah who throws his weight about and treats other Board Members like kids, called an emergency meeting in December 2017, and maneuvered in forcing a vote to recall Michelle Smart-Abbey, saying they should demote her from her current position as a deputy director to a managerial level. According to sources at that Board meeting, Baafour-Gyimah stated that its time to forgive Michelle Smart-Abbey, since she has suffered enough, he started the Commission with her, and is remorseful for what she did. How much has the lady suffered and how remorseful is she, is something yet to be determined. And is it not laughable, strange and bizarre for Baafour-Gyimah to claim that she started the Commission with Michelle Smart-Abbey? Did Baafour-Gyimah establish the Gaming Commission with his own savings or public funds? Even more bizarre is the fact that a committee set up to investigate the circumstances leading to the theft by Michelle Smart-Abbey was never allowed to do its job properly as the Board Chairman daily called the members of the Committee to drop all charges against the thief and give her a second chance. Interestingly, it was during the time of Baafour-Gyimah as the first Commissioner that he hired Michelle Smart-Abbey in August 2007, and his wife Rhodaline, has never liked the relationship that exists between the two, and had in the past questioned some past and present employees to know what transpires between the two. But the mother of all bombshells is the information uncovered by the Ghana Palaver that the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) certificate presented by Michelle Smart-Abbey to Baafour-Gyimah in 2007 for employment is fake. According to Michelle Smart-Abbey she graduated with Honours (Second Class Upper) in English and Political Science in 2006, but exhaustive investigations by Ghana Palaver has confirmed that she did not pass her final examinations at KNUST and that the certificate she is parading around is totally fake. It is also worthy to note that Michelle Smart-Abbey did her National Service with the Gaming Commission, and was hired after the service. Ghanaians will recall that just last year there was an earth moving tsunami at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), where the ICT Director was accused of presenting fake certificates for employment. The uproar led to his ouster from SSNIT. Therefore, one wonders why Baafour-Gyimah instead of supporting his brother-in-law President Akufo Addo to succeed will throw all caution to the wind and rather indulge himself in such dubious traits by forcing the Gaming Commission to recall a fake certificate holder, who also stole from a Gaming Operator, to embarrass Akufo Addo. The Ghana Palaver will want to know what Baafour-Gyimah stands to gain from Michelle Smart-Abbey but tying the hands of all the board members and bringing back a thief who is known to every member of staff of the Commission? What is the interest of Baafour-Gyimah in this thievery matter? Baafour-Gyimah who seems to on the war-path is not only loading on Board Members but even ordinary employees. He is noted for getting angry at everything. A board member who wants the President to remove Baafour-Gyimah as Board Chairman claims Baafour-Gyimah cannot even walk properly and it takes time and effort for him to make a coherent statement. He wondered why such a man who brings nothing new to the Gaming Commission will be made the Chairman just to throw his weight around and seriously embarrass President Akufo-Addo. Government has dispatched about 200 personnel drawn from the military and police services to the Asante Akyem North and Sekyere Afram Plains districts of the Ashanti Region to flush out nomadic herdsmen who are reportedly terrorising residents of those areas. A statement signed by a Deputy Minister of Information, Curtis Perry Kwabia Okudzeto said the joint security team has been tasked to push back the herdsmen from new areas they have occupied, arrest perpetrators of recent acts of violence for prosecution and augment the efforts of Operation Cowleg, an ongoing security operation aimed at dealing with the activities of herdsmen in the area. The statement also said a programme to restrict and ranch cattle will commence upon completion of this operation, to provide a long-term solution to the challenges associated with unrestricted cattle rearing. 3 soldiers, police officer shot at Agogo Three soldiers and a police officer , who are part of the task-force set up to evict nomadic herdsmen in the Asante Akyem North District were wounded earlier this week after they were shot by an unidentified assailant. According to Police in the area, the assailant lay in wait and shot at the security personnel, who were in the bush as part of measures to evict the nomadic herdsmen and their cattle. Herdsmen fleeing Agogo after 'attack' Some herdsmen in the district had fled the area following heightened tensions caused by the shooting of the four security personnel. One of the cattle owners who spoke to Citi News, said security personnel were shooting ruthlessly at their cattle and stealing the meat. Some security personnel came into Agogo Township around December 23, they took to the bush and started shooting at the cattle, killed them and carried them away. Even today, they still do it. Fulani herdsmen are now fleeing the township. Some are currently hiding. Anytime they go, they shoot the cattle. They have KIA trucks following them and whenever they kill the cattle they carry it away. I think they share it among themselves. There was some backlash in Agogo towards the end of 2017 when cattle owners accused the District Security Council (DISEC) in the area of failing to give them prior notice before embarking on an operation to drive away their cattle from the town. The owners claimed that the joint security task-force carrying out the operation has deliberately killed over a hundred cattle, and have sold out some to indigenes of the area. The Author 12.01.2018 LISTEN It is alleged that American President Donald Trump has insulted African intellectualism while promoting Americo-European intellectualim. If this is truth, then the only super power nation after the destruction of the Soviet, hasn't study the prophetic history of the American continent, according to Rev 12:16; 13 : 11 - 18. Most African higher institutions are established and controlled by Europeans colonial philosophers. These renowned philosophers have taught Africans only theory, and not theory with practical because they want to deprive African of divine creativity and intellectually enslaved and Europeanized them after graduating from school. The Americo-European nations have exploited the continent of Africa of its natural and mineral resourses and taught some African leaders corrupt intellectualism, who then robbed African treasures of gold, diamond, oil, cocoa and others to build European countries for exchange of military equipment and weapons of mass destruction. In fact, these colonial masters bought children of Africa from corrupted and inhuman African traditional leaders in what was Triagulal Slave Trade, which in developing Americo-European continents. It was the stupid Africans that fed Americo-European world, to so-called slaves cultivated the land that fed Americans and Europeans. The intellectual Americo-Europeans are blindfolded powers who could not even differentiate human sexualities. If animals could differentiate their sexuality so much that male animal wouldn't have sexual intercourse with the same sexes , then, the so called intellectual Americo-European philosophers who had decreed sexuality between same sexes, could be humbly considered as intellectually fraud and immorally corrupt than African nations they are forcing to legalize homosexual practice, a culture that the senseless animals would not adopt to replace original sexual practice according to Genesis 2 : 21 - 25. Intellectual European Powers behave like intellectuals who call moon the sun, and the sun - moon because the light and brightness of the two heavenly bodies, they could differentiate - Genesis 1 : 14 - 18. Unknown to the Americo-European world could be their democracy, which originated from the pagan Greco-Roman world. The current practiced democracy continous Grecian-Roman Demoncracy, practiced between BC 331 and AD 1870. It is absolutely the religio-political Kingdom of Satan the Devil, according to Rev 16 : 12 - 15. If the Americo-Europeans have praised the corrupted African governments that bought European military equipments and weapons of mass destruction, then, European Powers are themselves masters of corruption and destroyers of the Africans. Only Africans who haven't study the murderous history of the religio-political Europe would continously allow Americo-European nations to corrupt them with homosexual practice in exchange for false development packages, while the wealthy African land is plundered for the continous development of the Americo-European world. In fact, African leaders have allowed themselves to be humiliated by Americo-European powers whose intellectualism allow them to have sex with same sexes, and even legalized sexuality between human beings and animals, the so called stupid Africans wouldn't do, except Africans who have been europeanized by the colonial masters. In fact, any nation on earth that recognises homosexuality, lesbianism and bestiality could be the most intellectually and morally corrupted creation of the Almighty Satan the Devil who had wanted to seduce Yahsua the Messiah according to Matt 4 : 8-11. If those who claimed to be godly intellectuals could make weapons of mass destruction, killing innocent people, children, mothers, aged people and scattering their victims (refugees) among homosexual communities, then, they are themselves deceived by Satan according to Revelation 12 : 9 - 10. Only folly Africans could sell their birth rights just as senseless Esau according to Genesis 25: 29 - 34, Hebrews 12 : 16 - 17. African nations shouldn't have exported raw industrial material unto the Americo-European world, which make Africa nation to import the same industrial material from the Americo-European world, being finished products. This makes Americo-European nations have industrial power over exporting African nations. If Americo-European world who had, christianized the so-called pagan African, now decreed same sex marriage, then their Christianity is a demonic cultural practice, which replaced the Judaic Christianity, established by the Almighty God and Christ Jesus, according to Romans 9 : 4-5. Truly, Satan has employed the Greco-Roman-Papal world to replace the Mosaic and Messianic Judaism with the Greco-Roman pagan religious system. European world have killed those who worshipped the Almighty God, Yahsua the Prince of Heaven and had kept the Mount Sinai Religious Covenant for two millenniums because they rejected the Grecian-Roman-Papal Christianity, which is truly demonic, according to Rev 2 : 12 - 24. Truly truly, United States of America is the prophetic false prophet that did deceive the entire human community (Rev 19 : 10-20). Calling unlawful the lawful, thus bringing divine judgment upon those who patronize their earthly intellectualism-Isaiah 5:20-21. Without theocratic controversy, the so-called Americo-European intellectuals are heavenly classified as the most destroyers of the world l, for their philosophers corrupt the entire world with homosexuality, saying it is the right of people to use their own bodies as it pleases them- Jer 8: 7-9. By Apostle Kadmiel E.H Agbalenyoh Presiding Missionary, Seventh Day Congregation of Theocracy. Fresh scuffles broke out Friday as hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital and coastal city of Sfax, waving yellow cards and demanding the government reverse austerity measures. More than 200 young people rallied in Tunis following a call from the Fech Nestannew (What Are We Waiting For?) campaign for a major protest against the measures imposed at the start of the year. They held up yellow cards, chanted slogans and scuffled with riot police as they marched on administrative offices in the capital. "The people want the Finance Act repealed" and "The people are fed up with the new Trabelsi", they shouted, referring to the graft-tainted in-laws of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. "We believe that dialogue and reforms are still possible," said Henda Chennaoui of the Fech Nestannew campaign. "We've got the same demands we've been seeking for years -- to tackle real problems like the economic crisis and the high cost of living," she told AFP. Tunisian protesters wave yellow cards and shout slogans outside the governorate's offices in Tunis during a demonstration over price hikes and austerity measures on January 12, 2018 In Sfax, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Tunis, around 200 people vented their anger over rising prices, an AFP correspondent reported. "The people's money is in the palaces, and the children of the people are in the prisons," read one placard. Tunisian authorities said Friday the number of people detained in the wave of violent protests had risen to nearly 800, after a provincial town was hit by a night of unrest over the austerity measures. An AFP correspondent in the northern town of Siliana said police fired tear gas at dozens of youths who pelted them with stones during skirmishes that lasted around three hours overnight. 'Heavy-handed' Interior ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani said 151 people were arrested Thursday, taking the number detained for alleged involvement in the violence to 778 after several nights of unrest. Chibani said clashes between youths and police were "limited" and "not serious", and insisted no acts of violence, theft or looting were recorded Thursday evening. Amnesty International has accused the Tunisian authorities of using "increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies" during the anti-austerity protests Rights group Amnesty International accused the authorities of using "increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies and subsequently arrest protesters" during the unrest. "Tunisian security forces must refrain from using excessive force and end their use of intimidation tactics against peaceful demonstrators," the watchdog said. One man died in the unrest on Monday night, but the authorities have insisted the police were not responsible for this. A number of left-wing activists have been arrested by the authorities in recent days, after officials accused them of fuelling the violence. Several dozen members of the Popular Front party demonstrated Friday in front of a court in the town of Gafsa after the arrest of several local activists, an AFP correspondent said. Tunisia is considered a rare success story of the Arab Spring uprisings that began in the North African country in 2011 and spread across the region, toppling autocrats. But the authorities have failed to resolve the issues of poverty and unemployment. Protests are common in Tunisia in January, when people mark the anniversary of the revolution that ousted long-time dictator Ben Ali. The Gambia has suspended permission for rallies and other public political events after clashes allegedly between supporters of President Adama Barrow and those of the former regime of Yahya Jammeh. Gambian police said in a statement issued late Thursday that permits for political parties to campaign were on hold while it investigated two violent incidents in rural areas this week. "The office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) notifies all political parties that all permits granted to conduct political activities have been suspended until further notice," the statement said. The Gambia holds local elections in April. The first incident occurred on January 8 near Mankamang Kunda, the home village of President Barrow, where supporters of the ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) allegedly clashed with Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) members on a nationwide tour. The APRC alleges its members were then attacked in separate incidents on Wednesday and Thursday, though police have yet to comment on the latter incident. "We were going to our party leader's compound in Tallinding with a jubilant crowd when our vehicles were attacked by supporters of the United Democratic Party," APRC National Mobiliser Yankuba Colley told AFP. "Our supporters were again attacked on Thursday by the UDP supporters in Busumbala," he added. A UDP MP, Alagie Darboe, told AFP the incidents were "between the APRC and the residents of the area, and not between APRC and UDP." The presidency has confirmed several people were wounded in the first confrontation, which involved stone throwing and destruction of several vehicles. "Investigations are underway regarding the two incidents and anyone found to have run afoul of the law would be dealt with," the police statement added. The APRC was once led by Jammeh, who left the country for exile nearly a year ago. He ruled the west African country with an iron fist for 22 years, amassing a slew of corruption and human rights abuse allegations during his time in office. APRC members once enjoyed an elevated status in Gambian society and reputedly gained perks denied to the majority of Gambians, most of whom live in poverty. An Ethiopian court has sentenced prominent dissident Bekele Gerba and three other opposition figures to six months in jail for singing a protest song in court, a defence lawyer told AFP on Friday. The four, all members of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), have been in pre-trial custody since their arrest in late 2015 when a wave of anti-government protests broke out. Bekele, the deputy OFC chairman, and the three other party officials broke into song on Thursday after the judges ruled against his request to summon Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and other high-ranking government officials as defence witnesses, their attorney Ameha Mekonnen said. "They were furious, they were saying things that really undermined the judiciary," Ameha said. "After they made many complaints and ... then they continued to sing their songs." Three other prisoners in the courtroom for an unrelated case were also sentenced to three months in jail for clapping to the song, which criticised government land seizures. Though the OFC officials have been imprisoned for more than two years, that jail time won't count for the six month term for contempt of court, Ameha said. Bekele has become a cause celebre for protesters from the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromos, who started rallying more than two years ago over government policies they feared would deprive them of their land. The protests left hundreds dead and prompted parliament to declare a 10-month state of emergency in 2016. Originally charged under the country's terrorism law, the court last July downgraded Bekele's charges to "provocation" under Ethiopia's criminal code. Speculation that Bekele would be released began earlier this month after Hailemariam told reporters that the government would free some jailed politicians "in order to improve the national consensus and widen the democratic platform." But the prime minister provided no details, and none of the many politicians jailed in Ethiopia have been freed since the announcement. Supported by throngs of worshippers and with western ambassadors in attendance, Catholic leaders in DR Congo hammered home a message of anger toward President Joseph Kabila on Friday at a mass to mourn victims of a crackdown. Police fired a couple of warning shots to disperse worshippers outside Kinshasa cathedral after the highly-charged mass, which was led by prominent government critic Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, an AFP journalist reported. Police said they fired only teargas, and two people were slightly injured. Armed officers arrived at the cathedral gates as the congregation was leaving a service to commemorate the six fatalities of a crackdown on New Year's Eve marches that demanded Kabila leave office. The mass, conducted in a packed cathedral, saw the congregation applaud and cheer Catholic leaders as they called on Kabila to uphold a 2016 church-brokered deal, which should have led to the president to hold election by the end of last year. To a wave of emotion, the names of the six dead were repeated three times. "If we have lost a brother, a sister, we have gained heroes, real ones, because they have mingled their blood with that of all those who have died for a change of power, the guarantee of democracy," declared deputy bishop Donatien Bafuidinsoni, bringing the congregation to its feet. Kabila, 46, has been in power since 2001, at the helm of a regime widely criticised for corruption, repression and incompetence. His constitutional term in office expired in December 2016, but he stayed on -- a move that stoked a bloody spiral of violence. Some worshippers at Friday's mass held up protest banners Under an agreement brokered by the church, he was allowed to stay in office provided new elections were held in 2017. After months of silence, the authorities said organisational problems meant that the vote would be held on December 23 2018 -- a postponement that has angered Western nations, but one that they have reluctantly accepted. The spokesman of the episcopate, Father Donatien Nshole, on Friday called on Catholics to "peacefully block all attempts to confiscate or seize power by non-democratic or anti-constitutional ways." "We are witnessing a campaign of propaganda, of disinformation, of libel even, orchestrated by heads of the institutions of the republic against the Catholic church and its leadership," Nshole charged. Friday's service was prominently attended by envoys from western nations, with the ambassadors of Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, the Netherlands and Sweden, and representatives from the United States, the European Union and the Vatican. Opposition leaders Felix Tshisekedi and Vital Kamerhe also attended. Campaigners from in the grassroots group Filimbi held up posters in the cathedral demanding the release of one of their leaders, who is being held. . Outspoken cardinal Friday's events mark the latest step in a confrontation between Kabila and DR Congo's highly influential Roman Catholic church. Roughly half of the country's 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 nation. For many people, Monsengwo has coalesced into the figurehead of protests against Kabila. Born into a royal family in the Sakata tribe in 1939, Monsengwo played a major role in forcing dictator Mobutu Sese Seko into moving the country towards a multi-party democracy. He also was an outspoken critic of the violence that for decades has swept through parts of DR Congo, including civil wars that left millions dead. Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, Archbishop of Kinshasa, is a prominent critic of DR Congo President Joseph Kabila Monsengwo's anger has visibly mounted as the December 31 2016 accord failed to meet its goals, and peaceful protests by Catholics on the deal's anniversary met with violence. Last week, he accused "our supposedly courageous men in uniform" of "channelling barbarism." "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. Monsengwo was slapped down almost immediately by the government, which said "insulting remarks" about the armed forces were unacceptable called on the church to remain neutral in politics. The government "cannot accept that such statements come from a minister of God," the government said, which hammered home "the secular nature of the Congolese state." AirtelTigo, treated its Premier Customers to a series of surprises to acknowledge their support and express gratitudefor their loyalty during the festive season. Premier Customers received shopping vouchers worth hundreds of Ghana Cedis, souvenirs and airtime for their business transactions as part of the Christmas Van surprise package. A dinner was alsoheld at the Swiss Spirit Alisa Hotel in Accra to fete Diamond Customers who were also engaged by their relationship executives to gain insight into their experience on the network as well as their expectations of AirtelTigo going forward. Mr. Frank Djan, Director for Customer Serviceat AirtelTigo, informed the customers that AirtelTigo will continue to challenge itself to introduce products that address the key issues, needs and opportunities that are unique to each customer. In a speech read on his behalf, Mr.Arslan KhanChief Commercial Officer at AirtelTigo said, Our main focus has always been to achieve customer delight with every product and in all our business processes. Transforming customer experience is one of our key strategic objectives for 2018 and we believe that with our expanded coverage andfibrenetwork footprint, we would continue to provide you a seamless and high-performing network experience as well as exciting offers. Photo Caption: Staff from the Premier team presenting souvenirs to the Premier customers As part of the Premier Lounge Cocktail event,120 AirtelTigo Premier Customers nationwide were simultaneously hosted to cocktails in various AirtelTigo shops. During these cocktails, customers were engaged on their service experience and also received insights on how to get more value from their current subscriptions and services. The initiative, which is AirtelTigos maiden edition as a newly merged company is an avenue to express appreciation and gratitude to all of its Premier Customerswho continue to do business with them and make contribution to the success of the company. The festive season also saw the launch of two major promotions by AirtelTigo; Season of Delight and Win Everyday tailored toward pre-paid customers to make the season even more exciting. About AirtelTigo On March 3, 2017, Millicom International Cellular S.A. ("Millicom") and Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), announced their intention to merge their operations in Ghana. This was subsequently approved by the regulator, the National Communications Authority on October 2, 2017. As per the shareholders agreement, Millicom and Airtel have equal ownership and governance rights in the combined entity which has now been rebranded as AirtelTigo. AirtelTigo is the second largest Mobile Network Operator in Ghana with a combined customer base of approximately 10 million and 25 percent market share. By integrating the two networks, the combined business is expected to provide Ghanaian customers with a major boost in both rural and urban network coverage in turn translating into better voice quality, high speed data services and reinforced network stability and resilience. With the combined fibre footprint and increased data centres, enterprise customers including both, large corporations and SMEs, would have access to a diverse portfolio of world class solutions. Mobile Financial Services is also expected to be greatly enhanced with combined agent networks and platforms. 12.01.2018 LISTEN The appointment of Martin Amidu as the country's first Special Prosecutor to fight the canker of political corruption has been greeted with wide and wild acclaim. He is the former Attorney-General under the Mills administration of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which means he is politically wired to oppose the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). But this threat is exactly what President Akufo-Addo is not worried about. He wants corruption prosecutions to be de-politicised. Ghana's money must be retrieved irrespective of which party is in government. Martin Amidu has also demonstrated a fierce virtue of putting country before the party as he singlehandedly waged a war on his own party men over the 52m cedis judgment debt saga. In summary, the President has given power to a man who has a double-edged sword. It is this elevation of difficult principles over easy partisanship that has got many feeling hopeful that Ghana can work again. Deputy Minister of Information, Perry Curtis Okudzeto has lauded the media for their role in the fight against illegal mining. The government last year began a massive campaign to halt activities of illegal miners popularly known as galamsey. The move which received nationwide commendation was resisted by some illegal miners which often resulted in confrontations with a taskforce set up by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to fight the menace. Speaking with a cross-section of the media in the Volta Regional capital, Ho, Mr Okudzeto said the government could not have made the giant strides in fighting the menace if the media had not actively participated. He urged the media to continuously assist in the fight against galamsey and in governments quest to develop the country through various programmes initiated. Mr Okudzeto enumerated the roll out of governments free SHS education policy; restoration of the teacher-nursing training allowance; policy by government not to buy new vehicles; the launch of the National Identification cards, the Zongo Development Fund, one-village-one dam, and the reductions and abolishment in taxes as some of the achievements chalked in 2017. The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Achibald Letsa who was part of the meeting said 2018 would be a year of action, and called on the media to cooperate with the government and other development partners in building the country. The Volta Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Anthony Bells Kafui Kanyi was hopeful that the cordial relationship that has existed between the current administration and the media, particularly in the Volta Region would be strengthened to enable journalists to track and monitor development projects by the government. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has served notice it will not congratulate one of its own, Martin Amidu, who has been nominated as the first independent Special Prosecutor in Ghana. The General Secretary of the main opposition NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, confirmed the former attorney general is still a member of the party, but does not deserve a pat on the back for his feat since it was not a recommendation from the party. I dont think he needs to be congratulated because he was not appointed as a party man and his work is going to be non-partisan so it will be awkward for the party to be congratulating him for this appointment, Mr. Nketia, popularly known as General Mosquito, told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr, Friday, 12 January 2018. He stated the onus now lies on Mr. Amidu to prove the numerous allegations he made against officials of the previous government. If youre on record to have described a certain government appointee as corrupt and youre now being appointed as an independent person to go look for corruption in the whole place you either prove your initial assertion that it is only a particular government that had all its appointees as corrupt or youre not able to do that then you control yourself as having lied to the world, Mr. Nketia stated. Meanwhile, the government has defended its decision of selecting Mr. Amidu as Special Prosecutor ahead of other front runners who are members of NPP. According to Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affair, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, the president chose Amidu ahead of Philip Addison and Akoto Ampaw because of his desire to delink the office from political influence. 12.01.2018 LISTEN Former Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Lawyer John Owusu Agyemang has advised Mr. Martin Amidu not to focus on prosecuting corrupt officials of the former NDC administrationif he is approved as the Special Public Prosecutor by Parliament. Speaking in an interview with Nana KAS on Suncity 97.1 FMs Morning Drive in Sunyani, Lawyer Owusu Agyemang said the Special Prosecutor should rather focus on the current government officials and leave the past ones for the Attorney General to deal with them. I will plead with Martin Amidu not to focus on corrupt officials of the past government since he is a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). They have already embezzled the fundsand some of them are standing trials. He should leave them for Attorney General to deal with them, he said. He should rather focus on NPP officials who will engage in corrupt practices. He should fight against those who do not want Nana Akufo Addos dream to become a reality. He should tackle them and stop them from being corrupt, Lawyer John Owusu Agyemang Added. He stated that Martin Amidus nomination as the Special Prosecutor is in order due to his track record as an anti-corruption crusader. The Former Brong Ahafo Regional NDC Chairman stressed that Mr. Martin Amidu can deliver--and it is not true that he has some bitterness within him as being speculated by some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). What some NDC members are saying that Martin Amidu is bitter is not correct. Where is his bitterness? he queried. Martin Amidu is like Former President Jerry John Rawlings. Since 1979, Rawlings had preached against corruptionthats the same thing that Martin fights against. If he fights against someone who is corruptthen where lies his bitterness. I do not know why they are saying that because he is still a member of the NDC, he stated. Lawyer John Owusu Agyemang called on the Judiciary and all Ghanaians to help the Special Prosecutor to fight against corruption in the country. The Author 12.01.2018 LISTEN It is unfortunate that the religious world, especially Judeo-Christianity, dont know or understand this dispensation. Neither do inhabitants of the earth understand that the present day Antichrist is 89 years with us (1929-2018). Absolutely, the Man of sin (2 Thes 2:3 - 10) shall celebrate centinary in February, 2029 unknown to most Christians. The restoration of the Papacy in AD 1929 began Antichrist role which was cemented with the formation of his Image (United Nations) in AD 1945. Its Name (Universal Law) was promulgated in AD 1947. Its horns (Rev 17 : 11 - 12 ) began to flourish from AD 1957, and has became European Union in AD 1993, which adopted a single currency, called Euro in 1999. Accordingly, the European Democracies and the Roman Catholic Church, for that matter Vatican City are reconciled after the Second World War ( AD 1945). This catholocized European Continent without the knowledge of the Protestant European Christianity. Verily, the powerful Vatican Council II held between AD 1962 and 1965 instituted three Ecumenical Secretariats to bring the entire religious world under the Roman Catholic Religious System. "In order to institute dialogue with three categories of people, Pope Paul VI set up three Secretariays; one for the Promotion of Christian Unity, another for non - Christians, and a third for Unbelievers" Vatican Council II, page 1004. In fact, the Mark of the Beast, which is the Sunday Religious System that Emperor Constantine decreed (AD 321) and formally internationalized by Emperor Theodosius in AD 392, was confirmed in December, 1963 during Vatican Council II. "Accordingly the sacred Council has decided to Decree as follows: By a tradition handed down from the apostles, which took its origin from the very day of Christ's resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every Seventh Day, which day is appropriately called the Lord's Day or Sunday. For on this day Christ's faithful are bound to come together into one place. They should listen to the word of God and take part in the Eucharist, thus calling to mind the passion, resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus, and giving of Thanks to God "who has begotten them again , through the resurrection of Christ from death, unto a living hope (1 Peter 1 : 3). The Lord's Day is the original feast day, and it should be proposed to the faithful and taught to them so that it may become in fact, a day of joy and of freedom from work. Other celebrations, unless they be truly of the greatest importance, shall not have precedence over Sunday, which is the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year" Vatican Council II, page 46. It is therefore left unto the international community to implement Vatican Council II decree on the Sunday Worship. This is the opposite of the Seventh Day Sabbath decreed by the Almighty God at Mount Sinai, about BC 1450. It is stated categorically that those who have not practiced the religious institution of the foundation of the world would embrace the Sunday Religious Law, which Vatican Council II decreed on 4th December, 1963. "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" Rev 13 : 8. In Genesis 2 : 2-3, the only institution that unfolded creation history, is the Seventh Day on which God Almighty rested and sanctified. "And on the Seventh Day God ended his work which He had made; and He rested on the Seventh Day from all his work which He had made. And God bless the Seventh Day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all his work, which God created and made" Genesis 2 : 2-3. This creation's great memorial day had God codefied at Mount Sinai. "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six Days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the Seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in Six Days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the Seventh Day : Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day, and hallowed it" Exodus 20 : 8-11. In view of this remarkable truth, the First Angel's Message called inhabitants of the earth to worship Him that made heaven, earth, and sea, and the fountain of waters, because the judgment of the Almighty God would soon be excited on earth. "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of the heaven, having the Everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongues, and people, Saying with a loud voice, fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and Worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters " Rev 14 : 6-7. In fact, any true and faithful Christian theologian would would admit that Sunday Religious System isn't Biblical but originate from the Greco-Roman Religious custom, a pagan religious practice, the Edict of Milan ( AD 313 ) donated to Roman Christian Church in AD 321. Any disagreement only adds to the existing apostacy of the Roman Christianity, which begat Greek Orthodox Church (AD 1054, and Protestant Churches in the 16th Century AD. If this is never true, why should Greek Orthodox and Protestant Churches return unto their mother, for that matter the Roman Catholic Church through Vatican Council II Ecumenical Religion? If Greek Orthodox and Protestant Churches have truly discovered the Biblical Religious System, why must they after AD 1965 become Roman Catholic Institution? It should be noted that all Sunday Religious Organisations, are doctrinally Roman Catholic Christians, regardless of their christened brand names. Without theological controversy, the Beast Yet Is represents European Papacy, which had its Political Sovereignty restored in AD 1929, when Pope and Premier Benito Mussolin signed the Lateran Concordat. "In 1929, Mussolin and Pope Pius XII concluded the Lateran Treaty, which granted the Vatican autonomous status "Visual History of the world, page 570 If Christian Churches don't know, I want them to know and understand that the predicted last day Antichrist is at work, and cooperates with the United States of America, Commonwealth of Nations, European Union, and that matter United Nations Organisation to cotrol religio-political affairs on earth. Absolutely, United Nations (Dragon) , European Papacy ( Beast) and United States of America (False Prophet) are being moved by the devil to persecute those who shall keep the Mount Sinai Religious Covenant, according to Revelation 16 : 12 - 15. It is now left to the European Union to formally support the Roman Catholic Church Pontiff"And the Ten Horns which thou sawest are Ten Kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the Beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the Beast" Rev 17: 12 - 13. Verily, the Beast's presidential Code is 666. "Here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the Beast: for it is the Number of a Man; and his Number is Six Hundred Threescore and Six" Rev 13: 18. Verily verify NO.666 represents the Presidency of the Restored European Papacy. By Apostle Kadmiel E.H Agbalenyoh Presiding Missionary, Seventh Day Congregation of Theocracy. 12.01.2018 LISTEN Monty, never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, neverin nothing, great or small, large or pettynever give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Sir Winston Churchill, said these words to General Bernard Montgomery, who was also known as the Spartan General, the hero of the Battle of Alamein, the Commander of the famous British Desert Rats and the Field Marshall of the British Armed Forces. On January 13, 2018, another chapter would be written in the History of Yoruba Nation. This is courtesy of the Alaafin of Oyo, Iku Baba Yeye, Alase, Ekeji Orisa, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi II, The new Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land would be installed. Aare Gani Adams would become the 15th person to be bestowed with that important honour and onerous responsibility. The story of Gani Adams is a special story His story of grass to grace scintillates. It coruscates. It titillates. It tantalizes. It pulsates. It inspires. It allures. It is a non-fantasy fantastic story. A story of modesty. A story of humility. A story of courage. A story of determination. A story of dedication. A story of conviction. A story of perseverance. A story of patriotism. And a story of guardianship. Yes, guardianship of a heritage. Guardianship of a race. Guardianship of a History. Guardianship of a people. Guardianship of a Nation. Guardianship of our dreams. Guardianship of our hopes. Guardianship of our aspirations. Guardianship of our honour. Guardianship of our dignity. Guardianship of our present. Guardianship of our future and of our posterity. His detractors are never tired of reminding us that "He is an ordinary carpenter." Yes, he is one "ordinary carpenter" that by dint of hardwork, perseverance, determination and courage, had attained extraordinary heights, made extraordinary conquests and achieved extraordinary feats that History would not be able to forget, even if it tries. His detractors have forgotten the story of another carpenter born in the manger and has manifestly marinated the world in his message and mission of salvation. They overlooked the power of commitment and patriotism of this special descendant of Oodua. They failed to reckon with his bravery, his audacity, his courage, his boldness and his effrontery to stare down the oppression, enslavement and subjugation of his Yoruba people. In their malicious revelry, inebriated with sour grapes, they became oblivious to and of his manifest destiny, his divined responsibility assigned to him by Providence to be the protector of his people. Like the other carpenter who came to liberate his people from spiritual bondage, this Son of Oodua had a three-pronged task - Cultural, Spiritual and Political liberation of his Yoruba people. Chief GANIYU ADAMS, the newly installed Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land is a gentle giant, a warrior with a calm mien. A man of few words more often than not, but an articulate leader when occasion demands. His foot soldiers are loyal. They are dedicated as much as he is. They are patriots too. He inspires them. He is a source of unmitigated valiance for and to them. Steadfast. Sincere. Consistent. Committed. Persistent. Persevering. Brave. Bold. Maligned. Vilified. Demonized. Abused. Assailed. Attacked. Bad mouthed. Perniciously lied against. The most powerful political machine in Nigeria and Yoruba Nation unleashed a serialised campaign of calumny against him, but he remained unbowed. He was undaunted. He was unfazed. He was unmoved. He could not be bothered. He would not be intimidated. He would not be forced to support a cult in the name of politics. He would not compromise his principle. He would not give up. Propelled by his firm belief in the non elasticity of the apron of truth no matter how It is twisted; belief in the eventual victory of good over evil and his unalloyed confidence in the justiciability as well as the justifiability of his struggle for the freedom, liberty and security of his Yoruba people, he was unbreakable. He remained staunched and solid like Imo (wisdom) Rock of Ilesa, unperturbed, unflurried and unflustered by all the whirlwind of hate and political vendetta of adumbrated "progressivism." Out of devilish and malicious intent to belittle him and put him down, his detractors, like drunken sailors, would belch aloud, "He is an illiterate." But this self made warrior, unlike their mercantilist political leader, has a non - controversial, verifiable credentials from International Aviation School, Tema, Ghana and Lagos State University (LASU) where he bagged Diploma in Tourism Management; International Relations & Strategic Studies and Bachelor Degree in Political Science, respectively. Born to Pa Lamidi Adams and late Madam Dada Adams (nee Aduloju) on April 30, 1970 at Arigidi - Akoko, Ondo State, for his bravery and patriotism in the defence of the Yoruba Nation, Aare Adams has been honoured with about one hundred chieftaincy titles across Yoruba land. Among them are Otunba of Arigidi - Akoko, Ondo State; Akinrogun of Erin-Osun, Osun State; Ajagunla of Aala Land, Kwara State; Jagunmolu Olu - Ode of Ibadan Land, Oyo State; Apagunpote of Igbeji Land, Yewa, Ogun State; Asoludero of Oshogbo, Osun State; Bobaselu of Ado Kingdom; Apase Oodua of Ojokoro Land; Aare Akogun Atewonro of Ila - Orangun, Osun State; Bobagunwa of igbehin Egba, Ogun State; Aniyikaye of Ijero -Ekiti, Jagunmolu of Igangan Land, Olunla of Ilikimu, Benin Republic and many, many more. Aare Adams also have in his kitty about two hundred and thirty-two (232) international and local awards. As Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, on his broad shoulders rests the hopes, aspirations and the dignity of a proud race. Going forward, he, by the conferment of this title, has assumed the guardianship of a great heritage, of a great History and of a great Nation and its peoples. He had assumed the responsibility of wading off external enemies of the Yoruba Nation and holding at Bay its internal traitors. Many people on the streets felt that his installation could not have come at a better time. They point to the murderous Fulani marauders and the spate of other security issues across Yoruba land. Many have lost hope and confidence in the official security apparatuses. They are expressing the hope that he would help to mobilise and organize the Yoruba youths for the defence of their motherland. In him a lot is being vested. His installation is generating excitement and enthusiasm. People are silently praying for him as they load their hopes on his shoulders. His antecedents created a reputation that has gone far ahead of him. Despite his imperfections, and no one is, he enjoys enormous confidence of the majority of the Yoruba people. He has a lot of good will. Wittingly, by virtue of this new office, he has become a de facto and de jure leader in Yoruba Nation. And he would have a lot of cooperation. Hopefully, he would be able to restore the pride of a Yoruba people whose political leaders have sold to the internal colonialism of Fulani oligarchy. Hopefully, he would be able to ignite the faltering fire of our Cultural renaissance. Hopefully, he would be able to organise the Yoruba Nation in a manner that enemies would not be able to take us by surprise. Hopefully, he would be able, by the exudation of his exemplary character, to bring moral clarity to a people, frustrated, exploited and abused by their political leaders. His is an onerous task. It is a titanic task. A yeoman's yoke that would require "agbajo owo" to carry for the purpose of chest beating for a people nostalgic of the great and golden years of yore. A people bewildered by political charlatans. A people hypnotised and duped with political shenanigans. A people that are no longer sure of what they believe and at cross roads. One's counsel to the new Aare Ona Kakanfo is the maintenance of his integrity. It would be his cloak against his enemies and detractors within the Yoruba Nation and there are quite a few of them. He must not just be above board in his dealings, he must be seen to be so. He must hearken to the wise counsel of the greatest Yoruba son since Oduduwa, the great sage, Obafemi Awolowo. Awo had advised leaders never to have any secret, dirty or not, to the knowledge of any man. He insisted that such would become an instrument of blackmail against him and could mitigate against his taking a good decision on behalf of his followers or his people. Remaining above board, is a tool that must be adopted. This is moreso that he is a warrior. He must continue to inspire trust and confidence. His troops must be able to vouch for him. They must be willing to go into battles for and with him blindfolded. He must be aware that his enemies have no capability to give up on their task to bring him down. He would be seen as a veritable obstacle by putrid agents of political mercantilism within our Nation. He would have many battles on his hand. He would have many wars to contend with. The new Aare Ona Kakanfo must also take to heart the introductory quote above as enunciated by the great Winston Churchill. He must " never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of HONOUR and GOOD SENSE. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." (capital letters mine). Stand for justice. Advocate for equity. Further the frontiers of fairness. Speak out for the voiceless. Be the bullion of balance. Secure the integrity of the Yoruba Nation. Protect your people. And every other blessings shall be yours to make your reign memorable. To a brother, a friend and a fellow patriot, I say congratulations. May your reign be fruitful and eventful. Ase. Edumare yi o ti o l'eyin Origun merindinlogun ile Yoruba yi o ti o l'eyin. Awon t'o n'ile yi, yi o ti o l'eyin. Awon t'o l'aye yi o ti o l'eyin. Awon t'o bi wa yi o ti o l'eyin Oranmiyan a ti o l'eyin Oodua a ti o l'eyin. K'osek'ose ni ti ilakose o. Ase. "In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility I welcome it. - John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address January 20, 1961 Please follow me on Twitter: @OyeyemiRemi Remi Oyeyemi Removals or deportation of migrants from a foreign country by governments through security forces has become a big topic which we must talk about seriously. Just last week, a news item from the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, it would pay thousands of African migrants living illegally in the country to leave, threatening them with jail if they are caught after the end of March 2018. According to the international news wire services Reuters, the plan launched last week offers African migrants a $3,500 payment from the Israeli government and a free air ticket to return home or go to third countries, which human rights groups identified as Rwanda and Uganda. Many African migrants who are working low pay jobs locals shun have protested the voluntarily deportation order by the government to the supreme court of Israel and United Nations human rights groups. Looking at the volatile security situation in the Middle East especially between Israel, Palestine, the Gaza Strip and all the Arab countries surrounding Israel, it will be proper to urge African migrants to take advantage of the voluntarily deportation programme and leave Israel in peace to other countries that may welcome them. No wonder the prime minister of Israel has described the migration of African migrants into Israel as, infiltration of these illegal migrants into southern Tel Aviv poor living neighbourhoods as a threat to the countrys national security. Worse of it all was the insult, denigration, demonizing and condemning statement issued by a state official that described these migrants as cancer to the people of Jews, an unacceptable statement which demands an apology from the Israeli government. According to the story, a computer data base has been launched to track down 38,000 or more migrants living illegally in Israel and some 1,420 who are being held in two detention centers and deport them out from the country. Using a computer data base to track down illegal migrants means the government through its security forces will be checking all the facts about illegal migrants in the country and deport them after March 2018. This is not a joke at all. Seriously, it is not a comic event or exercise to take place and laugh over but a serious exercise that should serve as a wakeup call on the government. No country not even our mother land Ghana will handle illegal migration lightly because it can open the country for crooks, gangs, fraudsters, war crime suspects, harden criminals and drug barons to cause economic and political instability. Quite recently, all witnessed how illegal migrants from China nearly polluted all the river bodies, destroyed forests and killed citizens who protested against their illegal mining activities in the country. Ghanaians are not crooks, gangs, drug barons, harden criminals either living at home or in foreign destinations as they work hard to live responsible lives. However, due to the high influx of migrants into the country due to stable political environment, the existing institutions are occupied creating joblessness for its citizens who are pulled to move to other countries such as Israel. Among this huge figure of illegal migrants definitely will include some Ghanaians who need help to get out of this deportation drag net. Alerting Ghanaians who might be living as illegal migrants in Israel do not mean flagging them or advising the suspects to go into hibernation to avoid big chase from Israeli Koti. Rather, making them aware of how serious the issue is and the need to avoid being put behind the huge iron curtains and later removed from the country. In previous articles about migration, I pointed out that if you enter the borders of United States of America [U.S.A.], or Canada illegally, you should bear it at the back of your mind that the Koti in these countries are also prepared to deport or remove you from the country as it is the common term used in Canada. Let the government of Ghana through the ministry of foreign affairs charge the high commissions, embassies as well as consulates to start educating Ghanaians in their countries of service on the need to stay out of deportation drag net. Let us not ignore the issue of frustrations Ghanaians go through when migrated to other countries such as Israel and the need to solve it. We must talk about this issue. My opinion, Ghanaian illegal migrants in Israel should leave the country in peace as I explained why in the next article. To be continued.... The efforts of Gifas Health Company Limited, the manufacturer of Gifas Herbal Mixture has been recognized, when the company scooped two tops awards at the National Herbal Awards ceremony held in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, on Saturday, January 6, 2018. In a colorful ceremony, the product, Gifas Herbal Mixture won the Best Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Herbal Medicine and the Best TV Advertisement of the Year, for the year 2017. The Ghana National Herbal Awards, instituted by Nyamedua Herbal and Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) made up of herbal experts is to promote locally made products to consumers and facilitate the discovery of new and life-saving products. It is supported by the Department of Herbal Medicine of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The 2018 Ghana National Herbal Awards was aimed at providing a platform to improve herbal products made in Ghana and also make awareness, loyalty, recognition and prestige for herbal products in the country. The companys creativity in its presentation of the product, on radio and television, was also recognized by winning the Best Herbal Advert of the Year, television category. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Gifas Health Company Limited, Oheneba Appiahyei Donkor was excited over the successes chalked by the company over the past 7 years. Speaking in an interview with Otec News Francis Appiah after the ceremony, Appiagyei Donkor said the awards scooped by the company were the testimony of the potency of the products, manufactured by Gifas Health Company. There are a lot of herbal medicines in the markets that are to cure STDs, and if our products have stood tall among them, it means our products are good well recognized and patronized, he happily said. The awards have encouraged us to go an extra mile to improve on the potent of our products, though we were doing our best in serving the people with good quality health care, we never knew we were been watched, though we are aware of the potent and quality of the products, he added. He said the award is a challenge to them and promised to maintain the quality and standard in the preparation of the medicine, to effectively always find the best antidote to STDs. We promise our customers and potential customers that we will maintain the quality and efficacy of our products, we will also do more researches into the medicines to serve our people with the right quality, he also said. Hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital and the coastal city of Sfax on Friday, waving yellow cards and demanding that the government reverse austerity measures. More than 200 young people rallied in Tunis following a call from the Fech Nestannew (What Are We Waiting For?) campaign for a major protest against the measures imposed at the start of the year. They held up yellow cards and chanted slogans amid a major deployment of riot police as they marched on administrative offices in the capital. "The people want the Finance Act repealed" and "The people are fed up with the new Trabelsi", they shouted, referring to the graft-tainted in-laws of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. "We believe that dialogue and reforms are still possible," said Henda Chennaoui of the Fech Nestannew campaign. "We've got the same demands we've been seeking for years -- to tackle real problems like the economic crisis and the high cost of living," she told AFP. Tunisian protesters wave yellow cards and shout slogans outside the governorate's offices in Tunis during a demonstration over price hikes and austerity measures on January 12, 2018 Friday's demonstrations came ahead of the seventh anniversary of Ben Ali's ouster on January 14, 2011. In Sfax, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Tunis, around 200 people vented their anger over rising prices, an AFP correspondent reported. "The people's money is in the palaces, and the children of the people are in the prisons," read one placard. Authorities said Friday the number of people detained in the wave of violent protests had risen to nearly 800, after a provincial town was hit by a night of unrest over the austerity measures. An AFP correspondent in the northern town of Siliana said police fired tear gas at dozens of youths who pelted them with stones during skirmishes that lasted around three hours overnight. Interior ministry spokesman Khalifa Chibani said 151 people were arrested Thursday, taking the number detained for alleged involvement in the violence to 778 after several nights of unrest. 'Heavy-handed methods' Chibani said clashes between youths and police were "limited" and "not serious", and insisted no acts of violence, theft or looting were recorded Thursday evening. Friday's demonstrations were reported to be peaceful. Amnesty International has accused the Tunisian authorities of using "increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies" during the anti-austerity protests Rights group Amnesty International accused the authorities of using "increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies and subsequently arrest protesters" during the unrest. "Tunisian security forces must refrain from using excessive force and end their use of intimidation tactics against peaceful demonstrators," the watchdog said. The United Nations expressed concern at the number of arrests, and urged the authorities to ensure people can protest peacefully. One man died in the unrest on Monday night, but the authorities have insisted the police were not responsible for this. A number of left-wing activists have been arrested by the authorities after officials accused them of fuelling the violence. Several dozen members of the Popular Front party demonstrated Friday in front of a court in the town of Gafsa after the arrest of several local activists, an AFP correspondent said. Tunisia is considered a rare success story of the Arab Spring uprisings that began in the North African country in 2011 and spread across the region, toppling autocrats. But the authorities have failed to resolve the issues of poverty and unemployment. A spokesman for the prime minister in a statement said the protesters were "thugs aged between 17 and 21 who are not affected by the impact of the finance law". Political scientist Hamza Meddeb said there was "very strong social anger" over a "political class increasingly cut off from the population" and because protests had not yet resulted in any concrete improvement. Protests are common in Tunisia in January, when people mark the anniversary of the revolution that ousted long-time dictator Ben Ali. The authorities on Friday said four people had been arrested after a petrol bomb attack on Wednesday damaged the entrances of two Talmudic schools in a Jewish district of Djerba. The interior ministry said the aim of the perpetrators was to "sow chaos like that recorded in some parts of the country". Popular Yoruba actress, Funke Adesiyan, has voiced out her displeasure over the recent killings taking place in Benue state. The actress was moved to tears on seeing the pictures of mass burial that was taking place in the state for the lives that were lost. It would be recalled that recently, some Fulani herdsmen attacked a village in the state and claimed many lives and destroyed properties. There comes a time when #silence becomes #betrayal . We all must come together to lend our our voice against this menace called #fulaniherdsmen . This is babarism in the highest order. This is terrorism and Nigeria should unite to fight this. Do not wait till you fall victim. I pray for the souls of the departed find peace. May God help their families and friends heal. We dont want this in #nigeria In a petition filed this week in B.C.s Supreme Court, Micheal Noseworthy aimed to force the provinces real estate council which he oversees to order a discipline hearing for a McBride-based real estate agent.B.C.s superintendent took legal action to establish the powers and limits of his office. According to court records, the council has refused to pursue disciplinary action against Rodger Peterson over a complaint that he misled a couple in an aborted purchase of a rural property back in 2013.The council did not agree to Noseworthys subsequent request to reconsider its decision and hold a hearing.Garry and Wendy Lowe has engaged in courtroom battles for the past four years with the owner of the 36-hectare property they were intending to buy the property in which Peterson acted as an agent for both the buyers and the seller.The Lowes claimed Peterson assured them that the purchase will include a 4 to 6-hectare field, along with an old abandoned farmhouse. At the last minute, and after the contract for purchase has already been completed, the Lowes learned from locals that the property did not include the field, the couple claimed, leading to them killing the deal and the owner suing them for breach of contract.Read more: Regulators could have acted earlier on syndicated mortgages Provincial Court Judge Michael Gray dismissed the claim against the Lowes in November 2016, stating that Peterson was careless in not fully discussing the interest of the Lowes in the farming project, and that at the very least, he should have insisted on walking the property before any offer was presented.Three months later, however, the Real Estate Council of B.C. informed the Lowes they would not be applying any disciplinary action to Peterson, leading to the couple appealing to the superintendent.We believe the public interest is not being served by how the real estate council regulates real estate. There [are] a lot of people who don't have our skill or our determination and they just give up, Garry Lowe said, as quoted by CBC News.When the superintendent thing came up a few years ago, this was such a hopeful breath of fresh air for the publics interest, but the real estate council has just basically told him to go away, because he doesnt have jurisdiction. Well, if he doesnt have jurisdiction, then who does?After Noseworthy directed the council to hold a disciplinary hearing regarding the claims, the council wrote back saying that once the council has disposed of a complaint, the jurisdiction of the council is spent in respect of that matter.One of the recommendations ... was that the superintendent be provided with stronger oversight powers over the Real Estate Council in order to ensure that the public had confidence in the enforcement of the [Real Estate] Acts provisions, according to the superintendents petition to the B.C. Supreme Court. To permit the Real Estate Council to refuse to comply ... would be to render those amendments meaningless and unenforceable, contrary to legislative intent.The council has yet to answer the petition. An effort by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Deputy Director Leandra English to prevent Mick Mulvaney from heading the consumer watchdog has failed after a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction she had sought, Reuters reported.Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia wrote in his decision that English was unable to show the likelihood of success on the merits or that she would suffer irreparable injury in case the injunction would not be granted.Mick Mulvaney, who serves as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, was appointed by President Donald Trump to temporarily lead the agency following the departure of Richard Cordray in November.English, who as deputy director was endorsed to lead the agency by Cordray, is challenging Mulvaneys right to lead the bureau. She argues that under the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the CFPB, Cordray had legal grounds to appoint a successor until the US Senate confirms a full-time replacement chosen by the president.The decision follows a denial of Englishs request for a temporary restraining order in November.Deepak Gupta, a counsel for English, was disappointed by the decision.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 in a statement. Mr. Mulvaneys appointment undermines the bureaus independence and threatens its mission to protect American consumers.Reuters said that a spokesperson for Mulvaney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 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. Economic hardship not the outcome of ... Jerry Brown Talks About His Budget Plan View Photos Sacramento, CA California Governor Jerry Brown delivered his $132-billion proposed budget to the legislature this week. The Governors speech detailing the budget is featured during this mornings KVML Newsmaker of the Day segment. Brown calls it a prudent budget, which sets aside money in the event of upcoming recessions. Local lawmakers are reacting to the budget. Republican Board of Equalization member George Runner, who represents the Mother Lode, says, Its a smart move by the governor to boost the states rainy day fund (by $10-billion), since as he warns, the threat of a recession still looms, and California is still very much vulnerable to boom-and-bust budgeting. However, since members of his own party are suddenly and surprisingly concerned about taxpayers, it would be great if the governor would use the budget process to work with Republicans to come up with ways to reduce the overall tax burden of California residents, which is very high. The governor could start by refunding the money to Californians who paid the now suspended fire prevention fee, and by reconsidering the need for his catastrophic gas tax hike. Republican Senator Tom Berryhill, who represents district eight, says, Governor Browns budget only proves what Republicans have been saying all along: Taxes are too darn high. Instead of spending the significant surplus on new government programs that will only lead to even higher taxes in down years, lets at least put the money to good use by paying down pension debt, investing in local communities and protecting against economic downturns in the future. Democratic Senate Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, comments, For the last several years, we have been fortunate to invest in California and its citizens, while at the same time building up a strong budget reserve to insulate from future downturns. I applaud the Governor for bringing our budget reserve to 10% of the total state budget. The Senate is committed to protecting that progress, and building for the future with this budget. For the Senate, that means investing in our K-12 schools especially by fully funding our Local Control Funding Formula to help close the achievement gap in our state. We want to continue our progress on college affordability to help more students graduate on time and with as little debt as possible including funding free community college and providing more financial aid to incentivize students to complete a degree in a timely manner. Proposed Tuolumne County Courthouse View Photos Sonora, CA Funding to build Tuolumne Countys planned courthouse is included in Californias proposed budget released this week. Tucked into the 272 page budget proposal, is the announcement that funding is tentatively planned to be allocated to build 10 courthouse projects that are currently in development, including Tuolumne County. Construction would begin in fiscal year 2018-19, based on the proposal. Governor Jerry Browns releasing of his budget is the first step towards multiple negotiations that will take place over the coming months before the final budget is adopted prior to July 1st. The Judicial Branch of California notes that Tuolumne Countys planned project, to be constructed at the new law and justice center property off Old Wards Ferry Road, would cost the state $64-million, be 61,537 sq. ft., and consist of five courtrooms. The project has been in the works for many years, but construction has not commenced, due to the need for final state funding. On a somewhat related note, Tuolumne County officials announced this week that the ground breaking for the countys new jail, for which funding has already been secured through state and local sources, named the Sheriff J.H. Jack Dambacher Detention Center, will be held on Tuesday, February 6. Ailing opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai reportedly asked President Emmerson Mnangagwa to postpone general elections by three years ostensibly because lack of electoral reforms was likely to undermine the credibility of the 2018 general poll result. This comes as the veteran politician, picked to represent Zimbabwes opposition Alliance in the presidential election expected in the third quarter of this year his fourth time as a presidential candidate said on Monday it was time for the older generation to make way for younger leaders in the party. Tsvangirai, 65, reportedly tabled the proposal to postpone elections to Mnangagwa, 75, when the new president and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga made an impromptu but welcome gesture to check on the social democrat, who has dominated Zimbabwean opposition politics since the formation of the MDC in 1999. Mnangagwa ascended the throne last November after Robert Mugabe was forced to resign following the intervention of the military. Tsvangirai was first diagnosed with cancer of the colon in June 2016 and has been undergoing treatment in neighbouring South Africa. The MDC leader, who was Zimbabwes prime minister in an uneasy coalition government with the ousted Mugabe from 2009 until 2013, has been undergoing repeated cycles of treatment that have left him frail. Mnangagwas spokesperson, George Charamba, told the Daily News yesterday that his boss was awaiting formal submissions from the opposition on the legal issues the MDC leader wanted addressed in relation to his proposal to delay the 2018 elections. Tsvangirai asked if we could delay elections, his reasons were couched on legalism. The president said there was need for a formal submission on the issues that needed attention so that they could be considered, Charamba told the Daily News yesterday. What you need to understand is that the processes of communicating with government are different, you need formal legal submissions, then after the submissions are made, they are negotiated and we go to Parliament with an agreed position. What should be noted is that where there is consensus, reforms can be done in one day. Both the president and the vice presidents are riding high on the change that happened in November. If we are to go for elections, it would be a white-wash. It is the opposition that wants to buy time as it would be in their interest. And since their leader has hinted on handing over power, if its before elections, it means they would need a new leader and give him profile, so time is not on their side. However, there is also the aspect of electoral timelines that should be adhered to after proclamation of elections. The opposition has been demanding wide-ranging electoral reforms which they said should be enacted before going for the general elections, but according to Charamba, there has not been any formal submission to government in that regard. Tsvangirais spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka denied that his boss had tabled a proposal to postpone elections. That wasnt raised (in the meeting), to the best of my knowledge. I think I issued a statement after that meeting with ED and that matter was never a subject for discussion, Tamborinyoka told the Daily News. This comes as different narratives have emerged over who exactly tabled the request to postpone the election timetable. Former Cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo claimed in an interview on BBCs HARDtalk with Zeinab Badawi aired yesterday that it was actually Mnangagwa who asked Tsvangirai for a postponement ostensibly because he was afraid of losing the election to the 65-year-old former prime minister, the loser in Zimbabwes last three controversial presidential polls and who almost ended Mugabes rule in the historic 2008 polls. We know that when Mnangagwa and Chiwenga went to Tsvangirais house, they pretended that they were concerned with Tsvangirais health but we know they wanted to negotiate with him to postpone elections for at least three years, Moyo told Badawi. They are afraid of elections; they dont want to have free and fair elections, let alone credible elections. Zanu PF administration secretary and Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu rubbished Moyos claims that Mnangagwa visited Tsvangirai in a bid to postpone the elections. On the contrary, the president wants the elections to be held as soon as possible without delay, Mpofu told the Daily News. I dont know where he (Moyo) is getting all this from, which is opposite from what is on the ground. As far as Zanu PF and my brief from the president is concerned, the president will soon be declaring the dates for the elections and Zanu PF is geared for that, he said. The Home Affairs minister also dismissed Moyos allegations that there was a death warrant out for him saying many of his comrades were alive and well in the country, albeit fighting for their freedom at the countrys courts. First of all, these will remain allegations but I am not aware of the death warrant which has been sent out for him from the presidents office and secondly, what he is alleging in terms of the presidents legitimacy is out of place. The president is a product of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which Constitution got him into power to be where he is, which power will be subjected to the electorate in the soon-to-be-held elections. Moyo said Mnangagwas regime was illegitimate and alleged there was an international conspiracy to globally endorse his regime that came to power through the military-engineered ouster of Mugabe. He also rubbished claims by Mnangagwa that he was preparing to hold free and fair elections this year. He (Mnangagwa) cant hold free and fair elections! He cannot, there has never been a single case of a government that has come to power (through the) bullet (holding credible elections), he said. If anyone out there thinks that Zimbabweans are going to embrace the coup and entrench these leaders right now the Cabinet is led by the most feared people in the history of this country. He said the Constitution of Zimbabwe requires people to come into power via the ballot and the people of Zimbabwe will decide. If the world wants to be at odds with the popular will of the people of Zimbabwe, that is up to them. We can only be concerned about the Republic of Zimbabwe, the views of the people of Zimbabwe. The international conspiracy that supports a dictatorship that has come to power via the bullet is another story which will not be experienced by Zimbabweans for the first time, he said. Asked whether he would spend the rest of his life on the run, 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 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 would not be of interest to Interpol, the global police agency. Moyo, who is in a self-imposed exile, also said he will not discuss an immunity deal with the Mnangagwa government. When the devil offers you immunity, you would be a fool to enter what is called a Faustian bargain, he told Badawi. Moyo also claims his colleague Saviour Kasukuweres family and his hid for 15 minutes from a volley of gun attack from the defence forces special forces (SAS) snipers. He alleged government was struggling to conjure up a criminal case against him, hence have allegedly turned to politically persecuting him. Zimbabwes anti-corruption officials have alleged he used money meant for the manpower development to fund personal interests and has to face corruption charges. The anti-graft body has alleged Moyo, in cahoots with officials from his ministry, diverted $430 000 from the fund to finance personal activities. He said he left Zimbabwe with the help of people who to me are angels because they saved lives.?I left Zimbabwe when Mugabe was still president of the country and I left with the assistance of these people legally. When I left Zimbabwe there was no warrant of arrest for me but there was a death warrant, he said. We must have the rule of law. The army deployed itself, when the Constitution said only the president can deploy it. When you have people who have deployed themselves and taken over all the institutions of the State and government you dont discuss immunity with them. Charamba told the Daily News that Moyos whereabouts where known and they will get him when the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is ready to take the matter for prosecution. He has a case to answer on Zimdef (Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund that was under Moyos ministry) and he cannot run away from that, we will get him, Charamba said, adding that Moyos claims were aimed at soliciting for sympathy. DailyNews Breaking News via Email The President, Emmerson Mnangagwa has left Harare for Luanda, Angola on an official visit. He is being accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Retired Lieutenant General Sibusiso Moyo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Mr Partson Mbiriri and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Mr Ringson Chitsike. President Mnangagwa is expected to brief the Angolan leader, Mr Joao Lourenco, on the situation prevailing in the country and events leading to his ascendancy into the highest office in the land. Angola is the current chair of the SADC troika. Zimbabwe and Angola are close co-operating partners in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) activities that include military co-operation, the United Nations verification missions one and two where the new Commander Defence Forces of Zimbabwe General Phillip Valerio Sibanda once served as commander. Mnangagwa was seen off by the two vice presidents, Retired General Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, several government ministers and service chiefs. Meanwhile, Vice President Mohadi is the Acting President. ZBC Breaking News via Email We are in a relatively quiet period regarding Brexit, which in and of itself isnt a good thing. If the UK had the remotest apprehension of the massive changes that it has set in motion, both government officials and business leaders would be moving heaven and earth to try to minimize disruption and move the country as rapidly as possible into operating like more of an autarky (not that the UK can become self-sufficient, but driving in that direction would be beneficial). In the way of a mini-update, two stories highlight a manifestation of Brexit denialism. It has been both fascinating and distressing to watch an entire country sleepwalking towards a cliff, telling itself that things wont change much, or if they do, they wont be all that bad or will somehow be worth the sacrifice. In reality, the UK will undergo a significant, permanent decline in its standard of living. And it is not as if the UK is cohesive enough to take that at all well. One of bizarre ongoing features is the Governments refusal to engage the question of what sort of post-Brexit arrangement it wants with the EU. The EU has, Lord only knows how many times, told the UK what its boundary conditions are, most importantly that any arrangement has to fit within the parameters of existing deals. The UKs negotiators doesnt even have the self-awareness to see the fact that Barnier had to produce this chart in December to tell them that there was only one option, given UK red lines, was pathetic: Yet we still have UK leaders prattling on about special relationship, bespoke, and Canada plus plus plus when nothing remotely like that will happen unless the UK retreats from some of its red lines. The UK is even managing the difficult feat of regressing. Chancellor Philip Hammond, who had seemed more capable than the other ministers in Mays cabinet (admittedly a very low bar), has now joined the Brexit race to the bottom with his insistence that it is the EU that is holding things up by not saying what kind of post-Brexit arrangement it wants with the UK. Richard North does his usual able job of eviscerating this nonsense. From his post: It is given, one would have thought, that a massive trade bloc such as the European Union (or the EEA) would not be too concerned with deciding what sort of relationships it wants with its smaller trading partners. In the general scheme of things, the more pressing need is for the smaller partner to define the sort of relationship it is seeking, and then to prevail on the larger bloc to give it what it needs This, though, it not the current view being taken by Chancellor Philip Hammond. He now seems to be of a mind that it is up to the EU to produce its own ideas of how Brexit should look, instead of obsessing over how to punish British voters for their temerity in voting (by a majority) to leave the EU Then, even if there was some merit in Mr Hammonds view, it is more or less a matter of certainty that the EU (whether the Council or Mr Barniers negotiation team) is not going to take much notice of it. The intervention of the Chancellor thus does nothing more than demonstrate yet again that our politicians are completely out of touch with reality. This is something that our political masters seem to have extraordinary difficulty understanding, which really confirms that they have a limited grasp of the realities of the Single Market and how the EUs trading systems actually work. Once again, therefore, we have to confront our own reality that those in charge of our Brexit negotiations simply dont have sufficient knowledge and understanding to be able them to function effectively and nor is the opposition any better. As a result, these people are expecting outcomes which simply cant be realised. What makes this surreal is that, as we move towards the next round of the negotiations, issues raised previously and as yet unresolved will be re-presented. If not on this round, the scope for ambiguity will be reduced and eventually we will get to the point where reality and expectations collide. From that wreckage, one presumes, an agreement of sorts will have to emerge. If that werent bad enough, Hammond and David Davis were trying a charm offensive to persuade the EU to allow them to have something other than the Canada-type pact that their other positions have already dictated. As North foretold, issues raised previously and as yet unresolved will be re-presented. This is the already-rejected special close bespoke unique deal. From the Financial Times: Put simply, Britain is advancing the concept of what is called managed or gradual divergence in the UK-EU trade relationship. The idea, raised by Theresa May in her Florence speech in September and reaffirmed by her cabinet last month, is that the UK should reject the binary choice of a Canada-style or Norway-style deal. Instead, as the Telegraph put it, the British think both sides should recognise the complete UK-EU alignment at the outset, and then work backwards, managing divergence from there as the future UK-EU relationship develops. This is ridiculous. What about third country dont you understand? The UK is deeply in denial that post Brexit and any stand-still transition period, it will have a hard border with the EU. The UK is still acting as if it is so important that the EU will redo its trading and regulatory regime to make life easier for the UK, which let us not forget is the party that initiated Brexit. The BBC also takes up the Government position that it is the EU that is being unreasonable, when it was the UK that triggered Brexit and the EU has told the options that the UK has but the UK bizarrely thinks it has the right to something better. This is becoming frighteningly reminiscent of dealing with a three year old who keeps saying he wants ice cream after having been told no firmly. From the BBC: If Britain is left with binary option of a take it or leave it Canada-style free trade deal (which excludes for example financial services, vital for the UK economy) or membership of the European Economic Area (which allows for free movement of people), then both are likely to be rejected, officials suggest. Well, reject away and see where that gets you. Services deals take longer to negotiate than trade pacts, so putting trade and services negotiations on parallel tracks is more likely to result in the trade deal being consummated in a not-interminable amount of time than doing them tout ensemble. We will turn the mike over to FT reader Italianstallion: What the UK is asking is completely mad. In fact one could say that the UK would like a bit more cake. Say more control over FOM in a norway style deal, and perhaps more influence over rules. But this is known cake. But what the UK believes is that a club of 27 nations, and 500 odd million people should allow it to gradually change rules in the UKs favour, and to invest time and money in monitoring this and only to change access arrangements if the rules cannot be justified as being equivalent. Also the UK is saying that it will seek to change the rules, and that existing bodies [ECJ] cannot rule on things in the UK. So disruptive sanctions is the only alternative. In simple language: I want to change my rules, and will not accept some rules now, but until I change other rules, I would like you to not change anything. And by the way when I change the rules I want you to prove that the rules have changed enough. That way until I get the benefit of changing the rules I dont lose anything Dream on idiots. No sane individual, company, country or group of countries would deal on this basis. Yet a front page Financial Times story bizarrely contradicts this reporting: Brussels raises prospect of longer Brexit transition. However, if you read the article, as well as sanity check it, this appears to be the sort of piece the pink paper runs once in a while, where it gives false Brexit hope that are at best based on the views of EU members like Poland and Hungary who are willing to align with the UK to poke a stick in the eye of the other EU members, and at most some other small states that export a lot to the UK, like Denmark. After five paragraphs of cheery talk, we get to this: However, the suggestion was strongly opposed by France and Germany and is unlikely to be included in revisions of the draft negotiating directives. The article goes into the usual Anglo line of argument, that of course the pragmatic thing will be done and there will be some sort of extension beyond 2020. There are several problems with this line of thinking: 1. If that were to happen, it would be a continuation of the standstill which is the only realistic way a transition phase can work. It would be too fraught to negotiate anything other than that, with at most some not very controversial variances. That means among other things, the UK keeps paying EU dues and being subject to the ECJ while having no influence. 2. There is a limit to how long that sort of thing can go on. Its over my pay grade, but WTO rules allow only for time delimited and not very long favorable treatment, and a transition deal would fall in that category. My memory, and please correct me if this is wrong, but is that three years is the maximum that would be kosher. Other countries outside the EU could file suit with the WTO if this went on too long. 3. It took seven years for the EU to negotiate an agreement with Canada. Theres every reason to think a trade agreement with the UK will take at least as long, particularly since the UK is in the deviant position of being a diverging partner, one that wants to deviate from rather than align more closely with the other countrys rules. It seems inconceivable for the UK to stay in the half-pregnant transition state that long. What I find particularly troubling about articles like this is that they serve to feed the UKs Brexit delusion. And a final gang that cant shoot straight sighting. Some City firms were apparently willing to make payments to the EU in return for passporting rights. Hammond may have been alluding to something other than that, but whatever it was, thats been kiboshed. From the Telegraph: Theresa May has insisted that Britain will not make substantial payments to the EU for access to market after Brexit as she appeared to contradict Philip Hammond. Mr Hammond was asked during a trip to Berlin whether the UK would be prepared to pay for access to the EU markets for City firms. He replied: We will talk about all of these things. However Downing Street said yesterday that the Prime Minister is clear that we will not be paying for access and insisted that the Chancellor thought he was responding to a general point. The UK keeps circling the same issues, expecting different results. As Einstein famously said, that is insanity. Butcher breaks out of own freezer using black pudding The Register (Chuck L) Californian man dies hiking Australias sweltering outback Reuters (EM) American ex-diplomat refuses to leave Norway Nordic Page (resilc) Bitcoin Set for Worst Weekly Slide Since 2015 as Scrutiny Rises Bloomberg A Wall Street consultancy eviscerated crypto in a massive report and it should strike fear into the heart of every bitcoin bull Business Insider (David L) Bitcoin tumbles as South Korea plans trading ban Financial Times How the robocall industry outwitted the government and wrecked the Do Not Call list The Washington Post (Chuck L) Meltdown and Spectre 170 Million in U.S. Drink Radioactive Tap Water. Trump Nominee Faked Data to Hide Cancer Risk EWG (WM) China? China Sets New Records for Gobbling Up the Worlds Commodities Bloomberg North Korea North Korea Is Walking Back War And Pundits Are Strangely Disappointed Defend Democracy Indias jobless growth haunts BJPs 2019 poll ambitions Asia Times A breakthrough has been reached at Germanys exploratory coalition talks DW EXCLUSIVE: How the UKs Cop Became a Committed Drug Legalization Activist Sputnik. Chuck L: Of course, since its at Sputnik people will dismiss it. But the MSM probably wouldnt take it since too many institutions and people have vested interests in continuing the unwinnable drug war. All Your Memories Are Stored by One Weird, Ancient Molecule Inverse HMRC struggling to deal with fallout of Paradise Papers leak Guardian (JTM) Scots firms with business model tied to $1bn fraud probed STV. Original story broken by our Richard Smith and Ian Fraser, see here and here. Syraqistan How the US failed to rebuild Afghanistan Vox (Kevin W) Big Brother is Watching You Watch Everything running smoothly at the plant? *Whips out mobile phone* Wait. Nooo The Register. Chuck L: Having been closely involved with SCADA systems my entire career, mainly with regard to their application to electric utilities, this is scary. There were some of us who strongly urged that grid SCADA and energy management systems (EMS*) be kept entirely disconnected from the internet as the latter was gaining traction in the late 80s and 90s. However with the deregulation movement being driven by the finance industry as it was, we were ignored. * The same phrase and acronym are used in the HVAC industry but the underlying software and much of the hardware is entirely different. Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook is changing its news feed so its actually good for people Business Insider (JTM). The only way FB could change what it does to be better for people is to do things that would make users spend less time on it. Na ga happen. Trump Transition Are Americans Going to Vote Their Hopes, or Vote Their Fears? Esquire. Resilc: They have Bernie policies and .? I have dad moves: Barack Obama discusses dancing on David Lettermans new Netflix show video Guardian (JTM). OMG this is cringe-making. Why should I want to know this? DFJ has apologized for the reported sex party event at Steve Jurvetsons home Recode Of course Uber allegedly had a tool to remotely destroy evidence The Register (Chuck L) Report: Issa considering running in district next door Los Angeles Times (UserFriendly) Study finds salty cocktail changing pH of freshwater rivers Minnesota Public Radio News (UserFriendly) Feds Dudley says tax cuts lift prospect of rate rise Financial Times Twitter shadow bans undesirable voices, censors free speech Project Veritas exec to RT RT (UserFriendly) Uber developed secret system to lock down staff computers in a police raid Guardian (JTM) James Damore is wrong. Its fine to discriminate against bigots and bullies Guardian (Chuck L). Not very well argued. Author exhibits considerable prejudice versus conservatives. But there is a case to be made that Damore behaved badly and that was why he was canned. But as Ive said, Google fired him in such an inept manner that he may have a case. Top execs made incredibly dumb public statements. Puerto Ricos power outage keeps getting weirder and more infuriating. Grist Class Warfare Antidote du jour. Jeff N: This my parents new adopted cat. His name is Bailey. Funny story the shelter she got it from set up a social-media-esque entry for the cat, so that the adopter can update information like His vet is ______, he got his immunizations on _________ Anyway, this website shows that the cat is a Chinese Li Hua breed, which my mom didnt know about while adopting. And my whitebread/Republican mom is all aghast. Thats not a CHINESE cat!!! Its a tabby! She wants me to edit his information to show tabby instead, but its a field that the adopter doesnt have access to change. As if anyone else is going to surf to this random cats page on that website, anyway! See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. By Thomas Ferguson, Director of Research, Institute for New Economic Thinking and Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, University of Massachusetts; Paul Jorgensen, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Texas-Pan American, and Jie Chen, University Statistician, University of Massachusetts. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website It wasnt Comey or the Russians. Trump prevailed because his campaign carefully targeted key states with late infusions of big money from private equity, casinos, and other far right contributors, a remarkable wave of donations from small donors, and substantial infusions from the candidate himself. The U.S. presidential election of 2016 featured frontal challenges to the political establishments of both parties and ended in perhaps the most shocking upset in American political history. Neither the U.S. nor the world seems to have gotten over the experience. All sorts of bizarre claims have been advanced about what happened. The latest is that Donald Trump did not really want to win. But data on political money that we analyze in our new paper are inconsistent with that contention. The graph displayed below shows just how far off is the claim that Trump did not contribute to his own campaign. Trump Total Loans and Contributions to Campaign Source: Calculated from Data for Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Chen, INET Working Paper No. 66; FEC Data As the chart shows, Trump steadily advanced money in the form of both loans and contributions to his campaign, including some very substantial late contributions. Perhaps even more importantly for understanding the future, the Trump campaign (including allied SuperPacs and 527s) raised and spent more than $861 millionwithin reasonable hailing distance of the Clinton campaigns $1.4 billionalthough its serious fundraising began much later. Our paper analyzes the sources of that late money in detail for the first time. The study also looks broadly at patterns of industrial structure and party competition in both the major party primaries and the general election. It attempts to identify the genuinely new, historically specific factors that led to the upheavals that shook the entire political system. It points especially to the steady growth of a dual economy that locks more and more Americans out of the middle class and into a life of unsteady, low-wage employment and, all too often, steep debts. The paper draws extensively on a newly-assembled, more comprehensive database of political contributions to identify the specific political forces that coalesced around each candidate. It considers in detail how different investor blocs related to the Republican Party and the Trump campaign as the campaign progressed, as well as the role small contributors played in the various campaigns, especially that of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. It also critically evaluates claims about the final weeks of the election in the light of important overlooked evidenceincluding not only a huge wave of dark money spent on behalf of the Trump campaign, but a parallel wave of campaign finance that helped turn back the Democrats attempt to win the Senate. Yves here. One can add some points to Olenicks post. The first, and this should be the subject of a much longer post, is that gerrymandering is more of a two-party affair than the Democrats would have you believe. One of my colleagues, in graduate school in the late 1980s, had as one of his classmates a former staff member of La Raza, which in 2017 was rebranded as UnidosUS. His main job was gerrymandering to create majority-minority districts to get more Hispanics elected. His main allies in this effort were Republicans, who were delighted to create more white/wealthy districts that would be lockups for them. Political scientist Tom Ferguson confirmed that this thesis was correct. So the political fragmentation of American on ethnic lines has been eagerly promoted by both parties for decades. Second is as Lambert says regularly, if the Democrats cared about Republican vote-suppression tactics, theyd treat voter registration as an ongoing activity, as opposed to something they do in a slapdash manner close to elections. But their real interest is in the top 10%, and if they were to become unduly dependent on their regularly abused base, theyd have to do more for them. The third is dont think that the Democrats dont play dirty, but they seem to play dirtiest in primaries, as the many forms of shenanigans versus Sanders in the California primary suggests. See this documentary with extensive accounts from poll workers if you harbor any doubts. By Michael Olenick, a research fellow at INSEAD who writes regularly at Olen on Economics I live in Europe and every now and again have the misfortune of explaining to Europeans the US electoral system. Especially befuddling is how the US majority votes for centrists or leftists and ends up instead with right-wing fanatics. This brings up one especially awful memory, the appointment of King George W. Bush. People remember where they were at specific life events: I was in a gym locker room, in California, with a bunch of pissed off men watching the TV announce the Supreme Court coup detat. Since that time things have only gotten worse. In 2012, 58.2 million Americans voted Republican for the US House of Representatives and 59.6 million voted for Democrats. Despite the obvious preference, Republicans won, capturing 234 seats to Democrats 201. They generated more excuses for extremism than votes the US is a Republic! (never mind that its a democratic republic) and governed from the hard-right. Appeasing their donors and brain-dead constituents they pretended, like George W. Bush did, that their minority win carried a mandate. Democrats clobbered Republicans in the Senate that year, winning 50 million votes to Republicans 39.1 million, and held onto the Senate with 55 seats (including two independents that vote Democratic) to Republicans 45. Of course, filibuster abuse you remember the filibuster from before the last election, right? negated the effect neutering the Senate Democrats once Scott Brown won Massachusetts. Well, or maybe self-neuter, since the Republicans have never worried about the filibuster with a mere 52 seats after the last election. Republicans went on to genuinely win the 2014 election 24.6 million to 20.9 million, awarding them control of the Senate 54-46. Then came Dear Leader Donald, with his -2.9 million vote victory. I wont pretend that Democrats didnt enable much of this. Bill Clinton presided over the erosion and eventual repeal of Glass-Steagall and, more importantly, the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. His bank-friendly policies plus NAFTA plus fondness for deregulation served as a middle-class eroding policies, masked by the dot-com bubble, that intensified under Bush. And although Hillary won more votes than Trump she still managed to legitimately lose in the electoral college to Donald Trump. And her popular vote win is due entirely to her margin of victory in California. Unlike Gore, who had victory stolen by a cabal of crooks, Trump really did win the electoral college even if shouldnt exist. All this leads me to Arion Golmakani. I met Arion in, of all places, the normal cesspool of a Facebook comment area. Writing about the latest defeat of US democracy, the disgusting Virginia House race where Republicans recently won control, he wrote For the first time I am able to prove to my millennial son that his vote would have mattered. If he had only listened to me and voted with us that day. For those who have been paying attention to something else, lets briefly revisit. Virginia held an election on November 7, 2017. Republicans were shellacked, garnering 1 million votes to Democrats 1.3 million, just under ten percent. Being cheaters whose disdain for democracy almost matches their thirst for power this somehow translated into a tie. First, the Republican won the deciding district by a few votes. During a recount, the Democrat won by one vote. A judge ruled a ballot was vague and awarded it to the Republican. That resulted in a fishbowl drawing that the Republican also won, paving the way for Republicans to retain power with their -10 point win. No doubt the Trumpeteers will revel in their victory and proclaim a mandate. It is in this morass that Arions millennial son, who presumably would have voted Democrat, fell. Honestly, its hard to blame the kid. In an email interview, Arion points out that his son was more focused on issues than individual politicians because, lets face it, most politicians are snakes. Voting for a politician who supports higher education would be synonymous to voting for Martians to have the right to call their childrens humanoid if they happened to be born while flying over the US, he joked. And so, gerrymandering remains alive and well. In the modern world where its polite to pretend that everything is equal, that both sides are no different. In reality, Republicans are a lot better at chicanery (I mean seriously: they elected Donald Trump president). Republicans are a lot better at cheating but Democrats refuse to play the same games. Which is a shame because thats what a large number of their own voters would prefer. California and New York could probably eliminate virtually all Republicans at the federal level with some Republican-style gerrymandering but, for whatever reason, they refuse to do it. Id suggest the reason is worries about political blowback but, like we saw with the Virginia race, gerrymandering can also take care of that problem. If California and New York acted like red states they could theoretically flip 22 seats, enough to leave Republicans in the minority. Sure, they received more votes in 2016 but, at this point, that under Republican orthodoxy thats a meaningless detail. Nancy Pelosi should not be winning her seat by 80.9 percent, which she did. She should win by 52 percent to ensure that California Republican Jeff Denham, who won by 51.7 percent, loses. Since the districts are nowhere near each other is that unethical? Ethics in gerrymandering? Yawn. Republicans have chosen to embrace their self-described very stable genius in the White House. They eliminated the filibuster to appoint hard-right ideological bag of wind Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Filibuster? Not for their tax cuts. They lie, cheat, and steal without giving it a second thought. Adopting their techniques might not sound entirely moral but its a whole lot better than the alternative, where they pollute the earth, sell out the middle class, reign in civil rights, and enable value extractors to run amok. Millennials get off your asses and vote. The youngest of you are 20 and the oldest turning 37. I think you normally get an undeserved bad reputation, coming of age into the Bush Jr. mini-depression and saddled with mind numbing amounts of student debt. But that doesnt stop you from peeling yourselves off the couch and, come next election, down to the nearest polling station to vote your interests. 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. The owner of Bridgewater House in Carrick-on-Suir town centre that re-opened as a residential centre for asylum seekers in late November, is planning to refurbish the property providing 21 apartments. Co. Cork businessman Thomas Duggan submitted the application in relation to the former Mercy convent and school complex located off Main Street on December 22. The application was deemed incomplete by the Co. Council this week, which means it will have to be re-submitted with further details required by the local authority. The incomplete application sought permission to provide 17 residential apartment units in an existing three-storey building and the refurbishment of St Joseph's Convent buildings to provide four apartments. It also requested a change of use of part of the property from retail units to a reception, day room and caretaker's apartment and demolition of an external escape stairs and single storey building. The application also sought permission to erect a new pedestrian gate at Main Street and relocate the existing vehicular gates. It proposes re-opening an existing pedestrian door to North Quay and change from emergency vehicle access to permanent vehicular access. And it requested permission from the Council to carry out external alterations to existing elevations and shop fronts at Main Street, including removal of panel and double doors and insertion of a new window and double doors. Mr Duggan declined to comment on his plans for the property when contacted by The Nationalist and referred any queries in relation to the re-opening of the property as a centre for asylum seekers to the Department of Justice & Equality. It's understood, however, that the major refurbishment of the complex was being planned before the Department of Justice & Equality sought the use of Bridgewater House again as a centre for asylum seekers. A statement from the Department of Justice & Equality reiterated what was reported in The Nationalist last week that Bridgewater House has re-opened as a residential centre for asylum seekers because of an increase in demand for accommodation from people seeking international protection. The Department said this resulted in the re-opening of centres that had previously been under contract to the Department. "Bridgewater had been used previously as an accommodation centre and was readily available to be used again. The contract is for a maximum 115 people and current occupancy is 111 people." The Department of Justice said it was satisfied with the quality of the current accommodation at Bridgewater House and confirmed its contract with the property's owner was for a fixed period of one year. "The Department is currently preparing a request for tender for the longer term provision for the accommodation of protection applicants. "It is a matter for the contractors in Bridgewater to decide whether they will apply for that competition when it is published later this year." For its first show of 2018, Clonmel World Music is delighted to welcome Scullion, one of the best ever Irish folk/rock bands. This will be the first show in the ninth year of Clonmel World Music concerts and the gig takes place in Raheen House Hotel next Thursday, January 18th. Scullion remain to this day an important, successful and highly influential band in Ireland. At its core Scullion is a collaboration between Sonny Condell (Tir Na nOg) and Philip King. The third longtime member of Scullion is Robbie Overson, who was asked to play with the band on Greg Boland's departure over 30 years ago, and is still the third member. Its hard to believe Scullion were formed back in the mid 1970s. They have played at the Lisdoonvarna Festival, supported John Martyn on tour and were one of the highlights of Self Aid back in 1986, where they were joined by Mary Black and Christy Moore, among others. Philip King and Scullion were a regular fixture in the Folk Club that was very active in Hearns Hotel in Clonmel back in the 1970s and 80s. Their Clonmel gig promises to be the return that has long been anticipated ahead of some new recordings and special shows being planned throughout Ireland for 2018. This amazing band has been on a musical expedition since its inception. We have played in back rooms, front rooms, bar rooms and bedrooms, flat bed trucks, concert halls, The Royal Albert Hall and everywhere else in between, says Philip King. The urge to sit and play in some of these rooms especially in the Ireland of 2017 is powerful. The exchange that happens when engaging live with an audience is more alluring and vital than ever in this age of virtual connection. We have an amazingly diverse musical language on this creative island and many of those strands are woven into Scullions musical DNA. Their back pages include back pages include the anthems, Down In the City, Eyelids into Snow, The Actor', John the Baptist and the perfect pop of Carol. Doors for the Clonmel gig will open at 8pm, and the music will commence at 9pm. Tickets are available online at www.clonmelworldmusic.com, and at Marians, OConnell Street, Clonmel; from South Tipperary Arts Centre, Nelson Street Clonmel, or from Gerry Lawless on 086-3389619. On Sunday, 14 January and Monday, 15 January 2018, the NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg will travel to Sweden to participate in the Security Conference in Salen Folk och Forsvar where he will deliver a keynote speech. While in Salen, Mr. Stoltenberg will have a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Margot Wallstrom, the Minister of Defence, Mr. Peter Hultqvist and other high level representatives. The same day, the Secretary General will travel to Stockholm to meet with the Prime Minister, Mr. Stefan Lofven. On Monday, 15 January, Mr. Stoltenberg will visit the Nordic Center for Gender in Military Operations and will have a meeting with the Speaker of the Parliament, Mr. Urban Ahlin. The Secretary Generals speech will be streamed live on http://folkochforsvar.se/webbplatsen.html Still and video imagery will be available on the NATO website after the event. Follow us on Twitter (@NATOPress and @jensstoltenberg). (Natural News) Based on the annual list recently released by Orkin, a U.S.-based pest control company, Baltimore was the most bedbug-infested city in the U.S. for the second year in a row. No matter how vigilant homeowners are, experts say that it is impossible to eliminate the pests completely. Bedbugs are on the rise, and they continue to spread in homes, hotels, and hospitals in more cities across the U.S. yearly. The other cities in Orkins top five list include Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, and Columbus. New York City, whose government offers a more robust system for reporting and treating bed bugs, went down from fourth to eighth place as the most infected city in 2017. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reassures the public that bed bugs do not carry infectious diseases. However, they are still considered a public health pest. (Related: Pesticides give rise to mutant bedbugs.) Bed bugs feed on human blood, and their bites can get itchy. But some individuals may be allergic to bed bugs and even a single bite can cause severe reactions that may constrict airways. Once a bed bugs mouth breaks the skin, they can also spread horrible skin infections. These pests can also affect your mental health, and effects may include anxiety, insomnia, and systemic reactions, per the EPA. Bed bugs often nest in apartments or condominiums, single-family homes, and hotels or motels. The insects reproduce at all times throughout the year, but the majority of terminators stated that the summer of 2015 was their busiest season, according to the Bugs Without Borders Survey. Experts warn that the more transient we are as a population, the bigger our bed bug problem is going to be. Between 1939 and 2000, the U.S. and the whole world noted a drastic decline in bed bugs. This is mostly due to the introduction of the pesticide DDT. However, DDT is a chemical that targets bed bugs central nervous systems, and it was linked to health problems such as seizures. In 1996, the EPA joined international efforts to minimize its use. But even with DDT, it was harder to eliminate bed bugs because they develop a resistance to the pesticide. Dr. Tim Husen, an Orkin entomologist, warns that bedbugs are definitely back on the radar and they are certainly not going anywhere. Its possible that widespread air travel has helped distribute the survivalist strains of the bugs all around the world. But bed bugs are currently spreading throughout cities in the U.S. such as Baltimore, one of the countrys busiest ports. Dr. Husen explained, Any of the towns on the list where there is a large potential for common areas, lots of transportation, or a travel industry where youre going to have lots of hotels, theres a high potential to spread things. He added, Bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers and can move around real easily. Dr. Husen concludes that even though bed bugs arepure parasites, theyre not a serious threat to our health and sanitation wont totally get rid of the insects. Knowing how to spot them and treating an infestation immediately is the best way to protect yourself and your family from bed bugs. Natural ways to prevent bed bugs Try the remedies listed below if you have a bed bug infestation in your home or office: Physical removal Isolate bed bugs to stop them from multiplying and spreading. Isolate bed bugs to stop them from multiplying and spreading. Pyrethrum A natural insecticide (extract) obtained from the dried flower heads of plants Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium and C. coccineum, pyrethrum is toxic for bed bugs. It attacks the pests nervous systems. A natural insecticide (extract) obtained from the dried flower heads of plants Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium and C. coccineum, pyrethrum is toxic for bed bugs. It attacks the pests nervous systems. Double-sided tape Double-sided tape can create bug-free zones which bed bugs cant cross because of the sticky material. You can read more articles about disease prevention at Prevention.news. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk Herbs-Info.com (Natural News) Camel milk gained steam during the last few years as a potential superfood against diabetes, and a new study published in the African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines demonstrated that the dairy product might indeed bolster diabetes management. A team of researchers from Egypts premier universities and health agencies examined rat models of diabetes to carry out the study. The researchers studied 75 male albino rats that were divided into five equal groups. The scientists designated two groups as either negative or positive diabetes controls. The team also gave two other groups camel milk, while the last group was given the diabetes drug metformin. The experts supplemented the rats with camel milk for two consecutive months. The research team then ran a series of assays to examine the animals serum glucose, leptin, and insulin levels as well as liver, kidney and lipid profile. The results revealed that diabetic rats given camel milk exhibited a decline in glucose levels compared with the controls. The researchers explained that the changes in glucose levels were associated with the increase in insulin secretion among rats given camel milk. The findings also showed that camel milk supplementation helped increase leptin levels and improve peripheral glucose utilization and homeostasis in treated rats. Our results showed that administration of camel milk showed restoration of insulin secretion in diabetic rats; this means that the Langerhans islets -cells restored their activityCamel milk is a natural product that can be considered as a nutritional supplement that helps in treatment of diabetes and it metabolic associated disorders such as insulin resistance. It has dynamic effects on thestimulation of insulin production and secretion from the pancreas, the researchers concluded. More studies show camels milk improves diabetes management The recent findings add to a growing number of studies that demonstrate the efficacy of camel milk in diabetes management. For instance, a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Food and Drug Analysis revealed that camel milk supplementation might bolster blood glucose management in patients with type 1 diabetes. According to the review, patients who took camel milk as an adjunct therapy for three months exhibited marked reductions in insulin doses that were required for proper blood glucose control. The review also noted that camel milk administration might significantly improve total cholesterol levels, lipid profile, triglyceride rates and lipoprotein profile in diabetic patients. Moreover, the analysis showed that taking camel milk as an add-on to insulin treatment may lead to further reductions in total cholesterol and triglyceride levels in patients with diabetes. (Related: There are amazing health benefits from drinking camels milk.) Based on evidence-based reviews of research findings on the use of camel milk in diabetes management, it can be concluded that camel milk has a powerful effect in reducing blood glucose levels and insulin requirement, and it limits diabetic complications such as elevated cholesterol levels, liver and kidney diseases; decreased oxidative stress; and delayed wound healing. Camel milk is safe and efficient in improving long-term glycemic control and can provide a significant reduction in the dose of insulin required by type 1 diabetic patients. Therefore, the daily consumption of camel milk may reduce the risk of diabetes, the researchers reported. Another animal study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition demonstrated that camel milk contains powerful hypoglycemic effects that may improve disease management in patients with type 1 diabetes. The researchers enrolled 24 type 1 diabetes patients as part of the study. The participants were divided into two groups, one of which received usual care alone while the other received usual care plus camel milk. The scientists observed that patients who received camel milk displayed significant decreases in mean blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c levels, and insulin doses compared with the controls. Likewise, the researchers found that three of 12 participants in the camel milk group no longer needed insulin shots after the treatment. The research team concluded that camel milk might be a safe and effective adjunct treatment for long-term diabetes care. Sources include: Journals.SFU.ca ScienceDirect.com NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov (Natural News) Ophthalmologists in North Carolina were reportedly baffled by the increasing cases of an eye cancer known as ocular melanoma across the state, which affected nearly two dozen people and killed four patients within a 15-mile radius of Huntersville. According to experts, the eye disease affects five in one million patients and may commonly manifest in older men in their 60s. However, recent numbers showed that more than half of the cases in Huntersville were seen in women who were 30 years or younger. Health care providers said the factors behind the cases remain unclear. In all of our studies weve never found an environmental or genetic factor. There is a substantial number of patients in a relatively small area thats beyond the usual instance. Were taking dates and addresses of everyone their every move, every church, home and any place they spent a lot of time. The medical community is surprised at the facts but we cant prove any environmental figures at this time, ophthalmologist Dr. Michael Brennan told Daily Mail online. The most recent case was diagnosed in November last year. The patient, a 37-year-old woman named Jessica Boesmiller, was diagnosed with the eye cancer while eight months pregnant. This resulted in a complete removal of her eye. Another notable case was that of Summer Heath, who was diagnosed at 19. In line with this, Dr. Brennan was awarded with a $100,000 grant in April to carry out a geospatial study in hopes of identifying a common characteristic among patients. The study was slated to examine 18 patients within a 15-mile radius, 13 of whom are women. Causes and symptoms of ocular melanoma According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), ocular melanoma is a form of cancer that develops in the eye cells that produce pigment. The AAO noted that the disease may develop inside the eye or on the conjunctiva, in the same manner as melanoma develops on the skin. The organization confirmed that ocular melanoma is the most common form of eye cancer in older adults, but is otherwise rare. (Related: Red wine nutrient resveratrol blocks melanoma Natural News Science.) The health group noted several risk factors that may cause ocular melanoma, which include: Prolonged exposure to natural sunlight or artificial sunlight; Having light-colored eyes; Old age; Coming from Caucasian descent; Having certain inherited skin conditions and abnormal skin pigmentation; and Having a mole in the eye or on the eyes surface. According to the AAO, symptoms of ocular melanoma include: Having a dark spot on the iris or conjunctiva; Suffering from blurred or distorted vision or a blind spot in the peripheral vision; The sensation of flashing lights; and Marked changes in the shape of the pupil Diagnosis and treatment for ocular melanoma The AAO noted that ocular melanoma could be diagnosed using various tests such as: Ultrasound examination Fluorescein angiography Fundus autofluorescence Optical coherence tomography Biopsy Likewise, the health group cited various treatment options for patients. The experts noted that treatments may vary depending on the location and size of the melanoma and the patients general health. Treatment options for the disease include ocular melanoma radiation, ocular melanoma surgery and conjunctival melanoma treatment, experts said. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk AAO.org (Natural News) Hospital stays and medical treatments can terrify any child, more so those battling life-threatening diseases such as cancer. Luckily, a new tool has been developed to provide these children with comfort and company. The My Special Aflac Duck is the brainchild of toy manufacturer Sproutel and insurance company Aflac, and its exactly what it sounds like. This cute and cuddly plush, robotic duck modeled after Aflacs own iconic mascot is outfitted with sensors that allow it to interact with patients in a fairly realistic manner. According to EndGadget.com, scratching its chin will make it raise its head and quack, while tickling the Duck under its wing will cause it to shake and laugh. In addition, the My Special Aflac Duck comes with radio-frequency identificatio-enabled (RFID) emoji cards that will allow it to reflect patients emotions and even copy their speech patterns. However, what truly makes this toy unique is that child cancer patients can pretend to give it chemotherapy through an attachable tube, injections, and even sponge baths. All of these actions will cause the Duck to respond appropriately, only in quacks. This is to give child patients the opportunity to become acquainted with their treatment, as well as make them feel like they arent going through it alone. Moreover, the Duck can perform guided breathing sessions to help children control their breathing. (Related: First robot rollout to assist the elderly.) Aaron Horowitz, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Sproutel, explained to the DailyMail.co.uk that the idea behind the My Special Aflac Duck came from Jerry the Bear, Sproutels first social robot. This toy was intended to serve as a companion for child patients with type 1 diabetes. Jerry the Bear can be fed, administered insulin, and have his blood sugar monitored by children. Out of this came the idea of, Why cant we do it for other types of kids?, said Horowitz. In a separate statement to Parents.com, Horowitz remarked: On average, childhood cancer treatment lasts more than 1,000 days, and we thought there must be something we can do to help alleviate some of the burden. We want to empower children by giving them a friend who can help them express their emotions. Over 100 children have tested the My Special Aflac Duck, one of them being Ethan Daniels. The 12-year-old native of Alpharetta, Ga., is currently undergoing treatment for B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma. Upon seeing the Duck, he described it as awesome.According to his mother, Kelli Daniels, her son was awed by how the Duck responded to various attachments, as well as its breathing exercises. She added that getting Ethan Daniels his own My Special Aflac Duck would help him for years to come. Its a way for Ethan to express himself without actually having to say it, because you dont want to always say I hurt. He feels like he hurts all the time, Kelli Daniels explained. But rather than having his mother purchase a My Special Aflac Duck, Ethan Daniels could be one of the many getting one for free. Dan Amos, Aflac chairman and CEO, explained that the company is aiming to give tens of thousands American children with cancer a free Duck to call their own. We are taking this commitment to a new level, lending our iconic Aflac Duck to this mission in an innovative way like we have never done before, stated Amos. Our goal is to put a My Special Aflac Duck in the hands of the nearly 16,000 children in the U.S. who are newly diagnosed with cancers each year, free of charge, so that no child ever has to face cancer alone. Visit Robotics.news to stay up to date with all news concerning My Special Aflac Duck, or other up-and-coming social robots. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk EndGadget.com Parents.com Undercover Video of Twitter Engineer Clay Haynes Saying Were more than happy to help the DOJ with their little investigation Content Disclosed to DOJ Includes: Even the ones hes deleted, any direct messages Engineer is Self-Proclaimed Bleeding-Heart Liberal Stating It comes with the territory [at Twitter] Goes on to Explain Additional Big Brotherish Practices at Twitter (Natural News) (Article by Staff Report republished from ProjectVeritas.com) (San Francisco) A Project Veritas undercover investigation has revealed a senior network security engineer at Twitter stating that his company is more than happy to turn over the private communications and deleted tweets of President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice. If true, it is yet unknown whether Twitter is voluntarily disclosing this sensitive information or acting under a court order. Twitter is currently in the midst of defending itself from left-leaning criticism that President Trump hasnt been removed from the enormous media platform for violations of Twitters Terms of Service. According to his LinkedIn profile, Clay Haynes has been employed by Twitter since September 2016. On January 3, 2018, he met with a Project Veritas undercover journalist (UCJ) at Stookeys Club Moderne in San Francisco. Using a hidden video camera, the Veritas UCJ captures Haynes stating that were more than happy to help the DOJ with their little investigation of President Trump. When prompted by the UCJ, Mr. Haynes provides additional details, Basically, giving them every single tweet that hes posted. Even the ones hes deleted, any direct messages, any mentions hes dangerous, I dont like him and hes a terrible human being and I want to get rid of him, the self-described bleeding-heart liberal Haynes says in the video about President Trump. In fact, we had internal reviews about that On January 7, 2018, James OKeefe himself went undercover with Haynes at Mortons Steakhouse in San Francisco to confirm if Twitter was working with the Department of Justice to hand over Trumps tweets and DMs. When pressed about looking at Donald Trumps messages, Haynes explained We have a subpoena process for that very reason. The conversation continued: James OKeefe: Are you working with DOJ currently on that? Clay Haynes: I cant comment, even if I knew, I wouldnt comment. The fact is, even if Haynes was just speculating about helping Justice, his admission shows a clear and dangerous political bias at the highest levels of Twitter, says Project Veritas founder and President James OKeefe in the video. 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. Describing himself as the bouncer of the network, Mr. Haynes also details the level of information Twitter retains in its databases about their hundreds of millions of users. The Project Veritas Twitter investigation is the fourth installment of its American Pravda series. In Part I, Veritas disclosed that CNNs Russia coverage is driven by ratings and a political agenda, but in reality, using the words of CNN Political Commentator Van Jones, is just a nothing burger. Part II disclosed a political bias at The New York Times which forced executive responses and an immediate change of their social media policy. Part III exposed political bias at The Washington Post and brought to light that the far-reaching narratives of the papers editorial board are not rooted in the factual findings of their subject-matter expert reporters. Project Veritas will be releasing additional Twitter-related videos over the next several days. Mr. OKeefe has just completed a book about this series entitled AMERICAN PRAVDA: My fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News. The book will be released by St. Martins Press on January 16, 2018. Read more at: ProjectVeritas.com 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. 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. (Natural News) For some time now conservatives, along with supporters of President Donald J. Trump, have suspected they were being targeted for censorship by the social media giants such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Thanks to James OKeefe and his undercover media sting operation Project Veritas, we learned this week that for certain Twitter engineers have been developing algorithms that use machine learning, keywords and other techniques to perform shadow bans on users who are Trump supporters and Republican voters. In the video, which consists of several undercover episodes, Abhinov Vadrevu, a former Twitter software engineer, discussed a strategy, called shadow banning, that to his knowledge, the social media platform still uses. One strategy is to shadow ban so you have ultimate control. The idea of a shadow ban is that you ban someone but they dont know theyve been banned because they keep posting and no one sees their content, he said. So they just think that no one is engaging with their content when in reality, no one is seeing it. In another segment Twitter Software Engineer Steven Pierre said Twitter was developing automated censorship processes as well as banning, The Daily Caller reported. Every single conversation is going to be rated by a machine and the machine is going to say whether or not its a positive thing or a negative thing, said Pierre. And whether its positive or negative doesnt (inaudible), its more like if somebodys being aggressive or not. Right? Somebodys just cursing at somebody, whatever, whatever. They may have a point, but it will just vanish Its not going to ban the mindset, its going to ban, like, a way of talking, he added. (Related: Hate, abuse and fake news: Zuckerberg admits Facebook is broken and contributes to an anxious and divided world, says he plans to fix it in 2018.) Olinda Hassan, a policy manager for Twitters Trust and Safety team, explained that the platforms engineers were developing a system of down-ranking sh*tty people. Yeah. Thats something were working on, said Hassan. Its something were working on. Were trying to get the sh*tty people to not show up. Its a product were working right now. And just who are the sh*tty people? Former Twitter Engineer Conrado Miranda that tools are already being utilized that censor pro-Trump or conservative content. Thats a thing, Miranda says when asked about such capabilities. Also, Twitter Direct Messaging Engineer Pranay Singh said the shadow ban algorithms could be engineered to target right-leaning content specifically. Yeah you look for Trump or America, and you have like five thousand keywords to describe a redneck, Singh explained. Then you look and parse all the messages, all the pictures, and then you look for stuff that matches that stuff. He confirmed: I would say a majority of it are for Republicans. Former Twitter content reviewer Mo Norai said there are unwritten rules from top management that permitted them to be harder (censor more) on pro-Trump content. Yeah, if they said this is: Pro-Trump I dont want it because it offends me, this, that. And I say I banned this whole thing, and it goes over here and they are like, Oh you know what? I dont like it too. You know what? Mos right, lets go, lets carry on, whats next? Norai said. Twitter was probably about 90 percent Anti-Trump, maybe 99 percent Anti-Trump. He added: A lot of unwritten rules, and being that were in San Francisco, were in California, very liberal, a very blue state. You had to be I mean as a company you cant really say it because it would make you look bad, but behind closed doors are lots of rules. Once again OKeefe and his staff have done yeomans work in exposing the disgustingly hard-Left bias of the mainstream media and its various social media platforms. Free speech? Nah. Not if upsets the true fascists and speech Nazis at Twitter and other social platforms. Heres what needs to happen: Congress should take up new legislation that prevents this kind of blatant, purposeful censorship a first amendment for social media, if you will. Otherwise, nothing will change and conservatives will continue to be treated this way online. Watch: Read more of J.D. Heyes work at The National Sentinel. Sources include: TheNationalSentinel.com DailyCaller.com ProjectVeritas.com When someone is suspected of drunk driving, a breathalyzer can accurately determine the amount of alcohol in the person's bloodstream in just a few seconds. The handheld device is widely credited with saving lives by culling intoxicated people from roadways. But no such device is readily available for marijuana, a thorn in the side of police officers who instead rely on observable symptoms to determine if a person is under the influence during a traffic stop. As a result, the roadside test for pot use is prone to human error an issue of increasing importance as more impaired drivers hit the road in the wake of pot's legalization in California and other states. Enter Hound Labs, an Oakland-based startup developing a new type of breathalyzer that the company says can tell if someone is high at the moment of testing. The nascent business is one of several companies and research institutions working to develop the technology. Hound Labs said its device works by measuring THC tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis in someones breath, which lingers for up to two hours after smoking. The third prototype of the device is still undergoing testing, but manufacturers hope it will be available commercially as soon as the second quarter of 2018. The first clinical trials of the breathalyzer started in May at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and are being led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. The small device is designed to work much like a breathalyzer that measures blood alcohol content. A person blows into the device's mouthpiece, and, in just a few minutes, an electronic display will appear with a readout of THC detected in the breath, measured in parts per trillion. Proponents of the device say it'll soon be a ready-to-use alternative to blood tests and cheek swabs, which are incapable of accurately assessing whether someone is stoned in real-time due to the varying durations that marijuana stays in a person's system. Mike Lynn, an emergency room doctor and a reserve deputy sheriff for Alameda County, told NBC Bay Area he founded Hound Labs after seeing the victims of grisly DUI crashes. He touts the breathalyzer, which has taken more than three years to develop, as something that could save lives. "We figured it out and we can now measure just a few particles of THC, Lynn said. Itd be like measuring a few drops of water in a hundred swimming pools put together." It's also poised to be a boon for whichever company pioneers the leading technology. If the Hound Labs device hits the marketplace this year, police departments and marijuana users alike will be able to buy a single device for anywhere between $500 and $1,000. Retired California Highway Patrol Commissioner Spike Helmick, who advises Hound Labs, said he believes a marijuana breathalyzer could help with future DUI prosecutions. Well use this information in court the same way as we did in the early days of alcohol breathalyzers: as one more piece of data that can help juries and judges, he said. The startup is also researching how much marijuana it takes to impair someones ability to drive, similar to the .08 blood alcohol threshold for drunk drivers. That job is ultimately left to the state to determine, though Lynn believes the data from the device could help pave the way for future legislation. The current tools that are out there blood tests, urine tests, saliva tests those dont tell you whether someones impaired, Lynn said. They just tell you whether someone has marijuana in their body. No one knows the exact window of impairment for marijuana use, and thats what were helping with. To test out the marijuana breathalyzer, Lynn said Hound Labs has conducted hundreds of tests, even going so far as to recruit drivers to smoke weed and drive through an enclosed, monitored test track. We found that on the driving course, even if they smoked a small amount they were stoned almost immediately, Lynn said. Hound Labs will continue to test the device in the coming months, hoping to meet its production goal for 2018. This company had previously tried to get the device on the market in both 2016 and 2017. Meanwhile, Lynn will keep lecturing against the dangers of smoking pot and getting behind the wheel. There is no such thing as buzzed driving, he said. Buzzed driving is impaired driving. As an ER doctor for practically two decades at a trauma hospital, I can tell you that every single injury or death due to intoxicated driving is preventable. School resource officers in San Jose this week were formally told their role at campuses across the city is changing under a new agreement between school districts and the police department. Effective immediately, the resource officers are to focus on safety and security of students and staff and not routine student misbehavior. The announcement comes after an NBC Bay Area investigation revealed children across the Bay Area, including in San Jose, were getting criminal records for what some describe as just childish misbehavior. At Overfelt High School in East San Jose, educators applauded the new agreement as Chief Eddie Garcia and East Side Union High School District Superintendent Chis Funk sealed the agreement with a handshake. "Police officers are not the dean of students," Garcia said. "Theyre not here to do the job of the administration. Theyre here to keep the peace on school campuses, keep violence away." The decision comes after incidents across the country involving fights between students and campus police over minor issues such as cellphones or dress codes. "I remember after that, thinking to myself, 'You know what, I dont want that happening here,'" Garcia said of a viral video that showed an officer wrestling a female student to a classroom floor. Funk and Overfelt Principal Vito Chiala lauded the agreement. "It's really nice to have a clear policy about the relationships between SJPD and the schools," Chiala said. The new agreement involves every high school in San Jose, 34 in all. Many in those high schools say their job is to get kids into perhaps a state university and not a state penitentiary. "Our students were paying a price because if they received a citation in a case where they really shouldnt have, theyre now on the school-to-prison pipeline," Funk said. "And conversely, it also makes our officers antagonists." School resource officers in San Jose are sworn police officers who work on campus on their days off. The decline in tourists that Las Vegas experienced after the mass shooting three months ago affected the tax collections meant to pay for a portion of the new Raiders stadium in Sin City. Figures released Thursday by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority show tax collections came in about 3 percent and 10 percent under projections in October and November respectively. An increase on area hotel taxes went into effect in March to cover $750 million of the $1.9 billion project. Tourists are paying about $1.50 more per night on their hotel bill for an average-priced room on the Las Vegas Strip. The data show taxpayers contributed to the project $4.6 million in October and $3.4 million in November. The Raiders want to kick off the 2020 season in Las Vegas. A 17-year-old and his mother have been indicted in Rhode Island for the death of his mother's boyfriend. The man's burning body was found last year in a wooded area of Massachusetts. Xavier Vidot has been charged as an adult with one count of murder and using a firearm while committing a crime of violence. His mother, 36-year-old Melonie Perez, has been charged with compounding a felony, failing to report a death and misprision of a felony. Police say Vidot told officers he shot 24-year-old Valdez Loiseau in Cranston after the man got into an altercation with the boy's mother. Authorities say Perez told officers she helped her son move the body. Police found Loiseau's burned body in Attleboro, Massachusetts in July 2017. An Illinois attorney general candidate was reportedly robbed at gunpoint while taking campaign photos on Chicago's Northwest Side this week. Aaron Goldstein was with several members of his campaign taking publicity shots around 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the Albany Park neighborhood when the robbery happened, the Chicago Tribune reports. Chicago police confirmed a robbery took place in the 4600 block of North Albany Avenue around that time. There, police say a group of offenders walked up to a victim, displayed a weapon and demanded the victim's property. No one was in custody as of Friday morning and Area North Detectives were investigating. The Tribune, citing a law enforcement source, reports Goldstein was robbed and four others were robbed of their camera equipment and cellphones. Campaign manager Robert Murphy told the Tribune no one was harmed in the robbery. Murphy and members of Goldstein's campaign did not respond to a request for comment Friday. 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. Much effort and many dollars are being spent to try to lure Amazon to build its second headquarters in the state of Connecticut. Some city and state leaders believe landing that deal may be a long shot, but it may be a shot worth taking. Amazon is planning to make a $5 billion investment and bring 50,000 new full-time employees to its desired location. The new headquarters will be called HQ2. There are 238 proposals across North America for Amazon to choose from, according to the company. Proposals have been submitted for Hartford, Stamford, Waterbury, Danbury and a joint bid for New Haven and Bridgeport. "I would say it's akin to the Powerball," Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said. "But you cant win it if you're not in it, right?" Boughton is trying to get Amazon's attention with the city spending time and money on conceptualizing, printing and shipping its proposal, as well as creating social media advertising and producing a quirky video sales pitch. In total, Danbury spent $2,813.28 on its bid for HQ2, according to documents obtained by the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters. Most of the spending was for promoting the pitch video online and using Facebook location targeting. The mayor had hoped that the clip would be in heavy rotation around Amazon's first headquarters in Seattle, Washington. The mayor even sent Danburys Key to the City to Amazon. "It may not be enough. It may not be what they are looking for and I respect that," Boughton said. Waterbury, meanwhile, utilized staffers at the city's Development Corporation to formulate and ship the bid cross country with invoices totaling $610.60, according to documents provided through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. New Haven and Bridgeport are pursuing a joint application to Amazon together. Michael Piscitelli, the deputy of New Haven's Economic Development Corporation, said the Elm City's portion of the proposal used prior studies and research and translated to about $2,500 to $5,000 worth of work. Documents from Bridgeport showed that city paid $8,000 for 3-D renderings. In addition, Bridgeport officials said shared costs on a video, website and a consulting firm total $64,805 between the two cities. The state, meanwhile, is supporting HQ2 coming to either Hartford or Stamford. "Wow. It would be a huge shot in the arm," Catherine Smith, commissioner of the Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD), said "Connecticut is prime and we are ready." The state-supported proposal includes sites in both greater Hartford and in greater Stamford. Both metro areas have populations of about a million people. They are close to international airports and have quick access to mass transit and interstate highways. All of those attributes are among the characteristics Amazon desires in its HQ2 location. More of the company's desired criteria can be found here. "We think these were the very best that we had in the state and also the ones that really met the criteria," Smith said about the greater Hartford and greater Stamford proposals. According to documents obtained from the DECD, the state paid $5,250 to design the website CTisPrime.com. An additional $3,000 was spent on drone footage and a promotional video narrated by Governor Dannel Malloy. Diagrams for the proposals were $2,000 more. But the renderings for both project sites were the largest expenditure at $30,000. In total, the Hartford and Stamford bids cost the state $40,250. Smith said the materials can and will be used to attract future business to Connecticut. "This is an effort I would repeat if we could," Smith said. Amazon said it will make a decision about HQ2 in 2018. Bridgeport FOI Documents [[468859443, C]] DECD FOI Documents [[468857953, C]] Waterbury FOI Documents [[468859073, C]] Days after reports that a $9.6 million incentive package offered to Aetna to move its headquarters from Hartford to New York City was revoked CVS said it has no plans to move the company from Connecticuts capital city. Rhode Island-based CVS acquired Aetna in December and said in a statement that officials from the company were in Hartford yesterday and met with Mayor Luke Bronin. It is important to understand that while CVS Health will continue to be headquartered in Rhode Island, we also operate a number of large corporate hubs, or centers of excellence, in other states, including Arizona, Illinois and Texas. We have no plans to relocate Aetnas operations from Hartford and, in fact, view Hartford as the future location of our center of excellence for the insurance business, the statement from CVS says. Gov. Dannel Malloy also issued a statement, saying he is thrilled that CVS has confirmed that Aetna will continue to call Hartford home. Todays announcement confirms that Connecticut is a tremendous place to do business, with a talent pipeline and quality of life that are second-to-none. My administration will continue to work with CVS Healths leadership team to ensure that their footprint in Hartford is maintained not only for the short-term, but in the long-run as well, Malloy said in a statement. The flu season is intensifying in Connecticut and the state Department of Public Health said hundreds of hospitalizations and 15 deaths of residents who are 65 years old and older are alarming. Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Raul Pino and state epidemiologist Dr. Matthew Cartter held a news conference Friday morning, said flu season could continue for another four to six weeks and called on residents who have not gotten flu vaccines to get vaccinated. The flu outbreak is widespread in Connecticut, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fifteen people 65 years old and older in Connecticut died from influenza between Aug. 27 and Jan. 6 and there have been 456 hospitalizations, according to state records. We have an increase that is alarming to us, Pino said. Pino said the number itself is not alarming, but the alarming fact is that the illness is particularly severe for older residents. Last year, younger people and babies were more affected. Carter said the state first started to see an increase in hospitalization for influenza during the second week of December and the numbers of cases have been going up since then. The CDC is predicting the peak of flu season to be in mid-February. In most years, a flu season lasts anywhere from six weeks to eight weeks to 10 weeks in any particular place, so were not yet at peak, but were hearing from hospitals across the state that many are full. They have no extra beds, theyre seeing lots of ill patients with influenza-like illnesses or confirmed cases of flu, Carter said. Pino also addressed flu vaccines and said the vaccine has not been that effective with specific strains of the viruses, but what has also been clear is that getting immunized, even if you dont get 100 percent effectiveness, it also prompts your immune system to respond in a better way to the viruses. When asked whether there has been a shortage of antivirals, Carter said he has not received reports and will be getting in touch with the states hospitals and expects it to be part of a conversation today with the CDC. So far, were not receiving those kinds of reports here, Carter said. The flu is now widespread in every state except Hawaii, according to the Associated Press. Influenza has been reported in all eight counties in Connecticut. Operating agreements and the transfer of management are two important topics as people begin farming together. Whether the partnership is with family members or non-related parties, having written plans for operations and management provides a strong base for a sustainable business. Following a written agreement helps when things are going well and when things get difficult. Jackson County University of Wisconsin-Extension and the UW Center for Dairy Profitability will host Cultivating Your Farm Businesss Future meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 24, at the Jackson Electric Cooperative Community Room, N6868 County Road F, Black River Falls. Management partnerships can assist in bringing new skills to the business. Adding to the skill level is essential when considering new markets and marketing strategies. A farmer panel portion of the meeting will provide information on industrial hemp production, and examples of marketing opportunities of farm products. The meeting schedule: 10:45 am: Registration 11:00 am: Evaluate Your Business: Farm Financial Basics and Cost of Production Tools 12:30 pm: Lunch 1:00 pm: Alternative Markets and Marketing: Farmer Panel (Industrial Hemp, Farmers Markets, Direct Marketing examples) 2:00 pm: Protecting your investment in the farm: Operating Agreements and Business Entities 3:00 pm: Starting the Conversation & Communicating your wishes 3:30 pm: Adjourn There is no registration fee for this meeting. However, space is limited and pre-registration is strongly recommended. For more information or to register, contact the Jackson County UW-Extension office (715) 284-4257. A court case has landed Tarrant County in the middle of the national debate over climate change. ExxonMobil filed papers in Tarrant County District Court this week, naming 16 California lawyers and public officials who are suing the Irving-based oil giant. Several California cities, including San Francisco and Oakland, recently filed lawsuits, blaming the company for climate change and seeking billions of dollars in damages. In a counterpunch, ExxonMobil said in its Tarrant County filing that it suspects the public officials of being part of a conspiracy that began about six years ago at a meeting in La Joya, California to damage the company. A collection of special interests and opportunistic politicians are abusing law enforcement authority and legal process to impose their viewpoint on climate change, the company said in its Tarrant County petition. ExxonMobil finds itself directly in that conspiracys crosshairs. Brant Martin, a Fort Worth attorney not involved in the case, said the companys petition is not a lawsuit but could lead to one. "What they are saying is, 'Judge, we have good reason to believe that these claims may be brought. Here's exactly who we want to depose, here's why we want to depose them, here's the information we think we are going to get from them,'" Martin said. Exxon said the proper venue is Texas, not California. "They may be afraid they are going to get a little home cooking against them if they file in California, Martin said. The home-field advantage cuts both ways." California officials reacted strongly to the companys filing. This is an outrageous abuse of the legal process, said John Cote, a spokesman for the San Francisco city attorneys office. It's an attempted end run around the California courts that have jurisdiction over this matter. In other words, it's exactly what you would expect from a company like Exxon. The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear Texas' appeal to preserve congressional and legislative districts that a lower court struck down as racially discriminatory. The justices said they will review a lower-court ruling that found problems with two congressional districts and statehouse districts in four counties. The lower court had ordered the districts redrawn in time for the 2018 elections, but the Supreme Court blocked those orders last year. Primary elections are scheduled for March under the existing, challenged maps. The court probably will hear arguments in April and decide the case by late June. The dispute over the Texas maps focuses on racial discrimination and is separate from the high court's ongoing consideration of excessive partisanship in redistricting in Maryland and Wisconsin. Texas' congressional and legislative districting plans have been embroiled in court action for years, beginning in 2011. After the state's original maps were tossed out as unconstitutional, a three-judge federal court produced interim districting plans that were used in the 2012 elections. In 2013, Republicans who control the state government rushed to permanently adopt those maps to use for the rest of the decade, until a new round of redistricting after the 2020 census. But opponents criticized the adopted maps as a quick fix that didn't purge all districts of the impermissible use of race. In 2017, the same judges who approved the interim maps in 2012 agreed with the challengers that the maps were the product of intentional discrimination. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said in the state's appeal that the lower-court ruling is a "remarkable decision that defies law, logic and fact." In urging the justices to ratify the decision by the three judges, civil rights groups said that almost all the districts at issue were originally adopted by Texas lawmakers in 2011 and were rife with racial bias. Late night hosts pulled no punches to blast President Donald Trump for referring to African nations and Haiti as "s--thole countries." Trump's vulgar comments came during a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators Thursday at the White House, a Democratic aide briefed on the meeting told NBC News. The news inspired "Late Night" host Seth Meyers to do a segment called "Seth Has to Walk Away for a Minute." Meyers left his desk, and off camera could be heard muttering, "At what point, at what point, do you just have some common decency -- some, some human emotion?" During Meyer's "Closer Look" segment, he speculated that maybe Trump meant the remark as a compliment. "After all," he said, "Trump does all his best tweets when he's sitting on the s--thole." On "The Daily Show," Trevor Noah, a South African native, started on the topic by calling the president a racist. "Personally, as someone from South S--thole, I'm offended, Mr. President," Noah said. He joked that African countries will hear about the news in "a few weeks" but "as soon as the news donkey reaches our village, we'll be so mad." The "Daily Show" host also criticized Trump for allegedly saying he wants more immigrants from Norway, which Noah called the "whitest country." "He didn't even go with, like, a more subtle country that might leave it up in the air," he said. "Like, 'We need to let in more people from Portugal,' and you're like 'hmm, what does that mean?'" Stephen Colbert opened "The Late Show" by calling Trump "unstable" and "reactionary," contrasting the president's assertion Saturday that he is a "stable genius." "Sir, they're not s--thole countries," Colbert said. "For one, Donald Trump isn't their president." Imitating Trump's voice, Colbert said, "You get what I'm saying, I'm saying I'm a racist." Jimmy Kimmel called it "unfathomable" that Trump is "the guy running our country." This was the latest political monologue by Kimmel in recent months. He's used the opening of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to condemn Congress' attempt to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, talking in personal terms about his infant son Billy's health complications. "Listen, I'm sure the fact that the countries he described as s--tholes are mostly populated by people of color and the immigrants he wants from Norway are not is a coincidence," Kimmel said. "Because, if it wasn't, it would mean we voted for a racist, like a real one and we'd have to get pitchforks and chase him out of the White House." "What a s--thole," Kimmel concluded. The chancellor for University of California, San Diego penned a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in support of an Israeli student who faces deportation after making a wrong turn at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this week. 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." Yakobi was detained. On Wednesday, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla sent a letter to the Director of ICEs San Diego field office, Gregory Archambeault. In the letter, Khosla said Yakobi is scheduled to graduate at the end of the Winter quarter this year and urged ICE to consider releasing the student under parole. He is a valued and active member of our UC San Diego community, and we would very much like to have him return to our campus so he can fulfill his ultimate goal of obtaining his degree, the letter read. Hakim and the rest of Yakobis family maintain that the men had no intention of crossing into Mexico, thus violating the terms of DACA. "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. 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." Authorities say they've arrested a friend of the victim in connection with the death of a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student who disappeared during a visit home to Southern California. The suspect was identified as 20-year-old Samuel Woodward. Blaze Bernstein's body was found Tuesday after an extensive search through Borrego Park in Orange County. Authorities said they were investigating his death as a homicide but would not say how he died. Bernstein, who was home visiting family in Orange County during his school break from the University of Pennsylvania, was last seen alive about 11 p.m. on Jan. 2. He told relatives he was meeting up with his friends. He was reported missing the following day after family members were unable to get in contact with him. On Thursday, investigators said they had interviewed a friend of Bernstein's in connection with the case. The friend said he went with Bernstein to a neighborhood park in the city of Lake Forest on Jan. 2 to meet up with the victim's girlfriend but stayed in the car, the Orange County sheriff's investigator wrote in a a search warrant affidavit. The friend said he could not recall the girlfriend's last name or address. He said he left about an hour later when Bernstein did not return to the vehicle or respond on social media. He alleged he returned to the park several hours later but could not find Bernstein. Detectives noted the friend had dirt under his fingernails during the interview, to which he claimed was caused by a fall. Officials also saw that the friend had several cuts and scratches, but he claimed they stemmed from a "fight club" he was involved in. "On their way out of sheriff's headquarters, [investigators] noticed 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 affidavit. South Florida politicians are condemning President Donald Trump's reported comments in which he described some nations as "s**thole countries" during immigration discussions. A source said Trump grew frustrated during discussions about the visa lottery system, NBC News reports. Immigration from countries such as Haiti, El Salvador and the African continent was being discussed. "Why are we having all these people from s**thole countries come here?" Trump said, according to sources who were either at the meeting or are familiar with the talks. He also suggested countries such as Norway should get preference when related to immigration to the United States. The use of an expletive directed at such countries has been widely condemned. Carlos Curbelo U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Republican who represents Florida's 26th district, said that immigration legislation "cant be crafted with the sentiments apparently expressed today." "Lets turn this around & do right by passing a bill that makes America safer & welcomes DACA & TPS beneficiaries," Curbelo wrote on Twitter. Frederica Wilson U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat who represents Florida's 24th district, said that "it is a travesty that our nation is being led by someone who demeans the presidency at every opportunity by word, tweet and deed." I should be disappointed by reports that President Trump thinks that Haiti, El Salvador and African nations are s**thole countries and that he has a decided preference for immigrants from countries like Norway, but Im not. Nor am I surprised," Wilson wrote in a statement. His comments are yet another sign that people of color cannot count on this administration to create an agenda that treats all Americans fairly, regardless of their race, creed or color. To them I say, dont get mad. Vote. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, a Democrat who represents Florida's 23rd district, said that "Donald Trump is not only a bad president, he is a bad person." "There should be no place for his vile comments in our public discourse," Wasserman-Schultz wrote on Twitter. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who represents Florida's 27th district, said Trump's comment "ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians have made to our [South Florida] community and nation." "Language like that shouldn't be heard in locker rooms and it shouldn't be heard in the White House," Ros-Lehtinen wrote on Twitter. Jeb Bush Former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who ran against Trump in the Republican primary for the 2016 election, also expressed disappointment over Trump's comments. "For every one step forward [Trump] takes when it comes to judgment and good, coherent policy decisions, he inexplicably and without fail takes ten steps back," Bush wrote on Twitter. "I hope todays comments were just a crass and flippant mistake, and do not reflect the hateful racism they imply." Mia Love Though not a South Florida politician, U.S. Rep. Mia Love, a Republican who serves Utah's 4th district, is the first Haitian-American elected to U.S. Congress. She said Trump's comments are "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values. "This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took an oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with. They never took a thing from our federal government. They worked hard, paid taxes, and rose from nothing to take care of and provide opportunities for their children. They taught their children to do the same. That's the American Dream. The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned." Carlos A. Gimenez "If true, President Trump's remarks are very unfortunate and shameful. As Mayor of Miami-Dade County, I have personally experienced the contributions of the thousands of Haitian-Americans, Salvadorans, and other residents from throughout the world who call our community home," Gimenez said in a statement. "I can attest to their hopes to build better lives for their families and to their great contributions to our beautiful community and to the United States." The White House Following criticism over the comments, the White House issued a statement that did not deny the remarks. "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told NBC News. "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." It's too early to say that romaine lettuce is the source of an E. coli outbreak that has made at least 24 people in the U.S. and 40 in Canada sick, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. "The likely source of the outbreak in the United States appears to be leafy greens, but officials have not identified a specific type of leafy greens eaten by people who became ill," the CDC said in a statement on its website. The CDC added seven people to its count on Wednesday. The agency said it's hard to say the outbreak is over when the true source is not known, and blaming a single crop too soon could leave people at risk if something else is spreading the bacteria. Meanwhile, Canadian health officials said they traced the bacteria to romaine lettuce and have declared the outbreak over in the country. The CDC's statement comes after Consumer Reports acted on its own last week to warn people not to eat romaine lettuce. The company said that even though it didn't have "100 percent certainty that romaine lettuce is the cause of the E. coli outbreak in the U.S., a greater degree of caution is appropriate given that romaine lettuce is almost always consumed raw." Africans were shocked on Friday to find President Donald Trump had finally taken an interest in their continent. But it wasn't what people had hoped for. Using vulgar language, Trump on Thursday questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and "s--thole countries" in Africa rather than places like Norway in rejecting a bipartisan immigration deal, a Democratic aide briefed on Thursday's meeting told NBC News. The White House issued a statement afterward that did not deny the remarks. On Friday, Trump said on Twitter 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!" Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, of Illinois, who was in the meeting with Trump, flatly contradicted Trump's denial on Friday. "He said these hate-filled things," Durbin said in an appearance at a MLK breakfast in Chicago. The African Union continental body told The Associated Press it was "frankly alarmed" by Trump's reported comments. "Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice," AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said. "This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity." Some African governments quickly found themselves in an awkward position. As top recipients of U.S. aid, some hesitated to jeopardize it by criticizing Trump, especially as his administration has sought to slash foreign assistance. "Unless it was specifically said about South Sudan, we have nothing to say," South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told The Associated Press. But Botswana's government called Trump's comment "reprehensible and racist," saying the U.S. ambassador had been summoned to clarify whether the country was regarded as a "s--thole" one after years of cordial relations. South Africa's ruling African National Congress called Trump's comments "extremely offensive," while opposition leader Mmusi Maimane said "the hatred of Obama's roots now extends to an entire continent." Uganda's state minister for international relations, Henry Okello Oryem, called the remarks "unfortunate and regrettable" and hoped that heads of state will reply at an African Union summit later this month. African media outlets and the continent's young, increasingly connected population were not being shy. "Well, that is the perfect definition of racism. That is all I have to say," Kenyan entrepreneur Wangui Muraguri told the AP in his Nairobi office. "Casual Friday at the White House is soon to include hoods and tiki torches at this rate," South African media outlet Daily Maverick wrote. Many on the world's second most populous continent reached for their smartphones, long-practiced in defending the vast and varied region from easy stereotypes. While 40 percent of the world's poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund, the region also has billionaires, reality shows and a growing middle class. The World Bank on Friday tweeted that sub-Saharan Africa's economic growth this year is forecast at 3.2 percent. That was the U.S. economy's annual rate of growth from July through September, according to Commerce Department data last month. Some in Africa decided to own Trump's vulgar language or throw it back in his face. "Good morning from the greatest most beautiful 's--thole country' in the world!!!" South African Broadcasting Corporation anchor Leanne Manas tweeted. "As someone from South S--thole, Trevor is deeply offended by the president's remarks," The Daily Show tweeted of its South African-born host, Trevor Noah. On his show later, Noah joked that African countries will hear about the news in "a few weeks" but "as soon as the news donkey reaches our village, we'll be so mad." Others said they thought Trump had a point, in a way. "Trump is absolutely right. Africa is a continent of sh--," said Mamady Traore, a 30-year-old sociologist in Guinea. "When you have heads of state who mess with the constitutions to perpetuate their power. When you have rebel factions that kill children, disembowel women as saints, who mutilate innocent civilians. Frankly, it must be said that it's crap." In Kenya, East Africa's economic hub, political activist Boniface Mwangi pleaded: "Please don't confuse the #s--thole leaders we Africans elect with our beautiful continent." Trump's comments highlighted months of concerns about his lack of focus on Africa, including empty ambassadorial posts in key countries like South Africa, Egypt, Congo and Somalia. A list maintained by the Washington-based American Foreign Service Association says eight such posts are vacant. Trump has expressed negative opinions about the continent in the past. "Every penny of the $7 billion going to Africa as per Obama will be stolen - corruption is rampant!" he tweeted in 2013. The U.S. president is only hurting himself both at home and abroad, some Africans said. "He has not only insulted Africans, he has also insulted African-Americans," said Sylvester Odion Akhaine, associate professor of international relations at the Lagos State University in Nigeria. "Internationally, such language will deepen the isolation of the United States, a country that is already losing its global prestige." One lawmaker in Ghana called for a boycott by developing countries against the United States until Trump leaves office. "The sooner he is made aware that America needs the world and the world needs America the better it is for all of us," Ras Mubarak said. As outrage spread, the U.S. government's own Africa Media Hub tried to put out the flames. Without directly referring to Trump's statement, it tweeted that "US remains committed to working together w/Africans to realize the promise of a more peaceful, more productive, more prosperous 21st century Africa. US deeply respects the people of #Africa & values its partnerships with them." Associated Press writers Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Sam Mednick in Juba, South Sudan; Joe Mwihia in Nairobi, Kenya and Sam Olukoya in Lagos, Nigeria contributed. Americans are living in partisan "bubbles" that worsen political divisions and reinforce biases, former President Barack Obama told David Letterman in a rare extended interview. "One of the biggest challenges we have to our democracy is the degree to which we dont share a common baseline of facts," Obama said as part of Letterman's new Netflix series, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction." "What the Russians exploited but it was already here is we are operating in completely different information universes. If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet than you are if you listen to NPR," the 44th president said. A Levittown, Bucks County, man was charged Friday in a hit-and-run crash that killed a bicyclist last month, but authorities believe he will be tough to track down: He has allegedly fled to Turkey. Ali Hakan Cifter, 35, allegedly drove a Mercedes Benz with Florida license plates that struck and killed Kevin Williams about 8 p.m., Dec. 19, on Bristol Pike near Corson Street in Bristol Township, authorities said. Two days after the crash, Cifter allegedly fled on a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Serbia, with his eventual destination being Turkey, according to Bucks County Deputy District Attorney Robert D. James. After arriving overseas, Cifter, who is a native of Turkey, allegedly called Bristol police Dec. 23 and confessed his involvement in the crash, according to the Bucks County District Attorney's office. "He told Faight that the victim had jumped out in front of him, and that he had left the scene because he was scared," according to the district attorney's office in a statement online. The next day, on Christmas Eve, a sergeant with Bristol police received an email from Cifter "in which Cifter again acknowledged his involvement in the crash," the county DA's office said in the statement. James, who is handling the case, said he would work with federal authorities to try having Cifter extradited to the United States to face felony charges in the case. Cifter was allegedly racing another vehicle when he struck Williams on the bike, authorities have said. The impact killed Williams. He lived less than a block away and was riding home from work at the time, his daughter, Brittany Williams, told NBC10. She saw the wreckage on Tuesday night but didn't realize her father died in the wreck until Wednesday morning. "He was right here," she said while in tears. "He was so close to home." Bristol Borough Police / NBC10 / Family Photo Kevin Williams did HVAC work for a company 10 minutes from his home. The deadly crash occurred a block away from where he and his wife raised three children. "All of this just right before Christmas and it just, like I would just like the person to come forward and just accept what they did," Brittany Williams said at the time. A Cashton area shooting prompted Westby Area School District to implement safety measures on Friday morning, Jan. 12. The Westby Area School District implemented precautionary safety measures after administration was informed by law enforcement of a potentially dangerous situation occurring in Cashton. At approximately 7:35 a.m., Westby Area School District administration was informed of a shooter situation in Cashton. A short time later the district was informed that law enforcement believed they had located the suspect in Juneau County. In response to the initial information received, Westby administration locked all entrances to its buildings and placed staff members at school entrances to allow students arriving at school to enter safely. Students were directed to rooms, with doors that locked. Announcements were also periodically made over the intercom system informing students and staff arriving as to the status of the situation. According to Westby Area High School Principal Karl Stoker there did not appear to ever be a direct threat to any students in the Westby Area School District, but the proximity of events caused administration to act. An informational email was generated so anyone receiving a text message from people inside the school were clear that no one in the Westby district was in any apparent danger. The Cashton School District cancelled classes for the day. Hundreds lined up in the rain Friday morning to say farewell to a fallen veteran Philadelphia firefighter. It was part of the emotional tributes as Lt. Matthew LeTourneau is laid to rest. LeTourneau's flag-draped casket lay atop an engine from his former company, Engine 43, surrounded by his somber colleagues, just after 8 a.m. Friday. The procession then made its way through Center City, halting the typical hustle and bustle of the morning rush. The procession brought office workers to a standstill on the sidewalks as the drum corps' snares echoed off the high rises and the emergency vehicles with lights flashing moved slowly along Market Street. Philadelphia Mourns Philly Fire Lieutenant Who Died in North Philly Blaze It continued to the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, at 19th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where the public funeral Mass was held. "He lived, ate, slept and breathed this job," Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said at the funeral. "He was the consummate professional." Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel recalls the engaging manner of fallen Fire Lt. Matthew LeTourneau. Philadelphia paused Friday for the funeral of the 11-year veteran firefighter. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and LeTourneau's brother, Luke LeTourneau, also eulogized LeTourneau at his funeral. Firefighters, first responders from all over, friends and family gathered for two viewings and then the funeral to pay their final respects to LeTourneau, who died fighting a row home fire on Saturday. Burial followed at Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Springfield, Delaware County after another rain-soaked processional. LeTourneau, an 11-year veteran of the Philadelphia Fire Department, was one of 100 firefighters who responded to a row home fire on the 2200 block of North Colorado Street shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday. He became trapped inside the home after a structure collapsed. He was pulled out by fellow firefighters and taken to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later. Besides his work with Engine 45 of the Philadelphia Fire Department, LeTourneau also trained firefighters and spent time at the Delaware County training facility. He was a native of Delaware County. He also was a supporter of the Red Paw Relief Team who would sometimes foster animals. The Philadelphia Fire Department planned to posthumously promote him to captain. Philadelphia Fire Department via AP A resident, identified as Delgara Lane, also died in the fire, which remained under investigation Thursday. Two other firefighters were treated at a hospital for undisclosed injuries. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Condolences are pouring in for Philadelphia firefighter Lieutenant Matt LeTorneau who died battling a row home fire in North Philadelphia Saturday morning. NBC10s Cydney Long has the story. A youth pastor in Northern Virginia has been found guilty of having inappropriate contact with a teen girl. A jury found 26-year-old Jordan Baird guilty on five counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor. All of those charges were connected to the abuse of one underage girl. Baird was found not guilty on three other counts. He has been sentenced to five months in jail. The maximum sentence for an indecent liberties conviction in Virginia is 10 years. Baird was a youth pastor at The Life Church at 11234 Balls Ford Road in Manassas. He was arrested in August 2016 after a 16-year-old girl told police he sent her inappropriate text messages and touched her inappropriately at the church numerous times between January and September 2015. Prosecutors said in court Wednesday that Baird abused his position as a youth pastor. After his arrest, a second victim told police that Baird had inappropriate sexual contact with her, made inappropriate statements and exposed himself to her at the church in 2013. Baird's father, David Baird, is the senior pastor at The Life Church, which has four locations in Northern Virginia. In a statement to News4 in August 2016, The Life Church said a church volunteer first notified leaders of Baird's alleged misconduct on June 10, 2016 and the church placed Baird on a leave of absence as they conducted an internal investigation. "Jordan denies all allegations brought by Prince William County, but remains on leave from the church until the charges are resolved," The Life Church's statement read in part. Richmond has a weekend full of pomp and circumstance ahead as Gov. Terry McAuliffe hands over the reins to fellow Democrat Ralph Northam. Northam will be sworn in as Virginia's 73rd governor during an outdoor ceremony at Capitol Square on Saturday. Other celebratory events are planned Friday through Sunday. Immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, a parade will kick off. A total of 26 groups are taking part, including a southwest Virginia fiddlers group, James Madison University's marching band and the Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets. A ticketed black-tie ball will be held Saturday night. Northam's inaugural committee has raised over $1.9 million as of Friday, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan money-in-politics tracker. Much of that money has come from corporations or special interest groups. Update: Authorities announced an arrest Friday in connection with Bernstein's death. A news conference with Orange County Sheriff's officials is scheduled for 4 p.m. PST. Follow new devepments here. The friend of a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student who was found dead in a Southern California park appeared nervous while speaking with authorities and had scratched up hands and dirt under his fingernails, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by a sheriff's investigator. Blaze Bernstein's body was found Tuesday, Jan. 9 after an extensive search through Borrego Park. Authorities said they were investigating his death as a homicide but would not say how he died. The friend said he went with Bernstein to a neighborhood park in the city of Lake Forest on Jan. 2 to meet up with the victim's girlfriend but stayed in the car, the Orange County sheriff's investigator wrote in the document. The friend could not recall the girlfriend's last name or address. He said he left about an hour later when Bernstein did not return to the vehicle or respond on social media. He alleged he returned to the park several hours later but could not find Bernstein. Detectives noted the friend had dirt under his fingernails during the interview, to which he claimed was caused by a fall. Officials also saw that the friend had several cuts and scratches, but he claimed they stemmed from a fight club he was involved in. "On their way out of sheriff's headquarters, [investigators] noticed 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 affidavit. Family and friends attended a candlelit vigil on Wednesday, where mourners gathered to honor the teens memory. "We thank God for this hard rain that exposed his grave," Bernsteins grandfather said before he choked back tears. Sheriffs said Bernsteins body was found in brush near Foothill Ranch Park. Although officials would not say whether he was buried or not, they confirmed that Tuesdays storm helped find his body. Officials did not comment on the cause of death. Bernstein, who was visiting family in Orange County during his school break from University of Pennsylvania, was last seen about 11 p.m. on Jan. 2. He told relatives he was meeting up with his friends. He was reported missing the following day after his loved ones were unable to get in contact with him. No suspects are in custody. Sheriffs will not go into detail on who received the search warrant nor have they publicly named a person of interest. Anyone with information on Bernsteins death is asked to contact the Orange County Sheriffs Department at 714-647-7000. President Donald Trump will, for the final time, waive sanctions against Iran, according to senior administration officials. The move extends the life of an international nuclear accord that Trump disavowed three months ago, CNBC reported. Trump will work with European partners on developing new triggers to strengthen the deal, which was enacted in 2015 by six world powers. He will be open to remaining in the Iran deal only if he can secure that new agreement without a sunset clause, officials told CNBC. Under the terms of the deal, the sitting president must suspend various sanctions every 120 to 180 days. Trump has called the accord the "worst deal ever," but he's declined to scrap it while Congress prepares legislation to modify the agreement. Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former top adviser, will testify before the House Intelligence Committee next week, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. Bannon is scheduled to testify in closed session on Tuesday. He has hired Washington lawyer Bill Burck, from the firm Quinn Emanuel, to represent him before the committee. The committee is probing possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether the Trump campaign was involved. Bannon, who left his post at the White House in August, confirmed this week that he is leaving his post at the conservative website Breitbart News. House Speaker Paul Ryan became the highest ranking Republican to criticize President Donald Trump over reports that he referred to African nations as "s--thole countries" and disparaged Haitians. Ryan on Friday called the comments "very unfortunate" and "unhelpful." "First thing I thought about was my family - my family came from Ireland and came here and worked - the Irish were really looked down on," he added. Lawmakers from both parties have fired back at Trump, who denied using certain "language" in Thursday's private meeting with lawmakers. Neither Trump nor the White House denied the most controversial of his comments: using the word "s--thole" to describe countries in Africa and saying he would prefer immigrants from countries like Norway instead. President Trump says any solution on DACA and immigration must include a border wall; continues to deny collusion with Russia during 2016 election. Utah Rep. Mia Love, the first black Republican woman elected to Congress and whose parents came from Haiti, called Trump's behavior "unacceptable from the leader of our nation." She said he should apologize. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was among some Republicans who called for Trump to explain himself. "If these comments are accurate, they are disappointing. I would not talk about nations like this, because I believe the people of those countries are made in the image of God and have worth and human dignity," Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said. And Sen. John McCain of Arizona said in his statement, "People have come to this country from everywhere, and people from everywhere have made America great. Our immigration policy should reflect that truth, and our elected officials, including our President, should respect it." Among Democrats, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said, "If the president can't control himself and lead this country with the authority, dignity and leadership it requires, then he shouldn't be the president. There's no room for racism in the Oval Office." Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Trump's remarks "smack of blatant racism" that's "masquerading poorly as immigration policy." "America is better than this and our president should be too," Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said. Trump made the remarks in a meeting as he was being briefed by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on changes to the visa lottery program, according to an aide with knowledge of the meeting. 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. 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!" Durbin said that reports of what Trump had said were accurate. "He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly," Durbin said during a press conference at an MLK breakfast Friday. But two Republican senators who attended the meeting, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, said they did not recall Trump making the comments. "In regards to Senator Durbin's accusation, we do not recall the President saying these comments specifically but what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest," they said in a statement. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who also was at the meeting, said in a statement Friday, "Following comments by the President, I said my piece directly to him yesterday. The President and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel. I've always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not yet addressed the controversy. Republicans House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Rep. Robert Goodlatte of Virginia, both of whom also were in the meeting, also have not commented publicly. Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida did not address the president's comments in his statement, saying only that he was committed to trying to stop deportations of the beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy or DACA. The battle against the opioid epidemic is raging on in Massachusetts, where Gov. Charlie Baker is continuing to take measures against over-prescription. Baker and others announced Friday that the CVS Medication Disposal Program would be expanded. "For the first time, literally in over a decade, prescriptions went down in Massachusetts in 2017 by about 25 percent, and deaths went down by about 10 percent," said Baker. He says programs like this are making forward progress, but the epidemic remains. "Still, five or six people a day die here in the commonwealth of an opioid overdose," he said. "We have a long way to go." Visitors will be able to see medication disposal boxes inside CVS pharmacies. The first box put in place is at the CVS on Fellsway in Medford. People are now able to walk in and drop off any of your used or unused prescriptions. "These boxes have been made available in police departments, and that's all well and should continue, but in an effort to meet people where they are, this makes it a lot easier," said Attorney General Maura Healey. The boxes are inside CVS locations with 24-hour pharmacies. "In Massachusetts, in the coming months, we will add 42 new in-store collection units to the nearly 40 units we've already donated to police departments across the state," said Thomas Moriarty, the executive director of CVS Health. CVS will also contribute $150,000 to programs in Massachusetts that address and prevent opioid abuse. "These funds will help Boston Medical Center, Mattapan Community Health Center and the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center," Moriarty said. Two women were hospitalized Thursday night after a fire broke out at a duplex in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Firefighters responded to 334-336 Park St. at about 11:15 p.m. where heavy fire was showing in one of the units. Authorities said the two women, believed to be a mother and daughter, were outside when crews arrived. They were taken to Lawrence General Hospital then to a hospital in Boston for treatment of serious burns. Keishla Reyes, who lives in the other unit, said her mother woke her up to tell her the building was on fire. When they went outside, they saw their neighbors suffering from burns. "I come outside and see the whole house on the right side on fire. And I just see my house burning down," said Reyes. "Something exploded and when I saw her, she was all burnt on her back." Neighbor Coupe Sanders said he ran outside when he heard the explosion. "I heard a boom. Heard people screaming and running all you see is mad smoke," said Sanders. In addition to the two residents, one firefighter was also taken to the hospital with minor injuries. He was treated then later released. Authorities said 8 people from Florida were visiting the two residents when the unit caught fire. Because the unit has been deemed a total loss, those residents have now been displaced. Reyes' side of the duplex suffered smoke and water damage. "We dont deserve to be going through this. This is the beginning of the year. This is not the way to start the year," said Reyes. Crews with Columbia Gas of Massachusetts arrived at the scene on Friday. A company spokesperson said a gas leak was discovered on the street but it does not appear to be connected to the fire. The state fire marshal's office is investigating the exact cause of the blaze. A Massachusetts police officer charged in connection with what prosecutors say was a violent off-duty confrontation with a 15-year-old boy has pleaded not guilty. Springfield Officer Daniel Cintron was released on personal recognizance after pleading not guilty Thursday in Hampden Superior Court to unarmed robbery, assault and battery and witness intimidation. Prosecutors say the 31-year-old Cintron and another man confronted the teen at a city mall in August over text messages he exchanged with the other man's sister. Prosecutors say Cintron wore his badge, carried a department-issued gun, and told the teen he was "lucky" he didn't let the other man kill him. The other man allegedly punched the teen and stole his cellphone. Cintron's lawyer says police have not properly investigated the case. Cintron is on unpaid suspension. Question: I was told that motorists have to yield to a city bus when it enters the road from a bus stop, is this true? Answer: There is a state law that says that a driver of a vehicle traveling in the right-hand lane of traffic shall yield the right-of-way to any transit bus attempting to enter that lane from a bus stop or shoulder, as indicated by a flashing left turn signal. Always be extra cautious when passing or near any type of bus and be prepared to change lanes, if there is more than one lane in the same direction, or yield as needed. Keep in mind, bus drivers have a very important job in transporting people of all ages, and they are operating a very large vehicle, in high volume traffic areas with very little room to maneuver. We all have a responsibility to drive safely so all of us can make it to our destination safely. Rhode Island State Police are investigating how a woman was struck and killed on Interstate 95 in Warwick on Thursday night. The crash happened on the southbound side of the highway, near exit 29. WJAR-TV reported that two vehicles were stopped at the scene, one of which had heavy front-end and windshield damage. The identity of the woman killed has not been released. WJAR-TV reports that the woman may have been running or walking along the highway when she was struck. The business has yet to even start growing in Massachusetts, but already the recreational pot industry faces a new challenge from the states top federal prosecutor. How are we supposed to deal with this situation, asked Walpole Police Chief John Carmichael. This week, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said he could not guarantee that state-sanctioned pot operations would be free from federal prosecution, as they are still in violation of federal law. The comments have since left local police departments in a state of confusion, as many have officers who also serve on federal drug task forces. That puts us in a really difficult situation, Carmichael explained. Theres got to be some standardized approach to how you address it. At the state level, Public Safety and Security Director Dan Bennett said state police would not assist federal authorities in enforcing federal law against marijuana dispensaries that are legal under state law. I dont think we are going to see prosecutions, said Jim Borghesani, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. In the coming weeks, Borghesani hopes there will be some type of congressional action to provide protection for shops, similar to protections already in place for medical marijuana dispensaries. Im hoping that a lot of people are looking at this and saying this is a temporary situation, Borghesani said, I consider this to be potentially a minor bump in the road. Despite the hurdle, the Cannabis Control Commission in the state said this week that it will continue moving forward with plans to create a legal market for the industry. A week after federal authorities tightened oversight of marijuana, advocates in Massachusetts organized a "stay away from our medicine" rally. The Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance protested in front of the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston on Thursday, calling for state and federal leaders to respect and protect medical marijuana. The group says most Massachusetts dispensaries, which are licensed by the state, are no longer processing debit transactions because of new federal policies. Last Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama-era policy that limited federal prosecution of state-run marijuana industries, both medical and recreational. Andrew Lelling, the state's new U.S. attorney, said he can't give assurances that people in Massachusetts will be immune from prosecution since the use of marijuana is still prohibited federally. Officials with Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance say they are disappointed. "I was disappointed but we also sort of expected it. It's an unpredictable administration," said Nichole Snow with the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance. Michelle Novick Herman, who attended Thursday's rally in Boston, said she and her daughter moved to Massachusetts from Florida to legally purchase medical marijuana. But that right could be in jeopardy now. "I have a daughter who has special needs and we are here basically for one reason she has seizures," Novick Herman said. "We did everything legally and now we're being told that no it's not it's very scary." Others worry that people using medical marijuana will turn to other drugs or the streets. "Unfortunately it's really hard to get the right amount of pills you want, so what do you do -- people go to the street. I won't do that because I'm a mother, I don't know what would happen," Novick Herman said. This week's news that the Trump administration is ending Temporary Protected Status for 200,000 migrants from El Salvador is also rattling nerves in neighboring Honduras. A decision on the fate of more than 50,000 Hondurans living in the United States under TPS is expected in July, and it could have severe social, economic and political consequences for the Central American nation. Experts say that as in El Salvador, the return of tens of thousands of people plus, potentially, an untold number of their U.S.-born children threatens to exacerbate already-grave problems like high rates of murders and other crime, political instability, widespread poverty and income inequality. "The exit of so many compatriots from the United States would be a social bomb that will immediately explode in Honduras," analyst Raul Pineda Alvarado told The Associated Press. Perhaps most immediately, there would be a hit to remittances, which typically account for about 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product though most of that is sent by Hondurans who would not be affected by cancellation of TPS. Billions of dollars sent home each year help households feed and clothe children, buy a car, build a modest home and keep the lights on. Those expenditures then filter out into the broader economy. Olga Martinez, a 42-year-old cleaning worker in Tegucigalpa, relies on the $150 a month she receives from two sons who are in the United States under the TPS program. It's a significant sum in one of the hemisphere's most impoverished countries, where about 65 percent of the population is poor and many make do on the equivalent of a dollar or two a day. "If I don't have that money, I don't know what I will do," Martinez said. "My life will be very hard because they will come and there is no work here." The U.S. made TPS available for Hondurans after Hurricane Mitch ravaged the country in 1998, killing about 7,000 people and devastating the agricultural sector. The measure allows migrants to live and work in the United States legally. Like with other countries, it was by definition supposed to be temporary until conditions caused by the disaster improved back home. But over the years, successive U.S. administrations kept it in place, believing that other problems such as poverty, corruption and gang-driven violence would have made it difficult for the country to reabsorb those citizens. The Trump administration has made clear it is putting the emphasis back on the word "temporary" as it evaluates TPS, withdrawing it for some 46,000 Haitians and 2,500 Nicaraguans in November and now for the Salvadorans. Back in November it delayed a decision on Hondurans for six months, saying it needed more information. Homicide rates in Honduras and El Salvador have fallen significantly in the last year, though both are still among the highest in the world. Street gangs known as "maras" are ubiquitous and prey on small business owners and families through extortion. For both nations the violence is "still at epidemic levels," said Christine Wade, a professor of political science and international studies at Washington College in Maryland. "So you would basically be returning people to highly insecure countries." Pineda said a flood of returning TPS recipients, in addition to migrants without legal status being deported under a more aggressive U.S. immigration stance, threatens to swell the ranks of the un- and underemployed, aggravating economic inequality and producing "high levels of ungovernability." Honduras is already in the throes of political instability following a disputed November election in which President Juan Orlando Hernandez won a new term and his opponent alleged fraud. At least 17 people died last month in protests over the vote. "Considering how they operated the last election, I don't think there's any evidence whatsoever that the government there can manage the return of 50,000 or 60,000 Honduran nationals and thousands perhaps of their relatives anytime soon," said Michael Allison, a professor of political science at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. "The country and the political and economic conditions are worse there today than in 1998 when Mitch struck." Even Honduras' school system could be sorely tested by an influx of children unaccustomed to learning in a Spanish-language setting, with scarce resources available to accommodate their needs. Allison said he expects not all 50,000 Honduran TPS recipients would return, with some likely remaining illegally and living on the margins of society, others making for Canada or another country and still others seeking residency through marriage or employer sponsorship. But Hernandez's government clearly sees the El Salvador decision as a harbinger and is bracing for impact. "We Hondurans were given the opportunity of six more months for a decision to be made, and the Salvadorans were not," Hernandez said Monday. "Nevertheless we must begin preparing for the eventuality that our compatriots would have to return." "We must think about how we open the doors to them and how they can bring their goods and resources free of taxes to restart a life with greater facilities in Honduras," he added. Like the Salvadorans covered by TPS, who were given a grace period through September 2019 before they must leave the United States, Honduras is now hoping for broader immigration legislation that could include relief for TPS recipients. Hernandez said his government is aggressively lobbying the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers. "It is the U.S. Congress that is the key piece for the 56,690 Honduran TPS recipients, since they will decide how to enter into an immigration policy that would benefit Hondurans," said Marlon Tabora, the country's ambassador to Washington. On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, a Colorado Republican, introduced a bill that would end TPS while granting permanent residency to qualified enrollees of the program. It's also possible that Honduras could win another 18-month extension out of political considerations. Last month Honduras was one of just nine countries to vote against a U.N. resolution condemning Washington's decision to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. If Hernandez, a conservative seen as a firm U.S. ally, were to make a similar decision to move his country's embassy, as neighboring Guatemala has already done, it could curry further favor with the Trump administration. "If you're looking at it rationally in terms of policy, you'd have to end TPS for Hondurans if you're going to end it for Salvadorans," Wade said. "If they don't, it's going to look like a total quid pro quo situation." Associated Press writer Freddy Cuevas reported this story in Tegucigalpa and AP writer Peter Orsi reported from Mexico City. The Mitre Benefice is to stage the premiere of Edenbridge, a musical Christmas production for all the family. The Mitre Benefice is to stage the premiere of Edenbridge, a musical Christmas production for all the family. Join free on line Norfolk food aid workshop A free online workshop will be held next week to give guidance and share experiences for groups working to help those struggling with food insecurity. Read more Sprowston Methodist Church needs a cleaner Sprowston Methodist Church, near Norwich, is seeking to appoint a part-time Church Cleaner for 16 hours per week. Read more Norwich choir puts on Christmas concert for children's hospices The Phoenix Male Voice Choir will be performing their Christmas concert at Mile Cross Methodist Church in aid of East Anglia's Children's Hospices. Read more Rebrand as Norwich church changes its name A Norwich church has changed its name for the fourth time in its 170-year history transforming from Surrey Chapel into CityGates Church Norwich. Read more Blues concert fundraiser for Stalham Baptists There will be a free concert at Stalham Baptist Church next Saturday to raise funds towards the refurbishment of premises at the church. Read more Norwich church moves to wrestling ring A Norwich church has temporarily relocated to a boxing ring where self professed 'hard men' will tell their stories of finding faith. The first Tough Talk event is set for November 20. Read more How can we help feed those in need? Andrew Frere-Smith reminds us of the importance of meals, and offers us some food for thought as the rising cost of living impacts our communities. Read more Latest Norfolk Christian community events Events of interest to the Norwich and Norfolk Christian community happening over the next few weeks are listed. Read more John leads Norwich churches trip to Holy Land Experienced Holy Land traveller and former CEO of YMCA Norfolk, John Drake, is leading an inter-church tour from Norwich to Israel and Palestine in March 2023, with a few places still available. Read more Christmas rhyming play by North Norfolk teacher Matthew Pickhaver, who lives in North Norfolk, has just published the third of his series of play scripts on the theme of Christmas, which is now available to buy. Read more Advent and Christmas events at Norwich Cathedral From an Advent Open Evening to Carols in the Cloister and an array of special services and concerts with Norwich Cathedral Choir, there is lots to look forward to at Norwich Cathedral this festive season. Read more Norwich church to hold Sunday healing service Witard Road Baptist Church is hosting a healing service on November 27 led by Rev Ray and Ruth Scorey from Norfolk Healing Rooms. Read more Sheringham youth attend forbidden church The youth group at Lighthouse Community Church in Sheringham were forced to meet at a secret location earlier this month when the Lighthouse building had, supposedly, been shut down by the authorities. Read more Christmas pud workshop at Norwich church Not made your Christmas pudding yet? Don't know where to start? Come along to a Christmas pudding workshop at Norwich Central Baptist Church on November 21 with MasterChef contestant Jane Wyndham. Read more Norwich Foodbank provides over 4,700 food parcels Norwich Foodbank gave out 4,793 emergency food parcels to people across Norwich in the last year with 1,790 of these going to children. Read more Poppies cascading in Sheringham church A fall of poppies cascades from the pulpit in St Andrews Methodist Church in Sheringham, and anyone is welcome to come and see them. Read more Bishop Graham's prayers for COP27 climate conference Bishop Graham is publishing daily prayers on social media for the current COP27 climate conference, and is asking all to join. Read more Owner of Tallon Perry Interiors reveals her passion for creativity Vicky Tallon of Tallon Perry Interiors AFTER an eclectic career, that includes stints at a yacht designer in Sloane Square, a pharmaceutical company in Guatemala and the Foreign Office in Spain, one Newbury woman has gone full circle and started a business that allows her to embrace her first love art and design. Vicky Tallon spent years working abroad for some of the largest companies in the world, ticking off things on her bucket list as she went. But now she has settled down in Newbury, close to her family, and is enjoying every second of it. The 48-year-old was born and grew up in Highgate, North London. She is one of four children; three of whom now live in West Berkshire. Following her love of the arts, Vicky went to art college to study a foundation arts course. I loved art, she confides. But they have tried to make art academic. Everything always has to have a deep story behind it, but I am not sure art always has to have a deep story; sometimes it is just impulsive. But, in her own words, Vicky is a girl of the Thatcher era, meaning she was encouraged to go out and get a good career. Unfortunately for her, art was not it. So, she put down her art and ended up heading into the corporate world. It would take her two decades to finally be able to pick it back up again. Her first job was for a yacht designer in Sloane Square, but she couldnt see any career path in it, so she began temping in a teaching hospital, The Royal Free. She had worked her way up to outpatient manager for the mental health unit when her boss suggested she got a degree. She agreed and headed to Birkbeck College, part of the University of London, to study business management. After leaving the hospital, she worked for an animation company in Soho, SoftImage, and Phillips Media. It was at the latter that she had her first taste of redundancy gaining a first-class degree and losing her job in the same week. She embraced the opportunity to do something new and headed off to Guatemala to satisfy her desire to travel. While there she worked with Shell and then Zeneca, where an initial six-week contract turned into a two-year posting. They got me doing stuff that was beyond what I had ever done before and I was speaking Spanish the whole time, she explains. It built my confidence so much and I ended up doing the finance manager role, which was quite an amazing thing for a 26-year-old. Crunch-time came when Zeneca wanted to re-evaluate Vickys contract and put her on a local pay scale. She headed back to England and a job with KPMG in London, starting her career as a management consultant. Four years later, Vicky took redundancy from KPMG and moved to Australia, to tick another thing off my bucket list. But the lure of family and home was too much and a homesick Vicky returned to England again. This time she joined Ernst and Young, spending more than three years doing finance outsourcing for the firm. I loved the role, the people and the international side of it, she adds. At one point I had 96 countries reporting in to me. I loved speaking to the Latino countries in Spanish, something that my time in Guatemala had helped greatly. I sat in the tax division, but I wasnt a qualified accountant or tax specialist, so I felt like there was a glass ceiling and I couldnt break through it. Then in 2007 I was headhunted for a niche consultancy practice, but as soon as I joined their pipeline disappeared overnight as the financial crash happened. I ended up doing marketing and business development and that just wasnt my forte, so the following year I decided to leave the country again. This time I was interviewed for a role with the Foreign Office, to be locally employed at the British Embassy in Spain. I moved over there as the corporate services manager and oversaw finance, procurement and estate management. Vicky then spent two years in Madrid looking after the embassy, diplomatic houses, consulates and even British graveyards around Spain. But her mother was very unwell and she needed to return to the UK, so she took redundancy and headed home. She moved straight to Newbury and cared for her mother until her death, taking a small role at a beer company in the interim. Chatting to Vicky, it is obvious that she has enjoyed everything shes done and given every job her all. She admits that to document her entire career to date would require a much longer article than this one, but her zig-zagged occupations have clearly given her a whole lot of life experience. Its not the jobs themselves that are of interest, but more what they all gave me in terms of knowledge and experience, she adds. That experience, of staying calm through all sorts of challenges and obstacles and knowing just how far out of someones comfort zone to push them, has proved invaluable to her newest venture Tallon Perry Interiors. It was her sister who persuaded her, shortly after their mother died, to follow her dream and so she headed back into London and began studying interior architecture and design at the Chelsea School of Art. By October 2016 she felt confident enough to throw all my eggs into one basket and her interior design company, Tallon Perry Interiors, was born. She is quite clear that being an interior designer is not just about cushions and curtains and says you certainly dont need to be rich to make the most of her services. Vickys creative skills, combined with her love of space, light and colour, ensure she can offer her clients a full service, with functional designs and realistic budgets and timescales. Running your own business is not for the faint-hearted, though, she laughs. I didnt realise how protected I had been in the corporate world. You have to do everything and sometimes it is really overwhelming. She was quick to learn and her business is now thriving. She is currently building up her network of local suppliers and she has found networking invaluable, but does fear that it has become a business in itself recently. There are a lot of people starting out who just want someone to talk to, she adds. Everyone needs a sounding board. There are a lot of things you can do yourself, but you just need someone there saying you can do it. There is so much great entrepreneurial stuff going on in Newbury now; its a great place to be working. For more details visit her website here. Twenty-one-year-old was arrested in Greenham in possession of heroin and cocaine A drug dealer from the north east of England has been sentenced to two years in prison after police found him in possession of heroin and cocaine during a stop and search in Greenham. Wasim Hussain, aged 21, was involved in transporting the drugs from London to Newbury and following his arrest pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to supply cocaine and to one count of possession with intent to supply heroin. Hussain, of Mulgrave Road, Middlesborough, was initially arrested following a stop and search in Greenham on Thursday, June 22. Further investigation found that Hussain was linked to County Lines drug dealing, which involves the organised transporting of drugs from London into areas such as Newbury. Following his arrest Hussain was charged by postal notification on September 22, and attended Reading Crown Court on Wednesday (January 10) where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced on the same day. Investigating officer, PC James Botto, based at Newbury police station, said: This case is another example of county line drug dealing and the conviction shows how Thames Valley Police and the Crown Prosecution service are committed to investigating such offences and bringing offenders to justice. No matter what the level of involvement is regarding drug supply the authorities will seek to prosecute. In this case Hussain was transporting drugs into Newbury from the London area for others to sell. Without this courier service there would be no supply and the conviction reflects the seriousness of his actions." The heads of accident and emergency (A&E) departments of hospitals all across England and Wales have warned Theresa May that more people are dying prematurely in the corridors of the A&E departments than before. Imran's Photography / Shutterstock.com The consultants and heads in charge of the emergency departments of 68 acute hospitals wrote a letter to Prime Minister May stating the current state of the hospitals. It reads, the current level of safety compromise is at times intolerable, despite the best efforts of staff. The staff is putting in their best efforts say the doctors and so are the trusts and clinical commissioning groups. The, facts remain, however, that the NHS is severely and chronically underfunded, they write. Thousands of patients are waiting in ambulances for hours as the hospitals lack adequate space. Some of our own personal experiences range from over 120 patients a day managed in corridors, some dying prematurely. An average of 10 to 12 hours from decision to admit a patient until they are transferred to a bed states the petition. The letter was in fact leaked to the Health Service Journal. The consultants have urged the Prime Minister to treat this issue as a matter of urgency and consider steps to address this problem. They have asked for infrastructure and strategies to reduce the overcrowding in the A&E departments. They also suggest a significant raise in the social care funding to allow more beds to be allocated for acute care of the patients and also removal of the patients who are fit to be discharged from the hospital to make space for the incoming rush of patients. The experts warn about the hazards of having overcrowded emergency departments. As you will know a number of scientific publications have shown that crowded emergency departments (ED) are dangerous for patients. The longer that the patients stay in ED after their treatment has been completed, the greater is their morbidity and associated mortality. The letter adds that sometimes the consultants see over 50 patients at a time who are waiting to be shifted to a bed in the emergency departments. These patients are sometimes forced to sleep in clinics and wards that are prepared hurriedly to accommodate the rush. One quarter of all patients had to wait for over four hours to get a bed in the emergency last month says the survey on performance of the A&E departments. The letter states that the NHS has, insufficient hospital and community beds and staff of all disciplines especially at the front door to cope with our ageing population's health needs. They add that this is not a report from outliers but most of the hospitals and trusts are facing the same problem. The team also acknowledges the hard work put in by the dedicated nursing, medical and allied health professional colleagues and the situation despite the man-hours of work put in behind patient care. They ended the letter signing on behalf of themselves and their departmental staff. They add that their views were not necessarily same as that of the individual trusts. According to a spokeswoman from the Department of Health and Social Care as a response to this letter, there is a 68.7% increase in the number of A&E consultants over the past 7-8 years and that NHS was given top priority in the recent budget with an extra 2.8 billion allocated over the next two years. She said that the Department was aware of the great deal of pressure in A&E departments and said they are grateful to all NHS staff for their incredible work in challenging circumstances. One of the steps to address this problem she said was that the Department had recently announced the largest single increase in doctor training places in the history of the NHS - a 25% expansion. References: 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. 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Apr 12 (1) Apr 11 (1) Apr 09 (1) Apr 07 (1) Apr 05 (1) Apr 01 (1) Mar 30 (1) Mar 27 (1) Mar 25 (1) Mar 22 (2) Mar 19 (1) Mar 18 (1) Mar 16 (1) Mar 15 (2) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (1) 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). Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today 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." Source: http://www.mountsinai.org/ UPM researchers, in collaboration with UCM and Hospital Universitario de la Princesa, have successfully simulated a system that alert patients to an incoming migraine crisis in real time. According to the simulation results, the reliability of this system is over 75%. In order to improve the quality of life of migraine patients, a team that includes researchers from Center for Computational Simulation (CCS) at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid is developing a wearable device able to predict and alert the incoming pain of these crises. According to a recent article published by researchers from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), the effectiveness of prediction and early warning system in real time was tested in a simulation environment with reliability over 75% in average times of 25 minutes. These results lay the foundation for the development of a future hardware device that monitors biomedical variables of patients and alerts of the arrival of this crisis. Migraine is a highly prevalent and disabling neurological disease and affects between 12% and 15% of the population worldwide. Migraine worsens the patients' life and their performance at work or social environment which lead to high cost for private and national health systems in Europe. The anticipated intake of drugs could prevent pain and improve the quality of life of patients as well as saving economic cost to society. Thus, it is essential an objective prediction of the time when crises occur. A team of researchers from Center for Computational Simulation at UPM has been working with UCM since various years ago on a processing methodology for the development of a predictive model of migraine crisis. Recently, this team, in collaboration with the Headache Unit of Hospital Universitario de la Princesa de Madrid, has developed a predictive system of a migraine crisis in real time in a simulation environment with reliability over 75% in average times of 25 minutes, enough time to prevent or reduce the pain of the crisis. In the Josue Pagan opinion, a researcher of this study, "this is a step towards the final implementation of a commercial device that will help patients improve their quality life". Besides, this work has tackled the economic impact at both energetic and care level that would mean the implementation of this system in a hypothetical deployment in Europe. When a patient who suffers from migraines is monitored, the data can be processed either in the acquisition sensor of biomedical variables or in a smartphone or data center. Where and when to process these data have different costs depending on the network, smartphone battery, etc. Thus the new system will be able to optimize the decision of selecting the cheapest process in energy terms. The system has been optimized for a representation of 2% of migraine sufferers in Europe taking into account the reliability of the prediction models and both the household energy prices in each country (when charging the monitoring devices and smartphone) and industrial costs (data centers). The results yield average savings of 288 million in addition to savings of 1272 million due to the benefits of the migraine prediction. Beginning on May 20, the ATS 2018 International Conference in San Diego will give journalists like you what they have come to expect from the biggest gathering of scientists and clinicians in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. Register now to get access to: The latest in research and technological advances in the field; Leading experts in pediatric and adult lung health available to provide expert commentary on each days poster sessions and abstract presentations; Spirited discourse on basic research, clinical applications and the future of pulmonary medicine and; A well-appointed press room with experienced staff to ensure that your needs are met. Whether youre new to the ATS International Conference or a returning journalist, we look forward to seeing you. In case you missed us in DC, take a look at what ATS 2017 had to offer: ATS 2017 Pulmonary and Critical Care Highlights ATS 2017 Sleep Highlights Journalists are welcome to cover the ATS 2018 Opening Ceremony on the evening of Saturday, May 19. Contact Ms. Dacia Morris, director of communications and marketing, at [email protected] See you in San Diego! 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. A new study shows that a humanitarian program to improve the mental health of adolescents affected by the Syrian war has decreased levels of cortisol (a hormone associated with stress) in participants by a third. The study, involving Dr Kristin Hadfield from Queen Mary University of London's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, was led by Dr Rana Dajani of Hashemite University and Harvard University, and published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. It is the first time an objective biomarker in this case, hair cortisol has been used to assess the impact of a mental-health intervention for war-affected youth. By measuring the cortisol concentrations in hair samples, the researchers corroborated the youths' self-reporting of stress and psychosocial wellbeing. "In this study, we show that an intervention can actually lead to adaptive physiological changes. Where cortisol was very low, the intervention raised it, and where cortisol was very high, the intervention lowered it," said Dr Hadfield, who designed the analytic approach and carried out the analyses. "That the intervention was able to do this is exciting because too high and too low levels of cortisol can lead poor physical and mental health." Catherine Panter-Brick, Professor of Anthropology, Health, and Global Affairs at Yale University, and the study's co-author and principal investigator, added: "Our work demonstrates the utility in using stress biomarkers for tracking physiological changes in response to interventions over time. Through hair cortisol, we can examine the biological signature of past trauma, current insecurity, and stress-alleviating interventions. "We've shown that effective psychosocial interventions can have a physiological benefit, protecting the health and development of young people who live through war and forced displacement." The researchers partnered with Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian and development organization that operates Advancing Adolescents a structured eight-week program for 12- to 18-year-olds designed to reduce the effects of profound stress and build strong ties to family and community. The study was conducted in four cities in northern Jordan, near the Syrian border, where Mercy Corps had implemented the program. It involved a gender-balanced sample of 733 adolescents (411 Syrian refugees and 322 Jordanian non-refugees). The researchers relied on cortisol concentration in hair, which acts as a "chronic stress diary" as levels of the hormone accumulate in hair over time. They collected hair samples from study participants at three points: before they entered the program, shortly after they completed the program, and about 11 months after the initial sample. The team conducted a randomized control trial, hiring professional hairdressers to offer youth a complimentary haircut at the time of measurement. They found that Advancing Adolescents reduced cortisol by about 38 percent over the long term. The study showed that the intervention benefitted all participants, whether they were male or female, refugee or non-refugee, and irrespective of their insecurity, stress, or post-traumatic stress symptoms. Although it lowered cortisol for most youth, the program had the added benefit of raising cortisol for those who had unusually low levels of the hormone. Both too high and too low cortisol levels pose risks for health, including depression, memory and learning deficits, high blood pressure, and impaired stress responses. These results indicate that the program benefits participants through regulating their cortisol production. As of January 2018, 5.4 million people have been forced to leave Syria the largest refugee crisis since World War II. More than 655,000 Syrians have sought refuge in neighboring Jordan. Half of the displaced are children under 18 years old. 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 Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu to arrive on Monday on six-day India trip New Delhi : 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. MCLEAN, Va., Jan. 9, 2018 /CNW/ -- Aireon announced today that it has signed a data services agreement with the Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA). ASECNA, created in December 1959 is an international public organization of 18 members States which headquarters is located in Dakar (SENEGAL). ASECNA's members states are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Centrafrique, Comores, Congo, Cote d'ivoire, Gabon, Guinee Bissau, Guinee Equatoriale, France, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritanie, Niger, Senegal, Tchad and Togo. ASECNA is one of Africa's largest Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), covering 16.1 million square kilometers of airspace, through six Flight Information Regions (FIRs) Antananarivo, Brazzaville, Dakar Oceanic, Dakar Terrestrial, Niamey and N'Djamena. ASECNA is responsible for air traffic services in a significant part of the African continent, handling frequently traveled routes between Europe, East and Southern Africa and South America. With AireonSM data, as early as 2019, ASECNA will be able to introduce a continuous layer of surveillance, augmenting existing infrastructure and completing coverage for their entire airspace. This will significantly improve service availability to airlines and enhance safety and efficiency in African airspace. "The vastness of the landmass that ASECNA is responsible for poses an immense surveillance challenge, especially because it is not always possible to install or maintain ground infrastructure," said Mohamed MOUSSA, ASECNA Director General, "With Aireon's space-based ADS-B, we are looking towards the future, augmenting our capability and providing full, real-time air traffic surveillance to our airlines. This will not only provide a much higher level of availability of services, but will also significantly increase safety, as controllers will be able to see all aircraft, in real-time, across the ASECNA airspace. Safety will always be our top priority, and we look forward to having real-time surveillance in this part of the African continent." "The Agreement with ASECNA is a major step towards safety and efficiency in Western and Central Africa, allowing 17 African States to make a major step towards some of the main goals of the ICAO Global Air Navigation Plan," said Don Thoma, CEO of Aireon. "Safety has long been a top priority in the region, and we are proud to be working with leading organizations such as ASECNA. For the first time, more than half of the African airspace will be under real-time air traffic surveillance." ASECNA joins other African ANSPs in the deployment of space-based ADS-B. South Africa's Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) and Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) have also signed agreements over the last 18 months. For information about Aireon, visit: Aireon.com For information about ASECNA, visit: ASECNA.Aero About Aireon LLC Aireon is deploying a global, space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system capable of surveilling and tracking ADS-B equipped aircraft around the globe in real-time. The system will be used to provide ADS-B coverage that will span oceanic, polar and remote regions, where current surveillance systems are limited to line-of-sight and densely populated areas. Aireon will harness ADS-B advancements already underway and extend them globally in order to significantly improve efficiency, expand safety, reduce emissions and provide cost savings to aviation stakeholders. In partnership with leading ANSPs from around the world, NAV CANADA, ENAV, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and Naviair, as well as Iridium Communications, Aireon is developing an operational, global, space-based air traffic surveillance system expected to be available by 2018. For more information about Aireon, visit: www.aireon.com. CONTACT: Jessie Hillenbrand Aireon +1 (703) 287-7452 [email protected] SOURCE Aireon Related Links http://www.aireon.com MONTREAL, Jan. 11, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - 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 For further information: CDPQ: Canada, JEAN-BENOIT HOUDE, Senior Advisor, Media and Public Relations, +1 514 847 5493, +1 514 652-4344, [email protected]; International: CESALTINE GREGORIO, Senior Advisory Director, Global Media Relations, +1 212 596 6314, +1 347 241 3248, [email protected]; Latin America: YULIETTE GARCIA, Project Manager, Dattis, +57 1 651 5222, +57 301 547 4099, [email protected] Related Links http://www.cdpq.com/ Today, Julie Dabrusin, Member of Parliament for TorontoDanforth, on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Ontario Minister of Children and Youth Services Michael Coteau (on behalf of Minister of Infrastructure Bob Chiarelli), and Toronto Mayor John Tory joined Chief of the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation, Stacey R. Laforme, and CEO of Waterfront Toronto, Will Fleissig, to mark the start of construction on the Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project, part of the Port Lands Flood Protection Project. On September 14, 2016, the governments of Canada and Ontario and the City of Toronto announced $65 million in infrastructure funding under the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund for the Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project. This project is advancing as a component of the $1.25 billion Port Lands Flood Protection project. The Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project is designed to optimize water and stormwater infrastructure by stabilizing the shoreline under flood conditions, enhancing aquatic habitat, and ultimately, forming part of the proposed Promontory Park. The project will also allow for the re-alignment of Cherry Street, which is necessary for accommodating roads and transit into the Port Lands as part of the economic revitalization of these lands. The larger Port Lands Flood Protection project will provide critical flood protection through the creation of a naturalized mouth for the Don River and a new river valley, and remediate contaminated soil, unlocking new land for development. The flood protection project will enable the long-term transformation of the Port Lands into new sustainable communities, including parks, residential and commercial development. The long-term development of the Port Lands will support innovation, deliver affordable housing and jobs, allowing Toronto to grow sustainably, and to meet the challenges associated with this growth. Moreover, creating a naturalized mouth for the Don River, and establishing new aquatic habitats and functional wetlands, will contribute to Toronto's environmental resiliency and help reconnect the city to its lake. Quotes "The Government of Canada recognizes that flood protection infrastructure is essential to creating better, more resilient and sustainable communities, and a safe and healthy environment. It's thanks to projects like the Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project that we will build the Canada of the 21st century and ensure a high quality of life for generations to come." Julie Dabrusin, Member of Parliament for TorontoDanforth, on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities "We know infrastructure is about more than buildings and roads. It's about improving lives and creating opportunities for the people of Ontario. This project will lead, over time, to increased access to the waterfront and successful new communities where families can thrive and businesses can grow and create new jobs." Ontario Minister of Children and Youth Services Michael Coteau, on behalf of Minister of Infrastructure Bob Chiarelli "The start of construction in Toronto's Port Lands marks an important milestone in the City's vision for a vibrant, clean Toronto waterfront. This is the beginning of unlocking the potential of our underutilized waterfront lands, protecting the area from flooding and supporting new places to live, work and play in Toronto." Toronto Mayor John Tory "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform an underused resource in the heart of downtown. Flood protecting the Port Lands will make way for sustainable new communities that deliver affordable housing and job opportunities. This project will enhance Toronto's resilience to extreme weather, while also restoring a natural environment for all Canadians to explore." Waterfront Toronto CEO Will Fleissig Quick facts In September 2016 , Waterfront Toronto received $65 million in tri-government funding for the Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project through the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund. In June 2017 , tri-government funding was committed for the remaining $1.185 billion needed to deliver the full Port Lands Flood Protection project. The three government partners will each contribute one-third of the full cost of the flood protection project. , Waterfront Toronto received in tri-government funding for the Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project through the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund. In , tri-government funding was committed for the remaining needed to deliver the full Port Lands Flood Protection project. The three government partners will each contribute one-third of the full cost of the flood protection project. The project will be managed by Waterfront Toronto, a public development corporation established in 2001 by the three orders of government to lead the revitalization of Toronto's waterfront. waterfront. The Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project is located at Essroc Quay on the south side of the Keating Channel, where it meets Toronto's Inner Harbour. New land will be created around Essroc Quay to allow for the realignment of Cherry Street and construction of a new Cherry Street Bridge over the Keating Channel. This is part of a plan to better manage stormwater and avoid flooding during major storms. As part of this project, new aquatic habitat will be built. Construction of the Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project will be completed by the end of March 2020 . Inner Harbour. New land will be created around Essroc Quay to allow for the realignment of Cherry Street and construction of a new over the Keating Channel. This is part of a plan to better manage stormwater and avoid flooding during major storms. As part of this project, new aquatic habitat will be built. Construction of the Cherry Street Stormwater and Lakefilling project will be completed by the end of . The Port Lands Flood Protection project is the largest project proposed in the second phase of Toronto's waterfront revitalization and is one of the most complex urban flood protection projects in Canada . waterfront revitalization and is one of the most complex urban flood protection projects in . The Port Lands Flood Protection project will take approximately seven years to complete and will be delivered by Waterfront Toronto. Please visit www.waterfrontoronto.ca/nbe/portal/waterfront/Home/waterfronthome/newsroom to download additional press documents and high-resolution media assets. SOURCE Waterfront Toronto For further information: Brook Simpson, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, 613-219-0149, [email protected]; Infrastructure Canada, 613-960-9251, Toll free: 1-877-250-7154, Email: [email protected], Twitter: @INFC_eng; Web: Infrastructure Canada, http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/; Alex Benac, Press Secretary and Issues Manager, Office of the Minister of Infrastructure, 416-326-2137, Email: [email protected]; Don Peat, Office of the Mayor of Toronto, 647 459-2387, [email protected]; Deborah Blackstone, Strategic Communications, City of Toronto, 416-392-7377, [email protected]; Mira Shenker, Project Communications and Public Engagement, Waterfront Toronto, 416-306-8665, [email protected] Related Links www.waterfronttoronto.ca WARSAW, Poland, Jan. 11, 2018 /CNW/ - In just seventeen months - from August 2016 until December 2017 - Polish Oil and Gas Company has delivered over 1 bcm of natural gas to the Ukrainian market. PGNiG's supplies of gas to Ukraine have doubled in 2017 reaching over 700 mcm a year. This confirms the Company's increasing role on the gas market of Central and Eastern Europe. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/625669/PGNiG_Logo.jpg ) "These results are very satisfying. The sales of gas to the Ukrainian market is successful thanks to our proficient and flexible price policy," commented Maciej Wozniak, Vice-President of PGNiG. "Our supplies are attractive, because they are not only competitive, but also reliable and secure which is of a great importance to Ukraine. Portfolio of gas in our offer is well diversified: it comes from our domestic production in Poland and from various import directions. In the first three quarters of 2017, 12 percent of our total import came via LNG terminal in Swinoujscie (South-West Baltic Sea coast) mainly from Qatar, Norway and the USA. We do not plan to import natural gas from Russia after 2022 - the expiration date of the current long term contract with Gazprom. For PGNiG energy security is a priority and it means diversified supplies of gas from different geographical directions at competitive prices, while supplies from Gazprom do not fulfill these conditions," Maciej Wozniak added. PGNiG started delivering gas to Ukraine in August 2016 via a direct interconnector. Maciej Wozniak declared: "We are able to further strengthen our contribution to the Ukrainian diversification policy with increased gas exports. Unfortunately we have to wait for the expansion of the physical capacity of the Polish-Ukrainian interconnector. The existing cross-border capacity could be used for additional services like the virtual reverse flow, starting tomorrow. However, this option is being continuously blocked by Gazprom in the very same way it was blocked on the Ukrainian-Slovakian interconnector - through preventing access to respective shipper codes to Ukraine". In October 2017 the Company signed framework agreements with the Ukrainian gas system operator Ukrtransgaz for gas storage and transmission pipeline capacities in Ukraine. This has opened new trade opportunities for PGNiG. According to Argus data, in Q3 of 2017, PGNiG was the 9th biggest gas exporter to the Ukrainian market and the biggest Polish gas exporter to the neighboring country. The Company's strategy includes further development of commercial activity on the European markets. Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG) is the leader of the Polish natural gas market. The company's core business includes exploration and production of natural gas and crude oil. Its subsidiaries import, store, sell and distribute gaseous fuels. They also generate and trade heat and electricity. PGNiG holds stake in 30 companies including entities that provide professional geophysical, drilling and maintenance services. PGNiG holds exploration and production licenses in Norway and in Pakistan. One of its subsidiaries PGNiG Supply & Trading GmbH with a seat in Munich deals with gas trading in Western Europe and established its London international LNG trading office. SOURCE PGNiG 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. Above A cross-section of underground ice is exposed at the steep slope that appears bright blue in this enhanced-color view from the HiRISE camera on NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The scene is about 550 yards wide. The scarp drops about 140 yards from the level ground in the upper third of the image. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/USGS 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. 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? Science Exposed subsurface ice sheets in the Martian mid-latitudes Water ice cliffs on Mars Some locations on Mars are known to have water ice just below the surface, but how much has remained unclear. Dundas et al. used data from two orbiting spacecraft to examine eight locations where erosion has occurred. This revealed cliffs composed mostly of water ice, which is slowly sublimating as it is exposed to the atmosphere. The ice sheets extend from just below the surface to a depth of 100 meters or more and appear to contain distinct layers, which could preserve a record of Mars past climate. They might even be a useful source of water for future human exploration of the red planet. Abstract Thick deposits cover broad regions of the Martian mid-latitudes with a smooth mantle; erosion in these regions creates scarps that expose the internal structure of the mantle. We investigated eight of these locations and found that they expose deposits of water ice that can be >100 meters thick, extending downward from depths as shallow as 1 to 2 meters below the surface. The scarps are actively retreating because of sublimation of the exposed water ice. The ice deposits likely originated as snowfall during Mars high-obliquity periods and have now compacted into massive, fractured, and layered ice. We expect the vertical structure of Martian ice-rich deposits to preserve a record of ice deposition and past climate. You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person. Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else. Movies playing in mid-valley theaters as of Friday. Complete and updated Movie Scene listings can be found online. NEW THE COMMUTER 2 stars (Action thriller, PG-13, 105 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 and the AMC Corvallis 12) Liam Neeson returns to his action-hero ways in this thriller, set aboard a New York commuter train. He plays a freshly fired insurance salesman who gets an intriguing offer from a mysterious woman (Vera Farmiga) on the train, and soon finds himself in a web of intrigue. The movie is slick and efficient, even if it runs out of credibility near the end. (Jake Coyle, Associated Press) PADDINGTON 2 (Family comedy, PG, 103 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the AMC Corvallis 12) The beloved bear from Michael Bonds books returns to the big screen in this yarn: Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) wants to buy an antique book for his aunts birthday, but runs afoul of an unscrupulous actor. Check out the supporting cast: Brendan Gleeson, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Michael Gambon and Imelda Staunton. THE POST 4 stars (Historical drama, PG-13, 115 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the AMC Corvallis 12) Meryl Streep has often played the most confident of characters, but as 1970s Washington Post publisher Kay Graham, she does an astonishing job of showing us someone unsure of herself as she debates publishing the Pentagon Papers and risking jail. This is a love letter to journalistic bravery and to the First Amendment, and it is the best movie about newspapers since "All the President's Men." (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) PROUD MARY (Action drama, R, 88 minutes, playing at the AMC Corvallis 12) A hitwoman named Mary (Taraji P. Henson) performs assassinations for a crime syndicate in Boston, but she has a change of heart when she encounters an orphaned boy. Billy Brown, Margaret Avery, Xander Berkeley, Danny Glover, and Neal McDonough co-star. Directed by Babak Najafi, who also helmed London Has Fallen. CONTINUING INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY 2 stars (Horror, PG-13, 103 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the Regal 4 in Corvallis) The production elements and special effects are pretty cool in this installment of the horror franchise, a chapter about demons in the creepy childhood home of parapsychologist Elise Rainier (the wonderful Lin Shaye). The main problem: too many ghosts. Good ghosts, bad ghosts, and ghosts that might not really be ghosts at all. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) MOLLYS GAME 4 stars (Biographical drama, R, 140 minutes, playing at the AMC Corvallis 12). Jessica Chastain gives a nomination-worthy performance as the organizer of high-stakes, A-list poker games that aren't exactly legal. With his feature directing debut, Aaron Sorkin hits a home run -- a glimpse of life in the fast lane, a sobering cautionary tale and a brilliant character study. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD 3 stars (Historical drama, R, 132 minutes, playing at the Regal 4 in Corvallis) Ridley Scott's well-paced, great-looking and nimble take on one of the most famous kidnapping cases of the 20th century leaves us marveling at the enormous footprint J. Paul Getty left on the world. Playing the oil tycoon as a last-minute substitute for Kevin Spacey, Christopher Plummer delivers a powerful, magnetic, scene-stealing performance. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) DARKEST HOUR 3 stars (Historical biography, PG-13, 125 minutes, playing at the Darkside) This look back at Winston Churchill's leadership during the early days of World War II is filled with authentic touches, large and small. Most authentic of all is Gary Oldman's performance as a flawed but deeply passionate man who summoned all of his courage, all of his oratory skills and all of his love for Britain at just the right moment. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) THE SHAPE OF WATER 3 stars (Fantasy adventure, R, 118 minutes, playing at the Darkside) Sally Hawkins gives a sweet and moving performance as a maid in a top-secret government facility who falls in love with a mysterious sea creature in captivity there. Gorgeously color-coordinated, this fairy tale from director Guillermo del Toro is one of the most romantic and most breathtakingly beautiful movies of the year. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) LADY BIRD 4 stars (Comedy, R, 93 minutes, playing at the Darkside in Corvallis and the AMC Corvallis 12) Greta Gerwig already has made a fine career for herself as an actress, but with "Lady Bird" she has written and directed a film that's smart without being smug and insightful without being condescending. Saoirse Ronan delivers a pure and honest performance as the title character, a high school senior, and the work by Laurie Metcalf and Tracy Letts as her parents is what greatness looks like. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) THE GREATEST SHOWMAN 3 stars (Musical, PG, 105 minutes, playing at the Pix in Albany and the AMC Corvallis 12) There were times when I rolled my eyes to the ceiling at the corny and cheesy and shameless sentiment of this musical starring Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum. But then I'd realize my foot was once again tapping in time to the beat of the catchy tunes, at which point I'd acknowledge I was thoroughly enjoying myself, despite all cynical instincts. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE 2 stars (Comedy fantasy adventure, PG-13, 119 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the AMC Corvallis 12) Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan star in this stand-alone sequel, about four teenagers who are sucked into a video game set in a jungle and take on the bodies of their avatars. Generally entertaining and mostly sweet, if you dont think about it too much. (Lindsay Bahr, Associated Press) PITCH PERFECT 3 1 star (Musical comedy, PG-13, 93 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the AMC Corvallis 12) Any honors-level high school creative writing class could come up with a half-dozen better story ideas for "Pitch Perfect 3" than this incomprehensibly stupid, jarringly uneven, astonishingly unfunny and just plain lazy dead fish of a three-quel. The songs remain good cheesy white-bread fun, but this feels like an encore nobody asked for as the Bellas reunite for an overseas USO tour. Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and Hailee Steinfeld return, along with John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) THE DISASTER ARTIST 3 stars (Comedy biography, R, 98 minutes, playing at the AMC Corvallis 12) Given James Franco's sometimes perplexing resume, he's the right guy to direct and star as Tommy Wiseau in a movie about the making of the infamously bad cult debacle "The Room." Franco's film is breezy, entertaining and even affectionate. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI 3 stars (Fantasy/sci-fi action, PG-13, 152 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the Regal 4 in Corvallis) Although it doesn't pack quite the same emotional punch as "The Force Awakens" and lags a bit in the second half, this is still a worthy chapter in the "Star Wars" franchise, popping with exciting action sequences and sprinkled with good humor. Surprises big and small abound. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI 4 stars (Dark comedy, R, 115 minutes, playing at the AMC Corvallis 12) The story of a grieving mother (Frances McDormand) trying to shame the police chief (Woody Harrelson) into solving her daughter's murder provides some of the strongest laughs and most poignant moments of heartbreak of any movie in recent memory. Somehow writer-director Martin McDonagh has taken the bleakest of subject matters and treated it seriously while also serving up one of the best dark comedies I've ever seen. (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times) COCO 3 stars (Animated, PG, 104 minutes, playing at the AMC Corvallis 12) A 12-year-old boy (Anthony Gonzalez) crosses over, while alive, from his village in Mexico to the Land of the Dead, an exciting metropolis populated by deceased humans. The visuals jump off the screen, but the movies flights of imaginative frenzy are too constrained by formula: Coco is a good, but not great, Pixar flick. (Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times) The Willamette Valley Ag Expo is set for Tuesday through Thursday, Nov. 15 through 17, at the Linn County Expo Center, 3700 Knox Butte Road E. in Albany. A man who held a grievance for years after he had been sold what turned out to be two blind ferrets assaulted the person he had purchased them from on the street, Carrick on Suir district court was told. Judge Terence Finn was told that the ferrets were blind and were useless as a result for the purpose of hunting which they had been purchased for. The confrontation took place on February 1st 2017 when the man who purchased the ferrets, Donal Kavanagh, Ballyheist, Carrick-on-Suir, observed the man he bought the ferrets from, Gary Dowley, on Kickham Street. Sgt Ian Barrett told the court that Kavanagh dropped his shopping bags he had been carrying and went for Gary Dowley, catching him up by the throat and threatened to "punch the head off him and said - You caught me for a ferret. Dowley had sold the defendant two ferrets eight years ago. The defendant quickly realised there was something wrong with the ferrets and it turned out they were both blind. Judge Finn asked if such a practice of selling ferrets was unique to Carrick on Suir and Michael Quirk, solicitor, who defended Kavanagh said he understood the practice to be a widespread one. Mr Quirk said his client had an interest in hunting and purchased two young ferrets from Gary Dowley for 60 some years previously, about four years ago. It transpired the ferrets were blind and were useless for the purpose of hunting. Kavanagh met Dowley on a number of occasions afterwards and he never got any satisfaction out of him when he brought up the issue of the blind ferrets. On the day the confrontation took place, his client just met the man that had sold him the ferrets and reacted in that way His client was fifty five years of age, was a single man and was in poor health. He assured the court that nothing like this would happen again. Judge Finn asked if the defendant was prepared to issue an apology to the injured party . Mr Quirk said Kavanagh was prepared to apologise to Dowley. Judge Finn said if the defendant had a grievance he had the option of going to the small claims in the civil courts. He should have put the grudge or animosity behind him, said Judge Finn, rather than behave in such a manner on a public street years after the transaction had taken place. Judge Finn said he accepted the apology offered and that the matter was now at an end, and imposed a fine of 300 on Kavanagh on the assault charge. Kavanagh had one previous conviction for a public order matter. 28 pupils from Gallen Community School will join 7,000 other secondary school students from all over Ireland later this month at the Cycle Against Suicide Student Leaders Congress at Dublins 3 Arena. The Ferbane students have been engaged in a number of different creative projects in recent weeks, which will be on display at the event in Dublin and are inspired by the Cycle Against Suicide motto that Its OK not to feel OK; and its absolutely OK to ask for help. The Student Leaders Congress promotes positive mental health and provides help-seeking advice to young people in a fun and inclusive manner. The theme for this years Congress is #EmpowerYourVoice. Speaking in advance of the event on January 18, Principal Mrs. Ursula Finnegan, said she was sure the students travelling to the 3 Arena would do them proud. Our students have created a ladder of words showing how we sometimes use our voices to inflict hurt and pain on others, but now that they have become aware of the effect that can have, they will now use their voices to encourage and affirm others. Having started as a gathering of 40 young people in 2012, the Student Leaders Congress has grown year on year, and this years event will be the largest young peoples mental health conference in Europe. The student-led event boasts a diverse schedule of speakers, which includes representatives from Irish mental health organisations, Snapchat star James Kavanagh, Galway hurlers Jason Flynn and Davy Glennon, Dustin the Turkey, author Kevin Hines and MC for the day, Radio DJ Nikki Hayes. Music performances will be provided at the 3 Arena by Booka Brass Band, Mundy, Wild Youth, Little Hours and many more. Donald Trump Asks: Why Should We Allow Immigrants From Haiti & Shithole Countries in Africa Dimas Sanfiorenzo Dimas Sanfiorenzo is the Managing Editor for Okayplayer. He specializes A post shared by President Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on Jan 9, 2018 at 9:28pm PST Donald Trump continues to say racist shit. During a meeting held in the oval office on Thursday, Donald Trump loudly questioned why the United States would accept immigrants from Haiti and shithole countries in Africa rather than a country like Norway. READ: Donald Trump Is Taking Credit For Historic Low In Black Unemployment The story was first reported by the Washington Post. The meeting featured Democratic and Republican lawmakers who were trying to pitch a bipartisan immigration proposal, which Trump ended up turning down. The moment occurred when the issue of DACA the program which gives legal status to immigrants illegally brought to the United States as children came up. When finding out that the program would affect people from Haiti, Trump said: Why do we want people from Haiti here? Raj Shah, the White House deputy press secretary, put out a statement not denying the claims: Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people. 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. READ: Donald Trump Thinks He Repealed Obamacare But Fails Again As news of the comment spread, Trump received criticism from a number of representatives from both sides of the aisle. Representative Cedric L. Richmond, a Democrat from Louisiana and the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told the New York Times that the comments were another confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views. Representative Mia Love, a Republican of Utah who is Haitian, released a nation saying: This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nationThe president must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned. Source: Washington Post, NY Times CBI arrests medical officer in connection with Vyapam scam India pti-PTI New Delhi, Jan 12: The CBI has arrested a medical officer from Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki who has been absconding in a Vyapam scam case related to Madhya Pradesh Pre Medical Test conducted in 2012, an official said. The agency has filed a charge sheet on November 23, 2017, on the basis of which the trial court had issued non-bailable warrant against the absconding chargesheeted accused. "In pursuance to such, the accused who was posted as Medical Officer at CHC Jattuva Tappa, District Rae Bareli (UP) was arrested," CBI Spokesperson said. He said the CBI investigation shows that that accused Virendra Mourya in conspiracy with co-accused, middleman and racketeer, appeared in MPPMT-2012 at an examination centre in Indore and helped co-accused (beneficiary candidate) by allowing her to copy answers from him. "It was also revealed that in 2012, the said accused was a student of MBBS Course at a government medical college, Kanpur (admission Batch year 2008) and he had no intention of taking admission in MBBS course in any private medical college of Madhya Pradesh and his intention was only to provide alleged illegal copying assistance to the beneficiary candidate," he said. The CBI Spokesperson said it was further alleged that in connivance with co-accused middleman and a private medical college in Bhopal, the accused blocked a seat of MBBS course and later on vacated the same, which was filled by the said medical college without following due procedure. PTI In UP 166 criminals killed in encounters in past five years: Yogi This Diwali, UP CM Yogi asks govt employees to celebrate festival with needy, deprived families Modernisation of police force helped in controlling crime in UP: CM Yogi Yogi govt orders demotion of DySP to inspector for taking bribes in rape case Congress serves Recipe for a BJP star campaigner to troll Yogi in a musical video India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia New Delhi, Jan 12: When we had just thought that political satire is dead and decided to write a silent obituary to the art form to stay away from any backlash from powerful and mighty people, the opposition Congress came up with a musical video to criticise Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. In the minute-long video, titled "Recipe for a BJP star campaigner", the Congress poked fun at the priest-turned-politician who is frequently visiting poll-bound Karnataka to target the incumbent Congress government in the state. "Here's a recipe for a BJP star campaigner. We don't recommend it," Congress' official handle, @INCIndia, tweeted on Thursday. Here's a recipe for a BJP star campaigner. We don't recommend it. pic.twitter.com/j5lIAvc4Oa Congress (@INCIndia) January 11, 2018 The video shows what it needs to be a star campaigner for the BJP like Yogi, who has several criminal cases, including promoting enmity between different groups, rioting, attempt to murder and criminal intimidation, to name a few, against him. Then the Congress made fun of the CM's love for everything "saffron", the colour associated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindu religion in general. The video shows the 45-year-old BJP leader crying in front of his colleagues inside the Lok Sabha, when he was a parliamentarian. The grand old party also targets Yogi's alleged "misogyny" and "attention to development zero" in the video. Made in the format of a cookery show, the Congress literally cooks up a recipe, which it called "#RecipeForDisaster", with a good dose of garnish and right amount of flame to criticise the BJP and UP CM's "divisive politics". The entire video has been explained with the help of short and crispy texts and accompanied by music in the background. While many have found the video funny and intelligent, supporters of the BJP have taken offence to it. Till the time of filing this report, the viral video was viewed 50.2K times on Twitter. In the recent times we have witnessed how Yogi and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah were engaged in a war of words over cow and religion after the former visited the southern state as a part of the BJP's campaign for the upcoming Assembly elections. OneIndia News Do poets need to be politically correct? Delhi's Republic Day Mushaira gives us a hint India oi-Shreya By Shreya The Urdu Academy, along with the Delhi Government held its historic Republic Day Mushaira at the Red Fort of January 12, 2018 - a tradition which has become an essential part of Delhi's art and culture. Poets from all over the world believe this to be an honour to be called to perform in this Mushaira. The gathering saw well-known 'shayars' - poets like Waseem Barelvi, 94-year old Gulzar Dehlavi, Manzar Bhopali, Nusraj Mehdi and others. The evening started with a chorus performance arousing a sense of patriotism and ode to the motherland in the crowd of more than 1000 people. What makes this stand out is the fact that the crowd does not only have people who are practitioners of the Urdu language, but also the general masses. The Mushaira was started by the last Mughal emperor and also a poet Bahadur Shah Zafar. Celebrated poets such as Mohammad Ibrahim Zauq, Mirza Ghalib, Momin, Nawab Mustafa Khan Shefta, and Mufti Sadruddin Aazurda regularly use to grace such assemblies with their poetic performances. This year's Mushaira was inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia, who spoke at length about Delhi's enriched art and culture and its history of Mushairas especially at the Lal Qila. He also said that the Delhi Government is trying its best to enrich the cultural vibrance of the national capital. The evening started with politically charged poetry indeed, one or two also took a jibe on the present ruling government with referenced to attacks on the religious minority. The issue of Triple Talaq was also a prominent premise of the performances, however, apart from few performances, the majority focused on evoking a spirit of nationalism in the crowd. The term 'hindustani musalam' were repeated often. What was evident is that no performer wanted to cross the line which could be border-lining religious incorrectness. Even when a certain poetry was meant to cater to specifically the muslim crowd, it was balanced by 'Hindustan', 'Watan' or 'Jawan' at the end. The night also saw poets trying to talk about religious harmony through their performances. The message that emanated from the Mushaira was to stop communal violence and merge with one another through are and culture. How was the Lal Qila Mushaira revived? Post independence, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was compelled to start the tradition of Mushaira at the request of Urdu lovers in the capital, which from then became a must in Republic Day Celebrations. In the beginning, the defence ministry was in charge of conducting event post which the Sahitya Kala Parishad took over the charge in 1968. However, post independence, the event was not organised on three occasions during the Emergency between 1976 and 1977, after the attack on Red Fort terror in 2011, and in 2016 after the Centre refused to grant permission oweing to security concerns. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, January 12, 2018, 19:02 [IST] Filmmaker agrees to remove word 'Gujarat' from documentary on Amartya Sen India pti-PTI Kolkata, Jan 12: National award-winning filmmaker Suman Ghosh said he has accepted the Censor Board's recommendation to remove the word 'Gujarat' from his documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen after consideration. The film 'The Argumentative Indian', which was shot in two parts in 2002 and 2017, has Sen talking about the social choice theory, development economics, philosophy, and the rise of right-wing nationalism across the world including in India. The Central Board of Film Certification, Kolkata, had, on July 11, asked Ghosh to cut or mute six parts (both words and phrases) - 'Gujarat', 'In India', 'Hindu', 'Cow', 'These days' and 'Hindutva' -- from the documentary for a 'U' certification. "I recognise that the decision (on removing the word 'Gujarat') is not the best but I strongly believe that the film should be shown to the public without further delay since beyond the controversies, which were rather unfortunate I have a larger point in the film which needs to be communicated," Ghosh told PTI from the US. Contesting over one word will further prolong the matter, as his previous experiences suggest, he said. "I remain disappointed by the fact that at the end an academician of the stature of Amartya Sen is being subjected to censorship in a democracy," Ghosh said. The filmmaker said ever since the CBFC letter reached him suggesting one cut in the documentary "I had given due thought and consideration to the proposed cut on using the word Gujarat as suggested by the Censor board." Joshi met CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi in Mumbai on January 4 this year -- six months since his appeal to the CBFC Review Committee and after two cancelled meetings in the intervening period. "It was a cordial meet and I got the impression that Joshi is an open-minded person and was ready to have a dialogue about the film," said Ghosh. Joshi and the CBFC team reduced the number of cuts to one -- the word 'Gujarat'. The filmmaker said he wanted the CBFC Review Committee to give an official reasoning for the proposed cut. "..so that a healthy and meaningful debate can take place in the public forum. In the absence of any such declaration I wish to abstain from any subsequent comment on the matter," Ghosh said. PTI When lawyer shows up without case file, SC says 'it's like Sachin without bat' Four judges behaving in "immature and childish" manner: Ex judge RS Sodhi India oi-Vikas By Vikas Former judge RS Sodhi on Friday came down heavily on four judges of the Supreme Court who voiced their dissent against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and called their behaviour "immature and childish". Top judges of the Supreme Court on Friday voiced their dissent against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and said that they were left with no choice but to speak to the media. Supreme Court Judges Kurian Joseph, J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur spoke to the media at Tuglaq Lane in Delhi. "Issues don't matter. It is their complaint on the administrative matter. They are only 4, there are 23 others. Four get together and show the Chief Justice in a poor light. It is immature and childish behaviour..I think all 4 judges should be impeached, they have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say, we have parliament, courts, police functioning," Sodhi told ANI. Meanwhile, senior Supreme Court advocate KTS Tulsi said that it was a "shocking" matter. "It's quite shocking. There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see the pain on their faces while they were speaking," he said. The four judges earlier today expressed displeasure over the allocation of cases by CJI Dipak Mishra. "There have been instances where case having far-reaching consequences for nation & the institution had been assigned by Chief Justice of this court selectively to benches 'of their preference' without rationale basis. This must be guarded against at all costs," the seven-page letter by the four aggrieved judges said. ['Democracy at stake', say top SC judges while taking on CJI] All four said that there are several irregularities happening within the SC and CJI is not amenable to requests of the senior four. Justice Chelameswar said that they wanted the Chief Justice of India to rectify certain things. He also said that the CJI did not listen to them. This is for the first time in the history of India that sitting judges of the SC are addressing the media. Oneindia News India to become 'vishwa guru', Lord Ramas ideals to take country to new heights: Gadkari 'Go patrol Pakistan border, why stay in South Mumbai', Gadkari tells Navy officials India oi-Vicky By Vicky Union Minister Nitin Gadkari hit out at the Indian Navy asking, why its officials needed to stay in the posh South Mumbai area. The comments were made by Gadkari while criticising the Navy for opposing the construction of a jetty at Malabar Hill. "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 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 Union Minister also said. The remarks came in the wake of the Navy denying permission to build a floating jetty at Malabar Hill in South Mumbai, where a floating hotel and seaplane service had been 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 Gadkari's 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. Gadkari asked, what the Navy had to do with Malabar Hill. Everyone wants to build quarters in South Mumbai. We respect you, but you should go to the Pakistan border and do patrolling, he said. "We are the government. The Navy and the defence ministry are not the government," he said at a function where he laid the foundation stone for an international cruise terminal at the Mumbai Port Trust. OneIndia News Only women to walk with Rahul Gandhi in Bharat Jodo Yatra on Indira Gandhi Jayanti Is Rahul Gandhi going to micromanage Karnataka polls for Congress? India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Bengaluru, Jan 12: In December last year, the Congress lost two important Assembly elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - first, the grand old party was 'removed from power' in Himachal Pradesh and second, the BJP came to power in Gujarat for the fifth consecutive time. While both the elections proved to be two losing battles, in Gujarat, in spite, of facing a defeat, the Congress won a "moral victory". The credit for the success of restricting the BJP to only 99 seats and improving the Congress' tally to 77 seats in the 182-member Assembly in Gujarat went to Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Months ahead of the Gujarat polls, Rahul started campaigning for the Congress in the state. It was during the Gujarat election campaign, we got to see a new avatar of Rahul, interacting with the crowd with ease, attacking the Narendra Modi government with facts and figures, visiting temples and enjoying food and beverages in between the hectic schedule. Rahul's attempts to lead the Congress from the front gave party workers enough confidence and hope that the BJP is not invincible and results proved that a well-fought battle can never be a losing one. Now, as the polls are scheduled for Karnataka, where the Congress is in power, Rahul and his team members have to up the ante to defeat the BJP. The saffron party, on its part, has been aggressively campaigning in the southern state. From BJP president Amit Shah to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Karnataka seems to have become the favourite destination for all top saffron party leaders. The incumbent CM of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, has been bravely facing the onslaught from the BJP in the last few weeks, as observers allege that the Karnataka poll has already turned "communal" as leaders of both the BJP and the Congress are only talking about religion and cow. Although date/dates for the elections are yet to be announced by the Election Commission, both the parties have already started campaigning in Karnataka. Now, reports indicate that senior Congress leaders from Karnataka are going to meet Rahul in Delhi on Saturday. Senior Congress leaders from Karnataka to meet Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on 13 January. (File Pic) pic.twitter.com/kdA41Q76vd ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2018 It is obvious that the meeting is to discuss elections and how to prepare for it, informed a Congress leader from Karnataka. When asked if Rahul is going to play an active role in the Karnataka elections, like he did during the Gujarat polls, the Congress leader said the party is not going to leave any stone unturned to defeat the BJP. "Rahul is our boss and he will guide us during the elections," smiled the leader, without revealing anything about the Congress' strategy for the Karnataka polls. OneIndia News Karnataka assembly elections 2018: Curtains down on Siddaramaiah's statewide tour India oi-Anusha A month-long statewide tour by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ended on a grand note on Friday. Ahead of the Karnataka assembly elections 2018, Siddaramaiah, as part of his Nava Karnataka Nirmana Yatra has visited 27 districts in 30 days. It was homecoming for Siddaramaiah who chose to end his month-long tour on his turf- Mysuru. On Thursday, Siddaramaiah visited Chamarajanagar- a constituency often seen as a jinxed place for politicians- many believe that a visit to the constituency when in power has cost them their seat. Thursday's visit, however, was not the first time that Siddaramaiah broke convention to visit Chamarajanagar. On the last day of his month-long tour, the Congress strongman inaugurated his dream project- Indira Canteen- in the city. 30 days, 27 districts, lakhs of people & projects worth thousands of crores across the state. The state tour of CM @siddaramaiah comes to a grand conclusion today. Development projects across sectors have built the platform towards #NavaKarnatakaNirmana for one and all. CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) January 12, 2018 Post his yatra, Siddaramaiah will head to New Delhi to meet newly elected AICC President Rahul Gandhi. A host of Congress leaders from Karnataka is scheduled to meet Gandhi on Saturday to chalk out plans for Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018. While Siddaramaiah's yatra highlighted his government's achievements, inaugurated projects worth crores and promoted his welfare schemes, Karnataka Congress President G Parameshwara also undertook a yatra to gather support for the Congress. Parameshwara's yatra passed through constituencies that the Congress had lost in the previous election to gauge the mood of the people and make amends ahead of the assembly elections this time around. Starting March, Congress leaders in Karnataka will come together to undertake another statewide yatra- a full-fledged election campaign to counter the BJP's Parivarthana yatra- led by B S Yeddyurappa. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, January 12, 2018, 21:37 [IST] Karnataka bandh on January 25 over Mahadayi issue India oi-Vicky By Vicky A Karnataka bandh has been called for on January 25. The statewide bandh that was called for by Kannada organisations has been rescheduled for January 25. Vatal Nagaraj, leading the umbrella organisation Kannada Okkoota, said the bandh was rescheduled as from January 26 there are a string of holidays till January 28. "In addition to the bandh, all Kannada organisations will wave black flags against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his rally on January 28, protesting against his non-intervention in the Mahadayi river water dispute," he also said. 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 the 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. OneIndia News Kerala: Plot to sell woman forcibly converted to Islam as sex slave in Syria busted India oi-Vicky By Vicky There has been further confirmation of how forced religious conversions are linked to terrorism. The Kerala police have arrested two persons Fayaz and Siyad on charges of helping a Muslim man convert a woman and attempting to take her Syria and sold off to the Islamic State. The prime accused in the case, Muhammad Riyaz (26) is still absconding. He is said to have forced the 25-year-old woman to convert to Islam, coerced her into a sexual relationship and marriage. He then tried to move her to Syria, investigations have shown. The woman, a native of Pathanamthitta who grew up in Gujarat, had filed a petition seeking the annulment of the marriage in the Kerala High Court in November 2017. Police sources said that the two arrested accused were part of the conspiracy. They had helped Riyaz in keeping the woman captive in a house in Manjali near Paravur for around six months. 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 victim alleged that she met Riyaz a native of Thalassery in Bengaluru when she attended college in 2014. She said that Riyaz pretended to be in love with her and forcibly converted her to Islam. Riyaz is then alleged to have recorded videos of their sexual acts, which he used to blackmail her. Their marriage was certified at the Hebbal sub-registrar office in Bengaluru, on May 21, 2016, using forged documents. The police are now ascertaining claims by the lady that the witnesses to the marriage were members of the Popular Front of India. Further, the lady alleged that she was forced to attend a training programme at a Madrasa in Bengaluru. She also said that she got to know that Riyaz was planning on selling her off as a sex slave in Syria. She also said that Riyaz had received money from unidentified sources following her conversion. The victim further said that as part of the plan, she was first taken to Jeddah in August 2017. She, however, managed to escape, she further alleged. OneIndia News Places of Worship Act: SC gives more time to Centre to file affidavit by Dec 12 When lawyer shows up without case file, SC says 'it's like Sachin without bat' 'Democracy at stake', say top SC judges while taking on CJI India oi-Vikas By Vikas Recommended Video Supreme Court sitting Judges address media, say administration is not in order | Oneindia News Top judges of the Supreme Court on Friday voiced their dissent against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and said that they were left with no choice but to speak to the media. Supreme Court Judges Kurian Joseph, J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur spoke to the media at Tuglaq Lane in Delhi. All four said that there are several irregularities happening within the SC and CJI is not amenable to requests of the senior four. "Want to make our concerns public... Administration of the Supreme Court is not in order," he said. "With no pleasure we are compelled take the decision to call a press conference. The administration of the SC is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in last few months," he added. Justice Chelameswar said that they wanted the Chief Justice of India to rectify certain things. He also said that the CJI did not listen to senior four judges. "We collectively tried to persuade CJI that certain things aren't in order so take remedial measures but unfortunately our efforts failed," he said. "A few months back we gave the CJI a letter, asking him to course correct in a particular matter. Though it was done eventually, it was done in a manner that raised further doubts and questions," he added. He also expressed displeasure over the assignment of cases. The top judge said that he does not want anyone to say that "we have sold our souls." When asked if it was it was a no-confidence vote against CJI Dipak Mishra, Justice Lokur said, "Don't put words in our mouths." "Nobody is breaking ranks. Construe this as our debt to the nation," said Justice Ranjan Gogoi. Broadly there seemed to be following issues: 1.Allocation of cases by CJI. 2.Allocation of Justice Loya case. 3.Functioning of the collegium. 4.Reports also say that there was some disagreement over the Medical Council case. #FLASH Judges J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph release 7 page letter, that they wrote to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. pic.twitter.com/2dQ5fzTDF8 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Meanwhile, CJI Dipak Mishra is set to meet Attorney General of India KK Venugopal at 1.30 pm today. The judges did not get into the specifics of any particular issue and said that things have been clearly mentioned in a letter. [For first time in Indian history, four SC judges to address media on transparency] This is for the first time in the history of India that sitting judges of the SC are addressing the media. Oneindia News Nitish Kumar has been affected by his age: Prashant Kishor Could not care less: Nitish on Amit Shahs jibe Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again Nitish Kumar's convoy attacked in Buxar India oi-Vikas By Vikas Recommended Video Nitish Kumar Convoy Attacked In Buxar | Watch Video | Oneindia news Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's convoy was on Friday reportedly attacked in Nandar village of Buxar district. Kumar was on a 'samiksha yatra' when his car was pelted with stones. Kumar was not hurt in the incident but a few of his security personnel were said to have recieved injuries. Reports suggest that some villagers may have indulged in stone pelting due to lack of development in the area. Ironically, Kumar was visiting to village to assess the development in the area. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, January 12, 2018, 15:56 [IST] Now, 'Padmavat' will not be screened in Gujarat , says Rupani India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar After Rajasthan, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Friday announced controversial film 'Padmavat' will not be released in the state. The Sanjay Leela Bhansali film has been facing opposition over allegations that it twists historical facts. Last year, Rupani had announced not to release the movie citing sentiments of the Rajaputs and law and order situations. Gujarat is 2nd state after Rajasthan to ban the film. The move comes after many groups including Rajput Karni Sena objected to the film's release. The movie was recently cleared by the CBFC for release. Rajasthn CM Vasundhara Raje said honouring the sentiments of the people of the state, the film will not be released in the state. Following the announcement, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, the Rajasthan BJP chief and several Rajput organisations spoke out against the movie. "The sacrifice of Rani Padmini is a matter of pride for the state and she is not just a chapter of history for us," Raje said. The film was earlier scheduled to be released on December 1. Though Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Sanjay Leela Bhansali have not released an official statement yet, sources in the production house confirmed that the film will release on January 25, a day before Republic Day. (With agency inputs) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, January 12, 2018, 16:18 [IST] UP ATS picks up two more accused in Al-Qaeda radicalisation case Now, toilets in UP being painted saffron India oi-Vikas By Vikas After the Secretariat building and the Haj House, around 100 toilets in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah have been painted in saffron. The toilets in Kripalpur were painted saffron on the instructions of Gram Pradhan Vedpal Singh Nayak. "People of the village suggested me this colour. When their (BJP) government has been formed not only in Uttar Pradesh but also in the nation, what is the problem if toilets are also painted in their colour," Nayak told ANI. Buildings being painted in saffron colour after Yogi Adityanath assumed CM's post has raised many eyebrows. Last week, Haj House in Lucknow being painted saffron made headlines. Several political parties and Muslim body Darul Uloom are miffed by it. The BJP-led state government than on January 7 went into damage control mode and admitted "laxity" on part of the contractor tasked with the job. Even the Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan, which houses the chief minister's office, was painted saffron after Adityanath assumed office last year. Reports say that the education department had distributed saffron-coloured school bags to primary schools students and the booklets that were distributed to mark 100 days and six months of the Adityanath government were saffron in colour as well. OneIndia News Padmavat row: Karni Sena members detained outside Censor Board office India pti-PTI Mumbai, Jan 12: The row movie Padmavat is just refusing to die. Over 70 activists of the Rajasthan- based Karni Sena were detained in Mumbai on Friday while protesting outside the Central Board of Film Certification's office against the clearance given to Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed movie. Over 30 Karni Sena supporters were detained from Haji Ali during another protest, a police official said. "Over 70 supporters of the Karni Sena were detained from Cumballa Hill area in south Mumbai, while protesting outside the CBFC office without police permission," Zone II Deputy Commissioner of Police Dnyaneshwar Chavan said. Additional security personnel were deployed outside the office after the organisation threatened to stage the protest. Opposing the CBFC's decision to release the film, a Karni Sena leader said, "Merely changing the name of the film isn't enough. The CBFC which has been running ever since the time of Britishers doesn't know how to work." The Karni Sena has also demanded the resignation of Prasoon Joshi, the chairman of CBFC. The CBFC had given the Deepika Padukone-starrer a U/A certificate and suggested many changes, including altering the title. At the CBFC examining committee meeting on December 28, it was decided that the movie would be given a U/A certification as long as the makers incorporate the suggestions and modifications suggested. Some of the key modifications suggested include those pertaining to disclaimers, pertinently adding one regarding not glorifying the practice of Sati. PTI Places of Worship Act: SC gives more time to Centre to file affidavit by Dec 12 When lawyer shows up without case file, SC says 'it's like Sachin without bat' Revolt of 4 wise judges of SC against CJI: Is democracy in danger? India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia New Delhi, Jan 12: Tsunami hit the Indian judiciary on Friday, when four "wise" judges of the Supreme Court decided to rise in revolt against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra. It was an open rebellion as the four senior Supreme Court judges--J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph--addressed the media in the national capital. The press briefing has been termed by everyone as an "unprecedented event in the history of Indian judiciary". "With no pleasure we are compelled to take the decision to call a press conference. The administration of the SC is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months," said Justice Chelameswar in the hastily called media briefing at his house in Delhi that took all by surprise. The four judges, who rank just after the CJI, stated that "it's an extraordinary event in the history of judiciary". They said democracy will not survive if they do not speak out now, as their attempts to get CJI Misra to address a crisis in the judiciary had gone unanswered. "Democracy cannot survive without an independent judiciary." The repercussion of revolt in judiciary was immediately felt in the other two pillars of Indian democracy--the executive and legislature-- as Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly met Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss about the press briefing of the four judges. The CJI himself was supposed to address the media, but later cancelled it. The genesis of unprecedented development which seems to have full support of the opponents of the Modi government, under whose rule the judiciary has been allegedly compromised, lies in the case of Justice Loya's death. "We tried to collectively persuade the CJI that certain things are not right and remedial measures need to be taken, but unfortunately we failed," said Justice Chelameswar. "A couple of months ago, the four of us gave a signed letter to the CJI," he said. "We wanted a particular thing to be done in a particular manner. It was done but in such a way that it raised questions about the integrity of the institution." The judges also made public the scathing letter they had written to CJI Misra two months ago, alleging "selective assignment of cases to preferred judges" and that "sensitive cases were being allotted to junior judges". "This morning also we had to go for something," Justice Chelameswar said, in reference to the case of Justice Loya's death. When the judges were asked specifically whether the matter is connected to Loya, a special CBI judge who is said to have died under mysterious circumstances, Justice Gogoi said yes. Asked whether the judges sought the impeachment of the CJI, they said, "It is not for us to say...Let the nation decide." Justice Chelameswar added: "There are many wise men saying many wise things in this country. We don't want wise men saying 20 years from now that Justice Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Kurian Joseph sold their souls and didn't do the right thing by our Constitution." In a way, the four "rebel" judges cleared their position that they are fighting a war to save the integrity of judiciary which is currently facing "crisis". "It is discharge of debt to the nation which has brought us here," said Justice Gogoi in the press conference. Reacting to the open war between the CJI and his immediate juniors, senior SC advocate KTS Tulsi expressed shock. "It's quite shocking. There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking." "Deeply sad and pained, I also feel a sense of agony that highest court of the land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media," said Congress leader and senior advocate Salman Khurshid. However, former judge RS Sodhi called the dissent against the CJI as "immature and childish" behaviour by the four judges. "Issues don't matter. It is their complaint on the administrative matter. They are only four, there are 23 others. Four get together and show the CJI in a poor light. It is immature and childish behaviour. "I think all four judges should be impeached, they have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say, we have parliament, courts, police functioning," Sodhi told ANI. Even veteran BJP leader Subramanian Swamy came in support of the judges. "We can't criticize them. They are men of great integrity and have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. The PM must ensure that the four judges and CJI, in fact whole SC come to one opinion and proceed further," said Swamy. "It is certainly a very serious development which has cast a huge shadow on the Chief Justice. Somebody had to confront the situation, where CJI is blatantly misusing his powers, hence the unprecedented step," said SC lawyer Prashant Bhushan to ANI. It is senior lawyer Ujjwal Nikam who succinctly expressed the fear of all Indians, who generally hold great respect for the judiciary. "This is a black day for the judiciary. Today's press conference would cause a bad precedent. From now on every common man could look at all judicial order with suspicion. Every judgement will be questioned," said Nikam. Twitter decided to trend the hashtag--#DemocracyInDanger--to express pain and anguish at the way the "dirty" secrets of judiciary are coming out in the open. What's happening in India? This is a crisis situation. We need to save our democracy. The current dispensation seems hell bent on taking it towards a dictatorship. #DemocracyInDanger Hasiba (@HasibaAmin) January 12, 2018 Judges in their letter to CJI: There have been instances where cases of far reaching consequences for the nation have been arbitrarily assigned by CJI to benches of their preference without any rationale. #DemocracyInDanger pic.twitter.com/IGqd2Eihch Ruchira Chaturvedi (@RuchiraC) January 12, 2018 When 4 senior SC judges in an unprecedented manner hold a presser, to inform the nation that democracy in the country might not survive, it's time for people to understand the extent to which the ruling dispensation is muzzling the judiciary. #DemocracyInDanger Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) January 12, 2018 Nehrus words Freedom is in peril, Defend it with All Your Might #DemocracyInDanger Aabshar (@Scepticindian) January 12, 2018 On a day when India should have been celebrating the successful launch of 100th satellite by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the sudden turn of events got us all thinking why no institution in the country is currently feeling safe under the Modi regime. OneIndia News Places of Worship Act: SC gives more time to Centre to file affidavit by Dec 12 SC judges' press meet: Chidambaram, Tewari, Sibal meet Rahul Gandhi India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Congress leader and senior Supreme Court advocate Kapil Sibal met party president Rahul Gandhi at 5 pm on Friday over the press conference by the four Supreme Court judges. Earlier, PM Narendra Modi met Union Law Minister and spoke about the crisis. Political parties are in a huddle after the historic press conference of the four Supreme Court judges complaining about Chief Justice of India. Congress leaders and senior advocates Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari and P Chidambaram also arrived at Rahul Gandhi's residence. Congress earlier tweeted, "We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court." Delhi: Congress leaders and senior advocates Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari and P Chidambaram also arrive at Rahul Gandhi's residence. #SupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/6CS3BqJfNJ ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 Salman Khurshid, said, "Deeply sad and pained, also feel a sense of agony that highest court of land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media." Meanwhile, CPI leader met Supreme Court Judge Chelameswar after at his residence. After the meeting, D Raja said, " I have known him for a long time. When I came to know of the extraordinary step taken by him & other judges, I thought must meet him. Not giving it political colour. These are concerns for everybody, it's about future of country and democracy." CPI MP D Raja leaves after meeting Justice #Chelameshwar at his residence in Delhi pic.twitter.com/7jKyMaSpGm ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018 More details are awaited. OneIndia News Who is Indu Malhotra, the first woman lawyer recommended directly to SC judgeship India oi-Vicky By Vicky Indu Malhotra becomes the country's first woman lawyer to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court. She is also the seventh woman judge that the Supreme Court has had since independence. Indu Malhotra's name was recommended by the collegium to the Centre. Currently Justice R Banumathi is the lone woman judge in the SC. The first woman judge in the SC was Justice Fathima Beevi who was elevated in 1989. The other woman judges that the SC has seen were Justices Sujata Manohar, Ranjana Prakash, Ruma Pal and Gyan Sudha Misra. Indu Malhotra was born in Bengaluru in 1956 and joined the legal profession in 1983. She enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi in 1988. She qualified as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court and secured the first position in the examination, for which she was awarded the Mukesh Goswami Memorial Prize on Law Day. She has also served as a member of the Centre-appointed High Level Committee (HLC) in the Ministry of Law and Justice to review 'Institutionalization of Arbitration Mechanism in India'. She has authored the third edition of a commentary 'The Law and Practice of Arbitration and Conciliation, 2014' which was recently released in April 2014. OneIndia News This Indian American girl has been declared as one of the brightest in the world US President nominates Indian-American Puneet Talwar as new US Ambassador To Morocco Look at this nasty s@#$%t, you dirty Hindu: Sikh abuses Indian-American in California Thanks to PM Modi, India's opinions count and views matter now: EAM Jaishankar First Indian-American prisoner to be executed on February 23 International oi-Vicky By Vicky On February 23 the first death row Indian-American prisoner would be executed. Raghunandan Yandamuri, 32 was convicted after being held for killing a baby and her grandmother. 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 by local correctional authorities. However, he is likely to get a reprieve because of a 2015 moratorium on the death penalty by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. Yandamuri is the first Indian-American to face the 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 an H-1B visa. He holds an advanced degree in electrical and computer science engineering. Following his conviction, he asked that death penalty is imposed upon him. Later he appealed his sentence but lost his appeal in April 2017. The local Times Herald on Wednesday 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. OneIndia News What is NATO and why was it created ? Hopeful that Pakistan would 'turn over' terrorists: US International pti-PTI Washington, Jan 12: Amid growing tensions between the US and Pakistan, a Trump administration official said that the US hoped that Islamabad would honour its commitment and do the "right thing" by turning over the terrorists to it. "I have a feeling, I am hopeful that Pakistan will do the right thing and turn over the terrorists and honour their commitment," Steven Goldstein, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs told reporters at a news conference. Responding to questions, Goldstein said the US has so far not heard from Pakistan on its reported decision to suspend its military and intelligence cooperation with it in retaliation of the Trump administration's decision to freeze all its security assistance. "We would hope that Pakistan would come to the table and that they would turn over those terrorists that we have asked be turned over. We've indicated very clearly that we believe that can happen," Goldstein said. The United States, he said, has only suspended the aid; and the money has not been reallocated. "So now it is the job of Pakistan to take seriously their commitment to us, and most importantly to the people of Pakistan who would most be hurt by this, by any terrorist activity, and come forward. So, our position hasn't changed. They have not yet come forward," Goldstein said. At a separate news conference, the Pentagon said that Pakistan has the ability to address terrorist threat inside the country. "We believe that Pakistan has the ability to address this threat," Pentagon chief spokesperson Dana White told reporters at a news conference. "This is an opportunity for them to take decisive action, and we look forward to working with them to encourage them to do so," White said in response to a question on recent development on US-Pak relations front. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a federal register notification formally designated Pakistan as a "special watch list" country for severe violations of religious freedom. Tillerson had on January 4 placed Pakistan on a special watch list for the violations. PTI What is NATO and why was it created ? Uproar over Trump's "shithole countries" remark International oi-Vikas By Vikas Known for his brash remarks, US President Donald Trump has done it once again. Trump has stirred a controversy by reportedly referring to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations as "shithole countries" in a meeting with US lawmakers on Thursday. The US President was speaking on the issue of immigrants when he used such a derogatory slur. Trump made the remark after he was presented with a proposal to restore protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and several African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal. Trump has drawn flak for his remark not only from within the US but across the world. Utah Republican Mia Love, whose family hails from Haiti, described the remark as "unkind, divisive, elitist." "This behaviour in unacceptable from the leader of our nation. My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took an oath of allegiance to the United States and took on responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with," she wrote on Twitter. The former Haitian president Laurent Lamothe also expressed his disappointment over Trump's remark and wrote on Twitter, "SHAME ON TRUMP! The world is witnessing a new low today with this #ShitholeNations remark! totally unacceptable! uncalled for moreover it shows a lack a respect and IGNORANCE never seen before in the recent history of the US by any President! Enough is enough!!" The White House seemed to be in a fix over Trump's remark, as they neither denied that the President had used the derogatory phrase nor did they confirm it. "President Trump will always fight for the American people," reports quoted White House spokesman Raj Shah as saying. OneIndia News eBaums World 18 Nov 2022 Jimmy Fallon was trending on Twitter yesterday, and it wasn't for the best of reasons. Hashtag "RIPJimmyFallon" was all anybody was.. Rumble 17 Nov 2022 I Got Rich When I Understood this! In this motivational video, Jeff Bezos shares some of his most POWERFUL Business advice that.. OSLO, Norway: Nearly 80 Tesla owners in Norway have sued the US automaker over misleading advertising, saying their electric car did not deliver the promised performance, Norwegian daily Dagens Naeringsliv (DN) reported on Thursday. Powerful, but perhaps not quite as much as promised | Johannes Eisele The plaintiffs complained that the real power of their Tesla S P85D, a sedan with one of the fastest accelerations in the world, was 469 horsepower and not 700 horsepower as promised by the manufacturer. They want the same compensation as another group of 133 Norwegian Tesla owners who previously sued the company and reached a deal in December 2016. Tesla agreed to compensate the 133 car owners by paying them 65,000 kroner (7,260 euros, $8,600) or by providing them with new equipment, according to the financial daily. "It's the same kind of case that ended up in a compromise the last time," the plaintiffs' lawyer Christoffer Falkeid told the paper. "It's about the power of the car and the mistakes in marketing and in the sales process but I do not want to go into amounts," he added. Contacted by AFP, Tesla declined to comment. A civil complaint will be examined in April by an Oslo court if no deal is reached until then. According to Norwegian media, another group of 38 motorists also filed a lawsuit against Tesla last fall. Norway, the world leader in electric cars in terms of market share, is one of the largest markets in the world for Tesla. There ar a total of 1,201 Tesla S P85Ds in Norway. Last year, Tesla sales in the Nordic country reached 8,465, all models combined. Martin Schulz became CEO of Mercedes-Benz Romania on 1 June. He replaced Philipp Hagenburger, who served in the job for the past.. Just-Auto 04 Jun 2019 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. Rumble 03 Nov 2022 It looks like Zac Efron is set to permanently relocate to the land down under after close sources hinted toward his big decision... Upworthy 14 Aug 2022 A massive, fish-loving walrus named Freya is stirring up trouble in Norway -- and the Norwegian government has warned it may have.. Rumble 17 Nov 2022 We talk about Trumps announcement to run for President, AZ elections,How the Senate is in need of a new leader, Election News Eurasia Review 25 Mar 2021 Joe Biden is no better than Trump in advocating de facto white supremacy with his foreign policy, and corporate media fan the.. PR Newswire Asia 18 Nov 2022 TAIPEI, Nov. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Taiwan, after being closed for almost three years, has finally reopened its borders to global.. Following the success of our Mandarin language webinar on employment issues during the lockdown and return to work requirements in.. Mondaq 20 Jul 2022 From Paul Craig Roberts Website The US military/security complex has taken another step toward Armageddon. The Pentagon has prepared a nuclear posture review (NPR) that gives the OK to development of smaller "usable" nuclear weapons and permits their use in response to a non-nuclear attack. As Reagan and Gorbachev understood, but the warmongers who have taken over America do not, there are far too many nuclear weapons already. Some scientists have concluded that even the use of 10 percent of either the US or Russian arsenal would suffice to destroy life on earth. It is reckless and irresponsible for Washington to make such a decision in the wake of years of aggressive actions taken against Russia. The Clinton criminal regime broke Washington's promise that NATO would not move one inch to the East. The George W. Bush criminal regime pulled out of the ABM Treaty and changed US war doctrine to elevate the use of nuclear weapons from retaliation to first strike. The Obama criminal regime launched a frontal propaganda attack on Russia with crazed Hillary's denunciation of President Putin as "the new Hitler." In an effort to evict Russia from its naval base in Crimea, the criminal Obama regime overthrew the Ukrainian government during the Sochi Olympics and installed a Washington puppet. US missile bases have been established on Russia's border, and NATO conducts war games against Russia on Russian borders. This is insanity. These and other gratuitous provocations have convinced the Russian military's Operation Command that Washington is planning a surprise nuclear attack on Russia. The Russian government has replied to these provocations with the statement that Russia will never again fight a war on its own territory. Those such as myself and Stephen Cohen, who point out that Washington's reckless and irresponsible behavior has created an enemy out of a country that very much wanted to be friends, do not get much attention from the presstitute media. The US military/security complex needs an enemy sufficient to justify its vast budget and power, and the Western media has accommodated that selfish and dangerous need. Russia today is far stronger and better armed than the Soviet Union ever was. Russia also has an alliance with China, an economic and military power. This alliance was created by Washington's threats against both countries. Europe and Japan need to understand that they have responsibility for the resurrection of the Cold War in a far more dangerous form than existed in the 20th century. Europe and Japan, whose political leaders are owned by Washington, have taken money from Washington and sold out their peoples along with the rest of humanity. The entirety of the Western World is devoid of intelligent political leadership. This leaves countries such as Russia, China and Iran with the challenge of preserving life on earth as the Western World pushes humanity toward Armageddon. 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... (Image by YouTube, Channel: Fusion) Details DMCA 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. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). A recent deal to lease the Sudanese Red Sea Suakin island to Turkey for development raises concerns in Cairo and other Arab capitals. In late December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir signed an agreement to temporarily lease Sudan's Suakin Red Sea island to Turkey for development by Turkish investment projects. Suakin Island is located on the western coast of the Red Sea in eastern Sudan. It covers an area of approximately 20 km2, 66 meters above sea level, and is 560 kilometers away from Khartoum. In medieval times, the name of Suakin was mentioned in the writings of Arab travelers, such as Ibn Battuta, whose name was associated with the escape of many Umayyad princes from the Abbasid state. In the sixteenth century AD was conquered by Ottoman Sultan Salim I and became the center of the Ottoman fleet in the Red Sea. The port included the seat of the Ottoman governor of the southern Red Sea. Sudanese Foreign Minister Turkey will rebuild a ruined Ottoman port city on Sudan's Red Sea coast and construct a naval dock to maintain civilian and military vessels, Sudan's foreign minister said on Tuesday Dec 26. The restoration at Suakin was agreed during a visit to the ancient port by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said. The countries also agreed "to build a dock to maintain civilian and military vessels," Ghandour told reporters, adding that they had signed an agreement "that could result in any kind of military cooperation". The agreements come three months after Turkey formally opened a $50 million military-training base in Somalia as it exerts increasing influence in the region. While explaining why he is paying so much attention to this island that the Sudanese call "the gate to Africa," President Erdogan used the metaphor of "reincarnation." Suakin lost its stature and fell into ruin when Port Sudan was built 30 miles to the north between 1905 and 1909. Erdogan accused Western countries of turning Suakin into a "ghost island." "They razed it to the ground... This is in their nature," Erdogan said Dec. 25 during a speech at Khartoum University. "Your razing of this place is like us shaving our beards. We will rebuild and reconstruct it in such a way that, like a shaved beard, it will regrow much more abundant." Ayman Shabana "Suakin island deal complies with the Turkish strategy to increase its presence in Africa in general and in the northeastern part of the continent in particular," Ayman Shabana, deputy director of the African Research Institute of Cairo University, was quoted by Xinhua as saying. He expressed his belief that the announced purposes of the island deal, including Turkish development projects, archeological restoration and cultural revival, are only meant to cover Turkey's real purpose of establishing its presence southern Egypt, opposite to Saudi Arabia and near the Gulf region. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). From Paul Craig Roberts Website "We need a political intervention to make this situation end. He (Assange) is the only political prisoner in Western Europe." Juan Braco The persecution of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is now seven years old. Ecuador has protected Assange for the past half decade from being turned over to Washington by the corrupt Swedish and British for torture and prosecution as a spy by giving Assange political asylum inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Ecuador has now given citizenship to Assange and attempted to provide his safe transit out of England by giving him diplomatic status, but the British government continued in its assigned role of jailer by rejecting Ecuador's request for diplomatic status for Assange, just as the most servile of Washington's puppet states rejected the order by the UN Committee on Arbitrary Detention to immediate release Assange from his arbitrary detention. Assange got into trouble with Washington, because his news organization, Wikileaks, published files released by Bradley Manning. The files were a tremendous embarrassment to Washington, because they showed how Washington conspires against governments and betrays its allies, and the files contained an audio/video film of US military forces murdering innocent people walking down a street and then murdering a father and his two young children who stopped to give aid to the civilians the American soldiers had shot. The film revealed the heartlessness and criminal cruelty of the US troops, who were enjoying playing a real live video game with real people as their victims. It was Manning who suffered, not the troops who committed murder. Manning was held for two years in conditions that experts said constituted torture while a case was framed against him. Some believe the harsh conditions affected his mind. Manning was convicted by a kangaroo court and sentenced to 35 years in prison, but Obama, in an act of humanity unusual for Washington, pardoned Manning. Washington wanted Assange as well, and the chance came when two Swedish women who, attracted to Assange by his celebrity status, seduced him. The two women had not secured the cooperation they wanted from Assange in the use of condoms and, brainwashd by HIV fears, wanted Assange to join them in being tested. Assange, misreading the extent of their fears, was too slow to comply, and the women went to the police to see if he could be required to be tested. According to the women, the police made up the charge of rape. The women themselves disavow the charge. The charges were investigated, and the chief Swedish prosecutor Eva Finne dismissed the charges, saying "there is no suspicion of any crime whatsoever." Mysteriously, the case was reopened by another prosecutor, Marianne Ny, who many suspect was operating at the behest of Washington. On November 30, two days after Assange began publishing the Cablegate materials leaked by Bradley Manning, Ny issued an Interpol "red alert" arrest warrant for Assange. This was an unusual request as no charges were outstanding against Assange, and hitherto extradition from one country to another on an arrest warrant required actual charges, whereas Ny said she wanted Assange for questioning. Most everyone in the know understood that Washington had ordered Sweden to get its hands on Assange and to turn him over to Washington. Assange challenged the legality of the arrest warrant in British courts, but the British court, many believe following Washington's orders, ruled against the law and in favor of Washington. Assange assented to the arrest and presented himself to a British police station. He was placed in solitary confinement at Wandsworth prison. If memory serves, the daughter of Sir James Goldsmith paid his bond and he was placed under house arrest. When it became clear that the Swedish prosecutor wanted Assange for Washington, not for any charges against him in Sweden, Ecuador give him asylum, and he fled to the embassy in London. Where he has been ever since. Sweden has closed the case a second time, and Assange is no longer wanted for questioning in Sweden. Therefore, there is no longer any reason for the British to hold him for Sweden. But the British government never was holding Assange for Sweden. The British were holding him for Washington. And they still are. Even though Sweden has closed a case based on a false report by police and have no basis for any charges against Assange, the British government says it will grab him the minute he steps outside the embassy. The British are so desperate to serve their Washington master that once they even declared that they were going to violate diplomatic immunity and invade the Ecuadorian Embassy and seize Assange. The British excuse for a once proud government's continuing servitude to Washington as Assange's jailer is that by taking asylum in the embassy Assange jumped bail and therefore the British have to arrest him for not surrendering a second time to the police for an investigation that has been closed. Stefania Maurizi, an Italian investigative journalist for La Repubblica, smelling the stench of fraud that covers the entire case, has been trying for two years to get her hands on the correspondence between the UK, US, and Swedish governments pertaining to the case in order to pull back the shroud of the Washington-orchestrated propaganda that colors the case. A British tribunal refused to release any documents on the grounds that it had to protect the British Prosecution Service's relationship with foreign authorities. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). From Share Blue Once again whining about his press coverage, Trump's authoritarian streak returns with new threats of legal action. Still stinging from a White House insider book that portrays him as an unstable dolt surrounded by aides who uniformly think he's unqualified to be president, an angry Donald Trump, reading from a prepared statement, threatened Wednesday to "take a strong look" at U.S. libel laws. "Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace," he added, "and do not represent American values or American fairness. So we're going to take a strong look at that." Click Here to Read Whole Article Dairy Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their diaries after publishing them. To see if the diary was renamed or re-published, please click here. Quicklink Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them. To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here. Progressive Content Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing. To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here. The three EAC commissioners: Christy McCormick, Thomas Hicks, and Matthew Masterson (Image by Marta Steele) Details DMCA On the day when the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing its second case this term involving voting rights, on possibly unjustified purging of names from voter rolls in Ohio; on the third anniversary of the three EAC (Election Assistance Commission) commissioners' time together as colleagues; on the first anniversary of the declaration of election systems as critical infrastructure, and in the immediate wake of the dissolution of Trump's "Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, "the U.S. Election Assistance Commission was looking forward, not back. The subject was Election 2018 and "a spectrum of issues that state and local election officials will face as they work to administer secure, accessible and efficient federal elections in the coming year." Most of the audience were election officials or activists. Several were secretaries of state who had flown in to attend from as far away as Washington state and Nevada as well as Rhode Island (I note in passing that all three mentioned were women). Keynote speaker Doug Chapin (Image by Marta Steele) Details DMCA First to speak, keynote speaker Doug Chapin of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, happily bid good riddance to the year 2017. He said what's best about banging your head against a brick wall is that it feels good to stop. He was glad that it is 2018 and speculated about the November midterm election. He expects a large turnout; lots of congressional seats are changing hands; a reduced amount of revenue is expected; the SCOTUS decision on the Ohio case being tried today could reverberate around the country; interest in vote by mail (VBM) and vote centers is increasing; and it is the worst time to change election laws. Moreover, the 800-pound elephant in the room is Russia's interference with the 2016 elections in this country. Election officials must focus on cybersecurity now: with better password management, by fighting off phishing attempts, and by protecting sensitive data. Cybersecurity is the key to preserving election integrity and individual voters. On all these issues, Chapin said, voters' input is of vital importance. The challenges are vast. The first panel, led by EAC commissioner Christy McCormick, concerned election efficiency and integrity, specifically the importance of data and how we use it. Partipants in Panel 1 (Image by Marta Steele) Details DMCA The panelists were Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske; Krysha Gregorowicz, Senior Researcher, Fors Marsh Group; Michael Scarpello, Registrar of Voters, San Bernardino County, California, the largest electoral district in this country; and Charles Stewart III. an MIT professor who has worked on the Cal Tech-MIT Voting Project since 1985, which in 2001 pronounced hand-counted paper ballots (HCPB) as by far the best system for accurately counting votes and vehemently opposed the introduction of electronic voting systems. That was a long time ago. Mr. Scarpello detailed the numerous and complicated considerations involved in data analysis at the level of polling places: user-friendly parking lots adjacent; voter turnout, where voters live, when they vote and how they vote--there are even drop-off vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots to consider; the number of voters who appear per hour; what and how many supplies to distribute at each location--there are 400 different ballot types--and how many poll workers should be stationed at each place. Each location is surveyed on Election Day to assess the level of voter convenience in terms of number and location of each site, the time taken to process ballots--there are 3500 poll workers in the county and 5000 are trained; moreove,r voters speak six different languages within the radius of 20,000 square miles. Said Mr. Gregorowicz, so much data are collected and there are thousands of discreet state and local levels, so that common definitions of data are sorely needed. There are 178,000 individual polling places in the country and 775 different registration forms, of which departments of motor vehicles handle one-third. Without common definitions comparisons are difficult. But with common definitions the future holds many possibilities. Dr. Stewart added that research toward improving elections is a goal shared among all of us. There are lots of success stories. As a Florida native, he said, he's always been interested in election administration and found that problems of course vary according to locations. His project mulls over how best to use data already collected--so much is available. Millions of votes were lost in his state in 2000, including three million registration problems that kept voters from voting. More problems occurred at the absentee level, due to problems with machinery, or polling-place issues, all of these comprising a gauge of how well democracy is working. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). I heard of a Canadian-Egyptian artist who lived in Manial, the southern-most large island of Cairo, perched just upstream from more upscale Zamalek. Anna responded to my query, offering the vacant apartment next door. The 'apartment' was one of two shacks atop a 9-storey genteel 1930s apartment building on the east shore of the island of Manial, with a channel of the Nile and the Corniche directly underneath, in the heart of Cairo. Straight out of The Yacubian Building (2002), the current best-seller by Egyptian author (and dentist) Alaa el-Aswany, made into a film as I was packing my bags for Egypt in 2006, and into a TV series in 2007. A good omen, I thought, and it became a kind of Bible for me, where I learned my Arabic watching the daily episodes, along with other musalsal (tv soap operas) over the few years, like a textbook, as I struggled with Arabic. It is set in a real-life, dowdy, but still elegant Art Deco-style 1930s apartment building in downtown Cairo, much like the one I was to call home for the next six years, populated by a bizarre cross-section of Egypt. My rooftop eyrie with its ghosts of past rooftop dwellers was a scaled-down version. The real thing was a whole village, crammed onto the roof. The book-movie is a biting condemnation of a nation that has squandered its promise and which has been forced to compromise its own principles, resulting in a corrupt and undemocratic political system dominated by a single party (the fictitious "Patriotic Party", a thinly veiled version of Egypt's National Democratic Party under Mubarak), a society whose most talented members abandon the country for promising careers abroad, and an increasingly disenchanted and restive populace that has no loyalty to the government and which sees extremist Islam as one of the few viable options to counter growing poverty, economic stagnation, moral degradation and social alienation. Despite its unremittingly devastating dissection of Cairo, its colourful characters make it a compelling, heart-warming read. I visited the real Yacoubian Building on Talaat Harb Street (still referred to by its old name, Suleiman Pasha, Muhammad Ali's French-born general). It hasn't changed much over the years, but its entrance gate is more securely locked than mine in Manial against gawkers like me. Roof with a View (Image by Eric Walberg) Details DMCA Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). See original here Bipartisan opposition is growing to President Trump's proposal to greatly expand offshore oil and gas drilling. The reversal of the Obama-era restrictions would open more than a billion acres of water in the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to offshore oil and gas drilling. Initially the Interior Department moved to allow offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all of the United States' coastal waters, but then announced it has dropped plans to open up the waters off the coast of Florida, following fierce opposition by Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott. Scott is an ally of President Trump, and the state is also home to Trump's winter resort at Mar-a-Lago. Now governors and lawmakers from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, California, Oregon, Washington and other states are asking why only Florida is being exempted. We speak to Subhankar Banerjee, professor of art and ecology at the University of New Mexico. Banerjee is the author of "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land" and editor of "Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point." This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. NERMEEN SHAIKH: Bipartisan opposition is growing to President Trump's proposal to greatly expand offshore oil and gas drilling. The reversal of the Obama-era restrictions would open more than a billion acres of water in the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to offshore oil and gas drilling. Initially the Interior Department moved to allow offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all of the United States' coastal waters, but then announced it has dropped plans to open up the waters off the coast of Florida, following fierce opposition by Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott. Scott is an ally of President Trump, and the state is also home to Trump's winter resort at Mar-a-Lago. But now governors and lawmakers from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, California, Oregon, Washington and other states are asking why only Florida is being exempted. AMY GOODMAN: The move comes as the Trump administration is also moving forward on plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. The Republican tax bill, which Trump signed into law last month, included a little-discussed provision to drill in the Arctic. On Wednesday, during a press conference with the prime minister of Norway, Trump boasted about his embrace of fossil fuels. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I am for massive oil and gas and everything else and a lot of energy. Putin can't love that. I am for the strongest military that the United States ever had. Putin can't love that. But Hillary was not for a strong military. And 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. AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we're joined by Subhankar Banerjee, professor of art and ecology at the University of New Mexico. Professor Banerjee is the author of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land and editor of Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point. Well, we come back to you, Professor Banerjee, because, while first we talked to you about the inclusion of opening up the Arctic to drilling, to satisfy Senator Murkowski, to get her to sign on to the tax bill, that tax bill was signed off on. She supported it. And now, if you can take us from there, what has happened since? SUBHANKAR BANERJEE: Thank you, Amy, thank you, Nermeen, for giving voice to our Arctic oceans. So, the Department of Interior released their five-year Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease plan last Thursday, which is really -- there is no other way to say it than that it is an all-out attack on our oceans, across the country, and on coastal communities. It is so expansive. As you mentioned, it plans to open up more than a billion acres of federal waters. It's very hard to comprehend the scope of this, from Florida -- although Florida, as you said, he's pulling back -- to Alaska, from California to Maine, and every state, as well as the entire Gulf of Mexico. So, it's a massive plan. There are 47 leases that they plan to offer, which is the largest number of offshore leases ever in the history of the United States. And in terms of acreage, also, like you said, Nermeen, more than a billion acres, it is the largest. And plans to open up the entire Arctic seas of Alaska, the Beaufort and the Chukchi seas, our undeveloped Arctic Ocean. Now, this decision comes on the heels of opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as, Amy, you mentioned. And that came right after the administration offered, on December 6th, what they call the largest lease sale ever within the National Petroleum Reserve in Western Arctic of Alaska. So they're on an all-out war against conservation and indigenous rights and against small communities across the country. Now, in addition to the lease sale, this massive offshore lease sale plan, they have done two more things that we need to pay attention to. One is weakening of offshore regulations, safety regulations that were put in place after Deepwater Horizon. And the other is weakening of federal oversight on offshore oil and gas lease plan. And I will speak briefly the immediate history of those two components, which is extremely important. The reason Deepwater Horizon happened in the Gulf of Mexico, British Petroleum's, BP's Deepwater Horizon, which spilled more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, devastating wildlife and coastal communities, was because BP was trying to save costs and was trying to become the top dog in the entire Gulf of Mexico offshore drilling operations, trying to beat out Shell. And so, in that process, they basically cut costs and did not do proper safety. So the blowout preventer is what caused that blowout to happen, the largest blowout and spill in the U.S. history. Subsequent to that, several years of work went in that led to establishing offshore safety equipment regulations. So, exactly the week before last week, the Obama -- I mean, the Trump administration announced weakening of those regulations. So, it's extremely important. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). From Consortium News In recent days, Pakistan has found itself in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's Tweet-threats to the surprise of many since Pakistan has not been a country that has drawn much of his attention in his first year in office. Trump's first tweet of 2018 was about the U.S. relationship with Pakistan. "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," Trump tweeted on Jan. 1. "They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" Then, on Jan 4, the State Department announced that the U.S. was freezing a good portion of the military aid the U.S. offers to Pakistan. The cut/freeze could be as much as $1.3 billion. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif was furious. He said, after the suspension was announced, that the U.S. had turned Islamabad into a "whipping boy" for 17 years of failure in the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan. Khawaja told the Wall Street Journal that "This is not how allies behave." I spoke about the new Trump policy and its many implications with Junaid Ahmad. an assistant professor at the University of Lahore in Pakistan and Secretary-General of the International Movement for a Just World. I spoke to Professor Ahmad on Jan. 3. Dennis Bernstein: Could you begin by describing what the International Movement for a Just World is? Junaid Ahmad: We are an NGO [non-governmental organization] based in Malaysia which has networked over several decades now with a lot of the global justice campaigns, the anti-war movement, and the anti-corporate globalization movement. Particularly in East Asia we have been one of the organizations at the forefront of these groups and are very well connected with other groups in North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa. Dennis Bernstein: Let's talk a little bit about the Trump administration's current relations with Pakistan. Trump says he is very angry about Pakistan's support for the Taliban. Junaid Ahmad: The mainstream media in America does such a great job of manufacturing historical amnesia when it comes to this part of the world. We have had to deal with all the ghosts and the beasts and the monsters created by the US empire and its clients like Saudi Arabia. This is something the American empire doesn't want people to understand in a straightforward way. Foreign occupations, particularly when they last this long, will inevitably generate opposition. In Afghanistan, none of the great empires lasted very long. Washington planners have always tended to blame any problems faced by the occupation on its favorite scapegoat, which is Pakistan. This is not to say that the Taliban does not have any relationship with the Pakistani establishment. But we should point out that it is nothing like the relationship that existed in the 1990's, where the Pakistani support for the Taliban was indispensable for its taking power in Kabul. Today, it is a very different situation and the term Taliban is somewhat misleading because it is not just a particular group or ideological force but, in fact, an umbrella group for a variety of resistance forces, principally based within the Pashtun ethnic population, which constitutes about 60% of the country and is opposed to NATO occupation and its client regime in Kabul. But the policy analysts in Washington and the administration and the Pentagon and the mainstream media do not want to confront this because it is far easier to simply blame Islamabad for all of the problems in Afghanistan. The second part of this story is to ask why the United States continues with its failed misadventure in Afghanistan. I don't think this has anything to do with any resurgence of terrorism in that country or any threat it poses to the West itself. US and British intelligence reports have made it clear that Islamabad has actually been fairly cooperative in sharing intelligence regarding potential risks to the West from terrorist elements and has handed over suspected terrorists. Dennis Bernstein: And this has taken quite a toll. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). In a recent column, I noted that if Oprah Winfrey runs for president in 2020, she will be at least as qualified for the office as the incumbent, Donald Trump, was when he announced his 2016 campaign. They're both billionaires of similar net worth -- her self-made, him not so much. They're both former television personalities -- her the long-time host of a top talk show and builder of an attached media empire, him a "reality TV" shock jock. And so on and so forth. The feedback I've received runs from the "no way" of Trump supporters to the "yes way" of Trump haters, with a healthy portion of people who consider neither of the two even remotely qualified for the job and wonder if the world is going crazy. So, let's talk about qualifications for the presidency. The US Constitution lists three: A prospective president must be at least 35 years old, be a "natural born citizen" of the United States, and have resided within the US for 14 years. But, of course, many people want more than just those three things in a president, and I guess I can't blame them. Unfortunately, what people -- at least the people who pick major party presidential nominees -- usually seem to want is a sitting or former governor or US Senator (or, occasionally, a victorious general). They want "political experience." I disagree. America's fifty governors and 535 members of Congress seem to constitute the worst possible pool from which to select a president. Their collective record of corruption, incompetence, scandal, etc. is probably an order of magnitude worse than the record of any 585 randomly selected regular Americans. Seldom a day goes by without some politician getting caught with his hand in the till, or texting photos of his junk to random women, while passing monumentally stupid laws and running up $20 trillion in debt. Secondly, if you think American government is moving in the wrong direction, well, guess who's been moving it that way? These are the people trying to run our lives, and doing a terrible job of it. Political power attracts narcissists, sociopaths and megalomaniacs. So, why not change the way we pick the president? I have two ideas, either one or both of which would improve the situation. First, I suggest a constitutional amendment disqualifying any man or woman who has previously held elected office from running for president. A candidate could run for Congress or governor now or for president later, but not both. That should get rid of a lot of the scheming and opportunism associated with a political "career ladder" leading to the Oval Office. Secondly -- and, yes more severely -- why not select the president by lottery? Just draw a random Social Security number, make sure the person meets the other qualifications, and inaugurate him or her. Short of eliminating the office, random selection of the president seems like the best way to safeguard our liberties from people who want the job ... and who therefore should never be allowed within a mile of it. On January 3, 2013, three Kurdish women by the name of Sakine Cansiz (born 1958), Fidan Dogan (1982, France representative of the Brussels based Kurdish National Congress - KNK) and Leyla Saylemez (1989, young women activist) were found murdered in their place of work. We wrote the book below without knowing who ordered the killing of these civilian Kurdish women activists for freedom and Peace in Kurdistan. The Accidental Martyr: How and Why Sakine Cansiz Survived Torture, Led Women in Combat and Was Murdered for Kurdish Freedom. PKK commando forces were able to arrest two high-ranking Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) members last year in the Kurdistan Regional Governments of Iraq (KRG) region. The intelligence agents were there to organize assassins to kill PKK leaders based in the KRG area. But PKK commando forces arrested them before they could kill anyone. They disclosed important information about the murder of three Kurdish women in Paris,France who were under investigation. According to the two arrested high-ranking Turkish MIT members above, President Erdogan of Turkey directly ordered the head of the Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) to go ahead with the killings of those three Kurdish women while he was negotiating peace with the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan in the Turkish prison since 1999. KCK Executive Council Co-chair Bese Hozat answered questions about the Paris Massacre and the captured MdegreesT administrators in the program Ulkeden ("From the Country") on Medya News TV. Hozat stated that the MdegreesT administrators captured by the HPG PKK forces made confessions about the massacre and said: "On the 5th anniversary of the Paris Massacre, I condemn the perpetrators of this massacre with hate. We will absolutely hold the perpetrators of this massacre, this vile murder to account. The blood of our friends won't be left unavenged. Who are the Kurds? Why do they fight so valiantly, and for what? Why are we just now hearing about them? How do we understand all the chaos in Syria, in Iraq, and in Turkey? And why do the Kurds keep appearing in the picture? Who are those people? The Accidental Martyr helps to explain this complex part of the world and these little-known people through the life and times of Sakine Cansiz. From the age of 20, Sakine Cansiz was ready to die a heroine's death for Kurdish freedom, if that was how things turned out, but she never planned to be a martyr, or sought out a heroine's death in order to make a point. She never wanted to die at all, except maybe during the worst part of ten years of unspeakable abuses by jailers who were so sadistic that even their own repressive regime eventually executed them. She didn't want to be a heroine either: she just showed her bravery when heroic circumstances were forced on her, which was far too often. Like the rest of the Kurdish people, she didn't set out to be heroic, just to survive; life among the Kurds and Turks would make that challenging enough. After her years of torture, she became a famous guerrilla leader, actively fighting for the cause of Kurdish rights against enormous odds and expecting to die at any moment. Several times, she came all too close to having that opportunity. After a decade of battling with one of the most advanced military forces in the region, she survived that too, becoming a legend as a brave, powerful female fighter. Eventually, she became too valuable for the Kurds to lose her in an insignificant firefight in the remote mountains. They sent her to the civilized, peaceful cities of Western Europe to become a diplomat and fund-raiser for the Kurdish cause. She had to give up combat patrols in order to print pamphlets and meet with heads of government. She excelled in that too, so much so that some government agencies got nervous. Eventually, one of them caught up with her. In civilized, peaceful Paris, she hadn't sought death out, but there it found her, not on the battlefield but in a simple rented office. It was the very mundane nature of her death that turned her from the leader into the icon, not just to Kurds seeking liberation but to women across the Islamic world. She didn't intend to become a martyr. It happened anyway. This is her story. It's is also the story of the Kurds for whom she suffered, fought and died. The phases of her life and the questions surrounding her death can only be answered with an understanding of who the Kurds are, and who their neighbors in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey are. The Accidental Martyr follows the path of Cansiz' life to explore the trail of Kurdish history from the glory days of the Medean Empire, 3000 years ago, to their resurgence today. If you've ever heard a mention of the Kurds and wondered who they really are, this book's is for you. References Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Growth of Commercial Vehicles and need of tracking drive the growth of GPS Tracking device Market MarketsandMarkets https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=142 According to the new market research report "GPS Tracking Device Market by Type (Standalone Tracker, OBD Device & Advance Tracker), Deployment Type (Commercial Vehicle, Cargo & Container), Industry (Transportation & Logistics, Metals & Mining, and Construction) and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023".The GPS tracking device market is expected to reach USD 2.89 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 12.91% between 2017 and 2023.Factors that are driving the growth of the market include the increasing sales of commercial vehicles, small farm factor, affordable price, and high ROI.Download PDF Brochure-Advance GPS tracker to hold the largest market share in the overall GPS tracking device market during the forecast periodThe growth of GPS tracking device market is driven by the growth of commercial fleet management and declining prices of GPS trackers. Advance tracker is professionally installed in the commercial vehicles to provide engine diagnosis data and vehicle performance-related information in addition to basic function. The information related to engine diagnosis can further be utilized to measure the performance of the vehicle in near-real time. Thus, this will likely to lead the adoption of advance GPS trackers.Commercial vehicle deployment type is expected to hold the largest market share in 2023Deployment of GPS tracking device helps to track and monitor commercial vehicles such as trucks, buses, heavy commercial vehicles, and construction vehicles. These vehicles are loaded with valuable goods, and thus it is important to track and monitor these commercial vehicles. Moreover, according to International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), sales of commercial vehicles are on an uptrend and may drive the GPS tracking device market.APAC region is expected to lead the GPS tracking device market between 2017 and 2023APAC is an emerging market for GPS tracking devices. The adoption rate of GPS tracking device in this region is low compared to other regions. Thus, it is an untapped market with a huge potential for growth of GPS tracking device. Assets safety and security is the key driver for the growth of the GPS tracking device market in APAC. Moreover, supportive government programs, various events and conferences, and product launches and developments are also driving the growth of the market in APAC.The major players involved in this market include Calamp Corp. (US), Orbocomm Inc. (US), Sierra Wireless Inc. (Canada), Quelink Wireless Solution Co., Ltd. (China), Concox Wireless Solution Co., Ltd. (China), TomTom International BV (Netherlands), Laird PLC (UK), Atrack Technology Inc. (Taiwan), Meitrack Group (China), Teltonika UAB (Lithuania), Trackimo LLC (US), and Geotab Inc. (Canada).Companies such as Shenzhen Coban Electronics Co., Ltd. (China), Xirgo Technologies, Inc. (US), Maestro Wireless Solutions Ltd. (Hong Kong), and Ruptela UAB (Lithuania) play an important role in the ecosystem of GPS tracking devices.About MarketsandMarketsMarketsandMarkets 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.MarketsandMarketss 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.Mr. RohanMarketsandMarketsUNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZMagarpatta city, HadapsarPune, Maharashtra 411013, India1-888-600-6441Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Nitric Acid Market is expected to grow at CAGR of 6.5% Nitric Acid Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2190 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/nitric-acid-market-2190 Market Research Future Published a Half Cooked Research Report on Global Nitric Acid Market Research Report Forecast to 2022 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.The Dow Chemical Company, Bayer AG, BASF SE, LyondellBasell Industries, Agrium Inc., Koch Fertilizer LLC., AkzoNobel NV, Basic Chemical Solutions LLC, PVS Chemicals, Apache Nitrogen Products Inc, Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals Corp. Ltd among others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Nitric AcidMarket and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Nitric Acid Market OverviewNitric Acid belongs to a class of inorganic acids which is both extremely corrosive and toxic. On the basis of nature of nitric acid, unstable nitric acid is extensively used in explosives whereas stable nitric acid is used in the production of dyes, paints, and pigments. The Nitric Acid Market is expected to grow tremendously and register a strong growth over the assessment period. Growth of Global Nitric Acid Market is predominantly driven by fertilizer and explosive industry. Furthermore, increasing industrial explosive market coupled with strong demand for mining and construction activities is predicted to fuel the market growth. Increasing defense activities due to rising terrorism activities has resulted in increasing demand for explosives which in turn is estimated to propel the market growth over the forecast period. In addition to this, increase in need of fertilizer to meet the rising quality food demand with followed by raise in crop production is predicted to drive market growth. Nitric acid is majorly used in the manufacturing of fertilizer followed by adipic acid. Adipic acid is further used in the production of automobile parts. Increasing automobile production & sales across the globe is estimated to fuel the demand for nitric acid in near future. Some of the prominent drivers supporting the market growth are rapidly growing agriculture and automotive industry, and rising construction activities.Request a Sample Report @Geographically, Asia Pacific emerged as the leading market for Nitric Acid followed by North America and Europe in 2016. The Asia Pacific region provide huge growth potential for Nitric Acid and is estimated to register highest CAGR on account of continuous growth of pharmaceutical, textile, and fertilizer industry specifically in China, India, and South Korea. Moreover, end use industrial growth in various countries of Asia Pacific such as South Korea, India, Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. Furthermore, rising investment by major companies and shifting of production facilities in this region is estimated to drive the Nitric Acid Regional Market growth. North American market is predicted to witness moderate growth due to expansion of pharmaceutical sector. Europe is estimated to witness moderate growth on account of significant growth of automobile and textile industries. Moreover, stringent regulations imposed by regulatory bodies in Europe and North America is estimated to slightly hinder market growth.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:November 2017- Agrium Inc. made a settlement with subsidiary of Trammo Inc. known as Trammo Nitrogen Products Inc., to sell Agriums North Bend, Ohio nitric acid facility. Moreover, the company sell its Conda, Idaho, and phosphate production facility to Itafos Company. With this agreement the company help win U.S. Federal Trade Commission approval of merger.April 2017- Grupa Azoty Group, a Polish chemical company signed an agreement with Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG for the license for a nitric acid production technology. Construction of new nitric acid manufacturing unit located at Pulawy (Poland) will strengthen the Grupa Azoty position among the leading manufacturers of nitric acid across the globe. In addition to this, this investment will allow company to market new products and expand its product portfolio in fertilizer segment.March 2015- M+W Group received a major contract from BASF SE for the planning, procurement, turnkey construction and commissioning of a nitric acid production plant. With this, BASF SE will be enhance its nitric acid production capacity in near future.August 2016- Deepak Fertilizers & Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd announced that the company will expand its Nitric acid plant capacities. With this expansion, the company meet up the increasing demand of nitric acid and strengthen its position among nitric acid manufacturers across the globe.Competitive Landscape.Access Complete Report @The Nitric Acid Market Report Analyses the degree of competition among the market players as well as industry growth and market scenario. The global Nitric Acid market consist of diverse players operating in the market including large scale and small scale manufacturers. This industry is focusing towards growth consolidation specifically by Asia Pacific as small scale and major players are from this region specifically from China, South Korea, Thailand, and India. Additionally, nitric acid manufacturers from Europe and North America are planning to expand their manufacturing base to Asia Pacific region in order to meet the demand for Nitric Acid in this region. Moreover, the market is rising with a significant growth rate which raises the competitive rivalry among the industry players.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Fall Protection System 2018 Global Industry Key Players - Honeywell Safety Products , 3M Fall Protection , ABS Safety GmbH , Eurosafe Solutions , Guardian Fall Protection Market Analysis And Forecast To 2025 Global Fall Protection System Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2751807-global-fall-protection-system-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2751807-global-fall-protection-system-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 Global Fall Protection System MarketThis report studies the global Fall Protection System market, analyzes and researches the Fall Protection System development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeHoneywell Safety Products3M Fall ProtectionABS Safety GmbHEurosafe SolutionsGuardian Fall ProtectionUltraSafeJSPP&P SafetyLatchwaysYates GearCMC RescuePetzlRelianceBuckinghamFallTechMSA WorldwideAspiring Safety ProductsRequest a Sample Report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoGeneral Fall ProtectionPersonal Fall ProtectionMarket segment by Application, Fall Protection System can be split intoConstruction IndustryChemical IndustryOtherTo enquire about this report visit @Table of Contents-Key Points CoveredGlobal Fall Protection System Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Fall Protection System1.1 Fall Protection System Market Overview1.1.1 Fall Protection System Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Fall Protection System 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 Fall Protection System Market by Type1.3.1 General Fall Protection1.3.2 Personal Fall Protection1.4 Fall Protection System Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Construction Industry1.4.2 Chemical Industry1.4.3 Other2 Global Fall Protection System Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Fall Protection System 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 Honeywell Safety Products3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 3M Fall Protection3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 ABS Safety GmbH3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Eurosafe Solutions3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Guardian Fall Protection3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 UltraSafe3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 JSP3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 P&P Safety3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 Latchways3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Yates Gear3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Fall Protection System Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 CMC Rescue3.12 Petzl3.13 Reliance3.14 Buckingham3.15 FallTech3.16 MSA Worldwide3.17 Aspiring Safety ProductsContinued.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 Alcoholic Drinks in Brazil Alcoholic Drinks in Brazil https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/803084-alcoholic-drinks-in-brazil https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/803084-alcoholic-drinks-in-brazil https://www.linkedin.com/company/wise-guy-research-consultants-pvt-ltd-?trk=biz-companies-cym https://www.wiseguyreports.com Latest Report on Alcoholic Drinks in BrazilTotal volume sales of alcoholic drinks continued to decline in Brazil in both the on-trade and off-trade channels in 2016. Consumers had less available income; therefore were forced to make more rational decisions on what to purchase, taking into consideration their budget and the necessity of each product. For this reason, consumption frequency reduced considerably in almost all categories, and also a downgrade to cheaper brands was seen by manufacturers.Alcoholic Drinks in Brazil report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2012-2016), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2021 illustrate how the market is set to change.Try Sample Report @Product coverage: Beer, Cider/Perry, RTDs/High-Strength Premixes, Spirits, Wine.Data coverage: market sizes (historic and forecasts), company shares, brand shares and distribution data.Why buy this report?* Get a detailed picture of the Alcoholic Drinks market;* Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change;* Understand the competitive environment, the markets major players and leading brands;* Use five-year forecasts to assess how the market is predicted to develop.Business reference books and online information systems. With offices in London, Chicago, Singapore, Shanghai, Vilnius, Dubai, Cape Town, Santiago, Sydney, Tokyo and Bangalore and a network of over 800 analysts worldwide, has a unique capability to develop reliable information resources to help drive informed strategic planning.For Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @LIST OF CONTENTS AND TABLESExecutive SummaryEconomic Crisis and More Rationality in Purchasing Decisions Affect Sales of Alcoholic DrinksRtds/high-strength Premixes Posts the Most Dynamic Performance and ConsolidatesInvesting in A Diverse Portfolio of Brands Continues To Be the Most Secure Strategy for the Coming YearsAtacarejos Emerges and Consolidates As An Important Distribution Channel for Alcoholic DrinksVolume Sales Are Expected To Recover From 2018 Onwards, As the Economic Situation Begins To ChangeKey Trends and DevelopmentsBeer Brands Significantly Change Their Communication Campaigns in Order To Reach Increasingly Aware Young AdultsTraditional Brazilian Cash and Carry, Atacarejos, Consolidates As A Key Retail Distribution ChannelOff-trade Sales Should Recover Faster Than On-trade: Consumption at Home Is Increasingly StrongKey New Product Launches: Rtds/high-strength Premixes Remains Resilient To the Economic CrisisSummary 1 Key New Product Developments 2016/2017Market BackgroundLegislationTable 1 Number of On-trade Establishments by Type 2011-2016Taxation and Duty LeviesSummary 2 Taxation and Duty Levies on Alcoholic Drinks 2016Table 2 Typical Wholesaler and Retailer Off-trade Mark-ups by Selected Categories 2016Table 3 Selling Margin of a Typical Beer Brand in Retail Channel Which Does Not Use Wholesalers 2016Table 4 Selling Margin of a Typical Wine Brand in Retail Channel Which Does Not Use Wholesalers 2016Table 5 Selling Margin of a Typical Spirits Brand in Retail Channel Which Does Not Use Wholesalers 2016Continued.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 Telecom Cloud Market - Leading Regional Segment of Industry & Forecast 2017 - 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=722 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=722 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=722 Telecom Cloud Market:SnapshotThe global telecom cloud market is likely to make steady progress in the coming years due primarily to the rapid expansion of the telecom sector in developing regions such as Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Rapid urbanization in dynamic economies has led to a mounting need for communication protocol that can keep up with the ever-changing environment, lending the telecom cloud market a major boost. The massive consumer demographic in these developing regions is a major driver for the global telecom cloud market, as exponential growth of the telecom sector is likely in highly populous and economically progressive countries such as India, China, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and Mexico.The increasingly congested telecom sector in developing countries is a promising field for the cloud sector, as the use of advanced technologies such as telecom cloud is likely to remain an important factor in the race for a competitive edge in the telecom market. In populous countries such as India and China, in particular, the ability of a telecom operator to cleverly utilize cloud technology to maximize their benefits could play a vital role.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The rising smartphone ownership in leading Asia Pacific economies is a key factor the telecom cloud market. In countries such as India, China, and most other Southeast Asian countries, access to the Internet isnt remarkable in rural areas and has primarily been boosted by the rising availability of smartphones at affordable prices. The relatively recent entry of digital services in government services in these countries has opened up a significant need for technology that can support immense volumes of data, leading to strong growth prospects the telecom cloud market in Asia Pacific, which is likely to remain the leading regional segment of the global telecom cloud market in the coming years.Global Telecom Cloud Market: OverviewMobility, a continuously rising network of high-speed internet, and cloud computing have emerged as the three crucial cornerstones of a typical networked or connected business ecosystem. As the entire world moves towards a connected future, telecom companies are coming to terms with the opportunity to exploit the growth opportunities offered by cloud services, as both - the providers as well as the adopters of the cloud technology.This report on the global telecom cloud market presents a detailed overview of the present growth dynamics of the market and its segments. Vast forward-looking statements regarding the growth prospects of the market over the period between 2017 and 2025 are also included with the help of a thorough analytical analysis of markets present growth dynamics, inputs from industry experts, and industry-best analytical tools.Request TOC of the Report @The report also includes a detailed overview of the competitive landscape of the market, wherein vast data pertaining to aspects such as recent developments in manufacturing technologies, updation of product portfolios, involvement in activities such as mergers and acquisitions, market share, and finances related to some of the key vendors in the market is included. The report also presents a detailed SWOT analysis of all the market vendors profiled in the report, presenting an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of these companies as well as opportunities and threats affecting their future growth prospects.Global Telecom Cloud Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global telecom cloud market is expected to exhibit growth at a remarkable pace over the reports forecast period. The key factors expected to drive this market include the highly competitive nature of the telecom industry, the need to cut down administration and operational costs to survive amid intense cost pressures, the need to provide excellent services to the highly aware consumer, and the increasing awareness about the vast benefits of cloud computing among telecom companies.Get Discount @Although the market has excellent growth prospects, some factors such as the concerns regarding data security in cloud storage and the rising numbers of highly sophisticated data thefts in the past few years are expected to present challenges to the growth of the telecom cloud market.Nevertheless, the market will observe significant traction owing to high demand from small- and medium-sized enterprises, especially in developing economies. Having realized the vast cost and speed benefits of cloud computing, the demand for cloud solutions across this sector will considerably rise in the near future. Solutions especially made for the specific needs of small and medium-sized enterprises will emerge as one of the top revenue generators for the global telecom cloud market in the near future.Global Telecom Cloud Market: Geographical OutlookOf the key regional markets for telecom cloud, Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as the one with the most promising growth opportunities over the reports forecast period. The vast rise in population and the increasing consumer base of broadband data services and smartphones will compel telecom operators in the region to adopt flexible and cost-effective cloud computing models for providing effective services. North America is expected to be the leading contributor of revenue to the market owing to the presence of some of the most technologically advanced telecom companies in countries such as the U.S. and Canada and the rising investment on the development of data centers across these countries.Companies mentioned in the reportSome of the key vendors operating in the global telecom cloud market are AT&T, Inc., Deutsche Telekom, Level 3 Communications, Inc., Verizon Communication, Inc., and BT Group PLC.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Hydrogen Storage Market - Detailed Overview of Industry & Forecast 2017 - 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=728 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=728 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=728 Global Hydrogen Storage Market: OverviewThe vast rise in demand for alternate power owing to depleting reserves and environmentally harmful nature of conventional power production processes has compelled researchers and government bodies to focus more on reliable alternative power sources in the past years. Research activities in this area have demonstrated the possible use of hydrogen as one of the key contenders in the field of alternative power. The vast potentials of hydrogen in leading to the development of an extremely clean and renewable source of energy in the form of fuel cells have made hydrogen fuel cells one of the most studied fields of science presently.This report on the global hydrogen storage market presents a detailed overview of the market that deals with the effective storage of hydrogen for it to be used across a number of application areas. The report presents a thorough overview of the present growth dynamics of the market and its key segments and includes vast quantitative and qualitative details about aspects such as market valuation, overall sales, demand and supply statistics in key regional markets, and overall future growth prospects.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The report also presents a detailed overview of the factors expected to have a notable impact on the overall development of the market in the next few years, including growth drivers, challenges, regulatory aspects across key regional markets, opportunities, and level of competition. The competitive landscape of the global hydrogen storage market is also analyzed in great details in the report, presenting before the reader a clear idea of challenges that established vendors could present to the growth aspirations of other vendors.Global Hydrogen Storage Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global hydrogen storage market is chiefly driven by the mounting global demand for transportation fuels, the increased focus on the development of cleaner fuels to satiate this demand, and the vast technological developments observed in the field of fuel cell vehicles in the past few years. Hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles are expected to replace conventional fuel powered vehicles to a significant extent in the near future, especially in developed economies across regions such as North America and Europe.The rising consumption of hydrogen across industries such as oil refining, chemicals, and metal working is also expected to be a key driver of the market over the reports forecast period. However, despite the vast growth opportunities, factors such as the limited or underdeveloped hydrogen refilling facilities in certain emerging economies will act as a major restraint to the overall growth prospects of the global hydrogen storage market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Hydrogen Storage Market: Geographical OutlookOf the key regional markets for hydrogen storage, Asia Pacific is presently the leading contributor of revenue to the global hydrogen storage market. The region leads on account of the high demand for industrially viable compounds such as methanol in developing economies with strong industrial sectors such as China and India. Additionally, the increasingly stringent regulatory scenario governing the oil and gas sector in these countries, chiefly to promote the increased production of cleaner fuels is also expected to drive the increased demand for hydrogen storage in the next few years.Furthermore, countries such as Japan and South Korea are adopting innovative measures to promote the development of fuel cell vehicles through subsidies and investments. These factors are also expected to strengthen Asia Pacifics position in the global hydrogen storage market in the next few years.Get Discount @Companies mentioned in the reportSome of the key vendors operating in the global hydrogen storage market are Worthington Industries, Inc., Linde AG, Luxfer Holdings Plc, and Praxair, 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 In Situ Hybridization Market - Recent Developments in Industry & Forecast 2017 - 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=782 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=782 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=782 Global In Situ Hybridization Market: SnapshotIn situ hybridization (ISH) refers to a well-established set of methods for the visualization and detection of specific nucleic acid sequences in whole organisms, cytological preparations, and tissue sections. The technique has witnessed refinements and a significant rise in applications over the several decades of its use and is routinely employed still in laboratories where visualization of gene expression within the tissue of concern is required.In situ hybridization is known to effectively allow for the cytologic and histologic localization of the specific nucleic acid of interest. While the techniques have significantly matured in the present-day scenario, the application of most in situ hybridization techniques was limited to a large extent owing to their inability to detect samples with low copies of DNA and RNA. Advancements in the past few years have led to the development of a number of strategies to help improve the sensitivity of ISH techniques by signal detection after the hybridization is completed or by the amplification of the target nucleic acid sequence before the ISH begins.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The market is witnessing advancements at a highly promising pace with the view of increasing sensitivity of in situ hybridization methods. Recent developments such as strand displacement amplification and molecular beacons to continue to expand the scope of application of in situ hybridization techniques. The application of some of these novel techniques has helped significantly extend the scope of utility of in situ hybridization in the fields of research and diagnostic pathology owing to their capability of detecting targets with low copy numbers of nucleic acids in samples.Global In Situ Hybridization Market: OverviewThe global market for in situ hybridization is projected to expand at a phenomenal rate, with the cancer diagnosis segment at the forefront. The in situ hybridization market can include application segments such as neuroscience, cancer diagnosis, immunology, cytology, microbiology, pathology, and developmental biology.In situ hybridization is a powerful method for localizing specific nucleic acid targets in cells and tissues, thereby allowing access to the temporal and spatial information about genetic loci and structure. Human DNA and RNA can be visualized with the help of in situ hybridization in two major ways, chromogenic (CISH) and fluorescence (FISH) detection.The report analyzes the key drivers, restraints, recent trends, and growth opportunities in the global market for in situ hybridization. The market shares, product portfolios, technological developments, and business strategies of the major players are discussed in detail. The report also sheds light on factors such as market size, supply and demand ratio, market attractiveness, and key segments of the in situ hybridization market.Request TOC of the Report @Global In Situ Hybridization Market: Drivers and RestraintsTechnological advancements in the field of in situ hybridization, such as development of the cytogenetic technique, is one of the key factors driving the market. The rising prevalence of cancer has necessitated clinical research, which is another major market driver. The introduction of new therapeutic agents has led to a high rate of adoption of companion diagnostics, boosting the overall market expansion. Besides these factors, the growth of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry has improved the prospects of the in situ hybridization market worldwide.Florescence in situ hybridization (FISH) can be used in the detection of genetic abnormalities such as aneuploidy, characteristic gene fusion, or loss of a chromosomal region. It is also useful for research in the fields of gene mapping and identification of genetic aberrations, which are responsible for cancer. As this technique is simple yet effective, FISH will ensure the growth of the global in situ hybridization market.Get Discount @On the contrary, strict regulatory policies will obstruct the growth of the in situ hybridization market. However, the emergence of molecular cytogenetics will present significant opportunities due to unmet needs in accurate disease diagnosis, rising number of chromosomal disorders, and surge in population.Global In Situ Hybridization Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of geography, the global market for in situ hybridization can be segmented into Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America holds a large share in the overall market, with Europe and Asia Pacific also exhibiting promising growth. Extensive research activities in countries such as Canada and the U.S., increased adoption of companion diagnostics, and beneficial government policies have been aiding the in situ hybridization market in North America.Over the forecast period 2017-2025, Asia Pacific will undergo tremendous growth on account of growing incidence of cancer and its diagnosis, increased healthcare expenditure, and increasing health awareness among people. The presence of international companies in countries such as India and China will further provide an impetus to the market.Companies Mentioned in the ReportThe major companies operating in the market for in situ hybridization include Bio Sb, Inc., Advanced Cell Diagnostics, Inc., Merck KGaA, Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Leica Biosystems Nussloch GmbH, Danaher Corporation, and Agilent Technologies. Several companies are using business strategies such as product enhancement, collaborations, acquisitions, and partnerships with a view to increasing profit.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 Cellular Analysis Market - Industry Rising Investments & Forecast 2017 - 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=788 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=788 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=788 Global Cellular Analysis Market: SnapshotThe compositional, genetic, or functional heterogeneousness between diseased and healthy tissues is one of the key challenges faced by the field of drug development and discovery. The lack of knowledge in this field challenges the development of accurate disease models that can be used for drug development, can lead to misinterpretation of the levels of biomarkers, and responses of patients to specific therapies.The complex nature of heterogeneous tissues has encouraged the development of several tools for the analysis of single cell. A number of such tools, for applications such as transcriptomic analysis, cell genomic analysis, and multiplex proteomic analysis have surfaced in the global market in the past few years and continue to be used at an enormous pace across a number of applications, especially in the field of drug development and discovery.Request Sample Copy of the Report @There has been significant advancements in the functionality and level of accuracy of cell analysis tools and companies are increasingly investing in research and development activities to introduce more accurate tools. The competitive landscape and the variety of products that the market has to offer are changing at a rapid pace and a number of new technologies capable of comprehensively analyzing cells at a molecular-level are expected to hit the market in the next few years. Even at present, several cellular analysis technologies exist that can assay for a large number of cell surface markets and secreted proteins. The market is expected to expand at a promising pace in the next few years as well, thanks to the rising investments from across the globe.Cellular Analysis Market: OverviewCellular analysis technology has wide applications in cell identification, target identification and validation, and cell counting. The technology is widely used in analysis of cell interaction, cell proliferation, cell structure, cell viability, and cell signaling/cell transduction. Prominent applications of cellular analysis include its uses in various phases of the drug discovery process, oncology, blood cell analysis, and toxicity testing. Increased applications of cellular analysis in understanding the development processes of various cells types occupies a seminal role in the discovery of personalized medicine and in finding potential treatment of different diseases, which has offered momentum to the market growth.Request TOC of the Report @The cellular analysis market is anticipated to witness significant growth opportunities along the forecast period. General rise in healthcare spending, coupled with increasing corporate funding for cell-based researches, has boosted the growth of the market across various regions. Cell identification is one of the key applications of cellular analysis and helps in the identification of blood cells based on their size and morphology; this helps in tumor detection. Along with other target identification technologies, the high-content screening in cellular analysis technology helps in getting accurate information on drug toxicity and hence facilitates drug discovery.The report provides the market share and size of key application segments in different countries across key regions. The research analysis provides in-depth analysis into major drivers and market challenges, current and emerging trends, and technological advances in life sciences, new product launches, and the factors shaping the competitive landscape of the cellular analysis market. The insights offered in the report help new and established players devise impactful strategies to strengthen their market presence.Cellular Analysis Market: Key Drivers, Opportunities, and ChallengesThe cellular analysis market is primarily driven by the rising incidence of chronic and infectious diseases, increased corporate funding for cell-based research activities, and the increasing number of patients suffering from cancer. Furthermore, technological advancements in cellular analysis instruments, combined with potential developments in life-sciences industry related to drug discovery, are the crucial factors boosting the cellular analysis market.Get Discount @However, the high costs of installing cell analysis systems, coupled with substantial investments required for cell-based researches for oncology and drug discovery, are likely to hinder the growth of the cellular analysis market. In addition, the ethical concerns related to embryonic stem cell research along with stringent regulations for the approval of new cellular analysis systems are major challenges faced by the market players. On the other hand, automation in oncology and the emergence of contract research organizations offering high-content screening services, combined with a large untapped market in the Asia Pacific region, are expected to create promising growth opportunities for the market players.Cellular Analysis Market: Regional OutlookBased on geography, North America, Europe, and Asia occupy a major share in the cellular analysis market. North America is a prominent region for growth, led by technological advancements in cellular analysis systems and considerable funding by the different governments and private players. Asia Pacific is fast emerging as a promising region to create new revenue streams for market players. A large part of untapped markets in countries such as India, Japan, and China, combined with the increasing government support for cancer and stem cell research, are the crucial factors fuelling the growth of the cellular analysis market in the region.Cellular Analysis Market: Competitive LandscapeThe research study provides an extensive analysis of the key offerings of the market players and the strategies adopted by them to strengthen their market share. Companies in the cellular analysis market actively launch new products, enter into partnerships and agreements, and make acquisitions to consolidate their market presence. Prominent players operating in the cellular analysis market include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc, Beckman Coulter Inc. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Merck KGaA, Agilent Technologies, Inc, GE Healthcare, Olympus Corporation, Tecan Group Ltd., Nikon Corporation, and Becton, Dickinson and Company.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Cloud ERP Market - Highest Growth Rate till Forecast 2017 - 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=926 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=926 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=926 Global Cloud ERP Market : SnapshotCloud ERP or cloud enterprise resource planning refers to using cloud computing platforms and services for making business operations better and smoother. The introduction of these services has led to process transformation for several organizations and companies. Known as one of the leading technologies of the modern world, cloud computing entails usage of internet for storing records, documents, tools, and shared computing records. Adoption of this technology has allowed companies to host their complete computing infrastructure on virtual platforms through remote data centers. Today, cloud ERP is used for managing human capital, finance, and several other important aspects of a business.In the coming years, analysts visualize that intelligent usage of cloud ERP application will reduce operational expenses. A key advantage of using these solutions will be the ability for organizations, businesses, and institutes to avoid the need to purchase servers, storage hardware, and thereby reduce the expenditure required for maintaining them. Despite the several benefits of using cloud ERP solutions, the technology comes with its set of disadvantages.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The downside of deploying ERP software is the issue of integration of companys legacy systems and ERP modules. Solutions that are designed to ensure this smooth transfer are expected to open up several new markets for the global cloud ERP market in the near future. Yet another key factor likely to support the growth of the global market is the confidence enjoyed by companies that their data is backed up at all times and that the solution comes with a disaster recovery plan.Global Cloud ERP Market: OverviewThe global cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) market is expected to display double-digit growth rate in the coming years. Businesses are increasingly integrating cloud-based ERP applications with conventional ones, thereby creating hybrid ERP systems that can support new business models and can be scaled to serve new customer demands.The cloud ERP market can be segmented by function, organization site, component, deployment mode, vertical, and region. In terms of function, finance is projected to display the highest growth rate in the coming years; this is mainly due to the need for efficient and reliable management of different financial activities such as assets management, cash flow management, accounting, and investments. However, operations stood as the largest function segment in the recent years due to the exponentially increasing demand for such solutions from various industry verticals for the execution of business processes.Request TOC of the Report @In terms of component, managed services is expected to display the highest growth rate in the coming years, while professional services is expected to account for the largest share of the overall market. Furthermore, consulting professional services is expected to exhibit the highest growth rate in the coming years. In the recent past, implementation services accounted for a major share in the cloud professional services market due to the complexities involved in their integration with existing systems.The report on the global cloud ERP market looks into the various growth factors and market opportunities along with factors holding back the markets growth. The meticulous segmentation of the market covered in this report helps to comprehend the growth prospects of different segments, which in turn, assist to make strategic moves in this industry.Global Cloud ERP Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe rising adoption of cloud services and mobile applications along with the increasing demand from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to attain optimum business process efficiency and transparency are the major factors driving the global cloud ERP market.An increasing demand from SMEs and large enterprises from diverse industry verticals for hosted ERP services and solutions is further propelling the growth of the cloud ERP market. The increasing support from governments across the world for the advancement of IT infrastructure across enterprises is expected to boost the demand for such solutions.Get Discount @Global Cloud ERP Market: Regional OutlookThe global cloud ERP market can be divided into the regional segments of North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America followed by Europe account for the largest revenue contribution to the global market. This is mainly due to the presence of established cloud ERP vendors and service providers in these regions. This is complemented with the early adoption of innovative technological solutions in the developed economies of the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.However, Asia Pacific is projected to emerge as the fastest growing region in the global cloud ERP market due to the ever-increasing adoption of such solutions across both large and SMEs in this region.Global Cloud ERP Market: Competitive OutlookSome of the leading companies that offer cloud ERP solutions and services worldwide are Microsoft Corporation, SAP SE, Sage Software Inc., Intacct Corporation, PLex Systems Inc., Oracle Corporation, Infor, Epicor Software Corporation, Finacialforce.com, and Ramco Systems. The report looks into the both inorganic and organic growth strategies that have been employed by key vendors in this market. This includes innovative product launches, partnerships and collaborations, and mergers and acquisitions to expand their portfolio in the global cloud ERP 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 Evaporative Condensing Unit Market - Latest Trends,Opportunities & Forecast 2017 - 2025 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=941 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=941 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=941 Global Evaporative Condensing Unit Market : SnapshotThe applications of evaporative condensers in commercial HVAC have been common over the past few decades. However the recent rate of advancement in this field has been enormous, thanks to the incorporation of newer and better materials, faster and cost-efficient manufacturing processes, and the increasing demand for the perfect HVAC system. The basis of evaporative condensers lies in the enhancement of heat rejection through the evaporation process. In this process, water is sprayed on a coil with air being blown simultaneously through the coil. This air comes from the natural heat of a room and causes the sprayed water to evaporate, thereby becoming cooler and aiding in the cooling of an environment. An evaporative condenser can be used at lower temperatures in order to minimize the load on a compressor, thereby allowing for a reduction in the total power drawn by the HVAC unit. Evaporative condensers can also be used reduce the overall downtime of an HVAC unit, while also making it less expensive in terms of repairs and maintenance, when compared to the air-cooled condensers. This is because evaporative condensers operate at a much smaller pressure difference than the latter. The benefits of using evaporative condensers further increase through the growing demand experienced by this market, coming from the rapidly evolving industrial sectors of all regions in the world, and especially the emerging economies. The relatively high use of high-performance evaporative condensers in refrigeration is also something to watch out for over the coming years, as the growing demand for refrigeration shelves, displays and containers in the food and beverages industry is likely to keep the players in the global evaporative condensing unit market on their toes.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Evaporative Condensing Unit Market: OverviewEvaporative condensing units are installed for refrigeration needs across various industries such as chemical, power, and commercial industries among others due to their energy efficient features. The booming food and beverage industry displays an extensive demand for evaporative condensing units for several end-users such as cold stores, restaurants, warehouses, and food processing units. The developing food processing and storage facility industry in emerging economies is anticipated to fuel the growth of the refrigeration application segment of the overall market.The global evaporative condensing unit market can be segmented on the basis of design, end-use, application, and region. The most applications of evaporative condensing units are refrigeration and air conditioning; of the two, the refrigeration application segment is anticipated to lead the global evaporative condensing unit market.The key end users of evaporative condensing units include but are not limited to: Commercial, chemical, and power.Request TOC of the Report @The market study presents a thorough overview of the global evaporative condensing unit market, with insights into key growth drivers, restraints, and trends that will impact the markets future development. The report also delves into the latest trends and opportunities that companies in the global evaporative condensing unit market can leverage for growth.The report is prepared by gathering data from primary and secondary research sources and using standard research methodologies. The detailed assessment of the global evaporative condensing unit market presented in this study will assist managers, policy makers, and business analysts make informed business decisions.Global Evaporative Condensing Unit Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe development of advanced evaporative condensing units is primarily driving the growth of the global evaporative condensing unit market. Evaporative condensing units that are technologically advanced are being preferred owing to their extended shelf life and durability and they also facilitate improved performance of air-conditioning and refrigeration systems.Furthermore, evaporative condensing units are used in large commercial industries, particularly the ones that require above 100 tons of refrigeration.Get Discount @Global Evaporative Condensing Unit Market: Regional OutlookThe global evaporative condensing unit market can be segmented into the regional segments of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Among these, the Middle East and Africa are expected to dominate the global evaporative condensing unit market in the coming years. Saudi Arabia is expected to contribute significantly to the growth of the Middle East and Africa evaporative condensing unit market due to the high economic growth in the country.In the coming years, the Middle East and Africa evaporative condensing unit market is expected to display a significant growth rate. This is due to the development of the chemical industry, which in turn displays substantial demand for evaporative condensing units in this region.The rising concerns about the high global warming potency of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) refrigerants have negatively impacted the growth of the evaporative condensing unit market in North America and Europe. In Europe, refrigerants need to meet EN 378 and ISO 5149 standards in order to be certified as non-toxic and non-flammable. Moreover, the European Environment Agency keeps a check on ammonia emissions from industrial units, commercial, domestic, and agricultural sectors and has laid out stringent regulations for the use of ammonia.In the U.S., the need to obtain EPA SNAP approval is compulsory before ammonia can be used in refrigerants.Major Companies Mentioned in ReportSome of the leading companies in the global evaporative condensing unit market are Baltimore Aircoil Company Inc., SPX Corporation, Evapco Inc., and Mammoth Inc. among others.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 Research shows how to gain international footprint in OLED Materials industry OLED Materials industry https://www.researchbeam.com/OLED-materials-market/purchase-enquiry https://www.researchbeam.com/OLED-materials-market/request-sample OLED Materials Market Overview:Global OLED Materials Market was valued at $5,932 million in 2016, and is expected to reach $25,731 million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 26.3% during the forecast period. The OLED display technology has gained popularity in the global materials market in the recent years, attributed to the increase in sales of smartphones and LED TVs. Asia-Pacific holds the largest market share owing to the presence of world-renowned firms such as LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.The global OLED materials market is driven by increase in population and rise in disposable income of consumers. Increase in demand for wireless devices is also anticipated to augment the growth during the forecast period. Moreover, surge in collaborations between manufacturers and retailers is estimated to provide new opportunities for market expansion.Save Upto 15% on this Report @Segment ReviewGlobal OLED Materials Market: SegmentationThe report segments the global OLED materials market based on type, application, end user, and geography. On the basis of type, it is divided into substrates, encapsulation, anode, hole injection layer (HIL), hole transport layer (HTL), electron transport layer (ETL), emissive layer (EML), and cathode. By application, it is classified into display and lighting. The display segment is further classified as television & monitors, smartphones, notebooks & tablets, automotive and others. Based on end user, the market is broadly classified into residential, commercial, and industrial. Geographically, it is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the global OLED materials market till 2023.Top Investment PocketsIn 2016, the smartphones segment accounted for over one-third share of the global market. The smartphones segment is the top investment pockets, owing to its high demand from consumers in Asia-Pacific. Growth in awareness among consumers pertaining to new technology advancements is anticipated to augment its demand in the near future.Asia-Pacific OLED materials marketThe consumption of OLED materials in Asia-Pacific is expected to increase, owing to growth in population, increased adoption of new technologies, and stable economic growth. OLED materials are widely accepted by Korea and China, as these countries mark the presence of renowned companies in the electronics sector. Changes in standards of living and comfort provided by smartphones driving the demand for these materials. This in turn is anticipated to boost the global OLED materials market during the forecast period.Get the sample PDF Brochure of market study @Asia-Pacific OLED Materials Market for Industrial Application, 2016-2023 ($million)The prominent players operating in the global OLED materials market focus on product launch as their key strategy to gain significant share in the market.The key players profiled in the report are Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC., DuPont, Novaled GmbH, Merck KGaA, LG Chem, TCI America, Sumitomo Chemical, Universal Display, The Dow Chemical Company, and Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.The other players not profiled in the report include Cambridge Display Technology, Beijing Aglaia Technology Development Co., Ltd., BASF SE, Borun Chemical Co., Ltd., Hodogaya Chemical Group, Heraeus Holding, and Covestro AG.Key Benefits:This report provides an extensive analysis of the current trends and emerging estimations in the global OLED materials market.In-depth analysis of the industry is conducted through market estimations of key segments from 2017 to 2023.Comprehensive analysis of factors that drive and restrain the market growth is provided.Extensive analysis of the industry is conducted by following key product positioning and monitoring the top competitors within the market framework.The key players are profiled along with their strategies to determine the competitive outlook of the market.OLED Materials Market Key Segmentation:By TypeSubstratesEncapsulationAnodeHILHTLETLEMLCathodeBy ApplicationDisplayTelevision & MonitorsSmartphonesNotebooks & TabletsAutomotiveOthersLightingBy End UserResidentialCommercialIndustrialBy GeographyNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaMexicoEuropeUKGermanyFranceSpainItalyRest of EuropeAsia-PacificChinaJapanIndiaKoreaAustraliaRest of Asia-PacificLAMEABrazilSouth AfricaKSARest of LAMEAAbout UsIt is crucial for market players to take leaps strategically and update themselves with recent trends, opportunities, and emerging investment pockets. 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Our clients across the world are gaining profits from the information given in the reports sourced by us.Contact Us5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1 (800) 910-6452Int'l: +1-971-202-1575help@researchbeam.com Pizza Vending Machine Market 2018 Insights by Technology, Emerging Trends, Consumer Demand and Forecasts by Deep Dish Whole Pie, Thin Crust Whole Pie, Custmized Slice till 2025 ReportsWeb http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011412598/sample http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW00011412598/buy/2900 http://www.reportsweb.com/global-pizza-vending-machine-market-research-report-2018 The Current report on "Global Pizza Vending Machine Market Research Report 2018-2025" published by ReportsWeb which covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. It also includes a discussion of the key players operating in this market.Global Pizza Vending Machine market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Sitos srl (IT) WonderpizzaUSA,LLC (US) Pizza ATM Inc. (US) Tombstone (US) Gizmodo (AU) Dr. Oetker (DE) Pizzapaesana (IT) Jin He Shi Ye (CN) SHIOK! Pizza (SG) Pompei's (AU)Request a Free Sample on Pizza Vending Machine market atOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Deep Dish Whole Pie Thin Crust Whole Pie Custmized SliceOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales) , market share and growth rate of Pizza Vending Machine for each application, including Malls Universities and Institutions Fueling/Service Station Corporations OthersGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD) , market share and growth rate of Pizza Vending Machine in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast) , covering North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaOrder a copy of Global Pizza Vending Machine Market atKey Point from Table of Contents:1 Pizza Vending Machine Market Overview2 Global Pizza Vending Machine Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Pizza Vending Machine Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)4 Global Pizza Vending Machine Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)5 Global Pizza Vending Machine Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Pizza Vending Machine Market Analysis by Application7 Global Pizza Vending Machine Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Pizza Vending Machine Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Pizza Vending Machine Market Forecast (2018-2025)13 Research Findings and ConclusionComplete report on Pizza Vending Machine Market is now available atContact Information: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. 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